By Sh33p, CultofSh33p@aol.com
Hats off to this fic. It tops most fics I've read....including most of the ones I posted here. Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
Sh33p Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids.
Our tale begins about two years ago, no more than that, possibly a little less but either way it begins at about two years, and it begins in a most unlikely place: An amatuer boxing match taking place on a Tuesday night in a typical high school gym, located in the smalltown setting of the Wind Colony, just inside the Helic Republic`s borders. The competitors are brothers, one is named David, the other is named Bit. One of them has just graduated from college, he has a bright future ahead of him, the other is an underachieving student in high school, looking to fail his senior year. Their immediate family - including the fiance of the older brother - are among the two hundred or so people gathered that night.
The bell rang, and Bit emerged from his corner with purpose in his stride. At the age of seventeen, Bit is the youngest of five children. He also looks the least like his siblings, with slightly darkish looking, naturally messy blonde hair and pale green eyes, marking him as a stark contrast to the rest of the family but the one who isn`t present. To boot, tonight, Bit has been dumped by his girlfriend of the past year and a half, making him relatively emotional compared to the calm, confident demeanor of his oldest brother.
The two met at the center of the ring, smacking gloves together before starting to circle one another, Bit more calm and calculated in his anger, David more willing to expend energy by hopping around in a Muhammad Ali-like boxing strut. The two continue to circle for several steps, and then David threw his arms up and buried his face behind them as Bit lashed out, tagging three jabs into his oldest brother`s forearms, aiming upward so as to tilt David back, then using his right hand, Bit drew back and slammed into David`s lightly exposed chin, knocking the larger of the two back several steps.
David rebounded off of the ropes though, confidently ducking under his youngest brother`s angered haymaker and whipping back up, smacking Bit across the side of the face with a backhanded punch.
Bit faltered, and in doing so, the Gates of Hell were opened up on him. In four seconds, the youngest of the Cloud siblings was on his knees, leaned against one of the ropes after suffering two right hooks and a solid left cross, only to resiliently get back to his feet and dizzily stare at his brother`s pandering to the crowd.
"I`ll make him eat those taunts," Bit thought glaringly, lunging forward and catching David off gaurd with a sickeningly hard hitting haymaker across the right side of the oldest of the Cloud siblings` head, plowing through the air and steamrolling right into the space next to David`s left eye. The older Cloud toppled over sideways and onto the ropes, the younger staggered forward under his own force and caught himself short of falling over, just as David blindly lashed out with a backhand.
Bit ducked and replied in kind, catching David solidly in the right
eye with his left hand, placing every ounce of his admittedly skinny body`s
weight behind the blow and knocking David right over the top rope of the
ring as a result, leaving the oldest sibling to land with a disgusting
crack, neck first, on the edge of the ring, tumbling further to his stomach
on the padded floor around the ring. Cheers could be heard, Bit felt his
arm raised in victory but he didn`t care, immediately rushing out to check
on the oldest of the Cloud children instead.
"He`s lucky he wasn`t paralyzed," the doctor stated with a dark undertone to Richard Cloud, father of five and husband to Silvia Cloud. Bit sat dimly behind them, one hand holding his head up, both eyes staring over at the doctor and his parents. The other four Cloud siblings were a room over, three trying to keep an eye on David, and David himself lying in a hospital bed with a neck cast.
"How long`ll it be `til he heals?" Silvia asked. "About two to three months to take the cast off, at least a year to fully heal the injury entirely," the doctor answered. Richard glanced angrily over at his youngest son, who nonchalantly resumed staring at a nearby wall with a dim expression.
"When can he leave the hospital?" Silva asked. "At least a week to make sure everything`s alright. We`ll also be moving him to another room," the doctor answered, taking the x-ray sheets back down from where he had left them, then turning back to the middle aged couple. "Would it be okay if Tanya, Talia and Larry stayed here the night with him?" Richard asked grimly. "Don`t see why not," the doctor shrugged.
"Though there is something you should know about," the doctor paused. "What?" Both parents asked. "David`s probably going to be blind in his right eye for the rest of his life."
