HuniePop: Space Adventures

by MarioandSonicFan19

Roughly a year after their little vacation to Inna De Poona, Max and Nikki have been invited by their alien friend, Celeste, to help her with her job as a galactic enforcer alongside her team. But as time wears on, the couple discovers that the universe is bigger than they thought and discover a threat to, not only their home, but to the entire galaxy

17. Chapter 17: Seeds of Rebellion

HuniePop Space Adventures

Chapter 17: Seeds of Rebellion

"More enemy fire coming from the right!" I yelled as I shot one of the attackers down from his perch. As I continued to fight amongst the hordes of enemies, Nikki used her arm cannon to take out one that was aiming a pistol straight at my head before she then used her Iron Spider arms to dispatch some of the enemies that were surrounding us. As we continued to fight on, Hiro blasted a few away with his shotgun before he then shot a stickybomb at a large cluster of enemies, which thinned out the group a little for us. But, as he was trying to help get some of the group off our backs, he failed to notice another enemy that was sneaking up behind him who was preparing to stab him with his arm blade. But, before he could, Zero Two came in from behind and smacked him in the head with her electrostaff before she then stabbed one tip into his chest and electrocuted him until his eyes exploded.

"Hey, Darling? So, I was thinking that after this we could just sit down and relax, have a little alone time together, maybe fool around a bit. What do you think?" Zero Two said as she countered an attack from an enemy that came charging at her with a spear.

"Is this really a conversation that we should be having?!" Hiro replied as he shot another enemy in the chest.

"Well, I mean, we've been working really hard and we've barely had an opportunity to just spend some time the way a newlywed couple does. You know, lying down, talking about the memories we've shared, fu-."

"Can you two please table this discussion right now?! This is combat!" I yelled to them before a blaster shot hit my shoulder, which threw me a bit off balance. I decided to switch from using my shotgun to using the Peacekeeper, which I activated before using the blade to create a shockwave of lightning that electrocuted a few of the enemies in front of me, followed up by me plunging the sword into the ground to create a sheet of ice that froze the enemies to the ground, making them easy targets for Nikki and Hiro. However, as they continued to shoot down the enemies in front of us, Zero Two jumped forward and began striking down any enemy she could with a combination of acrobatics and fast-paced attacks before she then set up a few for the rest of us to attack. As we began taking down enemies left and right, Zero Two held out the tip of her electrostaff to Hiro before he grabbed it and then whirled her around, which scattered most of the horde until she then jumped up and slammed one of the tips of her staff into the ground, creating a electric field that shocked every enemy around her. However, when she turned around and gave us a confident smile with a wink, an enemy that had survived the electric field snuck up from behind and plunged his arm blade through her chest. But, instead of having a horrified look, she just groaned loudly and then shot the enemy in the head with one of her pistols, his body disappearing into a bunch of pixels. Of course, the reason for that was because we were inside the hologram training room that Celeste had set up so we could train. As the hologram room returned to its regular state, Zero Two adjusted her belt and holstered her electrostaff.

"Let me be the first to say this: This mode is BS…" Zero Two said with a disgruntled voice.

"Well, maybe if you didn't show off, it wouldn't be like that. Also, you shouldn't be flirting with Hiro when were in the middle of a fight," I replied.

"It's not flirting. It's motivation. Darling fights better when he's motivated."

"That's… not entirely true," Hiro objected.

"And that's another thing. I understand that you two were partners before, but you can't work with just Hiro. You need to learn to fight alongside the rest of the team as well." I said.

"OK, what you said is 90 percent true. I've fought alongside Nikki before and I know that I've fought alongside everyone else," Zero Two said, pointing at Nikki.

"You fought beside me once! Plus, every time we have fought as a group, you're always teamed up with Hiro!" Nikki retorted before I held up a hand to try and get everyone to calm down before the situation spiraled too far out of control.

"Look, Zero Two, we just want you to be prepared, because there may come a time when you might not be able to fight alongside Hiro. All we want is to have you prepared in case if that happens," I calmly said. Zero Two's expression softened a little before she then stretched her arms a little.

"Well, can we do that after we get some lunch? I'm tired and I'm hungry," she replied. I just nodded with a slight smile in response, but before we could take a step in any direction, Celeste's voice came in over the comms.

"Attention all team members: Please report to the cafeteria for lunch and debriefing on next mission," she said.

"Well, at least we can get something to eat before we head out again," Nikki said before we all left the hologram room and headed for the cafeteria. When we got to the cafeteria, most of the team was already seated at the table and eating lunch except for Selene and Celeste, who weren't in the room at the moment. Amki was busy feasting on some drumsticks, which she was clearly enjoying, Rhonda was dining on a steak with a slice of what I assumed was brie cheese next to it, Rhea was eating a salad that looked a bit more exotic than what we had on Earth, Odango was munching on some onigiri rice triangles, Eila was absorbing energy from a couple of batteries while Goo just looked on, and Ayano was eating a simple sandwich. After me, Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two had grabbed our own lunch, Celeste and Selene entered the room and a hologram of a green planet showed up in the middle of the table.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming here on such short notice," Celeste said.

"Well, we get to have lunch during a debriefing. How could we not be here?" Amki replied as she took another bite of the drumstick.

"Anyway, the planet that you are seeing on the hologram is the planet of Terraria. This planet is well-known for having a vast system of forests, flowering plains, and swamps that have been untouched for thousands of years. It's also the home of the Terrarians, the plant-like people who once roamed this planet in all of their greatness," Selene explained, gaining a bit of awe from Odango and Eila.

"Soooooo, what's the catch? I find it hard to believe that you're just taking us there for a vacation," Zero Two said as she was eating her lunch. Celeste just smiled and pressed a button on her remote, which switched the hologram of the planet into a hologram of a familiar plant-like alien that we had met before.

"You're right, of course, Zero Two. Selene says that Zekxsie has been stationed on her home planet by the Overlord for the past few days, experimenting with some kind of technology for his army. But Selene says that only the Overlord knows what sort of technology she is working with and, whatever it is, we must destroy it," Celeste replied.

"And I'm guessin' that it won't be that easy to take her out?" Rhonda asked.

"Well, you are right on one thing, Rhonda. Even though Zekxsie is the least powerful out of the Overlord's forces, her powers will be even stronger on her home planet. But our goal here is not to kill her. It's to persuade her to join us. Ever since she joined the Crusade, she has often questioned some of the Overlord's brutal methods, much like I have. If we could convince her that the Overlord won't keep his promises, it could turn the tide of the war in our favor. We've already set a course for Terraria," Selene replied.

"Wait… Zekxsie mentioned before that we didn't know what it was like to be the last of our kind… Is there some truth to those words?" Nikki asked.

"Unfortunately, there is. Years before she joined the Crusade, the entire population of Terraria just suddenly vanished. Zekxsie was the only one who survived that event, but no one knows exactly how she survived or how the population of Terraria disappeared in a single day."

"And what? Did the Overlord promise her that if she did what he wanted, then he would resurrect her species and they could live in peace and harmony again?" Amki asked with a scoff.

"I'm afraid that's not how it works, Amki. The Crucible was built only for destruction and chaos. If my father did promise Zekxsie that he would restore her people, then he was no doubt lying. The Crucible with the combined power of the Infernite energy can't bring people back from the dead," Rhea explained, drawing a few concerned looks from us.

"OK, but how exactly are we supposed to convince Zekxsie that what she's doing is wrong?" I asked. Selene just responded by pulling out a hologram disc that had a couple of pictures of the inside of the laboratory where the Bloodhunters were being enhanced and weaponized.

"We show her what the Overlord has been doing to the Bloodhunters on my planet. During my time with the Crusade, we both exchanged stories of our past and why we were working for the Overlord. If we show her this, she might be convinced enough to join us. But we need to go in with an intent to talk, not fight," she said.

"And if that doesn't work?" Hiro asked. Selene just looked at the ground with a sad look like she didn't know the answer.

"I believe that we'll figure something else out if it doesn't work. Right now, we should focus on finding out where Zekxsie is and formulate a plan on what to do in case things go sideways," Celeste replied, putting a hand on Selene's shoulder.

"Then let's get to it. We only have so much time before we arrive at Terraria," I said before the entire group split up so we could come up with a plan. In the time that it took for the Centurion to travel through hyperspace to Terraria, we all got our weapons ready, thought up a contingency plan, and prepared a dropship just in case anything went wrong while we were on the planet. Before long, we had arrived at Terraria and we were all beamed down to the planet's surface. But, as I took a look around us, I noticed that things were a bit different than how Celeste described them on the ship. The sky was a nice light blue color, but the rest of the scenery didn't exactly match. The leaves on the trees were a blood red while the trunks and branches were dark grey with thorns covering the entirety of the trunk. The branches were covered in some kind of moss that resembled the Spanish moss that we had on Earth and at the base were a whole bunch of thistles that made up most of the flowers on the ground, which was completely devoid of any grass. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I could feel it in my bones that something was wrong. Unfortunately, I was the only one who had noticed at the moment while everyone else was gearing up and Celeste was busy remote launching one of the dropships from the Centurion.

"The dropship's been launched. If things do happen to go wrong, we can teleport back to the dropship and formulate a different plan. I've also launched some surveillance drones so they can give us a topographic survey of the land if we do have to reformulate a new plan," Celeste said before she put the controller away and handed me a portable teleporter, which I holstered on my belt. As she handed two more portable teleporters to Nikki and Eva, the rest of the team began to take in the scenery.

"Something definitely feels wrong here. Why does everything look like it's decaying?" Rhea asked as she stared at the forest in horror.

"I don't know. It didn't look this bad the last time I was here," Selene replied.

"What do you mean 'the last time you were here'?" Zero Two asked with a look of suspicion on her face.

"I had the privilege of coming here with the Overlord back when I first joined the Crusade. When we came here, we were looking for Zekxsie, but the Overlord had me sit out in the open until he returned, and I took the moment to just sit in the soft grass and just enjoy the surroundings. Everything here was much more different than it was back on Acateon. It felt so… peaceful."

"We can tell more stories later. Right now, we have a mission to focus on," Celeste said as she pulled out her radar.

"So… where are we heading, Captain?" Amki asked. Celeste just looked at her radar for a few seconds before she pointed straight ahead of her.

"We go this way. I'm picking up a lot of electromagnetic waves coming from that direction. It could possibly be coming from a hologram table at whatever factory Zekxsie's working in."

