I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. Just a name and number. But over time, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

26. Barsoom

Wow, had a lot of reviews guessing repeatedly as to where the Normandy crew wound up at and only two got it right.

And if you're reading the title of the chapter and know your movie and literature, you know exactly where our team ended up at.

Let's get to it folks.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 26: Barsoom

From the vast emptiness of space, the sun shined it's bright rays onto a red dust ball of a planet.

"Mars, so you name it, and think that you know it. The Red Planet. No air, no life."

From the void surrounding the planet, one would be drawn ever closer.

"But you do not know Mars, for it's true name is…"

From whatever cosmic winds there were, they swept through the reddened dust clouds to form and spell out...

"Barsoom."

Reaching the planet's surface, there were fresh tracks formed onto the reddened earth as they were leading towards a great machine.

"And it is not airless, nor is it dead, but it is dying. For the city of Zodanga saw to that."

The great machine, a mobile city, practically crawled across the reddened earth as it traveled endlessly. Hundreds of its massive mechanical legs quake the ground with every movement it did to advance forward. From the majority of its surface, sentries patrolled the city day in and day out. And yet it seemed to show other life within the city as the moving structure was dark and seemingly lifeless.

"Zodanga, the predator city; moving, devouring, draining Barsoom of energy and life."

From the mobile city's main hangar platforms, a light battlecruiser took off into the sky as it's solar panel-like wings gathered energy from the sun to move towards whatever destination it's crew had in store.

One such place was heading towards a mighty city. It consisted of two sections with its own large tower with a long bridge connecting them from a canyon to a lone pillar-like island. And from the city, it was bright and full of life.

"Only the great city of Helium dared resist, stood strong, matched Zodanga airship for airship, holding fast for a thousand years."

From its hangar, a pair of light battlecruisers flew out and took off towards parts unknown.

"Until one day, the ruler of Zodanga became cornered in a sandstorm… And everything changed."

A battle soon commenced as the Heliumite battleships ambushed the Zodangian one in a surprise attack.

From the Zodangan ship's bridge, a man was barking out orders to his crew as they had to go to battle against their sworn enemies in order to survive this confrontation. He then commanded them to get their ship out of the sandstorm in order to get some advantage over the Heliumites. And while successful in getting out of the chaotic storm, they were still being bombarded by their eternal foes.

The Zodangans were soon overwhelmed and were losing the fight… until something miraculous occurred.

From out of the sky, a beam of bright blue light struck one of the Heliumite ships before it connected with the others. In mere moments they were vaporized into dust with everyone aboard them killed soon after.

All but one person survived this encounter, a lone Zodangan by the name of Sab Than, the Jeddak (leader) of his kingdom.

Sab looked around in astonished fright and wondered why he was able to survive while everyone else perished. But his answer was soon given upon the arrival of a trio of bald albinos wearing grey robes and a medallion around their necks. Each floated down from the heavens and stepped foot onto the ship.

One of them approached Sab Than, presenting him with a glowing blue wire construct which soon formed around his right arm. After pondering for some brief moments, he aimed his given item towards the bald trio and sought to kill them for their latest actions towards his people.

And yet the attack was never met as Sab was blown back not long after.

Once getting back up, Sab was once more approached by the bald trio as a bargain was soon discussed, causing the Jeddak of Zodanga to smile wickedly.

…..

From the vast plains of Mars, a figure appeared lifeless on the surface. Their body was unmoving and never stirred-

*GASP*

In an instant, Commander Jane Shepard's eyes snapped open as she let in a deep breath before immediately shutting them as the blaring sunlight hit them dead on.

Groaning aloud, Jane sat up and since she didn't have her helmet on, rubbed her eyes to get the damn floaters out of her vision.

"What the hell…" The human Spectre bemoaned. "What happened?"

Slowly, the black splotches disappeared from her eyesight and her vision cleared.

She saw that she currently sat within what appeared to be an endless desert with some rocky outcroppings off in the distance.

Other than the desert, she spotted several figures not too far off from where she sat and identified them as her teammates Ashley Williams, Liara T'soni, Axel and Urdnot Wrex.

"Guys." Her voice was raspy, dry.

Coughing slightly, Shepard cleared her throat which only served to make her cough more violently.

Reaching behind her, she pulled out a small cylindrical canister and took its lid off before raising it over her head to get a gulp of water.

"Ah~ that's better." Jane said, voice still slightly raspy.

Putting the water container back, Jane promptly stood up…

And went flying in the air momentarily with her arms flailing about.

"Oof!" Shepard grunted out as she crashed down to the ground, wincing as she had hit the side of her head.

Getting up to her knees, she was confused for a second before getting up much more slowly.

Now standing at her full height, Jane took a few more steps until that weightless feeling from before returned with her once again flailing and landing hard on the ground.

Letting out a small growl of frustration, Shepard pounded both her fists into the ground with a greater degree of force than she had intended to and launched herself high into the air.

"WAAA!" She exclaimed aloud, flapping her arms and legs rapidly as a means of trying to steady herself in the air.

Seeing that she was now plummeting back to the ground, she grit her teeth and successfully managed to angle herself so that she could land on her feet.

Closing her eyes, her body tensed as she felt the ground get closer and closer until she landed…

Perfectly fine.

Opening her eyes, she looked down at her slightly wobbly legs and it wasn't from the landing.

Getting a few experimental stomps on the ground now, she looked ahead to her friends that were still knocked out.

Bracing herself, she went traversed forward and ended up dashing rather quickly before tripping and soaring in the air for several moments. Right after, she crashed onto the planet's surface and tumbled for a bit before getting up from an impromptu recovery roll.

"...The hell?"

When moving once more, Jane was utterly bewildered witnessing herself perform such a feat when she ended up in the air as she performed an unintentional high jump.

"...That was weird." She commented. "I'm not using my biotics to do that."

For some little part of her, she pondered if the gifts she received from Yen Sid finally affected her in some way. She had already got a rough idea from Wrex on what occurred to him. So perhaps the same could be said towards her and the rest.

Afterall, their three Nobody friends can do such simple feats quite easily and make it Childs play while seeming impossible to others.

Regaining her bearings, she carefully moved forward to finally reach her unconscious teammates.

"Axel." She crouched down to him, placing a hand on his face.

"Urgh." His face fell to the side slightly though that didn't deter the Spectre from grabbing his shoulders and hefting him up into a sitting position.

"Wha-?" Was the bleary response of the fiery Nobody, flinching from several light slight slaps from Jane.

"Come on, wake up matchstick." Jane's voice pierced through his slightly ringing ears.

"Shepard?" Axel mumbled as his vision slowly drew into focus. "That you? What the hell happened?"

"Isn't that the question of the day." Jane said with a small chuckle. "Come on Axel, up and at 'em."

Wrapping her arm under his own, she helped get him up to his feet with the Nobody using his other hand to reach up to his face.

Craning his neck around, the fiery redhead saw the others were unconscious and spread about the semi-barren field.

"Okay, I don't know about you but weren't we in a cave before?"

"We were and I gotta tell ya but have no idea how we wound up… here."

Axel looked around to get a better idea of where they were.

"And where's the rest of the team?" Axel said, noting that aside from the two of them and three of their unconscious friends, the rest of the Normandy squad wasn't present.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Can't be too far then." Axel said, giving her a nod to signify that he was alright.

Pulling up his Omni-tool, he saw it briefly on the fritz before it finally stabilized. Figuring his device was trying to adjust itself after whatever occurred before it went out like a light, Axel activated a ping to spread out a certain range. After some moments, he got a reading.

"They're over there, scattered around." Axel thumbed behind him with Jane looking over his shoulder.

"Least they're not far." Shepard said in relief. "I'll go get them. You get these three up and about."

Axel nodded and took a few steps forward until he experienced the same thing Shepard had gone through minutes prior.

His eyes went slightly bug-eyed as he felt all the weight of his body seemingly leave as he flew through the air before landing down on the ground.

"Ow." Axel groaned, rubbing his head as he propped himself up on his knees.

Shepard winced aloud and lightly jumped over to him, landing in a slight stumble before steadying herself. "Yeah, forgot to tell you about that."

"The hell was that Shepard?"

"Don't know for sure. Figured it could be something wrong with me through Yen Sid's gift. But just seeing you end up like that made me think otherwise." Shepard said, helping him up to his feet.

"Being what exactly?" Axel asked, slapping some sand off his coat.

Shepard held a temporary look of thought as she mulled over what the two of them had gone through just now.

"When you were in the air for that second, did you feel sorta like you had no weight at all?"

Axel frowned for a moment until he nodded. "Yeah, kinda. Felt like I was a feather."

Jane nodded. "Wherever we are, there could be a change of gravity that we aren't used to."

"So like what? We jump higher and move faster?"

"Basically yes."

Axel exhaled a groan, running his gloved hand through his hair. "This is gonna get annoying, that's for sure."

Shepard merely chuckled. "It's sorta easy actually. Just… take a few light jumps. It's kinda weird but you adjust rather quickly."

Axel gave her an inquisitive look but he shrugged his shoulders and looked ahead at Liara. Taking an experimental step forward, Axel performed a decent leap forward towards the Asari doctor.

