Chase's limb flopped to his side. His left arm seemed to be out of the equation now for this scrap but he was thankful that he was at least a little stronger with his right anyways. The enemy, Sergeant Jericho, wasn't backing down for a second but he hadn't made a move to intercept Chase. The two combatants understood the rules of the gentleman's fight, even if Chase had never been considered a gentleman or anything remotely close to that classification in his entire life.

Jericho made the next strike, lunging but suddenly ducking and throwing a low jab. Chase fell for the trickery but didn't try to move and dodge the blow. Something was taking over his usual arrogance, something very unfamiliar and foreign feeling. Seemed almost like responsibility.

He had to stand up and take every blow. Everything inside of him wanted him to win this battle but if he had to he would endure a loss if it meant stalling enough for Nami to be saved and for everyone else to win. For the first time in Chase's life, he was willing to make himself the sacrifice for the gain of the collective.

But this also had a personal bonus in it that Chase observed. With Jericho unloading a fist into the abdominal section of the "South Star" Chase was looking down at a prime opportunity to bring his elbow down on the enemy Goliath from above.

When he tried to though, the grizzled veteran rolled to the right and lashed out with his foot, clipping Chase's knee and causing the young pilot to wobble a bit but he maintained his balance. Something was working within Chase now, something he couldn't quite control or understand but it had him standing up to this foe, unconcerned with the physical beating he was taking. Another part of Chase didn't like that though.

It was a more arrogant part. Fine, he was going to be responsible, he would be a martyr and a hero, but at the same time he was Chase Rezel, renowned superstar of the academy, and there was no way in hell he was going to lose a fist fight to some past-his-prime enemy in a crappy Exo suit.

Jericho drove hard with his fists for a pair of haymaker punches, knowing quite well that Chase's dysfunctional limb wouldn't be able to stop him from the left side. The twin attacks collided hard with Chase's raised arm...his left arm. In the coolest fashion possible, Chase's head slowly turned to look at Jericho, whose Goliath couldn't reveal his slightly amused expression of surprise and admiration. The joint was still shattered at the elbow and yet there it was: Chase's arm was up, the undying spirit of the warrior in Chase bringing it back to life.

The young pilot could feel his passions channelling through his arms, flowing down into his hands and growing. It was like a tiny spark floating down onto a pile of oil-soaked kindling. The fire was now bursting out.

The South Star's fists ignited, enveloping in flames springing from within the metal and flickering up into the air. Chase looked out at his hands on the monitor in disbelief before a wicked grin crept up on his face. My turn, he thought.

Chase had unloaded six different blows before he even realized what was happening. Jericho's arms were crossed in front of him, absorbing each of the fiery shots as they came. Chase's confidence rose with each punch and he leapt back of a retaliatory strike, sliding along the dust until his Goliath came to a stop. He dug in before lashing forward once more, this time going for a pincer punch (something he had invented himself) with one fist coming from above and another going for an uppercut.

Jericho's experience as a warrior still kept him from taking the full brunt of the blow as he back-stepped but the flaming weapons sheared down and up across the front of the Goliath, leaving a scorched trail of blackened metal.

Next would be the finale move, to bring both his hands together on the enemy's head, crushing it and winning instantly. Chase brought his arms up to catch Jericho coming out of the dodge move. They began coming together as Jericho's came up, catching both fists on either side of the veteran's head. He then threw his body forward into a head butt that collided with Chase's face, smashing both faceplates of the Goliaths and cracking some of their visual sensors, sending the two stumbling back.

"You're an impressive fighter," Jericho stated over the open broadcast communication.

"Yes, you're not too bad yourself," Chase answered, his breath coming in deep heaves within the cockpit of his device.

"B-but you're...you sound like just a child!" the sergeant exclaimed.

"Well this child still has another round in him old timer."

* * * * *

Raul watched the enemy Goliath hovering above and aimed his grappling hook up. The soldier swooped down for a strike that Raul just barely managed to avoid. The ninja quickly spun around as the opposing battlesuit took off into the air and the cable for the hook launched, chasing after the foe.

It caught in the centre of the enemy's back, digging into the metal frame and latching on and Raul had to leap in order to avoid being dragged along the ground. The cable started to reel in, bringing the two together, Raul finally closing in on some revenge for his beloved Nami.

He landed on the Goliath's back and the jets immediately began to sputter under the new weight before pushing harder to keep both afloat. There was no doubt about it though: the two were sinking in the air.

"This is for Nami you son of a bitch!" Raul smashed his fist down between the shoulder blades of the machine, causing their altitude to drop a bit towards the ground. In response, the Goliath veered to the right into a sharp circle, spinning over a few times but it was unable to shake Raul free.

