Ch. 4
Almost a month went by and the teams had come up with nothing more then a general description of Vailen, finding out that the man who ran into Van in the Wind Colony may have been the man himself, a tall blonde haired green eyed man, nothing else, not even a real name if Vailen wasn't his real name. Van and Fiona had retrieved little Daniel from Maria. No one had noticed the difference in the way Wolf and Clare were acting together, if they did notice they weren't saying anything. Emperor Rudolf was visiting the base with his wife Marian for an inspection.
"Captain Novis, what is this Vailen person after exactly?" Marian asked as they walked the halls.
"We're not totally sure of his intentions, what we do know is he is going to come after the team who defeated the Death Tiger two years ago," the black haired man replied as he lead the royal pair through the halls.
Rudolph was too busy pretending to look around to notice the look of disgust Marian was displaying, possibly caused by Wolf's apparent lack of showing respect.
"Captain, I ask you to show respect to the wife of the Emperor," Marian said stopping in the middle of the hall.
"Madam Highness, the Emperor and I have a friendship that allows me to get away with slightly less show, my respect for him and you need not be shown at every turn," Wolf said his eyes turning red at his will just to shake the young woman.
"Wolf that's enough, Marian I will speak to you later about this, now, shall we continue the inspection rounds?" Rudolph said as he gestured to Wolf to continue walking.
"Yes, forgive my outburst Your Highness," Wolf said with a very small smirk as he moved to continue the inspection turning his eyes back to blue, 'I really do enjoy seeing her jump some times.' He thought as they walked along.
With the inspection finished Wolf was dismissed at the door of the Emperor's quarters, he headed towards Lieutenant Clare O'Connell's quarters. When he arrived he stupidly entered, without knocking first. Before he realized what had happened a towel landed on his head, covering his eyes and filling his nose with a somewhat pleasant smell.
"Leave it there till I say so," Clare's voice came to his ears laced with anger when he reached to remove it.
"Sorry, should have knocked first I guess," He said trying not to laugh as he crossed his arms, leaving the towel on his head.
"Yes, you should have, you're safe now you can take it off," Clare said a lot calmer now.
She laughed when Wolf just stood there towel on his head as if he hadn't heard her. She pulled the towel off his head for him and he leaned down and kissed her as he wrapped his arms around her.
"So where are we going tonight?" the stone grey eyed girl asked as she leaned into Wolf's hug.
"I was thinking maybe a night in. You, me, and a bag of popcorn and what ever is on the TV," the blue eyed man said chuckling seeing Clare's face light up.
"Hey, just what exactly would I have seen if I had pulled the towel off?" Wolf asked as they sat down on the couch.
"Nothing, I just felt like messing with you, I've been standing there with that towel for five minutes," Clare laughed as Wolf shook his head.
Meanwhile in the Emperor's quarters Rudolph was very unhappy with his wife.
"Marian, Wolf is not just some officer who is required to salute and say your highness all the time, he is not that formal even with his commanding officers, and I don't ask him to be around me, you should know that by the way he acted on his first guard duty with me," Rudolph said with only slight elevation in his tone.
"You stopped giving Fiona a hard time about this last year, why can't you include Van and Wolf?" the brown haired young man asked in a normal tone.
"Because you let them boss you around, and they shouldn't be allowed to do that so casually," Marian huffed, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Marian, when Wolf or Van or even Irvine order me to do something, they mean for it to protect me, and neither Van nor Wolf have yet to directly order me to do anything, more like they ask me to do it and I oblige," Rudolph said with a slight chuckle.
"Alright, but I won't like it," Marian said letting her arms down.
"You should also know that I choose which base I'm going to based on them being there while I am so I can have a little fun while I'm working," Rudolf said with a chuckle seeing his wife pout like a five year old.
A few days went by, Wolf, Van and Irvine spent most of the time fixing up the Zoids or planning who to go after next. Clare spent her time doing pretty much what ever she was asked to and helping Wolf with her Blade Liger. Rudolph and Marian returned to the Imperial capital city of Guygalos. Daniel was out on assignment trying to find a bandit crew that had been causing trouble with a few of the villages near by. Thomas and Dr. D were once again modifying the shields on the Blade Ligers and the other Zoids.
In the hanger Wolf and Clare were working out a problem with the back left leg on the Konig Wolf. Van, Irvine, Raven and Reese were working on their own Zoids.
"Hey Van, can you come here a sec," Irvine called from the cockpit of his Lightning Siax.
"What's up Irvine?" Van asked as he got up to the cockpit of the Siax.
