Pico and Kazuya were hiding inside the nearest closet. The entire restaurant was a giant mess and there were no other places to hide. The tables were all chopped in two, the walls, which were made of stone and brick, were covered in burn marks and deep gashes, cut through as easily as if it were soft. Like human skin.

Pico was terrified. She had never seen someone so monstrous and inhumane before. All she could do was wait as Panpeus' silhouette slowly went away. He was chuckling under his breath. He was not a baby anymore, but he did enjoy a good game of hide and seek.

"Who is this…?" she asked to Kazuya as quietly as she could, as if he knew the answer to this demon intruding on them. He had not the slightest idea himself, and even though he did not show it, he was just as terrified as she was.

When Panpeus' shadow went away Kazuya motioned for Pico to follow him, trying his hardest to get them into a safer place than they were now. The both of them did not know how well this demon's hearing was, so they did their best to be as quiet as possible as they slowly moved out of the closet. The slightest creak of the door startled them.

It was all clear. For now, anyways. He grabbed Pico's hand and walked to the back room. Pico, herself, was on watch to make sure that Panpeus would not come back. She had a ton of questions that she wanted answered. Who was he? Why was he after them in particular? And who was "Gitaroo Man?"

They occupied her mind so much that she did not notice Kazuya guiding her to one of the back rooms that held Burger Queen's storage of pre-made foods and other accessories. It was disgusting in here, but it would have had to do for now.

"This has to be some sort of prank," Kazuya said to Pico, trying to convince himself more than her, "it has to be. There's no way that this thing is real. I bet the moment he comes out and tries to kill us, a camera crew will appear out of nowhere and we'll be the embarrassment of this city because of how much of an idiot we both look. What do you think Pico?" he noticed she was not paying attention, "Pico, hey. Are you that scared?" he said, shaking her a little by the shoulder.

"… I wonder If U-1 is part of all of this," she suddenly said, "I hope he's okay."

Kazuya started to worry as well. He knew U-1 since they were in kindergarten and he was always a complete coward, even when they were watching "scary" children's movies, he was always the first one to cower behind a couch or cry when it was too scary. Often times during a sleepover he had to be the one to be called home because it was too much. How would he ever even comprehend something as terrible and frightening as a demon with a strange ax actively trying to kill them? Easy: He would not.

However, their worries about U-1 immediately turned towards themselves when they heard heavy footsteps coming right towards the door. Both of them froze up, scared that the littlest movement might make him hear them.

Then it went quiet.

"Is he gone...?" Pico asked, her voice trembling with utter fear.

*CRACK*

Any answer that she may have had was cut short by a giant ax smashing through the door, causing a huge hole. Pico held her hands to her mouth, muffling her scream as the blade was just mere inches close to her forehead. The blade retreated, and then seconds later it came down again.

And again.

And again.

When the hole was big enough, Panpeus looked at them with a wicked smile, "Heeere's PANPEUS!" He reached out to get the doorknob as fast as he could.

"Kazuya, DO something! Anything!" Pico exclaimed. She was absolutely panicked and he was the only one that could possibly do anything for this situation, even if it was comfort.

"I don't know what to do, Pico! What do you want me to do, this is a giant, hulking read demon with a weird ax about to kill us…!"

"Tha~t's right!" the six foot demon gleefully cheered, "It's been so long since I saw the pretty red insides of an Earth Alien! I wonder if they still look the same," Panpeus ripped open the door and lifted up his ax, the sharp blades did not look dull at all despite his rampage through the main restaurant looking for them. In fact, all it did was look even sharper.

The end was about to be real close for both Pico and Kazuya when suddenly they heard a deep, commanding voice come from behind their stalker.

"Panpeus, CEASE."

The demon groaned and lowered his ax, "But they're right there, boss! Can I just cut them up a little? I just wanna see their blood!"

"I want them alive," the voice said, "when the business is done and the Gitaroo is mine, then you can do whatever you want to Gitaroo Man's best friends."

"Hmph!" Panpeus pouted pitifully, "I don't see what he sees in these two! Especially the pink haired one! Humans are just gross."

Ignoring the rambling and ranting Panpeus was doing, he pointed to the two of them. As he did, two floating metal spheres with keyboards attached to them came up from behind him, their clawed hands ready to grab.

