Book of Revelation 6:7

And when he had opened the fourth seal,

I heard the voice of the fourth beast say,

- Come and See

Ölüm - Surveillance Room

The situation that was being witnessed by the surveillance team in the mid-levels could only be described as total anarchy, as they saw that they were quickly losing the lower levels.

Cut off from the outside world, the guards scattered all over the area could do nothing as the rising numbers of the rebelling slaves were causing them to go into panic mode, firing their blasters desperately, before they either fled, or were consumed by the angry crowd.

"Status report," the leading Zygerrian demanded. "What's the situation down in the lower levels?"

A Pyke reported, "We've lost contact with the teams from level 45 to level 50. I've yet to get any response from them."

"What about the salvage team that went to the Control room?"

"Got nothing back from them yet," The Pyke responded while going through everything. "Last call was over ten minutes ago when they arrived there. Nothing else."

"We've got over two hundred slaves entering the cell blocks in the center levels," another Pyke added. "They're about to enter cell block 40-B; they're going to free them any moment now."

"Large concentration of slaves are nearing the armory on level 35."

"Level 35? Impossible! They've moved this quickly?!" One of the surveillance watchers wondered, before ordering guards around through his mic. "Get to the mid-levels, secure level 30 - 31 and 32. Let no slave get past your defenses!"

"Any sign of Zykol?" the Zygerrian demanded.

"Negative, sir."

"Kriff!" The slaver cursed. "What about the Earthlings in sector 12, have they been warned?"

"We've tried to contact them, sir, but they haven't responded," the same pyke said with a frown. "Either they're ignoring our calls, or they're cut off as well."

The Zygerrian growled at this, resisting the urge to shoot the Pyke, before he took a deep breath. He looked back at the many screens, with about half of them suddenly winking out of life, indicating that the slaves were smart enough to destroy them to conceal their movement.

Then one of the Pykes saw something in the footage and called out, "I've got eyes on the Main Armory on level 25!"

The Zygerrian walked up to him and asked, "Is it secured?"

Watching through the only working security footage, the situation looked drastic.

"Fighting's going on in the hallway. The guards are holding it, but not for long."

Main Armory: Hallway

Blaster-fire, smoke and chaos. That was what currently occupied the main hallway that separated the rebelling slaves, who were at the moment heavily outgunned and stuck, and the gate doors that led to the weapons cache, which was being protected by the remaining Pykes who were still alive to fend off the insurrectionists.

Shooting from the corner of the red hallway, Adrik tried his hardest to aim and shoot at the guards, trying to avoid hitting the bodies of the fallen slaves and the ones caught in the middle of this fire blaze. One of them was a Wookie who was trapped between, with it taking cover in the only open door that was in the middle of the hallway that separated the two opposing sides.

PEW!

Adrik dodged a blaster shot and went back to cover next to Ibrahim, who held his own blaster, and peeked at the Pyke Sentinel who had his sights on the Wookie.

His opportunity quickly came, as the Sentinel got out from his cover, forcing Ibrahim to make his move.

PEW!

"UGH!" The blaster bolt struck the Pyke in the chest, dropping the guard quickly as Ibrahim got back to cover next to Adrik as more blaster shots rained upon them in retaliation.

"We're sitting ducks here!" Adrik shouted, as he knew they've hit a major roadblock. To make matters worse, the growing pile of bodies in the hallway were mostly theirs... "The longer we stay here, the more men we lose!"

PAW!

One blaster shot nearly hit Adrik's head, hitting the side of the corner wall where he was hiding behind.

"Earthling scum!"

"Die, you Zyg Devil!" One human slave shouted as he charged right in, getting killed instantly with multiple bolts hitting him right on, ending his suicidal act in a sheer moment. Yet another slave fell to an early death in front of the others. One of the Twi'lek males who happened to be there flinched at the sight of this, and began muttering his doubts.

"We shouldn't have done this. This was a mistake. Why did we think we could win? We should just surrender-"

"Cut that crap, you fucking tail-head!" One of the Earthlings said, having a blaster himself. "If you want to be their good little slave, go ahead, but I won't!"

"W-Why you want to throw your life away?"

"Because I'd rather die than serve these hairy fucks," the Earthling spat back to the Twi'lek, disgusted at their cowardice. "Now stand up and grow a pair, or else get the hell out of my way!"

"Enough shouting, more shooting!" Adrik ordered as he and Ibrahim both got out of their cover and fired multiple shots at the guards, forcing them into cover for a short period of time, before being returned to the favor with superior fire.

Meanwhile, fighting hard on the other side, despite being vastly outnumbered, the Sentinel Pykes were holding their ground, even after hearing that the situation was growing out of control.

"We've got these slaves!"

"Don't jinx it, idiot!" one of the more levelheaded Pykes shouted as he kept firing at the covering slaves. "Word is we've lost total control of the lower levels, and that violence has broken out just two levels above us!"

"What! We're cut off!?"

"Not for the moment, just keep these scum from the weapons cat-"

PEW!

"UGH!" the leader uttered as he felt a bolt go right through his stomach. The Pykes looked back, and saw that enemy reinforcements had arrived, including one tall Lasat who was a good shot, and had the backing of a few armed slaves.

"You won't believe just how happy I am to see your ugly mugs for once," the Lasat Zeb grinned savagely. "It's time for some well deserved payback!"

"Kriff, they've got back-GAH!" a Pyke was cut off as a blaster bolt struck him in the gut.

"RAWGAAARGH!" the Wookie now made his move, running straight for them with righteous fury. Picking up a dead Pyke in one hand, he used his corpse as a shield, while firing wildly with his blaster with his other hand.

PEW!

"AGH!"

PEW!

"AH!"

"KEEP THAT WOOKIE BACK!" The numbers of the Pykes were dropping fast as they were making their retreat into the armory. "IN THE ARMORY, NOW! NOW!"

The Wookie, who was high on anger and pain, barreled forwards, slaughtering more guards than he would realize. His rampage was halted when a downed Zygerrian, who had been playing possum, managed to jump on him from behind, wrapping his whip around his neck.

The struggle didn't last very long, as the Wookie bent over, throwing the Zygerrian onto his head just in time to use his body to shield him from blaster bolts. This got them to cease fire, and they could only watch in horror as the Wookie began to bash the Zygerrian into the floor, until-

SNAP!

"KILL IT! KILL IT!" the few surviving Pykes standing near the entrance of the armory aimed at the rampaging beast, who in return let out a mighty roar.

"RAWGH!"

"Chewie, look out!"

Despite their warnings, the Wookie wasn't done yet. Now using the dead Zygerrian's body as a shield, he continued to charge towards the open entrance to the weapons cache.

"Close the door, close the door!" the three surviving Pykes ran inside the armory. "CLOSE THE KRIFFING DOOR!"

"RAWGHARGGH!"

The Wookie threw the dead body at the open door, knocking down all three of them.

Seeing the remaining guards taken down, the slaves roared in unison as they charged the armory. One of the guards groaned as he turned his head, spotting the Wookie looming over him.

"Bastard!"

PEW!

"RAWGH!" the Wookie howled as he took a blaster bolt to the shoulder. However, this pain seemed to only fuel his rage, and he simply shot the guard back in return.

PEW!

The Wookie was hit by the other Pyke's blasters, and this time he dropped to the floor, just as Adrik entered the armory.

"Kriff-"

PEW!

The other guard took a bolt to the face, falling back down and not getting back up.

The last guard gulped as he found himself quickly outnumbered. Trembling, he dropped his blaster as he put his hands up.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I surrender!" The Pyke quickly pleaded. "I don't have a weapon-"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Don't shoot!-"

"Shut up!" Ibrahim shouted back, aiming the blaster to his head.

"I, I said don't shoot-GRK!" the last Pyke fell to the floor like a pile of bricks as Zeb gave him a loud punch to the head.

"Nice one, Zeb."

"Man, that felt good," Zeb grinned, before he remembered the injured Wookie on the floor. "Help me get Chewie back up, will you?"

As the two helped the Wookie sit up on some crates, the other slaves started pouring into the armory.

"Easy, easy, big guy," Ibrahim said softly, trying hard not to gag from the combined smell of the dirty Lasat and the Wookie. "Crying out loud, man. No offense, but you two stink!"

The Wookie weakly growled at the human, before stroking his large hand over the Libyan, rubbing his head like a pet.

"Rawgh…"

"Heh, at least you're fine," Ibrahim smiled, before carefully beginning to tend to his wounds, using what little spare pieces of cloth he had on him as makeshift bandages.

"Break open the locks!"

BANG! BANG! CRASH!

The weapons boxes were forced open by the slaves, with the boxes quickly becoming empty as everyone scrambled for a gun.

"Remember, one gun per person!" Adrik barked out sternly. "Carry them out of here and distribute them evenly. Anything you can find, pistols, carbines, rifles. I want all of it out!"

"Zeb! I found something! Can you help me break that lock?" somebody from Zeb's shift shouted.

Zeb looked back to the Libyan who was tending the Wookie. "You sure you can handle this?"

"Sure, I can handle it," Ibrahim assured him. "Go, now. You're more needed elsewhere."

"Zeb!"

The Lasat ran across the emptying room to help the group that was currently trying to pry open a storage room. A few of them made way for Zeb as he got to work on opening the doors. With the help of his vastly superior strength and with the help of the others, the doors were finally forced open, the metal bent at where Zeb's fingers were. Taking a step back, some of them teared up at what they saw.

To the Zygerrians and the Pykes, this room was either a room full of junk, or a collection of interesting artifacts. To the slaves, however, this was a room full of treasure. This storage closet had all of their belongings that the slavers had no shame in stealing from them. Ranging from unique weapons to even clothes, the slaves wasted no time on taking back what was theirs, being more than happy to help each other find what belonged to them.

The large storage room quickly became full of commotion, but Zeb just walked through almost mindlessly. Despite being there, he couldn't believe that they had made it this far. For months, he had dreamed about taking revenge on the monsters that stripped him of his pride and freedom, and now here he was, standing amongst his fellow brothers and sisters, on the edge of victory and freedom.

"Zeb!"

Zeb turned around, and his green eyes widened at the weapon Mugabo was offering to him.

"I think this belongs to you," the human man smiled. Speechless, the Lasat gratefully accepted the weapon. He ran his large, hairy hands over it, savoring the familiar feel of it against his skin and fur.

"My, oh my. Glad to have you back." Zeb smiled, his fingers hugging his weapon like they were long-lost brothers.

"Never seen a weapon like that before," Mugabo commented. "What is it?"

"It's an AB-75 bo-rifle, a weapon that's a huge part of our culture," Zeb said while inspecting his weapon. "Only the Lasan High Honor Guard are given the exclusive right to use it."

"I guess you're glad you got it back."

"That I am," Zeb agreed full-heartedly as he slung the rifle around his back. He began to help the others sort out their stolen belongings, eventually picking up something he suspected was from Earth. "Something that belongs to you?"

Mugabo quickly nodded as he happily took back what was his. Checking it for any damage, he used the worn strap to wear it around his neck like a cumbersome necklace. "Yes, thank you, friend. Did you get everything you needed?"

"Everything and more," Zeb smiled, before a commotion grabbed his attention. With the help of the others, everyone got their possessions back, and were now preparing for battle. Unfortunately, as predicted, there was a shortage of blasters and detonators, leaving many defenseless.

Still, they had no choice but to push forward.

