At last, we come to the final battle.

"All artillery, fire on that monster!" Sphinx shouted, pointing at the Kaiju Blue Whale King running across the plain. Unfortunately for the Black Order, he was well out of range by the time they were able to aim the cannons at him.

"It would take dozens, if not hundreds, of small arms firing to bring him down," said Generix. "We need to send everyone we have in pursuit. We can only hope we'll overtake them before they finish what they're doing with the ACPM."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hoesack asked. "Everyone, after him!"

"All troops, pursue the Blue Whale King!" Sphinx shouted with the megaphone. He, Generix, and Hoesack did not delay in following their own directive. Within minutes, the vast host of Muppets, Feline Utopia, and Unauthorized Snuggles was moving away to pursue the receding form of the Kaiju Whale.

Vulpix, Vaniellis, Metas, Celtic, Exspiro, and Branwen were too far away to hear the order, but the troops they were fighting followed their comrades and left their fights behind.

"I don't believe it," said Exspiro. "They're retreating, we've won!"

"No you fool," said Metas. "They're after the ACPM! They're onto us!"

"If they take it," said Celtic, "we lose the war. They'll summon nigh unlimited reinforcements."

"We can't let that happen!" Branwen cried.

"Obviously," said Vulpix. He pulled out his own megaphone. "All troops, after them!"

Vaniellis climbed on Generic's now unoccupied horse, and they all rode after the Black Order. The Arkos of Erusea troops followed.

But one contingent of Feline Utopia troops lingered, slowed down by the two remaining artillery pieces. They struggled, uncoordinated, as their commanding officer had fallen. Corporal Yargama Frag, who was bringing up the rear of Unauthorized Snuggles, went back for them.

"Stop trying to move these," she ordered, as she arrived at the cannons and the soldiers struggling to push them through the mud. "Aim them at the ships and the cavalry."

With the moving armies

As the Arkos of Erusea riders approached the moving Black Order forces, some of the enemy forces turned around and fired on the cavalry. Several horses and riders fell, including Metas, Exspiro, Celtic and Branwen.

"NO! Vulpix shouted, and spurred his horse on even faster. He stabbed, slashed, and shot his way through over a score of Black Order soldiers, killing a path to their leaders.

"Generix, go stop him!" Sphinx said.

"With pleasure," Generix replied, turning around and drawing his rifle. He shoved his way past dozens of his troops, until he came face to face with Vulpix.

"You murdered my old friend!" Vulpix shouted. "And my new friends! Prepare to die!"

"Technically, that was my troops. Though I'll gladly take the credit." Before Vulpix could dodge, he jumped up and knocked him off his horse. Both men fell to the ground, trading punches.

"So you're the legendary Chaos Vulpix," Generix said. "You used to be feared and renowned throughout the RWBY Sector. You and Celtic terrorized the Subreddit for months in Ship Survivor I, the great war to begin them all. Now look where you are! Celtic's been shot down like a duck, and you've become subservient to a pompous oversized dolphin, a mercenary from r/AceCombat, and now, some newcomer!"

Vulpix roared, punching Generix in the face and kneeing him in the groin. While his opponent cried out in agony, Vulpix got back up and recovered his rifle. He fired at Generix, but he rolled out of the way, and also got back on his feet, grabbing his own rifle on the way up.

They started swordfighting with their rifle bayonets, each trying to get an opening to shoot the other.

"Is that the best you can do? How pathetic! How disappointing!"

"I have always fought for the good of the Subreddit, misguided as I was at the beginning," said Vulpix. "But you only care about causing chaos and destruction. You give speeches about the flaws of our systems, but you're only looking for an excuse and to get under our skin. You have nothing to replace them with!"

He thrusted at Generix's face, slicing his right cheek.

"You'll pay for that!" Generix swung back. Vulpix had overextended, and was unable to dodge or parry in time. Generix's bayonet sliced through Vulpix's wrist, leaving his hand hanging by a flap of skin. Vulpix cried out and agony and sank to his knees, dropping his weapon.

"Goodbye, false chaos." Generix sliced open Vulpix's throat, then shot him through the heart, and left him to bleed out.

At the artillery and ships

"FIRE!" Yargama Frag shouted. A volley of shells rained down on the troop transport and aircraft carrier, blowing craters in their hulls and decks, and setting them ablaze.

"The ships, NO!" Vaniellis cried. He turned his horse around and charged the artillery, firing his rifle as he went.

