OZX Series 3 - Morning
Zero opened his eyes half way, glistening in the gentle light of the still active machinery that lined the walls of his bedroom. Careful to avoid waking his bedmate, Zero lifted his head and blearily look around, his eyes finally falling on the nearby alarm clock. It was four in the morning, only thirty minutes since Zero last tried to fall asleep.
Zero sighed, resting his head back down on Omega’s chest, the original unconsciously tightening his hold on him. He had meant for Omega to sleep on the couch or in the pod in the other room, yet somehow, Zero managed not only to be sharing a bed with him, but also curled up on top of Omega like a lover. It was distorting, and Zero couldn’t sleep, despite how he longed to see X. Guilt and shame taunted the edges of Zero’s mind, replaying his and Omega’s savage sex session over and over until the slender Reploid was ready to pull out his hair. How could he given in to his base urges, and worse yet, to submit to his own original body?
“Liebste…?”
Zero tensed, glancing up with his eyes and watched Omega open his own slowly, regarding him with those piercing red orbs. Zero was faintly sure X mentioned missing his blue eyes, so the red must have been a modification Weil made. Worry shot through Zero-what if Weil modified his original body so much, it truly was impossible to get it, and the memories, back?
“What?” Zero murmured, raising his head again. There was no distinct need to be quiet, yet lying in bed in each other’s arms in the dark made Zero not want to raise his voice above a whisper. Why? Cause it’d ‘ruin the mood?’ You’re pathetic.
“Are you okay?” Omega asked, his own voice hushed. “You keep moving around… have you slept at all?”
“You almost sound worried,” Zero grunted.
“What if I am?”
“Then I’ll tell you to shut up and go to sleep.”
“Liebste,” Omega raised one of his hands, cupping Zero’s cheek. Zero refused to look at him, and Omega sighed. “Liebste, don’t be such a bitch. What’s wrong, why can’t you sleep? If it’s me, I’ll go to the other room.”
“You’re fine,” Zero mumbled, hating the fact he actually enjoyed having a warm body next to his again. X was almost his size; if Zero closed his eyes and really focused, he could pretend Omega was X…
Omega gently caressed his cheek with his fingertips, and Zero clenched his eyes shut. He missed X, physically and everything, yet for all his love of the blue Reploid, Zero still spread his legs willingly for the first hard dick that came to him. He wasn’t worthy of X, no way.
“What can I do?” Omega whispered. “Jokes and sex aside, Zero, you’re honestly the only person I can call ‘friend’ right now. Tell me what to do.”
Zero’s eyes opened wide, staring at Omega, the tone of his voice shocking him. How could this lost, confused, and desperate Reploid possibly be the same one Zero and X exiled to space a century ago? How could he be the same one that nearly killed Zero just because some insane old man said to? No memories of himself or his past, Omega was just like Zero-looking for himself, a purpose for life. The similarity slapped Zero in the face, and he was unaware a few tears had slipped from his eyes.
“Liebste?” Omega asked, alarmed, his fingers brushing the tears aside. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Zero rasped, staring at Omega with new understanding and softer eyes. “Nothing, I just… I guess I realized something.”
Omega was just like him, was him in this instance. Zero dangled before his eyes the key to any question in his mind, and Zero withheld that information like a selfish bastard. But was it right to tell him, given what the information could do to him? Omega was a bastard, a sexual deviant to be sure, but looking at him now, with all that worry plain in his face and the tenderness in his touch, Zero couldn’t see him just killing people to kill them.
Zero closed his eyes. Omega’s birth wasn’t his fault; his default programming wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t rightfully blame him if this was the real Omega, couldn’t rightfully hate him.
“Zero?”
“Go to sleep, liebhaber,” Zero whispered, ignoring Omega’s shocked, sharp intake of air. “We’ll talk in the morning.” He lightly kissed Omega good night.
~*~
“You want to do what?” Ciel shrieked. “No! No no no no and no!”
Zero huffed in annoyance. “Ciel…”
“This is insane!” she went on, and Omega stared at her. “Bad enough you spared him, Zero! Now you want me to try and restore his memories? No! I’ve bent over backwards for you, Zero, but I draw the line at reviving monsters!”
“Monster…?” Omega repeated slowly, glancing up at Zero from his seat.
