It occurred to Brad far too late that Naomi probably wasn't thrilled with him just disappearing randomly from the study. By that same token, reappearing suddenly wasn't likely to go well either.

Brad just stood there, outside in the freezing cold. Inert and unhappy.

Ambient didn't care for the cold, but wasn't troubled by it. It stood staring at Brad for a span, silent.

~Y'really cannae get away from the One, can you.~

"If I can, I don't know how." Brad shook his head. "I don't like what he's done to me."

~Lad. He used yeh feh'r his own ends, left some nasty wounds and shook yeh' up a bit. But he dinnae change anythin' about you.~

"Bullshit." Brad glared off into the forest. "I want things normal again."

~Do yeh?~ Ambient snorted, reflecting disgust. ~You're longin' for the bastard every time he crosses your mind. And if he took y'back, you'd be at his talons in a heartbeat.~

Brad wanted to deny this. But he couldn't.

Repulsion and exhilaration combined uneasily in his head, both making his bile rise and causing him to recognize what the actual pain he'd been experiencing was: hunger. Just like he'd been experiencing for the past while. Only... to an insane degree.

With his hands and arms shaking from cold and nerves, Brad produced a cigarette and lit up. "Fuck off."

Ambient sighed.

~The One only thinks about himself, lad. He's no one's ally, no one's friend.~

"The kid." Brad growled.

~That brat is just like you.~

Rage welled in silence, betrayed by testy drags. "Fuck you, man. I'm better than he is."

The Organoid just shrugged. ~Mmh. Not to the One. Not how it matters.~ It stepped closer, arching its head and neck into Brad's line of sight. ~Might I ask: what exactly do y'think you'd be doing, had he decided otherwise?~

Brad blinked. He'd not really thought about that, at all. As he began to, he immediately realized why: part of him knew better than to do this. Part of him shrugged and did it anyways.

The attack on the Blitz Base would've gone much differently. Bit would undoubtedly be dead. As would the entire Blitz Team. Naomi, too. It's unlikely anyone would've survived him showing up in the Berserk Fury, including Vega.

Would things still be the same, if One had chosen him instead? If he'd killed Vega, wouldn't he have simply died too?

Worse though was the thought of if he didn't.

Sure, he'd have the Fury… and have destroyed basically everything else he cared about. What would he do then? Would he actually care? Would he still even be trying to think at that point?

Brad looked at Ambient, hollow-eyed.

The Organoid squinted. ~Doesnae really seem like somethin' you want.~

The man said nothing.

~This why yeh were tryin'a blow yehr brains out, a bit back?~

Probably. "No. I just don't want to hurt anyone."

~Hnh! My craw knows yeh'r a liar.~

Brad visibly balked. "That's different."

~Eve, yeh'r a mess. Tryin' so hard to pretend yeh give a shit.~ Ambient chuffed, amused. ~No one else's out here, lad. Be honest with me.~

The red Organoid shuffled closer and smirked. Brad pointedly exhaled smoke at it, and Ambient snorted it all right back in his face.

~Do yeh really think that's all tha' holds things together? Everyone just pretendin' t'play real nice, 'til the knives come out?~

Brad once more looked off into the forest.

~Ohhh, lad, lad, lad. Real naive one, are we?~

Brad swung a glare back and locked eyes with Ambient, almost spitting his reply. "Naive?! You-"

That feeling again. That deep desire, a fierce steel grip on every bone in his body. Brad's breath caught and his anger dissipated. He backed up a step, and threw out a defensive arm.

"Stop. What the fuck is that?"

~D'you trust me?~

A squint. He liked Ambient well-enough. He certainly - and perhaps a bit illogically - didn't feel threatened by the creature, despite fully recognizing its destructive potential. That seemed like trust. It felt like trust.

But somehow, directly questioning it made it different. Asked in no uncertain terms, he wasn't sure.

"I don't know."

After the Liger Zero, after the Fury, Brad wasn't sure he could truly trust anything that felt like this again. Incredible allure, irresistible promise... all lies. It'd taken him days to shake a deep sense of failure after trying to pilot the Liger, and, well. One.

