Heroes UNITE!

by So-Pro Warrior

Commander Shepard and his team have gathered together the races of their Galaxy in an effort to defeat the Reapers. But is it enough? When the team comes across a strange woman they find out that if they are to truly defeat the Reapers once and for all. They will need all the help they can get. But not from their Universe. Multiverse Crossover! Chapters 6-22 Being Rewritten!

43. The Calm Before the Storm

A Reaper capital ship floats by The Citadel, as all around the space station were hundreds of other Reapers.

"I hope the two of you are feeling a lot better." the Illusive Man speaks.

Kai Leng, and Clone Shepard stood on either side of Saren; the Cerberus assassin and former Turian Spectre with their hands behind their backs, while Clone Shepard had his arms crossed with an annoyed look on his face. Kai Leng took a few steps forward, "I stand ready to get back into the field, sir." he says.

"I stand ready to get back into the field sir" Clone Shepard mocks, "God, I don't know who's worse. You, or this Turian bastard who nearly caused me to bite the dust!" he then states, turning to look at Saren with intense anger in his eyes.

"Had I not shielded myself, then all three of us would have been incapacitated. Then no one would have been left to lead what remains of this pitiful organization into battle." Saren calmly explains.

Kai Leng turns back to look at Saren, "It's only because of this "pitiful organization" that you even stand here, Arterius!"

"I did not ask for this second chance at life. You only brought me back so I could assist you in destroying the Commander and his friends. As well as these Heroes. Something the both of you have failed spectacularly at, might I add." Saren says.

"At least I was a lot more closer to doing it compared to either of you two. I even managed to capture his whole team and clone them." Clone Shepard says with a snarky smirk.

"Close doesn't count! You should have killed his entire team right then and there, then replaced them with those clones to sabotage the Commander's operations!" Kai Leng states while pointing at the Clone.

"Where's the fun in that? If I'm going to take the real me out, I want to at least have some fun while doing it." Clone Shepard says with a smug look on his face.

"And look where that led you. Getting your entire team of clones killed. At least I had the decent plan of separating them into different universes to weaken them." Kai Leng says.

"Right cause that plan of yours went real smooth. All you did was allow them to ruin our operations in those universes! We could have killed those heroes and they wouldn't have known what hit them. Until Shepard and each of his friends stepped in putting a stop to all of that." Clone Shepard points out.

"Not to mention your actions led to a retaliation attack by the Heroes right here at the heart of our base. We lost quite a number of troops, while they suffered none but a few injuries. Both of your ideas were destined to fail. At least mine succeeded." Saren says.

"Succeeded? Last I checked, Shepard and his entire team was still alive! And your little stunt. Just got them even more allies!" Clone Shepard says.

"The Commander and his team may still live. But it was not entirely a defeat. Just like how they dealt losses to our forces. We returned the favor and caused quite a bit of damage to their own." Saren says.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Clone Shepard questions.

"If the three of you would stop your bickering. Perhaps I could explain!" the Illusive Man angrily speaks up catching their attention.

The Illusive Man stood in the shadows, his back facing towards the three as all that could be seen were his glowing blue eyes, and the light of his cigarette. "Kai Leng, while I appreciate your enthusiasm for wanting to continue the fight for Cerberus. That will no longer be necessary. At least not in another universe. Before the both of you regained consciousness, we launched our own attack on the Commander's allies. Most likely dealing quite some damage to them before they were finally able to retaliate and put a stop to our attack. While the recent inclusion of the Galactic Republic has basically undermined the whole point of the attack. To the Commander and his allies. A loss… is still a loss. While our numbers continue to grow thanks to the Reapers, theirs continue to dwindle with each soldier they lose."

"They know this. Even with the Galactic Republic replenishing their lost numbers and more. They still cannot replace those that they lost. They will not want to risk another future attack and losing more troops. Their time for invading Earth… is coming. And we must be ready for it. There was a reason I brought all three of you back, gave you all a second chance at life. And that was to destroy the Commander, his friends, and these heroes. You have all but failed those objectives multiple times. This is your last chance. And I'm sure you know what the price for failure will be this time around." the Illusive Man finishes speaking as Kai Leng, Clone Shepard, and Saren look up at him.

The Illusive Man waves his right hand, "Leave my sight. And tell our new friends to prepare the troops. We're going to war."

Planet X…

Ships from the Systems Alliance, Turian, Asari, Salarian, Quarian, Geth, Batarian, New Republic, Galactic Republic, UNSC, Swords of Sanghelios, and other fleets float around. Transport ships, fighters, and bombers flying all over the place as one flight group of Coalition fighters, consisting of a V-19 Torrent, T-65 X-Wing, F-41 Broadsword, F-61 Trident, and a spacefaring F-15E Strike Eagle fly past a Quarian Cruiser in a V formation.

"How are things looking over there Marquez?"

"You good?" the male Alliance Navy pilot asks.

"I'm still green across the board. Few little bumps here and there but nothing as serious as last week." the US Air Force pilot identified as Marquez says.

"That's good to hear." the Alliance pilot says.

"You know when I joined the Air Force, if someone told me I was going to be flying an F-15 in flipping outer space. I would have told them they were crazy!" Marquez chuckles, "But now, here I am!" he excitedly says.

"See, told you it wouldn't be so bad."

"Just like flying within the atmosphere right? Except the part where if you eject, you're ejecting yourself into outer space. So you're basically going to die regardless." the female UNSC Air Force pilot says in a joking manner.

This causes the male Bothan New Republic pilot to laugh, even the Alliance pilot chuckles at this while shaking his head for a bit. "Hey Sancho, don't go scaring off all the 21st century flyboys. We're gonna need as many fighters as we can when we finally take the fight to the Reapers. In space. That's where most of the action's going to be for us."

"Eh~ the ground peasants will still have their fair share of air support. I mean what's the deal with that whole situation anyway? If I remember my aviation history right, doesn't the 21st Century US military literally have an Air Force for all of their branches or something like that?" the UNSC pilot Sancho asks.

"Well all the branches have their own aircraft. The Air Force is the Air Force, but the Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, all got their own aircraft for their own stuff. So in a way, you ain't wrong." Marquez answers for her.

"From what I've been hearing, to increase our numbers in space the brass has been trying to repurpose the majority of the 21st century's aircraft for space combat. Which includes being able to, you know, fly in space. And since their Navy can't get into the fight, they've been bringing aircraft from that branch as well to increase our numbers more. Especially since it took us a number of their aircraft to get the whole spacefaring thing down. Lost quite a number of them to those test flights, and a few just trying to start the damn things up. Obviously though, being able to get all of their fighters retrofitted for fighting in space is gonna take time. Time we don't have. Plus as you pointed out, we still need fighters on the ground to provide air support. As such the majority of the retrofitting is going towards most of the Air Force's, and the Navy's aircraft. The aircraft belonging to the Marine Corps, as well as a small percentage of the Air Force will remain as they are, meaning they'll only be useful in the atmosphere." the Alliance pilot explains.

"Sounds like being an engineer is not going to be fun for a while. Poor bastards are gonna have to work overtime to get the majority of their fighters spacefaring capable by the end of the week." the Bothan New Republic pilot says.

"End of the week? What do you mean by that? No one's said anything about launching any attack at the end of the week." Sancho asks.

"What with that whole attack that happened yesterday aboard the Infinity? No way are the higher ups gonna let that slide." the Bothan says.

"Gotta agree with Kerd there. Attack like that after all this time, if it weren't for our new friends I'm pretty sure we'd be launching our attack on the Reapers and their allies right this second!" the Alliance pilot says.

"Speaking of new friends, you've been awfully quiet over there. You doing alright, uh~. What's your name again?" Marquez asks.

"Oddball, my brothers call me Oddball." Clone CC-2237, nicknamed Oddball says.

"Oddball? What the hell kind of name is Oddball? How'd you get stuck with that?" Sancho asks.

"That's a story for another time." Oddball says.

"So you Clones, you guys don't really have names but serial numbers right? So you kind of just give yourselves names?" Marquez asks.

"Something like that." Oddball says.

"Well anyway, Oddball. Marquez is right, awfully quiet over there. You know you can speak right?" Kerd says.

"I know. Just have no idea what's going on. Don't forget, new around here. Hell I only just met all of you three hours ago." Oddball says.

"He isn't wrong." the Alliance pilot says. "Well Oddball, to put it simple. Marquez and his faction come from a time where their fighters aren't capable of going into space. They have very little in terms of spacefaring technology. Nowhere near our levels. So for the past several weeks, our engineers have been hard at work trying to rectify that problem. It was only recently they broke through the technological barrier, after we went through several of their fighters trying to test them. All of them ending very badly but luckily with no casualties. So now everyone who's an engineer is most likely going to be working like crazy to get that stuff added to as much of the other US military's aircraft as possible, to make them capable of flying, and fighting in space. All before we go to battle the Reapers and their allies for the fate of the multiverse and whatnot."

"So basically trying to combine somewhat primitive technology, with current technology to make it capable of space flight. Okay. Sounds like it would be very difficult." Oddball says.

"It was. Even our Huragok were having some difficulty trying to get the damn things to work right. At the same, it was them that solved the issue. Otherwise Marquez wouldn't be here, or he could have but then eventually got spaced." Sancho says.

"Gee, thanks Sancho." Marquez says with sarcasm.

"And now because of it, we can add the United States aircraft to our fighter numbers. Or at least as many as the engineers can retrofit for space combat before we go to fight the Reapers." Kerd says.

"And they got a long way to go. Last I heard, they were aiming to retrofit everything from the Navy branch, and 75% of the Air Force branch. They're only at 25% for the Navy, and 10% for the Air Force. Which I feel is still an accomplishment, but still for what the higher ups want. They got a long way to go." the Alliance pilot says.

"Damn, I feel sorry for those guys." Oddball says shaking his head.

"Our Huragok shouldn't be a problem. Damn things enjoy nothing but fixing things. And Barr, don't the Quarians also like fixing things, or are at least very good at it?" Sancho asks.

"Considering they were forced to flee their homeworld and forced to live in a fleet of ships for the past several hundred years, yeah they're good with fixing stuff. And now that the Geth are on our side, they can be quite helpful as well." the Alliance pilot Barr says.

"You know, the more you guys talk. The more questions I have." Oddball says.

"Don't we all, Oddball. Don't we all." Marquez says as he flips a few switches, "So now that we have all of that established. We gonna run our training exercise or what?"

UNSC Infinity…

Soldiers from the various factions, including the newly arrived Clones from the Grand Army of the Republic, walk through the halls of the Infinity. The signs of the recent battle all but gone from the corridors. The bodies of the Husks were gathered and disposed of; the fallen soldiers all gathered up and placed in metal coffins where they would be sent back to their respective universes to be laid to rest. At the moment Captain Lasky himself stood in the hangar where he watched the coffins being loaded aboard ground transports that were to bring them back to whatever home universe those inside belonged to. Lasky lowered his gaze to the ground...

A large funeral had been held for the fallen. A funeral that was being broadcasted across every fleet, as the names of those who had died in the attack were read by Captain Lasky. Even the newly arrived forces of the Galactic Republic, and the Jedi, took part in attending and listening to the eulogy given by the UNSC Captain. A large number of soldiers, along with the Commander and his team, every hero aboard the Infinity, and their new allies, gathered in the largest hangar to pay their respects to the fallen soldiers of the Infinity Invasion. On every ship, across every fleet, everyone was in silence; even those you would not expect such courtesy from, such as the Vorcha, the various Terminus Gangs, even Aria T'Loak herself, held their heads down and hands together in silence.

"When these men and women first met each other." Lasky begins, standing behind a raised podium before the gathered audience. The coffins of the fallen, all behind him.

"They were all strangers to one another. Someone from a different universe, with different history, different technology, different people. Everything about each other was different. More so than just coming from a different planet, from a different race, a different background. But we all shared one common goal. And that goal, is to defeat the Reapers. To save our universes, our people, our friends, our family. And it was through this common goal we all shared, that new friendships were born. Those friendships eventually evolved into something more. No longer we were just looking at someone who was just another soldier, another person from a different universe. They became more than just that, more than just another comrade, another friend. They became another brother, another sister, another member of the family… These men, and women. Whether they be Sangheili, Turian, Quarian, Geth, Elven, Dwarven, Lion, Crocodile, Eagle, Twi'lek, Zabrak, Human. They knew what they were signing up for. They knew the importance of this war, how different this war is compared to any other war in the history of any universe, of any race. Even though we're outnumbered, outgunned, a million to one, they did not back down, they did not falter in the face of fear. They joined this fight, because they wanted to make a difference, no matter how big, or small it was. So long as their sacrifice meant, that those they cared for would live on, that's all that mattered to them... It is my deepest regret, that these men, and women, could not live to see how much of a difference they could truly make."

"I'm sure there are many of you out there. That question whether or not we can truly win this war. I'm sure, many of you have even begun to think that question yourself, following this horrific attack. Even with each new ally, each new hero we gain, do our numbers come anywhere close to what the Reapers, and their allies have?" Lasky shakes his head.

"I'm afraid not. Will we ever reach that number, before the Reapers destroy everything we care for? No. Should that be what matters, what determines our chances at survival?" Lasky gestures to the fallen soldiers behind him.

"If your fellow brothers and sisters in arms, were here right now. If they had the chance to say one more thing, to each, and every one of us that they formed a close bond with." at this, one by one, many by many, the soldiers, and heroes, begin to raise their heads.

"You know what they would have said? Don't let this battle be the deciding factor, on whether or not to lose hope for our future. If anything, use this battle, use their losses, as a spark. Don't lose hope! As we've proven, by working together, we were able to drive the invading force from our ship." across the fleets more and more people begin to raise their heads to watch the broadcast, to listen to Lasky.

"By working together, we saved a lot more lives that could have been lost. We have done more together already, then we ever could have done, separated. By ourselves, we cannot defeat the Reapers. But by working together, by working as one, now more than ever, we have a chance, at defeating not just the Reapers, but their allies as well. By working together, we can save not just one universe, not just two, but all of them. Let us not make the sacrifices of these brave men and women, mean nothing! For the sake, of ALL of our people, for the sake of every living being out there across the multiverse, even those we don't know, or have even a clue as to the fight going on here at this moment. For all of those, whose lives have been taken by the Reapers. Don't lose hope! Don't let their deaths be in vain! We will fight together, and we will win this war. For the fallen, for our people, for our future!" Lasky finishes.

"You know Tom." a familiar female voice speaks up making Lasky turn around, "I'll admit. Didn't know you had it in you for grand speeches like that." Palmer says walking up to his right side to join him as she crosses her arms.

Lasky turns back forward, "Neither did I, Sarah. I just said what came to mind. After an attack like that, even though we didn't lose a lot of people. A loss is still a loss for our current circumstance." Lasky and Palmer look off to their left to see several rows of coffins.

These ones belonged to either the UNSC, Systems Alliance, New Republic, or one of the other spacefaring factions. It was still being decided on how to handle them, due to each of their factions' current circumstances; with their homeworlds, or the planet they grew up on most likely being under siege by the Reapers. As such, at the moment even if they were sent back to their respective universe and or faction, they wouldn't be able to be laid to rest until after the war was over. The choices were either keep them aboard Infinity until the war was over, or have a space burial for them. Lasky was hoping for the former, since these men and women deserved as much to be buried on whatever planet they called home.

"The Reapers. Probably didn't feel a damn thing. Morale was probably low. I just said what I had to, to try and raise it back up. We need everyone we can, and we sure as hell won't win this war if we lose people to desertion, or let fear take over them." Lasky says.

"Well Tom. From what I've seen throughout the ship. I think your little speech did just that." Sarah says as she looks at him with a smile.

Needless to say, a spark was indeed ignited. As all throughout the ship's many training rooms; soldiers from the various factions were hard at work preparing themselves for the upcoming invasion in one way, or another. The shooting ranges were all filled up, small lines even forming as soldiers practiced to keep their skills sharp, whether it was with a gun, a bow, a crossbow, magic, bending, or any long range projectile. The gyms were basically crowded by those wanting to increase their strength through the various machines, track rooms by people wanting to better their stamina, and sparring rooms so everyone could exchange, teach, and practice hand-to-hand combat fighting. For when things would most likely get up close, personal, dirty, and dangerous. And it was most likelyto happen, depending on how long the battle would go on for, and depending on the types of weather and environments the soldiers could potentially be put into. Half of the sparring rooms of the Infinity had actually been repurposed for the other kind of close quarters fighting, with close quarter weapons.

From the basic combat knife, to the ancient and non-spacefaring factions' swords, spears, and other close range weapons that they primarily used. Both sides trained with and actually gained some pointers in how to fight with such weapons. For those who had long since abandoned the usage of such ancient weapons in their eyes, the ancient-era soldiers taught their futuristic comrades how to fight with the weapons their many great ancestors would have used, should they ever need to. Such as if their weapon became unusable, or if they had run out of ammo. They could grab a sword, spear, mace, whatever they could find, and use it to defend themselves. There of course was not much the future soldiers could contribute in teaching their ancient allies how to fight with such weapons, other than maybe a few new moves that had been developed over the years, had been taught in a specific universe, or they had witnessed from a film, or video game of some sort. However there were other things they could definitely help their new friends with, and that was how the battles and wars of the modern eras were mostly fought. And how they could survive it with what they currently had.

From swords, bows and arrows, and shields, to the guns of the 21st century, and beyond, as well as the various universes. Technology has changed, some for the best, some for the worst. One of those half-bad, half-good changes was the development of firearms. Whether they shot bullets, high-velocity slugs, plasma, or lasers. The weapons of any modern era could easily tear through anything the soldiers of Gondor, the Inquisition, and any of the ancient factions had; save for magic. But even magic could only hold back so much until modern firepower tore through whatever magical barrier a mage had put up. The soldiers of these factions learned the hard way through their experiences fighting either Husks, or Cerberus forces. Even if they got lucky and managed to close the distance, or fire an arrow or bolt, the material on most armor nowadays could easily deflect, or even break an ancient sword, or any other ancient weapon, practically making armored opponents like Cerberus troops unkillable in the eyes of the ancient soldiers. Luckily with time and resources, that issue had now been fixed. From across Commander Shepard's, Luke Skywalker's, and the Master Chief's universes, various metals that were both lightweight, and durable had been gathered. With help from modern technology, and blacksmith's from the various ancient universes, new armor and weapons had been forged to replace everything the ancient soldiers had. While still retaining the same looks, their new armor and weapons were not only lighter to their surprise, but tougher as well.

Swords, spears, all of their weapons were now made of material strong enough to pierce through the armor of today's soldiers, of course with some exceptions. Cerberus armor could now be cut through like swiss cheese, but the shield of a Guardian trooper, and the metal plates of the Brute were still too tough and thick to be broken through. Their version of shields could now take quite a beating from regular bullets, high-velocity slugs, plasma, and laser fire; even some low-tier magic attacks could be blocked by the new shields. Not forever of course. Take enough hits and the shield would eventually become too weak for continued use, and the enemy projectiles would eventually start tearing, or melting through it, depending on what was being fired. Direct impact from high-explosives, high-powered plasma, and high-powered lasers would obviously destroy the shield and kill the person holding it along with those around them, just how it would normally happen as nothing of such small size would be able to take a tank round or anything else of higher power and survive. Though should the explosion impact in front of them, and depending on how far away the impact was, the shield could hold, but the force from the explosion would probably knock the soldier on their ass still. Grenades were in the same area. Land in front of the shield, the shield could probably hold but knock the soldier on their ass, but it would most definitely protect them and those behind from shrapnel. An impact grenade, depending on the explosive power would either stagger the shield holder, or blow them to bits. Other forms of grenades like plasma, inferno, and such, direct impact again would most likely kill, if not seriously injure, should it land in front it would vary depending on the grenade type. The armor, while not as strong as the shields, could still have a chance at saving the soldier from various things, such as shrapnel, glancing blows, small-time things unless the soldier got really lucky.

With their weapons and armor upgraded to give the ancient soldiers an actual fighting chance against their futuristic enemies, next was learning how to deal with the weapons of the future, weapons they would have never seen or heard of before. The most common thing they would obviously run into with their enemies from the future, would be guns. So the first thing a future soldier would teach their ancient comrade about these weapons, would be that guns could not be fired forever. A number of things would eventually happen to a gun as it is used, these things varied from gun to gun. Most common guns eventually ran out of ammo, forcing the shooter to reload; other guns eventually overheated, causing it to go into a cooldown period. Whatever happened, the period of time for either of these was usually very short, whether it was a thermal clip, or a magazine, even if it was cooling down, the process of these things usually took all but a few seconds, especially for a well-trained soldier. So yes, while an enemy reloading their weapon or letting it cool down would be a prime time for an ancient-era soldier to attack them, it would most likely not always work. Obviously if they were too far away, they could easily get their weapon reloaded and firing on them again before they could get even a few feet forward. Another thing they could do is switch to close-quarters combat, whether it was hand-to-hand, or with their own close range weapon, they would obviously abandon trying to reload their weapon and just try and fight with whatever else they had at the moment to try and survive. The only thing the ancient soldier could do to take their gun-wielding enemy down, was either distract them so someone else could take them out, or use their shield to absorb the shots and charge at them until they got close enough to take them out themselves, and that was pretty much it. Thanks to their upgraded gear, they now stood a far better chance at taking such enemies out; how they dealt with them was up to the soldier themselves. All that mattered was that they now had a chance to fight. All they could do now was train themselves in how they would go about dealing with such enemies for when the final battle came.

Of course guns weren't the only issue. There were also grenades, heavy weapons, vehicles, but with help from their future allies, and especially the Infinity's War Game simulators. The soldiers, and heroes, who hailed from ancient times would learn over time how to face, and overcome these new weapons of war. It also most definitely helped that they wouldn't be fighting such weapons by themselves thanks to their future allies' own arsenals of futuristic weapons and vehicles.

While they were at it, with the ancient soldiers teaching their futuristic, tech-savvy comrades how to fight with the weapons of their time, said future allies of course did the same thing in teaching their ancient allies how to use the weapons of the modern eras. Needless to say, seeing the reaction of any one ancient soldier firing something like the M-451 Firestorm, the Type-58 Fuel Rod Cannon, or the M2HB .50 cal machine gun, was very, very much priceless. With every ancient soldier's reaction, even from those watching, going from completely terrified, to full on awe and excitement at firing such weapons of the future. Even mages, and benders who could, you know, cast magic or bend the very elements, found themselves going crazy over firing things like a M134D Minigun, or Z-6 Rotary cannon. Even those who already used guns, found themselves trying out other universe's firearms just for comparison reasons, or out of curiosity themselves.

All across the Infinity, and throughout all of the fleets. Soldiers, Marines, pilots, everyone was hard at work preparing for the invasion. The invasion that was all but inevitable now. Not inevitable in the way that it was going to happen because it had to, but inevitable in the sense that it wasgoing to happen at any moment. After the assault on the Infinity, and the funeral for those who fell, many knew that it was only a matter of time until their leaders would come out saying when the invasion was going to happen. Many had a feeling it was going to be at least by the end of the new week; the fact they weren't already preparing to attack Earth was because their new allies needed to get accommodated to basically everything, and the Coalition to them as well. The troops and leaders of the Galactic Republic would need time to train alongside the other factions, get to know their soldiers, fighting tactics, weapons, ships, tech, anything and everything important enough to help the Clones and their few Jedi Generals fight alongside their many new allies effectively; and same for the Coalition factions with the Republic troops.

Not only did they need more time for their troops to train with their new allies. But the old plan of basically throwing everything at the Reapers in hopes they could recapture the Citadel and activate the Crucible, were now out the window, now that the Reapers weren't the only enemy they were facing. Cerberus, and their army of allies were now a threat as well; and unlike the Reapers, Cerberus and their allies would have actual defensive positions set up all throughout Earth's continents. Other than Reaper ships, Destroyers, and their Hades Cannons; the Reapers and their Husks would not have much else set-up in terms of defensive positions or placements like normal armies would. The only tactic their Husks used was to overwhelm the enemy with immense numbers, some Husks were smart enough to utilize cover like the Marauders, but other than that, Husks for the most part never built anything to better defend an area with. They just wandered around, and attacked any living thing in sight. Cerberus and their allies would not be so brainless. They would utilize artillery, heavy weapon emplacements, and other sorts of defensive positions to hold attacking Coalition troops back to bleed their forces dry. Luckily with aid from the Earth's Resistance, as well as intel gathered from the main Cerberus Headquarters on the Citadel, the troops now had at least some idea of what kinds of enemy emplacements they would be going up against and where. With this knowledge, as well as the fact that the invasion was no longer going to be happening just in London, but across the entire planet as well. The leaders would need to formulate an actual attack strategy of sorts, find out where to send people, how to deal with certain areas held by the enemy, etc.… if this invasion was actually going to succeed. Cause even if the Reapers were dealt with, there would still be the issue of Cerberus and their allies, meaning the fighting could potentially still go on even after the Reapers were gone.

Time was needed. And while some on the Infinity, mostly those who lost a friend during the attack, as well as others throughout the fleets would prefer to get straight to the action already. Saying they wanted to avenge their friends, or that they've waited long enough and that if they wait any longer there might not be a galaxy or universe left to fight for. Many knew that if this invasion, this mission to destroy the Reapers was to succeed, they would need to be patient for just a little while longer until everything, everyone. Was truly ready to go.

"Man! Would you look at this ship! I've never seen one this size before!" Fives says in awe.

He along with Echo, and Captain Rex walked through the halls of the Infinity exploring the ship.

"Yeah~. It's big, but size isn't everything. It's the ship's shielding, armor, and armament that counts whether you win or lose a battle." Rex says.

"Ship this size probably has double the weapons our cruisers have. Either way, I'm just glad it's on our side. Wouldn't want to try messing with it anyway." Echo says.

Rex looks to his right, watching as soldiers from the various factions either walk by or stand around talking to one another.

"Gotta say, some of these guys look like they can fight. Can't wait to see what they're weaponry is like, and how they fight." Fives says.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that some of these people and races are from different universes. Who's who? Who's from this universe, who's from another universe?" Echo questions.

"Some of them look like they have the same tech. But at the same time just because they have different technology doesn't mean they're from different universes. Like these UNSC guys and those Swords of Sanghelios aliens. Their tech is different from one another, but apparently they're all from the same universe. Same with a bunch of these humans. Just because they're human, doesn't make them from the same universe. It's all sorts of confusing." Fives says.

"Yeah, but not as confusing as the fact we apparently have a parallel, future version of our Republic fighting alongside us. "The New Republic". Seriously, what the hell's all that about? And how come we only learned about it when we came here?" Echo asks.

"I'm sure there are some reasons behind that, Echo. But if you think we have it rough, I can only imagine what General Skywalker is going through. Learning that he apparently has both a son, and a daughter." Rex says.

"Yeah, let's not even get into that whole thing. This whole fiasco we've gotten involved in is all sorts of messed up and confusing. On the bright side, I'm sure the droids are just as confused as us, and if we're lucky, they're so confused their heads are blowing up from trying to comprehend this whole situation." Fives says in a joking tone.

"Well if it helps, just simplify it down to helping a bunch of new, weird allies not from wherever you're from," the Clones turn around to the person speaking to them as two Humans, both male with one having fair skin, and the other having black skin, walk up to them. "Fight against giant metal space squids, and alien zombies, to save not just your planet but lots of others as well. Just basically leave out anything having to do with alternate universes, and anything else super confusing and now you're a bit less confused as to all the new, weird things going on all around you."

Both soldiers had black armor and uniforms as the one with white skin and brown hair extended his right hand forward to Rex, "Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox, NEST, United States Military. And this is Chief Master Sergeant Robert Epps."

Rex looks down at Lennox's hand and then back up at the Lieutenant Colonel, he then grabs his hand and shakes it. "Captain Rex, 501st Legion. Grand Army of the Republic."

The two pull away from each other, "This is Fives, and Echo." Rex introduces the two as they stand at attention and salute.

"Shit. So you guys really are Clones. Look the same and everything." Epps says.

"That is what being a clone implies." Fives speaks.

"Right. So don't go blaming me if I get you guys mixed up or something. At least you guys have some decals on your armor to help me tell you apart. Most of the other Clones we've seen just have that plain, normal looking white and black armor or something." Epps says.

"Don't worry about it. It's to be expected for first time meetings. Us Clones are used to it." Fives says.

"Is there something we could help you with, Lieutenant?" Rex asks.

"Just couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Also thought about introducing ourselves, and formally welcoming you to the shitshow that is this war against the Reapers." Lennox says.

"Thanks… I guess?" Rex says in an unsure voice as Echo and Fives exchange confused looks at one another.

"Ah~ Lennox is just messing with yah. His way at attempting a lighthearted joke." Epps says.

"Seems it didn't quite go through. Apologies for that. So you guys lost or something? Or just exploring?" Lennox asks.

"Just exploring." Rex says.

"Well, if you don't mind. We could show you around. We've been here long enough we got this place sort of memorized. And I'm sure you have a lot of questions as to… well basically everything. We can give you a tour, and answer any of those questions you may have to the best of our ability. Still don't know a lot of things ourselves but we'll answer what we can." Lennox says.

Rex looks at Echo and Fives who just shrug their shoulders, "I guess it wouldn't hurt." Rex says looking back to Lennox.

In one of the many mess halls spread throughout the Infinity, "So…" Anakin begins to speak, lost for words.

"You're my son… and you're… my daughter?" Anakin asks.

"That would be correct. Somewhat." Leia speaks, her brother Luke sitting beside her.

"We are just as confused as you are. Our father was Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight. And you are Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight. From what the Doctor has told us, in a way, you are our father. You just come from a parallel universe. It's complicated." Luke says.

"I can sense that. A parallel universe, that's when two universes are basically one in the same, just with some differences in history." Anakin says.

"That's correct. For example, our universe is vastly different from Commander Shepard's, and the Master Chief's universes. That makes all three of our universes, alternate universes. In our case, we are from parallel universes. Our universes are one in the same, we both have Jedi, the Force, the same planets and races. The only thing that makes us different, is how our histories play out, and perhaps a few small, other things. An example being, in our universe, you never had a Padawan, this Ahsoka Tano never existed. Or maybe she did, she was just never a Jedi, or became someone else's Padawan." Luke says.

"I see." Anakin says as he crosses his arms, "Not as complicated as an alternate universe. But still different. But even if we're from parallel universes… you two are still my future children, in a way." Anakin says.

"If your wife, or future wife, our mother, would be Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, then yes." Leia says.

Anakin's eyes widened in shock, "Good thing Obi-Wan wasn't around to hear that…" Anakin says in his mind. Though he had a feeling once he was done with the meeting with Shepard and the other Coalition leaders, he would definitely want to speak with both Luke and Leia. This was going to get both weird, and bad at the same time; and he knew there was no way of talking him out of it.

"Okay. You have to admit this is very, very weird. And I know, you two aren't lying, because-"

"Because the Force is telling you that this is all true. And you can sense the familiar connection between us. Even if we are from parallel universes. It seems even from different points in time and space, the Force connects us to one another." Luke says.

"Okay, even without the force, I can sense where you two are at. Basically following in me and Padmé's footsteps. You're a Jedi, Luke. And Leia, let me guess, Senator?" Anakin asks.

"At the moment I'm actually the Minister of State for the New Republic." Leia says.

"Well, looks like someone is sure moving up in their time." Anakin says in a humorous manner.

"Good thing Padmé isn't here as well… Don't even want to imagine what her reaction to all of this would be." Anakin again adds in his head.

He looks back at his "son" and "daughter", as a serious expression comes to his face; "So… I need to ask. Are the reports true, about what happened in your timeline, in your universe, to the Republic… to the Jedi?" Anakin asks.

Leia looks to Luke as he lowers his gaze, "Unfortunately so, father. In our timeline, in our universe, the Jedi were nearly wiped from existence. And the Sith came to power. Taking over the Republic, and turning it into the tyrannical Galactic Empire." Luke replies.

"I see… Hard to believe that the Sith were able to create a weapon that brainwashed our soldiers into turning against us. And from there they took control of the Republic, put an end to the Clone Wars, and then turned the Republic into a power hungry Empire?" Anakin asks.

