[Between the gaps in the trembling and calloused 
fingers that cradle his heavy head, Light watches the 
mob of cowards carry Protoman's scarred helmet -- all 
that was left of the Man Machine who would have been 
their savior. As the crowd marches somberly back -- 
some to their homes, some to the makeshift grave where 
Protoman's helmet would remain, all to slavery -- Light 
notices a tear streaming down the dorsum of his hand 
and feels a breathtaking weight in his chest. What is 
this? Frustration? Humiliation? Hatred? Certainly, 
these are there too. But no, this is more than that. 
These emotions are his life. He has lived with them for 
so long that they no longer affect him. Over the years 
he has learned to fight them, then ignore them, and 
finally channel them into his work, his creation, his 
machine, his son.

So that was it. The source of tears and the pain that 
caused them. This time he had built more than a 
machine. He had sent more than a robot to battle. He 
had sent a man, his own son, to do the impossible, to 
save those who could not be saved, to die.

him. No more, he thought, as he tore down the tools and 
parts that framed his apartment workshop. Never again. 
"Mankind deserves the hell that they have brought upon 
themselves" He smashed and cut, metal against metal, 
metal against flesh, in an effort to destroy his own 
means of creation. He allowed the tears to pour from 
his cheeks and mingle with the blood seeping from the 
cuts in his torn and battered hands. He had set out to 
use these hands to destroy his workshop but he now 
watched as they seemed to be creating of their own 
accord. Pieces of machine from the floor were seized 
and fused. They began to take form - the form of 
Light's anger, the form of his guilt, the form of his 
grief, the form of his love, the form of a son.

Years passed. Nothing changed. The human race seemed 
weary but content to suffer under Dr. Wily and the 
robot army. In whispers, they still spoke of Protoman. 
Eventually, Megaman would find out the truth. Dr. Light 
knew this.

When Megaman was old enough, Light called him into the 
workshop and began to explain...]