One wasn't intentionally cruel: it was simply ruthless.
It wasn't trying to inflict pain on Specula; it was indifferent.
It could have easily killed the blue Organoid, but knew doing so would likely drop Ryss wherever she stood.
And then One would have to go find her. It didn't want that additional hassle.
Not that anyone had asked One, but it was very tired, very sore, and very frustrated. The latter, it didn't quite understand. It held Vega within its carapace, within its coils, and knew he was safe.
But something didn't seem right.
The Organoid part of its being wanted nothing more than to drop everything and see to the child - but the part of the beast's mind casting the bloodthirsty shadow of a long-dead monster had to be satisfied first.
~Please, don't.~ Specula begged, its voice thin. ~Just leave us be. We are nothing to the world, we-~
One jerked its head back while forcing a hindtalon down, twisting Specula and shearing a clump of cabling loose. Specula hit the sand with another shriek, tail stiff with pain.
~If you are nothing to the world then you are meaningless.~ One said dispassionately as it swallowed. ~You would not persist if you believed that.~
Specula writhed, unable to escape. When it didn't otherwise respond, One leaned down and started gathering another bite. However, it took a deep breath then slowed, successfully fighting its desire to wolf down everything edible.
Ryss would need time to find her way here, after all.
Polta stared squarely at Zero's massive face.
He hadn't really addressed the trauma of being introduced to the inside of Ambient's jaws not long ago. Though neatly hidden by his clothes, the bandaged gouges all along his arms and shoulders had barely begun to heal. He had no idea how fortunate he was to even be alive, but that was beside the point. He wasn't okay with Zero standing so close.
Plus his eyes couldn't stop tracing the massive - what he realized were - blades on either side of the beast's snout.
Polta's throat worked.
Even if he'd understood the creature's question (which he didn't), he wouldn't have wanted to answer it anyways. He tried to look away, to look for Bit-
But he couldn't.
Not only was the Organoid huge and horrifyingly close, it somehow had a hold on his mind.
Polta squeaked. He couldn't do much else beneath the creature's mental might. He could also feel the beast's occasional warm breath, something strangely gentle in contrast to everything else.
~Why did you come here?~ Zero clarified impatiently. ~Because you were afraid… or because you had the courage to?~
Fear. It was fear. Fear of what'd happen if he didn't make it here. Fear-
Zero's head turned sharply as it sensed the approaching Zaber Fang.
The large Zoid was using optical stealth, similar to Stoller's Saix, but Zero had a bead on it a distance out in the darkness. The Zaber Fang cantered into the dim hangar before shimmering into full visibility, trailing dust and debris as it came to a halt.
Sanders opened the cockpit and stood sharply to stare at Zero, wide-eyed.
Zero returned the stare for several seconds, twitched its tail, then vanished in a flash of white.
Naomi didn't know the exact location of Layon's base, but fortunately paid attention to detail.
Enough of the Mackaray landmarks were now burned into her mind to afford her - and Leon - a relatively direct path back to the place.
However, the abysmal weather underscored why people left the Mackarays alone during the cold season. Even a sturdy Zoid like Leon's Blade Liger struggled at times, its deep chest dipping and dragging into snowdrifts. It didn't mind the difficult terrain, per se… just wondered why its people were messing around in such a place to begin with.
Leon privately wondered the same thing, though in a rhetorical sense. He was a careful pilot and none of them were in any danger: the journey just took longer than anyone would've liked. They'd only stopped once so Leon could nap, the bitter cold and sheeting snow too intense to set up even a rudimentary camp.
With little to do in the Blade Liger's second seat - but far too much on her mind to be drowsy - Naomi found herself missing the size and maneuverability of her Gun Sniper. And better appreciating how the Shadow Fox moved.
Layon's base stood cold and uninviting as they arrived in the dark of night.
The Blade Liger loped to a halt alongside the Gun Sniper, which rose to greet the familiar Zoid.
Naomi found herself feeling glad to see the Gun Sniper, which wasn't something she'd felt very strongly about in the past. She didn't have much time to contemplate; the rush of cold air as Leon opened the Blade Liger's cockpit was all-consuming and borderline painful.
