"Alex?"

A voice echoed through his ears again, it seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"You in there?" The voice beckoned again.

Alex cracked his eyes open slightly, the room was dark aside from the blue light.

"Wake up, Alex."

He drowsily propped himself up on one elbow, but his vison was still foggy.

"What...where am I?" Alex coughed.

"Alex? It's me!" Alex knew it was a pony, and he knew her, but he still couldn't quite figure out who.

"Who are you?" He quietly asked.

"Come on, It's only been a month! Don't tell me you forgot!" She slugged him lightly on the shoulder, waking him up.

"Cloudchaser..?" He asked.

"There you are! I never thought I'd see you again! How's it hangin'?" Cloudchaser asked.

"Well, the second time I end up in this town, I get knocked off my ass. So..."

"That'll teach you a lesson about dealing with a Rat, am I right?"

"Hell yeah."

Cloudchaser looked a little concerned.

"You okay man? I know you just woke up and everything, but you seem... Different."

"Let's just say a lot can happen in a month." Alex replied.

Another pony, a unicorn, walked in the room. He could tell who this one was even with the mask covering her face.

"I thought I heard voices! Good to see you again, man!" Vinyl greeted.

"Likewise. Where are we, though?" Alex asked.

"Your basement." Vinyl responded.

"What?! I don't own a house!" Alex looked shocked.

"Dude, did you fall on your head while you were gone? Of course you have a house!" Cloudchaser scoffed.

"A lot happened in the past month." Alex defended.

"Actually, Alex's A.I told me everything he did the past month or so." Vinyl agreed.

"Dammit, Iris!" Alex groaned.

"What? Upset that this 'Yang' person clearly has feelings for you?" Vinyl smirked.

"Someone's a bit more talkative that usual." Alex rolled his eyes.

"Wait. I'm lost here. Who's Yang again?" Cloudchaser asked.

"The blonde girl from Iris' recordings."

"You recorded me?!" Alex turned to wherever Iris may have been.

"It's pretty obvious that you wouldn't have told them. I took it upon myself to feed them every bit of information I knew about you." Iris replied.

"Not only that, she took screenshots of pages from your journal. You say self-promotion jokes are your true comedic weakness?" Vinyl joked.

"Damn you, Iris."

"Aw. Thank you!"

"My personal favorite was Entry 40. You kicked Sigma's ass!" Cloudchaser applauded.

"There was even video from Sigma's perspective to go along with it! You went Bat shit insane!" Vinyl added.

"I forgot to mention, great job starting the apocalypse, buddy."

"IRIS!!!" Alex screamed

----

The three newly reunited friends discussed their escapades in-depth. Apparently, after Dash released those documents and they heard about it, they had been among his most spirited supporters and even tried searching for him when they discovered he escaped.

"Then, next thing I know, Twi and the others were gone! All that was left was some type of device that required a ridiculous amount of power. I'm not even sure where they got all that energy!" Cloudchaser explained.

"So, then Celestia and Luna are pretty much out of ideas, so when they discovered the tech used in your raid, they went to me." Vinyl added.

"Wait, isn't there anyone else who could've helped? It seems like they instantly decided to go to the resident disk-jockey for help." Alex reasoned.

"I think Shining Armor and Cadence would've done something, but considering that, for all they knew, Twilight was dead, they were left to just grieve." Cloudchaser shrugged.

"Ouch. I know what it's like to lose a family member or two, or all. Considering how close they must've been, it hit them pretty damn hard." Alex winced.

"So, Celestia gives me a grant of about 250,000 bits and tells me to build weapons. I decided that weapons were, well, overrated." Vinyl explained.

"Vinyl went up to Flitter and I and asked us to be the first to use some type of new technology." Cloudchaser said.

"Your armor." Alex figured.

"Yep! With this baby, I can fly almost as fast as Rainbow, plus I'm equipped with some kind of dubstep machine gun and a sound cannon. And the HUD on this thing is pretty top notch!" Cloudchaser beamed, showing off the cannons.

"Huh. I thought Vinyl said that weapons were overrated." Alex scoffed.

