Metal Face… That is all I'm saying…

Chapter 6: The Unfinished Battle

As Metal Face flew above us, we all panicked seeing Mechon dropping down from the sky around us. Some were just the normal Mechon, and others were the bulky ones like Xord.

"Not just him!" Reyn exclaimed as we got our weapons out. "A whole bunch! And tons of 'em look like Xord!"

Even as the rain poured down, and the sky was darkened, Metal Face needed none of those things to frighten me. I knew he looked right at me when he said Outsider. They knew something about me, but I couldn't bring out my voice as he flew and landed down on the grassy path. When he landed, the ground shook as dust came flying up into the damp air.

"Pathetic!" Metal Face yelled in his creepy voice. "After all that talk, Xord was crushed by worthless maggots like you."

"Oh, this one can talk 'n' all!" Reyn scoffed.

"I can talk all right...and I got a good memory! 'Fiora! Get outta here! Get out!'" His evil laughter terrified me as I could imagine the pain that Fiora must have felt along with what the others had felt. Deep inside me, I felt fury and anger at how this Mechon... What's the word? That Mechon, Psychopath, Metal Face could act like that in front of Reyn and Shulk? "Her screams were music to my ears...as my claws slid right through her soft flesh...like a hot knife through butter! Ha ha ha ha!"

His movements conveyed that he loved killing the Homs; he enjoyed hearing and feeling every last ounce of their flesh being cut up by his claws! Wait a minute... How can a Mechon made up of metal feel things? Maybe I should talk to Shulk about it later, after I recover from this panic attack. Shulk was getting really angry at how Metal Face was talking about Fiora, how it was nothing to him. The anger activated the Monado as I could feel his anger reach me. A tingling sensation shot up through my right arm as my bracelet was started to react to this. My instincts had me reaching for the Junk Sword, but nothing changed the sword at all. I didn't know what was going on with my bracelet now, but this sick Mechon had to pay for all those he had killed!

"Talk all you want..." Shulk growled as he got ready to fight, "because those words...WOULD BE YOUR LAAASSST!"

I could do nothing as he ran towards Metal Face, fueled by anger. That Mechon wasn't like the others, and overhearing that the Monado didn't work on Xord until the previous fight, Shulk was going to get himself killed if the Monado couldn't harm that thing. The Monado clashed against the blades of Metal Face and the force sent Shulk back like he was nothing at all. The red marking on his body had an eerie feeling to them, like I somehow knew what it was, but I couldn't even recall seeing it before this point.

"The Monado? Heh, it's been a while," Metal Face grinned, moving his claws. "But you should know by now. The Monado can't stop me!"

Shulk was sent flying back towards us by the claws, and my fear was broken as I ran fast to catch him. Just them, my bracelet reactivated, allowing me to time-wrap once again to catch Shulk. It just gone back to before Metal Face sent Shulk back. I managed to grab him before he fell down to the floor, but the force of the blow sent both of us sliding against the earth. I was mainly taking the damage as Shulk was on top of me.

"Neetz! Shulk!" Reyn yelled running over to us as mainly I was in pain. Reyn looked back at Metal Face with anger. "I'm gonna-"

"Shulk... Are you alright?" I asked, pushing him up with Sharla help. Pain shot up through my back. "Owch!"

"Neetz! What were you thinking?" Shulk demanded.

"What? Did you really think I'd let you do that?" I chuckled a bit, before feeling more pain. "Besides, you got a score to settle with the Metal Face with two horns coming his head…like a bunny or ram."

"I am not an animal, you stupid girl! Anyway you slice it, the Monado ain't gonna work, boy!" Metal Face taunted looking at us. "Didn't work then, won't work now! And not even the Outsider can change anything now!" The claws moved as we all stared at that Mechon angrily. "Now, time to cut you down to size!"

Sharla helped me us as Reyn did with Shulk. Metal Face's claws were raised, ready to cut us down to size when a blast from some gun was shot, catching the Mechon off guard.

"What?!" Metal Face exclaimed by the blast, turning his head to the right.

