Zoid combat often ended up in contests of sheer brutality. In contrast, Organoid combat was fierce and relatively fleeting.
The black Organoid jolted back towards and plowed into the white one, the combined projectile of their bodies carving a meters-long furrow in the sand. With an indignant shriek the larger seized the smaller's nape, fighting strong momentum to toss its foe aside.
They split with a massive spray of grit and rock. Both took a moment to regain their footing, and both leveled their heads and gazes at one another simultaneously. The black Organoid gave a screech and launched skyward with a powerful downstroke of its massive wings, vanishing in a flicker of dark. The white Organoid roared and spread wide energy-wings of its own, taking just as quickly to the sky.
Bit found himself jolted awake again, enveloped in a rising sense of power and mastery. It didn't strike him as at all strange that he was soaring upward at a tremendous speed. The experience was simply one of such all-consuming bliss he never wanted it to end.
But it did, and as he surveyed things from this massive height, the exultation drained away and he again became aware of the differentiation between him and the Liger. He still didn't know where he actually was.
"Liger, am I dead?" He asked, point blank.
~No.~ The Liger Zero's voice.
Or… rather, he realized intuitively, Zero's voice. He was vividly aware that the Liger was on the ground below, peering up at them. Zero's strength coursed throughout, making him feel light and invincible. It was the high of piloting the Liger intensified beyond reason.
This all would've been fantastic had he not been body-slammed seconds later, by a presence he quickly identified as Brad - backed invisibly by the Fury's Organoid.
It didn't hurt though. He recovered quickly and held up a calming hand.
"Whoa, whoa! Hey now. Brad."
"Shut up. Fight me."
"I don't really-"
"Fucking thief. Junk dealer. How dare you. Fight me!" Brad snarled, almost spitting every word. Bit blinked, taken aback. The pure, disgusted rage in the older man's voice was distressingly genuine.
Goaded by the blonde's reaction but annoyed by his lack of response, Brad continued. "You think you're better than me? Than our whole team? Fuck you."
It honestly hurt a little. "I- what? I never-"
"You won't fight me alone because you're afraid to lose."
There was something to Brad's voice. The lilt of an Organoid, which Bit somehow recognized - likely because he felt the same thing in his own voice, from Zero. The mere presence of the Fury's Organoid was strangely acidic, stinging and burning and doing its best to make Bit upset. Not that Brad's accusations weren't already.
"I mean, not really." Bit was lying and everyone knew it. "But I'd prefer to fight… you know, in Zoids." Not a lie.
A pause, that Bit and Zero read as hesitation - and consideration. "No. Fight us. Now."
"Who's 'us'?" Bit and Zero knew. But it was painfully clear that Brad didn't.
"Me." Brad blinked several times. "Us…"
Bit held out a hand. "C'mon. We don't need to fight. We're friends."
He certainly hoped they were friends, anyways. Prior teammates and Royal Cup victors had to count for something. The other man merely looked at the offered hand for a long moment, coldly silent.
"Bit." It was suddenly just Brad's voice. Low, terrified. "Help me."
The plea came as both a relief and a source of dread. Bit desperately wanted to help, but didn't know how. He wondered if Zero did. At the very least, it made sense to take the notion of Brad's hand. He forcefully did so - and found himself rewarded with the excruciating sensation of being bitten thousands of times by all manner of sharp-toothed terrors. Normally a cause for rage, or fear - but he was fine, with Zero there.
Bit then frowned, deluged by a deep sadness of Zero's.
Zero clearly remembered Brad trying - and failing - to take control of the Liger Zero. There came a painful awareness that Brad had quite willingly sought the same thing in the Fury, and in doing so accepted its very deepest roots. Though the man said he was desperate for help, he clung tightly to the promised power and control. And, quite simply - was unwilling to let them go.
Those promises - vices, were the Fury's illusive route to a source of strong emotion to draw from, and held only what wretched life they were given. For Brad it was life largely fueled by the deeply-buried resentment he held for the blonde, and his similarly-buried fear of the Liger.