Zero placed a hand on Omega’s shoulder, looking down at him with a soft expression before scowling at Ciel. “That’s quite enough, Ciel. I… we have no right to withhold his memories from him. I know what it feels like to not know yourself, your past, your purpose… and I can’t inflict that on someone else, even if his past isn’t exactly flowers and sunshine.”
“Normally, Zero, I’d agree with you,” Ciel shook her head at Omega. “What if he goes berserk? The program kicks back in?”
“That’s why I am fully armed. I beat him before, I will again.” Zero’s grip on Omega’s shoulder tightened, and the original winced. “Restore the memories, Ciel, or I’ll do it myself. I don’t know who I was or what I’ve done. In a way, restoring Omega will restore me, too.”
Ciel’s eye twitched, but Zero’s hard stare won out in the end, and she knew regardless if she helped or not, Zero would try it himself. She sighed in defeat and turned to the console she was working on, saving her progress. While her back was to them, Omega glanced at Zero, who bent down and kissed the jewel of his helmet.
“Mach dir keine sorgen, ich werde für dich sorgen,” Zero muttered.
Omega sighed as Zero pulled away from him just as Ciel turned around back to them. “Ich vertraue dir…” Omega eyed Ciel, who was glaring daggers at him. “…nur nicht ihr.”
Zero chuckled. “You’ll be all right.”
Thirty minutes later found the trio of blonds in the largest lab in the Base, Omega strapped down to a bed and being pushed into an enclosed, full body scanning compartment, much like what the humans used for MRI scans or full body X-rays. Omega stared at the lens above him, wincing as they detached and lowered onto his face, covering his eyes. His hands balled into fists as all ports of his skull were invaded by plugs, and he hissed as connection to the main computer was established.
Zero leaned over Ciel’s shoulder, staring at the monitor that showed Omega’s insides, each wire and skeletal metallic bone. Ciel zoomed the monitor onto Omega’s head, and a command prompt came up. She input a command, and then pressed enter. Strings of data filled up the prompt window, and at the end were a simple Y and N.
“You sure about this, Zero?” Ciel asked. “I press this key and all memory files that can be restored will be, all at once. Even yours.”
“Do it.”
Ciel winced, and pressed the Y key. Silence, except for the thrum of the machines, descended upon them, and it was as if everyone stopped breathing. The screen slowly filled up with lines of data, snapshots of images, small movie files piling on top of each other, too quick to look at and analyze.
When Omega screamed, Zero was in the room immediately.
Ciel frantically typed on her keyboard, her eyes widening as more and more information poured in. Zero slammed his fists against the enclosed container Omega was housed in, fear gripping him. What was going on?
“What the hell is happening, Ciel!” Zero yelled.
“The three personality drives are incompatible!” Ciel reported. “The programs are warring with each other!”
Three?
Ciel gave out a scream of shock, falling out of her chair as the monitor in front of her exploded. The lights went out in the lab, only some machines remaining operational due to emergency generators. Omega continued to scream, and from the sounds coming from inside, Zero concluded he had ripped all of the wires out. Snarling, Zero grabbed the edges of the door and wrenched it open, climbing into the dark portal. He barely managed to avoid getting kicked in the face, and Zero climbed on top of him. Omega’s hands covered his face as he screamed, writhing on his back as if in agony.
“Omega!” Zero snapped, straddling Omega’s waist and grabbing the original body’s shoulders. “Omega, listen to me! Omega!”
“No!” Omega cried. “I didn’t…! I couldn’t have…! I didn’t want to do it! I didn’t want to do it!”
“Listen to me, it’s Zero; you have to get a grip, Omega!”
“I am Zero!” Omega’s hands lashed out suddenly, grabbing Zero by the throat. Zero choked, one hand grabbing one of Omega’s wrists as the other still pressed against his shoulder.
Omega’s red eyes were blazing as he sat up slightly, hissing, “I am Zero… the real Zero! I am the Messiah! Messiah of the new world! And you… you’re just a pathetic copy!”
“Verdammt…!” Zero choked, trying to pry off Omega’s strangle hold. He didn’t need air, but he did need the liquid trying to get by its tubes in his throat. “Ome… ga… you… hurensohn…”
Omega tightened his hold, eyes wide in insanity as he laughed. Suddenly the laugh trailed off into a strangled string of German gibberish, and the pressure on Zero’s neck suddenly vanished. The crazed look was gone, replaced entirely by horror.
“Liebste,” Omega whispered.
