(twelve months later)
Van, Fiona and Irvine were sitting at a cafe catching up on life.
"So I told him he'd have to try a whole lot harder than that!" Irvine concluded his story to Van's laughter.
"You crack me up!" Van cackled.
"So how's business with the Guardian Force?" Irvine asked over his coffee.
Van took a sip of his. "Actually it's been pretty quiet for the last year or so. Now we're mainly doing drill, drill, and more drill." Van took another sip, frowning. "It's getting kind of boring. What about you?"
Irvine lent back in his chair and set about telling Van another of his Great Adventures.
***
While the boys were talking, Fiona was looking out the window at the approaching gustave that was driving rather erraticly. People and vehicles were scattering from it's path.
"Va-an," Fiona tapped his shoulder to get his attention. "Look at that."
The gustave carreened into the side of a building a few doors up from the cafe. Frightened screams filled the air. Van, Fiona and Irvine ran out to see what was going on. Irvine snagged a running boy.
"Go call and ambulance!" He ordered, and the boy nodded and ran to do so.
The gustave opened and a man in a lab coat staggered out, clutching what seemed like a bundle of rags. Van and Fiona ran to help him. He was bleeding from a leg wound.
"Sit down," Van told him, but the man refused.
"Gotta save the child!" The man gasped staggering away from the gustave Van pried the bundle from the man and handed it to Fiona, then supported the man by letting him lean on his shoulder.
"Come on." Van said and dragged the man towards the cover of the cafe. Fiona looked up as there came the sound of approaching air craft. The man made distressed sounds.
"Save the child! Please help me!" He gasped into Van's ear. Irvine also lent his support and they pulled the man into the cafe. Irvine then grabbed the first aid kit the shop owner was holding out and set about tendong the man's wounds on one of the cafe tables.
"Everything will be okay." Van told the man.
Then the gustave exploded as it was bombed by the flying Zoids who then turned and flew off. All the glass from the windows exploded inwards, and the people screamed and tried to duck away from it.
"What the hell?!" Irvine yelped
"They just bombed the gustave!" Fiona said, then looked down at the bundle in her arms, her eyes widening. "Va-an," her voice rose with unease. "come look at this!" She turned to show what was fast asleep in the bundle of cloth.
"Is that a-a baby?" Irvine gaped while tending the man's leg wounds.
"Not one that I've ever seen before." Van said not sure if he should be horrified or not. The baby looked human except that it had a silvery sheen to it's skin. It had dark grayish hair, and looked rather remarkably familiar. The baby snuggled closer to Fiona's chest, which made her blush deep red.
"Oh no, baby," She told it. "I'm not your mommy."
"Please help us," The injured man pleaded. "You must not let Prozen get this child back!"
"Hang on, did you say Prozen?" Van was shocked.
"I thought he was dead!" Irvine was also shocked.
The man shook his head. "No. He has been holed up in his secret base and has been making us research genetic cross breeding. It's horrible! If he were to get his hands on this child then... then his Zoids would become unstoppable!"
Van and Irvine exchanged looks. "We've stopped him before." Van said to the man.
"I know! But what if you were fighting not against a Zoid with a human pilot, but a human Zoid?"
"What do you mean?" Van asked slowly, thinking this man most likely stuck his head rather hard as well.
"This child," The man said, "Is an organoid like none other. It is capable of merging with any Zoid with out the benefit of a pilot because it IS the pilot. It is an organoid with a human soul. The ultimate fighting machine. The power and strength of a Zoid with the passion and soul and mind of a human."
"An ORGANOID?" Van gaped at the man.
"Are there any more of these... children?" Irvine asked the man.
The man flinched. "Not... yet." He said cautiously. "I tried to release the child's sire as well, but..." He hung his head with shame. "I couldn't."
"Can you tell us about this base." Van said, reaching for his come unit to inform Shubaltz of what was going on, glad to have something more than drill to do. "Where it is, what kind of defences it has, blue prints, that kind of thing?"
The man nodded. "Anything I can." He looked out at the wreckage of the gustave that the fire fighters were dealing with. "As you can see, they did not want the child to escape. If it was not to be His, then no one could have it. I just hope they don't think I survived and will change anything I tell you before you get there."
Van nodded.
***
(later that night in their hotel room)
Fiona was giving the baby organoid a bath and thinking at the same time.
"Va-an," Fiona called grabbing the attention of both Van and Irvine. "this baby... Don't you think he looks a lot like Raven?"
Van and Irvine came to peer art the child over her shoulder.
"Yes it does." Van breathed. "So that's where Raven has been. All this time he has been quiet because he's been off making babies."
Back in the bed room behind them, the man cringed as he heard their conversation.
"Well that's better than blowing up bases." Irvine and Van then began making crude comments about Raven and any chance that the joining that created this child was consential or not. The man cringed again.
"Don't say that!" Fiona snapped at them. "Especially infront of the baby!"
Van's com unit crackled to life and he used the opportunity to leave the room to talk to Karl Shubaltz about the situation. Irvine also apologised and backed away. Fiona pulled the baby from the water and wrapped him in towel.
"I wonder what happened to your mother?" Fiona wondered morosely. "You poor, beautiful, little thing, taken from your mother." she cooed down at the child. "don't worry, we'll take care of you."
The baby opened violet-grey eyes and looked up at her with a beautiful smile. Fiona suddenly felt warmth fill her from head to toe. A feeling of absolute trust and understanding and adoration. She beamed down at the baby. "Yes, we will." She told him.
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