Porter looked over Sigma as the android lay on the table. Doctor Roth had finally pulled the two brothers apart, without resistance from Sigma (who was wrapped up in memories). It was time for them to attempt the revival of Allyson; to finalize her restoration. Roth had already hooked up various cables to the cyborg's body, ones that snaked along the ground and connected to the vat. The dim lighting of the cavern flickered and lowered as different computers and machines powered up.

The rest of the Crisis Rescue Unit watched from the side, except for Raul who meditated with Ochenkov. Nobody spoke anymore, nobody dared to whisper or even cough. They had all listened to Leif's story and, aside from moving the girls to tears (and Ardwen though he tried to hide it), had humbled all of them. Each person in the CRU had been more than willing to sacrifice themselves for what they believed in; now they saw what Sigma was willing to give himself for.

But Porter was not ready to rest, to watch his brother he finally found kill himself for a girl. He had begged with Sigma to reconsider Allyson's revival. Part of the risk of bringing Allyson back to life was that Sigma's own might be given up. It was useless to try and convince the android of anything else though. He always pushed Porter aside, gently asserting his strength before being strapped onto the table.

Bubbles started shooting up from the bottom of the tube containing Alpha, swirling around her as electricity began to course through the vat. Sigma's body began to twitch on the table, fuelling Porter's nerves but Roth waved him off. This was all normal according to the doctor, and even a good sign, especially when Allyson's fingers in the tube started to wiggle along with Sigma.

Riya looked on at Allyson, her eyes flicking over to study Porter beside his brother. What was greater: one man's love for his sibling, or one man's feelings for his loved one? There was a brief flash in Riya's mind, of her hoping Porter might one day make the same sort of sacrifice for her but then it was gone. How much did she really like Porter anyways? What was it about his very average self that she had always found so charming? And what was holding her back still from admitting to it...

There were numerous lights suddenly igniting within the cave, blinking on and off before a siren went off. Nearly everyone jumped in panic, except for Dr. Roth who calmly looked up from the terminal he was working at. "It seems they found us." The elderly man returned to working at the computer, his pace unchanged. "I had hoped we might have another minute or two, but you cannot argue with the present. To be accepting of oneself, to understand your situation, to move forward and prosper in it, that is our goal." Sigma mumbled something incoherent, and Dr. Roth smiled. The android was still trying to name every passage from the Book of Enia that was spoken.

"Who is they?" Ardwen inquired, his role as leader kicking in.

"An Artisan strikeforce, I would assume, led by one of the Emperor's personal soldiers." Dr. Roth twisted some dials and a high pitched humming resonated through the cavern as the awakening of Allyson reached its final stages.

"The Emperor?"

"No time to explain the situation. We will need to hold them off momentarily until at least one of these cyborgs is online and can finish the job."

"But how did they find this place?" Nami chimed in.

"I would imagine having a handful of Goliaths standing outside my door would be a dead giveaway," came the snide response from the doctor. "It's nothing I didn't factor in already. Those warnings are from a very long range scanner. You still have time to get into your machines before they get here."

"Wait a minute, how come we have to fight to save this girl?" Chase pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the suspended Alpha. He was shot collective dirty looks by both the girls (and Porter) and he slunk back a little from their gaze. "Oh right, the love story thing." With Chase's objection dealt with, the group had to pry Porter away from his brother before piling back onto the central stone that acted as an elevator. They stumbled through the rocky passage that led back to the mountains, tripping up in the small puddles and holes forming in the soft stone. The air became colder, chilling them more than it had before as they had grown accustomed to the warmth inside the cave.

There was a temporary moment of blindness, where the white snow reflected the natural light straight into the eyes of the teens. Everyone had to throw up their arms to shield their vision as they groped out in search of one another. Their vision returned, the students scrambled to board their Goliaths and get them running again in the cold.

Porter watched the empty space in front of his chair flicker as different screens started to emerge, projected onto the ultra-thin membrane that allowed for touch navigation. The visual of the mountain sprung up into existence, revealing the hole in the rock where Leif was. Porter had to shake away the feelings of depression and sadness at leaving his brother again so soon but he needed to protect him while he was vulnerable. This was his chance to reverse the role of the older-younger sibling, to stand up for his big brother for once instead of being guarded, even if he hadn't really ever had that relationship with Leif.

