WARNING: STORY IS AlternateUniverse! MEANING CHANGES ARE MADE B/W THE FILM AND THIS STORY. Positive reviews are welcome. Flames will be used to roast smores.

DISCLAIMER: I OWN WHAT IS MY OWN.

Monster Zero

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

My Immortal

He glared down at them from where he hung high up near the ceiling of the "common room" of their prison. Link was busying himself with his katas and failing at them quite miserably. Back in his prime, the ape-fish took to the martial arts like, well, like a fish to water but now? Well, he could have been great had Link not so blatantly started slacking off, assuming he reached his peak level. Insectosaurus, or Insecto for short, was watching the fish-ape's antics with childish amusement in her large eyes. He wondered how long it'd be before Link realized his best buddy was a female, one with a crush might he add. Oh well, it was bound to be entertaining to say the least.

B.O.B. was entertaining himself by playing solitare. Of course, the playing cards in question were actually cards from a variety of children's card games but the plasmoid found his fun and had managed to remember how to breath thus far… a miracle in itself.

He glanced down at Susan and repressed the urge to sigh. She had finally cracked under the pressure of being a monster and allowed Doctor Cockroach to try and cure her despite his obvious madness. Bad enough she was willing to accept help from a self-proclaimed mad-scientist but one who turned his head into cockroach's for the sake of nuclear survival? He shrugged and turned once more to his thoughts when the conversation below suddenly turned interesting.

"Um, doctor…? Did I do something wrong?" whispered Susan, leaning down with her hands on her knees so she was closer to the insectoid-human.

"Wrong, my dear?" The Doctor looked up from his latest contraption, a device made up of a toaster, several broken cd-roms, two forks, and a pair of half-moon glasses. The beginning of a homemade computer he called it. Susan's eyes looked to the ceiling and, following, Dr. Cockroach saw for himself what Susan was talking about. "Ah, I see. What makes you think you did something wrong?"

"He just… doesn't seem to like me that much," said Susan.

Dr. Cockroach frowned, knowing this was quite far from the truth. "It isn't a matter of liking you my dear, if anything, I'm sure our batty friend up there feels for you. He was the first monster Monger ever captured and was the cause of this facility's creation, however incidental his own circumstances were. In a way, I'm sure he feels responsible for your current predicament."

"I see…" She looked up towards him but he had hidden himself behind his wings.

Dr. Cockroach glanced to the ceiling, his antennae twitching, knowing a change in topic was in order. "So tell me my dear, I'm sure your stay here isn't enjoyable but it is bearable at the very least, yes?"

"It's okay… I've had trouble sleeping sometimes but then I listen to the music on the radio and my troubles seem to just, I don't know, wash away." Susan sighed, remembering the music from her first night. It wasn't a song she recognized but she had fallen in love with the lyrics.

"Radio?" Dr. Cockroach looked up from his experiment. His antennae suddenly twitched and he smiled coyly with sudden realization. "Ah, so that's what it is, is it old friend?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just an old man being fickle as always. Now, you might feel a slight tickle in the diaphragm…"

He rolled his eyes and curled his wings tightly around his monstrous form. He held no such thing as guilt, at least, not in the way the Doc imagined. He was guilty, that he could not deny but for what was his business alone. He didn't know how he remained untouched by time but if whatever god there was still left in heaven had wanted him to survive even as he was there had to be a reason.

There just had to be.

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He was the first one in the common room, not truly a surprise of any sort but he was alone for the better part of an hour before Susan showed up for breakfast and Bagorah realized rather quickly why the male monsters, plus Insecto, were allowed to stay in their cells today instead of their usual gathering in the common room. Monger, that damn old-coot of a general, likely ordered the others to remain in their cells and was doing this as a sick form of payback. Susan reeked of blood and from the way she was holding her stomach, he had a rather good idea as to what time of month it was.

