Title: Shivering Burning
Fandom: Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce GO!
Characters: Gibson, cameos of others
Genre: Angst
Rating: T
Warnings: Implications of injuries; spoilers for the last episodes as well as other content of the show
Prompt: "a fic on Gibson's perspective of the events of Soul of Evil and Sprx's turning (and/or Nova's emotional breakdown)"

Disclaimer: Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce GO! is not my property, and I don't earn money through this or any of my other fanfics.

Beta'd by ~Writing A Story

Any true scientist will at least ask once in their life the questions that no other dares to ask.

The impossible questions.

The uncomfortable questions.

The frightening questions.

The questions of what could have been – the questions how the present would have changed if events had played out differently

And Gibson is nothing but thorough.

Mind you, he stores any questions he doesn't need for the moment, or can't afford to have him distracted, in the back of his mind for later use. But as soon as time and lack of battles and tests and finished schedules allow it, he pulls these thoughts to the forefront to play with the possible answers inside his head. He ventures into each venue, explores all twists, wanders along any bifurcation with a joy that only the endless possibilities of the universe can bring to an individual.

This isn't such a time. Time is moving forward – working against the Hyperforce, playing the victories into Mandarin and Valina and Sprx's hands. Sprx.

(Is he angry at Sprx, although it wasn't his brother's fault? Was it?)

They are still reeling from his corruption induced by the Fire of Hate. How he attacked them, how he overwhelmed the rest of the team on his own with just his magnets.

It is like Mandarin's betrayal all over again. It's like losing Antauri all over again.

It is like nothing they have ever felt.

The truth about their former leader was that they had sensed his betrayal coming for a long time, although it did nothing to alleviate the pain and grief when he burnt every part of his position and every bond that existed between them. How could they have not? The signs had always been there, starting to blacken his behavior, twist his orders, deform his character until only his ego remained as a pale memory of that monkey.

That monkey that once belonged to them.

However, Mandarin chose that path he went on his own. No magical artifactmade him overbearing, cruel and manipulative. No influence, save his hunger for power, had led him to follow Skeleton King. He chose, he decided, he wanted to betray them and Shuggazoom. They took a long time before they could accept that and move on – when a certain child had already brought them into a breathing, living here and now and they hadn't noticed before.

(Is he grateful in some way to Mandarin for his betrayal that would eventually lead Chiro to them?)

The loss of Antauri hurt in such a different way. He sacrificed himself to seal the Dark Worm's egg. He didn't warn them. He didn't say a word when he levitated towards the edge. He just dropped away, leaving them to watch helplessly as he plummeted into the foul purple pool and died. It wasn't fair they hadn't the time to mourn long – but he was dead, Chiro was alive and needed help. Through the Savage Lands they chased their leader's trail to their old home, the Alchemist's lab, where they witnessed Antauri's revival.

When Antauri then returned to them, changed, soul in a new body, they had to leave back their emotions again in the rush to follow the Dark Worm – not only the remaining grief, but fear if it was really him or dying had killed part of him still.

Fortunately, they learnt soon enough they had indeed regained their friend, just not some metal shell.

(Has he ever had the chance to end his grieving? Or is it still festering in his unconscious mind, bound and unable to escape?

But Sprx?

The Fire of Hate has changed him to betray them. But… Gibson remembers how the pilot argued the futility of their fight against Skeleton, because he would always return when they thought they had defeated or killed him.

They destroyed the Citadel of Bone. It began putting itself back together, and Skeleton King hadn't even died in the explosion.

They lost against the Dark Worm. It didn't leave at full strength thanks to Antauri, and Skeleton King was only a head used to channel the Worm's power, but they still warped a trail of derangement, destruction and death through the universe and on countless planets.

Finally, the team destroyed the Worm, and Antauri cut off the head of Skeleton King – only for Mandarin to return with it.

Now he's on a chase with Valina to restore their master, and Sprx has joined them with his corruption, after he said the Hyperforce would never win-

(Is Sprx maybe right?)