"Everybody out, now!" Adrik ordered, now armed with a Zygerrian blaster. "We need to keep moving up! Go, go, go!"

Before he left with the others, he stopped to look at Zeb. "I'm off now, see you at the top!"

"Will do!" Zeb said, grabbing a box as he began running. "Come on, kid, follow me."

"I'm right behind you," Mugabo said, being one of the many unfortunate slaves who didn't have a weapon. The two were about to leave the armory, but a group of people came running in.

"Step aside, we got the prisoners!" one of the rebels shouted as they dragged in four slavers they caught, including the wounded Pyke from earlier. The other three were two Pykes and the one blood-covered Zygerrian that tried to rape Tayuya again, who somehow survived his bloody ordeal with the Canadian in the kitchen.

"On the floor, hands on your fucking heads!" one of the slaves shouted as he kicked them down.

The slavers that lacked the strength to do so themselves were forced onto the floor on their belly, whatever fight left in them being beaten out of them long ago. Instead of fighting back, they used what little strength they had to place their hands above their heads.

The four slaves had their guns trained onto the four slavers, making them observe the now empty armory as a reminder of their crumbling paradise. This sparked the flame of rage in one of them.

"You won't get away with this," one of the slavers spat out a glob of saliva and blood onto the floor. "Your puny rebellion will fail, so enjoy this moment, you insolent slaves."

"Shut it, you hairy fuck," one of the slaves hissed, before spitting on the Zygerrian. "Open your mouth again, and I swear to God, I'll kill you."

"Pff, you don't have the balls, you filthy earthling."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

"What? You earthlings got short-memory or something? Typical backward apes."

"Who you're calling an ape, you hairy piece of shit!" The human was losing his nerve, his finger tightening dangerously on the trigger. "I double dare you to call me that again!"

"Primitive human ape-"

TWHACK!

The human roared as he slammed the butt of his gun onto the Zygerrian's head, knocking him out instantly as he kissed the dirty floor, not responding anymore.

The said human was Adrik, who was one of the last ones left in the empty armory, who spat at the Zygerrian, before turning to the other slaves.

"That was fun, but you guys need to go. No need to have all of you here."

"Who's going to guard these pricks?" one of the slaves asked, before they noticed Adrik pulling out a blaster, giving it to the Wookie just as Zeb and Mugabo appeared at the entrance.

"Hey, big guy, mind watching these fucks for a while?" Adrik asked, before turning to Zeb. "What did you say his name was?"

"Chewbacca," Zeb replied, "But you can call him 'Chewie' for short."

"Right." Adrik turned back to the Wookie warrior. "Chewbacca, simple task: one of those fuckers move, you got full authority to fuck em up in any imaginable way, but keep them alive for the moment if you can. Good?"

"BWRAWHL!" Chewbacca roared, nodding his head.

"Good, I'm counting on you." Adrik turned back to the others. "What are you all standing around for? Move it!"

Medical Ward

CRASH!

Glass shattered from the infirmary door as chaos broke out in the hallway. Guards and slaves were fighting like crazy, be it with whips, stones, blasters, or anything else they could get their hands on, leaving piles of bodies and ruins everywhere.

Two Pykes were seen running through the hallway, with one of them keeping his blaster pistol aimed behind him, firing multiple times at the revolting slaves, before disappearing from the onlookers' sight.

Those onlookers behind the glass windows were the two nurses Idel and Bellatrix.

"What's going on?" Idel asked. "Bella, do you know anything about this?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, girl," Bellatrix said, walking away from the entrance. "It's an uprising."

"W-What?"

The Dathomir woman opened up a cabinet and searched through it. "The Control Room just blew to pieces, so this is the perfect chance to make our escape."

Idel looked horrified. "I did not expect this to happen soon."

"Now is not the time for fear," Bellatrix warned, throwing on a blue gown. "Get these on; this room will be full of patients soon, so we'll have to prepare ourselves. I'll prepare the beds, you get the morphine, bandages, spices, anything we have left."

"Right," Idel nodded, running for the background while slipping on the gown. The Nightsister turned to get the beds ready.

CRASH!

Bellatrix turned around, her hand already at her leather satchel at her side. One of the guards had just burst through the door, and was in bad shape. The Pyke and the Nightsister stared at each other for a minute in surprise, before they got over their shock.

"You, get over here!" the Pyke ordered, aiming his blaster at her. "NOW!" Bellatrix just stood there in silence as another guard limped inside, with this one being without a weapon. Unlike his partner, he was panicking, darting his head back and forth between his partner and the mob of slaves who were converging into the infirmary.

"Push in, boys!"

"We'll get you slavin' bastards!"

"STAND BACK!" the armed Pyke shouted at them while aiming his blaster back and forth from the Dathomirian nurse to the mob that was pushing its way into the infirmary. "I repeat, stand back!"

"We're done, man." the unarmed guard said to his friend in defeat. "They're going to lynch us."

"Shut up!" The guard yelled back while aiming now at him too. "I'm not going to die like this! Not here!"

Just then, Idel just ran back from the backroom holding a box full of supplies. She froze in her tracks when she saw the two Pykes.

"You, stop!"

"Idel, get down!"

PEW!

The blaster shot nearly hit the nurse as she dove down behind some beds.

"Get down!"

Bellatrix hit the floor as a flaming object flew through the broken door - an incendiary Molotov cocktail, - and watched as it hit the unarmed pyke. Within seconds, the guard was engulfed in flames, making him fall to the floor.

"AAAHHHHHH IT BUUURNSS!" the slaver wailed as he began rolling on the floor, with Idel being frozen in shock at how the situation had quickly escalated.

It was then that the mob finally made it inside the infirmary, using makeshift shields to ensure that the pyke didn't get a clear shot. The leader of this mob was Nathan, who was still holding his bloody meat cleaver, and a Pykan blaster.

"Drop your weapon, and maybe we'll let you live!" he snarled at the Pyke, who was trembling.

"S-stay back! O-or I'll shoot-"

WHOOOSH!

In the split second that the guard was distracted by his burning friend, Bellatrix had plunged her hand into her satchel, taking a fistful of spice. Opening her hand, she blew hard into it, the spice glowing green as he flew at the guard. The guard screamed as he was consumed by the cloud, firing off a few wild shots, none of them hitting his targets.

When the glowing cloud disappeared, the Pyke was left standing there motionlessly. He was still alive and still conscious, but his eyes were blank, and his body was relaxed.

"Are you alright?" one of the slaves asked, while staring at the guard in suspicion.

"We're alright, thanks," Bellatrix nodded, brushing her hands off of spice. She recognized these slaves as the ones from the kitchen, judging by their aprons and makeshift chef hats, both of which were now caked in dirt and blood.

"c'est ne pas problem, sorry we did not arrive earlier. We had to fight our way through the hallways," Nathan explained apologetically. Bellatrix raised her eyebrows at what the slaves just brought into the infirmary.

They were carrying makeshift pikes, which had the severed heads of both Pykes and Zygerrians - a brutal trophy of their conquest for freedom.

Nathan realized what the two nurses were fixated on, and told the slaves to put the pikes outside.

"Well don't just stand there you guys! Bring in the wounded! If you want to fight, go wait outside in case any more of those bastards show their ugly mugs. Allez, allez, allez!" Nathan shouted at them.

The armed men quickly moved into action, carefully taking their trophies outside and making room for others to leave and enter, with others helping the wounded get inside.

"My apologies for them," Nathan said sheepishly to the mortified nurses, "but you must understand - now it has begun, all of our repressed emotions are coming out. Including revenge."

"Let's not get hung up on those bastards for now. Help us bring in these people," Idel gestured to the others. "Everybody listen up! If you can stand, help us out! If you can't, take a rest, but save the beds for the wounded! Let's go, go, go!"

Within no time, the beds were quickly filled with the badly wounded. Despite their lack of resources, the two nurses did their best to try to save the lives of their patients.

It was overwhelming, hearing the cries and screams of the sick, wounded, and dying, but nonetheless, the two of them stood tall and strong, as they gave instructions loud and clear while trying to save lives while handling the hard pressure that was given to them.

"If you have working hands and aren't doing anything, please come to me to help. Anyone with minor injuries, wait your turn! You, try to see if we can find any more spare clothing to use for bandages. C'mon, chop chop!"

Nathan hummed as he nodded. "Wow, they're good at their job, aren't they? She just survived being attacked a minute ago, and she's already bouncing back, taking charge of her station."

"And you! Go take out your friend's body!" Bellatrix ordered her enchanted slave. "We need space. Come on!"

The Pyke grunted as he shuffled away to do his bidding.

"Bellatrix! Idel!"

The Dathomir turned around, and smiled when she saw the green skinned Twi'lek.

"Hera! Thank the Force you're alive!" they stopped to give each other a brief hug, before they parted. "I hope you're doing alright."

"I'm fine, thanks," Hera replied, before she finally saw the state of the situation. "How bad is it?"

"You can see for yourself, but right now I need every pair of hands I can get," Idel was heard shouting in the room as she held a syringe in her hands. "Bella, I need you, now!"

"I'm sorry, Hera, but I can't talk right now, wait a moment." Bellatrix said, before going to Idel to assist her. In the midst of this chaos, two more individuals entered the room and gave their own reactions.

"Mon Dieu..."

"Karabast."

The last one made Hera turn around, and she brightened up like a lightbulb.

"Zeb!" the two of them gave each other a hug, letting out a laugh of relief and joy of seeing each other again. She noticed how he got his weapon back, which made her happier.

"Hera, you have no idea how happy I am to see you alive."

"I could say the same for you!" Hera grinned, before asking, "Where were you? I couldn't find you anywhere."

"We just raided the armory down below with Adrik and the others. It was a heavy fight down there." Zeb said as he pulled out a blaster pistol, offering it to her. "For you."

"Thanks." Hera gladly accepted the blaster, putting it in the back of her pants. "You come across anyone else?"

"Yeah, there's Chewie. He's in the armory right now, guarding some hostages. We got in the damn place thanks to him and his now dead friend," Zeb told her grimly while handing her some thermal detonators. "He's banged up kinda bad, so we're letting him relax."

"Is it bad?"

"It takes more than just a few blaster bolts to kill a Wookie, Hera. You know that."

Someone had just entered the infirmary, causing the two to pause their conversation. The new patient was limping, and looked to have struggled to have gotten this far. She crashed right into Nathan, who caught her before she could fall to the ground.

"Hey, isn't that-"

"Hera! Zeb!" Nathan shouted at them to get their attention. "It's Sabine!"

The two rushed to help the Mandalorian girl out, who looked like she was beaten black and blue, and had all the energy sucked out of her.

"Hold on, I'm coming, give me a moment!" Bellatrix was heard yelling.

"Sabine! Thank goodness you're alive!" Hera cried out, embracing her friend, before quickly realizing that she was injured. She held back her relief to carefully help her onto a chair.

"T-Thanks, but I'm doing alright," Sabine said, forcing a smile on her face while wincing.

Zeb did not buy it. "You look pretty bumped up, sure you alright?"

"I'm fine, I really am, I just-Agh!" Sabine seethed from the pain in her leg as Bellatrix came up with some makeshift painkillers on hand. "I just need to patch myself up now. I got to go back up."

"Sabine, no. You're in no shape to keep going," Hera told her sternly. "You need to stay here and get yourself fixed up."

