[cw: mentions of human experimentation]

Staring Down the Abyss

"How do you know about that?" Laika asked Enzan and Meiru coldly.

"So it is true. Darkland, Kingland, Ameroupe, and Choina have been fighting over minerals in Afrikku this entire time with substantiation technology. And hiring soldiers from other countries, including Sharo, to hide their tracks," Enzan said, just as practiced at giving nothing away.

"When we were children, they used conventional weapons," Laika said as answer. "The wars my country is privy to are not a thing Japanese teenagers ought to know about–"

"Netto shouldn't have to, either, but he does. We think he's been on the ground there, about two years ago," Enzan shot back. "And we also think he wants the whole world to know how Darkland's been acquiring its technology."

Laika raised an eyebrow. "The world would like to know. Is that the answer you wanted out of me? Because that's about all I can give you."

"Have you been fighting there? With Searchman?" Meiru asked, fearful but unflinching.

"Of course not," Laika said immediately. If Enzan hadn't known he wouldn't get any confirmation, he would've said the question had wounded Laika's pride. "No matter who may ask, I remain a protector of my nation's security and of peace with the Net Savior Corps, not a mercenary."

Meiru let out a breath, smiling. "Then I guess we're all on the same side, despite everything."

"I can't tell you what I'm not authorized to share," Laika said. "But I can say that Darkland began to field new weaponry in Afrikku three and a half years ago."

"A year and a half after Netto vanished," Meiru noticed, though nobody in attendance needed reminding.

"Due to Chief Malenkov's and my own position underneath members of the Sharan Army who are vested in the conflict, I can only ask you to stop investigating Darkland's activities." Laika sighed. "You won't like the things you find." With that said, he abruptly ended the call.

When Meiru and Enzan looked down at their PETs, they each found a message from Searchman with coordinates.

"We still got our lead," Enzan said, determination unflagging.

"…But to what?" Meiru wondered.

Enzan couldn't help but feel a bit of dread himself, though he knew there was no stopping now. Indeed, this entire investigation had flipped a lot of what he had taken for granted in his life on its head.

As their investigation had brought into sharp focus, IPC's Ameroupian arm was a beneficiary of this conflict. When Ameroupe sent in forces, it was often under the reasoning of stabilizing an area. From there, IPC Ameroupe or one of the other companies that were arm-in-arm with the Ameroupian government could swoop in to source materials at the lowest possible costs. All of the countries that seemed to be involved in the war, save for Darkland and its government-controlled R&D labs, were nominally acting in the interests of their own juggernaut manufacturing companies.

Where all those metals that went into the PETs came from was something Enzan had always known of, somewhere in his peripheral awareness, buried behind piles of other day-to-day tasks. But now the ramifications of what that meant were out on full display.

He would have a lot of detailed reforms to draw up when this was over. He didn't want to be a part of this exploitation. To escape it, IPC would have to source its Afrikkuan materials only from the people who lived there, at prices that were fair to them. Then he would have to convince his father to adopt his reforms, which would be nigh impossible. Being fairer to every worker in the supply chain would necessitate reductions to their net profits, in turn angering the shareholders, who cared only about profits regardless of how they were made. IPC's rivals would be laughing all the way to the bank if his father listened to him, at least in the short term.

There were a lot of forces acting against "doing the right thing", as it turned out, but it galled Enzan to not do his damndest to try.

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The chip Mr. Meme had given Mary after their previous meeting uploaded a series of coordinates to Ring's memory. With a little imagination, those points became vectors, and those vectors corresponded to paths; before the hour was out, Ring had found a minuscule tear in a side path halfway around the world, leading her into the abyss of the Ura Net. But not all of it was just a lifeless void. Thirty minutes away, hundreds of rough-looking Navis were talking, bartering, and battling, surrounded by huge tents with completely random-seeming banners; a village of forbidden activity. The home base of the Flock.

