Minutes had gone by since the broadcast, and the Council did quickly contact them.. telling that they are willing to hold a formal meeting, but asking that the Kalinin release at least half of their prisoners before the talks.
And with reports coming in from the neighboring sections, hostages slowly came marching out. Exactly half the number. Sufficed to say, the Asari Councilor did feel that the intruders, regardless of their criminal background and the previous plan that could have taken control of the whole galaxy, a taste of which they suffered just a short while ago, She still found the faith to believe them to be somewhat trustworthy. The Salarian appeared to be interested despite himself, while their Turian colleague did seem intrigued, especially concerning the 'offers' referred to by the Kalinin's representative.
Anderson himself didn't feel so sure. He decided that he would listen to what they have to say at the very least. Refusing could be dangerous, considering that at least one of them seem to have the ability to actually move between ships without any form of difficulty, and without the need of ships. What could stop that person from coming up at them directly, should they refuse?
They waited, sitting on each their respective chairs, facing the COM system specifically located in the part of the ship which normally house the Council when undertaking journeys with the Citadel fleet. The lighting darkened, bar a lamp that shined down on each of the four within the room. Waiting patiently until the system before them flickered, a pair of holograms appearing before them.
One of them who's face seemed as though it's covered with scales, his eyes slitted like that of a snake. Dressed in a long cloak that covered his whole body except his face, and a bizarre snake sticking out from the bottom of the cloak, as if acting as some form of a tail. The other one was dressed in an even more obscure manner. Only one of his eyes visible, which shined deep red, with three distinctive tomoes surrounding the iris'. A disconcerting sight. If his colleagues felt disturbed by the sight, they gave no sign of it.
"I offer you our humble greetings. I am Yakushi Kabuto." the snake-like one greeted, bowing slightly. His voice even enough, polite even. "And this is my colleague; Uchiha Madara."
"Spare us your pleasantries, Kalinin." the Turian Councilor told him with a stern voice. "You wanted to speak with us.. get to the point!"
Kabuto's smile didn't falter at all, taking a step forward.. "You must understand, that despite what we were trying to accomplish, we merely did so because we didn't see any other way to defeat the force that threatens all life in this galaxy." A smooth talker.
"You mean, the Reapers?" Anderson found himself asking, much to his Turian colleague's chagrin.
"Exactly. Though our kind refers to them as Void Demons. We can call them Reapers for your convenience." Kabuto responded plainly, waving a hand. "The Makers believed that only a truly unified galaxy can stand against them. However as their master plan have officially failed, we have to seek other ways, and that is why we stand before you now."
"Reapers. Total nonsense." the Turian hissed.. "Yet another bunch of people who have somehow learned about the lies Saren put forth, and further propagated by Shepard, and taken it to themselves as truth."
"Anyway.." Kabuto brushed him aside in a casual manner.. "We've been enlightened by recent events that we've been going about this in the wrong way. And now we seek to make things right by offering our services to ensure the security of Citadel space, if you can grant us amnesty in return."
The Council stared at him for a few moments, letting silence drown the chamber for a short while. "You have endangered the entire galaxy with your past schemes. What is it that you can offer that can somehow make up for what you've done?" the Asari Councilor asked slowly, regarding Kabuto strictly.
"For my first offer, check the hangar on the port side of this ship." he responded, much to their confusion. A request was made for teams of soldiers to move into the designated hangar to check. A report soon received, accompanied by a large image that appeared before the Council within moments, all shocked by the sight that awaited them. The place was dominated by the visage of a large grotesque chained statue with multiple eyes, only two of them open.
"What is this... what is the meaning of this?" the Turian asked, quite perturbed as he stared at the image.
"This, is the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path." Madara informed him.. "We have used it in the past many times. To power the station among other things." he referred to the one they used recently. "But most relevant to you, is that it can be used to store away Tailed Beasts."
That did kindle some interest. "And how many does it hold now... ?" Anderson asked.
"Two of them are sealed up within it." Madara responded. "They cannot escape from it. Their only way out is if we extract them."
The members of the Council shifted slightly, as if pondering, their Turian colleague seemed interested. Anderson took that as a bad omen. "What of the other offers you mentioned?"