'This will be the day that I die so bye, bye Miss American pie…' He blinked and turned to see Susan sniffling as she stared down at her plate of oatmeal with the most heartbroken look he had ever seen. Without further warning, the giantess broke out in tears, pressing her face down on her arms atop the large table.

He sighed tiredly, his ears closed tightly against her loud sobs, and flew up to her table and crouched on all fours before her. He honestly didn't know what to say but sometimes the simplest approaches work. "Stop it already. I highly doubt any animals were harmed in the creation of this oatmeal." A lame joke but it got her to stop crying long enough to look up at him.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I just…" she gasped before breaking down once more into tears, her arms wrapping around her middle. "I just can't stop!" Sighing, he glided down and landed on her lap and pulled her hands back and pressed himself against her stomach. Her tears stopped and a red flush fell across her face, born from embarrassment or anger he didn't really want to know so he quickly proceeded with his plan.

Susan blinked and slouched back in her chair, a lazy smile on her face as he worked his magic. "Oh my…"

He paused and looked up at her. "It'll feel better if you lie down on—" She didn't give him a chance to finish as her hands reached down and scooped him up as she hastily got out of her chair and laid down on the floor. She held him near her breast as her other hand reached down and pulled up her shirt just enough for him to be placed down just below her navel. His skin darkened a deeper shade of red and he looked up at her in concern, wondering if her hormones and lonliness for her fiancé were affecting her better judgement but she stuck her lip out in a pout, her eyes watering.

"Please?" she asked softly.

Sighing, he nodded and laid down along her stomach, purring like a rumbling earthquake, massaging her aching insides with his sonic manipulations. It wasn't as much as he could do but it was the best he could work with what with the blasted collar strapped to his neck. He didn't know how long they laid there like that only that it had to have been a few hours for he heard the delivery systems working on delivering their mid-day meals before the food actually arrived. He wondered if it was a good time to try and eat since he had missed breakfast when his "patient" suddenly spoke up.

"Have you really been singing to me every night?"

His hair rose on end and his tail straightened before relaxing and drawing idle circles on her warm skin, earning a small giggle from the giantess. 'Hrm, ticklish are we?' He spoke in the voice of an old man's. "Whoever said it was for you?"

"Who is it for then?" she asked, more curious than snide, at least to his ears.

"For someone…" What could he say, for his ears weren't the only ones listening. "Who wasn't afraid to try and push back the wind…"

"To push back the wind? Is such a thing possible?" she spoke more to herself than to him but he heard her nonetheless.

"To change the way it blows, to force it back." He looked up towards the lights despite the pain it brought to his unshielded eyes. His voice sounded strange, foreign even to himself, and whispered "To not accept what it brings. I, want to push it back… but I'm too scared to try."

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That was the first and only night he did not immediately sing for her as the lights went out in the vast underground facility. Though she still had her mind and heart focused on getting back to her life with Derek, Susan felt completely embarrassed and ashamed of her actions earlier. She knew how crazy she could get during the time but really, the way she acted… Oh god, how was she supposed to look Derek in the eyes after this? Not that couldn't right now but still… she felt like she had cheated on him in a fashion though all she really did was try and seek comfort from a friend.

"I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears…"

Susan sucked in a breath and slowly sat up in her bed. She could barely hear the words this night; no doubt he was embarrassed to be called out on his, well, serenades as she personally liked to call them. If it wasn't for Doctor Cockroach and Link both agreeing to B.O.B.'s admittance to his singing skills, Susan doubted she'd have believed it. How could anyone, man or monster, sing with such a perfect reflection of the original song from the singer to the instruments? She stood carefully from her bed and leaned down along the wall, pressing her ear to the airvent that connected their two rooms.

"And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave. Your presence still lingers here and it won't leave me alone." Susan's eyes narrowed and she strained to listen to the song. "These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real… There's just too much that time cannot erase… When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears, when you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears, and I held your hand through all of these years… but you still have all of me… You used to captivate me by your resonating light. Now, I'm bound by the life you left behind."

To Be Continued...