Hi, guys! I'm back with the last chapter of the first arc. Considering that I'm going to be a bit busy the next few weeks (school's starting up again! I gotta get ready!), this story will be on a bit of a temporary hiatus. I've got to finish the second arc yet, and I'd like to stay ahead of you guys in that regard.

Shadescribe - Maria is definitely going to be getting stronger. A LOT stronger. How strong, though...well, we'll have to see. ;) And as for the Limited, that was exactly what my idea was! X and Zero just have a new Sigma-style villain to mess with. It should make things most interesting...

Anyway, here's the chapter!

Chapter 11 – MMX part 10

When Maria came out of stasis lock, the first thing that registered to her was that she was lying rather snuggly in a cylindrically-shaped pod that was facing a white-tiled ceiling.

It took her a moment to realize that she was lying in a recharge pod, and another to realize that she was probably back in the Maverick Hunter base.

Maria pushed the pod open and stumbled out, feeling unsteady on her feet for a moment before she righted herself. She quickly looked around in order to see where she was in the base and if there was anyone nearby who happened to be at least a little bit familiar.

"Oh! You're up!"

Maria turned her head when she heard the familiar-but-unfamiliar, youthful voice, and she caught sight of a Reploid sitting on a steel table wearing black, red, and white armor with brown hair sticking out from under his helmet.

"Joshua was right when he said it'd take you a full day to recover," the Reploid commented. "Man, though, you really gave Hadron a scare when we came back!" He slipped off the table and walked over, holding out a hand. "I'm Axl – the real one. Thanks for helping me get out of that situation back there."

Maria nodded and accepted the handshake. "I'm Maria, but I guess you already know that." She frowned. "You said I was out for a day?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Joshua said that you'd have been back around sooner if he hadn't used up all of that Energon stuff. Where did you find that, by the way? That stuff's got a pretty good kick to it!"

"We have access to it back home." Maria shrugged. "Joshua and I don't really need to use it, but we can in a pinch. We have friends who need it a lot more than we do, though, so most of the Energon we find goes to them." She looked around the room again, noticing that they were in a lab of some kind – and that they were alone. "So…where's everyone else?"

"They're coming. I sent an alert as soon as you pushed the pod open."

As if Axl had said the magic words, the doors suddenly burst open, and Hadron came scrambling in, followed closely by Joshua and X.

"Thank goodness!" Hadron came to a stop mere inches in front of Maria and let out a sigh of relief. "For a moment there, I was worried that you'd burned your core out completely and fused your inner circuitry together!"

Maria blinked at that, raising an eyebrow slowly. "Uh…."

"Essentially, he was worried that you'd killed yourself," Joshua said flatly, causing Maria's eyes to widen in alarm. "Which we both know can't happen because you're built to be able to handle extreme heat, thanks to your own abilities. I doubt that you're going to go in that state, rather than under some other circumstances."

Maria shot Joshua an unnerved look. "That's…not exactly comforting, Joshua."

"It's still the truth regardless." Joshua gave a slight smile. "It is good that you didn't die back there, however. I'm certain that your entire family would have been out for my blood then for not keeping a better eye on you."

"I-if you don't mind me askin', how was it that you managed to unleash so much power that you were able to destroy the Limited's physical form in one blow?" Hadron adjusted his glasses and looked at Maria with a curious expression. "I don't think that I've heard of a Reploid who's been able to handle 150 percent of their total energy usage without burning out completely before even getting a percentage point past 100 percent."

Maria shrugged at the question. "I haven't really thought about it all that much, to be honest. I guess…maybe it's a human thing? I mean, we're always told to give 110 percent when it comes to things like sports and stuff. It could be something like that."

"Except that you're not pushing your muscles; you're pushing your energy core," Joshua pointed out. "That alone is enough to cause a bit of a difference between your case and the average human's." He looked over at Hadron. "In normal cases, Maria's abilities should be near-impossible, considering that she has nearly killed herself multiple times now by pushing past a an average Reploid's limits. I suspect that it might be because of her nature."

"My nature?" Maria raised an eyebrow.

"As a World Jumper." Joshua gave her a pointed look. "You have to be prepared almost constantly for the chance that you could end up in a life-or-death situation, and that translates into powerful attacks that leave your opponents incapacitated – possibly even killed, if it came to that."

Maria winced. "Yeah, I don't plan on killing anybody."

