It took a hot minute for Zero to regain his bearings after powering up—long enough for him to remember that he wasn't dressed as a robot anymore.
He'd broken out of his too small skin, like a moth emerging from its cocoon.
He was back at being 0. a Cursed Demon, so cursed, in fact, that even Yamaraja and his Yamadutas could not send him to hell.
His summoner had covered all his bases to have a demon able to take over Sri-Shiva's abode and to control all ghosts and evil spirits.
Oh, of course, the man made enough mistakes to give 0 the Army of Ghosts and Spirits not answering to Shiva.
And then Gauri had cursed Zero to feel nothing but sorrow. Until he would gain the loving mercy of the absolute truth.
Whatever that meant.
Nevertheless, he'd gotten a ninety-year relief from his usual state of depression—not that it was that long, nor that sweet.
'What did I expect, eternal love? Eternal bliss? Please, not even Patita-Pavana, the form of Jagannath giving his grace to the unclean and unworthy didn't give me relief. Well, guess I'll have to face the music, Signas will finally be able to complete his investigation... I just hope they find a good place to hide me, maybe send my flacid body back to space... I miss my black hole there.' Zero thought, more than ready to move one with his accursed life, more than willing to ignore the sweet sound of X's voice as he massaged his scalp, signing the Hare Krishna Mahamantra under his breath.
~Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.~
0 felt his tears well up once more. "No… No, please." he pleaded as he curled up on himself.
Alright, so he did a big offense to Bhagava's servants in Shiva, Parvati, and their kids... but this was just too much! He'd already apologized profusely to Mahesh and Maya! Ganesha and Kartikeya! What more did he need to do? What more sacrifices should he perform? How much Ganges water and Bilva leaves did Shiva need?!
'I can't… I can't do this… I can't do this.
"Hey, hey! Zero! Open your eyes, please wake up!" 'X' said. "It's me, you Dream Boat... Nir-lor mapop. You hope for heaven." He felt a hand shaking him. "I'm real, you are real, I'm alive, and you, Zero-Love, are not acting like the brave warrior I know you are... So please, I want to see you."
Zero uncurled himself and dared to open his one eye, hoping that this wasn't X.
His spouse could not see him like this, like a demon. Something gross and organic.
Something evil is the cause of all of X's woes.
Still, Zero was tired of playing the coward; he'd spent the length of a puny human life being a fearless warrior, he wasn't ready to give this up now.
So he opened his eye.
Thankfully, the cell he was put in was soothingly dark, meaning that the glowing form of his beloved X was as clear as day.
Yes, Zero's eye did not fool him; X was right in front of him, seemingly solid, his ghost more in line with Devata than what he stole from Bhuteshwar to make his army of dark matter.
Was there any wonder why he had gotten kicked out of Odisha? Away from the gaze of Jagannath Swami and Bhuvaneswara?
Zero tried to speak, only to remember that he lacked anything that would make his thought heard.
Only Madan-Mohan Das, whose psychic disposition was born from close contact with the Jamba heart, was compatible with him due to his run-in with the Jamba heart.
He wondered where the rest of his siblings had gone, perhaps as they met on their end at Kirby's magical McGuffins?
Nevertheless, without his armor and his spawns cleansed by his wish (why did they remain close to him?!) speech was now impossible.
"Zero," X spoke, causing another wave of bloody tears to flow out of Zero's one eye, thankfully not touching anything bodiless for fear of making yet another spawn.
0 may eat planets and light as the embodiment of a Black Hole, but Sri-Shiva destroyed the whole universe and had the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his backup.
"Zero… can you speak?" X asked, and Zero shook his head in frustration.
No, while his current body was indestructible, and held a terrifying amount of destructive power… yet could not speak, what to say of emotyping.
He lacked both his arms, and a voice. Cursed to be a silent suffer… or not so silent.
Not to Madan…
Flashes of Madan's ashen and bloodied face met 0's mind eyes.
Madan-mohan, the greatest warrior who had bested the destroyer, was an empath… Zero had been deeply grieving. Screaming inside so hard that… that…
A pair of hands grabbed his face, taking him out of his spiral.
It was X, still looking kind and handsome, the total opposite of Zero.
"Zee, Madan-Mohana das is still alive, shaken, and traumatized, but alive and worried about you."
0's eye grew wide in surprise.
"Yes, Zero. Madan's worries for his friend. You weren't the one who caused him his… meltdown. just your, you know… exposed wired and the blood." X said in a tone screaming (it was beyond merely implying at this point.) that X would rather do away with the image he had in his head.
Zero… remembered the pain, and knew he must've looked awful all hooked up in the planet's heart.
But to have his… to have Madan-mohan just…
His curse… his ever bloodied curse never hit him harder then now, to only be able to bleed and yet never die truly was a faith worse then any punishment…
No, Yamaraja's Punishment could always get worse, it was his God given power, after all.
He felt X's hands, warm with life and tingling with the crystals' sting on his cheek… or what was considered cheeks, now that he didn't have any mouth.
"Zero? Zero, I told you it wasn't your fault!" X scolded him, but without a mouth, he couldn't argue back, he couldn't express anything.
