Chad stood around in the hanger bay that was hidden beneath his mansion. He held a small control-like device in his hand, pressing a blue button as a large door begun to open up before him, allowing the daylight beyond to enter the dusty place.

Chad had long since disposed of the transport remains, leaving the place empty bar several sets of tools left around for modifying and fixing up small ship segments, as well as cranes hanging from the ceiling designed to lift said ships up. The lights worked okay but right now he had them off to see the amount of lighting would come in from outside as the fake cliffside split open to allow passage.

He was wincing a little as the door made a creaking sound, clearly the sea air had gotten to it over the years before it was fully open, the breeze coming in was cool and welcoming as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Well. At least that's in working order. A little oil and rust removal and it'll be fit to let ships come in and out." He walked his way over to the edge of the hanger, looking down at the ocean, noticing quite a pleasant looking beach area below. "Huh. No route down there...maybe I could get one installed with Lan's help and the Cybertronians. Gonna need a path through the mansion, or maybe just down the side of the cliff or even both. Eh I'll jolt it down in some notes to remind myself later. Now back to this place..."

"Hey dad."

Chad sighed. He hadn't seen her for a few days now. Not since Lucy told him of her approval as a captain.

Walking in from a hallway leading out of the hanger was a girl with long pink hair tied near the top for a ponytail that opened up, blue eyes slightly pale skin wearing a black shirt and grey trousers with red and white lined trainers. Lacus Oswald. "Mum said she's got lunch on the go. Wanted me to come and let you know."

Chad nodded, now looking out at the sea. "Hmm."

He heard Lacus slowly walk up and soon was standing beside him. "...So did mum tell you about the good news?"

He glanced over at his daughter. "You boyfriend finally giving up and leaving us be?"

"Oh come on Janus isn't that bad. His sweet and mum approves of him. At least he isn't like Arthur and tries to impress you. He just lets it come naturally."

Chad chuckled. "Yeah no he isn't. Dump him already."

"Dad!"

"What? I want my girl to have someone I approve of. I've met plenty of people in my time-"

"-Backstabbing psychos and villains-" Lacus interjected with a dull tone.

"-backstabbing psychos and villains who-"

"-Are prone to betraying the ones they care for and seemed so innocent at first-"

"-are prone to betraying the ones...Okay look I know I've said it plenty of times but I want to make sure you'll be okay in the relationship area of things. Heck I had a nightmare with it."

Lacus looked annoyed at him. "You forgot mum!"

"Not my fault remember?"

"Then you met Anna, hooked up with her then you did some nasty business with someone called Tira, another called Rose and EVEN had a one drunk night stand with Darkmega, and then you end up marrying my step-mum after remembering my mum no less before you finally marry her."

"...You see? I need to make sure that doesn't happen to any of you." Chad tried to point out, noticing a smirk on his daughters face.

Before both shared a small chuckle over it. Soon it passed though, and despite Lacus having a smile over the memories of what her dad and mum told her, she knew what they needed to say about. "Well, anyway. The good news was I got through the training and got approval. I've been given a small list of ships."

Chad wasn't so impressed. "So your gonna be working for Sun Jian afterall."

"I've been given the chance dad. He knows my name like everyone else yet I got approved. They given me the chance to do something out in the stars. The best I could see on the list was the HE Alabehema. It's got a crew of 120, decent sized vessel, some sweet looking guns on it and it's mostly focused on exploration close to the Farside. The great unknown."

"More evils and nightmares to meet that means. Can't you pick a ship closer to home if you really must go through with this?"

At this point the smile on Lacus' face was gone. "Yes I have to go through with this. This is what I want to do. I want to explore and leave Beyondard like I did before when we lived in the Hero Base."

"Yeah but back then you saw what I had to deal with. We came back to Beyondard because it was our home. It's a safe location."

"No we came back because you wanted to explore why you knew this place and only decided to stay AFTER leaving everyone for over 3 months because you didn't know what to do with yourself during the Black Arms and Chaos Empire feuding."

Chad didn't respond any further. He had his reasons for that.

The silence was hardly effected by the sounds of the sea and birds flying around, before Lacus finally said. "I'm gonna go back up now. I've made up my mind dad."

Soon he was alone again. Still looking out to the sea from the hanger.

He knew nothing good would come from her working with Sun Jian. He could already picture that bastard using her and her 'friends' she'll make in the empire to find out more about Chad to try and exploit any possible weakness, if not his, of Beyondard.

Soon another lot of footsteps and a familiar voice broke his thoughts. "Hey man. How are ya?"

Chad turned around and found Darkmega approaching. He was a little taller now, with his helmet off allowing his medium length deep blue hair to remain visible and seemed more slimmer these days with a stubble on his chin. "Hey Darkmega. Just been cleaning this place out a little more, thinking of things...Had a chat with Lacus. You alright?"

Darkmega rubbed the back of his head a little, clearly looking unsure about something. "Maybe? I dunno...I've found a group of people in Urban Dawn today."

"Villains?"

"One of them?"

That peaked his interest. "...Alright hit me. What are we dealing with and who?"

Darkmega gave a sigh as he looked at Chad. "Just before I do, just remember these people are from a different Universe okay?"

Chad smiled a little. Different Universe? Been a while since anything like that happened. "Okay then."

"Right. Well They wanted to come and see you because they don't know what else to do. See they came through a dimensional gateway to see about one Universe and came to ours. This other person showed up who is from our universe that I've never met and said he wanted to meet Blue. I said Blue will be coming to your manor this evening, his busy elsewhere. They all agreed to come to this place."

"So the villain thing?"

"It's a Zasz. She—I mean, well, this one is a he, looks like...him."

That caught Chad's attention right away. "…Tell them to wait in the living room keep everyone else away from them ESPECIALLY Lucy and the kids alright? If 'Zasz' shows keen interest in them run and gun it till I get up there."

"Good thing I told Lucy to keep her distance already then. Alright man." With that Darkmega rushed back upstairs.

Boy Chad could feel it. He could feel the tension just from the idea of him alone. 'Quicker you get there the better. I hope to god it is another one and not him. Troopers are easy, he's another level. Okay Chad. Okay. Let's go.' He thought to himself after taking a few deep breathes to try and keep his cool, heading to the path leading up to his home.

It's...not what he expected at all.

There was the Doctor. A Time Lord who's been watching here and there apparently and is an old friend of Blue's who was eager to shake Chads hand and seemed pleased to meet him in person, saying about how he expected Chad to be shorter.

There was Zasz. Zerg-hybrid human as expected. But while it held the appearance of Richard, his old hated enemy, there were major differences such as the scaly skin from his elbow down and from his knee downwards leading to claws and hardened chitin. His eyes were a yellow colour, his hair a dark red and there were reddish veins on his neck and face. He was wearing a torn black shirt and black shorts as well as a torn brown cloak which hanged from his neck. Clearly to conceal his limbs...and the two small Zerg claws sticking out of his back.

And then there was Roll.

She was Roll despite calling herself Ruth. The antennas, the eyes, hair style and colour...the only difference was she was wearing a buttoned top that went from a sunset yellow from the bottom changing to a pink at the top, and a pair of white trousers and pink, yellow lined trainers.

Just looking at her made him see Roll for a brief moment in her place. Making him oddly silent as the Doctor introduced them.

Eventually he snapped himself out of it, and while he shook Ruths hand and welcomed her, Zasz and him...when Zasz stood there looking at him he couldn't welcome him.

And Zasz clearly didn't wish to shake hands. Despite the lovely day outside, the rays of sun coming in shining in the room and upon them, Chad felt nothing but a dark lingering feeling from this encounter.

"Well this is clearly an awkward situation we could move along from can't we?" The Doctor said aloud to catch their attention. "So Ruth and Zasz here are from Universe 3. Got stranded. Said they bumped into someone who said they should meet you before I found them."

Chad decided to focus away from Zasz, looking at Ruth for answers. Zasz was clearly fine about this as he moved over to the furthest chair there was and sat down arms folded and leaning back watching. "So why did they say to meet me?"

Ruth seemed to think for a moment. "Well. They mentioned you were a great hero of Beyondard. And I know a Chad too so I kind've hoped-"

"-I would be him, right?"

"Yeah. Before the Doctor said about this being Universe 2."

Chad chuckled. "At least someone knows what Universe this is. I've been to a couple myself. Gets confusing and quite frankly disturbing. Ever gone to a gender-flip universe?"

Ruth looked dumbfounded. "A what?"

"You'd be a man, I'd be a woman. I've seen it myself."

The Time Lord was smiling a little. "Oh that. Yes well dozens of those parallels exist. Just goes to show what happens when the X and Y's get a little mixed up. You used to use a dimensional gateway yourself right?"

Chad nodded, thinking back to the years he had to fight foe after foe. "Dr Rich's little invention. Interesting in what it could do...had issues mind you. I don't know if Faith has ever ironed them out since he vanished. Know there's been issues with the other universes, Devil Roll's and Blue's home universe but it should still be alright."

"Oh, you, don't know about it being dismantled?"

Chad looked shocked. "What? When?"

"Don't know about the when. Just know it got pulled down and disused for good since Devil Rolls place is now a mess and Blue's home...well...their world is at war last I looked into it. Navi's fighting humanity. Seems like being given the real life program made them want things the humans there weren't ready to give."

He just stared at the Time Lord...Blue was once wondering when he should go home to see his brother and father. He was so caught up with his new life here it was only a couple of years ago now his been thinking back to where he came from. How is Chad going to explain this to him? "I...see."

That's when Darkmega gave a small cough from the doorway to the entrance hall. "Hey, uh, do you mind if we all say hello now to them? Lucy's getting annoyed she's being denied access to a room in her house and I'm afraid she'll start twisting my ear if I keep saying she can't come in."

Chad glanced over to Zasz.

He simply looked away, avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah. They can come in."

Lucy suggested they should all go to Urban Dawn for the afternoon. Let the new people get the feeling of Beyondard.

Chad said no.

Lucy said yes. She said she'd call Blue and Iris to meet them there. His kids all agreed too.

Darkmega didn't know what to say but noticing Lucy looking at him, went along with it.

Soon there they all were. Within the city center. The bustling streets surrounding them. Zasz, The Doctor, Ruth. Chad and his family, Darkmega and Medi, Blue and Iris. As well as Chads brother, Trill.

Blue was certainly surprised to see the Time Lord. He gave him a summary of what's been happening for all these years, as Blue also revealed the last time they talked was back before Chad even met Blue in the dimensional realm known as Silent Hill.

Standing close to Chad were the two younger siblings of Lacus. Yuriko and Albert. Yuriko had her mothers blonde hair long hair brushed into a long ponytail and teal eyes, wearing a red skirt, brown shoes and blue shirt, whilst the youngest of the trio Albert had his fathers hair and eyes, his hair short and scruffy looking, wearing red rimmed glasses, red shirt and blue jeans.

Trill was a young adult that had medium light brown hair and green eyes like his sister Iris. Wearing a long sleeved yellow shirt and white trousers as well as white leathery shoes. Once a child around the time Chad lived in the Hero Base he soon grew up and started to see the world in a less naive way, now working with Lan in the Hero Base to keep it all going.

Soon Lucy was giving ideas on where they should go. One that stood out, or at least gained the attention of the Doctor, was the history museum that had been recently opened. It was decided that would be a fun place to start as even those that lived here had yet to see it.

Zasz was the only one who didn't show any interest in seeing the place. Wanting to walk away until Ruth frowned and asked him to stay with them.

Chad STILL couldn't help but feel off with him.

Inside the modern steel building, on it's white clinical walls were holo-projectors complete with computers in front of them that allowed people to listen to the history as it unfolds on the screen, close to the projectors were real artworks and pictures showing the events as well as small objects or items gathered.

As they all went through the halls. They started to split up little by little, eventually leaving The Doctor, Chad, Medi and Zasz by themselves as they had stopped at one holo-projector that when played, described the start of the Zoanoroid War.

"Our people used the internet of Beyondard and quickly begun bringing about new ways to enhance their lives as well as new ways for technology to go, bringing about the existence of Net Navigators, or more commonly known as Net Navis. But whilst we had brought positive things to ourselves, there are negative consequences. Deep within the networks there was a program formed from bugs created by other systems, dumped into the depths. This was Gregar. The wolf that stalked the Network, the first to create slave programs to assist it in it's rise in strength.

