a/n: by the time you read this, i will have added things to 10 and 11! nothing really hugely plot-important, just a few new character perspectives and a bit of better flow heading into the following mess. check 'em out, if you're bored! (also, is anyone pasting the songs into youtube? they're all things i listened a lot to when i was writing the original falling stars! i hope you enjoy them. c: )
Lone March
It had been almost exactly a week with no contact from the General, and Netto could see things were going slowly, inexorably wrong.
It was obvious just from looking at Atsuki. He was starting to look, while still clearly larger than he would have been naturally, normal. The oversized muscle was starting to taper into wiry strength, at such speed that he'd already lost a third of his that would be healthy for any other person, but Atsuki's alloy "bones" were extremely dense and heavy. If he lost any more bulk, Netto doubted he would ever be able to move again.
The other obvious sign was how quickly Atsuki's mental state was deteriorating. He was keeping his temper level with an amount of control Netto hadn't known he possessed, but he couldn't hide it all from his younger partner. Not the way he clutched his head when he thought Netto wasn't looking, not the spasms that made his jaw and arms twitch even when he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"I'm fine," Atsuki snapped the third time Netto tried to bring up the idea of finding a chemical lab, then added, "The General will contact us when it's safe. We still have to lie low." With the roguish gentleness he only ever used around Netto, Atsuki told him, "You just worry about keeping your own shit in order and I'll worry about me, all right?"
But Atsuki's voice was raspy, and the arm whose hand was shoved deep into his pocket was quivering, and Netto knew it was all a lie.
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That night, Netto was woken up by a loud bang.
"What was that?" Rockman asked, already out of sleep mode by the time Netto had fully regained consciousness and put his lens in.
"Quiet," Netto said softly, getting to a low crouch with the silence his field agent's training had given him. There was another bang, underneath it a barely audible whine. Netto swallowed, knowing what he would find in the front room and also knowing he had to stay calm.
Atsuki was slumped in front of the two massive dents he'd left in the warehouse's sheet-metal wall. His entire body was spasming, limbs twitching uncontrollably as if he was a drone with its controller shut off. He gasped, staggering to his feet, and buried his fresh sob of pain underneath another fist into the wall. He tried to stay upright by leaning into the newest dent, but his right leg shot out from under him, leaving him in a heap on the ground.
Soundlessly, Netto moved to Atsuki's side. He knelt where the larger man could see him, hands low and to his sides so it was clear they held no weapons.
Atsuki didn't notice at first, his eyes glittering feverishly. He rolled onto his hands and knees, beginning to struggle to his feet, and then his crazed gaze landed on Netto.
He didn't recognize Netto, but that was okay. He would eventually.
Atsuki, incapable of anything other than wordless moans, seemed to be reaching for Netto. Netto crawled forward, closer to the other man's huge hands. With a scream, Atsuki pushed forward using his arms more than his legs, barreling into Netto, pinning him to the floor.
It was hard to tell whether his next ragged scream was of rage or of sheer incoherent pain.
Netto barely evaded Atsuki's next blow, which went into the concrete next to his head. In response, Atsuki pinned him down with a hand to the chest. Netto swore he could hear something in his chest crack from the pressure, but struggling would only worsen Atsuki's confusion. He stared up into the insanity that had taken over Atsuki's eyes and waited, struggling to breathe.
Slowly, the force on his chest eased. "…uh…?" The next thing Netto was aware of was a shaking embrace–and wetness splashing onto his forehead. Atsuki had finally regained awareness of where he was and what he was doing, continuing to whimper wordlessly as he held onto Netto like a stuffed animal.
Rockman was trying to surreptitiously get his attention, but Netto dismissed him with a tiny shake of his head. It was still too soon. Sound would only set Atsuki off again.
They couldn't do anything until Atsuki was asleep, so as the larger man continued to cradle him and sob, Netto watched as the tiny holes in the centers of the dents in the wall began to let in pinpricks of light from the sun rising.
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Once Atsuki had finally slumped to the ground, unconscious, Netto carefully got to his feet and padded into the back room.
"What the fuck was that?" Punk asked the moment the door was closed.
"That's what happens when Atsuki loses contact with Darkland for too long," Netto began, packing up his laptop. "He takes a set of injections that keep him stable every three days, and it's been over a week since his last one."
"But why did you let him hurt you like that?!" Rockman asked, worried.
