She knew there wasn't time. Despite gloves her hands were freezing. She badly fumbled with reloading her rifle. Naomi narrowly kept panic at bay, her teeth gritting so hard she thought they'd crack.

There. Loaded. Relief hamstrung anxiety; she took immediate aim at the horrifying black Organoid descending upon her. But she'd been a split-second too late, and-

Naomi jerked awake and sat up.

She realized she was at home, on her couch.

A quick glance around told her it was late, Brad wasn't there, and Leon was. Apparently dozing, Leon sat drooping over the opposite arm of the couch and hadn't noticed her wake up.

Naomi quietly stood, her movement alone enough to disturb Leon. He blinked up at her.

"Hi," He yawned.

"Hey."

"You okay? You've been asleep for hours."

"Just tired. Long week."

"Mmh." Leon grunted agreement and also stood. "Though still no idea why you two wanted to spend it in the mountains. Did your Zoids get stuck or something?"

Naomi's expression fell. She didn't say anything, just shook her head.

"I'm not mad." Leon said gently after a moment. "I'm sorry for being so upset earlier. There's just so much going on. I was worried."

Naomi studied Leon's face.

Leon was a very different creature than Brad. When it came to Naomi, Brad acted with a full-body confidence that Leon simply lacked. Despite the young Toros being bigger, taller, and physically stronger. Leon was infinitely gentler - but hesitant. Still unsure how he fit into the woman's life, but clearly wanting to be part of it.

She hadn't spoken for over a minute.

Leon frowned. "You sure you're okay?"

He added nothing else to her silence, waiting for Naomi to finish whatever thought process she'd obviously delved into.

"I need a smoke," She concluded.


Zero was out of patience.

Though Ambient was fast, and slipped out of the room before Zero reacted - with One's escape still stuck in its metaphorical craw, the white Organoid wasn't having it.

A split-second after clearing the interference of walls, a blaze of white intercepted red and struck like furious lightning. Both Organoids reformed - as did Brad and Sara - neither of whom were secured with Ambient and went tumbling hard across the hangar's concrete floor.

Zero and Ambient tangled fiercely, but the Liger's immediate assistance put an end to any protracted combat. The Zoid rushed and pounced the Organoid much as it had on their initial encounter, trapping Ambient firmly beneath its claws.

Brad quickly regained his bearings, standing to lunge and grab Sara's arm just as she'd likewise started to recover and bolt. He wrenched her hard to the side - but she moved with him instead of against, and twisted free.

She broke away and produced her pistol, leveling it at the man; Brad simultaneously drew his revolver and pointed it at her in-kind. They stood only feet apart, catching their breath, guns trained on each other.

~Love, I EXPLICITLY said ah dinnae want to deal with this asshole,~ Ambient groaned privately. Brad twitched a glance its way, but didn't dare move.

"You know better." Sara said icily.

"Do you, is the question." Brad replied.

"Unfortunately."

Brad scowled. "What's your game with Steve?"

Sara scowled right back. "There is no game, you fucking filth."

"Stop it." Bit appeared between the two, a halting hand facing each. "We're not doing this."

Brad's eyebrow twitched. After several seconds and a severely curled lip he re-holstered his gun, eyes only leaving Sara when she did the same.

"Bit. Do you want her out of here or not?"

Bit glared. "Yes. But-"

"But nothing! The conversation was over. You and Zero pulling this is a dick move. Get them off of Ambient!"

Bit glanced towards his Zoid and Organoid, then looked back with an angry shake of his head. "No. You don't get to leave like that. Everyone's going to want to know where you're taking her."

"It doesn't matter." Brad said. "You're not stupid. You know how Organoids work. Jail isn't a very effective concept if Vega comes back, is it?"

"When." Sara corrected.

None of these things seemed to have crossed Bit's mind. "Then why'd you suggest it?!"

"Because it'll stop Doc from fucking everyone over!" Brad paused to flash a snarl at Sara, who stared back impassively. "You know what she's done. She has to go!"

"But what if she's telling the truth about Backdraft? And we force her out?"

