Karuna Virus, 23.
~0~
back in his room, Harpuia stared at the ceiling, wondering how his life had gone from the very top of the hierarchy to... where he was now.
And his answers always came back to Zero and how he had corrupted everything.
...
And yet, Survey said that the inhabitants of Neo-Arcadia felt happier seeing their emperor happy with a (beautiful) woman at his side and something on his lap.
And... yeah, Harpuia could see... and feel why.
But...
Was it right? And... Was it really the Red Ripper of Legend? Or another AI that moved a Similar body.
True, Master X saw this Zero as the real deal... but from what little archival video Harpuia had managed to buy off the dark web, he knew one thing for sure.
This Maverick was not Zero.
Zero was fully masculine, cocky, foolishly fearless, and arrogant, yet not falling prey to overconfidence.
He knew his strength and power; he knew of his amazing fighting ability and what he could do. it was not arrogance when you had cables and the world's most advanced battle computer for a brain.
And there was nothing that indicated that he used to work as a cleaner-bot for the holy Doctor light.
No, instead, it was stated that he was the last of the Wily number...
and apparently, Wily was terrible enough that the only thing left of him was this one home video about the first-ever robot...
Roll.
Apparently, he had hidden her away, and he was talking to the robot (not a reploid, a robot... a robot.) as if she was his daughter.
And it was clear the guy was a madman, rambling on and on about how she would live again in a perfect body that would never age, always being his perfect little girl and never having to face this scary, deadly disease; she just needed a bit more time, that's all, Light had promised, he had promised for Lorollei's return to her daddy's side.
Yep! Clearly a madman this guy...
meaning that whatever he had built would be just as crazy; case in point, Zero.
But... with how He (She...) had wrapped everyone around her pinky finger (Hell, she was wearing Fefnir's thumb after Master X had bitten the old one off... that crushed limb was kept in a tiny treasure box. Completely bonkers, that man.)
And it sickened Harpuia.
Gone were his respectable brothers and sister, and gone was the worshipful master X. And instead...
Instead, Zero got herself a bunch of whipped husbands willing to lay their life for her (and her so-called God.) at a mere batting of her eyelashes.
And what to say about the 'divine empress'? She was no better than a loose prostitute looking for more men to seduce... and she had aimed at the top, at the best of them.
And now those best were reduced to penniless loons.
Harpuia violently turned around in his bed, the touch of Draupadi's lips on his still remained.
The warmth, the softness... the taste.
He wanted to forget... he wanted to purge this memory from his disk.
And every time he'd tried... he couldn't.
And he wouldn't.
Maybe it was because of the damn Virus, or maybe it was because, deep inside, Harpouia was a very lonely man who shared absolutely nothing with his siblings and who had no hobby.
He was there to do his job...
and that was it...
there was nothing more to it...
And then Draupadi... Zero had touched him.
First in fighting (he thought he had breasts... and indeed, he had them. And he was rather... intrigued by them, at the moment.) and then it was when she hugged him. Spun him around in jubilation...
Kissing him...
Harpuia touched his still-tingling lips, closing his eyes at the ghostly sensation...
Either his body still remembered this moment so vividly, or it was the virus manipulating his way of thinking... or it was one of his siblings tasting her sweetly poisoned lips.
Nevertheless, Harpuia went from loathing it to being somewhat indifferent to constantly thinking about X's wife and his siblings' lovers.
The way she glided as she travelled a corridor in one of her numerous skirts (gifted by Leviathan, of course.) to how good she looked in a pair of cargo pants, marching down to Fefnir's training ground, the virus floating lazily around her, Giving Neo-Arcadia's viral queen a look that would make all enemies fall at her feet and drop their weapons.
Then there was how good she looked beside Master X, and the joy he exuded at her side...
Actually, this was something they all felt, but with X and Phantom, this feeling of marital bliss was strong enough to have a physical presence.
And Harpuia... shamefully wanted some... he wanted to feel the same way.
To be able to hold the powerful reploid... and to make her submit to his will completely and fully.
To have her under him. Broken and repentful for all the problems she had caused... and for breaking Master X's sacred heart.
For the trillions of lives lost due to her existence... just as Harpuia extracted all of her files, digging through all of her directories, unearthing all the dirt, all of her codes to expose what she really was to Master X and his Siblings, breaking them all out from Zero's thrall.
And Harpuia knew what he had to do... as disgusting and thankless as it was, the green sky general had no choice but to sacrifice his integrity...
For a good cause, of course.
And thus... circumventing the firewalls X had put around Zero's personal comm server, Harpuia did the most reckless thing in his life.
: Dear Draupadi Zero.
Ever since I have tasted your lips, I have desired more.
Don't pretend that you are chaste, I know what you have done with all of my siblings; please give this to me also.
I still have the power to raise a storm if I do not have what I want.
Sincerely your's
Sage Harpuia.