His landing was alright, tripping a bit on his own footwork but remained standing.

"Ha." Axel declared with a triumphant grin, taking a few steps forward until the low gravitational field caused him to go tripping up with him lightly flying in the air before crashing right into Liara's stomach which jolted her awake.

Seeing this, Shepard couldn't help but snort aloud at the whine Liara let out at being awakened in such a fashion and Axel apologizing sheepishly for it.

With that amusing scene out of the way, she ended up awkwardly dragging her feet onto the ground to reach Wrex since he was the closest one to her.

"Wrex." Shepard said aloud, placing a hand on the Krogan and gently shaking him. "Wake up big guy."

Seeing that it didn't really have much of an affect, Shepard put more effort into it this time, lightly shoving him.

"Huh? What?" Wrex's eyes snapped open. The one that Shepard could see shifted over to her.

"Shepard?" Wrex said for confirmation which Jane did by nodding. "The fuck happened?"

"Something went on in the cave and we wound up somewhere else."

"Clearly." Wrex grunted, preparing to stand.

"Easy now." Shepard warned. "There's something weird about this place and its gravity."

"Gravity?"

Shepard simply jumped high up into the air, far higher than any human should be able to achieve and fell down with a more graceful landing.

"Ah, got ya." Wrex said as he tried his best to not lose his footing per say. "Rare to find a planet with low gravity."

"You've been on them?" Shepard said in surprise.

"They're rare in the galaxy but they're out there." Wrex said, testing himself by lightly bouncing up and down. "Been a while since I was on one. 400 years give or take with some change."

Shepard only shook her head in amusement. "Of course you would."

Wrex gave her a wry grin until something caught the corner of his eye.

Looking over to it, the Krogan blinked.

"Incoming." He said aloud, making Shepard turn in time to see one Liara T'soni flailing her arms about with a panicked look to her face.

"Shepard!"

Seizing up, Shepard barely held her hands up in time to catch the flying Asari before the two fell to the ground.

"Urgh, Liara?" Shepard groaned. "You alright?"

"I'm sorry Shepard." Liara said with an apologetic face. "I didn't realize that I would jump so far like that."

"Geez Liara, I told ya to take it slow."

The three of them looked over to see Axel landing in front of them and carefully walking over to them.

"Apologies." Liara said, standing up with her helping Shepard to her feet. "I had heard about planets with gravitational anomalies but I had never been to one."

"You'll get used to it." Wrex assured. "Everyone does after a few minutes of practice."

"Uh guys?"

The four of them heard the voice of one Ashley Williams with them looking over to see the recently promoted Operations Chief was standing with her arms outstretched looking a bit nervous.

There was a smudge of sand on her cheek and forehead with dirt all around uniform.

"Having fun there?" Axel couldn't help but tease.

Ash's brow twitched. "Bite me."

"Sorry, I'm not into that sort of thing, Chief. Better luck finding someone else who does."

All Axel got in return was Ashley flipping him off.

"Can you just help me, jackass?"

"What's the magic word?"

"I will shove my Omni-blade up your ass, does that work for ya?"

Shepard chuckled before voicing the obvious question. "Are we ready to find the others now?"

Nods were received with the group moving towards the pings Axel got from his Omni-tool.

It was outright awkward, to some degree, in reaching their destination as it took some further trial and error to properly move in the low gravity they were experiencing.

Upon reaching a small mountain rise, they were able to find a few more of their group.

Roxas, Xion and Tali were situated in close proximity of each other with Garrus and Kaidan slightly up ahead with Stitch resting atop Alenko's face.

"Come on." Shepard said.

She gestured to Wrex and Ash to go wake Garrus, Kaidan and Stitch whilst she herself with Axel and Liara went over to the other three.

Axel went over to Roxas and grabbed the boys head, shaking it slightly.

"Wu-huh?" Roxas blearily opened his eyes. "Axel?"

"Rise and shine, zombie." Axel said cheerfully. "We're all alive?"

"What-"

"Happened? Don't know yet. Still trying to figure all that out." Axel stated, hefting the boy onto his feet. "Take a second there, rucksack. You gotta get adjusted."

"Adjusted to what?" Roxas asked, rubbing the splotches out of his eyes.

"This place has some freaky gravity that makes us lighter than other places." Axel said, keeping a hand on his shoulder. "Just jump around a bit and get a grasp of it."

Roxas gazed up at the redhead who only gestured for him to do as he suggested.

Looking down at the ground, Roxas bent his knees down and jumped…

Way, way, way higher than he was used to.

"YAAAAA!" Roxas yelled out, arms rapidly moving around erratically.

"I said jump to get a grasp, not fly!" Axel shouted in exasperation at the sight of his friend practically performing a jump that would go over tall buildings.

"Roxas!" came the voice of a distressed girl.

"Hang on Xion, he'll be fine." Axel said, looking back to the brunette teen who was wildly looking between Roxas and Axel.

Shepard, who was with Tali, had seen this and gave a bemused sigh.

"What am I gonna do with him?" She said with an amused smile.

"Shepard?" Tali was awake now and looking in slightly bewildered panic at the sight of a falling Roxas.

"We'll explain once we're all together." Shepard said, assisting the Quarian to her feet.

She got up in time to see Roxas come back down to the ground…

Landing flat on his face. All that was heard was a muffled groan of pain.

Shepard winced, noting the small dust cloud that had kicked up.

"Come on. Let's see if he's alive."

Over with the other

As the recently promoted lieutenant-commander stirred awake, his first sight was the rear end of 626, causing him to outright gag.

"Get the hell off me." Kaidan groaned, pushing the koala-like alien off his face.

After the rough wake up call, Stitch went into an odd freak out and started babbling in his native tongue.

"Stitch, not now." Kaidan groaned aloud, rubbing his face.

Stitch's ears perked up, recognizing the LTC and crawling up to him.

"Glad to see you're alright."

Kaidan looked up to see Ashley standing over him with her hand outstretched to him.

"Ash? What the hell is going on?" Kaidan grunted, grasping her hand slowly getting pulled up.

"Don't rush it." Ash said. "You're gonna feel a bit of… buoyancy."

"Buoyancy?" Kaidan repeated the words in confusion.

"Yeah, best way I could describe it." Ash stated. "This place we're in has some weird gravitational anomaly. Or just a lighter gravitational field really. Makes us jumpy."

"Jumpy how?"

Ash wordlessly leapt a good few dozen feet into the air before landing with a slight wobble in her step.

"Still gonna need to get used to that." Ash said with a sheepish smile.

"Whoa." Kaidan said in open awe.

"Crazy, ain't it?"

The duo looked over to see Wrex walking over to them with Garrus taking slow steps to ensure he won't go flailing from the gravity.

"Where are the others?" Kaidan asked with Wrex inclining his head off to where the LTC saw the rest of the team gathering around some rocky cliffside.

"Come on." Wrex gestured for them to follow with him taking a few steps to perform a leaping long jump.

"Spirits." Garrus said, gaping slightly. "Where the hell are we?"

"Ain't that the question of the day." Ash said aloud, flicking Stitch's nose who had climbed atop her head. "Let's go. Just lead with your foot and your momentum will carry you forward."

It wasn't just the fact they realized they were able to jump rather high, but they were able to move a bit faster as well.

Upon reaching the others, the group conversed with one another in order to get caught up to speed on their current predicament.

"With that out of the way, how the hell did we wind up at this place?" Kaidan questioned before eyeing the two Keyblade wielders. "All I remember were you two having your Keyblades out in the cave chamber and a bright light."

"I don't know." Roxas said with a frown, calling forth Oathkeeper with Xion summoning Seashell Resonance.

Both inspected their Keyblades, trying to figure out if it was them or their own Keyblades.

"We didn't do anything." Xion said. "Our Keyblades… they just appeared themselves."

"They've done that before, right?" Shepard asked with Roxas nodding.

"After Virmire, when we got sent to the Etherium." He confirmed.

"So your Keyblades can act on their own accord?" Liara asked in confusion and wonder.

"Apparently." Xion said, recalling her blade.

"So… is there a possibility we're not in our own galaxy anymore like last time?" Tali asked somewhat nervously.

"I dunno." Roxas said with a frown, Keyblade flashing out of his hand. "We can't really be too sure."

"Are we able to get in contact with the Alliance or Council?" Kaidan asked.

"Let's give it a try." Shepard said, though her tone conveyed that she wasn't too certain about this endeavor.

Lo and behold…

"Yup, getting nothin' here." Shepard groused out.

The others followed suit and just like the Commander, they received nothing but static.

All they got were the pings from each other's Omni-Tools that they could at least know one another's location.

"Ok, so great, we're stuck here." Ash said. "... are we?"

"Well the three of us can leave with the Corridor." Xion said. "But…"

"Yeah, we know." Garrus remarked. "We're stuck here."

"That means we gotta figure out our way home." Kaidan said with his arms crossed.

"So how the hell do we do that?" Wrex asked in a grumble, looking to the Nobody trio. "How'd you guys come back from that ether-whatever-place?"

"Gummi technology." Axel said blandly. "And in case ya haven't noticed-"

"That's out of the options." Shepard said.

