Hi! This is the last chapter... so sad, I know. I just realized whenever I tried to do "dot, dot, dot" thingers, they came out as one dot! I hope you guys realized that. I'm still feeling stupid about when I reviewed SaZ's story... *urkishness* So, you guys ready for another chapter? THE LAST ONE? GOOD! And, again, "/" means italics. I'm sorry you had to sit through this torture.

I DON'T OWN ZOIDS OR THE OPENING STATEMENT TO THE STORY AND THIS A RUN-ON SENTECE SINCE THERE ARE MORE THAN THREE CLAUSES AND YOU SHOULD BE CORRECTING ME BUT YOU'RE NOT.





The first thing he did was backup and open his blades. He charged at me, gaining speed steadily. I waited for the right moment to jump. Right before he was about to hit me, I jumped low, Slash's claws piercing his back.

"Ahhhh! How could a Rev Raptor be so fast?" he asked, turning around.

"It's not a Rev Raptor."

"What? How could it not be?"

"/HER/ name is Slash Raptor. I assume that if you look more closely there will be some differences between the Rev Raptor and her. Like this!" I yelled, putting out the blades and putting on the booster. I charged at him but he dodged it and fired at me, getting an almost point-blank range hit on my booster, knocking it offline.

"Uh, oh." Lilly squeaked. Slash growled angrily and I steered her around, her blades knocking off the top part of the Blade Liger, the part that makes the shield. It was like cutting a tip off the top of a lion's mane.

"Gotcha!" I smiled.

"Not so fast," Ban retorted, taking one of Slash's blades in the mouth of the Blade Liger. He tried to rip it off but the energy of the blade ended up cutting through the mouth. "What?!"

"I may not be a good as a pilot as you are, but my Zoid might be just a bit stronger!" I called to him. I heard him laugh.

"A good Zoid pilot doesn't rely on the abilities of the Zoid to win a match!" Ban said with great dignity. He took my reaction time to his statement into play and fired at me with the pulse lasers. Slash sounded really ticked off.

"Let's go Slash," I whispered. I got up, and charged at Ban with all my speed that I had left, cutting his right foreleg only slightly. His Zoid fell to the side a bit. I smiled, proving Ban's point only slightly wrong. He moved a lot slower, not even close to my speed. I took this chance to attack him brutally. I finally finished him off with my blades, cutting the /slightly/ sliced leg in /half/.

Ban had lost. I was amazed at how my skill had improved in just a few months. Was it all that time adventuring? Or was it because of the time with Raven? I didn't know. I almost didn't believe that I had won. But I did. It almost seemed impossible.. but that didn't matter. I needed to find out where Raven was, partly because I wanted to see him again, partly because I wanted to beat him, and partly because Lilly would kill me if I didn't!

"Where's Raven?" I asked him.

"I don't know, I thought he was around here!" he yelled.

"Oh, yeah, that's right, Raven just left here. Can you tell me where I can find out?"

"Away from here?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, the nearest Republican place you can find out is past the bridge, which is right on the border. A base isn't far past the border, you can't miss it. You can track him there," he told me. I bet he would've found out as well if he hadn't gotten damaged so seriously. ((A/N: I just realized that the border goes right up to the capital. just pretend it does and then spans out. yeah.))

"Thanks a lot!" Lilly said happily. I shrugged and got out of the woods, cutting my way through. I didn't know why I hadn't done it before.

After I had gotten out of the woods I saw in front of me a wide river, with a small, human size bridge across it. Gygalos was smart to be placed here, not only did it have the protection of the river, but the attackers had a large amount of woods to get through. I took a short, walking jump, landing on the banks of the river, almost sliding into the river itself. I jumped out of the mud and took a deep breath.

"That was close," I said, relieved. Slasher would never function in a fast river like that. All of us would've been washed away. As soon Slash got situated, we continued. There was still woods, but it wasn't like the ones surrounding Gygalos. These woods grew on sand, so the tress weren't very healthy at all, and it was easy for us to get through.

"Where do you suppose the base is?" Lilly asked me.

"I don't know! Let me pilot here! I'll find it."

"You better! I want my babies back!" she pouted.

"Be patient."

Soon enough a large building appeared over the horizon. It was huge, not able to missed as Ban said. It had a huge runway for fling Zoids to land, and I could barely see a few Republican Zoids there as well. Slash wasn't able to go faster than she already was, since the booster was damaged. We got there was fast as we could, though, but it didn't help. The Rev Raptor was an Imperial Zoid, and it was a Republican base. Not a good mix.

When I arrived in my Zoid, I told them that I found Slash and she wasn't registered with the Empire. She wasn't even registered at all. They passed my story after a half an hour wait, they had to get it to the major of the base. Finally, I was able to drop off my poor Zoid at the repairs, and meanwhile I manipulated Lilly and myself into the heart of the base by telling all the guards we would pay them if they let us by, and of course the gullible fools fell for our "prank". The heart of the base was where all the tracking devices, weapons, strategies and such are held.

I demanded that they show me where Raven was. With the ranking of a lowly nobody like myself the chances were slim. But I had Lilly on my side, the legal nutcase. She didn't have her bazooka, but she could use her fists pretty damn well. I grinned at the cowering, defenseless guards as they fell into submission.

"Nobody sound any alarms," she warned, "or my friend Kala over here will get her Zoid."

I nodded in agreement, and asked them politely, "Now can you show us where that young man in his lovely Genosaurer is?" They nodded eagerly and one of them started typing madly.

"He's. coming straight for us!" he yelled. An alarm went off and everyone scattered. Raven must've left me to destroy some other base and now he was coming to destroy us!

"Thank you," I said, and grabbed Lilly's arm, running to the repairs room.