Yargama's violet eyes widened as she saw the charging Arkosian. "Quick, re-aim," she ordered the other artillery operators. Just before he reached them, Vaniellis's horse was blown away, and he along with it. Vulpix and Vaniellis met their ends at roughly the same time.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more, that bloody Strike Freedom was rolling up the score, eighty men died in that brutal attack, of the bloody Strike Freedom from Ace Combat.

Strike and Rosa looked down in horror at Vulpix and Vaniellis's deaths, and at the burning of the ships. They circled their planes around from following Blue Whale King to make a strafing run, but passed over the artillery as they saw the Guns N' Roses leaders making a charge on it. They flew over the moving armies, firing into the Black Order troops.

They overshot Generix, but they kept going. Sphinx and Hoesack looked over their shoulders in terror at the planes flying with the sun behind them, the bullets whizzing ever closer.

They tried to run, but it was no use. Hoesack and Sphinx felt the bullets ripping through their bodies, and collapsed to the ground. Their soldiers fired at the planes as they resumed their course to follow Whale, but it was too late for Sphinx and Hoesack.

There was surprisingly little pain, for the first several seconds anyway. Just shock and the wet sensation of blood.

"This… this was not supposed to happen," Sphinx said, and coughed up blood. "But it's all, it's all up to Generix and Tsarina now. They will have to… c-carry out our ideals."

Hoesack scoffed, or rather tried to, but his throat filled with blood as well. He spat it out. "Not- not supposed to happen," (he coughed) "indeed. I never liked them. Never liked, never liked either of them. I wanted to spr-spread the love of the g-goddess Blake. Not brutalize the Subreddit. I-I thought your methods were necessary. B-but even if they are, if Generix and Tsarina are all that's lepft," (he spat up more blood), "All that's left, then the Black Order really has become the villains. Gods damn us all."

He let out a huge gap of exhaustion, just from saying all that in his conditions.

Soon, the remaining soldiers had all either been mutually killed with the rest of the Arkos of Erusea troops, or taken orphaned horses and ridden off to join Generix and Tsarina.

"My… my only regret," Sphinx replied,"is not winning. I d-did it my way!" He managed to put pride into his voice. "I just wish, just wish I had been more successful."

And neither of them spoke again.

Did I ever mention I hated this part? Back with the Guns N' Roses troops:

MacGregor, Nitesco, and Rosey also watched in rage as Yargama Frag fired on the ships and killed Vaniellis. But their strength was waning. They had fought too long and hard for their bodies to sustain with their injuries.

One last charge, said Tanya's voice in MacGregor's head. We'll take them down with us. The Black Order will never fire shells at anyone again. And history will long remember Guns N' Roses' heroic last stand.

"I don't want to die," MacGregor muttered.

Nobody does, Tanya replied. But it may be too late already. Just make it count. Heroes live on long after their lifetimes. And remember, in strange eons, even death may die.

MacGregor steeled his resolve for one last attack. "Come on," he told Rosey, Nitesco, and his remaining soldiers. "One last charge." He coughed a dry and raspy cough. His voice was running out.

"One last charge," said Nitesco. "For Guns N' Roses and RUBES."

"For Guns N' Roses and RUBES," said Rosey.

And they charged at the two remaining Black Order artillery pieces and their associated troops. Yargama Frag turned one of them around and fired, taking out over a dozen more soldiers, but it was not enough. Before she could fire again, the Dead Men (and women) were on them.

"You don't know when to give up," Yargama said, drawing her saber to block MacGregor's slash. "You should have been dead hours ago, if not long before."

"As if death could stop us," MacGregor choked out. As they dueled, Yargama had the fleeting thought that none of this was worth it, and that if her enemies were going to fight that hard to stop them, then the Black Order's cause might not be as righteous as she thought. But it was far too late to turn back now, so she quashed her doubts and kept fighting the zombie-like general.

In a rare moment of parity, they both saw an opening, and took it. But now, they each found the other's sword run through their chest. They fell to the ground, bleeding out on top of each other in a cruel mockery of an embrace.

Seconds later, Rosey and Nitesco reached the other artillery piece, and ignited the ammo. It went up in a tremendous explosion, erasing the artillery, and the last living soldiers from that part of the battlefield.

All that was left was a vast field of corpses, two burning ships, and the rubble of once proud castles, while the survivors raced away.

Guns N' Roses and the Black Order had both been broken.

This is the true nature of war. There is no escaping it. So why not have some fun while you're there?

