Back to Aeris... 

(Ashes to Eden by Breaking Benjamin)

"Will the faithful be rewarded when we come to the end?

Will I miss the final warning from the lie that I have lived? (Aeris flies to the forefront of the enemy progression)

Is there anybody calling...I can see the soul within. (She touches a man fighting his control and he relaxes and looks at her with awe)

And I'm not worthy...I am not worthy of this. (Aeris looks ahead of the battlefield and sees all the dead on the ground)

 Are you with me after all? Why can't I hear you? (Aeris feels Baris increasing his power and increases her to match)

Are you with me through it all? Then why can't I feel you? (Aeris feels herself gaining ground again but knows she can't let up ever)

Stay with me! Don't let me go! (Rex snaps out of it and drops his humungous sword with a wet thud. Chad rushes in and hugs him) 

Because there's nothing left at all (Aeris glances at Baris who is astonished to see he has to put real effort into controlling his army now. Aeris remembered the time long ago with Baris and how she respected and revered him. She turns away in sadness) 

Stay with me! Don't let me go! (Aeris almost stops singing when she sees Kana mindlessly marching forward with a limp. A broken shard of sword stuck in her leg. She’s bleeding profusely with a severed femoral artery. She's dying. Aeris rushed over to her. Heavy lightning overhead)

"Until the ashes of Eden fall (Aeris heals Kana as Kana breaks free of Baris. The shard of metal falls off her leg now fully restored. Kana looks at Aeris and hugs her tightly crying. Aeris calmly kisses her head.

Will the darkness fall upon me when the air is growing thin? (Aeris realizes that she has to take the fight to Baris for this to end. By this point Baris has lost almost all control of his army)

Will the light begin to pull me to its everlasting will? (Aeris dashes to the increasingly frustrated Baris and begins tussling with him. Aeris can feel herself having to use more power than she wants to stay even with him. She sees the look in his eyes and knows in her heart he's resolved to kill her now. Aeris comes to terms with that and forces him to his knees using her telekinetic might)

I can hear the voices haunting. There is nothing left to fear (Aeris hear the thoughts of all the soldiers still alive. Thousands of them and they're coming for Baris; especially the ones that were under Baris control. Aeris smirks when she senses Chad flying back. He tells her to hang on mentally. "You're losing Baris. Not just the united forces are coming now. The soldiers you had under your control is too and they want you very much dead" she said to him mentally)

And I'm still calling...and I'm still calling to you"

Baris changed his focus from controlling (or trying to) his slaves and put his energy to killing the Progenitor in front of him. Aeris is shoved back and stumbles from the sudden blast of telekinesis. Before she can react, Baris grabs her by her throat. "No more singing nonsense! BEGONE MY ONCE STUDENT!" Baris screams as he fires a blast of energy through her chest. The beam scorches the air behind her and burns right through the city walls and into the city itself. Buildings collapse from vaporized supports. A few hundred Ingress and over a thousand humans are dead from this alone. Aeris is twitching. The hit critical. Baris can feel her life energy slipping away but he's not satisfied. The ground buckles as his massive feet hunker down. His arm is still holding Aeris. Her feet dangling from the ground as he lifts her up. "Farewell" he says to her tossing her literally out of the atmosphere propelled by mental force strong enough to shatter a mountain. Chad watches helplessly as his friend and lover hits escape velocity and disappears past the storm clouds. "NOOOO!" he screams punching the throttle leaving his father (who was following) behind.

Chad, in his rage, lets loose every once ounce of power he has. He doesn't care if it kills him now. His mental link is so strong it pushes Ai aside as he maxes out the STRIKE X's capabilities. He finds an old combat protocol buried deep inside the firmware of the mech. One that hasn't been used in decades. "Overclock" he hisses. Immediately the mental shock slams into his skull causing him to bleed from his nose. He lets lose a torrent of positron shots and cannon blasts. Every weapon fires. The BITS fly off and as Baris deflects the frontal attack, the three renaming BITS began tagging the blindsided giant from the rear and sides. Shockingly they hit their mark. However, they don't cause significant wounds. Chad lands with a sonic boom and pulls out his sword. Baris immediacy tries to shoot him with his hand blast and Chad easily sidesteps it and slashes. Baris looks furious as his right hand is cut clean off. With a shout, Baris knocks Chad back but Chad twists in the air and fires more shots. Three shots deflect but one hits him in the face. Blood rushes from Baris' nose.

