Hello fans and viewers, its been a long break but I'm finally back with chapter 10. Thanks so much to those of you who have favorited and kept up with my story, and on that note here are the responses to the last chapter's reviewers.

Gamewizard2008: Yes, yes it is, next to the last day of the ARCHIVE war.

AceShadow: Already responded to most of your comments through PM. Again, I'm sure that any similarities will remain brief and pass quickly.

Also thanks go out to AceShadow and DarkForte777 for the favorite and the follow as well as Zilla 2000 for the follow. Now that thats over with, let us start chapter 10!

"...Quote, what quote." -Jackrkazi141FTW

Nigel's Mind

There was ash and soot in the air, the sky was black with clouds and a faint wind scythed through the air, blowing waves of dust and dirt across a barren plain. Nigel floated over this depressing scene, eyes wide with fear and amazement. "Where am I, what is this place", he murmured to himself as he flew through clouds of ash and dust. The smoke wafting up from the plain was heavy and the ash and soot was thick, but for some reason it didn't blind his vision, nor did he choke or cough. In fact he found that he could breath quite freely, thats impossible,he thought, this has to be a dream or... The thought struck him suddenly, the mere idea of it giving him hope, what if this whole day, the invasion, the battle at the Arctic Base, Schmitt, what if its just been another dream caused by that happy headband, what if this whole time I've just been sitting back on Earth somewhere going through some big endless dream?

Excitedly, he tried to force himself to grow as he had the last time he'd been in the headbands thrall. It didn't work, ok, how about this, he tried clicking his heels together, but found his feet and legs wouldn't budge. Well there goes that idea, thought Nigel, disappointedly, well if I'm not wearing the headband and this isn't a dream, what is it? He became vaguely aware that he was descending through the clouds towards the ground. He tried to control that too, but again nothing happened, as though he was just watching some movie or on some amusement park ride. Nigel's shoes touched the ground, kicking up small clouds of ash in the process, Nigel felt the firm ground beneath his feet and realized that he could now move his legs. He again tried clicking his heels, but to no avail.

Nigel grumbled and frustratedly kicked up a cloud of dust. It was then he noticed how quiet it was, the smoke had vanished and the plain was empty. On a whim he called out, "hello, is anyone there?" His voice echoed across the plain and at first nothing happened. Then the plain began to change, grass sprouted from it, trees grew and began to blossom and in the distance a city appeared. Nigel squinted into the distance trying to make out details but the sun was in his eyes and he couldn't see. Then suddenly, there was a boy standing next to him, he wore what might once have been a uniform, but was now tattered and worn beyond recognition. Over this, he wore a hooded cloak of dark grey which obscured his face. Nigel started at the boy's sudden appearance, cautious he tapped the boys shoulder, but his hand passed right through him. What the.. he waved his hands in front of the boys face, no use.

Sighing, he turned to start walking away, only to find that the world had changed again. This time he was on a balcony, thrust out over a massive city plaza. A crowd of cheering kids filled the plaza, yelling, pumping fists in the air and chanting something over and over again, though he couldn't exactly make out what it was. A teenager stood on the edge of the balcony, clothed in a mismatched uniform of sorts. He seemed to be making a speech of some kind, gesturing wildly and yelling something out at the crowd. Over the incoherent yelling and cheers, Nigel heard a voice, a voice that seemed to come out of no where. It whispered, "what happened once will happen again." He turned around sharply, but there was no one there.

The voice continued, "we shall rise from the ashes, the legacy of our great empire shall return and exact rightful vengeance." The scene changed again, Nigel was on a battlefield, kids left and right charged past him into the distance, rifles cracked and bullets whizzed past his head, though none touched him. In the distance, Nigel saw what looked like adult soldiers firing on the mass of kids, explosions lit up left and right and a mass chorus of yells and screams split the air. Seemingly out of nowhere, a bright yellow, gold banner flutter down from the sky and sprawled across the ground, on it was a symbol, an eagle of red, outlined in black. The voice kept speaking, "our ancient enemy will be brought to kneel for the blood he has spilled. And from this day till the end of days, we will never forget and we will never forgive, Nigel." "Wha.. what do you mean?! Who are you?!", Nigel yelled at the sky, but the battlefield was gone, replaced by only blackness, but the voice continued, repeating his name over and over, "Nigel, Nigel, NIGEL!"

