Authors note: well this is my attempt at a Schubaltz romance, and please note: Marishka Silvias is mine, as are all other OCs in this story. hope you like it, RR please. Also this is a one chapter entry, which is why it is so long.

After the smoke cleared it became clear what had happened: a demolition squad had been sent in to destroy the bridge and sever the supply lines. As he looked round to try and find the squad Major Schubaltz saw someone running towards the river. He knew there was crossing, but the path was too narrow for the supply line to use. He followed the person towards the river and managed to get close enough to see them clearly: A girl was running down the path as fast as she could. Her brown hair was pulled back in a thick braid and she was wearing camouflage, only down there it was the wrong kind. She was carrying a pack and he could just see a remote detonator attached to her belt. "Where are the others?" he thought, as he followed her. She turned round to make sure she wasn't being followed, but didn't see him. She got to the river and then stopped. The explosion had caused it to become blocked and the water level had risen fast, washing away the small footbridge that crossed here.

"Damn it!" she muttered, "Should've seen that coming." There was a splash as a tree fell into the water from by the remains of the large bridge, He took a chance. He crept up behind the girl and grabbed her, with one arm, whilst using his gun as a threat. She put up a fight until she realised the gun was there and then gave up. He knew he had to radio for back up without the girl escaping, so he knocked her out, no too hard, she would probably need to be questioned.

Marishka realised she was captured when she saw the gun in the man's hand.

"Don't you even try anything." he said, and then it all went black.

When she woke up she was in a tent, tied to a pole hammered deep in the ground, all of her equipment had been confiscated and now she could do nothing but wait. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on outside, then again, she had just blown up the only bridge for miles around, all by herself too, Phoebe would have been proud, except for the part when she got captured.

"Are you sure she was part of the demolition team Major, she does seem a bit young."

Asked Marcus.

"Look at what we found in her pack, explosives, wires, detonators and a list of targets, but nothing official, she was definitely on that squad, but they were probably part of a small terrorist group rather than with the rebels. I'll admit she does seem a bit young, but they always appear to be." Major Schubaltz replied, he was annoyed at Marcus, how he'd gotten this far up the ranks, he could never understand. "Some one should see if she's woken up yet." he said, and Marcus left to sort it out, Ravina, the second in command of Major Schubaltz's unit said,

"You're not the only one who thinks he's an idiot, Sir, he's a laughing stock amongst his troops, but it doesn't get broadcast too much, they know heads will roll if he finds out."

"You should be careful what you say; he is still your superior."

"I know sir." she replied soberly.

In reality, Karl knew she was right, but didn't want to get her into trouble, she at least knew what Marcus was like already, so she knew where the line was, she rarely crossed it, but when she did, Marcus was well out of earshot.

"Major Schubaltz, she's woken up, what now?" Marcus had come back.

"I'll question her." Karl replied. He knew Marcus would make a hash of things and he didn't want to be having to review reports non stop for the next week.

"Do you need anything sir?" Ravina asked.

"Tent, two chairs and a tape recorder." he replied.

When it was all set up Marishka was taken to the tent than handcuffed to a chair and left alone, she was quick; she pulled a hairpin from her sleeve and began to pick the lock. When an officer came in she stopped, he fiddled with the tape recorder for a bit then sat down on the other chair. "You know why you're here don't you?" he said.

"Got anything to do with me blowing up the bridge?" Marishka replied, she knew his type: the type that would give you a fair chance, but dropped a hint if you were about to cross the line.

"Why did you do it?"

"I was following orders." she said

"Who from?"

"Do you really think I'll tell you that?"

"No, but I had to ask." he responded. "Who are you?"

"What difference would it make if I told you?"

"If we don't know you could get confused with someone we have to kill on sight."

"Marishka, my name's Marishka Silvias."

He said nothing; instead he got up and walked behind her, she tried to hide the hairpin but he pulled it out of her hand and said: "You weren't going to pull that off around here, you'd just be caught again."

"Well it was worth a shot." she said.

"How many others are we looking for?" he asked

"I don't feel like saying."

"You should, it would make things more favourable for you when you get to jail."

"Who said I would end up there?" she replied.

"So there are others."

"Look, I work alone, if you were dealing with someone else you would be looking for more than one person, but you're not dealing with someone else."

"If that's the case why are you so confident that you'll not be heading to jail?"

There was an explosion outside and shouting, the camp was under attack.

"As long that isn't anyone from Carinal9 I should have a good chance of getting out alive, if it is someone from Carinal9 I'll probably get killed. So as you can see I've got a good chance of not going to jail."