"Because he always calms down when he recognizes me," Netto explained dully. "He could've been struggling out there until he died otherwise." Nobody else alive could approach Atsuki when he was like that. Netto had been the one to deliver a life-saving dose of medication once before when Atsuki was in his current state, and Darkland or no Darkland, he would do it again.
"Burnerman," Netto called into the darkness next.
There was a pause. "What is it you want, human?" scowled the Darkloid, appearing on the monitor.
"I need you to watch over your Operator," Netto requested firmly. "Send a message to me if anything happens." Pointedly, he added, "I'm sure you know what'll happen to you if you don't?"
"You bastard," sneered Burnerman, all the affirmation Netto was going to get.
"Knew I could count on you," Netto said lightly. "I'll be back here to check in tonight."
In the relative remove of the outdoors, Netto could open up his laptop without fear of interrupting Atsuki's rest. The precursor chemical compounds were easy enough, albeit the most time-consuming due to several being in manufacturing plants spread outside the city limits; he could break in overnight and take those. The chemical lab was what needed to be dealt with first; it needed to be relatively close, had to be able to handle what needed doing, and had to at least look like it was being used legitimately. For all of those things to pan out, he had to begin seeding his cover story that day.
Despite their hideout being in the industrial area of Densan, there was only one location that seemed remotely likely to be suitable.
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"What is that Burnerman, anyway?" Rockman asked as Netto started the fifteen-minute trek to their target. They couldn't take any transit, for fear that they'd get picked up on camera; and they couldn't just remotely access the network of the chemical lab Netto had chosen, to minimize the chances that they'd get followed through the Internet.
"Atsuki would only tolerate being paired with a special Navi." Netto smiled, fondly remembering all the melodramatic complaints the older agent had lodged with him. "Anything else just bored him. So I sent a few data probes out and found him one."
"So that Burnerman is…" Rockman looked up at him, clearly wondering if it was even possible.
"The Darkloid we fought, yeah," Netto finished. "I don't know why you're surprised, you've been deleted before."
"That was different," Rockman said, though Netto knew for a fact that it probably wasn't. Ghost data was ghost data; if enough of it could be found, it only ever needed some connective tissue and a frame. "Besides, what would've happened if Burnerman hadn't gone along with him?"
"That's what the kill switch is for," Netto explained. "All that stuff in Atsuki can give readings to his PET, and when it finds that he's dead–" Netto drew a finger across his throat. "Burnerman can try to run, but he can't sever that tie to Atsuki's vital signs."
"But if Burnerman's deleted, Atsuki can just carry on like nothing happened…" Rockman sighed, hugging himself. "That's ghastly. No wonder Burnerman was so angry."
"To think, half a decade or so ago all those Darkloids thought they were gonna free us." Punk didn't have a mouth, but Netto was pretty sure he would have been smirking if he did. "An' here's Burnerman, just as much a prisoner as the rest of us. So much for that one."
"Of course they weren't going to…! …Wait." Netto listened with considerable interest as Rockman worked it out. "You didn't sympathize with them, did you? But they wanted to destroy mankind!" Rockman protested.
"Rocky… I know this is outta your lane, but." After a moment of thinking about it, his little hologram gesturing into the air with his mace, Punk explained, "You ever seen somebody really try to make a change, an' even if you didn't agree with everything they were sayin', at least someone was doin' something about it?" Rockman seemed rather skeptical. "I was stuck with a real peach of an Operator in those days. The idea that someone would come along and wipe out the status quo… it felt like hope, back then."
"Not every human deserved to die like the Darkloids wanted," Rockman said with conviction. "What about Meijin? You must have known he was out there somewhere."
"Figured I could just… keep him somewhere if I found 'im, like some kinda critter," Punk said. "Same for anyone who wanted some particular human around." He shrugged. "All sounds silly now that it didn't happen, don't it. But I admit, I never did care for all that crap about Dark Chips. An' I didn't get a chance to meet a Darkloid either way. One moment I was powered off, and the Darkloids were gone the next." He reached over to pat the top of Rockman's helmet. "S'okay that you don't get it, Rocky. If all I knew was an Operator like Netto, I wouldn't get it, either."
Rockman sighed, not fighting the headpats at all. "There are… an awful lot of bad people out there, aren't there?"
"In all sorts of high places," Netto agreed.
"But I've met so many good people, too," Rockman said. "No matter how many times anyone tries to prove it, I can't bring myself to believe that those bad people should be a black mark on all of humanity…"
Netto smiled sadly, remembering a time when he himself would have said the same thing but with less nuance. Punk cheerfully said, "An irrepressible beam of sunshine, you are."
