"I will only accept IF I am allowed to lead the front lines of Earth X! The noble Yuan MUST be present for a vital battle such as this if his troops are to be used! As Ex-High Minister I have the right to decide!"

"Ugh, for the love of Azrael…"

The first voice belonged to Yuan Shao.

The second, Dr Albert Wily.

They, along with Dr Light, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Jian, were all currently in the Hero Base Lab section.

On the Screen of the computer in this place, was Dr Robotnik. He had implored to Yuan Shao and the other leaders of Earth V in the Hero Base to send their men to aid the Shinra Federation in their time of need, this included the likes of Dong Zhuo and Zhang Jiao.

Dong Zhuo refused to send anyone BUT Hua Xiong, if his warrior was up for it. There would be no additional forces from his side of things as he wanted his troops to be ready to attack Yuan Shao's territory, should Yuan's army get wiped out.

Greed is a bitch at times, but Yuan Shao, for the moment, allowed it to pass, on the account he won't be sending all his men to the battles anyway. Yuan Shao had called Hua Xiong and agreed for him to team up with Yuan Shao's own finest warriors, Yan Liang and Wen Chou, whatever battle they go to.

Zhang Jiao refused altogether, claiming Rufus to be an evil monster and have no heart, like Keaton….that, and his men are just pretty much peasants, meat shields and nothing more if they went to the frontlines, so for them, it was better this way.

Sun Jian would only agree if Liu Bei agreed.

Liu Bei would only agree if Sun Jian agreed.

Cao Cao told Robotnik he'll send what men he can to Gaia IX and Earth X and gave Liu Bei and Sun Jian the middle finger for being pussies and not choosing themselves.

Yuan Shao…well, he was haggling really. He had his own terms and conditions, the main one was that he wanted to lead the frontlines of at least one planet, no doubt to rub it in Keaton's face when the SF send him packing. Keaton had mocked Yuan Shao a lot during Keaton's time in office, so to show him that Yuan Shao IS a capable leader, would make the man very, very pissed off.

Dr Wily, Dr Light AND Dr Robotnik were against it.

Yuan Shao CAN be a capable leader…if the plan is mostly 'throw everything you have at the enemy and not even have a plan should ambushes occur or supply caches get hit.'. Keaton knows Yuan Shao's limited skill, and would most likely use it against him. Sending advisors with Yuan Shao won't make much of a difference, as Yuan Shao likes to see himself as the brains of the operation, and often refuses sound advice.

This is what cost him Guan Du back on Earth V all those years ago. He had the superior numbers, and the more officers…and he lost it because he only listened to himself. He had four advisors, hell, he had even Liu Bei who told him of sound ideas to handle Cao Cao, and even Lu Bu, who mostly spent his time on Earth V, partook in the battle and gave some advice.

All of it ignored, all of it would've made him far, far more respected to the High Ministers when they were alive, maybe would've got him a few more chances when it came to business ideas.

Cao Cao was now sitting back in a chair, sipping a can of lemonade, as the docs were waiting for Robotnik to finish speaking to Rufus about Yuan Shao's demands. Cao Cao knew it would be a terrible idea for Yuan to take the lead, but hey, it's not often his, old friend/once enemy now just friend who he likes to bully, has renewed confidence and willpower to try and lead a battle that could decide the fate of an empire far, far larger then just their old planet.

Sun Jian was sitting close to Cao Cao, waiting patiently, and Liu Bei was standing next to Yuan Shao, watching how this unfolds. Soon, Dr Robotnik turned his focus back to the other docs and Yuan Shao, sighing deeply and looking defeated. "…Yuan Shao, Rufus has agreed with your wish. You will lead the frontlines at Gaia IX instead though. His also agreed to send at least 10,000 trained SF troopers to assist your men and-"

Yuan Shao gave a huff, folding his arms. "My brilliant troops are more then able, Ivo. You can inform the fine emperor that Gaia IX is going to easily be secure and safe under my watchful eye."

Cao Cao gave a little snicker. Was Yuan Shao serious? "Yuan, forgive my interruption, but I feel your being a little rash. Your confidence is going to make you look like a fool if your not careful….again."

Yuan Shao looked over to his old friend, seemingly thinking for a moment. "…Ah, but of course. That's where you come in, Cao Cao. Sun Jian and Liu Bei shall prepare to deploy their men to Zebes should it be required, and you and your people will join mine in battle against the Galactic Federation!"

Cao Cao was about to take another sip of his drink when he came to a dead stop, looking in shock at Yuan Shao. He was fine with helping the SF out, but to do so with Yuan Shao….all the Wei ruler was thinking was if that fucker says to Robotnik to make it official-

"Robotnik, inform Rufus that it will be fine, as I have Cao Cao, combined with my forces, ready to beat down Keaton and bring forth peace once again!" cuing a dramatic pose from Yuan Shao, with his arm held out towards the computer screen.

Cao Cao was crushing the can slightly, glaring at Yuan. Dr Wily noticed this, and only gave Cao a look of feeling sorry for him. Dr Robotnik knew of Cao Cao's leadership talents, and felt a bit more relaxed about the idea now. "Alright Yuan Shao, I'll let him know. Will you be sending a list of what numbers you require to be transported to Gaia IX?"

"I shall compose a list, along with Cao Cao, very shortly."

The moment Dr Robotnik disconnected the call, Sun Jian was quick on his feet, heading to the door that leads to the main room, motioning at Liu Bei to follow him, and looking at the docs, doing the same. Dr Wily and Light looked baffled for a sec, but, seeing Cao Cao slightly shaking, they could see what was coming. All four left, just as Cao Cao swore loudly, threw the can at Yuan Shao's head, the throw only a few inches short in distance, and hitting the shoulder pad armor with a slight 'clang' sound, then pouncing on the man, cursing and swearing over and over about the fact he was now going to be dragged down along with him in the upcoming battle.

For Cao Cao, joining with Yuan Shao in any fight, is a goddamn major insult.

Chad had been avoiding Zhang He like the plague since that night. He had heard that the Wei Officer wanted to see him, and predicted it couldn't be a good thing. He tried to see Anna when he could, but often she would only have a few minutes, before Zhang He was coming towards her, and Chad fled.

Oh he could probably take Zhang He on, could possibly beat him even, but those claws he carries around, they look painful, and knowing Zhang He, he'll try to stab them into somewhere very, VERY unpleasant.

This was the tenth time today his hidden into a room to avoid Zhang He. Roll's room this time. She was standing there, sighing in annoyance. This was the fifth time she had seen him do this, the other four being other peoples rooms, now hers. "Chad Oswald. Slayer of Unicron, defeater of Darkmega, Terrified of a possibly angry gay friend…" the next bit she gave off with a bit of sarcasm, as she turned, and went to her bed and sat down. "What a hero."

"Gay friend now bodyguard with claws Roll." Chad replied before he clicked on the sarcasm she gave off at 'What a hero.'. "HEY!"

"Why don't you just go out there and talk to him face to face? It'll be a lot easier on the rest of us who don't want you just barging into their rooms and cutting conversations short because Zhang He heads your way."

"Roll, he has claws, sharp, painful looking claws. I don't want to be on the receiving end of those after trying to bed Anna. She's an awesome girl and all, but Zhang He could easily maul one of the major 'tools' I need to keep our relationship going with said claws." Chad shuddered a little at the thought.

"Well why don't you just get Anna to talk to him so he doesn't claw your 'tool'?"

"Because…" he stopped, thinking about it. "Huh…why didn't I think of Anna talking to him. She could find out what he wants from me. Maybe she already knows and if I ask, I can find out if I've got a good enough reason to keep hiding in rooms like yours."

"Well let's hope not. Personally I wouldn't want you coming in when I'm having a bath, all because Zhang He just so happened to walk down the corridor."

Chad soon eventually left Roll's room, leaving her to rest, and, with his eyes alert for Zhang He, snuck into Ridley's bar to see if Anna was around. Snuck….well, it was more like he was trying to be Solid Snake, looking round corners and pushing himself against walls. a lot of the folks who went by him looked at him like he was a weirdo.

At the bar, the clock showed it was 6 in the evening. Ridley had his normal customers, Samus, Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Zhang Liao and the such. Chad saw Anna sitting at a table with Medi and Keira, chatting away.

Chad looked around very carefully…no sign of the claw man. Chad calmly walked in, nodding to Ridley as he did, and walked over to Anna's table, hearing their chatter, before they spotted him. "Hey girls. Don't mind if I join do you?"

Anna shook her head. "Of course not. We're not talking about much anyways, mostly about guys and…giving tips."

Chad sat down at the table, looking at her oddly. "…Tips?"

Keira explained. "Medi was just explaining to Anna how sex gets better the more times you do it, and what to do to please a fella like you."

"Ah, that won't take much." Chad leaned back a little. "Dr Pepper, snacks and a cuddle would do me just fine."

Medi sighed. "Pleasing you as in sex wise. Blowjobs and the sort."

"Oh."

"Well, I'm sure we can talk more later anyway. Keira, wasn't there an update on the hospital computer you wanted to show me?" Medi asked.

Keira nodded, and both of them got up, leaving the bar. It was more or less intentional, to let Anna be a little more alone with Chad.

Anna smiled at him once the other two left. "So…about what happened…"

Chad decided to get to the point of his reason being here, just in case that bodyguard does come. "Anna can you talk to Zhang He for me before he dices my balls?"

"…Excuse me?"

"Zhang He. I think his a little mad about what we did."

Anna looked at Chad oddly, then, smiled, as if she just remembered something. "Oh, has Zhang He been looking for you then? Oh he just wants to talk to you, that's all."

Chad looked unsure. "…That's all?"

"That's all. Said about needing to confirm something with you."

Ground rules, it had to be. Zhang He was gonna lay some down to restrict Chad somehow. Chad guessed in his mind it was most likely to keep him from shagging Anna anymore.

"Oh, here he comes now." Anna looked behind Chad.

Chad froze up, he felt something looming over him, his spine giving chills, his pupils going small, and his gay radar going off the charts.

Zhang He wasn't looking furious or angry, he was simply giving Anna a smile. "Ah my beautiful Anna, how are you? And how is your…boyfriend?" the way he said that was with a hint of disgust.

Anna smiled at him. "Oh everything's fine. His just a little worked up because he thought you wanted to 'dice his balls'. You just wanna talk, right?"

Zhang He slowly walked round, and sat himself at the table. "Of course I do. Why would I want to dice his balls? If anything, I would rather slice them open, crush the sperm tubes then tear the muscles to shreds…if I had a problem with him."

Chad stared right at Zhang He, horrified.

Zhang He looked so calm and casual about saying that it even gave Anna the slight creeps. "…Yes well…I'll just leave you both to talk then, shall I? I'll be over at the bar." Anna slowly got up, and left the two to it.

Chad wished she never left them alone, he really did. It was awkward silence for a good several minutes, before Chad managed to just say "So, What-"

"Did you do it then?" Zhang He abruptly said.

"Huh?"

"Did you do it? Did you take her virginity?" Zhang He was giving him a glare now.

"…If I answer yes, will you do what you just said you would?" Chad was ready to run.

"If it turns out that you raped her for it, then yes, yes I would do what I said I would." Zhang He answered, he had his claws with him right now, and equipped one of them, looking at it carefully, then at Chad. "So? Have you taken it? By force?"

"No no! We both wanted to try sex!…granted it wasn't a great success, but we tried it and she did bleed down there, so, yeah, I took it pleasedon'tkillme!" Chad winced, waiting for Zhang He to either yell or just attack.

Zhang He just sighed in annoyance. "I told her to save it for marriage. It would've been more sweet that way, but no, other world people seem to think sex beforehand is good…"

Chad was relieved, that was all it was about. "You wanted her to save it before marriage? Zhang He, isn't that a little…ya know, old fashioned? Ya know most people shag before nowadays, and the GF-I mean SF, doesn't say it's wrong."

"Well it should! To give your first away before being bound together, it's just…ugh!" Zhang He shuddered.

Zhang He started to go into how on Earth V, Cao Cao would always marry before making love to women and so on. Chad didn't care right now, he was just glad his balls are safe and sound…and then, he heard his com-link go off. The voice was Yuan Shao. "Chad Oswald! I wish to speak to you urgently! It's of great importance!"

Chad picked it up. "'Sup Yuan Shao?"

"I want you to meet me in the main room of this base as soon as you possibly can!" with that, Yuan Shao hung up.

Chad was a little surprised at the way this sounded very urgent, and decided to quickly say goodbye to Zhang He and get going, to see if there was anything wrong.

When he got to the main room, he noticed Yuan Shao standing there, arms crossed against his chest, speaking to his two champion warriors, Yan Liang and Wen Chou. "Yan, I need you to get Guo Tu and tell him to get in contact with Earth V, we'll need to gather many of our finest men. Wen, I want you to go and speak with Cao Cao, find out who and how many he plans to bring to Gaia IX. His….current attitude with me is sour."

With that, both generals left his presence, heading off down the corridors. Chad walked up to Yuan Shao greeting him. "Hey Yuan. So what's the matter? Doesn't seem like anything's wrong around here."

"Ah! Chad, I need to ask you a small favor. I require you to join me in an upcoming battle."

Chad raised an eyebrow. "Battle? With whom?"

"The forces of the remnants of the Galactic Federation plan to attack across the Shinra Federation. We are to help them on the world known as Gaia IX. I…was wondering if you could come along."

"…Why?"

"Well, seeing as you are now known to those within the Shinra Federation and, mostly of those of this universe as one of the slayers of Unicron, your presence on the battlefield would surely turn the tide to my favor…more so."

Chad sighed deeply, looking right at Yuan Shao. "Basically you want me to tag along to make your image look good, is that right?"

Yuan Shao had to be honest here. "…Yes."

"Alright sure, why not? Keaton annoys me, suppose beating a few of his guys won't hurt."

Yuan Shao was, to say the least, overjoyed by this answer. "Excellent! Most excellent! You'll be a superb addition to our forces! Now I need you to be ready to leave within a few hours! We need to be on Gaia IX to prepare as soon as possible!"

"Whoa whoa wait a minute, a few hours? The battle can't be THAT soon right?" Chad quickly spoke out. He was fine with the idea, but wanted to hang around with Anna a fair bit first, now that the issue with Zhang He was mostly resolved.

"War doesn't wait my friend! We must be ready, be it days or weeks in advance!" with that, Yuan Shao headed back into the labs, leaving Chad staring at the spot Yuan Shao was.

Charlie was in the main room, reading a magazine and had overheard it all. "Sucks being you kid."

On the space station RE886, it had mostly fallen silent. Most of the corridors and rooms, empty of life. In the main control room, sitting at three screens with a keyboard before him, monitoring the universe, or more precise, the movements of the warships in the universe, was Chaos, seemingly sitting lazily in the chair, arms crossed, watching carefully, so it seemed, to anyone just seeing his black sunglasses.

Checking several computers around the room was Huang Zhong, which were monitoring the space station. Besides them, on the space station was about 100 troopers, all that Keaton was willing to leave behind for them, not expecting that Rufus would come and attack it.

Huang Zhong slowly made his way over to where Chaos was. "Richard is still contained within his chamber, and all teams have reported that everything is fine. What of Keaton and Grievous's fleet?"

Chaos answered in a flat, emotionless tone. "Fine. Keaton is three days away from his target destination, avoiding all patrol ships so far, and Grievous is only a day away from his. He encountered a patrol force but they chose to flee before trying to fight. Guess they don't want to test their mettle against someone like him."

