Past Dr. Wily's Story:

You remember my former self all too well, and I shouldn't have to set the scene for you. The point is that I considered your brother a pest and that my creativity knew no limits when it came to hatching plans to get rid of him. On some days I'd even daydream sixteen or seventeen different methods in a single afternoon. It was only natural that when I stole a portable time machine from the Chronos Institute, my first thought was that I should try using it to somehow put an end to the little snip.

In the beginning I faced a minor setback. I discovered that the time machine was just an early prototype and that it opened a portal only to one specific time and date in the future. Exactly thirty-seven years, eight months, thirteen days, two hours, and fifty-one minutes into the future. That date was June 5th, four days ago.

A shame. I'd hoped to travel back in time, not forward. Disposing of your brother when he was newly activated would have been child's play. He was so curious, and there were so many hazardous materials at Light Labs he could have "accidentally" gotten into during one of the many times Tom entrusted me to look after you. With a second son gone, Tom would've been disturbed by the pattern - but I don't think he would have suspected foul play from me even then.

Annoyed as I was at having to give up on such a good scheme, I nevertheless resolved to travel into the future to see if I might find anything there that could be of use to me. Besides, I couldn't resist having a peek at how the world would turn out under what I believed would be my eventual, rightful rule. I decided on the storeroom adjacent to my lab as the location to create my time portal, since I alone had access to it and I didn't want any of my Numbers to wander into it. And in I went.

You can imagine my shock when I found myself wandering incognito around the city thirty-seven years in the future and learning that Dr. Albert Wily was nothing more than a faint unpleasant memory in the minds of the people I spoke to. Even worse, it seemed that the world had stopped fearing him during the decade he had spent locked away and silenced in prison. According to recent media reports, he had been released on parole the year before for good behavior and was living in government-assisted housing near the port. There were rumors that he was ill, housebound, and spending his last days alone.

Well, this was infuriating. Adding insult to injury was the distinct lack of advanced robots in this future world. The few that remained were… do I need to explain it to you, my little unicorn? Store greeters and street sweepers, mere toys! 20th-century algorithm-based dinosaurs! The same automatons that Tom and I had vowed in our teenage years to supplant with machines of actual intelligence! What a waste. It seemed the golden age of robotics was over. My life's work had left no lasting impact.

I tracked down my own future self and stopped by unannounced for a visit. I wanted to tell him how much of a disappointment he was to me, and that I wasn't busting my butt every day so that he could become a washed-up old milquetoast of no consequence to history. I was surprised to discover that he was expecting me. He'd remembered doing this back when he was me. Two cups of freshly brewed tea were already on the table, as if he'd in fact remembered the exact moment of his, now my, arrival. Little did I know it, but I was walking into a temporal trap. Everything that was to occur next would unfold exactly the way my future self remembered it happening in his past, which was now my present.

Anyway, I laid into him for his failures, and he fired back, saying it was my incompetence to blame for the fact that he was now living in such a sorry state. Needless to say, the first few minutes of our reunion was far from cordial. But it didn't take long for us to converge upon the source of our woes, which was your brother's incessant meddling. United by a common enemy, we suddenly warmed to each other. Our bickering ceased, and we set about discussing how we might join forces to rid his past and my present of Rockman. If only we could do that, it seemed to us, everything would turn out the way that both he and I wanted. At least, that's what I thought.

I learned from my future self about your brother's deweaponization and fade into quiet obscurity ten years before, the shifting of public opinion against robots, Tom's coma, and the vulnerable position that the two of you were now in. My reaction at hearing about your upcoming expiration dates was, at first, schadenfreude of the most ordinary and unproductive sort. But when my future self revealed he was sure he'd figured out how to crack your code during his time in prison, I realized we could use your misfortune to our advantage.

...Now, would you stop giving me that dirty look? It's distracting, and I don't deserve it. If you'll just keep listening till the end, it'll become clear to you that I - I mean, the current me sitting before you - did nothing wrong!

Anyway, I - my past self, I mean - had to get my hands on this defenseless and desperate future Rock. My future self said that when he'd been in my place, a little persuasion had been all that was needed. So, following his advice, on June 7th I sent Rock the message which offended you so much, the one about exchanging the short remainder of his life for your safety. Of course, I didn't care one way or the other if my future self really intended to help you or not. My only concern was whether the plan would work… and to my surprise, it did. Your brother came.

