SELF-INDULGENT AUTHOR NOTES: Hello, all! I love Megaman X more than anything in the world. Unfortunately, I could not think up any plots for Megaman X. So, I give you a crossover! Because I love Kingdom Hearts, and robots are awesome. Any and all comments are appreciated!

Chapter 1

The reploid was pretty average, as far as reploids go, except that he'd been built a little small. Whoever had built him had given him soft blonde hair, not too much unlike Zero's own but in a short style like X's. The most notable and alarming feature of his design was an extremely heavy emphasis on combat. Both arms were equipped with buster guns, along with compartments for not one but two beam sabers. The tiny reploid had enough firepower to take out a major city, and there weren't that many major cities left to take out.

Zero, leader of the Maverick Hunters and Hunter extraordinaire, was extremely curious as to who this mysterious reploid was. He had no uniform or other identification of any kind anywhere on his armor. All he had were his hair and his weapons, and unfortunately, these days heavily armed reploids were much more common than the alternative. As such, as was customary, Zero and X had brought the unconscious stranger back to Maverick Hunter HQ to run tests to determine if he was dangerous.

"Well? Is he a Maverick?" Zero asked impatiently.

"Hush, Zero," Dr. Cain snapped. Zero desperately wanted to snap back, but the human doctor was the only person alive, organic or otherwise, who could be trusted with an operation this delicate. He was also Zero's boss. So instead, the hunter snorted and turned away. "Tell me again where you found him," the doctor ordered.

"In an old factory. Heavy Maverick presence," X answered succinctly, as was his usual style. Yes, they had indeed found their new buddy in the wreckage of a reploid factory where the Mavericks had set up a haphazard base. Or rather, X had found the body while Zero was busy flaying Mavericks alive, tearing gear from gear and delighting in the screams and the feel of greasy motor fluids on his fingers.

But that was his little secret.

"He was unconscious, but we're not getting any Maverick readings off him, so we brought him here," X finished. Zero nodded absently in confirmation. Dr. Cain was still flitting around the unconscious reploid, performing weird tests that Zero didn't recognize and didn't want to.

"He's not a Maverick, that's for sure," the doctor muttered. "But I'm afraid his memory circuits are fried. We're not going to be able to get any answers out of him the way he is now." He shook his head. "You're absolutely sure that he was unconscious when you found him?"

"Definitely, sir," said X. Zero's eyes wandered over to the strange reploid's blonde hair and black armor. Who was he?And whoever he was, he had no business showing up out of nowhere with that much weaponry and yet nothing to indicate whose side he was on.

"The design is odd. Very odd," Dr. Cain mumbled to himself, flipping open a small panel and prodding at some wires, causing the unconscious reploid's fingers to move. "I've never seen a reploid quite like this before." His eyes darted over to Zero for only a split second, but Zero noticed. No one knew who built Zero, either. Well, except for Zero himself. At least, he had a suspicion. A very strong suspicion. One that he wasn't willing to share with anyone, not even X, his supposed best friend.

"You can't tell who built him?" X asked curiously. He looked at Zero, too, almost sympathetically. Dr. Cain narrowed his eyes the way he did when he was deep in thought, stroking his beard slowly, aged lips curved downwards into a slight frown.

"It's not a design I'm familiar with," he said at last. "I'll call some other scientists. In any case, he should be waking up soon, so keep an eye on him. He might still be dangerous." With that parting command, the doctor picked up his walking stick and shuffled back out of the lab, muttering to himself about getting pulled out of bed by ungrateful reploids and needing a vacation.

A comfortable silence settled over the empty laboratory, both Zero and X keeping to their own thoughts, while the newcomer slept peacefully. Strange reploids weren't brought to Maverick Hunter HQ very often, and the appearance of this one was a little suspicious. His evident lack of creator or personal history was even more suspicious. Zero didn't like the situation, not at all.

"Zero. Are you ok?" The question snapped Zero out of his trance, and he looked over at his friend.

"What do you mean?" X met his eyes easily- one of the few in Maverick Headquarters, human or reploid, who could do so without flinching. Dr. Cain was another. And Sigma, well, Sigma wasn't afraid of anything then, and he certainly wasn't afraid of anything now that he was batshit nutters insane.

"Ever since Doppler Town. You've been kind of off. Do you need a break?"

"Of course not," Zero snapped. He didn't especially want to talk about Doppler Town, the supposed reploid heaven-on-earth that had been completely wiped out when it had gone Maverick. He looked around, desperate for something to change the subject, to get X's overly concerned eyes to look at something else for a change. His own eyes fell on the body on the lab table. Yes, he would have to do. A quick once-over, and his attention was caught by a mark on the reploid's left shoulder. "What's that?"

"What?" X was blindsided by the subject change, the only one who would be, and confusion took over his expression.

"On his shoulder." A closer look revealed writing, in a shade of silver so dark it was barely readable. "It says X, just like you." That piqued X's curiosity, and he apparently forgot about Zero and came over to look as well, leaning down close to make out the silver lettering.