The White Storm rumbled as its boot-up sequences finalized. Porter's mind began to empty, trying to achieve an inner clarity he had been working on with Mr. Shotuku in his secret training. It would be time for him to put it to the test, to try and become the perfect pilot he had been striving towards. Could he achieve that level Mr. Shotuku believed he had? He did not know. He would not know until he either won this battle...or died trying.

"Alright, we've got Goliaths coming in from the southwest," Ardwen barked over the intercom, falling into his commander role. "We have the advantage of the higher ground, so make sure not to engage in anything that takes away from that. Let's try to stick together as close as we can if they come at us in numbers. Riya should provide enough firepower to cover all of us so long as we remain a group."

Porter thought he heard the words inside his head, little ripples in the pool of serene water held within his mind. But then they were gone, and the surface was still once more. Somebody had been speaking. What they had said was irrelevant. Who it was didn't matter. There was just the pool of water sitting there, calmly waiting, undisturbed. And so the White Storm stood still in the mountains, while the others braced for the upcoming fight.

There was a glimmer of sunlight bouncing off of the metallic frames of the approaching Artisan Goliaths. They bounced between mountains, spreading out then converging as they rapidly passed through the spare trees clinging to the rocky terrain. Amidst them was a unique figure whose quick-moving battlesuit blurred in between the lesser soldiers.

It was the Silver Hawk General, Sigmeund, and his similarly named Mongoose-class Goliath, with his giant lance and round shield, and grey cloak rippling behind him. The different interfaces of the CRU's warmachines instantly recognized the iconic and long-standing general and brought up all the information on him the Enian Federation had.

As Ardwen saw the rank of his enemy go by, the different wars he had fought in, the medals he had won when Artisan and Enia had been allies, there was a drop in the young man's stomach, and unrest settled in his gut, mingling with despair. This was a group of six students. Not one of them had ever faced a general before and they certainly hadn't fought such an experienced and renowned one. Not to mention they were going up against twenty Exo-class soldiers; an overwhelming situation even without the presence of Sigmeund.

This seemed like a bit of overkill for the Artisans but on the other hand there were potentially two of those Goliath-crushing androids nearby and thus you could never have enough soldiers to fight them. But since the cyborgs were temporarily out of operation, it left these six teenagers to fight a small army all on their own. Ardwen glanced to his sides, surveying the other Goliaths he was put in charge of and he imagined them exchanging nervous looks with him in return. It appeared as though this would be a final battle for all of them, barring some sort of miracle.

"Run when given chance." Ochenkov's gruff voice rang out over the communication network of the Crisis Rescue Unit. Within the cave he was watching over the screens that hooked up to a myriad of cameras throughout the mountains. "None can win against Sigmeund." Ochenkov thought back to his own fight with the Silver Hawk general, and the loss he had suffered that had almost killed him and set him on the path that led him here. "Ardwen, make distraction and run. Do not buy time here, we will survive. We are watched by bear."

"You heard the man," Ardwen said, changing his mindset. "We have to hit them hard enough and fast enough to push them back, and then take off into the wilderness. When I give the signal, attack with everything then scatter. We don't need to stick together; we can meet up again later. Make it tough on them to hunt us down."

There was a grumbling from Chase but a smack to the back of his Goliath's head from Nami silenced him, his face going beat red inside his cockpit. He had never been put in place before by a girl, especially not by such a small one (regardless of their battlesuits making them equal sized). Everyone quickly started pulling up their different weapon options, picking targets to do the maximum damage and finding the best escape route.

Everyone except Porter. His mind was stilled. The pool of water had been only lightly disturbed by Ochenkov and Ardwen's talking. The air grew increasingly static, charging with electricity that caused little sparks and crackles around the White Storm. Inside Porter's head there was an empty focus, one that he shifted and began to pull down into his core, to spread it through his body and bring all of his energy to his core.

A bolt of lightning crashed down at a nearby mountain, followed by the roll of thunder. The clouds above grew thicker and darker, bunching together over the CRU. There were flashes of light in the clouds as more lighting leapt between them. And still the Artisans drew closer.

