~She is the one who always wants to go to the mainland!~

~You want to eat the south-shore rock-dwellers, do not lie.~

~Well? They do not live here! They are twice as large and-~

~Well if we are already on the south shore then-~

Stop it. Ryss gazed tiredly at the space between the two Organoids. You two literally brought the One to our doorstep.

~I took care of it.~ Shadow grunted.

The Zoidian woman's eyes glinted with ire. Like you took care of Ambient?

~I do believe that someone else-~ Shadow made clear he meant Ryss, ~-requested that. The One was simply mindless and out for blood. It was somehow able to follow us. We could not risk it nearing you.~

So you instead brought me this? Ryss motioned at Vega, who just awkwardly stood there.

Shadow snorted. ~I told Specula to get rid of it.~

~You expect that I would destroy Albion's children?~ Specula chuffed.

~Be that the case or not, my sentiment is unchanged. I took care of the One. It is not my responsibility to solve every problem.~

"I'm not a problem!" Vega shouted.

Shadow glanced and raised a brow. ~Perhaps not. I'm very hungry. Could you serve as breakfast?~

Vega faltered. The Organoid's deadpan delivery made it difficult to tell if it was serious or not.

Ryss just sighed and turned to walk off. I don't want to deal with this. You two figure it out. Then go find Ambient.

Shadow clicked its teeth at Vega, then swung its head after Ryss. ~Find Ambient and do what with him?~

Get rid of him.


Layon felt like he was being watched.

He was.

A quick glance up from his workbench revealed Ambient and Brad simply standing there, watching him. Layon startled, badly.

"Can you not use a door?! Like a normal person?!"

"No." Brad replied, as he motioned up at the Shadow Fox. "Anything?"

"Does it look like anything?!" Layon wheezed, a hand on his chest as he choked on his attempt to calm down. "You asshole. Don't you have anywhere else to be?!"

"Not really. I need a Zoid."

"Well you can't have mine and you fucked up the Fox." Layon stabbed a point towards the outdoors. "Fluegel's is outside. Problem solved. Scram."

From the corner of his eye, Layon watched Ambient slip from beside Brad and vanish into the shadows. Before he could fully process this, the Organoid reappeared off to his side - flanking him, blocking the way back into the base.

Layon became uncomfortably aware of the nasty mental grin the beast reflected.

~Ay, lad. How ye doin'.~

Layon's eyes flicked back to Brad.

A stressful silence festered.

"Question." Brad said. "Do you know anything about Sara Obscura?"

"I know she's a bitch."

"Mm. Do you think she'd hurt Steve?"

Layon squinted for several seconds. "I have no idea. Why?"

A nod. Brad didn't answer and sauntered towards the Shadow Fox. He said nothing as he climbed onto one of its massive, cold claws and sat down.

Increasingly unnerved, Layon snapped. "What the hell do you want, Brad?"

"Right now? Somewhere to sit."

"...whatever. I'm going inside."

Layon turned and started towards Ambient, who didn't move. Green optics met green eyes.

~Nae, lad. Afraid not. Weh've got trust issues.~

"Pretty sure you've got way more issues than that." Layon muttered. "So, what. You gonna kill me?"

Ambient shook its head. Then its undersides split with frightening speed, lengths of cabling lashing out and seizing Layon's calves and ankles. Ambient pulled backwards, felling the large man like a tree: Layon dropped painfully onto his back.

~Not th'plan. But if y'fuck around too much, yeh might find out. So I suggest y'do what we say.~

"You know I have the capacity to listen, right?" Layon groaned, wincing at the ceiling. "Does 'asking' just not occur to you two, or-"

"Layon." Brad stepped into view overhead. "You have no reason to trust us. And we have no reason to trust you. But we both want what's best for the Fox, yeah?"

"Best is subjective." Layon sighed. "But I don't think I'm being allowed an opinion here."

"You're not."

"Look. If the Organoid's going to eat me, can you just get it over with? I'm too sober to deal with this shit."

Brad stared. "He's not going to eat you."

"Hnh." Layon cocked at brow at Brad. "Seen Fuma lately?"

He wasn't a fan of how sharply Brad's expression changed.

"Yeah, asshole." Layon went on. "Your lizard here hacked up a hairball at me. Backdraft keeps records. DNA's a thing."

Brad flicked an unamused glance at Ambient, but received quick explanation and a shrug. Ambient had no idea anyone could make heads or tails of its waste. It'd just wanted to bother Layon.

"Brad, I don't actually care. I'd be in just as much trouble with the ZBGF if they ever found out half the shit I get up to." Layon then smiled with too many teeth. "So let's just not, okay?"