He was back at being an entity cursed with silent suffering, silent sorrow.
Suddenly, he felt something tug at his chest, at the location where his old eye was before the mad Scientist twisted and reshaped his body into something that would fit a more human mold.
"Hmm…' X hummed as he inspected the fluid grimmed wire emerging from his old orbit, and 0 only wanted to snatch it away from his overly curious and… at times rather filthy better half.
Zero may be the start of a slew of wars and an epidemic, but X… had his flaws. Flaws he hadn't outgrown out of, if the dried blood still stuck at the corner of his mouth attesting to this fact.
"X, please don't put this it-"
X put the wire in his mouth.
"Oh, for God's sake."
Then he grinned.
"... Now what?" Zero asked before mentally smacking himself, he had lost all means of communication via sounds, there was no way X could've heard him. And forget about ASL and RSL, no arms.
And yet.
"Now, you can speak to me." X spoke around the wire, reaching for Zero's… shoulders.
It used to be at the top of his head, it felt so wrong on so many levels.
And yet so right.
…
"Wait, you-"
"I may be Nilor-Mapop, but I'm also X, the one whose abilities are 'limitless'" , the wonderful being said with a touch of sardonicism. "So, I can hear you now… So speak, darling, I'm listening."
Unbidden feelings of love took over the one born of a failed sacrifice. "I love you so much… How can you love me, though? I lied to you, I cheated you… I'm the one who started the whole maverick war… and that's just a blip when it comes to what I did to other planets."
"Do you regret it?" X asked. "Will you do it again?"
"Not if it means losing you… I… X-"
X smile faltered.
"X? Honey? Please say something, you're scaring me."
"Would it change if I told you that caring for you was pre-programmed?"
The warmth was swept away by fear.
All Of this… a lie.
He… had no words.
But when he finally managed to look up at X, and saw the anxiety shining in his perfect face and how he was wrigning the stained blanket he was on.
Oh…
Oh…
" X… are you p… forced to love me?"
"No, only strongly suggested. And I can break out of this suggestion if I try hard enough but-"
"I never… no, wait, I did give you a reason to throw me away." 0 said as he remembered the hellish time he'd tried to revert to his old way and relish in his destruction… only to run away like a coward, and come back just in time to save X.
He'd return out of love.
"I made you work hard to get back to my bed… and my nonexistent heart I supposed." X deadpanned with a smirk barely held in check.
For the first time since his rebirth, Zero laughed, it was not a big thing, just a few peals. But those peals were born out of relief.
Relief that despite everything, X really did love Zero.
"Hey." X murmured as he raised his hands to Zero's true face, unbothered by its cyclopean nature and the blood. The Father of all reploid's hands were soft, with a slight, rather pleasant zing from his nature as the weapon meant for the Fallen one's destruction. And, as always, they were the source of Zero's comfort.
Between them, everything had changed in too short of a time… and yet, nothing changed at all.
That was still X and Zero.
"I love you zee, for as long as this body will last."
"And I love you X, as long as God will let me."
—-
The two talked more, revealed secrets only a privileged few knew (Zero was fully aware of what awaited him back in the rejuvenated earth.) and reaffirmed their love and the knowledge that, while trenscient, it would still endure until their final moment.
For Zero, it was both a comforting and terrifying vow.
Nevertheless, all was good (for now) and the only Issue was to reveal who Zero was since, for the battle hardened angel, running away wasn't an option.
Still, it was another source of anxiety, but, as X was steadily learning that this material world was made for fear and anxiety. he knew how to tolerate it better.
Thanks Krishna, he knows the way out.
Speaking of the way out.
"Are you ready, Zee?" X asked around the extended wire tied to Zero's internal, it was a literal patch job with a bunch of cannibalized wires from a radio and a pair of unfortunate headphones."
X watches in fascination as Zero's body inflated and deflated with his breath. Something organic… and yet something so Familiar to X.
"Yeah, let's finish this crap…" His partner said without his usual enthusiasm, sounding more like a man on his way to the injection table.
X… wished to comfort his husband, but what else could he say?
So instead, the reunited couple decided to bite the bullet and go around X's ship form, or, as the Crystalline ancient had said, his dream-boat form.
Zero felt both shame and pride at the theme he had coined. But hey, his now clear, if eldritch expression made X laugh like in the first year they had met, when X was free from his burden as a maverick hunter.
(Zero's damnable fault.)
"Alright, let's get this over with." The fallen angel said, signaling at X to open the door.
And X did, only for Zero to scream in pure terror at what Laid behind the door.
It was Kirby, of course, the killer of his kind, the one born from another yajnia, this one pure and made as a plea to the divine for a protector, a hunter of those born of a heart most dark.
Zero may have longed for death but… it didn't mean that the mere sight of the pink stomach wouldn't give him flashbacks.
Thankfully –and sadly so–, X knew how to break Zero out of his episodes.
Shaking his head to clear the last of the adrenaline, Zero found comfort in the spring-green eyes of his spouse.
"... Yes, Kamala Khanta Das is still here. He's worried about you." X said gently as he held his fallen angel.
