A shuttle pierced through the clouds above Porter and the rest of the Crisis Rescue Unit. They had all gathered in a circle in the middle of the battlefield, left alone by the majority of the other soldiers, save for the Brigadier General. All of the pilots were now outside their Goliaths and stood together, barely able to look at once another as Chase's unmentioned death weighed down upon each of them. Sigma watched with curiosity before focusing on the approaching vessel. He already knew its occupants, understand everything about it and where it had come from, through nothing more than a cursory glance. Sometimes, even his own computer brain astounded him.

The ship landed next to the group, kicking up the loose top layer of snow and swirling it around the hull of the machine. The door opened on the side and Mr. Shotuku stepped out, gathering his robe up around him as his frail body shuffled forwards on the ground. He hardly had enough weight to sink into the white powder, his black slippers leaving soft imprints behind each step he took. He was soon followed by Gretta, who poked her head out slowly at first before leaping out of the vessel, and she was succeeded by Rick, who sipped a cup of tea calmly as though he were in the middle of a mansion and not the remnants of a devastating war.

"Hello students." When Shotuku spoke, the rest flinched anticipating punishment. His presence alone reminded them even more of their failure to keep Chase alive, of the mistakes they had made during the fight that had cost one of them their lives. They had never really trained for dealing with death. "I thought if you're going to make life-changing decisions, you may want your teacher to come along, and perhaps a mechanic to keep things in order." Gretta waved from behind Shotuku, her body slowly sinking into a soft patch of snow.

"How did you know?" Porter narrowed his eyes at the professor, increasingly wary of those he once trusted.

"Perhaps I can answer that," Marian cut in, descending from his Goliath as it knelt down to let him exit.

"Better yet, let me." Sigma waved to silence everyone else, his mind already hacking through the controls of Marian's warship, spinning it around and drawing it in close, having it begin to deploy dropships to gather up the Goliaths and the students. "I have some interesting choices to make in my life now, and I may want to start by helping grant Porter his wish, with the blessing of his teacher of course." Shotuku only nodded in answer, the android and elder having gained a common understanding between them.

* * * * *

"I want an explanation," Porter demanded, muttering it through closed lips. They had all been gathered into one of the meeting rooms that Marian traditionally used to address his soldiers. Gretta and Rick had been left outside, with Gretta assigned to begin repairs on the battlesuits and Rick serving as a bodyguard to make sure the discussions remained uninterrupted.

Sigma, Marian, and Shotuku all stood at the front of the room, almost as if they were on trial before the students. It was Marian who responded first. "There were no orders granted to authorize any of you being at this battle. It was Shotuku who sent you down here, for a variety of reasons I can only guess at. But I can explain the gaps in the Enigma Project and the attacks by the Jahari from what I know."

"As I am sure you all figured out," Marian continued, "the man who was killed out there, Christian, was a member of the Enian Federation as one point, or maybe never, we aren't really sure. It was initially his idea, through much research, to attempt to draw out the Jahari and use them as a weapon against the other nations. It took a lot of convincing, but it was Kaiser Namio himself who authorized the first expeditions deep underground to search for them." Marian's eyes shifted over towards Nami, gauging her reaction, but the girl did not meet his gaze, staring at her feet instead. "Upon discovering their existence, we realized we would need a weapon that would threaten them to keep them in line. Our deal with them would be simple: we trade Sigma, and they trade the Jahari armies."

"If Sigma is that powerful, why not just..." Ardwen started a question before Marian shook his head.

"Sigma is not that powerful, unfortunately. The Jahari armies are just too big for a single Enigma Soldier to handle. However, Sigma has multiple devices in place that can inhibit many of their functions and potentially disrupt their forces, though it seems Christian had another idea for the Enigma Soldiers entirely. Beyond that, if we could manufacture a single Enigma Soldier, we could scare the Jahari into thinking we could mass produce them. In the past, when the first atomic bomb was invented and dropped, the country they dropped them on surrendered, fearing more would be dropped on them, when nobody actually had any more. We too, hoped to pull off a bluff against the Jahari."

"But you really did make others," Nami blurt out before immediately shooting her head back down and blushing.

