Zero

Zero (ゼロ, Zero) is one of the three main characters of the Mega Man X series, as well as the protagonist of the Mega Man Zero series and makes an appearance as Biometal Model Z in Mega Man ZX. In the X series, he is one of the highest ranking Maverick Hunters who is fighting to stop the endless war between humans and Mavericks. He's a diehard warrior who doesn't hesitate to take action. However, behind his cold and emotionless attitude lies a wounded soul.

Origin
Zero was created by the late Dr. Albert Wily somewhen in the 21st century. His first historical appearance was in form of schematic blueprints during Bass' ending of Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters and described by Wily as his greatest masterpiece of work. Learning from his past mistakes, including the accidental creation of Bassnium and Bass, Wily constructed a new robot, far more advanced than anything he had ever built before with a power level far superior to of Bass or Mega Man. Though Wily would take time to complete Zero, the world would definately be his due to Zero's surpremancy. However, for reasons unknown, Zero was not released by his creator but instead sealed away in a capsule, initially believed to engage Dr. Light's masterpiece creation, Mega Man X, in battle in the future. Decades later, he was awakened by a group of Reploids prior to the first Mega Man X game. When he was first activated, he awoke as a Maverick and destroyed all intruders who had dared to enter Wily's lair and was later cornered by Garma's Maverick Hunter unit inside an unknown facility, however at the cost of a total loss of said unit. Not wanting to get anymore comrades endangered by the powerful enigmatic Maverick, then-Hunter Commander Sigma himself challenged Zero in a one-on-one battle. Even though Zero gained the upper hand during the battle, Sigma was able to defeat the red Maverick after taking serious damage and knocked him out. He was then brought to Dr. Cain, who analyzed him. After that, Zero recovered from his battle with Sigma and was placed under Sigma's witch, Zero did not show any signs of Maverick behaviour and was enlisted into the Maverick Hunters' 17th Elite Unit.

The Day of Σ
As part of the 17th Elite Unit, Zero became an excellent Maverick Hunter and was soon ranked SA-Class, the highest rank the Maverick Hunters had to offer at that point of time. It was during that time in which he met X for the first time who was also part of the 17th Unit, even though he was only ranked B-Class due to his hesistation on the battlefield. The two became friends and partners and worked together whenever they could. Zero soon became a somewhat mentor to X.

Soon afterwards, a series of Mechaniloids going berserk occured in Abel City, the city in which the Hunter Base at that point was located. During the course of the investigation, it was Zero who eventually uncovered the identity of the person responsible for the attacks, which was none other than Sigma himself. Zero had deducted this as in various locations which were seemly connected to the attacks, the bodies of defeated Reploids had been found which were all taken down with a single blow directed at a weak spot and there had been only a very few number of Reploids which such perfect skills, including Sigma. Also, the damage the defeated Reploids had taken was caused by a beamsaber and not by range-weapons so the previously suspected Vile couldn't have been the traitor.

Even though he managed to block Sigma's first attack, he was soon overwelmed by Sigma and was used to pressure X into surrendering. To get Zero out of his way, he was struck by Sigma's beam saber and left all by himself while Sigma held X captive and launched a missile attack on Abel City. Some time later, Zero regained concious and found X all alone in the facility, heavily damaged by Sigma. He then brought him back to the Hunter HQ.

Mega Man X / Maverick Hunter X
After Sigma's declaration of Reploid Independency on July 4th 21XX (June in the US manual of the original game), dubbed "The Day of Σ", Zero, at that point highest ranked member of the Hunter organisation, became the new leader and he and a repaired X fought together against Sigma's uprising rebellion. Zero saved X during a Maverick attack at the Central Highway from Vile. After that, the two split up with X task to slow down the Maverick activities in nearby areas while Zero himself was on recon duty at Sigma's fortess.

They eventually met there and together invaded the fortress. Here, they encountered Vile for a second time. Zero was captured by Vile and imprisoned in a cage (In Maverick Hunter X however, Zero was left unconcious by Vile as a bait for X). When X was also defeated by Vile, he managed to break free and destroyed Vile's armor by firing a charge shot from point-blank range, which was a successful, yet fatal action. Afterwards, Zero, in case X hadn't obtained the Buster Upgrade yet, handed his Buster Parts to X and encouraging him into continuing to fight before dying in X' arms.

