"What do you think the news is, Zero?" Alouette asked, looking up at Zero and hugging her doll tightly as the two walked through the dilapidated halls of their resistance base. "Ciel seemed really excited about it! Do you think it's that thing she said she'd been working on recently?"

Zero remained silent, a man of few words at the best of times, but in this case, it wasn't simply due to his stoic attitude. He and a few other key members of the resistance had been privy to the fact that for the last week Ciel had been negotiating non-stop with Neo Arcadia, insisting that she had found a new avenue for a peaceful solution to their conflict, that if she could complete a certain invention that all of their problems might be solved, at least for long enough for her to complete the alternative energy source she had been working on to address the power crisis that had led to Neo Arcadia’s mad dictator’s actions in the first place. She had been so worked up that she had to be forced to eat and sleep, her cyber elf companions in her lab having to practically drag her out.

In the few hours of the day that Ciel wasn’t in her lab working on her new project and speaking with Neo Arcadia’s leaders, she emerged and insisted on acting like nothing had happened at all, just that she had been working particularly hard on some new machine or gotten caught up in repairing the base’s aged equipment. Despite working like a woman possessed, Ciel refused to indulge the details of her negotiations or how well they were going, deathly afraid that if she got her allies’s hopes up, any failure on her behalf would be a crushing blow to morale. That was the reason she had given to Zero, but Ciel wore her heart on her sleeve and was an open book even to one as emotionally dulled as him: Ciel was terrified that she would be hated if she made another promise she couldn’t keep, that she would be betraying the people that trusted in her. Anybody around the base could have told her that nothing she could do would break their trust in her, the resistance being formed around Ciel’s efforts and optimism, but it was that kind heart that caused her to worry anyway.

In Zero’s opinion, although she hadn’t told him exactly what it was she was using as her bargaining chip this time, if there was any time that she could pull it off this would be it. In the months since she had awoken him and put him to work as the resistance’s saviour, he had torn through Neo Arcadia’s forces as if they were paper, forcing them to put a hold on retiring any more reploids as even their four Guardians couldn’t stop him from thwarting their plans. As a result he hadn’t had much to do since Ciel started negotiating, knowing that his mere existence kept the base and the many reploids hiding within it safe even if they weren’t going on the offensive. A weapon was perhaps even more valuable if it could intimidate the opponent without being drawn, after all, and so he waited.

"Hey, you know what it is, don't you, Zero?" Alouette accused, pouting cutely as she correctly guessed what was going on. “No fair! Ciel wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked!”

"Didn't you say you liked surprises?" Zero said calmly, the childlike reploid looking torn.

“I do, but I don’t like not knowing what’s going on.” Alouette decided to say, getting a laugh from somebody behind them.

“You can’t have a surprise without not knowing what’s happening, dear!” came the merry voice of Rocinelle, the matronly medic who stood out in the resistance’s drab colour scheme with her tan jacket that displayed her status, a large medical cross emblazoned on the side. She and Zero were well acquainted, patching up his wounds after his missions, as well as recruiting Alouette as an impromptu nurse at times to assist with the wounded reploids she treated. Apparently she had worked with both reploids and humans back in the day, but had been doing nothing but piecing reploids back together in recent times.

“Do you know what’s going on? Zero and Ciel are being mean and won’t tell me anything!” Alouette asked, perking up as she hoped that she might get an answer out of somebody chattier than Zero.

“Enough to figure out what our leader has planned for us, but I don’t think she’d like it very much if I spoiled the surprise for you.” She responded, scratching her chin and teasing Alouette. “Why don’t you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth? Either way I’m going to be swamped with work soon, and not from soldiers this time!”

“What’s that mean?” Alouette asked, turning back to Zero and tugging at his long ponytail. “Hey, Zero! Rocinelle! Tell me!”

Fortunately, before Alouette could pester him any more, she bumped into the back of another resistance soldier, realising that they had arrived in the central command room before they knew it. The room was packed with just about every member, active soldiers called back to the base specifically for it, and the room was abuzz with chatter while they waited for Ciel to arrive. Some were optimistic that she had made a breakthrough, others were cynical and expected her to declare some sort of state of emergency.

“Hey, Zero’s here! Over here!” 

Zero was flagged down by Colbor, a resistance soldier had rescued on one of his earlier missions, and quickly had a crowd forming around him of inquisitive reploids demanding to know what’s going on.

“Ask Ciel.” He responded, getting a round of groans and a few muttering that they didn’t know what they expected.

“See! He won’t tell anybody!” Alouette said smugly, feeling validated that she wasn’t the only one left in the dark.

“Well, as long as we’ve got Zero, whatever happens can’t be that bad!” Colbor said enthusiastically, getting a round of agreements. Zero was reminded that this lively group was burnt out and despondent when he arrived, and the fact that they could have good humour at this time was something that Ciel had stressed was a wonderful thing. Whatever she might ask of him, even if he was only good as a weapon of war, he’d be certain to execute it perfectly.

“Thank you for waiting, everybody!” Ciel called over the room’s tinny speakers, holding up a microphone and looking simultaneously nervous and ready to burst. “Um, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come here for this important announcement!”

Ciel paused, the energy in the room being palpable. She looked into the crowd to Zero, who nodded, Ciel taking a deep breath and readying herself.

“Thanks to all your hard work and a recent breakthrough I’ve made, I have formed a peace treaty with Neo Arcadia! You won’t have to fight or hide any longer!” Ciel shouted, the crowd stunned for a moment before bursting into rapturous cheers, friends hugging each other and half the resistance throwing their berets into the air in celebration. Alouette looked like she was about ready to cry and threw herself into a deep hug with Zero, who slightly awkwardly patted her on the head, not really used to tender displays of emotion. Ciel didn’t wait for anybody to raise any doubts, pressing a button on the console in front of her and revealing a broadcast straight from Neo Aradia’s solitary news broadcast, where X, or rather Copy X, the shallow, egotistical flawed recreation of X’s design without the personality or experience that had made him humanity’s saviour, was declaring an official cease-fire between the two factions, that now was the time for forgiveness and to repair their great city, thanks of course to his great kindness.