Instead, Raul ended up twirling around to the front side of his enemy and the two began grabbing and pulling at each other. "Get off of me you stupid oaf or you'll kill us both!" Xiu screamed at Raul but the word's passed right through the student. He cared very little about his own life right now, only wishing to enact an execution on his foe.

The two exchanged punches, weak strikes that couldn't get much momentum in the small space and resulted in more of a shoving match, with each of them contesting for positioning in the air. Their slow descent continued during this, and without knowing, Raul had attracted the attention of Nami and Porter down below.

"No fair Porter, Raul is getting in on all the action. I want to get some revenge too!" The young girl sighted down her scope and her gun began following the two in the air. Porter shook his head at the always-perplexing Nami.

"Right, you seem to be doing fine then. I'm going to go and see if Riya and Ardwen need any help. It looks like something is approaching them pretty quickly." Without waiting for Nami's response, Porter was taking off across the expanse of wastes, feeling his speed increase with a little extra surge of electricity in his step.

In the air, Raul was tussling with Xiu still, trying to get a grasp to disable one of the jets. He reached up over his enemy's shoulder but a bullet shot through the air instead, smashing through the engine Raul was reaching for and detonating it. This explosion sent the two flying off into a new corkscrew.

"I got 'em Raul!" It was Nami's voice cutting through the noise of the detonation on the intercom. Raul thought for a moment his viewscreens identified Nami leaned against a rock formation a mile away but he was twisting so fast he couldn't be sure of anything.

"Thanks Nami, now it's my turn to finish this." Raul raised his right arm in the air, revealing the dagger that was now fully extended, and it glinted in the sunlight. The two were stabilizing now, entering into an angled descent that had Raul on top of the flying Goliath and poised to strike.

But before he could, another bullet came whizzing through the air, this one from a completely different angle, and it clanged off of Raul's weapon, breaking it out of its mounting and sending it harmlessly spinning through the air to land on the ground below.

Suddenly disarmed and bewildered, Raul spun his head around towards the source of the shot and saw the gleam of metal ducking back behind a cluster of stones in one of the nearby mountains. "Nami," Raul said. "We've got a sniper perched in the mountains. Sending you co-ordinates."

"Roger."

With that issue hopefully solved, Raul turned back to his foe but saw the ground coming up right beneath him and braced himself for impact, buckling down against the enemy soldier. The pair collided with the earth at such an angle that they ended up sliding out instead of impacting the ground too hard, shredding most of the jetpack and much of the Goliath's backside, and jarring Raul, almost lurching him from his seat in the cockpit. Thank god for the safety harness, he thought.

* * * * *

As the knight-Goliath lowered its sword for the charge, Ardwen shut his eyes but made sure to abruptly veer a little off to the left. The weapon struck off his right side, cutting a deep gash through his armour and tucking under his arm. The momentum of the assault pushed Mother Gaia back though as the loose soil around the dusty wastes proved to be excellent for sliding on.

"Take the shot Riya!" he shouted and was rewarded by hearing the Gatling gun on Riya's shoulder go off. The trouble was she was shooting from the same side as the enemy's shield and it was quickly raised to absorb the shots. "No Riya, you have to use your railgun!"

"I can't, not at this range." Ardwen opened his eyes to see Riya leaping back, trying to get as much distance as she could so she could use her more powerful weapon. The enemy commander watched this as well, and tried to pull out of Ardwen and go for Riya instead. Ardwen had to grab on to the battlesuit to try and hold it in place and almost ended up getting dragged along.

Again, Riya used her Gatling gun and more shells bounced harmlessly off the enemy's shield, but it kept the commander from moving while the Railgun charged and locked on. It wouldn't be much longer now, Ardwen thought. He would just have to endure a bit more. Already his Goliath was groaning and screaming back at him that it wasn't designed to try and hold such a powerful opponent in place like this.

Suddenly, the knight's shield shot up and clipped Ardwen in the head, knocking him back a step and creating separation. The shield came around again, this time colliding with Ardwen's left side and sending him careening to the right. Before he could stabilize, the enemy had lowered its shoulder and charged, ramming into Ardwen and shooting him backwards through the air, directly towards Riya.

Ardwen heard the girl's gasp before the two collided and continued falling back until they smashed up against the wall of a building on the edge of the town. Ardwen was in front of Riya now, with her pinned against a wall, and he didn't know if his battlesuit's joints were still working enough for him to move off of her.

But he had bigger issues. He looked up to see the enemy charging again, sword lowered and aimed directly for Ardwen's chest and he knew that his Goliath wasn't thick enough to stop the sword from running through both him and Riya. And it was poised to go right through their cockpits.

