A/N: Okay again life got in the way and I didn't make good on my promise of biweekly updates… lol.

Won't do that again. No fear. :)

Next update coming in two weeks! I promise.

Also if you've forgotten a lot and feel lost - feel free to re-read earlier chapters and/or skip to the TL;DR summary section at the bottom. Mild spoilers for this chapter, but it'll help :D

~TW


10

"Re-Introductions and Group Therapy Sessions"


XX-0 was the only planet - perhaps the only rocky body within all Alliance galaxies - that had no alternative name.

The planet itself was invisible from an exterior viewpoint. If a random space traveler were to travel beyond the confines of his tiny ship and peek outside - they might see a completely transparent, invisible planet in front of them. Only they wouldn't see it - XX-0 had complex shielding technology and a lack of technological trackers torn out of the planet's crust and destroyed, combined with ever-oscillating spaceships through the upper atmosphere, constantly emitting cloaking holograms that rendered the small planet both invisible and untraceable. Legend said that perhaps - only the Designators could even remember the existence of this ancient planet.

Penetrate past the cloaking, and one would find a tiny, extremely populated planet - filled with diverse lifeforms that ordinarily would never interact. The atmosphere was a deep, noxious green gas that took several weeks for newcomers to acclimatize to - but it also helped hide the squalid rebel buildings and faint ornamentation below the thick skies. On top of rocky, decrepit orange surface - perhaps fifty or so main "citadels" (if they could even be called that) - stood apart from the surface. The citadels were box-shaped and crude, with primitive mineralized grey coatings tainting the exterior. The proverbial "camp" was unusually empty and barren - but only because all the inhabitants had gathered into the largest, central Citadel.

Enter it, and the one would find the Resistance.

The Citadel was nothing more than an effectively grey, gunmetal-colored box that sloped upwards near the centrally-positioned roofing. Thin rafters rattled against the opaque ceiling as dusty swarms of light and other substances gently oscillated in the high air. On the ground level, surrounded by tiny tents and crude bedding all littered around them - a crowd of perhaps four thousand refugees, clad in tattered white and black robes, all in a mass of ugly jittering nonsense.

The largest figure in front, standing on a mildly elevated podium so his large belly could be exhibited underneath his triple layered, carbon armoring - Commander Po addressed the large crowd.

"Quiet down, quiet down!" Po screamed, addressing the mass of interspecies citizens in front of him.

He was disappointed to see how hungry they all were. He had to announce that rations would be further cut in half - a consequence of lack of food supply being smuggled into XX-0.

Po growled. It was hard enough getting supplies into their rebel planet as it was, let alone given the fact that the Alliance had blown up approximately half of the populated galaxies in search of the "terrorist". Only twenty or so galaxies remained alive, and of course due to to the Alliance's strict information control - very few citizens (human or animal) knew about the deaths. Po sighed, realizing that most of the dead had been in production or resident planets - basically poor souls who had got killed in the insane crossfire.

Po wondered often whether to simply give the terrorist up to the Alliance, in exchange for an unstable peace with them - perhaps safe transport to another multiverse? It had become increasingly clear that the Resistance was failing in its efforts - despite the discovery of crystal essence, the number of APs still far outpaced the amount of Resistance fighters willing to fight them - and with inferior equipment, being outnumbered a million to one, and forced to hide and run at all fights - Po was unsure. The final endgame was - to somehow get the Designators to broker a peace treaty. To somehow offer them a type of settlement that could potentially leave all animals (and possibly hybrids) freedom in exchange for a life away from humans - but this meant sieging Earth, which was practically impossible given their resources.

Complicating the situation was the terrorist. Although Po was a bit naturally upset with talking with him - because in truth, the Resistance had an adversarial relationship with the terrorist's methods, perhaps even blamed him for the Alliance's galactic warpath of destruction - the terrorist himself rarely spoke to anyone. In fact, the recent galactic destruction had only seemed to make him even more silent, and therefore his tactics and strategies (even his daily plans) for defeating the Alliance even more… subversive.

