The wind howled and tore through her chambers like a miniature storm, sending reports and documents alike swirling through the air. While she usually despised messes of any kind, this was one of the rare instances in which she did not care; she needed to breathe. The stale, recycled air sifting in through the ventilation shafts was making her feel sick. She had been unable to leave the Galleon even once in the past five weeks, and she was growing weary of being stuck inside the warship for so long, even though it meant getting further away from Nene every day.

But the flying fortress was about to reach its final destination; a small village on the outskirts of Gran Kingdom's famous canyonlands and would head back to the capital by sunrise tomorrow. There was work to be done and she needed to get ready; the first thing to do, was to take a step back and breathe some fresh air so she could think clearly again -at least, that had been the plan. Her paperwork flying about and the thundering noise of the engines combined with the fact that the air at their current altitude was not only far colder but also thinner than she had initially expected, was not exactly helping.
With an irritated sigh, she shut the window and turned to regard the mess: there were papers everywhere but on her desk, where they had sat in neat piles, sorted by subject and date for the past month. Not that it really mattered though; she didn't need them anymore and in the end, Szabo's moronic subordinates would be the ones forced to contend with the mess.
A sharp knock at the door suddenly tore her from her musings:

"General Zola!"

She frowned. Time was running out.

~oOo~

"How is the test run going?" Nene's amplified voice blared from the speakers and echoed off the walls of the Galleons control room.

"Everything has gone smoothly so far, apart from a few minor issues." Szabo answered proudly, hovering directly in front of the screen.

"What issues?" Nene's slightly pixilated face drew into a scowl; his eyes seemed to bore into Szabo despite the fact, that the ancient was hundreds of miles away in one of the capitols many laboratories.

"Just a few malfunctions by the landing platforms, the gates won't open and close properly and one of the water pipes in engine room C burst yesterday, causing a minor flooding."

"And what have you done about it?"

Szabo made to answer, but was cut off by the woman beside him.

"The mechanics are working on the gates as we speak and the engine room has already been drained. The broken pipe will be replaced once we arrive back in the capitol." Zola answered in her usual cool and indifferent tone of voice.

"Good work Zola" The woman lowered her gaze and bowed before Nene's horrid visage on screen. "Is there anything else to report?"

"No sir!" Szabo answered quickly, eager to speak before Zola could interrupt him again.

"Good. I will be expecting a full report the moment you arrive in Castelle"

"Yes sir" Szabo bowed and Zola nodded in confirmation. The screen switched off and Szabo was left alone with the recently appointed General. He was absolutely livid; not only had Zola barged into the room right before his personal report to Nene but she had interrupted him and received credit for his work! Ready to give her a piece of his mind, the robot turned to where she had been standing, only to realize that the woman was already gone.

~oOo~

Night had fallen hours ago and nearly all of the Galleons occupants had turned in for the night. As this was the Galleons' maiden voyage, there were only a minor number of guards stationed on the warship and only a hand full of them had the misfortune of being assigned the nightshift. If she, or rather I they were lucky, she wouldn't have to kill any of them.

Zola glanced up at the black sky through the glass panels lining the hallway; there was no sign of the stars, even the moon was nothing more than a faint glow behind the heavy clouds. It was more than ideal, but the weather needed to hold a while longer to be of any use to her.

Quickening her pace, she briskly strode through the hall, until she reached the corridor leading to the scientists' quarters. The motion sensors detected her and the neon lights on the ceiling switched on, casting a blinding artificial light. She blinked as spots danced in her vision and continued down the corridor. It was lined with white doors and the scientists' names written on the walls beside them made it easier for Nene's messengers and servants to locate and drag individuals to the labs when Nene had one of his insane ideas at four in the morning again. Zola unfortunately had frequently been a victim of those untimely wakeup calls, as she knew more about shadows (Nene's new favorite research topic) than anyone else and he would always get her opinion on things before dragging the rest of his staff out of bed.

If she succeeded tonight, this would no longer be a problem and if she failed, being woken up at an ungodly hour would be the very least of her concerns. She banished the thoughts of what would be done to her if she was caught from her mind and focused again on the task at hand.

She had a mental list of researchers that needed to be dealt with before she left and she began scanning the writing on the doors for those names. Finally, after having cleared half the hall and wondering if she had actually been distracted enough to have taken a wrong turn, she found what she was looking for and sharply knocked on the door after glancing to her sides to make sure she was alone. After a few moments of silence, she heard indistinct rumbling sounds, then the muffled voice of a male, maybe in his forties called: "I'll be there in just a moment!"

