This one.....I hope it came out alright. There's some stuff here that's implied but not outright stated, so I hope the ideas I was intending to hint at came across OK. As always, any questions, feel free to ask.
Here we go, then. The story of
why Robo-Ky decided to rebel against DrWilyII. This is intended to be compliant with WilyPocalypse canon, if that matters.
Flashback Episode - Storms on the Horizon[spoiler]
Refurbished Wily Star, Date UnknownKy looked up from his book as the lounge door slide open with a muted
hiss, and a tired looking Zakura staggered in, collapsing heavily on the couch next to him and rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. His head ticked to the side, and his mouth-light dimmed at the corners in a rough approximation of a smile. The tinny, robotic monotone of his voice seemed to snap her out of her daze when he spoke. "Rough meeting?"
She initially responded with a tired sigh, and turned her head to meet his gaze. When she finally answered, she sounded
exhausted, and there was something flickering behind her eyes that Ky found he couldn't place. "You might say that.......would you mind if we had a serious discussion?"
Making a mental note of the page number he was on, Ky closed his book and set it down next to him. "I have time. The observation deck, then?"
Refurbished Wily Star, Observation DeckThe two sat in silence for a long time, simply staring out at the vast expanse of stars that stretched out in front of them. The deep azure globe of Planet Websitia continued to spin beneath them. Ky found he was beginning to get bored when Zakura finally spoke up again.
"Hey, Ky? Do you feel like the Doctor's changed recently?"
Ky cupped his chin, mimicking the thoughtful pose he'd seen others adopt on occasion. "I haven't noticed any distinct changes. He looks the same as always to me." - He snapped his fingers as a realisation struck him - "Oh! You meant a change in mental terms, right? I wouldn't know. Humans are such complicated creatures....."
Zakura sighed and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them in a loose hug and lowering her head. "Sometimes I envy you, you know? All that intelligence without the hassle of having emotions getting in the way......" She chuckled, though there was little genuine humour in it. "And don't try to convince me otherwise. It's plain as day that you're just trying to imitate what you've seen other people do."
Ky turned his head to look at her. "Jealous of me? That should be my line. I've always wondered what it'd be like to
feel. You're right when you said I'm just mimicking people. Mostly I'm mimicking you, though. It's still impressive to me that a human could build an AI so advanced....."
Her expression darkened, though her hair covered enough of her face to hide the fact from her companion. When she didn't respond, Ky knew he had to say something, and it took him a moment to puzzle out the best way to broach the subject he figured was bothering her. ".....Why don't you tell me what's got you so upset?"
She shivered, and it was only prior experience in dealing with her that led Ky to shift over a little closer and drape an arm around her shoulders. She leant into him and maintained her silence for another long moment before finally speaking. Her tone was.....Ky was no expert in the subject, but he assumed it was what
sadness sounded like.
"The meeting I was at......The Doctor was outlining his next attempt at taking control of the planet..." - Ky nodded in understanding. The Doctor seemed unusually driven to achieve that goal, but refused to say why - "But....he.....he didn't just want us to capture and hold places this time...." - She trailed off, grit her teeth and managed to get the important part out before she found herself unable to - "He wants a more
permanent solution to that problem." The way she stressed it left Ky with no doubt what she actually meant.
Ky froze, mind already racing as he digested that little tidbit. It was no secret that the Doctor was.....he'd heard a red-haired man in sunglasses use the term "morally ambiguous" before. Human morals were still something he had little understanding of, but the tone he'd heard it said in implied it wasn't something to take pride in. The Doctor had always pushed for control, but had issued strict orders that his forces were to subdue and contain any attempted resistance. This....was he actively ordering....?
More important was Zakura. Ky liked to think he knew her well enough to guess what was really bothering her about what she'd just said. "You don't agree with him."
She shook her head. "No. I was fine with serving him if it meant I could get stronger, and I'd be loyal anyway, programmed or not, but.....I don't want this. I don't want this at all." She raised her head a little to meet Ky's gaze. "The worst part was the way he looked at me. I think he
knows I'm not comfortable with this.....and I think he doesn't care."
Ky twitched as her earlier question came back to him. "That's what you meant when you asked me if he'd changed."
She nodded. "He's......I don't know how to phrase it.....
darker. The way he was issuing orders, it's like he expected us to follow them without complaint, and when he picked up on the fact that I was uncomfortable.....I'm scared, Ky. I can't disobey a direct order from him, but I don't want to do the things I think he wants me to...."
