Rock stepped out of the teleportation chamber, and upon spotting Jay out of the corner of his eye, Rock tossed Lightning's head up and said, "Hey, catch!"

Jay lunged forward to catch Lightning's head with both arms. "Careful, I need this head!" he said scoldingly.

"What for?" Rock asked.

Jay cleared his throat. "If you'll follow me to my lab," he said, "I'll be able to explain everything."

With Lightning's head placed on the small platform on Jay's desk, Jay hooked it up with various cables into the back of his computer, immediately displaying graphs and charts of all sorts on the monitor. "Hey Lightning, wake up," said Jay, prodding the head on the cheek.

Lightning's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Whuh… what happened?" Lighting murmured groggily. Upon flashing his eyes down, Lightning asked, "And where's my body?"

"My fault, sorry," Rock said.

"You again?" Lightning asked, stunned. "Jay, what's going on?"

"Hmm, so you don't remember," Jay mused, swiveling around in his office chair. "Well, to make a long story short, you and a bunch of other officers went Maverick, and Rock's here to clean up the mess. I was going to ask you for some inside info on the new Maverick uprising, but I guess if you've forgotten it all-"

"Oh, it's all coming back to me now," Lightning's head murmured. "Jay, how long have the others been infected?"

"Two days, why?"

Lighting snarled. "Dammit, it's too late!"

"What's too late?" Rock asked.

Lightning's head took a long sigh. "You're not dealing with the Maverick virus," he said, "the others were infected with a more developed strain."

Jay's jaw dropped. "More developed?" he asked, "Are you saying someone's been engineering the Maverick virus?"

"The Sidewinder virus, I think that's what they're calling it," Lightning's head replied. "Mavericks who knew that another Hunter would be brought in to exterminate them, modified the Maverick virus into a strain that would boost their power and stamina."

"So why weren't you infected with it?" Rock asked.

"I was one of the first Reploids to go Maverick," said Lighting, "and at that time, the Sidewinder virus was still being developed. I heard something about a conflict between the two viruses, how the Maverick virus's built-in anti-program systems would kill the Sidewinder virus in an already Maverick host, and vice-versa."

"It's hard to believe," Jay muttered, "It took doctor Doppler decades to develop a Maverick anti-virus, and he was the most intelligent Reploid ever built. And all records of his research were destroyed along with Dopplertown, too. And because of that Neo Arcadia fiasco, it would take a century to develop a vaccination again, much less a modification!"

"It's in play now anyway," said Lightning.

Jay groaned in defeat as his computer chimed. "Well, your neural CPU's been cleaned," he said, unhooking Lightning's head from the computer, "Rock, I'd better run some tests on the Maverick virus samples we've got before we can let you out to play again. In the meantime, Lightning, try not to get into too much trouble, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll go out for a little jog," Lightning's head sneered as Rock and Jay left the room.

Although free from his armor for the time being, it was a long climb up the many flights of stairs, and Rock was grateful to have the cooling wind whip about him on the rooftop of the Reploid Research Institute. For the first time since his upgrade, Rock ran his fingers through his plentiful jet-black hair, feeling not his old, rough and frayed locks, but silk-like titanium strands. "Feels nice, doesn't it?" asked a voice from behind him.

Rock glanced over his shoulder to see Marie behind him, strolling up to his side. "A lot better than my old rug," said Rock, leaning on the edge of the roof.

Marie was quick to join him. "So Rock, remember anything yet?"

"I used to be quite a good artist," he said.

"Really?" Marie asked.

Rock groaned, dug into his pocket, and handed Marie a tattered piece of notepaper covered with scribbles "Not anymore."

Marie shrugged. "Well, what else have you been doing for these last thirteen months?" she asked.

Rock sighed. "Searching."

"For Dawn?" Marie asked. Rock nodded. "Any luck?"

Rock muttered and shook his head. "No, not even a trace."

Marie hummed. "She must be a pretty fantastic lady, huh?"

Rock shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know."

Marie's jaw dropped. "Maybe? What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Just that," said Rock, "I don't remember what she's like. I can't remember if we were even friends at all."

"You mean to tell me you've been looking for someone who you don't even know for over a whole year?"

"That's about the size of it," said Rock.

Marie was bewildered. "W-why?" She finally managed to stammer.

"I don't have many memories," said Rock, "and almost all of them are only a year old. I don't know how old I am, where I came from, who my friends were- Marie, I don't even know who the hell I am!" Rock paused to take a deep breath. "I used to have a life, and I want it back. If I can find Dawn, maybe, just maybe, I can fill in all these blanks and become more than just a fighting robotic corpse."

Marie let it all sink in for a moment. "Wow," she said, amazed, "You're pretty deep. But what if you don't find her? What if you spend your entire new life searching?"

Rock turned to Marie, and stared at here eye-to-eye. "I will find Dawn," he vowed.

He stared at her for a little while longer. "Ooo-kay, I get it," said Marie, awkwardly looking away. Sighing, Marie asked, "So how would you say your current life's been?"

Rock shrugged. "Fine. I guess."

There was a brief silence between them. "Anything else?" Marie asked.

Rock shook his head. Another moment of silence passed before Marie sighed in defeat. "What?" Rock asked.

"Nothing," Marie muttered as she rolled her eyes and headed back to the stairs.