Cain wasn't thinking of anything but the kill. The juvenile move of the sacrificial soldier had hardly slowed him down. It was the well-armed one he had to fear, the one he had feared from the start, and so removing it was his primary concern. Giving him something to throw at it wasn't a good idea on the part of these Enian idiots. But how could they have known they'd be going up against a future general?

He was approaching now, almost there, ready for the final strike. Slide it through the cockpits and it would all be over. Perhaps afterwards they could salvage most of the remains, but the cockpits would never be the same after he was done with them. He pulled his arm back, ready to plunge in for the deathblow.

But Jericho's voice cut through his attack. "Sir, we're fighting children!" Cain was stunned for a moment, images of his wife flashing through his mind, of his newly born daughter sitting on her lap, then on his, smiling, looking in his eyes, laughing. Then he saw her inside these Goliaths.

The plunge was made. Ardwen closed his eyes, ready to accept death as the price of this failure. But it never came. The sword's strike had dropped to just under the cockpits, slicing through both Goliath's spinal systems. With the main connections severed, neither Ardwen nor Riya could move, but they themselves were alive and Ardwen let out an enormous breath of relief, only then realizing he had been holding his breath at all.

Porter saw the strike though and felt his red-hot fury leap up from his stomach. That bastard had just killed Ardwen and Riya. The attack, the approach, the ruthless execution, it had surely killed the two. He watched with tears in his eyes as the enemy Goliath withdrew its long sword, the blade dripping with the oils of the machines it had stabbed, and Porter was convinced some of the blood of his friends was mixed in all of that.

"You bastard!" he screamed over the public intercom and brought his twin blades down from above with a crack of thunder. To his shock, they were both halted by the enemy's shield, calmly raised up above the Goliath's head.

"I am Officer Cain of the Artisan Confederate. I order you to stand down and surrender immediately."

"Never!" Porter slashed again, only to be parried away by the sword. His lightning-fast strikes were being turned aside so easily but he couldn't care less at this point. He knew he was chipping away at the steel, just knew he was whittling away at the defense of Cain. He would kill him yet for this. If only he could see through his damn tears.

Cain knocked another blow aside, impressed by the youngster's tenacity and surprised to see the lightning flowing through his Goliath, striking the hull of the battlesuit from seemingly nowhere and rippling throughout the body. But there was no technique to this assault, only fury, and Cain could understand that considering what this boy had probably just seen Cain do to the other two. He couldn't have seen that Cain spared them.

However, there was no time for sentiments between the two. Cain parried once more with both sword and shield and stepped in near to the white Goliath, getting in between the two blades, too close for retaliation. He drove his sabre forth into the enemy's gut, spearing it just under the cockpit and, with Cain's tremendous strength, lifting it up into the air above the officer, the enemy impaled on the sword and dripping fluids down onto the battlesuit below.

* * * * *

Nami was sobbing. She watched from across the wasteland as Porter was beaten back and the weapon was driven through his chest. From here, she could barely see where it had gone through, probably into the cockpit, killing Porter. She had just been shooting at the sniper when she had turned to look and see how Porter was doing, only to find that awaiting her.

There was anger in her, yes, but that wasn't what came out on top instead. Anguish bubbled to the surface, and love. Love for all those around her. There was Raul, willing to fall from the sky to protect her. Or Chase, who decided to go alone to help Porter come save her. Or Ardwen, taking on the blows of the enemy so he could stall for time.

She loved them all in that moment, each one of the boys, and she knew she would always love them, regardless of her problems sorting through which one she loved the most. That was something she could decide later. For now she loved them all equally, and she would do anything she could to save them.

Nami took in a deep breath and leveled her rifle towards the knight-Goliath. Could she make this shot? She didn't think so. She couldn't get her rifle to aim properly from behind the rocks but didn't want to step out from under the shadow for the sniper to get her. Instead, she aimed her rifle a little off and fired, hoping the wind would curve the bullet somehow, not knowing where it would hit or what it would do, but just sending her love with it.

The young girl closed her eyes and felt her energy pour into that ballistic as it flew through the air. She saw it wasn't going straight and there was no wind to save her now. She just wanted this shot to hit so much, to show how much she loved them all.

That was when the bullet began to curve. At first it was a wobble, but then Nami felt it shift, her consciousness travelling with it through the air and guiding it over. Soon it was on a path towards her target and she dropped the projectile down a little in the air. She knew what she wanted to do if she could control it.