"That's right. For years they ruled our galaxy with an iron fist. Until we, the Alliance to Restore the Republic, came together and fought back. It was a tough war; we lost many good people. But eventually, all the sacrifices paid off and we not only defeated them, but Luke was able to kill their Emperor. The Sith Lord that took control of the Republic all those years ago. The Empire still exists, but only as military remnants. They do not have as much power as they once did." Leia says.

"And these Imperial Remnants are with Cerberus and their allies, meaning we'll have to fight them." Anakin says.

"If it eases your mind, know that according to the Doctor. This weapon the Sith were able to create does not, and will never exist in your universe. So your Clones should be safe. And the weapon used in our universe was destroyed long ago by the very people who used it. Obviously so they wouldn't risk their enemies using it against them." Luke says.

"Well that's good to hear. When Rex and his boys read that part about the Clones turning against us, they were absolutely disgusted by the thought that it actually happened. And let me tell you, when they got to the part where this "Empire" switched them out for these Stormtroopers. Well, I think it's safe to say they're now itching for a chance at finding out what these Stormtroopers are all about." Anakin says.

"You are close with your Clones?" Luke asks.

"Of course. They're living beings just like any one of us. They deserve to be treated as such, not as weapons of war like some people see them as. They're not droids." Anakin says.

"I am glad to hear that." Luke says with a smile.

"Also, I'm probably not going to like what I hear but… I have to ask. That is if I can anyway since the Doctor said there were rules to space and time that we should abide by like, asking what could happen in our future. But considering we're from parallel universes I think that should be an exception right? Since my future could be different from my parallel universe self so~ is it technically a spoiler? What happened to me and Padmé, exactly? Your father, and mother? I would assume that since neither of us are here…" Anakin says.

Luke and Leia look at one another and then back at Anakin.

"I see." Anakin says, having a sense of what happened based off that alone. "What happened?" he asks.

"You were among the Jedi killed at the temple when it was attacked. Our mother died giving birth to the two of us. She died of a broken heart. As we were both force sensitive, making us potential targets for the Emperor. Your master, Obi-Wan Kenobi had us separated. As a means to protect us." Luke explains.

Anakin can't help but smile at this, "Nice knowing Obi-Wan still has my back even in another universe. So he survived the Jedi Purge. What became of him?" he asks.

Luke chuckles, "What would you say if I told you, he became a hermit of sorts on Tatooine. Where I grew up."

"I would say thank you very much for telling me. Because now that's something I can hold over him for quite some time. Always told him, keep that beard of yours around forever and you'll eventually become a hermit Jedi." Anakin jokingly says.

Causing Luke to chuckle once more. "He was watching over me, to make sure nothing happened while I grew up. When I was old enough, and when the Empire killed my adopted parents. It was him who began teaching me the ways of the Jedi. Until he passed. I was then trained under your Grand Master, Yoda. Until he became one with the Force as well. But it was thanks to them that I was able to defeat the Sith Lord." Luke says.

"Trained by both Obi-Wan and Master Yoda. You had some great teachers." Anakin proudly says.

"Ever since the end of the Galactic Civil War, ever since we recaptured Coruscant, I've made it my duty. To try and rebuild the Jedi Order. Hoping that one day, the Jedi will truly return, and restore peace and prosperity to the galaxy. One that will last for all eternity." Luke says.

"For all eternity huh?" Anakin asks as he crosses his arms, "You've got a long journey ahead of you then. I wish you luck." Anakin says.

"Thank you, father." Luke says.

A nervous expression comes to Anakin's face, "Ah~. Yeah, I can't get used to that whole thing. I know, I am your father, Luke but… come on you have to understand. It's super weird for me to be hearing that from you, from either one of you it would be weird. Especially considering at the moment, we're basically around the same age give or take?" Anakin says.

Leia chuckles at this, "He isn't wrong. For you to be calling someone else father when you're both around the same age does… look a bit odd." she says.

"Yeah, it really does. Even I'm actually finding it difficult to say sometimes." Luke humorously says.

"Right, so let's just stick to first names. Shall we, Luke?" Anakin asks.

"Of course, Anakin." Luke says.

"Still, I would imagine for all of us. For me and Leia, to be given the chance to fight alongside our father, and for you, to fight alongside your children. It's going to be quite an experience. Isn't it?" Luke says.

"Oh yeah it is. It sure is going to be quite an experience." Anakin agrees.

SSV Normandy SR-2…

The elevator door opens as Captain Lasky walks out.

Samantha Traynor approaches him and stands at attention, "Captain Lasky, you are the last delegate to arrive. The Commander and others await you in the War Room." she tells him.

Passing through the security checkpoint Lasky makes his way to the War Room and enters, "Apologies for my lateness." Lasky speaks up.

Shepard, who was leaning on the holotable and was dressed in his Alliance Officer's Dress Blues, leans back up and looks over; Admiral Hackett and Miranda Lawson on either side of him. "Don't worry about it Captain. We're still waiting for Admiral Anderson to contact us." Shepard says.

"Shepard, we are receiving a transmission from Admiral Anderson." EDI speaks over the intercom.

"It appears you're actually right on time. Alright EDI, patch him through." Shepard says.

A circular hologram pad was on the floor between Shepard and Hackett, a cord running from it to the Quantum Entanglement Communications room as a few seconds later Admiral Anderson's holographic body formed above it.

"Sorry I'm late. Things have been quite hectic over here on our Earth." Anderson says.

Hearing this alarms Shepard, "Everything alright Anderson?" he asks.

Around the room, leaders, delegates, and even a few military officers from the various factions gather around; whether it was around the holotable, or up on the circular walkway. From the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar, and General Tyr Taskeen, from the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios, Captain Lasky, and Thel 'Vadam, their most recent allies, the Galactic Republic had Admiral Yularen, Commander Cody, and Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu attending the meeting.

Aragorn II Elessar, Gandalf the White, Éomer, Faramir, and Glorfindel represented their forces from the world of Arda. Aedan Cousland, along with Garrett Hawke, Maxwell Trevelyan, Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana, Aveline Vallen, Cassandra Pentaghast, Cullen Rutherford, Michel de Chevin, Fiona, Lanaya, and Vartag Gavorn spoke for the armies from Thedas. Eragon, and Arya, were present to represent the Dragon Riders from Alagaësia; along with Avatar Aang, Fire Lord Zuko, General How, and Chieftain Hakoda from the Earth of the four Bending nations.

Nick Fury from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, Colonel Mace of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce military organization from the Doctor's home universe, General Morshower of the United States Armed Forces, Max Tennyson from the Plumbers, and Agent Six of Providence were also in attendance for their respective factions. From the world of Chima, Kings Lagravis, Crominus, Ewald, Rawzom, Balkar, and the leaders of the Gorilla, Rhino, and Wolf Tribes, Worriz, Gorzan, and Grumlo, and Rogon. And finally there was both Talwyn Apogee, and Sasha Phoenix for the Galactic Rangers.

As for the leaders of Shepard's universe, there was Admiral Hackett of course representing the Systems Alliance, Councilor Tevos and an Asari military commander beside her for the Asari people, Councilor Sparatus and Primarch Adrien Victus for the Turians, Councilor Valern and a Salarian military commander for the Salarians. Urdnot Wrex for the Krogan, Aria T'Loak speaking for the mercenary gangs and pirates of the Terminus System, Captain Ka'hairal Balak representing the Batarian forces, the entire Admiralty Board of the Quarian Migrant fleet, Admirals Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Han'Gerrel vas Neema, Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, and Daro'Xen vas Moreh, and finally there were the representatives for the Geth, Elcor, Hanar and Drell, and Volus races.

Also in attendance for this meeting were some of Shepard's teammates, as well as a few other heroes, mostly the leaders for certain groups. Garrus Vakarian, Liara T'Soni, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, and Javik were present; both Garrus and Tali alongside their leaders, Liara since she was needed to coordinate the Shadow Broker forces, and Javik for any tactical input he could provide for the invasion against the Reapers. Miranda was there so she could coordinate the Ex-Cerberus forces for the attack, as well as provide any helpful information needed for how they should deal with Cerberus. Both Po and Tigress were there, as was the Master Chief; Tsukasa Kadoya stood between the already transformed Takeshi Hongo, Hayato Ichimonjo, and Yusuke Godai. Troy was with morphed Tommy Oliver and Jason Lee Scott, and Captain Marvelous stood alongside the also transformed Tsuyoshi Maijo, and Sokichi Banba. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were also there to represent the Justice League, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor for the Avengers, Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles group was also there alongside Goliath, and Talon from the Gargoyle and Mutate Clans. Optimus Prime, and Drago, who with some help from Hank Pym were shrunk down to normal-human size, were also there. Altaïr and Ryu stood together; Laval, Eris, and Cragger stood with their friends and family, Lloyd Garmadon was there to represent his ninja team as well as their Elemental Master allies, Erza Scarlet for her Fairy Tail team, Aerrow for the Storm Hawks, and finally Ace for the Loonatics.

Even the Doctor himself was there, even though he wasn't a military strategist he was the only person there capable of having whatever effect the Crucible would have on the Reapers on this universe, reach the Reapers in the other universes they were invading. If they were going to defeat the entirety of the Reapers once and for all, they were going to need his help and whatever input he could provide them.

Anderson looked around, "Holy hell Shepard. You've been busy." he says slightly shocked at the gathering of people around the War Room.

"Just wait until we arrive. But what happened? Are you okay?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah. Just a bit banged up. Dealing with the Reapers is one thing, but we thought the minute Cerberus appeared with their own number of strange, new allies. We were done for. Yet surprisingly, this whole time they've just left us alone. No attempts to attack our bases, and I have a feeling they damn well know where we are. Our scouts have at the most been driven away when we try to spy on the positions they're setting up. No casualties from any of these. They've basically just been leaving us to the Reapers." Anderson says.

"Most likely, they wish to conserve their forces. Just as our forces have been hurt from the constant attacks by the Reapers, their forces have suffered from our many previous battles with them. They would not risk losing any number of soldiers to small raids against your Resistance." Thel speaks.

Po leans towards Tigress and raises his left hand to the right side of his mouth, "Is it just me, or do those two sound almost very similar to one another?" he quietly asks her.

"Quiet!" Tigress says back in a low voice.

"Why worry about their forces? I thought they had those machines they could use to bring the dead back to life. Couldn't they just use them for their troops every time they die?" Balak questions.

"Perhaps they wish to leave the Humans of this Earth alone, leave them for the Reapers so they can be turned into Husks? Give them more troops." Faramir brings up.

"A corpse can still be turned into a Husk. They also could have easily reported the locations of these Resistance bases to the Reapers if they truly did not want to waste any resources attacking them themselves. And if they wanted to support their new "allies" in that fight. Anderson is right, I know Cerberus. If they had any interest in destroying the Resistance on Earth, they would have located all of the bases within days, and then taken them out with multiple coordinated attacks. But they didn't. So either Anderson and his people in the Resistance are really good at hiding, or the Illusive Man is just not interested in taking them out." Miranda says.

"Kind of an odd choice if it is that last one. Since the start of this war, Cerberus has been doing everything possible to try and hamper us at every turn. They could have done some serious damage if they took out Admiral Anderson and the Resistance. They're basically our eyes on the ground. Not saying the data you retrieved from their Citadel Base is useless or anything, Miranda but… Cerberus could just as easily move things around before we launch our assault making that stolen data basically useless. Plus there's still a number of things we would need help with if our invasion of Earth is to go a lot more smoothly. Like landing locations we could use, any anti-air weapons that could make landing our forces difficult… With the Resistance, they can learn this and a number of other things and relay that information to us to help out; without them… well. It sure would make fighting the Reapers, Cerberus, and their allies a lot more difficult." Garrus speaks.

"Well whatever the damn reason is. One thing is for certain. They did know where we were. Cause yesterday, I don't what you did to piss them off, but they bombed the hell out of a lot of our bases across the planet. We took some casualties, but it luckily wasn't that bad. I almost have the feeling they weren't even trying. Didn't come back around for another pass, no second wave, nothing. They just hit us and flew off." Anderson says.

"Yesterday?" Captain Lasky questions him.

"That's right. Why? Did something happen to you guys as well?" Anderson asks.

"Cerberus was able to launch an attack on one of our ships. We repelled it, but lost a number of our troops." Hackett explains.

"Two attacks in one day? I'd say that's more than coincidental." Obi-Wan says.

"Sounds like Mr. Illusive is trying to bring us out. I think that was his way of saying "I'm tired of waiting for you. Come on out already!"" Ace says.

"Well he isn't the only one!" Admiral Han'Gerrel angrily shouts as he slams his hands on the table and looks towards Shepard. "We've waited long enough, Commander! We cannot let Cerberus, nor the Reapers get away with this attack! I say we've gathered about all the allies we need to assault your Earth. Let us use our new army and attack the Reapers and their allies with everything we've got!"

"You know, I've been thinking this for a while, Aedan. But doesn't that Han'Gerrel's voice sound a bit familiar to you?" Alistair quietly asks his Warden friend.

"Now that you mention it. His voice always did give me the feeling that I wanted to punch him or something." Aedan quietly replies back with humor.

"I agree. We've waited long enough as it is. Every minute, every hour wasted, more and more people across all of our universes perish under the continued assault by the Reapers. If we do not act now, there will be no one left to save!" Colonel Mace states.

"Let's not forget about the other universes out there! There are probably hundreds of them we don't even know about that are under attack by the Reapers. They have no idea what's going on! And if they're in as bad of a situation as we all are, they might be one step closer to just giving up and surrendering themselves to the Reapers! They don't know about the Crucible; they don't know about all of this. In their eyes, they have no hope!" Laval speaks up.

"And that would indeed drive them into surrendering to the Reapers. Worse yet, they don't know about indoctrination. If they surrender thinking the Reapers would leave them alone, then it would only be so long until they become indoctrinated by the Reapers." Liara says.

"Not only that. It has crossed my mind since this whole multiversal incursion began. If the Reapers are smart enough, and they are. Eventually, they will begin using their new slaves from other universes as advanced spies, sleeper agents as they have done to us. Send them to more and more universes across the multiverse, under the pretense of refugees escaping from them. And just as they have done in this cycle, mine, and the previous ones. They will use their indoctrinated slaves to gather intelligence, and weaken the defenses of every universe they seek to harvest." Javik says.

"None of the other universes, who know a thing about the Reapers would be prepared for it. If we do not put a stop to the Reapers now, no one ever will." Altaïr says.

"As it stands, we are the only universes that truly know what the Reapers are. What they are capable of. If we all fall, all of our knowledge on them goes with us. None of the other universes will know, and the Reapers could use that greatly to their advantage. Hell, they could even use their indoctrinated slaves to start wars between universes if they wanted to. Weaken them even more to the point they would be able to harvest these universes without so much as losing a single Reaper." Max Tennyson speaks.

"While I agree we should not waste any more time for reasons like those. We don't have much of a choice if we are to properly induct the forces of the Galactic Republic into our Coalition." Agent Six says.

"It would be helpful to know how it is your troops fight when compared to ours. How your weapons, your vehicles, your ships, all work. Without this knowledge, our troops could become disorganized trying to adapt to your fighting styles in the middle of an invasion." Mace Windu says.

"The same of course goes for your troops as well. I'm sure you would want knowledge on how it is we Jedi, and our Clones fight our enemies. How our stuff works. So then you can find ways to incorporate our tactics, weapons, and fighting styles into your forces, perhaps even better them." Obi-Wan speaks next.

"Not to mention, we will need to prepare their troops to face off against our respective enemies in the coming battle. As we ourselves, will need to be taught how to deal with the droids of the Separatist Army!" Admiral Ackbar says.

"Why wait any longer? Admiral Gerrel is right, we've waited long enough as it is! The longer we wait, the more our worlds, our people are destroyed! One more army isn't going to make a difference!" Worriz says.

"To us these droids are but one more enemy we must face. But for the Republic, their troops would have to confront a vast number of different enemies. Enemies they are not used to fighting! You would be asking them to adapt to fighting these new foes during not only an invasion, but a crucial battle where we need everyone at their best if we are to win!" Aragorn points out.

"The Droid Army is not to be underestimated either! They may not look like it, but certain droids can pack one hell of a punch, and make quite a difference in battle. In small numbers they may not be a problem, but in larger numbers, even our Jedi Generals have a tough time engaging them. It would be wise for even your soldiers to learn how to fight them, even if they're nothing compared to the rest of your enemies." Commander Cody speaks up.

"Knowledge can make, or break a battle. How our enemy fights, their tactics, their weapons, the more we know, the more our troops can be prepared to fight them!" Primarch Victus says.

"Look." Shepard speaks up, getting everyone's attention. The Commander crosses his arms "Time is against us; it always has been. I know that with every hour, every day, every week that goes by. More and more people across the multiverse lose their lives. I want to destroy the Reapers, save every life we possibly can, just like every one of you in this room! But if we attack the Reapers, and find out we weren't ready to face them and their allies just yet, then all of our hard work up to this point would have been for nothing!" Shepard lowers his arms as he then leans forward and points to his back left. "Once this attack begins that's it. There'll be no turning back, no retreating. We commit everything to this assault. And we either win, or die! We have to be sure we are ready!"

Everyone stares at Shepard as he lowers his arms and straightens himself again.

"I'm sure all of you can understand this feeling. Whether you're a soldier, or a politician… we don't want to accept it, but we know that not all lives can be saved. And that thought can haunt you for the rest of your life. What if we had been faster? What if we did this instead of that? Could those lives have been saved? I've lost many friends to this war, and I'm sure many of you have experienced loss yourself, a family."

Primarch Victus lowers his head as he thinks of his son Tarquin Victus.

"A friend…"

Tali thinks of Legion.

"A lover…"

Aria closes her eyes as Nyreen Kandros comes to her mind.

"Whether it was from this war, or another, or something else entirely different. These kinds of questions go through your mind after they're gone. Right now, all of our worlds, our universes are burning because of the Reapers. Civilians, men, women, children, even those who have yet to be born are all dying! Could we have saved their lives had we done something about the Reapers sooner? Maybe. Maybe we could have. But if we failed? What if we did launch our attack against the Reapers before all of this? What if it was just the people of my galaxy, and none of you from alternate universes? What if it was only a few of you, and half of you weren't here right now? If we succeeded, then great, we just saved many lives. But if we didn't, and we failed. Then that means more, and more, and more lives will continue to be lost. We will not win this war by being divided. By just charging in and hitting the Reapers and their allies with everything we've got hoping for the best! We do that, and we can say goodbye to all of life across the multiverse, across all of reality!"

"The only way we have a chance at winning this war, is by standing together. This attack on the Infinity, proved just that! Did we lose people? Yes. But we could have lost a damn lot more had it not been for how effectively our forces were able to come together to drive the enemy off the ship! What happened was tragic, and while I thank the Galactic Republic greatly for joining us, and their arrival has allowed us to repopulate our loss numbers and more; that's still 350 people we lost! 350 more troops we could have had. 350 people, that could have made a difference during the final battle. 350 people, fighting for, or to avenge their loved ones from whatever universe they come from! The Reapers may have taken these people from us, but their sacrifice was not, and will not be in vain! This battle proved what we can do, what we can accomplish, when we work together! Many of us may be ready to put an end to all of this, but are we all ready? Are we truly ready to take on not just the Reapers, but the Separatists, the Empire, Dai-Shocker, the Decepticons, all of the forces of evil Cerberus has gathered to fight us? This war has changed, our enemy no longer fights alone. This battle will decide the fate of not just a galaxy, not just a couple of universes, but all universes! If we are going to save our people, our homes, all of life, we need to be ready. All of us. Only when we are ready, when we can work together, fight not as separate armies, but as one! Will we be ready to take this fight to the Reapers, and put an end to this war!" Shepard finishes with a shout and an intense stare in his eyes.

"Maker…" Alistair says with awe in his voice "You know, no offense Aedan. But I think the Commander might be just a bit better than you at uniting people from different backgrounds and making grand speeches."

"No argument there Alistair. The Commander speaks the truth, I stand with his decision!" Aedan announces.

"As do I!" Maxwell adds.

"I as well!" Hawke speaks up next.

"Divided, we fall. Only by working together, united as one, can we prevail!" Optimus Prime says.

"Shepard hasn't led us astray this far. With him at the lead, we'll defeat the Reapers, and save all the universes!" Tommy Oliver speaks up.

"If it wasn't for him, many of us wouldn't be here right now. We would be fools not to listen to him!" Leonardo speaks next.

"It is because of him, many of us have an actual chance to fight the Reapers. To fight for our homes, our people, to save them all!" Chieftain Hakoda shouts.

"If we were to follow this path, there is a 50.99% chance that we will emerge victorious. An improved percentage compared to before, by .99." the Geth Prime unit says.

"We were fools once to ignore Shepard, no more! Never again! Commander, whatever you say now, has the full support of the Council." Councilor Sparatus shouts.

One by one, more of the leaders, the heroes, the military officers, and the delegates begin voicing their agreement with Shepard. Even those who just a few moments ago argued in launching the attack on the Reapers right this instant, were now changing their minds in support of what Shepard was saying. Waiting for just a little bit longer, until everyone within the Coalition was ready to fight the Reapers and their allies. All the while, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, Commander Cody, and Admiral Yularen looked around in awe at what they were seeing.

"I see now how the Commander was able to talk even the Senate into lending the Republic's support in this war." Mace Windu says, highly impressed by what he was seeing.

"He certainly seems to have his way with words. I'm almost half-tempted to bring him back to our universe after this war is over to see if he can put an end to ours as well." Obi-Wan says.

"To think, our Senators have trouble agreeing even amongst themselves. Yet this man, who isn't even a politician, but just a soldier. Can have such a sway with his words is just… why it's unheard of!" Admiral Yularen says in complete shock.

"And here's the surprising part. He says he's not even trying to play politician. He just speaks his mind because he's trying to do what's right." Obi-Wan says in a humored tone. At this three look at him with shock written on their faces.

From behind, the Doctor watches all of this unfold with a large smile on his face.

Hackett couldn't help but lower and shake his head, "How does he do it?" the Alliance Admiral questions in his mind as he lifts his head back up.

"It seems we are in unanimous agreement, Commander. Anderson, how much longer can the Resistance hold out?" Hackett asks.

"I'll admit. Morale has been… a bit low, recently. Yesterday's attack didn't help much either. I'll be blunt, a lot of people are questioning if you are ever going to come Shepard. They're getting really impatient with all of this waiting." Anderson says.

Shepard looks to the Galactic Republic representatives, "Commander Cody, how long would you and your men need to learn how the troops of the Coalition fight, about our enemies? And how long would it take for you and your men to teach our forces how to scrap some clankers?" Shepard asks, ending with a smirk.

Cody stands proudly at attention, "We can be ready to go by the end of the week, sir!" Cody declares.

Sunday…

March 1, 2187...

Shepard looks to Anderson, "Anderson, tell everyone in the Resistance to hold out for just a bit longer. And tell them to be ready to strike the Reapers with everything they've got by the end of the week."

Anderson smiles as he nods his head in acknowledgement, "We can continue to scout out the enemy positions, and update you if anything new comes up until then." Anderson says.

Shepard nods his head as he then looks out to the other leaders, "Now then. Let's get to work." Shepard turns his attention to Hackett, "Admiral Hackett." he says.

Hackett steps forward with his hands behind his back, "I won't lie. For the most part this plan is pretty straightforward, even given what's at stake. Contrary to what the Commander said earlier, we're going to hit the Earth, the Reapers, Cerberus, and all their allies with everything we've got."

"I like the sound of this plan already." Marvelous comments with a few approving nods.

Everyone gathers closely around the holotable, those up on the walkway, lean on the railing or just stand straight up as everyone listens in to the plan.

"I've divided our forces into three groups. Sword, Shield, and Hammer. Sword group will consist of all of our fleets, and starfighters. Shield will be a single fleet left back to guard the Crucible and then escort it in when the Citadel has been opened. And finally we have Hammer, our ground forces. When we arrive Sword will engage the enemy fleets…"

---

144 Hours Until Invasion of Earth...

"You know, I thought having to deal with the fact that alternate universes now exist, or the fact that me, a Jedi Padawan, is somehow considered a "hero" to my universe, along with all of this other crazy stuff. Was… well crazy. Nope, finding out my master has a son and daughter, even if they are from a "parallel" universe, is even crazier!" Ahsoka says as she and Sora, who has his hands resting behind his head, wander down a hallway aboard the Infinity.

"Did you know about this?" Ahsoka asks, turning to Sora with her hands to her hips as his eyes widened.

"Honestly, I met Luke for like, a little bit. And then me and the others left to join Shepard and his team. Didn't really get to know him, so when I heard the last name Skywalker, I just assumed they both happened to share the same last name. Not like it's uncommon. Guess I was wrong." Sora says.

Ahsoka looks back forward and to the ground with her arms crossed, "Still. My master, a son and daughter? I did not see that coming. I mean, even if they are from a parallel universe, that still technically makes them his children right? I mean cause from what the Doctor told us, Parallel Universes are just universes that are similar to our own but with only slight differences in say, our history or something."

"Yeah, that's about right. They're basically your universe, just with changes in history, or people, not giant changes like my universe and keyblades, or Shepard's universe with these Mass Relays… pretty simple changes." Sora says.

"So there's a chance that Luke, and Leia, could even come to exist in our own universe. I don't know how Master Kenobi is going to feel about that. Especially Master Windu if he hears about this." Ahsoka says with a slightly nervous tone in her voice.

"Why's that?" Sora asks, confused by this.

"Jedi are not supposed to hold strong attachments, like love. It's forbidden by the Code." Ahsoka explains.

"What? So if a Jedi guy likes a Jedi girl, they can't grow close together, marry, and have kids?" Sora asks.

"No. A Jedi cannot become closely attached to someone, both in the Order, or out. Jedi can be friends with each other and other people, but we cannot form too close of an attachment to them. Most especially marriage. It is believed that any sort of strong attachment to someone can lead the Jedi to the emotions of the Dark Side." Ahsoka says.

"WHAT?!" Sora yells in absolute shock as he drops his arms and turns to Ahsoka while coming to a stop. His outburst of course does draw the attention of Coalition troops around them while Ahsoka stops in her tracks as well.

"Lead them to the Dark Side?!" Sora questions, around him the Coalition troops resume whatever it was they were doing previously. "Okay I may not know a thing about love, but I know for sure that if love is anything, it's Light. Not Darkness! My strong attachment to my friends is what allows me to use the power of the Keyblade. To protect them, to protect innocent people from those with darkness in their hearts, from creatures of darkness! My friends, my close bonds with all of them, are my power. And you don't see me falling towards the Darkness." Sora says.

"That may be true for you. But we have many recorded incidents of Jedi who broke that part of the Code and turned to the Dark Side. Perhaps it's because we come from different universes, maybe Light and Darkness work differently between them, and other universes." Ahsoka says.

"Yeah? And what about the incidents that weren't recorded?" Sora questions as he crosses his arms.

"You're telling me that for however as long as the Jedi have existed, every single Jedi who loved, or cared deeply for someone, eventually turned to the Dark Side? I don't believe that!" Sora states as he throws his arms out to the sides. "And while our universes may be different from one another, I don't believe for a second that the roles of Light and Darkness have the least bit changed. Even then, I know from personal experience, that not all people who use the power of Darkness are completely evil. There are people who use Darkness, in whatever form it may be, but they still fight for the side of good!" Sora argues.

"Look Sora, I'm just telling you what I've been taught since I was a youngling. The Jedi Code has existed for centuries. Everyone in the Jedi Order follows it, even those who don't agree with it follow its rules. There may be some exceptions, like my Master who really enjoys riding in the gray area in-between, but even he still follows it. I actually have had a few moments where I crossed the line with some of the rules; but I learn from my mistakes or someone tells me about them, and I try my best next time to follow the Code…" Ahsoka calmly explains, as she then leans towards Sora and puts her right hand to the left of her lips.

"Though depending on the situation. Even if it can be annoying sometimes." she whispers to him before leaning back, leaving Sora with a confused expression.

Ahsoka nervously smiles, "A bit of a habit I learned from my Master, probably not a good habit but he's my master so… unintentionally learned on my part. Though I will admit, sometimes how he does things gets the job done, so long as it doesn't stray too far from the Code. In fact, the Code isn't really a set of rules, it serves more as a set of guidelines that we're more encouraged to follow. Really strictly." Ahsoka then gets serious again, "But you'd be hard-pressed to find any high ranking Jedi who doesn't follow the Code to the point. In fact, basically all the Jedi Masters see the Code as rules to be followed, not guidelines." Ahsoka finishes explaining.

Ahsoka looks down to her right, a sad look on her face.

"I can sense you're strongly against this, and you probably have a very good reason for it. But good luck trying to convince someone like Master Kenobi, Master Windu, or even Grand Master Yoda that. They follow the Jedi Code because to them, the ways of the Jedi are all they know. It's all they've ever been taught, it's what they grew up on. Master Kenobi, I wouldn't worry about him as much, he's strict, but not that strict when it comes to following the Jedi Code. I've known him to let my Master off the hook a few times when he did something he didn't approve of. Master Windu on the other hand… he can be a bit more difficult, in that area. Which is why if he finds out about Luke and Leia… things could get bad for my Master." Ahsoka says.

Sora sighs as he closes his eyes, "Look," he opens his eyes to look at Ahsoka again and puts his hands to his hips.

"I can understand that this Code is important to the Jedi. It's their way of life, their rules, or guidelines to prevent people from falling to the Dark Side, or being a horrible Jedi, I get that. Maybe if I heard what the rest of these rules were, there might be a few I agree with. But that rule that forbids you from forming a strong attachment to someone, whether it's as a close friend, or someone you really care for, or even love because it could lead you to the Dark Side? I just can't agree with that. To me…" Sora looks down to his left with a saddened expression. "It just sounds wrong."

Sora raises his head and looks back at Ahsoka, "From my experience, caring deeply for someone is not something that should be associated with the Darkness!" Sora places his right hand over his heart with a serious look on his face. "It's because of my strong attachment to my friends, that I was able to fight through the forces of Darkness in my universe to save them, that I was able to find a way to reunite with them when we had all become separated. It's because of their strong attachments to me, that I'm even here when I was almost consumed by Darkness. Our friendship, our strong bonds, connect our hearts. And it's through these connections, that no matter where you are, no matter how far apart you may be from them, your friends, the people you care for, who care for you… They will always be with you, even in your darkest of hours. As the light in your heart that will cast away the darkness."

Ahsoka takes in everything Sora had just said as she turns and looks to the ground. According to the Jedi Code, having strong attachments would lead a Jedi to the Dark Side. Yet, according to Sora, having strong attachments, caring deeply for others, love, was not only something that strongly belonged to the Light, but was more of a power of good, than evil.

But what about the Jedi who fell to the Dark Side because of their strong attachments to someone?

"The light in your heart..." Ahsoka then says, repeating quietly what Sora had just said a few moments ago as she places her right hand over where her heart was.

Was the Heart the key? Did the Jedi who fell to the Dark Side not have as strong of hearts as say Sora? Was a strong Heart all that was needed to form a strong attachment, a strong bond with someone, and resist the temptations of the Dark Side?

"Ah man." Sora suddenly speaks, catching Ahsoka's attention. "Well if that super serious conversation didn't ruin the mood." Sora says with his hands now resting behind his head again and his eyes closed.

Sora opens his left eye to look at Ahsoka while holding his left hand up, "Sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away there." he says as he then smiles.

"Huh?" Ahsoka says as she becomes confused by this. "Why are you apologizing? You were just telling me why you didn't like that part of the Jedi Code."

Sora puts his hands to his hips, "Yeah, I know. But we're already having to deal with a pretty serious situation as it is. With the Reaper War and everything. In times like this, where everything looks so dark, and gloomy. It helps to counter all that negative stuff, with some positive things. Like happiness, and laughter."

"Happiness and laughter? Sora, we're in the middle of a war, that's to decide the fate of all living things. The odds are stacked against us, and again, if we lose, then we lose everything. How can you find any happiness or laughter in all of this?" Ahsoka asks. For some reason Sora had lowered his head and put his hands to the sides of his face.

"Like this." Sora says as he raises his head to look at Ahsoka, crossing his eyes and pushing up on his cheeks with his mouth opened wide to give her a silly face.

Ahsoka is completely taken aback by this, at first. But in just a second, she covers her mouth and her cheeks bloat up before she then explodes into laughter. Turning away and leaning over with her hands to her stomach as she continued to laugh away at what she had just seen; all the while Sora drops the silly look and puts his right hand to his hip with a triumphant grin on his face.

