Zero ten.
The dreaded flash back chapter.
Zero groaned as he got off the ground. His whole body felt...weird, Yet oddly familiar...and painful.
As in, 'just blew my self-up' sort of painful.
'Pain, pain, pain... And I thought Xiu Ying was the one with the pain chip." He grumbled internally, looking around to try to figure out where the hell he was this time. And for whatever life was left of him, the war build once again wondered why his creator programmed pain in his frame. Wasn't he supposed to conquer the earth and destroy X and whatever the last of Light's creation held dear? In that case, why could he be stunned by mere stings and hits?
But from what he remembered, Wily was not what one would call sane by any stretch of the words.
Never the less, Zero was not in his frame anymore, as per the absolute mess of an environment that surrounded.
The place he was in was...there were no words to describe it short of a sea of old, corrupted Data. He could perceive memes, banking reports, old audio files...broken picture commingling with other to make an ever-changing mosaic of audio-visual glitches covered with this weird data-veil.
Zero squeezed his eyes shut, trying to reset away the illusion. 'What the hell is this...is this a dream? Did I die?' This was the most likely result of surrendering to sci-lab. 'I don't feel dead...where the hell...is this what a reploid storage look like? Or is it for just for me...hey wait, what's this in front..." He grabbed something that felt like fabric and pulled it off his face… and body.
It was...sticky, to say the least. And removing it felt like ripping away a second, mud encrusted skin.
Once that was done, Zero was left with something that was definitely...not original of him.
It was...some type of deep black 'fabric' decorated with red eye-like patterns and red borders. It looked evil, like...not Sigma evil but its own, special brand...and it seemed to be dead for some reason.
'Huh, I guess I killed it. Well...this doesn't really give me any clues...hey, wait a minute, what's wrong with my hands?' Zero noticed.
They were...human like in proportion and oddly delicate.
Zero put the dead...thing down and began to inspect his appendages...they were long, delicate and...covered in a white glove...or, it felt like a glove. He could also feel something that felt like human nails in his fingers.
Reploids, would rarely have such decorations, and if they did, it would be for mechanical. And Zero knew he had none...or he could but...the last thing he wanted was to accidentally harm his dear Echo.
'Echo...' He clutched his heart. 'What are you doing right now? Did you finally got the peace you so desired? Did you move on? Did you ark project work?' Zero hope so, he had gambled his life for his lover's happiness… and he could only hope that it had been fruitful.
X deserved to be happy and at peace. It was what his father had wanted, and it was for what he had been designed for, not an eternal war against an enemy that could not be killed.
Truly, for Zero to be stuck in this hell was all that the walking apocalypse deserved.
'Hey...wait a minute...what's up with my...' The robotic martyr looked down to his oddly soft chest...and met with a pair of breasts.
Firm, perky, not ridiculously big but not flat either...and they were covered in a flowing with dress.
"What the-ah!" He grabbed his throat...this was not...this was not hi usual tenor it was…it was…
The voice of a young woman! Still tenor but...not masculine at all.
He...Got up from the intact piece of ground and took a good look at himself. It was not just the afford-mentioned breast but the thin waist, the broad hips and the voice.
And the flowing white dress and veil made of codes.
"I'm a girl?" Zero whispered… "Ah... No...but I thought? I'm not..." He was not a cute woman! he was a reploid,he was neutral...
Right?
Sundenly, tentacles emerged, and the now clearly gendered reploid only had enough time to turn around and stare at the monstority in horror before the thing tried to grab him...her…
It?
The legendary reploid jumped sideways, reaching for his saber...but, as with the change of frame, there was a glitch in this system too.
The Z-saber was nowhere on his person, and, of course, he was also buster-less.
"Aw crud." He murmured as he dodged the sweeping mass of virulent Data, the solid platform...an old Linux kernel piece, breaking apart under the assault.
Jumping further then he thought he could, Zero managed to land on one of the bigger piece...and right in the mass of virus trap.
One tentacle sprung up from under the Red Ripper in white...and dragged him down in the dept of the massive corrupted Data-abyss.
An explosion of sensory data overwhelmed Zero as they sank. His tactile sensor burned, froze, tickle, cut, crushed and twisted in a sort of pain that went beyond anything he;s experienced before. Millions-no- trillions of images, lights and shapes flooded his eyes, burning in them horrors and nonsense that numbed his mind in sheer mental agony.
The corrupted sea flooded his audio until all he could hear were the screeched of dead radios, broken pod-cast and what used to be music...he wanted to rip it out...it was beyond deafening.
And then came the taste Zero had no idea he could...but what it was made him sick...but he had nothing to purge.
His nose burned...so many smells...were they good? Were they bad?
Under the sensory assault, Zero's mind looked for an escape that didn't exist, a calm that was but an illusion in a desert. He wanted to disappear, they wanted to be gone...he wanted void...termination, oblivion…
was it real?
Was it a dream?
Were w-as X?