"That is not our problem!"

Bit's eyes flicked in study. He didn't disagree… but the possibility of sending someone to their death didn't sit well with him. At all. His throat worked, and he glanced again at Zero, hoping-

Zero didn't care about Sara at the moment. Zero's entire mental weight bore down on Ambient, along with what Bit realized was the Liger's physical weight as well. He reflexively looked at Brad, who clearly felt Ambient's distress.

For a fraction of a second, Bit registered concern. But Zero's impatience, Zero's frustration, Zero's ferocity tore it right out of him. So he instead scowled. "Tell him to stop being stubborn and just answer Zero's questions!"

"He doesn't want to! You tell Zero to fuck off! You said-"

Bit cut him off with a vicious point. "Look-"

Brad shuddered and made an attempt to hold back - but couldn't, and hooked a punch at the blonde. Bit ducked aside with a guttural noise, but Brad followed with a sweeping kick that threw Bit off-balance.

Bit fell hard to his back, and Brad brought a swift and angry boot down on his arm. The two locked eyes with the fury of their Organoids, Brad stabbing a point right back at Bit. "Don't look me, y-"

White blazed, and a slap of Zero's massive tail threw Brad to the heat-cracked perimeter of the hangar floor. Though Brad quickly rolled to get up, Zero appeared overhead and shoved him flat against the concrete.

Its power - and restraint - were obvious.

Ambient shrieked with rage, body and claws audibly grating against both the Liger's paw and the floor.

~You still reek of One.~ Zero growled quietly at Brad, as it slid a dismissive mental glance at Ambient. ~As does he. Why.~

Brad lay prone, Zero's massive talons across his back with a subtle but terrifying pressure. He couldn't stop thinking about how Ambient had so easily crushed the life out of-

~Because th'One tried'ta fuckin' eat us just a wee bit back, perhaps? Because tha's the kind of what he does, y'know? YOU, ON THE'H OTHEH'R HAND-~

Zero idly turned its head Ambient's way. ~Only a fool would engage either of us.~

~If y'want t'be technical about it, ah dinnae engage shit.~

~Silence. Your refusal to answer very simple questions does not speak well of you, your presence, or your continued existence.~ Zero looked back down at Brad. ~Either of you.~

Ambient cracked its imprisoned tail against the floor, furious. ~YOU being sore about th'One isn't OUR problem, we came t'take care of the bitch infestation and YEH'R human said-~

~-nothing about putting a woman to death. Which you clearly intended to do.~

~As if she'd be safe with th'ZBGF!~ Ambient snorted, uselessly biting the Liger's claw in frustration. ~At least we're nae afraid t'take out the trash!~

~And again: only fools mistake restraint for fear.~ Zero brandished its tailblade in obvious threat, then carefully stepped off of Brad and stalked back towards Ambient and the Liger. ~Leaving us with little doubt as to what you are.~

Bit silently approached Brad and knelt to help him up.

Brad angrily refused the help and stood, pushing away Bit's continued offers of a hand. Bit's lip curled, but his chin did too.

"Don't be this way."

"What way, Bit?" Brad turned and asserted his slight height over Bit, sneering in the blonde's face. "Why is your shit always my problem?"

"You can leave." Bit said through his teeth, sweeping an arm into the desert night. "It's Ambient who can't."

"You know that's not how this works."

The main door from the base to the hangar clattered to life with a frantic rush of footsteps that quickly stopped. Everyone from the control room arrived, with Jaime trailing. Stoller and Polta rushed to Sara's sides like displaced magnets, while Steve and Jaime looked on.

Brad glanced at his former teammates, desperate for any kind of help. But nobody understood the issue, nevermind could they act on it.

Bit abruptly grabbed Brad's sleeve and dragged him in a staggered walk across the hangar towards the Liger.

Brad couldn't appreciate the war on Bit's face any more than Bit could do anything to stop Zero. The blonde shoved Brad at the Liger's paw, yelling, "Yes, I know how it works! Which is why I want this to stop!"

