-Bleeding Kansas-
Fiona sat motionlessly on the edge of the Ultrasaurus' main hull, her feet dangling and her arms resting on the guardrail. Dark rings encircled her sunset eyes, and she stared stubbornly at the ruined valley before her. Her clothes were scruffy and torn from the ordeal in Evopolis, but she made no move to go inside. She had shaken off their help when they asked, even Van's. He wouldn't have understood.
None of them did, really. None of them was there. None of them saw the doors to the Zoidian capital open for her. None of them saw the Zoid Eve rising from the darkness like some sort of saving light. None of them had tried to destroy Eve and felt the connection with every zoid ever.
None of them knew how powerful, and yet so helpless, it felt to stand atop the console area and watch the others fight to the death. To watch the pointless fighting unfold had broken her heart.
In the few hours since the battle, heavy boulders had been tumbling into the city as they broke from the valley walls, and a thick cloud of dust hung over the valley. It was beginning to thin as the labyrinthine valley settled into its new formations. But underneath the crashes of falling rock, there was something else. Something was calling her, in a silent but urgent summons.
She had to answer it.
She took a deep breath of the diesel-tinged air, and felt it again, edging at her senses. It refused to identify itself, and was elusive and frustrating in its arbitration. She gave a little huff and said aloud, "I don't understand...is something wrong?"
"What? Something's wrong?"
Fiona jerked in surprise and turned to see Van standing behind her. He looked as tired, if not more so, than she, and little wonder–he hadn't slept since before the battle with the Death Stinger on the Guerreal Plateau. He swayed on his feet before her very eyes, and finally moved to sit beside her, leaning his head on her shoulder. "Nothing's wrong, Fi...we fixed it." He yawned.
Fiona went back to staring at the valley. She took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulder. "Don't go to sleep yet, Van."
"Mmnph," came the reply.
She shrugged her shoulder again. "No, really. Wake up."
"Why?"
She was silent for a couple of heartbeats, and then murmured, "Will you take me back?"
Van, attempting to bury his face in her shoulder, suddenly froze. He raised his head to stare at her, his spiky hair mussed. "Go back? Back there?"
Fiona didn't look at him, just sighed and bit her lip. "Y-yeah."
He followed her gaze. "Why?"
"There's...look, I just have to go." She locked her eyes with his. "Please, Van. Just take me there."
He stared hard at her for a moment, and his sleepy eyes finally achieved some clarity. He sighed and pushed himself up, casting his gaze back to the valley. Dejectedly, he muttered, "Yeah, okay. Let's go."
Fiona smiled and stood as well, looping her arm through his as they started back to the Ultrasaurus's hangars. "Thank you."
And she meant it with all her heart.
Fifteen minutes later, the Blade Liger was trudging toward the ruined city. The hangars in the Ultrasaurus had been deserted, no one around to ask questions. The ramp's keypad had taken Van's access code with no problem, and the zoid walked within plain sight. If there was a crewmember on deck to see, he or she reported nothing, and the comm. link remained undisturbed.
Fiona sat silently in the second seat of the cockpit, her eyes unfocused and her nerveless fingers laced in her lap. Something was in the valley, something that was surely her responsibility. She just had to find it...and fix it. She had the feeling that quite a lot of responsibility had befallen her shoulders as soon as she'd opened the gates of Evopolis for the Dark Kaiser. It wasn't just that she had unwittingly begun what could have been the end of the world, but that she also had to keep it from being so. She had started it, she had to finish it.
It was a basic law, one that had existed long before the Ancient Zoidians. Thomas would call it honor, and Van would call it digging a hole. Her thick wall of amnesia had always been particularly volatile, and aggravatingly arbitrary in divulging information. The mere mention of the Zoid Eve had started the whole mess, passing freely from Hiltz's lips. The Dark Kaiser had taken her, even with two other Ancient Zoidians at his disposal. Her name had been the key to the Zoidian Capital, and she had known it–and the gates had recognized her. There were too many questions, and far too few answers. Only the city, only Eve, could help her, in the place where the last of her memories still slept.
"Hey, Fi? Fiona?"