"I… don't really feel like I am, though…?" Rockman lifted his head, eyes a bit unfocused as if in thought before a passing signpost caught his eye. "We're already this close?!" he asked, startled.
"Mm-hm," Netto said. "We need to start looking for a place to plug-in. Or, better yet…" This area, one street over from the chemical lab, was a mix of other industrial buildings and the occasional greasy spoon to take advantage of the captive audience of lunch-seekers. "Aha." The only place with a line in front of it was a food truck on the corner serving coffee and tea. Couriers were coming and going at a steady clip out its side door. Netto vaguely recognized it as an offshoot of a place close to the Densan University campus.
"You know what to do, Punk." Netto smiled, sending the rust-red Navi into one of the information kiosks the food truck had set up to display its menu. The game was on.
With that taken care of, Netto joined the line, pondering his choices. Caffeine was not his personal addiction, but there was a sufficiently extravagant-looking green tea concoction on offer. "I guess I'll ask," Rockman said after a while. "What are we doing?"
"We're ordering something with 'layers of blueberry, pineapple, and peach', and also maybe tea in there somewhere," Netto explained unhelpfully. "I bet there's a cybercafe attached to this thing, there is at the main one. Besides, the Navis have to go somewhere to place all those delivery orders." Struck with a sudden flight of whimsy, he asked, "Do you and the other Ministry of Science Navis go to cybercafes often? Have you turned into a proper hipster?"
"…Punk's looking for someone coming here from the lab," Rockman realized.
"This is a stakeout, yes," Netto explained. "I'm going to refrain from being any more conspicuous about it until we've got a table, and so should you."
Netto placed his order, milled around with the other scientists until 'Hiroki' was called, collected the stripy monstrosity and a bright green straw, and beelined for the last available table under the canopy.
"I feel like I need a straw for each layer," he said, considering how best to attack it as he set up camp for the day. "Okay, get in," he told Rockman, sending the blue Navi into the freshly booted-up laptop.
"Are we after credentials, then?" Rockman asked.
"Got it in one," Netto confirmed. "We need a fairly unremarkable Navi who's coming and going fairly regularly for Punk to bring back to us–temporarily!" he clarified, noticing Rockman's disapproving stare. "And someone who's ordering delivery from here all day is a perfect fit."
"I didn't know there was so much waiting involved," Rockman said. "You've gotten pretty patient!"
"Uh… thanks? It's not too hard if you just make an effort to mix into the crowd…" Careful not to mix the layers together, Netto navigated the straw into the orangey section of the drink and gave it a try. "Mmm, it's so peachy!"
"I didn't think something like this would be so relaxed," Rockman laughed.
"Well, this is the fun part," Netto pointed out. "And Punk's the one doing the heavy lifting right now. I probably won't be making a move until this afternoon." Slowly lifting the straw out to reach the pineapple layer in the center, he remarked, "Good thing there's a restroom trailer, I might wind up going through a whole lot of tea…"
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After several hours, a mango tea, and a peach tea, Punk returned to Netto's PET with an ensnared orange Navi. Netto wasted no time plugging both into the laptop and setting to work, forcing the orange Navi into sleep mode and locating the file that would hold the Navi's security credentials. Rather than shove the two copies he'd made into Punk or Rockman haphazardly, Netto quickly created a simple wraparound program for them, making the copied credentials appear as a pair of gray bracelets in the digital world.
Rockman seemed to tense when Netto opened up the orange Navi's memory file, though all that needed to be deleted were a few lines off the top–the last ten minutes of its memories, give or take. He sent in a command that would set the Navi to awaken in half an hour, hit Enter to start the countdown, and said, "Put him back, Punk." There was still a third of the peach tea left. He plugged his Navis out, closed and packed away his laptop, and gathered his tea. "I guess I should move in closer."
"If we have two of these, I'm guessing you're goin' in too, Rocky," Punk pointed out from Netto's wrist. "Equip yourself."
"You'll be sticking pretty close to each other–I just figured it'd save time," Netto explained. "One of you is going to change the scheduling around so the chemists for one of the labs and their receptionist have a day off tomorrow, and the other is going to impersonate the secretary to send around an email letting everyone know a temp is coming in to fill the receptionist's place."
"Isn't that short notice?" Rockman asked.
