The Omega Chronicles: Rise of the Red Rebellion

by DarkShiftRising

Omega,the God of feated by Zero in 22XX,his name faded from w,centuries later,the legendary crimson destroyer is back,and ready to raise a new kind of hell on a world that has all but forgotten him! BRING IT! Currently on hold indefinitely, due to RL shenanigans. Please do not expect updates any time in the foreseeable future.

36. Chapter 35: The Heart That Burns Forever

Chapter 35: The Heart That Burns Forever

Disclaimer: Official stuff belongs to official people. The rest? ALL BETS OFF!

Yeah, remember how I said everything was supposed to go Grade-A crazy this chapter?

...better make that the next two chapters AFTER this.

And you can blame me suddenly getting into Touhou for that.

GODDAMNIT REIUJI WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME.

As a result, CONGRATULATIONS! NOW UPDATED ON INTERNATIONAL CIRNO DAY! HAPPY NINEBALL DAY, EVERYBODY!

---

"Get me the casualty reports for Sector D-5! I need to know if we've got ANYBODY in command over there, or if they're all dead by now!"

"This is Guardian platoon 7! We're pinned down in G-6! Got two Golems and a Crushpactor advancing from the north! Requesting fire support!"

"Argh, dammit! They've broken through! E-4, E-4! Two Dreadnoughts and an-AAAAGH!"

"This is Security squad thirteen! Be advised, the enemy is deploying electronic countermeasures, recommend switching to manual targeting and encrypted Security channels! Uncertain whether it's the Technician or the Gearhead!"

The tinny voices of Legion Security and Guardian forces alike continued to sound in Ace's ear, the Scarlet Commander's expression uncharacteristically grim as he and Vent tore apart the former office of the latest Legion official to try and sink his power-hungry fangs into the Security Division. They had been in the midst of this lengthy task when the Zone Technician all of Legion had been after for two weeks finally struck with a vengeance, inundating the city with dozens of berserk mechaniloids and hijacking the processes of several Mechaniloid production facilities. Turning them towards the task of bolstering his own forces the Technician had his forces tear apart the surrounding structures and use them to make patchwork Dreadnoughts, haphazard, junkyard versions of the deadly Mechaniloid weapon platforms feared across the world's battlefields. The battle against these scrap abominations and the wild mobs of Mechaniloids had been fierce, with both Legion Security and the Guardians joining forces to combat the incursion. By and large, the battle was largely fought by the heroic efforts of the soldiers of both sides, with the elite figures of Chosen One Ashe, the one man cataclysm known as Fefnir Diz Aster and the looming specter of the fearsome Colonel Commissar, with help from Ace's two newest recruits, the skilled mechanic (and apparent mech pilot) Kitara Nekonomicon, and weapons broker Vix Vexen Vixene, and their secret, Security funded project, the giant robot known as ULTRAS ATX.

...oh, and Celtis helped too. Sort of.

And then she got stabbed. But she got better, so pay no mind to that.

But the real threat began when the combined forces of Legion and the Guardians had finally driven the Technician's forces into a corner. In a desperate act of spite, the Technician disabled the anti-trans server defenses for the entire Eastern Sector of Legion, before retreating into Cyberspace to deal with the oncoming threat of the God of Destruction and his allies. In his place, he left a far more fearsome foe: Gearhead Granz, the unseen Commander of the single largest Mechaniloid army in the entire world.

And with all the transfer jammers now out of commission, it had been a matter of minutes to teleport that army in, this time with true Dreadnoughts, and the ruthless, organized efficiency of a true army.

Again, the elite units like Ashe and the Colonel continued to fight, crushing the enemy wherever they found them, buying time for their battered allies to regroup and fight back. But from the chatter Ace's special intercept was picking up, it would just be a matter of time before they were overrun.

And yet he still couldn't leave to take command of the forces himself. He had discovered certain pieces of evidence within the arrested Senator's office that no normal person should have, and found himself unable to shake the sensation that there was something much larger at work here.

Something which had begun to unearth the carefully hidden traces of A.C.E itself.

So he kept searching, tearing apart the office until they both found the Senator's hidden personal safe.

Vent too had stayed, not because he'd found anything concrete yet, but because he too had found disturbing traces, one of which had been a report related to a particularly disastrous Guardian mission.

It might have seemed irresponsible to anyone who didn't know them, simply abandoning their posts as commander, but those same people clearly wouldn't know just who it was the two of them had left in charge...

[Cue Music: Super Robot Wars- Time Diver (Vocal)]

"This is Guardian Base! Artillery strike incoming on target location! Cannons four through thirteen, open fire!"

"Roger that, Commander!"

Aile strode forward onto the commander's podium, staring up at the myriad of tactical screens above her, eyes cold and hard.

"Bring us about thirty degrees once firing sequence is completed! There's a wing of those blasted Ghoras closing on us from aft, and I want them where the deck guns can give them a proper welcome!"

"Aye, Commander! Preparing secondary firing solution!"

She turned, the Captain's mantle that Vent had insisted on getting her for their last birthday whirling out with the motion. (There was also the rather tasteful military cap that the Colonel-Commissar had seen fit to present her with when they'd had that joint mock-battle a few months ago. It was a bit of an outdated affectation, but she liked the style, and so wore it whenever she was on commander duty.)

"How are the shields holding up?"

From another screen, Fleuve, the wizened old mechanic who had been with the Guardian Base since the days of Prairie, nodded.

"So far so good, Aile, but I'll not be vouching for them if we take a direct hit from another of those Dreadnought's main guns!"

"I'll keep that in mind." Aile replied dryly, before a tremendous impact shook the ship.

Even as she straightened back up, readjusting the brim of her hat, one of the operators had a response waiting for her.

"It's the Doru Ghoras, Commander! They've banked to stay in our blind spots! The main cannons can't reach them!"

"Tch...Granz again..." She growled. She'd been hoping that the unseen general would have been dealing with his other forces long enough for her to take advantage of the Doru Ghoras' default intelligence.

"I've had about enough of this...Keep us moving! I want those bastards to keep trying for our blind spots. In the meantime, shunt power from starboard deflector three and port deflector five to reinforce the rear shielding. Cedre!"

The redheaded gunnery chief appeared onscreen, grinning.

"You called, boss?"

"Keep autoturrets five and twelve on them, see if you can't keep their heads down." She gave a dark smile, one visible eye glinting from the shadows cast by the visor of her military cap.

"I'm taking this topside."

Cedre actually laughed at that.

"Reading you loud and clear, boss lady!" She grinned. "I'll see if I can't put up a good overture for ya!"

As the image disappeared, Aile swept out of the room, cape billowing behind her.

"This is Aile. I need an elevator to the deck, and I need it five minutes ago."

Missing the cheerful reply, she concentrated on Vent, reaching out to him through their shared link with the Biometals.

'Sorry Vent, but things are getting a little hectic up here. I'll be borrowing your ZX Plus for a bit.'

Immediately the reply came back, traces of worry in her brother's voice.

'Are you all right? I can be back in five minutes if you need me.'

She shook her head, although she knew he wouldn't see it.

'No, it's nothing major. Just some slightly smarter than average Doru Ghoras scratching the paint.'

'Ah. Gotcha.'

And a minute later, Models X and Z were sitting in her hands like they'd been there the whole time, with X once again complaining about being jerked around without notice, and Z silently contemplating how to get back into one of Aile's more conveniently placed pockets.

"All right you bastards..." She growled, mantle flaring up as the elevator crashed to a halt in front of her. "You want to mess with the Guardians, I'll show you the reason nobody's stupid enough to try that!"

She slammed the Biometals together in front of her, and a blaze of light enveloped the ascending platform.

"ME...GA...MEEEEEEEEEEERGE!"

"OW!"

"MY FACE!"

"Ack! Um, sorry!" Aile stammered, X and Z giving matching yells of pain, "I got carried away!"

---

Elsewhere, Marino too was in the midst of the fight...in her own way.

"Bring the Third Battalion up and move them around to the left! Granz will think they're trying to flank him, and we can use that to hit him in the back with the Fifth Armored!"

"Roger that! Third Battalion, this is Control! Move your forces to the intersection of..."

The ex-thief didn't even wait to hear the rest of the order relayed, turning to another operator.

"You, get me another overhead sweep with our flyers! I need to know what's the status of our forces to the north!"

"Aye ma'am!"

"And you, I need an update on the condition of Granz's remaining Dreadnoughts!"

"Roger!"

Marino groaned and rubbed a hand over her face briefly. God, she HATED command...

"Miss Marino, there's a request for sir support coming in from the Ninth's command unit! They're in the midst of heavy shelling from the Gearhead's artillery equipped Doru Ghoras!"

"Tell 'em to get their heads down and wait a few minutes!" She snapped back. "I already launched cruise missiles at that artillery wing before they even got into position!"

The operator looked distracted for a minute, before her expression brightened.

"Ah, they're calling it in now! Four Doru Ghoras destroyed by our last long range salvo, and a fifth being brought down by Ninth's forces!" She paused, then blushed at something on the other end. "Um, the commander says...um...well, uh...look, he's really really pleased with you and I can't say the rest out loud!" She stammered.

Marino grinned.

"Tell him, sorry, I'm taken, but he can charge the first round of drinks to my tab!"

"Roger ma'am!"