Mega Man X2
After Sigma had been defeated, the Hunters tried to salvage whatever remained of Zero from the sunken fortress and found Zero's Control Chip (which serves as Zero's "brain" and conciousness) which had miraculously survived the destruction of the body. However, the Hunters were incapable of creating a new body for Zero because they were unable to analyze Zero's unique body structure.

Six months later, a group of three Mavericks, calling themselves the "X-Hunters" (Counter Hunters in Japanese), contacted the Maverick Hunters and claimed to be in possession of all parts of Zero. The X-Hunters challenged X to a battle in order to win Zero's remains. (The Japanese version of the game however claims that they actually rebuilt the parts and did not use remains from the previous game. It was Serges (Sagesse in Japanese) who constructed the parts and upgraded the body with the specs Zero was originally intended to have, including reinforced shoulder plates and Z-Saber).

X, who didn't want his friend to be in the hands of Mavericks, accepted and eventually recovered Zero's head, body and foot parts. Eventually, Zero was reconstructed by Dr. Cain (now completed with his signature Z-Saber and enforced shoulder plates) and assisted X in destroying the base of the resurrected Sigma. Trying to fool X however, Sigma had constructed a doppelgänger of Zero with Black Armor which he claimed to be Zero, however this copy was destroyed by the real Zero.

As a non-canon scenario in X2, in case X wasn't able to retrieve all of Zero's parts, the X-Hunters would steal any parts X had previously collected from the Hunter Base, as well as Zero's Control Chip. Zero would then be recontructed by Sigma as a Maverick and was fought by X prior to his encounter with Sigma. After being defeated, Zero would regain his consciousness and assisted in destroying the base.

Mega Man Xtreme
Zero played only a minor role in the story of this game. After X managed to escape the digitalized version of the Central Highway, Zero would inform him that Mavericks had hacked the Maverick Hunters' Mother Computer, stealing and corrupting data and allowing other Mavericks to run wild everywhere. While X was digitalized again and sent back into the Mother Computer to destroy the protection systems that were needed to be taken out to shut the computer down, Zero would handle Maverick attacks in the real world. Also, later during the game, X would be able to find four capsules within the digitalized areas, the Zero Scrambles, which allowed him to "summon" Zero to perform an attack or move. However, this was only combat data of Zero and not the real one.

Mega Man X3
Zero only played a minor role during the Doppler incident. He and X defended the Maverick Hunter Base from Dr. Doppler's Maverick forces and saved X from the traitor Mac. Zero would here and there be of help for X as he could summon him once a mission (this marked the first time Zero was playable, but he wasn't able to fight bosses), using his Z-Buster and his Z-Saber. While trespassing Doppler's secret lab, he saved X from a spike room booby-trap.

If Zero was summoned during the second stage of Doppler's lab at a specific point, he fights a Mosquito-like Mechaniloid which was destroyed by him, however the Mechaniloid managed to hit Zero in a last resort attack. The crash of the Mosquito damaged Zero's power generator which forced him to return to Hunter Base to have repairs done. Because this made him unavailable for the rest of the trip, he would then lend his Z-Saber to X.

Mega Man Xtreme 2
Under Construction

Mega Man X4
Zero's first appearance as fully controlable character with his own story also marked his most tragic point in life. At the beginning of the game, Zero encountered his creator within his dreams who ordered him to finally obey his orders and fullfill his destiny by destroying his nemesis' greatest creation. When he awakened of the nightmare, he was immediately dispatched to the Sky Lagoon colony which had been attacked by Mavericks. Repliforce was also confronted at the scene, claiming to assist the Hunters in evacuading the city, however both factions didn't trust each other for a moment and as a request for interrogation was declined, the Great Repliforce War broke out.

When the Repliforce was labelled Maverick after the Sky Lagoon incident, both X and Zero were assigned different missions to gather information about Repliforce's coup and to cut off their support lines. Iris, who was by now Zero's girlfriend, assisted Zero on his missions as being his operator, like during the Erasure incident. However, Iris herself was part of Repliforce while her brother, Colonel, was Repliforce's second-in-command and therefore an imminent target for the Maverick Hunters. Iris didn't want the two of them to fight, ravished between her love for Zero and her love for her own brother. When the two of them battled in the Ceremony Hall of Repliforce's command center, it was Iris who stopped the two Reploids form terminating each other by begging her own brother to stop since Zero had previously saved her life after the Sky Lagoon had crashed down. Colonel, who had always regarded Zero as a friendly rival, backed off. Zero on the other site however stated that someone had to stop Repliforce at all costs, much to the grief of Iris.