I hid in the bedroom during the start of his visit and let my future self do the talking. I didn't want to scare off Rock by making an appearance too soon. He and my future self talked for at least an hour. Strange, they sounded almost like old friends catching up. They talked about Tom's condition. They talked about the status of my future self's parole. They talked about the slow-motion disaster your lives had become in the past year. And then, just as my ear squished against the bedroom door was really starting to hurt, they got down to business.

My future self explained that it had long been a dream of his to crack the code that Tom had programmed you two with. He'd tried it once with Rock and failed. He'd tried it with Blues, and then Forte, and failed. Now at last, at the age of ninety-seven, with his health rapidly failing, he believed he was capable of doing it. Wouldn't Rock, who was going to be destroyed in a few days anyway, be kind enough to let him have one last attempt?

For Rock, it would mean the end of his existence as an individual, Future Me made clear. His memories would be wiped, his mind altered beyond recognition. Would it be the same as dying?, Rock wondered. Who knows?, said Future Me. No A.I. of your brother's caliber had ever been put through such an experiment. He would be going into the unknown.

If Rock would only indulge my future self with this one little favor, Future Me said, he'd make sure you had a fighting chance. He'd offer to disable your tracker, and he'd give you a place to hide from the regulatory board. He… I mean, I… have already kept my promises, haven't I, Roll?

Your brother didn't say anything for a long time. He actually seemed to be mulling it over.

Well, I had to see what was going on. I couldn't wait behind that door any longer. Carefully, I crept down the hall and, with one eye, peeked around the corner into the living room. I saw Rock sitting in the same armchair you're in now. He was leaning forward, and his face was buried in his sleeve. He was so quiet and still that it took me a moment to realize he was crying. There was no wailing, no big display of self-pity, just meek and silent crying. Future Me offered him a handkerchief, and he wiped his eyes with it.

"It feels like this was meant to happen, Dr. Wily," he said.

"Funny, it feels that way to me, too," Future Me said.

Then your brother sat up very straight and tall, as if trying to appear dignified. And he looked Future Me in the eye as he held out his right hand. "I get to decide which memories you wipe first," he said.

Future Me nodded. "Deal," he said. And they shook.

My future self then suggested that your brother would perhaps like a few minutes alone. Future Me would go to the room down the hall to prep for the procedure, and Rock was free to follow when he was ready. Rock agreed.

I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Why had it been so easy? Did your brother really have no questions, no misgivings about what was going to happen next? Wasn't he suspicious? Wasn't he concerned about what purpose he might be used for after he was hacked? Did he really think that Future Me would help you? How could he be so naive? How on earth had this plan turned out so… so right?

In the next moment my future self came down the hall, saw me there, and winked at me. In a giddy daze, I followed him into the back room. Being the younger and stronger of the two of us, I pulled some equipment down from the top shelf of Future Me's closet. Then we jerry-rigged Future Me's rickety old writing desk into a crude work table. My future self brought his computer online, and then he told me to make myself scarce again. So I took up my next post behind the closet door.

Your brother came in and stared at the desk, then at Future Me, with a grim and determined look. Yet again to my surprise, of his own volition he climbed up on the desk and lay down on his back. Future Me placed a pillow under his head.

"Comfortable?" he asked.

"Not really," your brother said, but it was more of a statement of fact than a complaint.

"Nevermind," replied my future self. "I never said this would be enjoyable."

Rock didn't object. He did lose a little composure, however, when Future Me took out a spool of rope and told him he'd need to bind him to the desk.

"You don't need to," your brother protested, as he pulled back his hand from the loop which Future Me had offered him. "I'm not going to resist."

"But you will. Once your memories start to disappear, the moment will come when you've forgotten why you came to me and why you've agreed to do this."

That seemed to convince Rock. Gingerly, he put his left wrist through the loop. Then, with a pained grimace, he allowed Future Me to slowly bind him one limb at a time. My future self's stiff arthritic hands weren't the best suited to this kind of task, and it took several minutes for him to get the knots just right. Rock could have wriggled himself free at any point up until the very end, but he didn't. He even helped to tie the noose knot that went around both his ankles. I was amazed at what I saw, and also somewhat skeptical. It was only the obvious discomfort on Rock's face which reassured me that he didn't have any hidden tricks up his sleeve.

I heaved a sigh of relief when at last the ropes holding your brother's wrists and feet had been secured fast to the legs of the desk, and triumphantly I strolled out from my hiding place behind the closet door. Even though Rock had walked willingly into the trap, and Future Me had done most of the grunt work, I couldn't resist the urge to gloat.

