Chapter X: The Master Plan
The Story so far...
Rage and the gang discovered the one in charge of The Dark Legion was Rage's old adoption father Justin the Fox. After putting stop the their Plans with the Radiant Dawn Justin escaped deeper into darkness where he went off the grid the heroes unable to track him down. Awaiting news on his whereabouts the group goes back to life as normal. For Rage's friend Kai he catches Dark Rage at the old fortress of The Dark Legion and confronts him before being attacked by high level Dark Spawns...
Kai was trying to strike the Dark Spawns with magic as he ran but found it difficult with them constantly blasting dark energy at him. Worst of all Kai was getting run down and tired from the fighting. "Looks like this might be it..." he pants as Dark Rage approaches him and kills the Dark Spawns himself.
"I've got to hand it to ya kid you've got no quit in you." he says helping him up. Kai looked at the dark red hedgehog in confusion. Why on Earth would this guy be helping him? Not wanting to take any chances Kai swings his sword though slow and weak. Of course he missed and collapsed back to his knees.
"Well go ahead kill me, or whatever you are going to do to me!" he yells
"I am not going to harm you." Dark Rage says
"And why should I trust that coming from you?" Kai asks in question angered since he though Dark Rage was toying with him. "After all you just assaulted me with those damned Ultra Dark Spawns of yours!"
"I was wearing you down... how else would you let me explain if you weren't out of energy?" Dark Rage replies, Kai replies with a "huh?" since thisonly deepened his questions about the dark hedgehog who sighs "I am here to search for a way to fight Justin." Dark Rage admits "I knew you, Rage or any of his friends wouldn't believe me let alone assist me so I figured if there was a way to stop him it would be in here."
"Why would you want to kill him?" Kai asks "He's the leader of your whole group!"
"It's a long story... one that goes back thousands of years..." Dark Rage says
"Thousands but if you are Rage's darkness you can be no older then he is!" Kai objects
"That's the thing I am not that red bastards darkness I am one of his ancestors!" Dark Rage says "My real name is Aster Chaotic The Hedgehog... Rage is the end of our true bloodline... both Icezer and Xage go unlucky and inherited too much from their mother. I took this disguise calling myself his darkness to test him... the Chaotic bloodline has been tied to protecting the worlds we are present in but our family also has had darkness in our blood since my great, great, great, grandfather made a deal with the Darkness in order to save his daughter." the hedgehog explains
"But that does not explain why you are here." Kai says
"So I could attract you." he replies
"Why would you go through so much trouble just to tell me this? Why not Rage?" Kai asks
"That's because Rage is the only member of our family to shine so brightly. It is my hope he can finish what my three times great grandfather began... to rid our family of this curse before it finds a way to consume him as well." Aster looks at Kai with worry in his eyes "The only way to do that is by extracting what power is welled inside of Justin. The power he keeps locked away unless he knows he cannot escape or win a battle."
"So you mean what Justin has been doing is not even his full power?!" Kai gasps
"Not even a fraction... that is why I must get to Rage I know it sounds cliche but he is our only hope... the monster inside Justin is feeding off of the energy from our curse just to release itself and destroy the whole universe as we know it!" Aster looks at Kai "Please Kai you must take me to Rage so we can discuss this."
Kai stands and thinks for a few minutes before letting out a sigh "Very well...but he will more then likely attack you just by being there." he warns
[Angel Island- Skies above Ponyvile-Equestria]
12:06 PM
Rage was standing on the edge of the floating island looking out at The Crystal Empire watching the fireworks with a smile "Thank goodness they can celebrate it this time without interruption this year." Rage says to himself
"Celebrate what?" Knuckles asks walking up to the crimson hedgehog
"Every year in The Crystal Empire they have a fair to power their protective gemstone The Crystal Heart." Rage says "Last time was the time King Sombra took over and locked them away for a thousand years. At least that's what Twilight has told me."
"Wow that must have been rough for them." Knuckles says "being apart from the world for so long."
"yeah... I couldn't even begin to imagine their sorrow or feelings from it." Rage replies looking at the red echidna "Is there something you need Knuckles?" he asks "You don't normally come for small talk"
"So you knew?" Knuckles asks
"you're not to hard to see right through." Rage replies with a chuckle
"I guess your- hay!" Knuckles yells "Anyway your friend Kai wants to speak to you but he requests it to be done here."
"Alright thank you Knuckles" Rage says to the red Echidna as he focuses his energy to summon a portal. As soon as it opens Kai and Aster walk throguh.
"Hay Rage." Kai says
"What is he doing here?!" Rage yells leaping for Aster
"Hold it!" Kai says stopping Rage "I think you might want to hear this Rage."
"What is there to hear from him? He is my own darkness!" Rage yells
"That is where you have it all wrong." Aster says "I am not truly your Darkness you have no such thing." Rage looks at the dark red hedgehog with a confused look
"But you and I are like twins." Rage says
"Rage Chaotic the Hedgehog I am your ancestor Aster Chaotic." he replies and Rage looks wide eyed "I took on the character of your darkness to well test you..."
