So...hello, my name is Madri, a Hare Krishna.
One day, I receive a saree that reminded me of Zero.
This is the result.
I would say Zero belongs to Capcom, but since my Lord and master is the biggest thief of all. Zero, X, Alouette and every character and even myself belong to Krishna.
Besides, it's not like they are doing anything interesting with them nowadays.
Hare Krishna, The author again, I've finished updating the chapter using Grammarly for ease of readability. and I've also started a youtube series of me reading my stories... and commanding on it.
Just looked for a servant of Gaura-Nitain on youtube... or you can click the link playlist?list=PLgfJe6OM6o53NNXeaVX0yJi7QDjAk82UJ
Zero…didn't know what to think. He had been awoken…revived really by this girl, her name Ciel. He had then proceeded to escort the human girl through a gauntlet of red-eyed mechanoid.
Somehow, those blue drones reminded him of someone…someone whom his hearts ache for but…who was he?
Actually, this was a question the red android could not even answer for himself. "You are Zero." The girl had assured, with a bright smile and a conviction Zero did not feel. For a simple reason…He couldn't remember his past, not even his identity…
In a way…he really was Zero, a cipher. He could be whatever he wanted…in theory.
It seemed that he was a warrior; his body instinctively knew how to fight. He knew how to destroy and kill…
But…it didn't feel like him….not completely…something seemed to be missing. Something other than the energy sabre he had found. There was something…something about his body? How he saw himself?
With this doubt in mind, the red rebel had found a place where no one would disturb him; a water-damaged utility room filled with mice and a fat rat, cobweb and broken down pieces of machinery…one of which had a gleaming surface. In front of the makeshift mirror, Zero began to inspect the body he was in, not feeling any type of familiarity with it. He had removed his helmet, gauntlets, jacked and boots, leaving him as naked as a reploid could be…
No, the jarringly white codpiece was not removable…it was a very thick piece of exo-armour protecting the extremely vital Gyroscope and otherwise vulnerable hip joint, the bottom of the nanite tube.
He had long golden blond hair that reached the back of his ankles; Zero would consider it a design flaw if not for the fact that they were the most effective heat-sink in existence short of a liquid-nitrogen system... His eyes were so blue they were almost black, a slight glow on the two white triangles under them indicating that his systems were all in the green. A blue Data-crystal was embedded in his head, having receded to the size of a small triangle between his brows.
Speaking of size…Ciel was a bit taller than him., meaning he was exactly 5'2, The general height of a woman.
Also, he had eyebrows…they were extremely basic, but they were there.
His face was…androgynous. He supposed it could be called boyish, but it really was a stretch…one thing was for sure, though; he would be stunning if he could muster a smile.
But how could he even fake it? The situation was…confusing and extremely frustrating.
Who was he? Who was right, who was wrong? Were Ciel and the resistance as pure and white as they say, or was X really hunting down a group of dangerous Criminals…a Group Zero had been helping without questions?
He brought his hands to his chest, absentmindedly running his thumbs over the two green Data-crystals…a dual-core.
He had thought those were extra batteries, but after a quick system scan, Zero had realized those two were some ridiculously vast data-storage gems…gems that were already filled almost to capacity.
Zero stopped what he was doing and looked down…under his red Kevlar vest; the two green orbs were unnoticeable. But now…uncovered.
Those looked upsettingly like a pair of green, shiny breasts.
'I don't think my creator knew what he wanted me to be….' He gave a small sneer. He was a warbot, meant to kill and destroy. A gender or even an identity was superfluous. He was not made to ponder deeply about who he was and his purpose in life; he already knew what he was built for…and he hated it.
No, not hated…he did like a fair fight like any other war build…but he just felt tired of it; it simply wasn't fun anymore.
There must be more to life than just fighting…for fighting needed a reason, a reason more than just the latest was and conflict.
…whatever it meant.
He gazed back at his reflection; what looked around was a complete stranger…and even then, Zero felt something was missing…some marks adorning his forehead, abdomen, chest, neck, arms, back and the back of his head… Golden, U shaped…sacred…
Zero let out an angry sigh as he grabbed his helmet and jacket, putting them on with mounting frustration. He left the storage room in a huff …and then sheepishly came back; he had forgotten his boots, sabre and gauntlets. As he took the armoured piece of protective footwear, Zero could not help but observed how…natural it felt to be barefooted.
