Reign of Chaos Chapter 32, a Zoids fanfic by Sh33p

Sh33p Disclaimer: I don`t own Zoids. Consider this disclaimer valid for the whole damn story :P

Scene One: Cowboy Bebop - Cosmic Dare
Scene Two: (flashbacks in bold)
Stabbing Westward - Save Yourself
Rurouni Kenshin - Frozen Flare
KoRn - One(Metallica Cover)
Metallica - Sanitarium
Scene Three: Rurouni Kenshin - Fallen Angel
Scene Four: Rammstein - Du Hast
Scene Five: Rurouni Kenshin - Fallen Angel
Scene Six: Guano Apes - Open Your Eyes
Scene Seven: .hack//Sign - A Stray Child
Scene Eight A: .hack//Sign - Aura(Evil)
Scene Eight B: Transiberian Orchestra - Carol of the Bells
Scene Nine: Zoids - Any End of the Land(first part only)

In the midst of the desert, a lone Gustav chugged along, dragging two different trailers behind it. Originally, the vehicle had belonged to a woman by the name of Ciere Fuma, a fairly high ranking member of the former Backdraft Group. At present, Ciere Fuma was dead, what little had remained of her body had been cremated and the ashes were currently being spread by the currents of Zi`s oceans, which was exactly how she had always wanted her body to be disposed of. Not that she had ever counted on dying at the relatively young age of twenty-five, but still.

At the least though, some of her worldly possessions had been put to better use than lying around. It wasn`t like legals could really distribute them to her friends and family - the only friends she had listed in her will had been members of the Fuma Team, and all of them hadn`t exactly outlived her either. She also wasn`t known to have any close, living relatives, which eliminated that as an option too.

However, upon closer inspection into Fuma`s past, one could find two second-cousins and an uncle. One of those cousins went by the name of Pierce Lee Summers, though she typically dropped the middle third of her name.

At present, the green haired aero-pilot was currently the only occupant of the drably colored Gustav. She hadn`t ever really been one for Fuma`s tastes in Zoid and color selection, but that hadn`t stopped her from 'borrowing' her deceased friend`s spare transport. Really, it wasn`t like Fuma was going to miraculously put herself back together and come back to life just to have a shitfit at Pierce for stealing something that would`ve otherwise been confiscated by the Guardian Force upon realization of the fact that the name she used to purchase it had been, more or less, just an alias for someone else.

Really, post-apocalypse Zi was a pretty boring place right now. At least it had been for the past days or so that it had been since she had seen Leon and company, back when they were recovering from having to take on a Geno Breaker, which had happened after hours of repetitive, harshly fought combat with Zoids that were seemingly superior in numbers and weaponry.

Her Storm Sworder still needed something of an overhaul. It could fly now, yes, but it was hardly what Pierce would call worthy of combat. Even the paint needed touching up, and though two of the engines had been cleaned out and patched back together, she didn`t quite know how well they would hold in a real fight. As a result, her Zabat happened to be standing on the trailer behind it.

Not that it was really that much better, but it was at least a start. The Zabat was really little more than a carrier-model Pteras with Black Redler-level firepower, but it would do in a pinch if she had to get into a firefight.

The cockpit wasn`t dead silent, at the least. In fact, it was anything but, thanks to the fact that Ciere`d been one hell of a music lover. She had gone through the trouble of completely replacing the Gustav`s original dashboard with a custom built computer designed exclusively to download, burn, store and play every song she could get her hands on, and much to Pierce`s benefit, Fuma`d had a very varied taste, ranging from classical to death metal.

Not to mention the pop song that Pierce was currently rocking back and forth and tapping one of her fingers to. It was annoyingly catchy, virtually mindless and completely devoted to a woman singing about a cosmic dare of some sort, mostly stuff that could make your average male listener lull his head to the side, get swirly eyed and drool on himself in a blind, mental haze of something resting somewhere between confusion, perhaps desire, and, most likely, general braindeath.

In short, it was the kind of music that Pierce happened to love. It wasn`t critically acclaimed, it wasn`t angsty, and it wasn`t so much a love song as it was a song about a one night stand or something. On top of that, the tune was nice and easy on the ears.

At the absolute least, it managed to keep her thoughts from droning back to the fact that she had nothing to do other than continue driving with the transport on cruise control. There was literally nothing else to think about, she had no one to talk to and she`d yet to notice the pitch black smoke billowing up from where Farentown was located.

"Knew I should`ve gone with Leon," she finally concluded for the thirteenth or fourteenth time in the past hour or so. She`d been doing it a lot lately, but it never seemed to lead to any other thoughts other than that.

Suffice to say, the Red Blade Liger pilot had impressed her, probably more than Bit Cloud had. Unlike the blonde pilot of the Liger Zero, Tauros had actually been logical about being a slight weirdo, and on top of that, he hadn`t looked like a scrawny little Zoid battle fanboy. His hairstyle wasn`t exactly fashionable, but given that Leon had been following his own style with little or no care at all for being trendy, it still happened to be on the attractive side to her.

"... Goody, I`m becoming a lovesick fangirl," she finally muttered to herself in thought. Not that it was true, mind you, but it at least made for a nice change from thinking about how she should`ve gone with the rest of them instead of driving to Farentown on her own and-

A ping sounded out and alerted her to the scanner, where her eyes quickly managed to register a pair of orange dots, one listed as a Gustav, the other as-

"The Shadow Fox. Mark and Abbie must be heading for Romeo," she concluded falsely, aloud for once. At the same time, she finally stopped tapping and rocking this way and that, reaching over and stopping the song as well.

[The door finally slid open with one last gunshot into the lock. His left thumb was broken at the joint, and his left pinky was completely numb as well, both sides of his hand bleeding from where he`d literally ripped out of the handcuff. He didn`t know how long it had been since Kale had practically signed his death warrant, but at this point, all that really mattered anymore was escape.

Crashing his Storm Sworder had been one thing. A fall from several thousand feet could be survived, if you played your cards right, but when Kale wanted you dead, there were only three ways out - suicide, fighting in desperation and running like Hell. Even with as hardened as he had become over the years, Rayth still knew his only chance was to run, and to run quickly.

It was probably one of the only times in his entire life that the Third King had ever felt anything even remotely akin to fear, and the only time he had ever felt true terror.

Muscling the door out of the way with his left arm, he erupted into the hallway that lead to the staircase out of the jail, moving in a half-baked spin so as to cover all angles as he did so. No one else was down there with him, and he didn`t know if he should`ve been relieved or comforted in that knowledge.

"Have to get out of here," he thought to himself, dispelling every other aspect of reality and shutting out the sounds of battle still raging outside. With any luck, the army would manage to hold Kale off long enough for him to find a jeep and get the Hell away, but he wasn`t going to put faith in luck. Instead, he put his faith in his legs, bolting into a run for the staircase and climbing them rapidly, regardless of the pain still shooting through his left hand.

