Zoids: Chaotic Century Graphic Novel Volume 14

The Eve of Zoids

Van initially muscles up to Donnie Chen, thinking that he is Raven. However, close inspection reveals they are different people. Raven's marking was on the other side of his face to Don Chen. He tells Van that his family had lived in the flying castle for generations, and they had looked after its "truth". Passing the tests had given Van the right to learn this truth about the Zoid Eve.

A mysterious voice calls out to them. It was none other than Horai. Unlike Wendeen or Oluga, Horai could talk to people directly. The group head to the core of Horai to converse with Horai itself. What greets the group takes the all by surprise, a relaxed "gal" happily joyously them.

Van immediately points out that Horai was nothing like Wendeen or Oluga, to which she replies "Wendy" and "Ollie" were just kids acting mysterious because they hadn't spoken in a couple centuries.

As they skip the formalities, they get back onto the topic of the Zoid Eve. Horai explains that the Zoid Eve is the progenitor of all Zoids. The oldest and most powerful Zoid, it was the "mother" of all Zoids.

When asked if they could meet the Zoid Eve, Horai mentions that she "hasn't got the foggiest". The Zoid Eve hadn't spoken to her in over 300 years. She tells them that clues could be found, and some had already been witnessed by the group. The great terror that powered up the Death Stinger was related to the Zoid Eve. Donnie tells Van that Prozen planned to use "D" to unleash destruction across the world, and that they wanted Van to help stop him.

Van wondered why it was his job to stop Prozen. Donnie replied that if the republic did anything, it would cause world war, and that Van (who passed the tests) was also "destined" to do so. Donnie reveals that someone named Joyce Chen was playing the pivotal role in Prozen's plan. He explains that most know Joyce by his alias: Raven.

Donnie explains that Raven is his twin brother.

As they talk, Raven's actions are briefly shown. Fighting the Prozen Knights, Raven used a Berserk Fury to take on a custom Iron Kong and Geno Breaker. Yet, true to his last words with Van, he didn't kill his opponents.

Crossing Destinies

The story continues to focus on Raven, revealing he had been participating in these battles for three months. The results were seen in his new Zoid, the Berserk Fury Shadow Edge. Raven, however, was not impressed. He was only waiting for his battle with Van, the Zoid given to him was of little concern. Then Raven was given the news - they had found Van, and that Van was waiting for Raven at Alca Canyon.

Some time later at Alca, Irvine was testing out his Stealth Dragon with flight armor. They were testing it's flight capacity, noting that its maximum speed should be faster than the record held by Herman's S4. However, before they could test this claim, a charged particle cannon blasted through the air, narrowly missing Irvine. The shot came from beyond the horizon, around 150km away. Since Tornado didn't show up on Radar, the aggressor was revealed to be aiming on instinct alone.

Knowing this could be nobody other than Raven, Irvine "invites" him back to Horai, waiting nearby with Fiona on board. Fiona boldly asks Raven a question, asking why he hated Zoids so much. She asks if it was something to do with his family. Raven is struck by flashback, but responds that his past didn't matter anymore. Yet Fiona persists, citing Raven's true name as Joyce Chen, and saying that he was 15 years old. His father was Ivan, his mother Valerie, and an elder sister Silvia. When Raven and Donnie were born, Donnie was adopted by their childless uncle Daniel Chen. 5 years ago, there was a problem at the Alaratte Mountain Observatory. When Donnie and the others arrived, the observatory was in ruins, Raven's family was dead, along with the body of a single Zoid.

As Fiona continues her recollection, Raven frantically tells her to shut up - but Fiona continues. She says that the investigation concluded an out of control Zoid had caused the accident, and that Raven's hatred of Zoids likely came from that event. Yet she didn't stop there, she asked if "something more" had happened. Something Raven didn't want to remember. But as Raven refused to remember his past, Van made his appearance. Van tells Raven to grow up. He knew it was hard to lose family, but while Raven was running from his past, he had slain countless Zoids in the process. Immediately, Van and Raven begin their battle.

Van's new Zoid is revealed, one strong enough to combat the Berserk Fury Shadow Edge given to Raven. This was Liger Zero Caesar the King.

Van dramatically punches Raven

Soul's Clenched Fist

The story descends into flashback as Raven's past is revealed. The flashback starts with Silvia asking which dress to wear for the inspection coming up. Joyce (Raven) gives a laid-back answer of "the one you like better", which wasn't helpful. Silvia wanted to impress Jadow, the pilot of a liger who was performing the inspection.

The battle between Van and Raven rages on. While both Zoids were fairly even, Raven should have had the upper hand. Yet Caesar was dominating the battle.

Raven's sporadic flashbacks continue. He remembers his father hitting him for starting a fire that endangered their lives. His father had told him a valuable lesson, one that cause Raven great grief upon remembering.

The BFSE begins to fire its cannon at levels beyond what the Zoid could handle. Van acknowledges the situation's degradation, and asks Fiona to lend him a hand. Zeke and Van eject from Caesar, and try merging with the BFSE. Irvine yells that BFSE was already merged with Shadow, and that Zeke could only merge if the Zoid opened its heart. Moonbay, however, replies that Fiona had the power to link their hearts together, and that she had done this before...

Van finds himself floating through Raven's memories. Soon he see Raven, sitting on a rock next to the ruined observatory his family had lived in. Raven tells Van that the wrecked Zoid had killed his family, and that's why he hated Zoids. Yet as he gets worked up, Van punches him squarely in the face. Van tells Raven that's wrong, and they both knew it.

Van tells Raven that Donnie's investigation revealed that there was a virus in the Zoid. The Zoid's brain was disabled by the virus - it went out of control, but it wasn't the Zoid's fault. Van says it was a tragedy, but it was also an accident. Raven is infuriate by the comment, rejecting that it was a accident, replying by punching Van in the face. Van stands his ground, and points out that his father was also slain by a Zoid. Van tells Raven that he was sad, and even thought he hated Zoids. But Van realised, no matter how much hate he had, his father wasn't coming back. His father had loved Zoids, and if Van had continued to hate Zoids, he could never become someone his father would have been proud of.

The words strike a tone with Raven, he remembers his father's words, that no one meant more to him than Joyce did.

With that, Raven opens up. He starts simply reciting the events of the accident. On that day, he thought he'd surprise his sister. He wanted to tag along in secret, so he took data from his sister's car and input it into the general-use Zoid Noah.

He had learnt all of his navigation skills on Noah, and loved it very much. But the minute he copied the data, Noah went out of control. The virus must have been in the data, and Noah began to destroy everything. Raven got into the pilot seat, but was powerless to do anything but watch as Noah killed his family. He couldn't live with it, so he had to blame something else. Raven's hatred of Zoids came out of this blame.

Yet Van simply stated the truth, the accident wasn't Raven's fault.

Those words proved enough. All this time, Raven had simply needed someone to tell him that. And with that realisation, they emerge from the BFSE cockpit and the story comes to a close.

Trivia

• Volume 14 is the only book in the English release to have more than 2 chapters
• ISBN: 1-56931-898-0
• Since the books are mirrored from the Japanese version, the English Donnie looks the same as the Japanese Raven, and visa versa.
• Although not seen, the person named Jadow in flashback is likely Moonbay's brother.