Huang Zhong gave a chuckle. "Of course not! This is Grievous we're talking about!"

"Yes, the same Grievous who was against this idea, who might prove to be rather ineffective in the whole scheme. I think Keaton should've asked you or someone else to take charge. Didn't he even notice Grievous's distaste in choosing my plan over his?"

"Grievous knows when to place duty over his personal feelings about things. He'll complete his mission without any issues."

Chaos then stood up, and started to walk away, leaving the room. "Let's hope so. I'm going to check over the power core systems personally, keep an eye out for me."

Huang Zhong looked utterly baffled by Chaos's sudden move and plan. "Check the power systems? Why?"

Chaos stopped at the doorway. "Unlike you old man, I noticed a few power shortages in lighting within a few sectors of the station. It shouldn't take no more than a few hours to fix, if the power shortages get worse let me know." With that, he left.

"Bah, miserable whelp…" Huang Zhong soon sat himself down at the computer where Chaos was. Failing to notice a small program in the corner running…a countdown program, with two hours to go before something is triggered.

Gaia IX, one of the more popular trading worlds within the SF, it housed many minerals and ores within its crust, now constantly harvested by the Federation. It was also known for its powerful spices, which are the other main trading source, all of it once was being watched over by the ruler known as Queen Garnet.

Being a popular world for trading and visitors, as it was not far from Gaia VII, Queen Garnet of Alexandria came into power during the Darkmega incident two years ago, being pushed into the seat of power by Keaton Al'Keriff, who felt the previous appointed overall ruler of this world, Queen Brahne, was ineffective and wouldn't be able to assist should Darkmega get out of hand. Quick overthrow of power was an easy task, one that was done by Solid Snake. Snapping the neck of the fat queen took effort, but was manageable.

Of course, this was all during Keaton's reign. As he passed on and Rufus came to power, he stripped Queen Garnet of her rank of being the overall ruler of this world and controller of all trading going on, and passed the duties and rulership to Cid Fabool the 9th, who resided in his city, the most advanced on the planet and the actual main hub of the trade works, hence Rufus's power shift idea, called Lindblum.

As Chad stood in the throne room of the palace of Lindblum, leaning on a nearby wall, along with him in the room, was Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Link, Sun Shang Xiang, Jak, Ryu, Ken, T Hawk, another member of the base from the world of Earth X, from the street fighting ring, Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Guo Tu and Hua Xiong, they all overheard about the fact Queen Garnet hadn't taken this shift of power too well. Cid Fabool was currently sitting on his throne, fiddling with his huge moustache a little, as he spoke.

"We've already gathered reports from our own spies in Alexandria that she plans to allow Grievous and his men to stage their invasion on her turf, to expand and take out the mist Continent, and that means my force, and the force of the people of Burmecia. We've agreed to an alliance with the Burmecians, so long as we promise to allow them a bit of the shares and some small control over the trading of this planet. If Grievous manages to wipe us both out, he'll have nothing that'll stand in his way of taking this whole planet!"

"Do you know if Garnet plans to deploy her own men onto the battlefield?" Cao Cao asked.

Cid shook his head. "So far the reports conclude she plans to simply allow Grievous to land and grant him the space to establish a communication and supply center within her city walls, her forces are going to be defending those and nothing more."

Cao Cao gave a small smile at this news. "So, she's reluctant to send out support to him, and is, simply put, defending her own territory…That means she's unsure to backing them in the end, and that's something we can put to good use."

Yuan Shao frowned at his friend. "Cao Cao, there's no need to even worry about her. All we need to do is push everything we can at Grievous's men alone. And with fine warriors in my ranks, such as Yan Liang and Wen Chou, and the support of the Lindblum army while you have the support of the rat people of Burmecia, he'll be hard pressed to match us!"

Cao Cao slowly looked over to Yuan Shao, sighing as he did. "So that's how this is going to go is it? You get the airships and cannons, and I get the race of walking rats with lances and spears?…Why do I get the feeling I'm getting the short end of this? Still, no matter. What are the positions we need to cover and, or use, to advance into Alexandria territory?"

Cid got off his throne, and led them all over to a map of the world, hung up on a wall nearby. "There are two major entry ways into Alexandria's territory, the North Gate and the South Gate. The South gate is the larger one of the two, and is going to pose as a rather difficult position to get over, as we've found out that those operating and guarding are GF Troopers that pretended to swear allegiance to the SF. They started denying our airships and people entry into Alexandria territory a few days ago."

He then pointed to the North Gate, which actually was more in a westerly direction, but eh, they can call it whatever they wanted to, it's their world. "The North Gate is smaller and has much less numbers guarding it, the way through is by the Melda and Burcia gateways, but nearby, past the North Gate is Dali Village and it's Mountain Observatory, they will easily see over the gate and be able to watch all of our movements there instead of just relying on your technology."

Cao Cao looked at the map carefully. "Of course your city resides past the South Gate, meaning Grievous will no doubt deploy a major amount of his forces your way. The North Gate…hmm…if we keep our number to a minimum, we can put our front to a very good use…"

Cid continued on. "Once you pass the North Gate and South Gate, beyond the south to the east lays Treno. It's bound to be spot Grievous will have some of his troop wait in. They can easily come down the mountain once your forces pass by the Gate, so be cautious. To the north, You'll have to get by the Evil Forest, then head around towards Treno in order to get onto the higher plains and get to Alexandria. I have the feeling Grievous will focus his forces on the pathway leading to Alexandria, since the only other way is climbing up the mountain side from within the forest."

"Well then, I think we should get prepared. If I inform the warships that carry my men to land…here." Yuan Shao pointed at an area close to a spot called Chocobo forest. "Then we'll easily be able to prepare our march to the South Gate, and can use that forest to hide our armory and communication equipment, as we'll need to keep in contact during the battle. What about you Cao Cao?"

Cao Cao pointed out Burmecia. "Deploy my men here. We'll work directly with the people to prepare our plans of assault on the North Gate. And I would like to ask Link, Sun Shang Xiang and Jak to come with me, if you don't mind Yuan Shao. As much as they'll be useful in your force, I do feel it would be fair if I had at least a few able people in mine."

Xiahou Dun looked offended. Was Cao Cao saying he and his cousin Yuan weren't good enough anymore?

Yuan Shao shrugged. "As you wish. I have more than enough champions anyway. With the likes of T Hawk, Ryu and Ken guarding our armory and communications, and with the others being my frontline pushers, all is well within my grasp."

Ryu looked over at Ken, a little annoyed, saying quietly to his friend. "They go out to get into the fighting, and what do we get? Guard duty."

Ken smiled. "Eh, beats having to move around, at least we can chill out."

Soon they all departed from the throne room, and as Yuan Shao led those that were to follow him away, telling them how they'll topple everything Grievous can throw, and Chad just mumbling that their gonna die, Xiahou Dun confronted his cousin. "Cao Cao, What's the actual plan then?"

Cao Cao continued to walk slowly down the corridor, as the others followed. "We'll simply be hanging back."

"What do you mean by 'hanging back'?" Xiahou Dun was a little surprised with this.

"We won't move our forces. We'll wait near Burmecia and allow Yuan Shao to take what glory he can against Grievous."

Jak felt he needed to input into this. "But that'll mean Grievous will ignore us if we don't pose a threat. He'll hammer down on Yuan Shao's army at the South Gate."

Cao Cao smiled. "Precisely."

Chad had to admit, it was rather a nice morning out here, on this world.

Despite all of the noise of transport ships, supply vessels, and the construction of metal walls to establish a temporary home for supplies and commutations dishes of Yuan Shaos in the forest, causing quite often, a large amount of chocobos to flee the forest, it was nice.

According to what T Hawk had told him, they currently had seventy thousand men coming here, all belonging to Yuan Shao. These men wore steel armor, equipped with micro shielding, designed to withstand several energy shots, if lucky, and carrying vibro swords, and vibro spears, all obviously paid for by Yuan.

Their crossbows were updated as well, no longer requiring actual arrows, and were no longer wooden. They were complete made of metal, and had two blue glowing lines going down the sides, and fired blue energy shots in the shape, of arrows. They could launch about 20, before requiring a new energy cell. Bows were now equipped with heat creating arrows, the tips constantly at a high level heat when placed in the bow and fired, designed for armor piecing.

Once Yuan Shao became High Minister, he was granted the right to improve his men's tech to more modern standard. The rest of Earth V's kingdoms have been catching up, but time and creation of such weapons were an issue. Almost 40 percent of their armies now had the modern tech, and the funds of each kingdom have dropped heavily over this.

Horses were once a thing too, but now have been replaced, by hover bikes, heavy black machines with two circler energy dishes at the bottom of them, keeping the bike afloat, and a funnel for a jet boost on the back. This is something that several of kingdoms struggle paying for, except Yuan Shao, of course.

Chad noticed that most of the transport ships had landed and deployed the vast amount of troopers, and saw in the distance Yuan Shao, looking at a data pad, speaking with his adviser, Guo Tu, a man in his 30's, with a goatee, looking thing and rather willowy, wearing a golden robe and a green, small fancy feathered hat on his medium black hair, with string around the sides of his face that held it in place for him.

Chad walked over, as the two were discussing something.

"My lord, as directed, we've told Yan Liang, Wen Chou and Hua Xiong to go to the front lines, with our five thousand military spearman and crossbow bikers. They will lead the charge to the South Gate. T Hawk, Ryu and Ken are making sure the construction of the armory is finished, then will await further orders whilst defending. Cid of Lindblum has agreed to your request for several airships armed with cannons to join our frontal attack on the gate." Guo Tu explained.

Yuan Shao nodded in approval. "Good."

Guo Tu continued. "Also my lord, as you instructed yesterday, I had given a call to several additional officers of our force back on Earth V. They will be also here within five to six hours to lead the remaining forces. The transport ship has already picked them up and heading to this planet. Chunyu Qiong is with them as you specifically asked, and has agreed to defend the armory as well on arrival."

"Excellent. I trust he'll protect it with diligence like he did with Wu Chao back on our planet." The Ex-Minister focused on data pad whilst saying this.

That's when Chad quipped in. "Hey Yuan Shao, is there anything ya want me to do right now? Getting kinda bored and everyone seems busy."

"Ah, Chad! Actually there is something you can do for me. You can monitor the front lines. Don't engage, just, be around. Watch what's going on, and use your fast speed to tell me what's happening, incase Yan Liang and the others are too busy doing what they do best for me." Yuan Shao looked up from the data pad, giving Chad a smile.

"…That's it?"

"Of course. You are too young for anything else really. I can't have you leading the troops. I know you can fight, but this is a battlefield, which will be very dangerous for one person, especially when you're young, and not from our world. Wait 'till your older, then we can discuss you leading my fine men."

Chad frowned. Did Yuan Shao seriously just say that? "I tackled Unicron you know."

"And we're grateful. Now, if you could get to watching things for me?" That was all Yuan Shao said to him, before focusing back on his adviser. "Now, Tell me, what do we know of the structure of the South Gate? Will it be easily broken down and destroyed?"

Chad walked off, annoyed now. Yuan Shao asked him all this way to this planet, and places him on scouting duty…

Meanwhile, close to the named 'Evil Forest', with his troops settling around and getting ready to fight, was Grievous. Standing with him in a semi-circle, was Kei Yuki, Dark Rich, Aqua, Terra and Ventus. Behind him, high above on the mountain side, was the grand city of Alexandria.

"According to the communication reports, The enemy will be focused on the South Gate, from Lindblum, as expected. Numbers at around 70,000, nearly double our own, but the leader in question can easily fail to lead his forces correctly, so numbers aren't a problem. Currently I've placed forces in Treno and Dali. Those in Treno will march the moment the South Gate falls, to ambush the incoming forces from the mountain side, as will a large amount of those placed in Dali. Once they move in, I want our lines close to the South Gate to push as well. A three way attack will break their frontlines morale after toppling the gate. Once they are dealt with, a simple constant push against the remaining forces should drive them back to the other side."

The others listened as he continued. "Now the leader I said about earlier, is a man called Yuan Shao, the once High Minister. Once things go against him, he'll lose his ability to lead under pressure. The best way to do this, is not only with the South Gate plan, but to target his armory."

"Will he have one?" Aqua asked.

"He has one alright. His constructing it now. Obviously he thinks our forces placed on the South Gate won't do any observations. They've spotted it being created in a forest. I want a raiding party to strike it and destroy it. That, along with what we've already planned, will break him, causing him to panic, and no doubt lose all control of his army. We clear them up, and march straight to Lindblum."

"What about the North Gate? Didn't some of the scouts at the mountain observation in Dali say about a force landing near Burmecia? Those animal folk living there won't just lay back and let us fight just Lindblum." Terra pointed out.

Grievous already had that in mind. "The forces in question, belong to Cao Cao, who's from the same planet as Yuan Shao."

"How did you-" Terra was about to ask something, but Grievous interrupted.

"It appears the fool, unlike Yuan Shao, as kept his channel open to all communicators. Several of our men who are monitoring the communication channels back in our own armory have said about him deploying his small army at Burmecia, predicted at around 20,000. I do not know when he'll advance, but no doubt when he speaks to Yuan Shao through the com-link, we'll find out. Now, for your assignments…"

Grievous first looked to Aqua. "Aqua, you will lead the mountain attack from Treno."

"Ventus, you will lead the five hundred keybladers as the raiding party to the armory. I do not expect it to be heavily defended. Yuan Shao isn't a smart man."

"Kei Yuki, you will lead those from Dali in the mountain attack. I know you are not a great fighter, keep to the mountainside and do not come down, just tell the men to attack when the time comes."

"Dark Rich, you will lead the frontline forces once the South Gate is breached, and our three way attack triggers."

The clone looked to Kei, who nodded to confirm she was fine with this, and thus, he was too.

"Terra, you are to take three thousand and watch at the North Gate. If Cao Cao does advance, seal the Gate, contact me so I can send support, and keep solely on the defense. You should be able to hold out, and with such a strong gate, Cao Cao will find it difficult to breach, unlike Yuan Shao and the Lindblum airships."

They all understood, nodding to show it was all clear and acknowledging with "Yes sir Grievous."

That's when one of the Galactic Federation troopers walked up to them, moving around the others to Grievous. "General, Yuan Shao's army has begun moving. Their heading right to the South Gate. The guards there are standing by for orders."

"Tell them to lock up, and fight to the death. I won't deploy additional forces for a gate that matters little. Everyone else, prepare for battle…it's time to claim this world entirely."

On the space station RE886, Huang Zhong had been relaxing in the main computer room of the station, leaning back in one of the chairs, whilst two of the GF troopers were standing around nearby, chatting to themselves.

"You know, it's creepy having that Overmind around on this station. I can't help but feel like we're being constantly watched whenever we have to do guard duty down there…"

"Yeah. I know what you mean. We're suppose to have our lunch breaks while posted there, but I can't eat knowing his so close by…"

Huang Zhong was generally ignoring them, after noticing that there was a communication confirming that Grievous has made it to Gaia IX, and Keaton was soon arriving to Earth X. The rebellions across the other worlds were now in full swing. He then batted an eye at another computers display, which showed a map of the space station, and had a flashing white dot, which signified where Chaos currently was. Still down in the power core section.

There hasn't been any notices on hack attempts, and the once in a while beep from the machine was a confirmation from the guards on that level that Chaos was still there, so Huang Zhong is just accepting it as Chaos taking his sweet time.

