Ch. 13: Zero's Toughest Decision

It's been 3 weeks since Fang exposed Zero's mission to everyone. Zero flew back home waiting to see what will happen and everyone at the IS Academy has continued on their lives as students.

Zero's House: Mid-day

Brittany and some of her friends are in the living room watching TV. "Hey Brit, how's your brother doing?" One of her friends asked. "Nothing has changed since he came back." Brittany replied as she remembered when Zero came home.

Flashback - Zero's House: Early Afternoon (about 11:30 am) – 3 weeks ago.

Brittany is watching TV while her mom was getting lunch ready. "Mom, how much longer? I'm supposed to meet Ms. Sky for IS training after lunch." Brittany asked. "It's almost done, just wait a little longer." Her mom said. Brittany groaned.

She looked at the window and saw Zero landing in the yard. "Bro?" She asks herself. She heads to the window to make sure. She gets happy. "Mom, bro's home!" She yelled as she opened the door. Zero landed and retreated Zedept.

Brittany runs up and hugs Zero. "Welcome home Bro." She said. Zero just stood there without replying. "Bro? Is everything alright?" She asked as she looks up at him. She sees that he's crying. "Please, let go." Zero said in a sad soft voice.

Brittany lets go and Zero walks up to the door. Brittany just watches him as he enters the house. "Bro, what happened out there?" She thought.

Zero's House: Mid-day

After Brittany said what happened when he got back, everyone was silent. A knock at the door broke the silence. Brittany gets up and opens the door and sees Sky standing there. "Hi, Ms. Sky, here for Bro?" Brittany asks.

"Yes, is he here?" Sky replied. "Yeah, he hasn't left his room at all so far." Brittany said as she lets Sky in. Brittany and Zero's mom walks into the living room. "Who's at the door?" She asked.

"Hi mam." Sky said. "Oh, hi Sky, he should be in his room." She said. "Thank you." Sky said as she heads upstairs towards his room.

Outside of Zero's room

Sky goes to Zero's room. (Note: Sky has been here many times so she knows where she's going) Sky knocks on his door. "Zero, it's Mentor, may I come in?" Sky asks. There is no reply. "I'm coming in." Sky says as she opens the door.

Zero's room from left to right, from where the door hits the wall is a desk with 4 computer monitors, 2 computer towers, 2 keyboards, 2 mouse's, a rolling chair, Zedept's gauntlet and a picture frame faced down.

Next to the desk was an entertainment center with a flat screen TV, a few gaming consoles, games and on top of the entertainment center was a few swords, none of them was the sword that Zeta got him. Then was his closet, which was shut.

On the wall facing the door has a board that has pictures of his friends from his cadet training days. His bed was at the corner, it's just a basic bed with nothing special except with 2 drawers under the mattress.

Between his bed and the board with the pictures is a night stand. The night stand has a lamp, a picture of all 4 Zeta members in their units, after their graduation from their training and becoming soldiers, and Zeta's dog tags are next to the picture. At the foot of his bed is a red beanbag chair that he would use when Zeta used to come over to play games.

Sky saw that his room was a mess and saw Zero sitting on his bed, back against the wall, watching TV. He's in a black tank top and his IS battle suit's bottoms, minus the leggings.

Zero looks at the door and sees Sky standing there. "What?" Zero asks while still having a sad voice. "I came to see how you're doing." Sky said. Zero didn't say anything as he flipped through the channels. "I'm sorry that Fang exposed your mission like that."

Sky said as she sat next to Zero. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll see them again soon." Sky said as she tries to cheer him up. Zero stopped flipping through channels. "You know the rules, I'm not allowed to see them ever again." He said looking at his floor.

Sky sighed. "I'm sure everything will work out, trust me." She said as she places her right hand on his left shoulder. Zero just looks away. "If you need to talk, you know where to find me." Sky said as she left his room. Zero thought something to himself as he picks up Zeta's picture.

Zero's House: Living room

Zero and Brittany's mom is passing out snacks to everyone as Sky walks into the living room. "Ms. Sky, how did it go?" Brittany asked.

Sky sighed. "He's still out of it." She said. "Is there anything that might help him?" Brittany asks. "I don't know, but it looked like he was thinking about something that he may regret, so watch him." Sky said. "Ok." Brittany said. Sky left and went back to base.

US. Military IS HQ

Sky returned from Zero's house and she walked to the cafeteria for a drink. Sky sat down and started to drink. "How is he? Any changes?" A female voice asks.

