All right, this one's just confusing. Don't say I didn't warn you. Fiona/Dark Kaiser face off against Prozen and the truth comes out.

Chapter 21: Always where you least expect it…

The base was mobilized, Zoids bristling with enough weaponry to make Leena Toros back off, hand in her Gunsniper and vote for world peace. Intelligence had already picked up the movement of a large congregation of Zoids to the west of the base, and while whispers of it being a revenge attack for all the wrong committed against the minister, Van and Fiona stood, looking at each other.

"Please don't go." She whispered.

"It's going to be okay, I've fought worse. Come on, Hiltz and the DeathStinger. That was bad."

"This is…different."

"It's a bunch of idiots in Zoids. It doesn't matter how good the Zoid is, if they can't bring out it's full potential, they haven't got anything on me."

"That's not what I meant."

Van tried to fathom what Fiona was going on about, but her hands kept grabbing at his arm. It was…annoying. He loved his freedom, why was she doing this? He was a pilot…sure they were a couple, but he had a job to do…

"Van…"

"Fiona, I'm needed. If Prozen won't stay dead, we'll have to meet him at every turn. Hey Irvine!" It was odd how Irvine had been skulking around the base these last few hours, like he'd done something wrong. But hey, if it was Irvine, most of the time he had done something bad. It didn't mean he was actually going to get caught. "Irrrrrvine!!"

"Yeah, what is it Van?"

"What are you doing with those?" Fiona asked suddenly, her eyes bright. There was something different in her voice, something…something Van had only heard when she was angry. A cold, shiny metallic quality. She poked at the box, and then opened it, revealing some medical supplies and a fresh uniform, and some of those little flannelettes. "Irvine? Irvine, look at me! Irvine!"

"Look, I have to run these down to stores-"

"You're stealing them!"

"I am not." He snapped back indignantly. "Look, leave me alone, okay? Damn kids…"

Van watched her for a moment, and through the folds of some great blanket, he thought: This is very strange. Why is Irvine taking these things? His Zoid is over there. He's not taking them off the base…he's…

"You're stealing them." Van found himself saying, unusually flat.

"I'm not, really. I'm just taking them to another place on base. Fiona, quit it, stop that!"

"Stop what?" She stepped back and narrowed her eyes. Zeke growled.

Zeke had been sitting on top of the BladeLiger, but now he had alighted down beside Fiona and loomed over her. But there was something different to the way was moving, to the way he sounded. Almost as if he was being…forced.

"…Zeke?"

"I have to go. Please." Irvine finally wrenched the box from Fiona's grip and hurried away.

Fiona grabbed Van's arm. "Let's follow him!"

"Uh-! Fiona!" He found himself dragged after her, and after Irvine as he hurried down hallways and across seating areas. What a spectacle they must have been…

After a few mix-ups and collisions with some of the others on base, they finally caught up with the 'thief' only to see the door to the apartment slid open, and his body pulled inside. The door closed, just as quick, and Van touched it, curious…

There were voices in there…familiar ones…

"This is Lieutenant Flyheight of the Guardian Force. Open up immediately."

There was a crash inside, a yell of pain and a groan that sounded like it could be male.

"Just a minute!"

Van rolled his eyes, overrode the security lock and went inside.

The last thing he was expecting was for Ambient to knock him to the ground and launch himself towards Fiona. Zeke got there first, and for a moment, the two tussled, trying to get the upper hand while Fiona screamed for help. Van pulled her out of the way, just as Ambient slammed the hapless Zeke to the ground and held him there with a hind paw.

"Shit!" Came the astonished outburst from Irvine, who was partially hidden under the bed to the left of the door. In the opposite corner was a pair of familiar faces, one being the ex-preisdent's, the other being…

"Prozen." Van snarled. "How the hell did you get in here?"

Before he could get any answers, Ambient turned on him, using his tail as a club. Van ducked, and the spikes buried into the wall, leaving the organoid unable to attack him anymore. He snarled, but relaxed, and beneath him Zeke whined.

