Don't Call Me Kallen; My Name… Is Zero! Chapter 5: With Cuts On My Hands-

Regret.

It was an emotion Kallen had become very familiar with, especially recently. Even so, when she opened her eyes in the medical bay of the G-1, she couldn't think of a time when any one emotion had permeated her soul so deeply. Her body felt as though it had been filled with sand, and the simple act of looking around became a monumental effort. She had been expecting some harsh punishment from the way she'd been pushing herself the past three days, but she couldn't possibly hope to prepare herself for this. "Oww…" she whimpered, trying her hardest to not move.

"Oh, you're awake. I'm glad," a familiar voice called to her side.

Kallen smiled and turned to face Ohgi, promptly regretting it when her attempt to sit up is marred by her injuries. At least this means I wasn't lying before. Sayoko and Suzaku really pushed my shit in. Ohgi quickly eased her back into bed once he noticed how damaged she was. Or he tried to, anyway, but Kallen wrapped her arms around him tightly first. "I missed you, Ohgi."

He awkwardly laughed before returning the embrace. "Uh, right. It's really good to see you again."

"They didn't treat you badly, did they? While you were in prison," she fretted, pulling away to look at him.

Ohgi simply smiled. "No, no, I'm fine. It got pretty rough, I'll admit, but nothing too bad happened," he explained, before his expression abruptly shifted to one of worry. "What about you? I heard you got beat up pretty bad when you were coming back. And after seeing you like this, well… I'm concerned."

Kallen pursed her lips. She didn't have a mirror anywhere near her, but she could imagine she didn't look the best. She didn't need a mirror to feel the bandages around her head and left arm, either way. Idly, she noticed the light's in the room had been considerably dimmed, probably to help with her head injury. "Um, I hope it's not too much to ask, but I'm curious. I was hearing from some of the other Black Knights that you got injured because you were protecting Zero… I gotta ask, what exactly happened out there?"

He'd tried his best to hide it with concern, but Kallen still picked up on the undercurrent of suspicion present in the question. For a brief moment, Kallen was incensed. It had been non-stop action since the moment she'd touched down in Japan, couldn't she have five minutes before having to jump back into the espionage. Just last night Ohgi had sworn his loyalty to Zero, so why'd he have to go around and grill her? Kallen closed her eyes and tried to calm down, something she'd been getting a lot better at recently. Okay Kallen, think. I love him, but Ohgi's kinda gullible, so he'll probably believe whatever BS I sell him if I sound convincing. That doesn't mean I can be lazy, though. It'll be easier if I keep in bits of the truth.

"Well, you see… by the time I found Zero, he and Suzaku were fighting each other outside their Knightmares. I jumped in to protect Zero, but Suzaku knocked me out. By the time I woke up I was in the cockpit of the Guren with Zero, and he filled me in on his plan to save you," she explained, keeping her tone level.

"Oh, well, I'm glad you're alright," Ohgi said, seemingly satisfied.

"So am I. I know we're gonna be assaulting the settlement again soon, and I'm gonna need to be one-hundred percent when that happens. So, Ohgi, do you think you could let me sleep some more? I'm kinda tired," she excused lamely. Her good mood had been soured by having to lie to him, and she wanted to be alone for a while.

"Oh, um… sure, no problem," he responded, looking surprised. He awkwardly drew himself from her bedside to the door, pausing at it's frame. "Hey, uh, Kallen," he called back to her. She tilted her head to the side, waiting for him to continue. "I, uh, well, I-I love you, you know…?" he told her, unsure of himself.

Kallen understood why. For as close as they had become after Naoto's death, they'd never been verbally affectionate like that before. It was weird, but she didn't really hate it. Being in prison must've hurt more than he's letting on, she considered. "Yeah… I love you too," she eventually said. The words felt strange on her tongue, as she'd never told that to anyone outside her family. Still, after a moment of consideration she realized she meant it. Ohgi had always been there for her after her brother's death; she could do the same for him when he needed it. With a hesitant smile and a small nod, Ohgi turned off the lights and left her room.

For a few seconds after his departure, Kallen regretted making him leave. She may have set herself up in the medical bay to help corroborate the lie she'd told the Black Knights, but the truth was(Even with her injuries)she was restless. Not in the physical sense, obviously. She was fairly certain her body was currently looking for a new contractor as she lay there.

No. Right now, she needed to scheme.

