Chapter XVI: Core of the Heart

"Don't do it, Akira," said Neos. "Just wait five more minutes. Maybe Robert or someone will come!"

The Deathstinger twitched and began to stand up. Akira watched it. "After what we did to him... he wouldn't."

"Yeah, well, maybe someone else-" pleaded Hitoshi. He stopped. This was none of his business. So why did he care, anyways? Why?!!!

Because he'd experienced losing a loved one before. "Someone else will show up," he suggested. "If you do this, we'll have one less person to use against the Deathstinger, alright? Kage probably WANTS you to do this."

"You can't stop me," laughed Akira.

"Have you gone crazy?!!" asked Eira. "Sheez! Look at you!" she cried weakly. "It'd be more natural to see you go ga-ga over Neos than to turn yourself into a Zoid Core!"

"Ga-ga over Neos?!!" shouted Akira.

Eira laughed. "That's more like it."

"Then maybe I should."

"No!" shouted Neos. "You're not going to, even if we die because you don't, alright?!!"

"Like you care," said Akira.

"I do!" he yelled. "I do, okay? I don't wanna see you die just like Lori or Kitty!"

"Who?" asked Akira suddenly.

"Lori Flyheight, the first human to ever set foot on Zi, and Kitty... whose real name I can't pronounce. Emperor Rudolph's daughter."

"Whoa..." mumbled Ayumi. "Two totally different centuries and stories... I'd like to hear them, but it seems that a certain ancientish Zoid is ready to fight!"

"Just great," muttered Neos. "Whee."

"Where's Trinity?!!!" shouted Akira in distress. Eira looked up at the Deathstinger with dread and turned around to run, but she tripped.

"Ugh..." she mumbled. "My head still kills... dang it... why did I ever get involved with the Backdraft or Kage, anyways?"

***

"What I wouldn't give to have both the Backdraft and the Deathstinger destroyed at one time," mumbled Kylie, watching the scenery go by as the Liger Zero X raced the Dibison to the Hover Cargo. It wasn't in sight quite yet.

"Yeah," agreed her brother from the LZX. "That'd be great."

"Bit?" asked Kylie.

"Yeah?"

"Where did I come from?"

"Huh?!!!" asked Bit. He sweat-dropped nervously. "You know about that stuff."

"No!" laughed Kylie. "I mean, where did I REALLY come from?" she asked again, quietly. "Have I always been in this family...?"

"You've always been my sister, for as long as I remember..." mumbled Bit. "But I'm not totally sure, I guess."

"Me neither... I think that I still haven't remembered EVERYTHING about my past..."

"No?" asked Bit. "What's there not to remember?"

"I don't think I'm your sister by blood," said Kylie, much to his dismay. "I mean... our looks are probably just a coincidence, but I still don't feel like I'm actually a part of your family! I-"

"Bit! Watch out!" shouted Leena as something fired at the Liger. She looked around for the source of the shots. "What the..."

A silver sphere, relatively small when compared to the two Zoids, shot between them. It stopped suddenly a few meters away.

"What's that?" asked Bit urgently. "We don't have any time to play with someone... Jamie and the others might need our help.

The sphere glinted as many, many long spiky things poked out of it. The sphere began to spin as it hurtled back towards them.

Kylie and Leena screamed.

***

"Oh dang!" shouted Jamie, watching the battle taking place across the vast gorge. "That's not good!"

The Deathstinger was beating on three motionless Zoids; two girls struggled to get away from the fight.

"Can't we do something?!!" cried Spring. "They're not even defending themselves!!!"

"We should wait for Bit and Leena to get back," answered Jamie nervously. "Come on, fight back..."

"You forgot about me!!!" A comlink popped up in front of them and Brad laughed at them. He'd been there all this time, how could they have forgotten?!! "Launch the Shadow Fox, Jamie."

Jamie nodded slowly and began typing. Soon the Shadow Fox shot out of the Hover Cargo, landing on the other side of the gorge! It fired at the Deathstinger to grab its attention!

The huge Zoid turned, glinting in the sunlight.

***

The sphere glinted once more. It wouldn't slow down, but kept picking up more and more speed. The Liger Zero X was fast enough to move out of the way, but not the old Dibison. It was hit and fell over.

"Leena! Kylie!" yelled Bit and Dr. Toros. Bit glared at the spinning sphere. "You're gonna get it. C'mon, you coward, who are you?!!"

