Saderans lie as naturally as they breathe. Did we do messed up shit over there? yes, of course. But that's how war is. If they didn't want what we gave them, they shouldn't have gone around killing folk in Ginza as they saw fit.

-Lawson Jones, stationed in Japan as a part of the Marine Corps during the War of the Worlds.

The Dimension Between Worlds

The fall of two-thousand and eight. Nobody in his life besides a girl who he wasn't sure would stick with a loser like him. The need for a job, the lack of skill in any area, and the harrowing knowledge that the only option left was do or go homeless because he had nothing else he was able to do. He sat signing the papers in an uncomfortable chair during the cold recruitment process.

The camping in the wilderness, running until he puked, doing push-ups as punishment for that, and the graduation for an additional badge. It wasn't anything like the American Rangers. Something he'd wished he would have researched before signing up.

Americans. They were ahead in the middle of the "action," as some Marines called it. And here was Itami, sitting in a metal box with several others in the barren void in line for the new world, like the voyagers on a chartered ship or merchants traveling across a continent with only their own two feet and pack animals.

It was an off feeling. A looseness in his whole being and everything around him. Was it an effect of whatever this GATE was?

A square slab memorial was raised in Ginza, with the names of each fallen inscribed. Around the GATE itself, protestors raised signs and hurled jeers at their passing countrymen and gaijin beyond the thinly sealed-off police tape. Itami had briefly wondered before journeying inside if they thought their opinion mattered.

They were searching for someone beyond it. Itami remembered the feed of a nearly broken camera's footage of the poor thing being taken through the GATE by them or the Saderans as he kept reminding himself. A reporter for some news channel barely into her twenties, how unlucky she was to be the only POW of this conflict.

"What if it closes?" the kid sitting beside him said. The personnel carrier they sat in was confined as a box, so Itami got a full view of his wide-eyed and round face—like a fish out of water. His leg bounced restlessly as he slinked to look up at his Lieutenant.

"This is the fifth time you've asked that, Kuruta," said a hard-faced man sitting across from them. "I don't wish to hear about it for a sixth." He held his weapon downward to the floor with perfect trigger discipline like one of those propaganda ads on the subway station's giant screens.

"Well, i-it is Tomita."

The oldest of them, a gray-haired man by the name of Kuwahara, interjected, "What he means is you should stay calm. Everybody here knows the situation isn't ordinary." He held his palms up at both of them, ever the mediator, "I'm quite sure Tomita and everyone else here knows what you mean."

"No, he doesn't, Pops. He wants me to shut up."

"That's true," Tomita said.

"Enough you two," Itami ordered. "We're due to arrive at any moment."

"I don't think the Americans will leave much for us," Tomita said.

"They usually don't," Kurata added. Both of his legs were bouncing now. He was only twenty-one years old, the youngest of all of them.

"Lucky us," Itami said softly. He'd been looking at a picture of him and Risa at some random convention about a decade ago every so often. He put it away before any of the others saw it.

"Imagine the stuff that'll be over there. What about a big ass dungeon with a crazy wizard inside it or a castle with an evil vampire lording over a valley."

Kuwahara shook his head, "I wouldn't give your hopes up, Takeo."

Kurata shifted in his seat, "Well, maybe there'll be all sorts of races. Dragons, elves, or cat girls..."

"Stop talking about your weird fantasies," Tomita said.

"What?!"

"You heard me."

"I was just thinking!"

"About how you can feed your porn addiction."

"You're a prick, you know that?"

"I'm not going to tell you two to quit again," Itami said bluntly.

"Yeah, y'know, Tomita, at least you're not in with the two battleaxes. Kurokawa's giant ass takes up half the truck, and Kuribayashi is probably...well..."

"Bitching?" Tomita answered.

"Yeah."

A crackling voice came over the built-in radio before they could talk further, "Heads up, we are inbound two minutes."

Nobody said anything after that.