"Normandy ain't here to take us back and-"

"Then what, we wander the desert like those old 20th century movies?" Ash asked in annoyance.

As this went on, Roxas heard something in the wind. It would've brushed it off, but it started to get louder.

"Guys." Roxas said aloud, getting the group's attention. "… Listen."

The others were momentarily silent as they indeed heard something in the wind.

Kaidan tilted his head up with his right ear inclined upward. "Are those… drums?"

"Sounds like it." Wrex stated now looking around to find the source of what was undoubtedly some drum-like sound echoing across the valley they stood in.

No doubt wanting to investigate, the reassembled team climbed up the small mountain as they were able to hear more of the drum-like sound. Upon reaching the top and moving closer towards the edge of the landmark, the Normandy team saw something oddly peculiar.

Down below, they saw a settlement, a primitive settlement by the looks of it.

Using his scope to get a better look, Garrus saw they were a rather tall species of at least 7-8 ft tall with green skin, tusks coming out of the sides of their jaws and wearing primitive clothing.

"What do ya see, Gary?" Ash asked, Stitch standing atop the Chief's head with his hand above his eyes trying to get a better look himself.

"Believe we found the locals." Garrus informed them.

When hearing the particular detail of them having an extra pair of arms, Stitch perked up a bit more as he brought out his extra pair of limbs for little emphasis.

"Let's just hope we can understand one another, cause I doubt our translators will understand anything not registered." Liara commented.

"I can probably know a way to talk to them." Said Wrex.

"Please don't use your firearms." Jane groaned.

"Is there anything going on down there?" Roxas asked.

Looking once more Garrus saw the locals were surrounding a particular pillar with a pair of individuals. He couldn't quite get a good read due to the present angle he was in. But he did notice another feature about them.

"Huh, four arms." Garrus noted offhandedly.

*KABOOM*

The sudden noise startled the team, making them wonder what was going on.

During the partial investigation, Garrus spotted something from his visor.

"Over there in the sky!" He barked out, while pointing towards a general location.

The others turned to where Garrus was aiming at and some let loose a surprised gasp on what they were gazing towards.

Outside of the factor of seeing quite the alien flying ships, it appeared that a battle was commencing with several red themed ships attacking a lone blue ship as it tried to flee.

As this commenced, the inhabitants of the alien settlement down below ran towards cover as they didn't want to be a part of the present confrontation.

"Those ships look rather interesting." Kaidan commented as he gazed at the airborne vehicles.

Pulling out his sniper rifle, Garrus used the scope and took better detail of some parts of the flying ships.

"Those wings appear insectoid in style." He informed the others. "And if I'm seeing it right, I think they're like solar panels."

"Solar panels?" Ash repeated, squinting her eyes at the ships. "That's ancient tech from Earth."

"Is it like the solar tech from the Etherium Galaxy?" Tali inquired, earning some interested looks from Liara and the Nobodies.

"Perhaps. It's a working theory, Tali."

In an instant, a bright beam of blue light was shot out from one of the red ships, striking the blue one. The action seemed to have the airborne vehicle crippled enough to slow down and possibly hard to move any further.

Though it appeared to be a miracle that it was still airborne.

"I don't know about you, but that doesn't look like a fair fight." Kaidan noted.

"That blue light…" Liara observed. "There's something familiar about it."

Garrus turned back to the Commander. "What should we do, Shepard?"

The N7 marine started pondering, not knowing what to do.

They were on an alien planet within some possible uncharted region. Maybe even another World like the one's the Nobody trio had spoken of on a number of occasions. A fight is ensuing and doesn't exactly know which side is good and which is bad. And she didn't want to risk siding with the group that is outright "nefarious" in nature that would conflict with her own.

Yet before anything could be delivered, something was happening to the airborne ships.

One of them appeared to be moving rather suddenly and crashing right into one of the red ships. The collision caused the one moments earlier to drastically tip over.

Seeing a speck shooting out of the one ship, Garrus peered through his scope to see what was happening.

"We oughta do something fast, cause someone is just hanging onto dear life now on one of the wings."

As he said this, Garrus looked towards the three Nobodies.

"You guys are the fastest of us all and I bet either of you can reach there before any of us, even with our recent 'skill'. So hop to it, guys."

The Nobodies nodded, ran forward and drastically leaped high into the air.

"...Hop to it? Seriously?" Kaidan said to the Turian.

"...Shut up."

Seeing their companions take off, some of the Normandy team ended up catching a figure moving away from the alien settlement.

At first they thought it was nothing… until they noticed something rather surprising.

It was jumping rather high and rather fast and going right towards the person hanging onto dear life.

From the wing of the light battlecruiser, the person hanging onto dear life was slipping more and more. Before long, the figure fell and screamed at the top of their lungs. This person was surely gonna perish in a gruesome death.

Luckily for them, someone leaped onto the scene and snatched them from the air.

Landing on a piece of ruins some moments later, the two individuals gazed at one another as the person held in a bridal carry was gently placed back down onto their feet.

The person who recently fell was a woman with tanned olive skin with red tattoos covering some parts of her skin. Her richly brown hair reaching past her shoulders appeared black, but with the bright sun overhead helped show parts of her brunette locks. And presently she wore an armor get up consisting of silver colored metal with blue cloth which matched her bright blue eyes.

This is Dejah Thoris of Helium.

The one who saved her was a man with pale Caucasian skin, grey eyes, frazzled shoulder-length brown hair and a five o'clock shadow wore nothing but calf-high leather boots and a pair of ripped up shorts with some sort of battle cloth around his waist which matched his dark brown eyes. And clamped onto his left wrist was a long chain.

And this is John Carter of Virginia.

The pair looked at each other in a way that spoke of utter confusion and interest as thoughts of "strange" and "exotic" were quick to be present.

Before they could introduce themselves, let alone saying their "thanks" and "your welcomes", the enemy ship touched down with its ramp folding out for its occupants to run out.

The pair soon broke their staring contest with their eyes gazing at the enemy before back at each other.

"Beg your pardon, ma'am." Said the woman's savior before he reached down and took hold of the handle of the sword tied to her hip. "If you'll kindly just stand behind me. This might get dangerous."

Withdrawing the sword from its sheath, John rushed forward and swung his borrowed sword to intercept the one wielded by an enemy combatant. Performing a parry, he then swung his other arm for the chain to quickly hit down the neighboring Zodangan.

When John blocked a downward sword swing from his opponent, said person delivered a spartan kick to his midsection. The action caused him to drastically step back and let go of his borrowed weapon. It twirled in the air as it sailed backward, only for Dejah to miraculously catch it by the handle.

Once adjusting her grip, the woman rushed forward and brought her sword towards her opponent for a coming block before pushing back and slicing against their chest. Kicking the one person away, the Heliumite swung to her side to intercept the blow to her midsection and sliced the person up before striking down on another. And to finish things off, she reared her sword back and pierced the chest of the final Zodangan to confront her.

Pulling her sword free, Dejah looked back to her savior and saw him bearing a surprised startled look.

"...Or maybe I ought to get behind you."

Dejah couldn't hold back her smile at his verbal and visual response.

She was about to confront him when more Zodangans came rushing forward to their position.

Right when the pair were about to act-

"Heads up!"

The two fighters looked over and saw a trio of dark suited individuals with red hair, blonde hair and richly dark brown hair wielding peculiar weapons on their person.

The blonde cloaked figure landed, swinging his oddly shaped weapon into a random Zodangan warrior to parry a swing.

"Seems you two would like some help." He said as his two companions were quick to dispose of a few others. From the dark haired girl smacking a Zodangan down to the ground to the redhead sending his opponent flying.

"Much appreciated, strangers." Said the woman in the blue/silver armor.

John could only nod a little, not knowing how to process this recent event. And yet he was quick to recover in order to rush forward to help assist the new arrivals.

Punching a Zodangan across the face, John grabbed their arm and unintentionally broke it to take their sword before throwing them away. From there he clashed his newly acquired weapon against another foe who tried to strike down the dark haired girl.

When Xion gave John a thankful nod, she saw him look upward towards the sky. Looking at the general direction, she quickly got a general idea on what was racing through his mind.

The moment he leaped into the air, Xion was quick to follow after him. After their quick leaps, they landed on one of the Zodangan ships before leaping once more towards the other.

Landing on the ship's deck, the pair were momentarily thwarted by Zodangans who tried to attack or apprehend them. Yet Xion quickly casted Aeroga around herself and John, causing any surrounding fighters to be knocked back some feet away.

John momentarily got out of his shocked state on what he just witnessed before giving the younger woman a thankful nod. With them having enough space, the pair leaped once more towards the Zodangan flagship present in the air. Crashing through the protective glass of where the cannons were placed, the pair went to work.

"Can you cover for me please?" John requested of her.

"Will do."

Xion dashed forward and swung her Keyblade to intercept a Zodangan soldier's blade. Pushing them back, she swung once more to strike them down before casting Watera to drench the coming fighters as they were shot back some distance.

As this went on, John inspected the nearby cannon and was quick to figure out how it operated. Resting part of the weapon on his shoulders, he peered through the scope and aimed towards the one Zodangan ship connected to the Helium one and fired a few times. Each blast was successful as the two connected ships now combust into flames and fell towards the terrain down below.