Was X real? What was real? Was pain the only answer? Who was he? Why was he? Why fighting? Why running? Why exits-tins? W00 was he think1nking for his c1d0s we00000aki0g1an001nr0v10i10 u1d1r0t0e10nt1n01100ar010f0th0 b10000g10ark 1l01e0 o01th0 01n0o0y010per0m0…0
01101001010101010010100101001010010100101001010010100101001010010100101010101010100100100010100100100101000101001000000000100100001000010001001011011001101010111011101000110010101010001001010100101100101001001001001010100100100100101010100101000110010100100100100110101010010110101010101010101010101010010011010100010011001100101000
And then...he heard it...a lifesaver…a sound...divine in nature.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare…
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
through the ocean of virtual-chaos, a soul swam trough the mire of cyber-trash. Fighting, fragmenting from the clump of virus...toward the sound...toward the song...toward the loving embrace...oh...oh...
"H...Har...Hare..." He tried...he fought… 'must find...source….must...find...voice...shelter...safety...' they struggled...whit what? What body? Who...time?
The mantra called, His flute song unlimited sweet and eternally calling for those souls lost in the ocean of necience. Hare Krishna...Hare Krishna…
They followed, their ears having found a safe heaven from the sensory overload...Krishna Krishna Hare Hare…
'Hare Krishna...Hare Krishna...Krishna Krishna Hare Hare….Hare Rama...Hare Rama...Rama Rama Hare Hare..." They recited...He recited...she recited...the familiar words dancing on their lips like a companion older then time. A friend she had forgotten, but who never forgot him...
He had been here when she was in pain...this friend that came in sound…
And thus...He followed...the sound leading him out of the chaotic cyber-maze filled with virulent minotaurs…
and then...attracted to the sound like a moth to the light, he plunged in the source, a bubble of peace, and island of blissful serenity, divine in nature.
He tried breaking trough it surface, but the firewalls were too thick…
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
But the sound..the sound…
Oh amazing grace...how sweet the sound…
that saved...a wretch like me...
"Oh Lordy! Prabhu! Prabhu the virus's trying to take down the fire wall again! Hare Krishna! Ugram Viram Maha…! Oh Sweet baby Krishna! Vasu there a girl stuck in there!"
"By Gauranga's sweet grace yer right! Hurry! let's grab the poor thing out o' that nightmare!"
Hands...Grabbing...Holding...pain? Pleasure? Grabbing what? What was hand...were was the sound? The sweet sweet sound…
A pull...but the beast did not let him go...they pulled harder, chanting ancient hymns and prayers to the sound...to the divine sound...to Krishna...Gauranga…Narashima…
something...ripping...legs...separating?
The virus shudder, the ocean parted...and he burst trough the firewall and onto a grassy field… tendrils of corrupted data still clinging to his...hands still dragging him back...Sigma, Vile...Iris...Colonel…Axl…
And X...
The sweet chanting kept resounding in his audio as he heard more entity crowding around him...he felt...water being sprayed on him, he could hear drums and hand cymbals...more prayers in tongue were recited…
They stayed on the soft grass, Unmoving, listening, recovering…
He was Zero? Robot? Reploid?... No...he was...she was someone else…
Human? Girl...blond?
She was blond...always had been.
Lorollei?
Lorelley?
Wily?
Rolly?
Rollikin?
Memories...came back...defragmented, full…Painful
She had lost so much...the war had robbed her of everything.
Zero reopened his eyes, surrounding him were numerous cyber-elve and Navi of different sized, shape and power...one even looked like an old model with a finned helmet. He was mostly black, gold and with a purple chest gem and his face with violet marking under his eyes. But what really caught the legend in white was the two Cyber-being of human origin.
It reminded him of Doctor light...when seen from the cyber-world.
They were...the colour of fertile earth, their eyes deep brown and...they were dressed like an Indian couple, with some...familiar marks on their dark forehead.
Ṷ...
He stared...trying to remember when was the last time he'd seen them. He felt as if he knew them...'Memories...still corrupted...'
He sat up, helped by a few other elves and navies. "W...were am I? What Happened? Where's X?" He asked, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his voice was now high pitch a sweet. "Why am I a woman?"
They all looked at one another…
"Well...it seems the asura really messed up her mind." One spoke.
"Poor dear...fortunate you are to still have a complete subtle body." spoke another person, this one in a dress.
"Yo, It ain't like sister here's whole you know, Can't see her feet." Spoke the black and purple Navi...his designation SWN-001...as seen in his gem.
"Can you please stop speaking as if I was a mindless drone." Zero protested as he sat up..."And my feet are still attached to my shanks." He pulled the very long dress off of his feet and stared…
they were gone, he didn't even have legs...
"Wh...what's going on!" Panic crept in his systems...this was wrong...it was all wrong…
This should not be happening, he should be sleeping in the Navi storage disk! Not...not..."
He felt a pair f steady hands on his shoulder's. "It's alright sweet heart." The black skinned digitized human spoke with a caring voice. "I know the situation's alarming. But your in good hand's...the Sweet Lord brought you to us."
Zero stared into the black woman equally black and caring eyes. Those eyes were imperfect...with tiny red veins, her skin was not as smooth as a reploid, decorated with creases and ripples…
"My name is Sri-isopanisad Devi Dasi, and this man here is mah husband." she gestured to the bald man, clapping his shoulder with the same type of affection zero would X.
