Drabble. Useless and nothing more. (yeah i know, complete crap, but thanks for reading anyways) A short look into the Liger Zero's thoughts/feelings before and while meeting up with Bit.

As always, I OWN NOTHING!!!

Enjoy…

I am.

I am a machine.

I am a so-called sentient being.

I am composed of no more than metal armor and steel wire wrapped around an inextinguishable power source- the very core of my being.

I am.

I am power.

I am strength.

A limitless potential that few know of, that fewer are given the honor of possessing. I stand, with the strength of my paws, limitless within its entirety, a supremacy that is absolute- unchanging, definitive.

I am everything any Zoid could ever wish to be.

But I am alone.

I hate this place.

I hate it with a passion none of my kind ever disserves to know. This young man, this shield liger pilot, he hates me, me, a machine, too stubborn to accept a pilot, too proud to present any with the gift that is my power. He hates that I sit here, wasting space as I collect dust, seething as ever a man who cannot use what is provided. Despising one, one who is his father, for trading- selling nearly everything that he owns for a useless, untouchable heap- me. I am alone.

I remember now, as I sit here collecting dust, wasting space, of a time I was free. I remember running across fields so vast they held no end, lurking through forests so ancient they held no beginning, no end. Hiding within a desert so desolate, so isolated, wild within its trackless wastes it seamed to go on forever. Even then I was alone, I, with the world around me, with no beginning, with no human, with no end to fill the emptiness of seclusion.

Even as I stand, a machine with the complex of thought, we as Zoids are alive unchanging as ever while the world flows about us, even the earth must yield to the thundering force of the river.

Yet can I, a sentient being; composed of over a thousand intricate moving parts, bare the spark- the very essence that is life? Can a being so intricate, so complex, step over this line- that which is the very definition of what is and is not alive. Can I, a machine, something so simple, yet so complex, bare the burden of madness? Can a machine truly be mad? Can I be mad?

I am mad. Oh how I am mad. Standing here- an eternity- forever- alone. Pain, lances through, as real to me as any other living creature, and yet they do not think I- we as Zoids- capable of pain, physical pain- of hurting. But sadness and isolation, they exist even for us, even for those who are incapable of individual thought, freewill and movement.

Something burns inside of me. It is strength, it is knowledge, a deep rooted hidden potential… Something that very few can see, and even fewer can understand.

Its different, today, but I don't know what. He appears though the bases gloom, staring in wonder. And I see in him, without really knowing why, a kindred… what? Spirit? Soul? Entity. Yes, that feels right, he is like me, but not. That same burning passion- hidden power, it flows through him like it flows through me. A life-force, like blood, that pounds though the veins: well in my case circuitry. The difference, if any, that exists between us is where I am aware of my power, he is ignorant.

He is found, captured, and ultimately bound. They pass their judgment over him… and finally leave. We are alone, but we are not alone. He is here, and so am I. I move, pulling and straining against every piece of restraining software mounted within my circuitry, to free him. My hatch opens as the ropes fall, an invitation, nothing more. The only question now is what will he choose?

He moves forward, determination I sense from him, and finally courage as he sits while I encase him within my body. A bond is forming, I know it, and I know he knows- if not consciously, than on some baser instinctual level. I move, again pulling against restraints, breaking out in a much less subtle way, as he had broken in.

I can hear- more than that, feel his protest, joy swelling within what should be a heart. A bond is forming, and he is aware. Aware of what I am, of what he is, of what we could be…

I am.

I am a machine.

I am a so-called sentient being.

I am.

I am power.

I am strength.

But I am so much more than this.

Because I am no longer alone.

My inspiration (if it could be called that) came from a book I recently read, Demon Seed…

Tell me what you think…

And remember, flamers burn the cookies that good reviewers get...