"Kala, what are you going to do?" she asked me as I hopped into the newly polished Slash.

"Well, first, we're going to get out of here, we can't be here while Raven's destroying. he'll probably destroy us. Then we'll follow him, you'll get your "babies" back, and I can fight him," I explained.

"Good plan," she said, obviously agreeing with me. I blasted a hole in the wall (the base was going to be destroyed anyway) and got out.

I got as fast away as I could without losing Raven, which wasn't easy. I tried to duck under nothing, lowering my body position and making me less noticeable. I saw the Genosaurer in the distance, hovering high over the base. I saw it land and lock down onto the ground.

"The charged particle gun," I whispered.

Flaps on the tail opened and a gun protruded out of the mouth of the Genosaurer. A ball of energy slowly started to form in front of the gun growing each second. It was floating in mid air! Suddenly a huge stream of energy flew out of the Genosaurer's mouth, destroying everything in its path and setting fire to the rest. The Zoids that combated Raven were helpless, blown over by the Genosaurer's awesome power.

"Whoa." I heard Lilly say. I nodded and watched Raven destroy the rest of the base. He started to hover again and I pushed Slash forward, trying to get to him before he got away. I got very close and almost shouted to him to stop when he flew over the woods. I was already running and jumped, easily clearing the river. I had had it with chasing him and shot at him with my guns, getting a direct hit but not causing any damage.

The Genosaurer gracefully swerved around to face me, the sinister red eyes glowing with insane anger. The forest was almost completely destroyed, so it was easy for the Genosaurer to land, as well as making it easy for me to back up. I was going to say something but Lilly was the one to speak first.

"Raven, you have my motorcycle and my bazooka! Give them back!" she hollered. Shadow appeared and the two items were quickly on the ground in front of us.

"Are /these/ the things you want?" said a voice. I knew it was him and I grinned.

"Yes! Can I have them back please?" she asked politely, expecting Raven to let her have them.

"No."

"But. why?"

"You can have them back.if you can defeat me," he replied slyly.

"But. Raven! That's no fair! You have an organoid!" I told him.

"Give me one reason to care," he said darkly.

"Ugg..You're on!!" I yelled, accepting his challenge. Shadow put the items on the other side of the river and re-fused with the Genosaurer.

"Kala, wait! He has a charged particle gun! We can't compete against that!" she cried.

"Lilly, you have to trust me, I can't back out now," I told her confidently, when deep down I was scared stiff.

She nodded. I put down the blades, taking slow steps toward Raven. He laughed. I saw his foot locks go down. I gulped. It was the dreaded charged particle gun! I knew what I had to do though. Just like I had done with Ban, I would wait until it was coming towards me to jump. I saw the ball reach its maximum capacity. I jumped at that exact moment, jumping over the beam and going to the right. By the time I landed it was over.

"Bring it on Raven!" I yelled, charging at him full speed. He stopped me easily with his left (if you were looking from the front) arm claw. I pushed harder, but Raven didn't even seem to be trying to stop me.

"Your puny Zoid is no match for mine!" he laughed, and with that, he went to push the blade off. But something weird happened. Despite his strength, the blade didn't snap. The blade went right through, cutting the claw in half. "That's not possible!" he cried.

"Sorry Raven!" I smirked, and ducked, cutting his lower leg in half. I heard him laugh. He hovered, not caring about his leg. His other arm shot out and hooked on to me. It slowly reeled me in, the mouth opening, ready to crush me. Lilly screamed, and I clenched my teeth.

Suddenly I fell to the ground, his arm still hooked onto me. I smiled, and Raven fell as well.

"Gotcha!" I cried happily. Raven got up. He didn't speak, but Shadow flew out and got the two items. He loaded them into storage on Slash and again fused with the Genosaurer. Lilly squeaked happily. I smiled. I had accomplished my goal. I had beaten Raven and Ban.

I had beaten Raven and Ban!

The Genosaurer started to hover away, but I still had one more question to ask Raven.

"Raven, wait!" I called. The Genosaurer turned around, and landed again. I jumped out of Slash.

"What?"

"Raven. I want to know. the day you left. I thought you wouldn't come back. I'm sure you knew that too. So. Raven. why did you come back?" I asked him. The Genosaurer's cockpit hatch opened and Raven jumped out. My face got bright red as he got closer and closer to me. He soon stood directly in front of me as he had when we first met.

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked me, face still emotionless.

I wasn't sure. I tried to speak but my mouth was blown dry. Nothing came out. Did I want to know? I made a final decision and nodded feebly. Raven took me in his arms and held me close. Our faces got nearer and nearer until out lips met. I fell into the kiss, and put my hands on his face. It seemed like a fantasy. he had seemed so harsh and frozen at first. but Raven was so passionate and gentle now. like a completely different person.

"Get a room!" Lilly yelled from the cockpit of Slash. Raven stopped and gave her the middle finger. "Well, I never!" she pouted.

"Raven. you came back because. you.love." I couldn't say it. Raven only nodded and kissed me again.

"Because I love you."

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AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! SOOOOOOOO SWEEEEEEEEEEET. Okay, I'm done. Hey, you know me, you know my pairings. I know I can't romance scenes for crap, but hey, it was a cute little thinger, right? I want to thank all the people who reviewed my story (9 REVIEWS!! W00T!!). and my friend who owns Lilly. I don't. So, did you like this story or did the ending make you hate it so bad you wanted to kick your computer until your foot hurt? I would like to know. Domo arigoto. .... How do you spell that...

Did anyone notice that maybe SOMEBODY let SOMEBODY WIN? *cough*Raven*cough* And yes, person. I know that Ban is Van. I like using his "proper" name.