Mega Man sighed as the gate closed behind him. No, not Mega Man. Not anymore. Now I'm Mega Man X. The robot sighed. He was not a Bioroid any longer. Dr. Light didn't even have a name for the species he was yet. He'd gained a foot or so of height, and a new set of armor-still a two-tone color scheme of blue. Dr. Light did this to him in order to save his life. Mega Man could understand that-how often had the Doc called him his son?-still, he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, he would have been left better off dead.
What am I talkin' about? the robot thought in disgust. Dr. Light's fatherly love's only part of the grand scheme of things. Dr. Wily's got one of these "advanced robots" of his own, and I'm probably the only one who can fight the thing off.
Still, he hesitated. The capsule loomed before him, waiting for him to enter. Rock knew what stepping into that thing would do to his life. Once he stepped into it, he'd be leaving his home, family, and life behind. All for the greater good, right? Mega Man snorted in disgust, then stopped in surprise. He'd never been so cynical. "Sometimes emotions can be such a royal pain in the behind," he muttered aloud.
"Tell me about it," came a familiar voice from behind.
The blue robot turned to find Hadrian-not Protoman, Hadrian-standing in a corner of the room, arms crossed in typical fashion. He was not wearing his typical cocky grin. Rather, his expression was quite unreadable.
"What are you doing here, bro?" the blue robot asked of his leather clad counterpart.
Hadrian tried to summon up one of his trademark grins, but fell far short. "You didn't think you could leave me that easy, did you? Not even a good bye?"
The two robots stood there for a moment, neither one moving. Finally Mega Man gave a sob and fell to his knees, looking more vulnerable than he ever had in his life. Hadrian ran up to him and threw his arms around his brother. "Hey, now. C'mon, Lil' Rocky Horror. Everything's gonna turn out all right. You'll see." Hadrian gave a gentle push on his brother's shoulders in order to look him straight in the face. "Now, you listen to me. You are stronger than anybody I've ever met-human, Robot, or Bioroid. You can overcome anything. Now, you have to overcome this."
"Yeah, but it's not easy..."
"Easy? Who said it was gonna be easy? You think it's easy for the Doc? Roll? Me...?" Hadrian fell silent, as Mega Man studied his face. Then Mega Man's face hardened.
Mega Man wiped his nose and got to his feet. His back was straight and his chest was out as he stepped into the capsule. "See you in thirty years?" he asked as the tubular casing began to close around him.
Hadrian almost grinned again. "You know it."
The capsule closed and the scene began to fade from the present-day Mega Man X. Before it did completely, he thought he heard a whispered "Good bye, Rock."
Then there was nothing.
X fell to his knees. The loss and despair hit him like a tidal wave. He had a family once, a family that loved him. One that he loved just as much. And now they were gone. It wasn't FAIR! All his life he fought to keep those he didn't know safe, and look where it brought him. Why couldn't life be fair?
X felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up to see the flickering blue face of Dr. Light. "Why...?" he asked though clenched teeth.
Dr. Light seemed to know exactly what was being asked, but didn't seem to want to talk about it. "Why what?"
X leapt to his feet, rage in his voice. "Why did you have to change me into this?! What happened to Mega Man that made him so unrepairable that you had to turn him into an experimental robot to save him? WHAT!?!?"
Dr. Light lowered his gaze. "I can't say..."
A rage unlike any he'd ever felt before coursed through X. He grabbed Dr. Light by the lapels of his lab coat and jerked him off his feet so their faces were only inches apart. "Why? I've been looking for answers since the day I came out of that stupid capsule and now that you're here, I'm gonna GET them!"
With a surprising grip, Dr. Light removed X's hands from his lab coat and met his "son's" fierce gaze with one of his own. "If I could tell you, I would, but the fact is I can't."
X plopped down like a child that had just lost his favorite toy down the rain gutter. "Why...?"
"Because that event is being rewritten."
X, startled by that answer, looked up at his creator. "Come again...?"
Dr. Light sighed. "Originally, your 'death' came about from a final battle with Bass. But, with the arrival of your past self and the rest of us, we are changing history. So far, the only event that's fluctuating is that final battle of yours, but the longer they are here, the more history will change."
X thought on that. "But, Doc Cain said that you guys are surrounded by some sort of temporal field that keeps history safe."
Light sighed. "In a way, he's right. That field is keeping history from changing in as blatantly obvious a way as us being absent for forty years, but time travel has repercussions that are far more subtle than even the most well thought out science fiction novel can describe."
X's curiosity was peaked. "Such as...?"
Dr. Light shook his head in mild frustration. "Okay, you've seen time travel movies where some well meaning time traveler goes back in time and does a very minor thing-like, say, help someone remember a briefcase that he would have otherwise forgotten, then return to the present and find the world he knew had changed drastically for the worst, right?" X nodded. "But it's more complicated than that. A time traveler's very presence at a particular event could change it in unpredictable ways."
"Yeah, doc, but I've never heard of somebody going to the future, and the past changing because of that."
Dr. Light nodded. "True. But it's as I said. Time travel can change history in very subtle ways. What if those from the past went back in time with the knowledge of things to come and then made a slightly different decision because of that knowledge?"
X had to concede that he'd never thought of that. "So, even though the event has changed, the end result is still the same. So far, at least."
Dr. Light nodded. "Yes."
X frowned. "Y'know, that sounds an awful lot like 'destiny.'"
"No, not destiny," Dr. Light said firmly. "We are still bound by our own decisions. But part of that decision making process is not having an exact knowledge of the consequences." Dr. Light smiled kindly. "Don't worry, X. You'll get the rest of the answers you're looking for when and if our resident time travelers get sent home. Now, though, it's time for you to wake up."
"But..." X started before he found himself ripped away by some kind of cyclone. He felt himself getting tossed around like a rag doll for who knew how long, then all went black