Scapegoat (1)

Leonel felt as though a blade was twisting through his organs. He had never experienced pain on this level in his entire life. It was to the point that no amount of will could keep his mind clear. Whatever semblance of control he had had over the process of his body had completely collapsed, resulting in a rampaging Force surging throughout his body. 

Anyone else in this sort of situation would have long since died. In fact, they moment they swallowed that amount of dew, they would have exploded on the spot. 

That said, Leonel current situation had little to nothing to do with the amount of Force he had swallowed. In fact, it had nothing to do with him trying to form a Tenth Node either. It was entirely related to the twisting pain at his hip. 

To this point, Leonel still had no idea why his father ever mentioned the scar above his hip. Leonel had never been aware of where it came from. Considering he played football, he had never thought much about it to begin with. Injuries always seemed to pop up randomly for anyone who played the sport. He had even broken his ribs during the last game he played, why would he think so much about a barely visible scar? 

However, Leonel could have never imagined that such a small matter would blow up to this level. 

Leonel's mind was completely blank. His eyes had rolled back, making his vision completely black. It felt as though the only thing he could feel was pain, the only think he could hear were his screams, the only thing he could smell was the metallic stench of his own blood. 

Then, it all began to turn faint. As though his life was being pulled along by a string completely out of his control, he stalked closer toward death. And, maybe the worst part was that Leonel wasn't even aware. 

Maybe it was because his will wasn't tempered enough, maybe it was because this pain was truly beyond the limits of his body, but there was nothing he could do to change his own fate. 

**

As Leonel was straddling the line of life and death, Scithe had finally gotten the report he had been waiting several days for. After reading it, he furrowed his brow. 

With the level of their organization, digging up information on a mere Third Dimensional existence was too easy. However, Leonel's information was too weird. 

For one, his grandfather was the Emperor of his world. 

Having a world unified beneath one force was incredibly rare to begin with. It was an extraordinary feat and it was impossible for any simple existence to accomplish this, especially when it was a world with so much talent like Earth. 

This alone wasn't enough to cause Scithe to frown. Who cared about the Emperor of a Pseudo Fourth Dimensional world? He might find it troublesome if Earth was a Pseudo Fifth Dimensional world, but they were very clearly far from this. 

What made him raise an eyebrow wasn't the information, but rather, the lack of it. 

Firstly, there wasn't a single hint of information about Leonel's maternal grandmother and Emperor Fawkes' wife. It was to the point they hadn't even managed to find her name. No birth records, no name, no death certificate… nothing. 

As though that wasn't enough, his mother had vanished off the face of the planet. She hadn't been heard of in decades. In fact, the time she had disappeared for far outstripped Leonel's own age which was more than enough to raise some eyebrows. 

Then, there was Leonel's father. Rather than vanishing, the issue with him was that he appeared out of nowhere. There were records that were very clearly forged of his birth and early life, but it was all too simple for Scithe's organization to find out how fake these things were. 

On top of that, he suddenly vanished after the Metamorphosis began. There wasn't a single record of him, nothing. 

Even this aside, there was Leonel himself. 

To summarize the boy as a troublemaker was an understatement. 

The near destruction of a Fort, the murder of several hidden family members, the falling out with the rebels of Earth…

Of course, none of these things were enough to move Scithe. What did he care what a teen did against such weak organizations? The real issue was how all of this fit together. 

There were a lot of organizations eyeing Earth right now. In fact, even without the mission he was given, Scithe already had Earth on his radar. This was simply one of those things the public was in the dark about while those with some real weight to them were already taking advantage of. 

What Scithe wanted to know was whether or not Leonel and his mysterious family was part of those eyeing Earth as a pie they wanted a slice of…

If this was the case, then Scithe might very well become a scapegoat in a power struggle simply by virtue of the fact he was unlucky enough to be saddled with this mission…

Thinking to this point, Scithe' sunken eyes narrows, his already pale features growing a shade whiter. When he entered such deep thought, his blood seemed to slow by a measure, making him appear to be even more ghost-like. 

'No matter what actions I take now, they have to be done with the utmost secrecy…'

Scithe knew that he didn't have the option to reject this mission. This was simply the plight of the weak. However, he also knew that his organization wouldn't throw him out to dry either. If they set such a precedent, it wouldn't be long before no one was willing to work for them. 

This ultimately meant that he needed to set a seed of appropriate amounts of doubt. As long as there wasn't conclusive evidence that he was the one who acted, he should be able to keep a certain level of protection for himself. 

"Where is he now." 

Scithe finally turned the attendant who still knelt on the ground. 

"From our information, he has long since left Earth using a teleportation ticket. But, since these tickets can only teleport someone within a quadrant, there were only about 200 worlds he could have gone to. After looking through the teleportation records of them all, there are 5 worlds that fit the timing and only one registered to Leonel Morales. He should be on Terrain, coordinate xx.xx.xx, at the moment."

Scithe nodded. "Prepare everything. I want to leave within the hour."

"Yes!"