The shot, suddenly veered upwards as it approached, shearing straight through Cain's shoulder joint and then bursting out the other side, continuing upwards until it shot straight through the head, destroying most of it. With the sword-arm crippled, Porter dropped from the air and fell down in front of the commander, who teetered for a moment before falling back the other way. The head of the Goliath. What fools they had been when they made it the weak-point. The same as a human.

Nami smiled through the tears in a bit of satisfaction and collapsed against the rocks in exhaustion. Then a bullet tore through her own head and exploded, destroying that entire portion of her Goliath and rendering her useless. It shook through the cockpit and Nami realized she hadn't been moving the whole time, giving the sniper ample opportunity to line up a shot. She smacked herself in the head mentally, but felt herself closing her eyes. It had just been so tiring making that shot happen, and she just needed to rest now.

* * * * *

Raul stood up from the downed Goliath he had ridden into the ground. He had watched it all: Riya and Ardwen, Porter, now Nami. He knew from his own experience that the blows had not been fatal but they did nothing to quell his rising anger and he wasn't sure how he was going to contain it.

He looked over at Chase and saw the young man on his knees, with his enemy in the same position, the two of them having beaten each other into submission in the ultimate draw, leaving them both useless for combat. It was only Raul then, just him left. And the sniper.

The ballistic for Raul cut through the air like a hot knife. Raul could sense it before he could see it, his fury starting to take over and rule his body. He had put this away a long time ago, promising to never let it out again but now he felt he didn't have a choice.

A voice came to his mind, that of Mr. Shotuku and his lessons. "Control the rage," it said. "Fuse it with your serenity. Draw strength from it to mix with your control. And then use it against your enemy." Raul shut his eyes and drew from the wealth of anger nestled deep within him. He only needed enough, just enough, to win one more battle for today.

As the bullet neared, the Blue Blur stomped the dusty ground, kicking up a cloud that surrounded it. The projectile struck. And passed right through, parting the filthy air to reveal that Raul was missing completely. Ardwen watched from where he was stuck, baffled at what had happened. How could such an enormous machine just vanish in a bunch of dirt?

A breeze blew through the rocks where Alenichev was hiding. He had seen the shot pass through the empty air and was also confused as to what was happening. Then he felt the shuriken drive into the base of his Goliath's spine, shaking through his machine.

"We win you bastard," Raul whispered as he dragged the shuriken straight up, ripping through the enemy's back and then cutting the head clean in half. The lifeless battlesuit fell to a heap at Raul's feet. The pilot was alive, but the battle was finally over.

* * * * *

The Crisis Rescue Unit was gathered around near the outside of the town, each one removed from their broken Goliath, other than Raul's, whose warmachine was still fully functioning. The ship carrying Shotuku and Rick had landed finally with the area becoming safe and the two had joined the group. They all stood around looking at the four enemy pilots in front of them.

"I thank you deeply for sparing our lives," Cain said. The others nodded in agreement. "For such young warriors, you all show great maturity. And yet..." He paused to look out over them, a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. "...you are all spurned by the passionate emotions of youth."

"I've never taken prisoners before," Ardwen admitted. "I'm not really sure what to do." He directed the last part towards his teacher, as though he could provide an answer but Shotuku shook his head.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting to be taken hostage today, certainly not by a group of children," Cain answered. "Though I do find it so strange. This town is so small, so simple. It could hardly be housing very many supplies and besides, what is one little village compared to the hundreds of others I'm sure you have? So why here? Why does one of the Artisan army's top teams get sent over here, away from the theatre of war, and they're intercepted by such a talented group, who should also be at the battle themselves?"

The CRU looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to explain the captured man's thoughts. "There is only one explanation." It was Jericho, the elder of the hostages, with a face that looked as beaten as his machine. "We are being taken away somewhere else so we cannot interfere with something happening there."

Cain seemed to let the thought tumble around in his head for a bit before nodding and looking up at the group. "Do you guys have some sort of secret weapon you're using?" He looked around at his comrades. "Do we?"

* * * * *

There was a white streak through the sky, like a shooting star. The only problem was...it was day. It came from over the Artisan troops, zipping through the air before suddenly dipping and dropping, diving down towards the centre of the battlefield.

The streak collided with the ground, sending up a plume of earth that showered back down around it. From out of the crater stepped a tall, mechanical man, a cyborg or android, with a white metal body and a human face. His hands ended in cruel claws and he gazed around the field with a wicked grin on his face.

"I feel so alive," Syn said. "So free today. It's these kinds of days that are the best for killing." He turned and pointed his hand towards a cluster of Enian Goliaths. A hole on his palm opened up and out popped a glowing ball of white hot energy that hovered above Syn's fingers.