To feel the ground beneath his feet, with its many crevices and bumps…he could also feel the earth's gentle vibration.
'The earth…Bhu-devi….'
"Mother earth, Bhūmi, taking the form of a cow, approached Lord Brahma with tears in her eyes. She was bereaved and was weeping just to invoke the lord's compassion…" She read to Variable man, the next generation…the one she hopes she could be with forever.
He was soo pretty... so handsome... he had gorgeous green eyes.
Zero slowly blinked as he vented out as much heat as he could…where did that come from? Was it a memory? Something he had heard or read? And…why was he…a she in this memory?
Nevertheless, it was something from his past…something that tied him to an identity, to who he was.
When he left the room, he didn't bother putting his boots on; the ground under his rudimentary feet felt good...maybe it would jog his memory bank some more.
"Umm…Zero?" He heard the little reploid from the door to his 'room,' a closet, really. Not that he could expect more from the resistance…Zero opened his eyes and looked at Alouette.
"Yes, Alouette?" He gently asked, wondering what the child-like reploid was doing in the middle of the night, a time where all that had the opportunity would recharge.
Short of Ciel, Alouette was one reploid whom Zero trusted implicitly. She was young, innocent, and held no secret, unlike the de-facto leader of the resistance. And thus, the warbot had absolutely no objection to having the little girl come to him at odd hours of the night.
Especially since she had latched onto him the moment he had walked in the resistance base a week back.
"Why are you sitting on the floor?" She asked, still standing in the doorway
"I like it…it feels familiar." Well, he was not quite on the floor; he had found an old piece of carpeting during one mission…it served a good floor mat. He was sitting cross-legged on it with an ease that he had not felt since he had found his Saber again. "And I can mediate better like this."
"Oh…why?" Alouette asked again, finally entering the room, sliding the door close behind her.
"I can't sleep…" so many things churned in his CPU, so many questions…and yet no answers, only Ciel's guilty silence.
"Oh…"
One of the reasons for Zero's inability to recharge was the recent mission Ciel had sent him; He had to save some soldiers (civilian grade reploids, no less.) Who ran afoul of a certain green sky guardian who tough Zero was a sinner for leaving X, the 'despotic' ruler of Neo-arcadia.
So he had left X. who was X to him, and why did Zero felt some guilt and longing…that was another story entirely.
"Me neither," Alouette revealed as she began inspecting Zero's room like the curious child she was.
'Why would such a useless reploid exist? A child no less! She can't even use a gun, she can't fight, and she's all alone. And if she would be caught!' Zero Let a small shudder shake his frame…The entire rebellion were considered maverick, and the red reploid knew X would not let any of them online.
He had seen the re-purposing facilities, had crawled through its corps-filled corridors… 'Those were not considered maverick…I can't even imagine what X would do to 'criminals.''
And yet…it felt wrong. From the core of his very being, Zero knew that this X would not, could not condone such torturous methods…
The image of the kind young reploid appeared…he was cradling the small body of a human child…Another memory had the Azure robot comforted a reploid whom his partner had to be killed, having turned maverick.
"Zero…I swear. One day, both human and reploid-kind will live together in peace." X spoke with Conviction as they gazed at the setting sun…Zero held the blue reploid close as he leaned onto him for support, having slung a comforting arm around his shoulder. "I…just don't know if I will be able to see it through."
"X…please, don't speak like this…I'm sure you will see it. I will make sure your vision comes through." He already knew how…
X turned his green eyes toward his best and only friend, his only companion he could implicitly trust…a partner that would never turn against him…they had lost theirs shines over the numerous war they had fought.
Those pain-filled eyes, this precious soul now in constant pain…His beloved X slowly breaking from all the meaningless violence, the curse called the maverick virus…a plague Zero had spread to the world at large unknowingly.
This was enough to steel Zero's resolve…tonight; He would break X heart. He would make sure the maverick virus never took any more lives….
He would not come back to his Xiu Ying side.
