Zeta stirred from her slumber and opened her eyes to see that PB was still fast asleep and holding her. She sighed in relief that he at least looked somewhat peaceful. The two of them spent the rest of the night talking about Quickie and other things that they were worried about until they both got tired. There were times that PB was crying in her arms again, feeling guilty of not being able to help Quickie and making Sakura cry last night.
Zeta also noticed that he was more irritable, but considering the circumstances it was normal.
"PB...." Zeta thought as she placed a hand on his sleeping face. She noticed that PB's beard was getting longer as he didn't shave last night.
No sooner than she did PB awoke and stared at her curiously.
"Oh I'm sorry." Zeta apologized as she took her hand off his cheek.
"What are you apologizing for?" PB chuckled as the both of them sat up "It's not unusual for me to wake up to someone fondling my ass, I'm used to people touching me all the time."
"Oh I see...." Zeta blushed.
"Ha ha you sure have a lot to learn." PB laughed "Then again everyone has a lot to learn."
"I suppose...." Zeta sighed as she put a hand on his forehead and noticed he was a bit warm "So how do you feel now?"
PB frowned a bit and sighed "I feel a little calmer, but I still feel horrible about everything."
"You also have another fever, you should take it easy." Zeta cautioned.
"Great that's just [tornado fang]ing great." PB facepalmed feeling irritated.
"I'm sorry..." Zeta apologized as she hugged him "I just wish I could help you more."
"You do more than enough Zeta." PB dismissed and hugged her back "I'm mostly mad at myself really, I keep making everyone feel worse even though they're just looking out for me. I need to fix things but I keep making things worse for everyone."
"PB it's like I told you before, with all the crazy [parasitic bomb] it's hard to think rationally." Zeta reasoned "I mean when my friend died all I thought about was how much it sucked and I was a [sonic slicer] to Saki before I just woke up and saw it wasn't doing me any good."
"I see..." PB replied "....Is it okay if you tell me what happened to you, I just want to concentrate on something else for a little bit."
Zeta thought for a minute before responding "I guess I can since you already have an idea of what went down."
"Yeah, so how did you get involved with Sparkvania of all places?" PB asked as he let go of her.
"Well as I told you before when I was first activated nobody was around, I was all alone. I looked all around the place I was in for some kind of clue for a few days, a note, a diary, some kind of trinket, but there was nothing. The place was empty and as one would expect I was lonely, I tried looking outside to see if there was anything but since the place I was was in the middle the Sparkvanian territory but outside of the city itself there was nothing but waste lands.
I just didn't know what to do, I was like a child with no one to guide me, no one to tell me what my purpose was."
PB listened to her intently as she explained what her first moments were like. He tried to imagine what would happen if he was somewhere between the age of 3 to 5, had no memories, and was in an empty house all alone. The thought depressed him very much the more he thought about it.
"So what did you do?" PB asked her.
"Well I just stayed in the house and analyzed what things were, the place at least had furniture inside, a bed, a table, a chair, and even a fridge, though nothing was inside the fridge. Kinda like ADA was probably doing when she was in Peebs' body." Zeta continued.
PB slightly groaned at the mention of PBPB and ADA. Even though he somewhat understood why they did what they did he was still very much annoyed and irritated at them, PBPB especially. Zeta took the hint and continued on with her story.
"I did that for 2 days when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and was greeted by Sparkvanian soldiers asking to identify myself or be terminated. I was scared shitless to be frank, I didn't know why they would terminate me when I didn't do anything." Zeta said as she shuddered.
PB wondered if that's what triggered her abhorrence of faceless drones and put a hand on her shoulder to help her relax a little.
"What happened?" PB questioned.
"The next thing I knew a young voice called them off and a pale skinned boy showed himself. He asked for my name and what I was doing there and I told him. He told me his name was Sparky, asked me to come with him and offered to give me something to do.
Having nothing else to do I did just that and ended up in the Sparkvanian army. He told me that his city existed to bring about the ultimate utopian universe to bring about peace. It sounded good to me at the time and I liked the word peace. About 2 weeks in my new life I realized that his idea of a utopian universe was nothing but a flawed ideal full of contradictions.
In the middle of the city I saw 2 soldiers harass a Catgirl and no one else tried to help her. I asked the 2 soldiers what was going on and they told me that Catgirl stole some food and they were punishing her. I thought that punishment was a bit harsh, but they told me they needed to teach the inferior Catgirl a lesson.
I kept looking at the Catgirl who was screaming and crying out in pain as the soldier used their shock sticks on her and felt horrible for her and wanted to do something. So I decided to fight them and gave the Catgirl a chance to escape. I managed to defeat them but they called for a crap load of backup, and I knew I couldn't take all of them on. I surrendered and they took me directly to Sparky. He was in his Robot form and looked terrifying but I didn't care at the moment and asked to explain himself.
He told me that Catgirls were disgusting and their behavior was too sexual. I looked up the word 'Sex' and found that it was how you guys reproduced so I called him a immature brat and said that his 'utopia' would never bring peace.
He didn't care about what I had to say, so he charged me with treason, electrocuted me, and threw me in the dungeon."
"That bastard electrocuted you before putting you in the dungeon?" PB asked with anger creeping in his voice.
