Chapter Text
Lumine moaned at the piles of paperwork in front of him. Actual paperwork was the worst in the digital age, but Earth had requested physical forms. The light through the tall gothic windows cut from the tower's moon rock spilled over his crossed legs in an icy white blue. His long and lanky 1912 tea gown spilled around his feet and those of his tall backed working chair. His old desk grew a forest of folded forms and metallic legal machinery. It was a headache to deal with, even for a reploid who had been built to be a manager. He longed for the slow hours at the end of the day when he could fall into Rock's embrace and when Bass would be relatively quiet. Nearby, Bass wasn't improving Lumine's concentration at all by bouncing a baseball at the wall over and over.
Getting a good view of his husbands' languid distress, Rock ran into the room and right past Bass' sudden curveball. The throw missed Rock completely, but managed to topple over one of Lumine's monitors.
"Hey, Rock, Rock— Hey." Bass called after the small blue robot until he hurried back out of the private quarters he'd rushed into.
"We leave tomorrow! We have to pack," Rock admonished. He turned right back around and disappeared down the short blue-carpeted hall.
"Can't you play catch with Bass first," Lumine called after Rock.
Reëmerging with an arm full of clothes, Rock frowned at his two husbands who were still sitting around shamefully. "I can't believe you're abetting Bass, Lumine! We have to finish packing."
Rock was utterly goal focused on the upcoming meeting on Earth, and he had been since he'd picked up X's note from Cedar's transmission station. They'd been in bed when the letter came in, and he'd missed hours of prep time thanks to that, so he wasn't going to let it happen again. He had to make sure that their away team was assembled, and that the supplies were locked in and correct to the new specifications, and that Bass wasn't currently fighting someone or goofing around so he could be taught how to act politely again.
"C'mon, Rock. You're way too tense. Let's play some football," Bass offered.
"You don't even have a football!" Rock whined.
"You can play football anywhere, wearing any thing. Rooftops, tuxedos, birthday parties, the works." Bass' continued incitements were not working.
"I don't want to play right now! I want to pack, and I want you to study the rules of court behaviour X sent." Rock tamped his foot.
Lumine flipped his dress to the side and stood up, figuring completing the forms at his desk was a lost cause. He walked up Rock with a chaste kiss for the bot's brunette head. "I am going to finish filling out our entry visas in my library," Lumine said. "I'll be right out to help you pack."
"Yeah, what about me?!" Bass yelled from beside the large marble desk.
"Play basketball with the poubelle, you piece of trash," Lumine suggested.
Bass glared at the small waste basket Lumine had referred to. In revenge, he picked up the nearest piece of paper. "I'm gonna make spitballs outta your acquisitions report!"
"I'd expect no better from you," Lumine said airily as he walked out of the room, waving his hand without even looking back.
As soon as Lumine returned with the visas, Rock pulled him into the process of packing just the right things to wear as ambassadors and just the right things to bring for energencies. Rock also pushed a list of rules at Bass. Bass used it to cover the loogie he'd hawked into the trashcan. He'd lie about reading it later.
Frankly, other than Rock's hurry to pack for the trip, that was how the three husbands were. They filled out a Freudian trine where Bass and Lumine endlessly squabbled and Rock tried to hug them both. The fighting, the judgement, and the reproach were all produced by love. Usually, Rock was forever caring and conciliatory, forgiving everything about them, and only asking for understanding from everyone he met. Surely someone as unfailingly nice as he could be forgiven for one cross day.
It was a shame that the bad day seemed to last forever until Rock finally had everyone packed, briefed, and in the hangar waiting to depart to Earth. Even Dr. Light, taken out of his memory canisters and installed in his new reploid body, had rolled his eyes when he thought no one would notice. Wood Man had noticed and said nothing. Right outside of the ship where the small group waited under seatbelts to finally blast off, Rock was excitedly confirming last minute details with Roll. She would be the Moon Director with Lumine gone, after all. Was she sure she was appraised of Lumine's fifth phase plans? Was she on top of the new irrigation initiative? Would she remember the incoming asteroids and the mets stationed to mine them? Of course she would, because she was already the Vice Director. With this determination, and to everyone's cheering, Roll pushed her brother into the shuttle, locked him in his seat, and wished everyone a safe trip.