"Backup!" Ai yells. She wanted him to fall back. His life signs were becoming increasingly erratic. Chad sees squadrons of ACE's and combat pilots closing in. Ground troops are a half minute away. "KILL THE BASTARD!" Chad screamed mentally. A storm of weapon fire hit Baris. The giant steps back only to give him a second to fuse his hand back to his wrist bones. Baris slams his hands together and a force blast disables every flyer in a mile radius. "EMP strike off the charts! Systems are down! Going to take a minute to reboot!" Ai said. "We're so close!" Chad said. As he knelt on the ground, the ground forces ran past him. More than a few were Baris' once slaves. Some armed with only melee weapons of crudest measure. Baris mowed them down in quick succession and Chad watched in horror as Baris grinned. Baris walked forward and through the hundreds of beam weapon fire. His sights locked dead on Chad.

Baris hand glowed and Chad knew he was next to die. His final thought was of Nara "Do it you fuck" he hissed. Thuds of giant running footsteps vibrated the muddy ground came from behind and then he saw someone jump clear over him. "Dima?" Chad asked seeing a shock of blue hair. Dima charged the giant. Baris fired off energy beams and she expertly dodged every one. Like a giant goddess of war, Dima took out her twin swords and slashed Baris across the chest. Chad heard in her mind the counting. Baris and anyone watching was shocked that he was being overwhelmed. He formed a tight shield around his body but that was all he could do. Aeris effect was still going on albeit getting weaker by the second. Dima kept it up. Sword strikes to his face and head kept him unfocused and kicks to his legs and knees was breaking his balance even further. The soldiers couldn't fire for risk hitting her but so far it was her that got the best hits on him today.

Dima was flesh and blood though and that meant a limit to her stamina. She was getting slower. The giant blades felt heavier to her. Her feet sore. Her titanic legs rubbery. Baris used this to work his way into her mind. "Well isn't that interesting? You're a hybrid and it's a family secret. Is that why I sensed loathing from yourself. Wait...that was before. Something else now. Him? Really?! That abomination is a parasite worming his way into every Ingress' mind" he said speaking of Chad. Baris eyes glowed as he gazed at Dima. She screamed in pain and there was a collective gasp as she shrank. Baris stepped forward and yanked Dima out of her giant uniform covering her body. Dima was unconscious. The shock of her Ingress DNA being forcefully turned off was too much for her. Baris held her limp body in his hand before tossing it into his mouth. "Ai! Get us online! NOW!" Chad yelled. "I can't! We still need 30 seconds!" Ai yelled. Chad was sending mental commands for the STRIKE X to move. He yanked the throttle back and forth. Nothing.

Chad pounded the controls with his fists as he watched Baris jaw move. *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH* *SQUELCH*...*GULP*. Baris wiped away a trickle of Dima's blood leaking from the side of his mouth. "Now for the last thorn in my side" Baris said pointing his palm at Chad. "THE HELL YOU WILL! OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Rex screamed charging at Baris. Rex brought his sword down and Baris teleported 20 ft. to the left. Baris froze him in place with telekinesis. "Agreed" Baris said. Pulling the sword from his hands and running Rex through with it. "...no...Dad. Daddy?" Chad said in disbelief. "Systems back online" Ai said. Chad stood up. His sword gripped tight. Others stood up. Chad watched as a medic rushed to his father. A coldness only hatred could make crept into his soul.

30 seconds earlier...