Kabuto smiled as he moved to respond.. "Yes. We can bring great benefit to your armies. In the form of Chakra armor. I used Cerberus to try creating some. They tried to create such armor as well before I even came into the picture. But most of what they managed to produce have been proven to be failures. I can offer fully capable special armor that will allow your forces to deploy the powers of our species. Imagine, being able to perform physical feats far beyond the norm of your species. The primal forces of nature practically at your fingertips." Kabuto didn't say that the abilities of such armor would be fairly basic compared to what a Shinobi can do, and he was fully willing to make sure that would be the case.
"Third. We can offer you all the knowledge, and technology of the Makers. Can you imagine what benefits, and safety it can grant Citadel space? To command a strike force only loyal to the Citadel fleet, that can traverse the entire length of the galaxy without even once needing to pass through a Mass relay?" he primarily pointed towards the Maker within his mind, which holds such knowledge. Though he still needed the Maker minds locked away inside the younger members of Nagato's group.
"Fourth and final. We can offer you the location of a large number of Cerberus facilities, including front companies supporting them." Kabuto sneered, smiling broadly at the wide-eyed Council members. All surprised beyond words. "You'll be able to cripple Cerberus with a single massive surprise attack!"
He paused as he took a step back and watched the aliens, he had not yet revealed to them about Saren and Kaidan. Believing it best to reveal to the Council about them later, at a better time.
With that Madara stood forward, regarding the Council. "We'll give you some time to think it through. Though I seriously don't think there's much to consider at all. Try to capture us, and you get nothing." neither he nor Kabuto told anything about how they would be able to turn it all to their advantage once the time comes. But until that time arrives, they would 'serve' the Council. And deep down, he enjoyed the irony of the situation, that would come to pass if the Council agrees.
The holograms faded, leaving the Council to digest the information given, and to discuss about their next course of action. And at the same time, reports started coming in about ongoing battle on Palaven.
The massive hemisphere of water moved across the settlement, the Turian forces hurrying out of the way instead of trying to resist. Shepard probably advised them to. Even though the Shinobi remained on the wanted lists, the Human with his status as a Spectre did mobilize some pull.
The Collectors however tried to resist his advance, only to end up inside the water, where the Hanar waited for them. The sight of the jellyfish aliens slaughtering the insects being pulled in, did not help his apparent rising phobia towards Hanar in general.
The Shinobi did his best to ignore it and continued to move in the direction of the Jubi in the distance. He could feel the Samehada scratching in his thoughts in excitement at the prospect of acquiring even more of the massive Super-Dreadnought's malevolent Chakra, it did not share the view of it's master about how disgusting that energy felt like upon their minds and bodies.
However, he did not move directly at the machine, after all he needed to take it where Konan's trap will be. So he lazily moved the hemisphere around the back of the massive monster which hardly even acknowledged his presence. Mostly occupying it's attention with nearby native forces trying to bring it down with heavy ground-based weapons deployed by Tanks and heavy Artillery. But neither could make it past the machine's kinetic barrier. The Jubi shrugged the damage off as it simply stepped on the organics and their toy vehicles on the ground as casually as some kid stepping on bugs for the sake of fun.
"Damn, that thing's huge." he whispered to himself, able to see the Jubi now in it's entirety instead of being obscured by shadows. An incredibly physically imposing monster that dwarfed everything around it.
How he wished for the rest to come over. But the Samehada brought some good news on that front, revealing about the presence of a growing Chakra signature a short distance outside the city.
He picked up his pace as the sheer amount of firepower coming from the Turians increased, refusing to let themselves be intimidated by the massive machine. Firing from multiple positions across the city with the hopes of at least weakening it's barriers for when the fleet finish off the enemy forces in orbit.
Kisame looked up, the visage of the Collector base visible beyond the sky, it's orbit having started to decay after something crippled it. That could be trouble if that thing impacts with this world's surface. The Turian fleet most likely will be devoting themselves to breaking the base into smaller pieces before moving on to the real monster.
He directed his attention back to the Jubi, ignoring the Collector Cruiser that dominated the skies above the city. Roaring as he charged, the whole hemisphere charging alongside him, increasing the water pressure up front, massive tendrils shooting from it as if to envelop the Jubi as he moved onward to ram the thing. The water practically shaking as the Hanar crowd together with him practically 'howled' battle cries.
A tiny thought lurched into the depth of his mind, as he detected some odd red light from the very edge of his vision.