Peter, Austin, and Alfonse looked back at the ever-approaching Tsarina and her group of riders. Generix had joined her, having stolen Vulpix's horse. Blue Whale King ran after them in Kaiju mode, Link and Generic in his hands, but his top speed of 26 knots was only barely fast enough for the horses not to leave him in the dust. Strike and Rosa also followed in their planes, but the Black Order soldiers had damaged them and shot down all their squadron mates.

As the minutes turned to hours, the horses and the Whale following them grew tired and slowed down, but the overall trajectory did not change. Tsarina and Generix were still gaining, and Blue Whale King could not close the distance between them.

"Hey Whale," Generic asked, "How long is this form stable for?"

"Good question," Whale said. "Last time I tried, it lasted for 8 hours, but it's possible that exertion might shorten the time…"

"That's great," said Link. "So for all we know, you might change back any second, and we'll plummet from 45 feet up."

"There would be enough warning to put you down," Whale replied, "But we can only hope I won't need it."

Miles ahead, from where Whale was just barely visible on the horizon, the remaining RUBES troops and leaders were growing more and more uneasy.

"I must admit," said Alfonse, "This does not look good."

"We'll be able to hold them off long enough to make the portal," said Peter. "The alternative is unthinkable."

"The Church of Thorns still reigns supreme in Yukon's world," said Austin. "We'll have to deal with them in Ship Survivor in a few months, when we experience their world. Even if we lose here too, there will always be another chance."

"But who knows how much time will have passed in that world by the time the Anomaly Surge starts again," Peter said. "It could be months, years, even decades. No way to know until it happens. I don't want any more worlds to suffer any longer. Especially this one."

"We can still win," said Alfonse, trying to regain his once contagious optimism. "We still outnumber them."

"That's true," said Austin. "We just have to keep fighting and not give up."

Up in the sky

Strike and Rosa continued following Blue Whale King, their biplanes slowly but surely catching up. They could see Tsarina's cavalry miles ahead, the RUBES forces miles beyond that, and, on the far horizon, the ruins of the capital city where the remains of the APCM were.

They wished they could talk to each other, but they would've had to shout, and they needed to save their energy for the fight ahead. The Catastrophe over a month ago had been a terrible disaster, with many friends lost, but the battle today was almost as bad. MacGregor, Nitesco, Rosey, Celtic, Branwen, Metas, Exspiro, Vulpix, and Vaniellis, gone in one fell swoop. At least they'd taken Sphinx, Hoesack, and Yargama Frag with them.

After tedious hours of walking, running, riding, and flying, retracing the path Tragic Solitude took on that first day:

"We're almost there," Peter said. "We're entering the outskirts of the capital. Or what's left of it."

Austin, Alfonse, and the soldiers looked around in horror. Besides Peter, none of them had been closer to the ruins than the Cemetery of the Deleted, which was far from any major structures besides the underground Fanfic Library. Most of them didn't anticipate the level of devastation. They expected to see many buildings in ruins, in various states of collapse or being blown over, but there wasn't a single standing wall left. The blast wave had flattened the city, turning the skyscrapers into heaps.

The stench of death wafted on the air, but it was fading. There were no scavengers. No crows, vultures, insects, or coyotes. There was nothing left for them, only bones. The skies above were gray. The once bustling and crowded city was now a silent field of rubble and ash, seemingly devoid of all life.

Shots rang out, breaking the gloomy silence. Tsarina, Generix, and their group of several dozen riders had finally come within shooting distance.

"Just a little farther!" Peter said.

"I assume you can find the way?" Austin asked.

"Yes, even with the state of things. I can already sense the Bragg and D-Spair, and use that to lead my way. But there's something else I can feel, too…"

"Is it those psychos shooting at us?" a soldier asked. Indeed, the remaining Black Order forces were firing at them, and they'd already managed to pick off a couple dozen of the roughly 200 remaining RUBES soldiers. The RUBES forces had concentrated on fleeing, not fighting, so they'd only killed three Black Order riders in return. They had tanks, but with very limited ammo.

"It's that way," Peter said, pointing to a heap of rubble to the left. "Just over that rise. We can make it!"

Soon after turning, they all felt the conflicting effects of Bragg, D-Spair, the mysterious third variant, and all the hybrids in between. Any one of them could have found their way to the Anomaly Portal Connection Machine ruins blindfolded by following the source of those sensations.

A hundred feet later, they found it. The underground chamber with the roof blown off, and the heaps of broken machinery and crystal fragments at the bottom.

Melanie Antiqua's body was still there, but it was only a bleached skeleton. The white bones were made brighter by the single ray of sunshine that shone on them.