Scientists who monitored the network could not find a way to tackle this being that was soon classed as a Cybeast. Instead they turned to the Deity known as Gabriel, a once-viewed-upon protector of our world, who gave them the idea to create their own Cybeast to combat the threat. This was the phoenix known as Falzar. When unleashed into the network of Beyondard and soon after it's first clash with Gregar, it rebelled against it's masters when it was clear it could not win. As it was based around Gregar's programming, it too started to infect and enslave others to it's side to fight and combat Gregar endlessly. These enslaved programs soon garnered the name 'Zoanoroid'.

Much of the network of Beyondard was soon cut off and as Zoanoroids flooded the cyberworld, they started to escape into the real world, seeking new ways to combat each-other's armies. Soon they were declared factions, enemies of the world. On the 12th day of the 4th winter month of 2016 A.P, the Zoanoroid War had begun."

"...48 years ago. My dad was only 10 when our world started breaking down." Chad mentioned aloud, staring at the holo-projector as the last image it showed was a radio tower burning, black clouds surrounding it and a city in ruins.

"They had several chances to have it contained quickly too. But if what I read on the network is right, they missed every chance by indecisiveness." Medi looked over at him.

"Well that what happens when you have an Emperor that isn't sure on how much of a threat the whole thing is. While people were fighting against something that can spring on you from the nearest laptop, mister Mike Haggar was busy pushing for the continuing of the Super Children Project's more humane route and rights of Net Navis. Good moves but at that time..." The Doctor tilted his head a little giving a small frown.

Then they walked on to the next one, which explained the assassination of the emperor led by one of the Zoanoroid factions, causing his daughter Jessica Haggar to take over. She proved a little better than her father in acknowledging the danger but by the time she had assumed control the Zoanoroids were already out of controllable conditions. Her career was a twelve year run of constantly evacuating towns and cities in the northern hemisphere of the world whilst pushing the Zoanoroids back. Her death was also an assassination.

The third one along explained that with no heir to her name. It was decided that Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule would take over as he had experienced the Zoanoroid threat. But his reign ended after five years with his death at the battle of Haven city, where his forces had surrounded a major Gregar army, only to be caught in the middle by a large number of Falzar Zoanoroids who had come to destroy both armies. With his daughter taken by one of the two Zoanoroid factions and converted he too had no one to replace him.

This led to Devil Roll. Another like him who had fought the Zoanoroids and shown keen understanding of them, to be placed in power. She focused on defensive measures rather than offensive and led to renaming the remains of the people of Beyondard to the Last Bastion as it was clear an offensive war was not possible at that stage, choosing to let the Zoanoroids wage their war between themselves.

Around the corner there was one last holo-projector of this hall with dozens upon dozens of pictures and small weapons and old devices from both Gregar and Falzar stored behind glass cases surrounding it. This was going to be about the closing years of the war, Chad could tell from the pictures on the wall alone.

Whilst the Doctor went over to the computer to get it started, Chad remained back. He didn't want to hear about it. How they might have described it. Was it the way he saw it? The suffering the world had gone through, the state of it all as Zoanoroid Jack Sparrow described it to him, how the Zoanoroids wanted Trill, his brother, to end their feud?

Would it explain what he uncovered after the fall of the Zoanoroids? The fact there was a Cybeast before those two that led to the destruction of a civilization on Beyondard?

He was so glad it was clearly shut off and rendered inoperable as the location it was found had been left in ruins along with cyro pods of a handful of people dating back 3000 years had long since shut off. He assumed, with all that happened, Gabriel had it in reserve along with those few survivors should anything go awry with the current Cybeasts he had control of.

It being in ruins probably meant either Gabriel felt it wasn't needed, or one of the other deities trashed it once Gabriel was defeated. Blind Io sprang to mind. As he gathered over the years, the deities hated leaving hints they might be trying to make things go their way on purpose rather than leaving it to their 'game'.

Medi touched his shoulder. "Chad? You okay?"

Chad quickly moved his shoulder out from under her glove. Saying angrily "I'm fine."

Chad didn't like Medi touching him. At all. Not for all these years since his sister passed away. Something Medi never understood why. She assumes it's due to a negative view on Navis now, maybe leading to why he drifted away from Roll.

But Chad has a very good reason. One he doesn't...can't, say to her.

"Oh...Well, I just wondered. I'll go look at the next bit of the Zoanoroid War. Why don't you go and see where Zasz went off to?"

That caught Chad's attention as Medi walked ahead. He quickly turned around and walked back around the corner to check on where that hybrid went.

Only to spot him at the end of the hallway where they came in...talking to a dull purple skinned woman with pink hair wearing a deep shade of pink robes, and a set of ball-dangled earrings connected to her pointed ears.

Chad was trying to use his enhanced hearing from when he had the vampire Angelus within him to try and listen in, keeping to a small group that was listening to one of the holo-projectors.

He only got small parts of it.

"-You need to stop them. If you don't they'll alter-"

"-Starforce and him too? Why would they try-"

"-They think saving him from Atlas will make things better. They haven't seen-"

"-I take it Subaru thinks that?"

"-They want the Blade of Darkness. They think it was-"

"-Your people can deal with this, I won't-"

Then Chad saw the woman pass Zasz a scroll. One that was covered in a purple aura.

"-Look at it Zasz. Tell me honestly if you want this to pass."

Chad saw Zasz open it...and for a moment a wave of light seem to come off the scroll over Zasz's face before it faded. He looked grim now.

"-I understand. He needs to-"

Chronoa nodded. As Zasz tried to hand the scroll back, she seemed to refuse. Saying one last thing to him, before clicking her fingers and vanishing.

Starforce. Subaru. Chad knew these names. They came back to his time before saying they were from the future. They helped him out in tough situations as he did them thanks to the dangers of his time. But 'Atlas'?

Zasz placed the scroll within his cloak, revealing the fact it had pockets somewhere before he walked through the hall...only stopping near where Chad was waiting. "You were trying to listen in."

"I was."

"What did you hear?"

Chad glared a little. "Starforce, Subaru, Blade of Darkness and Atlas. You said her 'people' can deal with it, but whatever you saw in that scroll you got changed your mind."

"I see."

Chad waited...but Zasz said nothing more. "That's it? 'I see.'? That's all your gonna say about it? What's happening with Starforce? What is it about my weapon? This name Atlas?"

"That was Chronoa. The deity that oversees time."

"Never heard of her."

"Of course not. Fate was the one handling some of those matters here. Chronoa is a widespread deity handling multiversal issues with time."

"Is she the one who led you to here?"

"Not with our approval. Ruth and I sought elsewhere. A dead parallel. Where the Chad she knew destroyed the Multiverse. We were looking for information on Roll where we couldn't in ours."

"And you came with her because…?"

"We're friends. She and I met on Earth V and Chad introduced us. We got along and I want to keep close tabs on matters there so I chose to be her friend. I decided to follow to make sure she's alright."

"So what's going to happen?"

Zasz just looked at him right in the eyes. "...Aren't you tired? Of fighting?"

"...For a long time. Again and again I keep having to."

"Tell me. What do you see?"

"..."

"What do you see?"

"...What's going to happen, Zasz?"

"Hmph." With that, Zasz walked off ahead to rejoin Medi and the Doctor.

Chad wanted to tackle the Hybrid and threaten it, but, at the same time...he did see something. With Zasz.

He saw his nemesis. The nightmare that hounded Roll to her grave. Those eyes despite the difference in colour, gave off that same feeling.

Soon he was back with the others, oddly quiet until they were reunited with Lucy and his family and they all went to another part of the museum...which had information in it about the Hero Base, who founded it and what had happened over it's time. Chad decided to stand outside that hall, along with Darkmega whilst everyone else went in.

"Still don't wanna hear about our kill count and the titans you and sometimes I took down?" Darkmega asked him as Chad leaned on the wall, arms folded.

"I read Lan's story of it all through the net. That place is only gonna make it sound more like an adventure then the constant battles and little rest it was, like he has done."

"Well I guess he doesn't know all the nitty gritty bits Chad. You didn't exactly have a hand in the matter. If I recall you told Lan to keep you out of it? Despite being the center of it all?"

"I don't want that level of attention anymore. I came home to restore it and find peace and quiet. If Sun Jian could just die and all those around him it would make things so much easier."

Darkmega looked a little confused. "By causing complete chaos to the Hero Empire?"

"They would so busy fixing things they would leave me the fuck alone."

"That's pretty grim man. Maybe in time Sun Jian will stop. Lacus seems to think she might be able to find a way."

"I doubt it. We know him better."

"Do we? I mean last I knew of him before he turned against us to work for Chaos and got bitten into a vamp he was chilling in the base wearing a tiger onesie once in a while."

"I mean at least we know him for turning on us. If he could do that I doubt he'll stop fighting us anytime soon...if he doesn't by the end of this year. I'll kill him myself."

Darkmega was now slightly worried. "Whoa there Chad. Dark thoughts. You go and kill him and everyone will know somehow."

"And who's gonna stop me from doing it? Darkmega I'm one of the most powerful people in this Universe now."

"That's why people fear you."

"You don't."

"Because we're brothers. You, me, Light Rich before he passed. We were the three amigos. I'll stand by you no matter what you become now."

Chad gave a small smile to him. "Thanks Darkmega. Appreciate it...Even if you're married to 'her'."

"Chad that was over a decade and a half ago. Drop it."

"Not till I die."

Soon the Museum was finished and they all left, heading to the nearby shopping mall that Lucy wanted to show Ruth around, plus as Lacus and Yuriko mentioned, they needed some new clothes, and Iris wanted to look too along with Medi.

A collective groan from Albert, Chad, Trill and Darkmega was the response.

Whilst in one of the clothing stores of ladies dresses and evening wear, Chad found Ruth looking through the items by herself for a moment whilst Lucy was helping Yuriko pick something for someone she may or may not like that she plans to go on a date with...much to Chad's dismay. Chad had originally followed the Doctor, Blue and Iris around but found the Time Lord was stuck debating between two suits he found and couldn't make a decision whilst Iris was looking at...more private-ish underwear for Blue.

He walked close to her and noticed she was speaking to herself. "Would he like this? No...No it's too glossy. I need something that feels soft but doesn't glitter. Long too. I like long dresses. Hope gil works here..."

"Ruth?"

She jumped a little quickly looking at him. "Oh! Hey Chad!"

"What are you after for your, boyfriend, I assume?"

"Oh, well I wanted to set up an evening date for us. See we're, kinda sorta in a relationship? I got an idea for a place, a little restaurant on Earth X at Netopia. But it's what to wear. I wanna impress him. You know, woo him with my looks. I already got some makeup and planning on trying some hair highlights back home...What do you think I should get?"

Chad chuckled. "Well. The Roll I knew would never touch hair highlights, would prefer pink over the black, blue and white clothing your looking at, and something shorter and glitters. She had an eye for shiny things."

"The Roll you knew…?"

"Yeah. You...why are you Ruth anyway?"

"Well, I'm a copy of Roll. My preset name is Ruth Bullen. It's this...Roll business that led me to your universe, by accident."

"Zasz did mention it."

"Nice guy isn't he?"

Chad frowned. "Yeah, sure. So, what happened to your Roll?"

"Died. System failure Chad, our Chad, says. But no information is on the Hero Base network. Yours?"

"Died. Killed herself."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Ruth now felt terrible on asking.

Chad noticed and smiled a little. "It's okay. It was some time ago now. Had great times with her...You do remind me of her, a little bit."

"Like everyone else." Ruth chuckled to herself. "It gets annoying now and then. So were you and her close?"

"Married. Albert and Yuriko are our kids. You and your guy...you said you were in a 'kinda sorta' relationship?" Chad was quite curious on that.

"We're keeping a low profile on the matter...Chad's suggestion. His very worried about someone finding out and if they do, they'll hurt me somehow with that information."

Chad knew right away who. He could imagine. "I can guess who would do that. The pain in the ass. I'm assuming there's a Richard Wily that's a dark soul somewhere?"

"In the base, yeah."

"A friend too?"

"No. Locked up. Has been since I came online."

Chad was surprised. "Oh. You guys caught onto his backstabbing ways quickly?"

"Well from what I gathered his been bad news from the moment he joined Unicron. No one trusts him."

He couldn't help but smile a little. "I can safely say your version of the base and its folks are smarter than ours."

"Did he act like a friend a lot?"

"I...kept believing him. The others more or less followed me in the matter. Eventually decided themselves he could be trusted again when I stopped at last. Was a complete idiot on the matter. Still, his dead and buried. Like every other villain or enemy I had to deal with."

"..." Ruth seemed to just stare at him.

"...You okay?"

"Yeah, I just...Looking at you, I can picture my Chad. Looking like you when his older. It's...um, good."