Her renewed attack on the Tokyo settlement would be taking place in just four days. If Diethards intel could still be trusted, that was the day the new Viceroy would be arriving in Area 11. He wouldn't be inaugurated until at least month later while the Area government 'handled' Cornelia's sudden disappearance. Even so, she couldn't simply charge the Royal Palace on the day of his arrival and hope to win. Diethards intelligence work was annoyingly useful, but despite now knowing that approximately seventy five percent of Area 11's military forces were destroyed or otherwise indisposed, she didn't feel confident in an all out assault. Instead, she needed a plan.

Kallen had spent a depressing amount of time agonizing over how to plan. She wasn't anywhere near as clever as Zero-as Lelouch-had been, and that man seemed blessed by the gods with his penchant for creating 'miracles'. Regardless, Kallen wasn't stupid, or at least she didn't think she was.

"You're even less clever than you think."

Kallen pouted, "Thank you for that, C.C.," she mumbled to herself. Focus. To help herself(and hopefully prevent needless amounts of stress)Kallen had forced herself to forget everything and start with the simplest things: her objective, and her opponent. The new Viceroy was to be some joker named Colaris. Kallen had never heard of him before, and she prayed that was because he sucked ass at his job. Either way, he was going to be the person directing the troops when she started the attack. There were plenty of other, smaller but still significant enemies she'd have to face(Like Cornelia's royal guard)but he was the main one. As for her objective, well that was simple: to capture the Viceroy and, by proxy, take back Japan. Now that everything was so clearly defined, she could start introducing the various obstacles keeping her from her goal and plan around them.

The two biggest ones, in her mind, were what was left of Cornelia's royal guard and the palaces defenses themself. She didn't think either one was too much trouble on it's own(she could fight off Guilford and the remaining Glaston Knights on her own, and the palaces defenses wouldn't hold up against concentrated fire)but if they worked in tandem with each other then victory was far from likely. Okay, so I need to figure out how to separate the royal guard from the Palace, deal with them. Take down the automated defenses, and also deal with the Military forces of Britannia bombarding me on all sides.

Kallen closed her eyes and groaned. She had her work cut out for her.

Kallen = Zero

Kallen closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she descended into the cockpit of her Guren.

Today was the day. She'd put her entire being into making sure the Black Knight's were properly prepared and equipped to take on the Royal Palace. She'd been worried about involving Tohdoh with the planning process as much as she had, but if he was surprised by Zero's sudden relyance on his subordinates he didn't show it. Nunnally as well had been taken into account; she was staying with Sayoko at a secure location in case V.V. made another play on her. Everything seemed to be falling in her favor, but despite all that Kallen was so damn nervous.

She'd never doubted her skills as a warrior for a second, but her ability to improvise new plans on the battlefield? Create new plans on the fly? Direct a group of more than a hundred people? Suffice to say she had her fair share of doubts. Regardless, Zero couldn't go back on a promise like that. So come hell or high water, Kallen was gonna make a miracle happen.

She'd tried to be a bit more discrete when it came to protecting her identity. She'd entered the Guren as Kallen Kozuki, but as soon as she was alone in the cockpit she quickly shed her red plugsuit and retrieved the Zero uniform she'd kept hidden in one of the compartments. It was good for her that all Knightmare cockpits essentially looked the same, so the other members of the Black Knights would likely assume she was in a random Burai as opposed to the Guren. Once again this was a stop gap; anyone with a particularly sharp mind would notice how the personalized Burai which Zero had operated before obtaining the Guwain was nowhere to be seen, and that Kallen only answered through audio channels.

As the Black Knights(and in particular Zero squad)took off down the dilapidated but still usable railroads of the Ghettos, Kallen tried to distract herself from her growing nerves. If-no, once-Japan was back under the control of its native people, a lot of the problems she had maintaining her double life would be alleviated. Without any immediate threat she could have Sayoko start standing in as a body double instead of protecting Nunnally all the time. Considering her life as Kallen-outside of the Black Knights-was pretty much dead in the water, people would also be a lot less suspicious at her long absences. Of course, that was with the hope she succeeded here. Kallen was very acutely aware of the roadblocks ahead of her, and one in particular left her heart heavy.