Brad stumbled to his hands and knees, eyes catching Ambient's wild optics.

~How did th'One leave without bein' followed?~ Ambient hissed privately, strain in its voice. ~Ah've got to get th'fuck outt'a here.~

You think I know?! I don't understand how-

~If th'brat can figure somethin' out, so can you!~

Brad had thought he was forever rid of the stomach-sinking crush of inadequacy - but no. He couldn't be upset with Ambient about it - physically couldn't - and Ambient was right. If Vega could figure it out, why couldn't he?

Blue eyes flicked with thought, then narrowed.


Naomi didn't usually smoke cigarettes.

Leon could count the times he'd seen her doing so on one hand, and in every instance he recalled, she'd been under serious stress. So as he watched Naomi take yet another drag from a loosely held cigarette… Leon could only conclude that was the problem.

Stress.

While there was certainly no shortage of things to be stressed about - especially given recent events - Leon wanted to help, but didn't know how to. Naomi's terse manner made him question his decision to bring his own problems to her door.

But she at length sprawled over Leon's lap, making clear that he (and his problems) weren't the issue.

"That fucking Organoid." Naomi finally mumbled. "It… it's weird."

Half-dozing again, Leon roused when Naomi spoke. "It's still hanging around?"

"Yeah." A long pause. "I know that we shouldn't - that we can't…"

"...tell anyone about it?"

A nod. A million questions had no answers. Naomi's eyes closed as she thought about Brad.

The couple had barely begun settling into some semblance of normal again, after the ordeal with the Fury. None of that had been his fault, but she'd never expected him to tempt her into her own personal darkness.

Tempt? Even her inner dialogue knew better.

She didn't want to think about it. Naomi still couldn't process how she felt.

Firearms were braided into her very identity. She'd always taken vicious pride in the skills she'd spent her younger days honing: she knew every square inch of herself and her weapons. Confidence made for a fierce and seamless blend.

Naomi had spent years feeling utterly defined by that certainty - both on and off the battlefield. Nobody dared lay a finger on her without her consent; she was invincible.

Until she wasn't. Until Backdraft tried to kill her.

No, worse. Discard her.

That'd shaken her quite enough. But the ruin that followed made the slight seem small. When Brad made clear that he wasn't just scattering cockroaches, he was killing them… she didn't like it, but it made sense.

Perfect sense, even.

Naomi twinged against the core of her discomfort.

She regretted killing someone.

But she didn't regret who she killed, or why. Though she ultimately couldn't bring herself to do it a second time, she was the unmistakable benefactor of Brad's ruthlessness… and she'd done nothing to stop him.

Nothing.

It'd also left her wondering if the changes she'd recently seen in Brad were real or imagined.

Not that they were bad. He simply seemed fine again, like he'd shaken whatever fog that'd been following him from the Berserk Fury. She wished she understood, but-

Naomi blinked several times, realizing Leon was staring at her and her intense silence with concern. He knew nothing of what'd gone on, and couldn't parse Naomi's expression.

"The Organoid's not causing any problems, is it?" Leon said.

"No. It… no."

If only Ambient were the extent of the issues. She wasn't fond of the creature, but had a hard time remembering her objections to it. Naomi took a deep breath.

"Honestly I think things might be okay now. We took care of a lot."

"Oh?"


If One could escape Zero, but Ambient could not… One or Vega either had, or knew, something that Brad and Ambient didn't. The thought rankled Brad, even as his mind ticked desperately for a solution it didn't possess.

It occurred to him that he needed to focus on what he had: familiarity with his surroundings. Ambient needed out of here, and he did too. But if they couldn't teleport…

Amidst its preoccupation with Zero, Ambient was thinking about the Zoids.

Something about a Zoid.

To do much of anything they needed a Zoid.

But there were currently three Zoids in the Blitz hangar - and only two of them were options. Not good options, either: the Gun Sniper was no match for the Liger. It was far slower and likely not carrying any ammunition at the moment. The Raynos… Brad had no experience with aerial Zoids, and with Ambient's high-pitched distress incinerating all clear thought, he doubted he could fly it.

