Right, this story is similar to "Darkness comes to Light", only the roles are reversed, and this story doesn't contain any yaoi, not even with my brothers. I'm trying to cut back a bit. It might seem REALLY the same as DctL, but trust me, it's not. In any case, let's get going.

Light comes to Darkness

Chapter 1 X's POV: Oddities

MHHQ is always busy this time of the day, and today is no exception. Everyone's up and about, doing this or that, trying not to run into each other in the meantime. To any viewer, it would've been hilarious, but to me, it's lost its fun. I admit, once or twice, it's okay, but seeing people crash into each other about twenty times a day, that's a little too much. Even Zero's starting to complain about it, so hey, it really must be getting boring.

Sometimes, I wonder about that guy. Really. There's little we know about his past, and if I have to believe Zero, he doesn't even remember himself. If you ask me, he knows plenty but refuses to tell anyone, even me! I doubt he's even told Iris.

Oh yeah… Iris. Totally forgot about her. Damn it. I don't know what it is about her, but something about her just… it ticks me off. Of course, I don't let it show (most of the times). I didn't even show my anger at her snatching my best friend away from me. Because that's practically what she did.

The second Zero saw her, all his attention was focussed on her, and he just seemed to forget about me. I tried to get his attention again, but all that bozo saw was her! And of course, she noticed him looking and smiled at us, or more at him actually. She then walked over and started talking to Zero, acting like I wasn't even there. I swear, I could've shouted at the top of my lungs and Zero wouldn't have heard me.

So, well, I left.

Easy as that. I left.

He never noticed me leave. And once I managed to find him again, which was about a week later, he seemed to have plainly forgotten I exist at all. He ignored me as I sat down next to him outside of HQ, simply staring up at the sky with a look I couldn't describe. He didn't even respond when I called out his name. Only when I clocked him to his head did he finally acknowledge me.

"Hey, X! What the hell was that for?!" he demanded, rubbing his sore head.

Okay, usually, I don't get angry at Zero. I can take his crap better than others can, but right now, I felt as though he was purposely ripping me apart. If I find out he did it on purpose, I'll seriously mangle him up during his sleep! Can't kill the guy, don't know why.

But like I said, Zero was, of course, totally clueless about why I clocked him, so I got angry. Really angry. I mean, be rational people, if your best friend ignores you for a week, and he doesn't acknowledge you when you talk to him, you hit him, and then he has the nerve to ask why you clocked him, wouldn't you be pissed? Yeah, I figured as much.

But I caught him off guard by getting angry, which I never do unless it involves Mavericks. I started shouting at him, and he stared at me as I did, mouth agape and his eyes wide at my anger. I practically shot up form my seat to tower out above Zero, showing him that no amount of words was going to calm me down.

I screamed at him, whatever I had screamed, I don't know, it's hard to grasp now, but whatever it was, Zero tried to butt in multiple times. Saying stuff like "X, calm down", or "X, listen to me". And I would shout stuff back like "No I won't calm down", or "No! You listen to me!" Stuff like that you know.

But even though I was angry with him, I was hurt even more. Years ago, we vowed to always be best friends no matter what happened, and now Zero had practically thrown that all out the window by ignoring me completely.

So, once I was finished, I waited for Zero to speak up, to say anything to reassure me that he still wanted to be my friend. That he didn't want to wash it all down the drain. But I half-expected him to be angry with me for blowing up on him in the first place.

But he did nothing.

Nothing.

No reassuring words, no tantrum, no nothing.

Minutes passed, but when ten had passed, and he still hadn't done anything, I did the worst thing I could ever do; I broke the promise myself.

"Know what, Zero? If you appreciate Iris' company more than mine, than you can forget about us being friends at all! I don't even want to be your partner anymore!!"

That got a reaction. He gasped and shot up, grabbing my shoulders in his hands.

"X, listen already!!"

"NO!!! LET ME GO!!! LET GO!!!!" I screamed, and kicked him, hard.

Zero doubled over, and I took that moment to run. Back to HQ, to the safety of my room, ignoring Zero's desperate calls to get me to stop. Once I got into my room, I immediately changed the code to my room, making sure Zero couldn't come in at all.

My breathing was erratic as I leaned against the door, needing something to keep me to my feet. Usually, it would be Zero keeping me up, but now he was no longer there. And it was my own damn fault. I really started to regret what I did, but I knew I had no way to turn it back around.

If I could, I would've, but the fact was, I couldn't.

Somehow, I don't remember how, I found my way to my bed, and collapsed, letting loose all the tears I had been holding in. I curled up, pulling a pillow close to my chest. I buried my face in it, trying to picture it being Zero's shoulder instead. Whenever I needed to let it all out, Zero always pulled me to him and let me cry on his shoulder. I needed that now. Very much so.