Ambient quietly parsed the man's hesitance.

~Well now. Let me put this'a different way. Can I, trust you?~

There was a striking sense of vulnerability from the creature. Brad couldn't fathom what kind of threat something like this could possibly derive from him. Ambient was undoubtedly deadly, could teleport at will, and was obviously self-sufficient. What could he do to it besides restart its now-faded collection of bullet-scars? Tell on its existence? He knew the Organoid would be gone in a heartbeat.

He then thought about Ambient curled up on the Fluegel hangar floor, asleep.

The creature's palpable relaxation, as if that was the first time in a long time that it'd dared get comfortable.

~Don't give me that. Yeh know what yeh'r own damned kind does t'itself on the regular. You don't even trust them.~ Ambient's mental voice roughened, frustrated. ~Damn humans think weh're all just tools. T'be used. Just like how they think of Zoids. It's vile.~

The two exchanged loaded stares. Ambient pointed a menacing claw.

~And yoo'ure not above it. You used t'think the same.~ The mental image of a blue Command Wolf was shoved into the conversation. ~But theh' Tod changed your mind. Do you know why?~

Brad both sneered and flinched at the accusation. Ambient was right: he'd never really felt anything for his Command Wolf. At all. It cost money to maintain. it was how he made money. That was about it. But no, he didn't know what was different about the Fox. Just that something very much was. It was something he'd never really cared to articulate, because the contrast made him uncomfortable.

~Idiot. It's because he trusts you. And you trust him. Y'see one another as individuals, paa'rtners, not tools t'be exploited.~ Ambient's voice lowered further, soft-spoken rage. ~See, you trusted th' One. And he used you. That's not how things are supposed to be. Rises my gorge just to think on it.~

Brad winced, wanting the damn black Organoid. Badly.

This was becoming maddening, given he was now uncomfortably aware of what the consequences of getting what he wanted would've been.

But it didn't matter. He couldn't stop wanting.

He was the problem.

~Nae, lad. Yeh'r wired up to want a partner. Just as much as you're wired up to want to eat, drink and fuck.~

That seemed rather unfortunate and unfair, given the overall low number of available partners - Organoids. Was Vega similarly blighted? Was Bit?

Leon tore past Bit's room, but staggered to a halt as he realized Bit was in it. He backed up and looked in, framed by the door.

Zero lay occupying most of the floor, its head resting on Bit's bed. Its optics silently shifted to fix on Leon.

Bit just sat quietly on the edge of the bed, arms folded over his legs, eyes half-lidded as he looked at nothing. It was very un-Bit-like. Leon didn't know what to make of it, and hesitated to speak.

"...Bit? You okay?"

Bit shook his head.

Leon's throat worked. He looked from Bit, to Zero, to Bit again. But Bit didn't react.

Zero's unmoving, unblinking regard became unnerving.

The young Toros stepped into the room, carefully maneuvering over Zero's tail and to Bit. He placed a gloved hand on the blonde's shoulder. After a pause, Bit put his own hand on top of Leon's.

"Sorry." Was all he said.

"For what?"

"Vega and I have been dealing with a lot. By ourselves." Bit shook his head. "It was stupid. Real stupid. I don't know how any of this works, and neither does he. Things blew up." Bit finally met Leon's eyes, his expression dark. "It could have gone a lot worse."

"Well..." Leon didn't want to think about that. "It didn't. And that's what matters. Are you hurt?"

Bit lifted his head, motioning at the faint purple ligature-marks starting to make themselves known across his neck and collarbone. He made a noncommittal sound. "I'm fine."

Leon took a breath to speak, but Sara appeared in the doorway.

"Bit." She said sharply.

Bit closed his eyes as Zero arched its tail to block Sara from entry. His voice spiked with hostility. "Go away."

Sara looked aside. She understood every last inch of that hostility, and didn't like it, didn't want to acknowledge it. So... she didn't.

She simply gathered her thoughts and looked back.

"Bit. Listen to me. Steve said that the Organoids tripped the base's energy sensors."

