You're from a whole 'nother world, a different dimension.
You open my eyes, and I'm ready to go, lead me into the light.
Apex Leo: the most desired, well refined and gorgeous, last level. This far up in the sky the levels below— visible through the sky-high windows throughout the transportation sector— appear as nothing but specks of light and color, glinting provocatively in the bright sunlight.
Lance can't help but emphasize with the lower levels and its unfortunate, unlucky inhabitants. He couldn't imagine a life without sunlight, without clear skies and star-filled nights. For as long as he can remember, he's been walking below the blazing sun, skipping through air and silken-soft clouds. It was what gave him his bronzed, caramel skin. Lance was living his best life, and for so many years he went about ignorant to the struggling inhabitants below his feet— ignorant to the treasures hidden between Panthera and Felis— which is why he developed a keen interest in the different Levels. That was how he met Pidge and Hunk for the first time, during a purely business-related trip down to AFHI headquarters in Felis.
He fell in love with the duo at first sight and they've been inseparable since.
Despite their class differences, the trio venture out into the world below together on a regular basis. Of course, nothing below Canis is allowed for Lance, but rules are made to be broken. Right?
This day was no different. As per usual, Lance had been called upon by Pidge who was screaming gibberish, frantically, over the communicator. Her animatic gesticulations and expressiveness was a surprise in and of itself, but he was no less shocked to hear what his favorite duo had scavenged this time.
"Remind me once more why you want to activate something that could potentially obliterate the entire planet? You said this thing was, what, immersed in nanbots?"
"Nanobots. And, yes, I wanna know what exactly it is." Pidge supplied, adjusting her glasses, "I doubt it'll obliterate anything, though. At least not until it's…" she trailed off and lifted one of the creature's limp arms, "fixed." she finished and dropped the dead weight back on the table. It landed with a loud thud.
Lance glanced back down at the thing and gawked once more at the sheer size of it. The creature was at least 7ft tall and must weight somewhere around 220 pounds, if not more. Simply put: gigantic and clearly not of this world. How it managed to wedge itself between two beams below the portal-rails in Panthera— without leaving a single trail of destruction behind from crash landing through the eight levels above— was a mystery.
"Have you… uh…" he started and mimicked Pidge's earlier arm-examination, "Have you tried touching it?"
"Have we what?"
"You know… like… touching it…."
Hunk choked on his sandwich in the background. Pidge spoke for the two, her face contorted into an expression of plain disgust, "I'm not keen on giving alien handjobs—"
"WHAT! No! No, no, no! I didn't—" heat rose to his face, just what exactly is she thinking, "I didn't mean it like that!" he tried clarifying in panic, "I mean it as in 'have you tried pressing on the armor of face or something'. You know, like, when you slap someone who's unconscious— WHAT THE FUCK, GUYS?"
He glared furiously at the duo, shocked at their filthy minds and even filthier image of him. Before they could add to the embarrassment, Lance turned and inspected the creature's head closer.
It had eyes, that much was clear, though they were a matching, shiny black like its armor. Open, but lifeless. He lifted a hand and hesitantly laid it down on the right side of its head, gently, carefully stroking the sleek material. But before his brain could register what was going on, the black of its eyes swished away to reveal a pair of lilac irises drenched in dark purple. As its eyes opened Lance's arm was pulled harshly and quickly to the side. The air was knocked out of his lungs the second his back hit the cold, metal examination table. Above him loomed the damaged creature, awake and moving as if newborn. In the near distance Lance could make out the frantic yelling of his friends as they scrambled for their bayards, but it was to no avail.
Surrounding the two on the examination table was a translucent, purple, sound-isolating shield. He could hear the electric thuds as Pidge and Hunk repeatedly pounded on it in despair.
Suddenly, the enormous killer-creature above him twitched and morphed down into a much smaller, softer form. The black, shiny armor shriveled up and disappeared to somewhere on its nape and revealed a skintight, dark-purple suit which covered its entire body. On it were carved symbols, wires and various buttons. It looked incredibly high tech, despite the beating it had previously sustained. Lance was stuck staring at the design of it and only looked up at the face of his attacker when he felt something soft brush against his cheek and forehead. Hair.
His eyes met the same lilac irises, except this time they were… human. No weird dark-purple, just white and indigo as it should be. Upon taking a closer look, Lance noticed the whirring mechanics in those striking lilacs presumably scanning his face. It wasn't human, but it looked human— he looked human, Lane corrected himself. It was definitely a man. Lance's age, maybe older, but a man nonetheless. His skin was pale but soft, spotless, and the pitch-black hair on his head came down past his shoulders and down on the examination table, successfully covering half of Lance's face in the process. It was tied up in a loose, low ponytail and shone beautifully in the lamplight.
