Part 2:
From a broken past, a brighter future will emerge.
Chapter 11:
A New Frontier


Kana's POV:
Section Two HQ


Following the sacrifice of her Gear to save her friends, Kana, Hibiki, and Miku were brought to the medical wing of Section Two to be treated by Lilith and the other doctors on board. Shirabe was taken to a room that would act as a cell for her for the time being as her Gear was taken into custody and she was handcuffed. As for Kana, her heart rate began to quicken unexpectedly as shown by the monitor.


Kana's Dream


Kana woke up, but instead of seeing either the ocean, Section Two's headquarters, or even the F.I.S. Helicopter, she was in a strange sort of throne room with what she assumed were just monocolored statues in a circle surrounding her. "Hello?" She called out, noticing a figure on the throne and attempting to get closer.

Suddenly, a voice called out to her, one she didn't recognize. "Run Kana!" the voice called out.

Kana was confused by the panicked cry, but it was in that moment of confusion that she noticed something, the statues moved and began to attack her. Immediately, Kana ran for her life and tried to find whatever exit she could. Had the others been there, she would've tried to find a spot to safely transform and fight back, but now wasn't the time for that. "What the hell is going on?" Kana thought to herself as she ran.

Just as she thought she was about to get a grasp on what was going on, the surroundings changed and she was now in a destroyed city. She looked around, praying she could find anyone familiar, only to be met to the sight of 4 human sized silhouettes and one bright giant silhouette. Kana may not know who these people were, but the giant behind them was enough to tell they weren't exactly the friendliest people and a fight was immanent. Kana instinctively readied her Gear for transforming, but when she felt around her neck for it, it was gone. "Where's my Gear?!" she thought, but then she remembered, she lost it sacrificing her Gear to save her friends. Suddenly, the giant began to charge an attack and Kana could do nothing but cover her face with her arms the best she could as the blast was fired.

When the light dissipated, she was perfectly fine, and back in the hallways of the building with that strange throne room again, but it looked as though it was abandoned and falling apart. Regardless, Kana sighed at the peace she currently had after that near-death experience. "Gods... I have so many questions..." But as fate would have it, she was defenselessly put back into combat as missiles, bullets, and magic of all sorts came without warning down the hallway. Kana did what she could to avoid the incoming fire, but out of nowhere a claw came from behind her and slammed her through the wall.

Kana groaned from how painful that surprise attack felt, picking herself up and doing what she could to ease the pain from her bruises. But that was when Kana heard, finally, a familiar voice. "Miku?! Where are you?" She calls out, following her friend's cries to a darkened room within the strange building. As she entered the room she heard her friend's cries coming from, a light flashed in her eyes as it revealed the grieving Miku Kohinata. "Miku! Are you okay? Have you seen the others anywhere?" Kana asks her friend.

Miku didn't answer Kana, but she did stop crying once a second light flashed on behind Kana. When Kana turned around she saw nine silver human-shaped statues. Kana thought nothing of the statues at first glance, but she could notice something that was off about them, other than the poses of fear the statues were in. Upon a closer look, she recognized the statues, they were the other wielders from Section Two and the F.I.S. wielders. "Gods... Who or what could've done this to them?!"

"It was I." Miku said in a manner that gave Kana goosebumps. "You however, shall not share the same fate as your friends."

Kana was confused by this strange change in personality from Miku. "What are you talking abo-"

Without warning, Miku stabs Kana right through the chest with a purple blade. As Kana's vision began to become blurry from blood loss, she could notice the evil grin glued to Miku's face as well as her once teal green eyes replaced with those of purple and red colored ones. "This is where your story ends, a story that should've never began." Miku retracted the blade from Kana's chest and let her dying body fall to the ground. Within seconds, a bright light emerged from Miku's hand and was aimed at Kana. Kana could only sit there as the evil laughter of her friend began to become muffled as all of Kana's senses began to fail her to the point that she could only make out one last word from her killer before she was engulfed in a bright light. "Farewell..."


Kana bolted awake screaming in a cold sweat. "Kana! Calm down! Everything's okay!" Lilith called out, hugging the panicked dragon girl as she caught her breath.

