"Rock, can you disengage from local wireless and reject any communications queries or requests that come through?"
Rock's head bowed, though he offered no verbal protest, his jaw setting, his molars clamped together. Emotionally drained, at his wit's end, overwhelmed with little idea of where to turn, her words were a welcome respite even if from where he stood, her demands were counterproductive.
He wasn't as old as Kalinka Cossack: she had two decades to his one, and human minds changed organically as they grew. He knew that she understood things that he could barely wrap his head around, chiefly things that dealt with other humans.
It wasn't for lack of his intelligence, that much he knew. He was plenty street-smart, too, and jaded enough to understand that sometimes, force became an inevitability, even if he used the gentlest hand he could at all times.
Kalinka's gaze softened for a moment, silent gratitude conveyed in her expression before she turned from Rock.
Blues was on the receiving end of none of her compassion.
"What is this? Do you know what you've done? They–" She caught herself then, glancing between the two Robot Masters before turning her back to Rock, her expression and the tilt of her head plain enough that even Proto Man couldn't feign ignorance.
The elder one, she knew, could ignore the compulsions of his programming much more reliably than Rock. But she couldn't quite bring herself to insult Rock by taking a conversation about him out of the room.
So she stared at Blues, knowing full well that he could read far more than he generally let on, his prolonged silence fraying the last shreds of her patience.
She couldn't see his gaze behind the visor, but she knew she'd won this silent battle of attrition when his shoulders relaxed, sagging from their too-straight default.
"There's no time. Or would you rather I leave him to them?"
"Like you left Roll?"
Too far, she knew, even as the words flew thoughtlessly from her lips. His expression hadn't changed, not really, but she still looked away from him, her face flush with shame.
A low blow.
The silence between them dragged on, becoming more painful by the second. When he finally spoke, his voice cut into her like a blade. "I need to run a full repair cycle. Where's your father?" He didn't want to talk to her anymore. Dr. Cossack would be more reasonable, his mood tempered with age and experience.
"At a conference in Helsinki."
Helsinki? He didn't have time for this.
She could almost imagine a frustrated huff escaping him as he moved around her, back to Rock. She turned on one heel, silently watching as Rock allowed himself to be manhandled, knowing full well that Blues knew exactly where the lab was.
Asking her permission to go down would have been a formality. They'd made it clear in the past that he was welcome, and it appeared he was familiar enough with human convention to know that right now, he didn't need her permission, not when this building was in her father's name. Not when this was still his house.
She could press the issue, of course, but he was betting on her not. And she didn't. Instead, she turned and headed toward the lab, the Light brothers steps behind her.
She'd had a Robot Master at her heels like this before, the nearly inaudible whirr of hydraulics accompanying footfalls that sounded a little too heavily, belying a solid, inorganic construction. It'd creeped her out a little bit when her father first began construction on her brothers, her life completely devoid of Robot Masters until that point. Once Dr. Wily ordered her kidnapped, she'd been nauseatingly terrified of any robot that approached. She was only ten, but she'd gone online, reading news stories that a child her age shouldn't have gone seeking. Her young imagination did the rest.
Blues had quite a time coaxing her to come with him quietly when he appeared with the promise of rescue. Was that really ten years ago? It felt like ten lifetimes.
She realized they were in the lab. Blues was already moving around her, settling Rock onto the exam table, gathering tools and equipment. Rock's gaze was carefully avoiding hers.
Another pang of guilt pulsed through her.
She should say something to him, to them. Even if there was no love lost between Dr. Light and Blues, Rock had been close to him. Very close.
And Roll…
What words were there? No one had known what to say to her when her mother died, when her brother died. Now that she was in that position, she was equally tongue-tied.
Instead, she found herself silently moving over to Rock and wrapping her arms around him.
And Mega Man, the fabled robot that'd saved the world time and time again, sobbed freely into her shoulder.
A/N:
It's been a while, hasn't it? A lot has been going on irl, but the biggest factor in my silence is I got a new job, and the company moved me over 500 miles to join them in the corporate office. This has been a huge adjustment to me, as I'm sure you can well imagine.
But still, if that's my biggest complaint, then life is going well!
As for the chapter...Capcom probably won't delve into the darker aspects of Classic, but what happens to Rock and the other Robot Masters after Dr. Light passes is a very interesting question to me, not least because it can be taken into several totally different and very plausible directions. That said, I don't have a set headcanon for how that would go; it'd really depend on the story I'm telling and where I want to take it.
I don't like the interpretation of the Robot Masters where they're incapable of feeling or comprehending complex emotions. I like them better as complex beings capable of considerable depth, but perhaps unable to communicate and display in a way that most of humanity is willing or able to interpret.
It sort of touches on my interest in xenofiction in that respect.
That said, thank you for reading, and until next time!