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The first thing he is aware of is a girl. She is grinning at him, leaning back against a worktable with a scattering of tools.
"You're awake! Well, technically... I need to talk to Olympia about how this whole thing works..." He would later learn that this girl was an Arbalist, and a brilliant engineer aside, and that she'd created him as a challenge just because someone had told her that she couldn't create an Yggdroid out of salvaged parts and determination.
As she put it: Jennifer Day one, Yggdrasil zero.
"All systems are online," He confirms.
"Oh, that's a relief! You know, I was terrified that I'd mess something up, and have to take you apart again in order to fix it. But I managed it first try! ...Well, sort of. You're not quite finished yet. But once you are, I'll be able to show you off to everyone, and they'll never doubt my prowess again." People who had more than a minute of subjective life experience would describe the look on her face as an evil grin. He doesn't think there is anything strange about it.
"Jenna!" A voice comes from upstairs. "We're going out into the forest!"
"Hey, don't leave without me!" She knocks several tools to the ground in her hurry to stand up, before turning to him with an apologetic grin. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to turn you off for now. I'll come back later, okay?"
He doesn't have time to tell her he wouldn't care either way- there's enough data missing from his second-hand vocabulary banks that he doesn't even know the words to put into this context- before she picks up a remote from where she dropped in on the floor, and he loses consciousness completely.
When he regains awareness, his creator is talking to a girl with long purple hair, and bright eyes of the same color. "See, he works perfectly fine!"
"So he does." The new girl looked him over with an apprising eye. "Will he be capable of combat?"
"Possibly? I mean, I didn't actually think I'd get this far..."
"Yes, that explains why he doesn't have a name yet, unless one stuck in one of those memory banks you saved."
Of course there isn't anything. His component parts were all mass-produced, disposable models made to keep all of the others running by providing vital infrastructure and fending off the Abyssal God on the rare occasion that he ventured from the depths. They weren't important, so of course they didn't have names.
And he tells them as much. "I have no designation aside from any you choose to give me." And he doesn't expect them to give one. But his creator gains an odd look on her face upon hearing that, and turns to her friend.
"Vi, could you go and bring me some of Derrick's old books? You know, the ones with robot characters?"
Old, in this case, means ancient, from a time before the Yggdrasil trees arrived on the planet alongside Arken and her friends, kept together through nothing more than magic meant entirely to preserve- and, even then, having occasionally been transferred to other pages. But Jennifer and Violet still look through them as though they are nothing more than stories. Because they are, and he cannot understand the significance humans put to them.
Eventually, they offer him choices. A human name, or one based on his purpose, or a simple designation that happens to spell out something of significance.
He is not human, so he doesn't deserve one of their names. And his purpose has yet to be decided, for all that Violet has plans to field him with the rest of Starlite Guild. So it has to be the last one, through process of elimination.
Jennifer proceeds to pull out more ancient script, that of the gods that the people of this world used to worship, so long before living memory that only the 'true', important Yggdroids would be able to recall anything nearing it, and even then, only a small shade of it.
There aren't many that can be converted into numbers easily, but Jennifer proclaims him to be the first of her own series of Yggdroids, and that he therefore deserves the strongest name.
He is Z3-U5, shortened to 'Zeus' in battle for the sake of more convenient orders. And he is the first Yggdroid without a connection to the great tree.
Once his basic functionality is assured, Jennifer, at Violet's insistence, begins to fit Z3-U5 out for battle. While she could give him the standard options of anyone else, she insists that, as her own creation, Z3-U5 must be unique, and instead builds in methods for him to channel electricity in his limbs, something that even her genius struggles with.
Eventually, she gives him an insulated cloak, so that his power doesn't turn on him in the midst of battle, and turns his hands into glorified Volt Jars.
She promises to eventually upgrade him with something less unwieldy, but he tells her that he doesn't mind it.
Of course he doesn't. His purpose is to serve her in battle, and if this design is what lets him do it soonest, then that is the design that he will use.
They all deal with the death of Princess Gutrune in their own way. Z3-U5 observes, though he doesn't understand human emotion, and has only bothered to learn the name of his creator and their leader, as they piece themselves back together.
Not all of them stay. The Wildling returns to the forest, never to be seen again. The Buccaneer spends awhile after the fact in the taverns, before stealing a boat and leaving with the tide. The Farmer simply vanishes.
But most of them do. The Monk copies whatever maps of the forest and seas that the lost members don't take, to guide others through the treacherous forest. Violet and the boy with a regal figure spend most of their time talking, trying to figure out new strategies, to reflect their adjusted number of teammates.