"Heh, who SAYS thieves don't know how to play a battlefield..." Ace's second in command grinned smugly, her predicted movements for Granz's forces having once again paid off brilliantly. Having seen the way the Gearhead had been sneaking that wing of Doru Ghoras through a thoroughly unthreatening course on the outskirts of battle, she'd immediately realized where he was planning to put them to use, and as a result, there had been a whole flight of A.C.E-brand cruise missiles already locked onto them in mid-flight...and blasting them to pieces from the moment the Ghoras had finally reached their firing position.

Needless to say, that hadn't been the first offer for drinks and/or getting laid she'd gotten from exultant field commanders.

"...wait. Did I just say 'I'm taken'?"

Marino was then more or less incoherent save for a panicked squeak.

This then lasted right up until one of her operators called in a report of a single Dreadnought terrorizing a retreating infantry squad. Still in a panic and not really paying attention to anything outside of her own romantic confusion, the ex-thief stammered out a haphazard counterattack and launched it.

...which is why by the time the unfortunate Dreadnought had finally caught up to the retreating soldiers, it was then hit in the face by no less than TWELVE bunker busters.

To this day, the soldiers of the 22nd Infantry still speak of that moment in solemn awe, and an immense respect for the overkill tendencies of the Rose Hurricane of Security.

The aforementioned Rose Hurricane, to use Marino's unofficial title, on the other hand, refuses to admit that ever happened, and will put lots of sharp pointy things into anyone who says otherwise.

---

The green world of Cyberspace trembled, explosions crashing throughout the normally silent realm.

The culprit, of course, being-

"ROAR, BARRIER OF THE WIND KING!"

Omega, God of Destruction, laughed madly, the raging hurricane bursting forth from the sword in his hand obliterating another barrier.

"COME ON, YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING ANYMORE! COME ON COME ON! ORAORAAAAAAA!"

More explosions, manic laughter, and shattered fragments of Cyberspace constructs flew through the air.

Walking several feet behind the rampaging man in crimson, Craft, Grey and Queenbee moved at a more relaxed pace, just enough to keep Omega in sight.

"...now that's what I call job satisfaction." Model A muttered, watching Omega at work.

Grey, on the other hand, was staring after the master of carnage with a wide-eyed look of awe.

"Whoa...he's REALLY strong! Even stronger than I thought!" He breathed. "He's swinging that huge sword around with one hand and just wrecking EVERYTHING! I mean, I've seen some of these defense programs before, and they used to take a couple shots, even in my strongest forms, and he's just walking all over them!"

Craft couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about a relative innocent like Grey picking the GOD OF DESTRUCTION as a role model...

"Hey, Model A! Do you think we could ask mister Saber if we could get his data for an A-Trans?"

And Craft spat out his coffee. Ignoring the squeak of dismay from Queenbee as she flailed about trying to get burning hot coffee of her dress' chest, he rounded on Model A.

"Erk..." The Biometal recoiled under the deadly serious glare from the commando, who Grey hadn't yet noticed. "W-well, I uh...er...n-nah, somehow, I don't think uh...I don't think Saber's a 'sharing' kind of guy...aheheh..."

"Oh." Grey's face fell. Then, as a hand descended on his shoulder, he looked up to see Craft next to him.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you." He smiled, "After all, with just the forms you have now, you were still strong enough to defeat even Albert and the completed Model W, weren't you?"

"Well...yeah, I guess." Grey said sheepishly. "But still, I mean, it'd be really cool if I could get even STRONGER A-Trans forms! Like Saber, or...Oooh!"

Craft did not like that 'Oooh!'

Grey looked up at him, eyes sparkling.

"Don't even think about it."

"Awww, man!" Grey whined, "But...but...you're really strong too! And you have an AWESOME cannon! And a CAPE!"

Craft resisted the urge to preen, albeit barely.

"...yes, she IS an exceptional beauty, isn't she?" He shifted his cloak to reveal the metallic sheen of Neige's barrel.

"...She?"

" Oh, er...I...that is..." The hesitation in his voice spoke volumes to Model A, who wisely decided to steer the conversation to a different topic before Grey's childish curiosity starting going places that Craft wouldn't be pleased with.

"...b-but I think I like the cape better!" It interjected hastily, doing a quick orbit around the commando, who shot it a grateful glance.

"Really?" Grey wondered. "How come?"

"DUDE." Model A dropped down to stare Grey in the eye. "First, it's a CAPE. Just having one makes you at LEAST twenty percent more awesome!"

Grey seemed to consider this for a moment.

"Good point..." he said thoughtfully.

"And second, it is a cape. That REFLECTS LASER BEAMS. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!"

The Chosen One brightened.

"Wait, it can do that in the real world too? I thought that was just because we were in Cyberspace!"

"No, rest assured, it can do all that and more." Craft chuckled, briefly picturing the boy's face if he ever saw the commando's REAL cloak, which had enough tricks built into it to rival even Ace's Scarlet Skin.

"Sooo coooool!"

This went on for a few more moments before Grey, apparently realizing something else, asked:

"Hey, you think maybe I could get the A-Trans for the Colonel?"

...Craft was suddenly very glad he had finished his last cup of coffee. It would have been a shame to have wasted TWO cups of coffee on Grey's exceptionally dangerous naivete.

Fortunately, he was spared an answer by Omega finally coming up short.

"Whoa-ho...!" The God of Destruction's eyes narrowed as he looked up. "NOW we're getting somewhere..."

Queenbee followed his gaze up in awe.

"Incredible..."She breathed, "Master, what is it?"

A colossal, brilliant green wall rose before them, layer upon layer of Cyberspace itself compressed into a structure so dense that the lines tracing through it were almost indistinguishable from one another. Panning to the left and right, the wall extended endlessly in every direction. Risking a quick look down, the ex-Pseudoroid confirmed that it extended down as well. For all intents and purposes, it was as if they had suddenly come to the end of Cyberspace itself, an impossibility in and of itself.

"This is...This is insane!" Model A gasped, tilting back up to follow the massive edifice as far as possible. "Cyberspace is infinite...you can't just...I dunno, lock off a section of it like this!"

Omega's head turned sharply.

"Locked off?"

Grey gave him a surprised look.

"You mean you couldn't tell?"

"..." Omega gave him a speculative look, before turning away.

"...no." He coughed, almost in embarrassment. "Ahem...I...just knew it was a wall. I didn't expect him to be able to actually enclose an area..."

"...huh." Grey blinked. "Well, I don't suppose I blame you."

He tilted his head to look back up at the wall.

"Just being able to put up an actual wall in Cyberspace alone, much less one as colossal as this one is almost unheard of, much less making an actual enclosed zone with it. Heck, if it wasn't for Model A's capabilities, I probably wouldn't have been be able to sense it either. It's faint, but you can detect a slight curve on the surface..."

"Er...I see." Omega said awkwardly.

"Heh..." The grizzled commando rested a hand on his hip, shifting his weight with a knowing smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"My, Reploid technology has certainly improved, hasn't it, Mr. King of Destroyers?"

A vein pulsed in Omega's forehead.

"Sh-shut it you caffeine-addicted Solid Snake wannabe!" He retorted and stomped off towards the wall in a huff.

Grey's head turned from one to the other, a bewildered look on his face.

"Um...what was all that about?"

"Oh, nothing." Craft chuckled. "Just an OLD joke."

"I HEARD THAT, YOU COFFEE FREAK!"

Craft simply snickered.

"Stupid, lousy rassafrassin merc...So what if tech's improved since the old days...I can still kick all their asses!"

Queenbee patted him on the back sympathetically.

"Don't lose hope Master...I'm sure they can get you a modern set of sensors too!"

"YOU'RE NOT HELPIIIII~IIING!"

As can be guessed, Queenbee had indeed been informed of her master's true status as the legendary God of Destruction, which explained why she knew of his minor problem. While most of his body was indeed advanced far beyond anything in the world today, the fact remained that much of it was still OLD. Thus, even though his most important components continued to update, there WERE still a few peripherals that hadn't been considered as necessary. One such victim had been his more specialized Cyberspace analyzers. To be fair, though, it didn't particularly matter all that much to him, since he could already just sort of...'feel' Cyberspace already, thanks to his affinity for the strange place.

...besides what did a difference of a few meters make when most of his attacks tended to annihilate by the acre?

Queenbee's reaction to her master's identity had been, of course, as expected.

...well, perhaps not what would have been expected of more...sane people, but at least expected of Queenbee.

...to this day, Omega still marvelled at how far the flexibility of a female Reploid's frame had come since his time. Truly, despite his faults, Gates had been a BRILLIANT scientist. It had been many nights since Queenbee had pledged herself to him, and the God of Destruction was STILL finding delectable new surprises to enjoy.

But all of this was secondary. Right now, more than anything, the God of Destruction found that he really, REALLY wanted to break something. And as he stared up at the vast magnificence of the artfully constructed Cyberspace blockade, he discovered that he knew JUST the target for his ire...

---

Deep within the space hidden within the gigantic blockade, a lone figure growled in annoyance, his hands darting across the streams of data in front of him.

"Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn DAMN IT ALL!" The figure growled, voice warped by the armored helm covering its features. A black bodysuit, traced through with neon blue lines, and a featureless helmet with a single blue line for a visor, with two additional blue marks just above the cheekbones. As a final touch, a matching coat billowed out behind the Zone Technician, the edges of it tattered.