I staid there for so long, and I stopped trying to figure out just how long I'd been there. I didn't get up to eat, nor did I manage to sleep. Whenever I tried, I woke up moments later, not feeling any rested, and instead, feeling more tired than before.

The pain tearing through my body was something I couldn't bear, and I really needed Zero here. I needed him so much, that I searched my entire room for anything with Zero's scent on him. Somewhere around my room, I managed to find one of his old shirts, and, thank god, it still had his scent all over it. I pulled it over my head, not caring if it was too big for me, and finally managed to fall asleep, his scent having that big an effect on me. I was burning up, but I couldn't care.

I dreamed of him. I dreamed of when things were the way they had been before that argument. I was in his arms, crying in his shoulder again, and he was whispering to me that everything would be all right, that it was okay…

I slept for a long time, just laying there, wrapped up in his scent, how I wanted things to be again. A small part of my mind told me that was impossible however, that I'd lost him for good and could never get him back again, all because I couldn't control my temper.

I told it to take a hike.

Whenever I ran out of scent, I desperately searched for him, almost begging him not to leave me alone, going into a crazed frenzy. And whenever I found him, I would fall back into my dreamy state, just drinking in his scent. A/N: A friend of mine did this when she and her boyfriend broke up

I didn't respond to anyone coming to my room, begging me to come out. It was always Alia, Signas, or Douglas coming to me to try and get me out of my room, but I wanted neither of them. I wanted Zero, goddamnit!! But I don't think they understood, and they kept trying.

Yet I remained in a state in between sleep and awareness, unable to distinguish dreams from reality, and vice versa. I simply hovered in that state, basking entirely in Zero's scent, begging silently for whatever was up there to bring him back to me.

My prayers were soon answered.

A soft knock sounded from the door, but like so many other times, I ignored it. But when it came again, and no words came, I took notice that the knock was hesitant, as if whoever was on the other side was nervous about something. Slowly, I rolled over on the bed, staring at the door, still clutching Zero's shirt in my grasp, as if I could open it from a distance and see who was so hesitant about seeing me. When a voice finally came, it was just as hesitant and nervous.

"X? Are you up? I… I really need to talk to you."

My breath hitched slightly, as I slowly pushed myself up.

"…Zero??" I murmured, almost ready to get up again.

It took a few seconds for him to answer again… and it sounded like he was really nervous about talking to me.

"Y-yeah… it's me… please, open the door, X…"

"……O… okay…"

I stumbled up from the bed, slowly making my way to the door, still holding his shirt tightly. It seemed to take an eternity to reach the door, but somehow, I managed and opened the door. He stood there, looking down at the floor, before turning his face up to look at me. He really looked nervous about something.

"Hey," was all he managed to get out.

I couldn't even speak, because it was almost too much seeing him stand there. I almost threw myself at him back then, but I was wiser than that. The urge was there though.

"C-can I come in?"

I gulped down whatever was blocking my throat, and just managed a small nod. I stepped aside so that he could enter, and once he was inside, I closed the door again. I turned to him, clutching his shirt to my chest like it was the only thing left keeping me alive.

Zero gulped a little nervously, before he turned to face me.

"Look, X, about Iris…"

I shook rather clearly, trying to stay on my feet, but almost unable to. My grip on his shirt only tightened as Zero seemed to weigh his words carefully.

"X… there's nothing going on between her and me. I just… I just had the strangest feeling like I saw her somewhere before. Like… like… uh… oh heck… I'm not good with this…"

I managed a slight giggle at Zero's frustration, and that seemed to lighten the mood just a little bit.

"X… look… I'm sorry about what happened, but I just needed to figure out where I saw Iris before, and… well…"

Zero looked around for a moment, as if he expected there to be cameras somewhere. Alright, now I was curious, and I think it showed.

Zero pulled out a picture from his pocket, and held it out to me, whispering: "Check this out!"

I gingerly took the picture from him with slightly shaking hands, took one look at the picture… and could barely contain my laughter. Zero seemed to enjoy it as well and walked up to beside me.

"Just happened to walk past the book-store. Was lying right in front of me."

I smiled, first smile in days probably, I don't know, but at the moment, I couldn't really care. The most important thing was that Zero was there, with me. That was the only thing that mattered to me at the moment.

But he saw I'd been crying, and he seemed to know that he was the cause of my tears. So, he did what he usually did whenever I cried; namely, he embraced me and just held me.

He said nothing, but I didn't need any of it. I just needed him.

That was about… 10 months ago, and we're back to being best friends at the moment. Zero was being plagued by Iris time and time again, but he kept brushing her off if he was talking to me.

