Chapter 3 – The Seeds
"Thankfully the environmental damage in this region during the last cataclysm has healed almost completely." Ciel said as she overlooked a field nar the settlement.
"That was one of the reasons why we picked this spot after all." Cerveau said. "We'll just have to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Even before the wars and the cataclysms… some of our predecessors were not exactly kind to nature."
"I don't want to start getting paranoid and controlling..." Ciel said with a sigh. "But it's inevitable that this place will grow over time. We're going to have to plan this very carefully."
"Honestly, I think that's one of the reasons why people followed you." the Chief Engineer said with a smile. "The way you are. Strong and determined, but still gentle. You get even an old coot like me excited about the future."
"You're not that old." she retorted with a shrug. "But that reminds me… I haven't seen old Andrew in a while."
"Well..." Cerveau explained with a fond smile. "Once he heard what we were up to, he got all excited and ran off muttering something about seeds."
They heard a rustle behind them and turned around just in time to see the old Reploid, still with his shaved head and long white beard, carrying a ludicrous amount of tools in a bundle on his back and a large sack in his right hand. Instead of his usual green tunic, he was wearing an old pair of blue trousers and long green rubber boots, as well as a buttoned white shirt. Once, Ciel knew, he had been a baker. Now he looked more like an old time farmer.
"I'm glad I was able to catch you, Miss Ciel." he said with a glimmer in his tired blue eyes that she had never seen before.
"Wha…?" she muttered. Though she knew the old man was a Reploid, the contrast between his appearance and the load he was carrying was still baffling.
"I've been saving these ever since you came along and gave us hope." Andrew said, holding his head high. "The tools, I mean. I've been carrying the seeds since my wife's passing as a reminder of happier days. Now that we finally know peace again… the young ones will taste my work once more."
"Well then." Ciel said, feeling his enthusiasm spreading to her. "In that case we'll have to do our very best to make the most of them."
Overhearing everything from a distance, Zero couldn't help smiling.
"See what you're doing?" he thought. "The effect you have on people? Even I can see that."
Even in his diminished state, he took pride in the fact that he still had an eye for certain things.
Over the next couple of days, Ciel and Cerveau drafted the plans for an irrigation system and the general layout of what would one day be farmland. There was no shortage of volunteers to start the physical work, but there were still some details to sort out before they could begin in earnest.
"Once the work starts..." Zero said to her one morning. "I want to be there."
"Then we'll be more than glad to have you." Ciel replied, again showing a beaming smile, bright enough to give him pause.
Nearby, Alouette's gaze darted between the two as she watched the exchange with a glimmer in her big blue eyes. She let out a low chuckle and then went back to what she was doing, stuffing an old burlap sack with old shredded synthetic fibers that were too damaged to be of much use while other children were tying a long wooden stick to a shorter one, trying to hold the shorter in a perpendicular position.
The excitement permeating the settlement had also spread to Zero, though he kept it hidden behind a stoic facade most of the time. As the days went by, he realized, he was becoming increasingly fond of doing something constructive with his hands. More disjointed memories had emerged during his dreams, and he was still struggling to process them, but for the time being he felt a strange sense of contentment that he was not quite used to.
"I could definitely get used to this..." he thought a couple of hours later, allowing himself a rare smile as he watched the others gather for lunch.
The fact that most Reploids could subsist on energy crystals alone was not lost on him, though at this point in time they were advanced enough to taste and process the same food as humans. The crystals were simply much more efficient as they could be absorbed directly upon consumption. Zero himself was an oddity, in that his internal reactor seemed to run on a strange, likely one of a kind and seemingly inexhaustible energy source that defied most attempts at analyzing it. Ciel herself had tried at one point and found it strangely similar to her previous work, but did not elaborate on it.
Though he had no physical need for food or energy crystals, he still found himself drawn closer by the smell of some sort of stew broiling in a large cauldron under Cerveau's watchful eye as it sat over a fire at the center of a bare patch of dirt.
In the recent past, the energy crystal shortage had resulted in new tensions between organic and synthetic life forms… and ultimately paved the way for Copy X's descent into madness and the persecution of Reploids, culminating in the current state of affairs. Ciel's new energy production system had rendered the whole thing moot, but seeing humans and Reploids sitting together in such a manner was a reassuring sight. The Resistance had, at its core, accepted both equally from the start due to having been formed to oppose the monstrous actions being carried in humanity's name. Unfortunately, Ragnarok had robbed Ciel and the others of the opportunity to change the minds of everyone inside the city, but the grateful survivors would not forget the experience of being betrayed by their own rulers and saved by those they had labeled their enemies.
"I didn't know you could cook." Zero remarked with a hint of amusement at the sight of the Resistance's Chief Engineer wearing an apron and a chef's hat that he had dug up somewhere.
"To be fair, up until recently, I didn't know you could smile." Cerveau quipped. "Are you going to stand there staring or are you going to join us? We saved you a seat."
This too caught Zero by surprise. The Chief Engineer had always seemed like a reserved type, even if not to his own extent, but without the constant threat of an imminent attack and the associated tension he was definitely showing a different side of himself.
"Come on!" Alouette said excitedly as she grabbed Zero's hand and tugged at it. "I helped make it and I want to hear what you think."
"Well, how can I refuse after hearing that?" he conceded, letting her lead him to the folding metal table that a couple of other familiar faces had just finished setting.