"HOW?! They just keep tearing through defense after defense! This is lightyears beyond anything Legion should have!"

With a gesture, the figure of the Zone Technician, threw down another line of defense, the walls of the Zone solidifying further. Risking a moment's distraction to look out, the masked figure quickly saw the Gearhead's progress, the Technician's teeth grinding together with the realization that the yes, the Gearhead was in fact living up to his boasts and then some, having already reclaimed most of the territory lost in Legion's counterattack.

"Blast it...how DARE he mock me like this...! I am a ZONE Technician! How can one glorified puppeteer be outdoing me like this?!"

"Here's a hint!" A new voice thundered. "DOUBLLLLE ROOOCKET... PAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCH!"

"What?!"

Spinning around in shock, the Technician barely had time to blink out of existence as the wall of the Zone shattered, twin rocket powered fists smashing through it like glass and punching through the space the Technician's head had occupied moments before.

"Who the DEVIL-?!"

"I'M NOT THROUGH WITH YOU YET! OOOPEN GATE!"

"Wha-" Red light flashed, and the Technician was forced to vanish again, darting in around the cascade of razor sharp weaponry that hurtled past.

"And now the finisher!"

The man in crimson charged through the breach, a demonic grin on his face.

"RIGHT OF 'M'!"

And then the next thing the Zone Technician knew was that the newcomer had grabbed ahold of a bronze figure following him and had thrown it straight at the startled Cyberspace manipulator.

"What the hel-AUGH GET OFF OF ME!"

Said figure resolved itself into the shape of Queenbee, who rammed the hapless Technician clear across the open space of the Zone and plowing across the floor in a cloud of fragmenting data.

"...aaaaand return!" A chain materializing in his hands, the legendary God of Destruction, (for of course it was he) yanked Queenbee back on it like a leash, choosing to ignore the squeak of delight from his distinctly masochistic servant. Flipping through the air, she landed next to him, the chain disappearing as he stared at the crash site of the Technician.

"...huh." He said finally. "I should get pissed off more often. I just squashed that guy in what, fifteen seconds?"

"I'll keep that in mind." Craft replied dryly, stepping through the colossal breach Omega had torn in the Technician's barrier.

"...by the way..." Grey added, following him. "What does the 'M' in that attack mean?"

Omega and Craft stared at him, then at each other and wordlessly decided that the young Reploid was in no way ready to have the phrase 'S&M' explained to him.

Although...

"Ask Ashe when you get back." Omega grinned.

"...be honest with me." Model A deadpanned, staring at Omega. "...Are you the devil?"

"...if I say yes, do I get Ashe's phone number?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

As the air shook, an outraged voice ringing out, Omega turned again, an unimpressed look on his face.

"Huh, guess I should have thrown Queenbee harder..."

"W-we could always do it again, Master!"

"...er...I think we're good." Omega said nervously. Kinky she might be, but sometimes he REALLY wondered about his ex-Pseudoroid's thought processes...

The floor trembled, a massive green pillar of data smashing up from the Zone Technician's crash site. Standing atop it, the Technician himself straightened up, anger in his eyes.

"You...YOU'RE the ones who've been interfering with my plans?!" He spat, now identifiable CLEARLY as a male. "A bunch of lunatic, slack-jawed layabouts?!"

"Oi, speak for yourself, you faceless jerkwad!" Model A shot back indignantly. "I don't even HAVE a jaw!"

"Er, Model A, I don't think that was the point..." Grey said sheepishly.

Not for the first time, Craft resisted the urge to bang his head against the nearest flat surface.

"...so YOU'RE the chump they sent me in here to mop up?" Omega said skeptically, eyeing the form of his new enemy. "Funny, I didn't think somebody who could barely evade one of my pre-emptive ambushes would be worth that."

The Zone Technician gave him an incredulous look.

"YOU CALLED THE ATTACK NAME! HOW IS THAT AN AMBUSH?!"

Omega grinned.

"Because..."

WHAM! CRUNCH!

Both of Omega's rocket powered gauntlets slammed into the Technician, finally on their return trip to their master, striking one blow across the jaw, and another in the midsection.

Lifting his hands, Omega's grin widened as both gauntlets slid back into place with a pneumatic hiss and click.

"...fuck you, that's how."

"S...son of a...!" Amazingly the Technician managed to remain standing. "That attack...so it IS you!"

Omega's grin faded, eyes narrowing.

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"The newest dog of Legion...a man who strangely enough, doesn't exist, at least according to the official records!"

Omega's eyes widened, the Zone Technician disappearing faster than the eyes could follow. The ground beneath them shook, a pillar blasting upwards as the four Legion agents scattered.

"Appearing a little less than a year ago, he's a complete unknown! No-one knows where he came from or even what kind of Reploid he is!"

The sides of the pillar exploded, smaller versions of it shooting out in all different directions, skewering the walls and floor in a series of tremendous crashes.

"Damn!" Grey hissed, one of them clipping his shoulder on the way past. The ugly cracking noise told him that even just a graze like that had all but pulverized his shoulder. Hitting the ground in an ungainly roll, he recovered and ran past another, relying on Model A's own repair functions to recover.

"They say the only thing known about him is the name 'Saber'!" The Technician continued, still wreaking havoc on their surroundings from his unseen vantage point. "And yet for all these unknowns, in the short space of time he's been in the spotlight, that man has destroyed, or has been involved in the destruction of several of the most high-risk Raiders currently in operation!"

Skidding to halt, Craft, brought his cannon up, his cybernetic eye flashing.

"Got you." He muttered, firing at the faint shimmer that had to be the invisible technician.

Materializing, the blue-green visor flashed, and suddenly the beam of light...twisted.

Gritting his teeth, Craft shouldered the cannon again and ran, the beam tracing an impossibly complicated path through the air as it arced and turned, arrowing back towards him. Up, down, left, right and around it danced, before the commando finally lost it by diving behind another incoming pillar.

"Damn it..."

" Leos Darkclaw! Siger von Feuersturm! Defeating the ultimate mad science of Donovan Gates and subordinating his crowning achievement, the ex-Pseudoroid! Forcing Gallidin Voltzer into a retreat, and recruiting Syrene Nagato, even in a two on one battle! And even destroying the Black Thresher! Feats that should have required at LEAST a Chosen One with the power of Biometal!"

Each statement was punctuated by more tremors, still more pillars emerging and descending and exploding. The world was now a dynamic, shifting state of matter. Up was down, down was left, and right was backwards. And through this chaos, Omega charged, leaping from the top of one pillar, racing down the side of another, twisting aside as another shot past him. The violet flare of the Zweihander blazed, its owner finally forced to draw it as he split another oncoming pillar in two.

"Tch...all these useless parlor tricks...!'

"Incidentally..." Throwing a hand out to the side, the world behind him resolved into a single massive image, displaying the destruction of Legion, and the unmistakable forces of the Granz Armada. Grinning behind his helmet, the Technician added,

"Gearhead Granz sends his regards!"

"It can't be...!" Grey gasped.

"Th-that's the Granz Armada!" Model A yelled, "What the hell is HE doing here?!"

"...so THAT was your game the whole time..." Craft muttered, kicking off of one pillar, and using his combat knife to anchor himself to another.

"After all, have you forgotten he too was one of your victories? All it took was a mention of attacking Legion, and he was all too eager to join my cause!"

"And just what IS that cause of yours, that it involves my Master?!" A flash of gold, and the Technician vanished, twin spines slicing through the air at neck height as Queenbee landed on all fours in his previous spot.

"My cause? AHAHAHAHAHA!" The Technician's disembodied laughter rang out. "I am a Zone Technician! What more cause could I need to sow chaos and destruction within this peace-rotten world?!"

He reappeared behind Queenbee in an instant, one pillar twisting into a giant digital snake that crashed into her, it's coils lashing.

"Guh...! Wh...what is this?!"

The snake exploded into a cloud of crystalline shards, gashing Queenbee in numerous places as they blasted past her, reforming into a colossal lance of power that hurtled into the ground and detonated, annihilating the hiding spot Craft had been using moments ago.

"Blast...!" The commando swore, bringing Neige up and firing another brilliant blue beam.

"Do you honestly think that's going to work?!" With a crystalline sound the Technician was shattered by the beam, broken apart into dozens of glass shards, which transformed into a cloud of bats which then swarmed Craft, their claws and fangs tearing at the cloak he raised to protect himself.

The Technician laughed from another side of the battlefield.

"Do you see now? We Zone Technicians are the gods of the new era! We possess the power to manipulate Cyberspace itself at will! Accessing the very programming of reality...what else could we be but the Chosen Ones of the world itself?!"

With another deranged laugh, he raised his hands, an entire World War era battlecruiser dropping from the skies to smash into the ground, throwing them in every direction.

"This world continues to function solely by our mercy! If we so wished it, we could end this petty civilization of yours in an instant! Rewrite the fabric of reality itself on a whim! So why should we need a reason to cause chaos? None of you can possibly stand against us, so what right do weaklings like you have to tell us what we can and can't do?!"

"Well, for one thing..." A pillar shattered into glowing green fragments, and a brilliant crimson flash blasted forth, the almighty God of Destruction surging through the breach.