Lance forgot how to breathe, and only regained his composure as the man above him spoke. His voice low-pitched and raspy, like sex to the ears.
"Who are you and where am I?"
Lance blinked once then twice. He shook his head in an attempt to rid his embarrassing blush before finally answering, "The name's Lance and you're right here in my lap~" he provided with a wink and a crooked grin, face still hot. The man above didn't so much as flinch.
He did, however, let go of Lance and slowly sat up— on his lap— as if it were the most casual thing in the universe. Though nothing about the action was remotely sexy, not to anyone but Lance— of course— who was sporting half a boner over some alien killer-cyborg. He squirmed at the contact and tried his hardest to remain indifferent about the situation. Pidge and Hunk will so beat him over this later.
"Planet."
"What?
"What is the name of your planet. Where exactly am I." he asked, arms crossed. Lance shivered but caught himself before his mind could wander off to places it shouldn't be.
"Uh… Earth…" he started, "You're on Earth, in the Milky Way…" he scratched at his cheek, waiting for a reaction, "Does that help—"
"Understood." he said and slowly got off Lance. As he did, the barrier keeping Lance's friends from reaching them disappeared and through came the loud, agitated yelling of his equal parts as terrified as furious friends. They immediately raised their bayards, which took the shape of their respective weapons, and aimed it at the alien man.
"Stop right there. Move and you're dead." they said, almost in perfect unison. They must have practiced that…
"Yeah!" Hunk added, "Or we'll— we'll…" but his voice wavered in fear as the alien took a slow, heavy step forward, showing no sign of neither pain nor backing down.
"Or you will do what?" he asked, voice low and animalistic.
"Uh, you know what? How— how about we just talk this out?" he said instead, de-activating his bayard and turning towards Pidge in alarm, who had also backed up from the approaching threat. Lance finally regained his senses.
"Wait!" he shouted, "Don't hurt them! They're my friends!" he said and ran in front of the still approaching alien, stopping in his track and swinging his arms out to either side to stop him from hurting the two people he considered his best friends, "I told you my name and where I'm from, now you do the same!" he said, voice breaking at the end of his sentence. His hands were shaking, and his knees felt as if they would give in any second. Something about the guy made him want to cave in and kneel, but he didn't. Lance stood his ground as the alien spoke.
"My name is Zero." he rasped out robotically.
"Zero?"
"Correct."
Lance turned and looked at Pidge, then Hunk, who were equally as confused as he felt.
"Your name is… Zero…? Zero as in the number '0'?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
"Correct."
To this, Pidge reacted. She took a slow, steady step forward and situated herself right next to Lance as she spoke, arms wrapped around Lance's right one, "How human are you?"
The alien blinked once before tilting his head to the side, black hair falling graciously over his shoulder, "I do not understand."
"I mean, how human are you as in what percentage? Are you mostly human or are you just a machine with a human skin?" she clarified to the oblivious creature.
"I was born human but my biological and mental abilities have been either enhanced or replaced in their entirety." he explained, still puzzled by the question.
"So you're a human with a robot's brain?" Hunk suddenly asked, voice steadier than before.
"Mostly." the alien corrected before turning to pace the room, scanning his surroundings in the process.
"Uh… why are you here again?" Lance asked.
"I have no data on it." the humanoid replied uselessly, "All the data I have stored points to some sort of escape-plan. So far, I have followed it as commanded."
"Commanded? Escape plan?" Hunk asked, agitated once again, "Uh, guys? That doesn't sound good. What the hell were you escaping from?"
"Unclear."
"And how do we know you're saying the truth?"
"I am a machine sent here for my own preserving, why would I wish to deceive you? You bear no significance to me and your readings are proof of your garbage biological structure."
Hunk and Lance both flinched before turning towards Pidge whose jaw hung lose, shocked beyond belief. The same technology she's devoted her life to just roasted the fuck out of her.
"I can't believe a machine just shade—"
"Shut the fuck up, Lance." she bit back, irritated, her head snapped back to the rude alien, "And you have no place to talk like that when I'm the one responsible for your rescue! Had it not been for my persistence we would have never found you and brought you here in the first place!" her fists were tightly clenched by her sides, visibly shaking. With flushed cheeks she took a steady, heavy step forward, "So if you're really speaking the truth, prove it! Let me examine you. Properly." she concluded and unclenched her fists to entwine her arms over her chest.
The rude machine in question blinked once more, "It appears as if I angered you." it concluded, "Your readings are off the chart—"
"Oh, shut up! I don't wanna hear it." she said, "And stop scanning me, it's creepy! Are you even human at all? You have no personality!"
