A skinny kid with ripped jeans and a faded Yankees hat plopped on his head backwards, stood. "What's up, Lucy? My name is Billy, main thing is to stay clear of my projects. I don't like peeps messing with my stuff, ya know?" Billy waved his hand. "Is she even listening to me?"
"Lucy, you okay?' Stan asked her with a nudge.
"Huh? Oh, yes, he's fine... I... I mean. I'm fine," Lucy said as she searched for the exit.
Flo emerged from the kitchen with a golden brown grilled cheese. "Take a seat, kiddo. Food is here, I think you're getting light-headed."
Flo sat the plate down for Lucy, the bot whistled, and then a door opened in the front. Out came a small bottle of soda held by a mechanical arm.
"Thank you, Flo," said Lucy. The little bot gave a bounce and returned to the kitchen.
"I know you have questions," Gerard said. "We will try our best to answer them. We want you to understand fully who we are, who you are, and what we are meant to do."
After a few bites, Lucy placed her grilled cheese back on the plate. "Okay, let's start with that. Who are all of you? I know your names, but who are you? What does all this have to do with my Gramps and me?"
"We are the Synod of Reaping," Gerard explained. "We reassembled in the early nineties. We existed before then but fell apart because our ancestors did not know how to work as a team. They felt that they were alone in their mission, and that this this feeling was unnatural. Communication over large areas wasn't as easy then. So, the Reapers of old felt they were unclean, or evil themselves, and ended up disbanding."
Satisfied she was following, Gerard continued. "How much do you know and believe from the Bible? Do you know the story from John, Chapter Eleven, about Lazarus?"
Lucy thought for a second. "Yes, he had died, and been dead four days when Jesus raised him from the dead. That's one of the more well-known miracles from the Bible, I believe."
Stan nodded her head, "But there's more to it than that. Most people stop when Lazarus walked out of the tomb. What happened after that? Where did he go?" she asked.
Lucy looked puzzled. "I don't know. You never hear of anything past that."
"When a person dies, the Angel of Death comes to claim his prize. His name is Azrael. When Azrael takes the person's soul there is an essence left behind in the body – a gem," Gerard explained.
"So that's where the shadow gems come from. That slime ball, Martin, at my local memoriam helps with those. The Countess needs them for something," Lucy said.
Gerard tapped his nose, "Exactly. These gems hold the power of life over death. The angel had already taken the soul of Lazarus and was still inside his body forming the gem when Christ breathed life back into him. This caused a conflict. As Azrael was forced out, he left a piece of himself inside Lazarus's gem. Vowing one day, he would reclaim his prize. The Countess uses these gems to fuel her power."
Stan joined in again, "That is where we come in. The priests saw him raised from the dead. They knew the people would turn from the Pharisees and the priests would lose their positions and property if they started believing that Jesus really was the Son of God. These five priests set a plan to murder Lazarus, and eventually Jesus. All of us are in the bloodline of those five Pharisee priests. They hired a man to kill Lazarus and subsequently set out to betray Jesus."
Lucy tried to understand, but she still had questions. "Okay. Does that make us bad people for what our ancestors did?"
"No, no, not at all. That is just why we carry the curse of the Reaper," Stan said. "We have the ability to harvest the shadow gem from a person - to put the soul to rest." She put her arm around Lucy. “This is a lot to take in, kiddo. It was for all of us. We can help you, but first you have to accept your own destiny."
The others slowly started to leave. Each Synod member had a job to do. Each one was an important gear in the mechanism they called family. Lucy needed more answers, but more importantly she needed her Gramps.
5 Aerofall Industries
It was just Lucy, Stan, and Gerard left in the lounge. The little kitchen bots were busy cleaning tables and sweeping the floor as Lucy looked around at the enormous, empty space.
"How do you stay here? Doesn't it get lonely?" she asked.
"We are a family here. And I, for one, never had much of that on the outside," Gerard said. "I tried. I lived what I thought was the perfect life. I met my wife in college and I loved her more than I knew I could. We were married, and soon our daughter followed. We knew trying to start a family and staying in school was going to be hard, but we believed we could conquer anything."
