Broken Universe: Unicron Saga

by dragonridley

Universe 3. In one of the many Universes within a Multiverse, a time of change was about to occur, and the head of this change, the figure who sees it all occur, is a simple Mobian boy named Chad. This is the beginning, the first signs, from a Dark Soul to a Planet Eater. A once old MSN story between friends.

22. Space Station RE886

It was silent, within the RE886 station.

At least, in one section it was. a lot of troopers had been transferred elsewhere to help with the restoration of the systems, that Chaos had left in a severe state.

In one of the dull, steel corridors, painted white numbers on the walls and several doors, walked Chad, Roll, Anna, Shademan, Zhang He, Charlie, Serious Sam and Megaman.

"You'd think there would be a welcome wagon for us, wouldn't you? Seriously, where are the guards in this place? Didn't the old guy say about there being about at least two hundred fellas still here?" Sam questioned aloud.

"It was the reason he placed us on the lower levels to avoid arousing suspicion…strange though, it's been a good twenty minutes, and we've yet to find anyone." Charlie opened one of the doors, and checked inside, noticing it was just a regular bunk bed room, for a couple of the troopers, obviously not present, before closing the door again, sighing. "Do we even know, where we are going?"

"Wait you don't know?" Sam quickly said in surprise.

"No, I'm just following Megaman." Charlie answered, looking at the Navi.

"I'm just following Shademan." Megaman then looked to Shademan.

"I'm keeping with Zhang He." Shademan then looked to the Wei Officer.

"I have been following Roll." Zhang looked to the pink wearing Navi.

"I've been following Anna." She looked to Anna.

"I've been following Chad." Anna turned to her boyfriend who she was pretty standing next to.

"Wait I've been following…you Anna…" Chad paused after that, and it dawned on the lot of them.

The Mobian boy sighed, and put his hand over his face. "Really guys? Really? We've really been daisy chaining this thing till now without even asking?"

"But I thought Dr Wily would've told you where we need to go." Anna looked apologetic, noticing the annoyance in Chad's voice.

"That's the exact thought I had with you guys. You guys were at the base, I expected him to tell you lot what we need to do. As soon as we arrived Anna started moving, so I followed suit."

"But I just wanted to check the coast was clear, then you started walking a little and…we really screwed up haven't we?"

Chad nodded, moving his hand away from his face. "Yeah. We all buggered this one up. I'll just call the old man and ask him why the hell he didn't say anything to anyone here."

He got on the com-link. "Wily? Wily. Gonna need directions guy. We've got no clue where they might have Richard."

There was heavy static.

He tried twice more, but there wasn't any answer. Chad sighed, and put it away. "Well, we're alone it seems. Something is effecting the com system."

"Probably a jammer has been activated. Meaning they either know we're here, or they just don't want anyone to find out they're location." Roll was guessing.

"We need to find a computer. If one of us Navis can gain access, we can get a map, find out Richard's location and get a way to shut off the interference so we can all get out of here." Shademan decided to suggest to everyone.

Sam rubbed the back of his head, thinking for a moment. "Well, I recall a seeing a computer in one of the rooms in the previous corridor. Maybe that's connected to the systems."

Chad was glad they were now getting somewhere with an idea. "Alright let's go and find it then. I want to find Richard as soon as."

---

Huang Zhong was growing impatient. His men seemed to be taking forever to restore the systems of the space station. "I would give my bow for at least one man of intelligence instead of these idiots…"

But a stroke of luck seemed to come his way after a few minutes more.

"Sir! Sir! We have a few of the programs back at operational levels!" an engineer had turned to face Huang Zhong, relieved they managed to clear up a few of the viruses and errors.

Huang Zhong quickly walked over. "Well, what do we have?!"

"We've managed to restore our emergency short range communication, and restore lockdown system procedures for all floors."

Huang Zhong wasn't THAT impressed after hearing that, but, you have to make do with what you have. "Proceed to trigger the lockdown. We can't risk the chance of an enemy assault whilst trying to restore the systems. We need at least one line of defense active."

The engineer nodded. "Yes sir! What about the short range communication?"

The old, once officer for the kingdom of Shu thought about this for a little while. "Xehanort should have one of his Shadowlaw warships hiding nearby to keep an eye out, it should be in range, get the scanners restored, look for it, then hail for help."

"Yes sir! We'll get right on it!"

---

Roll, Shademan and Megaman have all been in messed up, damaged computer networks before. That wasn't new to them.

But boy, this was REALLY messed up.

The network background was just dark grey static, the platforms for the Navis to walk on, which was directories of the systems, was black, cracked, and some of them were broken completely, leaving massive gaps between one area to another. There was all kinds of colorful fragments of data floating around, shaped out like shattered glass to the Navi sight, all with dozens of glowing specks trailing behind them, as they moved around each area.

There were gun turrets, which were large versions of the Cannon battlechip, on metal stands, which were designed to protect the network, but currently were all looking like something tore into them, fragments of data oozing from them as they remained still, not activating on the arrival of the three Navis.

There was flickers of firewalls down a few of the possible routes they could go. The firewall appeared as, well, a wall, normally of red energy, but when the main route point of where these firewall are produced from is damaged, they appeared as they do now, transparent, changing colour every mili-second, and flickering in and out of existence.

"By Blind Lo, someone really screwed this stations network up…" Megaman looked around, noticing the damage.

Shademan had to agree on this. Compared to the Undernet, a part of the internet which is pretty much unguarded and left to its own devices by the Federations, SCI, GF and SF alike, that seemed like a pleasant location to view for Navis after seeing this place. "I can hardly sense anything with the network in this state. It's going to be hard to find useable data."

"We should spilt up. Try to salvage what we can as quickly as possible." Roll suggested.

"Alright, but watch for viruses. There's bound to be quite a few around if this much damage has been caused." The vampire like Navi warned, before opening the wings on his arms, and took off, leaving the other two behind.

"I'll take that rightward road Mega, you take the leftward one. They seem the safest." Roll motioned to the two only paths that weren't suffering a case of screwed up firewalls or disconnected pathways.

Megaman nodded, and set off, as did the Pink Navi, who had activated her arm bow ready for use. She had to admit to herself, she felt a little scared right now. She preferred to have some sort of outside communication aka to the real world, but thanks to how screwed up things are, those waiting for them to return can't get into contact with them.

The more she moved away from the place all three started together, the more she wanted to go back, the flooring she was running on felt like it would give way at any second, every step, felt like the ground was gonna shatter. She didn't like the idea of falling. To fall in a network is to disappear into the depths of junk data…all Navis feared that, because unlike the situation now, if you fell, you would never be able to regain contact with the outside world again, and logging out would be impossible.

She remembered she had one close encounter of that four years ago. Thankfully as she fell, her Operator, Maylu, managed to get her to log out before Roll was out of reach. That's one experience she never wants to have again.

She suddenly stopped.

She had just heard something smash into the flooring behind her. She slowly turned, and wished she just kept running instead.

Scuttle Viruses. They were half the size of an average Net Navi, had six armored insect type legs, a heavily armored insect like torso, which held its yellow eyes at the front, and a red inverted triangle shaped gem just above said eyes. There were pretty much the tanks of known 'battle' variety of Viruses.

There were two types of viruses, the battle sort, which had an ability to take a psychical manifestation, and attack Navis to defend themselves, and the transmit sort, which meant those viruses which were small, lacked a physical form, and were used to generally hack into secure areas, and weaken Navis from the inside, to them an illness.

Scuttles are classed as viruses, but they're more controllable then most. Quite a few companies use them as defensive measures, including Dr Wily and Light, due to the fact these little machine insects can take a decent amount of a beating before being destroyed. They come in four standard versions, and two unique, powerful versions. The four standard and coloured to show what element they'll use against targets. Unique ones are white and black.

The ones Dr Light and Wily use are white, the type that can take the most damage to it's body, over twenty direct cannon shots, and still fight on, mostly firing yellow laser beams from their gems.

This one was pitch black, and as it focused on Roll, it's eyes turned from yellow to red, meaning it had found a hostile target. Black ones were the worst, as it quickly showed once it registered an enemy, by emitting a yellow aura around itself, a powerful battlechip barrier called 'Life Aura'.

Roll fired her Roll Arrows at it a few times, but the arrows were easily deflected by the aura. You needed a pretty powerful weapon to break through, and then you had to attack it directly. The gem on its head quickly began to turn yellow and glowing, as it was preparing its laser.

She just ran for it, as the Scuttle fired it's beam at the ground where she was, destroying that part of the walkway, fragments of it falling into the depths, the scuttle taking a few steps back, watching the crumbling walkway until it stopped collapsing, then activated another installed ability. The 'area steal' warping battlechip, making it warp over from where it was to the other side of the broken path, and used it again, to start catching up with the fleeing Navi.

Roll was fast, one of her few gifts, but the thing was gaining. She quickly got on her com-link. "Megaman! Shademan! Scuttle viruses are around! I got one chasing me! It's black!"

"Black!? Damnit, do you have anything to repel it?" Megaman answered with.

"I'm just scanning through my battlechip data to see what can be used to bypass the Life Aura. I take it you've been lucky so far then?"

"I've had several viruses, all small and easy to dispatch."

Shademan then answered the call. "Roll, I just encountered a Scuttle as well, noticed several others in the distance, someone managed to get quite a few of these. Be careful as you may be heading for more."

It was a bit late for that warning.

Roll had just ran into an open area of the network, and noticed several Scuttles walking around, all of them black, as all of their eyes turned red and their attention was drawn to her, making her come to a stop, horrified. "Oh-oh no…"

She quickly looked for a way out of this mess, but the viruses were pretty much guarding the pathways out of the open area, and the one chasing her had just arrived behind her, making her move closer to the middle of the entrapment.

"Okay, good time to log out. Log out log out log out log out…" She was mumbling, closing her eyes and really thinking hard about heading back out of the system.

It wasn't working, as she soon noticed, opening her eyes, panicking as all of the Scuttles had begun to charge up their lasers. "Why isn't it working!? Quickly Roll, think of a chip to handle all of these, quickly, quickly!"

She couldn't, the fear of being destroyed had overtaken her senses, and as the beams were about to fire, she quickly closed her eyes.

In her place, as the beams fired, were the words 'LOGGED OUT', which quickly disappeared before the beams struck, causing a massive hole in the ground, where she once was.

She hadn't felt the sudden escape, instead she had crouched down, hands over her head, eyes tightly shut, still waiting for death to come.

She had failed to hear the faint humming sound of a computer nearby, the couple of metal footsteps coming towards her, before a male human voice said "You know it's safe now, don't you?"

It sounded like…

'No, it couldn't be.' Roll thought to herself, as she opened her eyes, surprised to see herself back in the real world, looking at the steel floor of one of the space stations rooms, and before her, two metal covered shoes…she slowly looked up, and standing before her, was a guy wearing a complete set of Galactic Federation power armor, a standard energy rifle of the Federation on his back.

"….Richard?" She had to inquire.

The trooper seemed to hesitate for a moment, thinking about something, she assumed, before answering. "No. My name is Chandos. I'm a spy for the Hero Ministry. I was busy trying to get into that computer's files when it detected a Navi in the systems. Noticed you were surrounded by viruses and decided to fish you out. You're part of the Hero Base Faction, right?"

Roll nodded, then stood herself up, feeling a little embarrassed about being in that position. She noticed they appeared to be in some sort of dining area, the rows of metal tables and benches, some with steel plates and such gave it away. The lights were dim, and the door into this place was sealed shut. "Yeah, I am. Sorry for mistaking you for someone else. You just sounded so familiar, that's all. My name's Roll."

"Pleasure to meet you. Strange you mistook me for the one I'm looking for, I was sent here to find one of your companions that have been held captive here, by that name." Chandos explained.

"The ministry wants to rescue Richard as well?" The Navi was quite surprised at this.

"It's merely an agreement with Dr Wily. Sadly it's gone a bit wrong." The trooper motioned at the door. "While I was checking the computer, it seems like whoever's in charge of this place right now managed to reactivate the lockdown settings, and the door is closed shut, the rifle's normal shots won't get through, and I can't risk a charged shot, incase the rifle gets fried."

He then looked to her, and pointed at her helmet. "I think though, with those antennas of yours, getting through the door via hacking won't be a problem."

She was surprised once again. She felt for her yellow transparent antennas. How did he know? These weren't any standard feature for Net Navis, in actual fact, Dr Light had customized them for Roll should Maylu forgot any passcodes when she was younger. "…How did you guess?"