P.S let this be a secret between us:
And then he hit send and waited for Dra... for Zero to fall into his trap.
And knowing her, it would be very long.
~0~
"Huh," Draupadi murmured in the tangled limbs her spouses had formed. "Hapruia just contacted me?"
"Really?" Fenfir asked from under Draupadi's arm. "What does the ass wants now?" He asked with a quirk of his brow.
"Better question," X interjected from beside Draupadi, lying on top of her as he perused her lines. (all were connected to her in a bid to crack her code and gain access to her divine directory... something that was infinitely harder to do alone but not impossible with three supercomputers working at overclocked speed. Also, this cemented that Draupadi-Zero was not a Light model but a whole other build, much older then all of them, apparently) "how did he manage to go around my barrier to speak to you?"
"My money's on an elf." Leviathan spoke from her position as Draupadi's pillow. " I swear, ever since our Di-zi walked in and claimed the place, all of our elves got boosted like, you wouldn't believe the time I spoke to one thinking they were their humans or other higher-end reploid." The robotic ice queen kissed Draupadi on the top of her head. "Really, if she would've won against Master X, I would be the last one to complain."
For his part, the Master of Neo-Arcadia chuckled. "It was actually my plan from the start. I'm so glad Draupadi ruined it." he said as he gazed adoringly to his wife, making her blush.
"So… what was this plan anyway?" Fefnir asked from the confinement of Draupadi's left arm. "Like… I got so much C4 out of those wall's master X, whoever would be stuck in there would be toast." the redhead shook his head. " Thankfully, you didn't blow up this satellite… What was the satellite's use anyway? Like, there was no communication protocol other than something really basic."
X's smile fell away. "It was supposed to be my… pyre," he revealed, to the horror of his siblings. "I… I lived a life of war and death… I had killed … everyone I loved, and I..." He sighed as he flopped on his back, hiding his tearful face behind his hands. "I wanted to be with my Zero again." X admitted with a sad smile, a self-deprecating chuckle ensued. "Little did I know, my Zero really was this attractive trojan scaling the damn tower to save me… again." a heavy silence hung among the Light siblings.
Finally, Leviathan broke it with a heavy sigh as she processed the absolute unit of a buster shot they all dodged that day. "Well, thankfully, Dizi-chan beat up some sense back into you."
"All Hail percussive maintenance."
"I didn't do such a thing." Draupadi shook her head as she gently sat up, unwilling to dislodge her spouse's cables from her port.
For the first time since remembering everything, Draupadi was finally able to have her divine files properly unzipped and made available to all in the proper format. Turns out she needed three supercomputers on top of her own locked in the most intimate embrace and reploids could experience.
A fourth one would make the whole process even faster, but Harpuia wasn't… a willing participant.
"Oh? So, what did you do then?" Levi asked as she smiled lovingly at her wife. "Someone as powerful and loving as you could beat us all, no question asked. So I find it rather curious that you chose not to beat the bugs out of our Master!"
Draupadi blushed as she said "Actually, I had to let him beat the sparks outta me since... Well, I was designed and programmed to destroy, so... yeah, I didn't want to take any chances since he rang as a Maverick threat and as my primary target for his ultimate destruction." she revealed, feeling the words to be as bitter as ashes on her cyber tongue.
"So what... you just... you just stood there and took it?!" Fefnir asked, flabbergasted at the thought of his warrior of a fiance just… not fighting.
"hey, Bhagavan told me to save him; last thing I wanted was to risk it." She defended herself. "I had to fight my primary directive and my battle computers not to do anything. it's only by Krishna's mercy that I didn't just turned into a murder drone and kill him." She admitted.
yes, it was on the Lord's Order… but Draupadi also knew that the Lord loved to please his devotees, and being the heart witness of all the Jiva's desires, he knew Draupadi's feeling for her beloved Echo.
She still couldn't believe Krishna allowed it, but considering how surprisingly well things turned out…
"You... you fought your primary orders... to please God?" Phantom whispered in awe. "and... you heard him?"
"Saw Him... I mean, I spent 25 years alone in the cyber-ashram... praying to him, serving him, talking to him as my only friend there... He answered." Draupadi sighed as she checked her file, pausing the whole decrypting process. Decoupling from her spouses and going to her closet.
It was like another good room for clothes (illogical.) A room that Leviathan and Phantom had happily filled with more clothes than Draupadi knew what to do with them. What to say of the numerous gifts Genevieve and T.K had showered her with. "Now... ugh, and I can't believe I'm going to say that, but... what the heck am I supposed to wear for him."
Then she paused...
"Oh... uh..."
"Draupi?" X asked, feeling her shame.
And he had used her nickname Guru-ma gave to her.
"um... I..." She turned to her spouses. "I'm sorry I-I should have asked you what you wanted me to do." She bowed deeply in shame, addressing X like the meek woman she hoped she was.
