The three navi's watched the boy in the throne playing with the binary. It was strange to see Netto with that look of concentration on his face.

Rockman looked extremely worried and Forte and Elecman weren't better off. Finally after about 4 hours Netto or whatever was possessing him left and the boy fell asleep.

"Okay, we need a plan." said Rockman

"Well can he actually do anything? I mean he is a human after all." said Elecman.

"He is manipulating binary. For all we know he could have anything with him. Binary can become anyone or anything." said Forte with a hint of worry.

Rockman punched the bolder that had become his temporary shelter. "Why can't we do anything!" he hissed "I feel so useless!"

Forte nodded. "I know but for now we have to help him by staying low."

Rockman sighed "I know. It still hurts though."

Netto felt the Shadow come in before he even realized what was going on. He saw the dark shape slither in barely even recognizable from the dark surrounding him. He grew and morphed into his favorite form to torment Netto with. Namely his own body.

Netto watched his double pace the dark abyss. He vaguely wondered why he didn't fall since there seemed to be nothing to act as a floor.

"It's almost time." he smiled

"Time for what?" Netto asked

"You'll see soon enough." was all it simply said

'Good' thought Netto 'Maybe this means he won't torment me all night.'

But the shadow had other plans. "Oh by the way, you know your precious brother and his friends are out there? They hope to save you. It was quite amusing to listen to them today while I worked. It seems they actually really think they can save you! Isn't that great!"

Netto just scowled.

The Shadow lifted an eyebrow. "Oh you don't find it amusing? Really, I thought you had a better sense of humor than that."

Netto's scowl only deepend.

"Well whatever. I am almost done. In fact I really think it will take only one more day. Then I can finally bring this pathetic world to it's knees."

The shadow spent the remainder of the night chiding Netto, while outside the navi's formed a plan.

Only the plan relied on the element of surprise. Something they did not have.

And the shadow knew this perfectly well.

Netto woke up. He blinked as he saw the artificial sun shining down on him. He felt.... warm.

He stretched amazed that he had control of his own body. He didn't remember much. just falling asleep listening to the Shadow's drabble.

He yawned and stretched. He realized that the Shadow had been having his body sleep in a chair. All his muscles were horribly cramped.

He looked around in wonder thinking of what to do next.

"Okay, he's up." said Elecman who was on lookout.

"Are you sure you want to do this Rockman?" asked Forte showing more emotion than he intended.

Rockman nodded.

"Okay go!" said a voice.

It was only untill later that all three would realize none of them had said it.

The shadow enjoyed playing with them. The idiots were so easy to manipulate. All he had to do was put himself in a bit of binary and yell two words and their plan came crashing down on them.

Ahhhhh, today was so much fun. And it would end with the biggest most triumphant moment of his life.

Or so he thought.

Netto tried to see in the glare of the sunlight. After being in the dark for three days his eyes couldn't see much.

He heard two words, something like "Okay go." but it wasn't the words that scared him it was the voice.

The voice that had haunted him for days and the voice that would haunt him for years to come.

Netto had little time to react as he was caught in a great bear hug. He fought it but realized his body wasn't at it's normal functioning level.

'I guess sitting for days won't do much for strength.' he thought ruefully

"Give us back Netto!" a harsh voice demanded.

"I AM Netto!" he said trying to figure out who it was.

"Yeah, right. Tell us what you did with him."

Netto stopped struggling and finally placed the voice.

"Rockman?" he asked

"Y- Netto-kun?"

The scene was playing out beautifully. Just a bit more, it was almost done and those idiots had bought the time for him.

Almost.

Just a bit more.

Done.

While Netto was held in his bear hug the Shadow completed the final code to the nuclear fusion key. He now had access to every single nuclear bomb in existence.

While Netto tried to convince the navi's he was himself the final encoding was made to the key. Still, he wondered if it would work as only Netto could use the key. How could he get the brat to use it? He could take over but, Netto was slowly gaining strength, he might find out how to throw him out of his mind.

He could take over another navi, but then the might just delete themselves.

No, he needed a fool proof plan on how to get Netto to use the key.

Maybe, just maybe.

He could make a body of his own.

Why not? There was so much junk data it would be easy to fuse his own body, the soupy mixture was easy to manipulate. All he needed was a few more minutes. But he also had to be in control.

Maybe not as easy as he thought.

He appeared in Netto's conscious and took over. It worked seamlessly.

"If you are Netto-kun then where is the shadow?"

'Netto' blinked. He forgot the navi's were trying to figure out it was Netto.

"I-I don't know." he quickly improvised an answer. "I remember falling asleep then waking up here."

He was facing the three navi's so he put his hands behind his back and pretended to wring his hands. The junk data slipped in and out of his hands freely.

"So, then is he still in you?" asked Forte

"Ummmmm...." he dodged the questions easily.

The data had almost formed, once dropped it would collect all the data around it and make a suitable body.

"You are not answering the question." said Forte calmly

Almost there.....

