Having a friend was, in Zero's opinion, absolutely underrated.

In his case, anyway.

If his Swiss cheese-like memories were to be believed, Zero didn't make friends. They were all sycophants anyway, vying for glories by association and the like.

He wasn't blind; he was excellent, the best and most ruthless of all the maverick hunters. Never asking questions, just going out for the kill, either with his Z-saber or his bare hands!

And then he'd met X and was kinda sorta…

Well, he'd first thought X to be an obsolete system, then a crybaby…

Then a world-destroying crybaby who only saw the best of everyone and who would be following them blindly because, of course, he trusted them.

Meaning X, the only other reploid immune to the Maverick virus, had to be protected at all costs… even if X could've easily destroyed Zero if he really wanted it.

This was how his friendship with X had started… Then came Axl.

What had happened to the copy-reploid? Neither X nor Zero knew… or, perhaps, Zero knew but covered the knowledge, he wouldn't be surprised with how the war had been.

Long story short, Zero didn't make friends for the good and simple reason that he would, one way or another, get betrayed by them. And He knew X had the same problem.

He knew full well that his Husband was still feeling the sting of Magma Dragoon's death, what to say of Bit and Midi.

Of course, there was Double's betrayal to take into account, too.

In hindsight, it was a miracle X had not broken earlier, and it explained why X had latched on to Phantom and Undine so desperately.

Phantom… or Kaze Kage because he'd proved his Loyalty to X from beginning to end, and Elpizo because if he would ever betray X, the blue bomber would not be too broken-hearted over it… and X viewed his close shave with death at his hand the kindest gesture anybody had done for him… right under Zero Kissing him back to life.

Disturbing, yes… but also very sweet in its own way.

But Zero… had only ever been close to X.

Except for now.

Now, Zero had something budding with Vava; the now Ancient reploid in his own right was like… he was acting as close to a parent as Zero would ever get. He was kind, genial, a bit willy and always around with a folding chair if Zero needed to sit down a bit.

Embarrassing, but it was clear his body was struggling with the added weight and his change of center mass. The usually nimble reploid would stumble, even falling to the ground, tripping over nothing. His system was taxed with… building (growing? forging?) a pair of tiny bodies, meaning his systems were running on lowered resources and he could feel it.

If Zero were to be caught in a fight, he knew his system would fully default to flight… even if this was nearing impossible with every passing week.

He hated Feeling this vulnerable. Even if X had given him the full guard, France was a capable fighter, and nothing could pass Undine's gaze but…

Zero's Ego would not let that be, he was a Warrior! A Fighter! He'd faced greater foes than some disgruntled haters screaming at him over him being a blasphemy of nature!

And yet… He could not afford to start a fight. He could not afford to lash out.

Nobody had any idea of a reploid's fetus resiliency; nobody knew how much abuse Zero could take now before he went into emergency shut down.

And nobody wanted to risk a public backlash over Zero, A Reploid, attacking a human, even with his words.

Humans… could be very disgusting. And they could easily spin a nasty story that would remove whatever freedom Zero had at the moment, and it would cost him his newborns.

No, Zero could not turn nasty in public since X had told him that Zero had to charm the general populace by being a Good Mama.

Which is why he'd let France and Undine (Holy crap, He really was Elpizo. This piece of shit… was not as bad as Zero expected…) Coddle him and help the warmachine pick out whatever he thought his babies would need in their nursery, despite the fact that those were robo babies from a robo-daddy and mummy who lived from the sun ray and couldn't care less about blankets and other potential obstructions…

Despite the fact that Zero had his own favourite blanket and a pregnancy pillow.

He would keep this pillow well beyond that, to be honest.

So yes, his two bodyguards… two exceptional bodyguards, might he add, were also considered friends.

Well, France was, since it became a custom for X and Zero to visit her and her husband, Anubis. Oh, and the three brats. Alouette, Menard and Pieroquets.

The three kids were thriving under France and Anubis Necromancess's care, finding new interests and hobbies, trying new things, learning about morality, and how it was fine to be curious about other cultures, different people, and reploids.

Who would've thought that Hot Head Fefnir would be an ideal housewife?

"The Kitchen is my domain, hun. And my home is my palace. It's a safe place, a place of love and healing and I am the main priestess and healer."