What is that?
Harbinger watched as the battle continued from up high. It's puppet managed to leave the broken station with the last shuttle, it's position relatively close to the Cruiser in the area.
The Super-Dreadnought, despite what seemed to be energy shortages in parts of it's system, it performed remarkably well.
However, the other ground forces had begun to falter. The natives were taking back the city far sooner than expected. Mostly by deploying an overwhelming, but well disciplined force. Despite the inconvenience of the current situation, it provided the benefits of testing the Super-Dreadnought. But it needed more time to conduct the tests.
It directed it's attention to all the Fighter crafts in the sky, most of which appeared to be returning to their bases. With a quick scan, it located the base from which most of these forces have been launched from. Those aircraft are barely anything more than a nuisance, but it saw the chance of getting rid of the vast majority of opposing air forces in this scenario.
It transferred the information to the Super-Dreadnought and requested for it to deploy one of it's Magnetic Hydrodynamic weaponry. The newest addition to their ranks sport one such weapon for every claw in it's front legs and in all of it's tails. The only problem seemed to be, the Super-Dreadnought reported that those weapon's are currently locked. Unusable at present.
Instead, the many cores within the ship began to harmonize to a greater degree than before. All extracting a great amount of energy from it's second power source. Focusing it in front of the ship's 'face'.
Coordinates for the base had been given, beginning weapons test. With that, Harbinger simply observed.
The final Collector within sight fell under a focused barrage of bullets, uttering something akin to a gasp as it collapsed on the ruined ground. It's closest opponents sounding relieved as calm descended on the area.
"That's the last one..." Tali whispered as she sat down on the collapsed ruin behind her. The whole place had been razed during the fighting. The Quarian gazing down on her weapon as it cooled down. Looking back up as the area was suddenly bathed in red light.
Shepard looked in the direction of the Jubi. On it's face, a humongous singular eye opened up. A memory of the eye possessed by the man he met back on the Migrant fleet flashed before his eyes. But this one sported nine tomoes, all spread out across three layers with three tomoes each. All orbiting the eye's iris. The tomoes began to spin around the iris, and increased in speed as a dot of energy punctured the air in front of the eye. A tiny dot that quickly grew in size to rival the size of the eye itself. Growing within moments to a size that rivaled it's head.
"That can't be good.." he mouthed.. watching as it turned towards the east. Another memory played through his mind, that of the time back on the Citadel when the Destiny Ascension was hit by a Chakra projectile. But this... this is much bigger than that!
The Jubi reared it's head back, about to fire.
"Get into cover, now!" he could hear a familiar voice call out from behind him.
The air seemed as though it exploded when the Super-Dreadnought launched it's attack. The scenery turned pure white. But strangely enough, he couldn't hear anything.. or it's just so unbelievably loud that it went full circle back to silence.
Those in orbit seemed to have a much better image of what went on down on the surface. The Bijudama launched by the Jubi vaporized thousands of buildings nearly in an instant along with all life within the range of the blast.. but that wasn't the end. The blast continued past the city, streaked through one of the refugee camps located along the way, flattened mountains, turned lakes into barren wastelands and utterly destroyed the base which the blast was aimed at, and finally simply "bounced" off the planet's surface, ending it's journey by slamming itself into the surface of Palaven's moon.. a massive crater left behind once the dust cleared away.
The sheer devastation horrified those manning the fleets in orbit to such an extent that they paused for a minute before the sense of reality sank back into their minds, forcing them to go about demolishing the Collector base before it enters the atmosphere.
However, many did react with rage once the initial terror faded, hastening their work so that they could rain their vengeance upon the monster that caused it all.
Shepard found himself on the ground alongside Mordin and Tali.. still unaware of the sheer destruction caused by the Jubi in that instant. But he wasn't all that far away from where he stood. The pressure wave should have blown him away and everyone else away...
"Just in time.." Naruto whispered with relief.. the massive Futon: Rasengan he formed to slice the pressure wave apart dissipating from his hand. "That was close.."
"Naruto?" Tali whispered as she got back on her feet, momentarily distracted as the two shadow clones he also used went poof. "What was that?"