The staircase lead into another hallway, this one usually lined with automated sentry guns that Kale himself had shut down earlier on, which in turn lead to a double sliding door at the end of the hall, already half-open and giving the visual of dozens of people frantically running around all over the front lobby.

If not for the fact that he instinctively knew that they no longer cared about anything as small as a single spy, he would`ve started gunning people down, left and right. As it stood though, he kept running, plowing through the front doors and making it as far as the central outdoor area of the base.

If he had been in a calmer state of mind, he probably would`ve smirked at the irony of how lucky he was that he had arrived just as a jeep had pulled up, one of the base`s commanding officers practically jumping out.

Rayth shot him in the head by the time his feet finished hitting the ground. His body slumped backwards against the side of the vehicle, and blood sprayed into the air for a few seconds, but by the time it had stopped, the Third King had jumped into the driver`s seat and crammed his foot into the pedal with a desperate glint of hope.

And then, as he turned the jeep to leave, he looked up in time to take in the details of his own end, in almost perfect slow motion.

Slagging plates of high-grade steel flew through the air like frisbees, all of them torn from the outer walls by windsheer alone, carried through the air for over half a mile and finally being thrown down towards the ground.

His ears only vaguely registed the sound of two of those metal walls stabbing in around him, one crashing through the back of the hummer, the other stabbing through the back seat. Without a seatbelt, he went flying forward, head slamming into the glass with a sickening crack, chest ramming into the steering wheel as the downsized, military-version airbag blew out, whiplashing him back into place, just in time to feel the atmosphere tear away from above.

Black streaked, Ivory reacted sluggishly but with power and the two Ligers clashed viciously with each other, fangs locked together, claws wrestling against each other. Weakened from battle with a Demon, the Ivory Liger faltered first, its smaller, swifter opponent forcing it back onto its hind legs with a shove, but Kyle was better than even he gave himself credit for, grunting against sudden loss of balance and working the controls like a skilled pianist.

On the verge of falling over backwards, the Ivory Liger tightened its grip on the teeth of the Black Liger, what remained of the power in its neck and legs both coming into play as the larger Zoid literally heaved the smaller one into the air and twisted dizzily while doing it. The end result was the smaller Liger slamming into the ground on its gut, breaking away while the larger Liger tried to get to its feet.

"Figures you wouldn`t have the decency to just die when Hameros shot you down," Mazemia finally growled out, his arms still stinging from shattered glass.

[It was all over but the dying. Every nerve he had left was shot right to Hell and back again with pain so intense that it rendered him almost completely numb, but not numb enough to prevent him from realizing how badly he had been wounded.

It was like some great big universal joke. Death just didn`t seem to want Rayth Takahori`s life to end, and it threw him back every time. Broken bones, bloody wounds, he`d survived it all, but it seemed he wouldn`t survive this time. Even with how cruel Death seemed to be to him, not even its twisted whims could save him now.

His skin had been charred black almost all over, taking on a scaled appearance with what was actually left of it to begin with. His hair was gone, completely burned off except for one or two strands of ash sticking out from what remained of his scalp. He lay on his back, half-buried under the molten, burning remains of the jeep he had so desperately sought to escape in, and metal had somehow fused into parts of what remained of his body, with jagged bits sticking out here and there. Despite the grievous nature of his injuries though, they weren`t bleeding.

His left arm was completely gone. His right was mostly intact, with the minor problem that it had been severed and was somehow burnt into the side of the overturned lump of burning steel that had once been a military issue jeep, the gun having been burnt beyond recognition until it was literally part of his hand. His legs weren`t exactly in much better condition, they`d been so broken that one had been wrenched off and the other was only attached by a few random, disgusting strips of burnt muscle and skin.

As if that wasn`t enough though, he had been deprived of the rest of his senses as well. His eyes saw only fading colors like one could see if they shut their eyes after staring at the sun, and his ears had been completely burned off, though even if they hadn`t, it wouldn`t much matter. The sudden pressure shockwave of the incoming beam had caused his ear drums to explode, and left him only barely able to breathe.

"How`d you survive it, Rayth?" Kyle asked in a low, cold voice. Most people wouldn`t`ve been able to pin the tone to him in a thousand years if they`d never heard it before, but it was a tone that he had often used when dealing with his former comrade.

Red eyes narrowed, the Liger growled responsively and the other Zoid waited with an uncanny, methodical sense of patience to it. It had never been Rayth`s style to let an opponent get up without a challenge, he had been downright ruthless in all of their battles, never asking for a quarter and never giving any either. Of the things that hadn`t seemed to change though, his merciless silence seemed to be one of them.

[His voice was gone. Even with it, his throat would have probably been too parched and damaged to speak anyway. Even with his hope faded though, unable to see or hear anything, unable to even smell anything because the heat of the blast had completely burnt his tongue. His teeth had been flash-fried until they were black, and his gums were only barely lubricated from the miniscule amount of blood that hadn`t been evaporated out of his mouth, but even then, he refused to stop.

It was a desperate, lost cause of a plea for salvation. In all likelihood, had he heard it, he would`ve only been able to identify a dry, scratchy hiss that sounded like a word but couldn`t be identified beyond that. Again, he called out, though his voice was completely gone, and though it would have been beyond any normal pain to do so if he weren`t virtually numbed from his agony as it was.

It was as if the fires burning on top of his death pile were laughing at him, because he could still hear no confirmation. He couldn`t register any touch, any vibration, and he couldn`t even see any vague silhouettes.

It felt like an eternity as he sought to hold his grip on the breath he had taken just to wheeze the last words out, an eternity trapped between Tick and Tock, Life and Death. An eternity of clinging to the edge of the abyss and knowing that one sign of weakness or strength would damn him to oblivion. The metaphorical ledge he hung onto was trembling and shuddering, and the pitch black darkness below was calling to him with increasing fervor, but...

Fear alone kept him from letting out that dying breath. Terror of the unknown, of what he could not, would not and feared to understand. In his mind`s eye, even as that ledge became so hot that his nonexistent flesh began to burn, but the abyss offerred the chill of death in relief.

Finally though, the temptation of release became too much to bear. Hope left him, and as it did, he let go of that ledge, the border between Life and Death. He surrendered himself to it, knowing that it would bring sweet, lasting relief in the form of eternal oblivion, and as it all happened, the last breath blew from his pierced lungs, exhaling into the air in a thin, black puff of smoke.

The Ivory Liger roared, blades unfolding until they stood straight up, and then lowering down to either side.

The Black Liger screamed with the voice of a human and a foul beast at once, its own blades springing up and then down to either side, its posture mirroring that of its larger foe.

[It seemed like an eternity drifted by, but at the same time, it felt the same as it might when one was staring at a clock and watching a single second tick away.