Chad looked at her carefully. Despite her strange way on complimenting on his looks he could tell something else was playing on her mind. "Well, thanks. I hope he lives long enough to get through the crap he'll probably have to deal with."

"Yeah...was it difficult?"

Chad nodded. "Very. I suffered at the hands of all kinds in my constant days of fighting. Then I struggled socially too thanks to growing distant with everyone, including Anna Hael, my long term girlfriend before I went out with Roll."

"What happened with Anna then?"

"We just fell apart. She couldn't stand me being out there fighting all the time and I had no focus on our relationship. She decided to date my dark soul."

Ruth looked surprised at that, which Chad continued on "Yeah it's a long story but he was an evolving entity from me and developed feelings for Anna, they dated, he moved on to Beyondard, she then went out with my cousin Roxas...oh and she hated my guts. Attacking my dark soul cemented that fact till near the end of it all."

"Then it was you and Roll." Ruth guessed.

"Yep. I took some persuading but hey, she convinced me. And I'm so glad for it." Chad noticed then that Ruth was...looking guilty now on hearing that. That confirmed something was on her mind. "Ruth what is it? Honestly."

Ruth gave a long sigh. "Look, I have a reason for being here, we're here to witness something. See this woman, Chronoa, She said-"

"Chad!" Lucy was calling out.

Chad looked over to his wife and daughter.

"We need you at the counter! I forgot my purse!"

Chad sighed in annoyance. "Goddamnit Lucy. We'll talk later Ruth." The mobian left her alone...just as Zasz walked into the shop and started talking to Ruth.

After a few minutes...

"5000 gil for that skimpy dress?! You better not wear that on your first date young lady!" Chad was not pleased at what he spent his money on as he, Lucy and Yuriko left the shop, noticing Ruth, Trill, Iris and Darkmega nearby at a metal bench. Zasz was seen now with the Doctor in the same shop Chad left the Time Lord in before.

"Dad I really like him!"

"Enough to show off THAT much leg?! If I catch you leaving the house with that on I'm Chaos Controlling you back to your room!"

Lucy tried to defend Yuriko's choice. "Granted the skirt is...very short and leaves little to the imagination, but if I recall someone liked my version of it when we were dating."

"That was the several dates in! C'mon Lucy you can't let her walk around like that on the first!"

"She's smart enough to know what she wants."

"If he touches her I'll snap his fingers."

Yuriko just gave a loud groan of annoyance and decided to stand with Iris along with Lucy whilst Chad rejoined Ruth. "...Hey, so about earlier."

"Don't worry about it. We can talk later."

Chad nodded. "Got it." At least she was willing to give him answers at some point.

Lucy suggested that was enough for today, gathering everyone and suggesting to come home and join for some dinner.

As they were walking to the edge of the city Chad moved up towards Blue and decided to stop him, letting the others walk on. "Hey, got a moment?"

Blue gave Chad a warm smile. "For you? Sure. What is it?"

"Listen...I'm not sure you know but...your home. The universe you came from. That Doctor guy said about a war going on there..."

Blue nodded grimly. His face quickly changing from a happy one to one of misery. "I know. I've been planning to go back there for years on end. But whenever I ask Lan to call Faith and ask for an update...well, it's never good. The last one I got from her was five months ago. She dismantled the gateway way before, but managed to keep a weak established connection to my home universe."

"…and?" Chad wasn't sure if he should know but the word came before his mind thought about it.

Blue took a moment, before folding his arms, looking up to the blue sky above before focusing back on Chad. "Faith said the last bits of information she got confirmed something known as a 'societal collapse' event had occurred on my world. Navi's don't exist, the networks are destroyed completely. She got the information from weak radio transmissions. She said it was matching to that of a 'pre-electronic civilization'."

Chad just remained silent, staring at Blue. He didn't know what to say.

Blue gave him a lop-sided, pained smile. "It's my fault too ya know. I allowed the Real-Life program to be placed on my world without thinking the consequences of not planning to accommodate the wants and needs of Navis. None of us thought about the fact they might want to see the real world and stop being trapped in networks. Faith is sure my family are alive, but probably would kill us if we tried to open a pathway to them. Damage being done and all. She never forgot what they said to her when she first asked if we could help them years back when this kicked off. 'You've done enough' was my fathers bitter answer."

"...If you ever want to go home-"

"No. I'm good. I've stopped wanting to a while now. I have Iris. I have my kids. I have a life here. I respect Faith's decision to separate us from the other universes. Dr Rich would want me to stay and avoid that place. If he were alive he would probably describe it in more detail than Faith did. Heh..."

"Blue he could still be alive."

"No." Blue turned away from Chad. "No I don't think so. Something tells me he went out there into the stars, and found a resting place. I just hope the Farplanes are real and I'll see him there." With that, he walked off after the others.

Chad gave a deep sigh. "Well, if he was alive he would be hounding me." With that, he did the same.

Chad was now sitting in the kitchen, sipping a glass of lemonade. He left the guests and his friends and family alone. Lucy said she'll get cooking in an hour. They were all sitting in the living room, Lucy telling of Chad's time in the Hero Base and about Beyondard, the details the museum didn't have.

He didn't want to hear it.

He looked out the windows, noticing the sun had gone down, the lights outside came on by themselves.

He focused back to his glass of fizzy.

He heard footsteps. The slight scraping of bone or claw as they touched the tiled flooring before sitting down across the kitchen side. Chad looked up. Zasz was opposite him.

The Hybrid stared at him. If he was trying to get a read on Chad or not sure what to say, the mobian had no idea.

"What?"

"...What do you see?"

Chad was slightly taken aback, but the serious tone clearly in the Zerg's voice kept him from showing it as he looked down to his drink. This time giving him an answer. "Nightmares. Haunting nightmares that never go away fully."

"I can't blame you."

"You, he, your, our-" Chad was frustrated with himself now, finding it hard to say. "Our version of your father, the genes that made you, never stopped plaguing me. I take it Lucy is talking about him to make you want to come out here?"

Zasz didn't answer.

"Well. He hurt my sister, my family, haunted my first wife and kept attacking me and never leaving me alone. He killed those I had to revive. He mocked me at every turn. Our version of you was no better. She was cruel and despite wanting to be alone always got in the way whenever Richard was around. But whereas you was a clone, she was a Zerg Soul."

Zasz nodded. "Yeah. I gathered that from you when I had to explain to Lucy I was a clone rather than a dark soul of a dark soul. What you called a Zerg Soul. A name you thought up for it?"

"Hojo did back then, before he turned on us and I had to put him down like everything else."

"You had to keep fighting."

"Someone had to. I was a Primus. It was all set up for me to do. I just wish I had time to stop back then. But no. Someone kept getting in my way. Someone kept wanting to hurt me someway or somehow..." He chuckled a little before taking some of his drink. "And Roll still wanted to give things a go. God I wish I kept firm in my first answer to that."

"Your first…?"

"I rejected her. I told her I never wanted to love again. Too much pain...now seeing that 'Ruth' and how she's a copy of your Universe's Roll...brings it back."

"She's unsure about you, our you. Meanwhile he's trying to reach for her but can't."

"...I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. You were on the opposite end of it. Tell me, about Roll. How did she die?"

Chad glared at Zasz. "..."

"How did she die?" Zasz was not fazed.

"Alone. She died alone." He bitterly responded. He remembered the day well enough. Darkmega calling him in a panic, saying he found Roll on the floor in her room, holding a blood covered knife, stab wounds in her chest and stomach. She was dead. Darkmega confirming she killed herself, saying no one else was there. It destroyed Chad. He never screamed out like that day, slumped onto the ground. Lucy never dared leave his side for a whole week. She made sure he ate and drank. For a year they had been married before this, for two years he had admitted to Roll he and Lucy were in a relationship...but he never wanted her to kill herself. He wanted to keep protecting her, hoping some day, somehow-

"She never recovered from him."

Chad fell silent, staring straight at Zasz once more, who seemed, solemn, on that remark before continuing.

"She never got him out her mind. He was a plague. A nightmare which she couldn't avoid. Appearing before her when she was alone. Reminding her and knowing what it was doing to her that you couldn't stop it. That knife was the answer he told her. After all the dreams, the endless fear she followed through with it. Darkmega watched it all."

Chad was shaking, his hands were visibly shaking the glass. "How the hell-"

"I will say this. The dark soul in our universe...his more than that. I've seen what his done. You won't like this, but we're not from your time. It's been 300 years. We've not only crossed into your universe but time travelled...that's why the deity known as Chronoa spoke to us before the Time Lord found us."

He just listened, trying to avoid crushing the glass in his hand. "Ruth said that name."

"We had to meet you because she knows we're to witness an event. One I knew was coming."

"And what 'event' is this then? The thing Ruth wanted to say about?" The mobian asked in anger.

"Your death."

The glass shattered. Not from rage, but shock on that answer, the liquid within in spreading out across the kitchen side.

"You're going to die soon. Alone. Lucy will die too. The same day. To the same thing. That's what Ruth and I will witness."

For the first time in two years, Chad felt sick in his stomach, a dark feeling of dread washing over him as he stared down at the broken glass that fell out of his hand as he opened it. "I'm...I'm going to...die?"

"You've been waiting long enough right? You admitted you were sick of fighting again and again and again. So now it can end." It seemed like Zasz didn't get the hint that this was major news and life-changing to Chad, who just snapped.

"What in the—I don't want to fucking die! I want to live with Lucy! To live in peace! I want Beyondard free of conflict so we can be a family and not suffer from assholes like—like-"

"Say it." Zasz was looking right into his eyes. "Say it to me."

"ARGH!" He got up off the chair. "Whatever this Chronoa said won't goddamn happen! I defied things before and I'll do it again!" With that, he left the kitchen and was heard heading upstairs.

He slammed the door of his bedroom the moment he got into it. The beautiful room with a king sized bed was darkened without lights on, and he didn't bother to use them as he simply slid down the door to the bottom, hand running through his hair and could feel himself cry, trying to understand that bombshell that hit him.

He was going to die.

Lucy was going to die.

They're from the future, so if that was the case, it HAD to happen.

No. Chad's been to future's before. He fucked the future child of dark soul Richard and Roll and still altered it all. This wasn't that bad. He can handle it.

Then why does this feel like it's gonna be it? This was finally gonna be the one to catch him?

Then something else in that information Zasz casually said about struck him like someone smacked him hard on his face.

'Darkmega watched it all.'

Chad felt his heart race...an old pain had awoken from within it.

The moment he felt the connection weaken, the moment she had died.

And Darkmega, the one he saw as his closest friend, watched.

He found himself slowly going back down the stairs having quietly opened the bedroom door and left. He felt dizzy, emotions flaying around inside him. He could hear Darkmega talking in the living room.

"So I take it your Darkmega is a ladies man too Ruth? Lemme tell ya I used to try and flirt with allll the girls back in the base. Really badly too. I even had the hots for Iris and that brought some major troubles back in the day."

Iris was had chuckling a little and adding in. "Yes I recall who's name you said on your first attempt at a wedding. Should've seen the look on Medi's face Ruth, she could've beaten the daylights out of him."

Chad walked into the room. He was smiling as he did. He noticed Zasz was back in the living room, sitting on the floor in a corner, legs crossed, watching quietly. "Hey everyone."

"Dad!" Lacus smiled back at him. "Zasz said you needed a moment, everything alright?"

"Of course, it's me. I'm always good. So? History discussion?" Chad wondered.

Darkmega nodded. He was sitting at one of the spare kitchen chairs they had brought in, near the back of the room. "Mostly about the time in the Hero Base. We were just talking about my fuck up at the altar. Remember that?"

Chad chuckled as he walked over next to where Darkmega was, putting his hand on the Navi's shoulder. "Heh I remember. Had to sort things out for you and Medi. Always got mixed up with eachothers relationships didn't we?"

"Yep." Darkmega was smiling up at him. "Always had to. We're like brothers to eachother."

The Doctor was seen sitting at one of the small tables they had in the room. "I admit I'm surprised a Navi could get a name wrong like that."

Chad shrugged. "Well Darkmega's a Hu-Navi. Errors happen sometimes. He is a little forgetful. Especially on important details that he should recall."

Darkmega was laughing a little. "Oh? Like what Chad? Come on, let's hear it. You're gonna have to verify that to me."

"Alright then. Recall for me three things, okay?" Chad leaned down a little. "And trust me, should be things you know buddy."

"Okay then."

"First. How many different Richards were there? I'm thinking Clones, the two we know, and that other one that was a Zerg. Name them."