As this went on, Dejah could only look on in amazement on what she had witnessed not long ago. Her savior and the young teenage girl had miraculously leaped dozens, perhaps hundreds of feet into the air with utter ease. And through their actions, they were able to cripple the Zodangan forces.

As much as she wanted to view more at the spectacle above, Dejah looked towards the one down below where she presently stood as she kept fighting against the Zodangans.

Roxas twirled his Keyblade once, a light sheen of aura surrounding the Oathkeeper before he flung it into a one throw Strike Raid. The raid cleaved through several Zodangan soldiers, disappearing a moment later.

Reappearing back in its owner's hand, Roxas instantly went into a 180 degree horizontal slash to a soldier that attempted to get the jump on him.

Axel had a loose stance, his chakrams casually dangling from the tips of his fingers. He watched with a cocksure smirk as the Zodangan warriors rushed recklessly towards him with their blades raised.

Grinning maniacally as they were less than a yard away from him, a firewall erupted behind the Nobody and he promptly leapt back into it and vanished in a flurry of wisps and flames.

The soldiers screeched to a halt in utter fear and bewilderment, trying to make sense as to what they had just seen.

This was to be their undoing as Axel appeared behind them in a burst of fire and tossed his fiery Chakrams forward.

The flames engulfed the Zodangan soldiers who screamed in complete pain and agony, falling over as the fires burnt their bodies away.

Far above on the Zodangan flagship, Sab Than gazed down at the five combatants who were decimating his forces.

One was the Princess of Helium whom he'd been pursuing for some time now, but the other four…

'Who in Barsoom are they supposed to be?!' Sab Than wildly thought internally. For these newcomers were utterly decimating his forces!

"You better have an explanation as to who those are?" Sab snarled, glaring at the Zodangan beside him.

The "Zodangan" could only shake his head as he was just as surprised as Sab was.

"If I knew, I would have told you outright." Matai Shang said in a cold voice, eyes narrowed at the sight of the four individuals with incredible physical capabilities.

"Are you not servants of the Goddess?" Sab asked with a sneer. "Is it not your duty to know everything?"

"Our duty is to serve." Shang shot back coolly. "Knowledge is one of our benefits but we do not know everything Sab Than. No one ever does."

The Zodangan war monger could only scoff dismissively, raising his right arm as a blue webbed gauntlet formed around his forearm and hand.

"Perhaps I can finally use this blasted thing." Than growled, pointing his arm forward as his weapon started to glow.

Hearing no rebuttal from the Thern -or perhaps there was one but was ignored- Sab smirked and fired a blue bolt down towards one of the fighters in the black cloaks.

The one in question was Roxas who felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end.

Whipping his head up at the sky, Roxas saw a blue energy beam coming straight at him.

"LOOK OUT!" Dejah screamed, fearing for his life.

Gritting his teeth, Roxas threw up his Keyblade and grunt aloud as the blue bolt slammed into his Oathkeeper. He was pushed back, his boots digging into the ground slightly but he angled his legs to keep himself firmly planted in place.

The beam was seemingly continuous and he felt his entire being struggle to keep it at bay.

Calling upon his power, Roxas's form had a flash of white light and a moment later, he swung his Keyblade forward and redirected the beam away from him. In fact, it crashed into the cliffside near the alien settlement as rubble came loose and fell.

His actions had caused the sender of the attack to halt in his assault, the Jeddak of Zodanga gaping with his eyes widening in shock and disbelief.

Sab Than had never seen anyone do such a thing.

He whipped his head around to the disguised Thern next to him. "What was… that…"

The Jeddak experienced yet another shock at the sight of the cool and composed messenger of the Goddess displaying such open and genuine fear in his eyes.

Matai Shang was in a similar state as the man beside him as he felt his blood run cold.

No one… ever… had survived, let alone deflect the power of the Ninth Ray.

Who… who was this boy?!

"Shang." Sab's sharp voice cut through the Thern's thoughts, making him look to his "chosen" avatar. "What do we do now?"

"Leave them be… for now."

Before Sab could question the request, the pair then heard commotion down below, causing them to look over to see what was happening.

Sab was the first to act as he rushed below deck with his sword drawn out. There he saw two of the four newcomers as they were taking out his soldiers left and right. It was outright embarrassing on one hand while concerning on another.

Rushing in, Sab drove his sword down towards the savage-looking man who was momentarily unguarded. But a shout from the black cloaked girl got him to quickly act and intercept the coming blow.

John and Sab soon continued their duel as they traversed the floor while other Zodangans gave them space. Yet they were knocked back by Xion, who tried to get back to her ally in this fight.

"There's two of us here." Xion taunted, throwing her Keyblade up to cast a burst of an encircling Aero that cleared the area around her.

No. XIV whirled around, running to assist Carter.

Seeing the Nobody coming in to assist John, Sab activated his 9th Ray gauntlet as it formed into a second sword. The Zodangan Jeddak spun around and let his newly formed weapon clash against the Keyblade while the normal one went against the one wielded by the savage.

Swinging back his left arm, he whirled it forward so the attached chain could whip Sab. Unfortunately, his one weapon was cleaved through by the blue wire-looking blade wielded by the enemy.

The man he fought grinned viciously though that was quickly wiped away when a black heeled shoe was firmly planted into his cheek.

Stumbling down to the ground, Sab massaged his cheek and rotated his jaw with a crack being heard before getting back up.

He saw as the two were practically making fools out of his men, fighting back with great ease.

"What are you two? You aren't red men, nor quite white ape!" Sab roared at the pair.

John and Xion faced him with the trio exchanging glares with each other.

"I find that rather rude, you know." Spoke the Nobody.

"I agree with the young lady." Said John as he and Xion stood at the ready at the next part of their fight against Sab.

Sab snarled with a menacing grin appearing as he spun his sword several times with his other arm being shrouded by the blue gauntlet.

"No matter. You both will still bleed like-"

Sab was interrupted when he heard a loud noise down below. Glancing slightly, he saw a large congregation of figures moving across the terrain below. Upon a closer look, the Jeddak of Zodanga quickly realized who they were.

"THARKS!"

Upon his yell, the alien locals started firing at the flagship and whatever Zodangan vessels were still in the air.

Using this moment of surprise in their favor, John and Xion ran out of the ship's deck and leaped towards the sky vessel below them. From there, they jumped off before making their way towards safer grounds.

Before long, one of the Zodangan ships finally succumbed to the Thark weaponry and was set ablaze. As that sky vessel plummeted towards the earth, Sab Than ordered his flagship to retreat back to Zodanga.

With the ship taking off, Matai Shang could only look on with many questions on his mind. But one thing was for certain he will be taking quite the interest on those four newcomers.

The wild looking man with the broken chain and the trio of black cloaked individuals were undoubtedly a threat that the Therns now had to deal with.

Normally, he would take just an interest in them but one had managed to accomplish something he had never seen before.

Deflect the power of the Ninth Ray.

Whoever these newcomers are to Barsoom, they were not to be taken lightly.

Down below, Axel, Roxas and Dejah watched as several of the Zodangan ships retreated whilst one fell to the ground having been damaged by the endless barrage of the Thark fire.

"Hey now, looks like they have that taken care of." Axel said with a wide grin of approval.

"Are your friends going to be alright?" The woman next to him and Roxas asked.

"Yeah, see." Roxas pointed up towards two figures leaping out from the ships. "Xion's fine."

Landing near some of the ruins, John and Xion rushed towards where the others were at. By the time they arrived, they witnessed the other Zodangan ship take off into the air and rush towards catching up with the flagship.

"I see you guys were able to do fine up there." Said Axel.

"We did." Spoke John before eying the teenager beside him. "I do have her to thank."

Xion smiled at him in response. "No problem. Couldn't let you go out on your own like that."

"Extraordinary." They heard the armored woman mutter aloud in astonishment, gazing upon the four of them in open awe. "Simply extraordinary."

Axel snorted. "Lady, you ain't seen nothin' yet."

The redhead got a jab in his side from Xion which he ignored.

"I honor you and thank you, strangers." The woman in armor said, saluting them with her hand over her chest. "I am Princess Dejah of Helium."

Upon her proclamation, some reactions were no doubt delivered as they were momentarily shocked by her royal status.

"Uh… I'm Roxas, your maje-grac-er…Majesty, right, your majesty." the blonde Nobody introduced himself. He was glad he had Sora's memories of King Mickey right now.

Dejah smiled at the boy. "No need for such formalities. You and your friends have done me a great service that I can never repay."

"Hey, I like this one." Axel said approvingly.

"I'm Xion." The black haired girl said with a smile.

"Names Axel. Got it memorized?" Axel said with his usual cocky grin.

"I will make sure of it." Dejah assured with a wide smile. "I shall never forget you three in assisting myself and this man in our time of need."

"John Carter." The man next to her said gruffly, eyeing the trio with slight suspicion and curiosity.

He had noticed that like him, the three dark coat individuals were able to perform quite the high jump with utmost ease. Perhaps they were like him somehow…

Then again… he was certain that could never do some of the more fantastical displays that they had.