At these words, the portly man crouched beside his wife. "Hare Krishna missy, Name's Vasudeva-data Das...but jus' Vasudeva will suffice." he greeted, exuding a fatherly presence. "Ah never expected to be able to pull another Cyber-elf out of the web any taime soon...What;s yer good name?"
Zero blinked… "I'm...My designation is Maverick hunter DWN-Infinity-Zero Zero Zero Zero….where am I?" He asked as the finned helmeted Navi's eyes bloomed wide.
Sir-Isopanisada Devi Dasi helped her...Him to his nonexistent feet. He could still...float for some reason. 'I'm an elf now...a Cyber elf...' He realized. 'Is this what happened when a reploid dies?'
Oh...he... was so confused...
" Hun...This is our virtual ashram, a spiritual shelter were we practice Bhatki-Yoga." Sir-Isopanisada told the re...the Cyber-elf? Desychronised Navi? as she showed him around. There was green grass as far as the eyes could see, some forested area were peppered in the distance and a building with a tall spire crowned the area. A decorated outer wall protected the compound, a small roof peaked from it's high, vine covered top. "It ain't much, but it's our home."
Zero peered at the building, he had never seen something to...lacking in the security department. "It's not safe, the virus won't care about this wall." Hell, even he could easily jump it over.
"Not safe!" The black and gold reploid navi scoffed. "Sister, I can count the amount of time the place got invaded on my left hands."
"Five time is still too much." Zero argue as he tried getting used to moving without feet…
"Three time, and it was over the course of 198 years." Black-fin boasted. "Kalia Never managed to pass by me and Axl."
Zero lost his balance, and the black-elf quickly caught him before he could smack his face on the ground.
The memory of Axl, practically anew build...corrupted by Lumine to the point were he disappeared from the face of the earth, taking with him a group of various reploids.
X...hadn't hesitate… And Zero still remembered how broken his partner had been…
the humans had spoken...Signas had given the order and X had followed...not even arguing for Axl's case. He had just surrendered to the order, and that was it...
The hardest part had been to relinquish Their brat's broken hull to sci-lab...
It was the time when he had steeled his resolved, and given his body up to science...so that his Echo would never have to kill another dear friend...another child.
"Infinity? Infinity?" Sir-Isopanisada held Zero firmly by the shoulder. "Infini-"
"Zero...My name is Zero." He corrected and he got out of Sri's hands, managing to keep afloat...somehow "Were is he? Where's Axl!"
A light went on in the black skinned couples eyes. "You know 'im?" Vasudeva asked.
"He's...He's my-" student, underling...annoying brat...comrade in arms...Another friend he had to cry over...another life X had to cry over. Another dear person Zero had lost to the plague he carried… "This...Is this paradise for us? Fr reploids?" His voice was tight, and he felt liquid falling from his eyes and wetting his cheeks. 'Great...Not only is my voice and body F-models, but I'm as emotional as one..."
He felt Sir-Isopanisada hold her steady as she wavered again. "Who was he to you?" She asked her tone like that of a mother.
"He...He was...Like our brat...a child..." He shamefully hiccup, dearly wishing the ground under him would swallow him up. "He...He d-" He could not continue, the weight of emotions he had ignored now crashed into him like a sledge hammer.
"Barath! Go get Archa!" Vasudeva sneezed. The black and gold Navi dashed to the compound as Zero struggled to regain control if his emotions. The ground was a good and safe place to be at the moment...the grass could drink whatever fluid would leak out of his eyes...
'It's like this time when...' The First time X had entered his system, making himself Zero's administrator and removing the emotional dampener.
'X...X…' It was too much...just too much.
She heard a gasp...and she saw him.
Axl...it… he looked like Axl but…
The lens in his forehead had the Ṷ shaped in it mark now. The same mark adorned his body, He wore cloth that resembled what Vasudeva was wearing, except in a blazing hue of orange pink. Oh, and his head was shaved… (saved from a patch in the back, an she came to see later.)
Not something he could've done as a reploid, that's for sure.
He stared at Zero with green eyes wide, free from the toxic influence of Lumine. "Holy!...Zero? Is that you? ?" Confirming his Identity as the youngest member of the hunter.
Zero could not withhold his sobs...Axl...There was his Axl...the brat, the one who loved to break to rules, the prankster…
The life in the otherwise ever so grim hunter HQ.
"A...Axl." Zero choked out. "Is...is that you? It's you, isn't it?" Zero hiccuped as the iron grip he had on his emotions slowly but surely eroded. "It...It's me Zero."
Axl's beautiful eyes grew wide. "Oh Krishna...He Radhe!...P-Prove it." The young hunter practically begged as he knelled beside Zero
Zero repeated her full designation, then the designation of X and finally Axl's designation as he somehow managed to get his emotions under control...which took more effort then it should.
Axl finally made eye contact with Zero...and shamelessly embraced the now female Navi.
