Disclaimer: I do not own ! I'm just a fanfic writer doing her best to keep .EXE alive!

Chapter 18: Eonian History 101

Lightman had anticipated on giving Echo a piece of his mind about the "test" but Echo had a disturbingly calm effect on him. His previous rage had all but given way and the only emotion left now was calmness, along with some curiosity. Not to mention that the sheer amount of power the navi emitted was enough to second guess attacking.

Echo smiled kindly at the blue twins. "Sorry about the 'test'," she said, "I should have known you needed no such process but I follow the belief that is better safe than sorry."

Lightman smirked. "Sounds like you and Rock have something in common," he joked. Rockman rolled his eyes and Echo continued to smile before turning to her companions.

"You've already met Rei and Beam as well as some of my best battlers, and . Mirageman is the leader of the defense force while Slash is, for lack of a better word, a freelancer." Rockman and Lightman nodded at the pair.

"I look forward to working with you next time," Mirageman commented, "and to hear out some of your guys' battle plans."

"Uh, we'll let you know when we have one," Lightman said. Mirageman chuckled.

Echo then turned to the other three "navis". "These are the Children of Eon, Red, Yellow and Green." The three Eonians bowed, which Rockman and Lightman returned.

"Welcome," the eldest, Red, said.

Echo continued, "They were the heirs of Eon before their world was destroyed. Unfortunately, their father, King, has sided himself with my other half, Myst."

"Other half?" Rockman asked

Echo frowned. "Yes, other half. Myst and I were created to be the base of the net. After the disaster with Pharaohman, the scientists of your world moved forward to recreate a similar net but with two bases instead of one to prevent the corruption that occurred with Pharaohman. Myst and I were those navis that were to be the centers of that net but before the plan was implemented the idea for your current net, one that did not need a so-called "center", was created and we were, rightfully, discarded. Myst, who I consider my brother, fled to the Undernet to reside. Back then the Undernet was not the hiding place it now is and Myst and I resided in peace for awhile…

"Unfortunately, that peace was not to last. As the Undernet became forgotten and an ideal place to criminals, my brother began to have ideas. At first I did not think much of it but still thought it best that we should leave the Undernet so those ideas were not nurtured into maturity. We went to the very edges of the Undernet began to build our own net, secure and hidden from the rest of the world.

"It was during this time we discovered a 'hole' of sorts—a hole to another world, the world of Eon. Eon is a world where beings are made of a strange matter not found on Earth. The planet looks very much like Earth but the inhabitants are more like a materialized data than made of carbon like humans are. At this point, Eon was in a dark state and facing destruction by a powerful being from space. We did what we could to evacuate as many as we could and we gave our kingdom to King and his children as long as they would maintain our goal of using it as a sanctuary for Eonians and navis alike.

"Even though he was crowned primary ruler of what we named the Eon Net, after his home world, King was bitter at the loss of his kingdom and having to share it with navis. His bitterness caused bitter feelings to also rise in my brother, who became angry at the humans and the net for his "loss". Soon he and King were planning revenge together and by the time I and the Children noticed, it was too late to save them. So we did the next best thing."

Echo looked down sadly as if she was about to cry. The youngest Child of Eon, Green, went over to place a comforting hand on Echo while Red continued on:

"We banished them and all their followers. This place was meant to be a sanctuary and if they were to rule any longer we would all be at their mercy. We could not let that happen.

"But we did not expect what happened next. Myst became too strong and despite our strength we could not fend off their constant attacks. Myst himself is incredibly powerful and extremely smart as well. Not to mention, we were unprepared, though we should have known…" Red slowly trailed off and looked at his younger brother and sister.

"Twins, all that is left now is your worlds and those worlds are the ones they want to destroy. The Eon Net and the Undernet were to demonstrate power and to gain numbers. And the only ones that can stop them are you two," Echo said sadly. "Of course, we will provide whatever we can to help but ultimately everything relies on you two."

"But no pressure," Lightman said sarcastically. Rockman shook head but also noticed that everyone smiled for the first time since the story had started. Rockman then smiled as well: Lightman, no, Netto, had always been good at lightening a tense atmosphere.

"Yeah, no pressure," Mirageman joked back.

"Rei, Beam," Echo addressed the small Eonian creatures. "Today's been a long day. Will you please escort…"

Echo was interrupted by a large explosion.

"What was that!" Rockman called out.

"Only one way to find out," Slash said as she her hand transformed into a sword.

Rockman, Lightman, Mirageman, Slash and the maidens all raced out of the room and into the streets. It did not take long were the destruction was taking places as smoke continued to bellow into the sky and more explosions took place.

"They're heading for the castle!" Mirageman stated.

"And at an incredible speed!" Rei commented in concern.

"It must be Myst!" Slash stated.

"No," Rockman said firmly and causing everyone to look at the small blue navi. "This feeling..." he said again, looking at his brother who he knew was thinking the exact same thing.

"Then who…?" Slash asked.

A final explosion occurred where the group stood at the gates of Echo's castle, causing everyone to be thrown into the air. The twins flipped and landed hardly on their feet and prepared for battle. The smoke cleared revealing the cloaked navi.

"FORTE!" the twins called to their clearly angry foe.

There you go, all you Forte lovers! To be honest, it hadn't crossed my mind to even add him in until I had reviews asking for him and I immediately thought he'd fit in nicely here, so here you go!

And sorry if this chapter is kind of boring…or really boring…but it's one of those chapters that is needed to make sense of things and yadda, yadda, yadda and so on and so forth. But regardless, I hope you enjoyed it at least somewhat, corny names and all! At least let me know by pushing the "Review" button below. Thanks!

And kudos to whoever can guess who destroyed Eon!