As usual, Ring was fearless, even as she walked past pirate ships several stories tall that she could only see out of the corner of her eye. She figured the best place to find information would be the center of the gathering; edging past Navis who were styled rather maturely and smiling back at clown Navis with too many teeth, she soon found herself next to a huge statue of Sheepman. A few other Navis were looking at it as well.

"Hey!" she said to one of the Navis, whose ragged cloak ended a meter above the ground along with the rest of his body. "You haven't seen Mr. Meme around anywhere, have you?"

The Navi floated down a bit to get a better look at her. "No, noob," he said. "Meme hasn't contacted us since our operation at ServCo. It's just gonna be another wait until a new Meme comes around and gives us a good fight." He crossed his arms, looking Ring over further. "What are you doing in your regular frame?" he asked. "Do you want to get laughed out of here?"

"Can we get other ones?" asked Mary's disembodied voice.

"A little girl actually using the Internet," the Navi said. "Now I've seen everything." He said, "You make 'em yourself, duh. I guess there's some bases for a couple thousand zenny over there, if you're a total noob. Now, why don't you go home and fix yourself some tea before you really get yourself into trouble?"

"I won't, thanks," Ring said mock-politely. "By the way, how do you pick the next Meme?"

"Hell if I know," the Navi told her. "Later." With that, he floated off, easily becoming lost in the crowd.

Ring sighed. "So much for finding out how to contact this guy." She looked at the statue. "I guess Sheepman's like their mascot, huh?" she noticed, looking down at the pillar underneath it. "'From the ashes of one fight rise the embers of another'..."

"'From the ashes'... 'rise the embers'..." Ring was fairly sure Mary was up there pondering. Her voice had that sound to it, and besides that, they'd gone a long way to return empty-handed. "Ring," she finally said, "why don't you see about getting yourself an extra frame? I think I might know what it could be, and I'd like to be prepared."

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The first one had been bad enough. Even though Zimmermann was far from a good person, to hear him plead for mercy only to receive none was wrenching. From the PET on Netto's wrist, Rockman could occasionally see his Operator's face, lost and lonely and empty. It made him ache to leap out and yell at the two other Silver Division members to stop it all. But Darkland thought dimly of Navis with too much free will. There was a good chance the agents would have taken him from Netto and reformatted him for it–ripped away all the memories and traits that made Rockman himself. To help Netto, to get him out of this place, he had to endure this.

So Rockman squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the screaming to go away.

Eventually, it did, and they packed the creature they'd made by killing Zimmermann away. Rockman soundlessly sighed, looking out at the human world. He could see a flicker of something in Netto's eye, like maybe he wasn't so far away after all.

Then, Two and Four chose another victim, and that momentary sadness was extinguished.

The agents kept getting strapped to the table. Netto's face grew emptier with every scream until he seemed completely unaware of where he was, matching the blondes' manic pace with dispassionately steady hands. Rockman could do nothing.

Rockman and Punk were right there at Netto's wrist, but for all the help they could offer, they could have just as well not existed.

After the tenth victim was burned alive by blue fire bursting from his gut like a popped balloon, Punk muted the PET. With the outside world both blocked out and unable to hear him, Rockman wept into the other Navi's shoulder, too horrified to care what the other Navi thought of him.

"I told you not to stay," Punk muttered, but he sounded just as wounded by what he'd seen as Rockman felt.

The two stood there, holding onto each other, until Rockman had calmed down enough to say, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Too stubborn to know when to quit," Punk said, but he didn't sound like he meant it as criticism.

"So are you," Rockman replied, smiling weakly.

"If you aren't leavin', then we'd best straighten up and unmute," Punk said gruffly. "He'll probably need to talk to someone after this, an' we're the only ones around."

Rockman nodded in agreement, instinctively wiping his eyes. They steadied themselves, taking what seemed now to be their natural positions across from each other on the PET's landing page. Then, the human world popped back into life with a gurgle and the ambient hum of machinery as another former Darklish agent met his fate.

It was almost midnight. Four seemed jubilant about their pace, but Two pointed out that she was beginning to get sloppy. They would need to finish converting the 'subjects' the next day.