ALNUS

They came like the horsemen of the apocalypse, their goal to reign hell upon the fabric of existence. Those atop the wall said nothing and instead formed some silent unison to throw stones and shoot arrows at whatever those things were until they or them were all dead. The fire was so loud that some orcs and ogres on the hill between the fort and the GATE covered their ears and screamed as dark, thick blood ran down the sides of their faces. One ogre was close enough to grab a boulder and throw it hard at a metal elephant, only for half its torso to come flying off, collapse, and crush several orcs in behind it as the boulder shook the top of the thing, but nothing else.

Soon, deranged screeching and pants came sounding from the battlefield up to the north wall, the occupants of which shot arrows and rocks high in the sky like a shower of rain and begged the gods that it do something. "Did we get one?!" Rickett screamed.

"What?!" Kurmann responded as he rubbed his ear and placed another arrow on his bow. His dark eyes looked strange, and his mouth was open enough to see his teeth clench every time a roar came from one of the creatures.

The magic tore into the orcs and ogres that remained. Hector's hand quivered as he breathed and put another lead stone into his slings pouch. A rattling of fire soon followed.

They saw the magic dismember limbs in the blink of an eye, and they saw blood decorating the hill in the orange light of the orc's torches, and they saw one of them crawling back towards the north gate with his legs gone and a blood trail behind him, and they saw the orcs horses screaming and kicking at each other laying broken on the ground, and they smelled something horrible like shit and metal.

The slaves fared no better, with their quarters halfway from the north gate and the GATE. The women, men, and children tried to escape and were either cut down indiscriminately like cattle or crushed in the stampede of orcs trying to get away. They died in terror and pain, the bone splinters going into the grass and trees like shards of glass.

"gods..." Markus said.

The metal creatures ignored the mud and rolled over the trenches, and smoke from their magic filled the skies like clouds and the men on the walls. Hector wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the others. They stood dumbly or throwing rocks and shooting arrows down at the smoke.

"That...what...what were..." Edmund stopped speaking. He clenched his stomach, and the men beside him stepped back as he let out his dinner. There were tears in his eyes as he rose back up.

"Keep shooting!" a centurion ordered. He stood making motions with his sword in the middle of the wall. Hector had only seen him during ceremonies or practice drills. He couldn't see the man's face per se, but he recognized the plume sticking out of his helmet even in the darkness.

Time moved by at a snail's pace. Hector saw the pouch with his ammunition, reached quickly for one of the stones, and took it out. The feeling was smooth and hard, and he glanced through the small hole in it momentarily before dropping it into the sling's pouch.

When the centurion motioned, they released their rocks and arrows. The projectiles flew into the air and smashed down toward where they thought the metal things were.

Silence. Hector could hear the heavy breaths of the men he'd known since childhood, and he heard his own. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he fondled his satchel for another stone and felt the cold wind on his face. He heard his heart pumping in his head, and he was quite aware of everything around him in those seconds.

The things weren't dead. They could all hear the whirring and roaring of the metal elephants' machinations.

"Get...someone...we need reinforcements!" the centurion barked. "We must inform-"

Hector fell hard and smashed his head against the brick, his helmet both working with and against him as he heard screams and felt something hot on his face. He found his vision blurred as he blinked and placed his forearm on his face and wiped it away and found the substance to be blood as he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw were men lying strewn about the wall, and pieces of the structure itself flew off onto the surface or over the other side. Some bodies were moving, and some weren't. Most of the former covered their heads and looked wildly around.

"Mark...ma..." he tried moving his mouth but a horrible hot pain shot through the left side of his arm and he threw himself up and turned over and saw blood instantly start falling from whatever had been done to him. It covered the stone in dark splotches, leaving a trail as he continued.

He finally looked over and saw something rather strange. He appeared to be missing his left hand. Something white stuck out, and strands of flesh and skin dragged upon the ground.