When it was over, he didn`t know what had happened. Not exactly, but he knew that he could feel again - more so than before. He knew that his sense of touch had heightened in some ways, decreased in others, and his sight...

It was as if he could pick out a single missed splotch of paint on the Whale King that seemed to be hovering overhead. He could hear the color, see each and every sound, taste every single electron that still tweaked through the air in the aftermath of the Geno Maxis` assault.

But thought of the Maxis brought thoughts of its pilot. Rayth didn`t need to be a genius to figure out that it was an attack from Kale that had effectively ended life as he had known it. To an extent, he felt somewhat bitter over it - but only to an extent. As strange as it sounded, he almost felt like thanking the other King for putting him out of his misery. Almost.

For a short while, he stood there, thinking with a mind that now felt as though it was starting to lose every trace of humanity, to become another part of some great machine. Images flooded his mind, from a visual of a young woman with vivid blue eyes and hair that was even darker than his own, to a howling red beast that looked like some terror inspiring cross between a modern-day Geno Saurer and the Death Saurers that had spawned them.

More images came, he had to fight to keep from losing his sense of who he was.

The only one that seemed to stand out was of the woman. While her eyes were blue, and her hair was virtually pitch black, she sparked a memory of his own that was threatening to be consumed under the rush of new information. Whether it was the fact that her skin was as pale as your average slice of bread, or that her hair was done up in a high-kept, tight ponytail, she sparked a memory that in turn lit off a series of others, and even as his mind and another began to merge, those memories alone forced him to remain in control of himself, even as they started to fade away.

How long it took for his mind to merge with that of the Black Blade Liger, he didn`t know. He didn`t know, either, that his body had been fused into the cockpit, and he didn`t know that Organoid-like wires were now plugged into every single hole in his original form. He didn`t know the parallel involved, the connection that now linked him to everyone who had ever piloted a Demon, didn`t know that he had just joined a club so exclusive that most people wouldn`t have even wanted it to exist.

All he knew, after a time, was that he was now in control. There was a secondary presence, yes, a dual nature to every thought, but he was in control.

More memories ticked by. The only ones that stood out were of the original pilot of the Black Blade coaxing a dark colored, blue eyed Organoid into a pod as the world virtually fell apart around them, and of the woman`s eventual demise centuries later as a Helic Republican research crew accidentally cut all power to the pod that she had climbed into, awakening her with a shock only to die within a minute from a mixture of causes. Other than that though...

A similar looking woman crossed his mind, dragging thoughts of a silver haired man and an old betrayal that itched at what was left of his human heart.

"Mazemia," he - or it? - thought with a metallic coldness, bringing his new body to point in the direction that he felt they were in. There was an old score to settle now, and even if it didn`t matter anymore, it was probably all that he had left. His only 'friend' had been more than clear enough in proving that he was no longer welcomed, his former employers hadn`t bothered coming after him after his Storm Sworder had been shot down, but there were still the old feelings of betrayal.

Maybe when he finished settling those, he could lie down and go back to sleep...]

Each roar wound down to a dull growling, which in turn gave way to a pair of rough sounding grunts as both the Ivory and Black Ligers launched towards each other.

"You`re shitting me! How the hell does someone like Harabec get killed in a fucking Zoid battle?!"

Katherine sighed, standing not too far away with her arms crossed just beneath her chest, wearing the grim expression of someone who had wanted to be the bearer of bad news for the sake of others, but hadn`t been given the chance. Abbie was still in the back seat of the Gustav, though her crying hadn`t picked up at all in the past minutes. Mark had pretty much demanded to be the one to give Pierce the news, and she was apparently taking it almost worse than Abbie had.

Now there was an unnerving tone of voice for someone as whacked out as Mark was. Usually, it was difficult to get the guy to stop making wisecracks about everything he saw, but now? Now it was like humor was a mostly foriegn concept to him.

To be brutally honest, Katherine really didn`t see the big deal. Sure, a family member had died, and sure an entire city had just been blown to shit, but it was as if the three of them were mourning more for the one than the million, not to mention the fact that at least two of them had probably lost just about every worldly possession they still owned. It was like they had always viewed Harabec as some sort of invulnerable shield or something, as if they could always count on him.

It was really just too confusing for her, Kat hadn`t exactly been raised in the most nuclear of families. Sure, she had a brother, and sure, her parents had actually been around for her, but not very emotionally. Kyle was probably the only person she was ever really emotional around, even if she had formed various attachments to other people over the years. It was just her nature.

"If it was a prank, I must`ve used a shitload o` M-80s," Mark finally replied with something similar to his usual way of speaking, raising one fist up with a thumb indicating the general direction of Farentown. Kat could tell that it was probably the first time Pierce had actually bothered paying attention to the minor detail of the pitch black smoke rising in the distance.

The green haired woman`s jaw sagged noticably, and her mouth looked as if it was threatening to hang open. Her eyes widened noticably and her shoulders slumped.

"And I thought I sucked at comforting people," Kat thought sardonically at the sight ahead of her, turning away and uncrossing her arms. It was boring, really, standing around at a virtual funeral and waiting for Kyle to come back from wherever he had gone off to. In all honesty, she felt he was taking way too long for just going to scope out an odd ping off the scanners.

"May as well check on Abbie," she reasoned, having already looked in on and reassured their human cargo a dozen or more times in the past few minutes. The cockpit still hung open, the boy was still sitting in his original seat with his hands neatly set on his knees, and Abbie was still sitting in the passenger seat, no longer crying, but not exactly looking cheerful and ready to take on the world either.

"How`re you holding up?" She asked, half-climbing to lean over the edge on the driver`s side. The only answer was a shrug, Abbie simply propped her head up on one hand and stared off into space with a glum expression.

Kat sighed and shook her head, not saying another word since it really wasn`t her place to intrude anymore than she probably already had. Instead, she took a single glance down to the scanner and started to climb back down to the ground, only to stop when she registered the words 'shots fired' on the screen.

Three hard explosions rang out, the Ivory Blade Liger rocked to the side and almost fell over, only barely holding its balance with an agitated growl. Smoke lit up from the three already burnt, cracked points in its armor, each of which now held an appearance similar to shattered glass that could crumble away at almost any second. It was a miracle that the attacks hadn`t blown one of the blades off.

"Fucking shrimp`s even faster now than he used to be," Kyle noted with palpable annoyance, his eyes shifting over to where the Black Blade stood at the ready, almost taunting him to even try and keep up. The smaller Zoid may have been lacking in ranged weapons and armor in comparison to the larger, but it was by far faster and more agile, able to pull the kinds of manuevers that would make a Lightning Saix pilot choke to death on his own vomit.

"You still haven`t learned to stop underestimating me," he muttered, pulling the trigger on one joystick. Accordingly, the repeating blaster on the blade of that side let loose with three shots, though the Black Blade dodged each one with an ease that sent a sharp chill down Mazemia`s spine.