Not to mention it'd need to launch, and Zero wasn't likely to-

Still on his knees, Brad twitched a glance to his left.

He registered another Zoid, its idle body tucked close to one the hangar's still-standing walls. Dark and sleek: a Lightning Saix.

A stranger to him, it obviously belonged to one of the base's unwanted guests. But the details didn't really matter. A Saix was just what one needed to leave. Quickly.

The Zoid's eyeglass subtly lit at Brad's attention.


"Dead?"

"Yeah. Dead." Naomi looked out the window. "We killed them."

Leon blinked. He really wasn't sure what to do with this information.

"I mean," Naomi glanced back, her words seemingly an afterthought. "Don't tell anyone. Obviously."

There was a lot of silence.

"...Naomi."

"They tried to kill us, Leon." Naomi pulled a knee to her chest. "They almost did."

Leon's sensibilities violently clashed with his loyalties.

He found the thought of being pursued by Naomi legitimately terrifying. The woman made her precision and patience look laughably easy… when it was anything but. Leon had no doubts her all-ending aim could be put to more lethal uses.

"Did you...?"

"Yeah." Naomi loosely lined up her hands as if holding a rifle. "Only once. One shot."

Naomi watched Leon twitch through a range of expressions before settling on a light frown. He didn't say anything. Her throat worked as she watched his face, disturbed to see a very real fear growing in his eyes.

Her stomach dropped. Then it revolted.

Naomi pushed up sharply and made it to the kitchen, where she repeatedly retched into the sink.


It took only a split second's thought for Brad to convey the gist of a solution to Ambient. They both knew they hadn't the luxury of debating any actual plan, and didn't try to.

Brad uncomfortably stood, dusted his knees off, and shot a scowl at Bit. Then he turned and started to stalk out into the night.

Bit just blinked. "Where are you going?"

"You said I can leave." Brad replied without looking. "I'm leaving."

Bit's brows furrowed. Something didn't seem-

"Oh no you don't!" Stoller barked, brandishing his pistol as he started after Brad. "Get away fr-"

Brad snapped into a dead run for the Saix, wild-eyed as he launched himself at its foreleg and scaled it with an obscene grace. The Saix indifferently let Brad access the cockpit: he leapt inside just as gunshots rang out, not even seating himself before grabbing the yoke and shoving it forward.

The confused Saix lurched, then went bounding off at speed, as a Saix was wont to do.

Stoller's run died out, and his arms dropped to his sides. He slid an unamused glare over his shoulder at Bit.

Bit responded with a helpless show of his palms, glancing at Zero-

Who simply continued to stare at Ambient, unflinchingly.

But Ambient twitched a smirk, making a show of bunching itself for teleportation. Zero hissed in reply, flaring its wings in threat. When Ambient again vanished in a flash of red, and once more Zero blazed to intercept-

Zero assumed incorrectly.

The white Organoid expected Ambient to target the Saix's core, or at least some vector to begin that process.

Because Ambient did neither, Zero intercepted nothing, leaving the white Organoid to reform and skid to a gritty halt several dozen meters out.


Leon stood beside Naomi in the kitchen, arms gently draped around her.

He was clearly upset, at a loss for words, and considering what to say and do. Naomi felt his hammering pulse from where her head lay on his chest.

As much as Leon wanted to, he couldn't say he found what Brad and Naomi had done objectionable. Though being provided the details of such outright violence made him feel fairly ill too - he couldn't condemn it.

He still wasn't even sure what he would've done, had anyone at base been killed by the Berserk Fury. He didn't want to dwell on it. The point was: a line had been crossed. Several lines had been crossed.

Leon closed his eyes and brushed his gloved hands down Naomi's arms.

"Why didn't he say anything." Leon finally stated more than asked.

"He probably thought I would've kept him from going to Mackaray. And he's right." Naomi shook her head. "But he did tell me what happened. And… I get it."

Silence.

Leon glanced. "He barely told me anything, but I think I do too. It's just… not our place to be judge, jury, and executioner."