Darkmega sat back in his chair. Chad's hand hadn't moved from his shoulder. "Easy peasy. Dr Rich, Richard the dark soul, Dark Rich, Light Rich, Unholy Rich, War Rich, Warrior Rich, Speed Rich, Death Rich and finally Zasz, the Zerg mofo that we never got to kill." quickly looking over to Zasz. "Not you of course."

"I know." Zasz was watching him and Chad sternly.

"Alright next. When did Roll and I get married? The date?"

Darkmega rubbed his chin a little, thinking on it. "31st of the sixth summer month of Beyondard, September in the Universe, 20...48? Ah I nearly lost it there."

"Heh. One more okay?"

"Got it. Hit me."

"Where did Roll first stab herself?"

"In the-" Darkmega came to a complete stop quickly looking up at Chad.

He was about to answer it. That caught Lucy's attention as she focused on Chad now.

"C—Chad?" He was shaking already, clearly showing he was afraid as Chad seemed to be staring him down now, slowly moving in front of Darkmega, his fingers on the Navi's shoulder now digging in a little.

"Now Darkmega, don't stop. Tell me. Where did she stab herself, first?"

"C-Chad I don't know. I-"

Chad bent down, looking Darkmega right in the face, the dark Navi was sweating in cold fear now despite the now-obviously false smile Chad was giving him. He knew this side of Chad, he knew it from what happened to others...the quiet rage.

"Chad what's gotten into you?" Lucy now stood up to try and get his attention.

"I'm just asking one last question. Darkmega?"

"Chad. I wasn't there. I didn't see anything, y-your hurting me..." Darkmega was sure his shoulder was beginning to get crushed.

"Dad? Dad what's going on?" Lacus was now joining in.

"It's odd Darkmega, isn't it? You were so sure no one was in that room. I remember what you said to me. I never clicked on it till now. You said 'I was in there Chad. I know no one else was in the room. She killed herself Chad. I'm so sorry. I looked everywhere for anything that might've triggered it but there wasn't anything. I got in there just moments after I heard her hit the ground from downstairs. I'm so sorry man. She's gone.'"

Darkmega was beginning to plead. "Chad I never-"

Chad forced him slowly off the chair, walking back whilst clinging strongly onto Darkmega's shoulder, forcing the Navi on his knees before everyone as Chad continued to stare him down. Medi was now on her feet but like the others, hesitant to get in the way. "I was in there Chad. I got in there just moments after I heard her hit the ground from downstairs...It doesn't quite fit does it? After all those we've fought, if anyone wanted her dead they could sneak in without us knowing and back out just as quick...so you would never claim no one else was in the room, unless you, were, there..."

"Chad-"

"Were you?"

"Please man. I'm sorry okay? I didn't want to-"

"Answer me." That was the darkest, most murderous voice Darkmega had heard from Chad towards him.

"...Chad. I, I...I was there. I saw her...I saw her stab herself." Darkmega trembled with each word escaping from his mouth.

Chad took a long, deep sigh. His grip on Darkmega's shoulder loosened, not enough to let the Navi move though.

Yuriko was horrified. "You, you watched mom kill herself?!"

Darkmega tried to look over to her, but the pain returning to his shoulder drew his attention back to Chad, who said in a venomous tone "Don't ever look at my children again Darkmega."

With that Chad flung Darkmega across the room with one hand, sending the Navi spiralling and smashing through the table the Time Lord was sitting at, who quickly moved out of the way as he noticed Chad was quickly walking over to the stunned Dark soul.

"Chad stop!" Lucy called out.

That fell on deaf ears, as Chad began to brutally smash Darkmega across the face and in his chest and stomach whilst he was surrounded by the remains of the table on the ground, before grabbing him by the neck, lifting him up and pointing his hand at the Navi's chest. "Chaos Control."

The red beam fired out and stuck head on, Darkmega now smashing into shelves of books Lucy had gathered and into the wall. He barely kept himself on his feet as the damaged books released loose pages all over the place and the fragments of the shelves dropped to the floor. He noticed Chad approached again. "Ch-Chad please! Believe me I didn't know how to-"

A firm punch in the gut ended that sentence, causing Darkmega to vomit up yellowish bile over Chad's arm as he kept his hand where he hit.

"CHAD!" Lucy ran over now and grabbed his other arm. "Stop it!"

He just moved his hand up from where it hit and smashed Darkmega across the face, causing blood to spew from the Navi's mouth and nose as he was coughing, tears in his eyes.

"Brother you've hurt him enough!" Iris was now trying to draw his attention.

"He could've helped her!" He hit Darkmega again in the face. "He could've grabbed the knife!" And again. "He could've saved her!" With that he grabbed Darkmega by the throat and pressed him firmly against the wall as he started to tighten his grip. "He could've done SOMETHING!"

"Chad please let my husband go! Please! I'm begging you to stop!" Medi was heard saying to him.

"Letting people die...That's something you two have something in common isn't it?!" Chad quickly looked at her with his rage filled eyes. "You two were perfect for eachother! Taking people away from me!"

Medi was confused, horrified by his accusation. "I never—I have never taken anyone from you! What are you talking about!?"

Chad wanting to say it. He wanted to so, so much. But Blue had spoken now.

"Chad don't! Hurting them won't fix things! You say it and you'll turn on what we swore to Dr Rich!"

"But this bastard LIED to me!"

"Breaking Medi and killing Darkmega won't fix anything!"

Everyone was staring at him bar Zasz, whilst Darkmega was desperately grabbing onto his arm and trying to make him let go, tears in his eyes.

Lucy spoke to him gently. "...It's done Chad. What's happened has happened. Let Darkmega go. Please."

Chad did so. Letting Darkmega out of his grasp as the Navi slid to the floor coughing and spluttering rubbing his neck. Medi rushed over to him and hugged him tightly, thankful he was alive, crying into his arms.

He looked down at them, before turning towards his wife...noticing the shocked looks of Ruth, the Doctor and his children, and the staring eyes of Blue, Iris and Trill. Lucy was clearly worried, holding her hands now in his, rubbing them to try and get him to focus on her and to calm down.

He spoke. "Darkmega. Medi."

Darkmega weakly looked up to Chad's back, keeping his wife close to him, both struggling to hold back the tears, one who was fearful and one who nearly lost her lover.

"Get out. Get out of my mansion. Get off my homeworld. Don't ever come back if you want to live another day. You helped me in the past. This is repayment. Go."

"Ch...Chad...Chad I'm so-" Darkmega tried to explain.

"Don't speak to me. Continue and I'll give you far worse agony then most of the villains I've destroyed over the years. Get. Out."

"Dad you can't just kick-" Lacus started to argue.

But his sudden glaring look at her silenced anything she was going to say. He left the room, heading to the kitchen.

Ruth was given Darkmega and Medi's bedroom, whilst The Doctor and Zasz were in what was once Light Rich's room for the night.

Zasz sat in the corner of the bedroom, leaning on the wall. The room was mostly vacant bar the blue linen double bed and the dark blue wardrobe and drawers. It was clear all the stuff Light Rich had here before his death had been put away elsewhere.

The Doctor was laying down on top of the bed fully dressed, shoes on and all. "Well...Never thought I'd see what it looks like on the outside."

"What?" Zasz replied.

"Rage. Quiet rage. I mean I've been prone to it but never seen it before. Do all Oswalds do that?"

"That's just the Chad's as far as I know." The Zerg-Hybrid made one of his claws come forward and was checking it over. "Oswalds vary over time. Chad is almost an exact look to Primus. One of the very few instances of that happening."

"And now I got to see him...You can tell his been through a lot."

"You have no real idea."

"And tomorrow it's gonna all change. Gotta be there to see it." The Doctor placed his hand behind his head on the pillow. "Gotta let it happen."

"...A fixed point in the timeline."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah."

"And we can't avoid it."

"Not without causing major changes. Chronoa wouldn't tolerate it."

"And that annoys you. That you're forced to watch things happen." Zasz looked over to the Doctor.

"You can't change it. We can't change it." The Doctor sat up now focused on the hybrid. "It's a law placed on everyone. That's why the time partrollers are there, to make sure it all goes the way it should. It's your history too. If something were to change now, who's to say it won't lead to, I dunno, the gateway being used again and this time they come to your Universe causing irreparable damage?"

"And yet Chronoa left it in our hands, not them."

"So what? You want to save him?"

Zasz looked down, avoiding the Doctor's eyes. "No."

"Lucy then?"

"Perhaps."

"Why? Why would you want to save her?"

"Because Chad is a doomed cause. He needs to die. Lucy...someone needs to keep an eye on their children."

"Oh well that's sooo kind of you isn't it? Yes why don't leave her widowed and alone whilst Chad dies horribly to some abomination created by Sun Jian?"

"It's to prove something. She'll be fine."

"Prove what, exactly?"

Zasz was now checking over his other claw. "Prove that we don't have to follow the rules. Fate and destiny don't have to be set in stone. It can be changed...do you want her to die then?"

"..." The Doctor laid back down. "I'd rather not let her...I keep finding moments like this, having to stay out of it or just let the event occur. I'm grown tired of it."

"Then let's at least spare one. If Chronoa doesn't like it, then next time she should use her pawns rather than us."

The Doctor didn't answer for a while, before something else came up in his mind. "You said Ruth and you both have a task here. I know yours, but what about hers?"

"...She has to face someone I cannot. I won't."

Chad meanwhile was now in his bed, with the bedside lamp on looking at a datapad. He was only wearing his boxers whilst Lucy, who had now entered the room was wearing a set of dark pink pyjamas as she took her grey slippers and got into bed next to him with one of her remaining books in hand. She sat up in the bed, turning her bedside lamp on and started reading. Outside it was all quiet besides the odd calls and sounds from the animals of Beyondard, the stars and the moonlight from the two moons struggled to get through the clouds.

Chad didn't bother with dinner. He avoided speaking to anyone for the rest of today.

"They've gone, by the way." Lucy said to him.

"Out of here or-"

"Off world. Lan teleported them to Earth X. Faith is taking them in for now while Lan sorts out somewhere for them to live. Their kids left too. Darkmega was worried you might hurt them if they stayed."

"Good."

He scrolled down on the datapad, whilst she continued to read the two pages she was on, before turning to the next. "Albert got scared of you. Yuriko is distraught and Lacus doesn't know how to talk to you about it."

"They'll be fine in time. Don't have to worry about Darkmega and Medi anymore."

Lucy sighed placing her book down and looking at him. "Chad what the hell happened there? You rush off upstairs, then came down and attack Darkmega. What the hell prompted you?"

"Nothing. I suddenly figured it out."

"And it doesn't coincide when you went upstairs Zasz walked into the living room saying you needed a minute to me?"

...He didn't want to tell her about what Zasz said. "In a way. Looking at him reminded me too much of...him. I think that made me think back to her death, then the pieces simply fell into place."

"Richard, you mean."

"Who else would Zasz remind you of? Dark Rich?" Chad lowered the datapad and looked at her, his reply held sarcasm.

"I just feel exile was too much. Kicking him out is fine but this world isn't yours to decide who stays and who goes."

"..." Chad looked back to his datapad.

Lucy looked dumbfounded at him "...You see this world as yours don't you?"

"In a sense. I'm the only one keeping it free from Sun Jian."

"So he can't tap into a resource that is currently unusable anyway thanks to high radiation levels from both? Chad do you think the Bastion of Hope is going to want to keep going against a universal force like that forever?"

"It won't be forever Lucy...Sun Jian keeps this up and I'll kill him."

"Leaving our kids to see everything turn into chaos all over again."

Chad sighed in annoyance now putting the datapad on the bedside and turning to Lucy. "What do you want from me Lucy?"

"I'm just...worried. When you snap you're terrifying these days."

"I'll gotten stronger over the years."

"Yes but...Chad, we're alone out here. You're distancing yourself from others. You won't go off-world, you won't talk to anyone off-world that isn't married into the family and you're just...concerning me now."

"I just want to keep those I love safe, okay? No matter what happens." 'To the death it seems' he thought to himself.

He felt his back tingle. Remembering what Zasz said to him again.

"Just believe me, okay Lucy?" He placed one of his hands in hers as she closed the book. "I want you to be happy."

"...I want to be Chad. But I want you to stop fighting." Lucy moved closer to him, stroking his hair a little. "I need to know you can stop. That you can let things happen for once."