"Oh... It was all a dream... Thank the gods..." Kana sighs as she catches her breath, before remembering what had just happened to herself and her friends. "How are Hibiki and Miku?"

"They just woke up too." Lilith answered. "You want to go see them, don't you?"

Kana smiles. "Yes please!" With a chuckle from Lilith at Kana's expense, she held her hand out for Kana to grab and teleported to Miku's room.

When they arrived, Kana looks at Miku, both parties smiling to one another for surviving the "alliance" with F.I.S. Kana couldn't hold back her tears of joy any longer and went towards Miku for a hug, letting the tears flow in the process.

Just as Kana composed herself again, Hibiki barged into the room. "Miku!" She shouted with joy as she went in to hug her friend, who of which was a bit more surprised due to her sudden arrival and approach, which is normal for someone like Hibiki. "Kana! You're okay too!"

"I'm more relieved that you two are okay." Kana replies. At that moment, Kana notices the people that came in behind Hibiki: Aoi, the Zwei Wing duo, and Serena. She was confused why Chris wasn't there, but shrugged it off for now.

"How is Kohinata's condition?" Tsubasa asked.

"The LiNKER's been flushed fully from her system and there are no visible aftereffects of Gear usage." Aoi reported.

Hibiki and Kana were the most relieved to hear this news. However, in that moment, Miku noticed the bandages Hibiki had on her face. "Hibiki. Are those wounds..."

"Yep." Hibiki answers.

"They're... They're all my fault, aren't they?" Miku asked as she became choked up with tears at the thought of hurting her best friend.

"Yeah. I'm all better thanks to you." Hibiki said with a smile on her face, which confused Miku. "I owe ya one, Miku."

"Hibiki?" Miku asked.

"I didn't save you Miku." Hibiki continued. "In fact, you saved me!"

This statement confused both Miku and Kana, but their confusion was quickly answered when Aoi pulled up an X-ray on a monitor. "Is that Hibiki's body?" Miku asked.

"The light from the Gear you had on had the power to degrade and neutralize any relic-derived power." Aoi explained. "As a result, not only were your Gears erased, but the Gungnir fragments inside Hibiki-chan's body were purged alongside it."

While Kana managed to understand Aoi's explanation, Miku was still surprised by the whole situation. "Your feelings for Hibiki-chan managed to save her from her inevitable death." Kanade tried to explain as simply as she could.

"When I was really in trouble, you managed to save me!" Hibiki added.

Miku was happy to hear this, but immediately felt guilty for removing Hibiki's weapon to save people, but the latter didn't seem too bummed about losing Gungnir. "However, F.I.S. finally managed to cause Frontier to surface." Aoi reported. "The real battle has only just begun."

"Kanade, Serena, and I are more than enough to deal with F.I.S.'s plans." Tsubasa said. "There's no need to worry."

"Actually, I can still be of some help out the- Wait, you didn't mention Chris." Kana notices as she's about to reveal something big to the group.

"Come to think of it, where is Chris?" Miku asked, to which no one responded.

"What happened?" Kana asks with genuine concern.


Chris and Kirika's POV:
Frontier


Landing on the newly unearthed Frontier, F.I.S. steps out of their helicopter near Frontier's core. "I can't believe something like this was sleeping beneath the sea." Chris says.

"This is the new world you wished for." Ver replied. Chris was silent, remembering the moment she betrayed everyone.


Chris' Flashback:
The Sea near Frontier


Chris had just shot Tsubasa once more to knock her unconscious, which surprised Kirika. "You're betraying your friends to join us dess?" Kirika asked.

"Shooting her should be proof that I'm not bluffing." Chris answers, to which Kirika is still very confused by Chris' words. "The only thing capable of destroying power, is a power greater than it. What I want is to bring an end to the spread of war, while sparing as many lives as possible."

Hearing her reasoning, Kirika escorted Chris back to F.I.S.'s helicopter. As they left, Chris saw Lilith in the corner of her eye. "Tsubasa-chan!" Lilith shouted as she ran over to heal her and take her back to base. As Lilith picked up Tsubasa, she noticed Chris and Kirika leaving the scene. Chris may not have seen her face, but she could tell she was both surprised and disappointed in her for her betrayal. That, or Chris may be assuming that Lilith felt how she did about the act despite her cold and serious expression.