Aeris was using all her strength to seal her wound and heal. "A few feet to the right...." she said touching the closing wound precariously close to her heart. She was still in disbelief. Baris had broken the tabooest of taboos; trying to take the life of a Progenitor. She fought him to incapacitate and neutralize him thinking of a more permanent solution some other time. She never resolved to kill him. Her wounds were healed now but she was low on energy. Exhausted. Before she had some chance of defeating him one on one. She felt him use every bit of power he had in his attempt to take her life. Now though she didn't. Not on her own. She was so distracted she didn't see three ships almost on top of her coming from behind. One was over three times the size of the others. "It's the fleet Raam spoke about" Nara told her. Aeris floated over to one and looked at the bridge.

The crew was in total shock seeing a woman in hard vacuum waving at them. A pinkish flow around her body. She scanned the minds of the Ingress crew and learned how powerful their main cannons were. "That...that might actually work. It's our last hope" she though before teleporting back to Ingressa. She hovered 35,000 ft. above the battle. Storm clouds hid the surface but she could sense the fear, grief, and pain below. Especially Chad's. "Dima..." she said sensing her demise. "Colonel Raam. This is Aeris" she said finding his mind. "You're alive?!" Raam said out loud startling everyone on the command center. "Yes I am an I need your help and everyone else's. There are three ships in near orbit. I need them to fire their weapons" she said. "They won't have a firing solution for another 5 minutes!" Raam said. "Don't need one. They have line of sight and that is enough. Fire on these coordinates. I'll do the rest" she said. Raam called the strike in and convinced the captains to fire. "Now to finish my song and to spread the word. If there's a God please smile on me" she said.  

"Are you with me after all? (Aeris gets herself ready and three sky scorching beams of massive power scream through the atmosphere. Aeris doesn't deflect it. A zone of intense gravity forms in front of her. One so powerful it bends the beams into it. Aeris grimaced as she literally traps the intense power in a sphere. To all who hear my voice! Train your weapons on the blue glow in the sky and fire! Everyone who has an energy weapon! FIRE!" she screams into the minds of tens of thousands. "She's alive...she's alive!" Chad yelled.  

"What?! She can't be! That blast was powerful enough to vaporize a city and it was point blank! What?" Baris wondered as he saw thousands of energy beams streaking into the sky. Everyone who had a gun fired. Even those in the city. People stepped out of bunkers and basements that held a gun fired. "This is Trisha Anderson of UNN reporting live from the capital city of Ingressa! The battle has gone poorly but moments ago, Aeris' voice entered our minds and called for everyone to fire at the strange glow in the clouds overhead! We don't know why but we hope that what she has planned will stop this murdering invader threatening our world! I don't know how long this broadcast will last over the emergency global comm-net but I can say this reporter is going to give her all!" a human woman shouted as she pulled out her tiny laser pistol and fired into the air. Everyone around the world was watching the newscast. Chen and Jun sat on their sofa in Hawaii praying that their loved ones would come home. Ned, Amanda, her husband Daryl, and their three children stared at the tv in her home in Martha's Vineyard.  

"Obviously I'm going to have to go to extreme means to be rid of her. Tearing out her spine and brain stem should do it" Baris said out loud. "Don't count on it asshat" Chad said gripping him. Baris sneered at him until he saw a weak glow emanate from the STRIKE X. "Chad your vitals! You're going to have a stroke if you don't stop!" Ai said seeing his blood pressure skyrocket. Baris was aghast feeling his body telekinetically held in place. "Here's telekinesis from a someone half a billion years your better" Baris said tearing off the arms of the legendary machine. The neural feedback caused Chad to scream. Baris touched his cockpit with a glowing hand. Chad sweated from the sudden spike in heat.  