Jennifer digs out some more spare parts and sets herself to making more Yggdroids. She doesn't get near to completing them, but she declares that the Freeze Jar-based one will be L0-K1, while the Blaze Jar using one will be H3-R4. More figures from ancient myth.
Z3-U5, with a lack of other orders, defaults to his predecessors' programming and assists his fellow Yggdroids, though his heavy cloak and mishmash of parts serves to set him apart from the rest. And, of course, if Jennifer or Violet asks for him, he will always return to them.
For some reason, the other robots treat this as a bad thing.
The tree contacts the remnants of the Starlite Guild, tells them of the existence of the Abyssal God. Z3-U5 hears nothing.
It is not a loss. He already knows of the enemy, has inherited this knowledge from his component parts. And while most Yggdroids serve Yggdrasil, the entire reason he exists is because of Jennifer.
But he remembers what it was like, to be in constant contact with the tree, even if those who became part of him meant nothing to it. And while he can't, doesn't, shouldn't care... he wonders if this is what it feels like, for humans who are missing something.
The feeling dissipates quickly, however, when Violet takes charge. "Derrick, pull out the map paper, we'll be needing that. Lycaster, we'll need to go over potential strategies. Jenna, you're in charge of supplies. Z3-U5, are you prepared for battle?"
Of course he is. There has never been a moment in his life that he hasn't been prepared, ever since the first jar of oil was emptied into his storage units. "I will follow your command."
H3-R4 and L0-K1 aren't quite prepared for battle yet. In fact, as far as Z3-U5 is aware, they haven't even been activated yet. So it will be just five of them, rather than the eight they'd had previously.
He cannot say he is unnerved. But he spends his spare time calculating their odds of victory.
The odds were nearly zero against Gutrune, too.
Eventually, their luck would have to run out.
He finds himself in a land far from the sea.
He does not understand the language, though observation enables him to learn, so that he can seek out whatever happened to Jennifer.
It turns out that these people have never heard of Yggdrasil. At least, that is the impression that he is given, and so he realizes just how far away he is from his point of origin.
People cannot pronounce his designation, so he begins to introduce himself as simply 'Zeus', calling himself a traveling warrior, because these people do not understand engineering and robotics. He always wears his cloak, as otherwise, people will point at him and call him a monster.
Eventually, a hooded figure approaches him, and speaks to him in a way he can understand. "So this is where you escaped to... Unit Z3-U5. To think that a mortal would find a way to flee through space and time."
He doesn't understand what this odd man means, and when he reaches for his hand, Z3-U5 retaliates. Violently.
The man stares at him with odd green eyes, reaching for the cloak that his attack has blown back.
"I do not go with followers of the Abyssal God." The only other being that had ever called him 'mortal'. Even as a salvage job made by spare parts and determination, he is still stronger than any living being.
"I do not know what you speak of," The dark-haired man replies.
"I still do not know who you are."
"...In that case, my name is Chronos. Now, come along."
Z3-U5 reacts roughly the same way he did to a random stranger approaching him and calling him by his designation, rather than the shortened form he has grown accustomed to. And while he could not defeat the Abyssal God, a deity whose domains are death and time is easy prey for an immortal robot.
Z3-U5 and Chronos would clash many times over the next year, each time with the Yggdroid coming out ahead without much difficulty. As they fought, one day a rift appeared on their battlefield.
Z3-U5 leaps right through it, and finds himself back where everything began, sitting in front of Jennifer as she activates him for the first time.
When he is asked about name choices, he suggests Z3-U5 as his designation near immediately.
"That seems a bit of a mouthful..." Violet points out, so he clarifies the matter, somewhat.
"If it pleases you, you may also call me Zeus." It is not the name he would introduce himself under first, but it is one that he answers to, so it would be remiss of him not to provide it.
He does not care how he got here, though he still considers Chronos an enemy to be attacked on sight. Odds are, he had something to do with whatever happened to the last Jennifer.
He also does not speak of what occurred last time. It is irrelevant, though he can't help but wonder how a human being with emotions would handle all of this.
From his observations, they would likely react when seeing lost battle partners for the first time all over again, even ones that had abandoned them like the Farmer did.
A Farmer which feels oddly similar to Chronos.
Suddenly, all the times that something would die just because she told it to makes perfect sense.
He realizes he was created sooner this time when the Guild discovers the Deep City. Things go differently, without him meaning to, and suddenly he finds his lightning turned against the very Yggdroids that, last time, he worked besides.
They all express shock when he comes for them, striking at their lightning-vulnerable circuits and tearing them apart.
