Chapter 3
"Were there any warning signs?" Yuuichiro asked Roll as he ran yet another diagnostic. "Anything that may have triggered them again?"
Roll shook her head. "The nightmares just came back. One night I had a perfect sleep, the next night it was there again, as though it had never left."
"Any differences? You did say that the voice says something different each time, but was there anything different about this dream? The feel of it? Did you see anything?"
"Actually, now that you mention it…" Roll hesitated.
"It's okay," Rockman spoke from Netto's PET, "It's okay, Roll."
The pink navi gave a tremulous smile, took a deep breath, and continued. "The other nightmares were…fear, but this…this was despair, just a kind of horrible hopelessness. I…I knew he was going to delete me…and I didn't really mind…"
Everyone swallowed. "Anything else?" Yuuichiro managed.
"Yeah," Roll answered, her voice now almost a whisper. "I remember a colour, just before I woke up. This strange red…like dried blood."
"Sounds scary," Netto muttered.
Roll laughed weakly. "So, you figure out what was the matter, Dr. Hikari?"
Yuuichiro leaned back, running a hand through his hair in blatant frustration. "Nothing! The same as last time, absolutely nothing seems out of place or disrupted. If something's going wrong, I'm not seeing it."
He paused, his exasperation almost tangible. "There is one thing we could try…"
"Yes?" Meiru prompted. "What's that?"
"Today's Friday, right?"
"Yeah."
"If you're free tonight, Meiru, bring Roll over to the Sci Labs. I'll hook her up to one of our computers and then, when she goes to sleep, I'll be able to observe exactly what her Dream Matrix is doing."
"And then you'll be able to fix it," Netto finished.
"That's the idea. So, Roll and Meiru, will I see you tonight?"
"You bet," both girls agreed.
"Hey, Netto," Rockman whispered, trying to keep his voice low so only his NetOp would hear, "Could we come too? I mean, if you have something you want to do, sure, but I just want-"
"It's fine, Rockman," Netto murmured out of the corner of his mouth. Then his voice rose in volume as he addressed his father, "Can Rockman and I come too?"
Meiru and Roll looked a little startled by the request, but Yuuichiro just smiled, "Of course."
"Thanks!"
Netto seized Meiru by the arm and proceeded to drag her – and by extension, Roll – from the room. "Now we have to go tire Roll out so she'll go to sleep really quickly tonight!"
"What exactly do you suggest?" Meiru said, trying to gather her dignity as she was hauled from the Sci Lab.
"Netbattle!"
Roll chuckled, if a little nervously. "Is that Netto's answer to everything?"
"I know what you mean," Rockman chortled, "There are times I wonder about him…"
Yuuichiro watched the two humans and their navis leave with a secretive smile on his face.
oooooooo
Meiru and Roll ended up fighting in several Netbattles (winning them all), until Roll declared she was utterly exhausted and couldn't summon up a single attack anymore. They had met up with Glyde almost immediately afterwards, who been sent by Yaito to invite both their NetOps to the ice-cream parlour.
But when Yaito invited them over to her house for dinner, both Netto and Meiru made their excuses.
"Already have plans to eat together?" the heiress asked, one eyebrow raised pointedly.
Both blushed bright red. Meiru suddenly found the floor very interesting, and Netto stuttered out the explanation.
"-and so we're going back tonight so my dad can make Roll's nightmares stop."
Yaito's slight smirk had vanished. "That sounds awful, poor Roll!"
Meiru smiled. For all her faults, Yaito could be quite considerate…in her own way and in her own time, of course.
"Those nightmares do sound most distressing," Glyde remarked, "And yet Dr. Hikari was unable to locate any problems?"
"Not a single glitch," Roll sighed. "And the worst part? I can't think of anything that might have triggered them. I mean, why now? What's happened recently that could give me nightmares?"
"Indeed," Glyde mused. "Our capture by Dark Rockman was most distressing, but I cannot picture it giving the nightmares you have described."
Roll wrinkled her nose. "It wasn't all that scary."
Glyde made no attempt to hide his shock. "Of all of us, I would think you would be the last to say that!"
"What do you mean? I was in stasis the entire time, not exactly an experience that'll scar you."
Glyde's eyes showed utter incomprehension. "But…you weren't," he said slowly, as though trying to break it to her gently.
"What do you mean?" Rockman asked, his eyes never wavering from the shell-shocked Roll.
A beep went off from Roll's PET, breaking the tense tableau. The pink navi opened the incoming mail, still preoccupied with Glyde's assertion she hadn't been in stasis. He sounded so sure, but if she had been conscious, why didn't she remember a thing about it?