KND Arctic Base: Western Section- Fleet Labs

"Nigel wake up, NIGEL!", someone was yelling at him, slowly Nigel opened his eyes and saw Rachel kneeling beside him. Relief flooded her eyes as she said, "finally, you had me worried there for a moment." "Uggghhh", groaned Nigel, he sat up and cast his eyes, groggily, over the room. They were still inside the entrance to the western section of the base, though now the entrance was blocked by a large pile of snow and debris. The ice walls were cracked in some places, broken pieces of wood and metal lay on the floor and dangling from the ceiling here and there were the remains of some 2X4 technology.

Nigel groaned again, "wha... what happened", he managed, his jaw was killing him. Concern crossed Rachel's face, she bit her lip and said, "the explosion threw you straight across the room into a wall, knocked you out cold." Examining him, she took the hem of her jacket and wiped some blood off of Nigel's face, "your pretty banged up, but you should be fine, though it looks like you'll have a bump on your head for a few days." Curious, Nigel jerked his arm off the ground and felt the top of his head, she was right, there was a pretty sizable bump there. When he attempted to touch it, it sent a wave of pain through his skull, "ouch!" he managed through gritted teeth.

Frowning, Rachel said, "well don't touch it, here", she grabbed some ice off the ground and pressed it Nigel's head, then taking some clothe from her pocket, she proceeded to tie it in place. Nigel grunted, "don't spend so much time on me, help the others", Rachel tutted, "they're all fine, besides they don't have swelling head injuries." Finishing her work, she stood up and offered Nigel her hand, "can you stand?" "I think so", said Nigel, unsure, grasping her hand, he pulled himself up off the ground and leaned against the wall. Then, slowly, he proceeded to test his legs, walking around in a few circles before performing a little jump into a triumphant pose. Rachel couldn't help giggling, "wow, you could run a marathon", Nigel grinned, then winced in pain from his head, "maybe not just yet", he said with a wry smile.

Going over to pick up his rifle, he stopped as the S.C.A.M.P.P. was replaced by the yellow and red flag from his vision. "What the..", he winced and shook his head, the flag disappeared. Caressing the bump on his head he thought, just what the heck happened to me? "Nigel, is everything alright?", Rachel sounded concerned, she put a hand on his shoulder, "what is it?" Nigel shook his head again to clear his thoughts, "nothing... I'll tell you later, lets keep moving." Rachel looked like she wanted to inquire further, but she nodded and brought out her weapon.

Together they raced down the corridor, back into the bowls of the base. On the way Rachel filled him in on the rest, "you were out for about 5 minutes, I sent the rest of the guys forward to scout ahead, Schmitt's office is a few corridors away from here, that's where Numbahs 2552 and 1918 should be." "Great", replied Nigel, "lets get this over with and get out of here, by the way did everyone make it through?" That question caused Rachel's expression to sadden, she murmured, "all of sector V did, but... we lost most of the junior cadets during the charge and two more died during the cave in... as well as that marine who was following you." Nigel gritted his teeth, so many operatives lost and so many good kids dead, but what was it all for, what was the point of all this slaughter.

Remembering the words from his vision Nigel thought, what happened once will happen again, okay what happened, and an ancient enemy, what enemy? Am I going nuts? He remembered how his memory loss felt just like a decommissioning wipe, but he'd never been decommissioned before, so how would he know how that felt? What is happening to me, did the Confederates do something to me? The questions would not go away, but they had to wait. Pushing them to the back of his mind, Nigel tried to focus on the mission at hand as he and Rachel rounded a bend and came face to face with the rest of sector V. The two sides quickly raised their weapons, before lowering them with quick sighs of relief, "boy did you guys give us a scare", said Numbah 5, sauntering over, "hows the head Numbah 1?" "Okay", replied Nigel, "not great, but I'll live, what did you find?"

