After almost an hour of crawling, they reached the end of the pipe. They stretched and made sure nothing had spotted them, then went deeper into the fortress.
"This is the Main Maintenance Bay," Shulk said as they peered around a corner. "Mechon in need of it are sorted and sent to the right facility here. There's also fuel supply rooms off to the sides."
"Fun." Fiora deadpanned.
"Where would Kallian be?" Melia asked.
"The Face Maintenance Bay is in the third basement." Shulk replied. "If he's still here, that's where he'll be."
"And what floor is this?" Dunban asked.
"Ground floor." Gadolt answered.
"Let's head down then." Dunban declared.
"This lift leads to the first basement," Gadolt said, pointing to the one in the middle of the room. "But it's shut off, by the looks of it."
"What do we do to turn it on?" Fiora asked.
Both Gadolt and Shulk went quiet. "No idea," Gadolt said. "Normally we'd be able to turn it on just by touching the control panel, but we're no longer cleared to do so."
"There has to be an alternative." Melia insisted.
"Maybe there's a Mechon around here that holds a key?" Reyn suggested.
"Worth a shot." Sharla shrugged.
There weren't any Mechon around the perimeter, but the fuel supply rooms were full of them.
They knew they'd have to fight all of the Mechon at once, so they took a moment to talk strategy.
Sword Drones and Canon Drones would be useful here, as well as any attacks that attacked multiple enemies at once. Even with a planned strategy, they had quite a bit of trouble since one of the Mechon turned out to be much stronger than the others. They searched the remnants and found a code in one of them.
It wasn't the full code though, so they had to fight other Mechon to get the full code. Two exhausting battles later, they had the full code and took the lift down.
"Where are we now?" Sharla asked.
"The turbine rooms are on this floor. This is the main base of operations of the fortress." Gadolt replied.
"I know the initial plan was to infiltrate without being noticed," Melia said. "but wouldn't shutting off the turbines slow ether production?"
They reached the main control room, where a window showed them the sheer size of the turbines.
"It wouldn't slow it down," Sharla replied. "It would stop it entirely. Unless there's more turbines of course."
"These are the main turbines," Shulk explained. "If they shut down, everything does. All of the ether passes through them before being passed to other turbines."
"How do we shut them off?" Fiora asked.
"I say we destroy them," Reyn replied. "It'll take a lot longer to get everything working again than if we simply shut it off."
"I like the way you think." Dunban grinned.
"There's a self-destruct button, but we need to shut of the secondary turbines before we can access it." Shulk declared.
"Then let's shut off some turbines!" Melia exclaimed.
They turned back to do just that, glad to see there was only one Mechon guarding the shut off controls.
They went back to the control room. "Who volunteers to go over there?" Sharla asked. "I've worked in the mines, but being above pure liquid ether isn't my cup of tea."
"I'll do it." Shulk shrugged.
"Just be careful," Dunban sighed. "I don't want to have to explain that to your parents."
Shulk laughed. "I can fly if things go bad."
They all watched anxiously as Shulk passed through the blast furnace conduit and found himself on a pipe above the ether river. He made his way to the self-destruct panel.
After fiddling for a few minutes, he opened a closed channel to Gadolt. He turned up the volume so everyone could hear it. "You're through." Gadolt said.
"I need to input a code," Shulk said. "Says the code is on the self-destruct key. Can you guys look around for one?"
"There was a locked door we passed earlier," Melia suggested. "Perhaps it's behind it?"
"Probably," Shulk agreed. "I'm coming back, you guys go on ahead."
They headed to the door, which was now unlocked.
They followed the tunnel, where behind bars, they saw something. "Could that be the key?" Sharla asked.
"Looks like it might be it." Gadolt agreed.
They couldn't reach it with their arms, though Sharla had an idea.
Her rifle was thin enough to pass through the bars and she pushed the key toward them with it. There probably was another way, but this was faster. They had the key before Shulk even joined them, who went back to controls.
He entered the key and code, then a mechanical voice resounded. "Self-destruct sequence initiated. Please take cover behind the blast-proof glass in the main control room. Destruction in 30 seconds."