"Okay."

Ambient suddenly vanished in a flash of red, Layon in tow.

The red Organoid reappeared a distance away from Layon's base, outside in the raging snowfall, and unceremoniously lobbed the man into a snowdrift. Ambient then landed, peering into the Layon-shaped hole in the snow.

~Weh've got business t'take care of. And yeh'r a meddler.~ Ambient's emphasis came with a snort of steam in the cold. ~But donnae worry. Yeh're not that far off. If yeh'r quick and know yeh'r way back, y'won't freeze off too many bits.~

Ambient didn't stick around to make out what muffled cursing Layon produced. It vanished and returned to the relative warmth of the garage-hangar, talons clicking lightly as it hopped to a halt in front of Brad.

Brad seemed both pleasantly surprised and amused. Then he glanced back up at the Fox.

"Well." He technically had doubts, but they didn't get anywhere. Brad looked at Ambient, then threw a smooth gesture at the Zoid. "Do your thing."


Specula watched Ryss walk off, sighing as the woman disappeared into the beach mist.

The blue Organoid glanced back down at a now-quite-leery Vega.

~Children have no say as to what they're born into.~ Specula said softly. ~Terrible things can happen to those who, fundamentally, mean well. Do you mean well, Vega Obscura?~

~You really ask him such a thing?~ Shadow chuffed. ~When he and the One were trying to kill us?~

Specula's optics twitched to meet Shadow's. ~How much blood has graced your talons? Or do you simply choose to ignore what has long washed away?~

~Blood spills in war. And it always will.~

Came Shadow's blunt reply. Then it looked at Vega, its obvious exasperation defraying earlier threats. ~Does it look like we're at war, child?~ Vega glared back. "One says there will always be death. Whether there's war or not."

~Lovely. Specula, I do suggest you eat him.~

~Shadow!~

Specula snapped, as Shadow reflected a smirk, took flight, and vanished.

Vega watched Shadow leave, then lifted his eyes back up to Specula. The blue Organoid stood considerably taller than One did; Vega felt very small.

He wasn't oblivious to the outright contradiction in his mind. He, personally, didn't wish any particular harm on these Organoids. But One wanted them dead, so it made perfect sense they should die.

One wasn't currently present to make good on that thought process, however.

So things were just… awkward.

After several empty minutes, Vega sat down on the sand, tired and drowning in a nondescript misery. Specula simply watched him. Clearly it wasn't a threat. But Vega had no idea what to do, or where to go.

His mind's cries for One's presence weren't met with silence, but they weren't met with what he was used to either. He didn't know what to make of it. Surely One couldn't be dead. He could still feel its soothing chill.

But…

Specula seated itself beside Vega like an overlarge bird.

~The One… was an evil being, Vega. It warps the mind and body.~ Specula went on quickly as Vega inhaled to protest. ~But. I cannot blame it for following its nature. It is known that Eve created the One to destroy.~

Vega shook his head. "No. He balances things back out. Zero's destructive."

Specula considered his words, then peered at his surface thoughts.

~Jii'oqh is alive?~

"Jii'ogh?" Vega didn't pronounce it right. "Zero… yeah?"

Specula unceremoniously picked Vega up and vanished in a flash of blue.


Bit didn't feel great.

The only parallel he could easily draw for how Zero's agitation felt was heartburn - in his skull. He'd tried to retire to his room, for a nap perhaps - but felt too restless to stay there.

Yet there wasn't anywhere he wanted to go in the base. And wasn't anyone he wanted to talk to.

Not that people were looking to talk to him either. Not with his expression, or the way Zero skulked close behind him, lashing its tail. The base's main corridor- well, the northern part, the southern part didn't exist anymore -was accruing an impressive collection of blade-scars on its walls.

Jaime tried to stop Bit with food several times, but not even that worked.

Bit ultimately went to the hangar and sat beneath the Liger, hiding his head between his knees as he desperately tried to ignore existence.

Zero stalked to a ragged edge of the hangar and glared outside.

Stoller stepped quietly into view nearby, studying the Organoid.

"You and Bit are foolish to stay here."

Zero didn't acknowledge the man with anything but a snort.

"I beg that you both leave. The ZBC or the ZBGF will come here again, and you're not going to have the answers they want."

~I am uninterested in what one fool tells me other fools do.~

"Fools wonder. Wise people ask." Stoller said. "So I'm asking… why won't you leave?"

Bit's exasperated voice carried across the hangar. "We live here, Stoller. Zero can just hide. What does it matter?!"