"X... I'm sorry I took this initiative before consulting with you... all of you." she once again bowed, going as far as to touch the floor with prosterning herself.
The silence went on longer than she would've liked, and when she raised her head, she was met with four pairs of horrified eyes.
"..." she opened her mouth, but Fefnir beat her to it.
"Zero... don't you ever fucking dare bow down to us. You... you're better than that!"
"Draupadi," Max spoke up. "While I do not like how Harpuia is acting toward you... maybe you could, you know, work your magic on him."
"X!" Fefnir yelped in horror. "You didn't just! But Draupadi is-"
"Max, We were all head over heels when it came to Draupadi-Zero. Even when it was plain old Zero... not that him being plain and old made him bad, sometimes plain-"
Fefnir lightly punched his sister's arm to have her shut up. "What she's trying to say is that you are so charismatic and drop dead... no, wait, Liberation worthy... no, wait, that's even worse... Basically, you're the hottest to us, but Harpuia's Harpuia. And he ain't a soft-hearted idiot ready and willing to roll over for your pretty face and a pout." He warned.
"He's... fearful of you," Phantom spoke as he got off the recharging bed and to Draupadi's sandals. "Fearful, doubtful and willing to do anything to expose you as a fraud, as something dangerous to X. And I'm sure he will stop at nothing to expose you as the Maverick he sees you as." He said as he place his Gurur's chapala's in font of hers.
Draupadi huffed in amusement. "Hey, if I really wanted to, I could easily take over Neo-Arcadia and force all reploids and humans to bow to me."
X got up to wrap an arm around his wife's thin waist. "So, are you saying that his fears are founded?" He asked with a smirk.
"Maybe... if it's what it takes to have people chanting God's name, then so be it." She deadpanned.
She hoped it would never get to that.
"Nevertheless. Harpuia sees you as the Viral queen who took over Neo-Arcadia, and turned me into a madman" Drapadi snorted. If Harpuia thought the previous version of X was sane... "Seduced and corrupted the rest of his siblings and took the heart of Neo-Arcadia."
"Well, the only thing he got wrong was how I corrupted you," Draupadi smirked as she took a long skirt and a tasteful blouse out of her closet; Leviathan jumped to her feet and went to her Queen's dresser and began to decorate her.
"Not too much."
"No, I wouldn't want to cover your natural beauty." She said as she closed a bangle on her spouse's wrist. " I swear, I feel like whatever I buy for you gets in the way. It's so annoying."
"Levi, remind me to introduce you to Archana... Deity worship. Since if you think this pile of nuts and bolts is too pretty to decorate, wait until you see the unlimited beauty of Radha and Krishna, Gaura-Nitai, and Jagannath, Baladeva… ah, right. You've already seen them, haven't you?"
"Oh my? Are my skills so good you want me to be a priestess?" The ice blue reploid asked coyly, with an eager glint in her eyes.
"Start by chanting the prescribed round of the Hare Krishna maha-Mantra first, then follow the regulative principles, then ask me for your first and second initiation. Then I'll see about that." Draupadi commanded as she inspected how she looked.
The long skirt was flattering, but it could also be shortened at a moment's notice if Harpuia wanted more than a peaceful talk. The top was pretty and very tasteful, covering her shoulder joints nicely. X was already behind his wife, braiding her hair and adding a jeweled clip at the end... and call Draupadi crazy, but she remembered Srimati-Radharani wearing one that looked extremely similar to it.
'No... She wouldn't... would She?'
"Alright... I'm done here." Max spoke after fluffing the golden heat sink. "Now, you don't have to force yourself to please him; Harpuia is but a single, power-blocked reploid VS you and me... and the rest of my siblings. Just try to talk some sense into him, and if this fails, you have my permission to beat the waste coolant out of him." He instructed his wife.
"How alive should he be?"
"It's up to you."
Draupadi could not help the grin spreading to her cheeks, hoping the green sky general to dare to do something to her, eliciting a loud wolf whistle from Fefnir.
Phantom brought his Guru her slippers, which she gratefully slipped on as she made her way out. "Despite being a saint, you still fight." the dark reploid commented. "I... Expected a servant of God to be... you know... peace-loving and averse to conflict."
" Most of us are," Draupadi confirmed as she let Phantom tie her slippers. "but you also have to remember that Krishna's best friend, and the deuteragonist of the Bhagavad Gita is Sri-Arjuna, a warrior about to kill, give or take, ten thousand men and animals on a battlefield, and his grandfather, Bhishma-deva, a Mahajan who was the first to glorify the Vraja gopis was also a powerful warrior who won many wars by himself, what to say of King Kulashekara and King Prataparudra, great warriors and winners of numerous bloody wars?" She explained with a smile. " The biggest difference between materialists and us is that a materialist will fight and kill for his own pleasure and benefit even if he's fighting under the pretext of protecting his home country, his family, and his community. We Vaishnava fight for Krishna's pleasure. And our success relies on His Will only."
