Chaos Effect

Chapter 90: Chapter 90

~Some time in the past...~

"I knew that bastard was too good to be true! Never trust someone that can bop their heads on a ceilin' just by standin' up! Even his fuckin' stew was shit! That should have been our first clue!"

"is... is that what you are really focusing on?" Sindri asked his brother. "Some guy from another UNIVERSE shows up, tells us that Tyr is really Odin and, oh yes Brok, he's going to KILL YOU! And you are focused on his food?"

"Hey, I'm used ta people tryin' ta kill me. But insultin' the host's cookin'? That's just bad manners." The blue dwarf let out a huff. "Bet ya even them rectum lickers that Kratos slaughtered back in his homelands had the decency ta not insult a host's soup!"

Sindri threw his hands up in the air. "You... you are impossible!"

"Come now gentlemen," Ratatoskr stated from the window he was standing in, "let us try and work together. Master Edwin has brought us important news!"

Edwin, for his part, merely watched on as the brothers bickered. "I'm assuming that while I'm tall I'm just short enough when compared to gods that I am trust worthy."

"Fuck ya!" Brok proclaimed. "Hurts my fuckin' neck ta look ya in the eye but ya at least sat down as quick as you could. And ya didn't insult my food!"

"Its simple. I like simple." He cut into the sausage that Brok had given him. "I don't need my food to feel like it's a puzzle that will take twenty steps to solve."

"...can we keep this one?" Brok said with a laugh.

Sindri though wasn't amused. "Odin is Tyr! And he's going to kill you!"

"He did in what I saw," Edwin confirmed. "But... that doesn't mean it has to happen." He waved off Brok who pushed a bottle of mead towards him. "Water only, please. I like a clear head."

"Okay, now I'm liking him a bit more," Sindri admitted, coming over to the table and setting two glasses of water down. "So we're going to tell Kratos and let him kill the All Father?"

"No."

That made the dwarf pause. "What do you mean, no? He's going to kill-"

"Me!" Brok exclaimed. "Ya ya, we all have heard ya remind us! Seriously, gonna give me a fuckin' complex if ya keep this up!" He looked over at Edwin. "Still, he brings up a good point. Why ain't we killin' the crow cocksucker?"

"Here is what happens," the blond man stated. "Kratos will kill Heimdall."

"No loss there," Brok muttered.

"I quite agree," Ratatoskr stated. "You know that I met him once... suffered a clear case of emotional distress due to his father's less than stellar ability to develop a well developed emotional bond with the man. I almost felt sorry for him... until I realized he was also a twat."

Edwin continued on. "Atreus will return to Asgard in hopes that he can gather some more information about a mask that Odin wants. He'll have to flee because Sif uses her monstrously huge tits to convince Thor to do something stupid and Atreus ends up back here. That's when you put it all together Brok."

The dwarf blinked. "Me? And put what together?"

"That Tyr is Odin. Everyone else... Atreus, Freya, Kratos... they all fall for his lies but you see through it. Push him on it. Follow the thread until he makes his mistake-"

"And kills me." Brok rubbed his chest.

Sindri glowered at that. "I knew letting those two stay here was a mistake. Atreus... he-"

"Now knock that shit off!" Brok snapped. "Only fucker who is at fault is Odin for stabbin' me and me not bein' quick enough ta dodge! Are ya still moody about them? I thought we got that talked out!"

"That was before I learned he got you killed!"

"Sindri has a right to be upset," Edwin said diplomatically. "But he also should remember that he cares for them. Tell me... if Atreus was killed by Odin... would you feel anything?"

"I... of course!" Sindri looked horrified at that. "I would mourn him!"

"Remember that," he said firmly. "Remember that it is easy to cut someone out of your life... very hard to come back together again. And every second they aren't there is wasted." He gazed hard at the dwarves. "You two fought for a long time; do you regret that now that you know one of you might be gone?"

The two dwarves grew silent as Edwin rose and walked over to Ratatoskr to quietly talk with him.

"...I... you don't think I..." Sindri swallowed. "I mean... I'd be mad but-"

"I don't know," Brok admitted, for once not gruff and boisterous. "I hope ya wouldn't. I'd hate it that you were alone if I were gone."

"You AREN'T going to be gone though," Sindri stated. "We know what is going to happen. We can stop it."

"Stop?" Edwin called out as Ratatoskr scribbled something down. "Yes and no." He paused, looking at the drawing. "We need everyone to think Brok is dead. And we need everyone to think Sindri has given into rage. Because-" he grimaced, "and Brok do not get a fucking big head over this... your death motivates Kratos and Atreus to fight Asgard. You cause them to unite the realms."

"...me?" Brok whispered in shock. He opened his mouth only to snap it shut.

"He'll crow about it later," Sindri stated. "Okay, so Ragnarok happens but-"

"Odin dies. Asgard falls." Edwin looked at Sindri. "You slay the All Father."

Now it was Sindri's turn to be shocked. "I... how?"