Numbah 5 jerked a finger over her shoulder, "absolutely nothing, this whole place is deserted. Schmitt's office should be just around the next bend, but we should keep on our toes." She'd just finished saying this when an explosion blew through the wall right up ahead of them. Out of the smoke emerged a squad of Confederate soldiers, wearing armor and enclosed combat helmets. The leader of the group, upon seeing Nigel and his party, raised his weapon and yelled, "squad, open fire!" The Confederates brought their weapons to bear on the KND troops.

Nigel looked around for some cover, but the corridor was bare, not knowing what else to do he yelled and charged the squad, firing his S.C.A.M.P.P. as he went. The rest of the sector V followed suit, bellowing battle cries and charging the line. The opposing soldiers began shooting, by sheer luck, none of them hit Nigel. As he closed the short distance between them, the nearest trooper dropped his rifle and drew his pistol and combat knife. Before he could bring his gun up, Nigel tackled him to the ground, knocking the pistol away. They rolled on the floor, as the soldier tried to bring his knife up, Nigel twisted under his reach and punched him in the neck. The soldier gagged from the punch and kicked Nigel in the chest, knocking him away.

Nigel was vaguely aware of the rest of his team fighting hand to hand with the other soldiers, but he was too focused on the trooper in front of him to notice. The soldier jumped to his feet and charged him, holding his knife in his right hand, blade out as he prepared to slash at Nigel. Nigel curiously noticed the soldier was only slightly taller than him. He pivoted to the left and under to avoid the soldier's strike, as he brought the knife cutting through the air. Having missed, the soldier switched his momentum to the other foot and swung his knife straight to the right, intending to stab Nigel in the chest.

Nigel blocked by intercepting the soldier's knife arm with his own, they stood deadlocked for a second, the soldier trying to force Nigel's arm aside. Seeing an opening, Nigel punched the soldier in the gut before jumping back and rebounding off the wall back towards his opponent. The soldier tried to duck but Nigel was too quick and delivered a vicious kick to the soldier's face. The soldier was knocked off his feet and he fell heavily to the floor.

As the soldier hit the ground, his helmet fell off, allowing Nigel to finally see his face. It was the face of a young boy, possibly no older than 10 and he looked so... normal. So normal in fact that he could have even gone to Nigel's old elementary school. The innocence of it made him hesitate, I swore to protect kids not fight them, what am I doing?! The other boy showed none of Nigel's hesitation.

Wiping a trickle of blood from his face, he snarled and leapt to his feet. Whipping out his combat knife, he dashed towards Nigel. Nigel was caught off guard by the soldier's speed and ferocity, he tried to dodge the blade but it was not use. The knife came at him, slashing across his chest and through his clothes. The pain and shock of it hit him like a tidal wave, he staggered back, so unprepared for the rush of agony that seemed to ooze out of the wound on his chest.

Sensing Nigel's momentary weakness, the soldier punched him in the face with his knife hand, hurling him to the ground. As the soldier prepared to bring the knife down on Nigel's chest, instinct kicked in. He rolled to the side, avoiding the soldier's thrust, then scrambled frantically on the ice, trying to get away.

On his hands and knees, he slipped on the ice covered floor and went down with a solid thud. A shadow loomed over him and he rolled over again onto his back to avoid the soldier's second strike. Then a heavy boot planted itself hard on Nigel's chest, driving the wind out of him. Dazed, he stared at the ceiling, legs and arms splayed out across the ground. The soldier stood over him, preparing to deliver the death blow.