Netto's mask was flawless, but Rockman could see his energy fading beneath it as one of the newly arrived agents drove him back to the Nova base. When he returned to his room and closed the door behind him, utter exhaustion took over. He made it to his bedside, then fell face-forward onto the bed.

A long while passed. Rockman almost thought Netto was sleeping, but this was clearly behavior Punk had seen before. "Hangin' in there, kid?"

Netto's voice was small and spent. "Yeah." After a moment, he added, "Not really."

"Netto-kun…"

"Three always tells me to just think of them as lumps of meat," Netto explained, probably just looking for something to fill the air. "They would've just been killed normally before, and they're not really alive anymore, so it doesn't matter that…" He swallowed. "I should be used to this by now…"

For a moment, Rockman was speechless, and Punk was not much better beside him. "No," Rockman said without thinking.

Netto seemed to stiffen at that. Before Rockman could try to put his emotions into words, Netto began, "It's fine that you aren't, of course, this isn't your world." He rolled over to stare at the ceiling. "They didn't need you. They only wanted me."

The conversation seemed to be moving somewhere adjacent, though no less nightmarish. "For what?" Rockman asked.

"You know how they can't get a straightforward Cross Fusion down?" After a moment, Netto dourly answered himself, "Well, of course you do. It's only why they're here."

"That's ridiculous," Rockman said.

"Your pops came up with that, right? How were you supposed to help that along?!" Punk crossly asked, mirroring what Rockman wanted to know himself.

"I guess it was One's theory. Something something, 'the malleability of natural things, water cutting caves into rock; if someone were to Cross Fuse enough, the flesh would remember'?" Netto stuck his tongue out. "He's the worst."

Rockman didn't quite get it, but Punk seemed to. "Makes sense, I guess."

"Yeah, he usually does." Netto smirked. "Typical me, they didn't get enough help with that from my body. Just enough new information to make the implants and what you saw today. Those… Virus Fusions."

"The Fusion Code's based on our Cross Fusion?" Rockman asked, horrified. "It changed you that much…?"

"Well, yeah. You and I used it more than anyone," Netto said in that rote tone of voice that Rockman had learned meant he was reciting some rationale he'd picked up somewhere, probably to keep himself calm. "We held it together through things it wasn't even designed to support. Of course the Synchro Imprint is the most pronounced in me out of anyone in the world."

"And they got that from…" Not Netto's knowledge. His body. Rockman couldn't move past it: they had extracted that information out from his body.

"The anomalies in my bone marrow and soft tissues, yeah." Rockman shuddered, but Netto didn't seem to think much of it any longer. "They also found the Beyondard particle and the Factor mutation, but I don't think anyone's made heads or tails of those yet."

"Bet it was more like they were lookin' for excuses," Punk muttered under his breath.

"Netto-kun, you can't go back to them," Rockman said desperately. "I can't–!"

"Of course you can't, that's my whole point," Netto interrupted. "I told you, this is not your world. This kind of experimentation is related to what we used to do, but we're–they're pushing it as far as it'll go, because otherwise someone else will beat them to it. The stuff Darkland sends to Afrikku isn't really for fighting other people who live in Afrikku, y'know? It's to get rid of the rest of the Ameroupian continent butting in to secure the minerals and crap there."

"This isn't what Papa made the Dimensional Area and Synchro Chips for," Rockman protested, far past caring if he sounded childish. "They're not supposed to be for war, and especially not for making weapons out of humans!" Netto turned his head to stare at him, blank-faced. "Netto-kun!"

"What does it matter what he thinks? What does it matter what anyone thinks?" Netto finally laughed, bitter tears forming in his eye. "What does it ever matter? This is why you and Hikari-hakase don't belong here." He clapped a hand over his eye, the meat of his thumb resting on his lens. "Shit…"

"You think it matters," Punk pointed out. "Otherwise you wouldn't be cryin'."

"Yeah, well, nobody ever accused me of being particularly wise," Netto managed to quip, even though his voice gave away that he was still crying. "I gave up on doing the right thing, anyway. I shouldn't be upset at all…!"