Zero pounced on this chance, grabbing the sides of Omega’s head by the cheek guards of his helmet. “Yes, it’s me, your liebste! Listen to me-listen to my voice. Trust your liebste. Are you listening?” Omega nodded numbly, eyes shaking. “Shut down, Omega. Shut yourself down. No, not hibernation! Shut down.”
“No!” Omega started to fight against him. “No! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”
“Liebhaber, listen to me! I will help you but you can’t be conscious! If I hard reset you, who knows what’ll get corrupted. Listen to me. Vertrauen sie mir, liebhaber. Trust me…” a sudden thought struck Zero. Three personas…
Zero stilled Omega’s head with an iron grip, his black eyes staring straight into shimmering crimson, data flowing visibly across them. “Trust me… and trust X!”
“X…” Omega mumbled. “X… X!”
“Yes, X. Trust X… trust our schätzchen. Schätzchen has never failed us.”
“Schätzchen,” Omega whispered, closing his eyes as his body gradually settled and slowed. “Yes… Schätzchen.”
“Sleep, Omega. I’ll get X, and we’ll be okay.” Zero slowly lowered Omega’s head down, and the red-eyed Reploid weakly grabbed a bit of his hair.
“Liebste…” Omega mumbled.
“Sleep.”
Omega’s head lolled to the side, his eyes closed peacefully in the oblivion of shut down. Zero carefully dislodged Omega’s hold on his hair, and the original’s hand fell back to the table with a loud clang, making Zero wince.
Ciel’s voice called out, and Zero crawled out of the machine. He turned to her, calm and cool as ever.
“Get me a connection wire,” Zero commanded softly. “Then leave the room. Lock the door. Don’t come in regardless of what you hear.”
~*~
“I see,” X muttered, staring at the comatose, digitalized form of Omega. It was quite a disturbing site-his body was a merge of his smaller, regular Reploid form and his larger, armored form, but with rather exquisite blue eyes. “So the three personas hate each other and don’t want to play nice.”
“Basically. Can you fix him, schätzchen?”
X sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead crystal and closing his eyes before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why, Zero? In this state, with the three active and separate, I can withdraw your memories and we’ll be done with Omega. Why do you want to fix him, ultimately save him, but lose your one clear cut chance at your memories?”
Zero crossed his eyes, staring at the bizarre, flickering form of Omega’s data. “I don’t love him, if that’s why you sound so bitter. It’s…” Zero growled, uncrossing his arms and placing his hands on his hips. “Omega didn’t have a choice when he was made, X. The Omega I’ve learned of, the few hours he was his own person, independent of ‘Zero’ and ‘Weil,’ he was… he was a good person. A bastard, yes, annoying, yes, but he isn’t a monster that Weil made him. He never had a choice in his life before, and now… now that I see what sort of person he could be, a good hearted one deep down… I…” Zero looked away, crossing his arms around. “I can’t… just… rob him…”
X stared at him for several seconds before a smile blossomed on his face. “Finally… finally you understand, Zero. ”
“Yeah… I guess…” Zero reached out, placing his hand on Omega’s forehead. “It’s… it’s kind of like having family. He’s just like me. But I hated that feeling not knowing who I was, what my purpose was… I didn’t want him to go through that agony. And despite the horrors he’s done, he had a right to know… still does, to know who he was. And now he can make the choice to be a better person than what he was made to be.”
“Like you.”
Zero cracked a smile. “Yeah. Like me. I want to remember my past but… I don’t need to. Not like he does.”
X placed his hand over Zero’s on Omega’s head, his smile becoming a smirk. “Merging these personas will produce in an unpredictable result. Who knows which one will be dominate. Be careful… if his ‘Zero’ persona is dominate, I just might like him a lot…”
Zero returned the smirk. “I already had a piece of his ass, X. You can have a slice too, I suppose.”
“What? From what I saw, he had a piece of your ass.”
“You were watching??”
“Why not?”
Zero gaped at him. “My little innocent X, a voyeur? I’ve seen it all now…”
X smiled. “You realize he’s going to want to see me, since he’ll be part you. Our love is pretty strong, and now you’re asking me to awaken it in someone else…”
“I was here first, so long as he understands that. You guys can talk.”
“Ohh, but you can screw him.”
“I won’t do it again if it bothers you that much.”
X shook his head, sitting down on the ground and guiding Omega’s head to his lap. He pressed his fingers against Omega’s temples through his helmet. “I know why you do it, so it doesn’t bother me. Besides, wet dreams can only go so far.”
