Forte dragged himself in slowly. His upper left arm had been shredded, the circuits sparking slightly. His right leg was hardly able to hold his weight. His right eye was gone, gouged out by a flying piece of metal during the fight.

Holding his left arm tightly with his right, he leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to catch his breath. His whole body felt scorched and bruised, underneath his armor... and his armor was a mess, cracked, crazed and broken in so many places.

~Come back with your shield, or on it... well, I have no shield but I'm back all the same...~ He wanted to curse, wanted to scream, but saved his breath. That would be for later.
"Gospel." His voice was a rasping, gutteral sound. His canine companion looked up at him with a whimper. He was nowhere as injured as his master... but then, he hadn't understood the stakes. "Go to Elec Man's room." He didn't want Gospel with him, not now. Elec Man liked the wolf, he'd be safe there. Gospel butted his less injured leg gently, unwilling to go, and Forte shook his head.

"Go, Gospel!" The wolf whined again, then slinked off slowly, casting several glances back. Forte ignored him, focusing wild gold eyes on the wall ahead of him. He couldn't afford weakness now. And Gospel would be a weakness...

He shoved himself away from the wall with a hiss, blood and darker fluids sliding down his arm, oozing through his fingers. It hurt like hell, every step sending new pain through his battered body. ~Just hurry a bit, it won't hurt much longer.~

Forte snarled to himself, making his way deeper into the fortress, and finally stumbling through the doors into Wily's inner sanctum. Wily was facing away from him, looking at the news reports on his recent fight with Mega Man...

Hard hands grabbed him, and Forte had to suppress a scream as fingers dug mercilessly into his injured left arm. The pain was excruciating. Not that Stone gave a fuck.

Stone had him on his left side, Snake on his right. Snake wasn't strong enough to restrain him, normally, but now wasn't normal. Not with him almost too weak to stand. Snake favored him with a malicious grin. They'd always hated each other.

~He'll have one hell of a show today, won't he.~

Gemini was standing on one side of Wily, eyes bright and full of anticipation. Sword was there, too, expression blank. He gave less of a damn than Stone... ever since Mega defeated him and Wily repaired him, it was as though his personality had leaked away. Like he had no soul.

~Do any of us have souls? I'll find out, I suppose.~

"So, you have failed me once again, Cobra." Forte gritted his teeth at the hated nickname, and said nothing. There was nothing to say, as Wily turned around to look at him with an ancient, poisonous gaze. The old man slowly walked towards him, and Forte saw something dark moving deep in his eyes. Something dark and joyous, an emotion he'd seen several times before...

~I will not think about that.~

There was a sudden pain on his cheek, his face knocked to one side as Wily slapped him. "Did you think I was lying, Cobra?"

~No. I thought you meant exactly what you said.~

"Did you think I wouldn't do it?" Another slap, a fresh pain. Forte turned his head back to glare, defiant golden eyes meeting dark, dark blue. Or rather, one golden eye, as the other spilled fresh blood on his cheek.

~No. I think you'll do it, you sadistic bastard.~ But Forte didn't bother to answer. Wily stared into his face for a long moment, then chuckled slowly. It was that one, special chuckle that could turn the Robot Master's spines to mush.

"Still defiant, Cobra. Well, we'll see about that. Gemini!" He stepped back, never taking his eyes away from the black robot as he called his other creation. "Assemble the other Robot Masters."

"Right away, Doctor." Gemini almost clicked his heels, so pleased and excited, before he ran out of the room. Forte sneered at his back, not bothing to hide it.

~Just be a good little suck up. Well, your time will come too.~ Forte grinned, flashing his fangs for a brief moment. Gemini would get his in the end.

Soon, Robot Masters were filtering into the room. There were some confused murmurs, but most took one look at him, and adopted studiously empty expressions. Any with an ounce of intelligence knew what was about to happen. Only a few enjoyed it... even the ones who hated Forte knew that someday, they could be the ones standing in his place. And probably would be.

"There have been enough failures." Wily kept his gaze on Forte as he spoke, although his words were for the whole audience. "I had high hopes for you, Forte. My greatest creation... so far." There was suddenly frustration on the old man's face, a world of frustration. Forte had sometimes suspected most of the torments he put the Robot Masters through were to assauge that frustration. "But you never lived up to them."

~And who's fault is that, old man? Mine? I'm 'just the robot.' So wouldn't that make it yours, oh illustrous creator?~ Another thought he didn't bother to say. It would change nothing now. Forte only watched the Doctor, eyes full of bitter malice.

"Sword." Dr. Wily nodded at the blank faced 'bot. Sword stepped forward and, in one quick movement, ran the black robot through.

The weakened armor on his torso parted easily, the sword slipping through smoothly and out his back. The pain was shocking, all encompassing, and Forte screamed in spite of himself.
He'd wanted to stay still, to not give Wily the satisfaction of seeing his pain, but found that he could not. Wily had coached Sword on the exact place to strike, for the maximum pain over the longest time... and now he watched in sadistic pleasure as Forte went into slow, agonized convulsions.

The death spasms seemed to last forever, as he thrashed helplessly in Stone's and Snake's grip. But finally, his legs crumpled beneath him, unable to support his weight. Dark red, black and green fluid slid down Forte's armor to pool on the ground beneath him. The pain was still unbearable, but he could only twitch at it, his strength spent. Wily watched for a moment longer, then...

