Rarity stepped outside to see a carriage for them to ride in, "What's this may I ask?"

"We received word from the Mystic Council Rarity. Cobalt has been captured and the rest of the mystic realm has fallen. Small handfuls of warriors are attempting to rise in rebellion, but they don't stand a chance against this unknown army. We know the reason you are here. This carriage can bring you to the capitol where you can gain help from the queen."

"Oh, thank you all so much. We'll be sure to repay this debt of gratitude you've shown us."

"No problem. The road ahead is free of any rebels, so it should a smooth ride from here on out."

Rarity nodded as she looked at her friends. She could tell that they were somewhat saddened that they had to abandon Cobalt like that, "Girls, Cobalt did the right thing to send us here. Whatever type of torture he's going through right now is something he can endure... I hope..."

Discord sat on a throne in front of Cobalt, and other men. They all held smolding pieces of iron. Harmony stood beside Discord with a large monkey wrench in hand. Cobalt's body was riddled with burn marks, and the floor around was covered in blood, more than likely his own.

"I'm going to ask again Cobalt. Where are your wives and children?"

"And I'll tell you again, somewhere nobody can find them."

Discord nodded his head towards the men, and they hit, not pressed, their iron rods at Cobalt's abdomen. This caused him to grunt in pain, and spit out an inhumane amount of blood, "Oh man, you heal fast for someone who lost their powers 20 years ago. Ah, this is much too boring," Discord stood up from his throne with a groan of boredom, "I'm off to conquer another dimension. Harmony, rip his fingers off again. As for the rest of you, gear up for another dimension takeover," The men holding the bars followed Discord out. One of the men gave one last good swing at Cobalt, much to Harmony's disgust.

Harmony instantly dropped the monkey wrench, and began healing Cobalt, "Cobalt, why won't you just tell him? I can't stand seeing you like this..."

"Don't worry about me. My healing factor can counter whatever he throws at me."

"What if he brings plasma into this Cobalt, and you know that your body can't handle this type of punishment any longer Cobalt. I've been reading the flow of your magic, and your healing factor is getting worn out. Once that stops working, you're done for Cobalt."

"That doesn't matter."

"What?! Cobalt, you're the only thing preventing Discord from conquering the mystic realm. If he gets the Emperor's jewel, then all is lost."

"Which why I said it doesn't matter. The jewel isn't with me. It's with one of my kids. The only way he can get it is if he captures my kids. If he kills the only source of my kids...," Cobalt trailed off as he looked off in the distance again, "he can't complete his goal for total domination..."

Meanwhile in the capitol of Uskain, Quartz walked along side Alicia, Lavender, and Saber as they glanced at all the unique vendors, "There's so many vendors of different kinds. I even see attire from our part of the world. Whoa, is that clothing from Earth?" Lavender said as she pointed over to a nearby vendor that had Nike, Adidas, North Face, and even Reebok brand clothing and other apparel.

"Whoa, that was a lot of name drops. Can we do that?" Everyone stared at Quartz as he said that, and chuckled, "Sorry, but this is cool. I could wear some of this. But is there a vendor that's kind of specializing in battle-ready clothing? Sort of like what I wore yesterday during my duel with Saber?"

"Hm, to be honest, most of the tailors here are more of formal or informal wear. None of them are battle-ready clothing."

"I see, well, some informal wear would be nice. Shall we go and-," Before Quartz could finish his sentence, Quartz grabbed his head as he felt a pulsating pain occur mid-sentence.

"Quartz!" Alicia and Saber grew worried, but Lavender stopped them.

"Don't worry about it. This is something that has been happening for a while now. If you didn't now, he actually told me about this girl that visits him from time to time. A sign of him seeing her is this."

Lavender was right. Quartz saw an angelic looking girl in front of him. The angelic being started to move towards the center of the marketplace.

"He'll usually only catch a short glimpse of her. There were times where he told me that she told him something. Although, he never tells me what she tells him. That's pretty...," Quartz began to aimlessly walk towards the middle of the marketplace towards the path of the angel. This caught the attention of the others.

"Where is he going?" They started to follow him only to lose sight of him. They then saw him tinkering with a vendor that sold munitions from Earth, "Quartz!" He looked towards them, and turned his attention back to merchant.

"So these are specifically from Earth?"

"Yup, they're some of the most common, yet powerful weapons from Earth."

"How did you get them here? In fact, how did you get here?"

"I'm a traveling merchant and trader. I'm originally from Helios, but I decided to become a merchant/trader. Most of my items here are mostly through trade. Of course, most of them are Earth merchants from Earth. Occasionally, I'll make the trip to Earth, but not all the time."

"Quartz! Don't turn away form us when we're speaking to you!" Lavender started to pull on Quartz to ear, "Didn't I teach you better?"

"No, stop that," He pulled away from her grip, and turned to them, "This merchant has munitions from Earth. Some of them aren't even ones that I've seen here. It's pretty cool. Actually, how have you been able to go to and from Earth without being detected as an outworlder?"

"I'm extremely discreet about it. I don't try to give my position away too easily. I have a lot of sources out on Earth to give me these weapons," The merchant then glanced at the Alicia and bowed, "Ah, Queen Alicia, it is an honor to meet you. Is Quartz here with all of you?"