Suzaku…

Throughout the last four days, Kallen had asked Diethard to keep his ear to the ground in regards to anything relating to Suzaku. Much to her endless anxiety, he came up with absolutely nothing. No news was not always good news, and this was a prime example of that. She had no idea whether he was dead or if he was gonna explode onto the battlefield and attempt another Shinjuku. Worse than that, the murdering son of a bitch could very easily tear the Black Knight's apart, and he wouldn't have to lift a finger to do so. This is where Kallen's stop gap and half measure's in regards to hiding her identity would really come back to bite her in the ass. It would be infinitely easier to sell Suzaku as a crazy asshole if 'Zero' was on board the G-1 giving orders instead of in a random Knightmare, and even that was frustratingly suspect.

It pissed Kallen off that she had no way of knowing if Suzaku would show up until she started the attack. Her beloved Guren rolled along the underground tracks almost lazily. They would be arriving at their destination shortly, with Tohdoh(and the Holy Swords)already in position for his part of the plan. He was just waiting for Zero's order to move out. It was about now that the soul crushing panic which had plagued her the last few days reached a fever pitch. Once she gave that order the lives of every single Black Knight was her responsibility, as well as the entirety of the Japanese people. It was a heady thing to process, which was weird considering it'd always been true.

Even before Zero and the Black Knights, Kallen had always seen Naoto's resistance group as those carrying the hope of the Japanese. I guess this is what you call 'the burden of the crown' huh? The thought was as sobering as it was terrifying. Still, she'd never been the type to run from a challenge. For Naoto, her mother, the Japanese, and Lelouch and Nunnally; she had to fight.

"Yes it will. Or rather it must change the world. Will there be sacrifices? Not only soldiers but the innocent as well. And yet, because of all these things we have no choice but to continue on. No matter the cost… even if people see us as cowards; we have to prevail! If that means more blood will be shed so be it. We've spilled so much to get here… We can't let it be in vain."

It was almost annoying how much Lelouch's words gave her strength. Ah well, wise words were wise words, even if spoken by a Britannian Prince. The operation would be starting soon, and she would be the key factor in determining its success.

Kallen = Zero

It had been a rather uneventful day for Colaras.

Or at least, Tohdoh assumed as much from the bored and languid way he strolled down the red carpet. The massive Britannian cruise ship was a clear indication of his status, and that was excluding the small army of Knightmare frames which accompanied him. One in particular gave him cause for concern, and that was the unmistakable customized Gloucester that belonged to one Gilbert Guilford. Tohdoh was sure he and the other Holy Swords would be more than a match for him, but he was still an incredibly proficient devicers, and he also had the advantage in numbers. Tohdoh imagined that was the reason why Zero had made all of the Holy Swords accompany him instead of more evening distributing their stronger devicers.

Or maybe he just had a 'fondness' for Kallen; far be it for him to question the man's orders.

Tohdoh narrowed his eyes and focused his attention on the scene before him. All of the Britannian KMF pilots stood outside of their frames at the moment, meaning Tohdoh might be able to reduce that numbers advantage by stealing a tactic from his commander and knocking the frames into the water. He filed the information away and carefully followed Colaras' steps. The operation would be commencing literal seconds from now, and once it began Tohdoh didn't see himself getting a reprieve from the action until it was all over. He'd expected as much; that didn't bother him in the slightest.

The second Colaras stepped onto the dock, Tohdoh and his men moved.

They struck like lightning. Tohdoh quickly took to his position as chief of military operations, barking orders left and right which the other Black Knights were quick to obey. They attacked without mercy, slamming their frames against the Britannian sutherlands and sending them sinking into the bay. The enemy was quick to recover from their shock, however, and not much later Tohdoh and all the others were engaged in open combat with the Britannian soldiers. Not that it mattered, since everything was going exactly according to Zero's plan.

"Now!" he cried, and two rockets(Fired from Burai's they had up until then kept concealed)screamed from overhead before striking the soon-to-be Viceroy's cruiser. It erupted into flames, far from sunken and yet clearly unuseable as a mode of transportation. Just like that, he was trapped. Or at least he would've been if it weren't for the helicopters flying overhead. Tohdoh smirked inside his cockpit; with that, he'd more or less completed his role in the operation, now he simply had to have faith in Zero.

That didn't mean his fight was over, however. Guilford chose to remind him of this forcefully by charging through Tohdoh's forces and nearly impaling him on his lance. Tohdoh just barely manages to deflect the blow with his sword, but now he stands face to face with one of Cornelia's royal guard.

"I recognize that model… Tohdoh! Tell me, is Zero the one behind this madness? Where is he?!"