At this, Richard Cloud`s stance shifted immeasurably and Bit brought both hands up to his face, practically trying to hide. David was Richard`s 'favorite son,' so to speak. David was well liked, a star athlete and a great student when he was in college, and he had graduated from college at the top of his class in archaeology. Now he was going to be permanently scarred and probably wouldn`t be able to fully work as more than a museum curator for at least a half a year, and even then he probably wouldn`t be able to do any fully strenuous physical tasks like the kind required in an archaelogical dig for another six months after that without fear of making the injury recurring or worse - permanent.
"... Why me?" Bit asked himself darkly, still able to feel his father`s
disapproving glare even without being able to see it.
"YOU GOD DAMN GOOD FOR-NOTHIN`-LOSER!" Richard Cloud`s angry voice echoed through the thick masonry of the Cloud family`s farmhouse, carrying even through that to be faintly audible outside. "How the hell was I supposed to know it`d happen?!" Bit demanded defiantly. "OH! AND JUST HOW THE HELL WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHICH ANSWERS NOT TO PICK ON THAT TEST?!" Richard demanded in return, forcibly shoving his son`s smaller frame back into his seat.
Of all of the Cloud family men, Richard was the largest. At 6'4", he stood two inches taller than David, three taller than Larry and four taller than Bit, as well as a good half a foot taller than his own father. He was also the strongest, having spent his entire life as a hard working farmer. Against that, an underdeveloped, slightly skinny teen like Bit was pretty much helpless, even with his boxing skills.
"David was gonna be our future you damned idiot! He was gonna take care of us when I retire, now what?" Richard questioned. "Now I`m prob`ly gonna have to work another ten years just to make up for supportin` the boy after this!" He yelled. Bit seethed in quiet. "And you, what the hell have you done for me an` your mother? NOTHING!" The older Cloud screamed, bending down into his son`s face. "You`ve done nothing from day one but be a total FAILURE, you can`t farm, you can barely box, your little whore of a girlfriend left ya for a real man on the football team and you can barely even drive at the age o` seventeen!"
"If I`m such a failure at boxing, why is Dave in the hospital?"
"BECAUSE YOU SCREWED UP!!!" Richard screamed, smacking Bit harshly across the cheek and knocking the teen right off of the couch. Bit only grit his teeth and slowly got up on all fours, only to find his father`s boot ground into the small of his back. "COME ON BOY, WHERE`S ALL THAT STRENGTH YA HAD EARLIER?! HITTIN` YOUR OWN GOD DAMN BROTHER WHEN HE`S DOWN!" A stomp and Bit yelped in pain before rolling out of the way, right into a kick in the gut.
"You`re god damned useless, even Larry`s more of a good son than you and he`s been arrested three times for vandalism!" Richard emphasised his actions with another kick, causing Bit to yelp again and start choking. It was a wonder the teen wasn`t sobbing given that his father made it a point to always wear steel combat boots no matter what the event.
"Shit, your sisters are more hard workin` than you and they both get better grades! What the hell kinda son are you, anyway?!" Bit merely hacked up a bit of blood onto his chin in response and started clawing his way back up to his knees and leaning most of his weight against the couch with a wheeze.
"Aw, what`s wrong boy? Can`t get up like ya did earlier? Thought you`d be used to beatings by now with the way ya let the jocks at school beat ya `round," David growled, even though Bit replied in kind by getting back up to his feet completely and gritting his teeth together. "Shut up," Bit ordered angrily. "DON`T YOU EVER ORDER ME AROUND YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" Richard screamed, lashing out at his youngest son. Bit was ready though, throwing an uppercut right into his father`s fist with reflexes that seemed inhuman, then catching Richard off gaurd completely with a vicious right hook into the cheek, throwing the middle aged farmer down onto a nearby coffee table, snapping it in half instantly.
"GET THE HELL OUT! YOU AIN`T NO SON O` MINE!!!" Richard screamed. "NO PROBLEM THERE!" Bit replied angrily, storming past the nearest chair and kicking the door open in a rage, stomping out and walking off into the night without another word.
"Bit! Don`t you dare leave!" Silvia yelled, but Bit didn`t hear her.