Chad looked into her eyes as she continued stroking his hair, before sighing and laying down in the bed proper, his head on his pillows as she still played with his hair a little. "Look. Maybe...if in a few months Sun Jian still tries to attack me. I'll...go and visit him-" He quickly motioned his hands in a 'hold on' motion "-And we'll talk. Try to compromise. Maybe allow him to make an outpost here. Let him try to get the energy sources and realize it's not possible. Maybe then he'll acknowledge it's fruitless."

"You'll have to let the Bastion of Hope have a weigh in on this."

"I know. I'll tell them my plan. If they don't like it...violence is an option."

"Chad!" Lucy frowned at him as she stopped playing with his hair now.

"No killing. I'll just, ya know, power display. Intimidation. They know me. But even if I do all this..." He looked at her seriously "I can't have Darkmega and his family back. Medi took my sister away from me and Darkmega watched Roll die. They stay away."

Lucy eventually nodded. "I understand. It's hurt you, alot." She kissed him. "I just want you to settle down again. These past years have been tense for too long with Sun Jian."

"It'll be dealt with. Then we can get back to being all about us, hm? So? Holiday somewhere?"

"Mute City? We could always go watch the races?"

"Maybe get mixed up in more Super Children experiments and fights? I've always wondered about the remains of that base after all this time..."

"Oh you are just the worst Chad Oswald!" Lucy playfully hit him on the arm as he chuckled before she rolled over and turned her bedside light off. "Now get some sleep, we still got our guests here. We can show them the capital city."

"I suppose so." Chad turned his light out, leaning over towards his bedside table in the process and looking towards the windows of the bedroom.

As the light went out...he saw it.

Twelve claws, their shadow in the faded moonlight as it was coming into the room.

He bolted upright and turned his light back on, making Lucy jump and sit up looking at him.

As the light filled the room, nothing was there.

"Chad?" Lucy asked in a worried tone.

"I saw him." He answered with a hushed tone.

"Chad there's nothing there."

Chad turned the light off, looking over here he saw it. This time, there was nothing but moonlight. No shadows that appeared to be Zerg claws.

He slowly laid back down, looking at Lucy in a slight reassuring way as she started to settle down too. "I...guess thinking of Roll today is making me think him too..."

He looked down to the bottom of his bed.

Richard was there, his shadowy figure was. One purple eye weakly glowing and looking at him, the twelve claws on his back.

Chad didn't bolt into action this time...he slowly looked over at Lucy.

She was looking down at the bottom of the bed for a moment, before repositioning herself and resting her head on her pillows, closing her eyes.

'Just a hallucination. Knew it.' Chad looked at the shadowy figure again. 'Just why though? Why now?'

I wonder how many times Roll saw me watching her. Like this...as you slept soundly.

Was that in his head? Chad wasn't sure...but if it was talking Lucy should've heard it. 'Piss off. I need to sleep.'

How many times I made the claws click. How many times I stood over this bed, with her desperately trying to pretend I'm not here.

Chad closed his eyes and rested his head. 'Go away.'

Darkmega never saw me. He never saw me strike that last bit of fear into her soul as she plunged the knife in to make me leave her alone. No one else could ever see me...but you can. You have for the past two years ever since she died.

'I've only thought about you when it's about her. You're not here.'

I'll always be here, Oswald...you failed her.

Chad opened his eyes again, looking to the bottom of his bed.

It was gone now.

But a cold feeling shivered down his spine before he could settle in again. 'Make a priority list. First cheat death as Zasz and Ruth are here to watch...second get Lan to give me a check up and have a scan of this place in the evening. If Richard is here...I'll kill him again.'

"As the titan appeared in the early hours of this morning Mechs and attack aircraft's have been deployed but so far have proven ineffective at slowing it down-"

"Many speculate that this is either another Weapon created by the Beyondard Lifestream since the fall of Arcadia Weapon, the once believed last line of defence for our world, or a new hostile lifeform from space-"

"The forces of the Hero Empire have reported three destroyed vessels above Beyondard, stating that an unknown force had torn through them which may be the monster that is heading towards our capital-"

"As it passed through the two frontal outposts leading to the capital there is little remaining of the guard force stationed at them. The Emperor Jack Harper has been seen leading the military counter force from the northern sector of the capital to intercept the monster-"

Lan had been going through the channels in the Hero Base lab. He was trying to get as many updates as he could. He had been woken by the defence network his barely got working that warned him of an attacker...but this thing, he was seeing brief images of it on the news channels, quickly pausing and saving the images to one side for now. No one in the base is willing to deal with this as he expected, and of course, called the one person who will.

Chad soon ran into the labs. "Status Lan!"

"Giant space flea from nowhere Chad! Nothing on the satellites nor the Hero Empire networks picked this thing up till it landed in the southern hemisphere of Beyondard!"

The head of the Base showed the pictures. "Seen anything like this?"

Chad stared at the images, which were slightly blurred...but clearly showing Atlas. "...Fat black mini-Unicron with neon lights and an ancient tribe vibe to it?"

"So no?"

Chad rubbed his forehead and sighed in annoyance. "You are oblivious at times Lan. No I have not seen it before."

"Well it's ripping the military of Bastion of Hope apart! It's heading right to the capital city!"

"That place has guns for skyscrapers. It's a literal fortress."

"USED to be Chad! Since they had to spread their forces out to deal with the lack of Gregar and Falzar those towers are inoperable and they're being forced to deal with it before it gets to the city itself!" Lan was clearly in a panic about this.

"Where is it?"

Lan quickly got to typing on the main computer. "It's already in combat with the military force. The last signal that bounced off it was about a minute ago."

"Just pinpoint the signal and tell me the location and I'll get on with it."

It didn't take Lan long. He was slower than the docs before him but still got the job done. Location now known, Chad Chaos Controlled himself out of the Base.

Orbiting the world above in one of the warships dimly lit bridge stood Sun Jian with Dr Bullen beside him, holding a red screen glowing datapad in one hand. The emperor himself focused on the crew around him. "How's Project Atlas doing?"

One of the crewmen answered him. "Sir. Atlas is functioning at 64% capacity in comparison to the results expected. The crews of the three ships did not survive as planned. Other vessels did not detect Atlas in it's powered down state before it was teleported down. Currently despite it's hindered state it has successfully destroyed all attackers that have approached and remains on target. No sign of Chad Oswald."

Sun Jian looked to the aged woman beside him. He had to play it off as if Atlas came from space. Triggering a silent self destruct on those vessels without warning them was a sure way of making it look like something struck them hard enough. Dr Bullen warned him to avoid it looking like it came from the Hero Empire since if Atlas is destroyed or something goes wrong, they can avoid repercussions from those who sympathise with Chad and the people of Beyondard. "I hope Atlas can achieve your expected results. That percentage doesn't give me much hope."

She was smiling as she looked at her datapad, which was showing an outline of Atlas, and a lock symbol over the outline whilst in the corner, it was showing an energy level of 89%. "You'll see the full results eventually, I'm sure of it."

Another member of the crew now spoke to the emperor. "Sir! Chad Oswald has arrived in Atlas' location!"

Sun Jian looked out of the viewing windows looking down at Beyondard, and smiled. "Chaos controlled to the location. Good. Let's see what he makes of our newest answer to his existence."

Chad was finding himself surrounded by wreckages, burning and cackling with fires. Smoke filling the air as he looked around for anyone he could ask to get the hell out of here while he takes out the alien. But he soon sensed the reality of things here.

Nothing but one thing was alive besides himself. Everyone else and their weaponry had been already obliterated by the intruder.

He turned towards the only thing remaining, through the billowing black smoke he saw the orange crystallized horns, the blue glowing outlines of its body and face, and it's shiny structural look, clearly of a metal...and it was looking right down at him.

"Ohhhh wow you're bigger than the pictures showed." Chad looked Atlas up and down. "So where are you from huh? New alien species super weapon? Blind Io's NEXT weapon to throw at me and left you late as he got bumped off? Maybe a tool from the Hero Empire?"

Atlas swung his fist, crushing the ground that Chad had once stood on as the man easily used his chaos energy power to disappear from there and reappear high up in the air, at eye level with the machine...who then just swung his other fist, and Chad again vanished.

"Little on the slow side aren't we? So I take it you don't talk at all?" Chad was on top of the fist that was on the ground.

Atlas lowered his other hand towards Chad to try and crush him between both, but Chad vanished and popped up close to Atlas's right foot, smirking. "I think Unicron was faster than you. Is this it big man? Is this all that you did to defeat everyone you met?"

A foot rose up and came down towards Chad, who just dodged it like the rest feeling the vibrations on the ground from the impact. "How about this? I give you one more chance to hit me with something. Anything. Before I go on the offensive?

Atlas responded by rising both its hands high above him, and swinging them down as fast as it could, leaving massive indents in the ground, and several huge cracks in the earth that opened up a little, creating small chasms.

Chad was heard behind. "Okay I really felt that. I mean probably everyone in 300 miles felt that. But you missed." As Atlas slowly turned to face him "So now it's my turn. And I won't be going easy on you."

Chad quickly pulled the Blade of Darkness. "Let's see how you feel lacking a foot to stand on! Gravity Core!" His sword became far far heavier in seconds and turned a deep purple, increasing in width in the process, but to him it was simple to still swing around as he rushed to Atlas' feet and intended, to slice on through one then the other.

It simply bounced off on impact leaving Chad to avoid being stepped on by leaping away from his enemy. "PROGRAM ADVANCE! LIFE SWORD!" Chad now called out as he disabled the Gravity Core state of his sword and placed it away, now placing his hands together as a huge beam of blue energy formed in them barely shaped like a blade. With it, his swung it at three different angles, each causing a shockwave of energy to tear through the ground towards Atlas, colliding and exploding with it on impact. "INFINITY VULCAN!" His hands now transformed into a large, long orange coloured minigun aiming up at the giant, firing an almost endless rapid fire stream of bullets causing a cloud of smoke as each energy shot struck.

"ZETA CANNON! LIFE SOUL ACTIVATE!" Chad was suddenly covered in a white aura as his hands changed into a huge red cannon, changing up a silver beam and firing it in the middle of the smoke, confirming it struck as the explosive hit blew the cloud away.

Without even checking to see what damage he did Chad went on to his next attack. "Double Soul engage! MAGNET SOUL ACTIVATE!"

Next to him was another Chad now, both clad with magnet shaped armour and pauldrons, one had red the other had blue, both covered in a white aura still as they aimed their hands towards Atlas. "LIFE BEAM!" They both called out in unison.

As the beams fired Chad saw Atlas bending a little a picking up a handful of debris, metal and rock and threw them towards the Chads. He disabled both souls and used Chaos Control to avoid the high velocity pieces and was now at the face of Atlas. "Chaos BLAST!"

Around Chad blasted out a surge of Chaos energy, with enough force that against humanoids it would send them packing whilst being burned by the radiation and heat of the energy. Chad quickly aimed his hands whilst slowly starting to fall. "Chaos Control!" repeating it again and again as he fired beam upon beam into the face of the giant, only stopping when he finally hit the ground on his feet, skidding across the dirt backwards until he came to a stop, the accumulated build up of recoil from each beam making him move away like that on landing.

Chad clearly noticed Atlas wasn't done yet, the machine roaring out and taking a few steps towards him. "You take some beating huh? Well then I can just go full on with you!" Before he focused his energy, his hair turning a tinted greenish blonde and a massive yellow aura surrounded him. "Beast out! Final beast!"

Chad once, years and years ago, required the help of his young brother Trill to transform into what was known as Beast Out, forms provided from his creator and father Chaos that were connected to his homeworld Beyondard. It was a skill all Beyondardians that served either Falzar or Gregar could achieve, the Zoanoroids. But Chad's, infused with the power of Trill, was a step more powerful.

And Final Beast was a form granted to him at the ending confrontation with the beasts Falzar and Gregar, that had been fused into one by a Maverick program known as Final Light, a super weapon designed to break down and defragment anything in it's path, that achieved sentience.

Now Chad was standing there, White metal wings shaped like that of Falzar, gauntlets, chest armor and leg guards, golden steel talons on his feet and two claws connected to his gauntlets, a long metal white tail and helmet the shape of Gregar, the golden aura around him now mixed with purple, red and blue, their light reflecting across the ground around him.

He launched himself up towards Atlas, readying his fists and slammed them into the face of the machine, causing it to come to a dead stop on impact. Chad meanwhile flew back, gliding through the air before returning and kicking Atlas in the chest, punching him several times, then launching himself away from the giant, forming large purple energy orbs in his hands and throwing them at Atlas, remnant programming of Final Light he managed to get, each energy orb slamming into the machine perfectly.