She waited patiently until finally, she heard the lock clicking and the door opened, revealing the tired face of a short, angry little man, who glared up at his unexpected visitor. When he realized whom he was dealing with, his expression quickly turned from irritation to fear and he took an involuntary step back.

"General! I wasn't expecting to see you at this hour, please forgive me for making you wait so long." He stuttered. He did not offer to let her come inside.

"You're Dr. Benson?"

"Y-Yes ma'am, but why-"

"Nene has some questions concerning the shadow creator, which he needs answered immediately. You don't mind me coming in, do you?" It clearly wasn't a question and she stepped forward, causing the man to flinch and stumble back further into his apartment.

"Of course, of course! Come inside, I apologize for the mess!"

She walked further into what appeared to be his living room and scanned the small room for signs of the presence of other people, while the scientist closed the door.

"Is there anyone else in here? The information I seek is highly confidential."

"No ma'am, I live alone."

"Good." Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the knife she kept concealed inside the navy jacket of her uniform. "Then this won't take long"

~oOo~

Zola stepped out of the apartment, not ten minutes later. It had been quick and as clean as could be done. She had been exceedingly careful not to get any blood on herself, to avoid unwelcome questions and suspicion from anyone she might come across. Continuing further down the same hall, she scanned the names on the doors for the next one on her list. She would have to be quicker next time, the longer she was gone, the higher the chances someone would notice she was absent from her chambers.

~oOo~

Szabo drifted down the halls in a horrible mood. Zola had made it look like he had let the accidents happen and then fixed them herself, making him seem completely incompetent! While yes, it had happened under his supervision, he had been the one to oversee the fixing. Zola had taken no part in it whatsoever.

At least Zola hadn't mentioned the fact that another pipe of the same build had burst, leaking cooling fluid into the still damp engine room. The Galleon had to slow down significantly and would continue at little more than half the pace it had been traveling at so far, as they could not risk the engines overheating while water and cooling fluid were pooling on the ground, cooling anything but the engines.

He wondered why she hadn't mentioned it though, was it because she didn't know of it? This was not part of her job, but then again, she had known about the other pipe, so it was unlikely she hadn't heard of this one. But if she did know, then what reasons did she have for staying silent during the report? Definitely not to keep him in Nene's good graces; he knew she hated him nearly as much as he did her. But there could be no possible explanation as to why she didn't let Nene know, unless...

Szabo froze for a moment, debating whether the thought he'd had deserved to be taken seriously. Then, he turned around and hurried back the way he'd come; back to the engine rooms.

~oOo~

Eight men were now dead and there was only one left on her list. The last one however had been a mess: The first to suspect that she had come to kill him; he had immediately run for his communicator after he'd opened the door and found Zola standing there in the dead of night, figuring it could only mean one thing since Nene wasn't around. She'd had no choice but to act quickly rather than cleanly. The whole thing had ended in a violent mess that had left her drenched in his blood. The mental image of his mangled body would undoubtedly haunt her the most whenever she fell asleep that night -if she even lived that long: she still had her doubts about whether or not she would make it out alive.

But she could not afford self-doubt now, or ever. She had run into the scientists' bathroom, to find a towel and had gotten most of the blood off her hands and face. Her clothes however were pretty much ruined and would give her away immediately. The navy color of her uniform did not do much to hide the bloodstains but there was nothing she could do about it now, except abandon her jacket, which boar most of the blood.

Lucky for her, her final victim had very poor eyesight even on the rare occasions when he actually wore his glasses. Zola left the room and quietly closed the door before moving on to the very end of the corridor, where she stopped in front of the last door that simply read "Carlisle".

Like her, he had no last name; those were reserved only for those of noble heritage and the few who had received doctorates and PhDs, as they usually ended up rich when they got old and rich was the equivalent of noble in this country.

Someone, most likely the apartment's occupant had placed a large flowerpot with a sunflower in the corner despite the fact that no sunlight would ever reach this far inside the Galleon. It would die soon and the futile attempt at bringing some color and life into the warship would wither, die, and prove a point Zola had made to the man a long time ago.

But that didn't matter now. What was stopping her from knocking on that door, were serious qualms about killing this man: unlike the other men she had dealt with tonight, this man wasn't a researcher or a scientist, but an archeologist. He had always been kind to her, despite her reputation and demeanor, and more importantly, he had known her father back when he had been alive and working on excavation sites for Nene. The two men hadn't been friends exactly, but from what she could remember they had gotten along well and despite the fact that Carlisle had willingly started working for Nene (as he was the only person in all of Gran Kingdome willing to fund his research) she found no reason to dislike him. In fact, he was the only person she had worked with the past four years she hadn't come to resent: He was kind to everyone he came across, usually kept to himself and was perfectly harmless -except for the fact that his work supplied Nene with the information, the researchers and scientists needed to build the shadow creator. But the lead scientists were dead and without them the knowledge would be useless until Nene found equally qualified replacements, which would take moths if not years. Nevertheless, Nene would find someone eventually and either bribe or threaten them until they were willing to work for him.