"Doesn't mean anything. Big maintenance trips them. Ask Jaime."

"Don't play stupid."

Leon glared sidelong at Sara as she spoke, but only gave Bit another quick pat before briskly leaving the room. He did have to stop for Zero's barricade - and the Organoid let him pass, but was quick to throw its tail back in Sara's way.

So quick, that the blade on its tail-tip hit the doorframe and sparked from the force.

Sara stiffened.

Bit lay down, removing himself from Sara's view. But she didn't budge from the doorway, staring and silent.

"I thought it was just another Zoid." She said after a span, voice subdued.

"I said go away."

"Bit-"

"Look. We don't know where Vega is. Or if he's even still alive. You have no idea what's been going on. He was so stupidly desperate to keep One happy they'd been running off to kill Zoids." A pause, then Bit added angrily, "Zoids that'd been abandoned in Backdraft's base."

Sara's eyes flicked as she processed this. Though she couldn't see Bit's face, the condemnation in his tone narrowed her eyes.

"You know I have nothing to do with anything being done now."

"I don't care. I saw what you did."

Another wordless span of darting eyes and thoughts. It was more accurate to say Zero saw what she'd done, in its idle perusal of Sara's thoughts, but the end result was the same. Bit was vividly aware not only of how Vega had come to possess the Fury, but also how things had played out after the Royal Cup.

It made him feel sick, and he didn't want to think about it.

The bridge of Sara's nose wrinkled, but no other part of her expression changed. "I had to do something."

"How many people?"

"It-"

"How many people!?"

Sara stood, unflinching.

"Twenty-six." She finally said. "Seven if you count Hunter."

Bit didn't say anything.

"You're right, though." Sara continued. "And I was wrong. I didn't know what was going on, and I still don't."

Bit still didn't say anything.

"But neither do you. And I think we may be able to benefit from one another's knowledge."

"No. And you have no right to be here. You could've killed all of us."

"Fortunate that things didn't turn out that way, isn't it."

"Everyone's hurting." Bit growled. "Because of you."

Silence.

"You know you two can't stay here." Sara finally snapped, though her voice lost its confidence. "What are you going to do if they show up and try to search the base?"

Bit sat up sharply and speared the woman with a glare. "We live here. You can't stay here."

But as he met Sara's eyes, Bit immediately understood the nuance in her words.

He thought about their earlier conversation, about the Liger's black box. Thought about what it took to actually trip the base's sensors. Thought about all what must've been involved in One and Zero's fierce combat.

He looked at Zero, and his chest tightened.

"...it's fine, Sara."

"You can lie to me all you want. But you can't lie to yourself."

She was right. He couldn't.

The white Organoid softly rumbled and hefted itself to its feet, leaning its huge body and neck to gently groom Bit's hair.

Sara watched Bit's expression go dull with a forced calm, saw his rising anxiety disintegrate. The obvious mental pressure that Zero so effortlessly exerted on the young man's mind alarmed her: she couldn't help but picture One and Vega in their place.

An increasingly-visceral realization of both how poorly she understood the situation - and how responsible she was for it - forced her to look away.

~You will never find peace if you seek only pain.~ Zero growled quietly. ~What mother has a heart so hard that their own child would instead seek comfort from an avatar of destruction?~

Ambient snorted, breath a dense hot puff in the cold.

~What if ah told you... I can be everything th'One was, and more?~

Brad's response was both quick and biting.

"You can't be."

Ambient went quiet. It inhaled slowly, the sound deep and hollow.

Silence.

And something snapped.

The beast shrieked and lunged at Brad, knocking him flat into the snow again. Parted jaws slammed down over the man's head and neck, and though Ambient's teeth made glancing contact everywhere, it didn't bite down.

Brad squinted his eyes shut, hard. But he wasn't scared. Shaken, probably a little too willing to have his head bitten off, but not scared.

Ambient stepped back sharply.

~Oh fuck me.~

Brad opened his eyes, confused realization crossing his face.

