Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.

"It's been a while since we've gone on a mission together…speaking of which, there hasn't been any official missions assigned in the last month."

"That's your fault." Ciel gave him as harsh of a glare as she could.

It apparently wasn't enough to make Naruto remorseful. He just gave her a casual shrug. "No, it's actually the fault of whoever wrote up those faulty intelligence reports. I'm merely the one who discovered that, at great personal risk I should add, and then flagged all the other reports as potentially faulty as well."

"So in other words, yes, you're responsible for us having to double check our intel." Ciel then sighed after a long pause. "I suppose it's unfair to say the issue with our intelligence is the only problem."

"Then?"

"I suppose the core problem is that after that fiasco with Team Colbor six weeks ago, everyone realized once again that we're not invincible just because you're here." She turned and smiled lightly at Naruto. "No matter how much you try to claim it were so."

The blonde scoffed. "I never said anything like that. I did try to keep morale up, but I'm never one to promote reckless behavior…"

"…except when it comes to your own actions," Ciel finished for him.

"That sounds exactly right!" Naruto didn't even appear to be sorry or sheepish at that.

"That's hypocritical of you," she admonished, before her eyes hardened. "And for the record, I still haven't forgiven you for that trick you pulled last month."

"Trick? Oh you mean with Jaune?" Naruto laughed. "Geez, if you wanted a flower so badly, then all you needed to do was ask." With that, Naruto created a flower out of the ground and plucked it. "Here. A rose for you. I don't know why, but Jaune suggested I give this particular flower to you. But no thorns."

Ciel just blinked in befuddlement as Naruto handed her the red rose before her face matched the color of the rose in her hand.

"That's not what I meant," she all but hissed. She wasn't sure if she should be angry, embarrassed, happy, or some combination of the above at the situation. But she did take care to pocket the flower. It was, after all, the first flower she ever received. Moreover, in a world where plant-life was so sparse, it was infinitely more special. "I meant you sneaking out of the base!"

"And that is hypocritical of you," Naruto said with a light tut. "Don't think that I forgot that you sneak out to Area Zero."

Naruto did have a point, but she wasn't willing to surrender on this issue. "But I don't run into A-rank combat Reploids while I'm on a stroll." She shook her head. "Honestly, you're such a magnet for trouble."

"It's always been like that even when I was still…well…in the past," Naruto said with another shrug. "Ridiculously poor luck in trying to avoid trouble, but insanely good luck in getting out of trouble once I'm in it. It evens out in the end. Like I said, it's like how the main character of a story has plot armor."

"No doubt," Ciel replied in a wry tone. "But don't forget the price the rest of us side characters pay by losing years of our lives worrying about you."

Naruto apparently had sense to be embarrassed about that. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry," Naruto said with his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I can't say I won't do it again, but I promise that I will think about all of you, and especially you, Ciel-chan," Ciel tilted her head to hide the small blush on her face at his remark, "before I do something reckless. But you have to understand that I've been in more life-threatening situations than I can even count. I'm still alive and kicking after eighteen years…although if we're going to get technical here…something like a thousand plus years. Haha."

Ciel couldn't refute that. Even just in the last seven months, Naruto had been in more dangerous situations than all the Reploids have been in the history of the Resistance combined. And he still came out fine. Initially, she would have been inclined to argue that Naruto was stronger thus was more likely to survive a fight, but Naruto also found himself into situations that were exponentially more dangerous as well and he still regularly came out on top.

She just hoped that his luck—or plot armor, as he called it—didn't run out anytime soon.

"That's the best I can hope for," Ciel said with a small sigh. It was a shame her search for Zero was just as fruitless as it was a month ago. If they managed to find Zero, Naruto wouldn't feel as pressured into taking advantage of high risk, high reward situations.

"Still…I maintain my position that my little walk in the park was worth it."

"It was…" Ciel admitted reluctantly. "It was successful on multiple accounts, I suppose. Not only did you manage to relearn one of your special techniques, but you also managed to discover that Baby-Elf."

"Any progress on that front?"

She shook her head. "I'm still in the initial phases of studying the Baby-Elf. I've honestly never seen anything like it. The Baby-Elf is like an energy furnace and I have no idea just where all that energy is coming from. Moreover, the Baby-Elf exists as something greater than digital concept in the real world."

Naruto frowned. "I thought I told you that the source of the Baby-Elf's energy is nature energy."

She nodded. "Ignoring the fact that this nature energy is completely unscientific and impossible to quantify precisely, just how does the Baby-Elf store so much nature energy? Just how is the Baby-Elf drawing nature energy from the natural environment?"

"No clue. Not my field of expertise. Well, I suppose you're going to be very busy for the foreseeable future. But I have complete faith that you'll figure it out."

"Anyway, as much as I'd love to talk to you about my work," she allowed herself a small smile—Naruto always was willing to listen, no matter how busy he was or how little he actually knew about her work, "we should focus. We're on a mission. You don't want to botch this mission as well, do you?"

Naruto grinned cheekily at that. "Even if this mission ends up going south, I'll end up coming out smelling like roses. Plot armor, remember?"

She wasn't amused. "No, we are not going to mess this mission up. There's too much riding on its success."

Naruto's countenance immediately became serious at that. She was taken aback by the abrupt change. "So then…tell me what we're doing here in the heart of Neo Arcadia."

"Heart of Neo Arcadia" was a bit of an exaggeration. They were in a large Neo Arcadia city that was more or less a branch of the Neo Arcadian capital, but the danger level was much lower than it would be near where Copy X was.

Seeing Naruto's defensive posture, Ciel shook her head. "Don't worry. It's not the sort of mission where heavy fighting involved."

"If you say so," Naruto said dubiously. "So far all the crucial missions have had some sort of fighting. So I'll be ready, just in case."

Ciel nodded. "Of course. But that does remind me that you've never seen this side of the Resistance. Because you destroyed the largest Reploid Disposal Center along with half a dozen others within the last seven months, Neo Arcadia has been forced to push back the arrest and retirement of Reploids."

"So that's a good thing, right?"

"Yes and no. If we're purely looking at our strategic objectives, then yes, it's a good. But from a tactical standpoint, I suppose you can argue that it's a bad thing."

"Mm…I hear you, but without any details about this particular situation, it's hard to fully understand the situation…"

"Strategically, we want to make it hard for Neo Arcadia to retire innocent Reploids. But at the same time, hijacking the retirement process is how we recruited for the Resistance."