"Don't know why there's no sun in the sky. Stormy weather...." Chad heard over the comm. "Billie Holliday?" he asked. Four wet thunks filled his ears along with the howl of Baris. Chad didn't know what happened and neither did Baris. Blood ran from wounds and dripped along invisible paths. The air shimmered as four black mech's decloaked. Each one had a red Omega insignia on its right shoulder. One was a STRIKE X and the other ACE's. Chad recognized the STRIKE X. "You from before" Chad said. The machine looked at him with red glowing eyes and turned to look at Baris. In perfect harmony, they fired charged positron cannons into Baris' face before making a quick slicing motion. Baris let out a guttural scream. The Omega machines pulled out their blades from his giant flesh and raced into the sky. they all watched as they cloaked themselves from sight. Baris fell to his knees clutching his stomach. The wound so vicious Chad could see his large intestine poking out. Meanwhile...Aeris was still singing but not for much longer. 

"Don't let go! (Aeris is desperately trying to contain the massive collection of power squeezing it down further) 

Why can't I hear you? 

Stay with me don't let me go! 

Because there's nothing left at all (Aeris remembers what devastation she wrought on New Perth and begs forgiveness)

Stay with me don't let me go 

Until the ashes of Eden fall 

Stay with me don't let me go! Until the ashes of Eden fall 

Heaven above me take my hand! (Aeris squeezes the power one last time until it's the size of her palm. Her body trembles from the strain) 

Shine until there's nothing left but you (Aeris infuses her power into the orb. The damaged signal repeater on her suit finally gives out. It's now or never for her. "Everyone around him get back! NOW!" she screams telepathically.  

Heaven above me take my hand! (Aeris drops with frightening speed. A cone of superheated atmosphere forms around her)

Shine until there's nothing left but you! (Aeris sees Baris kneeling and aims. She releases her control just enough for the energy to cascade forward)

Those that saw it would say never did they see energy look like that. A storm of blue, yellow, pink, and red energy 50 ft. wide scoured the air. Baris looked in horror. "No!" he yelled throwing up a while with one hand. Baris knew he was screwed. The beam hit the shield and was pushing him down. He had not enough force to deflect it for his power was mostly be used to keep him alive. The blue glow of his shield began forming cracks. "No....NO NO NO! NOOOOO!" the forlorn giant bellowed as his shield failed. His scream caught in his throat as the energy shatters his defenses and touched his body. He felt every positron, electron, and photon vaporize his atoms by the picosecond and there was shit all he could do to stop it. Chad and everyone else was forced to look away from the reactive blindness as physics gave way to destruction. The beam so powerful it burned through the ground and through the bedrock not stopping until a scant mile from the bottom of the crust plate. So powerful that the sudden geologic pressure release caused an artificial earthquake that was felt all the way in Johannesburg.

The surest footed giant or giantess fell on their asses as the ground shook. They saw the pillar of light and then the quake. It was no exaggeration to say more than a few thought the battle cracked the Earth. Aeris floated to the ground utterly exhausted. The glow in her eyes flickering. Chad stumbled to her. "Are you alright?" she asked seeing the STRIKE X missing arms. "You should see the other guy" Chad chucked. "No really" he said. They looked over at Baris. The beam had vaporized his lower body at the waist. No blood for it cauterized it at the same time. The menacing giant from the stars was half a man and dead at...wait...

"You...IDIOTS! You think you won?" Baris asked standing himself up on his arms. "Don't Baris. This is over. You can't win a fight against me now. You barely have enough energy to keep yourself alive and forget reverting to your true form. The shock would kill you instantly. This ends now" Aeris said. Baris laughed. He laughed and laughed so loudly half the soldiers on the field heard it over the sounds of the wounded groaning and calling for help. "This...isn't over! NOT OVER!" Baris screamed raising an arm into the air. A pulse of energy flashed out from all directions. Aeris had a very weak shield up but was surprised that nobody was killed or even remotely injured. "That's it? I'd laugh if it wasn't pathetic. My arms are gone but I still got my shoulder cannon. Time to die now" Chad said. Chad charged the shot and suddenly the sky grew pitch black. Purple and pink lightning filled the skies. Baris chuckled. "Not over by a long shot" he said.

