*Sandy Shores Airfield; Blaine County, San Andreas; October 15, 2018; 2:20 PM*

Alex, Yang, and Twilight walked out to the bone-dry airfield with their weapons and armor with the full intent to train up before their encounters with the Fall Knights.

It took quite a bit of work to try and secure the area they were in. Everyone chipped in to completely cover their tracks and prevent anyone from the outside from being able to tell what they were up to, especially on Cade's part, who had to convince Lester to secure the airfield and 2 square miles surrounding the area.

"Alright, you know the drill?" Alex asked.

"In case anyone suspicious attacks us. We have to run, fight, or call for help." Twilight repeated.

"Excellent. Now who's up first?" Alex asked, raising his dual lever guns.

"You still keep those? I thought you were done with being Tyrian." Yang wondered.

"I feel like they suit me a bit better." Alex replied.

"I've been interested to see how far you've come, Alex. I'll fight you first." Twilight smirked confidently.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked incredulously, as Twilight had almost zero battle experience outside of the Blood Red Night, as far as he knew.

"If I can fight Changelings and Tirek before meeting you, I can handle an overconfident colt like you." Twilight added.

"You've really changed since we first met. Come at me with everything you've got!" Alex spun his Lever-guns in a flourish before aiming them at the lavender alicorn with a cocky smirk.

Yang pulled out a Bluetooth speaker and her Scroll, hitting the 'play' button and sitting up against the watchtower to observe.

"Hey, reader! You see how the text here is a different color? Click it!" Yang smirked as the two got ready to fight.

Alex was the one to make the first move, firing at the ground to launch him at his opponent and kicking at where he figured Twilight would be.

Twilight had narrowly evaded Alex's kick and bucked Alex's back painfully hard. Alex flipped, skidding onto the ground and charging at Twilight, firing his lever guns at a rapid pace.

Twilight shielded herself with a magic barrier, which was promptly shattered by Alex's next attack, a massive spin-kick.

Twilight ducked again, grabbing Alex with her magic and throwing him at an airplane. Alex leaped back down, using the plane as a launch pad and firing his weapons the whole way.

Alex's metal foot met concrete, realizing too late that Twilight was speeding directly towards him. She spun around, rearing her hind legs and bucking him in less than a second. The ensuing kick produced a massive shockwave that could be felt all the way back at Los Santos.

Alex was blown off the ground all the way to the end of the runway, rolling on his back and staggering back up.

Alex coughed, noticing Twilight flying at him full speed ready to attack again. Alex converted his lever guns into tonfas, charging them up with massive amounts of electricity, and ducking to avoid Twilight's kick and slamming the stocks of the rifles into her underbelly.

Twilight had been knocked upwards about 1500 feet, enough to reach terminal velocity, and fell down fast. Alex leaped up to meet Twilight and slammed her back to the ground.

Twilight staggered up from her crater, charging a massive magical attack and aimed directly for Alex, who slammed both hands together and slowly pulled them apart, revealing a brilliant arc of purple-hued lightning.

"DEMIGOD TASER!!" Alex screamed as he fired his attack at Twilight's, creating a brilliant clash at the center of the airfield.

Twilight kept firing her attack, only to discover that Alex no longer resisted. She felt a tapping on her shoulder.

"Looking for someone?" He smirked.

Twilight fired another bolt into the air, having missed as Alex ducked to avoid it, just before sharply kicking Twilight again.

Twilight gagged and charged at him, firing another beam and bucking him simultaneously.

Alex skidded onto the ground, coughed, and slammed his leverguns together at their sides, forming them into a longsword.

Alex charged another attack, firing it at Twilight and sliding underneath, shashing from behind and kicking her with an electrically charged leg. Twilight's sudden and forceful impact with the side of the building completely winded and damaged her.

Both staggered up, walked towards each other, and attacked again, each with comparable intensity.

Yang groaned.

"Yeah, I better stop them." She decided, sprinting in between them. Yang quickly booped Twilight's nose, before turning around and sucker-punching Alex in the face.

Twilight merely blinked in acknowledgement, whereas Alex held his mouth in pain.

"God dammit! Did you forget one of your arms is robotic?!" Alex wiped his mouth, spitting blood onto his sleeve.

"All of your arms are metal and Twilight's completely fine!" Yang retorted.

"I'm starting to regret bedazzling the knuckles.." Alex coughed again, spewing crimson onto the airfield floor.

"That looks really bad." Twilight winced.

"Oh, please. I can handle a little pa-.." Alex's defense was interrupted by another bout of coughing.

"When was the last time you went training?" Yang wondered.

"Just yesterday at a Gym." Alex replied.

"And how often have you been training?" Twilight wondered.

"Every day, for about 5 hours or so, mind you." Alex answered.

"Oh... I get it.." Twilight realized.

With all of this effort, Alex had been burning himself out.

Twilight had read about Adenienite warriors being frequently exhausted, as the primary source for their abilities is mostly their own natural energy.

