Disclaimer, I do not own any characters or places in this story except for the original characters. This story is written for fun and may contain spoilers.
Chapter 30
Reaper
Eonia glared at the group as if waiting for them to react while everyone else was unsure as how to react. Every bone in Lucas' body wanted blow him out of the sky and then keep on moving, this man was a member of Michel's army, it would be wise to take one of their pieces out of the game. However he approached with only one ship that seemed to be unarmed and seemed to not be looking for a fight. Cautiously, Lucas decided to see what it was that the man wanted and approached the screen prepared for the worst.
"You have our attention, now what do you want?" asked Lucas.
"I want a truce Lucas Murphy" said Emperor Eonia.
"I'm sorry, what?" questioned Lucas.
"When I joined Michel I was promised this galaxy, that I would rule it's people when we had won" said Eonia.
"You would do nothing more than be another dictator" said Takuto.
"Regardless I now realise that Michel will not honour our deal, I have no idea what his true goals are but his alliance with those two creatures has given me reason to doubt him" said Eonia.
"So you came to us with your tail between your legs hoping that we might save you, am I correct? asked Ikuto.
"It is so, I wish for a temporary alliance until this war is done with and Michel is in the ground" said Eonia.
"You're a coward who is just running for dear life" said Etna.
"I am a survivor by any means necessary" said Eonia.
"What right do you have to just waltz over to us and ask for our help, we have lost friends due to you and your little gang of thugs" said Maria.
"No, you lost them due to your own weaknesses, the fact that you were to powerless to help them rings clear" said Eonia.
"Shoot him down" said Train.
"Wait" said Lucas.
Everyone looked at Lucas who was deep in thought; he looked back at his friends in an attempt to calm them before returning to face Eonia.
"How much do you know?" asked Lucas.
"Michel only informed us of what we needed to know, truth be told I was just glad to be alive so I didn't doubt the man until now" said Eonia.
"So you don't know about the Gameboard?" asked Lucas.
"The what?" questioned Eonia.
Lucas explained about the Gameboard and all they had learned from Project H, as he explained it became clear to Eonia that he and all the other villains had been played for fools. Michel was never going to honour any of their deals it was just a way to get them all to cooperate until he had unleashed the three lords.
"Now he has one lord left, if he is released then we are all in trouble" said Lucas.
"I see, this changes things quite a bit" said Eonia.
"We should inform the others of this, that way they will all turn on Michel" said Lucas.
"Absolutely not" said Eonia.
"Why not, if they learned this then they would also flee for their lives" said Train.
"Because by now I would have been reported as a traitor and you are their enemy, do you think they will listen to you at all" said Eoina.
"True but if you spread a few rumours then you could end up destroying the enemy form within or at least getting us some more time" said Lucas.
"Well what of those who would welcome this plan, in case you didn't notice there are those among their numbers to which they have recently added who are obsessed with death and want to destroy everything" said Eoina.
"We don't even know where their main base of operations is" said Syaoran.
"And even if you did how would you tell them, shout it from a mountain top; you would be killed the instant you set foot on their land" said Eonia.
"If you want this alliance then you are going to have to give us something" said Lucas.
"What!" shouted everyone.
"Lucas, you are not seriously considering helping this murderer" said Snow.
"He is one of them, an enemy, we cannot trust him" said Flynn.
"If he offers us something in return then he has a deal said Lucas.
"You're not thinking straight" said Mir.
"No I am the only one that is thinking straight, if this is war then we need all the help we can get and he knows a lot about the enemy like for example where their camp it; yes it is a big risk but we need to take it" said Lucas.
Lucas quickly regretted snapping at his friends but he needed to make them understand and while it did shock them for a second they began to talk amongst themselves. Debating if it was right or not to trust Eonia was a tought discussion, on the one had he could lead them to the heart of their enemy but on the other he could lead them directly into an enemy trap. It seemed that the scales were even and even though Lucas wanted to destroy Eonia and his ship and call it a day he knew in his heart that if he wanted to win this and keep his friends safe he would need to make some tough choices.
"I say we trust Lucas" said Maria.
The group stopped debating and talking amongst each other and turned to face her.
"If we are going to get out of this then we are going to need to trust him and each other, did we not just pledge to follow him no matter what decision he makes" said Maria.
"You're right, we've already trusted our fates to Lucas we might was well follow his decisions" said Sakura.
