Dexter was crouched behind the Fusion Drone. His fingers trembled as he programmed the small silver metal box he held in one hand. From the flat top of the device protruded several wires, which snaked along the ground and were connected to the base of the Fusion Warp Pad. The Drone seemed to sense this foreign disturbance and was writing more animatedly than usual, in quick jerky movements that seemed to convey discomfort.

"What exactly is that for, Dexter?"

The young boy took care that his voice did not falter, that he spoke in the official manner he usually did when explaining his machinery to Agent Six. "It's a disruptor." He said flatly.

"A disruptor?"

"It will eradicate the signal between Earth and Planet Fusion, that way no more spawn can get in."

The providence agent came up behind Dexter and crouched by his side. "Have you forgotten you just sent a human being to that hell?" he asked darkly. "Eradicate the signal and you've just as well as killed her. I can't let you do that."

Dexter stared at the console in his hand. "Agent Six, you are a remarkable soldier." He said, "But I'm afraid you've got a bit of an authority problem."

The Providence Agent tried to pry it from his fingers, but Six was too slow. Before he even had his hand wrapped around the cold box, Dexter had activated the disruptor.

The Fusion Drone emit a high pitched mechanical whine that sounded sickeningly like a scream as it thrashed and twisted in the confines of its pad, the base of which started to smoke from the strain of the electrical input.

There was no turning the device off, Six learned as he tried to deactivate it. Before long, the box itself started sputtering with the strain of keeping the feed live. The once vibrant green tentacles of the Drone had turned a green brown and began to shrivel like a plant, its limbs twitching under the influence of the electricity coursing through it.

With one last effort, the control box exploded, severing the feed. The brightly glowing drone stopped twitching and its limbs relaxed. Slowly, the light it emit died to leave behind the heap of burnt Fusion matter.

Dexter wiped the soot from his glasses. "There." He said, softly. "Now she can finish her job. No interference."

Agent Six looked at Dexter, away from the stunning sight that had just unfolded in front of him. In a part of his mind, he couldn't believe that Dexter just cut that girl off from Planet Earth, even though the rest of him was already processing what he'd just said. "Interference? You ordered Providence to investigate the warp pad. The one you just destroyed."

"Yes." He said curtly, heading for the door. "I lied."

Cael threw herself against the stalagmite as the fusion energy grazed past her. She cocked the gun, her hand slipping the first time out of sheer terror of the situation. Just because she knew she had to keep a level head didn't mean she knew how to.

She jumped out from behind her protection, running across to the next nearest rock formation, firing at her fusion counterpart as she did so. She crouched slightly with her back against another rock, holding the gun up to her chest, finger on the trigger, always on the trigger. Cael's mind raced. She was in the middle of a war, in a one-on-one battle that could possibly mean life or death for the rest of Planet Earth. She didn't have time to be inexperienced. She'd been fighting with the rest of the Human race for a week. Only a week, but she had to have learned something. Dexter's intelligence, Ben's force, Blossom's strategy, Rex's determination, Edd's ingenuity, Venvor's spirit… Cael took a deep breath and spun out from behind her cover.

There, not a foot in front of her, stood Fusion Cael, arm outstretched, gun in hand, finger on the trigger, always on the trigger. Her fist clenched and the fusion energy shot out of the barrel of the gun, making it jerk slightly.

Cael felt a pain in her stomach, but it faded quickly, along with the rest of the world around her.

Her body bobbed slightly, masking her breathing, which she figured was lucky since she could hear Fusions around her. Disturbingly close, in fact. But what she didn't understand was why she couldn't feel the ground beneath her. Every few seconds as she came back to consciousness, she felt like she was falling, and wondered vaguely if it were true as she stirred awake.

Cael opened her eyes just enough to get a peek of what was going on around her. The Fusion Guards were hauling her through some sort of massive room. She didn't exactly have time to admire the architecture, for her mind was elsewhere, and she needed to make as much sense of the situation as soon as possible. Their leisurely little stroll though Fuse's Fortress could come to an abrupt end at any second.

It was all dawning on her. Dexter and Mandark hadn't opened the worm holes on Earth. Cael wanted to bang her head against a brick wall. Dexter had even told her that, back when they were readying to transport her! He hadn't created them, no, no, no! He and Mandark could merely control them. They were natural, a side effect! All this, Cael thought, all the war and misery, it was all the effect of one thing, one tiny little event that, in normal history, would have been overlooked completely. One tiny little event that Cael had witnessed only a week ago. But to everyone else, it had been an entire year. An entire year since the explosion in Dexter's laboratory, the same explosion that had torn apart the very fabric of time and space, creating tiny little wormholes all over the surface of Earth… and one very big one, somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy.

That's how Planet Fusion got here! Cael nearly exclaimed. She fought to keep her body limp in the grip of the Meteoric Guardian.

They carried her all the way from that dark cavern where she'd collapsed to… she didn't know where, yet. But at the moment, her thoughts were on how, exactly how she was around to find out. Her fusion counterpart had shot her point blank in the stomach. She wiggled her toes as much as she dared, just t make sure her lower half was still there.

What had happened in that space of time she'd blacked out?

She wasn't presented with much of an opportunity to ponder over the matter, as the grip the Guards had on her was suddenly releases, dropping her to the ground with more force than was really necessary.

Cael lay limp on the cold stone ground. The Guards had slunk away from her body at the sound of a deep hissing growl. For a moment, Cael was unsure what the noise was; then, she realized: Fuse. It was Fuse, commanding his troops. For some reason, Cael had always imagined Lord Fuse to live up to his title, to be regal and proper. But what she was hearing was a mess of growls and roars. She didn't know what to make of it, and it unnerved her that she didn't know what he was saying.

Suddenly, there was a blinding pain as her body flew through the air, smacking the wall behind her and falling once again, limp, to the ground. She heard a crunch as she landed on her side; the face of her NanoCom was shattered.

Cael bit the inside of her lip in agony. Fuse had shot her, she thought as his harsh, barking laugh erupted through the cavern. She fought the urge to shout in pain – whatever he had done burned her skin and lingered. But that pain… that was nothing compared to the pain she felt in her own head: a screeching, howling, terrible noise, yet crystal clear and completely understandable, in perfect English.

"Feeble, desperate Humans! Do not rejoice in Earth's Finest Hour, it has failed you! I have here, your brightest light and savior, fallen to one of MY children!"

Cael moaned inwardly at the force of the voice in her head. 'Fallen to one of MY children.' So it was Fuse, speaking straight into her. There was that regality she had expected. Absently, she wondered if the others on Earth heard his voice as intensely as she did, if everyone was in such excruciating pain.