He looked up again and saw no men standing and shooting anymore. Those who were still alive crawled on the dead or shielded their heads from the onslaught of the fire.

He screamed once and coughed while dragging himself along. The chunks of rock and brick had begun filling the walkway in small piles, and he was sound enough not to cut himself on any sharp edges.

There was a tower ahead with a pointed edge as its roof. Hector made it his goal. He crawled along the ground like the wounded animal he was. Sometimes, there were ceases between the fires, but he did not trust it enough to crouch, much less stand up. He wasn't even sure if he could at this point.

The lower part of his face was numb, and he felt the blood on the back of his hands as he pulled a portion of the rock next to himself and reached the doorframe of the tower. It was already opened. He thought he saw figures inside. The tower shook as he dragged himself in, and Hector heard the maneuvering of horses below and the shouting of centurions and legates barking orders before being subsequently cut off by the fire.

A hand grasped his back, and he shot his head back to the offender and saw Lelei. Her face was paler than alabaster as she thoroughly inspected him.

She mouthed something he didn't hear, "uhh...?" this repeated several times until a ringing filled Hector's ears, and a sharp sound finally brought his hearing back.

"Hector!" her shrill, high-pitched voice was ear-piercing over the explosive fire and the screams.

"Good gods!" another body knelt down with him. It was Markus. "His hand!"

"I-I can fix it!" Lelei stammered. His vision was getting funny, and he couldn't really see beyond the two of them. Everything was in this darkish hue, even with the torchlight that he knew had to be around.

"We cannot stay here!" this time, it was Kurmann. "Downstairs, all of you! we have to rejoin the main force!"

Markus was lifting him. He saw the others and some new faces grabbing weapons from the racks. "Don't say anything, Red," Markus said before an explosion interrupted him. Hector could feel it throughout his body as rubble began to fall from the ceiling.

"Hurry, hurry!" Kurmann cried, "this whole place is going to fall!" the sound of those men's footsteps was like an avalanche thundering down a mountain pass. In the darkness, he heard Markus whispering consoling things and listened to the panicked words of his fellows as more explosions rang into the night. They were, at this point, familiarized with the screams of the dead that followed.

The arm of his missing hand was numb, and the air cooled it further as they broke through the bottom door of the tower and stepped out into the night. "Go give him over to the backline, and Lelei, you heal him!" Kurmann ordered. He couldn't see anyone from his carried position or the darkness, but Hector felt Markus tense up.

"Y-Yes!" Lelei said.

"S-Sir, I can't l-leave him!" Markus begged.

"Get your ass moving!" Kurmann barked at him.

"He'll be fine with me!" Lelei said before the argument went further. Hector slowly slid from his brother's grasp, and he felt the girl's small hands help him to his feet.

"The rest of you, get a move on!" Kurmann commanded.

As they got away, passing the legionaries rushing to the front line, he felt his arm numbing. The last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness was Lelei's panicked, tiny breaths.

The fire crashed into the north wall again and again. The Imperials equipped their men with the best bows and crossbows they could muster, they sent wizards that shot balls of their own fire, and they even tried siege engines. Each attempt failed. Each of those men and women dead and another statistic for generals to scratch their heads at.

Calvary wasn't considered in the slightest. Not even the most nationalistic or religious of them would have wanted to face what was out there. Riding into such an open space would be like sealing your warrant.

The fire took the north gate by its loud and violent destruction, the rubble collapsing and falling like hail. The crunch of bones and the grinding of flesh as the debris crushed the men inside or sent them screaming nearly twenty-five feet off into the hard ground below.

The fire didn't stop, however. Beyond the metal elephants, something shrouded in the dark was smaller but no less terrifying. They came, and those legionaries beheld them. The name that sat upon those things was given the name of "death," with hell following close with them.

As the creatures approached, the kings and generals ordered the men to station in the fort's urban areas. Retreat could not be an option. Whatever these things were, they had to stop them here and now.