"Good point, we might as well as start calling him our fearless leader and be done with it" said Train.
"In a war we need allies and help no matter where they come from or else we'll never win" said Mir.
"Alright, we're with you and we trust your decision" said Syaoran.
"Thanks and now for you, I have made my demands clear, I want something in return for aiding you" said Lucas.
"I shall give you troops, soldiers, info and locations" said Eonia.
"All of that at once?" questioned Lester.
"You seem to question how much I value my life, all of my forces have heard this agreement and upon accepting they shall follow your orders, I also have a small ship that has recently docked to your ship, they are waiting to come aboard" said Eonia.
"It's true, a vessel has docked to us; we didn't see it until just recently" said one of the navigators.
"What is on the ship?" asked Aigis.
"Something and someone you will find useful, the people on board are unarmed and are waiting for permission to board" said Eonia.
"Very well then, give them permission and direct them and whatever cargo they have to the cargo bay" said Lucas.
"This is not your ship boy; what are your orders captain?" asked Lester.
Takuto glared at Eonia and then Lucas before deciding to trust Lucas' decision, at that point it was about the only thing he could do.
"Follow Lucas' order" said Takuto.
"Very well" said Lester.
After a few seconds the ship was given permission to board and the people and their cargo were directed to the cargo hold.
"Now then as for info and locations I shall delve more deeply into this once you have accepted our agreement" said Eoina.
"Fine then Eonia, you have given us enough to trust you, you have your alliance" said Lucas.
"Good, now then Michel has recently been gathering troops for an all-out war, creatures that I have never seen before as well as several interesting fellows which you have yet to meet" said Eonia.
"Give us the location of their base and we will deal with it" said Lucas.
"That I shall but their numbers are now in the thousands, though I would love nothing more than to send you all to your deaths I want to live so don't attack their base yet" said Eonia.
"What would you have me do then?" asked Lucas.
"Gather an army of your own, help a few people and gain their alliances that launch at them with your full strength" said Eoina.
"You're joking, where the hell am I supposed to get an army?" asked Lucas.
"I have sent you the location of worlds that need help, if you help them then they in turn shall help you, besides you already have people who owe you favours" said Eoina.
"No, I cannot get them involved any further" said Lucas.
"I'd hate to say it but they are already involved, what do you think will happen to them it we are unable to stop Michel, now you may not like it boy but you need them, now…" began Eonia.
"Sir, another ship has just appeared, it's a large one" said one of the pilots.
"Can you raise them?" asked Takuto.
"No sir, they just keep coming" said the pilot.
"Then prepare the cannons and get the Angels ready to fly" said Takuto.
"No don't, you need to run right now" said Eonia.
"Why, it's just one enemy" said Takuto.
"It's not a normal enemy, it's something else, just trust me and run, one of them is bad enough" said Eonia.
"One of what?" asked Lucas.
A sound then echoed throughout both ships, it sounded like a fog horn blaring as loud as it could get oddly it sounded much more metallic as it got closer and closer.
"Run you idiots, put this ship in full reverse" said Eonia.
The screen turned off and Eonia's ship turned and began to pull away, it was barely five feet away from them when they were hit square on with what looked like a red laser. Takuto quickly ordered the ship to pull back and fine the attacker when Eonia's badly beaten ship was hit with another attack. Then Lucas saw it, whatever it was; it was huge in comparison to the ship and was purple and was a squid, in fact the most accurate way to describe the vessel that he saw was a giant flying purple evil metal space squid. Takuto ordered all cannons to lock on to the target and fire at will but all their weapons seemed to do was annoy the ship, Lucas then began to hear Enoia's voice and realised that though the screen had gone down the communications were still up.
"It's a Reaper, pull out now, get everyone to the lifeboats!" shouted Eonia.
"A Reaper questioned?" Lucas.
"Just run you idiots, our weapons are worthless against that thing" said Eonia.
With one last shot from the Reaper, Eonia's ship was destroyed however many of its crew had gotten to the escape pods and quickly launched them before its destruction. Even with its mission complete the Reaper didn't stop there, it quickly turned its attention to the escape pods and one by one swatted them out of the sky.
"That was one of the most powerful vessels to ever exists and that thing took it out like it was swatting a fly" said Lester.
"Keep firing, we need to give them a chance to escape" said Takuto.
"We're out of ammo sir besides it doesn't look like it was doing much anyway" said the pilot.
"Then switch to the main cannon" said Takuto.