Chandos has walked over to the door. "I, have my resources when it comes to the two docs running the Hero Base. Heard about a Net Navi who can hack. Guessed it was you thanks to the details pointing out the shape of the hacking tools."

Roll couldn't fault that. The Hero Ministry probably has all kinds of information on them. She went over to the door, and brought her antennas forward, both phasing into the door, as she focused, and begun to hack through the security codes, which were small in number and easy to figure out, obviously thanks to the current state of chaos in the network. "Do you have a map for the place?"

"Managed to get one before I saw you. Your friend is several floors up from here. Nearest lift is twelve corridors away, and I know there are guards around. We'll have to be careful." Chandos answered with, as Roll managed to get the door to open up, moving back her antennas.

"Alright then. Lets go and find him, then meet up with the others." Roll slowly left the canteen area, heading out into a corridor, looking around carefully.

"Yeah…lets." Chandos mumbled.

---

"SO, according to the map data you managed to get Megaman, we've gone completely off course-"

"Yeah."

"-got at least twenty lockdown areas to go through-"

"Uh huh."

"-And the lifts are in lockdown as well, meaning we will all have to use the service chutes to get around."

"Yyyep."

"And to top it all off, we've lost contact with Roll and Shademan."

"Sums it all up."

The first voice was Chad, the one answering him, Megaman.

Chad could only sigh after that. "Okay, we need to find them. That's our new top priority. Any idea where they went?"

Megaman nodded, not liking the idea of telling him. "Yeah, well….Roll was last detected by the network, two levels above us, forced to log out somewhere there, and Shademan was last picked up before logging out in one of the armory rooms several levels down."

"So we gotta split up, that about right?" Sam asked.

Chad knew that was only course of action. "Listen, me and Anna will go and get Roll. The rest of you should head downwards and get Shademan. Once we've both found our respective people, we'll go and find Richard. Hopefully we will all meet up at his location."

Zhang He was quick to refuse. "I will not depart away from my dear friend Anna and leave her to your filthy hands! I shall come along!"

"Zhang He, it'll be alright. Just go with his idea for now. We'll be back together soon enough." Anna assured him, before she looked at Megaman. "If you can tell us which service chutes we need, we'll get started."

Megaman explained, taking his time, and making sure at least one of them remembered, before the team went their separate ways.

….

…..

"It's 14-55 Chad, not 14-53."

"No I'm certain he said 14-53, because that was after 15-12, 15-34 and 15-48, our starting point. Then it'll be 14-21, and then 13-60 which, after we find Roll, is the one we get back into as it leads to 13-55, which is the extended one that'll get us to 10-10, then that will take us to 9-40, then 9-21, and finally we'll hit 8-60 junction which is the one we need to get out of to go and find Richard."

They were both standing there, in a clamp, small metal room, with four holes, which were aligned with either metal handles or a crawl way, depending on the angle. The junction they were in was labeled with white letters nearby as '15-12', meaning 'Level 15, Junction 12.' There were a few white lights in the small room, along with a control panel nearby on the wall, which was currently shut off. There was white lettering for the holes leading out…this was what they were trying to figure out.

Chad looked in one of the passage holes. "Well this one is a crawl way slightly sloped upwards. I'm sure the one we want wouldn't be a climbable one just yet Anna, as it might skip too many levels, so it's gotta be this one."

Anna disagreed, frowning at Chad, before pointing out the hole close to her, which had climbing bars leading upwards. "This one seems to only go up a few meters Chad, it's obviously the right one, and I recall him saying it's the pathway leading to 14-55."

"Anna, It's 14-53. We only need to go a little bit in an upwards direction to reach the next level."

"Chad, that obviously doesn't go far enough!"

Chad decided to just climb in, and begun crawling his way to the next area. "You just wait then. If I find a path to 14-21 in the next junction, you awe me a drink of Dr P."

"Fine then." Anna then just crossed her arms, leaning on the wall, and waited. "Bet you won't though."

Chad's voice was heard echoing a little as he continued on, and by the sounds of it, getting into a new area, as his feet were heard landing on metal. "Pfft, I'm about to prove you…..you…."

Anna waited.

Soon enough, he was crawling back, and had returned to where Anna was, looking slightly defeated.

"Problem?" She asked, with a hint of glee.

The mobian lad could only frown at her.

"Well perhaps next time you'll listen to me instead of being stubborn and-" she was saying this as she looked into the one hole that she betted on, and had looked up whilst talking. "-AAHH!"

She shot back, quickly moving over to Chad, who was surprised by her quick movement and brief scream, before he heard something climbing down the metal bars. He got his Blade of Darkness out.

It turned out to be human, thankfully. And not wearing Galactic Federation armor either. He had tanned coloured skin, golden eyes as he turned around, a breathing mask on, covering his mouth, it's straps on his ears. His hair was brown, thick and of medium length. It was twisted into dreadlocks. He wore a black shirt, with a light brown bandoleer that went over his shoulder and around his waist, around his neck were two necklaces, one, had an eagle at the middle of it and was golden, the other, silver, with a wolf instead. He wore tightened, leather black trousers, black army boots, and dark grey knee pads. Above all this, he wore a brown, sleeveless duster over it, which had, imprinted on it's back, a unique flag Chad hadn't seen before. It had one blue circular part to it, which was embedded with 14 white stars, 13 around the sides, and one big one in the middle, and underneath that circle segment, 8 lines of red and white.

Being carried on his back, was a long, gold and steel pole, which had an eagle at the top of it forged onto it. On his waist, was some form of a submachine, and a decent sized knife. On his right wrist, was a metal device with a green screen, a cylinder shape, attached right around that part of his arm. It had, roughly scratched on one side of it 'Courier Six.'

He seemed to be staring at them both for a moment, before finally speaking. "Lower your weapon. I did not mean to surprise Anna. I'm here to help you."

Chad decided otherwise. "Nah, I'm good thanks. How about you explain who you are and how you know Annas name first before I lower my guard?"

The man folded his arms. "I am Ulysses. I'm a traveler. Time and otherwise. I walk a path that is beyond your understanding…for now. I'm here to assist you retrieve your friend."

"What makes you think we need help finding Roll?" Chad asked.

"….Roll? I speak about Richard, not, of Roll. What has happened to her then?"

Chad slowly lowered his sword, he started to feel a little more relaxed, as this guy seemed to be on their side. "She got lost whilst in the stations network. We were going to retrieve her, then go and find Richard and break him out."

The man named Ulysses seemed to think on this for a moment. "…Your time is limited. You must reach Richard, and another. Not, Roll. She will be fine. She's smart, capable. She will find her way. We should get moving. If you want to get to your friend in time, follow me."

Without waiting, he begun to climb back up the way he came from. Anna quickly looked at Chad. Quickly asking, in a whisper."Can we trust him?"

Chad nodded a little and whispered back. "I think so, he said he travels time, maybe his an ally from the future…come on, let's get moving. If it's a trap, I'll deal with him."

"My hero." She gave him a little kiss on the cheek, before both of them followed the strange man.

---

"I don't like it….the hanger being unguarded like this…"

It was Kei Yuki.

The hanger they had landed in was left wide open, the hatch that's normally closed leading into space had been left opened, all the air of the place had long since been sucked out. It's only because Kei knew the access codes, she managed to get into a small segment of the network to close the hanger hatch and refill this place with oxygen.

It was all dimly lit, and entirely empty beyond their transport ship. Everything that had been stored in here, ships, cargo boxes, supplies, all had been sucked out, meaning whoever it was that caused this to happen didn't make sure the gravity mechanism was active to hold down the other transport ships in place whilst the decompression of the hanger occurred.

Dark Rich had then walked off the transport vessel. Aqua followed him shortly after. "We need to get moving and get that ship." was all the clone said, before starting to head off towards the exit of the hanger.

Aqua though, had other ideas. "No. We need proof."

The clone stopped, turning around, facing Aqua, as she walked up to Kei, staying close to her. "Proof of what?"

"That Keaton is going to betray her. The more I thought about, the more it seemed off. He needs all the allies he can get right now. His in a desperate position. Kei could easily help him win support once Gaia VII is ours."

Dark Rich chuckled a little. "Gaia VII won't be his. I know it won't be. This war is already lost. I have no intention of letting us go down with it."

"They have a chance, especially once the Zerg, commanded by your brothe-"

"-They won't be coming to Keatons aid."

Aqua looked surprised at Dark Rich.

"Unholy is not one I would trust. He has other intentions, I noticed especially when Chaos was around him. He won't stay allied with Keaton either. It's over." Dark turned back round.

"…Please Dark? Just a little proof would be nice…" That was Kei.

The clone cursed…he had to listen to her. "Very well, Kei. Come on, if we encounter any guards though, you'll need to cover for us. Let's go to Keatons office."

---

Chandos and Roll were slowly moving down one of the corridors, heading towards a nearby lift. There didn't seem to be any guards getting in their way at the moment, something that Roll was very alert about, expecting patrols guarding these hallways.

"It's odd, normally when a station is in lockdown, they deploy troops at every area to try and monitor for intruders…" She quietly told to Chandos, as he was now ahead of her, leading the way.

"The station is probably not suppose to be on a lockdown status. Either that or they lack the manpower to guard everywhere like they normally would-and this is a problem." He suddenly stopped just as they were about to turn another corner, leaning on the wall suddenly, making sure Roll stayed behind him.

"What is it?"

"Just saw the ticket upwards…four guards are watching it."

Roll moved past him very carefully, and peaked down the corridor to where the entrance of the lift was.

Four fully armed GF troopers alright. They seemed to be distracted, chatting to themselves by the looks of it.

She looked back at Chandos. "We can take them, If I shoot the two of the right and you handle the left-"

Chandos shook his head. "Bad idea. We can't risk it."

"Why not? You have your rifle, and I have my arm cannon."

"We just…can't. The ministry wants minimal deaths." Chandos answered with.

Roll was sure that sounded made up, she then realized that he hadn't held onto the rifle at all so far, leaving it on his back…she eyed him, looking at him carefully, before sighing. "Alright, what do we do then?"

"….I know."

The four troopers were just discussing their homes, mostly about when this is all over, they might all get noticed as heroes for siding with the Galactic Federation instead of surrendering over. It was only as Chandos and Roll were getting close.

Due to Chandos having his rifle put away, the guards simply blocked the way to the lift instead of raising their weapons, assuming Chandos was one of them, with a Net Navi ally. One of them spoke, a male. "The station is currently in lockdown trooper, what squad are you from and why have you left your post?"

Chandos stopped near them, acting relaxed. "Me and my Navi here need to get to level 8, if you don't mind."

"I DO mind. I'll ask again, what squad and why have you left your post?"

Chandos sighed, in an annoyed tone, and looked idly at one of his hands. "I don't have to answer to someone of low rank."

The trooper sounded quite angry at that. "Excuse me?!"

Roll's ally responded in his own angry tone. "I have my orders to see to Keatons prisoner, an alpha red priority request, clearance code 1-9-9-7-3-1 Omega. By that right, you must forget this encounter occurred along with your allies, clear out the sound archives of your power amours, and speak of this to no one…is that, perfectly clear?"

The trooper who had been talking to him, suddenly noticed on his visual screen, thanks to his helmets sound buffers obviously picking up the clearance code, that it was verified, the word flashing on his screen for a few moments, as it did to his allies. He quickly walked over to the lift, pressing several buttons on a control panel nearby it, triggering the lockdown on the lift to shut off, before stepping back, along with his allies, all moving out of the way, the guy now sounding sheepish. "My sincere apologies. I had no idea, sir."

"You were doing your duty. Reactivate the lockdown on this door once we enter. That is all." Chandos responded, marching by and heading into the lift, with a rather surprised Roll following suit, and indeed, once they were inside, when the door closed, they heard it lock.

Chandos sighed in relief, before looking at the control nearby, using it to make the lift head on upwards. "That was a lucky guess. I didn't know if it would work."

"Well I'm glad it did, or that would've been rather awkward." Roll gave him a relieved smile, as he stood over near her. "So where did you learn that?"

"Oh…past missions."

"What were they like?"

Chandos looked towards her. "Oh…pretty damn epic."

"How so?"

"…Well…I had to destroy a giant mecha once. That the enemy, the GF had tried to use after the death of Rufus Shinra."

Roll raised her eyebrow at him. "Rufus huh?"

