It was time to begin the pursuit of Alexei and the Galactic Fleet. Blair was the only one who could sense where the Black Moon was located, and as such, the Eden's Zero was leading the way forward. The ships of the Eclipse Ark, Skull Fairy, and the GIU were following a distance behind. Blair was focused, standing at the bridge with her arms crossed. "..."

"What's the matter, Blair? Did you lose the trail?" Rebecca asked, slightly worried.

"No. The trail...somewhat stops here." Blair replied.

"What do you mean somewhat?" Sister asked.

"From this point on, we have to make a jump." Blair looked back to the others. "The trail in the Sakura Cosmos ends here. But I can sense the Black Moon ahead. You get it?"

"A jump..." Hermit furrowed her brows. "How do I...oh, right..." She shook her head, trying to rattle herself a bit. How could she forget something as simple as making a jump?

"But what cosmos are we jumping to?" That was the real question. Weisz was the one who brought it up too.

"Can't say." Blair shook her head.

"She's right." Hermit brought up a map. "If we jump from here, it looks like we'll be diving into completely uncharted territory. We really will be entering a path that nobody knows about..."

"That's a little worrying..." Geno said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Makes sense, though. If this is the path to the Black Moon that only the Star could guide someone towards..." Omega trailed off for a moment. "Looks like this is where things start getting interesting."

"What do we tell the others?" Kleene looked to the crew.

"We just tell them that we're making a jump." Shiki said simply. He relayed the message to everyone and they understood. With that being made clear, Shiki made his command as captain. "Alright, start the jump!"

"Starting the sequence!" Hermit pressed a few buttons, paused for a second, and then pressed the rest. The strange pause did catch Sister's attention, but the Eden's Zero was already in its warp sequence. So it shot off ahead of the other ships, with them shortly following after.

.

.

The sequence was fast. The Eden's Zero arrived in a cosmos that was nearly pitch black. They were met with the blanket of darkness upon arrival, and everyone nearly staggered forward as a result. "What the...?!" Cynthia gasped. "It's so dark!"

"I can hardly see a thing..." Jinn had to narrow his eyes. There were a few glints of stars off in the distance, but they were too far away to really qualify as light.

"Where are we...?" Laguna asked. This was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.

"Researching..." Pino was trying to see if she knew anything about this. She did manage to find something within her databanks. "This is known as the Obsidian Cosmos. This must be where the Black Moon resides."

"Obsidian Cosmos? I can see why..." Happy stared at the never ending darkness ahead of them.

"If nothing else, at least we know we're going the right way!" Couchpo saw the positive in this. She then glanced at Blair, who was still looking ahead.

"I can...see. Kind of." Blair said while rubbing her arm. "It's probably because of my connection to the Black Moon Star. But it's nothing special so far."

"Gimme a sec. I think I can do something about this." Weisz said while walking off.

"What exactly are you going to do?" Geno asked.

"Gonna see if we can't amp up the lights on the ship! It's not like there are asteroids floating around or anything, but I'd still be nice to see where we're going." Weisz answered.

"Actually, we're coming up on an asteroid belt." Blair said casually.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!?" Hermit and Sister exclaimed at the same time.

"Just saw it. Not like the radar's working, is it?" Blair replied, looking over her shoulder. She did have a point; the radar wasn't exactly working well. They could barely make out anything.

"If we all head to our starships, we should be able to clear out the asteroids with little problem." Jinn suggested. Everyone seemed to agree to that idea.

"...Hey, wait a second." Cynthia stopped everyone from moving. "Why are we the only ones here? Shouldn't the others be right behind us?"

"...She's right! We all jumped around the same time!" Mosco exclaimed.

"What's taking them so long...?" Rebecca rubbed her arm. "They should've been right behind us..."

"I'm certain they shall be here soon." Homura remarked. "We shall clear a path in the meantime. That would be wise, I believe."

"Can we contact them?" Geno asked.

"No dice." Cynthia shook her head. "I tried to contact Elsie's ship earlier, but we can't make any connections to people not in this cosmos. So until they get here, we're pretty isolate...

"I guess the only thing we can do is wait for them." Happy said.

"Right..." Rebecca nodded. With that, she, Shiki, Weisz, Laguna, Kleene, Jinn, Homura, and Cynthia made their way to the star fighters to clear out the asteroids. Blair, Geno, Omega, Hermit, Sister, Mosco, Happy, Pino, and Couchpo stayed on the ship. Homura went into the Warrior Maid 95, which had been freshly repaired since the Delta Ridge incident. The Star Fighters spread out into the darkness, amping up the brightness of their lights to try and see as much as they could. With all of them together, they had a decent field of view.

Something flew by Kleene. She gasped. "What...did anyone else see that?"