She was still debating, when the door suddenly opened with a slight creak to reveal Carlisle standing there in his pajamas, holding a watering can.

"Oh, Zola what a lovely surprise seeing you here tonight!" He greeted her warmly, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about finding her here in the dead of night. "Why don't you come inside for a nice cup of tea?" She hesitated before answering. She was not ready to kill him.

"Why are you up at this time of night?" she asked calmly, ignoring his question and eying the watering can.

"Oh, I've been having trouble sleeping and woke up a few minutes ago. Remembered I'd forgotten about watering this lovely little thing and thought I'd take care of it before I forget it again." He smiled and moved past her to get close enough to the flowerpot to water the plant. Zola just stood there a moment; this was not what she had expected, but she couldn't turn away now … or could she? Carlisle put down the half-empty watering can next to the pot and smiled up at Zola "How about some tea? I just put on the kettle; there should be just enough water for two cups!"

"I'm rather busy right now"

"Still working so late at night? That's very commendable, but please come in, I have something I've been meaning to give you."

"I really don't-."

"It'll only take a moment dear, I assure you I'm not trying to waste your precious time" He cut her off, heading back to the door and Zola, surprised at his abruptness moved a step back to make room for the old man, before she reluctantly followed him inside.

"Ah, there's nothing better than the prospect of coming home to a nice warm cup of tea after a long day at work." he sighed contently even though his work shift had ended four hours ago and Zola's' never really did. He offered her a steaming glass, but she declined. The apartment looked identical to the other ones she had been in; since this was just the maiden voyage and the Galleon would not be used on a regular basis for some time, there was no point in decorating it with personal belongings. "You're sure you don't want any tea?" She was about to snap at him that she'd already told him no and really didn't have time for this, but stopped herself.

"No thank you" There wasn't any point in yelling at the old man. Despite everything, she valued good manners.

"Ah well, I guess it can't be helped, you are your father's daughter after all, always busy with work." He gazed at Zola for a moment, the mention of her father riling up emotions and memories she had tried very hard to bury. "Who would have thought the little girl running across those ruins, always getting herself into trouble would one day be my superior?" He smiled up at her, a sad glint in his eyes. "Your father would be very proud." Zola shifted uncomfortably though she didn't let any emotion show on her face. She did not want to be reminded of the past.

"What is it you wanted from me?"

"Want from you? Oh no, quite the opposite, I have something to give you."

~oOo~

Szabo hovered through the engine rooms, searching for the remnants of the broken pipes. Now that the water had been shut off, they were no longer leaking and Szabo was having a difficult time remembering where the damaged pipes had been exactly. After pacing through the room for a few minutes, he found the water pipe and scanned the length of it until he saw a small, circular hole, where the water had sprayed out. He memorized the exact shape and moved on until eventually he found the pipes for the cooling fluid. It took a while but he did end up finding the place where it had begun to leak. It only took one glance to confirm his suspicions. If Szabo had a mouth, he would be smiling now. This pipe hadn't burst due to technical problems or cheap materials; someone had stabbed it with a knife. And Szabo knew exactly who had done it.

~oOo~

Carlisle had started talking about his own daughter Sahila and how she had been accompanying him on their expedition into the sealed grounds with Nene's team, when the ceiling had caved in. The falling debris had killed her along with everyone else, except for Carlisle who had fled outside with Nene and Zola, who had been left behind. The reminder of those events had more than unsettled her and on top of everything else, the old man had rushed into his bedroom and emerged with an old jewelry box. He'd pulled out a simple silver bracelet and said it had belonged to his daughter. He wanted her to have it, but she had declined. However, the man wouldn't stop going on and on about how much he wanted her to have it and in the end, she agreed to take it under the condition that he would stop pestering her and let her get on with her work. Carlisle had accepted her terms with a laugh and insisted she put it on immediately. It was a tight fit and a sense of unease filled her when Carlisle snapped it shut. Zola vowed to herself, to take it off the first chance she got.

"Be careful dear!" Carlisle said sincerely, as Zola left his apartment, feeling uncomfortable and annoyed. She hadn't been able to bring herself to kill him.