"Zero? Zero!?" He heard Alouette. She sounded so far away. His head…it felt so heavy, his HUD warned Zero that his core temperature had reached a dangerous level… The red reploid grunted; his head did not only felt too heavy, but it was also painful…
'Whoever thought programming pain in a warbot is a sadistic jerk… ' Zero thought as he felt the headache fade to but yet another background noise. "I'm fine, Alouette…I…Just remembered…Who I am...A little…" He vented out…cursing his creator for giving him such a glitch-ridden frame. 'At least, I now know why Harpuia hates me so much.'
He opened his eyes, turning his head toward the smaller blond. She stood nearby, holding her white cat plush tightly to her small chest. She was obliviously worried.
"So…what do you want?" He tried to muster a smile, but he was sure it was a grimace. 'How do I smile again?'
Alouette shifted from one foot to another, obliviously shaken by what had happened.
"I'm fine…it's not a headache that will kill me, I promise." He joked. Or tried too…" So...what do you want?"
"Well…I wanted a story. But…" Alouette shuffled her weight from one foot to the other, still concerned for the red Hero's well-being.
"But?"
"Can I brush your hair instead?"
(Beat)
"Do you have a brush?" Zero asked. To be honest, he wouldn't say no to some grooming. He had been so busy with running errands for Ciel; he didn't have time to take care of his heat sink, proper recharge, defragmentation…
'I need a break.' Not that he could get one…
At least, he was starting to remember some of his past; he knew X from way back when…and was willing to sacrifice everything for him, it seems…' What the hell happened…I don't think he took whatever I did the right way.' Some guilt and longing appeared in his heart…making everything even more complicated than it had to.
"I do! I'll go get it!" Little Alouette's face brightened considerably, and off she went to get the brush, leaving Zero to himself for three minutes and eight seconds.
Huh...she took a little longer today .' The red legend observed as the younger blond sauntered in his room again, carrying with her a brush, a comb and elastic. Zero had the feeling she not only wanted to brush his hair but also braid it. 'I can only hope it will not mess with my heat sink…not with the warning I received.' The last thing he wanted was to suffer a crash due to vanity.
Alouette went behind Zero, and the red Warbot removed his helmet, feeling the extra heat dissipate in the atmosphere. The young girl then began to brush the red warrior's long golden heat sink…aka hair. As she worked in silence, Zero could not help but find this whole ritual comfortingly familiar…and yet, he felt something was missing…it was too quiet.
His core temperature rose a bit, and the red Hero could feel a start of a headache…but he could not help but try to figure out, to dig up a memory he had no access to…glitch is damn.
And then…along with a dull pain behind his eyes, a song, long forgotten, a prayer more ancient then he emerged from the mire of his corrupted memory bank—a sweet melody that was easy to sing, and words that were not of this world.
~Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare~
~Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.~
Zero closed his eyes, ignoring the pain with practiced ease as his lips moved in a familiar pattern, and his voice modulated a well-known tune…to him at least.'
'I know this…What is this song? Where have I heard it?' He wondered as he tried his best to remember…only to meet with more pain and more warning message about his CPU dangerously overheating. Now knowing his endeavour to be fruitless, The Red reploid settled to simply sing it under his breath. 'At least I know something more than simply killing.'
It gave him some comfort…some hope that there was more to him than simply destruction. That he was more than yet another war machine.
"Zero?!" the somewhat panicked voice of Alouette reached him…" Zero stop!"
The red legend reopened his eyes with difficulty, his vents burning with the excess heat. Once again, he held his heavy head, clutching it with enough strength to cause some damage.
"w-w-wha- hap-en?" his voice system hitched, and he realized he was dangerously close to a hard crash. He could hardly turn his head to face the childlike reploid. But just by the tone of her voice, Zero knew Alouette was scared.
"Um…um…you…you were signing this beautiful song when…when you started burning."
"Oh…" Looking back to his error logs, he could indeed see that Alouette's assessment was a very good diagnosis. Zero straightened himself and ex-vented a few times until his core's temperature were more or less back to a workable temperature.
"Zero…"
"I'm fine…you can keep going…Old models tend to have some issues with heat." He knew he was not like the other reploids; he was a much older model made for war. And not for much else, it seemed.
'Normal recollection protocol beyond a month is too much for my CPU to handle…and Ciel hopes to win a war with this.' Once again, Zero had to question this girl's claim about being a genetically engineered genius.
