He stepped closer to Breakman, who stared back. He seemed to not even care if he came through that mirror or not, did he? Protoman used to be Breakman. They both knew they both cared a lot more than they liked to let on. Maybe they cared too much.
So the most likely answer was, yes.
Whatever. He took the plunge with little hesitation, expecting the same cold sensation, expecting the whirring and rushing of winds, however, there was nothing.
He felt nothing. He saw nothing. He was floating, floating in the darkness. He held his eyes open, ignoring the urge to close them and stared into the abyss, the abyss stared back.
All right, fine.
Blink.
Wily's form appeared right before his eyes now, and he was in his familiar lab- no it wasn't even that. It was the ruins, the ruins of Ra-moon where Wily "found" him.
Sharp regret closed over his throat, of ever, ever coming this way.
Wily was saying something, but whatever it was sounded broken.
"Whhhaaaaa aboutttt Protoman? Breeeeakman, you breaaaak thiiiiings..."
Breakman shoved him aside and walked out of the ruins, Protoman obliged, he was wanting to get out of here. Breakman did it out of rebellion.
The other robot masters were waiting for him. Just, standing there.
"Isn't it nice to have sibliiiingsssssssss?" Topman hissed, as soon as he spouted his first word had his limbs twisted up into loops and stretched out like a rubber band, his voice banks hissed and speech was misconstrued and distorted. Now spewing, just, gibberish.
"Yesssss brother…" Snake mans limbs and neck stretched out much more than Top's and his head was right next to Breakmans, who was a good 10 feet away from him. Snake was now spouting the same gibberish as Top. Before his eyes, all of the "brothers" started to do the same. Each more deformed than the last. Hardman's head was up in the clouds and his neck was waving back and forth. Shadow's face was melting as he cried out, "ごめんなさい、アースさま！"
Gibberish.
Protoman acknowledged the fact that all of this was, at least, supposed to make him feel a tad uneasy. However, Breakman felt a deep desire to repress all that, and Protoman obliged. He didn't need or want to feel fear gnawing at his circuits.
Ah, it appears he was mistaken. Woodman was still normal. But then again, out of the rest of them, he was one of the most sensible. Woodman looked at Breakman. He glanced at his brothers and he sighed.
"We aren't all bad you know."
"So what? What if you aren't all bad?" Breakman asked, against his better judgment.
"We didn't ask for this. We don't want to be like this. If… It wasn't for them I would rather just… sit in the forest." He looked longingly at the lush green borders around them, and back at him. "You don't understand. You don't even care for your own siblings do you?"
"Why should I care?" The world is vile, Breakman thought.
"The world is vile if you make it your foe."
"..." Go away
Woodman sighed and became just as deformed as his brothers.
"You live an endless lie forever. You throw it all away." Woodman repeated this over and over and Breakman turned away.
"Face it," Megaman said. He stared into his eyes behind his dark visor.
"..."
"What color are your eyes?"
Who knew. He shrugged.
He didn't realize he was somewhere different until Tempo was staring at him. Green and Brown.
"Do you really want to be alone? Is this the life you have chosen?"
"It's freedom."
"No. Wily has you and will now never let go. Don't you see?"
The picture frame broke, this time before he shattered it, he watched as the pieces formed back together and cracked again and again and again.
He looked back over to Tempo, but Dr. Lalinde, her purple hair, and that singular grey streak were there instead.
"Talk to us."
"No-"
He was sinking again, and released from his mouth was garbled and the air bubbles rose to the surface. He was sinking, dragged down, and the vague shapes of pinks and blues and purples and greens that swirled and whirled- around were drifting further, and further away.
This time he could see who's arms were dragging him into the darkness, Wily. He giggled and laughed maniacally as they immersed deeper and deeper. Further, further away.
Breakman was content to let himself go, well, content wasn't the right word. He had accepted his fate. But Protoman was not Breakman, and he did not accept fate.
Wily chuckled.
"LET GO!"
He was shot out of Wily's grasp and gravitated up, up, up. Shadow man tried to take hold and drag him back down, but he wasn't quick enough. Proto and Break were shot out of the water, and back onto the surface.
He was back in the amusement park, but the park was no longer lively with colors and lights, the colors were dull and a faded grey. The colorful horses were gone from the carousel, and the lights did not blink. The signs from the food and game stands were gone, shells of what they used to be. The roller coaster looked ready to fall apart, beams ready to split under the weight of what they were supporting, paint worn away. He ran to the teacups, the paint had chipped and was no longer a vivid shade of pastel pink anymore.
They were still there, the teacups spun slowly and both of them stared at Breakman.