"That's not an X. That's X-I-I-I. Roman numerals." Zero raised an eyebrow.

"Number 13?" X nodded. "Do you think that's his name?" Numbered names were not, obviously, outside the realm of possibility. "What about one through twelve? Does that mean there's more of him?"

And… what about Zero?

"Who knows?" X shrugged, before his expression turned serious again. Ah. So he'd caught on to Zero's plan. "But Zero, seriously, I think you should-"

"Gotta go, X. See ya later. Have fun with Blondie." Before X could protest, Zero was banging out the door, heavy robotic steps clanking against cool metal floors. He had nowhere else to go, really, so his feet took him towards his room. Well, it could hardly be called a room, of course- all it was was a regeneration pod. But it was Zero's regeneration pod, and really, the only place in the entire complex he had to call his own. The 17th Unit could take care of itself for a few hours- for some reason, he was suddenly, desperately fatigued.

Since the founding of the Maverick Hunters, the Maverick situation had gotten worse, not better. Maybe it was a simple case of escalation, and when the Mavericks had been given an opponent, they'd started to join together against it. That seemed to be the most likely explanation. And then when Sigma had turned, he'd given them a strong leader. The Mavericks stopped being a smattering of rogue cases and became an army with a mission, if one could call wreaking havoc a mission.

But no- Dr. Doppler had shown them otherwise, hadn't he? He'd proven that Mavericks were created via a virus. So, really, their mission had to be to create more reploids just like them. But why? Were Mavericks irrational, or just sick? Or were they sick at all? The entire situation was just entirely too bizarre for Zero to handle, which is why he'd put his trust in Dr. Cain. In many ways, knowing about this 'virus' was even worse than when the Mavericks had just been considered a reploid separatist group- that meant that an untold number of the Mavericks he'd slaughtered had just been reploids built for innocuous purposes, then taken over and controlled and forced to work for someone else's ends.

But then, Doppler had proven that the virus wasn't exactly curable. So what else was there to do?

And this new reploid. Number 13. Zero couldn't help feeling drawn to him, somehow, even with never having spoken- he felt a sort of kinship with the guy, both with mysterious origins and unusual designs. Both with numbers for names. He couldn't deny the hope slowly growing inside of him, wondering, maybe they came from the same place. Maybe 13 could finally give him some answers. But there was no way of knowing until he woke up and revealed his intentions, and Zero wasn't the type to waste time dwelling on things he couldn't do anything about.

By this point he had reached his pod, but he lingered outside of it. Some part of him urged him to stay awake, reminded him of his responsibilities, what with mysterious reploids showing up in warehouses and Mavericks on the loose. But, his other half argued, I'm completely useless to everyone if I'm exhausted. I need to charge up. They'll call me if they need me. That was enough for Zero, and he climbed into his pod, closing his eyes as wires attached themselves and the lid of the pod slid slowly closed. In moments, he was completely unconscious.

Though not enough so to not be plagued by dreams.

You, Zero, are my greatest creation.

"Where is Number 13?"

Axel glanced over at Xigbar, who was staring directly at the Superior with his lone eye. Apparently, even after he'd been dragged back to the World That Never Was for no reason, he was also going to have provide the explanation as to what happened to their tiny friend. If intra-Organization fighting wasn't strictly verboten, Axel would already be pounding his eye-patched coworker into the ground.

"We were attacked in the pathway between worlds," Axel gritted out, putting his thoughts of revenge on hold for later. "Heartless. While we were fighting them, Rox- Number 13 was knocked into a stray portal. He could be on any number of worlds." That was what had happened, in a nutshell. Xigbar had had a good point, really, saying that they should come back to base first, since of course, were Roxas not incapacitated, he'd simply make the jump from whatever place he'd ended up on back to the Castle That Never Was. Since he wasn't here, that meant something bad had happened. What something, Axel didn't care to think about.

"Why didn't you go after him?" the Superior drawled. Yeah, why didn't we? Once again, Axel slid his eyes over to Xigbar. Coming back here before searching for Roxas had been his idea, after all. He could answer this question. Unfortunately, Xigbar remained completely silent, and the Superior's eyes were trained directly on Axel himself.

"We assumed he'd come back here," he finally muttered. Honestly, Xigbar was asking for a world of hurt. He was so chatty normally, but as soon as Axel was all set to incriminate himself, he couldn't be bothered to spit out a single stupid word.

"You have no idea where he is now." The words floated dismally down to where Axel and Xigbar were standing, and Axel found himself struggling against the truth they carried. No, they had absolutely no idea where Roxas was at this moment, and there being a nearly infinite number of worlds, they may never be able to find him. He wouldn't be able to live with himself, sitting around, waiting for Roxas to reappear of his own accord. Something must have happened.

"I'll go look for him myself," he said, a little too quickly.

"Easy, kiddo," Xigbar muttered. The first words he'd spoken since they'd arrived at the castle. Now he decides to hop into the conversation.

