There was hardly any time to register the destruction of Mercurius via Chronophage, because Alexei was standing at the helm of the biggest ship in the Galactic Fleet. He was in his Overdrive, using this to breathe in space as the pieces of the Black Moon Star swirled around him. "Finally. I have all of the pieces..."
"Shit..." Sister cursed. The Eden's Zero, Eclipse Ark, and Justice's ship could only watch the events that were about to unfold in front of them. "Can't we try shooting him down?!"
"We won't make it in time...!" Hermit exclaimed. "Justice and the Eclipse Ark must know the same thing..."
"When did Justice get here...!?" Shiki gasped, now realizing the Government was here as well. But that part didn't matter right now, because there was a bright flash of light gleaming from the depths of space. The origin point was Alexei, who held the five pieces of the Black Moon Star in his possession.
"Black Moon Star. Reforge yourself, and show me the path to the Black Moon!" Alexei exclaimed, calling out to the star itself. The five pieces of the Black Moon Star began to swirl around in front of him, connecting to each other with sharp bursts of Ether. Each connection sent a shockwave throughout the Sakura Cosmos, and every ship nearby was nearly blown away from the sheer power of the shockwaves.
"Gaaah!" Rebecca was holding onto the silent Blair, who was barely hanging onto the wall.
"I can feel each shockwave from here!" Omega grunted.
"Each individual star piece was already extremely powerful, but now all five of them are together!" Kleene gasped. They were all witnessing a once in a lifetime event, but it was for all of the wrong reasons. Even if they did try to stop this, they simply had no way to do so. The pieces of the Black Moon Star clicked together, with one massive explosion of Ether shaking the Sakura Cosmos.
Within moments, the Black Moon Star was reformed. It was a no larger than a basketball, but there was so much power floating within Alexei's hands. The power radiating off of the Black Moon Star was incredible, and everyone could feel it from their locations.
Marshall brought Amira up to the bridge, just so she could witness the events happening. "See that!? That's the result of Danchou leadership!"
Amira actually had a wide eyed expression of fear on her face. After learning about what Alexei intended to do with the power of the Black Moon, she had every right to be concerned. "Oh no..."
"You know what that means, right?" Marshall said with a heinous grin.
"It means you aren't needed anymore." Hubert said calmly. "But don't worry. We won't be so cruel as to throw you out into the vacuum of space. You'll be coming with us...and you'll have our temporary recruits keep an eye on you." The temporary recruits in question? Athena, Max, and Kamara Goldstone. They were on the Galactic Fleet, hired to aid them in their final push to the Black Moon.
"The Goldstones...!?" Amira turned to them.
"I was hoping we would be needed down on Mercurius, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I was looking forward to seeing Rebecca again!" Athena smiled.
"Do you even need us here?" Max crossed his arms. "We're always happy to take a paycheck, but we're not actually doing anything here."
"So what's the point?" Kamara asked, bluntly.
Vanessa let out a small breath. She was mildly wounded from the attacks she took on Mercurius, but that wasn't going to slow her down. "We are about to head to a place where none can follow without the right path. That being said, Alexei had the foresight to prepare. But you'll see soon enough..."
The rumbling of space continued, and the Black Moon Star began to shine brightly in Alexei's hands. The star then released a beam of black light off into the distance, acting as a beacon to their destination. "That direction." Alexei nodded to himself and warped back inside of the ship. "Galactic Fleet! We are leaving. It's time to reach the Black Moon." There was no pause, every ship of the Galactic Fleet began to rocket forward into the distance, and their beacon went with them. So there was no active way to follow them.
.
.
"They're gone...just like that." Jesse gulped. He was just barely able to keep his bearings straight with all those shockwaves. "Is that...the power of the Black Moon Star...?"
"It's been completely reformed. This is the worst case scenario." Justice grunted.
"What do we do next?" Victory asked. "We should probably contact the others first and foremost. We gotta find a way to stop Alexei."