Even if he did, he wouldn`t have cared.
Tom Cloud`s house. Three miles west of the Cloud family farm, it was where the younger of the two older Cloud men lived. Tom was Bit`s uncle, furthermore, Tom wasn`t very conventional in his own right.
Not that Bit cared right now. Bruises were forming beneath the make of his tattered black t-shirt, his sneakers were dirtied from stomping through cold mud and he had been drenched by rain, but Bit didn`t care. All he was here for was one thing, and he knew Uncle Tom wasn`t going to like that, but it was okay either way. He`d just find a way to repay him sometime in the future.
Hopping over a three foot deep ditch and continuing on in a straight line to the door of Tom`s garage, arriving in a matter of seconds and stopping dead in his tracks. The youngest Cloud son paused long enough to wipe his matted, drenched hair out of his eyes, then bent down and squirmed his fingers under the door`s bottom edge, yanking it hard several times before prying it up and open after several seconds, giving the garage door one last tug and literally throwing it open all of the way before stepping inside, right up to his uncle`s garbage truck.
What followed next qualified Bit as being guilty of grand theft auto and property damage. Again, he didn`t care. He`d pay it off someday so it didn`t matter to him.
The blonde teen drew his arm back and slammed his elbow into the glass of the passenger`s window, shattering it instantly and giving him several cuts before he flipped the switch that unlocked all of the doors. Stepping around to the driver`s side, he cleared off the seat and ignored the bleeding on his arm, prying open the space beneath the wheel and going to work trying to hotwire the truck.
It took him close to twelve minutes but he did it, climbing inside and slamming the door shut before pressing his foot into the gas pedal and sending the truck smashing into the wall behind it since Bit hadn`t switched it out of reverse, which was what he did following that an instant later. Again, he pressed the pedal down and this time...
This time the truck slid out of the garage with the roar of it`s engine
to sound through the night, dashing down the driveway and turning hard
down the road before vanishing into the darkness of the evening.
He had never intended to come back after that. Sure, he still intended to repay his uncle, but money could easily be mailed or sent through services like Helic West.
But now, he was coming back, and he was coming back for a good reason. Keeping his gaze narrowed and straight ahead, Bit watched as the edge of the Wind Colony`s town borders came into view, even as the Jaeger flashed by the first road sign signaling it at such a speed that it literally ripped the upper half of the sign off from the backdraft and then set it ablaze in the exhaust trail. The Zoid let out a roar and began to slow down, but Bit still didn`t care very much.
The Zoid continued to slow down, and over the course of seven minutes, the exhaust trail faded away, the dust cloud that had been visible from a half a mile away came to a stop and the early morning sun slipped up into view in the distance behind it, heralding the Zero`s arrival, and perhaps it`s return as well. Only it knew anymore, it and one other anyway.
There was no reception as the Zoid padded along blithely through the exceptionally wide main road of the town, ion boosters tucked securely out of the way as the Zoid stopped at a red light, leering from side to side as if in familiarity.
"Just like old times," Bit thought, unknowingly echoing the thoughts of the Liger, which continued onward to the opposite edge of town, stopping at the sight of a long dirt road. "Yeah, it`s this one. Granny`s house is about four miles down the road but you`ll have to be careful to avoid the old man`s crops," Bit advised, not wanting to pilot right now. The Zoid nodded slowly in understanding and then began to plod down the narrow road as if it were a tight rope, continuing on until...
Until it stopped at a clear track of land surrounded by a fertile, ripe looking set of well kept farmland. The front porch of the house at it`s center was slightly crowded though, eight adults and two toddlers eating breakfast while a little boy with striking black hair ran around in the front yard. None of them but the boy seemed to notice as the Liger came to a stop, cockpit flipping open without a sound.
Bit stood up and glanced down at the boy, who met his eyes with a look of terrified wonder, the kind only a child could have.
"Who`re you?!" The boy called up, still unnoticed by the adults, who had yet to notice the Liger either.
