"Before The End"


"AGH WHAT THE - DEACTIVATE YOU - "

ZOOM.

BLAST.

BOOM.

Zero roared in agony, feeling whipping night air just rush past his exposed face and run past his metal armor. He observed that the metal device attached to his wrist - and hoisting him up into the atmosphere, high enough so that he could barely make out the primitive city he had just been forcibly removed from - was not letting up. In fact, nothing Zero did could help as the machine attached to his wrist kept soaring higher into the sky - dragging the Seeker along with him. Chinese landscape, grassy areas, and Gongmen - all were rapidly disappearing behind cloud cover.

A familiar voice buzzed into Zero's earpiece.

What the hell's happening, Scout Zero?

"The kid somehow activated a auto-defense drone, Commander Omega," Zero casually remarked, flying higher pointlessly. "Damn thing's going to make me leave orbit soon…"

So the ship is coded to the boy's genetic data.

How else could he activate it?

"Who cares?" Zero let out in frustration, noting that the cloud cover was gone and he was now beginning to see cold, dark space begin to expand in front of him - the drone fastened to his wrist kept blasting him up higher in a whizz of gently thinning air.

What happened to your suit's defense-negation module?

"Ergh - I tried that! Some idiot disabled it…" Zero scowled, finally feeling his body and armor start to merge into the oasis of dark space ahead of him, seeing a gentle stream of atmosphere below. "Hold on, lemme activate my hyperspace regulator - damn drone's dragging me into space…"

With a snap of his fingers, Zero's visor retracted onto, and sealed his face - a rush of cool air flowed in from the suit's oxygen reserves.

"It's gotta be Henderson," Zero forced, still being dragged uselessly into empty, dark space. "He always complains about how colonization is bad and all that crap…"

Andrew Henderson is one of my top lieutenants.

I won't let you accuse a trusted Alliance Protector of sabotage.

"Fine, I'll get to the bottom of it myself," Zero concluded angrily. "How far are you guys away? Let's end this nonsense."

One day.

Zero sighed, feeling the drone make him drift into increasingly deep reaches of cosmic space - perhaps taking a quick moment to marvel at the blue, crystalline green planet about to be colonized. In a way, it reminded him of pre-Alliance Earth, so perhaps that alluring charm had persuaded the notoriously sympathetic Henderson to take action this time around.

. . .

For the thousandth time in his life, Alf had to be awoken from an unconscious state - and then rapidly filled in on many, many things.

For starters, Zero was no longer present in the cave - nor was he present outside it. After the surviving refugees - civilians, guards, and Yongshi alike - had spent about a few minutes huddling near the massive metal ship, a lone straggler had been brave enough to break away from the group and go out of the cave and explore a bit, shocked to see the lack of the large Seeker. In fact - Zero was nowhere to be found.

There were murmurs and whispers immediately after. Most dealt with the fact that the metallic "thing" - whatever it was - had caught onto Zero's armor and promptly blasted him out of the cave.

And the large Seeker was not returning.

The next problem had started to dawn on Alf - and it dawned on him slowly throughout the upcoming days.

Over the next two days, the refugee group had grown exponentially. The group of survivors - previously just fifty or so stragglers, along with the Five, Shifu, Po, Zhong, and Wang - had been enormously augmented by the influx of refugees from the rest of "Europa and Asia… and the influx wasn't stopping. Terrified citizens were pouring into Gongmen's outskirts and the cave from literally every corner of civilization imaginable - from places that no one had heard of, from mountainsides, from villages, from deserts, from cold glaciers, and everything above, below, and in between. Even new types of animals were coming - mysteriously thick, white furred creatures that looked like bears living in icy terrain, tiny turtles from islands near Europa, and flying birds which seemed completely out of this world. Clearly, Wang's Yongshi network had truly stretched over the entire world - and the incoming refugees had reflected this. Of the incredible crowd of new arrivals, they went through the same phases of confusion that almost everyone in China had at some point - shocked and overwhelmed at the threat of a Seeker invasion, being perplexed to see Alf helping them (or just see a Seeker for the first time) - and admittedly, horrified at the torn and bloodied corpses littering the inside of the cave and the exterior, grassy plains of Gongmen's outskirts. Due to the severity and stress of the situation, none of the corpses had been moved, which made for a grim sight for arriving refugees - forced to simply step over disfigured bodies of children, women, men, citizens, nobles, former kung fu masters, Yongshi warriors, guards - all familiar and unfamiliar faces and bodies washed asea in blood. Another factor complicating the new group was it's ever-increasing size - Alf had tried to count the amount of arrivals, but this was near impossible - they completely filled up the enormous cave, packed so densely that there was no space between any two refugees - and even lined the cave's exterior walls and the grassy plains surrounding the outside of the tunnel, in Gongmen's outskirts.