"Umm… I brought Prashadam! Dharadhara found his kitchen again and got super inspired sooooo… he made too much. "
Zero frantically sought out where his nightmare's voice came from, going as far as to float out of X's grasp.
There! Half hidden behind the wall, holding a nicely decorated tiffin up and wow, Zero didn't realize just how low res his shell's eyes had been.
Also Kirby was one pink motherfucker.
"So?" Zero asked as he tried to play it cool knowing full well that this was a pipe dream.
"Zero's asking 'so?'" Right, X was still his translator.
"Umm… oh Krishna… Listen, I'm super happy you're feeling better, and I'm… I was worried about your health, so I got some food since, you know, where practically half-sibling and I know eating prasadam heals all my wounds and… I'm sorry I hurt you before." Kirby/Kamalakantha ended lamely and pitifully, and 0 couldn't believe that the one born from the cooling ashes of the hateful sacrifice was… this cinnamon roll.
But… then again, in Pandora's box, the thing that had remained after all the plagues escaped had been Hope.
Now, some people said that Hope was another misery in this world and Zero could readily agree.
The hope that this material world was anything more than a place of misery and that one could be happy, even for a little bit…
Pure foolishness! this world was made for suffering, it was filled with birth, death and diseases and it never stopped.
When one is in such a hopeless situation where death and to lose everything was the only outcome, then hope was but another form of misery, a madness that never left.
But… Kamala…
No, he was a Vaishnava, he had been blessed by God to, at the end of his gutingly long lifespan, go back home, back to Godhead. In the Spiritual sky, a world free from anxiety, birth, death and diseases… where every step is a dance, every word a song, and where God, Narayana, Sri Jagannath Deva let go of his crown and godly attributes and plays among his diminutive souls as Krishna, a simple, mischievous, amorous cowherd boy that just so happen to be blackish blue and the centre of everyone's eternal and true life.
Or so Narada Mahamuni said.
Kirby… Kamala had true hope. Hell, he was carrying a tiffin filled with Prashadam.
Prasadam… was God's mercy, an indirect, life giving kiss for them poor, unfortunate souls drowning in the miserable ocean of material life.
When Zero had been chased away from all the gates from the Jagannath-puri temple, one blind babaji had given 02 a handful of dried rice…
As in, the rice had already been cooked and had dried.
Predictably, the Very Fallen Angel had scorned the offered mercy and had kicked the saint, considering this a great insult to him.
That night, he had a vision of Bhimala-Devi. Srimati Druga devi, on her fearsome vahan had pierced Zero's bleeding body over and over again, cursing him with a lifetime of pain and misery for his offence against one of the Lord's favorite, Zero's only well wisher.
And boy, did material-nature deliver.
"Kamala-kantha das. Zero can't compute how you're apologising, considering what he did against the universe as a whole." X, blessed with his heart, managed to untagles his spouse's tangled up feeling about the diminutive destroyer's apology.
"Poyo?" Kirby squeaked. "You… you were hurting, and, as an aspiring Vaishnava, my duty is to listen, not condemn. I should've helped you, Zero. I should've… I don't know, become friends with you."
"Zero said that, at the time, nothing would've worked, you did what you had to do, Kamala. And Zero is grateful for having stopped his rampage."
The diminutive pair blushed, making another quiet Poyo sound as he rubbed the back of his head. "You're welcome, Zero. I'm glad you're still alive today, and I'm glad you became a hero!"
This caught the fallen one by surprise.
Him?
A hero?
Tears welled in his eyes (Now that he didn't have to hide under a thin, permeable veneere, it seems that he was back to weeping blood.) No, he wasn't a Hero, Far from it.
He turned his bloodied glance back at his life partner, sending him the message he was to give to the tiny powerhouse, the saint that transcended all forms.
"Zero." X sounded scandalized, sad… but.
"Alright, love… I'll tell him."
"I know, Zero, I know what you did." Kamala surprised them all.
(Zero didn't see the look of wonder in X's eyes, for he knew who Kamala was.) "We all make mistakes, silly small ones, big, not so silly ones… huge, world ending ones. But if Bhagavan forgives Mango for trying to take his place and taking over a cluster of dimensions, then I'm sure Bhagavan, Gaura-Bhagavan will forgive you for all the nonsense you did in the past."
Somehow, this broke the eternal cold claws of hopelessness that had dug in Zero's heart.
In other words, X had to quickly learn how to clean blood on his floor, less he had to once again find a possible explanation as to why he was dripping Demons blood again.
—-
After this small snack (yes, 0's standard of a snack was the same as Kamala's. A meal was not something any planet, save the happy Earth and some Surabhi cows, could provide without suffering the consequences.) 0 felt much better, it felt good to use his mouth and not the Armor's pathetically small food hole to eat.
"Wow, you really are related to Kirby." X said after they cleaned up their eating space.
"Yeah. I was first born but since the mantra was spoken wrong… well, this happened." he gestured with his wings and his legless body, globulous eye and nerve-like wings. "Use to be worst, you know, I used to look like this amorphous blob filled with putrefaction gasses. Not fun, not fun at all."
"Yikes."