"I need to go back," Sabine repeated. "Just...put a cast on my leg or something, and I'll be fine."

"Sabine, I'll repeat myself one more time, and that's it," Hera warned her. "You can't-"

"NARUTO'S STILL UP THERE!" Sabine shouted, causing everyone to flinch. "He made the Control Room blow up! He's still up there! I need to find him!"

This definitely got everyone's full attention. Nobody had known exactly what caused the explosion, and some were even wondering what happened to the infamous blond.

"Sabine, are you sure?" Nathan asked.

"Yes!" Sabine gritted her teeth. Her leg was really starting to hurt, and the spice medicine Bella gave her wasn't working.

"Take it easy, Sabine."

"I am," Sabine snapped. "It's just this stupid leg!" She tried to get up, despite Bellatrix's protests, only to fall back down onto her butt, blinding pain erupting like lava.

Despite Sabine's act of foolish stubbornness, Bella couldn't help but smile at her determination to try to help her friend and lover. Even without the gossip, she could still see her feelings of love trying to overcome reason and self-preservation.

GHCK!

Bella's eyes widened as she felt something tremble in the Force. She felt an enormous amount of power surge through the air again.

Just like when the Control Room exploded...

"Sabine, you're too injured to get back into battle," Zeb held her down onto her chair. "Let us take care of him."

"No, Zeb!" Sabine yelled at him. "I can't just sit around with my thumb up my ass while Naruto needs help!"

"Hold her still." Bellatrix suddenly said.

"Huh?" Sabine felt her pant leg being pulled up, and saw Bella's hands over it. "Hey, what are you-"

"Quiet, girl," the Dathomirian girl hushed her as she began concentrating. Before she could ask her what she was doing, her eyes widened as Bella's hands began to glow green, small wisps of green energy streaming from her fingers.

"What's she doing?" the other Earthling besides Nathan asked. "Looks like magic."

"That's not magic, my friend. It's the Force," Hera said, quickly realizing what abilities this woman had. Of course she could use the Force, she's a witch from Dathomir. Of course, the type of Force abilities they used was considered "magic," but that wasn't the point.

Sitting there, Sabine couldn't help but stare in awe as her leg began to heal, the bruises and cuts fading away until they were nothing more than an unpleasant memory.

"My leg, the pain's going away."

"Impossible," the Earthling said in denial. "That's not possible."

Nathan had to disagree. "Non, as you can see, it is."

The green streams of energy died out, and Bellatrix stepped back as she sat on her stool, feeling quite drained. The Mandalorian gingerly put some weight onto her leg, and found that she was able to stand on it.

"The pain… it's gone!"

"Holy shit."

"Karabast, indeed," Zeb said, still in disbelief at what he just witnessed. Sabine walked around some more, and was pleasantly surprised to not feel any more pain.

"Bella, I can't thank you enough-"

"Don't," Bellatrix said, closing her eyes. "Find Naruto. He's going to be in trouble."

Sabine snapped to attention, no longer celebrating her healed leg.

"Right, anyone got a blaster for me? Gimme something to work with."

Zeb smirked as he dropped a bag. "Lucky for you, I found your stuff in the armory. Go nuts." Sabine looked into the bag, hugged Zeb, and got to work.

The green Twi'lek felt a tug on her shoulder, and saw it was Bella, who pulled her hand towards her, handing something to her.

"Take this. The boy's most likely very injured by now." It was a package of bandages and other first aid material, including a vial of glowing green water that read, "Drink Me."

"Make sure to bring him with you the higher up you go, since bringing the wounded back down at this point would be a waste of precious time."

"Right," Hera nodded.

"Ah, now this is more like it."

Everyone turned to look at Sabine, who had just replaced her torn clothes. She just finished putting on her armor, including her helmet. Covered with her custom paint job, the Mandalorian girl was now complete, save for her gun holsters, which were empty.

"Looks like my babies are still in good shape," Sabine smiled, before slipping on a pair of black gloves. "Do you have my guns?"

Zeb only chuckled as he handed over her double WESTAR-35 blaster pistols. Spinning them around her fingers, she put them back into their holsters as she turned to the others.

"Let's get going."

"On me, my team will back you up," Nathan said as he walked out first through the door with a few of his men, giving Hera now the moment to check on her two friends.

"Are you two sure you want to join us?" Hera asked them.

Zeb nodded. "Of course."

Hera turned to Sabine, who she knew was one of the youngest slaves and one of the first volunteers of the plot. "What about you, honey?"

"Hera, after all that has happened, I can't sit this out," Sabine said through her helmet, and patted her on the shoulder. "I need this."

"Alright. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up."

"Right." The two moved to join Nathan's group, while Hera stayed behind for the time being. She looked around, and saw that the African Earthling Mugabo was seen helping the wounded slaves.

"Mugabo?"

"Idel needs extra hands, so I will help," the man explained to Hera. "I am not a fighter, I will help here, trying to save lives."

Hera nodded in approval as she left for the door, nearly bumping into another comrade that Mugabo recognized.

"Maroi, help me with the wounded, can you?"

The shinobi spy, who was in the middle of all this chaos trying to find his target, found himself trapped with many wounded slaves who were in dire need of help.

"... What can I do?" Maroi offered reluctantly, and was given a box of bandages to be distributed to anyone who needed it.

Upper levels

While the situation on the lower and mid-levels was deteriorating, the upper levels were having...different problems.

A group of well armed Zygerrians were running for their lives, being a part of the group that tried to get inside the Control Room. They were yelling as something was chasing them.

"Monster! Monster! RUN!"

"Run, RUN!" one of them yelled, firing two shots behind him in panic. "It's getting closer!"

"Kriff! KRIFF!" the last Zygerrian yelped as he tripped over nothing, falling face first onto the spice-littered ground. Before he could get up, he was suddenly dragged back. He clawed at everything and anything, but nothing stopped him as he was dragged out of view.

"HELP ME!

But none of them stopped for him, in fear of being next. They turned their heads back forward as they tried to block out the sound of his screams, before they suddenly went silent.

Opening the gate in front of them, they kept running until they came across a group of Pyke Sentinel guards, who were all armed.

"What's going on in here?" the leader of the group demanded from the rookie Zygerrians. "We've got a riot going on! There's no time to mess around, we need to get to the Control Room to try to call for reinforcements!"

"That's where we just came fro-UGRK!"

The two Zygerrians, including the one that was talking, suddenly clawed at their throats, dropping their blasters. Everyone watched in horror as they were slowly lifted into the air by an invisible, malevolent force.

"Run..." was their last words, before they were slammed right into the wall behind the Pykes.

CRACK!

SNAP!

The sickening sound of their broken necks echoed throughout the area as their bodies slumped lifelessly onto the ground.

This snapped the Pykes out of their stupor, and raised their blasters down the hallway.

"Show yourself, NOW!"

After what seemed like an eternity, they heard heavy footsteps coming their way. They gulped as they saw a shadow stretching out from around the corner.

Walking out of that corner was the Elementian Naruto, his eyes filled with glowing yellow rage that pierced into their souls. Their teeth chattering, they watched as he slowly walked towards them.

"OPEN FIRE!

The Pykes began shooting at the boy, dozens of blaster bolts raining onto him.

Naruto didn't die. He didn't dodge. Instead of doing either, all he did was raise his hand, and the plasma bolts just flew around him, never once hitting their intended target.

"What? That's impossible, that should've hit him!"

"Keep firing!"

The bolts either missed Naruto or were deflected by the silent killer, who didn't even flinch when a blaster shot flew past right through his hair.

"Just die already!"

Naruto then raised his other hand, and the first Pyke got slammed right into the ceiling, before being flung to the ground.

The Pyke let out a pitiful groan, and he suddenly flew back up. His head slammed so hard against the ceiling that his head punched through the metal, killing him and leaving his body to swing.

"Keep your distance, keep your distance!" the leader shrieked at his men.

The Pykes continued to fire at Naruto as the boy kept his pace, his eyes never leaving theirs.

It was then that Naruto clenched his fists.

The metal wall behind them groaned as something began to tug on it. Two metal sheets ripped off of the wall, slamming against the three Pykes who didn't dodge in time, killing them instantly. Those two metal sheets then moved in front of Naruto, serving as his shield as he pressed forward.

"Sir, we need to get out of here, this thing's going to kill us all!"

Apparently, that was a poor choice of word for the boy.

"We-AHHH!" the Pyke who said that suddenly got pulled, flying past his colleagues and towards Naruto's waiting grasp.

The guard let out a gag as his neck was seized by Naruto's fingers. The blond demon glared at the terrified Pyke in the eyes, before he choke-slammed him, crushing his windpipe with a loud-

CRUNCH!

The Pykes took a step back as Naruto looked back up at them, his Stoic expression of muffled hatred now replaced with a bloodthirsty smile.

"Fall back, fall back to the upper levels now!"

The remaining Pykes did as they were told, and they began running towards the end of the hallway, getting away from the threat that was impossible to kill.

"Move it, move it!" The leader turned to his men and told them, having his back turned against Naruto.

Which was not a smart move that he did, with one of the metal sheets that was floating, started to rotate, it began spinning faster and faster, its sharp points and dented metal would be deadly by a light touch.

And by then it flew right towards the other end of the hallway, going straight for the leader of the Pykes' group who began to turn back around.

Only to be met with his death…

SLASH!

Sector 12 - The Red Paw

THUD!

A Rodian's head fell down from one of the operating tables in one of the many facilities of the recently built Umbrella laboratory.

What remained on the operating table was the rest of the body, with her chest and stomach cut open, her internal organs exposed to the elements as they observed the body's reaction to their latest experiment.

"Well, there goes the head," the first surgeon said while holding a bloody scalpel, turning to his colleagues. "Any responses from the rest of the body?"

The second surgeon poked at the body with his gloved finger, and pulled it back immediately when it began to move. Even without its brain, it was still moving, albeit sluggishly, its feet and organs still slowly moving around.

"Subject 8's body is showing movement without brain function. We got new results!" the second surgeon told the others, before turning to the third man present in the room. "Make sure to write this down."

The third doctor immediately began typing into his tablet, with the holographic screen at the end of the room showing the documentation.

[Test Subject Rodian 8 has been injected with the T-Virus, version 234. Subject's body has shown movement long after decapitation.]

"Now that our project has shown progress, we cannot stop now. We'll need more live specimens to continue our experiment, since the Rodian was the last one from its cell," the first surgeon explained. "You, finalize and deliver the report to the central station, and tell them we'll need a new batch of live specimens. Five humans, five non-humans, and, if we're lucky, a small child, preferably human. We'll need to study the effects of the virus on a younger specimen.

"What age?"

"Somewhere between the ages of 12 through 16, but at this point, younger is fine," the second surgeon clarified. "And this time, please bring a healthier subject. The last one was already sick and was malnourished for us to get any reliable data."

The third doctor nodded. "Understandable, I'll make work out of it right now." The doctor finished their report as he exited the operation room, leaving the two surgeons to their own with the dissected body, which was still moving sluggishly.

"Well, let's see just how functional this body is, shall we?"

…

The doctor hummed as he finished up his team's report, his finger rapidly tapping the screen without ever touching the delete key. He raised his head to peer into the windows as he observed the other experiments going on by the other teams.

In this room, the Umbrella scientists were in winter clothing, standing in a room that was almost -50 degrees Fahrenheit. The test subject was only given a jacket and a pair of shorts, who was trembling and shivering like a madman.