"There are places you'll probably be safe." Stoller said as he glanced towards Bit. "And you don't have to stay away forever. Just until-"

Zero physically put itself in Stoller's line of sight, obscuring the blonde.

~It is your kin that brings us such woe,~ Zero imaged Sara distastefully. ~If things so displease you, leave.~

Stoller stared into the Organoid's optics.

"Listen to me. Sanders and I have kept a close eye on things since the Royal Cup. The same people that want Sara dead aren't going to take kindly to anyone possessing an Organoid. That applies to Vega," Stoller ducked slightly to make eye contact with Bit around Zero, "and it also applies to you."

"None of this was happening before you all showed up." Bit growled.

"No, none of this was happening before things went to hell with the Berserk Fury." Stoller patiently corrected. "And I certainly don't think continuing to make this place one of the most glaring energy signatures on the planet has helped matters."

Bit didn't say anything.

"Bit Cloud. None of this is ideal for anyone. But truly: I have no reason to lie to you."

He didn't. A quick mental brush told Zero that much, but it was agitated already and didn't want to be told what to do.

~You are welcome to an opinion. But he who long kept the company of scoundrels is not the best arbiter of what is proper.~

Stoller blinked dully at the Organoid. "Pardon the observation, but bad temperament aside, Vega's Organoid didn't seem to be this insufferable."

The comment had Zero pondering slapping Stoller with its tail, but Bit sharply stood and threw an arm out - control.

"Look, man." Bit's voice tightened with anguish. "Not cool. I don't even know if they're okay."

That wasn't the point. Stoller's expression fell a single, angered notch away from neutral. "You're not the only one worried about Vega. Don't-"

The control broke. With Zero's heat in his chest, they lashed out as one: Zero's head dropped and its jaws clamped around Stoller's shoulder. It picked the man up then threw him out into the desert, as far as it could.

Which was pretty far. Stoller flew and did a reasonable job of catching himself in a roll, but ended up in a pained crouch.

Bit didn't apologize. He didn't do anything but mirror Zero's glare.

It took obvious effort for Stoller to stand up again. His head shook, and he gave the two a wide berth as he stalked back into the hangar and disappeared into the base.


Specula appeared mere inches in front of Ryss, restraining a visibly-alarmed Vega in its foretalons.

Ryss stopped walking, floating her gaze to her taller partner's.

Please don't.

~Jii'oqh is also alive, Ryss.~

The Organoid's immediately-shared thoughts staved off skepticism, and Ryss cocked her head at Vega. She'd not sensed anything in his memories about this, but now it was all there, clear as day.

Jii'oqh has a partner? Ryss observed with a scowl.

"Zero's from the Liger," Vega muttered unhelpfully, wincing as Ryss raked through his thoughts like a starved vulture. "He's with Bit, th-"

Ryss's harsh mental contact tore every metaphorical scab off. Vega winced as he was dragged through every cautious, awkward, but desperately genuine feeling: he and Bit trying to befriend one another, work together, keep-

As if humans couldn't get anymore foolish.

Vega's expression pinched furiously. "Can you just listen for a second?!"

Ryss bent down to Vega's level and looked him straight in the eyes.

"No."

Then she turned away again.

Specula. Was her simple command.

But Specula didn't move. ~Ryss. You know that Alyssi never stopped searching for Jii'oqh. If he's truly still alive, we should pay him our respects.~

I owe nothing to anyone. He abandoned us like everyone else.

Specula arrowed its neck forward. ~You know very well he was not freed until-~

I KNOW.

Vega winced at Ryss's intensity and took a timid step back. The movement caught her eye and she speared Vega with an annoyed glance. With his mind so suddenly pinned, Vega collapsed like a rag doll.

~Ryss!~

Her prior read of the child at least treated his mind like a book, albeit one handled very roughly. Now she simply tore everything flat, leaving no dark corners for anything to hide.

And that's when it hit her. She didn't see anything, but felt her bones tremble with the innate terror of the Death Saurer.

No.

One.

Its presence still stained Vega. Imperceptible curls of smoke to all but the most sensitive.

Get him out of here. Ryss said with disgust. I don't care where.

~Ryss-~

Out!


Specula had silently obliged Ryss, picking Vega up again and teleporting elsewhere.

To more beach. This area was clearly where these three lived. The black-sand beaches traced a rugged coastline, gaps in the cliff-faces punctured by either empty dunes or foreboding glimpses into bizarre foliage.

Vega lay draped across Specula's foreclaws, gazing wearily out towards the water. He already felt awful, and Ryss's vicious mental forays hadn't helped matters.