Rock finally calmed down once the shuttle was out of the moon's gravitational pull. Lumine's hand on his may have helped. Bass' big finned helmet leaning against Rock's head wasn't helping in the comfort category, but did score him moral points for trying.
Because of the precious live cargo on board in the hold, the descent to planet Earth took hours, just as it ever had for traditional craft. Wood Man spent most of the time out of his seat to comfort the animals. Most of them were insects, but he refused to believe that they didn't deserve concern. The queen bees were all peeping in excitement. Turbo Man was rumbling softly in engine dreams.
Back in the main cabin, Dive Man went into standby. Sleep was his preferred pastime, although he drifted out of his randomly generated dreams whenever his keen sense of hearing picked up on a piece of the many abandoned satellites that would hit the craft. Junk Man and the reploid-renewed Dr. Wily spent the whole time training up and battling Pokémon teams on DSes scrounged from the Earth's last shipment of electronic waste. The handheld consoles had been thrown away because their batteries had given out ; Junk Man powered them himself with wires and glue. Dr. Light alternated between his novel and looking over Wily's shoulder. Bass didn't even pretend to be doing anything else and offered constant battle commentary loudly. Rock dozed weakly, fingers still intertwined with Lumine's. And Trucker Joe? He piloted the bulky space craft as it burned back onto Earth. The flames reflected off of his black visor... and the sunglasses underneath.
As the sun painted the young crescent moon in old-lace yellow, the diplomatic shuttle docked in the long since humbled and broken Jakob Tower. Ancient iron clamps grumbled out of the walls to hold the shuttle, still emblazoned with sun-bleached Noah Corp logos. The pleather on the public seating was cracked and flaking into alligator scales over mouldering foam, but the aluminium chair legs and white tile floor inside the lobby were still kept clean, if stale. The entire area had likely been cleaned after the Moon's last visit, then sealed up. The upper floors of the tower had slept for centuries.
Leaving Trucker Joe and Turbo Man to deal with transporting supplies via the service elevator, the eight robots and reploids left over headed to the civilian lifts. There were two cars going down, just enough to split the party four on four and get under the weight limit. Otherwise, they would have had to take the stairs. Perhaps that would have been the better idea. The elevators descended through large glass tubes which had been built to show off the sights of a revitalised Earth to tourists. Anti-glare film disassociated from the glass and blurred the view from the upper floors, but what could be seen below them where the city opened up beneath the clouds was damning enough.
Boils of burnt city blocks marred the flesh of Neo Arcadia. Some toppled overpasses still smouldered, and a plume of smoke scrambled out of the burning gas lines. The city was pockmarked by explosion craters and seeping sinkholes. Ash-dusted mets worked hard on the perimeter of each disaster zone, trying to fix the earth and bring the inflammation of war under control. Bass salivated just looking at it.
There was no question as to why X had called for a diplomatic meeting sooner than scheduled, and why his new rules of court behaviour were more than ever preoccupied with the safety of the Neo Arcadian humans. But things still sat uncomfortably for Rock. He didn't like having to keep his group out of human culture, even if it was for their safety. It was as if X were expecting them to fight. He didn't want to fight. He hadn't come to deliver troops. This was an aid mission.
Bass and Rock looked at each other, excitement meeting dread. Rock frowned. It would be so hard to keep him out of trouble.
"Remember, you're here to be our bodyguard, okay?" Rock said.
Bass looked angrily confused, then growled. He slammed himself back into the far wall, making the descending car rattle dangerously.
"Don't get us killed before then," Dive Man muttered in Russian. Bass didn't speak that but was still 100% sure he'd just been insulted. Rock held Bass' Arm before it could even twitch.
"We're all upset," Rock said, though he was speaking mostly for himself. "It's been a long trip down."
The elevator continued plummeting into the sick blackness of Neo Arcadia below. In the throne room of Jakob's Tower, X awaited them. Together, the Moon and Earth would heal this broken city.
"Mmm, hexagonal columns and majestic thrones— I love what you've done with the place." Lumine gave a compliment as soon as his curtsey touched his knee to the floor before X's throne. He mostly meant it, too. The purple palace was in perfect taste for him.
X leant his cheek on a limp fist and sighed. This was going to be a long, long meeting. Mostly because Rock brought the entire family. He and Bass had never gotten along, and he and Lumine had, well, history. "Th-thanks."
"Hey where's your guards?" Bass spoke up, refusing to bow until Rock grabbed him by the back of his helmet. The other reploids had already bent their backs properly, and dressed in the Neo Arcadian fashion properly too.