Noriko watched from the corner bed she laid in of the hospital as soldiers and staff went around the place, grabbing any man who could fight. She sat curled in a small ball and shrunk down if any of them came close to her. She'd not been able to gain much knowledge on what was happening, but she knew it concerned "metal beasts."

That's what these people called tanks and planes, right? she'd thought it to herself repeatedly, praying that she not be seen or heard. This was all too much for her throbbing head and body that shook with cold chills running through her arms and legs.

She had no idea whether it was the SDF or the Americans. She just wanted to go home, home...

The thought made her sit up a bit, and her thin arms clutched her knees close as she pondered. Was she really going home? would they find her here? would the Saderans take her if they ran away? so many questions, and yet all Noriko knew was that she was sitting on the other side of her own countrymen attacking this place with what...tanks? guns? she didn't know and didn't care. All she knew now was that she needed to be out of here and fast.

She surveyed the area. It was made of marble and brick, with beds in three rows and the sigils of gods chiseled into the walls below the windows. The soldiers gave spears and crossbows to the sick and wounded men, and some walked or limped out while others were dragged.

Where would she go? where could she go? the way back to the chapel was long, and she didn't even know if the priest may still be there. Briefly, she wondered about his fate but soon stopped.

No time for it. Noriko scanned again in what dim light there was. She'd been separated from the other patients on the far end of the structure, so those men couldn't possibly know she was there.

It took a lot of energy, but slowly, she removed the blankets. A blast of cold racked her as she stood and bundled every bit of coat and dress she had together. Torches illuminated the place. However, she was so far off that she was just not within any of their ranges.

The chills were becoming unbearable, and she quivered as she stood there watching the soldiers drag an armless man from his bed after he refused them. Why wouldn't they go away? she began shaking and covered her mouth as she realized how loud her breaths were.

Her heart pounded in her throat, and her head was as light as a balloon. She hated this. She hated this whole goddamned situation. What would she do? What in the hell would she do...

There wasn't any way past them without coming into the light. Another loud explosion rocked the area, and as the yells sounded from every corner of the fort, Noriko really got to thinking.

Strangely, she was calm as her bones rattled. At least dying by that would be quick and over, like an exhaling breath. Not like what Zega had told her about the things these Saderans did to women especially, nor what she'd experienced in the couple of weeks she'd been in that dank prison. Not that, never again, not for her or the little one she was carrying.

Noriko breathed and walked forward. Most of the soldiers had exited by this point, but a few remained. Some lay injured on the beds themselves, namely one missing half his hand, as a blue-haired girl who couldn't be older than her mid-teens worked hurriedly upon it.

She was nearing the exit and fast-walked forth. There had been so much thinking and worrying, but then it was this easy.

"Hey!"

No, no, please let it be quick. Don't let her parents see her body; don't let Kei see it. If there were gods, she begged every one of them at that half-second that it took her to turn back not to let her body be found.

She saw only the silhouette of the very tall man. She felt her shaking like never before. "Y-Yes, sir?"

"What are you doing? get moving to the front, now!"

"P-Pardon me?"

"Pardon...wait, aren't you a healer?"

Noriko had no idea what her answer should be. Yes, no, she didn't know. However, even standing here, she realized she needed to answer quickly. As she was about to, she saw what she thought to be another passing soldier or practitioner stop beside them both.

"She's with me."

The irritated tone was very familiar, and Noriko flinched as her forearm was grabbed ever so slightly. She felt the poke but not the cutting of sharp claws on her arm. The emerald feathers were a dead giveaway.

The creature stood with her dark eyes glinting up at the man who said, "Is she indentured?" then the ground shook, and the man didn't seem to care all that much anymore. He waved them off with a strange face and stepped away, only looking back twice at the two.

Noriko felt a gust of wind escape her mouth. She looked meekly at the thing next to her, and it looked back. "I..."