"Shall we?" Ver asked, motioning Chris to lead the way, mostly to be used as bait if any traps were within Frontier's walls.

As they entered Frontier's main structure, Maria still had her doubts on Chris' alliance with them. Kana and Miku may have been on their side temporarily, but Chris betrayed her allies to join them. "You really believe that fighting on our side can put an end to all war?" Maria asked.

Chris scoffed at Maria's doubts. "So you don't trust me." Chris says. "If you seriously can't trust me, then feel free to shoot me in the back while I'm fighting your battle on the frontlines."

"That's the idea." Ver answered, dead serious on doing so should the need arise.

After walking through the dark and ancient halls, the group finally reaches their destination. "We're here." Nastassja said. "This is Frontier's generator room."

After looking around the room, everyone's attention was on the giant sphere in the center. "What is that dess?" Kirika asks.

Everyone stayed silent as Ver walked towards it, retrieved the Nephilim heart from the box it was in, and placed it on the sphere. Immediately, the heart attached itself to the sphere with small vein-like tendrils and caused the sphere to glow brightly as energy began to flow through it and the crystal-like structure surrounding it. This truly surprised the other members of F.I.S.

"Even when it's nothing more than its heart, Nephilim's ability to devour and assimilate relics remain." Ver said, chuckling slightly. "What a glutton."

With power returned to the generator, plant life began to generate across the island-sized relic. "It seems that the energy has traveled all throughout Frontier." Nastassja said.

"Very well, then I shall head to the bridge. As for you Nastassja, I'd like you to take care of Frontier from its control room." Ver said, patting the back of Nastassja's chair as he left.

As for Kirika, she looked at the core of Frontier, remembering Shirabe's words before she was taken away by Section Two.


"The doctor's method of doing things won't save the weak."


"That's not true..." Kirika says aloud to herself. "Without Frontier's power, we can't save anyone. I can't even save you!"


Genjuro's POV:
Section Two HQ


Ogawa had just returned from securing Shirabe in a temporary holding cell, as shown on the monitor, and told Genjuro her request. "She wants us to save them?" Genjuro asks.

"Yes. According to her, her friends have lost sight of their original goal and are out of control." Ogawa answered. "She wants us to stop them."

As he processes this strange request from their enemy, Genjuro notices Miku and everyone else enter the control room. "You need to stay in bed!" Genjuro says, concerned for Miku's condition after all she had been through.

"Sorry. But I just couldn't keep lying down." Miku replied.

"When she heard Chris-chan left, she insisted." Hibiki added.

"I still can't believe she would do something like that." Kana said with irritation in her voice. "And she has the gall to call us idiots."

"It is true that the loss of Chris-kun, Hibiki-kun, and Kana-kun as combatants slightly hinders our operations." Genjuro says.

"I'm honestly just relieved Tsubasa-san wasn't badly injured." Aoi added.

"That's Tsubasa for ya!" Kanade boasted proudly. "If there's one thing she's amazing at, it's avoiding would-be fatal injury." As Kanade laughed in amazement at her friend's skill, Tsubasa thought about those "would-be fatal" shots she took. Was Chris truly aiming to kill her? Or did she mean to avoid bringing serious harm to Tsubasa?

"Oh! That reminds me!" Kana shouted as she ran to the door of the control room. "I'll be right back! I just need to grab something from my room!" With that Kana left, leaving everyone confused as to what the dragon girl had in store for them.


Maria's POV:
Frontier Bridge


Dr. Ver, accompanied by Maria, arrives at the bridge of Frontier. The pair walk up to the sphere surrounded by crystals, which was very similar to the generator room despite the layout and size. As they approached the sphere, Ver pulled out an injector filled with a familiar, yet slightly different colored substance. "What is that?" Maria asks.