He didn't understand how the blue Organoid could behave as it did, while its partner was so bitter and angry… but he didn't have the energy to care.

A thick fog began to roll in, competing with the sunlight.

Less light quickly sucked what warmth the morning had brought the black-sanded beach. The chill wasn't helped by the breeze which always seemed to slither in from the sea.

The pair walked in silence for quite some time.

~Where do you want to go.~ Specula said at length. ~Show me and I will take you there.~

Vega just shook his head.

After several more minutes of the empty silence, he gathered the strength to push out of the Organoid's arms.

Specula watched as Vega plopped to the sand. It was a sorry sight, but Vega radiated such an outraged desire to be left alone that the Organoid didn't try to help him up.

He whined into the ground for a while, then shoved himself back to standing.

~Child.~

"What?!"

~You do not belong here. Please allow me to take you elsewhere.~

"I'm not going anywhere until I find One." Vega threw a feeble swat in the blue Organoid's direction. "Go away."

~Vega. He is gone.~ Specula shook its head. ~Our people can far too easily slip into madness if they lose their partner. You need not succumb to that path.~

"He's not dead." Vega snapped. "And look, you don't have to stay here. I don't even know why you care. Nobody else does!"

This wasn't the first impetuous pre-teen boy Specula had dealt with, but he was the first one who seemed so genuinely estranged.

~I'm sure you are missed.~

Vega giggled. But it wasn't the carefree giggle of a child. it was the empty sound of being overwhelmed by something's ridiculousness.

"You seem nice, ok? You don't need to lie to me."

Specula's optics unhappily dimmed. ~It isn't a lie. I'm sure at least your mother is worried about you.~

"Yeah?" Vega looked away, glaring at the misty horizon. "Sure."

~Please talk to her. As an equal. Perhaps you will be surprised.~

"Perhaps leave me alone." Vega muttered as he sulked towards the water. The wash of a frigid wave crested over his bare ankles. His nerves went electric with the sensation. It was better than everything else going on.

Specula sighed and sat down, tucking itself neatly to the sand. ~I will be here when you change your mind.~

Vega rolled his eyes, kicking to meet another freezing wave.

It was painfully cold, but he liked it. The chill bled straight into him, an ice that flowered in his whole body.

It felt like One.

Vega stopped to stare at the dark blue water, transfixed. He didn't move for a long time.

So long, that the sun moved overhead, and Specula shifted its position to a resting one.

But it couldn't get comfortable. Vega's body seethed with an obvious hunger, but the child didn't seem to notice. Or was it that he didn't care?

~Dear.~ Specula called out. ~Do you hunger?~

"I don't know." Vega eventually answered, tone one of defeat. "Everything feels the same."

It really was no exaggeration to say that Vega'd been grievously harmed by One. Not intentionally, of course - but even 'healed' the broken beast simply burned too hot. The price of a loving bond was permanent, profound damage… and with One feeling so distant, Vega began to understand on a visceral level what that meant.

~You should eat something. You will feel a little better.~

Specula rose and stepped into the shallow waves near Vega. The Organoid crouched, rooting in the sand before returning with a small creature. Vega obliged the unspoken request and held out his hand, which Specula dropped the shiny-shelled creature into.

After giving Vega several moments to acknowledge what the thing looked like, Specula leaned and cracked the small shell between its front fangs, This spilled the now-shell-less creature's purple body into Vega's palm, where it writhed in panic.

Vega's nose wrinkled. "Gross."

~Try it.~

He didn't especially want to. But what vestiges of hunger he did feel had him chewing the thing before he realized it.

And it honestly wasn't bad.

"Are there more?"

Specula's mandibles twitched with a grin.


There was going to be trouble, and she knew he knew.

Sara silently watched Steve pull long racks out of drawers in the walls. He flipped switches, moved equipment, reconnected wiring and repeated this process multiple times across the room.

The base's main control room hadn't been terribly functional since two Organoids had decided to pick a fight with each other on the central console. Zero's weight alone broke a number of the screens, to say nothing of the components beneath.

Steve suddenly tossed a storage-disk to Sara. Despite her surprise she caught it, though having never handled one the weight was unexpected.

"What's this?"

"If the ZBC asks for our scanner records again we sure as hell can't give them that." Steve replied.

"They're watching the base, you know."

"Not surprised." Steve made a few more adjustments, then closed one last panel. "But the last thing we need to do is fortify what they've got. Scanners don't work as well in orbit."

Sara glanced down at the disk, then back up at the man. She knew the answer, but:

"Aren't there penalties for tampering with official records?"

Steve gave a wry but tired smile. "Only if I get caught."