The Black Order aren't the only ones catching up:

At last, Link reached the rest of RUBES, with himself and Generic clutched in Whale's rubbery blue and white hands. But they had to go through the Black Order cavalry first. RUBES had set up their tanks above the pit, but they'd used up what little ammo they had on killing several riders. Dozens still remained, locked in a vicious firefight.

"I'm exhausted," said Blue Whale King, "But I'll try to make one last sprint to get you to the APCM. I don't know how far I make it, but promise me you will get to making that portal as quickly as possible, and not look back."

Link and Generic both hesitated, but finally said, "I promise."

"All right," Whale said. "Brace yourselves."

He took off running again, shaking the ground and grabbing the attention of the Black Order soldiers. Many of them turned and started firing at him. A single shot was nothing but a pinprick, but hundreds of them added up, especially with the exhaustion. Death of a thousand cuts.

"Almost there," Whale said, kicking Black Order soldiers and horses out of the way as he ran, blood running down his body. A couple of the enemies threw grenades at him, blasting off chunks of flesh large enough to feed whole families.

"Will you be all right?" Link yelled over the sounds of battle.

"I told you, don't worry about me," Blue replied. "You have a job to do."

"He'll be all right," said Generic, "he's been through worse." What Generic didn't say, and was plainly written on his face, was that it hadn't been for decades.

"If worst comes to worst, I can just reincarnate," Whale said. Once again, he left plenty unsaid, about what an arduous and time-consuming process that was. He might not see them again for years.

At last, Blue Whale King reached the edge of the hole. He tried to set Link and Generic down gently, but a Black Order soldier hurled another grenade from over a hundred feet away, making him stumble. He twirled around as he tried to regain his balance, and Whale, Link, and Generic fell backwards into the pit.

It looks like RUBES's hopes are up in the air.

Strike and Rosa flew in with their damaged planes, watching in horror as Whale, Generic, and Link fell into the pit. Flying lower, they strafed the Black Order cavalry, but the returning fire was enough to bring down their damaged planes. They too ended up falling into the pit.

With brutal efficiency, Generix, Tsarina, and their remaining soldiers finished off the Go Ren and Armed & Ready soldiers guarding the pit, and found the path to descend into it.

Down in the pit, with the ruins of the APCM. This is where it all ends.

The floor of the former cavern was an eldritch place. Mixed among the heaps of wrecked machinery and chunks of fallen ceiling were shards of Bragg, D-Spair, and an unknown third variant. While Bragg and D-Spair glowed red and purple, respectively, this last type was bright green. Along with many other colors, from hybrids with the other types. These were the remains of the Power Core Bragg crystal. Had it all fissed in the explosion, the entire planet of r/RWBY would be gone.

The radiant effects of all the different crystals made the eldtritchness of the place. Bragg made one proud and confident, while D-Spair did the opposite. The green crystals seemed to mess with time. What is, what was, what could be, and what could have been all swirled together in the memories of anyone who got too close to it. Some even heard voices.

It started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard, and now it's become a great spirit of adventure.

When men were killing the whales, they were destroying their own future.

We are always getting away from the present moment. Our mental existence, which are immaterial and have no dimensions, are passing along the Time-Dimension with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave.

We're all stories in the end, just make it a good one, eh?

Peter s. Nachbar was hard at work scrounging for parts and attempting to build a portal generator, as Austin, Alfonse, and the Petal to the Metal troops stood guard.

"So, uh, how long is this going to take?" Alfonse asked.

"Longer, if you interrupt me," Peter said. "Sorry, but I cannot be disturbed."

Alfonse just nodded. Austin put his hand on his shoulder.

When Blue Whale King fell into the pit, he cushioned Link and Generic's fall with his body as he landed on top of a large chunk of the green crystal. His Kaiju form finally stopped working, and he changed shape. But instead of turning back into his humanoid form, he reverted back to his 92 foot long, full-sized Blue Whale form.

Link was distraught, but he ran to where Peter was, and as he promised, did not look back. Generic did the same, but stole a glance back, earning a baleful glare from Whale.

Moments later, Strike and Rosa's planes fell into the pit as well, and their pilots jumped out and parachuted down as they slammed into the pit walls.

Peter and the others were already looking up when Link and Generic ran over.

"Peter! Austin! Alfonse!" Link cried out.

"Link, Generic, we're glad you made it," said Peter. "Listen, I need your help. Only you two have the technical expertise of anyone here to help me."

"I know," said Link. "That's why I came. I caused this mess, I need to fix it."