She and Zero had hit it off after he initial awkwardness. France had dragged Zero to her closet. So much pink and cream. Zero felt he was stuck in one of those super ancient PDF archival pictures for perfect housewives.

Zero hated this; he didn't like the girly accent; the cat clock was grating on his nerves and he felt whatever shred of masculinity he had left vanished.

That was when, out taking a break outside, France had explained to Zero how she knew her safe place was oversaturated with feminine things, for her home was the only place fefnir could never reach.

Zero… could understand.

After that, France properly introduced Zero to her Husband, telling the Warmachine that her sweet kack never stopped gushing about his pre-babies exploit against him and how he'd called first dib when Zero was battle-ready again, only to have his wife yeet a wet and dirty dish rag to his face, calling him a thief since she had first dib since Zero's first outing against her.

At this point, despite the two lives kicking in his gust, his range of motion and vulnerability returned. Zero felt more like himself, with a pair of warriors waiting for the time he could fight again..

It was only in his home… and with Braja-Valabhi that he could feel like… himself.

Or figure out what 'himself' meant.

So far, Zero preferred the male pronoun, even if he was biologically (technically?) male. He was devoted to X and, indeed loved him very much. Even if he had to… a crazy moment where he would threaten those who didn't want to listen to him with either bodily harm or exile.

Harsh, yes. But considering that X had to rebuild his country and get rid of all the damage Copy-X and a bunch of human council members Had done over the… long ass time he was gone.

And from the look and the sound of it, going into politics sounded even worse than fighting all those damn wars Zero barely remembered.

But, Neo-arcadia was the last bastion of Anything on earth; there were signs that this was otherwise, but either the theoretical colonies were just that, or they didn't trust Neo-arcadia at all and would rather remain in constant radio silence, happy in their solitude.

To be honest, Zero couldn't blame them. From what he had heard, not even humans had liked Copy and the Guardians since he had robbed those in need of the aids, rendering the blind, ill, and aging unable to function, and no one was willing to take care of them.

Of them all, only France, 'the traitorous bitch' and that cowardly Phantom had been X's favourite.

France, because for all the bad fefnir did, she repaired it a thousandfold, and Phantom, for having listened to X and keeping him company in cyberspace. Just being there to get rid of X's loneliness for a bit.

And for Having looked over Zero, for talking Undine out of getting revenge on the family of those who'd harmed and used X for their own benefits.

Oh, let the assholes get it, let their internet be slow and covered in censors and with no access to video streaming and messaging apps. But to force this on their Families?

…

Actually, on second thought, those munches should have thought twice about forcing X to seal mother Elf; whatever Weil had done to cause her to turn as the dark Elve could have been reversed; no one could screw up with living codes badly enough that expert programmer or even your average number crunching reploid could not reverse, there was just so many failsafe!

Neige (X's favourite and perfectly balanced journalist.) had been in agreement, as was Ciel, Cerveau, DOight and everyone who knew a bit about engineering.

Who in their right mind would make a lethal machine with no foolproof master switch? Zero had one, X had one, all reploids had one.

Key word 'Had.'

Apparently, humans didn't like it when their precious slaves would suicide on them, considering life as a fragile, underpowered cyber elf better then being exploited by them.

And yes, those kill switches could be hacked.

And this had been the start of the Maverick war.

But considering that neither X, Zero, nor all reploids and elves where mere AI moving puppet-like bodies but eternal spirit souls with human level of consciousness, then it made the killswitch that much worse... but still, Mother Elf was supposed to be an AI, a cure. Freesia even spoke at length about the kill phrase to turn her off. Would she turn rogue, knowing full well that her colleague of the time was a bit too invested in the cyber-ghost.

Nevertheless, and despite all the Drama, Zero was happy to be alive, even more so now that two lives had grown in his body.

It also helped that Braja-Valabhi was now also on Zero's friend list.

She was a mentor for him, a mother of three (going on four) and her family had experience in child rearing and birthing.

The dark-skinned beauty had called Zero a lucky girl since, being mechanical in nature, the reploid didn't have to suffer from morning sickness, cravings and constipation.

Zero had restored that his energetic consumption had skyrocketed; his craving was not about foodstuff, but literal garbage and fruits and candy-flavoured condoms and lubricant and was suffering from a gender crisis.

