Simple Lessons
Told in Fiona's Point of View
We all watched the DeathSaurer go down. We all watched it be destroyed. The Zoid Eve now works for the good of all mankind, mortal and Ancient Zodian alike. Are you that eager to die Elise Lynette? The words stung in my head. All of the troubles of the world were over and I was still moping about how it was my entire fault. Maybe I was eager to die. After the Zoid Eve was revived for the purpose of good, what greater purpose did I have? Someone had put me on this Earth to do something. Before, I knew, it was to find the Zoid Eve. Had I no greater purpose in life? I shook my head. I searched my head for answers, but all that lay there were the old feeling of Zoid Eve. It was a horrible feeling. To not have any reason to live is a reason to die. I turned to Van and Maria, bustling over the dishes. A mortal's purpose was to live and have babies and die, or so I was told. My head was empty and my soul was empty. Nothing mattered to me, because there was nothing to think about. No worries. For now I lived for the present, helping Maria to cook and do laundry. I knew I couldn't live with them forever. I couldn't overstay my welcome.
Van stood in the graveyard looking down at one of the stone tablets. I waited outside the gates. It was not my place to impose on him. This was his time to talk to his father. I felt a horrible pang of jealousy for Van. He knew how his father died. I knew not. For all I knew, Hiltz could've as well been my father. I shook the thought from my head. He had no greater purpose then to destroy. And my greater purpose was to…Nothing rang in my head. When Van returned to me, I said. "I'm leaving." He looked startled. "Where will you go?" I made up things as I went along. "I'm going where I belong." "And where is that?" asked Van. To the grave, I thought. To be buried six feet underground where I would have the purpose of feeding the parasites that would feed on my lifeless cadaver. When I didn't answer he said. "You're welcome to stay with me and Maria, you're welcome to live with us." Yeah, that was me, an extra mouth to feed. More money spent that they did not have. "Ok, spill, what's bugging you?" he asked getting in front of me and walking backwards. Tears spilled out of my eyes and I tried hard not to notice them. I looked at the sky. "Its nothing Van." I said wiping the cursed tears away from my face. I suddenly thought of Reece. She and Raven were drifters, traveling from town to town together. Making just enough money to support them. Reece had her greater purpose, to love Raven and keep him out of trouble. Van could take care of himself. He didn't need me. No one needed me.
"You don't cry for no apparent reason." Said Van smiling. "C'mon its okay." Said Van embracing me. "No!" I screamed. "No, Van! Its not ok!" New tears sprang from my eyes. I ran. I ran as fast I could. I didn't want to look at him. I never wanted to look at his face again. I never ever wanted to think of Van Flyheight as long as I lived. I ran through the forest and tripped over a giant tree's root. "Damned tree!" I shouted at it. I didn't get up. I didn't see the point. If I was lucky I would have a massive heart attack and die right here. Let the worms eat my worthless body. It wouldn't matter to me. I didn't know how long it was, but it started to rain. "Damned rain." I whispered to the dirt. Van must have followed me because I heard him call. If he never found me, that'd be fine with me. I'd just lay here and die. "Fiona!" Damn it, he found me. He picked me up off the ground. "C'mon Fiona say something!" he commanded. He was worried and panicking. I pushed him away. "No Van, I'm not going to say anything! I'm going to lay here and die!" He pulled me up by my arm. Curse these weak arms of mine. "Fiona what are you talking about? Hurry up and come home. Maria is worried sick!" he said. I drooped down. I'm a rag doll. A dead rag doll. No, I'm not dead yet. He let go of my arms. "Tell Maria," I said slowly. "I died."
"Fiona! You're being ridiculous!" said Van. I could tell he was scared and worried and angry at the same time. "Stop being stubborn!" He said. He tried to grab me again. I didn't resist. I must've been a sight to see. Half of my body was covered in dirt and I was dripping wet. "Van let me go! Let me die!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I ripped my hand from him. I was sobbing but I didn't care. I started to run from him and tripped over the same root. This time he just looked at me. He was crying now too. He knelt beside me. "Fiona, please tell me what's wrong." I made the mistake of looking at him. He was drenched like me. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Then I started to laugh. I laughed like a maniac. I laughed and I cried at the same time. I was both happy and sad. Van must've thought this was all a joke because soon he started to laugh to. And there we were, laughing like maniacs in the rain. He was laughing because I was laughing and I was laughing because I wanted die.
I don't know how he did it, but he got me home somehow. Maria was so happy to see us both, although I don't know why. We were only gone a couple of hours. I dressed in new clothes and sat down at the kitchen table. I didn't know how I felt. I was just Fiona. I was Fiona sitting at the kitchen table. I was Fiona looking into the distance. I was Fiona. And I was Elise. I was the same person with two names. I was two people with one name. Van sat down across from me. He played with the salt container and dropped it on the floor. It made a clinking sound, but didn't break. "It's plastic." He explained, "It can't break." I'm a plastic saltshaker. I can't break. I cannot be broken. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't be. I give people salt and in return they drop me on the floor and pick me up. Fiona can be broken. Fiona can die. Fiona wants to die. Fiona gives people heartache and in return they give her love. I smoothed back my hair. "Moonbay and Irvine are visiting tomorrow." He said. I nodded to show my acknowledgement. Then he left.