"Oh Krishna! Oh Krishna! Zero! It's you Zero!" he sobbed as he held his mentor and best friend for dear life. And then he hastily tried to let go of him, but Zero didn't let his brat escape…
He hadn't seen him for well over 38 years.
Axl hugged her back, his breath...or the analogue for breathing a Navi could have, hitching as he hiccuped.
Eventually, both wanted to have visual confirmation
"A-Axl..."
"It's alright Ze. Your safe now." The copy...the ex copy-bot assured his mentor, his grounding hands steadying Zero's uncontrolled emotion.
"What happened? What if this place?" He finally managed to ask.
"This...ah, best way I can explain it would be a Spiritual embassy in the middle of the Viral-ocean." He explained. "The place was made by Mother Sri-Isopanisada devi dasi and her husband, Vasudeva-data Prabhu. It started as an archived website called ISKCON Desire tree, then After the old world net fell, they turned it into an ashram for those souls stranded in Uranet." he scratched the back of his head. "Not that there's so many that managed to get freed from 'Kalia's grip."
"Wait...that thing has a name?" Zero asked, who would give such a cute name to something so horrible.
"Yeah, Kalia the thousand headed, jewel cobra Sri-Krishna defeated y dancing on his hoods after he had poisoned the Yamuna to such extant Krishna's cows and His cowherd boyfriend's all died."
"...huh?"
"Don't worry Hun, God Revived them all before he went and chastised the envious black snake." Mother sri-Isopanisad assured. Noticing how confused Zero must be. "By they way Archa, go easy on your friend, she just managed to escape a monster!"
"Sorry mother, I...yeah, I'll be easier." Axl sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
"Axl...when we have time and I'm out of this dress, I want you to tell me what the hell you're doing dressed like that and what..." he sighed.
"Will do Z...But first, I need to ask you." For the first time in her life, Axl's eyes shone with deep concern, gone was the brat, the impish reploid who would shamelessly rig the dispensary to give twice more then what was needed, who put the most annoying tune in the world as a doorbell and who once filled Signa's office with 357 cups filled with water.
oh...and repainted his armor pink in his recharge. How did the ex bounty-hunter managed to pull this off was beyond the war build ability to compute.
Instead, it was an adult, someone who was responsible, and who cared.
"Zero...What did you do?" He asked him with fear...and some anger.
It took Zero completely off-balance.
"Archa, Just give her some space." Vasudeva Prabhu rumbled. "Missy Zero, I know it's all sudden, but please follow us back at the temple, we'll be able to take better care o' you...and take as much rest as needed." The black skinned elf pulled Zero her...to his...Up...and they floated there, their pure white dress fluttering in the nonexistent wind.
Vasudeva Prabhu chuckled. "Well God just send us an Angel."
Zero remained silent, trying to hold onto her raging emotion's until they left him alone to...process the event that had transpired. But once alone…
he let everything go...finaly caving to the desire to scream and weep.
But before she could get swallowed...Mother Sri-Isopanisada came to her side. And she Stayed with Zero until the storm passed on.
"And that's how I came in the Cyber-ashram of Guru-ma."
"I can't belive you found Axl...was he happy there?"
"No...he was not happy, He was in a constent, ever increasing state of bliss. We all loved him so much you know, he would lead the best Kirtana, intense and playful...but sometime, he would make us cry with his divine emotions…"
"I see."
"He...After Mother Sri and her Husband left for Goloka...those emotions...ah, maybe I'll tell you later."
"So...what did you do?" Axl, Archa-Vigraha finally asked one day as Zero seeped the temple ground, just a show of thank to her host. It had been a few days after she had accepted the fact that no...she was not as neutral as they had all believed...and she was definitely not a M-model.
Not. Even. Close.
"Axl, I should ask you that!" She asked as she leaned onto the broom.
Axl rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I don't remember much after Lumine took control of my body, it was like this weird dream...a nightmare I could not wake up from." he spoke with detachment. "and then...I was in Ura-net." He gave a shudder. "Kalia got me good this time, and it was only because Bharat heard me scream my voice program off that he managed to find me." he sighed as he gazed at Sri-Isopanisada and her husband working in the flower garden while Bharat was on the look out for trouble."Those three saved me from Kalia and...well, I liked what they were teaching so I became a Hare Krishna." He happily explained.
Zero stared at the ex-copy droid.
"A...Hare Krishna..." He repeated, the words extremely familiar to the red legend.
"Yeah, basically, I'm an aspiring servant of God, Krishna. And mother sri and Vasudeva Prabhu are my Bhatki-Yoga teachers. Same with Bharat."
"You see me as a teacher, huh?" Bharata bellowed from the top of the protective wall, giving Axl a fang filled smirk. "Touhgt you saw as the world most anoying old man."
"Nah, that's the other cyber-entity haunting the fallow-field." he dismissed. "anyway. What in the name of Yashoda did you do Zero?" the young hunter asked with concern.
Zero's mood turned a bit sad. "I...Axl, I had to...to get rid of it. There was no other way after...after what happened to you."
" your talking about the virus."