"Now!" Ardwen shouted. Missiles burst from Riya's Goliath, swarming down towards the approaching enemies. Her Gating guns opened fire behind them, unloading on the closest Exo suits and halting their progress as they dove for cover. One of them foolishly charged forward anyways, its chest filling with bullet holes before two missiles dove down and detonated around it, sending the flaming carcass spinning. Nami took the head off another battlesuit that was too late to roll into cover.

Two Artisans ducked behind a large boulder planted on the mountain, peeking out from the sides and hiding from the hail of bullets coming from above. There was suddenly a shadow cast over them where Raul had suddenly appeared, taking advantage of his ninja training. Before either enemy could react, Raul had grabbed their heads and smashed them together, leaving a bomb planted on each of their suits, right on top of the hydraulic spine of each Goliath. Raul kicked up a plume of snow all around him as Artisan bullets approached. As the snow fell, he was gone, back with the rest of the CRU higher up on the mountain.

Whenever a soldier started to get too close, Chase would leap down to deliver a couple of quick jabs to knock them off balance and would push them back down. The hot-headed student didn't have time to actually fight any of the Artisans and while it frustrated him to not finish a battle, he realized his life would be more important and necessary for protecting Nami once they started to run.

And still Porter remained still. At the other end of the war zone, Sigmeund stood behind his men, watching with mild amusement and curiosity, his vision focused on the motionless Goliath at the top, and his own abilities sensed the growing charge of chi. "Porter, we need you to help hold them off," Ardwen pleaded but he still got no answer. The Artisan forces were close enough to return fire, pinning down the students and keeping them from attacking anymore. "Argh, I give up. We have to retreat and just hope for the best. I know they aren't slowed down but we don't have a choice."

"But they'll catch us for sure and-" Riya started but she stopped when she saw a little twitch in the White Storm. Within Porter, the stillness had consumed his body in its entirety, and there was a moment when his entire body stopped doing anything, for just a fraction of a second. In that moment, Porter was nothing. Then he took in a deep breath and his eyes snapped open, glowing blue.

* * * * *

Sigma's eyes shot open and he stared up at the rocky ceiling. His mind had been empty, completely shut down during the process. All the other times had been the same but at the final moment before he returned this instance there had been a flash of Porter's face. Meeting with his brother had been such a strange feeling and seemed to have triggered something in his heart. Just what that was and what it had done to Sigma, the android did not know.

Allyson mattered most though; she was the one who percolated through his memories in fragments. It was her he wanted to live his life with forever if he could, the woman he would wipe the earth clean for or run away to the moon with, just to be with her. The restraints snapped back from Sigma's body and he slowly sat up to look at the vat where the love of his life hung.

"It is time to bring her to life then Sigma," Roth said softly as he hovered over the computer terminals. This moment had as much weight to the doctor as it did to Sigma. This was the revival of his daughter after the horrific things she had gone through and, just like Leif, Roth did not care that she would not remember him. Perhaps it was better that way for the father.

The purple android slowly approached his white counterpart in the tube, her blonde hair hovering around her humanoid face. Roth tentatively turned the final dial on the console, murmuring prayers to Ishiyama for hope and luck. There was a crackle as the final surge of electricity shot through the life-giving apparatus that Alpha was connected to and the rest of the lights went out in the space, turning off the screens Ochenkov was using to watch the battle outside. All that was left was the eerie green glow coming from the tube.

"Biological signs sustaining." Roth subconsciously wiped sweat from his brow as he watched the read out on his monitor. "Returning power to the surroundings. Reducing power to android." The lights responded in kind to the words. "Beginning boot sequence."

Sigma pressed his face close to the glass as he watched Allyson inside. "Come on, come on, you can do it," he urged under his breath.

There was a little wiggle in Alpha's fingers as nerves hesitantly came to life. A mild shudder passed through her body, barely noticeable to the naked eye. Then her eyelids drifted open, blinking a couple times as the world came into view. Sigma felt something in his chest; a twisting nervousness he didn't think was biologically possible for his body. Perhaps it was a trick from the remnants of his human mind, some feeling he used to get in these situations.

"Draining fluids and unsealing vat. Welcome back...Allyson."

A/N: Get ready for a Porter like you've never seen before!

And, as always, comments and the like are appreciated. With holidays over Sigma/Star will be getting back into the swing of things so don't worry too much about the delays to publishing....apologies all around.