"Nailed it!" Sora humorously says with a fist pump.

Ahsoka begins calming down as she turns around to face him while leaning back up, having to wipe away the tears of laughter gathering in her eyes as she finally stops laughing. "Wh-What, was that?!" she asks.

"One of the many funny faces I make to cheer my friends up. Works all the time." Sora says.

Ahsoka giggles while shaking her head with her eyes closed as she opens them back up, "Sora. You are officially, the weirdest person, I have ever met."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Sora says in a rather proud manner, like he was okay with being called weird.

"Serious one moment, a child the next. Yet somehow an amazing fighter. You almost remind me of my master, though a bit more childish sometimes." Ahsoka says.

"I'll take that as a compliment. It's as I said, we need to counter the negative atmosphere. With some lighthearted stuff, keep the positive atmosphere going as well." Sora says with a smile. Which then disappears after a few seconds as his expression turns into sadness, "I understand what's at stake, Ahsoka. But remember. If we let the bad guys take away moments like this. Let them take away our happiness, our laughter. Then they've already won. Even if everything looks bad for us, so long as we can continue to find joy in our lives. With the people we care for, with the people that are still with us. There'll always be hope for our future. It's what makes us alive." Sora says.

Ahsoka smiles at this as she nods her head in acknowledgement. Suddenly she lifts her right hand up and moves it to Sora's face, confusing the Keyblade wielder as he wondered what she was doing. Which was then answered as she flicked his forehead making him yelp lightly.

"What was that for?" Sora asks while rubbing the spot.

"You were the one saying not to get all serious, and then here you go, getting all serious again." she says in a joking manner.

Sora was slightly taken aback by this. A smile returned to his face as he laughed it off, "Yeah, I guess I did." he says.

Ahsoka closed her eyes with a smile and chuckled while shaking her head.

The two approach a door as it opens upward, several feet in front of them Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia clash up close. As Natsu throws a fire-coated punch which Lucy, in her Leo Form Star Dress, blocks with a Regulus imbued kick. The two jump back away from each other, "Star Dress: Sagittarius Form!" Lucy yells, changing into said form as she pulls back on her bow and releases a barrage of energy arrows.

Natsu performs an aerial cartwheel to his left to dodge the arrows as they explode on impact where he once stood. Natsu then begins charging Lucy, "Aries Form!" Lucy changes into the Aries Star Dress and puts up a large wool wall, forcing Natsu to come to a stop in front of it as he launches himself high into the air to get over it. Natsu easily clears the wall of pink wool, only to find Scorpio waiting on the other side for him.

"Now, Scorpio!" Lucy shouts.

"Sand Buster!" Scorpio yells as he fires a tornado of sand at the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Natsu grins and chuckles at this, "Wing Attack of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu yells. Countering the sand tornado with two powerful streams of fire igniting from his hands, as the sand explodes outwards in all directions.

From the entrance Sora, and Ahsoka watch this go down, Ahsoka with a look of awe on her face while Sora just smirked. Ahsoka looked at Sora, "You know, even after seeing what they were capable of on Christophsis. It still amazes me what they can do, and how powerful they are. Especially Natsu, I feel like he could take on the whole Droid Army if he was given the chance too." she says.

"Oh yeah, I don't doubt that at all. So it's a good thing they're on our side." Sora says.

"Oh. Sora! Ahsoka!" the voice of Natsu calls out getting their attention.

Sending Scorpio away and returning to her normal clothes, Lucy, and Natsu approach the two.

"Hey guys, what brings you here?" Lucy asks.

"Just showing Ahsoka around. Even though I still don't know the whole place myself." Sora says in a slightly embarrassed tone at the end as he scratches his right cheek with his index finger.

"Sora's also been introducing me to a few of the heroes. At least the ones he knows. We did meet a few even he hasn't met yet." Ahsoka says.

Lucy closes her eyes and tilts her head slightly as she chuckles nervously, "Well, we did only spend a few hours on this ship before we joined Shepard and the others on their mission. Not exactly enough time to meet everyone, especially considering how massive this ship is. Even Natsu and I have run into a few heroes who've been here for a while and we didn't end up meeting before. Though it seems the rest of our friends have since they recognized our guild stamps and knew a bit about us."

"So what have you guys been doing? Just sparring? Where's Happy at? In fact, where's everyone else? This room was packed the last time we were here." Sora asks.

"Only for a few minutes." Lucy puts her hands to her hips and eyes Natsu with a slightly annoyed look, "Natsu wanted to come here to fight some of the other heroes. You know, to test their strength out." her gaze goes back to Sora and Ahsoka. "But when we got here, well it was just as it is now."

"Which is annoying as hell cause I seriously want to fight some of these other heroes already!" Natsu shouts in a highly annoyed tone with raised fists.

"As for Happy, he's with Carla, Lily, and Chopper. Don't know what they're doing. The others, I know Erza and a few of our friends, went to the Normandy to attend that meeting with Shepard and the leaders of the Coalition. Everyone else I can only imagine they're resting, eating, or just off doing something else." Lucy finishes explaining.

"Sounds like to me they're gonna start laying out the invasion plan." Ahsoka says .

"You think so?" Sora asks.

"This attack has been the only one to occur since the Commander and his team started gathering allies from across the multiverse. That's what Tali told me. Otherwise the gathering of this Coalition has been safe from the Reapers for about a few weeks. Save for of course their universes getting attacked. Eventually the Commander was going to need to stop looking for more allies. He needs all the help he can get, but at the same time he can't keep looking forever or else there won't be anyone on his homeworld, or any other planets left to save. Whether he was going to continue searching for more allies or not after your travel to our universe I don't know. Whatever his plans were for afterwards, have either just ended, or just been accelerated forward by this attack. If this attack can happen, how long will it be until the next one? And if there is a next one, how big of an attack will that be? How many lives will be lost in that assault?"

"From what I've gathered already, time, and numbers are against us. The more people we lose, the more Husks the Reapers gain. Which means with each passing moment, more of our people die, to create more troops for them. These past few weeks have probably been somewhat of a relief for many of these soldiers, because of how little they've encountered the Reapers. This attack though, has probably taken that feeling of safety away. The Reapers have finally started coming for the Coalition, how long will it be until they try again?" Ahsoka finishes.

A worried look appears on Lucy's face, while Sora furrows his brows, and an intense glare of anger appears on Natsu's face as he bares his teeth.

"So… it's safe to say that the final battle against the Reapers, Cerberus, and their allies is all but inevitable now." Sora says.

"That's how I see it. It would be a bad idea otherwise to try and ignore the attack. And as I said, risk future attacks. If Commander Shepard, and the other Coalition leaders were smart. They'd start preparing for that big final battle right now." Ahsoka says.

"Then we need to start preparing ourselves!" Sora states with a serious expression. He then turns to look at Natsu, "Hey Natsu, remember how you said you wanted to fight me before?" he asks.

Natsu's eyes widen in surprise, Sora holds his right arm out and summons his keyblade as he then shoulders it, a smirk forms on his lips. "So, let's see what you got!" he says.

A toothy grin appears on Natsu's face as both of his arms become engulfed in flames, "That's my line. I'm all fired up now!" he declares.

Sora lets out a satisfied grunt, his eyes widen as he appears to remember something and looks at Lucy, "You don't mind, right Lucy? I mean you two were already fighting before so…" Sora says.

Lucy looks at Natsu who looks back, "So long as you remember not to go too crazy Natsu!" she says.

"Right, right, don't worry about it. I'll hold myself back." Natsu replies.

Lucy nods her head satisfied and looks back at Sora, "Then you two are good to go." she crosses her arms. "Besides, if the final battle is around the corner. We can't just sit around and wait for it. If Erza were here, she'd be telling us we need to be at our best for when it finally comes. We need to be 100% ready for it!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself. For now all we can do is just run some simple sparring practices, hone in our individual skills, abilities, try and better ourselves in whatever way possible. If anymore of our fellow heroes show up, it would be nice to try and run some team exercises. We need to better not only our individual strengths, but our teamwork as well. After all, I can only imagine how vastly different our fighting styles are. It would be for the best to be a bit more cohesive, combine and complement our different fighting styles in one way or another. After all there's nothing worse in a battle then a group of people not being able to fight together because of their differing personalities, fighting styles, abilities, and so on." Ahsoka explains.

Sora crosses his arms as he smirks, "Aren't you supposed to be a Jedi Padawan? As in a trainee or something like that?" he asks in a joking tone.

Ahsoka crosses her arms and smirks back, "Yes, I am. And now I'm passing on what I've learned from my Master, his Master, some other Jedi Masters, as well as Captain Rex, and Commander Cody onto you guys." Ahsoka replies back in a humorous manner.

"Ahsoka does have more formal training compared to any of us. We're all just self-taught for the most part. So if there's anyone we should be listening to that'll help us prepare for a war. She would probably be the person." Lucy says.

"At least until someone better than me shows up. As Sora pointed out, I'm still a trainee myself, I don't know everything. I'm just going over the basic stuff that would help someone prepare themselves or a group of people for battle." Ahsoka says.

"It's still better than nothing." Lucy says.

"Enough talk already I get it! Less talking then, and more fighting! Let's go, Sora!" Natsu shouts as he raises his right fist forward.

Ahsoka and Lucy move off to the side of the room while Natsu and Sora make their way to the center; Lucy hops on top of a crate to sit down, while Ahsoka leans back against a stack and crosses her arms. Sora raises his Keyblade up to the right side of his head, gripping it with both hands while Natsu ignites both of his fists aflame and lowers his left fist forward with his right fist held back high by his head; Sora had a serious look on his face while Natsu was grinning with an equally serious look in his eyes. At the exact same moment, both Sora and Natsu dashed forward at high speed; the two of them launched themselves at the other as Sora swung his keyblade while Natsu threw his right fist forward. Both the keyblade and Natsu's flaming fist collided with each other, sending out a massive shockwave that was felt by both Lucy and Ahsoka who raised their arms up to protect their faces from it with their eyes closed.

Sora and Natsu landed back a few feet apart from each other, Sora planting his left hand on the ground as he slid to a stop while Natsu did a backflip and landed crouched on the ground with his right hand on the floor. The two looked back at each other as Sora made the next move, getting up and charging the Dragon Slayer again. Sora swung his keyblade diagonally downwards from right to left as Natsu stood up and threw his body to the left to dodge it, Natsu backpedaled as Sora chased after him, spinning his keyblade around and swinging it again this time at a sideways angle forcing Natsu to duck to his right. Sora followed up with a couple more swings at Natsu who skillfully dodged every one of them, as Sora then pulled his keyblade back and thrusted it forward; Natsu launched himself backwards into a flip to dodge it as he landed and slid back a few feet with his head lowered. Natsu raised his head to look back at Sora with a satisfied grin while Sora gripped his keyblade again with both hands and stood at the ready, having a feeling that Natsu was about to launch his own assault on the keyblade wielder.

Natsu reared his head back as his cheeks puffed up, the Dragon Slayer throwing his head back forward as he spewed a small stream of fire from his mouth which traveled towards Sora. Sora swings his keyblade upwards cutting the fire in two as the two streams fly past him, suddenly both turn towards each other and then back towards Sora, doing a complete 180 as they fly towards Sora once more. Sora seems to sense this as he looks over his right shoulder and notices the incoming fire streams, quickly he turns around to face them, "Reflect!" he shouts while thrusting his keyblade forward.

Summoning his light barrier as the flames slam into it and explode. The smoke from the explosion obscures the view of his surroundings, which allows for Natsu to appear directly to Sora's left with a flaming left fist pulled back to his side, "Gotcha!" Natsu shouts.

Sora bares his teeth and lets out a satisfied hum as he smirks, Natsu's eyes widen upon hearing and noticing this. Sora looks at Natsu, "Aeroga!" he yells.

A sudden gust of powerful wind slams into Natsu blasting him back as he crosses his arms in front of his face to protect it, Natsu flies back several feet as he manages to recover mid-air and flip backwards to land crouched on his right knee and hand. Natsu looks back at Sora to see him surrounded by a barrier of green wind, circling him like a mini tornado as Sora shoulders his keyblade just as the green wind fades away.

Natsu lets out a satisfied grunt as he grins, "Wind Magic too huh? Not bad, Sora!" Natsu compliments.

"I knew fire was your thing, but I didn't know you had actual control over it. You almost got me there." Sora replies as Natsu stands up.

Natsu rotates his right arm around with his left hand on his shoulder, "Only the fire I produce from my body. I can't control any other flames that aren't mine. I'll admit, if you were taken down by something as small as that, I would have been a bit disappointed." he says.

"Oh it's gonna take a lot more than a little fire to take me down. Don't worry about that." Sora says.

"Good to hear!" Natsu says reigniting his right fist in fire and raising it up in front of him, "So, let's continue shall we?" he questions.

"I was waiting for you to say that." Sora says, gripping his keyblade tightly again as he charges Natsu once more.

"This looks like it could go on for a while." Ahsoka comments with a humored smile.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Lucy says with her chin resting on her propped up right palm. "Natsu's the kind of person who won't give up in a fight so easily. And I have a feeling Sora's the same."

Ahsoka raises her left brow as she looks at Lucy, "Well let's hope one of them eventually gives up. They can't keep fighting forever. Eventually we'll need to let other heroes use this room for practicing themselves, not to mention do some of the things I mentioned before. Plus, I imagine we're all going to be needing whatever energy we can muster for when the final battle comes. We can't go exhausting all of it." she says.

Lucy closes her eyes with an embarrassed expression, "If Natsu had it his way, these two would fight for as long as they wanted." she opens her eyes. "But I'm sure Natsu will understand they'll need to stop eventually. If not, we'll either have to wait for Erza to come back, or hope a very strong hero comes along to break up the fight."

Sora and Natsu clash once more at the center, Natsu's flaming fist slamming into Sora's keyblade sending out another immensely powerful shockwave for a couple of seconds. Ahsoka and Lucy cover their faces once more until it dies down, "Yeah, I'm not even going to try getting in the middle of that to put a stop to it. Not even my Master would be crazy enough to get involved in that." Ahsoka says.

Sora rolls away and gets up on his right knee as he aims his keyblade forward, "Blizzaga!" he shouts, firing a large ice chunk at Natsu who easily breaks through it with a single fire punch.

"I have to deal with that half-naked bastard Gray every day. So if you think you're gonna defeat me with Ice Magic, you got another thing coming!" Natsu states.

"Kind of figured as much." Sora says as he stands back up and swings his keyblade out to his side, "But I figured I'd give it a try anyway."

Ahsoka watches Sora and Natsu continue their fight, "Hey Lucy. I got a question for you."

"Hm? What is it?" Lucy asks, turning to look at her.

Ahsoka remains quiet as she looks towards the two fighting, "You and Natsu seem to be really close." she finally says.

"Huh?!" Lucy says visibly taken aback by this, nearly shouting as her face turns bright red, "Wh-wha-wha-what do you mean?" she asks in a panicked tone.

Ahsoka however either doesn't seem to take notice, or doesn't show care for her reaction, looking as if she was lost deep in thought of something, "Your friendship. You two seem to have a really strong attachment to one another. Do you share this attachment equally to the rest of your friends, to the other people in your guild?" Ahsoka asks as she finally turns to look at her.

Lucy appears to calm down as she takes Ahsoka's question to mind, "Y-Yeah. I care deeply for everyone in Fairy Tail. We all share a strong bond to one another." Lucy explains, turning to look down as she smiles. "You could say, we treat each other as a family."

That smile disappears as a saddened look comes to her face, "In fact… for some of the members, Fairy Tail is the only family they've ever had. And for some of us, it's the only family we haveleft." Lucy says.

"I see." Ahsoka says, turning away to look down as a saddened expression comes to her face. "My condolences."

A saddened smile forms on Lucy's lips, "I lost my mother years ago when I was really young. My father and I… had a rough relationship. We somewhat patched things up but... It's a bit difficult to explain… eventually he passed as well. Now Natsu, Happy, Erza, Gray, Wendy, and everyone else in Fairy Tail. They're the only family I have left. They may not be my real family but in my heart, they're just as important." she explains.

"That's really nice to hear. I myself never knew my parents. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father died in an accident. From what I remember, it was a close friend of theirs that watched over me, until I was discovered by the Jedi Order at the age of three. It was then my life as a Jedi began. In a way, you could say the Order is my family now. Though we aren't as close as you make it out to be with you and your friends in Fairy Tail." Ahsoka says.

"Huh? Really?" Lucy asks, confused by this.

"In the Order, we have a Code we must follow. A set of guidelines, you could say. Though for many Jedi they're more rules that should be followed. One of those rules is that we cannot form a strong attachment to others. We can be friends with other Jedi, and people outside the Order, but we can't form a strong attachment to them. So the strong bonds like what you have with your friends, and other things like love, and family, they're forbidden to us Jedi." Ahsoka explains.

"Wait, I remember reading on that while I was at the Jedi Archives! It's forbidden by the Jedi Code because it's believed holding strong attachments to people could lead to the emotions of the Dark Side of the Force." Lucy says.

"That's right. On the way here, I explained this to Sora because of the situation involving my Master as well as his future and parallel universe son and daughter. Master Kenobi was with us when we met Luke, and then Leia. And while I foresee him definitely having a talk with my Master, while it will be serious, it probably won't be as bad as compared to if Master Windu finds out about it. He's a lot more stricter when it comes to the Code. I told Sora about the Code, more specifically that rule, and he expressed how much he did not like it." Ahsoka says as she looks back out at Sora and Natsu as they continue fighting.

Sora summons down a bolt of lightning which strikes Natsu directly, however the Fairy Tail mage shows no signs of the direct hit having any effect on him as Sora is visibly shocked by this. It was obvious he had yet to hear of Laxus Dreyar from any of the Fairy Tail mages.

"To him, the thought that strong attachments were associated with the Dark Side was completely wrong. That holding a strong attachment to someone, forming a close bond with them, belonged to the side of Light. He obviously has his reasons, which he told me. How to him, his strong attachment to his friends gave him his power, the power of the keyblade, a weapon of Light. And honestly, hearing his explanation, it actually got me thinking about it. But I wanted to ask someone else what they thought of it, and I guess I couldn't have asked for a better person than someone who even read up on the Jedi Code." Ahsoka says, turning to look back at Lucy.

"Plus with what you've just told me, I have a feeling you might have something to say about it as well now. That's my question, Lucy. What are your feelings on the Jedi Code forbidding the Jedi from forming strong attachments to others? Is it wrong, or right?" Ahsoka asks.

Lucy was taken aback by this, in her mind she wondered if she would be in the right to question the rules of an ancient, monastic peacekeeping organization. She wasn't a Jedi, she wasn't around when this Code was created, she didn't understand how the Force worked, there must've been a reason that rule was created in the first place right? And yet… deep down she couldn't help but disagree with that rule as well. If forming strong attachments to other people could lead someone to the dark side, then Fairy Tail may as well have been a Dark Guild, considering how strongly bonded everyone in the guild is to one another.

"In my opinion… forming a strong attachment to someone, creating a close, and powerful bond with other people. It shouldn't be something associated with any form of darkness. From my experience, it's the complete opposite. Time and time again, when any one of us in Fairy Tail were down, when all hope looked lost to us during a battle against a powerful enemy, it was our thoughts, our feelings, our bonds of friendship with everyone. That always helped us to stand back up. To push forward and overcome every obstacle, every enemy before us. To protect each other, to continue having a future with them, it was thoughts like those that made us want to become stronger. Not to seek power, or to be stronger than everyone else, but so we could use that power to protect people, our friends, our family, those we deeply care for. In a way, what Sora said is true. Our powers come from our friends. Not in the literal way, but in the way that we use our powers, we improve on them not for selfish reasons, but for them. Having a strong attachment to someone, or to many people, should not be a sign that you could turn evil. Being evil is when someone uses that power of theirs for reasons of their own, to do harm to innocent people, to do things that benefit only themselves and again hurt others, being evil is when you care for no one else but yourself. It's when you care for other people, have someone else you're fighting for, to protect, it's things like those, that show you are a good person, a person of the Light side if that's how you want to put it." Lucy finishes explaining.

Ahsoka looks to the ground once more as she takes in everything Lucy had just said.

"To protect people… That's… That's what being a Jedi is supposed to mean. We're keepers of the peace, we're supposed to use our abilities to protect the innocent. Yet the way you put it, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but it also doesn't hurt to have other people to fight for. To also protect. You're using your magic to protect not only the innocent people of your world, but also to protect the people you care for. Your friends, your guild. In fact having friends also gives you the motivation to train yourself more, so you can better your abilities to protect them more from danger. You're protecting your friends, like you're protecting the innocent, there's no difference. So why does the Jedi Code forbid strong attachments? The way you put it, there seems to be more good than bad." Ahsoka says.

"Well…" Lucy begins to speak again, drawing Ahsoka's attention back to her. "While for many of us, there's been more good that's come out of having strong attachments to your friends and other people you care for. Those attachments can also be taken in a bad direction as well, if that person lets their attachment to someone, take them down the wrong path."

"I see. So you're saying that when it comes to Strong Attachments, there can be both a Light Side, and a Dark Side to it." Ahsoka says.

"Yeah. There was this one incident. Where we were dealing with an enemy from the future of our world, this enemy was someone we knew in the present, someone that would eventually become a friend to us but; this future version of him was not like what he was. Something happened in the future, someone close to him was killed and unfortunately his attachment to them turned him down the wrong path, changed him into a heartless, sadistic person who cared only about himself." Lucy looks to Ahsoka with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "This is where things get a little confusing. But it's a long story and I'm sure you just want to focus on the whole "strong attachments" thing. So if you could just bear with me, and perhaps I could tell you the full story afterwards or another time."

Ahsoka nods her head to acknowledge it as Lucy lowers her head with a saddened expression, "So anyway, he came back to the past. To our time to kill someone, my future-self, who was the only survivor from that future, came back with him to help us put a stop to him. Some things happened and… that person killed my future-self, who jumped in front of me to save my life." Lucy raises her head and looks at Natsu.

Natsu jumps forward and throws a flaming roundhouse kick at Sora who jumps back to avoid it, Natsu landing as he jumps again to chase after Sora.

"Natsu was there when it happened. And even though it was a future version of me, I still saw the same rage in him, as when anyone else had ever done any harm to me, or anyone in Fairy Tail. This time a lot worse considering what had just happened. Especially as the person still wanted to kill me. Natsu was not going to let that happen. The battle was very long, and difficult. But in the end, Natsu defeated him. And even after what that person had done, what he had threatened to do to me, Natsu never thought of killing him, nor did the thought of killing his present version to prevent this future from happening ever come to his mind. For some people, their attachments can lead them down a dark path, or to the Dark Side in your universe. But for others, even if the worse happens to them, they always manage to remain strong in their beliefs, to continue doing what is right. To protect the innocent, to protect their remaining friends, never would they think of going down the path of darkness, becoming something, someone they would despise, the kind of people they fight to protect other people from. If I had to try and explain for why this is, it would probably be because…"

"They have a stronger heart." Ahsoka speaks, finishing Lucy's thought.

Lucy looks at her and smiles, "Yeah. The heart." Lucy lowers her gaze, before turning to look back out at Sora and Natsu. "It's what makes us alive. Both literally, and also emotionally. So long as the heart is connected to those you care for, so long as the heart is protected by those connected to and who care for you, never will it be swayed by the forces of darkness. So long as you remember the people you are fighting for, to protect, never will darkness envelope it. So long as you remember these things, there's nothing wrong with forming close attachments, strong bonds of friendship, and love, with other people. Because it will be these bonds you form, that will prevent you from going to the darkness."

"I don't know why, but that sounded like something Sora would say. He seems to really have a thing for the heart and connections." Ahsoka says in a slightly humorous tone.

Lucy shrugs her shoulders, "I was just reciting a part I read in a book once. Sounded appropriate for the moment." she explains.

"It sure did. Thanks Lucy." Ahsoka says.

"Anytime!" Lucy happily says, closing her eyes and smiling while raising her left hand up to give a V sign hand gesture.

Ahsoka looks back forward, "So… the heart huh?" she says.

9AM

Monday, March 2nd

123 Hours Until Invasion of Earth…

"Blue Squadron, gather around! And take a seat." a young, black, male Systems Alliance officer with a short stubble, wearing the Battle Dress Uniform and a blue beret shouts.

Pilots from the various factions that made up the aforementioned Blue Squadron gathered together and took their seats, off to the left side were the several astromech droids of the Galactic, and New Republic pilots. The pilots were gathered in one of the hangars, as around them transport pilots, engineers, and others were at work doing a number of things.

"Hope you all have been enjoying each other's company since being put together. So first things first, I'm Major Piercefield, I'll be your Squadron Commander for the upcoming battle I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for, some of you for a very long time." Major Piercefield says.

A Clone pilot exchanges a look with a white female UNSC pilot with red hair.

"Now I know some of you aren't going to be making friends, or wanting to be friends with others in this squadron so easily due to some history your race, or faction, might have with the other. Or maybe some of you didn't start off on the right foot. Whatever the case may be, for the next couple of days, as well as however long this final battle lasts. You are going to have no choice but to be best buds with every single person in this squadron. Put aside what happened in the past, put aside any differences you may have, because let me tell you something. If we can't work together, then our division will cost other people their lives! May even cost us the battle. And considering what's at stake this time around… I'm pretty sure none of you want that happening." Major Piercefield continues.

A Batarian and New Republic Rodian pilot stare at the Systems Alliance Major.

"With that out of the way, let's get down to the real business. As I'm sure your all well aware of at this point. We're finally going to be taking the fight to the Reapers. Thing is, we're no longer fighting just those metal squid bastards. Now we got that terrorist organization Cerberus, and a whole bunch of other baddies working alongside them. I won't lie, this battle just got a lot more difficult. The odds were stacked against us before, and now, even after all the hard work our famous Commander Shepard went through, they still are. But that doesn't mean the odds are as bad as before. Cerberus and their allies are just as hurt as we are, so the main threat is still the Reapers. If we can take them out, Cerberus and their pals will follow easily."

Four thin, metal poles were placed behind Piercefield in a square, separated from each other by a few feet. Activating his omni-tool, Piercefield turned around and with a wave of his arm, brought up a large hologram of the Crucible.

"Our main, and only weapon to defeat the Reapers. The only weapon that we know can defeat them. The Crucible. Our top scientists, and engineers, have put everything they could into this device. Thing is, we don't even know how the damn thing works, only that it will destroy the Reapers for us. The device was completed long ago, but since the start of this whole multiversal incursion, the brainiacs, along with scientists and engineers from other universes, continued doing some work on it. Improving a few designs and other technical stuff here and there. We know it's 100% ready to go, except for one major component we're missing. Something called the Catalyst. Which unfortunately for us…"

With another wave of his omni-tool, the Major materializes a holographic view of the Earth, as well as the Citadel, floating just a few inches above it.

"Is what many of us in our universe know, as the Citadel. And those Cerberus bastards, helped the Reapers to seize control of it. Now the thing floats right above Earth, with a massive fleet of Reapers, along with Cerberus, and other enemy fleets, guarding it. The arms of the Citadel have been closed and for those of you who don't know, the hull of the station is strong enough to take several days' worth of sustained bombardment in order to inflict any sort of serious damage to it. Obviously we don't have several days' worth to bombard the shit out of this place, and even if we did, we don't know if any sort of damage to the Citadel or the Crucible could cause something to go wrong. And we sure as hell don't want to find out. So our only solution is to get those arms open if we're to attach the Crucible to it, and activate it so we can rid ourselves of the Reapers. So how are we supposed to do that you may ask? Well lucky for us the resistance on Earth is still going strong, still supplying us with intel. One of which was that the Reapers built something we're calling "the Conduit". Some kind of massive structure in the city of London that they're using to transport corpses and other matter from the ground, directly aboard the Citadel."

Another wave of the omni-tool highlights London with a red dot on the hologram of Earth, as then an image of "the Conduit" appears in the bottom right, a small, thin red line connecting the new image to the dot on Earth.

"That Conduit is the only means we have of getting aboard the Citadel if we're to open its arms. So as always, that means it'll be up to the boys and girls on the ground to win us this war. But as you all know, those army folks, jarheads, and all the other ground peasants sure as hell can't win the war without us flyboys, and girls, to help them get to the ground. This is history in the making people, and here's where our part is going to be playing." Major Piercefield says as he taps a few buttons on his omni-tool.

The Conduit image, along with the line and dot disappear as then multiple red triangles appear beside the Earth and around the Citadel. Followed a second later by multiple blue triangles, several feet away.

"Our forces have been divided into three Task Force groups. Codenamed Sword, Shield and Hammer. Sword group is made up of all the fleets and fighter squadrons, that includes us. Shield is going to consist of a single fleet staying back with the Crucible, waiting for the Citadel to open up before arriving to the battle with said weapon in tow to dock with the station. Hammer group is just who'd you expect, basically every Army, Marine, and everyone else heading groundside to get to the Conduit, or to just hit the hell out of the Reapers and their allies all across the planet. When given the go ahead all the fleets, fighter, and bomber squadrons that make up Sword group will engage the enemy."

Piercefield points at the holo image as four red arrows appear in front of the blue triangles, extending a few inches forward towards the red triangles.

"Once we are engaged, our first objective will be to punch as many holes as we can in the enemy fleets. Make openings for our transports so they can safely deliver our ground forces planetside. From there those lanes will need to be protected so Hammer can continue using them. At the same time, our second objective will be to work on clearing the space around the Citadel for when Shield group arrives with the Conduit, same for that, we will then need to work on keeping the enemy away from the Citadel. Once the Conduit has arrived and docked with the Citadel, both Sword, and Shield will be tasked with protecting both of them so we don't risk the Reapers or any of their allies causing any damage that may cause the weapon to backfire on us in any way."

As he speaks two red arrows appear amongst the red triangles, pointing towards the Earth. Near the end when he began speaking of the Citadel, said space station flashed red a couple of times before becoming permanently highlighted in the color.

"Major Piercefield!" a Turian pilot calls out as he stands up with his right hand raised.

"Yes, Airman Bados." Piercefield calls back while pointing to him.

The Turian pilot, Bados, stands at attention, "Sir, what can you tell us about reinforcements?" he asks.

"For us we have none. Every race, every military faction is in deep with Reaper forces by this point, here and in the other universes. What we have here is what we have, which is why all of those portals outside and aboard the Infinity have been closed, especially with the recent attack. We can't risk anymore Reaper forces hitting us when everyone we have gathered here is needed. The only "reinforcements" if you can even call them that, that we are getting are from the resistance forces on the ground. But only for Hammer group, the Resistance may have a few fighters left at its disposal but it's most likely those will be assigned to running air support for the ground troops. So for the most part, we're on our own. When it comes to the enemy however, we know that Cerberus and their allies don't have any reinforcements they can call on either. The Reapers on the other hand, we know they still got plenty of forces out there, across the galaxy, and in other universes. The Reapers have amassed a massive fleet above the Earth in preparation for our assault, and it's most likely they'll have probably billions of Husks waiting on the ground for Hammer. Should however, things start going our way, it is most definitely a guarantee the Reapers will call for reinforcements. Should they call for reinforcements, it's most likely we won't last for very much longer. A rearguard fleet is being assembled, one that would watch the Sol Relay so should the Reapers call for backup, that fleet will be there to engage them and hold them off for as long as possible." Major Piercefield explains.

Bados takes his seat as then a purple-skinned Asari raises her hand, "Yes, Airman Myyama." Piercefield calls out.

"Sir, what happens should the Reaper reinforcements break through the rearguard fleet?" Myyama asks.

"Once the other objectives have been accomplished, from there our final objective is to remain alive until the Crucible is activated. So should the Reaper reinforcements break through the rearguard we will continue to hold out for as long as possible. Before anyone else asks, no, there will be no retreat order given at any point. This is a do or die mission, we either succeed, or we all die anyways when the Reapers exterminate all of us. Once we leave for Earth, is the point of no return. Now are there any other questions?" Piercefield asks.

A male Clawddite from the New Republic stood up next with his right hand raised, "Yes, Senior Airman Lohzec?"

"Just out of curiosity sir, while I understand that our role will be in the space battle above the planet. What about on the Earth itself?" Lohzec asks.