"Yes...X...After you...went...After you got infected and...taken care of..." He painfully closed his eyes at the horrific memory. "it broke him. X had suffered trough so much and I...I was the cause of it." Zero revealed as he held his dainty fist. "So...one night...I...I left him. I surrendered myself to SciLab to have everything of my frame anilised and studied. " Some tears fell from his eyes again. "He...He looked so peaceful you know, As he stepped… he...he didn't even move when I...When I put him in...in sleep mode." His voice broke as sobs once again erupted from his heart.
He could still hear X's scream of pure anguish as darkness creeped behind his lenses...and the mantra of.. 'It's for your own good.' and 'I love you..move on...live happily' running around in circled as his pump stilled and his system went into total shutdown.
Axl's eyes grew wide as he folded his palms and began to pray. "Oh Gauranga...He Nityananda..."
"X….I...I did it for him...I..." He choked out...The horror that he had to go trough finally crashing down on him.
"The next day, Axl, now called Archa-Vigraha das told me everything that had happened to him ever since...that time." Draupadi spoke as she sat on the edge of the Pod, letting X /untangle her head sink. "And since I had nowhere to go, I started doing what they were doing; sweeping the temple ground,Chanting Hare Krishna and serving the lord in anyway I could. And eventually, I took initiation, and my name became Draupadi Devi Dasi." She closed her eyes as she remembered the best day of her life, her rebirth.
"My teachers...Vasudeva and Mother Sri raised me like their own daughter, since I was the only other girl there...and mother Sri taught me everything.
"But...how about your gender...you never really identify with any of them so...what made you change your tune." X asked behind his returned loved.
"Well, I always was a F-model...I was just heavily modified by Wily, He tried to erase who I was but… a false Ego's not so easy to delete." She explained. "when I was cross dressing during the week-ends...that was me acting on old memories."
She heard X's apparture bloom wider. "So you mean...this other personality was…!
"Yes...Lorollei was not just a persona I would use, it's not even a second personality...It was who I was before...before I was put in an artificial body..." Draupadi turned to face her husband, his hands were shaking.
She gently brought her hands to his face, lifting his beautiful green eyes so that they could met her's. She could see a proverbial light lit up in his eyes. But Draupadi knew he didn't like what he was seeing.
"...So...I...Was Human Also." He put it into words.
"We all were…" She confirmed. "You, me...And everyone we knew. No one, no matter how inteligent and how technologicaly advance can program conciousness, emotions and desires."
"They took it from us..." She had never seen her husband looking so betrayed in her life, which, sadly, was quite a feat to accomplish.
"X…Echo. Look at me." She whipped away the tears dripping from his eyes. "It's in the past...The only thing we can do is to move forward."
"Forward to what!" X snapped, his despair clear in his voice. "Zero!...Humanity has no future...the earth's a Husk...and Neo-Arcadia...It's a golden cage, nothing more. And reploids...better if we all died!"
Enclosing her sorrowful husband in the cage of her arms and legs, resting his head to her chest...to her core.
"I failed! I...Doctor light made me...I don't even know why he made me! Why he...he!"
"Shhh...it's alright...no use hating on him. Beside, without what he did...you and I would never have met!" Draupadi tried to make he voice light, as if to lift the heavy cloud that hung over her husband.
She felt him shake...struggling to keep his sobs to himself, giving up on this endeavor, the blue bomber buried his between the two data-core that decorated her chest. His whole body shook as centuries worth of grief left him.
He cried bitterly for some time, letting it go… She hoped.
Evetualy, after a good half an hour, the sobs subsided into hicups, and those hicups turned into silence...and the Vaishnavi let this silence strech as X recovered some semblence of peace. She carresed his dark-brown hair, humming the Maha-mantra under he breath only loud enoug that he could hear.
And then...she knew it was time...she could wait, but this was one wound that she could start healing.
"X...Archa, Axl had a message for you before he accended." She closed her eyes...she could still see Archa's false ego disolving as he...the soul, returned to his pure state.
As a lover of Krishna.
It was heartwrenching, and yet...it was the cause for celebration.
"He said…; X, don't you dare beat yourself over my fate. What happened was for the best...thank you for everything man. Hope I'll see you soonish." Draupadi went as far as to imitate Archa's voice…
she missed him as much, if not more as her own Guru-ma.
X held her tighter as tension left his frame. and finaly...Draupadi heard some laughter from him.
" He...became a Hare Krishna...Cultist?" She could hear some humor returning to his in his voice and she could , she could see a wry smile on his face. "Is it...a cult? What...what have they done to you?"
"They gave us shelter...and tought us the sublime and eternal truth." Draupadi spoke with clear gratitude. "Yrs, I know how I sound something Echo. but trust me, I came out of my fanatical stage decades ago."
"Why?" X asked. "why would they teach this to...us?"
"Because those two were...are pure Vaishnava's. that's what a true lover of God does, they give shelter to anyone needing it. And those those who are willing to listen, they gave us all the basic of Vaishnava Philosophy and the choice to either follow it or go and live in the Virtual village twenty kilometer from there." She had almost walked away from this, only the deep feeling if rightness kept her there...
And seeing a Goofy Axl playing prank, laughing and signing ancient and sacred hymns as he bathed, cleaned the temple ground with all of his heart secured her choice.
