AN: Phew. Finished this one as well. That's all there'll be for at least the next five or six weeks, I'm afraid. I started Chapter 8 though, so there shouldn't be a three month delay. Should. Not. Hope this'll feed anyone who's starving for more of this story. I haven't had time to read anyone's reviews yet, so if there are any (I don't deserve them) I obviously can't reply, and I'm afraid if you had any major criticisms, I couldn't heed them.

Read.

Chapter 7: I don't hate you anymore

Palpable quiet choked the air of the throne room as the Blade Liger stared down its opponents, seething in its power to freeze sound. Outside, it held no power; though muffled, the sounds of battle could be heard through rock and concrete. For a moment, Raven forgot his own predicament to wonder how Van was faring. Judging by the continuing intensity of the fight, he guessed that the annoying brunette was doing quite well. He paused, before muttering, 'Good.' It was good that the decoy was still working, allowing him to rescue his zoid without interruption. After that...

"General, what is the meaning of this?" demanded Rudolph, turning in the direction of the Genobreaker. His expression on the intercom was tight, withholding anger.

"This is the capture of the war-criminal Raevin, your majesty," replied the addressed. From voice, the topic of discussion determined that this man was young and confidant, and an amateur.

"Who ordered this mission? For I assume it would not be you, General." Hefty pause. "You would not otherwise have the nerve to arrest a man on acquitted charges."

"It... was the order of the Guardian Force's distinguished leaders, your majesty."

"Then I will have to contact them, to inform them of their mistake."

"But your majesty! This is a dangerous criminal, one responsible for the deaths of many-"

"As are most of those who served with skill during the war," rebutted the emperor, tone slightly weary.

"Surely your majesty does not think to shelter this felon from justice!"

"Raven is a citizen of Guygalos; as Emperor, I am obliged to protect the interests of Guygalos against all unjust treatment, whether by the Guardian Force, Republic, a third party, or by my own."

A long, hesitant break. For a moment, Raven hoped that it would be the end of the matter. Then the Genobreaker turned to him and clamped down the foot-lock. "I'm afraid that I will have to override your request, your majesty. This criminal must be apprehended at all costs."

"You are on imperial territory, General. This insult will not go unheeded."

"The orders of the Guardian Force are supreme."

Another window appeared, showing the identity of the amateur general. He was young by military standards, maybe twenty-five. There was little knowledge of battle visible in that face... some high-ranking official's son then. A little hatred and anger, though Raven was certain that he'd never encountered this particular pilot before. Revenge? For the father, he supposed. He adopted the usual "what the hell do you want" maverick attitude for the benefit of his enemy; he had to leave a good impression before they died.

"Surrender, villain, or prepare to be annihilated." The cannon was beginning to gather up charged particles, blindingly bright. Most looked away; Raven did not.

A contemptuous smirk formed. "By who?"

"I am the General of the Guardian Force-"

"Only because of your father, correct?"

He flushed, having been hit on a nerve. "I have served the Guardian Force for the past five years, you scum. I achieved this position through merit-"

"And you've been in battle how many times?"

"... If you refuse to surrender, then I will have no choice but to apprehend you through force."

"Go ahead then," jeered the maverick. "Fire that cannon at me, if you think that'll work."

"You asked for it then!"

It wasn't often that Raven had a charged particle beam fired at him, but he'd seen it happen to Van many times. Okay, afflicted it on Van many times, and he knew all of the Liger's counter moves. He could shield himself, leap out of the way, or cut straight through. Since he wanted to get out as soon as possible, and did not want to total his own zoid, he chose the central option: dodge. A sideways jump took him from the beam's path, and the zoid landed lightly on all fours, then sprung forward. Bullets flew.

He shot down seven zoids while pounding forward, and then pounced at the Genobreaker. Now the shield came up, ramming the dinosaur zoid backwards through three of its teammates and ending at the back wall, not far from the Iron Kong. Just as abruptly, the ward was released exchanged for blades, and he happily diced through another six zoids whilst evading enemy bullets. Clever maneuvering brought down a good deal more by friendly fire, and some more slashes cut down the number of the enemy to less than a third of their original strength.