The next thing he knew, a pair of small arms wrapped around his neck, the reploid attached to them shook like a leaf against his back. "Please don't die." She pleaded meekly.
"…I won't," He gritted out…hoping against hope that he could keep this promise.
"Zero…May I speak to you." Ciel approached the warbot a few days after the incident, looking even more worried than usual as they met on the way to a meeting.
Zero stopped and turned to face the defacto leader of the résistance and the only human (that he knew of) on the base. 'Once again, reploids are led by a human…a child, no less.'
It's not that Zero didn't trust Ciel…He was just finding it odd that a group of reploids rebels were following a human teenager. For all he knew, the whole conflict was in Ciel's head, and he was making everything worst.
Or she could be right, and X really was killing his own 'progeny' and causing an energy shortage. ..
Zero may not have any memories…or he had a few. But he knew one thing, from what little he remembered, this didn't sound like X…and yet…
"Zero, if I ever go maverick…"
Zero painfully closed his eyes as he blocked the memory of X… He didn't know the context, but to hear him sound so scared of what he could become.
'No, better not think too much about it…I'd rather not have an episode in front of Ciel.' Not only would it be embarrassing, but the last thing the resistance needed was a saviour with a nasty heat problem.
They needed hope, not another resource drain.
"Yes, Ciel." He prompted the girl. She was staring at him with deep concern.
"Alouette told me…"
'Oh, crud.' At least they were (mostly) alone; most of the other reploids were minding their own business somewhere else on the base. "I'm fine."
"I wouldn't call almost heat-crashing twice in twenty minutes being fine Zero." Ciel fussed. "I know your speck; I know your heat management systems are light years beyond what we can produce…so for them to fail."
Zero remained silent…he had no time for this. He had a meeting with the rescued soldiers at 1530 hours, and he knew he was running a bit behind. "Alright…if there any more episodes, I will visit Cerveau." He conceded…he meant to meet with the base doctor to check his system anyway…a visit he dreaded yet knew was necessary.
Something- no...Better not follow this foggy memory. He could already feel his Data-cores heating up.
"What time is it?" Zero asked, hoping the banal question would stave off the oncoming episode long enough to for him to hide and wait for it to pass. The pain had still not abated from the last one; there was always the risk of it coming back.
"…do you have some glitch in your chronometer?" Great, Ciel was even more worried.
"No…" His chronometer was fine. He knew it was 15:15…
15:15…
"Zero?" Ciel sounded very far away…
15.15
(B.G 15.15)
"Sarvasya chaham Hrdy sannivisto…mattah smritir jnanam apohanam cha…"
Despite himself, Zero recited, he remembered the verse…despite himself…Despite the warnings, the sirens and the error message.
She remembered everything.
In the repair area. The chaos had finally abated…all the surviving reploids were stabilized and recovering. And those too broken to be fixed were either put in permanent stasis or wrapped in a tarp, their bodies too precious to dispose of.
The only thing left to do was cleaning up the mess, a task Cerveau took with determination. Nothing was worse than a messy workplace, especially when it dealt with broken equipment, body parts and whatever fluid happened to have spilled that day. Nevertheless, the base doctored and weapon specialist had finished neatening up the triage area and the …let's call it the surgery area, and was now busying himself with the more specialized piece of equipment like the all-important computers, recovery pod and another thing a reploid needed to be fixed-up as soon as possible.
It wasn't much…most of the equipment was considered obsolete by most reputable reploid repair shops. But what Cerveau had was enough the save the 'life' of many goods unites…
"Good job Luv'…" he affectionately spoke to the hulking computer used to treat glitches and other software malfunction. "…It's doesn't matter, you did your best for him…his wounds were simply too great. But I know you made sure Moineau entered Cyber-space peacefully."
Yes…so he liked to speak to his equipment, especially after such a chaotic event…so sue him.
As he moved on to sweep the place, he heard a commotion outside. He could hear three people running…two of them carrying a third that could not bear his own weight.
"Well, Luv' it seems we have another client on our hand…someone who will need your expertise, my dear," Cerveau spoke as he pre-emptively booted the computer; the old girl was still needed. "I hope this one won't get deleted…we lost too many good men and women today…" He heard the door open.
