SECRETS

Moonbay was dreaming. Finally, she had the perfect life she had always of a sudden, everything became a blur.

She opened her eyes and realized that Fiona and Marianne were nowhere to be found in the lounge. She decided to take a nap earlier until everyone had already set up the gears for their Zoids.

Outside the lounge, she heard a glass break. She curiously trailed where the noise came and ended up in a study room. Colonel Schubaltz was there and Raven as well.

"What was that?" Moonbay asked, seeing broken pieces of a mug on the floor.

"Raven just dropped his mug, there's nothing to worry about, Moonbay." Colonel Schubaltz calmly replied.

Dropped his mug? Moonbay wondered.

"Don't worry about that Raven, we'll have someone to clean that up." The Colonel seemed like he had a lot more to say, but Raven's cold expression on his face seemed like he wasn't interested at all, or perhaps it's the other way around.

The maverick hadn't spoken a word and continued to stare down as if he's in a deep thought.

They must be talking about something serious I bet. Moonbay thought.

It has been a long while since he last had a conversation with the Colonel. A little while ago, Raven was called in the study room talk about something private. Soon it turned out to be more like a closure.

Colonel Schubaltz knew Raven as a child being trained to become an assassin, but he answered to no one but Prozen. Raven looked at his allies as his enemies and would never abide to work with anyone. Even if Raven intends to be a part of the Guardian Force or not, he still needs to learn how to work along with his comrades and cooperate, or else the officials might have to reconsider to incarcerate him due to the countless bases he had destroyed in before.

Raven has been suppressing all his emotions for a long time now. The Colonel thought that there something traumatizing must have happened to Raven that made him the way he is. He wanted to help Raven to let go of his anger.

But then, the Colonel mentioned about Raven's parents.

Remembering his parent's death was the last thing Raven would want to talk about. Reese was the one who made him recall all those things, but he doesn't blame her for anything even if the memories pains him. It was an organoid that killed his parents, not her.

"I'm going out for a while." Raven muttered, pacing out of the room.

Colonel Schubaltz watched Raven leave, and then he breathed. "What am I going to do with that kid?"

"What's going on?" Moonbay asked again. "What were you two talking about?"

"I was just telling him what he ought to be if he wants to keep himself from getting behind bars." The Colonel blandly said.

Moonbay raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Why the look on your face?" asked Colonel Schubaltz. "Are you skeptic about something?"

Moonbay stammered. "That's not what I meant! It's just that Raven kind of looked disturbed when he left. Is he going to be all right?"

"Just give him some space for a while." The Colonel took his hat on the table then placed it on his head. "Now if you'll excuse me there's somewhere I need to be."

He left Moonbay alone afterwards.

I wish I could read his mind. Where am I supposed to be now? Moonbay asked herself. Glancing down on the floor, she noticed that the broken mug was still there. "I hope Schubaltz haven't forgotten about this. He said he'll send someone to clean this up." She stood there for a minute, waiting. I think he did forget about this. With a frown, Moonbay went out to look for a servant about the mess in the study room.

Later on, after thinking for a long while, Moonbay decided to look for the maverick. There was something she wanted to know about him not that she wants to snoop about Raven's life. I don't have any idea about what I'm planning to do but I think that he just needs someone to open up with. She thought.

She saw Raven gazing out of the balcony, watching the three organoids chase each other. She cleared her throat to let him know that she was there instead of getting him startled. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"

Raven's eyes glanced at her, aloof as always. "Are you looking for Fiona? She's downstairs."

"Actually…" Moonbay began with a smiling face. "I just thought that you might want to have a company. You seem terribly lonely." She said, attempting to cheer Raven up.

"Not really." He moved away from the railings to leave.

"Wait, I didn't mean to disturb you." Moonbay quickly said, stopping Raven from leaving.

"Quit bothering me." Raven coldly muttered.

"Just let it out. You don't need to hide it." Moonbay firmly said.

"What are you saying?" Raven sounded confused.

"You seem a little distracted lately." said Moonbay. "Stop treating yourself like you're all alone in this world. You have us, don't you?"

Raven averted his gaze somewhere else. "So you want me to express my innermost emotions, is that it?"

"Carrying all the burden in you won't help. Just try to understand that we're all here to help you, not to judge you." Moonbay told him in a calm way, hoping that he wouldn't snub her away.

There was a sneer in Raven's eyes, and then coldly told her, "Leave me alone." He began to walk away, thinking that it would shrug Moonbay off. But she didn't.

"I thought you aren't afraid of anything, Raven, but you're acting more like a coward now." Moonbay grumbled with a frown on her face.

Raven faced Moonbay with a sharp glare. "What exactly do you want me to say?"

"I already told you, haven't I?" Moonbay said, determined and persistent.

Raven's shoulders tightened. He gritted his teeth in annoyance but tried to contain his anger. He had never met anyone who would be as mulish as Moonbay. Even Reese knew when to keep her distance, or perhaps it may have been like that because she already knew what Raven was thinking so she doesn't ever bother him with questions.