Zero knelt down, watching them anxiously. “So you’ll save him, schätzchen? I…”
“You finally understand the way I’ve thought all my life, Zero. It’s your reward for finally learning this lesson of life. ” X closed his eyes, and the two began to shimmer brightly, causing Zero to recoil from the pure energy the two massive data souls were producing.
The light eventually engulfed Zero as well, and even when he shut his eyes against it, he could see it. Strange sounds, like the grinding of metal, came from where X and Omega were, and Zero grew worried.
The light still glaring, X’s voice filtered into Zero’s mind, “Be careful when he wakes up… if the Weil personality beats the rest… Either way, you can wake up now. Call for me if you need me…”
X’s voice sounded weak, and Zero realized with a panic in his heart that what he asked X to do drained him of his precious energy to keep his soul out of Cyber Space permanently. What had he done?
When Zero opened his eyes, he was greeted by the dark room of the lab, still running off the generators. In his arms rested the prone form of Omega, the wire attaching them hanging from their helmets. He gently pulled the wire from their ports, tossing it aside before holding Omega close again.
I’m directly responsible for you now, Zero thought, so I guess I’ll take care of you.
When Zero’s lips brushed the crystal on Omega’s forehead, the original stirred in his arms. Zero tensed, unknowingly tightening his hold around Omega’s arms as a precaution. Omega lifted his head with a groan, opening his eyes and glancing up, red eyes piercing into Zero’s black.
His brow furrowed, and Zero watched in fascination as Omega’s eyes shifted to that same lovely blue from before, binary codes, barely visible, darting across his eyes before they shifted back to their usual red.
Omega smiled, and Zero relaxed. “Liebste,” he said fondly. “How’s… how’s X?”
“He needs to rest, just like you,” Zero replied. “I take it… its okay now?”
Omega laughed, resting his head back on Zero’s shoulder. “I feel like shit, yet I feel really… complete now.”
“That’s one of us, at least.” Zero muttered, petting Omega’s head.
Omega opened his mouth to say something, but the lab door opened and Ciel walked in. She froze in mid-step as she found them locked in a tight embrace, and her eyes widened. Zero swallowed, staring at her with his own wide-eyed look, Omega biting his tongue to keep from laughing.
“A… ahem…” Ciel coughed. “I’m… not sure what to make of this…”
“Don’t think on it too hard, Ciel,” Omega said, pulling himself away from the comforting warmth of Zero’s arms. “I woke up and fell, he just happened to catch me, and I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. Y’know… weird memory surge and all…”
Zero awkwardly patted Omega’s shoulder, and Ciel gave them a critical stare before shrugging. “Either way, the lab will get fixed here soon,” she said. “Once it is, Zero… we’ll have more information on the whereabouts of the Dark Elf, and possibly, Weil.”
At the mention of Dark Elf and Weil, Omega’s face darkened and he looked away. Zero’s hand on his shoulder tightened, even as his own face was set in a frown.
“Get that information soon,” Zero said. “We need to get Dark Elf taken care of quickly, before Weil gets his hands on her.”
Ciel nodded firmly, the awkwardness of the situation dispersing. “We’ll stop him. We have to.”
“Yeah,” Omega mumbled. “Yeah. We do.”
~*~
“You lazy bastard,” Zero panted, bracing his hands against Omega’s chest, slightly slick with sweat. “Are you seriously… just going to lay there?”
Omega grinned roguishly at him, crossing his arms under his head and thrust his hips up. Zero groaned, tilting his head back as his hips followed Omega’s down. Pushing himself off Omega’s chest, Zero braced his hands behind him on Omega’s legs, arching his back and grinding slowly and purposefully on the original’s member. Omega drank in the sight of Zero, eyes half-lidded and a strange mixture of red and blue, yet alluring and smoldering.
Zero wasn’t sure who exactly made the first move, yet he was sure since reviving Omega’s ‘Zero’ memories would end their intimacy. But when left alone in his room, sitting next to each other, one of them put his hand on the other’s knee. Then that hand went up to the thigh, and legs parted… then armor started to fall off, lips meeting, and Zero found himself climbing into Omega’s lap…
Zero sighed deeply, unable to deny the exhilaration of how Omega stared so lustfully at him. Although X’s deep gazes of love would forever stir Zero’s heart, there was something in doing the act simply because one found their partner physically appealing enough to do it. The black-eyed blond had to wonder if Omega thought the same.