"Then let's get going. We're losin' daylight," Rhonda said before we began the trek through the forest. As we continued to move forward, I saw that most of the small flowering plants on the ground were wilting for some strange reason that I couldn't understand. There was plenty of sunlight that was shining down on the plants and the ground looked damp. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, and that we were heading into a trap. But my thoughts were broken by Amki nudging my shoulder.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask: How exactly did you know that those guards were closing in back on Altus? I mean, your eyes turned light blue, you looked like you were spacing out, and then BAM! You knew that they were coming. What's up with that?" she asked. I didn't exactly know how to answer that, and I just gave a shrug as I kept walking in silence.

"I think I actually have an answer for that. Since the Peacekeeper was imbued with what remained of the Council of Light's powers for combat, it seems like Max has also been given the abilities that each member had. For example, it was said that the Council member, Erebus, had an ability that allowed the spirits to warn him of approaching danger or any traps in the area. I believe that's what Max experienced back in the catacombs," Rhea replied, saving me the trouble of coming up with an excuse. But all she got from Amki was a confused look.

"Sooooo, he could breathe underwater indefinitely if he wanted? Or summon lightning from the sky? Or create a huge earthquake?"

"Amki, I don't know every ability that he gained from the Council of Light. So please stop asking so many questions."

"Both of you! Quiet! We're approaching the source of the signal!" Celeste hissed. Sure enough, the beeping from her radar was getting faster and faster until it finally became a long steady beep. And right there, sitting in front of us, was the source of the signal: A large mangrove-like tree with a large circumference of branches and leaves that acted like a large umbrella, which blocked off light to everything underneath the tree. The tree sat up against the side of a hill, which was right next to a swamp, and it had a large hole in its side. But what I really couldn't understand was why this tree in particular had green leaves and absolutely no thorns surrounding the trunk as the others did. However, my thoughts were broken once again by the others talking as we took cover behind a hill.

"Huge tree that stands out from the rest of the forest and has an electromagnetic signature coming from it. If she's trying to hide, she's not doing a good job at it," Zero Two said.

"So, what's the call? Do we just sit out here and wait for her?" Odango asked.

"That would probably take all day. Why don't we just rush in and rough the place up a bit?" Amki asked. Celeste just looked at her with a frustrated look before she then bonked Amki on the head with her fist, even though it didn't really affect that much.

"Did you not hear a WORD of what we went over on the ship? We're not here to pick a fight with Zekxsie! We are here to try and talk peacefully with her so that she might join us!" Celeste replied as Eva used a pair of special goggles to look inside the tree.

"There is some movement coming from inside the tree. And it looks as if there's only one individual inside there," Eva said.

"Well, if she's in there by herself, then I don't think there's any reason we should go in there expectin' all hostile-like," Rhonda said confidently.

"Well, yeah, except we brought Ayano with us. And she's always hostile," Hiro said. As if to prove his point, Ayano began gnawing on a stray root from one of the trees like a maniac for some strange reason. Celeste's only response was to place a pair of cuffs on her wrists and place her beside Amki just to be safe.

"Well, that's one problem taken care of. Now, how exactly are we going to deal with Zekxsie?" Nikki asked. Everyone was just silent until Selene stood up and stared out at the tree.

"We do it how we've discussed it: We go in and convince her to leave the Overlord's Crusade… peacefully," she said.

"Then let's not keep her waiting," I said. All of us emerged from our hiding spot and made our way down to the tree's opening, each of us taking up defensive positions on either side of the hole before we entered the tree, one person at a time. The inside of the tree was almost completely dark except for the bioluminescent spores that were moving freely throughout the corridor as we slowly walked through until we came to a large open central area. The entire area within the trunk was illuminated by the same spores that we saw earlier, but the central area had an added touch of extra light from the hologram table at the center of the room. And kneeling in front of the hologram table was the woman herself: Zekxsie. At first, it didn't seem like she noticed that we were right behind her but seeing as the hologram table had absolutely nothing on it, I began to get a sudden sense of dread and unease. That feeling wasn't made any better when Zekxsie stood up and turned around to face us, her teal eyes glowing with intensity as her right arm began to grow spikes for battle. But before she could lunge forward, Selene walked in front with her arms outstretched to show that she was unarmed and wasn't looking for a fight.

"We didn't come here to fight Zekxsie. We only came to talk," Selene said calmly. Zekxsie's expression calmed a bit, but her arm was still covered in spikes as if she was still wary of us.

"Did you now? And so that's why you decided to just let yourselves into my home without my consent?" Zekxsie accused.

"Well, technically, you didn't have a door on the front of your… tree home, so we thought that…" Zero Two started to say before Hiro covered her mouth with his hand to shut her up.

"Zekxsie, I understand that you think that we are the enemy, but there is something that we must share with you. It is urgent," Celeste said, which prompted Selene to take out the hologram disc that she had from before and activate it, showing Zekxsie the pictures of the lab we had been to on Acateon.

"These are photos of a lab that we destroyed back on my home planet. The Overlord was planning to weaponize the Bloodhunters and set them against both our enemies and the innocent. And he placed by brother in charge of the facility that was enhancing them," Selene explained. All of us expected that Zekxsie would suddenly have a look of horror on her face, but when she looked over the pictures for about 10-15 seconds, she just looked back at us with a sour look and a halfhearted scoff.

"And this is my problem how exactly?" she asked scornfully.

"Zekxsie, this means that the Overlord has lied to all of the Crusade! He planned to set the very things that he swore he would help me destroy against both our enemies and the innocent! It doesn't matter who's guilty or not, he intends to destroy everyone who will not submit to his rule! He's using our planet's resources to benefit him!"

"How easy was it for you to walk away from him, Selene? He practically raised you and your brother to be assassins. And you left him because you thought he was being too harsh. But that's just the reality of it. Sacrifices have to be made to ensure order. Besides, the Crusade is the only family that I have left."

"They aren't your family, Zekxsie. They just pretend to care so they can use your abilities just to benefit their own plans," I said. Zekxsie just scoffed and gave me another look of disdain.

"Maybe that's what you think. But at least they thought ahead and planned for when you would arrive here," Zekxsie said, which made ME give her a raised eyebrow. But I suddenly got the same feeling that I had gotten back on Altus, only it was slightly stronger than it was back then. When I came back to reality, I noticed that there was something scuttling along the wall of the tree toward us. I couldn't really make out exactly what it was, but before I could fully make out what it was, the unseen creature leapt out at me and attempted to grab me, making everyone else jump back in surprise. As I tried to hold it back, I was able to get a good look at whatever the hell this thing was. The creature was definitely plant-like, but it only had a single large eye staring at me as it tried to bring itself closer with its tentacles (or vines). Just as it was about to attach itself to my face, I activated my arm blade and stabbed the creature in the eye, its green blood oozing to the floor as it released its grip on me.

"It's OK. I got it," I said as I held the creature out in front of me. But I barely had time to react before another creature leapt out and grabbed onto Nikki, making her drop the portable teleporter. She failed to react in time before the creature attached itself to her back and wrapped two of its tentacles around her neck, making a bunch of small vines cover the sides of her face as she crumpled to the ground. When I went to see if she was OK, she stared at me intensely with bright green eyes before she created an arm cannon and shot a plasma bolt which knocked me backwards against the wall of the tree. Just as Celeste was about to rush in and help me, yet another creature leapt out from the wall and attached itself to her and she began attacking us as well. Rhonda had to resort to using her fists due to the fact that her revolver, as well as my double barrel shotgun, Hiro's shotgun, and Zero Two's blasters, were back on the dropship that Celeste had launched when we arrived. Even though she was able to hold her own, she was soon overwhelmed by the creatures until one was finally able to attach itself to her back and turn Rhonda against the rest of us. One creature then took the opportunity to try and attach itself to Eila while she was busy throwing lightning at the other creatures, but when it tried to wrap its tentacles around her neck, Eila's entire body immediately went into overdrive, electricity surrounding her entire body until it fried the creature and reduced it to a black, lifeless husk. Another creature tried to try and take control of Goo, but due to the fact that her body was mostly liquid, the creature just passed through her body and hit the ground instead. Both Amki and Rhea soon became possessed as well and began attacking Hiro and Zero Two. Zero Two simply activated her electrostaff and began using her staff technique and acrobatics to try and outmaneuver Rhea's elemental attacks while Hiro activated his gauntlets and began fighting Amki as another creature possessed Eva, making her drop her portable teleporter. Another creature then attached itself to Ayano's back and, after she had been possessed, she broke the cuffs that were around her wrists and began attacking Selene and Odango, who were both trying to keep the rest of the creatures off their backs while the rest of our possessed teammates began to back us into a corner. Just as the creatures were starting to thin out, one final creature made a lunge towards Zero Two, but Hiro managed to push her out of the way of it, only for the creature to fall on his back and then possess him instead.

"DARLING!" Zero Two yelled before I grabbed her, and we were all backed up against the wall. With nowhere for us to go, our possessed teammates stopped attacking us and just stood in front of us with menacing glares as Zekxsie walked up to us.

"You should've known by now that the Overlord's always one step ahead of you. He knew that you would come here because you thought that I would be easy to defeat. Now, I'm only going to give you one chance… Surrender yourself to the Crusade and I'll let the others go," she said before Nikki created an arm cannon and threateningly pointed it at us. I quickly glanced back at Zero Two, who was gritting her teeth in anger, and Selene, who was trying to calm down Odango, Eila, and Goo, before I looked back at Zekxsie with a determined look.

"Even if I thought that you'd honor that deal, we wouldn't take it. That energy doesn't belong in anyone's hands. Especially not in the hands of that tyrant," I replied as I took out the portable teleporter Celeste had given me earlier and quietly activated it.

"Don't be stupid. Where else exactly do you have to go?"

"That's for you to figure out. Until then, catch you on the flipside," I said before I pressed the button on the teleporter and a light blue warp ring appeared around our feet. Zero Two noticed what was going on and quickly tried to grab Hiro, but by the time she outstretched her hand, we had already been teleported out and dropped in front of the dropship. It appeared that the dropship had landed in some kind of swamp that had forest of mangrove trees that had red leaves and thorns around the trunks like the trees that we saw earlier. But no one was paying attention because Zero Two immediately got up and made a break for the trees, not knowing exactly where she was going.

"NO! TAKE US BACK! TAKE US BACK NOW!" she yelled before I caught up to her and stopped her in her tracks.

"Zero Two, stop! You don't even know where to go from here!" I said as I tried to keep her from leaving.

"I don't… I don't understand… How could she be so foolish? We had the evidence we needed… why didn't she…" Selene muttered to herself before Zero Two angrily walked over to her and grabbed her by her hair before she then slammed her face into the dirt. I immediately ran over to them and pried Zero Two off of Selene while trying my best to hold Zero Two back with just one arm.