By definition, only women could give birth. biologically born, that is. And since Zero's anatomy permitted him to make a partition for two growing bodies and could build a pair of reploid without having been in contact with a pair of genitals...

Or… perhaps… Perhaps it was time they all stopped thinking of reploids as human analogues and instead considered them their own species with their own reproduction method.

Nevertheless, his (her?) Nature as the start of the actual second generation of reploid (they needed a new name since Zero children won't be anything replicated, nor would they be androids, they will be true mechanical life forms.) Zero still managed to make an awesome friend, a best friend other than X; hell, let's call her a mentor.

She was… A teacher showing Zero what it was to be a mother, how pregnancy would go, and her one personal anecdote going from prego brain shenanigans to gross things a pregnant woman would go through.

The thing about the miscarriage had been hard for Zero to hear, and he desperately regretted asking about the tiny footprint framed by the door.

He had remained weeping and sobbing in X's arms for a whole 24 hours, and he had his health UI open to monitor his baby.

He would still anxiously check up on it, only to see that nothing was wrong and that his twins were growing at a steady rate.

Apparently, the hardest trimesters were the first ones, and it was at the time when Zero got… sicker than any reploids had any rights too.

Seriously, he felt as if his health points were taking a hit at the mere mention of…

Yeah, no…

Still, Braja was a friend, a Mentor and a confidant… and the mother of Zero's Kid's future friends.

The Vaishnavi giggled as she felt her baby move against her squish stomach… and Zero, for his part could not help but stare in awe at his life-filled belly.

His own two babies…

Wait, perhaps it should have started at the beginning.

Since the whole Reploid pregnancy thing was unprecedented and quite historical, Zero once again had to break out of Character and, for once in his life (or so X said.) picked up a book…

Or a dozen or so, since apparently, the whole pregnancy shtick was not as simple as he'd once thought.

Not for human women, that was for sure.

Let us spare the details and instead say that, at the end of it, Zero never wanted to touch a human health book for the rest of his existence and became quite paranoid about the fact that his two own babies were worryingly still.

But, as Braja had told him, those were reploid babies, not human babies. Besides, during one of her pregnancies, one of her babies remained as still as she could; she was now a little hurricane.

Sometimes, Mommy wished she could be as still as she was in her womb, but then-

"Everything's temporary here; one moment, I have to wash off all my makeup from her face; the next, I'll be crying my eyes out on her wedding day." Braja said as she squeezed Zero closer, squishing their bellies together.

"Please, they're not even born yet." Zero said as he marvelled at the number of lives dancing in their bodies.

Zero's babies, unit 1 and Unit 2, were moving now that they felt a third one moving.

And move she did.

While Braj's second girl had been dead to the world until the big fat D-day, Trilokeshvari was assuring the world that she was alive and well.

And apparently, she had been the solution to Zero's anxiety about his own brood.

It had happened quite innocently; Braja-valabhi, noticing Zero's despondency, had hugged the (huge) reploid, and the two, being more or less the same size, meant that their belly got squished together.

And, feeling the two other souls in Zero, Braja's baby moved… quite a bit.

Zero's brood reacted and also began to move, proving to their mother unit that they were indeed living.

They simply had no reason to move, for they were happy to remain clutching one another as their tiny body formed without Zero's continued effort.

And thus, here they were, Braja and Zero (now without his long, all-covering robe.) squishing their belly and letting their kids play together… as much as fetal beings could play.

"Mmh." Zero grunted as Baby 2 viciously kicked his energy tank; the poor reploid buried his face in his human friend's shoulder.

"Who was it this time?" Braj asked with humour and sympathy in her tone. "B-1 or B-2"

"I don't care anymore… pregnancy sucks." he moaned as he felt his twins rearranging their position.

Apparently, they share one amniotic sack, and since neither were humans, Zero didn't have to live with the anxiety of one of them (or both) strangling themselves on their umbilical cord.

Still… as happy as the reploid was about them finally moving after 30 weeks of being dead to the world, he was now realizing that…

It wasn't exactly comfortable.

"Yeah, I hear you. Making bodies isn't a piece of cake or all that glamorous." Braja agreed. "I can't tell you how many packs of prune I ate during my first; it was so bad." she laughed.

"Cravings. I have a fragging craving for… parts. And condoms… strawberry condoms… Why the hell do I want something only humans need, and why is strawberry flavour so important? I don't even know what a strawberry smells like… but I want it so bad." Oh great, now he wanted to eat again.

