Van stood outside the hospital room his dark eyes unsure and sad as he opened the door and entered the room. Walking up to the bed where his one time rival lay, he stood, silently, staring down at Raven's nearly motionless form.

Then, suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and looked up. Leaning against the wall opposite him, was Raven, strangely transparent and appearing as Van remembered him not as the damaged body on the hospital bed between them. For some reason Van was not surprised and spoke to his old rival, "You're going now?"

"Yeah, and here I wanted to settle our score."

"Mm, I'll bet," Van looked down at the form on the bed again. Then suddenly felt a strong hand on his shoulder and heard Raven's voice hiss, urgently, "Cronos Base, Van, go to Cronos Base."

"Wha-."

Van turned.

The young captain woke up.

As he sat up and glanced around, he quickly realized he was in his own room miles from Fire Bridge and Raven . . . Raven had been dead for two weeks now.

He lowered his head a little thinking about the day his rival had died, he had arrived only moments too late. His rival had been buried in silence, a burial that Van had chosen to attend despite warnings from Colonel Herman that such a move would be unwise. He had not attended out of disrespect for the hundreds of people who had died because of Raven, but out of respect for the person without whom the final defeat of the Deathsaurer would not have been possible.

With a sigh, Van got up, carefully so he didn't wake his wife, and walked out to the kitchen. As he got a papaya out of the fridge, Zeke who was laying on the floor near the door, woke up and greeted his partner. Van nodded to his organoid and sat at the kitchen table to eat his papaya and think about his dream.

"Cronos Base, huh? . . . That place has been abandoned for a while now," he looked down at Zeke who was laying in front of the kitchen door, "I've heard rumors that it's ruins are haunted, mysterious lights, people coming back without any memory of what they saw, people seeing what looks like a campfire but when someone goes to check it out there's nothing there, the sound of a child's laughter . . . we should go check it out."

Zeke growled curiously.

"Shh, I don't want to wake Fiona."

Van took another bite of out of his papaya, then set it down with regret, and went to get dressed for the journey.

A few moments later, Van and Zeke made their way out to the Blade Liger leaving Fiona a note that said that they would be gone for a few days.

As they walked outside, Van noticed that the Blade Liger's canopy was already open and in the back seat sat Fiona her arms crossed and an expression that was as close to a smirk as Van had ever seen on her face. Van paused, ". . . You really want to come?"

"Of course, silly, if you intended to leave me behind you must be expecting this journey to be dangerous, which means I can't let you go alone."

". . . Fiona . . . I don't know that it'll be dangerous, but if something were to happen to you-."

"Van Flyheight, we've fought the Imperial army, Raven, Reese, The Death Stinger, and the Deathsaurer together, I don't think one little trip to a ruined, old base is going to kill us."

". . ." Van sighed, "Alright, you can come."

Fiona smiled and said in her same old innocent voice, "I don't remember asking for your permission."

Van smiled, "Alright, then," he jumped into the cockpit, "Time to go."

The Blade Liger stood and took off into the desert towards Cronos Base.

After a long journey from the Wind Colony, Van, Fiona, and Zeke arrived in the small town that lay only a few miles from the old base.

As they approached the town a white Command Wolf came out to meet them, the pilot soon hailed them, "Captain Flyheight, sir!"

He was a young man in his early twenties with shoulder-length, blond hair, that kept falling in his face at every opportunity. Van, quickly, recognized the young man and responded, "Oh, Lieutenant Adler, good to see you . . . what are you doing here anyway?"

"You mean, you don't know, sir," said the young man, turning the Command Wolf, expertly, to walk beside the Blade Liger as it continued it's trek towards the village.

"Know what?"

"Recently, a group of Prozen Loyalists passed through this area, apparently, one of their zoids, a Zaber Fang, and it's pilot were left behind, this person has made the old Cronos Base his headquarters, so far he's taken out two civilian Rev Raptors, who went to chase him off, the people here are terrified that he'll come into the town, so, they requested assistance from the Republican Army. I was available at the time so I volunteered to come, but I haven't even seen this thing at any closer then two hundred meters."

". . . What color is it?"

"Huh, uh, black, sir."

"Hm, well, it just so happens, I'm headed up to Cronos Base, I'll see if I can't help you deal with this guy."

"I appreciate the support, Captain."

Van nodded and the two zoids headed out to Cronos Base.

As they ran Van glanced back at Fiona, "This feels kinda nostalgic, going to fight a Zaber Fang at Cronos Base."

Fiona smiled, "Thank Goodness, it's not red, huh?"

"Yeah, I'd be a little freaked out if we ran into a red Zaber Fang here."

Soon they drew near the old base, Zeke growled and Van stopped the Blade Liger, "What is it, buddy, you see something?"

Zeke roared this time towards the east side of the ruins, Van looked up just in time to see a black Zaber Fang duck back behind a large piece of a broken wall.

Quickly, Van stated to his organoid, "I don't see anything."

At the same time he opened a video com link with Lieutenant Adler and pointed towards the Zaber's hiding place.

Adler nodded and began creeping around one side towards the zoid's hiding place, while the Blade Liger made it's way around the other way.

As soon as both zoids were in position Van gave the signal to attack and the two zoids leaped around the corner to come face to face with . . . each other.

"He's gone," murmured Van, looking around.

Suddenly, Fiona yelled, "Van, above!"

"What!"

Suddenly, a barrage of missiles crashed into the ground where the Blade Liger was standing, sending up a cloud of smoke.

Author's Note

Yeah, I did it, Raven is dead, don't hate me, I'm a big Raven fangirl myself, unfortunately, that didn't protect him from the ever cruel hand of fate that is my stupid imagination *pouts*. Anyway as far as I know it was never stated whether Cronos Base was ever rebuilt, but I imagine not seeing as it was almost completely destroyed when Kruger sprung his little trap and it didn't look like it would be something that was easily rebuilt.

So, will Van and Fiona be okay?

Anything is possible, I suppose.

Until next time.

To be continued . . .