Though dazed, Nigel's fingers still scrabbled frantically across the floor, looking for something, anything to use as a weapon. He felt a piece of metal graze his fingers and he ripped it from the ground and pointed it at the soldier, in a final attempt to block the incoming blow. A loud bang sounded and the soldier jerked as if struck, then Nigel saw him fall face forward onto the ground, a small black hole blown through his head.

Confused Nigel looked around, trying to discern what had just happened. Then the realization struck him and glanced fearfully at what he held in his hand. It was the soldier's pistol. Suddenly, more shots sounded, but not the sharp crack of Confederate rifles, but rather the dull zap of KND weapons. Several of the other soldiers locked in combat around him jerked spasmodically as they were hit with multiple shots, the laser fire cracking and burning their armor and skin. The rest of the soldiers fell bodily to the ground.

A group of KND soldiers came running down the corridor towards Nigel's group. At their head was Numbah 1918, a still smoking S.C.A.M.P.P. held close to his chest. The soldiers came level with the group and 1918 immediately began barking orders, "alright 19-2 and 18-3, you go assess the wounded, the rest of you go secure the perimeter, move double time!" The soldiers snapped to obey as 1918 moved to inspect Rachel, "are you alright sir?" Rachel had been hit in the shoulder with the butt of a Confederate rifle, leaving a large bruise, though none could see it and had a small cut on her arm from a glancing knife blow. Even so, she shook her head wearily, "I'm fine, see to the others first", she stood up on her own, wincing slightly at the strain in her bruised arm, "thanks for the save by the way, you guys made it here just in time."

1918 grinned slightly, "I'm a marine, its what we do", he moved on to inspect the next wounded kid as Rachel moved to go tend to the other members of her squad. She was saddened to see that even more of the junior cadets had been lost in the fight. While it wasn't common for KND operatives to die in the field, it was certainly an ever present possibility. Every year, there were always some villains who went too far in their plans, and so every year some unlucky kid somewhere went home in coffin, instead of a wheel chair. The KND of course, fabricated the causes of death, a fall from a bridge here, a hit and run there, and no one at the funerals ever questioned why there was an overabundance of unknown children present.

But those had been accidents, mistakes, not like this. She had never been exposed to death on this scale before. Her foot brushed up against the body of one of the Confederate soldiers. His body was limp, curious Rachel stooped down to inspect the soldier. She lifted the helmet off his head and to her horror, she found herself looking at the face of a young boy. Her horror grew as she soon discovered that he was not stunned, but dead.

At first she was horrified, but the soldier's death was soon overtaken by another realization, and her horror turned into pure rage. She yelled out, "Numbah 1918, get over here!" The marine sergeant soon appeared, he appeared curious, "what is it sir?", she pointed at the dead body, "did you do this?", she asked furiously. 1918 stared down at the body, then looked at her confusedly, "maybe not me, but one of my soldiers probably did, why?" Rachel could not believe what she was hearing, "wh... why! That is a kid, a human kid lying there and you have the audacity to ask me why!"

1918 responded coolly, "that boy was an enemy soldier, he tried to kill you and he would have tried to kill us, so we killed him first, forgive me but I don't understand the problem here sir?" Rachel exploded, "we're Kids Next Door, we don't kill people! Least of all fellow kids, heck, we don't even kill adults! When did it become alright for the Kids Next Door, or for anyone, to do this!" 1918 eyed her, when he spoke his voice carried a hint of irritation, "we're at war right now sir, this is what happens in war, and if there is an enemy threatening you with a loaded weapon, I don't care if he's an adult, kid or some kind of freak mutant, your first and only reaction should be to shoot him."

Rachel tried to muster a response, but couldn't, his logic made perfect sense, but she just couldn't see it. We're KND operatives, we're protectors, freedom fighters, not killers and soldiers. We protect kids, we don't slaughter them, this is all just... wrong! As she attempted to wrap her head around this predicament, Schmitt's words from earlier came back to her, everyone is capable of anything and before this war is over you will know just how far that extends. He seemed to have meant it in a bad way, but she now realized the wisdom in it, if necessary, anyone can do anything for good or for bad. She glanced back at the dead soldier, but it's still not right, she thought.