Between his near-constant fighting, overuse of his powers, and that 'never stop working' attitude of his, Twilight quickly concluded he might be overworking himself to a ridiculous degree.

"Alex.. I think you need to rest.." Twilight informed.

"What? Why?!" Alex asked again before coughing up more blood.

"I'm wondering the same thing-... Oh.. Ohhhh.... Ohh, shit." Yang winced as she realized what Twilight had figured out.

"What the hell is everyone talking about..?" Alex demanded.

"Let me handle this, Twi.. Alex, you're pulling a 'Blake'." Yang admitted.

"The hell are you implying ?" Alex gagged again.

"I'll take care of him, call Cade and ask him to send cleanup." Yang demanded, dragging Alex off the airfield.

*Yang's Apartment; Los Santos, San Andreas; October 15, 2018; 8:43 PM*

Yang had taken Alex to a hospital to get examined to see if his coughing blood were anything more than an injury caused by their little scrap at the airfield. The doctor didn't find anything too wrong with Alex other than one of his teeth had chipped.

But what he said directly after really got to her.

"Ms. Xiao Long, your friend here has to be in the worst state I've ever seen in an Adenienite since the bridging of all these dimensions. Even though his electric potential is off the charts, he's damn close to just collapsing on the floor. I'm honestly shocked he hasn't had an ulcer or a stroke yet with all of this overwork."

Yang had long since pulled out an air mattress for him to sleep, and reluctantly let him help. Once he was set up to stay, Yang laid next to him.

"If you're going to tell me to stop now, you're fighting a losing battle." Alex began.

"I think we both know you can't stop, but until things get bad, I need you to slow down." Yang answered.

"Yang, I see what you're trying to do here, and thank you, by the way, but I can't stop or slow down until I know everyone's safe." Alex turned to face her.

"You can't protect everyone forever, especially not now. Besides, everyone can handle themselves just fine." Yang sincerely replied.

"Do you know what happened the last time I didn't watch out for everyone?! Pinkie was thrown almost to her death, Applejack broke her spine, Rainbow lost a wing..! Hell, you got slashed across the side!" Alex raised his voice.

"We're all still alive, we can pull through." Yang reassured.

"Most of Evan's friends died, remember? I'm not even sure how they're still with us now, but it's lucky they did!" Alex yelled again.

"Listen for one second! You told me once that you want to stop, why haven't you?!"

"Because everything is still shit! After two years, nothing's changed! I'm still trying to take down the last Inquisitors because they still want to watch everything die because f**k all!" Alex screamed, his eyes moistening slightly.

"I get why you have to stay in this, but constantly?! Alex, look at yourself! You didn't slow down when you went to fight Alpha, and look where it got you!!" Yang retorted.

"Does it look like I wanted this?! No matter what, those ruthless maniacs have to pay, don't you understand?! I lost everything twice now! I tried to stop once, and guess what?! they wouldn't!! I have to work as hard as them just to keep up and stay alive! Do you have any idea what it's like to have to run and fight to even breathe?! One false move and it's GAME F**KING OVER!!!"

Yang actually shook after hearing him. Looking into his ice blue eyes again, she noticed something disheartening.

His appearance, his expression, that fearful look in his eye hadn't changed once since they first met. The only change was that his eyes looked dull, tired, from being in the same state of panic for years.

"As much as I'd like to get into bed and sleep the rest of my life away, I can't. Now, I'll never really understand why everyone suddenly wanted me to die, but I know one thing: Because of them, If I just stop whatever I'm doing now and rest while they're planning, everyone I care about is going to die, including you, and... I don't want to lose everything a third time." Alex sighed bitterly.

Yang trembled, how far would he be willing to go just to spare everyone?

"I guess.. This goes without saying, but... I'd risk life and limb for ya, huh?" Alex smirked, pointing to his robotic arms.

"No. Just... No." A voice bellowed to their right.

Alex turned and gazed in fear

"ULTIMUS?!" Alex reached for his sword and charged at the warrior.

Ultimus grabbed the sword in Alex's hands, only mildly glaring at him.

"Yet you have the audacity to call our rivalry worthless. It seems our business has more of an effect on you than you made it out to be during our last duel, Saigo." Ultimus scowled.

"How much did you hear?" Yang wondered, reaching for her gauntlets.

"Enough. I heard enough." He replied.

"Cut.. The shit... Why... Are you here!?" Alex seethed.

"Saigo. As much as I absolutely despise you. I sympathize with your cause." Ultimus admitted.

"The hell's that supposed to mean?!" Yang stared daggers at her enemy.

"Because, bride of Saigo, I was a lot like him before I joined the Inquisition..."

Author's Notes:

Before I get the Fall Knight Saga into full swing, I want to add a bit of depth into Ultimus' character, and I'm sure you guys want to know his motives, especially if he was apparently important enough to keep in the story.

In addition, I wanted you guys to get an idea of where Alex is at by this point of the story.

Also, I just wanted to clear up that I own nothing except the original characters.

-The Destoyer