Chiba and Asahina quickly approach Guilford from behind. "Are you all right, Tohdoh? Don't worry, the three of us can take this bastard down!" Chiba assured him.

But Tohdoh waved them off. "No! You need to support our forces. I'll be more than enough to deal with him," he ordered. They looked hesitant for a moment, before their loyalty and respect won out and they rushed to follow his orders.

Guilford wasted no time in charging forward. Tohdoh pushed his thrust to the side and attempted to bisect his Gloucester, but his opponent was quick and backed out of his range. "You never answered my question…" Guilford said as they started trading blows. "Is Zero among you? I read the reports that said he was involved in your prison break, but I haven't seen him anywhere."

Tohdoh parried a stab from Guilford before retaliating. "Does that make you concerned? From how I understand it your Lady Cornelia has abandoned you. Do you chase Zero now as a way to redeem yourself in her eyes?"

"How dare you!" he roared, charging into battle again. Tohdoh continued to put everything into the duel, but neither of them were giving an inch. That didn't matter to him however. His taunts had been successful in luring the knight away from the Viceroy, who now scrambled onto one of the Military helicopters which had arrived on the scene. Before long the chopper now containing Colaras whirled away in the direction of the royal Palace.

Tohdoh smirked; Colaras had quite the rude awakening in store for him there.

Kallen = Zero

Kallen felt the pressure in her heart lessen when she received word from Tohdoh.

Even though she was confident in her plan, Kallen would admit splitting her forces as she had left her anxious. All the while she'd been waiting underground she kept fidgeting with her Knightmare controls or tugging at the collar of her uniform. Multiple times she'd had to stop herself from abandoning the other Black Knight's to make sure Tohdoh succeeded. Knowing that he had completed his part in the plan was nothing short of euphoric. Now all she had to do was pray he held off Guilford and the other forces long enough for her to succeed.

Diethards voice suddenly crackled to life from an audio channel. "Colaras just touched down in the Palace. Phase one of the operation is a success! We can begin phase two at your order!" he cheered, sounding just a tad more manic than he should.

Zero reached down to the mask at her side and placed it atop her head. Time to get to work.

"Right! All forces attack immediately!" Zero commanded, sending a signal to all other Black Knights. The nearly four-hundred strong force of Knightmare's sprung to life in unison, and Zero joined them in her Guren. All at once, they erupted from the roads, side streets, abandoned buildings and whatever else in order to assault the Palace from all angles. As panicked civilians quickly fled the scene and the first of the enemy's forces started emerging Zero continued his speech.

"All of you should be familiar with the plan! We're going to take advantage of the military's reduced strength in order to mount a full on assault on the Palace. Tohdoh and his forces are keeping our greatest physical threats-Cornelia's remaining royal guard and the Glaston Knights-at bay! As such, it's up to us to break through the Palaces walls and take it for ourselves, taking the current Viceroy captive in the process. Do whatever you have to in order to survive, but don't let a single innocent life be taken while we fight! Remember what the Black Knights stand for… but know now, today is the day the United States of Japan will be born!"

The Black Knights screamed their agreement, and fought the first Britannian wave like men possessed. It was almost sad, but Zero felt comfortable here on the battlefield. She knew exactly what to do here; all the right decisions to make and how to win. As she used her beloved Guren to smash through the first wave of Sutherlands, she did her best to impart some of her battle knowledge to the other Black Knights. Thankfully her impromptu teachings seemed to reach a good amount of them, and the BK's strength was only bolstered as a result. Many of the recruits started using abandoned cars as shields, collapsing parts of the road to drop the enemy Sutherlands or otherwise doing what they can to get an advantage. With her Guren, and the increasing aptitude of the Black Knights, Zero decimated the first wave without a single casualty on her part.

The second wave appeared right as they were on the doorstep of the Palace, so to speak. Their numbers were thrice that of the first wave, and they now outnumbered her forces 3 to 1. She didn't have to look behind her to know the other BK's were hesitant; she felt much the same way herself, after all. "Don't be intimidated by their numbers! Our military strength is equal, and once we break through their line our victory will be within reach!"

