Van's eyes shot open and his sat up in bed really quickly only to have pain shoot through his head and cause him to fall back down onto the soft mattress beneath him. 'Wait! Mattress? Wasn't I just in a battle?' Van asked himself as he tried to sit up a little slower this time.
"Van, please lay down," Fiona's soft voice said as she placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down onto the mattress again. "You went through quite a lot. You really should rest," Fiona said as she looked at him.
It was then that Van noticed that he was wrapped in bandages not only on his head but on his chest as well. "What happened? Why am I in so much pain?" Van asked as he turned his head to look at Fiona who was sitting in a chair by his bed.
Fiona frowned as she stared at Van. The memory of the event wasn't very good to her. "You were thrown out of your blade liger in that battle. The mission was a success thanks to Zack but you were injured in the process. Zack is taking all the credit for it," Fiona said as she tightened one of the bandages that were on Van.
Van was refrained from speaking when the door opened up and Crougar came walking into the room with a serious face Zack followed shortly behind him with a smug look on his face. "Good, I see that you've regained consciousness," Crougar said as he walked to the side of Van's bed. "Van I want to talk to you about your performance in the last battle," Crougar said confusion both Van and Fiona.
"What do you mean?" Van asked weakly as he sat up against the back of the bed with a little help from Fiona. His ribs were killing him and his head was aching badly but he gave Crougar all of his attention.
"Your behavior during the mission was very unprofessional Van," Crougar said with a stern face. "According to the lieutenant here, you did hardly any work and left everything up to him. Is this true? He also said that you nearly ran him through with your blades," Crougar said in a disappointed voice.
"Not completely. I had a few shots that I couldn't get in because he wouldn't move out of the way no matter how much I told him to move. Even when I started to take out my blades I kept telling him to get out of the way so I can finish it off he didn't move until the last second. With the zoid free it fired at me and now I am here," Van said rubbing his head.
"You never told me to move. I was barely able to move as you came towards me with the blades," Zack lied in a very convincing way. "I was just trying to make sure that I didn't get run through by those blades as well," Zack said keeping a serious face although he was smirking on the inside.
Crougar was unsure of what to believe. He knew that Van wouldn't intentionally lie but the service record of the new guy was nearly flawless. He followed every command that was given to him perfectly. "We'll talk about what happened later. You really need to rest Van. The blade liger will be repaired by the time that you get better. Fiona, may I please speak to you for a second?" Crougar asked before turning towards the door.
Fiona nodded and reluctantly stood up and left Van's side to have the talk with Crougar. "You wanted to talk to me sir?" Fiona asked outside the room where they were out of hearing range of both pilots since Zack had long since left.
Crougar looked around and made sure that no one was around before he spoke. He didn't want anyone to try and change her confession about what really happened. "Yes, I would like to hear what you saw in the battle while you were out there. I know Van isn't a deceitful person but I must follow protocol," Crougar said staring down at the young woman before him.
"I may love Van but I can't lie about this. Neither Moonbay nor I know what actually happened. We could see what was happening but we couldn't hear anything. Both stories seemed to fit into what we saw. I know that Van wouldn't lie though. There is something about that other guy that I don't trust though," Fiona said looking towards the ground upset that she really couldn't help Van.
"I thank you for being honest Fiona. We are trying to get any data from the two zoids that might solve this problem but we are having a few set backs. It could have just been communication problems. We should find out when the analyzing is complete," Crougar said before he nodded towards her and left.
Fiona let of a sigh before she leaned against the wall next to her. She could hear his approach but she didn't acknowledge it until he was standing before her. "What do you want?" Fiona asked Zack since it was obvious that he wanted to talk to her. She just couldn't get over her misgivings about him.
"No need to be so harsh with me. I merely told it how it happened. I have no reason to lie about any of it," Zack said looking at her beauty. She may be pregnant with Van's child but he felt that that was not how it was going to turn out as long as he continued with what he was doing.
"Van had no reason to lie about it as well," Fiona said crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from the man as he continued to try and get her attention. "If that is all that you wanted to say then I have to get going?" Fiona said since she offered to do what she was able to do to help repair the blade liger.
"Why are you with someone as irresponsible as that Fiona? The guy nearly got me killed and you are standing up for him. He is probably just trying to make himself look good. I had the zoid where I wanted him and then he suddenly just comes charging in ready to slice me in half as well as the zoid," Zack said as he watched her move.