He wasn't a fool, he told them to sound the alarm if Chaos suddenly tried anything stupid.

Well….He tries to not be a fool anyway.

It's just that Chaos had set up a pre-determined setting on a computer down on that level to keep sending the signal that means his still here. And pretty much used the power core computer to 'blind' the upper level networks with pre-set information.

That information being the arrival of the main forces, the rebellions, Chaos still being in the power core room, and eventually signals saying of victories across the worlds.

All a complete lie, something Huang Zhong would easily be able to figure out, if he bothered to check.

As for the once guards of the level Chaos is suppose to be at, there, and everywhere, their blood painting the floors and walls, fragments of bone spread nicely across the ground…

Chaos was gone.

He had located what he wanted from the computers, and teleported himself without anyone else noticing, to a set of coordinates only a few light years away from the system that Gaia VII was in.

To the position, of where Unicron's head, now was.

Boy, was this the worst day of the lives of the guards watching the South Gate. It had been a mere two hours since the battle started.

First, they saw the airships coming, carrying cannons, armed and loaded, and already opening fire at the gate itself, blasting holes into it, and from below, they saw the five thousand riders rushing towards the gate, at least three thousand of them were carrying the energy crossbows, and firing upwards at the guards on the gate walls, while the spearman, led by the three champion generals Yan, Wen and Hua, just…simply ran down the guards posted outside the gate at the bottom. They never stood a chance, their few shots with their rifles mostly missed, before they found themselves impaled.

The ones remaining on the wall kept themselves hidden, using their rifles to fire mostly at the airships to stop them from blowing holes in the gate. The artillery cannons on the gate were also being aimed, ready to destroy those airships…

Except they forgot that those military bikes are quite versatile.

By yanking it the front part upwards so the bike was just using the rear anti gravity energy circle, and briefly turning off the front one, then back on just before making contact to a wall, it could adjust and instead allow the rider to drive UP the wall.

Hua Xiong, Yan Liang and Wen Chou all done this. They managed to avoid the cannon fire as they headed upwards, their vibrospears at the ready, as they flew up over the wall, into the air, and by using the booster, they managed to aim themselves above the top of the gate, and Hua Xiong jumped off his bike, bellowing out "KAZAN KOUGAI KOHOU!"

It was a technique from Earth V's fighting arts. Translated to Galactic Basic, it meant ' Steel Armor'. in practice, as those of the South Gate soon realized, is that Hua Xiong's skin seemed to very briefly glow multiple colours, before he turned into a steel blue colour, steam seemingly coming off him for a moment, before he smashed right into the ground, landing perfectly on his feet, causing an indent as he landed.

The guards quickly aimed and opened fire, their energy bullets and machine gun bullets seemingly, to their horror, bouncing off the warrior's skin, as he slowly stood up, grinning menacingly at them, hinted they were pretty much fucked now.

And they were the ones who got that guy, others further back of the gate, got Yan Liang and Wen Chou, who had both shouted out, as were coming down on their bikes, holding their spears ready, "MUSOU!"

It pretty much allowed them to rip through people like a sharp knife through butter, whilst they were covered in a yellow aura. The troops could hardly react, as they saw their comrades blood and guts fly all over the place, as the two bike riders rode on through, seemingly unstoppable.

The last screams of the guards on the gate went through the com-link of Grievous, as he stood in the open plains, listening carefully, as one guard managed to describe what was going on.

"General Grievous! We're being slaughtered! Unable to use artillery cannons! Airships still firing on gate! Our numbers are almost gone! Three warriors of Earth V! Two with a yellow aura, riding around on hover bikes! Third seems to be made of- Goddamnit keep shooting him! SHOOT HIM! Third one seems to have turned his skin into goddamn steel! Our weapons can't-DON'T LET HIM GET CLOSER! DON'T GGGAA-"

Then silence.

The cyborg seemed to think for a while, and soon deduced it. "Steel skin. I've had of a man who knows such a ability. Vassal of king Dong Zhuo. The other two, it can only be the ones that Yuan Shao used to boast about so proudly, Yan Liang and Wen Chou…so his champions are leading the charge…all the better to break their morale with."

Over where Yuan Shao was, who was currently looking over his newly built armory, as it was finally nearly done, he had just seen Guo Tu walk up to him, and explained to him about the news from the front so far.

He was quite overjoyed. "Hah! And Grievous refuses to move his forces in to assist as the gate is about to fall to us? Excellent! No doubt we have him quaking on his rusty cyborg feet! Inform the three to continue their charge once they've taken over the gate and opened it for all of our forces! Tell Cid to call back his ships, they are no longer required! We'll smash through Grievous's line of the defense and storm Alexandria!"

"Sir, we also have information that Cao Cao forces have yet to move to the North Gate, should I prompt him to do so now?" Guo Tu asked.

"No No, allow him to decide himself when to move. If he does not wish to gain some glory from this slaughter, then so be it. I'll be the one the Galactic Federation remnants will never forget!"

And as for Chad?

He sat there, on the mountain side.

He was looking at the South Gate, noticing the airships were now backing off, and the fighting on top of the gate was starting to calm down….well…less screams of pain and terror anyway, and gunfire.

He sat there, looking annoyed, and bored, sitting on a small patch of grass, on a small bit of flat land on this mountain. He climbed up here to get a better look at what was going on so he could report back.

Every time he did say anything about the fighting, no one bothered to reply on the com-link. He really felt kinda just tossed to the side of all this. "This is bullshit…should've stayed at home and hanged around with Anna instead of saying yes to this…"

Then, he noticed that every single pathway through the south gate, begun to reopen, obviously meaning someone had got the mechanism to allow the troops to go on through, as he noticed the bikers quickly restarting their machines to get going. He sighed, and stood up, transforming into his Mobian, before getting the com-link out. "Hey Yuan Shao, want me to move up with the frontline?"

No response.

"Right-o." with that, he set off…he knew he needed to have a word with Yuan Shao after this.

Terra, watching at the North Gate meanwhile, had been constantly asking for updates, from the observatory, and from Grievous.

From Grievous, he asked about the battle at the South Gate, hearing the reports that it quickly got overwhelmed and the enemy are bound to get through shortly.

From the observatory of Dali, He wondered about beyond the North Gate, about Burmecia, and of Cao Cao's army, which had made a rather large camp site outside the city, flags raised and such to show it was occupied…according to them, Cao Cao's force has not moved an inch from their position.

That concerned the Keyblade warrior, noticing the fact that the northern plains had a decent fog over them currently, especially beyond the North Gate…he wondered if Cao Cao was up to something.

He got in contact with Grievous once again. "General. Cao Cao hasn't moved still. There's no sign of any units coming my way."

"Excellent. I'm ordering all forces in Dali to move out and prepare for the three way ambush, the South Gate has begun to open up."

Terra quickly got concerned at that. "But general, that'll leave the observatory empty. I'll have to just watch from my own position, and I can't see much right now."

The cyborg reassured him. "Cao Cao is a man of intelligence. He knows what type of opponents to fight and who to keep back from. I've overheard his com channel recently, and whenever Yuan Shao has ordered an advance, Cao Cao has told his men to stand down…it is obvious he will simply watch and see who can win this."

Terra wasn't convinced, but waited as Grievous continued. "You will stay put and keep an eye out. I'm going to divert all other available forces to the South Gate. I trust you will contact me the moment Cao Cao shows himself?"

"…Yes sir." With that, Terra put away his com-link. He still couldn't shake off the feeling…

He looked to his troops. "…Inform everyone. We're moving out into the plains and moving towards Burmecia. That's our order from Grievous."

The men nodded, and in unison responded with "Sir yes sir!" before heading off to inform the others, as Terra turned and looked to the misty lands beyond.

"'Cao Cao is a man of intelligence'…if his smart enough, he'll be trying to sneak up on us with this…"

Terra and his troops soon slowly moved out of the gate, and headed into the misty plains, with the Keyblader taking the lead, and his three thousand strong troops staying close to him, keeping a keen eye out of anything that moves.

The ground was moist, and their feet trudging through it, as they had the noises of the strange animals and beings on this planet, and seeing, now and then, the odd Chocobo or the odd flan like monster close by or even some rather large, green numerous tentacle creatures with massive maws, all of them quickly fled into the mist the moment they saw the small army.

Burmecia wasn't that far away, from what Terra recalled. It shouldn't take long to get to the city and see about Cao Cao. Terra begun to think about what would happen if Cao Cao is still there…Should he try to battle the man? Should he try and reason with him to defect to the Galactic Federation? The fact was he only had three thousand, and it's possible Cao Cao has tens of thousands.

Terra begun to quickly think moving out of the Gate was a bad idea, but, he was out here now, and he was determined to find out what this man from Earth V was playing at.

Soon, Terra begun to feel that maybe he was lost. He was sure this city of rats wasn't that far, the troopers were starting to get anxious. "Sir, maybe we should turn back…"

"Sir, perhaps we should fall back and inform Grievous that the risk is too great to openly move around here…"

But, their concerns were soon eased, as they saw poles with flags in the distance within the mist, and an outline of a wooden wall.

Terra quickly hinted to his men to quiet down, as they slowly march closer, trying to lessen their noise as much as possible, as the flags became visible, showing they were Blue, and had the word imprinted onto them, 'Wei'. the wooden wall was the outer defense for the camp Cao Cao had set up, and the gates were sealed shut leading into the place, as Terra noticed.

But something else was noticeable as well, something that alarmed him as he motioned at his men to stop moving.

Terra added something up…Now they saw Yuan Shao have transport ships designed to carry a large amount of construction gear to create the armory as quickly as possible to house the communication tech and weapon supplies.

The reports from the observatory never said the same for Cao Cao's forces. It was just a military deployment…so how did he create a full on camp, complete with fortifications and flags so fast without the tools needed from the Federation to do so in a rapid pace?

Terra then noticed one other thing….this camp, even at this distance, was unusually quiet as well.

He turned to his men. "Your visors have life sign scanners right?"

One of the men nodded. "Yes sir."

"Start scanning ahead, see if you pick up anything."

A few of the troopers did, their blue visors turning green as they begun a scan. "…Sir, nothing is coming up. It could be jamming technology in place. This is a battlefield after all, maybe the enemy don't want this to know of their numbers waiting for us inside and-"

Terra knew now. "…It's a decoy! Cao Cao's forces aren't here! All units! Back to the North Gate now! Double time people!"

His entire force quickly turned around and beat feet, rushing back as quickly as they possibly could towards the North Gate.

As they were, that's when Terra's fears were confirmed.

His force quickly noticed a group of possibly two thousand anthropomorphic rats, wearing knightly type armor, carrying spears and lances alike, chasing after them, coming from the depths of the mist, led by a female one, that had greyish-white fur, wore a red hat with metal wings on the side of it, a red long coat that bore the coat of arms of the Burmecian people on the front, wore orange leather trousers that seemed to go down to her knees, and leathers straps, that wrapped round her legs and feet, down to her toes. She had green eyes, and white hair, which was of medium length. This was Freya Crescent, who demanded, as Terra saw her "Keyblader! Stand and fight me!"

He didn't bother. He ordered his troops to fire the odd shot at the enemy, but focus on their retreat back and not to directly engage.

A second wave was soon giving chase out of the mist, this time led by Jak, a group of two thousand crossbow troopers. "Terra! Is running all you keybladers are good for?!"

Still he told his men to focus on getting back, despite the fact they were now being shot down, several of his men perishing at a time from wave after wave of energy arrows flying out of those crossbows.

Finally, a third group joined in, coming out from the mist, an additional four thousand swordsman, led by Link. "There's no point resisting anymore!"

Terra yelled at his men to just keep pushing on. They had to get back. There was no stopping. Once they got back inside the gate, it would be a simply case of sealing all entrances, and fighting from the top of the gate, holding out…then all he would have to do is warn Grievous, and reinforcements would come and break the siege.

…It was too late.

As they saw the outline of the gate, there before them…at least thirteen thousand men and women of the Wei army…amongst them, Sun Shang Xiang and Xiahou Yuan with their bows ready, along with around three thousand crossbowmen and the rest, spearmen and swordsmen, all aiming towards Terra's tiny force, which had around 2,500 remaining after the chase…

Terra heard the chasers catching up. "Men, cease fire, but hold your ground, circle together and hold."

His men did as they were told, huddling together, as the chasers slowly spread their men around to join up with those at the gate, creating a complete circle around Terras, the crossbow unit of Jaks had stopped firing when they noticed Terra's men had stopped.

Xiahou Yuan watched, as everything fell quiet between both sides, before walking towards Terra, slowly. "Terra, Cao Cao wants to see you, if you could come with me. Relax, your boys won't be harmed for now, we promise."

Terra glared, looking at the podgy man for a while, before he nodded, and lowered his Keyblade.

Soon he found himself being led back up to the top of the gate, where he stood before he committed to this fatal mistake, and standing there now, having turned around, and looked to Terra, was Cao Cao. With him on his left, Xiahou Dun, and to his right, another Burmecian, this one wearing a large leather hat with two holes for his ears, having the same fur colour as Freya, a green a yellow bulky looking long sleeved jacket, with bulky green trousers, which went down to his feet, and a black shirt underneath his jacket. He had the same whitish hair as Freya, but had blue eyes instead of green, and was slightly taller, carrying a red halberd. This was Attorei Fratley, or as he was called by his people, Sir Fratley.

Behind Terra, was Xiahou Yuan. "Here he is Cao Cao."

Cao Cao nodded at Yuan, then focused back to Terra. "So, you're the leader of the guard here…I must admit, I expected this 'Terra' to be older."

"Tch, was that suppose to insult me?" the Keyblader answered.

"Not at all." The Wei King walked down towards Terra, keeping his blade in its sheath. "Youngsters normally don't think so fast as you did. I had Freya, Link and Jak prepare to ambush you, once you went inside our false camp. Instead you quickly deduced what was going on and attempted to retreat back. The sudden retreat, and the refusal to attack your chasers head on, gave way to the fact you knew my plan at that moment."

He stepped past Terra, walking over to the other side of the wall, looking over to the plains that belonged to the kingdom of Alexandria. "But you showed you did not think this over correctly. You knew there was a loss of sight thanks to the mist. Did it not occur to you to check around the perimeter of the gate first? You would've found us much sooner if you did. Instead you went straight to my camp, as I expected."

Terra noticed Xiahou Yuan had stood back, giving Terra a little space, allowing the Keyblader to walk over towards Cao Cao. "You knew I would move. How?"

"Albert Wily has been tracking all communications since the invasion begun, I just asked him to track anyone that was listening in on my frequency."

"…As Grievous was."

"Then I heard about the amount of men, what places you were using…he explains a lot to his men, that's good. Then of course, I decided to throw around some 'information' myself."

"Your words with Yuan Shao."

Cao Cao nodded. "I've yet to actually speak with Yuan Shao. I knew claiming I wasn't going to move would ease Grievous's concern over this gate. Once I had done that, I moved my men, with the aid of the Burmecians, to the gate, whilst keeping an open path to my decoy camp should you move…it took a little while, but you finally showed yourself…despite what Grievous said, you disobeyed and moved."

Terra looked to stone floor, cursing himself a little.

Cao Cao could only smile at overhearing it. "Don't judge yourself too harshly. You did what was right, and try to figure out the enemy ploy. Perhaps next time you should see to your back first, leave a reserve force at least, before pressing on."

The Wei leader looked to the kingdom beyond. "Speaking of pressing on, my next target is to be Alexandria…but, I require your direct assistance."