"Ah, now I understand. So the worse Neo Arcadia is, the more people you'll able to draw to your side. But the better things become in Neo Arcadia, people have less of a reason to follow you."

"Yes. Ideally, it would have been nice to have selfless volunteers join us, but it's been a long time since I hoped for such things." She sighed. In that regard, her naiveté and innocence had been lost long ago. "Still, we do have willing spies within the lower levels of government who aid us by giving us information. That's how we know who is on the 'suspected' list. After we identify our targets, we rescue them before they're slated for retirement."

Naruto gave her a small frown. "It makes sense in a vacuum, but even if Neo Arcadia suspect these Reploids of treason, why would these suspected Reploids who knew nothing but loyalty to Neo Arcadia would suddenly join the Resistance? Wouldn't they say they have faith in the system?"

"That's why we make our move precisely at the moment when the authorities arrive to send them to the retirement centers. That way, there's no room for argument."

Despite the good in rescuing Reploids, Ciel wasn't entirely happy with the methods they were forced to resort to in order to do so. It was in those moments where the Resistance truly acted as a resistance group, using terrorism to cause panic and confusion in civilian areas.

"Oooh. I understand. Well, so are we busting out someone today? I thought you said this wasn't a mission without any fighting."

"I said no heavy fighting," she pointed out.

Naruto shrugged, almost as if he didn't believe that there was a type of fighting that didn't involve destruction on a large scale. "Like I said earlier, it's still best to be prepared. It didn't take a long time for me to learn that. Here." Naruto held out the prototype version of a chakra buster. "I know you hate carrying around weapons, but I'll breathe easier knowing you have this on you as a trump card. I've pre-charged it so it's good for around a thousand or so regular buster shots, ten mid-level blasts equivalent to charged buster shots, or one supercharged blast that releases all the energy stored in that thing in one shot. On the flip side, you can even set the settings really low so that they'll only stun so you don't have to worry about seriously harming people."

"Okay, okay, I'll take it." She knew better than to argue with Naruto when he became like this. And in a way, it was endearing that he was so overprotective.

"And seriously, no offense, but a two-person squad—where one person isn't really a fighter—isn't much, even if we're not looking for a fight. You should know as well as I do that rescue operations drastically raise the difficulty level of a mission. Shouldn't you have brought at least twenty people for this?"

"Normally, yes. But I trust that you'll keep me safe." She giggled as she batted her eyes at him.

"That looks so strange coming from a normally cool and composed scientist like you." Naruto rolled his eyes before turning back to the topic at hand. "So instead of multiple squads, you brought me along to minimize collateral damage."

Ciel nodded. "The choice of you and me for this mission was deliberate. I can crack any of the security programs that might have a chance to see through your illusory techniques while you have more than enough focused firepower to smash through enemy forces without us having to resort to bombs that attack people indiscriminately. Any manpower issues can be resolved by your cloning ability while still maintaining our stealth advantage of having only a few people on this mission."

Naruto whistled. "Not bad. You definitely thought this out. Well, who's our contact?"

"SA-08 and HE-22…although we won't be seeing SA-08 today. He sent over an encrypted file showing that a Reploid will be arrested and retired today. HE-22 is with that particular Reploid at this moment and will help convince the Reploid to escape with us."

"Just one Reploid?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"I don't mean to sound heartless, but isn't that an inefficient use of time and energy? It'd actually be easier for us to wait until more Reploids are gathered at one of the other disposal centers. You know I can go bust them out. The smaller centers don't even have an elite combat Reploid on standby these days so it's no more dangerous than a stroll in the park."

She didn't point out that the last time Naruto went on a "stroll," he ran into an A-rank Reploid. Barely A-rank, and one that was still outclassed by the Guardians, but still A-rank nonetheless.

"This is a special case. Completely by accident, HE-22 has discovered that TK-31 came across classified Neo Arcadian files and has tried to befriend him over the two months…although I think the effort has been in vain. Still HE-22 managed to successfully extract a bit of personal information from TK-31. It turns out that TK-31 had been caught by Harpuia, but was allowed to live for a bit longer. It was only when the Eight Gentle Judges found out about it that TK-31 was scheduled for retirement."

"Interesting. Harpuia let him go free for a while? So he's not just a mindless servant of Copy X. It's strange to think of Harpuia as someone willing to bend the rules to save a potential Maverick when he threatened to use missiles to kill non-combatants when I was battling Fefnir."

She nodded. "I'm a bit familiar with his philosophy. Harpuia doesn't like to kill without just cause. Being a confirmed Maverick, as those of us in the Resistance are, is a just cause in his mind, however."

"Ah, so he consciously chooses to become mindless after he's given orders," Naruto nodded in a mock "sagely" manner.

Ciel rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's exactly what happens, Naruto." She then became serious once more. "In any case, SA-08 found out about this impending arrest and alerted us last week."

"Alright, then let's go play hero," Naruto smiled cheekily at her, "and of course, heroine."

"Are the preparations made?"

"Yes, my lord." Phantom nodded in approval at his most loyal servant, Hanumachine. "Within the last two weeks, we have successfully miniaturized the beacon and have attached it to a magnetic projectile that will stick to any Reploid armor. The selected Pantheons have had their busters modified to fire the beacon along with the normal buster pellets. The beacon and projectiles are both resistance to the energy that makes up the buster shots and won't be destroyed when they are fired with the buster pellets. Also, the beacon and the projectile are less than a centimeter in size and will pass undetected through most sensors."

"Good, I'll have to instruct the Pantheons to try and graze some of those Maverick trash instead of killing them outright. And what of the warp zone? Any problems there?"

Hanumachine shook his head. "None. We can transport all our forces to the coordinates set by the beacon anywhere from five to thirty seconds depending on the location. And the jamming signal will activate as designed."

"Good. Then this will go completely according to script." Phantom closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he went over the plan in his mind once more. Everything had to go perfectly. He would not screw this up.

"My lord. Pardon me for questioning you once more on this issue, but is it really wise to let a Maverick run free?"

Phantom snorted. His servant was capable in battle, but still needed some work on learning how to plan ahead. Phantom had no intention of letting any known Maverick—Reploid or human—live to see the next morning. However, bait was needed to spring the trap.