"CERVEAU! ZERO'S..." Ciel screamed as Coucou and Paon dragged in…
"Oh no…" Cerveau whispered in pure horror…the Red legend; their only hope… was hanging limply from the two base guard's shoulder. His fans loudly spinning as he approached terminal failure.
He could not, would not let this reploid go—especially not Zero, their only hope.
"Put him on the table…gently." He amended, he didn't know what the condition of his patient was, nor if what afflicted him was based on hardware or software. "What happened to him, any prior symptoms? Any glitches?"
"We don't know," Paon admitted as he put eh legendary reploid on the auscultation table. "We were just hanging around when Zero…he spoke in this weird language."
"Next thing we knew, he's clutching his helmet, his vents are all flared open, and he's on the ground gasping for air…" Coucou explained as he removed Zero's helmet, dropping it on the ground. "Ah! Asimov's boxer short he's burning!"
Indeed, a simple reading of his glass told that The red legend's core temperature was way beyond what would be considered optimal…it was a miracle he was still somewhat functioning.
"Alouette told me Zero was having some issues with overheating… he had two episodes in the span of twenty minutes two days ago, but those are the only ones I'm aware of." Ciel gave a bit more information. "I was telling him he should be careful…Oh, what do I do now?" The poor girl began leaking from her eyes as she clutched her head.
"Anything else?" Cerveau prodded as he brought the multi-aux to the afflicted, it was already connected to the Old-Girl and the trouble-shooting program was open and ready. He managed to locate Zero's ports under his high-density sili-carbon armour. (Umbilical, audial, back and cranial. the whole gamut.) and began the assessment, hoping his Old medical computer would not crash, freeze, blue-screen or all the above as he tried to save his patient.
"Well…I think he may have a problem with his internal clock…and with his memory. Alouette told me his system would overclock when he remembered something of his past…"
"And with Zero being an amnesiac…" Cerveau let the sentence hang as he monitored the diagnosis progress.
"Alouette also reported that he was…signing something."
Cerveau eyes brows raised to his hairline. "Zero? Signing?"
"I know! He's just…It doesn't fit him. Zero's so serious; he would never do something if he saw it as superfluous. And singing...I never even heard a reploids sing willingly. And…I mean, it's Zero, an android build for war! Not for entertainment!" Ciel explained as she stood by the prone Reploid…sorry, battle android's side. Wringing her hands as tears fell from her eyes. "Maybe I've been overworking him…"
The computer beeped, having found what caused the malfunction; there were two conflicting programs running at the same time…and his temperature kept rising as a result.
"Alright…Shouldn't be too hard to resolve. You two! Get him off that table and in the tank."
The tank was designed to cool off any overheating Reploid as fast as possible without causing anything to break; the Nanite-rich water was supper chilled at a temperature somewhat above freezing.
Yes... it was a shock treatment, but if reploid was at this point... what were a few cracked solders joined and warped skeletal frames for a chance at existence?
Better yet would be mineral oils, but…well, it was something Cerveau wished he had right now but only had enough for minor work.
The red and black android was soon stripped of all gears and submerged into the near-freezing water, causing the liquid in direct contact with him to sizzle. His rising temp somewhat slowing its steady hike toward a spectacular heat-death.
The computer beeped; its attempt at resolving the error had been met with multiple failures; Either due to age or simply because the patient was not built the same as the rest as the reploid population. "Hmm…the conflict needs to be manually resolved" then Cerveau opened Zero's terminal to see what processes were at war with one another.
What met him was the work of a mad genius, something beyond what a mere human could do…so many codes that should not work together. A cobbled up mess that somehow managed to form the legendary red Warrior, the reploid that had fought in the maverick wars alongside X, saving the Azure warrior many times over.
"What in the world?" Ciel breathed out. The young genius knew how to code; she knew what was scrolling on the screen. "How does Zero even manage to wake up in the morning? Is that… Oh God... is that a berserker program on startup?! Who the hell thought that was a good idea?"
"Ask his creator…he should know," Cerveau grumbled as he connected his glasses to the screen, scrolling through the mires of code to see which ones caused the fatal conflict. Five minutes later, he realized that Zero's codes, as nightmarish as they were, all seemed to work in harmony…
"It's not from his main processor…not in his source code."
