Chapter Text
X was roused from her sleep mode as she felt the reploid next to her moving.
Her internal clock told her that it was still too early and they must not have recharged fully. Blinking her eyes open, X sat up and carefully removed the charging plug from behind her neck before looking up at the other reploid in the room.
Messy long blond hair framed around his tall frame, he was looking down, the shadow hid his eyes. It was very strange, X got worried, Zero did get a nasty wound during today’s mission after all.
“Zero? Are you alright? What are you doing?”
Zero finally looked up, and X felt really scared because his eyes were really silent, void of any emotion.
He finally opened his mouth, “...This is not my world. You are not my X.”
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“Scanning done, nothing is wrong with him. His data reading is a bit off but it’s still Zero,” Lifesaver said, looking up from the monitor.
All eyes in the rooms, X, Signas and Lifesaver, again focus on ‘Zero’, who was sitting quietly on the medical table.
“Don’t look at me like that,” ‘Zero’ said, “The year is wrong, the design is wrong, my body is wrong, X is wrong. This is really not my world.”
“Then please tell us who you are,” Signas asked, frowning.
“My name is also Zero,” ‘Zero’ answered, “Our body parts are also slimmer, and most of all-” he turned to look at X.
“My X is a male-type,” ‘he’ continued, “And my real body is a female-type.”
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“Please calm down, Zero,” the once legendary hero X said, trying to calm his partner down. Ciel could only watch helplessly on the side. She really hadn’t prepared for such a scenario in which Zero woke up from sleep mode and her memory was gone again!
“How could I calm down?! I went into sleep mode with my X and now I woke up 100 years later,” ‘Zero' nearly screamed, “Everything is wrong! My body changed, X changed, X is also dead and what do you mean the world is in ruin and I have to save it?!”
“Look,” the cyber-elf, ‘Zero’ just learned this term, said and placed his hands on ‘Zero’’s shoulders, locking his eyes with ‘her’, “I know you are confused but we’ll find a way to solve it.”
Looking into his green eyes, ‘Zero’ felt calmer, X just had that power on Zero in all universes…
“I have done a reading on your data. Even though your data is almost identical to my Zero, it’s not stable as your data doesn’t belong in this world after all,” The cyber-elf continued, “So I figure this will be resolved on its own.” He finished with a smile.
“In the meantime, can you tell us what happened before you go to sleep?” Ciel finally said, ‘Zero’ looked at her, this human reminded ‘her’ of Alia so much.
‘She’ absently read ‘her’ own memory, “I was on mission in Cyberspace, my target was this maverick who somehow had the ability to bend space. I was hit, then I finished my mission, went back to base, fixed myself, had intercourse with X because she worried about the wound too much, then we went to sleep,” ‘she’ frown, “Is it because of the maverick’s ability?” ‘Zero’ wondered out loud.
And when no one answered ‘her’, ‘she’ looked up to see Cyber-elf X and Ciel stared at ‘her’, their faces were so red. “What?” ‘Zero’ asked, confused.
Finally the X of this world coughed into his hand, face still red and answered ‘Zero’, “It’s nothing. And yes, it seems like that maverick’s ability caused this accident…”
‘Zero’ crossed ‘her’ arms, “Now that we know the cause and are waiting for this accident to pass, can you two tell me what happened to this world?”
Cyber-elf X and Ciel looked at each other, silently communicating whether it was alright to let this Zero know. After all ‘she’ didn’t come from the same timeline, maybe it was okay…
“Well…It all started when my Zero went into a long sleep…” Cyber-elf X began.
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“So you went into a long sleep, when you wake up, you have no memory and the world is in ruin?” X asked carefully, “I was dead and a copy of me was in charge?”
‘Zero’ nodded, “Correction: not your copy, my X’s copy. And he is not exactly dead yet.”
They were now alone in their room after Signas had questioned Zero from another world. Not much information was gained, sadly, as this ‘Zero’ lost most of ‘his’ memory.
X went silent, pondering over what she had heard from ‘Zero’. Meanwhile, ‘Zero’ just silently stared at her.
Finally X noticed ‘his’ stare and tilted her head, asking, “What is it?” This ‘Zero’ was a lot different from her Zero. ‘He’ was more reserved, it was not that her Zero was talkative but this ‘Zero’ just gave a different vibe…
“It’s nothing, I was just thinking that your boobs are smaller than mine,” ‘he’ said and X startled, covering her chest. She got comfortable in their room so she had unconsciously taken off her armor earlier, now she was only in her basic suit.
“...That’s sexual harassment, you know,” she finally mumbled, her face heated up, something about Zero just never changed, no matter which universes…
“Sorry,” ‘Zero’ apologized earnestly, “But I think that’s adorable.”
“...Thank you,” X sighed, she couldn’t be angry at Zero after all.
And now she missed her Zero…
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“I won’t go into cryosleep,” the next morning, Zero woke up on the couch and said so immediately, startled X, who was sleeping in the bed. The night before ‘Zero’ had insisted on sleeping on the couch and X went with it. She honestly couldn’t feel comfortable sleeping with a stranger, even if that stranger was Zero, and that Zero was also a female-type.
“...Zero? You’re back?” X asked in awe as Zero crossed the room in long strides, hugging her tightly.
“Yes, I'm back,” Zero said, burying his face into her neck, “I won’t leave you alone, you won’t have to fight alone, I promise.”
X was confused but she hugged Zero back anyways, “Okay, I’ll hold onto that promise.”
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“How was the other world?” Cyper-elf X smiled and asked as Zero opened her eyes silently.
“...It was nice,” she said, sitting up from her charging pod, “Your female version is really cute.”
“Huh?”
“...I want to see you in a cute dress,” Zero turned to look at X, the latter slowly backed away at the begging look in her eyes, “Please?”
“...”