"What if they loose?"

"Ok, then I'm stuck."

He left the tent for a few minutes, then came back in. "They ran away, so much for you getting out of here."

"For now."

"Listen, either you tell me who you work for, or I'll bring in two people who are very good at other methods of persuasion, understand?"

"I work for Naira Lagan, I work for the one every other terrorist group hates because we do so much better than them. So being caught is a huge problem for me since the group's reputation in certain circles is partly based on never being found out."

"And why did you just tell me?"

"Most people in the Imperial Army have never heard of us, since we never get found out, but since this was a small scale operation it won't matter too much."

He nodded and decided he would continue tomorrow, he couldn't help but respect her, she had the guts to take on something that was bigger than herself. When he left Marishka was blindfolded and left in the tent.

"Well, how'd it go?" asked Ravina, when he got back to the command tent.

"Have you heard of a group called Naira Lagan?" he asked her

"I've heard of them, I went undercover into Carinal9 and I heard about them there, done all these bombings but never taken the credit for them, why, is she with them?"

"She says so, and I'm willing to believe her, anyway who was attacking earlier?"

"Carinal9, but we got lucky, we've just been assigned Raven, and he got here just before them, seems he got bored on the way, decided to let him have his way, Marcus is sorting out the details with Minister Prozen."

"Does Raven . . ."

"He's been told not to talk to her, anyway she's not a zoid pilot to our knowledge so he's not that interested in her. As long as there's plenty for him to destroy he shouldn't start getting out of control."

"But since the bridge has been destroyed there won't be as much around."

Ravina nodded and sighed, keeping raven under control would be harder than expected, what they needed was a big republican convoy, it would keep Raven occupied for a bit, especially if it was only just on their scanners.

The next morning Marcus questioned Marishka, but he got nowhere in the end he lost his temper, but she managed to get off lightly, Karl could not understand the effect she was having, it seemed the only person uninterested in her was Raven. Things stayed like this for about a week, until the bridge was safe to cross by foot, at the same time a Carinal9 unit had stationed themselves on the other side and were regularly joking about the progress of the bridge. Karl decided to kill two birds with one stone and send Raven over to the other side in the Geno Saurer, By the and of that day there were only piles of wreckage on the other side of the bridge and Raven was in a good mood by his standards.

The next day Karl got a second chance to question Marishka so he decided to find out as much as he could about Naira Lagan as he could, since Marcus's approach had not worked, he would try and make her want to tell him.

Before he sat down he checked for more hairpins and found two.

"Hoping you wouldn't do that, oh well, you got anything better to say than that idiot?" she said

"Why did you join Naira Lagan?" he asked.

"I was five when the Imperial army wiped my village out, I was found by a member of Naira Lagan, and I've been with them ever since."

"How long have you been with them?" he asked, he knew Marcus had tried to find out how old she was, so he tried a different tactic.

"13 years." she replied

"So that would make you 18." he said

"19 actually, I was closer to 6 than 5 and it's a bit more than 13 years, but that doesn't really matter."

"Was this your first major mission?"

"Yes, They don't allow people to go until they're 18 or 19 depending on the mission, given I would be risking exposure to the military I had to be 19 at least I just made it on."

"So there were others."

"Other people for other targets, we operate all over the planet, and no I'm not going to tell you where our main HQ is, or who is in charge, so don't bother asking." she said, she knew she was toeing the line, but she was bored out of her mind. Stuck in a bare tent, handcuffed to a chair, and with food that Darren could have made a better job of, it was unbelievable.

A huge explosion shook the ground, Karl ran out side in time to see the Geno Saurer burst into flames and a very annoyed Raven staring at the column of fire. Ravina came up and said: "It's Naira Lagan, and we don't stand a chance now Raven is out of it."

"We have a spare Zabre Tiger, let him use that."

"Yes Sir."

She went over to Raven who didn't seem to hear her at first, but then went over to the temporary hanger where the modified zoid was being kept. He went back into the tent to find Marishka was still there. Then a much closer explosion threw him off his feet and his head hit one of the tent poles, he was knocked out and the tent collapsed around him and Marishka, another pole knocked her out. When he came too, he was in the camp hospital, and it seemed he had a minor concussion. When the doctor let him out he found out Marishka had been rescued.