Despite the obvious and natural reaction the test subject was giving, the scientists looked disappointed at the result. Clearly, this version of the T-Virus didn't shield the infected from the cold too well. Deciding to move onto the next phase of their experiment anyways, they began hitting her arms with a stick, which was holding onto a blanket-wrapped infant.

The woman screamed inaudibly from behind the window, screaming in pain and begging for an end to this undeserved tormenting.

Shaking his head, he turned his head to the right to peer into the other room.

This room was large and empty, looking like a large, public shower room. Ten test subjects, five human, five non-humans, stood in the middle. All were naked, and were shifting and looking around nervously.

"Next batch is ready for testing."

The doctor turned to his right to see one of his colleagues right next to him. He was holding a tablet just like him, and had a comm in his ear.

"I'm ready, start it."

On command, the empty room began releasing blue mist through the open tubes from the ceiling. This horrified the naked captives, who began running around or trying to open the only entrance to this death trap. Some already gave in to despair, and crawled to a corner to cry, while the more defiant ones began banging on the door with whatever strength they had left in their frail bodies.

The coughing started after they ended up inhaling the blue mist. Their skins were developing dark spots, and some of them went on all fours, their lungs overworked from all the coughing and wheezing.

One of the humans ran up to the window, slamming his body against it. He banged on it weakly as the scientists observed his body with curiosity, his blue skin and bloodshot eyes making them take notes with lightning speed.

The man's fists stopped pounding on the window as his mouth expanded. He violently puked all over the window, making the scientists flinch a little from disgust.

"The upgraded Blue Shadow Virus symptoms are showing their final results," the unfazed scientist said into his tablet. "Time of death will be counted now."

The man fell onto his knees, with his hand sliding down the window.

"First reaction appears from the skin, where dark-blue blotches appear after minutes from infection via inhalation. Coughing and wheezing follows after, with the dark spots quickly spreading throughout the body. Subjects' eyes turns bloodshot, before vomiting."

The man's hand finally left the window, collapsing completely onto the floor amongst the others.

One by one, the test subjects fell onto the floor, some twitching or shivering, before they all stopped moving.

"Test subjects have lost consciousness on average of 30 minutes, both human and non-human," the scientist reported. "Currently waiting to see the time of death."

The only entrance to the room slid open as a group of men in hazmat suits walked in, armed with tablets, medical equipment, and guns. They quickly began to set up their equipment, before checking on each of the ten test subjects.

It seemed like forever before the first sound of a flatline echoed in the room. It didn't take long before the other test subjects flatlined as well, creating a high-pitched noise that was shut off with a single flick of a switch.

"Test subjects have died one hour after initial exposure to the virus. Experiment: successful."

The doctor from the other group decided he had enough, and walked out towards the exit for some fresh air.

Walking outside the facility, the doctor couldn't help but take in the sights and the fresh, natural air of the forest of Kessel. The clean, filtered air the laboratory offered was nice, but it couldn't compare to the natural, crisp air forests could give.

The peaceful, majestic sight almost helped him forget about the sins he and his colleagues were committing in the name of science. What little of his consciousness was crying out for him he shoved back into the corners of his mind. There was no going back now, with only progress awaiting them.

All these men who work here were intelligent, successful scientists, professionals and incredible minded people from all parts of the Earth, all banded together to be a part of the organization that hired them for their specific knowledge of the scientific field.

The doctor himself was a neurosurgeon who worked in Chicago, until he got fired for sexual allegations - a crime he didn't do. After that, no other company would hire him, until Umbrella recognized his worth. Of course, he would later find out the darker fields of science they really practiced, but by then, he was too neck deep to pull out.

Shaking his head, he stopped reminiscing about the past, and made a call via his handheld holoprojector.

A miniature hologram of the male Faust scientist Nuvo Vindi appeared on his communicator, who was hired by Umbrella to assist them in other projects.

"Ah, my Earthling colleague. What is it?"

"Doctor Vindi, I am here to report to you that the next results of the Vivisection Unit will be sent to you in a few moments," the doctor informed him while preparing the report to be sent over to the lead-scientist.

"Good, that's excellent to hear. Anything about the other experiments?"

"The other scientists are still busy with their final subjects. I've got to ask the slavers from the mining facility next to us for a new group of slaves, we're starting to running low."

"Ah, more fortunate souls for science, I understand. And what about the Blue Shadow Virus, how much progress has been made?"

"I will say that I personally saw the results, they'll be shortly given to you by another colleague of mine."

"And the T-Virus?"

"Its reports are prepared, doctor."

"Then at last, what about the BT-Virus?" Vindi asked about the newest experimentation. "How's progress going? Your bosses have been asking about it."

"The first samples are now ready. We're just waiting for approval from the higher-ups."

"I will consult with them as soon as I can. You just keep on working, you're doing excellent work."

Vindi's hologram shrank out of existence, leaving the doctor alone by himself. He sighed, rolling his neck as he headed back in. Returning to the computer lab, he plugged in his tablet into one of the desktop computers.

He was watching the data being transferred onto the mainframe when it happened.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The doctor jumped as the shrill alarm blared out throughout the facility, with the red emergency lights lighting up. The second he recovered from the surprise, he immediately began contacting one of the guards through his wristwatch communicator.

"Security, what's going on right there?"

No response.

"Security?"

"The Ölüm Spice Mine has been compromised."

The doctor froze at the foreign voice. He didn't recognize who this was, and the fact that the hologram projector suddenly turned on to reveal a cloaked man certainly didn't help with his already shot nerves.

"Who are you, and how did you get this frequency?"

"That's none of your concerns at this current moment. Right now you should know that the slaves are rebelling in the Ölüm mines, and they are rapidly gaining ground."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

SLAM!

One of the Pyke Sentinels had rushed into the room, gasping for air as he rapidly began telling the news to the doctor. Within the panicked blubbering, he learned that there was indeed a rebellion going on with the slaves.

"I believe your question's been answered, Dr. Manfred," the mysterious man smiled, showing his yellow, crooked teeth. "I would suggest you evacuate the facility now, and make sure to leave nothing behind."

"You still haven't answered my question," the doctor demanded. "Who are you?"

The cloaked person just smiled.

"I'm simply an investor, making sure my investment can be of some use to me in the future."

Before Dr. Manfred could ask further, the hologram shrunk away, leaving him alone in a glowing red room with the nervous Pyke.

"What should we do-"

"Shut up, let me handle it." the doctor snapped, before pressing a few buttons. He then pressed on the red alert button that was for emergencies only.

"This is a level 1 emergency. The site has been compromised, enact evacuation procedures."

"This is a level 1 emergency. The site has been compromised, enact evacuation procedures."

The alarm was blaring throughout Sector 12, with the mechanical warning calmly repeating itself as the staff members scrambled about.

A cart filled with computer parts was being moved by a scientist, who was still in his hazard suit. Wasting no time to stop, he pushed his cargo into one of the two large YV-865 Aurore-class freighters.

The box was a treasure chest full of data; a compilation of documented results, video and photographic recordings, and everything that Umbrella needed for progress.

"Move it, people, move it! We don't have much time."

The men who were leading the evacuation were members of the Umbrella Corporation's own armed security wing, the Umbrella Security Service. They were one of the organization's main paramilitary units whose job was to guard and protect all facilities and interests of the company. Like the scientists, these people came from very different backgrounds, with around half of them being from not-so-good ones. Nonetheless, these men were trained for loyalty, with their common goal being to get their assets out of the planet.

Wearing their body armor and black clothing, they mostly are recognizable by their intimidating black gas mask with red lenses, armed with their personal arsenal of weaponry that were called "slug throwers" by this galaxy's standards. They were keeping an eye on the main entrances that connected the mine with the testing facility.

SLAM!

One of the barrels that was supposed to be brought inside the freighter dropped to the floor.

"Are you stupid, or what!?" one of the scientists yelled at a Pyke. "One leak, and we're all gonna get blown to hell! Is that how you want to die?!"

"Why didn't you tell us about it earlier!-"

"ENOUGH!" One of the USS men marched up to them, prodding at both of them with an unarmed stun baton. "Get that cleaned up, and move out! We're leaving in five minutes!"

The last group of people just left the building. It was a group of six hazard-suited men, who were carefully pushing a large, metallic sealed crate, with the biohazard warning label on it. The head of security looks irked at how long it took for them to exit the building.

"What's inside those crates?"

"Our work and our pay. Either help us out or shut up, this needs to be loaded into the cargo hold."

"What's in it?"

"BSV and TB-Viruses. Now come on!"

A few guards helped the scientists load the crates into the freighter's cargo hold, putting it into a large cooler cell to keep the samples and research cold.

"Is everything loaded up?"

"Yes, now we just need to take care of the buildings and-"

POW!

A blaster shot came out of nowhere and struck the Umbrella guard next to the doctor and head of security. Everyone sprung into action, with the security team looking at where it came from. It was the rebelling slaves, who had already made it to the laboratory.

"Over there, at the ships! Shoot them-"

POW! POW! POW! POW!

"UGH!" One of the armed slaves was gunned down by a Pyke. This triggered a firefight between the Umbrella scientists and the slaves, who all took cover behind rocks, their ship, crates, and whatever else they could find.

"They've already reached the laboratory!"

The remaining Pykes quickly became overwhelmed, meeting their end by dozens of blaster fire. This granted them an opening towards the docked freighters.

"Get those ships!"

BRRRRRT!

The sound of multiple gunfire came from the freighter ships as the Umbrella Security forces fired back with their MP5 submachine guns, killing anything that was in their sights.

Even the head of security pulled out his SIGpro SP2009 handgun and fired back at the slaves, before shouting, "Let's get out of here!"

The freighters then began to pull off from the landing platforms. Even as their shuttle doors began to close down, bullets and blaster bolts were still being exchanged, before the last ship took off.

It was then that Tarik had just arrived onto the scene with his men, witnessing the last of the ships leaving the platform.

"Hold your fire, now!" Tarik ordered, his arm in an improvised brace. Seeing how they weren't stopping, he shouted a little louder.

"HOLD YOUR GODDAMN FIRE!"

The gunshots slowed to a stop, seeing as how the ships were out of range now anyways.

"It's useless, don't waste your time on it."

"What now?"

Looking around, the Urzik-American looked at the large laboratory. He sniffed the air, and his face crinkled in disgust.

"Do I smell gasoline?"

"Boss!" one of the slaves shouted as he ran up to him, nearly tripping on a tube. "We found the remaining slaves in this facility!"

"Where are they?"

His answer made the rest widen their eyes in horror.

PEW! PEW!

BANG! BANG!

ZIP! PING!

The last remaining Pykes were quickly gunned down by Sabine and Zeb. With them was Nathan's group, who have been on a warpath to help their friends search for Naruto.

"There they are, shoot them!" Just then, two Pykes appeared from the corner, and began firing at Sabine.

Sabine didn't bother to take cover as she aimed for them, despite her taking a bolt to her shoulder and one to her head. Thankfully, Mandalorian-iron was extremely durable, and it simply bounced off of her harmlessly.

BANG! BANG!

The two Pykes fell lifelessly as Sabine hit them with deadly precision. She stared at their lifeless bodies coldly as smoke smoldered over their wounds.

Zeb then walked up next to her, noticing how she was gripping her blasters tightly.

"Sabine, you alright?"

"..." She said nothing as she continued to glare at the dead bodies through her visor.