It hurt Zero to know the true depth of this fear.
Zero then also understood that Vega simply hadn't the depth of negative experience necessary to adequately provide for the Fury. A sheltered, spoiled child, no matter how skilled, held nowhere near the amount of bitterness and anger that an unassuming man run ragged by the world did.
The Fury snarled suddenly at Zero, through Brad. "No. Vega is perfect and lacks nothing."
As it spoke, Bit and Zero both were seared by the distinct impression of a problem: a crack, a gap, something missing. The Fury sensed their perception of this weakness and shrank back defensively, angry and in pain.
"I hurt. I have hurt Vega. It is your fault. I will destroy you both."
Bit reached out again, but it was Zero who spoke. "You are… broken. What happened? Let us help."
"It is your fault!" The Fury screamed. "I will destroy you for what you have done!"
Brad and the Fury lunged, Bit and Zero caught it. They rolled them with grace and ended up pinning Brad prone, to the undefined ground.
"We have done nothing." Zero said sternly, taking a closer look at the Fury's hidden wound.
"Fight me, you coward!" Brad screamed, as he and the Fury thrashed against being held down. Bit was admittedly unnerved by their raw strength - they couldn't hold these two down forever. He caught Brad's eye again, but the man was completely lost to a panicked rage. "I'll kill you!"
Zero stared at Brad, but paused. It'd been angry with him for quite some time about his aggressive, unruly attempt at piloting, but it didn't understand what had happened until this moment:
Bonding. Physiology alone.
The blood of the Ancients, diluted by time and almost completely lost to the mass of humanity - still ached for what had been. Brad had it. Brad had never felt an Organoid before, and could do little but be compelled by the siren's song of a bondmate - any bondmate - when presented with it.
It was the way of things.
It's why he'd tried again to pilot the Liger. It's why he'd become so deeply afraid of and angry with it. He'd been rejected on a level that not even he understood, and it instructed his baser instincts accordingly.
Vega, too, must then have-
Zero then remembered.
Thick air, acrid smoke. The sun overhead had been reduced to a dull crimson orb.
Bit looked around, coughing. He seemed to be in some kind of city, though its buildings and structures were unlike anything, anywhere that Bit recognized.
It was also deathly silent; an unnatural, disturbed silence that made every hair on the blonde's neck raise. Bit looked around in bewilderment for anyone or anything familiar. He didn't understand how he'd ended up here.
He spotted Brad - and Vega - standing a distance off, and bolted to them. But they were both fixated on the ground, staring in horror. Bit looked down also-
How had he not seen it before? The streets were littered with bodies. They were standing on bodies. What looked like humans, dead. Organoids, dead. Zoids, dead, small and large, their stone shells breaking up the stiff-limbed monotony of death that coated every street as far as they could see.
Vega backed up two uncertain steps, then started screaming. His relative indifference to death was one thing when isolated or conceptual. Being forced to confront the collective sight of a genocidal bodycount was another entirely.
"What is this place?" Bit yelled at the two of them. "What's happening?!"
A Zoid's piercing cry shattered the air, shook the ground. Bit had never heard the sound in his life, but possessed knowledge of what it was: a Death Saurer.
Vega and Brad exchanged a glance then looked up. Bit did too, but could barely comprehend the thing - its outline vague, obscured by haze, and unspeakably massive.
The blonde felt a deep and unmistakable pull, a beckon to his brainstem that couldn't be ignored. He turned and there stood Zero, gleaming brightly despite the smoky air. A distance behind it, the ground rumbled and the street's hard surface tented as if paper. Both the bodies and the flaking street tumbled away from the rising form of a massive white and silver scorpion Zoid. It planted its many legs on walls and structure as it emerged from the ground, one massive foot-claw slamming down inches from an unphased Zero.
The white Organoid quietly turned its head to regard the monstrosity, and spoke in a language Bit didn't understand. The scorpion responded in kind: though it also couldn't be understood, its many-layered, hissing tones were uniquely disturbing to hear.
Bit reached out, frightened, and screamed. "Zero!"
