Prometheus and Pandora were planning to take the Resistance down once and for all. The death of Sarisse completely shattered the morale of most of the humans fighting for the freedom of Delta Ridge. Now, the two androids of Ziggy's creation planned to finish them while they were down with an all-out assault. Prometheus and Pandora were watching in the background as the army of skeleton army androids marched towards the Resistance Base, led by Athena, Max, and Kamara Goldstone. "This is where it ends for all of you!"

"I can't believe this. Was this their plan all along?" Rebecca said while Happy shifted into the Happy Blasters.

"…Not a bad one, honestly." Casey admitted.

"Hey, don't compliment the enemy!" Rebecca exclaimed with comical anger.

"Acknowledging their efforts is the first step into fending off their assault." Casey replied. "We have to face their efforts if we want to survive."

Shiki looked back at the frightened Resistance Members. Most of them were already broken up about Sarisse's death, and now there was a large force coming to wipe the rest of them out. They were in no condition to fight. "All of you, head back and stay inside! We'll take care of this!"

"Ah…" Stella was undoubtedly the one who was hurt the most. After all, she watched her sister die. She was one of the three leaders of the Resistance, but she was reduced to someone who couldn't even usher a single command.

"You heard Shiki." Aiden was invoking his authority of one of the three commanders. Well, the number was two now, but the people needed someone to look to. Aiden was keeping his composure while instructing the others to retreat. "We are in no condition to put up any sort of struggle. We must leave it in the capable hands of our new allies.

"…I can handle this." Tristan said while stepping forward. "It is my duty to protect everyone. I've already failed numerous times while these androids have invaded our planet, but I will not fail a second time!"

"Tristan…" Asuka watched Tristan stand his ground. She wanted to join him, but she kept getting flashes of Sarisse's death. She closed her eyes and grit her teeth, feeling utterly useless. "I…."

"…Go back with the others, Asuka." Medi said while placing her hand on Asuka's shoulder. "I'm going to stay out here. I can patch people up with Sister if they get hurt. But if anyone manages to slip past us…you need to be our last line of defense.

"O-Okay…" Asuka nodded slowly and began to retreat with the others.

"Hang in there, guys!" Couchpo said as she fled with everyone else.

"Now it's just us and them…" Lowell said.

"The enemy is vastly powered by the Black Moon Star." Pino reported. "Their capabilities have increased. Please be careful."

"Don't worry." Shiki said while placing one fist into his palm. "Their plan is to take us out right here? Well, we can do the same thing!"

"You're smarter than you look." Ano said with a small grin. "Captain already figured that out at a first glance."

"It won't be easy, especially since we're on defense and the Goldstones are here too." Casey said while adjusting his gloves. "But the moment we find an opening…"

"We punch right through them!" Lluvi said.

"Kyahaha!" Prometheus' heinous laughed filled the air. "So you wanna stand and fight!? That works for me. This plot of land already works for your graveyard. So let's do you a favor and put you in the dirt!"

.

.

Geno fled with the others, but the moment he was sure no eyes were on him, he rounded a corner and stayed out of sight. "I can't believe they're doing this now…"

"So?" Omega appeared next to Geno. "What are you waiting for? It's time to get out there and fight back. Don't you wanna make those Goldstones pay!?"

"I…" Geno looked down. "Would we even be of any help?"

"Don't tell you you're losing your spine now!?" Omega shouted. "The fighting is still going. So get your head on straight and let's get out there."

Omega was pretty relentless. It was hard to believe they were partners. Geno hardly had any time to process his aunt's death, but he was being forced into battle. "Agh…"

"Making sure people don't fight back is exactly what they want. We're gonna show them that their foul tactics don't work on us." Omega said. Whereas Geno was struggling, it looked like Omega was detached from the situation and just wanted to fight. This divide between them was growing larger and larger with the current situation, but Geno was willing to give in for now.

"Okay." With a slow, reluctant nod, Geno conceded and held his wrist out, Omega flying into the device. "Transcode: 001! Star Link: Blue Bomber!" A blue light wrapped around Geno and he transformed into the Blue Bomber. With a deep sigh, he attempted to steel himself and prepared to step back into the battle outside. He had to…try his best and do something.

.

.

