Here Without You, Baby

Chapter Nine: Reanimation

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

Fade in and out of reason to fight the way she's feelin'
She brakes down - brakes down
Going through the motions and holding onto hopes
and her dreams now - somehow
Shaken, mistaken, forsaken, it's killing me.
Wishing you could change, but he's always been this way
If you leave now - I'll drown

Will you, Will you love me tomorrow?
So Will You, Will you stay with me today?
Will you, Will you be here tomorrow?
So Will You, you remember yesterday?

P.O.D. (Will You)

It was her again. She would never stop haunting me in my dreams I don't know what I did to her, but she kept on coming over, and over. This time we were in a chapel. I uncovered the veil over her face, and I leaned forward to kiss…

"Victor," Marlene said softly. I opened my eyes and saw her lying next to me, illuminated by the strong white light from the sun filtered by the white covers. She had a weird look on her face.

"What?" I said groggily.

"You never said that before."

"Said what?"

"You don't know?" she said, puzzled. My silence answered her. She pouted, but I didn't give in. "Why do I even put up with you?" she said in dismay, and pulled the covers off of us.

"I love you?" I finally said.

"Yes!" she said excitedly.

"That's it?" I asked disappointedly. "That's what you were so worked up about?"

"You aren't romantic at all!" she said, throwing a pillow at me and changed into her uniform.

We were there instantly. We all took the heaviest Zoid or HEV we had, and fought the invaders. The Blitz team had been exposed, and they were being attacked. Seymour and Joanna were in the Iron Kongs, and went to the base to take out anyone who had managed to get past the defenses. I had the Kodiak, Renee had the Diashi, and James had the Mad Cat, and we were in the front lines with the Liger, Raynos and Gun Sniper. Catherine was in the Liger X and was running around, slicing anyone in her way. Mark stayed in the X and gave aerial support.

The Terrans were well prepared. They had hundreds of Legions and Demantis on the ground and had Zabats bombing the bunker. They also had MadThunders at a distance giving artillery support.

"We can't handle all these guys by ourselves!" Joanna said, annihilating a Demantis that was burrowing into the closed blast doors.

"Don't worry, Naomi and Harry said that they were coming to help." Jamie said. Jamie was the leader of the Blitz team now. The Doc had died when the Terrans had captured him while they were setting up this base. Now it was useless since they knew where it was.

"Well, they better come soon!" Catherine said, killing a Legion that was trying to destroy the defense system's power grid.

The battle ensued, and the Terrans pushed forward. Heaps of melted and destroyed piles of metal and armor dotted the surrounding area as Terran after Terran fell. But those damn MadThunder kept on firing.

And suddenly they stopped. Joanna, who with Seymour had joined the front lines, used her specs to see what was going on. The MadThunder lay strewn over the ground, their legs and weapons chopped off; some had large holes in them.

"Hey, I think they're here!" Joanna told everyone. Her thoughts were confirmed when she saw a red Gun Sniper take a position on a nearby hill.

"Took them long enough," Leena complained, going to the back of the front, since her Zoid was out of ammo and almost destroyed.

"There's Harry's team too!" Catherine said, noticing them coming from behind. Quickly, the Demantis and Legions were wiped out, but the Zabats kept coming.

"I've found the source of the Zabats!" Amy said.

"Where?" Joanna demanded.

"Thirty degrees east!" Joanna looked at that direction and saw three black Whale Kings. They were now approaching us, and fast.

"Get ready guys, those Whale Kings are about to attack!" everyone took shelter in the protected parts of the bunker and waited for the impending assault. But the assault never came.

"What's taking so long?" Cathy complained. As she said that, blue crystals appeared and danced in front of us. They moved about randomly, but were slowly approaching us. "Huh? What're those?"

Suddenly, a wall of MPPC fire burst out of the dancing crystals and took everyone by surprise. "Its those damn Nova Cluster again!" Seymour said angrily.

"Shit, everyone get out of here!"

"But then the Whale Kings will get us…" Renee said.

"Do you want to die here doing nothing, or out there at least trying?" Joanna said, and made a break for the open terrain before them. The rest of us followed.

"Joanna, Harry's and my team are almost in position to take those Whale Kings out. Just move around for a little bit and they'll be gone," Naomi radioed.

"Easy for you to say…" Joanna said under her breath. The Rogues scurried about the field, dodging fire from both Whale Kings and the Nova Cluster in space mode. All the assault HEV's and Zoids were particularly at a disadvantage because we were so slow, so we had to rely on our micro thrusters that we had jury rigged for the hot drop that we made into the battle. The Blitz team did fine though, since Bit took Leena into the Liger and their fast Zoids were maneuverable and could easily dodge the fire.

"We're in position!" Naomi announced. A few seconds later, explosions could be heard overhead as one of the three Whale Kings fell. The other two stopped firing and were probably looking for who shot them. The second one fell, following another set of explosions. Realizing it was otherwise done for, the third Whale King made a run for it, but was heavily damaged as Harry's and Naomi's team made their last rounds.

The Nova Cluster also stopped firing and tried to catch up to the retreating Whale King, but all the teams present picked them off, one by one. Unfortunately, they had their most powerful mode manifested, so only one of them lost flight. The others made it away, but one of them came back to try and save his comrade. Gauss Rifle slugs and a hail of missiles greeted him.

"We captured two of those mangy little bastards!" Mark said joyously.

"Where the **** were you this whole time?!" Joanna demanded.

"Man, there was a squadron of Storm Sworders that were harassing me," he complained, "but I made good work of them."

"Well, you still suck at being aerial support!"

All the parties met in the Blitz teams former base just to take a rest from the long battle. Mark and James went to secure the prisoners, and the rest just caught up on old times. Harry proposed to Leena, who unsurprisingly did not accept. "Just cause you saved me, doesn't mean I'm going to marry you!" she blurted. Undaunted, Harry tried wooing her again…

"So Naomi, how're things going with you guys?" Cathy asked.

"We're fine!" she said, referring to her and Brad. The two had gotten hitched after Naomi's pregnancy. "Junior is growing up so fast!" she added, and showed pictures of him to the girls. Joanna stood up and left. "Oh, I forgot…" she apologized to the group.

After the attack on the spaceport convoy, Joanna had miscarried. The battle, and the unexpected attack had been too much. It was a full week before she left her room, and an entire month before she was back to her former self.

(Blitz team's prison block)

"How the hell do you take these things off?" Seymour asked. He and Mark were working on disengaging the prisoner's HES's "I have an idea," he said and took out a long wire, sticking one end to a nearby battery.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked.

"I think that if I can get enough juice into the CORE module, I can get it to short out and reset."

"So?"

"That should make the armor come off," he said, and did it. The first person was actually a lady, a blonde one. The CORE module fell off, smoking a bit, and Mark collected it.

"Hubba hubba…" Seymour joked.

"Now what would Joanna do if she happened to come in right now?"

"Ahhh… shaddap" he said, New York style. He electrocuted the next person.

The scales slowly receded and revealed his face. He was wearing a black jumpsuit with Terran marks.

"Oh my God…" Mark said.

"Dammit. What the hell!" Seymour said and was about to kick the person.

"No. Don't do that."

"I should kill him right here!" Seymour said angrily.

"I know how you feel, but we can't do that. Yet."

"But we have to tell everyone. Including Amy."

"I don't know if we should. I mean it's been two years, and I think she's finally forgotten about him…"

"Even so, we have to wait before we do anything. This isn't just some person. This is Crass."