Again, the Black Liger seemed to howl with a mocking tone, charging forward at speeds that defied the imagination. By the time that Kyle had even realized it, the smaller Zoid had rammed into the Ivory Liger`s right shoulder, rocking it again only to crouch down and repeat the manuever, practically dancing under the other Zoid`s right blade before headbutting it right in the stomach. It was a calculated, swift move, the kind that took both a lot of skill and control to master, and the kind that Rayth had always excelled at.

The larger Zoid landed on its feet with a stagger, now sparking from a dent across its gut. Kyle grimaced to himself for the umpteenth time of the night, sparing a single glare to the smaller Liger before turning to face it.

"Proven your point yet?" He asked, having yet to actually hear any sort of reply from the other, only to find every action he made being countered or paid back three fold. It was like fighting with an opponent who knew every single move you were going to make two steps ahead in advance, but who was also fast enough to stand there and laugh while waiting for you to try and make them.

The Black Blade growled dismissively, blades folding up once again before tilting straight forward, almost as if they were lances rather than swords. The Zoid didn`t have blasters like the Ivory Liger, but that didn`t seem to matter in the slightest considering how the battle had been going so far.

Kyle let off a snort, watching how Rayth just stood there. Mocking him all over again.

"Is that all you can do? Taunt me till I get too pissy to think straight?" He asked once more, no longer expecting answers since he probably already knew them anyway. The Ivory Liger nodded its head in accord with its pilot, each blade promptly folding up and back out of use as the larger Zoid regarded its smaller opponent.

"I`m through playing. I`ve got bigger things to worry about than some spoiled brat who-"

The silver haired pilot was promptly silenced by an angered cry from the Black Blade, which exploded into a cloud of violent dust and dirt less than a second later. By the time Kyle had realized what had just happened, it was almost too late.

"The same trick doesn`t work twice anymore!" He shouted, yanking the Ivory Liger to the side and narrowly avoiding having the entire forward half of the body crushed in a corkscrew dive similar to the trick created by Van Fleiheit. "Especially not with one of my own signature moves!"

Both Ligers collided, the Black Blade recovering onto all four feet as the Ivory Blade whipped into a standing corkscrew jump one golden paw slicing up through the air and cracking across the smaller Zoid`s chin with a hail of sparks and chipped bits of armor. Rayth howled in more discomfort than actual pain, going into a backwards flip as Kyle recovered from the attack, landing on all fours almost flawlessly, even in his Zoid`s brutalized state.

Three more shots rang out, the Ivory Blade Liger roared in pain and flew from its feet almost as soon as it had landed on them, crashing onto one side as the armor on its left shattered like glass, blowing away to reveal the same layer of black metal that covered its legs. All it would take was one more salvo and its insides would`ve been exposed, but Kyle, quite frankly, didn`t care anymore.

"Just a flesh wound, pal, you can take it," he said, more to the Liger than anything else. Almost as a result of his words, the battered, nearly maimed Zoid stood up again, still broadside to the Black Blade. Rayth stood there with a malicious posture, blades still tipped forward even while he waited, still trying to taunt his foe into action.

Silence reigned as the two Zoids began to circle each other, heads held low. Whoever blinked first, they both knew, would likely be brought to the edge of death. It was a stand-off, no questions asked and no quarter given from either side. Each one knew the risks they would take in an attack, just as each one knew the danger of trying to wait the other out. Rayth had been in control throughout the fight, but that only meant that he could afford the smallest margin of error.

Kyle had been through combat for hours on end by now. First, with one of the last waves of AI-controlled Zoids. Then, with the Hellwalker, and now with Rayth himself. Before that, he had been put through the wringer of days of fighting with little rest in between. His Zoid and his body were both well beyond the limits of their endurance, even the slightest mistake would probably kill him.

All it took for Rayth to begin his attack was a single extra spark to flitter out of the Ivory Liger`s right wrist stabilizer, glittering through the air. By the time it had faded, the Black Blade`s panels had flipped up, just as a solid yellow dome of energy blazed to life in front of it. Its back booster sprang to life at the same time, burning to life with a howl of white-and-blue, and by the time that Kyle could finish pulling his own Liger into reacting, it was already too late.

The Ivory Blade Liger went flying into the air, its own shield burning up and then cutting out as the primary emitters jolted and snapped from the sheer impact to it. It was a wonder that the generator didn`t give out as well, but even if Kyle was too slow to react from there, the Liger itself wasn`t it.

Speedily and dizzily at once, its back booster flipped back up in sheer defiance of its own damage, rotating towards the ground and sputtering to life after several stalls.

The larger Zoid touched down, the smaller one`s shield and booster both dropped and three more shots rang the air, and with them, three more explosions. Black-tinted under-armoring shattered and melted like glass, several systems based in the Ivory Liger`s right side died down, but the Zoid still stood, staggering under the brunt of the impacts but not hitting the ground. Not yet.

"Grand," Kyle spat, watching the entire left half of what remained of the cockpit glass start to dim and fuzz a bit. Still though, the Liger growled its contempt and held its head high, slowly but surely turning to face the smaller Zoid.

"If I`m gonna go down, Rayth," he began, pulling the joysticks into the proper pattern to deploy each blade. Only the left even functioned enough to do more than point straight up.

Still no response other than a mocking rumble from the Black Blade, which responded in kind. Each blade sprang up from its lancing position atop the Zoid`s shoulder, unfolding to its sides with a slow, methodical precision. It was almost as if Rayth was smiling at him.

Three more shots rang out, the cockpit glass completely shattered and the larger Liger howled in pain, its pilot screaming his indignance as the intensity, drama and dignity of the moment went up in smoke, a round ripping into either side of the Ivory Liger`s battered face, the third passing just over the cockpit and exploding directly behind it.

The blasts themselves somehow failed to touch Kyle, but the glass easily shredded across his arms, cutting deep as he threw them up to try and shield his now bowed head, his thighs also joining in the fun of being cut to ribbons by debris. More systems failed, the main console went out and lighting all through the newly opened cockpit went with it, even as the Black Blade began to creep forward.

It was obvious now, that Rayth had never intended to give Kyle the pleasure of going down fighting. Each blade tipped forward, the sabered mouth fell open and the smaller Zoid slowly crept towards its blinded, temporarily disabled foe, intent on skewering the pilot like a shishkabob, or just cutting him - and the head - right in half.

Explosions suddenly ripped across the back and side of the smaller Blade Liger, caused by pulse lasers and heavy duty, explosive slugs, almost throwing the small Zoid right off its feet if not for the angles of attack and Rayth`s own, impossible level of balance.

"I hate being left out even more," Marcus Harlock exclaimed over the broadband, though it wasn`t very likely that Kyle or anyone else even heard him. Seconds ticked by as the Shadow Fox stepped into view, standing tall upon a nearby hill with both guns smoking, both claws glowing and all teeth beared out in what looked like a snarl, even upon its expressionless face.