Terra listened.

"In that city is the armory of General Grievous. To him right now, he believes his west side and rear are both secure. The North Gate and Alexandria. I want that illusion to remain until we take that city. We'll then launch a three way attack, and with his supplies belonging to us, the city over on our side, and letting Yuan Shao know of this, Grievous will be hard pressed to remain on this planet. He plans to use a three way attack on Yuan Shao…I wonder what his reaction would be, if we done the same back to him, just on a larger scale."

"But, the only way to get in, is to pretend to be members of the Galactic Federation. To wear the suits, to match the frequency of the communication…and have someone who is an ally of theirs leading us." with that, he was obviously hinting to Terra.

Terra knew this. "Why would I help you?"

"Because you're smart enough to know the odds. You know this plan will bring us a victory here on Gaia IX, and ensure that Grievous does not forget this day."

Terra glared at the King of Wei. "I joined my master Eraqus and Grievous to fight against the Shinra Federation. I won't work for them, and nor would my men."

"You won't be. You'll be working for me, for the Hero Base Faction. You have no need to hold any ties to the Shinra, only to us…Think of it like this, the Shinra Federation knows about this entire invasion plan of the Galactic, they know of Keatons numbers, they know of his base locations…tell me, what are the odds of success, if your enemy knows everything about you? Wouldn't it be wise to live to see tomorrow, instead of the end of today?" With this, Cao Cao walked up towards the Keyblader.

"…I have friends who are working for the GF."

Cao had stopped a few steps away from Terra, and slowly, put his hand out towards the lad. "With you by my side, I will do all that I can to help them see the truth, the inevitable outcome. Will you join me, to at least, try?"

…Terra gave in, sighing deeply, not sure if he was going to regret this choice. "I'll, inform my men to remove their armor and hand it over to you…"

The South Gate was fully opened.

Riding out in front of the charging army of Yuan Shao, was Yan Liang, Hua Xiong, his skin back to normal and with a replacement bike, and Wen Chou. Behind them, five thousand strong men and women, wielding their crossbows and vibrospears, cheering as they rode on, morale at an all time high.

"Hahaha! Taking that was a piece of cake! These Galactic Federation troopers are nothing to be concerned over, they bleed just as easily as the Yellow Turbans!" Yan Liang had look over to his two partners.

Wen Chou had been looking ahead, and seemed surprised for a moment, spotting something, before looking to Yan. "Well I hope you're ready for more! The bigger battle is about to commence!"

Yan Liang looked ahead now, and noticed, around seven thousand odd Galactic Federation troopers, all standing in the plains beyond the mountainsides that are currently encasing Yuan Shao's forces in from beyond the gate.

He just smiled. "Excellent, a real fight on our hands! CROSSBOW UNIT, GET YOUR SWORDS READY FOR A CHARGE! SPEARMEN, FOLLOW UP!"

Over to where the GF men were, standing in line with them, was Dark Rich, hearing one of the troopers speak to him. "S-Sir, it's the three champions of Earth V, they're about to charge with their bike unit. Perhaps we should split into two and allow them to pass in the middle of us-"

"We're staying right where we are. I want all men lined up, in rows, to the width of the passageway. Then I want all of you to adjust your rifles for constant rapid firing until their energy cells are depleted." The clone of the human Overmind just stared ahead as he spoke.

"Sir, but-"

"Then when the front line has depleted their cell, they are to move right to the back and allow the second row forward, to waste their energy cells, then rinse and repeat, allowing each wave to reload their rifles safely, and keep up the fire power. We will be the wall blocking Yuan's army, as our side forces come in and crush them."

The trooper wasn't sure about it still. "But sir, they are the champions-"

"Earth V warriors use their fame and valor to strike fear. Show none, and their effort is for naught. Understood? Now get started, I presume we have only a few minutes before they arrive." All the clone had to do after, was briefly glance at the soldier, and that was enough, as the man saluted him, and started yelling at the troops to quickly get organized.

Hua Xiong noticed the sudden moving going on in the enemy ranks, slowing down his bike a fair bit, causing Yan Liang, Wen Chou and their army to do the same. "Hold on, they're up to something…" He looked around, noticing the cliff sides to the left and right of them, sloped in a way that it would be possible for people to move down if they were careful enough.

"What's the matter Hua? We've got them now! It doesn't matter what formation they come up with! A charge will break them!" Wen Chou was eager to speed things up.

"The enemy are numerous, and Grievous is meant to be an effective military commander….remember, we're not entirely used to all this new tech, especially rifles…" Hua Xiong warned.

"You worry over nothing! All they've done is lined themselves up!" Yan Liang pointed out…which, the enemy have done, lined up in such a firm, organized way, blocking the way out of this passage. "This makes it easier! Let's get this done and go home!"

With that, he sped his bike up, as did Wen, and eventually so did Hua, along with the rest of their biker unit, heading straight of the enemy's line.

The hail of yellow energy bullets suddenly rushing at them all changed their tune.

The three officers were trying to avoid each shot, but often, the odd shot would barely miss them, or just get deflected away by their weapons…their men weren't so lucky, dozens and dozens were being shot down, their weak shielding and armor being pieced through, or their bikes being struck enough times for them to either explode, or shut down and crash, both ways normally killing their drivers.

It was enough to turn their charge into a mess of confusion and chaos.

The officer that served Dong Zhuo knocked another stray shot away, as he looked back to the South Gate, noticing that one of the major waves of Yuan Shao's army, carrying vibroswords, vibrospears and shields were beginning to march through. "Everyone! Calm down and regroup! Prepare to charge again! We need to clear a path for our main unit! Simply try to keep dodging as we rush their formation and-!" He stopped, looking to the cliffs again.

He now knew they were in trouble.

Waves of Galactic Federation troopers, carrying their rifles in one hand, and huge riot steel shields in the other, begun to slowly march down, having activated their gravity boots to easily take a slow march down without any risk of falling, a standard state of equipment for those power suits.

They were keeping their shields over the front of themselves, firing a few bullets at a time, keeping in a sort of line as they came down on both sides. It caused those that had crossbows whilst riding the bikes to get them out and open fire, but the shields were easily deflecting the shots.

It only got worse after that, as Dark Rich's unit and their constant firing had depleted the bike forces numbers. One of them managed to get close to the front lines of the GF, but the clone had quickly moved in front of the biker, and in one slash, and a kick, the rider was hacked down, and his body knocked off the hover bike, which Dark Rich had quickly got on, and turned it around, charging now into the mess that was Yuan Shao's frontal forces.

Chad had managed, meanwhile, to get on top of the South Gate, and over to the side of it, looking out to the chaos beyond, noticing that, things have just gone to shit. "…By the name of Blind Lo…" He quickly got on his com-link. "Guo Tu! We need to tell the three guys up front to retreat and rethink our movements! The bike guys are getting slaughtered left right and center!"

No answer.

"Oh come on! I know you can hear me Goddamnit! They're being hit by a three way strike in a narrow passage just beyond the South Gate!"

There was an answer now. "I was just informing Yuan Shao. He wishes for them to press on. Their skill can easily help them get out of this little ambush tactic."

Chad wasn't sure if Yuan Shao could be this stupid. It wasn't a little ambush, it was a major movement that had the GF with the advantage. He looked over to the cliffs, to see if he could spot, what could be seen, as a commander…perhaps if he could sneak up on him…

He saw someone alright, and it wasn't a 'him'. he saw Kei Yuki, wearing a light set of GF armor. It was coloured dark blue, and was built in more humanoid curve and shape, compared to the standard bulky edition. She wasn't wearing a helmet, letting her hair free, as she watched the battle below from the cliff.

Chad then looked to wherever she was looking at, and saw what was going on now, in the midst of the battle. Wen Chou, Yan Liang and Hua Xiong were caught up fighting just one guy, who was on a bike, hovering there, using his blade to deflect each of their blows from their spears as they circled around him to try and find a weak spot.

Dark Rich had announced himself as the commanding officer, luring at first, Yan Liang to take him on, then Wen Chou quickly joined in, thinking two should be enough…but they struggled, they had small cuts on their arms and chests, showing Dark had managed to strike them a few times, then came along Hua Xiong, who just now got stabbed in the shoulder as he circled round and missed the clone again, the vibrosword slicing in deep as he passed.

Chad looked at the clone, and could feel something familiar off it, even from this distance…a feeling that called to him, a yearn to fight…

He quickly changed into his Mobian form, and jumped off the top of the gate, spinning towards the ground.

Hua Xiong meanwhile, had moved away from the three way attack him, Yan and Wen tried, having now got stabbed in the left side of his hip, blood flowing from the wound. Yan Liang and Wen Chou eventually broke off and joined him, they had their own wounds leaking of blood. "Shit, this guy ain't normal…"

Dark Rich, meanwhile, had turned his bike towards them, holding out the vibrosword, ready, watching all three. "What's the matter? I thought the warriors of Earth V were suppose to be something special."

Hua Xiong looked to his allies. "Did you guys even pick up on a weakness? What about his blindside?" he motioned at the eye patch, which caused Dark Rich to smirk.

"His too good. He's like Xiahou Dun, his mastered the use of just one eye, I tried to attack him that direction several times…got wounds to prove the failures." Wen Chou looked ashamed saying that.

"…I don't want to be the one to suggest this, but our forces are pretty much routed already…we have to back off and recover." Yan Liang made his bike go in reverse a little, to show what he meant to the others.

Wen Chou nodded in agreement. "Yuan Shao won't be happy with us…but this is a battle for the Shinra Federation, not for our lord. If this was our world then…"He didn't finish. Instead he glared at Dark Rich, before turning his bike right around, and zooming off back to the South Gate.

Yan Liang looked to Hua Xiong, then turned around as well, shooting off back the way they came, leaving Hua Xiong staring down Dark Rich.

"You know you've been bested. Don't think you can intimidate me after that poor excuse of a fight." The clone pointed his blade towards the wounded warrior.

He had to quickly move the blade shortly after this though, as a red blur seemed to just spring up before him, spinning for half a second, before it had a blade out, and took a swing at him. He managed to block with his own sword, and saw that it was Chad, briefly staying in the air, his sword connected to Dark Rich's, before the clone pushed him away, making Chad land in front of him.

"What's this? A little stray Mobian out on the battlefield?" Dark Rich mocked, aiming his blade at Chad now…but something about the Mobian seemed to catch his attention.

The deep blue eyes…

As Chad noticed, it gave the clone pause. He quickly turned to Hua Xiong. "Hey! Get out of here and recover! I'll take care of him!"

Hua Xiong knew with his wounds, it was sound advice, finally leaving the frontlines, and leaving Chad to confront the clone.

For Dark Rich, the world seemed to slow down. Those eyes were so familiar to him…no, so was the body, the red hedgehog… "Change. Now."

"I'm sorry?" Chad was a little perplexed by this.

"Change into your human form. I'd rather fight a man then an animal." Dark Rich glared at Chad whilst speaking this.

Chad decided to agree to this, and quickly changed back into his human form, still holding his sword ready, in the midst of the carnage of the fighting.

The clone went into a state of shock, seeing Chad's human form. Memories, memories of a time before flooded back to him…not of the one he was created from though…even further back, back to times that no longer existed. He was seeing visions of this world, this very battle…only eventually managing to focus his mind and see the actual current Chad before him. "…Chad Oswald…the brother to, her…"

"What?"

Dark Rich slowly got off the hover bike. "We've met before. A long time ago. We've fought several times. Our first encounter was elsewhere. Twinkle Park. It was never here...I wonder why."

Chad just decided to go for it, charging forward.

That was a grave mistake.

"How much longer before my officers arrive Guo Tu?" Yuan Shao was pacing a little back and forth, his impatience beginning to show itself.

Guo Tu checked a data pad he was carrying. "We're in luck my lord, the transport ships have managed to keep a decent speed despite the risks of being attacked, and should be here within the hour."

"Good, good. I want this all done quickly now. The idea of rubbing it in Keaton's face is one I do not want to keep on hold." The ex-High Minister answered with, looking up to the skies above. "I don't want it to be a case of we get done after everyone else. I want to be the one to claim the first victory against the Galactic Federation. I want it to be known of my armies superiority. I want Cao Cao to be in awe of what we can do."

When he stopped gazing up to the sky, and return to looking at the land around him…something shot by him, making him jump, and just see the back of the person, who was on a hover bike. "…Was that Wen Chou?"

Another bike went by, this time a little bit further away, so it didn't scare the crap outta him. "Y-Yan Liang!? Why, why are my men retreating to the rear lines?! Guo Tu! Explain!"

His adviser wasn't sure what to say, but quickly got on the com-link. "Hua Xiong! Chad! What's going on out there? Why are our champions retreating!?"

He got his answer. Hua Xiong had just ridden up, slowing down as he approached. "An officer under Grievous's command. He was too much for the three of us. We need to get patched up."

Yuan Shao stormed over to him. "All three of you have been made to withdraw?! Then, then who's leading the front!? Who's the inspiration out there making sure our front lines don't crumble?!"

"Chad is currently handling the officer."

The minister thought about this for a moment. "I see…Well I suppose if you three cannot handle it, I'm sure the Unicron slayer can. Very well, go and recover. Guo Tu! Inform Ryu and Ken to leave the armory and join the army marching to the South Gate. We need men our forces can look up to, and if a couple of street fighters is all we have for now while Chad is busy, then it will have to do!"

It was while this was going on, a small unit was leaving the North gate, no more than around two thousand five hundred men, all wearing Galactic Federation power armor, led by Terra, marching towards Alexandria.

This part of the plains was relatively empty now, as Grievous had pushed his men towards the South Gate, leaving only the odd roaming creature, that knew better then to stick around with so many marching.

Terra had looked over towards the south and could just barely see the rear unit of Grievous's army. "…Our first time working together, and he really did expect me to hold out against you by myself, Cao Cao…"

One of those hidden in a power suit, was the king of Wei. "No doubt he has an knack to be able to value his officers so well. It's a shame he chose to underestimate me, no doubt because of the planet I'm from. He could learn from your sense of weariness towards your enemies."

"It's probably his experience makes him a little arrogant."

"Most likely…hmm, that reminds me." Cao Cao then turned to his men. "Troops! I want three teams split from us! Two one hundreds, and a three hundred team! I want you all to go within Grievous's ranks and divide up! Once you have blended in, open fire!"

Their entire force came to a stop for a moment, before three small teams were broken off, and did as they were told, surprising Terra, as they begun to move on, leaving those troops, as he knew, to no doubt die. "Cao Cao…They won't survive. You just told them to march to their deaths, for little reason."

Cao Cao looked to him. "For little reason?"

Terra couldn't see much from the visor, but felt that Cao Cao was saying that in a way that meant 'think carefully about it'…and it soon hit Terra. "You sent them to cause mass confusion. Because Grievous's men won't be able to tell the difference. It'll make them doubt one another, most likely easing their willingness to march on."

"Giving Yuan Shao time to hold out while we deal with the enemy supplies. I know Yuan Shao, by now he needs all the help we can get to endure."

The Keyblader looked surprised. "The man has around seventy thousand men. Surely he can't struggle against the meager army we've brought here."

"You'd be surprised how badly Yuan Shao and his army's spirit can drop over simple matters. Yuan Shao panics the moment something goes wrong, he cannot motivate his forces when his all in a flutter."

Chad screamed out, the vibrosword had penetrated his abdomen.

