Many have wondered about the origin and nature of the most troublesome and infamous virus within the Mega Man X world. The dreaded, and feared...
Maverick Virus.
Where did it come from?
Who created it?
How? Why?
Such answers were never spoken so many have created their own theories.
This is where I house my OWN theory, which I christen the Doppleganger Theory. Remember, this is my theory and you are entitled to your own. So be nice when commenting/criticizing, what have you. If you don't be nice, I'll bite you. ^_^ Also keep in mind that my grasp of the Japanese language is very limited, so the information I get, I get from either my translations or asking someone who knows Japanese better than I do.
Shall I begin? Yesh! I shall!
To fully understand this theory, you must have either played MM8 or have a firm grasp upon it. Knowledge concerning the Mangas would also help.
Within Mega Man 8, the world was visited by two extraterrestrials. Duo and the Dark One.
Duo,
as I see it, was a space police of sorts. He was responsible for chasing
down the Dark One, a supreme criminal of evil energy, and stopping him from
creating harm. That mission, as well as the Dark One's flight, lead the both
of them to the unsuspecting, and technologically inferior, Earth.
The Dark One was a being of dark energy, which could separate or be separated in to smaller parts of itself. Each piece then took upon a life of its own, as if each were an offspring rather than a piece of a whole. Wily took these parts and implanted them in to his robots, to make them stronger. The energy amplified the negative emotions within all that came in contact with them, giving them incredible strength.
Mega Man joined Duo's side and fought against Wily. Ultimately, Mega Man was accidentally possessed by dark energy during the final battle. Duo, uncertain as to whether he could save Mega Man, used his pure energy powers to try and help him. Having done so, Duo then left the planet.
What has this to do with the Maverick virus?
Everything.
The Maverick virus is Dark Energy.
Duo had his doubts as to whether or not he could heal Mega Man. Thus, there is the possibility that he did not. Rather, he was merely able to seal the dark energy inside of Mega Man so that it would not kill him.
In other words, the dark energy was still there.
Also, during the course of the game, Mega Man had collected energy as well as weapons from the Robot Masters. He had gained four, which were destroyed by Duo.
However, he gained four more parts which Duo did not destroy.
Contamination could also have come from those four, which Dr. Light would not have known how to seal properly.
When Rock had been turned in to X, Light would have found the seal and the dark energy. Dr. Light would not have had the technology to obliterate the dark energy. That was something only Duo could do. Duo, unfortunately, was not present.
Without much choice, Light then sealed X in to the capsule with the warning, dark energy and all.
The warning and capsule were precautions taken by Dr. Light to combat the SUPPRESSED dark energy.
That takes us to where we are now.
Dr. Cain, when he found X, did not know of the dark energy within X.
He was excited about his great find and, without any knowledge of the dangers, began to copy X's schematics to create reploids.
In creating those reploids, he unwittingly copied the dark energy. Unfortunately, Cain's ignorance prevented him from realizing what the seals were and what they meant. Thus, he copied the dark energy but not the seals to suppress it.
Thus, he inadvertently gave birth to the Maverick Virus.
Now, let us go back a bit to Wily.
Wily was extremely fond of his newfound toy, the dark energy. He put it in all of his new creations as well as vehicles.
Bass, no doubt, also has dark energy within him.
That brings us to a certain point.
During the Power Battle, Bass at the end makes a comment about a blonde robot which is Wily's new project.
I know of only one robot with blonde hair, besides Roll.
Zero.
Since Zero was made by Wily, then, it would be safe to assume that Wily did not stop his trend with the dark energy.
It would stand to reason that Zero is also in possession of Dark Energy.
Let's skip forward to RMX3 (the mangas).
Sigma, having converted Doppler to his dark plans, used a new deadly weapon to achieve conquest.
He had Doppler create Bit, Byte, and the infection worms.
The infection worms, as I call them, infect their host with the Maverick Virus (or some form thereof) that makes them go insane.
In other words, each 'worm' of computer chips carry Dark Energy.
The infection worms go for the head, entering the subject. The subject then goes in to convulsions, their body reacting with sharp and otherwise painful movements. Then, that subject becomes Maverick.
What has this to do with Zero?
Let us look at MMX4.
During Zero's flashback, when he is about to fight Sigma, we see a rather insane Zero attacking the then leader of the Hunters, Sigma.
However, Sigma manages to defeat Zero.
How?
He attacked Zero's head.
That's right, his head.
Zero clutched his head, his crystal reacting oddly. Sigma then attacked Zero, punching him in the head and shattering the crystal with the force of his blow.
Zero then dropped like a stone, even though he was relatively undamaged.
Why, pray tell, did Zero drop so quickly?
The Dark Energy, it would seem, is focused within the head and is both a physical disease as well as a mental one.
Sigma can inject himself within a subject's mind, as he did to X in the RMX3 manga, due to the infection worms that carried the Dark Energy.
Thus, Zero and X are both carriers of the Dark Energy and, in turn, the 'mother virus' of the Maverick virus.
So? How's my theory?
It looks pretty darn good to me. ^_^