"BECAUSE I WILL BEAT THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU OTHERWISE!"

A white steel claw slammed shut over the Zone Technician's face, actually yanking him out of a teleport and breaking another pillar in two with his body. Spinning around again, Omega hurled him the length of the Zone, watching in satisfaction as the black figure crashed through dozens more of the wildly flying pillars.

"Ugh...!" The visor flickered for a moment, the Technician pulling himself free of the impact crater in the side of another pillar, which crumbled to dust moments later. "How did you-"

Seizing Queenbee, Omega drew her in.

"Ah, Master, wha-mmph!"

KISSING.

WITH TONGUE.

EXTREMELY R-RATED.

"Wh-what the hell?!" The Technician stopped, utterly bewildered by the oddly timed make out session.

"Hey, I can't see anything!" Grey struggled, trying to push Craft's hand away from his eyes.

Finally breaking off, Omega pushed Queenbee away, the dazed ex-Pseudoroid hovering drunkenly with a dazed grin on her flushed features.

It was at that point that Craft's artificial left eye picked up the traces of ice forming on the edges of Queenbee's outfit.

"Oh you can NOT be serious."

"THEEEEEEEEEERMAAAAALL...GE~EEEEEET!" Omega crowed, rearing up and leveling both hands at the stunned Technician, the green gems in each palm burning brightly.

"TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE, YOU GOD-COMPLEXING DIPSHIT!"

"You have got to be kidding me." Model A deadpanned.

"ZA FOURTH WAVE!" Lightning crackled around the God of Destruction, his hair flaring out behind him as he invoked the power of his Thunder element. "LIGHTNING SIIIIIIIIIIIGN...!"

And then he cut loose.

"MAASTEEEEEEEEEEEEER SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!"

A colossal beam of light erupted from his outstretched hands, as if the divine might of the skies themselves had been crystallized into a single unleashed torrent of electrical destruction.

"Wh...WHAAAAAAAT?!" The Technician screamed in disbelief, before the light smashed into him and tore apart half of the Zone in a colossal fury of destruction.

Omega crashed to the ground, his boots pulverizing the flawless green surface. Straightening up once more, he grinned.

"Fuck yeah."

"Master..." Saber groaned, pressing a hand to her face, "I would greatly appreciate it if you'd kindly refrain from doing that in the future...as Fefnir Diz Aster's Fourth Wave is a system that relies on thermal control, it is exceedingly difficult for a lightning-type AI like myself to control it properly..."

"Ahh, relax. Besides, it worked, didn't it?"

"...well, yes...but it was hardly as efficient as it could have been with a proper-"

"Efficent, shmefficient. Once it can nuke their faces off, I could care less!"

"...Maaaaaaaaaassteeer...!" A vein twitched on the ever restrained Servant's face.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing with that sword...wait, no!" Omega paled, "I'm sorry! I apologize! Whatever I said, I take it back! DON'T-GYAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Craft simply stared.

"...by rights, I should no longer be surprised by any of this, and yet, I find that I am."

"...HELL of a way to get a thermal charge, I'll give him that." Model A nodded emphatically.

"...too bad it's all in vain, though." A voice hissed by their ears.

"Wha-ARGH!" Whirling in shock, Grey took another pillar head on, the huge construct smashing him backwards.

"You...!" Darting around an identical one, Craft barely dodged a similar fate, before the floor erupted, dozens of them smashing up through the green and hurtling him into the sky.

"What-?!" Omega's eyes widened, a shadow falling over him as the entire ceiling descended, smashing him into the ground under the weight of over a hundred of the cylindrical constructs.

"Master-aaaah!" Rushing to her Master's aid, Queenbee was hit from four sides, pillars smashing her around like a pinball before sending her plummeting to the ground again.

"You...how the HELL?!" Omega snarled, struggling against the weight pressing down on him.

A black armored boot stepped forward, the Zone Technician rematerializing and grinning down at him.

"You forget, Saber, if indeed that is your real name, the nature of this world!"

The Zone Technician spread his arms wide.

"This is MY world! MY Limited Zone! Everything in here, is as I will it! If I so wished it, I could crush you four where you stand, the earth rising and the sky falling to smash you between them! I can negate your attacks with but a thought! I can reverse gravity, or form a weapon from my mind itself! You, for all your power and infamy, are helpless against me here!"

He stepped back, levitating off the ground now.

"When I kill you here, it will prove to the world once and for all the unparalleled might of the Zone Technicians! The might...of GEMINI CYTO!"

"Finally..." A voice sighed. " I thought you'd NEVER name yourself!"

Gemini whirled in shock.

"Wha-?!"

And ate twenty pounds of frag grenades to the face.

"AAAARGH!" Staggering back, the Technician barely had time to react before thunder roared, and a familiar set of spinning green blades punched through his chest.

"You...!" He managed to say, before vanishing into a cloud of data.

Craft dropped to the ground, his grenadier's knee folding up again as Grey withdrew his claw, reverting from Gallidin's form to that of Model A.

"You...what...HOW?!" Omega demanded.

"The first step to beating a Zone Technician is to get their name." Craft responded, drawing his massive cannon once more.

"There's no visual records on any of them, but Legion DOES have their names, and some data on their powers. Once you find their name, you can know what to expect!" Grey said cheerfully.

"And more importantly," Craft said darkly, "How to kill them."

"Owwww..."Queenbee staggered upright, clutching her head. "Ah, Master! Please hold on, I'll get you out of there!"

"No need." Omega growled, and with a single motion, smashed himself free. "I just needed a minute or two to get some leverage..."

"...it seems I was careless..." The disembodied voice of the Technician now known to be Gemini Cyto floated down to them.

"Oh, you bet your ass you were." Omega growled. "Now get down here. I want to see what it looks like when I hit you with a Master Spark you CAN'T dodge!"

Gemini's laughter resounded around them.

"Very well then..." As the black figure reappeared in the air once more, the world seemed to distort. A sadistic smile on his face, the Zone Technician raised his hand once more.

"Though I hope you understand what it means to challenge me"

The ground shook, Queenbee stumbling against Omega as the sudden movement caught her off balance.

"Wh-what is this?"

Light burst from the ground beneath Gemini, and from the ceiling above him, spreading out in a wave that traced out a colossal spiderweb of hexagons. With but a gesture, the Technician laughed, all of it disintegrating apart, revealing each hexagon to just be the visible face of another pillar. As the entire world around them deconstructed itself, breaking down into hundreds, no thousands of the pillars, as the four of them stood alone atop one such pillar, Omega's eyes narrowed.

"...this what you meant by their 'capabilities'?"

Craft remained standing, staring out at the enemy horde.

"Gemini Cyto. Special ability: Mental Projection, the art of giving form to your mind. The most basic of Technician skills. But he's one of the rare few who've chosen to actually specialize in that art, which means he can control it much more fluidly than others. It's how he can change objects like the pillars from one form to another, or to break himself into glass and reconstitute later. Though basic users like us can simply 'create', Gemini is capable of 'creating and transforming'."

"Dandy." Omega grumbled.

"Indeed." Gemini laughed, raising a hand as a dozen pillars rose behind him, leveling themselves at his opponents. "Now...are you prepared? Here, in this world, where matter no longer matters and the mind itself is the perfect weapon? What will you do, when the enemy you face controls the world itself?!"

With a mad laugh, he dropped his hand forward, the pillars hurtling to the attack.

With an impact beyond comprehension, the pillar supporting the four Legion operatives was destroyed, pulverized by the massive projectiles.

"What will I do...?"

The crimson sky roared, Omega bursting from the clouds of smoke. Charging forward, he barreled along the flat side of one of the thrown constructs still stuck in the ruins of their destroyed pillar, the brilliant violet flare of the Zweihander dancing through the air, his wild laughter ringing out.

"I've only ever had one solution! Even if God himself were to stand in my way..."

The clouds of smoke parted, a roar as Craft's Dullahan tore across the surface of another pillar. A flash of gold, and Queenbee darted through the green sky, Grey close behind her as he leapt from pillar to pillar with the speed of Gallidin Voltzer.

"No, even if you say the world itself stands in my way..." Omega's crimson eyes blazed with mad delight. "I'LL JUST DESTROY IT ALL!"

---

[Resume Music: Chie to Yuuki da!-Medarot opening theme]

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"For the love of- WILL YOU STOP SCREAMING?!"

"ONLY IF YOU STOP CHASING ME!"

Celtis threw herself headfirst over a parked car, the Warwolf's claws slashing through the air behind her.

"I WOULD IF YOU'D STOP RUNNING! OPTIC BLAST!" The Warwolf reared up, a brilliant crimson beam slicing through the car like butter and continuing along the pavement in an erratic pattern.

"Oi oi, HANDS OFF THE NOOB! METEOOOOR KIIIIICK!"

WHAM!

The Warwolf skidded sideways, off balance from an A-Transed Ashe's Buckfire attack.

"You...! DAAAAAMNED AAAAAAAAAAA!" Granz gave a roar of rage, launching the Warwolf's grappling claw at her.

"Whoops, you missed me!" Ashe grinned, pirouetting sideways. Granz's eyes narrowed.

"Don't count on it, you blasted A!"

