Chapter 1: Finish the fight

North America, unknown location

August 17, 2016

XCOM base Alpha, Cafeteria

Johnson

Johnson walked into the bustling cafeteria of XCOM's home base in North America. Stomach growling, he went over to the food line getting behind a stereotypical. Big, burly man with a giant machine gun stitched into his orange uniform. Though, Johnson had come to learn to trust most of XCOM's personal and was unfazed by the man. He grabbed a tray going and picking out foods as the line went. After filling his tray with his favorite foods, which was a variety of plant-based foods, he looked for the table where his Strike-Team normally sat at.

His brown eyes eventually landed on a trio of people sitting in one of the middle tables. Johnson maneuvered through the table maze, careful not to bump one of the veteran XCOM people. Those people had been here since XCOM first started, when the aliens came and began their war on man.

Johnson got to the table, placed his tray down, and sat. He glanced at each one of his teammates smiling. They had only recently met, but they felt like friends already after a few missions together. Who would know that war could bring people together? Johnson recalled each of their names and roles quite easily.

A young female, likely in her earlier twenties, sat next to Johnson carefully eating her meal was a fellow white American. Cynthia was stitched into her orange uniform and a red cross on her back designating her role as a medic. Occasionally, a tuft of blonde hair fell blocking her eyes and her fingers pulled it away.

Just across from Johnson sat a man with narrow eyes and a rounded face was a Chinese man with a silly grin. Zhou was also stitched on his uniform. His crazy green eyes bounced around the table as if they had a mind of their own. The man was rolling his meatballs around with his fork.

Then finally, sitting at the very end of the table, silently eating his food, was a Middle Eastern man. Brown eyes kept down avoiding looking at anyone. The tanned form tried blending into the background and he did for the most part, the only thing that separated him was a short, black beard. Aleph was stitched into his uniform as well.

"Sup," Johnson greeted as he began probing his food for a suitable item to consume.

"Oh, yeah John!" Cynthia smiled.

"Hello earthling!" Zhou grinned madly causing Johnson to shake his head. The irony. Aliens were invading earth and Zhou had the audacity to say that.

Aleph simply grunted, his way of saying hello.

"So, anyone heard about the recent rumors?" Johnson asked, looking to start conversation.

"Yeah. Strikes 1 through 6 were sent out and I've been sneaking around the Geoscape. There's something that looks like a giant UFO near Brazil." Cynthia replied.

"Maybe it has something to do with the recent quakes? Never know what the Aliens are capable of," Johnson stated. He felt a slight vibration going through his feet, but ignored it thinking it was just another tiny aftershock.

"Yay! The aliens are capable of a lot of things, like mind rape," Zhou grinned madly, almost as if he would enjoy being mind raped.

"Hmm, pretty sure the PSI operatives used to offer something called 'Mind Sex'… ew," Cynthia frowned in disgust. Who would want to have mind sex was beyond her. She preferred not having someone probe her brain.

"Err, this conversation just got awkward. Can we please move on to a less cringe worthy tropic?" Johnson gulped, disgusted at the very notion. Once again, a vibration shook Johnson's feet, slightly more violent.

"Uhh, is it me, or is the earth having a hangover?" Zhou asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I feel it to," Johnson replied," and it's getting worse."

On cue, the Cafeteria began shaking began shaking violently. People went tumbling to the ground sending trays, food, and drinks sailing through the air. The ceiling tiles broke off smashing onto the floor or a person's head. Wires began sparking with many being severed and hanging loose. Alarmed screams and shouts filled the air as people tried to find a way to stabilize themselves. A few even clung to the bigger members thinking they would stand upright, but they too would fall often flattening the clingy person.

Johnson and the others began bouncing up and down. Johnson grabbed the underside of the table thinking it would help stop it, but a tile fell down causing him to yelp and let go. He fell backwards onto the ground hitting his head first. He was stunned with pain for a moment. When he recovered, Johnson saw the form of a man falling down onto his face.