When Repliforce's coup began, Zero rushed to the space port to stop the ascension of the military troops to the newly contructed space station of Repliforce, Final Weapon. There, he battled Colonel, this time not holding anything back, just like his former friend with Zero being the victor of the fight. After that, he traveled to Final Weapon where he was, much to his surprise and horror, encountered by Iris, who was blinded by her grief of the loss of her brother and anger for her own lover killing him. She had salvaged Colonel's Control Chip from his remains, fusing it with her own programing, thus resulting her body to transform into a massive Ride Armor like combat form which Zero was forced to battle. Even though he didn't mean to, Zero damaged the exterior power core of the structure, resulting in the destruction of the armor. He hurried to Iris' body, however, it was too late to save her. Whispering to Zero that she did all this because she wanted to live in a world for Reploids only together with him, she died in his arms and Zero, who was totally overthrown by the pain, began questioning his own reasons for fighting and the means of his own existance. Filled with anger, he confronted General the leader of Repliforce, defeating him in battle. Upon the end of the fight, General realized that someone had taken over the control over Final Weapon, aiming it at Earth. Zero went to the control facility, only to find Sigma there, who revealed their both's past to him when Sigma was still a Maverick Hunter and Zero was first seen as a Maverick. After Zero had destroyed Sigma and the General had sacrificed his life to make the Final Weapon self-destruct, Zero escaped the destruction in a small spacecraft, thinking about what he had done. He hadn't been able to save anyone he cared about. He had killed his own friend Colonel, the General who in the end had only been manipulated by Sigma and his own lover Iris. Questioning whether or not Reploids would be supposed to be Mavericks afterall, he returned to Earth.

If the game was played by X, Zero would only appear at the very end of the story, contacting X from Hunter Base upon his return to Earth by spacecraft. X, wondering what would happen if he turned Maverick, asked Zero to take care of him if that would ever happen. Confused, Zero didn't answer to X request, although he seemly realized X' seriousness about the topic and the eventual battle between him and his best friend.

Mega Man X5
Zero played a pivotal role in Mega Man X5. The space colony Eurasia was set to impact the Earth (which had recently been coated in a large breakout of the Maverick virus), which would cause catastrophes of unimaginable proportions. Unbeknownst to all, Sigma was behind the downing of Eurasia, and with good reason - he had been informed by an "unknown source" that the high concentration of the Maverick virus would purify Zero's body, awakening his original, evil self and unlocking his dormant powers. This unknown source is fairly obviously Wily; he is Zero's father, he hates X, the "W" insignia appears throughout the game's later stages, including the final stage where the boss is either Zero (In his "true" form if Eurasia crashes) or X. One of the later bosses is the Shadow Devil, reminiscent of one of Wily's favorite creations, who also transforms into a familiar-looking miniature skull machine looking exactly like the one Wily used in Mega Man 6. The Maverick Hunters stopped the crash, and then found Sigma's hideout and promptly went to shut him down - however, X was badly injured, and Zero was practically left for dead. Dr. Light revived X, and the Maverick Hunter went on fighting Mavericks in memory of his fallen friend, adding Zero's Z-Saber to his arsenal. The Z-Buster makes a comeback in this game (the shot's range is limited though).

Alternatively, Eurasia crashed with Earth, causing terrible problems on the surface (although it wound up all but destroying the planet). The end result was Zero emerging in his more powerful and malevolent true form, who X had to defeat later on. The ending was mostly the same, except X had no memories of Zero and did not find the Z-Saber. Canonically this ending did not happen, although it is interesting to note, in it X frequently uses the term, "Elysium," as the name of his dream place where humans and Reploids live together in peace. "Elysium" is also the name of an ancient heavenly world in Mega Man Legends 2.

Zero's history following that is somewhat confusing. Inafune had originally planned for Mega Man X5 to be the final game of the Mega Man X series. Zero's dead body would have been left in ruin following those events to be revived in the first Mega Man Zero game. However, Mega Man X6 was created and released before Mega Man Zero.