"Besides whatever the Resistance gives us. Gunships will be providing the majority of the air support for Hammer on the ground. Along with the Dragon Riders from Alagaësia, pilots from the Eagle and Raven Tribes from Chima, along with the aircraft from the United States military that do not receive a retrofit. There will be a few extra bomber Elements and Flight units of Fighters on standby as well to assist with any sort of in atmo support. Those units have already been assigned, and most likely briefed, so we don't need to worry about it unless Command says otherwise. Anything else?" Piercefield asks.

"Yes sir, actually." a young, white US Air Force pilot asks as he stands up.

"Speak your mind Airman Thomas." Piercefield says.

"What about anti-air on the ground, sir?" Airman Thomas asks.

"Command already has a plan for dealing with any anti-aircraft weapons the Reapers and their allies have setup groundside. Backup plan will be just to bomb the hell out of said anti-aircraft positions but there's no guarantee that'll knock them all out, plus doing so could cost us quite a number of bombers. So some special teams are being put together that will be the first ones to go groundside and deal with them while we're up in space clearing a path for the transports. Which actually reminds me, there is one more objective we have to do…" Major Piercefield says.

Captain Lasky enters a large room as numerous people talk amongst one another, the door behind him closes, "Captain on deck!" Sarah Palmer yells out as she stands at attention and salutes.

The other people in the room stand up at attention and salute as well, "At ease." Lasky says as everyone takes their seat. Save for Palmer who was standing to the right side at the front of the room as she rests her hands behind her back.

Lasky walks to the center at the front of the room in front of a large holotable as he puts his hands behind his back, "Alright, I'm sure you all have a pretty good idea on why you're here. And you're right. In T-minus 122 hours, codename Operation Life will commence, and we will launch our attack on the Reaper held Earth of this universe." Lasky moves off to the left as the holotable activates.

Showing a blue holographic image of the Earth, along with the Citadel, a few red highlighted Reaper capital ships, along with a blue highlighted UNSC Infinity, Systems Alliance Dreadnought, and the Destiny Ascension.

"Now our forces have been split into three Task Force groups, codenamed Sword, Shield, and Hammer. Sword group will consist of all of our fleets, fighter, and bomber squadrons, Shield will be a single fleet that stays back and escorts the Crucible in when the arms of the Citadel station have been open, and Hammer will consist of all troops deploying onto the planet. That includes you. Unlike the rest of Hammer though, all of you will be deployed planetside as soon as the battle begins. You people are the best of what each of the Coalition's military factions have to offer. SEALs, N7s, Republic Commandos, Spartans..." Lasky says as he takes his time to look at all of the SF troops in the room.

Ranging from Delta Force, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Marine Raiders from the United States Special Operations Forces, to the New Republic Special Forces, ARC Troopers, and Clone Commandos from the Galactic Republic, ODSTs, and SPARTAN-IVs from the UNSC, the Special Warfare Group of the Swords of Sanghelios, and finally N7s, Spectres, Asari Commandos, the Salarian Special Tasks Group, and Turian Spec Ops from the Citadel races. And while they were not official Special Forces per say, the Inquisition Scouts had been included as well among their numbers as some of their mission doctrines did fit the bill of what Special Forces were intended to do, and they were indeed well trained just above the average Inquisition soldier according to their former Spymaster.

"You're the best of the best. Which is why this task has fallen to you." Lasky says as he looks at the holotable.

The holographic images fade away, replacing them with a large map of the Earth's continents.

"Once we arrive, Sword group will move in to engage the enemy fleets. One of their objectives is to create as many openings as possible so that Hammer transports can have safe passage to the planet. Around the same time as the battle begins, all Special Forces teams will head planetside immediately, where you'll have your own clearing out to do. Commander Palmer." Lasky speaks as he looks to Sarah and nods his head, taking a step back.

Sarah nods her head and looks back at the SF troops while taking a step forward.

"Our mission is as follows." she begins as she looks at the holotable.

Multiple red dots light up across the various continents, as then off on the right side an image appears of what almost looks like a Destroyer-class Reaper, but with a massive cannon of some design mounted on top.

"We're to deploy in medium-sized teams across the planet, where we're to take out all of the Reapers' Hades Cannons, their primary anti-aircraft defense weapon, in preparation for the rest of Hammer's landings." Palmer turns her attention back forward.

"These Hades Cannons can fire a massive energy beam that is powerful and highly accurate. If the rest of Hammer were to try and land with these things all over the place, we could lose thousands of troops in a matter of minutes. It's our job to make sure that doesn't happen. As I've said, we'll be splitting up into medium-sized teams to take each one of these cannons out. Each team will comprise of three squads. You'll find who these other squads are, their team members, and where you'll be headed to on the datapad in front of you. Information on where you respective target is located has been included on that datapad as well, so I would use these next few days we have wisely to get together with your respective teams to study it, as well as to train together and get to know one another in preparation for the mission. We don't have long people, and remember, each of these cannons we take out is more troops we have to fight the enemy with. So then, any questions?" Palmer asks.

A Salarian raises his hand, "You there, Salarian." Palmer calls to him while pointing.

The Salarian stands up, "Major Kirrahe, Salarian Special Tasks Group." Major Kirrahe introduces himself.

"Alright Major Kirrahe, what do you have to ask?" Palmer says.

"We are to be deployed planetside as soon as our fleets have engaged the enemy fleets. Sword group is to make openings in the enemy fleets so that the rest of Hammer can safely land. But where does that leave us before those openings are made?" Major Kirrahe asks.

"Admiral Hackett and I, along with several of the other Coalition leaders are handpicking the best pilots we have to deploy all Special Forces teams groundside. We understand how dangerous getting you guys down there will be, especially for as soon as the battle starts. But we don't have much of a choice in the matter if those cannons are to be taken down so the rest of Hammer can land without as much trouble. And while we're hoping having the best pilots for the job might help to better increase your odds of survival, and the chaos of the battle might mask your approach and descent, all fighter squadrons taking part in the space battle are being informed of your mission. So if need be the pilots can call on friendly fighters for escort support, we also asked that at least two fighters who do provide escort follow your transports planetside to continue providing support until boots are confirmed on the ground. Should there be any enemy air units in atmosphere." Lasky speaks up to explain.

"There you go Major. Any other questions?" Palmer asks.

"Lieutenant Rorke, US Navy SEAL Team 7." Lieutenant Rorke speaks as he stands up at attention. Lieutenant Rorke looked to be in his late 30's, with short, light brown hair as he wore Woodland BDU, "Ma'am once the cannons have been neutralized what is our following objective?" he asks.

"Once you've taken out your target you are to proceed with hitting enemy forces however you see fit. Destroy gun emplacements, snipers nests, artillery, call in bombing runs on enemy positions, do whatever you can to hurt the enemy, and support the rest of Hammer. If however you start running low on ammunition or sustain wounded, you are to pull back and regroup immediately with friendly forces, or hold out at a safe location until they come to you. Don't go getting yourselves all killed! The Resistance is still gathering intel on the ground, so any information they retrieve on the enemy in the area you'll be heading to will be passed onto you before we deploy. Anything else?" Palmer asks.

A familiar Spartan raises his hand, the Spartan in question slightly annoying Palmer as she lets out a sigh and closes her eyes, but manages to keep her composure otherwise, "Yes, Spartan Madsen?" she asks with a hint of disdain in her voice as she opens her eyes and turns to look at him.

"Uh~, yeah. So how exactly are we supposed to destroy those Hades Cannons? They're big, and they look like Reapers which last I checked, couldn't be taken down with normal small arms fire, or even heavy weapons like a Spartan Laser. Unless we shot it like a gazillion times. We using C-12's because one, that would require us to get really close to those things which I wouldn't be surprised if they were heavily defended, and two, we would still need like a lot of them to even think of taking those things out completely. Unless there's some other type of powerful explosive we could use from one of the other factions, more preferably one that could shoot from long range." Madsen says.

Palmer turns to her left and walks to a nearby table as she grabs something, turning to walk back to her original spot as she lifts something up to show everyone.

"This here is called the M-920 Cain. The Alliance Marines like to call this thing a "nuke gun". Get the picture yet?" Palmer asks with a sly smirk.

Madsen's eyes widened a bit in shock as his mouth dropped open, "So we're literally dropping a nuke on these things." Thorne says.

"A small one, nothing too big. But just enough to take these Hades Cannons out in one shot. No need to worry, the detonations do not produce any actual fallout so all of you will be safe. These things do take a bit to charge up though, just to warn yah." Palmer explains.

"Um, dibs on being one of the people to fire one of those things." a Clone Commando with yellow markings on his arms and legs joyously says, also with a bit of humor behind it.

"Oh great, we're all going to die." a Clone Commando with blood-red markings across various parts of his armor says in a dull tone.

A Clone and US Army soldier exit a room while talking to one another. Before the door can close Captain Rex enters, his helmet under his left arm.

"Cody!" Rex calls out as said Clone Commander, who was standing next to a holotable as its projector turned off, turned to face him.

"Rex! What are you doing here?" he asks.

"Well I was going to start preparing for my briefing. Just so happens this is the room I'm going to be using. But I got some time to spare, briefing isn't until 1300. So, how'd yours go?" Rex asks.

"It went well. Got to say though, it's a bit weird seeing a bunch of faces that aren't our brothers. Been so used to fighting alongside only ourselves that, well it's… it's just weird that we're now having to command soldiers and fight alongside people that aren't just our brothers, or our Jedi Generals." Cody says.

"Yeah, I get you. Honestly I thought this whole thing with creating mix-matched units and everything to better our alliance with one another was going to be… problematic in some way. But it's actually not been as bad as I thought. Most of my men have already begun getting used to our new members in the new Coalition 501st Legion. There are a few still having some difficulty adjusting to all of this change, but they're slowly getting used to it. It helps that the soldiers from the other factions are just as friendly, well except maybe a few of them but otherwise, everyone's getting along just fine. I'll admit, I've even already gone and made some new friends from some of the other military factions. They're good people, perhaps I should introduce you to them next time we meet up." Rex says.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind." Cody says with a shrug. "Haven't had a chance to really meet anyone new since arriving. Next time I'm off, just contact me and we can meet up."

Cody turns to the holotable while Rex walks next to him and places his helmet down, "So, having been part of the strategy meeting with the rest of the Coalition leaders, I know exactly where it is you and your boys are going." Cody says as he looks at Rex with a sly smirk.

"London, England. Yep. We're going right where all the big action is going to take place." Rex says, turning his head to look at him.

"The luck of the 501st strikes again. Though it makes sense. We need the best hitting London if we're going to have a chance at winning this war. Your Legion has proven itself time and time again in the Clone Wars, which is why you're one of the units being assigned for this task. Hope you can get your new members up to speed on how the original 501st does it back in our universe by the time of the invasion. If it helps, you won't be alone taking the full brunt of whatever the Reapers and their allies may throw at you. You and your boys are going to be fighting alongside the Coalition 1st Marine Division. These Marines are supposed to be tough… well Marines. They don't like it when you call them a soldier, don't know why. You'll also be supported by the Earth London Resistance Cell, and the United States Military strike force known as N.E.S.T., or the Non-Biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty." Cody explains.

"NEST huh? I actually met their CO already, Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox." Rex says.

"Really? What do you make of him?" Cody asks.

"Good guy, haven't really seen him in combat. So can only hope he knows what he's doing. What about you, Cody? Where are you heading too?" Rex asks.

"The newly formed Coalition 7th Sky Corps will be working alongside the 75th Ranger Regiment in retaking a place called New York City. And from the images I've seen of this place, and from what I've read up on what this city is like. It's not going to be an easy fight." Cody says.

"Are any of our fights going to be? Especially for the ones charging that Conduit." Rex says.

"It's going to be difficult. I won't lie. Probably the toughest battle we'll ever take part of, and we're still fighting a war back home. But I feel like nothing in that war will ever compare to what's about to happen here. The stakes sure as hell will never be as big. I just wish there was something more the rest of us could do, instead of just fighting in other cities on other continents where there's nothing of significance there that can help contribute to the fight in London." Cody says.

"Except you are contributing to the fight, Cody. It'll be your job, and the job of the other units across the planet to keep the Reapers and their allies from sending reinforcements just to London. Giving me and my boys, and the 1st Marine Division an equal chance at fighting the enemy there so we aren't completely overwhelmed. And giving Admiral Anderson and Commander Shepard's forces a higher chance at successfully taking the Conduit. Even then it's most likely our forces in London will still be facing the worst of the enemy defenses and troops, especially for Anderson and Shepard's charge on the Conduit. But without you guys attacking the rest of the planet, spreading the enemy's forces out, it could have been a lot worse. From what I've gathered, we're the last major threat to the Reapers, and to Cerberus and their respective goals. They take us all out, whatever they've got planned for the future of this universe, our universe, and all the other universes, can go unchallenged. They'll not want to risk any one soldier from the Coalition surviving, and definitely not any one hero. They'll spread their forces out, so they can take all of us out." Rex says.

"Huh, I'm surprised I never thought to look at it that way. Thanks, Rex." Cody says.

"Anytime." Rex replies. He then puts his hands to his hips, "Speaking of heroes, besides the Commander what are the rest of them doing? I haven't heard anything from General Skywalker, or Commander Tano."

"I know that the Commander and his teammates from this universe will be taking part in the assault on London, more specifically the charge on the Conduit, for obvious reasons. I believe the Master Chief will also be joining in the attack on London as well, though he will be elsewhere, fighting alongside the 1st Marine Division to help reclaim the city from enemy forces. Commander Tano will be right alongside you and the 501st, while General Skywalker has been chosen along with several other heroes to join Sword group in engaging the enemy fleets." Cody explains.

"Ah, makes sense. Sword could gain a lot from having General Skywalker with them. At least Commander Tano will be fighting alongside us. Any news about his… son?" Rex asks with a raised brow.

"Apparently, he's just like his father. Great pilot. So both of them will be part of the Hero group assisting Sword." Cody says.

"Should have figured as much. And General Kenobi?" Rex asks.

"With us as always." Cody proudly says while pointing at himself with his left thumb.

Rex crosses his arms. "That's good to hear. And what about the rest of the heroes?" he asks.

"Besides the few chosen to assist Sword. The rest are being split up across the Earth. The Coalition Leaders want the heroes to be put in areas where Resistance intel has put Reaper and allied forces being most high. Basically sending the heroes where they expect there to be more trouble, besides London." Cody says.

"I would've thought they would send all of them there anyways. If not the majority of them." Rex says.

"Probably want to try and reduce casualties as much as possible. Some of these heroes are good leaders, a lot of them are skilled, or have powerful abilities that could help the troops in the long run. Plus, on the off chance our troops run into any of the monsters from some of the enemy factions, or powerful villains like General Grievous, and such. They want heroes to be around to engage them since they're high level threats that could do some serious damage to Hammer if not dealt with quick enough, and with many of them being tough to take down. We learned that for ourselves with just that one monster that saved Count Dooku." Cody explains.

"Guess that makes sense. Still, wouldn't the battle be over a lot more quickly if we just sent all of the heroes charging that Conduit?" Rex questions.

"We'd be risking our strongest assets if by chance the Reapers, or Cerberus prepared for such an attack. Had something that took all of the heroes out. I hate to say it, but without the heroes, this'll be a losing battle. Without the heroes, our chances of winning this war will be slim to none." Cody points out.

"Yeah, it will be. Let's just hope the Commander and his team will be enough then." Rex says.

Lance, Ilana, and Octus approach a duel door as it slides open, the Autobot Elita-One rolls out with the Justice League members, Fire, and Ice walking alongside her. The Galalunian's enter the room were a number of various heroes were talking amongst each other, or looking at datapads they had in their hands. Lance and Ilana looked around, "Lance, Ilana!" the familiar voice of Commander Shepard called out.

They looked to their right as the Commander approached them, "I was just about to send someone out to look for you. Everyone else has already received their datapad on the upcoming battle." Shepard says.

"My apologies Commander, I'm to blame for our lateness. I got caught up in the War Game simulator and-" Lance began to speak.

Shepard raises his right hand to stop him, "Don't worry about it. It's alright. What matters is you're here now." he says as he holds the pad out to them.

Ilana takes it as she, Lance, and Octus look down to read its contents.

"On that datapad, you'll find the military unit you've been assigned to, and where you'll be going to during the battle with information on that area. Any more information you want, you'll have to see the unit's CO. I would suggest you go do that as soon as possible. Introduce yourselves, get to know the men and women you'll be fighting alongside, anything you'll need to know to prepare yourselves for the upcoming battle." Shepard explains.

The three look back up at him, "Thank you Commander. I promise you; we'll be ready when the time comes." Ilana speaks.

Shepard nods his head slowly to acknowledge her. Nearby, Po along with the Furious Five go over their datapad, Tigress holding it as she and the others looked down at it while Po was looking over to Shepard as he spoke to the Galalunian's. A blank stare on his face as he watched Ilana, and Lance nod their heads at Shepard before turning, along with Octus, and walking away. Po just continued to stare; having overheard everything they just spoke.

---

3AM

Tuesday, March 3rd

105 Hours Until Invasion of Earth...

Po grunted as he threw a punch into a hanging heavy bag. Both of his arms raised up, Po threw a few more punches along with a variety of some kicks into it, "You want some of this? Oh I bet you want some of this. Bet you won't even see it coming when I do it." Po began to mutter to himself as he then started doing some scissor jumps.

Po then jumped and threw a spinning heel kick. Which was stopped by Tigress as she appeared from out of nowhere and caught his foot with ease, her left arm behind her back. With a simple flick of her wrist, Tigress sent Po spinning around in the air a few times before falling to the ground landing on his back.

"Morning Tigress." Po casually greeted.

Tigress raised a brow as she put her hands to her hips, "Morning nothing. You're up rather early. More early than me. And the mess hall doesn't open for another couple of hours." she says in a joking tone.

"Oh come on not everything I do has to involve food." Po says slightly annoyed.

Tigress looked at him with a deadpan expression and her arms crossed, "You know what. Forget I said anything." he says.

Tigress extends a helping hand to him which he takes as she helps him back onto his feet, "So, what are you doing up?" Tigress asks.

"What's it look like, training." Po says with a shrug of his shoulders, moving past Tigress who moves behind him as he resumes punching and kicking the heavy bag. Po takes a step forward and throws a tornado kick, sending the heavy bag swinging to his left as he turns back around to face Tigress with a smirk.

"Congratulations, if our enemies were punching bags. They would be trembling in fear at the sight of the great Dragon Warrior." Tigress says.

"Haha. Yeah they would." Po agrees. Po breathes in and lets it out, a rather solemn look coming to his face, "If only things were going to be that easy." he says in a quiet voice, though Tigress could still hear him.

A worried look comes to her face as she walks over to his left side, Po now looking at the ground as Tigress reaches out and stops the heavy bag from swinging.

"Po, how much sleep did you get last night?" she asks, turning her head slightly towards him.

Po remains silent for a few seconds, "Enough." he finally says as he turns to his right and begins walking away.

"So if I were to talk to Monkey, Crane, Mantis, or any of the other heroes you guys share a room with. They could vouch that you actually got some sleep last night?" she questions.

Po stops in his tracks, taking another breather as he breathes in through his nose and out with his eyes closed.

"That's what I figured." Tigress says as she walks over to him. Putting her left hand on his right shoulder as she leans forward to look at his face, "Po. Get some rest. I understand you want to be as much ready for the final battle as anyone else. We all want to be at our best, when this battle arrives. But you won't be of help to anyone if you don't take a moment every now and then to get some rest. I'm used to staying up for long periods of time, I've trained myself to be able to do it if necessary. But no amount of training can keep your eyes opened forever. Even if you do, your energy will all but be gone, and your mind won't work as well. It'll cause you to make mistakes, mistakes that you know you never would have made before. And with the battle to come, if we go and make any mistakes… it could cost us, or someone else, their life. Is that what you want?"

"No!" Po says as he opens his eyes to look at Tigress. "No, that's… that's not what I want. I know this but… Tigress, we're about to take part in the biggest battle in the history of… well anything! For us, in the history of Kung Fu! I know my history of Kung Fu, and no master, not anyone famous in our universe, on our planet. Has had to deal with a threat this big. Our battle with Shen and his weapons, I thought that was probably going to be our biggest thing, even bigger than Tai Lung, because Shen's weapons threatened everything that was Kung Fu. I mean sure there was the whole incident with the dragon guy but that doesn't really compare to this moment as much as the fight with Shen does. And need I remind you; we barely won that fight. Then all of this happens." Po turns to his left and waves his arms up into the air as a gesture to everything around him and Tigress. Emphasizing the drastic change that has occurred in their lives, as well as the lives of their friends, the people in the Valley of Peace, and China as a whole due to the Reaper invasion.

Po lowered his arms, "With Shen, we barely won. We barely were able to beat technology with Kung Fu. I still held my strong belief in Kung Fu, that it was and always will be vastly superior to anything that could ever come in terms of technology. But then the Reapers came, and you sure wouldn't see me trying to redirect those laser beams of theirs back at them. As soon as that first Reaper appeared, as much as I didn't want to believe it, deep down I knew. Kung Fu was not going to help us out of this situation." Po continues as he lowers his head with a saddened look in his eyes. Tigress continues to stare at him also with a saddened look on her face.

"Ever since I learned about Kung Fu, that's all my life has been about. A dream of mine to one day become a great Kung Fu warrior to fight evil, to protect the innocent, to fight alongside you guys since you were my idols. And then it happened." Po says as he smiles. "Sure it was… a bit of a rocky start. A painful, really, really, painful, bit embarrassing, hurtful things were said, rocky start." Tigress bares her teeth in a cringeful manner as she slightly recoils from this, knowing full well most of said hurtful things did come from her.

"But eventually, I did get better at it. And then you guys, you became more than my idols. You became my friends." Tigress smiles at this. "We've been through so much, faced off against some powerful, and not so-powerful people. And in the end, we were able to use Kung Fu to take them down. But the Reapers… for the first time probably ever, we're facing an enemy, that we simply can't just punch, or kick away to take them down. If it wasn't for Shepard, we'd probably be dead by now. We barely survived the Husks, if a Reaper decided to land right on top of the Valley, there'd be nothing we can do. Kung Fu has meant so much to me for most of my life, I thought it was going to be the most awesomest thing ever, that there was never going to be anything that could be more awesome, or powerful, as Kung Fu. But as we began traveling the multiverse, seeing what else, what other kind of people are out there. With each universe we traveled to, I began to realize just how small Kung Fu is compared to basically everything else. Technology, magic, let's face it Tigress, most of these heroes, all of them, can do so much more than any of us! Are there others out there who are just normal people like us, yes. Still doesn't make me feel any better realizing how worthless Kung Fu has basically become now with all of this new stuff around us."

"Po…" Tigress says.

Po looks up at her, as he then smiles, "Don't worry Tigress. No matter what I just said. I'm still not giving up on Kung Fu. Are there more awesomer, more stronger things out there then Kung Fu, yes, that's obvious for a fact now. But it doesn't change the fact that Kung Fu is still my way of life. And it always will be. It's why I'm trying to put as much time and effort as I can into bettering my skills, preparing myself for the final battle. I know Kung Fu won't win us the battle, this war. But I at least want to put my skills to some use to make some kind of difference! Even though it has a lot less meaning now, I'm still the Dragon Warrior. It's my duty to fight the forces of evil like the Reapers, like Cerberus, and defeat them, or in this case, to help defeat them!" Po states.

"It's also your duty as the Dragon Warrior to be the protector of China. Which your fulfilling now, just by being here. Has Kung Fu lost its edge now that we have these… guns, magic, and everything else around us? Basically. Even I can't ignore how vastly superior all of this is to Kung Fu. Will that change us in any way? No. We just need to be more careful. You and I are still alive, even after traveling to all those universes, facing enemies with weapons, and abilities that far outclass what we're capable of. We may not be able to win this war with Kung Fu, but we can sure as hell make as much of a difference as we can so that we do win this war, regardless of how it's won." Tigress says as she smiles back at him.

Po nods his head a few times, "Yeah." he says.

Tigress nods her head back. Tigress then puts her hands to her hips, "There's an open sparring mat over there. We have the place to ourselves for probably a few more hours. You wanted to train, how about fighting something that can actually fight back?" Tigress asks in a humored tone.

"Hehe, no offense Tigress. It's awesome sparring with you from time to time but, at the moment I would honestly prefer to try fighting at least some of the other heroes. See what they're all about since we haven't really been able to do a whole lot of that. Thing is, I feel like most of them are asleep. Hence why I came here." Po says.

"Chief probably isn't, we could look for him if you want to try your skills on another hero." Tigress says.

"Oh~ no." Po says as he crosses his arms and swings them out. "I sparred with Chief once while we were on the TARDIS. And even all of this!" Po points at his belly, "Couldn't stop all of the air from being knocked out of me with just a single gut punch from him. And remember, this helped me beat Tai Lung." Po says as he then lowers his arms.

"On second thought, why not. We still got plenty of time until we launch the attack anyways." Po then turns and begins throwing out punches in front of him, "Plenty of time to show off my less than awesome skills against these other heroes to see what they're like. Probably not going to go well, except for maybe a few if I'm lucky but. Not much else I can do." he says coming to a stop and turning back to face Tigress.

"Come on Tigress, aren't you the least bit interested in testing out the powers and abilities of the other heroes for yourself?" Po asks.

"Oh I am." Tigress says with her arms crossed, "Not expecting them to go well either. Some of Shepard's teammates I had no problem with since, no offense to them, but without their high tech weapons, there's not much else good about them. Guess it was a good thing we stepped in to help train them in some hand-to-hand fighting. But Chief, Troy, Marvelous, and Tsukasa, the latter three didn't even have to change their appearances to best me. It's as you said, many of these heroes are definitely on another level compared to us." she says.

"Yeah, but at least the other three… little less with Marvelous… know how to hold back compared to Chief. Actually he was holding back, still hurt a lot though." Po says.

Tigress chuckles lightly, "Just remember-" she begins to say.

"Yeah, yeah don't worry. I'll make sure to actually get some sleep tonight." Po says.

"Good." Tigress says, throwing her head to the left as a gesture for the two of them to head over to the sparring mat, which they do.

Once on the mat and some distance away from each other, both Tigress and Po put their hands together and bow towards the other. Going back up before striking a pre-battle stance. Tigress turns her left hand upwards and gestures to Po to come at her with a smirk on her lips. Po replies with a toothy-smirk as he complies, and charges Tigress with a battle cry. Only for a loud punch to be heard a second later along with Po yelping.

"I'm okay." he says.

SSV Normandy SR-2…

"So you guys are done, right? With the whole traveling across the multiverse and stuff?" Joker asks EDI who was back in her co-pilot seat.

"That is correct Jeff. Our mission to traverse the multiverse for more allies has officially come to an end. Which saddens me really, I was enjoying our travels. Seeing worlds, and meeting people that were different from what we see in our galaxy. It was quite the experience. Though the presence of the Reapers in many of the universes did take away from the experience, especially since many of the worlds we went too were in ruin because of them. So any amazing sights we could have witnessed, were now no more thanks to the Reapers. Nor could I find any time on my hands to try and gain access to that universe's version of the Extranet to learn about that world's history, though some universes didn't have anything like that, mostly those that are very primitive." EDI says.

"Yeah, can always expect those things to put a downer on what would have otherwise been an awesome travel experience. I'm guessing that's why you didn't really send us any pictures of any of the universes you went to, not that I'm complaining, since it was mostly Traynor who wanted the pictures to see what these other places were like. Kind of had a hunch that with the Reapers you know, attacking everyone else at this point besides us that things weren't exactly going to look pretty. Though I can get a pretty basic idea of what these universes could potentially look like just based off our new allies alone. Since you know, many of them are human just like us, so their architecture has to be somewhat similar to buildings in our past right? Except maybe the guys who seem to have way better tech than us." Joker says.

"Speaking of our new allies. Since we haven't had the chance to talk for long in a while, and now that we have nothing else to do but wait for the upcoming battle. I would like to hear your opinion on them." EDI asks.

"And~ why is that?" Joker asks, turning to look at her.

"Jeff… you always have an opinion on someone or something. I am just curious is all to hear what you have to say on our new allies." EDI says.

"Alright, fair enough." Joker says as he turns back forward.

"Hm~ let's see where do I even begin? Who's idea was it to recruit a bunch of people who literally still fight with shit my like many great ancestors would have used and don't even know what a gun is? What is up with some of the getups these heroes wear, I mean those Rangers and Sentai people, aren't what they wearing just spandex or something? Cause that's what it looks like. Others literally just look like grown adults ready to go trick or treating on Halloween or something in some weird looking costumes. Some of these "heroes" I seriously have to question, I mean, pirates? Aren't pirates usually you know, bad people? Seriously what is up with the "blocky" look of those humanoid animal people from Chima, as well as those guys from Nijaygo, or whatever? Look I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but the only useful allies I see are the UNSC, Swords of Sanghelios, and both Republic's, and let's not even get started on that weird mess of having a Republic from the past, and a Republic from the future, and this whole thing about parallel universes and stuff. A lot of our new allies are either weird looking, I don't trust them because of what they are, or I just don't see how helpful they can be." Joker says.

"Oh and don't even get me started on the fact that some of these "heroes". Are literally kids, or teenagers! You know how annoying teenagers can be? I do, I used to be one, and hang out with other teenagers. Some of them can be really annoying! They don't belong on a battlefield, especially in a war as big as this." Joker adds.

"Actually that "spandex" the Rangers and Sentai wear, are referred to as power suits. And they are really good at protecting the wearer from what would otherwise be fatal attacks. For some reason whenever they get hit, sparks just fly from them. It seems they still feel the attack but otherwise they're unscathed for the most part. It's kind of weird honestly but, at this point what isn't weird." the voice of Samantha Traynor speaks up from behind attracting the pair's attention.

Traynor puts her right hand to her chin, and left hand beneath the elbow as she looks slightly to her left, "Then again. We do have our kinetic barriers. Perhaps those suits of theirs provide something similar. But again it only protects them from getting killed, they still get hurt when struck by something. At least depending on what it is since I've read reports of them just shrugging off normal small arms fire."

"Hello Specialist Traynor." EDI greets as Traynor looks at her.

"Hey EDI, welcome back. Sorry I wasn't here to greet you earlier; I was in the middle of a nap. Really nice one, then again a lot of my recent naps have been really nice since there hasn't been a need for us to be dodging Reaper forces for a while or avoid being shot at." Samantha says.

"Hey Traynor." Joker greets as he was already facing back forward to resume control over the Normandy.

"Joker, were you talking bad about our new allies?" Samantha asks.

"Only some of them. Again, it's nothing personal. I just question a lot of them. Not in the aspect that I question their loyalties or anything, I mean if the Doctor truly knows his stuff and knows these are good people then okay I can get behind that. We could use all the help we can get. I just question how useful some of these people can truly be in helping us fight the Reapers. Oh, and also Cerberus and their own army of bad guys now. Since fighting what seems like an endless army of giant space squids, and zombies wasn't bad enough." Joker says.

"You haven't seen, nor read the reports I have. At least when I speak of the heroes." Traynor says.

"You have witnessed what some of the heroes are capable of?" EDI asks.

"A lot of them actually, even spoken to a few of them. Really nice people. Admiral Hackett sends me over to the Infinity sometimes to do checkups on them. Not that he doesn't trust Captain Lasky, or his men to do the checkups themselves! More so when the Captain and his men have their hands full with new arrivals and stuff, the Admiral sends me over to do the checkup for them. Make sure they're adjusting well to all the new stuff, have everything they need, nothing terrible going on. He also has me analyze their combat abilities sometimes, and send the data I gather back to him." Traynor says.

"Wait, so your spying on them basically?" Joker asks with a raised left brow as he turns to look at her.

Traynor raises her hands up, "No! No! Not like that!" she quickly says as she lowers them. "Yes, that's what it sounds like. But not for any bad intentions. We just need to see what it is they're capable of in combat so our troops know. That way they don't get in the way of the heroes if they're trying to do something. Or become confused by something they do. Our forces need to work together, and unlike all of the armies we've gathered, many of the heroes are just civilians with amazing skills and or powers. Some do have military experience or are military themselves, like the Master Chief. But the majority of them have no real training, no real experience taking part in military operations, or fighting alongside military forces. This will be a whole new experience for some of them. And of course for many of our people, as well as the other armies, it will be their first time fighting alongside people who possess such extraordinary abilities." Traynor explains.