Raven breathed, trying to calm his mind, but there was nothing Moonbay could do to change his mind. "You won't be able to do anything about it even if I told you. Just mind your own business. I won't be nice the next time you come at me to say things that don't matter."

Moonbay watched Raven leave. She could hardly believe at what she just did. Talking to him felt nerve-wracking, especially when she saw the intense look in his eyes.

It takes a lot of guts for someone to confront Raven like that, and it surprised Moonbay that she was able to do it. But why did I do that? She asked herself, and then shook her head as if regretting what she had done.

"Moonbay…" Reese's voice murmured across another side of an entrance going to the balcony. There was a weary expression on her face.

"R-Reese! I didn't know you were there." Moonbay stammered. Don't tell me that she saw the whole thing! This is embarrassing…

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just happened to pass by." Reese explained in a low tone. "What you just did actually amazed me." She timidly said.

Moonbay became curious. "You are?"

"The truth is, I was never brave enough to confront him the way you did." The Zoidian muttered pessimistically.

No way! I don't know if I should be wowing myself or if I should tremble. "What I did was a little stupid. I shouldn't have said those things. Now Raven hates me twice as before." groused Moonbay.

"I don't think he hates you that much." said Reese. "Actually, I've been waiting for him to open up, but he never did. I blame myself for that sometimes…" Reese gazed on the floor with contempt. "I never should've brought back those memories."

Moonbay crossed her arms. "Things were different back then. It's not that I understand what you're talking about but I don't think that we should leave him be."

Reese closed her eyes and then sighed. "I just don't want to make him angry."

"We won't be able to accomplish anything if we keep on spoiling him around." Moonbay said. "Why doesn't he talk about his self anyway, does he want to be the 'mysterious guy' of the bunch for the rest of his life?"

A smile cracked on Reese's face. "He tends to shy away when it comes to letting other people know what he's feeling. I think he just needs a pat on the back and some comforting words to make him talk."

"I wish it was that easy." Moonbay pouted.

"You'll never know unless you try." jested Reese.

Moonbay raised an eyebrow on Reese. "Then why don't you give it a try then? You're the closest person to Raven, I know it."

Reese shrugged with a coy grin. "It kind of makes me feel weird."

"Why, does he bite?" asked Moonbay.

"Well, it's kind of like getting an electric shock before you could touch him, and you'll get this feeling that he already knows what you're going to say so he'll quickly snap until you give up." Reese exaggerated, and then confessed that she tried it once but didn't turn out quite well.

Sometimes it was difficult to be around with the maverick. He talks only when he feels like it and does his duties in his own way even if the order was given by a higher official. Raven doesn't really care about being ordered around. He just doesn't like the thought of being someone else's pawn or puppet.

"Do you know something about him that he doesn't want anyone else to know?" Moonbay murmured, moving closer to Reese.

Like how cute he was when he was a kid? And about his real name…I don't think I should be telling anyone about that. "He doesn't know much about girls." Reese lied. Although, what she said was somewhat true as well.

"Oh. That doesn't sound so relevant, I think. What I actually had in mind was something more, you know, serious. Something that would make his brain explode when everyone knew about it." Moonbay eagerly told Reese.

Maybe next time. I don't want to be the one rolling the dice here. Reese thought, being cautious. "Why don't we just give him some space for now. He'll talk eventually." She said, folding her arms.

"I don't mean to pry but I'm starting to think that you're trying to hide something." said Moonbay with a curious expression.

Reese forced an I-don't-know-much expression on her face. "I'd be telling you if I knew everything but unfortunately, I don't." She lied again.

Moonbay exhaled, finally giving up. "All right." You win.

"We better go, I think they're already done with their, uh, packing." Reese said, trying to keep Moonbay's mind somewhere else.

The Zoidian observed that she had been getting better with her mind games and no one seemed to suspect if she were bluffing or not. It was fun for her, but less amusing to some people, like Raven.

They were scheduled to leave Guylos after noon, and then return to HQ for a couple of missions and then back to whatever they want to do to spend the rest of the remaining hours for the day.

Luckily, they'd be arriving to HQ in 4 hours. It won't be necessary for another crazy camping especially if Wesley's around with a bottle of booze if they left early. They just learned that he keeps one wherever he goes. A sort of addiction, though Wesley insists that he wasn't addicted to liquor.

As for Van, he couldn't stop thinking about his next epic battle with Raven. But all his expectations just keeps melting away since Raven clearly hasn't been talking about having his Geno Breaker's core restored. He could just simply snap his finger and Shadow would already be there to fix the core but he just wouldn't do it. Van had already asked twice about it but he only heard the same words over again. Everyone's curious about when would the scarlet monster be back again. It sounds ironic since they were trying so hard to bring it down before.

Seeing Raven arrive near the Gustav, Van could notice that he seemed a little distracted about something though doubted to get anything out of him if he were to ask.

But he could try.

He could try to force it out of the maverick.

It doesn't matter if it was a good or bad idea or somewhere in the middle.

Someone's got to step up and Raven can't just stay quiet forever.