I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan or any of the characters.

Escape

Jet narrowed his eyes, watching as General Modula, a man who was thought to have been killed during the last war against the Mutraddi, slaughtered the soldiers that had gone to try and kill him. He'd warned them against it. Isabella had warned them against it. They had ignored them, and now they were short a full squad.

"What do we do?" a soldier behind Jet asked, both watching the short fight through binoculars.

"We fall back," Jet said. "We're not killing him today."

The soldier nodded and they carefully retreated into the buildings they were using as concealment. They avoided the Mutraddi patrols. They'd found out the hard way that if they took out a patrol, more Mutraddi soldiers would arrive by the time the last Mutraddi fell. They'd lost half a squad that way, then another half a squad had stayed behind to cover their retreat. And now this. They didn't have many troops to begin with. With this newest loss, they were down to three squads. Thirty six troops, not counting Isabella, who was currently in charge.

Jet dropped into the bunker they were hiding in, the soldier just behind him sealing the entrance. Isabella looked over at them and sighed, partly in relief and partly in resignation. Jet walked over to her, not bothering to tell her what had happened, and glanced at the map of the city, specifically the spot where the Mutraddi Mega Beast had been a couple days ago. The Rift Gate had been fired a second time, and the Mega Beast had been sent through it. Modula knew where Princess Ilana was.

"Is there any chance they defeated it?" Jet asked.

"In, at best, one Manus and the princess's Corus," she hesitated before shaking her head. "I doubt it. But I'm sure the king would have thought of that and sent them a way to fend off Mega Beasts."

Jet nodded. "I hope so."

Just then, they felt the ground rumble before the high whine of the Rift Gate firing echoed from above. There was a scramble to get to the surface, and Jet and Isabella reached a spot where they could see just in time to see a massive machine of some kind pass into a cloud.

"What happened?" Jet asked a soldier near the front.

"They sent a machine into the atmosphere when they fired the Rift Gate," the soldier said. "But...why would they do that?"

Jet and Isabella looked at each other before both grinned.

"Because the Mega Beast they sent before was defeated," Jet said.

All of the soldiers' heads whipped around before grins and smiles of relief broke out, though no one was foolish enough to cheer. They all retreated back underground and Jet and Isabella headed for the map. Jet glanced at Isabella, seeing her frowning.

"What is it?" Jet asked.

"Modula's not a fool," Isabella said. "Even if this enemy is defeated, he'll send more, and each will be more dangerous than the last. We can't hold out for the hope that the princess will be able to defeat them all. In the end, he may just send all of them."

Jet nodded. "I agree."

He glanced at a soldier to his side. During the invasion, and even now, the Mutraddi warships were emitting an electronic signal that disabled all of Galaluna's Manus. The armor was useless, which left them with only rifles, grenades, and swords. And yet, even if Jet and Isabella, for example, went to help the princess, as he knew Isabella was trying to plan, they'd be useless against Mega Beasts, because neither of them had a Manus, or the training to use them. For as skilled as they were with guns and swords, they had both been refused Manus on the grounds that Isabella was too young to command anything but a basic unit. Only more seasoned commanders were allowed to have Manus in their units. Or so they were told.

"Even if we could access the Rift Gate, we wouldn't be much help using rifles and swords," Jet finally said, Isabella glancing at him, but otherwise saying nothing. "And neither of us can operate a Manus."

"That doesn't matter," Isabella said. "We can learn, and the princess will need all the help they can get. The resistance can hold out without us."

Jet sighed. "Alright. Then we'll need a ship capable of at least making it through the Rift Gate without exploding, then reentry on whatever planet we're going to."

"Mutraddi fighters won't work," Isabella said. "They wouldn't survive a Rift Gate."

"The princess's shuttle," Hobbs said, limping over.

That had been a big surprise. Hobbs had been wounded and had stayed behind, but Corporal Lance, a highly insubordinate prodigy and the sun of the Manus armor's inventor who had disappeared when testing his own Rift Gate before it was perfected, had gone in his place.

"The shuttle would survive both the Rift Gate and re-entry, but we'd need to find it, repair it, and then somehow get it into orbit all without being detected or shot down," Hobbs said.

"Then step one is recovery," Jet said. "We can worry about repairs and launching later."

Isabella nodded in agreement. "Where was it?"

Jet glanced at Isabella. She'd been at the map almost constantly for days, struggling to plan out how to manage to get the parts. They'd managed to recover the ship and had turned the bottom floor of a ruined building into a hangar, and they'd had to move hideouts twice since then, thankfully while keeping the ship hidden, but now Isabella was burning herself out trying to make plans alone. He could see it in the way her shoulders sagged, the way her eyes had shadows under them darker than he'd ever seen anyone have, and the way she kept rubbing her eyes. Finally, he walked over, taking the hand pointing to the map to keep track for herself, something she normally wouldn't have to do, and turning her toward him.