To Van's surprise, instead of smirking evilly, or even gloating over the stupidity of the Guardian Force, Prozen simply slid down the wall, still pressed hard against it, until he was on his knees, his back straight against the smooth surface. His face was as white as his hair, and if anything, he looked like he'd seen a ghost. Even more disturbingly, his focus was on Van's left ear.*

"Prozen, damn it, look at me!"

The crimson gaze slowly transferred and refocused. "Behind you." He whispered and began to shake.

"I am so not falling for that." Van replied.

"Please…don't let her near me…not again…I can't…"

"Van, he's sick, please, just go. He's not causing any trouble…we've been chased and threatened by so many people…" Evelyn whispered.

"Ex-President Camford, how can you say that? The man's insane! He'll kill you and spit on your corpse!"

"He's unable to defend himself right now, Lieutenant-"

But Fiona had stepped forward. Her eyes were filled with hatred, her face set in a stern and very un-Fiona like way. "You."

Prozen tried to back into the wall even more. It didn't work.

"Why don't you just die?" She hissed. "Why do you keep popping up everywhere? You're an outdated relic of the past, and yet…yet you still seem to cling to some hope that you can survive…"

"…You can't control me!"

"What?" Asked Van, confused. It was like a complete role reversal here…

"You may have taken my sanity, my body and my dreams, but you can't have my soul." Prozen whispered. "I still have nightmares over what you did to me. I sometimes wish I was dead, but that wouldn't help anybody now, would it?"

"I can do the job for you. Finish what my mother started."

"Your mother was a fool."

"Take that back!" Fiona screamed.

"No." Prozen managed to stand. "Just as my parents were both fools. Terribly beautiful and hopeful fools who dreamed of a world where everyone was happy. They did everything they could to bring it together, but there was just one tiny little problem…"

"Yes. Us. Die, filthy dirt dweller. Little grubby hole-digger, child eater."

"Fair game. Laws of nature." Prozen replied. "I never took a life back then."

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't change what you are." Fiona balled her fists. "How many Zoidian children died to further your species?"

Prozen closed his eyes. "You never signed the treaty."

"Why should we?"

"To save the children." He laughed then, an odd and worried sound. "You knew what we were, and you still go on about the children. You don't look at the source of your problems."

Fiona smiled. "Yes we did. That's why we killed you all."

"Didn't kill me." Prozen snapped back.

"You were a technicality. One to be remedied." Fiona stepped forward and went to grab him, but he ducked away.

"You didn't think. You didn't adapt. Over the years my people and the others lived, we developed rules and laws that protected us from each other after living off each other for so long. You were fresh blood. You were ignorant. We tried to talk to you, and you refused to listen. So all is fair game."

"Would you eat me?" This was a whisper.

"I don't know. I'm still a child." Came the reply. Prozen edged away from her again. "I'm so tired. Tired of running. Tired of listening to your damn voice in my head. Leave me alone."

"You're a part of me."

"You're a monster that was never meant to be." Prozen could not back away any further and trembled as Fiona reached him. "You were a bastard creation from my people's blood and the fetid slime of the Zoidians. Leave me, Kaiser. Go away."

"Kaiser?! The fuck you talking about?!" Irvine snarled. The group had been silent listening to this odd exchange, and now, that one word had caught everyone's attention.

"Every night I tried to sleep, you were there, in my head, telling me to kill. You did terrible, terrible things to me. And I could tell no one. No one except Hiltz. Ambient reawakened the knowledge inside me, he broke down the barriers I put up to protect myself, to forget what I knew, forget how I was hurt over and over again by your people. I still have those scars."

"Hiltz…" Fiona laughed. "Hiltz is one of us now…"

"…Hiltz, no!" Came the frightened reply. "How could you…?!"

"We did it to your father, we'll do it to you." Fiona hissed. "You were just a toy, you were a means to an end. Even for him."

"No!"

"Yes." Fiona stopped and looked up. "They're coming. They're coming here, and I can go home."

"Then…then kill me now!"

