Author's Note: Hello everyone, sorry about the long wait, but here it is, the next chapter. Hope you enjoy and I'll see you guys ….. when I see you!

Chapter 15: The Khala's End

"Why is the ground shaking still?" Naruto overbalanced slightly.

"I don't know, the bombs either went off or went down with their teams," Shikamaru looked around, "Whatever the cause is, it's not because of us."

Thanatos and Xelios looked at each other.

"Nydus Worm?" Thanatos suggested.

"Tremors aren't deep enough," Xelios shook his head, "This is being made on the surface."

"That only leaves 3 answers that I know of, and 2 of them are not very likely."

"What does that mean then? What is it?" Naruto asked.

The roar of something huge shook the air. A group of shinobi and Protoss looked over to see this gigantic something barreling right into the middle of them.

"Ultralisk!"

The ultralisk was a massive beast, towering over the Alliance, making them look like tiny insignificant ants. Its huge blade arms swept across the ground, slicing apart anything in their path. In that group of shinobi and Protoss, those who weren't sliced to pieces instantly were literally stomped flat. Naruto looked up at it in horror.

The thing was huge, looming a good 50 feet above the tallest of any of the Protoss. Four blade arms were swaying underneath its head, which was surprisingly small for its size. A giant shield above its head is what gave the creature a good part of its height, as well as a good portion of its frightening look. No matter where you looked, the ultralisk's armor was clearly incredibly thick. The thing roared again as it ripped apart any last survivors of the once living group of shinobi and Protoss. Nothing that any of them had done had been effective; nothing was getting through its armor.

Gaara bound the creature with giant sand arms, wrapping around its legs and arms. The thing roared in fury, trying to break its restraints. Gaara's face betrayed the amount of strain it was costing him to immobilize the beast.

"Hurry up and find a way to kill that thing," he hissed urgently, "I'm not sure how long I can keep this up."

Sasuke nodded.

"Amaterasu!"

Black flames sped straight for the ultralisk, aiming for the head. But the ultralisk ducked at the last second, catching the flames on the massive shield dome above its head. The flames still connected though, burning what little of the beast it could.

The ultralisk shrieked in surprise more than pain, stomping and pulling at the sand restraints even harder. With an almighty wrench, the creature's left blade arm yanked forward out of the sand arm holding it, breaking the sand arm entirely. The newly freed arm swung down, cracking the sand arm holding its front left leg.

"It appears you have made the thing angry," Gaara was trying to recapture the ultralisk's loose limb.

"Angry? That thing was already angry to begin with!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Fire isn't going to do much against the ultralisk no matter where you hit it; its armor is simply too strong and thick," Xelios told them, "The only way to kill it is just to keep attacking it until it falls."

"Well the colossi aren't going to be able to do anything to it then either, so how are we going to kill it?"

The ultralisk pulled against the sand, breaking another arm free.

"Well hurry up and do something; I'm not going to be able to hold it back much longer," Gaara's sand was now trying to recapture two arms, as well as losing its grip on two of its legs.

"Sasuke, what about that new jutsu of yours?" Naruto looked at his friend, "You said it was ready."

Sasuke looked over at him incredulously, "Use that jutsu? Are you insane?! It would level the whole place and us with it! I'm not using that jutsu just for this."

"Well, think of something," Gaara urged them, "I can't keep it contained until the Amaterasu starts to really affect it. It'll break free and just rampage nonstop until the flames kill it."

"Okay, I'll deal with it then," Naruto activated his Kyuubi Chakra Mode.

"Are you insane? That thing is easily the size of the Kyuubi!"

"Gaara, I'm going to hit it with a Rasenshuriken. When I do, release your grip, and let me deal with it. You guys get back to the rest of the battle."

Knowing there was no way to argue with him they all nodded.

"Good luck."

Naruto timed it perfectly; flying through the air, Gaara releasing the beast when he was 5 feet from it. The Rasenshuriken slammed into the giant shield, right into the Amaterasu flames, bolstering their strength. The force of the jutsu sent the ultralisk skidding backwards, well away from the front lines.

"It's just you and me now big guy."

Gaara turned back to the others, "Okay, you heard him. We need to get this battle back under control."