"LET ME GO! THIS IS ALL HER FAULT!" Zero Two yelled as I tried to help Selene get up.

"That might be the case but killing her is not gonna do you any good, Zero Two! You need to get a grip!" I replied.

"Wait, isn't anyone gonna tell us what just happened back there?! I thought that you said that Zekxsie had some sort of technology that was stored here, not some… mind-controlling plants!" Odango said with some panic in her tone.

"Look, right now, we need to think up a different plan. We can use the holo-table in the dropship to try and get a lay of the land and plot a path back to the tree and then we'll discuss what to do next. But, until we can find out what's going on, NO ONE is killing anyone. Understood?" I said. Odango, Eila, Goo, and Selene all nodded in agreement while Zero Two just gave me a halfhearted scoff and pushed past me as she headed for the dropship, leaving me to figure out what to do next.

Zekxsie's perspective

The holo-table began to slowly hum to life as I turned it on and then stood back a bit, awaiting a response from the Overlord. As I was waiting for him to respond, I briefly looked back at the team members who had been possessed by the plant monsters and my thoughts turned to what Selene had said earlier. Was it true what she said? Was the Overlord really using the Bloodhunters to do his dirty work? Part of me felt like I should trust what she was saying, but the rest of me still felt like following the Overlord was the best decision to make. Before I could ask myself even more questions, a hologram of the Overlord appeared on the holo-table and I immediately kneeled.

"Zekxsie… What is your current progress?" he asked before I stood back up.

"They came just as you anticipated, my lord. 8 out of 14 of them have been possessed by the plant creatures that you left with me. The other 6 escaped, possibly into the forest. But, even then, the 8 that have been possessed are the strongest ones out of the group," I replied.

"They are unharmed?"

"They are, my lord."

"Good. Leave them that way. There is no doubt that the human and what remains of his team will return for them. And when they do, we shall see how they fare against their friends in combat."

"It will be done, my lord," I said with a slightly downhearted tone. But when I turned away, I guess the Overlord could tell that something was up.

"Speak your mind, Zekxsie," he said with a peaceful tone.

"Selene informed me of something… she said that you were weaponizing the Bloodhunters from her home planet so you could use them against our enemies. Is that true?" I cautiously asked.

"…It is to a certain extent. I had planned to use the Bloodhunters only as a temporary addition to our army. I would have exterminated them all when they had fulfilled their purpose for the sake of our Crusade, but Selene destroyed the only enhanced ones that were manufactured as well as the facility that Malicus was assigned to. Selene was simply too impatient to wait for the promises I would offer her," the Overlord replied.

"With all due respect, my lord, wouldn't the Infernite army have been enough? Info has been producing many weaponized Infernites by the minute, has she not? We practically have an army already and you insist on using more and more soldiers or beasts or whatever just to…"

"Zekxsie. You are becoming too anxious. Take a deep breath. The reason I am using so many resources from other planets is so we can ensure victory against our enemies. But you should not dwell on those thoughts right now. Right now, you must focus on finding the human and the rest of his team so we can retrieve the energy from him."

"I understand, my lord. I just… wanted to be sure was all. Selene just seemed so torn up about it and… I thought about the promises that you've made for me…" I said.

"I can assure you, Zekxsie, when we have completed our mission, you will be able to walk amongst your kind once more. Report back once you have captured the human," the Overlord replied before his hologram disappeared.

Selene's perspective

It should have worked. The revelation of the Overlord using the Bloodhunters for his own army should have convinced Zekxsie that the Overlord did not care about us or what our wishes were. He didn't want peace. He wanted chaos. Destruction. But she wasn't convinced. Did she think that this was the only way for her to find peace? Was she that desperate to see her own kind again? These were the only thoughts that were running through my head as I sat in front of the holo-map while Max was busy inspecting the topographical map that was busy being filled out by the drones that we had launched from the dropship. Meanwhile, Odango was busy trying to find anything in the database about the creatures that attacked us, both Eila and Goo were sitting quietly against the wall, and Zero Two had gone into the armory for some reason. After a few seconds, Max had finally located the main tree that we came from, but most of it still hadn't loaded in yet.

"Well, good news is that the tree isn't too far from where we are right now. All that we need to figure out now is what the best route is," Max said as he rotated the map a bit to try and get a better view.

"Unfortunately, I have the bad news. I've searched this database thoroughly 3 times and it doesn't seem like there's anything about the creatures that attacked us. In fact, it's just like with the Bloodhunters. It's as if they don't even exist!" Odango said.

"Selene, what are your thoughts?"

"What?" I replied, snapping back to reality.

"What do you think those things are? Some kind of experiment brought here accidentally by some ship? An invasive species?"

"Max, I literally don't know what those things are! I wish I could tell you, but I am losing my mind right now! More than half of our team is under enemy control and we have no idea what to do next!" I yelled with fear in my voice.

"Selene, relax. We'll figure something out and we'll get them all out, safe and sound," Max said in response. Before any of us could say anything in response, Zero Two stormed out of the armory, armed with her pistols, Rhonda's revolver, Hiro's shotgun and her electrostaff, and she made a beeline for the dropship's exit, only to be stopped by Max.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think you're going?" Max asked.

"Where does it look like I'm going? I'm going to save our friends!" Zero Two said, trying to get past Max.

"Without even knowing which way to go? We need to have a plan of attack and a route to follow before we head out!"

"And you trust HER to lead us?" Zero Two asked, pointing at me.

"I'M the one leading us. But we still need as many people as possible to help with this. So, Selene stays," Max replied.

"Except SHE'S the one who got us into this mess! She SAID that us telling Zekxsie about the Bloodhunters would convince her to join us! But it DIDN'T! And now my husband is trying to kill us alongside a bunch of our own teammates!"

"OK, yes, we didn't exactly know what to expect. But they aren't dead. Which means there's still a chance that we can save them. All we need is a plan for when we DO head to the tree and a way to get there," Max said patiently, only for Zero Two to angrily push him aside.

"It's a big ass tree! It's pretty hard to miss! I'll bet you I can get there and be finished before you even leave here! And when I do finish blowing the joint, I'll radio you! Until then, hasta la bye bye!" Zero Two replied as she left the ship. But Max didn't even make an attempt to stop her and instead went back to the holo-map, continuing his search.

"You're not going to stop her?!" I asked.

"She'll come back," Max replied as he continued to search.

"Are you certain?"

"I'm certain," Max said just as the rest of the tree had loaded in on the map. Suddenly, he rotated the map a bit and zoomed in on a large hole in the side of the hill that Zekxsie's tree was sitting on top of.

"What the HELL is that?" Max asked as he closely inspected the hole.

"It's a hole. It the side of a hill underneath Zekxsie's 'mother tree'. What exactly seems out of the ordinary?" Odango asked. Max zoomed in even further on the hole and pointed out some kind of tunnel on the inside of the hill.

"It's a hole that leads to some kind of cave system underneath the tree itself. And what better place to hold a whole bunch of those plant monster?" he asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"In a secret cave that no one knows about," I replied in astonishment as Max adjusted the map to show a bird's eye view of the swamp surrounding the "mother tree" before Max pressed a button and the map drew a line from our dropship all the way to the hill where the tree was.

"Well, now we've got ourselves a target and a way to get there," Max said with a smile. But his smile didn't last long because we suddenly heard the sound of sloshing footsteps coming from behind us. All of us quickly turned around to face the source of the footsteps, but when we did, all we saw was an angry Zero Two standing in the doorway, soaking wet from head-to-toe with some water plants around one of her shoulders and, amusingly, a small fish on top of her head.

"So… as I fell into the cold, murky waters of the swamp that happen to be just a few feet away from this dropship, I just realized one crucial thing: I have absolutely no idea where the hell I'm going!" Zero Two said.

"Well, we're in luck. Max just found us a route to get to the 'mother tree'. And it'll take only two hours for us to get there!" Odango said with a smile, making Zero Two's expression soften up a bit. But she still had an angry expression towards me. I felt that I had to say something, just to make things right to her, but I struggled at first to find the right words to say.

"Listen, Zero Two, I know that you're angry with me because of… the mess that we've gotten ourselves into… and…" I started to say before Zero Two cut me off.

"OK, I'm gonna stop you right there, because I'm already having a bad enough day as it is. My husband is being controlled by our enemy, we're stuck out in the middle of some godforsaken swamp, I'm wet, I'm cold, there's a fish on my head, and your BS apology is not helping at all! Also, WE didn't get ourselves into this mess, YOU got us into this mess! And YOU'RE gonna help us fix all of this!" Zero Two yelled, pointing at me.

"Then, if that will make things right, then I won't stop until we have freed our team from Zekxsie. But, what exactly will we do with her if she won't join us?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's grab our bearings and any medical supplies we can and head out," Max said. We did exactly as he asked and gathered up our weapons, a few rations, and some medical kits before we headed out into the dark depths of the swamp.

Philip's perspective, the Overlord's ship

Have you ever listened to Info's incessant ramblings about her science? Guaranteed way of falling asleep easy. She just LOVED to talk for hours about how her science methods were 'revolutionary' and 'would change everything that we ever knew'. To be honest, it was boring, but DAMN. I don't remember the last time I slept so well since I've been on this ship. But I guess I was sleeping a bit too much because the sound of a loud bang woke me up.

"I'm up! I'm up," I said as I tried to see what was going on. But when my eyes finally adjusted, all I saw in front of me was Info staring at me with a stern look while holding a book. If I had to take a guess, I would've guessed that she shut that book so loud that it woke me up. In the testing room right next to us was one of her 'Revenant' pets, who was just standing there, doing absolutely nothing except snarling.

"Couldn't you have waited a few more minutes before you ended my beauty sleep?" I asked.

"I would've, except you were drooling all over my equipment, Philip," Info replied. I just wiped my mouth in embarrassment right as the Overlord walked through the door with his hands behind his back.

"You asked to see me, Info?" he asked, prompting a now smiling Info to grab a small pair of tweezers and take out a small, red V-shaped object that was bristling with electricity of some kind and eagerly placed the object into a groove of the same shape on the Overlord's mask. After she inserted it into his mask, it began to glow red and the Revenant suddenly jolted awake before it got into a battle-ready position.

"OK, I'll bite. What the hell was that thing you just gave him?" I asked.