"The trash will be living on borrowed time. What difference does it make if they have a few more minutes to live? After all, we're merely sending the rats back into the nest so we can ferret out the rest of them."

"Of course, my lord. My apologies for questioning you."

TK-31 found himself following his daily routine at work. He had convinced himself for the most part that the incident two months ago had been some sort of hallucination. No matter what he had seen, it was impossible for his feelings of admiration towards Neo Arcadia to change.

"Hey," a voice cut into his thoughts. "TK-31? Don't you think the energy distribution quotas here have become stricter?"

TK-31 sent a sharp look towards the speaker. It was one of the coworkers who had transferred to the administration department in last month. If TK-31 remembered properly, the other Reploid's serial number was HE-22. It was the annoying one who kept trying to talk to him over the last two months. And those efforts increased after the insufferable Reploid's transfer into TK-31's department. "Those of us in the administration department are treated well despite energy cuts. I have no complaints. The ones who whine are probably those who waste time at work anyway."

No one would find him complaining. He was highly efficient with the energy he was given. High efficient…just like Neo Arcadia. If other Reploids couldn't handle it, then they were merely a waste of space and energy.

"Well, that's not all. The Maverick arrest rate has risen 3% in the last year alone and that's the lowest increase in the last five years."

"Your point?" TK-31 didn't really care about the Mavericks aside from the fact that they were disturbing the peace. As long as they were put away, he couldn't care less. It was strange that this other Reploid was fixated on something so irrelevant. "Look, stop talking to me and get back to work."

His suggestion was flatly ignored. "There's a lot of talk that there were no abnormalities in the groups that were retired. In fact, some Reploids were so upset that they escaped from Neo Arcadia and are staging an armed uprising: the Resistance."

TK-31 whipped his head towards the suspicious Reploid. How dare he imply that Neo Arcadia was wrong! "What are you trying to say?! Just who are you really?! You've been spewing dangerous stuff for close to two months now. Are you one of those Resistance sympathizers?"

TK-31 glared as the other Reploid just gave him a smooth smile. "I'm HE-22 from the Environmental Protection Agency. I managed the environmental preserves from the pre-war days. And I'm obviously not a member of the Resistance if I'm working in a department for Neo Arcadia. I'm just pointing out things that might be of interest."

"Environmental preserves…?" TK-31 repeated before calming down. He had already known the serial number of the other Reploid, but now he had the other's previous job and background to go with it. "Ah, I remember now. That was you? The one who presented that report on that survey two months ago? The higher-ups thought very well of your presentation."

HE-22 just had a wry grin on his face. "Yes, that was me."

"Why would someone capable like you worry about useless things like energy distribution quotas and complaints from inefficient Reploids?"

HE-22 looked a bit annoyed at that statement. "I'm not getting to you at all, am I?" HE-22 sighed. "Well, how about this? That submerged city we went to two months ago…all reports of it was deleted from the records."

"Deleted?" TK-31 asked with a frown. "Why would the higher-ups do something like that? Neo Arcadia is all about perfect transparency for its citizens. I suppose there is classified information even in a place open as Neo Arcadia, but those are things dealing with national security."

HE-22 lowered his voice. "You must notice it, too. Something is happening around here…it's reaching a very dangerous level. There's something very wrong with the government."

TK-31 didn't find HE-22's act very funny. "Hey! I don't care how much of a hard worker you are! If you keep talking like that, I'll report you to the police!"

The look in HE-22's eyes became desperate. "Ugh! You don't get it at all! The information cover up…the increase in arrests…rumors that those arrested are actually innocent…that means that we might be the next! And it might be sooner than you think!"

"Nonsense! I am loyal to Neo Arcadia! Neo Arcadia is my life—"

Slam!

TK-31 and HE-22 turned to look at the open door.

"Huh?"

TK-31 heard HE-22 gasp when he saw Phantom standing there with a group of Maverick Hunters. "Already?! I thought we'd have an hour longer at the very least," HE-22 squeaked out.

TK-31 just looked at them in confusion. What was going on?

"Nobody move," Phantom ordered while holding up a large data chip. "I have a warrant from the Eight Gentle Judges. Serial number TK-31. You have been designated as a Maverick for treason against Neo Arcadia. I am taking you into custody for retirement. The rest of you in this building will also be taken as well under the suspicion of having conspired with a Maverick. Fortunately, X-sama has decided to be merciful and grant the rest of you trials. You will await your trials in the holding cells."

TK-31 gaped. "Me? I'm a Maverick?" TK-31 couldn't believe his ears. He must have heard something wrong! How could someone like him…someone who loved Neo Arcadia so much…be a Maverick? That was impossible! A Maverick was violent, evil! He was none of those things! "There must be a mistake!"

"Mistake?" Phantom said in a silky voice. "X-sama and the Eight Gentle Judges do not make mistakes. The fact that you suggest that that is possible shows that your programming has been compromised, TK-31."

"No," TK-31 slowly backed away. "That's impossible!"

"I don't care about your opinions, trash. As for the rest of you, I will regard anyone who resists as a Maverick. If you don't wish to be retired here, then obey my orders."

TK-31 wasn't listening, however. "Treason…me? No…How could Neo Arcadia think that I…"

Boom!

TK-31 reflexively ducked as the wall to the building exploded, showering them all with bits of wood and metal that had made up the wall.

Naruto stood in front of Ciel in a protective manner as he stared down the small group of "Maverick" hunters. Ciel had received an emergency distress signal from HE-22 and Naruto had grabbed her in his arms to speed up. They had been near the designated site so it hadn't taken more than thirty seconds to reach where HE-22 was.

"Ciel-chan, take them and run," Naruto ordered with a bit of urgency. Ciel was the only one who could crack the code preventing them from using a Trans Server to leave a civilian-based area, so there had been tactical reasons for her to be on the battle…but that was looking incredibly foolish now that they knew that Phantom was here.

"But Naruto," Ciel protested in a low whisper. "You can't fight a dozen elites all alone, not when Phantom is here as well!"

Naruto almost groaned. It wasn't like her presence here was going to help him much. If anything, him worrying about her was going to make him less effective in battle. Naruto shook his head and turned his head to show her his red Sharingan eyes. "Those 'elites' you see are those holograms that you talked about earlier. They're nothing more than the regular Pantheons," he hissed harshly. "Get out of here!"

