Chapter 27: Don't know what you've got till it's gone
His name was Van Flyheight.
He was a failure.
All of his life, he had dreamed of being the best Zoid pilot in the world. Wanted to earn enough money to get into the battles held in the centre of the Elemia Desert. Instead, he had been chased into a ruin by a guy who had probably died of some venereal disease a few years ago and had stumbled on two beings who would change his life forever.
Life is made up of high points and low points, but they only amount up to a tiny part of life. Everything else is the mundane boring crap everyone deals with.
Was finding Zeke a high point? Yes.
Was finding Fiona a high point?
He wasn't so sure.
He had been left ultimately responsible for someone who was so terribly young in mind, so very innocent. At first it had been kind of weird, even annoying, but he had come to love her, eventually. But Fiona had always held something back from him. Oh, she depended on him and everything, which was kinda cool, but didn't she ever think about his dreams?
He had become a part of the Guardian Force to further his training, to be what he wanted. But he had never meant to loose Fiona. Never. Not on you life, old son.
But…
…In the heat of battle…
…Proving his worth…
…Doing what he loved best…
He had lost someone he didn't even know he had.
And it hurt.
Staring out at the sands as the sun climbed into the azure bowl of the sky, he listened to the voices around him, the concerned messages he received were automatically replied to, as he was no longer really hearing them.
The Red Sun had been destroyed, apparently. Sent by the Republic to destroy Minister Prozen and his followers, he had retreated to his mansion, and heroically, the Red Sun had destroyed it at the expense of their lives. Some remained, but their charismatic leader was supposedly at ground zero. Neither his body, nor that of the Minister's, however, had been recovered.
Karl was in the medical wing, being bandaged up from his suicide attempt when he attacked that weird DarkSpiner. Sad about him really. He was an okay pilot. Not as good as Captain Janae. As for Captain O'Connell, he was keeping a low profile. Van wondered why, but didn't follow it.
Thomas was still missing. He and his brother had been pardoned after Karl had said something about them protecting the president's mother from the evil minister. He had been spitting hellfire about the man, but there was something in his eyes, jealousy perhaps? Van wasn't sure.
Everyone else was fine.
"Lieutenant Flyheight?" Asked a voice at his side. Female, a little like Fiona's. He turned, and jerked in surprise when he realised the woman in question had long dark green hair and amber eyes. She wore a Republican uniform, and her long hair was tied back at the nape of her neck, and plaited to her waist. "Lieutenant Flyheight, sir? My name is In…my name is Sharris. I'm…I was a part of the Red Sun, but I've defected now."
"Why?" He asked tiredly.
"Nothing to go back to. Sir, you presence is requested in the hanger. Your students want to give you a message."
Van nodded slowly, and began to walk, Private Sharris beside him. "You're the one who brought Karl in."
"Yes sir."
Silence for a moment as he pondered his future. He had done so much, been so giving. Couldn't for once be without guilt? Couldn't he just let go?
Van stopped, and made his decision, his dark eyes dead of any emotion. "Tell them I will be there soon, Private. My Liger needs seeing to from the last battle."
And so the game was set. The players would travel onwards on their twisting paths, sometimes meeting, sometimes missing each other, but each deeply entrenched on a new and strange lane of destiny. For the old war was far from gone, though the humans thought it dead and buried, ignorant of the truth that stared them blindly in their faces. As the living members of the Red Sun and their Zoids, each were retrieved and helped, and one woman smiled at the day, at the message that blipped into her inbox in her email, at the words that simply scribed:
Mother -
We're okay. Hiding until further notice. Take care
- Gunther
And then she knew everything would be all right, not because of the words, but because of the woman's intuition she had relied on and survived with for so long.
Life's funny like that.
~ the end
Author's long winded notes, shown during the song Here by Vast:
There's been a rash of Prozen fics on FF-net (Ewwwwww) and I'm wondering why. Does that annoy people? Do I annoy people with my writing and stuff?
This story was originally really crap. I think some of you may have read it, and I'm sorry! Really!
I honestly don't know what to say. I suppose inspiration should come first:
Big thumbs up to the amazing Skeyeta. If it hadn't been for Day of the Dead I would never have thought of pairing Hiltz and Prozen together.