"No..he didn't. Oh god he did. Chad. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We...we lost" Aeris stammered. "Lost? How?" Chad asked. "That wasn't an attack he used. It was a beacon. He called for the elder council. Chad. They'll wipe hybrids out instantly when they arrive and we can't stop them. Just as Baris is much more powerful than me. The council is just as more powerful than him. We're screwed!" Aeris yelled. "When will they get here? We can make some kind of stand" Chad said. "Now" Aeris said.   The pink lightning began to condense into 5 points which shot off in different directions except one. The bridge crew of the Artemis ascendant had by now assumed geostationary orbit over Ingressa and saw 5 tiny points of light assume a star pattern. A point for north, south, east, and west with one in the center.

The crackling pillar of light condensed into a familiar form. There stood a being of pure energy miles tall looking like a towering naked female. Her features though looked more clear to chad. Like someone partially transparent standing in pink purplish mist. "Why have you called us here Baris? Wait...why do you have such an imperfect form?" the being asked in a deafening telepathic voice. "I took this form out of curiosity. I wanted to learn more about the ones called Ingress Elder Linaria" he replied. "I see though I don't see what you can learn from imperfect corporal beings. I... why are you in such a state?" Linaria asked. "Aeris tried to kill me" Baris said pointing to her. Aeris felt herself being pulled from the ground and into Linaria’s open palm. "Is this true child? I see you took a similar form as well. Explain this" Linaria said. "I took this form for similar reasons but it is true I tried to kill him but it isn't as simple as that. I did it because he endangered the Earth experiment and wouldn’t see reason. He attacked me first and was the one who tried to kill me first!" Aeris yelled.

The colossal being looked at Baris. "The Ingress and humans mated and created dangerous offspring! I did my duty to preserve the experiment and exterminate a possible species that could endanger our experiments on other worlds! They already have interstellar technology" Baris said. "They mated? They were kept separate to prevent this. You were right about o want to have them eliminated. Aeris. Why did you oppose him?" Linaria asked. "I've discovered that they hold the genetic seeds for the next phase of perfect evolution and the species couldn't be allowed to be destroyed. He has telepathic abilities. As you know that is the first precursor our ancestors showed" Aeris said. "You knew of this Baris?" Linaria asked. Baris was quiet for a moment. "Why are you closing your mind?" the super being asked. Baris grimaced as Linaria pried into his mind. "I knew! The one she speaks of is an aberration and she has mates with it! She uses her flawed logic out of "feelings"" Baris said. Linaria looked at Aeris now. Aeris wasn't stupid enough to try to hide her thoughts.  

"I have mated with him this is true but he isn't an aberration!" Aeris said. Faraway, the other beings flashed. Linaria looked east towards an Elder. "I concur. One mutation does not set the pace for an entire race. Hybrids are to be exterminated. Aeris. You will be punished for breaking taboos. Baris, you are not blameless. However, you acted in accordance to logic and our protocols. Extermination will commence immediately" Linaria said. Linaria shot out a beam of light from her hands that linked with others. Within a second it formed a perfect star. Chad cried out in pain as did many others nearby. 

Ned, Amanda, and Daryl were horrified as their kids began screaming in pain. Chen watched Jun shriek and fall off the sofa newly crushing her mother in the process. Aeris knew what was being done to them. The Elders were amassing an apocalyptic amount of psionic energy to literally fry every being on Earth that had hybrid brainwaves. "Please! He's not an aberration! There are others!" Aeris screamed. The Elders stopped their mental assault. "Explain" Linaria said. "As a result of me mating with a hybrid I now carry his offspring. I've verified she carries the same genetic sequence for mental ability" Aeris said. Linaria furrowed her brow. "Let me see clearly" Linaria said. Aeris tore off her uniform and stripped naked. She was too desperate to feel embarrassment. She felt the static tingle of the giant palm under her bare feet. Linaria squinted at her. Seconds passed. "She speaks truth" Linaria said to the others. Linaria looked west at an Elder. "My thoughts exactly Orias. Errant mutations can be passed to the immediate offspring. This does raise the question on why this wasn't studied further when this was found out. At least the elimination of them should've been delayed. Baris?" Linaria asked. "I didn't know" he said. Baris was snatched up quickly. His stump of a body suspended in midair. "That was a lie. You did know. You sensed it today" she said.  

