Chapter 24: Our hero can only strengthen that which he has not.

The smoke cleared slowly. One breath. Two breaths, three. As Jedi was inhaling again out of habit, he began to make out the faint outline of the floor below.

BETH was gone.

"The Chosen One has proven himself worthy of our help." Beside him appeared his old homeroom teacher. "He will save us, defend us from the Evil One!"

"If he is to defend us, then let us defend him!!! Give him the shield!!!" People began filing into the room, they sat down in the rows. Everyone that Jedi had ever known was there. Julie, General Redding, Areana, Mom, Dad, all of them were now slowly taking their places in the crater that Jedi had made.

"Who are you? What happened to BETH?"

"We are the Overseers. Fifteen of your years ago, we were surveying this portion of space. We ran across signals of two androids, both in deactivated states. You were on the third planet's moon, the other was drifting in space near the star you call Alpha Centauri. When we took you aboard our vessel to examine you, the first thing we noticed was how you were based off of human anatomy. Both were exactly the same, yet mechanical. While we were making our scans, we received a message from our future selves. They told us that one of you were to become a great defender, but to do this, that you would need our help. Knowing that, we reprogrammed your BETH modules to train you, encourage you, and ultimately, test you. That sword is a sign of your purity of soul, despite your not being human. We now must trust in you fully the future not only of the humans and the Dortde, but of the entire galaxy, for in a hundred years time, the galaxy was under the control of Black Ghost. This was dependent on one thing though, his victory over his species. As long as that doesn't happen, then there is still hope for this galaxy to remain out of the jaws of evil."

"You mean that I am now no longer trying to fight for my race, but for the entire galaxy? This is too much to bear."

"The Dortde are merely the beginning of his dominion. He is using them to further his goals. When they are no longer useful, then he will destroy them. His ultimate goal is this: to kill every living being. For when he has done that, he will be the strongest. That is what he seeks."

"No way. That is too much even for someone that is evil. They would have to know that there would be no reason to take over the galaxy just to destroy it? What am I supposed to be anyway? A savior? Hah! I couldn't even save the 00 cyborgs when I had to fight them on Black Ghost's ship! How I am here talking to you is something that I don't even understand!! You know what? I wish that you would just leave me alone. I have a lot to do, and only so much time to do it in. I have to get repairs underway, then I have to go and finish the job that I started."

"He thinks he can win alone. There is still darkness within his heart. He doubts in his own strength. You think that you can make repairs and still accomplish your mission. In time, you could, but by then, everything would be lost. For there are enough missiles on their way to the Earth to destroy it. You only have 2.65 minutes to do it all in without our help. Do you think that you could?"

Just above two and a half minutes. That was how long he had. Jedi brought up the main systems screen in front of him. In this world, he could do as he wished. He controlled everything. Jedi was amazed that he had a body left. The systems screen showed him that he was running on emergency power. Even that was running out, thankfully though someone had connected an external power source. Repair estimates were being expressed in years. Jedi had no choice, he had to trust in them. It may be a mistake, but what was he supposed to do? He was the only one that could go and save the world. Julie was offline. The Phoenix didn't have the firepower necessary to make much of a difference. There were 30 million people left counting on him. He was the embodiment of their hope.

"How do I know that this isn't some kind of trick? For all I know, you could be BETH, or Black Ghost in disguise. When I accept your help, how do I know that what I wake up to will be real?"

"You will know, because it will be real. You just thought about the android named Julie. She is the other android that we recovered. She, like you has pulled the sword from within her soul. Unlike you though, we found that she was unworthy of the shield, since she was still at war with herself. With that in mind, we erased from her memory all thoughts of the sword. She is now at your side, waiting for your return to the real world."

"You messed with her memories? I suppose that on some level that should make sense. Does this sword have a name? I feel kind of dumb just to keep calling this a sword. But if your offer is still open, I accept."

"Very well. Once you hear the name of the sword, then you can never go back to whom you were. Is this what you really want?"

Jedi thought for a second. Did he really have to save the Earth? Of course he did!! He was Earth's Last Hope. "Yes, I ask for your help."

"Very well, the name of the sword is..."


"Jedi's main power cell is overloading!!! He is going to explode!" Areana rushed back into the cargo bay. She hadn't even had a chance to get out. Julie was standing at a small monitor overlooking the bay. Inside were all of the cyborgs, and the one android. "You've got to get him away from the vessel!"

"How?"

"Let's move the cyborgs inside the cockpit. Then I will open the cargo doors and you will toss Jedi in the direction of those missiles. If he is going out with a bang, I think that he would want to take those missiles with him. Even if he will take our last hope, he would be happy if there was even a chance those missiles would kill our people."

"Right, then let's get started."