Outside, the battle against the forces of Prometheus and Pandora was intense. The power of the Black Moon Star made the opposing androids extremely difficult to defeat, but the crews of the Eden's Zero, Eclipse Ark, and the few of the Resistance who wanted to fight were giving it their all. Shiki charged right into the middle of a group of androids, drawing his fist back as gravity began to surround it. "Magimech Attack: Gravity Fist!" He thrust his first forward into the group, the immense power of his gravity knocking them all down. Some of them got up fast, and threw their own attacks at Shiki. Their power did surprise him and briefly knock him back, but he regained his footing and brought his arms together. "Gravity Center!" The force of gravity that erupted around him slammed numerous androids into the ground. "They're stronger than usual." That was to be expected…

More androids attempted to attack Shiki, but a flying sword sliced them in half before they had the chance. The sword returned to G's hand, who watched Shiki. "So, that's the power of Satan's Gravity?"

"…You use gravity too?" Shiki noticed the way G's sword flew to him. "Did Ziggy teach you?"

"Ziggy?" G scoffed. "I don't need an android like that to teach me how to use gravity. I was taught by someone else." With another wave of androids approaching, G decided that he would show his stuff. "Whereas yours is Satan's Gravity, mine…" He slammed his sword onto the ground, causing a shockwave to ripple outward and explode upwards. This shockwave caused numerous androids to levitate in the air helplessly. "Is God's Gravity! Gravity God's Impact!" He clenched his hand into a fist, the force of gravity crushing the androids before he brought it down, crushing them into the earth.

"Huh…" Shiki watched the way G used gravity. It was different from how he did. Even different from the way Shura used his.

"Gravity is the strongest force in the cosmos." G said while throwing his sword forward, controlling its flight path with gravity. His sword ran through numerous androids before returning to him. "You should know that. You should act like it."

Shiki narrowed his eyes at G's words. "How I use my power is up to me."

"Hmph." G said while shaking his head. He just continued on to fight through the wave of androids and Shiki joined. They weren't going to get anywhere by fighting with each other. The mission came first.

.

Rebecca and Weisz were shooting at incoming androids with all their might. Unfortunately, the durability of these androids made it impossible for mere potshots to take them out. "These things really are tough!"

"No kidding!" Weisz pointed his arm forward. "Vice Cannon!" A blast of ether shot forward, shooting through numerous androids at once. The injuries weren't meant to be fatal, but he was absolutely ensuring they wouldn't be getting up without proper repairs. "The Black Moon is no joke if even a small portion of it can power this many androids this much."

Rebecca had to toss her heels off to activate Cat Leaper. This increase in speed allowed her to weave through numerous androids as they attempted attack her. She was caught off guard when a blast hit her, and she stumbled. She was surprised that something managed to hit her. "Long range!?"

"We've outfitted them to have long range capabilities." Pandora said. "Close range would leave them at too much a disadvantage." As she said this, numerous androids began to take aim at Rebecca and Weisz, opening fire upon them. Their shots were immediately blocked by rising walls of steel. "Hm?"

"What the…" Weisz turned around.

The one who created these walls was Tristan. "My ether gear allows me to control and create steel at will." He said, donning armor similar to that of a knight. "Steel Make: Calvary!" He placed his hands on the ground, creating numerous steel horses. This did drain a considerable amount of ether from him, but he was fighting to protect the people behind him. These steel horses charged forward, plowing through the enemy forces with great power.

"Whoa…" Rebecca was in awe.

"Hot damn." Weisz whistled. He didn't think Tristan had that kind of fire power in him. Another onslaught of androids approached and Weisz struck them down with his Wing Blade. As impressive as everyone was so far, they were still vastly outnumbered. "It's like it never ends."

Blair suddenly sped by, slashing at multiple androids with her sword. The androids fell to the ground and she grabbed them with her Therion arm, sucking the Ether out of them. "Despite all that power, they barely fill me up…"

"Hey, are you eating them!?" Weisz asked.

"Yeah. They're the enemy, aren't they?" Blair said with a shrug. "This is a fight about survival. We live or die depending on how we handle this fight. We wanna get to Prometheus and Pandora? Then we have to act like we want them dead."

"…She's not wrong." Ano reported. While he was a master hacker, he could use his snakes outside of the digital space as well. Numerous snakes fired from his hands to clamp down on the androids to slow them down.

Blair walked towards one of the androids grabbed it with her Therion arm. There was a yellow flash as familiar yellow markings appeared along said arm, and then blue markings. "What was that move again, Weisz?" Million Bullets?"

