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 shadowy blueprints during Bass' ending of Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters and described by Wily as his greatest masterpiece of work. Originally designed to deal with Mega Man and Bass and to satisfy his creator's ambition of world domination, he was instead sealed away by Wily in order to carry out the objective of destroying Mega Man X and later 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
Under Construction

Mega Man X7
Under Construction

Mega Man X8
Under Construction

Mega Man X Command Mission
Under Construction

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
Under Construction

Mega Man Zero 2
Under Construction

Mega Man Zero 3
Under Construction

Mega Man Zero 4
Under Construction

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

Mega Man ZX
Under Construction

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.