Walking through the remains of the battle, she finally found who she was looking for. Nigel was lying on the ground with his back against the wall, jittering slightly. Rachel rushed over to him, kneeling beside him she saw the pistol lying near his body as well as the dead soldier nearby. Oh no, she thought, "1918, get over here", 1918 walked over to her, grumbling slightly, "what is it now sir, I'm in the middle of...", he trailed off as he saw Nigel. 1918's gaze swept between Nigel, the gun and the soldier next to him, "aw crap", he grunted.

He called out, "I need a medic over here!", before crouching down beside Nigel with Rachel. Rachel was starting to panic, "what wrong with him?", 1918 waved his hand in front of Nigel's eyes and pressed his fingers to his neck. Pulling back he announced, "fast pulse, dis-focused eyes and jittering, he's shell shocked", he gazed over at the pistol, "first time, happens to some people if they aren't prepared for the reaction." The medic he called for arrived and knelt in front of Nigel, 1918 took Rachel over to the side while he worked, "this isn't the first time this has happened, we've been getting cases like this up and down the lines since the fighting started, KND outside the fleet aren't conditioned for this sort of thing."

"OF COURSE WE AREN'T", screamed Rachel, "WE'RE JUST KIDS! WE DON'T KILL PEOPLE!" 1918 groaned, "look, the point is, we know how to deal with this. He's just a little shell shocked and he'll be fine, but we need to get him to the outpost before we can help him." Gesturing to the medic, 1918 grabbed Nigel roughly by the arm and hauled him to his feet, the medic grabbed hold of Nigel's other arm. "Casualty report", 1918 asked the medic calmly. "Four dead, three walking wounded and this one", replied the medic, "he seems to be the only one who managed to kill one of them."

Well good for him then", replied Jonathan with a slight grin. He turned back to Rachel, "it's a bit of a way to the outpost and he's too heavy for one of us to carry so we'll have to take it slowly." Together, they started moving Nigel down the corridor, the rest of 1918's squad moved in to provide front and rear protection with sector V, Rachel and the surviving cadets bringing up the middle. 1918 grunted as they hauled Nigel through the hallway, "would it kill this guy to lay off the meatball sandwiches."

C.W.S. Harbinger: Polar Orbit

A dull explosion rocked the bridge as one of the Confederate escort frigates took a direct hit to it's prow. Arthur's watched impassively as the explosion from the hit tore through the ship's armor, ripping a gouge in it's bow plating. Simultaneously, numerous other smaller explosions rocked the vessel as the exposed chambers explosively decompressed into the vacuum. His comm officer swiveled to deliver the report, "sir that hit took out the Derringer's shields, she's falling back to effect repairs. Arthur's gritted his teeth in frustration, holding orbit over the arctic was proving much more difficult than he'd anticipated. Checking the status of the numerous other escorts and capital ships that had followed through on the arctic assault, his frustration grew as he realized that they would not be able to hold this position for much longer without reinforcements.

There was only one course of action left. His mind set, Arthurs stood up from his command chair and gestured to the navigator, "order the landing fleet to break formation and move out of orbit. Take us out of range of their batteries and prepare for orbital bombardment!" "But sir", the navigator protested, "that will leave the escorts vulnerable to attack, that AO fire will rip right through them!" "Then order them to break off first", shot back Arthurs, "we'll cover their retreat, move us into firing position and prep the bombardment cannon!" The weapons officer cut in, "but sir, our troops are still down there...", "give the commanders 10 minutes to pull back, now follow my orders! We're ending this charade now!"

WOOOO, that took forever, however this is only half of what I wanted to write for chapter 10, the rest of the battle for the Arctic Base will be closed up in chapter 11. Also, Nigel's dream/vision is going to play a big part in the story later, so pay attention to that. Till next time this Jackrkazi asking you to please comment and review.