"I'll tell you once you agree. But with Asgard fallen the Realms need help to rebuild. Kratos does that. He becomes the new All Father, the Rebuilder. In a hundred winters he is beloved in the Eight Realms as the god who helped lift all back up."

"Oh my," Ratatoskr whispered. "All that... for the cost of Master Brok's life?"

"...fuck," Brok whispered. "I guess-"

"I said they need to THINK you are dead," Edwin cut in. "You two were able to make an axe with the power of the winter storm, a hammer with the might of a thunderbolt, and capture the winds to create a spear that can be thrown again and again." He shot them a level stare. "You can't find some spell or figure out a way to fake a death?"

"Well, no," Sindri said. "That would be-"

Brok chimed in. "Unless we used the-"

"Oh! And with a bit of-"

"Now yar talkin'!" Brok proclaimed.

"Also I need something that can rip a soul fragment out of a lake!" Edwin said happily.

Sindri frowned at that. "What do you-"

Edwin held up Ratatoskr's drawing. "I know what the Well of Souls looks like. My Millennium Key will let me create a doorway to it. I can open it, stick whatever box you make in there-"

"And get my fuckin' soul back together!" Brok exclaimed. "Fuckin' hell we ARE keepin' this one!"

Edwin though shook his head. "I have a bounty hunter I need to deal with. So if I could scan some of your blueprints that would be wonderful."

Sindri though shook his head. "No. Sorry but no." Before Edwin could say a word he began to move towards their workshop. "You think for all this we are giving you a cheap knock off? No no no... you deserve something special."

"Ya thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Brok asked.

His brother nodded. "Go get Gleipnir."

~The Eternal Gate: Present~

It should have been that introducing three giantesses and a small squadron of Power Rangers would turn the tide of the battle.

But Wyatt Chaos wasn't merely the best bounty hunter in a country. He wasn't merely the best in the world. Nor in his own galaxy. Even more beyond his own universe. Wyatt was one of the greatest bounty hunters to have ever come into existence in the entire multiverse.

A trio of giant women wasn't going to stop him.

"Hmmm," he murmured to himself, tilting his head as he took in the three massive women before he waved his hand in the air. Two portals formed thanks to the Millennium Ring, one beside him and the other right in front of Tea. She barely had time to blink behind her mask before Wyatt shoved his hand inside the portal near him, his arm emerging from the other one so gigantic that it could have wrapped around Tea and throttled her. But his fingers weren't free... instead they were clasped around his Millennium Revolver. "Pitiful."

"TEA!" Yuri shouted, tackling her sister just before Wyatt could fire on her. Instead his shot raced out into the realm beyond. The Gardner sisters couldn't consider what damage that might have caused because in the next moment Wyatt pulled his hand out before creating more portals that sucked up several of his Cylon minions, the robots reappearing the same size as Tea and Yuri and Mai.

"Oh this is going to suck!" Mai shouted before she threw a punch at the Cylon, her foot crashing down nearly on top of Renard.

"That's the problem when some of your allies are so big," Wyatt informed the man. "Sometimes they forget that you exist."

"They do not forget that I exist. They trust me to handle myself."

And with that Renard lifted up his sword.

~In the Past~

"Why do you wish for this power?"

The Sorceress didn't seem shocked to find Renard there, having seen through the glamour and tricks that hid the castle and its true power. Instead she merely looked at the man that had managed to get inside and had politely asked her for an audience before explaining, with no grand trick or twisting of his words, that he needed her help.

Renard could have said many things. For the coming battle. To save the innocent. To be stronger. Better.

He did not say any of those things.

"I want to protect my friends."

The Sorceress smiled at that, reaching over and patting his hand.

"Then the Power is yours."

~MC~MC~MC~MC~

"By the power of Greyskull!" Renard called out, hefting aloft his copy of the Sword of Power. "I have the power!" Energy blasted from Renard, blinding and radiant, and when it finally dimmed he was nearly 8 feet tall, his muscle mass increased and his ranger outfit sporting a more barbarian look. His helm was gone but it didn't matter as he smiled, swinging the blade several times.

Wyatt merely shrugged before he reached into his coat, grasping a golden handle and yanking it out. He gave it a few swings and a blade of shadow energy formed, crackling with dark power. "Hmm... neat trick."

"Renard!" Josiah cried out, the blasts that had been holding him back finally lessening enough for him to focus on something more than his own survival. "That is the Millennium Sword!" Edwin's brother threw his shield at one of the Clone Wars era droids, shattering it even as he clipped Star-Lord's element gun to his belt "How did you get that?"

"You think yours is the only world where the Greeks were the ones to create the Millennium Items? You aren't unique having that little shield."

Josiah nodded. "Maybe... but I have a few more surprises."

~In The Past~

Princess Zelda trembled as she stared at the swirling cloud of red and black that moving towards the castle at frightening speed. Something had felt off about the day but she had kept chalking it up to nerves or her leaping at shadows. Looking for a threat that wasn't there.