"Yeah, Ancient vedic fire sacrifices are this super precise science, if you mess up anything, and I mean, you forget to wash your hand with cow dung and ganges water after scratching the side of your nose or a single drop of blood is spilled, then the sacrifice's just doesn't work. Or, in my and my sibs case… we happen."
"Hmm…and Kamala-Kanta's the result of a successful sacrifice,then."
Zero nodded. "Yep, not only that, but after unleashing Void termina-"
"Yikes on a trike, I don't want to meet the youngest."
"They ain't that bad now, Kamal beat the bad out of him… Don't ask me how, but he did. so yeah, after Void, another sacrifice was made by a disciple of this fallen Brhamana, and he performed a perfect Sacrifice with a pure mind, heart and desire. And Kirby was born. Kirby… who whooped all of our collective asses as if it was but a Tuesday for him." Zero explained. "My sibs and I were filled with hatred and envy while Kamala-Kantha's body was made with innocent love and all the good qualities of a warrior… and laziness, apparently." The being said as he sent the pink puffball a dubious glance. "I still have no clue why Kamala was never super proactive. Not when I was around, anyway."
"Simple Living, high thinking." The diminutive Vaishnava piped up from his spot on the floor, dozing off after the 'small' meal.
Of course, X knew just who and what Kirby was. And it made sense why he had all the good qualities of a warrior yet only sought to consume and rest.
He was the Lord's inconceivable Stomach, and as all stomachs do, would eat food and sleep. But since he was a literal part and parcel of the Universal Form, he also had the unlimited abilities He could use when he had to reveal Bhagavan's glories to those foolish demons. But most of the time, he acted like a stomach…
Not that X was willing to reveal that to Zero, not yet anyway.
Let the poor enraptured one rest and properly start his Devotional life, then X will reveal Kirby's eternal and ultimate identity.
"So,. Zero… what do you want to do now? I'm yet to reach the mesosphere, so we have a few days to ourselves.
Zero gave him a sidelong glance filled with unspoken accusations.
"X, I know your full abilities, you could warp us all back to earth as quickly as you can think of a place, you're just trying to postpone my incarceration." Zero said angrily through X's line.
X looked at his husband sadly. "Can you blame me?" he replied around the audio wires in his mouth.
Zero wanted to blow up, wanted to rent, wanted to get so mad, X would finally leave him after witnessing how Ugly Zero-two truly was.
The Zero X had fallen in love with was gone, a fake, and illusion.
…Until it wasn't, Until Zero became his mask, and forgot all about taking over the planet and having all become one with him… so that he may quell the void in his heart.
Until he realized that this void had already been filled with X.
"Zero… you know I still love you."
"X, I'm a monster."
"Yeah… but you want to serve God too, so, you're not the worst monster." X said with a shrug.
Zero wanted to argue back… but really, what was he supposed to say, when he'd fought two mavericks not even a day ago.
He sighed. "X… you can't be cute like that, I'm trying to… I don't know, wallow in my pain. You being… you know, you're ruining my whole mood!" Zero said… and by God, he wished he had his old too-small mask on his face, that thing could pout, alright.
The sound of X bursting into laughter was music to his ears, and Kirby's surprise at the sound was even better.
—-
Dharadhara Das was doing well, he'd assured the couple. The great king of dreamland had lived through more horrors than anyone in the world save for Matreyia Rishi and Kaka Busindi; the immortal crow who had seen the universe die and be reborn from its ashes over and over again.
Speaking of this great bird-sage, he had chosen to visit DDD, the crow was glad to see Zero happy, and congratulated him for his selfless wish and blessed him with the mercy of Mahadeva, the greatest of Vaishnava.
That was nice… but even nicer was Dharadhara's hug.
"Yer a good soul, Zero." DDD roughly whispered to the fallen angel's 'ear' as he hugged the moist stuffing out of the problematic being "had a rough start but… Am proud of yah, kid."
Kid…
Zero wanted to inform the king of dreamland (and apparently the place where the rest of his spawns peacefully resided.) that he was eons older than him… only to realize that he'd calculated his life based on when he picked up Krishna bhakti.
Uh…
Still, to know… to hear his most frequent victim forgiving him lifted a weight on Zero's shoulder. The fallen Angel-like demon was painfully aware that he didn't deserve forgiveness, not after the number of planets and luminaries he'd eaten and consumed in his darkness.
And yet… he felt as if this came from a higher authority than the Raja-rshi.
Overwhelmed, Zero elected to leave the replica of pop-star (Lori and Nilor apparently shared a storage cloud. And now everything belonged to X, either as a parting gift… or by law of conquest, all depending on who's asking.) to wander the Halls of…
Well…
X, he supposed.
Usually, being in X's system was…. The greatest intimacy he and X shared, Zero had tried to let X in fully but it was clear that the father of all reploids wasn't meant to be inside an eldritch abomination.
… No, not like that, nor where human, you creep.
Nonetheless, he didn't feel comfortable with everyone here, while he knew Kamala-Kantha wasn't a threat and Dharadhara das had absolved him (not that it mattered much, seeing as he was merely the self-declared king of Pop star… and did they call Panchala-loka papatara? The sin star? It was right under dhruva-loka, the most auspicious of luminaries, the pole star! Sri-Vishnu's eternal abode in the temporary world!)
