*For those of you not familiar, her father has a golden eye that can read minds. Yep.

Jem sat in class, leaning on her desk, her neck aching a little. She looked over at Zero, who was currently awake. She remembered last night, how she had woken up to him. This bite was different from the first. It was more... violent.

That was not the problem Jemmea had with it, though. She was glad Zero had come to her when he needed it, but the way he did it just did not seem like him. She felt this must be because he was getting worse. He had not said how long it would take or how quickly he would become a Level E, and now she was worried it had already begun.

Zero was actually having a good day, feeling much better and more like a person again. However, he noticed something was wrong when he met Jem after the switchover. Her eyes were downcast and her hand over the spot where he had bitten her. He noticed she was reading The Divine Comedy. Again.

"Hey," he said, causing her to look up. She was quiet, so he had to ask. "Did I hurt you last night?"

Jem didn't know what to say to Zero. She wanted to ask him about it, but knew he didn't want to talk about it. She also knew it was important to not make any kind of deal out of it, knowing now how fragile he was.

She shook her head, looking back down at the ground, still worried. "No, it's fine," she replied as she stood up.

They walked quietly back to the dorm. He kept glancing at her, but she never looked at him. By the time they reached his room, she still hadn't said anything. "So I'll be back later," Zero mentioned, standing in the door as she sat down on his bed.

"Yeah," she nodded, "have a good night out there."

Zero kept his eyes on her as he closed the door, looking down only when it had pushed her out of view. He pocketed his hands, still looking down for a moment, thinking, then went out to rejoin Yuuki.

That night on patrol, the way Jem had acted was on his mind. Before, everything had been fine, but after this time, he may have been too rough with her. He may have very well scared her. He thought about how she wouldn't meet his gaze, and now started to worry that she was having second thoughts about allowing him to bite her. This ate at him. He had gained a sense of confidence and self-worth again with Jemmea, but now that was starting to crumble a bit. He decided to try and push it out of his mind and just ask her about it when he saw her later. But he never had the chance.

Partway through the night, a limousine pulled up accompanied by another black car. A man with long, silvery hair climbed out with his handful of goons. Pegasus was not happy, and his men followed him as he went directly to the headmaster's office.

Pegasus barged into Kaien's office, surprising the headmaster. "May I help you?" Kaien asked.

"I received a phone call. Why is my Jemma in danger?" Pegasus demanded.

"Ah, you're Jemmea's father. Mr. Pegasus, it's nice to finally meet you in person, but I am not sure what you are referring to exactly-" Kaien said as Pegasus looked past his words, using his golden eye to look into his mind. He saw it. The horrors of vampires. He now knew and saw that the headmaster was harboring many vampires at the school, separate from the humans, except for one. The one he had adopted as his son. Then he saw the memory from when Kaien first noticed Jemmea's ribbon, how he had made the connection, and how his son had confirmed it.

"You liar," Pegasus snarled, cutting him off. He then looked once more to see where she might be. "I can see right through you. How dare you keep my daughter here when you knew. How dare you keep her here just so your son could feed off of her."

"How did you-? No, that's not-" Kaien started to protest.

"I am taking my daughter back tonight, and I suggest you don't stand in my way if you don't want me to do anything more," he threatened.

He ordered Croquet to take half the men and go to her room, and if she wasn't there, gather her things and go back to the car. He took Kemo and the other half with him, going to the place that he was regrettably more likely to find her.

Kaien sat back in his seat, feeling defeated as he knew what this meant for the two involved, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Kemo broke open the door, waking up Jem. She looked up, and as he moved out of the way she saw her father standing in the doorway. His hands were on his hips and his eyes were close, then he looked up, lifting his head slightly.

"Daddy?" Jemmea cried. "What are you doing here?"

Kemo pulled her up and urged her on. "Come on girly, time to go."

"No!" she pleaded. "I don't want to go!"

"Jemma, honestly, I don't want to hear it. I come all the way here to find you asleep in some boy's bed? I'm sending you to charm school, obviously you need to learn some decency," Pegasus snapped as Kemo pushed her towards him.

He made her trip her way to stand before her father and she yelped the whole time. But once she stood before him, she was quiet, not lifting her head to look at him. Her father reached out, untying the ribbon around her neck. She reached up to stop him, but Kemo caught her hand before she could. As the ribbon fell, Pegasus slipped his hand under her hair, pushing it aside as he got a hold on the bandage.

"Daddy, no!" Jemmea cried, then Pegasus ripped the bandage off and there was nothing she could do.

He let out a disgusted breath when he saw the marks. "So it's true," he breathed, then looked at her and said firmly, "We're leaving, and we're leaving without another word from you." Pegasus turned and started to walk back the way they came, Kemo pushing Pegasus' protesting daughter along. Jem didn't know why he was here or how he could have known about this. She assumed he had just come to pull her out for the sake of it and found a reason only when he arrived.

The men gathered around her as she was escorted away. When she reached the limo and the door was opened for her, she turned back to look at the academy. Zero, she thought. Tears came to her eyes. She was being taken away right when he was starting to get worse, and there was no one left to help him. She was leaving him to die, or worse... and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Get in," Kemo urged, pushing her forward as she nearly stumbled into the limo.

Atop the school, Zero watched silently. He saw the group of men surrounding her, the ones she had called to come safely escort her away. He had made her feel like she was in danger. At least, that was how Zero saw it as the wind pushed his hair and tie to the side, his clothes rustling and hands at his sides. He just watched as the door closed behind her. She could not even face him, he had wronged her so terribly that she left as quickly as she could. He wasn't ever worth saying goodbye to. And that was it. It was clear to him now. He could no longer try to convince himself that he was, or ever could be, anything more than a monster.

First unhappy ending I have written, but remember this takes place right before the cannon! Next it goes into the material we all know and love, and I kind of like to think this story even better helps to explain why he acts in the extreme way he does in the cannon, though you all would have a better perspective on that! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and everyone who will review, it means a lot! I hope you enjoyed this, and for those of you who read my series, you will discover that it does not end at this. She next sees Zero in the next fic of my series, titled Until He Had It All, in the chapter "Bloodletting." For those of you who want it, here's a little snippet:

Then her eyes started to tear and she ran to me, grasping me around my whole body, tighter than I had ever experienced before, certainly tighter than was comfortable. She trapped my arms, and shaking, sobbed over and over again, "I thought you were dead too!" and "They gave you back, they gave you back!" I tried to move my arms around to comfort her as far as her grasp would allow.