"I told you—"
"Let me analyze you, then we'll talk." she finished, leaving no room for arguments.
A long pause ensued, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the room, drowning out any positivity it had once grasped on. Just as Lance was about to propose a different course of action, the machine finally spoke.
"Understood. If that is what you wish." he said and bowed his head ever so slightly, "If what you said is true and you were, in fact, the one to save me— I owe you as much." he concluded before moving to sit back down on the cold examination table. Pidge's eyes shone with determination and satisfaction over her small, momentary victory.
"Great!" she said and clapped her hands, "For starters, where are you from? How much data do you hold? Is your brain purely robotic? Why were you immersed in nanobots—"
"One question at a time, please." he said with a furrow of his brows. The action seemed foreign, almost unnerving to Lance who could only view the thing as nothing but that— a thing, a machine incapable of emotions. Hunk appeared equally disturbed where he stood behind Lance, a safe, comfortable distance from the freaky humanoid.
"For starters," the alien started, "I am from a planet far from your solar system. My home planet, Daibazaal, was apparently under heavy attack. Why or how, I do not know. Most of my primary storage systems were destroyed during the attack as well as the flight out to your planet." he supplied.
Pidge had brought out her trusty notes and was tapping away enthusiastically, now properly concentrated on the task at hand.
"Wait, destroyed on the flight to our planet? How?"
"I am unsure, though my guess is that my ship was altered before departure. It was meant to self-destruct way before reaching the pre-set destination, though Rover discovered the error early on and re-adjusted the route so that I would land on Earth before self-destruction was activated."
"That's a lot of fancy words."
"His ship wanted to kill him—"
"Wait," Pidge interrupted Hunk's explaining, "Rover? Who's that?"
"My AI."
She visibly flinched to a halt, eyes blown wide and eyebrows pulled down. They cast heavy shadows over her confused expression, "Your AI? As in your own artificial intelligence?" she asked, baffled.
"Yes. Like you said, my brain is mostly hardware."
"WHAT? You have a computer for a brain?" Lance's shocked question came through.
"I said mostly." he clarified before turning back towards Pidge, "His name is Rover. He is not very talkative and does not like structuring full sentences, but he is great at analysis and scanning, which is why he was so quick to discover the implanted error. He does like making fun of me, though." Zero added, furrowing his brows once more. Lance blanched.
"Ma—" he mimicked Pidge's expression, "Making fun of you— that's terrifying!" he exclaimed. Heavy shivers ran down the length of his spine as he uttered the sentence. Computers shouldn't be able to make fun of you!
"I have been sharing my thoughts and information with Rover since the dawn of my existence, it is hardly terrifying— only annoying."
The trio stared in shock, incapable of ever envisioning the type of life Zero must have led before his arrival. Imagine sharing every thought and emotion with an implanted brain-computer…
Pidge cleared her throat before continuing, "So, your brain is mostly hardware? What else was enhanced?" she asked and looked him over curiously, lifting his arm and turning his head as she inspected him.
"My spinal cord was replaced, and my bones have been enhanced. Most of my organs were replaced, too." he answered without faltering.
"Your organs were replaced?"
"Yes. Though my heart and brain were only enhanced, they remain the same. My eyes were also enhanced."
Pidge's expression was that of keen interest. She walked around the examination table and pulled out various tools and substances for her examination of the alien man. He watched her as she worked, not uttering a single word of resistance. All Lance could do was stare at the man on the table. He was broad and looked way over-powered to be considered even remotely human, but something about him told Lance that this guy was holding back essential pieces of himself and who he was.
"We can't call you Zero."
The words left his lips before Lance had a chance to react, much less hinder them from surfacing. All eyes turned towards him, varying levels of confusion on their faces. Lance decided to go for it.
"Can we keep him?" the question was aimed at Pidge and Hunk; whose attention was now entirely on Lance. Pidge's brows were turned down into a scowl.
"Keep him?" she asked, "He's not a puppy, Lance, he's a killer cyborg from outer space. We'll have to hand him over to the Academ—"
"No!" he shouted and stood up, causing his friends to both flinch and back away from his sudden outburst, "No." he repeated, quieter this time, "We can't hand him over, they'll torture him! We can't do that…" he tried explaining, "And besides, there might be more to him than we originally thought…"
"And if he attacks or something? What then?" Pidge asked, arms crossed. She spoke as if the alien in question wasn't right next to her, listening, "We don't know what he's capable of."
"Which is exactly why you're examining him, right?!" Lance tried asking, scared for Zero's well-being. If they hand him over to AFHI there's no telling whether he'll even survive. Were he to do something— anything— that the Academy deemed a threat he'd be put down without much consideration. Lance couldn't let that happen. As freaky as he was, Zero is a human being.