"I can't believe the amount of destruction that Bijudama did." the Shinobi coughed, hinting towards the devastation. He hadn't seen the destruction himself, but being in his Sage mode, he could sense the blast... and how far it went. "How the old Sage defeated that thing... I'll never know.. maybe he had an off-button handy."
"Now is not the time!" Mordin interjected.. watching as the Collector Cruiser moved it's particle beams through several Turian positions across the city, to cripple the native forces thoroughly while they tried to regroup after the struck dealt to them.
However, it stopped abruptly when the front of the ship suddenly exploded.
"We're... working on that." Naruto told him... leaping away onto a nearby building.. "Call for a retreat! Konan's at the harbor!" he vanished out of sight before the Commander could even ask.
How cruel, Hinata thought to herself. Looking upon the ruined city, and all the dead scattered around it. She tried to avoid from causing further death as she lumbered forward, breaking more buildings apart on the way, it couldn't be helped.
Before entering, she called on more Chakra from the Sanbi than she does in most times. Bringing about a full transformation as she moved in with the terrifying full-sized visage of the Sanbi surrounding her. The girl positioning herself to the left, close to it's equivalent of a shoulder. A little trick she learned from Killer Bee back when he was still alive.
The Hyuga focused her attention for starters fully on the Cruiser hovering above the city.. She quickly formed a Bijudama and launched it at the ship, scoring a perfect hit and destroyed it's primary weapon. Leaving a massive gaping wound in it's hull.
It only took a few minutes before the natives decided to use that sudden weakness to their advantage. Several newly arrived wings of Fighters darted past the Sanbi, towards the Collector Cruiser and launched all of their ordnance directly into the exposed section, causing even further damage to it, which sent it reeling.
A swarm of Praetorians intercepted some of the incoming fire. A few even managing to latch onto the passing aircraft, trying to tear them down from the sky.
From there, Hinata performed the finishing blow. The synthetics didn't stand a chance as her next shot tore clean through the ship... it's crippled husk tilting backwards and crashed into the ground with an almost exaggerated slowness.
With that, she turned her attention to the Jubi itself, seeing Kisame at work trying to force the monster into moving after recovering from the pressure wave earlier. The machine growling in irritation as it attempted to rid itself of the persistent organic.
Hinata chose to assist initially by launching another projectile at it's head.. causing the machine to stagger away from the blow. She quickly had the Sanbi dart in under the Jubi and forced more Chakra into the cloak and forced it into getting bigger. She and Kisame now working on wrestling the machine across the city. Not always successful, but they had little choice in the matter. At the very least, it appeared to be confused for some reason. It's movements are becoming more clumsy by the minute.
It didn't take all that much urging to make the Turians start retreating. He managed to link up with their remaining Commanders and convinced them that falling back are currently their best option.
Not much point sacrificing their lives for a city that have been turned into a heap of scrap. Let the monster be fought by monsters, in a manner of speaking. In addition to clearing the area for bombardment.
Once that was done. Shepard moved to the harbor, hoping to indeed find Konan there.
Shepard thought for a moment that the lake looked a bit artificial to the eye. "Shepard.." he could hear Konan utter above.
"Shepard Commander." another voice called out. Mordin quickened his pace towards Legion.. who pointed him towards the wounded Jack it placed down on the ground after arriving here. "What happened?"
"We attempted to extract information from the Old machine. But we came under attack by Husks, Krogan variety. Jack was damaged during the fight." it specified quickly.
"What did you find?" Mordin asked, tearing his attention off Jack for no more than a moment before a groan from the wounded Human pulled him back.
"That can wait. Now, driving that thing away is all we can do." Konan shouted, flying far above them, watching the fight, which edged in closer to their location by the minute. "They will draw the Jubi to the lake, and then we'll strike."
"The lake, but why...?" Tali asked, kicking a pebble by accident, watching it fall towards the 'water', but bounced off the surface as if it's solid. Her gaze lingering for a moment.
"Simultaneous large-scale attacks. This... will be my contribution to it." Konan explained, gesturing to the whole lake while landing, discarding an emptied scroll to the ground. Simply watching as Shepard moved to the edge and peered down.
And he slowly seemed to realize.. as he eventually turned towards Konan. "How many tags are there?"
Everyone ducked as several nearby buildings were shattered, the ground shaking without pause as the combatants seemed to be on the final approach. "Explosive tags.." an explosion interrupting them.. "Let's get clear." she hollered, waving for them to follow her to what she deemed to be a safe distance.