The Black Blade Liger growled annoyedly, smoking now pouring out of pits and holes across its body, which was somehow beyond being outright gutted by the assault. Even as its larger, original target finally fell over, its newest foe remained in place, gattling gun trained on the Black Blade`s cockpit, both optics glimmering a dangerous orange.

"Finished," she thought to herself with no small share of satisfaction as she finished typing up the log. It was something of a nicety to Harry, for when and if he ever actually bothered wanting his 'job' back, and to be honest, she really hoped he did. Sarah Obscura had once been the kind of woman who had her eyes set to goals that most people would`ve found absurd. From shattering the illegal equivelent of a glass ceiling when she had ascended to equal rank with Altiel to trying to make her sons the best pilots in the entire Backdraft Group, she had once been the type who would almost always set her goals too high and raised her expectations along with them.

Having one son go murderously insane while the other slowly seemed to disown her in favor of a Zoid, being imprisoned for her role in trying to crash what amounted to a governmental tool for keeping the world`s population in check for her own ambitions and then living through the apocalypse had done more than enough to mellow her out over the past few months.

Suffice to say, she no longer set her goals quite as high as she used to, her expectations had lowered accordingly and her personality had improved drastically because of it. Now, rather than seeing virtually everyone but her children as pawns waiting to be played, she saw those closest to her as actual friends. She didn`t see her sons as goals and tools to achieve them anymore, she saw them as her children, even if neither seemed to want very much to do with her anymore.

Most importantly though, Sarah had lost her taste for power. Sure, it had perks, but look at what it had cost her - her marriage, her children, her dignity, months in prison and, arguably, not a single thing gained from all of it. Now, she would`ve likely been content to just earn a nice, small fortune and retreat to some little village in the middle of nowhere and live out her days in peace. She didn`t want to have to handle Champton, she was only doing it because she was the only one left who was actually qualified for it.

"And," she paused, first exiting and then shutting the computer down with a tired sigh. "Because it`s the least I can do," she reminded herself for the umpteenth time in the past day or two, in regards to her reasoning. It was true that she really wasn`t ever that good a pilot, the only time that she had ever taken control of a Zoid had been flying Sinkers around as a hobby when her husband had still be alive, but she was a business woman, not to mention a student of history and cunning strategist to boot. Combine those things together and one had effectively found the perfect person to fill in for Harry Champ, or even completely take over from him in general.

Sliding the chair back with a yawn, the middle aged, widowed mother of two stretched her arms and legs out for the first time in hours, allowing her eyes to rest instead of trying to focus on lettering or some small detail in a chart, image or video, and allowing herself the smallest chance to actually chuckle for once.

"I`m going to need glasses if I keep this up," she mumbled out, already feeling sympathetic to the Champ Corporation`s chief heir. How he had done it straight for a month or two, right after his family had effectively gone to Hell, with little, if any help and virtually no experience was completely beyond her, it ranked as a minor miracle that his eyes hadn`t rotted out and fallen from the sockets by now.

After a few more moments though, she finally began to pull herself from the too-comfortable chair, dark blue hair resting a bit heavier than usual as she reached up to unzip the flight jacket that she was still wearing, and had been ever since they`d left Romeo.

"Need a shower," she said to herself, taking a passing glance up to where the hole had been in the roof. That was something that had impressed her about the locals, they`d rushed repairs to all of the recent damage caused by that lunatic Gojulas and the arrival of Tsun and her Organoid, completing them in under twelve hours each, even improving the structure as they did so...

Before she could continue her musings though, there was a sudden creak from the door knob, grabbing her attentions and pulling them back to the softly lit room that currently served as her limited slice of reality. Whoever had done it was obviously hesitating though, be it out of indecisiveness or distraction was unknown.

"Come in," she ordered bluntly, giving all of a split second`s consideration to zipping her jacket back up for a more formal look, but deciding against it in favor of sticking her hands in the lower pockets and going with whatever flow presented itself. Sarah was typically mindful of appearances, but right now, it didn`t really matter.

The knob creaked again, finishing its turn before the heavy old door slipped open, giving way to the visual of a young woman who looked to be in her late teens or so, dressed a bit too orderly, for Sarah`s tastes, in a pink dress with a light yellow jacket worn over it, with her long, sandy blonde hair let down for the time being.

She also had the same greenish-blue eyes and fair complexion that Sarah had come to to associate with the young man that was likely the newcomer`s brother. Her demeanor didn`t quite fit right, and her posture was a bit on the sloppy side compared to what the older woman had expected of a Champ, but she still had enough of the same facial features as Harry to mark her as one of his siblings, if nothing else.

"Hello," she greeted with what was most obviously a forcefully cheerful tone, adding to it with an unnervingly false smile.

"Marry Champ, I presume?" Sarah asked, ignoring the formalities. It was a moot point since there really wasn`t any reason to be formal at all these days.

"Yes," the younger newcomer replied, still wearing that completely fake smile as if it were a crumbling shield. "Who are you? If you don`t mind my asking that is..."

"Sarah Obscura. I... Commandeered things at the recommendation of your brother`s girlfriend. He needed the rest," she shrugged back, already having prepared herself for any insults. The wealthy hadn`t ever really been particularly friendly to her, after all, not unless she could prove that they`d have something to gain by helping her or letting her help them for her own aims, and even then they had a tendency to annoy her to no end.

Either way, Marry seemed all too willing to back down and let the topic rest without challenging her over her control. That was a good thing, Sarah didn`t know if she could survive anymore desk jockey politics after the last time she had played the game.

"I`m looking for him... I couldn`t find him in any of his usual hang-outs, but do you know where he is?" The blonde asked pleasantly, still smiling so brightly that it almost came within a few steps of triggering Sarah`s maternal instincts out of sheer sympathy, something that likely wouldn`t have been there had she not done some growing up of her own in the past months.

"You could try his bedroom," Sarah offered with a raised brow. Almost instantly, she`d jumped to the conclusion that either Marry was completely off her rocker in a mixture of denial and god knows what else, or Harry didn`t exactly favor sleeping in his own room. "He went there earlier this afternoon, still resting, I`d bet."

"Did something happen?" Marry asked curiously, head tilting to the side in an embelished show of curiosity. She hadn`t even asked who Harry`s new girlfriend was. Not yet, anyway.

"... You`d probably be better off asking him yourself," Sarah sighed, both brows lowering into an outright sardonic expression. She didn`t feel like playing games right now.

"... Oh. Alright. Thank you, Miss-" "Just call me Sarah," the older woman clarified.

"Right. Is there anything you`d like me to tell him?" Marry asked, still smiling so falsely that it finally threatened to drive Obscura right over the edge.

"No. But I do have something I`d like to tell you," she finally said, dropping the formalities even more while walking towards the door, making it a point to pass the younger woman by as closely as possible, even if Marry seemed to shrink back instantly as a result.

