Extra Baggage

A/N: Anything written about the wider operations of the Xero world that are not already pulled from canon is just my own ideas and should not necessarily be taken as canon, but you’re free to use my thoughts.

Please consider each side of the story through the perspective of the character, despite being in the third person.

The bus to the cargo depot pulled up with a quiet whir. The tall muscular Xero did not look out of place amongst the other aliens, they were all as rugged and worn as he was after years of working on cargo ships. But Baki didn’t belong here. He was sent by the government to take a report on an off-planet theft that would likely go unresolved. A cargo ship had been picking up copper when part of the supply had been ransacked. It would set some projects behind, but ultimately the police had more important projects to focus on.

Aluriza itself was safe. Theft was one of the worse things that could happen. This didn’t mean that nastier crimes didn’t occur elsewhere. Usually the hot buzz was an Alurizan tourist making a poor decision as to what planet to visit and making headlines. The planet’s police could make arrests and board ships in space, but once they entered another planet’s airspace, nothing could be done unless said airspace belonged to an ally. The pirates that stole this copper would go unapprehended. This job was to give Baki something to do. 

The space elevator up to the cargo bays was about as far as Baki could go off of OWAI-6 without getting himself in trouble with the interplanetary police. That was a crime the government would solve, and swiftly. He could see it off in the distance, this would be the first time up in one since his return to OWAI.

This was home, he didn’t have much say in the matter for the foreseeable future. He knew full well that his job taking crime reports and attempting to track down the perpetrators was the government’s solution to keeping close tabs on him, with the added bonus of him being pretty good at tracking specific persons down. He wasn’t upset with this, most other planets would’ve imprisoned him or… ah, he didn’t want to think about that. He at least had a purpose here.

Since returning, he’d read an article on how Xeros came to be, and suddenly the education he’d received in his youth came back to him. He found ARC Laboratories to be naive in their decision to reignite the species. Maybe it was self centered, but the pliable XNA seemed like a recipe for a bioweapon. In fact, that’s what he previously was, that very XNA was what allowed him to be taken advantage of. Glitching, changing your form, all of the things advertised as possibilities to Xeros was great as long as it was their own choice to make. The second that autonomy is taken away, it opens the door to horrors ARC had never considered. Baki knew there were other Xeros that lived off-planet. He worried about them.

Baki is all for the furthering of science, it’s what progresses the world into a better place. But he wasn’t so sure how much the whole Xero thing was improving the world. 

Just as he found himself spiraling further, the bus arrived at the elevator.

—

Yo-yo leaned against the hull of the docked cargo ship and picked his teeth as he waited for the investigator to arrive. He was not unfamiliar with police reports, his cargo ship had been robbed before while on less-than-friendly planets, but this was the first time he’d dealt with this Xero.

This guy was a freak, and Yo-yo was not sorry about thinking this way. Once it was known that this Xero was on the loose, ARC pulled out all of the stops to get one of their experiments back. And boy was this guy experimented on. The green Xero thought the justice system was quite lenient on him, though any other planetary police system likely would’ve just put him to work - extradition be damned, any militarized planet would want access to this Xero.

Yo-yo did not consider himself a freak, he was quite normal actually. His status as a rebuilt organism was the most remarkable part about him, he thought. But ultimately he just considered himself an unremarkable creature doing the unremarkable job of long-haul cargo. Plenty of things in his life were built in labs, so why should him being built in a lab be of any concern? Though, he was glad to be smart, ARC had done that right, he thought to himself.

Just as the pensive Xero loosened the last bits of his lunch from his teeth, the tall brown Xero he was waiting for appeared in the dock bay. On first glance, he reminded Yo-yo of his coworker, Wish, they both had metal arms and a permanent scowl. To him, they were practically the same person. 

For a moment, Yo-yo considered walking over to greet him, but instead continued to man his teeth-picking post, reconsidering the competency of ARC. He thought that one scowling Xero was enough, and Wish was already fulfilling that role. Quite expertly, actually. Surely the whole “utilized XNA to mind control a Xero” thing was bullshit, ARC was manufacturing assholes as some sort of psyop to make Yo-yo’s life worse. That’s how it worked, right? They made Yo-yo perfectly smart, unremarkable, and exceptionally likable, then dump these weirdos on him. Just as he’d reached this conclusion, the tundra Xero reached Yo-yo’s flossing headquarters and extended a paw to shake his hand.

Without thinking twice, Yo-yo shook his hand, with drool still shining on his claws.

—

Baki arrived at the dock bay and was quickly lost in the bustle of daily life as aliens of all kinds attended to their ships. Silently, he scanned the area in search of a green Desert Xero whose name he couldn’t recall. He stopped for a moment, trying to conjure up the character’s name. Yo-yo. That was it. He’d just read it on the bus in. He frowned, frustrated at his own forgetfulness. 

After taking a moment to reorient himself, he located the Xero. Yo-yo was down at the docks, leaning against a massive cargo ship, with a thumb claw-deep in his teeth. And he stared, unmoving, right up at Baki. 

Most Xeros seemed to have some sort of kinship with one another. When compared to the grand population of OWAI-6, there really weren’t too many in existence, so it was a special occasion to see another Xero. Baki did not feel this kinship, hard as he tried. He figured it was on account of… everything. This Xero’s piercing gaze did not remedy that disconnect. It was painfully obvious that Yo-yo was down there considering Baki’s past. Maybe even wondering what could break within the green Xero’s own mind and make him like Baki. 

Tossing these thoughts aside, Baki realized he’d been staring right back at the desert Xero, and made his way down to greet him. In an attempt to be polite, he reached his hand out to shake the Xero’s paw, despite him being quite intent on picking his teeth. In an attempt to be impolite, Yo-yo took his hand without even bothering to wipe his paw off.

Baki chuckled at the scene, surprising himself. Normally such a disgusting gesture would frustrate him further. Perhaps he’d gotten too into his own head, maybe other Xeros were okay after all.