"Like... If Krishna would've told you to Destroy us all and take over Neo-Arcadia by force..."
"I would do it." The Vaishnavi confirmed. "But, Krishna doesn't want that... since he knew having me as the sole ruler would make the spreading of the real scriptures impossible." she explained. Then she clapped her hands. "Well, Gotta go speak to my green buddy. Do you think he'll let me see Aztec Falcon again? I do miss him."
"Good question, Devi. But I'm sure a ride under the stars will be a good mood setter." X spoke half-jokingly. "Now go, complete your mission... and please come back in one piece?"
"When have I... right." Draupadi snapped her mouth shut as she went to distribute some hugs and kisses to her spouses. Once again, she didn't want to risk them having any last memories of her that were less than ideal.
One never knew... only God did.
Then she left.
In the room, the four powerful reploids let their smile fall as anxiety began to make everything feel awfully stifling.
Once again, Draupadi was sacrificing herself for the greater good.
Max and his...siblings could only pray and...
"Phantom?"
"Yes, Max?"
"Shadow her."
Phantom seemed to sigh in relief. "Yes, my L-love..."
...
Despite the tension in the air, everyone burst into laughter at their brother's awkward 'save.' to Phantom's great shame and dismay.
~0~
"You wanted to see me?" The world's most potent trojan spoke after she had knocked on Harpuia's door.
How considerate of her.
Harpuia went to grant her access... no matter how much he loathed having the viral element in his environment, the next part of his plan demanded a certain level of... intimacy. And having a closed door was wholly inappropriate for that to start.
What met his eyes was...
To be perfectly honest...
Breathtaking and very easy on his sharp eyes.
Zero wore something tasteful; she had nothing to prove her beauty, after all. And even that, Harpuia could readily admit.
Really, his self-appointed mission was going smoother than expected... probably because of the virus.
But he would not be swayed, oh no. He would get in her system whether she gave him permission or not... it would just be more pleasurable than at first expected.
"Yes, I did." His words flowed like honey on his tongue. "Please, come and make yourself at home. I don't have much for you, empress... I do hope I will be able to satisfy you. As you will satisfy me."
But Zero did not enter. Instead, she looked at Harpuia with narrowed eyes.
"What is it, Queen?"
Suddenly, Harpuia's back hit the farthest wall, Zero's claw squeezing his neck joint, pinching fuel lines, coolant lines and whatever else happened there.
Zero's strength… truly was something to behold.
"Drop the act, Harpuia. I know you hate me, and I've done nothing to make you love me." She deadpanned. "Unless you glitched? Harpi, when was the last time you had your system checked?" She asked with genuine concern.
No, no. It wasn't a genuine concern. She was the virus, something absolutely artificial... like all reploids.
Still, Harpuia had to act a certain way to lull the problematic woman into a sense of false security. Otherwise, bedding her would be impossible.
And no, Harpuia held no illusions. He knew nothing more then... urgh, romantic sweetness could get him what he wanted.
"I'm not acting, queen... and it's your devotion to X that has swayed me." he managed to choke out. Would he be a normal human, speech and… well, life would be impossible for him.
Inside his CPU, the green sky general was screaming in anguish...
Still, she was suitable for Master X, he begrudgingly thought. Even if she had complete control over him, Harpuia could see and feel how... content he was... and many times, this contentment went all the way to bliss. (He wanted that, but he wasn't ready to bow down in front of the Maverick queen; his pride prevented him from doing so.)
Zero stared at the sky general; it was clear his bullshit wasn't passing her test, at all.
"... Uh huh… remind me again if I'm wearing a pair of ankle bells, why don't you." Zero snarked. "Listen, Sage Harpuia, you hated me the moment you laid eyes on me. Even if, at that time, I had no idea I used to be X's significant other. The way you fought with me was to destroy me. It wasn't playful like Fefnir and Leviathan, nor elegant like Phantom and X. You hated me, you still hate me. so don't try to pull this shit on me, soldier. And tell me plainly what you want me here for!" She begged, the virus floating around her… but not aggressively.
It was more like… an extension of her emotions, and right now… she was desperate, and tired.
Could Harupuia do it? Could he… be truthful?
The maverick queen had already seen through his cover story, destroying it with but a few words and logic. It was clear he wasn't dealing with Zero, he was dealing with a dangerous, intelligent beast.
'I don't have any other choice.'
"I want to gain access to your ROM, to your history as Zero to now."
"You want to see my sins, then."
"Yes." Harpuai hissed as he felt the viral tendril licking his cyberskin. "You did something to X, you broke his heart… you were made by Wily to destroy him and I don't believe it that you just came back from a shuttle crash without any dents… and…"
Zero's eyes took a sorrowful sheen. "So… that's it? you just want to see the raw footage…"
"Huh… Aren't you a smart one."
"I'll give you access to all my black boxes."