"That smile would look a lot better if it were actually sincere," Sarah began, reaching the door and grabbing the knob. "Don`t give up, and hold your head high. There`s always hope," she said, pulling the door opened and giving a half-wave with her free hand before vanishing into the hallway. Whether or not she believed those words, even she didn`t know.

Marry Champ, on the other hand, stayed behind, standing there and staring at the window situated just a few feet behind the desk. The twin moons were glowing in the distance, the city looked more alive to her now than it had in the month or so it had been since her parents had died and for the first time in over a week, an almost alien expression crept onto her face without her knowing it.

Explosions ripped through the once peaceful desert, shattering the evening`s already broken serenity even more than it had been beforehand.

Gold streaked this way and that, the Shadow Fox went flying through the air, head pointed awkwardly at the ground before it righted itself independently of its pilot, just as the Black Blade Liger crashed to the ground on all four feet, skidding and twisting this way and that while energy pooled up where the claw had struck its left blade.

More shots rang out, the Fox`s dual impact cannon rattled from firing, but both shots were blown out of the air almost as soon as they`d been fired, with a third slug passing through the smoke and smacking the Zoid across one cheek. The paint blurred and armor warped slightly, but the Shadow let out a defiant shriek, almost echoed with its pilots actions. Smoke would`ve obscured the target for almost any other non-canine Zoid, but it was almost like looking through clear glass for the Shadow Fox.

The barrel whirled and six pulse lasers screamed to life, tearing through the cloud between the two Zoids at the speed of light, but still missing their target all the same. Rayth had dodged by precious seconds, escaping the attack before it had even been made by jumping up, his booster springing into action once again while the Black Blade`s shield blurred into existence with a dull hum.

Like a mortar round, the smaller Zoid continued up into the air for all of a split second before coming right back down, but the Shadow Fox wasn`t waiting for it.

It was easily true that Marcus Harlock was seriously lacking in experience. Most of his victories came either with the help of someone else or from dumb luck, but what he didn`t have in terms of experience, he made up for with determination, ingenuity and raw talent.

And unlike Kyle Mazemia, he was being fueled by a potent mixture of grief, a fifth or sixth wind caused by his own exhaustion and a very blatant lack of self-preservation, among other things. His Zoid was also in better shape than a mortally wounded animal that was gagging on its own blood. As Rayth Takahori, or what was left of him, was finding out, this was not an opponent to take lightly.

The Blade Liger touched down neatly on both forelegs, booster swiveling around and both hind legs kicking in tune with it, leaving the small Zoid to point directly at the seemingly retreating Shadow Fox, even as the larger Zoid`s tail split open and a single missile launched from inside.

The missile closed to halfway between the two, the Liger roared, the Fox growled, Mark bit into his tongue and the projectile suddenly blew open to reveal a wide electromagnetic net from within, one that promptly draped itself over Rayth`s shield and vaporized, but not before sending a stunning pulse into the Liger`s shield generator, one that promptly knocked it offline for the time being.

The Shadow Fox turned, orange eyes glimmering with something resembling triumph as the smaller Blade Liger growled out in annoyance.

"Give up yet, midget?" Mark finally asked, not even expecting an answer. The Blade Liger`s swords soon began to glow once again, a faint snarl echoing in the quiet of the desert - it wasn`t the same as a witty comeback, but it was all the answer he needed. The Black Liger attacked once again, blazing into a run with blades fully extended to either side, an attack which the Fox replied to by firing off from its laser vulcan gun.

Explosions rocked through the desert, the Blade Liger avoided every attack and continued to close, but the Shadow Fox hopped back on its own at the last second, practically throwing itself right into the smaller Zoid`s path, which was exactly when Mark pulled the other trigger, causing the dual impact cannon to fire into the smaller Zoid`s chin at point blank.

The collision still forced both Zoids from the ground, even through the sudden impact from the explosions at the Blade Liger`s jaw. Claws flew like fists in a bar room brawl as the two rolled along, only to be broken apart by their own momentum after a few more seconds, the smaller Blade Liger going flying while the larger Shadow Fox skidded along on its side and then up to its feet from its own movement.

The Black Blade touched down flawlessly, smoking from the lower jaw, teeth cracked at several places and its armor stained with dirt and dust. The Shadow Fox was still in slightly batter shape, both claws suddenly starting to light up as Mark watched and waited for the next attack.

Three shots rang out, the Shadow Fox rocked off to the side and the Black Blade Liger charged forward again, roaring out a war cry. While the pilot was still reeling from the sudden surprise attack that he felt like an idiot for not expecting, the Zoid itself was swinging into action - literally. The laser vulcan gun swung about to point at the incoming Liger, spinning rapidly and firing off a burst of pulse lasers. The Liger barely dodged the first six shots by hopping over to the side and continuing its run, but a seventh cracked harshly across one of its upper right panels, snapping it off and further ending chances of the shield`s revival.

The two Zoids again closed to point blank, the Shadow Fox rolled over onto its side and lashed out in a last ditch effort to behead the Black Liger, only to have another claw swipe its entire foreleg out of the way at the last second. The two crashed into each other again and rolled along for several seconds, breaking apart once again with the Shadow Fox flying through the air, several gashes across its stomach, three shattered craters on one side and one foreleg dented along the backside.

The Blade Liger sprang up again, both blades still burning brightly as its booster howled to life once more. In a blast of dust and smoke, the Zoid was gone once again, and by the time that Mark had finished recovering enough to do more than bring the Shadow Fox up to its feet -

The larger Zoid slumped after the blade finished passing through the side of its neck, piercing armor in a lightning quick thrust, then severing a few of the nonvital links to the body, temporarily overloading the rest with the energy from the blades and then burning the wound on the way out.

The lights dimmed in the cockpit, and across the monitor, three words that Harlock had never wanted to see or hear appeared.

Rayth`s blades slowly powered back down, folding straight up and back, out of use as the Black Liger started to circle around its newer prey, almost amused.

"Come on, you`re not dead yet, Fox," Mark started to mumble, as if he could somehow force the Zoid back to its feet. It was a futile exercise, when a Zoid experienced a Command System Freeze, it tends to have a similar effect to a judo chop in a James Bond movie - it`s out like a light and won`t be getting up soon enough to do any good.

The Blade Liger carelessly stepped away, wandering out in front of the now helpless Shadow Fox with the grace of a predator that now knew its prey was so helpless, it could just stand there and wait for the perfect moment to strike and crush both the prey`s hope, and the prey`s life.

Then again, Rayth Takahori had never been one for playing around with his food, just because he happened to be the brain of an ancient Zoid now didn`t change that. Three more shots rang through the air, the unconscious Shadow Fox shrieked in pain as one cheek and ear were born scorched and bent out of whack, threatening to break off outright, cockpit glass promptly cracking on Mark`s left as he continued trying to bring the Zoid back up.

