"The End"


Stress.

Tension.

Fear.

It was palpable.

Alf stood in the center of the fuel bunker, looking at the crystals in confusion. Beside him, the Five, Po, and Zhong were watching him work anxiously - while Wang and Shifu were outside, in the main deck of the ship - somehow trying to coordinate the calming, assuring quiet of five million refugees. Alf himself was feeling a kind of fear he had never felt before - but it was almost completely overwhelmed by the need to do better - the need to do this right.

He couldn't fail.

He scanned the entire room, taking in its metallic walls - horribly huge paneling with buttons and switches he didn't understand, and crystals attached to wires that somehow had to power the ship - yet there was no way to start it.

He had tried everything.

Switching on the switches.

Pressing the buttons.

Banging on the walls and screaming.

The crystals did nothing but remain motionless - attached to the dim, black wires.

Out of the corner of his eye - Alf saw something.

In the final hour.

A large cylinder - dim and devoid of life - but with a space eerily jagged and reminiscent of something.

The hole was in the exact same shape of the crystal at Alf's feet.

Loud explosive noises came from outside, as the refugees started to panic. The noises were accompanied by stamping feet, and immensely powerful, booming voices - definitely coming from inside the cave - yet still perhaps a few thousand paces from the ship.

"SURRENDER NOW."

"RESISTANCE IS USELESS."

"LOWER LIFEFORMS - EXIT THE SHIP AND YIELD TO OUR - "

"Wang!" Alf roared, needing more time. "Press the button to your left!"

Alf had already worked out how to close the doors. Wang - who was standing near the entrance of the doors, and clearly petrified by the number of Seekers he was seeing - merely did as requested, and the doors firmly came down with an imposing thud.

More noises followed however.

Explosions.

Concussive blasts began rattling the ship - banging fiercely on the door.

"ALF!" Tigress called out, rushing to the closed doors in sacrificial protectiveness over the refugees. "IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"

Alf struggled to pick up the crystal - which weighed much more than it looked. "PO! HELP ME WITH THIS!"

More sounds.

More impressions.

The banging explosions on the doors.

Angry voices - all deep and powerful - yet mechanical, outside the ship's walls.

A horde of refugees - stretching from floor to ceiling - all crying and praying in the din of chaos.

Po and Zhong came rushing forward, eager. With Alf's help, they picked up the massive crystal, beginning to move to the edge of the fuel bunker room - dragging the cable along with them. With a herculean shove, they placed the crystal in the center of the cylinder - watching it glow and start rotating.

Another voice - robotic yet neutral - broke through the onslaught of noise, of screeching metal, terrified cries, and metallic banging.

Emergency mode activated.

State designation.

"ALPHA!" Alf roared. "ALPHA! ALPHA! ALPHA! PLEASE! GET US OUTTA HERE!"

The ship started rotating even faster, beginning to grow louder and louder. Alf, Zhong and Po moved to the central deck - hearing an enormous sound begin to overtake the rest of the banging metal and crying - something was exploding, but not randomly - it was occurring beneath the ship, almost in focus… and slowly, the ship started moving upwards.

Something was happening.

"THEY'RE BLASTING INTO HYPERSPACE!"

"DISABLE THE THRUSTERS!"

The angry Seeker voices continued outside the sealed metal ship. Alf again observed the crowd of scared yet suddenly interested refugees - as the enormous "pushing" noise continued below the ship… it sounded like a thousand fires simultaneously combusting and blowing hot air, and with such force that the ship began levitating and shaking with incredible effort. The five million refugees were being knocked off their feet, falling over each other as Tigress and Wang were thrown back from the doors. Po and Zhong fell onto their backs, as Shifu and the rest of the Five struggled to stay upright.

Alf heard one last noise.

A colossal boom.

Then nothing.

. . .

If a random person were to arrive at Gongmen City, he might note that the area surrounding it looked nothing like what the travel guide said it would be like.

For one, the smooth grasslands and vast prairies outside the city were almost completely covered under the gigantic, plodding backsides of enormous, jagged metal ships - at least twenty of them sufficiently large to occupy all the grassland for as far as the eye could see - and stretching up well into the clouds.

But far more notably, if the same person were to walk to the outskirts and glance through a tunnel leading down - they might find a cave.

The cave was quite densely packed. On one half of the cave, there was an equally massive metal ship - clearly older and less advanced than the ones outside - which had its doors and bottom metal flooring ripped off and blown to shreds. A vague, smoky atmosphere permeated the cave's massive walls - bouncing off the exteriors.

Then there were the bodies.

From the remains of the exploded and partially destroyed ship, there were thousands of torn and destroyed animal corpses - some children and young women - covering the edges of the destroyed ship doors. There were also alive refugees who had been shoved outside of the doors by way of the explosion, sitting in the former entrance to the ship with absolute fear. Most of the ship's inhabitants were alive - although many had been killed - but the ship had been permanently deactivated, damage too great to its chassis and underside thrusters. About half of the formerly five million refugees had been blown outside by the force of the ship's destruction, forming humble groups - hugging and crying together in silence at the invaders in front of them.

Humans.

Tall, incredibly organized bands of armored figures - no smoke, no lights, no apparitions - real, fully featured and protected human beings in armored suits… a band one hundred men strong, who merely looked at the chaos with a smile, all carrying various rifles and long-ranged, mysterious weapons on their backs. There were two armored soldiers apart from the rest, looking at the destroyed ship and terrified refugees in front of them with cold nonchalance. One of the men had his rifle pointed at the ship, smoke emitting from its barrel.

"That's for putting that drone on me," Zero noted, putting his rifle down. "Pathetic…"

"All it took was one shot?" Omega asked, smiling. "I'm impressed - even by Alliance Protector standards - that's quite impressive…"

Zero grinned. "Where's Henderson? You didn't take him on the strike team?"