"See what?" Homura kept her head on a swivel. "Is there something nearby? The radar is not picking up much..."

"There's some kind of disturbance going on." Shiki said. But everyone was on guard as the Eden's Zero slowly traversed through the Obsidian Cosmos. It was at that moment numerous lights began to flash on them, bringing everything to a halt. "Huh!?"

"Have we been spotted?" Jinn questioned. That question was soon answered by a number of Galactic Fleet ships appearing around them. It wasn't the whole fleet, but just enough to severely outgun the Eden's Zero.

"An ambush!?" Hermit's eyes were wide.

"But...!?" Geno gasped.

"I was correct to be prudent." The main ship of the fleet had Hubert at the helm of it. "Welcome, Eden's Zero...to the Obsidian Cosmos, the home of the Black Moon."

"Hubert!" Hermit slammed her hands down. "What are you doing here?!"

"Call it intuition." Hubert responded with a shrug. "I had a feeling that we might be followed. Even with the Black Moon Star at our disposal, we cannot afford to make any mistakes so close to the finish line. That is why I stayed behind to ensure that nothing would sneak up on us. I was right to do so."

"Don't think you got the upperhand on us!" Weisz exclaimed.

"Oh?" Hubert quirked a brow. "I suspect you wouldn't be so brazen to follow us alone. No...I'm certain you have backup. However, unfortunately for you, they will not be here for about ten more minutes."

"How do you know that?" Blair spat, disgusted with Hubert's know it all attitude.

"We did the test ourselves." Hubert responded while adjusting his glasses. "A ship with no connection to the Black Moon Star is highly unlikely to find the Obsidian Cosmos. You were able to reach the jump here instantly for one reason or another...I assume because your Therion friend has consumed a part of it, but that is merely a guess on my end. Regardless, for those making a blind jump, it takes a considerable amount of time for them to make it here. As such, anyone who has tagged along with you will be several moments late. They will arrive just in time to see the remains of the Eden's Zero."

"What makes you think we can't take you out here and now?" Jinn shot.

"Because they have us here!" A familiar voice made a shiver run down Rebecca's back. A ship appeared from the distance, hovering in front of Hubert's own. It was the ship that belonged to the Goldstones, and the voice that spoke to them was Athena's. "Hiiiiii!"

"The Goldstones!?" This made Shiki grit his teeth.

"You guys again..." Laguna grunted. This was bad.

"What...why!?" Rebecca gripped her steering wheel tightly. "Why are the Goldstones here!?"

"Insurance." Hubert replied. "After the incident at Blue Garden, we elected to hire some of the best mercenaries that the cosmos had to offer. Even if they suffered a recent failure, one out of a few dozen jobs doesn't make for a poor record."

"And we were so eager to get revenge on you for making us look like fools!" Athena added.

"We want revenge." Kamara said.

"This time, we got a pretty big fleet to back us up." Max grinned. "So, what's your next move, Eden's Zero? Looks like you're gonna get gunned down if you ask me!"

"We're surrounded on all sides..." Hermit quickly looked around, trying to find a way out of this. "If we try to use the Scorpion Missiles now..."

"We can't even get a target locked..." Sister grunted.

"If Omega and I could get into the system in time, we could auto target..." Geno said, but they wouldn't have time. They'd be fired on.

"If I can go back in time..." Rebecca thought to herself. She could warn everyone about the ambush! Alexei wasn't here, so he wouldn't be able to stop her!

"And, Rebecca?" Athena spoke out to her. "If you're thinking about going back in time, don't forget that I already know about that. If you make any suspicious moves, I'll just shoot you down when you get in our sights! Eventually, you'll run out of retries."

"Agh...!" Rebecca cursed in her head. She forgot Athena had her figured out! This was bad! But then...she got a message from an unknown sender.

"11:54. 3 minutes. Say Ignite."

Rebecca, of course, had no idea what this meant? 3 minutes? Quickly glancing at the time, it read 11:52?! Was she...supposed to go back in time 3 minutes after 11:54!? She had no idea. "How are we going to last that long when he's going to shoot us down at any second!?"

"Fire." Hubert commanded. The ships around the Eden's Zero began to open fire, and the only thing stopping it from going down were it shields.

"Gaaaaah!" Those inside the ship shouted out as it started to shake from being fired upon.

"What do we do!?" Couchpo panicked.

"Hold the shields!" Hermit said. She really wished Witch were here right now, but their options were limited without her and they had to make do! Combat was breaking out, but the Galactic Fleet had the advantage since they had the Eden's Zero boxed in. The Eden's Zero had to focus on defense, otherwise it would be overwhelmed.

"Shit!" Blair cursed.

"Fire the Missiles!" Hubert exclaimed. One of the ships fired a large missile towards the Eden's Zero.