"Little-Os, seize them. We'll use them as bait. He came to us once, he can come to us again. Especially since now we have two of the most important people in his life."

The two humans were absolutely in shock by what was happening, and still scarred by the fact that they were just inches away from death that they did not even notice the figure's minions grab them and hold them with handcuff-like traps around their wrists.

They were pulled out of the room they were hiding in and were guided by the Little-Os out the door. As they were passing by the figure, Pico noticed the dark figure staring especially at her, his red eyes menacingly glaring in the dead of night. She tried her best to ignore it. She did not want anything to do with him or anyone who was involved in this ambush.

The elevator doors opened slowly to Zowie's main headquarters. Kirah looked around, almost nostalgic about entering in here, yet also intimidated. She remembered the first time she came here back when she was still training to be Zowie's best creation. She shook away the thoughts of that day and focused on their real goal: To prevent Ming-Ming from finding and reviving Zowie.

"We know you're in here, cat!" Puma barked, "Show yourself!"

There was no response. Complete silence with the exception of the beeping and whirring of the machines inside. U-1 looked at the giant monitors in front and slowly walked towards them. He never went in here before, but he could only assume this was how Zowie kept tabs on him and Puma years ago.

The monitors showed different locations on Planet Gitaroo. He could see the prisons that once held and enslaved the Gitallines on one monitor, and another one was almost moving around like a satellite keeping tags of the newfound city. Most of the cameras also kept tabs on what went on inside the Great Cathedral as well. He looked on one of the lower right screens and saw the main hall to the Cathedral. Gregorio was gone, nothing was left but a trail of his blood that only implied that he went back to tend to his wounds. The fact that he could be anywhere unnerved U-1, and he wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

"Kirah, do you know how to work this?" he asked, hoping that her experience as being a former Gravillian soldier would help in this case. She walked towards the big monitor and inspected it.

"It's been so long, Gitaroo Man… I haven't even been here for years, let alone use its inner workings," Kirah looked at the buttons and switches closely, "I think this one switches the monitor," she flicked it, and the screens went static for a few moments before switching to a completely different place, yet familiar to U-1.

"Earth!" he shouted, "He can see as far as my own planet?!" U-1 shuddered, "That means he's been keeping an eye on me for longer than I thought… creepy…"

"Not just you, U-1…," Puma pointed a paw towards a couple of the monitors that showed the inside of different houses, including Pico and Kazuya's, "He's been keeping tabs on everyone… All to search for your Gitaroo long ago. Who knows how long he's been doing this. For all I know, he probably did this from the day you were born."

"What a creep!" U-1 felt like throwing up. He felt so violated knowing that he was being watched for almost his entire life, "That's so gross!"

"Gitroo Man, I'm getting something from this restaurant. Third row, second column," Kirah pointed to the monitor she was referring to. U-1 looked in shock.

"That's Burger Queen! Pico, Kazuya, and I used to go there all the time after school! What the hell happened to it, it looks like it was robbed…"

Suddenly, they saw two figures be walked out of the building. Handcuffed and guided by two shadowy spheres. U-1 recognized them immediately.

"Pico! Kazuya!" he exclaimed, "What's happening to them?! Who's doing this?!" he saw Panpeus walk behind them and almost went wide-eyed, "Oh my god. Puma, you were right. Everyone came back. That's Panpeus, isn't it? He's… he's a lot older now. Didn't he promise to be good?"

"You can promise a lot of things when you're on the edge of defeat," Kirah said.

"True…," U-1 sighed, "but why would they go after my friends? Did they know they were there? Who-…"

His ramblings stopped as he froze in place. Following behind Panpeus was a cloaked figure. Though U-1 could not see his face, he knew there was something familiar about him. Something terribly familiar.

His assumptions were entirely correct when said figure stopped right in place and slowly stared at the cameras. The moment his blood red eyes made contact, the cameras stopped. All that was left was static on all of the monitors.

U-1 froze in both fear and worry. His friends were in danger, they were probably about to be executed by an enemy who should not even be alive. Yet, here he was. It felt like a knife was stuck in his chest. His friends were in danger, and it was all his fault.

"We gotta go," he said quietly, his voice choking, "My friends are in danger and it's all my fault...," U-1 turned around to leave, "come on Puma, and come on, Kirah. We're going back to Earth."