EON CH 01 – EDWARD'S ANNOUNCEMENT.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY 8:00 pm. 

Noche stood dumbstruck. Her eyes widened as she processed what she had just heard.

"I repeat, Medusa has been assassinated," the Red Grave brother said. "The president of Cross is dead."

"Raven killed her," Blue said as he held up a severed finger. "This is all that remains after he used corruption on her."

The blonde stumbled. That couldn't be right – Raven was waiting for them at the bottom of DeathTech. He was the only person aware of Edward's trap. Then he was stuck with them the entire time the group was in Limbo.

A cybernetic hand landed on Noche's shoulder. She looked up to Shaylin who raised a single finger and pressed it to her lips, before moving her hand up and tapping her cybernetic left eye.

"Effectively immediately, we are the presidents of Cross!" The Grave Brothers shouted in sync.

General Trio sulked in the back as General Dreg approached the new presidents. His expression was solemn as he turned his attention to the duo.

"Your orders sirs?"

The twins gave each other a look before turning back to Dreg.

"We've learned all we needed to learn from this expedition," Red said. "We're heading back."

"Without saying goodbye?" A voice said.

Edward's face appeared on a holographic display above his cartoonish castle. It hung loose like a poor mask; his eyes were misaligned and his mouth stretched beyond its already unnatural width. He stepped back from the camera and his body moved about like a marionette with some of its strings cut. His voice was raspy as if unused for years.

Then his creepy eyes landed on Noche, and they widened; for a split second, he lost his smirk. His lips moved to speak but he stopped at the last moment. A sparkle entered his eye as his expression transformed into twisted, intense glee. The whole time his gaze locked onto Noche's.

He didn't need to say a word for the blonde to understand what he was thinking.

"You are supposed to be dead."

She swallowed and glared. The president of DeathTech grinned a little wider. Sadistic mirth welled in his eyes. Gradually, he turned away from Noche and faced all of Cross.

"My, my, my. Why the long faces everyone?" He croaked. "If our little game is over, we ought to celebrate with a bang."

The holographic screen split in two. One side showed Edward and the other revealed thousands of people. They were all grouped up in the one-hundred-mile room. The same room Noche and co rode their stolen motorcycles in.

"These are the people I've kidnapped over the last few decades. All those missing person posters you see at the grocery store? A good number of them are on camera right now," Edward gave an off-kilter grin. "Scientists, doctors, engineers, factory workers, and more. All innocent people I've beaten into slavery."

The camera zoomed in on a few faces and a missing person's poster popped up next to them. This occurred for a solid minute as person after person was matched to the photograph of a lost loved one. Edward's face almost slid off his skull as he cackled quietly to himself during the whole process.

"OH BOY EDWARD! What are you going to do with all these helpless hostages!" He paused. Drinking in the anticipation. "Why, kill them of course."

He leaned an elbow on the desk and rested his face in his hand. Then he took his other hand and twirled a finger in the air.

"You see, thing is, now that we're at war, their usefulness has dried up. It's a big drain on my resources to keep them around," a grin crept across his face. "But you know what, I just had an entertaining thought. In exchange for the lives of all these people, all I ask is the life of a single person."

Boots's photograph appeared on the screen. Noche's eyes widened and she spun to her orange-haired friend. He had gone pale and his mouth hung ajar. The president of DeathTech had sparkles in his eyes as his unnatural grin grew wider.

"That's right. You can save all these innocent people. All you have to do is die," Edward sang.

"No – No I'm not doing it," Boots whispered.

As if predicting he would say that, Edward leaned out of camera frame and pulled at something. Spark Starnight came into view with a gag in her mouth.

"Did I forget to mention, your sister is one of these hostages," Edward chimed.

All the blood had drained from Boots's face. If he looked pale before, it was nothing compared to how ghostly white he appeared now. A portal of darkness appeared in the center of the battlefield appeared. One perfectly shaped to fit one's head into, but not their whole body.

"I thought it would be a bit ironic if you died the way your best friend Noche did," Edward chuckled. "Decapitation. Just pop your head in the portal and I'll snap it shut. You have ten seconds."