"Don't worry, I won't lose it" Zola sighed.

"Oh, I know you won't" He murmured to himself, but before she could ask, he'd already shut the door.

Mentally shaking her head at his antics, she walked back to the corridor she had come from. Before she made it to the end, however she heard the creak of a door being opened and turned to see the old man running towards her at a surprising speed for someone his age.

"Zola, wait!" he called, breathless by the time he reached her.

"What is it?" She asked, letting her irritation leak into her voice and watched as the man tried to catch his breath.

"I-" He heaved; looking worried "I'm sorry" He fidgeted for a moment and pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She turned the small object in her hand and found nothing special about it; it was a small silver key that gleamed in the light. It looked vaguely familiar but she couldn't remember where she'd seen it before. At second glance, she saw that the number '35' etched into it. "What Is this for?"

"You're bright enough to figure it out when the time comes." He answered but the expression on his face made her wonder if he knew what it was for himself.

"Why are you acting like this?" She demanded, growing increasingly suspicious at the man.

"I..." he sighed "I've done some things while working here, that I regret and I know I can't make up for them but...this might be a start." Zola was about to ask again what had got into him, when he suddenly started backing away from her. "I need to go now, watch out for yourself." He murmured and bolted back into his apartment, leaving Zola standing in the hall, feeling something akin to confusion. Something was very wrong here.

Without hesitating another moment, she spun on her heels and briskly strode back to her final target, mentally swearing for having wasted so much precious time.

~oOo~

Szabo hurried through the hallway as fast as he could. Right from the moment Nene had introduced her, Szabo had hated Zola and that hate had only fueled his suspicion of her. But until now, she had done nothing that would indicate that she was indeed plotting against them, as he'd always expected her to. Actually, she had proven herself to be a valuable asset to Gran Kingdome and Szabo had watched in disdain, as she flew up the ranks until she had surpassed even him. The only good thing to come out of that, was that it annoyed Logi to no end that Zola had reached the same rank it had taken him seven years of hard work to achieve, in a mere three. Nene may have trusted her, but Szabo never would. And this? This was just too good to ignore! Of course, he didn't have any proof that Zola was working against them yet; there were no surveillance cameras in the engine rooms, but if he was correct, he would get the chance to catch her doing something much, much worse than damaging the engines tonight. He would not stop her himself, naturally. In fact, he would wait until she had done a bit of damage, until he had just enough footage to prove to Nene that she was a traitor. Then he would send for someone to deal with her personally. Almost bouncing with glee, Szabo hovered towards the surveillance room.

~oOo~

"General Zola, Sir!" The soldier greeted her with a shout, staring straight ahead, his right hand held to his forehead like he had been taught.

"Do I look like a sir to you?" She asked in a tone suggesting that if any more provocation was offered, she would have his head on a spike.

"No Ma'am, I apologize! It won't happen again!" He was visibly nervous; beads of sweat were running down his temple and his hand was shaking slightly. Zola had always had a certain reputation within Gran Kingdome's army and after the incident with Logi, they had learned to fear her.

"It had better not" She scowled. His composure was already faltering and he was desperately trying to avoid her gaze. Gran Kingdome's guards really were beyond pitiful. "I demand access to this hall."

"I'm sorry Ma'am; I am not authorized to let anyone enter without previously receiving notice by my captain." The guard said, his voice wavering.

"You did hear what I just said, didn't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am but I'm not authorized-"

"I am here on Nene's direct orders, so if you don't want to end up in jail I strongly advise you to open the door."

"But my captain said-"

"I outrank your captain and I am ordering you to open the door this instant"

"Y-Yes Ma'am!" He turned around and raised the keycard to the slot. It took him two tries before his hands stopped shaking enough for him to slide it through properly. Zola waited, not letting any of her impatience show, as it took nearly all her self-control not to glance around the corridor to see if anyone had seen this exchange. All it would take was one guard with a tinge of common sense and Logi would be on her heels. The moron entered the code, the door slid open with a hissing noise and the lights inside the hall switched on. Zola blinked into the sudden brightness and turned back to the guard while the spots in her vision slowly began to fade.

"You are not to let anyone inside until I come back out"

"But what if-"

"Are you trying to get arrested for defying orders?" She demanded, flat out glaring at him.

"No-Ma'am I won't let anyone else inside"

"Good" She nodded as she stepped inside and flicked the switch to her left. The doors slid closed with a hiss.