"Konan... how many?" Shepard pressed.. letting his team go first, Legion hefting Jack onto it's back as it hurried along.
"Just about six hundred billion." she responded simply while moving away.
The Human slowly looked over his shoulder at the ocean while the fight raged on nearly on top of their position, the light of day repeatedly blocked as the giants swirled about. Staring at the lake blankly with disbelief. "Alright... consider my mind officially blown." he whispered before following the rest. Sparing a glance upwards as the Collector base had finally been broken into a greater number of smaller pieces, an action followed by several great explosions that made for a show of light that for a split second tried to compete with the sun itself.
Just a matter of time before the fleet would open fire on the Jubi itself. And with that, he pressed on at a greater speed. Best not to be here when that happens.
A gigantic mass of water detonated, pushing the Jubi even further towards the harbor. Kisame managing a grin at the success of the shark missile. The enemy's ability to retaliate seemed dead-shot, making increasingly clumsy attempts at fending the smaller targets off.
It staggered even more as fire started to rain from the sky, mass accelerators struck the back of the Super-Dreadnought with mighty thunderclaps, but barely even fazed it, but a few hits against it's head did cause it to move away even further. It's ten tails waving around, pointed at the sky as it repeatedly tried to fire the weapons mounted in the appendages. But to no avail, the weapons remained locked, or the fleet in orbit would have been in a world of pain. It had the target solution of ten of the opposing ships, one shot apiece, but couldn't do anything to actually shoot them down.
Hinata continued to press the Jubi by continuing to ram it's limbs, continually causing it to stumble away as it tried to build up some distance. Attacks were also coming from less visible opponents, at which the Jubi tried to destroy by generally toppling buildings in the direction from which the attacks originated, but with little success, and the more visible opponents didn't give it any time to be analytical or thorough about it. Continuing to harass it at every turn.
It didn't help that one of them somehow sapped more of it's energy.
It became more a question about time before it started wading into the lake. It didn't even need to be informed to realize that the 'water' began to rise as unnaturally massive waves of solid fabric began to roll against it, coiling around it's body, except the back which the fleet above primarily aimed at.
Konan and the rest had retreated to a building which still stood, overlooking the fight just a kilometer away. The woman had activated the technique, every single explosive tag of the lake could be seen covering the Jubi, clinging to it's Chakra-based shield that added as an additional layer of defense.
"Alright, all at once!" she shouted as the barrage from above temporarily ceased before renewing itself.
All around, multiple attacks were forming.
Hinata created another Bijudama, this time as strong as she could force it to be made.
The hemisphere deployed by Kisame's Water prison Shark Dance Jutsu opening up as if to form massive jaws as the Shinobi within thrust his palms forward after forming the necessary hand signs, his Super shark bomb on the verge of being launched.
Naruto appeared at the roof of a nearby building with two shadow clones, creating a massive Rasen-shuriken greater than the width of the building.
Tenten appeared with him, unfurled a scroll and extracted from it the six M-920 Cain she took from Cerberus before the attack on the Collector base, the weapons suspended in the air by Chakra threads as she primed the weapons, which rightly so carried the nickname of "Nuke Launcher."
All ready, they all launched their attacks on the Jubi simultaneously. Konan detonating all of the explosive tags at the moment of impact.
The results were... spectacular. Not remotely to the extent of the Jubi's Bijudama, but the enormous Ten-tails vanished in an explosion of pure white, and the detonation, thunderous as it became, shook the entire city, or what's left of it.
The battle seemed to pause for a moment. Everyone just watched. And when the light faded away, they also saw it again. All of them were prepared for the fact that this attack wouldn't produce the results they all wished for in the depths of their hearts. But it made no less a shock that followed.
The Jubi survived the assault. Emerging from the devastation with barely any damage. It stood still for a moment before it moved, but this time, it acted in a more erratic manner. The tomoes in it's eyes twitching uncontrollably as it tried to focus. An attempt to lash out was made, only for it to fall down to the ground.
"Cohesion lost.." Legion observed. The lack of Chakra resulted in the cores no longer able to harmonize, unable to exchange data in an organized manner, causing immense instability.
