Disclaimer 1: I do not own Zoids.

Disclaimer 2: The characters Ibeyla, Obscura, Spectral, Rollo, Rabe, Salca, and Playzia do NOT belong to me. They belong to ShadowRebirth37.

Disclaimer 3: The characters Atherin, Azel and Eiji belong to ME. The towns Redai and Jurei also belong to me. I do not mind if Redai is used without my permission, it's just a name I made up on the spur of the moment, but if you use Jurei please make not of it in your disclaimer.

Author's Note: Last chapter Raven and Ibeyla found out Atherin's secret…and now, we'll find out their reactions. ^^ Thanks to those of you that Reviewed!!

This is a collaboration fic between ShadowRebirth37 and me. We hope that you enjoy reading it!

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Ͽ I Don't Bite…Hard… Ͼ

Ibeyla gulped involuntarily, but didn't move… Raven stared at him and froze, but didn't make a sound. "Holy Helkat...."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not like the rogue that you're after. I'm considered 'good'. I only 'hunt' when it's absolutely necessary. Your rogue 'hunts' just about every night. He has no standards, everyone is considered fair game...including me…"

Ibeyla blinked again. "I never said you were bad or evil. I told you that I used to be friends with a vampire, so I know the difference between a good vampire and rouge. If you were a rogue, you would have killed me when we first met. I'm just surprised that I didn't catch on earlier.... Luna used to eat lots of candy, something about blood sugar and suppressing hunger..."

Atherin chuckled. "Yeah, that's a sure sign of a 'good' vampire. We hardly ever go anywhere with out candy on us. It allows us to wander around human towns and not hurt someone...unless that is our intention... You see, to you blood tastes metallic, but to us it is liquid candy. It's sweet, so eating sweets helps us to keep our 'hunger' in check; but if our blood sugar goes to low we go into a cold sleep..."

Ibeyla nodded. "Yeah... that happened to Luna's brother, Tytho once... I wondered how you were able to eat so much candy without getting sick. I never thought I'd meet another good vampire..."

Atherin nodded to Ibeyla and then noticed Raven's deer-in-front-of-a-zoid look. "You don't have to worry about me. I don't bite...hard..." He smirked.

Raven narrowed his eyes at Atherin, although there was a bit of fear or nervousness in his eyes. Ibeyla swallowed slightly. "You... wouldn't hurt him, would you?"

"It's a joke. A j-o-k-e. If I wanted to 'eat' him I would have done so by now."

Ibeyla laughed, although Raven didn't find it very funny. He merely glared at Atherin, before Shadow distracted him by nosing his shoulder and growling. Atherin chuckled. He always was good at getting under someone's skin, though these Imperials were taking him being a vampire better than the Republicans did. It made him feel a little more at ease.

Ibeyla sighed. "Raven's just antisocial, ignore him." she said, looking over at Raven. Shadow was nosing and sniffing him, as if looking him over to make sure Atherin hadn't hurt him. "Ignore Shadow too, she's just overprotective..."

"It's not like I'd hurt the only people who accept me. Though...when and if we return back to that base of yours...do you mind not telling anyone? It's kinda hard to act 'normal' if people know that vampires really do exist."

"It's okay Atherin; Shadow is like this all the time. She does it every time she thinks her little Raven is hurt. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I'll make sure Raven keeps it quiet too. That won't be much of a problem, since he hardly talks at all..."

"That's good... I don't want another 'hunt' to occur..." Atherin replied, fiddling around with his bag looking for another pixi stix. Today seemed to be a pixi stix day.

"Yeah, that's how Luna and the rest of her family were killed..."

"It's…how my entire village was destroyed... As far as I know, my village of Jurei was the last hidden vampire village. I haven't heard of any others...so our rogue is most likely a survivor from a different village... Probably gotten bolder with his killing now that he's older..."