"What have we here?" I said. "My enemy, caught like a fly in a web!"

Rock turned his weary gaze toward me. At first he didn't seem to comprehend who I was, but little by little his eyes grew wider. "Dr. Wily?" he said, then did a double-take at my future self beside me. "But he's… but you're…"

"We're both Dr. Wily, you dunce," I said, laughing at him. "You see, I have a time machine now, and I'm going to put the past to rights with it. With your help, I'll create a new reality in which Rockman was destroyed thirty-seven years ago and the world is mine. If you thought you'd won, boy, you were wrong!" I pointed at my future self and snorted. "Did you really think I'd let this tame old has-been be the last the world ever sees of me?"

Rock turned to my future self. "I knew I shouldn't trust you," he said, and his hands fastened to the sides of the desk balled into fists. "What's going on?"

"Relax. The terms of our agreement haven't changed," Future Me answered him. "I'm still going to crack your code. I'm still going to offer my help to Roll."

I stepped forward. "The only thing my senior colleague here neglected to tell you is that, after you've been reprogrammed, you'll be coming back to the past with me. And I think you'll prove very useful."

"You'll make me harm humans?"

"No. I'll make you harm… well… you." I let out a long cackle of the maniacal sort that I was prone to making back then. "After all, is there any robot who stands a better chance of destroying Rockman than his own future self? It's a wonderfully devious plan, isn't it?"

Brow furrowed, Rock closed his eyes. He seemed to be having difficulty taking it all in. When he opened his eyes again, he shot an accusatory look at Future Me.

"What good is your promise if he's right? How will you help Roll if reality's going to change?"

Future Me shrugged his shoulders, wearing the faintest trace of a wry smile. At the time I thought it was a conspiratorial, look-what-we've-gotten-away-with kind of smile intended for me. It was only when I experienced this all over again as Future Me that I realized I was wrong - but that's another story.

"Well," Future Me said at last, "I think if is the key word here."

"If?" Rock blinked a few times, as if he was just on the verge of some sort of breakthrough. "If?" And then, after a few tense silent moments, a spark of recognition lit up on his face and quickly intensified. He let out a gasp. "Oh, I think I understand now…" he said. His eyes had a sad, faraway look. "Oh… oh! I remember…"

Perhaps it would have been wise of me to get Rock to explain what he was rambling on about, or inquire the true meaning behind Future Me's sardonic little smile. But after an hour of listening to the two of them beat around the bush and drone on about their life stories, and the tediously slow process of getting Rock restrained on the desk, I was impatient to get things underway.

"Isn't it time you did something about all that 'understanding' and 'remembering'?" I said to Future Me.

He looked at me dryly."You're right," he said. As he spoke he was busy fastening some neckties together into a makeshift strap, which he then laid across Rock's forehead. He pointed to the two ends hanging over each side of the desk. "Tie those down," he said to me. And then, to Rock, by way of explanation, or perhaps apology: "When you struggle, this will keep your head still and the cables in place."

Your brother closed his eyes and let out an indignant sigh as the ends of the strap were pulled tight and his head was forced deeper into the pillow. "You know I'm going to struggle," he said, "because you've seen all this happen before."

"That's correct," Future Me said, and nodded toward me. "Back when I was this young upstart."

Rock seemed to be drifting far away into his own thoughts, where neither the ordeal he was being put through nor my jeers and taunts could touch him. "So this is how it works," he said. "I always wondered about him. He scared me so much, and I tried to forget. It's strange… the universe is so strange…"

"Strange, indeed," my future self commiserated.

"Would you please get on with it?" I said. I didn't know who this he was supposed to be, and I was becoming increasingly annoyed that your brother and my future self now seemed to be in on some kind of grim secret. Well, we'd soon fix that. With a grunt and a huff, I yanked Rock's t-shirt up to his armpits. Then I grabbed the cable inputs which had been waiting on the pillow and shoved half of them into Future Me's hands. "Here. Do something useful for once."

We opened your brother's chest panel and made a pin cushion out of him. Then we opened up his head and made a pin cushion out of that, too. Rock kept his eyes closed, and the expression on his face was blank. That annoyed me. I'd expected him to put up a fight, or at least beg for his life. His resignation took the wind out of my sails, to say the least.