"It's a neural implant. With that piece of technology, the Overlord will be able to control the entire Infernite army, whenever, wherever. Perhaps we can give a demonstration, milord?" Info said with a gleeful smile. The Overlord just nodded and walked up to the testing room before he held up a hand, which made the Revenant walk up to the glass window before it just stood there, as if it was awaiting orders. The Overlord first held up a finger and moved it from side-to-side, the Revenant turning its head as it followed his finger. When the Overlord had finished getting the monster's attention, he nodded toward Info, who pressed a button that made part of the floor in the testing room open up. Rising up out of the floor was a restraint chair that had a male, grey-skinned, mostly naked alien strapped to it. He was shouting something in a panic, but I honestly couldn't understand what he was saying mostly due to the fact that I mostly couldn't hear anything behind the glass. But it didn't really matter because the Overlord motioned for the Revenant to turn and face the alien, aiming both of its rocket launchers at the prisoner, who began screaming hysterically. Despite his pleads for help, the prisoner was completely helpless as the Overlord gave the command to execute and the Revenant fired a barrage of missiles which reduced the prisoner (as well as the chair) to nothing but a smoldering pile of metal and guts.

"I'm impressed," the Overlord said before he commanded the Revenant to return to its original position. The monster obeyed and went back to where it was standing before the floor began to slowly descend with the creature on it. After the creature disappeared into the floor, Info brought up a screen of several more enhanced Infernites. I couldn't exactly see all of them, but I could make out at least two of them: one was a large, grotesque monster with cannons on both of its arms while the other was a demon-looking snake creature.

"I think you'll be pleased to know that we have several more species that are being enhanced and tested as we speak. I'll need a few more hours to determine how many will be ready to deploy once we've completed manufacturing, but when we have finished, you will be in possession of the strongest army the universe has ever known," Info said with sadistic glee.

"I look forward to the results you produce, Info," the Overlord said as he prepared to leave. But before he could walk out the door, I got up and walked in front of him.

"Have you found out where Max and the rest of his pathetic team are?" I asked. The Overlord just stared at me in silence before he walked past me toward the door.

"I will inform you the instant I know, Philip," he said before the door closed behind him, leaving me completely miffed and with more questions than answers at this point.

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you're dangerously obsessed with Maxwell and his well-being," Info said.

"I could care less about his well-being. I want him to suffer for the pain that he's caused me before I even got here," I said.

"He once feared you?"

"He did… once. And I was also respected by everyone else."

"In any case, I believe that this excels far beyond your desires for revenge, Philip. Take that other couple, for example. They seem to have piqued some curiosity in our Master."

"You mean the horned, pink-haired bitch and her punk-ass boyfriend? What the hell is so interesting about them?"

"Our master seems to have suspicions that those two are, in fact, from another dimension. Perhaps one where we never existed…"

"Sounds… pretty boring. Plus, even if they were from a different dimension, how did Max find them?"

"That's the one thing about the universe, Philip. We can't be expected to understand everything that it has to offer. Otherwise, thinking too hard about it would make your head hurt! In fact, I think that I have something that will take your mind off of everything 'troublesome'" Info said before she led me out into some kind of hangar bay where a bunch of the Overlord's minions were busy working on some kind of giant mech. So far, only the head, chest and arms were already complete, but the lower half was still being worked on. I had to admit, I WAS amazed at the display going on here.

"Huh. Nice setup. Who's it for?" I asked as I looked on.

"It's for you, Philip. The Overlord commissioned the building of this mech the day that you were recruited into the Crusade. The metal was made from the hulls of other spaceships but has been redesigned into a weapon of mass destruction."

"Sweet… How soon before I can get it into space and look for those pests?" I asked.

"It's not meant for space travel. But believe me, when this mech is complete, when it's armed with the most dangerous weapons in the known universe, NO ONE will ever be able to stand up to you," Info said with a wicked smile. I couldn't help but get that same wicked smile as I continued to watch the minions build the mech.

Max's perspective, Terraria

I guess that I should be thankful that my boots weren't getting filled with water, even though I couldn't exactly say that the others felt the same. We were an hour into our trek, and we all had to cut through a flooded part of the swamp just to save time because Zero Two was impatient and insisted we take a faster route. I was OK with us taking a faster route, but the tension wasn't really helping Eila. You see, when Eila gets too scared or tense, her whole body becomes shrouded in electricity, making her a walking power battery. And water and electricity don't mix well. Luckily, Odango's body was immune to sudden electrical outbursts, and she could easily absorb electricity without her whole body exploding into electricity, as I discovered not long ago, making her perfect for carrying Eila the rest of the way. Goo, on the other hand, was clearly enjoying herself as she was darting through the water as a small ball of slime. But as we moved further and further into the forest, impatience was getting the better of some of us.

"Are we there yet?" Zero Two sternly asked.

"Zero Two, the answer was the same the last 99 times you asked me and it's still the same now: We are not there yet," I replied without looking up from the portable holo-map that I took from the dropship.

"Is there, at least, on spot of dry land where we can stop? I can only carry Eila for so long…" Odango said. Those words made Eila tightly wrap her arms Odango's neck as her hair began to surge with electricity.

"Goo?!" Goo asked as she slid up onto my shoulder with a worried look.

"No, she's fine, Goo. Odango's not going to drop her, I promise," I said, trying to keep Goo from going insane.

"But she does have a point. We should at least find somewhere to rest before we…" Selene started to say before Zero Two silenced her by putting a finger up to her mask.

"Buh, buh, buh! You don't get to talk! You're still on my list!" Zero Two said, earning confused looks from all of us.

"What list?" Odango asked.

"My 'don't-deserve-to-talk-because-you-got-us-in-a-situation-that-was-your-fault' list."

"…You just made that up," I said.

"I did. But it is an appropriate list for her to be under right now, don't you think?" Zero Two replied with her arms crossed.

"Zero Two, I apologized to you earlier! Does that not count for anything?!" Selene yelled.

"You REALLY think that everything will get better if you say sorry? It DOESN'T work like that at all!"

"Then what do you wish for me to say?! I thought that Zekxsie could be convinced to turn away from the Overlord and that she would help us put a stop to his evil ways. I didn't expect that she would be foolish enough to make enemies of us!"

"That's what war does…" I finally said, hoping that those words would at least shut them up. And they did, only for them to look at me with confused looks.

"What do you mean?" Odango asked.

"The ugly thing about war is that, no matter what side you're on, you're either viewed as a hero or a murderer. Some will look up to you and say that you did what had to be done, but others will say that what you did was too violent or harsh. All I'm saying is that Zekxsie's at a point in her life where she's willing to do anything just to be with her race again. That's why she's turned a blind eye to the Overlord's evil. Because she's in pain. And from where she stands, it seems like we're trying to deny her what she was promised. In war, the one decision that affects all thinking in the end is which side is the lesser of the two evils," I said in a melancholic tone. Everyone was completely silent for a while as they pondered over the words I had just said. After a few seconds Zero Two finally stepped up to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Look, that was a very riveting talk and I completely respect your calm and caring attitude and I'm not in any way trying to sound like a complete bitch, but we're still on a bit of a time crunch here. So, I'll take over navigation duties for the rest of the trip, OK?" she said before she took the portable holo-map from me and continued to head down the route that we were originally following. The rest of us really didn't have anything else to say, so we just silently followed behind her and continued on. But not even 5 minutes after we did start walking again, Selene tried to start up a conversation with me.

"I have to agree with Zero Two's words. That WAS a very riveting speech that you gave," she said as she walked alongside me.

"Well, me and Nikki practically come from a planet that's been through a few wars that have had their stories told. Look, either way, don't let Zero Two's attitude bother you. She's just…" I started to say.

"I know. She's just desperate to save her lover is all. Besides, she was right before. I'm the reason that we're all in this mess. I just… thought that…"

"Look, nobody knew that this was going to happen. There's no reason for you to feel bad about it, OK?"

"Even if that's so, I was the one that suggested that we try and persuade Zekxsie to join us. I didn't realize that she was in such a position where she wouldn't listen to reason. All that I can hope for now is that I can help undo my mistake."

"We will. But until then, we need to remain focused and worry about getting to the tree before we worry about anything else," I said, trying to get her to relax a little.

"Actually, before we DO go back to being focused, there's still one question that I have left to ask," Odango asked as she ran up to us.

"And what's that?" Selene asked.

"Earlier, Rhea said that the Overlord couldn't raise the dead. But I remember a couple of weeks back that Nikki said she saw Info alive onboard the Overlord's ship back when she and Max were captured by him. So, if he can't resurrect the dead, then what was it that Nikki actually saw on the ship?"

"Actually, Rhea said the CRUCIBLE can't raise the dead. But the Overlord actually can. Back in his early years as part of Altus' elite guard, he practiced necromancy when he and the elite guard conquered the planet Thana. He often used this power to bring his fallen comrades back from the dead. The only problem was that they didn't always come back the same as when they were alive. To counter this setback, he would put them in a sort of rehabilitation until they were well enough to serve again. But there was another setback. As the Overlord used more and more of his necromancy, he grew weaker and weaker, meaning he had to take time to regain his power before he could use it again. You see, even if the Overlord DID promise Zekxsie that he would bring back all of her people, he wouldn't be able to bring back an entire planet in a day because of his limitations and there's no guarantee that her people would even come back behaving the same way before they all disappeared."

"OK, but now that just leaves ME with a question: If he can raise the dead, why didn't he just do himself a favor and resurrect his wife? I think that would've saved everyone the trouble of… all this," I said.

"I don't know. I have asked him on several occasions, but he never gave me an answer," Selene replied, leaving us all speechless as we pondered over that thought. But, once again, our thoughts were broken when Zero Two suddenly yelled out in pain and fell into the shallow water while holding her ankle. I immediately ran over to her and knelt down to see what was wrong and noticed that Zero Two now had a large cut in her ankle, which I cleaned and then bandaged up.

"What happened? What did this?" I asked.

"I don't know! I was just walking the same route that we were taking, and I suddenly felt something poke my ankle and now I have a cut in my ankle!" Zero Two exclaimed. I just looked down in the water and noticed the faint glinting of something. That something was the blade of a dagger of some kind that was anchored in some water plants that swayed back and forth with the calm current. When I picked it up, it was clear that this dagger wasn't alien. In fact, it looked like a human design. Confused, I took a quick look around at the scenery and I noticed something that stood out from the rest: A large dropship covered in moss and vines at the edge of the swamp that had both of its engines completely busted. All of us immediately ran over to the ship and began looking for some way to get inside, which thankfully didn't take too long due to the fact that Celeste had shown me how to manually open a dropship from the outside. Once I managed to find the emergency lever, the hangar door slowly opened to reveal a large room similar to the dropship we were in earlier with a partially rusted holo-table that sat in the middle of the room and a bulkhead door that no doubt led to the cockpit. The only difference from ours was that the armory of this dropship was literally the ship itself. There was a whole slew of different weapons on the walls and beside the seats; enough to be used by an entire army. As I was looking around, Odango sat Eila down on one of the chairs alongside Goo while Selene began inspecting one of the weapons on the walls.

