Darkness had begun to descend around Dr. Light's lab, and Rock was sitting on the porch with his head resting in his hands. Dr. Light and the three Reploids had been inside trying to find a way to send the renegades from Time home. No luck so far. The alien energy used to create the time portals was quite unique and most difficult to emulate. Still, if anyone could find a way to beat this thing, it would be Dr. Light.
Rock heard the footsteps behind him, but made no move. They stopped right behind him and a female voice said "Penny for your thoughts."
Rock looked up. Roll was standing behind him, leaning over him with a small smile on her face. Rock smiled slightly himself. "How 'bout a quarter?"
Roll sat next to him and slugged him playfully on his shoulder. "Nah, nothing that comes outta your head can be worth that much."
"Thanks a lot," Rock returned with a smirk.
Roll turned serious. "Now really, Rock. What's bothering you?"
Rock sighed. "I don't know for sure, and that's the problem. There's a lotta things, actually. First, it's Bass. He's out there and Wily's after him. I know he can take care of himself well enough--I mean, he could almost beat me!--still, I don't like knowing a friend of mine is out by himself and is a target for Wily."
Roll nodded. She felt very much the same way, though she was possibly even more worried due to her stronger feelings for Bass. "That's not the extent of it, is it?" she asked.
Rock grinned humorlessly. "You know me too well. Truth be told, I'm mostly concerned about X, Zero, and Iris."
One of Roll's eyebrows went up. "How so?"
"I dunno. It's just that...well, when we were in the future, X was rather concerned about how our being there would effect the course of history. Us making different decisions based on our knowledge of the future, that kinda thing. How much worse is it now, that beings from the future are now in what is for them the past?"
Roll shrugged. "Don't worry so much, Rock," she said in an attempt to lighten her brother up a little. "I mean, the only people who know about them are those of us who went to the future anyways, and they are keeping out of sight of the general public, so how much worse can it really be?"
Again Rock shrugged. "I dunno. But I have a strange feeling that their very presence here is somehow putting the timeline out of whack."
Roll stood up and brushed herself off. "You worry too much. Everything'll be all right. You'll see." That said, she went back inside.
"I hope you're right, Roll," Rock said to thin air. "I really hope you're right."
X sat on his bed in one of Dr. Light's guest rooms, staring into space. "This a private sulk, or can anybody join in?" a voice asked from the doorway.
X turned. It was Zero. "I wasn't sulking," the blue Reploid objected. "I was...thinking."
Zero shrugged. "Riiiiiiiight. So whatcha thinkin''bout?"
X shrugged. "It's just....I don't know."
Zero sat down next to his friend. "Sure ya do. If you don't, then you're even worse off than I originally thought."
X sighed again. "Alright, alright! Zero, I have my memories back--all of 'em, or most of 'em at least! Now I don't only know that I was created by Dr. Light, but I remember it. I remember how he was a father to me. I even remember...my brother and sister..."
"You don't mean..."
"Hadrian and Roll. I used to be Rock." X laughed mirthlessly. "Now, here I am, surrounded by my long lost family, the family I thought I'd never meet again. But it's not my family, it's Rock's! In my memory, Hadrian is my older brother and one of my best friends. Now that I'm here, he's not much more than aquaintence--a war buddy if you will."
Zero couldn't think of anything really meaningful to say, so he settled on, "Life sucks."
X nodded. "Yeah, it does. And the worst thing was, I always thought that if I recovered my memories, then all my problems would be over. But in reality, it only gives me a whole new set of problems."
Zero sat up. "Yeah, well stop whining like a baby about it."
X was startled. "Huh?"
Zero turned and looked his blue partner dead in the eye. "I'm saying, X, that crap happens. Deal with it. I mean, it's kinda naive to think that one thing will solve all of life's problems. But you just have to roll with the punches. I mean, take me for instance. What has the recovery of memories brought to me? I find I was created by a world-class nutcase, found out I was once what I fight against, and that chances are, I had a hand in creating the all time most evil force in the word. But you don't see me moping about in my bedroom. Life's short, life sucks, then you die. You just have to make the best of it." Zero turned to go. "Good night, partner."
X hesitated. "Zero," he said, stopping his partner. Zero turned and looked at the blue Reploid. "Thanks," he said with a smile.
Zero smiled back. "Anytime, partner, any time."
Zero stepped out of X's borrowed room, and strode to the main lab room where Dr. Light was working. Little did he realize that the entire conversation was overheard. From a shadowy corner emerged Hadrian. He looked meaningfully at the now closed gate. His worst suspicions were confirmed. The question was, what was he going to do about it.
Meanwhile and elsewhere, Bass was feeling restless. He had a strange feeling that there was a sudden shift. Bioroids aren't psychic of course, but they do often times have a heightened "sixth-sense" about some things--particularly things that involved their creators. This was one of the reasons that Mega Man had as many strange dreams as he did. Bass paced around his room for a moment, then sat on his bed, only to stand up and pace some more. Treble growled. "You feel it to, don'cha, boy?" Bass asked. Of course Treble felt it. Not only was he a Bioroid, but one based off of an animal. And that meant his sixth-sense was at an even higher level then Bass. Bass finally came to a stop at his window. "Something ain't cosier in Denmark," Bass muttered to himself. "I can feel it, somehow. Something is happening."
The world's only four Bioroids got very little sleep that night.