Conjuring fire, wind and light like that.

"Guys!"

The five turned to see the team of the Normandy running towards them.

John and Dejah's eyes widened considerably at the sight of the team.

It wasn't the humans that caught their attention but the alien members that they had never seen before.

"What…" Dejah stared in open wonder and awe, slowly walking over to the Normandy team.

The team of course noticed the two, giving them inquisitive looks.

"So, you must be the locals." Shepard greeted. "Hope our advance team gave off a good impression."

"What are you?" Dejah asked, eyes alight with enraptured intrigue.

"Wanna take a picture?" Garrus asked cheekily. "It'll last longer. You like that one? Just learned it recently."

"You should probably realize they have never seen our kind before, Garrus." Tali chimed in.

"So, who are these guys?" Wrex asked. "Humans here?"

"Least the Etherium was more creative." Jane muttered.

Before any introductions could be further exchanged, the assembled group heard a cheering noise in the air and it was growing louder by the second. Viewing towards the source, they all witnessed the tall green aliens charging right at them.

"Should we be worried about them stampeding right towards us?" Liara inquired.

"Perhaps." Spoke Wrex, boring a savage grin. "Though I'd like to see-"

"We will not be attacking them, Wrex." Shepard ordered the Krogan.

"You say that now…"

The assembled group were soon surrounded by the Tharks, as to who Dejah and John knew of them, as one of them approached John with a mighty smile on his face.

"Did I not tell you he could jump!?" Said the Thark, known as Tars Tarkas, who clamped two of his arms onto John's shoulders. "You are ugly, but you are beautiful." He then unclamped a harness off his shoulders and chest before equipping them onto the "leaping man". "And you fight like a Thark."

More cheers were made from the large crowd from there. Soon other Tharks moved to place other trinkets onto the "leaping man" but were soon halted.

"Enough." A Thark with one horn stepped in, shoving aside the one that had greeted Carter so boisterously. The only other thing about him which stood out the most were the white furs worn across his neck and shoulders. "It appears your little pet has proven his worth Tarkas. And he has more friends."

"Got a problem with us, short stack?" Wrex growled challengingly with a step forward.

The single horned Thark snarled back, all four of his arms clenched with one reaching for a sword strapped to his back.

"Wrex." Shepard said sharply. "We're not here to start a fight with the locals."

The Krogan simply gave a disbelieving look in Jane's direction, briefly glancing over to the recently destroyed wreckage of ships with an explosion going off in the background.

"Ok, that didn't count, I thought we were just helping a few people." Shepard quickly rebuked. "But this is a first contact situation. Let's not go all gung-ho on a species we're just meeting."

While whatever nearby Tharks could look on in question on what was mostly spoken, John included in the bunch, Dejah seemed a bit more understanding.

Nevertheless, the princess of Helium had something to speak of utmost importance.

"Jeddak of the Tharks." Dejah spoke towards the Thark wearing the white ape furs. "I am Dejah Thoris, regent of the Royal Helium Academy of Science."

The Single horned Thark, known as Tal Hajis, glared suspiciously at the princess though she appeared nonplussed by his gaze.

"My research vessel-"

"I don't care where you come from or your purpose, Heliumite. You will leave now or become property."

Dejah's expression became fierce now. "My purpose is of the utmost importance, Jeddak of the Tharks. It is what will decide the fate of Barsoom and all its peoples, you included."

"Bah." The Thark Tribe leader turned to leave.

"Listen! You are all in danger!"

"Let someone take her." Commanded Tal Hajis. "I don't care who."

Upon hearing the open request from their Jeddak, one of the Tharks roughly grabbed the Heliumite.

Not liking where this was going, John was quick to act as he leaped at him and punched the Thark in the face. The blow was quite surprising and harsh, sending the one Thark flying some feet away. When he landed on the ground, many saw the Thark's neck was snapped at an awkward angle.

"...Holy hell that is one strong punch." Ashley commented.

"Like a… One Punch."

Ashley groaned aloud. "You're such a weeb, Kaidan."

As the others looked on, John saw the gazes around him and held up his hands in defense. "I'm so sorry…"

"Tal." Tars spoke up. "She assisted Virginia in beating back the Zodangans and Heliumites, did she not?"

"She is their princess, Tarkas." Tal growled back. "We will have nothing to do with those arrogant and vain tribes."

"My journey is for the benefit of all of us on Barsoom." Dejah said pleadingly. "Please, you must listen to me. Once Sab Than has conquered us, he will turn his attention upon you all."

Tal only huffed aloud, giving the princess one final glare before snorting.

"Let the Zodangans and Heliumites kill each other. We will survive in the end if we don't bother getting involved." Spoke the Thark Jeddak. "And since Virginia killed Sojat, he will claim his 'name' and property like what occurred last night." Tal said as he eyed the Heliumite princess.

"I am not property." Dejah growled now.

"You are now as you belong to Dotar Sojat as of this moment."

Tal spoke no more on the matter and ordered all of his people to raid the sky ships for anything useful for them.

As the other Therns left, John looked towards Dejah and scratched his head in an awkward manner.

"Sorry… on what happened."

Releasing a frustrated sigh, Dejah gazed at her "owner". "It's alright, I suppose. Things might've been worse."

John gave a brief nod as he looked away to see the other newcomers.

As this happened, Dejah studied him a bit more on his physical language. By the tone of his voice and the look in his eye, John was sad and very tired about a number of things. And it was quite obvious he didn't want to be a threat to her at all. But she also realized that John wasn't the type of man to take advantage of their present "relationship" in a negative manner.

In all honesty, the Heliumite didn't understand why a stranger such as him was willing to save her. It wasn't quite the way of Barsoom.

"So… what just happened?" Ash asked aloud to them all.

"More shit to deal with now." Carter groaned out.

The group then heard a tussle coming from behind, turning to see Stitch having pounced atop what was some… gigantic… space doggo of some kind… the blue fur ball crawling around the creature excitedly.

"What's that supposed to be?" Tali asked, staring at the large lizard-like dog creature which has six legs.

"Some sort of… monster dog." John answered to the best of his abilities. "Only met the thing last night."

"Seems like it." Shepard muttered. "Stitch seems to like him… her… it? Whatever, looks friendly enough."

"For the most part." John said with an unamused look directed at the large creature who was now happily panting in his direction. "Now with things settled down… who might you all be?"

Wanting to be curious, the Heliumite spoke to the Normandy team first.

"As you probably didn't hear me earlier, my name is Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium."

When seeing the stares landed on him, John introduced to himself next.

"And I am… John Carter of Virginia."

Upon hearing the names, the human members of the Normandy team were quick to recognize things on a few matters.

"Virginia?" Kaidan repeated.

"John Carter." Ashley whispered in a low voice.

The Nobodies looked on in curiosity as they, along with their alien teammates, wondered what was running through Jane, Kaidan and Ashley's minds.

"Virginia you say?" Jane repeated, eyeing the light-skinned human.

"I am." Spoke Carter. "But who are you?"

Dejah placed her undivided attention towards the strange assortment of individuals with utmost interest.

Liara was the first to speak up to him. "I am Liara T'Soni. And with me are Garrus Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex, Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya and Stitch." She said to introduce the others before pointing towards the three Nobodies. "And you probably know our other friends."

"We do." Said Dejah before eying the rest of the assembled group. "And what of you?"

"I'm Commander Shepard and this is Operations Chief Williams and Lieutenant Commander Alenko."

"...They let women in the army?"

"That's a rather sexist thing to say." Spoke Shepard, rather affronted on the comment.

Ashley held up her hand to Jane, momentarily prompting her to be quiet.

"What's your rank?"

"What?"

"Your rank."

The others looked at Ashley for some moments before Carter gave his response.

"I was captain of the Confederacy."

"...And what year is it?" The Operations Chief asked.

John Carter blinked at the question. "Excuse me?"

"What year is it?" Ashley requested. "Humor me."

"...1868. Why are you asking?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What?"

Like Carter, Dejah was utterly confused as to where this was going. But seeing the reactions of most of these newcomers seemed to have been unsettled on the given answers.

"So… I think there is quite the large, complicated matter to address."

"Being what?" Inquired the Virginian captain.

"That there is a 300 year difference between us." Tali said. "Our calendars need to line up a bit."

"Maybe it's another World with their own calendar date?" Roxas suggested.

"No, it's not that." Ashley shook her head. "This… actually, it may be a weird combination of that and something else."

The comments and questions started to make John utterly confused, along with Dejah.

"Maybe we should hang back and soften the blow a little." Axel stated as he motioned Roxas and Xion to come with. "You guys go off and do whatever. We got things covered."

The Nobodies then dragged John and Dejah away from the other members of the Normandy team. And soon after, Stitch went after them but had to get around the lizard-like dog creature that seemed to greatly bother him now.

As they were left alone, somewhat, the N7 marine soon broke the silent tension.

"Ashley." Jane looked to the Chief. "You seem to know more than you're letting on."

"Why the military rank? Why the year?" Said Garrus. "Those seemed rather sudden like you wanted to confirm something."

Seeing the looks from the others, she released a sigh and spoke.