The fact that she didn't meet his wife or daughter sunk in for Lucy. "You had a daughter? What was her name?"
"We named her Emily. She was the best of both of us. My wife, Alyssa, was so beautiful, so innocent. We thought all was right in the world. I had just taken an internship at the biggest and most successful company in the world concerning bioengineering. I loved my job and was good at it. That was, I did love my job until something inside of me drove me to investigate some secret files of restricted research. This research detailed the process of harvesting shadow residue from the recently deceased and The Countess feeding from it."
"You worked for Aerofall Industries? And what happened to Alyssa and Emily? Why aren’t they here?" she said, only then thinking better of it. Lucy looked at the ground, “I'm so sorry, Gerard... That was rude of me."
Gerard hung his head, "I worked for Aerofall until I discovered Ruina Baxter’s true intentions. How she could hide herself in plain sight for so long is beyond me. She had the world convinced she was the answer to all our problems. She threw her hat into the ring to become the first female president and won it in a landslide two years later."
Stan told her, "Aerofall was the leader in bioengineering in the 1990s. As CEO of the company, Ruina had free reign over what research was carried out and how it was done."
"When I left the company, I met Conrad. We were both drawn to the power of Aerofall, and we bonded over that. The lab techs caught me snooping around the research, so now Ruina knew who I was, and she could sense the Reaper inside of me. I had to distance myself from everyone, so meetings had to be done in secret. She had already threatened my family at that point; I didn't want to endanger Conrad, too. I vowed to try and stop her from taking anyone else," Gerard explained.
"She took your family?" questioned Lucy. “I don’t understand.”
"It wasn't like it is now. Ruina didn't have supreme power. She had to work in secret, and anyone that posed a threat to her and her research... well, they were met with tragic accidents." Gerard wiped a tear from his cheek, sat up straight in his chair and cleared his throat. "We tried to live in secret, away from danger. I was wrong and couldn’t protect them. I let my guard down. Emily had just turned sixteen and wanted a book for her birthday. She wanted to study mechanical engineering and help me and Conrad. I went to a bookstore in town and was seen by her Talfair, he sensed the Reaper inside me and followed me. Ruina sent her soldiers in and killed them while I was away with Conrad. I found them with a note written on the walls in their blood. It said, ‘all Reapers are destined to fall.’” Gerard lifted his eyes to Stan. “Jaso was just a baby and luckily was with Conrad and me. It's because of these things that she must be stopped."
Lucy placed her hand on his. "I am so sorry. That must be so hard to bare,” she told him. “You said you both were drawn to Aerofall. How so?" Lucy asked.
"That's the power of the Reaper. It's inside all of the descendants of the five priests," Stan explained.
"I think it will be easier to explain in the history room. Come, you’ll want to see this," Gerard said as he stood and extended a hand to help Lucy out of her seat.
The trio walked down several dark hallways and into a large room to the west.
Inside the history room were relics spanning multiple generations. A mannequin stood in a glass case, dressed in full armor dated of the twelfth century. Down the aisle stood another mannequin
wearing camouflage fatigues and a helmet from World War II. The group rounded a corner and Lucy was startled by a disfigured statue.
"What happened to this guy? He's wearing a Davarti uniform, but something is wrong. Why is his skin so gray? And the veins in his face are black!" she exclaimed.
"This is how her soldiers came about. They were a side effect of her research at Aerofall," Gerard told her.
"I've never seen one with their mask off. Do all of them look this way?" Lucy asked.
"He's dead, dear," Stan told her. "Reanimated flesh of the people the Countess harvests Shadow Gems from."
Lucy gasped and covered her mouth in shock, "The Countess's Soldiers of the State are dead? How? How do they move and fight?"
Stan paused. “The Countess uses the essence of Shadow Gems to transform the dead into her soldiers. By absorbing their souls, she can continue her life, and she controls their bodies.”
