Chapter 86: Another War?

Alexandra arrived at a remote place in Gaia where Ramiel's ego was able to pierce through before he was forced to go back to Spira.

"He was here, I can still feel the lingering traces of him." Alexandra closed her eyes and she never felt so alive.

"So, what's the plan?" Vincent crossed his arms and thought this would be extremely difficult. Especially because Alexandra felt space and time being manipulated.

"Ifalna, I have a request. Can you give me the Materias for holy and Meteor?" Alexandra looked at Ifalna and she went wide eyed.

"You would use them as energy sources huh?" Ifalna was now handling the Materias as the last full blooded Cetra and she looked at the white and black spheres.

"Then it explains Ramiel's ships being here as well huh?" Scarlet looked upwards and the massive ships were apparently there to become amplifiers for the operation.

"Are you guys ready?" Aerith looked at Cloud and Zack. They do not know where they will be going and Aerith cannot stop Alexandra now even if she knows the risks of transcending space and time.

"Hell yeah, we can finally have something to do and find him. Ramiel must be out there somewhere, alone and looking for ways to come back." Zack started squatting and was fired up.

"Ready as you are." Cloud succinctly replied and looked at Tifa who was quiet and concentrating heavily.

"How will we do this, we aren't all adept in magic. Especially the specialized ones like time and space." Vincent looked at Angeal and Genesis who are more combat based along with himself.

"Do not worry, just give all your Mako to the spell I will be conducting with Aerith and Ifalna. The former will be disrupting time, while the latter tears space." Alexandra squinted her eyes and she will control the spell with her being the best in manipulating Mako, second only to Ramiel.

"Here, I think you'll need it more than us." Scarlet walked up to her and gave her some red Materias which were summons.

"This energy signature... Bahamut prime and another one of its iterations?" Alexandra looked at Scarlet and was thankful for the powerful tools at hand.

Bahamut prime could cause absolute destruction to an entire continent after all. And she could feel that the other one was even stronger than that.

"We found the other one when we rummaged through the bases of Deepground. Shelke was happy to give away the locations after all. They weren't able to use it because of the absurd amounts of Mako needed." Scarlet stared at the Materia and shivered a bit when thinking of what it holds inside.

"You sure you don't want to come?" Tifa patted her on the back and Scarlet snorted. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll research the biometallic frames of the Weapons. He'll be happy to return that we could use it for the fleet he wants." Scarlet opted to stay. And she wasn't much of a combatant.

"Okay. Ifalna, Aerith. Let's get started." Alexandra gave a message to the ships and they started glowing because of the Mako they were emitting.

Aerith and Ifalna closed their eyes and began the procedures. Alexandra held their shoulders and guided their magic. Using her body as the conduit, they were able to output much more power to their spell.

The others contributed to the spell and the ships blasted Alexandra with pure Mako. Ifalna and Aerith started sweating, feeling the immense pressure.

One mistake and they'll all go boom. Alexandra felt like she was turning ethereal due to absorbing so much Mako. But she gritted her teeth and dumped it carefully at Ifalna and Aerith's spell.

"Come on... Work! Please." She began straining and kneeled on the ground. Lucrecia was about to reach out to her, but Vincent stopped her and shook his head.

"She needs all the concentration she can get. We'll only get in the way if we try and help her." Vincent explained and Lucrecia nodded apprehensively. Seeing her daughter in pain.

A tear in front of them started forming, but it wasn't big enough. "They're missing some energy, the crew can't fit there." Scarlet frowned.

Aerith looked at her mother and gave a meaningful nod. Ifalna smiled and began asking for help from the planet.

Tendrils of the lifestream appeared and attached to Alexandra. Giving her more juice, though it demanded extra effort as she screamed. Resisting turning into pure Mako just like Ramiel.

"Just a bit more!" Aerith looked at the portal and after a few more seconds, it was finally able to fit them in.

