AN: This may or may not turn into a Yoai. Probably not. Oh, and it's been a while since I saw GF, let alone Thomas, so like in all my fics, he will most likely be OoC.
Disclaimer: I don't own zoids.
.:Chapter 1:.
Discovery
Van's Liger was approaching the rough region at high-speed. The blades were out and glowing. He was ready for the dangerous moving targets to try and shoot him down. He knew that he'd beat them with ease.
Krueger was somewhere back at base operating them via computer. Van assumed he would be serious about it, but apparently Karl had found him with hand in a packet of crisps and the other playing the controls like a game.
That was beside the point anyway. He needed to defeat these targets without getting a scratch to impress the colonel, and ever since he'd joined the Guardian Force he'd told himself that he'd do everything possible to improve.
His mind was at ease knowing that Zi's two largest threats were out of the way, but who knows, someone could still cause trouble. There had been recent talk of bandit groups joining together to overthrow the single government after all.
Not everyone had been happy about the decision to make Zi a constitutional monarchy. Some people had even turned violent to stop it.
On Van's right a hovering robot shot out and fired three sharp laser bursts, but he was alert enough to dodge them. Of course, Van could have turned and activated his shield, but he was afraid there might be one behind him to catch him if he did that. Besides, he wanted the maneuvering practice.
The Liger surged forward, slicing through the bot and letting the pieces fall down behind him. The radar beeped at the pilot, distracting him from the exercise long enough to get hit.
Van swore and shot the next bot down. "Sir, my radar picked up something really small." He said with concern. It looked too small to be a zoid, but it was still made of the same metal. "Maybe it's another organoid, it's moving away quickly."
Krueger frowned, opening up a visual link. "Go check it out, I'll send the Shubaltz's as back up."
Van nodded and closed the link. "Come on Zeke, let's go chase that zoid!"
His buddy gave a growl of readiness, always happy to help. The white organoid was hanging close by, but hadn't been allowed to merge with the Liger until now.
Zeke seemed happier when merged with the zoid core. He enjoyed fighting beside Van despite his mostly peaceful nature. The white one had changed a lot since the two first met. Zeke had tried to attack Van when he was first released, but quickly bonded after Van tried to save him from a bigger zoid. Since then they'd fought together on too many occasions to count.
They were silent on the way towards the beeping sound. The dot was moving away faster than the Liger was approaching it. "Look's like he's got away." Van sighed, but not giving up. Zeke growled in a way that he hoped would cheer the human up.
"You're right." Van answered. "We will get him, if not now, later."
Zeke felt happy, he'd done his bit, but then something began bothering him. Something was there in the distance too small for Van to see, but it was a dark patch against the bright golden sand. He alerted Van, wondering what it could be.
Zeke feared the worst, not all organoids had become calm like him. There had been more vicious ones than kind ones back when they thrived, and even now the only other organoid they had known had been a monster.
Shadow – now dead – had terrorized a large part of Zi, mercilessly killing all the zoids he could for his master's sake. They assumed it was because of Raven, for they had never actually spoken to Shadow, and could never tell what was going on inside his mind. Raven just seemed to dominate that organoid completely.
Van squinted, now able to see the same dark form Zeke had. The organoid made an urgent sound, telling him it was a human. Van's heart began racing, aware that the human was in danger of death. The desert was no place to be without shade and water. This human didn't seem to have either.
The Liger slowed to a stop and Van jumped out to inspect the body, well aware that they could already be dead. As he got closer he could see blood stains on the dark material covering the stranger's body.
"Are you okay?" Van called, approaching quickly. He knelt down to the figure and touched the body. A grimace crossed his face as he felt the warmth. Dark clothes weren't good in the desert; they attracted too much heat for daytime wear.
Van pulled the large black cloak off and found a boy's back facing him. He seemed to wearing an imperial-looking uniform that had suffered too great a heat. This did nothing for Van's optimism.
He rolled the boy towards him and stared with very wide eyes. Beside him Zeke collapsed onto his side with a 'HUH!?' sound.
"R-Raven?" Van cried with a failing voice. He just gaped at the sight for a while longer. That pale face was unmistakable, but still he felt like it wasn't true. The boy in front of him seemed badly hurt, but not dead, and how could that be?
Zeke stood back up, shaking the sand of him, accidentally spraying some onto Van who'd normally yell and complain, but he sat in stunned silence. The organoid tapped his partner's face in a friendly way, waiting for the boy to respond.
Finally Van shook himself free from the trance and stood up. His knees now seemed weak, as if they struggled to support him. The boy made him way slowly back to the Liger and hoped into the cockpit, pulling the visual communications link right away.
"Krueger," He began with a deceptively calm voice, his eyes staring right ahead of him but not focusing on anything but Raven's face burned into his mind.
"What's wrong?" The colonel asked, too worried to tell him off for now calling him by his rank.
"I need backup now. Some medics would be good too."
Krueger nodded, once again closing the link. He began barking orders, his brow creased in concern. He liked Van and new it wasn't normal for the boy to look so haunted. Whatever happened must have been very bad.