Orange optics swung back his way and looked around, unsure.
But it was as if Bit didn't exist. There came no acknowledgement. Zero then settled its stare forward, as if expecting something. Then disappeared in a slash of white light-
Only to immediately collide with a slash of black. The white and black Organoids tangled mid-teleport and reformed in a messy skid, lashing wires, teeth, talons at each other, their shrieks unearthly.
It had to stop. It wouldn't stop.
Bit closed his eyes against a swell of pain. It was immense - not just Zero's own, but a maddening, saturating awareness of the death and suffering all around. The wounded, the dead, the dying… it hurt him, but empowered the other.
Unfair. Unjust. It was wrong to cause so much pain. And for what? To what end?
Maybe They, the great Saurer and Scorpion, were right to want to join together. There was no real battle to be won here. To have a victor meant the subjugation and destruction of those defeated. It would never be absolute, and resentment would smolder in hearts for generations that would in turn just fuel more hellish outward flame later.
The pain would continue without end; there could be no healing path forward.
Zero whipped his head, bladed whisker parrying a jet-black tail strike. ~There is no purpose to this fighting!~
The dark Organoid parted its fangs and screeched. ~There is always a purpose to fighting. That purpose is survival.~
~Do you care nothing for those lost to this pointless madness?~
~The weak are food for the strong. It is the way of things!~
~One, we are above this!~
They rattled wings and postured, hissing, howling, finally lunging then blazing skyward in combat.
Bit watched them disappear from view, and looked back down. The oppressive crush of Zero's awareness left him, and he was left blankly staring at Brad and Vega - who were staring straight back at him.
Their eyes were deep with equal measures of emptiness and intensity.
Brad's throat worked uneasily. "You'll kill us all."
Bit shook his head. "No one's killing anyone."
"Because we're going to stop you."
Vega looked between Bit and Brad, visibly upset. "I - I don't want this anymore. Stop!"
Blue eyes slid to the child, and Brad's face cracked a smirk. "Fuck you, kid. You wanted the piper, you got him, now you're gonna pay him. The Fury's mine. He'll see I'm better than you."
Bit scowled. "Brad, the Fury's using you. You have to let it go."
Brad laughed. "Says the Liger's bitch. The Liger Zero wants to kill everything, you idiot."
"Brad -"
The twisted blaze of the two fighting Organoids smashed back to the ground, violently splitting the two. They smoothly recovered and faced off.
One turned to Brad, and Bit realized that they were still firmly in communication. He looked at Zero and screamed again, "Zero! Come on!" but was ignored.
Vega rapidly looked from One to Bit several times, now terrified. "He's right. He's right!"
"Who's right?! What's-"
Zero shot upwards in a blaze of white and plunged back down into the white Scorpion Zoid. One shrieked and jolted forth in the same instant, a violent inky slash also stabbing into the Scorpion.
Zero reformed within the Scorpion's massive core chamber, interfacing delicately but swiftly with the crystalline Core. One's subsequent invasion of the space came as a surprise, but instead of reforming within the outer shell, he plunged through the gleaming crystal surface and into the Core's soft innards.
Reforming within the viscous, superheated fluid, One forcibly spilled its wiring, lancing vital structures, ensnaring Zero's interface with its own and trying to drag the larger Organoid closer.
Zero howled at this excruciating violation, pulling back and trying to shore up the Core's compromised, weeping surface. He couldn't do this while also resisting One's pull, however - and One seemed to know this, retracting hard, reeling Zero near, lunging to snap at the exposed and vulnerable area wherein lay the white Organoid's own Core,
Zero withdrew in an instant, the need for self-defense outweighing considerations of collateral damage. The Scorpion's Core lost integrity and cracked, a bright, rift-like wound gaping across its surface. Zero shifted, blazing a haphazard teleport to a different angle to reinterface, trying desperately to mend the damage.
One's slimy wiring exploded out through the wound, widening the split. The vile tide of wires slithered over Zero and lashed him tightly to the Core's fracturing surface.
