Hey guys. Just to let you know, I'm a bit of a Karl Schubaltz nutter, so this is a story with my OC. Um…there's not a lot else, actually, except enjoy, and please read and review. Thank you!

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"Is she…alive?"

"Yes. We've got equipment monitoring her vital functions, and so far, everything's been normal."

"I thought she was supposed to wake up when she was released from the capsule?"

"So did we, but apparently, she isn't going to make life that easy for us just yet."

Prozen glanced sideways at the soldier, narrowing his eyes slightly at the expression of mingled amazement and horror upon his face.

"Why is she wearing that helmet?" the soldier asked suddenly, not taking his eyes off the girl for as much as a second. The white-haired man turned away, closing his red eyes in annoyance.

"Does it matter? Just keep watch over her and stop asking pointless questions. If anything happens, let the guards know," Prozen muttered savagely, striding from the room. The soldier finally tore his eyes away and eyed the man suspiciously.

"Yes, sir."

Prozen paused in the doorway, glancing back at the man.

"How did the organoid retrieval go?"

"Everything went smoothly, sir. The organoid should be ready by midnight at the latest."

"Good." Without any further ado, Prozen vanished around the corner.

Karl returned his gaze to the young woman suspended within a twenty-foot-wide sphere of greenish liquid. Her pale skin was encased in metallic armour, from which many wires trailed across to various machines that bleeped periodically. A similar casing embraced her head from her temple backwards, covering her mouth and nose, but leaving her closed eyes visible. Her limbs were held almost in a crucifixion stance by the fluid, with her head hanging low.

Karl took a couple of steps towards the young woman. She looked so vulnerable, like a harmless animal being caged and chained. Even though he could only see a fraction of her face, he knew there was some hidden beauty behind the metal. There was something about her that seemed age-old, but something youthful was there too.

A sudden stinging in his right hand brought him round from his thoughts. He glanced down at the small cut across his palm, a memento of the part he had played in restraining the organoid he had been sent to capture. It had struck out in alarm and caught a glancing blow with its talons. Karl heaved a sigh and gazed up at the girl again, placing his injured hand absent-mindedly against the sphere.

A light flickered into life in the midst of the vast darkness. Something stirred within her, something that had not woken for millennia. There was no mistaking that aura, the aura of the Ancient Zoidians. Called by the past, she followed the voices she had forgotten for such a long time.

The monitors went haywire as the girl's life signs peaked. Startled by the sudden noise, Karl stepped back, and as the light's reflection shifted slightly in the glass sphere, he saw the pair of blood-red eyes fixed on him.

"She's awake!"

"Someone get Minister Prozen!"

"Did you say she's awake?!"

Confused by the chaos that was erupting in the next room, the major staggered away from the sphere, just in time to avoid being sliced apart by the shards of glass that exploded in all directions. The fluid that had been suspending the girl washed over the floor like a wave across a beach as soldiers scurried about like disturbed ants, and at the centre of the pandemonium, the young woman fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

In spite of himself, Karl found curiosity tugging at his conscience. He made to approach the girl, but even as he watched, at least fourteen semi-transparent arms sprouted from her back and tore the metal armour apart as if it were wet paper. As the helmet was ripped into pieces, a scarlet wave of hair fell around her frail body, the locks coming to rest on the wet floor. Overcome by the shock of the arms more than anything else, the soldier reeled backwards into the wall, eyes fixed on the girl.

Who was this person that was watching her so avidly? Why did he have the same feel about him as the Ancient Zoidians? He was a mere human, she was certain of it, so how did she manage to mistake him for one of her own?

Still, the aura seemed to be concentrated around his left hand. Maybe this human had been in contact with one of the Ancient Zoidians? Yes, she could see the scratch across his palm. She recognised the shape of an organoid's talon-marks instantly.

Perhaps…if this man knew where the organoids where…perhaps it would be worth sparing his life?

Panic still held the soldier in a pincer-grip, and he pressed himself against the wall as the girl shakily got to her feet. She seemed almost in a trance, staring blankly at him as if she had never seen another human before in her life. Her red, knee-length hair shifted as she raised her head a little, and Karl was suddenly aware of the two protrusions from her skull. They seemed to be horns, although they looked similar to cat ears.

"What…what are you?" he hissed, not daring to take his eyes off the woman. Her expression didn't change for so much as an instant as she took a fumbling step towards him. As she placed her foot down, her knees gave way and she collapsed onto the floor for the second time in as many minutes.

Pity began to seep into Karl's mind, driving away some of the fear. She looked so delicate, like a butterfly in a gale. Despite the nagging voice in the back of his head that wondered how easily he would be torn apart, he cautiously approached her. He had barely taken three steps when she fixed him again with an eerie stare, made all the worse by those red eyes. Apprehension starting to kick in, he stopped in his tracks. Again, she rose unsteadily to her feet, but made no move towards him. She drew breath to speak, still swaying slightly.