"But Naruto! They weren't the real threat to begin with! Phantom—"

She was cut off by Phantom. "Not bad. You were able to see through my illusions." The illusions dropped revealing then Pantheons pointing busters at them. "Uzumaki Naruto and Dr. Ciel, I presume?"

Naruto opened his mouth to respond when they were all hit with a tremendous force of killing intent. Naruto wasn't affected at all by it, but a quick turn of the head showed Ciel falling to her knees in terror. This must be the first time she's met a Guardian up close in battle. Naruto quickly raised an aura laced with soothing chakra to neutralize Phantom's murderous killing intent.

It wasn't a perfect counter, but within a few seconds, he could tell that Ciel's breathing began to slow as she reasserted herself.

Still, Naruto realized that this wasn't going to last very long. Once the battle started, the killing intent would rise beyond what he could simply counter with a steady stream of chakra.

"Yup, that's us," Naruto said in a cheery voice, giving nothing on his mind away. Hopefully, his attitude would unnerve or irritate the elite A-ranked Reploid. "I take it that we're famous?"

"Quite." Phantom snorted. "I've heard quite a bit from…well…I guess you can call them my colleagues." The last part was said with a sneer.

Naruto mentally smirked. Ah. So Phantom was that kind of personality. The arrogant, lone wolf personality with absolute loyalty to his leader. There was someone in Naruto's past who was like that. His name was Kimima…something—damn his still recovering memories—it was that damn guy who did freaky stuff with his bones.

Not that it mattered. Naruto just needed to get Ciel and the others out of the way and this Reploid would soon be torn metal on scrap heap.

He sent a pleading look towards Ciel and willed her run away. Come on, Ciel-chan. Now's not the time for your stubbornness…RUN!

Ciel seemed to have gotten the message as she stood up and began to move.

Phantom raised his hand and Naruto heard the clicks from all the busters around them.

Naruto held out one hand in the air in a placating manner while holding his other hand behind his back in a hand seal. "Now, now. I don't suppose you can grant us clemency or anything like that, can you? You're clearly a ninja, just like me, so we're like brothers, right? Come on…help out a brother here."

Phantom just stood in stunned silent, gawking at the ridiculous comment.

Then Naruto saw the twitch. Naruto surreptitiously flooded his body with chakra to prepare for his next move.

"Fire!"

Naruto quickly jumped in front of Ciel and activated his technique. He heard Ciel let out a small scream as a blue barrier of water went up to protect them from the buster fire from the Pantheons. She was safe but some of the Reploids in the building weren't quite so lucky.

Fortunately, it didn't appear that any of them were dead just yet as the Pantheons had been mostly aiming for Ciel.

Naruto shook Ciel who was looking somewhat shell-shocked. "Ciel-chan!" Naruto quickly made another hand seal to manipulate the spherical water barrier into a rectangular wall separating them from Phantom's Pantheons. While this gave wider protection, the wall was significantly weaker than the spherical version of barrier. "Leave the building for now and then take the rest of them back to the base! This technique wasn't made to be stretched out as a thin water wall like this! It won't hold too long, especially if Phantom decides to join in the attacks. You probably have about ten seconds to get moving! Hurry!"

Naruto grit his teeth to strengthen the haphazard water wall the best he could as more buster shots hit the barrier. Phantom was beginning to slash away at it as well.

Ciel, for her part, quickly reached towards the Reploid Naruto assumed to be HE-22. "HE-22, get a hold of yourself! We need to leave, now! Where is TK-31?"

It was almost cruel of them to focus on just TK-31 when other Reploids were there and injured as well—Ciel was no doubt dealing with the guilt herself—but the Resistance apparently really needed the intelligence that TK-31 had. For the moment, TK-31 was priority number one and everyone else, including Naruto himself, came after that.

"Right! That's TK-31 over there."

"TK-31, just follow us for now! We'll explain everything later! And the rest of you as well! The Resistance will protect you!"

Naruto didn't even bother waiting to see if the confused and shocked Reploids in the room would listen to what Ciel had to say. If getting shot by Phantom's warriors didn't cure them of their loyalty to Neo Arcadia then nothing would.

"The wall's about to go down! I'll provide a distraction! On my signal!" Naruto shouted as he moved his hands into a very familiar modified ram seal. "Three, two, one! Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Poof!

The entire building was instantly flooded with smoke laced with electric sparks designed to disrupt Phantom's and the Pantheons' sensors as over a hundred lightning shadow clones of Naruto appeared from thin air.

Ciel led the group of Reploids into the underground tunnels that all cities within Neo Arcadia had. It would take a few minutes to crack the code preventing them from leaving so she needed to find them an isolated place first.

"Let's take a quick break. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can run any more right now," she wheezed and gasped. She really needed to get more into shape if she got tired from running less than few kilometers. The modifications done to her body should have been more than enough to allow her to run that sort of distance.

"My apologies, Ciel-san," HE-22 breathed out, a weary look on his face as well. "I didn't think that the arrest would happen so quickly. And the presence of Phantom was completely unexpected."

"It's not your fault. SA-08 had no idea as well. It was supposed to be a normal arrest." She frowned. "There's something strange about this situation. It makes no sense for Phantom to personally arrest accused Reploids."

HE-22 shrugged. "It could be because what TK-31 found was highly sensitive."

That made some sense.

At realization that she was safe for the moment, Ciel was hit with a wave of nausea.

Naruto…

No matter what the excuse, she had still used him as bait while she ran away.

"Ciel-san?"

"I'm fine." Ciel shook her head to clear her thoughts. She couldn't fall apart just yet. There were about a dozen Reploids there. She winced when she saw that they were all sporting various injuries. "Hello everyone. My name is Dr. Ciel. I'm sure you have all heard of the Resistance. I am its leader." There were gasps coming from the Reploids. They all knew who she was but they had no idea that she had defected from Neo Arcadia to lead the supposedly "dangerous" Resistance. Propaganda from Neo Arcadia…no doubt… "At this point, you are completely free to leave and do as you will. However…" she paused, "you can already see that all of you have been designated as traitors for no reason whatsoever."

Ciel noticed HE-22 grabbing a despondent TK-31. "Hey! TK-31! Get a hold of yourself!"

"TK-31, I understand this is all very difficult for you. But Neo Arcadia has abandoned you," she said kindly.