"This is an armory ship. These ships mostly supply different arms to armies across the galaxy, but some also carry antique weapons to museums for displaying or they're given to buyers that are interested in them," she explained. But as I was looking around, something about some of the weapons seemed a bit…odd. While some of the weapons were alien-like, most of the ones on the walls DEFINITELY looked like they were of human design, ranging from different melee weapons with runes and symbols on them from ancient times to different gun and rifles that looked like they were from WWII.

"How come most of these weapons look like they're from Earth?" I asked as I took an M1 Carbine down from the wall and closely inspected it.

"Some alien species are fascinated by human technology and ingenuity. I guess the reason for that is because of how destructive your species is," Selene replied. As if to respond to that, I noticed a chainsaw that was sitting next to one of the seats and picked it up while also raising an eyebrow at her.

"I… think that they mistook that for weapon," Selene said. I just set the chainsaw back down and walked over to the bulkhead, where Odango was busy inspecting it.

"What's on your mind?" I asked.

"Well, I figure that the cockpit might contain a black box or something that might explain what happened here, but there doesn't seem to be a button or anything to open the bulkhead here," Odango explained. As she turned her attention to her wrist computer, I walked up to the bulkhead and began to closely inspect it, looking a way to open it. Sure enough, there wasn't a visible button anywhere to be seen and the bulkhead was sealed tight. I tried forcing the door open, but I didn't really have enough strength to open it. After I took a step back, I began to try and think of a way to get in until I looked down at my hand and got an idea. I gently placed my hand on the bulkhead and began to concentrate until my hand became engulfed in ice and the door began to freeze. Once the door had been completely frozen, I used my other fist to smash the door to pieces, revealing the cockpit behind which had a bunch of moss and vines growing over the control console. As I walked in, my feet brushed up against some strange looking cubes which Odango picked up and inspected it for a while.

"These are weapon transport cubes. They used these to transport heavy weapons and any other weapons that they couldn't carry to the battlefield. They're commonly found in ships like this one," Odango explained. As she and Selene continued to inspect the cubes, I made my way to the front of the cockpit to see what was up there. The cockpit window looked like it had been broken open with a bunch of small vines seeping in through the hole. But when I looked to the left, I found something that was much more confusing and a little bit horrific. Sitting in the pilot's chair was the decayed corpse of a four-eyed alien of some kind in a flight suit that had one of his arms missing while the other one was clutching a small book. I gently pried the book free from the corpse's grasp and began to flip through it to see what was inside.

"Well, there's no black box, but there was this little journal in there. Seems like the guy liked to write about where he had been and what he did," I said as I flipped through the pages.

"Is there anything that seems more recent in that journal? Something that perhaps hints toward how this ship crashed?" Selene asked. I just flipped through the pages some more until I found something that looked promising.

"Here it is: 'May 10, 2017- We had received word that a man's family, along with a small group, had gone to Terraria to pick flowers, but they have not returned for three days. He has asked me and my crew to accompany him to Terraria to find them. I can only hope that we can find them before things get out of control'."

"Wait… 2017? That's the same year when Zekxsie's people were wiped out!"

"Hold up… there's more: 'May 11, 2017- We managed to find the man's family, but it seems that most of the group that they were with are missing. In fact, it looks like something attacked them. We tried asking them what happened, but all the man's daughter could answer was "a monster". I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but all I can say is that this planet doesn't appear to be as dead as everyone claims it is…'," I read, drawing concerned looks from both Selene and Odango.

"That… That doesn't make any sense. The Terrarians were the only sentient beings that lived on this planet. And even if there were some that were still alive, Terrarians are non-hostile species! They would never hurt anyone unless they had to!" Selene protested.

"…Wait. Listen to this entry: 'May 16, 2017- I am the only one left here. We found the ship that the man's family had arrived in, but just as we had finished repairing it, something attacked us. Whatever it was, it was most certainly not Terrarian. The creature was about 20 feet tall, bigger than anything I've ever seen, with glowing red eyes and had thorns covering its arms and the vines beneath her. Even though the weapons that we brought with us were able to keep the creature at bay, it then unleashed something that none of us could have expected. The creature summoned small plant-like creatures from the ground which proceeded to attach themselves to some of the crew, turning them against us as if they were deprived of their own will. I lost my left arm in the struggle. The man and his family were able to escape with a few of the survivors, but the creature's attacks prevented me and a handful of other survivors from being able to go with them. We had hoped to escape using my own ship, but the creature had already damaged it beyond repair before it then dragged it into the swamp. After that, the rest of the survivors were caught and the creature presumably took them back to its lair. But as I sit here alone, I am not overwhelmed with despair. I am happy that I managed to save a family today'," I finished.

"That sounds… so horrible," Selene said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"That experience sounds a bit similar to what happened to us," Odango said.

"But now we know that these creatures have a leader that isn't Zekxsie. And I'll bet that whatever's leading these things is in that cave underneath the 'mother tree'," I said.

"But even if it is, how exactly are we going to convince Zekxsie that it exists? She'll probably think that we're crazy!" Selene objected. Before I could answer, I heard a loud thud coming from outside, which prompted Eila to run over to me, grab my arm, and point outside. Me, Odango, and Selene immediately went outside to find Zero Two hacking away at a tree with an axe.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?!" I asked, prompting Zero Two to turn around and face us.

"Well, since YOU GUYS just want to waste time by being here, I thought that I would just do all of us a favor and bring our friends straight to us!" Zero Two replied before she went back to chopping away at the tree.

"Zero Two, we're just stopping here for a while to rest before we continue on. Also, how is attacking a tree supposed to get anyone's attention?"

"Maybe Zekxsie has a special connection to them or something! I don't know! But I can't just sit around here and do nothing while our friends are still out there!"

"Zero Two, we will continue our trek in a few minutes, but until then, you must be patient," Selene replied.

"Well, you see, I CAN'T calm down or be patient at all when I'm so stressed out. And it certainly doesn't help when all that's staring me in the face are these STUPID… STUPID… TREES!" Zero Two yelled before she hit the tree one final time. However, when she did, she cut one of the thorny vines surrounding the tree which released a cloud of dust-like spores straight into her face, making her stumble backwards while she coughed before she fell into the water. As I tried to help her, the thorned vines began to shrivel up and crumble to dust before the bark began to turn into its normal brown color and the leaves began to turn green again. Before anyone could question what was going on, the tree's trunk split open down the middle, revealing the body of a Terrarian that looked remarkably similar to Zekxsie, except her hair was more of a ragged bob cut and her left arm was covered in bark instead of her right arm. The vines that were holding the Terrarian suddenly began to disintegrate and she fell forward, out of the tree and into the water, before the tree closed back up as if nothing had ever happened. I immediately ran over to the Terrarian and flipped her over to get her face out of the water, but when I went to check her pulse, the Terrarian suddenly woke up and stared at me with her burning neon green eyes before she grabbed me by my collar.

"SHE'S COMING! SHE'S COMING FOR ALL OF US! THERE WAS NOTHING WE COULD DO! SHE'S GOING TO DESTROY US ALL!" she yelled hysterically before she went limp and fainted, leaving me and the rest of the team completely confused from what just happened.

Zero Two's perspective

I'm not gonna lie… it felt like history was repeating itself. The last time Darling and I been apart like this was when he was kidnapped by the Klaxosaur princess back on our Earth. I had to muster up every bit of strength that I had just to save him. What was going on now felt very similar to that event, only Darling was being possessed by a sentient plant alongside the rest of our friends and Max and the others were just wasting time helping some random tree person whom we had never met before. OK, I didn't really mean that, but couldn't help but be concerned about how Darling was feeling. I didn't even know if he was still the same on the inside. As I continued to ponder over these thoughts, Max finally walked outside to join me.

"Well, it seems like she'll be alright. She's just a bit freaked out is all," he said, leaning up against the wall of the ship.

"Great…" I replied halfheartedly. I guess Max could tell that I wasn't in the best of moods because he just craned his neck to try and look me in the eye.

"Look… I understand that you're angry right now, but it's not fair if you take your anger out on the rest of the team. We're doing the best that we can."

"Just go ahead and say it."

"Say what?"

"That I should've trained harder with the others instead of just Darling. Maybe then we could've had a chance to beat those things," I said tearfully. Max just looked at me with sad eyes before he let out a sigh and looked out at the swamp.

"That isn't really fair. Like I said before, none of us knew that this was going to happen. I understand that you want to save Hiro. Both of you made a promise to stick by each other and to always save the other no matter what. And that's honestly the same way that I feel about Nikki. I know it looks like I'm not anxious about saving them, but I'm just trying to stay focused. I promise you that we WILL save them, whatever it takes. And if we can't… then you can hate me for the rest of your life if you want," he said. I just looked back at him for a brief second before I turned away and chuckled while wiping the tears from my eyes.

"I'm sure it won't come to that. Just because I look angry at everyone doesn't mean that I don't trust you. If you say that we can save them, then I believe you," I said just as Selene walked out to meet us.

"Were you able to get anything more out of our patient?" Max asked.

"Not much. She's still recovering from the shock after she was released. I thought that I would give her a few more minutes before I asked her more questions," Selene replied.

"So, what exactly is the plan now?" I asked.

"I… don't exactly have one… It's just that… everything seems so confusing… I don't… I don't know what to do," Selene replied as she sat down.

"And yet, you had a plan before we even got here. OK, so the plan to tell Zekxsie that the Overlord was weaponizing the Bloodhunters wasn't enough. Big deal. But we found one of own people alive! That should convince her to join us, right?"

"And just what exactly are supposed to tell her?! That you attacked a tree and one of her kind just magically popped out? She would think us insane just like he is! We have nothing to convince her to join us!"

"Yes, we do. All the evidence that we need to convince her has been in front of us the whole time…" Max replied as he stared at the tree that we rescued the Terrarian from.

"What do you mean?"

"The journal mentioned that there was some kind of creature here on this planet that isn't Terrarian, right? And whatever this creature is, I'm willing to bet that these thorny vines covering the trees and the other plants are just extensions of its body. Except they are there just to make the scenery look scary, they're actually keeping Zekxsie's people as prisoners!"