"Hush, child, we must be out of here and fast." It tugged at her arm once more, the grip tightening. It still wore the robes of a healer or wizard, whatever they were called, but it didn't seem too interested in helping the injured that was currently flooding inside.

With no room to protest, Noriko followed into the dark outside. The screams and explosions roaring so close by made her realize it wasn't just the cold that was making her quiver.

"What's happening?" she asked, gazing at the dark sky. There was no moon, and she wondered how the creature managed to effortlessly navigate the area as if it'd memorized the entire layout.

"Your world has come to pay a visit. What else? walk." They passed into alleys, avoiding soldiers and other creatures that Noriko had come to almost expect in this place. It was as they prepared to exit from between the corners of two empty market stalls that Noriko managed to loosen herself from the thing's grasp.

"Why are you...helping me?"

"You're rather valuable, and I'm a girl who loves money and living. That's why I'm getting you out of here."

The creature turned quickly as Noriko stepped back, its feathers ruffled, "Keep a hold of me. I know you can't see." It reached for her, but she stepped back again.

Something was bubbling inside as Noriko answered, "No."

"W-"

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere other than here, you little fool," it hissed.

"Why?"

"I'm saving you." Again, it tried for her arm, and Noriko again stepped away. Her vision was dazed, and her face flushed with a hot facemask of red as her breaths came out like mist.

"Saving me?"

"Do you always ask so many questions?"

"Answer me."

"Very demanding for one in your tenuous position."

"A-Answer-"

"Perhaps I should leave your carcass to the goblins. There's a tribe around here who I'm sure would be dying to meet you."

"You c-can't-"

It smiled, "Be silent, start moving, and nothing more will be mentioned about it."

"No."

"No? oh darling, it's so adorable how you think you're in control here," the creature bore its right clawed hand, and its eyes grew darker than the night around them. "Now. Move."

Stuck once more. Noriko felt an all too familiar chill in the back of her spine up to her neck. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes, and she preemptively wiped them away. The creature seemed to have taken the action as a sign of submissiveness, making another maneuver to take hold of her. She jumped back.

The sounds of the battle were getting closer. The creature shot its eyes in that direction before returning its attention back to Noriko, "Do you seriously wish to stay here?"

"I'm not going wherever you're trying to take me. I-I don't know you, I don't even know w-what you are." She slowly stepped back, her shoes crunching on the leaves and snow.

If looks could kill, Noriko would be dead. The creature's lip was never thinner, "I am not giving you a choice. Well, there is a choice, actually." It tapped two of its fingers, "You come quietly, or I drag you by your filthy scruff all the way until I find a buyer for you and that thing in your belly."

Noriko was shaking again, and it wasn't due to the cold air, "T-That's why you saved-"

"Indeed, albeit saved is not the word I would use. Now then, make your choice. It's getting rather hectic, and I wish to be out of here as soon as possible," it smiled.

Sound seemed to not come into her ears. The battle raged not a mile away, and there was chanting and screaming of soldiers and creatures like her captor, and small blowing of wind that caused her black hair to sail about. Nothing was heard until the beast spoke.

"Hurry up and answer me..." the creature stepped closer. "What. Will. You. Do?"

"Let me go..."

The creature raised its brow, its smile grew, and then it laughed. It giggled a shrill, baby-like cackle that caused Noriko to place her hands over her ears. "Still thinking you're in charge, hm?"

"You're going to change y-your mind."

"And...why is that?"

"You should have known by now, I'm...ill."

The creature didn't seem fazed by her revelation. "Oh, should I care about that? It may cost me a few coins, but all that matters is you being alive."

"Are...you sure?"

"We have not the time for-"

"Because I'll infect them all."

"What?"

Noriko was smiling now, crazily so. The creature was quivering, perhaps with fear or perhaps with anger or perhaps both, "Answer me!" its voice was shriller than anything.