Behind her, the wayward grappler seized ahold of a lampost, tearing it out of the ground as Granz wrenched it back, wrist panels snapping open on his other arm as he cut loose with the vulcans again. Dodging the sudden hail of bullets, Ashe didn't see the returning iron post until it clotheslined her across the back.

"ARGH!"

Still reeling it in, Granz used it like a hook and brought Ashe hurtling in towards him. Switching off the vulcans, he brought his other arm around, the ground disintegrating beneath him with the force of his stance.

"GRANZ SPECIAL!"

"Oh SHI-!"

"DOUBLE!" His right arm, in a perfect clothesline, slammed into Ashe's chest, driving the air out of her lungs with an unpleasant creaking sound from her ribs.

"REVERSE IMPAAAAAAAAACT!"

And with the follow through, he launched her backwards like a human shaped rocket, blowing out the entire bottom floor of a building with the impact of her crash-landing.

"Son of...a bitch..." Ashe wheezed, sprawled over a pile of rubble, blood trickling from her jaws. "Anybody...get the number...on the asteroid tha' hit me...? Koff..."

The Warwolf turned, red lenses glowing already.

"And now for YO-ASDFGHKL!"

The rest of Granz's sentence was cut off by a Hades to the face. Even as the Warwolf staggered back, clawing at it's features, Celtis fired again, blasting it's legs out from under it. Granz brought the mech's hands away in time to see the floor racing up towards his cameras.

"Oh COME ON!"

WHAM!

The impact was almost enough to knock Celtis off of her feet, but somehow she managed to keep her footing and take aim again, this time at the top of a nearby building.

BLAM!

Granz gave an angry growl and pushed the Warwolf up on it's hands.

"Why you little-eh?"

As a shadow fell over him, he flipped the Warwolf over, only to see the top three floors of a building, their remaining supports blown through by Celtis' last shot, plummeting down towards him.

"...Oh, FUCK YOU!"

CRASH!

With the Warwolf temporarily...incapacitated, the green haired Chosen One raced off to check on Ashe.

"Ashe! Ashe, you in here?"

"NnnrrrrrRAAAAUGH!"

A pile of rubble exploded, and the silver haired Chosen One of Model A punched her way free, shoulders heaving.

"So HELP ME GOD, I am going to beat the SHIT out of Granz before today is over!"

"...I'll take that as a yes." Celtis sighed. "I kind of...dropped a building on him, so if you've got any ideas, now would be a really good time for it!"

"Well he's sure as hell not going to stop chasing you!" Ashe grunted, wiping the blood off of her chin. "So we've got little choice BUT to take him head on!"

"Yeah, but last I checked, that wasn't going so well..." Celtis pointed out at the blasted trail of destruction that marked their passage through the city, with impact craters scattered everywhere, each one looking suspiciously like Ashe in various A-Trans forms.

"...okay, you might have a point there." Ashe admitted, wincing. "Man I haven't been put through this many buildings since that one time I fought Atlas..."

Shaking her head, she looked back at Celtis.

"But still, whatever the hell kind of upgrades he put on that Velguarder chassis are NUTS! Nothing I've got is even scratching him! Not even the ZX Saber, and that thing's supposed to be able to cut EVERYTHING!"

"Well, if Granz could put together a reflective armor that could stop SABER of all people..." Celtis hefted her own O-Sabers, reminding Ashe that she too had tried going melee against the Warwolf. The end result of which had been an exceptionally fancy multi-slash attack that had simply knocked Granz off balance, barely scratched his armor, and resulted in Celtis herself getting punched through two buildings.

"True...Plus I'm pretty sure he's stepped even that up too." Ashe sighed. "No WAY was his armor this strong before! What else do we have?"

"We could...get Kitara to step on him?"

CRASH SMASH MAUL WHAM.

As if on cue, half a dreadnought came sailing over the rooftops, bouncing across the road twice before smashing into a building labeled 'Conveniently Placed Fuel Depot'.

Which then blew up.

As the flames died down, the two girls stared at it for a moment.

"...nah, she's probably busy."

"Good call." Celtis agreed.

"..."

"..."

"We could use Disaster?"

What looked like a miniature volcano exploded somewhere in the distance.

"...he's busy too."

"..."

"Well, there's always the Col-"

"DON'T EVEN SAY IT."

Somewhere else, a random dreadnought that was minding its own business was cleaved in twain for no apparent reason.

"Can we get in touch with Marino or Aile?"

"...damn, no. That Warwolf's putting out some kind of jamming signal. Comms are useless down here."

"If we keep hammering at him, I'm pretty sure Model O's got what it takes to beat him..." Celtis tried.

"Well yeah, but let's be frank. You could do that, but considering our current condition, it's entirely likely one of us is going to end up in the hospital by the time that happens."

Celtis winced.

"Blunt as always, aren't you..."

"Although..." Ashe turned to stare intently at Celtis.

"...er...Ashe...? Wh..why are you looking at me like that...?"

"Model O, eh...?" Ashe muttered, an unreadable look on her face. "Well, if it worked for taking on Thresher..."

Then she got to her feet. Dusting herself off, she reverted back to her human form and strode towards Celtis, a purposeful look in her eyes.

"A-Ashe...?"

Pushing Celtis back against the wall, the silver haired Chosen One leaned in...

"Wha...whawhawha-w-wait! What are you-My heart's not ready for thiiiii~iiiis!"

And then Celtis realized that Ashe was saying something.

"...u-um...what...?"

"I said...!" Ashe's features suddenly split in a demonic grin.

"GRIIIIIIIIIT...!"

Grabbing Celtis by the shoulders, she reared her head back.

"THOOOOOOOOOOSE...!"

In Celtis' subconscious, Model O gave a strangled squawk of panic and started to struggle, knowing exactly where this was heading.

In Celtis' ACTUAL consciousness, it was basically the same thing.

"Wait, no! What are you doing?! S-STOOOOOOP!"

"TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETH!"

WHAM!

With a wild yell, Ashe brought her head streaking forward to smash her skull directly into the cracked blue gem on Celtis' forehead.

...and Legion trembled.

---

CLANG.

A spanner bounced across the ground, metal ringing with each impact.

It went entirely unheeded, Vent staring out the broken window at the war torn city, his face pale.

"What the hell...was that feeling?"

A grunt of pain, and he turned to see Ace staring in the same direction, clutching his shaking right arm.

"It can't be...Ashe...what have you DONE?!"

---

High above Legion, trading long range shells with enemy Doru Ghoras, Aile staggered and dropped to one knee.

"Th-this is...!"

"The same as that time!" X snapped.

"Model O!" Z growled.

And then a towering pillar of unleashed orange energy erupted into the sky.

---

Ashe blinked.

"...what?"

Nothing replied.

"...where...is this...?"

The empty void gave her no answers, an infinite whiteness stretching as far as could be seen.

And then...a rattling of chains.

"Who's the-"

A roar, and something slammed into her.

"ARGH!" Hitting the ground, she threw herself into a roll, turning to face the enemy.

"You bastard what are...you..." She trailed off, her voice freezing in her throat.

Model O glowered back at her, a savage, feral smile on it's face. The black chains piercing it rattled menacingly. Though in the past few months, the beast had begun to improve, becoming less of the raging monster it had been in Celtis' first encounter, here and now, presented with a target it had no need to hold back on...

The crimson devil roared, and lunged forward.

Ashe couldn't help it.

She screamed.

Even all her years as a Hunter, all her time as a Chosen One, against Albert, against the Model Ws...None of that meant anything when faced with something like this, beyond the realms of possibility and common sense. This...thing, insanity in a human shape, overshadowed all of them. This was the same as that time, when the man in the crimson coat had faced down an army of onrushing Mavericks and frozen them with a single glare. She remembered that moment, she still had nightmares about it.

A sheer force of presence that stripped away reason, pride, even humanity. This...thing was everything mad and twisted in the world, Lucifer with the gloves off. Something that to merely witness it was to damn a part of yourself forever.

To Ashe's credit though, she managed to fight down that natural terror, the instinct ingrained in any living being when faced with something so...Other. But even as she staggered back, struggling with the raw animal instinct to just get away, to run, that second was all Model O needed.

The corrupt Biometal lunged, knocking her to the ground. Barely able to even look at it directly, Ashe sobbed out a curse, desperately scrabbling for her gun, a weapon, anything. One free hand slamming into the Biometal's jaw, the other beating uselessly against it's chest. With a snarl of anger, Model O struck back, a blow that set her head spinning. By the time she recovered, it had pinned her, both her hands held over her head by one grip around her wrists, and her legs pinned down by it's own. With a victorious bark, it drew it's free hand back, claws shining in the suddenly bloody light-

And stopped.

Tears still unshed in her eyes, a side effect of the immense emotional turmoil she had just experienced, Ashe blinked in surprise.

"Y-you...what are you...?"

And the Model O's head turned to glare at something else. Following its gaze, she saw...him.

A man stood there, alone in the stark void. Clad in black, he stood with his back to them, the edges of the coal black jacket drifting in a nonexistent wind. Hands in his pockets he stood as though wholly unconcerned of the drama between the two of them.

And yet...Ashe felt an irrational fear in her heart.

This man...she didn't want to see him.

If he were to turn around now, to bring his full gaze to bear on her...something terrible would happen. It was irrational. It was foolish. But something inside her heart was screaming.

