Alia

"I'll try to develop a program resistant to corruption and all viruses. ... Gate and I both longed for this."

- Alia

Alia (エイリア) is a character of the Mega Man X series. She is a Reploid that works as an Operator, Navigator, and Computer Specialist of the Maverick Hunters and, like Douglas and Signas, first appeared in Mega Man X5. She briefs X, Zero, Axl and other Hunters about their missions and guides them through the areas, giving information about the objectives, recent developments, and spotted Mavericks. She also manages the transfer actions at Hunter Base. In Mega Man X8, she can be unlocked as a secret playable character, like her two Navigator comrades, Layer and Pallette, imitating the style and moves of X, though she is limited by the fact that she cannot use Armor Parts. Before working for the Hunters, Alia was part of a team of Reploid Research scientists and was close to her colleague, Gate.

Appearance
Alia appears as an adult female Reploid with blond hair and blue eyes. She has the standard Reploid armor design with an orange and white color scheme with the addition of a transceiver headset.

Personality
Alia is a very dutiful character. She tries to set her personal feelings and concerns aside (especially during the Nightmare Incident) to carry out her work for the sake of everyone. She cares deeply for the members of her team and does her best to guide them through their missions without them being harmed. Alia rarely shows any weaknesses, but the Nightmare Incident revealed a deeper, more emotional part of her personality, where she blames herself for Gate's reasons for becoming a Maverick and trying to wipe out all low-level Reploids to create a new nation under his ideal. Due to her past emotional confrontations and her scientific nature, Alia is a realist, claiming she does not believe in "miracles."

As a former Researcher, Alia is highly intelligent, possessing both advanced engineering and analytical skills. She is able to compile and construct new Armors when in possession of the necessary data provided by Dr. Light's holograms, and has even managed to reconstruct damaged Armors, although to date none of her reconstructions have ever been 100% complete.

Researcher days
Before joining the Maverick Hunter forces, Alia used to work at a research lab analyzing the potential of Reploid engineering. She also used to have longer hair during that time (which she restored to its original length in Mega Man X8). One of her colleagues was Gate, who was believed that Alia held feelings for. Gate, who was obsessed with the unanalyzable DNA of X and Zero, devoted all his time and power into creating Reploids with DNA that had similar attributes. Eventually, he succeeded and was praised immensely, but unfortunately this also created jealousy and contempt between him and his colleagues. Though she regretted it afterwards, Alia was drawn into the conspiracy of the other researchers sabotaging Gate's creations, either by trapping and destroying them during their missions or having them declared Maverick for dubious reasons. She was directly involved in the destruction of Blizzard Wolfang and Gate's business acquaintance Ground Scaravich; but was forced to do so in both cases much to her chagrin. After Gate left full of hatred and bitterness, she decided to start all over again herself, becoming a member of the Maverick Hunters.

Mega Man X5
Alia made her debut in the X series as X and Zero's navigator. While she played no crucial role in the plot aside from aiding in level navigation, she does talk a bit in the ending where Zero went Maverick and X's memories of him were erased, commented on her doubts of X's return as a miracle and believing something to be behind it.

Mega Man X6
Alia's character was greatly expanded in Mega Man X6. Gate, her former colleague, obtained a piece of Zero's remains and had analyzed it, creating the Nightmare Virus, as well as the Reploid High-Max and the Zero Nightmare, a purple copy of Zero which was blamed by Gate as the source of the Nightmare, and started a made-up campaign against Zero to become a new hero for the people and Reploids. While X (and the later recovered, original Zero) investigated the areas and defeated the Nightmare Investigators, Reploids resurrected by Gate to analyze the Nightmare, Alia revealed to the Hunters that she used to work together with Gate in a Research Team and was part of a conspiracy to sabotage his Reploids, which had now been revived by the Nightmare Virus. Blaming herself for Gate's bitterness, she tried to convince him to surrender and stop his plans of creating a new nation for only top-level Reploids before he ended up himself being killed.

Although she tried her best, Gate didn't listen and fought X and Zero, ending up being defeated by them and damaged beyond repair by a revived Sigma. She was given a choice by X who had dragged Gate's remains out of his destroyed lab whether to try to repair him or not. What exactly became of Gate afterwards was never revealed.

Mega Man X7
Alia also assisted during the events of Red Alert by adding in stage navigation like before. She did not have a major impact on the plot like before, but she did show up in all three endings. She contacted Zero in his ending to wake him up and appeared in X and Axl's endings to discuss Axl's progress.

Mega Man X8
Like all other characters, Alia experienced a major design change in Mega Man X8. Like the others, Alia's appearance was thinned, removing all her bulkier body armor parts and exchanging them for some more slender ones. Apparently, she also decided to let her hair down again, like it used to be during her days as a researcher. Furthermore, though less noteworthy, her bust size was increased most likely for fanservice, as well as have her 'breasts' appear more round and moved closer together to look more human-like than robotic.

In the game's plot, Alia did her usual work supporting the Hunters with information about the stage layout, the upcoming bosses and eventually about Reploids which had a DNA core suitable enough for Axl to transform. She also analyzed the New Generation Reploids' source of viral immunity - their Copy Chip - and also revealed that the DNA of the New Generation Reploids resembled that of Sigma. She also located Sigma's base on the moon. Her final appearance in the game, although off-screen, was her call for X and the others after they had taken out Lumine.