XCOM base Alpha, Geoscap

Commander Ali

In the Geoscap, Commander Ali held onto the railing for dear life. He watched in horror as circles around the UFO dubbed the Temple Ship grew ever larger. As they grew larger, the worse the shaking became. Ali didn't know what the hell was going on, but if he had to make a connection, that damn UFO was causing this worldwide earthquake.

"What the hell! Did the mission fail? Is this a failsafe in case they lost?!" Ali's mind rambled on until panicking shouts from his subordinates demanded his attention.

Ali turned his head to see a white male holding onto the railing. His brown eyes shooting wildly around the Geoscap and he was shouting commands at panicking technicians and Intel officers.

"Damn it people, get back here!" He roared furiously.

"Forget it Bradford! When people panic they lose any sense!" Ali yelled. Then he felt a hand grip his shoulder and he turned around to see Dr. Shen.

"What is happening here?" The elderly engineer asked, slight alarm in his voice.

"No fucking clue!"

"Vahlen, what the hell is going on?" Bradford growled towards the stumbling Dr. Vahlen.

"The, the ship itself is behaving like a dying star," Vahlen answered, her fingers typing onto her tablet," becoming a black hole. At this distance… the entire earth will be consumed."

"WHAT?!" Ali yelled at the top of his lungs." Is there anything that can be done?"

"I'm not sure, Ali!"

"Well," Ali muttered. His hand went into his pockets pulling out a piece of paper and a pen and began furiously scribbling down words. The others looked at him, baffled at what he was doing. He noticed it and said, "What?! I'm writing down my will!"

Before any of them could respond, a voice sounded over the radio.

"Central! I'm bugging out. The package is not on board. I repeat the package is not on board. I waited as long as I could sir!"

"Understandable," Ali sighed," Vahlen, what would be the minimal safe distance from a black hole?"

"A black hole's gravitational pull is large Commander, nothing we have would be fast enough to escape it!"

Ali stared blankly at Vahlen, denying that this was the end of the world. That it would be the end of the human race. All of the resources and money spent fighting the aliens, all the research they've done, the atrocities they've committed, and the soldiers they've lost to save mankind. All for what? If this was truly the end, then Ali wanted to write down something so if a friendly alien race ever came, they would know man's existence. But faith happened to disagreed.

"Sirs! The alien ship is in motion!" One of their remaining Intel officers shouted.

"What direction?" Bradford asked. When the officer didn't reply, he stumbled forward and yelled the question again.

The officer glanced at the computer and simply said, "Up."

"Up? Wait, the Volunteer! Get me a connection!" Ali barked causing the officer to type rapidly. Within a moment a connection was established.

Temple Ship UFO

The Volunteer, Cur.

Cur stood triumphantly over the body of the Uber Ethereal. He glared at the sprawled, robed form of the alien that had led the invasion of earth, killing countless people and abducting even more. The damn thing spoke to him after he volunteered to touch the floating blue ball that they called the 'Ethereal Device'. It gave him some stupid reason that a even bigger threat was coming forward and that the 'failures' didn't had what it took to fight it. It even went as far as to call its own kind the greatest failure of all. Cur just flipped it off once he saw it across the Cathedral-like bridge.

"See you in hell. Say hi to Hitler for me," Cur chuckled. He turned around seeing the aftermath of the brutal firefight.

The remnants of Strike 5 stood on a platform. A Chinese man with a iron-gray goatee was helping his teammate, a French woman, up. After getting up, the woman pulled back her lips and began stomping the corpse of an Ethereal. Zheng placed two fingers on his forehead and shook his head at Durand. The Frenchwoman just kept stomping the corpse.

Cur's gaze swept across the bridge. Husks of former MECs sparkled, corpses of both human and alien littered the ground, ash fluttered around from when the Uber Ethereal summoned illusions of XCOM operatives, and another Ethereal Device was sitting unscratched.