The number was staggering. It took the combined efforts of Alf - and aerial flyover approximations by Crane - to gauge the true number of refugees now.

Two million.

And growing.

The final - and truly biggest problem was opening the ship.

In a way, the fact that it was taking so long was good - it allowed as much citizens to pack themselves and reach Gongmen, some from extremely far origins - and get a chance at somehow compressing themselves into the still comparatively ginormous ship. Alf speculated - just from the depth and breadth of the ship's dimensions - that it could comfortably hold the two million refugees, and perhaps much more.

But the ship would not open.

They had spent so much time over the last two days - Wang and Team Jade all had not slept - just trying to crack open the metallic doors.

Alf tried pressing his hand to the panel.

Saying Alf.

Alfie.

Alfalfa.

Alfalfa Ping.

Nothing worked.

The eternal message would play.

Access denied. State designation.

It was getting frightening now. Wang was certain that the Seeker army was close - even if the scout had somehow magically been taken care of - perhaps just a day away. By his estimations, they would be entering their world soon - as early as perhaps tomorrow.

And for that - no one had any plan except to run.

No one knew their numbers.

No one knew how powerful Omega and his army were.

No one even bothered to wonder.

They had to get into the ship.

Figure out how to use it.

And - somehow survive.

To the Five's credit, they had taken some proactive steps to making sure if they somehow managed to open the ship - a journey within it would be tolerable. Food supplies and stocked bags of crops - even though they had no idea how long everything would last, or how to partition it for such an overpopulated crowd - were made and shoved into a gigantic pile sitting behind the ship, sitting underneath fierce protection from surviving Yongshi and Gongmen guards - already a few hungry refugees had tried to squirrel away private rations for themselves.

Alf was doing the worst. He somehow felt a responsibility for the chaos around him - two million refugees, all sitting on the cave floor and forming huddled groups outside on the grassy Gongmen plains - completely unsure whether they were going to live, or die. Crying, sobbing, and prayers were heard from every corner - even occasionally from Shifu, or Po. The Five and Wang did the best they could to calm down as much people as possible - feeling hope decrease with every passing moment - every second Alf began to realize that perhaps - this whole thing was destined to fail.

They never had a chance of surviving the death machine.

They never had a chance of surviving the scout.

They never had a chance of opening the ship.

And they never had a chance of surviving the invasion.

They had somehow bumbled their way through this - a random combination of luck, sacrifice - but mostly idiotic luck.

And it felt weird for Alf.

He had dreamed about what was going to happen.

Seen visions.

Heard stories.

Had certainly remembered Omega.

Now it was all happening.

Five years of building up - to what?

Certain doom?

Crunch.

Alf sighed, realizing he had just stepped on something fragile. He bent down, seeing a small, metallic amulet lay near the cave floor - sitting behind the ship near the foodstocks. He peered around the corner of the ship - seeing Wang, Po, and Shifu disperse the thick crowd of sitting refugees, muttering false assurances and heavy apologies for the situation… the Five weren't seen, but Alf had guessed that they were outside of the cave in the grassy areas, trying to calm down the refugees there as well.

Alf bent down, picking up the amulet.

A small inscription was burned into it.

In a ring shape.

Alf had no idea what that meant.

He looked closer at the insignia.

It was rotating.

It started to shift his collar.

Alf gasped, seeing a beam of light connect from his collar to the amulet.