"You really have no idea how schedulin' works outside the Ministry of Science, do ya?" Punk observed dryly.
"These kinds of last-minute changes are pretty common," Netto explained. "Using them to make openings like this is one of the first things they taught me."
"I've seen 'em used a few times myself," Punk seconded.
"It must be hard to plan around," Rockman noted disapprovingly. "But that isn't even your fault, it's just something you're taking advantage of."
"All sorts of high places," Netto repeated, reminded of the conversation that morning. "Just make sure you two keep your story straight, okay? I only need the one workroom."
They were in and out in twenty minutes. Netto had barely finished his tea. He no idea what he had done to wind up with such a competent pair of Navis, but he was hardly going to question it.
"Let's see," Netto thought aloud once they'd returned. "We only have one more thing to do…"
"But we're stopping somewhere for dinner first," Rockman cut in. "You can't just drink tea all day and not have any solid food, Netto-kun."
Though he really was feeling a bit out of sorts from all the sugar and would not have thought to connect that to the lack of food on his own, Netto put in the token complaint, "Yes, Mama."
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"Ah…" Netto leaned back into the restaurant booth, legs finally relaxing after the long stretch on his feet. "I'm sitting."
"Looks like we'll have time to rest up before night falls," Rockman noticed.
"Maybe," Netto said noncommittally. They'd made decent time, but not that decent. In the meantime, there was soup and bread to eat. It was crazy how much better normal soup was than the stuff they received in the Darklish mess halls. Just tasting it was enough for Netto's appetite to emerge from under the tea rush of the afternoon.
"Guessin' you're goin' after some kinda disguise next?" Punk asked.
"Exactly," Netto said, tearing off a bit of bread to run along the edges of the bowl. "I'm a temp, y'know? Can't look too scary." Softening his voice, he said, "With the hologram over my face and the right outfit, I'll be pretty convincing."
"You've gotten really good at doing those voices," Rockman said, surprised, as his Operator popped the newly moistened bread into his mouth.
"Well, it comes with the territory," Netto explained, then swallowed. "This kind of hacking is all about fooling other people. Sometimes that's disguising things in the Internet as something different, and other times it's disguising yourself."
"You learned that in Darkland?" Rockman wondered. "But it feels like they never let you leave to practice it, from what you've told me…"
"They didn't at first." Netto ate a bit more as he waited for the right words to come to him, then explained, "At the beginning, I just learned all this stuff in theory while I was in training. I'm meant to develop these kinds of viruses and other tools, and then someone like Atsuki is supposed to deploy them, with me providing support remotely. So I wasn't supposed to physically leave the labs under the Citadel. But then we lost an agent, and Atsuki recommended I fill in, so I got the chance to start doing both."
"I see," Rockman said. "You only got to put it into action later."
"Yeah. And Atsuki had to teach me how to shoot, and about a lot of the things they just assume you'll know in the field."
"Things like…?"
"Like staying quiet on your feet, and how they want you to act at parties when you're abroad, all those kinds of things. I wasn't great at any of it at first, but I really wanted to go, so I practiced until I got it all down." Thinking of that time was so nostalgic; there hadn't been anything complicated about his emotions at all. There hadn't been time for that, since he'd had to learn it all in a matter of weeks. "But I still did my original job as well, of course. I wasn't needed so often that I couldn't still focus on it."
Netto sighed, remembering who he was explaining this to. "By then, I didn't have any fight left in me. I… didn't even think about if what I was doing was wrong."
"You did it to get some freedom," Rockman pointed out. "After everything I've seen and heard, I really don't think I can judge you for that."
"It musta felt great, havin' less of a tether," Punk said, as if remembering that time himself—and perhaps he could in a sense, with some similar event from his own past.
"I still remember how huge that first night sky was," Netto said by way of response, smiling. "And most of the ones after, too."
"Is that why your emblem's this star?" Rockman asked.
"Mm-hm," Netto answered.
"An' the fractal pattern's because he uses them a lot when designin'," Punk finished. "But I didn't know that first part. Glad to be wearin' it."
Netto could see that Rockman was now deep in thought. "You don't have to change your emblem, you know," he said. "You've been wearing that one for a long time now. It'd be weird seeing you without it."
"Yours is so you, though," Rockman protested. "Of course I would want to wear it!"
"Then when we get Atsuki fixed up, I'll swap it," Netto decided. "But for now, we've gotta keep moving."
After all, the person who had shown Netto how to get to those night skies was counting on him.