"I`m Bit Cloud! Granny here?" Bit announced, ignoring the way that every adult sprang to attention at the mention of his name. "Ohhh! Uncle Bit!" The boy yelled in surprise. "That the Liger Zero?!" He asked. "Yep! Granny here?!" Bit yelled back, ignoring the fact that the rest of the family present was starting to crowd off of the porch towards he and the Jaeger. "Which one?"
"The real friggin` old one! Lives about a mile that way," Bit indicated, pointing past his parents` house towards a small speck in the distance. "Oh! No, she`s at home I think!" The boy replied. "Thanks! Think you could move? Liger`s nice and all but I don`t want to cause any accidents!" Bit advised, watching the kid give a few fevered nods before dashing out of the way, and just in time at that.
The youngest of Rick and Silvia`s kids dropped back into the cockpit with something of a hurry, watching his surroundings slide shut a few seconds later before the Zero continued on, no longer confining Bit with a safety harness since there really wasn`t much of a chance that he`d need it. The Zoid padded along past the yelled greetings of the family as if it hadn`t heard them, though even if it did, Bit didn`t care.
Farther and farther, the Zoid and it`s pilot distanced themselves from a family Bit hadn`t spoken to in two years, and a family he didn`t care to speak to again any time soon. Thanks to his infamous luck of the draw, they didn`t. They all stopped and stared as if in shock as the Zoid nonchalantly walked around the house and continued on, moving down the thin road as if on a tight rope once again.
Several minutes later though, it dropped this stance completely at the sight of a familiar little domed house set atop a pleasant little hill, the porch shaded by an equally pleasant looking oak tree, the branches grown out in just the right pattern to cover the porch from sunlight during mid-day, but on it...
On it sat the oldest member of the Cloud family, perhaps also the oldest living person on Zi. The Liger roared in recognition at the sight of her, and the cockpit slipped open for Bit to jump out, covering the distance to the ground and landing perfectly without much notice of the 30+ foot drop he had just performed, walking forward with a small smirk at the sight of the old woman rocking back and forth on her favorite chair on the porch.
Her hair was white as snow, styled in a strangely unique sort of way, and her eyes had yet to lose their pinkish, pupil-less appearance even after nine generations, roughly 235 years since a boy had woken her up in the desert ruins that had been grown over by a forest over the centuries. Even in her enormously old age, the woman was still obviously beautiful, one could see the outlines of the blonde haired, fiery eyed young woman she had once been. Time seemed almost afraid of her, for despite being around 246 years in actual physical age, she didn`t look a day over the age of sixty-five.
And then there was that simply friendly little smile she had, the one she gave Bit as he started to walk up the side of the hill, Liger not more than a step behind at the most. It was the kind of smile that could turn the angriest of enemies into the greatest of friends, the kind that could tempt one into spilling their life`s story in an instant. Her aged appearance was topped off by the loose fitting pink dress the old woman wore, and the two teal colored marks tattooed just above the bridge of her nose, between the spaces above either eyebrow.
Fiona Alysse Lenette-Fleiheit stood up and waved over at her descendant before rounding the railing of the porch and walking down to greet him with a familiar hug.
Bit Cloud was home again, for the first time in close to two years,
and he actually cared enough to smile and hug her back in reply.
Author`s Note: Now who in the hell saw THAT comin`? Also: For some reason I could see Bit being a chronic underachiever from a very loaded household. The issues with his father never turned abusive until the time portrayed here, aside from that it was just arguements but this one time it became physical and both were fed up with it. All the Clouds here aside from Bit are OCs, and yes, Silvia Cloud is a bit of a name pun(Silver Cloud).
Shiro: Well, I`m a sixteen(almost seventeen) year old guy with brown eyes and light brown hair. That kinda makes it impossible for me to be 246 year old, pinkish red eyed, white haired Fiona, doesn`t it? :P
And are the cameos done? Nope, I got one more left, though it probably won`t come at the same level of surprise as this one here. And to answer a question before it can be asked: Yes. I do think Fiona would live that long, if not longer. She and Bit have different names since Bit is descended from one of her granddaughters rather than a grandson. Hope that explains that for ya.
That`s all for now. Enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! Sh33p
out.
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