Naomi and Leon made their way along the wall of the base's garage-hangar, pushing carefully into the cluttered space's side door. It wasn't latched, or even fully shut: not expecting this, Naomi threw Leon a sharp, warning glance.
The now-familiar smell of blood saturated the room.
With a sudden intensity born of both alarm and caution, Naomi held her pistol at the ready as she crept forward.
Leon motioned at the Shadow Fox, which stood off to the side, its dim eyeglass intently watching the two. It made a sound between a whine and a puff of air; the two Warriors acknowledged the clearly-stressed Zoid by approaching it.
It was both an immediate relief and sickening surprise to see Layon crumpled below it. The man lay slumped against one of the Shadow Fox's foreclaws, an erratic trail of blood marking his path to the Zoid.
Evidence of abandoned attempts at first aid lay strewn nearby. In the low light details were sparse, but the dark red pool of blood around the man said more than enough. He'd obviously been attacked, and it didn't take a genius to guess by what.
The Organoids violently clashed as they plunged down the steep slope.
Ambient twisted, jaws gaped in rage, smashing Shadow once, twice, three times with its bladed tail. Every blow connected, silver blood flecking from its tailblades each time, but Shadow didn't seem to care. The black Organoid waited for an opportune moment, then seized Ambient's forearm in its jaws and wrenched its head to the side.
The movement combined with the two slamming across a boulder stripped Ambient's arm down to structure, breaking it at its socket. But with Shadow's proximity, Ambient's own jaws flashed in an arc to seize the bridge of the other Organoid's snout. Ambient bit down as hard as it could, feeling structure grate and give beneath its teeth. It focused so intently on maintaining its grip that it failed to notice Shadow's own twist; the black Organoid whipped its own tail to bear, stabbing its bladed end into the synthflesh side of Ambient's neck.
Ambient ripped free of the tail-blade, splitting the scutes and fibrous lining on one side of its neck. Its fangs dragged gouges down Shadow's face and snout in the process of losing hold; Shadow retaliated with a bite of its own, but missed-
-just as they plunged into a snowdrift, striking a hidden ledge of rock.
It brought an abrupt halt to both their descent and their fight: the force threw them to either side.
It took several weary seconds for them to recover and face off again.
Ambient moved to shield its injured side, panting heavily. Shadow shook its head and belted a shriek.
The two ran again at each other, swinging their heads, necks, tails. Neither would relent; Shadow whipped out a single cable to grab Ambient's leg and pull it out from under the beast, while Ambient lashed one back in return, entangling Shadow's horns and wrenching its neck. They collapsed to the ground together, Shadow going for Ambient's throat while Ambient twisted Shadow's head away.
The Organoids' bodies shuddered with opposing force, hate-filled snarls crawling from their throats, neither willing to concede.
Ambient felt it first: Shadow faltered, ever-so-slightly.
Emboldened, the red Organoid shoved itself bodily at the other; Shadow's teeth gouged the thick collar of armor on the side of Ambient's neck, but failed to gain purchase.
Ambient twisted its body and started to force Shadow downward, but the black Organoid once again twisted away.
~ENOUGH OF THIS!~ Shadow bellowed, furious. Then it vanished.
An unsettling silence fell.
Only a diffuse, sickly moonlight made it through the clouds. A light snow began again.
Ambient stared at where Shadow'd been, trying to determine where it'd gone. What it felt didn't make sense: several signatures, and the distinct feeling Shadow was still nearby. But with the whiff of distance?
Ambient looked around, warily twitching its tail.
It took the opportunity to touch base with Brad, making sure Shadow hadn't gone after him again… but no. Hesitating only a few more seconds, Ambient teleported back to the man.
"Where is he," Brad wheezed, becoming visibly shaken as he realized Ambient didn't know. "He's gonna kill us. He's gonna fucking kill us."
~He's- he's usin' Tricksteh'r shite-~
Brad didn't have the bandwidth to care about the details. Desperation bared the whites in his eyes. "We have to get out of here, now."