"NETTO!" Rockman yelled, almost on the verge of panic.

Done!

He let the small magnet data ball fall into the mixture. Then he jumped out of the way landing with ease behind the other navis. The data started to clump and pull it's self together. The three friends could only watch in horror as the monstrous ball of data got larger and larger. Soon it was as big as the Gabcom building. Then it started to meld it's self. Pulling, twisting, shaping and reforming untill a big back monstrous shadow with no definite shape stood there.

When the three navi's got their wits they turned to look at him. He raised Netto's hand in farewell and left his body.

Rockman saw a black mist leave Netto's body. Then he saw Netto collapse. He ran forward and caught him.

"Netto-kun! Open your eyes!"

Forte and Elecman saw the black mist enter the monstrosity the just saw created.

For a minute Rockman held his half conscious brother while waiting for something to happen.

The big black shadow started to shape the top into something of a head. Soon two red eyes and a gaping mouth were seen.

While this happened Netto became fully aware. "R-rockman?"

Rockman's attention was soon diverted to his little brother.

"Netto-kun!"

The joy of reunion was short lived.

"So, you are awake! Good, I need you alive for now. Who knows, maybe i'll let you all live! Just to see your pain as I destroy your world."

If Netto would have not been currently so terrified by the huge black shape looming over him he would have quipped about how clichéd that line was.

Then he reached down and wrapped a tendril of black ink around Netto. Netto screamed and Rockman grabbed onto his brother.

Forte and Elecman both grabbed on in turn and before anyone could do anything they were inside the blackness.

"an.... Rockman! Please wake up!"

Rockman woke up to Netto's shaking. !" the last thought hit him like a thunder bolt.

Netto sat back. They were in a big shapeless room. It almost seemed like they were floating.

Forte and Elecman looked at the brother's.

Netto was on the verge of tears.

"I couldn't stop him. I'm so sorry Rockman! I didn't mean for things to happen like this."

All the emotion Netto had held back for three days to give the shadow no leverage cam bursting out. Rockman held him as he sobbed. After what seemed like an hour Netto's sobbs subsided and he fell asleep.

Forte smiled. "He's been through so much yet, he never broke down once in front of the shadow. Which is more than I can say for myself."

Rockman nodded. "Yeah. I just hope he will be okay."

"I'm sure everyone is fine for the time being." said Elecman. "But I have a better question. Where the hell are we?"

Rockman and Forte pondered his question. In the empty black room there was nothing but a pulsing black abyss. It didn't even seem that they were in the right dimension.

Rockman just sighed and continued to hold his brother. Whether for his comfort or his own he really didn't know.

Forte and Elecman tried to move around but they couldn't seem to even be able to walk let alone explore. They were just there, not really able to do anything.

After about three hours Netto finally woke up. He was confused at first but then all his memories came back. He looked scared and was glad for his brother's strong arms around him. After putting everything together in his mind he settled for burying his face into his brother's chest.

Rockman was surprised by the sudden show of emotion but didn't say anything. He quietly tightened his grip and sighed.

Forte and Elecman felt a little out of place as they watched the two siblings comfort each other. After about ten minutes of this they felt a huge jolt.

"Well, well, well. I believe it's time to finish this once and for all." said a monstrous voice.

Before anyone had time to react the inky blackness depleted beneath them and they fell.

Where they fell no one knew, it seemed that they just slowed down and floated there. Netto looked up and saw a huge black, thing right above him.

The thing grinned. Well, Netto felt the presence of a grin, he shivered that it could still toy with his emotions like that.

"So, it's come down to this. You and me. You know that currently you are the only one who can use the key to open everything up. I didn't mean for it to happen that way but oh well." he said this like he was saying he forgot to pick something up at the store.

"Oh, and while we went on out little trip look who I found!" He lifted his shapeless tendrils that were supposed to pass as hands.

To the foursome's horror a junk data pile appeared and within it's inky depths was all the navi's that they had left at the battle arena.

"Looks like they were trying to find you. Well, I guess in a way they did."

Roll tried to yell something that no one could hear, she looked terrified and it seemed they couldn't move.

"Isn't it sad? And in a few hours their data will be disintegrated into the junk data." the red eyes narrowed and were filled with a malice that made even Forte shiver.

Netto had never been so angry in his life. This, thing, had taken almost everything away from him. And now he was hurting his friends and was going to try and kill the ones in the real world.

"Why?"

Netto whispered the word but for some reason everyone could hear it.

"Excuse me?" asked the Shadow

"Why?"

Netto looked up at it with hatred in his brown eyes. Rockman had never seen Netto look like that, it scared him a little.

"Revenge. That's why, everything, every problem in this damn world revolves around revenge. That's the reason."

Netto didn't do anything for a second, then he walked over to the junk data prison that held the navis. He put his hand on it and........

It disintegrated.

All the navi's fell out of the prison and "landed" on what was to be the floor of the abyss. If you could call it that.