"And before you say it. Yes, we have biotics. But the things I've seen, biotics are nowhere near as strong as what some of these heroes are capable of. Various kinds of magic, yes I know some of our ancient allies possess magic themselves but they seem to pale greatly in comparison to some of the magic these heroes are capable of. People moving faster than the eye can see, shooting lasers from their eyes, extending parts of their body like they're rubber, the list goes on and on. What I'm trying to say is, compared to our military forces, our galaxy's biotics, the Inquisition and some of the forces we've gathered from Thedas who utilize magic, the Fire, Water, and Earthbenders, those abilities that they possess are more… universal, I believe is the word I'm looking for? Their abilities, what they're capable of doing with those are more common. Biotics can do things like shockwaves, singularities, barriers, we understand most of the different abilities they can do and can work around them because of our vast knowledge on biotics. For our mage allies we understand the things they're capable of, producing fire, ice, controlling the very earth, the weather, there is a lot of things the mages of Thedas can do, with those abilities varying depending on how powerful the mage is. Then we have the benders which are even more basic, you either control something related to fire, earth, or water and can do lots of stuff related to that element."

"Our military forces have been able to quickly adapt to one another because, the three abilities, while there are many things that can be done with them, there are a lot of people who can do said things, and that's all they can do. Biotics can, well I mean yes they can shoot guns as well and stuff, but in terms of their abilities, they can only do biotics. They can do a number of things with those biotics but in the end they're still biotics. Mages only cast magic, and for some reason barely ever seem to use swords or anything else but staves. Which really seems dangerous since if the enemy gets close to them I don't see a giant stick doing a whole lot to protect them. From what I've gathered, the more common magic they use are classified into different uh, "Schools of Magic", basically different categories; Creation, Entropy, Primal, and Spirit. Once we've seen what each of these different "Schools of Magic" are about, again we can work with and around these different magic abilities easily. And benders, well again they're the more basic out of the two, even though they have to do those weird moves before casting any of their attacks…" Samantha continues speaking.

"I believe what Specialist Traynor is trying to get at is, compared to our biotics, the magic, more specifically the magic the mages from Thedas utilize, and the benders bending arts. Many of the heroes utilize a far vaster number of different abilities, abilities that our soldiers would need to understand so that they can more effectively work alongside said hero or heroes. In fact some heroes utilize more than a single ability, or form in the case for some of them, like the Digimon, or Ben Tennyson. The soldiers from the various factions, as well as a few of our own heroes, use biotics, magic, or bending similar to one another, as the abilities of biotics, magic from Thedas, and the bending arts are universal amongst one another from their respective universe. Though there are cases of some biotics coming up with different methods in which to utilize the ability, they are very few. When it comes to the realm of magic, magic works differently between the universes, so while there are also those in Thedas who might also have different magical abilities compared to the normal mage. When it comes to other individuals or groups of heroes from other universes who also utilize a form of magic, the magic they use is vastly different from what is seen in Thedas. For the bending arts, there is Avatar Aang who uses Airbending due to being the last of the Air Nomads, and Toph Beifong who has discovered metalbending." EDI begins to speak.

"For the military forces of the Coalition, and the vast number of different heroes to work together more cohesively. We do need to know what the heroes are capable of doing in combat. We need to see and learn about all of their abilities, their forms, how they fight. Just as we learn how the other military factions fight themselves or use their weapons and technology to fight the enemy. You must remember Jeff, we are a Coalition largely made up of vastly different groups of people, with different species, technology, fighting styles, abilities and more. For us to have a better chance at winning this war, we need to know the ins and outs of everyone around us. From the soldiers, to the designated heroes from across the multiverse. If we were to go into battle against the Reapers and their allies without knowing what each faction, what each hero is capable of doing. It could lead to a number of things going wrong, soldiers not knowing what to do, people getting in the way of each other, perhaps accidentally getting caught up in some sort of attack from one of the heroes. Specialist Traynor was simply gathering information on how the heroes fight with their vast array of abilities and or forms, most likely to pass on to the Coalition leaders who would then pass the information onto the soldiers so that they would know what it is the hero or heroes they are teaming up with during the invasion are capable of doing. That way the soldiers do not become lost by the actions some of the heroes may do, or get in the way of a hero's attack if they are about to do something, or if they need assistance they know which hero to call upon. Does that make sense?" EDI asks turning to look at him.

"Uh~. Yeah. I mean, it would be a really bad Coalition if we didn't learn to not only fight alongside each other, but if we didn't know what the other people were capable of doing. We'd basically be tripping over each other and running around like chickens with our heads cut off not knowing what to do. More specifically, what to do with these other people." Joker says.

"As for your previous opinions. In terms of our allies from ancient time periods, need I remind you that Cerberus seems to have no problem employing Kai Leng, or those Phantom operatives who also utilize swords as their primary weapon in combat." EDI points out.

"Well yeah but they're at least cool ass space ninjas who come equipped with a cool projectile gauntlet, a palm device that can project a kinetic barrier, and oh. They can turn invisible!" Joker says.

"And that has stopped Shepard and the rest of the team from killing how many of them?" EDI questions.

"Alright you got me there." Joker says.

"While I did have trouble understanding the motive behind the Doctor wanting us to recruit these people as allies when they have far inferior technology to ours-" EDI begins to speak.

"Inferior nothing, they don't have any technology!" Joker points out.

"The mages from Thedas have proven quite helpful, most especially during the recent attack on the Infinity. Where it was thanks to their healing magic that many lives were saved, some of whom our medics thought were going to be impossible to save. I also heard that their support magic was quite helpful as well in aiding the soldiers in holding the Husks back in certain areas. The Dragon Riders from Alagaësia, while few, will make for helpful air support in the coming battle due to how versatile their dragons can be when compared to our transports and gunships. As for the rest of the normal ancient-era soldiers, with the upgrades we have given to their weapons and armor, they have begun to prove quite useful. This recent battle shows that as well. They will prove helpful in keeping back the normal Husks and Abominations, and protecting our troops from small arms fire. I can also see them being useful in taking the lead when clearing out buildings, and being helpful in such close quarters engagements as well." EDI finishes.

"Still would prefer people who use guns, and explosives over a sword and bows and arrows any day of the week." Joker says.

"As for the appearances of some of our fellow heroes. I cannot speak much for them on how they look in their armor, power suits, or costumes. The Kamen Riders, Super Sentai, and Power Rangers did not have much say in how their respective suits or armor looked, the Avengers and Justice League on the other hand, some did have a say on how their costume looked, others didn't. In general though from what I have gathered, the majority of them have said looks as a means of keeping their real identities a secret, so as to not put those close to them in harm's way. There are a few who do not follow such a rule, such as Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. Others though, their power suits, armor, or costume actually amplify their abilities, making them better fighters, stronger, or actually giving them their abilities." EDI explains.

"Alright, I guess that makes sense. Still though, in my eyes, some of those people are literally fighting in spandex." Joker says.

"At least that "spandex" protects some of them. Some of the others I've seen are literally wearing nothing but clothing, normal clothing. Not exactly something you'd want to be wearing into battle where you could get shot or something. Unless that clothing is made up of tough material or something I don't know about. And even then, some of them are…" Samantha begins to scratch the back of her neck. "Not exactly wearing enough clothing to cover everything… and I don't know how to feel about it." she finishes as she lowers her arm.

"I mean on one hand; my word are some of those heroes quite the lookers. But on the other, how is it they can just go into battle looking like that and survive? Our people barely survive even when they're wearing armor." Traynor adds.

"I cannot say much about the appearance of Laval and his people, as well as the Ninja and their friends from Ninjago that Shepard had not previously stated. As for the Gokaigers and Straw Hats since they are the only pirate groups we have for being designated as heroes. Throughout the entire time he was with us, Captain Marvelous proved himself time and time again. And when we met Luffy and the other Straw Hat Pirates, they, like the Gokaigers, proved that they are far different from the normal pirates that we at least encounter. The Gokaigers continue the legacy of the Super Sentai who seem to have no problem with pirates being amongst them, and the Straw Hats according to the Doctor have and will continue to do many good deeds in their universe. Even though that is not their intention too. As for Sora, and the other heroes who are indeed children or teenagers, you obviously have not seen what we have. They may be young in human years, but they are the definition of that one human saying, "never judge a book by its cover". They have experiences fighting and defeating very powerful foes much older, and stronger than they are, and possess weapons and or abilities that can quite literally allow them to take out entire battalions, maybe even regiments of enemy soldiers. They are not to be underestimated just because of their age." EDI says.

"I'll just have to take your word for it. Cause it's like the both of you said, I haven't had the chance to really see anything. I mean there has to be something special about them if they're really the heroes of their universes, right? Still doesn't make me feel any better that we're literally throwing children into a war. And we are fighting alongside a fleet of Terminus mercenaries and pirates under Aria, so I guess if anything these two pirate groups seem to be a little more trustworthy than any of them will ever be." Joker says.

"Not all of our allies may be as advanced as we are Jeff, not as advanced as the UNSC, or any of the Republic's. They may not all be as professional as we are, may act and look weird compared to what we're used to, some of the people we're fighting alongside may just be regular civilians with extraordinary powers. But what matters is they can, and are willing to fight. They may not be what you expected. But all of them know what's at stake, they know how to fight and use their respective skills and abilities. And are ready to die if it means saving the multiverse from the Reapers, just like all of us are." EDI says.

"Yeah, I know. Though it would be nice to, you know, not die. We needed all the help we could get, and we got it. May not be what I wanted; hell may not be what I expected. But with everything getting blown up and people dying all around us, help is still help and we can sure as hell use it. Like you said, at least all of the people we've gathered know how to fight, so there's a definite good thing right there. These heroes, some of them may be weird people. But then again, when have we ever not had a weird group of people ourselves." Joker says.

An M116/A1 simulation grenade goes off producing a loud bang and puff of smoke to simulate a flashbang going off as a Gondor soldier enters first through a doorway into a room with dark gray metallic walls; his shield raised with the blade of his sword resting atop of it pointing forward. From behind a couch in the left corner of the room, a Cerberus assault trooper pops up and fires his Harrier assault rifle, the rounds slamming into the shield of the Gondor soldier as he ducks behind it and holds his ground. Off to the Gondor soldier's right a Stormtrooper appears from a corner doorway as he raises his E-11 blaster rifle to shoot him, only for a Salarian to come in behind the Gondorian and fire his M-8 Avenger assault rifle shooting the Stormtrooper dead. A UNSC Marine enters quickly through the doorway next as he leans to his right and fires his MA5D taking out the assault trooper.

With haste the UNSC Marine rushes over to the couch as he checks behind it and puts two more rounds into the Cerberus trooper's head, "Clear left!" he shouts.

"Clear right!" the Salarian says, keeping his weapon trained on the right doorway as behind him the rest of the Coalition Marines of their squad enter the room.

"Room clear!" the UNSC Marine shouts, "Open door right, stack up on Mantano!" he adds.

The Marines begin to move towards the wall, "Valern, you need to be right on Mantano's ass as he enters! That Stormtrooper shouldn't have had the chance to even aim at him!" a male voice states over the squad's comms.

"Yes, Staff Sergeant!" Valern, the Salarian, speaks as he gets up against the wall behind the Gondor soldier identified as Mantano.

From the observation room, Staff Sergeant Drusraka of the Turian military watches on a monitor as his squad continues with their Urban Environment training. Once everyone was stacked up behind Mantano, Valern lightly tapped him on the left shoulder a few times as a signal for him to move through the doorway with the rest of the squad following right behind him. Around SSG. Drusraka were other squad leaders of the Coalition 43rd Marine Division, also directing their respective squads in their training exercises for urban combat. Outside the observation windows, a massive room with small to medium-sized buildings built to replicate an urban environment where many squads from the 43rd moved from building to building with their objective being to clear each one of holographic hostiles, and possibly survivors, since that was most likely what they were going to encounter during the battle on Earth.

From a third-floor window, a holographic Cyclonian Talon fires his crystal-tipped staff as red energy blasts are shot out from the crystal. On the street below a female Inquisition soldier runs forward with her shield raised above her head, the shield blocking the shots as several feet behind her a Batarian takes aim at the Cyclonian with his M-96 Mattock assault rifle and fires a few slugs. Scoring a direct headshot on the Cyclonian as he falls backwards into the building; the Inquisition soldier turns around and gives a thumbs up to the Batarian as thanks who returns the gesture with a nod of his head. Elsewhere on the streets, a Cerberus Centurion, 2 B1 Battle droids, and a Cannibal fire their weapons on a squad of Coalition Marines, three Nonbending Fire Nation soldiers raise their shields forward to block the incoming shots allowing a Clone trooper to toss a thermal detonator over their heads as it lands and takes the enemy troops out. A doorway is blown open as a normal Husk rushes towards the smoke, from the smoke a Rohan soldier emerges as he slams his shield into the Husk knocking it to the ground; the Techno soldier and Drophyd trooper in the room raise their weapons to fire, only for an alien Plumber and female Providence agent to enter the room and fire their weapons first taking the enemy troops out. The Husk attempts to get back up only for the Rohirrim to drive his sword into the creature's chest.

Three Gondor and two Inquisition soldiers stand in a Shield Wall formation, "In this position the enemy has a few options. Continue shooting the shield wall hoping for their rounds to start penetrating the shields eventually…" a UNIT soldier begins to explain.

In front of him were a number of Coalition soldiers sitting or standing around listening to him and looking towards the Shield Wall. "They could toss some grenades over the shield wall to take it down, if they do then whoever's behind the shield wall needs to pay attention. If you see a grenade, try and grab it, and throw it back as quickly as you can. I don't care if it's at the enemy, or off somewhere to the side, so long as it doesn't take down our wall, or injure any friendlies, that's all that matters. If they were dumb enough, they would probably try and rush it, smart enough they'd turn and start running or at least try and keep some distance if they don't want to get stabbed." as he speaks, a male US Army soldier, and Alderaanian New Republic soldier toss training grenades over the shield wall.

Behind the shield wall was a Kirkwall Guardsman, along with an Asari, and Krogan soldier, and female SHIELD agent. The Asari soldier and SHIELD agent picked up the training grenades and threw them back over the shield wall.

"We ourselves have a couple of options to deal with the enemy now that the Shield Wall is up. Any archer could start firing arrows over the wall," as he explains this the Guardsman raises his bow up at an angle and releases the string, with no arrow on it of course to simulate what the UNIT officer was explaining.

"Grenades can be tossed or fired over it as well." the Krogan lobs a training grenade over the shield wall as it lands at the feet of the US Army, and New Republic soldiers.

"If the enemy is dumb enough to try and charge the shield wall for whatever reason, then we let the people at the front handle them with their swords, spears, or whatever they have. If the enemy tries retreating with their backs to us, the shield wall can split open, allowing the gunners behind it to rush forward and fire their weapons." At this the middle Gondor and Inquisition soldiers move forward to the sides allowing the Asari, and Krogan soldiers to rush forward and raise their weapons.

"And if the enemy really wants to get through our shields, if you find yourselves in a position where you can maneuver around your shield wall, then do just that. The enemy will be so focused on the shields, that'll give you a small opening to hit them while they are distracted. Of course in that situation, you also need to watch the sides yourself if the enemy tries flanking around the shield wall." the UNIT soldier continues.

"So from here, you can just look at that monitor. Once you have sight on the enemy, try and put them at the center of these four lines here, and then pull the trigger on that joystick in your right hand." a female US Army soldier tells an Earthbending soldier as he sits inside a Humvee being taught how to operate a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS, for short.

"And this "joystick" will fire that weapon placed atop of this vehicle?" the Earthbender asks.

"That's correct. At least until it's ammunition runs out. You can also use this to move the gun around..." the US Army soldier replies.

At a shooting range a Water Tribe warrior fires a M395B DMR hitting multiple holographic targets, "Nice shooting!" the UNSC Army soldier standing behind him compliments.

"If you haven't already noticed, using one of these things is far more complicated then just swinging a sword around, or pulling an arrow back on a bow and releasing it. It's more than just aiming it at someone and pulling the trigger. Like how your weapons need to be constantly cared for so they don't break, or the blade goes dull, or something. Firearms also need to be cared for so they don't malfunction on you, and if you're wondering what that means, a malfunction is basically when something bad happens causing the weapon to not work anymore. Some malfunctions are fixable even on the battlefield, others are not…" a US Marine explains to a group of ancient-era soldiers with a table of various firearms in front of him.

"That's a Class-A thermal detonator. To activate it, you just press that red button. As soon as you do, toss it at the enemy and it'll do the rest for you. Just try not to drop it as soon as you activate it, and if you do, either try and pick it back up and throw it, or just run like hell as fast as you can." a male Human New Republic Marine says to a female Dwarven soldier.

A Krogan takes a few steps forward before coming to a stop, as he then lowers a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon and spools the weapon up before firing away; using said weapon to take out a number of holographic enemy targets in front of him all in just a few seconds. Once all of the holo targets disappeared and stopped materializing, the Krogan took his finger off the trigger and casually lifted the large weapon over his left shoulder as he turned around to face a large group of Coalition soldiers, a few Clones among them.

"Hehe, I like this gun." he says with a large, rather creepy, grin.

"I wish you luck in trying to get that back from him now, Griz." a female Turian says to the Clone sitting next to her.

A female Fereldan soldier swings her wooden longsword down at the Clone trooper in front of her, the Clone raising his wooden sword to block the attack as she then swings to her left to go for his legs, which the Clone manages to block as well. The Fereldan soldier then rams her elbow into the Clone's chest knocking him back slightly, allowing her to close in while his guard is down and strike him on the head causing him to yelp out in pain as he drops his sword and puts his hands on his head.

Nearby a few of the soldiers watching this laugh, "Nice job, Stainnk! Really showing people what we Clones are made of!" another Clone, without his helmet on, yells out.

The Clone on the sparring mat turns around, "Oh shut it, Stak! I'd like to see you come out here and try this sword fighting stuff out! We're Clones, not Jedi! We weren't meant for fighting with these kinds of weapons!"

A Gondor soldier holds his training spear toward a male UNSC Marine with a training knife as he holds it in a forward hammer grip, the Gondor soldier thrusts his spear forward as the Marine dodges it and grabs the shaft. Pulling it and the Gondor soldier towards him as he goes for the chest and strikes him, "Cease!" a Sangheili Major shouts as he walks forward, "Victor," he says pointing to the UNSC Marine, "Defeated." he adds pointing to the Gondorian.

Three warriors consisting of a female Dalish Elf, a Kirkwall Guardsman, and a Nonbending Fire Nation soldier, stand at the front of a large group of Coalition soldiers, all of them from the factions that utilize firearms as the three warriors at the front swing their wooden swords in unison and one move at a time which the soldiers behind replicated. The three warriors teaching their futuristic allies how to move and fight with ancient blades should the need for it arise. An Adranian Elf charges a Systems Alliance Marine, the elf swings his wooden sword at him as the marine reaches forward and manages to wrap his arms around his shoulder as he then proceeds to turn and throw the elf to the ground. A Sangheili Minor grapples with a Krogan at close quarters as they both grab each other's hands and slam their heads against one another; both of them baring their teeth and growling at the other as they attempt to overpower them through sheer strength.

"Come on! Bring it on!" an Unggoy minor challenges a male Legion of the Dead dwarf, both of them wielding wooden axes. As the Unggoy charges the dwarf who proceeds to simply elbow him across the face to knock him face forward to the ground.

"If he goes for a wide swing from the side, reach forward, grab him by the shoulder, throw him to the ground." a male Turian instructs a group of Coalition soldiers as a Rohan soldier works with him to show what he was talking about. The Rohan soldier pulls his sword arm far back as he slowly swings it forward, allowing the Turian soldier to reach forward and grab him by the shoulder as he turns and slowly throws him to the floor onto his back.

"From this position you can strike your downed enemy in a number of ways, a punch to the face, grabbing something to hit them with, a strike to the throat to stun them. This method can also work if they go for an overhead strike, but for that one you grab their wrist, and their arm to throw them over your shoulder…"

"And… go!" an Orlesian soldier shouts as he swings his right arm down.

A male human College mage and Quarian marine, both of them unarmed, move towards one another with their fists held up. The Quarian in a calm, collected manner while the College mage seemed to be more skittish and terrified in his movement. The College mage threw his right fist forward, which was all the Quarian marine needed as he easily caught his arm and swept kick his right foot sending him to the ground. The Quarian dropping right on top of him to pin the mage down as the Orlesian shouted for the Quarian to stop which he quickly complied too as the match ended.

In the War Games room, Coalition Marines engaged holographic enemy forces in a snowy environment. An Asari raises a biotic sphere to protect the marines around her from enemy fire as they get into cover; meanwhile the marines outside the sphere have already found cover as they return fire at the enemy uphill from them. Once everyone was in cover the Asari lowered her sphere, as then from behind her a Firebender and a female Orlesian mage appeared with both going to her sides and releasing powerful fire attacks towards the enemy soldiers taking a number of them out in a massive explosion.

"Brutes, Ogres, and Trolls are one in the same. They are large, strong, tough to take down, and they look really ugly." a male Inquisition officer begins to speak, behind him three holograms of a Husk Brute, a Darkspawn Ogre, and then an Olog-hai troll. In front of him the men and women of his platoon as they sat down and looked up at the three brutish beasts.

"But they aren't invincible. They can be taken down, but it will require teamwork, precision, or perhaps just a big explosion or big fucking weapon. The Brutes have all been seen heavily armored, Ogres, and Trolls, from what I've read on them, are fifty-fifty; sometimes they are unarmored, other times they are. It's a guarantee though that the enemy will equip all of them, or at least as many as they can, with as much armor as they would usually wear, and most likely use the same metal that many of us from "ancient" times, now use. Meaning all three will be even tougher to take down. Again though, they aren't invincible. As how any other armor works, there'll only be so much they will be able to take before they are broken through. That's not an option for us however, with how limited our supplies are, and how dangerous they can be if not dealt with immediately. So again, we either hit them with a big weapon that causes a big explosion, we wait for support from our vehicles, or we hit the creatures in the right spots. Basically any part of them that is unarmored; the creatures will still take a while to bring down with the latter option, but if it's the only option we have there's not much else we can do."

"Should you encounter a Decepticon, move as far back as possible and engage them from long range." a NEST soldier begins to explain to another platoon of Coalition soldiers with several holograms of Decepticons behind him. "No matter how upgraded your swords or other close range weapons may be, trying to engage one of these things up close is all but a guaranteed suicide unless you are extremely lucky. Even then, you'd barely be doing a thing to hurt them unless you could cut through their entire ankle or something. A surefire way of taking down a Decepticon is by going for the head, just like any other living being; take out their eyes to blind them…"

"Droidekas, or Destroyers as we like to call these Clankers may not look tough now. But when they transform." the Clone officer presses a button on his comlink transforming the three droids into their three-legged form. "They become one of the worst things a Clone, or even a Jedi can run into on the field of battle, especially if there are more than one. They're most vulnerable when in their wheel configuration, however they move extremely fast in that form so hitting them can be quite difficult; when they begin to transform, you'll have but a second more to try and hit them before they complete their transformation. As soon as they've changed into this, it's where things are gonna get messy."

"Destroyers come equipped with two twin blaster cannons, and their own personal shield generator." the Clone officer presses another button on his comlink activating all three Droidekas shields, "These shields will deflect any high-velocity projectiles, nothing short of a high-powered explosive from a rocket, or the cannon of a walker will be able to pierce it. They do have two weaknesses however; they are blind from the back, and their shields can't stop any slow moving, or stationary objects. So one way of taking a destroyer out is by having one team hit it from the front to keep its attention, while another flanks from behind and moves in to quite literally shove a gun through its shield and blast them from the back. Of course the more Droidekas or other battle droids there are, the more difficult it will be to sneak around to their back; which will take us to the other method of taking these things down. Albeit a more difficult one, you will need to get the right speed when tossing an EMP or any other type of grenade so that it will be able to pass through the shield of the destroyer. If it rolls too fast, the shield will deflect it and it will do nothing, but if it rolls slow enough, it'll bypass the shield and take the destroyer out…"

"Captain, you got an incoming transmission from Admiral Ackbar." Roland speaks up.

"Put him through Roland." Lasky says as he walks around to the front of the holotable.

Roland disappears as a holovid with Admiral Ackbar pops up, "Captain Lasky." Ackbar greets.

"Admiral Ackbar, is there something I can help you with?" Lasky asks as he rests his hands behind his back.

"Pardon me, I am just curious as to how things are going aboard your ship, Captain. Has your crew and the troops stationed aboard recovered from the attack?" Admiral Ackbar asks.

"We still have a few people recovering in the medbay, otherwise all of the wounded are back up on their feet and itching for the real fight, Admiral." Lasky reports.

"That is good to hear. Are the troops preparing for the upcoming battle?" Ackbar asks.

"At this point, you should be asking who isn't, sir. Everyone's training in whatever way they can. The War Games simulator is being run nearly 24/7, all the firing ranges, gyms, obstacle courses, every training room you could imagine is filled to full capacity or being utilized by one unit or as many as possible. The only reason there might not be someone, or a unit training is because they're waiting their turn to utilize a specific room, or because they need some rest from all of the training they've been doing. Hell I've had to authorize certain rooms to be partially turned into whatever sort of training area is needed, some of the hangars now host close-quarters training, storage rooms have become makeshift urban environment training. No one's slacking off in the training department sir." Lasky reports.

"That is good, very good to hear. I've heard the same thing being said across all of the fleets. No one wants to be unprepared for the coming battle. Everyone is pushing themselves to their limits, and beyond to make sure they are as prepared as they can be for the fight against the Reapers and their allies. Let us hope that it will be enough." Ackbar says.

"As is the nature of war, Admiral. Hoping that everything the soldiers are doing is enough to help them defeat the enemy." Lasky says.

"Indeed. And what of the heroes?" Ackbar asks.

"Same thing for them. Training as hard as any of the troops. Gotta say, with everything I've seen of what these heroes are capable of. I hate to admit it, but without them I feel like our chances at winning this war would have been a lot slimmer. These heroes, they sure are… something. Even if the majority of them are mostly civilians." Lasky says.

"From the reports you, and Admiral Hackett have both sent to me, as well as to the rest of the leaders. Many of us have to agree as well. As you said, there may have been a slim chance of us still winning this war without them, but if so, it would have been with heavy casualties. With these heroes on our side, and with as many as we have, perhaps we can reduce the number of casualties by some margin, even if it is only a small one." Ackbar agrees.

"I hope so as well sir. And while I do appreciate you for checking up on things here Admiral, if I may speak so boldly. Admiral Hackett could have done the same thing, since at this point it seems he has become the main liaison between the various military factions in this Coalition. You said so previously that you've "heard the same thing being said across all of the fleets", suggesting you've contacted the other faction leaders to speak to them on something. And given our most recent allies, I can only assume that you contacting all of us, perhaps has something more to do with you wanting to check up not only on us and the troops, but more specifically how things have been between the Galactic Republic, and New Republic forces." Lasky deduces.

"How very perceptive you are, Captain. Indeed, this is the main reason I have contacted you. And you know why." Ackbar says.

The knowledge… more specifically, the real knowledge behind both the New Republic, and "Old" Republic's history with one another, had been shared with only a select few of the Coalition's leaders, those Admiral Hackett, and Admiral Ackbar knew should be informed of such information, and were deemed trustworthy enough to keep such a secret. So as to monitor things between the soldiers of the New Republic, and Galactic Republic, to make sure nothing bad was going on between them.

"Well Admiral, I can gladly say that other than a few minor issues. Things have been quite smooth between your New Republic, and the Galactic Republic. The reports that have come in have stated that a few New Republic troops have had a difficult time working and getting along with the Clones, even with the cover story you've published. They're being handled but otherwise, both sides seem to be getting along with each other just fine; and no problems have come from any of the Clones." Lasky explains.

Ackbar lets out a breath of relief with his eyes closed as he opens them back up, "That is very good to hear. A few is better than most. Perhaps it's because of what's at stake, that's keeping the troops in line. Or maybe the story is working, whatever the case may be, I am glad our forces are getting along with one another. If even our two factions alone were to become divided during the battle, it could have dangerous consequences on the Coalition as a whole."

"Just out of curiosity, did you ever fight alongside the Grand Army of the Republic?" Lasky asks.

"Yes, a Civil War broke out on our homeworld during the Clone Wars between our race, and the Quarren. The Jedi and Clones helped us not only to drive the Separatist forces off our planet, but also helped to reunify both sides. The Clones are good soldiers, good men, and they were close with their Jedi Generals. So when I heard of what happened, I could hardly believe it. Deep down I knew something was wrong, that something must have happened that forced the Clones to turn on the Jedi, they did not do it of their own free will. Even if there were a few, I have a hard time believing every Clone would just turn their back on the Jedi." Ackbar says.

"So you don't blame the Clones in any way for the rise of the Empire?" Lasky asks with a raised brow.

"No, I do not. I only wish I could say the same for all those in the New Republic. While we know there were other powers at play, that it wasn't entirely the Clones fault for what happened. It still doesn't take away what then happened, when the Republic became the Empire, when the Clones turned into the first generation of Stormtroopers. Some of the horrors they did, enforcing the rule of the Empire. I have no personal issue with the Clones, but some in the New Republic, I cannot blame them for the hatred they may have against them, for as I said, there were some things the Clones did in the early years of the Empire. That could not be forgiven. And in many people's eyes, they see the Clones as traitors." Ackbar explains.

"I see. This must be a tough situation for you. Not being able to say anything to help these people so that another Galactic Empire isn't created." Lasky says.

"Even if it is a parallel universe, a part of me doesn't want what happened to us to happen to trillions of more people. A part of me wants there to be a universe out there, a timeline where the Galactic Empire doesn't rise to power. Where there actually is peace in the galaxy, following the Clone Wars. It's one of the reasons I didn't want this version of the Galactic Republic to get involved. The temptation to tell them everything, to prevent Palpatine's rise to power is strong. But I know that if I, or anyone else in the New Republic says anything that prevents it from happening, as terrible as it is, it could spell doom to our entire universe as a whole. And all the lives that were sacrificed during our war against the Empire, would have been for nothing." Ackbar says.

12PM

Wednesday, March 4th

72 Hours Until Invasion of Earth...

After grabbing his bowl of sliced apples and placing it on his tray Tsukasa turned and walked away from the food counter. After taking a couple of steps he suddenly heard, "Hey, Decade!" and looked in the direction it came from to see Shotaro Hidari waving him over from a table several feet away.

Along with the left side of Kamen Rider Double was his other half Philip, Eiji Hino aka Kamen Rider OOO, Gentaro Kisaragi aka Kamen Rider Fourze, Haruto Soma aka Kamen Rider Wizard, Kouta Kazuraba aka Kamen Rider Gaim, Shinnosuke Tomari aka Kamen Rider Drive, Takeru Tenkuji aka Kamen Rider Ghost, and finally their latest Rider comrade, Emu Hojo aka Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Or more precisely the latest Rider to join the "Legendary Rider community" as Gentaro would have put it, basically once two new Riders showed up the third to last Rider would become a "Legendary Rider" instead of a "Newbie Rider" as Shotaro would call them. With that title of course going to the new people to take on the mantle of being a Kamen Rider. Both of whom weren't here at the moment due to… certain circumstances keeping them from joining the fight; in the case of a certain genius physicist it was due to him being in a AR World at the moment as it had not yet been that time, while for a certain "time king", well his situation was a lot more convoluted then the other. With said convoluted situation involving the fact that basically none of the other Riders, save for him, Den-O, and Kouta even knew of his existence due to the whole resetting of time just a few weeks ago which also made him no longer a Kamen Rider… at least at the moment. So at the current moment Ex-Aid was still the second to newest Kamen Rider to appear, while only a select few even knew of Build due to the Enigma situation several months ago.

Tsukasa walks over to join his fellow Riders, "Yo, Tsukasa-san. Haven't seen you in a while, been enjoying your recent travels?" Shotaro questions in a humorous tone with a smirk.

"Save for the Reapers, it's not been so bad." Tsukasa says as he sets his tray down between Shotaro and Gentaro and takes his seat. "No offense, but it kind of gets boring after a while traveling between worlds where it's only different Riders and such. Traveling to different universes with heroes vastly different from us Riders is just a bit more interesting, and exciting." he adds as he picks up an apple slice and takes a bite out of it.