"LiNKER." The doctor answered, unrolling his sleeve. "However, unlike normal LiNKER, this one has been infused with the relic-absorbing cells of the Nephilim, as well as some of Kana-chan's draconic cells." Without hesitation, the doctor injects the infused LiNKER into his arm and immediately his arm begins to transform and grow, matching what the Nephilim relic's skin looked like. Before anything else, the doctor relaxed his arm, causing it to revert in shape to that of his normal hand, however, the Nephilim-colored flesh remained. "Just as I predicted." The doctor chuckled at his successful fusion of Kana's draconic DNA with that of the Nephilim's inside his arm, transforming his arm once more to ensure he had full access to the power his LiNKER granted him.

After his test, the doctor placed his LiNKER-infused hand upon the sphere and activated it, he was excited to use Frontier and could hardly wait to do so. Just then, an alarm sounded in the bridge and a screen flashed behind the sphere, showing several naval ships approaching Frontier. The doctor immediately reported this to Nastassja by connecting communications with Frontier's control room. "It would seem that we do not have time to rest." He said. "By connecting to it, I can sense the energy state of Frontier. With this power, we shall survive!"

Nastassja feared Ver's excitement. "Doctor! It's far too soon!" she pleaded, but the doctor didn't listen.

Upon activation, the tip of frontier began to glow as several beams of light shot into the sky, forming a giant hand as it grabbed the moon. "Heave-ho!" Ver shouted with excitement. Seconds later, the light dissipated from Frontier. After a few more seconds, the ground began to shake as Frontier began to rise from the ocean and into the sky, scooping up any and all ships within its reach, of which included the Section Two submarine. Seeing the island-shaped relic begin to fly, the naval ships began to fire at Frontier. But Ver was unfazed by this, if anything, he was like a kid in a candy store with this kind of power in the palm of his hand.

But he wasn't about to sit there and allow the ships to damage the very thing he had risked life and limb to gain control of and, with another surge through the sphere, Ver activated another part of Frontier, this time sending power to the bottom of it. After it finished charging, Frontier let out a shockwave which lifted the ships from the sea and crumpled them like sheets of paper, not even a second after that, the ships exploded from the immense pressure that crushed them and the explosive ammunition inside of each ship.

"So that's the limit of which I can control gravity." Ver said, laughing like a madman both from the power he now possessed, as well as something he didn't account for with his LiNKER experiment. Watching the now mad doctor laugh at the massacre he just committed, Maria truly questions the doctor's plan she had stood against her own friends and family to ensure. "With this power at my command, I shall finally join the ranks of legends, as the last action hero of this world!" The doctor let out another mad fit of laughter from the excitement brought about by the thought of being moments away from achieving a, by any other means unrealistic, childish dream of his before recomposing himself. "Of course, this power did require something in return. In order to lift us up, I had to pull the Moon closer to the Earth."

"You what?!" Maria shouts in a mixture of shock and panic, shoving the doctor aside to try and fix the new problem the doctor had created. "We still haven't made preparations to save anyone! At this rate, the Moon really will wipe out humanity!" Maria tried to desperately control Frontier, but to no avail. "Why? Why won't this thing listen to any of my commands?!"

The doctor laughed at Maria's struggle, "As long as the LiNKER is in effect, Frontier will only listen to me." He explained. "Besides, humanity won't go extinct, as long as I'm still alive. With my survival, mankind shall survive as well!"

Hearing this made Maria furious. Sure, the doctor was crazy, but she didn't expect him to abandon their initial plan entirely for his own survival. "I didn't commit all of those evil deeds for this result!" She shouts, charging at the doctor, who simply backhands her to the floor, leaving a huge bruise on her face.

"Kill me if you want, but that won't change the fact that Earth's destruction is inevitable!" The doctor said. "I expected you to be smarter than this, you bitch! Now lay there in shame, the shame of someone who thought they could be anything like Finé ever was!"

In any other case, Maria would've retorted the doctor's claims and fought him, but he was right. He was right about the fate of the world, and he was right about her. She was willing to do anything to save the people of Earth for her once assumed dead sister, but now, all she felt was that she had let her down. "Serena... Serena, I..." Maria says through choked tears.

"Cry as much as you want for all I care." Ver said, reverting his arm to its more human form as he headed for the exit of the bridge. "When I return, let's discuss how we shall repopulate the Earth."


