o.o;;; incest? Sorry, no yaoi in here…I dislike incest to begin with (you should see my reviews to folks who write Blues/Rock or Mokuba/Seto) so nothing sexual in this one. It's gonna be dark and painful (for certain characters, anyway), but not sexual.

And pretty good? Darnit. I was hoping for "awesome characterization, just like the shows only better." ah, well…

Chapter Three

"There was nothing left of either of them?" Dr. Light repeated, face white with shock. Roll nodded, her head hung low.

"All—" she paused, her throat too choked up to continue. Finally, she composed herself and showed him the remains. "A-all I found was…this."

Dr. Light gasped, staring at the bits of metal in her hands.

"This was the biggest piece o-of Mega Man I could find," she said miserably, holding out a piece of blue metal a little larger than her palm. It was a part of Mega's helmet, crushed and mangled beyond repair.

"D-Dr. L-Light…"

If she had tear ducts, the tears would have been pouring down her face like rain in a thunderstorm.

Dr. Light reached out and held her tightly, tears streaming his own face, listening to her sobs as she buried her face in his lab coat.

No one moved for a long time.

   #######

Proto peeked into Wily's lab, only to see him cussing in German as he repaired Bomb Man for the umpteenth time. "Stupid robots," the scientist growled, twisting another bolt in place. "Why can't they—"

"Defeat Mega Man?" Protoman finished. Wily turned to him, irritated.

"Ja, Protoman, defeat Mega Man. What do you want?"

Proto grinned.

"Well, since I've gotten Mega Man out of the way," he said, blowing on his fingers, "I figure we can take over the world now."

Wily blinked.

"What did you say?! You got Mega Man out of the way?! Did you destroy him?!"

"Better," said Proto, grinning wider. "I found him out in the Badlands. He's weak as a kitten and doesn't remember anything. He doesn't even know he was created by Dr. Light."

Wily grinned as well, but the smile made him look sadistic and evil instead of happy. "We will use him as an example of what will happen if the people rebel." He petted one of Bomb Man's bombs fondly.

"Wait! Um…wouldn't it be better if we used him as a sort of trophy piece? You know, the whole 'we've caught your hero so listen up' bit?"

"We could do that just as well with him destroyed."

"But—this would be more of a—slap in the face, know what I mean? Besides, it gives us more of an advantage. We could use him as a bargaining chip. Make Dr. Light and everyone else do whatever we want, or else we'll kill their hero. They like him too much to disobey, right?"

Wily paused, considering Proto's argument.

"True. And it would be fun to watch them as they see Mega Man reduced to doing"—Wily laughed insanely—"menial chores, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah! So…"

"He'll live, for now. Meanwhile"—Wily rubbed his hands together, his face filled with devilish glee—"We're going to reboot and repair every single Robot Master in this compound. Taking over the world will be easy now." Wily threw back his head and laughed insanely, his voice reaching high into the rafters of Skull Castle.

Proto grabbed a toolbox and got to work.

  #######

Rock waited in Proto's room, kicking the cot's frame with his good leg impatiently. His brother had said he would return, but he didn't say when…and now Rock was outright bored. Sighing, he laid down on the cot, supporting his head with his good hand and letting the bad one rest by his side.

"I wish there was something to do," he complained to the air after a while. "This is so…boring!"

"Are you sure it's really him?" said a thick and excited voice outside Proto's room. Rock cocked his head curiously at the door, frowning slightly.

"Yes, it is, Guts Man," said an accented voice. That's Cut Man, Rock thought. That's the robot from before, the one Proto didn't like.

 "Protoman said we can't call him by his real name," continued the 'bot, "but he never said anything about making…friends with him…"

The two voices laughed, and Rock felt a shiver run down his spine. The robots sounded anything but friendly.

"Helloo-ooo," called Cut Man as he opened Protoman's door, sticking his head inside. Rock shifted uncomfortably and sat up.

"Oh, it's just you, isn't it," laughed Cut Man. "See, we were looking for Protoman."

"He…went down to Dr. Wily's lab," Rock answered shakily. Before this he had complained about being bored. Now he just wished he could be bored again. He didn't know why, but he felt very threatened by the two robots.

"Oh, darn," laughed a thick voice. Guts Man, thought Rock. That's what Cut Man called him.

"Looks like we'll have to … talk with you instead."

Rock definitely didn't like the sound of that.

"I-it's okay," he said. "I'm s-sure Proto wouldn't mind if you went down there to talk to him."

"Well, we'd rather talk to you any day," sneered Cut Man's voice. He was now on Rock's left, and Rock could hear Guts Man settling down on Proto's old chair. The chair cracked under his weight, and the big robot got up before he crushed the thing entirely.

"Looks like there's no room for us here," Guts Man said in his thick voice.

"Yes, let's go talk somewhere…roomier."

"R-really, I'd rather—Hey! Put me down!!" Rock began to struggle as Guts Man picked him up, but the big 'bot ignored him and carried him out of the room. Rock whimpered as his captor accidentally slammed his leg in the wall, but didn't cry out. Something told him if he screamed he'd get in a lot more trouble than he already was now…and more trouble was the last thing he needed.

"Well, Guts Man, where should we talk with him?" sniggered Cut Man to his left. Guts Man shrugged, making Rock wince again as his bad hand got slightly crushed by the movement.

"I don't want to—to talk at all!" he cried.  "Just—put me down, okay?"

"But we want to talk to you," laughed Cut Man, and led the three into a dark garage far, far away from Wily's lab and more importantly Protoman. "We really want to talk to you…"