"You –"

Several gunshots cut her off, and Karl threw his arms up in front of his face as the bullets ricocheted off the wall.

"What?"

"But I aimed right at her!"

"Did she just deflect the bullets?"

"Fools!" Prozen roared, storming into the room after the squad of confused, pistol-wielding soldiers. "You can't kill her with a pistol!" He raised the large gun in his hands and pointed it directly at the girl's head.

Hardly daring to believe what he had just heard, Karl stared open-mouthed at the woman. She had finally switched her gaze to Prozen, and a faint crease had appeared between her eyebrows.

"You've done nothing but cause me trouble ever since you came out of those forsaken ruins! I think it's high time you paid for all the hassle, don't you?" Prozen spat as he pulled the trigger.

There was something wrong. This bullet wasn't like the others, it was heavier somehow. Even when she used all her vectors at once, the shell didn't veer off so much as a millimetre. Why couldn't she deflect this bullet? Why was it so different to the others? Weren't humans primitive creatures, incapable of logical thought? How could they have created such a deadly weapon? How could they have known that she had limited strength?

Karl's thoughts might have been temporarily clouded by the events unfolding before him, but his instinct was as sharp as ever. There was a murderous look in Prozen's eyes, and there was no way of telling if the girl had actually deflected the bullets or not. He would never be able to live with himself if he let Prozen shoot her. Almost before the minister had pulled the trigger, Karl threw himself at the girl, catching her around the waist and knocking her to the floor. Despite his lightning reactions, he wasn't quick enough to stop the shell grazing her right horn, leaving a small groove. The girl's eyes widened in shock, and a cry of panic escaped her lips as they fell to the floor together. Small fragments of bone skittered away, sending up tiny splashes of green fluid as they went, and a spattering of blood melted away into the vast amount of liquid.

"Enough!" Karl bellowed, holding the girl close to his body protectively. Prozen looked as if he were about to explode from fury.

"What are you doing, you idiot?! If we don't kill her, she'll kill us!"

The shock of the revelation hit the major like a Gustav. "What?"

"That girl is part Ancient Zoidian, so she should be capable of piloting zoids with great prowess. She should also have great knowledge about the technology behind zoid creation that could prove invaluable to us in the war."

"Then why are you trying to kill her?"

"She's also part diclonius," Prozen replied harshly. "The next stage of human evolution, born to wipe out humankind forever. They have temporal protrusions, as you can see, but they also have extra hands, called vectors or receptors, depending on the context. These vectors vibrate so fast, they're impossible to see with the naked eye, except in certain individuals with stronger wave motions. They can also cut through objects, but they're used primarily to transmit a genetic infection to humans. After infection, every child born from that person will be a diclonius. Every instinct they have drives them to kill humans. They'll kill their own parents without hesitation."

"But…" Karl looked back at the girl in his arms. Salty tears were trickling down her face. There was no trace of bloodlust in any feature of her face. "You're wrong…she could have killed me five times over before you came, but she didn't!"

"No, she was too busy laying waste to our protective measures," Prozen snarled, waving the gun at the crumpled remains of the armour. "The only reason we aren't all dead right now is the fact that they can't use their vectors when they're in a state of pain." He directed the gun at her again. "Now, if you'd be so kind, please allow me to finish my duty, or I'll kill you too."

"No!" Karl lunged at Prozen, but he was knocked aside as the white-haired man swung his rifle into his ribcage, snatching the air out of his lungs. He lay sprawled across the wet floor, gasping for breath, forced to watch as the man took aim again. The girl was once more staring at Karl, red eyes shining with tears.

"D-don't you…dare…" Karl panted, his voice barely audible. The minister turned his head sharply to glare over his shoulder, before redirecting the rifle at him.

"Or perhaps you want to die first?" he asked mockingly, placing his finger on the trigger. Karl wished he could say something, anything, but it was enough effort trying to breathe, let alone talk again. Prozen took his silence as submission, and returned to his prey with a twisted grin upon his face.

The smile vanished, to be replaced with a silent scream. A vector was placed against his forehead, and the look in her eyes was deadly.

"Why?" she murmured, her expression as cold as ice. Prozen stammered incoherently for several moments, the fear written into every inch of his face. The girl narrowed her eyes in contempt. "Then I'll find out for myself."

Karl flinched as the vector's fingers disappeared through the minister's skull, but there was no blood or screaming. Prozen's faltering ceased abruptly, and the major guessed that it was from pure terror.