“Finally, we can go home!” Somebody cheered, nearly sobbing in relief.

“I knew it, he’s scared of Zero!” One member yelled, guessing an obvious reason why they might have finally ceased their attacks. “Sitting up there in his tower shaking in his boots, worrying that Zero might come and retire him first!”

“Still, how do we know he’s not bluffing?” Another called out, nervous despite the wave of optimism in the crowd. “

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask that.” Ciel said, trying to sound confident. “I’ve personally spoken to him and gotten both his word and the word of Sage Harpuia and the other Guardians. Harpuia promised that his word is unbreakable, and that even if his master were to go back on it, he would support the resistance over him. That’s how serious this is!”



“Still, it sounds a little too perfect after all this time…” the ever cynical Hirondelle said, a lanky information-gatherer that had seen plenty of false promises from Neo Arcadia in his time. “What’s the catch?”



“Of course, it isn’t in return for nothing.” Ciel said, getting the crowd on edge. “And it was made under the assurance that I would work to provide a solution to the energy crisis within the next few years, which, with Neo Arcadia’s facilities, I’m confident I can provide!”

The crowd relaxed a little, knowing that Ciel was the most brilliant scientist currently alive, and if anybody could do it, it was her, particularly when she wasn’t forced to work with decades-old equipment scrounged together from scrap.

“That said, that isn’t the only condition!” Ciel said, starting to look awkward. “And I hope to have your support in what’s next to come!”



“What is it? We’ll do anything!” One of the female reploids yelled, a pigtailed redhead named Sitelle who had been celebrating along with Joan and Rouge, the two operators who kept the transport system up and running. Ciel winced at their beaming faces, the two operators in particular having immediately started chatting about going shopping together once they could finally get out of these uniforms.

“Well, it’s, you see…” Ciel started to stammer, confusing the crowd. Not even Zero knew what was about to happen, and why she was reacting this way. “In return for our safety, they um, I had to, uh…”

Ciel flushed bright red and gasped for breath, shutting her eyes as she almost shouted into the microphone.

“I volunteered all female reploids within the resistance for mandatory participation in Neo Arcadia’s new repopulation programme! And myself, of course!”



“Huh?” came Sitelle’s confused response. The silence in the crowd was otherwise deafening, and she awkwardly continued. “Commander, you mean like, starting a new settlement with some of the civilians, or…?”

“I mean as in repopulating humanity!” Ciel forced herself to say again, pinker than her outfit. “As in making babies! If you’ll, um, look here…”



Ciel brought up a presentation for the baffled resistance to watch showing a graphic of a generic reploid body and a number of technical explanations for a machine that nobody short of an engineer really understood, including Zero, who was about as lost as everybody else.

“I was digging through old incomplete Neo Arcadia projects to see if there was anything I could use as leverage, or perhaps delay the depletion of our e-crystal based energy supply,” Ciel began to explain. “And I found plans for an artificial womb that I was pretty sure I could figure out how to get working, and X always talked about how he had grand plans to expand Neo Arcadia and its human population if it weren’t for the energy crisis, so I contacted them and mentioned it amongst other things. I just meant to say that I could complete it for him as one of the things he could achieve if I have time to work on the Ciel System, but then he, uh, said he had a great idea, and so…”



Ciel trailed off awkwardly as the presentation showed an implantation of the womb and it quickly expanding with many human babies, promising that one reploid could potentially carry far more than any one human, reducing the burden on the human population as well.

“Long story short!” Ciel said hastily. “He said he’d give me time to complete it while we’re used as a testbed for the new programme! He said it would serve as an apology to humanity for our transgressions and betrayal, and help give us all new roles. The men will assist in supporting our women and in the construction of new zones of Neo Arcadia in the meantime, unless they would like to contribute by converting their bodies to a more suitable form! And I, of course, will be joining as a show of solidarity and part of the conditions, with an experimental fertility treatment! Please, let’s work together towards a brighter future!”

The group was stunned, but eventually, Joan and Rouge raised their hands and began to speak.

“Well, if miss Ciel thinks it’s right, we’ll just have to trust her!” Joan said, Rouge nodding in agreement.

“It’s better than having to fight, right?” Rouge supported her, and murmurs soon turned to a chorus of support. The women who made up a good half of the resistance seemed completely taken aback by the sudden expectations placed on them, but all agreed that it was much better than their current state of affairs. 

“And there’s one more thing.” Ciel wished she had explained everything on one go, the crowd once again stiffening. “One of the biggest conditions for peace is the disarmament of Zero, so that he might not continue to threaten Neo Arcadia with his existence…”

The crowd couldn’t contain its dismay.

“Commander, he’s our only assurance that they won’t change their minds!” One yelled, a popular consensus.

“This is probably just a total load to get rid of Zero, then stab us in the back!” Another said hopelessly.

“Everybody! Please, this was the only…” Ciel weakly protested, knowing that it was the biggest hole in her plan, only for Zero to silence the crowd by stepping forward ahead of them and approaching Ciel directly.

“I trust Ciel.” He said simply, removing the Z-Sabre from his belt as well as his buster shot and other weapons. “If she thinks this will work, then I’ll follow her. Don’t you have faith in her too?”

