#{Guest Muse: Zoel}

[thegatesofinfinitespace]

For Zain! What is his relationship like with some of the maverick hunters now vs his old world? Are there a lot of old faces? What about new ones?

((To... keep it easy to differentiate the two worlds (and to keep from constantly saying Zain's Old World and Xanti's New World, etc), I'm going to call the world where MZ, Zain, Zain's Vile, Mave, and Psi World Z, and the setting where Xanti, Vi, the 0th Unit, and the majority of the plot takes place World X.

I'll also specify that if we're talking about the Vile from Zain's world, I'll be calling him simply Vile. The Vile that is written by @overx is better known as Vi, will be referred to as such.))

Before MZ destroyed the planet, World Z was following a near 1:1 timeline as the original MMX games, and ended at the 5th game's Bad End, or as Zain and Psi know it as, the 5th Maverick Uprising or the 5th War. The difference here is that for extra flavor to the world, I have OCs and side characters (like the 0th Unit) that never existed in the games alongside canon MMX characters like Alia, Douglas and Signas (yes that means Iris and Colonel and Vile and eeeeveryone else). Equally, when the planet was broken, no one survived excluding Psi, Zain, and MZ (Mave wasn't a person yet/still in development).

Between World Z and World X, there's more than a few repeating characters, the OG canon characters being not the only ones. The truth is: everyone feels the same. Sigma, all the Mavericks up until X5 and Repliforce, even the Navigators and Cain. It goes deeper than that too. Even the unnamed side characters, the 0th Unit, the reploids and rookies that Zain trains alongside the other Hunters-- they're all the same too.

...Can you begin to understand why Psi, the X who had been with Zain until he'd gone to World X, calls Zain crazy?

They both saw all of these people die. Their friends, strangers, students and enemies. Zain and Psi can look at individuals in World X, the same whose timeline is further behind, and know who will go into a fight and live, and who will leave on a mission never to return. Who will go Maverick, who will be crushed under a mechaniloid, who will be betrayed and who will do the betraying, and it's pretty accurate knowledge, now that Sigma and the original eight have once again defected. The timeline in World X is different, but all the faces are the same.

....Except Xanti, and now... Vi.

There's a reason for that, but it's not going to be elaborated on at this moment.

In World Z, the original eight Mavericks (specifically and ESPECIALLY Storm Eagle), Sigma, Alia, Douglas and Signas, the 0th Unit, Psi, and Vile were all people that were once a part of Zain's social/inner circle. All of those people were ones he considered friends. Before the First Uprising, they were all ones he confided in too.

He, equally, was far more outgoing back then as well. They'd all have drinks, hangout, play games and train together. They shared everything; stories, space and camaraderie, really and truly were friends. Until many of them were infected, they were all Zain had. Vile, in particular, was Zain's best friend until Psi, and until Vile eventually succumbed to the virus.

...It hurts, to go to World X, and see them all. There is a sort of displacement for Zain in World X. These people all share the same memories, the same feelings as those from World Z, but he is not in them. He's not their friend here. The individual known as Zero did not even exist until he showed up, and there had been no virus outbreak because of it; just the usual political Mavericks who attack because of mistreatment.

For that, Zain kept his distance in hopes to prevent further hurt for himself, and the people that never knew him, but...

Time has a funny way of correcting itself.

Vi is the only one left.

He's doing everything he can to make sure lightning doesn't strike twice again.