And then the ground around the Black Blade Liger blew apart in four dual explosions, four on each side, before the smaller Zoid, briefly caught off guard enough that its reflexes were slowed, took a hit from a certain low flying Zabat, the aerial Zoid`s heavy feet acting like a pair of heavily armored baseball bats as they smacked into the shoulders of the Liger and threw it right off of its feet.

The Zabat swooped back up like a glider, both wings outlined in the evening by their own eerie glowing as the Blade Liger flipped itself upright and landed with a skid, now bearing a pair of visible cracked dents across either shoulder, head turning to glare up at the second interruption of the evening.

"You alright, newb?" Pierce asked rather nonchalantly, bringing the Zabat up and around for another pass as Mark breathed a sigh of relief. It was all the answer she needed, and all the answer she was going to get since he was too busy trying to reboot the Shadow Fox`s Command System to bother with a witty retort.

The Black Blade Liger roared its displeasure at the newest arrival, glaring death up at where Pierce had flown to, easily out of range of the blades and claws, and since the smaller Zoid couldn`t exactly tilt its only ranged gun to point up at the skies, out of range of the triple impact cannon as well.

The Zabat banked hard, coming around for another pass with both guns blazing. Rayth was ready this time, though, holding his ground with a feral growl as explosions threatened to tear his Zoid to pieces. Pierce was a good pilot, that much was pretty obvious, but even the best pilots had a tendency to underestimate opponents if they were coming out of what looked like hard-fought battles, and this was no different.

Explosions bit and clawed at the sides and back of the Black Liger, still it held its ground. The Zabat came ever closer and -

- promptly had its guts ripped out as the Black Blade Liger`s swords tilted straight up. Pierce let out a disgruntled yell as the Zabat shuddered, seeming to go into slow motion as the blades plowed through armoring around the base of its neck, slicing through the rest of the body with little trouble and splitting the feet right in half from the ankles down to the soles, causing the fresh wounds to explode in a hail of sparks and fire, just as the cockpit blew open and a familiar, green haired women went flying out, her parachute deploying at low altitude.

"I lose more Zoids that way," she mumbled out, obviously referencing her bad luck when it came to saving or fighting with Ligers - Blade Ligers in particular.

Realization dawned upon her, however, that as her Zoid crashed and burned not too far away, she and Mark were now completely defenseless, left to the mercy of an opponent that had just crushed both of them with ease.

An ungloved hand softly laid down upon the smoking, charred glass that had formed in one of countless craters.

[Explosions sounded across the city, a black silhouette only vaguely apparent in the distance.]

It was warm to the touch, warm enough that, had he arrived a few minutes to an hour earlier, he gambled that he would`ve been able to try and stop what had happened, or at least spot the actual perpetrator.

[Steps thundered closer, the ground rattled and a dozen or so already beaten Zoids rushed into action. A Heldigunner, several Pterases, two or three Command Wolves, an Aro Saurer, a Gojulas Gunner and a Shield Liger. Against normal opposition, they would`ve seemed an almost invincible team, able to strike from the sky, face to face or even from beneath an enemy`s feet. Against the foe they were trying to take on?]

Almost softly, his fingers traced circles through the burnt, ashy dirt and glass, somehow avoiding being pricked or cut in the process.

[Gunshots rang out, loud enough to overshadow the sounds of the titan`s footsteps. In unison, two of the four Pterases went down, both of them tearing apart from only one or two actual impacts, the remainder of their bodies shredding from the wind sheer of the rest. The other two went down not long after, one getting caught in the path of one of the larger guns as it fired, the other getting caught by an anti-air missile ramming into its throat.]

The Geno Breaker rumbled in agreement, blue optics dimmed slightly as it regarded the hellish area.

[The Gojulas went down next, caught right in the path of one of the battleship Zoid`s dozen or so cutting lasers. The beam plowed straight through the cockpit glass and tore through the Gojulas` head, the pilot was probably lucky that he had been vaporized from the stomach up instantly. The Aro Saurer had the misfortune of being near the line of fire at the same time, and as a result, was cleanly sliced in half along the line of the cockpit.]

"... Too bad we couldn`t help," he sighed idly, finally standing up and pulling his glove back on. Bodies littered the ground in several places, most all of them burnt or mutilated by debris, fire or some other after effect of a massacre. Men, women, children, the eldery, family pets...

"Yes ma`am," a lieutenant answered hastily. "We`ve had several escapees though."

There had been no mercy, probably only scarce survivors, none of whom he could actually try and help.

[The battleship Zoid`s neck bent forward slowly, leaving all twelve of the gigantic cannons - stacked with six mounted on either side in rows of three - to level onto the city, each barrel starting to spark from within as power built up.]

"Any suggestions?" He asked, blithely turning to look at the Zoid standing behind him, only to recieve the equivelent of a shrug. It had been the Breaker`s idea to come here in the first place.

[The Command Wolves shrieked and died, one eviscerated by defensive machine guns, the others sliced in half and beheaded with two swift passes from a pair of lasers. It didn`t matter.]

He nodded, reaching up and tugging at the collar still wrapped uncomfortably around his neck.

"Let`s go then. We probably wouldn`t have been welcomed here even if these people weren`t dead."

The Geno Breaker rumbled its reply with what seemed similar to remorse. Its chest soon flipped open a moment or two later, the cockpit chair and part of the console extending down with it as Bill Chapman stepped forward.

Once it had extended in full, he climbed onto it, briefly pausing to fit his safety harness into place. With the ground becoming increasingly distant as the chair began to recede back into the cockpit, and by default, the chest of the Breaker, his neon blue eyes narrowed heavily with stress and sleep deprivation, not to mention hunger.

"I`m sorry we couldn`t help. Rest in peace," he offered to the countless bodies, craters and burnt piles of debris that lay across the ground. The heavy chest plate of the Breaker slammed and clamped shut not long after, and the real light of the moon - barely able to pierce the thick clouds of black smoke above - soon gave way to the sterile, false light of the cockpit.

The Zoid turned a step, then launched off of the ground in a furious, rocket-propelled jump, its next destination already planned out.

Death approached on four legs, each of them black with golden, clawed feet. It had the form of a lion and a tiger at once, combined with the unstable look of numerous smaller wounds, some of them smoking, others simply visible upon its body with no added effects. For Pierce Summers, on any other night, it probably wouldn`t`ve been terrifying in the least, but right now?

She had no Zoid. Her would-be future brother-in-law was still trying to pull the Shadow Fox out of a seemingly comatose stupor and any reasonably effective back-up was probably miles away. Her Zabat was burning to bits in the distance and her Storm Sworder was still shot from injuries taken during the battle with the Geno Breaker. All she could do, logically, was stand there and calmly proceed to undo the straps of her parachute.