Shulk got out of there and joined the others in less than 10 seconds. They stayed there until the turbines blew up with a great explosion.
"They're not recovering from that anytime soon!" Reyn laughed.
"Let's keep going." Dunban declared.
A side path led them further down, to where the ether flowed into a blast furnace. The blast furnace was still running since it worked automatically as long as ether was going into it.
They were Mechon blocking their way, the only way through was to fight. Unfortunately, the only thing that led to the furnace was a thin platform with no railing and a deadly fall into ether on both sides.
"I think this goes without saying," Fiora said, drawing the Monado. "But be careful, everyone."
Shulk and Gadolt exchanged a look and flew above to give everyone more space. The Mechon had multiple attacks that knocked people back, so they stayed near the edge to catch anyone that got too close to falling.
Once the Mechon had fallen, they took a moment to recover and make sure everyone was fine.
"The Face Maintenance Bay is just below." Gadolt said.
The lift was ahead of them.
"I hope Kallian is alright..." Melia muttered.
Fiora put her hand on her shoulder and gave a tight squeeze. "We'll find him, even if we have to explore the entire Mechonis to find him."
Melia gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you."
"Now let's go!" Fiora declared.
They took the lift down.
Melia's mind was reeling and her heart was beating out of her chest. She had a vice grip on her staff, to the point that her knuckles were white.
She felt Fiora's hand on her back, rubbing in little circles. She gave her a another grateful look. Fiora smiled; it was reassuring. They may have met only recently, but Melia knew she could trust her.
The lift creaked to a stop.
The found themselves in a room full of Mass-Produced Faces.
"Those are the same lances Mumkhar and Kallian had at Prison Island," Dunban said.
As they moved forward, an alarm went off and Mechon flooded into the room.
The far wall rose, revealing Pearl Face behind it.
"Kallian!" Shulk shouted.
"Brother!" Melia echoed.
He drew his sword and the Mechon closed in, leaving them no choice but to fight.
"No one attack Kallian!" Shulk ordered.
The fight was tough. Not only were they surrounded, but with her gun, Pearl could hit them from all the way across the room and the Monado's shield and speed boosts could only do so much. Thankfully, Melia let off a well-timed Mind Blast that allowed them to take the advantage. Soon enough, the only Mechon left standing was Pearl.
"Brother, please!" Melia pleaded. "Don't you remember me?"
There was no answer.
"C'mon man!" Gadolt shouted. "That's your sister! For the year I've known you you never stopped talking about her! You and I were roommates! You had a stupid crush on Shulk and talked about it almost as much as your sister! How can you not remember any of it?"
There was a beat of silence.
Pearl raised her gun. Shulk pushed Melia out of the way of the blast.
"Time to retreat!" Dunban declared. "Gadolt, how do we get out of here?"
"Through here!" he led the way.
Shulk took Melia's hand and dragged her along. She ran past him and he let go, staying in the back of the line, making sure that if they were followed, he could throw up a shield.
Pearl flew in behind them and fired multiple shots. Shulk threw up his shield, though a shot flew right past it and hit the ground in front of them. Another shot hit that very spot and the ground crumbled. They were on an overpass above the depths of the fortress, and they found themselves falling to them.
Fiora quickly rammed the Monado into the piece of bridge falling with them and slowed her fall. She caught Melia who fell by her and saw Shulk fall by with Dunban and Reyn hanging on to him as his flight pack tried to support the weight of all three. Gadolt caught Sharla.
They landed roughly on the ground.
"Everyone alright?" Fiora asked.
A chorus of "yeah"s came from the party.
"I believe I may have hurt my ankle." Melia muttered.
Sharla did a quick do over and nothing was broken, but it was definitely strained. She limped to her feet.
"What do we do now?" Reyn muttered. "We're stuck down here."
"I pity you," a voice echoed. "Without the power of that sword, I doubt you would have ever made it this far."
A golden Faced Mechon hovered down and stayed above them.
"Apocrypha, activate." A bright light came from the Mechon, along with a shockwave that knocked everyone off their feet.