Gerard placed her hand in the bend of his arm and led her to a board hanging between two frames. "This is a summary of what we know. A timeline of sorts, if you will. In 1993 I discovered what the Countess was doing at Aerofall. Ruina announced her candidacy for President, and she promised change. She promised a plan that would put humanity on its proper course. What she wasn't telling everyone, though, was that the course she was preparing was world supremacy, with her at its head. When she won the presidential election in ninety-six, she did as she promised. Poverty was at an all-time low, the economy was on an upward spike, and homelessness was becoming unheard of in major cities. That's when she introduced the Soldiers of the State, the Davarti, to control violence and crime. The soldiers patrolled areas that police were too afraid to go into, and this made the people love her. Ruina made such an impression on Congress that they agreed to let the people vote on allowing her to stay in office for life, not just two terms."
"I read in my grandfather's diary that she already had the army before she ran for president," Lucy said.
"She did. But not the numbers she has now. She rounded up the homeless from the bigger cities: San Francisco, Chicago, New York and the like, and they became her Davarti. Her personal security at Aerofall. She couldn't reveal them until the right time. I was a twenty-year-old intern. I had to tell someone what I had found. I met Conrad as he was starting his freshman year in college. Once Ruina started collecting the shadow gems from the bodies of her victims, though, it triggered the Reaper inside of us. That's what led your grandfather to Aerofall and our paths to cross. I had already been dealing with the curse and found it refreshing to share this with someone else," Gerard told her.
"You keep talking about this curse of reaping or having the Reaper inside you... What is it exactly?" asked Lucy.
Stan pointed to the board where a Bible verse was written in bold, blue letters. "John Chapter eleven," she said. "This is the story of Lazarus, which we were talking about earlier. All the Reapers are ancestors of the five priests that witnessed this miracle and ultimately had Lazarus murdered. Azrael had claimed Lazarus. When the priests had him killed, they took the prize from the angel again, denying him his revenge. This infuriated Azrael, as they had cheated him of taking the life of the one that had already been stolen from him once."
As she spoke, Stan had retrieved a scroll from a drawer of a large chest. As Stan unrolled it, Lucy could see beautiful hand-drawn images.
"This parchment was painted by a priest in the Orthodox faith approximately thirty years after the miracle of Lazarus in Bethany. It documents the confrontation between Azrael and the five priests. He gave them the chance to repent but as they dropped to their knees, Azrael laughed and mocked them saying, 'I do not grant forgiveness. You mistake me for the Son of God.' He cursed them to an eternity of being lost. He told them, 'I cannot sentence a man to Hell, but I can make your journey on earth long and tedious.' He touched each man on the forehead shouting words in Hebrew. Each priest was transfigured into a key, and as they landed in the sand, Azrael named them: Knowledge, Love, Time, Death, and Life. These five keys hold the power to unlock the resurrection miracle inside the shadow gem left in the body of Lazarus. These keys are what is needed to stop the Countess and make her mortal again."
Lucy looked closely at the paintings of the five keys, it was heavily worn and faded. She couldn’t read the language, but she knew in her heart they were telling her the truth.
"If Gramps trusted you, so do I."
"Ruina has learned to use the power of the original Shadow Gem to keep herself alive. The power of resurrection and death all in one. She also holds Lazarus’ remains, making it difficult to access his Shadow Gem. We must unlock the power inside of his gem to stop her. This will satisfy Azrael, and should rid us of this curse," Gerard added.
"So, when we get these keys it will undo this funky mojo inside the Countess and stop her. Cool! So where are the keys?" Lucy asked.
Stan looked at Gerard then back to her. "That's the problem. We have been searching for them since we learned of their existence with no luck. That was fifty years ago for the ones left here. Others searched long before us. We feel that we are getting closer, but I'm sure the Reapers of the past did as well."
"Conrad was convinced he could figure out their locations using the ancient texts and parchments. He believed he had been close several times. The last time... well, the last time was when we lost him." Gerard said as he lowered his head in respect. "Conrad dedicated his life to the understanding of the ancient Hebrew ways and texts. We have only made it this far because of him and his talents."
