A day or so later.

Brad sat at the counter in his boxers, uninterestedly sipping coffee and watching the news on a datapad. Naomi was seated on the couch in a light robe, busy on her laptop. The videphone chimed. Brad, being closer to it, answered.

It was Vega. They stared at each other for several seconds.

Brad hung up without a word.

Naomi didn't look up. Questioning: "Mm?"

Dismissive. "Mmh."

The phone chimed again. Brad simply stood and walked into the other room.

Then Naomi looked up, her regard becoming a squint. She sighed and stood to answer the phone, surprised to see Vega when she did. He blinked in equal surprise at her.

"Uh… hi." Vega said.

"What do you want?"

"Can I talk to Brad?"

Naomi inhaled steeply as Brad shut the bedroom door, hard. "No. Anything else?"

Vega rolled his eyes. Naomi watched the disturbing dark Organoid leer in behind the child, as Vega simply ignored her and raised his voice. "Hey."

Naomi terminated the call, shook her head, and sat back down.

Unseen in the other room, Brad pressed his back uncomfortably against the wall. One's attention speared him from afar; though the direct bond between them was gone, One would always be able to find him. And Brad knew it.

~Do not ignore me.~

He pressed his hands to his temples and tried to think of something, anything else.

Apparently one of those things was Ambient, because the red Organoid showed up with a slash of red in the room, attention piqued. It didn't even have to ask - it quickly perceived One's reach, gave a guttural snarl-

Red flashed again, Bit glanced, Vega looked over his shoulder. Ambient slammed into One, mere inches behind Vega.

Ambient also possessed very little grace and didn't seem to have thought things all the way through. The two Organoids tumbled head-over-tail for several messy meters across the hangar floor.

Ambient unceremoniously dumped Brad out of its middle as it rolled to one side and stood. Brad recovered to a quick kneel, his expression surging from confusion to alarm at the complete change in scenery.

"...uh."

At least he had boxers on. He looked over at Bit.

Bit just blinked. Then looked at Ambient.

It was Vega who scowled and stabbed a finger at the red Organoid. "You!"

One shook off and snarled, but before the two could re-engage, Zero materialized between them. The white Organoid held apart its arms to keep the two distanced, a forceful yet polite gesture to not.

Many things happened in rapid succession.

Ambient snapped at Zero's nearby tail, only to be promptly slapped upside the head with it. The Liger Zero powered on with a vicious roar, charging straight for the group. Brad, seemingly the only person concerned with a full-size Zoid bearing down on them, ducked behind a pillar. One hissed at the Liger, and Zero turned to talk the Zoid down. Though the Liger Zero did scrape to a halt, it didn't deactivate its charged claws for several more seconds - making the area more uncomfortable than it already was.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Bit bolted to the growing mess, waving his arms. "Liger! No! Brad! What the hell! Vega-"

"I just wanted to ask him a question!"

"Didn't I tell you to leave him alone?!"

"But..." Vega immediately tried to change the subject, and kept pointing at Ambient. "He showed up when-" He quickly reconsidered his narrative, "-at Backdraft and caused all kinds of problems!"

"Yeah, he showed up here too." Bit made a scolding gesture towards the red Organoid then looked at Brad. "Who is this?"

"Ambient." Brad replied, regaining some composure. "He's with me."

Vega blinked. The child had taken some small, vicious delight in knowing that his own re-unification with One meant that the Organoid both no longer sought to curry Brad's favor - and that Brad had no more access to him. That private delight was lessened by Brad just going and finding his own.

"Well he looks like crap." Vega said.

Bit sighed and stepped to the child, pushing him backwards and forcibly seating him on a nearby crate. "Hey. Howabout we not."

One appeared beside Vega and started to shove at Bit's hands, but Vega pushed the creature away with his elbows and grunted. "I'm serious, Bit. There's something really, really off with that Organoid."

Bit stared. "Glass houses, dude." He turned back to Brad, at length parsing the Liger Zero's ongoing rumble.

His face fell. Much more clearly than before - since the Liger and Zero were now separate entities - Bit felt the Liger's concerns. It knew and fiercely distrusted Ambient, reflecting an intensity that Bit could only recognize as past conflict. Bit regarded Ambient suspiciously.

~Whatever he says, he's a damn liar.~ Ambient eyed the Liger Zero. ~Cann'ae trust the damn kitty-cats.~

Its voice made Bit deeply uncomfortable. "Gonna have to disagree there, buddy. I trust the Liger with my life."

~Well. Humans are'nae known for their intelligence.~

Bit dwelt on Ambient a moment longer, then looked back at Brad. "I don't think 'Ambient' is a good companion, Brad."

Brad was staring levelly at Zero, who was staring right back. "Well I don't like your Liger or your… Zero, so we're even."

