YAY! A normal length chapter, for the first time in a while. My fears have been confirmed...This story will exceed 40 chapters. Would you people follow it that far, or would I just be wasting my time? I will finish this nonetheless. Thanks for all the reviews and remember, in this story NOTHING is as it seems. You've seen that before.

Cheers: JJZ-109

CHAPTER 35. ALL THAT REMAINS

Kovu ripped the dog tags of the traitor off his body, then turned to face Kopa, who he knew had rage boiling inside him, or was he just getting used to this sort of thing? What more could Gonzo/Heckler take from him? Kovu shook his head, he gotten to them all. Gonzo was the one responsible for his mental breakdown, and the death of Simba, which hurt him equally. One day, he vowed to himself, Friedrich Heckler/Hans Von Gonzo would pay, whether that be in this life or the next.

Kovu slipped a new magazine into Simba's Desert Eagle and sighed. Who the hell did he trust now? The marines were all dead, and only God knew which of the air force boys were working for D-S and which weren't. He felt like shooting everybody. But he knew, that he would have to get whoever was left that he did know and trust, and rethink. He knew that Gonzo would assume he was dead, so how could he exploit that?

"Come on...we need to get to the safe-house, Gonzo will still be cleaning up there." Kovu said to Kopa, who he was sure was pretty much the last person he could trust.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch...even if I go with him, I WILL kill him." Kopa vowed and cocked his pistol.

"Amen to that. He just gave himself a death sentence." Kovu said, but deep down, he was unsure. If Gonzo/Heckler had planned every single move this far, surely that would mean that he would have looked three moves ahead right? And have something waiting for him? No, to Gonzo Kovu was dead. That was the supposed checkmate.

Kovu walked over to Kopa so that they could discuss their next move, but they were interrupted before they started. They were interrupted by a scream. The scream belonged to Kiara. Kovu sprung up instantly and they both loaded their weapons, before heading towards the door where the two dead guards stood. They hurriedly kicked them out the way and forced the doors open.

In the hallway, to more air force soldiers walked, and Kovu instantly saw the scars on the neck and their bloodshot eyes that he before wouldn't have noticed. They approached him casually, still thinking they were in disguise.

"Uh sir, there's something we need to discuss with you out back..." The lead soldier said. Kovu had none of it, if he went out the back with them they would kill him. Both Kovu and Kopa raised their pistols in unison and fired.

"Great, so who IS on our side now?" Kopa asked angrily.

"Nobody. Just get Nala quickly, and I'll get Kiara. Then we're out of here. Trust NO ONE." Kovu ordered him and broke into a sprint.

Kopa continued on to where Nala was staying, but Kovu continued on to outside, where he heard Kiara scream. Kiara was his first priority. He took a left in the hallway and ran into two more air force personnel, this time he didn't bother checking for signs and just shot them. It wasn't worth the risk.

He came up to the two glass doors that led out to the runway, and pushed hardly, but they wouldn't open. Locked...come on god damn it! Kovu pounded on the door and pushed it harder and harder, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, on the other side of the thick glass door, Delta-shadow soldiers appeared, rifles bared. They raised their rifles, and Kovu hit the deck as fast as he could.

RATATATATAT...SMASH!

The soldiers shot up the glass, sending shards everywhere. Kovu rolled along the ground and fired several shots as he did so, hitting each of his targets on the other side. Once they were all dead or had retreated, Kovu saw his opportunity and crawled through the smashed glass door created by the enemy's machine guns.

He quickly dusted himself off and looked up, to see s group of D-S soldiers running across the runway, carrying several pieces of equipment and one prisoner...Kiara. No! Kovu thought and fired several shots at them with his pistol, but he was way too far away to get an accurate shot on target. The noise got him attention thought. Bad move buddy.

A few of the D-S soldiers sprung into action and fired stray shots at him, forcing Kovu to take cover behind the landing gear of a grounded AC-130E gunship. The bullets made sickening TWANG sounds as they ricocheted away, and Kovu swore loudly as he was pinned down. He managed to turn his head and see the D-S soldiers forcing Kiara towards a UH-1 helicopter. No...Don't worry Kiara, I'm coming for you. Kovu thought and tried to move himself, but was constantly shot at.

Kiara was being shoved onto the chopper when she finally saw what her kidnappers were shooting at; Kovu. She resisted them for one last moment and screamed out to him.

"Kovu please...HELP ME!" She screamed out, and Kovu heard her cry.

