Huh boy... I got my timeline reference sitting on my lap... this is gonna be one heck of a post. Anywho, this theory was thought up by Ringo and I while we went to Wal-Mart to get some bright-coloured poster board for our green screen. It took us an hour to clear everything up and put it together in an order we can work with. We took everything that we know about the Classic and X series (mostly Classic) and tried to cover all of our bases. We used the games, and tried to account for every single character in the Classic series 'fore it makes the jump to the X series.

This is gonna be long and complicated, but bear with me and hear me out. Remember, this is only a theory, not fact.

Here we go...

At the end of Power Fighters, we learn that Wily builds Zero, so I'm gonna start there. Wily has realized that every time Megaman defeats one of his creations, he takes their weapon. So Wily creates Zero, not only to be more powerful, but to also have a hidden surprise in the event that he is defeated and his weapon is taken; the Zero Virus. Wily completes Zero after a long time of hard work and unleashes him on Dr. Light's lab.

Zero arrives at Light's lab and goes on a total rampage, destroying almost everything. Megaman fights him, but Zero proves to be a very powerful adversary. During the fight, Auto runs like a coward, Light hides out, and apparently so does Quint (who had joined the Light household at the end of R&F for the WonderSwan.). Zero totally trashes the place and heavily damages Megaman. Megaman is then taken by Zero and to Wily's lab. The only survivors of that battle are Light and Quint (Auto ran for it, remember?). Everything else was destroyed, including Rush, Beat, Eddie, Roll, and whoever else happened to be there. (Ringo and I had Bass as one of the casulties, and Protoman had died already, but due to his system glitch that was revealed at the end of Power Fighters.)

Zero arrives at Wily's lab with the damaged Megaman (who was also inadvertantly infected with Zero's Virus.), and Wily works at repairing and reprogramming his new catch.

Meanwhile, Light, who is aware of the Virus and incredibly desperate to get Megaman back, uses what's left of whatever's in the lab and upgrades Quint. Quint is outfitted with new armour, a new Buster, the weapon-adaptation ability, and a high-tech antivirus. Dubbed with a temporary moniker (temporary in the event that the rescue is successful and Quint's no longer needed), "Megaman X", Quint is sent out to Wily's lab to retrieve Megaman and disinfect Zero.

Some quick notes on the anti-virus: This program will comb through every single inch of Megaman's brain, and isolate the Virus. Though, to go through everything, it will take a long time. It also eats alotta energy, so the antivirus has a program that'll run, instructing the robot to seek out a capsule to sustain their systems until the antivirus finishes its scan.

X (Quint) arrives at Wily's lab to fight Zero. A giant battle erupts, Zero and X exchanging blows. The R&F Robot Masters (from the SNES version) go to protect Wily and help Zero, but are destroyed in the process. (The other RMs are kept in storage in a secret base of Wily's.) Wily's watching this huge battle and knows that he's done for. So, he seals himself in a vault with the damaged and reprogrammed Megaman, and in a last-ditch effort, he send Megaman back 30 years into the past to prevent this whole thing from even happening. During the battle, the castle crumbles around the vault, trapping Wily inside. He supposedly suffocates.

X eventually restrains Zero enough to deliver the antivirus and promptly leaves in search of a capsule as the program runs within him as well. (He was infected while fighting Zero.) The program runs within Zero, and he promptly searches for a capsule.

Meanwhile, Light, aware that the antivirus program will take a very long time to finish its scan, seals himself in a cryogenic chamber, which is programmed to revive him whenever the antivirus finishes the scan. The chamber, though, revives Light slowly. When he's being revived, his thought patterns and conscience are basically fed through a sophisticated hologram while his body tissues recover from the cryogenics. Promptly awaking him would kill him, so Light planned ahead.

Anywho, approximately 30 years before this whole mess, a capsule arrives. The capsule uses what's left of its energy to repair the reprogrammed Megaman to a certain extent. He then uses parts of the capsule to reconstruct his body and create a new weapon. He then goes off in search of Wily.