More silence.

"They abandoned us, Leon." They: the ZBC and the ZBGF alike had dismissed her. More than once. "They didn't care that people were going missing, that we'd been attacked, that Brad was abducted. They didn't fucking care!"

Naomi was right. Nothing had been done. Leon himself had even assumed Brad was dead, after a while. He just didn't want-

He caught himself.

What on Zi was he trying to justify?

If a member of his family similarly vanished, would the ZBC or ZBGF have helped him?

He wanted to think so. With some guilt he encountered the consideration that the Toros family may indeed have been given more mind… because people knew his father was smart. Knew that they…

…weren't mercenaries.

Knew that they were people who mattered.

Leon bucked the thought even as it crossed his mind. Angry that he thought it, angry that he had to think it.

Naomi just shook her head again. "I know It took him forever to speak to you. And I don't know what he told you. But things are a mess. I don't know what to do, Leon. And I don't think Brad does either. "

Leon felt a hollow in his chest grow.

Brad clearly wasn't here.

And just hours earlier, he'd more-or-less told the man exactly what to do.


The moment Ambient broke free of Zero's duress, Brad immediately felt better. As he settled into the Saix's seat and properly fastened the restraints, he became aware of Ambient's proximity - beneath the galloping Saix. Upside down and focusing intently, Ambient skillfully matched the Saix's speed as it flew in the relatively tight space between the Zoid's underside, legs, and the ground.

Brad grinned, impressed. He had no idea how or why any of that'd worked, but-

~Simple version: path'a least resistance. Nae reason t'not take the easiest way. Usually.~ Ambient muttered. ~Organoids can sometimes glean wheh're another's goin', if theh're payin' attention. It's theh stoppin'-someone part, tha's a bit odd.~

"Let me guess." Brad rolled his shoulders, aching from being repeatedly thrown across concrete. "Zero's just special."

~Powerful.~ Ambient replied, with no hint of amusement. ~Yeh're lucky he assumed what he did.~

"Hey, this worked, didn't it?"

~Not quite what'ah had in mind, but. Aye. Weh'rks just as well.~


There wasn't any response. Leon knew it was late, and didn't expect anyone to be monitoring the comms. But…

"He won't hurt your dad." Naomi said quietly. "He respects the guy."

Leon knew this. But he also knew how his father had grown - to Leon, irrationally - attached to Sara. While the abstract idea of the woman disappearing had its merits… the potential reality of encouraging homicide did not.

Leon experienced unfortunate insight into Naomi's struggle, as he felt sick with even the possibility of-

"That's not what I'm worried about."

"You know she deserves whatever happens to her, right?"

Leon set his jaw and stared hard at Naomi. "It's not right."

"Neither is what they did to us! Did to him!"

Leon's eyes flicked as he studied Naomi's face. Silence ate the room alive. He didn't know what to say. What to do.

Naomi's eyes never left his. "Yeah. Not that simple, is it."


Stoller silently glared at Bit, until he noticed something was wrong.

Bit's pupils were obvious pinpoints despite the dim lighting, and he'd lost all color in his face. When Stoller's ire shifted to vague concern, Bit flashed up an arm to warn the man back.

From behind Bit ran everyone else. Stoller cautioned Sara and Polta with a hard glance, but Steve and Jaime didn't heed it and hurried to Bit's either side. Upon seeing Bit's demeanor, Jaime hesitated - but Steve did not.

Steve grabbed Bit's shoulder and pulled the young man to face him. It immediately registered that the lights were on, but nobody was home.

With a blinding flash of white and flurry of motion, Bit vanished from between the two.

The white blaze quickly reappeared and plunged into the Liger Zero, every angle of the Zoid's frame bleeding bright light. When the light faded, nothing seemed different, but the Liger lifted its head and shrieked a painfully-loud roar.

"Bit, stop!" Sara yelled. "You can't-"

They could, and they were going to.

The Liger bunched its haunches and burst from the hangar at speed, the subject of its pursuit obvious.