"That Zoid doesn't have a pilot, Bit," mumbled Dr. Toros. "It's being controlled by an organoid."

"Then let's do this, Liger versus that other organoid. Right?" asked Bit. "You think Liger could do it?" he added.

"With a little help..." added Kylie from the Dibison, looking at him pleadingly.

"Dang, I thought you'd say that..." muttered Bit. "I can't boss you around... do whatcha want."

Kylie grinned. "That sphere thing is sooo dead." With that, she turned into a white light without much effort, fusing with the Dibison.

"Hey, Leena!" cried Bit over a comlink. "You okay?"

Leena nodded, dazed. "Did she just...?"

He nodded in return. "Yeah... she did."

The Dibison stood up, all wounds healed. The sphere hovered back a little, contracting its deadly spikes. It looked as if it was giving up, but alas; a new set of cylinders covered it soon.

Apparently this would have been a good Zoid for Leena-they were all guns.

***

"Neos..." mumbled Akira. She watched the Deathstinger pummel the three Zoids. "We have no choice."

"Dang it, no!" shouted Neos, struggling not to say more vulgar words for the sake of the PG rating and the authoress's not-being-allowed-to-swear and trying hard to not do it as much as some of her unmentioned friends. "Don't."

"But if no one comes..." Suddenly the Deathstinger turned around, responding to shots from something else. She smiled in relief. When all else failed, count on the Blitz team to ruin your plans. Or, in this case, a former Blitz team member.

The Shadow Fox howled, taunting the huge Zoid before it. Inside the cockpit, Brad laughed again. "Only cowards pick on people who can't defend themselves," he said seriously.

The Deathstinger, or more like the self-proclaimed Shadow Emperor, seemed to consider this. It twitched again in hypertension and fired one last time at the other three Zoids with normal cannons. They were hit, as before, but this time knocked backwards a bit.

"Hey..." mumbled Ayumi. "Our Zoids... They can move again."

"...and so can I," said Akira. She grinned. "Even better."

"No," mumbled Neos, seeing the glint in her eye. "Don't do it. Please, don't... No!!! Akira!!! Please, I-!!!"

"Love me?" finished Akira. "We Zoidians have no future. That's why we have to reinforce our present."

"Do we have to be Zoidians?" asked Neos deliberately. "Do we have to believe what he's told us?"

She raised an eyebrow at the question. "Huh?"

"What if we'd rather just be normal people?"

"No matter how much you want to, we can't!" shouted Akira. "We can't just be normal!"

"Why not?!!"

"Because I'm a Chosen!!!" yelled Akira angrily. "I'm a dang Chosen!!! And I can't change my destiny!"

Hitoshi watched with interest. Were Neos' feelings unrequited? Or was Akira just willing to sacrifice herself to save him?

Or perhaps she'd just gone crazy from dehydration.

***

"Zoids Eve..." mumbled Eira Champ miserably, watching the four Zoids duke it out with the Deathstinger, Akira watching too. It seemed that she had given up on the Zoid Core idea for a moment. Perhaps Akira was wrong, perhaps she did have a future, a future with Neos, even if she WAS a Chosen. He didn't seem to care. At least she was considering not throwing it all away to stall the Deathstinger, which she couldn't even actually destroy.

Only one Zoid was strong enough to defeat it.

Okay... make that two.

Or maybe three... four, five, six... Ten. Ten Zoids, ten Chosen. At least there weren't ten Deathstingers.

Eira had to admit, she had no idea who any of the Chosen were. Of course there were Bit and Leena, and now Akira... but for all she knew her cousin Harry could be one of them! But she was almost positive that she wasn't one. Eira Champ? A Chosen?!!! It was impossible.

Eira grinned. Maybe...

And maybe it was impossible to defeat the Deathstinger.

Ah well... the Deathstinger wasn't even the real threat.

"Why are you helping us?!!" shouted Ayumi, firing at the Zoid and then jumping back. "You don't even know who we are!"

"Sure I do," mumbled Brad, trying to concentrate on fighting the Deathstinger before it could do any more damage. "You're the lady who tried to kill Doc and Jack Sisco... The one in the green is the guy who convinced Sylvia's organoid to take over Kylie's body two years ago... the one in the white looks distinctly like old Lord Prozen."

Hitoshi glared resentfully.