It was quickly obvious Atlas wasn't being moved by the hits nor affected by the small amount of the programming within the attacks, though it seemed to try and take swings back at Chad, he was too quick for it's slow effort. Managing to keep himself away with each attempt and either strike it hard with his fist or kick at it with forces he knew would smash through steel walls with ease before finally appearing high above, Blade of Darkness out. "Star Raver!"

The blade's orb turned blue, the handle golden as Chad dived down, within the sword was a vast amount of his pure energy seeped in, which as it seemed to strike and hit Atlas as it connected to it's head all the way down it's body and leading to Chad slamming into the ground, emitted a blast front that sent all the debris around them blasting away into the distance with such force it was clear a fair amount of the larger metal fragments and armaments that were intact were torn to shreds.

Atlas had clearly reacted to this hit, stepping back and holding it's chest for a moment with one hand, a sign of pain perhaps, before it took another swing at Chad with it's other hand, him easily flying up to avoid it as it left a crater on impact.

"So I just gotta hit you as hard as possible to do some damage huh? Let's go for it!"

Chad knew what he could combine for this. Around his body was a building crackling of red energy surging, with it he activated the Life Soul once more, adding white to his already startling aura, and readied his sword in it's Star Raver form. "Program Advance! ELEMENT SWORD!" leading to the Blade of Darkness now shimmering with an aura emitting small, flickering images of fire, ice, thunder and leaves.

The crew of Sun Jians ship picked up the energy surge. "Sir! Chad is emitting levels beyond estimates! His readying to destroy Atlas!"

He looked to Dr Bullen, who remained fixed at her datapad as it now read Atlas' power level at 51%. "Well?"

"Almost Emperor. A little more before we show our full hand."

Chad could feel the power of everything he had, he watched Atlas as the machine moved its hand away from its chest aiming to crush Chad between both, hands outstretched and ready.

The moment it moved in for the crushing blow, Chad dived towards the middle of it's torso, sword before him, stabbing it into the metal body as he shouted out.

"CHAOS! NUKE!"

On Beyondard now, was a bright neon red like shaped like a sphere, the sky matching it's colour and the clouds being blown away. A howling wind coming from it's direction as sandstorms were formed, heat beyond the survival of most humanoids rushing outwards, the blast front striking the mighty northern metal wall of the Beyondard Capital, melting pieces of it slightly as the emergency siren was now triggered within the city, warning everyone a major crisis has occurred and it was time to leave, something that never even happened during the Zoanoroid war.

Anything close to the now red lit blast zone was turned into ash or melted into nothing, specks of small orange energy flickered and fluttered around in the air, the signs of Chaos radiation before it began to settle on the ground, whilst it would not stop life regrowing, it would lead to high levels of unusual side effects and even mutations.

Chad was breathing fast and hard, sword embedded into the ground at ground zero of his attack. The heat was nothing to him, the aura he had was gone and so was the one around his blade. The Life Soul was still active but powered down for the moment. His Beast Out armor was damaged, cracks showing and small pieces of it melted.

Atlas' crystal pieces and horns had turned a dull blue and purple, a huge crack was visible in it's chest now, showing grows of neon blue within it. It had fallen onto it's hands and knees, that neon colouring seemingly going dimmer and dimmer as the machine was not moving anymore.

3%.

Dr Bullen smiled darkly, as she pressed on the lock symbol on the datapad, which seemed to warned her about something as Sun Jian spotted but she pressed it again making the symbol shatter visually. "Now we end this."

With that, slowly coming out of the top of Atlas' head, was a shining white chunk of pure crystallized stone. It's light clear within the slowly fading red landscape and sky.

Around Atlas as Chad began to notice, was a green light within the ground...seeping through, were strands of the Lifestream, flowing across the feet of Atlas up the legs, across the torso and arms and eventually over it's head and connecting to the shining stone on top.

"Oh I can see where this is going! Chaos Control!" Chad quickly aimed his hand at the stone and fired a fiery red energy beam, striking the object…

Showing it did nothing.

Rapidly the percentage rose from it's meager 3% to 27%, 56%, 74% and finally at 100% on the doctors datapad.

Atlas rose to it's feet as the Lifestream soon stopped flowing around it, no more escaping from the world to enter into the project. The sky had returned to it's natural colour, the blast Chad created and finally ended entirely as the clouds began to return and gather, flashes within them signalizing a storm was forming...and the first echoing deafening roar of Atlas, it's crystals and horns returned to their orange raging colour, the neon blue as bright as ever, was heard.

Dr Bullen was smiling darkly. "Now...Now he, and his world will die..."

Sun Jian overheard that, moving closer to her and looking at her datapad for a moment. "Doctor?"

"Atlas has awoken it's full power...the Leviathan trapped within is awake." She dropped the datapad, it smacking the ground and sparking before going out. "We have no reason to remain Emperor. Let's head home and wait for the death toll to pass."

"What the hell do you mean?!" Sun Jian was showing signs of anger. "I want Chad dead!"

"The whole world will be devoid of it's Lifestream. Atlas cannot stop."

"We don't have a means to cease it's assault?"

"Exactly my emperor. It will keep draining that pitiful world until there is no life to feed the endless driven hunger of the soul within, and eventually it will shut down. We trapped the Leviathan in a shell it can't break out of, a shell that drains the power that the Leviathan sucks up from the planet to try and become alive again...a constant cycle of use until there is nothing, and the beast sleeps in it's cage once more."

"I didn't want this!" Sun Jian snapped at her. "I wanted him dead! Him and perhaps his family, but the world must be mine!"

"You can take whatever resources you seek from the remains of the planet. You lose nothing from this."

"There are over three million people down there!"

"Treat it like Earth V Sun Jian...You bombed that world regardless of the lives lost."

Down on the planet below, Chad was now facing a foe that seemed to no longer take it's time.

Atlas seemed to no longer plan it's moves. At least not as obviously as it was earlier. It was swinging it's arms wildly at Chad, the hurtling force of each blow cracked the earth on impact.

When it did plan its attacks, it kept catching Chad off guard. The most recent sudden tactic was as Chad landed on the ground, one hand would slam down open palmed, causing a powerful shockwave to send Chad back up into the air along with dust and ash, before the other hand formed into a fist and swung at him, sending him flying across the open barren landscape.

Then there was the new attacks. The machine now was able to fire bright yellowish energy beams shaped like lightning from it's mouth as well as it's hands, the connective wave of energy seemed to vaporize most things in it's wake, and when one of them connected to Chad, it's power burned him and caused him to lose his Beast Out mode as well as the Life Soul.

Then there were the shouts.

Chad didn't recognize the language at all. It was all machine-like, echoey and deafening, but when it did it seemed to trigger powerful magical abilites. One made the machine seem to phase into a blue ghostly state as Chad's Chaos Beams and sword swings seem to go right through doing nothing. Another made it blast fire from it's hand, whilst from it's mouth it unleashed a wave of ice that froze up the earth as it went over Chad, before the flames struck him.

All he now knew, was that the machine was pushing him further and further back towards the capital city of Beyondard. He was throwing everything he had, but it was becoming clear that what he felt should've been enough, was not.

And it was making him panic.

Zasz saw Atlas in the distance, the attempts by Chad to fight the giant menace was clear to see. The capital city of Beyondard was close by to the confrontation...He watched as Atlas was clearly starting to head in that direction. Rain was falling now, the storm above was reaching it's peak.

He knew who was there already. Who was busy stopping one danger other than Atlas for him whilst he was here. That person now had time against them.

"Ruth...I hope you can do your part in this...I hope you can stop him. Because if he triggers that power long enough, Chad will come back on top, and everything will change."

Zasz then turned away from the soon to be attacked city and the futile fight Chad was putting up, as he spotted a group of people approaching. A group of eight. He knew their names. Subaru Hoshikawa, Misora Hibiki, Silver Oswald, his sister Blaze, Goku, Krillin, Kenshiro and Vegeta.

Starforce.

He allowed his black cloak to drop away from him to the ground, ripping out from his shirt were ten other freshly grown claws like his other two, his red blood washing his cloak and the ground around it.

He had to make himself grow those...and it hurt like all hell. Using the pain as a source of anger towards those coming to him was the only way he could keep focusing through the damage he had just caused to himself.

The Hybrid closed his eyes, and soon when he opened them again, the red irises were replaced by purple. Focused on the newcomers as they slowed on spotting him, now sporting a twisted grin. He knew how to speak to them. "Well now, I can't allow ANYONE to try and get in the way of that little ending party you know, the ending song of Chad!"

Silver Oswald, a descendent of Chad from the future, with his medium parted light purple hair, blue eyes, purple jacket black tank top and trousers pulled out a sword from the hilt on his back. "Wait! Those claws, the eyes...YOU!?"

Subaru was just as alarmed, whilst currently fused with War-Rock. "Is that Richard Wily!? Why is he here!?"

"If it is him we'll all need to stick together!" Silver's sister Blaze, a blonde girl with a white and blue sleeveless shirt and blue skirt readied fireballs in her hands.

"That's right...If you can't stop me, how will you even save poor Chad from his fate?" Zasz mockingly said to them readying himself, his voice sounding now more vicious and menacing.

With that Silver yelled out, an aura burst out of him and his hair turned yellow and spiked up before he charged with his sword, flying right at Zasz. Who stopped him, grabbing the blade with his hand shocking Silver.

"I hope you aren't expecting this to be simple, Oswald."

'Now I have to do my mission.'

Chad yelled in pain.

He had found the northern wall of the Beyondard Capital at his back. After being slammed into it by another shout made by Atlas, which simply blasted him away with sheer force alone. He fell to the floor, looking up as Atlas, a mile away from his position, took a few steps forward and put his hands out towards Chad.

The bright energy beams shot out of both as well as the machine's mouth, all three strands striking and destroying the wall, tearing through it like nothing as they approached Chad who had no choice but to force himself to his feet and quickly leap over the closest one as it was about to hit.

The dust it was creating from the metal wall covered him as he found the ground, his feet and legs in pain and giving way as he landed now finding himself kissing the ground. Beside him all he heard was the tearing of metal and feeling lumps of it hit his back as the wall was collapsing.

He waited for a moment. Knowing the attack would end shortly and allow him a chance to counter. He could easily escape from the slowly growing pile of debris, using a weak chaos energy barrier around his body to stop it from crushing him.

As Chad soon gathered that attack was over...another happened.

Atlas slammed both it's fists into the ground as hard as it possibly could, shouting another spell in the unknown language "GOL LUV BEX!"

Chad felt the ground violently shake, enough for him to abort his surprise plan, using Chaos Blast to knock away the debris on him and get up...Just in time to witness the remains of the fallen wall to fall entirely, into a chasm that cracked open beneath the foundations, opening wider and wider as Chad had to teleport himself to avoid falling in, the chasm eventually dragging down several of the tall cylinder shaped buildings that were close to the defensive structure, their glass windows shattering the floors caving in as they went.

Amidst the chaos, Chad heard screaming.

The Capital hadn't fully evacuated.

That seemed to spur him into action, rushing at Atlas as fast as he could yelling out in fury as he formed with a battlechip a Zeta cannon, and blasted the thing out over and over, the supposed sheer force of the energy wave that normally would knock back people from use didn't effect him as he got ever close to the machine.

But in turn the blasts as they struck Atlas, did nothing to faze it. As it was able to see Chad and keep an eye on him to the point that as Chad launched himself into the air to form the Program Advance known as Energy Cannon, Atlas caught him in both hands.

And it began to crush him.

His body was breaking, he felt pain that he hadn't felt for many, many years. He screamed out in agony, blood spurting out of his mouth as he was trying to use his power and might to get out of the grip he was in. Atlas done it for him, as it now held him in one hand, and threw him towards the chasm it had created. He was glad he was able to fight through the pain as he used Chaos control to reappear besides the chasm instead of falling in, his legs shaking and his body quickly reminding him there was positive hints he had bones broken somewhere in his system, his arms weak and done at his side barely holding onto his sword.

"Oh no. You think you can just throw me away thinking I'm done asshole!? I'm, still getting warmed up!"

"CHAD!"

That alarmed him. He spun round looking into the city, despite the earth shaking with each step as Atlas approached him. His eyes were darting around to try and see the woman that called to him.

Lucy was there. She was standing near the other side of the chasm, close to one of the skyscraper buildings, clearly a little relieved to see him alive.

As they looked at one another, the yelling, the alarms, the sound of Atlas all seemed to slip away for a few seconds...before Chad heard her scream at him to look out.