Zero was relieved when her words seemed to reignite the fire in her subordinates. Britannian soldiers weren't about to wait for them, however, and quickly rained down fire. This time some of the Black Knight's were forced to eject, but they retaliated with equal if not greater fervently. Zero pushed ahead of the other soldiers in her Guren, weaving in between the bullets. She came down upon them like a hammer, melting whatever units were unfortunate enough to come within range of her radiant wave surger. Those who weren't taken by it were dispatched with her Gurens dagger, slash harkens, and land spinner assisted kicks. As well as she was performing however, the line of Britannian soldiers weren't breaking. Her own units were doing a remarkable job of covering her and taking out the multitude of Sutherlands, but to use an old idiom, 'for every soldier they took down two more take their place'. Worse still was that Zero was facing equal casualties on her own forces side. The Britannian military's strength may have been lessened, but they still had the numbers advantage in this battle.

We can't sustain this, I need to do something to put the odds back in our favor. Of course, as soon as Zero started considering her options, things decided to grow worse still. The mounted guns which sprouted from the walls of the Palace started firing upon her troops. An entire squadron of her units were lost before the Black Knights managed to find proper cover in between the surrounding buildings. Well, if there was any more confirmation I needed that Colaras is in the Palace now, that was it. Being the Duke of Tokyo, it made sense that he would be familiar with the royal Palaces automated defenses. When Zero had initially presented his plan of luring the soon-to-be Viceroy to the imperial Palace before claiming it for themselves, Ohgi had been the one to inevitably ask why she didn't just take the Viceroy hostage the second he stepped foot on Japan. Her reasoning for doing so was actually rather simple, and equally depressing.

Colaras wasn't a member of the royal family.

Taking him hostage wouldn't give them the leverage they needed to get Tokyo's independence. Britannia's ever present social Darwinism might even lead them to claim Colaras' weakness was the reason for his capture and then put him to death. By taking both the new Viceroy and the imperial Palace, they were killing two birds with one stone. And that was to say nothing of Tohdoh's efforts to keep Guilford and the Glaston Knights off their backs. Focusing again on the task at hand, Zero opened her face spheres and took in the information. The reinforced Britannian line and the powerful turrets made for a deadly combination. She had no hope of victory by simply charging it head on, so she needed to strategize.

Spurred on by her previous success, the idea of collapsing the bridge and dropping the enemy Sutherlands to their deaths was appealing. She quickly discarded it, however. Doing so would leave her units just as helpless as the enemy's, seeing as they didn't have any float units to cross whatever hypothetical gap which would come as a result of her actions. Regardless, she needed a way to remove or at least lessen the Britannian presence. Zero was confident she could take care of the turrets with her beloved Guren, but unless she could break through the line and give herself an opportunity to strike at them it was hopeless. Zero's earlier musings suddenly gave her a deviously simple-but no less effective-idea. "Squads P, B, K, and R: focus your fire onto the Royal Palace; with them being so proud of those walls they built, it seems only fitting we drop the damn thing on top of them."

Zero's orders were followed without question. The rockets and gunfire which impacted the Palace walls resulted in a small avalanche. Sizeable bits of the beautific white marble which made up the exterior of the Palace crushed the unprepared Sutherlands below in a brutal fashion. Zero supposed there was some delicious irony in the Britannian's being crushed beneath the Palace they had so painstakingly constructed. More than that, however, her manufactured landside succeeded both in reducing their numbers to something more closely aligned with the Black Knight's own and breaking the encirclement. Zero forced herself to stop from rushing out and capitalizing on the opportunity, but only so she could give a token order for the Black Knight's to continue their assault and for 'Kallen' to deal with the Palaces remaining defences.

It was actually a boon that most of the wall mounted turrets weren't taken apart by her attack, as they would serve as an excellent deterrent for any enemy reinforcements once Zero seized control of them. Her Guren exploded onto the battlefield like a bat out of hell. The Britannian units resumed their attack with but a fraction of the strength in their last. They were still in the process of recovering from Zero's own unorthodox strike, but that was just fine with her. The Guren slid along the road leading into the Palace and smashed through the remaining enemy forces. Her opponents tried to retaliate, but she was so head and shoulders above them in terms of skill it was little more than an annoyance. Additionally, the fallen debris of the Palace walls served as great impromptu cover.

It only took Zero five minutes to completely disassemble everything in her way and reach the Palace proper. Without wasting a second, she used her slash harkens and land spinners to scale the wall and place herself outside the control center for the Palace's automated defenses. Zero tried her hardest not to think of the unmitigated massacre that was punching a hole in the wall and exterminating the officers inside. "Zero, this is Kallen! I've completed my task!" she shouted at, well, herself. Dropping back into her persona, Zero immediately responded, "Excellent work, Q-1! All remaining Black Knights, break through the encirclement and take up a position within the control center!"