"I started out by being sicker than a Dog. Reploids ain't supposed to puke, but apparently I did. And no, me being built by the demigod of… making stuff had nothing to do with it." Zero grumbled as he pulled away, the novelty of feeling a pair of bodies swimming in a place he didn't know existed, having lost its appeal, and he just wanted to rest.

So he did, letting himself flop down on the pile of cushions Braj kids had built behind him. Knowing Zero was like Mago and had two babies in her belly.

…

Sure, her. Zero let it slide since Radha was still young, and his whole situation was confusing as hell.

He liked being considered a man; that's the first part of his identity he'd gathered after waking up in Area Of Zero with Ciel begging for his aid.

Ok.. that happened a bit later, but resurrection sickness was horrible… not as bad as what had happened to him in his first-trimester thought; they only knew it was the remnant of the virus, meaning Zero managed to purge Mother Elf and once again freed her.

X had theorized that Zero's baby was the Mother elf having a second chance… and this was tearfully declared with X's shamelessly nuzzling Zero's ever-expanding belly, in front of everyone.

Embarrassing?

If a pair of life had not been in his humongous belly, Zero would have blown all of his fancy gem fuses and died on the spot, but since it wouldn't be conducive for his babies, he refrained.

Besides, Mother Elf and another entity were there, getting a second chance.

She would be raised with love, the first Robot-born being, along with her sibling.

It was as exciting as it was terrifying.

Wait… where was he again?

Braj chuckled as she lay beside Zero. "Bhagavan's amazing, you know? I feel… like you and X are the heralds of a better time… a better era," She spoke as he looked outside her full wall window. "Already, the moment you and X returned, things got better for all of us. The reploid Riot stopped, the industrial complex churning them out closed down, improving our air qualities and waves of mechanical bodies devotees are now flooding our halls, thanks to you."

If Zero would have the ability to blush, he would.

But alas, as amazing and ridiculously advanced as his body was, Vishwakarma had to exclude this from the blueprint.

All the better to hide his raging emotions.

"I did nothing, I'm… a coward, that's all."

"What do you mean?" Braj asked.

"... I'm hiding. I… I'm… I was scared and still am scared of what could happen to them." he said meaningfully as he placed his hands on his ever-growing bump. "I was built to fight… my old body was considered the foremost war model, a marvel of military engineering." Zero said, neither his glance nor eyes moved away from the most influential bump of the century. "I should be able to protect them, to fight for them." Zero's voice glitches. "But… right now, my spacial sensors are still getting used to them; they're always growing, and… I've gotten too heavy for my legs and shock absorbers to be effective. I can't even run! I waddle, for fuck sake!" Zero snapped. "And I don't want to find out what will happen if an energy weapon is aimed at them; I can feel the skin's so stretched, I'm so scared of bumping into a sharp thing and bursting, I don't have the same fat armour you have."

Zero was panicking; he knew he was, but fuck it!

"I have no idea how they'll get out for me; I don't have any conduits like you have, like any woman has. "Zero sobbed as he hid his face in his hands. Braja, knowing partly what he went through, gently rubbed his back.

"There, there, don't worry, dear; Krishna's taking care of you and your babies."

"But I'm not a Devotee." Zero uncharacteristically wept. "He said…. He said that he would protect his devotees, but I'm… I'm no one; I don't know how to serve him. I don't even have that much faith in him, I barely managed to read the Bhagavad Gita, and I still don;t understand like half the stuff said in Sb classes...B-but he's my only shelter… my only Hope." The reploid revealed as he held his ever-growing bump. "Humans have failed us, reploids have failed us…"

Braj held Zero's hands in her own, the reploid following their movement until the hazel eyes of his friend caught his.

"Zero… another name of Krishna is Narayana, of the shelter of all humans, or human-like beings like demons, demigods, and reploids. And he is also named Acyuta, or the unfailable one." Braj squeezed Zero's oil-stained hands. " you're under good hands, no matter what will happen. Krishna will never fail you, I swear it on my life."

At this moment, Zero realized what it meant to be a surrendered soul; it meant to have unflinching faith in something… no, someone bigger than everything else.

And Zero… Chose to take a bit more shelter.