The android threw the ball through the air towards the battlesuits. As it passed through the centre of the group he squeezed his hand into a fist and the orb exploded in a cataclysmic wave of pure energy, destroying the Goliaths in a flash and leaving the twisted wreckage scattered within the blast radius, as well as a scorched circle of dirt underneath it.

With his other hand he fired off another sphere and then pointed a finger upwards. The orb followed commands, flying up towards a dogfight in the sky between a few small fighter ships. As Syn's hand closed, the ball detonated like the last, enveloping the entire airspace into a fiery nightmare, the remains of the ships dropping out of the sky and careening into the ground below.

"What fun!" Syn squealed. As a Goliath neared the android leaped up toward it, throwing his hands over his head and bringing his claws together. He began to spin, becoming a whirlwind and a white, circular blur. He shot towards the warmachine's leg, his sharpened nails shredding through the metal and burrowing into the machinery. Syn then travelled directly upwards, passing through the cockpit and slashing straight through the pilot, mincing them into gory ribbons.

He burst out of the top of the battlesuit in a flowery shower of oil and blood and shook himself like a wet dog. "Yes, this is just what I needed after being pent up for so long!"

* * * * *

Sigma was wafting through the clouds once more, trying to recuperate after the emotional stress of his returning memories and trip into the military base. He had never gotten to exact his revenge exactly as he wanted, never gotten to see each scientist suffer as he tore through the place, never got to see if Syn and Alpha were still there so he could pull the plug on them. No matter, if they had been, they were long gone now.

That was when he felt it. Some sort of other presence appearing in the world, not far from where he was. Something like him. It was radiating out massive amounts of energy as though it wanted the whole world to detect it. Maybe it did. Or maybe it just wanted one person to find it. And Sigma had. It was coming from Narrius, flowing out with a sickening pulse that Sigma couldn't stand for one more second. The thrusters across his back lit up and he tore through the sky, a purple streak cutting the clouds.

* * * * *

Syn watched the purple bullet arriving. He had just emerged from another Goliath and was picking the flecks of machinery and human from his shiny metal frame as he observed the projectile in the air. The speed of this thing was astronomical and the smile on Syn's face grew ever wider as it began to drop down on him.

Sigma landed hard on the earth, sending rumblings throughout the battlefield, which was coming to a halt to observe what was happening in the centre. He looked up to see the gleam of white metal atop a Goliath. Sigma didn't need any computer scans or hacks to know who it was though. He recognized him immediately.

"So it's you then Syn, causing all this trouble."

"Of course, my spiritual brother of machinations. Who else but I could be capable of putting on such a grand performance, a coup de grâce, if you will." Syn stood up and did a little bow before jumping down to the ground.

"You're part of the Artisan Confederate?" Sigma asked.

"Indeed I am. Seems they needed to activate me for some sort of war effort. I can't really remember anymore; I've just been having too much fun!"

"I thought only Enia held the schematics for making us," Sigma stated coldly.

"You thought wrong then didn't you?" Syn replied, wagging his finger in front of himself with his demented grin plastered on his face.

Sigma looked past Syn at the battlesuit behind him and pointed at it. "That Goliath belonged to the Artisans you know."

Syn looked back at it innocently. "Oh did it now? I hadn't even noticed while I was playing. I mean, it's just so much fun being like this isn't it Sigma? You know what I mean, I'm sure you've exercised some of your new limits, haven't you?" Sigma's purple eyes averted their gaze. "What, you think just because the Artisans have my launch code they get to have the command? I think not! Let them stop me! You know what that's like Sigma, don't you? You remember back before they did this to you, to me? You remember what we were like, as humans?"

Sigma looked up at Syn with surprise and confusion on his face. "No I...only in pieces...it's just..."

"You mean you don't remember? Ha! I guess your mind just wasn't quite strong enough was it?" Syn tapped his finger to his own head in a mocking gesture. "Come then Sigma; let good old Syn show you what it's like to be a god!" As he spoke this out he raised his arms in the air triumphantly for effect but found Sigma to be unresponsive. "Oh come on brother, join me. Together, there isn't anything on the planet that can get in our way. Nothing would be sweeter than getting revenge on our creators for what they thought they were doing. What do you say?"

Sigma looked down at his own metallic hand, the purple armour having built up a couple of scratches and chips from all the things he done with it so far, and the destruction he had dealt. "No Syn, I can't do that." The hole on Sigma's palm opened and light began to grow from within it. "I don't want to be a team. I only want to be one!"

A/N: An epic battle with a stunning conclusion as we set the stage for a new confrontation between the two greatest powers on Earth! Can the world sustain such a battle or will all be destroyed in this clash of titans?