Mega Man X6
In Mega Man X6, the mad scientist Gate began tampering with Zero's data. By studying a piece of Zero's body found in the debris, Gate created the new Nightmare Virus, a discolored clone of Zero (called "Zero Nightmare"), and the near-invulnerable Reploid, High Max. X, taking the assault on Zero's reputation personally, set out to investigate. Upon destroying the Zero Nightmare, X is reunited with his friend, mysteriously repaired and carrying a brand new Z-Saber. Together, X and Zero set out to defeat Gate and the imperfectly resurrected Sigma. Who exactly repaired Zero was never directly stated. Dr. Light, who repaired X at the end of X5, denied knowing who repaired Zero. Some believe it is Gate's ally, Isoc, as he is the only Reploid who claimed to have seen Zero before X found him, and he demonstrates an odd obsession with Zero, even laughing joyously when Zero defeats Gate's own men, but in this very cutscene Isoc says, "Now that I know you are alive I can capture you at anytime." If it was Isoc, he would have known Zero was alive. Again, in this game Zero has his Z-Buster with slight differences: It takes a bit less time to use than in X5 and it seems to do more damage at a close range.

Zero's ending in this game helps to mend the storyline between the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero games. It shows Zero being sealed to remove a component from his body (presumably something having to do with the virus' influence on him, and/or his original murderous persona). This was originally going to show that the X series had ended, but fans loved the series so much, Inafune was forced to continue, making many people believe that this is either a glimpse of the future, or non-canon. However, recently revealed backstory information in the Japanese Mega Man Zero Sourcebook "Rockman Zero Official Complete Works" has revealed that this ending is indeed canon, takes place in an unspecified time period beyond the last X series game, and is in fact considered the first of 2 different times when Zero sealed himself away (The second time being after the Elf Wars when he sealed himself away once more in the Rockman Zero TELOS drama tracks, and was then finally reawakened in the Zero series).

Alternatively, it is possible to clear Mega Man X6 without ever finding Zero. In this event, cutscenes show that Zero is indeed alive, but X and the other Maverick Hunters never find him. Zero leaves on his own, stating that there's something he needs to take care of. Like the alternate ending to X5, canonically, this ending does not happen.

Mega Man X7
In Mega Man X7, Zero is responsible for the bulk of the Maverick Hunter workload due to the fact that X has recently refused to battle for any reason, due to his doubts about the Hunters' violent methods. Zero captures a mysterious Reploid, Axl, who has just recently abandoned the vigilante group Red Alert. Axl assists Zero in stopping Red Alert's rampages, and eventually X rejoins them. After the battles, Zero has nightmares of X attacking him, out of obsession for eliminating Mavericks (possibly foreshadowing the rise of Copy X in the Zero series). Mega Man X7 signified a few changes to Zero's gameplay. His Z-Buster was eliminated altogether, and in addition to learning new attacks from defeated Mavericks, Zero can also gain other melée weapons to replace his saber. This tradition would continue through Mega Man X8 and Mega Man X: Command Mission.

Mega Man X8
Zero continues to work with X and Axl, who is now working with the Maverick Hunters, in dealing with new threats in Mega Man X8. One of the new navigators, a purple-haired girl named Layer, has shown a romantic interest in him; Zero has not returned the emotion however, simply keeping the relationship professional. Zero's memories of the virus incident from Mega Man X5 continue to haunt him, fueling his hatred towards Sigma. Upon confronting him, Sigma confirms that Zero is the original carrier of the Maverick Virus, which was transferred to Sigma prior to the game Mega Man X (presumably it happened when Sigma shattered Zero's head gem as X4 depicted, though the unlockable animation "Day of Sigma" in the PSP remake of Mega Man X has put a few doubts on this). This information was long-since stated in Japanese sourcebooks, but was never before made officially available to the public in other regions.

