Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ Run With Me ❯ Chapter 3

Thanks to everyone who's commented on this fic so far, I appreciate it more than I can say. Anyhow, here's the third part, I'll try to have the fourth up sometime next week, but no promises on that one. I've got pre-final-finals all next week...the joys of higher education...>_<

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or any other Zoids characters, much to my sorrow. ^^;;

Anyhow, feedback is greatly appreciated!

//Italics// is mind speech...(>_<)

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Run With Me - Part 3

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Brad spent that night alone on the shores of the lake. He spent the night watching the stars and trying to sort out everything he'd heard, everything he'd learned since waking up under that tree. He felt his mind begin to balance out, felt that familiar layer of carefully crafted casual indifference wrap around him once again like a comforting cloak.

He forced his fear and frustration away from him to a place where he could study it in the hopes of understanding and overcoming it. He dove deep into himself, seeking the answers to the questions he hadn't known he'd asked. Answers to questions he hadn't found the words to ask. He sank back into that comfortable place where nothing could touch him if he didn't want it to.

He watched the moons set and the sun rise. He knew the moment when the night birds left off and the morning songbirds took up, their sweet melody filling the air. He knew when the morning sun burned the dew away. He knew when the first breeze rippled across the lake, marring the smooth perfection.

And he knew when the tiger reappeared beside him.

//Do you hear it?//

Cocking his head, Brad pricked his ears forward.

//Hear what?//

The tiger stretched out beside him, flexing its claws.

//They're calling for you, Brad. Can't you hear them?//

Straining to hear, Brad caught it...the faint sound of half-familiar voices calling his name. He could hear pain and misery in those voices. Sorrow, and a deep aching sense of loss. He could see their tears, both shed and unshed in his mind's eye.

//Who?//

Laying its head down on its paws, the tiger watched the lake as the wind played across the surface.

//The ones you would die to protect. They're calling you.//

Closing his eyes, Brad swallowed against the knot of raw emotion that clogged his throat. It burned in a way that nothing else could. He had felt those people's pain as though it were his own. Seen the anguish in their eyes. And he knew it was for him. All for him.

//Why can't I remember?//

//Because you don't want to remember, Brad. Because it's safer living in a dream world than it is to face reality.//

Snorting, Brad mirrored the tiger's pose, blue eyes sagging shut as though they were too heavy to keep open any longer.

//You sound like someone I know.//

//Really? Who?//

Slitting open one eye in annoyance, Brad growled softly in warning. The tiger seemed to delight in teasing him.

//You remind me of...//

Brad trailed off as he realized that he couldn't put a name to the fragment of memory that had come to him. It had been there at the forefront of his mind, but the moment he'd consciously reached for it, it had flitted just out of reach.

//I...can't remember.//

Lifting its head, the tiger angled a look at him, green eyes sympathetic.

//You will, if you want to.//

Baring his fangs, Brad got to his feet, heading towards the lake.

//Is that all you ever do? Offer me cryptic words of advice and speak in riddles?//

Brad's eyes narrowed as the tiger's mental laughter filled his mind, sweet and rich, like honeyed milk. It wrapped around his thoughts, slipping past his guard until it reached the very center of his being.

//I don't know...you called me to you.//

That stopped him in his tracks.

//What?//

The tiger rolled onto its back, leaving its soft underbelly vulnerable to attack as well as the warm rays of the sun. Seeing it, Brad recognized it for what it was. Absolute trust. Something that was rare as any precious stone to someone like him who'd never known it.

And he was wary of it. Fearing some hidden price tag that he wasn't ready or willing to pay, but would have to in the end.

//You called to me, Brad. Brought me from where I was to where you were. You might not have been aware of it at the time, but you called to me.//

Brad stared at the tiger.

//Does that mean you're stuck here?//

One green eye pinned Brad where he stood.

//This is the Dreamscape, Brad. The only way to be 'stuck here' would be if I was to lose myself, and I have a very firm grip of who I am. You, on the other hand...that's a different matter entirely.//

//But last night you said - //

//That I'm only as real as you want me to be? That's still the truth, Brad.//

Growling as the last of his patience was being worn away, Brad spun and plunged into the lake, wincing as the cold water it his skin. He stood in water that reached to the top of his shoulders, feeling the mud that still clung to his fur soften and fall away.

//Talking to you makes my head hurt.//

The tiger laughed again, wriggling a little to get at the itch on its back that it just couldn't reach.

//You should know by now that nothing is ever what it seems. You've begun to take far too many things for granted lately, Brad. Assuming things that you shouldn't.//

Ducking his head underwater, Brad came back up spluttering and snorting water from his nostrils. Shaking his head to get the water out of his ears, he began wading back to shore, blue eyes locking with the tiger's own green.