Then she finally let out a sigh, her shoulders relaxing.

"I'm fine, Zeb," Sabine answered hesitantly. "I'm just...stressed out."

"Can't blame you for that," Zeb patted her on the back. "Just don't try getting yourself killed, okay? You're no good to any of us dead."

"I will, thanks Zeb."

Nathan and Hera entered the scene, and saw what the commotion was.

"Whoever did that, good shot," Nathan spat on the one of the dead Pykes. "Two fewer bastards to worry about. I'm moving up. Allez!" He walked up ahead with his men, while the other three stood behind. Zeb was the first to raise his thoughts.

"Tell me if I'm wrong, but those Earthlings surely have a way of being brutal to these bastards, don't they?"

"No Zeb, you're not wrong," Hera seconded. "They are certainly more brutal than any of the other humans I've come across."

"How so? I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

"That's because you're not on their bad side, Sabine." Zeb cleared it as he remembered. "I heard they were extremely brutal in the kitchen."

"WE FOUND SOMETHING!"

The three began running towards Nathan's voice, and saw that he was standing there at the end of the hallway, staring at something dumbfoundedly. Once they got there, they too stood there in amazement.

The hallway in front of them was littered with dead bodies, broken parts of the walls, and scattered weapons. Zygerrians and Pykes alike lay everywhere lifelessly, with one body even hanging from the ceiling. A disturbing sight to lay one's eyes on, if not for the fact that they were their sworn enemy.

"Jesus Christ, what happened here?" one of the slaves muttered out in disbelief.

It was Nathan who was the first to step forwards and looked around and started checking on the bodies and noticed something odd about them.

"There's no blood," Nathan observed. "No exit wounds either, so they could've been killed by blasters."

"Look here," Zeb said, checking one of the Pykes's throats. "Their necks are disfigured, as if they were snapped."

"Yuck, that's not okay."

Sabine was silent, she began puzzling inside her mind what happened here…

"Look there, a trail." One of the slaves pointed at droplets on the floor that went past the bodies of the deceased slavers. It was there when Nathan checked it and concluded.

"Whoever killed these guys is in bad shape."

"He's probably losing a lot of blood if that trail ends up all the way there-"

"-OUT OF MY WAY!"

Sabine rushed herself past Nathan and Zeb and ran through the hallway on her own, causing some confusion among the others before they tried to catch up to her.

...

Sabine dashed through the hallway, frantically searching for the boy she loved. Every time she saw a fallen body, her heart would stop, praying that Naruto wasn't one of the fallen.

"Please, please, please, please, PLEASE!"

The blood trail went from droplets to small puddles, until she turned a corner and was met with whom she sought for.

Naruto laid against a wall, looking to be in a very bad shape. His upper body was covered in blood, and he was covered in burn scars, most which she assumed was from the Control Room explosion.

For one horrifying moment, she thought that she was too late, until she heard him cough, struggling to get some air into his lungs. She ran up to him, and he looked up at her with a weary smile.

"S-Sabine…"

The Mandalorian girl sank to her knees and crawled over to him, already removing her helmet to look at him in the eyes.

"Naruto…" She trailed her fingers around his blood covered cheek and over his blood-soaked hair. He could feel her hand tremble in fear.

"Don't...worry. I'm...alright," Naruto breathed, stopping her fingers before they could reach his head wounds. Her eyes looked down, flinching at the many wounds he sustained. No part of his clothing was left untouched, with every inch of his being either wounded or covered in blood.

"Is the Control Room destroyed?" Naruto asked her as he kept himself conscious. "Is it?"

Sabine nodded. "Yes it is." She smiled a beautiful smile while footsteps grew closer to them. "You did good, the others are doing their part. So don't worry about us."

It was then when Zeb, Hera, Nathan, and the other slaves finally arrived and saw Naruto's state, causing some gasps and horrified expressions.

Naruto felt his eyes getting heavier until he felt a hand touch his shoulder and saw it was Hera kneeling next to him and helping him by cleaning the blood of his face.

"Hera, I-"

"Don't speak, kid. Just sit and take it easy." Hera told him as she kept cleaning him up before giving further orders. "Zeb, Sabine, get going, you're needed upstairs."

"I'm not leaving." Sabine protested. "I'm staying here with Naruto."

"Go, Sabine."

She turned back to him as Hera began bandaging his head. "Go… they'll need you to clear the platform."

"You sure?"

Naruto nodded. "I'm damn sure." He smiled at her, and gave her a weak poke on the cheek. "I'll catch up with you guys."

"You heard him, let's go," Zeb said to her as he tried to get her to move. "Come on, Sabine."

"Wait a moment," Sabine said, before she leaned over, planting her lips fully against his, kissing him in front of everybody, getting some reactions from the others.

"Young love, even here you can find it."

"They'll be together for a long time."

"Alright, enough love chatting, we got to move!" Nathan said, kneeling down and patting Sabine on the shoulder. "Je suis désolé, but we got a fight to finish off, so come on."

"Right." Sabine stood up and put her helmet back on and turned one more time to Naruto and told him something before she left.

"I better see you up there later when we're walking out of here alive, hun."

Naruto smirked at her and said. "I will, you just do your part."

She nodded as they all began going through the hallway, with her and Zeb already moving forwards, the hallway was filled with other slaves who each began to give a few passing words to Naruto.

"Thanks, kid."

"Good work, boy."

"Couldn't do it without your doing, son."

"Ease up for a bit, we'll handle this."

The lines of compliments Naruto was receiving didn't fully process through his mind yet, but he felt a little better as his face was half covered in bandages by the green skinned Twi'lek.

"Kit, you don't know how much you messed yourself up." Kurama began saying in his head. "I'll try to fix you up as much as I can. Just don't move again, alright?"

"I don't know what you did, but you're one lucky guy," Hera muttered while patching him up. "Don't move on your own, alright?"

"Sure, okay." Naruto groaned. Normally, he'd be just as stubborn as Sabine about helping, but he was too tired to do anything at the moment. Gripping his hands, he knew he at least did his part.

The uprising was reaching new levels of viciousness.

From an upper level, a group of slaves watched how the others had managed to cut off and surround a group of four Pykes into a corner, who were armed only with a few shields and a blaster pistol, trying to keep the angry mob of a dozen slaves away from them.

They were trapped, and it was going to rain fire from above as the slaves standing a level above them pulled out some Molotov cocktails and lit them up.

It was then that one of the guards looked up and spotted the flammable objects.

"Look out!"

It was too late. The firebombs rained from above, with some of them missing their targets. The ones that didn't shattered around and above the guards, making them scream and run around like headless chickens as flames consumed their bodies. Even then they weren't spared from the others, as a few brave/angered souls began beating or stabbing them, taking advantage of the distraction.

Such chaos could be seen everywhere, with the slaves quickly gaining ground with every small victory.

Just then, Adrik and Ibrahim's team were seen running pu the staircases to the last upper floor where the landing platforms were.

"We're almost there, people! Remember, secure the ships and clear the area!" Adrik shouted to his men.

"I cannot believe it, we might even make it!"

"Don't jinx it just yet, boy. Those slavin' bastards have done nothing but running from us," Ibrahim replied to the others. "Whatever you do, stay low and hit 'em hard. Show them bastards no mercy!"

"Right!"

They then reached the final door, where there were already some slaves trying to break their way through a sealed door that already was damaged. It was then that another slave with some thermal detonators came forward.

"Get back, everyone!" the human shouted. "This is gonna blow!"

They immediately ran for cover as the man planted the bombs, and before they knew it, he joined them on the other side of the hallway. His hands over his ears, he roared:

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

BOOOM!

The metal door exploded, and chunks of rocks rained down onto their heads. Nonetheless, they let out a roar as they charged forwards.

"LET'S GO!"

Adrik saw the hordes of slaves running forwards, most of whom who just joined in and weren't armed except for a few shields and self-made armor.

"Stop, you're-"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

BOOM!

A series of blaster fire and explosions halted the rushing slaves, who quickly ducked for cover or ran back. Adrik and Ibrahim as they realized that the worst had just happened.

"Adrik?"

"Yes, Rida?"

The Libyan was one with fear as he turned towards his friend. "You think they just blew up-"

"I'm afraid so. Looks like they're not taking chances," Adrik growled in anger. "But I'm afraid we have more problems."

"Like what?"

"LETS GO GET THE BASTARDS!" one of the slaves shouted as he stood up first, and ran right for the open entrance, being followed by the other slaves who joined him in their frontal assault.

"Wait! Stop!"

"That's what I feared, they're going for an all out assault!" Adrik said, before standing up and yelling out. In his mother tongue.

"VPERYOD!"

Öüm - Landing Platforms

The first wave of badly armed slaves who were running for their dear lives to the platforms in hope to find some ships were the first ones to realize what they came across and found out the worst case scenario;

All the freighter ships that were here were destroyed on purpose; they were trapped on the planet.

It was then that they heard some harrowing words coming from above.

"Fire at will!"

They looked up and saw hundreds of red blaster bolts being fired directly at them from the upper balcony and the sole AA gun that were aiming for them, cutting down the slaves without any mercy as many of them died directly on the spot, with the few who reacted just on time by taking cover behind anything that stood near them.

Behind empty crates, machinery, and even the wreckage of the destroyed freighters, the slaves took cover as they were met with a rain of red fire that was aiming for them. They were getting shot at especially by the lone anti-aircraft gun that was slowly picking at its targets.

Inside the AA gun, some of the only remaining Zygerrian slavers that were left on Ölûm were operating the weapon to stamp down the rebellion. One particular Zygerrian was more than happy to man the gun.

"Die, die you scum!" Vatik roared as he aimed and shot at anything that moved on the platform. He looked like a demon from Hell, with half his face burnt in the Control Room explosion, he thirsted for the blood of every slave in this god-forsaken mine.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET YOU FILTHY SLAVES!"

One blaster bolt hit a wing where a dozen slaves were hiding behind, killing everyone in the impact.

"Got any contact with the outside world!?" Vatik demanded from his men.

"No sir!"

"Try harder!" he snapped at them. "We're not letting these scum walk out of here alive. Not over my dead body!"

Supported by a few tower cannons and a few heavy blaster guns, the AA gun wasn't the only one firing on the pinned down slaves who were on the landing platform, with the other slavers having blaster weaponry themselves.

It was then that a group of five slaves got targeted by the AA gun.

"Get out of there!"

BOOM!

The slaves either didn't react fast enough or didn't hear them when they got vaporized in the explosion. With only screams being heard by the other slaves caught by the impact. Those who were still standing knew they were caught in a bloodbath.

"Attack!" one brave slave yelled. The moment he got out of his cover, he got blasted instantly in the chest, his attempt of bravery died out as soon as it started.

KABOOM!

Everyone jumped as the nearest tower cannon exploded into flames and molten metal. The slaves turned, and realized that it was the Earthling Adrik, who was holding a makeshift bazooka. He and Rida's armed men had just arrived to back everyone up.

"Open fire!" Adrik roared as he switched to his blaster, firing at the men who stood in their way of freedom. He took cover behind the wreckage of a freighter with Ibrahim and a few of his men, who were also armed with rocket launchers that were looted from the armory.

Within seconds, the tides of the battle had been turned, with the slaves now pushing forward instead of cowering back.

"Fire!"

Multiple rockets were launched from different positions on the landing platform, all were aimed mostly at the sentry and towers, which quickly fell.