"I want to finish what Gramps started, and I think we can do it together," Lucy stated. "Maybe some of his talents, as you call them, rubbed off on me?"
"We?" Stan asked with a raised eyebrow. "You sure about that, kiddo?"
Lucy crossed her arms. "Well that's why you wanted me here, isn't it? Your numbers are low, so you need all the help you can get. Besides, I was the only one who could unlock the enigma box. So yes, we," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
Gerard cleared his voice in an awkward tone, "Well... yes. Yes, that was one reason."
"Then we have work to do," Lucy exclaimed. "We can sort out the other reasons later."
Over the next few weeks, Lucy would be trained in the ways of a Reaper. They would coach her in hand to hand combat and even firearms. A Reaper had to rely on their wit and instincts against the soldiers of the state. They would show no mercy to a Reaper, or anyone that the Countess wanted dead for that matter. Lucy had to be ready.
6 The Training
The training room was on the fourth floor of The Metropolitan. The room had been cleared with only a few columns for support. The white marble floor seemed to shine and shimmer beneath their feet. Jaso oversaw Micah and Lucy's training in weapons and defense.
"Lucy, have you ever fired a pistol before?" Jaso asked.
He was met with a resounding, "NO! Why would I ever have needed to... well not until now."
"Well, then today is your lucky day!" he said. He opened a black case that sat on the table beside him. The case was old and worn with two brass latches. Inside the case lay two gorgeous pistols nestled into a pillow of deep red velvet. Each one had a matte black handle, trimmed in bright brass. A crimson red barrel and lower ammo chamber were perfectly crafted.
"Those are beautiful!" Lucy exclaimed. "Almost like a work of art. Did you make them for me?"
Jaso took the weapons from their case and twirled them on his fingers to turn the handles toward her. "They were Conrad's. He and James created these beauties. Only fitting they go to you now."
Lucy took them in her hands. The handles felt as if they were designed to fit the palms of her hands. The weight was perfectly balanced, not too heavy or too big. She traced the craftsmanship of the barrel with her finger, looking closely at the marks from years of use.
"Now for you, Mr. Jones. I have something special for you as well." Jaso clicked a small button on the table. A door slid open in the floor, and a mannequin wearing a
harness lifted through the floor. "You have had your training in firearms, and have proven yourself with a long rifle and short-range pistol. Now you will learn the ways of the Sentai Blade."
The harness held two swords crossed on the mannequin's back. The handles were shiny black, with brass compressed in rings around it. The hilts were pure titanium. Jaso took the harness and secured it around Micah. "You have to be comfortable with the blades. They will be your first line of defense and your most lethal line of offense, so they should become a part of you. You need to be able to handle these as if they were an extension of yourself."
Micah adjusted the harness, twisting and pulling until he could easily reach the handles that were just behind his shoulders. He slowly unsheathed the Sentai Blades and brought them out in front of him. The blades were bright blue with black markings running the length of each. Lucy had a silent thought that Micah’s blades matched the blue of her hair.
"What does this say?" Micah asked pointing to the inscription on the blades.
Jaso took one of the blades carefully in his hands and turned it to reflect the light. "'Live life as a champion, and live forever.' It is the mantra of the Reapers." Jaso handed the blade back to Micah. "You will need to practice sheathing and unsheathing them as quickly as possible without injuring yourself. So, I suggest starting out slowly. We don’t want you losing your head." Micah stood there with his mouth open rubbing the back of his neck as it registered that decapitation was a possibility.
"As for you, Miss Ducit. We need to start with the basics." He went through the process of loading, unloading, and holding the pistols correctly. "You need to practice this until you can do it in your sleep. An empty firearm is a useless firearm." Jaso took a small remote from his belt pouch and pressed a button. A freestanding frame about thirty yards from them sprang from the floor. A bull's eye was painted in the center. "Let's see if you can hit the target," he said. "Hold your arm out in front of you. Good, now look down the barrel and line up the sight at the end with the center of the target. Breathe in through the nose, out from the mouth. Concentrate."
The Key of Knowledge Page 4