//And what, pray tell, might those things be?//

The tiger rolled back onto its stomach, head resting on its paws once more, tail twitching. Blue eyes narrowed at the sight, Brad shook the water from his fur, a wicked gleam in his eye as the tiger bared its fangs at him in annoyance as crystalline droplets struck the tiger's fur.

//I can't tell you, Brad. You need to figure that out for yourself.//

Brad's snarl faded out before it had even begun, as he flopped bonelessly down beside the tiger, stretching his neck out a little to as the sun beat down on them.

//You really do remind me of him. All secrets, mysteries, and glib replies.//

The tiger purred, green eyes slitting.

//He sounds like an interesting person.//

Flicking an ear, Brad leaned against he tiger's warm mass as a cool breeze ruffled his wet fur, sending a chill through him.

//He is. And annoying, rude, stubborn, idiotic, dense...there aren't enough words to describe him, really.//

//How...sweet.//

Regarding the tiger out of the corner of his eye, Bad couldn't help but feel a twinge of amusement at the look in the tiger's eyes. It looked almost...affronted?

//You'd have to meet him to understand.//

//Ah.//

Brad smiled to himself at the tiger's mental tone of voice. Dubious and still more than a little insulted. He didn't even notice when the sun's warmth began to lull them both to sleep.

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Brad woke with a start, eyes wide, ears swiveling to catch that faint sound that had jolted him from his sleep. Beside him the tiger slumbered on, oblivious to the distressed cries Brad had heard. Getting to his feet, Brad glanced around to see that the sun had started to set, the wind dying down until the lake was once again glass-smooth.

Moving a few feet away for the water's edge to hear better, Brad's ears flattened against his skull as he heard it again. Those same familiar voices calling him, cursing him. Pleading with him. In his mind's eye, he could see the shadowy forms of their faces, catch fleeting glimpses of their eyes.

There was one thing Brad had learned early on in life, and that was always watch your opponent's eyes. It wouldn't matter how accomplished at lying they were, the eyes would always give them away in some way. Either by blinking too much, or too little. By darting about frantically. A shift to the right, to the left. It was the small things like that that he'd learned to look for.

And he could read the intent in another person's eyes like he could read the text in a book. It was all a matter of interpretation.

That was where the true skill lay. Anyone could see what he did in an opponent's eyes, but they wouldn't know what the signs were if they weren't looking for them. Wouldn't know the warning markers without understanding what they meant. It was a skill that he had refined to an art, until it was second nature to him. And it had kept him alive.

So it was only natural that Brad had learned to recognize people on their eyes alone. Eyes, like fingerprints and snowflakes were unique.

He felt a flare of panic as he realized that a familiar face, familiar eyes, were missing from the shadowy image he saw in his mind's eye. The only eyes that had ever held any power of him were gone. Nowhere to be seen.

//Brad.//

Turning, Brad found the tiger watching him intently.

//Are you ready to remember yet? Ready to go home?//

Brad backed away from the tiger as it advanced on him, slowly, step by step. Its green, green eyes never leaving his.

//You can't stay here forever, Brad. No human is meant to. This is not the way humans were meant to live.//

//I'm afraid.//

The tiger stopped, staring at Brad, some indefinable emotion flickering in the back of its eyes.

//Why are you afraid?//

Ducking his head, Brad clenched his eyes shut.

//Because of what I can remember. I remember pain, and suffering, and more pain. I don't want to go back to that!//

//Is that really all you remember, Brad? Don't you remember anything but the pain?//

Flinching as he felt a the tiger's mental sigh wash over him, Brad brought his head up to meet the tiger's gaze evenly.

//Why are you here? You don't belong here, anymore than I do. I can feel it.//

The tiger's green eyes narrowed, ears going back.

//I'm here because you called me to you, Brad.//

//No! That's not the only reason, I can see it in your eyes. Why are you here?//

Turning to gaze out over the lake, the tiger remained silent for a long time, the only sound that of the waves lapping at the rocky shore and the musical twittering of songbirds.

//Because I want to be here, Brad. Because you called to me...and I came. Because you needed me.//

Bristling at the implication that he needed anyone, Brad pawed at smooth pebbles beneath his feet, lining the lakeshore, a low growl escaping his throat.

//Who are you?//

Looking over at him, the tiger seemed to smile.

//Name me, and I'm yours. Body, mind, and soul.//

As before, the words sent a shiver through him. Made him feel something he could barely understand, but desperately wanted to. Snarling, Brad looked away first, unable to meet the tiger's eyes.

//I don't understand you.// He admitted, feeling strangely hollow and empty inside. Feeling as though he was missing some integral part of himself. Feeling as though...as though he were broken, with no hope of being fixed.

He heard the soft scrape and slide of rocks shifting as the tiger moved to his side, glimpsed movement from the corner of his eye, but made to move.

//Run with me, Brad. Run with me.//

It took a moment for those words to sink into his mind, into his body. A moment for them to work their magic. A moment, and then they ran.

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To be continued...

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