He couldn't even lay a finger on this person. The guy was now standing in front of Chad looking emotionless, as he looked down to the wound he caused, pulling his blade back afterwards, allowing Chad to hold his hand over the wound and take a few steps back.

His arms were cut open, he had several slashes across his chest, managing to ease the bleeding with recovery chips, which he has already run out of now, and due to using around ten of them, he couldn't really focus, he was, as Medi warned before what too many or too powerful of a dose can do, made him high slightly. His senses were warped, and his body felt a little num…the stomach stab forced him back to the real world.

He couldn't win either. Like the three before, he couldn't beat this guy. He was a lethal swordsman. He had weight behind his deceptive light looking sword swings, enough to always knock Chad off his guard, and the use of battle chips didn't help, as the guy seemed to recognize a fair amount of them, and knew how to avoid such. The Chaos beam just missed when Chad used it, but after one lucky miss, the guy managed to dodge it since.

Dark Rich knew Chad was done now. " You're just like the others. You can't defeat me. Strange how this has changed. All because of a sudden recall. The way we first met was entirely different, and the results now are as well."

"I don't…understand…we've never fought before, we've never met…" Chad took a few more steps back. God his stomach was bugging him about this wound, like the rest of his body was complaining about theirs.

"Those other times. I never remembered you. I fought you, worked with her, and the battles with the GF were elsewhere. You awoke my brother from his sleep before we even met. This time I knew you and your skills, besides that red energy beam. Things have changed….leave."

Chad looked surprised.

"You and her are to meet. She needs to know who you are. This much the past is telling me…what the previous cycles, are telling me."

"The, previous cycles?"

Dark Rich looked away, at the stray hover bike he had left there, surprised no one managed to shoot it yet, and went over, climbing on. "If you cannot best me, then there is no one in that army for me to enjoy battling. I'll take my leave, Oswald." With that, he rode off, into the ranks of Grievous's army, several dozen of them surprised at their constantly victorious leader suddenly backing out.

Chad noticed then, he was a prime target now, as the GF troopers aimed his direction. "Shit shit shit CHAOS CONTROL!" he vanished, in a flash of red, just as several energy shots flew by where he was, and reappeared, close to the South Gate, to the side of the gateway itself, as Yuan Shao's army poured through charging into the three way assault. "Shit….Damnit…Gotta get more recovery chips…armory probably has some. Gotta tell Guo Tu the bad news." with that, he got on the com-link.

…..It didn't go down well.

"Chad has been driven back as well!?" Yuan Shao in a slightly higher pitch then he normally talks.

"I'm sorry sir, but he has been wounded badly, and requires recovery chips. Thankfully the threat of that officer who attacked them has retreated for the moment, although he was not wounded in the conflict." Guo Tu really didn't want to be the bearer of bad news right now.

"No harm to him, but he wounded four of our fine men? And our bike force has been destroyed? AND we're currently being struck in three directions at the frontlines?"

Guo Tu nodded to each question.

"We need to halt our advance! Guo Tu, slow the march! Defensive measures! No wait! We need to commit a counterattack! But without a reasonable figure to lead my men won't be motivated, no, we need to charge head on! Tell all possible units to increase their speed through the South Gate! Wait don't!"

This is what Guo Tu feared, his lord panicking. "Lord Yuan Shao you must focus! Our men need straight, plain orders now our officers have been routed at the front! I suggest we hole ourselves up in the South Gate and begin to regroup our forces. No doubt the loss of our frontal attack has hurt our men's morale."

"Bah, what do you know about what to do in this situation! I got a better idea! Tell them to keep charging! It's the only option when we have such numbers in our favor!" Yuan Shao wasn't a smart man with planning or ideas. Guo Tu knew this, but, he knew Yuan Shao would also fail to see logic…Guan Du had truly left a mark on him. He refused his advisers then, and was doing it now. He was determined to show he was in charge of everything going on, but yet…

"…Yes my lord. But the men will lose favor towards you should they be unable to break through the movement of the enemy."

"Just do as I say Guo Tu! We'll keep attacking until the rest of my officers arrive!"

"Excellent, Yuan Shao's army is trying to increase its pace after the loss of its front. It's obvious the man is desperate. All units, keep the pressure on them. They'll break soon enough."

The voice was of Grievous, what was overheard in Cao Cao's helmet.

"Yuan Shao is losing his cool…that most certainly means as Grievous said. Hua Xiong, Yan Liang and Wen Chou have been defeated. We have to climb around in order to get to Alexandria castle, right?" Cao Cao asked Terra.

He nodded. "Yeah, it'll take a while more. Let's hope your little inside attack gets started soon."

Terra then saw a bike heading off in the same direction they were going, up the steep hill that leads to Alexandria and Treno, except unlike them, the biker seemed to be heading to Treno. "Huh, seems like Grievous decided to send someone to call in reinforcements. Strange, he never said anything about it down the channel, has he?"

"Indeed he hasn't, which means he either has begun to figure out our intentions, or that's a rogue element we just saw."

Then, Terra's com-link had gone off. "Terra. This is Grievous. Report on the North Gate. How goes the matter with Cao Cao? Has he moved at all?"

Terra stopped for a moment, and looked over to Cao Cao. "…Nothing to report. Banners are still up, no movement out of his camp. His refusing to move anywhere despite what's going on down the South."

"It seems his old problems with the High Minister hasn't been put to rest. Good. Hold position. This will take a few hours due to current numbers, but once we've broken Yuan Shaos morale completely, we'll turn our focus to Cao Cao and the rat people of this planet, before finally crushing Lindblum." Grievous didn't sound smug when he said that, despite, by the way he put, victory was assured now.

"…Is there a problem sir?" Terra asked.

"Our numbers. Keaton was foolish. We're risking much for this, and he chooses to allow our forces to stay separated across the whole territory…I can see the men, those at the front are focused on the fighting, but the ones here in reserve, I can sense their fear and concern slowly growing. I'll contact the warships soon to report the goings on elsewhere, hopefully we'll have good news to feed around and calm the nerves. That clone of the Zerg boy hasn't been helpful on the men here, suddenly leaving his post…I'll deal with him later. Keep me notified if Cao Cao moves, Grievous out."

Terra lowered his com device, and noticed Cao Cao had removed his GF helmet, looking over to where Grievous's main force is, barely visible in the far distance. "…He looks for ways to bring strength to his men….and the warships we were given as transport to this world are naturally on the opposite side to keep out of weapons range…We need to delay the chances of hope."

Dark Rich, meanwhile, after a good ten or so minutes, reached Treno, and got to what he had wanted. Outside the city, were several dozen transport ships, being checked over and ready for takeoff should Grievous call a retreat.

The cyborg wasn't an idiot. He knew to have a escape route ready should things get ugly. He felt Treno was a more viable location for the ships, as Alexandria, though will fortified, would be a much more likely target of the enemy's should things turn their way.

The clone got off the bike, turning it off, and walked his way over to some of the engineer guys checking over the transports, heading to one guy who was busy seemingly scanning one of the said vessels, standing to the side of it. "Hey, you. Is this vessel flyable?"

The man who has been busy looking at his data pad turned to Dark Rich. "Oh, sir. Yes, yes it is. I was just making sure the energy output remained at an acceptable level should the general need to hurry-"

"You need to check inside. Grievous reported a possible saboteur roaming around in our ranks, and the general wants me to check every vessel, is that clear?"

The fella wanted to say 'well isn't it wise to inform everyone here so we can get it done quicker?'….but the cold look and the menacing appearance of this clone was enough to make him just go with it. The clone seemed like the all serious sort, and probably knew what he was doing. "Sure, whatever you say guy. I'll just open her up."

The engineer opened the transport door, and went inside, with Dark Rich following. "Well, I'll check around the pilot's area first, the most obvious spot for someone to fu-"

He felt a brief wave of pain, before his vision went from looking ahead, to the floor, and falling down, hitting it, rolling once, then finding himself looking at his body, lacking his head, as it fell down to the floor of the ship, and the clone left the ship.

It was a slow round of assassinations.

Dark Rich went over to each engineer team, sometimes they were alone, sometimes in up to groups of five, and done the same thing over and over to each the vessels they were watching over. They knew of who he was, and his appearance, each time, made them believe Grievous had him working with them. Some saw their fellows go in the ships, and don't come out, but seeing Dark Rich keep leaving and going to others, they thought he had them all working hard checking things over.

There were at least a hundred of these guys checking the ships, the guards were within Treno, and as fate would have it, they weren't manning the walls at this moment in time.

Finally, a lone transport vessel had lifted off, and headed back to the front lines, to the cliffs.

Yuan Shao was relieved.

A lone transport vessel, looking quite badly damaged, had arrived, and landed nearby, the markings obviously being SF, and when the hatches to it opened, out came the six he had been waiting for.

They were his youngest child, Yuan Shang, a boy of the age of twenty. Gao Gan, Yuan Shao's nephew. Xin Ping, a rather burly and large looking man. Lu Kang, weedy, and carrying a trident, Tian Feng, another advisor to Yuan Shao like Guo Tu, except he looked more well built, was in his thirties, had rather long brown hair, a decent length goatee and wearing black robes, carrying a sword.

Finally, there was the man Yuan Shao had been looking forward to the most. Out of the ship last…red in the face and stumbling a little, looking completely smashed, using his spear to keep balance, was Chunyu Qiong.

This guy was an old friend of both Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. He wore silver armor, with the torso segment of it having a Chinese dragon embedded into it, was about in his forties, had a small beard and moustache, brown eyes, and slightly tanned white skin.

"Ah, some of my finest officers! I'm shocked to see the transport in such a bad shape, what happened?" Yuan Shao walked over to them, arms outstretched in a welcoming manner.

"It seems our pilot did not realize what warships we were going past until it was too late, as it turned out they belonged to the Galactic Federation. He was killed, but luckily, Tian Feng had taken a keen interest in these vessels of the empires, and managed to get us away and down here before we could be killed." Yuan Shang explained, motioning to Tian Feng.

Yuan Shao quickly went over to him, and shook his hand. "Thank you, once again, you've proven some worth to my forces after Guan Du. I shall make sure to reward you after this is all done."

Tian just nodded. Guan Du…Yuan Shao blamed a chunk of it on him, despite the fact he was against the battle from the beginning, to the point Yuan Shao decided to slam him in prison. He was released after, and, like the other advisors, Ju Shou and Shen Pei, he was blamed for somehow contributing to the loss at Guan Du. Only goddamn Guo Tu was somehow left off the hook about it.

Yuan Shao then turned to Chunyu, who managed to finally stand up tall, as he noticed his lord was looking at him. "Ah Chunyu Qiong! Finally! You need to get to my armory and begin guarding it with a man named T Hawk. Some brute from Earth X. I know I can trust your skill with this matter, can't I?"

Tian Feng looked horrified at Yuan Shao, then quickly looked over at Guo Tu, and soon walked over to the man, as Yuan Shao was busy speaking to the rather obvious drunk officer. "Guo Tu, in the name of the creation god Azrael, why did you let him appoint that drunk again?! I thought we were going to finally throw him at the front lines to make him sober up!"

Guo Tu looked a little confused, and looked over to Chunyu Qiong, as if finally noticing the obvious. "..is he drunk again?"

"When isn't he drunk? I've sent messages to Yuan Shao about getting help for this guy. He needs it. He decided to drink down a few bottles before we finally got here."

Guo Tu soon shrugged it off. "It's not like his alone guarding the armory. We've got others there protecting it. And anyway, the focus of the battle is at the South Gate. We need to get things organized fast. Yuan Shao just let everyone charge while in one of his panic moments, got little idea what's happening out there right now."

"Well get us an update, get information from the communications we have, we need to know of enemy positions, numbers, and what equipment they have, as well as what we have and where everyone is."

Guo Tu nodded in agreement, and got on the communication device, as Chunyu Qiong saluted Yuan Shao and slowly walked his way to where the armory was.

It had taken around thirty minutes of constant calls, but eventually, Tian Feng and Guo Tu had a pretty good picture of the battle so far, as the other officers that had arrived, along with Yuan Shao, gathered round, as Guo Tu explained everything.

"Well, according to the two guys we have up front, Ryu and Ken, from Earth X, who are currently holed up in the South Gate, we're being mowed down. The enemy are using energy rifles from three directions, pretty much making the outside of the South Gate a kill zone. Our melee troops are unable to get in range to do any real damage and break the three way thanks to the shower of bullets. So far we've lost around eighteen thousand troops, which is slowly increasing, and our frontal assault unit, the bikers, have all but been killed off. Yan Liang, Wen Chou and Hua Xiong have all fallen back to Lindblum due to wounding, and T Hawk, with Chunyu Qiong, are now currently defending our armory in the forest nearby."

Tian Feng continued it. "We know that Grievous is focused solely on us. His entire army seems to be aimed our way. Cao Cao is suppose to be on the battlefield, with the people known as Burmecians, but we cannot get in contact with him or them. They've gone silent. I'd hoped we could organize a two way assault to relieve our front and weaken the grip Grievous has on this kill zone his formed."

"Suggestions?" Yuan Shao looked to the two advisors.

"Call everyone back and seal up the South Gate. If we deploy around two to four thousand men and use the crossbows from the armory, we can take up defensive measures there to halt the enemy advance while we reform our ranks and get our men motivated, as the constant charge has hurt their morale. Gao Gan would be best on leading the defense of the gate. We should also get the airships that Lindblum has. We'll use them to go through the South Gate, and open fire on the cliffs, the results will be two fold; the resulting rockfall will seriously hinder and damage Grievous's forces, and there will be little ground for the same kill zone trap to occur." Tian Feng had suggested.

Guo Tu looked to Tian, and just chuckled a little, shaking his head, before looking to his leader. "If you go on the defensive now, it'll break our men's morale entirely. They want a victory, and I know of a wise idea. The crossbows, as Tian said. We simply get them out to the men who can wield such. We stored over ten thousand away, let's get them all out, along with the with more advanced shield emitters we brought and stored away. If we give the shields to a frontal melee unit, and the crossbows to a rear unit, we can reform the ranks, and commence a charge, where the melee force soaks up the shots, and the crossbow troops take down the GF troopers while safe at the back."

Yuan Shao was certainly listening to Guo Tu, much to Tian's despair, as Guo Tu continued.

"Ten thousand of each, that's the amount we've got stored. Simple enough then isn't it lord Yuan Shao. We can easily form a twenty thousand shock force to push the frontlines, leading them will be Lu Kang, Yuan Shang and Xin Ping. While we prepare that, we keep sending people out to stop Grievous's forces from moving any closer to the gate. A sacrifice, but it will pay off. Gao Gan will go to the South Gate and work with Ryu and Ken give support fire, as no doubt the dead troopers on that gate must have had rifles, we collect, and use them. Chunyu Qiong and T Hawk remain at the armory with no more than a thousand men, while the rest are focused on our glorious march."

"And you feel this plan will guarantee us a victory?"

Guo Tu proudly nodded. "No doubt about it, my lord. Grievous is content with our current situation…let's give him a surprise."

Tian Feng needed to argue against it. "Lord Yuan Shao you need to remember that Grievous is a being that can figure out the battlefield like Cao Cao can! He knows of the Federations technology much more than us, our men are still new to all this! If we form a shock force the way Guo Tu suggested, he'll know to focus one group on the melee segment, while the others target the crossbow troops and disable our long range! His men know they're winning, we need to go on a defensive stance and get the people of Lindblum to help, have those that live on this planet support us!"

