This fic is old. Really old. XD It's also one of my first one-shots featuring Quint. I found it sitting in the folder for my Mega Man Quint series, so I figured, "Why not?" I edited it to the best of my ability, but since I didn't want to add anything do to writing style changes or rewrite it, it won't be up to par to some of my other fics.
"Ah ha! Got it!" Rockman shouted triumphantly as he held up the elusive CD that Rush had dug up. Ever since Dr. Light had realized there were still some missing CDs in the various areas the Robot Masters had taken over, Rockman had taken it upon himself to recover all of the ones that he and Forte had missed (there was no use asking Forte; the latter had run back to Dr. Wily). The CD that Rock had just found had been buried near a train in MagicMan's stage.
"Least I didn't miss the train," Rock quipped as he hopped back down onto the train. "Hey Roll, are there anymore CDs in this area?"
"Let's see here…" Roll checked her equipment back at the lab. "Nope, that's the last one there. You can come back now."
"Alright!" Rockman said as he teleported out of the amusement park and back to the lab. But unfortunately, Dr. Light wasn't in the lab.
Rock glanced over the CD as he sat on a chair, waiting for Dr. Light to come back. For some time now, he had been reading the various CDs he had picked up, since they contained information about the Robot Masters. For example, Rock had had no idea that ElecMan had liked to play the guitar, or that MetalMan was afraid of dogs, or that SparkMan became really depressed if lonely. Rock had felt kind of bad when he realized that Rush really hated transforming into different things, and that Beat thought he was heavy.
As he flipped the CD over, he noticed the name on it. "Quint," he said out loud. He thought for a second. He really didn't know much about that mysterious green robot from the future that Dr. Wily had kidnapped. Quint had betrayed Wily in the end, and was now living in Dr. Light's lab, and while Rock liked him, he was just like Blues – he didn't reveal anything about himself.
Rockman knew a bit about Quint's personality, and that was it. The green robot sometimes worked as a fortune-teller in a shop, where eerily enough, a few of his predictions had come true. Also, Quint was taking a summer archaeology course at the local university, and enjoyed the excavations that the group went on. But he really didn't know WHO Quint was, why he hated Dr. Wily so much, and why he was so secretive about his past.
With that in his mind, Rock was seriously considering reading the CD, if only to satisfy his curiosity. Just as he was about to stand up and place the CD in a hard drive, Dr. Light entered. "Ah, Rock," the good-natured scientist said. "You have some CDs?"
Almost reluctantly, Rockman handed over the CD. "Yeah, it's Quint's."
Dr. Light blinked slightly, but when he saw that the CD had not been opened, he relaxed. The scientist was one of the few that knew Quint's secret (besides Dr. Wily and Blues), and he hadn't wanted the whole world to know. "Speaking of Quint, he just got back from the city. He just loves that fortune-telling business, isn't he?"
"Well, he's saving up to see if he can buy parts to build a time machine," Rock clarified. "He confessed a few times that he's feeling homesick, even if he doesn't really remember it too well."
Dr. Light nodded sadly. "That poor boy. What Wily did to him was cruel. I would buy him the parts and build it for him, but I know he wouldn't be happy if I did – he doesn't want to make me do something he could do himself. Anyways, I'd better got put the CD up…"
Rock nodded and left the lab. As he headed up the stairs and towards his room, he nearly crashed into another person. Stumbling backwards in his haste, he was steadied as another hand reached out and grabbed him. Sheepishly, Rockman glanced at the person who he had nearly hit. "Sorry about that, Quint."
The green robot, at the moment, was still in his street clothes, but Rock could easily tell who it was. Rock had never really seen Quint in his street clothes, but now that he got a good look at the other, he supposed that Quint's taste in clothes wasn't bad. He was wearing black slacks, with a yellow T-shirt and a green windbreaker over it. His belt consisted of a black strap with a green buckle that contained a yellow V, the same as his helmet design. The green hat on his head obscured his black hair a bit, and he was wearing a pair of squarish black glasses over his blue eyes.
"That's okay," the other said. "Where were you? Dr. Light said you were out somewhere…"
"Oh yeah, I was in the amusement park MagicMan took over, picking up the CDs that I hadn't found. I found only two that I had missed – yours and TurboMan's."
"Mine?" Quint said quietly, almost as if surprised, his eyes boring into Rock's own pair of blue eyes. Rock took off his helmet and brushed a hand through his messy black hair.
"Well, yeah."
"Did you read it?"
Rock blinked, caught off-guard. "Sorry?"
"Did you read my CD?"
The blue robot shook his head, internally chastising himself for even having the urge to read it. "Nope. Your CD hadn't even been opened the whole time it had been stolen."
Quint relaxed the shoulders that he hadn't realized that he had stiffened as a smile lit his face. Beaming, he hugged Rock before letting go of him. "Good! See you, Rockman." He walked off past Rock and down the stairs.
Rock stood there for a few seconds, before shouting down at Quint. "I've told you a million times! You can call me Rock!" he shouted, but Quint didn't respond. Rock dashed down the stairs, but he couldn't see the green robot anywhere. "Agh! You're as bad as Blues!"
"Who's as bad as me?"
Rock whirled. "Blues!" The younger robot relaxed when he saw his red-clad brother. "Are you sure that Quint isn't some weird future version of you? He acts just like you!"
The red robot shrugged. "I'm quite positive."
Sighing, Rock replied, "Well, he really doesn't seem that way… hmm, I wonder who Quint really is…? Hey, Blues, do you know who he is?" No response. "Blues?" When Rock turned around, he noticed that Blues had disappeared. "Figures…"
Quint leaned against the wall in the kitchen, breathing heavily. That had been too close. He wasn't exactly sure how close Rockman had come to discovering what was on the CD, but it had been much too close for comfort. Sometimes, he wondered why Dr. Light had had to put the information on the CD anyways.
There was a reason he didn't want Rockman to read the information on the CD. It was bad enough that Rockman knew enough of Quint's story to be horrified at what had happened to him. Imagine how he would have felt if he realized that Quint was actually a future version of himself…
No, the knowledge that Dr. Wily had essentially ruined his life eventually would destroy Rockman. Quint still didn't know if his very presence was changing the timeline or not (how he wished he had his memories!), but he wasn't going to take the chance.
He was going to keep watch on this timeline, making sure it didn't go the way his had. He was going to make sure that Dr. Wily didn't succeed in his plans to take over the world. He was going to make sure that Dr. Wily didn't destroy Rockman's life. He was going to make sure that this version of himself didn't suffer the way that he had.
I didn't realize I made endings so corny before. -facepalm-