Many memories that didn't belong to her flashed past. She had no need for memories; she wanted answers. Sifting through layer after layer of selfish, sickening thoughts told her all she needed to know. There was no need to find a reply to a specific question; she had seen enough.

"You disgust me."

The vector withdrew from Prozen's head without leaving the tiniest mark. Obviously thinking that his ordeal was over, he breathed a sigh of relief, but it turned into a strangled gasp as several ghostly fists collided with his stomach, driving every wisp of oxygen from his airway. If there had been any air left in his lungs, he would have cried out as he smashed into the floor. The rifle hit the floor with a clatter and a splash, and was rapidly sliced in two by one of the girl's vectors. Karl could do nothing but watch in horror. This girl was acting more and more like Prozen said she would. Maybe he had made a mistake; maybe he should have let her die.

Suddenly, the girl froze, wide-eyed.

There was that feel again, much stronger than before. It seemed to be emanating from somewhere beneath her very feet. Perhaps it was…hers?

Karl picked himself up slowly, still slightly out of breath from Prozen's attack. The other soldiers were backing away slowly, and some were as far as the doorway. All thoughts of shooting the girl had long since vanished, after watching what had happened to their minister. Cautiously, he advanced towards the broken rifle, gingerly raising the butt end. Perhaps if he took her by surprise, he could at least cause her enough pain to disable her vectors.

As he made to approach the girl again, she suddenly seemed to snap out of her trance. Karl didn't have an opportunity to curse; next instant, all fifty of her semi-transparent arms materialised, the hands vanishing through the floor. This threw the major completely; what on Zi was she doing?

The further beneath the surface she searched, the stronger the aura grew. There was no mistaking it; her zoid was down there somewhere. All she had to do was keep looking and hope that her vectors would reach far enough.

After what seemed like an eternity of passing through compacted earth, finally, her fingertips touched cold stone, then the wonderfully reminiscent texture of a zoid core.

A terrific roar from the very bowels of the planet sent the soldiers reeling into the walls, hands clamped over their ears. Karl was driven to his knees, the vibrations coursing through his bones like electricity through a wire. As he fought to keep his eyes on the girl, the ground was rent by an immense fissure, throwing up clouds of thick dust and debris. The ground was wracked with horrific tremors that weaved cracks into the sturdy walls of the room, and the greenish fluid drained away into the crevice. It seemed to Karl that something was rising from beneath the surface, something huge. Sure enough, from the centre of the fissure rose an enormous stone sculpture of some sort, semi-obscured by the dust. The soldiers that hadn't already left the room turned tail and fled, but the minister and major were left immobile, forced to watch the events unfold before their eyes. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the quakes weakened and the dust settled, exposing the sculpture to everyone's view. But it was suddenly clear that it wasn't a sculpture at all.

A zoid, ancient and clearly unused for a very long time, was encased somewhere beneath the stone that coated its once-metal panels. Almost touching the ceiling with its slender neck arched, the dragonesque zoid stood almost sorrowful, gazing with unseeing eyes upon the red-haired girl. Its four paws, taloned yet elegant, bore its weight, and its long tail was held out proudly behind it. Its stance reminded Karl of a stallion; graceful, yet brutally powerful. His gaze drifted back to the diclonius, and the expression she was wearing was shockingly deep for a supposed murderess. Eyes wide with some unseen revelation, mouth slightly open in what could have been pleasant shock, she stood transfixed before the beast.

It had been such a long time…so long since she had seen this wondrous zoid…and now, finally…finally, she could feel its immense power again…

A long-lost memory flickered into the forefront of her mind. A jet black zoid, in the dark of night, cantering over the desert sands, its potent body flowing like a river through the wasteland…for some reason, it seemed so nostalgic, as if she had some connection to this metallic creature…

Finally finding strength enough to stand, the major picked himself up and watched the girl stumble a few steps closer to the deceased zoid. From somewhere behind him, Prozen gave a low moan as he struggled to get up. For a few moments longer, she gazed up at the dragon-like machine, each as motionless as the other, until all her vectors erupted from her shoulders once more, reaching deep into the heart of the monster. Again, she was the only occupant of the room that understood her actions.

Reaching deep into the cold core, she knew that it had to be done. She had been unable to help her dearest friend, and now, after so many years, the time had come to repay the debt.

Yes…the core had begun to shudder and warm…she knew she could never have forgotten the touch of her partner…

For an instant, those eerie red eyes seemed to soften with emotion, and the faintest hint of a smile played across her delicate lips. Although Karl couldn't tell what she could see in her mind's eye, he could guess that it was something of great sentiment.