"No, do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, I think you're an evil bitch with no morals and even less sympathy. Put a bullet in my head, because that way you won't have to worry about ZoidEVE anymore, or me, or any Zoids whatsoever. Go on. Shoot me. Without Hiltz…I am nothing…"

The last remark was in Van's direction, and he stared at the man in front of him. "Shoot…you?"

"I…I have nothing to live for." Came the quiet reply. "You want me dead, Flyheight. Do it."

"No. You're being brought to justice."

"I killed your father, Van. It was me. No one else. I shot him like the coward I am, in the back, when he was going to leave. Please, put a bullet in my head before I'm infected again. I'm not strong enough to hold on anymore. The only reason I'm here is because…I thought Hiltz was…someone else. I thought he was…a part of me. Please Van. I've suffered for so long…"

"My father was killed when he was using his CommandWolf." Van replied, shaking his head, trying to stop the strange thought of his father being shot. "You gave the command to take Shadow, but…you never ordered anyone to die. Not on purpose."

"SHOOT ME YOU ARROGANT LITTLE BASTARD!!!" Prozen screamed. "Do you think I enjoy this? This thing is not a Zoidian at all! It's an experiment, her name is Fine don't you know what that means, my god!!" He sank to the floor into another coughing fit. Fiona smiled and forced his head down, listening to him choke on his own fluids.

"This is…unexpected. You're coming into it faster than we thought."

"Shoot…me…"
"Do you know what's happening inside your body, Minister?" Fiona purred. Gone was the sweet and innocent little girl everyone knew, people were hugging the walls in an effort to get out of the way. "I don't think you do. I certainly don't…but your energy…is quite interesting. It's like your gathering all your available strength for some great task…We never could find any of you at this state of being. You're not sick…but you're not healthy either…I wonder what's wrong?"

"…Shoot me you…little…turd…"

But Van couldn't move. He was hypnotised.

"Just you wait a little longer. When the group get here, then we can have fun. There are many tests we can do without you loosing your life, even your consciousness. There are drugs you know, that we can make you take, to keep you awake while we explore your internal organs…"

There was a clank and the lights flickered, making everyone jump. The alarms were going off, people were running and screaming everywhere. They were under attack.

"…Fiona?" Van shook himself, as if waking from a dream, surprised to find Rhyss at his side, her face calm while all around her was chaos.

"A group of Prozen supporters. They're attacking the base with all they have." She said quietly, while taking stock of the situation. Fiona shivered, blinked, then straightened. "Van?"

Evelyn ran forward and caught the minister before he slumped over. He snuggled into her, whimpering, trembling like a frightened child. The two organoids were cowering from Specula, it was as if Rhyss was controlling everything…

"Irvine, Van, you're needed in the hangers. Your Zoids are required. Now."

"Yes." Like dolls they responded, Irvine's forehead creasing a little as he tried to understand the two commands from his brain, one Rhyss' the other his own. But the command was non-threatening, not against his beliefs, and he gave up. Rhyss swayed from the effort but caught herself and then turned to Fiona, who looked like she was lost.

"Fiona…?"

"Rhyss? What's happening?"

"Don't be afraid. Just come with me. Okay? We're going to the command centre."

"Okay."

Rhyss turned and looked down at the cowering people on the floor, and then to Ambient. Still not up to his full strength, he was watching Specula very carefully. He backed up and sat down beside Evelyn and Prozen, his emerald green optical sensors glowing faintly. He opened his mouth and hissed long and hard, a sign that not only was he angry, he was confused.

"I'm sorry." Rhyss muttered, and ran after the moving people.

Ambient did the organoid equivalent of a shrug and nuzzled Prozen's form.

And overhead, the explosions started.

~ to be continued

*classic defence of mad people is to stare at a person's ear while talking. Very unnerving. Source taken from Pratchett's Night Watch

Okay, I didn't like the end of the chapter, but it will be explained in a moment. Fiona and Dark Kaiser may share the same body, but they are two different people. Yes, that was Kaiser doing the mean stuff. Rhyss managed to get him under control before he did anything stupid; he hates Prozen with a passion. And Kaiser was controlling Van and Zeke.

Ambient is not up to strength yet, so he won't be able to do some real damage…