"That's easy to say, but not quite so easy to follow through, I'm afraid," X spoke up.

"Well…I'd like to avoid doing that for as long as possible," Maria replied quickly. She frowned. "So…what's going to happen now? I mean, have we figured out what's going on with the Limited yet or—"

"It's probably going to lay low for a while," Joshua replied. "From what Zero and the rest of us heard, it seems that the Limited may have other nodes elsewhere where its consciousness resides. Finding them is going to prove difficult, especially considering that it is aware of what it is that you're capable of. If anything, it's going to find ways to fireproof itself thoroughly before making another appearance."

"Oh, boy…."

"I think we'll be able to handle it," Axl piped up. "I mean, we're technically immune – kinda, right?"

Maria shot him a look. "What?"

"The Limited essentially acts as a program that assimilates Reploids and brings them into the hive mind it creates," Joshua spoke up again. "If someone is to be 'immune,' they'd have to be able to function under their own power despite the assimilation, and eventually find a way to throw the program off."

"Zero has already proven that he's able to ignore it, so we've gotten his permission to put together a little anti-virus," Hadron explained. He paused. "Oh, and…he mentioned that you two might know something about who his creator is? He's been waiting rather impatiently for you two to tell 'im, you know."

X and Axl looked at Maria and Joshua sharply at that while Maria stiffened a little at Hadron's statement.

"Oh, boy." Maria's voice came out with a slight squeak to it. "That's…." She swallowed.

"What is it?" X frowned. "You do know who it is, don't you?"

"We do," Joshua confirmed. "It's just that…well, we are immensely lucky that Zero is as he is now, and not as his creator more than likely intended him to be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Axl frowned.

Maria and Joshua exchanged looks, Maria's expression clearly nervous while Joshua's was a calm mask.

"Does this have anything to do with the Eurasia Colony incident?"

The group looked over at X, who was eyeing Maria and Joshua with a cautious, suspicious frown that mixed together into something that resembled uneasy recognition.

"That depends on what exactly it was that happened," Joshua replied. "The events we are aware of have multiple possible outcomes depending on how someone plays the game that is based off those events. Were you able to stop the colony from crashing?"

"Not completely, no." X shook his head. "I went to the wreckage myself in order to find Zero. We…doubted that he'd survived. I was surprised to find that he was alive and in one piece, not to mention the fact that he'd absorbed a large amount of the virus into himself." X paused. "For some reason – and even I'm not entirely sure why – it felt right to have the two of us fight right then and there. We damaged each other severely, but by the time that aid was sent to our location, I was the only one they found. Zero appeared later during the Nightmare Zero Virus incident, somehow fully healed."

"I remember hearing something about that," Axl remarked. "Wasn't there some kind of rumor going around in the Hunter base for a while after that that Zero was…immortal, or something?"

Maria blinked owlishly while Joshua considered X's words for a moment before nodding.

"Those events are directly tied to his creator, yes," Joshua confirmed. "In fact, your reaction – that it felt right that the two of you were to fight – is in direct correlation with that."

"Well, then spit it out already!"

Maria jumped when she heard Zero's voice come from the doorway, where he was standing with his arms folded across his chest and an impatient glare on his face.

"I've been thinking about it ever since we got back," Zero added.

Maria gulped.

Joshua sighed. "All right, we'll tell you. Just…keep an open mind, all of you, all right? I don't think it would be wise to change your view of Zero despite what we're about to tell you."

The group frowned at that.

"The man who created Zero was around at the same time that Dr. Light was, so Zero is technically as old as X is." Joshua glanced over at Maria. "Unfortunately, while that man was brilliant, his sanity degraded in spectacular fashion to the point that it was questionable as to what exactly he was thinking in the end when he created Zero."

Maria swallowed nervously. "He, um…might also have been the cause for all the wars that took place in the pre-Reploid era in the first place."

X, Axl, Hadron, and Zero looked at Maria sharply, and she ducked her head quickly and looked away in order to avoid looking at their faces.

"Yes, there is that as well," Joshua confirmed.

Zero turned his gaze from Maria to Joshua, a disbelieving, shocked spark in his blue-green eyes. "Are you telling me that my creator is Dr. Wily?"

"Unfortunately." Joshua gave a curt nod.

"Sweet Sarsaparilla," Hadron paled. "Y-you don't mean that Zero is Wily's last weapon of mass destruction?"

