VOICE MAIL

[inspirethefire]

"This is Hajime Tanaka. I'm sorry to have missed you. Leave a message. Call for me if necessary!"

((Voice mail or texts. His phone is deliberately cheap and low-tech; he doesn't do e-mail, and generally prefers face-to-face whenever possible.))

Comments

[inspirethewires]

[The technicalities of robot "family" seem complicated at best, and that's without knowing anything about Zero's background.]

It... only seems natural, though. You wouldn't be close, if you weren't raised together.

Ah... though... I guess you weren't really, er, raised at all, were you...

[HE WASN'T, RIGHT? That's not just robot bias talking? HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW THIS WORKS.]

[awakeningwill]

[Yeah don't worry, this time you weren't being a horrible robot racist. Zero gave the barest nod and continued his work.]

I don't think so. Prior to December, any memories I had before I was sealed away were gone.

I woke up surrounded by hostiles, already part of a war I didn't understand. I was shooting a gun before I knew my own name.

[inspirethewires]

[That's rough, buddy.

Hajime has to absorb the enormity of that for a minute. Sure, he's figured Zero had some type of background as a soldier droid or something like that, but framing it as a war before anything else in life... it's a big thing to try and comprehend.]

S-so... even if you did know them, it's been forgotten.

[awakeningwill]

[Zero gave a low hum of affirmation and a shrug without looking up. But don't worry, Hajime. Not knowing his family wasn't really something to feel bad about on his behalf.]

That's not a huge loss.

I've been trying to escape my creator's curse all my life. He built me to destroy the world... If I'd known him, perhaps I really would've been the 'god of destruction' I was designed to be.

[Those had been Dr. Weil's words, but after facing Omega - Zero's true body - it was easy to see just how terrifying he could've been.]

[inspirethewires]

[To be made, for such a purpose like that, it was... for one thing a lot more intense than a family business. A fate like that is a frightening proposition, and having seen Zero in action he doesn't relish the thought of what could have been.

Never would he have considered the debate of nature and nurture in regards to robots before.]

Still, though, if your first memories are of war, and you still avoided an end like that... your will really is powerful.

[awakeningwill]

I wouldn't say I avoided it. Billions of people are still dead because of me.

[The reploid's expression had not changed, but there was a tired air of acceptance to the fact. It was a guilt so old, it had stained him to the core.

Hajime saw the memory just as clearly as Zero did. Simply by existing, the technology in his body was at the center of an unending cycle of bloodshed. For all his skill and accomplishments, he really didn't think much of himself. Pretty hard to have pride in yourself when death was basically your legacy.

His will... Zero shook his head. There was nothing that special about it.]

With the right means, any reploid can be completely overtaken, against our will. It can make us even more vulnerable than humans, despite our bodies.

[inspirethewires]

[Billions. That's an exaggeration. That has to be. Sure, Zero's never been much for hyperbole, and Hajime had seen the memory of his condemnation, but surely it couldn't be quite that bad...

Looking at the guilt that buzzed through Zero's heart, a dread soaked into Hajime's own.

For a couple of minutes, Hajime fell silent while Zero worked. If this was true, he ought not to have been too surprised. He'd seen how dangerous Zero could be well before his recent respect. So, why didn't it feel quite right?

Billions of lives is just too much for him to process, in the end. What he knows is what he's seen.]

Eggman overtook you. But you still came back to yourself, in time. For all the blood in your past... you're protecting us, now.

[awakeningwill]

[Zero made another noncommittal shrug. What Hajime said was true, he couldn't deny the obvious facts - but that didn't mean it could undo history. The matter of whether it all evened out in the end, however, was entirely subjective. He couldn't expect Hajime to completely understand, even with his body like this.

Why Zero even bothered mentioning it at all was a bit of a surprise to himself, too. But he recognized the spark of mistrust in Kiyotaka's eyes when his student realized his dark origins. Maybe a part of him was morbidly curious what Hajime would think of him now.

Well. There was nothing to be done about it, regardless. Zero sealed the knee plates back up as he dryly remarked:]

And I still have a knack for picking up stray pacifists, it seems.

[inspirethewires]

[In the previous weeks, all Hajime learned assured him how little he knew. He couldn't claim to know anything about anything these days. All he had to go on was what he'd seen... but he couldn't deny the reality of what he hadn't.

Zero scared him, in a lot of ways. Probably not as many as he should. Still, all he'd seen of the reploid, directly before him and amongst the people he cared about, had been in defending what was right.

Hajime twisted his leg slightly, testing the knee. It was a nigh imperceptible shift, at this stage, but it was better.]

You need some balancing out, after all.

[awakeningwill]

[Boy, and did Zero know it. No one was more aware of his flaws than himself, and few were harsher critics.

Satisfied enough with his work for now, however, he gathered up his tools and stood up.]

Speaking from experience... balance goes both ways. That's what makes for a strong partnership.

[inspirethewires]

[Partnership... all Hajime could think of with that word were the ones gone away. X had surely provided more balance for Zero than Hajime could start to understand. And Kiyotaka... gone back to the place that killed him, while Hajime moped. He'd said he'd return, and yet...

Hajime sat up as best he could, with his ribbon-plugs set in.]

Zero, how... old are you...?

[awakeningwill]

[That question took Zero a bit by surprise, and he paused to actually consider it. If he came from 23XX, and he was built sometime during Rock's era in 20XX...]

I suppose... around three hundred, technically.

[Mind you, this was including all the time he spent in stasis, which was well over a hundred years on its own already.]

[inspirethewires]

[Technically. There were some gaps in there, but it still made him far older than any human Hajime knew of.]

So these bodies are... pretty durable.

[In the worst case scenario... well. With a life that long, a person was bound to leave an impact, one way or another.]