He seemed to pause. "Yeah...the dead guy?"

"Huh…When did that happen?"

"Oh...a while back."

Roll look at him with suspicion now. "…I see." With that, she leaned on the wall, arms folded, looking ahead now. "Funny."

Chandos leaned back as well. "Funny?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

There was silence afterward for several moments, before the guy decided to move again, as the lift came to a stop. "Alright, I'll just bypass the lockdown from here next, then tell the guards outside the same-"

"-Rufus is very much alive." Her eyes had narrowed.

Chandos was about to unlock the door, but stopped, looking at Roll and noticing her look to him. "What? No he was killed. My data says-"

"He is very much alive and in charge."

"I….uhh…" Chandos was now rubbing the back of his helmet.

"You're not working for the ministry, are you?" She accused him.

"No, but, I'm still here to help you, alright? I am an official member of a secret organization working with the GF, and due to the secrecy of it, I can't-" He went on about something, something that Roll failed to hear, as she was distracted by Chandos' rifle.

It had flickered, the whole gun flickered, like it was a digital object.

She knew of an easy to distract him. "Hey, what's going on with the control panel?" looking curious suddenly.

Chandos noticed her attention to him had gone, and decided to turn around and check on what she meant, noticing the control panel seemed alright. "I don't see anything the matter with it Roll-HEY!" He quickly tried to turn back around and grab her, as she grabbed on the handle of the rifle…and noticed her hand fazed through, and felt now like it was holding onto something else. A small circular device, before Chandos pulled it away. Her hand had sent signals to her mind, her Navi sensors having come to life, as she noticed it was electronic… "…Is that a holo-emitter?"

Chandos didn't answer, but he was shaking, she was sure he was watching her completely through his visor.

She didn't trust him now, she aimed her arrow buster at him. "Why do you have a holo-emitter?"

"Roll, don't turn against me." Chandos was warning her.

Roll kept the scythe pointed at Chandos, her mind now filled with concern about this figure before her. "Who are you?"

"Roll, lower your weapon. I said to myself I would never hurt you but if you don't..." He was making sure she understood him, and even took a small step forward, his voice made it sound like he was getting angry.

She was steadfast. "Tell me who you are!"

It was obvious now he was reaching a snapping point. "Lower that weapon now!"

His yelling made her jump a little, and caused her to shake, knowing he was now enraged, but tried to hold on. "Your name isn't 'Chandos' at all, is it?! Tell me your real name!"

That's when the lift door unlocked and opened, standing there, two GF troopers, rifles ready, alerted by Chandos and Roll's little standoff. "Freeze!"

Chandos didn't, instead, he noticed Roll was momentarily distracted, and quickly moved towards her, punching her in the stomach, which made her lower her weapon, allowing him time to turn around and form a Hi-cannon on his hand, aiming at one of the troopers and shooting him right through the visor.

As his comrade fell, the remaining soldier was about to open fire, only to find Chandos quickly move towards him and pointed one of his hands towards the trooper. "BURN!" his hand and arm suddenly transformed into an orange and red arm cannon, spewing a jet of blue flame that emitted such volatile heat it tore right through the armor and flesh of the trooper, before falling to the ground in a burning heap, no longer moving.

Chandos stood there, disabling his arm cannon and the Hi-cannon on his other hand, looking down at the burning mess of flesh and metal. "These power armors back in this time really were flimsy, no wonder they were heavily upgraded by the time the CE came about."

He turned to the other trooper, confirming he was dead before turning to Roll, who had her arm cannon now ready once more, aiming at him, but he didn't seem to notice, despite her constant aim on him, as he walked back on the lift.

"…You do know I'm threatening you, right?"

"I've vented out on those guys." He flatly answered.

"You do recall punching me in the stomach right?" Roll just looked baffled now.

"I punched you to let me focus on the troopers and distract them a moment, as you must've noticed by now…ah forget the disguise, you'll probably see through it soon enough." With that, Chandos clenched his fists for a moment, before the armor all seemed to flicker, before disappearing entirely along with the rifle.

Underneath…was Richard. Dark brown hair, slightly lighter peach skin, one blue eye while the other was white, but despite the differences, combined with the voice, it was certainly him. That was enough for Roll to lower and disable her arm cannon. "I knew it…It is you."

Richard was wearing a dark blue shirt, black trousers, black shoes, and a black trench coat. All that Roll had never seen him wear before."Yeah. It's…me."

She slowly approached him. "You, you look normal again. You look like what you did back before Unicron attacked…But that weapon you used, the fire one. That's a Navi-like weapon, and the way you triggered that Hi-cannon was without any sort of battlechip and your eye, you're blind in that one aren't you? What happened-"

"Roll, I'm, not from this timeline. I'm from the future. Quite far, in fact. I need to…sort something out. With myself."

"With yourself?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it's something important. In order to protect you."

"…Protect me?" Now she was surprised, and felt a little redness flush in her cheeks.

"Yeah, to protect you…to stop something happening and to make sure your safe. You're precious to me, that's why I had to save you from the network. Though I don't recall you ever saying about this station nor the condition of its network."

"Maybe I wanted to forget? Or something happens here?"

Richard nodded. "Either that or simply coming back is changing things..." He placed his hand into one of his pockets, and pulled out a jagged green crystal, glowing slightly. He appeared concerned as he stared at it. "Could it's effects be that powerful? Why didn't Gman warn me?"

Roll was looking at it herself. "What is it?"

Richard soon put it away, smiling at her to give her some reassurance. "Don't worry. Now come on, we got work to do." With that, he started to walk off, with her quickly following.

"Wait! I wanna talk about the future! What's it like? How are we all? Who's this Gman? Why don't you look any older?"

Richard stopped briefly in the corridor out of the lift, and looked over his shoulder at her. "Roll, if I tell you anything, it could damage the timeline further. Sorry, I gotta keep quiet."

---

The main control room of the space station, once had several GF engineers hanging around to help restore the systems along with Huang Zhong, had now fallen silent.

There was blood in several spots, computer monitors had a few splashes on them, the lights showed where the blood came from, the corpses on the ground, spewed across the place, with stab marks all over…

One of the bodies still had life though, and he begun to slowly force himself to move, groaning out in agony, trying to reach one of the computers.

This was done by Dark Rich. The reason was Keaton's office was connected to that room, and the people there didn't seem convinced when he tried to say he, Kei and Aqua were asked to come back, so violence was the answer.

They were currently inside said office. Which housed a dark grey metal desk, a personal computer on said desk, a wheelie chair, and on the walls around it, pictures, of landscapes, of many different worlds, most of them obviously been hand-painted.

While Kei Yuki was looking through Keatons computer, Dark Rich had been looking at the pictures, along with Aqua. "So, do you think these are replicas or the real deal?"

Aqua thought about this. "Honestly? I think they must be the real deal. The guy's got cash, and knowing him, he would've spent it on things like this."

"Actually-" Kei spoke up. "-They're just replicas, based on those that Keaton had back in Midgar. Rufus now has the originals."

Aqua looked over to the scientist. "By the way, any luck with the information, any confirmation that he isn't going to favor us for much longer?"

Dark Rich cursed under his breath. The chances are Keaton probably hasn't written anything down yet to suggest such, and thus, this entire attempt to walk away from the Federation is gonna fall flat on its face.

Kei Yuki didn't seem to answer Aqua. It was right after she pressed a few more buttons, ready to speak, but then something came up on the screen, making her read it. Aqua eventually walked over. "Kei? What is it?" with that, she also begun looking at whatever Kei was.

Dark just waited, and eventually, Kei spoke up about whatever she had found. "…As soon as Gaia VII is his, he intends to dispose of me…"

The clone turned towards the two ladies. "As expected. He doesn't intend to have you around once his back in power. If people find out you're a child of a High Minister, it's going to complicate things for him."

Kei felt gutted. She was hoping they wouldn't find something like this. Then just apologize for leaving the battlefield, set things right…

She felt Aqua place her hand on her shoulder. "We should go. Where's the ship and those friends of yours?"

"Right. Ship. Mr Match and such…If I recall they normally work on level 9, one of the research floors. The ship is on level 15." She got up, away from the computer, turning it off, before heading to the doorway, motioning Aqua and Dark Rich to follow.

As they passed back through the control room, Dark Rich had to stop, and look at the bodies…one in particular. Huang Zhong. He could've sworn the old man wasn't sitting at a computer when he stabbed him to death, hunched over the keywords, eyes wide…He shrugged it off, and followed the other two.

Huang Zhong waited for the footsteps to fade, then blinked and leaned back up, taking as much air as his lungs could, coughing and feeling the pain from his several stab wounds on his body, trying to focus again, and get back to accessing the systems of the station. "Bastard, young whelps. I, I won't let you take this, station, from me…"

Something suddenly impaled into his back, causing a fresh wave of blood to flow out…a black Keyblade. Huang Zhong could only feel the weapon for a moment, before he gave way, and died, slumped over the controls.

A white glove covered hand pulled the Keyblade out of the body, and shoved him aside, before pressing a few buttons on the control panel Huang Zhong was using, showing that the person had accessed the energy core, and made it begin to increase its power levels, slowly but surely. Xehanort stood there, smiling. "Sorry Huang Zhong, but Chaos just called, and offered me something your leader could not. In exchange, he wants this place gone."

---

Ulysses, Chad and Anna had come out of the junction tubes, on the 8th level, into a room with several crates of guns, explosives and ammunition. The lights were dim, and there was only one door leading out.

Anna felt quite sore right now, a lot of the spaces they had to climb through included them crawling around, something that left a few marks on her hands and knees. "Jeez, you think they would make those places with a little comfort in mind…"

Chad was focused on Ulysses, watching the wastelander move ahead, opening the door, and checking if the coast was clear. "Hey. How much further to Richard?"

Ulysses eventually answered. "A few corridors away. Not far. But first, we must go elsewhere, you two must. A brief diversion."

Chad raised an eyebrow. "Diversion? Why?"

"You'll see. Come." With that, Ulysses walked out into the corridor, leaving the other two momentarily behind, before they quickly caught up with him so not to get lost.

As they walked, Chad decided to ask something. "So, why have you travelled back in time precisely? Why do we have a limited time in getting to Richard?"

"You mistake me. I said I am a traveller of time and otherwise. I know you are short of time thanks to another from the future, and one who lives in your time. Both are the same person, but different."

Anna didn't seem that surprised. "I suppose his current issue of being controlled has caused some bad blood to last well into the future."

Ulysses shook his head, as they turned and went down another hallway. "No. Bad blood to the one in your time, but the one from the future…is different. Pure disgust, a need to correct his own mistake, believing it will make things 'better'. Not knowing he has come to the wrong place."

That got Chad curious, but it had to wait, as Ulysses' arm device was flashing faintly, and a small beeping sound was coming off it. He moved it up, and pressed a button on it. "Yes?"

A female voice came from the device. "Ulyss- it's Terr-I found the others-Still holding the Dark Wo- what's nex-"

By the sounds of it, the jamming effect in place thanks to the lockdown is having an effect on his devices as well, as Ulysses begun to reply to the voice. "If you can hear me, bring them to level 8. According to my Pipboy, we have 59 minutes left."

The female voice answered. "Understo-" before the call disconnected, and he lowered his Pipboy device.

"59 minutes?" Chad asked.

Ulysses turned towards him. "Before I came, a deity warned me the space stations energy core will soon begin breaking down thanks to the commanding officer here. He seemed to know what was to come."

Well that was some pretty worrying news to lay on Chad and Anna. "…Shouldn't we run to this little diversion of yours then?" Anna suggested.

"No need." The wastelander continued to walk, with them following. "It's just around the corner now. We have time."

What he led them to, was to a room, filled with 8 testing chambers, human sized ones, each, with computers attached to them. All of the chambers were empty bar one. The lights in the room were currently off, with only the consoles in the room giving a faint glow, showing some of the wiring going across the steel floor, and outlines of several desks around the metal room, with papers on top, data pads, and the odd little personal item, obviously belonging to whoever worked in this area.

The odd chamber with someone in was the 6th chamber out of the 8. They could just barely see the figure inside. It seemed masculine, human, at least. As Ulysses turned once entering the room to look at a control panel nearby on the wall, which was flickering a little, Chad and Anna slowly entered, looking around carefully.

"Why are the lights off?" Anna was holding Chad by the arm, looking over at the occupied chamber.