"Traitor…yes…" TK-31 mumbled. "They're the traitors…and yet…because I'm weak, I'm labeled as the traitor…"

She shared a look with HE-22. While shock was common among Reploids who were about to be retired, this was a bit beyond that. It was almost as if TK-31 was malfunctioning.

"Keep it together, TK-31," HE-22 shook the Reploid. "Look, it's not just you. All of us are in the same boat."

The look in TK-31's eyes sharpened suddenly. "Wait, there's something I have to do. I need to head over to the research facility in Area 7. That's just a kilometer away."

"Area 7?" HE-22 shouted incredulously. "That's crazy! There's no way we'll make it amidst this tight security!"

TK-31 began to struggle. "UNHAND ME! I have to go there!"

"TK-31!" Ciel grabbed him to help HE-22 restrain him. The other Reploids who had escaped jumped forward to help restrain the psychotic Reploid as well. "You're not making any sense here! What could be so important that you're willing to throw your life away?"

"Stop calling me by my serial number!" Ciel almost stepped back at the crazed look in his eyes. "From this moment on, my name is Elpizo! And as to what's in Area 7? The Baby-Elf is there! It'll grant me power!"

Ciel gasped at the discovery that there was yet another Baby-Elf. She was so shocked that she accidentally released Elpizo's arm.

The newly self-named Elpizo took that opportunity to slam an elbow into one of Reploids holding him. He kicked out and knocked several others down before running away as fast as he could.

Ciel was jolted into action as she heard Elpizo's crazed scream from further down the corridor. "Yes, power…I'm going to get power…that's right…MORE POWER! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Clang!

Naruto parried the blow from Phantom's energy blade with a wind-coated kunai and slammed his hand forward. "Oodama Rasengan!"

Phantom somehow managed to get his large energy shuriken in between him and the basketball-sized Rasengan to use as a makeshift shift.

The shuriken didn't break but Phantom was sent flying into a building. Knowing that Phantom wasn't out of the fight, Naruto threw a wind-coated chakra shuriken towards Phantom's location. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Hundreds of deadly wind-coated shuriken slammed into the area.

When the smoke cleared, there was nothing but the mangled remains of a Pantheon. I guess that's the Reploid version of Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu).

Naruto flipped backwards when he detected movement in his peripheral vision. Phantom's large shuriken immediately passed by where he had been standing. Naruto responded with an area-of-effect lightning jutsu to try and slow Phantom down.

Phantom immediately leapt back and landed on one of the ruined walls of the buildings around them.

Naruto jumped behind a large piece of rumble to avoid the blast from Phantom's blaster. It wasn't a particularly strong blast, but Naruto knew that Phantom would be using the small explosion as a diversion for his next attack.

Naruto felt Phantom's blade slice his lung before "Naruto" disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The real Naruto took the opportunity to slam Phantom into the ground.

"Rasengan!"

Naruto leapt back to gain some distance. If Phantom were anything like Fefnir, he would shrug off that Rasengan as if it were nothing.

And sure enough, Phantom slowly rose and revealed that aside from several cracks in his black armor, he was completely fine. Luckily, Naruto was in just as good of a state. In fact, he was probably even better off, considering that Phantom had yet to land a solid blow on him.

Still, thirty minutes had passed without either of them getting an upper hand in the battle.

The same couldn't be said about the neighborhood. Buildings had collapsed and fires were raging all over the place despite multiple emergency fire safety systems activating. It was likely that hundreds of Reploids were dead and many more dying.

It was unfortunate, but there was no way for Naruto to keep up with Phantom without his most destructive techniques. Had Naruto played with kiddy gloves, he would have been dead twenty times over already. Phantom certainly wasn't joking around.

"I'm impressed," Phantom said, signaling a break in their combat. Naruto was more than willing to oblige since the more he stalled, the more time Ciel had to escape. Still, it was suspicious that Phantom, who up until this point ruthlessly came at him with a single-minded focus on killing him, would start up a conversation. "You're the first to ever last this long."

"Unfortunately, I can't say the same," Naruto replied, deactivating his Sharingan to conserve energy. "You see, I've fought a ton of mean bastards and you're just one of many."

"Oh?"

"In fact, I don't even think you're as strong as Fefnir. I was having far more trouble with him."

While that was said in an effort to piss Phantom off, it was still true. Phantom's blows and strikes simply did not have the knockout power that Fefnir's had. Phantom's style of combat seem to revolve around blindingly fast speed and mixing himself in with illusory clones. Unfortunately, both were manageable with someone with the Sharingan. And no one in all of history was more experienced fighting with and against clones than Naruto was.

As far as Naruto was concerned, with regards to this particular fighting style, Phantom was just a newborn babe.

Phantom twitched a bit at that. "Don't compare me to that thrill-seeking trash. Uzumaki, you're strong, but don't think you've seen my true strength just yet."

Naruto tensed as he felt a surge of energy. Phantom was no doubt preparing to use his EX skill.

"And don't assume that you've seen mine!"

Naruto rushed as fast as he could towards Phantom to prevent him from using his technique, even using a modified (and safer) version of Fuuton: Fuujin Seigaifu (Wind Release: Holy Shroud of the Wind God) to accelerate his movements.

It still wasn't fast enough as Phantom blocked the slash from Naruto's wind-coated chakra kunai.

"Sumizome (Dye in Black)."

The entire area was instantly covered in darkness. A Reploid version of a genjutsu. Quickly activating his Sharingan to pierce the illusion, Naruto leapt back and blocked the slash from Phantom's blade only to find that he could no longer detect where Phantom was.

The entire area was saturated with energy. His Sharingan couldn't tell him where anything was. All he could see was a bright sea of energy.

"Shit."

Naruto turned off his Sharingan as it would only drain his chakra without providing any benefit.

Fortunately, however, Naruto was well-versed in the art of fighting without vision. It was something he had learned to fight against Itachi, Tobi, Sasuke, and Madara. Naruto slowly began leaking chakra into the air and began interpreting the fluctuations in the air around him.

Sensing movement nearby, Naruto ducked and felt wind over his head as Phantom's giant shuriken flew over him. Not missing a beat, Naruto quickly flashed through hand seals. "Katon: Hisei Bakuhatsu (Fire Release: Fire Spirit Explosion)!"