A few odd noises - almost like crackling fire and embers.

The amulet had a new insignia now - or rather - lettering.

Alf squinted his eyes. Initially the lettering was in some strange calligraphic style - some font he didn't understand - but it slowly shifted and started glowing.

The text became clear now.

Readable.

Designation: Alpha

Host planet: ZZ-1 (Earth)

Message: 1 unread

Alf kept staring at the letters, confused.

Who was it referring to?

What was with the message?

Alf touched a finger to the marks.

More flashing.

A new black font emerged.

Play message?

-Affirmative

-Negative

Alf - for some reason unknown to him - chose the first option almost instantly.

A voice started playing. It was distinctly Seeker, but also quite old and female - it wasn't Omega's, or anything Alf had heard before…

...but it did provoke something in him.

Longing memory.

Something deep.

He didn't understand it.

Hey Alph,

Your fifth birthday's tomorrow - and instead of doing the usual thing your Dad and I do (just serve up some glucose crystals) - I figured why not go old-school, an old-Earth tradition and record a kinda - message for you when you're older?

Alf gulped, letting the message play. He was having a creeping sensation on who the voice was referring to, but he didn't want to think about that.

He was crying already, closing his eyes.

So Alph - you're just five now. Heh. That may not be that impressive to you when you hear this but - believe it or not, you used to fit right in my arms.

Can't say the same when you're hearing this message - I dunno even know how big you are now!

But anyway - it was today that we finally found a planet to live on.

Yeah - a real host planet - one that the Alliance hasn't colonized yet, and one where there isn't much life - at least, not much life that knows how shitty human beings can be - yet.

We're landing there tomorrow. It'll be a double surprise - your birthday, and the day we found a new, sweet place!

Alf cried again, tones in the voice making him shudder.

He wanted so desperately - so desperately it was hurting him - to just say something back, anything - and hope that the voice could hear him.

Your Dad's triangulating the coordinates as we speak.

It's kinda - well - remote, but that's good!

More space between us and those jerkbags Alliance Protectors - I'm sure they're trying to track us down.

Heh - too bad your Dad's too smart for that.

Alf sobbed again.

Dad.

Dad?

A real one.

It was so foreign.

So weird to imagine.

Yet he was so desperate.

Anyway, I just wanted to just record something for you to hear when you get way older.

Like - much older.

I'll be at your side when you read this - and your Dad and I can reminisce on that crazy time we found our new home.

Love you always.

Mom.

Alf broke down completely, almost letting the amulet fall from his grasp. He took just a second to sob a bit more, eyes shaking in tears.

Then he composed himself.

He had to.

There was no time.

He had a job to do.

Alf walked briskly over to the other end of the enormous ship, ignoring the refugees' confused stares and whispers as a few tears escaped his eyes regardless. Even the Five, Wang, and Shifu were confused - Po attempted to grab Alf's shoulder, alarmed - but the young man merely shrugged it off. Zhong merely gave a sad look at Alf.

He walked straight to the doors of the metal ship, still half-sobbing.

Alf pressed his hand to the panel.

The familiar voice came up.

Access denied.

State designation.

"Alpha," Alf replied gently, shutting his eyes with tears.

And slowly, the doors began to screech and metal began to open.

. . .

The refugees were increasing.

Within mere seconds of the doors creaking and retracting into the ship's metallic paneling, the hordes of refugees had roughly shoved themselves inside - pushing, screaming tears of joy, and running over themselves and even family members to be afforded the chance to be safe. The process was messy but it worked - it took nearly five hours in total, as the Five, Wang, Po, Shifu, and Alf helped organize and streamline the hordes of refugees into the enormous metal ship. The previous number of two million was growing with new arrivals, still beginning to come from foreign, far off places - Alf had gauged the new estimate at perhaps five million refugees, a number still well within the ship's housing capabilities, although it took longer to fit everyone in. Team Jade and Wang carefully broke up the groups entering into rough streams of entry through the twin doors, and ordered them to go in as quickly as possible. In this fashion, Wang and Team Jade saw just how far the message had spread - there were new animals who were rumored to be the kings and queens of civilizations in Northern Europa, and tiny, miniscule creatures crawling in from the wetlands of Central Asia, past Mongolia, and much in between. The crowd had morphed yet again - from a mass of scared citizens, terrified at the bodies around them - to a unified band of five million refugees, hurriedly scurrying into the ship and gathering their loved ones around them. In times of great fear, there was no discrmination or segregation - nobles mixed with peasants, guards mixed with civilians - even some of the Yongshi could be heard uttering prayers underneath their black masks. Most importantly, the five million refugees were all unified in their need for survival, the need to breathe another day - so no one wasted any time being shocked at Alf, their situation, or the amount of blood or bodies around them - all that mattered was survival.

