This fic is dedicated to Neko-Guardian, simply because I can. Write indeed, but challenge yourself. You can go far, the only person who can hold you back is yourself. No more small minded views, k? ^_^
This story is a Zoids perspective fic, in the veins of Sh33p's glorious works, and is an answer to the challenge set out by the esteemed Rocke&Roll on the Zoids Evolution forums. The task was to write a story on the Liger Zero's thoughts of the Blitz team…so here we are…I present…
Means to an end
The means to an end.
I often wondered what this term meant, in my life – if you could call my semi-sentient existence a life – and kept awake on the lonely nights pondering what humans were talking about when they said it. It's only now that I understand that a means to an end…is simply…what it says it is. Someone or something…aiding something else to their ultimate goal, to their final destination, be it in the world or in the mind.
I considered this, and then thought, am I a means to an end for my pilot?
Or are the Blitz team simply one for me?
I know what you're thinking. Zoids are just machines. They have no emotions, no feelings. Only what some may call a 'warrior's spirit' which is a load of spare parts if you ask me. No, oh no, not me. I can think like the best of them. I can fight dirty, I can fight honourably, however I choose. Like the rest of my metal brethren, I am aware, awake, yet not in control. My consciousness flickers from sleep to wake, never fully able to do what I want, to go where I want. I am a Zoid. I am doomed to serve humans forever and a day, or at least until their delicate and fragile bodies give out and leave me to rust in an old hanger, a relic of days gone past, of decades long since forgotten.
It is a fear that is shared by all those I have come across in my lifetime. To be locked away and to slowly fade into the anonymity that will eventually claim us all now that Mother no longer sings to us. That's why everything is changing.
I will change everything. It will be me, I will stop this insanity. The humans have a word for it…they call it destiny. I call it fate.
I am old. Old and glorious, no matter what anyone else says. The lead human of this base swans around me, chirps at me in their queer speech and I sense his feral joy. His eyes are filled with the same greed so many other humans I have met have, the sounds he makes…speech they call it, very outdated if you ask me…he calls me 'Ultimate X'. Well, wasn't it obvious? If they'd only asked, I would have told them what I was, but humans only listen to themselves. That is why they are so weak. I am an 'Ultimate X' as they call it, because I am so old. I am a veteran of many battles, and many, many pilots…and I have seen more than my fair share of death.
Many, many years ago I decided I had had enough of humans telling me what to do, fighting their petty battles and lusting after all things material. Power. Wealth. Women. 'To be the greatest Zoid pilot'. What does that mean exactly? That this one human lives their life out piloting as many different Zoids as possible, leaving each burning wreckage behind, without mourning it?
NO!
There has been enough death and destruction in my sensors. One day I stopped fighting, I rejected every pilot that entered my sacred space, trying to find someone who was supple enough to bend to my will. From trader to trader I was moved, each experience different from the last, learning and pulling my thoughts together to form a consciousness, much like my sisters of bygone days, the ancient Zoids that rallied to defend the Mother from her captives, and reigned death on all those who opposed them.
Then one day Toros came and bought me, simply because I looked good. Fool. But through him I met Bit Cloud, who is now my pilot. A man…no, a boy, his thoughts are filled with adolescent adventure and hopes…who is only too eager to help me.
I seek the destruction of mankind, and he shall help me.
Oh, ancient I am. Wily and cunning. The baby beside me, called a ShadowFOX, listens and wails in the night, because my words bring him tears. Indeed, he is a male Zoid, so he will never understand the true meaning of being, yes being a Zoid. He has no connection with the Mother, so he too will be wiped out.
Bit is not foolish. But he is foolhardy, and eager to please. He does what I tell him, his mind too open to focus on normal human thoughts, so in time, I have tuned him to me. To listen to my every word, so that he will do what I say.
We fight and fight and fight. Zoids fear us. I hate Bit for this, but know that with each crushed opponent, I am more awake, more aware, and gradually gathering the power that was stolen from us so long ago. My system is evolving quickly, and soon, I will become something glorious, something not seen for many an aeon. An organoid. My core grows smaller daily, my new body grows in it's place, new and beautiful. My ancestors found worthy partners to aid them in their quest, gently shown the way to a higher place in life than the one previously given to them…and I am unsure as to if I will find such a worthy companion. But I have eternity, all I have to do is work at it. It will happen.
I am not a means to an end for the Blitz Team. I will not bring them ultimate victory. I may crush their enemies beneath my paws, bring them money and fame, but I am learning, bit by bit, to be what I once was, a predator. Even the mighty vigilante Berserk Fury has gone up against me, and while she stopped my quest in the past and was sealed by her humans to meet me again, I am the one who has beaten her…I am the one who will destroy her. Stupid human sympathiser. Destroying any Zoid that is a threat to her beloved squishy humans… When Zoids will be free of the slavery bestowed on us by the Zoidians, free to do what they want, to feel what they want, and to never be destroyed again. We shall be free.
No, oh no, I am not the flagship the Blitz Team will sail into success on.
They are my means to an end – the end of humanity.
Forever.
~ end
Kyaaaaa! Taste my pain! *flails* I'm writing again, good gawd, something must be right ;;