Ulysses took a guess. "Damage from the network. Seems like these chambers were unaffected though. I'll try and restore the lights from here. I suggest you wake up that potential ally over there."

Chad walked over to the only chamber with a person in, looking at it carefully, whilst Anna decided to look at the others, starting from the first one, looking at the computer terminal connected to it.

She read through the summed up report.

'Clone Subject 1

Named Warrior (Second name Rich, as per suggested by Kei Yuki, to give them a sense of their biological father by holding a part of his first name. EDIT: All Clones are now to be given the same last name.)

Subject creation led by Dr Neo Cortex, assisted by Kei Yuki and Miles Prower. ('Tails' assisted with blueprints and first chamber construction in exchange for us to leave Mobius as a neutral party in upcoming war. Keaton has agreed until retake of Gaia VII.)

Current Status: DECEASED

Summary by Cortex: First clone produced has been enhanced with a greater durable body and strength after several tests on parent genes. Unfortunately once woken on maturity, began attacking lab assistants and had to be restrained and put back to sleep in the chamber. Concluded as failure, to be used in conjunction with other tests.'

Anna went to the next chamber along.

'Clone Subject 2

Named War

Subject creation led by Dr Neo Cortex, assisted by Kei Yuki.

Current Status: DECEASED

Summary by Cortex: Created just like Subject 1, except mission was now to improve intelligence instead of bodily functions. Same result occurred on release from chamber like Subject 1, attacking all people on sight. No sign of higher intelligence, unable to verbally speak or understand what is instructed to it. Has been restrained and put back into chamber to sleep. Concluded as a failure like Subject 1, to be used in conjunction with other tests.'

Anna once again moved along, as Chad meanwhile, had noticed her interest in the empty ones, and decided to come over and look at the next terminal with her.

'Clone Subject 3

Named Death

Subject creation led by Dr Neo Cortex, assisted by Kei Yuki and Grievous (suggestions only).

Current Status: DECEASED

Summary by Cortex: Focused on the overall mind of this Subject after the disasters of 1 and 2, as Grievous felt we needed to focus on the ability for it to understand us, so we can avoid anymore incidents. Adjusted the Zerg genes dominance to be slightly more over the human genes, and allowed the, named 'Dark Soul' genetics (Unknown 'blood' substance found in parent subject, following the same veins as normal humanoid and Zerg blood. Tests so far have failed to find source, but appear to be a key fragment in parents enhancements.) to be included. 1 and 2 were just Humanoid and Zerg.

When Dark Soul genetics were embedded in the Subject as it matured, it's skin began to rapidly peel off, it's eyes changed into a blood red, and suddenly woke, screaming, and managed to push itself free from the chamber, despite the locking mechanism in place. After clawing the eyes out of one of the assistants, Grievous had managed to pin the Subject down, and force him to return to the chamber. A stronger sleeping agent was required to put 3 back into stasis. Concluded also as a failure, to be used in conjunction with other tests, if security is in place.'

"So…who are these people then? Did the other two have names like this 'Death' guy?" Chad asked.

Anna was visibly worried. "The previous two were called Warrior and War Chad…and their last names were Rich. Human, Zerg and Dark Soul all combined."

It took Chad a few moments, but it dawned on him. "…These, these are clones to Richard?"

Anna only nodded, before they moved to the 4th one.

'Clone Subject 4

Named Speed

Subject creation led by Dr Neo Cortex, assisted by Kei Yuki and Chaos.

Current Status: DECEASED

Summary by Cortex: Dark Soul genes and Zerg genes were first infused before embedding a very small amount of Human genes. After Subject 3, we've chosen to mostly focus on the improvement of intelligence once again, and less on the vocal needs. Chaos suggested to add additional DNA from himself, but not any normal type…yet another Dark Soul Gene. It seemed to adapt seamlessly into the Subject, and once his chamber was opened, he managed slight capable levels of speech, understanding us. He appeared human, albeit as pale as a corpse.

His performance in the testing room showed unusual levels of speed, a trait, Chaos claims, is from him. His combat ability was also quite impressive, as he managed to take down several scrap droids in mere seconds we had gained from the once existing confederacy years ago. Unfortunately that was all we managed to gain from him, before he started to yell out about the 'voices in head' to leave him alone, and started trying to escape. He killed 10 of our men who entered the testing area to contain him before Grievous put a stop to him. Concluded as a failure, to be used like the others in later tests.'

The next one.

'Clone Subject 5

Named Unholy

Subject creation led by Dr Neo Cortex, assisted by Kei Yuki and Xehanort.

Current Status: ACTIVE

Summary by Cortex: Xehanort had chosen to have a clone created with a DNA structure ratio of 3;3;4, Human, Zerg and Dark Soul respectively. He felt the Dark Soul was the key part to a more stable Subject. Indeed, when the Subject matured, as he left his chamber for the first time, he was able to speak very well, seemingly had no signs of madness, and had not attacked anyone. After several small tests, he remains stable, yet now he had changed in his once calm and relaxed state, and he claimed he too, heard voices in his mind. When asked what he meant, he simply…giggled, almost bursting with laughter.

After several bio-tests to his body capabilities, we can confirm his Zerg gene is very stable, as he shows an ability to emit the scent signals required to tell a difference between a member of their hive and an overmind. He also appears to be able to transform into a liquid state, and even a non-corporeal phase state, whereas walls and floors are not able to contain him, as he can travel freely through them, though his appearance like this is, quite unsettling. His body lacks the rapid recovery of a Zerg, but can easily endure severe pain and trauma to his entire body. He has been regarded a success, and placed in service of the Galactic Federation.'

Then they both arrived at the occupied chamber, now looking to its terminal.

'Clone Subject 6

Named Light

Subject creation led by Xehanort, assisted by Kei Yuki, Chaos and Dr Neo Cortex.

Current Status: IN STASIS

Summary by Kei Yuki: Subject 6 was created with much lesser Dark Soul genes, keeping it to only 5% of whole DNA structure, and Zerg genes only at 10%, compared to Subject 5's 40% Dark Soul and 30% Zerg Structure. This is a simple tryout for a more sane and cooperative ally for us.

Maturity was reached at a few days slower rate then the five previous, but once achieved, appears older looking then the others, with rapid hair growth, and better physical build then the previous, seemingly in line more with the Subject 1 in terms of muscle mass.

When awakened, he has shown a high level of intelligence, able to communicate perfectly, and very much unlike the others, shows compassion and emits a general feel of, goodwill. When tested (with his permission) there is meager signs of active Zerg traits within him, and the Dark Soul genes appear to be in a total docile state, merely flowing around his body. When placed in a combat situation in testing, he has shown high capability with weaponry, and when injured, is able to rapidly heal the damage, with his hands merely covering the wound, a brief golden aura was seen around him during the momentary healing process. An unknown ability that the parent does not have, a hidden property in the blood with the Dark Soul in?

Classed as a currently unusable resource, he will remain in stasis until deemed fit, ready to work with the Galactic Federation.'

Anna then looked to the figure inside. "…Should we let him out now?"

Chad though, was now interested in these clones, and had moved on to the next one. "In a moment, we still got a little time, I want to see if any of these other things are gonna be around besides that one and the Unholy one."

Anna eventually followed suit, after looking over at Ulysses, checking to see if he was okay, noticed he was focused on the device next to the door, trying to get it to function.

'Clone Subject 7

Named Dark

Subject creation led by Xehanort, assisted by Kei Yuki and Dr Neo Cortex.

Current Status: ACTIVE

Summary by Kei Yuki: From Subject 6's results, we've kept the Dark Soul genes to 5%, and increased the Zerg genes to 20%. Maturity was faster now, and when awoken, he seemed to idly stand inside the chamber, as if unable to move. He only stepped out when his hand was held by myself. The moment he left the chamber, he begun to communicate with everyone, but seemed to mostly stay close to me.

When his was checked over, we confirmed that he had a unique strand of Zerg genes implanted into his DNA structure that we didn't expect. A mental mechanism that makes him listen to whoever it regards as it's Overmind, or master. The Dark Soul gene side appears docile once again, but his Zerg traits show by his lightning fast reactions to movement and sound, and appears to be able to see perfectly in the dark. After combat tests with Subjects 1, 2, 3 and 4, with their termination, he has been regarded as a success, and has been placed into the Galactic Federation for active duty.'

Chad felt a cold shiver down his spine after reading that. He was a sure that meant something with this specific Clone, this, Dark Rich…

Then there was the final chamber, and the final terminal. As Chad and Anna went towards it, Chad tripped over something, stopping and looking at the ground, in the weak dim lighting, leaving Anna to read what was on the terminal.

'Clone Subject 8

Named *NO NAME SPECIFIED*

Subject creation led by Xehanort, assisted by Dr Neo Cortex.

Current Status: IN STASIS

Summary by Xehanort: Experimentation Subject 8 is not to be included in the entire cloning process results unless Subject 5 fails. Results are to see if 40% parent Dark Soul, 40% Zerg and 20% Human would produce a more powerful and useful clone.

Results were much different. When first created, it appeared very much human, but as it grew into maturity, the skin greatly hardened and transformed into a Zerg like scales, the skin pigmentation turned from a pale pink to a dark brown, and the head structure had changed. There was also visible signs of two claw appendages growing from the back of this Subject, obviously showing Zerg gene dominance in this Clone over the others. I also confirmed it had changed sex as it matured, turning from male to female overnight, perhaps another Zerg trait. Tests are to be concluded after our business with the Shinra Federation is finished.'

Anna was now very, very worried. "Chad…this one, it's suppose to still be in here…Chad?" She noticed a lack of response, and slowly turned to look at her boyfriend.

He found what he tripped on, and had lifted it up into the weak lighting of the room, his eyes just widened and staring in slight horror.

It was an arm. An armoured GF arm, drops of blood leaking from where it was pulled off its owner…

Ulysses when managed to get the lights of the room fully on.

Talk about timing.

The floor had a lovely coating of blood on it, splashes of it all over the place, over the wiring, a little bit on the desks, a few bits of human intestines and flesh adding to the décor. The major thing they noticed quickly enough was there was no other body parts…until Anna looked up, her gasp alerting the other two.

There was a huge jagged hole in the ceiling, something had torn through the metal and climb out, by the looks of it…and left something behind. There was a limp body of a GF trooper, his head, with the helmet on, the visor from the inside, covered in blood, was hanging there, almost seemingly looking down at them, one of his arms hanging as well.

Ulysses walked over, raised his hands up, and grabbed the limb, pulling the body down…what was left of it. There was no legs, or hip, the torso segment of the armor was there, and so were the two arms, but after the body hit the floor, it was obvious that, from looking inside the torso segment, whatever attacked this person, had pretty much eaten most of whoever it was inside the armor.

"…Hmm, whatever it was, it wanted to finish its meal in peace, and was disturbed soon enough that it quickly must've tried to take its food from here, but the weight of it was too much and chose instead to abandoned it." Ulysses had concluded, after looking at the hole in the ceiling again.

"…Recently?" Chad had to ask.

"Very."

Anna turned her focus to the 6th chamber. "It must've been the 8th clone. It sounded like from the terminal that it was more Zerg like…it's making me wonder if we really should let the 6th one out…It might transform into that as well."

Chad looked over, and now they could the person inside the chamber. He looked in his 30's, human, quite well toned and tall, with long brown hair, and a fully grown, fleshed out beard, his skin appeared to be a light pink colour, and was wearing a light blue one piece outfit, that covered him from his feet to his neck.

The boy wasn't sure, he had to admit to himself. But something told him it wouldn't be a bad thing to let this one out. From what he read on that terminal he sounded nice enough. Chad slowly went over to the chamber, and found a switch, which he flicked, and soon, the chamber was beginning to open up…he just prayed now this wasn't going to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Once it had opened, the figure inside slowly opened his eyes, showing they were light brown, and stepped out of the chamber. He seemed to be a little confused at first, as he spoke, with a gentle and kind voice "Kei Yuki, Neo Cortex, What do you require from me? Do we need to complete more tes-" and stopped, when his eyes came into focus, and noticed the blood, the body, and Ulysses. "What on earth…?" Then, he spotted Chad and Anna.

He seemed to just stare at him, making things a little awkward. "Uhh…hey there. I'm Chad Oswald, this is Anna Hael, we're from-" Chad started to explain.

The clone finished. "-the Hero Base. I know…I'm just surprised to see you both here. Are you here to rescue Richard?"