That left only the AA gun as the primary threat.

"That fucking AA gun is killing us, we need to destroy it!"

"I'm out of rockets!"

They watched as the AA gun aimed for a wrecked freighter that a group of Earthlings were hiding behind. Whoever was manning the gun was now trying to take out one group at a time, starting with this one.

"Fire at that AA gun!" Adrik ordered the man next to him, who was carrying an E-60R Rocket Launcher.

"Fire!"

The rocket successfully flew out of the launcher, but the operator of the AA-gun spotted the missile, and shot it down before it could reach its target.

"Look out!"

BOOM!

The AA-gun fired at the man carrying the launcher, sending him flying through the air like a ragdoll. Him and his now ruined launcher fell onto the ground, the look of shock and horror still etched onto whatever was left of his face.

Ibrahim cursed. "Son of a dog! Those bastards are playing dirty!"

"Don't need to tell me that!" Adrik yelled, firing his blaster three times at the enemy. "We're trapped now, got any ideas?"

"Allow us!"

The Earthlings turned around to see another group of armed slaves arriving to the fight. This time it was the cooks who had arrived with Sabine, Zeb, and Nathan running up to them with their weapons.

"Glad to see you're all still breathing." Adrik said briefly. "But we're still stuck with that AA gun that's killing our men."

"We'll handle this," Zeb said, taking the last launcher. "You give me and Sabine covering fire, we'll get closer to the blasted thing and take it down."

"Think you can handle it?" Nathan asked them.

"Just give us a chance."

Adrik nodded at their determination, before yelling out, "Covering fire!"

Everyone began focusing fire on the AA gun, drawing the gun's attention. Sabine and Zeb wasted no time getting closer to the gun, moving as fast as they could without being seen.

Taking cover behind a broken wing, the two readied the rocket launcher with Zeb aiming for it.

"Come on, Sabine, faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can," Sabine snapped back. It was then that she saw the man behind the gun through the blaster-proof glass, and she gritted her teeth.

"Rocket launcher down below!"

Vatik looked down at the two slaves below, and his teeth crackled as his eyes saw even more red.

"You're dead, Mandalorian whore!"

The double turret slowly began turning towards the last rocket launcher, making some frantically fire at the turret even faster. Sabine and Zeb stood strong, however, unwavering as Sabine yelled:

"FIRE!"

Zeb pulled the trigger, and the last rocket blasted off, hitting the turret head on.

BOOOM!

A giant explosion of fire and spice dust covered the upper part of the turret.

"Is it down?"

Much to their horror, this turret turned out to be a lot more resilient than the others. That, or this last rocket was a runt. The turbolaser, while heavily damaged, was still standing and operational, with only the left cannon being damaged beyond use. The other one, however, looked ready to fire.

"Karrabast!" Zeb cursed as time seemed to slow down. He could hear the voices behind them, yelling at them to move, but even as his powerful legs moved, he knew they weren't going to make it.

"Get out, get out!"

"Move out of the way!"

"Run!"

Sabine, who already knew that she wasn't going to make it, decided to go down fighting. She continued to fire at the turret, despite knowing how fruitless it was.

I guess this is it, she smiled bitterly from underneath her helmet. I'm sorry, everyone.

But just before the cannon fired at her, the entire tower suddenly jerked to the side as something barreled right into it.

Inside the turret, the slavers who took shelter in there began to panic as their sanctuary began rocking back and forth.

"What the kriff is this?" Vatik demanded. "That was no rocket!"

"Sir, surveillance footage shows something's slamming into the turret below us!"

"What?"

"Pressure is building up on the centrifuges! We're going down!"

When the dust finally settled, Sabine blinked, before checking her sights again.

A large, deformed creature was pushing against the mighty turret, roaring as it used its bulging, moving muscles to push it down. It looked human, if not a grotesque, mutated version of one, with its hairless body and its bulging, bloodshot veins being any indication of what it once was.

The monster roared as it slammed its fists against the bottom of the turret, with dents and cracks quickly spreading across the walls.

The large turret let out a mighty groan as it began to fold over, sparks of electricity and fluids leaking from its cracks. The monster let out another roar as it slammed its shoulders against it once more, and then the turret began to fall.

"It's gonna fall, get outta the way!" Zeb yelled as he ran like Hell.

"The turret's tipping over!" one of the Pykes shouted. "Abandon post!"

"KRIFF!" Vatik cursed as he hopped off his seat. Shoving aside the others, he made a break for the exit.

Sabine and Zeb quickly got away from the smoking turret. One whiff of the air told them that there was a dangerous amount of fuel leaking, which always meant bad news. The Mandalorian girl turned back towards the turret, looking for their unexpected savior.

"Sabine!"

Her eyes widened as she finally got a good look at the monster's face. Her heart sank as she finally realized who saved them.

Levi, despite the amount of strain his new, painful body must be giving him, gave her a warm smile.

"...Good work."

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The AA gun turret, the last line of defense of the Ölüm mine, finally collapsed, before blowing to bits, sending shrapnel and fire everywhere.

It was a horrible sound that shook the mine. But to the slaves, it was the sound of victory.

Few hours later

Level 50 - bottom of the sinkhole

Back in the bottom of the mine, the machinery was finally put to a stop. The conveyor belt, the incinerator, and even the lights were put out, as there was no use of it anymore.

The one shutting them out was the last person left in the mine, a small human whose hair was poorly shaved off, and wore the clothing taken from the dead. His once youthful face was now filthy, full of wrinkles and bags under his eyes. His eyes were hollow, and yet, a spark of emotion was resurrected.

The entire time he was watching from below, sitting on the mountain of corpses and trash. He heard the sounds of blaster fire and death, but no one had fallen to the bottom, save for an occasional unfortunate soul or a Pyke or a Zygerrian.

Then, a loud explosion echoed all the way down to the bottom, before there was silence, followed by cheering. That could only mean one thing:

It was over.

Instead of celebrating or crying, he just grabbed a bag of clothing he prepared ahead of time, and slowly began making his way up to the upper levels.

Just before he went up the elevator, he grabbed a large canister of fuel he extracted from the incinerator. Dropping the bag and the canister, he pushed the button, and the elevator began going up.

*Click!*

That was the sound of a digital camera being used by none other than Mugabo, who had his old camera in his hand that he had been given to by his father back when he was a child. Being always fascinated with photography, he wanted to follow the footsteps of his father's journalistic career.

Right now, he was following his dreams by taking pictures of the aftermath of the Ölüm Uprising, with its success that has cost a lot of lives. The Rwandan stood over a group of corpses that were bare and the bones of slaves who may have already died of exhaustion or starvation, a death he had seen way too often. He then turned around to two men who were busy helping a dying man up from the ground but got spotted by one of them.

"Why are you taking pictures of us?" the slave reacted quite angry to the Rwandan. "What's wrong with you-"

"Leave it." His friend said, not wanting to waste time, and told Mugabo, "Go on and take pictures, see what savagery these animals did to us."

"... Will do, will do." Mugabo promised them as he turned around and continued to walk around and took more pictures.

*Click!*

One of the entrances where the ten slowest slaves were hung by their necks.

*Click!*

A group of surviving slaves who were seen leaving the tunnels.

*Click!*

Of a group of armed slaves who were seen praying over the dead body of two covered young people.

*Click!*

A young woman who looked directly into the camera with tears, and was close to death's doorstep, her bones being dangerously visible.

*Click!*

The last picture he took was from a person trying to help up another person, who looked dangerously skinny, with his ribs being visible and his arms frail and thin. A frightening look was on the guy's face as he watched in the camera with a painful expression of shock.

That last picture was hard for Mugabo to take, but he did take it.

*Click!*

"Mugabo!"

The African turned around, and saw it was Zeb who was looking for him. "Do you still have enough room for some pictures?"

He nodded. "Yes, why?"

"We need to take pictures of what we've found in Sector 12." Zeb told him grimly. "It's bad."

"How bad?"

"Come see for yourself."

Sector 12 - The Red Paw

It's been a few hours ever since the Uprising ended, and yet, the nightmare didn't seem to be over for those who have seen what had been happening inside the laboratories the scientists left in a hurry.

Tarik and the recently arrived Hera and Adrik were staring at the only building that was lit on fire. None of their comrades were responsible for this fire, since they had just arrived there.

Inside were the charred remains of the dead slaves, who were locked inside the building. Their burnt corpses were being dragged out by volunteers, placed down to the other dead slaves that were shot to death next to a wall.

What was strange was that those slaves weren't shot by blasters. They were slain with slugthrowers instead, judging by the small, yet fatal open wounds on their heads/chest.

"I don't understand this…" Hera was beyond words. "Why do all of this?"

"I guess a place evil like Ölüm just breeds more evil…" Tarik said bleakly. The green Twi'lek turned to him.

"Are you sure you didn't find any survivors?"

The Texan shook his head. "They tried to cover up their tracks. Thankfully, one managed to survive by staying in the cold room."

He pointed at the entrance of the big facility, where Joseph was seen comforting and trying to talk to an armless woman. She was in a wheelchair, with her severed arms lying on her lap. Despite them being separated from her body, her arms were still cradling a small bundle of blankets that she refused to part from.

"What's in her arms?" Hera asked, the cruel question no one wanted to answer.

"... Something else we found next to her," Adrik finally said. He refused to say any thing else.

"Where's Mugabo with the camera?"

"Over there."

Coming out walking the facility was the Rwandan with Zeb walking next to him. He gave the camera to the Lassat, before he suddenly spilled his guts out on the floor.

"Guess he saw it all." Adrik noted grimly, before bringing back the big topic. "Okay, enough time wasted, how many are still in the mines?"

"Not many, only a few hundred, plus the wounded that are waiting to be moved." Hera informed them. "Bellatrix and Idel are waiting for us."

"What about Naruto? I heard he survived the explosion." Tarik asked. "Where is he?"

"He's with Levi." Hera's heart sunk by saying it. "Comforting him with Sabine."

Ölüm - Entrance

Most of the former-slaves had already left the spice mines, fleeing into the deep forest with whatever they could take with them that would aid them with their survival. This left a rather small group of a thousand former-slaves remaining at the liberated mine. Some of those slaves didn't stay by choice, due to them being too injured to go anywhere. The injured were being moved with a confiscated repulsor cart for faster and easier transport.

On one of those carts laid a dying Levi Laskov, who seemed to be partially transforming back to his human self. His sagging, torn, and burnt skin was still pale white, and his breathing was weak and ragged.

Surrounding the dying hero were Sabine, Bellatrix, his sister Idel, and Naruto, whose face was covered in bandages. They all chose to stay by his side, comforting him as he laid there dying.

"I'm...not going to make it…" Levi breathed out. "Am I?"

His words fell onto deaf ears, with no one willing to answer his question. Idel in particular was struggling to not burst into sobs, biting her lip so hard she drew blood. It was a cruel fate, for her to just discover that her brother was alive, only for him to be taken away from her.

"It's...okay. I have...no regrets," Levi gave them a weak smile. "At least we're...free. That's...what matters…"

"S-Shut up, you moron," Idel said bitterly as tears escaped her eyes.

"There's no shame in crying, sis. No need to hold back."

"How can you be so calm? You're DYING?!" she shrieked, blood and tears pooling down her face. Whatever else she wanted to say died in her throat as she kept holding back strangled sobs. His relaxed composure now frowning, he struggled to lift his gigantic hand, gently placing it over hers, which now looked so small and fragile.

