A few hours ago, on another planet

A girl wearing a pink dress over a black skin tight jumpsuit was looking at a monitor which could only display static.

Her hands were over her heart and squeezing. She hoped he was alright, he had to be

"Zero? Zero, come in" no answer from the other side "Rouge, Jaune, what happened?" The girl asked the two operators working hastily on the terminals

"We don't know. The signal just .. disappeared" answered Rouge, a redhead girl with pair of special glasses covering her eyes with streams of data flowing through

"And we're not receiving any signal from-" Jaune was saying before a red image appeared on screen and the base's alarm sounded

"..." Both Jaune and Rouge were shocked with the information that was coming

"Ciel, there's something coming!" Rouge said already panicking

"What is it?" Ciel asked

"We're not sure but the scanners are going nuts! It's huge!"

'oh no.. are they coming?' Ciel thought scared, but recomposed herself before entering her leader persona "call everybody back and seal the base's doors!"

Immediately both operators

"ATTENTION ALL RESISTANCE MEMBERS, RETURN BACK TO BASE, REPEAT, RETURN BACK TO BASE!"

Moments later all the resistance soldiers that were patrolling outside made back and as soon as everyone was counted on the base's gate and shuttle doors closed

"Ciel, what's going on?" a little girl holding a plushie cat asked the blonde girl

Ciel smiled as brightly as she could and patted the small girl's head "calm down Alouette, everything is going to be fine" with this she hugged the little girl for extra insurance

"Everyone!" A voice called, all the resistance members, soldiers and civilians, looked at a small light sphere floating above them

"X?!" Ciel called out, knowing who was the light orb

"We don't have much time!" X said as he flickered his light a little and soon the huge monitor on the command room showed a light dome, it was huge and it was expanding

Ciel's eyes, as everyone else, went wide open "X, what's that?" she held Alouette closer to her, trying to comfort the little girl

"The Dark Elf caused this..." X said in a serious tone. if anyone else said that, they would have laughed, but X… he knew of the dark elf's powers better than anyone so there was no way anyone would doubt it

"Wha… What can we do?" Ciel asked, afraid but trying her best to help

X stayed quiet for a few moments, then "Ciel… connect me to the base's power grid"

"wha-"

"There's no time. I can boost the base's defences, but only for so long, in the meantime Ciel try to make something to boost the base's defenses before I expire"

almost missing a heartbeat at hearing X say that he could expire, Ciel nodded and went ahead toward the main grid in the command room

"Jaune, Rouge, opened the main grid for X and activated the base's energy shield!" Ciel dispatched her orders

"But these shields are still experimental! We don't know if they could actually hold up against something so massive as that!" said a mad in his late thirties wearing a orange see-through visor

"Then we will use this as a test to make sure it work" Ciel said already finishing connecting X to the power grid "Doigt, Cerveau, Faucou help me bring the generator here" Ciel said and ran ahead before anyone could answer

the three mentioned were stunned for a second before going after her. moments later there was a small generator of sorts near the power grid, with Ciel, Doigt and Cerveau connecting cables and wires to it

"Ciel" Cerveau called her "We don't know if the 'C.i.e.l. System is ready for this kind of thing, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Ciel hesitated for a moment. it was true, the C.i.e.l system was never projected for this kind of purpose, it was created to end the energy crisis that they were facing now, but given their actual predicament, they didn't have much of a choice now

"We'll have to try" she answered determined, this much was already enough for Cerveau, who smiled, to help

"make haste!" X called them as he felt his energy starting to fail

"All done! Fire up!" Ciel declared and turned the machine on, without waiting for X to disconnect himself from the machine.

The base's shield became more strong and visible and X, who was still connected to the power grid, felt a surge of energy and power flow through him, it was so much it hurt him, but soon the light dome reached the base and the shield lasted.

but only for so long. cracks and shatters happened all over the shield and so fast no one could do something but cry as the light dome devoured their home and themselves. Ciel hugged Alouette as close as she could in an attempt to protect the little girl. X used all the excessive energy he was receiving trying to attempt a miracle.

and a miracle happened.

Your prayers have reached me, hero of the past, I shall grant thy and thou companions thy help you need

A voice called in the middle of the white and soon everything changed

Planet Christophsis, half an hour ago

Jaune held her head, her processor was almost frying with the pain- then she remembered. Zero, the base, the strange light dome, X, C.i.e.l. system powering the base. with a jolt Jaune raised her head and attempted to look at the damage the phenomena has caused, only to find that there was no monitor for her to look at nor was she at the base; the buildings were so strange and confusing, it was hard to believe any of this existed in Neo Arcadia or on the ruins of old cities

"Urgh…"

"!" Jaune recognized that voice "Colbor!" She raised herself and soon saw the young resistance soldier fallen to the ground, holding his side, which a gash could be seen; running to him, Jaune also saw Alouette, Andrew and a few others; counting herself, they were at nine in total.