Zero smirked beneath her mask as she dropped from the wall and rushed to assist the rest of her units. We're actually doing this. We can win.

Kallen = Zero

Tohdoh narrowed his eyes and put more strength into the deadlock. As was being shown to him now, Guildford wasn't so mindlessly devoted to his princess that he couldn't recognise the Black Knight's plan for what it was. After asserting command over the assembled units, he had quickly opened up Tohdoh's line and sent almost all of his soldiers to support the Viceroy. Now only him and the remaining Glaston Knights stood against them, and they were proving even more troublesome than Tohdoh had anticipated. He couldn't afford to send all of his units after the retreating Britannian troops or else everyone was liable to escape. Even though the skeleton crew he'd sent away to deal with the problem were performing admirably, this didn't spell good things for the future.

Do you have a countermeasure for this, Zero? If you don't, this fight may very well be lost.

Kallen = Zero

It started out easily enough.

Zero and the rest of the Black Knights had managed to secure a stranglehold at the Palace entrance. With a little more effort, they'd also managed to get the members of their R & D department inside the control center for the Palaces defenses, essesiatally commandeering them for the Black Knight's use. The gods seemed to be smiling on them, because Rakshata had also been able to procure a map by hacking into the system. Unfortunately, even with all their advantage they still hadn't broken through the interior units and gained access to the Palace itself.

Viceroy Colaras was incredibly skilled at throwing bodies against the grinder, as it turned out, since that seemed to be his only strategy for getting rid of her. Zero was thankful that the interior of the royal Palace was so amenable for her own troops, because if things kept progressing as they were she'd definitely win a battle of attrition. The Britannian units only had two ways to approach them from inside the Palace walls: those being from the left and right. Of course, this made it incredibly easy for Zero to funnel the enemy units into her troops' waiting arms. Needless to say, it was a massacre with only the most skillful-or luckiest-Britannian soldiers managing to gun down one of her units.

Not to sound arrogant, but Zero was starting to wonder if she even needed to be here.

Tohdoh had called in earlier to report the incoming reinforcements, but even that left Zero mostly unconcerned. As long as Tohdoh could keep Guilford and the Glaston Knight's from interfering, the Palaces automated defenses could simply mow down any approaching Sutherlands.

Simply put, Zero didn't just hold all the cards at the table, she might as well own the casino they were playing in.

Ten minutes later and the situation hadn't changed. Zero had briefly considered the idea of storming ahead in the Guren and attempting to capture the Viceroy all on her own, but the last thing she needed was to be trapped behind enemy lines. And so she waited, making a game of counting the Sutherlands which were mindlessly mowed down one after another. If she had to guess, the enemy probably had a little over three-hundred units left. Once their numbers were around half that, Zero would make one final push to the Palace; once that was done, victory was there.

Then, suddenly, the world shook violently.

Zero hastily took up her Knightmares controls and worked to stabilize herself. Even after she had, the ground continued to rumble dangerously, sending a number of the other Black Knight's crumbling to the ground. Soon enough things were stable again, but Zero could still hear the thundering of what sounded like a controlled earthquake. That was when it hit her; Wait, I've felt this before!

A simple look behind her was all it took to confirm it. Exactly like the Black Rebellion, the plates which held the Tokyo settlement above the remains of Japan were brought down all around her, leaving the Palace standing alone. The damage wasn't nearly as extensive as it had been when the same act was perpetrated by Lelouch, but it hardly mattered. Without access to any float units, Zero and the Black Knight's were trapped within the walls of the royal Palace.

"Are you surprised, Zero?" asked a voice she could only assume was Colaras' over the speakers. "Ironic, isn't it? That the very same strategy which you employed to cripple our strength would now leave you trapped and without assistance. Make no mistake, Zero! Before this day ends, you will forever be wiped from the face of this earth!"

Colaras…

Zero tightly gripped the controls of her Guren. If this bastard really thought he would be the one to end her, he had another thing coming…

A.N.: A bit of a strange place to end this one, I know. But it helps better break up the battle because of the sudden shift in power. I'm sorry this chapter took so much longer to get out then the previous ones. I'm also sorry to say that's probably going to remain the case from now on. School started back up for me so I don't have as much time to work on this story. I hope you guys don't mind being a little more patient.