Megaman X: What If

By: DuffZero

Prologue:

The Long Ride Home

An eternity passed as the small spaceship flew away from the destroyed Final Weapon. Zero, sitting in the copilot seat next to his best friend, stared at the dented saber in his hands. Was it all true? All those things Sigma said in the end? He knew it to be, but he just couldn't accept it, not yet anyway. He turned to look at X. With the ship on a slow but steady autopilot setting for Earth, X was left starring blankly straight ahead out the window with nothing to do but think. He looked wholly unsatisfied, which was to be expected. Double, who X had put a lot of faith in, turned out to be a double agent and betrayed the Maverick Hunters, leaving X no choice but to kill him. Not to mention that the Repliforce, which was entirely annihilated, turned out to have been used by Sigma. Zero, however, was not able to give his friend the peace of mind he so desperately wanted.

"X." The blue reploid jolted slightly, surprised by the break in silence, but turned his head to look at Zero.

"X… I need to ask you a favor. I've been thinking about what Sigma said and I need you to promise me…"

"No." X interjected, knowing what was coming. "We can't take anything that Sigma says at face value. He's simply trying to plant seeds of doubt into you."

Zero shook his head. "Hear me out X." X's shoulders tensed. He knew Zero well enough to know that there was no point in trying to stop him a second time. "Promise me X. If I go Maverick and insanity clouds my mind, kill me. Pull the trigger before I sully my good name." A small smirk appeared on his mouth as he said this, but it left just as quickly as it appeared. X continued to stare at his friend, not saying anything.

Silence once again took over the small ship. X didn't turn back to his own thoughts yet, as his crimson friend looked like he had more to say. It struck him as odd, Zero was never one to hesitate, but then it hit him and a small smile crept on to his face. Cringing, knowing that X had figured him out, Zero finally opened his mouth again. "If that does happen… I'm counting on you to…"

He stopped. He turned his head away from X, and to the back of the ship. There, was the subject he had trouble breaching, even with his best friend. He looked at the unconscious reploid, her long brown hair spilling onto the floor of the ship. She was breathing softly and her face looked peaceful, even after the horrible ordeal she had endured. The lone Repliforce survivor.

"X. If something happens to me, please, take care of Iris."

X's smile grew. He patted his friend on his shoulder armor. "That is a promise I can keep." He turned to look at Iris as well, and whistled, a bit of his good humor coming back to him with the change of subjects. "She sure is cute, huh? Can't believe your luck, I get stuck working with a traitorous asshole and you get to sit around and make small talk with a cutie." He sighed, turning away from Iris and rubbing the back of his helmet. "Wish I had a cute girl like that back at base, but eh, whatcha gonna do?"

Zero's mood didn't change as quickly as X's did. Still looking at Iris, he sighed. She went through a lot in the hours that just passed, and he still couldn't believe how many things had happened on the Final Weapon. The amount of pain she must have endured and still trudged forward, the pain he cause, he knew they wouldn't go away. In his head, he began to relive what had past only a few hours ago…

They rushed forward through the huge halls of the Final Weapon, destroying all the automated defense turrets that blocked their path, X shooting quickly and Zero slicing whatever X missed. As the duo ran forward, Zero struggled to shake the guilt of having killed Colonel and the fear of what happened to Iris, who disappeared from base when Zero returned from his fated mission. X was struggling with a somewhat similar dilemma, having been unable to get into contact with his recent friend, Double.

"Shit X, where could they have gone!" The two stopped a moment, analyzing how far they've made it into the beast and which path best to take. X looked around, responding to his friend. "I haven't the faintest. But hey, good buddy, they most certainly… aren't… here… oh goddamn it…" As if on cue, X caught the back of a big yellow plated reploid waddling down and disappearing into one of the two paths ahead of them. X dashed ahead of Zero towards the entrance, turning only to yell at his friend.

"No reason in the both of us going down one path! I'll take this one, you take the one across the way!" And just like that, Zero was alone.

Only a little more leisurely then when with X, Zero continued deeper into the Final Weapon. Only a few turrets blocked his path, easily rendered useless with his Z-Saber. Childs play, he thought to himself, but then, as if taunting him for thinking things were too easy, he saw someone in front that made his robotic heart start to burn.

There she was. Her emerald eyes that looked at him so many times before seemed more determined then ever before, but also held unbearable sadness. Her blue, red, and gold dress seemed to sway in an invisible breeze. Her beret sat on her head as always, a fact he didn't know why he deemed necessary to check in his head. He ran towards her, and a strange emotion started to tug at him, one that wanted him to put down his sword, hug her, and simply weep, begging for forgiveness for what he had done. Zero, however, still mostly new to emotions outside strategy and the battlefield, knew not to act on this. Before he could get within arms reach, Iris spoke, and it slowed Zero to a stop.

"Zero, why? Why did you kill my brother?"

Zero flinched. He knew it was coming. He knew it had to. How could she not ask? But it still hurt like hell. He didn't know what to say. He stood there a moment. Her eyes stared holes into him, and despite himself, he couldn't keep eye contact with her.

"Iris… I had to… I'm so sorry…"

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Venom. He could feel it.

"I wish there had been another way. I wanted to save him. I wanted to Iris! Please, forgive my weakness." He looked down. He didn't know what else to do. He knew it wasn't enough.