“Liebste,” Omega murmured, and Zero leaned forward again, hands on his chest, their lips brushing. “I have a…” he groaned as Zero lifted his hips, then lowered them back onto him, shaking them side to side seductively as he did so. “Have a… proposition for you.”
“Can it wait?” Zero purred, licking at Omega’s lips, teasingly dipping it into his mouth as Omega tried to speak.
“No,” Omega nipped at Zero’s tongue, and watched as his sighing lover sat up and stilled his movements. “Reviving my ‘Weil’ memories gives me an idea…”
Zero made a face. “I’m having sex with you to avoid unpleasant topics, Omega, and you’re killing my mood.”
“I’m about to get it back up,” Omega smirked, unfolding one of his arms from under his head and touched a fingertip to the moistened tip of Zero’s erection, purring as it seemed the organ strained toward his touch. “As you know, Weil fixed Copy X with only a few errors… but Ciel had made him perfectly. She just needs blueprints…”
Zero immediately made the connection, and his jaw dropped. “Weil still has X’s blueprints?”
“To my knowledge, yes…” Omega’s fingertip slipped down to the underside of the swollen member, tickling it as if it were a cat. “Kill Weil, secure Dark Elf… bring X back… Sounds like a master plan, if you ask me…”
Zero thrust his hips toward Omega’s hand, a small spurt of liquid dribbling down his hardness as Omega wrapped his hands around it. “Sounds like you want something, liebhaber…”
“I love X as much as you do,” Omega said, and Zero’s hips froze. “All I ask is a chance to have a true, deep heart to heart with him, and if it leads to a last time between us, I ask you not to interfere.”
Zero scowled, not liking the idea of sharing his X, regardless of what he said before. It then struck Zero-what if X chose him? After all, Omega was the Zero he had before this whole mess…
“We’ll see how it goes,” Zero mumbled. “But do you really think we can handle Neo Arcadia, Dark Elf, and Weil?”
Omega sat up, wrapped his arms around Zero and jerked his hips upward, causing a soft cry to tumble between Zero’s lips. “We’ll just have to work on getting stronger, liebste,” Omega breathed huskily into Zero’s ear.
Their lips met, moans bouncing between them as Zero resumed his enticing dance in Omega’s lap. Omega’s hands stroked up and down Zero’s back as his lips moved over the other blond’s, a gentle caress and gentler kiss. It was an odd sensation to be more intimate with himself, but Zero shoved the thought aside and focused instead on his pleasure. He had all this untapped power he was going to need if he was going to fight for X’s schematics and, possibly, get him back…
“Don’t worry,” Omega whispered between butterfly kisses as he slowed Zero down, laying his copy onto the ground. He cupped Zero’s cheek with one hand, the other rubbing his outer thigh as he thrust slowly into him, hissing at the wondrous friction. “You’ll still be my liebste.”
Zero groaned, half of him desiring Omega to shut up and fuck him to oblivion, the other half savoring this slow, almost tender session. It had been a long time since he physically made love like this, although love was not among his feelings for Omega, not in that sense.
“Zero,” Omega purred, kissing his jaw line as he cupped Zero’s bottom and angled him to move into him deeper. Zero stared at him, for it was the first time Omega called him by name since the memory revival. “Will I still be your liebhaber?”
Zero shrugged. “In name only, I would think, if X chose one of us…”
“Why one? He can have both.”
“I don’t love you, Omega.” Zero muttered, the words seeming so strange to utter as he laid beneath him, accepting him inside of his body and kissing him so softly.
“You can learn to,” Omega whispered, sliding in and out of him in a maddeningly slow pace. “If X wanted us to… you know as well as I we’d do it… for him. For our schätzchen.”
Zero moaned as Omega finally struck that spot inside of him, his arms wrapping tightly around Omega’s neck and his fingers curling in the pale blond strands, lips pressing against Omega’s and refused to let go. No more talk, no more thought… just sensation.
Omega understood, and as he increased his speed and fervor, pulling loud moans and soft cries of pleasure from Zero, he resolved himself to not bother speaking of this again until a more appropriate time.
They had to work on getting stronger, after all.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Liebhaber = lover
Mach dir keine sorgen, ich werde für dich sorgen = Do not worry, I’ll take care of you.
Ich vertarue dir… …nur nicht ihr = I trust you… …just not her.
Hurensohn = son of a bitch
Vertrauen sie mir = Trust me