Fiona blinked and met Van's gaze, considerably brightened after three cups of coffee, which were so strong that they were almost straight caffeine. She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly, and he went on, "Where, exactly, do you want to...go?" He managed to look at her and kept one eye on where they were going at the same time; Zeke would have been a large help, but they hadn't woken the organoid, because he wasn't needed. Fiona was only going to go find out what had called to her and then come back, a simple investigation.
She shrugged. "I'm not really sure, right now." She paused to think, with a sigh. "You could probably just drop me off at the...center, though." She managed the ghost of a smile. "Drive around the block a few times."
Van raised his eyebrows at her and turned back around. "Well, okay. I don't really want to strand you in such an unstable area, but...if you're sure." He shrugged uneasily.
She whispered, "I am."
It was not long before the walls of the valley crept by, its stone pocked by bullets. The sun glanced off the golden sand in blinding arcs, mirages shimmering in the many dips between the Liger and the outskirts of the city. A stone fragment that was tinted a soft cyan was the first of Evopolis to greet them. It was soon followed by a scattering of crushed glass and a fried Dark Horn. Fiona shivered and turned her gaze away from the smashed and bloody canopy.
The destruction was much of the same from there, only becoming closer together; the metal corpses finally culminated at the fallen hulk of the Deathsaurer, its fearful optic lens dark for good. Van delicately maneuvered the Liger around the gargantuan zoid, and neither of them said a word about it.
Fiona knew that Van was hurt by her actions during the final conflict. He hadn't voiced his thoughts about them, perhaps because he thought it selfish. He had been ready to fight to the death, for a cause that he fervently believed in, for everything he had ever believed in. She had been ready to sacrifice all the zoids and herself for the good of Zi–because she didn't think that he could succeed in destroying Hiltz. It was a childish reason to feel hurt...but maybe it was true. She hastily shoved the dark thought to the back of her mind. She had wanted to end the sickening and pointless bloodshed. Van was a zoid pilot–bloodshed was his job, however benevolent the cause, and he couldn't understand a world without it.
Finally, she saw the Zoid Eve's console area up ahead. She controlled her voice and said, "Stop here, please."
Obediently, Van stopped the Liger and raised the canopy. As she eased herself from the cockpit, he said haltingly, "I'll, uh...be back in an hour, okay?"
She met his gaze, her hands braced on the Liger's snout, about to push off. "Two, please."
He swallowed and shrugged uncomfortably, averting his gaze from her face. "Okay. I won't be far, if you need me."
She nodded and let her feet drop to the pavement. Her tired knees absorbed the shock well enough, but she stood shakily. After a long, quiet moment, the Liger straightened, the canopy hissing shut, and started away. She waited for a few motionless seconds, and then stole a look over her shoulder in time to see the zoid round the crumbled corner of a nearby building. Silence followed it, and she let her shoulders sag, and suddenly the wear and tear of the past few days hit her. Her joints were stiff, and her back ached like nothing else: the price of being too proud to take an aspirin or a nap. With a muted sigh, she started to the ungainly pile of stone where the Zoid Eve had once proudly stood.
She didn't exactly know why she felt she had to be strong for Van. Not for his sake, certainly; he was strong enough for the both of them. She had never had to be strong for him before, always letting him be the stoic one, the one who took the initiative, the one who rescued the hostages. The one who rescued her. Maybe she was simply tired of being the bait, being the weak point, being the proverbial Achilles heel. Maybe she was ready to take some initiative of her own.
The stone that had housed Eve had collapsed in on itself, sheltering the ground beneath it; a large crack arched up from the pavement, as wide as four feet at its base. It was for this that Fiona headed, ducking down to avoid whacking her forehead on the rock. She groaned at the realization that she would have to crawl on her knees to get through the thick stone, for at least twenty feet. Grimly, she made slow progress, but with a determination that surprised her own aching muscles.
The tiny passage squeezed out into a cool, dark space that wasn't limited by anything visible. As far as her eyes were concerned, the inky black could go on forever, stretching into the sky and beyond. It was so absolutely dark that it was deafening in its silent peace, a separated section of the universe that refused to be disturbed by time, let alone her meager existence.
It took Fiona a moment to realize that she was dizzy, and even longer to realize that she had slumped back to the floor. The dark stole her breath away, and made her want to lie down and sleep the sleep of eternity. It was the effect that the Zoid Eve had on those in her immediate proximity, and was comforting, in its own way. Fiona closed her eyes for a long moment, seeking to clear her mind, and when she opened them, the scene before her had changed.