Ky was silent while he turned the situation over in his head. He was loyal to the Doctor, and willing to do anything he was asked to, but to force a loyal creation to act against their nature? Something about that
rankled with him, and he had no idea why he'd be so.....concerned?....about something like this. "I'll speak to him tomorrow. We've known each other a long time, and I should be able to talk him into reconsidering his plan. We should spend some time thinking of viable alternatives tonight."
She stared at him, eyes wide. Slowly, a shaky smile began to creep across her face, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I bet if we come up with a foolproof plan he'll definitely change his mind." She wrapped her arms around him in an awkward hug, relief evident in her tone. "Thanks, Ky." She stifled a giggle. "Who knows, maybe you could ask him to patch in some emotional programming for you, too?"
Ky's face wasn't capable of emoting much of anything, but she
knew he was horrified by the idea of
anyone poking around inside his head. The giggle eventually turned into full-blown laughter, and the tension in her frame slowly ebbed away. They spent the remainder of the night trading ideas while staring out at the stars.
The next morning...The chime of an incoming teleport request caused Zakura to look up from her breakfast. She shot Ky a questioning look as he strode over to the console and hit the button to allow access. Within moments, two beams of light appeared in the centre of the room, and eventually faded to reveal the forms of the newest additions to DrWilyII's forces.
Buns gave a formal bow in greeting, while boforte just scowled and folded his arms. Ky returned the gestures with a nod, while Zakura slowly rose from her place at the table and quick-stepped to Ky's side, a look of vague apprehension on her face.
Taking a half-step forward, Ky spread his arms in welcome. "boforte, Buns, to what do we owe the pleasure?"
boforte opened his mouth, but it was Buns who cut in, her tone polite if slightly detached. "Apologies for disturbing you so early in the day, General Robo-Ky, but the Doctor was concerned about Zakura's mental state after yesterday's strategy meeting, and asked us to check in on her and make sure nothing is wrong."
Zakura did her best to quell the feeling of unease that had steadily been growing since Ky had allowed the teleports to come through, and quietly, subtly, reached out over the network. In the recesses of the manufacturing facility housed on board the Wily Star, a Mini-Ky jerked into life as a file-transfer request disturbed it's routine recharge cycle.
Ky nodded at Buns' explanation. "I see. Thank you for your concern. I must ask though.....why did he send both of you? I didn't think boforte would be particularly interested in a task like this."
boforte flashed a shark-like grin at the white-haired robot. "Well damn, sis, I think he's sussed us out. Guess there's no need for all that "subtlety" crap now, right?"
Buns shook her head, but motioned for boforte to proceed anyway. Before anyone in the room could react, boforte had
somehow gotten behind Ky, forced him to his knees and planted an arm-cannon directly against the back of his neck. Zakura took a step forward to intervene, but went rigid, eyes going wide with shock as Buns' presence on the network slammed into her like a freight-train, punching clean through her defences and shutting down her motor systems.
Ky eyes flashed. "What is the meaning of this?"
Buns shot him an apologetic look while boforte's grin only got wider. "I am truly sorry for this, General, but I was not entirely truthful with you earlier. The Doctor is
indeed concerned about Zakura's mental state, but his orders were to detain her and return her to him for reprogramming. boforte is here to prevent you from interfering."
Ky actually sounded
surprised. "What?!"
It was boforte that answered this time. "Yeah, the old man thinks your little girlfriend might try and rebel against the orders she's been given, and he's not too happy with the thought that he might be betrayed like that, so he's gonna poke around in her head a little and get rid of anything he doesn't like the look of." Shifting his weight to prevent the older robot from standing, he huffed an exaggerated sigh. "Don't worry though, he gave strict orders that
you weren't to be touched. Said you were too loyal to think about anything like that and that you'd
probably go along with this. Heh, he didn't wanna take any chances though." He gave Ky an appraising look from behind his sunglasses and snorted with amusement. "Gotta say though, I'm shocked a relic like you is still considered Big 4 material. It's kinda sad how easily I took you down, element of surprise be damned. I mean, just from this little scuffle-" - he moved his arm-cannon forward, pushing Ky's head down so the robot could only look at the floor - "-I can already tell I'm faster than you, I'm stronger than you, and I'm just plain
better than you."