"And the two without Zoids, who should be running for their lives- the one in purple is Akira, of course, from that organoid's list... and the pink one is Eira Champ, who came dang near close to destroying the Blitsz team two years ago."

"I would've, too," mumbled Eira. "If it wasn't for darn Adrian and his girlfriend."

"Eira, Eira... if you want to not get killed by the Deathstinger, you shouldn't say things like that in the presence of the 'girlfriend.'"

A purple and black Rev Raptor ran up and fired a few shots at the Deathstinger. There was no effect. "So now it's five to one?" asked Sylvia.

"We definitely have an advantage now..." muttered Ayumi in astonishment. "Not that long ago we were bitter enemies, and now..."

"We're all enemies against the Deathstinger," answered Sylvia, shrugging. The Deathstinger turned and backed up nervously. Perhaps Ambient didn't want to fight against this many opponents...

"Six to one!" A green Raynos zoomed overhead.

"Jamie?" asked Brad and Sylvia.

"Hey!" he shouted in anger. "It's the Wild Eagle to you!!!"

***

Harry Champ stared at the Zoid Battle Commission's office building. He found himself kind of... regretting something. What? He didn't know. Just something... something he should have addressed a long time ago.

Thinking for a moment, Harry realized that being in the presence of Kylie must have reminded him of how much he missed Leena! It had been two whole years, and he hadn't even seen her once in person!!! He must be regretting not looking for Leena at the hospital...

"Harry!"

"Huh?" asked Harry, turning around. "Oh... it's you. Whaddaya want? (She creeps me out... he thought. Way too cheerful.)"

Faye panted from running to catch up with him and looked back up, smiling... yet... again. "Taro told me you would show me around?"

"Huh? Taro?"

"Yeah," said Faye in confusion. "See, he's quitting next week and they needed someone to fill his place as-"

"Fine, just shut up," mumbled Harry He was thinking. Taro was one of his friends at work... He did a lot of important paperwork. "Wait, do you know him?"

Faye nodded. "Yeah... of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"Never mind." Harry scratched his head. When Taro left, he'd have to put up with Faye and all of the annoying high schooler's who surfed the internet when they were supposed to be doing important things by HIMSELF. Torture! He'd have no one sensible to talk with any more! "Okay... but why can't Taro do this himself?"

"He sprained his wrist from tripping on a rock or a tree root or something and had to go to the hospital," said Faye, shrugging.

"Sounds like Taro... He's kinda frail, either that or clumsy," said Harry nonchalantly. "But really good with computers... okay, enough of my endless ramblings. It figures. C'mon."

He guided her into the small building. "Okay... first off, we only have one TV, so in your occasional free time you can't sit around and watch anime on the Cartoon Network. It's stuck on the news channel. Like right now, they're talking about... hey, that's Brad Hunter." He sat down in front of the TV. A group of other ZBC members with various jobs were beginning to gather; they watched as well.

"Only a few minutes ago we were contacted by Fluegel team member Brad Hunter regarding a crisis with this message that we have just sent to the ZBC headquarters..." said the newswoman. "We'll play it again, for those of you who just tuned in."

"I have urgent news for the ZBC," TV-screen Brad said in the cockpit of his Zoid. "But, err, I can't seem to remember their comlink number, so send 'em this message." (poor Brad must feel humiliated)

The screen switched to one of the Shadow Fox's surveillance cameras. It showed several different Zoids struggling to keep up their fight against something else, and two girls, not in Zoids, trying to find some way to get out of the mess. It switched to another camera to show their oppressor.

The crowd gasped in shock. It was none other than... the Deathstinger! The Zoid that was feared more than all others, except for the legendary Deathsaurer! *Gasp!*

It switched back to Brad. "You can see that this is urgent, so-"

A comlink appeared to his right. It was a person who looked a lot like Lord Prozen... "Hey! To your left!"

Brad slammed his controls to the right. "Thanks..." he said, being narrowly missed by a swiping claw. He turned back to the screen. Suddenly the screen went fuzzy, and soon you could see the newswoman again. "Is this the real Deathstinger or just some phony?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "You'll have to keep watching tomorrow for the shocking news."

"I hate cliffhangers," muttered Harry. "Sheez.. there must be something I can do. Faye, I'll show you around later- Faye...?"

