Well, that reply could have been worse, although it may yet still. Honestly, she's a little surprised that Zelos hasn't cottoned on to Kratos being the tattle-tale, but then again Pepper is used to puzzling things together and Zelos may not be.

She's also dismayed that Kratos was right; Pepper really wanted him to be misinterpreting things.

"Kratos has his own giant set of problems, and believe me, he and I are gonna be talking about them eventually, but he's not why I'm here." And that is, in fact, the truth. She'd told Kratos much the same. "I'm here for you. I get not wanting to say what happened on a public network, or really at all, but..." Pepper hesitates. Well, since she's poking at personal pain, she may as well share some of her own.

She speaks softly, but doesn't look away. "I know what kind of lengths I could go to, if I'm pushed far enough. I know I'm capable of becoming someone totally unrecognizable - an actual monster. And I'd be really good at it, too. My job right now is to protect people, to fight bad guys and evil and keep the world from ending, and I know that I could be worse than anyone my friends and I have ever fought against. I had to face that - literally face it, I saw my dad die right in front of me and almost went over the edge - and I had to accept it, or the thing that was testing me would've killed me and I wouldn't be here right now to talk about it," she tells him, and for the first time there's a tremor in her voice. "So I know a little about having shadows on my soul. I'm not trying to fix you, Zelos, because you aren't broken, and I can't make you do a single thing you don't want to. I just want you to know you're not alone."