"Go, go! It won't last!" Ifalna shouted out to the ones who will be coming. Tifa held Cloud and Zack through their necks and lunged at the portal. She tackled Alexandra and Aerith along the way and they entered the portal.

It then suddenly closed as the power maintaining it disappeared into the void. "Hah, hah. I hope they will be successful." Ifalna prayed for their safe travels.

"Don't worry about them. They're strong kids." Vincent patted her on the back and wasn't worried.

"We weren't even able to say goodbyes. Well, they will surely return." Genesis got a bit sentimental as they were more fragmented now.

"She'll come back here hauling his ass that's for sure." Angeal snickered and the others chuckled.

"Then let's wait for them to come back with him. We need to keep Midgar and the world in good shape." Ifalna stood up. Wishing them luck for their journey.

Inside the void, Tifa, Cloud, and Zack immediately protected themselves as Aerith and Alexandra were pretty exhausted.

"Damn, what the hell's wrong with this place!" Zack strained with them as they feel the overwhelming pressure of the void.

"There! Over there! It feels much safer there!" Alexandra pointed at an ethereal looking current and Tifa flew them over there in an instant.

Before they could get a breather though, they were swept through the currents of time and space. Tumbling around without a clear destination.

"Hold on! This will be a rough ride!" They held each other so they won't just fly away into another stream and after tumbling for some time, the group entered another world.

"Fuck. That was dangerous as hell." Alexandra fixed her hair and helped the others who were groaning to stand up.

"Where the hell are we, I think I'm gonna puke." Aerith held her mouth and swallowed back her barf.

"Damn, that was disgusting. But I admire the determination to not puke." Cloud winced and Zack rubbed her back.

"Ugh, can you feel your connection with him Alexandra?" Tifa asked the important question and she gave a slow shake of her head.

"He's not here. And we're stranded here until we can get enough energy to get out." Alexandra stomped on the ground in frustration and caused a miniature earthquake.

They were in what seemed to be an abandoned city that was in ruins. "Can you read what that sign says?" Aerith pointed at a street sign and they couldn't read it.

"Hmmm, this is a problem. We don't know the language here." Alexandra frowned and thought of hiding somewhere first to access the world's internet as it looked sufficiently advanced.

Though they suddenly heard an ominous hum in the skies and saw a circle structure levitating in the air.

"What's that? Some sort of ship?" Zack stared at it. They then started to hear people scream.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't look like it's friendly with the locals. Come on, let's go and investigate." Cloud jumped to the roofs with Zack.

"Hah, boys. They're always frisky." Aerith sighed and flew to follow them. "What should we do?" Tifa looked at Alexandra and she shrugged.

"I guess we're checking out that thing now." She brandished Masamune and they went to the spaceship that was ravaging the city.

At the front of the vessel, a caped wizard was being held down by cable wires. The culprit, a Voldemort looking alien.

The cables were being controlled telekinetically and wrapped around him. Choking his blood supply to his brain as he began losing consciousness.

Mr. Voldemort raised the earth below him and was going to return to the ship, but a huge sword came flying at him and it was too quick to try and stop.

Cloud's buster sword tore through the ground and the two young men appeared on top of a building. "Ugh, what an ugly ass motherfucker." Cloud looked at the alien in disgust and Zack nodded.

"Hey, where's your nose? Do you breathe with gills?" Zack looked at him and checked for gills.

"Insolent monkeys!" The alien tore earth and created spikes out of them, launching it at Zack and Cloud.

But they just raised their hands and stopped them with their own telekinesis. Cloud then willed his sword back to him and threw it again right at Mr. Voldemort.

Zack then went to the obvious soon to be kidnap victim and tore through the cables easily. He put Strange on his shoulder and gave a thumbs up to Cloud. "Hostage secured!"

"No!" The alien raged and was about to rampage with his telekinesis. But he suddenly froze as Alexandra appeared above him.

"Hmmm, interesting. You are after that guy's necklace. It has amazing temporal properties. Now, who the hell are you and what are you doing here on this planet?" She force choked him.