And the ship was incredible.

Alf, alongside Po - had taken some peeks into the ship before returning onto the outside to resume organizing the incoming refugees. To the pair's surprise, the ship itself wasn't as complicated as they might have imagined or fantasized about - it was truly one, enormous metallic room with perhaps just a few sub-rooms that were worth looking into - otherwise, everything was just one ginormous hall. It stretched literally into the upper ceilings of the ship, which towered so high that everyone had to bend up to look at them. Spiraling pathways littered the exterior edges of the metal ship, covered in a shiny, silver substance that no one understood. The pathways housed equal portions of the refugees who were occupying the ground floor - and even after the five million refugees had completely taken up the ground area, the spiraling staircases, and all of the ship's standing space - there was still room for more, on the highest reaches of the staircase rotating upwards. Wang had dedicated some Yongshi into the interior of the ship, seeking to calm down and control the refugees - although fifty soldiers was far inadequate to manage five million scared, hungry, and tired refugees. Tigress had taken the privilege of hiding the foodstores in one of the subrooms of the ship - in mysteriously secret panels that no one except Wang, the Five, Shifu, Po, or Alf was allowed into - a decision which upset some of the nobles, but they were silenced once everyone realized that both Team Jade and Wang were their only hope for survival - obedience was necessary.

The subrooms themselves were far more complicated than the main hall. In it, complex machinery and panels - some nearly the size of the ship itself - were present and glowed with light and unfamiliar font that neither Alf nor the rest of Team Jade understand. They did know that there had to be some way to activate the ship - but nothing had been promised so far. The only lead they had was a particularly small and cramped subroom, perhaps just the size of one of the former Jade Palace dormitories - in it, a series of blue crystals lay dusted and mildly molded on the ground - they were connected to a vast system of cables that lead through and connected to the rest of the ship, but the crystals by themselves did nothing. Alf had guessed this to the ship's "fuel bunker" of a sort - although he had no idea how to interact with the crystals, and much less - activate the ship.

The ship.

Technically it was his ship.

His parents' ship.

Used to be.

Alf shut his eyes, choosing not to think of that.

"Alf," Zhong came up, tapping the Seeker on the shoulder. "Shifu's asking for you."

Alf turned back, seeing the five million refugees in the ship - packed close together, some sitting, some standing, many on the stairways leading up to the ceilings of the metal container - all confused and scared of what was to come.

He turned away, walking through the ship's metal doors and back into the cool darkness of the cave, spotting all of Team Jade - Wang, Po, the Five, and Shifu - standing anxiously a few feet away. The cave seemed ominously empty now that all the refugees were inside the ship now, with nothing but blood-spattered bodies of refugee victims and Team Jade filling the hollowness of the cave.

"How'd you open the doors, by the way?" Zhong questioned immediately, walking alongside Alf. "Monkey thought he heard you say something like - Alfa? Or something? Is that your - "

"We can talk about it later," Alf retaliated, already concerned with evaluating that revelation privately - on his own time. "Right now, let's just try to get this ship going."

"You sound irritated," Zhong questioned, still walking alongside Alf.

"Yeah I was going to go into that weird crystal room and see if I could get stuff up and running," Alf noted. "Then you come in and say Shifu's calling me…"

"I am," Shifu noted, overhearing their conversation from a few feet away. "This - thing - says it'll only talk to you."