Just seeing the raw, corrupted form of Model O was enough to tear at the psyche, but this monochrome figure in a human-shape...Where Model O was like a wild beast, no restraints or restrictions, this...entity was the opposite. A tremendous, crushing pressure seemed to fall on him, on everything around him. A soul, if such a being possessed one, locked away deep inside, like a light in the center of a black hole. This was the extreme of restraint, a being who continued to crush his own heart, his own passion, his own SELF deeper and deeper, as though it were a singularity inside of that chest, and not a heart at all.

A void, but not truly empty, as if the shining silver steel soul in him had begun to rust and corrode.

Desperation overriding the fear of that ominous presence, she called out to him.

"H...HEY! You...!" Her voice died, the strange nameless dread choking her again.

The man stirred.

Model O growled.

Still not turning, the man tilted his head slightly, looking back over his shoulder.

The glimpse of that inhuman, gold eye, half hidden behind the lenses of his shades was enough to paralyze Ashe.

Not human.

Not Reploid.

Not alive.

Not dead.

Something beyond comprehension.

A length of time, an existence that could not be understood by normal beings.

Some...thing, in a human shape, to whom real humans...no to whom almost all living things had lifespans of mere moments.

An existence that had continued, did continue, and WOULD continue, long after even planets themselves had been ground to dust beneath the grinding gears of time's advance.

Something she absolutely must not see...!

Lazily, that eye flicked over her, and then up to Model O, who still stared at him with that challenging look.

And then-

"Do what you will."

The man turned away once more.

Model O and Ashe alike both stared at him in shock, Model O actually lowering it's claw in disbelief.

"Wh-what?! You're just going to leave me here?!" Ashe demanded, her outrage temporarily burying the strange fear this man invoked in her.

"Why should I save you?"

His curt answer cut her short.

"You were the one who chose to come here, seeking power. You should have been prepared for something like this."

"I...what?"

"Those who search for power must always be prepared to lose their own lives in the process. After all..."

The man laughed, something cold and bitter.

"Everything has a price..."

"What...? But...I just wanted to beat Granz!"

"No matter how trivial the reason, power is power. You simply chose poorly."

As the conversation continued, Model O found itself grinding its teeth together. For some reason...it was feeling truly pissed off!

With every word this man spoke, its anger grew.

With his every action, his lack of concern, it's outrage increased.

As if it's next actions were all too predictable, as if he knew what would happen...

As if Model O's actions were set in stone, all too easy to read.

As if they were of no consequence whatsoever, completely irrelevant.

This man...!

He would dare to interfere the first time, binding it here, as if he had the right...and now, when it sought to do the same thing again...he simply decided to stand aside?! Like this, it was as though his first intervention was little more than a whim, sealing the Model just because he felt like it!

This...BASTARD...!

The razor edged fangs parted...for the first time since it's arrival here, Model O forced itself to form words.

"Y...yOu..."

"Oh?" The man's shoulders twitched, and Ashe could FEEL the smile, something that grated on the very senses. "It seems the beast can speak after all."

"Hy...hYpo...!"

Ashe stiffened.

Somehow, she knew what was coming. Despite her position she struggled, shaking her head frantically, silently urging the corrupted demon atop her to stop.

"HypO...YoU hYpOCRITe!"

The air froze, cracking.

"Y...yOu DaRe...tO...lo...lOoK dOWn...o...On...! mOdEL o...!"

The man's shoulders shook. And with a sick feeling, Ashe realized he was laughing.

"Heh heh...heheheh...AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She shut her eyes, trying her hardest to block out that horrible sound, that terrible laughter so cold and hard and broken.

A laugh that sounded like a metal blade, stressed and strained, until it finally broke, shattered steel that was forced to continue as a weapon, striking again and again, blunting itself further with each blow until the metal itself screamed.

"It...hurts...!"

Model O blinked and looked down. She was...shaking...?

Ashe flinched, as if trying to curl in on herself.

"This noise...stop it...please...stop it...!"

The man ignored them, his laughter finally dying down.

"Yes...yes that's right. I am a hypocrite. After all, a beast is just a beast, through and through. What right do I, of all people, have to stand in its way? Ahahahaha!"

The man looked back, and this time, his red right eye stared back at the Model O, a terrible, inhuman glint of madness, colder than space and more insane than anything that could be dreamed of by the world.

"Yes...go on, do what you wish to! A beast like you craves nothing but blood. Death after death after destruction! That's your dream, isn't it? Go on!" He laughed, throwing his arms out to the sides. "Be my guest! I won't stop you! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

It was those words that did it, that broken laughter scraping down through Model O's blinding hatred for the black stranger.

In that instant, Model O's rage towards that man reached it's limit. The claws plunged down-

And pierced Ashe's chest.

Red spilled across the floor, the Chosen One's heart torn to ruins by that one strike.

Ashe stared up at the beast, eyes filled with pain and shock.

"Y-you...no...!"

Model O withdrew it's hand, still stained with her blood. And from that empty space in her chest, it drew...something. Not a heart, but...something intangible and pure, a shifting morass of data.

Releasing Ashe's hands, the Model lifted it's other hand-

And before her startled eyes, punched it's talons into it's own chest.

The man's laughter had stopped, and yet, neither of them noticed. Ashe, too weak to move...found her gaze transfixed by the crackling power emanating from the Model's chest.

"What are...you...doing...?"

Model O gritted it's teeth, fragments of data and sparks dancing around it. And for an instant, the crimson demon remembered...

---

"You know, maybe you're not that bad after all!" Celtis smiled.

---

It's eyes flashed, it's hand tightening.

"m...MorE ThAn...B...bEasT...!"

And with that, it tore it's own heart out, a raging fire of brilliant, white-hot power burning out between it's claws, and slammed it into the empty space in Ashe's chest.

"T...tAke...! PrOve...hIm...wr...wR...WRoNG...mE...R...r...RiGHt!"

Ashe screamed, as her body burned. The thing in her chest erupted, like an entire sun, blossoming into life inside of her. A feeling like boiling steel surged through her veins, suffusing her entire being.

...and yet, she fought it down.

"You...!" She choked, sparks coughing out, "What are you...doing to me...?!"

"p...POweR!"

And then, she felt it.

"Th-this is...!"

Looking up at Model O in shock, for the first time, Ashe really saw it. Behind the madness, behind the horror of what Biometal Model O really was...

It was still just a living being.

An unwanted existence, born from one man's insane desire for power, cursed from birth by a horrific fate of rage and hatred that it didn't even know the reason for, but followed anyway. It was only now, locked away in these chains, that it had finally begun to surpass those limitations.

And for this man, the same one that had locked it away inside of Celtis, to simply write it off as a mere beast, to trample over all that...

"Heh..."

Model O, still overwhelmed by the magnitude of what it was trying to do, didn't respond, ruined face twisted in a savage snarl, fangs gritting together as it struggled to contain this monstrous gift.

A single hand reached up, red orange energy blasting out in small flares through the skin of the joints as the power continued to surge and roar through the Chosen One's veins, bloody fingers gently pressing against the side of the Biometal's face.

Ashe managed a rueful smile, orange cracks spreading up her right cheekbone.

"Heh heh...That Celtis...sure has it rough..." She chuckled, "...dealing with a precocious kid like you..."

Model O stirred, as if distracted from it's concentration.

"All right then..." She smiled, a dangerous smile, the iron determination and spirit that had brought her victory over Albert shining through once more. "I'll...take this power of yours...!"

And the void beneath her shattered, a brilliant sun igniting behind her.

For an instant, Model O's ruined, savage features solidified, into something that could have passed for human, and it grinned.

Ashe's eyes widened at the sight.

"I...know...that face...!"

And as the brilliant star erupted, overwhelming them, she made a final, desperate question.

"You...just who ARE you-?!"

And then they were gone, the emptiness of the stark world disappearing in the glorious supernova.

Now alone, the man turned to face the onrushing light.

"Was I too obvious, I wonder...?"

In the glow, the man's features seemed softer, less weary, the tired lines etched into his face fading. The cold, crushing bleakness surrounding him retreated slightly, even if only for a moment, and he smiled slightly, a sad, human smile.

"I wish you luck, heroine of Model A." He laughed quietly, "The path you have chosen will not be an easy one...neither will yours, cursed Biometal..."

And he vanished.

---

Celtis was thrown back through the wall, a brilliant orange pillar of heat erupting from the ground around Ashe.

"Agh...!" She involuntarily cried out, another blistering wall of flames washing over her.

"Wh...what the hell is this...?!" Frantically, she attempted to reach Model O. "What the HELL did you do?!"

"HaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The building exploded, a colossal fireball consuming everything as Celtis dove behind cover.

And then her face paled as she heard Model O's reply, a stream of data passing through her mind.

"You gave her WHAT?!"

Granz stared at the sight in front of him in disbelief, having extricated himself from the rubble only to be knocked flat on his back by the orange shockwave.

"What in the HELL?!"

And then warning lights began to blink on his Warwolf's sensors.

"Temperature alert...?! What do you mean, 'temperature al-'", He choked off in mid-sentence as he read the values coming in.

"H-hey...hey, you can't be serious, right?" He laughed nervously. "That's...that's like a miniature SUN!"

---

In the depths of Cyberspace, Grey jerked and fell to his knees.

"Grey?!" Craft turned, startled.