"They gave Raven a run for his money, there were about 50 zoids in all, then they just ran, when we got to the tent, you were unconscious and she was gone. We think the zoids were a diversion. Raven was, obviously, in a foul temper, since his zoid got trashed and them running away, but we've sent for another Geno Saurer and it has just arrived, so his mood is on the up, but he's got nothing to fight, so we found a place for him to do some target practice, not that he needs any. And Marcus got called to Guygalos, I don't know why though." Ravina said. In a way Karl was glad Marcus would be gone for a while, but he would like to know why.

When Marishka woke up she was in the nearest Naira Lagan base and safe for the Imperial Army, for now. When she looked around she saw Darren, his green spiky hair and blue eyes were unmistakable. "Hey, so you're awake now, what happened to you?"

"I got caught as you've probably guessed, but there's more to it than that." She went on to tell him everything she could and then asked, "Have you checked for any tracking things cause I was out for a bit, so they may have been a bit sneaky."

"Relax, we checked, not a single bugging device or tracker, you're clean."

She stood up and Darren pulled her into a passionate kiss, but she pushed him away, "Not now, I need to think some things over." He looked hurt, "It's not you, it's just I don't think I'm ready for a relationship, I'm still upset about Phoebe."

"Who isn't, look if you change you're mind I should be free, ok?" he said, he was glad it wasn't him or another man. Phoebe had been the leader of Naira Lagan, it had been her who had found Marishka, she had gone by the alias: Phoenix. She had died two months ago after being caught in crossfire between Carinal9 and the Imperial Forces. Now her second in command: Brad Simmons was in charge. But people didn't respect him like they did Phoebe, he lacked humanity, but he did have a soft spot for Marishka, but Darren suspected his motives were not what they seemed.

"I'd better go and report to Brad, he'll want to know what happened. And thanks for getting me out." Darren looked at her as she left, "How'd she know I was there?" he thought to himself.

When Marishka got to Brad's quarters, he was one the phone to someone: "So we have a deal, right I'll have to talk to you later I've got other business to attend to the moment." he said, seeing Marishka. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable, something was wrong, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Sit down Marishka," he said, pointing to a chair, "What happened out there? Did they do anything to you?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"No, they tried to get information on the group, but I wouldn't tell them."

"That's good, now would you like a drink?" he asked going to a drinks cabinet.

"Yes thank you sir."

He poured two glasses of a clear liquid and handed one to her. As she drank she felt dizzy, and her vision went in and out of focus, then she couldn't move, she went limp in the chair. When she came back to her senses she was in his bed. She could fell his arm around her waist and she felt sick. She managed to get out of the bed and get dressed and leave the room without being seen, when she got back to her quarters she fell face down onto the bed and cried herself to sleep. When she woke up it was still too early for the rest of the base to be up so she decided to hide away for a bit. Part of the base was unused, since it could be seen from above the ground, she could hide in one of the rooms there. She pulled some clothes into a bag and slipped off; when she had been younger she'd played there with Darren. When she got there she realised that she wasn't alone. Brad was there, talking to an Imperial officer, it was the same idiotic officer who'd questioned her but gotten nowhere: Marcus. She couldn't hear what they were saying but Marcus looked very happy. When Brad turned to go Marcus pulled out a gun and shot him. He than walked off and the Imperial attack began. By the time it had ended only one person had managed to survive: Marishka huddled in a room praying she wouldn't be found. After she was sure they had left she went to find and dispose of any bodies, but they'd all been burned. and piled into a pit. In tears she ran to the back of the base to a small garden where Phoebe was buried. She sat down by the grave which had been untouched for some reason and began to cry. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, "He sold us to them, we never had a chance!" After an hour, Marishka picked a few flowers and threw them into the pit, then she took any useful objects and clothes she could find and headed into the Isolina mountains. When she found a good place to camp she noticed Marcus talking to another woman close by, she slipped close enough to hear what they were saying: "Look Clarke, Minister Prozen is getting concerned about Major Schubaltz, and we've got to do something about it." he said.

"Just how concerned is the Minister?" asked Clarke.

"Let's just say Schubaltz has to be taken care of for good, which is why you're here."

"How do I kill him?" she asked.

"He gets sent on a wild goose chase and when he gets to this point," he points out a place on a map, "You kill him anyway you like as long as you aren't found out."

"Suits me, so when will this happen?"

"Tomorrow, and if anything should go wrong, his patrol will all have orders to do the job, if the need should arise."

"What should this wild goose chase be about?"

"There are rumours of a survivor from Naira Lagan, and he's going to try and find her, but Marishka Silvias is dead." he answered.

She nodded and he walked off, then a he drove past in a jeep. When he had been long gone the woman began to walk away, Marishka followed.