"N- no!" cried Faye. "No, it can't be...Zoids Eve... I..." She broke into tears.

Harry sighed. So the cheerfulness was gone now. What was it, mood swings?!! "C'mon, the Deathstinger's been defeated a zillion times before and the Deathsaurer twice. It's not such a big deal."

"H- Hito- You- I- Please, don't die out there!"

He stared at her. She had fallen to her knees not too long ago, while the message was still playing. "Hito...?" he asked. "Who...?"

"Why couldn't I tell that you were still alive?!! Why?!!!!!!!!!" she continued. "Oh, why couldn't I have just died..."

"Hey!" yelled Harry. "No one's gonna die here!"

"Don't you get it?!!" shouted Faye. She stood up and whirled to face him. "Don't you understand what this means?!!! He's back! THEY'RE back!!! ALL of them!!!"

"What the?!!" said Harry. "What the heck are you talking about?!!!!!!!"

She clutched her head. "Come ON!!!! All this yelling makes me so tired... I... Dang it!" Faye suddenly stopped. "Huh? What did I just... I mean..."

"Hey, it's okay," said Harry soothingly. "Just tell me what you were talking about, alright?"

"But he's HERE... in New Helic... dang. Dang..."

"Who is he?"

"Kaiser Kage..."

"Faye!" shouted Harry as she tried to turn away. "Just calm down and tell me everything."

She did as instructed. "My parents were killed by the Backdraft a long time ago... I've always looked after myself. When the Zoidian Guild set up camp near the village I was living in to excavate an ancient city, I... I met Hito..."

"Go on..."

"He looked so much like Prozen that I was curious about him... So we became friends. But then he changed, he got more nervous and... and... and then Kaiser Kage took everything away from me that I ever wanted!!! Even my hope that my parents weren't really dead!" she finished, shouting. "I hate him! ...and I hate Hitoshi! ...and myself, for letting all this happen...!"

That was enough of an explanation. Harry understood as much as he ever would, which wasn't much. "Okay, errm..." he began.

"Harry Champ..." mumbled Faye, laughing through tears. "Thanks... I needed that. Zoids Eve... hehe..."

"What's so funny?"

"All this time, I thought HE died and his organoid saved me. He probably thought I died and his organoid saved HIM."

Harry chuckled. Okay... he didn't really understand still, but so what? What the heck... So, 1.) The Deathstinger was back.

2.) Faye knew one of the guys fighting it.

3.) This "Kaiser Kage" guy was in New Helic City.

4.) Since Brad was out there, the Blitz team and the Fluegel team couldn't be far behind, so...

5.) That meant that Leena and Kylie weren't far bahind...

6.) And Harry would have to do something before he checked back in with the others and explained why this had taken so long...

"Faye," said Harry, trying to sum things up. "Can you take me to the Deathstinger?"

"The Deathstinger?" asked Faye. She laughed. "Take you there? You're crazy!"

"Then can you take me to Kage?"

"You don't even know who Kage is!" cried Faye. She laughed again. "You're really crazy... He's more dangerous than the Deathstinger...!"

"Wha?" asked Harry. "Shee... you're right... but I don't care. Whoever he is, he seems to be up to no good, and someone has to stop him!"

"The Chosen will," laughed Faye.

"Huh? Chosen?"

"Ten Chosen..." mumbled Faye. "Ten Zoids... The only ones who can destroy the Deathstinger and save Zi. Unless they destroy it first."

"Uh..."

***

"Only one more day... I can wait that long..." mumbled Sayo, also known as Nurse Jenny. "I could wait a year knowing he's alive..." She cleared her throat and hefted the medicine tray to one hand, knocking on a door. "Helloooo.... I'm here with your... whatever it is you have to take, alright?"

"I don't freaking care... jus' come in."

Sayo shrugged. "Whatever." She pushed open the door and walked in, not bothering to look around. All of the hospital rooms were the same, anyways...

"I don't need to be hospitalized just 'cause I sprained my wrist," complained the Patient. "I mean, sheesh, I sprain my wrist all the time! It's nothing new!"

Sayo sighed. Patients always procrastinated, especially when hospitals made them nervous. "Blah blah blah," she mocked under her breath. Sayo opened a bottle of painkiller and poured some in her palm. "How many of these are you supposed to take?"

"Three," he answered.