"Because I'm not foolish like I was back then, sister. You know that." He gave her a warm smile in between dry coughs.

Unable to take it anymore, Idel stood up. "I-I need to look after the others."

She quickly walked away, leaving behind a trail of tears. Bellatrix moved to try to stop her.

"Idel, wait-"

"Leave her be," Levi coughed. "Just...be there for her."

Bellatrix nodded, and gave chase to the Israeli woman, leaving the dying man with the two youngsters.

"Levi, your sister is-"

"I know my sister, Sabine. She's...not good with emotions," Levi calmly replied. "Just...promise me that she gets through all this, alright? Can you make sure she goes back home to Earth. Can you...promise me?"

Sabine just nodded, unable to say anything, else she would burst into tears as well.

"Good, good…" Levi then turned to Naruto, who stared back at him mournfully through his uncovered right eye.

"Naruto…" he reached out his large hand to Naruto, who took it with both hands. "You're one tough kid, you know that? One of a kind."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you, man. I appreciate it."

"You've got one helluva future ahead of you, kid. You're a natural leader, you know that? Can you...can you promise me that you'll lead our people? And...can you promise me that you'll take care of your lover?"

Sabine's lips twitched into a sad smile. She used to be teased by Levi in the past about her relationship, since he was one of the first ones to figure it out by himself.

"I guess you know about us, huh?" Naruto chuckled. "Were we that obvious?"

"It wasn't hard, you know that? You two...were always at each other's throats, then one day, you just made up." Levi let out a hoarse laugh. "You two don't know how alike you are. I think...you were destined to be with each other."

Naruto and Sabine's hands intertwined as they looked at each other in the eyes, smiling sadly at this.

*Cough!* *Cough!* *Cough!*

The tender moment was cut short when Levi began coughing violently, spraying blood all over his bare chest.

"Shit...I guess my time's shorter than I thought," he groaned, before he turned back to his blond friend. "Naruto?"

"Yeah, Levi?"

"I-I need you...to promise me one more thing," the dying man said with all the energy he had left.

"What is it?"

"Don't...don't let your anger take hold of you…" Levi managed to breathe out. "I...don't know how your power works, but...if it's anything like what I think it is...don't...don't let your anger control you. Anger...Anger's a strong tool...just-just make sure you stay as its master."

Naruto nodded solemnly. It's true that the Dark Side was powerful, but...it was also addicting. And a part of him was scared to use it again. Sure, those Zygerrians were straight up bastards, but what if Sabine got in the way…?

"Of course, Levi. I'll...I'll be sure to stay in control."

"Good...man. Good...man."

Levi closed his eyes with a sigh, and his large hands went limp. Naruto closed his eyes as he bowed his head, still holding onto Levi's hand.

Sabine, meanwhile, was not as reluctant to shed her tears, with two, wet trails of sadness standing out from her dusty face, before she wiped it away.

Naruto said nothing as he pulled a blanket over the man's mutated body. Once he was done covering his friend, he uttered a phrase Levi once taught him.

"Shalom Haver - Goodbye, friend."

Standing back up, Naruto saw that the others were coming towards them.

"Sabine, mind taking the body with you? I'll inform the others."

Sabine nodded slowly, pushing the repulsor cart mindlessly while Naruto talked over to Tarik, Adrik, Zeb, Hera, and the others. They all looked at the cart, and their faces went grim.

"Don't tell me-"

"Yeah...he's gone…" Naruto answered blankly. Hera gave him a hug to try to ease his pain.

"At least he's not suffering anymore," Tarik said numbly. "We'll give him a proper funeral once we're off the site."

"You sure we have time for that?" Adrik asked. "Don't take this the wrong way, but we don't know when they'll send more men after us. On top of that, he's not the only dead one."

"That's why we'll do it deep in the woods," Tarik added. "...If that's okay with you."

"...Da, no problem." Adrik sighed. He wanted so badly to just retreat into the forest now, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep if he didn't help give their friends some proper respect.

Just then, one of their men ran up to them, who was panting like a dog.

"Boss, I've got a message for you." This grabbed all of their attention, who didn't like the tone of the messenger's voice.

"It's from Jimmy; he gathered all our prisoners onto the 1st landing platform."

This earned a mixture of reactions. Some of their eyes widened. Some of their eyes narrowed into a glare. And the others...looked downright murderous.

"How many?" Tarik demanded.

"A few dozen - some Pyke guards, a couple of Zygerrian slavers, and even a few collaborators - including the rat."

"Marrok?" Ibrahim asked.

"Him, and two others," the former slave confirmed. "Nathan and the big Wookie are there too. They're waiting for you to come decide their fates…"

The Texan did not hesitate and answered. "Let's go."

"NOOO!"

They all turned to see Idel crying over the body of her deceased brother. Sabine and Bellatrix were already by her side, trying to support her, while Joseph was seen praying for the man.

"Hera, please go help them out," Tarik said, pointing to Idel. "Afterwards, I need you and Zeb to lead the remaining people into the woods."

"Alright," Hera nodded, walking past the others. "Zeb, you're with me. You too, Naruto-"

"I'm going with Tarik," Naruto interrupted as he looked up to Hera. "I'll stay with them, if it's good with you."

The glances that were exchanged in between the group of freed slaves somehow turned into a curious standoff, with everyone wondering what the reaction would be. Eventually, Zeb broke the short lived silence by asking, "Are you sure, kid?"

"I need this." Naruto answered shortly. "I need to see this."

"...Okay, I get it," Hera agreed, and turned to the others. "We'll see you guys in the forest, don't take too long."

"We won't. Now let's go deal with this," Tarik said, beginning to walk back to the mine. "On me…"

The group split into two, with one group going to the convoy, while the others heading back to the mine. This was witnessed by the soon-to-be leaving convoy of slaves.

One of those slaves was the spy Maroi, who could only watch as he saw the group of armed men walk back to the mine.

"We're leaving," someone yelled, before blowing into a stolen flute.

*WHEEEET!*

Ölüm - Landing Platform

Underneath the wing of a destroyed Freighter ship, a crowd of armed, former-slaves, of whom the majority were Earthlings, was assembling with whatever equipment they could find, as they now were busy watching the captives of their successful uprising that has left these prisoners at their mercy.

Among those armed rebels was the short, young man who finally made his way up to the top level with his container that he had taken with him. He slowly made his way through the crowd to see what was happening.

*WHEEEET!*

The whistle caught everyone's attention, including the prisoners who were forced to sit on the ground. They were the former overseers of Ölüm, including the Zygerrian slaver Vatik, who had yet again miraculously survived his wounds, but was now out of luck, now a prisoner to those who he had tormented. Sitting beside him was a silent Vash and the unfazed Zykol, who both said nothing.

They both were badly beaten by the slaves, especially Zykol, whose eyes were swollen and covered in cuts from the explosion he survived. Compared to the short Zygerrian, however, he was the perfect picture of health. The "Little Bastard" (as the former slaves mockingly dubbed) somehow survived all the stab and slash wounds, although whatever luck he might've had before was now out as he was being judged by those he tried to trample on. His once sadistic smile was now gone, replaced with humiliation and fear.

Then there was Marrok - the traitor that sold out his friends. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't beaten half to death, but that didn't help the man feel any better, who was sweating out whatever fluids his body had left by now, paralyzed under the hundred eyes of hatred from the armed freed slaves.

He knew his time was over - he was just wondering what they were waiting for.

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

This made the yellow Twi'lek flinch.

"Move! Out of the way!" Jimmy and Chewbacca made their way through the armed crowd with a scavenged weapon they found in the Umbrella weapons cache: a M249 B light machine gun that Chewie was currently holding.

"Aim for their stomach, Chewie, give them a slow death."

Then in a matter of seconds, the other slaves started preparing for the ultimate by aiming their blasters or even Earth weapons on the prisoners - some even started pulling up their knives or pikes and pointed at them.

"Wait!"

Running in and stopping the anger-fueled mob was Nathan, holding his blood-covered meat cleaver as he began shouting at them.

"Are you all crazy?! You want to just kill them?" Nathan yelled with his blade scaring some of the captives with his openly called threats. "They don't deserve that, they should die slowly!"

It was then that Marrok stood up. "Kill-Kill them! They-They're the slavers! They-They forced us to give you guys up!" he stammered, pointing at himself and the two other traitors: a fellow Twi'lek and Zabrak. "They put us up to it-"

"Sit down!" Nathan threatened them with his knife. "SIT DOWN!"

The three of them fell onto their rears, with Marrok continuing to babble about his innocence.

"They made us do it! Please spare us! Please understand!"

His pleas fell onto deaf ears, and even infuriated the others, who were disgusted by their cowardice and treachery.

"You cowards! You're worse than these slavers!" the green Mirialan woman spat at them, pointing her makeshift pike at them. "At least we knew what to expect from these scum-suckers! You're fucking cowards! Fucking backstabbing assholes!"

It was then when the woman finally stopped yelling that Tarik, Adrik, Ibrahim, and Naruto finally made their way through the mob. Tarik and Adrik stood in the front, while Naruto and Ibrahim stood behind, each standing next to the gun Chewie had aimed at their prisoners.

For a moment, there was nothing but tense, solemn silence. Everyone stood still, waiting for someone to say something. It was Adrik that finally spoke...

"Highest rank, now."

The prisoners realized that the demand was for them, but none of them spoke or stood up...until Marrok decided to do so.

"Z-Zykol Vlon. H-He's second in command of D'Nar. He was in charge of the arrest operation."

"Shut up, Marrok."

"But-"

"Shut up and sit back down." Zykol calmly ordered the informant, and stood up, stumbling a little from the loss of blood. Vash helped him get up, and, not being able to see the insurrectionists, he didn't even bother to raise his head up as he asked, "As you can see, I am unable to see who is who, so can I know who's standing in front of me?"

Adrik and Tarik exchanged glances, before Adrik answered, "Adrik Yahontov and Tarik Karim, with our two lieutenants, Ibrahim Rida and Naruto Uzumaki."

That last name got Vatik to raise his head up, realizing that the boy was standing there behind the leaders. He was the one with half his face covered in bloody bandages, with his one visible eye just staring at him in blank indifference. No words were given as the leaders continued to speak.

"I see, you're the leaders we were supposed to round up," Zykol said in a defeated tone. "I was supposed to be there with Vash on the orders of D'Nar who knew about it."

"How did you know? Did you have any other leads to our plan?"

"No, not until your former brother Marrok and those two others spilled the beans," Zykol admitted. "He told us everything, including every single location of the secret tunnels, although we were too late by the time we got there."

"I knew we had a rat problem, but I didn't think it'd be you," Adrik glared at the three squealers, with Marrok in particular beginning to sweat buckets.

"Where's D'Nar?" Tarik demanded. "Clearly, he left you in charge, but nobody reported seeing him. Where is he?"

"As if we're going to tell you, you worthless scum," Vatik spat out. "You can all-"

"Shut it, Vatik!" Zykol sneered at him into silence. "No one told you to speak."

"You-"

CLICK!

The sound of Chewbacca setting his light machine gun to fully automatic shut everybody up in an instant. This was followed by a woman, who was pointing a Kalashnikov rifle at them. If Vatik paid further attention to her face, he would've noticed that she was one of his recent victims.