"Right," Shikamaru nodded, "Sasuke, take a division and take that hill. Defend that chokepoint from any enemy reinforcements that come calling. Gaara, round up the survivors of the ultralisk attack and keep that position from falling. Praetor, gather what remaining troops we have and keep this fight in our favor."

Shikamaru turned back to view the battle, taking note of friendly and enemy positions, numbers of wounded versus troops still standing, and the remaining mission objectives. The hydralisk dens were all down, so was the lurker den and all 5 spires. But all the hatcheries remained standing, and there was nothing coming over the radio from any of the teams sent to destroy them. He stared out at the hatcheries with concern; Temari was over in one of those things. She could handle herself and he definitely knew it, but they hadn't heard anything from her or her team in quite some time. A shout snapped him from his reverie.

"Shikamaru! We just made it back and we just saw Naruto in Kyuubi Chakra Mode fighting with some huge monster thing!" Ino ran up to him, "And all the hatcheries are still standing; what's going on?"

"The Zerg made some new variation of the zergling which hatches in a few seconds, and hatch three per egg. These new zerglings overran our teams before they could detonate their explosives and get out. And just now that big thing, the ultralisk, just charged in from out of nowhere and ripped an entire platoon to shreds. Not even Sasuke's Amaterasu affects it fast enough to bring it down in a timely fashion, so Naruto's going to deal with it."

"Nice to see we didn't miss anything interesting. So what's our plan?"

"There really isn't much of one at this point. We've stabilized, and we brought down most of the primary targets, but now it's a stalemate. They won't give us any ground, but we're not losing ground either."

"So, what are we going to do? We can't just sit here," Sai pressed him.

"Well we can't mobilize right now; there's too many swarmlings to deal with. They'd surround us and tear us all to shreds the minute we try. We'll need to find a way to deal with them before we do anything else."

Sasuke launched a series of fire jutsus from his vantage point on top of the hill into the swarms of Zerg below. At the moment they were doing decently, but he knew that it wasn't going to stay like that forever. Their defense would break eventually, and when it did they would need to get out of this place fast. The Protoss could get away thanks to their warp prisms, but his shinobi had no such means of transportation. Evacuation would be slow and arduous, leaving them all exposed and vulnerable the whole time. Perhaps Tenten could create some sort of flying transport that could ferry shinobi to and from the battlefield faster. Maybe even make a flying assault ship while she was at it… He was going to have to talk to her about that ….. assuming the both of them were alive by the end of this.

"Matsuri! Use a spike wall; block those zerglings from getting to us," Temari ordered.

Matsuri nodded. The spike wall was something she and Tenten had come up with just before they had launched this assault. Based on stopping the Zerg from moving through tight spaces, the spike wall was simply a collapsed web of metal bars that extended to fill and block an entire entrance. Whether that be an alley, a cave, or just a doorway, the spike wall was designed to fill the whole space. Extending outwards from the spike wall towards what it was defending against was a thicket of large spikes, hence the term spike wall. Several swarmlings ran themselves through on the large spikes, killed by their own momentum. The rest stopped and started to attack the spikes, but there was only room for a few to attack at a time, and the spikes often stabbed those trying to break it down.

"Right, now that that's taken care of," Temari turned towards the shinobi beside her, "What's wrong? Why aren't we getting any help?"

"The radio was damaged during the initial volley of attacks. The thing still works but we're chasing the signal back to command. I don't know how long until we have contact; it could be a while."

"We don't have 'a while'. We need to contact command now or we're all dead."

"We're working on it Captain."

Temari ducked as a cluster of spines flew overhead, "Work faster."

Naruto rolled out of the way as the ultralisk charged him; the thing had stomped, sliced apart, or both, every one of his shadow clones, and shrugged off everything he threw at it. Perhaps a few solid strikes to the head could finish the job.

He accelerated as fast as he possibly could, zooming far to the side. The ultralisk didn't even see the punch that hit it in the side of the head. Or the next one in the opposite direction. Or the third. But the beast had had enough, and was ready by Naruto's fourth one. With surprising speed the ultralisk whipped towards him, one of his giant blades catching the young Hokage full in the gut. Naruto went sent spinning, flying straight into one of the fleshy hatcheries. This wasn't working at all; it was time to take more drastic action.

"Kurama, I think I'm gonna need your help for this one."