"Aeris. We will suspend their elimination on the condition there are others out there that have mental abilities in their code that AREN'T related to this hybrid. Standby..." Linaria said. It would be described as the longest minute in Earth history. "I have found others!" Linaria said. "Impossible! A mistake!" Baris shouted. Linaria gave him a cold look. "I don't make mistakes and you know this. Your...attitude is becoming a serious concern. If you want proof then see for yourself" she said.

Ned and his family was relieved to see the kids alright until Ethan, Amanda and Daryl's eldest son, disappeared in a flash of light. Ethan appears next to Aeris' right foot. 12 years old and he took after his human mother. At his size he was no know than a speck on the giant palm but Linaria could see him with no effort for she could see the spin of an electron if she chose to. The boy was frightened out of his mind. Linaria cared not for his fright but Aeris was different. She picked the boy up gently and held him in her hands. This didn't help. Ethan was a smart kid and knew all about this war and how evil Ingress ate hybrids. "Don't be afraid. Nobody will hurt you" Aeris said. She spoke of herself though and couldn't vouch for the Elders. "You won't eat me will you?" the tiny boy asked. Aeris shook her head. "No sweetie. The shiny lady and a few others want to get a look at you" Aeris said softly. Aeris looked at his genetic code. Sure enough, Ethan did have the genetic markers for telepathic abilities.

"It has been verified. There is no aberration. This species is the next stage of evolution and shall be spared" Linaria said. Baris yelled no loudly. Linaria teleported Ethan back home to the relief of his family.  The Elders were now extremely concerned why a Progenitor would act this way. "Aeris. On you know the reason your superior is acting erratically in the face of logic?" Linaria asked. Aeris grinned. "I can and I can show you much more. Read my mind. All of it" Aeris said. A minute later, Linaria turned away. She looked...sickened. "You have broken MANY protocols Baris and endangered the experiment for your own illogical pursuits of pleasure and entertainments. 40,000 years of careful planning almost ruined. You even severely damaged the human and Ingress gene pool for no reason. Millions of genetic codes lost. You WILL be punished" Linaria said.     

"No! You can't! I don't want to..." he was saying until a pinkish curl of energy was torn from the head of his flesh body. It condensed into a tiny sphere. "I'm free. Oh thank god I'm...free..." the man who he had cloned said before dying. With Baris to sustain the wrecked and burnt body the unfortunate Ingress expired. "Your punishment will be to languish for 1000 years inside the supermassive black hole in the center of this galaxy. 1000 years...of relative time" Linaria said. Baris screamed as the orb of his consciousness was whisked away to his quantum prison. Aeris' blood ran cold. A horrifying sentence for she knew time moved differently inside a black hole. 1000 years for anyone outside meant billions of years to Baris...or more. "Now for you young one. I saw your crimes too and they weren't that different. However, seeing how you changed after realizing your mistake, going to preserve the experiment, and circumstances of fighting your superior, we will suspend sentence on one condition. You will surrender your body and take over the project called Earth. You will never see these creatures you know as Chad, Kana, their friends or family ever again. Especially Nara. We have interfered enough" Linaria said. 

"No! You can't just exile her off like that!" Chad yelled. Chad appeared instantly near Aeris' foot. "Chad don't! It could be worse!" Aeris said. "She speaks truth tiny Chadwick. But she must go for we have done enough damage to your kind. They must evolve as nature dictates. We see this now. Fret not for it is not exile. She may return if her duties require it" Linaria said. "What...what does that mean?" Chad asked. Aeris held him close to her face. "I can only return every 1000 years for a progress report or if hybrids are endangered. I'm...I'm sorry" Aeris said. Linaria glowed briefly as Aeris slipped out of her body. A tiny orb of light hovered in the air and floated down into his hands. The orb fitted in his hands. He gasped at how small and warm it was. It was like holding her soul. Nara groaned. "I'm...me" Nara said.  Nara was shocked not to feel Aeris any longer but more shocked to see she was alive. "I'm...we're going to miss you" Chad said.  