It's not like anything else had protected him… hell, not even X had managed to save Zero from himself.

But… Perhaps… God will?

Little did he know that his newborn faith in Acyuta would be rigorously tested sooner than later.

The month passed, and Zero grew big enough that all of his Combat routine and reploid agility were unusable. It was a time of great anxiety and of spiritual development.

If someone had told the Red Ripper that he would sit with Humans to learn about how to serve God out of Love and rebuild his relationship with Him, Zero would've called them insane in their face, and that would be that.

Zero was glad he was not this past self since the subject was fascinating.

And no, he didn't say that because he could not move and train anymore (well, he was a waddler at this point, but still! He could still shoot the hell out of people, his aim was still good, damn it!) Bhakti-Yoga really was fascinating.

God existed, which explained why the whole Universe was perfectly made. X had told him that he'd never really believed this whole thing about random events and chance since nothing in the world felt random, and there was a pattern in everything (They called me mad, well AH! Who's the crazy one now?!) and not only did he exist; but he was also a person, the perfectly complete person in whom all existed.

It was far out, But Since Zero was ah… well, a Vedic style automata… no, wait, let Zero start again.

Since Zero was in a Body that had been handmade instead of Normally grown, he knew full well that Nothing as Perfect as he came from explosion and luck; there had to be a hand moved by a brain filled with knowledge. and this amazing knowledge had to come from people smarter then his creator.

And this person just so happened to be the Demigod, the Devata of building, architecture, and art. He served under Vishnu, Narayana.

Vishnu is God as the supreme controller and maintainer of all, the creator of the creator and he who breaths out all the unlimited universe, and he made reality as we all know it through his illusory potency and Shiva, His glance.

Then He, Vishnu, entered all universes and the hearts of all living entities to help them remember what they wanted to do in their previous lives and sat there as the Neutral Judge, waiting for the Fallen Jivas to remember that, actually, they do want to remember God as either the Master of everything, Their best friend, their baby, or their lover.

And wasn't it amazing that, Despite being the Big Boss of Everything, the All Powerful one who creates, Maintains and Destroys everything in his sleep, Bhagavan (The one who has all the Opulances.) made innumerable material universes because he could not bear deleting those rebellious, envious souls who left him to go play God in Maya.

God is Love, Varoru had said, and Zero understood what she meant.

God… had been waiting and was still waiting for Literally forever for all innumerable souls to return to him, to the eternal abode.

Ah, right.

So, another subject that had caught Zero's newfound nerdiness (yes, there was such a thing as a divine nerd, and Zero was turning into one.) was that there were two main dimensions. The material dimension, and the spiritual one.

The material dimension was a deep, dark, filthy pit of suffering where everyone takes birth crying (if they could even survive that long.) and dies suffering only to be forced in another womb and be forced to take birth again as another species.

the price to pay for exploiting those weaker then them and not playing by God's rules. and Bhagavan's rules were a means to meet this whole mad-house standing and not in consent wars and famine. Live like a selfish animal, take birth as one, live naked like a tree, with senses dull by plan matter, and you will be a tree in the next life, live like a worker ant, a parasite...

Like… the Vedas said there were 48,000 life forms in this universe, basically different car models for the marginal soul to get shoved in against their will.

Nobody wanted to take birth as a lamprey, a penguin, a caiman, or a hyena, to name a few. The only reason marginal souls kept taking birth so often was because they were willfully ignoring Krishna's call and stubbornly embracing Krishna's all-powerful, illusory energy.

She was the most potent drug, this Maya, for she made the life of a drunkard or even a pig about to go to be slaughtered pleasant for them.

Pigs, wild pigs ate shit… the neutral souls… were forced to eat shit and love it.

Yeah, no. Zero didn't want to take any chance, neither for him nor for his unborn babies.

Besides, if the archives and his own glitching memories were to be believed, Zero was Old… Ridiculously so.

So, he considered taking up a religion and raising his kids to be retired, and preparing for the next logical step.

Thus, despite his fear, Zero would sometimes join the sankirtana party dressed as a woman; other times, he would sing in front of God and his Consort.

He would help in the temple as much as he could while X wrangled cats and did his best at reforming Neo Arcadia as something that didn't need reploids to live… and that reploids didn't need to die for it.

As he had said, Copy-X's idea had merit as long as reploids were merely replicated androids and not their own species of humans. In that case, it was called a genocide.