Harpuia perked. Black boxes where the official memory storage all reploids had. They couldn't be tampered with or erased by anyone.
He would have access to everything unrestricted.
"I see I caught your attention."
"You've caught my attention the moment you helped the resistance." Hapruia managed to speak around Zero's powerful hands. "You are still to be tried for that."
"And what does the law say about crimes committed by a defective unit?" D-Zero asked as she released the prideful sky general.
Just to make sure his knowledge base was still the latest, Harpuia looked it up… and felt his grin fall and crash to the ground.
"If a unit is proven to be defective, and his crimes caused by said defect and proven to be caused by said defect are considered to be… innocent until proven otherwise." Zero recited, and Harpuia felt as if he had bitten something especially foul, despite not having the technology to taste.
"Well then… shall we start then?" he asked as the (powerful… beautifully powerful.) Maverick queen gently lowered him down, releasing her grip from Harpuia's neck. and then picked him up as if he was the bride to be.
He… could not speak. Either from shame, mortification, or the mortification caused by how… he liked being in the arms of a powerful woman.
His disgust knew no end.
Draupadi deposited him on his cot before joining him, removing the dust protector from her audial connector. "I know this'll sound weird coming from me, but please be gentle."
Harpuia scoffed as he unwound his data chord, the best he had. "Well then, have you found your fill? Is Fefnir too much for you?"
"Oh no, Feffi's a sweet gentleman, he knows I'm an old build and respects the fact that I can't lose another port over his enthusiasm." Zero explained as she mentally prepared herself for a deep dive in her memory, knowing that some things found there would be older than Zero… and others would be like the best version of the Bhagavad-Gita: As it is.
And it scared her.
"Feh, first prove your innocence and then we can talk about getting you replacement parts."
"Harpuia, I'm serious. X gave me permission to end you if need be. Don't fuck around, you'll regret it."
"Sure." and with that, Harpuia jacked in, prepared to see Zero for what they truly were.
He expected to see Ciel looming over 'Zero', instructing him to infiltrate and murder Neo-Arcadia's grand master… or worse yet.
But instead…
Harpuia saw the truth…
and by God's unlimited will… Nothing could have prepared him for it.
~0~
He was in a room... a child's room decorated with Disney paraphernalia. In front of a bulky CRT was a little girl sitting on a medical chair, a pair of tubes filled with blood connected her to a dialysis machine. An old one, from the look of it.
She was fully human and blonde.
Blond with blue eyes... and a rather sickly look.
"So... this is Zero's oldest memory?" Harpuia murmured as he took stock of the situation. "So, he was a janitor in a hospital, serving right under Doctor Light."
"And no, you are completely wrong about that." a young girl spoke, and Zero whirled around...
it was the same sickly girl from before, she was standing up, holding a plastic toy evoking those old, blocky robots.
Harpuia stared. "... Zero? Is that you?"
The girl nodded. "Yep!" She nodded, and Harpuia shuddered at how... organic her body moved.
There was some jiggling physics there... A reploid was free from those flaws.
'wait..." His eyes grew wider as realization dawned on him.
He pointed at the rather human Zero. "You... you're."
"before I was called Zero... I was called Roll, and before I was called Roll...
"I was called Lorelei... Rolly, for short. By my father and mother. Albert Wily and Zelda Wily were my parents give or take 208 years ago." The Girl... Zero revealed.
Harpuia could only stare... and then he returned his gaze toward the girl... toward Zero, Human Zero, sitting in a chair, having her blood scrubbed clean.
"...You..."
"My kidneys got pretty bad, I don't remember what I got, but I remember I had to pee less and I smelled like it." Zero grimaced. "I was teased by it a lot at school... I never made friends since I stank a lot."
It was hard for Harpuia to maintain his stone heart, poor Zero looked heartbroken.
Then, the scene changed. Zero... Lorellei was lying in a bed, hooked to a machine.
"It... got worse. I don't really remember, though... I barely remember any of it. Krishna's the one who's showing us, though."
"I'll... take your words for it." Harupuia said distinctly as he watched the little girl's lungs being inflated by the machine, her skin was pale and her face bloated.
"-No, you know I can't do that." A man's voice floated in. "it goes against every codes of ethic-"
"It didn't stop you from tying your brother to a machine, what's his name now, Blues? Or was it proto- MPH!"
"I told you to stay quiet about him!" the other man hissed.
"Then how about your grandson, Rock? Isn't he also in a robotic body now? Or are you just testing your intracranial-" But whatever the man was about to say was quieted.
"how do you know about... that?!"
"Oh Thomas, do you really see me as a fool? There is no way technology has advanced that we have AI's capable of fully imitating human emotions and desires, let alone the technology to have small humanoid robots moving around. And don't you dare bullshit me about solar energy, we both know Rock's using more than that!"
"Albert-"
"I know what you did to him and Blues... I was here when Blues opened his eyes... and I know what was hiding under the tarp. I got pictures."