Whatever, this seems to be an earthling problem.
Whatever, Zero wanted to be… well, not alone, but… not with others.
He loved X, he loved him a lot, and he knew his time with his spouse was coming to an end… but…
He worried about Mangalananda and Madan-mohan. His last surviving spawn had lost his home and his daughter… even if his Daughter was a ship made by the ancient with the explicit order of killing the fallen one. (couldn;t blame them… by why gave her an AI?)
And Madan…
For Christ's sake, Zero felt his friend died beside him. He'd killed them with his grief
Sure, he had mourning X and had just lost the last kalpa-vriksha that could've restored the earth to where X wanted her to be (He still managed to do it by eating the dying three… apparently, he and Kirby had more in common then he's cared to count.), but still…
He liked Madan… Madan knew his heart pain, he treated Zero as a warrior who lost too much, who needed love and care but not pity. No, Zero needed an outlet, someone who could dish it as good as he could take it. Madan-Mohan was the friend who could provide what his inner warrior needed.
A punching bag who could fight back and win.
Madan understood… and Zero…
'X said he was fine… but then again, fine's a pretty vague definition.' the eldritch being tough as he floated around X's hull,feeling his life partner's awareness on him, and still giving him the space he needed.
Did Zero say how much he loved the man? He was well aware that this was temporary, but still, God had some sizable competition on this front.
A sniffle came to Zero's…
No, wait, he didn't have ear cones anymore. He heard from all over his body, especially his sensitive wings.
Whatever it was, someone was sniveling, and it came from a room with the name Magolor written over with rainbow crayons, the 'Mangalananda Das brahmachari' was scribbled over the mess in both roman letters and devanagari.
'Huh… talk about kismet' Zero thought as he willed the door open.
Maybe he had enough time to sort it out… yeah, He felt better, no use dwelling on the sad eventuality before it happened, who knows? Maybe God truly hadn't abandoned him fully yet (What was he saying, Jagannath-deva had his amazing eyes on him now.)
He was rather rusty when it came to moving things with his will. He never had to do that 'much' in his true, planet-eating form.
Now tough, even moving around was demanding all his attention, now that he was in high gravity, and out of his artificial body.
The door was now open enough for him to glyde inside, only to dodge some magic shots, courtesy of one Mangalananda… who was then slapped in the back of the head by Ghandarva's 'tongue'.
'Just like brothers.' the cursed being taught fondly.
"Spawner!" Gandhi greeted as he slithered to the floor, his big goofy smile glowing even brighter. "You got better! Gooey knew it, Gooey knew Love would fix you."
Yes, yes it did. "I learned my lesson: never diss on the power of love. By the way… thank you for not revealing who I was, I know you have felt me since the stratosphere." Zero said as he entered further in, looming over his two surviving… children.
God, he was so proud of them.
"Not the time… You… got not bad." Gooey said with a happy smile and liquid pride. "You grew, you grew good." the formless blob nodded approvingly. "Good warrior, good living, humble and aware of mistakes. I'm proud of you… very proud of you."
Zero almost wanted to get mad at the patronizing tone, but… didn't Gooey, a stillborn still in the flesh, a mistake of nature, an experiment gone wrong, defeat him, Zero, alongside Kirby? Had he not grown to be a Servant of Bhagavan? of Jagannath?
And what to say about Mangalananda? Him, one N-Z among thousands, the last survivor of a doomed race, now a fully fledged wizard, and one who had returned to his roots, having conquered the cursed crown and making the power his.
And… another servant of the Lord of the Universe.
Said triumph looks like a sad, wet cat, looking at a picture of the Lor's core.
A shudder went up Zero's spinal fluid tube, it had been close, too close.
And yet, despite how much he hated the weapon, a travesty to all that was truly alive, Zero couldn't help but empathize with his youngest spawn.
Iris… he had loved her, he had loved her differently then he'd loved X, and while it took Zero to understand what this difference was, Iris…
Had probably been quicker on the uptake, for if she truly had loved Zero, then she would have…
Ah, let Bygones be bygones.
"... I won't ask, you feel like shit, probably blaming yourself for it." Zero stated mentally, happy to note that his Magically inclined spawn still had an ear for him.
Perhaps it was impolite for him not to ask about Magolor's state of being but… Well, at this point, asking the oblivious felt worse.
Zero hated to interact with grieving people, he had no idea how to fix the situation, short of telling them that, due to his proximity, those loved one had skipped the whole going to hell and back and gotten a new body in Zero's 'flesh'…
So no, he had no idea how to interact normally with grieving people, that was X's thing.
Mangalananda gave one last sniffle before shaking himself. "Bah, it was just an Ai. not even a soul… no use crying over an empty shell." The Vaishnava said as he turned to face his progenitor. "She got us good… You, you look better."
"... Do I?" Zero asked, suddenly overly self conscious about his form.
He had no arms, no hands, no feet and his… green organ-tail was out and unable to recoil back in its warm, fleshy pocket. What to say about his long hair, now matted with blood?
Hell, Zero knew he couldn't fit in his shell anymore, his wings had regrown to their full size, and to reconfinned them to the Robot master shell…
'It won't be needed for long.'