Then... just as she had been preparing to head to Mt. Lanayru to visit the Spring of Wisdom... the ground had shook, cracks had opened up along the main roads, and from it the Calamity had begun to rise up.

'No... its too soon!' she thought in horror. 'We were...'

"Princess!" one of the soldiers cried out, rushing towards her, panting hard. "The... the guardians."

She felt her stomach fall. "What of the guardians?"

"The Calamity... it has released Malice upon them when they moved to intercept it. It's... its..."

There was an explosion and Zelda turned, seeing her greatest nightmare come true: the Guardians were turning their powerful blasts upon Castletown rather than the Calamity. The dark monsters that thrilled at the destruction that the Calamity offered roared out in celebration before moving to rush the city, the walls crumbling and the defenders left in a panic as the Guardians that were supposed to be their ultimate defenders turned against them. Already she could see the towering Moblins raising their bone clubs and letting our battle cries before lumbering through the broken passage.

There were hurried footsteps behind her and she turned to see her protector, Link, rushing up to her, the Master Sword in hand. He came to a stop at the battlement and stared down at the coming carnage, his face twisted into only a slight frown but that was, for him, as good as a scream of torment.

"We must try and reach the Champions," Zelda said, taking a breath and steeling her nerves. "We must tell them to get to their Divine Beasts... if they haven't already. The attack may be focused here but I imagine the other domains are facing their own dangers." She shut her eyes. "It is cruel to tell them to ignore their own people but if we don't stop the Calamity here then it will only spread out further, making those strikes grow all the stronger."

Link nodded and turned to get the messenger hawks... only for him to stop when there was a blue glow. Zelda gasped and Link prepared to attack only to blink when he saw the other champions standing before the two, looking just as confused, and a new figure in a short brown coat, blue pants, and with a golden shield strapped to his back.

"Woah," Daruk said, shaking his head, "that was a rush!"

"You commonly go rolling about to get around, how did that make you dizzy?" Revali said with a dismissive sniff.

Mipha smiled softly when she spotted the two. "Princess, Link... we are here as you requested."

"As... we requested?" Zelda said, confused. "I-"

At once Urbosa drew her scimitar and pointed at the stranger's chest. "I knew there was something wrong with you, I just knew it. Trying to keep us from our Divine Beasts. Who are you... Yiga Clan?" Link pushed Zelda behind him while the other champions moved to encircle the stranger. "The Calamity cares nothing of you... you've pledged your loyalty to an unthinking monster!"

"I am not Yiga," the stranger said.

"Then why bring us from our Divine Beasts?" Daruk grumbled darkly, taking a step forward.

"Because the Calamity has created a new horror: Blights. Malice merged with Ancient Tech and the King of Evil's own blood." He stared all of them down. "Right now they are hunting within the Divine Beasts, seeking you four out so they might slay you and corrupt the Divine Beasts as they did the Guardians."

"The Guardians... oh no!" Mipha looked towards Castletown, the screams of the citizens growing louder.

"Then we should have stayed and fought them!" Urbosa declared... only to stop when the man held up a sleeker version of a Shiekah Slate and played footage of her fighting a horrific monster... that killed her. "What..."

"I have footage of the rest of you," the man said. "You fall. You die. Link faces the Calamity alone but it is too much. He flees with the princess to the fort but it mortally wounded... it will take 100 years in the Rejuvenation Chamber to get him back to living. Not even full strength just... living. And during that time the Calamity will reign over Hyrule and your domains will be left isolated."

Zelda squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry. Her fault... it was all her fault! Because she couldn't figure out her powers. Because she had found the Guardians. Because she had made foolish plans that left the Champiosn alone-

"And how do you know this?" Revali asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Because I'm the reason Ganon is attacking earlier. You were supposed to have another week. But my arrival changed things."

Urbosa pointed her weapon at him once more. "You-"

"Are your only hope now," he said.

"How do we stop it?" Mipha asked before anyone else could speak. "You clearly know what happens... and brought us here... how do we stop it?"

"Like this," the stranger said before moving past Zelda and holding out a strange box, scanning Link. The hero tensed but nothing happened... at first. Then the man held out his left hand and a band upon his wrist twisted... and turned into an exact replica of the Master Sword.

"That can not be..." Revali said, his usual arrogance gone in the face of the impossible.

"It is," the stranger said before slamming the Master Sword against his shield, creating a sonic wave that spread out rapidly from him. Down below Zelda saw all the monsters freeze and further back the Guardians stopped their assault. But any relief died when she saw the Calamity TURN towards the stranger, a bestial face forming from the swirling energy. "Ganon!" the stranger called out. "I am Josiah Chaos! And I have come to rob you."

Of all the things the stranger could have said that was the very last Zelda would have expected.