The pain in Gibson's fists distracts him from any further thoughts; he isn't Nova after all. The agony in his chest stays, however. He stares at the dents on his working table – at the scattered notes, books, pens on the surface, on the ground – both dreading anyone could spot him inside his lab in this state, yet wishing for it to happen.

He can't lose control of himself, not now. He needs to calm himself.

If he could just stop his mind working.

At least Sprx isn't dead. But it's doubtful if the Fire hasn't killed who he is all the same and put a different being inside his body.

The jumbled papers under his fingers crinkle and rustle. Gibson draws a shuddering breath. He knows logically it's useless to speculate now, but he still thinks he should have questioned the object's power more after he recoiled from the Ice Crystal's inherent malice he sensed; he should have thought of gloves and tongs and containers for the next artifact, perhaps this wouldn't have happened-

(Would the Ice Crystal of Vengeance have changed him had he caught it?)

Another breath.

Stop being ridiculous. Nothing, absolutely nothing could have warned them that these cursed objects would affect one of their own just by a touch – but they still should have been more careful, vigilant, cautious. After all this time and all those fights, this is a lesson still not learnt, no matter how much they paid for it each time. Now they will maybe never have another chance.

(Is he angry at Sprx that the pilot reprimanded him for not catching the Ice Crystal, while letting the Fire corrupt himself?)

Gibson, stop dallying.

He slams his fists onto the table again as his vision blurs. The pain isn't relieving this time.

He has to concentrate; any mistake from any of the team costs them precious seconds. The unlikely trio rushes ahead, driven to work together only by their shared hatred and goal, yet all the more effective for it. And the team struggles and staggers after them without their best pilot, because even when the Super Robot is able to steer itself, without Sprx they now lack finesse.

Precision. Power. Passion.

(At what point had his friend given up? Had given up these parts of himself?)

His absence has left metaphorical holes in all of them – the worst for Nova, of course, but even Gibson, who often walks more on the rational line, feels himself aching from loss. They are incomplete. They lack. Mandarin's leave never caused such an impact, not even on Otto.

(If his corruption had actually occurred by the Ice Crystal, and after Sprx's by the Fire, would he have sought revenge on the pilot for all the times the red monkey had mocked him, teased him, called him names.

Gibson has to concentrate.

Or would he be fueled by the feeling of betrayal that his brother had given up so easily?)

But these questions span so much wider, ring so much louder, are so much harder to stand as that they could be ignored. They all lead to Sprx, and thinking about him leads to these questions running around as they please, before they return once more to Sprx. It's all about him and yet not, and it hurts to slowly accept step by step what has happened. It hurts so much and Gibson can't stop it.

It spreads from head to feet, pricking in his fingers: burns like ice, burns like fire.

There is no escape.

So when he finally leaves the sanctuary of his lab, when he is piloting Fist Rocket 4, when he is flying, when he is fighting, when he is running, when they carry Chiro out of the Netherworld, when he is scanning his vital signs,

(Will Chiro survive, he cannot die, this is not acceptable, why him, he is only a child, why does it always have to be Chiro, this is NOT ACCEPTABLE, how do you DARE-)

when they confront their foes –no, not Sprx–, when the blue monkey fights with Otto against Mandarin,

(Has Mandarin ever truly cared for Otto or was that a façade too? Gibson won't forgive him either way.)

when their brother, comrade, friend takes their sister, comrade, friend as a hostage, threatening to tear her apart in the air with his magnets as he electrocutes her to the point she starts crying,

(She is crying. Nova is crying. Strong Nova, the strongest of anybody, is crying. Why. How. Why.)

he wonders.

(Is Sprx, somewhere deep down yet unaffected, wondering about these same things?)

Gibson is a scientist at heart. But he is also a living being and his eyes are burning and his heart is clenching in front of these questions and their answers.

(Has the Fire of Hate even left the ashes of his brother's soul?)

Because Gibson is nothing but thorough.