"We did not. Many attempts were made at creating them, hundreds of test subjects were lost, and all of them failed, except for Sigma. It turned out that Syn was also functional, and was bartered to the Artisan Confederate by Christian, who must have been trying to play all sides to achieve the same goals. Thus, the Jahari obviously knew we were bluffing and lying when we said Sigma was the only Enigma Soldier, while the Artisans were saying the same thing about Syn. This may have prompted the attack by the Jahari, especially after Syn went on such a rampage to display his powers. In essence, all of the Jahari attacks were created out of our desire to put an end to the wars and conquer our enemies. Sigma and Syn were a byproduct of that plan, meant as insurance. Instead, Syn now roams free and declared a dream for a state of chaos in the world. I cannot imagine what he will create."

"But then why were we on the battlefield?" Porter's voice dropped low, a serious tone taking over his speaking that nobody else had ever heard before from him. "Why in the name of Ishiyama were we on Earth?" He slammed his fists down on his own knees, his torso shaking as he hung his head. Riya leaned over, placing her hand on his back and Ardwen patted the teen's shoulder, attempting to comfort him.

"There were many reasons to why you were on Earth," Mr. Shotuku responded with grace, unphased by Porter's outburst. "There were certain truths you needed to bear witness to, different experiences you all had to endure. Through them, you have all had your eyes opened to greater understanding in this world, though at a massive cost. It was always likely one of you would die sooner or later from your conflicts, and yet you never questioned them before. But this one brings you all pause? Still, the lessons have been learned and you have all chosen a new direction, have you not?"

"You can't be serious old man," Marian interrupted before any student could respond. "You are not only accepting these children wishing to defect but promoting it?"

"You could say," Shotuku answered, his eyes slowly moving to meet the general's, "that I orchestrated their desires."

"So you still believe don't you?" The Brigadier General did not respond as the rest of the room anticipated, seeming to understand Shotuku's actions instantly. "You're insane you know that?"

"You will not act against us will you?" Shotuku raised an eyebrow towards Marian but the general shook his head as his only reply.

"I know what you intend to do, and we may all have the same end goals, but with different approaches." Marian sat down alongside the pilots, his body suddenly showing some of his age. He appeared tired for the first time in a long time, exhaustion overtaking his face. "I owe you too many favours to step in now. Consider us even for me doing this."

Shotuku nodded before returning to addressing the students. "What have you all learned now about the world, and about war? What can you take away from these experiences at a personal level? How do you feel about the loss of a comrade? We have all experienced much in our life, some more than others. Some of us choose to shut our eyes and reject it, moving forward with a singular purpose. Others, like yourselves, have chosen to open your eyes to what you see, no matter how ugly, and will take a stand against it, will you not?" Nobody spoke in the room for some time. While nobody accepted Shotuku's words, nobody rejected them either, and that was enough for the old man.

"Then now where do we go?" Ardwen tried to figure out what was going on his brain, part of him still rejecting the idea of leaving behind the Enian Federation and rebelling, but most of him willing to commit to any lengths to have revenge against the world for the twisted lengths it was willing to go to in order to achieve horrific goals. "We can't return to the academy, nor do we want to, and we can't go anywhere in this country, or any other, without being prosecuted or captured."

Shotuku motioned to Sigma, who stepped forward to answer. "I have a solution to all of this. The elder Shotuku previously informed me of his hopes and plans and of the reaction that was most likely coming from all of you after this conflict, and he requested my help. Currently, I live on an island off the coast of the Artisan Confederate. It is otherwise uninhabited, relatively spacious, and can serve your needs as an escape from the rest of the world for now. The area has a scrambler around it projected by myself to prevent contact from outside sources, and this ship is en route to it." Sigma then turned towards Marian and bowed a little, shocking everyone. "I apologize but I have disabled the vessel's functions, including its tracking and communication. It will not record this trip, nor will you be able to communicate until I have returned it to the Enian Federation. None of the viewscreens onboard are functional to prevent any of your men from figuring out our location, and all of the exits are locked."

Marian rubbed his eyes as he listened, processing everything he was hearing. "So you kept me from killing the black chi user, you act as a mobile Jahari commander, and now you hijack my ship?"

"I apologize for the previous...troubles I caused. We all have reasons, and while I do not regret my actions, I understand they may have been wrong at the time."

"You're damn right they were wrong!" Marian nearly sprung out of his seat, held down only by a stare from Shotuku. "But I suppose I owe you one for keeping the black chi at bay," Marian grumbled before settling back down.