"We don't want you to get hurt or worse if people were to find out; and I have a feeling this is a young vampire though, so I don't know why he's doing this. Revenge probably for something..."

"....It might be for Porto..."

"Maybe, maybe not; He could just be enjoying himself too much, he and his Organoid..."

"Perhaps... Though if he is, I don't see why he would want to blow his cover... It just doesn't make sense..."

"Maybe... it's a trap? Or maybe he was trying to hide that map from the librarian and hastily shoved it in to attack? I'm not sure... I doubt he knows we're on to him..."

"I doubt he was trying to hide it from the librarian... If anything he played dumb in order to get to the librarian...and then went on his way looking for the map. Maybe something spooked him while he was reading it... Or someone entered and he didn't want to get caught with the body... It could be a number of things..."

Ibeyla nodded. "Probably... But who knows, I want to know how he got out. The librarian couldn't have been dead more than a few minutes. And there was only one way out..."

"...The librarian had been dead for a few hours...by the time we reached him... As for getting out without anyone seeing him...he could have...charmed his way out... He wouldn't have hesitated to use it..."

Ibeyla nodded. "Yeah.... but he can't be too far ahead of us. Hopefully we'll catch him at Porto." she yawned, stretching sleepily.

"I'd offer to take night watch, but I don't think Raven trusts me quite yet."

"Don't worry, Shadow won't let anyone get within five feet of him, except me, so he'll be out like a light in five minutes..."

"Alright then; If Eiji or I sense anything, we'll let ya know." Atherin said as he sat down on his sleeping bag, once again using the forest to let him know if there was anyone else in there with them.

Ibeyla nodded. She looked back at Raven. He was already asleep with Shadow curled around him. She got in her sleeping bag and laid down, and was asleep in minutes.

The night came and went. Eiji had taken over for Atherin again and had once again woken him up earlier than he wanted to be woken. He made the fire again, this time determined to eat something other than candy and fruit. He needed some meat and veggies too! After he was done with his morning rituals and had packed up his stuff Atherin went to work on making a long deserved breakfast. He started to prepare breakfast. Eiji was excited to actually be eating some of Atherin's cooking again. He set up a pan over the fire, putting some sausage he had bought in it. While that was going he started to make potato pancakes, an old favorite that his mom used to make.

Ibeyla was still deeply asleep; Obscura curled up beside her, trying to get on the sleeping bag. Raven hadn't moved all night, Shadow still curled around him. After a few minutes Ibeyla woke up, smelling something cooking. She kicked Obscura off her, and sat up. *yawn* "Hey Atherin... what're ya making?"

"Breakfast."

"It smells great..."

"Thanks... It'll be done soon... Just a few more minutes..."

"Okay..." Ibeyla replied. She turned and shook Raven awake.

Atherin pulled the sausage and potato pancakes off the pan, placing heaps on everyone's plates... He couldn't help it that he always made too much by human standards. He had a huge 'hunger' to try and sate…everyday... Ibeyla and Raven ate happily. "This is really good, Atherin!" she complemented him. Raven merely ate. He wasn't complaining, so that was good...

Atherin only nodded, unable to speak because he had food in his mouth. Eiji sat behind him, his giant head hovering over Atherin, whining about not being fed. When Atherin ignored him, he tried to grab a piece off his plate, and Atherin swatted his big nose away from it. "Eiji, you'll get some when I'm finished...just hold on..."

Ibeyla and Raven were almost finished. Obscura was eating a potato pancake, growling happily. When Atherin had finished eating his fill, five helpings worth, he gave the remaining food to Eiji, who rumbled happily as he ate it. He waited for the others to finish before they moved out again. Ibeyla and Raven finished quickly and packed up their things. After their camp was cleared away they got into their zoids and continued onto Porto.

They reached Porto and Ibeyla led them to the Zoid hanger and they parked their Zoids. She jumped out and turned to Atherin. "Where do you think he'd be?"