"Yeah… you look like you need a long shower, but…your darkness… you're not drowning in it"
"Yep, yep!" Ghandarva chirped. " Shiny shiny!"
"... Maybe…"
…
"I… once we reach Terra Firma… I'll come clean, I'll tell Signas everything." Zero spoke, feeling the chill of space. " I… please, take care of X for me."
It sounded like a defeat…
Perhaps this would be his final defeat, not in the hands of Kirby, but through the imperfect, ever-changing human laws, malleable like putties in the hands of grimmy adult-child, victims to their own whims.
"No… Not gonna happen." Gandhi spoke up, his eyes brighter with knowledge only he knew. "Have faith, 02. And chant Hare Krishna."
Mangalanada turned to the blob, looking at him introspectively before giving a resolute nod. "Sounds like a plan, can't even remember the last time we all sat down for a Sankirtana. Hey, wanna join, spawner?" He asked, summoning a pair of Karatalas.
…
"I… I don't have a voice box." Zero admitted, his wings drooping down. "We can understand each other because we are kins… that's it."
"Krishna is the generator of everything, he won't let you remain quiet for long." Mangalalnada assured the ancient being. "Besides, time's short and X can't keep us in outer space for so long, the last thing he wants is to be aggressively boarded."
A space deep, guttural growle emanates from the deep, primitive part of 02, the mere thought of this audacity.,
"Ok, sorry I brought it up, dad… but can you please stop? Madan's just recovered from your last grief blast and I don't think he could withstand another."
"It's not grief… but please, don't imply that my X will be… boarded."
If Magolor had blood, it would drain from his face.
"And right now, X is scheduled to descend back to earth in 4 hours, he managed to contact Signa's and Nasa, they are waiting for us. Now, I need to find Madan, VAVA and Axl. I just want to make sure they are… well, better."
Mangalananda nodded, his eyes softening. "They should be in X's rec room. Your man has some surprisingly good taste in culture."
"He started downloading ancient series like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Ramananda Sagar Krishna serie… the special effects are cringe, and the acting is overly cheesy and X love it." Not that Zero couldn't stand it, though.. It was alright, but he could only take so much bad Sfx before he had to stop.
"Mahabharat~" Gandhi sang and he scooted toward the door, giving the impression that he had a skip in his step…
"You know… I think I still have my cat egg suit." Mangala mumbled as he wandered away, leaving Zero alone.
He remembered the righteous fury that had lit Axl's eyes, the rage, the anger, his willingness to kill him for the destruction he's wrought upon the earth.
'Yeah… guess it's time to go talk to the kid.'
—-
Obliviously, Zero hadn't been able to talk to Axl, his current form lacked anything that any plain old Reploid could catch on a brainwave.
Without melting their mind, that is.
Once again, it has to be stated that Zero hadn't expected to live so long after he'd revealed himself as 02, the all hungering void.
And… obviously, not being able to talk to the youngest maverick hunter had indeed caused problems.
"OMG, Zero! You're 0. Like rip-your-eyeball-out 0-"
No, Axl didn't hate Zero… well, maybe at first… definitely after the red-head had tough Zero had blown up Bhu-devi A-la Death star (not that Zero could blame him, how was he supposed to know that the nova corps would shoot a beam of dream energy to make X's vision come true?). But, after X's miraculous return from Kirby's stomach. (Zero knew he was missing something here…) He had shown everyone how Mother earth was Fine, and how green the green parts were supposed to be, and the blue parts too.
Axl had regaled Zero without how incredibly beautiful the earth looked now, with the sparkling oceans and sea, the white mountain tops. Now he understood why X always looked so sad when he used to look at deserts. In his time, those used to be green meadows and plains, great forests filled with majestic trees…
Well, Zero was happy about this outcome, for Axl hadn't been… the most tactful when it came to X's sense of nostalgia and pain.
And then Zero, using his inner tendril, a pad and a bottle of ink, made the mistake of asking Axl why he'd forgiven the source of the Maveric plague so easily.
This has been his response, the statement above.
"Dude… me and Layer… we hate fighting you in Kirby 64 cus, real talk, your tune sounds so sad, and you don't even fire back." Axl admitted as he chilishly kicked his feet. "Like… What is that attack you do? Are those bloody tears? I mean, it looks like an eye when you shoot them, then they turn into those weird yellow and red disk thingy…"
…
Well, Zero would love to inform Axl that he has an eye laser, as all his brethren do. Or, as they used to call them, a Bhairava Astra, a weapon fueled by anger, but at the time Kirby started his bullying, Zero had been alone and surrounded by the Ghost of those he had eaten, so no, he wasn't feeling well, had been lamenting about how he ruined everything and felt awfully gassy and just wanted to be left alone on top of everything else. So please forgive his mediocre performance. The next time he'd face the little shit, he went all out and was rewarded in the most frustrating and painful fight in his life, and fighting that, short of fighting X to the death, had yet to be stopped.
…
"Right, no more voice boxes." Axl hummed as he rubbed his chin pensively. Looking at Zero's now extremely inflamed, inked stained tendril.
Zero, after living for ten years with the little shit, knew that this never bode well.