The mail was from Dr. Hikari, calling Roll and Meiru back to the Sci Labs. They were preparing to depart with Netto and Rockman, when Glyde mentioned to the NetOps the strange phenomenon of Roll's memory loss. So Glyde and Yaito came to the Sci Labs as well.
oooooooo
"So, Glyde says Roll wasn't in stasis while they were prisoners," Netto explained to his father.
"Which doesn't make sense," Meiru sighed. "Because Roll doesn't remember a thing. She told me everything from the beginning of her capture to when Rockman got them out was a complete blank."
"But Glyde says otherwise," Yuuichiro mused. He addressed Yaito's navi, "Did you actually see Roll conscious during your capture? Did she seem aware of her surroundings?"
"Yes, to both questions," Glyde answered.
"Could you bring up the memory for us?"
Glyde drew a window in cyberspace, then paused as he sent his memory data to project into the window. Everyone – Yuuichiro, Netto, Meiru, Yaito, Rockman and of course, Roll – leaned forward to watch.
They were looking out of Glyde's eyes, which was a little disorientating at first, but Roll supposed that was how memories worked. The gaze landed on Iceman, bound with glowing bands, and drifted down to Glyde's own limbs that were similarly tied. Then the view lifted upwards…to Roll.
And Roll felt a cold thrill rush through her. She was conscious, undoubtedly so.
The Roll on the screen was restrained the same way Glyde and Iceman were – glowing bands encircling her wrists and ankles – but, unlike the others, she was held in the grasp of Dark Rockman.
The stronger navi had her by her arm, one hand gripping her chin between his thumb and forefinger, examining her face as though speculating on something. For some reason, the scene made Roll shiver. As though sensing her distress, Rockman reached out and slid his fingers through hers. Roll grasped his hand gratefully.
She was pleased when her on-screen counterpart jerked her chin from Dark Rockman's grip, snarling out, "Get off me!"
Dark Rockman seemed downright amused by her resistance. "Aren't you a fiery one?"
She glared at him and he laughed. His fingers brushed across her cheek and Roll flinched, trying to crane her head away.
Still watching the screen, Roll shivered. She felt as though something were stirring in the depths of her mind – as though she could feel those cold fingertips ghosting over her face. Rockman felt her tremble, and his hand tightened on hers.
Roll tried to divorce herself from the pink navi on the screen. She tried to concentrate on the blanks in her memory, trying to feel as though she were watching a movie, nothing but actors on a screen, nothing that had any meaning to her. But the way she was shaking, the way she could almost feel Dark Rockman's touch, even now, told her different.
The figure on the screen fought Rockman's duplicate like a wildcat, back arching, body twisting frantically. The struggling duo began to get smaller, and the watchers realised that this was when Glyde was pulled away. Iceman was being hauled off beside him…but Roll had remained with Dark Rockman.
The more Rockman was seeing of this memory, the less he liked it.
"Let go of me you demented, megalomaniacal doppelganger!" the on-screen Roll bellowed.
Dark Rockman slung her over his shoulder like a sack of grain and began to walk out of Glyde's view, ignoring the way Roll struggled, kicking and writhing madly.
By now, Glyde had obviously been dragged some distance away, as the figures began to disappear as Dark Rockman exited, Roll's shrieks echoing behind. Both vanished from Glyde's view, but their voices continued to drift towards him.
"Put me down!"
"Easy, little butterfly, you'll only get hurt."
Then, just before the sounds faded, a scream. Roll screaming in utter agony.
Glyde's window closed.
oooooooo
"I don't remember that," Roll breathed, trembling slightly. She was still clutching Rockman's hand, so hard she knew she must be hurting him, but just couldn't seem to let go.
She looked at Glyde with wild eyes. "I don't remember anything about it! There's just a big blank in my memory…I don't…"
Roll trailed off, swallowing harshly and staring miserably into space.
"Glyde," Yuuichiro said, apparently making some effort to speak calmly. "What happened afterwards, do you remember anything that could have triggered Roll's memory loss?"
The taller navi shook his head, looking sympathetically at Roll. "No, I'm sorry. Iceman and I were held with several other navis, but we never saw Miss Roll. I believe…" he paused, turning to Roll. "I believe you remained with Dark Rockman for the duration of your imprisonment, though what he did to you, or why you can't remember it, I cannot say."
"Creepy," Netto said into the following silence.
"He called me little butterfly…" Roll whispered. "Just like the dreams…"
"Is that it?" Meiru asked, "Are Roll's dreams actually her memories resurfacing or something like that?"
"Perhaps," Yuuichiro conceded, "Either way, we may be able to find the answers tonight."