"I'd shut my mouth if I were you, punk," Adrik snarled at them. "All of us here would love to kill you, and it's up to you whether or not you get to live, or you get to die slowly."

Zykol let out an audible gulp as he did his best to not panic. His eyes went to their guns, and decided to make light conversation. "I heard about your weapons from Earth. Quite rare around here if you ask me, although we know those guns as slugthrowers."

"Then you'd know just how much it hurts to get shot by one of these," Adrik stated emotionless to the overseer. "Unlike a blaster shot, it won't just leave you with a little burn. Instead, these rounds will tear through your muscle and bones, and by the time it gets infected, you'll wish it was just a blaster burn." This got some of the prisoners to try to shrink their heads into their bodies in fear. "Now, if you don't want to start digging out pus and broken bones for a little hunk of metal, I suggest you start being the rat by telling us where's D'Nar?"

Zykol let out a defeated sigh. "He's at the Yagura Royal Palace. He's probably stuffing his face at a feast with the royal family."

While the prisoners were being interrogated, a short, young man with a jerry can full of fuel made his way past the others, who joined the leaders that stood in front of the slavers as he continued to watch.

"Are you sure?"

"There's nowhere else to go on this blasted planet," Zykol confirmed, before sitting back down onto his rear. Vatik, however, was not so calm and collected.

"Spineless bastard," Vatik spoke in protest that was followed by insults against him. "A typical Pyke, coward, sellout!"

"You…"

Everyone stopped when the boy began trembling, his hands curling into fists as tears pooled down his face.

"You're the one...who ordered their deaths... It was you...It was you…"

Everyone turned towards the little boy. Most didn't recognize him, but Naruto had an uncomfortable feeling that he's seen this one before.

"Hey, are you-"

"Fuck off, kid, like I give shit who your parents were," Vatik said, spitting as far as he could, before he turned to the others with no fear in his eyes as he continued. "As a matter of fact, I don't care for what happens now. Go on, filthy humans."

"Why all the hate?" Tarik asked suddenly. "We've never even met your people before, and yet, you seem to hate us anyways. Why's that?"

"You really want to know?" Vatik growled. "It's because you lot think you're so special, spreading your kind everywhere, thinking you're so high and mighty. Well guess what? You're not the only one who can take what they want. And unlike you hairless freaks, we're not so weak and fragile."

"Vatik, shut up-"

"Listen," Adrik said out loud to the others to hear. "Listen carefully."

The Zygerrian took it as his cue and continued on with his rant.

"Out of all the humans I've ever seen, you Earthlings are by far the lowest of the low your race has to offer. Your lot were so pathetic that you've barely mastered space travel, and yet, you have the audacity to feel like you're king of this universe? I promise you, even if you survive this wretched planet, my people will make you hairless primates understand your place as lower class filth."

This earned him a thousand glares. Much to his surprise, they didn't start yelling or screeching or spitting like the monkeys they were.

"Wait!" Marrok, the traitor, stood right back up and began to speak. "He's the one who said all of this, not us! We're not Zygerrians, WE'RE NOT ZYGERRIANS!"

The Twi'lek dropped to his knees. "We're not Zygerrians! We're not Zygerrians! Please have mercy! Forgive us! We're not Zygerrians! We're not Zygerrians!" Marrok's despairing pleas were falling on deaf ears as Nathan walked next to him and stopped right next to Adrik.

"Not Zygerrians, not Zygerrians!" the Canadian shouted angrily, before turning back to the Twi'lek. "Have you forgotten what these dogs did?!"

"They're degenerates! They should be killed!" Marrok pointed at the slavers but directed the attention back to himself with the other two informants. "But we're not Zygerrian! We're not, we're not, we're not…"

"Then what are you, you filthy snake?!"

"They made us do it! They made us do it! We're not Zygerrians! we're not Zygerrians!, we're not Zygerrians!" Adrik's eyes turned to where the boy stood with the jerry can for the moment and made eye contact with him, nodding at his wordless message. This made Naruto raise an eyebrow.

"Death to the slaving bastards! Make them pay!" Marrok made his final pleas. "Kill them, KILL THEM!" he ended with the begging tone he was giving them, pushing out as many tears as he could.

Adrik's cold look made him lose whatever hope he had left.

"You'll pay the same way as them, sooner or later." His eyes turned back to where the orphan stood, and the signal was given.

THUD!

The dirt-covered orphan slammed down his jerry can, its contents sloshing around inside, making Marrok and the others flinch and look at each other with fearful looks.

It was then that chaos broke out.

"Give it to me!" They quickly turned on each other, with the Little Bastard and Vash trying to grab the jerry can from the informants who just simply pushed them away, with Vash forced to fight against one of the informants while Marrok quickly began to open up the fuel can.

"Get off me!"

"Him first! Him first!"

"I'm one of you, please!" one of the collaborators attempted, before being thrown back by one of the Pykes into fighting while Zykol was caught in between the struggle of another two former overseers fighting. Screaming, yelling, crying, fighting and shouting, it became an amusing show for the former slaves.

"Please!"

"Stop!"

Marrok was frantically pouring and spraying everyone with the liquid fuel, especially Vatik, who stood up and tried to lean against the wall. He coughed as some fuel splashed against his face.

The former slaves just stood back and watched the show with either disgust at how low they showed themselves to be after acting superior, but for most part, they just glared in silence at their former torturers.

It was then that Marrok finally emptied the gas can. Throwing it aside, he frantically turned around, demanding for a match.

"Make way!" Everyone turned to look at someone running through the crowd. The crowd quickly gave him space, the man was carrying a burning torch in his hand!

It was then that someone finally snapped.

"ENOUGH!"

Someone from within the crowd began firing her Kalashnikov rifle, unleashing her anger onto the slavers.

POWPOWPOWPOWPOW!

Then two other men with similar AKs began firing into the prisoners, joining in the slaughter using only slugthrowers. Dozens quickly joined the execution, being more than happy to unleash their months of rage onto the men kneeling before them.

"RAWGH!" Chewbacca roared as he joined in, holding the feel, sound, and smell of his LMG as it effortlessly cut down their prisoners.

POW! POWPOWPOW! POW! POW! POW!

The gunfire and muzzle flashes seemed to go on forever, until everyone simultaneously stopped, if only because they ran out of ammo and because the barrels were smoking dangerously from overuse. The screams and pleads finally died down, much to their desire of revenge that was not fulfilled.

Laying before them was a group of corpses. Most were dead, while the less fortunate were still dying, with moans and gasps of pain beginning to replace the deafening sound of vengeance.

By some miracle, Marrok was able to slowly move his head back up, desperately holding onto the thread of life-

BANG!

Everyone looked and saw that it was Tarik who fired the last shot, with his SIG P226's barrel smoking. A quick shot to the traitorous Twi'lek's head ended his miserable existence, with some of his fellow Twi'leks giving him brief glances of sympathy.

"We're done here," Tarik said grimly, holstering his pistol. "We've wasted enough time. Everyone to the woods!"

"You heard him - move out!"

Slowly, all the armed men and women slowly began leaving the scene and made their way off towards the exit, leaving the bodies for the flies to feast on.

They ignored the ones who stood still, still watching the corpses in shock or anger. One of them was the one man who was holding the burning torch, who was unsatisfied at their undeserved swift deaths. Spitting at their corpses, he dropped the torch onto the wet ground, extinguishing the flames that represented his hatred.

The hatred for this place.

Ölüm was a death factory, littered with the dead, the dying, and the walking corpses.

There were those who starved to death.

There were those who were beaten to death.

Worked to death.

It didn't matter how they died, and neither did the flies.

Ölüm might've been a hole full of resources, but to the people, it was nothing but a red graveyard. All Ölüm had for them was a mountain of corpses of those who didn't make it out alive.

Ölüm was a death factory.

That was the thought shared by all, especially by Naruto Uzumaki. He was one of the few that remained to watch the corpss getting swarmed by the many bugs that were attracting to it. He noticed that there was a small child who stayed behind, looking down at something.

"You alright?" Naruto called out, slowly approaching him. The closer he got, the more he began to recognize the child. This one was the child that was thrown off the platform with his mother and father!

Walking to his side, he saw that the boy was staring at a portrait of D'Nar, the slaver who took everything away from the two of them. Naruto raised an eyebrow as the boy pulled out a blaster pistol from his oversized jacket.

PEW!

A smoking hole appeared onto the painting, and the wound began to grow wet from the muddy water.

"Hey, you two, move it!"

Naruto turned to give them a look of warning.

"We'll catch up with you, just give us a minute," Naruto said as he turned back to the solemn boy, whose face was now warped into anger the longer he stared into the painting's eyes.

PEW!

He fired again into the portrait.

PEW!

Again, Naruto just watched how the boy kept on pulling the trigger, with his face becoming more filled with rage.

PEW!

The fingers tightened around the blaster and fired once again.

PEW!

It was then that he realized that he wasn't going to stop anytime soon. The blond let out a weary sigh.

PEW!

"Kid…"

PEW!

"Kid, listen-"

PEW!

"Listen, kid-"

PEW!

"Listen to me-"

"UGH-"

PEW!

The kid gritted his teeth.

"You got to stop now, this won't bring-"

PEW!

Naruto reached his arm out.

"Kid-"

PEW!

"LISTEN TO ME!" Naruto snapped. "WHAT YOU'RE DOING DOES NOT HELP!"

The kid said nothing, but he stopped pulling the trigger. Letting go of the gun, he fell onto his knees as Naruto knelt beside him, the two of them staring at D'Nar's ruined painting. The boy slowly turned around to look at the older boy in the eyes, which was full of sadness and fatigue.

"Your parents are gone, kid. No matter how angry you get, they'll never come back," Naruto told the boy. "But they wouldn't have wanted you to give in to this hate. No, use that energy to get stronger. To make sure that this doesn't happen again to other little girls and boys out there. Can you promise your parents that?"

The kid said nothing, but his eyes began to water as his lips began to quiver.

"It's over…"

The boy fell into Naruto's chest, hugging his body as he began to sob. The little boy broke down as he finally allowed himself to cry once again.

(Mozart - Lacrimosa)

Naruto said nothing as he looked around him, watching his remaining brothers and sisters move out of this hellhole. He slowly looked up at the sky as he allowed a tear to leave his own eye as he allowed him to feel happy and sad.

Happy how he survived. Happy how they finally won their freedom. Happy how most of his friends survived.

Sad, because only half of Ölüm's slaves had survived the uprising.

The Kessel Forest

The survivors of Ölüm moved as fast as they could through the deep, lush forest. Despite the fact that their time was limited, they were all guilty of slowing down a little to enjoy the greenery and the crisp, fresh air. Nonetheless, they all kept on marching deeper and deeper into the vast green land in search of the others.

In the back was the African Mugabo, who looked back a few times until he saw somebody run to catch up.

It was Naruto, who was carrying a sleeping boy on his back.

No words were exchanged as Naruto finally caught up, who just wordlessly blended in with the others and kept on walking with the group into the forest. Despite their hard-earned victory, they all knew that they had no time to celebrate. For now, they had just one objective: Survive.

Survive the unknown that lies in these forests. Survive from what meager supplies they had left. Survive, until they made it to their objective in time.

They weren't certain what the future had in store for them. But one thing was certain: Their time in Ölüm was over.

That was it for this chapter, you guys don't know how much time this took to make. I hope you all liked it, and I see you next time.

Good day...