Axl took a couple steps away from Zero while X looked back and forth between Maria, Joshua, and Zero with a confused, startled expression.

"How's that even possible?" Axl asked. "I-I mean, Zero doesn't act like he's crazy, or even like he's gonna destroy the world! Right now, anyway." He zipped behind Maria as soon as Zero looked over in the other Hunter's direction.

"Reploids are designed to be capable of thinking for themselves," Joshua pointed out. "Dr. Light got the idea after he had saved Maria's life, and I believe that Dr. Wily got a similar idea after he kidnapped Maria and forced her under his command."

Maria shuddered abruptly at the memory.

"Wily may have programmed Zero with that free will without realizing it, and therefore that allows Zero to not act like a crazy, bloodthirsty Maverick." Joshua motioned over to Zero, who was frowning deeply.

"That still doesn't explain how he was acting when Sigma found him," X spoke up. "That was right before the Sigma Wars started, as well."

"That was the virus – the original program that Wily had used on Maria – acting on Wily's behalf," Joshua replied.

Maria shuddered again. "Not fun."

"The way you're talkin', yer makin' it sound like we should dig into Zero's code a little bit more because there might be a cure for the Maverick Virus," Hadron commented. "Or is it something similar to what you've got?" He looked over at Maria.

Maria shook her head. "The way the virus reacts to Zero is different from how it reacts to me. It gives him a power boost. I just kick it out."

"And as far as we know, only Zero's systems can handle absorbing any amount of the virus properly, if only because of how Wily designed them," Joshua added.

"I would appreciate it if you talked about me like I was actually here," Zero snapped, folding his arms across his chest. "So the guy who created me happens to be the guy who made the virus. So what?"

"It could make you a danger, that's what." Hadron sent Zero a look. "And if that's the case—"

"Locking him up for study isn't going to be a good idea."

Hadron turned at Maria's voice, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

Maria squirmed a little under the look he was giving her. "Look, Zero's been able to do just fine so far, right? I mean, he's still on our side and not doing whatever it is that the virus might want him to do. What do you think, Zero? Would you get…antsy, if you were locked up without anything to do?"

Zero nodded without hesitation. "Definitely."

"And that would be a worse situation than how things are right now," Maria continued. "Besides, you're helping, not harming, and there's no real reason to change that, right?"

Zero nodded again.

Hadron threw his arms up in the air. "That's not going to help us any, Maria. I'm tellin' ya, we're gonna have to have another look at Zero's code now just because of that little realization alone! And even if I was gonna tell the higher-ups that Zero should be allowed to come and go freely, they're probably not going to take me seriously considering that he's a Wilybot."

"You're forgetting that I've got some of Wily's code in me, too."

The group turned and looked at Maria then with mixed expressions, but she ignored them and kept going.

"So, technically, that makes Zero like a half-brother or cousin or something to me," Maria pointed at her chest with her thumb, standing straighter. "I'm a link between Light's and Wily's work, and I've chosen my own path. I don't see why Zero can't do the same thing. He can think for himself, let him keep doing what he always has been!"

"The knowledge of who Zero's creator was shouldn't change your opinion about him," Joshua added. "Zero is still Zero regardless."

Zero nodded in response.

Hadron was starting to look more frustrated and annoyed with everything that Maria and Joshua were saying. "You two don't know what war is like here. You two have hardly any power here, either, considering that you hail from another dimension. This information can't be kept a secret, either—"

"You forget that the only proof you have right now is our word against the rest of this world's."

Joshua had everyone's attention again.

"The only reason we know is because of the games that we have access to in our dimension; the only ways that you would be able to check are if you manage to find Wily's notes on his work, and considering that Light's notes were corrupted enough that you knew nothing about Maria, I doubt that you're going to be able to find Wily's computer system, either."

"He's got a pretty good point," Axl spoke up.

"A point it may be, but that doesn't stop the fact that this is very important information." Hadron sighed irritably. "Still, you're right – we probably won't find actual proof of this for quite some time yet, considering that we haven't already. And if that's the case, we can more than likely keep it a secret for a little while longer." He paused. "No matter how much this makes me angry for having to keep this secret in the first place."

Maria let out a sigh of relief and as her shoulders relaxed.

"Thank you, Dr. Hadron." Joshua gave the man a nod.