"Take him to the recycling room." Stone and Snake carried him from the room, his heels dragging against the floor and leaving a trail of slimy life fluids behind him.

~...Hope Gemini has to clean that up...~

Soon, he was thrown roughly into a dark room, landing on his stomach. That made the pain worse, for a moment, but Forte could only gasp.

"Enjoy yourself, Forte." Snake taunted him, turning on the light before he closed the door.
That was not a blessing. Forte would have preferred the dark... the bright, merciless light let him see the remains of those who had come here before him. Those he'd soon be joining.
Ruined Mets and Sniper Joes littered the room, but they were nothing... no, what was chilling was the corpse propped in the corner of the room. What was left of Quick, his armor broken, circuits dead... his head was leaning against the wall, green eyes empty, dull... dead. It looked like he had crawled there after he'd been tossed in here to die...

Forte remembered that scene like it was yesterday... He'd been with Wily when Quick had dragged himself home, mortally injured, unless he was repaired. That tight, terrified expression on his face... Wily never bothered to keep it a secret, when one of his robots was disappointing him a bit too much.

He remembered how Quick had wept, begging and pleading for more time, another chance. But Wily had already been having a bad day... he'd given Quick no mercy, and Forte had watched without pleasure as the speedster was dragged off, still weeping. It had been uncomfortable to watch, but Forte had been full of arrogant certainty that it would never happen to him, that he would be the one to kill Mega Man. And... a small smile touched his lips as he remembered... he'd had a strange, almost uncomfortable thought. That if he killed Mega Man, Wily wouldn't scrap his robots this way anymore...

Later, when death seemed more possible, he'd decided he wouldn't plead. Forte wanted to go as quietly as possible, giving Wily the least satisfaction.

~Well, I tried anyway.~

The only other Robot Master in the room was Skull, and his end hadn't been cruel. He'd already been dead when Flash carried him back, and hadn't suffered... although Flash had been a stunned zombie for days afterwards. So had several others, he remembered... Skull had been a weird guy, but a fun guy, and he had been missed.

~Will I be missed? I doubt it.~

Forte sighed softly, closing his eyes. He could only endure the pain, and wait for the end...
The door hissed open, and Forte opened his eyes in surprise.

~Who...?~

Someone knelt beside him, dark orange and white armor. Forte managed to tilt his head just enough to look into soft, light grey eyes.

~Crash...?~ He tried to speak, but found that he couldn't... something wasn't working correctly, not that that was a surprise. ~You'll get in trouble...~

"Don't worry." Forte felt Crash's hand touch his cheek, and blinked. "I bribed Stone to let me in. It's okay."

~Well... okay... but why are you here?~ Forte tried to put the question into his eyes, and Crash seemed to understand.

"I just... wanted to be here. You were always a friend to me." Crash said in his soft, warm voice, eyes sorrowful. Forte couldn't help but feel surprised.

~I was...?~

"You... you probably don't remember, but you saved me from Gemini. That... that time he was going to..." Crash looked away, a faint, embarrassed flush coming to his cheeks. "Rape me. It, it meant a lot to me..." Forte blinked again. He did remember that... but he hadn't realized that was what Gemini had been up to.

And he hadn't intervened for Crash's sake, exactly. He'd been reading a book in one of the quiet, empty rooms, and Gemini had chosen to assault Crash close by. The whimpering had been annoying, and he'd been pissed off enough to break it up. Gemini had split in two, and had Crash pinned between his twins. It was blindingly obvious, what he'd been doing, now that Crash had said it. But he hadn't realized at the time. He'd just wanted to shut them up.

...Although he hadn't let Gemini drag Crash off when he told him to stop. He'd gotten Crash away from him, and sent the drill bomber off, ignoring his stammered thanks. But had he done that for Crash's sake, or just to piss off Gemini a bit more? They'd been enemies already.

"...I was always near you after that..."

~You were?~

"...I just liked being near you..."

~You did?~

"...You never let anything bad happen to me." A few tears trailed down Crash's cheeks, and he sniffed, wiping them away. "I wish there was something more I could do for you..."

Forte was thinking back, almost amazed, wondering. He'd never really noticed Crash, but he'd always been there. Just hanging out around the edges... always around him. The other Robot Masters had come and gone, but now that he thought about it, Crash had always been there. Why hadn't he noticed that? And he had protected the weaker Robot Master, almost by accident... It was so irritating when the Robot Masters squalled near him. And Crash never started it, so he'd kicked off the ones bothering him. And never really paid much attention to the shy, quiet Robot Master.

"...You did so much for me." Crash gently stroked his face, just being there. It was all he could do.

~...Why didn't I notice you? I was always so wrapped up in myself...~ It made him hurt, in a different way than his body... Forte wondered what opportunities he had missed. The things he'd just ignored on his quest to destroy Mega Man...

And now it was all over, he'd failed, and he'd never know what might have been. But at least... at least he wasn't dying alone. At least there was someone with him, to hold his hand...

"Here, let me..." Crash carefully pulled off his helmet, then stroked his lavender hair. Forte closed his eyes, a gentle smile tugging his lips.

~Thanks, Crash. You're doing more for me than I ever did for you...~ Because Crash meant it... meant only to help. At the time he needed it the most.

He slowly fell asleep, soothed by the gentle hand in his hair. A sleep that led naturally to something more...