Zero's POV

The journey back would be a difficult one; the most optimistic time it would take me to walk back to Neo Arcadia would be almost two days. I walked and walked and walked, the entire wasteland seemed to stretch out before me into an endless space which couldn't be traversed on foot alone.

What made the journey even harder was the damage I had sustained; aside from the relatively minor injuries from the crash I also had a freaking huge hole in my side. Luckily it had some repair work, which was spotty at best. I made a mental note to get Ceil to explain that one.

I continued my journey through the day and the night, until I found myself on a ridge overlooking Neo Arcadia, but something wasn't right. The city that stood out as a beacon from the rest of the wasteland was dimmer; the lights in the city didn't seem to shine as brightly and a storm began to brew in the distance.

I'm just glad we made it back without anything terrible happening. Mother elf spoke up. I rolled my eyes, "Except for the whole transport explosion and the Willy character?" Yea after that.

Upon reaching the outer city suburbs things began to go poorly. Firstly, it was dead quit, no one, not humans, or reploids walked the streets. "Are we too late?" I don't know, we should probably go to Ciel's home to figure things out.

Obviously it wasn't the best plan but what could we do? After another hour of walking it began to rain, at first a light drizzle, but none the less it was uncomfortable.

By this time we were reaching the inner city, the buildings were stretching ever higher into the sky. As twilight began to rest upon the city I had the feeling of being watched.

The air was so tense that when a crash came from an alley I had my sword drawing in what probably was record time.

At first I was ready to attack but I realized that it was just a small reploid; it was a small child to be exact. I couldn't make out much detail before it ran back down the alley.

Instinctively I ran after the reploid, but after turning into the alley I only got a glimpse at long blonde hair running out into the street. I chased her for a few minutes; I only saw bits of her hair or her leg which told me which way she was going.

When she finally came to a fairly large intersection between streets I saw what she was running to, five of the familiar white figures, but one was different, it was black with much more armor, and it stood at nearly six and a half feet tall.

Without a second thought I rushed forward to meet the familiar opponents, they all were brandishing shorts words now, I activated my S.B. and threw it before taking out a Z saber and activating a wrist blade.

`The S.B. ripped through the waist of one of the drones before heading to the black one. Instead of trying to dodge he simple held out his hand and caught the thing, moments later it was crushed in his fist.

I didn't have time to dwell on that as the four white drones came rushing at me. Instead of attacking the drones head on I dashed and slid between one the drone's legs, slicing both their legs and one of the other drones feet.

Sliding a bit more I got back up in an instant, the drones had already changed directions and were pressing the attack. I paired two with my sword and the third with my wrist blade. Shoving the two of the drones off balance with my sword I paid attention to the third.

As I began to pair with it I could tell that they had been upgraded, but I was still way out of their league. I kept pairing faster and faster, the drones circuits must have been overheating, before I finished him with a powerful strike to the waist cutting him in half.

I turned back to the two other drones, they cautiously approached me, their stances were of predators readying themselves to take down a prey larger then themselves, but this prey could fight back.

I launched myself at one of them taking it by surprise and piercing it through one of their chests with my wrist blade. The other one jumped into action but I blocked his blow and instead started a rapid swipes at him, he could only counter so many.

As his pieces fell to the ground I looked for the last one which was still crawling with its hands only along the ground to get a weapon, I walked up to it, swinging my sword and deactivating my wrist blade I thrust my sword in a powerful downward motion into the drones chest.

As its' body went limp I looked around for anymore threats, all I saw was an area filled with bodies and oil flowing along with the fallen rain. I looked to see that the black figure had not moved, instead he simple stood and watched.

"You know," I started "most of the real big guys, will usually say something to me before we fight, maybe a title or achievement, anything?" The figure just looked at me, and then reached behind its back. It pulled out a cylinder maybe two inches in diameter and two feet long. He activated it and like my Z-Saber it created a construct, but instead of a sword it was a head of a Warhammer.

"That's all the language I need to understand." I said as I charged, reactivating my wrist saber again. The figure was incredibly light on its feet, enough to dodge one of my sabers, while the other nicked the side of his armor.

It was enough to leave a small gash but nothing was truly damaged, thanks to the vast amount of armor on its body. I was preparing myself for another strafe, but it charged and took me off guard which sent me flying back into a building behind me.

You should probably avoid being steamrolled Mother Elf commented sarcastically. I just scowled; as I picked myself up and the dust began to clear the figure could be seen walking towards me.

I charged again, but shot a few energy pellets to distract the figure while I could maneuver and get a swift swing to its' back. With a slice with my wrist blade I made a deep gash in its back and oil immediately began to flow freely.

The warrior fell to the ground in a desperate attempt to minimize the damage, but the damage had been done. Capitalizing on my momentum I pushed the attack, I put everything I had into this offensive and as fast as my opponent was, I was faster.

Small gashes appeared on the bots body as I slowly but surely broke down his defenses. "Time to end this" I took my wrist saber and locked it hard against the underside of the warriors war hammer, right before the constructs head.

Taking my free saber I thrust it upwards cutting the weapon in half. Without a weapon my opponent was helpless, and while he wouldn't go down without fighting, it wasn't much of a completion.

A quick flick of a wrist and there was now two pieces of him on the ground. I looked around to see the amount of destruction, at least one building had a complete side brought down and cracks and debris littered the streets.

There was only one last thing to do, get to Ciel's house. The rain was coming down heavier now and as I got closer to the center of the city more and more debris lined the empty streets.

Burnt out cars and broken glass was common, but what eluded me was my enemy. It didn't make any sense, if he needed me then why were the drones trying to kill me? Also, I could only assume that that was Weil with the plane crash, how was that supposed to help him secure me?

I was so deep in thought that I never even reacted to the huge force that slammed into me and sent me flying to a nearby building.

So it's been awhile, but I promise this story is coming to an end, well kinda, but stay tuned for the next chapter. I'm hoping to have it up in a week, but no promised on specific dates. Also, for all those who actually read this far, thank you. As always type a review, short or long I just need feedback. Until next time.