With no warning, the dust that coated the floor rose high into the air and formed a terrific maelstrom around the zoid and girl, obscuring them almost completely from view. As he staggered back into the wall, all that Karl could see was the tip of the machine's head in the centre of the whirlwind. The longer he watched, the more the stone-like covering seemed to fade away, replaced by a black sheen. A scream from behind him made the soldier start, for he had almost completely forgotten about the minister. Glancing over his shoulder, he was shocked to find Prozen shrinking back in pure fear, wide eyes upon the tornado of debris. Yet slowly, the tempest was settling down, lessening in ferocity as it began to reveal ever more of the zoid within. At the edge of the sandstorm, the girl stumbled backwards, her red hair flailing in the wind and an expression of almost maniacal joy upon her pale face.

As the winds died down, the last few streaks of sand dropped to the floor. The great black dragon moved its left front paw forwards to steady itself, stamping it down and causing another tremor. Its angular head was bowed low, the three sharp blades upon it curving up to the ceiling, until it raised its maw to the heavens with an ear-splitting bellow, its eyes glowing deep red.

Rooted to the spot with astonishment, the major watched the diclonius teeter towards the immense zoid. It ceased its proclamation and bent its knees slightly, lowering itself to the floor as the canopy atop its head swung open to admit her. She ran her hands over the blade set upon its left cheek in something almost approaching reverence.

The smooth metal beneath her fingertips was as welcome as the sound of rain in the desert. She had been waiting for such a long time to find her old friend, and now they could run across the sands together once more…

"NO!"

The sudden shout startled Karl out of his stunned trance, and he turned just in time to see several Rev Raptors stalk into the room, snarling viciously as they took aim with their weapons. At their feet, Prozen stood white with rage and terror.

"You will not leave this place!" he was yelling at the girl, eyes bulging. "Even if we have to kill you and your zoid, you will not leave!"

Even from his distance, Karl could see the expression on the diclonius' face. It was one of deepest loathing and defiance, the most potent he had seen. She turned her back on the Imperial zoids and leapt into the cockpit without a moment's hesitation. Prozen looked as if he were about to explode.

"Fire at will!" he screamed to the soldiers, and as the canopy closed, a hail of bullets rained upon the black dragon. Karl was astounded at the minister's callous actions. It was not a proud soldier of the Imperial army that was reflected in his emerald green eyes; it was a monster, almost comparable with the description of a diclonius that he had given.

A soft yellow light shone through the smoke and dust. The three blades set into the dragon's face had swung out, and around the zoid now pulsed a powerful shield, protecting it from harm. Upon its bodywork lay not a single scratch. Striding out of its crouched position, it screeched a furious warning to the raptor-like opposition, its back legs stretched out far behind it, tail whipping from side to side.

"What?! How did it…" Prozen's stammering faded into pathetic silence as the three blades flicked forwards, following the angle of the dragon's muzzle. Two blades at its shoulders set themselves forwards, and in one fluid motion, the zoid sprang towards the Rev Raptors. The shield became angular, reducing the drag as it sliced through the air and the chest of one zoid. As its paws touched down, the blades returned to their neutral positions and the dragon leapt sideways, dodging the shells that were blasted at it by the fallen Rev Raptor's fellows. It used the wall as a backboard, driving its back paws into it to propel itself into the centre of the room.

There was something reminiscent about the reticules that positioned themselves over the images of the zoids on the monitors. Still, there was no time to remember the past when the present carried a threat of death.

The great zoid set its weight on its hind legs and arched its neck, opening its deadly jaws wide. From the back of its throat, a single gun slid into place, and as electricity arced across its razor-sharp fangs, a ball of lilac light grew stronger and stronger. It raised its head high, almost closing its jaws around the glow, and jerked it back down, maw snapping open again. A concentrated stream of luminosity burst from the cannon, splintering into a myriad of separate beams that twisted towards their targets. The Rev Raptors were pierced by the many arcs that shot straight through them, and the screams of the eight fallen zoids reverberated around the room.

Karl had pressed himself against the wall as the dragon's attack had streaked across the room, and as the dust whirled around him, the black zoid reared onto its hind legs, aiming the two Pulse Lasers upon its back at the ceiling. With three well-aimed shots from each rifle, the roof caved in, and the dragon shot through the gap and vanished before the first sections of rubble hit the floor. Once the quakes had ended, the major staggered past the wrecked Rev Raptors, choking on the dust particles in the air.

"Major Schubaltz."

Pausing at the sound of his name, Karl glanced over his shoulder at the minister. He was picking himself up from the floor, and when he straightened, the full fury in his eyes was enough to make the soldier slightly nervous.

"Yes, sir?"

"Track her down and kill her. Now."

Shocked, Karl turned and started to protest. "But –"

"That's an order, Major."

Gritting his teeth against the flow of objections that threatened to burst from his mouth, Karl reluctantly saluted. "Yes, sir."