Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids.

Foreword: To any major Leena fans in general, this is not meant as inflamatory, parts of this are meant to be different and to try and break the fan-crafted mold of her character from the point-of-view of another member of the Zoids/0 cast.

Silver Lining


There`s a silver lining to every cloud, ya see.

My cloud is the chase I committed myself to the day I stole my uncle`s garbage truck and fled from my home in the Wind Colony at the age of fourteen.

My chase is the one chase I felt I was born for, and it`s the one chase that I hope I never complete.

Why?

Because if I complete it, then what?

If you`re a hero and you complete a quest that`s the only thing that matters to you, do you accept that fact or do you keep driving after it, not believing what you`ve done or trying to change it into something else?

That`s my dilemma here. You see, over the past two months I`ve been realizing my dream, carrying out the chase with the only partner I feel I can truly put my trust in.

Over the past two months, I`ve joined the pursuit and completed it, I succeeded in getting from the edge of the hurricane to the silver lining of it`s eye.

My chase should be over.

But you know what?

It`s not. It just got a bit more glorified but my chase isn`t over.

It never will be.

My name is Bit Cloud, I live for the chase.

The chase is my first love, my only love and it`s only going to end if I die.

But the chase is already over, if you ask some people...

Vega Obscura and Leon Tauros understand though, they`re in it for the chase too.

Leon is in it for the wrong reasons though, Vega`s in it because he doesn`t know any better.

You don`t enter the chase because you want to spite fate, you don`t enter it to become someone they talk about in history books like a god.

You enter this chase because your heart calls you to.

That`s why I`m in it anyway, but maybe for them their hearts just call differently. I don`t know.

I kinda don`t like my team mates because of that though. None of them are in it for the chase.

Leena`s in it for glory, Brad just wants money and Jamie wants to follow in his father`s footsteps.

Me?

I don`t care about any of that. Sure, I used to care about the glory and the money, but my parents were farmers so I didn`t really have any point in following their footsteps.

Nah, this here farmboy had himself an epiphany when he fought through two of the hardest battles he`d ever seen.

Remind me not to talk in the third person again...

Anyway, my epiphany was something that should`ve been blaringly obvious to me all along: None of that matters.

All that matters is the calling of my heart and that`s calling me on the long path of the chase.

The chase is what I live for.

I`m chasing for the other silver lining now, you know...

No, not the one on the opposite side of the serenity of the eye of the hurricane.

The silver lining up in the heavens, the lining rimming every star in the night sky.

My chase is going to lead me to my own star some day, just wait.

But about that epiphany...

That`s why I gave all the prize money I had to the Doc.

Yeah, I willingly went from rich boy back to the farmboy-turned-Zoid warrior I was meant to be.

Brad thinks I`m an idiot, Jamie thinks I`m insane and Leena thinks I`m some selfless stud.

Bah.

No, not bah...

What`s a better word?

... Eh... Forget it. Anyway...

Brad may think I`m an idiot but I`m a pro at reading people, they all think I`m dumb but I`m probably smarter than the Doc. Know why he thinks I`m an idiot? Brad grew up poor, I can smell the poverty on him, and now that he`s beginning to fall for Naomi it`s driving him up the wall that he hasn`t finished paying off his old debts or anything else.

Jamie thinks I`m insane because I`m the simplest person he knows but I`m still at least as smart as he is. He see`s through me, I`m sure, but I know the real reason he`s in these battles now. Sure, he may say it`s to live up to his dad`s expectations but truthfully he`s doing this to try and passify his own demons. He calls me insane but he`s the real lunatic, and Zoid battling is his only outlet for his aggressions.

Leena?

Leena`s just a psychopathic user. Oh, yeah, call me mean, call me an ass, call me what you will but it`s the truth. She uses her beauty to play off of Harry, she tries it on Jamie and me both sometimes and if not for the ice-king treatment Brad gives her she`d probably try it on him too. Her dad too, Doc is completely brainwashed by the way she gives him these big puppydog eyes when she wants something.

But why do I call her a user? Really?

In specific, it`s not because of most of the reasons I just said, it`s because of what she does to Harry. Harry is a guy I have sympathy for, his chase is even harder than mine because Leena just uses him liberally and even tries to use him to get to me. She`s pretty immature, beautiful and spoiled.

Did I mention she`s an absolute psychopath when it comes to fighting?

Oh, right... You`re probably too busy frothing at the mouth that I`ve just bashed Little Miss Innocent Perfectly Vulnerable Beauty Queen to see the fact I`m telling the truth, nevermind.

Romance? Feh. Money? Blah. Retirement? NO WAY!

The only thing I live for is the chase.

One day I`ll get to that silver lining, no matter how many times I have to make it jump to a higher, harder-to-reach goalpost. I don`t care how hard I have to push it to make it push me, the day I grab a hold of that gleaming silver finishing line, that`s the day I`ll be at peace.

That`s the day I`ll be okay with dying.

Yanno, there`s a saying in my family, real old, not sure who came up with it first but I guess for me it rings pretty true...

"Every Cloud has a silver lining."

And until I`m happy with mine, I`ll keep chasing it down and polishing it off.

And in the end, I guess that`s all I have.

But it`s also all I need.




Author`s Note: The parts involving Leena in this fic were not meant as character bashing, they were meant as an author`s interpretation on the true relationship between two characters from an anime. In short, I felt it was time for something different from the caring, nice way she`s often shown, because in the series she was effectively a brutal, greedy, self interested girl who was willing to open fire repeatedly on her own team mates and a guy who was willing to die to protect her.

Blame my disposition to Bulma/Vegeta syndrome.

That`s all for now though, leave a review if you would and I hope you enjoyed this different take on the personality, thoughts and dreams of Bit Cloud.

Sh33p out.