"Before that..." Justice turned his attention to the ships of the Eden's Zero and Eclipse ark. Considering their crews were all in rough shape, they made prime targets for finally arresting right here and now. Justice truly wanted to use this chance to capture everyone in one fell swoop, but he knew he couldn't. Not just because it was a bad time, but because of Hanabi's final words. Her last request to him was to let them off easy for now.
"Justice?" Victory called out to him. "What are you thinking? Not capturing those two crews, I hope."
"No." Justice said, regretfully. "As much as I do want them put on trial, this is not the time. Before we do anything else, we must contact the others. Everyone should hear about this. Jesse, get the transmission ready."
"Of course!" Jesse nodded.
.
.
On the Eclipse Ark, the crew was recovering in their infirmary after the battles on Mercurius. They were all worse for wear physically, and mentally. Lluvi and Percival were wrapping bandages around the others. The mood was heavy and tense. "...We lost completely, didn't we?" Lowell was the one to break the silence. His question was the one that everyone didn't need to hear, but needed to acknowledge.
"We did." Casey said, staring at his hands. "We fell right into their trap. That's all there is too it. We lost."
"When the captain says it like that...we really did lose." Percival rubbed the back of her neck. "What a bummer..."
"This goes beyond a bummer, Percy." Lluvi looked to Percival with a frown. "We lost the Black Moon Star, we couldn't stand up to the Eden's Zero or Galactic Fleet in combat, and all we could do is watch as the beginning of the end is upon us." All of those facts really did hammer in on everyone.
"Are we really that weak?" Ano sighed. "We were even prepared for the Eden's Zero. I thought..."
"We aren't weak." G said while standing up. "We've already proven we can hold our own! We did so on Delta Ridge against strong opponents. It's clear that we're facing some of the strongest people in the Cosmos. The captain already knew that going into this."
"Yeah." Casey said with a nod. "You all stuck with me, too. We've taken out our fair share of enemies, fought our hard battles, and held our own in the trials on Delta Ridge. I won't lie...our opponents are a league above us, but they aren't invincible. But...the Eden's Zero isn't our enemy right now either. Even together, the Demon King and I couldn't make much progress against Alexei."
"Even if we were even with the Eden's Zero, the Galactic Fleet crushed us both." Lowell hated that more than anything. He knew Homura was stronger than him, but he still intended to win. However, the moment X came into the scene, she demolished them both with little effort.
"They had us trapped from the very beginning." Ano hated that as much as everyone else. "Even our ship's security wasn't enough, and I tried everything I could."
"So...what are we gonna do about that?" Percival also pointed out to the window. "There's also the government dude sitting right there. We're not in the condition to fight them either..."
"..." Casey remained silent for a moment. What was their next course of action. The were down...but were they out?
.
.
As much as the Eden's Zero would've loved to give chase to the Galactic Fleet, they couldn't. Not in their conditions. Sister was working overtime, doing her best to fix everyone up as quickly as possible. Everyone's injuries were healed for the most part, but they still had a lot of recovery to do mentally. Especially Blair, who they currently left alone to process the event's of what happened. "Is everyone okay?" Sister asked.
"...Mostly." Shiki stared down at the ground. It had been a long time since he felt like he was completely and utterly outmatched like that. Alexei was a foe on a completely different level.
"I haven't felt that defeated since Universe 1..." Rebecca was sitting in an infirmary bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her friends were completely defeated and outmatched, but unlike Universe 1, they were able to make it out alive.
"Wounded, but alive." Weisz groaned. Percival was a tough fight on her own... "I could take the plant girl. But those Galactic Foot soldiers. They were stronger than I could've thought..."
"That woman..." Homura stared at her hands. Even if her weapons could repair themselves after being broken, it was the first time her sword arm felt completely ineffective. "I have never encountered someone capable of shattering my blade..." It made her feel weak.