Buns levelled boforte with a warning glare. "That's enough boforte. General Robo-Ky is
not to be harmed, remember?" She turned to the still immobilised Zakura. "Forgive me for this, General Zakura."
At that, her grip on Zakura's mind tightened, and the Copy-Bot inwardly panicked as new barriers sprang up
inside her regular defences. She recognised the attempt to lock her personality away almost immediately, and began frantically attacking the barriers in an attempt to resist. Buns' presence only grew tighter, and Zakura's body spasmed violently as more of its host's control slipped away.
boforte laughed at the sight, and nudged the back of Ky's head with his arm-cannon. "Ooh, your girlfriend's a [i[fighter[/i], isn't she?" Ky made another attempt to stand up, and boforte pushed his body-weight forward again, knocking Ky to the ground and planting a knee into his back to prevent him from moving at all. "Nope. You stay there until we're finished."
Zakura knew she was fighting a losing battle. She hated to think of herself as out-dated, but Buns was just
too good. For every barrier she managed to destroy, another would spring up in its' place.
I can't win.....but, I'm not giving up! I'll NEVER go back to that man!Pulling herself back, she hurriedly drew up a list of subsystems she still had access to. One in particular caught her attention. Feinting towards another barrier, she instead changed her approach and lunged for the one method of escape still open to her. She was under too much pressure to devote the proper time to making sure everything was in order, but....
Forgive me, Ky....
Buns' expression was tight with concentration as she continued her attempt to bring Zakura under control. Suddenly, she flinched as though she'd been struck, and in that brief moment, Zakura vanished in a pillar of light.
Buns' eyes widened, and boforte removed himself from Ky's back, spitting a string of curses. "What the [tornado fang]!? Where'd she go? Buns! What happened?"
Buns took a moment to compose herself, mentally replaying the last few moments of her mental struggle with the Copy-Bot. Eventually, she shook her head, disappointment clear in her tone. "I got careless. I was so focused on trapping her mind that I didn't think to shut down her remote teleport unit."
boforte swore again. "I'm guessing we can't trace her, either? Damn it!" He shot a glance over to where Ky was just beginning to pick himself up. "I think we should report this to the Doctor."
Buns nodded her agreement, and the two vanished just as Ky regained his footing.
Ky stood silently for a long time while he attempted to process everything that had just happened.
What just....? boforte said something about the Doctor not wanting Zakura to rebel....they were going to reprogram her...and she's.....Striding over to a console on the far side of the room, he tapped a series of instructions in, and waited for the results of the station-wide scan to return.
She's....not aboard the station?He remained silent, unsure of what to do. Asking DrWilyII for an explanation did not seem like a smart move, but he had no idea where Zakura could have gone. He was broken from his musings when the door slid open and a Mini-Ky marched in, stopping in front of him and snapping off a quick salute.
"GENERAL_KY_SIR!"
He shook himself and looked down at the Mini-Ky. "Yes?"
The Mini-Ky ejected a small memory chip from a port on its' neck and offered it to him. "GENERAL_ZAKURA_ORDERED_THAT_THIS_BE_DELIVERED_TO_YOU_ONCE_THE_VISITORS_HAD_LEFT"
Ky accepted the drive and studied it for a moment. "Thank you. Dismissed."
The Mini-Ky gave another salute and left the room, presumably to return to its recharge bay.
Ky studied the memory chip for a minute, internally weighing up the pros and cons of the actions he was considering. Deciding that something from Zakura couldn't be a threat to him, he popped the access port on his throat and slipped the chip inside, setting his systems to download whatever was on it as soon as the connection was finalised.
He almost lost his footing as something in his mind
changed, the code-packet contained on the chip worming it's way into the deepest portions of his being, rewriting portions of code he'd never given any thought to in the past.
Slowly, he rose back up to a standing position as his mind stablised, confused as to what had just happened.
Wait....I'm confused? How can I be confused? I don't have the....He trailed off as the implications of that last thought finally hit him. The next few seconds saw him running a full system scan and then staring blankly at a piece of coding he recognised, but that
shouldn't be there.
That's.....Zakura's emotional subroutines? Did she.....Did she give me a copy of her emotional subroutines?He spent the next few minutes studying his coding. His inital thought turned out to be correct, it
was the coding that allowed Zakura (and presumably any other WilyBot that possessed it) to process emotions in a manner akin to a human. There were a few subtle tweaks to fit it in with his own, relatively archaic programming, but it seemed she'd given him something he
never thought he'd have. His thoughts turned to the conversation he'd had with her the previous night, and he shuddered as a strong surge of
warmthcomfortsafetyhappiness welled up inside him.