The next day everything seemed to be going to Marcus's plan: the patrol was dispatched and Clarke was at the designated place in time. Marishka waited for the patrol to enter the valley and when she could just see their figures she made her move. She climbed as if she was a civilian and Clarke stopped her. "This is a restricted area." she said, "Sorry, didn't know, is there a route I can take out?"

"I'll have to see some ID first." Clarke replied

"Sorry, I don't have any, but I can tell you my name, you know it."

"Ok then, what is it?"

"Marishka Silvias." she said before shooting Clarke dead. At the head of the valley the patrol heard the shot. They ran along the valley floor, but Marishka made use of Clarke's sniper rifle and picked them off one by one until only one was left, Schubaltz. She slipped into the valley to hide, after a while she decided to leave; she got up but tripped on a root. Karl had been closer than she had thought. The root turned out to be a vine stretched out across the pathway, next thing she knew he had pinned her down on her front, but was in a position where she could not kick him.

"I wondered if Marcus had managed to kill you or not, I doubted it, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. So, you kill 10 soldiers, yet leave me, why?"

"11 actually, I used her sniper rifle, any idea who she was supposed to shoot with it?"

"So you heard about that too, why?"

"Look, I may not like the Imperial army, but I hate foul play, also the person giving said sniper her orders is someone who I would love to shoot myself, but due to the current circumstances it was not an option."

"Ok then, I'll let you get up, if you don't try and hit me."

"All things considered that had not crossed my mind."

He let her up and she turned round, her brown eyes reflected the glare of the midday sun and it was Marishka who broke the silence first "I hate to say it we're both pretty screwed, I'm supposed to be dead, and when all this is found you'll probably get the blame."

"I know, but you have an advantage, you're not dead, they won't look for you, they will for me. Do you know the area?"

"Hell yes, I've lived here for 13 years. Why?"

"I don't"

"And you need my help, is that it?"

It was a simple agreement: they worked together to find out what was going on, and do something about it if necessary.

After another week they were camped in a hollow in the mountain side, which gave them a commanding view of a large valley, but the shape of the hollow meant that any Reddlers looking for them would have to fly dangerously low to see them. But food was in short supply and there were no trading posts nearby. They would have to move on. Karl had swapped his uniform for some clothes Marishka had taken from the base. As they travelled Marishka was getting more and more nervous.

"What's going on?" he asked her

"It one of those things that I don't want to tempt fate with." she replied.

"It's just coincidence, if something like that happens." he said, she was making him nervous.

"In two weeks we've: seen no sign of civilisation; not been attacked by anyone; nor do we know how much more our food will last. Something has got to go wrong soon."

He nodded, she was right, they'd seen nothing not even a bird, something big was happening. When they camped that night Marishka's prophecy came true. A group of Carinal9 operatives had been following them for a couple of days now, and they attacked, they forced Karl and Marishka into a cave but an earthquake proved to be a double edged sword by killing the attackers but sealing the cave with Karl and Marishka trapped inside. a breeze from further inside told them that air had to be getting in somehow.

"Given the strength, the hole should be pretty big." said Karl.

"I should bloody well hope so." said Marishka.

Marishka pulled a torch out of her bag and turned it on, and they went into the caves. As they went in further the temperature began to rise. Marishka pulled her top off to reveal a tight black halter neck which allowed a tattoo on her right shoulder blade of a black lily to be seen. Karl said nothing but wondered why he was beginning to find her seriously attractive, she was a terrorist, then again, if Marcus had his way, he would become a terrorist as well! What seemed like years later they stopped by a spring of water, which was drinkable and filled up some canteens. Sweat was dripping of their bodies and the heat was affecting them both. Marishka splashed some water onto her face then drank from her canteen before refilling it.

"Maybe we should camp here." Karl said "There's water at least and the ground is pretty smooth, not too many rocks."

"Good idea," Marishka replied. She searched her bag for some food and swore

"Damnit! I forgot about these, there's enough food to last us for four months." she said as she pulled out two survival packs.

"Well that's a relief, we won't starve for a while." said Karl who was setting up a stove. Marishka got some water from the spring and emptied some soup powder in to it once it was boiling. "Hope you don't mind tomato?"

"As long as it's better than what the camp cook could do I won't complain."

When the soup was done Marishka poured it into two cups and passed one to Karl. They drank in silence and then they talked some more: "Do you have any family?" Marishka asked.

"A younger brother and sister. My father died a while ago and my mother has been on medication ever since."

"Oh, is it hard to cope with?"