Before he could add to his argument, the alien spoke, "I can assure you that the destruction of you or your planet is of no benefit to me." he stated firmly, "Unless you intend to lock me up. Self defense is a natural reaction to any strange information-gathering methods you might force me to undergo." he concluded and intertwined his hand where they rested on his lap.
"See?" Lance asked, more confident now that Zero himself confirmed himself as safe.
Pidge and Hunk both stared long and har at him, and just as Lance thought he had been rejected, Hunk finally spoke up, "I mean, he has a point. It would be cruel to send him to the Academy…" he stated hesitantly, scanning his girlfriends face carefully for any trace of anger.
She let out a long sigh, "Alright. But we'll have to teach him how to… I don't know… act human? We can't let him act like something straight out of my lab."
"How about a new name?" Lance suddenly asked, question aimed at Zaro who turned to look at him again. Lilac met sky-blue and Lance's world tilted just a little bit for the shortest of moments.
"A new name?"
"Yup! We can't call you '0', that's just stupid! Where did that even come from?"
"It is my subject name." Zero replied, voice low and for the first time since his awakening— hesitant, "Subject 0. A project name, if you will." he clarified to the shocked expressions before him.
Lance's heart broke in two, his gut twisting painfully. Subject? Project name?
"So…" he started, voice barely above a whisper, "You were a project…?" he asked.
Zero broke eye contact, lilac irises plastered on the spotless, steel floor below his feet.
"Yes."
His face showed no emotion, but Lance could feel his pain from the way his voice broke just a little. He shook his head, ridding himself of the guilt which drowned him. Suddenly and loudly, Pidge spoke, "Wait, wait, wait! You were a project?"
"Correct."
"And you said earlier that your storage systems were destroyed?"
"Not all, but the main ones, yes."
She scratched her chin in thought as she paced in front of her desk, turning in quick successions. Then, suddenly, she stopped and turned sharply towards the three of them, eyes glinting with determination and a wide grin plastered on her face. Her glasses reflected the lamplight and shielded her eyes for a brief moment.
"Then how about I fix them for you?" she asked, all her attention back on Zero once more. The alien flinched in surprise, eyebrows raised high.
"You are capable of doing that?"
She scoffed, "Duh! I'm Katie Holt, for fuck's sake! There's no one here who knows technology better than me!" she stated pridefully, chest puffed out high.
Then, a chuckle, and the trio all snapped their heads towards the source of the sound. Zero.
Lance stared in awe, relishing in the beauty that was Zero's gentle, short giggle. It felt like walking on clouds and sounded like siren song, dangerously captivating, hypnotizing.
"You have my permission, savior." he said and smiled up at Pidge who still stood in utter shock, "But, I would like to ask for another favor." he said, changing the mood. Pidge snapped back to the present.
"Uh, yeah…" she faltered, "What favor…?"
Zero sat in silence for a moment, choosing his words before speaking, "In order for my physical body to survive the sudden landing, Rover activated a filtering program meant for hazardous situations and life-threatening scenarios. It erased most of what makes me… human." he said, "I would appreciate it if you could de-activate it." he finished and looked at Pidge expectantly.
She frowned, "So that's why you're acting like a robot more than anything?"
"Partially." he confirmed.
She stood still for a moment before nodding, "Alright, I'll se what I can do!" she said and smiled at him.
"Thank you."
She turned back towards Hunk and Lance who sat still in their chairs, deep in thought. Lance's eyes were glued to Zero, interest spiked.
"Lance?" Pidge's voice came through. His head snapped up to her face, "Yes?"
"You said you'd give him a new name?" she said.
Lance had no idea what to name the alien creature in front of him, but he thought it best to settle for something common that wouldn't raise questions. Something lame but fitting. He looked around the room for clues when his eyes fell on an old article on Pidge's desk. It was an old article they'd all scavenged during one of their hunts in Cynthia. On it was a picture of a firefighter smiling brightly at the camera, behind him were the remains of what was once a house. The headline read "Courageous Firefighter Keith Henderson Saves the Day Once Again". Lance remembered how they'd all laughed at the ridiculous picture ("He saved the day, but not the house!", Hunk had wheezed out).
He turned towards Zero, grin plastered over his face, "Keith!" he practically yelled out.
His friends were confused at first but quickly caught on, chuckling at the memory.
"Keef?" Zero asked, confused and unaware of the history behind the name.
"No! K-E-I-T-H." he clarified and put a hand on the alien's shoulder, squeezing firmly and throwing him his most gorgeous grin, "What do you say?"
Zero paused for a moment, as if considering the name-change, before saying, "Alright."
He rubbed his hands, lost in thought, "Keith sounds good." he said and smiled.