CHAPTER TEN

Help From the Opposition!

"Why? You never answered me. Why did you leave me?!" Dahlia asks, pulling out a hand blade.

"Because you were just as crazy as you are now back then. If you remember, you did ask me which side you should follow, and I left beacuse of that decision. THAT was why I never decided to stay with you, Dahlia-san. I did love you, that was true, but you also had killed my family beforehand, and when I found out it actually was you, I-" Zelban says, knocking her away.

"What? You were going to kill me? You loved me too much to do that then, so what changed up till now?!" They cross weapons and stare at each other with evil intent in their eyes and hearts.

"Your sanity went down the drain! I will help you return if it is the last thing I will do! But you leave me broken like you always do? Why is that?" Zelban strikes her, but misses, and she takes advantage, firing away at him. Bullets hit, and then he falls back. "You have lost it... I had lost you from the day I had found you the murderer. Please... return to me! Please! You are not meant to be a murderer! I still care about you!"

"You said it yourself. I'm just as crazy as I was back then now. Now burn in hell like all the other careless, arrogant men that plague this world!" She swipes for the jugular and Zelban prepares for the worst. A bone saw blocks the attack. Zelban opens his eyes and he sees someone standing before him. "Leave. Dahlia is my fish to gut and display. Not yours," the woman says to him as he stands up.

"Valentine... You show up now?"

"Slaughtering Zaibatsu camps in the Arctic Circle is what I'm dealing with as a day job. Not often do I do much else. Is the patient checked?" Valentine asks. "I'll take your silence as a yes."

"Well, then, Valerie. You ready?"

"For Hallow."

They both stand ready to strike. "A two on one? How unfair. Guess I'll just leave all of you to fight the lackeys." She drops a smoke bomb and retreats. When the smoke clears, Valentine says, "Thought the smoke bomb retreat was MY gimmick, Zelban."

"Same here. But she does know every angle the Medici can come from on the frontlines. So, that complicates thigs majorly, given the fact of how much of a wild card she is. But that also means that she can indirectly support our cause for the better."

"When do they ever learn?" Parasoul appears with a squad of Black Egrets and points a gun at Cerebella. "One pull of the trigger and it's all over, children. When she dies, the Medici cause dies with her. Do you want me to end things here and now?"

Zelban lifts his hand ever so slightly and her entire squad collapses to the ground, uncoscious, the weaponry all magnetically sticking to the nearby house. "When I'm here, the kid gloves are off, and things get serious. I'd advise against fighting me."

"And who the hell are you? Some foot ninja? I do not lose." Zelban and Parasoul clash weapons. With one swipe of his sword, he damages Parasoul majorly and sends her to the ground. "Christopher and I are above your class, Princess. It is nothing personal, but we are requesting you step aside."

"And you let crazy chicks like Valentine just up and join the cause?"

"Because I am able to put pride and dignity aside for the betterment of everyone. YOU, on the other hand, can only satisfy yourself. And if anyone's damn crazy, it would be you for trying to eliminate the one thing that may save us all."

As they leave the town, Parasoul says into her phone, "Send a tank for that Medici scum. They do not travel ten miles from here." Parasoul gets up and looks at the trail of destruction left behind. "They really want their point made. Hmmm... Yet they learn that I also give them my disapproval... Such a stubborn bunch. Even then, I feel that they have some serious junk to deal with. When I find Christopher, he will meet his end, as well as that Zelban."

In the desert, a tank shows up as the team travels forward. "You gotta be kidding," Ms. Fortune says.

"Time to go big or go home, Nadia! We need to destroy this thing!" Christopher answers.

"Delta-6 to base. The group is not showing any signs of deciding to surrender. Engage, Princess?"

"Drive them into the sand, Delta-6. Do not let any of them walk away."

"Ten-four, Parasoul. Firing." Twin rockets fire right at the group. Everyone dodges, but Feng takes one of them head-on. Cerebella rushes to her aid and then she also sees a rocket heading right for her. As Parasoul watches from the tank's display, she smiles when she sees the resounding explosion Cerebella and Feng. "One less problem to deal with, Molly. Good work." She starts to walk away, and Molly looks at the display as the smoke clears.

"Uh, Parasoul... Princess... you may want to take a look at this."

"What, Molly?" They look at the display, and meanwhile, at the scene, Cerebella looks up at the woman with a gigantic piece of metal in her arm standing in front of her. "Who are you...?" she asks.

"The person who just saved your asses, Medicis," she answers, and the metallic machinery she held turned into a cannon. "Let's open the tank and see what's inside!" she opens fire on the tank and then it explodes into a bigger fireball than the rocket she defended against. The one camera that stood from the tank's turret, as it was still intact, laid still as the woman walks up to it. "Parasoul. Accept my resignation." She punches her fist through the lens, disabling it. At Parasoul's castle, Parasoul angrily throws a shot glass across the room. "Dammit! She decides to leave the Egrets NOW? Dammit to hell... Place a bounty on their heads... And make sure the tags are hefty."

"Understood, Princess," Molly says as she spins her chair around, going back to her computer. Parasoul leaves. "I don't get why you can't let these mercenaries go ahead and lead the charge... Are you seriously THAT overblown?" She clicks a pen and then she opens a window.

Back in the desert. "So, you came. I was expecting you to come a few weeks ago, Roxie."

"My work was not done in the facility, Shigani. Especially since Parasoul was on my ass for the bullshit about Project: DreamSlayer. How I told her that I could not mass-produce it. By the way, Chris, I heard everything that the Princess did to you. I want to tell you straight-up: With everything I was able to do, I couldn't stop her from invading New York City. If I could, your parents would still be alive. I'm sorry. I was the head of the project that destroyed New York, but only because back then-" Roxie explains.

"Do not sweat it. You did what you had to in order to keep yourself alive. Survival tactics at its finest. While I am also pained about the ordeal, I learned to move on."

"I'm nothing but pure scum. Millions died because of me. All for four survivors... And mother and father were there, too."

"Do not harm yourself over one huge failure, Roxanne. You should be more worried about the billions on death row if we lose this war."

"Nope, she should be more worried about what stands before her!" As the pod Julia dragged with her opened, they look at the contents.