"Thomas is 18 and has just started training, Lucie's 17 and going to university soon. I'm away from home most of the time, but now Thomas has gone it's been getting hard on Lucie, we're considering putting mum in a home because none of us can look after her properly. But then Lucie won't be able to cope on her own, she's quite delicate."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know."

"It doesn't matter; perhaps it's better to say than to start worrying for what seems no reason."

"Well given someone want us both dead, I find it best not to worry, it would just make it easier for them." said Marishka.

"Why?"

"We start worrying, we go and see if family are alright, people who want us dead will take advantage and use family as bait, we get seen, we get killed."

"I see your point, what time is it?"

"Dunno, but I'm exhausted." replied Marishka "I really need to sleep."

Karl turned the stove off and Marishka leaned against a boulder before dropping off to sleep, but Karl couldn't sleep, he was sure they were being watched, then he remembered, the source of Red River was under this mountain, they were camped right by it, so all they had to do was follow the river and they should be able to get out, but he also knew that the Republican base was close to the source, and a second run in with Hermann did not appeal to him, but there didn't seem to be another option.

It was nearly dawn at Red River base and Captain Rob Hermann had just been woken by to receive some new orders: an Imperial transmission had been intercepted and it had been found out that a Major Karl Lichen Schubaltz was now on the run with a terrorist, the terrorist was suspected to be called Marishka Silvias. Lieutenant O'Connell came up and said: "We've got to try and find them, HQ believe they are in the area, possibly close to the river's source."

"He was in charge of the Imperial forces when they attacked here, how did he get from that to being on the run?"

"That's why HQ want us to find them, see if there is a way we can destabilise the Imperial Army, however, he's got to be treated as a POW."

"And the terrorist?"

"Depends on what happens and which group she is with."

"If we treat them both the same until told otherwise, it'll keep things simple, send two patrols to check out the caves around the source, I'll lead one, you lead the other."

"Yes Sir."

When Marishka woke up Karl told her about what he knew of the area.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked her

"It seems we have no choice, but if they find out about us what will happen?"

"I don't know, depends if the know before they find us, or if they find us by accident. I'd guess we have better chances if they knew before hand but . . ." He stopped, someone was coming.

It was O'Connell's patrol, Karl and Marishka both hid themselves and their things just in time. The patrol looked around and left the cave, Karl managed to get over to where Marishka was and said "Two things we need to talk about, but it's along the same lines what if we get caught?"

"Republic, we wait and see what they do. Empire; that depends on who, if it's someone who knows you're meant to be dead, well we'd be pretty screwed, if they don't know, say you were going me, I did kill those soldiers when this started, just leave that other sniper out. Hopefully people up top will like that."

"I suppose so, but what about you?"

"I'll be fine; I guess I'm a bit tired of running and hiding though."

They set off along the edge of the river in silence, Karl just behind watching her, sad because he liked being with her, but he knew he wouldn't be for long.

Up ahead they could hear gun fire and realised an Imperial patrol had run into the Republicans.

"What now?" Marishka whispered

"We separate, I'll say I didn't catch you, but was close but the fight helped you escape, I've got to go and do my job."

"You know you could just walk away." Karl could see the hurt in her eyes as she said it.

"They'd still catch up, it's me they're after, you're just caught in the crossfire you know."

"Yeah I guess, well I'll see you round, bye." and she walked off into the darkness

the gun shots stopped and he heard someone say "Major Schubaltz, are you alright sir?"

He turned round and saw his second in command Ravina and nodded.

"I was told you were trying to recapture the terrorist who survived the attack, any luck?"

"Nearly, the fight distracted me; she got away into Republican territory."

"Orders from HQ were if that did happen we would have to call it off, not enough resources."

"Ok, you camped near here?"

"Base of the mountain sir. This way."

A scream echoed though the cave system and they stopped, Ravina looked at Karl for instructions.

"You two," he said to two soldiers "go see what that was."

"Yes sir" and they ran off

When they got back Karl knew it would hurt, but he didn't know why.

"It was the terrorist sir, she'd slipped into a ravine and caught an outcrop, but she let go, she would not have survived the fall, we saw her disappearing into the darkness about half way down."

He nodded, feeling his heart break, he had fallen in love, and only realised it when she had died, life was not fair at all.

Epilogue: Karl got out of his seat and smiled, he still had a place in his heart for Marishka, but he needed to move on, Prozen had not been able to do anything about him, and he was alive today to see what would hopefully be the last threat to Zi be destroyed, and the Zoid Eve sank forever, and lone tear slid down his face, he did wish he could see Marishka again, just once, just to tell her . . .