From her vantage point Tenten could see pretty much everything going on across the whole battlefield. She was rather proud of her new personal war machine. Towering a full 70 feet above the other lesser models, her colossus moved faster, was far more heavily armored, more heavily shielded, and even had an extra pair of thermal lancers built into the hull. With two pairs, the time between firing was almost nonexistent. And the fact that it was manually controlled – programmed to obey her commands by simple thought – just made it even cooler.

She directed her killer robot towards a group of hydralisks suppressing the fire of her troops far below. Caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of the giant machine, the aliens were only able to launch a volley or two at it before being burned to a crisp. Tenten checked her colossus's status, smirking. Shields were still at 99.2%, and already starting to recharge. The Zerg would need to try quite a lot harder to bring her down.

She paused to survey the battle around her. Sasuke and a few of the others still held that hill in the center, and they were defending it pretty well too. As for the rest, the Zerg were pressing them hard, but just not hard enough to break them. Below she saw the two Protoss, the Praetor and his student, fighting right at the front; not a trace of fear at all even as they faced down an endless swarm of enemies. The Praetor had grabbed a zergling by the leg, using it like a mace against its own brethren. When the thing finally died, he threw it at a roach; the dead zergling's claws buried themselves right into the roach's head as it flew over, flipping the alien over.

Now, why was that knot of Zerg surrounding that particular hatchery? She would direct her colossus over there to investigate, but as strong as the machine was it wasn't invincible. The Zerg had a good chance of destroying her war machine before she could get back behind friendly lines. Better not to risk it.

A large orange object whisked by; she only saw it in her peripheral vision for a split-second. She whipped her head around to see what it was, but it was gone. Nevermind, her job wasn't to go chasing after things all the way across the battlefield anyways.

The ultralisk paused. The little orange terran had somehow mutated into an orange creature as large as it was almost instantly. This new thing had many swaying tails, but was certainly not armored like it was; clearly an inferior being despite its size.

"You are very, very lucky your father was able to give you my other half before he was released from the Edo Tensei, or this would not be a lot more difficult," Kurama commented.

Naruto nodded mutely. The pair of them had been working for quite a while to achieve perfect control. Now though, things were much easier.

'Alright, let's see how it likes a Tailed-Beast Bomb,'

The ultralisk was not sure what that big thing forming above the new orange thing was, but it was pretty sure it wasn't good. Besides, that much energy in one spot is never a good thing. That had to be stopped.

Naruto saw the ultralisk charging towards him, but was unable to do anything about it. The thing slammed into the Kyuubi before the Beast Bomb could be completed. Naruto looked in dismay as the chakra dissipated uselessly into the air. The Kyuubi landed heavily on the ground, totally winded.

'We okay?' Kurama asked.

'Yeah, just got taken by surprise a bit is all. Man, that thing packs a real punch!'

'We're not going to be able to take this thing head on, even if we are as big as it is. We'll need to try a different approach.'

Naruto nodded mutely. The Kyuubi ran forwards, straight at the ultralisk again. The alien sliced at them, but the Kyuubi was high in the air by the time the blades reached where they would have been. Naruto landed heavily onto the ultralisk's back, relinquishing control to Kurama. The ultralisk roared, stomping and thrashing, trying to buck the giant fox off of it, but Kurama held on. The Kyuubi began to claw into the ultralisk, leaving deep rends in its armor. The ultralisk roared in fury, rearing up onto its hind legs. The sudden jolt threw the Kyuubi off of it, sending them crashing to the ground.

Kurama rolled upright, whipping around with claws extended, aiming for the ultralisk's exposed flank. Claws inches from the giant alien, the ultralisk lashed out with extreme speed, catching them full on the side. The Kyuubi was knocked off its feet and sent sliding across the ground. The ultralisk's blade had left a deep cut going all the way down the fox's side, from the top of the ribs all the way to the back legs. Kurama growled out a few choice words at the Zerg as he got up, legs a little unsteady.

'You okay?' Naruto asked him.

'There is a giant cut going all the way down our side. No, clearly we're not okay.'

'For something that large and heavily built, that thing moves surprisingly quickly. We need to be a lot more careful than we have been.'

'Really? No kidding! What tipped you off? Was it getting swatted like a bug, tackled, or getting sliced open?'