Yes, they did. But Ambient knew they'd be followed. It'd come up with a barely-functional plan to shake Zero, yes.
But Zero hadn't also been after Brad.
A sickening reality settled between the two, and Brad's terror surged as he understood it.
Ambient didn't know what to do.
Leon rushed to Layon's side, steeled to find him cold and dead.
To the young Toros's relief, Layon wasn't dead, at least not yet. But the man wasn't conscious either, deathly pale with one hand's loose grip barely holding onto an empty bottle of whiskey.
Naomi holstered her gun as she approached Leon, excessively and unpleasantly aware of how the sound of her footsteps changed on the bloody floor. Leon crouched, easily pulling Layon into a sitting position, while Naomi likewise knelt to help.
The move simultaneously revealed the man's gruesome injuries and had him startle awake, howling in obvious agony.
Naomi's hands sharply recoiled as she began to parse the severity of Layon's wounds. His upper back and one shoulder had been utterly savaged: quite literally, it looked like something had taken several brutal bites out of him. If that weren't bad enough, a swath crossing the wound looked darker, angrier - almost as if it'd been burned.
As Leon tried to settle Layon down, Naomi's eyes flicked with thought. Burned - and not bleeding. Not as much as it otherwise would've been, anyways.
The woman glanced at the Shadow Fox's nearby claws, then up at the Zoid-
-it was staring straight back at her-
It caught her off guard. Naomi looked sharply away.
"If you're not here to put me out of my misery, fuck off!" Layon wailed, trying to push away from Leon. Then he noticed Naomi, and his eyes visibly dropped to her pistol. "Fluegel-"
Leon's demeanor grew teeth in a way Naomi hadn't seen before. "We're here to help, not put a bullet in your head, you idiot." He growled. "Can you walk? Is there a medbay in your base?"
"No one's going to come out here. Not for me, anywa-"
Leon cut him off. "We're here." He glanced at Naomi, his stern gaze softening almost instantly with fear he couldn't hide. "That- that old town at the base of the Mackarays. What's its name?"
Naomi returned a blank stare as she thought about the answer. It'd be the closest trace of civilization, she realized; Leon was trying to save the man. "Crestwall." She said.
Leon nodded, then helped - or rather forced - Layon to stand. The young Toros's muscles visibly corded with effort, and Layon didn't help at all - though whether he couldn't, or just didn't want to, wasn't clear.
For once, Naomi didn't want her eyes combing through the details, but couldn't stop. Shredded fabric, strings of gore... Layon's blood had quickly soaked into Leon's thick gloves and sleeves, turning them a dark, slick red.
Leon must've been saying her name.
Naomi didn't hear it until he almost had to yell.
"Naomi, are you all right? Are you going to be okay here by yourself?"
She stared. There really wasn't much point to her following Leon in her Gun Sniper. As it was, Layon would be difficult enough to transport in the Blade Liger. She didn't disagree with or begrudge Leon's quick decision to try to help the man, but his question unexpectedly snared her.
She'd completely frozen, and couldn't stop staring.
The overwhelming smell of blood made her think about how long she eyed Ehga through her scope's predatory eye, how Ambient so neatly slaughtered the man, how she'd only belatedly looked away, how Koga'd simply dropped -
"Naomi?"
Leon's soft voice was a torturous caress. She hated being the cause of his worry, almost as much as she hated whatever she was feeling right now, her chest tightening, gorge rising-
"I'll be fine." Naomi managed. "I want to find Brad."
"Don't." Layon tried to interject, his voice a barely-audible rasp. "There's another Organoid. Pretty sure it's what got me. And it was after your fuckboy, so-"
"Don't you dare push me, Layon." Naomi snapped, voice suddenly brimming with venom. "You were part of this too."
"Sure, yeah. Just minding my own fucking business-"
"Before that."
"Hnhh." There were several shaky, painful breaths' worth of silence, through which Layon glared at the woman. "You sure you won't just fucking shoot me?"