Naruto jumped back as he released a huge flaming ball of superheated gas towards where he sensed the shuriken flying from.

Boom!

The fireball exploded and sent a wave of heat through the area.

After the explosion, there was no sound at all but the sprinklers running in the background. Nonetheless, Naruto remained on guard as Phantom's EX skill didn't fall.

Naruto ducked as he felt a blade moving through the air. He immediately kicked out and landed a glancing blow. Unfortunately, his hit wasn't very strong to begin with and Naruto doubted that Phantom even felt a thing.

He felt another blade heading towards him and leapt to the side, but found that he had jumped into the path of Phantom's energy shuriken. Naruto grunted as he twisted and escaped with a scratch. He immediately replaced himself with some of the rumble nearby and avoided the follow-up slash.

Naruto let out a small curse. Without the predictive ability of the Sharingan, his relatively lack of speed was making it hard to keep up with the rapid series of attacks from Phantom. And Phantom quickly had determined the range of his sensory technique. Moreover, there was no doubt the Guardian was now using Pantheons to throw Naruto off.

Well…when in doubt, return to the good ol' favorite…

It had worked earlier against Phantom, so why not use it again.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Another set of a hundred clones filled the area with a huge puff of smoke.

Naruto smirked as one of his clones "died." Several of the nearby clones reacted and landed multiple blows on Phantom who cried out and sank back into the darkness.

Slay one clone and you give away your position. Let's see how you deal with this, Phantom. And as for me… Naruto closed his eyes and began to draw in nature energy as his clones fought. It's time to pull out the big guns…

It had taken some time, but Ciel finally managed to get the refugees back to the Resistance Base. She somehow even managed to get the Baby-Elf in Area 7 as well.

Of course, they had had to knock Elpizo out and forcibly bring him back, but in the end, the primary objective of the mission was completed. Now all they had to do was get the signal to Naruto so he could retreat.

"Ciel-san, the signal isn't going out."

Ciel's heart pounded at that. "What does that mean?" she said as calmly as she could. "Is the signal not being received at the other end?"

Rouge shook her head. "That's not the issue. The problem is entirely on our end. Something is blocking any outgoing signals."

Ciel frowned. "What's going on?"

Jaune hesitated. "We have no idea, but our systems began to go haywire as soon as you arrived, Ciel-san. It's as if something is jamming our communications."

"A spy?" Cerveau asked in a grave tone. "Maybe one of the Reploids we rescued is a spy."

"Impossible. We verified their identities and everything," Rouge said with a frown. "Moreover, none of them have been near any of our equipment."

Ciel gasped as realization hit her. "It's not a spy." Ciel said in a horrified tone. "It must be a Trojan horse. One of the refugees must be carrying something that's interfering with our systems."

"But we've checked all of them, Ciel-san!" Jaune protested.

"We also have countermeasures against devices emitting non-approved signals in our base," Rouge added. "There simply is no way…"

Ciel shook her head. "No security system in perfect. Besides, several things about this mission had been strange from the very beginning. It was odd that so many Reploids to survive buster shots earlier in that building. It was even more unusual for Phantom to appear directly to arrest a low-level Reploid. It was nearly impossible for us to escape Phantom completely unscathed even with Naruto there. No…I'm certain that Phantom wanted us get away."

"What does that mean, Ciel?" Cerveau asked in a worried voice.

She took a deep breath to try and calm down. Internally, however, she was a second away from panicking. This entire mission wasn't just a failure, but it was leading towards total destruction of the Resistance. "The only reason Phantom would let convicted Reploids escape would be to create an opportunity to bring in even more prisoners."

"That means…our base!" Cerveau trailed off, eyes widening in realization. "And the jamming! It's meant to prevent Naruto from returning on time."

Ciel nodded grimly. "There's nothing we can do now. The location of our base has been compromised. Put the entire base on alert. Evacuate all the civilians to the lowest levels and have everyone else prepare for battle. Neo Arcadia is going to attack."

Normally, he was far more composed, but Faucon currently found himself shaking in both excitement and terror as he faced down the Mechaniloid heading towards him. He had taken charge over the guard duty for outside the base while Dande took care of things inside the base.

Even though the devices were found, the nature of the Trojan horse devices was still unknown so no one was sure where Neo Arcadia's attacks would come from. It was entirely possible that Neo Arcadian soldiers would be able to transfer themselves into the base itself.

But at least one attack was coming from the outside. Faucon heard Ciel's voice in his ear. "Sorry I can't give you a full debriefing, Faucon-kun."

"Given the state of the base, that's understandable. What can you tell me?"

"That Mechaniloid, codenamed Hittide Hottide, is a hybrid-type with high A-rank defensive specifications and low C-rank offensive specifications. Given its heavy defensive nature, if you keep your distance you'll be fine, but…"

Faucon grimaced. "But if I do that, then this Mechaniloid will continue to march toward our base and shred all our defenses outside the base. Dande might have been a better matchup for this Mechaniloid as he can attack from a distance."

"Dande-kun doesn't have the firepower needed to punch through the Mechaniloid's defenses; you, on the other hand, do. That being said, I suggest you look for a weakness in the armor. Good luck!"

With that, all communications went offline.

Faucon turned to the other fighters standing next to him. "I want you all to distract the Mechaniloid with buster fire while I engage it up close."

"What about friendly fire?" One of fighters asked dubiously.

"Try to aim high so the shots fly over my head," Faucon instructed. "Other than that, don't worry about it too much." Faucon allowed himself a little smirk. "Naruto-shishou would kill me if I couldn't maneuver around buster shots."

With that Faucon took out the beam saber he received from the blue Cyber-Elf and charged.

Dande ran from room to room simultaneously trying to find any stragglers and blasting away Pantheons. Somehow, as they were evacuating the noncombatants, most of the base's digital defenses collapsed, allowing hundreds of Pantheons to transfer directly into the base.

Dande had lost count of just how many Pantheons he killed long ago. He was fairly sure the number was easily over two hundred. In spite of that, there were Pantheons still roaming around.

All of the members of his temporary squad had fallen and judging from regular reports coming from Ciel, fewer than twenty Resistance members were still fighting. The rest were all injured or dead.

"Cerveau! Let go of me!" he heard over the radio. There was the sound of an electronic door slamming shut and locking. "Cerveau! What are you doing? Open the damn door!"