The three energy beam waves shot by, two clearly missing Chad and striking the buildings causing them to fall, and one Chad ducked down to the ground to avoid as it flew overhead, and tore through the building Lucy was underneath.

Time seemed to slow down altogether for him. He saw her look up, the building breaking and falling down towards her, broken glass and twisted steel falling all around before turning back to him and reaching out as he got back on his feet ready to Chaos Control over and grab her…

Atlas struck. One of his hands swung down from the side as he was close enough to Chad, swatting him away and causing him to smash through the scrap and debris of the remains of the wall that once protected the city and falling into the chasm.

The building fell onto Lucy.

Atlas roared out, and used a new shout. "WULD NAH KEST!" And launched itself over the chasm into the city, continuing to cause carnage in it's wake as it moved on.

Soon, the screams of terror and fear began to die down. The city started to fall silent as it's population fled for their lives.

Chad was hanging helplessly off the chasm.

The rebar in his right hand was feeling like it wasn't going to hold. The concrete it was connected to was weak. A little piece of the foundation that stopped him from going down into the depths of the planet.

He felt so exhausted. No energy to give, no strength beyond what he was using to hold himself in place, rain coursing over his clothing and body.

That skyscraper killed Lucy.

He failed her too.

Was that all he was going to be now? Those fives years of battles and hardships, the hard earned victories and power he gained from it all, a failure despite it all?

He heard something move above him. Looking up he saw Ruth, looking down at him, carrying a sword he hadn't seen for 16 years, the replica of his own...She looked wounded, battered. Her clothing cut and torn, blood was leaking from openings on her arm and stomach. "Chad!"

Hope returned to him. He wanted to try and get up there himself, but felt nothing from his body. "Ruth! I can't get back up! I'm out of energy!"

Then...another walked up to edge looking down at him.

Zasz. He looked no better. He was wounded and hurt as well. His shirt was missing, showing that his stomach had hardened chitin over it, cuts over his chest, arms and one on his right cheek. He still had twelve claws on his back. Which for a moment, caused Chad to see his Richard rather than Zasz. But unlike Ruth who was clearly looking for a way to help, with concern and fear for Chad written on her face.

Zasz was glaring at him in a manner like that of seeing a revolting creature.

"Zasz! I need help! I can't do anything!"

Ruth looked over to the Hybrid. "What do we do!?"

Zasz remained silent, bending down to one knee, his eyes never leaving Chad's as the Beyondard born hero began to realize.

The two who were to watch him die...were here.

"Zasz! Tell me! Is it time!? Am I going to die now!?"

A fearful, chilling wind flew through the chasm as thunder echoed above. The concrete began to crack.

Ruth was horrified. "Zasz please there must be something! We can't let it end like this!"

Nothing. The Hybrid continued to watch as Chad felt his grip weaken.

"Zasz Tell me! Tell me it's the end!" Chad was almost pleading. One part of him wanted to live...but the other, it wanted closure, an ending to all this fighting now. "If it is Zasz listen to me! Please! If this is my last moment! Please stop Atlas! Save my family! Save them!"

"NO!" Ruth yelled as the concrete broke, the rebar slid out of it's grounding, and Chad closed his eyes.

As he let go of the rebar from his right hand, he now felt something new wrap around his whole right arm, making him come to a dead stop mid air, almost hitting the side of the chasm.

Zerg veins.

Zasz had his hands downwards toward Chad, veins escaping from his wrists. He was showing small signs of struggling to hold Chad in place before he forced himself up on his feet and started take steps back. Relief washed over Ruth as she quickly moved over to where the veins were pulling up from, waiting for Chad.

Soon he was on solid ground, panting, wet, cold but very much alive. He was laying on his back as the Zerg veins retracted and returned to Zasz, Ruth was crouched besides him. "Chad! I thought we were going to lose you!"

Chad nodded, trying to blink out the rainwater rushing into his eyes. "Yeah, yeah I thought the same. But if Zasz didn't save me-"

"Your suffering shouldn't end."

Ruth looked over to Zasz, silent, as Chad forced himself to turn over, onto his hands and knees looking over at Zasz, who stood in the wreckage they were surrounded by, his back to Chad.

"You deserve it. You should keep fighting. Fight here and defeat Atlas, then come to our Universe...and end him."

"My...suffering? End him?" Chad just stared at the back of the human-zerg.

"Your powerful enough to try. Far more then our Chad. If you fail...Then you die to a Richard. Like you should." Zasz said in an utterly despising tone.

Chad forced himself to his feet, Ruth wanted to support him but he gave her a small smile, shaking his head as he used his own strength to get up before looking over to Zasz again. "Tell me what's going on here."

Zasz was clenching his fists, he turned his head to the side to allow Chad to see his eye. "Against my very judgement I've given you a final chance. You need to end Atlas or you'll lose more than Lucy. After today, you and her are dead. The capital falls, and the effort falls to your children to save this planet from Sun Jian's project, Atlas. Yuriko and Trill die in the process thanks to its gravity beams, the energy attack it was using on you, and Lacus gets critically wounded, the damage catching up to her soon after she gives birth to her only child. The Hero Base folk mostly abandon your family with you gone. Only a handful remain. Xiahou Yuan, Charlie, Blue, Hub, Faith, Darkmega...all of them will die too in their pathetic loyalty to you and what you had done."

"Darkmega, comes back?"

"Yeah, he is suppose to come back as your children and friends make their last stand. They break the crystal stone on Atlas' head, forcing the Leviathan within to break free."

Leviathan. Chad had heard the word several times in the past but it hardly meant anything to him. It was the name of ancient beasts from times before. "Atlas is carrying a Leviathan? Is that what is making it so powerful now?"

"It was suppressed earlier. Now it's been given control of the cage it's in. When it's low on power the crystal will come out, its connection beyond its prison to summon the Lifestream to feed and regain power. It will keep doing this until there is nothing left. And the Leviathan soul they found and used, Ghidorah, needs a lot of Lifestream energy to materialize."

Chad took this all in...and soon realized what was happening. "But. I'm alive. I know it's weakness now. All I need to do is wear it down, and as it recharges I can strike."

Zasz turned around to face him fully. "When the Lifestream connects to the crystal it becomes impervious. It'll need to be destroyed as the recharge process starts-"

There was a faint green glow behind Chad, which Zasz and Ruth looked over at while Chad turned to see what it was.

In the midst of the city, Atlas was covered in Lifestream energy.

"-And now it's recharging again. Your weak attempt at attacking it had worn it's strength away."

Chad then began to accept something. "...I don't have the power to fight again."

"Your blood is built for rage. You were hardly using it, relying solely on the skill and abilities you gained over the years, expecting the Heart Connection to save you...Roll is dead. Lucy is dead. If you don't discard that vague hope for your raw hatred and anger that you were feeding off before she came into your life, you won't even last a minute this time."

Chad wanted to snap at Zasz. Wanted to tell him 'You don't think I know that!? They died because of me!'

But he heard the Zerg-Hybrid walk up besides him which made him wait. "That raw power is what made you stronger, and made those around you fear you...And I think it's the answer to destroy Richard of my Universe."

"...You really look like him right now."

"..." Zasz looked at him, as Chad looked back.

A realization hit him.

Chad closed his eyes, chuckling a little as he turned his head back over towards the damaged city. "So once I end Atlas I can take out Sun Jian and finally have my peace, since you'll leave for good, right?"

"I have no intention of staying, but you owe us and have to deal with him."

"Right. Sounds easy enough."

Chad could feel his strength coming back, he could see Roll, see Lucy...and Zaszs face. It made him remember each battle with his Richard, with all the villains...and it reminded him there was Sun Jian, the monster who created this machine to kill everyone. It was making him angry. He could feel a power he hadn't felt for some time.

"...Hey, Ruth. That sword you got."

"Huh? Oh, this." Ruth looked at the blade she had. "I, erm, I got it just now. It's-"

"Look after it for me...for us." Chad brought his arm up, hand outstretched and appearing within in a flash of red was the Blade of Darkness, which had disappeared into the debris when he was smacked aside by Atlas.

The chaos energy was flowing within him now, restoring his damaged bones and torn muscles. His hair turning a dull green as a powerful yellowish aura flowed out of him as he held his sword ready. "Now I got a date with destiny!" With that, he launched himself over the chasm, flying off through the ruins blasting aside anything in his path with his aura alone heading straight at Atlas.

The machine right next to the center building of the city, a cube shaped structure that had concrete floors and walls, but all the outer walls and rooftop were of a very thin, hardened malachite, causing the building to appear a dull teal colour. This placed housed the leader of the Beyondard, and would've been the next to be broken down if Atlas didn't feel something strike into it's back and causing it to turn and face Chad, who had rammed into it with all his might to try and grab it's attention, before flying up to be eye-level with it.

"You shouldn't of killed my wife and fucked with my planet!" Chad had in his hand a ball of bright green energy, yelling out as he threw it at Atlas' face, the ball of energy erupting into a mighty explosion that was enough to cause the machine to stumble slightly as it then quickly tried to use one of it's hands, firing it's gravity beam at him.

Chad managed to avoid it by flying over the wave of energy as it shot by and while Atlas tried reaiming towards the hero he changed his sword, shouting out "Gravity Core!" As he then used Chaos control, warping above the attack hand and swinging the now extremely heavy blade down combined with his awakened rage, slamming into the metal limb and causing it to stop firing and fall to the side of Atlas.

The other hand was ready to reach out and grab Chad, but Zerg veins quickly wrapped around its wrist, halting any attempt it was making temporarily as Chad spotted Zasz down below using both of his hands to perform this feat.

Then he saw the smilier sword to his shoot past him, spinning and as he spotted, in it's explosion form, connecting to Atlas' face and causing a blast of orange light and smoke, before spinning back towards Ruth who was now seen running towards Atlas, the sword floating besides her as it came to a halt. Her arm then transformed into an arm cannon that looked like a pink crossbow, firing out several green energy arrows at Atlas' body.

Chad continued using the gravity core form, swinging it at Atlas' head, knocking it across the face in an attempt to make it stumble and become unfocused, which clearly was working as it seemed unable to focus on a particular target…

For a while.

But as Ruth launched the blade she had again towards Atlas, it's free hand blocked it and knocked it away, before a wave of fire came out of it and nearly struck her as she ran out of the way to avoid it. The other hand finally gave a mighty pull, dragging Zasz off the ground and slamming him into a nearby pile of wreckage, steel and glass impaling the hybrid on impact and making him detach the veins.

As they fell off both hands went for Chad, swinging and trying to grab him, just missing him several times as he was forced to abandon his beating of the machines head, it's maw unleashing a gravity beam to try and take him out in the process.

He went up out of the range of it's limbs and gravity beam before yelling "Star Raver!" His sword changing once again as he aimed for the top of Atlas' head. "Let's dig that goddamn crystal out!"

Atlas took one step back, it's hands aimed towards Chad as was it's mouth as it sent out a new shout "KRII LUN AUS!"

From all three parts a powerful purple wall of energy fired out and struck Chad.

He went rigid, falling down in front of Atlas and smashing into the concrete paths of the city.

"Chad!" Ruth was quickly moving towards him but was struck by a blast of wind from one of Atlas' hands, knocking her away and spinning across the ground before smacking into the side of a still-standing building.

Zasz came out of the debris, bleeding all over but seemed unhindered as he fired out a deep blood red energy beam at Atlas, who seemed to shrug it off and fire a gravity beam from it's other hand, connecting to the left set side of his claws and turning them into ash before Zasz avoided the rest of it, cursing loudly as he felt the electric and burning heat of the beam.

The hero of Beyondard could just get himself up...he felt mad, his rage fuelling him, but he was feeling little energy from it, he instead felt as if his very life was being drained out of him. Purple energy coursed over his body, the gravity core form of his blade was too heavy now as he had dropped the weapon, with it turning back to it's normal form.

Atlas looked down at him, rising it's foot high above him. Thankfully he knew he had the power to chaos control and avoid that as it came down to crush him but it didn't stop the mouth of the beast shouting that again "KRII LUN AUS!" the purple wave only came from it's maw this time but on contact made the situation worse for Chad. He barely managed to summon his sword back to him when he was met with the fist of Atlas, knocking him away across the ground, creating a small trench in the ground tearing up the pavement and road, leaving Chad sitting there, in the dirt, bleeding from his forehead all over his face, water spraying across the dirt and clay from damaged pipes.

Chad looked up to Atlas as it started to turn away. He groaned as he forced himself back on his feet, noticing something.

The colour of Atlas' horns were fading from their brilliant orange and were beginning to change to purple, hints of it showing. He knew where he had seen that before. "So...that's how we can measure it's power level..."