But anyway, that's over and done with now, and at the moment, there wasn't much for me to do. Zero's in his room, taking care of some paperwork that's due this afternoon. He always does that stuff at the last moment, don't ask why, I don't know. I always tell him to do it the second he gets it, but he just refuses to listen. Don't really blame him; he's always been one hell of a stubborn prick.

Like I already said, a lot of people are calm at this time of the day, and nobody expects the Mavericks to attack. The last Maverick attack had been two days ago, so everyone knew they had to recuperate. I did too, but I couldn't be too sure of anything nowadays. Gate already told me (he managed to recover, but he's still in custody) that there was a mysterious aura surrounding his lab when he had gotten there from the Eurasia crash-site, but he had found nothing when examining it.

Gate seems to trust me now, after I managed to knock some sense into him. Alia seems to like him, very much so. I don't blame her. Gate's a nice guy, it's just that he's been a crazy psycho because of Zero's DNA. How'd that even happen?

But I long ago decided to just drop it.

As I already said, people weren't expecting an attack… and three guesses what happened.

Right, we got attacked. And not just by any old Maverick. It wasn't anyone we knew (and I'm thinking of Sigma here shudder), but they seemed to have a clear goal at hand.

They were attacking Gate's old lab.

Even though it had been meant to be destroyed, people ended up rebuilding it instead. And by the looks of it, the Mavericks didn't like the idea.

Zero, Axl and myself were sent to take them out. About Axl though… can't say I hate him, but I just don't like him… I don't know… he's just… just too much like the way I used to be before the very first Maverick War… I don't want him to become what I have become.

Still, a job is a job, so we headed out, destroying any Maverick we might encounter. It was rather odd though…those Mavericks weren't really attacking anything in particular. They just seemed to be looking for something.

"This is crazy!" Zero mumbled. "What the heck are those guys looking for?!"

"No idea," I said. "But whatever they're looking for can't be good when they get their dirty claws on it."

Axl was silent, unable to add anything to it, for the moment. As we moved on, it became apparent that there was something wrong, but what?

After several minutes of non-stop walking and destroying Mavericks, we come to an area that was completely abandoned. I easily recognized the place as where we had battled Gate. Strangely enough, there was no one around, which seemed rather odd, as the entire place was otherwise crowded with Mavericks.

"All right, NOW where are those damned bastards!?" Zero demanded.

"Maybe they all went somewhere else?" Axl offered and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that.

That surely didn't make any sense. I made a move to walk again -- only to find my foot was stuck in the ground.

"What the?!" I cried out, trying to pull my leg loose again, but no such luck.

"X?! What the heck is--?!"

"I don't know alright?! Just get me out of here!!"

Both Axl and Zero began to help me yank my foot out, but it didn't help at all. In fact, I seemed to be sinking further and further into the ground. But even so, we wouldn't stop and just kept trying.

"Crud, this isn't helping!" Zero mumbled. "I'm gonna--ACK!!"

I whirled around, and noticed Zero's foot was also stuck. Uh-oh…

I looked down at myself and paled when I saw I was nearly waist-deep. Hurriedly, I placed my hands on the ground and tried to push myself out. Now there was an idea that backfired as my arms passed through the ground, and it sent me through the ground, tumbling down a massive tube of some kind. I cried out in fright as multiple bright flashes nearly blinded me.

Luckily, it was over within a few seconds, and I crash-landed face-first onto the ground.

"OW!!!"

That smart…

Shaking my head drearily, I slowly stood again. Note to self; never do something like that again. …Whatever that was in the first place.

As my vision began to return, I looked around a bit, before my eyes widened in horror.

Wherever I was, I wasn't in Gate's lab anymore. The place was more like some sort of massive warehouse for Ride Armors, but most of the Armors were busted, badly. I looked up, and noticed the darkened skies through a massive hole in the ceiling of wherever I was, but I knew that didn't make any sense. The sun was still out, I could easily tell, as the clouds didn't hide the sun very well. But even so, the sky was darker than I remembered.

I could only watch the sky for a few moments, before I started to move, having already confirmed I was alone. I suspected Zero and Axl had ended up somewhere else. Now I just had to find them. Which could take some time, as I had no idea where to go.

As I walked, I noticed whoever used to live her had a rather bad house-painter. All the walls were dark-red with splotches of black on them. Like someone had chucked several gallons of black paint all over the walls, instead of trying to actually paint. Shaking my head sadly at the people's poor choice of painter, I continued walking, paying close attention to my surroundings. But I found nothing and no one.

And the entire place was just too quiet…

Click clunk-kachunk!

So needless to say, I could easily heard someone jamming a cartridge into something I could only suspect as a gun. The second I heard the loud bang, I dived to the ground, the shot barely missing me and smashing into a few barrels a bit further ahead. I couldn't help but gulp.