Had the situation been far less serious, Dande would have been shocked that Ciel was cursing.

"Jaune! Rouge! No matter what happens, don't let Ciel leave her room. I changed the access code so all three of you will be stuck there."

"We'll try, but Ciel-san is struggling like crazy! Ow! Cerveau-san, she's completely snapped!" That manner of speaking…definitely Jaune, Dande thought.

"Cerveau-san, Ciel-san taking out her buster to blast the door."

Cerveau chuckled humorlessly. "Naruto put up additional rune-based defenses along the doors and the walls of this entire floor. The ones placed in Ciel's room are especially strong. They're completely impervious to buster fire." Dande didn't know if that was a bluff or not, but it seemed to have prevented Ciel from actually firing her buster. "She'll eventually be able to hack the system and access the door—she's the one who designed the security system for her room—but stall her as much as possible. Remember," Cerveau's voice shook, "stop Ciel from leaving her room no matter what happens."

Dande had a bad feeling and quickly began heading over to mission control. He was fairly close by and could make it there in about a minute.

He barely took ten steps when he heard buster shots over the radio and the sound of a body falling to the floor. Among those connected to the radio at the moment, aside from Dande himself, Cerveau was the only one in a danger zone. So for Dande, it wasn't difficult to figure out just who got shot, especially considering Cerveau's words just moments before.

"Cerveau!" Ciel screamed, this time not in frustration, but in grief. Ciel was pounding on the door.

Dande continued to make his way to mission control. If Cerveau was still alive, Dande could probably save his life. Cerveau would later yell at him for not checking to make sure all the noncombatants were safe, but from a military standpoint, Cerveau was far more valuable than most of the people in the Resistance.

Trying to keep his mind off the possibility of Cerveau dying, Dande switched the frequency on his radio.

"Faucon, you there?"

A grunt came over the line. "A little busy here."

"Progress?"

"Well, I'm still alive."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Dande replied dryly. "How are you doing with the Mechaniloid?"

Dande could almost hear Faucon's grimace. "Not good. We managed to disable most of the weapons, but it's still heading towards the base with its drill intact. It'll reach the base in about fifteen to twenty minutes if we don't stop it. It's already passed the first layer of defense." Faucon then seemed to hesitate.

"I'm guessing there's worse news?"

"There's…there's a huge bomb inside the Mechaniloid. If it reaches the base and detonates…"

Dande sucked in a bit of air at that. "You'll just have to stop it before then. Don't worry," Dande tried to be as encouraging as possible in this grave situation, "you have two more layers of defense to work with. If you need any extra motivation, know that Naruto-shishou will make the next training session hell if you fail. I'm not going to stand suffering through of his punishment sessions because of you, so get your ass back to work."

Granted, if Faucon failed, none of them would be alive to experience a hellish training session, but it was the thought that counted.

"Ha. Ha. Funny." It really wasn't, but they were at least going through the motions of having a lively conversation. "I'll do my best for your sake then."

"Thanks. I'm going to be a bit busy as well. I'm going to switch frequencies."

"Gotcha. Good luck."

Dande leapt into mission control, firing shots from his buster as fast as he could. Within seconds, the twenty Pantheons in the room were nothing but scrap metal. He could hear Ciel pounding on her door and wailing. Dande could even hear buster shots going off from behind the door along with Jaune's and Rouge's protests.

He quickly rushed to where Cerveau was lying.

A quick check with his scanner showed that Cerveau was still alive. Apparently and to their great luck, the Pantheons weren't intelligent enough to check whether someone was dead or not. Dande wasn't a medic, but he did know the basics on keeping a Reploid alive.

After a few minutes of battlefield treatment, he lean Cerveau against Ciel-san's door.

"Ciel-san," Dande reported as he switched to the main frequency the Resistance used. "Cerveau-san is still alive. I'm here in mission control. I've done what I can and he's in no immediate danger. I'll stand guard and make sure nothing happens to him."

The pounding and firing stopped. "What…what about the others?" Ciel whispered. "Did you check up on everyone else?"

Dande winced. "I checked all the floor except this one. I had just finished checking up on the floor below when I heard the situation here in mission control."

There was a long silence on the other end. "I…I…I'd tell you to finish checking up on this floor, but realistically, if they managed to make their way here, then anyone on this floor is probably dead."

Ciel was probably right. Mission control was located at the end of the hallway on this floor. If the Pantheons managed to reach here, then they probably checked every other room on the floor. The situation was worse because this floor had been the last one to be evacuated. Casualties on this floor were a virtual certainty. The only good news—if it could be called that—is that no one on this floor was a civilian. Not all of them were combatants, of course, but everyone on the floor was heavily involved with the Resistance effort.

Dande was about the report on the situation outside when he heard someone enter the room.

He quickly turned and steadied his buster while charging up a shot. His body chilled when his scanners revealed the enemy's specification.

B-rank.

Even before he received his upgrade, Dande had been able to take down a low B-rank, but that had been with Faucon's and Naruto's help. Dande wasn't sure if he could handle one on his own just yet. Specification-wise, with his new upgrades, it was certainly possible, but he sorely lacked experience and didn't have the benefit of having fighting skills installed into his programming.

"Greetings, Maverick. My name is Hanumachine, servant of the great Hidden Phantom. My master has sent me to clean the trash lying around this area. Your little group has put up far better fight than any of us expected, but that ends here."

"Dande-kun?" Ciel's voice came over the line. "Don't do anything rash. Just keep stalling until either Naruto or Faucon gets back."

Dande didn't respond as he finished charging his buster. Naruto was probably in more danger than all of them combined if Ciel's reports were correct in that he fighting against Phantom. At the very least, it would be a while before he could get back. As for Faucon…Dande didn't have the heart to tell Ciel that Faucon had his hands full trying to prevent a mobile bomb from reaching the base. He was equally unlikely to be able to help.

No. Dande was on his own for this.

"No response, Maverick?" The monkey-like Reploid taunted in his shrill voice.

Dande responded by pulling the trigger.

A few minutes passed before Dande realized he wouldn't be landing a shot on his enemy. Hanumachine wasn't particularly fast without his EX skill of turning himself into a fireball, but he was incredibly agile and had ridiculously fast reflexes. Also annoying was the large staff Hanumachine had. Apparently, it could be used to block and even return buster shots.