It was too late, he knew that but he had to try. "Guo Tu obviously knows much more then you do for this situation Tian Feng. He has been here longer. Guo Tu, do what you must. Get my men back into gear and destroy Grievous!" Yuan Shao ordered.

"What do you mean our three front officers of the south have departed!?"

"It's Dark Rich sir. H-He just ordered Aqua to get on a transport ship he was driving, then picked up Kei Yuki as well before leaving the planet."

Grievous looked at the trooper. "Have you tried to hail him?"

"His refusing to answer sir. We went to see who allowed him to use a transport vessel without your permission and…all the engineers are dead."

Grievous snarled in annoyance at this, quickly getting on his com-link. "Grievous to Galactic vessel Gardener! Emergency command! A single transport ship belonging to us has left the planet! Intercept and bring in!"

"Captain Alex Shaunbe here sir, we're currently under fire from Shinra ships. We are unable to intercept. Once we've dealt with the enemy vessels, we'll begin pursuit."

"What of the current status of the battles across the Federation then? You must have some news by now!"

"Communications to the RE886 space station have been unanswered sir. We'll attempt to hail them again short-shor-sh-" The com-link went dead.

"Grr, first no updates of the battle progress, and now their being shot up enough that it's interfering with the communication channels…" the cyborg wasn't in a good mood now, and what made it worse, was a new call to his com-link.

"General! General! We just had a rebellion within our rear ranks!"

He quickly answered. "Of all the damn things-Report! Has it been suppressed? Estimated numbers?"

"I'm not sure general, but it was sudden huge shootout! Several dozen folk suddenly shouted 'For Shinra, For Rufus' and opened fire, and before we knew it there was gunfire all over the place! We've counted about one thousand six hundred bodies so far, and we've got groups of men trying to arrest those they think are inside defectors like the ones just now! It's causing more casualties!"

"I'll be right there to settle the matter myself!" He turned away from the trooper that had reported to him, and was about to leave, before turning back to the man. "You, go and inform Ventus it's time for the raid on the armory. If what we heard from Yuan Shao's idiot of an advisor is true, then the armory will soon have minimal guards while they attempt this stupid idea of a charge attack."

"Yes sir!"

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, Queen Garnet had heard of the arrival of Terra, and a guard of two thousand men outside their gates, wishing to enter and speak with the princess. Steiner, her loyal and trusted knight, along with Beatrix, both suggested she just let them in.

So she did. She sent her lover, Zidane, along with Vivi, to personally greet Terra and his men.

"Hey guy. Welcome to the city. What's up?" Was the greeting Terra got from the monkey boy as soon as the gates opened and let everyone in. the guard of Alexandria saluted Terra as he entered.

"I wish to speak to the queen on urgent matters, ordered from Grievous himself. Also an attachment of mine needs to check on the armory." Terra answered.

"Hey, that's cool. Vivi, why don't you take Terra and some of his guys to see the princess while I take the others to their little set up camp?" Zidane turned to his black mage friend, who nodded.

"Sure. I can do that." He looked to Terra. "If you could come with me." and begun to walk off towards the castle.

"Alright, five hundred of you, with me, the rest, go with Zidane." Terra ordered.

His unit nodded, and did what they were told.

Terra walked with his troops down the winding streets of Alexandria…the population were nowhere to be seen, obviously choosing to try and stay indoors as much as possible while this fighting is going on, waiting for the storm to pass by, hoping and praying perhaps…

"Don't worry, if this goes off perfectly, they won't suffer at all." Cao Cao's voice was heard behind him, noticing Terra was looking at the houses as they went on.

Eventually, the grand castle was there before them, and they were walking over the drawbridge leading to it, the guards, as they got closer, seemed to be extremely tense. The whole situation on their world was probably quite a daunting prospect to them.

They soon stopped outside the main entrance, where Terra suggested no more than ten of his troops come with him, while the rest 'keep an eye out on the castle grounds'. The troops saluted, and begun spreading out around the castle grounds…especially at where the guards were stationed…

Terra, with his small squad of men, followed the young Vivi and two other guards to the balcony where Garnet, Steiner and Beatrix were, watching over the city. Garnet stood up, and moved away from her chair, nodded at Terra. "Welcome Terra, we humbly hope there isn't a problem with the agreement we have with General Grievous."

"Indeed not. But the issue I wish to speak to you about, I would prefer to be just to you, and your two top officers here." Terra motioned at Beatrix and Steiner.

Garnet nodded without thinking. "Of course." And ordered her guards to leave, including Vivi, leaving her, Steiner and Beatrix, with Terra and his ten troops, as the door to the hall leading to the balcony finally closed.

"So, Terra, what seems to be the matter?" The ruler of Alexandria asked, noticing the eerie brief silence once Vivi and the others departed.

"The matter is that you need to surrender over back to the Shinra Federation." the voice was from one the troopers belonging to the Keyblader, as eight of them suddenly raised their rifles at Beatrix and Steiner.

Then, the remaining men removed their helmets, showing them to be Sun Shang Xiang and Cao Cao, who gave Garnet a rather, smug smile. "Lady Garnet, captains of the guards, Steiner, Beatrix. A pleasure to meet all three of you."

Steiner quickly grabbed his sword as Beatrix grabbed hers, holding them ready, but uncertainty was showing on their faces, as the troopers stayed ready.

Cao Cao calmly got on the com-link. "Link, report on the outer perimeter. Is it secure?"

"All done Cao Cao, just rounding up the guards out here, don't think those inside have noticed yet." Link answered.

"Jak? Status?"

"Alexandria guards ain't the smartest sort, are they? We've got them all huddled in the middle of the armory, along with the monkey boy that led us here. The guys did a good job, not one of the guards suspected us." Jak responded down the com-link.

Cao Cao had made sure his com-link was turned up loud enough for the others to hear, especially Garnet.

"…." Garnet looked to Terra.

"I've chosen to work with Cao Cao. Queen Garnet, I implore you to stand down. You didn't want your people directly dragged into this feud." Terra spoke first, before Cao Cao continued it.

"And yet you wanted to return to being the central power on this world…without committing to anything other than guarding a depot. Keaton will look to you unfavorably. You never will gain anything from this battle if you won't commit any sacrifices…what if you showed that to Rufus Shinra?"

Garnet looked to the Wei king. "Rufus would rather allow Cid to keep control."

"Would he? I'm sure he would appease you by granting you a position in the business of this world again, like he will for the Burmecians after this. A three way joint effort between your kingdoms for this world, even out the burden of responsibility. Show you'll pull your weight, and he'll take notice." Cao Cao suggested.

Garnet knew that if she rejects them, she could die. Zidane could die, so really, with that in mind, they could just surrender, yet Cao Cao has pointed out the plus points to turning back over to Rufus, trying to manipulate the side that's already lost into action, when he could demand she tell her entire force to give up. "…You tongue is covered in silver, and shaped like a vipers, Cao Cao. Yet, I cannot help but listen…perhaps it is wiser to return to present, instead of fighting on the side of the doomed past…"

She turned and looked at Beatrix. "Beatrix, rally the guards and soldiers, as many as you can, we will prepare for combat."

She then looked to Steiner. "Ready the airships for launch, we'll bombard Grievous's main force."

Finally, she focused back to Terra, Sun Shang Xiang and Cao Cao, and bowed to them. "The people of Alexandria will submit back to the Shinra Federation, and help drive out the Galactic Federation. Grievous's armory is all yours."

Terra nodded, relieved slightly, before looking to the Wei Ruler, who was already back on the com-link. "Link, let the guards go. The people of Alexandria are on our side. Jak, shut down the communication systems entirely, let Zidane and the others go, and give the guards whatever weapons we have there. We're going to march against Grievous very soon."

He looked to Terra momentarily. "Once the com system is down, change your frequency and contact your friends to come to Alexandria. Tell them the truth, the whole truth. That will decide their real loyalties."

Then, Cao Cao got back on his com-link. "Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan…rally the men and women of the North Gate, the battle will soon commence."

"Oh man…I really don't feel good right now…"

"Chad, Medi has always informed us to be weary on the intake of restoration battlechips, it's known that rapid activation can cause nausea and sickness in most beings, including Navis themselves."

Chad was currently sitting down on a patch of grass, within the armory belonging to Yuan Shao, steel walls all around, several communication dishes and computers around, crates and crates of equipment, most which had been raided now by the order of Guo Tu, leaving mostly food crates, and the odd weapon crate.

Standing close to him, was a tall, muscled man, who was tanned all over, had face paint on, and a bandanna with a feather sticking out. This was T Hawk, as he prefers everyone to call him. A street fighter from Earth X who joined the Hero Base three years ago to have a more calm life…he joined the march because he was actually bored.

Chad had been on the borderline of puking for the last twenty minutes. He got himself extra restoration chips, and pretty much used them all at once, ranging from 10 healing, which is more or less for minor bruising and the smallest cuts, to 300 healing, which is for torn, damaged limbs.

Chad had about three of the 300, 7 of the 50, and 2 of the 10. So to sum up he used three for torn limbs, seven for decent cuts and major bruising, and two for the odd little cut.

The effect it had on him was…expected. The wounds were all cleared up, in return, he was sick as a dog, and high as a kite, having to just sit there and moan and groan, feeling his stomach wanting to hurl, and knows it in pain, but his mind is so gone right now, it can't register such.

"Ugh…how's our new guard buddy doing?" Chad managed to ask.

T Hawk looked over to three of crates lined up.

On top of them, was Chunyu Qiong, snoring his head off, his spear on the ground.

"His…busy." T Hawk answered.

He noticed that the guards in the place were often looking over to Chunyu and shaking their heads in disgust. Some of were saying he was like this during the time he had to defend Wu Chao back on Earth V, and of course, he failed miserably. They warned T Hawk about it, and suggested he takes the lead for now. He declined politely, reminding them it was Yuan Shaos call, and suggested to them perhaps he is like a raging buffalo when forced awake, a man who could spring into action the second he needs to.

T Hawk rarely ever got laughed at before. Most of the troops here had done so though when he said that to them.

The large man for a moment, focused back on Chad, before hearing the sound of a transport vessel coming in overhead, making him look up and check, quickly noticing the mark on the sides of the ship. "Great sitting bulls ghost! It's an ambush! Galactic Federation ship! Everyone get ready for battle!"

There were about ten crossbow men here out of all the guards, and they quickly aimed and fired at the ship, the shields of the transport easily protecting the hull from any damage, before the shields shut off, and the hatch to the vessel opened.

Diving out of the hatch, were multi colored Keyblade armor wearers, wielding all kinds of Keyblades, as the last one to leap out, was Ventus, who quickly pressed his hand on the pauldron he wore, triggering his own armor, as he landed the rest of his allies, who quickly scattered all over the place in rapid speeds, targeting the guards, who were quickly in a panic over the arrivals. "KEYBLADE WARRIORS! WE'RE DONE FOR!"

Keybladers were known in the Federation and on many planets as warriors who normally are by themselves, fighting elements of 'darkness', be it heartless or monsters, whatever they targeted, it got killed. It has been said that a group of ten can easily take down twelve times that number of regular Galactic Federation troopers. The only downfall was their armor was dangerously light, and was easy to piece with psychical attacks, since it's more designed for magic, energy and element protection, rather than brute force.

And seeing five hundred of these people jump down to visit you, is easily a morale breaking scene.

Chunyu Qiong mumbled and moved himself slowly off the crates, as the cries of his troops were heard. "What, what going on now? What is it? A fire? Balls of ice? Giant enemy lizards?" he slurred out, as his eyes were half open, while he fiddled around, feeling for his spear.

One Keyblader, a woman by the looks of it, quickly noticed him, and dashed to where he was, ready to hack him down…before she found her face guard had been gripped by the hand of T Hawk, who slammed her hard into the ground, stunning her, as she tried to figure out what just happened.

T Hawk didn't give her the time to. He let go, and raised his huge foot up, smashing it down on her head. When he moved his foot away, the helmet was crushed inwards, blood was seen seeping out the sides, as the woman's body twitched for a while, before going still. "Chunyu! We are under attack! Rally the troops! NOW!" he managed to say, before another Keyblader caught his attention, coming at him and trying to take him down.

"Huh!? We're under attack?!" Chunyu was starting to wake up fully now, noticing his guard force was being hacked down at a quickened pace. He grabbed his spear, trying to stand up straight and focus, managing to just avoid one Keyblader's attack, and impaled the guy right through the chest with the vibrospear he had, really by sheer luck, as he seemed to fail to notice the kill he just did, until he tried to kindly ask the Keyblade warrior to let go of his spear.

Chad noticed the carnage, and forced himself onto his feet, getting the Blade of Darkness out and ready…but he couldn't focus at all, his entire body felt ill and num. worst timing too, as three of the keybladers noticed him, and were running at him now. "…Fuck…if it isn't a pirate looking guy, it's Keyblades…I'm done for."

As all three got close, Chad noticed they seemed to slow down, then come to a complete stop…not just them though, the entire place had done so. Everyone was still, frozen in mid air strikes, stabs, and slashes.

Chad then heard an all too familiar voice. "You cannot die here. I will relieve you of the ailments in which you suffer from, and deal with the three before you…as well as grant you yet another power, from the blade of Primus."

Zuo Ci. He was behind Chad, looking at his Tarot cards.

The mobian boy seemed to be able to move, and turned around, facing the deity. "Another ability? Like the explosion one?"

"Indeed. It is called Silfarion. Speed is it's gift, in exchange, the blade itself is lighter, and it loses some of its power behind the attacks. Use it to strike shock into your foes, use it stab their weakness, before they can protect it."

With that, the cries of battle returned to Chads ears, as Zuo Ci vanished, and behind Chad, the three keybladers who were after him, were on the ground, in several sliced pieces.

He felt more awake, more alive again. He was back to normal, and it felt great. Good timing as well, as yet another Keyblader was coming over, noticing his three allies hacked down. "Shinra scum!"

Chad quickly got his sword ready. "Alright…let's try this new trick. Silfarion!"

He felt it right away, his blade felt so much lighter, like he was carrying almost nothing at all. He quickly thrust the blade forwards which the Keyblader dodged, and before the guy could attack, had quickly swung it sideways, knocking the warrior off his feet and hitting the ground, the attack came at a blink of an eye to the key wielder, and before he could get up, Chad had stabbed the Blade of Darkness right into the body of the warrior…once, twice, three times, each time the blade slipped in, slicing through the armor and flesh, and back out with ease, by the third stab in, the warrior had finally let go of his body, and his soul left to the Farplanes.

Chad just had a hard time getting over how easy it was to swing his sword now, as he moved away from the body, smiling. "Well…this should be fun."

Meanwhile, Tian Feng was running.

He saw the transport ship, he saw the type of men that jumped off it. He had to get to Yuan Shao fast. Yuan Shao, of all times, had now begun to march with the rear lines of his entire force, towards the South Gate. Tian Feng had chosen to stay behind and monitor things. "YUAN SHAO! LORD YUAN SHAO!"

Thankfully, Yuan Shao didn't lack in the hearing department, and stopped, which caused Guo Tu, who had been next to him, to do the same, both turning to see a slightly red in the face Tian come up to them. "Tian Feng what is it now? Do you want to object to the plans again?"

"My lord! The armory! LOOK!" Was all he had to say, pointing over to the forest.

Yuan sighed, and looked over…his calm, relaxed and slightly annoyed facial expression turned to horror. "Is…is that a Galactic Federation vessel!?"

