[Coda]

Epilogue, part 2

The year is 22XX.

Decades ago, Dr. Cain discovered X. The development of the Reploid race was the direct fruit of Cain's reverse-engineering of X's emotional matrix. Reploids were marvelous, exhibiting the individuality, personality, and emotion that Dr. Light had dreamed of. Unfortunately, it was difficult to understand the artificially evolved details of X's design, so Reploids had to start from incomplete data.

Now, artificial intelligence has come so far that it can sometimes be hard to tell the difference between humans and Reploids outside of the body type.

Emotional light technology has advanced to the point where artificial intelligences can live in forms of pure energy, free from the restrictions of physical bodies. These beings came to be known as "Cyber Elves" and have the ability to manipulate the material world in unprecedented ways.

This developed from further research into the Maverick Virus, which was discovered to be an emotional light construct weaponized by Dr. Wily near the end of his career. Fully understanding the Virus involved the discovery of the black light as a distinct phenomenon. Mavericks were found to be Reploids whose emotional lights slipped too far out of equilibrium, and the Maverick Virus could induce this destabilization by interference.

X retired from his role in the Maverick Hunters years ago after his pivotal role in ending the Maverick Wars, sacrificing his physical body to seal away the Dark Elf that was capable of rewriting a Reploid's mind. He lived on as a Cyber Elf, but to fill his shoes, a scientist named Ciel built a Reploid built on X's design with a copy of all of his memories.

Unfortunately, while X had unknowingly developed internalized the white light of life during his hundred years of testing, Copy X was built without this perfect balance or the power of life itself. This led Copy X on a campaign of merciless justice, stomping out any Reploid that showed any sign of potential Maverickism, all in the name of protecting humans.

No one yet knows what the future will bring, but a robot named Zero -- an ancient war machine built by Dr. Wily himself, yet a friend of X himself -- has stepped up to try to bring peace where Copy X has failed.

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Word Count: 375
Total Words: 8117