Omega split an oncoming pillar in two, his rocket powered gauntlets launching off and deflecting two more with the force of their impacts as he too glanced at the Chosen One.

"What's going on, kid?"

"S...something's wrong...with Model A...!" Grey grunted, his jaw tight with pain. "There's some kind of new data trying to come in...!"

Craft side-stepped, another pillar hurtling past like a colossal javelin, before turning, Neige already charged and splitting another approaching construct in two straight down the middle with the blast. His artificial eye flickered, targeting software dancing over the dozens of Gemini's constructs that still flew towards them. It was like fighting the Gate of Babylon, except where the Gate fired an infinite supply of piledrivers at you instead of swords.

"It must be Ashe...She probably got her hands on a new A-Trans outside."

"N-no...you don't understand...! The data, it's not...being added to the list of forms...!" Clutching at his chest, the Reploid boy doubled over. "It's...overwriting one of them completely...!"

"What?!" Queenbee gasped, her golden swarms corroding one pillar into dust, dozens of her drones chewing away at the solidified Cyberspace as she struggled to turn aside another pillar. "But that...should be impossible! The Model A Biometal doesn't work that way!"

And suddenly Omega was next to them, staring down at Grey with a terrifying look on his face. In that instant...Craft knew the cause, a cold, sick feeling in his gut.

"She couldn't have...!"

"Which form is being overwritten?" The God asked, surprisingly quiet.

"Her..."Grey stopped, unwilling to accept the readings that were coming in, even as Model A struggled to manage this blasphemy of the A-Trans system.

"It's overwriting...!" He looked up, raw fear in his face. "It's overwriting her human data! It's changing her real form!"

---

Celtis stared aghast at the sight before her.

"I...am going to be in SO much trouble for this..."

"Urgh...my...head...!"

"A-Ashe!"

And sure enough, the battered figure of the Model A Chosen One staggered out of the inferno, one hand clutching her head, her clothes singed.

Celtis ran to her, alarmed.

"I was trying to warn you...you really shouldn't try to use Data Get on Model O! It's..."

She stopped in surprise, Ashe holding one hand up to silence her.

"Not...so loud..." She winced. "My head's killing me...what happened?"

Celtis stared at her.

"What do you mean, WHAT HAPPENED?!" She demanded. "You just headbutted me halfway across the street, and then everything blew up!"

"I...did that...?" Ashe wondered, looking around at the destruction. "Yeah...now that you mention it, I remember something like that happening...and then..." She winced again, clutching at her head.

And then it returned to her.

The crimson beast in chains, the man in the dark, the terror and then the understanding...

And that final request from the thing called Model O.

The silver-haired girl looked at Celtis, a new respect in her eyes.

"THAT'S what Model O looks like?"

"Eeep!" Celtis stiffened, alarm written across her features. "Y-you...you saw...?!"

"Aye." Ashe managed a grin, "Obstinate little bastard, isn't he?"

"E-er..." Celtis stammered, taken aback by Ashe's casual description of the chained-down borderline feral Model. In her head, though she could hear the Biometal making that now-familiar strangled squawking noise she'd come to associate with Model O being either outraged or colossally embarrassed. If that data transfer had been right, about just what it was that Model O had given Ashe...it could be either one, really.

"Aww, so you do have a cute side after all!" The silver-haired Chosen One laughed. "Now now, no need to get all bashful after all that!"

"Um...what?" Celtis blinked, bewildered.

"Ah? Oh no, not you, I meant Model...O..." Ashe trailed off as the impact of her words sank in.

There was a brief pause.

"Wait, you can hear him too?!" Celtis yelped in shock, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Wha...I-er, I mean...I-I guess so!" Ashe stammered

"B-but...how-agh!" Abruptly, the Model O Chosen One let go of Ashe, jerking her hands back. "Ow!"

"Wh-what's wrong...?"

"Ow...th-that's hot!"

"Eh?"

It was then that Ashe noticed the heat haze rising off of her body. Raising a hand, she stared at it in surprise for a moment.

"Well, what do you know..." She grinned, a dangerous smile on her face as she clenched it into a fist. "Looks like I got a real prize booty out of this after all!"

Celtis didn't hear her, suddenly overcome by a strange bout of dizziness.

"I...something's wrong..."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS!"

"Wha-?!" Celtis looked up in alarm, just in time for the full force of the Vermillion Vile Warwolf to smash into her.

"Celtis!" Ashe yelled in alarm.

"I don't know what you bastards were planning," Granz snarled, "But don't think I'll just stand idly by and let you do as you please!"

"Gh...you...!" Celtis gritted her teeth, trying to bring the Hades around to aim at the Warwolf's face, but...

'Wh...what's...going on...?'

Her arm shook, suddenly barely able to lift the massive handgun. And not just her arms, her entire body suddenly felt weak, as though her power were being drained...no, diverted!

"M-model O...! What's happening...?!"

"..." The Biometal didn't respond, an uncharacteristically grim look on it's face.

"Model-!" Celtis desperate cry was cut off as the Warwolf's charge smashed her back into the buildings. There was a terrible impact, and she choked, blood splattering across the vermillion armor.

Leaving her to slide down the wall, Granz whirled, his chest compartment slamming open to unleash a barrage of missiles on the charging Model A Chosen One.

"Don't think I forgot about you, damnable A!" He snarled, bringing his arms up as panels opened to reveal not one or two, but FOUR Vulcan turrets, all of them screaming death at her.

"Argh! You-!" Ashe's angry curse was cut off as they slammed into her, explosions tearing apart the street.

"No...!" Celtis swore, and struggled to rise. And then she felt it again, another surge of weakness as her power was once more diverted.

"Wh...what's happening...?!"

Ignoring her, Granz brought the Warwolf to stop, firing up weapon system after weapon system in preparation.

"I have no idea what the hell those readings were..." He growled, firing solutions already on standby. "But I'll be damned if I give you a chance...to...?!"

And then an orange glow burned through the smoke.

Ashe lowered her arms, having crossed them to protect her face.

"Huh...?" She blinked, "I'm...all right?"

Splash.

She looked down, a warm, thick dampness against her boots.

Molten metal, all that remained of Granz's salvo, flowed past her, boiling even as she watched.

"N...no way...!"

And then she felt it. A shockwave of power that blasted through her body, starting from her heart.

"Th...this is...!" She coughed, sparks dancing as the exhaled air attempted to ignite.

Ashe staggered, another surge of heat coursing through her. She was dimly aware of parts of her clothing beginning to combust.

And yet...

A savage grin crossed her features.

"H...heh...!" She managed to laugh, "Looks like...I might have...gotten more than I bargained for...!"

She leaned forward, hearing the creaking of her joints, the incredible heat straining her bones.

"That damned beast...!" She chuckled, a spark of memory returning. A single request. She doubled over with a sharp gasp, clutching at her right eye as raw orange energy erupted from it. And yet she still laughed.

"No...more than a beast..." She grinned. "He gave me a pretty valuable booty, after all!"

And as she straightened up, both Granz and Celtis could see the change. Where both her irises had once been green, now the right burned a furious, raging orange, three black markings emerging around the pupil.

"That sign...!" Celtis gasped. So that WAS what Model O had given her!

"AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" As Ashe roared, the center of her chest exploded with power, an unmistakable triangular blue gem materializing and slamming into place, a furious orange nova blazing away in the center of it, the death's head symbol of the God of Destruction dancing like a flame in a hot wind. Liquid metal boiled and seethed, racing through her ribcage.

And in that moment, Ashe knew she no longer had a heart.

That thing which sustained her now, the raging heat that burned in her breast now, was a furnace. An infinite engine, a core that would never die.

The undying heart of Biometal Model O.

She coughed again, clouds of smoke hissing out from her mouth, still twisted in that dangerous smile.

"I guess I'm not exactly human anymore either, huh...?"

The earth at her feet began to rumble, orange light beginning to seep up through the cracks.

It was then that a far more terrible warning began to go off in the systems of the Warwolf. It was a sensor that had come with the system, so Granz hadn't really bothered to remove it, despite the fact that there was no way it could ever possibly be useful in this day and age.

The Gearhead actually stepped back, rage and fear on his features as he stared at the feed coming in from the Warwolf, the tremors shaking the ground around it.

"You...DAMN YOU...!" He swallowed, the warning sign appearing on his screen in brilliant yellow and black..

---

Alarms blared throughout the Guardian Base and in the A.C.E control center.

"Wh-what's going on down there?!" Aile yelled, grabbing onto the deck railing as the Base shook.

"We don't know, ma'am! Sensors are detecting a massive power surge in the center of the district! It doesn't match any known signatures in the database!"

"No..." Marino cut in, staring at the screens before her in shock, "It does...!"

"What?" Aile demanded. "You know what's happening?"

"By God I wish I didn't..." Marino swallowed. "It wouldn't match any known signatures, because we use an updated database. This particular energy's been outlawed since before the Golden Age of Robotics...!"

Aile went pale.

"You can't mean...!"

"The most dangerous power of them all..." Nana cut in numbly, her screens showing the same warning.

An energy reading the world never thought would see the light of day again.

---

CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!

---

The earth shattered, the unmistakable sign of the nuclear hazard traced out beneath Ashe in brilliant orange energy.