Most people would`ve been trembling in fear, having come to the realization that they were about to die in some hideous, quick and maybe also painful way. Over the past months, Pierce had gone through no less than three or four battles where she`d almost been killed, and on top of that, most of her battles as a member of the Backdraft Group, both in training and afterward, had been relatively life-or-death situations.

To be particularly blunt about it, Pierce no longer really gave much of a shit either way.

"How`s the Fox comin`, newbie?" She shouted up over her shoulder, knowing full well that Mark was probably freaking out so badly that he wouldn`t have been able to reply with more than an annoyed yell - at best.

As it stood, the Fox merely growled dimly as the cockpit flipped open, revealing her would-be in-law in all of his foul mouthed, obnoxious, quasi-maniacal glory.

"Your luck can`t pull you through everything," Pierce shrugged, undoing the last shoulder strap as the Black Blade Liger continued to close in. At this point, she was just ignoring the steady tide of her own imminent demise.

"You haven`t learned a thing, huh?" She asked, calmly leaving the parachute straps to fall to the dirt without a sound. The Liger kept approaching, both blades folding back down towards the rear, its movements flowing like the vivid, harsh death they promised.

Silence. The younger of the two finally stopped glaring daggers into the console and looked away, eyes shifting onto the woman`s defiant form, her hands still hanging limp at her sides and her brows still furrowed in annoyance.

The Black Blade Liger cut the conversation short, leaping into the air with one claw drawn back...

If he had been hurting before, the world felt like it was defined by the word pain now.

"Punted through a city and shot to shit in one night... Can`t a guy get some respect?"

The bloody wounds across his arms and shoulders howled a definate negative in response. He could barely even feel anything else, his face had gone completely numb and one of his eyes was either swollen or winced shut too tightly to open, that or he was blind there. That couldn`t be too good...

A second ticked by as his vision, completely obscured to shades of red and black, managed to clear to the point that he could actually see with his other eye. Not that it did him much good, all he could make out were-

Time stopped in that instant as the Ivory Blade Liger jolted from recoil. Heartbeats were skipped threefold, the Black Blade Liger seemed to hang in mid-air for an eternity and Rayth - or what was left of him - uttered out a foul curse in what remained of his human mind.

Time moved on. The Black Blade`s momentum altered in a single metal-shattering pair of explosions, sending the smaller Zoid corkscrewing through the air at a right angle compared to its previous orientation. Pierce lurched forward as the shockwave blew her hair down and threatened to knock her off her feet, Mark seemed to rock back into his seat with a howling cackle befitting the lunatic that he could often be and Kyle Mazemia, drenched in his own caked up, burnt blood, grit his teeth together so hard that it rattled his own skull.

Almost in stubborn reply, the Black Blade Liger stood up, rolling onto its belly and springing onto its feet.

Barreling forward like a freight train from Hell, the Ivory Blade Liger`s booster screamed to life one last time with such force that a shockwave ringed from the thrusters, forcing the booster to pull the larger Zoid along rather than trying to push it. At the same time, the blade that had so stubbornly refused to slip down into position earlier on swung forward, and by the end of the next five seconds-

Cockpit glass shattered, the smaller Zoid tore from the ground in a flailing cry of pain, trying to sink its teeth and claws into anything it could in vain, unable to even strike at the blatantly exposed cockpit of the larger Blade Liger. In an instant, not only had the glass shattered to bits around the tip of that blade, what remained of Rayth Takahori`s mutilated body had been impaled with such force that his head was severed right into the barrel of one blaster.

Of its own accord, or perhaps because of the sheer emotional outrage of its pilot, the Liger did the rest. The blaster with Rayth`s burnt head in it promptly tore to life, single barrel flashing white hot within as bolt after bolt of super heated plasma exploded into the Black Liger`s body. The blade had already torn straight through its neck, but the blaster and the collision combined for the real damage.

The Ivory Blade Liger toppled over onto its chin, Kyle jerked forward, hard to the right since his harness had been torn loose at that strap, leaving shallow cuts in his clothing and skin, as well as bruising. The impact jarred the Black Liger loose, flying backwards for a hundred more feet on all fours, skidding the entire way before it came to a stop.

After that, a pillar of white light exploded as its Zoid core went critical and gave out, ripping the creature into two pieces, both of which had fossilized by the time they hit the ground.

Rayth was dead this time. With that knowledge in mind, Kyle passed out, smiling.

Half a continent or more away, a black Organoid who had so long put its past behind it suddenly jerked upright, its blood stained fangs shimmering briefly in the light of another explosion. The death pangs of its only surviving, original bondmate were strong, almost harsh in a way, screaming to him in ways that could scarcely be comprehended by anything but an Ancient Zoidian.

The Organoid straightened up, dark and expressionless crystal blue optics shifting towards the nearby human, the only organic sentient still standing in the town. Bodies and pieces of them littered the ground, blood had literally pooled to almost an inch deep, the Maxis stood not far away, half a car being shredded to bits in its vile jaws.

"Therein lies the difference, Shadow," Kale began to explain, walking forward with a lazy swagger born out of more factors than could be counted. "I was only upset because I wasn`t the one who killed Beck. Who`s Kierda?" He asked, standing right in front of the black Organoid without fear or care, an equal in the massacre that had just played out.

Author`s Note: Well, all things considered, I do believe this makes up for some of the Kyle Abuse, don`t you think so? If the Rayth-Kyle battle left you scratching your head about what kind of background there was(assuming you couldn`t piece it together as it was), don`t worry. I`ll either explain how it all works out in a future scene or I`ll have to show it in a sidestory of some kind(I may already have to write one or two of them as is).

Oh, and intentionally-delayed kudos to EA for having figured out that yes, Rayth could have escaped back when Kale was fragging Garnhelm, though as you can tell, he didn`t dislocate his wrist to do it.

And yes, it was intentional, the Black Blade Liger that Rayth was using and its original pilot are Shadow`s original bondmates. And yes, the original pilot did look eerily similar to the Katherine, she also had somewhat of a similar attitude. I wanted to mention that her corpse was still in the front seat of the BBL but... Eh...

Oh, and how was the scene with Marry in it? I have plans for her, but so far she`s been a bit of a bitch to write...

The Big Fisch: Yes, Beck went out with a bang. Literally :P And yes, Kale`s vacation is officially over, and as you can see, Rayth wasn`t alive much longer >_>;

Illidan: Well, here`s hoping I can stay over it, yes? The chapter rate might`ve slowed down, but the quality does seem to have gone way up as a result.

Nyx: I was just trying to show that Kyle wasn`t exactly in a good state of mind :p Glad you`re enjoyin` the story so far :]

Four chapters to go `til the end, folks! Here`s hoping I can keep up the insane level of length per chapter...

Reign of Chaos by Sh33p

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36

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Reign of Chaos

Chapter 32

Medley of the Damned