"You don't trust me? "

Ambient bared its fangs to the roots and chuckled nastily. ~Lad, if you were me, yeh'd never trust anyone again.~

Truly, a centuries-old betrayal still hurt. The sting wouldn't ever be less, only numbed by time. Just as Brad craved the One against all reason, Ambient craved that which it could never again have.

The Organoid clearly didn't expect such a mental backfire. Its mouth closed, its head and neck dipped, and its optics dimmed out. Ambient couldn't mask its despair, and didn't really try to. Organoids were intensely social creatures: it'd hurt to be alone for so long.

It hurt to think about, hurt to remember. Severely damaged, discarded, forsaken. Then betrayed by the tattered remnants of his own race. Left alone and barely surviving in a cesspool world, wondering when and how it would all eventually end.

But it didn't.

Years had become decades. Decades had become centuries.

Brad stiffly pushed out from beneath the beast, already cold and no longer keen on being further crushed into the snow. He stood and took a few cautious steps back, but Ambient still didn't move.

Several minutes of this unsettling silence passed, before Brad approached again and crouched to be at Ambient's dropped eye level. He folded his arms over his knees and studied the Organoid's face.

"You were with someone else before."

Emerald optics stayed dark, closed. There was a considerable pause before it responded.

~Aye.~

"Who?"

Silence.

~Doesnae matter. He died. During… what d'you idiots call it now. 'The Cataclysm.'~

Brad squinted. "That was… fuck. Hundreds of years ago?"

Ambient made a throaty, unpleasant sound. It turned and started to stalk away.

"I know you're old, but how old are you? How old do you things get?!"

~Oldeh'r than you.~ The Organoid replied curtly, stalking off into the dark.

Rustling foliage trailed the direction Ambient had gone. Eventually the sound faded, leaving Brad alone in the freezing darkness.

He sighed, folded his arms against the cold and stared blankly after the Organoid for a long while. Then he turned back to-

Brad startled, badly, because Ambient was standing right there.

Contempt stained its every syllable. ~I cannae believe I'm settling on a mongrel.~

Its green optics locked with Brad's blue eyes yet again, except now, neither looked away. Brad didn't resist that deep, bizarre pull when it began, but he did scowl at the tone-obvious insult. "Mongrel?"

~Aye.~ Ambient stepped closer, arching a brow. ~Y'ever felt... a bit different, love? Like despite yeh'r best efforts, yeh never quite belong anywhere?~

That had been the life Brad lived - not a distinct feeling he'd ever articulated, or even mentioned to anyone. The man bristled vaguely and didn't say anything, but that alone answered the question.

~Hnh. Poor thing.~ Sarcastic pity. But the Organoid's tone changed in an instant, to vicious irritation.

~Do you know whose world this is? Humans are the strangers here, yet infested every livable corner like some kind'ae disease. Destroyed what remained of'a proud race, and made th'rest int'a imbeciles. And for what?~ Ambient's teeth flashed with its fury. ~Games?!~

The red Organoid took another deep breath, watching nothing really land with Brad - who mainly looked confused. Its ire leveled out, and its optics dimmed, frustrated.

~Lad. Part of you knows you're better, and longs to be more. And that same part knows, you cannae ever be…~

Ambient leaned in close, and Brad didn't move away.

~...without me.~

And their boundary was lost.

It wasn't a feeling Brad had any context for - he really didn't know if it was okay. But the raw edge of Ambient's mind felt just like One, and any ability of his to resist collapsed. Ambient infiltrated every aspect of his senses for a split-second, then withdrew. Wildly disparate sets of information were exchanged in an near-incomprehensible instant - Brad's 30-something years of life on Zi and Ambient's thousands.

Every ache Brad had for One, every stinging wound, felt quenched. In the back of his mind he knew a pain was still there, but it was greatly reduced - a fire reduced to only embers and ash.

Then rose the empowering rush not unlike the Berserk Fury's. Ambient's mere presence gnawed in question at the frayed ends of his every desire - until the civil casings gave way and a raw, unbidden greed lay bare amongst the shreds.

Somehow, the world was abruptly a very different place.

He could be anything. Do anything.

Have everything.