Alf joined the rest of the "leader group" - namely Wang, Po, Shifu, and the Five. Him and Zhong looked straight ahead, seeing a mysterious yet similar blue presence tower above them. The presence appeared like Omega did back at the Valley - it wasn't physical, there wasn't a form to it - but it was definitely communicating with them, like a flickering, lighted blue ghost. Nevertheless, no one recognized it.

It was Seeker as well, bearing distinctive black, dark armor. The man was enormous - on the same size as the scout that had magically been taken care of, yet perhaps a bit smaller than Omega. He was still far larger than Wang - the largest animal Alf knew. The man had a brown beard and hair, with a thick, deep, accented voice (almost resembling a Europa voice) that was overset by a square hairline and distinctively jagged, sharp armor. Golden eyes that could cut daggers were etched deep set into the man's face, signaling unusual levels of warmth yet pleasant strength - in sharp contrast to the Seekers they had been accustomed too.

"I am communicating via holographic tunneling - my name is Scout Henderson," the blue, flickering figure noted. "I figured I wanted to tell you - the only human on this planet - something important."

"Lemme guess," Alf asked, completely tired. "You and your buddies are coming to kill us."

Henderson sadly shook his head.

"I don't know how much you know, boy," Henderson began. "But - in short - we are Alliance Protectors - or guards, as your language might translate - who work for an organization that you people can't hope to escape from."

Alf laughed dismally, ignoring the saddened faces of Wang, Shifu, the Five, and Po around him. Only Zhong laughed mildly as well, understanding exactly where Alf was coming from.

"I could give two shits," Alf spat. "If you're communicating or whatever just to scare us - "

"I am saying resistance is futile," Henderson noted, visibly frowning. "We've been studying your civilization for five years! You don't possess the knowledge, the access, the advancement to - "

"Screw off," Viper immediately chimed in.

"Listen, the way this works is that we come and colonize your planet," Henderson noted with a frown. "The more of a fight you people put up - the more will die. And it'll all be for nothing. So just - please - roll over, as the idioms of your language would say."

"What a nice guy!" Po sarcastically noted. "Nice to see that the guys tryna kill us are like - don't worry - just give up! We won't massacre you!"

Anger was growing now, even Shifu chimed in. "You people - are nothing but psychopathic murderers!"

"Not all of us approve of colonization - I'm definitely against it," Henderson noted grimly, sighing. "But colonization's been an Alliance tradition for - I dunno how long… I - I just would like to see a planet peacefully submitted, instead of - "

"Screw," Alf started. "Off."

Henderson sighed again, nodding as the blue presence faded away.

A momentary pause.

Everyone was just thinking over the words that the man had been trying to say - the genuineness in his voice - and judging by everything that had just happened, it felt perfectly natural to assume that everything would go exactly as Henderson said they would.

Yet there was also what Alf was feeling - that instinctive sense of mad rebellion and anger - at the world, at his parents for coming here, at Shifu for the collar, everything - five years of being told what to do was compelling him - for the first time in his life… say no.

. . .

Alf looked at the amulet, reading it several times in his head.

Alpha.

Alpha.

Alpha.

It - intrigued him.

He was sitting alone in the ship's fuel bunker - the one area where he knew no one would come. By himself, with nothing but the cold, metallic walls and glowing crystals fastened to wires around him - Alf felt oddly at peace, despite the enormous stress that everyone outside was going through. It had been a few hours since Henderson's transmission, and Wang had thought of it being a good idea to let everyone - especially the refugees - try to grab a quick nap on the cold, metallic floors of the ship, while himself and Team Jade took turns trying to decipher how the ship's fuel bunker could be started to activate the ship. They knew their time was almost up - Henderson's last message seemed imminent, as if the Seeker army was about to arrive any second now - yet even as this thought held over Alf, he could only think of what was in his hands now.

He looked back at the amulet.

Alpha.

Alf wondered how it was possible. He didn't recognize the name at all - and it didn't even sound like anything he had heard on this world - yet there was some kinship towards it. A kind of - hopeful understanding that somewhere, somewhere very far away and in the past - he was just Alpha, a regular kid with normal parents. Alf wondered how his life would have been - if his family had never landed on this world.