I've gotta talk to that guy, Po mused, watching the immense crowd around him wander around in mild hopelessness.

Before it's too late.

. . .

"It's done?"

"Done."

"Done?"

"Done."

Omega smiled, seeing his two commanders - Delta and Gamma - sit around him. He was satisfied that Commander Beta had been put out of his misery - although he didn't expect that one of the Designations handed down to him was to execute the poor commander. In truth, Commander Beta had been every bit as loyal to the Alliance as himself - but he doubted whether or not the man truly deserved to die. Regardless, it wasn't his - nor anyone's - position to criticize a Designation.

"Why did you call us here?" Gamma asked, shiny black armor bouncing off the mild light in the perfectly white, opaque room. "Isn't this…"

"ZZYB-2," Delta responded, angrily flexing his shoulders beneath his trademark, golden AP armor. "One of the few planets without any Alliance supervision, corner of the Earthuna Galaxy…"

"I wanted us to teleport and meet in an area where there was no chance that we'd been compromised," Omega sounded off, red and black armor rippling in frustration, before he receded his visor to expose a pale white, dark-haired face.

"Compromised?" Delta asked in confusion, leaning back in the silver holochair. "By who?"

"Sigma," Gamma deduced. "He - he's the mole, isn't he?"

Omega shook his head, snorting. "Should have known that fool would betray us all, work with the terrorist…"

"But they're all dead now, right?" Delta asked back, receding his visor as well to expose a harsh, craggy olive-skinned face. "I mean - half the Alliance planets have been destroyed!"

Omega shook his head in suspicion. "I dunno - somehow, it doesn't feel right… the tracking device in Sigma's armor was deactivated days ago… hours after the supposed destruction."

"Is the terrorist still at large?" Gamma asked, scanning a panel on his forearm. "What about the Resistance? I hear cyberchatter that a movement's starting…"

"One threat at a time," Omega growled. "It's unlikely that any Resistance - if they even exist - possess the resources to do anything right now."

"Let's focus on the traitors then," Delta noted. "Commander Sigma and Scout Zero… jeez… anyone ever think those two would one day fight against us?"

"No," Omega honestly replied. "But none of that matters now. Let's finish this. Gamma?"

"Yes?"

"We must make a request to the Designators to exterminate more planets. All of them could be compromised."

The careless destruction of literally quadrillions of lives seemed to shock even Delta and Gamma.

"What - what about Earth?" Gamma asked.

Omega merely smiled. "Earth is safe, but anything else…"

Delta and Gamma nodded, understanding immediately.

. . .

"LOKI! OH FOR THE LOVE OF - LOKI!"

"WHAT?!"

"STOP EATING MY GRUEL!"

Loki - an enormous male brown bear, dressed in loose black rags - reluctantly burped and brought out a bowl filled with silver, slimy gruel. The voice which had criticized him was a female leopard in red rags, slightly shorter than Loki but far more athletically built - who swiftly grabbed the bowl and growled back at Loki.

"Why are you so possessive about your food, Anna?"

The leopardess merely snorted, sitting down on the dusty metal floor, trying to ignore the din of commotion outside the large metal tenting. It was grub time in the Resistance camp - a rare time of peace when Commander Po wouldn't bother anyone with requests to go on missions, spy on AP chatter, or generally do anything with a high chance of death.

"Gotta enjoy it while it lasts," Anna replied, stuffing her mouth with more gruel with her paw.

"The hell does that mean?"

Loki smiled at the new voice, and smiled even more after seeing four new figures enter the metal tent: a young male peacock, a female snake, a male monkey, and a tiny male beetle - all with their own bowls of gruel. The voice had come from the beetle of course, who was characteristically loud as usual.

"Welcome welcome gang!" Loki noted, smiling. "We should hang out more often, to be honest…"

"I feel like every time we sit down to eat together, we might not see each other again," the peacock suggested.