X's eyes grew wide. "Wait...their's a village!?"
"More like a town...scientist here call's it the repository."
"Wait...you don't...you can't be serious." X denied, once again, it seemed his grasp on reality was about to let go once more.
"I am...and every time, a new reploid was made, one of the villagers would be kidnapped...I've seen it happen." She explained. " Boom used to lived there hapily with his wife...until his wife became known as Layer. She game back a few years later."
X sighed. "and I thought reploids would be at peace once dead."
Draupadi snorted. As she began to massage X's head, feeling all the tension in the world living there as if it owned the prime piece of her property."Death's a myth for us spirit soul, we just think were dying because we thing we are this body with temporary names attached to it." She explained. "We have nothing to do with this body...we're in it, and that's it."
"So...this racial difference between human colours and place of birth...human, reploid, black and white...russian and american… Pakistan and india." He mumbled. "it's...it's all a big lie..."
"Those wars...all of those conflict were cause by identifying with a bag of flesh...not as an eteranl part of God." She gently spoke to X. "We are all his atomic particle, and just like Him, we are made of Bliss, Eternity and knowledge. And those bodies we're in are made of the opposite."
"All of this violence was...for naught." X's snorted...sobbed really.
Not willing to let her hurband fall further into self-loathing, Draupadi lifted his face, making his dull green glance meet her's. "Echo...what happened can't be changed...and we do have our share of pain to go troughs." she felt him shudder. "But it doesn't mean we can't change the future." She gave X a peck on the lips, relishing the exchange.
Those were not cold, dry lips of a system vacated of it's proprietor.
X sighed as he held Draupadi closer, his arms lazily resting on her hips. "...How?"
"Chant Hare Krishna."
"I did...It...it can't be that easy." X protested.
Draupadi's smile brightened the room considerably. "It is that easy. And the future did change."
"How!?" X move back enough to look at his better side, his eyes desperate.
"Because you just call God..." She revealed with a beatific smile. "Do you really think God would ignore one of his precious little souls call for help? And look! your alive, I have my memory back and Neo-arcadia's not a burning crater! Trust me Xiu, things are starting to look up for you."
"But...I'm...A sinner." X denied weakly.
"No...The moment you chanted Hare Krishna, all your sin's were absolve." Draupadi spoke with loving conviction. "That;s why we call it the peace formula...just don't perform sin's again."
"But...Why?"
"Because Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead, our one true friend and well wisher, only desire us to come back to him. And he's willing to clear up all obstacles for this to happen."
"But...why? Were not human...and.-"
Draupadi held him tightly, "X...Echo...God's not the property of mere human," She knew he would say something about the fact that God didn't belong to the synth...and that his worship was exclusively for humankind. "we all belong to Him...and he want's us all back. You, me...Leviathan." Draupadi spoke in a way to warn the replicated mermaid that yes...she was still aware of her presence in the room.
"And...Axl...that what he did...he turned back to Him." X stated.
"Yes...and he succeed were many humans failed." she revealed.
"So...Axl's with God now."
"Yes." Draupadi confirmed.
X began shaking, and the vaishnavi feared another wave of emotions.
and then...X disloved into laughter. bright, light, care free.
At first, she was confused, the she realised the reason of this mirth.
AXL went back to God...Axl...The brat that loved giving Signa's reasons to drink went back to God.
She knew X had some background in Catholisism...and quite frankly, the image of their brat ascending to heaven dressed in a dolar store costume was hilarious...
'Bet he...she must be a cousin of Madhumangal...Oh Krishna...He Bhagavan!' She also bust into laughter as she could see the two pure soul planning pranks and jokes for the Divine Couple's great pleasure.
eventualy, their gales subsided, and they held onto one another.
No words were spoken...until Draupadi broke the silence once more. Until she was spurred to move by one detail.
Since her body was robotic, cramping Legs were not something she had to suffer trough. But she was tired of sitting and she wanted X to get cleaned up since...well, saponified Oil...her old oil still stained his body.
She took X's hands and pulled him out of the recovery capsule. "C'mon, were wasting energy, I'm at, 95% fixed...how about you?" she asked.
"99%...it won't go higher, not with the pain chip gone." X's voice was a bit tight, and Draupadi could perceive some sorrow there.
"Good! Let this torture device go dance in the abyss." she declared with a bright smile and a sigh of relief.
"Zaki..." X began...unsure. "You...I've never heard you speak so much."
Draupadi's eyes bloomed further. "Oh...I...Ah..."
"And smile... And laugh so much." The blue bomber gave a kind smile, love filled smile. "I think...I think I can get used to this new you, Zero."
A vise she didn't realized was there released from her chest...this...this was more intense then that time she came out as a cross-dresser, and X accepting him…Her.
she embraced her husband...and then heard a sub-sonic squeel.
Right...She had almost forgotten about her. Draupadi paused and scanned the room…
'Ah...there she is.' She turned her head toward the other reploid in the room. "Leviathan."
"Yes! I'm here..." the ice guardien spoke from the far off corner of the room, she was...dustier then what Draupadi remembered.