"The Triforce was not made for evil!" Josiah called out. "It was made for the good of all! It is only because the bearer of Power, the spawn of Demise, stole his piece that evil was allowed to bleed into it. But... you are not Ganon. Not anymore. You are a ghost that doesn't know it is dead! As such I call upon Lady Din, Goddess of Power!" He thrust out his left hand. "Judge me and know my worth! Grant me the avatar of your strength, Din! Make me your bearer!"

For several moments nothing happened.

And then... from the Calamity... a golden point of light suddenly burst from it.

The result was instant. The Calamity roared and tendrils forming into grasping hands, desperately trying to force the light back into its body. But the light refused, burning all that touched it and still the Calamity scrambled to try and reclaim what had burst from its body. The moblins and the lynels and the Hinox and all the other monsters that were aligned with the Calamity trembled and lost their fighting spirit as their master tried to stop whatever Josiah was doing. The Guardians began to smash themselves against one another, senseless.

Link gasped beside her as a small golden triangle raced from the Calamity and struck Josiah... just as Zelda and Link's hands glowed gold and two other triangles flashed just below their knuckles. And at once Zelda trembled as she felt, at long last, her powers UNLOCK.

The Calamity roared in despair and outrage.

"Its weakened," Josiah said, bringing his shield up. "It can still kill us all but we can end this. Not just the Calamity... but Ganon. Demise. Its hate finally put down. The cycle finally broken." He looked to the Champions. "Are you ready?"

"Aw... YEAH!" Daruk bellowed, slamming one fist into the other.

"About time," Revali commented.

"The Calamity dies this day," Urbosa declared.

Mipha smiled. "For all that will come after us."

Link nodded.

"CHARGE!" Josiah roared.

~Present~

Josiah moved to stand next to Renard, bracing his legs. "I don't want to hurt you." He lifted up his hand, the Triforce of Power glowing and giving him its might. His duplicate Master Sword appeared in his grasp.

Wyatt was unimpressed. "Trying to play off the fact that I have your brother's face? That's all I have of him. You aren't my brother... I'll never see him again. That won't stop me from killing you."

"You will try," Josiah said firmly as he and Renard moved to attack. The two swung their blades at Wyatt but the man was as slippery as an eel, easily avoiding their blows before he lashed out with one of his own. Josiah used his shield to block before pressing the attack, Renard moving to back him up.

"How does the old saying go? Do... or do not? There is no try?" Wyatt fired off several shots from his Millennium Revolver, forcing Renard to block them with the flat of his blade. "You know I dealt with a Chaos from the Star Wars universe... he wasn't a Jedi like you'd expect." He managed to slip through Josiah's defenses and lashed out, the brown haired man crying out as he was hit; it was only his ranger outfit that kept him from being seriously wounded but there was still a shower of sparks.

The strike though cost Wyatt though as Renard had been forgotten, allowing him to swing his fist right into the man's head, rattling him. He stumbled, hat falling off but he made no move to retrieve it, instead focusing on taking on Renard now that the enhanced man was coming at him.

"You think you are the heroes of this little tale?" Wyatt asked.

"Is this where you claim you are?"

"No no... unlike so many of my duplicates I'm not deluded."

"You think you all are monsters."

"Your Chaos has killed. He won't admit it-" Wyatt slammed into Renard, the two locking blades, "-but he enjoyed it."

"Edwin killed because he had no choice. And it will haunt him til his own end!" Renard lashed out again with his free hand but rather than a strike he grabbed Wyatt's wrist and jerked down hard, forcing him to drop the Millennium Revolver, which he then kicked away from them. "Unlike you he will never forget all he has harmed."

"I remember them all," Wyatt said but there was no grief in his words. "That just shows how underprepared you are to face me. I am smarter than you, big man." His eyes danced with arrogance. "I remember the ocean of dead men I've left in my wake." He suddenly shifted, thrusting out his hand, and Renard stumbled when a portal formed under his left foot, sending him crashing to the ground. "Still haven't figured out how to close these while someone is trapped," Wyatt commented idly. "Would make it easy for me to just cut you into small chunks if I could do that." He pointed his sword right at Renard's throat as he moved to defend himself, his intent clear.

"HIYA!" Josiah roared as the Master Sword glowed and he gave a sharp swing, a crescent of light firing from the blade. Wyatt countered by swinging his own sword, a dark blast of Shadow Realm magic lashing out. But Josiah held out his hand, summoning Ganon's dark magic that still remained etched on the Triforce of Power and blocked the blow.

"Almost poetic," Wyatt commented before he suddenly rushed forward, leaving the two warring elements to continue to battle against one another, and struck his sword against Josiah's blade. The two traded several blows, clashing violently even as the droids and the invaders warred with one another. At one point Yuri's large foot came down near them as she struggled to deal with the massive droid she was grappling with, forcing them to dive away, but they were again at it within seconds.

Then they heard the crackling and both turned in time to see the light magic of the Master Sword and the dark energy of the Shadow Realm wrap around each other, swirling violently before flashing once... twice...