"Calm down Hatrix," Loki noted, bringing out his own bowl of gruel as his five friends circled up and sat on the floor. "We've survived this long, haven't we?"

"Commander Po must be snorting too much crystal," the monkey let out, as the rest of the group - except Anna - laughed. "Thinking we can broker a deal with the Alliance… I'm telling you guys, our best bet is to just steal a shuttle and try to get as far away from this stupid Resistance as possible - right Jazz?"

The snake tilted her head up, sniffling. "Every day it does seem to get less hopeful… we're losing fighters every second, our smugglers are dwindling… "

"Guys come on…" Loki protested, stuffing more gruel into himself. "Let's be positive!"

"Nothing to be positive about," Anna noted.

This line silenced everyone. The peacock, snake, and bear sighed, confused yet completely expecting this from the leopardess.

"That's why I don't like meeting with this bitch," the beetle rasped. "She's always so negative!"

"Shut up Bong," Anna responded swiftly.

"I'm Bing," the beetle protested angrily. "He's Bong!"

The male monkey sighed. Confusing both his name and Bing's was so common that no one in their circle even bothered correcting it anymore - and especially not to Anna, who's icy demeanor was enough to counter even Loki's extraverted enthusiasm occasionally.

"I don't care," Anna remarked. "We're all gonna be dead soon. I'll give us - a couple months."

"You really think it's that bad, Anna?" the snake - Jazz - quickly fired back. "I mean sure, supplies are going down but…"

"We can't even engage with AP squadrons anymore," the leopardess responded, shoving more gruel into her mouth. "We don't have the firepower. You realize Commander Po's been sending us on spy missions for like the last few weeks?"

"It's because he's acquiring intel…" Loki weakly whispered.

"Nah, it's because we're running out of plasma ammo," the peacock named Hatrix observed.

"The hell?" Bong the monkey sounded off. "We - we're running out! But the Commander just told me yesterday - "

"He told you wrong," Anna quickly noted. "We're all dead in the water. A matter of time before an AP hacks into our still unguarded com frequencies, finds out where XX-0 is… and nukes this planet into oblivion."

This brought another realm of silence from the group. They quietly sat around, eating gruel and looking at each other with depressed attitudes. Suddenly, Anna's receiver began beeping beneath her rags, prompting the leopardess to get up harshly.

"Shit, it's my turn to do protective rounds," the leopardess noted, straightening her rags before leaving.

"I believe in Po," Loki sounded off.

"Good for you," Anna replied smoothly, exiting the tent seamlessly.

. . .

On the far corner of the resistance camp on XX-0, there was a particular tent - and it stood out from the rest, because it had no citadel around it - a small space was arranged for only Po and whoever he desired to talk with. Inside the tent, a circular, rusted metal table had been arranged, solely for the precarious, yet urgent nature of the situation - and twelve figures sat, split into two sides around it. They eyed each other with confusion.

One end had Crane, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, Shifu, Zhong, and Wang seated alongside each other - within this group itself, they were eyeing each other. It looked like Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper had been relatively good, knowing terms, for a set period of time post-Reformation - but Shifu, Zhong, and Wang eyed each other and their four former companions darkly. Each of them exchanged looks as if the other was completely alien to them, but somehow still relatively close. They obviously were aware of their history together - but it was a shared past so old that the others barely remembered it. Plus, there seemed to be a distinct difference in attitudes - Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane were laughing with each other, while giving Shifu, Zhong, and Wang sympathetic looks - while the latter three merely stared back coldly at them.

The other half of the table had more familiar faces - or at least more friendly to each other. Sigma, Henderson, Karla, and Naja sat at this end.