Ambient's mind writhed with fury and shame, desperate to appease, but the truth seemed inescapable: Ambient wasn't enough. And it never had been.
The beast ached for an instinctual haven it'd never really known: the absence of independent, rational thought.
Removing an Organoid from its colony was like plucking a flower: it resembled the others, and you knew where it'd come from. But it would never be part of the greater whole again.
That had always been fine. Organoids had their partners and could always hear and communicate with their colony. They'd never truly be alone. They weren't supposed to be alone.
But Ambient? Ambient had long grown numb to the desolate silence.
Lesser beasts would've gone mad.
Ambient, at one point in its life, had been a lesser beast. But it wasn't anymore, and it hadn't been for a long time.
Ambient watched as Brad retched bloody froth, the man's gagging coughs turning into gasps for air. Humans, hybrid or no, simply weren't as strong as Zoidians.
Ambient could make fun of Shadow as much as it wanted for the "mistake" the black Organoid had made, but it wasn't entertaining to find the same noose around its own neck.
It'd just wanted company. It was a social creature.
The green blaze of Ambient's optics suddenly bled into every seam of its body. It felt ill, like it'd burn alive, like-
The green glow dropped to pitch black. Ambient dipped its head and heaved off to the side, struggling to remain alert amidst the violent, whole-body effort.
In reality only a few seconds passed. But to Ambient it seemed much longer.
When it finally lifted its head again, it noticed two spots of light - Zoid eyeglass - in the snow-hazed dark.
Merely existing near One was excruciating for such a sensitive creature as Specula.
To an extent, the blue Organoid could ignore physical pain. But One's brutal mental silence was unlike anything Specula had encountered. Where there should've been something - anything - there was simply a void.
One wore a familiar shape and spoke a familiar language, but nothing else about it resembled an Organoid. Living creatures had layers to their minds. One's read as null, reflecting only its vague satiation from the very surface.
There had to be more. That such a horrible beast apparently felt next to nothing was obscene. The hundreds, thousands, millions of lives it'd taken part in destroying had suffered so much.
And the entirety of its current thoughts were that its craw and guts were full. An animal.
Clearly listening, One arched a brow and glanced towards Specula. ~Starve as I have and you too would relish every second of relief.~
Specula said nothing.
~And you know than an animal would have torn you completely asunder, with no mind for a greater reward.~
Specula didn't like that One had a point. ~You don't have to do this.~
One snorted softly. ~Continually reminding me of your presence is not in your best interest.~
~You are going to kill me regardless.~
~Yes.~ The black Organoid's voice hung in the air like an oppressive mist. ~But you will live a lot longer than your bondmate will.~
It wasn't a threat, or even a promise. It was a statement. That One would kill Ryss and leave Specula alive for any protracted period of time hadn't occurred to the blue Organoid.
~You know we are nothing without our partners.~
~I am aware.~
~Then why do you ignore yours! You must sense how weak Vega is. I do, and I am not even bound to him.~
Silence.
For a moment it seemed as if Specula had been completely ignored. But One thoughtfully everted its cabling to inspect Vega.
A thick mix of metallic slime and silver blood completely coated the child, his clothing soaked and his hair a slicked mess. There wasn't a trace of color in his face; his eyes were closed, and he wasn't breathing.
Even if he had been, the slime would've smothered him. One idly lapped at Vega's face and hair, but there wasn't any response. At least not physically: Vega looked quite dead, but could still be faintly sensed.
Terror crept into Specula like ice.
~What you fail to understand, dear forgotten one,~ One said as it calmly turned its head back towards Specula. ~is that what you perceive as weakness is the beginning of greater strength.~
Specula hadn't the will to react with the depth of revulsion it felt; instead, the blue Organoid trembled. ~What are you doing?! His body is dead. Let his mind go.~
~Hnh.~ One set Vega down on the sand in front of it, before gently picking the child up in its jaws and working him in line with its snout. ~I have realized… what does not die cannot be killed. I have suffered so that Vega no longer has to.~
One tossed its head, once, twice, and then Vega was gone, swallowed whole.