She had never seen a live reploid covered with so much dust... And Leviathan was caked in it.
"...You're...a negative Ion generator." Draupadi realized, her purple eyes growing wider As leviathan tried to dust away her shoulder, only to have the particules returning to her frame.
Leviathan gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "Yup! All the best to purify the ocean..."
"Levi." X interjected. "How long have you been standing here?" He asked with concern.
X's closest copy stared at her source, seemingly about to burst into tears. She turned to Draupadi, her palm folded, and gratitude illuminating her entire frame.
"Master, you've been working on Draupadi for three days since your confrontation with her. And you two have been out and cuddling in a pod for...oh ah...You've been in recovery mode for two more days master..." She finished meekly.
"So...I was unavailable to my subject for five days then." X sighed. "Any riots? Maverick...real threat?"
"No Master...the only threat was in the capsul with you...also, we canceled all meeting and other work related mater." The ice general revealed in the most professional tone Draupadi ever had the chance to hear, even Signas had never managed to sound this stiff and robotic.
X expression turned into dismayed surprise. "What? Why?"
"Master...Neo-Arcadia's now under Draupadi's control." Leviathan revealed X. "She...we are all her hostage."
The blue bomber dropped Draupadi's' hand, turning at her wit a look of pure betrayal.
"Zero...why?" He whispered.
"Because you need a break...And it's not like I asked for some impossible request." She spoke with arms crossed. "The only thing I ask was for a computer, a ten year sabbatical for you and bathing facility."
X stared...obliviously trying to compute what Draupadi was saying.
The Vaishnava began to shuffle under her husbands bright green eyes. "Listen...You know I'm bad at negotiation." She admitted.
"You? Bad at negotiation?!" Leviathan scoffed. "Excuse be Draupadi-Zero, but you had us all by the core back then." she crossed her arms with a smirk.
"...It would've failed if not for X's reactivating...X, what the Hell did you do back then?" She suddenly turned to her husband.
Taken Aback at being the center of attention again, X could only open his mouth and try to catch back the flow of the conversation.
"You know...when I had you on my lap, you did something, you opened your connection with the guardians and almost caused Fefnir to suicide." She asked without accusing. She knew just by X's stricken expression that his self-loathing had started.
"I...I was...I am connected to my four copies." He revealed as he held his head, shaken at what he had almost done. "But I...They felt what I felt to a degree...and..." His eyes grew unfocused.
Draupadi immediately held her husband in her embrace, threading her fingers in his short blackish-blue hair. "Shh-Shh, It's alright Echo..."
"I closed it off...I practically scrubbed the code away!" He kept speaking, his arms encircling Draupadi, his whole frame shaking. "I...Something told me...I felt like I had to open it...Like...I could lose you if it would remain closed."
"Yeah...Thank you, it saved my life." The servant of God knew fully well who this Something was. And now that she was with her co-conspirator and (recovering) husband, she could finally let her own guard down.
"Wait...you mean, you were bluffing?" Leviathan exclaimed as she tried to rub away the dust bunnies that had gathered at her feet, with little to no success. It clearly made her extremely uncomfortable, and yet she soldiered on.
"Leviathan...I was at below forthy percent, do you really thing I could've taken all of you on?" Draupadi asked, and X held her tighter. "X please...Don't feel bad. "
"I almost-"
"No...You didn't do anything to Fefnir, he was just too weak to fight your weight of despair." She drew back, gently holding her husbands face in her hands, once again touching gems...not as a mean of Data trensfer, but to make sure he understood that she held not ill will's toward him. "And as for you almost destroying my frame again...well, I would be insulted if you didn't greet my like that."
"Why?" X asked, still shaken by what all that had transpired.
"Because I would hate to break this beautiful tradition you know. And you do ow me an actual fight!" Draupadi pouted, while she had lost the taste for killing, wrestling was a Vaishnava sport, and she knew the only one who could fight her toe to toe was none other then her husband.
This made him chuckle, and Draupadi felt a small victory won.
One of many she, prayed.
"C'mon Hubby, let's go bath..." She turned an inquisitive glance toward the dusty ice general, who looked as if about to cry.
'either she really hates being dusty and would also like to take a snana...or...she really cares about my Echo.' Of all the hunter's Leviathan seemed to be the most sensitive one...well, maybe Phantom fit the bill, bit he was so hard to read.
"You too...you may take a break leviathan, and get all that dust away."
"Yes..." Leviathan choked out before the teleported out, probably to a personal pool or some such.
Now complelty alone, Draupadi sighed as she began to to caress X's shaking aback. Realising that she'd forgoten to ask Leviathan were the facilties were.
Sudently, she received a Com. Request. 'Alright...who could this be right now?' [Draupadi here, make it quick.]
[Draupadi-Zero, This is Hidden Phantom...] Neo-Arcadia's top assasin spoke.] She asked, X had leaned his chin on her shoulder, lulled by Draupadi's loving carress.
[Yes...wha may io do for you?] She asked.
As an awnser, she received a few Data Packages. Scaning them for treath, she saw that those were a map of the Ivory tower, passcodes and frequancies that would open all doors and area and a warning that she would be shot on sight were she to leave the tower.