"Hey," I said, and poked him in the arm. "Earth to Rock. Don't get ahead of yourself. We haven't even wiped you yet."

"I'm thinking about my family," he said, eyes still firmly shut. "Leave me alone."

"Yes, leave him alone, for pity's sake," said my future self, and scowled at me. "And shut up for a while, too, if you're capable of it. I'm trying to concentrate. Do you think these security firewalls are easy to hack? It's taken me half our lives to figure it out." He went back to hunching over the screen, intently typing and swiping. Once in a while his reading glasses slipped down his nose, and he pushed them back up with a low irritated growl. He carried on like that for several minutes, and I paced the room with my arms crossed. With each passing moment I grew more bored, not to mention more repulsed by the squalid condition of Future Me's bedroom: the peeling wallpaper and the mattress which visibly sank in the middle.

It occurred to me that I ought to watch what Future Me was doing. Even at that time, as you know, I already had a moderate interest in cracking Rock's code, if only for the sake of succeeding at what I'd failed at on the first attempt. And, more importantly at the moment, I was starting to become doubtful about where Future Me's loyalties truly lay.

When I peered over my future self's shoulder for a look at the screen, however, I was taken aback by what I saw. The bit of code displayed was not intelligible at all. To me, it looked like a random spattering of squiggly lines. In my shock I stumbled backwards, and Future Me gave me a sidelong glance.

"Of course you can't learn to crack it now," he said, and grunted. "The universe will stop you if you try. It isn't your time yet."

"What the hell are you talking about, you crazy old coot?" I said. Already I'd rationalized away the inexplicable sight I'd seen on the screen, and I'd concluded that my future self was definitely off his rocker.

"Everything's preordained, you nitwit," he said. "The sooner you can accept that idea, the better. Of course, though, you won't be able to accept it until you're me."

"Idiot," I said, turning away. "I'll never be you."

I started pacing again. For a few more dull and uneventful minutes, the only sounds in the room were the lightning-speed typing of Future Me and an old analog clock on the wall ticking on toward nine o'clock. Rock blinked up at the ceiling in silent and tense anticipation, his hands absentmindedly gripping the edges of the desk. At last Future Me let out a grimly triumphant sigh, and I made a bee-line to his side, certain that something was about to happen.

"This is it, kiddo," Future Me said to Rock. "As of this moment, your code is vulnerable to edits. You've been an awfully good sport. Now, what'll it be?"

I quickly understood Future Me's what'll it be to mean which memory Rock wanted erased first, and I must admit I was surprised that the agreement they'd shaken hands on was in fact being honored. As you know, Roll, in those days honoring agreements was not something that I often did, and I found myself slightly irked that my future self had taken up the habit.

Your brother opened his eyes and turned them to Future Me. "I want to forget that Dr. Light used the second law to stop me from helping Rush run away before his expiration date."

"Oh? What did you say?" I drew closer. I hadn't expected Rock's unwanted memories to be of any interest to me at all, but to find that he carried resentment for Tom was too delicious to ignore.

"I understood him perfectly well," Future Me said, giving me a hard stare. "The kid shouldn't have to repeat himself." And then, to Rock, he said, "it's gone."

"It's gone?"

"It sure is. And this is only the beginning. Feel any different?"

"I can't tell. There are still so many more."

"What's next?"

Rock took a deep breath. "Make me forget that Dr. Light and I forgave you and helped you build Gamma."

"That was a lot of fun," Future Me said. "It's a pity you didn't enjoy it as much as I did and my younger self will."

"I should have known better than to forgive you, and Dr. Light should have, too."

"You're right about that."

"I risked my life collecting those components for nothing."

"Indeed, you did."

"I never minded putting myself in danger as long as there was a good reason for it. But that time…" Rock's face below the makeshift strap became stern and dark. "That time, I felt I was wronged. I felt Dr. Light wronged me. The only thing that kept me from being angry at him was that I also felt guilty that I'd been a willing part of it."

"You don't have to feel that way anymore. It's gone."

"Rock," I said, feeling particularly mean, "you do know you're being reprogrammed and not lying on a therapist's couch, don't you?"

Your brother blinked up at me, uncomprehending.

"Do you really have to rub it in?" Future Me said.

"This is just so… interesting," I said to Future Me. "He has quite the chip on his shoulder."

"Had," my future self said darkly. "Well, Rock, what's next?"

"Make me forget what I did on July 19th, 200X."