"That was before things went straight to hell." Vinyl deadpanned.

"I heard, that's why I left the team back in LS. I heard that Ruby and the others were going back to where they came from. Why, I have no idea." Alex shrugged.

"Yeah, it's so bad they sent you to deal with this mess." Cloudchaser rolled her eyes.

"Wait, where are Twilight and the others now?" Vinyl asked.

"I sent them back to their homes. I felt like since this was my fault, they shouldn't have any part in this." Alex replied.

"Okay. Good to hear that they're safe." Cloudchaser sighed in relief.

"By the way, Alex. Your armor was destroyed when you fought the tank. I hope you don't mind if I make you some based off the designs Iris gave me. We really need you helping out." Vinyl said.

"Deal. I'm not sure how long I'd last without it." Alex nodded.

"Good. Where's Flitter, I sent her out on Recon about an hour ago!" Cloudchaser asked.

Vinyl immediately ran to the computer she designed, and pressed a button.

"Flitter? You there?" Vinyl asked.

"Yeah. You guys need to see this.." Flitter replied.

"Do you guys have a video uplink?" Alex asked.

"Who is that? Is Alex here?!" Flitter asked in disbelief.

"Yep. He woke up about a minute after you left!" Cloudchaser said.

"Yeah. I'll send you the uplink." Flitter replied.

On the screen, it showed an aerial view of what appeared to be a convoy of large transport vehicles of all kinds. Syndicate, Crimson, Rogue Guard...

"Who the hell are they?" Flitter asked.

"Alex here made more than his fair share of enemies on his little vacation." Cloudchaser replied.

"I figured they'd all be working together." Alex scoffed.

"They've teamed up before?!" Vinyl asked in disbelief.

"Once or twice." Alex responded.

"Flitter, can you hack into their radio frequencies?" Vinyl asked.

"I set up the software, I should be in by now."

A small window opened on the upper-right hand corner of the screen, radio frequencies.

"Fireteam Platinum, come in, this is Epsilon. I repeat, Fireteam Platinum, come in, over!" Epsilon ordered.

"Epsilon?" Cloudchaser asked.

"Epsilon... Why does that strike me as odd..." Alex muttered to himself.

"Epsilon, this is Platinum 0-1. We picked up a civvie, a human female. I think she said her name was 'Mako', or something. Over." A gruff sounding voice said over the loudspeaker.

"Beta to Epsilon, Sigma has decided to assist. She believes the Catalyst is here." Another, deeper voice boomed.

"Beta's still alive..? And Sigma wasn't even excecuted?!!" Alex gasped.

"No...not Mako.." Cloudchaser gasped.

"Who's Mako?" Alex asked.

"A woman came into Equestria one day looking for someone named 'Spectre'. She's been our undercover op for almost 2 weeks." Vinyl stated.

"Wait... If Beta's here, and Sigma's here... That means Epsilon..." Alex pondered again.

"This 'Epsilon' guy must be one of those Inquisitors." Vinyl grimly stated.

"Good, I'd appreciate some White Fang assistance from now on, Cinder." Epsilon said.

"I'll be looking forward to it, Talon." Sigma retorted sarcastically.

"Iron Talon's an Inquisitor?!" Alex gasped.

"This is bad, isn't it?" Flitter asked.

"Understatement of the f**king century." Alex replied blankly.

"Good to see you're working together, Get this 'Mako' girl into questioning immediately. If she is connected with the Catalyst, we have to know." Beta ordered.

"Iris, what's the ETA on Alex's armor?" Vinyl asked.

"Two days for maximized capabilities, 36 hours for Scarab Mk. III capabilities, and 18 for Goliath Mk. V standard. Agent Mako will likely be alive for at least three, she has no idea who Alex is yet, they may just let her go." Iris replied.

"Can Alex possibly help us without the armor?" Cloudchaser asked.

"No. You are dealing with at least three higher-caliber Inquisitors and 2,467 armed soldiers."

"What do we have here? Gentlemen, we appear to have quite the following about us." Another man came onto the radio, he sounded familiar.