"What do you mean?" Rockman asked, already expecting the pushback.

"You shouldn't know that…"

"But I want to," Rockman pressed firmly. "This entire situation's awful anyway, and you realize that, so just tell me!"

Rockman hadn't realized how much he'd raised his voice until Netto shouted back, "Fine!" Hatred coloring his voice, he continued, "I'm a terrible person! I'm a coward, and an idiot, and I gave up for nothing. It's my job to do horrible things like what I did to all those people, and I do it because it's easier than saying no. I volunteered to help kill even more people just because I wanted to see the sky again. I, I–" His face slowly slackened. "I'm so stupid…"

Rockman was stunned at just how much self-loathing Netto had been carrying around.

"But you survived," Punk said, nonjudgmental.

"What good did that do?" Netto cried. "The world would be better off if I'd died down there."

"That's a lie and you know it!" Punk shot back. "You're the best Operator I've ever had. You do what you can even when everything's gone to shit, and even if it doesn't matter, that's still nothin' to be ashamed of! Do you know how many people there are who don't bother with even that much? Who don't even care enough to think about it?"

"But I should be able to do more. I always could!" Netto said. "I want to be able to save everyone, like I used to. But instead, I stand there for hours and do those things to people. Everyone would be so disappointed if they knew. Like Enzan is. It's unbearable…!"

"Why would anyone be disappointed?" Rockman countered sternly. "The General and his thugs were hurting you! That's what all of that was, it wasn't something you brought on, it was all their fault!"

"Exactly," Netto wept. "I gave in just to make it stop. I knew it was wrong to, and the only one getting hurt was me, but I still did it."

Desperate for Netto to see even a fraction of the truth, Rockman pressed, "Then they're the only bad guys here, not you!"

"How can that be?" sniffled Netto. "I still did all that stuff. I'm responsible for my actions."

"But you're trying to stop," Rockman pointed out. "You've gotten this chance, and you've taken it even knowing it's dangerous."

"Look, you don't have to think of yourself as good," Punk added. "But I ain't gonna stand by while you beat yourself up over bein' bad, 'cause you're not."

"Think through it, Netto-kun," Rockman encouraged.

Through inhumanly clear lens and tear-filled eye, Netto looked back to the ceiling. "He said he had a family," he finally said. "He was pleading."

"No, no, no!" Rockman interjected frantically. "Deep breaths, okay?"

"Netto, remember when ya helped that Concreteman guy?" Punk asked. Rockman hadn't heard this tale, but as Punk recalled it, there wasn't much surprising about it at all. "You put in so much time for some random Navi ya barely knew, all so he wouldn't have to be deleted. His Operator was just fine with that, but you weren't. That counts for somethin', too. Okay?"

"…Okay." Netto seemed, if not calm, then at least cried out. Thoughtfully, he said, "I'm not good, but I'm not bad, either. I just am." Netto wiped his face with his sleeve. "I think… I can believe that."

"That's… better," Rockman conceded.

Netto closed his eye, face finally relaxed. "Just promise you won't tell Hikari-hakase any of this, Rockman. Not what they got from me, or what they're doing with it. Like you said, he didn't mean for this to go so far."

"You know, your pops isn't gonna be ashamed of you," Punk said. "I can tell that just from what a bleeding heart Rocky here is."

"Papa would be so happy to see you again," Rockman agreed. "I bet he'd be even happier than I am."

"You… can't be that happy to see me," Netto said quietly. "Not like this."

"Of course I am!" Rockman reassured him. "Even like this. I wouldn't be trying so hard to find my place next to you and Punk if I wasn't, you know."

"…Oh," Netto said. With time, Rockman hoped that he would sound less astounded when people complimented him. "That… seems kinda excessive, for me."

"You'll just have to learn to accept it," Rockman said.

"After all, ya do crazy crap all the time, so there's no reason not to let other people do the same for you," Punk pointed out.

"Oh." Netto let his eye close. Rockman nearly thought he was asleep until he whispered, "Thank you."