Hibiki and Genjuro's POVs:
Section Two HQ


Meanwhile, as they waited for Kana to return to the command center, Tsubasa and Kanade prepared themselves to charge into Frontier, clad in biking outfits. "You two remember the plan I hope?" Genjuro asks.

"100% Boss." Kanade answered. "We charge as close as we can get to Frontier, keeping as much as the attention as possible on us so Serena can sneak in and allow Lilith-san and herself to infiltrate Frontier directly as you and the others show up. Should be a piece of cake!" With that, the duo headed for the exit.

"Tsubasa-san..." Hibiki says, worried for her senior wielder considering her injuries.

"No need to worry about me, Tachibana." Tsubasa replied. "Besides, I've fought in worse conditions."

"Damn right you have." Kanade added. "Ironically against Chris-chan too of all people."

With that said, the two headed off to start their part of the plan, activating their Gears as they rode across Frontier's surface.


"Croitzal ronzell Gungnir zizzl"


(Gyakkō no Resolve begins to play)

Upon transforming, the duo readied their weapons as they charged into the horde of Noise, Tsubasa transforming her bike as well to slice through the Noise as Kanade simply swung her lance through the air and obliterated the Noise that came into contact with it.

"Those two cease to amaze me sometimes." Serena commented, watching them decimate Noise while on their motorcycles.

"Even with three wielders, I wonder if we still have a chance at winning this." Ogawa added.

"No. We don't have just three." Hibiki says.

"I'm not about to let you go out there and fight without a Gear." Genjuro quickly retorts.

"I'm not referring to myself." Hibiki restates, much to everyone's confusion.

The person she was referring to, however, was Shirabe.

After retrieving her from her cell, Shirabe's cuffs were removed and taken by Ogawa. "You're making your prisoner fight?" Shirabe asked while rubbing her wrists. "How serious are you?"

"Very serious." Hibiki answers.

"That's what I hate about you." Shirabe retorted. "You claim that what you're doing is right, but it's nothing more than the words of a hypocrite."

"Trust me, I don't think what I'm doing is necessarily the right thing myself..." Hibiki says. "Once, I got seriously injured and spent a lot of time in physical therapy, hoping to make my family happy. But when I got home, my mom and grandma looked really sad. Even now, I don't want to lie about how I truly feel. If that were the case, I wouldn't be able to hold hands with anyone anymore."

Shirabe always had Hibiki pinned as a hypocrite, but this made her start to think otherwise. "You're that serious about holding hands?" She asked.

"That's why I want you to do what you want to do, Shirabe-chan." Hibiki says, grabbing Shirabe's hand with both of hers. "If what you want is what we want, then I'd like you to help us, even just a little bit."

"What I want to do?" Shirabe asked, surprised by how genuine Hibiki was being with her.

"You wanted to save your friends from themselves, did you not?" Ogawa asked, remembering Shirabe's words when she was first cuffed.

Swallowing her pride, Shirabe answers Hibiki's request. "If it means I can save them, then I don't mind helping you." She said, which made Serena, Miku, and Hibiki smile. "But how can you trust me? I was your enemy after all."

"It doesn't matter if you were friend or foe. Any adult worth their name wouldn't stop kids from doing what they want to do." Genjuro says, which made Hibiki happy that he was with her on this. With that, he returns Shirabe's Symphogear relic to her. "This is a chance."

Touched by Genjuro's words, Shirabe wipes a tear from her eye, "You really haven't changed a bit, have you?"

"I know I spoil you. That's just who I am." Genjuro says, before registering what she said.

But as he was about to say something about it, Kana charged back into the command center. "I'm back!" She shouted while breathing heavily. "It took... A while to find... But I finally... Found it..." Kana held out a small blue box with a note with her name atop it.

"What is that, Kana-kun?" Genjuro asks.

Kana opened the box and revealed. "Another Yato Symphogear!" She answered, much to everyone's surprise, except Shirabe, who smirked secretly at the sight of it.

"But how is that possible?!" Serena asked. "Your Gear was destroyed by Shénshòujìng's beam alongside it and Hibiki's Gungnir."