"Say," Axl slowly began, "me and VAVA gathered up your old… Armor, I guess. Bet we could dig through it and find some workable hardware… like your arms." Yes, Zero, for as much as he hated his cramped and stinky little prison, had quickly learned to appreciate the quality of life it had… like the arms and the fact that he could blend with the humans… no clothes though. And it could not fly unless he lifted the clunker up psychically…
Speaking of which, Madan-Mohan das had yet to make an appearance…
Not that Zero could blame the warrior, this last mission had been a shit show… the end of it, that is.
Honestly, rendering Lumine as a blank slate, back to zero, had seemed to be a good idea until he remembered that the damned biomass wriggling in a body that used to contain a decent being deserved even worse.
Honestly, Zero was self aware enough to realise he'd fucked up with his own 'Maverick Virus' invasion. Seeing X so sad… it felt so wrong. Wrong enough that it had caused the Ancient demon to spontaneously grow a moral compass.
That…. Things in Lumine, had none. It was an being worse then Zero, whose only desire in life was conquest and destruction of what it didn't like.
That's it… that the plot.
And for the thing to… one of Zero's spawn, to booth, having stolen enough biomass to be a being made of mostly flesh…
Zero… had read about PTSD, he knew he and X had it, hell, even Axl had it and Layers too. To see X… dead…
And to… see The Lord Star Cutter in her warrior mode.
God… OH Krishna, oh Jagannath…
He felt Axl's hand pull his hair.
"Can't believe your hair's the real deal. Explains why it looked so real." Axl muttered to himself as he twisted the matted, bloodied locks around his fingers. "Gonna ask those girls at the barracks, human girls, how to get rid of all those tangles… and the blood."
Zero blushed. Yes, so the first hair he had where all tiny strands of some kind of golden alloy, he had no idea what it was meant for, perhaps it was an antenna of sort, or perhaps it was merely some fancy cosmetic detail… cosmetic detail he had thrown out after the first time Sigma had grabbed them and given them a sharp yank.
And then X had expressed his disappointment, Zero had been quick to get the hair back… no, not the original golden bundle, for it had already been at the tender mercy of the hunter's base high heat crematorium, but his own hair.
X loved it… Zero loved it even more, despite the extra maintenance he had to perform.
"Anyway, let's go before X land… Can't believe this made sense."
—-
"How's… Vava?" Zero asked after recovering his old voice box. It crackled, it popped, it was crunchy as hell. But in the end, it still worked perfectly fine once it was reconnected to the proprietary wired still dangling from Zero's chest.
"Traumatised." Axl answers as he inspects Zero's old component. " I'm not surprised that dealing with reploids is not the same as dealing with a Kirby final boss. Thankfully, I'm immune." the kid grinned as he inspected Zero's mask. "Dude, I still can't wrap my head around how my favorite lovecraftian horror was fighting right beside me the whole time, Layer's gonna be so jealous."
Zero winced. "Please keep her away from me. I don't know how to deal with her as Infinity0, let alone as… me."
"Yeah, I heard she had a convo with Alya about you and X. Layer's not into anything organic. I mean, what sane reploid would want to deal with more organic fluid? Especially after her previous job…" Axl shuddered with a very real revulsion." say zee… did your old head give you headaches?"
"Constantly." he readily admitted. He still felt this uncomfortable pressure behind his one eyes, but… it was lessening.
"I'll say. I mean, we all knew your ego was too big, but none of us could've guessed that you literally had a big head."
"Oi."
"Wait… is this crusted… dude, there's more blood in there."
"Listen… Think of my armor as Darth Vader's armor."
Zero dropped the old helmeted head. Now completely useless and filled with memories of pain long past, it had been his face, a plain, stereotypical German fave, with high cheekbones, hawk-like nose and deep blue eyes. With no imperfections and the definition of a resting bitch face… when he'd lost his first precious person.
He had loved X, and he had loved Iris…
Iris would've been horrified knowing she'd dated a cosmic horror, filled with blood and gasses.
An yet X…
'God… I don't know what I did to get X. I know X was programmed to… well, love me but… Damn it, He didn't have to fall in love with me.'
"You know…" Axl began. " X told me he was programmed to love you… or that's what he said but." Axl began, breaking zero out of his grim mulling. 'Listen, I've hung out with Layer and a few other Dancing Queens from the red light district.
"AXL!" Zero exclaimed, never in his life had he felt so disappointed in his life. "You know better than that."
"Hey, yo, chill!" Their youngest was placated. "I'm not here for that." The redhead mock gag (it sounds genuine." but I've seen my fair share of units programmed to love their owner and… X ain't one of them."
Zero started, as once again hope filled his heart.
"How do you know?"
"I know because there's many times X gets annoyed with you, and he remains miffed with you for some time. He told me that was the only reason why he got a couch in the first place."
Zero wince at the memory of this particular fight, never, ever would he bake mister holly's supper ranck cornbread with marmite. Let alone eat it in X's reading nook…
He still maintained that the Gobujangpocalypse was not his fault, since there had been no indication that this particular book had one hell of a punch line… but he still had to be confined to the couch for the next two weeks… twice.