Sky looked over and saw Shana. Sky shook her head no. Shana sat next the her. "I see." Shana said as she took a drink of her own. "I did notice something though." Sky said. Shana looks over. "It looks like he might do something he's going to regret." Sky said as she looks over to Shana. "Something he might regret?" Shana asked. Sky nodded yes.

"It was priceless seeing his face when I exposed his mission in front of his so called friends." An evil tone voice said. Sky and Shana looked to where the voice is coming from and they see Fang. "And when that girl ran out crying, oh that was the best." Fang said as he and some others laughed. Shana was getting mad. She stood up.

"Fang!" Shana yelled. Fang and the others looked at her. "What do you want? Flaming Sword." Fang asked. Shana walked over to Fang, grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. "Why the hell did you do that for?!" Shana yelled in his face.

Sky placed her right hand on Shana's left shoulder. "Calm down Shana." Sky said. Shana looked at Sky and then back at Fang. "Tell me why you exposed his mission!" Shana continued. "That's none of your business why I did." Fang said. Shana slammed Fang against the wall again. "I'm not playing around!" She yelled.

"I was just doing a mission, now get your hands off me." Fang said as he pushed Shana off of him. Shana just glares at him angrily. Shana goes to charge him and Sky holds her back. "Calm down Shana!" Sky said. Shana turns around. "Aren't you pissed?" Shana asked. "Yes, I'm pissed but we have to be calm and not lose our cool." Sky explained.

Shana looks down towards the right. "You're right, I'm sorry Sky." Shana said. "It's alright." Sky said. Sky's phone started to rings. "I wonder who that can be." Sky says as she gets her phone.

Zero's House – During the time Shana was confronting Fang.

Zero was still in his room, looking at the picture of Zeta. Zero places the picture back and changed into a plain white t-shirt and blue pants. Zero was about to leave until he looked at his desk and grabbed Zedept's gauntlet. Zero walks downstairs.

Brittany sees him as he enters the living room. "Hey bro, where you going?" She asked. "Out for a walk." He says as he puts on his shoes. He leaves the house and walks into town. "I better call Ms. Sky." Brittany thought to herself. She grabs her phone and calls Sky.

Zero is walking through the town, thinking about what to do next. As he walks, he bumps into someone. "Hey watch where you're going!" A guy said. Zero just continues walking. "Why you." The guy said but one of his friends stops him. "Chill man, look at that guy's right arm."

The guy looks and sees the mechanical arm. "He's that soldier." The guy said. "Yeah, let's go." The friend says. Zero enters a covenant store to buy a drink and leaves. He then walks to the cemetery and goes to Zeta's grave. Zero stares at the graves, he takes a sip of his drink.

"Hey guys, I'm back, Fang exposed my mission to everyone a few weeks ago." He started as he sits down with his back on the fence. "You guys know the rules if your mission gets exposed, automatic leave and return to HQ and can't return to the place, I can't see them ever again and worse, Rin broke up with me." He continued as tears started to flow.

"I can't see her no more, I can't spend time with her, I don't know what to do." He continued as he takes a sip. "I've been thinking about something since I got back, I may break the promise I made to you guys almost a year ago, I may become it again, just one more time, if I'm going to kill someone again, I'll become the Dragon Eye Maverick again to kill him, to kill Fang." He said as his eyes changed and he looked at their graves.

He looks up at the sky. "Looks like I'll be joining you guys soon." He says as tears continue to flow. Sky and Shana shows up to the graves a few minutes later. "Told you we'll find him here." Shana said. Zero got surprised and his eyes went back to normal before they saw them. Zero turned his head around. "Why are you two here?" Zero asked.

"Your sister called me, she told me that you went out for a walk." Sky said. Zero turned his head back towards the grave. "I see." Zero said as he takes a sip. "Are you thinking about something you may regret?" Shana asked. "There's nothing else for me now." Zero said.

"That's not true, what about your family and us?" Shana asked. "You two are soldiers, so you'll be fine and mom has sis so they'll be fine." Zero said with his eyes closed. "Shana." Sky called. Shana turned around. "Yeah?" Shana asks.

"There are some things I need to take care of, I'll see you when I get back." Sky said. "Alright, just leave him to me." Shana said. Sky nodded and flew off. "Come on, let's go back to your place." Shana said. "Alright." Zero said.

He got up and they left the cemetery and went to his house.