"That is true, that Yato is destroyed." Kana said. "But this one was created by Finé before she revealed her true self to us alongside her Kadingir. She left it in the Astral Plane before hand on the off chance she would lose against us. At first, I thought it would've been impossible for Finé to even replicate Yato without my Papa's sword, but after using it privately every now and then, as well as during training sessions with the others, I can safely say it's practically as if the original were still here!"

As she explained this, Genjuro read the note attached to the box, honestly impressed Ryoko was capable of something like this. "Ryoko-kun, even though you aren't here with us, you still manage to impress me." Genjuro says quietly to himself.

"Are Tsubasa-san and Kanade-san out there fighting?" Kana asked.

"Yes." Serena answered. "They're setting up a diversion for me to sneak in and get Lilith in quietly as Genjuro-san and the others come in to apprehend F.I.S."

"Then how about Shirabe-chan and I do that?" Kana asked. "No offense, but from what I remember of Shirabe's Gear, she can be rather fast, same goes for me in general. So that would save us some resources for Sensei's team to come and arrest F.I.S. that much faster."

"No offense taken here, Kana." Serena replied. "In fact, that may work out better if you were to go with Shirabe-chan too."

"Then it's settled!" Hibiki says. "Come on! I'll lead you two to the hatch!"

With the change in plan in place, Kana and Shirabe left the surfaced submarine and took off in their Gears toward Frontier's core. However, it immediately became clear that someone else had joined them: Hibiki. "What are you doing?!" Genjuro shouts. "I told you I wasn't going to let you fight!"

"I'm not going to fight! I'm going to help people!" Hibiki retorts.

"You think I'm going to let this slide all because of a technicality?!" Genjuro asks in response.

"Let her go." Miku said, surprising Genjuro. "Saving people is the thing that truly defines Hibiki."

"And here I thought reckless behavior on the battlefield was my shtick..." Genjuro says with a laugh.

"You, too?" Miku asked.

"I take it she's in for an earful when she comes back?" Serena asked.

"More like several earfuls if you ask me!" Genjuro answers. "But for now..."

"Leave the backup to us!" Sakuya said.

"We'll support them in every way we can." Aoi added.

Genjuro cracked his knuckles and smirked. "Besides, we can't let them hog all of the glory now, can we?"


Tsubasa and Shirabe's POVs:
Frontier


Tsubasa and Kanade received a call from HQ, informing them of the change in their plan. "So Kamui had a spare Gear and she's with Tachibana and the other wielder?" Tsubasa asked for reassurance.

"Gotta say, I didn't expect that to happen." Kanade added.

"Very well, we'll continue as planned." Tsubasa says before disconnecting from the call. "I don't want to jinx anything Kanade, but this has been all too easy considering our foes."

"You can say that again." Kanade said with a chuckle, before hearing the sound of gunfire. "Tsubasa, look out!"

Just in the nick of time, the duo dodged the surprise attack. "Looks like the plan worked." Tsubasa says, looking up to their attacker. "It's about time you showed up, Yukine!"

"It's time for payback for what you did to Tsubasa!" Kanade added, only to be stopped by Tsubasa. "What?"

Tsubasa didn't answer, only nodding her head, but Kanade understood what this meant, and readied herself to fight Chris with a more leveled head.

Meanwhile with Shirabe's group, as planned, they were arriving at Frontier's core with no resistance in sight. "So everyone's over in that building?" Hibiki asked.

"I don't know." Shirabe answers. "But it feels that way."

"What do you mean by that?" Kana asked, only to get no response.

Suddenly, Shirabe slowed down before undoing her forbidden full moon technique, which startled Hibiki at the sudden stop. "Wh-What's wrong?" Hibiki asked, getting her balance back in the process. In that moment, Hibiki and Kana both saw what made Shirabe stop. "Kirika-chan!" Kirika was waiting for them and, once her presence was noted by the whole group, she transformed.


"Zeios Igalima raizen tron"


(Gokuren Igalima begins to play)

"Kiri-chan!" Shirabe shouts, still hoping to reason with her.

"Shirabe, are you curtain there's no way to convince you to rejoin us dess?" Kirika asked.

"If you follow the doctor's way of doing things, there will be nothing left to save!" Shirabe answers.

"Without his way, I can't leave anything behind!" Kirika retorted. "I'm out of time for anything else!"