"...They got us..." Hermit rubbed her arm. Hubert alone was a force strong enough to defeat her and Sister, even with their own abilities. "I'm sorry, everyone. They walked onto the ship, stole the shard, and Sister and I couldn't do anything about it...They even..." She paused for a moment, having a lapse as she couldn't recall what she aws going to say.
"Are you alright, Hermit?" Weisz asked.
"She's been acting weird since we lost that fight." Sister crossed her arms. "We've already been fixed up. Did you run a diagnostic?"
"I did. I haven't detected anything wrong..." Hermit frowned. It didn't explain why it felt like she was forgetting something.
"Do you want me to check it out?" Geno offered. "I could go inside you and..."
"Whoa!" Sister suddenly exclaimed. "Buy an android some dinner before you offer that!"
Hermit and Geno both blushed profusely from that. It was Geno's fault, because he absolutely walked straight into that. "S-Shut up, Sister! This is serious! Agh, nevermind!" Too flustered to even want to attempt, Geno made his way back to the bridge, with Omega laughing and following behind.
Hermit glared daggers at Sister for her untimely tease, before huffing and going to follow Geno. "Now was not the time...!" She'd drag Geno back later. He didn't even go far, just outside of the infirmary to cool down.
"...I'm not sorry, but I get it." Sister was just trying to lighten the mood somehow. But she knew things were too dire to joke. At this point, all eyes were going to Blair, who hadn't said a single thing since they got back.
"Blair..." Pino gently called out to her.
"..." Cynthia hadn't said a single word either. She was still trying to disgest the information she learned. How her mother was responsible for what happened to Blair, and how Blair killed her father. It was hard to figure out how to feel.
"...I'm...not okay." Blair admitted quietly. Who would be after all that happened. She looked at Cynthia. "...If you want to hate me, or kill me, I understand. I killed your father and hid that from you. I hid that from everyone...I was afraid of telling the truth. The truth that I lost myself in the battle and fell victim to my instincts. I...I thought you'd all hate me if I admitted it..."
"Blair..." Kleene felt her lip quiver.
"I promised I wouldn't. And I ended up doing it anyway." Blair sighed.
"I..." Cynthia wasn't sure what to say. "It's not...I mean...it was my mother who pushed you to that point..."
To that, Blair shook her head. "No. That part doesn't matter. I did it of my own volition. It came down to my actions at the end of the day. So if you want to hate me...I accept that."
"Blair..." Cynthia looked away. She didn't know what the right answer was...
"...If you want me to erase those memories for you, I can." Sister said, seriously. She couldn't imagine the effects of those events on Blair's psyche. But she was more than willing to erase them.
Blair shook her head. "No. I shouldn't forget what happened. That would be the same as running away and refusing to accept responsibility. I have to live with it."
"Are you sure?" Jinn asked. He knew what living with a horrible experience was like. Kleene suffered so terribly from such awful memories...
"Yeah..." Blair nodded.
"Are you still hungry?" Couchpo asked. She got the rundown and it was a sad fact that Blair had to eat her friend just to calm down. It was no wonder she felt so down on top of everything else.
"...Yeah." Blair sighed. "But it's not as bad as before. I guess...Hanabi knew what she was doing. I wish I could thank her for it."
Rebecca walked closer, taking Blair's bandaged arm in her own. She knew what touching it did, but she already displayed that she wasn't afraid to do so. "You can thank her for it by not giving up. You have to see this through to the end, Blair. And we'll be here with you every step of the way."
"Rebecca..." Blair looked up at her, before giving a slow nod. "I don't want to give up now..."
"That being said...what exactly do we do next?" Laguna crossed his arms. They were completely stuck.
That question would have an answer soon enough. Because they received a transmission from an incoming ship that just entered this section of the Sakura Cosmos.
"Shiki. Are you there? I don't know what happened exactly, but I know one thing: we're not going to let them get away with this." Who was this visitor that just arrived? None other than the most feared space pirate in the cosmos: Elsie Crimson.
"So come on, Shiki Granbell. If you can't beat Alexei now...do you think you'll stand a chance again Ziggy in the future?"