"That's too vague, unless you want the whole day wiped."

"Wipe the whole day, then."

"Very well. It's gone."

"Now, wait just a minute," I said, butting in. "I want to know what he did. It must have been something awful."

"Nosy, aren't we?" Future Me said. "What's it to you, anyway?"

"He doesn't want me to know about it, whatever it was," I said. "It might be useful."

"Well, he can't tell you now. Rock, can you remember what you did on July 19th, 200X?"

Rock blinked at us. "No, I can't."

I crossed my arms and glared at Future Me. "Maybe you know something about it."

"Of course I don't."

I recognized the very tone of feigned offendedness in Future Me's voice which I myself used when lying. But I was impatient for Rock's reprogramming to be done with, and decided not to pursue the matter further. I was also aware of the fact that, once I had determined to lie about something, the truth would become nearly impossible to find.

"Fine," I said. "Continue."

Your brother glanced up at Future Me. "I want to forget the look on Roll's face when I left home tonight," he said. He wasn't crying, but the suffering in his voice was impossible to miss. "She seemed almost glad I was leaving, and it hurt. And it made me think about how difficult I've been this past year. I think she even blames me for Dr. Light's first stroke. And I think she's right."

"Very well. It's gone." Future Me turned away from the computer and leaned over Rock's face. His voice, when he spoke again, was clinical and calm. "Kiddo, I've now erased four bad memories for you. If we keep going at this rate, it's going to take all night and most of tomorrow to wipe you clean. If you think I've fulfilled my promise to you, then it's time for me to take the reins and make some bigger cuts."

"One more. Please," Rock said. "Before you take the reins, let me choose one last memory. I want the whole past year gone. I don't want to remember it for another second."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm sure."

Future Me nodded to Rock, then turned to me and indicated a pillow on the bed. "You'd better get that ready," he said, and I soon understood why. And for your sake, Roll, I think it's best if I zoom out and allow us to view the rest of this scene from a more comfortable distance. A summary, if you will, rather than a play-by-play. For as soon as Rock's memories of the past year had been erased, including the desperate circumstances that had driven him to visit my future self that night, he began to shout for help and pull fiercely at the ropes. I covered his face with the pillow to muffle his cries, and Future Me set about erasing his memories of Future Me and myself, and this took quite a significant amount of time, and it wasn't pleasant at all.

Once that was done, and we'd told him that we were friends of Tom's, he became much easier to manage. He was confused and mildly distressed, and he asked us a lot of questions which his Swiss cheese mind couldn't make sense of on its own. He had memories of decisions he'd made which were now devoid of context, and things he'd done and places he'd been which seemed to hang in his consciousness as if in a void. I'd say that, at that point, much of who he was was already gone. You see, like it or not, as Future Me explained, our enemies are a large part of what makes us who we are.

Over the next two hours, my future self painstakingly combed through Rock's code, leaving untouched the heightened reaction speed, kinesthetic memory, and other skills he'd learned years before through combat, and jettisoning nearly everything else. Out of sheer sentimentality, I supposed, he waited until the very end to erase your brother's memories of you and Tom. Finally, practicality demanded that they go as well.

We now had on our hands a very quiet and compliant little creature. And yet there was one more step to be performed, one which was necessary to guarantee the success of my plan. Future Me disposed of the Three Laws, and in their place, at my insistence, created two new directives: one: destroy Rockman; and two: obey Dr. Wily.

I felt on top of the world as we released him from the table. My nemesis was now mine to control! He had no armor or weapon, but I'd take care of that once I'd brought him back to my own time. At just before midnight I commanded him to follow me, made a new portal back into the past with my time machine, and pulled him through it. What about Future Me? I'd gotten what I'd wanted from him, and felt no need to linger and chat. Besides, I believed, Future Me was soon going to disappear and be replaced by a much more successful, powerful, and satisfied Future Me. I figured there was no point wasting time on niceties with some poor defeated loser who wasn't even going to exist. Nor was there any point in trying to decipher his odd behavior, or figure out what his real objective had been or whose side he'd actually been on.

I told you in the beginning, Roll, that I - the person you're listening to now, and who was the Future Me in this story from two days ago - am innocent of what happened to Rock. I told you that my past self forced me to do all those things. And I can see by the murderous gleam in your eyes that you don't believe that at all. That's why I told you that you're also going to need to hear my side of the story, and that's what I'm going to share with you now. So calm down, and keep listening.