Josiah lifted his shield and shut his eyes as the two blasts of energy exploded, sending a wave of chaotic energy that sent him skidding back, his feet sliding along the stone of the Eternal Gate's courtyard before finally coming to a violent stop against a pillar. He dropped his shield and looked around, only seeing Renard who had fallen onto his back.

"Where did he go?"

"Elsewhere, most likely to try someone else."

"We need to find him, keep him from getting to Edwin."

"We will," Renard said only to turn when he heard a drone fill the air and see several ships, roughly the size of a standard truck, move towards them with guns spinning as they prepared to fight. "But I think we need to focus on ourselves for a while!"

Josiah nodded and braced himself and his shield, readying for the next wave of battle.

~MC~MC~MC~

"So I'm trying to decide where this ranks," Booster Gold said as he fired on the robots that were trying to swarm him and Joey; the two of them had ended up back to back, battling together to get through the horde. Booster had the least ranger-like upgrade, having used the tech to augment his suit with the Gold Zeo Ranger's equipment. It turned out that his enhanced future body could handle the Zeo crystal's growing power, not tearing him apart as it had Jason Scott.

"What do ya mean?" Joey asked as he punched out a robot, letting out a whoop as it crumbled like tin. He was never going to get tired of doing that.

"In terms of robot battles," the hero stated as he used his wrist blasters to take out a few robots that reminded him vaguely of the robots from the UA Entrance Exam Chapters. "You would not believe how common they are in my world."

"Robots or battles?" Joey asked.

"Both! So these are more interesting than the Manhunters though I might just be bitter that they cost me so much money. Brainiac drones have some variety so that is nice but others... eh? Wyatt really is going all out to make this super interesting. Then you have Superman's robot doubles when they go on a rampage... which they always do! Seriously, it gets so annoying!"

"Sir?" Skeets said as he fired off several blasts; he too had been upgraded, his sleek shell having all manner of weapons now installed that allowed him to better take the fight to anyone that might try and hurt him and his partner. "While this is entertaining I do worry that Wyatt Chaos might decide to up raising ante-"

There was a rumble and they looked in time to see the Grand Mal from Beast Machines emerging from a section of the Eternal Gate; the robotic semi-skull-like structure powering up its cannons as it began to move towards the battlefield.

"Skeets?" Booster said. "What have I told you about jinxing things?"

"I merely stated a concern that was rather valid. In fact I'd say that the events, as we now have them-"

"Skeets?" Booster stated. "Still a jinx."

"Uh... any ideas on how ta stop that thing, Mike?"

Before Booster could answer the Broken Symmetry fired off several laser blasts at the Grand Mal, the side of it shuddering as it was struck.

"Don't worry Joey!" Serenity said over the comm. unit. "We have your back!"

"Sis!" Joey exclaimed. "You stay away from dem there guns! Ya might shoot yar eye out!"

"I would be interested to see that, honestly," Pegasus replied over the comm. unit. "Now then Joseph let us work to help you out while you deal with those metal ruffians."

"Dear lord someone swallowed a dictionary," Booster said only to yelp and duck when Assassin Buzzsaw Droids began to sweep in towards them, the air filling with their whines. "Okay, the fun factor just dropped a bit!" He began to fire at the Buzzsaw droids but they were quick buggers, able to easily weave about and avoid his strikes. "Come on, stay still!"

"Sir?" Skeets called out. "Perhaps now would be best to pull out our secret weapon."

Booster pulled a face at that before shoving his hand into a secret pocket in his costume and pulling out a bauble that at once looked brand new and ancient.

A Green Lantern ring.

"Ted is never going to let me hear the end of this," he muttered as he prepared to slip up the cloned ring Guy had given him one night after he'd gotten sloppy drunk. "Alright, here-"

The ring rose from his palm before rocketing towards the Broken Symmetry.

"Oh that can't be good," he muttered as the ring slipped around the cannon fire and disappeared. But Booster didn't even get a moment to think about that as a new voice could be heard on the comms.

"In brightest day. In blackest night."

"Gramps?" Joey whispered.

"No evil... shall escape my sight."

"No... way," Tea said as she twisted towards the Broken Symmetry, her voice booming over the battlefield.

"Let those who worship evil's might."

"Go get them," Arno murmured.

"Beware my power."

"Solomon," Booster said as a burst of green shot out of the ship, revealing a familiar face decked out in the green and black uniform of the protector of space.

"Green Lantern's Light!" Solomon bellowed before racing down towards the battlefield, his ring forming a massive sledge hammer that he used to smack half of the Buzzsaw Droids away from Booster and Joey.

"Well," King Edwyn commented as he checked over Sephiroth's blade, making sure it was still sharp before he went back to facing down the droids, "you don't see that every day."

~MC~MC~MC~

"How are we doing, Mr. Kaiba?" Koyo asked, using his Red Dino Charger saber to cleave through the head of a spider-like droid that had been coming at him.