They were still heroes after all, and they can't ignore humans being in danger while they were in the vicinity.

"You, who are you?" The alien frowned and managed to squeak out a sentence.

"Me? I'm just a woman searching for her brother. But I ask questions here, not you." She snapped her fingers and the alien's right arm twisted in two places, breaking his bones and tearing his muscles.

He gave a muffled scream as she forcefully shut his mouth. "Talk when you are ready, I'll break a bone on your body every 5 seconds."

She raised her hand and started a silent countdown with her fingers.

"Alex-nee's still scary. I can't believe she's Ramiel's twin. They're like worlds apart." Zack whispered to Cloud and he hit him. "Shhh, shut up you moron! She'll hear you!" Cloud mouthed to him.

Alexandra's countdown ended and she broke exactly one bone in the alien's body from his foot to dust.

"I'm a patient woman you see. Incredibly so, I've even let my brother have more women. Can you believe it? And I've got nothing but time in my hands right now. Let's start from bottom to top shall we?" She began counting again.

The alien could see the joy in her eyes as she looked at his form while putting down her fingers with excitement.

She broke another one and the alien never felt so powerless in his life. "32 down, another 174 more to go." Alex broke another one and the alien screamed. He was ready to talk, but his mouth was closed shut.

Aerith looked at Strange and woke him up with a ball of water. "Wha? What happened?" He looked around and prepared for a spell.

"Hello! I'm Aerith you know? What's your name mister?" She gave a smile and he could hear muffled screams in the background.

The alien he was fighting was levitating in the air, completely unmoving. But his eyes were trembling from fear and pain.

"Uhhh, Stephen. Stephen Strange." He unconsciously introduced himself to the young girl that had a smile on her face.

"So, who's that guy Stephano?" Aerith pointed at Mr. Voldemort. "A bad guy?" He was confused and Aerith sighed.

"We know he's a bad guy, uncle. I'm asking what's his purpose here silly." Aerith rolled her eyes and Strange raised a brow. "U-uncle?"

Alexandra kept on breaking the alien's bones and she added an extra service of turning them into tiny little shards that she used to shred him from the inside.

"What? Speak up? I can't hear you?" She had a grin on her face and Strange thought that was too brutal.

"Dude, I won't interrupt her if I were you... She's in a really bad mood and she'll slug you immediately. And you don't want that, trust me." Zack warned Strange who was about to speak up.

He then looked towards Aerith and began explaining the plan of Thanos to get the infinity stones.

"Oh wow, a time and space stone. Maybe we can use that to travel?" Aerith got excited and thought they were lucky.

"Alexandra, we've got some good info from Stephen here. Says they're after all powerful stones called the infinity stones. It will help tremendously with our exit here." Tifa called out and Alexandra's eyes lit up.

"For real? Yes! We can use those to find him more easily too!" Alexandra was happy and she looked at the alien. "You're no fun anymore." She raised her hand and clenched her hand into fists.

The alien then was able to give one final scream before he turned into red paste. Strange winced and could feel the amazing strength they were hiding in their human sized bodies. Especially the white haired woman.

"What's your purpose here Aerith? I feel like you aren't from this universe." Strange started to get nervous. As the sorcerer supreme, it was his job to protect earth from invaders. And the ones in front of him can just look at him funny and he'll turn into ketchup.

"Ohh, we're looking for our big brother. And we need that thing in your necklace, can you lend it to us?" Aerith gave a smile, her tone sweet. But it exuded pressure and they would definitely not take no for an answer.

"W-what are you going to do with it?" He was preparing to teleport himself out of dodge.

"We're going to leave this universe, we need tons of energy for it. And we need to prepare a lot for it. So we need the time and space stone to transcend the barriers of the universe so we could go to the void." Tifa explained and Stephen nodded.

"That is it?" He thought they were after something else like power. But he can't sense a lie.

"Yup, we actually don't want to be here man. We've got someone to search for you know?" Zack sighed and remembered their journey.