One hissed a laugh. ~Destroy this beast or die with it.~
~Your bastard kind will never prosper!~
~Mm. I will relish consuming you.~
The silver-blue crust of the Core gave way, crushed inward with Zero in tow.
The Zoid screamed in pain, but was powerless to stop the conflict - while Organoids could generally be ejected by unwilling Zoids, these two could not be so easily dispelled. The Scorpion bashed its body against buildings in an agonal frenzy, the Death Saurer watching silently.
The Zoid's pain overwhelmed Zero, and the white Organoid shrieked in a shared agony. It dissolved in a desperate blaze of teleportation - one which took it straight through One, straight out of the Core, straight out of the Zoid.
The Core fluid cavitated momentarily around One, rippling with the shockwave.
The dark Organoid hung motionless.
Something was wrong.
Chipped shrapnel of its own Core glittered behind the sweeping curve of its back, Engaged wholly with the fracturing Core of the Scorpion, One felt itself trying to interface in several directions - a uniquely painful sensation that lasted until something deep within gave way.
Unbidden rage surged. One threw open its massive wings with a scream, tearing the gleaming Core apart.
Bit stood trembling, with no real concept of what unholy hell Zero's memory had ensconced him in. Yet he dutifully braced alongside his partner, crushed by the grief, by the sorrow, by the sheer weight of suffering - by the guilt . The world Zero had been born to ended, and it had been powerless to stop it.
Had Zero been any other Organoid, Bit would've instantly lost his mind. But what Bit didn't know is that without the grounding of a stable partner, Zero would've also lost his - again. Together they realized that the Fury was indeed this old foe, One, and yes - he, Zero, had done this damage.
A very, very long time ago, and not intentionally. But it was by his strike nonetheless.
Shattered, One - already born aggressive - had gone ever-so-subtly mad and madder for ages, stuck desperately trying to heal and make up for what it had lost that day. But it couldn't forge a bond with anyone without destroying them. Instead of being a solid foundation, as Organoids ought, it was an unending sinkhole that could do nothing but collapse beneath and feed on pilot after pilot, insatiable and insane.
Until Vega. Vega broke the cycle. He wanted a friend, a partner. Not a weapon, a monster.
One responded in kind, as best it could.
Vega was different. Vega was stronger. Vega had survived the collapse - barely.
One wouldn't risk him again, but couldn't fight without a pilot. Without guidance. Without fury. Brad was everything Vega was not, and could not be. And One had yet to collapse beneath him.
Zero's prolonged distraction left Bit vulnerable.
One seized upon opportunity and Brad twisted, throwing Bit off. They descended into a brawl, trying desperately to overpower each other. Much like they were in their Zoids of choice, they were near-evenly matched. Limbs shook and gazes locked.
"Brad, listen to me. You have to stop this."
"I will. After I get rid of you." Exertion thinned the man's voice and bared an underlying desperation. "We can't rest until you're dead."
"He's lying to you! Me and Zero can help you both!"
One screamed. Brad pushed away and pointed, face losing all humanity.
"How dare you speak such filth!" The Fury - through Brad - said in Zoidian . "I at least acknowledge the suffering I cause. It is my house of worship, our source of strength. You! You act as if you are free of such travesty. Yet you leave pain everywhere you go!"
Zero stared in silence, before snarling an uneasy reply through Bit. "I tried to stop it. "
"And you utterly failed. This is your fault, and you must perish!"
"Causing more pain has never solved anything. And it never will."
Jaime, Leon, and Toros stood watching what they could see of the Organoids' vicious combat, unsure of what to do. Despite the situation - like Bit being MIA - no one was keen to move closer. The battling creatures were small, but the extreme velocities of the clashes made it just as dangerous as it'd be to stroll onto an active Zoid battlefield.
Naomi stood watching too - much nearer, stunned. She regained her senses and dashed back towards the base. Her waiting Gun Sniper shrilled anxiously, and the Blade Liger and Shadow Fox both replied.