"We did it! We finally fucking did it!" His Russian teammate exclaimed.

"Drinks on me ladies," his American commander grinned.

Cur chuckled and said, "We still have the remains to mop up sir."

Before the American responded, the ship began rumbling as if it was stimulating its own earthquake. Pieces of the ship began falling off and crashing down. Cur and the remaining operatives made a mad dash for the exit thinking that the ship was going to explode. However, as Cur ran, he felt something, like silk, wrapping itself around his head. Images flashed by too rapidly for him to make out properly. What he saw, however, he amounted to the end of earth.

He looked at the device and gasped. It had been the thing that told him! But how? It was acting erratically, constantly changing shape. Purple steams of energy were flowing into it. That meant that the device had been the power source of the ship and the only one who kept its power in check was the Uber Ethereal. Cur then swung his head to his team. Two of them had stopped and were shouting for him to rush over and get the hell out. He couldn't… or earth and all of mankind would be lost.

"GO!" Cur bellowed, sending out a wave of energy that sent his teammates flying out the door. One barely had enough time to get up before the doors slammed closed.

Cur shook his head in dismay. They would have to have the victory party without him and as Cur walked towards the Device, thoughts rushed through his head. What if this was a trick? What would happen if he touched the Device? However, Cur brushed those thoughts aside in favor of trusting his instincts. They had always helped him from the beginning of the war all the way to the Temple Ship. So, he placed is hands around the blue ball and once more Cur saw images flash by his eyes.

The Skyrangers, still in the hanger bay, was suddenly and violently pulled towards the ground. It impacted the floor with such force that it exploded. Screams shortly followed as his remaining teammates tried avoiding flying pieces of the Skyrangers. The Temple Ship itself became smaller and smaller as a black hole grew tearing apart buildings and pulling everything into its embrace. Then finally, the earth itself was ripped apart and consumed.

"No," Cur muttered. He closed his eyes, knowing what had to be done. He lifted his hands upwards and the Ship obeyed his command going up.

"Major Cur! What the hell are you doing?!" Ali's commanding voice boomed over his builtin radio.

Cur simply responded, "Finishing the fight sir!"

A moment passed before Ali came over the radio again, "Guess we'll see you on the flip side soldier. Ali out… and good luck."

Cur grinned and brought his hands towards the ball. The energy he felt was immense, building up to such a point where it felt like a black hole. Cur then saw his life flashed before him. Of his family, of his friends, of his teammates, of countless memories and they would see him never again. That, alone, brought a tear to Cur's eye.

"This is how it ends, huh? Well then. INTO INFINITY AND BEYOND!" He roared with laughter as he forced all of the energy into the ship. Cur laughed like a mad man on the verge of dying as the energy could no longer be contained and imploded on itself causing the ship to explode in a brilliant flash of light sending the debris into Earth's atmosphere. The war was finally over with people already celebrating, but the fight itself was far from over.

All around the world, the remaining Alien forces were thrown into chaos. Without their Mothership, they no longer felt the guiding presence of the Uber Ethereal who told them what to do. They ran amock in cities and the countyside attacking any human. UFOs began ramming into the ground and the Ethereals that remained were at a lost at what to do.

Expect three, they would fight till the bitter end and inflict as much damage as possible onto the foul humans who had slain so many. The war was lost, but the fight had only just begun.

A/N: Hello everyone! Archwar here with another story! This one is about the immediate aftermath of XCOM: Enemy Within. For the people who have been reading my other story, don't worry. That will be completed. I just wanted to get this up so I wouldn't forget it and I would have something to go on.

This story will have elements of the Long War mod, my own ideas, and the Things XCOM Operatives aren't allowed to do. If you're curious about that, google up the name. It's quite humorous! My favorite one is the 'Thrones' for the Commander. The material, of course. belongs to their respective owners and I only take credit for my own ideas.

Anyways, if you people could rate and review that would be greatly appreciated.