"You all need to pick up the pace," Kaiba's voice said over the comm. and Koyo looked up to see him and Des Chaos, both in a combination of Iron man tech and Power Ranger outfits, flying in the sky taking out as many of the airborne droids as they could. "You are beginning to see push back."

"We should have outfitted them with better long range weapons," Des commented.

"We didn't trust them to handle them."

"WE are still on the comms," Rex pointed out.

Koyo shook his head and focused on wading through the battlefield, hacking and slashing at anything that wasn't wearing brightly colored spandex.

"It is NOT Spandex!" Des snapped and Koyo blushed as he realized he said that last part out loud.

"Don't mind them," Brom Bones stated as he moved to join the young man. He was wearing something called the Death Ranger outfit, which had a skull-like helm, which fit the truly massive man quite well. "They are nervous for us but hide it well."

"I'm nervous for us!" Koyo said before whipping around and pressing his middle and ring fingers to his palm, causing the web shooters he'd snagged from a Marvel-styled universe to fire out and web up a droid. "Though... I have to admit this is fun." He saw Solomon flying overhead, creating a drill that he used to begin attacking the Grand Mal. "That would have been better."

"We have plenty of tricks and don't under estimate the power of little things. They can-"

"Look out!" Yuri cried above them and they turned to see that the droid she'd been grappling with was unleashing a smaller robot from its back, the demonic looking thing with blades for arms and legs and the size of a school bus landing near them. It twisted its binocular-like head in their direction before letting out a click that sounded VERY threatening.

"Oh, that's not good," Koyo muttered as he began to look through the subspace pocket his Ranger Outfit came with for a weapon to use against the new threat. "I don't think any of the swords I have will cut through that."

"Mine will." Brom said, drawing forth an ebony blade with a bone-white handle. It looked like no sword Koyo had seen before and considering how much they'd been traveling the Multiverse to prepare for the battle that was saying something. Brom gave it several swings and Koyo shuddered, feeling a cold breeze upon his skin; or rather not cold but a feeling of... emptiness on the wind. Of lacking. The large duelist braced his feet and brought the sword up before saying in a voice that seemed to shake him to his very soul, "Utinam mortui sint tui soli comites."

He swung the blade several times and gashes appeared in the air. Tears, as if someone had reached out and ripped away part of the world like it was a quilt whose patches had been removed, leaving only holes.

The tears remained for only a moment before rocketing out, cutting through the droid and causing it to letting out a whine that could only be described as 'pain' before it fell over dead.

Not deactivated.

Dead.

"Where... where did you get that from?" Koyo began to edge away from Brom as the man turned towards him, the blade still exposed and its edge making Koyo feel like he had just walked through a graveyard and seen a tombstone with his own name on it.

"From the home of a death god who wanted to just lay down his burden," Brom said softly before sheathing the blade. "Come, we have work to do."

~MC~MC~MC~

Edwin swung his bladed staff, driving it into the heart of one of the droids, causing it to sputter and groan before it shut down with a shower of sparks. He only took a moment to make sure that it was down for the count for good before he ripped his staff out and moved to take on the next of his foes.

Only to be spun about as Wyatt fired at him twice, hitting each of his shoulders and causing him to spasm before he fell to the ground.

"So I want to see if I understand this correctly," Wyatt stated as he slowly marched towards Edwin. All around him more of his robotic minions were flooding the field, forcing the others to not be able to rush for his help. "You managed to do what so few have ever done and actually get away from me. And rather than actually take that win and live out your life with merely the fear that I would find you again... you decided on this." He pressed his foot down on Edwin's wrist, applying pressure until he let go of his staff. "You decided that it was brilliant to come racing here, to my stronghold, and try and take me on? I have been traveling the multiverse for decades, never aging, growing stronger as I collected Millennium Items you've never even HEARD of in order to augment my power. You thought you could take me out with some Super Sensei bullshit?" He shook his head. "You disappoint me, Chaos."

"I... aim to please."

Wyatt froze.

That... was not Edwin's voice.

The figure he had pinned reached up with their free hand and caused their helmet to disappear, revealing Edna Chaos' face.

"Oh... if you could only see your face right now. Can you see your face with those orbs in your eye sockets?" She was trying to sound brave but he could hear the sheer terror in her voice.

"What is-" He turned back towards the Eternal Gate. "A distraction."

"Yeah," Edna admitted. "Damn impressive, right?"

Wyatt brought his gun around, pressing it to Edna's forehead.

"So I have several different forcefields running at the moment to protect me," she commented, not looking as confident as she sounded. And she didn't sound that confident. "Now... maybe your gun is able to burst through all of them. But it might also take a while for it to do so. And during that time I'm not going to be making it easy for you. Still... you can try but know I am going to do all I can to make life painful for you... and Edwin will STILL be in that prison."

She swallowed.

Wyatt's finger trembled but after a moment he let out a snarl and stormed away, forming a portal. "The Chaos of Earth 1 has breached the Eternal Gate. All internal forces move to intercept."