Mega Man X Command Mission
In the game Mega Man X: Command Mission, Zero is sent along with X and another Reploid, Shadow, to investigate Reploid uprisings in Giga City. Zero is separated from X after Shadow betrays them, and presumed dead, until he reappears some time later and attacks one of the rebelling Reploids in a mechaniloid factory. At this point, Zero is joined by X, Axl, and a number of other Reploids that X assembled to assist him. With Shadow's betrayal still fresh in his memory, Zero is unwilling to trust X's new friends, and promptly decides to work alone. However, one of the Reploids, Spider, risks his life in Zero's defense. After this, Zero decides to rejoin X's group permanently, although Spider eventually turns on them and reveals himself as Colonel Redips. He had hid his true identity from the group by using a replica of Axl's DNA change, hinting toward the possibility that Spider could have actually existed at one point (since Axl needs to take DNA from a Reploid in order to change into it).

The Elf War
At some unknown point after his mission on Giantis, Zero realized that he carried the virus inside him and spread it all over the world during his missions as a Hunter. Thinking that the world wouldn't be safe as long as he was still active, Zero admitted himself into a research institute, in order to get rid of the virus within him that caused Reploids around him to go Maverick. At the same point, a project was started to analyse Zero as it had been revealed previously (during the Eurasia crisis to be exact), that Zero actually reacted positive to the Sigma Virus, therefore might hold anti-bodies for the infection. Zero was sealed away and brought to a goverment lab. At some point, Zero's mind was extracted from the body, possibly for security measures in case something would go wrong while researching it.

For an unknown amount of time, Zero's body was studied by goverment researchers. One of them, an unnamed female ancestor of Miss Ciel managed to create the "Sigma Antibody Program", a Cyber Elf capable of reverting the devestated programming of infected Mavericks and therefore destroying the virus completely. This Cyber Elf was the Mother Elf.

Yet, weapon researcher and DNA revival specialist Dr. Weil, who worked in the lab as well, however planned a different way of dealing with the Mavericks, was unsatisfied with the result. Stealing Zero's mindless body and the Mother Elf, Weil started a horrible conflict that would ultimately cost the lives of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. This four year period of war was later dubbed the "Elf War".

Weil, who used the Mother Elf, now known as the Dark Elf and copies of her, known as Babyelves to gain control over Reploids all over the planet, ordering them to destroy each other, worked on Zero's body, manfacturing an exterior armor around him which boosted the body's specs to its limits as well as granting him the ability to control all Reploids at the same time when combined with the Dark Elf and creating a new conciousness for the body loyal to him: Omega.

When the Elf War was in it's fourth and final year, Zero reappeared on the battlefield, given a copy of his old body (it is however still unknown who created the body but it is presumed it was Ciel's ancestor). Zero managed to infiltrate Weil's laboratory and steal the Dark Elf from Weil. He then ordered every Reploid in the Dark Elf's range to turn against Weil. At that point, Omega was released onto the battlefield along with a few Mechaniloids to defeat X and Zero and retrieve the Dark Elf. Zero, who by that time had realized Omega was using his original body, defeated him together with X by using the Final Strike, disabling the massive Reploid.

After the war had ended, Zero decided to seal himself away again, this time, forever. Though X tried desperately to stop his friend from sealing himself another time, the sealing process had been gone too far to stop it. Zero told X that, as long as he was still around, the bloody history would repeat itself over and over again. Before the seal was complete, he encouraged X that this was the right way and that he wanted to believe in the humans as X believed in them. With these final words, Zero's seal was complete.

Mega Man Zero
At the beginning of Mega Man Zero, Zero was discovered in suspended animation by a human scientist named Ciel, who leads a band of Reploid freedom fighters. Ciel used the Cyber Elf Passy to revive Zero, who in turn saved Ciel from the forces of Neo Arcadia. Zero, however, was suffering memory loss due to "hibernation sickness." As it turned out, Neo Arcadia was the government of the world at this time period. Reploids were discriminated against and often deemed Maverick and terminated without justifiable cause. Copy X, a ruthless, conceited weaker clone of the real X, was in charge of this policy. Zero agreed to join Ciel's team in fighting this oppression of Reploids. Zero would then go on to defeat Copy X's 4 Guardians as well as destroying Copy X himself.

