Hello, no brothers today. So I doing this chappie solo. (Does a happy little dance.)

Now last time Alex had been shot three times and she…

Sorry you've got to read for yourself. Did you really expect me to tell you if Alex died or survived?

Disclaimer: I don't own zoids. But there are many characters that I have added that are mine. This is also my own original story.

Read, enjoy, and review. If you don't review, I won't continue.

The Black Angel

Chapter 4

Pulling Back

Alex made it to the figures and the light. She did not wear the formal outfit, but her own ripped up clothing. There were no signs that she had been shot three times and grazed once and certainly no signs of any handcuffs. All Alex could think about was how grateful she was to be going to haven comfortably. Waiting at the gates was a young man. He had dark black spiked hair.

"Well look where you landed yourself Alex," the man said.

Alex smiled. "Long time no see Junk."

"Alexandria, what are you doing here?"

Alex was a bit shock. "I'm dead I guess."

Junk shook his head. Alex was happy to see that his eyes were natural. When he was still alive sometimes they would be bright red from when her father would…

Shaking the memory off quickly, Alex turned back to her friend. "So I'm not dead?"

"That's right. Something is holding you back. You can't die if something is holding you back. Besides, this is like a little review of your life," Junk said.

"I don't want to think about my past any more."

Junk laughed, throwing his head back. "The fool who does not know his past cannot possibly know his future."

"I don't need to know about my past," Alex snapped. "And nothing is holding me back."

Junk raised an eyebrow. "Tell that to them."

Karl, Colonel Herman, the Guardian Force, and the Schubaltz couple all stood behind her. They weren't giving her up without a fight. "It's okay guys; I'll see you all later."

Alex tried to enter through the gates, but this time was stopped by her old friend.

"I have one lesson to teach you," Junk said.

"And then I can die?"

"Then I send you to your sister."

Junk walked away from the gates of eternal paradise and head toward a black hole. Alex groaned but followed the man. The black hole was showing a past nightmare. Junk was being held down by a couple other young men and was being beaten by several more.

"Do you remember what I said to you that day?"

Alex nodded. "They had to prove they were better than you, thus proving you were free."

"Do you understand now?" Junk asked. Alex shook her head. "Those who bark loudest tend to be the weakest. Your entire family knows you are strong and they are doing everything they can to keep you down."

"Is that why Chaz shot me?"

Junk shrugged. "I don't think so. Chaz has a very twisted mind, but a good heart. Not the easiest combination to deal with. But unusual love is not my topic. Do you get it?"

"I think so," Alex whispered. "When someone tries to show how much power they have over you, it only proves how free you truly are. But Junk, even freedom has a price."

"And you paid that ten fold years ago. I got to go now. You take care and I don't want to see you here for years. Got it?" Junk said as he hugged Alex one last time. She nodded. And with that, Junk walked away.

"I never knew how close you two were," a female voice said. She looked to be an older and neater version of Alex.

"Shut up Susan."

"I have a lesson to teach, and you need to hear it," Susan said. She looked back at the black hole. It morphed until an image of Susan embracing the man she had loved, Hiltz. He then stabbed her in the back.

"That bas…" Alex started before a look from Susan shot her down.

"Spare me," Susan said sharply. "I knew when I fell in love with him I would be putting myself through hell. But like Chaz, he thought it would be better to see me at eternal peace than suffering with him."

"You knew Hiltz was insane," Alex accused.

"Most of our family is. But do you understand the lesson?"

Alex snorted. "Not to date criminals."

"Alexandria."

"And that love has a very weird way of showing itself," Alex finished.

"You've grown since I passed away," Susan said with a knowing smile. She hugged her sister for a long time before someone appeared. He was a tall blonde with green eyes and wore an Imperial Colonel uniform. "One more moment please. Alex, I won't be seeing you for a long while, but I'm watching, we all are."

Behind Susan, many more people appeared. They were the people who Alex had been friends with before they passed on. She saw her mother among them.

"I can't go back," Alex whispered. "My life is over."

"Alexandria, sweetie, find happiness. You can't do that if you are dead and buried." Alex's mother ordered.

The young woman known as the Black Angel stood for a second more at the gates of haven before turning back to the place where she came from. Cheers from her deceased friends and family gave her that extra boost of confidence. Along the way Alex fell, and doubt began to seep into her mind. "Why should I go back? There is so much that I did, and too much that I should have done."

"Don't give up on yourself now," Karl said, his hand outstretched to help Alex to her feet. His wasn't the only hand out there to help. All of her new friends and many old were there to. Alex reached out to them and was immediately pulled to her feet. She felt an extra push from behind, but she didn't look back as she consciously opened her eyes.

"Welcome back to the living," General Kruger said merrily.

"Go away," Alex snapped.

"We need to discuss some things…" the General started.

"And I want to change into my uniform, Jonathon."

Kruger smiled and left, only to return when Alex had put on the uniform of a Republican major. "Do you really want to be up and moving so soon?"

"I have things to take care of," Alex snapped. Cat, who sat by the door patiently, got up and followed Alex and Kruger to the prison ward.

Chaz had been separated from the rest of the prisoners and the way he sat showed a defeated man. Alex whistled. Chaz's head shot up and stared at the major that was his sister.

"What's going through your head at this moment?" Alex asked her older brother.

"I'm surprised that you are a soldier, but then again I'm not," Chaz said. "You always seemed to be living a double life since Junk's death."

"The zoid accident Junk was in…?"

"It wasn't an accident," Chaz sighed. "It was our father's handiwork."

"We need to get going Major," Kruger said.

"One minute Jonathon," Alex said slowly. "You truly do deserve better Chaz."

Chaz shook his head. "You deserve better. I deserve this. I remember when I first met you, Alex. You were five and I was fifteen. It was the first time I had returned to the base we considered home in about six years. You were so excited to meet me and didn't seem to mind I was covered in blood from the soldiers I had killed minutes earlier. I made a promise that day that you would never become what I had become."

Alex reached in between the bars and Chaz grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Kruger looked away politely.

"I still say you deserve better," Alex whispered.

"Thank you Alex," Chaz replied.

Kruger tapped Alex's shoulder. She squeezed her brother's hand one more time and followed her superior officer. Cat looked at Chaz one more time before following Alex out of the area.