As she ran to Leon, she noticed his bandaged hands but otherwise-intact state. Her face read a baffling mix of anger, relief, confusion, and terror, as she stopped short of him and shouted, "What are these things?! Where are they coming from?! Why- what-"
"They're Organoids." Toros replied, bluntly. He glanced out of the hangar and back at Naomi. "The Liger Zero and the Berserk Fury h-"
"Yes, it's obvious those two Zoids are involved." Naomi snapped, looking furiously at Toros. "But the one the other day- and- these aren't supposed t- one of them just-" She made a quick grasping motion, "-grabbed Brad and…"
Everyone's gazes snapped outside again as the Organoids roared.
Jamie squinted at Naomi's explanation. It was obvious there weren't humans actively involved in the combat. "Grabbed him? How?"
"Like- like a plant," Was Naomi's best explanation, glancing back to Jaime to repeat the motion she'd demonstrated. "It opened!"
Jaime blinked, looked back outside and stared skyward.
In reality, One had pulled away and beat its wings in a rage. It slashed down through the sky, disappearing into the downed Berserk Fury. The Zoid's eyeglass blazed and the Berserk Fury briefly rose… only to collapse again.
The Zoid was no more. It'd only been kept alive by the Organoid's presence. The Fury had destructively fed from the actual Zoid's Core for so long, it was nothing but a necrotic husk. Between the vicious battle and the powerful strike from Zero, the Zoid had perished.
~Worthless! Weak!~
One leapt from the Berserk Fury and launched vertically again, aiming to plow into Zero - but was narrowly avoided. Zero pivoted on a powerful backstroke, regarding the other.
~One. Stop.~
The dark Organoid shrieked defiantly. Desperately.
Within the mental space, Bit put a hand on Brad's shoulder. He regretted that he didn't know the man better, so he could try to do or say something that might better convey his sincerity. They'd fought together, and spent about a year on the Blitz Team together. Bit had never really considered how long Brad had called the team home before him. Never really considered how very unwelcome his own chance arrival may have been. Never really considered.
Zero roared in response, undaunted, and the Liger below joined it. As did the Blade Liger, the two Gun Snipers, and the Raynos.
Even the stealthed Helcat responded, but Sara was too busy dealing with Vega to really register it. The child had his fists balled against his temples, and was gasping uncontrolled, horrified sobs into Sara's shirt. She still had her arms around him - now not in restraint, but in a perplexed attempt at comfort.
~No! Your alliances are borne of deceit. Your victories come at the cost of unending despair.~ One shuddered with rage as it spoke. ~I tire of this. It is you who must die, and it is you. Who. Shall!~
Another forward dive became a black slash in the sky, which this time clipped Zero - who immediately spun to engage, but was again smashed into.
Zero seized One, folded a wing, and dropped, taking them both down at speed. They weren't terribly high up and very quickly, very violently met the ground. The two Organoids writhed briefly in a shrieking bout of combat, before Zero righted and slammed a hindtalon down on One's neck. The black Organoid angrily thrashed for a few moments before subsiding.
~One. Your Zoid is dead. This fight is over. Stop.~
Brad silently pushed Bit's hand off of his shoulder. His eyes were closed. He shook his head.
"Real sorry, Bit."
Blue eyes flashed open with a possessed violence, and with the advantage of surprise Brad seized the blonde's throat. They crashed to the nondescript ground, Bit clawing at Brad's hands and arms wildly.
One relished in the renewed assault, starving for that precious drive to continue. Depleted, exhausted and unable to control itself, the Organoid turned on Brad in-mind and ravenously sank its fangs into the man.
There was nothing else left to draw from. One realized its mistake with some trepidation, but after tasting metaphorical blood couldn't stop itself. It was absolutely a betrayal, one that the Organoid could not help and was just as much a victim of.
Bit sat up and stared. "Brad! Let go!"
He didn't. Whether he wouldn't or couldn't was immaterial. He simply did not. Brad collapsed in the mental space and vanished. In reality, his heart stopped. With it, stopped the ongoing fuel One needed to function. The black Organoid screamed and shuddered before falling still.
Vega looked up with a sharp inhale.
His heart stopped too, and he slumped onto Sara.