The drill continued to fly, at a downward angle, as R.D. landed, the gigantic drill aimed at the sky. It suddenly shrank, retracting into his hand and disappearing completely. Standing amongst a veritable pool of melted water, R.D. stood, breathing heavily. He was exhausted, he always was after that surge of power taking him over.

He overdid it this time. Had he continued drawing that kind of power, he'd have burned himself to a crisp--along with a good portion of the world, no doubt. His breathing shallow, he stood straight and turned, looking at the gathered minions with an expressionless look. His bleeding had stopped, at least, though this air wouldn't do anything good for his wounds.

"Your greatest has challenged me and lost," he said coldly. "Get the hell out of here or I'll do the same to the rest of you."

===Repli-Earth===

The three robots, J, and Renais all stared at Matt, that power flaring outwards from his armored form. "Matt?" Renais whispered to herself, unable to really process what was happening.

With a roar, Matt leapt up to meet the Flux head on, the sheer speed met with a great gust of wind. Electricity gathered in his claw, and clenching it into a fist, he punched the Flux across the face as it swerved to meet him. The blow, fueled by the electricity was enough to blow its skull in all directions, leaving a tremendous gap, and it staggered.

Matt landed with a great impact, and the wings on his armor flared. "All right, everyone!" he shouted. "Let's get that shard!"

R.D. only nodded in response to Tech and Zekter's words, realizing the two held no animosity towards him. He was, however, quite surprised when his last opponent grabbed him, and he started slightly at the contact. He relaxed when the girl explained what Keiser tried to say, and again nodded in response. He did not look back as the four of them left, disappearing into the snowy drifts of Antarctica.

So this is it, huh? The big finale.

R.D. looked up into the sky, at Sheena herself, coiled around that mountain. Wyrm sure was full of herself. He held his arms out slightly, and particles of blue light appeared in the air, adhering to his form. Within moments, they had created the Dragon King Armor, and the black visor slid into place on the helmet. Behind it, bright yellow light flared from his eyes. The matter converter shone, and snow and water disappeared, their material used to create the hip and torso cannons on his armor. He brought his arm back, spreading his legs out into a battle stance. Time to rock and roll.

There was an explosion of sound as R.D. rocketed into the air, Lumiya's energies swarming around his form in an aura of erratic green-blue light, and streaked in at Sheena. Battle was joined.

===Repli-Earth===

Soldato-J and Renais both nodded at Matt's words. The J-Jewel cyborg took to the air, drawing the Radiant Ripper in one smooth motion. Drawing on the power of the J-Jewel, he bolted through the air, weaving under the Flux's arm and striking out with a horizontal slash at the creature's chest before shooting upwards. As he did, a pair of rockets shot towards where he was, fired from a pair of bazookas Renais had taken out of the weapons crate.

Seeing the attack come in, R.D. quickly twisted his body around, barrel-rolling out of the way underneath the blast. Amping up his speed with wind energy, he flew through the air at his--no, Bahamut's--nemesis. Pale violet light erupted from his hand into a sphere of energy, and he flung it hard at Sheena's throat. It erupted into a large blast wave, and the Mega Flare tore through the air, to explode into dozens of explosions upon impact.

Still recoiling from Matt's attack, silver burst apart from the Flux as the slash and then the rockets hit, further destroying its body. Already it began to regenerate, and there was the shine again.

"Keep attacking!" Matt shouted at Guy, his palm facing the ground as it gathered power, electricity coursing through his arm as it was braced by the other. "I need to gather enough power to blow it apart long enough to snatch the shard!"

"Right!" Guy didn't know exactly what was going on, but Matt had a plan, and he would help see it through. The Evoulder leapt up and slashed across the Flux's flank, to distract him as the giant monster swung at the pests with wrecking ball limbs.

R.D. halted his advanced, snarling as Sheena deftly avoided his Mega Flare. Hovering in midair using his thrusters, he quickly looked about for a way to escape--he couldn't find one. As torrents of snow carried by a howling wind began to lash at him, he found it harder to stay upright. The cyclone came into full force, and R.D. held his shield out in front of him. Its outer surface split outwards into four sections, producing a transparent blue barrier of energy.