Iris continued to stare at him. Then, she started moving. He didn't dare look up yet. She walked closer to him, stiffly.

"I… wanted to kill you for what you did. Thoughts of vengeance ran through my head when I saw the pictures of my…" She swallowed hard. "… brother. But I knew… I know… that wasn't right. He died on his own terms…" Zero looked up at her, and noticed her face had softened and was now moistened by a stream of tears. She looked up at him through blurry vision. "I know it's not your fault. I'm sorry for forcing you to apologize for something that wasn't really your fault. But I… had to hear it from you. I had to hear you apologize… for my own selfish reasons… to know he meant something to you too…"

Suddenly she was swept into his arms. She uttered a little squeak of surprise at first, but then rested into his chest. Tears fell from both their faces, as silent understanding a moment of silence for the death of her brother and friend was shared. Their embrace, however, could not be held for long, and they broke apart.

Zero, relaxing, now knowing that Iris was safe and had, in her own way, forgiven him, suddenly had a wave of questions fill his head for the girl. He knew there wasn't much time, so he asked only what he thought was most important.

"Iris… what are you doing here anyway? When I got back from… that mission you were gone." While Zero asked this, Iris wiped the moist tears off her face with her hands and had moved forward to do the same to Zero, but stopped for a moment at this question, pondering if she should answer it. She nodded to herself, and continued to wipe Zero's face, who continued to stare.

"To be honest, I came here to extract my revenge on you." She gulped, and expected Zero to have some form of negative reaction, but the crimson warrior simply continued to stare at her. "I… well I… I took this from my brother's body…" She pulled something out of one of her pockets, and Zero didn't immediately know exactly what it was. Then it hit him

"You were going to fuse with your brothers control chip so you'd gain your own abilities in battle…" She looked down, ashamed, her face turning red. She glanced up once again expecting Zero to scowl at her, but his face was one of wonderment. Suddenly, he moved towards her, and put his forehead against hers a smile on his face. She grimaced at first, but tried to hide it. She didn't want to ruin such a perfect moment just because Zero wasn't thinking about his cold helmet on the bare skin of her head. She didn't even want to think how furiously she was blushing. "To admit so much to me after all that's happened and what I've did… you are one amazing woman Iris. I promise you, I will protect you from now on. My sword is your shield." She could have sworn he was going to kiss her right there, but he didn't, he lingered for a moment, helmet still on her head, and then finally pulled back. As if a switch was turned, and with a new fire lit inside him, Zero turned to where Iris was first standing and started walking.

Iris took a few seconds to regain her composure and her normal facial color. She was embarrassed at how quickly Zero turned her back into a bashful girl, but remembered what almost became of her when she looked at her brothers control chip in her hands. "Uh… Zero." She trotted to catch up to him then met his walking pace. "After I decided that getting vengeance was wrong, I started looking for a way to disable the Final Weapon on the terminals over there." She pointed to a few computers near the way around where she was originally standing. "Once the countdown reaches a certain point, the Final Weapon can't be stopped unless you self destruct it." As she said that, she tightened her clutch on her brothers control chip. Zero stopped walking and turned towards her. "So, what are you going to do with that?" He pointed towards the control chip. "Are you going to use it still?" She hesitated, and then responded. "No, it would change me. I don't want that. I want to give this thing a proper home, buried where Repliforce began." She clutched the chip for another moment, as if to gain strength from her deceased brother, and then put it back into her pocket. Zero nodded. "So where should I go now to make sure the countdown doesn't even begin?" Iris looked down the hall, where her back was originally turned when Zero entered. She pointed, "That's the way to the master terminal, and where the General is located. He is the only one who can start this thing up."

Zero nodded, taking it all in. "Alright, I'm sure X is on his way there already, and I'm not one to leave a friend hanging. Iris." He grabbed her shoulders, a chill ran down her spine and a little splash of red hit her face thanks to the sensation. "I need you to go back where I came. There is a small ship X and I got here on. Go there and wait for us. If you don't hear anything from us in an hour, I want you to escape."

Iris looked into Zero's eyes, tears starting to form. "No! I can't leave you alone here! Not after all this…" Zero squeezed her shoulders and she flinched from the sudden pain, but he relaxed immediately. "I can't risk you getting hurt Iris. Please understand." For a second, she thought, there was nothing she could do and she'd have to oblige. Then, she realized something. "No! I'm coming with you! I'm Repliforce after all; I can access places and files you can't! How do you think I got this far after all!"

Zero stared at her for a second, then released his grip on her shoulders and scratched his head, biting down on his lip. "Guess I have no choice then. Come on then, we can't leave X waiting!" He then turned and burst into a sprint down the hall.

Iris, surprised at how easy he was to convince, watched as he ran off with a shocked look on her face. "Hey! Change your mind already!" Iris puffed her cheeks a second, a natural response she didn't even realized she did, and started running after Zero.

And so, an alternate timeline is born. Every action that one makes can drastically change the future for the individual as well as all those surrounding him/her. In this timeline, Iris has made one of those decisions, deciding that it is not worth losing oneself to vengeance, and thus has created an alternate timeline to the one we all know. Escaping her dark fate, Iris is able to continue her adventures with Zero, and will travel farther down the chronicles of Megaman X. How far will she go? Will her presence change anything at all? The story continues…