[Cue Music: Touhou OST- Nuclear Fusion (Lyude Remix)]

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

NUCLEAR HAZARD DETECTED!

RADIATION LEVELS APPROACHING CRITICAL!

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Granz roared, his eyes wide. "A NUCLEAR FUSION CORE?!"

"Don't know, and I DON'T CARE!" Ashe thundered back. "NOW LET'S SEE THAT WARWOLF OF YOURS STAND UP TO THIS!"

Clenching her right fist, Ashe gritted her teeth as she felt the tremors racking her body, an impossible power gathering.

And the entire city shook, a terrible wall of sound racing out as the awful orange light flashed.

Granz froze, three entire city blocks behind him vanishing in a haze of destruction. Alarms were ringing throughout his network, registering hundreds of losses to his forces. The metal of the Warwolf's left arm glowed red hot, the shoulder actually cracking open.

All of that...and she'd missed.

And then Ashe was on him.

"UWOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Flames igniting all over her frame, her first punch smashed the rest of the armor on the left of the Warwolf's torso, a colossal orange sphere of destruction exploding from the point of contact.

"Ugh...y-YOOOOOOOUUUU!"

With a howl of fury, Granz brought the eye-mounted beam around, but with a roar from Ashe, the laser simply diffused before it reached her, the superheated air disrupting the beam, that terrible orange glow reducing everything around her to an invisible wall of heat.

And still the sign of the nuclear hazard blazed, a match to the symbol now etched into the iris of her right eye.

"COME ON, YOU BASTARD!"

Everything was a hell of explosions, the ground shaking as the nuclear wrath of the Model O-powered Chosen One continued to surge, colossal detonations going off with each impact, the spherical orange spheres of light exploding from her every attack and destroying everything within their radius. Only the impossible armor of the Vermilion Vile Warwolf could survive, burning red hot in the glow of the nuclear power.

"WITH PLEASURE!" Granz snarled.

Maxing out his shielding, the Warwolf's right claw hurtled around, the air screaming as the bladed claws it through it with an edge sharper than any energy blade. A single blow, and it almost tore Ashe's chest apart. Rather than blood, red steam burst forth, Ashe's body temperature pushed far beyond anything a human should tolerate. But before Granz could press the advantage, she smashed the ground with a roar, a colossal orange detonation erupting and forcing him to leap away.

Ashe lifted her head, feeling the power in the air, in her veins, and grinned, her chest wound already healing from a mixture of natural regeneration and cauterization. And yet, despite the pain, despite the heat, Ashe found that she didn't care. She could FEEL the Biometal working on her body, reinforcing her bones, strengthening her muscles...

In any other situation, a normal person would have been terrified, feeling their body being changed like that, completely outside of their control, and feeling each change as it happened.

But Ashe was no normal person.

She was a Chosen One.

The Chosen One of Model A!

She had broken the Game of Destiny, smashed the mad ambitions of Master Albert, and defeated even the terrible might of Ouroboros!

And now, she had this nuclear heart, the gift of Model O, and a job request to complete!

"You want me to prove something for you, eh, Biometal Model O?!" She grinned, leveling a hand at Granz. With an enraged curse, the Gearhead lunged to the side, an entire apartment block vanishing in a geyser of nuclear wrath that erupted from the ground, vaporizing everything in its radius.

"Then I hope you know...I DON'T COME CHEAP! AHAHAHAHA!"

"Damn you...!" Granz swore, his hands slamming across the controls. With the snarl of machinery powering it, the Warwolf fired it's boosters, charging forward and crashing shoulder first into the Chosen One. Ignoring the thermal alarms screaming in his ears, the Gearhead roared.

"Don't count Gearhead Granz out just yet, you damned A!"

He smashed her backwards through one building, before straightening up and seizing her in his more functional arm. Firing it off on it's grappling chain, he hammered the controls, the Warwolf's upper torso spinning at an incredible rate as it thrashed Ashe through the surroundings like a flail. The Gearhead's eyes widened as he saw the results, however.

Even as he swung her through the buildings, a sea of explosions followed her, brilliant orange detonations going off, even when she struck nothing but inert materials like concrete and steel.

"It can't be...this is...!"

His hands dancing over the controls, the Warwolf dropped Ashe as though she had burned it.

"My God..." He muttered, his eyes poring through the readouts. "She can't control it...!"

Every single detonation, every explosion...was a nuclear reaction! She might have had the power now, but she had no way to control and channel it! So with every impact, she simply 'released', causing those detonations!

Granz felt a cold sweat break out as he realized just how close this fight had been, and how LUCKY his Warwolf was. All it would have taken would be for a whim of Fate, and she could just as easily have released a full nuclear explosion with a single punch, obliterating the entire sector!

Another eruption of orange, the brilliant yellow and black warning sign flashing on his screen, and Ashe burst free of the rubble with an exultant yell.

"Tch...!" Granz dropped the Warwolf into a ready pose. Quite frankly, he could care less about obliterating the sector, but if a nuclear explosion of that magnitude occurred, he'd never be able to use the territory for decades afterwards!

---

'What do you MEAN, a nuclear power signal?! Aile, that's impossible! There hasn't been a functional nuclear power source in centuries!'

'So that means it's antiquated and shouldn't be a problem then?'

'Are you NUTS?! HELL NO! If anything, it means the opposite! The reason humans stopped pursuing nuclear technology was because it was too damn risky! Things like the Ciel System were capable of providing about the same amount of energy, but with less chance of, y'know, BLOWING EVERYTHING UP.'

'And a nuclear FUSION engine?'

'...that's IMPOSSIBLE. The conditions for achieving fusion were WAY too high to make that even remotely plausible. The closest they ever got were clean fission engines, which were back during the Maverick War eras!'

'...I'm looking at one right now.' Aile replied grimly. 'It's your girlfriend.'

'I told you, we're just really intimate frien-wait, WHAT did you say?!'

A loud crash interrupted Aile's response, Vent jumping and looking around the trashed office, to see the Scarlet Phoenix standing very still amidst the remains of the storage box he'd just dropped.

"This name is...!" His face pale, Ace Phoenix stared at the name on the piece of correspondence, as if hoping it would change.

But it would not.

This, combined with that unsettling feeling he had gotten from the Model O earlier, were the last things Ace needed to know that he had stayed here long enough.

Perhaps too long.

"VENT!" He snapped, whirling around. "Get whatever you need! We're moving out!"

"About damn time!" Vent snapped. "I just got word that Ashe's a walking nuke now!"

"That's the LEAST of our problems!"

"Say what?!"

"We've all been had."

Vent froze.

"Come again...?"

"I said, we've been HAD! This whole thing is just one big sideshow to keep us off the real target!"

"A distraction?! For what?!"

"To keep us off of their real target..."

Ace turned and strode towards the door, his eyes cold.

"They're gunning for the Legion Mainframe."

---

A/N: Well, that about wraps that chapter up.

On the plus side, hooray, Ashe has a Model O now! On the downside, it looks like all kinds of things are going horribly wrong with it.

Remember kids, just because you've got a haxing ability like A-Trans doesn't mean you should go around attempting to get as many forms as you can.

Because sometimes, there MIGHT just be a Model O waiting for you on the other side of the looking glass...

And before any of you say anything, no, I'm STILL not happy with how I wrote the Ashe/Model O scene. There's probably a better way for that to work, but I can't figure it out. So just bear with me for now, okay?

Actually in general, I'm not happy about a LOT of things in this chapter. I just couldn't seem to get the flow down right...so yeah, if it seems substandard to you, that's probably why.

Regarding Ashe, yes, most of you PROBABLY want to kill me now. Deal with it. She's not human anymore, but as you can see, the form replacing that has some...drawbacks. Worse still I couldn't even go as much all-out here as I wanted to, on account of y'know, HER THROWING AROUND NUCLEAR WRATH.

There's overkill, OVERKILL and then 'Okay, seriously? This is a bit much.' So yeah. Also, I'm messing with my writing style again.

Also, NO, Model O is NOT migrating over to Ashe, so that's not the reason Celtis is losing power. Celtis is still the only Model O user in this game and that's likely to remain so! Ashe just has a...REALLY god-moded human form now...

Sue me.

…

Yes, I AM still beating myself up here for letting ANOTHER story arc spin out of control.

And while I'm at it, yes I am aware that Model O, being based off of Omega, who is in turn using Zero's original body, most likely would not have a nuclear fusion core, on account of the original Zero frame being powered by, y'know, the EVIL ENERGY.

There are any number of explanations for it here.

Either A) The fusion engine was a SECONDARY power source (because, really, can you HONESTLY say there's no way Omega wouldn't have MORE THAN ONE powercore?), B) Albert himself couldn't decode the original data necessary for such a power source and instead either replaced it outright with a fusion core as it was the only thing close enough to it, or just misinterpreted the old data and replaced it anyway, C) That Model O, being Model O, i.e. EXTREMELY corrupted data, couldn't replicate that Evil Energy system in the first place, and created the fusion core on it's own, or the corrupted data just resulted in THAT being created in Ashe, rather than the EE core, or D) A WIZARD DID IT, i.e. the author didn't feel like TOTALLY breaking the game here by giving her something THAT insanely overpowered.

Draw your own conclusions. The best sounding one gets a cookie.

Sigh...well, whatever! Let me know what you think anyway!

DarkShift Out!