'Okay, okay. If you're done making jokes, let's try a shockwave attack. A strong enough attack might give us the opportunity we need.'

Kurama nodded.

'Wait until the thing charges.'

They did not have to wait long; the ultralisk started to charge towards them almost the second Naruto finished the sentence. They had to wait until just the right time, too soon and it wouldn't do anything, too late and they were dead. Less than a foot away from being trampled, Kurama slammed a claw into the ground, directing the massive wave of energy right into the ultralisk's face. The move not only sent the beast flying backwards, but also pushed the black Amaterasu flames, spreading them over the creature's head and onto its back. Shrieking in pain, the ultralisk thrashed around in circles, trying to rid itself of the flames.

'Now!'

For a second time, Kurama gathered chakra in a large ball, before compressing and swallowing it. The Kyuubi spat out the Tailed Beast Bomb right at the thrashing ultralisk. For a split-second, the ultralisk looked and saw the bringer of its doom, before ceasing to exist. Naruto and Kurama looked at the resulting damage: where the ultralisk had stood there was nothing, and nothing but scorch marks on the hatchery behind it. Amazingly, the ultralisk had taken most of the blast, leaving the hatchery almost completely intact. Naruto took control again, and reverted to human form. Luckily damage taken in one form doesn't transfer to the other, so as tired and battered as he was, at least he didn't have to deal with the damage he had taken in Kyuubi form.

'We should get back to the others,' Kurama reminded him.

'Yeah,' Naruto turned and started trudging back towards the Alliance's main position.

Hinata spun, catching a hydralisk with a perfect lion fist backhand and sent it flying with a vacuum palm technique. Another came up, raising one of its huge scythe-like arms.

"Byakugan!" Hinata used her eyes to see into her new opponent, pinpointing spots of weakness. Darting in too close for the hydralisk to reach, she hit the alien half a dozen times in the chest in rapid succession. The hydralisk froze for a second, before toppling over; dead. Hinata had hit the creature in six different areas around the heart, halting all blood flow in and out of the heart before stopping the heart itself altogether. A few of her other friends including Iruka-sensei, Kiba and Akamaru, and Kankurō came up to join her at the front.

"We must have killed thousands of these things by now," Kiba grumbled, "Just how many of them are there?"

"It doesn't matter how many there are Kiba," Iruka told him, "So long as we have the will to keep fighting. Right now, that is what matters."

"I really hope you're right about that," Kankurō looked over at him.

Hinata was scanning the battlefield, searching for signs of any life. For the first time in the whole battle there wasn't a single enemy to fight in front of them. Did they kill them all? Hardly seemed likely. So if not, where did they go, and why? She extended the range of her vision to ascertain that there really wasn't anything out there. Except there was something out there; one thing to be specific.

"Naruto!" Hinata checked for signs of burrowed Zerg before rushing to her fiancé's side.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto smiled up at her, "Thanks. What happened to all the Zerg? Did you kill them all?"

"Maybe, I don't see any where we are," Hinata supported him as they walked back, "What happened to you? I haven't seen you look this badly beaten up in a long time."

"Yeah, it looks like you just picked a fight with the Jῡbi and tried to take it on alone," Kiba helped the pair of them make it back to safety.

"I just took down a Zerg the size of the Kyuubi, called an ultralisk. That thing hits really hard," Naruto explained.

"Well, glad to see you back alive," Kankurō nodded at him.

"Thanks. Where's Shikamaru and Gaara? I need to get back to them."

"They're meeting the Praetor and his student over at the base of the hill. Sasuke's leading the defense at the top; that's where all the fighting seems to be happening now. We'd go with you, but Shikamaru ordered our division to hold here in case the Zerg try to flank us again."

"Thanks. Don't worry, I'm okay. I can keep going from here," Naruto gave a small salute before heading off.

At the base of the hill, the four commanding officers were in a deep discussion.

"The Zerg seem to be pulling back; they've stopped all attacks on two fronts," Gaara reported, "We should take the opportunity to mobilize and finish the fight for good."

"The Zerg don't operate like that," Thanatos told him, "They're not pulling back because they're beaten. The two most likely options are they're regrouping and going to return with waves of fresh forces, or they're making room for something new."

