Some questions about the Zero series/ X series interlude.

[bryonnightshade]

I write fanfiction, and I was doing some research for a story idea I had about X between X series and Zero series. I was having a lot of trouble with it, though. I know what happened in terms of the Zero series games taking their story cues from X5 which was supposed to be the last, only then went ahead and made four more X-era games after anyway, etc. What I don't know is if there's some sort of timeline, fanon or not, that attempts to reconcile all of this.

The thing that had me hung up most recently was this question: when does X leave Neo Arcadia? On the one hand, X's body is supposedly the seal on the Dark Elf, and since the Elf Wars were ~100 years before the events of Zero series, that would imply that X left Neo Arcadia at that time. On the other hand, Ciel says that she built Copy X "after X disappeared"... and while that is technically a true statement even if X had left 100 years prior to Ciel's time, it implies that his leaving was an event that happened during her life.

As I said, a timeline of whatever level of officialdom would probably help a lot, but I don't know where to find one.

[Quallevra]

As I understand it, the events go as follows:
Sometime after all the X games, Zero somehow discovers that he's the source of the virus.  He has himself shut down, as shown in the flash-forward at the end of X6, so scientists can study him and figure out how to fix this.  His "mind", or whatever component holds it, is removed and probably ends up in X's desk drawer or something, while the scientists study Zero's body.  One of those scientists, Dr. Weil, wants to find a way to destroy all Mavericks, while another, Ciel's ancestor, wants to find a way to cure them.  She figures out a way to do what she wants first.  After cracking the code of the virus, she creates the very first cyber-elf, the Mother Elf, which is capable of countering it.  X uses the Mother Elf to cure all Mavericks and destroy the virus forever.
Unfortunately, Dr. Weil doesn't accept that.  He takes Zero's body, allegedly to upgrade it or something, I guess, but instead starts programming in Omega's personality (which was probably more rip-off of Zero's original Maverick personality than anything of his own creation).  He also steals the Mother Elf, turns her into the Dark Elf, and spawns a bunch of Baby Elves off the result.  These "possess" and take control of numerous random Reploids, creating new Mavericks to go on rampages, under Dr. Weil's control.  The plan, I guess, is to use this as an excuse for why his plan of destroying them all is necessary after all, and probably put Omega at the front of that action.  This fails when it's somehow discovered that he's the one responsible for the new Mavericks.  Instead, the world turns against Weil, and he uses his Elf-controlled Maverick army, lot of giant Mechaniloids, and eventually, Omega, to fight against the Hunters and whoever else teams up to try and stop him.  The resulting war rages for four years, and results in staggering numbers of casualties.
Eventually, a new body is built for Zero (we don't know by whom), and his mind installed into it, allowing him to join the fight.  Weil had encased Omega in new, fancy armor, and designed it so the Dark Elf could merge with it and thus him, but just before they can, Zero seizes control of the Dark Elf, and through her, the Baby Elves.  He makes Weil's Maverick army switch sides, and he and X kick butt on the rest of his assets.  In the end, Omega is badly damaged (though nothing self-repair systems won't eventually heal), he and Weil are captured, the surviving victims are freed from Baby Elf control, and most of the Baby Elves are destroyed.
Two Baby Elves are kept alive, confined in two different facilities, to be studied, in hopes of someday learning how to undo what Weil did to their mother.  In the meantime, the Dark Elf is imprisoned as well.  Omega is exiled to a small space station in orbit above the Earth.  Dr. Weil is seized by a lynch mob who, feeling death is too good for him, turn him into an immortal nanotech-maintained cyborg, and drive him out into the dead wasteland that now dominates the planet in the wake of the war.  Zero decides that his existence is detrimental to any chance of peace on Earth, and has himself shut down again, this time with no intention of ever being reactivated.  X presides over the rebuilding of civilization, and the founding of the city of Neo Arcadia.  While it probably wasn't his original intention, he ends up as official ruler of the city, and remains so for the next century.
One hundred years pass.
By the end of this time, Neo Arcadia is facing a severe energy crisis (a shadow that's been looming since it was first founded, as the Elf War seems to have permanently destroyed their original sources of energen crystals).  X has become jaded and depressed, probably because the lack of external corruption failed to mean no more Mavericks.  He's allowed his immediate subordinates to run policies more and more, resulting in questionable stuff like burying the past and trying to teach new generations that there is no history but the existence of their "perfect" city.
The energy shortages result in the risk that the containment of the Dark Elf will fail.  X plugs his own body into the containment unit, making himself part of her prison to ensure that it won't, as his own generator will now sustain it.  This also allows him to remove himself from an existence he's come to find tedious, although rather than simply sleeping, his mind leaves his body to wander cyberspace.  The rest of the government panics, thinking they can't do without "Master X".  Ciel, nine-year-old genetically-enhanced genius, is called on to build a new body for X to inhabit.  She builds a replica body for him, but X doesn't inhabit it.  Instead, whatever programming she gave it takes over, and Copy X comes to life as a new individual.  He considers himself X's successor, but everyone else believes, or at least prefers to tell themselves, that it's X himself, allowing Copy X to take control as he pleases.
Failing to understand the value of true peace and equality between the two races, Copy X believes that humans alone must be looked after at any cost, even at the expense of the Reploids.  Believing that the best way to handle the energy shortage is to reduce the Reploid population, he starts using the Maverick label as excuse to execute Reploids left and right.  Five years into his rule, a little girl Reploid is randomly slated to be their next "Maverick" put to death.  At this point, the now fourteen-year-old Ciel realizes there's no justice in how the city is run anymore.  She takes the Reploid girl, whom she names Allouette, and flees Neo Arcadia, joining a group of Reploids trying to survive outside of the city's grip.  As they're naturally all targets, Ciel soon comes up with the idea that they need a great hero or warrior to help them: Zero.

[bryonnightshade]

Thanks. This was very helpful.

[Quallevra]

You're welcome.