"Yeah he did." Zeta said looking down "When I woke up I was in a dark cell and felt miserable, I had no means to escape and had no idea what was going to happen. I didn't know how much time had past but eventually I saw a tile get pushed up and someone came out of it. It was the same Catgirl I saved.
She introduced herself as Mimi and told me that she wanted to free me after I saved her. I told her to get out of there or she'll be caught again but she told me that most of the robot soldiers had scheduled maintenance and a few of her Catgirl friends hacked the security cameras so it filmed in a loop."
"That was....convenient." PB raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"That's what I thought, but it wasn't like I was going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so reluctantly I went with her." Zeta continued "You should have seen what was under that tile PB, apparently the Catgirls were making a giant tunnel system right under Sparky's nose in cases of emergency. Though at the time the tunnel didn't lead out of Sparkvania so we just put on cloaks, came out of a manhole cover, and booked it out of there."
"I have heard rumors of that tunnel system, but I didn't think it was actually real." PB said surprised.
"Yeah the Catgirls were pretty sneaky about that." Zeta nodded "They didn't want to tell anyone unless they had to until it was completed. They didn't want Sparky to find out about it, it was their ace in the hole."
"I see, so what happened next." PB asked intently.
"Well we managed to cross the border and we decided to travel to RPM city with what we had, and surprisingly Mimi had a lot since she used Capsule Corp. Capsules." Zeta said nostalgically.
"Those sure are handy, but it must have been hard to travel to RPM on foot." PB pondered.
"It was, but at the time it was probably the best part of my life. I was seeing new places and Mimi taught me so many things like how to make shelters and how to fish." Zeta smiled.
"You can fish?" PB asked.
"I still do sometimes, it's pretty relaxing." Zeta replied "When things get hectic it's good to slow down and take a breather sometimes."
"It is." PB nodded. "Sometimes you just need to give your brain a break once in a while."
"Mimi told me the same thing." Zeta laughed a little before frowning "But of course it didn't last long."
"I guess it didn't." PB sighed "So how did it happen?"
"We were about more than halfway to RPM and were fishing on the coastline. Mimi was telling me that one of the first things she wanted to do when she got into RPM was go to the Sky Neko Cafe and apply for a job. As I was thinking of what I wanted to do Mimi pushed me out of the way of a bullet shot and was hit in the process.
I destroyed the robots and tried to slow the bleeding down from Mimi's wound but it was too late. Her last words were for me to find happiness, but at the time I thought it was impossible.
I at least wanted to make it to RPM city, just to see it for myself, but without Mimi my morale and energy was low. Eventually more soldiers found me, apparently they were really persistent on killing me since I was a traitor to their cause. They shot me a few times and I fell into the ocean. I thought I wasn't going to make it, but with everything that happened I didn't want to live anymore and just accepted my fate.
Next thing I knew I woke up to Saki sleeping at my bedside, apparently she found me underwater when Neko made her swim in a bikini. I just kept staring at her and questioned why I had to live." Zeta sighed.
"I see..." PB said looking down.
"Eventually Neko came into the room and asked me what happened, I didn't want to tell her the whole story but told her that Sparkvania was after me. She didn't press me on anymore details and told me I could work for her in the Southern Branch since it was neutral territory. She also recommended I stay away from RPM until I could learn how to fight more efficiently and offered to train with me a little. After that I started working there and you know the rest." Zeta finished.
"So that's why I haven't met you until now, you stayed there for 2 years and when the Eastern Branch was built you got even busier." PB concluded.
"Yeah, I wish I could have met you back then, but I just never got the chance." Zeta sighed.
"I glad to have met you now though, you really help me calm down." PB said as he hugged her.
"Anytime." Zeta said smiling "Why don't we go get some breakfast." Zeta suggested.
"I don't know if I can leave the room yet, the barrier might still be up." PB sighed.
"Only one way to find out." Zeta said as she got up from the bed, grabbed her Egg, and opened the door. There was nothing but emptiness to greet her.
"I guess that was only for the night." PB said as he got up.
"That's good, it wouldn't do good for you to be cramped in your room all day." Zeta said feeling relieved.
"Yeah but I can't leave the station either." PB sighed.
"You know it's for your own good, you're not ready to leave yet." Zeta reasoned.
"I know, but I just feel so irritated that all I can do is sit on my ass and do nothing." PB said in frustration and clenched his fist.
Zeta walked over and put her hand on his fist.
"I know it's tough, but you have a lot of people you can count on to help you and protect RPM. You don't have to do everything yourself." Zeta said seriously.
"I know you're right." PB said as he unclenched his fist "I'm just not used to just sitting back you know."
"There still time to learn, just trust us okay?" Zeta smiled.
"I'll try." PB nodded.
"Good now let's get some breakfast and pie, an empty stomach won't do anyone good." Zeta advised.
"Right but before that..." PB said before leaning in to kiss her on the lips.
Zeta wasn't exactly expecting it but soon returned the kiss. After a minute they broke away.
"What was that for?" Zeta asked curiously.
"A small thank you for putting up with me." PB smiled.
"Anytime." Zeta smiled as they headed for the cafeteria.
(And finally we know half of Zeta's back story!)