When he saw that Fiona wasn't going to respond to him, he ran after her. "How about I take you out to eat someplace Fiona?" he said completely changing the subject they were talking about earlier. "I can take you someplace with good food unlike the horrible food they serve here," Zack said with a smile.
Fiona snatched her arm away from him and continued walking. "I'm busy. Plus I already have a boyfriend. I am having his child and I am happy about it," Fiona said before she turned a corner and was glad when he didn't follow her.
Zack was absolutely fuming at Fiona's declaration. 'You are wrong Fiona. I will make it so that you want nothing to do with him anymore. You will be mine soon enough,' he thought before he turned around quickly and stormed down the halls in the direction of his room.
Crougar walked into the hanger and took a look at the legless blade liger which had several people working to get it fixed up. Dr. D was the one who was leading them all in not only repairing but also upgrading it to the best of his abilities.
Crougar walked up to the older man. "Excuse me Dr. D. I was wondering if you had the data to the blade liger that I requested that you obtain earlier. The one about the battle that put the blade liger in the shape that it is currently in," Crougar said staring at the beat up blade liger. Only its canopy had been repaired but it still had a lot of work left to be done before it could be used again.
Dr. D looked at the blade liger as well. "The blade liger is a mess right now. Some of the data that it had has probably been damaged so I can't assure you anything. We might be able to get older data back but I am not sure if what you're looking for is still there," Dr. D said with a sigh as he turned his attention towards Crougar.
"I see. Unfortunately we can't use the data from the leoblaze because it could have been changed. Nobody but Van and Fiona have access to it to change it and neither of them really had any chance to. If that data is lost, then we will probably have no way of finding out who actually told the truth," Crougar said growing aggravated at the situation.
"If you want my opinion, it was probably the new guy. Van has no reason to act the way that he claimed that Van did. Why don't you just drop it for now and see if anything like this happens again, then you know something has to be happening with either of them," Dr. D said before walking away yelling at a worker for doing something wrong.
Crougar knew that Dr. D was right. He didn't have anything to go on for now so he knew he should just watch the two of them closely. One of them was lying and to lie about something as serious as this will get one of them in trouble.
Zack was smirking from not too far away. He may have not gotten the results that he was looking for but he was sure that they would be watching the two of them carefully. He just had to make sure that he was careful not to do anything that would get him caught and yet still make Van look bad.
Van felt like he had to have been in that hospital wing for at least a week. His headache was gone but his ribs were still killing him. He was walking around on crutches since it hurt too much to stand on his own.
He was glad about one thing. At least he had some good company in the form of his lovely girlfriend Fiona. She stayed by his side the entire week and for that he was eternally grateful. There wasn't much she could do anyways because of her condition.
Van stood in the back of a room as Crougar talked about a mission that he was sending some people on. He knew he couldn't go on it but he was there anyways because it was his duty as a member of the guardian force.
Van couldn't help but let his mind wonder to may things that were happening. Most of which included the new guardian force member. He couldn't help but have his doubts about him. It wasn't just what happened in that battle but according to Fiona, he had been constantly trying to ask her out even though she had told him that she was pregnant.
He was also not sure why the guy had lied about what had happened. 'Could it have been that there were communications problems or was it just that Zack didn't feel like listening to his orders.
Van also had to wonder how that zoid had managed to damage the blade liger with on shot of its guns in such an awful way. No regular gun should have been able to do that much damage. He knew the limits of the blade liger and knew that a zoid couldn't do that much damage with just a regular standard gun on a zoid. It made him curious as to what the zoid actually had.
According to what he had heard. Zack had to basically destroy all of the weapons on the zoid before he was finally able to stop it. That meant that Van wouldn't be able to find out what type of gun it was that the zoid had. They were all badly damaged beyond repair. The zoid could but not the weapons.
It wasn't long before Crougar let them all go and Van found himself in the hanger staring up t his trusted zoid. The leg had been reattached but there were some fine tuning that needed to be done before it would be useable again.
Van heard footsteps approach him but he knew who it was so he didn't move. He sighed in contentment as he felt Fiona's arms wrap around his waist and felt her bury his head in his back. That was the type of thing he wanted to feel the rest of his life and he intended to make sure that that would happen.