Chad was surprised that it seem to know them. "Yeah, we are."

The clone then sighed, looking a little sad. "I'm sorry to say that I am not him. I am a clone. I was given the name Light Rich."

"Oh. We knew that already." Anna assured him.

"That's good then. I would rather not have my father's friends mistake me for him."

"I take it you have his memories then?" Ulysses came over and asked.

"Yes….although I don't recall you from them." Light Rich admitted, looking Ulysses up and down.

"I am not from here. I'm here to assist them. Now, if you feel able, we must proceed, and with caution, as it appears one of the other clones have turned rather violent."

Light Rich looked at the body, and the blood, then, over to the 5th chamber. "…Unholy. He must've caused this."

Anna shook her head. "Actually, it probably was the 8th one."

The clone was surprised. "8th one? There is only seven of us…" he looked to the 7th chamber, and then saw the 8th. "…They said there was only going to be one more though. What was in the 8th chamber then, Anna?"

"A ton of trouble by the looks of it, come on, let's go." Chad answered.

---

"So, we'll soon be at where you currently are, right?"

"Yep."

"Isn't it odd for you? At all?"

"Not really. I've done a little time travelling before, read up tons on it, researched it plenty. It's kinda been as standard so far."

The first voice was of Roll, the other, Richard, as they were now heading through one of the hallways of the 8th level.

Soon, they both arrived to the door leading to where the current time Richard was being held…guarded by two GF troopers, who were easily silenced by Richard, who told him the same code as the previous ones several levels down, and told them to remain on guard once he entered the room. They didn't even bother testing him about the lack of armor, that code just made them shut up and listen.

Once again the room, there he was. Richard, sealed in a chamber like the clones. The terminal to it was an actual computer on a nearby desk, with several wires connecting the chamber and the computer. There was nothing else in the room bar a very small air vent on the ceiling…obviously this room was made isolated and bare so if a breakout occurred, it could easily be stopped.

Richard, the one in the chamber, seemed quite peaceful in stasis…something, that Roll noticed, was disturbing the Richard with her. "…Are you okay?"

"Yeah….yeah. It's just. It feels like seeing a reflection…one you really never wanted to see again…" He managed to say, as he seemed to have a hard time speaking. Roll noticed he was sweating a little, and the feeling she got off him…was it fear?

Slowly, he walked towards the chamber, stepping over the wires…the light source of the room was only from the chamber's blue hue lights inside, and the white screen of the terminal. Roll had slowly followed, making sure to keep a distance, and stopping when Richard arrived at the chamber.

He slowly moved his hand up, and gently placed it on the glass of the device…it was cold. "You. I will never get this chance again. I had to find a way, to chase you before you get to her…I wish you could answer me, mock me for this, for the cowards way compared to before…Chad will thank me. He won't have to deal with your constant betrayals. Roll will thank me. She won't suffer. Anna will thank me too, everyone will."

Roll begun to move closer, his words worrying her, as he continued to speak to himself, as if in his own little world with his sleeping self.

"The results. If I do this, it must be better. If it means something changes with me, creates a paradox, it doesn't matter…I've lost so many memories anyway, of that time. To lose some of this place won't hurt…for a better future…for my family…for Ruth..." He slowly leaned forward, resting his forehead gently on the glass, sighing deeply. "Man, this is much harder to just do then I thought it would be…"

He then felt a hand go into his, making him lift his head up, and look to the side.

Roll gave him a small smile, yet her face betrayed her concern, her worry, over him. "Richard? You will be okay, won't you?"

Richard didn't answer, he didn't smile back, instead he just looked to the chamber again. "…Roll, do you really see me, that Richard before us, as a friend?"

Roll nodded. "Yeah. I honestly do. I always knew you would come back to us. Like Chad did after 2 years. I knew you would eventually. I knew the Dark Soul festering inside you could be defeated, I know that because you're here now."

The lad looked at her again, chuckling a little. "Like Chad believes it could be…"

"Yeah. Chad and I, we won't give up. And seeing you means it paid off, right?"

He didn't answer, instead, he was gently caressing her hand with his, as he focus went back to the chamber. "You're worth so much to me, Roll. More than I can ever show, and yet, I'm wondering what will happen to you if I go through with this. Will we even meet again if he doesn't exist anymore? Will fate send me elsewhere?"

"'Will we even meet again?' What are you talking about?"

They both suddenly heard gunfire…the troopers guns. They were obviously being attacked outside the door. This seemed to have snapped Richard out of his thoughts, letting go of Rolls hand, quickly turning to the door, then looking at the Navi. "Roll! I need you to hack the door and constantly change the coding! Don't allow whoever it is to enter, alright?"

Roll didn't show any sign of agreeing, just rushing to the door, bending down close to it, and allowing her antennas to come forward and enter the steel frame, sending electric signals out to find the locking mechanism and modifying it.

Richard looked to the chamber again, he face showing determination, as he had mentally now chosen what to do. He formed a cyber long sword on his hand, and aimed the tip at the glass, the light of reflecting on the glass. "Okay, No more thinking. No more worrying Richard, just focus on the job. This is for a better future"

"If you don't mind, that's my kill your about to take."

The voice was behind him, causing him to swing round, long sword ready, as a Navi being had just materialized from the terminal into the room. It was, by the looks of it, a GF trooper, at least the Navi was wearing the full set armor, the only give away it wasn't a standard trooper, was the fact it was carrying a large scythe, which was a metal black pole, with neon green energy emitting from it, creating the menacing shape of the blade segment. It's voice, when it had spoke earlier, was male, but was heavily distorted and altered, a sure sign that whoever this was, was using a voice modifier.

"YOU!? What are you doing here?! Leave!" Richard seemed utterly shocked at seeing this Navi.

"Not gonna happen. I've waited long enough and stayed hidden in the network of this station long enough to deserve my kill. Do you know what it's like to hide somewhere then see it ALL get fucked over and confusing? Not easy to navigate through to get to the right terminal I can tell you." the Navi answered, pointing his scythe towards Richard. "So which clone are you suppose to be anyway before I take you down?"

That's when yet another person interrupted. The troopers outside had gone silent, and there was a little banging on the door that neither of them noticed, only Roll, then, someone mumbled something on that other side, and in a red flash of light, and standing close to Roll, making her jump and move away from the door, Blade of Darkness ready, looking towards the chamber, thus at Richard and the Navi, was Chad. "Alright don't you even dare touch Rich-Richard!?"

He quickly also noticed Roll. "Roll!? The fuck is going on here?!"

"And who the hell are you?!" The Navi turned to face him, annoyed at yet another kink in the works, turning his back on Richard.

That was a grave mistake on his end.

He gave a cry of pain, as he felt the sword of Richard pierce through his GF armor like it was nothing, right through his right shoulder. The Navi dropped his scythe, and stumbled forward, falling down to one knee once the sword was out of him, blood, and fragments of data flowing from his wound as he put his hand over it. "Ugh, shit, shit shit…"

"…" Richard, the one who had attacked the Navi, focused on Oswald now. He was visibly annoyed with the fact Chad was here. Aiming his long sword at him. "Leave."

Chad could tell the feeling from Richard wasn't a 'happy to see you' sort. "…Roll, get this Navi out of our way. I'll handle this." Chad turned to her for a moment, looking serious now.

"Chad, this Richard is our friend. Please, you don't need to-"

"Get the Navi. Move him aside." Chads eyes returned to Richard. "Something feels very wrong here..."

Roll did as was suggested to her, she quickly moved over to the wounded Navi. "Here, come on."

"H-huh?" He sounded surprised.

"Please, we need to move you." She grabbed his unwounded arm, gently trying to make him move out of the way of the coming conflict, which she was confused about. Didn't Chad want Richard back to normal? Wasn't Richard friends with Chad in the future?

The Navi decided, with the wounding he received and the sudden confusion of what was going on now, to accept her help and slowly stood up, moving away from the middle of the room with her, before leaning on a wall nearby, and sitting down, groaning in pain. "God…damnit. Gonna have to grab some recovery chips, he cut right through…"

"I've got some. Here, let's take that helmet off so you can breathe easy for the moment." Roll didn't wait for him to object. She removed his helmet…

And simply stared at him in shock.

Chad and Richard meanwhile, were busy staring eachother down. Richard kept the sword pointed to Chad, while Chad was holding the Blade of Darkness at the ready. "Deep down I knew we would meet on opposite terms once more."

"So, I take it you're another clone then or something? Since I can clearly see our Richard is still trapped away behind you and still has his Zerg claws."

"No. I'm not a clone. I'm a friend of yours from somewhere that feels like hell."

"What are you talking about?" Chad was taken aback. He now wanted to know, what, this person was.

"I've existed for so many years. I saw someone close to us both suffer mentally thanks to the one behind me, never recovering. You didn't help...you never helped you dirty cheater. I warned you that if I ever found you betrayed her love, her feelings...well, that doesn't matter at this moment in time, does it?" Richard raised his hand and with two of his fingers, motioned at Chad to come at him. "Come on Chad. I'll beat you down like the animal you really are!"

Chad ran forward, swinging his weapon straight at the man before him, who easily sidestepped the attack. Chad tried again, and again with the sword, both times Richard simply stepped to the sides to avoid. "Well this is pitiful for you…"

Richard was mocking him, no way in hell was he gonna have that. He quickly got out one of the battlechips, inserted it, and formed a Vulcan cannon, aiming it and was about to fire…Only there was a problem with that. Richard was right in front of him, and easily had time to counter before the gun fired.

All the guy did was slap the side of the gun as it was pointed at him, and to Chad, it was like as if an electric shock flowed through him, forcing him to take a few steps back to avoid the long sword that came after, noticing that the Vulcan gun had vanished, and his entire hand was stinging like hell. "What, what the hell…?"

"I've installed a few helpful programs, one disables battlechips on contact, neat hm?"

"Installed? You're a Navi?"

"In a manner of speaking. Come on Chad, we've just started."

"Tch!" Chad decided to try and ignore the stinging sensation, and inserted another battlechip, this time forming a mini bomb, and quickly flinging it at Richard…who easily caught it, without it igniting, and pretty much threw it back, causing it to collide and explode on Chads chest.

But Richard wasn't prepared for the rapid retaliation. Chad had changed into his mobian form whilst the smoke from the bomb spewed around him, and flew straight at Richard with a homing attack, smacking him straight in the head and knocking him back, before Chad landed on his feet near Richard. "Silfarion!"

Chad felt his blade get rapidly lighter, as he quickly swung it over and over, in a much more able speed, that Richard was dodging with a look of concern over his face as he felt the blade just get a little too close for his comfort, and even had to use his long sword to deflect the blade away several times, looking for an opening.

Chad decided now was a good time to plant a little surprise. "Explosion!"

As Chad said that, bring the sword down, Richard moved a little, and used his sword to knock the blade aside once more…triggering the said explosion, a blast covering him and Chad, as Chad felt it knock him back slightly, Richard flew back slamming into the wall and stumbling after he smacked his back hard into it, the cyber long sword he had was destroyed, leaving a nothing more than a few fragments connected to the hilt, before he disabled it entirely.

Chad didn't hold up, he rolled himself up, spun on the ground, and shot at his enemy, slamming into Richard's chest and stomach, before being back on his feet again, yelling out "Explosion!" swinging the sword sideways into Richard, the explosion sending him over to the chamber containing the other him, and slamming into it sideways, just barely putting his hands and arms on it to keep a grip and stop himself sliding to the ground, dazed, as he felt pain coarse through his body, and was sure he could feel a little bit of blood trickle down his forehead from the impact on the glass.

"You've handled worse Richard, handled worse…his unpredictable yes, but come on! He's at his weakest, you've had your fair share of fights against him!"" Richard was encouraging himself, as he shook his head to stop the room spinning, and got off the chamber, stepping past it a little, and turned himself around.

"Chaos Control!"

"Oh not this spamming shit-" A beam of red energy smacked into his stomach, sending him to the ground, as Chad had used Richards little recovery time to charge up the shot.

Richard groaned in agony, as he felt himself land on his back, looking up at the ceiling. "Okay…that's enough." He slowly forced himself up on his feet. "You know what, I thought I could fuck around with you. Should've known that is never a smart idea. This time I'm gonna…" He stopped, as he saw a golden staff suddenly come into view, as if blocking his path to Chad, and looked over at the owner.