"You volunteer?" Xemnas asked, arching an eyebrow. Axel nodded. "And you are prepared to do your duty as a member of this Organization, should it be necessary?"

"Uh. What?" Axel asked stupidly. Xigbar shook his head.

"If Roxas is no longer loyal to us, you'll have to kill him."

Oh. Ok. Wait. What?

Hiding his surprise, such that he was able to feel, Axel narrowed his eyes and looked from Xigbar, to Xemnas, back to Xigbar again. Some part of him had always known how the Organization dealt with traitors, he'd just never had a chance to see it in action. And now, this was it. If Roxas were in any way disloyal, Roxas would be killed. That wasn't going to happen, of course- there was absolutely no reason why the thirteenth member would refuse to come back with him. They'd seen him get hit. He certainly hadn't defected of his own free will or anything like that. At least, it didn't seem like he had.

But if he had… what would Axel be able to do? Would he be able to kill his best friend? Pretty unlikely. Both in the sense that he wouldn't want to do it, and that there was a strong possibility that he wouldn't be able to beat Roxas in a fight anyway. They were pretty evenly matched. The most likely scenario would end with both of them dead, though Axel had a hunch that the rest of the Organization wouldn't mind that so much.

He would, though. He didn't want to die. The tiny stirring in his chest that signaled his will to live was welcomed by him- for if he didn't want to die, he had to be alive, right? Even if that life was a cursed half-existence, well, it was better than no existence at all. Right?

Axel did not betray any of these thoughts to his fellow members of the Organization.

"Yeah, sure," was all he said, before he opened a path to the Realm of Darkness.

In seconds, the Organization and the Castle That Never Was were fleeting memories. He had to find the place where Roxas had fallen through. Soon, the trail would be too cold to follow. Axel could feel the darkness tugging at his body, but his Organization coat protected him. No, he would not be fading today. His will to live flared again, as if to comfort him.

The Heartless were still swarmed around the area where the battle had taken place, though they had absolutely no interest in Axel, since he had no Keyblade and no heart. He felt around for any recent openings, pathways that may have carried Roxas off to who the hell knows where. He searched and searched. The search seemed fruitless, and he fried up a few Shadows in irritation.

Come on, darkness. Talk to me. Something happened to Roxas, and I need to find him.

Just then, Axel felt something. A tiny flicker of life through the black, reaching out to him, pulling him in the right direction. The faintest traces of a recent and volatile portal. Wherever Roxas was, Axel had a suspicion that it was very, very far away. He found the place, surprisingly bare of Heartless.

He opened the gate.

The world he saw through that opening was unlike any he'd seen before. His view from the Realm of Darkness wasn't great, of course, but he saw enough to know it was a brutally unpleasant place. Buildings were crumbling. Trees were dying. Dust was whipping to and fro in gale force winds. The place wasn't going to hell in a handbasket- it had already arrived, and was coming back for seconds. Well, he was a Nobody, and had no preferences one way or the other as to that sort of thing. And every sense he had was telling him that Roxas was there, which meant that he would be going there, too. He took a step forward.

That was when something a bit odd began to happen. When he took that first step, his foot and leg felt heavier than usual. He thought nothing of it, though, and took another step forward. He was one step away from entering the world. He picked up his unusually heavy foot and pushed it through to the new world, and, well, that was when all hell broke loose.

All hell only broke loose on his body, of course. The rest of the world seemed perfectly fine. Axel was used to worlds that involved some sort of change in physical form. This one was different, though. The first thing to strike him was unbelievably painful nausea, as if all of his innards were getting turned inside-out and upside-down, then suddenly a strange hardening, crystallizing, freezing into one solid mass. He doubled over and tried to vomit. Nothing came up. He couldn't even heave- it was as if he no longer had any kind of stomach at all.

That was when he looked at his arms, and screamed like a little robot girl.

For that was the problem of course- somehow, his coat had melted onto his skin and formed some sort of thick metallic coating. And from there, the transformation had seeped inwards, until every bit of organic left in him had been replaced with bolts and wires and switchboards. He was now, officially, beyond a shadow of a doubt, by any definition of the word, a robot. A humanoid robot, but fully mechanical all the same. So… Roxas had been sucked into a world of robots? What, exactly, were the odds of that? No wonder he hadn't tried to contact them. He was probably in a panic. Anyone would be.

Axel himself suddenly felt very light-headed, despite how much heavier his body had just become. He tried to take a single step forward, but that tiny motion set off an explosion inside him- wild beeping from the left side of his head, all kinds of whirrs and hisses and painful-sounding clanks, but mostly the beeping, louder and louder as if to poke him in the face until he finally saw the message it was trying to send him, flashing in green lettering in the corner of his left eye.

Energen supplies depleted. Shutting down now.

"Wha-" was all Axel managed to get out, before consciousness was stolen away from him and his robot head dropped to his now robot chest.

Yes, Kingdom Hearts robots. Yessss.

Review, please, so we can all talk about how awesome killer robots are, especially when adapted from Disney material. LOL.