A useless question to ask at this point.

"Alf?"

He whipped around, surprised to see anyone down here. Then he grew calmer.

Tigress.

The bandaged but gentle master walked closer to him, smiling - golden robes somehow miraculously still together. She kindly dragged him onto the floor - both leaned their backs against the metallic walls of the fuel chamber, gazes fixed on each other.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," Tigress whispered.

"I'm fine," Alf lied, twirling the amulet in his fingers. "Just - thinking. How's everyone else?"

"The refugees are trying to sleep - it's midnight and most haven't slept in at least three days," Tigress noted sadly. "Wang and his Yongshi morons are keeping watch outside the cave - waiting for the ships to arrive. Po and the Five - and my father - are just standing around the ship, fighting."

Alf grew concerned. "Fighting? The hell should be fighting over now? A freakin' invasion is gonna - "

"Over a bunch of crap," Tigress let out - surprising Alf - he had never heard her swear before. "Who's responsible. Who let the refugees die. Who did this. Who did that - just a load of bull - "

She stopped, shaking her head. "It's just - everyone's on edge, I guess. How's the ship's fuel stuff going?"

Alf chuckled morosely, appreciating how miserable their situation was. "I - I dunno. I can't crack it - I mean, it looks like the crystals power the ship but - to activate it…"

Alf idly kicked a blue crystal as large as his body on the floor, watching it merely roll a few feet away uselessly.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Tigress noted, kind smile returning. "I trust you."

Although this helped, it did nothing to relieve Alf of his burdening stress.

"But - I think you seem distracted by something else," Tigress noted, looking at the amulet in Alf's palm. "Maybe - the thing in your hand?"

Alf moved his palm away from her. "Just thinkin' - that's all…"

"Kinda late for those thoughts now," Tigress emphasized, paws just mildly taking the amulet away from Alf's fingers. "What's this?"

Tigress squinted at the name inscribed, confused.

"Al - pha?" Tigress let out, questioning. "Wait - this is the thing you used to open the doors? Monkey was right…"

Tigress was now even more interested in the amulet than she was Alf. He tried to stop her from interacting with it further, but a few more turns from Tigress' palm activated the amulet further - and the voice came back up.

Play message?

-Affirmative

-Negative

"Don't press affirmative…" Alf tried. "Please…"

It was too weak of an appeal to dissuade Tigress. Besides, a small portion of Alf wanted to hear that voice again.

Tigress pressed the button.

And the voice continued.

The voice.

As the message played again for the second time - Alf took the opportunity to focus on the rich emotional intonations that his late mother had been speaking with, the clever word choices - even the pleasant, even joking demeanor. He had no memories of ever hearing that voice, yet it did stir something in him - a deep longing, a sad kind of realization over a past that Alf felt was stolen away from him.

What hurt him even more was how hopeful his mother had sounded.

That they would truly be happy on the new planet.

This one.

They had no idea - even then - of what was to happen.

Alf thought back to the words Henderson had said - about how there were some Seekers who disapproved of the - colonization crap that the rest were comfortable with.

Good and bad Seekers.

Alf hoped with all his heart that his family had been good.

The message finished playing, Alf lost as the words disappeared.

Tigress stared slack-jawed at Alf, shocked. "I - I - "

"You don't have to say sorry," Alf cut her off, grabbing the amulet from her. "You didn't know them."

"But neither did you," Tigress emphasized, grabbing the young man's shoulders. "Alf - I'm so sorry."

"None of it matters now," Alf whispered in defeat. "Think about how the hell we're gonna get away from Omega's army… about what the hell we're gonna do once we're - beyond the sky…"

No one had even discussed that yet.

What would they do if the ship worked?

Blast off beyond the sky?

What was beyond there?

How long would they keep drifting aimlessly - like his parents apparently did?

Did it even matter?

Tigress sighed. "Well, if it helps - I found this thing lying around the ship…"

Alf saw Tigress extract a small metal square, somehow bonding it to her center of her ruffled paw.

"Show me your neck," Tigress asked.