The vegetable stew was rich and filling, its smell and taste easing everyone into a state of contented relaxation as they ate it from metal bowls with spoons. Zero also noticed plenty of new faces which he did not recognize. It seemed that some of the survivors of Neo Arcadia had completely swallowed their pride and joined the growing settlement. Others, probably either due to the shock of losing their homes or the shame over what they had been a part of, were still keeping their distance, settling in the outskirts or moving elsewhere, but for the time being the enormity of what had happened was leaving them in a somewhat dazed state.
Zero could faintly recall how, in another time and place, he had seen humans resenting Reploids and fearing them for their capabilities, eventually resorting to violence and nearly tearing the world apart. Banishing the faint mental image of a sneering bald figure that was creeping up at the edge of his memory, he turned his gaze to the group, before helping himself to another portion of the stew.
Sitting to his right, Ciel watched him through the corner of her eye, before eventually abandoning all pretense and turning her head fully.
"So?" she asked. "What do you think?"
"Maybe it's the fact that I don't remember the taste of food and haven't eaten anything for hundreds of years..." Zero mused, taking the time to savor the latest spoonful before letting it slide down. "But right now this tastes like the best thing in the world."
In the edge of his consciousness, he felt another hint of an old memory. Another time, another place, under the same sky, with different company, but doing something similar, something wonderfully mundane. While his fighting prowess had certainly returned, and in some ways had reached new heights, the rest of his memories were proving slower to awaken, more capricious.
The rest of the day, he helped Andrew with plowing the fields and then helped Ciel search for components for the future irrigation system amidst the remains of one of the invasion forces that had once attempted to invade the settlement not long before Ragnarok. Most of these pockets of debris had already been picked clean but they came upon a fortuitous find – the remains of an attack helicopter, still mostly intact apart from a broken tail. As he made his way inside, Zero realized that the power generator was still intact.
"Nice find." Ciel said with a smile as she followed him.
Though her energy production system was exceedingly efficient, it would take time to assemble new reactors or modify existing ones. An intact power generator was a great boon in such circumstances, especially seeing how they had a growing settlement to tend to.
"What do you think?" he asked. "If we strip all of this down, I think we can get the irrigation system up and running as soon as we get the pipes to the river.
"Yes..." Ciel said with a nod. "But we definitely should give the construction of a water reservoir some thought sooner rather than later."
"Already thinking about the next thing then." he remarked. "Just as I expected. I guess I'm not the only one who has trouble staying still."
"I guess so. Well then, let's signal the others and get this hauled back, shall we?"
That night, more of Zero's memories surfaced. At first, he caught what seemed like glimpses of his first battle with the corrupted Mother Elf. He watched her thrash blindly with fiery dark energy tendrils, howling as if in tremendous pain.
"I see you're still fighting it..." he heard himself say as he dodged the onslaught, charging in with his Z-Saber raised. "For all it's worth, I'm sorry. I wish we had more time..."
The scene abruptly changed and he found himself lying on a metal slab, his sight unusually blurry, even more than the usual for these dreams.
"So…" he heard himself say. "How bad is it?"
"Very." a woman's voice replied, soft and gentle.
Though the image was too blurry, there was something intensely familiar about the figure. She seemed to be wearing a typical white labcoat, half open over some sort of pink garment, while a long golden mane rivaling his own ran down her back. He struggled to focus, to glimpse something else, but to no avail.
Zero saw himself raise a hand, only for his entire view to flash red.
"Gah!" he heard himself cry out in frustration. "Another of the old man's so-called gifts..."
"I'm afraid so..." the woman said with a sad sigh. "I have one solution that might work, but… you're not going to like it."
"I guess I just can't catch a break, can I?" Zero heard himself quip, trying to use sarcasm to mask his inner turmoil.
The scene shifted again, and Zero found himself lying inside some sort of metal capsule with the lid open. The same woman was standing over him, looking down at his face, but he still could not see the rest of her features.
"I hope that at least you'll awaken in more peaceful times..." the woman said, unable to conceal her sadness. "Regardless, I promise you this much. You will be remembered. No matter how many years I live, I'll make sure the world remembers your name, your deeds and your choices."
"Oh come on..." he heard himself say, trying to sound cheerful. "If this goes belly up, I don't want your crying face to be the last thing I see. Can't you show me that smile again one last time?"
"I know what you're trying to do." the woman replied, though she was able to crack a smile, which did break through the haze. "But I'll indulge you. I'll be brave for your sake."
He then felt a soft touch on his cheek.
"Give the future my regards." she said. "Give it the same hope you gave us. I only wish… I'd had more time to know you."
For a fraction of an instant, he could almost see her face… but then he awakened with a gasp.
"What the hell was that?" he muttered to himself, his eyes wide as dinner plates.
Silently, he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. There was something about that last scene that made him feel a definite sadness, a sense of loss and confusion, but another thought took over eventually.
"Why did that person remind me of Ciel so much?" he pondered in confused silence.
Elsewhere…
"You are certainly taking your time."
"Don't rush me. I spent centuries sitting in a chair… AFTER spending centuries in a capsule. If I want to take the scenic route, then I will."
"Are you not worried about running out of energy and fading away before reaching your destination?"
"Zero isn't the only one too stubborn to drop dead. I guess I just needed someone to talk some sense into me. Normally that would fall to him, but..."
"Are you absolutely certain that you want me to accompany you all the way? Given our history, I am not sure what to say to them."
"I suppose you could begin with hello."