"We passed the Four Guardians on the way in," Rock said quietly.
"No. Guards. The little copies," Bass insisted.
"Copies!" X gasped.
"I said I wanted a battalion of them to beat up, like last time." Bass said.
"We're short—" X closed his eyes and tapped at his armrest to centre and calm himself.
"Bass, this is the opposite of being polite!" Rock said and threw down his hands.
"We're short staffed," X continued. "The Recycling Program can't build new bodies fast enough to re-house the flood of orphaned IC chips. We can't bring the humans back." X looked bitterly at Dr. Light. He was in a reploid body now because he'd uploaded himself as the first ELF. But had he passed this technology on to humanity so that humans could be freed from the death of war? He'd probably thought it would be pushing humanity too hard in the direction of transhumanism before it was "ready." But he didn't have to see everyone around him die. X looked away.
"The program was strained already," X said. "Now civilians see nothing but soldiers coming out. They think that it's a death camp for dissidents, and they won't come to have the Maverick Virus removed. Then they attack each other and kill humans. All because of those lies spread by Heaven's Army."
"If it's Heaven's Army," Bass broke in, "I can take care of Heaven's Army. Hey, no!" Bass held his hand up to Rock's and Lumine's faces sequentially as they were trying to talk. "This is what this whole thing is about, right?"
"The deterioration of Earth's society and ecosphere is more complex than one terrorist group," Lumine corrected.
"But they're mostly mavericks. It's not hurting humans if I tug out their motor relays," Bass reasoned. Everyone else in the room immediately grimaced. "What? It's not killing them. Just pour antivirus on their brains and give them new bodies in your stupid Recycling Program. If you'd let me destroy Heaven's Army two years ago, you wouldn't have any of these problems. I can do it! Just let me out of here and I will pull Heaven's Army down to Earth and crush them under my feet!"
"Heaven's Army will s—" X swallowed, then exited his throne to grab a glass of water from a nearby decanter. After one swallow and with the delicate liquid still in his hand, he continued speaking with a whithering look toward Bass. "Soon be taken care of. I have plans."
"Yeah well," Bass spoke up. Rock clapped a hand over his mouth and spoke louder.
"You don't have to have plans alone," Rock said. "You can rely on your Four Guardians, and us, your family."
Glass shattered on the floor. Rock saw the cup slip. Bass saw X throw it.
"The Four Guardians are useless!" X yelled.
"X! Are you all right?" Rock rushed over and immediately began brushing up the slivers of glass with his vest. With the bulky ceremonial garment off him, he looked younger than ever when compared to his little brother.
Little Brother X put his hand to his head again and ambled back to his throne. As soon as he sat down, holographic displays of Neo Arcadia's maintenance popped up again to remind him of all the responsibilities that were ageing him by decades a day. Junk Man came over with his vacuum to help clean up the mess. Holding Rock's shoulder as a gentle encouragement, he freed Rock from the task. Rock followed X back to the throne, sucking in the worry from the blue lit screens into his eyes. X hated seeing him like that because it meant the Moon would only make things more complicated, as usual.
"X, please, trust us. We'll help you with the energy crisis, and if we can, we'll heal the damage caused by Heaven's Army too," Rock said. He wanted to touch his brother. He wanted to run up and hug X like he used to, even during the ELF wars. He looked so tired. That's why he needed a hug, and that was why he didn't want one. Rock knew X always held himself up to an inhumanly high standard that not even a reploid could reach. He took punishment for other people to absolve them of their sins with his own suffering. That was a habit he'd learned from Zero. Rock wished he hadn't.
"This is an aid mission," X said. He looked at the group awkwardly standing in a semicircle. They were trying not to focus their attention too much on Junk Man. Lumine was holding Bass decisively by the arm. Dr. Light, the man who was supposed to be his father, looked unhappy. Well, everyone was unhappy. X was the unhappiest of all. But he wouldn't be for long. "All here?"
"All here?" Lumine echoed, perhaps to process the statement. "Yes, we brought the personnel and supplies you requested."
"We just want to help," Rock reïterated.