"Very good," Peter said. "I need you to find me more Bragg chunks, roughly fist sized, along with copper wires, atron energy cells, power converters, tachyon stabilizers…" He listed off the parts he needed, and Link and Generic went to find them.

Meanwhile, Strike and Rosa rushed to see if Blue Whale King was okay.

"Whale?" Strike asked, looking the gigantic blue torpedo in his grapefruit-sized eye. "Whale, are you okay?!"

"Please stay with us," said Rosa.

Whale said nothing, but his eye flicked between Strike and Rosa. It was at an unusually slow speed. Not as if he was moving slowly, it more resembled a slowed down film.

Whale responded at last, but whatever he said, it was too deep and stretched out to understand. As if it had been slowed down.

"Time is behaving strangely," said Strike.

"This is very odd," said Rosa.

"Tell me about it," Strike muttered.

They went to Peter, who was assembling a large hoop of metal as Link and Generic brought him parts and Austin, Alfonse, and the Petal to the Metal troops stood guard.

"Is he okay?" Austin asked. "Will he make it?"

"He seems to be slowed down in time," Strike said. "Like a second for him is a minute for us."

"Then that should give him more time," said Alfonse.

"Zuch a pity," said a women's voice in a Russian accent from behind them. They turned around, and saw Tsarina, Generix, and about two dozen Black Order soldiers pointing guns at them. RUBES pointed their own guns back at them.

"He vill have to watch your deaths on fast forward."

"Tragic?" Strike asked. "Is that you?"

"Your Tragic is dead," said the woman. "I am Tsarina."

"And I'm Generix, but you already know who I am. It's time for our timeline to take over. The weak possibilities must die."

"You should be dead," said Generic.

"Not the first time I've heard something like that today," Generix replied. "But it was about Arkos of Erusea and Guns N' Roses. You'll be glad to know that we restored the balance."

"No," Alfonse said, almost whispering, as a tear ran down his face.

"And where's Sphinx and Hoesack?" Austin asked. "Indisposed? Late?"

"It's just us," said Tsarina. "Just the pit. Ve are all that is left. Just this pit of bulldogs."

"So this is it, then," said Generic. "All the survival of the memes is in this pit. This is the final confrontation, the end of the war."

"And it ends now, weak self. We have defeated all your ships, destroyed all your strongholds. You have no chance against us. Surrender now, and your suffering will end sooner."

"I could say the same to you," Generic replied.

"Stop this now!" Link shouted as he stepped forward. "This is all my fault. I'm the reason you're here. So take me, and leave them alone!"

"Link, no!" Strike said.

"I'm tired of running," Link said. "I'm tired of losing. I've said it before, but this will be the last time. The Black Order ends here. Take me, and do what you want to me, but leave this timeline alone and go back to yours."

Generix, Tsarina, and the Black Order soldiers laughed.

"Admirable, but mistaken," said Generix. "What you do affects others. You can't just take it all on yourself and expect us to leave with you as a human sacrifice. We want this world, and we are going to take it. And there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"Starting with killing you," Tsarina said, pointing her shaska at Strike and Rosa. "I don't know why, but I veel an intense hatred for you. I'm sure I will remember vat you did to deserve it."

"We did not do anything," said Rosa.

The Black Order moved closer.

"One more step and we open fire," said Peter.

"Very well," said Tsarina. "Troops, kill them all!"

The Black Order soldiers opened fire, while Tsarina and Generix charged. The Petal to the Metal troops either found cover to shoot from, or went to protect Peter and the portal he was building. Strike and Rosa ended up in a swordfight with Tsarina, while Link and Generic fought Generix. Austin and Alfonse continued to guard Peter.

"I can only imagine the guilt you must feel," Generix said to Link, thrusting at him with his bayonet while dodging a slash from Generic. "By your own admission, you caused this."

"I put my guilt toward fixing this," Link retorted. "And don't you mean to say that you can only imagine being able to feel guilt at all? The weight of it would crush you otherwise!"

"Touché," Generix said. "But guilt is a useless emotion, designating the weak. I'm stronger without it!"

"You do not know what true strength means!" Generic shouted, shooting at Generix but missing. "All those who've risked and sacrificed their lives to stop you, despite their fear, they are strong! Link here, who faced the terror of admitting his guilt and working to set things right despite the threat of a lynch mob, is the strongest of all of us!"

Generix only laughed.

Meanwhile, the fight with Tsarina

"Tragic, this isn't you," said Strike. "Inside you is a strong, independent, and kind woman, and a good person who would never hurt us!'