"Not here where they are nearby." Ashley said, gesturing towards John and Dejah.

"And why's that?" Liara asked, looking over to the clearly confused and lost duo.

Ashley sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Because what I might say could end up shattering their minds."

Only having more questions on their minds, the group followed Ashley off to the Thark settlement while the three Nobodies and Stitch went off on their own to entertain the Heliumite princess and Virginian captain.

"Ok Ash, what's this about?" Shepard asked straight away. "What do you know?"

"This is just… beyond anything I would have expected." Ash stated, running her hand through her hair. "Ok guys, so, we already know the crazy shit that comes with Roxas, Axel and Xion right?"

The group simply collectively nodded which prompted Ashley to go on.

"Alright, so… you're gonna have to really suspend your disbelief on this one guys." Ash stressed. "Like, almost to stupidity."

"Enough wordplay, Williams." Wrex grumbled. "Spill it. What do you know?"

The Operations Chief let out a heavy sigh, eyeing her group of friends.

"The planet we're on is called Barsoom." Ash elaborated. "Or as we know it, Mars."

"Mars?" the team repeated back to her.

"How the hell are we on Mars?" Kaidan asked in bewilderment. "Weren't we just on Mars before we were knocked out?"

"We were… but this Mars is just not the one we all know. You could almost say we're in a story." Ash revealed. "A fictional story dating back to 1912. Something I grew up reading with my family. We're in the fictional story of John Carter of Mars."

The silence that she was met was honestly to be expected.

"What now?" Liara was the first to voice the unified thought from the others.

"That's quite the stretch on the claim there, Williams." Wrex added in.

Ashley gave a brief nod. "I know and this is quite the circumstance for us to really keep an open mind on. Hell I would've been ignorant and played it off as coincidence if it weren't for Axel, Xion and Roxas." She then elaborated her thoughts. "For instance, when we all saw those memories of Roxas and unintentionally of Sora, all those weird places that Sora's been to, right?" The group nodded. "I caught this one place that looked like something out of some Greek or ancient Roman lookin' place."

"And when we saw some of the other memories of Sora, we saw him interact with those princess looking gals." Shepard recounted.

"Why are they important?" Liara asked.

"Well back on Earth, there were these old stories that were told centuries ago." Shepard explained. "They were these fairy tale stories that were about princesses and magic and weird and kinda freaky moral stories. The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales."

Ashley nodded along with Shepards statement. "Wasn't able to make out on their introductions, but I might've been able to recognize one of them being Cinderella and another kinda reminded me of Snow White. Don't know about the others, unfortunately."

"Now that I think about it, there was a place rather reminiscent to… well, I can't tell if it was Wonderland, but it kinda reminded me of Wonderland." Alenko remarked. "Just a more brighter version really. And Sora had even interacted with Alice."

"And when we were at Yen Sid's Tower as you spoke of a brief summary of Merlin's history, the others didn't seem to try to correct us of Merlin being a coincidence or something." Ashley added in to drive more into the point.

"So what then? This place is Mars and we're in a story book?" Garrus asked for clarification. "How is that even possible?"

"Uh… actually." Tali spoke up making Garrus groan.

"What? What is it?"

Tali looked a bit sheepish. "I remember when I was talking with Roxas after coming back from that Wizards tower, we were talking about the whole World order that he saw through Sora's eyes. He mentioned something about being able to enter a literal story book about talking plush animals from Earth."

"Ok, ok, stop." Wrex said, hands held up. "This is all fascinating," The Krogan's tone said otherwise. "But that doesn't explain how the hell we got here or how we're supposed to go home."

"Good point." Garrus nodded. "Ash, any ideas?"

"I wish I can give you the answer to that one. Unfortunately, we have to play it by ear and go with the flow with whatever will come next."

"But if we're here, won't the flow change or something?" Shepard pointed out.

Ash opened her mouth only to close it and hummed aloud in the thought.

The Operations Chief could greatly feel a migraine coming along as this was too complicated for her as this was going into meta territory.

"Maybe." Ash said, sounding unsure. "I dunno. If we're gonna be involved, I figure we will change some things here."

"Who are the bad guys?" Tali asked straight away.

"Zodangans and these other versions of the Tharks, the Warhoon..."

As this one conversation took place, the Nobody trio and Stitch were speaking with John and Dejah on a different topic.

"What were those strange weapons you all possessed?" Dejah asked the two teenagers. "I had never seen the like."

"Well these are Keyblades." Xion said, summoning hers with Roxas.

"Fascinating." Dejah said, slowly raising her hands up to the puppet Nobody. "May I?"

Xion nodded, holding out her Keyblade for the princess to take into her own hands.

"The craftsman ship, the balance." Dejah said.

In mere moments, the Keyblade disappeared from her grasp and came back to Xion's, much to her surprise.

"Wha-"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Xion said apologetically.

"It's every Keyblades caveat." Roxas chimed in. "Every Keyblade chooses its wielder. Anyone else can only hold onto it for so long till it comes back to its owner."

"Drat." Dejah pouted, making the two teens laugh at her reaction.

Axel saw John's reaction and nudged him a little.

"I take it you have never witnessed magic before."

"I have not." Carter confirmed. "But neither did I see the Tharks before either until just yesterday."

Whatever conversation was to come up next was halted when they all came across the wreckage of the fight done earlier.

As this went on, Dejah gazed at the massive wreckage of the sky ships. She had momentarily forgotten who were onboard those vessels, more specifically those from Helium.

People who swore allegiance to her, her family to their fellow men. They all risked their lives to protect her and they all died because of it.

"War is a terrible reality." John said solemnly.

Dejah had to wipe away the tears flowing down her cheeks as her throat seemed to clench upon itself from the emotional pain she was suffering right now.

Seeing her discomfort, Stitch waddled up to her and hugged her leg in order to help her out.

Looking down, Dejah smiled a little at the action the koala-like alien was giving her. She even patted the small creature's head as a sign of thanks.

"Not when a noble cause is taken up by those who can make a difference." Dejah firmly said, turning her gaze at the four beside her. "You have made a difference today."

"Helping people is what we do, princess." Roxas informed her.

"And in doing so, I have indebted myself to you." Dejah said. "Whatever it is you wish for; I shall do everything within my power to help achieve what you want."

"Really now?" Axel said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Axel." Both his young friends said in a flat voice getting the taller Nobody to chuckle.

The little atmosphere seemed to help lift Dejah's spirits, even by a small margin.

"How and where did you learn to jump that way?" She inquired.

John merely shrugged. "I honestly don't know how that happened."

Dejah then looked at the Nobody trio, who quickly answered 'training' and left it at that.

"Training?" Dejah repeated.

"We're… a special case." Roxas vaguely said.

"Aren't you all?" Dejah inquired.

Axel snorted. "Well when ya put it like that-"

"I do have a question." John cut in before anyone else can speak. "How did those ships fly?"

"Your ships cannot sail on light in Virginia?" Dejah asked, remembering where Captain Carter was from.

"No, princess. See, our ships sail the seas." He said to her slow ascension of confusion. John then elaborated, speaking to her as if she didn't know what a sea was. "Endless water everywhere."

Dejah gave him a bewildered gaze which shifted into a more somber tone. "There are no seas on this planet."

"Hate to burst your bubble but in our case ships do more than that." Axel said, picking his ear.

Both Dejah and Carter looked towards the redhead with the princess voicing their shared thoughts. "Like what?"

"Sailing the stars in the vast emptiness of space." No. VIII stated, pointing up into the sky.

Humming a little to herself, No. XIV soon formed an idea.

"Maybe this can help to clarify details."

Pulling up her omni-tool, which no doubt surprised Dejah and Carter, Xion pulled up a variety of images for them to look at.

"Photos." Carter murmured.

He had of course seen photos back in Virginia as it was the latest in a line of scientific innovations these past few decades in human history.

Of course they were either black and white or rustic in color. Not to mention they often were quite fuzzy due to the developmental process.

These on whatever device was on Xion's arm were of the utmost clarity like he was seeing them firsthand per say. Not to mention with the intact coloring there was.

Swiping her hand across the screen to a photo album she saved up, she stopped to show a picture of the beach. Then she went to a picture of a ship sailing across the water, which helped emphasize John's claim from earlier. Xion then pulled up images of the ships from Council Space, even back from the Etherium Galaxy.

Whereas Dejah was immediately drawn toward the technological marvel, let alone the images she was seeing, Carter had another reaction.

"Jesus." John ran his hand through his hair. "What the hell is all this?"

"Need a moment?" Axel asked.

"I think I need a few." Carter admitted to himself. "I still got no idea what's going on or where the hell I am."

The fiery Nobody simply patted the man's back, the gesture being one of understanding.

Axel then noticed Dejah broke away from Xion as she seemed to walk around them with a calculated look in her bright blue eyes.

"Skeletal structure normal…"

"What are you doing?" Carter questioned, who spun halfway around.

"Must be the density of your bones."

"Bone density?" Xion muttered.

Axel shrugged. "From our guess, it was just the different state of gravity on this planet remember?"

When Dejah was behind Carter, she ended up doing something that surprised him, Stitch and the Nobodies…

*Smack*

Slapping his ass.