"If that missile hits, it'll do some heavy damage to our shields!" Hermit exclaimed.

"Not on my watch!" Shiki focused his attention on the missile, capturing it with a bullet of gravity, and then used his starship to fling it around back to another ship! But it exploded before it could do that, much to his annoyance. "Gah...!"

"How in the cosmos can we fight people we can barely see?" Weisz shouted while just narrowly avoiding a few shots aimed at him. "If we could see...!"

"Why are you doing this, Hubert?!" Rebecca asked, using her sharpshooting skills to gun down a few more missiles being fired. "Don't you know what Alexei is planning to do!? He wants to erase emotion from the cosmos! Everyone and everything that lives will just become a lifeless husk! Is that really something you find yourself supporting!?" Rebecca thought she could try and talk some sense into Hubert; he was human, just like them!

"Oh, believe me. I am fully aware of what Alexei aims to do." Hubert said calmly. This reveal was shocking. "I learned his and Vanessa's plans from the woman on Mildan. Xiaomei. She told me everything I wanted to know."

"What!? You found her?!" Homura shouted while in the Knight Gear. She was slashing at a few ships to cut them down. She expected them to be manned, but that wasn't the case. Hubert was just commanding empty vessels, but they were acting like a fully sanctioned military!

"Indeed. That is how we found our first shard, by passing her trials. She was very cooperative." Hubert's arms were folded behind his back. "As for why I'm helping Alexei? It is simple. He is my captain, and as such, I will follow him to the edge of the cosmos. Personally, I care not what his goals are. I have pledged my allegiance to him. The others in the Galactic Fleet are the same way. The end result does not matter. Do you have any right to judge us for our loyalty?"

"When it brings about the end of the cosmos, you're damn right I do!" Sister shouted. But they could hardly do anything because of this situation they were in. "Rebecca!"

"...!" Rebecca grit her teeth and glanced at the time. What was she supposed to do...?! Things were dire. She had to go back...! The symbol on her ankle shone brightly, and she had to bank it all on the mysterious message...

[Rewind.]

Rebecca let out a gasp. It was right in the middle of their ambush. Truthfully, not the most ideal spot, but she didn't know what else to do. "Agh...Why...why are you doing this, Hubert?" She had to stall... "Don't you know what Alexei will do!?" This of course, meant Hubert repeated what he just said earlier.

Hubert crossed his arms behind his back. "It is simple. He is my captain, and as such, I will follow him to the edge of the cosmos. Personally, I care not what his goals are. I have pledged my allegiance to him. The others in the Galactic Fleet are the same way. The end result does not matter. Do you have any right to judge us for our loyalty?"

"When it brings about the end of the cosmos, you're damn right I do!" Sister shouted.

"Delta!" Rebecca shouted out of the blue. Nobody really understood why she did so, but...a blanket of darkness then spread out of nowhere, covering Hubert's sight and his ships. "Huh?"

"What is this?!" Hubert said, taken aback by this.

"And now! Celestial Fireworks!" Athena lifted her hand into the air, causing a hatch to open on her ship. This caused numerous bright explosions to occur within the Obsidan Cosmos, heavily damaging the ships that Hubert brought with him. This also gave the Eden's Zero a clear view of what was around them.

"Now!" Hermit told Geno. Omega and Geno merged together, quickly entering the ship's computer to act as their auto target.

"Firing the Scorpion Missiles!" Sister exclaimed. The missiles flew about, aided by Geno's aim. The scorpion missiles were able to land and explode against the ships that Hubert brought with him, causing them to sink into the darkness. "Direct hits!"

"Homura! You have an opening!" Max exclaimed. Hubert was distracted by the flashing lights of the Celestial Fireworks.

"I will not take orders from you, but I will take this chance!" Homura flew forward in the Warrior Maid, and lifted her sword up. "Warrior Maid Single Sword Attac: Dragon Flash!" She brought her sword down on Hubert's ship, but was unable to cleave through it due to last second defensive reinforcements. That being said, the damage left on the ship was noticable and Hubert staggered back. "It remains standing!"

"Tch...betrayal?" Hubert glared at the Goldstones. But he knew pressing this situation would not be in his favor, so his ship turned around and quickly flew off into the darkness.

"We survived!" Couchpo cheered.

"What the hell just happened..." Weisz was at a loss for words. Why did the Goldstones just help them!? "What's your deal!? Aren't you guys still our enemies!? You have a contact with Alexei, don't you?"

"Actually..." Athena twirled her hair around. "We're under a completely different contract."

It was at this moment that the Skull Fairy arrived into the Obsidian Cosmos. Elsie could tell that she missed out on a situation, but everyone seemed to be fine. So this meant that things played out in the way she was hoping for. "You have nothing to worry about. After all...the Goldstones are in a contact with me."