As a hidden goodie, Alia can be unlocked as a playable character after completing the game once, using Alia as the player's Navigator at least two times more than Layer or Pallette. Alia's movesets and abilities were modeled after those of X, being able to charge her Buster for more powerful attacks and receiving the same Special Weapons from defeated Mavericks as X can. However, she was unable to charge up the gained weapons. Also, like with all other characters, her stats and abilities could be upgraded by finding Rare Metals and researching them. Though copying X's style, Alia, like the other two Navigators, received no pre-boss battle dialogue with the Mavericks when selected as part of the team.

The Elf War and Neo Arcadia era
Like most of the X series characters, Alia's ultimate fate is unknown. There is no information available whether or not she lived to see the end of the Maverick War or was killed/retired at some point or became a Maverick during the Elf War by the powers of the Dark Elf and the Baby Elves. In case she survived both conflicts, she may possibly have continued her duty as an Operator for the Neo Arcadian forces (as a form of Maverick Hunters still exist there) or may also have retired from active duty. Capcom has yet to reveal what happened to her.

Archie Comics
Despite the fact that the Archie Comics Mega Man series has yet to adapt a single game of the Mega Man X series, Alia appears on the cover of Sonic Boom Issue 8 alongside Signas and Sticks the Badger in the Worlds Unite crossover (despite the fact that neither and Signas are nowhere to be seen in the crossover). X also mentioned her in Sonic Universe Issue 77.

Mega Man X6
After collecting 3000 nightmare souls

Alia: I found out what the Nightmare is... The Nightmare is an artificial virus. It infects Reploids and rewrites their DNA and AI programs, immobilizing them. At worst, even their appearance changes. We don't know exactly as our analysis is not yet complete... But it is very similar to the Mavericks.

X: Yeah...It's almost the same.

Alia: But I'll tell you the real threat of the Nightmare. The Nightmare phenomena... An infected Reploid gets out of order... By inputting certain code, in fact, you can manipulate the Reploid freely. The real purpose of the Nightmare is... not to ruin Reploids, but to control Reploids... Finally: When the virus rewrites his system, the Reploid sometimes dies. A normal virus dies with its host. The Nightmare is so strong, the virus can survive after the Reploid dies. On the other hand, we don't need a special vaccine to damage it, since the energy is so strong. Deleting them may be easier than Sigma...

X: Who is doing this...?

Alia: To create such an advanced virus... He is the only one... The one... who was my colleague... Gate... The investigators... Some look different, but those eight Reploids were created by Gate. They should have been in use somewhere else since they are very able Reploids... Thinking of the Nightmare program, he is the only one capable of this.

X: ...Why is Gate doing this?

Alia: When he and I worked for the Reploids Research Team... All his Reploids were super. His program was too advanced to analyze. The Reploids made remarkable progress. But that started to become dangerous. Then some Reploids began to take needless risks. Gate's reputation started to falter. But he continued creating more advanced Reploids so that he would get recognition for his ability. Of course, it was against our boss. One day, making it look like an accident, the Reploids were disposed of. It was our boss' orders. But I participated...

X: Were they really dangerous?

Alia: No, not really. But his program was just too advanced. There were too much that could not be analyzed by us.

X: Is that all?...It's the same as me.

Alia: I hesitate to say this... He also aimed to make the strongest Reploids. Zero and X... He wanted you. He believed that the ultimate Reploid can never be analyzed... so he strived. So his program advanced to the point where no one could analyze it. He was much smarter than me... but I got ahead as I followed orders. Nobody gave him the proper recognition. Then he got isolated, and left saying this: I'll get revenge on all low Reploids who couldn't appreciate my ability! Building an ideal nation with high-end Reploids only. That was his ambition... The Nightmare is that very revenge on those who didn't appreciate him! It is the embodiment of his "hatred"!

X: I'll stop such an ambition. I won't accept no more sacrifice of Reploids! He must know the current situation. Mankind, Reploid and the Earth are in danger.

Alia: Yes. Stop Gate's plan at once. Gate must delete the Nightmare.

X: All right. Let's find Gate!

Production Notes
Developer Comments By popular demand(?) of the staff in previous games, female characters first showed up in the X series. Personally, I don't feel it's all that necessary, since these are titles aimed at kids. However, I felt the real problem was, could a female make cool decisions? So I settled on the result of a female navigator. Aeria was another design that was hard going. We went through any number of bad ones, for which I apologize, to make sure she was a denizen of RockMan DASH and matched with the X universe.

Trivia

 * Along with Layer and Pallette, Alia is the first female playable character in a main series Mega Man game.
 * In keeping with the musical theme of naming characters in the Mega Man universe, Alia's name is most likely a play on the word "Aria," which refers to a solo performance in an opera.
 * Some fans speculate that Alia may be based on Roll. As a support and navigation character, Alia does seem to at least serve as Roll's equivalent in the Mega Man X canon.
 * In X8, because of her being parallel to X in gameplay function, Alia is the first female character to have the Variable Weapons System.
 * In X's ending in Mega Man X6, Alia mentions having plans of working on an antibody program that will delete the Maverick Virus for good.
 * Alia makes an appearance in Zero's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, marking her first appearance since Mega Man X8.
 * Alia is the only known Reploid that has changed her hairstyle.
 * Alia is the only character featured in Mega Man X8 to retain her redesign from the game in subsequently released illustrations and guest appearances. X, Zero, Axl and Signas, who all received redesigns ranging from heavy to minor, have reverted to their pre-X8 designs.
 * In Mega Man X7, Alia was voiced by Rumiko Varnes.  Curiously, Varnes also voiced Elfie in Blaster Master: Blasting Again, who also served as a navigator for the main character and had a habit of interrupting the player's game with unwanted information.