"I could only imagine." Shinnosuke speaks.

"Must say, you and the Commander sure have picked up some interesting people. And this is coming from a "Space God" mind you." Kouta says with a small chuckle.

"And I thought we were a strange bunch. Turns out, there's even stranger bunches of people out there." Haruto says in a humorous tone while holding a plain sugar donut in his right hand.

"Strange and strong! Seriously, the powers some of these heroes possess are amazing! These Reapers along with Cerberus and all those other bad guys won't stand a chance!" Gentaro states as he slams his right fist into his left hand.

"Sounds to me like you're all getting along well with the rest of these heroes. I do hope everyone's behaved quite well so it doesn't make the rest of us Riders look bad." Tsukasa says.

"Other than Shotaro being his usual half-boiled self around some of them, and Momotaros and the Imagin being a bit annoying and getting into a few fights, not too much." Philip casually says while reading a green-covered book.

"Hey!" Shotaro angrily calls to him.

"I don't know, I find it kind of sweet how Shotaro here has turned himself into somewhat of a big brother for Wendy." Gentaro says in a playful tone.

"Wendy?" Tsukasa asks as he looks at him, "The girl from Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah, Shotaro has turned himself into a big brother of sorts for her. Well, not just him, you could say we all have as well. Since she came aboard with Erza and the others, there's been a lot of heroes looking out for her actually. For obvious reasons." Kouta says.

"She's just a kid, she shouldn't be here!" Shotaro states with displeasure in his voice as he crosses his arms. "I don't care what she, her talking cat, or those other mages have to say. This is no place for someone her age."

"Her healing magic is powerful that I will admit, she saved a lot of people following the recent attack. And I fought with her so I've seen what she's capable of. But even I have to agree she shouldn't be on the battlefield. It just doesn't feel right for someone her age to be participating in these kinds of things. Even if she does have powerful magic." Emu says in agreement.

"So you have a problem with her being here, but what about the others? The rest of the Fairy Tail mages, Ben, Rex, Aang and his friends?" Tsukasa asks out of curiosity.

"The rest of the Fairy Tail mages I don't have a problem with, they're old enough and know very well how to fight and take care of themselves. Same with Aang, Harry, and their friends. Ben, Rex, and Edward, I can also let slide but they just annoy the hell out of me sometimes. Out of all of the young heroes Shepard recruited, I find Wendy being the only one I truly feel like shouldn't be here." Shotaro says.

"Even though she has aided her friends in Fairy Tail in fighting their own wars against very powerful dark guilds and an empire back in their universe? Add to the fact she's apparently taken on a lot of powerful mages, and a demon, and has managed to defeat them." Tsukasa questions.

"Don't care. It's as Emu said, to me it just doesn't feel right, we're basically throwing children into this war!" Shotaro states.

"I'm not saying I like it either, Shotaro. But is it your right to speak on what she can and can't do? In the end it's her decision on whether she wants to be here or not. And there's nothing either of us, or anyone else can do that will stop her from taking part in this." Tsukasa says.

"Tch, and I thought Erza was responsible. Yet she seems to have no problem letting a kid join in on a war." Shotaro quietly says to himself.

Gentaro leans towards Tsukasa, "You wouldn't hear him saying that to her. He may not admit it, but after the ass kicking she gave him during one of their sparring sessions, I can tell he's a bit scared of Erza." he whispers in a humored tone.

The two lean away from each other as Tsukasa nods his head, "Anyways, moving on. How have things been with the Coalition soldiers? I would imagine it's been an interesting experience so far, given how this is a first for all of us. Except for you maybe, Shinnosuke-kun." Tsukasa says as he turns his attention towards Kamen Rider Drive.

"Ah~." Shinnosuke says as he scratches the back of his head nervously, "I would say there's a big difference between working with the Police compared to an actual Military force, Tsukasa-san."

"I may not have any experience in either one, but even I can tell that the Police and Military are far different from one another. I must admit it is weird, even though we as Kamen Riders have been fighting a "war" per say against the forces of evil of our world. This is our first real war, and one where we're going to be fighting alongside people who aren't just fellow Riders, or Super Sentai, or even heroes for that matter. But soldiers… we're going to be fighting alongside a military force, and not just one but multiple. When I became a Kamen Rider, yes I knew I was going to have to fight evil, but I never thought it'd be like this." Takeru speaks up.

"I'm sure none of us ever expected to take part in an actual military war Takeru. I mean, I became a doctor to save people, not to take someone else's life. Even when I became a Kamen Rider, when people were infected with the Bugster virus, or attacked me, I did my best to try and save them. Never to kill them." Emu says.

Shotaro sighs, "Yeah well the people we're fighting now aren't like the people back in our universe. And this isn't one of our normal fights against Dai-Shocker or some other kind of evil organization or group of people. This is war, real war. And we either fight, or we die. No ifs, ands, or buts about it." he says in a serious tone.

"If it helps, just imagine these people as being like Dai-Shocker's combatmen. No longer human. Any part of them that was, went away long ago when they joined with the wrong people. I mean just look at Cerberus, they're turning their people into half Husks. These are the kinds of people we're going to be fighting against. They're no longer human, and they never will be again." Tsukasa explains.

"Even if that is the case, just because it's war doesn't mean we need to kill everyone. If that helps as well. But just remember, one wrong mistake, could cost someone else their life. This is different from anything many of us have ever experienced. Times are changing, and if we don't change with it, other people will suffer because of our actions" Shinnosuke says.

"So we either get super serious for once to save lives, or we remain our current selves and risk getting people around us killed because we couldn't bring ourselves to kill someone who's our enemy? Really liking the options we have presented to us." Kouta sarcastically says with his arms crossed.

"As much as I hate to agree with it, Shinnosuke is right. Times are changing, if we're to be the multiverse's final hope, we're going to have to do things we never thought of doing before." Haruto says.

"If the innocent, and good people of the multiverse are to have a future." Takeru says.

"If they're to smile again." Emu says.

"If they're to continue forming more bonds of friendship with others." Gentaro says.

"There are people out there, reaching their hands out for help. And we need to reach back and grab them." Eiji states.

"Hope these Reapers have counted up their sins, cause their time is coming. And us Riders, along with the Heroes and Armies of the Multiverse will be coming for them, and anyone else who could even think of working alongside such monsters." Shotaro says.

"Soon enough." Tsukasa finishes.

Emma, in her power suit, rolls back and comes up crouched on her right knee as she raises her Phoenix Shot and fires a single pink energy bolt. Gia deflects the shot to the ground using her Tiger Claw as she charges her with a battle cry, closing the distance quickly as she throws a push kick at Emma who rolls once again this time to her left to dodge the attack. Emma once again comes up onto her right knee and raises her weapon to fire, but Gia is able to quickly spin to her right and throw a roundhouse kicking the weapon away. Gia then follows immediately up with a spinning heel kick forcing Emma to drop straight to the ground to avoid it, pushing herself as she rolls further away to her to her left, eventually coming to a stop as she aims her Phoenix Shot again and fires. This time managing to land two shots on Gia who cries out as sparks fly from her suit making her stumble back a little.

Gia comes to a stop, "Nice moves Emma!" she compliments her friend.

Emma stands back up, "Thanks Gia." she says.

"Hiya!" she hears the voice of Troy shout catching her attention.

Emma watches as Troy, on his right knee with his left foot pushed out to the side, swings his Dragon Sword at Noah and Jakes feet forcing them to jump flip backwards into the air to dodge the attack. The two landing as several feet behind them Robo Knight engages Orion in combat as well; with Robo Knight charging forward and swinging his Robo Blade at the silver Ranger who manages to jump past it as he swings his spear at him but also misses. Orion turns around and swings his spear again as Robo Knight turns and swings his sword as well causing the two's weapons to become locked.

Noah drops onto his right knee as he raises his weapon up, "Shark Bowgun!" he shouts, then aiming it forward and firing.

"Snake Axe!" Jake shouts as he charges forward.

Troy stands up and charges as well, twirling his sword around to block and deflect Noah's energy bolts as he closes in on Jake; once close enough Jake takes a swing at Troy who jumps high right over the axe landing past him. Noah takes aim and fires once again as Troy drops onto his back causing the energy bolts to slam right into Jake as he turns around; releasing his hold on his sword Troy quickly grabs a hold of his Mega Blaster and aims it at Noah while still holstered and fires, hitting the Blue Ranger as he drops to the ground.

Troy stands up and jogs over to Noah, extending his left hand out as Noah grabs it and is pulled up back onto his feet, "Nice one Troy." Noah says.

"Thanks, you guys had some good moves yourselves. Though next time, either try and find another position to shoot me from where you don't have to worry about hitting Jake if you miss. Or Jake." Troy then calls to him as he turns around. "Maybe try and come at me from a different direction where you don't get in Noah's way. Either one of you could have had me distracted giving the other an opening."

Gia slowly walks over to Jake's side as she helps him back up while Emma jogs over stopping just behind him to his right.

All the while Orion and Robo Knight continued their sparring as they jumped a few feet apart from each other. Suddenly the double-sided door began to open, making the two stop as they looked at it, the other Megaforce Rangers turned their attention to it as well as the familiar Super Sentai pirate crew entered the room.

"Yo, Troy." Marvelous greets with his arms crossed.

"Hey Marvelous." Troy asks as he and the other Mega Rangers power down and regroup.

"Training hard as always I see. Even though last I checked, you and the rest of your team are going to be taking part in the space battle aboard your Megazords." Marvelous says as he and the other Gokaigers walk up to their Ranger counterparts.

"That may be true, but it always helps to be prepared for the unexpected." Troy says as he puts his hands to his hips. "You never know when you might need to become a pirate and board an enemy ship. Though instead of doing it to loot them of all of their valuables, it'd be more of a taking them out from the inside sort of boarding action." he adds with a smirk.

"Oh? Would you look at that Captain, they're taking a page out of our book." Luka comments in a sly tone.

"So it would seem. And here I thought you never wanted to become a space pirate." Marvelous says.

Troy smiles at this as Marvelous just smirks, "So what brings you here? Shouldn't you and your team be training for the upcoming battle? You guys are heading planetside after all. Where was it you're hitting again?" Troy asks.

"Some island called Aruba." Joe answers for the team.

"Aruba, it's an island in the southern part of the Caribbean Sea, just north of the coast of Venezuela. The island is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Basically meaning even though they aren't actually a part of the Netherlands, you know actual land since that's all the way in Western Europe, they are still a part of them in general since the Netherlands seized the island from Spain in 1636 during the Thirty Years' War." Noah speaks up.

"That would be the place. We're going to be working with the Coalition 1st Army Division, landing at a place called Eagle Beach and pushing our way towards the island's capital, Oranjestad, from there." Don explains.

"It also appears we're going to be working alongside our fellow pirates from the sea, the Straw Hats, during the attack." Ahim adds in.

"Great. We get stuck battling it out in space with the baddies, and these guys get to go to the beach." Jake says in a sarcastic manner.

"The island is only 20 miles long, depending on how long this battle goes on for. What happens if you guys and the Coalition forces you're working with manage to capture the island before it's over?" Emma asks.

"Well, I would assume once we're done there we would probably be deployed elsewhere, wherever we're needed. Perhaps on one of the nearby islands, or one of the mainland's." Gai says.

"That is assuming the battle goes on long enough for such a situation to occur. Even then, there is the inevitable arrival of Reaper reinforcements to consider." Robo Knight says.

"No kidding, even if you guys were to somehow clear the whole island of enemy troops. Reaper reinforcements are all but guaranteed to come eventually. They'll just send more Husks to the island, and if you guys just up and leave to go help elsewhere that would basically make that whole fight there pointless." Orion says.

"The only fight on Earth that truly matters is the one in London. All these other ones are just to keep the Reapers from sending reinforcements to that city alone. Not to mention we have more than a million troops now spread throughout all of these fleets. We'd be wasting them if we were to only focus our efforts on a single city. If help is needed elsewhere, they'll send only us heroes, and perhaps another wave of soldiers to that location to assist. Otherwise the Coalition forces that attacked the island with us will probably just dig in and hold the island should the Reapers send reinforcements there." Joe says.

"Let's just hope we can defeat the Reapers quick enough before that happens. I like our odds now the way they are, but if the Reapers send reinforcements I have a feeling things are going to take a turn for the worse." Gia says.

"I'm pretty sure we can all see that being the outcome if it does happen. If we're lucky we'll be able to hold out for a little bit, but after that. I think this little Coalition will be done for, and the multiverse with it." Luka says.

Marvelous takes a few steps towards Troy until he is just a few inches in front of him, "We didn't need all this fancy training to beat the hell out of the Zangyack Empire, and we won't need it now to beat the Reapers and the rest of those bastards. But if it helps a little, and gets annoying people like you off our back, then I guess it doesn't hurt to do some training here and there. Though the best method of training I prefer is testing out the strength of these other heroes. But we've already done enough of that today. Met up with the Company we're going to be fighting alongside during our attack on this Aruba island, and decided to help them out a little bit. Then had a little sparring match against some of those heroes from the Justice League, Green Arrow, Crimson Avenger, Stargirl, STRIPE, Vigilante, and Shining Knight. Put up a good fight let me tell you. So we're done for the day. Plus it looks like you lot have been working hard yourselves today, so fighting you right this moment wouldn't be nearly as fun as it would be if you were at full strength. Word of advice if you are going with your normal, super serious routine every day. Try not to overdo it. Save your energy for the real fighting, cause I have a feeling we're going to be needing all of it." he says.

"As for why we're here." Marvelous says as he then reaches forward and puts his right hand on Troy's left shoulder, "I'm giving you control over the GokaiGalleon." he says with a serious look on his face.

At this Troy's eyes widen in surprise, the rest of the Megaforce Rangers are equally taken aback by this save for Robo Knight who doesn't show any reaction to it.

"You're giving your ship to me?" Troy asks.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, it's only temporary. I'm only giving it to you for the purpose of helping you out a little bit in the space battle." Marvelous says as he retracts his hand and crosses his arms.

"And! Since Noah told me that your Q-Rex Zord can be auto piloted by him, Orion. I will be giving you control over my GoZyuJin as well! That way you guys can have double the power of both the Megaforce Power Rangers, and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger!" Gai excitedly announces as well.

"Seriously?!" Orion says shocked to be hearing this.

"Think of it as our way of telling you brats to kick some serious Reaper ass for us up in space. While we're down on the planet fighting the small fries." Luka says as off to her right Ahim and Don exchange smiles with one another while Joe smirks. "However!" Luka shouts as she points at them with her left finger.

"Any damage that ship sustains you're paying for it. So you better take good care of it!" she states.

The Megaforce Rangers couldn't help but share joyous glances at one another.

Troy, who was looking back at his friends also sharing a smile with them, looks back at Marvelous, "That's very generous of you Marvelous, thank you." he says.

"Yeah well. Think nothing of it. It's our way of contributing to your guys' fight against the Reapers while you're in space. Might not make a big difference, but a little is better than nothing. There are still treasures out there, and adventures to be had back in our home universe. And I'd rather prefer experiencing all of that alive, and without worrying about the Reapers. I've already gone ahead and had Doc make the necessary modifications to the ship to allow your Ranger Keys to work with it. And if you need any help, Navi will be there to assist you with anything you need." Marvelous says.

"Speaking of which, here you go Jake." Don says as he takes out from his pocket Jake's Super Megaforce Green Key and underhand throws it at him.

Jake catches the key, "So this is why you needed to borrow my Ranger Key." he says.

"Thank you again Marvelous, and I promise you. We'll bring your ship back to you in one piece." Troy says.

"You better, it's our home after all. And I'm tired of it getting constantly destroyed during big battles like this one! And if you don't, I'll have Luka over there decide your punishment for it getting destroyed." Marvelous says while gesturing over to Luka with his head.

With this finished Marvelous turns as he begins to head towards the door, the rest of his team following right behind him.

"Hey Marvelous!" Troy calls to him, making him stop and turn around.

"When this is all over, and we're all back at full strength, your team versus my team. The Gokaigers, versus the Megaforce Rangers. To see who's the strongest, Super Sentai, or Power Rangers. How about it?" Troy asks as a sly smile comes to his lips.

Marvelous huffs at this as he smirks and turns back forward to continue walking.

"Glyph, what are the latest reports on the Reapers?" Liara asks her info drone, the Asari Shadow Broker, back at work in her office on her Shadow Broker network terminal.

"The latest reports from your field agents indicate no changes in the Reaper lines. Planets with Reaper presence have experienced a drop in Reaper forces with the harvestation of those worlds all but coming to a slow halt. While no further worlds have been attacked by the advancing Reaper fleets for the past couple of days." Glyph says.

Liara stops typing as she raises her head, "So the Reapers have basically stopped or slowed down all of their operations across the entire galaxy?" she asks.

"That seems to be correct, Dr. T'Soni." Glyph responds.

"Hm~." Liara hums, when suddenly she hears the door open.

"Shepard, something appears to be happening to the-" Liara stops as she turns to the door and sees who it really is, "Oh!" she becomes surprised.

"Javik?" Liara says as Javik stands at the doorway with his hands behind his back looking around the room.

"Greetings Asar…" Javik pauses as he looks at Liara, "Dr. T'Soni." he greets as the door closes behind him.

He takes a few more steps towards her, "So, this is the room from which you conduct your Shadow Broker operations from." he says. He slowly looks around once more, "It's not very impressive. Also feels a bit claustrophobic, I must say"

"Yes well, it's just a temporary setup. You should have seen the original ship I used to do all of this on. A lot more roomier. Unfortunately, I had to crash the ship into a Cerberus cruiser when they came for me. I was lucky enough to save most of the equipment I would need to continue my work as the Shadow Broker. Which is good, as it has helped us quite a bit in constructing the Crucible, and recruiting allies. Not so much unfortunately in combating the Reapers, but it has helped me to keep tabs on where the Reapers have hit in different parts of the galaxy." Liara says.

Javik walks past Liara, "Ah yes, the infamous suicide ship ramming strategy. Ram your ship into the enemy's when all else has failed in hopes that if you are to die then you will at least take them with you. I heard stories of ship captains back in my cycle attempting this strategy time and time again when the Reapers kept on pushing our forces back. A few even sacrificing their entire crew with them in an attempt to destroy even a single Reaper." Javik stops and turns back to Liara.

"Unfortunate that it barely ever worked unless the Reaper was already in a damaged state, or the ship was full of nothing but explosives. I believe there is a saying that has survived into even this cycle, "the captain always goes down with their ship", yet here you are." Javik says.

"Yes well, I find that saying rather foolish, especially to those who actually believe and follow it. When in this day and age you can simply just remotely send the ship crashing into the enemy instead of needing to be onboard. That way you get to live to fight another day, and the enemy doesn't. Like at this moment. For if I had done that, I wouldn't have been able to use my Shadow Broker resources to help Shepard with all of this. I'm pretty sure I've done a lot more to help in the fight against the Reapers being alive then dead." Liara says.

"Hm… this is true." Javik says as he crosses his arms. "You appeared troubled when I entered, is everything alright?"

Liara turns to face her terminal and leans over as she puts her hands on either side of the desk, "It's the Reapers. According to my agents, their activities have all but ceased. Planets the Reapers have already attacked have supposedly seen a decrease in their numbers, and a slowdown of their operations. Worlds the Reapers were closing in on haven't been attacked yet, even though the last reports said those attacks should have begun by now. The Reapers have seemingly stopped advancing across the entire galaxy. I wonder if the same thing is happening in the other universes, I will need to speak to Captain Lasky and some of the other Coalition leaders to find out." she explains.

Javik puts his right hand to his chin and left hand beneath his elbow, "Hm~. This is strange indeed. I have never heard of the Reapers coming to a complete stop during their harvesting, it surely never happened during my cycle. Perhaps they know that the final battle is upon them. They are conserving their forces so should they need them, should the battle go our way, they will have the reinforcements to send at us. It is most likely they plan to overwhelm us, and give us no means of escape. They will come through the Mass Relay, break through the rearguard fleet, and then surround us so not a single ship escapes. This truly will be the battle that decides all. We either activate the Crucible, or they wipe us all out." he says.

"And if they play this smart, if they wait for us to bring the Crucible in. They'll most likely destroy it as well, so there is no risk of anyone using it. It's as Shepard said, if we die, the multiverse will fall." Liara says, leaning back up and crossing her arms.

"Tell me Dr. T'Soni, are you afraid?" Javik asks.

Liara turns around to face him, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. Though it's nothing compared to how scared I would have been a few years ago when I was just a normal archeologist. I'm pretty sure back then I probably would have passed out from how scared I would have been. Actually I don't even think I would have been here if it wasn't for how much my life has changed since meeting Shepard." Liara says.

"I suppose this is where you come in and say something bad about me being scared, even though it's a normal reaction to have for something as big as to what's about to happen. Even the most experienced soldiers can be scared of an upcoming battle, perhaps not scared for themselves, but for those around them. After all, no one wants to experience any more loss. But we all know it's going to happen regardless." Liara adds.

Javik lowers his head, "While normally I would have called those terrified for an upcoming battle weak, and cowards. That deserved to be shot before they got others killed, or before they could run away and abandon their comrades. I will not do so for you." he says as he raises his head to look at her again.

Liara becomes surprised by this, "If there is one thing I have come to know about you, Liara T'Soni. It is that you are not weak. You say you are scared, but that is now. I know that you will overcome your fear, when the time for battle has arrived. You would never let fear overtake you, because you know that if you do, it could get those close to you killed. You would never become like those who let fear take control of their mind, for those people would leave their friends, their comrades behind to die by themselves. That is something I would never see you do, because you are not that kind of person. You are a warrior, who is willing to sacrifice their own life so that others may continue to live, just like the Commander, just like the others on this team, just like the rest of these heroes." Javik says as he takes a step closer to her.

Javik closes his eyes and raises his left hand to put on her right shoulder, "You have changed quite much in the past few years, ever since encountering the Commander. You were shy, naive, inexperienced when you first met him, when you joined him in the fight against Saren, the Geth, and the Reaper Sovereign. When the Commander returned from his death, by then you had become distant from your friends, cold, and ruthless because of what the previous Shadow Broker had put you through, you had become someone you despised. Even though in reality, that was all but an illusion. But then when he helped you to defeat the Shadow Broker, to save your friend, you managed to pull yourself back towards the person you really were, while also showing that you still had grown over time. You have matured in the last three years, and even with some of the darkness this galaxy has to offer having surrounded you for some time, testing your patience, and your heart, you managed to remain who you truly were. That of a good Asari, a good friend." Javik says as he opens his eyes and steps back while lowering his arm.

Liara smiles at this, "Thank you, Javik." she says. Liara then smiles coyly, "And while you will never admit it, I can tell you've changed a little bit as well since we first unfroze you from your stasis pod."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Javik says as he crosses his arms.

Liara smiles and shakes her head a few times, "Javik, I have a question for you."

"Another question about my people?" Javik asks.

"No actually. Remember that idea of writing a book together, when this was all over?" Liara asks.

"And assuming we survive. Yes, I do." Javik says.

"I've come up with a list of a few possible book titles. And I wanted to hear your opinion on them. Tell me, what do you think of "Journeys With the Prothean"?" Liara asks.

"WHOA!" Anakin Skywalker cries out as he is slammed into a pile of crates knocking some of them over.

Erza Scarlet, in her Black Wing Armor, slowly descends to the ground before requipping back into her normal armor.

"Okay, I did not see that coming I will admit. Also, ow." Anakin says while lying upside down with his legs against the crate.

Erza walks over and extends her left hand to him which he accepts as she helps him onto his feet, "Erza, right?" Anakin asks while dusting himself off.

"That's right." Erza replies, closing her eyes and nodding her head.

"Well then Erza, all I can say is. Where have you been since the Clone Wars started? With you on our side, I could see you tearing through droid waves like they were nothing." Anakin compliments as he puts his hands to his hips.

Off to the side several meters away, Obi-Wan Kenobi watches as the two talk, "My word, for someone so young Ms. Erza over there sure is quite strong." he compliments.

"Then again if she is from the same group as young Natsu, and Lucy, I can see why." Obi-Wan adds as surrounding him was Tommy Oliver, Takeshi Hongo, and Tsuyoshi Kaijo, all of them in their transformed forms.

"The mages from Fairy Tail are indeed powerful, especially for their age. Though you'd be surprised to hear that there may be others on board perhaps slightly, if not more stronger than them." Tommy says.

"Really now?" Obi-Wan asks intrigued by this.

"Yeah, after seeing something like that you would indeed think there could be no others just as strong. But you would be wrong." Tsuyoshi says.

"Which is good. If we're to defeat the forces of Evil, and most especially the Reapers, we will be needing strong heroes like them if we are to win this war." Takeshi says.

"It takes more than sheer strength to win a war, Mr. Hongo." Obi-Wan says.

"We know that Obi-Wan. Some of us may never have taken part in a real war like this one. But the battles we've all fought, the enemies we've faced off against. While again it can't compare to a real war like this one, or your war, it does give us a general idea of what it takes to win one. Actual strength is just one small factor in all of it, but there are more important factors out there. Like strength of heart, the will and determination to keep fighting no matter what happens, to never give up even when all hope seems lost." Tommy says.

"To keep fighting until your dying breath. Hoping that your actions will help others succeed in your place." Tsuyoshi adds.

"Even if this is to indeed be the final battle of many, all of us would not be here if we weren't ready to give it our all to save not just this universe, or ours, but all of them. We all know what needs to be done, and we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for it if it guarantees that good people all across the multiverse will continue to have a future to look forward to." Takeshi finishes.

"Yes well, let's just hope it doesn't require too much sacrifice to win this war. While losing people is inevitable, I like it more when the good guys barely lose anyone." Obi-Wan says.

A Gondor, Nonbending Fire Nation, and male Dalish Elf soldier all charge Roronoa Zoro from his left, right, and front. In the blink of an eye all three are sent flying back as they hit the mat hard and slide to a stop, "Try again." he calmly says.

The three soldiers push themselves back up as they raise their weapons toward him once more, "All you have to do is fight me for more than five seconds. You don't need to defeat me, though it would be interesting to see you try." Zoro slightly taunts as he grins.

The three soldiers pant heavily as they look at one another, the Dalish Elf warrior nods his head as all three look back at and charge Zoro once more. The Gondor soldier swings his sword down as Zoro simply takes a step back, the Fire Nation soldier thrusts his sword forward as Zoro knocks it away with his wooden sword, and the Dalish Elf soldier swings his Dar'Misaan longsword and Dar'Misu dagger at Zoro from behind. Zoro spins around in just a millisecond and blocks both weapons with his sword, pushing them away with ease as he proceeds to sweep the Dalish Elf warrior off his feet, and then strike the Gondor soldier's back, and the right side of the Fire Nation soldier's body with the edge of his sword. Sending all three to the ground as they groaned and writhed around in pain.

"Hm, better, but not good enough. Again." Zoro says.

From nearby Usopp, Chopper, and Robin watched Zoro, as he was also being watched by other Coalition soldiers around him. The three soldiers on the sparring mat began to pick themselves up once again.

"Whoa, look at Zoro go. He's actually taking his teaching job very seriously!" Usopp says actually surprised by this.

"I know right, it's quite strange!" Chopper adds equally as shocked.

"Not really, he's been helping some of the other sword wielding heroes for quite some time. If anything this is the first we've seen of him teaching soldiers of the Coalition how to fight with, or better their skills with a sword. Which is quite nice of him to do with the coming battle and all. Any trick they learn from Zoro just might save their life, or the life of another soldier perhaps." Robin says.

Usopp and Chopper, who were looking at Robin, look at each other still with surprised expressions on their faces.

A female Inquisition warrior throws her right fist across her body at the head of a US Marine, the Marine dodging it by throwing his head to the left as he proceeds to wrap his arms around her arm and turn as he lifts her up and throws her over his shoulder slamming her onto her back. A male Turian Marine throws a roundhouse kick at a female alien Plumber agent as she grabs his leg with both arms and sweep kicks his other leg dropping him to the ground. As Coalition soldiers and marines continue their hand-to-hand combat training, the hero Iron Fist observes from nearby.

Another arrow impacts directly into the center of a holo target as it disappears. Legolas looks to his right as all the archers from the various ancient-era military factions raise their respective bows and pull back on their arrows before releasing them. All of their arrows hitting their holo targets dead-center as Legolas nods his head approvingly.

The Red Lightspeed Ranger, Carter Grayson, throws a push kick at Red 1, Shirou Gou as he rolls beneath it to dodge the attack. Coming up behind him as he turns around and swings his Bio Sword at him which Carter turns and blocks with his Rescue Blaster in Baton mode. Chad Lee the Blue Rescue Ranger throws a cross punch at Blue3, Ryuuta Nanbara, as he catches the fist in his right hand and blocks his elbow with his left arm, pushing his right arm away as he kicks Lightspeed Blue in the stomach knocking him back. Green2, Shingo Takasugi throws a jumping tornado kick which Green Lightspeed Ranger Joel Rawlings rolls under to dodge as he recovers on the ground and heel kicks him off his other foot knocking Green2 to the ground. Both Jun Yabuki, and Kelsey Winslow, Yellow4 and Yellow Lightspeed Ranger, throw jumping roundhouse kicks with their fight feet causing both of their attacks to cancel the other out as they fall back to the ground on their feet. Hikaru Katsuragi aka Pink5 cartwheel's her way between Dana and Ryan Mitchell, the Pink Lightspeed and Titanium Ranger as they both attempt a jumping punch on her only to miss; Pink5 recovers back on her feet and turns around at the same time as the siblings as the Pink Lightspeed Ranger rushes forward and throws a punch which Pink5 pushes aside, the Titanium Ranger throwing a high roundhouse kick which Pink5 manages to block with both arms.

The Autobot Mirage swings his left-arm blade down across the floor forcing Ron Weasley, and Connor Kenway back as Ron falls to the ground; Ryu Hayabusa charges the Transformer as he runs towards his right and then jumps towards him. Mirage twirls his right-arm blade to face forward as he swings it at Ryu, only for the Dragon Ninja to suddenly turn into a wooden log in a puff of smoke as Mirage's blade slices through it. The sliced log falls to the floor as Mirage is taken aback by the trick, Ryu then appears right above him and drops onto his head, thrusting his Dragon Sword down towards his left eye but stopping just a few inches from it. Knowing he has been beaten Mirage lets out a defeated "Ah~."

Gorem and Atom-Smasher grappled with one another in an attempt to overpower the other through strength alone; Shining Knight backed up as he held his sword forward, Sokka jumped at him and swung his meteorite sword which Sir Justin easily blocked. The two circled each other for a few seconds before Sokka went for another attack which Shining Knight once again blocked.

Tony Stark came to a stop several meters in the air as he aimed both of his gauntlets down and fired his repulsor beams, Rex Salazar transformed his arms into his Block Party gauntlets as he raised his left arm and put up a blue energy shield which blocked Iron Man's repulsors. As soon as Iron Man stopped firing Rex built his Blaster Caster machine and swung his whip upwards towards the Iron Avenger, managing to wrap it around Iron Man as he then pulled him out of the air and sent him slamming into the ground several meters behind him.

Ace Bunny came down towards Leonardo and swung his Guardian Strike sword from overhead, Leonardo crossed his two Ninjaken upwards to block Ace's attack. Junko slams his Knuckle Busters together, activating them, as with a battle cry he launches himself into the air and pulls his right fist back, "Winning Knuckle!" MachGaogamon shouts as he throws his spinning right gauntleted fist forward. Both fists slam into each other creating blue and green energy shockwaves that blast backwards around the two.

An explosion erupts over a moss-covered rock as the Winter Soldier launches himself over it to take cover. Down the hill from him, Coalition soldiers take cover and fire uphill from behind rocks, in foxholes, or trenches; other heroes among them included Fenris, Blackwall, Zaeed Massani, Donatello, Brooklyn and Lexington, Skids and Mudflap, Gorzan, and Zane. Enemy fire from the top was heavy, keeping the heroes and Coalition troops pinned down until all of sudden everything stopped. Out of curiosity Bucky peeked his head out from behind the rock, soon followed by Zaeed, Blackwall, Brooklyn, and then everyone else as going up the hill were the bodies of the defeated enemy soldiers, and at the very top, Ben at XLR8 as he waved down at them with a toothy grin.

"Vortex Blaster!" Time Force Red shouts as the Time Force Rangers form the weapon.