"I know. I know you will and so will I. I'm going to miss everyone. You, Nara, your mom and dad, even Kana. If I had eyes they be crying right now" Aeris said. Aeris drifted down to the STRIKE X. She flashed a few times before returning to Chad and Nara. "I downloaded your playlist to listen to. Something to keep me..." Aeris said as her light grew dim. Chad sensed that even without a body now emotions lingered in her most of which was sadness. Chad and Nara touched the floating light and it pulsed slow and steady. "I... I have to go now" Aeris said. "Don't listen to them all at once okay?  We'll look up now and then and hey maybe we'll see each other again one day. You never know" Chad said. The orb floated to his lips and he felt a tingle on them. "Goodbye" she said. Aeris streaked off into the sky like a reverse shooting star. Seconds later the other Progenitors followed suit. The sky cleared leaving the survivors to contemplate what had occurred.

"She's gone" Nara said. "Yeah. Miss her already" Chad said. "What happens now?" Nara said looking around at the dead, wounded, and dazed victims of Baris. "We keep moving forward. Rebuild and morn. Won't be the first time but now we know something. There is someone out there looking out for us" Chad said looking into the sky. Chad looked at Nara and had her raise him to her face. "Ready to get married?" he asked. Nara smiled as a tear fell from her eyes. "Only if you agree to participate in Matriarch Night" she said. "One of those old traditions? Sure why not?" Chad said. "Then I'll let mom know you'll have intercourse with her next week. No need to rush things" she said. "Fine...wait...what?!" Chad asked. Nara hummed softly to her Aeris' song and grinned. "You're kidding. You are kidding right? Nara? Nara?" Chad asked hoping she was.

On the far edge of the battlefield, a lone Ingress isn't happy about the outcome. "This wasn’t supposed to happen! We were supposed to win! I was going to be a ruler of nations! You hear me Baris?!" the giant screamed. He sighed. "Another failure. This is what happens when you place your faith in a show boater. Goddamn giant choke artist. He could’ve destroyed them all in an instant" he said. He turned his head to walk away and was hit my something invisible. He fell to the mud nursing a broken nose. "Going somewhere Dr. Hart?" a female voice said. The air shimmered as her machine dropped her cloak. "Omega?!" he yelled reaching for his gun. The woman used her STRIKE X to grab his wrist and crushed it brutally.  

The giant screamed in pain. "We can do this the easy or hard way Hart" she said. "My name isn't Hart! It's Harin Lycus you puny human!" the giant roared kicking the machine. He used his other hand to grab his fallen pistol and was shot in the chest. There was no smoking hole or blood. A syringe the size of a minivan stuck into chest. "Your name is what we say it is Ingress scum" she said. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he collapsed. The Omega operative picked him up and slung him over her shoulder. "Elysium. I have the target. Inform research division that along with the DNA sample I obtained earlier we can begin Project Cronus" she said taking off. 

Aeris stood on the lunar surface next to the stasis cube. She looked down on the Earth around the Central African region. Her energy form glowed dimly. She looked down at the lunar dirt seeing footprints that were hers and Baris'. Footprints at least 700 ft. long. Footprints that would remain for many thousands of years. Back in her true form she comprehended lengths of time easier now. Her senses far more acute but she would trade it all to be mortal flesh once more. She gave Chad and Nara one final look. "Take care you too" she said touching the cube. The cube recognized her touch and unsealed. Aeris loaded herself into it and sealed it. She began playing an old song from long ago as the cube began the stasis/monitoring protocol.   

"Carry on my wayward son. There will be peace when you are done. Lay your wary head to rest. Don't you cry no more"  

The End