-Rebirth of the Guardians – the long awaited sequel to chapter 6.

Chapter 7 – the sole survivor

IT SNOWED ON DECEMBER SECOND WHERE I LIVE

YAY!

AND ON DECEMBER FIFTH, INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE NINJA

YAY NINJA!

And on December seventh. MORE SNOW YAY!

-Begin-

It was cloudy, when he opened his eyes it seemed like it was night. The clouds were dark and seemed ready to release rain at any moment. But why should he care about that, he just… he just… What did he just do and was it of any importance? Who was he? No he was tom. That had been true for ages. What had he done? Tom remembered the explosion, and the doubt he felt that he would survive. But then he became aware, sore all over and unusually tired, he had survived painful things before and the soreness was to be expected, but the tiredness on this level was new. He was so tired opening his eyes was a massive effort. But each sensation motivated him further, while he had been prepared to die before now that he was alive, and in one perfectly fine piece, he was ready to live some more and still protect those who were his responsibility, "The responsibility of those of the past…" Tom trailed off.

It was going to be hell to move.

-It has often been debated about how the ghost fox survived the Ultrasaurus explosion. The question is mostly one not about the fox himself but how does one survive the explosion. With his true identity revealed after the war it was plausible that he could have used any of the earth technologies that we were un-able to create that he had and no-one knew about. But what are the odds of a technology like that existing and us not knowing about it?-

History of the Great Zenebas war, short extract

The small rescue party continued after the single object that they saw flying out from the explosion. There was an odd feeling that if anyone could survive that they would know something about what happened. And with reddy being the one to realize that the Gael fury had something to do with that explosion and tom being one fighting the Gael fury, the pieces naturally fell into place after some time.

Tom managed to make that explosion.

Because of who he was and what he had survived in the past everyone assumed the only person who would survive that could be him, it was more of a faith thing than actually reasoning, as no-one could picture him dead. Well they began to move.

But it was to no avail. Once they got over the next hill they saw the invasion force, and the invasion force saw them. As any massive force would do when faced with an enemy force of three when the total attacking force was 500,000 and there was the head of a larger than normal Ultrasaurus poking over the horizon even as the explosion that took out another faded away, they ignored the three. The valley, or rather the wide minor vertical depression, covered some three miles across. It was choked tight with Zoids. A long ways away the first sounds of battle could be heard.

Standing on the hill being ignored despite obviously being enemies Relena was obligated to make a decision. This obligation was pressed on harder by that very question, "So what is the plan of attack or run away?"

Relena looked at the force. "I don't know. I won't give up on tom no matter what, but charging into this. Well it's the same thing in my eye." She bit her lip as she looked at the situation. "Damn that bastard for landing somewhere in the on the other side of the lines!" She began looking over her map for a better place to cross, a bridge over the gap was best, but just a more narrow valley was fine too.

John began to move forwards. "What are you doing!?!" Relena reprimanded him.

John stopped, "Tom talked about him wanting to teach the people. I've seen him go into battles that he could not win, and I've been with him. One thing I learned was that he was a psycho. Another was to stick firm to what you believe. The third was once you've found your belief exert all energy you dare into following that belief. So now I'm doing that, I'm taking a run for it. I'm ready to fight but not ready to run in all guns blazing. I'm hoping that they'll continue ignoring us. If not then we give em' hell. Reddy will act as our prime tom scouter in the worst case scenario. I'll be second since the command wolf can go invisible. Relena you go between us and just try to live if they attack. But no-one fire first unless you are 100 certain they'll try and kill you."

Relena bit back any mean comment she had been preparing. John had a plausible plan A. His plan B sucked, but the way plan A was set up plan B was just a dumb accessory. "Fine, but you're gonna have to keep up with a blade liger and a top of the line Tom styled black reddler. And you're only using a command wolf? I have doubt you can trail behind us even barely."

John chuckled, "I severely doubt you could outrun this command wolf in its current state if you're blade liger was the one used by the hero Van flyheight. Reddy, open up a channel to the enemy group, if they ask make an excuse to why we're crossing. Do something along the lines of reported armed humans. If anyone asks say you don't believe it and you're only going because you have to."

"Well that's what it amounts to anyway." Reddy said with a sigh as he opened a channel. "Okay, I've got our alibi, if anyone can check this out then we're screwed beyond belief, and I don't mean just right here right now."

"Right." John murmured knowingly. Then the two land based Zoids went down towards the canyon. As the stormsworder used its superior maneuverability to get out of the way of the enemy aerial forces, albeit those being proportionally small. The trio of Zoids got through without reddy having to say a word.