The pilot did as ordered and fired one shot from the main cannon straight at the Reaper, it was a direct his and so the Reaper stopped in its attack on the escape pods allowing them to get away, however it now turned its attention to them.
"It's coming right at us sir" said the pilot.
"I can see that, retreat, there is no way we can beat that thing, begin tactical manoeuvres and everyone hold on to something" said Takuto.
Everyone grabbed whatever they could as tightly as possible as the Reaper chased them and fired repeatedly. It narrowly missed them the first time and the second time its laser scraped the side of the ship as they tried desperately to avoid it. The thing was just too fast even though Takuto had ordered to go full speed the thing was effortlessly keeping up with them and blasting them mercilessly with its laser.
"Joy, use your power, take us to another world , it's the only way we'll be able to get away from that thing" said Lucas.
"This is my first time transporting a large group by myself, I don't know what will happen" said Joy.
"Just do it" said Lucas.
Joy nodded her head and did as she was told, a portal opened up in front of the ship and they made for it with all their speed. The Reaper was close on their heels blasting at them as they tried to get to the portal when Lucas noticed something; something was lifting him into the air and pulling on his legs. He turned his head and saw another portal, around human size had opened up inside the ship, it was trying to suck him as he desperately help on for dear life, there was no telling where that portal would take him. He held on to the iron railing as tools and piece of metal began to be sucked into the portal, all was going fine until another attack from the Reaper caused him to lose his grip and he began to fall into the portal. However someone grabbed his arm in the last minute, he looked up to see Maria holding his arm as she tried to pull him away from the portal. She was holding the railing tightly with one had as Lucas griped her arm tightly.
"Joy, shut it down, turn off the portal" said Maria.
"If I turn it off now we'll all die, we've just entered, hold on" said Joy.
It wasn't going well Maria was losing her grip on Lucas' arm and Lucas was losing his grip in general, eventually he lost consciousness.
"Joy, I'm losing my grip, shut the damn thing down" said Maria.
"We're going to lose Lucas at this rate" said Shelke.
"Just hold on, we're nearly through" said Joy.
The ship passed through the portal with some difficulty with the reaper hot on its trial, Joy took it upon herself to close the portals quickly but before she did they got hit by one last attack from the Reaper and Maria lost her grip. Lucas flew into the portal as Maria screamed his name, Joy without any other options quickly closed both portals effectively losing the Reaper but leaving them in unknown space and without a leader.
"Oh no Lucas, what the hell do we do" said Snow.
"There is no telling where that portal took him, he could be anywhere" said Lyner.
"If he's even alive, for all we know his dead body could be floating around outside somewhere" said Etna.
"Don't you dare say that, we're going to find him right now" said Maria.
"Lucas isn't dead, he's very much alive" said Joy .
"You, why didn't you close the damn portal and what do you mean by that!" shouted Maria.
"If I had closed the portal right then we will all be dead right now, our atoms would be drifting between all of the worlds as for Lucas, I know he is alive as I can hear his heart beating" said Joy.
"You can hear his heart?" asked Sakura.
"Not just his, all of yours, it's how our kind keeps track of our contracts" said Joy.
"Does it matter, he could be anywhere right now and he could be in danger" said Maria.
"While yes he could be in danger he isn't just anywhere, I know where that portal lead, I'm not that daft to not where my portals lead, I can take you there at any point in time" said Joy.
"Then do so now" said Maria.
"No, people are injured here, injuries that we're caused by us, the least we can do is help" said Joy.
"But…" began Maria.
"No buts, you help the people here and then I'll take you to Lucas" said Joy.
"Why did a second portal open up anyway?" asked Ikuto.
"That was me, I made a mistake; it was my first time transporting a large group but you can blame me later, we have work to do" said Joy.
"Captain, Eiona's men from the cargo bay desperately need to speak with you about their cargo" said the pilot.
"What seemed to be the problem?" asked Takuto.
"They have something important, they said all of the pieces of Eden that the enemy had are now in our possession" said the pilot.
"Say what now" said Snow.
"There is something else, they also have a statis chamber with them with someone healing inside" said the pilot.
"Who is inside the chamber?" asked Takuto.
"A man, some kind of commander; Commander Shepherd" said the pilot.
Meanwhile Lucas' unconscious body fell softly onto the blades of soft green grass, his entrance did not go unnoticed as a large group was passing by and he was soon to be in for a shock.