Dande quickly jumped out of the way to avoid a small baseball-sized fireball that Hanumachine spat from his mouth. This guy's fireballs have nothing on Naruto-shishou's. Naruto's fireballs were easily the size of small elephant.

He frowned as Hanumachine knocked yet another charged shot away with his staff. Dande leapt back to avoid a downward swipe from the large staff.

"I can do this all day," Hanumachine said in a bored tone. Dande growled as Hanumachine activated his EX skill again and covered himself with fire. The numerous buster shots Dande sent Hanumachine's way just bounced off.

This was ridiculous. Hanumachine's specifications weren't too overwhelming but his abilities and skills were incredibly annoying to deal with.

The only way Dande would land a blow was if he got close and hit Hanumachine with a charged shot at point blank range. The only problem with that was that a singled charged shot, even laced with lightning from the thunder chip, would not be enough to defeat Hanumachine. On the other hand, there was a high likelihood that Hanumachine's counterattack would cripple or even potentially kill Dande. Unfortunately, while his offensive specifications were certainly high, the amount of power he could put into an attack was capped by the physical limitations of his buster, which was far inferior to the customized weapons Neo Arcadian elites had.

There was really only one way to overcome that limitation.

Dande pulled out the thunder chip from his buster and placed it in his palm as he dropped the buster. After all, he wouldn't need it for this final maneuver.

"Giving up?"

Dande smirked and spoke his first words of the battle. "As if."

As soon as he saw an opening, Dande rushed forward as fast as his specifications would allow him. He dodged three fireballs and evaded a strike from the staff. Unfortunately, just as he placed his palm on Hanumachine's chest, Dande felt an incredible pain shoot through his body. Looking down, he saw Hanumachine fist stuck inside of his chest.

"Game over, Maverick."

Dande nodded as his vision blurred. "Yes, you're right. It is game over," he choked out.

It was clear that he wasn't going to survive, but he could do his best to make sure that Hanumachine didn't either. With the last of his strength, Dande forced as much power as he could directly into the thunder chip and forced the energy into Hanumachine's body.

"Move," Ciel commanded, her voice harder than it ever had been. Dozens of people under her watch had died, one of her closest friends was dying, and the student of the person she loved was out there fighting for his life. There was no way she could sit back and just watch.

Following the instructions given to them, Jaune and Rouge were standing between Ciel and her computer. "Our apologies, but you know we can't comply with that order," Rouge said with a touch of regret in her voice.

"Ciel-san, this isn't just for your own good, it's for ours. If you die, the entire Resistance falls," Jaune insisted.

"Dande is fighting an elite just outside our door," she said coldly.

"He understands just as much as we do that you're so much more valuable than anyone else in the Resistance! You'll be trampling on his feelings if you go out there and put yourself in danger!"

Ciel was sick of hearing the same arguments over and over again over the past few years. Every time, people would end up dying for her and pleading for her to abandon them. Even early today, she had abandoned the person she loved to ensure the success of the mission.

That ended today.

In a sense, Ciel was finally able to understand just why Naruto insisted on slamming into danger head-on. It was so that no else would have to. He instinctively understood that sitting back and letting other people fight was infinitely more painful than directly fighting himself.

Ciel wasn't a fighter so she couldn't go looking for trouble, but she was done hiding when trouble came to her.

Ciel lifted the buster that Naruto had given her earlier that day, making sure that it was on the lowest setting. She hadn't expected to use the "trump card" Naruto had given her earlier that day and certainly not in this manner, but she was out of options.

"Move or I'll shoot." Jaune's and Rouge's eyes widened as they began to back up.

"Ciel-san…" Jaune pleaded.

Ciel hesitated for a fraction of a second before steeling her heart. She fired.

Tsew!

Jaune crumbled to the ground. Ciel fired again as Rouge leapt towards her to try to wrestle the buster out of her hands.

Tsew!

Rouge also fell to the ground.

Heart pounding, Ciel quickly holstered her buster before kneeling and making sure her subordinates were still alive. Even on the weakest setting, buster shots had the potential to kill.

Confirming that Jaune and Rouge were indeed alive, Ciel stood up and rushed towards her computer. She logged in and began the process of overriding all the locks put into place by Cerveau.

It took longer than she had hoped, but she managed regain access to her door.

Picking up her buster and shifting the setting to the highest setting, she opened the door.

She couldn't stop the gasp that left her mouth when she saw the destruction in mission control. Everything was broken and there was rubble everywhere. The only things intact were the walls and surprisingly, Cerveau, who had been placed next to her door.

Her gaze shifted to Dande. Her eyes widened when she saw the hole in his chest. "Dande!" she cried.

She started to take a step when the large pile of rubble next to Dande moved.

"The Maverick…i…is dead," she heard a voice gasp out. Ciel raised her buster with shaking hands at the monkey-like Reploid who let the rubble and dust fall off of him. Hanumachine gave her an irritated look. "This is…is…your only w…warning. Put that toy d…down, Dr. Ciel. My staff may be b…b…broken and m…my body may be malfunctioning, but I ha…have more than enough strength to kill y…you."

His robotic voice matched the mechanical look of his body. Almost all of Hanumachine's armor had been shattered, revealing the robotic interior of his body. It made it easier for Ciel to hate him and loathe him with all she had.

It wasn't a person in front of her; it was a monster.

Ciel tightened her finger on the trigger. "You slaughtered dozens of innocent people today…people who did nothing wrong and did not deserve to die."

She made to squeeze the trigger, but felt herself entering a world of pain. She let out a cry as she choked out blood.

When her vision returned to her, she saw that she was being held by the neck and pinned to the wall by Hanumachine. Luckily, by some miracle, she was still holding onto her buster. She mentally yelled at her arm to lift the buster up.

"W…why shou…should I care about M…Mavericks? Mavericks are t…trash that n…needs to be cleaned u…up." She continued to raise her arm as Hanumachine talked, ignoring the screams of protests from her arm.

"They," she gasped out as she pulled the trigger, "no…we…we…are not the Mavericks…you people are!"

The room exploded with a blinding light as Hanumachine was sent flying from her body.

Author's Note: There you have it. Ciel gets her first taste of a battle against an elite combat Reploid and even manages to land a kill. And yes, Dande died. He's not a main character, therefore has no plot armor. I don't know when the next update will be. It'll probably be months from now. Until then!