Zero’s words were enough to pacify the crowd, who ultimately did trust the two of them almost completely. They had their reservations, but the resistance was built around Ciel and her personality, and there wasn’t a single member who didn’t have faith in her. Zero had a cold exterior as well, but had been single-handedly carrying the resistance on his back since he arrived, and they didn’t feel that he was the type to blindly make a bad decision. Some reasoned that Zero’s pragmatism would balance out Ciel’s idealism, making for an ideal compromise. The crowd’s mood shifted to optimism, and Ciel quietly thanked them all before leaving.

“Thanks, Zero.” Ciel sighed, looking exhausted and about ready to collapse as she was escorted to her lab by Zero for some peace and quiet, the rest of the resistance celebrating while many went to confirm that they really were safe. “I was worried nobody would believe me… don’t worry, we’ll keep your old body hidden as a backup in case something goes wrong.”



“My old body?” Zero paused. “I thought you said disarmament.”

“Copy X was very insistent that we transfer your consciousness to another body. One with civilian-grade capabilities. I’m sure you’ll still be very strong afterwards, but you won’t even have the power to fuel a buster afterwards.” Ciel said apologetically. “Don’t worry though, I’ll make a perfect new body for you! I’m sure you’ll love it!”

“If that’s what it takes.” Zero said, sounding unbothered despite the gravity of what was being asked of him. He often felt that he existed to validate Ciel’s philosophy of peace, and that ceasing to be a weapon was what she and somebody else who must have been very important to him would have wanted, if protecting the world by force could be avoided.

“Oh, there’s just one more thing…” Ciel said just as the matter seemed to be settled, almost getting a sigh out of even Zero.

“I think that after today, you should think about saying that less often.” Zero advised, Ciel blushing in embarrassment.

“Sorry… it’s just that Copy X was very insistent that you, um, well, also be a part of the repopulation programme.” Ciel smiled awkwardly. Zero stared back at her, the implications of that immediately sinking in.

“Pardon?”



“Don’t worry, Zero!” Ciel beamed shamelessly. “You already look pretty girly, right? You’ll hardly be able to tell the difference!”

–

“It would have been easier to do you both separately, you know.” Ciel said, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she finished updating Joan and Rouge’s new bodies, the twin operators hardly apart even when it came to the long upgrading process that Ciel had been performing over the last month. Her lab had bits and pieces, tools and spare parts scattered around outside of the operating tables, so to speak, where she had been modifying each and every reploid woman’s body to be suitable for the artificial womb she would then install within them. It had been quite a change of pace for the resistance to have the necessary parts and equipment delivered directly to them by Neo Arcadia themselves, rather than stolen off a train or from a warehouse.

Although Ciel had sold the idea as being as simple as installing an artificial womb, it had quickly been revealed that extensive preparations had to be made first that required reconfiguring much of the body. The artificial womb was merely one part of a replication of the entire female reproductive and hormonal system, including the ability to feed the baby and birth it naturally. This meant that breasts capable of swelling and lactating milk had to be installed, the hips and ass had to grow to suit the belly they were carrying, a stomach of sorts was implemented in order to process and supply nutrition to the babies, and most controversially, it had been specifically stipulated that a careful replica of the vagina and all the pleasure it brought be installed on all participants. A natural birth and compatibility with humans was necessary for the next phase of Neo Arcadia’s growth and human/reploid relations, it was claimed. With how complex each of these individual parts were and how they had to be retrofitted onto reploids not designed for it, it soon became clear why Ciel had been the only one able to make it practical.

“Well we couldn’t decide which one of us should go first.” Joan protested, Rouge nodding. “Besides, she was the one who said we should try out our new bodies together-”

Rouge jumped up from her seat and slapped her hand across Joan’s mouth, Ciel sighing as the two babbled and tried to come up with weak excuses. Although Ciel could be considered something of an innocent soul, even she was well aware that some disdainfully compared the process to being converted into a sexbot, while others eagerly relished the opportunity to have new experiences. At least they looked the same on the outside, Ciel supposed.

“Not while Alouette’s around.” Ciel said wearily, the child-like reploid wondering what she wasn’t supposed to hear. The two former operators happily left the room to retire to their quarters, giggling and making passes at each other even before they were out of earshot. 

“Is it finally Zero’s turn?” Alouette asked, Ciel reclining in her chair. “Do you think you could go get it set up for me? I’ll call him soon, just after I’ve had a little break…”

Ciel closed her eyes, and before she knew it she had dozed off completely, stirring with a yawn some time later with Zero waiting patiently next to hear.

“Ah! Sorry!” Ciel scrambled, still half-asleep. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Do you need longer?” He asked, Alouette yawning in the corner as she too had decided to enter her sleep cycle, as Ciel had shown no signs of waking up.

“No, it’s fine, I’m just a little worn out now that I’ve finished upgrading everybody else.” Ciel said quickly, looking around for the coffee machine. “I know Corveau could have done some of them, but I promised I’d do it all myself, so I don’t get to complain. Plus…”

Ciel looked down, placing a hand on the small but definite slope of her belly. It had been less than a month, but she looked like she was somewhere in her second trimester, pushing her old pink outfit’s usually loose midsection out. She estimated that were she carrying a single baby she’d appear to be around twenty weeks pregnant, and yet Rocinelle, the base’s acting doctor, had warned her that she was going to grow far more rapidly than this as her pregnancy progressed.

“When I agreed to it, I thought they meant you know, three or four at a time.” Ciel said sheepishly, rubbing it slightly, already starting to feel a bit heavy. “Instead they tell me that I’ve had a very positive reaction to the fertility treatment and it’ll be at least twenty or thirty! I can’t even imagine it right now.”



“I’m sure you can handle it.” Zero tried to sound reassuring, also finding it difficult to imagine what the petite girl in her late teens would look like in a few months. He, or rather she by then, would have to support her in her new battle as best she could.

“Thanks, hopefully it’ll be easier for you.” Ciel said, reminding Zero that he was about to start experiencing a very, very different life. “I don’t think I’ll even be able to walk. So, shall we get started?”