By following the map, she located the cleansing unit. It was deffinitly differetn then what she was used to, for after living in somehting that was modeled after a vedic home, the sight and smell of something this artifical, steril and impersonal was extreemly jarring.
She gave a shudder...she missed bathing in the Virtual Ganga trice a day.
"Zero… is everything alright?" X asked from the bech he was sitting on. His eyes still looked heavy from sorrow, but now worry mared his features.
"Yeah. I am...I'm just...I hate this place." She spoke bluntly as she activated to room. An over-sized pyrex tube emerging from the ground. "What's this thing? A shower?"
"No, It's a reploid censing unit designed to use the least amount of water possible." X explained as he finnished removing all of his gears, the task done, he returned to his wife's side, raising his had towards a hidden scanner.
-Greeting Master X, All Glories to light-
The room spoke in a very robotic tones.
-Please, oh master, chose an option for your divine ablu-
The vaishnavi cringed...and infected the control panel, muting the thing.
She Felt X froze. "...Zero?...Draupadi, is that?"
"Yes X, It's the Virus." She admited.
"...So...all the members of the resitance trully are maverick...aren't they." He stated, resigned to the fact that his nighmare was really about to start again.
"No." Draupadi shook her head as she walked in the...reploid shower, for lack of better words. Once in, the grilled floor magnetised and a strong current of air blew from down to up. Blowing away whatever dust particle had been stuck on their frame.
Draupadi let her eyes slid over to X...obliviosly, being stuck in an oversized leaf blower did absolutely nothing to remove the oil and the neutralised energene.
Then, nozzles roze up from the floor, and begand spraying the couple with diluted solvent.
[Ok...Never had my frame clense like that.] she conveyed to X trough their private radio waves.
[You liked it?]
[No.] Draupadi pulled a face, making sure not to open her mouth.
[Me neither.] X awnsered back with a very wry smile. [But...can't use water I don't need...It'd not like I can get dehydrated.]
Draupadi shot him a look, he eye brows furrowed. [X, you need water...not as much and as frequantly as water bases life form, but you still do!]
The master of Neo-Arcadia had the decensy to look sheepishly away.
[Echo...Xiu Ying…] Draupadi started again. [Don't worry, things will get better. I promiss. Don't lose hope.]
[I...I don't dare to hope anymore…] X spoke sadly. [But...your back...maybe...maybe I can...hope that your new maverick will leave my ark alone?] His voice took a very slight hystercal edge.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about them." Draupadi assured her overwrought Husband as the nozzles sprayed her down with pure water...the only water used in the entire procedure. "My new mavericks only order is the spread the Karuna Virus to any soul theyr encounter."
X's head snaped back at his wife, his glorious green eyes wide. "...The what virus?"
"the Karuna-virus...or the Divine-Mercy virus."
"D...Divine mercy..."
"yeah!" The vashnavi gave a bright smile. "This virus drives away all mysery and open the lotus of good fortune, it purify the mirror of the heart, and is the end of all knowledge." she blisfully stated. "Golokera-prema-Dhana, Harinama-Sankirtana! The holy names of Krishna, of God are the shower of nectare descending directly for his eternal abode of love, Goloka-Vrindavana..." Draupadi stopped herself, realising that this...mey be a bit much for her husband.
"What are the symptoms?" X ask, not in fear but with genuin curiosity.
Draupadi let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Etternal Bliss, self-realisation, the end of suffering and the re-establishement of our eternal ,loving relashionship with Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead." she explained, keeping her voice steady as to not betray how antsy she felt.
She had just come back a changed person, even she could not recongise her old self…and she was now spounting about Love of God and how to Get it...the Red Ripper was talking about God...and about love openly.
At that moment, Draupadi realised just how much she changed…
Zero., the maverick hunter was gone, the killer of Iris, the failure of Eurasia and the who broke X, as per his programing was...gone.
She was now Draupadi Devi Dasi...a servent of the servant of Gauranga, Krishna...of God.
She spray cycle was over, the room was once again quiet save from the two system humming with energy.
The magnetick floor turned off, releasing the two reploids. Draupadi quicly went out, sure, her system were informing her that her fram was spotless...but she still longed to have a proper bath.
And...she felt shy…
She knew X, and she knew the last thing he needed was a Lover that didn't act as he used to, and yet, she could not go go back to Zero…
She heard her God given husband aproache her from behind, and she let him wrap his thin yet powerful arms around her waist. His Frame molding to Draupadies own.
'Well...this didn't take long.' She had hoped she could postpone this particular aspect of their relashionship, having found something better and sweeter.
"Zaki..." he breateh to her audio.
"Yes, Xiu Ying?"
"Do you think you could..."
' He'll ask for a sych..." She just knew it.
"...Infect me more?"
She turned to her husband, a painfull hope she had was happening in front of ther eyes.
the legendary blue reploid's eyes held anticipation and deep eagerness...Loliam.
Spiritual Greed.
Another smile, this one teary. In great Bliss, Draupadi chanted, and X followed.
The divine pandemic had started.