Edna flopped her head back onto the ground before reaching for her comm....the terror of facing Wyatt finally making her sob even as the battle raged around her. She'd failed... and she'd given him up, like a coward.

"Edwin! He's on to you!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Edwin! He's on to you!"

"Fuck," I muttered as I ran down the hall, the Pharaoh in the Solaris Knight ranger armor turning to look at me. "Wyatt knows about the swap."

Slash frowned at that; she had been the one to get us into the prison; the Pharaoh and I had used Pym particles to shrink down and she had flown the three of us in through a side entrance before sending her Charizard back out to help deal with the madness of the main battle. "They couldn't have delayed him any longer?"

"Apparently not," the Pharaoh said, "but we must not dwell on that. They have given us the time we need to hopefully find the prisoners and release them. We can only work to ensure that we use that time properly."

"I'm just saying we have no idea where to go!" She pulled off her helmet, returning it to the morphing grid, the Pharaoh and I doing the same. I was thrilled that I hadn't needed to give up my morpher; Edna had used Des' duplicator to create a copy of my Red Sentry Ranger Costume and thanks to us being the same size along with its more armored front Wyatt had fallen for us swapping out when I'd done my morph. A battle was coming, I could feel it. "Sorry, sorry," she said as he moved down another hallway, this one like the last looking more like some germ-free lab than a prison, "I'm just worried about NONE."

"We will find your friend, I assure you of that," the Pharaoh stated. "You must have faith."

'Yeah but we might find him when we're sharing a prison cell,' I thought darkly to myself. I had hoped that we'd be able to, no pun intended, cause a bit more chaos before Wyatt wised up to us but at least our group had managed to get inside. That was step one. But Step Two had just become far more difficult with Wyatt knowing we were coming.

"Troy," I said and my Phone's AI popped up next to me. "Any chance of hacking in, finding the prisoners?"

"Of course... if you show me WHERE to hack. I mean, I'm good?" He flashed a smile. "But I'm not that good. Ya dig?"

"I dig," I said dryly.

"Do you need an actual computer or will any wiring do?" Slash asked.

"What are you thinking?" the Pharaoh asked. "Finding something else? Another piece of technology? I suppose that might work but I worry that we might alert someone we are here."

"No," Slash said with a shrug. "I was just going to do this."

And with that she slammed her Shark Fin Daggers into the wall.

"Jesus!" I shouted as sparks exploded from her daggers.

"Oh I love Skyrim upgrades!" Slash exclaimed in delight as she began to rip a hole into the wall, fire burning from her daggers as she created a hole in the metal-plastic hybrid that coated the walls. "There," she replied, yanking her daggers away to reveal a bunch of wires, "your hacking spot."

Troy rubbed his chin. "Huh... that might just work."

"Uh, might doesn't feel me with confidence," I stated.

"Edwin is right," the Pharaoh chimed in. "There is a chance that you might be destroyed if you come up against any security systems."

"Meh, I created a backup copy of myself in the phone. I go poof and I just start back up again."

"...I don't like you talking so casually about your death," I told him.

Troy responded by reaching over and patting my check. "Aw, you do care!" He gave me a kiss on the forehead before flying into the wires.

"You two are weird," Slash commented.

"Fuck you."

"Only if you are a pedo," Slash commented with a smirk. "You get baptized Catholic too? NONE mentioned that... kidding, kidding, I know you hate talking religion."

The Pharaoh frowned, looking about. "Should we not keep moving? Wyatt may arrive soon."

"We don't know if that will cause Troy to be unable to find us," I pointed out. But before I could say more my phone chimed and I pulled it out of a subspace pocket, looking at it to see a Google Maps App... of the Eternal Gate. "Nevermind, he's ready to lead us the way we need to go."

The Pharaoh frowned as we began to follow the path that Troy had set up for us. "Slash... your daggers. I do not remember from the historical documentaries we watched-"

'Aka Power Rangers streaming... including seasons that never existed like Hexagon or Time Force Season 2.'

"-that they could do what you just did."

"Oh... that." Slash smirked. "Skyrim magic merged with my Shark Daggers." She looked at me. "And your dad... he did something with Thunderstrike, right?"

"He's a carpenter... he's most at home with a hammer." I chuckled. "It is good and bad... on one hand it means only having one or two weapons we need to switch from. On the other you have to relearn a lot." I could feel him staring at me. "What is it?"

"Edwin... it is hard for Yugi and I to determine just how long we've been in this place. But... for you it was far longer, wasn't it?"

"...far too long," I whispered.

But before the Pharaoh could comment on me once again aging my soul by far too many years we heard the crackle of magic and turned to see Wyatt exiting one of the Millennium Ring Portals, a golden sword glowing with Shadow Realm magic in one hand and his Millennium Revolver in the other.

"You are smarter than I expected."

I tossed my phone to the Pharaoh. "Go."

"We can help you fight."