Lots of cookies and an Ambient plushie for Biowolf for helping me with Hiltz and with words of encouragement ^^ (You did help, really. If you hadn't written that rant, I never would have reconsidered things – I had him talking sanely to Thomas!)
Thanks goes to Naomi Hunter (Read My Morphine!! I cannot stress how cool that story is!!) for that gift fic she wrote for me, We are Eternal, and the fact that she was the person who got me into Raven/Thomas stuff. Woohar! I also need her to take a bow for helping get the idea of evil Fiona into my head.
To Dana, for the whole DarkSpiner thing. DarkSpiners rock. I have one sitting in my bookcase, alongside Irvine's CommandWolf.
To FraulineColonel: For helping me write Karl! (Sorry for the weird romance thing tho'. Oh, wait, you're not reading this because of the P-word, are you? Prozen, Prozen, Prozen, PROZEN!! *Laughs manically enough to put Prozen to shame and falls over*
Ahem. And of course, thanks to my reviewers, for being nice enough to leave me a message.
So where did this all come from?
I don't know if anyone remembers Doctor D mentioning that there were other people on Zi when the Zoidians lived, but you never found too much of it. That got me thinking. What also got me thinking was why was the DeathSaurer made in the first place, and why was Fiona spared? Why would EVE, if she's so important to the Zoidians, allow such a thing to be created? The whole Rare Hertz thing…how could a ecological phenomena move around unless it was alive?
It struck me as the Dark Kaiser being a creature in it's own right. I thought Hiltz went downhill in the end of the anime, as if something was going on in his head. And as for Rhyss, well, I admit it the only reason I was nice to her was because of Nao-Nao's My Morphine.
I admit I used my relationship with Sym-chan to help me write this for the nice parts ^^ *hugs her BF to death*
Symbrio: @_@;;
I hopped from story to story I'd written in the past to bring up things. Like the whole FireBlood thing. I don't know why I shoved that in there, it just sounded right, a sort of weird and wonderful talent. To be honest, I'm sitting here, it's a Saturday night, a week after the original author's notes, seeing as I had to rewrite the ending, and it's around a quarter to 11. Zombie Plink tomorrow ^^;;
What does happen next? Should I continue it? I don't know if I should, it was partially inspired by The Kurowong…*evil smirk* I kind of want to continue it, but going on with different couples and the like. I don't think the next story, if I wrote it, would be nearly as long as this one. Whoa! I finished a fic! Is it coherent? Really? Can you tell me please? Did I explain it to a point of believability?
*silence*
I enjoyed writing this. It was an escape from tafe, and all the stress. Even though I'm only going two days, it's blown my mind…whoa…
Parting note to those who read this and don't review: it's people like you who drive people like myself and others nuts. It's not really fair. If you didn't like it, then why are you reading it and why didn't you tell me to shut up in the first place? To those who liked it, what would you like to see next, remembering that I may not listen anyway?
So taking the lead from FireFox and the wonderful Biowolf: I love Prozen (and Hiltz ;p)
Merry part!
~ Atkinson/Plink,
All original characters and concepts are © STUDIOplink 2003.
Zoids and all associated characters are © Tomy (I think) and therefore are not owned by the author of this fic, unless the rights to Prozen, possible Hiltz if I can get there first and Ambient (Apologies to Shiro) are up for sale then things could change. Freedom of speech is allowed, as long as flamers can back up what they say to her.
Marius: That ending sucked. They're going to kill you; you know that, don't you?
Shut up. You're giving the game away by being here.
Marius: Not that I care.
The story continues, of course.
Marius: I should hope so. My brother and I have to be born you know.
Yeah but-
Brad: Coffee? Now?
Marius: Coffee is bad for us, Brad.
Brad: Says you.
Marius: Says dad. So stop it.
Bard: No!
Marius: You're such a wanker! You were raised by humans!
Brad: Shut UP!!
BOYS!!
Luca: Can I have a biscuit? Ambient stole mine.
Oh gawd. The lot of you, bugger off. Now. It's over. Really.
Honest. Review. Please?