"Huh?" Weisz blinked.

The android found that its chest turned into a turret, firing off multiple ether bullets before it was crushed under the weight of its own new power. "Damn, that didn't last long."

"What the hell was that!?" Weisz gasped. "Was that my Ether Gear?!"

"…Was that mine, too…?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah." Blair replied nonchalantly. "I've touched the both of you with my claw. When it so happens to touch someone who has Ether Gear, I get a taste of it and can use it for myself. Weisz's is fine, but Rebecca's is weird. So I just used them in tandem and it didn't work out well."

"What is this chick…" Ano thought to himself. Shiki said Blair was a member of the Eden's Zero, but the files he had didn't contain any information on her. The more he saw and heard her speak, the more she frightened him.

"That's a frightening truth to be introduced to." Laguna said while waving his hand to the side, sending a wave of water towards some incoming androids. "Tear's Wave!" This water was strong enough to sweep the androids away.

Hermit was in her Battle Dress. Unfortunately, this outside environment didn't help her one bit. But she did still have range, so she called out to Medi. "Medi! Does the base have a defense system?"

"K-Kinda." Medi replied. "The only reason we haven't been able to activate is…"

"Don't worry, I can handle it." Hermit said while placing her hand forward, finger gunning the nearest group of androids. "The system has been down, but restoring it will be no problem, and from here…" The base behind them suddenly began to rumble, numerous turrets appearing on the outer wall. Hermit took aim and… "GUN'S HARVEST!" The turrets began to fire, a bullet hail ensuing on the enemy forces.

"How did she…!?" Medi's eyes widened.

Hermit's aim was spot on. She was able to take down a large amount of enemy forces with ether coated bullets. She did aim towards Prometheus and Pandora as well, but the two of them reacted to her surprise by dodging. "Oh ho! So that's the power of a Shining Star, is it?" Prometheus grinned.

"Inferior to that of the Dark Stars." Pandora added. "That was a cute surprise, but it won't get us."

"I was hoping it would do a bit more, but that was wishful thinking." Hermit said. She would take what she could get though. "The Goldstones vanished, though. I don't know where they went, but they can't be behind us either. Someone would've noticed them…"

.

Geno was in the skies, taking shots at the enemy from above. The battlefield was so chaotic. "There are so many of them…"

"Yeah. So we gotta thin 'em out!" Omega replied, ready for the long haul. Although they wouldn't be taking part for very long. Geno realized something was coming his way and quickly turned around, his left arm turning into a sword to clash against Kamara's own. "What?!"

"It's about time you showed up, Blue Bomber." Kamara said, pushing off of Geno and back to a nearby tree.

Geno dropped down to the ground quickly. With the realization he was out in the open, he was right to do this, Numerous guns attempted to shoot him down in that very second. The moment he touched down, Athena's shield slammed into his face. This caused him to tumble along the ground for a bit before coming to a halt in a crouched position. "Ngh…" That hurt a lot. If not for his armor, he would've been out cold already.

"Nice of you to finally drop in!" Athena smiled. It was a friendly smile, but there was plenty of malice dripping within it. "You've been the biggest thorn in our sides for a while now. So we're finally going to get rid of you."

"Yeah." Max appeared, cracking his knuckles. "You've been able to handle the three of us before, but we're not taking any chances with you this time. You're a threat to our operation. Kudos, though. You're the first person in a long time that's needed all three of us to take out."

Geno shook his head. The Goldstones were really after him? "You're not going to win this."

"Who are you trying to convince us of that?" Athena pointed her finger forward. She could hear that the Blue Bomber's usually defiant tone was a bit shaky. "Us? Or yourself? Don't tell us you're sad that you were just a little too late in stopping the death of that woman. It's just one person."

"Don't let 'em get you to! We can punch their lights out!" Omega said. Geno was going to try and hold onto that sentiment, but he wasn't sure if he could.

"This is the end of the road, Blue Bomber." Kamara said while pointing her sword forward. On that cue, the Goldstones jumped Geno, preparing to end the Blue Bomber once and for all.

.

.

The battle against the androids felt like it was dragging on, even if it hadn't been that long. No matter how many of them they took down, more just appeared. They were also durable, capable of hitting hard, and appeared endless in number. "Variable Cyclone!" Kleene's wind broke through a large number of enemy androids. It looked like she cleared a path, but these androids just got up and kept moving. "No way!"