"And if we find and destroy that creature… Then we might be able to liberate all of her people!" I finished.

"Are we even certain that will work?" Selene asked with doubt in her voice.

"It WILL work. All Zekxsie's ever wanted was to be with her people again. And that's exactly what we're going to give her," Max replied.

"But the journal also mentioned that the creature is enormous! And I doubt that it will be defenseless! How exactly are we going to kill something like that?"

"Last I checked, we have a ship chock-full of weapons back here," I said, pointing behind me. Selene just sighed and got back on her feet before she crossed her arms.

"Well, I suppose at this point, there's no better plan than that one. Shall we get going then?" she asked, making both me and Max smile. All three of us immediately went back into the ship and began to pack up as many weapons as we could. Max strapped two Viking war axes and a carbine gun to his back while he packed a minigun and another unknown weapon into two of the containment cubes. Selene took an incendiary grenade bandolier, a plasma rifle, and a couple of combat knives while she packed some C-4 explosives into the containment cubes. As for me, I had the honor of taking what Max called an 'Uzi' (I don't know why it was called that, but it sounded really silly), some kind of alien sniper rifle, and a four-barreled rocket launcher called an M202 FLASH. To top things off, I found a bit of war paint tucked away in a drawer and spread it over my eyes, almost looking like I had a mask on. Max and Selene, on the other hand, didn't really seem to think so.

"I thought we agreed that you couldn't use rocket launchers anymore," Max said.

"Since when?"

"Since you fired one at a wall near a bunch of civilians."

"Also, why the war paint? It seems a bit unnecessary, don't you think?" Selene asked me.

"I think it makes me look badass. Speaking of which…" I replied before I took some more paint and rubbed it over Max's eyes. After I was finished, I stepped back a bit to admire my handiwork, only for Max to give me a disapproving glare.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"What? I think you look a bit more menacing now," I replied before holding out the war paint to Selene.

"I don't need any," she said, holding up a hand.

"So, are we ready to go then?" Odango asked as she walked up to us with Eila and Goo following behind her.

"I think so. Let's move out," Max replied. But, before we could head out the door, Max was suddenly stopped, and we all turned around to see the Terrarian holding Max's arm like she REALLY didn't want him or any of us to go.

"Please… don't go… That creature… She'll kill you if you go…" she said. Max just gently knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort.

"Listen. I'm sure that you know that things have changed a lot since you were last awake. But one of your own people is fighting for a cause that believes would bring all of the rest of your people back and she has no idea that the cause is evil. But, if we can kill that creature, we might be able to save both her and the rest of your people. But, until then, I need you to stay here, stay hidden, and be brave. Can you do that?" he said. The Terrarian just nodded and went back to one of the seats inside the ship and the rest of us finally resumed our trek towards the 'mother tree'. I'll admit, the rest of the trip felt a bit harder mostly because we had more stuff to carry, but I was confident that we wouldn't fail this time. And I had a feeling that Selene was probably thinking the same thing. Before long, we had finally arrived at the edge of the forest, the 'mother tree' just on the other side of a large, somewhat shallow river.

"There. There's the entrance to the cavern," Odango said, pointing to the mouth of a cave that sat in the side of the cliff just beneath the tree. But before any of us could walk toward it, Max raised his hand to stop us.

"What's wrong? The coast is clear…" Selene said.

"Yeah, it looks that way. That's what scares me…" Max replied as he stared out at the river in front of us. Quick-thinking, I picked up a rock from the ground and then threw it out towards the river, where it splashed down into the water. Everyone else just turned towards me and stared at me like that was a bad idea.

"What? I thought they trip-wired the place or something," I said in my defense.

"And you thought one rock would set them all off?" Selene asked, prompting me to just shrug. Max took the initiative to silently and slowly walk out into the river, trying to be as cautious as possible. But, after he took the fifth step forward, a plasma bolt came from out of nowhere and struck Max in the chest, knocking him backward into a tree. After he got back up, Nikki, Amki, Celeste, Darling, Ayano, Rhea, Eva, and Rhonda all dropped down from the cliff and lined up just in front of the cave entrance before Zekxsie jumped down to join them. All of them stared at us menacingly, all of them preparing to fight.

"OK, here's the plan. I'll take Amki and Hiro. Zero Two, you handle Ayano and Rhonda. Ayano shouldn't give you too much trouble, but I would be careful with Rhonda. Odango, Eila, and Goo, you take Celeste, Eva, and Rhea. Selene, I want you to take down Nikki. But please be careful with her," Max said as he walked up to us, his helmet reforming over his head.

"Of course," Selene replied as she took out the plasma rifle and powered it up while Odango activated her arm cannon and I took out my electrostaff and twirled it around a bit before I got it into a battle-ready stance.

"Let's get to it then, shall we?" Max said before we all began to slowly move forward towards the others. They immediately followed suit and began to walk towards us menacingly. Before long, all of us started to pick up the pace and began until we all collided with the others, fists flying and guns firing. The fight started off with Max hitting Amki square in the face while Ayano began to wildly swing her knife at me until I jabbed one end of my electrostaff into her abdomen and electrocuted her until she stumbled backwards and fell face-first into the dirt. But my victory didn't last long because Rhonda came from the side and punched me, drawing a bit of blood. I immediately took out the Uzi and began to fire at the ground next to her in order to throw her off guard, but Rhonda was unfazed by the attack, only stumbling to the side a bit, and the plant monster on her back wrapped its tentacles around her left arm, making a large vine that she then used to snatch the Uzi from me and crush it. I jumped out of the way just as she tried to sweep my legs with her vine arm while the plant monster used its tentacles to snag her revolver from Max's belt and then place it in her hand. As I was busy dodging bullets, Selene was busy trying to outmaneuver Nikki, who was using her superspeed boots to try and hit her faster than she can blink. Selene tried using either her whip to try and trip her up or the plasma rifle to try and throw her off balance, but Nikki was too fast, and she repeatedly hit Selene from every direction until she finally knocked her down. But Selene took advantage of her position and wrapped her whip around Nikki's ankle before she pulled back, causing her to fall to the ground. As Selene and Nikki continued to fight, Eila shot some lightning at Celeste, Eva, and Rhea, only for Rhea to conjure up an electrical shield that blocked out all the lightning. However, Eila's attack just made it easy for Odango to sneak in from behind and fire a concussive shot which knocked Rhea out while Goo grabbed Eva by the waist and threw her out into the river. But, after she had reeled her arm back in, Celeste sliced it off, making Goo's arm splatter on the ground. But Celeste had completely forgotten that Eila was still behind her and grey-skinned alien fired another lightning bolt which knocked Celeste out. But, the three of them didn't have time to relax because Eva got back up and began firing concussive blast from her gloves while Ayano tried to slice up both Eila and Odango. As the three of them continued to fight Eva and Ayano, Max continued to fight Amki, managing to jump on her back and put her in a chokehold. But Amki was quick to respond and grabbed Max with her upper two arms before she threw him off and slammed him down into the dirt. But that was only the start of her assault as she then tore off Max's helmet and then dunked his head into the water. At first Max wildly struggled to get free, hitting her arm repeatedly to try and get her to let go, but after a few seconds, he stopped struggling and wrapped his legs around her arm before he then broke Amki's arm, allowing him to escape from her grasp. For a brief second, I saw that Max had somehow grown gills on the side of his neck, which then disappeared as he jumped onto Amki's back, but as my focus was on him, Rhonda punched me in the jaw and then proceeded to try and shoot me with her revolver, prompting me to pull out the sniper rifle and return fire. Max, on the other hand, managed confuse Amki enough so he could jump down and punch her right knee so hard that all of us could hear her bones break. Amki let out a yell of pain and stumbled to the ground before Max knocked her to the ground with a double axe handle. As Max was recovering from his assault, Darling launched a grappling hook at him to try and catch him, but Max easily dodged the attack before he grabbed the line and reeled him in before knocking him down with a clothesline punch. However, before he could help the rest of us, Nikki began to rapidly attack him from every direction until she had him on his knees so she could finish her assault with an uppercut that launched Max backwards into the river. As he was getting back up, the plant monster on Amki's back wrapped in vines around her right knee, acting as a brace, and then wrapped some more vines around her broken arm before setting it and then acting as a brace for her arm. Max got to his feet and held his side in pain as he tried to think of a way to incapacitate the others. Standing by the water's edge, he stared down at the river for a brief moment before looking back at Amki and Nikki and then taking out the Peacekeeper, its blade becoming like water. Max began to spin the Peacekeeper around, making some of the water from the river follow the blade as it spun faster and faster. Just as Max had spun the Peacekeeper at max speed, he swung the blade forward, causing a torrent of water to burst forth from the river and hit Amki, Nikki, Rhonda, Celeste, Eva, and Ayano, before the Peacekeeper's blade became ice and Max skimmed the top with the blade, instantly freezing the torrent with anyone inside. Me and Selene were barely able to get out of way before we were frozen solid with the others, but the ploy gave us an opening for all of us to make a run for the cave. However, just as we were a few feet away from the cave, Zekxsie's arm came from out of nowhere and smashed the alien rifle I was holding before she then grabbed Odango by the arm and threw her to the ground. This prompted me to take out the M202 FLASH and return fire at Zekxsie, who nearly got burned from the blast, while Zekxsie used her whip to get Odango out of the way before she took the grenade bandolier and the containment cubes holding the C-4 and threw them towards Max.

"GO! We'll hold her off! Find that creature and kill it!" Selene said before she took out the two combat knives she had and got into a battle-ready stance.

"I'm not leaving you here!" Max objected before Zekxsie's vine-like arm slammed down on the ground, just inches from where we were standing.

"Just go!" I replied before I fired another rocket at Zekxsie. Hesitantly, Max did as we asked and made his way inside the cave while we continued to fight Zekxsie. Selene was the only one who was able to stand up to her in close combat while I tried to throw Zekxsie off balance as Eila and Goo were busy helping Odango.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Zekxsie. There's a lot going on here that you don't understand," Selene said as she took swipes at her with the combat knives. Zekxsie's only response was to create a spiked club out of her left arm and try in vain to hit Selene, but she was quick to dodge and managed to get a few cuts into her right arm and the side of her body.

"You always were the best combatant when we trained on the Overlord's ship. But this is MY planet! And YOU are completely out of your element here!" Zekxsie yelled before she made a bunch of vines sprout up from the ground, which entangled Selene's legs and made it easier for Zekxsie to beat her up for a while until Selene cut herself free and continue the fight. I did my best to try and help, but I was unable to get a clean shot. But Selene didn't seem to need my help because she quickly wrapped her whip around Zekxsie's neck and then forced her to the ground, holding her down by pressing the heel of her boot up against her chest.