All of us looked up towards where the shot was fire, but I couldn't seem to tell who it was at all. I think the others knew who it was though. My eyes widened, seeing a guy with a sword running down the slope like it was just a straight forward path. Was this guy saying 'Screw gravity, let me have my moment of being the hero?' The man sliced two Mechon, destroying them with just a swing of the sword for each. When he stopped, my eyes widened seeing who that was. Turning around, I knew exactly who had helped me once, and he was back to help us again.

"Dunban!" Shulk and I exclaimed, standing up fully.

"How did you...?!" Reyn stuttered, trying to ask him as we were all in awe. Not only Dunban ran down the slope, but he sliced two Mechon with ease!

"Sorry to have kept ya," Dunban answered back like a true man should have, since he was wearing something of gentleman's clothing to me as he had the sword over his shoulder. "Looks like we were just in time."

We didn't have any second to spare as the Mechon were ready to attack us as another man slid down the slope to join the fight with us. Shulk told me the one with the bandana was Dickson, a good friend of Dunban's. Shulk had Dunban and I team up as Dickson took Sharla and Reyn to fight the smaller Mechon.

"Shulk, what's the plan?" I asked with my blade attacking a Mechon.

"We need to take out the smaller ones before we go after Metal Face," Shulk replied, slicing another Mechon. "Can you keep up the fight until then?"

"Yeah. Let's get some payback!"

We charged at a group of Mechon, and I felt the burning passion to fight inside of me. My blade went through the Mechon armor with ease, and with the help of Shulk and Dunban, the fight was going fast for us. Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught a glimpse of Dickson looking at me, but the emotions in his eyes weren't easy to find out. I had to get back to the fight, so my mind focused back to the main point of the battle. The fight was going well, but I felt like something was wrong with Dunban, and I couldn't tell why I had that feeling. It didn't matter once we defeated the last small Mechon.

Our energies were fading fast, and I knew this fight wasn't going to go in our favor if this kept going. Both groups reunited as more Mechon were coming and surrounding us. My headache was slowly coming back and getting worse, but I had to focus on the fight regardless.

"There's no end to them," Reyn panted, backing up towards us after destroying a Mechon. "Where are they coming from?"

"I can take the smaller ones," Sharla stated, loading her rifle, "but the rest'll be like fighting Xord over and over!"

"If only the Monado would work on these things!" Shulk yelled, and I could see how frustrated he was.

Dunban was blocking an attack from another Mechon as his head whipped around hearing what Shulk said. "Focus, Shulk!" he yelled back.

"Look out!" Reyn cried out, tackling Shulk to the ground as a Mechon swung its blade at them, barely missing the boys.

"Reyn!" Sharla screamed, shooting a few bullets at the Mechon, disabling it for the time being.

Metal Face just laughed at us, and I looked over at him as I was slicing through another Mechon to help Dunban. All I saw within him was some Mechon needed to learn his place, regardless of what he might be in terms of rank. "Look at you all," Metal Face mockingly stated.

"Look at this, metal brain!" Dickson fired a huge shot at Metal, who simply blocked it with his metal hand.

"That it, grandpa?"

Dickson let out a huge sigh. "Argh, running out of ideas here."

I saw the fury in Dunban's eyes looking at Metal Face. As we both killed another Mechon, I saw him turned towards Metal Face and charged right at him.

"You may be able to block a projectile," Dunban stated, dashing pass Dickson and jumping into the air, "but let's see if you can block this!"

Metal Face's blades blocked the sword attack with ease as I felt that something might happen to him. Without any other ideas in mind, I ran towards Dunban as Metal Face chuckled at him.

"Tell me," Metal Face taunted, "how does it feel to be such a pathetic hero?" he emphasized the last two words.

"Dunban!" I cried out as I managed to catch him once Metal Face flung him away. Looking at Dunban, I noticed that his right arm seemed to be in pain for whatever reason. Then the thought came bursting into my head. Is Dunban crippled in his right arm? I glared back at Metal Face a Dunban held his right arm in pain.

"You ok, Dunban?" Shulk asked, finishing off a Mechon. Another Mechon approached him, forcing Shulk to focus his new opponent.

"Aw, does it hurt?" Metal Face taunted with a grin, looking at Dunban and me. "I bet it does." Now both Dunban and I were glaring at the twisted Mechon known as Metal Face. Now I could clearly see why both Shulk and Reyn were after this one to kill it. "It hurts...because the Monado won't work for a bunch of loser...LIKE YOU!"