"That's not the battle plan. I'll hold him off." I rolled my shoulders, trying to hide the raw fear that was bubbling in my gut that I was going to have to take on someone who had managed to capture other versions of myself. Someone who had at least one Millennium Item I'd never seen before. I wasn't going to delude myself... Wyatt was a powerful Chaos. He had to be to earn his reputation. And in the end he came from a world where the strong battled it out... and I came from one where most people's most grueling task was drawing a card from their deck.

Still... I knew I had to try.

"You heard him," Slash said as she pushed the Pharaoh to move. I turned my back to her only for her to say, "Don't you dare die."

"I'll try not."

Wyatt shook his head at that. "Do you realize how many people have stood right where you are and thought 'I'll be the first to survive him'?"

"A lot," I said as I prepared myself, calling on all the knowledge the Morphing Grid had pumped into my head. It was a good trick to have... and I had other ones I was ready to use. "You think you are Death incarnate, don't you?"

"I wouldn't be so bold..." Wyatt said, pulling up his handkerchief to hide his face. Combine with the Millennium Eyes he had it made it impossible for me to read his emotions.

"No... I think you are that bold. I think you've gone so long without struggling that you've begun to believe the whispers about yourself. You... think you are Death itself. See... that's a very bad thing for you," I growled. "Because Death took my mother from me."

I spun my Power Staff before pointing it right at his heart as I channeled all the rage and anger and hatred that I had kept in me for so long, which normally bubbled out only with my snarky comments and dark looks. I took my pain and shoved it into the furnace that was my heart and felt it explode with flames.

"And I've been looking to get my revenge!"

Wyatt and I rushed forward at the same time.

~MC~MC~MC~

The Pharaoh looked at the walls as the entire building shook. "I understand Edwin's logic but I do feel that at least one of us should have stayed behind-"

"He wants to do this, we let him do this," Slash snapped. "There gets to a point where a person just can't be talked down... they need to take care of things themselves and a person just has to accept that. The best thing we can do at the moment is free the prisoners. We do that and we can end this fight."

"You are sure of that?" the Pharaoh asked.

"My Edwin is basically an Outer God at this point. He can warp reality. He's Q from Star Trek."

"From what?"

Slash blinked. "Dear lord Edwin truly does come from the worst timeline."

Troy's voice came over the phone. "I don't know, pretty sure any one who has to live in the Attack on Titan Universe has it worse. I mean giants but they aren't sexy? Any time you can ruin a man's kink it's a sad day."

The Pharaoh frowned before deciding he didn't want to even know what Troy was getting at. "Are we close?" He asked, looking back down the way they had come even as they continued to run, craning his neck as they moved around a corner. Though he couldn't hear them anymore the way the Eternal Gate was shaking had him very concerned about Edwin and just what was going on in his fight against Wyatt.

"Yup," Slash said, having come to a halt. The Pharaoh turned and looked at the row of sealed doors... including one that was the size of an aircraft hanger. "I'd say we made it. Troy?"

There was some sparks and the hologram appeared. "So normally there are like... twenty different things you have to do to open these cells. Wyatt didn't count on me existing, apparently, so he didn't bother to shield them. Also why he's focused on Edwin... thinks you two are going to stand here like fools unable to do a damn thing." He gestured towards a different spot on the wall. "Want to make him feel like an idiot?"

"Well, he should already by making the final release be a big red button."

"Actually that was supposed to be a trick," Troy said as Slash walked over to said button. It was about as cartoonish as one could get. "You press it and it just sets off alarms. But everything in this damn place is so twisted about... it was easy for me to make it your Big Ol' Salvation Button!" He did some jazz hands.

Slash smirked. "Alright then-"

The Pharaoh caught her wrist.

"Excuse you," she said coldly.

But the Pharaoh shook his head. "Slash... we have no idea who is behind those doors. Wyatt... he went after Chaoses. What if they are like the one Edwin used to defeat Enigma... his dark counterpart Aiden? What if they are worse than Wyatt? We have no idea-"

"He took my friend," Slash snapped. "And if he is behind one of those doors... I'm getting him the fuck out."

And with that she slammed the button as hard as she could.

At once the lights dimmed and the sound of generators powering down filled the air. Emergency lights clicked on, bathing them in red as, one by one, the doors opened with a hiss.

An Edwin wearing gold and blue armor similar to the Stark Armor Seto and Des had only far bulkier and weaponized stepped out, looking around before he put a helmet on his head.

Another dressed in Mandalorian armor... only it was decorated with bones including two great horns rising from the bucket helmet.

One in a simple black jumpsuit... who lifted his hand up, causing a yellow Power Ring to flare as the uniform of the Sinestro Corps blazed onto his being.

A monster that was mostly hidden in the shadows but he was far too big and bulky and when he raised his arms bone blades popped out from the undersides of his wrists.

And finally the giant door opened... and a maroon and golden robotic lion slowly prowled out, towering over the two... before letting out a roar.