“Your new body’s really pretty, Zero!” Alouette said excitedly, eyes shining as she looked up at him. “I’m sure you’ll like being a girl way more! Ciel and I will teach you all about it! I’ll be like, your big little sister!”

“I’ll be counting on you.” Zero decided to say, sitting down on one of the two large seats in the room, her body on the other side covered by a tarp. It had been painstakingly hand-crafted by Ciel, promising the finest female body she could create, as close to his original body as possible while meeting Neo Arcadia’s demands. He let Alouette plug him in, ready to transfer as much data as possible while Ciel removed his core consciousness chip.

“It’ll all be over in a second, Zero. You’ll hardly notice!” Ciel reassured him, hand hovering over a button that would power him down. “In three, two, o-”

Zero would never hear her finish as she pressed the button slightly too early, and when he regained consciousness, it was during a boot sequence, performing the last configurations to introduce him to his new body. Her new body. Power flowed into her limbs, subsystems finished booting and loading, and finally, her optical systems focused and came to life.

The first thing Zero saw in her new body was boobs. Her boobs, specifically, an undeniable pair of twin slopes that were a lot bigger than she would have expected Ciel to give her. They were large, soft, and quite foreign to her, which was probably why she was so transfixed by them. A long lock of blonde hair escaped from the rim of her helmet around the forehead, hanging in her peripheral vision as an extra feminine touch. The rest she couldn’t see, but had plenty of time to get acquainted with.

“Can you hear me, Zero? Zero?”



Her eyes flickered upwards from her large breasts to Ciel’s face, who was standing over her looking perpetually worried that something had gone wrong. She wondered if her new face was as feminine as hers, beauty suddenly more of a concern to her.

“I’m operational.” She said, an unfamiliar voice coming out of her synthesis module. It was higher pitched than her old one but deeper than Ciel’s, more mature as befitting the older of the two.



“Thank goodness! Why don’t you take a look at yourself and tell me what you think?” Ciel looked relieved, and handed her an old-fashioned hand mirror for her to examine her new body. The face that greeted her was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. It was undoubtedly based on her original, but it was far more feminine, with grace and beauty that his androgynous appearance had lacked. She had full lips, a perfectly shaped nose, narrow chin, and long eyelashes, thin eyebrows combined to give her a delicate yet refined appearance. She was beautiful, Zero realised, feeling strangely satisfied by that.

Her attention fell back to her breasts. She couldn’t help but reach out with her now noticeably smaller hand and cup one of them, giving it a quick squeeze, her eyes widening at the instant pleasurable feedback she got courtesy of Ciel’s Neo Arcadia-mandated list of changes to the average female reploid body. It took all of her willpower to release her hand, feeling slightly proud of how it had filled her entire hand with ease.

The next thing she noticed was her outfit. It seemed similar enough at first glance, but once she reached the waist, which pinched inward and curved gracefully into two wide, attractive hips, it was revealed to instead be remarkably similar to Ciel’s dress, only in red rather than pink, with a green midsection and undershirt, returning to red at her skirt with a green point. His sensible combat-ready boots had been replaced with high heels similar to what Ciel and the operators wore, clearly totally impractical for any real physical activity and suitable for somebody intended to live a purely non-violent life. She recalled Ciel tripping thanks to these several times when he had rescued her for the first time, and hoped that she wouldn’t embarrass herself doing the same.

“What do you think, Zero?” Alouette asked as well as she stood up, the reserved reploid very unsure of how to react to her new body. She stared over at her old body, appearing to be sleeping on the other chair. She took a careful step forward, her balancing software thankfully updated to compensate for her more impractical feet, and looked down on it. He vaguely recalled humans talking about out of body experiences, and although this was hardly anything unusual for a mechanical lifeform like herself, it was certainly still surreal.

“Officially, your new body is supposed to be your old body, just heavily modified.” Ciel explained. “But unofficially, they won’t be able to tell, and we’ll keep this one sealed away just in case. I don’t think you’ll end up back in it, but it’d be irresponsible of me to not hold onto the possibility.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to use it.” Zero said, and surprised herself by truly meaning it, and not for the emotions she felt she would. As her old body was retrieved by mechanical arms and placed into a capsule to be hidden, she felt like she was saying goodbye to her old identity, goodbye to being just a weapon. Her new body was utterly unsuitable for it, intended to bring new life, not end it. If she were to return to that old body it would be to admit that her and Ciel’s attempt at a new life had failed, that she had been given a chance to live normally and failed, and the idea of that occurring bothered her far more than she thought it would. Her dulled emotions felt strange, and it would be something she’d have to grow to get used to, much like this new body of hers with its slender, dainty proportions akin to Ciel herself, save for her mature curves.

“So, how does it feel?” Ciel asked again, looking all over Zero’s body. “Any stiffness? Anything not working properly?”



She began to run her hand up the inside Zero’s thigh, which felt soft and supple much like a human’s, Ciel’s hand going higher and higher as she absent mindedly saw it purely from an engineer’s perspective, while Zero realised that this was starting to become quite awkward from a womanly perspective.

“I did remember to screw in the hip joint, right?” Ciel began to think less about what she was doing now and more about what she was doing before, double checking her recollection of how she had assembled the body and any faults she might have left unaddressed. Her hand went higher and higher, Zero too inexperienced as a woman to realise what was coming next. “I’m pretty sure that the thigh articulation should work properly. Oh, did I remember to install the-”

“Ah~!”

Zero clapped her hands over her mouth, turning bright red along with Ciel once she realised what she had just done, who retracted her arm and scampered backwards across the room.

“I-I’m so sorry, Zero! I just wasn’t thinking, I’m not used to you having a-” Ciel caught herself and couldn’t meet her eyes. “Um, does it work the way it’s supposed to…?”