"Yes, we were actually out to buy some clothing for him, but did you something catch your eye here?"

"Yeah, I've always been interested in firearms, and I thought that these were a great place to start. It can be my own firearm that I can practice with."

"I see, but are you sure with that? We have plenty of firearms that we could lend you."

"I know, but I just feel attracted to these weapons here."

"Oh, if you're a beginner with firearms, allow me to introduce you to this weapon right here," The merchant turned around, and handed Quartz an AR-15 assault rifle with a reflex scope on it, "It was the first rifle I ever shot and owned. It's also a basic weapon for a beginner such as yourself. That reflex sight was just an addition. If you want, I can throw in your own vest, ammo, and handgun for the same price."

Quartz began inspecting the weapon which caused Alicia to speak up, "And how much is this price exactly?"

"I was going to charge full price, but since you're here my queen, I'll lower it little. The price right now for you is 20,000 Silver Dragon Coins."

"That's pretty pricey, isn't it?"

"Wait, what's that? This doesn't sound like our currency," Lavender asked as she checked her pocket to reveal the basic currency of the mystic realm, "Is Uskain different?"

"Why, yes we are. Ever since Uskain broke away from your father's rule, our own currency was created. It's split into 4 different categories. Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Dragon Coins. 20,000 Silver Dragon Coins is equal to about 5,000 Gold Dragon Coins. That's quite the price for this."

"Hm, if you think about, this is a good price for this type of package. Excuse me sir, if I may ask, but how much will be given to Quartz if we were to purchase this?"

"I'd give 100 separate clips off ammo that it's in a small ammo cache. It's ammo for both the rifle and the handgun. The ballistic vest along with the ammo and handgun are all in this...," The merchant went into the back of his vendor, and carried a large ammo cache in front of them, "You know, I can lower the price to 10,000 Silver Dragon Coins. Quartz seems like a nice young man, and I'd be willing to do what I can to allow him to purchase this set."

Saber then spoke, "Excuse us for a moment," She pulled Alicia to the side, and said, "My queen, I think you should do this. I can help him with handling a rifle. Need I remind you that once The Resistance launch their attack on the castle...," She trailed off as she looked at Quartz who was checking out the gun with his sister and the merchant, "he may be our only hope to drive them back. I think that he can be able to force The Resistance to submit and end this war," Alicia glanced over at Quartz with a worried look, "My queen, I've known you for a long time now. So I'm going to talk to you not as one of your soldiers, but as your best friend. I know how much you love Quartz, but his main objective here isn't to help us. I'm sure that he was sent here for a whole other reason all together, and not to help us out of our situation. There will be a time while he's here where you have to choose to either use him to end this war as soon as possible so that he may return home, or to keep him here while his main problem will never be solved."

Alicia clenched her fist as she stared at Quartz. Though Saber was right, she couldn't bare the responsibility of seeing her true love die for her country. In fact, if he was to sacrifice himself here... he wouldn't be able to go back...

Silver and her sisters looked at the large groups of resistance fighters in front of them. Many of them looked poor, some looked to have been trained in fighting while others look as if they didn't want to even be there. They all stared at them with glares of hostility.

"Don't mind their stares. It's a way to intimidate others. They must keep their tenacity to make up for their lack of skill and numbers," Even if Platinum had said this, they all saw that some of them were scared to know when the signal for the attack was going to come. I'm actually quite surprised all of you are willing to learn how to handle a firearm. I guess that's a good thing. They may be doing the same with Quartz."

"Platinum, if I may ask as to why we're no longer in the cold, snowy wasteland from before?" Fluffy questioned.

"There's a lot of patrols in that area of Uskain, so we move our training and shooting ranges to this area of Uskain. A jungle is a great way to test the mind of our soldiers. However, for all of you, I will put you through firearms training, and a weapons course. This may take some time, so you may need to buckle in..."

They all looked at each other, and bowed, "We are ready for anything," Although, Electric was somewhat reluctant with her answer.

Meanwhile, back in Cobalt's cell, another group of soldiers came with the same equipment as before, "Oh Mr. Cobalt! We have some more fun we would like to-," They walked in to see him gone, "Where'd he go?! Sound the alarm!" A loud alarm went off within the castle Cobalt was being held in.
The castle was on a small remote island. There wasn't much land on the island, but Cobalt found a way out for in the distance sailing the ocean blue was a relatively small ship. This ship was much too far to be spotted by the soldiers on the Island. This ship had Cobalt, who only had on a pair of combat boots and pants. On his back was a sword, a rather plain sword, but behind him was Harmony and a girl around the age of Silver wrapped in a blanket. Cobalt looked at them, and then back in front of him.

The ocean breeze had his hair flow in it. He then unsheathed his sword, and began hacking away at his beard like before. He cut off all of his facial hair, and shortened his hair. He looked in the reflection of the water, and sighed, "I don't have long. My next stop is the Depab Archipelago, and from there... the capitol of Uskain..."

...

......

........

"I only have 6 months..."

Author's Note

Cobalt escaped! And with Harmony and apparently their daughter! What does Cobalt mean when he only has 6 months? What is happening here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!