Further Entanglement


Dr. Light woke up to the feel of smooth, synthetic skin on his hand. His eyes opened and he gazed blearily up at Mega Man, who was watching him with deep concern. For a brief moment, his eyes wandered the room, expecting to find Roll there with him and then he remembered where she was.

"Mega Man?" His tongue stumbled over the familiar name clumsily.

"I'm here Dr. Light." His son soothed.

"Things have changed for-the worst." He mumbled, mind still somewhat hazy with medication.

"Don't bring Roll back." He whispered. Hoping that the agents were nowhere near here.

"What?" He asked startled.

"Shh! I have a migraine." He shushed him.

Then he whispered so that Mega would have to lean closer in to hear him properly.

"Important. Listen carefully, do as I say-don't question it…pretend to give your help to the authorities to catch Roll. Bring down Wily, but never finish the task properly. Lie if you have to! Perhaps one day…we'll…be a family again. I'm delirious…which is all you know."

Dr. Light hoped he understood and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

Lie? Dr Light wanted him to lie? He wanted him to…to go behind the backs of law enforcement? He sat down on the chair and mulled over what he'd just been told. He wanted him to only pretend to try to catch Roll? Or pretend to catch Wily? No. he'd told him to bring down Wily, but what did he mean when he said never finish the task properly?

And the last sentence, was he saying that because he really wasn't thinking right? Or did he want him to-

Two FBI agents walked into the room and looked over at the sleeping man and the troubled robot.

"Hello Mega Man. I'm Antonio Santiago and this is Barry Rice." The older man stuck out his hand and Mega shook it politely.

"How is he?" He asked, looking over at Dr. Light.

"The doctor said he'd be alright, but he needs rest and time to recover."

"Of course."

"Has he woken up yet?" Mr. Rice asked.

Time to put his lying skills to the test.

He shook his head.

The agents frowned.

"I know," Mr. Santiago began, "that this is a very difficult time for you."

The younger agent gave him a weird look. Mega Man wasn't human, he was just a robot. Robots didn't have genuine feelings after all, no need to console him. Maybe, he figured, it was just a weird kind of courtesy or something that his older partner did by rote.

"But I hope that you will give us your full support in bringing down Dr. Wily for good." Mr. Santiago continued.

"We have evidence that could clear Dr. Light's good name." Mr. Rice piped up.

He took a look at Dr. Light and nodded. Not quite able to make himself speak the words yet. Now he understood what Dr. Light meant when he'd said he was delirious. He was nervous about someone overhearing their conversation. There was something fishy going on and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

As for the lying…well after all, his first loyalty was to Dr. Light so he technically wasn't doing anything wrong…was he? Wouldn't lying and going behind the authorities backs make him like the Wily bots though? But what about Roll? She was one of-one of-he broke off mid thought and turned his attention back to the two agents.

Another agent knocked on the door and beckoned Mr. Rice and Mr. Santiago out of the room.

Mega watched them through the window as she explained something and identical looks of dismay followed.

He barged into the hall.

"What is it? What's going on? Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked.

"It's Dr. Vallejo." Mr. Santiago explained grimly.

"The scientist who was working on technology that would stop all of Wily's robots in their tracks?"

"They found him on his property late last night. He had serious injuries and they brought him to the hospital. He was in a coma…" Agent Piers explained, her gray-blue eyes were tearing up.

"Was-" Mega said. "Than that means…"

"Yes. He died this morning." Agent Piers turned and left, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"He was her fiancé." Mr. Rice murmured, shaking his head. "Poor Jamie."

"Wily must have been behind this!" Mega muttered. Clenching his fist. "He must have been after Dr. Vallejo's technology!"

"He's the primary suspect, but he's not the only high tech criminal who would be after that kind of thing." Mr. Rice said.

"Go home and reenergize." Mr. Santiago told Mega Man kindly. "We'll handle the investigation behind Dr. Vallejo's death."

Mega took one last look at Dr. Light, called Rush and started home.


Dr. Wily was too busy working on Dr. Vallejo's technology to notice the sudden breach between his newest robot and his oldest, but the robot masters had noticed. Proto and Roll had been awfully chummy for the first couple of weeks she'd been here and now she was giving him the cold shoulder.

This of course led to gossip and few things irritated Proto Man more than when those jerk-bots gossiped about him! He was also confused at his sister's chilly attitude. He couldn't figure out what he'd done to make her so mad! And every time he'd tried to talk about it, she made up some excuse to get away from him. From simple household chores to spending time with Star Man or Pharaoh Man.

And after two days, he was sick of it. Being Wily's right hand and the undisputed alpha male hadn't exactly made him popular among his brethren and he found that he'd enjoyed being the big brother…not that he'd ever admit it.

He caught up with her in the hallway.

"Hey sis. What's going on?" He asked.

"I don't know what you mean?" Roll said nonchalantly.

He'd definitely rubbed off on her if she'd managed to mimic his innocent tone of voice and face that easily.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! So quit playing games and just tell me what's wrong!" He snapped.

"I don't have to tell you anything!" She hissed.

Roll could be just as hard-headed and defiant as he was. Something he liked to take pride on, but right now it was just…

Fortunately, before a fight broke out between, someone unwittingly intervened.

A short, reddish, metallic something crossed Roll's line of sight.

Her fists came up to her mouth, her blue eyes became wide and sparkly and she let out a girly squeal.

"Ohh! He's so cute!"

Heat Man, fresh out of hibernation, looked at her, unsure whether he should feel affronted or secretly pleased.

Proto Man, Metal Man and Gyro Man snickered unfeelingly behind their hands.

"What? I-I am not!" He snapped, eyes narrowed to try and make himself look menacing. "I'm one of Wily's toughest bots!"

Metal, Proto and Gyro broke out into raucous laughter.

Heat Man had had enough and stomped down the hallway.

"Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to embarrass you!" Roll called out behind him.

"Don't worry. He'll get over it sis!"

"Do you always have to be such a jerk?" She demanded. Stomping her foot.

"Aww, but then you wouldn't love me anymore." He told her, with a mocking smile.

"Don't flatter yourself." She harrumphed.

But the atmosphere between them had lightened.

He scrunched his nose up at her, slung his arm around her shoulder and asked again.

"Sooo-what's with the cold shoulder huh?"

Roll seemed panicky for a moment, then she clenched her fists, took a deep breath and finally asked the question that had been plaguing her ever since that awful night.

"I n-need to know…did you kill Dr. Vallejo?"

It was spoken in a tense whisper and Proto was stunned by the look on her face as he led her to his room, took off his helmet and looked her right in the eye.

"We roughed him up pretty good," He told her with brutal honestly, "but we didn't kill him."

She took off her own helmet, crystal blue eyes seatching his sterling gray ones for any hint of a lie. Not finding any, she let out the sigh of relief she hadn't realized she'd been holding and nodded.

"Ok."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between them as they sat on the bed, studying each other.

"So…are we cool?" Proto asked.

But Roll heard the faintest hesitance and her heart went out to her eldest brother.

"Yeah…I guess." She said, turning away from him.

"Good. Now get outta my room!" He grinned and gave her a playful shove.

"Like I'd wanna hang around this sty!" She said.

"You could always clean it for me, since your such a neat freak." He said in a wheedling tone.

She picked up his pillow and tossed it in his face.

"Clean it yourself you chauvinist!" She hollered before dashing out of the room with Proto hot on her heels.