"...In Porto...? ...The first place I'd go to would be Windeen... ...Then...the library....there's something that he's looking for, but we don't know what yet... If nothing turns up there then the last place I would look for him would be in the cemetery...at night..."

"I doubt the cemetery. He has never been seen there. He's been seen in public places, so I'd guess he'd be in an alley or somewhere, that's where most of the deaths and sightings were..."

"...Not to kill someone... Porto use to be a major vampire city centuries ago... No matter what type of vampire, good, rogue, heck even Vareix would most likely go to the cemetery..." After seeing their confused looks he further explained; "...The cemetery was placed on top of a mineral that vampires used to sate their 'hunger' by crafting it into some sort of jewelry... But it can also work in reverse... It can increase a vampire's 'hunger' by 100 fold, thus leading them into a blood lust... In blood lust it's nearly impossible to destroy a vampire... A special tool is needed...and the only one still in existence is in New Helic city in the museum..."

"Great... but, how are we gonna kill him? Then again, kill his Organoid? We don't even know what type of Organoid he's partnered with..."

"...We might find something in the library about dealing with Organoids... But the quickest way to kill him would be to..."

Ibeyla blinked. "What do you have to do?"

"...It's considered a taboo...so I'm not sure if I could go through with it..."

"Well.... what is it?"

"...Biting him...on the neck..."

"What's so bad about that? You do it to your victims... no offense...."

Atherin shot Raven a death glare so intense that it looked like his eyes were turning red. "Biting a human on the neck has no effect on them. I could bite you right now and you'd hardly feel a thing, but for a vampire to bite another vampire on the neck is considered 'mind rape'. If I were to bite him I'd have full access to his brain. I could do whatever I like with it. I could make him go insane, make his brain implode, turn it to jelly, put him in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, the list goes on and on."

Ibeyla blinked her eyes and shuddered slightly in disgust. "Wow... Luna and Tyroth never mentioned that..."

"Because it's best left unsaid. There is another, slower way, but it involves finding something called...Nidhogg... I don't know the exact details of what it is, but I do know that ancient humans and zoidians would coat their weapons with it... I think it's a poison of some sort...to vampires at least..." / That's what they used before they made 'It'…/

"I remember something with that name... that's.... that's what they used to kill Luna and her family with...during the 'hunt'…"

"I would like to say 'I don't care which method we use' but I can't. But if you're absolutely sure about using the first method then I'll do so...but I don't think I'll be able to forgive you for putting me through it..."

"I never said you had to do it! We just need to bring him in, not kill him!!"

"Bringing him in alive will be a challenge... He wouldn't be afraid to charm either of you nor trying to charm me... If he succeeds with that then we'll all be killed."

Ibeyla gulped. "We'll have to risk it. I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to. And we have our Organoids to protect us..."

"As does he. If we're gonna bring him in we'll need to deal with his organoid first... And the best place to try and find that out would be at the library."

"Why at the library? What is it with you vampires and libraries anyway?" Raven questioned.

"Do you know how to combat against his organoid? Do you even know what type of organoid he has? If I had to make a bet, I'd say he's partnered with a Vareix. A vampire organoid. Something just as deadly as he is. Something that won't hesitate to eat you alive. Now. Do you want to go into battle with no clue about what you're up against? Or do you want to prepare yourself?"

Raven gulped slightly. "Fine... we'll go look in the stupid library." he muttered. They made their way through the crowded streets of Porto, heading for the library. When they arrived they were relieved to see that the librarian was still alive and that there was no scent of blood anywhere, as far as Atherin could tell anyways. "...Organoids are 'new' in this era so they might not have a section devoted to them, but they might turn up in older texts...or legends..."

Ibeyla nodded. She walked into the reference section, and produced a thick book on Organoid species and legends. She handed it to Atherin. "Will this help?"

"Yeah." Atherin flipped the book open when Ibeyla handed to him. "...This is gonna take longer than I thought..." Ibeyla flipped the page back to the index. "Here Atherin; page 371 is where the section on Vareix starts..."