“Yes, it works!” Zero squeaked, while Alouette was left clueless.

“So, that’s it then?” Zero asked, feeling a strong desire to find an empty room and get to know her new body a little better before she showed herself in public again. “When am I scheduled for the artificial insemination procedure?”

“Don’t worry about that just yet, that’s not scheduled for a while, and anyway, it’s… Oh, right, I knew I was forgetting something.” Ciel’s face began to turn cold. “Um, Zero? When I was explaining that you were joining the repopulation project, I forgot to mention that there’s one more thing…”

“You really, really shouldn’t say that.” Zero said accusingly, not looking forward to this.

“It’s about the, um, impregnation.” Ciel wrung her hands nervously. “Copy X said that he was going to personally oversee that. You know, to make sure the job is done right.”



“Oversee an artificial insemination? Is that necessary? Is he really that paranoid?” Zero questioned, putting a hand on her hip as her body language already began to become noticeably more feminine than before.

“Well, not so much overseeing as administering it.” Ciel said, trying to make it sound like it was no big deal.  “You know, he did say that he was looking forward to doing it himself the old fashioned way …”



Zero was speechless for a moment, her mouth opening and closing without sound, then finally found the strength to talk.

“He what?”

–

“Alright, who was the moron who packed the last of the nutrient fluid!?”



Rocinelle shouted over the bustling resistance HQ, the usually lonely hallways filled with reploids marching back and forth carrying boxes of supplies, personal belongings, and whatever pieces of junk they had gotten attached to that they just couldn’t give up. The head medic of the resistance was the only woman currently with a flat belly, having narrowly avoided Ciel’s great upgrade by arguing that she was the only one who had any experience working with humans, and thus the only one qualified to be able to attend to the dozens of reploids who had been impregnated for the greater cause. Ciel had reluctantly given in in light of her old job working in a Neo Arcadia hospital, figuring that surely making one exception couldn’t hurt and that she didn’t want to be totally at the mercy of Neo Arcadia’s medical personnel without a single reliable second opinion. With the personality of the type of middle-aged woman she was modelled after, Rocinelle had brow-beaten anybody who complained into submission.

“Um, that was me…” said Autruche, the manager of the resistance’s supply room who had found himself quite overworked ever since the conflict had ended and suddenly supplies that were largely there for Ciel or been leftovers from stolen supply trains had suddenly become in hot demand by the rest of the resistance’s female population. Their new babies needed nutrition, and they had been fitted with the necessary equipment to process and supply it as part of the elaborate artificial womb system. For most it was simply a matter of duty akin to topping themselves up on e-crystals, while some relished the ritual, some even asking Ciel to come up with artificial tastebuds to truly imitate humans.

“Idiot! We still needed those, and now we don’t even know where they are!” Rocinelle barked at him, having had to turn down a dozen hungry women complaining that they were being blasted by alerts to remember to feed themselves. “We might not even get out of here today! Try using your head for once!”

“That’s a little harsh. I’m sure they’ll turn up.” Autruche said defensively, scratching the back of his head and wincing. 

“Yeah, you should have said something before you asked us to put everything away!” Another male reploid pitched in.

“We shouldn’t have to remind you!” A brunette girl responded, stepping in and poking him in the ribs. She, like nearly every other woman in the base, had a distinctly rounded belly creating a tent in her standard resistance uniform, having removed her belt entirely as she approached the third trimester with a month’s worth of growth and growing larger every day. It was clear that the dress wouldn’t survive if they didn’t get out of here soon, just another reason why everybody was eager to leave.

“We’ll be out of here soon, just put up with it!” He snapped back, having lost his patience from running around all morning. It wasn’t like the women weren’t doing their share of the work, only a little slower and more cautiously thanks to their bulk and precious cargo, the men doing most of the literal heavy lifting to reduce risk. 

“Just put up with it? Do you ask humans to just put up with starvation too, huh?” She retorted. “If we don’t deliver these things alive and well we’re all done for, you know!”

The crowd quickly lost track of their duties and began to form into two equally aggressive sides, a mob mentality kicking in as it quickly became irrelevant who was right or wrong in the argument. While the distinction between male and female reploids was largely cosmetic before now, the segregation of duties between the genders as part of Ciel’s plan had immediately resulted in the two becoming strongly divided, with the women seeing the men as having gotten off responsibility-free as part of Ciel’s peace treaty, while the men saw the women as expecting them to be their personal servants for the duration of their pregnancies. The women responded by asking what was wrong with that, as they weren’t the ones who had to carry them, that this was the least they could do, and that they should get used to it sooner rather than later. 

It was a dynamic that neither were prepared for but was naturally heavily biased towards the women, and over the month since then while the resistance were still not allowed to leave their base for that first taste of fresh air and freedom, tensions had escalated greatly. It had reached the point where there had been a petition for Ciel to transfer every male reploid’s consciousness into female bodies like Zero so that they would all be on an equal playing field, weakly denied by Ciel under the grounds that they lacked the parts necessary to do so. Somehow Zero had ended up involuntarily claimed by the men of the resistance as an honorary male, on account of her special circumstances and current lack of pregnancy, a claim that the female side had hotly protested. Zero had, of course, completely ignored both and let the two squabble, as they seemed to almost care more about fighting over her than their original gripes.

“Everybody, please stop fighting!”

The crowd was silenced by Ciel yelling at the top of her voice over it, looking worn out by her short jog down the hal, having rushed there as soon as she heard what was going on. She had one hand on her back and the other on her belly, still unused to her altered centre of gravity as she carried a belly that was starting to approach the third trimester in size, and had required her to have her dress tailored to avoid hiking the skirt up to her hips. While Ciel was usually spared any physical burden due to being a human, they had all insisted that she rest and help keep track of what still needed to be moved rather than do it herself, and had been late to the argument as a result.