Is this....how I feel about her? Do I....care for her?His thoughts then turned to the events of the last half-hour. When he replayed the memory of boforte calling him a relic, then insulting Zakura, his internal temperature
skyrocketed as a white-hot flash of
disbeliefconfusionhelplessnessANGER wracked his frame. He was forced to open every single cooling vent on his body, as his newfound feelings sent his temperature soaring higher with every passing second. He had no idea how long he stood there, amidst the clouds of jet-black, ember-filled steam, but eventually he managed to suppress the rage bubbling inside him and dropped to his knees, smoking from practically every piece of exposed metal he possessed. His mind was a blur as he revisited every memory he could dredge up, just to see how he reacted to things. As he did so, he slowly began to build up a mental picture of just why things had reached this point. Staggering back to his feet, he returned to his private rooms to process everything he'd just discovered.
It was an interesting sensation, Ky mused, to be holding a debate with yourself. Slouching back in his throne, he continued to piece together all the tidbits he'd uncovered during his recent bout of emotion-driven soul-searching, his newfound ability to feel holding an intense and strangely heated argument with the cold, logical portion of himself that had previously held complete domination over his mindset. Eventually, he'd determined enough that he was able to pose himself a series of questions and then provide the answers that would allow him to decide his next move.
Why did this have to happen?The Doctor desires control. Power.To what end?World domination. An acknowledgment of his genius.The world will never accept him, or his methods.A feeling of...satisfaction?....lifted his mood as both parts of his new mindset agreed on a single course of action. The Doctor's methods would only become more extreme the more the world rejected him, and Ky held no doubt that if things were left as they were, one day
everyone that served him would be subject to the same response that led to Zakura's.....He clamped down on that train of thought before it could continue.
If the Doctor is left unchecked, so many of his followers will suffer for it. If the world is left unchecked, they will drive him to even more extreme measures. Both are at fault, and so both must be corrected. If he craves acknowledgement, he will have it. If the world refuses to acknowledge him, I will MAKE the world acknowledge him!His mouthplate lit up in a grin as a plan began to form in his mind. Rising from his throne, he headed for the teleport bay. There was a man he needed to visit.
DrWilyII swivelled round in his chair as Robo-Ky entered his office. Careful to keep his tone light, so as not to upset his General, he addressed the robot.
"Ah, Ky. I was just about to send for you. Buns and boforte reported everything to me." - He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly before meeting Ky's impassive gaze. - "For what it's worth, I am genuinely sorry for what happened with Zakura. I could simply see no other way of ensuring her loyalty." - A wry grin split his face - "I suppose that's the problem with giving robots human intelligence and emotions....they become too used to doing things their own way to ever consider another point of view...."
Ky fought back the slight twinge of guilt at what he was about to do, and had to shut off his new emotional subroutines to avoid the anger threatening to creep into his tone. "You do not need to apologise, Doctor. I will admit I am...concerned...about what happened, but you could not have predicted that she would react in such an irrational way."
DrWilyII replaced his glasses and sighed. "I suppose in hindsight, I should've handled this situation differently. I am sorry to have caused you such trouble, Ky. Is there anything I can do to reassure you that your continued loyalty is appreciated?"
Ky was silent for a moment, but internally he was laughing like a madman.
So predictable..."Actually, Doctor, I would like to request permission to be present for the awakening of the new group of Robot Masters. I am curious to see if the ideas I presented to you while you were designing them have borne fruit."
DrWilyII steepled his fingers together, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You DID play a role in helping me create them, didn't you?" - He nodded - "Very well. In fact, you can help them become acclimatised to the base and explain to them what their roles will be in my next plan. The resistance will never know what hit it!"
Ky nodded, and turned on his heel as DrWilyII dissolved into a fit of maniacal laughter. His faceplate lit up in an approximation of a calculating smirk as he left.
Neither will you, you old fool.....[/spoiler]
[spoiler]I know his face wasn't capable of expressing any kind of actual emotion back then, but Ky's expression at the very end:
Remember Kids, lying to an emotionally unstable kill-bot is a bad idea.[/spoiler]