"Thank god." John breathed once they were past the traffic laden valley an hour later. "If we were to have fought we'd all be dead, sure we'd block off the valley at least partially, somehow, but still that be nothing to what they could throw at us."

"God I'm just glad at least half of these things are computer controlled. The entire first wave was mass produced piloting AI's so they wouldn't think about stopping any of the few humans out and about from traveling. But if the humans were to have attacked one of them, well then they'd be screwed."

"What this isn't the first wave?" Relena asked.

"No this is the second, possibly third, but neither has any elites. All of the first three waves are cannon fodder. The groups to worry about are on or in line with the Ultrasaurus. They are the second largest group after the massive third wave. And the best."

Fred appeared over the group. "I think I know where about's he's landed, but I can't see him at all because of thick ground cover. I'll need help in finding him."

"Right, everyone rush to tom, anyone who shoots you is dead." Relena said as the blade liger accelerated after Fred. The black reddler jumped after Fred too, quickly catching up to the blade liger and passing it.

John waited a full minute until his partner, Perrone, shouted, "What the hell are you doing! We'll loose them at this rate retard!"

"Oh it's just that Tom removed some zoid restraint, and now this baby would loose them first." John said, "They needed a lead for it to be fair." Then John tapped into the command wolves still near Lightning Saix speed potential. Quickly he caught up to the rest, and then passed all save Fred. "Come on, I'm just the apprentice, and I'm passing the master?"

To which Fred replied, "The master tends to hold back on the student because he know how lame the student is."

"Fair enough." John sighed as he became focused on the mission once more.

Meanwhile some hours later Tom had finally gotten to the point of being able to stand, he had gotten some water down his throat and a bit of food in his belly. It was enough for him to stand now. He had inspected his body. He had been stark naked for a bit but now had clothes from an abandoned house in a town somewhere. The food and water had come from various abandoned buildings. Tom was still a little woozy and not sure of how far he could walk, but he felt certain of his ability to live at least long enough to be able to return to running strength. He wouldn't be able to fight the invasion properly now, not with black one within unable to fight, and himself as weak as it stands, but he could run and fight back another day. "The responsibility of those of the past…" The phrase was his rallying cry, he couldn't end it his memory was still fragmented so. Well the past 8 months were really fragmented, the further back from there the more discernable they were. But still he wasn't sure what his sentence ender was to that. So he pondered that and other things.

It was gonna be hell to escape.

Now detecting no major groups of enemies and getting the occasional radio report about the front line battle, all of which dealt with the Guardian force loosing ground the rescue squad felt motivated to move even faster. Running boosters at a rate where they could keep going constantly the two land Zoids were making good time. The storm sworder was going a hair under the sound barrier and reddy was going almost as fast in the super custom black reddler. But all three were moving towards their target.

Finally they found the spot where he landed, a massive impact crater, along with a second smaller one, then a skid line where something skid some thirty feet to a stop at a rock. Then his footsteps could be seen heading towards the probable location of where an enemy would be, to the north. But it also was in the direction of a town too.

"Why did he head that way?" Relena asked as she and others looked at the footprints on the ground.

"My guess is that he was too dazed to care." Reddy said. "I know what the Gael fury looks like and I know what that explosion looked like. The fact that he's alive is amazing enough; alive and walking is another level of endurance."

"Endurance?" Fred said staring at the kid, "It's called superpowers. That blast destroyed and Ultrasaurus and hundreds of Zoids. It also killed thousands of people, for tom to be at the heart of the explosion and live is the work of superpowers."

"Really Fred." John said as he looked to the north, "I didn't think you'd be the type to believe in that stuff."

"I wasn't." Fred sighed, "Whoever that is just converted me." Fred pointed to the tracks walking away."

"As an aside his clothes aren't as durable as him." John added, "I know tracking skills from back home and since he's got bare feet I'm guessing he's got bare everywhere."

Relena blushed visibly. That scene would be awkward if she were to encounter him. "Well we need to find him fast, unless he's got shelter in that town he may not last the coming storm, or invasion." She said giving orders to calm herself.

When she got into the blade liger Devon saw her blushing, and being assigned with her for some time he knew the general scope of what would be affecting her. "Who's gonna be naked?" He asked after making sure the transmitter wouldn't work.

"Tom." Relena sighed.

"Oh that's all, I thought it might be someone you don't want to see nude." Devon laughed.

"Shut up you bastard!" Relena shouted, "Drive this thing north to the nearest village. Either we find him on the way dead or he got to town and lived."

"Right." Devon murmured setting the Blade liger into a non-booster run, "I'll keep him at a lower speed as to try and catch tom."