Sara couldn't help but smirk. "I take it this is something you're familiar with."

"Maybe."

Steve turned and started off down a corridor, gesturing that Sara follow. She obliged, and the two walked with purpose to what seemed to be a supply closet.

Steve forged into the small space like it wasn't full of clutter, shouldering a few things aside to access one wall. Sara watched him for a moment, then quietly shut the space's small door.

It became very dark.

"Sara, could you push that back open, it tends to-"

The lack of light made no difference to Sara, who found one of Steve's hands in the dark and sharply, uncomfortably twined her fingers with his. Steve stopped talking out of surprise.

"Whatever you're doing, you have to be sure it's going to work." Sara whispered. "This isn't like anything you've dealt with before."

Steve said nothing for a moment.

"With all due respect, Sara. You don't know what I've dealt with before."

"I know you used to work for ZOITEC."

Sara felt the man stiffen. Steve tried to pull his hand from hers, but she didn't let him.

"And how do you know that." Steve said.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Steve could make out the lines on Sara's face. More notably, he could see the subtle flash of reflected light her eyes caught when they moved.

He brought a gentle hand to the side of her jaw and turned her head, ever so slightly. She let him, but didn't take her eyes off his.

Throughout the years, Steve had thought he'd seen something similar with Brad. But it'd been so fleeting and odd, he figured he was just seeing things.

Now, however…

"Steve. What Backdraft knows, the ZBC knows. And vise versa. It's as simple as that."

He stared for several seconds. "What?"

"You heard me."

"What about the ZBGF?"

Sara just gave a small nod.

The man's jaw set. He lightly pushed away, but his restraint didn't provide enough force to free his hand.

Dissonance arose.

His withdrawal raised Sara's hackles. She wanted to seize the man, to claw the willpower straight out of his eyes, to crumple him into an obsequious mess that knew nothing but her. To-

At the same time, she didn't want that. Every single person she'd shredded and cast aside, she had a deep, visceral hatred for.

She didn't hate Steve. She wasn't sure what liking someone felt like. But she knew she didn't hate him.

And all she really wanted was for him to understand the grotesque reality she had to deal with.

Steve gently took the disk she'd been holding out of her hand and set it aside. His grim expression made his reservations clear.

"You wouldn't lie to me about this, would you."

"No."

Grim became frustrated. "Then why didn't you just say something?"

"Why would you believe-" Sara effortlessly stoked physiological ember into flame, letting Steve push her up against the wall in a baited lust. She couldn't help but set the trap, and Steve couldn't help but fall into it. "-a perfect stranger?"

Some part of him did wonder why. Wondered if Leon was right. Wondered if this was really what he wanted.

The rest of him met her in a fervent kiss. Her nails dug into his back

Both longed for what the other had.

For nobody could love a broken person,

except another broken person.


Specula spent the next while instructing Vega on the shore's bounty, before returning to its prior rest. Specula's head and neck lay relaxed across the sand as it watched the child forage, a much more agreeable and productive activity in the Organoid's mind.

Vega still hadn't given Specula any idea where he wanted to go, but Specula itself wasn't in any hurry.

It lived a quiet, peaceful, and utterly monotonous life. While this arrangement bothered Organoids far less than it would humans or Zoidians, that wasn't to say Specula didn't enjoy the novelty of a new child's company.

Strange though that child may have been.

Specula began to doze in the evening haze.

But with no warning Vega rushed into the waves, almost immediately in chest-deep water and dwarfed by the swells just offshore.

Specula snapped to standing, grasping for Vega's perception as a coordinate, ready to spring into the air-

But a shudder and splitting of the water interrupted any such action. The massive, plated head and snout of a Zoid from the sea surfaced, rivulets of water cascading around its many gleaming optics.

It was known that massive aquatic Zoids dwelt in Zi's largely-undisturbed depths. The Zoidians had left them alone: their size and hostility made alliance impossible, and the odd, dense structures of their body weren't terribly edible. The creatures stuck to the depths and lived grand lives unseen by all.

The rare occasions they showed themselves generally weren't good ones.

Specula hadn't seen one for centuries - and balked in fright, before with even more alarm realizing that Vega wasn't anywhere to be seen.

The segmented jaws of the sea-beast Zoid shifted, its whisker-like sensory cabling twitching. With a massive wash of water the Zoid turned its head and serpentine body, carefully surveying the waves beside it.

At the same moment, Specula and the Zoid both spied Vega simply treading water.

The Organoid shrieked, and blazed blue to seize the child as the massive head and neck of the Zoid dove forward. The beast's jaws parted over them as it plunged into the water, then vanished again below the waves.