The door to the room was now open, and Ulysses had arrived, looking down at Richard who was slightly hunched over, still getting his bearings straight. Anna had ran in now, and quickly hugged Chad tightly, glad he was okay. "Chad! Don't you ever leave us behind again!"

The clone, Light Rich, walked in calmly, and smiled at Chad. "Anna had been quite concerned when you used your Chaos Control power. I'm glad nothing terrible has happened to you…and who is this?" motioning at Richard. "He looks like my father but…"

"Don't, don't worry about him." Chad motioned Anna to stand back, and changed himself back into his human form. "He's…I dunno, but he ain't too much trouble. Your father is there." He pointed at the chamber.

"Get him out then. So we can leave." Ulysses suggested, never letting his eyes off Richard…who was giving him quite the death glare for halting him.

"And who in the fuck are you?"

Ulysses stared the boy down. "I'm stopping you from making a mistake."

None of them had noticed Roll, who had just helped the Navi put his helmet back on.

Chad meanwhile, stepped over towards the computer that connected to the chamber. "Open, open, open…ah! Here it is."

Richard quickly lost interest in Ulysses and turned his glare at Chad as he realized just what Chad was about to do. "No! I'll kill you first!"

Ulysses quickly raised his staff to hit Richard, try to incapacitate him, but he right away noticed something had changed with Richard, as his reflexes were much more faster, as he grabbed the staff with one hand, kicked Ulysses in the gut to make him let go and move back, then violently threw the staff towards Chad, who just about avoided the weapon…only for it to impale into the computer, causing sparks to fly, then the screen, and the power to the machine, cutting off.

Chad turned his focus on Richard after noticing where the staff hit, and found the lad right before his eyes, standing over him, and grabbing him right in the neck, lifting him off the ground.

Chad still was holding into the Blade of Darkness, and managed to gasp out "Ex,polsion!" and swung it into Richard, causing yet another blast to come out of the sword, expecting it to knock Richard away.

It didn't. Chad knew that, as he felt the grip on his neck unchanged, as the smoke cleared. Richard was still there appearing hurt but unfazed, looking at Chad with a murderous intent before flinging Chad away, letting him smash into the wall hard with his body and landing on the ground in a heap, the impact stunning him.

"I won't let you keep everything the way it is. I will make it change." with that, Richard looked at the chamber, ready to turn his focus on that, when he noticed Anna pointing her pistol at him, hesitating to fire for a moment.

He suddenly formed a vulcan cannon over his hand and fired it at her without a second thought, a wave of bullets striking her in the left arm and left side of her stomach as she screamed out in pain and fell to the floor, avoiding any further bullets as Richard focused back to the chamber.

Ulysses had now rushed towards Richard, knife ready, and used, something, from his wrist device as it glowed, and he just seemingly shot from the spot he was, to right in front of Richard, stabbing his knife into Richard's stomach.

There was an obvious sign of pain from Richard, he briefly seem to be in shock…only to react by lowering his hands, and stabbing several of his fingers into the sides of Ulysses' back, while allowing the knife to dig deeper into him, smirking as Ulysses seized up in shock.

Richard eventually rose back up, pulling his fingers out, leaving holes in the wastelanders clothing, and gently pulling the knife out, holding Ulysses' hand to do so. The man who held the knife was unable to move, at all, he couldn't let go of the knife, nor use his special ability. "Wh-what is this!?"

Richard just smiled, and pushed Ulysses over, who fell on his back, like a statue, stuck in the position he was in as he stabbed Richard.

"A paralyzing technique. I spent some years looking at martial arts, and created my own required sort from mix and matching." Richard looked to his wound, showing that both blood, and data fragments, were flowing out of it. He placed his hand over the wound. "Recovery chip, activate." a new aura appeared over his hand for a moment, a light teal colour, and then fading away….showing that the wound he had, was now suddenly healed.

"Holy strike!"

Richard quickly jumped back as a white beam of energy just flew by him, coming from the clone of his counterpart in the chamber, Light Rich. "Hmph, I see the holy clone is already willing to fight. Shame you haven't got your laser sword and shield yet."

"I will stop you, monster! Holy strike!" Light Rich fired the beam again, and Richard easily avoided it again, running towards the clone, as it fired the beam a few more times to try and hit its opponent, only for him to easily see it coming and move aside. Soon Richard was before him, and struck him hard across the side of the head with the vulcan cannon still on his hand, knocking the clone out cold in one hit before disabling the weapon.

"Sorry about this…" Richard looked over to the chamber once more, ready to walk up and finish what he wanted to do.

"Oh no!" Roll had been watching the entire thing, and knew now she had to try and intervene. "Please, wait here!" She quickly said to the Navi.

The Navi grabbed her arm, looking at her. "You, You can't let them know. Not my grandfather…"

Richard only took a few steps towards the chamber, when he heard a voice from behind him. "Hey…Hey fuckface. I'm not done yet. Don't think that ride into the wall can keep me down."

Chad was standing now, blade of darkness ready.

"No. Of course not. I really have should've known better. The only way you'll stay down…-"

Chad ran at him aiming the sword firmly at the back of Richard.

The blade tore right through him, the upper segment of the blade protruding out of his chest after as Chad had ran it to the hilt, a wave of blood and data fragments gushing out.

Chad was slightly disappointed his opponent didn't even try to dodge, but soon noticed why.

Richard, in midst of bleeding and with a blade inside him, placed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small syringe of purple ooze, injecting it into his chest, next to the wound Chad had caused.

After discarding the syringe, now empty, he only turned his head to the side, his blind eye within Chad's vision.

Except that eye was no longer a white colour. It was now a deep purple, and it was looking at him.

"-Is by killing you."

With that, Richard spun round, pulling the handle of the Blade of Darkness away from Chad, before grabbing on the mobians main sword arm and gave it a violent twist. A loud, snapping sound was heard, as the bone in Chad's arm was now almost ripping through the skin, both pieces pointing at a dangerous angle.

Chad could only just stop himself yelling out in pain. This was the second time his sword arm has suffered. Richard let go, then punched Chad right in the side of the face making him stumble away a little. Richard then placed his hands on the upper part of the blade of darkness, and pushed it backwards, forcing the blade to fall out of his chest and back to the ground covered in blood, before raising one of his hands out and making a cyber sword to appear in his hand. His one blue eye and one purple locked onto Chad as the sword's purple light glowed on his face.

"Did you just inject yourself with a Dark Soul!?"

Richard chuckled, smirking a little. "Something I thought I would never turn to. Something you never dared expected me to use. It's got alot of names, a few are Dark Energon, Dark Eco, Dark Soul, Sigil Soul...in the end it's what kept me going this long. It's what kept me alive, and what will put an end to you Oswald!"

"Chaos Control!" Chad disappeared in a bright red flash, to allude Richard, and appear behind him…only Richard saw it coming, and spun around, leg raised, kicking Chad in the side of the head, before swinging the dark sword across Chad's stomach, slicing his clothing and cutting the skin before upper cutting him right on the chin, sending him backwards and slamming into the ground, the worst pain coming from his damaged arm on impact with the floor.

"Shit, fucking…Primus!" Chad cursed, as he started to get up onto his working hand and knees, only to find Richards foot connecting with his face, knocking his head upwards, letting him look at the ceiling, and see Richard, who grabbed his head, and slammed it back down to the ground.

He thought the guy was now just gonna step on him, but instead, he felt the spare hand of Richard grab his neck and begun forcing him on his feet, gripping his neck tightly, Richards purple and blue eyes focused right on him. "I'm going to enjoy doing this, Oswald. After all these years...Pain vortex! Activate!"

He suddenly impaled Chad with dark sword, deep into his stomach, letting Chad suffer for a few moments before suddenly throwing the boy backwards...into a black vortex that had appeared.

All he saw after that, was nothing but a void of darkness, and a feeling of blades, knives, stabbing into him constantly and endlessly, as he couldn't move to escape them. They seemed to stab him anywhere and everywhere, they made the pain of the scythe's mark on him seem like nothing, he could only scream out in torment.

"NO! CHAD!" Roll had ran up to where the vortex had been, before it vanished. She tried to feel for anything, something that allowed her to access wherever Chad had gone to...then she looked to Richard, utterly horrified. "What have you done to him!?"

"Roll, his gone to a realm that only I can access out of us. One where he'll suffer, for everything he would've done." Richard sounded cold when he said that, placing a hand over the massive wound caused by Chad's weapon, and after triggering another recovery chip, sealed it up. Looking over to the chamber, he started to make his way over.

Roll wasn't going to let him. She ran ahead of him, and stopped in front of the chamber, arms outstretched. "You need to let him go!"

Richard stared at her…something about him reminded her way too much of the one in the chamber now, that dark, evil feeling. That one purple eye really wasn't helping his case.

"Please Richard! You can't let him suffer! It's wrong! Save him! I beg of you!"

"Get out of my way. Now."

"No!"

Richard lunged at her, and his hand was placed on her neck now, slamming her into the chamber, holding her in place, shocking her, and she stared, terrified at him. "You don't understand! You can't understand! His the root of it all! That one in the chamber made us ALL SUFFER!"

"Please…please stop this…"

He was infuriated, his eyes were twitching. "Stop!? I won't stop Roll! I won't! I need to end this! I'll kill him and stop him from causing pain!"

"I don't understand Richard…Please just help Chad …"

Richard snapped, screaming in rage, as he slammed her into the chamber glass again…and again, and again, the glass cracking under the constant collision with Rolls body, before finally smashing apart. He pulled her away from it, before throwing her aside to the ground, glancing at her. "I, helped him, enough."

His other self was free now…he was starting to breathe properly, taking slow breaths in and out.

"No…No the chance! It's slipping!" He quickly got himself back into his fighting stance, readying the dark sword. This was it, now or never. "I'm going to make sure you won't survive this day!"

"You would attack the one you want to help, someone you treasure so much…" Ulysses had spoken to him, whilst still paralyzed on the ground, just barely looking over from the corner of his eyes. "Even though she is not the one you want to save."

Richard had swung the sword forward, but stopped it just as it reached the other Richards chest. He was stunned at Ulysses' words.

"Look. Look at what you did to this Roll. What you did to this Chad. You truly feel your actions are justified? What if it was the ones you valued and loved so much?"

Richard stared at his counterpart, then slowly turned his head, looking at Roll.

She was in pain, she had been hurt.

Only now did a part of him feel her pain, the pain he had just given to her.

Richard could feel his rage breaking down, crumbling away as he realizes what the hell he's about to do, what he's already done. "I...What do you mean she's not the one I want to save?"

"You honestly did not realize that the element you carry is far more powerful than a tool to throw someone back in time? The one who sent you here wouldn't want you to damage such a vital part of history, to kill such a person as that Richard. Killing this one will not heal any wounds. He played you."

"...You know him?"

"…Hey…" It was Chad. Richard turned his attention to the boy, surprised he was back.

He was standing once again, the black vortex floating behind him before it closed up. Despite the sheer agony he was in, the blood leaking from his stomach wound…he readied his sword, trying to keep himself up to fight again. "I'm…not gonna let you…hurt Roll…hurt Anna…hurt Richard…hurt anyone else…" he managed to get out between the waves of pain flowing through him.

"How the hell did you get out of that...?" Richard slowly turned his head and saw the GF armor wearing navi standing nearby, looking over at Chad. "...Why would..."

"Chad! Don't try it! His too powerful!" Anna pleaded, managing to speak up now as she used one of her recovery chips she carried to heal up some of the wounds she had.

Roll weakly managed to look up, and saw Chad standing.

Richard returned his focus to Chad, readying his dark sword. "You always do seem to have a way of pushing through things don't you? No matter what."

Chad tried to steady himself, holding the sword ready for whatever attack was coming, trying to ignore the pain. "I certainly won't be beaten by you..."

"Chad…Richard..." Roll looked to them both.

"…" Richard sighed deeply as he couldn't shake what Ulysses said and disabled the dark sword. He soon closed his eyes, seemingly speaking to himself. "Maybe it'll make no difference to those I want it to. Maybe that man is right..."

When he opened them again, the purple eye was gone. "Well, it was nice being able to see through that eye again, even if it was for that short time. Chad, go to them."

Chad did so, going over to Roll and Anna, deeply concerned for them whilst making sure to give Richard a wide berth.

Richard slowly walked over to Ulysses, and pressed his finger into the wastelanders neck. The paralyzes was quickly gone, as Ulysses stood up, looking at Richard. "Thank you...but, you will have disappointed him."

