Thanx to Ma Junior for reviewing! I'm sorry to say that Moonbay won't be making an appearance, but Irvine will later.

* -indicates a dream sequence

Disclaimer: I don't own zoids, only my original characters, blah, blah...

Loyalties of the Heart by Shelly

CHAPTER FOUR


*She lay back on the soft grass, enjoying the feel of the warm breeze playing across her face and the whispering of the leaves in her ears. She had been listening to them for some time now, hoping that they could give her some advice on how to get through what was going to be the hardest day of her life. But no advice was forthcoming, and she was sure that if there was it would only be to tell her that she must do it alone, must do it period if she was to keep someone she cared about more than anything from being hurt.

Feeling a light touch that tickled the palm of her hand, she glanced over her left shoulder into a pair of bright green eyes, eyes that in turn belonged to a very handsome man that she had developed strong feelings for in so short a time. What was worse, she knew that he felt the same about her, felt it within the depths of her soul that they were meant for each other, and that was the reason why she couldn't allow things to go any further between them. If she became too close to him, her father would only use him the same way he had used her mother and that she didn't wish on him with all her heart and soul.

The touch continued up her arm to caress her face as he moved closer to her, the breeze ruffling his hair just as it did hers. She closed her eyes as she surrendered to the feelings his touch had awakened in her, amazed that he could do so with just a touch of his hand on her skin. When she opened her eyes, she found herself looking directly into his, her heart racing as she realized that he was going to kiss her. She brought her hand up to stop him before he could, and her resolve nearly crumbled as she felt his own heartbeat thundering against her hand, his breath teasing her cheek.

Finally she summoned the strength to gently push him away as she sat up. "Karl, please don't do this," she whispered.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice betraying his confusion.

She had gotten to her feet and started to walk away, but he quickly jumped up and stopped her. "Tania, please, talk to me," he insisted. "Is it something I did?"

"No, no," she quickly assured him. "You have done nothing but be wonderful to me ever since I arrived here. And it is because I do not wish to hurt you that I cannot allow things to progress any further between us."

He gazed at her for a moment. "What are you afraid of?" he whispered. "Tell me what it is. I'll do anything I can to keep this from coming between us."

"No, Karl. You can do nothing about this. I cannot accept what you would give, although I would give you something of myself to remember me by as I must leave." She reached behind her neck and unhooked a necklace, reaching out with her hand to take his own and place it in his palm, curling his fingers closed with her own as she leaned up to kiss his cheek lightly before walking away. She never looked back although she wanted to more than anything, feeling the tears that dampened her cheeks as her heart split in two.*

Tania stirred slowly into wakefulness, feeling the tears that covered her face and hating herself for still loving him after all this time. He was the one person who could have changed her whole life around, but she had known that if she left her father Karl would've been the one to pay as well as herself. The life they would've shared together would've been no life at all, always having to hide from Prozen and those he would've sent after her. So she had sacrificed her happiness for his safety, spending all the years that followed wondering if Karl still remembered her and, more importantly, if he still loved her.

Seeing a shadow fall over her, she opened her eyes to see a strange creature staring at her, his nose mere inches from hers. She screamed almost at the top of her lungs, causing the creature to do the same, and she tried inching back away from him only to fall off the side of the bed and onto the cold floor.

The door opened and she saw three pairs of feet on the other side of the bed, hearing one of them ask where she was and the creature must've replied as the sound was more like a mechanical rumbling than a voice. Then one of them stepped around the side of the bed, a young man that appeared to be a member of the Republican Army. He extended his hand to her and helped her to her feet, keeping near her as she walked around to the end of the bed.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "I'm sorry if Zeke scared you."

"Zeke?" she breathed, her heartbeat slowly returning to normal. The creature slowly approached her, reaching out with his front claws and touched her face with a gentleness that she never expected from a creature like him.

The young man smiled. "He's never seen tears before," he explained then became concerned himself. "Are you sure you're okay? You look a little pale."

She groped her way over to sit back on the bed, her mind having a little trouble processing everything at once, having figured out that Zeke was actually an organoid. The last organoid she had seen was the one that belonged to Raven named Shadow, who had never been very nice to her. Zeke, however, seemed almost like a child in his behavior, although she knew that he harbored tremendous power within him.

She didn't know who the female was, but one look at the taller man told her that he was the one who piloted the Dibison that had defeated her, Thomas Shubaltz. The same green eyes that belonged to Karl looked at her now, making her feel a little uneasy as if Karl himself were here.

The young man she was almost afraid to ask as she suspected he was Van Flyheight, but he looked nothing like she thought he would. If he appeared young now, she could only guess at how old he had been when he had destroyed the Deathsaur, and there was something about him that spoke of the purity of his soul. He had held no enmity towards her father; his only purpose was to destroy the Deathsaur before it destroyed everything, a command that had been given by her father in order to insure his ascension to the throne. Van had simply been protecting the innocent lives that would have been killed, lives which he believed were all worth saving whether they were Imperial or Republican.