"Rest, Isabella," Jet said. "You need it."

"I can't rest," Isabella said. "This is important."

"So are you," Jet said, pulling her toward the beds laid out on the floor, hers completely untouched. "We need you at your best."

Isabella sighed, nodding. "Fine. But only for a couple hours."

Jet nodded and guided her into the bed, only for her to immediately sit back up.

"I'm serious, Jet," Isabella said. "A couple hours."

Jet sighed, sitting beside her. "Alright. I promise. A few hours."

Isabella nodded, eyes already fluttering, and Jet lay her back down. He moved to stand, only for her to catch his hand.

"You need rest, too," Isabella said. "You've slept just as much as me."

Jet grimaced. She was right. He'd been heading every defense and relocation, as well as the few raids they'd made. He glanced at her, seeing she was leaving him no room to argue, and nodded, lying beside her. She set her head on his shoulder to make sure he couldn't get up without waking her, and he sighed, wrapping his arms around her. Within seconds, she'd dropped into a deep sleep that was definitely not ending in a few hours, and he smiled, brushing some hair from her face before closing his eyes and allowing himself to finally shut down as well. When he did wake, it was to her flicking his nose.

"I said a few hours, not twelve," Isabella said, looking half asleep still.

He squeezed her lightly. "Forgot to set my alarm."

She tucked her face into his chest for a moment before sitting up. Her hair was a mess, and the white dress she was still wearing was sitting crooked, but she looked relatively well rested. He sat up, stretching and yawning, then smiled wryly.

"Sorry," he smiled.

"No you're not," Isabella said, then sighed, resting her head on his shoulder for a moment. "Thank you. I needed it."

He nodded in agreement, then stood, helping her up. "Now, let's figure out how to get these parts, shall we?"

Isabella nodded, and they both returned to the map together.

Jet sighed as he finished welding the last panel back into place. Finding the parts they needed had been hard, but it was finally ready.

"They're here!" Isabella said urgently, running into the hangar. "The others are holding them, but I don't know for how long, and the Rift Gate just began to power up! Is it ready?"

"Yeah," Jet nodded. "The hull's repaired, and the engine upgrades should allow us to be fast enough to make it impossible to target us. That's not to say we can't get shot down, but we might not."

Isabella nodded. "Let's-"

The door behind her exploded and she spun, her barrier blocking the debris before beginning to shield her from Mutraddi rifle fire.

"Isabella!" Jet shouted, forming a submachine gun and moving to help.

"Go!" Isabella ordered, forming a sword and submachine gun both. "I'll hold them off!"

"But-"

"Now!"

Jet hesitated for a moment before leaping into the shuttle. As the hatch closed, he hurled a grenade at the hangar's door, blasting it open. Then, a moment later, Isabella crouched, forming a complete sphere around herself just before Jet shot out of the hangar. The fighters and warships opened fire instantly, just as the Rift Gate fired, an insect-shaped ship flying upward after it. Jet shot after the ship, gaining quickly. He just needed to pass through the gate. After that, at worst, he could drift to the planet. A shot slammed into his engines and he swore. The ship began to shudder around him.

"Hold together!" Jet pleaded as much as ordered the ship.

Another shot hit the ship, blasting the bottom of the hull open and sending the landing gear flying. He was close. He could see the rift, and the ship passing into it. Almost there. A shot grazed his ship. Almost. Another grazed it, this time spreading soot and carbon scoring across the glass. There.

Less than an inch behind him, the rift sealed. For a long moment, blinding white light flooded his vision before he was through. Or, at least, most of him was. The ship was missing a few feet behind the cockpit, taking half of the stabilizer wings with it. He was drifting at much too fast a speed, but he was heading directly toward the planet. He tried to steer, but he had no control. He swore, standing and pulling on his helmet, then his jet pack. Then, he sat down again, gripping the eject lever. His ship began to shake violently as it entered the atmosphere, flames roaring to life around the ship. His jetpack could only burn for a total of three minutes. He had to wait. He kept his eyes glued to the altimeter. Closer. Closer. He had no idea where he was. If it was ocean, he had to get near zero. If it was a mountain, he had to pull sooner. But what was he over?

Finally, just shy of seven thousand feet, he yanked, his seat exploding out of the ship. A split second later, the ship exploded into the top of a canyon, just shy of the cliff, and punched through, crashing down the side of the cliff for what had to be two or three thousand feet. Jet caught himself with the jetpack, taking almost a minute to do so, and found himself nearly at the bottom already. He swallowed hard, flying back up to the top and dropped onto his feet. When he checked the gage, he swallowed. He'd barely made it. He tossed the jetpack and helmet both into the burning wreckage of the ship before looking around. Then, he sighed. Of course he landed in a desert. He looked up at the stars, took a rough estimate of North, and started to head east, away from the canyon.

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