"Have you ever known Wolf to let anyone pilot or even so much as sit in the pilot's seat of that Konig of his?" the messy brown haired man asked sounding genuinely curious.
"Not that I know of, why?" the spiky black haired man's question trailed off, his eyes following the line Irvine's finger was pointing at. Clare was sitting in the pilot's seat of the Konig Wolf and Wolf was showing her something in the controls.
"Wow, didn't see that coming," Van said before he lost his footing and fell of the Lightning Siax's head, "Didn't see that coming either."
Irvine and Zeke were both laughing hysterically as Van peeled himself off the floor rubbing his head.
"We've searched the whole of this general area Lieutenant Novis, it may be an underground base," an officer said through an open com link to a dark blue Great Zaber.
"Keep up the hunt we may find something yet," the blonde haired officer said leaning back in the seat.
An explosion racked the ground around the Zaber's feet. Before Daniel could realize fully what was going on around him, his team was out of commission and he was dodging fire as if on auto pilot.
"Take down that Zaber, NOW," a voice rang through the cockpit.
"This is Lieutenant Daniel Novis, if any one friendly to the Guardian Force can hear this, I am in need of assistance, repeat I am under attack, I am under attack," Daniel screamed at the radio continuing to dodge the incoming fire. Daniel felt a shooting pain run through his entire body and all went black.
"Daniel, hang on little brother, you're gonna be alright," Daniel heard as he saw lights flashing past him.
"The Docs gonna fix you up Daniel just hang on," Van's voice seemed to echo in his head.
'What's going on guys, where am I,' Daniel's thoughts were so loud in his head he thought he'd spoken them. Everything went black again.
"Come on little brother, mom's gonna kill me if you die," Wolf's voice like Van's echoed through Daniel's mind.
Flashback
"I am under attack," Daniel screamed at the radio before everything went black… He woke up to see a tall blonde man standing over him in the cockpit of his Zaber Fang. Barely conscious he only took note of what the man was saying more than what he looked like.
"My name is Vailen I am the man who is out to seek revenge on those who killed my brother Razor, if you live, deliver that message," Vailen said as once again everything went dark.
Half an hour after the distress call went out a medical team arrived to find a badly beaten and dying Daniel sitting strapped into what was left of his Zaber Fang.
"DANIEL!" Wolf screamed as he ran to help his brother, his eyes turned blood red over his usual blue eyes his tone loaded with concern. Daniel visibly had one broken arm and several ribs could be concluded from the amount of blood he was coughing up.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP ME GET HIM OUT OF HERE!" his black haired brother screamed at the top of his lungs.
Clare had never seen her friend this upset before and it scared her thinking of what he might do, Van and Irvine had seen this side of Wolf before but were still worrying about his next actions.
"Irvine, help him get Daniel out of there, Clare all you can do right now, is support him, if he says it, do it," Van said trying to hide the fact he was scared of what could happen to Daniel.
"Sir, I don't know what you mean," Clare said with true confusion in her voice.
"We don't have time for this Lieutenant, we know about you and Wolf, now go," Van yelled as he returned to the medical unit.
End Flashback
It had been two weeks since the incident, Daniel had only gained consciousness long enough in that time to write 'Vailen, Razor's brother' before slipping into a coma.
"Mike, you need to sleep baby," Clare said not really caring at this point who knew they were together, Wolf looked like he had not moved in over a week and probably slept even less.
"I can't not till he wakes up, you hear that little brother, I'm not moving till you wake up," the black haired man said doing his best not to cry, his eyes showing a mix of red and blue.
'Now what do I do,' the blue haired girl thought as she started to leave the room.
"Would you sit with me? Just to keep me from losing my mind," Wolf asked with a look that was practically begging her to.
"Okay, Mike," was all Clare could say when she sat on the couch next to him.
A minute later she felt a weight on her shoulder, when she looked down she saw Wolf sleeping peacefully while leaning on her. She moved him as slowly as possible from her shoulder, putting his head on her lap.
"Everything will be okay," She whispered as she bent down to kiss him on the cheek.
Wolf woke up sometime later, he was lying down on the couch, something but not a pillow was under his head. He started remembering what happened shortly before he went to sleep, he then looked up to see he was lying on Clare's lap and she was asleep using her hand as a pillow. Wolf moved himself to a standing position doing his best to not wake her up.
'She's so beautiful, even when she's asleep,' the black haired man thought as he laid her down on the couch, again trying not to wake her up. He bent down and kissed her cheek before her turned his attention towards a rustling noise he'd heard from the direction of the bed.