"Yes sir! And they've deployed a raiding force! I heard screams of panic from the men inside! I need some troops to come away from the main force and help reinforce it!" Tian Feng demanded.

Guo Tu was quick to go against, as always. "Tian Feng, remember who guards it. Chunyu Qiong is a capable man. Yuan Shao ignore him. We need to focus everyone on the push."

Yuan Shao though, was just staring in the direction of the armory…he had just gone silent.

"My lord please! We need to protect it! If we lose that armory that's our remaining weapons and our communication system all lost! Our troops will lose their confidence completely!"

"Don't listen to Tian. We just need to fight on! We have Chunyu Qiong protecting it!"

"The same guy that failed us at Wu Chao Yuan Shao!"

That caused Yuan Shao to quickly turn and stare at Tian Feng.

"I know you don't want to recall that battle, I know we all agreed to keep talks about few and far, but you're falling down that same route! Grievous is Cao Cao to you! And the battle is about to go the same way if you don't ACT to save that armory!"

Yuan Shao shook his head. "No. We had also agreed the battle was of your fault as well as-"

"My lord look at the situation now! I wasn't at Guan Du! I'm here instead! And I'm demanding you rescue that armory before Chunyu Qiong, in his drunken state, ruins everything again!" Tian Feng shouted at him.

…Yuan Shao had closed his eyes for a moment, and he felt himself return to that time.

"Yan Liang and Wen Chou have been forced to retreat by Guan Yu and Cao Cao respectively! Our frontline assault has failed!"

"Wu Chao is aflame! We can't salvage anything from it!"

"Several units have defected to Cao Cao! Our assault on Guan Du castle has failed!"

"Bai Ma and Yan Jin forts have been retaken by Cao Cao's army, giving them direct access across the river to attack our main camp! We can't stop them! Our men are either being slaughtered like animals or surrendering over to Wei!"

"Retreat! All units! Retreat!"

There he was, in the middle of his camp. Torches burning brightly nearby him, a huge white tent stationed behind him, wooden huts filled with supplies and weapons, wooden walls around the place…his main camp.

A bitter wind was blowing, the night sky above…a full moon…

In the distance, he saw it, the orange glow…

Wu Chao burned brightly.

…He was so sure he had it all right. He had it all figured out…He was deeply angered, hurt, and frustrated. He remembered ordering his elite troops to follow him to the front, while the rest of his forces fled, he wanted to end this once and for all.

All this due to Cao Cao's close friendship with the emperor of Earth V. He wanted to force Cao Cao, his old friend, to submit. Wei's territory was literally next door to the Han territory. If Yuan Shao forced Cao Cao to give in, he would have those lands, he would be directly next to the emperor, his family would finally have their place as guardians of the Han dynasty. The Yuan Kingdom would be their sword…

The High Ministers eventually saw his worth, and placed him in a position with them. It was only right he would be seen as a guard to their great leader on Earth V too. That was his destiny. To stand with Grand King He Jin and the other three royal guards, Dong Zhuo of the kingdom of Qishan, Liu Bei of the kingdom of Shu, and of course, his half brother, Yuan Shu of the kingdom of Zhong…

And he failed.

The next part flickered into his mind, falling down onto his rear, his sword sliding across the ground behind him, and standing there before him, Cao Cao…along with Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao's son Cao Pi, and his two bodyguards, Dian Wei and Xu Zhu…

"C-curse you Cao Cao! I suppose you plan to kill me now, is that it!? End me and take my lands for your own!?"

Cao Cao slowly shook his head, looking disappointed at his old friend. "Enough Yuan Shao. I know the truth."

Yuan Shao was surprised. For Cao Cao to know of why this war was occurring...

"I have my informants Yuan Shao. An officer that you had told me all about why you suddenly declared me an enemy of the Han." He then showed disgust. "You planned to steal my land, my kingdom, merely because of a title I was granted by the emperor... is that all that matters to you now? Does friendship mean so little in your mind? Have you forgotten who it is you have chosen to attack? Your only childhood friend?"

Yuan Shao couldn't answer, he stammered, tried to find some words.

"Your failure in battle was the fact you refuse to fight with your men, to stand with them and relied only on yourself, refusing to listen to your advisors in midst of chaos. I knew you would overlook Wu Chao, I knew breaking that would break the morale of your men, and you would not be able to recover from it. I took the lead, I went to Wu Chao, I lit the torches, I burnt the place…while you sat on your thumbs and watched, instead of sending help…"

I took the lead.

I went to Wu Chao.

I lit the torches.

I burnt the place.

Your failure…

Failure…

Yuan Shao found himself now, back in the present time. Tian Feng looking at him. "My lord I need an answer now!"

The king of Yuan looked down at his armor…his shining golden armor, and knew, he had to do this right. "…Guo Tu, lead the attack with my son and the others on the land beyond the South Gate. Tian Feng, we will take two thousand men from the rear force and lead the rescue!"

Tian Feng looked, genuinely surprised, before quickly bowing as Yuan Shao quickly got on the com-link to rally the men he wanted. "Yes my lord!"

Back at the armory, things weren't looking at their best right now.

Chunyu Qiong finally clicked on what was going on, but decided instead of fighting whilst drunk, he cowardly chose to hide between several crates, hoping things will turn out fine by itself..if not, well, like Wu Chao, he could always run away and say to Yuan Shao it was the failing of others again.

The guard count was about a hundred and fifty left. They had managed to gather together near the center of the armory to make a stand after the chaos and confusion at the start.

They were being picked off by the keybladers quick though. Several troops were dying each second thanks to the speedy strikes of their enemy.

T Hawk and Chad were with the remaining guards. Chad was…enjoying this. The odds are badly stacked, but with this new ability, he was easily matching the Keyblade wielders without having to waste his own energy, and seeing them die…it…was making him feel, something that he shouldn't be.

Pleasure.

Anything else he killed, it normally just brought relief that he'll live for a while more…since this fight started and his been normal again, each time he sees one of the enemy fall to the floor, twitching, struggling to live and he kills them, it felt, good.

Sadly his killing hasn't knocked that many of the numbers down, there were still at least four hundred something of the Keyblade wielders, dodging, blocking attempted attacks on their life, and hacking down the guards.

It was as the guard count went down under a hundred, Ventus, as he moved back and let the others have a go, got a call on his com-link. "Ventus reporting General."

"It's Terra, Ven."

That made Ventus stop and listen. "Terra? What is it?"

"It's over Ven. Grievous doesn't realize it yet, but Alexandria has surrendered. The North Gate is now controlled by what was the enemy, and Aqua, Kei and Dark Rich have already left the planet…it's done."

"Wait, wait go back a bit. 'what was the enemy'?" Ventus turned away from the fighting going down in the middle of the armory.

"…I've joined the Hero Base Faction. I don't want us to go down with the Galactic Federation. The Shinra Federation has them all figured out. We're going to war on the losing side, the whole campaign is destined to fall apart. I want you to come to Alexandria, with the Keyblade unit. Join us and we'll get master Eraqus to listen, together. We'll convince him to break away from this before we lose too many lives."

"Terra, I, I don't know. I mean, we don't want to be ruled by the Shinra. Rufus is a monster…"

"We're not going to hand ourselves to the Shinra Ven. We'll work with the Hero Faction, maybe we can get them to speak on our behalf when this is over to get our world off the target list of Shinra, once Rufus finds out we were a part of it. We have to try, right? We haven't got a hope in hell otherwise."

That's when the massive doors of the armory bust open, and charging in, were hundreds and hundreds of Yuan troops, vibroswords and vibrospears at the ready, all shouting "FOR GLORY! FOR YUAN SHAO!"

And in front of the attack force was the man himself wielding a rapier sword, charging straight at Ventus, who quickly dived out of the way, and shut off his com-link, getting his Keyblade ready, as Yuan Shao then ignored him, and charged at the others, with several of his troops instead targeting Ven.

All the keybladers now saw, was a wave of gold filling the place.

Yuan Shao had sent his troops to surround the place, and in a joint movement, from all four entrance points, charged in. All eager, all proud to see their leader taking command and telling them what to do with them, instead of far away. Their morale was at an all time high.

And it showed in combat. Their confidence helped them remain calm before the counter attack of the keybladers, who managed to kill quite a few of the newcomers, but were quickly losing their own. Even the remaining three dozen guards of the original unit here were inspired by seeing Yuan Shao, and suddenly fought much more fiercer then before, determined to go down fighting at their best.

Ventus found himself in the middle of a wave of enemies, taking down what he could, and looking up at the transport vessel, hovering there, left on auto, awaiting for a pilot to take over again. The sudden reinforcements and the strength they brought convinced him now. "EVERYONE! RETREAT! THE RAID IS A FAILURE! LET'S MOVE IT PEOPLE! WE'RE RETREATING TO ALEXANDRIA!"

Keybladers quickly begun changing their Keyblades into vehicles, from surfboards to bikes, as they attempted to escape, flying back up to the ship, disabling their vehicle, and landing on the opening.

Ventus was ready to do the same thing, finally getting some space after knocking back several men, but someone suddenly ran at him, and swung his sword at a deadly speed, causing Ventus to abandon his retreat and block the attack…and another, and another, in rapid succession. He only saw brief glimpses of the sword each time…before he felt the sword impale him, right into the stomach, briefly lifting him off the ground, the whole weapon going into him, as he finally saw the face of the user…

Chad stood there, an evil look of joy on his face. He tossed Ventus to the floor, by swinging his weapon sidewards, the Keyblader rolling a little, crying in agony, before coming to a stop on his stomach. He begun to try and force himself to crawl, hoping he could hide somewhere for a moment, to try and recover.

Chad didn't let him. He walked over, looking at the wounded boy, and ended his life, by piecing the blade through the back of his skull, and through his face, into the ground.

That felt really good, hearing the bone crunch a little as the blade went in…Chad enjoyed that. He pulled his sword out, and turned, noticing whatever was left of the keybladers, had successfully got on the transport vessel, and sealed the hatch, before taking off, back in the direction of Alexandria, away from the cheers of Yuan Shao's force.

Chad snapped out of this…euphoria he felt with the killing, noticing the cheering, and before he knew it, he saw Yuan Shao walking up to him. "Chad Oswald! I am glad to see you are still ok! As you can see, I, Yuan Shao, had come with reinforcements at the right time!"

Chad nodded in agreement, smiling at him a little. "Yeah, ya did. Thanks, I don't think we would've lasted longer since, ya know, T Hawk and me were trying our best, and your guards were making an effort, despite the fact that drunken officer guy did nothing but hide."

"I'll deal with him later. For now, we march again! I'll leave all the troops here, and we'll go and rejoin the front! Tian Feng! I leave the armory to you and Chunyu Qiong!"

Tian Feng bowed, smiling as he did. He was proud of Yuan Shao, proud that he finally done something right.

The armory had been saved.

Yuan Shao had ordered all communication channels to be accessed, as he wanted this victory to be heard across the battlefield, he wanted to tell his frontline men, he wanted people to know, he did the right thing, and to rub it in Grievous's face.

Cao Cao had allowed Grievous to hear of it, making sure the communication system belonging to the Galactic Federation picked up on the news.

Out in the plains, Grievous and his entire force had heard it. They saw the transport ship retreating to Alexandria…

"Hold strong, men of the Yuan! The armory was been secured and saved from an assault by yours truly! Now I'm coming to rejoin the front itself! I want everyone to show Grievous the true might of my army! Let none of the Galactic troopers stand in your way! They are mere peons compared to our army! Forward! To glory!"

Grievous growled at hearing this, quickly ordering his forces to focus on the South Gate and prepare to slaughter the entire Yuan force.

Cao Cao knew now was the perfect time, the first thing he did was shut off the Galactic communication system entirely, then while Terra stayed behind with several dozen men and Queen Garnet, Zidane and Vivi, he deployed the troops of Alexandria, no longer hiding in GF armour, marching with Link, Sun Shang Xiang and Steiner. Lifting off from the city were several airships armed to the teeth, being commanded by both Jak and Beatrix.

With this Cao Cao signalled the North Gate forces to move out, led by Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Freya and Fratley, a combined march of Burmecians and Wei troops.

The news very soon, got to Grievous. As he just finished ordering his forces one of the troopers contacted him on the com-link, all of his men listening in. "Sir! Enemy forces have been sighted coming from the North Gate! It seems to be thousands of them!"

Grievous answered the call. "Seems to be? I want a report! Get in contact with the communication center and get them to listen in to the enemy channels!"

"I, I can't sir! There's no response from them! That's because of the other bit of news I have! Alexandria troops have been spotted charging out from the city! Airships have been launched as well! We don't know their numbers either!"

Grievous quickly looked over to the grand castle in the distance, as did many of the troops around him…and indeed, there were airships, heavily armed ones too…his men were quickly talking amongst themselves in worry. "…They're not coming to aid us. If the communication center has stopped responding, then they've defected…and Terra…the North Gate…"

He snarled, adding everything up. "Cao Cao…"

One of the nearby men quickly spoke to him. "General, if, if we've lost our armory and communications, that means we can't get in contact with anyone off this world, even our warships right? We can't call for additional ships to come and get us when we want to retreat…right?"

The cyborg looked at the trooper, then to the rest of his men around him. The news was a crippling hit on morale, as anyone could deduce, they were about to be struck in three directions. He quickly got take on his com-link "Abandon the kill zone of the South Gate! I want all units to circle round in the central plains, we'll take a defensive stance against this three way barrage! We have the technology to outfight them!"

The response from his men showed clear signs they are unsure, they seemed to struggle to trust each other right now, and now with all this slapped on top…

His battle was over. He couldn't admit it to them, instead, he personally gathered as many men as he could, and told them a different plan. "We are moving to Treno, to the transport ships."

One of them sounded surprised. "Sir?"

"While our forces move to this position, we'll make a swift retreat, once there, I'll contact the rest to surrender. The battle is lost. While they receive the mercy of the Shinra, we'll fall back to the Gardener and head towards Earth X to see what happens with Keaton…I knew this entire idea would fail, too few troops, too little preparation… and while I am determined to not surrender yet, I won't let those here die a needless death. Once we're safely on the ships, it'll end."

"…Yes sir."

Those tens of thousands of men left behind at the central plains wondered where Grievous and his few thousand men were running off to, but, did as they were told, despite the odds, and formed up, taking a defensive stance, while Yuan Shao's army were coming from the South Gate, Cao Cao's army from the North Gate, and Alexandria forces, complete with airships, from the northeast.

The cannon fire from the airships struck first. Blasting holes in their ranks. They attempted to fire back with their rifles, but the energy shots were merely doing little burnt marks on the vessels, as they continued to unleash hell. Then, along came Yuan Shao's army, having increased their speed to chase the retreating enemy to their new location. The shock force was now formed up, and with the advance shield party leading the way, it require plenty more times the ammo just to take down a few of the men, compared to the normal shielding. Mixed with the crossbow troopers firing whenever an opening occurred, the GF troopers, several units of them, begun to drop their weapons and surrender.

Cao Cao, and the Alexandria army soon arrived and attacked, at the same time so did Cao Cao's actual main force, led by Xiahou Dun, dividing up the Galactic troopers more so to handle the desperate situation, their numbers now dropping by the hundreds at a rapid pace.

Before long, there were several transport ships seen in the sky, heading off into space. There was momentary confusion in the GF ranks, untill they all got a call, from General Grievous. "Stand down. Gaia IX is lost. It's obvious we cannot win here, not with the number Keaton had given us, combined with the doubt you have, and the loss we have suffered, I can only hope you are given mercy by the Shinra Federation…Lower your weapons. That is my last order. I will not forget any of you for your bravery on this day."