A white-haired ninja jumped down from the hill and landed right in front of them.

"The fighting is getting really tough on us up here," Kakashi reported to them, "We'll need additional firepower if we are to keep the position."

"Taking away from any one front would leave a weak spot in our defenses though," Xelios warned, "I recommend having Tenten take hers and two other colossi and take up positions at the summit. The rest of us should gather for an assault on the enemy's hatcheries before they have a chance to make more troops to throw at us."

Shikamaru was just about to say something when a voice over the radio interrupted him.

"This is Captain Temari requesting immediate assistance. We've planted the bombs but we're pinned down inside the hatchery by large numbers of Zerg. We need support a.s.a.p. before we're overwhelmed."

Gaara's gaze snapped over to the radio, his face paling to the color of snow.

"I'm going to help them," he turned to leave.

"I'm coming too," Shikamaru started after him.

"They're completely surrounded. We need to wait until we've mobilized to go after them," Thanatos warned.

"They won't last that long!" Gaara glared back at him, "Dangerous or not, I'm not leaving Matsuri or my sister to be murdered by these monsters! If you want to help that's fine, otherwise keep to the plan and stay out of my way."

The group of shinobi and Protoss watched the pair of shinobi dash off in the direction of Temari's signal.

"We can't help them. We have to stick to the plan," Thanatos shook his head.

"I'll use my shadow clones; have them rally everybody back here," Naruto said.

"I'll head back up and continue the defense. Notify us when we're ready to move," Kakashi left and headed back up the hill.

The Praetor paused as he left, "Phoenix bomber squadrons, I need a bombing run at these coordinates immediately."

Temari's fan made an arc of super-condensed air, slicing Zerg cleanly in half. Zerglings ran right at them, setting off a trap set by Matsuri. Spikes erupted from the ground, maiming and killing every single one of them. Acid sprayed the ground at the shinobi's feet.

"You know, of the many different ways I thought I might die, being eaten alive by acid was never amongst them," Matsuri remarked.

"Me neither," Temari shook her head, "In service to my village sure, but this set of circumstances never even made a vague impression on my mind."

Another large group of zerglings detonated another one of Matsuri's trap mines.

"Well, that was my last trap. I'm out of tricks," Matsuri said matter-of-factly, "It's been a pleasure knowing you guys."

"The pleasure was all ours."

Waves of hydralisk spines flew at them. They all ducked and watched as wave after wave of spines slammed into the hatchery walls behind them. The Zerg had never launched that large or long of a volley before now. They straightened up and saw why.

A group of eighteen banelings was rolling towards them; the aliens were too close for them to do anything about it. Temari, Matsuri, and the two remaining shinobi with them shied away even though they knew it would do them no good. They shut their eyes, not wanting to see their deaths coming….. but there was no explosion. No acid. No screams of pain. Nothing. Unable to help themselves, they opened their eyes to see why.

The banelings were clearly straining to keep moving, but something was keeping them locked in place: their shadows. Before any of them could react, the ground beneath the aliens came alive as sand arms wrapped themselves around them and pulled them under. Looking up, the entire row of hydralisks that had been harassing them all this time were also dead; impaled through the chest by their own shadows. The roaches didn't even notice until sand rose up to catch the acid saliva they spat out. Their looks of surprise as their own shadows tore through them would have been comical under circumstances less grave. A large sand arm grabbed hold of the last remaining hydralisk, picked it up, and slammed it back into the ground. Again. And again. And again, before flinging it into the hatchery behind them with the force of a bullet, literally causing the hatchery wall to buckle from the force of impact.

"You guys okay?" Gaara and Shikamaru asked frantically at the exact same time.

"Awww. They were worried about us," Matsuri teased, "How sweet."

"Yeah, they look kind of cute when they're worried don't they?" Temari joined in.

"Seriously though, are you guys hurt or anything?" Shikamaru asked again.

Temari walked over and kissed him, "We're perfectly fine."

Gaara took Matsuri's hand, "That's good to hear. Now, we need to leave before more arrive."

Temari, Matsuri, and their surviving team members nodded. Screams from yet more Zerg were coming from within the hatcheries.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Temari pulled out a remote. With a push of a button, a series of large explosions echoed from deep inside the hatchery behind them. Black plumes of smoke billowed out of the building's top, and the sides bled heavily. They kept going, but a crashing noise let them know the whole center had collapsed inwards.