This chaotic behavior continued until all the tomoes collapsed into the iris.. the machine standing slowly back up as a booming voice echoed from it.. "- Assuming direct control."
Harbinger.
It did not seem to make a whole lot of difference as it wrestled to forcefully control the confused Jubi. Except that it scanned the city as if looking for someone. "Human..." it muttered.. the voice could be heard all across the settlement and beyond. Obviously addressing Shepard, who was the one that brought about these recent events with his past actions.
"You've changed... nothing!" it continued as arcs of lightning struck the ground around and underneath it, scorching the surface as it slowly began to take off. The Turian fleet continued to fire, but did not deter the Reaper in the slightest.
"Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater!" the machine slowly turned to the skies, preparing to leave.. "That which you know as Reapers... are your salvation through destruction!" It vanished into the skies... "You... have... changed... nothing!"
The Jubi quickly left Palaven's atmosphere and broke through the blockade, the opposition relentlessly trying to take it down. But the Super-Dreadnought simply blasted itself through the formations.. Mass effect fields forming around it before it vanished into the darkness of space.
With that, this costly battle finally ended.
A couple of hours later, they were about ready to leave. Hinata chose for them to linger a little longer to assist with injuries. With her techniques, she could save some of the wounded soldiers she could find. The sky was now filled with dark clouds, it was raining. As if the skies wept.
She wandered alongside Naruto into the depths of the ruins. It was deathly silent. A lot of dead could be found. All enemy forces gone. All dead. Every single Collector and synthetic. The corpse of the Collector Cruiser visible in the horizon.
"... We got to go now, Hinata. We still got things to do." Naruto quietly told the Hyuga.
Hinata didn't answer, momentarily losing herself in memories of the war back on their home world. Looking down at the body of an alien that had been burned to the point that they couldn't even identify it's species.
The boy didn't push. Simply letting the seconds draw by, and the rain fall. Thunder echoing far off in the distance.
A sound of bent metal could suddenly be heard. Catching both of their attention. "Over there.." Naruto pointed out towards the plaza up ahead.
And thereto, they ran. But they didn't expect to see this.. a ruined Collector aircraft of some sort. The scratching noises could be heard coming from it. With that they advanced carefully, and pushed what resembled a door away. The insides thoroughly wrecked. Until a quartet of eyes were revealed to them.
The two of them jumped away as the large figure of the Collector General emerged from the dark and immediately collapsed onto the ground. It's heavily wounded body barely able to carry itself. It tried to get up, but only managed to fall backwards, and crashed against the hull of it's shuttle.
It didn't try again... only looking up and letting the rain drops fall on it's face. A low gurgle could be heard from it, as if relieved. It was first then that both the teens noticed that unlike earlier... it's eyes had stopped glowing.
It was unexpected. Such a tranquil moment between them and the leader of the Collectors, which eyes lowered to gaze at the couple. It looked at them for what seemed like minutes. It tilted it's head slightly to the side, and raised a claw towards them, as if reaching out.
Hinata found herself taking a step forward and reached out to the claw in response. She didn't know why she did it. She simply did. The girl reached out and grabbed the claw, while staying out of stabbing distance.
But the creature did no such thing. All it did was to shake her hands with barely noticeable motions. She blinked softly before forcing a smile.. "You're welcome."
With that, the claw fell limp. The Collector General sagged slightly to the side as it quietly died. Hinata only let go after Naruto embraced her, and let her own tears fall. In the end, the Collectors were just tools for the Reapers, a tortured form of life. By destroying them, they saved them from their suffering.
They did the right thing, but the necessity of killing them in order to save them... weighted heavily on her heart. Naruto said nothing, he merely tightened the embrace.
…
…
…
"Naruto! Hinata! Where are … you?" they could dimly hear in the rain as Tenten arrived, approaching their position. "There you are... we need to go now. The Council is on it's way. We got to leave before the Citadel fleet arrives."
The boy tried to work up a reason to argue, but he understood that they needed to get going. "Hinata... we got to go." he whispered as he lightly pulled..
"Yes... I'm coming.." she softly responded, gazing at the corpse of the Collector General for a further few seconds before turning to leave. Regretting that nothing more could be done.
It took about twenty minutes to arrive while moving at high speed. The shuttle of the Lance of the Six Paths standing before them. Konan and Kisame standing close to it while conversing with Shepard. Kisame grinning nervously as the crowd of nearby Hanar waved their farewells to him before leaving with their guide, who managed to survive the recent events.