"I-Imagine it; a plague starts wherever you're taking me. I wonder what those p-people would do to you when they find out. You take me there, I'll get all of them sick. This disease comes from my world. Imagine the destruction it'll cause. Then imagine what'll be done to yourself. Maybe I've already gotten you sick just by us standing here."

"You're lying...it's only a small fever or flu."

At first, Noriko hunched her shoulders as the creature spoke. But then a small realization came to her, and she responded, "How could you possibly know that? I come from another world, after all. Perhaps it's something entirely unknown and deadly to your kind."

"You do not know that."

"Neither do you."

"I have no time-"

"Then go."

"Excuse me?"

"Leave. You know, find a way out of this place. I don't particularly care for you, but I'd be quick. They're coming." As if on queue, another volley of explosions and gunfire sounded through the hill. Followed by the screams of the damned like an aftershock.

The creature was beside itself. It took a few steps away and then moved forward as if it might make some attack on Noriko, bearing its sharp claws at her and all. Then it stopped and moved away, saying, "Fine." She stepped back to the center of the snowed-in road, her talons making a strange crunching.

Noriko watched it. The creature expanded its arms, revealing a great bunch of feathers under them that glinted nearby torchlight on their emerald and alabaster color.

"Good luck," it said with a laugh and smirk. Then, it took to the sky with a grace and quickness that surprised Noriko so much that she almost fell back. She saw its alien form disappear into the dark night like a specter.

Something drained from Noriko as she let out a sigh filled with all the stored fear. She was free—for the first time in what felt like decades. Tears quietly slid down her pale and thin cheeks. The wind was rushing, and the air smelt of burning. She wiped the tears away.

Her head was throbbing, and her chills were only more apparent with the cold she found herself in. But where would she go? she was free to move but she had no idea where she might possibly go. Another wave of explosions sent her moving, and in some way she was enjoying it. By god or gods, she had not come this far to die.

gods save him, gods save him, why is this happening?

Duran peaked his head up beside his dead horse and searched around for the foul demons that'd laid waste to them all. Ligu, Roland, and perhaps even the Prince all gone under in a mere hour. He saw what must've been thousands of the writhing dead lying strewn over the battlefield like the twisted toys of small children. He coughed, and something leaked from his throat: blood.

It was strange. He didn't particularly feel the deep wound in his stomach nor his intestines spilling out to the ground. In all honesty, he felt rather lovely. Was it madness taking him? maybe. He had no idea.

He could hear the roaring of the beasts in the far distance. It sickened him so that he vomited something dark and splotchy. Something caught up in his throat then and he couldn't seem to get rid of it.

Then he looked towards the hill, and the small fires that had sprung up as a result of the massacre revealed a horrifying sight. The slope of the hill ran red with a sea of bodies and limbs tottering and writhing like a tapestry or amalgamation of death. The wind brought the smell of coins and emptied bowels to his nose, so overpowering he moved to cover it.

Towering over them all were the metal beasts, massive and indestructible, like demons from the furthest depths of the ninth hell. Huge and belching their fire from a nigh incomprehensible distance. It was then that Duran truly understood everything about the world as he watched the destruction.

There were no gods that would save them. What other beings than them could tear fabric between two worlds? With that realization, new revelations spawned until he eventually landed on the absolute truth. This was a punishment, one which would see to the destruction of them all.

With that, all sanity remaining within him was torn away in a mere stroke of a claw. A new sound filled the battlefield. With the agonized screams and machinery whirring came Duran's hushed laugh.

As he sank back to the ground, the beating of his heart and the blood running under his body neverending, he prayed that it would all be over soon.

Notes: Les go, I got through Alnus without abandoning the fic entirely. Anyway, with this chapter done, I'm halfway through writing this, so that's pretty cool. Thanks for reading this far, especially those who had to deal with the first few chapters being as bad as they were. I'm excited to write the next chapter. If you have any criticism or suggestions beyond "You suck," feel free to put them in the reviews. Peace.