Chapter 5: Never Safe

The next morning, Rock wasn't in his room. In fact, he wasn't even in the house at all. Instead, he had gone outside, for the first time outside of battles with Wily. The air was clear. The world was at peace. Tranquil. Peaceful. Refreshing.

As he sat on one of the rocks at the local park, he wished for something. That it could be this way…forever.

If only. If only.

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Tron woke up from a bad dream very early in the morning. At least, she guessed it was early. The sun wasn't out yet, anyways. Looking around her, she noticed someone wasn't there.

Blues was gone, and there was a yellow scarf laying on the floor. Picking it up, she saw an insignia she couldn't read.

"PROTO MAN"

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As Blues walked down the wooden stairs, he thought more and more about the hotel and it's inhabitants. The security in the charity hotel was incredibly non-existent. The secretary was always sleeping, and there were no security cameras or guards. Even though there wasn't much to steal, the entire building was still at serious risk. From the wooden stairs to the weak structure…he wouldn't be surprised if the entire building would fall down if you so much as poked it with a wooden stick, and would burn to the ground if you lit a match in front of it.

The lack of security had been the reason Tron's baby sister had been kidnapped. Because of this, he had met the Tron family, who had suddenly opened something inside him that could have never been there before.

The door. They simply opened the door, and he entered it. He entered it into a place full of faith and spirit, and lacking everything else. They were happy that they were alive. With what they did have, and not what they wanted.

And something had told him that, just perhaps, his search was over. Perhaps he had found where he belonged.

But there was something that made him leave that place. Worries.

It was Wily. Wily. And as long as that madman was alive, Blues would be alone forever.

For nobody who knew him, no place that held him…

Would ever be safe.

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In only a few hours, the sun had risen and children had arrived at the local park that Rock was at. Rock was just sitting on one of the large rocks that surrounded the park, and watching them.

They threw woodchips at each other, chased one another through pipes and tunnels, climbed and swung through miscellaneous metal pipes stuck together to make some form of climbing equipment…

Laughing. Playing. Happy. All of them innocent and young. Care-free.

Rock had never known those feelings. He had spent the first year of his life chasing down one of his creators, and the horrific distortions of his robot "brothers", Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, Elec Man, Bomb Man, and Guts Man. He had mercilessly slaughtered them without so much as a second thought. So he could stop Wily.

And he had failed. More times than he could count, Wily had escaped again to unleash more Robot Masters upon the Earth, killing countless innocents on his quest for world domination. He had manipulated great scientists, stolen and reprogrammed other robots to his will…

It was hard to believe that Wily had been one of his creators. It was hard to believe Dr. Light had ever trusted him. He was reminded of something that Dr. Wily had said to him once…

It was a long time ago, and he had just defeated Wily yet again. As the fortress exploded in a geyser of flame and debris, Wily and Mega Man had stood facing each other on the edge of a far-away cliff.

"You always interfere with me!" Wily had growled, sticking his face inches away from Mega Man's own.

"I'll keep on fighting for peace for both humans and robots!" Mega Man had retorted.

"Peace for humans and robots?" Wily had scoffed. "Then why do you destroy my robots, you metallic hypocrite? Do you destroy robots to bring them peace? What's the difference between my actions and yours? We aren't so different, you and I!"

At those words, Mega Man had backed away, staring at his own hands in confused horror.

"Noooo!" he had screamed, refusing to believe it. "Can I really be the same as Wily? It's true that I destroy his robots with no hesitation! I could have negotiated with the robots instead of slaying them…I could have made peace…Am I as violent and evil as the man I oppose? Am I spreading war instead of stopping it?"

At that moment, Roll had appeared, smiling.

"It's not true, Mega Man! Don't listen to Wily, he's just playing mind games with you!" she had assured him. Auto, a giant green helper-bot that looked liked he had been made from recycled objects, joined in.

"That's right. You're doing the right thing, Mega Man!" he had yelled. Finally, Dr. Light finished.

"Sometimes peace can not be achieved unless those who spread war are destroyed."

That last sentence echoed in Rock's mind.

"Unless those who spread war are destroyed…those who spread war are destroyed…spread war are destroyed…"

But Wily had not been destroyed. He was still very much alive, plotting to attack again. Rock clenched his fists, and he could see the images in his head already..

Wily unleashing his attacks again, the sky filled with fire and smoke as a giant multi-armed monstrosity ripped the park he was standing in to shreds, throwing the bars and pipes at whatever got in it's way…merciless, unforgiving, literally bathing in cold blood…

He was shaken out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. A kid's hand.

"Hey, kid…you alright?" the kid asked.

Rock shook off his worries and nodded.

"C'mon and play, kid! We've never seen you around here before!" the kid yelled.

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Now sitting on the edge of a tall building, Blues was thinking about his decision. He didn't really regret it, as he was used to being alone…and he would normally say he enjoyed it. But this time, he didn't exactly think that. He had only been gone for a short while, but he already missed…

His thoughts stopped, and pain ripped through his back, down his spine, and through every part of his body. Blues doubled over in pain and collapsed, blacking out and tumbling off the side of the building he had just been sitting on.

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Rock was having difficulty…fitting in, in a manner of speaking. Not only was everything he did somewhat awkward, but he couldn't even look at anyone without the images of them being brutally murdered by one of Wily's death machines being burned into his mind.

He was just too used to seeing it happen. Almost all the time. And he knew it would happen all the time, until Wily was stopped for good. When he saw those people, he felt like he was looking at and talking with the dead. He almost felt like he wanted to be isolated from society again. Just to get away from it.

For how could he make friends, only to watch them die at the hands of the person he had spent his entire life destroying? How could he ever live a normal life?

But that was a question that nobody was going to give him the answer to.