“Shouldn’t you all be grateful that you have the luxury of making this out to be a big deal in the first place?” Ciel suggested. Somebody made the mistake of speaking up and trying to defend themselves.

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts! I’m sorry to say this, but I’ve been very disappointed in how you’ve all been behaving lately.” Ciel said sternly, finally putting her foot down. “Weren’t we all supposed to be in this together? Ladies, the men will have their hands full with their own duties once we get out, so please have a little patience! And men, please try to have a little empathy for what we’re going through! It’s not as easy as it looks! We’ll really be relying on you in the future!”

Ciel stopped to catch her breath, and the crowd looked ashamed of themselves. The group awkwardly mumbled apologies to each other and got back to their duties, Autruche offering to personally find and retrieve the desired sustenance. The wizened Andrew, the bearded and hunched over old man of the reploids, made his way through the crowd and laid a hand on Rocinelle’s shoulder, having arrived slightly too late to the party to make an admonishing speech of his own that likely would have gone on five times as long and resulted in the two sides promising to make up if only he’d get on with it.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned at my age, it’s that it never hurts to have a little patience.” He advised, but Rocinelle was having none of it.

“Somebody your age should know better than to make excuses.” Rocinelle said grumpily. “You remodelled yourself to look older, didn’t you? You should go turn yourself into a young woman and help us out!”

“I think I might get some funny looks if I do that…” He said, stroking his beard. and the two were soon approached by Ciel. 

“Have either of you seen Zero?” She asked, checking her watch. “It’s almost time for Harpuia to arrive and I can’t seem to find her anywhere!”

“I think I recall seeing her and Alouette scurrying about.” Andrew said. “Something about finding her doll… You certainly wouldn’t want to leave that behind.”

Ciel looked about the base, deciding that now was a good a time as any to build up her physical stamina before she got any bigger. It wasn’t just her belly that was weighing her down, her petite chest had been starting to steadily swell with milk as well, and it seemed like it wouldn’t be long until she was as busty as Zero, and she wondered if she should have made Zero’s new body’s chest even larger. She hadn’t been able to help but see her new form as something of an older sister more than a knight in shining armour like Zero’s original body, and had given her a mature beauty to match. It was the least she could do for Zero after getting her into this, right? Then again, once she was pregnant, she’d be getting a lot bigger on her own…

“It wasn’t there the first time I checked, I swear!” Alouette complained defensively as the two emerged from Alouette’s room, doll in one hand with Zero’s hand in the other.



“DIdn’t I ask you to double check to see if you had already packed it by accident?” Zero said gently.

“It must have gotten in there on its own somehow.” Alouette said childishly, but her liveliness warmed Ciel’s heart to see with how cold and withdrawn the artificial child had been when she had first rescued her. Zero was making a very good big sister indeed, and with little for Zero to do now that all combat operations had been cancelled, the two had spent most of her time not spent assisting Ciel with the young girl. She brightened up at the sight of Ciel, running up and hugging her, placing her head against Ciel’s belly, an object of fascination for her.

“Are you all ready to go?” Zero asked Ciel, having carefully kept track of the time before getting sidetracked.. “I had intended to meet you at the exit, but Alouette requested my help.”

“It’s best not to keep Harpuia waiting, Zero. He’s very punctual.” Ciel smiled, privately agreeing that making sure Alouette had her precious doll was much more important than being right on time with their former enemy. “You just know he’ll complain if we aren’t there first.”

“Understood.” Zero said, only to find Alouette tugging at her skirt.

“Do you really have to go? You already got him to stop, didn’t you?” Alouette said quietly, referring to X rather than Harpuia, but seemingly reluctant to even say his him. “I don’t like him. He’s scary, and he’s really mean, and…”

“We just need to talk to him face to face once and we’ll all be done.” Ciel reassured her, running her hand through Alouette’s hair. “It’s polite to meet people in person, isn’t it? He just wants to chat with Zero and I so we can make up.”



“You should have beaten him up instead!” Alouette said angrily. “Zero could have done it! I know he only stopped because he was scared of Zero! Why did we have to be the ones to do all this weird stuff to make him happy, like making Zero a girl?”



“I thought you said you liked having a big sister.” Ciel smiled calmly.

“I do, but… the old Zero was cool too.” Alouette said reluctantly.

“Even if Zero had gone and beaten him up, I don’t think he’d have said that he was sorry.” Ciel explained. “And things wouldn’t have gone back to the way they were just because we got rid of him. I wanted a solution that made everybody happy, and this is the best we could get.

“Ciel, we need to go.” Zero said, and Alouette realised she couldn’t delay the inevitable much longer.

“Just don’t take too long, okay?” She sniffed, and the two waved goodbye to her, heading to the elevator to finally see the surface again.

“Are you feeling alright?” Zero asked, gesturing at her belly.

“I’m fine! It’s just a little heavy sometimes. Oh, and I’m hungry all of the time.” Ciel said brightly, not wanting Zero to worry about her. “I can’t wait to go back to this cafe I liked back when I lived in Neo Arcadia, I’ve been making do with rations ever since we moved into here and I think I’ve forgotten what real food tastes like.”

Ciel’s expression turned more serious.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this, Zero?” Ciel asked, grasping her hand. “I’m sure if I beg him now I can talk him out of it, I’m sure he’ll be satisfied just seeing you like this…”

“I won’t do anything to threaten the peace you’ve created.” Zero said resolutely, having had plenty of time to brace for what was to come next. Not quite enough time in her opinion, but better than nothing. “Satisfying his ego is a small price to pay.”