"Come back to the light," Rosa said. "Remember your true self."

"This is my truest self," said Tsarina, as Rosa blocked her swing at Strike. She parried Rosa's half-hearted counterattack. "I am perfectly content. It is you who have conflict within. It holds you back."

"No, said Strike, trying to force Tsarina's sword out of her grip. "We know our path, and it is the correct one."

Tsarina smiled. "Oh really? Then why have you not struck a blow on me? There vere several times when you could have. Your senseless hope that I will change holds you back. It vill be your downfall."

"We trust love," said Rosa. "That can never be our downfall."

"Famous last words," Tsarina said. With a flurry of attacks, she disarmed Rosa and Strike, but did not attack them. Instead, she sprinted to the soldiers guarding Peter, and ran Alfonse through with her saber.

"Alfonse, NO!" Austin screamed, rushing to his friend's side. He aimed his rifle at Tsarina, but she knocked it out of bis hands, and sliced his throat after pulling the saber out of Alfonse.

"Not… again…" Austin choked out, as blood spurted from his neck.

"It will be all right," Alfonse said, as the bloodstain on his chest grew and the light faded from his eyes. "This is fine. It will work out. Everything… is… fine… it… will… all… get… better… everythin…" his words trailed off as he stopped breathing.

"NO!' Peter roared, forgetting his task. He tackled Tsarina and stabbed her in the eye with a sharp piece of D-Spair.

"AAAAAUUGGGHHH!" she screamed, shoving Peter off and convulsing as she swung her sword every which way. One slash hit Peter, slicing across his face and chest, leaving a gash two inches deep. He collapsed in pain, falling below the reach of her wild swings.

"What?!" "What?!" Generic, Link, and Generix looked over at what had just happened.

"Peter, you fool!' Generic cried.

"It is already over," Generix said.

"No it's not!" Generic shouted, redoubling his attacks on his evil, yellow-haired counterpart. "Link, run! Finish what Peter started! You are our last hope!"

Link bolted away from Generic and Generix, toward Peter's unfinished portal generator. Tsarina blocked his path, a terrifying spectre of rage. Smoke rose and blood poured from the purple crystal lodged in her eye socket, and she held her blood-soaked shaska out, ready to pounce on Link and dismember his every organ.

Link stopped in his tracks, but Strike and Rosa moved in between him and Tsarina.

"We'll hold her off," Strike said. "Go finish that device!"

Tsarina tried to lunge, but Strike and Rosa stopped her with their swords.

At last, Link reached the unfinished portal creator, passing several Petal to the Metal soldiers fighting Black Order members as he went.

"The fate of RUBES is in your hands now," said Peter, lying on the ground near the device, blood seeping from the gash. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

"You've done more than anyone could possibly expect," Link said, and got to work on the device.

He tuned out the noises of war as he screwed in bolts, soldered wires, clamped crystals and batteries into place, and pieced together circuit boards. Link forced himself to ignore the sounds of his friends and allies fighting for their lives and taking hits as he worked on finishing the last device of the war.

He had to use all of his knowledge and skills, straining his mind to the absolute limit. He couldn't afford to mess this up, not again. He had to succeed where he failed the last time he tinkered with electronics on that spot.

Link lost track of time, his hands becoming numb. At last, most of the pieces seemed to be in place, he only had to connect the machine to the makeshift power supply. Link went to connect the wires, but before he could, he felt a stabbing pain through his torso.

Link fell to the ground on his face, in between the jury-rigged machine and the makeshift power supply. Tsarina rolled him onto his back with her boot and stabbed him again, leaving her sword in Link's chest.

"You have lost," she said. "Look around and see your failure." Link did so. Strike and Rosa lay on the ground with slashes across their bodies, their hands locked together. Generix stood with his foot on Generic's neck, who was missing an arm. Blue Whale King lay slowly bleeding out and crushing under his own weight, despite his slowed down time, and unable to do anything but watch. The Black Order troops were all dead, but the few remaining Petal to the Metal soldiers were injured or out of ammo.

"Any last words?" Tsarina asked.

"I'm sorry, everyone," Link said. He tried to push the sword up out of his chest, but Tsarina only dug it deeper.

Link's arms fell to his sides. His left hand touched the wire from the power supply, his right touched the wire from the portal device.

A terrible electric shock coursed through Link's arms and chest, turning the world white. This was the end. He couldn't breathe, move, or think. There was nothing but pain.

And then, it was over. When Link opened his eyes again, the world was different.