The first shard of ice struck it hard, smashing against it and knocking him back, eliciting a startled cry from him. He flew all about the cyclone to the best of his ability, dodging and blocking as the situation called for--but the lashing winds altered his control, and the icicles began smashing into armor instead of the energy barrier. Too often was he being struck.

"Dammit!" R.D. cried, spotting one large shard coming in, one nearly as big as he was. Lowering his shield slightly, he swung out with his left arm and smashed its spiked tip with the shield. However, the entire thing exploded, and the force of it sent him hurtling out of the cyclone, bouncing hard off of Sheena's back before being thrown out by the unforgiving gales.

He flew for several miles before stopping in the air, stabilizing with his thrusters. The shield closed and moved back on his arm, reattaching to an elbow hardpoint. He activated the arm cannons and took aim. The reticle on his visor stayed gold for a moment as it moved into place, then turned red--Locked on!

Twin rays of emerald laser flew from his arm cannons, just as the hip-mounted cannons swung up and fired two golden rounds. A line of yellow-gold energy was sucked into the barrel of his torso-mounted beam cannon, and it soon erupted in a blaze of red and azure plasma. The full salvo's rounds streaked through the air at Sheena, who was undoubtedly pursuing him.

===Repli-Earth===

J swooped in, holding his energy sword overhead, as one of the wrecking ball limbs came down at Renais. He cut downward, slashing through the fluid tendons and ligaments holding the wrecking ball to the arm, separating it from the Flux. Renais dashed out of the way, and it came down harmlessly. Loading a rocket into the bazooka while pivoting, she stopped close to the creature's underside and aimed upwards, firing a third rocket at its lower torso, then leaping away while discarding the spent weapon.

As his projectiles flew, they smashed into the counterattacks Sheena fired and obliterated them. Despite this, R.D. could only blink in surprise as he tried to maneuver out of the way. How can something so big move that fast!? he thought wildly, spinning around with arm cannons ready. He fired both of them at the same time as the ice beam came down, and he managed to slow its progress. Even still, the force of the attack was shoving him back downwards, towards the ice.

He increased the output of his thrusters and stopped his descent, then canceled his beam attacks and flew off to the left--he was too slow, and the right side of his right leg was frozen by the ice. Swearing, he shot off, firing a rapid barrage of fireballs at Sheena's hide. Need to get her out of this damn mountain range, he thought,She has to follow me. Has to.

Now the Flux seemed to be recovering enough from Matt's earlier blow, as pointed tendrils shot at the flyers to try and pierce them, but they were all too quick to be hit by them.

"BACK OFF!" Matt shouted, leaping back up, the energy about his arm raised to an impossible glow. He chambered his fist and shot at the Flux, lashing out with a straight palm. "Thundering Star!"

The blow hit, and from Matt's hand, a tremendous amount of electricity expanded in a spherical field, so massive that it shredded apart the Flux's entire upper torso, leaving a pair of legs amid the melting silver. As the field faded, they could see it clearly where the skull had been-another shard just like the one in the lab, shining radiant colors.

"There it is!" Guy shot foward to grab the shard.

The melting silver twisted about itrself to reform into serpents of steel, lashing into Guy and sending him hurtling backwards. They screeched silently and rose to protect the shard, the source of its power.

As the metallic serpents ascended, the loud roar of gunshots were heard as Renais aimed and fired at them, detonating their heads as they made their way up towards the shimmering prismatic shard.

Soldato-J quickly dashed towards the serpents, racing them to get to the shard, He appeared in the air between them, standing in their way of the Sky Shard. Flourishing the Radiant Ripper, he cleaved the air and the serpents in twain as they came up.

Just then, the shard glimmered, and the Flux drew itself back together even quicker than before. The serpents snapped and concealed the shard from harm as the torso rearranged, and the skull was beginning to form.

"Damn!" Matt hit the ground and glanced back up at the monster. That didn't work...it would fight tooth and claw to protect the piece of the Omega Core, and if they didn't get it, this battle would last until the Flux had dominated.

