"Alright," Shen said, taking hold of the lever to jump start the circuit breaker, "everyone get ready. We're turning this thing on."

"It's not going to explode, is it?" Breaker asked, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at her GREMLIN.. "Last thing I need is FIXIT falling into pieces because we didn't anticipate needing to insulate it."

"It's not going to explode." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. She turned and nodded to the other two Crusaders. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Here goes nothing," Shen muttered, pulling down the lever. The machines sparked, then a low hum shook them… a hum that was echoed by all the structures around them.

After a few moments of humming power, Shen glanced at Apple Bloom, who shrugged and looked at Scootaloo.

Sweetie checked her screen, where she had been keeping track of the wavelengths. "That's weird, I thought something would have happened by—"

Air crackled suddenly, a thundering sound that shook the whole area as dust and fog slowly rose from the ground around them, floating into the air like mist, spiraling into the central platform and coalescing into a glowing, crackling and dangerous cloud-like sphere of energy and ether.

"Psionic readings are off the charts!" Shen shouted over the wind as it picked up around them.

"I feel something," Annette spoke up. She had been quiet the whole trip, her mind dwelling on dark memories of the person they were here to collect. Her eyes widened. "And it's not from this!" her hand flew to the radio. "We have multiple breaches!" she managed to shout just as a heavy mechanical body slammed onto Apple Bloom carrying both of them several meters away and loud roars echoed in the valley.

Sweetie dove straight for cover, just as Shen slid right next to Scootaloo, readying her weapon. "Keep your head down!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Scootaloo screeched, hands covering her head as she huddled behind her fellow Engineer.

A large shadow suddenly loomed above them, and the pair looked up to see a berserker raising its arms and roaring, ready to smash them—just before blue energy surrounded it and flung it violently over the machinery all the way to smash onto the nearest column.

"I'll cover you three," Annette growled. "Finish working!" she shouted, rifle coming up as she and Breaker started shooting at the approaching beasts. Between shots, Breaker slapped the communicator on and started shouting information into her headpiece.

Scootaloo crouched, ready to run to her friend's aid, only to stop when Shen grabbed her shoulder.

"But Apple Bloom is—"

"We need to do this now, the others will help her!" Shen interrupted, locking eyes with Scootaloo. "I know you're worried, but we need to get this done!"

"Scoots!" Sweetie said from where she was hiding between two large pieces of equipment, "The wavelengths are all over the place, I'm trying to isolate them, but the teleportation thing these aliens are doing is interfering with the signal!

"Crap!" Scootaloo growled, reaching over to drag down a laptop to her position. She quickly scanned it. "Process is still ongoing!" she spoke loudly up over the growing electric hum and salvo. "It's at sixty percent!"

The roar of a berserker collapsing nearby made her cringe. "The readings are still climbing. If Adagio is really here and we're opening up a portal, it's definitely going to be flashy!"

"I don't know if I want anything more flashy than this!" Breaker muttered, sliding over one of the structures to land next to Scootaloo. Do you know how much time this will take?"

"It's building up," Scootaloo said, "I have no idea."

Her sensors were advanced enough to recognize the impact when it happened, but advanced as they were, it still took a moment for Apple Bloom to recognize that she was embedded against one of the nearby metallic walls and being held in place by a robot of some sort.

"Nice to see you again, Apple Bloom."

She blinked, optics focusing on the flattened head that managed to look obnoxious despite the lack of expressions. "Julian."

With nary an effort, the robot tore her out of the crevice she had created on impact and threw her to the floor. She landed on her knees and hands, looking up at him as he faced her. His body was square-ish, very reminiscent of the SPARK body that the Elder Shen had designed, but it was much more heavily armed and armored than the original specs if the missiles and plates were something to go by.

"You left me for dead, Apple Bloom," Julian continued, plasma blasters charging on his mechanical forearms. "After all I did for you. How could you."

His immediate answer was a blast straight to the chest that sent him reeling back. Apple Bloom stood, hand open and smoking from the energy output. "Ah should've made sure to scrap every bit of hardware in that base, y'good fer nothin' varmint!"

Julian straightened. "You wound me, Apple Bloom. I recognized in you what father couldn't recognize in me!"

"A soul?" Apple Bloom asked, "Because Ah can assure you, he didn't miss it. Y'ain't got one."

Julian crouched. "Potential. It is a shame to see it wasted instead of nurtured," he continued, his heavy frame doing a convincing imitation of a shrug. "I guess it is time I harvest it."

We have multiple breaches!

Gilda blinked, looking down at Ember's radio. "Did she just say—"

A purple flash of energy shook her off her stupor and they both instinctively jumped for cover, saving their lives as plasma blasts scorched the earth where they had stood just seconds before.

Gilda cursed, rolling behind a boulder to let loose a barrage of bullets, which didn't do much to the oddly colored Archon that had suddenly appeared there. Ember's own weapon, however, really pissed it off. "I need one of those rifles!"

"Shit, shit!" Ember shouted, grabbing her radio, "we have the Archon King here!"

Blasts, explosions, and shouts emerged from the radio, followed by the gasping sound of Breaker's voice. "We have the Berserker Queen over here! It's alive and it brought friends!"

"I see several mutons appearing from the west! They're wearing different armor, they'll be within sight of you in a few seconds, Coyote!" Trojan called in.

"Where the fuck are they coming from?!" Gilda shouted, tossing a grenade over her cover.

"Security here," the radio blurred into life, "We have a bunch of sectoids following a bigger one with green-glowing skin.

"Troops! Support XCOM!" Gilda shouted into her radio. "Set a perimeter, get the jeeps ready to go!"

"We can't abandon the mission!" Ember shouted from behind her cover.

"Can't you recognize when you're outgunned?!" Gilda countered, "Or is that a Dragon thing too?!"

"Ah, shaddup!"

A laugh gave them both chills as a voice rose over all others, echoing across the valley. "My, but isn't this quite the gathering of Engineers! I'm almost honored to be in the presence of so many members of XCOM that are semi-capable of logical thought."

Ember risked a glance around her cover, her eyes growing wide. "No way…"

The lower body coiled, dark purple scales shining in the storm-like lighting of the valley. From the waist up, a decidedly female shape emerged, but it was not that of a normal Viper. It was human, wrapped in tight body armor of some sort that seemed to help accentuate the human aspects of it. A familiar face smirked, eyes wide and full of amusement, purple and magenta hair tied back into a ponytail.

Ember shook her head, unable to believe what, or who, she had in front of her. "Twilight?"