"Gman must've had a reason for me to try and kill this Richard and not my own. I want to know why."

"Perhaps it is Azrael's idea, or someone else who knows this Universe is changing course." Ulysses answered with.

"Changing course?" Richard wondered, whilst the clone Light Rich had now got himself up and ventured over to where Chad and the others where to check on them.

That's when they all heard a groan, and slowly taking a few steps forward, out of the chamber looking around dazed, exhausted and confused, his claws hanging low and seemed to be unresponsive to the change in condition was the Richard Chad knew, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he hit the floor.

"Richard!" Chad moved over to him now. Anna had got herself up now, holding her wounded arm, while Roll had triggered her recovery chips, and was slowly getting back on her feet. "What's happened to him?"

"He wasn't awakened correctly. His body isn't ready to move around despite him trying. It's trying to overcome being forced into a deep sleep." The other Richard explained. He looked for the Navi that had reopened his vortex to let Chad out…and noticed he was gone now.

Light Rich walked over to his genetic father, and lifted him up. "I'll carry him then, until he is ready to move by himself."

Chad nodded, then looked at the other Richard, as Anna came over to him, and gently hugged him with her good arm after giving him a recovery chip, which he took and helped heal the stomach wound up slowly but surely. She was just thankful he was still alive. He gave her a smile, before he could only put one arm over her himself to give back the hug, keeping his damaged arm to his side. "…Thanks for not killing me by the way, Richard."

Richard didn't answer.

"Come on, we should all depart. We only have 12 minutes left. We've yet to meet up with the others." Ulysses suggested.

Chad nodded, and led himself and Anna out of the room, with Light Rich following with their Richard in his arms, then Ulysses departed, and finally, Roll was walking out, but stopped near Richard, looking at him. He sighed, then focused on her. "Sorry, Roll. It's difficult to explain what I'm going through. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just…I'm sorry, alright?"

"It's fine. Honest. I'm glad you returned to your senses, I would have been heartbroken if you killed Chad." Roll, had to admit she really wasn't fine, but she could tell he was certainly having…something, rough going on.

"…"

"…Richard? I gotta ask…Did you know who that Navi was this entire time? The one with the scythe?"

"Yes."

"…With what that man said, is it you?"

"You'll find out someday."

"Aren't you coming with us?"

"No, I'm not coming. I have to leave my own way now. I've got to head back…think about what I was about to do."

Roll understood, and turned to leave, but, had one more question in her mind, glancing at him. "…Richard? What were you trying to save...your Roll from? Me from?"

"Roll, Go. You're running out of time." Richard looked away, arms folded.

Roll gave a faint smile, nodded to him, and left.

Richard heard their footsteps fade away, and once he knew they were gone, he turned towards the now empty room. "He knew the game you're playing at asshole. Come out, I know you've been watching!"

Slowly, appearing from a dark corner of the room, walking to the middle of it, was a pale human with short black hair, green eyes, wearing a dull blue suit, a white top with a red tie, black shoes and carrying a black briefcase. "You wanted to alter a major part of our history. I felt that was not needed in our Universe. He needed to exist for you to gain all this anger and hatred."

"So why allow me to mess with another Universe?"

"Because what that, human, said is indeed true. Things have changed around here, you would not have truly killed that Richard, but perhaps you would've made him a victim, someone more acceptable to the heroes."

"You mean so he could join them at a later time as they still feel something for him? I'm glad I didn't touch him then. I'm out."

Gman seemed to glare at Richard a little. "You will remain so long as I need you."

Richard smirked, showing Gman the jagged green crystal he was still carrying. "I still hold this, and I can trigger the portal back. I'm, out."

"Be very careful on who you're defying here..."

---

Ulysses led the way, as the group headed down several corridors towards one of the lifts.

Roll was keeping up with Anna and Chad, and seemed to be lost in thought, which prompted Chad to ask "Roll, is everything alright?"

"I…Yeah. Yeah everything is fine. I just need time to think. I'm glad you're okay though. Where's the rest? Are they okay?"

That's when they heard Charlie. "We're good thanks!"

It was as the group was passing by a cross corridor point, and coming up to the side of them, was the rest of the crew, Charlie, Serious Sam, Shademan, Megaman, Zhang He, and woman Chad and the others had never met before, who had long blond hair and blue eyes and was wearing a sleeveless red dress with floral patterns, two long red gloves, several different sashes around her waist and a pale pink cape, patterned white tights and pointed red and gold high-heeled boots. On her back, was the casing of Dark Wolf, carrying the blade that belonged to their Richard."Ulysses! I thought we were too late!"

"Terra, its fine. I'm glad to see you've got here. I would've told everyone to wait by the lift if you hadn't come." Ulysses was smiling under his mask, and Terra could tell he was.

"What happened to dear Anna!?" Zhang He darted over to Anna. "Oh no! You have been injured! I knew I should've come with you!"

"Zhang He, its fine, honest." Anna tried to reassure him.

"Is that, the Dark Wolf?" Roll noticed the blade on Luna's back.

Terra moved it off, and handed it within its casing to her. "Here, it belongs to the Richard you know. It was several levels down, stored away."

"Who the heck is the guy carrying Richard?" Shademan asked, pointing at Light Rich.

"A new ally of ours. I'll explain a little later, alright Ulysses. Where to?" Chad was ready to get this station now.

Ulysses turned his focus to Chad. "Now you all need to go continue onwards, down the corridor was going to take you, it will lead right to the lift that is unlocked. Head to Level 15. There you should encounter those who have a way off this station."

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Anna asked.

"No. You have Richard, and the threat has passed. Now go." With that, Ulysses moved aside, as did Terra, who bid farewell to those she had been with.

"Thank you, Ulysses. Alright guys! Let's go!" Chad was now taking the lead, as they continued on down the way Ulysses had been leading them, leaving the two newcomers behind.

Terra smiled as the group disappeared from view. "I just hope they'll be okay…" She then focused on Ulysses, looking serious. "What of Richard? Did you encounter him?"

Ulysses nodded. "He was after the wrong one, as Q suspected. He was led to this universe version of 'him' by Gman."

The lift doors opened, and Chad and the others got off it, finding themselves in a corridor that had glass walls, showing, down below where they were, several huge hangers, with vessels in of all kinds, none that seemed to be of standard Galactic type. "…Huh, this a museum or something?"

"I believe these are pirating vessels the GF probably captured over time and kept. This space station is within an area that once constantly suffered from piracy." Shademan guessed.

None of them heard the lift go back up.

"Well, at least we know this must be the right location. Problem is I doubt we can borrow any of those vessels without a kind of code to unlock them." Megaman looked at the ships.

"Do any of you see anyone else beyond us? Because I don't." Chad looked around, trying to see whoever Ulysses mentioned about.

They all took a good gander around. There was no sign of life here beyond them.

The lift was coming back down, Charlie noticed the sound, and looked over to the lift doors.

"Well, at least we ain't got any guards to handle now." Sam was quite happy with that.

"I can see a stairwell we can use to get to the lower floor. We should make our way there." Shademan suggested to them all.

"…Guys? We may have a slight problem coming our way." Charlie tried to get their attention.

"How so?" Chad turned and looked at the fighter.

The lift doors opened.

Standing there, was Dark Rich, Aqua, Kei Yuki, and three friends of Kei's. two were guys, one was a chick. One of the guys had long red hair, and a red goatee, slightly pale skin, and was wearing thin framed reading glasses. He was of average height, and was wearing a black uniform with a white overcoat. This was Hinoken Match, or as he preferred to be called, Mr Match. This was pretty much Kei's best friend, who she particularly likes listening to due to his Scottish accent.

The other guy was slightly more built then Match, and had more a square jaw, was taller, and wore a yellow overall with a white coat, instead of the black Match wore. His yellow hair was parted and gelled to stick up, and he had quite brushy brows. This was Jack Electel, or as Kei nicknamed him, Count Zap, due to his sheer knowledge on machines that harness electric, and his love for electric guitars.

The girl had long light pink hair, that had been tied into two ponytails, wearing light red lipstick, light purple eye shadow, gold round earrings, and like Mr Match, was wearing a black uniform with a white overcoat. This was Iroaya Maddy, also known as Ms. Madd due to her temper in the department she works in. She especially used to scold Kei and Match whenever they fiddled with anything.

All three of these were once under the employ of Dr Wily, who they called Lord Wily, on Earth X, lackeys for his days of world domination plans. Though they were incompetent in the use of the Net Navis he granted them, and often lost to Lan and Megaman, they shined with their ability to modify technology and hack it into their own personal use. After Dr Wily ended his plans of domination, and chose to finish creating the Hero Base of that planet, he recommended them to the Galactic Federation Science Division, so they would have jobs and a steady income after their hard work under him.

There was a fourth lackey, but he chose to look for a job elsewhere, feeling science was not something he enjoyed. Last the others knew, he was currently working as a Curry shop owner on Trandus IV, along with his Net Navi, Magicman.

The other Net Navis? The two belonging to Mr Match and Count Zap both stayed with Dr Wily, Fireman and Elecman. The one that belonged with Ms. Madd, Colorman, has stayed with her, being her eye on the net whenever she needed it.

There was an awkward silence between them all, as Dark Rich stared at Chad, and Chad at him…What Chad didn't notice was Light Rich staring at Dark as well. "…Oswald, we meet again. I see you let my inferior brother out of his sleeping pod."

"You…wait, what!?" Chad looked at Light Rich, then at Dark Rich. "Wait, wait if he's your brother…then…you're…"

"Dark Rich. Subject 7 of the cloning program for Zerg controlling, by a human hybrid."

Now Chad figured out why he felt a cold chill when he was looking that information up on him. He wanted to get his sword ready, but Kei decided to be the go-between. "Um, I don't think any of us have introduced eachother yet. I'm Kei Yuki and-" She begun to introduce each person with her.

"…And your group?" Kei finished, motioning at them, giving Chad such a sweet smile.

"Oh I'm Chad! Chad Oswald!" Chad let Anna go just to put his hand out for Kei Yuki, which she shook happily. Anna frowned a little at his quick reaction. "I'm known as the guy who slew Unicron you know, quite an important figure to the Shinra Federation and a member of the Hero Base!"

"The, Hero Base?"

"Oh right, intros. Okay this-" Chad went through everyone with him, including Richard, which he simply summed up as 'That guy who's sleeping' and Light Rich as 'I dunno but he's with us now.', eager to speak to Kei more about himself then anything. What he noticed was, when he turned back to her, that she was looking him up and down, as soon made an expression as if something dawned on her.

'Is, she checking me out? Wow, Yuan Shao was right about titles, and Unicron Slayer does hold some nice weight.' Chad thought to himself.

Charlie stopped Chad before he could talk again. "We assume you're planning to leave this station Miss Yuki?"

She nodded. "Of course. And you're all welcome to join us."

Aqua quickly disagreed with this. "Hold on Kei, that's not a wise decision. How can we trust them!?"

Kei looked to her friend, and smiled sweetly. "…I have this feeling Aqua. I think I know who to trust right now, and Chad is trustworthy." She turned her focus back to the rest. "We need to get to hanger 5. There's a ship there we can use. Mr Match holds the codes to releasing it."

That's when a machine sounding male voice was heard all around them, from, as they noticed, the tannoy system attached to the corners of the corridor. "WARNING. WARNING. HEAT LEVELS ARE DANGEROUSLY HIGH IN POWER CORE. PLEASE ACTIVATE COOLANT SYSTEM BEFORE MELTDOWN."

"Hmph, seems someone wants the space station to go down…I take it it's you guys?" the Dark clone looked to those from the Hero Base, who shook their heads. "Fine then. Lead the way Kei."

Hanger 5 contained the ship known, labeled on the side, as The Arcadia. Painted dark green, it was a long and sleek vessel, with several massive triple energy cannons all along it's hull, and at the very front of it, embedded, was a massive metal white skull and crossbones to signify its pirate status. What made the ship stand out, was at the rear of it, above the engines, the previous leader went a step further with the Pirate quota by adding a old Victorian ships stern on top, which was painted to look the part, but was made with just the same hardened metal as the rest of the vessel.

The Arcadia was a 'Lancer' class ship, a sort that existed back in the days of SCI. They were known for being the frontline attackers, often equipped with enough firepower to tear through the ranks of enemy warships, and if that wasn't enough, the vessel was given, pretty much, a huge, sharp bayonet which extended out of the front of the vessel, to literally ram and tear through the ships if the weapons weren't enough. This meant the vessel came quipped with some pretty impressive shields of those days, which focused nearly entirely on the front to avoid damage on impact.