"Quantum Defender!" Quantum Ranger shouts as he raises his personal blaster.

"Fire!" the Time Force Rangers simultaneously shout as they fire their respective weapons.

"WAYAH!" Kamen Rider Kuuga shouts as he jumps into the air to perform his Rider Kick. Rolling forward and throwing his right foot outwards as it is engulfed in a fiery aura.

All three of their attacks slam into their target creating a massive explosion. Kuuga lands back beside the Time Force Rangers crouched on his left knee as they de-summon their weapons, Kuuga getting back on his feet as all of them look up to see what has become of their target. The smoke clears, revealing a practically unscathed Imperialdramon Fighter Mode as he just lightly chuckled at this, shocking the Rangers and Kamen Rider as they gasp.

"Man, you Digimon can seriously take some hits in your stronger forms!" Wes says.

"They wouldn't be stronger forms otherwise." Imperialdramon says in a humorous tone.

---

11PM

Thursday, March 5th

37 Hours Until Invasion of Earth...

Laval leans his head back against a wall with his eyes closed as he pants from exhaustion. Around him in a hallway were the rest of his friends as they also caught their breaths from the intense training they had just did.

"Man, this Wargame simulator is no joke. Definitely beats anything we use for training back home." Laval says as he looks at Eris who was sitting beside him also with her head against the wall and her eyes closed.

Eris opens her eyes and turns her head to look at him, "What's wrong Laval, don't like it when the training dummies actually start fighting back?" she asks in a joking manner.

Laval chuckles, "What are you kidding, I actually like it! In the, it's more efficient that is. Look, nothing against Sir Punch-a-Lot, but if I'm going to train to kick bad guy butt. It helps if the training dummy actually fights back, that way it's not the same old thing every day of just me kicking the training dummy's butt and that's it. It actually allows me to mix things up for once, heck I actually have to worry now about getting my butt kicked. Add to the fact of course you don't have to worry about dying." Laval says.

He then begins rubbing his back as a slightly pained look comes to his face, "Though I could do without having to feel any sort of real pain for when I do get my butt kicked by what is essentially a training dummy."

"I mean yeah, other than the real pain from the few times we did get our butts kicked, and from training really hard tonight. I definitely like this version of training a lot more. I mean heck, even when we did train with our soldiers, it's hard to tell really if they're actually going all out on us or just holding back." Cragger says standing across from Laval with his back against the wall, on his right sitting down was Worriz, and on his left with their hands against the wall was Gorzan.

"Reckon of course you know they and us have to hold back so we don't kill each other. But these simulators really seem to be a far more effective method of training, since in a way, you don't have to hold back! Not to mention you can do so much more with these from changing the environment, to the types of enemies you'll be facing, to their skill level, there's so much! I really wish we had something like this back home." Cragger adds.

"No kidding. Plus if you can set your enemies to be anyone, I can really see these simulators being a good way of relieving yourself of stress, or taking your anger out on someone you may not like at the current moment but don't actually want to fight in real life." Worriz says with a rather sinister smirk.

Laval and Eris exchange concerned glances with one another as everyone else looks towards Worriz, a look of realization coming to his face as he turns his head to take notice of everyone staring at him as he looks back forward, "I said that out loud didn't I?" he says.

Laval raises a brow, "O~kay…" he says looking back at Eris who does the same to him. "I think it's time we called it a night."

"Dude, I agree." Gorzan says.

"Yeah." Rogon adds.

The group of heroes from Chima begin to make their way back to their quarters, along the way passing a few wandering Coalition soldiers and UNSC crew as for the most part the hallways of the Infinity were quiet due to what time it was.

"Being able to do whatever you want with, and in these simulators. I can see quite a profit being made if I was able to find a way to "procure" this technology to bring back to Chima." Razar says.

Bladvic yawns, "I'll tell you one thing, I really like the beds these humans have. They are really comfortable." he says.

"Bladvic, your entire tribe practically sleeps anywhere and everywhere, with no problem. You could literally be on top of sharp rocks, and you'll still pass out and find them comfortable enough to sleep on." Laval says.

"True." Bladvic says as he scratches his head, "But still, the comfier, the better. And these have probably been the most comfiest we've been in a long time."

"Yeah well unlike the previous war, you Bears better not go dozing off when we go to fight the Reapers. This is a lot more serious than our little civil war we had. And if we lose because of you dolts, I'm going to haunt you even in the afterlife!" Worriz threatens.

"Haunt you even in the afterlife? Is that like, even possible dude?" Gorzan questions.

"I don't know. All I'm still wondering is, are there rocks in the afterlife?" Rogon asks.

Eris can't help but roll her eyes at this, "I can't believe the final battle is already upon us. We just got here last week and now everything is moving so fast! I'm still trying to get used to all of this!" Cragger says as he waves his arms above his head as a gesture to the entire ship.

"We're all still trying to get used to a lot of things Cragger. Me, I'm still trying to get used to all of these different heroes. Seriously, some of these people are amazing with what they can do. And some of the stories they've shared about their adventures or fights against the forces of evil in their universe. They make our fight against the Crawlers look like child's play." Laval says.

"They're alright, nothing too special." Worriz says.

"You say that, yet you haven't beaten a single one of these heroes in combat, even when you use a CHI orb." Razar says.

"They just got lucky is all!" Worriz argues.

The group eventually reach their rooms, "Night Eris, see you tomorrow." Cragger says as he along with the others enter their room.

"Night guys." Eris says as she walks towards her door, she stops however and suddenly turns back around. Just as Laval is about to follow the others in, "Hey Laval." Eris calls to him, making him stop as he looks at her.

"You uh~." Eris rubs the back of her head while turning away slightly, a nervous look on her face. "Got a few minutes?" she asks.

Laval raises his left brow at this confused, "Uh~, sure. I mean it's not like the battle's tomorrow or anything. Why, what's up?" he asks as the door closes beside him.

Eris remains silent as the nervous look remains on her face, her right hand rubbing the back of her head as she seemed to either be lost in thought, or was just too nervous to say something.

"Eris? You alright?" Laval asks.

"Huh?" Eris says as she finally looks at Laval, "Oh! Y-Yeah just uh~..." Laval continues looking at Eris confused by how she was acting.

Eris looks away again, "Laval… are you… scared?" she finally asks.

Laval's eyes widened in surprise, "Scared?" he questions as he furrows his left brow while keeping his right one raised.

"Y-Yeah. Scared. You know, of the upcoming battle?" Eris clarifies as she looks back at him.

Laval turns his head away as he scratches the back of it, "Honestly… I don't know a person who isn't." he says with a nervous look on his face.

Laval looks back at Eris, "Every day I go to see my dad, just to see how everyone's doing. I swear he looks like he's getting older. I heard somewhere, that stress can sometimes make a person look older, like they're aging faster or something. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he is stressed." Laval says as he lowers his gaze to the floor.

"Ever since Chima was created, we've lived in peace. Sure there were disputes between our tribes every now and then, but never anything that led to violence. Then that civil war happened, nearly tearing our whole land, our people apart. In a weird way, we were lucky that the Crawlers came along, since it took them for our tribes to become reunited once again, or at least one of the factors that played into that happening. Yet somehow, with everything that happened, we managed to put an end to both of those conflicts without a single person dying." Laval looks up at Eris.

"Then this war came along, and when we went to save Cragger and the Crocodile Tribe from Cerberus, for the first time in my life. I witnessed someone from our home being killed, with my own eyes. It was right then and there; I knew that this war was going to be nothing like the previous wars we fought in Chima. Heck even seeing the Reapers when they attacked Acmetropolis, and taking part in that battle on Christophsis… it gave me the feeling that everything that has happened in our world, before this war came to it, was like something out of a children's book. No deaths, everything ending in a good way… This war is on a whole different level from anything we've experienced. And I don't know if I'm going to be truly ready for it. I mean… for once in my life, I have to worry about losing people close to me. My dad, Cragger, our friends, you." Laval says.

Eris's mouth drops open a little as if she was in shock, Laval was looking off to the side to take notice of this however, a worried look on his face.

"I am scared. I'm not going to lie. Everything we've been through so far since getting involved in this war, it definitely feels different from anything we've been through in Chima." Laval continues.

A pained look comes to Eris's face, "Yeah, it really does." she says.

"I don't want to lose any of you." Laval says as he looks back at Eris as she looks back at him. "I don't want to lose anyone, from our home, our new friends, and allies. Seeing how different this war is compared to ours, it makes me wish it could be more like those, where no one dies."

"Were it so easy."

Eris turns around while Laval looks past her, both of them with surprised looks on their faces as someone approaches them.

"Arbiter!" Laval says as Thel stops in front of the two.

"Many wish that is how wars could end. With neither side having lost a single person. But then that would not be war, would it?" Thel questions the two. Laval walks up to Eris's left side as the two continue staring up at him.

"I could not help but overhear your conversation. You are both afraid of the coming battle, yes?" Thel asks.

Laval and Eris look at one another and then to the ground, "Y-Yeah." Eris says.

"If you've been listening in, then you'd understand that the wars we've had in our universe. I guess in a way as you describe it, aren't really wars. We've foughten each other, and we've fought enemies who wished to bring harm to our people, our land. But we never really killed anyone, nor did anyone ever die. I guess we could just never bring ourselves to harm our own friends, our own people whom we've known for years. As for the tribes that came from outside our land, I guess we just… never really thought of actually being forced to kill them." Laval says.

"Then you are lucky, I've never heard of a civil war, or any war for that matter ending with neither side sustaining a single casualty. Before this war against the Reapers, I was embroiled in my own civil war, against those who did not wish to seek peace, and coexistence alongside the Humans of our universe. It is a long story. But to the point, unlike what has transpired in your universe, blood has been shed among my people, even though we are all Sangheili. And blood continues to be spilt. Yet when you became a part of this war unwillingly, as all of us have, you did not hesitate to take the life of a Cerberus trooper, or a Husk, even when you did not know the full story of who they truly were. Why is that?" Thel asks.

"Well…" Laval says as he rubs the back of his head nervously, "It was just a feeling, I guess we all had as soon as we came across our first group of Cerberus soldiers." he continues as he lowers his arm and looks back up at Thel.

"A feeling that things were different this time around. That if we didn't kill them first, then we would die. And I wasn't going to let that happen, I wasn't going to let them kill me, or any of my friends. So… yeah, I made the decision to kill them as soon as I realized they were bad people." Laval finishes.

"Then you have no problem taking the life of an enemy. That is good. All that must be done now, is for you to push yourself past that fear you have within your mind, within your heart. And use it! Tell me, young prince of the Lion Tribe, why is fear only taking a hold of you now? Did you and your female comrade not journey alongside the Commander, and the Master Chief during their mission across the universes? Why is it after everything you two have been through, that it is only now, with this upcoming battle, that you risk letting fear take a hold of you?" Thel questions them.

"This is my fault… I'm the one who brought it up. It was because of my fear, that I said something stupid that I shouldn't have." Eris says, her head lowered and her voice filled with sadness.

"No Eris, it's alright. It's not your fault!" Laval quickly speaks. He looks back forward and up at Thel, "I'll admit, I've had this feeling, this fear inside of me ever since we learned about this whole thing. Guess with how close the final battle was getting, it finally decided to come up because… I'm afraid of what's going to happen. If we lose then our home, everyone's home will be destroyed. But I'm also afraid of surviving, and losing people I care for from this war."

"You are afraid of becoming a survivor, while those around you, those close to you, perish. I know that feeling all too well. I have lost many I consider close friends, and comrades. Fear is a part of all who take part in war, it is not something to be ashamed of as some people may think. I too, even experience fear, in fact I experience it now at this very moment. Because I too, am afraid of what is to come in the final battle of this war. I too, wish to see no more of those I consider comrades, friends, to die from these wretched Reapers and their allies. I wish for us all to come out of this battle unscathed, and with no losses, except for the enemy. But that is nothing more but a wishful thought, as no war, comes without its casualties on both sides." Thel explains.

"You may think fear is a weakness, but I have come to accept it as a strength." Thel continues as he kneels down on his left knee. "That fear you carry within you, use it! You worry for your family, your friends, your people, use that to your advantage. You wish to see them live, to survive this war, the only way you can ensure that is by doing what everyone else does in war. By fighting the enemy! Fight the enemy, use your fear of losing those close to you, to protect them! For if you let fear take control of you, then what you fear, will come true."

"I see… I… never really thought of it that way. Thank you, Arbiter!" Laval says.

Thel nods his head in acknowledgement as he stands back up, "Now then. Get some rest, the both of you. And be sure not to overwork yourselves tomorrow, for the day after, we will all need as much energy as we can muster. If we are to win this war, and save the multiverse." he says.

Thel then takes his leave.

"Laval." Eris speaks catching his attention, "I know you said not to blame myself. But it is my fault that we even got into this whole conversation in the first place!"

"Eris, it's alright, I don't blame you! In fact, if it wasn't for that, I would never have thought of the things the Arbiter told us just now. So it's not entirely bad." Laval says with a shrug of his shoulders. "I understand, you're scared too. We all are. Even people like Worriz who would never admit to it. But maybe sometimes, it actually helps to talk about that sort of stuff. To face it head on, instead of keeping it bunched up inside. Cause then you come across ideas like this, that help you deal with such horrible feelings."

Laval reaches forward and rests his right hand on her shoulder as she looks down at it, "Now come on. You heard the Arbiter, let's get some rest. We can talk more tomorrow if you need it." Eris looks back at Laval. "Let's just… maybe try to focus on more positive thoughts. After all, thinking positive things are always better than thinking negative things." Laval finishes as he smiles at her.

Eris returns the smile, albeit a saddened one, as Laval lowers his arm and turns, walking towards the door as it opens "Goodnight Eris." he says as the door closes behind him.

"Goodnight Laval…" Eris says.

She lowers her gaze as the smile disappears, leaving a saddened expression on her face.

The door to Eris's quarters opens up as she walks in. Her roommates, and fellow heroes, Sonia, Nya, Wendy and Carla, Piper, and Lexi were all fast asleep. The only ones missing were PIXAL, Erza, Lucy, and Ahsoka.

"Wonder what they're up to?" Eris wonders in her head.

Using her wings Eris flies up to her top bunk, the bottom one being used by Lucy who wasn't here at the moment, as she lies on her back and pulls the cover over her body. From there Eris just stares up at the ceiling, silence all around her.

"I understand, you're scared too." the voice of Laval repeats in her head.

She was scared alright, but the coming battle was only a part of it.

"I mean… for once in my life, I have to worry about losing people close to me. My dad, Cragger, our friends, you."

Eris tightly clenched her hands on the sheet, she was also afraid of losing Laval.

Ever since returning to the Infinity, the two had constantly been with their friends from Chima, or with other heroes. It was only then that she was finally able to get just the two of them alone, or at least she thought since it seemed the Arbiter had been nearby. With each day the final battle got closer, the more her heart and mind were in a constant argument back and forth as to whether she should just tell Laval how she felt about him before the battle, or afterwards. It was difficult, as she wanted it to just be the two of them alone, away from everyone else. That way if things didn't end well, it would be less embarrassing for the both of them, that and Eris just couldn't bring herself to say such personal things in front of an audience. On one hand, if something happened to Laval then she didn't know how she would be able to live with herself having never told him how she really felt about him, on the other hand…

The two of them had been friends since they were kids, they had been through so much together, done so much together, honestly looking back at the times people thought the two of them were boyfriend and girlfriend, she could understand why now. The two of them really did seem to be close to one another. And that was what she was afraid of. She didn't want to ruin their friendship. What if Laval didn't share the same feelings for her, as she did for him? What if Eris just went and told him everything about how she feels about him, and he didn't return those feelings back? Would things between them ever truly be the same again? It was that thought that was preventing her from telling him back there, because if he turned her down, she would probably be heartbroken about it and not be able to completely focus during the final battle. Which could get her, or someone else, maybe even Laval himself killed… because of her.

She was scared, confused as to what should be done. Hold her feelings back and just hope that the both of them survived this war so she could tell him afterwards? Or tell him now, which could lead to a number of different routes happening. He returns the feelings, the both of them survive, and perhaps live a happy life afterwards; or one of them dies, leaving the other in a state of pain after the war is over. Then there were also the bad routes, like if he didn't return the feelings, leaving Eris in a heartbroken state that could lead to something bad happening during the final battle because she wouldn't be able to focus; or if they both survived, the chance that their friendship could be ruined forever. There were just too many things to consider, and Eris didn't know what to do...

Natsu's eyes shot open. The Fire Dragon Slayer had no idea why he was suddenly wide awake as he just sat up and looked around. Everyone else in the room was fast asleep, Worriz, Sonic, Manic, Jay, Gray, Gajeel, Finn, Junko, Slam, and Duck were all snoring, rather loudly, away; while Laval and the rest of his friends, the rest of the Ninja, Edward and Alphonse, Lily, Aerrow and Radarr, Sora, the rest of the Loonatics, Ratchet and Clank, and Anakin were quietly sleeping. Natsu looked at the foot of his bed to see Happy still asleep as well, his Exceed partner with a smile on his face and a bit of drool coming out of the right side of his mouth, "I'd like to have… another tasty fish please." he says.

Natsu smiles at this, "Dreaming about fish as always." he says in his head. Natsu got a strange feeling as he turned his attention towards the door.

The door to the room opened as Natsu exited and looked in both directions, there was no one around. Most people were probably asleep on the ship considering it was about midnight, save for the occasional late nighters perhaps, the patrolling guards, or crewmembers who were needed to keep the ship running. Still, for some reason Natsu was drawn towards his left as he looked in the direction and began to walk down the hallway. After walking for several minutes Natsu passed by a patrolling United States Army soldier, as he rounded the next right corner he spotted a lone person standing at a window looking out into space, it was Lucy. Seeing this Natsu came to a stop as he hummed in confusion with a raised brow.

Lucy stood with her hands together as she looked out the window, everything silent around her as she looked out towards the many ships from the various futuristic allied fleets, and beyond them, the emptiness of space. Lucy just looked on, as in her mind she thought back to the conversation she had with Talwyn, "But I'd rather tell the person I love how it is I feel about them, before that something bad happens. Because I'd rather have the chance of spending whatever few happy moments I can with them, moments that I would cherish for the rest of my life, before something happens. Then for something to happen, and I never get to experience what could have been. To have my last memory of them, be that person I cared so much for, dying in my arms and never being able to get to tell them how much it is I cared for them…"

Lucy sighed as she closed her eyes and lowered her head, "Is that what I should really do?" Lucy wonders in her head.

The battle was only a day away, if Lucy was going to talk to Natsu, it would have to be tomorrow. Otherwise, well it sure wouldn't be a bright idea to bring up feelings in the middle of a big battle, so it would probably have to be afterwards right?

"If I can even bring myself to do that…" Lucy says in her head.

What if something went wrong? What if Natsu didn't reciprocate the same feelings she had for him? They had been through so much together, and it was easy to say they were close friends, very close in fact since certain people even believed them to be a "thing". She didn't want to ruin that friendship, or make things weird, but she was going to have to say something eventually right? I mean in all the romance novels she read growing up as a kid, the prince and princess never got together through silence. One of them expressed their feelings to the other, or one of them kissed the other to tell them how they felt about them, most stories had it being the prince doing that but… yeah it was easy to say Natsu was not a prince… If anything was going to happen, it would have to be Lucy who does it for Natsu, even if he doesn't understand it…

"This is going to be a lot more difficult than any of those books, isn't it?" Lucy questions in her head. "Man those books make romance look like an easy thing!" she shouts as she clenches her teeth in annoyance.

"Lucy?" the familiar voice of Natsu called to her.

Lucy's eyes shot open as she looked to her left in surprise, "N-Natsu!?"

Natsu approaches her, "Wh-What are you doing up?" Lucy asks.

"I could ask you the same thing." Natsu says as he stops and puts his hands to his hips.

Lucy regains her composure as she looks back out the window, "Just… couldn't sleep. Have a lot on my mind." she says.

"The upcoming battle?" Natsu asks.

Lucy looks back at him, "Yeah. That's one of them." she says.

Natsu gets closer to her and turns to stare out the window as she does the same, "Well…" Natsu begins to speak.

"I say this beats our little adventure to Edolas don't you think? No offense to our parallel version selves. But there's definitely a lot more cooler things out there, even besides magic." Natsu says as he looks at Lucy with his usual toothy-grin.

Lucy smiles as she looks back at Natsu, "Yeah. You can definitely say that for sure."

The two of them look back at the window, "Growing up I always wondered if there was more out there. Beyond Earthland, beyond the Celestial Spirit World. You could say going to Edolas answered that but even then, I wondered if there was still more out there. I never imagined all of this though, whole universes, worlds, humans, so vastly different from our own. Worlds so similar to Earthland but they aren't, humans that had never known magic like we do, and so much more." Lucy says.

"Bet all of this has really brought some inspiration for your writing stuff huh?" Natsu humorously asks.

Lucy giggles with her eyes closed, "Oh yeah, that's for sure." she responds.

Natsu throws out his right hand and gives her a thumbs up, "It's going to be a major hit, just like your last one!" he says.

Lucy giggles again, "Thanks Natsu." she turns away and looks to the ground with a saddened expression, "Now all I have to do is just survive so I can write it."

A serious look comes to Natsu's face as he puts his hand on her shoulder, "Hey." he says, catching her attention. "Don't go saying crap like that. You're going to be just fine; this is nothing different from all those other assholes that thought they could take Fairy Tail down, only for us to come out on top each time!" Natsu says, giving her a reassuring grin.

Lucy smiles at this but the worried expression remains, "Even you have to admit Natsu, this fight's a lot more different compared to any of the others. We're fighting people, and creatures that are a lot different from what we're used to, this time around. And not to mention the Reapers." she says. Lucy looks back towards the window as Natsu lowers his arm, "Let's not forget how even the First Master had difficulty fighting them, even with the entirety of Earthland behind her. And a year ago I thought Alvarez, Zeref, and Acnologia were going to be the toughest enemies we've ever faced. Guess I never thought of the scarier things that could exist beyond our world."

Natsu turns back to the window and crosses his arms, "To me a fight is still a fight. It's not about numbers, or how powerful someone is, we proved that wrong when we took down those Spriggan 12 guys. But about the strength of our hearts, our determination to continue fighting for our friends, and everyone we care for, and giving it our all until the very end!"

"Besides," Natsu looks back at Lucy as he raises his left hand into a clenched fist, "all we have to do is just get this Crucible thing working and those Reapers are done for!" he says as Lucy looks back at him.

"But we're not even going to London nor partaking in the charge on that Conduit thing. That's all Shepard and his team." Lucy says.

"And do you not trust Shepard or the others to get it done?" Natsu asks her.

"Of course I do! Still though, it's going to be a long battle, and a lot can happen. Though I guess we don't have to worry about Erza's mother appearing and changing the entire planet up like what happened before. Let's just hope no one else with the Reapers is capable of doing that." Lucy says.

Natsu nods his head in agreement as he looks back at the window. The two remain silent for almost a minute, "Hey Lucy." Natsu says as she looks at him.

Natsu looks back at her, "Just stick close to me, alright. And we'll get through this battle together, just like we always have." he says as he smiles at her.

Lucy's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open a bit as she was taken aback by this, her cheeks lightly turning red as she smiled back, "Yeah!" she says closing her eyes.

"Hmph." Natsu hums in agreement.

"Hey Natsu." Lucy had opened her eyes and was looking slightly down to her right with a small smile on her lips, "Remember back before we fought Alvarez, when you and Happy… "invited yourselves" into my room, again? When you told me that you had something you wanted to do after our fight against them and Zeref was all over with?" she asks.

"Hm?" Natsu hums in a confused tone as he blinks his eyes, "Yeah. Why?" he asks.

Lucy looks up at him, "Well this time… I got something I want to do, when this is all over." she says.

"What's that?" Natsu asks.

Lucy closes her left eye in a wink as she leans forward and raises her left hand and index finger up, "Nope. Remember what I said before about foreshadowing~." she says in a sly tone.

Natsu grins at this, "And remember what I told you about what Igneel told me. That it's good to talk about the future, because it gives you the strength to live!" he says.

"I know that." Lucy says, her smile then disappears as a worried look comes to her face and she looks down to her right again. "But this is… different from what you wanted to do. I can't really explain it so…"

"It's alright then." Natsu speaks up, making her look at him. "I won't ask for anymore. We'll get through this, together. And when this is all over, you can tell me what it is." he finishes.

The two share another smile with one another as they look back out the window, "Natsu… thank you. For bringing me into Fairy Tail." Lucy says.

"Yeah. No problem." Natsu replies.

Garrus looked down the scope of his M-92 Mantis to make sure everything looked right as he then placed it back on the weapons bench, James inspecting his M-8 Avenger beside him just as Garrus picked up his M-3 Predator.

"Haven't the two of you inspected your weapons enough? I mean you've pretty much done that at least once every day for this entire week, and ten credits says you're going to do it again tomorrow for sure, and again right before we go into battle." Tali speaks from a few feet behind them as she leans on a container. "I mean, these are the same weapons we've been using practically on every mission and they haven't failed us yet."

"Yet, is the keyword Tali. They've been working for us well thus far, but all it takes is one little thing, and now we're down a gun. Possibly a sniper, possibly another rifleman, so on and so forth. And with how big of a battle we have coming, a weapons malfunction is the last thing we need happening in the field." Garrus says.

"I don't disagree with you, I'm definitely going to inspect my weapons tomorrow and the day of the battle as well, but every day this past week?" Tali questions.

"Don't you do the same thing with the Normandy's engines?" James asks.

"There's a big difference between a weapon when we're not even going into battle at the moment. And the thing preventing us from floating into one of our allies' ships and or possibly blowing us up. And if you're going to question anything James, how about questioning Garrus on why he's constantly calibrating that gun in the battery when he's practically done everything he's can to make the thing as good as it can get." Tali says.

"There's always room for improvement. Even if it's by the smallest of percentages." Garrus says.

"I mean he isn't wrong." Steve Cortez speaks up as he works on the Normandy's Kodiak shuttle. "I thought the cannons on this thing were as accurate as they were going to get. A bit of tinkering from Garrus and somehow they're now 0.5% more accurate than before."

"That's Scars for you Esteban, calibrating weapons and improving them even when you think they can't be improved anymore. Haha… seriously how do you do that?" James asks as he looks at Garrus.

"I have what you humans would call, "the magic touch"." Garrus says.

"Ugh." Tali says as she rolls her eyes inside her helmet.

The door to the elevator opens as Ashley walks out and looks around, "Hey Ash, what's up?" Tali asks.

"Have any of you guys seen Shepard around?" Ashley asks.

"Think he was going to the Infinity to check in on things with Captain Lasky." Garrus answers.

"Tch, yeah, with that Doctor guy." Cortez says in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Whoa now, do I detect a hint of jealousy from you Esteban? What's wrong, don't like our new British taxi driver? Don't worry, you're not getting replaced. Though no offense, I prefer the TARDIS over the Kodiak any day of the week. It has a pool! Which we unfortunately never got a chance to use… Maybe after this is all over." James says.

"I mean hey if it allows me a break of not getting shot at on a daily basis, or you plowing into things with my shuttle. Then I don't mind. Wait hold on did you say a pool?" Cortez asks.

"Any idea what he's doing on the Infinity?" Ashley asks as she puts her hands to her hips.

"Like I said, probably just checking up on things there. If he's not in the War Room, he's usually traveling across the fleets with the Doctor, meeting with the Coalition leaders to see how everyone's doing. Or going to the Infinity, checking to see how our hero friends are doing, maybe even going there for some training exercises using the ship's Wargames simulator. Definitely beats setting up cans down here and shooting them." Garrus says.

"I know yesterday he spent most of the day checking out that Crucible weapon with Hackett, Doc, and British Doc to see if it was fully ready for the upcoming battle, even spent some time with his mama since I'm sure the two of them hadn't seen each other in a long time." James adds.

"Shepard's not overworking himself, is he?" Tali asks.

"Luckily no, I've asked EDI a couple of times and she says he has returned to the Normandy and gotten some sleep. Though not a lot." Ashley says.

"I'm sure Loco knows not to overdo it, especially and hopefully for tomorrow since we'll need everyone at full strength for this battle the next day." James says.

"I'm still finding it hard to believe we're finally taking the fight to the Reapers after all of this time. Assuming nothing else comes up." Tali says.

"No kidding. I'm just waiting for Doctor 2.0 to appear and say, "Hey everyone, we're going on another adventure! Hop aboard the TARDIS 2.0 and let's start traveling to places where there's a talking sponge, and colorful ponies!"" Garrus sarcastically exclaims towards the end.

James places his rifle down as he turns around and leans back on the bench with his hands rested on it, "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if those things somehow existed. Why don't we just add a universe where the damn fruits are sentient somehow and are the humans instead… Which actually makes me wonder what the fuck those things would eat if that were the case." James says.

"All I know is, after everything we've been through. I think I'm done traveling to any other place that isn't my Milky Way Galaxy for a while." Ashley says as she crosses her arms.

"Not like it's going to matter really. Once all of this is done, and if we manage to win, the Doctor said the universes will go back to being separated again. So we won't be going to any alternate or parallel universes anyway." Tali says.

"Which is sad really. I kind of really wanted to explore some of these places once they were all rebuilt and everything was peaceful." Garrus says as he looks over his left shoulder. He looks back down at the bench, "Not to mention I've come to really like some of these heroes. They're good people, personality wise I mean."

"You got that right. Not to mention, not trying to look on the downside of things or whatever, but I have a feeling even after all of this is done and over with. The Reapers may not be a problem anymore, but if those Saturday morning cartoons I watched growing up taught me anything. It's that evil always comes back eventually." James says.

"Don't need to watch any kiddy stuff to tell you that. Just look at history. There's always one bad apple after another. I mean heck look at our experiences. First there was Saren and Sovereign, then the Collectors, and now Cerberus and the Reapers themselves plus a whole lot of other baddies." Ashley says.

"And let's not forget the normal everyday criminals, mercenary gangs, pirates… There just never seems to be an end in sight for all of these guys. Even with the galaxy united now, how much you want to bet a lot of those mercenary, and pirate gangs that are helping us now are going to go right back to doing their usual bad things after this war is over?" Tali says.

"Maybe a few might turn a new leaf, but the majority…" Garrus turns around, crosses his arms, and leans against the table as he shakes his head, "Yeah their alliance is only until the Reapers are gone and then they'll go right back to doing their usual bad stuff."

"That's what I'm saying! And the same thing is probably going to happen in all the other universes." James says.

"What are you getting at Vega?" Ashley asks.

"I'm saying, if the Doctor would allow us, we should form some kind of like… giant hero protecting organization or something!" James says.

"You mean like what the Justice League, or the Avengers are?" Tali asks.

"Exactly! But instead of protecting a single planet, or a single galaxy, we protect all of the universes!" James explains.

"That… actually sounds like a pretty badass idea. And I would totally be down for it." Garrus says.

"I don't know. The entire multiverse? That sounds pretty ambitious. I mean, according to the Doctor, the multiverse is possibly infinite, how would we be able to do that?" Ashley asks.

"Well obviously not the entire multiverse. More so of just the universes we know about. The other ones… I don't know. I only thought this far ahead honestly." James says.

"It does sound pretty interesting. But remember, the universes were never supposed to be connected in the first place. The only reason they are now is because of the Reapers breaking through those barriers in space and time. The Doctor said that if they become damaged anymore, it could become catastrophic for all of the universes. So wouldn't we be putting the universes in more danger than we want?" Tali questions.

"Tali's right. I'm sure none of us want to be responsible for anything bad that happens to all of our universes, or the multiverse in general. I won't lie, that actually does sound like a pretty cool idea, but if doing so threatens basically all the lives we're fighting right now to save, I'd rather just go back to being all separated again and stuff. Even if it means we never see our new friends again." Ashley says, a hint of sadness in her voice towards the end.

James and Garrus lower their heads, as does Tali as they all remain silent.

"Well if that didn't put a downer on things. I think I'm going to call it a night right here." Garrus says as he raises his head and begins to head towards the elevator.

"Yeah, same here. I'll catch you guys tomorrow." Ashley says as she begins to head towards the elevator as well.

"Same as well. Night James, Cortez!" Tali calls over to Steve.

"Night everyone!" Cortez shouts back.