"Mmhmm..." mumbled Sayo. She picked up the glass of water and turned around to present the pills to the Patient; instead, she dropped everything. "Zoids Eve... Taro?!!"

"Sayo?!!!"

***

Akira watched the Zoid battle wearily. Even with that many Zoids, they still stood no chance against it. They were still losing horribly... She had to do it! She's just wait a little longer and hope for a miracle...

The Raynos had been shot down before the Wild Eagle could do much damage. He was unconscious now, but his Zoid had landed safely. As for Ayumi, her Liger Zero X had simply overheated from the stress and she was now swearing her head off.

Hitoshi's Zoid was severely damaged, but he had given up hope long before and stopped fighting. There was just no reason for him to fight. There was nothing left for him now...

Brad and the Shadow Fox? He refused to use Shadow mode-something about a promise. So he, as well, needed help desperately.

Sylvia... she was fighting with all her might, but a simple Rev Raptor wasn't of much use.

And Neos. His Zoid was getting quite old, but still functioning incredibly well. But, being the only one to actually damage the Deathstinger enough to slow it down, he wouldn't last much longer.

It was now or never. Akira knew that this would be the last chance she'd get to say anything, so...

She looked at Eira. The kid was practically still barely conscious, she barely understood what was gong on. But so what? "Eira..." mumbled Akira. "When this is over, tell Neos I love him, and that I'm not gonna go back, okay?"

Maybe Eira wouldn't be able to remember... and maybe none of them would live through this. But there was still a chance.

For where there's a chance, there's hope. Where there's hope, there's love. And where there's love, there's life with victory in sight.

Akira laughed. She now understood that everything she'd believed in until now had been false. But she didn't care anymore. "Good luck, Chosen," she mumbled, smiling slightly.

She closed her eyes, and as the Orudios glowed, took a deep breath to speak one last time. A spot of sand grew dark and wet from tears. "...sorry, Neos..."

...it wouldn't be long now...

One last time, dive into the heart and learn what love is really about.

***

Umm... I won't bother explaining it. I've wanted to do this for a while... because... I dunno, because is a good enough reason. Oh... Ah well...

Thanks, Kitai. It figures. Of course Dr. D would go and make another shell, being the technical genius he is. Which makes one wonder... if he made one more... did he bother to make a few extras in case something like this ever happened again?!! Probably.

Our "heroes" will have to hope so, 'cause if not, they're not going to live much longer.

Oh, and I haven't had cable since about when the internet went away. It cost too much, and was always fuzzy anyways. Cable's supposed to be all beautifully clear. So I still haven't seen those last episodes... and none of my friends who know what Zoids is, like it, and bothered to watch the last four episodes taped it. Actually, there IS one person I never asked... hmm! hahahaha! There's still a chance that I might see them before they come out on DVD (they better.)!

Oh, and I get confused easily too : ) Probably because I can't hear very well sometimes? The only reasons I understand half of what I've written so far is because 1.) I wrote it, of course, and

2.) I had a LOT of time on my hands. It just so happens that when I don't have the internet I have like no homework, and then when it's back, the homework and stuff comes back too.

Oh well! Next confusing time... I need to think it out a little more...

I should stop ranting now, but I like to talk, so : ) I uploaded an original anime I was working on (when I couldn't think of what to do in this) that I luv and haven't finished yet, only, I didn't realize how hard it is to maintain two stories at once. Of course, I uploaded it all at once and haven't gotten anything done on it since then... sheesh. And now, of course, I have another idea that's been floating in my head for a while (actually, I have three, but who cares?!!) and I have to get down on paper or type before I forget... So, all in all, I need to come up with some way that I can keep up with everything at once. Or, I could just say "THIS TAKES PRIORITY SO BUZZ OFF!!!" and forget everything I had planned, then read everything years later and finish it.

Yeah, I'm crazy. That started about four years ago, when my family moved to Ohio. And then when we first got the Cartoon Network and I started watching Mobile Suit Gundam, then realized that wonderful old Monster Rancher and Digimon (season 1) were both Japanese... And then I saw Zoids (in the beginning of last school year, was it?), hated Bit, and fell in luv with those awesome machines and Harry... Of course, I can stand Bit now. And then I started getting up in the morning everyday and watching Chaotic Century, waiting and waiting and waiting for those last four to air!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I'm beyond hope. At least that means that this story'll keep going and going and going... for a long while... a very, very long while...