"Good riddance," Matsuri muttered.

Meeting back up with the Alliance forces, Gaara went straight over to the other commanding officers.

"Okay, where are we attacking?" he asked.

"We're about to head for the -" Thanatos started, but a deep roar stopped him.

"Oh for the love of-."

The ground shook as a second ultralisk charged its way onto the battlefield; heading straight for them, as if there was something directing it there. Naruto was about to reenter Kyuubi Chakra Mode, but a hand stopped him.

"Leave it to me," Xelios stared at the huge monster, "I'll handle it this time."

"Alone," he added pointedly when several Alliance members stepped forward to follow him.

"You might want to watch closely," Thanatos advised them, "This is how a true warrior battles."

Xelios stood in front of the ultralisk with psionic claws active; no fear at all of the massive thing bearing down on him. He darted forwards, under a sweeping blade, and slashed at the beast's leg. It roared at him, trying to slice him apart. Xelios darted to the other side, attacking the other leg. The giant Zerg raised its giant foot to stomp the protoss warrior into the ground. The Praetor slammed his claws right into the bottom of the beast's foot before jumping backwards. With a shriek, the ultralisk swung its arms at the annoying alien below it. Xelios jumped over one arm, then slammed his claws into the other, letting it lift him into the air.

The ultralisk shook its arm as hard as it could, but the Praetor hung on grimly. With his free arm he aimed the mini photon cannon on his arm; he had enough charge for only one shot. The arm swung level with the ultralisk's head, and Xelios shot the beast right in the face. The massive alien reared on its back legs in surprise and pain, flinging the Praetor high into the air. With a graceful flip, Xelios turned upside down, psionic claws outstretched to earth. The scarred Protoss landed heavily on the ultralisk's head; his psionic claws punched through the top of the beast's head, through its skull, and into the brain. The giant ultralisk sagged forwards, and slammed into the ground. Xelios lightly jumped off the dead ultralisk and walked back over to the other Alliance members.

"And that is the proper way to dispatch a Zerg ultralisk," he talked like he was giving a very simple lecture about math or science.

The ground still shook.

"Byakugan!" Hinata scanned the area. She turned white at what she saw.

"How many are there?" Xelios correctly interpreted her expression.

"1, 2, 3, 4…. 24 ultralisks."

"Holy sh-," Shikamaru swore, "24?! There's no way we can handle that many; not all at once."

"We can't just leave! We were winning!" Sasuke argued.

"You want to stay and die, be my guest," Xelios gave him a freezing look, "If not, you'll heed me and retreat with the rest of the Alliance."

"Then let's go, before the ultralisks have a chance to reach us," Naruto ordered, "Shikamaru; order a full retreat."

"Executor, our observers show our forces are retreating out of the Zerg hive cluster," a crewman on the bridge reported, "They are being pursued by enemy forces."

"Put us on an intercept course with them," Selendis ordered, "Bring all guns online; prepare all interceptors. Bring heavy shields online as well. "

"As you will Executor."

Naruto and Sasuke were at the back of the Alliance army alongside Praetor Xelios and Thanatos, ensuring that no one fell behind. The retreat had been organized swiftly, but things were in chaos. Half the army hadn't even known about the two dozen ultralisks that were pursuing them until they had been told as they left. There was no form of organization; everyone was in a big jumble rather than in any sort of formation. Warp prisms had already come and taken the wounded, escorted by the last of the phoenixes. Not many were talking. Xelios received something telepathically, causing him to slow down slightly.

"What is it?" Naruto looked at him concerned.

"A message: an image from one of the observers."

"What did it show?"

"The Zerg have regrouped, and large groups of zerglings are on their way, and large groups of other strains are right behind them."

"We're still on the creep; we'll never be able to get away in time. Especially not now that they have their metabolic boost increasing their speed," Thanatos actually had a hint of worry in his voice, "They'll catch up to us and keep us occupied long enough for the rest of them to get here."

"If that happens I doubt many of us would survive," Sasuke entered the conversation, "We're already tired, whereas they're perfectly fine. We need to pick up the pace."

"That won't be enough; they're too fast," Thanatos shook his head.