"I'm not in the mood for games," Alf sighed, looking back at the glowing crystals on the floor of the fuel bunker room.

"Just - show me your neck."

Alf huffed, casually inching closer to Tigress. He swiveled his head around, feeling her warm paw make contact with the back of his collar. He sighed again, wondering what kind of practical joke she was doing…

… and instantly shut up.

A noise.

A very distinct noise.

Metal against metal.

Something falling.

Alf was so enamored with the sensation that he didn't understand what was happening.

He looked down at the metal floor.

Something circular was laying there.

A distinctly circular object.

A collar.

Alf's fingers rushed to his neck, expecting the ever-present metal to be there.

It wasn't.

For the first time - in perhaps five years - Alf felt his fingertips touch his neck.

His real neck.

The flesh.

Not metal.

It was - incredible. The flesh was definitely burnt and twisted, perhaps years of being suppressed under the collar had given it an ugly feeling and crushed sensation, and some of the flesh was clearly burned from the numerous shocks Alf had endured over the years.

Yet he couldn't stop himself, eyes wide open.

He kept touching, expecting the metal collar to somehow be around there - somewhere.

It wasn't.

It was just his neck.

"Found this thing lying around," Tigress whispered, smiling at Alf as she showed him the metal square in her palm. "It had a circular picture on it - which kinda looked like the collar - so I figured, yanno…"

Alf kept touching his neck.

Disbelief.

It couldn't be.

Not after all this time.

It just couldn't.

He relentlessly passed his fingers around his neck, lavishing in the sensation of…

Feeling.

Of feeling it all again.

Five years.

"I know it's kinda late," Tigress noted sadly. "But I just figured that - "

She stopped.

At first, Tigress thought Alf had somehow punched her - or disappeared - because he had moved so quickly that she didn't have time to react.

Yet to her pleasant surprise - he hadn't punched her.

His arms were wrapped around her torso.

Face buried into her neck.

Alf squeezed as tightly as he possibly could. "Tigress…"

He wanted to say the words.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yet his voice was too emotional.

His mind was racing.

Alf couldn't get anything out.

And yet - to his immense surprise - something else happened.

A gentle pressure on his back.

Then a pressure onto his head.

A warmth - a warmth that he had never experienced before.

Tigress had wrapped her arms around him, leaning her chin atop his head carefully. She was being cautious to avoid squeezing too tight as well, mindful of Alf's injuries.

Alf closed his eyes, allowing himself to forget about everything for just a moment.

"Tigress…" he tried again, trying to thank her.

"Yeesh I didn't know you were menstruating..." Tigress urged, although the voice was soothing rather than acerbic - so soothing that Alf couldn't believe the tone was coming from her. "Keep it down, would ya?"

And Alf did, enjoying it further as she passed her paws across his back in rhythmic, calming motions. All the while he had known her, he had just known the blunt impact of her fists as she sparred with him - or her ferocious eyes as they intimidated people - yet Alf had never felt these sensations from her before.

Tigress gently pulled his head back with a free paw, smiling at him. "Does it really matter what that shitty amulet says?"

"What do you mean?" Alf breathed, voice hazy and relaxed.

"Alpha," Tigress started jokingly. "Alf. Angelina. Fleshling. Scumbag seeker… I mean… does it really matter what your name is?"

Alf closed his eyes, small tear trickling out despite his best efforts.

"We are who we choose to be," Tigress firmly concluded. "Never forget that."

Alf just closed his eyes, resting back onto her frame.

And in that moment - in that tiny little second - Alf forgot everything and everyone, mind gone and fears removed - choosing to do nothing else but enjoy this precious space of time as much as he could. He was waiting for Tigress to get annoyed with him - to kick him off, or make fun of him, or say he was a girl - yet it never came. She just sat there alongside him, body still and patient - willing to stay close to him as long as he wanted to. Having never been this physically close to Tigress before, Alf had expected it to be cold and hard - muscles rigid and inflexible, too "hardcore" to show any sympathy towards anything.

And he had felt that before - in fact, most of his experiences of her fit the trend.