He fired several rounds at the soldiers, but they didn't even flinch. They just kept shooting, stopping him from going to Kiara's aid. No, no, no! Kiara's scream was soon drowned out by the sound of rotors, and the choppers started airlifting the Delta-Shadow soldiers away, with Kiara captive. The shooting soldiers then started to peel away and rush to a helicopter to evacuate them. Kovu immediately jumped out of his cover and began sprinting towards the runway, with the wind blowing in his face. It was like even Mother Nature herself was trying to stop Kovu from saving Kiara. He went as fast as he could, but wasn't fast enough.

The choppers took to the skies, and Kiara's cries now became audible again. Kovu screamed in rage and fired several hopeless shots at the helicopters, but the bullets didn't have the range or the power to damage them. Kovu didn't care; he just emptied his magazine in pure frustration and when he was done, slammed the Desert Eagle down onto the ground, out of breath from screaming. He cried tears of rage and dropped to his knees with his head in his hands. Was there any more Gonzo could do to him? He had taken what he cared about most in the world; his wife and son. And then there was everything else, and everything he had done to everyone in the whole damned country.

Kovu sobbed on knees for several minutes next to his smoking gun until he felt a gentle, woman's hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Nala. She looked at him with a sorrowful gaze and embraced him. Kovu hugged onto her and cried into her, Nala cradled him back and forth like he was a child and she was his mother.

"Ssh...I know...My child was on that chopper too." Nala tried to comfort him. It was true; Kiara was her daughter. How was Nala so emotionless? Was it the experience?

"He's taken just as much from me as he has from you. My husband, my child, my best friend and comrade of several years and...My grandson. But you can't let anger control you Kovu." Nala whispered. Kopa stood in the background, not daring to say a word.

"Not let it control me? I'm sick of these stupid fucking games he's playing with us...I'm going to rip that son of a bitch's head off and shit down his neck. Then Shenzi and Ed...one at a fucking time. I'm not doing this tactically anymore. This is fucking personal." Kovu growled.

"That's just what he wants Kovu. Our next move is going to the safe-house and getting all we can find there." Nala told him. Why wasn't she in charge? Kovu didn't know.

Kovu took a few moments to try and compose himself. He took several deep breaths and refocused. Kiara would come back in time. He knew Gonzo wouldn't kill her just yet.

"Right...get everyone ready to move out." Kovu said but Kopa shook his head sadly.

"We are ready to move out." He sighed.

"What do you mean?" Kovu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This is it pal. You, me and Nala." Kopa informed him and Kovu shook his head in disbelief.

"No...there has to be someone..." Kovu stuttered, but Kopa cut him off.

"Nope, we're all that's left. Simba: K.I.A, Kiara: M.I.A, Haradion: K.I.A, Lorenzo: K.I.A, Vitani: K.I.A, EJ: K.I.A, the rest of the Marine platoon: K.I.A and Gonzo's compromised. You get it? It's just us three." Kopa said angrily. All of those deaths stung him. Each and every one of them.

"Fucking perfect. So how are we supposed to even threaten them now?" Kovu said sarcastically and Nala cleared her throat.

"The power of a nation is not just in it's head..." She said softly and Kovu growled at her.

"What's that supposed to mean? Enough of the fucking riddles, we're here to win a war and avenge our family members, not play twenty questions." Kovu snarled and Nala shrugged. He would learn in time.

"Now come on! We're going to the safe-house...Saddle up people!" Kovu said and gestured towards Kopa's motorcycle. He was hoping that there would be a living HYENA or D-S member there so he could put them in as much physical pain as possible.

VROOM!

Kovu clamped down the accelerator aggressively and headed towards the safe house, which was not more than a half-hour ride away. Kopa and Nala had managed to cram themselves on the back of the Harley-Davidson Fatboy. Kovu drove with such a fire in his eyes that it would be too violent to describe. He had been pushed to the edge.

Half an hour later

Kovu gunned the bike through the forest until he came across signs of a war. There was a large clearing with bullet marks everywhere, and spent shells littering the ground. Kovu pulled the bike to a halt and began investigating, with Nala and Kopa close behind him. They fanned out in the forest to cover more ground, and found that some of the fires from the explosions still hadn't burnt out yet. Kopa soon came across the legs of the marine that had been blown in half by the bouncing betty mine.

"Kovu I've found half of an unidentified marine!" Kopa yelled out.

"Really? Which half?" Kovu yelled back.

"Well he ain't saying much..." Kopa said, examining the bloody pair of legs lying in the leaves.

"Well then find me the half that does!" Kovu snarled back.

^^ Gotta love quotes like that eh? Anyway, don't forget to review and/or vote for your favorite OC of the whole series!