It wasn't the complete black she had first perceived–it was simply dark, sparse light filtering in from behind her, and a large crack across the length of stone. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she noticed that the chamber was empty. Or almost empty, because she had sensed Eve. A small mound rose from the center of the area, a mound that gleamed blue. The physical embodiment of Eve was gone, her spirit resting in that room, and that room only.
Fiona pushed herself back to her feet, and stood awkwardly. What now? She faced the mound, and opened her mouth...and shut it again. What was she to say? Was there anything to say? She swallowed her fear and said softly, "I'm here."
Nothing happened.
She cleared her throat. "I'm here." When she got no response, she frowned and said more loudly, "What do you want from me?"
"From me?" her echo answered.
Frustrated, she nearly shouted, "I'm here, I came! You called me, but for what?" She finished, rather tearfully, "What can I possibly do?"
Nothing answered her...not that she expected an answer, but she would have appreciated it. The small mound before her just glowed softly. Giving a sigh, she finally approached it, eying the thing warily. It looked harmless enough, although the supernatural wasn't known for giving its victims a warning.
She deliberated a moment, then shrugged and stepped onto the rise. It gave beneath her feet, much like sand. A cool light spilled over her skin, soothing her aches and washing away her pain. And suddenly, she saw.
She stood on top of the console area again, watching the battle unfold below. It seemed to be the same old terrible memory...but no, it was different, somehow. The Deathsaurer prowled the city's streets, roaring vicious defiance to the cerulean sky. Underneath its clawed feet, the Empire's zoids offered pitiful, but vehement, resistance. The abomination didn't seriously acknowledge the threat, but to swing its tail around to slam into a Saber Fang. The smaller zoid screamed in agony, crimson liquid spurting from its inner workings.
Fiona's hands leapt to her mouth in horror. They're...bleeding. And they most certainly were. The Deathsaurer drenched in liquid rubies, and the ground in literal corpses...the evidence of a slaughter. And then the Genobreaker and Blade Liger were there, tenaciously darting in at every opportunity to deliver some small hit to the huge zoid.
The Deathsaurer hissed, and one of its clawed hands snatched the Genobreaker from the air. Raven's zoid shrieked as the monstrous claws squeezed mercilessly, and scarlet arced in all directions from its body. It convulsed once, twice, and was still. Pulse lasers peppered the Deathsaurer's back, and it twisted around to face the Liger. With a lethargy that betrayed ease, the huge zoid leaned down and snapped the struggling Liger into its jaws.
Fiona's eyes went doubly wide, and she gave a muffled cry. The Deathsaurer turned to her, dripping in the blood of Zi, its wicked jaws grinning. It lunged toward her, and as crimson ichor spilled hotly over her head, she started to scream.
When she awoke, she was lying spread-eagled on her back, staring up at the ceiling she couldn't see, the stone cold under her limbs. "Ow." She sat up shakily, rubbing her head, and winced at the lump there. How long had it been? Was Van looking for her? She started to push herself up, worry seizing at her heart. A quiet laugh made her freeze. She twisted around to see Reese perched on one of the ledges higher up on the stone wall, swinging her feet.
She raked Fiona with her cold gaze. "Silly girl." She narrowed her pale eyes, and her lips twisted. "You shouldn't have come alone."
As Reese leapt from her perch, some huge wave swooped down with her. Fiona swooned, the sheer power making her real back in disorientation. It made her feel helpless and insignificant, dwarfed next to the absolute malevolence. Its mere proximity churned her stomach and drove a stabbing headache right between her eyes; it suffocated her, forcing a bitterness down her throat that made her gag.
It was only as the wave of energy swept back around that she realized it was invisible to the eye, only affecting what little psychic senses she possessed. Her scarlet eyes widened and her face drained as she felt it pressing in, restrained only by the slim girl standing before her. Reese wore a terrifying expression of raw hurt, cold malice, and a certain cruelty that seemed to have been absent for a long time.
It was only then that Fiona truly began to feel afraid.
Okay. This isn't finished–I started it in November, and then its inspiration left me. I am tired of its evil glare, so I'm slapping it up. I added a little bit more, to help it tie everything in. Suggestions are welcome, as are reviews in general. Thank you for your time.