Moonbay and Irvine did come the next day. They came in Moonbay's gustav. Irvine's Lightning Six was in the shop for repairs. "Hey Fiona!" yelled Moonbay eagerly. She embraced me warmly. "Haven't seen you in a while!" she was so happy, so unlike me. While they chatted eagerly about their new lives as members of some new military organization, I wandered off. Reece was there. She was in the graveyard under the apple tree. I walked to her. "There's something you should know." She said. "We were created." I scoffed "I think everyone and everything on Zi is created" Reece narrowed her eyes. "Do you want to hear this or not?" she demanded. I said nothing else. "Alright. Long ago, before the DeathSaurer, a women was condemned to death for some crime committed. The only way she was to survive was to have two children. So if the Zoid Eve ever went wrong, then these two would be able to destroy it in time before the entire population of the planet was destroyed." Said Reece. "She had two girls, but the strain of delivering the second child killed her." "How did she get pregnant?" I asked. "The power of the Zoid Eve." Answered Reece. "We grew up in a military base. We learned what to do if the Zoid Eve went wrong, if the people started to use the Zoids for evil reasons, instead of good. Then at the age of 12 we were stuffed into pods. Our bodies were preserved, like a couple of fruits. We are the only two living ancient Zodians. We have no greater purpose now that the Zoid Eve is used for good like it should've been." How did Reece know? How did she know about me, how I was feeling? "We must find a greater purpose. A human's is to love." Said Reece. "I've found my love." I turned away. I didn't care if she found anything. "I just wanted you to know." Said Reece "That you can give your powers to the Zoid Eve."
Give my powers to the Zoid Eve? "What powers?" I asked suspiciously. She suddenly looked like her old self, her eyes full of mischief. "You couldn't possibly think that Van's blade liger and Raven's genosaurer evolved by themselves do you?" she asked. "Do you really think a single organoid could achieve power like that?" I shook my head. "You knew you were evolving Van's blade liger, you just didn't want to admit it. We are the children of the Zoid Eve. We have the power." "I have the power." I corrected her. "What did you mean by giving your powers to the Zoid Eve?" She grabbed my hand and traced around it. I had no idea what she was doing…but I let her go on with it. She shoved my hand right up in my face. "Look at it!" she commanded. I could see a faint scar; it was slashed across my hand in the shape of a sloppily drawn star. "Mine is fading." She said, showing me hers. It was barely noticible, but it was there, and it was fading. Her scar was slowly fading. "What happens when it totally fades?" I asked. "I'll become human." She shook her head. "I don't need my powers to be happy." I gritted my teeth. She teleported elsewhere, I guess that was the last of her powers. I stared at my palm, the sign of worthlessness. No one wants to carry this sign. I leaned against the cursed apple tree. I was the only one left. I was the only Ancient Zodian left. An ancient Zodian created out of desperateness. I was a piece of trash. I belonged in the trash.
There in the graveyard, I cried my soul out. I sat in the shade of the apple tree just letting my entire soul. Irvine and Moonbay came to get me, and by then, it was raining, so they couldn't tell I was crying. "Hey Fiona, Van told us you were acting a little strange. So what's up?" I shook my head. Irvine just walked silently behind Moonbay looking at the crying sky. "C'mon, you can tell me! I'm like your big sister!" Moonbay put her arm around me and laughed. "You can tell me anything! What is it? You like Van don't you? You got a little crush on him?" I wasn't really acknowledging Moonbay but I saw Reece and Raven standing in the graveyard in the corner of my eye. "What must it be like?" said Reece. Raven looked at her strangely. "To have no purpose. To feel so empty as to want to die?" Raven felt a deep sense of sorrow for the poor ancient Zodian girl. "She must be lonely." He said. Reece looked at her faded scar guiltily. "Yeah."
Moonbay slept soundly on Maria and Van's couch, and Irvine slept soundly sitting up at the kitchen table. I stood at the counter, my hands trembling and making the coffee mug in my hands clink on the counter. My tears slowly dripped into the mug. Evolving Zoids and healing Zoids, what good does this power do? The Zoid Eve could do it a million times better them me. I was nothing. I looked faintly at Van's blade liger. Crying wasn't a big thing for me now. The tears just poured out, as easily as breathing. Van emerged from the corridor. He must've been a light sleeper. He walked straight up to me and said, "Fiona I can't take this. You have to tell me what's wrong! You won't eat or sleep and its driving me crazy!" The tears kept falling, like rain. "Fiona, what are you doing?" I swallowed and stopped crying for a minute. "I'm going to fill this mug with tears." I swallowed my tears again. "And then I'm gonna drink it." A hacking sob overtook me. He took my free hand and held it. He looked at me. "Fiona, I love you."
Wow, he loved me. I didn't cry harder, I didn't smile; I just looked down at the mug. I stood there and looked at the mug for over two more hours, and the mug was three fourths full with tears. And it was then, when I smiled. I gripped his hand and ran outside. "Fiona, what's wrong with you?" he asked as I busted through the door. I ran, no I sprinted, I sprinted to the graveyard. The graveyard wasn't filled with lush green grass as it had once been, but now was a miniature desert. I walked up to his father's grave. His expression changed. He knelt down. Lately, the wind colony's climate changed. It was hot all the time, no flowers grew and sandstorms raided the village every morning. He looked up at me. "Fiona, what's going on? What are you doing?" I tilted the mug ever so slightly to let a single drop onto the tombstone. Immediately, lush green grass grew all around the tombstone. A few beautiful lilacs grew from the cracks of the aged base of the stone. Van's eyes lit up. And then, I threw the mug up as high as I could in the air. It didn't come down. Instead, it rained. It was quite an amazing site. Rain fell without a single cloud in the sky.
He was drenched, and I was drenched. It rained for a full two days, but it did not flood, the ground just absorbed it like a giant sponge. He stood there, his hair drooping down because of the rain. I jumped happily into his arms and cried. I cried because I was happy. This was my purpose. I was Fiona Elise Lynette with a purpose.
The End