"Put him in the cyber brigade," Omega noted. "I don't want his sentiments for these creatures interfering in business."

"Wise, Commander," Zero concluded.

Omega stepped forward, signaling his band of soldiers to quickly traverse the cave and surround the terrified refugees. Some were still hiding in the destroyed remains of the ship, but that didn't concern Omega - what delighted him was the number of fresh labor for the Alliance - millions of easily subservient animals who could be reformatted easily as fresh duty workers. He watched their horrified, teary faces with genuine surprise - had he not warned them for so long that this was coming?

"Attention! Native lifeforms!" Omega called out, thunderous tone and imposing presence silencing everyone.

He watched all the refugees - and even his soldiers - stare at him with perfect obedience. A few of his men pointed rifles at the scared refugees, forcing them into submission.

"By now, I hope it has become clear that whatever your little resistance has tried…" Omega noted. "It has failed. Miserably. And look at the carnage all of this has done…"

He pointed to the innumerable bodies of dead animals all around him, and covering every inch of the cave - some from the ship's destruction, and some from Zero's previous assault.

"We do not wish to cause anymore unnecessary bloodshed," Omega forced. "All we need is your unconditional submission - and I promise you - no one else will die."

The refugees stayed quiet, huddling closer in groups as Omega's soldiers pressed them more densely together with rifle threats. Omega recognized some of them within the gigantic crowd, mostly due to their closeness with the human of this planet - a female tiger, a large panda, a small red panda - and the large lion that he had encountered before. They were the only ones that stared right back at Omega with utter loathing - all the other millions of refugees merely kept their gazes low and quiet.

"I congratulate you all on becoming part of the Alliance for Galactic Evolution!" Omega called out cheerfully. "I understand this must all be new for you - but I promise you - do what we say, and all of this should go as smoothly as possible."

Omega paused, letting his words sink in to the huge crowd.

"You are all official duty workers for the Alliance for now, and will be transported in a new planet shortly," Omega declared. "Now - just one last piece of business…"

Omega turned on his heat detection visor, scanning the wreckage of the ship for a very specific heat signature…

...till he found it.

Omega activated a panel in his wrist, blasting out a tensile metal rope that lunged into the ship, caught onto something, and pulled itself back.

A young human male - with spiky black hair, a ring of scars around his neck, and a bleeding cut into his throat - came thrusted back, attached to the rope.

"DON'T HURT HIM!" Tigress called out, terrified. "ALF!"

"ALF! NO!" Po screamed.

Omega dragged the boy to his feet, sheathing his device. He observed that although Alf's face was angry and rebellious - the boy couldn't speak - evidently some shrapnel had cut clean through his vocal cords, leading to the bloody gash on the throat of the boy.

Alf gasped and gasped, yet no noise would come.

Omega bent down, speaking in a whisper. "As for you - traitor - may this be a lesson that these miserable lifeforms never forget…"

Omega brought out his own large rifle, pointing it squarely at Alf's chest. Tigress shook with anger, standing up before a nearby human soldier shoved her down with ease.

"ALF!" Tigress wailed, slightly teary now. "PLEASE! OMEGA! DON'T DO THIS! LET HIM - "

Omega paused, looking at Tigress' sobbing wails with amusement. "How interesting - an animal having an affection for a human…"

Alf kept gasping, blood rushing from his gash. He turned to see Tigress five hundred feet away, reaching out his hand to her.

"Never betray your kind," Omega whispered, firing his rifle.

BOOM.

Tigress saw it.

She saw the last of it.

She felt still for a while, seeing the blast cleave through Alf's chest, rendering the boy motionless.

A burst of blood.

The bone wasn't even there anymore.

Just a large, gaping hole - that remained as Omega removed his rifle end from Alf.

Tigress saw those faint brown eyes gently dim, while his hand - still outstretched to her - drooped down, and after a long moment - hit the ground.

Then nothing.

She could feel nothing.

Tigress felt numb.

Omega continued his speech - almost as if nothing had happened.

"I promise you that we are helping you all evolve," Omega noted. "Evolution - as I've said - is inevitable."

Tigress held the last word in her head, thinking it over again and again.

Inevitable.

Inevitable.

Inevitable.

And Tigress - for the first time in her life - instead of rushing the enemy, or attacking - merely let her head droop down.

Delusion broken.

Reality accepted.

Inevitability.


END OF KFP 3 (ACT III)


A/N

And that's the end of… KFP 3. Yes, I'm not joking.

But is it the ending of this fic? Hehe…

Hell naw.

Next chapter is coming in a week - gonna take a break until then to avoid burnout (3 chapters in 2 days is too much, lol). See ya then!

I wanted to go this way for a couple of reasons. One, I had it in my mind way back when I was writing KFP 1 - that when the Seekers would eventually get to the planet, they would no doubt defeat everyone. Yes, there's no heroic fight here and there's no illogical sense of a civilization barely out of the middle ages being able to defeat a super advanced, tech-heavy civilization. Secondly, I wanted to make the consequences as severe as possible - and admit that despite the fact that Team Jade tried their best, the gap in power between the Seekers and everyone else make it almost impossible for this ending to go any other way.

Yet I promise you - all this buildup starting from KFP 1 hasn't been wasted. The fic will continue.

Just in a different saga. A different… feel.

Tune in soon, because the next chapter will be the first in KFP 4. Although I prefer to call it - World War Seeker.

The only thing I'd say now is make no assumptions and enjoy the ride ahead… it'll be a doozy. Hence, no spoilers. :)

Till next time.

Support is the beast.

~TW