"I figured that much out Ibeyla... It's just...I can't read it... And I doubt either of you can." He said as he flipped through the whole book just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. When he was sure he went back to the Vareix section started and showed them what he meant. There weren't any words...it was just filled with miniature murals... They'd have to decipher all the pictures... Ibeyla left Raven and Atherin and walked over to the librarian. "We're going to check out that book for help in solving a murder." she said, and the librarian nodded. She returned to them. "Alright, we can take the book..."

"...Then let's head somewhere more private. If we're caught seriously discussing vampire's where someone can overhear us, it'll make things even more difficult for us..."

"Listen, I'll get us a room at the inn by the hanger, so we can be close to our Zoids if something happens. And we'll have a nice, quiet place to look this over..." Ibeyla said. She led them out of library and to the inn, where she rented a room for the three of them. After they had secured a room, their personal items were flung onto which bed they wanted. "Who wants to try their hand at deciphering it first?" Atherin asked, holding up the book.

"Um... I don't have a clue, Atherin; you've got the best chance out of all of us..." Ibeyla said, trying to shove Obscura off of her bed. Atherin pulled his bag of candy onto his bed and stretched out on his bed. He flipped it to the beginning of the Vareix section and popped a piece of rock candy into his mouth. He began the laborious task of trying to make heads or tails of the thing.

"While you're working on that, do you want me to go see if they have anything else? Preferably in English?" Ibeyla suggested. "It might help. I doubt that they have anything in it but could you also check for vampire texts?"

"Okay, I'll be sure to check..." Ibeyla said, leaving the room. Ibeyla went back to the library, and found two more books- one in English of Organoid species, and one in the vampire language of Organoid legends. She returned back and gave the books to Atherin. "These were the only other one's they had..."

Atherin immediately took the vampire text from Ibeyla and opened it, looking for anything relevant. He had already tossed the other book onto the floor, fed up with it. "I can work with this one, but I'm sure that you two can find something written in the human text." Ibeyla nodded. She and Raven opened the other book and began reading, looking for anything relevant. Atherin scanned the text in the vampire legends book. One legend had caught his eye, so he was reading through this one thoroughly.

Raven had found some useful information. "Atherin, did you find anything? Raven found some that might be useful..." Ibeyla said, looking over at Atherin.

"Just an old legend; about a vampire/Vareix pair that are acting similar to our rogue and his organoid. However, after finishing the legend it turns out that the Vareix organoid was the vampire...."

Ibeyla blinked. "But that isn't possible. Vampires can't transform into Organoids..."

"You miss-understood me; the Vareix organoid transformed INTO the vampire…they were the same person."

Ibeyla cocked her head. "But.... that still doesn't seem possible. I've never heard of a Vareix having that power..."

"...It's an old vampire legend... I mean really old. At least 900 years.... It wouldn't be impossible for a Vareix organoid to live that long...or longer... It's the same with a vampire...our average life span is around 800 years..."

"But... if this is the same, which I doubt, why would the attacks suddenly happen now? They have all occured in the last few weeks..."

"...It could be one of two things... The first of which is that the organoid just recently broke out of its capsule, if it was placed in one. The other is that it could have entered a cold sleep and has finally woken up, if it is in fact something similar to this legend.

"But.... how did the legend end? Did they kill the Organoid? And what color was it?"

"...Not on a good note... The organoid was terribly wounded by the humans who had taken over Porto. With his last breath, before he took off to enter cold sleep in a safe place he vowed that he would get his revenge on the people here when he woke back up... He promised that he would retrace his steps that led him here, killing the same amount of people the first time he made the trip here... It's eerily similar to how our rogue is acting..."

Ibeyla blinked. "Wow... that is oddly similar to how our rouge is acting." she said quietly. "But then again, it could just be coincidence. We don't know for sure. Now, is there a description of this... shape-shifting Organoid in there?" Raven asked.