And standing powerfully above the rest - characteristic belly heaving a bit even underneath his double-carbon reinforced, nanite black metal armoring - Po spoke, head visor retracted. His mere presence was shocking to half of the group assembled around him - some because they hadn't expected to see him again: like Shifu, Zhong, Wang - while others like Sigma, Henderson, Karla, Naja had no idea who Po was. Crane, Monkey, Mantis, and Viper - in sharp contrast, met the panda's gaze with a relaxed look.

"This is kinda awkward, but I had to call in all the - uh - new people to meet for a sec," Po noted, watching the others stare at him. "Well, some of you aren't new - I mean you know me, but… before we discuss the Resistance's plans, let's just know each other, alright?"

Everyone eyed the panda in hesitation.

"I'll start," Po repeated, sighing. "Some of you know me, some of you don't… I'm Po… former Alliance name PM-138. Did a rough five years on CN-55 - a production planet - before escaping and starting well… the Resistance. Many, many years and recruiting so… yeah. Now we're here on XX-0."

Monkey and Mantis raised themselves up, giggling to each other but serious after a while.

"I'm Monkey, been a part of the Resistance going on about twenty years now… and this is my buddy Mantis! We both um - did stints on production planets to before Po managed to break us out…"

Mantis laughed, prodding at Po. "This guy's a beast, everyone… if it weren't for him, uh… well, there'd be no Resistance, period!"

"Calm down Monkey," Po noted, smiling. "I'm just tryna help like everyone else. Next?"

Viper slithered onto the table, looking at others despite a bandaged body and tail. A frilly pink bow - long since aged and almost dead - sat on her head, a remnant of the past only understood by few at the table.

"I'm Viper - hey everyone," the snake announced, turning to vividly see the rest of the gathering. "I was actually a - a pet for a human on YZ-4… until a Resistance member came, that is… and I started doing sleeper agent work. Yanno, spy stuff… was doing a gig on a restaurant planet before got called back XX-0…"

"I'll save you the introductions."

The whole group silenced itself. Po and others watched warily as a gruff red panda - voice haven grown gruffer and even deeper with age - stood up, lack of a previous walking cane not impeding him - clearly having absorbed some of the crystal essence.

"The only real newcomers in this room are you four," Shifu announced.

He pointed at Sigma, Henderson, Karl and Naja - who eyed the red panda with confusion.

"I used to be called Shifu," he spoke quietly. "And these… used to be my students."

Shifu pointed out Po, Mantis, Monkey, Crane and Viper - all who nodded blankly back.

"These two were our allies on our pre-Reformation planet," Shifu growled, pointing out Wang a cheeky Zhong. "I assume they have other sob stories to go with them…"

"Hey!" Wang stood up, angry. "Don't disrespect what people have been through!"

"Calm down!" Po threatened, getting in the middle of the two.

"ALL THE WHILE, WHEN I WAS A PETFOR THE FLESHLINGS - FOR NEARLY SIXTY YEARS - NOW YOU THINK YOU CAN COME HERE, AND SAVE THE DAY, PO?!"

"Shifu…" Monkey and Mantis tried to calm down in unison.

"LOOK AROUND YOU, YOU FOOLS!" Shifu yelled. "I DON'T CARE HOW MANY SLAVE-TURNED FREEDOM FIGHTERS YOU RECRUIT, PO! THIS IS AN UNWINNABLE WAR! YOU STUPID, FAT - "

"ENOUGH!"

Po's roar was powerful enough to silence Shifu's wailing immediately. The panda approached him, trying to create an intimacy between himself and his former master - try to speak to him away from the rest of the stressed group members.

"We aren't back at the Jade Palace," Po mentioned quietly, feeling a bit strange even using that term again after so many years. "There's a new hierarchy here - Shifu. Don't disrespect me… ever again."

Shifu growled, sitting back down in his chair.

Po turned to address Sigma, Henderson, Karla, and Naja - the four principal members who were the only ones perhaps new to the group.

"Some of us were slaves and managed to escape and win our freedom," Po indicated, singling out Monkey and Mantis. "Some of us turned spy for the Resistance after escaping… like Viper, and Crane."