...there was only one thing to do.

"Keep him busy!" Matt shouted, leaping backwards a great distance.

"What are you doing?" Guy shouted.

Matt frowned. He was going to do something that he believed he could still do, despite all amazement.

The Flux now shot lengths of silver out of its shoulders to attack them-wrecking balls, pillars, spikes, anything sharp or heavy.

R.D. flared backwards, halting in midair. He looked about wildly to find Sheena when she disappeared off of his scanners, but couldn't find her anywhere. It was then that the ice and the snow below him began to glow the sinister blue color, and he looked down at it quickly. Oh crap, he thought sourly, preparing himself.

His right hand lifted into the air, and a sphere of utter blackness formed above it in an instant, pulsating, and ringed with an inner ring of bright green energy. A strange vibe filled the air as it was created. The attack formed, he readied himself, and looked forward--not at Sheena's ice, but at the Ice Dragons.

With a powerful throw, he flung the dark matter forward into the heart of the flight of Ice Dragons. It traveled far, hitting nothing, until it reached a certain point, then stopped. Instantly, the dark matter shone a bright pink, and black zephyrs were being sucked into it in repeated pulses, releasing black shockwaves at the same time. The vibe was getting stronger, and stranger.

Finally, electric tines of eldritch spiraled into the light, and sound was torn apart as a spherical wall of antimatter erupted outwards, consuming anything that would get caught in that evil light.

===Repli-Earth===

Soaring on dark green wings, the last of the J-Jewel warriors began to cut a path through that forest of silvery weaponry--the red blade cleaved downwards through a blade as he ducked to the side, followed by cutting around to the opposite side of the cyborg in a horizontal slash, halving a wrecking ball into two. The Radiant Ripper shot upwards and tore into a pillar of metal, then back downwards into another.

His sword cut down the center of a blade, bending backwards by the force as he traveled down it, and then he was clear, shooting forward at the Flux's main body, his sword at his side in both hands and a primal yell erupting from his throat.

Unexpectedly, a gigantic hand shot out from the Flux, seizing J and slamming him into Renais. It drew itself back together as it casts its empty glare on Matt, standing in the distance.

Matt took a deep breath, and crossed his arms. He wasn't sure about using this attack again...but he knew that if he used it, it'd be powerful enough to break the Flux's defense, and secure their victory.

The computers beeped in loud warning as the field of emerald energy spiked about Matt again. Mikoto gasped. "Chief!"

"What is it, Mikoto?" Taiga said, his fingers tightened around the rim of his desk.

"That energy field around Matt...it's-!"

The right hand brimmed with crimson.

The left hand shimmered with gold.

"Hell and Heaven!"

Matt threw his arms apart, and the world was suddenly awashed in the brilliant green essence of life and death.

"Gotcha!" R.D. cried, spinning around while creating another green-ringed sphere of dark matter in his right hand. His left-arm shield came up and activated as Sheena came in, and R.D. threw himself to the side. Sheena's hide slammed hard against the shield, and R.D. struggled to maintain his position, while his shield was quickly being shredded to pieces.

As Sheena was tearing past him, destroying his shield, he flung the dark matter at base of the frozen mountain that Sheena had emerged from. The black sphere burst into pink light as it activated, and within moments, exploded into that blinding burst of antimatter. Grabbing a Chaos Emerald just as the mountain was disintegrating, R.D. disappeared in a green flash of Chaos Control, appearing above and to the side Sheena. Arming his cannons once more, he fired them simultaneously at Sheena, this time each armed with flame projectiles, before flying off, intending for the Dark Goddess to give chase.

===Repli-Earth===

J and Renais both cried out as the attack from the Flux sent them skittering across the ground, destroying more of their armor in the process. Luckily for them, the blow had sent them out of the range of the ultimate attack.

The bridge of the Kushinada was thrown into a panic as the energy levels of Broken and Protect energies began to skyrocket.