"Jump for me."

"Enough." Spoke a female Thark, who made her presence known to the group as she stood by the lizard-like dog creature. "There will be time for playfulness later."

Dejah waved the female Thark off. "I want no playfulness from him. I want to see him jump."

Roxas and Xion proceeded to take a step back away from the princess, hands angled back towards their behinds.

"Okay good because you two just met earlier and I highly doubt any chemistry will be brewing all too soon." Axel commented, which Stitch nodded quite quickly.

Not understanding the full lingo as to what the redhead said, John got the gist of it and gave a firm nod.

"Don't do that again, Dejah." Carter firmly said.

"Just jump for me." Dejah asked. "I want to know how you did it."

"Didn't you just talk about bone density?" Xion said with a tilt of her head.

"That was just a theory." Dejah stated. "I wish to see it and examine him again."

"What, like dissect him?" Axel asked causing the Captain to blanch.

"No, none of that sort." Dejah quickly shook her head in disgust. "I… I just want to know if it could be taught to my people."

"I don't think it can." Roxas said with an unsure tone.

Axel then looked over to the female Thark and spoke to her. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"I am Sola. Tars Tarkus requested me to look after you all."

"...Right."

In the back of his mind, Axel realized that Sola was keeping watch of them to be sure neither of them would do anything out of hand while on the settlement.

Turning back around, No. VIII saw Carter looking right at him.

"Yes?"

Carter spoke loud enough for the others to hear. "I just realized something, why did you and Dejah say, 'this planet'?"

Narrowing his gaze a little, Axel spoke up to the Heliumite. "Hey, princess, mind coming over here. Gonna need your help on something."

Hearing Carter's question once more, Dejah created a hastily drawn diagram in the dirt with a number of rocks placed in a specific manner. And by the look of it, it appeared to be a diagram of a solar system to the Nobodies.

"Sun," Dejah pointed with a stick towards the very center of the diagram before moving towards the first rock. "Then Rasoom."

"Mercury." John corrected, quickly perking the attention of the Nobodies a little more.

Dejah ignored his incorrect astronomy and went to the next 'planet'. "Then Cosoom."

John looked at her like she was crazy. "Venus." He then knocked her stick out of the way. "Then Earth. Us."

Dejah gazed at Carter with a raised brow. "That is Jasoom." She tried speaking, not to sound like she was talking to a moron, but it didn't succeed. She then tapped the stick onto the neighboring rock to correct him. "We are on Barsoom, John Carter."

Upon hearing the details, Axel was quick to pull up his omni-tool and pulled up a holographic diagram of the Sol System.

"You mean like this?"

When Dejah and Carter looked up, they saw what Axel revealed to them, driving more home to the point as to what was going on.

The princess gaped. "Yes, that's it… but how-"

"Mars?" John interrupted Dejah. "I'm on Mars?"

Looking over, Dejah witnessed the shocked expression on his features, more so when she saw him look up and gaze at the sky to see the Barsoom moons Thuros and Cluria for the first time. But to John, these are the Martian moons Deimos and Phobos.

"Good God, I'm on Mars." He said in utter shock. He took a step back, color draining from his face as the situation as to where he was began to truly dawn on the Virginian Captain.

"So your home is Jasoom? And you came on one of your sailing ships across millions of karads of empty space?" Dejah asked, waving a handout to the sky.

"No." John said vehemently. "Not like that."

"He's telling the truth in that detail, Dejah." Spoke Roxas.

Dejah looked towards the male Keybearer. "And how can you be so sure?"

"Earlier when Ashley was asking John about the year, oddly enough, we seemed to confirm a few things. One detail pertains that Earth -or Jasoom to you- won't achieve spaceflight until roughly a century from now. And a century after that would allow them to really traverse the stars. As for how we know… our situation has a particular set of circumstances; especially with how we wound up here earlier today."

Dejah figured there was quite the story behind Roxas' claim, a lengthy one at that. Even Carter was of similar thoughts, though of a more curious degree, when he soon came to his senses when he processed the given words.

Being silent for some moments, Dejah questioned Carter.

"How is it that you, John Carter, were able to come here?"

Looking around a little, Carter had found what he was looking for. Pointing towards Tars Tarkas, he spoke. "Around Tars' neck. That brought me here."

The group gazed at the Tark in question, seeing some sort of silver and blue ornamental medallion around his neck.

Gazing intently at the item in question, a few things quickly formed in Dejah's mind.

"Oh, well that explains everything then."

John, the Nobodies and Stitch looked confused.

"It does?" John questioned.

"Yes! You're a Thern." Dejah explained with feeling. "And you simply wish to return to your rightful place. Isn't that it?" She asked, giving him a pointed look.

"Yes…" Was his response, not sounding like he had a clue what she meant.

"Did you get any of that?" Roxas asked Xion and Axel.

"What's a Thern?" Xion questioned.

"Well that answers what we know." Axel remarked, briefly looking over to the rest of their friends who still were speaking in a rather hushed manner.

The redhead narrowed his eyes at them in suspicion. Shepard had seemed to have detected his gaze and locked eyes with him.

She gave him a look that promised that she would fill them in on why they were talking so secretively.

Giving her a nod, Axel turned back in time to see Dejah gesturing for them to follow her.

"Then let's sort this out right now. Come along!"

With that said, Dejah purposefully headed towards a particular area of the Thark settlement.

As she walked away, John turned towards the others. "Did you-"

Axel just shook his head 'no'.

"Not exactly." Spoke Roxas.

"Why'd she think you were a Thern?" Asked Xion.

"What Thern, anyway?" Voiced Stitch in his broken speech.

Startled a little in hearing Stitch for the first time, John soon did agree with Xion and Stitch's inquiries. Why did Dejah assume such a thing? And what was a Thern in the first place?

Seeing as they needed answers, the group silently agreed to follow Dejah.

"Where are you going?" Sola demanded.

"To your temple." Dejah said with confidence she didn't quite feel.

This alarmed Sola greatly, prompting her to desperately plead her from not going.

"You cannot enter! It's forbidden! You are not Thark!"

Unfortunately for Sola, her pleas fell on deaths ears as Dejah continued on ahead with John, Stitch and the Nobodies following after her. Even the calot, the six legged lizard-dog, went after them.

-Scene Cut-

Walking through the darkened corridors of the Thark's temple, the two Keybearers used the flashlight functions on their omni-tools activated to help light their way. Once again their devices were quite the interesting marvel for both John and Dejah as they proved quite useful at their present moment.

Upon approaching the temple, it appeared rather easy for them to just stroll right in. With how important the place was, given how serious Sola was trying to make them to not enter, one would figure there should at least be some guards by the entrance.

"Dotar Sojat, it is forbidden!" Sola whispered fervently. "The precepts must be obeyed!"

"Like most of us care!" Axel said aloud.

Both Roxas and Xion did apologize on the others' behalf, but it wasn't enough on the rules they were apparently breaking. By the dread they could possibly read from Sola's voice, there was quite the grave offence on their present actions; more so if they were caught within the temple without permission.

When entering a large chamber, John, Roxas, Stitch and Xion gazed around wonderingly. And with the help of their omni-tools, the Keybearers were able to help light up the darkened space more to reveal more details than with torchlight and the moonlight coming from the ceiling above.

Dejah was quite thankful for their assistance as it gave the princess a better view of inspecting the carvings along the walls.

As the Heliumite was gazing upon the surfaces, Axel was already taking photos of the carvings alongside his two friends.

To the Nobodies, most of them were vaguely similar to what they saw back on the "other" Mars. Granted there was some varying degrees of erosion on each set, but the carvings were quite close in depictions.

Despite it might not be Liara's full expertise, they'll need her archaeological insight. Even Della if it comes down to it.

After gazing upon the walls for what seemed like hours to the princess, Dejah spoke to the former military captain. "Well… You speak for the goddess. What does she say?"

John looked at Dejah when she said this. Did she really expect him to know any of this?

Instead of answering, he merely looked towards what appeared to be the central cave carvings as there appeared to be a large person which was quite predominant.

"You called me a Thern. Is that what she is?" He asked of her.

Instead of Dejah answering, it was Sola.

"No! She is Issus. Therns are holy messengers of the goddess. In the time of oceans they walked among us." Explained the Thark. "We must not offend this place any further. Let us go!"

"If you seem so adamant of not being here, then why are you sticking around?" Questioned Axel. "You don't need to be hanging around with us the entire time."

"Because it was of Tars' request that I watch over you. If Dotar Sojat gets in trouble, then he gets in trouble as he is responsible-"

"Okay, okay. I get it."

As he kept taking more photos of the temple carvings, No. VIII saw something rather peculiar.

"Roxas, Xion." Axel called out to them. "Come here."

The Keyblade duo exchanged looks with each other and went over to where Axel was standing. From atop Xion's shoulder, Stitch leapt forward and plopped himself on top of Axel's hair with the fiery Nobody not really reacting all that much.

"What is it?" Xion asked.

"Look." Axel nodded his head at the wall before them.

The younger two Nobodies gazed upon a set of carvings on the wall, noticing it to be an intricate mural of some kind. Somewhat different from the general theme of the rest of the temple's chamber.