~oOo~

Szabo watched what was going on in the control room from where he stood (or rather hovered) in front of the many screens lining the wall of the surveillance room. Zola had wasted no time and started typing away at the keyboards at an impressive speed. She was deleting files no doubt, though the camera could not zoom in far enough for him to see which ones. It didn't really matter to him anyway; she was destroying Gran Kingdome's property and Szabo finally had all the proof he needed. Nene was going to kill here for this -if she was lucky. He pushed one of the smaller buttons on the control panel and a moment later, a messenger walked in and bowed before the robot. Szabo smiled. In a mere five minutes, Zola would regret ever underestimating him.

~oOo~

Zola was working as quickly as she could; she had already managed to destroy the main files on shadows and shadow creation, using the access codes she had received with her new rank. However, there was still so much more she needed to delete before she could even consider leaving the Galleon. Another twenty minutes was all she needed, then she would head back to her quarters, escape the warship on Killerbat's back and pray they wouldn't realize what she had done until she made it into the canyonlands. The canyons were a natural labyrinth so even if anyone decided to search for her in there, the chances of them finding her would be incredibly slim.

Zola gritted her teeth, as she was denied access to the third file in a row. She realized deleting the files like this was not going to work; she couldn't afford to let any knowledge on shadows remain in Nene's hands. The only other option she had was to summon Killerbat and destroy the computer, but that would draw the attention of the entire military force onto her. If she went along with her original plan, they would suspect her after they noticed her absence, but by the time they finally realized she had killed the researchers and destroyed the files and managed put together a searching party, she would be long gone. If she used her shadow however, it would be obvious who had done this since she was the only shadow wielder in all of Gran Kingdome. The noise and explosions would set off the alarms and within ten minutes, every mechat would be in the air, searching for her. They were faster than Killerbat and she could only keep him summoned for a maximum of two hours. If she didn't make it into the canyons in time, there would be no escape. But even if she did make it, Gran Kingdome's outposts would be alerted and ground troops would be sent to search for her.

Zola debated if the risk was worth it for a moment, and finally reached a decision; closing her eyes and clearing her mind of all thoughts and emotions as she spoke to her shadow. A blue aura suddenly flashed around her and cast an eerie light onto the room. However, right when Killerbat tried to emerge from the ground, a sharp pain flashed in Zola's wrist and broke her concentration. The aura faded to nothing and with it, the pain disappeared too.

What the hell-

A sudden flash on the giant screen interrupted her thoughts and Zola looked up to see the words 'Shadow Repressor' depicted above an image of the silver bracelet, Carlisle had given her. Zola cursed angrily. Carlisle may not have been able to hear her, but Szabo would. She knew this was his doing, and he must have been watching her through the security cameras.

Raising her right arm to inspect the device, she hoped against her better judgement that there would be a simple way to get it off, but there was no clasp or anything that would indicate where the thing could be opened. She knew there was no way to force the thing open, but there had to be a remote somewhere that would unlock it. Zola knew vaguely how the damn thing worked; when the shadow wielder summoned his shadow, the shadow repressor would absorb a certain amount of the energy and use it to cancel out the shadow's. The pain she had felt must have been the device overheating. Zola cursed at Szabo again and closed her eyes, to try to summon Killerbat. The shadow repressor could only absorb a finite amount of energy; if she managed to exceed that, she would be able to summon Killerbat and hopefully, the repressor would break. Her mind finally cleared, she spoke to her shadow and the aura flashed around her.

A sudden hissing noise completely shattered her concentration, causing her aura to fade again as the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the room. Zola did not have to look up, to know who it was. Another hiss signaled that the doors had closed, sealing them both inside. Zola knew she wouldn't be able to summon her shadow now and backed away from the keyboards as a cold sense of dread washed over her.

"Hello Zola" Logi said, a predatory smile playing at his lips as he drew his sword.

Author's notes:

Finally, after an eternity of writing the first chapter is finally up! *throws confetti*

As you may have noticed, the story starts a few years before the anime, right when Zola decided to turn on Nene and destroy his work. This fics focus will be on Zola and what happened to her before she met Shu and the other shadow wielders, as well as feature an OC who will be playing an important role later on. The kids will be a part of this story too, but it will be a while before they show up. That's all I'll say for now ;)

This turned out a bit longer than I thought it would so consider it a combination of prolog and chapter one. Chapters will probably be about two to three thousand words long and will usually be updated every month, depending on how much motivation and time I have to write.

Reviews would be very much appreciated, as they serve as great motivation and help me better my writing. Even if it's just a line or two, any kind of feedback would be great! :D

If you have any comments, requests, questions or noticed mistakes of any kind, please feel free to send me a pm, I promise I'll answer as soon as I can.

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Dragon or any of its characters and sadly, I am not making any money with this