"Let's see... The legend says that this Vareix was silver and red…and in his 'vampire' form he had red hair that was silver-tipped... That's all that I can make out...the rest of the text has been damaged..."

"That's not our rouge...." Ibeyla said, "... our rouge has amethyst eyes and his Organoid is black... I think we're just dealing with a rogue with his Organoid..."

"Who may or may not have read this legend. It's too similar to be just a coincidence."

"I'm not sure... I mean, there have been vampire-like deaths for months, but they suddenly spiked in the last few weeks...."

"…Some of those were from me..." Atherin said quietly. "But it seems that he's just killing for fun."

Ibeyla shuddered. "I still think we are just dealing with a boy and an Organoid..."

"Whatever the case, they're dangerous. Now, what did you two find?"

Raven handed him the book. "Here..." he said, pointing to the pictures and captions, "... it says here that Vareix have paralyzing venom, and can hypnotize prey with their eyes. Says also that they can see body heat and hear their prey's heartbeat, and that some have the ability to 'melt' and travel in shadows..."

"...I'm not sure on how to combat against the venom, but the hypnotizing can most likely be countered with a strong mental will power, charm for me, but willpower for you. I can't see body heat, but my senses allow me to pick up on the faintest of sounds. Unfortunately, I can't 'melt' into shadows...I can only create fire..."

"I remember my parents had studied a Vareix. They said that Vareix were really dangerous, and that some had even evolved to hunt vampires, which doesn't make sense. But, their spines are sometimes poisoned and that... they keep their victims alive while they eat them..."

"...It's to gain a vampire's power...not just the special power, like creating fire, but physical strength, mental strength, speed, and all that. ...I know that to you it sounds disgusting but, 'feeding' off a victim while they're still alive is actually better for us…"

Ibeyla nodded. "I remember... an Organoid I befriended was Vareix. Her name was Neosa; she was the gentlest Organoid I ever met. She explained all that to me, before she was killed..." Ibeyla trailed off, "... but it does make sense, and if this rogue has a Vareix partner, it could be paralyzing people so he can feed on them while they're alive..."

"...It's not like vampires can't paralyze people either. ...I've...done it a few times..." Atherin trailed off.

Ibeyla blinked. "You... have?" she gulped, "It doesn't matter, that was in the past. Right now we need to focus on capturing the rogue before he and his Organoid do something rash..."

"..." /...Why now? Why now of times and places does my 'hunger' decide that it needs blood and now.../

Ibeyla noticed something was wrong. "Atherin, are you alright?"

"...I'm...'hungry'..."

"Hey, don't be looking at us Dracula..." Raven snapped.

"I'll save you for later." Atherin snapped back. His 'hunger' gave him a slight personality change.

Raven glared back, seemingly unfazed. "Try me, vampire..."

Atherin smirked and allowed his eyes to change to the red that they had been threatening to turn to since earlier today. His hair looked like it had a breeze blowing through it, giving him the demonic look of a vampire from old legends. Before Ibeyla or Raven could do or say anything, Atherin disappeared and reappeared behind Raven, holding Raven's arms behind his back, so he couldn't do anything. He whispered to him; "Don't tempt me." before he was out the door in a swirl of wind.

Raven gulped and sat down, his eyes wide and breathing shallow. Ibeyla sat next to him, and in an instant Shadow was nosing and staring at him, looking for bite marks. "Don't mess with vampires, Raven, you'll live longer..." Ibeyla said. Raven looked at her. "Yeah... I'll keep that in mind..."

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Author's Note: ^^; They so did not get off on the right foot, but at least Ibeyla and Raven accept Atherin for what he is. Some back story is revealed and now they're on the search for dealing with the rogue's Organoid. Atherin's gone 'hunting' again but will he nail another human without getting caught? Or will he get caught and cause an uproar? You'll just have to wait and find out! Review Please!!