"Then, in one condition. Can you help us with this threat? That alien's boss wants to gather all of the stones and erase half of the universe. And he already has two." Strange tried roping them in.

"What do we do?" They all looked at Alexandra. "Ramiel would've helped them. I guess we can too, he's a protector of this place. We can't just kill them, the planet will be vulnerable." Alex decided and Strange breathed, unconsciously holding in his breath.

"Thank you, this will be a big help." He feeled for Stark's location and they were nearby.

"Gotta take care of that thing there first. Ramiel would appreciate it, but we can't store it." Alex sighed and she crumpled it into a sphere.

"Hey, can we sell that metal ball for some cash? We don't have the currency here." Aerith saw an opportunity and there's gotta be recycling shops that'd take it.

"Uhhh, sure. Stark has all the money in the world. Excuse me, I need to talk to them." Strange flew to Tony's location, but they followed him without any problems.

They then saw a large alien hand on the ground and a disheveled Bruce. With Tony's armor having some damage here and there while Strange's wizard friend was helping him up. And a kid in a spider themed suit was looking at the hand.

"These your friends?" Alexandra looked at them and thought the planet would be doomed with them as their protectors.

"Yeah, hey Tony. Meet uh... Some help I was able to recruit." Strange introduced them and they waved at him.

"Hey mister, Stephano here told us you have lots of money? Then you'll be paying us for our services. We're bonafide soldiers after all." Aerith walked up to Tony.

"Where'd you find this kid Strange? She's like the same age as Peter." Tony wasn't quite convinced, but Aerith waved her fingers and his suit was torn in half.

"Careful mister, I might slip." She gave a smile and he cleared his throat. "Yes, ahem... Welcome to the team."

"Tony, we need to call cap and know where the hell Vision is right now." Bruce went up to Stark and he took out a flip phone.

"Already on it." Tony started a call with Steve Rogers and they decided to meet up at the Avengers HQ.

"Bad news and good news, Vision got shanked by an alien and his circuits are failing. Good news, Cap and the others managed to save them before they could get the mind stone." Tony explained the contents of their call.

"Then let's go to the HQ now." Strange wanted to make a plan immediately.

"Where is this HQ, point the direction now." Alexandra thought they could get there much faster with them flying.

"Uhh, over there mommy. Ahem, I mean lady." Tony pointed at the HQ and they all started floating. "Try to keep up wizard boy."

Alex smirked at Strange and they suddenly disappeared from their position due to how fast they were going.

"Hah, they'll be a headache for sure." Strange followed suit after telling Wong that he should keep watch of their own base.

They quickly arrived at the Avengers HQ and the others were frozen in shock at the hypersonic mach speeds.

"Damn, I want to fly that fast again." Tony shook his head and his adrenaline high was starting to go down.

"That was a fun ride Mr. Stark." Peter felt like he just got off a super roller coaster ride.

"So, um. Alexandra right? I just wanna ask, what is it that you guys can do?" Bruce was curious and he only saw what Aerith did and she could rip Tony's bleeding edge armor in half no biggy.

"Hmmm, if we had to summarize. Then we are really good in scorched earth tactics. Like raze cities to the ground in seconds." Zack rubbed his chin and gave a quick rundown of what they specialize in.

"Want a nice little demonstration? You look like you don't believe us." Aerith started twiling her staff and light was starting to converge on the middle of it.

"No! No. It was just a little, shocking." Tony had to sit down and sighed in relief. If what they said was true, and it most certainly was. Then against Thanos' army. They will be a key group in dealing with them.

"Who's the enemy anyways? He has an army? A single one of us can fight entire battalions. And a pair can take on weapons that can raze mega cities in seconds." Cloud wanted info on the enemy.

Bruce and Tony started explaining Thanos and they thought the only problems would be the infinity stones.

"Okay, so big purple guy with a ballsack for a chin is the major problem. Get the stones on his hand and we win. Any questions?" Tony finished explaining.

"When will they come?" Alexandra wanted to get out as quick as possible and she was itching to beat someone's ass for her frustrations.