Looks like I'd been wrong about no one being here.

"Get up from the ground and put your hands on your head!!" a voice shouted from behind me.

The voice held a slight Irish accent, but nevertheless, it wasn't a voice you should disobey, so I slowly pushed up from the ground, and put my hands behind my head. But even if I did, I had my Buster set for silent charge, with my hand still out. No sense in alarming the guy before I could get a shot in.

"Good. Identify yourself."

I took a deep breath, knowing this was going to be messy.

"Mega Man X, Commander of the 17th Unit of Maverick Hunters."

Silence.

Dead silence.

I didn't bother to move, waiting for the guy to speak again. I still didn't have my charge ready, so it'd take a little longer. So I guess the best idea would be to stall.

Finally though, the guy spoke again.

"You're yanking my chain, aren't you?!" he demanded angrily.

"Why should I?" I questioned simply. "I don't think I have a reason to."

Before he could come up with another response though, I whirled around, pulling out my Buster and releasing the massive bolt of plasma I'd been charging for. With a yelp of surprise, the guy leaped to the sky, almost easily avoiding the blast. I could only vaguely make anything out, and only just managed to avoid the two blasts of plasma sent my way.

Whoever this guy was, he was good. Smashing into the ground, he instantly sent several bursts of plasma straight at me, making me yelp and leap aside. I sent a level two bolt at him, followed by several level one shots. The guy easily cartwheeled away, and flipped back several times, easily avoiding each of my shots.

Like I said, he was good.

…And a lot better than I was.

I cried out in pain as he suddenly had me pinned to the ground, balancing on my chest and Buster-arm. I also got the barrel of a blackhawk aimed at my face.

"Gotcha," the guy said, a cocky grin on his face.

That was when it registered who I was looking at.

"Wha?! Axl!?!?"

The guy standing on top of me really did look like Axl, but he was still different. Instead of green eyes, the guy's eyes were grayish-blue, his hair was dark red instead of orange, and his armor was a lot darker than I remembered. That, and he seemed to have grown a couple of feet.

The Axl-lookalike snickered a bit, keeping the blackhawk aimed at me.

"Don't push your luck with me next time. You might just find yourself retired."

Huh?? That really didn't make any sense. What did quitting my job have to do with this?!

But uh… I didn't really enjoy having that gun aimed at me. I gulped a bit, not daring to look away from the gun for even a second.

I don't know how long that lasted but at a certain point…

"Hey whoa! Axl! Hold up!!" a voice called out, making the guy look up in surprise.

"…Oh, Red. What do you want?" he asked, and I just managed to turn my head to look at whoever this 'Red' was.

When I saw him, I blinked a bit. 'Cos the only thing red about him was his hair.

He had a light blue jumpsuit with darker blue armor that became lighter when nearing the joints (ankles and wrists). The chest armor's top was dark blue, while the lower half was lighter. The shoulderpad on his right shoulder had an Omega emblem on it, while the one on his left shoulder bore a stylized "CS". On his left forearm and his left shin (both on the left side) were large scars that stopped short 2 inches away from his ankles/wrists and knees/elbows. Across his chest from his right shoulder down the left side of his waist, runs a large scar that was about an inch deep, if I judged that correctly. His helmet was the same color as his armor, and a triangular glass-like visor I couldn't look through partially shielded his face.

And like I said, the only thing red about him was his hair, which was tied back in a ponytail and ended near his thighs.

"Axl, get off him. I just might have an idea of what's going on around here," he said calmly.

The guy on top of me narrowed his eyes, before suddenly leaping up, compressing my chest a bit, leaving me gasping for breath as he flipped back and landed on his feet.

"All right, but don't expect me to trust this guy."

"Wasn't expecting you too, kid."

"Yeah, whatever."

The guy with blue armor chuckled a bit, then walked over to me.

"Sorry 'bout the rude welcome," he said, pulling me up to my feet.

I blinked, twice, then asked: "Who… who are you guys?"

"I guess that would help a lot, huh? I'm Red Chaos Mage, Head-Commander of the Chaos Shadows. And I'm sure you already met Axl."

I looked over to 'Axl', who snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, still clutching the blackhawk in his hand. I shuddered a bit when locking eyes with his cold orbs, and right now, I'd very much prefer the Axl I got to know at MHHQ.

"Uh… yeah… but uh… where are we?" I asked.

"I'm suspecting, that you, mister, are here from a world parallel to ours," Red said calmly, as if talking about the weather.

…………………

Had I been able to, I would've had a heart attack, but as it was, I simply froze up, staring at him.

"Excuse me?!?!"

"Let's head to MHHQ first. Zeal's going to have a field day with this."

"Who??"

"You'll see."