"Good." Relena said, "Reddy and Fred are going to the town. If they find him then we get there ASAP."

"Right." Devon said already in scan the screen mode.

It took a mere three minutes for Fred to arrive in the town. But despite all the searching by him and reddy there was no sign of life in the little village. A couple of times both of them thought they might have seen something in the alleyways but more often then not it was an inanimate object, sometimes a cat, if they were lucky. But not once did tom manage to appear, even with the black reddler using its most sophisticated scanning technology they picked up not a thing. Finally landing in a town square the two Zoid pilots got out and after a brief communication relay to the group leader they took off into the town to see if they could find tom.

Meanwhile the two land based Zoids slowly continued on keeping the footprints still within sight and no sign of human life present other than their own. Finally after an extended search period they reached the town at which point they met Fred by the footprints at the entrance to the town. "Greetings." He said. "We've found what appear to be his tracks and we've lost them in the town. Unfortunately they lead into a house as feet and exit as shoes. We don't know this for sure but due to a lack of footprints with an actual foot and instead 'shoe prints' which are everywhere, and the fact that we have yet to find a body, dead or alive, means that he's somewhere around here."

"Where should we leave our Zoids?"

"Somewhere in town a bit, there's a repair shop we passed why not try there?"

"Right, meet us there." Then the two Zoids took off in the direction Fred indicated.

Tom looked at his rescue squad. Since his memories a) hadn't been totally shattered by any means and b) had had time to at least partially re-assemble, tom knew who they were. While he didn't technically know why they were there, nor how when and why John and reddy had left his command wolf, though he had to guess that they had something to do with the rescue party. Tom had tried to stand up when the reddler and Storm sworder passed within sight of his diner window, but he couldn't move for shit. Since then he had been trying to move, his body seeming to try and reject the possibility. Just a moment ago he had been able to get up. He had taken two steps forwards, and behind him lay a mess of sweat blood and other bodily fluids forcibly brought out. Tom had no idea his body was able to go through all those different physical ranges of pain and pleasure at once. It had been a mental gang rape on his psyche via his nervous system and his constant mental bickering based upon these unnatural body reactions to simply walking. But he kept on going, "The responsibility of those of the past…"

It was gonna be hell to walk.

"Well these are the buildings we have searched thus far." Reddy said pointing to buildings in red on a map. "This one is town hall, and where we got the map. Also we locked the door on all the residential building we searched save the first one tom entered. So hopefully he won't be able to enter any of these and we won't have to search through them twice because we don't have the numbers." Reddy pointed out building in green. "All these are food establishments. My guess is since tom is a human being he has to eat, and if he can re-generate well I figure he needs to replenish after re-building from nothing."

"That's all?" Relena asked.

"Yep." Reddy sighed. "You got more major?"

"No." She sighed, "We'd better get searching, don't rush yourselves, I doubt the base is still in one piece. It'll be a miracle if they're still alive. A sign of victory if they still have the base under their control." Relena sighed; the situation had been out of her control for quite some time now. She had no doubt that they were all dead, as unfortunate as it was. Reddy's description of the attack plan and the first had seeing of the attacking army herself had convinced her of that.

"Well I guess we should start with searching the eateries closest to here and closest to where Tom was last confirmed to be." John sighed, "This sucks. Normally a town like this would only be destroyed by a force this small, not nit-picked clean."

"Then don't." A voice said from the doorway. "Congratulations for finding me." That voice said louder still.

-A few moments before-

He walked to the repair place. There he saw a blade liger, new to his eyes, a reddler, a storm sworder and a command wolf, his command wolf. You're still alive, as tough to kill as me… heh… Tom sighed to himself. He had to congratulate the group of whomever for getting to this town; he had been greatly relocated from anywhere near where the gang must have assumed he would be. Also they must have had to cross through around or over massive enemy troop formations. Whether or not they fought their way through it was a miracle that they survived. Hell it was a miracle that he survived. But I guess since they weren't anywhere as near as special as he was their survival counted for more. "The responsibility of those of the past…" Dumb phrase, why did he just say that phrase and not do anything? Well now he was gonna do something.

"Then don't." He said catching the tail end of the conversation. "Congratulations for finding me." They ran over to the man who seemed to have appeared like a savior out of a vision. "Do I have a lot to tell you guys." He sighed. "Perrone, that story deal that I made with you, now would be the time I choose to cash it in."

-End-

Well next chapter you get to find out what tom actually is, and since thus far no-one has took any guesses I'll assume it's gonna be a big surprise. Also next chapter will give you my take on the history of the Zoids world.