"Dive Man has come to repair plumbing systems," Lumine began explaining, "and to conduct underwater salvage. Junk Man will assist in land salvage and construction. Wood Man has brought breeding populations to reëstablish species and will evaluate the population density in Neo Arcadia. Dr. Light has come at your request, I assume because of his expertise in your systems or in preliminary ELF construction. Turbo Man and our Trucker Joe will help with the reconstruction efforts once they return."
"R-return?" X was rightly confused. His gaze immediately fixated on the last person present, the one who hadn't yet been introduced. X remembered him bowing deeply and with a flourish, saying his name at the same time as Light. X didn't recognise him one bit. Some auburn redhead with a big nose and too much time spent on flyaway hair and supposedly subtle makeup.
"Wily's going to help you find Zero!" Rock said excitedly, hopping in place. This would surely be great news to share. "I mean, Dr. Wily," he corrected himself.
The gaudy man laughed. "I've accepted my losses, you know," that man, Dr. Wily, said. He had some sort of Eastern European accent between Hollywood Draculas and Tommy Wiseau. Considering reploids worked on voice banks, it had to be carefully affected, which was not endearing to X.
"What do y-you mean?" X asked.
"I created him," Wily said, hand over his heart, "to kill you, naturally. All part of that old joke between Tom and I." Wily put a hand on Light's shoulder but the other doctor shot it with a gunshot of a dirty look. The hand recoiled and then curled behind Wily's back without missing a beat. "Well, it all worked out for the best, didn't it? You invited me to your wedding."
"I don't q-quite remember." X tripped over the memory, taxing his memory banks.
"They were married before," Rock said, gently correcting the doctor with a smile. "They came to my wedding."
"Oh, that's right," Wily agreed. It had been a very long time ago. "You fought with me over who would carry the bridal crown, remember?"
"N-no," X said. The entire thing was coming up as a blank. He steeled his face and sat straight in his chair. "But I don't n-need you to find Zero. He's a-a-a— already here."
"X, are you drunk?" Wily asked point blank.
"Albert!" Light shouted, mortified.
"No!" X shouted, offended.
"You sound drunk," Wily said in a high voice, defending his question.
Rock, white faced, rushed past Bass to face the true embarrassment of the meeting and tug on his sleeve. "Papa, why did you—"
"I'm n-n-not drunk!" X stood angrily, then stomped behind his throne to one of the columns behind it. The column swivelled in on itself to reveal a secret passage. X shouted into it. "Zero!"
As if specially engineered to make an entrance, Zero emerged from the dark corridor one flash of gold at a time. He was faintly smiling, and his hair recently brushed. The thin fabrics of his body suit barely constrained his limbs, and his vest and shorts only seemed to cage him. Suited to Neo Arcadia's tastes, he looked more feral than the day he was awoken untrained.
Zero walked to X's side. X smiled in triumph. X pointed to the lunar reploids. Zero assessed them, scanning for their weaknesses. Bass and Lumine met the probe with equal hostility hardening their eyes. They couldn't feel anyone else stiffen. Where they'd been unsure before, they now agreed with Wily: something was wrong.
"Zero," X said to present the reploid. "I have him. He's b—" X grimaced. "He's been fighting Heaven's Army."
"He's alive?" Dr. Light asked, overjoyed.
"Welcome back!" Wood Man added.
"Oh, X, I'm so happy for you," Light said, stepping closer. "You— We thought he was gone! He didn't abandon you. He could never have." Although he had never known the particulars of Zero's disappearance, Light's bearded smile forgave everything.
"He's nev-e-never leaving again," X said proudly, taking Zero's hand in his.
"Where were you, Zero?" Rock asked.
"The enemy shut me away in a complex in Siberia. Harpuia knew about it for a long time, but did not tell X," Zero said, relishing the final words. Zero and X looked at each other with clear passion.
"That is why he's been demoted," X finished the thought for Zero. Their gaze smouldered until nothing was left but ash that Zero licked off his lips. "Now that I have Zero, we c-can finally end this war."
"When can we start work?" Dive Man asked with a fake cough. The room was clogging up like hot, stale oil and he didn't want to spend another moment in it.
"Your sleeping arrangements should be the same as your last visit," X said. "If you start work now, you'll awake humans. We can start in the morning. I have to introduce you to your partner on our project, Dr. Light."
"Oh, please, X," Light admonished, searching to hear X call him father. Wily walked between them.
"He's not a child, Tom," Wily said, but not unkindly. He even smiled, and kept the affable expression as he turned to Zero and X. "And nor are you, mein Rheingold."