"Oh, smart boy. Looks like you realize what you can do now. A human, in the cyber world. Such complex data, with the ability to manipulate anything. Too bad you can't do anything about it now!" he shot a black tendril out and tried to grab Netto. Only, it was stopped by the WWW navi's attacks.

"Netto-kun! Over here." Roll grabbed his hand and pulled him over away from the battle.

"This is out battle now kid." said Elecman

Netto could only stare.

Every single navi used his or her power to the fullest ability and hit the black mass with all they had.

Not even the shadow could do anything about the power of the attack. But it mattered little, he was where he needed to be and he had what he needed. Only one more component was needed.

A black mist flew out of the dark now disintegrating mass. It flew into the ground and soon the very place they were standing on started to swim. A voice echoed around them reverberating off of nothing.

"So, you thought you could defeat me in a world where any medium could become my body? Are you stupid?" he laughed the cold sound making the navi's and lone human wince.

"It's time to start this!" Without much warning a wave of black material shot out of the ground and wrapped it's self around every being in the area. No one could escape and as the grip tightened they could almost feel their data slip away.

"NO!" Netto fought, hard. He refused to see his friends die and he refused to be defeated by the shadow.

Netto grabbed the tendril and squeezed his eyes shut. "Leave them ALONE!"

The half deleted navi's were let go and dropped to the ground, their data streaming back into them.

"Is that how you want it? Very well." The tendril squeezed Netto and mercilessly pulled something out of him.

Netto's yell was all that could be heard for a long time. Rockman couldn't move because his program was still not all there. He had never felt so helpless in his life.

Finally the shadow stopped. The tendril loosened but did not let go. Instead it incased Netto in a secretion similar to that of the junk data Roll and the others were in earlier.

"Now, it's finally time to finish my plan."

Netto again found himself in darkness. But this time there it was absolute, so dark and never ending......

For a few second Netto wondered if he was dead untill his body jolted in a pain that would never come to the dead, and it really shouldn't have been for the living either.

As Netto was in this state of shock the Shadow finally opened up the final encryption code to the nuclear base.

"All Humans will go." Rockman felt the smile, rather than saw it, and he wished he didn't. The feeling of cold washed over him, but he felt a small warmth.

"Netto-kun....." whispered Rockman

Then Rockman ran and leapt right into the Shadow, plunging himself into it's core. There he found his brother semi-conscious and seemingly half dead.

"Netto-kun, are you okay? Please answer me!"

"Nii-san, the Shadow can't manipulate the data without a human program without me, stop him from doing this. Please, shoot me."

Rockman kinda floated there for a second and then without thinking punched Netto as hard as he could.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! Why the hell would I do that? Netto you are the only one on this planet that truly sees me and has seen me as an equal. Now get your head out of your butt and focus, we can get though this!"

Netto was wide eyed and blinking then he grinned. "Aw, what I just said sounded like something out of a bad movie huh?"

Rockman laughed and nodded.

"I'm sorry Rockman. Still. how do you think we can get out of here?"

"Listen to me very carefully." he said

Roll saw Rockman jump in after Netto and started panic.

"What! He's gonna get deleted, he can't help anyone that way! Why did he do that?"

Forte put his hand on her shoulder and she stopped. "Just believe for a second that he knows what he's doing. The bond between those two is stronger than you think."

Roll glared at Forte marveling at how much he had changed then looked at the Shadow finishing the final take over program.

"Be safe Rockman."

"Okay Netto-kun, are you ready?"

"You sure this will work?"

"Let's hope so."

"Wow, I certainly feel reassured."

"3, 2, 1...."

"Cross Fusion!"

The Cross Fusion this time around was even stronger than the times before. It was almost certainly the help of the link that Rockman had opened.

"Charge Shot!"

The shot ripped through the gelatinous goo of the shadow and ended up right were Rockman said it would.

It ended up right in the nuclear code.

Now the way Rockman explained it, this would set off one of two chain reactions, one being that it would activate the code and destroy human kind and the other being that it would destroy the code and it would collapse of it's self bringing the Shadow with it and hopefully rebuilding the NetCity codes.

Either way it was crucial to get out of the way. Unfortunately for both Netto could no longer hold Cross Fusion and they ended up almost swimming out of the now rapidly deteriorating pile of goo.

The Shadow's code was being deleted as it fell into the small black hole that was forming, however he did not yell in anguish, or even laugh manically, he said nothing.

Netto and Rockman landed a safe distance away from the black hole and saw the explosion that scattered the codes back out into the net world.

"I will never do that again." said Netto

Rockman laughed "Agreed."

The navi's came over and helped the two up. "Well it looks like humans will have to rebuild Net City." said Glyde looking at all the junk data strewn everywhere.

"At least they have all the codes needed." said Blues

"So everything is gonna be okay?" asked Netto

"Let's hope so." said Rockman

"Good, now can I go home now?"

"Anything you say little bother."