The three walk into the elevator, Garrus in the middle with Tali and Ashley on either side of him as the door closes shut. James looks over towards the elevator and remains silent, "I need to get myself a girlfriend." he says to himself as he turns back around and leans over the weapons bench.

"Good luck with that!" Cortez shouts.

"And so now we have to get back to friendly lines with these two civilians in tow…" William Lennox continues to tell his story to the group of gathered Coalition soldiers around him in the mess hall.

His friends Epps, and Graham around him, as among the crowd were the Clones Rex, Cody, Fives, and Echo, Madsen and Thorne from Fireteam Majestic, Major Kirrahe, Éomer and Faramir, Cullen, the members of the Bull's Chargers sans Iron Bull, Talon, Rook Blonko, and Longtooth, Lennox, and Leonidas from the Lion Tribe. There were a number of other soldiers and Marines as well among the crowd as they all listened in on Lennox's story.

"We have an airstrike coming in to hit the Decepticons, so I tell Epps here to throw some smoke so the airboys know where to hit. I look away for a few seconds to tell the civilians what we're going to do, all of a sudden Epps says, "I hope these F-16s got good aim." I ask him why and he tells me, "I told them to hit the orange smoke." I just glance to my right and practically right next to me..." he looks slightly to his right to recreate what happened.

""You mean that orange smoke?"" Lennox looks back at the others, "And his response was, "It wasn't my best toss, okay.""

Everyone in the room laughs or chuckles at this, save for a few people, one of which was.

"I do not understand. How is this hilarious? I would assume this was quite dangerous given it was a friendly airstrike and you had told them to hit the orange smoke which was as you said, "right next to you"." Rook says.

"You ever heard the phrase "Danger Close"? Cause that's basically what happened to these poor guys right here. The fact you're here to talk about it means you obviously survived, so all I'm imagining then is you guys basically booking it like crazy while a bunch of explosions are going off behind you." Madsen says with a chuckle.

"Basically that. Along with being shot at by giant robots so that also adds to the fun." Epps says.

"I know that feeling all too well." Rex speaks.

"I still do not understand how this is a joking matter. You almost died, correct?" Éomer questions.

"It's a bit of a complicated thing really. I guess you could say yes, at the moment it wasn't so funny because they could have potentially died from friendly fire." Graham raises his arms up in a shrug, "But they didn't. So because of that we can look back and laugh about it." he says lowering his arms and crossing them.

"They're basically making light of a terrible situation. No one died from it, so it's alright to look back and make fun of it. It would have been a different story had someone actually died, but it was only the enemy. So it's alright." Talon tries his best to explain to the King of Rohan.

"You humans have a very strange sense of humor." Leonidas says.

"You get used to some of the more peculiar traits that humans seem to have. I have actually taken on a few of those traits myself cause I find them quite amusing. Such as indeed looking back on what could have been terrible moments, but luckily did not become so. And then laughing them off at a later time. It is very interesting that it seems not all humans share such a trait." Kirrahe says.

"Well not all humans are the same after all. There are humans that can handle what we call "dark humor" which is basically jokes about some pretty messed up things but they manage to find it funny because of the joke. Some humans can have some pretty basic humor, some somehow don't even have any humor at all and I have no choice but to question how those people can have any fun in life." Thorne says.

"Those are very rare, and if I ever run into someone like that, just like Thorne said, I will seriously have to question them how they can go through life with no humor at all." Madsen says.

"I still do not seem to understand just how it is that a man can make light of an event or something that should be, as you say, "dark"." Faramir says.

"Me neither. So what you are saying is, if someone's father died, and someone made a joke about that to try and cheer their friend up perhaps, it would be an okay thing to do?" the Lion warrior Lennox questions.

"No now see, that would be a fucked up thing to do. The whole thing around "dark humor" is a bit complicated to explain really. But first off most people who tend to make fun of some really dark things, tend to do it on events and whatnot that have long since passed. So like a family or friend who just died recently, probably not the smartest thing to mess around with, but something that say happened a hundred years ago, may be fair play. And I say "may be" because again, it's a bit complicated to explain really. I would say there's definitely some things you don't want to touch, but in the end it all kind of depends on the person and the kind of humor they can and can't handle." Epps tries to explain.

"Yeah I still rest my case, you humans are very strange." Leonidas says.

"Yeah we seem to have that effect on a lot of non-humans. Even a few humans themselves." Thorne says.

"Well as much as I'm enjoying this little downtime we're having, and discussion on how weird some humans can be, I think now would be a good time to call it so we can all get some rest for tomorrow. It's pretty late and we still got another day of training ahead of us in preparation for the big battle." Fives speaks up.

"Ah~ come on Fives, it's as you said. We still got another day ahead of us. Not like we're going to be staying up late on the night of the battle anyways. We haven't had any relaxation like this since we at least got here." Echo says.

"As much as I too am enjoying some of these tales we are sharing with one another. I must agree with the Clone, Fives. We still have to get through today, and we cannot waste it doing nothing." Cullen says.

Cody stands up, "Agreed. So no more arguments, let's all go get our rest for tonight, and wake up for another full day of training. And remember, everyone must be in their bunks by 2100, we'll need every ounce of strength we can muster when we take the fight to the Reapers." he says.

Everyone began to gather their respective items, from drinking cups, to helmets, as they stood up. Lennox stands up, "Uh hold on everyone. Can I have your attention just one more time? Just for a quick second if I can speak." he speaks up, catching everyone's attention as they stop what they are doing and look at him.

"At this point and time, I believe I've met mostly everyone in this room, and gotten to know you. Some more than others. A few of you, seems you were either invited by someone else or just decided to join the party, so I haven't gotten to know you. Whatever the case may be, I think it's safe to say, I'm glad I have the honor of having gotten to know all of you, and the honor of perhaps fighting alongside you during the upcoming battle. Even for those I haven't really gotten to know, or literally don't know at all, I can say this for certain. Every one of you in this room, are all good soldiers, or marines, or pilots... Even if you don't say it or show it, I can tell that everyone in this room is scared for the upcoming battle, even I am. We've all experienced loss I'm sure, such a thing comes with being who we are. And as much as we want to hope that we can get through this battle unscathed, we all know that's just wishful thinking. Some of us have already had to experience a part of what is to come, whether it was from the Reapers invading your universe, or the recent attack on the Infinity, or even both. This battle will not be an easy one, in fact for all we know, it could potentially be the toughest battle, the toughest war any of us have ever taken part in. We're outnumbered, and outgunned a million to one, I'm sure we can all agree our chances at winning this war are very slim. But I gotta ask, does us being outnumbered mean we've already lost this war?!" Lennox questions.

Everyone remains silent as they continue to stare at him, Lennox now walking back and forth in place slowly as he looks around at everyone.

"In the history of my Earth, I've heard of battles where one army was vastly outnumbered by the other, and some unfortunately did end just as how you'd expect it. But others, it was the army that was outnumbered, that managed to come out on top! The Reapers and their allies probably think that they have this battle, this war in their hands, all because they have us outnumbered. And you know what, maybe they do, maybe their numbers will win them this war." Lennox throws his arms out to the side.

"I don't know… But last I checked; history is still being written! I'm not seeing any slab of stone out there, someone from the future coming back in time to tell us who wins this war, and even if there was, there's an old saying, "that the future is not set in stone! And even if it was, stone can be broken!" That means, we still have a fighting chance! I'm not going to let some numbers scare me, if we let fear take a hold of us, then we've already lost. We need to show the Reapers and their allies, that just because they have the numbers, doesn't mean that they're gonna win this war. And if they want that victory, they're gonna have to work hard to get it! Numbers don't decide the victor. What matters more is the determination each side has, and when I look into each of your eyes, that's exactly what I'm seeing! Everyone in this room is fighting for something, someone... that is what makes us different from the Reapers, from Cerberus, and all those other bastards allied with them. The Reapers fight just to exterminate us all, Cerberus and those other assholes, they fight for power. We're fighting for something far more important, life. We're fighting for all of our universes, our homes, we're fighting for our people, our friends, our family... for each other! Whether you're human, alien, a robot, or even a clone, we're all one in the same in my eyes, brothers and sisters in arms. We're fighting for our lives, for the lives of our friends and family back home, for those who have already had their lives shortened because of these Reapers, for the future generations so that they will never have to fear these things… so that there is a future, we can all look forward too!"

"These Reapers wanted a fight… well I think it's safe to say, they got one. They think so little of us, of all life, well let's just show them what happens when all of life comes together to kick their ass! They think we'll go down easily, let's show them otherwise! Let's show them that we'll fight down to the last man and woman, to the last bullet or arrow, we'll fight until the blades of our knives or swords have dulled, we'll fight until our fists have been bloodied, when our own skin has peeled off and we're punching their soldiers with our own bones, and all the feeling of pain throughout our body cannot be felt anymore! These Reapers want to destroy all of life across the multiverse, and they thought they could get away with it… well let's prove them wrong. Let's show them what happens, when the multiverse unites against them!" Lennox finishes with a yell as he throws his right arm into the air.

"YEAH~!" the majority of people in the room shout in agreement with many of them raising their own fists into the air.

"Let's go!"

"Hell yeah!"

"We'll show those bastards!"

"So when the battle comes," Lennox begins to speak again, "what are we going to do?!" he yells.

"KILL SOME REAPERS!" the many soldiers, marines, and pilots shout simultaneously.

"What are we going to do?!" Lennox shouts again.

"KILL SOME REAPERS!"

"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!"

"KILL SOME REAPERS!" the shouting then turned into cheering.

Kirrahe, Éomer and Faramir, Cullen, Talon, Rook, Longtooth, and Rex and Cody look around with smiles, or smirks on their faces.

"You're all good people," Lennox speaks up again, quieting everyone down. "And I'd prefer getting to know more about all of you. So I want to see every single one of you alive after this war is over. So we can have a true celebration."

Friday, March 6th

"Fire!"

A row of Coalition soldiers unleash a volley of fire from various firearms; as bullets, slugs, plasma, and other projectiles slam into moving holo-enemies.

"Fire!"

The row behind them, consisting of archers, let loose their arrows as they fly over the gunners and come down onto more enemy holo targets.

A shield wall consisting of various ancient-era soldiers moves forward for a few feet before coming to a stop and splitting open down the middle. As a US, UNSC, and Systems Alliance Marine rush forward and crouch down on their right knee, raising their respective assault rifles as they open fire.

A Sangheili Major swings his Type-1 Energy sword diagonally down at a Lion Tribe warrior, the Lion soldier dodging by ducking and moving to his left as the Sangheili swings at him again down from the left, the Lion Tribe warrior dodging to his right this time. The Lion Tribe warrior then swings his spear and sweeps it under the Sangheili's feet knocking him to the ground, the Lion soldier then thrusts his spear down and stops it's just a few inches from his chest, signaling to the Major that he had been beaten. A Clone and Ishi Tib New Republic soldier charge a Krogan as they shoulder slam right into him and begin pushing him back. Managing to move him back for a few feet before eventually pushing him onto his back as they then quickly raise their blasters and aim it at him, the Krogan raising his hands in defeat as the Clone and New Republic soldier look at and exchange a nod of acknowledgement with each other. The two then look back down at the Krogan and lower their blasters as they hold out a helping hand to him, which the Krogan accepts as he grabs both of their hands and is helped back onto his feet. Captain Rex rolls forward and comes up into a crouched position on his left knee as he raises his left DC-17 hand blaster and fires taking out a B1 Battle Droid, then aiming to his right while raising the other blaster as he fires both to take out a charging Hurlock Darkspawn. He then hears something behind him and looks over his right shoulder to see a Husk with its right claw pulled back, only for the Husk to then be shot in the head as he looks over to his left to see the shot having come from Lennox who gives him a thumbs up, which Rex returns.

Kamen Rider Stronger rolls across the floor as he recovers back onto his feet and turns around, just as the Justice League hero Wildcat charges him with his right fist pulled back which he then throws. The Turbo Power Rangers engage the Kousoku Sentai Turboranger in battle with both teams appearing to be even in terms of their respective skills in combat. Gwen Tennyson throws disk-shaped mana energy at Hermione Granger as Hermione throws up a protective spell to block the attacks, once Gwen had stopped, Hermione countered with an offensive spell forcing Gwen to jump to her left into a roll to dodge it. Murtagh rode atop his dragon Thorn as the red dragon spewed fire from his mouth, forcing Merrill to put up a magic barrier around her, Viper, and Kumamon as the fire impacted into and enveloped the barrier. Merrill strained through gritted teeth with her eyes closed to keep the barrier up, as once the fire died down Kumamon launched himself into the air and unleashed his Blizzard Blaster attack from his "Romeo" launcher.

Po throws a stomp kick at Tigress's left leg as she moves it back and counters with a high spinning heel kick which Po ducks under, Po attempts a jumping uppercut but Tigress anticipates this and flips backwards a few feet through the air, landing and launching herself back towards Po and throwing a side kick at him. Po blocks the attack by crossing his arms in front of him as he is still sent sliding back a few feet. Tsukasa, Marvelous, and Troy engage each other in a 3-way combat as Marvelous swings his saber at Troy who blocks the attack with his Dragon Sword, Tsukasa dropping down with his Ride Booker in sword mode as he breaks the two apart and then spins around to swing his sword forcing the two away. Marvelous goes into a roll and recovers into a crouched position as he raises his gun and fires at Tsukasa, the shots impacting in front of the Kamen Rider as he ignores them and jumps through the smoke to charge the pirate captain. Troy however gets in between the two as he jumps into the air towards Tsukasa, Decade swings his sword up at him however the Red Megaforce Ranger flies right over him, landing a few feet behind him as he spins back around and raises his Mega Blaster to fire multiple energy shots. Tsukasa diving to his left to dodge the shots as Marvelous rolls once again, this time to his right. Laval thrusts his sword at Eris who flies into the air to dodge the attack, the Eagle princess flies over Laval and drops behind him as she swings her axe just as Laval spins around to block the attack with his sword. With a flaming left fist Natsu comes down towards Gajeel and throws it as the Iron Dragon Slayer, who is covered in his steel scales, throws his left fist up as well causing both fists to collide into one another sending out a powerful shockwave. Nearby, Lucy who was in her Star Dress Cancer Form, lands back on the ground as she is forced to jump back again to dodge an attack from Erza, who was in her Flame Empress Armor, as she swings her flaming sword down at the Celestial Spirit mage.

Down in the Shuttle Bay of the Normandy, Shepard's entire team shoot at makeshift targets. James, Garrus, Tali, and EDI firing their respective primary weapons, as several feet behind them Liara and Javik engage each other in a biotic battle. Ashley meanwhile calmly walks forward and switches to her pistol as she unloads slugs into the target in front of her.

8:50 PM…

"All troops are to report to their quarters by 2100..." a female AI announced over the speakers.

Master Chief walked through the hall on his way to his quarters, passing around him were a few remaining soldiers, marines, and crew as most of the personnel had already reported to their quarters to get sleep for the final battle against the Reapers tomorrow. It was most likely going to be a very long day tomorrow, so it was wise for everyone to go to bed early tonight, and get a full night's rest that way everyone was at full strength for the battle that would decide the fate of the multiverse. His armor had already been run through a diagnostics test, any battle damage from the past couple days of intense training had been fixed, and so to save himself some time the Chief had decided to just sleep in his armor for the night. He would double-check his weapons once more when he awoke, and from there he would just need to load up on as much ammunition and gear as he could carry, and then it was off to the battle.

Chief had his mission, while he would be going to London he would not be joining the Commander and his team in the assault on the Conduit. No, his mission was to work with the Coalition 1st Marine Division in retaking the city from enemy forces for when the Crucible had been activated, and the Reapers, hopefully dealt with. He wouldn't be the only hero working with the Marines, both Urdnot Wrex, and Urdnot Grunt would be joining him as well; Grunt's Aralakh Company had been assigned to the Division, and Chief had gotten word that some old friends of his would be joining along. Chief was a bit conflicted; he knew how dangerous the attack on the Conduit was going to be and would have preferred to go with Shepard and his team to help them out, but he had his orders and he was going to follow them. Besides he knew the Commander well at this point, Shepard was not going to fail.

"Looking a little nervous Shepard. You alright?"

Chief and Shepard sat at a table in the Mess Hall of the Normandy, this had been a few days ago right after the briefing with the rest of the Coalition's leaders.

"I don't know. How would you feel knowing that the fate of the multiverse basically rides on you being able to fight through an army of Husks, Cerberus soldiers, and other bad guys, reach a teleportation device to get aboard a giant space station, open said stations arms without even knowing what the enemy presence aboard is like, and then firing a superweapon that we have no idea how it works meaning it could wipe out just the Reapers, or the Reapers and all of us along with it?" Shepard questions.

"I would say been there, done that, though on a smaller scale since it was only my universe that was in danger." Chief says.

"I mean I saved my universe as well a few years ago. But if you haven't noticed, the stakes have kind of been raised since then… by a lot." Shepard says.

"Perhaps try treating it as if you were saving only your universe again, and maybe that might help a bit." Chief says.

Shepard crosses his arms and leans back as he looks up at the ceiling, "Yeah… that's not helping." he says as he leans back forward to look at Chief again. "Plus it just feels wrong, makes me feel kind of selfish trying to think like that even though I know that's not what I'm really doing."

"I signed up to fight bad guys and protect my galaxy, but all of this. Nothing in training for sure ever prepared me to try and save all of reality from a bunch of highly-advanced and deadly machines seeking to basically exterminate all life across the multiverse." Shepard says.

"I'm sure your training also didn't include you acting like a politician-soldier of sorts, and yet here you are." Chief says.

"Touché." Shepard says in agreement.

Chief crosses his arms and looks up a bit, "You know, it only feels like yesterday we first met. And I tried to kill you." he says looking back at Shepard

Shepard chuckles at this, "Right, good times." he humorously remarks with a smirk.

Chief grunts at this in agreement, "We've certainly come a long way. And now, it's time to see this through." he says.

"Yeah. And once the Reapers are defeated, if the Reapers are defeated... it'll be a long road back to rebuilding everything that was lost." Shepard says.

"Maybe this time I'll be around to actually help my humanity rebuild from a war. Since the last one ended with me stranded out in space for four years." Chief says.

"That must have been fun." Shepard sarcastically says.

"Well considering how for basically all four of those years I was in cryogenic sleep, it passed in the blink of an eye." Chief replies.

"I mean it certainly beats getting killed and being dead for two years and then being brought back to life." Shepard says.

"I'm sure anything beats being dead for two years. Or for any time I would imagine." Chief says causing Shepard to laugh.

"So Chief, what are you going to do after this is all over?" Shepard asks.

Chief lowers his head as he rests his arms on the table, "My galaxy still isn't at peace. There are still Covenant factions out there that aren't as friendly to Humanity as the Swords of Sanghelios are. There's still fighting to be done, even after this is all over." Chief says as he looks back at Shepard. "What about you? Your entire galaxy has come together to fight the Reapers, surely that means peace might be on the horizon for you once this is all over."

"Hard to say. We're only together because we're fighting a common enemy to survive, even now there's still some tension between the races. Humans and Batarians, Krogan and Turians, and Salarians, Quarian and Geth. The bad history between certain races doesn't go away so easily, if anything it's just pushed aside until the major threat is over. Then it's back to hating each other. All we can do is hope that if anything does happen, it can be solved peacefully, without the need to shed more blood." Shepard says.

"One can only hope." Chief says.

Chief gets up from the table, "I should probably be off now. Need to get back to the Infinity so I can start training for the upcoming battle." he says as Shepard also gets on his feet.

"Sounds good, perhaps we'll see each other later. I might travel to the Infinity from time to time to check in on our hero friends there, and utilize the ships War Games simulator for some training of my own." Shepard says.

Chief turns to face the Commander again, "Shepard, just in case we don't see each other again before the final battle." the Spartan stands at attention and salutes him, "It's been an honor serving, and fighting alongside you."

Shepard smiles and nods his head in acknowledgement as he too stands at attention and salutes him back, "You too Chief." he says.

Both men drop their arms as Chief turns and begins to leave, "By the way, you ever going to tell me your real name?" Shepard calls out to him with a mischievous smirk.

The Master Chief stops in his tracks and looks over his left shoulder, "Perhaps when this is all over. We'll see." he says.

Chief continued his walk through the Infinity's hallways, he passed by a double door. On the other side of the door was a large, mostly empty storage room. As at the center of the room, was a certain Keyblade wielder as he swung his keyblade in various ways. Sora spun around and thrusted his keyblade forward, sweat running down his face as he pulled his keyblade back and followed with a diagonal slash from his upper right, and then his upper left. Sora then spun around again as he swung his keyblade upwards, only for the Master Chief to suddenly appear as he blocked the attack with his combat knife.

"DAH~!" Sora cried out in terror as he hopped back onto his right foot and recoiled back.

"Chief?!" Sora says confused by his sudden appearance as the Chief just remained silent. Sora lowers his other foot back to the ground, "Okay, first off, please never do that again. Secondly, how did you even do that? That armor looks like it weighs a ton, so I feel like it should have been making a lot of noise." he casually says.

"You do realize everyone's supposed to be in bed by 2100, right?" Chief questions him.

"2100?" Sora asks with a raised brow.

"9PM." Chief clarifies.

"Oh. Uh~, is it already that time?" Sora asks while scratching the back of his neck.

"It will be in five minutes. And when you're ordered to be in bed by a specific time, you're in bed, right on time. Not a minute later. So you should get going to your quarters." Chief says as he sheathed his combat knife away.

"I was just training." Sora says.

"That's good, but the time for training is over. The final battle against the Reapers is tomorrow, the Operation starts at exactly 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Everyone is to be up by 9, geared up by 10, and assembled in their designated areas by 11." Chief informs him.

"Yeah, yeah I know all of that." Sora says.

"Yet you didn't know you had to be in bed by a certain time?" Chief points out.

"Sheesh, you sound like my mom." Sora says, crossing his arms with an annoyed look on his face.

Chief crosses his arms and stares at him, Sora raises his hands as his face shifts to fright, "Sorry."

"Everyone will need to be at their best, and at full energy for tomorrow's battle. Anything less could cost us." Chief says.

"So if one person happens to not sleep well tonight and he doesn't have as much energy tomorrow as everyone else it could cost all of us the entire battle?" Sora questions.

"An exhausted mind can lead to a person making mistakes, mistakes can lead to those around you getting killed whether it's cause you're a squad, platoon, or company leader, or because they're trying to save you from getting killed. If the wrong person can't think straight because of their tired mind, or the wrong person gets killed, it can lead to an entire line getting pushed back by the enemy. If one theater of war gets messed up, the others could be affected as well." Chief says.

Sora's eyes were widened in surprise, "Wow, I never thought of it like that." he says.

"And that's if luck happens to be against us on that particular day. Or maybe none of that happens at all, and the person who didn't get any sleep just dies while everyone else manages to move on. Still, would you want to risk the worst of those situations happening?" Chief questions him.

"Of course not!" Sora nearly shouts.

"Then go to your quarters, and get some sleep." Chief orders him.

The Chief turns and begins walking away, "I'm just… having trouble sleeping." Sora speaks up, making Chief stop and he turns back around to face him.

Sora was looking to the floor with a worried look on his face, "You're afraid, aren't you?" Chief asks.

Sora looks up, "A little. I mean, you have to understand, all of this… is a first for me. I've never fought in a real war, in a way yes I am fighting a war against the Darkness in my universe, but this is like a real war! Guns, explosions, people dying all around you… I don't know if I'm going to be ready for that!"

"You handled yourself well during the Battle of Christophsis." Chief says.

"Well, yeah. But this battle is going to be way bigger than that one! Not to mention there's a lot more riding on this battle being won compared to that one. Kind of adds a bit more pressure to be honest." Sora argues.

Chief walks over to Sora and kneels down in front of him, "Just remember what it is you're fighting for. Your friends back home, King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi. Just remember that you're fighting to protect them. Just like you were during your fights against the Heartless, the Nobodies, Maleficent, and Organization XIII." he says.

Chief then points to and taps Sora on the chest where his heart is, "Remember, that they are with you, here. Let them be your strength. Don't let fear take a hold of you. Remember that you have to fight, to protect your friends. To protect everyone. Fight that fear, so that you can return to them when this is all over."

Sora nods his head in acknowledgement, "Yeah… thanks Chief." he says.

"You were there for me when I really needed it. I'm just returning the favor, Sora." Chief says.

Sora nods his head in acknowledgement again, "Oh and Chief. Don't go pulling any more crazy stunts out there. Unlike before, I don't have anyone else's Keyblades to call upon if you need to borrow mine again." he says in a joking tone.

"I should be telling you that. Try not to lose your head out there. Watch yourself, and those around you." Chief says.

"Yes sir!" Sora says as he stands at attention and salutes.

Chief stands back up and looks down at him as he crosses his arms, Sora looks up at him and smiles while letting out a chuckle.

Shepard stares out the window of the Starboard Observation Deck, in his view were ships from the Galactic and New Republic, the UNSC, the Turian and Asari military, and finally the Systems Alliance.

"The calm before the storm." Shepard turns around to see the Doctor as he enters the room, with the door closing behind him. "That's what people usually refer to situations like these right? The buildup to the big battle to decide the fate of all life, which in this case, is the fate of all life across the multiverse." the Doctor says as he walks up and joins Shepard on his left side.

"Seen a lot of people looking both nervous and scared, let's just hope they get that out of their systems before we go all in to fight the Reapers, yes?" the Doctor adds.

"Everyone knows what's at stake. Still, I've seen what war can do to people. Even the best can crack, let's just hope that we don't have a lot of those happen during this battle. We need everyone at their best, or else this war is already lost." Shepard says.

"There's only so much the mind can take in from the horrors of war, before it either becomes numb to it, or it can no longer handle the sights and becomes broken. But it's as you said, even those who are used to it, even their minds which should be numb to all of this, can eventually break. Trust me on this." the Doctor says as he looks to Shepard who looks back.

The two remain silent for several more seconds before Shepard finally turns his attention back to the window, "I got to ask Doctor. Out of all the universes, out all the heroes out there, why me?" Shepard looks back at the Doctor. "Why was I chosen for this task?"

"Shepard, there are an infinite amount of universes out there. Alternate, Parallel… even taking out the parallel universes, there is still, so much out there that even I don't know. So could there have been another hero out there more suited for this job? Maybe." the Doctor says with a shrug.

"I don't know." he adds while turning to look at him.

"But what I do know is this. One, the Reapers are your enemy after all, so it would only make sense to have someone who knows about the Reapers be the one to unite the multiverse to fight against them. Two, were you not able to unite your entire galaxy together to try and fight them? Even with the bad history between Humans and Batarians, and Turians, Krogan and basically everyone, and Quarians and the Geth… You brought everyone together against all odds. You were able to convince them, to hold off their anger for one another, fix things, establish relationships people never thought possible! You brought an entire galaxy together to fight a powerful threat, of the heroes I know, there are very few who could have managed to pull off such a feat. Not a lot of heroes I know about who can play both the fighter, and the politician when its talking that needs to be done, not just fighting… Still questioning why I chose you?" the Doctor asks.

Shepard remains silent with his gaze lowered to the floor, he then looks back at the Doctor, "I see… thank you Doctor. If it wasn't for you, none of this would have been possible." he says.

"Don't go thanking me yet. Still got a war to win, Reapers to destroy, then you can thank me." the Doctor says with a large smile.

"Is your machine ready for tomorrow?" Shepard asks.

"Ready and waiting. Once the battle begins, I'll start opening up portals to all the universes with Reaper activity in them, you activate the Crucible, and with any luck, whatever happens affects all of those universes as well!" the Doctor says.

"And if this doesn't work?" Shepard asks.

"If only the Reapers in your universe are destroyed… well… let's just hope that perhaps the majority of Reapers decide to come back then so we don't have to worry about it." the Doctor says with a nervous smile.

Shepard approaches the door to his room as it opens and he enters, "Took you long enough." Ashley greets him, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Ash!" Shepard says surprised to see her.

"Why so surprised? You really think I would be anywhere else?" Ashley asks.

"Guess not." Shepard says with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Besides, considering how all this crazy new stuff basically took away from the moment of our last get together, I thought we could go for a second round, you know. Especially considering what's about to happen, for real this time too." Ashley says.

Shepard walks up to Ashley as she straightens herself, Shepard wraps his arms around her waist and shares a kiss with her for a few seconds before breaking apart.

"So we're sure nothing else is going to happen right? Cause I don't want this moment ruined like before." Ashley asks.

Shepard chuckles at this, "I think we're done this time. All that's left, is to finish off the Reapers... You ready Ash?"

"I should be the one asking you that. But yeah, I definitely like our odds a lot better than before." Ashley replies.

"So do I. But still, we all know how things can go south at a moment's notice. So we better be prepared for anything." Shepard says.

"Don't we know that all too well. Look Shepard, no matter what happens, I'll be there right beside you. I won't abandon you like before. You may not like what you hear, but if you're going down, we're going down together. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!" Ashley states.

"Ash, please…" Shepard says.

"No Shepard, I'm serious. I barely managed to hold myself together the first time you died, if you… if I have to go through the pain of losing you again… just please. Tell me right now, promise me, that you'll come out of this alive." Ashley pleads.

"Ash, don't worry. I'll be fine. I won't let you go through that pain ever again. If I had a choice, I wouldn't have let you go through it the first time. We'll get through this together. I promise you." Shepard says.

Ashley smiles at this as she kisses Shepard for a few more seconds, the two break apart once again.

"God… what a crazy ride this has all been. From uniting the galaxy, to now uniting a bunch of universes, and heroes. If my pops were alive to see all of this…" Ashley says.

"I'm sure he'd be even more proud of what his daughter has accomplished. You've done a lot for this galaxy, Ash." Shepard says.

"No, that's mostly been you. I've only been along for the ride." Ashley says.

"I wouldn't have been able to do all of this without every one of you. We're a team. You, James, Garrus, Tali, Liara, Javik, EDI, and everyone else. I couldn't have done the things I had without all of you alongside me, especially you Ash." Shepard says.

"Really, cause you seemed to have no problem taking on the Collectors without me." Ashley slyly comments.

"You were supporting me from the sidelines." Shepard says in a joking tone, causing Ashley to giggle.

"So, starting off as saviors of the galaxy, and now moving on up to saviors of the multiverse. Pretty sure we can't go any higher than that, right?" Ashley asks in a humorous manner.

"We haven't gotten there yet. Let's take care of the Reapers first before calling ourselves that." Shepard says.

"Tomorrow's going to be a crazy day… probably, and hopefully the craziest our lives will ever be." Ashley says.

"Guess we can only wait and see what the future holds for us. But if there's one thing that's for certain, about my future. It's that you're going to be there, alongside me, as we face whatever the future holds, together." Shepard says.

"And I have no problem with that... I know we've pretty much gone over this before but… I love you Shepard." Ashley says.

"And I love you, Ashley." Shepard replies.

Shepard and Ashley share another kiss as everything fades to darkness...

Hours Until Invasion of Earth...

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Q&A...

To UNSC INFINITY - Never seen the series. Only the first few episodes, and even then, I don't think the kids from that show would work in any way in this story.

To adventureFREAK - Unfortunately I have never played any of the DOOM games so no can do :/

To Story Artist - Never really played any of those games so no can do on adding them in. Again, just stuff I personally know.

To William Hoenicke - He's kind of a combination of Soldier/Biotic classes. He's a biotic for sure, and I feel like some of the soldier's abilities shouldn't be as problematic for him to use like a Concussive Shot if you get what I'm trying to say.

To Actionmoviefan - I was originally going to use Avatar, but decided against it as I looked it up online, and the Na'vi wouldn't have been able to breath Earth's Atmosphere so I feel like they would have been at a major disadvantage bringing them into the fight. Never seen Charmed.

To Shadowwolf1997 - My apologies if I made it seem that way. Hopefully this chapter clears it up, I'm not trying to place the blame entirely on the Clones for what happened, but I would say that I can imagine SOME people blaming it on the Clones just cause. Not everyone, but some. Also would the public even know about the Control Chips in their heads?

To Guest - Remember these are the Avengers from the "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" Cartoon Universe, whether there's a Thanos in that universe who knows since it's not like he was ever alluded to or anything.

To Starlord Master - Because I love the Clone Wars series and thought it would make for some interesting interactions between certain characters. But mostly the former so I really wanted them to get involved.