Wily waited, eyebrows arching slightly behind the bangs he'd combed into a W. Zero translated the term, didn't recognise it as an endearment, and then figured it was another peculiarity of the scientist.
"Right. I'm not," Zero said. His programming and life experience informed him that Wily had probably been telling a joke. So he smiled and put on a light tone. "And we're not drunk either."
"Oh, that's good to know," Wily said as if it were an afterthought. "Dr. Light would be happy to recalibrate your vocaliser when you find the time, X."
"That won't be n-necessar-ry," X declared. His hand tightened on Zero's.
"Ah, well, I'm not your father. I have no say in it." Wily raised his palms in defeat and walked away. His shoulder bumped very slowly into Light's as he passed. "Let's make ourselves scare. Those two know-it-alls have adult things to do without our help."
"I'll remind you that you're here as a guest, Dr. Wily," X said loudly.
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your hospitality." Wily turned to bow again. Then he tapped at Dr. Light's back before heading to the exit. "Come, Tom, we have adult things to do too."
"We do?" Light asked, flustered.
"Of course: we're back on Earth! Think of all the taxes." Finding he wasn't being followed, Wily swivelled on his heel to beckon Light with his fingers.
Sensing it was time to go, Dive Man and Wood Man bowed before leaving. Junk Man saluted. Light scratched at his black-brown nylon hair. What a reunion.
"Do you remember the way to the guest rooms?" Light called after the Robot Masters.
"I do," Lumine said. "Shall I lead Bass there?"
"I can go myself," Bass growled, finally pulling his arm out of Lumine's light hold.
"Go with him or he'll escape," Wily ordered. Lumine nodded and stuck to Bass like glue as they left.
"Won't you go with them?" X asked Rock when Bass and Lumine were out of sight.
"They know the way," Rock said.
"You're married. You should go to-g-gether."
"You're my only brother. I haven't seen you in years. I see them every day." Rock stepped closer to X expectantly. "What have you been up to? Did you go on another honeymoon with Zero like you said you would? How did your agricultural reform pan out? Did you finish any more of those zen doodles? Zoodles?"
"Zentangles? No. I haven't done any in years."
"You showed me the scrapbook that you did during the war last time and I thought..." Rock swallowed the rest of his words. X looked confused. This probably wasn't a great time to talk about hobbies. But it should have been. He should have been dragging X by the hand to show off his own sketchbook. He should have been braiding Zero's hair. They should have been sitting under real trees and talking about legal reform like friends. They should have been sad only when visiting Axl's grave. There were fewer real trees in Neo Arcadia because of the bombings and street violence. He could see that from the window. "I'm sorry."
"It was a s-stupid pastime any way." X had turned his body slightly, presenting a slice of his shoulder to dominate Rock's view.
Zero looked between the two brothers and the two doctors with frantically bobbing black eyes. Rock looked stricken, Light was definitively uncomfortable, and Wily had his arms crossed impatiently by the door to cover up a much more calculating glower. X was cold. The sense of unease that had been fermenting in the room finally reached him. He'd tried to ignore it. But it had been curdling inside of him too. Now Rock was confirming things for him. He had his outside observer.
"I only recently came back," Zero said. He placed a hand on Rock's head, the way he always would, but failed to ruffle the dark brown hair. He was as tired as everyone else. Yet the touch jumpstarted subprocesses in Rock, immediately comforting him. Zero smiled without malice. "I was in pretty bad shape, too. And X is a damn worrywort."
"Zero," X muttered un the edge of embarrassment.
"You are," Zero emphasised. His hand travelled from Rock's head to X's shoulder, poised to drop down the powerful reploid's back. "And it's my fault for going right out to fight Heaven's Army, right?"
X sighed. His hands fidgeted at his cassock.
"You and Rock would do the same thing," Zero said. "Saving the world must be a family flaw."
"It's not a flaw," Rock said happily. This discussion was so much more normal. It made sense now that X would be so upset about everything if he'd just gotten Zero back and they had to put their lives on the line again. It was the story of their life, but that didn't make it any easier.
"Your greatest strength. Yeah," Zero agreed with a smirk. Then his heavy hand really did mess up Rock's hair. "It's past your bedtime, pipsqueak."
"I'm older than you," Rock complained but couldn't dredge up any actual annoyance to overcome his smile.
"Unless some mavericks attack right now, X and I need to go to bed too."