Dubbed "Quint" by Wily, Megaman is further reprogrammed and used by Wily against the current Present Megaman. Quint is soundly defeated. Fed up, Quint goes out on his own, and is again defeated by Bass and Megaman. That's when Quint reveals to Megaman that he's Megaman, only from 30 years into the future. Megaman takes pity on Quint and brings him back to Dr. Light to repair him. Quint then lives in the Light household.

A few years later, Wily completes Zero and the process repeats.

Gaunt said something about Zero being discovered. If he was in a capsule, then that works. But who's to say he wasn't in a capsule at some point? If you notice, he still has his lil berserker rages, showing that the Virus wasn't quarentiened properly. What could've happened is the program could've glitched and woke Zero up early. When he awoke, he was confused and fought, and that's when he was discovered.

So, the capsule part can still work.

Actually, this theory will continue into another theory, so it's not all about Shadowman. Anywho... since Shadowman's origon remains basically a mystery other than the fact that he's an alien, I took some liberties with this one.

Shadowman, 'fore he was "found" by Wily and rebuilt, was origonally a carrier of Evil Energy. He was on the run from Duo when he apparently crash-landed on an asteroid. His body and craft shattered, no one could really tell who or what he was when his remains were found by a group of scientists from a leading government association.

Wily, still stewing over his second defeat at the hands of Megaman, catches wind of Nasa's latest find. In need of materials for his creations, Wily breaks into the bunker and steals Shadowman's remains. Back at Skull Fortress, he rebuilds Shadowman to what he saw fit; a ninja. Arming him with the Shadow Blade (constructed from the remains of Shadowman's busted ship), Wily sends his new creation out.

Shadowman is ruthless and proved to be quite the opponant. But Megaman wasn't to be bested by Wily 'bots, and Shadowman was defeated... several times.

In the midst of Wily's never-ending world conquest, Duo crash-lands on Earth. Dr. Light finds him and repairs him with pretty much no knowledge of what Duo actually looked like. Because of the damage sustained and the scattering of heat-fused parts all over the crash site, Duo was rebuilt with parts of his own ship. His memory was also affected by the crash as he could not remember who exactly he was after. He knew he had to find the Evil Energy, but he was unsure of who has it. Eventually, with the help of Megaman, Duo finds his way to Wily. Thinking he purged all the Evil Energy from Wily, Duo bid a fond farewell to Megaman and left.

However, Duo never found the origonal carrier of the Evil Energy.

After the whole mess with Duo, Wily goes back to expiramenting with Shadowman's materials and the Evil Energy. Seeing how the Evil Energy affects some of his machines, Wily decides to toy with it and eventually creates a mutated virus form of it. Using his own creations as his test subjects, Wily watches in delight as the virus turns them into mindless killing machines.

Perfect.

This throws Wily's greatest plan into action. At this point, all those defeats sunk in and Wily realized that his robots alone can't triumph. But, if he were to somehow corrupt Megaman so that he'll turn on Dr. Light...

Again, Wily's attention is drawn to the mysterious Shadowman. Opening him up, Wily sets to work, rebuilding his robot and implanting the virus into Shadowman's brain. Being that he is low on materials, Wily looks to his other robots. Taking them apart, he uses whatever parts and supplies he needs and remodels Shadowman again, this time into an armoured, fighting machine.

Wily knows that Megaman will stop this new robot, but that's exactly what he wants. Upon the robot's defeat, Megaman will assimilate the Master weapon and Wily's ultimate trap will spring as Megaman inadvertantly infects himself with the mutated virus. The virus will then cause Megaman to turn on Dr. Light and defeat him once and for all without Wily even lifting a finger.

It will take careful planning and careful construction to contain the virus within its carrier, so Wily works diligently. He will not rush this project as this will be his definet coup de grace against Megaman. Dubbing his new refitted alien android "Zero," Wily is pleased as this will be his greatest and most deadly creation ever.