The remaining few were scared to fire, having seen the way their colleagues had been brought down by their own bullets. Hell they were even scared to move. Raven took a pause, glad that travelling with Van and not piloting for a the past two weeks hadn't blunted his ability. With that confirmed, he launched forward to destroy the last batch of enemy zoids with an array of attacks. Slice, pounce, slam, kick, lash... he chopped steadily through the ranks of the enemy, keeping the habit of decimation.

The last machine fell to a single bullet, and he heaved a sigh. He stopped though, remembering the Iron Kong, and looked at the gorilla zoid; it hadn't moved. Having shut down all connections before fighting, Raven reopened them again, in order to communicate to the emperor. It took a moment to process, before Rudolph's face reappeared upon the screen. The former soldier waited.

"Impressive as usual, Raven."

"Aren't you going to scold me for destroying all these zoids?" he asked incredulously.

"You were merely performing a soldier's duty to protect his emperor."

"I wasn't-"

"Please accompany me from this base."

Originally protesting, the maverick found himself unable to when the Iron Kong turned and picked up the Genobreaker with his fist, holding it clear of the ground and walking forward. Deciding that shooting the emperor who'd defended him against the Guardian Force would be both stupid and ungracious, he merely followed through the sizable hole made in the wall by the charged particle cannon. The fact that the Genobreaker had helped him even when under the enemy's control amused him.

"I was invited by the General to visit this base a few days ago," mused Rudolph. "It is a fairly new base, one of the first that I've allowed to be built on Imperial territory in this area. I'd suspected that allowing the Guardian Force to exert that amount of power here as well as in the Republic would be a grave mistake, but I'd hoped otherwise."

"You were thinking of the Guardian Force from before the Ultimate Deathsaurer."

"I was. Something will have to be done."

They exited the building from a door that he'd failed to notice on the way in, and found themselves before a giant flight of stairs carved into the cliff's face. A small contingent of Imperial zoids rushed forward to greet their emperor, glancing at the Blade Liger curiously. Whatever orders Rudolph issued to them was not heard by Raven, though some of the pilots jumped from their cockpits as the Genobreaker was lowered. The hatch was opened, and an unconscious burden was lifted out, then carried away to a different zoid.

"General Hather has made it his personal mission to capture you."

"What'd I do this time?" he asked with a roll of the eyes.

Wry smile. "Leave his father alive after one of your thousands of destructive zoid battles. A humiliating experience for the old man, I'm sure."

A rarely seen expression covered Raven's face, one that was thoughtful without being sad or vengeful. "I hated zoids, not the people piloting them."

"Hated?"

"Don't misunderstand, brat," snapped the maverick, slightly annoyed at the almost smug expression. "I've simply killed the ones that I've hated the most."

"The Blade Liger doesn't look dead to me."

Raven looked away. "Maybe I don't want to destroy this zoid anymore."

The emperor raised an eyebrow, and was cut off when an tremor shook the entire cliff ferociously. Most of the zoids present fell to the side, with the exception of the heavy Iron Kong, foot-locked Genobreaker, and balanced Blade Liger. Smoke billowed from not so far away, and the sounds of crashes almost drowned out all sound. Even so, the emperor had to shout to ask "What was that?"

One step ahead of him, Raven tried to establish a connection again, and failed. He looked up to the emperor's face before him, and whispered one word. Then he ran, leading the other zoids towards the source of the explosion.

The sides of the canyon were packed several kilometres each way, and he could only go up. To his left were a solid pile of active Iron Kongs, and above was an army of Command Wolves, Shield Ligers, Godos and Guysacks. The only thing he needed was a Gojulas to complete the set, and then he'd have a fully-spent Republican defense budget about to roll over and squash him. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, but even a lack of sight could do little to humour him; his ears were still functioning.

No panicking, only a great sense of seriously impending trouble. He could handle a couple of bandits. Heck, he could handle a couple of dozen bandits. Squadrons were no problem. Three or four squadrons were alright too. A Deathsaurer, or Ultimate Deathsaurer, sure. But there was no way on the moons for him to take on literally hundreds of zoids. So what if he was the (second) best pilot on the planet? He was not the one skilled in mass murder; he was the one in a wounded zoid stuck at the bottom of a metaphorical bottle with the lid shut ajar, taunting him. He could not get out.