I was going to ask the stupid Mechon about if he was insane to say that he was more worthy to wield the Monado than Shulk was, but when his claws raised up, I knew we had to dodge. We both went to our left, dodging the blades as the pierced the ground without any resistance.

"Just what are you?" I asked Metal Face, determined to find out.

"Save it, I ain't interested to talk to somebody like yourself," Metal Face replied. "You little maggots need to learn when you've been stepped on!" Metal Face raised his claws into the sky as the cannon overhead began charging what looked to be a cannon blast, and I knew it was going to be aimed for us.

"That light…" Dunban mumbled to himself before turning towards Shulk asserting. "Everyone! Fall back, now!"

"Won't change a thing! I'm gonna wipe you out once and for all!"

It was almost done charging and my eyes widened, seeing the cannon aiming right at us. There was no way we would survive this blast unless we could reflect it somehow, but I couldn't do anything to change this! Not even my time-wrap may not work! Just before it was released, Metal Face jumped back away from green electrical energy striking a Xord-looking Mechon.

"What the-?!" Metal Face exclaimed in shock. All of us looked up to see something flying in the air, but I couldn't tell what it was. It roared aloud as it circled back towards us. My eyes widened as I felt one word pop into mine: Telethia... I didn't know why, but I didn't have to ask as Metal Face answered it for me. "A Telethia?!"

It flew down a few feet, but not all the way down as the green lightning struck all the Mechon expect for Metal Face, who was pretty quick despite his size.

"Now's our chance!" Shulk yelled, jumping onto Metal Face and reading to strike him.

"Shulk!" I cried out, still holding Dunban.

I saw the Monado leave a deep cut into the armor. Metal Face turned around, obviously not happy. Was Shulk crazy? The twisted Mechon even said that the Monado can't kill him! Is Shulk truly that enraged by the Mechon that he doesn't consider those simply facts?!

"You'll pay for that!" Metal Face grumbled at Shulk. "How are you-?!" Metal Face then started to yell out in pain, much to my surprise. Ok, Mechon like Metal Face can feel pain! That's a new one. Shulk keep the blade going as deep as it could go until Metal Face had enough of Shulk's attack. "Enough of this!" cried Metal Face, sending Shulk away as the Telethia flew off. "You got lucky, brat! Next time, your head is mine!" The Mechon then flew off, holding the wound.

"You're not getting away!" Shulk yelled, giving chase after Metal Face.

"Get back here!" Reyn roared at the Mechon as he followed Shulk.

Both Dunban and I knew that wasn't to go well, so we had to stop them. By that time Dunban could stand firmly, we ran towards the two as the Mechon flew off.

"Shulk! Reyn!" I called out as my sword returned to normal.

"Let it go, you two!" Dunban asserted the boys. Luckily for us, the two stopped, watching the Mechon flying off into the distance. The rain still poured down over what had just occurred.

"You've got to be kidding!" Reyn turned around with anger. "He's the one who killed Fiora!"

Dickson was kneeling down using his weapon as support and Dunban looked down, a bit sadden. I knew what they felt, but I still kept what I knew of situations like these, and how I knew the best way–to me–on how to handle them.

"Are you two even thinking straight?" I asked the boys; my sword returning to normal as Dickson got up. "Your anger may be justifiable here, but can't you see what the facts are ahead? I know you want to get revenge on him for killing Fiora, and I can't blame you. Even though I barely even knew her, I can tell she didn't deserve to die... But that doesn't mean you two can just run off to get yourselves killed, trying to kill Metal Face! If you two keep being as reckless as you are right now, then we're all done for!"

I was on the verge of tears as I took a deep breath. My sword was back away from my hand as I looked both of them with the emotions I felt in my eyes, trying to convey what I meant. Dunban noticed how close I was to breaking, and he looked at both boys.

"Know your limits. We'll get another chance, but now isn't the time," Dunban asserted as I looked away, trying to hide my tears as I calmed down. I heard Shulk reply with a grunted 'Fine' as he deactivated the Monado. I didn't focus on the rest of the conversation as I knew Metal Face called me the Outsider. Well... I knew I couldn't avoid the question for long, so I had to think of when and where I could tell them all the truth. If I had to answer to that now of all times...things might get ugly.