"Colbor, can you handle this injury a little longer?" Jaune asked already seeing the depth of the gash

"urgh… I.. can try.. rgh! Colbor answered through his pain. despite being a machine, Colbor and every other Reploid were sentient creatures, as such they could feel pain and emotions like a human could

Jaune remembered what little she was taught by Cerveau in case he or Rocinolle were not there to take care of the others. Since she didn't have any repair tool on herself, she picked Colbor's rifle and disassembled the battery cell, it was filled with energy, so it would at least help Colbor's nanites close the gash, or so she hoped. like a charm, the wound was closed and Colbor wasn't in pain

"Thanks Jaune, I own you one now" Colbor said sitting up, his body already healing a bit

"No need. but if you can move, help me wake the others up" Jaune answered and proceeded to wake old Andrew while Colbor raised from the ground and went to the closest member he found

minutes later

Everyone was awake and as confused as Jaune, wherever they were, it surely wasn't known by them. Jaune tried reaching out to anyone who could access their radio frequency, but so far no luck.

"Ei, quem são esses?" someone spoke in a strange language from afar making the reploids turn to meet with… strange white armored people?

"Não parecem ser Christophsianos, as roupas não são nem da mesma cor" another one said

"Será que são refugiados?"

"E de onde? não parecem ser nenhum planeta que eu tenha ouvido falar"

the strange white armored people continued to talk in a strange language, all which made them seem strange to the Reploids

"Já chega vocês. estão assustando eles" one them, with some attachments on its armour, called out the other white armored people before looking at them "Desculpem os meus irmãos, estão apenas curiosos porque suas roupas são, bem, diferentes das que conhecemos"

whatever he was speaking he didn't seem like a bad person, but Master X was a nice person before he became a total tirant oppressing the Reploids, so the resistance members took a step back from them and cover old Andrew and Alouette

"Opa opa, calma ai" the white armored man said, raising his arms, one of which had a black painted gun.

this scared Alouette, as this reminded her of the Neo Arcadian soldiers shooting and killing hundreds of innocent reploids as she watched from a hidden place. Scared Alouette screamed and ran

"Alouette wait!" Jaune called trying to hold the girl, but she escaped her reach and was running towards what seems to be a broken up building

"Que língua é essa?" one of the white armoured man said, like he was asking something

"eu não sei. mas por quê aquela menina fugiu?" another asked confused

the last one saw as all these strange people ran after the girl, well almost all of them, since the elderly one was lagging behind

"Tenente, o senhor tem que ver isso" a medic soldier arrived with a datapad in hand

"O que foi Ander?" the lieutenant asked as he received the datapad

"Eu escaneei esses estrangeiros e a primeira coisa que eu vi foi isso" the medic, Ander, spoke "Eles não têm sinais vitais, não como pessoas, mas tem sinais de droids!"

"Droids? Mas… são pessoas. não são?" one of the soldiers asked a little confused

"Mas quem na galáxia inteira teria conhecimentos e recursos para fazer droids que se parecem com gente de verdade?" another soldier asked puzzled if droids with human appearance were even possible

the soldiers stopped and thought, who in the galaxy would want droid that are like civilians?

the answer came to them in the form of a gunshot, not directed at them but at another Clone that got too close to the strangers and shot one of them. The wounded stranger was with a hole in his leg and as he was screaming sparks came out of his leg. another one of these strangers raised a gun, all white in color, and shoot the clone that attacked their friend, most of the shots missed but the few that did hit the legs of the soldier

the soldiers froze for a minute and then the answer came to them: the separatist!

"Atacar!" the lieutenant yelled before shooting a few plasma shots from his rifle

the Droids rather than engage them, simply grabbed their injured one and entered the broken building. putting something in front of the door and broken wall to keep the clones out

"o que esses droids estão fazendo?" one of the soldiers asked, not understanding the droid's strategy in hiding themselves

"Eu não sei, mas um dos nossos está ferido também. Ander!"

"Já estou aqui senhor!"

their wounded soldier was alive and aside from the pain was well

"Eu não ficar aqui esperando aqueles droids saírem ou chamarem um outro batalhão, eu vou tirar aquelas sucatas de lá e vai ser agora" one of the soldiers said as he took his rocket launcher off of his back and loaded a missile

"Espera. Trigger, Não!" the lieutenant ordered but Trigger was already firing.

the rocket made a big smoke cloud and a part of the building didn't resist and fell, almost smashing them

"O QUE VOCÊ ESTAVA PENSANDO TRIGGER? O PRÉDIO JÁ ESTÁ DANIFICADO, ATIRAR COM UMA BAZUCA NELE SÓ VAI PIORAR" the lieutenant yelled enraged

but soon more gunshots were heard as the droids started opening fire through the cracks and hole that the rocket made to the building's side

"Protejam-se!" The clones grabbed their wounded brother and ran behind some debris that fell from the building

"Mais um tiro e eu-"

"VOCÊ NÃO VAI FAZER NADA! LARGUE ESSA BAZUCA E COMECE A ATIRAR COM O RIFLE" The lieutenant yelled at Trigger

After hearing this, Trigger begrudgingly dropped his rocket launcher and pulled his blaster rifle.

The clones kept the firefight for half an hour now and this time the lieutenant was getting tired of this long unchanging fight.

"Já chega, Trigger faça uma entrada. E mire essa coisa em algum lugar que não faça o prédio desabar!"

Hearing his orders, Trigger smiled under his helmet and grabbed his rocket launcher. The missile hit the barricaded door and as the smoke cloud was beginning to let go, the clones heard the little droid girl yelling

"Zero tasukete!"

"O que ela está falando?" Trigger asked, confused. This droid was acting as if it truly was a child, but that's impossible

"Eu não sei e sinceramente não me importa, vamos pegar eles" the lieutenant answered and started making his way to the door

when