The man waved the comment off, scowling. "Just know that I'm gonna be in deep trouble if they ever find out that I knew and didn't say a single word about it. And don't you go say anything, either!" He wagged a finger at X, Zero, and Axl in turn.

"Like I'm gonna say anything!" Axl yelped from where he still stood behind Maria.

Zero shrugged a shoulder, saying nothing.

"While I don't like what Dr. Wily stood for in the past and stands for in the present, I do appreciate having Zero as an ally," X commented. "And while I trust that humans know what they are doing for the most part, your paranoia can be a bit…unconventional, sometimes. I'll keep this a secret for now; if it comes up in the future, and humans are willing to listen and not lock Zero away, I won't have any qualms about keeping my mouth shut."

Maria gained a surprised expression at X's statement before a smile broke out across her face. "Thanks, guys."

Hadron cleared his throat roughly. "Yes, well."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Axl looked around at the group. "I mean, the Limited's still around, so there's no way we're going to get a break from any of this."

"But Maria did deal it a rather damaging blow, so we probably won't be hearing from it for some time," X added. "Like Sigma, it will probably spend some time attempting to amass another army before it makes an appearance again."

"And it'll probably be fire-proof because of what I did," Maria muttered. She sighed irritably. "Sounds like I won't be of much help when it comes back."

"Even if that's the case, you did give us something of an advantage by defeating it yesterday," X pointed out. "I doubt that it's going to be able to attempt something like that for us again, now that our systems know what to look out for and prevent."

"That may be the case, but you should still be careful of it regardless," Joshua pointed out. "Now that it has data on all three of you, it's possible that it will be able to make copies of you, like it did for Axl when we were fighting it before."

Maria stared at her cousin. "You don't mean that…do you?"

"Considering what our internet has as data on the Limited? I consider it to be incredibly likely."

Zero snorted. "Even if it could make a double of me, I doubt it'd be a match for me." He paused. "If you don't think you can do anything else around here, does that mean you're planning on going back to your home dimension or something?"

"Well, I'm considering it." Maria rubbed the back of her head. "I mean, there are other worlds that I have to keep an eye on, too, and I'd like to get over to them before the summer ends back home. I am a World Jumper – this world isn't the only one that I have to keep an eye on."

"And considering that the threat has been neutralized for now and is possibly going to be immune to anything Maria attempts in the future, I doubt that there is much else that we can do here," Joshua added. "Which means that it would more than likely be wise for us if we simply packed up and left now."

"Now?" Hadron repeated. "Do you mean, right here right now?"

"Well, why not?" Maria shrugged.

"Signas is gonna have your head if you do that!" Axl yelped. "And then he'll have our heads!"

"Eh." Zero snorted, looking amused. "The kid's as old as X and I am, and besides, she's not even an official Hunter; she can pop in and pop out whenever she wants."

Maria shot Zero a grin. "Thanks!" She turned to look at Joshua. "You ready to head back now? Or do you want to wait a bit?"

"I'm prepared to head back whenever you are," Joshua replied calmly. "I assume that's going to be now, then?"

"Well, I don't see why not." Maria shrugged. "I mean, the Limited's taken care of and all, so we may as well check in back at home and make sure everything's going okay before I head back out again."

Hadron scrambled to pull the black iPhone-like device out of his lab coat pocket. "You're going to do it right here? How?"

"Easy." Maria shot the man a gin. "I'm a walking portal."

With that, Maria snapped her fingers, and a blue vortex of energy suddenly appeared in the room, causing the Hunters and Hadron to jump back in surprise.

"Whoa!" Axl looked between the portal and Maria. "How did you—"

"I'm a World Jumper." Maria winked. "Itravel between dimensions for a living." She looked over at X, Zero, and Hadron. "It was great to be able to help out here, guys. If anything comes up again, I'd be more than willing to drop by and give you guys some help."

"We'll keep that in mind," X promised with a nod. "Good luck."

Maria smiled and nodded in response, then turned to look at Joshua. She motioned with her head towards the portal, then walked forward and disappeared into its swirling blue depths. Joshua quickly followed after her, and the portal quickly winked out of existence.

And that finishes the MegaMan X arc! Next arc, we're not following Maria - we're following her older brother, Matthew! I'll probably post the start of the next arc sometime in September, after I've had some time to adjust to my school schedule and get a little writing done. I'll see you then!