Harpuia heard a gasp, he tried to move forward to see what was going on... but he could not move.
"That's the only thing I managed to hear... comatose people are not deaf... I could hear them talking on the other side of the room." Lorelei spoke sadly, and yet, Hapruia could hear anger coloring her voice. "Apparently, Doc light had made a blond robot master, a girl first…" Zero said as she hugged herself, probably thinking about the grim implication.
The scene changed... and they were now in a brightly lit lab. Lorelei was laying on a cold table, her ventilator was off... and her chest did not rise.
Her whole face was bloated, and rejected matter stained the bottom of the table, and a ludicrous amount of blood and spinal fluis congealed on it;s once pristine surface..
She...
was dead...
Wires and other such implements ran from her head to a capsule containing another blonde child... a robot that bore her likeness, and Harpuia, the tech-savvy reploid he was, knew that those did absolutely nothing.
The fire sacrifice with the ... erect phallus on the other hand.
"Huh, good catch!" Lorelei spoke again, and Harpuia happily turned to face her... but this time, instead of being an organic, she was that robotic blond. "Doctor Light spent five years in India, he said it was to learn IT, but he was more interested in learning tantric yoga... or black magic."
"But black magic is-"
"A hoax?" Lorelei challenged with a quirk of her brow as she gestured to the robot still inactive in the capsule. "Meet Roll. The body I, the eternal soul, lived in for around fifty years. It's really just a fancy doll with a few rudimentary computers... Light was pretty proficient in pleasing Shiva-ji, the deity the phallus belongs to." She explained. "His name is also Asutosh, or he who is easily pleased and easily angered. The leader and master of all ghosts and evil spirits... and he who gave Master Light and Master Wily their abilities to tie a ghost to a doll." She spoke with a tone so dead...
"So... all reploids are ghosts?" Harpuia asked.
"Yeah... Technically, before you can make a robot master... you need to make a cyber elf, or a ghost encased in a body made of sound and subtle fire, or electricity. Then you fetter this 'cyber-being' to a body made of metal and wires through an ethereal rig."
"So first came the cyber-elf." Harpuia hummed. "So... that answers the question then. Kind of like the chicken and the egg."
Lorelei gave a mischievous smile. "Actually, the chicken or egg riddle gets stupidly simple once you stop thinking like an Atheist."
"God first made-"
"The universal egg, then he filled half of that egg with his sweat, called his brother, Ananta-shesha-Naga, the unlimitedly hooded snake that holds everything on his hoods and then gave birth to Brahma, who then gave birth to the Sages and the Progenitors and from Vinata the birds where born."
"So... the egg then." Harpuia sweatdropped as he parsed all the information he'd received. "But... who made God then?"
"No one, Krishna is Anadir-Adir. Without beginning or end. So don't you try getting smart with me or I swear, my other three husbands will hear about it." She sassed as she crossed her skinny arms over her chest. And for a moment, empress Draupadi stood in front of him.
Harpuia, not to be undone, crossed his own arms and swiveled his head around arrogantly. "Oh, so you think you can't handle me?"
"Oh, I can definitely handle you, Kagha, I just want my hubbies to blow off some steam sometime, Krishna knows Fefnir and Leviathan want to smack you around until you call Uncle in Bengali. And trust me, the last thing you want is to have Phantom hate on you. My Pandu's a ninja and he already knows the majority of your connectional flaws and weaknesses."
"You mean... Why would that sound like a threat?" Harpuia asked as a challenge, finding Lorelei's verbal latching to be rather entertaining...
His smile faltered... It must be the virus.
Lorelei rolled her eyes in exasperation. "No, it's not the virus, the Maverick Virus just breaks those vengeful ghost free from their chains and since reploids where usually abused and overused-"
"They took their opportunity to get revenge."
"Or to get out of those situations." Lorolei spoke sadly. "Sometimes, Harpuia, the only way to stop the abuse is to kill the abusers... or death."
Harupuia nodded. As much as he wanted to hate this... it was a fact…
Therr where human laws to protect those humans who had to use their last resorts.
"Hey... Why am I alright with this?" He suddenly asked. This wasn't like him... not at all.
"Well, you got infected with the sanity virus... also, being a free reploid trying to get justice is still not right, especially when it's against humanity at large."
"Obviously, and you are stalling." Harpuia shot back as he took some pleasure in seeing Draupadi's cheek redder in colour.
"... Yeah. I know." She agitatedly admitted. "Say, I could just tell you?"
"And risk you lying to me?"
Lorelei gave a very dead gaze to the Lord of the sky. "If this is what you really want."
The virtual reality lost its static property, and Doctor Light walked into the scene... and he did not look like any of the historical pictures left of him.
He still had his long beard, now matted and dirty, ashes, blood and dirt covered his thin body, and his eyes glowed with powers.
"Uh... Is that normal?" Hapruia asked, having never seen a human with glowing eyes.