Yet this time was different. Tigress' body almost instinctively softened towards his presence, protectively and gently embracing him in a surge of genuine - for there was no other word for it - affection.

"You tell anybody about this," Tigress whispered. "I'll kill you before Omega can."

Alf chuckled, shaking his head. "I won't - I promise."

Tigress smirked.

"Good girl."

. . .

To everyone's happiness - the refugee count had mostly stabilized. Five million seemed to be pretty much everyone who had chosen to come to Gongmen, or had at least the resources to come - Wang didn't dare think about what would happen to all the people left behind on Europa and Asia - which meant that everything now was just a waiting game. Waiting for Alf (or someone else) to figure out how to start the ship, waiting for the Seeker army to start landing - and waiting for the inevitably uncertain future that was to come.

Death, survival, or something else - everyone had somewhat acclimatized themselves to the end.

And the final piece came.

Just as dawn began to begin, almost symbolically representing a new, final day - the sun rose over the formerly sleepy stretches of Gongmen and its surrounding, grassy plains - the sole, only group that had chosen to leave the safe confines of the cave and ship were Wang, Alf, Po, the Five, Shifu, and Zhong. This principal group of observers took the time to ingest one last breath of warm morning air - seeing a variety of flying, strange ships start to slowly poke through the cloud cover and broad sunlight, covering the entire sky in a harrowing blanket of dark, unfeeling metal. And just then, it felt that everything had been merely a test up to this point - Tai Lung, Shen, even Kai - and all the fights they had with others, amongst themselves, within the Valley, with the Jade Palace, with Shifu, with Wang, with bandits, with Zhong - and finally with Alf - everything seemed to be leading up to this moment.

Alf noted with a grim awakening that it was exactly how his dreams had showed it to him - himself, standing alone with the people he loved most in this world - facing a metal sky of impending doom, fate completely uncertain.

Tigress grasped his hand, standing beside him. "To the end."

Po did similarly, at his right. "To the end."

Alf closed his eyes, realizing that there was only one chance to get everyone out of this alive and free.


A/N

AAAAAAHHHH SO MUCH NEW INFORMATION!

Also by the way - I compressed the storyline even more - there's just one more chapter left in KFP 3.

Yes, the next chapter will be the LAST in KFP 3.

Yep.

But a few notes about this chapter (I combined two separate chapters to expedite the story, lol...)

1. There's definitely Seekers who oppose the brutality and inhumane nature of colonization (like Henderson - an OC created by Mikat2 - shoutout to him/her!) - and even though no one believed him, our Scout really was trying to look out for Alf's best interests the time he contacted him in the cave.

2. Alf's name: Yep, I don't think anyone guessed it - but "Alf" was phonetically just how the villagers ended up trying to prononunce "Alpha" - or Alph, as his mother called him. His "real"/birth name is Alpha - and the fact that he just now hears his mother's voice - in an old holographic message - is kinda sad. And yes, I know there's an "Omega" in this story and Alf's real name is "Alpha" - I'll just wink and say - read on, for now. ;) Speculations speculations...

3. Da collar: YES THE COLLAR'S FINALLY OFF. LITERALLY TOOK FIVE YEARS AND 40+ CHAPTERS BUT OUR BOI FINALLY GOT THE COLLAR OFF THANKS TO TIGRESS. For those who're long time readers, I wanted to make the payoff genuine - so even with all the crazy nonsense happening in their lives now, the fact that Tigress - in the penultimate chapter of KFP 3 - manages to "free him" from his symbol of oppression and discrimination - is, imo - a big feat. And what follows is a great, heartwarming scene indicative of him and Tigress' relationship progression - from bitter enemies in KFP 1, to reluctant allies in KFP 2, to genuine friends/sibling analogues in KFP 3. Everything's coming full circle.

4. The final scene: I wanted to make it grim, dark, foreboding, and short. Just picture that after 5 years, everything that was been built up in this fic is coming alive - a sea of metal ships, the invasion - everything Alf dreamed about is happening - right. Now.

We're close.

REALLY close to the end of KFP 3.

Just one chapter to go.

Support rocks.

~TW