Mega Man Zero 2
Later on in Mega Man Zero 2, Zero learned of what had happened before his sealing; Sigma and his Mavericks were defeated, but some time after the Elf Wars broke out, Zero himself helped X to end them by defeating and banishing Omega, the most terrifying Reploid of the time. Several decades after Zero was sealed, X sacrificed his body to stop the worst Cyber Elf of all, the Dark Elf, leaving him in a more ethereal form. X's body is destroyed and the Dark Elf released by a rogue Resistance commander, Elpizo. Zero defeats Elpizo, but the Dark Elf escapes. She and Zero appear to know each other, and X informs Zero that the Dark Elf was not always known by her current name. Her powers became a threat due to a curse by Dr. Weil, the man who started the Elf Wars, at which point people began calling her the Dark Elf.

Mega Man Zero 3
In Mega Man Zero 3, Dr. Weil and Omega reappear and seize control of Neo Arcadia, and the Dark Elf. Weil reveals (and X confirms) that the body Zero currently inhabits is a copy, even though he still has his real soul. This led to a final battle between him and Omega, who is revealed to contain the "Original" Zero. With the help of the X, the Guardians and even the Dark Elf who breaks free of her curse, Zero manages to destroy Omega once and for all, but Weil escapes. The Dark Elf, now called Mother Elf, roams free. However, X now cannot roam in the real world any longer. Before X goes away, he tells an unconscious Zero to always protect the peace between Reploids and humans.

Mega Man Zero 4
In Mega Man Zero 4, Zero and Ciel defend a caravan of human refugees from Neo Arcadia, which is no longer a safe place even for humans ever since Weil took over. They take refuge in Area Zero, the crash-site of debris from Eurasia in Mega Man X5. The humans at this point carry a distrust of Reploids, but the actions of Zero and the Resistance eventually help build understanding between them. One of them however, a reporter named Neige, is close to a Neo Arcadian Reploid named Kraft. Weil intends to destroy Area Zero using his spaceborne cannon, Ragnarok. But Craft takes Ragnarok and turns it against Neo Arcadia. Zero goes to Ragnarok to stop him, but Weil regains control after this. Zero returns to Ragnarok and confronts Weil, who reveals the reason for his grudge against the rest of the world. After the Elf Wars, Weil was banished illegally, and oddly punished with eternal life. Although he was human, he was transferred to a cybernetic body built to constantly regenerate itself, so that Weil would be forced to live forever alone, cut off from the rest of the world (until Mega Man Zero 3, of course; this is how Weil survived when Kraft turned Ragnarok against Neo Arcadia). Weil, in his hatred, is now obsessed with making the rest of the world suffer and ultimately destroying it. In order to stop Ragnarok from colliding with Earth, Zero must kill Weil to stop Ragnarok.

The end depicts Ciel looking into the distance, then switches to a cracked and broken part of Zero's helmet. By this point he's made heroic sacrifices repeatedly, but never as climatically or by being downright shattered. Furthermore, for the first time throughout the series, the world appears stable. Capcom has indeed hinted that Zero 4 is the last in the series. It is interesting to note that he crashed into Ragnarok similar to crashing into the Eurasia from Megaman X5.

As depicted in the album "Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero: Physis," humans and Reploids started to establish peaceful lives after the destruction of Ragnarok, which in turn leads to the events of Mega Man ZX.

Vile's Incident - Eden Dome, it's Sin and Rebirth
Under Construction

Mega Man ZX
Zero makes a major cameo in the Nintendo DS game Megaman ZX, as Biometal Model Z, which was modeled after him. Omega Zero also appears as an optional boss in Area N-1. Defeating him in Normal or Hard will allow access to a rock which gives you Model-OX. Although Biometal Z is not usable by itself it can be combined with Biometal X to form Model ZX, the title character.

Zero appears in a flashback scene in Vent's story where Prairie explains that her sister was a human (obviously referring to Ciel) that defended the reploids, the scene then shifts to a view of Zero and Ciel looking at an army of pantheons, Zero is mentioned when (again in Vent's storyline) Prairie explains that Model W is the spirit of Dr. Weil, and that the last time Dr. Weil had appeared he was stopped by Zero (although the game never addresses Zero by name, simply calling him "a hero").

Trivia

 * Zero was originally intended to be the main protagonist of Mega Man X, according to Keiji Inafune, Mega Man's creator. However, Zero was turned into a second character because Inafune feared Zero's look would not be approved by fans as a true Mega Man. He would eventually gain his own game series on the GameBoy Advance, Mega Man Zero.