Ciel didn’t have time to argue, as no sooner did her pale skin get touched by the first ray of morning sunshine on the surface did they see Harpuia and his forces approaching, Ciel unable to be anything but uneasy at the procession of Pantheons that accompanied him. Were it not for Zero, this many was enough to put a serious dent in the resistance’s forces should it come to blows, and not one would be left alive were Harpuia to reveal that it had all been an act to lure them out and reveal their hiding place. But Harpuia held no weapons, and upon closer inspection, each Pantheon was equipped with non-lethal weaponry.

“You’re not as different as I thought you would be, but I suppose it’ll do.” Sage Harpuia said, making Zero wonder exactly what he expected. In her opinion she looked more than different enough.The usually monstrous drones seemed relaxed, more there for ceremony and to remind them of their place than any real combat. Zero ignored their presence, instead holding Ciel’s hand as the pregnant scientist cradled her belly. Although Ciel was keeping a cool exterior, a bead of sweat slid down her face as it was clear that she was thinking about what might go wrong at the last minute. 

“Your design, I assume?” He asked, turning to face Ciel, who nodded. “I applaud your use of symbolism. In modifying the legendary reploid to resemble yourself, you successfully represent his disarmament and embodiment of your ideals.”



“Um, that’s a very lovely assumption, but…” Ciel started to turn red. “I actually just thought it’d be cute, and that it’d be nice if we matched…”

Harpuia’s expression froze, then he turned around and refused to face the two of them.

“...we should leave. You shouldn’t keep Master X waiting.” he began to stiffly march towards the transport he had arranged, gesturing for the two to climb into the back. Zero had expected him to fly alongside the transport, but instead he followed them in and began to stare at Zero, as if daring her to reveal that her new body was merely for show, and contained all of her original capabilities. Zero found herself annoyed by his apparent lack of trust, not for herself, but for Ciel, who Harpuia should know didn’t have a deceptive bone in her body. Her annoyance turned into an outright scowl as Harpuia instructed her to connect to a machine in the transport that would scan her to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything.

“I sent you Zero’s new specifications already.” Ciel protested, to little effect.

“It’s merely a matter of ceremony.” Harpuia seemed to agree. “Master X is confident that you complied with his instructions, but the other leaders of Neo Arcadia need the reassurance. That is of course, despite the fact that one of your calibre could have anticipated this and simply deceive our tests. The only true way to confirm it would be trial by combat…”

“Neither of you are fighting, okay? Ever!” Ciel was getting worked up by the icy glares the two were giving each other. “It’s over! We did everything you wanted, so please, trust us!”

“Your body is proof enough, miss Ciel.” Harpuia refused to relax his stiff position. “If it were up to me, I would have had Zero in the same condition before our meeting. I don’t know what Master X is thinking…”

The rest of the trip was quiet, and they had avoided the population centres of Neo Arcadia, Harpuia insisting that they not be allowed to meet the populace until their end of the contract had been completely fulfilled. It hadn’t exactly been the most popular condition amongst the resistance, he various reploids having been grumbling that they were being held up by red tape, the women complaining that they weren’t going to get a chance to try on the fashions they had been missing out on or in the case of some find any human boyfriends to break in their new bodies before they started seriously showing. Others had hardly reacted at all, as the idea of returning to normal life was impossible to imagine until it actually happened.

At last they arrived, and Ciel let out a sigh of relief that they had arrived outside the building that contained Copy X’s throne room. The refined, opulent exterior that prioritised beauty over pragmatism contrasted heavily with their home base, Ciel having grown to view it with distaste after her exodus. As if to make up for his coldness before, Harpuia took Ciel’s hand and helped her out of the vehicle, Zero cautiously surveying the area, seeing no reason to break old habits just yet. In the distance he caught a glimpse at a dark figure that vanished no sooner than her head turned in his direction, the two being discreetly watched by Phantom, another of Neo Arcadia’s four Guardians. 

Suddenly, Zero’s vision turned dark. Two hands had covered her eyes, and it took all of her self-control to reach for her no longer present Z-sabre and go for the throat of whoever it was who had gotten the jump on her.

“Guess who?” asked the familiar voice of Fairy Leviathan, the lone girl in the four Guardians and by far the most playful.

“Getting sloppy already? Somebody’s been relaxing too much.” Leviathan sniggered. “Too bad this wasn’t that rematch you promised me!”



“I figured you were one of the Pantheons.” Zero admitting that he had indeed gotten complacent. “And I didn’t promise you anything.”



“Don’t lump me in with those goons.” Leviathan pouted. “The only thing we have in common is that we won’t get to play with you anymore.”

“Why don’t you try getting along normally?” Ciel suggested optimistically. “Not everything has to be about fighting, you know.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Leviathan shrugged. “Fenrir was right, what a boring conclusion this was. No wonder he didn’t bother showing up! Actually, he was really upset when he found out that he wouldn’t get to settle things with you. Hey, maybe you should ask Master X to let you have your old body back! Then you could be his sparring partner and I won’t have to listen to him complain! Oh, but you should stay a girl, you’re cuter this way and there’s too many boys around here anyway-”



“That’s enough, Leviathan.” Harpuia interrupted her. “Don’t make them late for their meeting with Master X.”



“Whatever.” Leviathan walked alongside them as they moved through the grand halls, a great excess of empty space purely for show. Just one of these halls was as big as the entire resistance base, Zero thought to herself, and that had been a bunker with each floor separated for extra protection. Leviathan seemed to share the same fascination with Ciel’s pregnancy that Alouette had, gawking at it and asking to touch it. Ciel realised that it might have been the first time Leviathan had seen a pregnant woman up close, as she was disconnected from the day to day lives of Neo Arcadia’s citizens, and the low fertility of the humans within had been what led to this repopulation project in the first place. It was a blunt, heavy-handed way to make up for so few humans having children: simply create an entire generation at once through artificial means. Ciel had grown up with hardly any other children her age, and for once didn’t mind one of Copy X’s ideas, although she wish it had been executed in a better way.

