Um…unfortunately, I didn't put this up as soon as I said I would. I just wasn't motivated to do so, sorry to say.
Anyway, things will get a little more confusing here. You'll find out a little more about Sai and what happened to him.
Disclaimer: I don't own zoids, but I do own a few characters in here.
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General Zen walked through the ruins of what was once his army. Many of his soldiers had been wiped out during the battle with Scarlet. However, he was only looking for one person. He was looking for the young Lieutenant Reid. However, he wasn't having much luck finding him. Zen picked through piles of twisted metal, searching. He still found nothing. No one was left. The sound of his men crying out for their lives filled his ears. The last words of Reid had been nothing more than a simple apology. Zen hated that. Reid had no reason to apologize. Zen still had faith in the boy. He wouldn't die that easily. Zen sat down near his zoid and sighed. He thought back to about 7 years ago. He had been a soldier in the empire for a long time. Nine years ago, he was 21 and very foolish.
/Flashback/
The town around him was burning, but he wasn't afraid. In fact, he had been the one who had started it. The young captain of the Imperial army, Zen Suetsu, was standing in the middle of the burning town. He looked around for survivors. Indeed, his unit had started the fire, but he was still looking for civilians who might have survived.
"Mother!"
The cry caught his attention. He turned around and saw a boy around the age of eleven. He was kneeling near a woman, blood all around her. The boy was also covered in blood, some his own and some his mother's. The captain walked over to him and stood behind him.
"Hey," said Zen. The boy tensed and turned around to face the man. His eyes were wet with tears, which mixed in with the blood on his face. The captain knelt down so that he was at eye level with the boy. The boy looked slightly scared, and Zen took pity on him.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," he assured the boy. "Tell me, what's your name?"
"I-it's Saigo. Saigo Reid."
"Well, Saigo, let's get out of here. This wrecked village is no place for a boy like you."
"But I…my mother…"
"I'm sorry about your mother, truly I am, but you can't stay here. Come on. I'll take you somewhere where you'll be safe."
"I don't know…"
"It's alright. I promise you'll be okay. How about this? I'll train you to become a zoid pilot."
"A zoid pilot?"
"That's right. What do you say, huh?" He gave Saigo a warm smile, which caused the boy to smile slightly as well. He stood up and so did Zen. "Come along then. Let's get going."
"Okay." Zen took the boy's hand and walked with him out of the village.
/End Flashback/
'After that, I raised Saigo to be an amazing zoid pilot, but he never quite warmed up to me the way I wanted him to. I was hoping he would see me as more than his superior officer. Perhaps more like a brother, or a father, instead of his General. That stupid boy. He just had to go off and get himself killed. I suppose this is the price I pay for getting too close to someone. He doesn't even realize what he really is. In some ways…he's no different from her.' Zen stood up from his place on the sand and walked to his zoid. He got in and headed back towards his base.
******
Sai opened his eyes and saw nothing but bright lights. His head was throbbing. He squinted to try and block some of the light. A familiar and sickening sent entered his senses and he cringed. It was blood. It was the iron like smell of blood. He looked around and noticed that he was in a laboratory room, made of dark metals. He hated the sight of it.
"Where…am I?" he asked. He was only about 16. He hated the idea of being alone.
"You're in the lab," answered a man in a lab coat. He wore black glasses to conceal his eyes and to block the light. Sai looked at the man and then looked down at himself. He noticed that he was only wearing a pair of pants. His shirt was gone. There were lines drawn on his chest, as if it was a map to an operation. His eyes filled with horror.
"What's going on?" he asked in a panic.
"Relax, Mr. Reid. Everything will be fine."
"Like heck it will," he shouted back.
"We are simply going to modify you. Over the years, your body has weakened, and we are simply going to fix it."
"Don't you dare touch me! Let me out of here!"
"It's no use." The man walked over to Sai and pulled out a scalpel. "It's time to begin." A hand placed a gas mask on Sai and he couldn't help but breathe in the fumes. His whole body began to feel numb, but he continued to watch as the blade came down on him, cutting his soft skin.
******
Sai shot straight up, a cry of terror leaving his mouth as he did so. However, he stretched his wounds and cried out in pain before falling back. He could feel his wounds rip and bleed. He was breathing hard, his eyes closed. It was late and everyone was asleep. 'What was that? Was it a nightmare…or a memory? I don't remember.' He placed his hand near his stomach and touched the wet bandages. He pulled his hand away and looked at it. It was covered in blood. His eyes were wide at the sight. He then felt sick. He began to cough, covering his mouth with his other hand. He rolled to his side, trying to stop the pain in his chest as he coughed. He stopped and removed his hand. He saw blood there and he could taste it in his mouth. It had that iron taste that made him feel even sicker. He began coughing again and he rolled a little further, falling off the bed and onto the floor. His door was open, letting in some light. He could see specks of blood on the floor. 'What's happening?' he pondered. He tried to get up, but stumbled and crashed into the wall. He fell forwards again, still coughing as pain seared through his damaged body. It was just too much for him. 'Someone help me.'
