AU: This was written originally by TheSufferingAuthor. She put it up for adoption and we spoke later about it. This chapter is her work. Future chapters are mine. I give her full credit for her idea and this is done completely with her permission.

Fry was idly drumming his fingers on the round conference table, bored out of his mind waiting for the fifteen minutes to run out so 'their insurance could be reinstated' whatever that was even supposed to mean. Sighing he looked around at everyone else, noting that they also seemed to be bored much like himself. Catching a glimpse at Bender, who was sitting across from him with his hands behind his head and foot cups propped up on the the table, Fry started thinking about his robot friend and some of their recent adventures.

The time Bender had to go into hiding from the robot mafia came to the forefront of Fry's mind, remembering how terrified and depressed he felt when they all thought Bender was successfully killed. Thinking more about that experience as deeply as he could, Fry started to feel guilt bubble up inside him as he thought of the robot who was actually killed. Billy West, which he still thought was a stupid name, was murdered by the youngest daughter of the robot mafia's boss because she mistook him for Bender, and the planet express crew were the ones who had led her right to him in the first place. Fry started to feel even more guilt when he remembered how he had cheered alongside his friends when it was discovered Bender wasn't actually killed, not even giving the poor 'bot a second thought at all. He also recalled that Billy had a family, leaving his child fatherless and wife widowed, just like a situation that could also happen to humans. Maybe he could send them a fruit basket?

Fry then remembered a lot of moments where he has seen robots display human like qualities, like happiness, sadness, and anger, heck he could even remember seeing robots fall in love, he also realized that robots each have their own different personalities too. Maybe humans and robots aren't so different as he thought before? His friendship with Bender was a prime example of that.

That was when Fry realized something that would change the course of the future... Even as cheesy and as sappy as it sounded, that all life really is precious even if it is artificial, robotic, mutant, alien, human or something else entirely. His surprisingly long train of thought was ruined when Amy abruptly stood up, knocking her chair over with a clatter, and pointed out the window.

"A GIANT SAUSAGE!"

Which elicited a scream of horror from Fry and the others, except Hermes who stood up and waved his folder around,"Oh God, no! Get out of here, you horrific sausage!," He yelled with a mix of fright and urgency.

That was when Leela seemed to remember something and stopped screaming,"Wait! Isn't today the parade? It's just a giant balloon!" She realized out loud, but that didn't comfort Fry in the slightest.

"Giant balloon?" Fry questioned, he then continued to scream in terror.

Some time later the planet express crew had joined the crowded sidewalks to watch the parade, having managed to push to the front for a better view. Fry was still cowering, afraid of the approaching sausage shaped balloon and what havoc it could impose on him and his friends, but his thoughts were once again halted when he felt himself being lifted onto someone's shoulders. Craning his neck down, Fry was met by his best friend's eyes, who then proceeded to hand him a ice cream cone and a cold drink, which he had probably stolen from a nearby stand, but even so Fry still accepted the items with a small grateful smile. Looking at the big sausage balloon, Fry took a sip from his drink, his fears slowly starting to loose hold of his mind.

"See, buddy? It's not so scary," Bender said comfortingly, holding on to Fry's legs to prevent the orange haired man child from falling off his perch. "I feel better now," Fry whimpered with another small smile, Bender's actions helping solidify his newfound way of seeing robots and other life.

Continuing to watch the parade, Fry watched as a group of people dressed in leprechaun like costumes passed by, two of them holding up a green sign with three leafed clovers on it reading 'St. Patrick's Day Parade'. Then came by a group of people dressed as a dragon holding up a red decorative Chinese sign that read 'Chinese New Year Parade'. After that came a group of six blue aliens who were circling the street in their spaceships.

"Why is so many different parades smooshed together?" Fry asked while taking a bite from his ice cream. "It's the Parade Day parade," Leela answered simply, gesturing with her hands for emphasis and ignoring Fry's bad grammar.

"What's Parade Day?" Fry inquired, wanting to know what it was all about. "It used to be that every group in New New York wanted their own parade," gaining a nostalgic tone to his voice the professor continued speaking,"Why when I was a boy, we had a parade every day... Those were dark times."

"Now we just combine them all into one big Parade Day parade and get it over with," Leela finished explaining. Fry nodded, that made sense to him.

"Hey, look! A fog is rolling in," Dr. Zoidberg exclaimed, pointing a claw to said fog. "No, that's just the Jamaican pride float," Hermes corrected the red lobster, the crew also noticing the green float with a sign that read 'JAMAICAN PRIDE' on its side with a thick smoke hiding whatever was actually happening on top of the float from the public.

"Looks like it's speeding up," Amy observed pointing at the float. "Oh, no! It's within munching distance of the Doritos float!" Hermes shouted with panic.

And indeed it was, the float was gaining on to the Doritos float, which was just a float of a giant mechanical hand repeatedly dipping a giant Dorito into a large cup of sauce. The Jamaican pride float rammed into the Dorito float, causing the hand to to toss the giant Dorito away. The Dorito flies off cutting three street lamps in its wake, until it reached the 'Earthican Pride' float that was being run by Zapp Brannigan, the float had a statue depicting Zap holding up the planet earth with his hands.

The Dorito cuts off the depiction of Zapp's wrists causing the giant globe to fall off, and forcing the incompetent space captain to jump off his float to avoid being crushed by the globe. The globe starts rolling down the street, straight towards a unsuspecting man and manbot who were talking about something animatedly.

"Oh, no! It's heading right for those two nerds!" Leela shouted with alarm. It seemed that the manbot was too preoccupied with fawning over the human man's shirt to notice the approaching danger. Fry knew at that moment that he had to do something to save them, jumping off Bender's shoulders and dropping his food items to the ground he ran as fast as he could, originally Fry thought of just saving the human, but he shook of that thought when he remembered his earlier realization. Spreading his arms wide, so he could push both the human and the robot to safety, Fry jumped, the force behind it was enough to push both of them out of harms way.

Sadly the same could not be said for Fry, the extra force needed to push two people instead of just one caused Fry to fall and smack his head on the concrete and put him straight into the path of the globe instead. The adrenaline wore off and all Fry could do was brace himself for more pain.

The globe rammed into his side with a sickening crunch, Fry's body served to stop the globe from rolling any further, leaving him wedged underneath it. The pain finally kicked in and Fry let out the most painful ear shattering scream anyone has ever heard.

"FRY!"