"Okay." It was a bit early, but Rock agreed to Zero's assessment. He and X had to be so much more sleepy after a war than Rock was after a shuttle ride. "I'll see you in the morning."
Rock paused. He considered it. He rushed X and threw his arms around his little brother. His little brown head smooshed into the soft blue cloth of X's shoulder. He couldn't control the feeling any longer, so he said it out loud : "I missed you, lil' brother."
"I m-missed you too," X said. "And you too, father."
Upon hearing his proper name from X, Dr. Light surged onto the hug, trapping X between his giant loving body and Rock's tiny tenacious affections.
"I'm so proud of you, X," Light said. "Never forget that."
"I d-do n-need to go to my bed— bedroom," X choked out between the double reploid hugs.
"See, I told you he had adult things to do," Wily snarked from the doorway. "Come here, Tom, and let them have some privacy. Rock." Wily gestured with his fingers, snapped them twice, and then used his entire arm when the X hug stayed solid.
Rock and Light managed to pry themselves off of the target of their affection. As they walked back to join Wily with nothing but bright smiles, Wily caught Zero's eye. Those black eyes were unreadable. Zero's lips parted, words bundled up behind his ceramic teeth. None of them could escape. Wily led Rock and Light out the door.
The Four Guardians hadn't stuck around to listen, although Wily was certain that a scan would reveal the phantom nearby. It took him twenty footsteps to remember that he had that power now. He strained his ears and eyes. There was nothing. A microphone was picking up everything back in the throne room, but down the dark and empty hallway, there was nothing. The radio silence was far more foreboding than the tiny orange lights that held the hall on the brink of total darkness.
"Rock, could you scan for bugs?" Wily asked in a soft but unobtrusive voice.
"Hm? Why?" Rock asked as they rounded the first corner on the way to the guest quarters.
"Because I hate eavesdroppers. There's nothing more rude than having your evil plans spoiled."
"Such a brash admission," Lumine said. Rock looked way from Wily, startled. Lumine was standing against the wall with Bass. Lumine melted out of the shadowed lavender that camouflaged him. "Are you so soon to be up to no good?"
"I'm up to here already." Wily mimed a cut across his throat. "This whole place is so flooded with trouble the rats are swimming to safety. So scan."
"I already did," Lumine said. "The palace has abysmal radio security. You can teleport through the entire complex after cracking a six digit code. No one is monitoring everything even though there's a central intelligence room. I am currently cracking it."
"Good, please continue." Wily nodded then continued down the hall, pulling Light with him once he saw the taller man's confusion.
"No, stop," Light ordered. Lumine responded to them both with the silence that translated to insubordination ; neither of them was in any position to order him. Light rubbed back his aged pompadour and sighed. "This isn't our city. And we don't need to read X's diary, if that's what you're thinking."
"Sunday, March 4th: I'm deeply in love with Zero. No, of course I don't care about his diary, Tom."
"What on Earth is the matter, Al?"
"Mein Rheingold is a safety switch that I programmed into Zero's auditory processing array. It's separate from the ear itself, in the base life functions block," Wily explained. "Bass, come here."
Bass stayed in place.
"Come here, mein Dachsrüde."
"Ja, Vater," Bass responded then snapped. "Oh, GOD DAMMIT."
"That's how it works," Wily explains. "It's a tamper safeguard."
"Why did he get the cool word?" Bass complained, but no one was really listening.
"When they hear the switch phrase, they respond by calling me- or anyone else -father. Zero did not."
Rock gasped : "An imposter?"
"No, I think I could discern that, even at my age. It seems to be the same Zero, since we saw him during the ELF was, but— I said come here." Wily grabbed Bass by the head fin.
"And I said god dammit," Bass growled.
"I'm trying to demonstrate a part of your unique Wilybot anatomy," Wily said, tapping on the back of Bass' head. "Open. Kneel. Rock, a light?"
"Allow me," Lumine said. He smoothly slid his vest around Rock's tiny, chilly shoulders, then pulled down the zipper of his undersuit. The lights behind his chest crystals turned on brightly.
The inside of Bass' cranial circuitry came into clear focus. Wily quickly detached two decorative clips from his vest and used them like chopsticks to remove a circuit board in Bass' array. Bass found himself unsupportably unable to move. His vocaliser began emitting very loud noises even though his lips and tongue could not modulate them into words.