"Soon, a couple of hours maybe." Bruce thought that they were already invading them, it was only a matter of time.

After a few minutes of lounging around. They were joined by Strange and Steve. With the latter having Wanda, Natasha, Vision, and Sam with them.

The gang ignored them and they were playing some Mario kart with the TV to spend some time. Already having individual plans against the main enemy if they were ever to encounter him.

They were elites of the elite soldiers that can process their thought like a super computer.

"Oh man, why you gotta blue shell me Aerith? Can't you let me win or something?" Zack pouted at her and she scoffed.

"As if Romeo, I'm going to kick your ass!" Aerith was focused, but Alexandra still won because of frame perfect turns and accelerations.

"Still got it, you nerds don't stand a chance. I've been competing with Ramiel all my life." Alex huffed.

"Who're those guys?" Cap was curious about them and Strange explained. "They're obscenely powerful mercenaries you can say."

"Sup uncle? You should really shave, you look like a refugee." Aerith greeted them and Steve raised a brow.

"You sure?" He looked at Strange and he nodded seriously. "That girl can fold you like a can Rogers, trust me."

They discussed Vision's stone, but they were arguing about destroying it. "Hey, um. You guys have any inputs about the situation?" Bruce looked towards them and Alexandra stared at Vision with interest.

"You want me to get the stone and leave his consciousness intact?" Alex questioned and they thought it was worth a shot.

"Let me check his physiology, he's a robot right? Then he must have trillions of circuitry that makes him, well him." Alexandra walked towards Vision and he felt intimidated by the dangerous feeling she has.

"Stay still robo man." She touched the mind stone and absorbed some of its energy. She suddenly opened her eyes and she was instantly interested in having it.

"I'll take off the stone safely, remove it from his head without breaking him right? Easy." She enhanced her mind and with it millions of calculations a second, she began taking off the connections of his circuits to the mind stone.

After a few minutes, she let up and took off the stone off his head. "Ahhh, wonderful. This just fantastic." She learned that she could project her mind with it and will leave a message for Ramiel as well.

"Wait, we need to destroy it." Vision didn't want any chances, but Alexandra gave him a cold look. "Shut up, finders keepers right?"

She made an indentation on her arm and put the stone in it. "Ramiel-nii. I'm coming for you, please wait for a moment okay?" Alexandra frowned, feeling the stone's effect diminish after she reached the void. But with the nigh infinite energy she could get from it, she was able to send her message directly to him.

Though it exhausted her and she went to the couch to sit down. "Is this wise? Dr. Strange, leaving the stone in her hands?" Vision squinted his eyes.

"There's no better place for that stone than in her hands. You know that, you've felt it after all." Strange sighed.

"What're you guys talking about?" Bruce was confused and Natasha replied. "She's an ice cold killer Bruce. You can feel the danger touching your skin just by looking at her. Makes my skin crawl honestly. And her team is too, my instinct tells me not to even try and argue with them."

"So? We just gonna wait for them here or what? That's fine with us." Cloud was getting a bit antsy, working with strangers.

"I've got just the place where we can fight his army. And Vision isn't repaired yet, they specialize in his make." Steve made a call to Wakanda.

The team boarded a quinjet and they went to Africa. "Ooh, they have a disguise over their city. This is pretty exciting." Aerith was giddy about the cloaked nation.

They landed in front of some women with spears and a man wearing some pretty nice clothes.

"It seems whenever we meet, you keep on helping us." Cap shaked T'challa's hands and they smiled at each other.

"Is he the leader of this place?" Zack whispered to Bruce. "Yeah, he's the king of Wakanda. Shouldn't we like bow or something?"

Zack and Bruce bowed and T'challa frowned. "We don't do that here." Tifa chuckled and Aerith rolled her eyes. "Come on Zack, you're embarrassing us to the bald ladies."