"Zekxsie, there's something you must know! Your people still live! They've been around you all along!"

"LIAR!" Zekxsie yelled before she grabbed Selene's throat and forced her to the ground, destroying both of the knives in the process. However, Selene was still unwilling to go down and she slowly but surely began to get back on her feet as she repeatedly punched Zekxsie in the face. But, within the blink of an eye, things took a turn for the worst when another one of those plant monsters burst forth from the ground and latched itself onto Selene's back, possessing her. I didn't hesitate to launch another rocket at the two of them, but Selene was able to get out of the way (even though I was luckily able to knock Selene down with my electrostaff when she came at me) and the blast instead launched Zekxsie backwards into the ice stream that Max had made earlier, cracking it a bit. But soon, the ice began to make more cracking noises and it was obvious that it wasn't because Zekxsie smacked into it. To the side, I saw that Rhea was awake again and she was now using her fire magic to try and thaw the ice to free the rest of the team. I took aim again, this time just to the side of Rhea's legs so the impact would only knock her away, but a I suddenly heard the familiar beeping of a stickybomb and instinctively threw the M202 away, only for the impact of the explosion to knock me backwards into the side of the cliff. When I looked back up, I saw Darling walking menacingly towards me with the shotgun in his hands. I managed to signal to Odango, Eila, and Goo to retreat to the cave just before Darling grabbed me by the throat and pointed the shotgun at my face.

"Darling… stop. Look at yourself. You're trying to kill me!" I managed to say before kicking the shotgun out of his hands. But Darling still maintained a tight grip on my neck as the ice stream began to break apart, freeing the rest of the team. It was now or never. I had to do SOMETHING. And there was only one thing that I could think of.

"Darling… please. I need my husband back. I need YOU back," I said tearfully as I put my hands on his face and I put my lips up against his in a loving kiss. I was hoping that me showing some affection would make him regain his senses somehow and, at first, it seemed like it was working as Darling let go of my neck and put his arms around my waist. But, before I knew it, I felt something crawl onto my back and I felt its tentacles wrapping around my arms. Darling was merely holding me in place so one of those plant monsters could climb onto my back and the rest of the team began to walk towards us as everything went dark.

Max's perspective

The walls of the cave were very dimly lit with strange glowing roots as I ran through the cave. I felt like I didn't know exactly where I was going, but there weren't any split paths as far as I could see as I was running through this place. I just kept moving forward, not stopping for anything until I reached an opening that led to a large room that had large green pods aligning the center of the walls of the room, with a whole bunch of much smaller pods both above and below the larger ones. At the center of the room was a giant tree or root or something which was pulsating periodically, green energy flowing through the roots on the ground. As I was looking at what all was inside, Odango finally radioed me.

"Max! Can you hear me?! They've taken both Selene and Zero Two! They're coming for us now too!" Odango said amidst the blaster fire I heard over the comms.

"Try and slow them down as best you can! I think I might've found something," I replied before I slid down into the room and began to investigate further. As I walked up to the root at the center, I got this strange feeling that something in the room was watching me, almost the same as when we first came to this tree. But, as I kept looking around, I noticed that the larger pods contained the bodies of more Terrarians. I couldn't tell if they were alive or not, but I knew that, either way, this place had to be destroyed so we could liberate Zekxsie's people, so I began to take out some C-4 charges and set them up at the base of where the root was. But as I was placing the charges, the ground began to rumble, throwing me off balance a bit.

"You do not belong here…" a ghastly female voice said. As I whirled around to try and figure out where the voice was coming from, the middle root began to split apart, revealing the monstrous body of a female plant monster that had looked exactly like what the journal I read earlier described, except the light within the cave gave me a better look at the monster's appearance. The monster's hair had a thick and wavy appearance, but it looked like it was made of the same red leaves as the leaves of the trees we saw outside. The same red leaves also made up some shoulder guards while both of her arms looked like Zekxsie's left arm, except they were covered in a whole bunch of spikes that seemed to resemble thorns. Her chest was covered in a bunch of reddish vines that seemed to form a flower-like pattern, while each individual vine on her body was flowing with the same green energy in the roots below. As for her face, she had a horrendous sharp-toothed mouth and glowing red eyes that were fixated on me.

"So, you're what all the fuss is about," I said as the monster lowered her long, slithering body down to meet me.

"You presume correctly, human. I must say, ever since I've come to this planet, there have been none who have ever been able to stand up to me directly with the exception of one other individual. For you see, I am no ordinary creature. I am queen of a much more advanced race, far more superior than the very beings that live on this pitiful planet. A leader… leading her species to victory against a less-evolved species. A Hive…" the monster said.

"OK then, Miss… Hive? Where did you come from? What did you do to this planet? And why did you take my friends hostage?"

"My origins did not begin on this planet. In fact, I do not know where I first came from. All I know is that when I landed on this planet, I felt the need to feed. The people of this planet were plentiful, and they had so much energy to give. They were… helpless against me. But, after I was finished with my feeding, there were still so many of them left. So, I imprisoned the rest of them within the very foliage that made up their home, stored away so I could consume more of their energy at a later date. For a year and a half, I remained here… undisturbed… uninterrupted. And then HE came," the Hive said.

"The Overlord…" I said before the Hive created an almost real looking Overlord out of her own vines.

"He came to me with a proposition that I personally could not refuse, and I agreed to join his crusade. However, since I could not leave my place here, I had to give up one of my many morsels so I could see and hear everything. The Terrarian that you have seen before… she was the only one who ever stood up to me when I first landed here. As such, she became a part of the Overlord's army. However, the Overlord requested that I preserve the rest of her people, so the Terrarian would have a reason to fight for his crusade. She knows only of what she has lost, not who stole everything from her. As she stated earlier, the Overlord knew that your travels would bring you here eventually. But we were prepared for when you did arrive. My precious children… once they attach themselves to their targets, they become my personal puppets. The minds of innocents at the beck and call of the Overlord. And now, the minds of your friends belong to HIM. It's true that you cannot be controlled due to the energy that flows within you, but you are still my prisoner and you and your friends will NEVER leave this place."

"Wanna bet?" I asked before I pressed a button on the detonator to the C-4 explosives, which immediately activated them. However, before they went off, the Hive unraveled the vine that they were attached to and slammed it into the ground, completely blocking out the explosions. But before the Hive could turn back to me, I took out my shotgun and grappled up to the wall just beneath where the smaller pods were and then took out the carbine gun before firing it at the Hive (which was incredibly hard to do with just one hand and firing it at a weak spot was even harder). The Hive was quick to react and made a trio of large vines sprout up from the ground to attack me. I immediately dodged to the left and managed to dodge all three of them, despite the third destroying the carbine I was holding. I landed on the ground and threw some incendiary grenades at the Hive to try and keep her attacks at bay. Although they did succeed in that regard, she summoned another vine to entangle my legs and trip me up. I swiftly cut the vine with my arm blade and got back to my feet before shooting at her chest with my shotgun. However, it barely did any damage to her and, just as I took out the Peacekeeper, she grabbed me with one of her arms and slammed me into the wall, making the Peacekeeper fall out of my hand. After the Hive released me, I rushed over to retrieve the Peacekeeper, but the Hive was even faster, and she grabbed it before I did and stored it within her right arm.

"The other unlucky species who came to this planet also tried to kill me. But even their strongest weapons could not hurt me. You are no different from them," the Hive taunted before some of the smaller pods began opening, releasing some of the Hive's "pets" so they could attack me. Before any of them could get their grubby little tentacles on me, I took out the containment cube holding the minigun and activated it. The second it materialized in my hands, I angrily opened fire on the parasites, green blood spraying everywhere as I shot them down. To be honest, I don't know why I felt so angry, but I knew that I was in control and that was good enough for me, despite the fact that I was nearly covered in green blood. After I had mowed down all the parasites, I turned my attention back to the Hive and opened fire on her, but she blocked out most of the bullets with her armored left arm before she summoned another vine to destroy the minigun and then knock me to the ground again, drawing a bit of blood from my mouth and my forehead and knocking all of my weapons loose. As I struggled to get back up, I noticed the final containment cube sitting right in front of me. As I began to slowly crawl towards it, the Hive loomed over me, her red eyes gleaming in the shadows before she stabbed me in the shoulder with a plant-like blade. I did my best to hold back my yell of pain and continued to crawl forward as the Hive continued to follow me.

"It is useless for you to continue fighting. Without the Peacekeeper, you have no chance of defeating me. Any weapon you possess is completely useless against me," the Hive said as I grabbed the containment cube and started to get back on my feet, blood dripping from my forehead as I fought against the pain in my shoulder. Once I was completely on my feet, I activated the cube and looked back at the Hive with angry, determined eyes.