Naja stood up, a bit more inspired. "Hi - um - everyone - I'm Naja. I'm uh -a hybrid, as you can obviously tell - a gorilla/human mix. I - was on XS-211 before it got… blown up."

"Karla," the female lion noted, winking. "I - well, who cares about my story? It's all the same… except I never in a million years did I think I'd be anywhere near here… fighting a damn war."

Po smiled, but then walked forward to Sigma's seated position. "But the most interesting additions are you two."

"Commander Sigma," Sigma instantly replied. "This is Senior Scout Henderson… and yes… we're human."

"Not just human," Po noted. "... APs."

The words brought an unnatural dim to the conversation. Karla and Naja looked at Sigma and Henderson with an awkward gaze, but sympathetic - perhaps purely because they were seated next to them. Zhong and Wang were more steady, looking at the two robed humans with indifference. However, the rest of the group, namely Monkey, Viper, Mantis, Crane, and Shifu - glared at Sigma and Henderson with a furious, even suspicious tendency.

"I've got an A.I companion too… A.N.N… should I introduce her, too?" Henderson tried, seeing if this joke would pass over well.

It did not. No one smiled.

"Po… how do we know these two aren't spies for the Alliance?" Monkey noted, paws instinctively reaching for his twin plasma pistols. "I mean, we've had hybrids in the Resistance, sure… but full humans?"

"Smells like moles to me…" Mantis growled.

"Did the Designators send you here?" Crane asked angrily. "Or have you already begun broadcasting XX-0's location…"

Po waved down the complaints, trying to find solace between all of them.

"Believe it or not, there are some humans who actually sympathize with the Resistance," Sigma began.

Raucous bursts of laughter followed.

"HA!" Shifu roared. "HUMANS WILLING TO FIGHT THEIR OWN KIND! Perhaps your race is more entertaining than we thought…"

"...yanno, minus the whole enslaving the whole Universe, thing." Monkey spat.

Sigma and Henderson sighed together, both realizing the futility of the situation. And more than ever, it seemed very much like they had both chosen the wrong side - chosen a massively underfunded, weak-willing organization on the brink of starvation and annihilation - that this Resistance was perhaps doomed from the start.

. . .

Tigress sat in her room.

She was still getting used to having the sense of free movement and strength - qualities she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Every so often she would walk around the tiny, cramped metal room - listening to the loud noises outside with disdain. But as soon as she did that, Tigress went back to sitting on her cot - threading a paw through her fur with a tired expression.

It wasn't like she could leave and go back to XS-211.

Well - maybe she could leave at least...

But staying here was also suicide.

Either way it didn't matter.

None of it did.

Tigress was hoping that she could end her long, trauma-ridden life lounging on her own metal bed, not happy - but at least, at peace with everything that had happened. Now, thanks to the stupid crystal essence - she could expect to live another eighty years at the very least, which was perfect for the Alliance to spend torturing her after their inevitable victory over this… idiotic Resistance. Furthering her emotional guilt, she had just learned that Han had died while the Resistance managed to save their ship - and no amount of crystal essence would bring them back.

Zip.

Tigress swiveled her head, seeing the newcomer appear as he closed the door behind him.

Tall, bearded, visor receded.

White arrows on his shoulder pads.

"I'm sorry," the terrorist noted. "I shoulda asked - can I come in?"

"No," Tigress quickly responded. "But you're already inside, so…"

The man smiled gently, walking closer. Tigress turned away, letting the noises outside quickly engulf her senses again. She had no desire to talk to the terrorist.

"I didn't mean to intrude," the man added. "They told me you were feeling hesi - "

"You wanna know what I felt, seeing you again after all these years?" Tigress asked rhetorically.

The man frowned, turning his gaze down.

"I still remember it," Tigress noted, smiling savagely. "Remember the refugees? There were millions of them - sitting around that shithole you and your idiots destroyed - Gongmen."