"Both of you, please calm down! I'm sure there's a way we can settle this if we just ta-"

"This is a battlefield! Don't be stupid!" Kirika and Shirabe quickly shut down Hibiki's plea for peace.

"You two go on ahead." Shirabe says. "I know that you'll be able to stop Maria. She will hold your hand." Hibiki was confused by what Shirabe was doing. "The LiNKER can only connect me to my Gear for a limited time. So go." Suddenly, Shirabe's eyes changed from their normal pink hue to a golden one as they had when she was confronting Kana a couple hours ago. "Believe in the song in your heart." As her eyes returned to their normal color, Hibiki was shocked to see that Shirabe was Finé's next reincarnation. In that moment of shock, Kana snapped Hibiki out of said shock by putting a hand on her shoulder and nodding, to which the latter nodded in return before climbing on Kana's back as she sprouted wings once more and took off towards Frontier's core building.

"Oh no you don't!" Kirika shouted before attempting to block Kana and Hibiki's advance, only to be attacked by Shirabe and forced into a defensive position. "Shirabe! Why are you helping them? Aren't one of them the hypocrite you hate dess?"

"But she doesn't lie about who she is." Shirabe answers, pulling out two giant sawblades, ready for battle. "She lives as her heart wills. If anything, I'm jealous of her. So I want to believe in her, even if only a little."

"I see..." Kirika said, understanding Shirabe's will as well as her newfound ally's. "But I cannot stop, either. I want to leave behind something physical while I'm still me dess!"

"While you're still you?" Shirabe asks.

"I want to leave a world where you, Maria, and Mom can live, alongside proof that I existed!" Kirika explains, readying her scythe for the inevitable clash with her best friend.

"So that is your reason for fighting?" Shirabe asks one last time as she prepares fully for their fight.

"That is my reason dess!" Kirika answers one last time as well and, with these final words exchanged, their fight began the same as Kanade and Tsubasa's did against Chris.

(Edge Works of Goddess ZABABA begins to play)


Maria and Hibiki's POVs:
Frontier


As the fights broke out, Maria could only watch in horror as they played out on the screens in the bridge of frontier and, while Dr. Ver reveled at the sight of friends turned foes as he watched Chris and the Zwei Wing duo's fight up close, Maria couldn't believe her eyes. "Shirabe and Kirika were practically like sisters to each other..." Maria says, falling to the ground, wrought with her own despair. "This is all my fault... I didn't fight for this!"

As she cried from watching her friends fight one another, she suddenly heard a voice. "Maria." Dr. Nastassja had contacted her from the control room.

"Mom!"

"You're alone right now, correct?" Nastassja asked. "I've found a way that might just enable me to analyze the information on Frontier, and stop the Moon from falling." Maria was amazed by this news. "This is our last hope... And I need your songs for it to work." Maria was confused by what Nastassja was getting at, but if it meant saving the world, she was willing to do it.

As for Hibiki, herself and Kana were approaching the core of Frontier. "This is Kana. We're almost at the target location. Are you ready sis?" Kana asked Serena through her communicator.

"We are ready on our end, Kana." Serena said over the communicator. "Contact us again once you've reached your destination."

"Understood!" With that, Kana hung up the communicator before turning her attention to Hibiki. "I hope you're not getting nervous Hibiki. Once we're in there, there's no going back."

"I'm ready!" Hibiki answers. "As long as the song in my heart lives on, I will never give up!" Smiling, Kana flies faster towards the entrance of Frontier's core, both girls ready to face what lies ahead.


A/N: Now, about Kana's nightmare. Much like the introduction to Sera back in Part 1, it'll serve a bigger purpose down the line. I promise it'll make sense as the story progresses (unless you're reading this long after I have gotten to said part, then just ignore this note).

Onto other major points in this chapter, specifically Ver. I honestly feel that, if given the opportunity, he would take blood samples from someone like Kana for his own personal gain. However, just because he has bits of Kana's DNA in him, doesn't mean he has all of her powers. What he does have though is something infamous in the Fire Emblem series among dragons, degeneration.

But with that said, I think this a good enough place to stop for now. Thank you again for reading this chapter and I shall see you all in the next one!