"Gamma? Get back to San Andreas! There's still the girl and her group that you have to worry about!" Beta scolded.

"What do you mean by 'following'?" Sigma asked.

"Scratchbolt. 7 o' clock. High." Another voice said. This one wasn't as familiar.

"Who..?" Alex asked himself, he knew he heard him before.

"Jäger. I was wondering when you'd say something." Gamma introduced.

"It doesn't matter to me. I'll get 'er in the wing." Jäger replied.

"That son of a bitch. FLITTER, GET OUT OF THERE!" Alex ordered.

Flitter turned a solid 180 degrees and flew off as fast as she could.

"Finally, he speaks!" Sigma seemed sadisically delighted to hear him.

"Greetings, Catalyst." Beta added.

"Walker! There you are!" Gamma introduced.

"Hello, boy. I've been waiting for you." Epsilon exhaled.

"Hello, traitor. Permission to speak to the boy. It's personal." Jäger asked.

"Granted, just don't take too long." Beta allowed.

"Alex, if you're hearing this, I want you to know that I know all about your escapades, your actions. You were always a coward, and now you've decided to pay Equestria a little visit again. I know all about your Aura, your pathetic little toys, your weaknesses. And I hear all you have for help is a techno-Wonderbolt knockoff and the prissy princess gang. I've had time to...improve myself, so to speak. Dead or alive, You're coming with me." Jäger finished.

"I have unfinished business with Walker myself, Jäger. Don't take all the fun." Sigma warned.

"Speaking of which, how the hell are you still alive after that stunt on the carrier? Didn't you turn against Beta? I guess that makes you a dirty parent-killer and a power-hungry sociopath!" Alex retorted, hiding the fear in his voice.

"We have waited for your return, boy. Alpha is ecstatic to finally be able to meet you. Adieu." Beta finished, turning off all radio link.

"Alex..." Vinyl asked, concerned.

Alex himself did not answer, he walked back into the cot he had laid on, and stared blankly in mortal terror.

"Kid." Cloudchaser gasped. She had a fair understanding of what that look meant.

Flitter burst back in through the door to the basement, still in full tilt.

"I heard everything. Is he okay?" Flitter asked.

"Th-Those f**kers...." Alex shuddered.

"I doubt it..." Cloudchaser sighed.

"One of you gather up the Elements, the other has to get to Canterlot. This is serious." Vinyl ordered.

"Okay." Flitter said, flying off in the direction of Twilight's Castle.

"Got you." Cloudchaser nodded, who flew towards Canterlot.

Alex had gotten into a laying position, fear fresh in his mind and terror seeping into his bones, paralyzing him.

Vinyl trotted over to Alex, laid a hoof on his forehead, and tried to help him as best as she could.

"Come on, man. You've dealt with worse. We're getting Mako, The Elements, and the Princesses. You'll be alright." She repeated.

Alex still trembled in fear, hyperventilating like mad.

"Ms. Scratch, a word?" Iris asked.

"Sure." Vinyl replied.

"Are you sure this will be enough? Protocol 267 states that I am to summon Ms. Anderson, Mr. Fong, and Ms. Rose if he ever goes into shock like this. They're all elsewhere." Iris stated.

"Why did Ms. Rose go back to Remnant?" Vinyl asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, I'd say it was either to get help or complete their training. Given they know where he is, the earliest they may be able to get back is about two months from now, according to my logistics."

"One more thing?" Vinyl asked.

"Yes?"

"Has he ever gotten like this before?"

"I've seen him go into shock from his nightmares, but not anything like this." Iris sighed.

"Poor kid." She sighed, looking back at Alex.

Alex was completely drained of any color, hyperventilating still, and hardly moving at all.

"The earliest time of arrival for Kat and the others, though more likely, it may take as little as three days to a week, given they notice Gamma not being in LS anymore." Iris tried to reassure.

"I'll get to work on the armor." Vinyl said, rushing for her workbench. She had to help him now. She had to.

Author's Notes:

This is part of those rewrites I was talking about.

But, man, this chapter got dark. Like chapter 15 dark on steroids.