"Y'know, it's funny that you say that… because this weapon here… it was designed to deal with something like you…" I said. Just as the Hive reached out to grab me, I pulled the cord on the so-called "weapon" and thrusted the blade into the palm of her hand, making her scream in agony as green blood splashed over my face. The reason why this particular "weapon" was so powerful against her was because, on my planet, it was a tool used to cut down trees: a chainsaw. I know that sounds very anticlimactic, but it didn't really matter since it actually hurt the Hive. As she staggered back from the sudden pain, I took the opportunity to attack one of the roots on the ground, slicing it up with the chainsaw before it became severed from the base of where the Hive was sitting. Enraged, the Hive let out a fearsome roar and lunged at me, only for her to bear the brunt of the chainsaw's teeth, which minced the side of her face. As I was in the middle of fighting, I noticed that Odango, Eila, and Goo had just walked through the entrance to the lair with Zekxsie and the rest of our friends in tow as they fired plasma shots back and forth. After Zekxsie had severed Odango from her legs and then grabbed her by the neck, she suddenly noticed me and the Hive fighting before her eyes went wide with fear and she just stared at the Hive in shock. As for the rest of the team, they immediately rushed to the Hive's aid and tried to stop me from attacking as Odango reattached her legs back onto her body. I used the blade of the chainsaw to keep the rest of the team at bay, trying to be careful so I didn't hurt or kill any of them accidently. But I quickly grappled up to the Hive's right arm and threw an incendiary grenade at the damaged side of her face, which briefly stunned her as she yelled in pain and grabbed her damaged side with her left arm to douse the flames. As she was distracted, I used the chainsaw to cut the bark-like armor on her right arm so I could retrieve the Peacekeeper. However, the armor seemed to be much more dense than I thought and right as I was finished cutting through the armor, the chainsaw's blade broke off, leaving me to pry the armor apart and then use my arm blade to cut open the softer vines beneath and dig out the Peacekeeper just as the Hive had recovered. Before she could grab me, I activated the Peacekeeper and then jumped off of the Hive's arm and then slammed the Peacekeeper's blade on the ground, creating an earthquake that pushed all of my teammates back and pushed up the earth where the Hive was sitting. Quick-thinking, I ran over to the uplifted earth and sliced open a large enough gap that I could get into, which exposed some of the roots beneath, and then, after I holstered the Peacekeeper, I positioned myself under the base. It's always been said that the best way to get rid of a weed is to pull it up from the roots and I was aiming to do just that to the Hive. The only problem? Both the ground base and the Hive herself were probably heavier than what I could possibly lift with my armor's enhancements. But I knew that I had to do something to get rid of this menace, so I just put my hands against the earth and began to lift upward with all of my might. Sure enough, the combined weight of the Hive and the ground were way too heavy for me, but I still persisted, yelling as I tried to lift it. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I felt a sudden burst of energy coursing through both my arms and my legs, making the Hive seem a bit lighter as I stood fully upright, holding the ground base high enough for the Hive's roots to be torn out of the ground. Just before I let the ground go, some rocks formed around my left arm and I quickly pulled it back before then punching the ground base, breaking the ground base into a thousand pieces while also launching the Hive into the air for a few seconds before she fell just behind me. Just for good measure, I used my rock-encrusted arm to punch the ground and turn the entire room's soft dirt floor into a solid layer of rock. As I reeled back from the sudden adrenaline burst, I turned and saw Zekxsie on her knees with the same shocked expression as when she entered the lair and I ran over to her, kneeling down to look her in the eye.

"Do you see this, Zekxsie?! This creature's been living right underneath your feet and it's been using you as a proxy! The Overlord… he knew about this thing and he's been keeping it here to…" I started to say in a mostly calm tone to try and get her to snap out of it. But before I could finish, I could feel the ground rumbling again and I looked back to see the Hive getting back up, using her arms to prop herself so she could sit upright on her roots before she let out another roar.

"I WILL TAKE PLEASURE IN RIPPING THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES!" the Hive yelled before she sent the vines on her bottom half to capture me. There were far too many of them for just the Peacekeeper to handle, so I put it away and took out the two Viking axes that I brought with me and began to wildly swing them, chopping the vines up as I made my way back to the Hive. As I continued to fight, I tried to look for some other weak spot on the Hive that I could attack, seeing as uprooting her didn't kill her. Just as I finished chopping up some more vines, I noticed that her chest was still pulsating with that green energy, just like before. Figuring that the inside of her chest was housing something, I waited until the Hive slammed another one of her vines on the ground, only this time, I climbed up the vine instead of cutting it and when I got close enough, I jumped off of the vine and grappled onto the corner of the Hive's mouth using the Viking axe, making green blood drip out as the Hive roared in pain. Taking advantage of her vulnerable position, I took both of the axes and thrust them deep into the monster's "flesh" before I slid down, making a large cut in her torso. After the cut was large enough, I climbed back up a bit and then pried the two sides apart to reveal a beating heart underneath the plant-like flesh. Wasting no time at all, I grabbed ahold of the heart and began to tear it out as some of the smaller vines holding it began to snap. But I was so worried with tearing the heart out that I wasn't watching my surroundings and the Hive grabbed me with her weakened arm, knocking the axes out of my hand while the Peacekeeper was safely holstered to my leg. But I was unable to grab so I could get free as the Hive met me face-to-face, blood still dripping from her mouth.

"You fought bravely, human filth, I'll give you that much. But you have been a nuisance for too long. The Overlord demands that you are to be captured alive and kept here. And you will remain here along with your friends until he does arrive…" the Hive hissed before she slowly opened her giant mouth, blood and drool dripping from her mouth. She wasn't serious. There was NO WAY she was being one hundred percent serious right now!

"Oh, you are frickin' kidding me…" I said in complete shock. Sure enough, the Hive was absolutely serious about this. She was going to swallow me whole and store me in her goddamned stomach and leave me there for god-knows-how-long. But just as she was about to shove me into her mouth, I heard the sound of something crunching, accompanied by the sound of squishing, and the Hive suddenly lurched as if she had been struck. Both of us looked down to see that a large bark-encrusted hand had burst through the Hive's back and it had grabbed ahold of her heart. The Hive looked back in shock, but I already knew what the source of the hand was: Zekxsie. And she was no longer shocked nor was she on her knees. She had a determined look, full of anger, and she was now on the attack.

"Get off my planet, BITCH…" Zekxsie snarled before she pulled her arm back, tearing the Hive's heart out of her chest. Once the heart was torn from the rest of the Hive's body, she dropped me and began to vomit blood from her mouth. But she STILL wasn't completely out of the game yet and she angrily grabbed Zekxsie while I was still recovering.

"You insolent, ungrateful shrew! You dare stand against ME?! I was the one who granted you freedom when the Overlord willed it! And now you take the human's side over HIS?! He will know of your betrayal and you will suffer for this! The end is coming… and YOU will NEVER see it… much less your own kind!" the Hive roared as she tightened her grip on Zekxsie. But, as she was distracted with trying to strangle her that she had forgotten about me and I took the opportunity to grab one of the Viking axes I had dropped and threw it at the Hive's weakened arm, which severed it and freed Zekxsie. But the Hive then turned its attention back to me, its entire face looking like it was made of pure EVIL after everything that had just happened to her.

"You're right about one thing… the end is coming. But she's the one who's going to see it… You're not," I taunted. As the Hive bared her teeth and prepared to charge at me, I suddenly felt some kind of burning in my throat that I couldn't quite explain but it suddenly felt like my head and my lungs were also starting to burn until I exhaled a small wisp of flames from my mouth for some unknown. I don't think that the Hive noticed because she just began moving towards me at moderate speed (which was mostly because she only had one arm), baring her teeth as blood dripped from her mouth. But I just stood my ground and deeply inhaled before breathing up a whole inferno of flames just as she was about to devour me. The flames covered every inch of the Hive's plant-like body and began to incinerate her as she screamed in horror and tried to douse the flames. But no matter what she did, there was absolutely no way for her to put herself out and after her remaining arm was completely incinerated and she was unable to get back up, I used the Peacekeeper to finally decapitate the monster, ending it once and for all. As the Hive's head and corpse slowly burned, I started to hear the sound of chittering and looked up to see the Hive's "pets" crawling out of the pods. But after only crawling out a bit, one-by-one, they all began to explode, spraying green blood all over the walls and the floor before they then fell to the ground. As the creatures continued to explode, I looked back and saw the team getting back up just as the creatures on their backs slowly slid off before exploding as well, releasing everyone from their control. All of them crumpled to the ground and began rubbing their heads, save for Amki, who just laid on the ground while holding her knee in pain, and Hiro, who got decked by one of the Hive's falling dead "pets". I immediately ran over to Nikki and gave her a hug while Odango helped Celeste get to her feet.

"Are you OK?" I asked as I kissed Nikki on the cheek.

"Yeah… I'm OK. So... uh… did you have fun while we were possessed?" Nikki asked with an awkward smile.

"And do you mind telling me why my knee hurts all of a sudden?!" Amki added as she held her knee.

"I'll… uh… tell you later," I said sheepishly before Hiro got back up with his face covered in green blood.

"What just happened?! How long were we out?!" he asked before Zero Two tackled him and began to wildly kiss him on the lips as I got back up and walked back over to Zekxsie, who was on her knees once again, staring at the still-beating heart of the Hive in her hands.

"I remember everything… She crashed onto our planet when we least expected it… We had never known war. Just peace and tranquility. But when she came, we couldn't stop her. I tried to take her down… but she was too powerful, and she imprisoned me before she killed the others… All this time… I was just a pawn. A puppet for her so she could carry out the Overlord's will. And now… all of my people really are gone for good…" Zekxsie said as she stared at the heart in sorrow.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that…" I said before the larger pods in the middle opened up, revealing the Terrarians inside. Rhea used her magic to catch them before they fell to the ground. As she brought them over to us, the ground began to rumble again, but it was much more violent than before and we all ran back through the cave system to the outside before the cave collapsed on all of us. After we had gotten outside, words couldn't describe the sight that we saw. The thorned vines that were surrounding the trees began to turn brown and then disintegrate away into nothing as the trees opened up to release the imprisoned Terrarians inside. But they didn't just come out of the trees. Some Terrarians with large flower petals adorning their back and multiple flower buds in their hair burst up from the ground and stretched their arms as the Terrarians from the trees helped them up. As more and more Terrarians were freed, the trees began to go back to their normal state and flowers sprouted up from the ground. All of us just stood in awe as the planet was healing itself.

"Well, I'll be…" Rhonda said as she took off her hat and placed it against her chest while staring at the beauty of everything. As everyone was captivated by the forest's beauty and splendor, I looked back at Zekxsie, who was completely shocked by what was happening all around us.

"They were here all along… How… how did you know about this?" she asked me.

"…Let's just say it was a lucky coincidence that we found out where they were being held," I replied before Rhea walked up to us and used her magic to inspect the heart. However, when she did, a look of horror came over her face.

"That creature… her mind still exists inside… If this were to be replanted, she would rise up again," she said. But Zekxsie just stared one last time at the heart in anger before she grabbed it with both hands and ripped it apart, green blood gushing from it as the pieces fell into the river and were washed away. Me and the rest of the team just stared in shock and horror until Celeste finally spoke up.

"I think it's time that we leave. There's nothing more that we can do here," she said. However, just as we were about to teleport back to the Centurion, Zekxsie walked up to us with a determined look on her face.

"Wait. I want to come with you," she said.

"Zekxsie… you have what you want. You got your people back and you have all been freed," Selene objected.

"I do… but they won't be safe until the Overlord is defeated and the universe is purged of his evil. He took me in and made me a fighter… but he failed to get rid of the thing that imprisoned my people. He let it use me as a puppet just so it could do his bidding. If he really cared, he would've gotten rid of it the day he found me… I can see it now. I've been on the wrong side this entire time. And everything that I was fighting for was for his own benefit. Look, you asked me to join you. This is me accepting the invite. So, you got room for one more on the team?" Zekxsie asked. None of us answered until I answered by stepping forward and extending my hand with a smile.

"Welcome to the team then."

To Be Continued…