"Once on the island, you can remain as long as you like," Sigma finished, and he tried to watch Porter for a reaction. He could monitor the boy's vital signs, see his pulse, his body temperature, but he could not read his mind, and he would trade away all of his powers just to feel connected to his own brother.

The rest of the Crisis Rescue Unit turned to look at Porter, waiting for a response. "If you will all follow me," Porter began, still keeping his head down while he spoke, "then you may follow me against everything we once believed in. We may have to fight with those we once considered our countrymen, and we may kill them. It is entirely possible we fight against not just the Jahar, but against every institution of war that exists in the world. Do you all understand that?"

Sigma stepped back in awe, his head suddenly pounding as it swirled with memories of Allyson, of the Red Scarf Gang and the many rebellions they had tried to incite. In that moment, Leif was staring at Allyson, not Porter, and it took all of his effort to keep himself from throwing his body on to Porter to try and prevent him from talking, from doing such dangerous things. Allyson he had already lost, and he was not ready to lose a brother he had only just discovered. But he understood that Porter was an independent person, something he had never see in Allyson until he had lost her to a robotic brain. It would be Porter who chose the danger in his own life.

The students all murmured agreements to stand with Porter, each equally unsure of where the future would take them, but all of them resolute in the idea of fighting for what they now believed to be right. The ship rumbled a little as it began to slow, approaching its destination and the new home for the Crisis Rescue Unit.

* * * * *

"Incredible, wasn't it?" Sigmeund sat on the shoulder of his Goliath, looking over at Goulet who was doing the same on his own battlesuit. Only Ronald and Grimsley remained inside their Goliath, able to hear everything being said between the two generals. All of them had watched what had unfolded between Syn and Christian and had seen Porter and Sigma join Marian on the warship, had overheard the conversation to rebel and never return to the Enian Federation.

A portion of Grimsley was surprised at hearing the students rebel, but the rest of him was not. He had given up on trying to find truth in the world some time ago, when he had first seen the Jahari emerge, and when Goulet had begun to explain to him the many facets of the world, the different sides to every story. All Grimsley cared about now was protecting his family, protecting Raven and Aunt Shauna and Gretta. He had seen his sister for a moment, watched her board onto a shuttle taking her away with Porter, and he knew she would still be safe. He trusted only them and Goulet, and he would follow Goulet to the ends of the Earth if he had to.

"You get too excited at such minor movements," Goulet replied to Sigmeund, taking a long drag from his pipe. "Nothing is guaranteed from their actions."

"But it still brings us a step closed does it not? All it takes is the first great leap of faith, and the rest is falling."

"Let them uncover the truth as they fall though, Sigmeund, don't push them down and add more weight."

Sigmeund burst out laughing as he visualized the concept. "It all falls into the plans. Shotuku will do the right thing with them."

"Of course he will, it's his idea is it not?"

Sigmeund stood up on his battlesuit, stretching and yawning as though he were bored. "Have to trust the old man in his decisions, so long as we come that much closer to setting the world free. Time to go isn't it?" Bring your pupil along."

"Wait!" A voice suddenly called out across the snow, and an Enian goliath approached the trio. It was an Exo-class battlesuit, absolutely normal in appearance and rank, but the voice behind it was gruff and spoke with a thick accent. "You understand yes?"

Sigmeund and Goulet exchanged a glance between the two of them, instantly recognizing the man. "Ochenkov," Sigmeund said, folding his arms across his chest as he smiled with amusement. "What can we do for you old friend?"

"Take with you. I come, I learn. Want to discover truth."

"You haven't changed at all have you?" Sigmeund scratched at his chin a bit, enjoying contemplating Ochenkov's request. "I won't stop you from following us. You did so much before with what little I gave you, and showed quite a lot of passion. If you really want to know the truth, then walk with us, see the new world. You can watch how it all unravels with us."

With that, Sigmeund slid down the chest of his Goliath, compartments opening across the front to allow him entry. Goulet did the same, and Grimsley began to move his Goliath, as the four set out together into the world.

A/N: Secrets begin to reveal themselves as a new chapter unfolds in the story of Sigma/Star. The academy is no more, and the students will have to learn on the fly to combat a whole new enemy: the Enian Federation!