With that settled, he dived up. What the hell, if he was going to die, he might as well do so with a nice big explosion, right? He supposed that this was what he got for continuing his fighting lifestyle, so he might as well continue along that path. It was all he could do anyway. He checked how much ammo he had left, and ran a digital scan over the condition of his Pteras. A calculation had him bagging maybe twenty zoids directly before he died. Any more than that would be a unexpected bonus, or luck.

By now, he was on complete auto-pilot. His hands were moving the controls, not his brain, and he didn't need to see to judge exactly how his bullets would be fired, and received. The paths of the missiles aiming for him were also clearly mapped out in his mind, as was the escape path through the net. The lack of concentration freed his mind up, to ponder over exactly how he entered this situation. Outside, the battle was truly commencing, with projectiles exchanged from both sides; inside, it was ignored.

The Iron Kongs had been a sort of decoy, to mask the fact that the rest of the patrols around this place were Republican zoids. Of course, this did not make him feel any less stupid; just because someone set up an elaborate trap didn't mean he had to fall into it. It did make him glad for a moment that Raven was piloting the Liger, not this junk of a bird zoid instead. At least he would be the one copping the blows. But then again...

Raven. He'd been the one to demand control of the Blade Liger, a zoid that he hated more than anything else in the world apart from its pilot. Had he guessed that something like this might happen? Of course, Raven had said that he'd sold the Genobreaker to a military base, but he'd withheld specifics. But if that was the case, why had Raven gone to that remote little building to retrieve his Genobreaker?

The deliberate lack of business details suddenly sickened Van, more so than the vertigo he experienced. The Pteras was corkscrewing up at a pace too fast for the injured zoid to handle without major repercussions, but right now he was beyond caring. Not when they were all going to die now, because his "partner" had neglected to mention quite a few things that very well could kill him. Was this the perfect revenge then? Was this what had been planned all along?

It was impossible to hold a grudge that long.

"KUSO!" he yelled, frustrated rather than angry, as an unpredicted missile plunged into the belly of his zoid. They lost altitude, and Van adjusted the descent and changed his targets. How many zoids had already died, in those few minutes he stopped caring, stopped counting? He careened past the two remaining Iron Kongs, clipping one on the chin and shooting the other. What had happened to the others then? They hadn't been part of his kamikaze plan...

HE wouldn't hold that grudge, not after everything that's happened.

The cliff sides, already weakened from having to support an army of zoids, had collapsed after being riddled with bullets, bringing down much of the army both above and below. Not his fault then, though effective nevertheless. But he was finished, and he knew that, by the way the zoid was taking longer and longer to respond, and the way each pebble and shard seemed to break another crucial part, bringing up alert after alert after alert...

But they all warned him against Raven... was there something that he couldn't see?

A fist, full steel and very solid, caught the wing of the drifting zoid and smashed, kneading steel into rock. More of the cliff fell, bringing down more combatants, but he could not give up. The bolts of electricity shooting up and through sleeved arms was bad, but being hit by an organoid-powered charged particle beam was worse. Much worse. Van could feel the metal cage around him disintegrate slowly from the pressure and heat applied by the gorilla. Still, he stubbornly clung to the controls of the zoid, scanning the controls to see what options he had left. He could not give up.

He was proving them wrong.

"Shadow, get out." His voice was hoarse, wrong. There was almost nothing left, almost. But he still had something he had to do, as long as that almost didn't disappear.

Ironically, he wouldn't die from a flying zoid that fell.

He wanted to stay, wanted to drag Van out of the dying zoid and to safety. But what the reckless pilot wanted couldn't work if the organoid remained. He yelled the command again, and again, almost screaming at Shadow. Finally, the order was reluctantly obeyed, and blue lightning shot from the shell to safety.

Ironically, he believed that Raven had succeeded in killing him the one time he hadn't meant it.

The explosion of self-destruction tore through the canyon, splintering the Iron Kong. The remaining cliff sides caved, bringing down fresh corpses and shoring up the tomb securely. Shadow watched the fire from the wreck spread along rock, humanly wondering whether this was fate, karma, or sheer idiocy. Then he flew down to search for survivors... because there were always survivors.

Always.