A wave of guns fell to the ground, the attacking forces stopped, noticing the GF troopers were going down on their knees and putting their hands behind their heads in submission.

It took a good hour or so, but soon enough, the Galactic Federation troop force was rounded up, and began to be escorted onto transport vessels of the SF, sent by the allied warships above, which broke off their attack with the Galactic Federation, when the Gardener and the two other warships managed to retreat, leaving only one enemy vessel, crippled and unable to get into warp, they sent a signal of surrender.

As the GF army was being taken away, Cao Cao had been watching, when Terra, and around two hundred and forty Keyblade warriors came up to the man. "Cao Cao. This is all what was left of the raid team. They have accepted surrender, but only to you and the Hero Base Faction."

Cao Cao nodded. "Excellent. I've already got a few transport vessel picking up your force from the North Gate, but instead of following the others, it's going to go into alpha warp, and head to my home planet. They'll be treated like royal guests there, and I've already procured power armour for them to take."

"Cao Cao?"

"I'm going to reform them into my own elite trooper force. I can't hand them over along with the others." He turned away, watching the transport vessels with the captives fly away.

"Why not? They are a part of that force."

"Rufus will no doubt place a few of these people on the firing line. I don't want those I've captured having to risk that." Cao Cao answered, turning back to face Terra, noticing the grim look on his face. "That's why I won't hand over this fine, if small, force. They too, shall be sent to my homeworld, and receive a warm welcome."

Terra looked at Cao Cao, and gave a small smile. "Thank you. But speaking of these people…I need to see your armory. Yuan Shao's, armory…one of my friends I was concerned over…is there."

There was an eerie silence.

Terra, Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun and Jak had personally journeyed to the armory, which was now currently empty, as Tian Feng and Chunyu Qiong had left to see their leader, along with the troops, leaving the corpses of the dead behind.

Terra had eventually found Ventus.

He slowly rolled his friend over, so his face could see the sky again…

The helmet was badly damaged, there was a hole in the front…it showed a part of Ventus' pale, blood covered face…

Terra stared for a good few, long moments, before he slowly moved the helmet off, detaching it, letting his friend's head be shown to everyone. Gently putting the helmet aside, he put his hands into the armor, shaking as he did. He felt what he was after, slowly, bringing it into view, and moving it over the head of his lost friend.

The wayfinder. A very much believed good luck charm to those who wear them. Often they were made from something called thalassic shells, but Aqua had made herself, Terra and Ventus one each of different material, as the shells were hard to get. She gave them so that they would always be together…

The green glass of Ventus' wayfinder shined ever so slightly in the sunlight, as Terra clutched it tightly, and grieved, tears quickly appearing and rushing down his face, as he held the item close to his head, pain swelling up inside, knowing that they had been separated…

Cao Cao slowly stepped over, and gently placed a hand on Terra's shoulder, looking to the body, as the Keyblader wept, and knowing of the name of the dead, as Terra had said prior to their arrival, he spoke these words. "Be at peace, Ventus, beloved friend of Terra and Aqua. May Azrael guide you to the everlasting rest of the Farplanes, where your forefathers await your arrival…"

Jak and Xiahou Dun made their way over, and stood with Cao Cao. Jak then said a few words. "Though you have left our realm, free from pain and suffering, we can only grieve at our loss, while you venture to a new world, an eternal time of joy awaits you."

"The creator smiles at all life, no matter how long, how short it's time here is…" Xiahou Dun had slowly looked around, at the other bodies, before continuing. "You have friends following you, those who gave their lives. We pray for them as we do for you. We hope you all find peace in paradise…while we wait for the day we shall see you again." he finished, before focusing back on Terra.

Terra continued to cry out, unable to say anything, to express his pain any other way, but, he had heard them, heard them speak the passing prayer of the Azrael belief, and was thankful, in his heart, that they even bothered to.

All of the officers who partook in the battle, had now gathered back in Cid Fabools throne room, including the likes of Queen Garnet, Freya, Zidane, Steiner, Terra and such.

Hua Xiong, Yan Liang and Wen Chou were also present, albeit a bit bandaged up and recovering, but otherwise, they were alive.

Cao Cao had explained what he had been doing the entire time Yuan Shao had been busy fretting over the South Gate, this was backed by Sir Fratley, Freya, Terra and Queen Garnet, with the last still slightly unhappy with having to admit she had been made to defect over.

Yuan Shao was a little peeved. "You mean to say you used me to keep Grievous and his troops distracted?!"

"Of course. And as it showed, it made you act. I'm most impressed Yuan Shao. I had actually expected you to allow the armory to fall, but instead you saved it, and saved your forces from the brink of losing all hope. If I told you the plan, you would've told everyone, including Grievous, as he was listening in. That would've made the battle go against us, Queen Garnet would not have submitted, and the North Gate would of held out against me." Cao Cao explained.

Yuan Shao still wasn't happy, but his features did soften a little. "Well, I suppose if it weren't for you, I would never have gained a victory that inspired my men, reminding them of who they serve…nor would I have figured out a weakness in my ranks."

His focus went to Chunyu Qiong, who was a bit sober now, looking down in shame…he tried to make an excuse when Yuan Shao demanded an explanation for the guard force being so scattered and in a panic when the raid came, but T Hawk and Chad were against him, eventually making him admit he was drunk before even getting here.

Cid was sitting back on his throne, looking at them all. "Well, I'm just glad Gaia IX belongs to us fully once again. I now have to wonder what I should do with Garnet though…"

Cao Cao was quick to respond. "Cid, you had agreed to fair trading and shares with the Burmecians, did you not once this little war was over? Grant Garnet the same deal, and never again will there be a risk of her turning against you. Her main reason for doing so was because all power was taken from her in the first place. Correct that."

Cid thought about this for a moment, before nodding. "Well, Rufus did say all business on this world was under my command…and I don't want to fight the daughter of an old friend. I accept the idea, so long as Garnet does."

She nodded, relieved. "I promise to support you fully in return, Cid."

Chad was ignoring the meeting, due to the fact he had a call from Dr Wily. "Doc?"

"Chad, I already got the news that Gaia IX is secure. I'm to have you teleported from there to RE886 station. it's obvious now is our best time to strike. I'm also going to send Roll, Shademan, Anna, Zhang He, Megaman, Serious Sam and Charlie with you. All you need to do is get in, get Richard, get back out. Simple enough?"

Chad wanted to argue about sending Anna and Roll, but another part of him just said 'screw it, get in and out, quick and easy, they'll be fine.'. "Alright doc. Send me as soon as you can."

Grievous was standing over one of his officers, while they were at one of the bridge computers. "This is GFS Gardener to RE886, please respond."

Static.

"RE886. We are in need of an update of the current situation of the campaign across the Federation. Please reply."

Nothing.

"RE886. We have lost Gaia IX, I repeat, Gaia IX, can you update us on all current battles?"

The officer sighed and sat back, looking up at Grievous as yet again, there was a lack of response. "Nothing sir. It's dead over there. Either an electric storm has currently engulfed them, or it's been attacked."

Grievous thought about this for a moment, before he turned away, and walked up to the center of the bridge. "Then we have little choice but to watch over our Grand Commander. This whole thing is going to hell, but we cannot risk Keaton losing his life. Continue on our course to Earth X!"

"How long before we reach RE886?"

A machine voice responded "At current emergency delta warp, one hour and twenty five minutes. Warning, emergency delta warp is depleting all reserves. If warp used for one hour and thirty minutes, all fuel reserves will be depleted, and the vessel will be adrift, as it will not have impulse, would you like to auto set a distress signal for this occurrence?"

"No."

Dark Rich was the one who speak, sitting in the pilot seat, with Aqua and Kei standing nearby…Kei kept looking at the dead corpse of an engineer nearby.

"So, we're heading back to get our own warship?" Aqua asked the clone.

"Yes."

"Why are we abandoning the GF again, precisely?"

"Because I don't trust Keaton. He will not let Kei live. You are her friend, that's why I grabbed you as well." The clone lied.

"You think he would try and kill the daughter of a High Minister? Really? I think he would rather keep her around for political reasons." Aqua argued.

Kei though, seemed to be listening in, and agreed with Dark Rich. "It does make sense. Keaton never did really like the ministers. I found it odd he was okay with me being around, but I suspect that's because he wanted me to help with his cloning experiments…and since that's been done…"

"Precisely. We can't give him the chance." Dark Rich was checking the systems while they continued to remain and warp speed.

"Okay, but why don't we do as Terra called me up for? Surrender over to the Hero Base Faction? Him and Ventus have bound to by now. And maybe we can get Master Eraqus to listen too. Why are we heading back to RE886?" Aqua questioned.

Dark Rich looked over to Kei. "She used to say about a few friends on that station, said about a powerful vessel that belonged to a pirate force that's been placed in reserve. I figure we get them and the ship, and figure out what to do from there."

Kei knew who he was talking about, when he mentioned her friends. "Jack Electel, Iroaya Maddy and Hinoken Match…I know those three have been working on the vessel while I was busy with the cloning…I hope they like the idea of escaping the GF with us."

Huang Zhong was pissed off. "What do you mean you can't reactivate the communication systems!?"

One of the men, dressed in a blue overall, who was currently in the main computer area of RE886, was desperately trying to fixed the system…the trap Chaos had laid was a crap ton of viruses and bugs. It pretty much killed the entire system, the stations shields were offline, their weapons were shut down, and all communications, the main focus of this place, was dead.

It only fully triggered when Huang Zhong noticed a lack of updates on the fights against the Shinra Federation. He tried to access the system, and bam, the whole thing went haywire on him. "Get me something at least! What about the emergency channels!? Can't you get them back online?!"

"I'm trying sir!"

Huang Zhong swore under his breath. "That damned Chaos! I knew he was playing us! I knew I should've kept an eye on him myself!"

Then there was Chaos.

He was standing there, in a dimly lit room, looking at several computer panels, trying to figure them out.

He was in the main computer room of Unicron's head. The place where his brain would be if he was a humanoid. The glass ball filled with frozen liquid was seen still in the middle of the orange steel room, wires covering the ceiling leading to the glass ball, the lights barely functioning around the place, the computer systems, most had overloaded and been destroyed, except for the several Chaos found.

The hard was the language these machines ran on. It was similar to the Chozo, but that was like saying the Chinese is similar to Japanese. He was trying his hardest to figure it out. A part of him keep saying his seen this all before. "Hm, It's led me back to this screen again…maybe it's this sequence."

Close to the glass ball, was that eerie blade Unicron had used in his battle with Chad and Darkmega, replicas of it anyway. The Master Sword.

Again, Chaos got nowhere. He had nearly tried all of the options he assumed this system was giving him. He had all this time so far to try. He managed to download the whole thing for a complete translation later…if that could be figured out. But he refused to leave without the real prize he was after.

He tried yet another sequence, which seemed to led to a question. Tried one answer, it sent him back to the previous screen, he tried it again, and chose the other answer, red symbols came up, then it returned him to the previous screen again.

The next one after this though, was the one he wanted. It showed a picture of a an orb, and seemed to ask a question. He pressed one answer, then it asked another question, he chose the same answer. The symbols that came up now were green.

One of the few remaining reactors that were stationed in Unicron's head came to life, a distant humming was heard.

As Unicron's body self destructed, a failsafe kicked in whereas the reactors stored in the head location were cut off from the rest of the body, as were most of the systems, to preserve them, then several explosives preset triggered, hurtling the head away from the body to avoid complete annihilation.

What Chaos noticed when he arrived, was that there was a distress beacon active inside the head that he decided to shut down. He couldn't pick it up on any of the known frequencies, meaning this distress signal was very specific to one channel, to one species perhaps.

Whoever created Unicron, wanted it's memory preserved, no doubt to find out what could have destroyed it, if the possibility occurred.

Chaos then noticed a couple of grey lights flickered on, near the glass ball in the center of the room, showing the faint outlines of the humanoid figure inside.

The frozen watery liquid within it, begun to melt. From the bottom, up. As the water unfroze, the figure inside was much more visible, to the point that Chaos could make out it the figure now.

It wore black leather armor all over, with a black cloak with blood red linen inside, dark brown gloves on its hands, its eyes iris colour was blood red, and its skin was tanned slightly, with his hair colour blonde. And what Chaos noticed was, it reminded him of something who lived today, besides the dark clothing.

Link. The hero of Hylian. It was like a twin of him. The only difference being his eye colour, having several black earrings in his ears…and the fact, he had about a dozen wires stabbed into him, keeping him afloat there. Two in each arm, on the wrists and in his shoulders, two in the legs at his feet and his hip, one embedded right in the middle of his back, one right in the middle of his chest, one in the back of his neck, and finally, one, right bang in the middle of his forehead.

Chaos could tell the figure didn't know he was there…for all Chaos knew, he could well be dead in that orb of water. He wasn't moving at all since the water finished melting.

That soon changed, as Chaos had to take a small step back, as the middle of the glass ball begun to open up, and as it did, with the water gushing out and down into small gaps within the floor, the wires violently detached themselves from the Hyrulian, showing very long needles which had been inside the figure all this time, including in his head, brief spurts of blood came from the holes, as the elf fell with the water, and out of the ball, onto the floor.

He vomited up some of the water, and begun moving, trying to gasp for air, writhing on the floor, putting his hands on the cold steel ground, his eyes darting all over, trying to figure out where he was.

Chaos just waited, watched, as the Hyrulian slowly regain his thoughts, where he was, and managed to get some air in his lungs, forcing himself to his knees and hands, getting himself slightly off the ground, his clothing dripping with the liquid, as he coughed over and over. What Chaos noticed, was the holes that the wires attached themselves to, had sealed up…whatever this liquid was, it had the ability to rapidly heal. It left scarring at each point though, and obviously holes in his clothing.

The figure managed to look around again, and noticed Chaos standing there, and nearby, his sword…It's voice was deep, and menacing. "You…I demand to know who you are, that released me from my…our…Unicrons body."

"My name is Chaos. I'm an ally."

The weakened male on the floor glared darkly at Chaos, then looked to his sword again. That's when Chaos noticed it had begun to glow an eerie red, an aura had appeared on it like the replicas had. Before Chaos knew it, the figure had mustered the strength to force himself onto his feet, grab the blade, swing it round, and had it point straight at the enemy of Chads throat. "You are no ally of mine. I am…I am Unicron, the destroyer of life! I am heaven's judgement, and I do not recall any ally like-"

He stopped. His sword was like that of the Dark Wolf, a container of souls, and between their whispers into his mind, which had been gone for so long, they told him something. "-You are familiar."

"Oh?"

"The spirits of the blade recognize you. In a distorted way, you carry the aura of an old friend of mine, a friend that followed me and two others to a different universe so long ago…when, I was called…Diamas. Diamas Link. When I battled evil and defeated darkness, before my greater destiny came." He lowered his sword as he was talking. "Before I was Heaven's Judgement."

"I require your power, Unicron. It's to deal with those that destroyed the rest of your great body." Chaos explained.

Diamas took a moment to think, to recall…then he remembered, his face showing he was seething in rage. "Chad, Darkmega…"

"That's right. I'm planning to destroy them, and I would be foolish to deny someone like you a chance of revenge, wouldn't I? They think you're finished. We can correct that issue."

Diamas looked to Chaos, and smiled evilly. "I like the sound of that."