Nevertheless, this was X's problem because the next generation of Reploids (They needed to find a new name for themselves since the true next-gen wasn't going to be anyone's replica) would live off of the sun and humans' trash. X had calculated that if the next gen would be as voracious as Zero, then all of the earth's ancient garbage pits would be emptied by the end of the century.

Cool, but not Zero's Problem.

No, Zero's problem now consisted of humans… humans who wanted to terminate Zero's pregnancy over their belief that only human and organic living beings had the right to procreate.

Zero had been attacked once, and their home was not as safe as X believed.

It was, once again, a terrifying experience for the now vulnerable war frame.

The only other time the Red Ripper's ability to fight and protect himself and X had been taken away…

"Nope… not gonna happen, not gonna happen. I prayed to Narashima-deva, and I pray to Krishna and Krishna promised to protect his Devotees, and… fuck, am I a devotee? Am I chanting pure enough… Oh Krishna, I… I suck at this whole praying thing but… Protect my babies? Please? Listen, just…" Zero vented as he waddled faster down the darkest, spookiest corridor of Neo-Arcadia.

alright, let's rewind.

This morning, X sent Zero a message inviting him to his office at the top of the Babel tower. Zero didn't have a clue why until he realized that X had… needs. And those needs had to be taken care of.

And Zero… was more than happy to cater to them.

They were married, and after all the shit they lived through, they had the right to enjoy being alive, especially X.

And thus, Zero excused himself from Braj's presence after their prenatal Yoga class (best thing since reploid grade candies.) and made his way to the very top of the Babel tower (X, why the biblical motif? Was it the first symptom of you descending into madness?) using the elevator, for once.

As expected, it was boring as hell; they even had the gall to put elevator music on, too. Thank God for the seats, though, since with all that extra weight, standing for longer than five minutes was agony, and Zero was all out of minutes.

And then… the elevator stopped, and before that… he felt his threat detection algorithm activate.

What had ensued was something worthy of the next best Horror game.

A very pregnant Zero, now unable to protect himself due to his change of center mass and his lack of weapons, trying to find any stairs, windows, anything to get out of there.

And no contact with anyone was out of the question since his comm was jammed, and who in their right mind would think of surrounding the first-ever reploid with a small army when they all knew no one would dare attack him since last Friday!

"I am an Idiot, I am a fool. Yes baby, mummy did a booboo, a big boo boo he's not sure he'll get out unscathed." Zero once again mumbled to his unborn twins, his nanite hair flared as he felt the threat at the very edge of his 'vision'.

It was nerve-wracking, and he wanted it to be over.

And, unfortunately, he got his wish.

"Kee"

Zero's eyes honed in the source of the sound and went to grab his Z-saber only for his hands to be met with air.

Fuck.

Orbs of fire began to dance around him, and X walked closer.

His usual smile was gone, and the madness (His right, to be honest.) in his eyes… wasn't right.

"You're disgusting to me." 'X' sneered. "Bearing children… a robot bearing children… disgusting."

"What disgusts me most is the coward using my husband's likeness to insult me." Zero spoke out loudly, angry at the act but not the word. "And seriously, this is sucks! I heard the worst insult on the street by old ladies. So not only are you a coward, whoever you are, but you're crap at insulting! Now cut it out and either let me go, or get on with whatever devious plan you've cooked up in your cheap Ass CPU and let me get on with my day." he huffed as he crossed his arms over his unchanged chest.

Zero knew that growing boobs would've been the last straw for his mental health; thankfully, despite female models wearing some hefty racks, it wasn't needed to nurture the babies he bore…

'Focus, zero. You can't let your mind drift off, you're in a nasty situation… all of you are."

Suddenly, flames erupted to his right, and the burdened one jumped aside, only to feel his legs crumple under him.

He tried to catch himself, but a pair of unwelcomed hands grabbed him around his distended waste.

Electricity coursed through him, and all of his systems shut down; all power rerouted to his feet through his spine, depriving his babies of their constant connection to their matrix.

Everything faded as the group emerged from the shadows.

Zero's last thought was Gopal's name… God's name.

For at this moment, the Red Ripper had no one but him.

The fluff ends now... what, you thought this prego story would be without angst?

Buddy, you can't appreciate sweetness without bitterness.