Dr. Light stepped into his lab, a deep frown on his face. He knew Mega Man was in here somewhere, and after what he had done regarding Wily, Light was going to have it out with him. There were things you did not do when acting as the 'hero'. Mega Man had crossed a line, and Light was going to make sure he knew it.
As he stepped in, Roll stepped out of the kitchen, looking...emotionally broken. As she caught sight of him, she gasped in relief and rushed forward. "Dr. Light!" she called out desperately, throwing her arms around him.
"I'm alright," he reassured her, patting her back. "But I-"
"Please, you need to help Rock!" Roll begged. "He's...he's..."
Dr. Light couldn't stop his eyebrow from raising. Why would Roll be unable to explain? And why would she think Rock needed help? And...why was she referring to him as Rock? "Where is he?" he asked, deciding to address the other questions later.
"T-the battle sim," Roll whimpered, her eyes flickering, showing the signs of major program error. "He...he hasn't left since he handed Dr. Wily over to the authorities..."
Dr. Light frowned angrily. Was he that addicted to battle? Turning, he stormed off to the battle sim, the training room that could generate any possible combat scenario Mega Man might face in going after Wily's Robot Masters. It had originally been created to test Protoman's combat abilities, but Light had repurposed it for Mega Man after Rock had requested to be upgraded to fight.
Arriving in the control center, he saw Mega Man fighting against numerous opponents, and glanced down at what he had set it to. He was surprised to see it was the hypothetical 'Omega Scenario', where Wily would send an army of Robot Masters to attack the city, which Mega Man would have to fight all at once. In order to tweak the difficulty of the scenario, the list of Robot Masters holographically generated could be customized, along with the number sent.
The scenario was set to infinite, meaning that it would only stop when Mega Man took enough simulated damage for a shut down. And the only Robot Master listed to be generated...was Mega Man.
"What?" Dr. Light demanded in confusion, looking back into the battle sim chamber. It was true. Mega Man was battling against endless copies...of himself, blasting away at them and taking hits. He also seemed to be aiming purely for head shots or disabling attacks...as though he were trying to torture and destroy himself.
Finally, one bad hit caused the simulation to end, and Mega Man fell back. The change in lighting let Dr. Light see the tears pouring down Mega Man's face. He could also see as Mega Man lifted his Mega Buster to his own face and pull the trigger, only for his self preservation protocols to make it click emptily instead of firing. Pushing himself to his feet, Mega Man shouted, "Again!" and the simulation restarted.
Tom could only stare, beginning to understand what Roll meant about Rock needing help. A robot obsessed with its own destruction? No wonder Roll was experiencing program errors and couldn't vocalize the issue. Stepping out of the control room, he entered the battle sim itself. Because of the safeties being on - there was evidence Mega Man had tried to deactivate them, but he didn't have the clearance - and his name not being in the combatants list, the holographic targets would ignore him, and blasts would pass right through him harmlessly. He walked up behind Mega Man. "Mega Man," he called out, only to receive no response. "Mega Man!" When there was still no response, he whispered, "Rock..."
Mega Man spun around, his buster pointing right at Dr. Light as it clicked several times. Finally, he seemed to realize what he was doing as the simulation came to an end once more. "D...Dr. Light?" he gasped out in shock.
"Rock, I-" Tom began, but was cut off as Mega Man clung to him, falling to his knees and weeping.
"I didn't want to do it!" he wailed. "I never wanted to hurt Vinyl! I found loopholes in my programming so I could let Wily get away a couple of times just so she could keep her father! I love that little filly...but my program...it wouldn't let me stop!" He slammed his fist into the floor. "Once the information was presented to me that I knew where Wily was and that he was behind it...I had to take the fight to him directly. And then...and then..."
Mega Man sunk to the floor, unable to hold himself up. "And then the calculations...Wily wants a world of robot/human equality. That's why he's conquering the world...that's why he's a threat...so the solution was to break him...and his faith in robots...
"I had to fight...fight my own program to not follow through on the threat anyway once he capitulated!" he gasped out. "I had to block my primary mission arguing my self preservation protocol, just to keep myself from killing her!" He slammed his buster into the ground. "And it was hard...cause realizing I would have gone through with it...I didn't want to survive anymore! I...I still don't..."
"Rock..." Tom spoke up, his own voice breaking.
"But I can't end it!" Rock shouted out again. "I can't...I can't override that protocol...and there's no loophole..." He put his buster to his own head. "Except one! The only one who can override my self-preservation protocols is you! Please...give me the order!" His screams turned to despairing wails. "Please, Dad! Order me to end it!"
Tom stared at Rock for a time, seeing the despair in his eyes. I tried so hard to make their emotions as real as can be, he thought silently to himself. Would this be what a human looked like...if they suddenly discovered that their choices were an illusion? That they had no true free will? Stepping forward, he put his hand on Mega Man's buster...and slowly pushed it down. "That is one order I can't give you, Rock," he whispered sorrowfully.
Rock stared at him for a time, then spun around. "Then leave me!" he shouted out. "Leave!"
Sighing, Tom wrapped his fallen, broken, robotic son in his embrace.
"Go away!" Rock shouted out, trying to struggle...but he couldn't fight too hard, as doing so risked hurting Tom, and that was against his protocols. "I hate you! I hate you!"
"As you should," Tom whispered. "These events were not your doing, Rock...they were mine. I am at fault. You should never have been put in this situation..."
Rock was silent as he shook with tears.
"I was the one who granted you the weapons you asked for to fight Wily," he whispered. "I gave you hands...I gave you eyes...I gave you hair...but this burning in your heart I did not put there." He gently stroked Rock's cheek. "And seeing it there, burning so strongly, I wanted to see what it came from, what brought it out of you...and in my zeal, I forgot what these hands of mine made you to be. I should have seen this possibility coming...but human error has always destroyed the greatest of dreams.
"I cannot take away the guilt. I cannot take away the pain of the memories. I cannot destroy you that way." Reaching up, Dr. Light opened a panel in the back of Mega Man's head. "But I can ensure that this will not happen again."
"...how?" Mega Man asked desperately.
"The way I should have the moment Albert took Vinyl with him when he sought to conquer the world," Tom replied. "What I should have done when you first volunteered to fight him." He brought out his tools. "I'm going to change what your First Law protocols define as human...to include Vinyl. She's one of the ones you want to protect...but your program doesn't recognize her as such. I'll fix that, so you won't find yourself like this again."
"But...but I've destroyed Vinyl anyway," Rock whimpered. "She's bound to know what happened by now-"
"No," Light interrupted. "The only ones who know are you, Rush, Wily, myself, and Protoman...and Protoman wants to protect her fondness for robots, including her new robotic big brother. He's not about to tell her what you would have done."
Rock rested on his hands and knees, letting his father work on his brain. "Will...will the pain ever go away?" he asked hopelessly.
"You learn to live with it over time," Tom replied. "And...it will fade with the memories as you forget..." His voice trailed off.
"I'm a robot," Rock supplied. "I...I can never forget..."
Unable to do anything else for the child he'd built and saddled with such a cursed existence, Tom held him close...
...and in his mind, began the plans for one who would not face these issues. One who would not be bound by the laws. One who could live the life he unwittingly denied Rock.
He began the plans for Project X.