"You can't be serious.." they could hear Konan mutter.
"I don't like it either. Once the paperwork's are done, Kabuto and his ilk will be working under the Citadel council. Assigned to labs on some far-off planet with a large budget to support their upcoming projects." Shepard sighed.. "I don't trust those guys at all, neither does Anderson. The Council only decided it, on the grounds of it being a necessary evil after seeing the power of the Jubi. They don't believe in the Reapers now anymore than they did before, but they acknowledge the threat posed by the Jubi, and wants to acquire the means to effectively fight it by any means necessary."
"That means we will all pay for their mistakes eventually." Kisame shrugged.
"At the very least the Council will form a heavy guard force to keep an eye on them. But that's about it."
"No use crying about it for now then... we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Konan responded with a degree of finality.. "For the time being, we need to hurry and join the rest. We can't stay here anymore."
"Can you tell me where you're going?"
"No can do. The less people that knows, the better." Konan refused.. "We want to have the element of surprise on this one."
"Alright. How will I know where to find you?" Shepard asked. The card he got earlier was nearly burned out. It's Chakra exhausted.
"Don't worry about that. We'll find you." she then turned to the rest and ushered them onto the shuttle before boarding it. The craft slowly pulling itself off the surface and bolted towards the sky. Leaving Shepard to tend to the rest before he and his crew would leave as well.
Minutes later, the Lance of the Six Paths left the system behind. No local forces moved in to stop them. Simply let them leave.
The alarms blared throughout the station. The warnings popped up all over the base; Containment breach.
Bachtein hurried behind cover as the door to the room had almost given away to the efforts put into forcing it open. He had barely escaped from the room he was locked into in the wake of the Illusive man's return. Kept around since he was mostly under control of Madara, and thus was decided to be a test subject to find out how the mind-control was maintained.
He managed to surprise the guard as he brought him out to be tested again, took the gun and ran.
His escape took him to the labs while a few of the station guards followed him. Three Kalinin had been revived, the only thing remaining was to place control chips to make them subservient to Cerberus. He wouldn't let that happen, not in a million years! Not even if he died during his attempt.
He had managed it. Freeing the revived ones from their restraints before the surgery could be committed to insert the chips. The three of them, two men and one girl now raging through the station with terrifying force. All guards and mechs were scrambled to deal with them.
The man managed to smile despite the gun wound in his abdomen, they got him alright. The door broke open and his grip on his pistol tightened even more, jumping out of cover. The Cerberus guards opened fire once he did, forcing him back into cover before he could even fire a shot. He's just a scientist in the end after all.
One of them suddenly screamed... the body flying across the room and struck the wall close to his position.
"Damn it, their here!"
"Fire, fire!"
Several gunshots could be heard, accompanied by several other rampaging signs of violence. The shooting ceased within moments. And with that, the man managed to dare himself out into the open. Certain that the recently released Kalinin had just arrived by coincidence. Clutching his wound while doing so.
He gazed at them for a moment. A young girl, a young man at least ten years her senior.. and an older but seriously strong-looking man. They all stared back at him, probably deciding whether or not he's a threat.
He found that he didn't care for what they think about him. As the man continued to look at them, he felt very much at peace.
And so the battle concluded. Was my intention from the start to have the Jubi survive the encounter. However, it's been a learning experience for all involved. One huge toy to chew and sharpen their teeth on. And they will in the future consider turning a few more into Jinchuriki to increase their battle-strength.
As for Kabuto and his ilk. It certainly is an ironic situation. Backed by the government while the "good" group have to stay underground. Got an idea on how to make Madara's more devilish qualities show. Kabuto and Orochimaru just always struck me as better planners for some reason. As for how their evil scheme beneath their so-called benevolent offers will work out. It will have to wait for the time being until more is found out how the events in ME3 will play out.
Konan's going to be out of the battles for the time being, having had her supply of paper truly thinned out.
As for which characters have been revived. I'll let you know next chapter. One of them's a big time fan-favorite. (No, not Sasuke.) And another of them chosen simply because of an image I saw in a dream, it was so hilarious that I woke up from laughing. Exactly what it is... you'll just have to wait to find out. :)