Everyone was let inside and T'challa's sister Shuri scanned Vision's body. "This will take some time, but we can repair him to full functionality, easy. The connection to the time stone has been severed so cleanly. I never thought another genius outside of Wakanda could do that."

Shuri looked towards Bruce and Tony, assuming that they were the ones who did it. "Don't look at us, she was the one. You can see the mind stone on her, you can't miss it." Bruce pointed at Alexandra.

And while they were having a talk about what to do, drop pods from space were arriving like meteors.

"Uhh, Cap. We've got a situation over here." Sam radioed them and a drop pod crashed right onto the dome barrier right above them as it exploded.

"Damn, I love this place." The winter soldier Bucky Barnes smiled. "You shouldn't speak too soon, more of them incoming from outside the dome." Colonel Rhodes who is already in his war machine armor prepared to intercept the enemies.

Outside the dome, drop pods made the ground tremble as shockwaves hit the barrier. "Oh wow, that's pretty cool. But don't you guys have anti-air weapons to intercept those things?" Aerith asked and T'challa winced.

"So you don't? I mean, I checked the data and you guys say this is the most advanced nation on earth right?" Tifa put salt on his wounds.

"We didn't think of that." T'challa's pride was torn to shreds and he received emotional damage.

"Evacuate the city, deploy all defenses. And get this man a shield." T'challa pointed at Cap.

"So? Do we tell them we can destroy all of them with a bombardment of spells?" Zack whispered and Alexandra shook her head.

"Might as well watch the theatrics unfold. Though we take care of them when they try to breach the barrier." Alex gave her orders and they saluted.

A small army stood a few hundred meters away from the drop points of the pods. And they opened up, a swarm of savage aliens immediately poured out.

"Those things aren't cute at all, right Aerith?" Tifa looked at her friend and chuckled. "Yeah, makes me wanna blow them up, can I? Please?" Aerith begged to Alexandra.

"Shhh, let's see what they'll do." Alex smiled and was pretty stoked to see what their supposed allies are capable of.

The aliens charged right at the barrier and a few were able to go through. The army shot them down, but they were rerouting to other areas.

"We're gonna get flanked if we don't do anything about this and they'll swarm us." Bruce commented, wearing the hulkbuster armor of Tony's.

"We need to keep them in the front." Cap nodded and T'challa bit his lip a bit. "At south-west. Section 17, open the barrier at my signal."

"Confirmation, your highness. Open the barrier?" An operator was clearly doubtful. "Yes, at my signal."

The Wakandans started banging their weapons on the ground and chanting a warcry. "Ooh, very tribal and stuff. This is, exciting." Aerith chuckled.

"Well, before they kill themselves. I guess I should do something, I got this sweet payment from them after all." Alexandra took out Masamune and her blade rung, the Avengers looked at her massive sword and a single black wing appeared from her back.

She walked right in front of the enemy and pointed her blade at the enemies.

"Half-moon... Slash!" She moved so quickly that the peanut gallery wasn't able to see her slash. And suddenly, the invading aliens stopped on their tracks.

"What happened? Did she use time magic?" Strange was confused. The barrier right in front of them suddenly got cut in half and the mountains from the enemies' rear fell down. A clean slice right at the middle halves of it.

"Aerith, Tifa. Take care of the stragglers." She stabbed Masamune on the ground and gave orders.

"Right-o!" Aerith made her staff spin and she conjured firaga spells aplenty. She aimed it right at the sky and a barrage of them came from her staff like artillery.

When they hit the ground, the earth trembled and it was like hell on earth right in front of the battlefield. The heat singing the hair of the peanut gallery. Shockwaves exploding towards them as the vanguard shielded themselves from the collateral.

"God damn, Strange. You're one lucky motherfucker. You're invited to my wedding." Tony patted Strange on the back as he couldn't believe his luck in finding them.

"Good lord, they're tearing them apart." Steve's mouth was open wide as they saw the enemies get blown to oblivion.

"So, can you guys tell us when the purple guy comes?" Zack smiled at them and they started playing cards, waiting for the big baddy.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.