Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight or Vampire Knight Guilty or the characters or story line affiliated with either the anime or the manga. All rights are reserved for its creator Matsuri Hino.

oOo

Chapter Three: A Different Kind of Present

He had never imagined his life without her…

Ichiru stood with him on the balcony he had hidden on before his brother's ghostly appearance and Zero wondered why everything seemed the same if it was suppose to be different. It was then that he saw Yuuki. She wasn't dressed as he remembered, she wasn't even dressed for the Christmas ball, no she was in her uniform, not the black one that he remembered from so long ago, but the white one signaling her transfer to the Night Class. He watched as she stepped out onto the balcony and wandered towards the railing. Zero could see the tension in her small frame and wondered what had her so agitated.

"Look in her hand Zero. What is that she's holding?"

Zero let his gaze move to her side where her arm hung tense and her hand gripped…

"Artemis." He turned to his brother. "Why does she carry Artemis? Why am I not here with her, helping her in whatever escapade she's decided to get herself into?"

His twin shook his head a sad expression clouding eyes so like his own. "If this is a present where you and Yuuki had never met…"

He didn't need to finish the thought because Zero knew then just why she held Artemis. "She's hunting me isn't she?"

Ichiru didn't answer. He didn't have to because the scene before them began to play out. Zero watched as Yuuki vaulted over the railing and headed towards the trees. He hesitated only a second before he too vaulted over the railing taking off in a sprint to keep Yuuki in sight as she began to fade into the shadows of the trees surrounding Cross Academy.

When he reached the trees he thought he had lost her. For a minute all was silent until he heard the evil laughter of a creature that should have died long before now. He took off again pushing through branches never slowing his pace until he came upon the scene that he knew would forever haunt him.

Before him stood a mirror image of himself except the Zero that he was in this time was ragged, clothes torn, body gaunt and eyes blazing with an insatiable bloodlust. He watched as Yuuki stood before the other Zero, the true monster in human guise. She stood proud, strong and brave. Her moves were graceful as she began circling the creature that was him, but not him. He watched as she raised Artemis and her rod transformed into its true form.

The cackle coming from the other him was torture to his ears, it was a sound he had heard from many another Level E, but never a sound he thought he would ever hear issue from his mouth. It was a sound that sent chills down his spine, a finger of dread to poke and prod at his heart, even though it was a sound he knew well…no the fear wasn't coming from the sound the beastly form he had taken made, it was the thought of Yuuki doing to him what he had always threatened to do to her.

Yuuki raised Artemis rearing back to strike and Zero wanted to yell out to her to stop, that that wasn't really him, but he knew that she wouldn't hear him. He watched in horrified silence as she brought down her weapon and took out the pitiful excuse for a life the other him had. Zero felt as if she had really hit him with Artemis, he felt as if she had killed him instead of the being the was now nothing but ash upon the snow, marring its beautiful pristine whiteness with sooty grey.

He felt his brother's presence beside him, but he couldn't turn his eyes away from the horror of what Yuuki had just done. The expression on her face was one of utter loathing. There had been no pity shown in her quick and deadly assassination of a monster, her movements had been sure and precise as she had delivered the killing blow. He had only ever seen her look like that once and that time alone was enough for him. Rido Kuran hadn't stood a chance against Yuuki, not when she had an entire school of people to protect. No he hadn't stood any more of a chance than the beastly version of himself had.

"You see the difference now between the two presents? With Yuuki by your side you never succumbed to the monstrous blood that flows through your veins, but without her, without the blood she so freely gave you, you lost all of your humanity to become nothing more than a beast preying on the blood of innocent people."

Zero finally turned away from the sight before him, strolling back the way he had come. He knew Ichiru was behind him, he could hear the whisper of his footfalls in the snow as he silently followed him. "Zero do you think you can run from the image of this fate? You had to see this. You had to understand the importance of having Yuuki there beside you. She saved you when no one else would have done so. She defied the laws set down and although it was forbidden she let you take her blood so that you could survive the transformation. She did it all because she wanted you to be happy. She wanted you to remain by her side. Do you still not understand brother?"

"What am I suppose to understand Ichiru? What have you been trying to tell me?" Zero whirled around and pinned his brother with a glare. "Tell me what it is I'm supposed to understand!"

Ichiru regarded his brother. Zero's eyes held the pain of betrayal even though this present had never occurred. Shaking his head he leveled Zero with a glare of his own. "Yuuki defied everything Kaien had ever taught her, defied Kaname in many ways, unknowingly defied the rules of her birthright so that you could survive because she loved you. She has loved you all these years hoping in vain that you would one day return that love. When she regained her memories and became the vampire that she was born to be you shunned her, but still she held out hope thinking that because you knew her you would return to her. You've let your hatred towards Pureblood keep you from a happiness many would kill for, but for you it would have been freely given. All you had to do was accept her for who she was instead of hating her for the blood that flowed through her veins."

Zero shook his head. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about Yuuki's love because it hurt him. It hurt him because of her lineage. How could he so easily forget what she was when it was one of her kind that had so brutally slaughtered his family?

He turned his back on Ichiru. He didn't want him to see the struggle he was going through, didn't want him to see the pain that still felt so fresh, to see the scars that had never healed. "I don't want to see anymore. Take me back Ichiru I've seen enough."

"No Zero. You haven't seen it all. I have to show you everything. You have to see what your hatred is going to cost you. I have to show you the future. I have to show you what your decision is going to cost you, what a change in heart can give you."

Zero didn't want to see it. He didn't think that he could handle anything more after the betrayal he had just witnessed. However he wasn't given a choice. He felt his brother's touch before the darkness closed in once more.