They were decommissioned due to the fact that, as much as they were effective on the initial charge into the ranks, the shields generated around the ship bar the front, were vastly inferior, and would often collapse during the retaliation phase of their assault. They were seen as suicide ships, and noticing that the losses weren't worth the damage they dealt before being destroyed, they stopped producing them.

The Arcadia had been enhanced by the pirating crew, who had a long run with this ship. The shields were improved, with the addition of an extra generator. The engines were given an extra boost, so that the ship could turn more effectively in a dog fight, and the hull was hardened and had a second layer, which lost a small amount of space of the crew, but the extra protection is a nice bonus. The ship's power generator was replaced with a more modern version, and the ship could carry four small fighters now, whereas the normal Lancer class never had made space for such.

All of this was being explained by Mr Match, as they made their way towards the side of the ship, where there was a set of boarding stairs, connected to an entrance of the vessel. The rest of the hanger bar the ship, was mostly bare, and the huge steel doors that led to space, were closed up. "-As you can see, the crew of the vessel really cared for it, and led the ship to be quite a nasty thing across this part of the GF territory until nine months ago. Grievous led a successful attack on a pirating ring some systems away, and this ship was there, while the crew was on the station taken by them….the crew never had a chance to get back to it. Grievous made the station the priority, he knew there was several crew in there, killing them meant the ships couldn't be used. This was the only vessel that survived the explosion of that place, and we took it in."

"As a prize I take it?" Megaman guessed.

"More or less. It was one of the three he captured. This one held the most interest because a large amount of the loot the crew had stolen in their time, is still in there."

Roll was surprised. "Is it still in there?"

Match nodded. "Oh yes. They planned to hand some over to museums, auctions, even sending it back to those who could claim with documents that they owned some of it. Unfortunately everyone's attention turned to the splitting of the GF and SF, most of the crewmen that were hired to clean out the loot left for the SF, and now the civil war going on."

"I'm surprised you had the codes to this specific ship Mr Match. I thought we of the Science Division were not allowed such?" Kei looked at him as they walked along.

"Of course, but buying the codes off the last guy who had them before he left was cheap as anything! He didn't want to stay when Keaton arrived, and he knew he couldn't take the ship, so he took whatever money he could. 9,000 gil."

They got to the stairs, and the Hero Base group went up first, with Ms Madd leading them, and Count Zap behind them. Aqua wanted to speak to Dark Rich, Kei and Match. "Look…when we get going, I need to ask you a favour…it's about my home."

The lighting in the place suddenly went a deep red. The male voice on the tannoy was active again. "WARNING! WARNING! ENERGY CORE MELTDOWN! SEALS TO CONTAIN PLASMA ARE DECAYING! COOLANT SYSTEM DISABLED! ENERGY CORE EJECTION SEQUENCE NOT OPERABLE! PLEASE EVACUATE!"

"Oh crap! We got about 5 to 8 minutes before this place goes up! Come on people!" Mr Match hurried up the stairs.

Kei and Aqua were about to follow, when they noticed Dark Rich wasn't…he was actually looking up at the ship, his eye darting over it, as if he spotted something. "…That wasn't human…"

"Dark? What is it?" Kei asked.

"I'm not sure." He looked over the vessel again, and soon moved to go up the stairs. "Whatever it was, it seems to want to hitch a ride with us."

Once they were inside, they soon found the bridge, which was within the Victorian looking stern part of the vessel. The outside was made to look old…but inside, beyond the steel and the windows, was a commanding center, filled with computers, radar screens and monitors, with a massive wooden throne with red cushions, several steps in front of it, an old-fashioned turning wheel, hooked up with a dozen wires at the bottom, connecting it to the ships controls, the rest of the chairs were steel and cold looking.

Mr Match had already sat in one of them, while the others looked around. "I'm inputting the override codes now! Energy core is active, closing up hatch!"

Kei looked around, extremely impressed with the place, and walked over to the throne, gently touching it…it was made of oak, and was finely waxed.

Dark Rich walked over with her, and so did Chad, who was being alert around Dark after their encounter back on Gaia IX.

The clone looked at the chair, then motioned Kei to sit on it.

"…Who me?" Kei was surprised. "But I'm no captain. We haven't got one."

"You're the person I am to follow and listen to. That makes you enough of a captain to me. No one else will question it." Dark Rich answered, with a matter-of-fact tone, looking at the others in the room, then at Chad, glaring slightly. At part of him couldn't help but have this distain for the boy.

"Hey I'm cool with it!" Chad quickly answered, raising up his good hand. "No need to look annoyed guy!"

"Hanger doors opening, shields active, all hatches closed and engines starting up!" Mr Match yelled out to them.

Count Zap soon sat down at a computer system that had a radar screen nearby. "Jamming system is still in place, we can't see anything beyond looking out the windows right now."

Maddy sat at another system, looking at a monitor that showed the weapon load out. "Bayonet locked in reserve, all weapons operational and on standby mode."

Kei looked to Chad, then at Dark, who again motioned at her to sit down, this time, she did, sitting on the throne, trying to get comfortable, wiggling around a little. "This is definitely made for a man…"

"Your orders, Kei?" Dark Rick asked, in a monotone way, crossing his arms.

"Huh?"

"Shall we leave?"

"Shall we-Are you fucking serious!? Of course we should! What kind of moronic-" Mr Match had quickly turned around in the chair, starting to have a go at Dark, who responded by pulling his vibrosword out, and pointing it towards the man.

"There is now a chain of command. If you wish to challenge the captain, I will fight in her stead."

Mr Match stared at the sword, worried that he might find it in him somewhere soon, while everyone was watching between him and Dark Rich.

"Dark, it's okay. Yes, we'll go now. Shall I get the wheel?" Kei was about to stand up, but Dark put away his sword, walked up to the control himself, and grabbed the top part of it.

"I shall handle it. You should just relax."

Kei sat back in the chair again, and didn't seem the fact he was going to do things for her. Being served on…she could get used to this…after she gets used to the chair, which she was still trying to get comfortable in, only stopping and smiling at Chad, when she noticed he was staring at her bosoms. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah yeah I'm good!" Chad quickly answered, looking away and at Anna, smiling at her…she was frowning again.

"Match, reverse course."

Mr Match quickly got back in his seat. "Aye! Reversing now!"

The Arcadia slowly but surely, made it's way out of the hanger of the space station, the orange flare of it's engines glowing in the darkness of space, as it soon began turning away from the station, and heading off into space.

"Destination?" Dark Rich asked.

"Let's head to Traverse Town and make a recovery stop there." Kei looked at Chad. "I know a shop there that does quite good healing potions, they'll help with that arm of yours."

"Oh, t-thanks. I was just gonna get more recovery chips off Roll to use, but that'll do. And we can contact Wily and Light there to teleport us back." Chad smiled at her.

"Destination understood?" Dark Rich ordered out.

Count Zap looked at the radar, which was starting to clear and show what's around them, meaning they were far enough away from the station. "Just gonna try and input it now…Man, this system is easier then I expected."

"The ship is meant for a skeleton crew Jack. Most pirate vessels adjusted the computers to work with so few should they be unable to get new crewmates." Match answered him with.

"You seem to know your pirating Hinoken." Maddy looked over at him.

"Eh, it was something I looked up about back in the days we worked with Wily, his skull symbol usage just made me think about them a fair bi-"

The ship shook suddenly, as a very faint orange wave rushed past the windows outside, fading out entirely.

"…I take it that was the shockwave from the space station going up?" Sam asked.

Zap checked. "Yep. Its gone. Just went off the map."

"…Richard…I hope you got out of there safely…" Roll looked to the Dark Wolf, then focused on the nearby window, at the stars.

"My thoughts precisely for Ulysses and his friend…I'm glad he was there with us." Anna stood with her, looking out as well for a moment, before smiling at Roll a little. "So, what did happen to you? How did you meet that Richard?"

Roll smiled back, and begun to explain.

"Alright, I got the course laid in!" Zap exclaimed, joyful over the fact he managed to get it right.

"Good. Mr Match?" Dark Rich slowly turned the vessel with the wheel, the stars swirling across the view.

"Activating alpha warp the moment we're aligned." He answered.

Soon, the ship shot off like a flash, disappearing into the starry void, leaving behind the remains of the commanding station of the Galactic Federation, which was now in tatters and mostly incinerated.

---

"Sir! It's gone! The entire signal is gone!"

"All communications to the outposts have fallen permanently silent! Signal is dead!"

"We're being bombarded by another wave of artillery! Our men are being scattered everywhere! Your orders sir!?"

"We've managed to get in contact with warship Babylon. Warships Belign, Masterdon, Brigade and Vex have been destroyed in orbit! Babylon is critically damaged and requests we send for backup!"

"Sir! We've lost another position in the front line! Enemy forces are swarming us! Still no word from Char about Zerg support!"

Keaton stood in his temporary headquarters on Earth X, his feet standing in the dirt, a table before him that he was leaning on with his hands, showing a holographic image of the battle, which constantly flickered and blinked in and out, to his annoyance. Around him, were Vile, Flame Stag, Storm Eagle, and Cortex, who looked like he had fallen through several bushes to get here.

This battle…Rufus has cut him off at every turn.

Despite the numbers at first being in his favour, things went wrong when he first lost all communications entirely, the lack of response of RE886 and the jamming Rufus had deployed temporarily. His men advanced with no opposition for a short while, which he felt was because Rufus was being cautious.

Then the orbital bombardment came.

Rufus had been taking the time to make sure it was as accurate as possible, before he rained down energy shells from his warships, wiping out thousands of Keatons men within moments.

Then the raid on his rear guard by that accursed Zhang Liao, leading several thousand men of Cao Cao's army happened, leading to Storm Eagles choosing to lead his squad into a retreat back here rather then lose them, as he saw the rest of the troopers get wrecked.

Then Sun Jian, who had decided, after seeing Cao Cao and Yuan Shao head off to Gaia IX, along with his daughter, to join the fighting. He led a flank attack with a score of seventeen thousand men with the aid of his two sons, Sun Ce and Sun Quan, all of them wanting to show Sun Shang Xiang that they weren't gonna sit back and watch, like she wasn't. Flame Stag took them on, but with all three family members constantly going for him, he could see his men were gutted by his inability to take the sun family down, and ordered his men and himself to withdraw back.

Rufus then finally showed himself, using artillery cannons he had set up during all this time, and firing them deep into Keatons ranks, before sending his own men into battle, led by Master Chief.

By this point, Vile and Cortex had fallen back to his location, their squads pretty much wiped out.

Keatons men had turned from an organized, powerful, ready fighting unit into a shambling, broken mess. Even having three ex-unit 666 members as his officers did nothing for their morale.

Around him, several men, on radios, computers, another one wearing full Federation armor ran in, as outside, explosions could be heard. "Sir! The Gardener has just entered orbit! Radar systems just picked it up!"

One of the men standing over an advanced looking radio device nodded, looking relieved. "Confirmed! The Babylon is receiving support fire!"

Keaton was glad as well. "Patch in Grievous to my com-link! I want to hear about our victory over Gaia IX! The men need some good news!"

The others, Vile and such, weren't so optimistic, as Keaton got on the com-link. "Hold on, if only the Gardener has made it back…do you think…?" Vile quietly said to Storm Eagle, who nodded, knowing what Vile was getting at.

As soon as Keaton asked for a report, everyone in the place fell deadly silent, as Keatons smile slowly got less and less.

His hand clenched into a fist, shaking, as the report continued.

And finally Grievous confirmed what Keaton hoped was not the case with his space station, his HQ…Grievous relayed his signal to old abandoned listening outposts to find out what had happened to RE886, instead of trying to keep to the main channel they had been using.

And soon, Keaton violently yanked away his com-link device, and slammed it into the table, along with his clenched hand, causing the holographic image to completely go on the fritz, as he screamed out in utter pure fury, his body shaking, his face reddened. "NOOOOO!"

---

Notes:

1. Arcadia is from Captain Harlock, like Dark Rich and Kei Yuki, if you need to know what she looks like.

2. Mr Match, Count Zap and Ms Madd are all from the Megaman Battle Network series.

3. Light Rich, his appearance is based on Ulysses, from Ulysses 31. He'll get the gear later, much like Dark Rich will and Kei.