"Okay this is confusing why would I need testing from you? After all Maxim said you died thousands of years ago!" Rage says
Aster shakes his head "That is part of why I am here Rage is about your family. Although you have your brothers the took too much from you mom making you the last full blooded Chaotic alive. I hate to drop such a bombshell on you now with Justin and all but it is relevant to everything happening."
"How is this relevant to this at all?" Rage asks
"Take a seat Rage I have along story to tell you." Aster says as the two sit down
To begin with you Rage are the last full blooded Chaotic your brothers took too much from your mom. You see our blood is cursed. All of the Chaotic were destined no matter what world to fall to darkness. This is a curse that goes back to my great, great, great grandfathers stupid choice. When his daughter was kidnapped by this group of cultists he made a deal with a man of Darkness in order to save her. Thing is he had no idea of the full cost... with this dark curse the man feeds off our energy to gain power. You have met this man in battle before... at least a split of him... his name is Vlagh and you battled him when he was much weaker then he is now. Vlagh took the form of Justin soon after you were born... Rage you are the only Chaotic in generations to have blood untouched by darkness... this was a sign that a prophecy told by the Oracle of Fate was coming true. He spoke of a Chaotic who would be untouched by his vile curse would go on to do many great things including his ultimate defeat. In order to stop this he tried to kill you in a way that he could steal your power and complete himself. That is why he gave your the sword Justin told you about as his 'Plan B'. If Dex had not found you and awoken the Power of Chaos inside of you then the Universe as we know it would not exist and the Darkness would rule...
"So that means though it sounds very cliché you Rage are the only hope for this universe... you must defeat Vlagh once and for all an free us bound to the darkness from his vile curse." Aster explains
"If what you say is true..." Rage says trying to process everything "Then why did you lie to me all of these years?"
"I had to make sure you were ready! And keep you on your toes." Aster says
Rage looks out over the lands of Equestria as he changes into his Alicorn form "Although I am angry at you... I need to figure all of this out... and I am needed elsewhere right now. Aster stay with Kai and I will call for you both when the time comes." he says before leaping off of the edge of the island and flying off to Canterlot. The whole time he was processing everything... 'So if this is true why would he have been testing me ever since Christain, Nazo and Mephilies fused into that beast on my first quest? Why would he have been with the Dark Legion and my enemies for so many years? And if this was the same Vlagh and I didn't even taste a fraction of his power even when Nightmare Eclipse took it and forced me into a fusion to stop him that means he will be the strongest foe I have ever faced and probably the strongest foe I will ever face..." Rage's thoughts were then interrupted by a certain cyan Pegasus,
"Hay Rage is something the matter?" Rainbow Dash asks "You look like your thinking hard on something."
"It's nothing Rainbow Dash..." Rage lies "I will tell you guys about it later... after all I am late for a meeting with Celestia and Luna." he looks at the prismatic speedster with a small chuckles "Besides Twilight is going to flip as is since I am already late... the later I am the worse it's going to be," he says followed by a laugh shared with Rainbow Dash
"Oh alright then good luck to you Rage." she says before making a U-turn and going back to prepping everything for the upcoming storm Cloudsdale had ordered for Ponyville. Rage continues on To Canterlot not looking forward to Twilight's lecture on being tardy. Rage soon lands next to Twilight who looks at him with a ticked look.
"There you are Rage do you have any idea how late you are?!" she asks "You should have been here a half hour before the meeting not five minutes before! If you were any slower you may have even missed the whole thing!" she looks at him "What do you have to say for yourself?" she asks giving him a mean look.
"Calm down..." was all Rage says "I made it before the meeting didn't I?"
"Calm down?..." she twitches "CALM DOWN?!" Twilight's mane catches fire as smoke blows out of her ears "Out of all of the words in the world that is all you have to say to me is CALM DOWN?!"
"Yeah your getting worked up over nothing." Rage replies "After all I was busy with things on Angel Island which as you know takes priority over this."
"Then why didn't you just say so in the first place?!" Twilight snorts
"You never asked why I was late only what I had to say for being late." Rage sighs as the other two princesses walk up
"Alright you two are here let's get this meeting going." Celestia says as the four sit down at the table.
"So what is it you called us here for?" Twilight asks
"We need to know why Nightmare Moon is free exactly." Luna says "I know you reformed her and all but that's no excuse to free her."
"That would be my fault Luna." Rage says "I needed her help tracking someone down and her condition was to be let out of Tartarus. I was in desperate need of her help so I agreed but I did tell her if she caused trouble I would send her someplace even worse the Tartaus."
"Okay but you see this has caused quite an uproar in worry throughout the kingdom." Celestia says "I need some idea on what to do to calm everypony down."
"Well we could have her speak to everypony about her reformation with us backing her up." Twilight says
"Sounds like a good idea, if we all back her up then they should believe us." Rage says
"And since we are here what is the status of Justin Rage?" Luna asks
Rage shakes his head, "I dunno he hasn't surfaced anywhere at all yet... it worries me."
To be continued...