“And this is after only this long?” Leviathan said, her hands feeling up all sides of Ciel’s ever-expanding belly. “It’s gonna be bigger than you by the end! I didn’t even know humans could do that!”



“If that’s what it takes, then I don’t mind.” Ciel smiled, enjoying Leviathan’s childlike curiosity. Leviathan looked at Zero, then burst out laughing.

“Poor Zero’s going to blow up like a big balloon too! I can’t believe you actually agreed to this!” She cackled. “Forget fighting, you won’t even be able to walk with those downgrades! You’d never catch me doing something that stupid!”

“It’s not stupid.” Ciel protested. “I’m sure you’d agree to it too if you knew how we felt.”

“Nuh-uh, no way.” Leviathan waved her hand dismissively. “Not in a million years! I’m built for combat, not to be an incubator for some brats!”

“Even if Master X commanded you to?” Harpuia chipped in with a smirk, Leviathan turning pale at the idea.

“Don’t give him any ideas.” She mumbled awkwardly, and her taunts ceased. After a little more walking and Ciel starting to look like she might need to request a break if it took any longer, they finally reached the grand doors before Copy X’s throne room that towered up to the ceiling and were built to resist nothing short of an entire armoury’s worth of firepower.

“Open it.” Harpuia instructed, and Zero pushed on the door, only for it to not move at all. She pushed again as hard as she could, totally unable to make it budge. She glared at Harpuia, who was usually not the type to get cheap laughs out of his enemies, or former enemies in this case.

“It’s locked.” Zero said cooly, intending to simply state the obvious, not realising that she had already given away her reaction with the look she had given a moment earlier. Zero had a looser grip on her emotions than she thought, perhaps due to her new role in life influencing her usual stoic attitude. If Zero had been battle-hardened, then being away from battle would surely soften her over time, or at least Ciel hoped.

“That was mean, Harpuia.” Ciel chastised him, one hand on her belly while the other was waved indignantly.

“It’s not locked.” Harpuia said, sounding equally unamused by what had been his master’s idea of a joke. He stepped up to the door and pushed on it with one hand, the huge door groaning and being forced forward by strength alone.

“Petty.” Zero said, crossing her arms, Ciel nodding in agreement.

“Consider it a proof of your… our treaty, that you pose such little of a threat to Master X that you can’t even open the door to meet him.” Harpuia stopped himself before saying “submission”. The treaty might have been lopsided and resulted in the legendary reploid being reduced to being worth less than a single Pantheon, but that tiny resistance cell had essentially gotten all of their demands fulfilled after Neo Arcadia had boasted that there would be no bargaining for traitors over and over. If Zero alone hadn’t agreed…

“Wow Zero, you really are a weakling now!” Leviathan laughed openly, sauntering up to Zero and placing a hand on her shoulder. It was clear that no such thoughts were in her head, and she drank in the scene before her at pure face value. “I could do whatever~ I wanted to you right now and you couldn’t do a thing about it!”

“She’s merely holding up her end of the bargain.” Harpuia said, surprising the two of them with his apparent sympathy. “While foolish, agreeing to such terms and coming here is a bravery in and of itself.”

“Well I’d never be dumb enough to agree to something like that!” Leviathan pouted, stroking Zero’s delicate cheek as she got close enough to kiss her. “I’m gonna miss having fun with you, Zero, but I never liked how you held back on me! I guess now you don’t have to hold back, because you can’t hurt me at all! I’ll be sure to come meet you two once you’re all blown up with brats like Miss Ciel!”



Leviathan laughed and taunted her, but Zero remained unperturbed. Eventually Leviathan left in a huff, denied the satisfaction of flustering her.

“She’s already defeated you, you fool.” Harpuia muttered. “Zero is under Master X’s protection now, a realm far out of your reach.”

“Um, thanks, Harpuia.” Ciel said tenderly, only to get his usual cold gaze.

“Don’t thank me.” He commanded, prideful as ever. “We’re enemies no longer, and hostilities are childish. Now hurry up and stop keeping Master X waiting. I don’t know what it is he wants from you given how soundly disarmed you are, but you’d better satisfy him.”

Ciel and Zero shared an aside glance.

“He didn’t tell you?” Ciel asked awkwardly, and now it was Harpuia’s turn to look slightly flustered.

“No, of course not. It’s not my place to know, anyway.” He tried to recompose himself. “After all, he avoided the topic whenever I asked him. All I know is that he’s been doing something in secret to prepare for it. That’s all! Stop looking at me like that!”

“Should we tell him?” Zero whispered to her pregnant companion.

“I don’t know, I have to stay out here with him, and I think that’d make it weird-”



“Hurry up and enter!” Harpuia practically shoved Zero through the doorway, slamming it shut behind her.

Although the hallway that had led up to it was grand, designed mostly for ceremony and to allow for an veritable army of guards if need be, the throne room of Neo Arcadia was comparatively modest, with Copy X waiting atop his throne only a short walk from the door. Zero recognised it from Copy X’s broadcasts, the stone seat and metal mechanical back rising into an X-shaped monolith making for a perfect example of Neo Arcadia’s combination of classical architecture and modern mechanical design. 

Upon the throne, one leg casually crossed over the other, was the last person Zero ever wanted to see, looking down upon her with a self-satisfied smirk. Even without the expression just looking at him bothered her, knowing that she was essentially at his mercy to uphold his part of the bargain, and that she herself was in no position to fight back. She was depowered, unarmed, and all she had to rely on was to hope that whatever form Copy X’s pride took, it wouldn’t allow him to double-cross her or the resistance. Perhaps it was her newfound vulnerability that had her feeling more emotional in his presence, but her cool exterior refused to betray that.

Zero waited for Copy X to speak with figuratively bated breath, wondering what form of asserting his dominance the mad dictator would take…