Two knew it was too risky to try to combat them with his ability at this point without the canisters. He was already pushing it back when he released the Hellfire, but he had it completely under control. If something were to go wrong if he were to use Righteous Flame with so much foliage around, he could end up making their situation 10x worse. He still had his blade - but he didn't like the odds of close combat without having a viable range backup.

So the only option he could think of at the moment was to create some distance and hopefully break out of the forest.

Two and Zero made haste through the forest to avoid being caught in the Reaper's entrapment of flames.

Two pressed his ear piece, "Sgt. Sadiki, do you copy?"

Silence.

"Sgt. Sadiki, can you hear me? We're in a bit of a bind right now!"

Silence.

Two scoffed and gave up on trying to contact help. "Looks like you moved us out of range of the comms. We're on our own right now."

Zero bit down on his lip in frustration. I messed up and I don't know how to fix this. Not with Two refusing to work with me now, he thought to himself.

He thought back to the former Zero's journal and the entry after his first mission. He had also messed up somehow on his first mission and it cost the life of one of his squadmates. But he didn't want to make the same mistake. He had to figure something out before they ran out of options.

"Two, why don't you just send up the signal flare?! Then Haji can come get us."

"Think for a second. What would happen if we called over Haji? The Reapers would hear the noise of the helicopter and possibly try to shoot it down."

"We can warn him-"

"Over the comms when he gets in range? Already thought about that, too. As you proved back there, there may be more Reapers than we initially thought in this forest. Unlike you I would rather not chance it and risk their lives with that limited knowledge." Two said with dagger-like words."

"Then at least let me use Chronos Trigger so we can get out of here!" Zero pleaded.

"No! If we're not careful we could-" Suddenly Two's eyes widened and he came to an immediate halt.

Zero stopped as well. "Wait, what's wrong?"

Two quickly yanked the map he was carrying out of his other utility pouch that was still intact. It showed an overlay of the entire forest they were currently in.

"We were here before…then we…hmmm…we could be.." Two was mummering to himself as he poured over the map frantically.

Zero stepped closer to get a better look at the map. "Is there a problem?"

"We're surrounded by problems right now." Two snapped. He was clearly stressed about something. Zero's gaze caught a blocked off area of the forest with hazard symbols labeled 'Black Out Zone'.

*Creeeeakkkkkkkk*

Two was too focused on the map to notice the almost distant creaking sound. But Zero heard it. He looked around but didn't see anything that could be causing it.

*Creeeakkkkkkk*

He quickly scanned the area again, but there was still nothing. "Two, do you hear that?"

Two didn't respond as he kept muttering to himself.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

*CREEEEAAKKKKK*

Even Two heard it now as it was much louder this time.

And closer.

Two looked up to where he thought he heard the sound and was met with a terrifying sight. One of the Reapers was perched on top of the high branches of the surrounding trees, causing it to bend under its weight. It stared with the hunger a lion would show as it stared at a grazing gazelle. Instead of drool dripping from its snarling mouth, light trails of smoke were. Zero hadn't seen it yet.

There was no time to think.

The Reaper opened his mouth and shot out a roaring blast of fire.

"Righteous flame!" Two countered with his own as he slung his arm forward towards the incoming attack and shot out a mighty fiery attack.

The two blasts collided and a stand off ensued as the blasts pushed against each other.

"What the-?!" Zero became aware of the situation and jumped into action.

"Chronos Trigg-" *BOOM!!*

The two attacks that were pushing against each other had exploded and sent out a powerful fiery shockwave. It incinerated the nearby trees and triggered a violent tremor in the surrounding area.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACKKKK*

Zero and Two had both been blown off their feet by the explosion. The back of Zero's head SLAMMED into a nearby tree briefly knocking him unconscious. Two had hit the ground hard but had mostly maintained his composure. But there was a much more pressing concern.

*CRACKKKK*

The ground was beginning to cave in around them.

The Reaper had ducked back into the trees after the explosion and was nowhere to be seen.

Two was able to quickly regain his footing. He saw an opportunity to get out before the ground completely caved in - not far from here was a tree right at the edge of the danger area. All he had to do was two big leaps and he would be able to snag a branch potentially at the last minute.

Two was just about to jump out of harm's way when a thought occurred to him.

Wait, he thought to himself, where's Zero?

He turned his head and spotted him on the ground on the other side of the collapsing area. "Zero! Get up! NOW!"

Zero showed no response to Two's voice.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Parts of the ground began collapsing and his window of escape was growing thinner by the second. He looked back to the tree that would be his saving grace and then back to Zero.

The person who was last on his priority list.

"Fucking hell!" Two dashed through the collapsing ground towards Zero. His footing was quickly disappearing as he used anything that still seemed solid enough as a stepping stone to reach him.

The ground underneath Zero was about to give way; his body was slowly starting to slide as the ground was becoming a decline.

"Zero!!" Two did one last mighty leap at Zero's body. Just as he managed to grab ahold of him the ground completely collapsed and swallowed them both into the darkness below.

"Ugh…."

Zero slowly started to open his eyes. His vision was a bit blurry but had started to clear up as the fog from his brain lifted. It didn't help that the lighting around him was so dim. Almost to the point of complete darkness.

His entire body felt like one big painful muscle. Especially his head.

"What…what happened…" Zero picked himself up off the ground. He could barely see his own hand.

"You're finally awake."

*BWOSH*

Two ignited his katana and illuminated the area around them. He was sitting on top of a large rock.

It seemed like they were in some sort of underground cavern. It was very expansive - Zero couldn't see the top above where they currently sat, but across from them was an entrance that went further in and stalagmites were visible from the top of the cave wall. He looked around and saw that they were surrounded by rubble.

Zero looked at Two who looked worse for wear. He had a head wound that he had tore off part of his shirt to cover up to stop the bleeding. Two also had an array of bruises and scratches over the exposed parts of his body.

"Where are we?" Zero asked.

"Well. Turns out there was a cave system under where we were. So the ground wasn't as deep. When the explosion went off it caused a cave in."

Zero remembered the explosion going off and then…nothing.

"So…we're underground?"

"Looks that way."

Zero took a closer look at the surrounding walls and started to notice something strange. There was black goo like substance clinging to parts of the walls and even the ground. There was also a sort of stench hanging in the air. It was akin to the smell of spoiled food.

"What is all this? And that smell…ugh." Zero said, holding his nose shut.

Two sighed and stood up off the rock. "That is a substance that Reapers leave behind. Their metabolism is so fast that anything they eat is usually through their digestive tract in half the time of a human. So in short, it's their shit."

Zero almost gagged at the amount of goo that was around them.

"Wait. Why is there a bunch of Reaper shit down here in an underground cave?"

"Because…we fucked up." For the first time, Two looked almost defeated. "The military drones were able to identify the black out zone, but not whether it was above or below ground. It's based on readings."

"So what IS a black out zone?? I keep hearing this term but no one has told me what it actually is."

"You heard about the facilities during the calamity right? How they were a breeding ground for the first high level Reapers?"

"Yes…"

"Well, it's basically that. It's a highly concentrated area of Reapers that even the military hasn't been able to penetrate due to how many human casualties it would take. So these areas are mapped out and avoided. And now we're trapped in one."