The red and blue one did not want him to ride with them.
He walked away.
He was too jaded. To be with them
He remembered when he was Blues, how he saved that family from that gang. Would Breakman do the same?
Is that the kind of person Protoman is?
Oh but-
In the flash, the park changed back into its vivid portrait of what it was. He realized the reason why very quickly, Dr. Cossack handed Kalinka a balloon, who handed it to Pharoh man to hold.
A lovely family. So to speak.
"Kalinka! Kalinka! Ride the teacups!" She bounced over to Roll and entered the same teacup as her. Pharaoh man rode on a separate one, and so did Rock.
He could hear their childish giggles from where he was standing. Cossack watched them with a soft smile.
"Take her."
Huh?
"Have her sink. Down, down with you."
Wily's voice hissed from the water.
Sink. Protoman refused, Breakman did not.
"You can't be serious."
"I am." breakman said.
"We have not many other choices. He messed with our core."
"No-"
Both sides argued with each other, there was no time, he had to, no choice, no choice.
It was wrong.
"Can you get me a funnel cake daddy?"
Cossack turned away, and as quick as his eyes had left her, Breakman snatched her up and shoved her into the darkness.
She thrashed around, and a multitude of air bubbles rose up, he watched as Wily took a hold of her and dragged her further and further under.
She disappeared.
Tempo's voice sung into his audio receptor, "You blew it. I warned you. You will never be free now."
He looked around, and she was nowhere to be seen.
"Down here."
He picked up the photograph of her and Dr. Landiline.
She didn't move.
"He lied to me," Protoman said.
"He did. But you made your choice." Her voice clearly came from the photograph in his hand. "You could have stopped this. From the moment you helped him in that temple, you were far gone. No, from the moment you left Light, you were lost."
"You didn't hear what that blasted Light said." Breakman retorted.
"Oh Blues…" she sounded sad, for someone with hardly any concept of emotions, "You didn't hear the rest."
"I am not Blues."
He closed his eyes
"Don't you see?"
Protoman opened his eyes. He tried to move but his legs were exceptionally heavy, stuck, tension preventing it from moving. He glanced at his leg and shackled around was weight, attached. Darkness swirled and ran supreme. Looking up, he could no longer even see an even a sliver of where he once was.
Just darkness.
Breakman stood in front of him. Stiff and still as a statue.
"We belong here."
"No, we don't."
"You fit in well here."
"No, you do."
"There is no longer any escape anyways. Even if Kalinka and Cossack and Light and THEY, forgave you, as soon as you stepped even one toe out of line, everybody would jump on you. 'You kidnapped her!' You will never live it down."
"..."
"This was our doing. Every step of the way. You act as if you were being forced, but you were just as complacent every step of the way. "
That was true. He could have stopped. He didn't.
"Where do you belong? If not here? Not with Light." Breakman taunted.
"I can be wherever I want." He tried to believe what he said was true.
"Your core will fail."
"I know. But when that happens, yours will as well."
"I am part of you though. Not the other way around."
"You are just an illusion. You were just a facade. There never really was a Breakman and you and I know it."
Breakman moved, for the first time since the conversation started. He took his helmet off, and Protoman saw his own eyes staring back at him for the first time in ages.
He couldn't tell the color.
"A facade? Yes… I suppose that's all I ever was… You said Blues no longer existed."
"No, I didn't."
"You thought it didn't you?"
Protoman nodded.
"Well, that's wrong. You can hide from him all you want but it won't change the fact that you want to be loved. You miss Light, and you can't lie to me about it, but you can lie to everyone else. And as long as you want to be near them, he will exist."
"I can't go back. You're right, I don't belong." Not yet, anyway.
"I thought you were free. Didn't you just say you can go wherever you want?" Breakman taunted him again.
"Just not there."
"You are a fool Protoman. A stupid, confused fool. You don't know anything about yourself."
"I know. But that makes you a fool too. Idiot."
"I am an idiot." Breakman admitted, "But even an idiot like me still cared. You remember how it felt when we both shot roll, don't you? The serious damages to her system. We both felt the pain and anguish we caused through our own circuitry. I can admit I care. You cannot. That is what makes you an idiot. A fool."
Protoman snatched at him, his image wavered and then disappeared.
He closed his eyes.
He was faced with the mirrors once again. They glared at him. Protoman looked at where Blues was, tears had stained his face and clouded the glass on his side with smudges. At his presence, he banged the glass a couple more times and finally collapsed to the ground. Shaking, and in desperate need of some extra energy.
Breakman's glass was empty.
Maybe he really was just an illusion after all.