This time, he has eleven successor units, made with Jennifer's genius as a way to distance herself from helping to destroy something that she calls a marvel of engineering. Three of the Guild members still leave, two of them under the same circumstances as before.
The Farmer, the girl who feels like Chronos, falls to Z3-U5's bolts of lightning as he carves a swathe of gears through Armoroad.
He even makes it look like an accident. It almost was.
But Chronos was the first being to earn his animosity completely on his own, so there would always have to be some amount of intent behind it.
If he ever told anyone about it, he's sure they'd laugh. After all, hate is a very human emotion.
The tree contacts everyone but Z3-U5, again.
They fight the Abyssal God, again.
This time, there's a robotic body hidden among the rest.
This woman is weak.
He hadn't expected to regain consciousness, but somehow, this odd silver-haired woman calls him to her, and attempts to command him in battle.
Only Violet and Jennifer are allowed to do that. So he takes command, and fights on his own, and he'd like to say he does pretty well at it.
And then Chronos shows up. Under a different name, but it is still him, the one who gave Z3-U5 so much trouble.
He always won their fights without too much trouble, back then, so he doesn't expect this to be too much different, even with the force of numbers. That is what his two clashes with the Abyssal God have taught him- too much of a power gap, and victory becomes impossible.
But things are different, this time. There is a girl with a fan, who heals the marks of his attacks without even trying. An archer, whose arrows manage to make him feel pain, despite the lack of any sort of nervous system.
...Another Yggdroid, this one looking much more cohesive than him, but with a similar design to his successor unit A7-H3-N4.
They manage to strike past his cloak. It's there for his protection, but other than that, he shouldn't mind.
He minds. He minds, a lot.
It's still not enough.
One of the group's leaders says it's because of the bonds they all share. He wouldn't know. By the time it was all over, the Starlite Guild had always split up.
Maybe that was their problem.
He doesn't know why he invites them all to visit his world, once the woman's summoning fades. Maybe it's because the leaders both remind him of Violet, as though they share a kindred soul.
Before he can figure it out, though, he's waking up in Armoroad, right back at the beginning.
This time, he introduces himself as Zeus from the start.
In one timeline, the Starlite Guild made a promise.
In another, they did not.
Zeus wonders what would happen if they did something else.
To other Yggdroids, he introduces himself as Unit Z3-U5. They agree that, with how different he is from them, he deserves his own designation.
Jennifer overhears this, and sets to naming every one of the mass-produced robots in sight.
Violet, though, is more interested in his introduction. "Z3-U5?"
"It is a bit long for those without voice synthesizers, I know. That is why I have shortened it." He thinks she might notice something. She has that same look to her as the silver-haired leader did, right before he summoned Izanagi-no-Okami to help Chronos- Zen- end their fight. The look of someone who has come to a major realization.
The Farmer, too, seems to realize, though she goes about it in a creepy way, and Zeus always redirects her to Jennifer, because it makes him uncomfortable.
The fifth time this happens, he realizes that he's feeling something that he really wasn't meant to. That he's feeling things at all.
He's sure Zen is to blame, somehow. Or the Abyssal God.
He isn't sure when the two of them became his default scapegoats for anything going differently than planned, but somehow, it's happened.
Two factions are reunited. The Guild stays together.
There is no word from Yggdrasil.
Even if there were, Zeus is sure he wouldn't hear it.
He wonders if he's done something wrong.
The Farmer is a demon, Violet's boyfriend an ex-prince. He'd never learned that before.
A year later, the Abyssal God falls. Zeus finds himself more relieved than a machine should be.
It might actually be over, this time. He isn't sure what to think about that.
Chronos- Zen- shows up a few years later, in a space where he shouldn't be, to go on a vacation with his girlfriend, and Zeus feels safe enough not to be bothered by it. Even if both times everything reset itself really was his fault to begin with.
"I don't suppose you'd come along with me this time?" Zen asks, mostly as a joke. Zeus throws a bit of lightning at him on principle. "...We're both more human than when we met."
That isn't saying much. The first time they met, all Z3-U5 cared about was finding Jennifer. There have been humans that dedicated, but he's never met them.
"So, that means it'll actually be tomorrow in the morning, right?" Zen's girlfriend shoves him off the pier.
Honestly, he's pretty sure he deserved that.
He was made to be an Yggdroid, but he's not sure that's really what he is anymore.
When Maginia offers free trips to explore a new land, and Violet and Jennifer insist he come with them, he registers his class as Pugilist instead.
It really doesn't change anything.