"Energy levels confirmed," Papillon said, her fingers flying across the keyboards. The Sensing Mind was growing wild. She quickly turned around in her seat. "Attack confirmed! Matt's using Hell and Heaven!"

"What did you say!?" Hyuuma sputtered in shock.

Guy shouted as he was sent flying by the opening force of Hell and Heaven, and crossed his arms to try and protect himself. That move, he managed to think. How could he-?!

Matt's claws twitched as he tried to bring his hands together, the tremendous energies cracking between them slowing his progress. "Gemu giru gan go gufo...!"

The Flux attacked, extending its clawed hands at the remants of Dragon Drive FINAL, though its mass was being tested in the void, trying to keep itself together.

"AHHHHHHHHH-!"" As Matt's claws interlocked, it released another burst of power, blowing away the claws, travelling up the arms to completely annhilate them, just before the Flux could seize him. The giant silver monster twitched as it tried to move, but couldn't-the power of Hell and Heaven, as expected, had completely immobilized it.

"ALL RIGHT!" Liger shouted, in unexpected emotion. "Go for it!"

Matt's wings fully expanded, and the long-dormant thrusted burst into life. He rocketed along the ground until his body lifted up, and he was flying head-on at the Flux's skull, leading the way with his combined power. "Viiiiiiiitaaaaaaasssssssssssss!"

The Flux rose metal shields that burst away upon impact with Hell and Heaven, and the attack crashed effortlessly through the monster, splattering gobs of silver in all directions. In the midst, Matt saw the piece of Omega Core, and managed to break his hands apart with great difficulty, catching the shard within his grip before closing it again.

As the attack's essence vanished just as quickly as it came, the obliterated mass of the Flux rained back down to earth.

Matt landed on the ground in the far distance with a sliding thud. The power faded around him-his armor smouldered. In his hands, the shard of the Omega Core lay safe.

"The... target has gone completely silent," Entouji announced after several moments of stunned silence. "All traces of energy from the creature have disappeared."

"Matt!" Renais said, running up to him. J was approaching as well, though moving at a walking pace, his sword already deactivated and returned to the left-hand gauntlet.

He was panting, still in awe, clenching his hands together tightly.

"Hey," he managed as Renais ran up. "Looks like we did it, huh?"

J nodded in response. Renais, on the other hand, could only ask one question. "How in the hell did you pull that off, kid?"

Matt chuckled. "You know, I don't really know." He held up his hands. "But I got the shard, so it's all good. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pass out now. It seems only right..."

As he fell to the earth, his armor slowly began to dissolve away into particles of emerald light, reaching up to the sky, until they vanished against the blackness of night. His body neatly fell in Guy's waiting arms.

The Evoulder smiled. "Good job." He glanced up. "Come on, let's get him back to Uncle Liger."

Some time later, Papillon was studying the monitor that was displaying Matt's vitals, now that he was resting inside the Kushinada. Without the Dragon Drive FINAL's armor, Dr. Liger was free to begin new tests on him, to make sure his interaction with the Sky Shard wouldn't do any kind of damage down the road.

Renais stepped into the room, looking about. She went over to her friend, and looked at the screen, then looked at her father as he went about his tests. "So, how's the kid doing?" she asked.

"He's perfectly healthy," Liger replied, turning about in his seat. "The levels of energy in his body seem to have decreased dramatically, but overall, it's still very impressive." He rubbed his chin. "Call me paranoid, but I think that these two share an even greater connection than we already know."

"Ah, shit!" R.D. cried, creating a new shield and forcing it down below him just in time. The transparent Sheena smashed into it and broke it in an instant, sending him flying from the blow. He wildly stabilized himself, flying backwards while unleashing a rapid barrage of flame projectiles at Sheena's form, undoubtedly coming at him.

===Repli-Earth===

"I'm willing to believe it after what we saw," Renais said, placing a hand on her hip. "How was he able to touch the second shard without harm, anyway? Last time he touched a Sky Shard, he flung it across the room."

Liger glanced up at Renais with a smirk. "Here's a better question-what do you think happened to the first Sky Shard?"

"What do you mean, old man?" Renais asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.