"I think I found it!" Ciel exclaimed. "Oh Gosh! That's what those are…"
"Ciel?" the base tech master and engineer glanced at what Ciel was looking…the leader of the resistance had managed to found Zero's specs and blueprint. Quickly pinpointing what she was referring to, his dual data-core.
No one, in their right mind, would ever put a dual Data-core in a warbot. Especially on a reploid's chest and in such proximity…those specialized Data-crystal had the terrible habit of heating more than necessary when installed so close to one another…and they looked very awkwardly on a male coded frame.
"This explains why he has such a high-performance heat-sink…" Cerveau muttered to himself. "Now what do they contain, and why are they burning him from the inside out?...other than their placement, that is." Some moment later, and he had his answers.
"By Cossack's daughter! Two cognitive suppression programs… and a memory scrambler have been active and in conflict since Zero was resurrected. That does it, Zero's maker was either drunk during his coding or a pure sadistic genius." Cerveau muttered as he ordered the Old-Girl to terminate those two unnecessary programs.
The screen stuttered, the supercomputer's fan went in overdrive…And the resistance doctor could just feel his old girl's processor chugging through the external shut down process.
"Please work…Please don't crash…" He heard Ciel whispered with folded palms. Even in the cooling tank, Zero's internal temperature was dangerously close to the one fatal error…
Cerveau feared his next diagnosis, no reploid he knew ever came out the same after such a close encounter with a heat-death.
'This is Zero we are talking about; legend says that he came back from un-survivable odds quite often…let's hope this time will not be different."
Suddenly…the screen went black.
"Oh no…Please do this to me, love…." Cerveau all but dived behind the old girl, hitting the manual reboot as he prayed to whatever had an ear to listen to an artificial being for a miracle…
Not that he believed in such a silly concept. Everyone knew God was a myth and that existence was made so that everything ended in destruction. It was a game of survival…a game no one could win.
And Zero was at the end of his session…like they all were.
He heard Ciel's cry in despair. Cerveau knew the next hour would be hell. The old girl started again…it would take a minute.
A minute Zero didn't have.
He crawled from behind his girl, dusting his clothing off from whatever dust had gathered. "Ciel…I'm sorry…I did all I could…" he wished he could have done more. There must have been more to be done…maybe if he would have been faster…maybe he could try removing those two cores. But he had no idea if they were holding other vital processes…and to get Zero out of the immersion tank meant that Cerveau would not even have the time to open the legendary reploid synth skin that he would be burning off essential processors and chips.
The booting sequence started, and after a minute, the medical clunker was booting up its diagnosis process…and Cerveau feared what it would find now.
And then…he could not believe it.
DNW-0000 (ZERO)
STATUS: OPERATIONAL AT 64%
MAIN DATA-CORE (Z-BRAIN) STATUS: STABLE. W_ LST_ LAUGH: OPERATIONAL.
LEFT DATA-CORE (Z-HEART.) WARNING -CORE UNBOUNDED- SUPPRESSION PROGRAM TERMINATED- INHIBITION PROGRAM: TERMINATED. – WARNING_MEMORY PARTITION: REMOVED.
RIGHT DATA-CORE (EXTERNAL-MEMORY DRIVE.) STATUS: OVERLOADED. WARNING: CORRUPTED DATA. UNABLE TO ACCESS. START RESTORATION? (Y/N)
Cerveau could only stare…Zero should not be at 64% capacity. 64% meant unconscious but recovering… and indeed, the number kept slowly climbing towards functionality. Better yet, many of Zero's memory files seemed to be now accessible, including his defragmenting memory.
The base engineer let out a small laugh…His legs felt weak, his hands were shaking, their only hope…Zero was…he was recovering; maybe…he would make it out fine. 'No...it can't be this easy...this is real life, not a fantasy.'
"Ciel… don't get your hopes up yet…we don't know if this will affect Zero." He Warned the young girl and himself by extension. The right core was overloaded…and he had no idea what type of Data was in.
"I know…This…It's a miracle…Zero…" The young genius began sobbing, and Cerveau could not help but shake his head.
"Ciel…There's no such thing as a miracle. We may have underestimated Zero's resiliency, that's all. I'm sure his creator was smart enough to include a few automatic recovery protocols and what-not."
Cerveau put a hand on her shoulder; he had no idea what would come out of the tank anymore…it may not even be Zero.
Time would tell.