"For a powerful Yogi like him? Yeah, it is..." Loreli grandly gestured at the man sitting walking in like a filth demon out of hell, completely naked and with bones sticking in his hair, beard and ears... and one in his mouth.
Harpuia hoped those were just big chicken bones. Even if those were too big.
the one in it;s mouth looked like a human vertebrae.
Harpuia hoped it wasn;t a human vertebrae.
"Doctor Light is an Agori Sadhu, an unorthodox Shaivite who covers himself in filth and whatever is contaminated to gain powers... he was a powerful healer, for he would absorb the illness in his body, and he could control ghosts by keeping their bones on his body."
"Oh God."
"The bone in his mouth... belonged to me."
Hapruia had no words... no words at all...
And would he be human...
Well, he doubted he would be in Lorelei's memory by now... and he wished he'd never… forced the subjest..
"So? Did it work? Did your voodoo work?" What could only be Wily, asked as he flitted close to the tiny blonde robot master in a red dress. "I... I can't hear her electrocardiogram, did you turn it off? Is she-"
"Yes, her old body had to be rejected... I already told you about that." Doctor Light, if it truly was his name- Spoke as he bowed to the Shiva-Linga. "To have a ghost, you need to remove an atma from a body. Yah can't make an omelet without breaking any eggs." He got up, and after covering his true appearance with that of the usually plump, fluffy, and fatherly form of Doctor Light went to the robot master, inspecting her like one would an interesting collectible. "But don't worry, Sri-Shiva was well worshiped by this Shiv-ratri, and he was also very pleased by my austerity." He chuckled. "That's the reason why I worship Bam-Bam Bole, He's easily pleased."
"Easily pleased?!" Wily exclaimed. "Thomas! You fasted for food and water for ten months, while on top, the real top of Mount Everest! I still have no idea how you managed to survive but... this is the complete opposite of easily pleased!"
"Bah, it only took ten months. Vishnu would've made you wait for over ten years of severe austerities until he gave you what you wanted, and it's never a guaranteed thing."
"And I saw you take one of her bones."
"You saw nothing."
"I saw nothing." Albert repeated.
Harpuia turned to Lorelei. "Ah.. did Light just-"
"Yes, he just controlled my dad with his voice."
"But how did you manage to see that if you were... offline?" He asked again, nothing really made any sense.
"Ah, those are the memories of Protoman, he was still around at that time, and he would record all he could using hidden cameras... He passed by the Ashram one day and just... dropped his memories here."
"Did he become a... Hare Krishna?" Harpuia asked, eager to know more about Draupadi.
The little blonde's eyes turned sad. "No... Unfortunately, not many are willing to take to spiritual life, even less are willing to surrender to Krishna, specifically."
"I see." He would've loved to talk to this very first Robot master
well, the first by activation..
Unfortunately, time had a way of destroying everything.
"Now... Let's see if your little Rolly is willing to wake up now." Light spoke as he leaned forward the robotic girl.
Draupadi shuddered as she averted her glances.
Seeing her so vulnerable, Harpuia wordlessly moved closer.
True, he may be a warrior... and his intentions were to expose her and hadn't forgotten about his plans but...
Blaming the virus, the poor girl just screamed 'protect me.' and to protect the weak and innocents was Harpuia's main directives.
"Will... Will she really? Will my Lorelei return to me? Will she call me papa again?" Wily asked as he wiped away the tears that fell from his eyes.
"If it all went well, then yes."
Oh... Harpuia did not like this tone of voice at all.
The whole thing paused.
He looked at Draupadi, who now looked even smaller than before.
Her eyes were wide, he breathing shallow and quick, her face ashen as tears fell from her eyes.
It was... an awfully human reaction.
"Keep playing it, I need to see."
Draupadi swallowed thickly, and everything started again.
"... She's not waking up." Albert spoke as emotions overtook him. "We failed... she's not-"
The now robotic Lorelei opened her eyes like a doll would. Being the first model, the latest was not available at the time.
Or it was simply not used, whichever came first.
Lorelei began to look around, her eyes fell on Albert, who was openly weeping in joy.
But instead of smiling and calling out to her papa, Lorelei instead transferred her lifeless gaze to Doctor Thomas Light.
"Master, what will you have me do?" She asked, addressing Thomas Light... as the robot she was meant to be. "What are my designations?" She asked again.
A look of pure Horror dawned on Willy's face, slightly shaking his head as he proceeded with what he was seeing. "No... she isn't. You are Lorolei. Lorolei, it's me!" He grabbed the newly awakened Robot master by the shoulders and shook her. "It's me, Daddy, Papa... please, please remember-"
But Doctor Light shoved Wily away. "Get your hands away from Roll, Wily!" he roared.
The much smaller man tumbled to the ground, tears flooding his eyes. "Gah! No! Thomas, what is the meaning of this! Lorelei! Lorelei!"