"No. I mean, Liger says that Ambient wasn't in with a good crowd."

Brad didn't look away from Zero. "Weird flex, coming from you."

The blonde's pupils pinpointed with distaste. He said nothing.

"And, you know," Brad glanced back at Bit. "I think it's fair to say all of these guys have been involved in wars in the past."

Bit shook his head subtly. "They're not all the same."

"You're right." Brad's neutral expression finally broke: he scowled. "Can't possibly be worse than yours."

Though he really didn't want to, Bit remembered the endless grey streets filled with bodies and dead Organoids. His breath caught and he closed his eyes, caught up in a vivid recollection of hell.

He wasn't sure how much time passed, but when he opened his eyes again, all three Organoids were stiffly watching Brad and Vega yell at each other.

"It's not like I can just tell him what to do!"

"Well I certainly fucking can't. Is this how it's gonna be now? You're just going to butt in whenever you feel like? I've got a life, kid."

"Not like I asked you to come here." Vega narrowed his eyes. "Your ugly Organoid brought you."

Brad set his jaw and took several deep breaths. Then spectacularly failed to keep his temper in check and shoved Vega back, off the crate.

Vega never fell. One caught him in an instant and launched Brad a good 20 feet across the room with a solid round of its tail. The issue being that Vega also had the wind knocked out of him - which One turned back to with a bark of alarm.

Ambient looked at Brad and scratched the back of its neck with a foreclaw. Zero and Bit exchanged concerned glances.

The videphone chimed.

Recognizing the number, Bit winced and hesitantly answered. Onscreen was Naomi. She didn't look amused.

"I did not do this." Brad stated into the floor.

Naomi pursed her lips, taking in the muffled assertion. "You know, okay. I'm not going to even pretend to know what's going on. Because the world has gone insane. Brad. Get back here. Bit. I'm going to block the base's number if you can't keep that child off of it. Leon,"

Everyone then noticed Leon was, and had been, standing in the doorway looking thoroughly disturbed.

"You… you should probably come over and smoke a bowl or two with us. Okay? Okay. Good. Fuck." She hung up.

Leon looked at Brad.

Brad was just starting to pick himself up. He waved lamely, once.

Leon looked at Bit, while trying not to have an aneurysm. "Bit. I left the hangar. For fifteen minutes."

The blonde showed his palms defensively. "For once, literally nothing going on is my fault."

The red Blade Liger chuffed agreement.

Compared to the events of the morning, the afternoon at the base became dull.

There were arguments. Bit had wisely decided to make himself and Vega scarce, going out for a drive. Their Organoids were under strict instructions to remain at base. Simple for Zero, less so for One. The black Organoid sat upright, a stare fixed into the heat-blurred distance.

There'd been hours of such silence. One rarely spoke unless spoken to, so it was odd to hear him say something out of the blue.

~Zero.~

Zero glanced from where it lay atop the Liger Zero, preening a half-wing idly. ~Mm.~

~Why do we exist?~

Zero paused. ~You know as well as I. We are true children of Eve.~

One was silent again for a long time. Then:

~Do you think the world would have been a better place had we united with Death?~

One openly pondered the Death Saurer and Scorpion, and Zero was quick to censor such thoughts from broadcast.

~Why would you even entertain the thought?~ Zero admonished, standing halfway to arch its neck down at the other. ~Cease.~

One didn't react, flinch, or move. Just stared. ~It is a valid question.~

~I see no point in such considerations. What is, is. What will be, will be.~

~Simple for you to say that when your existence has not been mine. With clarity of mind I find it difficult to accept that… suffering, is my purpose.~

~Your purpose is not suffering.~

~So says the cause of my woes.~

The white Organoid very, very idly scratched its chin with a hindclaw. ~I believe... I heard a mite cry.~

~Then you'd best check on your blonde insect.~ One sneered.

A glare.

~What am I to think, Zero? If Eve knows our destinies then She knew what would come of us. And created us without regard? That or She does not know one's destiny...~

Zero looked squarely at the black Organoid. ~Perhaps this comes as a surprise, but. The world does not revolve around you.~

One looked aside, and twitched the tip of its tail irritably. ~I disagree.~

Zero sighed and lay back down. ~I like it better when you stay silent.~

It wasn't particularly interesting, going nowhere. Bit just wanted the warm breeze in his hair, Leon to calm down and Vega to stay out of trouble for five minutes.

Vega leaned on the inside of the passenger door in boredom, squinting against the wind. Bit glanced at him every few minutes, wanting to say something useful. After a while even something not-useful would've sufficed, but he found himself short on anything to say. At all.

Sara and Vega had been at the Blitz base for just over a week, but effectively remained complete strangers. Sara only seemed interested in deigning to speak with Toros, and Vega largely existed in his own little world with One. The child's random forays out of it only served to increase Leon and Jaime's blood pressure, but all Bit could see was a lonely - if not strange - little boy.