"Sai!" cried out two voices. He recognized them instantly, but he couldn't see them. He was still coughing and he felt horrible. The people ran over to him and knelt by his side. They were Van and Fiona.
"Sai, are you alright?" asked Fiona. Sai could do nothing but cough into his hand. Once his coughing fit was over, he removed his hand from his mouth, only to find it covered in blood. Van and Fiona both seemed to gasp at the sight.
"What's going on?" asked Doctor D, who came running into the room with Karl, Irvine, Moonbay, and Scarlet behind him. Sai's eyes were wide as he stared at the blood. 'It's happening again…but I don't understand…I don't…remember…anything.' After completing that thought, he coughed a few more times. Afterwards, he began to feel dizzy and passed out on the floor of his room.
******
"So, just what's wrong with him, gramps?" asked Van. They had left the base and went to the hospital in the nearby town. The doctors instantly took in Sai and began to work on him. Everyone else sat in the waiting room. Van and Fiona were both worried for their new friend, while Irvine seemed slightly bored. Moonbay seemed worried, yet not as much as Van and Fiona were. Karl just sat quietly, waiting, while Scarlet had fallen asleep in a chair after pacing for nearly an hour. Doctor D just sat down and sighed. He had recently talked to a doctor about Sai and had heard what was going on. He had been allowed to come in, since he was, of course, the famous Doctor D.
"I'm afraid that none of the news is good. First off, all this moving around has reopened his chest wound, and because of the battle he was in, he ended up with a few internal injuries as well. Besides that, he has some kind of disease that not even the doctors have seen, so they can't treat it now. Also, it seems he's had it for quite some time now, and they're surprised he's still alive. This disease is so strange, since he seems perfectly fine, it's just…I don't know. This is all so confusing," he said as he put his hands on the sides of his head. Even Doctor D was getting stumped. "Besides that, they found a strange trace of metal in his blood. It seems that he has a metallic form of Zoid magnite in his blood system. The strangest part is it's the same with Scarlet." They all gasped at this.
"So Sai was also created?" asked Fiona. Doctor D shook his head.
"No, he wasn't created. The metal was injected into him. He has the scars to prove it."
"Why would somebody do that to him?" asked Van.
"I'm not sure. Whoever did it wanted to improve his physical strength. It's possible that this is what caused him to get sick."
"But he's been fine up until now," pointed out Irvine. "Why is this affecting him now?"
"That's what they're trying to figure out. It's all so confusing. According to them, he should have died long ago. All the battles he's been in have taken their toll on him. His body is weak right now and the disease is taking advantage of that."
"So just what are you saying?" asked Moonbay. "Does this mean he has no hope in living?"
"Well…the only way to save him will be to enhance the metal in his blood. Unfortunately, this is a painful process. I'm surprised anyone would do this to him in the first place. Even if you're basically numb at the time, the pain is still great. The doctors are waiting for him to wake up to see what he wants to do about this. They would never do an operation like this without his consent."
"So in other words, Sai still might die," said Scarlet. She had woken up recently and had been listening to the conversation.
"In short, yes. He doesn't have much of a chance at surviving this," answered Doctor D. Scarlet turned her eyes to the floor.
"This is all my fault," she said quietly.
"Why do you say that?" asked Karl.
"He wouldn't be injured if I hadn't tried to kill him. His injury is only making his condition worse. If it hadn't been for me, he would have been…"
"Scarlet, it's not your fault he's like this. It's the people who did this to him," said Van. Even though they had only known Sai for a day, they all felt a deep hatred towards the person who had done this to him. Anyone who would surgically enhance a person by cutting them open and experimenting on them, plus injecting metal into their blood, deserved to be punished badly. And they would make sure they took care of it personally.
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Confusing, ne? How about I unconfused it.
Sai's condition: Sai and Scarlet both have zoid magnite in their blood, but scarlet was created like that where as Sai was altered when he was sixteen. Because of the enhancements, he suffers from an incurable disease that could kill him if the zoid magnite isn't enhanced again.
Does that help at all for those who were confused? I'll try to explain it a little more in the next chapter. I needed that little recap too, cause I was confusing myself for a while.
Anyway, I'll update near Thanks Giving, so look for it.
See ya!