Again the man kept quiet.

Tigress stood up, forcing a paw against the man's chestplate in anger. "All we wanted was to get away… and you almost took everything from us - heh, until your friends showed up to finish the job."

The man gulped, sighing. "You - you have quite a memory."

"Reformation to you was just another job," Tigress spat. "To us - it changed everything."

The man shook a bit, clearly trying to prevent himself from saying something. Tigress watched his blue eyes toil in discomfort, confused and irritated by her responses. He cleared his throat.

"I - I think you should consider… joining Po's side."

Tigress guffawed, snarling. "Why - the hell - would you care? Especially after what you've done to us…"

"Revolution is more about than just meaningless violence," he clarified. "It's about changing the lives of a quadrillion animals all across the galaxies…"

"You and Po, and everyone else on this miserable rock - are foolish," Tigress snorted. "Inject all that crystal garbage all you want - it won't bring you anywhere near to overpowering the entire Alliance…"

The man sighed, shaking his head. "You have to believe it, Tigress - A.G.E won't go down unless we get as many people involved - even people like you, who gave up the fight a long time ago."

Tigress shook her head, closing her eyes. "Get out."

The man nodded gently, proceeding to activate the door - then did exactly as she told him to do.


A/N

A super power-packed chapter! Please read slow, and refer back to previous chapters if need be… I know I needed to! (to preserve continuity)

Some notes:

-Just because it's been a while, lemme reintroduce you to our characters:


TL;DR - Rapid Fire Summary!

Context: Chapter just after Tigress and Co. make it to the Resistance planet. Shows how out heroes and villains are responding to the Alliance's ruthless offensive, where they're implied to kill quadrillions of animal AND human lives. (Remember: intergalactic space wars meet Kung Fu Panda!)

Cast List:

The Terrorist/Supposed "Scout Zero": our mysterious hero with a grudge against the Alliance. Motives/backstory unknown

Po (Resistance leader)

Crane w/metal wing (ally of Resistance)

Monkey (ally)

Mantis (ally)

Viper (ally)

Shifu (has mixed feelings)

Zhong (ally)

Wang (ally, former AP soldier)

Sigma (ally-ish, former AP commander)

Henderson (ally, former AP scout)

Karla (ally, former resident planet animal - old friend of Tigress)

Naja (ally, former resident planet hybrid - Tigress' friend)

Loki - bear male, Resistance fighter

Anna - female leopard, fighter

Hatrix - male peacock, fighter

Jazz - female snake, fighter

Bing - male monkey, fighter

Bong - male beetle, fighter

Omega - captain of all APs, big villain

Delta - AP Commander, villain

Gamma - AP Commander, villain

Designators - the mysterious dudes who control everything according to the principles of evolution


-In case it isn't obvious, I really wanted to contrast the responses of the Resistance in all our favorite team - the Five (Mantis, Monkey, etc.) are quite hopeful, but obviously a bit cautious of the new guys Sigma and Henderson, while Shifu and Tigress are completely lost of hope and hate the idea… while Wang and Zhong are more neutral.

-So Hatrix, Jazz and co. were written to be similar to… hmm? Know any other bada** groups that come in fives? (smirk)

-We see Omega, Delta, Beta, and Gamma finally get the word from the Designators about Sigma and Henderson's betrayal, so that will have consequences… and yes, war is officially the state of the Alliance now.

-Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about anyone's backstories. This fic has a 20+ list of main characters with backstories, so I can't pack everything into one chapter… but they're coming! Stay tuned.

AND I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT A CERTAIN "SOMEONE'S" FATE. ;)

-A lot of people are speculating in the reviews section and some via PMs… perhaps on things I'm deliberately avoiding talking directly about. Let me again rephrase that…

I haven't forgotten about anybody.

And everyone will get a satisfying conclusion.

Stay tuned.

Support's incredible.

~TW