"It's our only shot at survival; we're going to take it. I'll tell the others myself," Sasuke left headed off.

"You'll make it back to base perfectly fine," Xelios stated calmly.

"What do you mean 'we will'?" Thanatos caught on to his mentor's meaning instantly through the Khala.

"The best way for the majority of the Alliance to live is, to put it bluntly, sacrifice the lives of a few and use the time bought by their deaths. A small group of volunteers can hold the Zerg long enough for the rest of you to make it back to safety. In war, the sacrifice of a few is more than a fair price for the survival of an entire army."

"I'm staying too then," Thanatos looked at his mentor.

"No you're not," Xelios cut across him flatly. Seeing his student was going to argue, he continued, "The Protoss race is on the verge of extinction. Your generation is our people's only chance for survival in the long run. The loss of any of your generation only lowers the chance we have even further. That is unacceptable."

Thanatos still tried to argue back.

"You have been given an order by a superior officer," Xelios's voice became icy, "You will obey it."

The young Protoss fell silent. Naruto and everyone else around them looked at the Praetor, unsure of what to say or do.

Well, get going! Why are you wasting time?" he waved them on.

He gripped Naruto's arm as he passed, "I'm putting my faith in you and your people; do not make me regret that decision. En Taro Tassadar."

The Praetor watched as the Alliance army left, leaving behind only a small handful of zealots, and a group of shinobi. Words were not spoken; the Khala shared anything that could have been needed to be said.

…

How long had it been? Fighting for what seemed like hours, but then again, time always slowed during battle. This reminded him of battling on the temple grounds of Antioch back on Aiur. It was there his commanding officer, and his good friend, had fallen to the Zerg, and he had been promoted to the rank of Praetor in their stead. Now, here, on this foreign world in a dimension that wasn't even his own, it seemed he was to meet that same end. Fate had a funny way of running things.

There weren't many sounds on the battlefield anymore. Was he the last one still fighting? No; there were still about half a dozen shinobi and zealots left. They wouldn't survive long though; they were surrounded, and the ultralisks were coming. A hissing sound of a hydralisk behind him. He was tired; too tired to react quickly enough. The scarred Protoss didn't even flinch in pain as the armblade buried itself right in between his three hearts.

He stared into the face of a Hunter Killer hydralisk; the strongest and toughest of all the strain. The thing started to withdraw, but a strong grip on its arm stopped it. The psionic claws on the other arm rammed up through the Hunter Killer's jaw, through the head.

"Let's see if there's something after this life together, shall we?" both aliens hit the ground.

A mile away, all the Protoss felt it as a part of the Khala vanished.

Looming above the Alliance base, the Gantrithor had an unobstructed view of the Zerg horde as it approached.

"Plasma barrage is charged and ready," a crewmember reported.

It was then they felt the death sweep through their collective psychic link. Executor Selendis sat rigid in her chair. Her closest and most trusted advisor, her friend who had fought beside her for their entire military careers, was gone. Taken by the creatures that now approached them. The crew on the bridge didn't even need the Khala to feel their commander's rising anger.

"Cancel the plasma barrage," she hissed.

The Zerg had made this fight personal – they were going to regret that. Without even thinking about it, the Executor began to channel her psionic power, sending it through the hull of the supercarrier itself. The sheer amount of power was strong enough to make the Protoss on the bridge flinch just from its passing. With a wave of fury, the giant amount of energy gathered at the ship's prow, and hurtled itself at the Zerg far below.

Naruto and his friends watched the result with bulging eyes. The energy had cracked the ground where it had made impact, and its strength was pulling the air around it into a huge vortex of energy lighting. The massive storm lasted for more than 20 seconds before finally abating, revealing the devastating effect it had made: what was left of the Zerg that hadn't simply ceased to exist were nothing but charred and smoking husks. Not a single one had survived.

"That is the most powerful psionic storm I've ever seen," a Protoss commented, awestruck.

"Psionic storm? More like psionic hurricane!" Shikamaru replied, "If you guys can do that, why haven't you done that before now?"

"We can't," the Protoss replied simply, looking up at the golden ship above them, "No templar that has used that much energy at once has lived through the experience."

Everyone followed the zealot's gaze up to the supercarrier, all silently asking the same questions.