Jinn followed up with an attack of his own: an X shaped slash of wind so strong it carved deep into the earth. This did damage to the enemy forces, but not enough to completely stop. "This really is going nowhere."

Sister was in her Battle Dress, swinging her whip around like crazy to knock the androids down or out. "They're so driven with power; they're not even following will of their own." She pointed out. "They're just being used to attack."

"So they would even use their own allies recklessly if it meant taking us down…how deplorable." Homura felt the need to put some of these androids out of their misery. Multiple blades appeared in the sky by her creation. "Odin's Strike!" These blades began to rain down on the androids, pelting them from a place they had no hope of countering from.

"That's a good idea." Casey said when he held his hand out. Similar red lines appeared along his hands, and multiple red swords formed in the sky by his creation, much to Homura's shock. "Odin's Strike." Serving as a follow up, these swords added to that of what Homura threw down.

"Huh!?" Homura stared at Casey with wide eyes. "How did you!?"

"That's the captain's Ether Gear…" Percival said lazily. She wagged her finger around a few times, causing large vines to emerge from the ground, wrapping around a group of androids to squeeze and crush them. Despite her lack of urgency, she had no problem of clearing up the enemy on her own. "He can copy any Ether Gear within his vicinity…for a short time."

"You were supposed to leave that part out." Casey glared at Percival. The green haired woman shrugged. Even though they were temporarily working with the Eden's Zero crew, as long as they were competing for the Black Moon Star, they would be enemies in the long run. He didn't like that his cards were being revealed.

"Sorrrrrrrry." Percival shrugged.

Speaking of unveiling cards, Lowell was acting on his own. He slammed his sword into the ground, generating a shockwave that knocked an android into the air. A blue circle appeared on that android and Lowell struck it with a rising slash. When he landed, that android was defeated instantly. "Too easy."

"Ah! What sort of technique was that?" Homura asked with excitement.

"That? That's called a Fatal Strike." Lowell said proudly. "Knock your enemy off balance, then you just strike fast enough before they can react. If you're going to ask me how to do it, how about you figure it out yourself?" He was leaving out some important bits of the explanation since he didn't want Homura stealing his honed technique that easily.

"It's a fair trade." Lluvi stated, using her barriers to trap androids and prevent them from moving. She wasn't able to apply to much offensive pressure on the enemy, but along with Tristan, the defenses were solid. Not a single enemy managed to get through them so far.

"I see…" Homura was hoping he'd teach her. But since that wasn't going to be the case, she had to figure it out on her own.

.

.

"We're starting to thin their ranks…" Shiki said, looking ahead towards Prometheus and Pandora. This was a case of quality over quantity. The androids were tough and everyone was receiving their fair share of damage. They needed something decisive to truly open up the path. So he was pushing through as many androids as he could. Just as he was about to strike, a different android appeared in front of him. It wasn't from Ziggy's army, which surprised Shiki. He struck the android and knocked it back, only for it to still remain standing.

"…What's that?" G asked.

More and more of these androids started to funnel in, adding to the numbers of the Skeleton Army. "You've been doing pretty well so far!" Prometheus said while sarcastically clapping his hands. "So we decided to up the ante a little bit!"

"These androids are the natives from Delta Ridge." Pandora explained. Everyone's eyes widened at this news.

"What did you do to them!?" Tristan demanded to know.

"They're already under our control." Pandora continued. "So we infused when with the power of the Black Moon Star. This way, they are more combat ready."

"W-We…are…fighting…." A Delta Ridge android was twitching violently, black sparks dancing around its body. "We don't…."

"As it turns out, their bodies can barely handle it. BUT!" Prometheus held his finger up. "It grants them a considerable boost in power!"

"This is horrible…" Rebecca's eyes were wide and she felt tears stinging them. They were putting innocent android lives at risk just to fight them!?

"Your mission is to liberate the androids of this planet, isn't it?" Pandora asked, looking down at the humans and androids that were fighting against them. "So then, tell me. How do you intend to free them now? If you don't fight them, we will ensure that they kill you. If you fight them…they will die. What is your move now?"

Shiki glared at Prometheus and Pandora, who were mocking them for fighting. "You monsters…" Now they were put in an impossible situation that pushed their morals and mission to the test.

"…." Blair watched these androids move against their will. In her mind, it triggered a memory of something she nearly forgot about. A memory from when she was a little girl…