"And how about that one time you went Maverick and X had to end you… If X had been artificially in love with you-"
"He would've let me do it… Not that… well, it's a bit fuzzy but I just wanted to get out."
"You're still here, though."
"Yeah…" Zero sighed. "You know what? It doesn't matter in the end."
"Zero?"
"Mangalananda said he fixed things in X, and restored his whole system to factory settings. I'm sure if he'd found something like that, he wouldn't have left it as is, right?" Zero raised his gaze to his surprisingly wise kid.
Axl remained silent, probably reviewing whatever he'd gathered when X had his whole restoration happen.
"Hmm… Well, Magolor… in the Return to Dreamland game, he was a liar and a backstabber, he tricked Kirby into fixing his ship, the lor Starcutter."
"Yeah, backstabbing ship and all that." Zero grumbled as he tested where or not he could reconnect his old arms, he missed having opposable thumbs.
He… missed his old human look.
"But…" The Spy of the group continued. " When I was with him when he fixed X up… yeah, his body language was open and true. Like, he didn't lie, He didn't add anything to X's codes. He removed a lot, though, and we know what happens when we start removing codes from our source, right?"
Zero shuddered… God, why, just why. "So, you mean."
"Magolor got a glow up…" Axl said as he leaned on the body filled table. "I don't know, man, it's like Uber weird seeing the guy with character development. Like… yeah, I get he got it but… Being a Hare Krishna Cultist? Truthful? Not as mischievous?"
"Hey… give him some slack." Zero warned. " I'm not the personification of Depression anymore, remember?"
"Right."
"Good." Zero huffed. "Now, help me connect my old arms to their… oh, wait!" Zero wrapped his…
Alright, he had no words to describe what he'd done, but his arms were now floating where they should be and moving as if they'd never gotten separated.
And it felt… so good.
The fallen being sighed as he began moving and flexing his fingers. " Never gonna take those for granted, ever again." then he turned again to Axl, who watched him silently. "So… X loves me… not because he was forced but… but because he truly does love me."
Axl raised his hands. "Hey, I'm no expert about love, but I do know that our directives can be ignored if you try hard enough."
"... do you-"
"You don't wanna know."
"I'll see if Doug can-"
"Mags took care of it, I'm cool."
"Ah."
The silence stretched on as Zero fiddled with his hands, removing the internal circuitry and excess materials and other such unneeded things. Meanwhile, Axl puttered around to see how to tie Zero's old face and voice box around his neck.
Needless to say, Zero looked as if he had murdered his maverick hunter persona and was proudly wearing his spoils.
"I swear, Axl, if Signas see's me like this-"
"He'll blow another five fuses, I know." the unrepentant imp grind. "But until we reach terra-ferma."
"Or he uses your freakishly huge contact range to reach us." Zero deadpans, his internal clock warning of Signas impending call.
He was such a mother hen… it was good to see that he was still the same after being given a new body.
Suddenly, the door opened, and in came X followed by Vava holding a blue penguin plushy. The ex-maverick didn't enter, not that Zero blamed him.
Vava had always been a feral chaotic gremlin and a huge Star Wars geek, as shown by his armour. But even a child of Chaos would choose normality over…
Well…
The intergalactic Lovcraftiene event that happened… a day ago? Two?
Either way, it was clearly too soon for the man.
"Oh, Zero you-"
"Apparently, I'm more of a cyborg then expected, and… some components still work."
"Oh, your voice box!" X said delightedly as he fluttered over, the glittering of his mostly translucent body enchanting Zero's mind.
Whether X's love was influenced by his programming or not, the angelic being chose to let those sleeping dogs lie.
He had what he deserved… and it was more than expected, honestly.
The Ancient being wrapped his arms around Zero's neck and hung there like a beautiful necklace. Zero's hands set at their customary place on his spouses's hip, and the angels fell even harder for his intended doom.
Even if X had been programmed to love him, Zero was also well aware that he was a soul, and all souls had a measured amount of free will.
And… wans;t 02 (04?) an eldritch asura born of an impure sacrifice? Mundane's morality meant little to him!
He loved X, the end of the story.
"I missed you." Zero breathed out, enjoying the feeling of X's warm, living frame on his true skin."
The crystalline blue hunter chuckled, sending delightful shivers up and down Zero's fluid filled core. "Me too… you're so warm and fluffy."
"I'm not fluffy."
"You're like my favorite water pillow, but better."
"Oh, eww, you guys-" Axl was interrupted but, what Zero could figure out, Signas' com.
"Oh, hey signas! What a surprise!" Axl said out loud, sweating proverbial bullets now that their boss and the premier investigator of all this maverick was on the line. "Hah, I told you 'o Axl."
Zero said as regretfully released his partner, who relinquished the beings neck before placing a parting kiss on his eyelid.
Zero had always wondered how everything felt, those particular kisses first and foremost.
Now that he knows… It was nice.
But no matter how nice it felt…
"Zero… I'll always be here."
'You weren't there for a bit… and everything has an end.' Ophanim thought sadly. "Don't make dumb promises, X."
X simply smiled and held Zero's newly attached hand, squeezing it in a show of solidarity.
It was time to face the music.