Zasz was soon nearby him as Chad climbed out of the newly created hole he was in. "You were struck by a deadly thu'um, it's shout power. You need to stay out of this."

Ruth soon was with them, looking hurt and holding her arm, the sword now holstered on her back. "What can we, do about it?"

Zasz winced a little, looking at where his left claws once were. "Chad needs to recover. It saps the lifeforce from it's victim and keeps them in a prolonged weakened state. We need to keep distracting Atlas-"

"No." Chad answered that with, walking past Zasz and Ruth towards Atlas.

Zasz stared at him whilst Ruth spoke again. "But-"

"It's due to recharge." Chad wiped some of the blood off his face, looking at the hand his used, now covered in the liquid, dripping off. "I'll throw everything I have at it. I'll keep it's attention. We're so close to the chance and if we miss it by waiting too long, protecting me because of this or we're too busy aiming for it's limbs at the time, we...I, might not get another chance. If you two are ready, you can strike the second the opportunity arises, no matter when it does."

"But you could die to it!"

Chad smiled, looking over at her. "Like I'm suppose to. But at least I'll die fighting." He then looked over at Zasz. "Hey. Got something I've been waiting to say."

The hybrid stared at him.

"Fuck you."

Zasz looked briefly surprised, which caused Chad to now grin before turning away from them both blade in hand still, and running off towards Atlas.

He kept his focus on all the things he despised, everything that hurt him, everything that made his life hell, the suffering, the loss he had been given in this life. Images of Lucy, Roll, Darkmega, Light Rich, Chaos and Kei all went through his mind as he turned his sword into it's explosion form, striking the feet of Atlas again and again, the blasts knocking him but he still pushed, barely avoiding it's feet, the gravity beam it fired from it's hand and being hit again by that deadly thu'um from it's mouth.

But he pushed on, moving back from close range and firing out Advance program cannons, from the mighty Giga Cannon to the Dark Chip enhanced form of the Zeta cannon, the gravity beams from Atlas' hands just barely missing, the sheer heat of the energy was felt on his skin as he continued to now fire an Infinity Vulcan, a chain gun that rained energy bullet all over Atlas' face, blinding it in smoke as it fired it's Thu'um again, and once again connecting with Chad making him fall to a knee disabling the advanced attack.

Chad placed his sword on his back, before placing hands together once more making himself stand on his feet, legs shaking. The smoke cleared from Atlas' face and it's mouth opened, its hands aimed at him.

Out of it came all three gravity beams, heading right for him.

"CHAOS! BEAM!" Chad yelled, a bright red beam launching out of his hands, wide enough that it connected to all three of Atlas' own beams, clashing in the middle at first, but slowly the beams heading towards the man.

Chad could see through the light of the yellow-golden and red clashing energy that flickered, Ruth had climbed to the top of the central building arm cannon at the ready. He then spotted Zasz with her, at the edge of the building ready to jump...and he was sure the hybrid was looking right back at him.

He smiled, before focusing right back on the energy coming at him. He decided to make his body go into overdrive entirely, making it trigger everything he had, every soul unison he had, their energy transferred into this attack, his beast out forced to engage to give him a last push, and from within him...he felt his heart beating, an old connection, for this one moment, sparking back to life. "YYRRRAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

His beam erupted into a wave of colours lighting up the sky, the ground and the buildings all around. His arms being enveloped as he screamed out in pain and his aura turning a pure white as the bright yellow beams of Atlas were flung back. The new energy struck the machine hard causing it to stumble a few steps back, almost colliding with the center building as the energy struck it's torso pinning it in place.

The energy abruptly ended, the light fading, the land back into the stormy darkness of before.

Atlas seemed dazed. It's horns were a deep purple as the white stone crystal soon emerged on top of it's head. The green light of the Lifestream appearing beneath the machine, and slowly started it's way up the monsters legs.

A green bolt of an energy arrow struck the crystal and so did a Zerg claw.

The crystal shattered just as the Lifestream reached where it was.

A high pitched, enraged roar echoed out of the machine as the soul of a three-headed Leviathan escaped from it and vanished into the planet.

Atlas finally fell.

It was unable to siphon the Lifestream into it's body. The lack of a control point caused numerous malfunctions to rapidly occur as Zasz leaped off the head of the beast with Ruth quickly moving away from the rooftop of the capital building going back inside, noticing that the machine was now quickly glowing teal green all over. Erupting from the inside out in a brilliant flash of green light and a burst of energy creating a spherical shockwave, it's fragments blasting everywhere, some smashing into the building.

Ruth had to brace herself against the stone walls of one of corridors as she heard the chunks of metal smash through the lower levels, her legs feeling the powerful vibrations.

...

Then there was silence, besides the rainfall, and thunder.

She pushed herself on now. She was trying to get downstairs as quick as possible.

She soon arrived at the entrance of the place, one of Atlas' hands have torn through and landed here, allowing the rain to pour into this once sealed off location. She simply used her Area Steal chips to get on the hand, running across it then jumping off on the other side avoiding the rubble as she hit the ground to keep going.

She had to get back to his last location. Panic was setting in as she quickly noticed…

Where he was, where he exposed all that energy to fight Atlas one last time as they moved in for the finishing blow, was now completely smothered in the remains of the machine.

"No...No no no no NO!" She got to the edge of the wreckage, the metal rapidly cooling with the rain and steam flowing off it. "Chad! Chad please talk to me! Please say you can hear me!"

She was trying to pull the fragments away, but her strength was nowhere near enough. In her panic and anger she pulled out the sword she carried, swinging it at the metal to try and cut it. It simply bounced off despite her efforts. "Come on! COME ON!" The Navi kept pushing, kept trying, desperate to get through to make any progress on saving the hero of this world.

The mutated scaly claw of Zasz grabbed her sword wielding hand to stop her. He had arrived beside her and noticed her desperation. But instead of saying anything when she was about to yell at him why she was doing this, he simply pointed over to behind her with his spare hand which she quickly looked over to.

Stumbling his way over, bleeding, a sizeable fragment of Atlas having impaled his stomach, was Chad. Dragging the Blade of Darkness behind him, weakly smiling at the two. The purple energy of the thu'um still over him.

Ruth let go of her blade leaving it to Zasz as she moved herself away from the rubble as fast as her legs could carry her, calling out his name...as he stopped walking, time seemingly slowing down for her as his eyelids flickered before he dropped forward. His blade landing in a forming puddle from the rainfall.

She caught him as he fell, stumbling against his weight as she manoeuvred him to her side allowing him to slide down to the ground, his head on her arm and her hand on his chest. "Chad! Chad please stay with us!"

He managed to open his eyes, looking up at her, ignoring the cold rush of the rainwater. He was swallowing his own blood coming up from his wounded abdomen. "Well Ruth. L-looks like what Chronoa told you was right...Me and Lucy...the same day..."

"No. We can save you. If we don't then how I can even try to protect-" She stopped herself, as if something hit her.

Chad gave her a little weak laugh. "Protect, yours? You're supposed to be, protected by, him ya know?" He used what energy he had to bring his blooded hand up and stroke her face, as for a moment, he saw his first wife before him. "Just...stay close, alright? Don't let Richard, let him divide you. Do not allow him, like he did to her and I in the first place...Don't let him hurt you and you'll make it."

She started to cry a little, holding his hand now. "I'm so sorry. I thought, I never..."

"Realized, what you feel for him?" Chad coughed, his skin paled. "Keep with him. Change your future."

Zasz made his way over, carrying the sword Ruth had. "...Goodbye."

Chad looked at him, laughing ever so feebly. "Yep, Roll's waiting for me...Lucy's waiting for me...shouldn't keep, my loved ones wai...waiti-ng..." his hand relaxed, as did his head and body, slumping over towards Ruth's body as his eyes remained wide open as the purple energy shortly after disappeared.

She held the body for as long as she could, shaking, trembling, her already soaked shirt and trousers absorbing some of his blood mixed into the rain. Zasz bent down beside her in silence, hearing her cry.

In his last battle, Chad had destroyed Atlas. That is how history will remember it.

Sun Jian was now faced with the potential threat that Chad has become a martyr. Slaying a powerful threat to his world, showing his care and love for his home. There was video feed of Atlas on the planet. Distant, but it was clear enough before it moved into the capital. Plus it's remains were being checked over. If any of the people who worked on Atlas have a change of heart and come out saying it was created by Sun Jian's forces, feeling sorry for Chad's family and their loss…

It forced his hand more-so when Lacus hit center news in the Hero Empire mourning for her father and wishing for his last mission of keeping Beyondard independent be respected becoming a main talking point again.

Sun Jian came out and agreed to the proposal. Claiming Atlas was an unknown alien weapon and while they failed to protect Beyondard, losing three of their ships, it was Chad who made the sacrifice of fighting to the end. He suggested trade routes, handing over weapons and defences for Beyondard to keep itself safe and offered his sincere apologies for all that has occurred, even weeping openly at Chad's funeral.

Fake tears of course, but he played the act to avoid possible uprisings on his end. The scientists that knew of Atlas were soon on the missing people's lists across the Hero Empire territory, and Dr Bullen, Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, Lu Xun and Liu Bei had all been reported to have died in a horrific malfunction of a transport vessel taking them to Gaia VIII for a meeting with Sun Jian.

To lose so many close allies to cover up such a thing left Sun Jian isolated in the long run. But the deed was done.

It led to one positive outcome for him, as his forces now focused on the Galactic Empire. Gallius Rax had soon declared open war and attempted to advance his borders over the Hero Empire. But with the Empire focus on them it led to a stalemate between both sides, only ending when Gallius was removed from power by his very disgruntled officers, causing a power play to occur within the Galactic Empire.

Sun Jian soon had the confidence of the people back under him. But now he was left with Beyondard forever out of his reach. The one planet he was focused on remained a haunting reminder of his failure, and deep down, knowing Chad destroyed the ultimate weapon he had set up made him fear that world and who would come from the family line of the legendary Primus after Chad.

He would be left wondering, making sure to keep in the good graces of those people. He didn't want to end up like Keaton, Rufus, Ocelot or any other leader that crossed an Oswald...Because in the end, he replaced them for a reason.

It was two weeks after the funeral of Chad.

"Thank you for coming back for this. I know it's hardly any time for you but...thank you. It's a nice location."

"Yeah. The best I could think of on this world without something disturbing it."

In the midst of a beautiful, peaceful lush pine forest of Beyondard stood four figures.

The Tenth Doctor.

Ruth Bullen.

Zasz.

And Lucy Valentine. She had survived her brush with death thanks to the Doctor calling Darkmega for aid who had managed to protect Lucy from the hail of steel bars and stone crushing her to death with a powerful energy barrier.

The four stood around a small opening in this place, the sun reaching down to the disturbed soil. Zasz's hands and claws were evidently covered in dirt as was his face a little.

"Light Rich's sword and Darkmega's helmet have been put with him?"

"I made sure. Did you sort out the plaque Lucy?"

"Yeah. It'll make it look like he was buried in the city with Roll...I just wish we didn't have to move him elsewhere."

"I know what'll happen. I know villains. A body of his power? It's a good tool. Now his here that's very unlikely to happen."

"Thank you. For doing this."

With that Lucy bent down, a gave a final goodbye to the man she loved buried away, placing her hand on the dirt for a moment. Ruth said her farewells, promising Chad 'she'll do it right', and the Doctor simply muttered "I'm sorry.".

They looked to Zasz, who was looking at the ground. "...I have nothing to say to him."

Soon, the other three began to make their way out of the forest, Zasz started to follow when he heard another voice. "You. You tried to save him, and saved Lucy. You three were suppose to let it happen and prevent interference."

Chronoa had appeared, close to the burial site. Zasz faced her, looking annoyed. "I have my reason."

"You should have more reasons to let him die! Now Trill and Yuriko will live too! And so will Xiahou Yuan, Charlie and others!"

"Does it honestly matter?"

"Excuse me!?"

"Chad is dead. The sole powerhouse of this universe has fallen. Their lives are barely significant in the affairs of what's to come."

"But you tried to SAVE him!" Chronoa angrily pointed out.

"I guess I simply pitied him at the wrong moment. Perhaps next time you'll send your time partrollers to handle these matters instead of outsiders like us."

Chronoa glared at him. "You should know better then to defy deities."

"I'm used to it. Now get lost." Zasz walked away, heading out of the forest.

Chronoa watched him go, and soon enough, she too disappeared. Leaving behind a hero who finally found an ending…

That would lead to the next era of events that would shake this Universe.