"What are you doing here Van? Even if the blade liger was completely fixed, you wouldn't be able to use it anyways," Fiona said softly as she clutched onto Van. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we head into town? We have never really been on any dates as a real couple. There was that one but we weren't a couple then," Fiona said with a smile as she let go and walked to Van's side.
Van turned his heads towards Fiona and smiled down at her. "God I wish that I could tonight Fiona. Unfortunately the doctors want me to come in for a check up. I would ditch it if I could but I have a feeling that they would find me anyways," he said causing her to laugh. "I hate doctors and hospitals. They always give me the creeps," Van said leaning against the banister of the hanger since he was on an upper floor.
Van started to laugh again at Van. No matter what he does, he always remained true to himself. "Well if it will get you better, then I insist that you go and do that. I wouldn't want you getting injured again because something happened to you," she said with a bright smile as she kissed his cheek and grabbed his hand. "I will even walk you there," she said pulling him in the direction of the medical wing.
Van struggled a bit but found that he couldn't escape Fiona because he was still too weak from his injuries. "Oh come on Fiona. I had a change of mind. I really don't want to go. Let them come find me. Let's go out," Van said with a nervous chuckle at the thought of what they did there.
"No. This will help you get better so I am not letting you get away before you are completely healthy," Fiona said with a smile. She was definitely enjoying this for how he was trying to shove that horrible cafeteria food down her throat the other week.
"Please… Oh have a heart," Van begged as he was dragged into the room and thrown onto the bed. His ribs hurt so much that he was unable to put up a proper struggle against Fiona. She had the upper hand in the argument and what made it worse was that she knew it.
"No way, I am not going to leave this baby fatherless because he was reckless and fought while he was still injured. I just don't know what I would do if that ever happened," she said giving her saddest puppy dogface knowing that Van would have trouble with it.
Van let off a groan at the sight of that face. "Fine," he grumbled at as he crossed his legs on the bed and folded his arms over his chest. He saw the door open and the doctor come walking in holding a tray that looked like it had… Needles! "Oh wait! I changed my mind! I got to go!" Van yelled making a dash for the door but was caught by the doctor who threw him against the bed.
"Chill out captain Flyheight. These aren't for you. I just have another appointment after you that I need these for," the doctor said with a sigh as he pushed his glasses up onto his face. "Amazing. I get all of these powerful warriors to come in and yet they all cower away at the sight of a small needle," he grumbled to himself.
The doctor looked at a chart and then looked at his patient. He then noticed the person next to him. "Oh Miss Lynette," he said surprised to see her but thankful at the same time. "Just the person I wanted to see. You too need a checkup for your baby. A few blood tests in fact just to make sure the baby will be healthy when it is born," he said watching Fiona's eyes widen.
Van grinned before catching Fiona before she dashed out the door. "Oh no you don't. I don't want anything to happen to you or the baby," he said turning her words from a minute before right against her. "I insist you go through this," he said with a grin at the glare that Fiona gave him in her defeated state.
The doctor looked between Van and Fiona and couldn't help but laugh. The two of them were perfect for each other. He had seen several pregnant women and their husbands before he started working for the military. These two put them all to shame because of the obvious love that could practically be seen around them.
"I am going to kill you when I get out of here Van," Fiona said in an angry posture although it didn't look like she was angry or sincere. She never could be angry at Van for very long. She was annoyed that now he was throwing everything she said against her.
"But I thought you said that you didn't want to leave the baby fatherless," he said with a smirk as he saw the annoyed look on Fiona's face. "However… ouch!" Van yelled when he felt the needle he wasn't supposed to get go into his arm. "Laugh it up!" Van said at the laughing Fiona. "I thought I wasn't supposed to get a shot!" Van yelled at the doctor.
"Did I say that?" he asked innocently. In truth he just told Van that to calm him down and then he planned to do that when Van was distracted. He was able to go unnoticed up until the actual shot.
Fiona was laughing hard until the exact same thing happened to her. "Ouch!" she yelled this time it was Van laughing. "Hmph," Fiona said crossing her arms over her chest and refusing to look at Van. It didn't help when they both broke out in laughter as the doctor left the room. "We're weird, aren't we?" Fiona asked and Van nodded his head. "I wouldn't have you any other way though," she said with a smile as she kissed his cheek.