They went on in silence for a while longer. Then:

"I just want to go home, Bit."

Bit was certain Vega didn't mean the base. He also had no idea where Vega meant.

"And I can't. It's gone."

Backdraft's main HQ had been taken out in the Royal Cup's aftermath. Many had celebrated the apparent demise of the Backdraft Group. It gave Bit pause to think that Vega truly did call the place home.

It gave him further pause to consider what the involved collateral damage actually meant.

Vega had lived on those grounds for his entire life, romping into nearby towns and cities when the mood struck. His home had been his kingdom, and the rest of the world, his playground. But if he'd found the realities of the strapped Mackaray Base unpleasant, living under a strange roof with strangers was at least equally so.

At least the Blitz Team had better food.

That and being around One, the Liger and Zero was pretty comforting. Even if he did have to wake up every morning and stare his own dead Zoid in the face. Vega wiped a hand across briefly red-rimmed eyes, quick to curb his display of frustration.

"Well…" Bit said, at length. "You're welcome to stay with us."

"Am I?" Vega chuckled, dour. "Nobody likes One."

It wasn't a lie. Everyone seemed to tolerate Vega, but One was silently terrifying. People left the room if the two entered, and it wasn't difficult to understand why. Bit was the only person who never left.

"One is… a little intimidating, you know?" Bit said. He cracked a smile, awkward but genuine. "Everyone'll get used to him."

Vega threw a skeptical glance. Then winced against his stomach painfully growling, but it couldn't be heard over the sounds of the vehicle.

"Eh. I don't think so. I know he's different. I know he's not like Zero." His gaze dropped to the floorboards. "He's not supposed to be."

Though Vega no longer had any oppressive crush of pain in his chest when he felt for One, there remained a twinge - like the sensitive edges of a scar. Vega fell silent again, and Bit resumed wondering what - if anything - to say.

He didn't have to wonder long. Vega went on, his brown eyes glossing with a deep love and pride that Bit immediately understood. "He is what he is. And that's okay."

Following Naomi's earlier suggestion, Leon did show up at her apartment that evening. She, Leon and Brad proceeded to get incredibly high, eating junk food and watching bad movies. Through an idyllic haze of pot smoke, all three shared idle chats and vague affections long into the night.

Brad ended up on the couch with Naomi asleep, her head resting on his chest. Leon was asleep on his opposite side, folded with exhaustion onto the couch. His head had ultimately ended up on Brad's shoulder, but the long-haired man didn't seem to mind.

Though Brad couldn't sleep, he found the rhythmic breathing of the two who could quite soothing.

In the dim night's silence, things felt almost normal. If they were willing to act like nothing was wrong, then maybe nothing was.

He closed his eyes and lay his head back, trying to relax.

It didn't happen. His mind ticked restlessly.

His chest hurt.

Why was he so hungry.

He cracked one eye at the sensation of nearby movement.

The shape of the black Organoid leered at him from across the room. Brad startled to awareness, pulse racing.

A warm and empty living-room greeted him. Both Naomi and Leon stirred at his movement, and the woman drowsily glanced up at him.

He kissed her forehead with a reassurance he did not feel.

Brad shut his eyes tightly and lay his head back again. He must've imagined the damn thing.

The next thing he was aware of was being outside. The cold desert night had his hands freezing and cigarette trembling, but he ignored it and briskly made his way down dark and empty sidewalks.

He ached for the warmth and comfort that he wasn't even sure why he'd left. There must have been a reason. Blue eyes flicked trying to recall how, exactly, he'd ended up here. He glanced up.

Vega stood in the middle of the sidewalk, arms folded tightly and hair whipping with the night's chill. Brad stopped and stared, wanting to be angry. But he simply couldn't muster the will.

"Go away."

"I really do just have one question." Vega said.

"What then. What's your stupid question."

When Vega looked up, his eyes caught the streetlight like a cat's. "Do you feel safe?"

"What kind of-"

Back in the living-room.

Naomi and Leon were still fast asleep on the couch.

Brad stood in the middle of the room, chest heaving with confusion as he looked around. He knew he'd been outside: he was cold, his skin was cold, he was holding a spent cigarette. But...

It was completely silent.

The man twinged with an internal panic. Had Vega or the Fury actually shown up? Was he just seeing things? He glanced between Naomi and Leon, simultaneously wishing they'd stay comfortably unbothered and asleep - and that they'd wake up and make this stop.

Vega was still standing beside him, also looking at Naomi and Leon.

The child glanced sidelong, a smirk tugging the edges of his mouth.

"Do they feel safe?"

Before Brad could react, Vega and the Organoid had vanished.