There were a multitude of towers and strange drawings and images that when Roxas took a moment to study them, had the strangest feeling of familiarity.

Like he had seen these carvings before.

Perhaps even been to the place that this appeared to be based off of.

"What is this?" Xion asked, hands trailing over several carvings.

Stitch suddenly began to jabber about excitedly and pointing at the top of the carvings.

"Key, Key, Key!" Stitch said emphatically.

Both Keybearers looked up to where Stitch was pointing to and saw…

"A Keyblade." Xion said in surprise.

Though the carving was crude and undoubtedly old with how simplistic the design was, what was engraved upon the wall was undoubtedly a Keyblade.

The shape, the guards, the teeth, all of it pointed to their signature weapons.

"Must have been left by other Keybearers." Axel surmised. "This one's real old."

"But who else is a Keyblade wielder aside from the two of us and Sora, Riku and King Mickey?" Roxas asked aloud.

"There's been others before you." Axel remarked casually. "I remember seeing a few and meeting one back on my old World before I became a Nobody."

"You have?!" Roxas and Xion gazed up at him in stunned disbelief.

Axel momentarily grunted, mentally berating himself for that slip up.

"Yeah but I haven't seen him in a very long time." Axel said dismissively. "Don't even remember what he looks like."

Roxas and Xion only slumped in defeat whilst Stitch titled his head down and gave the redhead an upside down suspicious glare.

"What?" Axel flicked the furball's nose.

Stitch growled, wiping his several times before proceeding to give Axel's face a slobbering lick.

"AH!" Axel threw the alien off. "You little bastard."

Stitch laughed aloud and quickly rushed up and jumped into Xions arms, blowing a raspberry at No. VIII.

Mildly ignoring the banter occurring with the blue furred creature and the Nobody trio, Dejah questioned Carter once more if he knew anything of the carvings. But as she already figured, he had no clue whatsoever.

"There's some kind of writing up there." Carter spoke aloud.

Dejah was confused as to why he said this but was quickly startled when John suddenly scooped her up and leaped towards the higher level. A scream escaped her lips as they flew through the air, but she cried out in pain when they hit the carved wall.

The Heliumite could tell that John tried his hardest to cushion the landing for her so she wasn't slammed too hard, but his groan told her that-that effort was at his own expense. She'd barely had time to react, but now she was acutely aware of the fact that she was in Carter's arms, pressed between him and the temple's wall.

When he put her down, she glanced towards the lower level seeing Sola dropping to her knees and praying for their blasphemy.

"Can either of you give us some light?" Came Carter's request.

"Hang on a second." Roxas said. "We're looking at something."

Axel instead left the two to study the wall carving, walking up to where Sola was still down on her knees in prayer.

Holding out a hand, Axel generated a tiny sphere of fire which eventually grew to the size of a large ball.

He sent it upwards which illuminated the entire area.

Dejah and Carter stared at this displayed, slightly enraptured by it.

"My God." Carter muttered.

Dejah could only nod in silent agreement. "Thanks."

Both Carter and Dejah tried to right themselves on the awkward position they were in. While the princess was enthralled in the carvings before her, she needed John's assistance in keeping her steady so she wouldn't fall as she tried to move in a bit closer.

"Can you read it?" He said directly beside her, his breath ruffling her hair.

"It's old scripture and most of the text is worn out."

"Then what can you read exactly?"

"Don't rush me, please." She said rather stressfully. Taking a better look, the Heliumite princess spoke aloud on what she could get. "Those who seek the solace of eternity… may journey down the river through the sacred Gates of Iss… and find everlasting peace… in the bosom of Issus."

Hearing this from down below, Axel let loose a snort.

"Okay, all I got from the translation is 'take a boat ride, die, go to the afterlife'." Chortled No. VIII. "In all honesty, I find that is quite the major flaw to the whole thing."

As this was spoken, Sola voiced her prayers ever louder who was no doubt feeling more offended with the blasphemer.

During this, Carter kept looking on as he stared at a peculiar wall carving as it was of the same medallion presently in Tars' possession.

"Axel, there you guys are."

The red head turned behind him to see the rest of the Normandy crew having now entered the temple.

"There we are? Where'd you guys go off to?" Axel retorted.

"You saw us standing a few feet away from you." Shepard shot back. "Then you all up and leave without telling us where ya went off to."

"How'd you even find us then?" No. VIII asked.

"Tracks." Garrus said with a shrug. "And that big monster dog thingy was standing outside."

"Figured."

"What is this place?" Liara asked in curious wonder.

"Temple of some kind." Axel shrugged, glancing down at Sola. "She seems to take it seriously."

"So this is a place of worship then." Kaidan surmised.

"Where's Roxas, Stitch and Xion?" Tali asked with Axel thumbing over to where the trio had stood.

"What are they looking at?" Ash asked.

"Something interesting." No. VIII said vaguely earning a huff from the Operations Chief.

"And what are they doing up there?" Jane asked, eyeing the two on the higher ledge.

"Translating nonsense honestly." Axel stated. "Typical cryptic, make up your own answer here."

"Ah." Was the collective response from the team.

Over with Roxas and Xion, the latter of the two had taken out her Omni-Tool to record their findings.

The former of the duo hummed aloud, eyeing the carvings and symbols when he got struck with a sense of Deja vu.

"We've seen these symbols before somewhere."

Xion blinked, Stitch atop her head with them both facing him.

"We have?" She asked.

Thinking about it, it clicked in No. XIII's min when he reached for something within his coat.

"We have." Roxas stated firmly, holding up a familiar book to Xion.

Realization dawned upon his friend's face when she gazed at the cover of the book the two had labeled the book of the Keyblade.

"Roxas, that's-"

"So, I take it you guys found something interesting."

Both turned to see several of their friends standing next to them.

"Yeah, we did." Xion said with a beaming smile. "Look at this."

Turning their heads to what Xion was pointing at, causing the majority of them to quickly take interest while the rest -i.e. Wrex- looked elsewhere.

"Wait-" Ash began.

"Ain't that?"

"Yeah, The Keyblade." Roxas confirmed. "There have been others like us here before."

Back on the higher ledge, Carter and Dejah conversed with one another. They soon came to an agreement, per say, of the princess helping guide him to the Gates of Issus so they could find more answers to their questions as this temple didn't hold anything they really sought after.

Of course things were slightly awkward when John tried to shake her hand as a "sign of trust". The form of pact wasn't one she typically knew as it was generally grasping each other's arms.

"Good enough, I suppose." Said John, leaning against part of the wall near Dejah's shoulder. "Now, all we need to do is get the medallion from Tars Tarkas."

"What in the name of Issus is the meaning of this!?"

Whirling their heads around, the trespassers to the Thern temple saw the Tal Hajis glaring at them with a good dozen men with weapons quickly trained at them all. There were even a few pointed directly at Sola, who had her hands up as she was still kneeling.

"Useless she-calot!" Spoke one of Tal's men to the defenseless Thark.

"Hey!" Shepard instantly held up her rifle with the rest of the team following suit and in an instant, a tense standoff between both parties.

"I told you," Sola's tone was resigned. "It's forbidden."

AN

Alright, after our return to this story, we're keepin it going strong with this new chapter and big, BIG shoutout to the two reviewers that guessed it right on the money.

We're on Barsoom. John Carter.

Naturally, the film wasn't as well received as it should have and honestly considering how important the John Carter of Mars series is to literature and science fiction itself, it's a crime how that film turned out. I do enjoy it greatly actually but there are those who prefer it to be better.

So, that's what J and I intend on doing.

Giving you all a better rendition of John Carter.

Jebest4781: It'll be a bit of a struggle, given that the layout of the first film will need to be reorganized and adjusted accordingly to suit our needs. So if any of you readers will be questioning 'Why is this happening sooner?' or 'Why is Tars Tarkas not Jeddak here like in the movie?' then it's mostly because of the reorganizing.

FMW: Yeah, and this isn't just for this instance. See, if you guys know Kingdom Hearts which you all obviously do, you know that eventually, our main heroes will always return to past worlds. There's a lot that we have planned out as to where the Normandy crew goes to in terms of World and all of them will play a role in the grander overarching story arc. You could say we're still in the first phase of it all despite the craziness we've already gone through by going off the rails from canon.

Jeb: There were supposed plans for other John Carter sequels depending on how well the first movie turned out in the box office on its initial release. Unfortunately, it bombed due to how it was initially written and wasn't received well. But hopefully free man and I can work things out on the return visits on this story to do our adaptations of the other books of the John Carter of Mars series.

FMW: So with the John Carter series, we have our work cut out for us in the long run. It's a good thing we're gonna have such large gaps in between world hopping. Gives us more time to streamline what we already have planned out.

Jeb: Especially since we'll need to read most of the original source material and figure out specific moments and events to adapt into this story. And boy there is a lot from the books to the comics over the past century.

Lot of work cut out for us but this is our passion project.

You know, if you haven't noticed the maddening amount of words and chapters we threw out in such a short amount of time.

We appreciate the reviews that love what we do and can't wait to deliver more insanity to come.

Thanks for reading comrades.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.