"If you keep that up, I'll disable your vocaliser as well," Wily warned. Bass fell silent. Using one clip as a pointer, Wily continued his explanation. "So here's my theory, or the beginnings of one. This is the audial processing centre. As you can see, it's all part of black box #2. The cognitive functions are very well protected. This larger array controls motor functions. I can slip any part out of it as I've done. Though the cranial casing and regular clamp servos keep it all locked in place when not in diagnostic mode, of course. But here is the problem. The solid state drives, up here, are 'loose' like the motor relays, with separate shelves. Now in Zero, I put the audio processor in black box #3. I didn't expect that I would be around much longer." Wily inclined his head and hand toward Dr. Light. "Until Thomas came up with his brilliant programming solution of course. A thief gives his due. All so. I put the switch in black box #3 because I did not suppose I would need it as much as I'd feared with Bass. But black box #3, right here in Bass, is loose as well. Along with other sensors, I wanted Zero's self diagnostics to update. So we reach this probability: while upgrading Zero, someone has removed or reprogrammed his black box #3."
"Why would anyone do that?" Rock asked.
"I have very little idea. It does nothing to curb his fighting abilities. His basic audio sensors still work off of black box #1. Removing black box #3 would make him easier to reprogram, and it would open up the cranial space, in a very crude way, to his adaptive motors and the leftovers of the Treble Boost system. Mmm." Wily stroked where his moustache used to be. Nothing there any more. No need to grow anything on his lip to make up for losing it on his head. Ah, but then... "If someone were to modify an exo-armour, like the Treble Boost, using its pathways: that could work. Perhaps even for remote control."
"That's horrible!" Rock exclaimed. "Who would do that? Was it Red Alert?"
"Red Alert?" Wily's hawkish nose scrunched up. Lumine's eyes widened. The cover up. Wily replaced Bass' parts and slapped his helmet shut. "No, no, Rock, they didn't do this. No one has a reason to do this. It makes absolutely no sense."
"Couldn't someone like you reprogram him for sinister purposes?" Lumine asked.
"They could. But very few people are like me," Wily said with a smile as he snapped the pieces of Bass back into place.
"How comforting," Lumine quipped.
"So is Zero sick?" Rock asked, holding Lumine's vest around him like a blanket.
"Well as your daddy would say, the boy ain't right," Wily said.
"You didn't need to tell me that," Bass said, standing back up. He punched Wily in the stomach with a crack of thunder. The reploid body crumpled over, Wily forcing wheezing moans out of his vocaliser. Bass was not taken in by the show.
"Bass!" Rock yelled. "What did you do that for?"
"He's made of metal now. He can take it," Bass said. Wily muttered impolitely in German. Light knelt down to help the doctor up, supporting the slighter body with his own solid metal mass.
"Using force to assert your dominance is very juvenile, Bass," Light said, his thick dark brows drawn down in a rare pique.
"And even if you were trying to say 'I love you,' only Lumine and I understand punching. Daddy and Papa aren't fluent in punching," Rock tried explaining.
"Maybe I need to talk louder?" Bass suggested while forming two fists and looking very suggestively at Wily's sagging body.
"Now you're just being wilfully obtuse," Lumine said with disapproval in his voice and long stride. He walked briskly to Bass, grabbed him by the fin, and continued walking down the hallway with Bass in tow and absolutely no intention of letting go. His grip was impressive. Bass' whining to be let go was less so. "I directed the robot masters to the second suite in the cross hallway. The doctors should take the first, and Rock and I will take the third."
"I'm sorry Bass punched you," Rock said to Wily with genuine concern.
"It will be fine," Wily groaned.
"It won't if he keeps doing that," Light said while supporting Wily as they limped slowly down the hallway. "What's gotten into him?"
"Sibling rivalry," Wily said with a sardonic hint of deprecation. "He never liked Zero. It's rather my fault."
"Oh no, Dr. Wily's sick too!" Rock moaned with a sad quiver in his voice.
Light put a hand over Wily's forehead out of habit. Wily looked at Rock with confusion. This morphed into a stunned silence as Rock kept looking at him with concern in his giant liquid blue eyes framed by the foamy lilac of Lumine's tall vest collar. Then Wily smiled. Then he snickered. Rock snickered too.
"I rubbed off on you after all," Wily said approvingly while ruffling the grown bot's hair. Like father like son.