Noche stared at Boots, who in response slowly turned to her. Not a single word was shared between them but the glint in his eyes revealed his decision. Boots ran towards the portal and Noche screamed. There was a crack of thunder and the blonde found herself in Boot's path. On her feet were her black plate-mail greaves.

"Noche what are you doing!" He screamed. "Move!"

"Boots no! It's a trick! I can't — I can't lose you too!"

"Eight," Edward counted.

"That's not your decision to make!"

Boots threw a kick at Noche, who managed to dodge. He tried to charge but the blonde blocked his path with a crashing tidal wave.

"Seven."

"What about all those prisoners? Are you going to let them die, like Jack?"

Noche flinched, which gave Boots enough time to run past the tidal wave and towards the portal. Electricity covered Noche's body as she darted in front of his path.

"I don't care about a world of strangers. I care about my friends."

"I thought that included Spark!"

"There's got to be another way!"

"Five," Edward took out a radio, pressed a button, and heavy metal music played. "This is Spark's favorite song. Right? It's fitting she dies to it."

Prismatic energy filled the air around Noche as a few Cross soldiers stepped forward; a cage of telekinetic force surrounded her.

"I won't let thousands die for one man," one of them said.

Noche scoffed at the no-name nobody and filled her prison with prismatic energy. Typhoon winds exploded her cage in a massive explosion. A few soldiers charged towards her, but she was faster. Too fast. It was effortless for the blonde to hurl them all aside.

Boots exploited the opportunity and tried to dash past Noche. However, with the speed boost from her greaves, she was too fast. The blonde turned towards the video feed and focused on Spark. She tried to open a portal near her – focusing like she did in Limbo. The air wavered, but no portal opened.

"Damn it!"

"Three."

"Noche move!"

Boots aimed a kick for her head – she managed to dodge, but the shockwave that followed after was no joke. The force almost caused her to stumble. He was still holding back, he didn't want to kill her, but he was prepared to put her into a coma. His second kick came at her left side, she raised her left arm to – everything went white as Noche crashed to the ground.

Her ears were ringing as her vision slowly rebooted. Her left arm, it was gone. It was really gone. Unlike in Limbo where everything was surreal and dreamlike, this was reality. Her left arm was not going to glitch in and out of existence. It was permanently gone.

"One"

Her body acted on instinct – she grabbed Boots at the last second as she stood back up; his head was less than an inch from the portal and strands of hair had already drifted inside. He gave Noche such a look of betrayal that for a moment the blonde's grip faltered.

"SPARK NO! I'm coming for you! Spark!"

"Zero"

The red-haired girl managed to wriggle the gag out of her mouth. Her skin was pale and sweat ran down her forehead, yet despite that, relief shone in her eyes as she shouted.

"BOOTS LIVE!"

With a flick of his wrist, Edward sliced a red line onto Spark's neck. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled down – a geyser of blood shot towards the camera. Spark's eyes blinked and her mouth moved wordlessly as Edward's free hand went into the open wound, grabbed exposed muscle, and pulled. There was a loud pop and in his hands was a chunk of red with a white bit of spinal column at its center.

He let go of her hair and the girl crumpled to the ground like a puppet who had its strings cut. Boots stopped moving. Stopped breathing. He simply stopped doing everything. He stood there as if his entire world was paused. Only the tears streaming down his face revealed he hadn't frozen in time.

Edward's laugh reverberated across the entire battlefield. It was sickening and twisted, yet somehow it grew worse. Became more demonic as storm clouds gathered above. His face melted and skin fell off in sloughs. The light that illuminated the video feed began to flicker and then shattered. Edward's half of the screen went dark.

The other half was filled with screams as something slaughtered thousands of hostages. Wherever it went the light vanished and in the darkness, blood splattered everywhere. The thing was a living blender – it killed hundreds in the span of seconds. In a few heartbeats, all the light was gone and not a sound remained.

On the battlefield, the night sky darkened further as the storm clouds blocked the light of the moon. A single crow feather drifted before Noche's face as she stared at the black screen. It floated down towards Boots who was still frozen motionless. Then he did move and Noche wished he hadn't. For he gave her such a look of disbelief that her heart fractured.

"What have you done?"