She took a deep breath to calm her racing thoughts, turning her gaze to the young warrior. "You're Van, right?" she asked, receiving a smile and a nod from him. "And you're Thomas?" she questioned as she turned her gaze towards him.

Thomas could only stand there and stare at the beauty of her eyes, leading Van to confirm she was correct. The female stepped forward and took her hand. "I'm Fiona, pleased to meet you."

Tania smiled in return at Fiona's open and honest personality. "I'm Tania," she supplied, hearing Zeke rumble, and she looked to Van for a translation.

"She already knows who you are, Zeke," he commented instead.

Suddenly Thomas snapped to his senses. "What are you all doing here introducing yourselves like she's our guest? She happens to be our prisoner, and we took her prisoner because she attacked this base!"

"She's made no hostile move since she's been conscious, Thomas, and I don't like to just throw them in handcuffs as soon as they wake up," Van answered.

"Oh, so you'll introduce yourself and hold a friendly conversation before handcuffing her?" he retorted.

"She doesn't appear to have any hostile intentions towards us personally, Thomas," Fiona added. "I don't sense that about her. She was only following somebody else's orders, and she didn't kill anybody."

Thomas immediately calmed down. "You're right, Fiona. How silly of me!"

Van leaned towards Tania. "Pay no mind to Thomas. He talks big but is really harmless."

"I heard that!" he exploded. "I'll show you harmless!" he shouted, chasing Van out into the hallway with Zeke in hot pursuit. "Come back here!"

Fiona enjoyed a good laugh while Tania merely smiled, troubled at the sudden change in herself. By all rights, she should be attempting an escape out of this place but for some reason she found herself not wanting to go back to Colonel Tragar and the others. Thomas had been right in his assessment of the situation, but Van and Fiona had chosen to give her the benefit of the doubt first which led her to wonder how they would treat her once they found out she had wanted to kill Van for what he had done years ago.

Fiona soon heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and stepped to the door, her eyes widening when she saw Colonel Richert come into the room with three other officers trailing him. He took one look around the room before settling his gaze on Tania, the coldness of it sending a shiver through her. "I see you're awake," he observed. "And I understand that your interrogation will be held at the Red River Base instead of this one."

She decided immediately that she didn't like him one little bit. "What makes you think I'd tell you anything?"

A smug smile twisted his lips. "So you're one of those prisoners that likes to play tough? Well, we'll see how tough you are after a night in a prison cell. Put the handcuffs on her," he instructed his men, who moved quickly to do his bidding.

Van entered the room to see Tania being handcuffed and hauled roughly off the bed, and he saw her grit her teeth against their painful grips on her arms which immediately roused his anger as they had to have seen that she was bandaged. "What's going on here?" he demanded.

"What does it look like? We're moving the prisoner to a more secure location until the time comes for her to be transferred to Red River for interrogation," Richert retorted.

"Colonel, in view of her injuries I don't see why she couldn't just stay in the infirmary until then," Van argued.

"Injuries which were a direct result of her own actions, and because of them she deserves to be treated like a normal prisoner would," the Colonel replied. "She is too much of a danger to be allowed to stay in such a lightly guarded area and I do not have the men to spare to watch her."

Van would've said more, but Tania shook her head at him, telling him without words that it was all right, that she would've expected nothing less. Colonel Richert smiled and led her escort down to the prison block where she was shoved inside a cell, the metal hinges creaking as the door slammed shut with a loud clang.

She slowly lowered herself onto the floor beside the cot that would serve as her bed for the night. Minutes passed by like hours before she finally heard someone approach her cell, surprised when she saw Van sit down on the floor on the other side of the iron bars and slide a plate of food to her. She moved so that she sat near him and nibbled on her food lightly.

"I'm sorry that you're being treated this way," he finally said. "I've had a taste of it myself so I know how you feel."

She looked at him, unable to turn her eyes away when he met her gaze evenly. "Why are you being so nice to me? The base came close to being destroyed today if we had succeeded. Unless you're just being nice to get on my good side so maybe I'll be a little more cooperative on the way to Red River."

He smiled, a bright smile that immediately put her at ease. "Call me crazy, but I get the feeling that you don't really wish to share in your superior's plans. You don't appear to be as single-minded as some of the others we have come across."

Tania couldn't help but wonder how he would feel if he knew that she had come here to kill him.

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What's this with Van and Tania striking up a friendship? Didn't she just want to kill him earlier? Don't worry, all will be revealed in time. ; )

Thanx for reading! Shelly