"Stop this nonsense! Get out of here before I call the cops on you!"
"Me! Stop this nonsense-"
"Master... I'm scared-"
The whole thing paused again, and the only thing that filled the silence was Draupadi's effort to not sob.
She was breathing heavily, and her tears dripped down again and again.
The sight... Harpuia should be more careful, and more paranoid but...
She looked miserable.
"Zero?"
"No... I won't... I can't..." She sobbed as she shook her head violently. "I... I started the whole thing, I had... Dad... He got mad... he got so, so mad at Doctor light... so mad, he went to Varanasi and learned how to-to do it..." She sobbed.
"They started the war... THEY STARTED THE FIRST ROBOT UPRISING BE-BECAUSE OF ME!"
Harpuia gasped, while those had been hidden and erased, the MegaMan Era had never been forgotten by X... and he had made sure his guardians knew of it, to hopefully prevent a second calamity from happening.
But... Harpuia also had the horrible knowledge that history had the terrible ability to repeat itself.
Draupadi had curled herself in a ball, hiding her face in her knees as she sobbed bitterly.
Harpuia should remain aloof, this was the source of the infection, after all.
"Dr... Zero... has this been tampered with?" he asked as he struggled to keep his voice cold and unfeeling.
She shook her head miserably. "No... Can't change it... it's... it's about to get worse.
Harpuia raised a brow... well, how bad could this be?
~0~
The answer was... so, so much worse.
After a few decades of domestic life. (he had turned Rock and Roll as nothing better than Janitor bots, and thank God the man had some morals since, you know... those two (three) robot masters were kid shaped and had no rights since they were registered as items and not humans... not even animals.) Wily made his move.
Doctor Wily had built a robot factory... a factory made to integrate ghosts to metallic dolls just to murder Doctor Light...
Just to show him up...
Just so he could get his daughter back.
The mad man would destroy cities, take over power plants and automaker's paradises and would use them to make even more robots... stealing from others, too.
Interestingly, Rock had been all for letting other people fight... but not Roll.
Roll... went to Light and demanded, begged and pleaded with the man to be turned into a fighting robot.
Harpuia puffed his chest despite himself... yes, this truly was Zero, right there.
Never backing down, always ready to fight.
But doctor Light said no... and kept saying no, going as far as deactivating Roll until his lab got too dusty for his taste.
Then Zero... no, Roll changed strategies, and instead, spurred Rock to fight; to save the innocents and defeat Doctor Wily.
It hadn't taken much...Rock genuinely loved his sister and would literally do anything for her...
and thus, he managed to have his 'father' upgrade his frame from a generic lab assistant to...
to X's prototype.
"I... used to make fun of his lemon shots." Draupadi mumbled... "he... we went through eleven skirmishes with the Wily bots, Light made more robots but forced them to have... shelf-life. said it was the un who wanted something like that. I mean sure, it made sense but… mosst Robot Master where souls facing what they tought was erasure… just… being gone, you know? and they where discarded for not other reason then their's failed their task once." Zero scoffed. "Wily knew how to hack the timer… and he would extend those robot master's life span depending on how please he was with them."
"That's terrible." Harpuia said, for him, having a limit to how long he was supposed to live, a limit imposed on him by a bunch of humans was inconceivable and the risk of having too short a life...
Was this how humans felt when they had... years to days left to live? How horrible."
"You know..." Harpuia edged in. "You could... fast forward to the parts with Master X?"
Draupadi raised her head, she still looked like Roll in her red dress and holding a broom (so that's where she got all of her knowledge on cleaning... she had been truthful about being Doctor Light's janitor.
Wow... slavery started young, apparently.
"I... I will." She sniffled. "But... I have something else I want to see. I will stream you those memories... I don't want to revisit them... I remembered them once and that was enough."
"Alright." Harpuia nodded magnanimously... trusting her to not change anything in them.
There could still be more lies she had hidden but...
So far from what he was seeing... Roll was kind, a bit headstrong, protective of her brothers (and humans.) and she was also rather sneaky for someone whose hair was eye searing yellow.
She was also extremely resourceful, for she was already learning how to fight using her broom and other cleaning supplies, she'd also managed to unlock her buster shot without Mister Light inputting any codes... and his knowledge of it.
And he saw...
He saw Master X's brother break... his body would break often... and so was his mind and heart.
And it kept happening, over and over... but Doctor Light just kept brushing Rock's precarious mental state off, telling Rock not to worry about it, those were just robots, they were not meant to function as anything more, those were just machines, nothing more.
This... made Roll angry... but what could she do? Both of them were considered no better than washing machines, meaning that there was no abuse going on.
But one day...
One day, they got new neighbors living in a camper. A pair of neighbors that would wake up 45 minutes before sunrise.
A pair of neighbors whose skin was shockingly black... for it hid under akin as dark as sin, a heart of pure, divine gold resided..