The Monado shut off on its own.
"What did he do?" Fiora muttered. "What's going on?"
"Watch out!" Reyn's shout came a little too late. A large group of Mechon flew in, one of them slashing at Fiora and hitting her in the back. She screamed and fell to her knees.
"Fiora!" Dunban ran to her and Sharla quickly fired a healing round.
Pearl landed in front of them, her sword pointed at them.
Dunban stood. "Kallian." He'd only used that tone of voice to scold Fiora when she was a child. "How could you? Melia came all the way out here to save you! Do you hear me? Kallian!"
The sword shook. The head shifted slightly.
"You have to run," Kallian's voice was shaking. "I'm not in control, you have to go!"
"Kallian!" Melia cried out.
"Melia, please. Run."
"That other Mechon must be controlling him." Reyn said.
"He is." Shulk confirmed.
"I admit, I never expected such resistance to becoming a Face," Yaldabaoth said. "You three especially, have been nothing but a thorn in my side." He landed in front of them. "From the moment of their creation, all Mechon are mine to control. Should a passenger defy me, I force it to obey."
"Why would you do this?" Fiora demanded. "Why would you make those of Bionis attack the Bionis?"
"To know, you need only submit to me. All will become clear when you are reborn with a new body born of Mechonis. As two of you already know."
"I'm pretty sure submission has to be voluntary, Egil." Gadolt replied.
"Forget about this," Dunban said, only loud enough to be heard by the party but not Egil. "We have to get out of here. There's no way we can win this fight."
"What of Kallian?" Melia asked.
"If we die here today," he replied, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He'll be lost forever."
"I have rendered the Monado useless," Egil continued. "You have no hope of escape or victory. You either submit to me, or die. Hand me the Monado, and it will be quick."
"Never!" Sharla shouted. "We'll never submit to you!"
"If the Monado is really useless," Fiora stood by leaning on it, "Then it has no use to you, either. I'll be keeping it to fight you." She activated the Monado, ignoring the searing pain in her back and hand.
"Fine." Yaldabaoth released a wave of ether. "Then make your final choice. Be crushed by fist, or slain by your old friend."
The choice was obvious. The fought Yaldabaoth.
Fiora couldn't use any Monado arts, but made just fine without them. Sharla focused on healing and keeping everyone debuffed, while Melia buffed everyone. She ignored the pain in her ankle. Reyn and Dunban juggled aggro, which was hard to do considering Shulk and Gadolt were hitting the hardest.
Eventually, Yaldabaoth slammed down and toppled everyone. "This is your end, Heiress to the Monado."
"C'mon Pearl," Kallian muttered as he watched helplessly. "We have to help them."
Answering his call, she whirred to life and he sprung forth, stopping Egil from firing a shot of ether at everyone. "I won't let you do this!" he shouted.
Egil was stunned, but not long enough. Effortlessly, he tossed Pearl aside and she slammed into a nearby wall. Kallian tried to get her back online, but it was useless. He couldn't even open the cockpit so he could join the fight on foot. He even tried to do what Gadolt would and kick it open, but it wasn't budging.
He felt a surge of energy, the power coming back on. Right. Shulk had added an extra reserve tank in case something like this should happen.
Shulk himself was no longer Shulk. Meyneth had taken over. She released a massive wave of ether that pushed Yaldabaoth back.
Kallian took his chance and rushed to Egil.
"Would you really die for them?" Egil asked.
Kallian's answer was an attack, behind which was all of his power.
Meyneth released another wave, this one even more powerful. It might have been too powerful, actually. The wave knocked something loose, which exploded. That explosion caused another, and another and set off a chain reaction.
Yaldabaoth flew off from the fortress as it exploded. "The power of that pilot… Could it be..?"
Pearl had fallen near the edge of the collapsing ground. The others had gathered near a wall.
"We have to get out of here!" Reyn shouted.
"Unfortunately," Gadolt dead-panned. "the only way out is down. Stay close, everyone!"
That was easier said than done, as an explosion broke them apart, sending them rocketing down to the sea below.