Searching in Eternity

by KaiserWilly2

Chapters

Chapter I: The Assassination
Chapter II: The Dreamer
Chapter III: The Investigation
Chapter IV: The Journey
Chapter V: We Are Here

Chapter I: The Assassination

By Boromir

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Dedicated to the Track and Field runners that are seniors of the class of 2018

You were some of the best friends I have ever had

You helped me realize who I was meant to become and helped me achieve personal glory

You will never be forgotten, and your impact on our school will always last

I wish you well wherever life may take you and hope to see you around soon

Goodbye my good friends,you shall be missed

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"War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade"

Percy Bysshe Shelley

******Chapter 1: The Assassination******

It was cold and bitter in Moscow that morning, matter of fact every morning had been that way for the past week. Coldness and bitterness are one of the things that Russia is renowned for. The cold lifeless streets slowly started to regrow with life as citizens moved to get to their desired location. One similarity among the citizens was their preparations for the cold, they had some type of winter jacket with other winter attire, such as a hat or gloves or boots.

While the citizens scurried around on the streets, a convoy emerged from a nearby building; the National Defense Center. The convoy consisted of four black identical Mercedes Benz S 600. These were the official cars that the Soviet state used to transport their officials in, one of these cars contained the target.

On the rooftop of a building close to the Kremlin rested a man. His body was built, but this was not evident because he wore various black body padding. The man wore a tactical mask that was split between two colors, the right side was orange and the left side was black. The right orange side had an eye hole while the black left side lacked one. The man had a a M40 sniper rifle perched on the ledge of the rooftop and aimed it down. Now who is this man and what is his intentions? This man had some alias’s such as Deathtroke or simply the Terminator. But he was simply known among his friends,family, and colleagues as Slade Wilson.

Slade waited there patiently, praying that he wouldn’t mess up on his task, eliminating a Soviet military officer, General Arkday Grigorvich. Of course Slade knew he probably wouldn’t mess up, for he had been doings this since ‘59, but he was still nervous. But he had to put all his nerves away for the prey had almost arrived.

The four cars steadily approached the gates of the Kremlin ;the once beautiful citadel of the Tsar, now the top fortress of the Soviet Union. Slade watched like a hawk through his scope as one by one men in Red Army uniforms departed from the cars. He waited until he saw him, and then finally it happened. General Grigorvich exited his vehicle, the second to last car. Slade knew it was him, his uniform was of that of a general; his peak cap had a different design, his uniforms insignia and rank were different to his peers, and he had many more medals than any of the other other other officers. All of the officers and guards snapped to attention and respectfully gave him a salute. He gave a salute back to them, signalling them to go at ease. The general began to talk with nearby officers, he faced in the direction of the building Slade was on. Slade waited anxiously for him to turn away from the direction he was facing, that way he was turning his back to Slade, that is when he would be able to take the shot. With him turned away it would be a little easier for him to make the kill, because right after the kill the generals peers would be confused and could not exactly pin point where the shot came from.

It seemed like forever until the General faced away from Slade, this was his chance. He steadied his scope and aimed right for the neck of the general. He took one last breathe in and then he did it he took the shot.

His suppressor was well made so very little sound was made, but who was there to hear it? He was alone on top of a building. He steadily got up and began to pack his things, he knew his mission was a success. He heard the angry and confused cries of Russian soldiers alongside alarms. He looked over one final time to see the results and sure enough he saw well results, Russian police cars and ambulances were gathered around the sight were the general was shot down. Slade then turned around and walked toward the nearby stairwell on the rooftop.

***

Killing General Grigorvich was probably one of the easier parts of the mission, now came the harder part getting out of Moscow ,alive. While stealthy maneuvering, Slade had noticed that the local police suddenly were becoming more observant and stricter, often pulling over people they found “suspicious” and checking their bags and questioning them. He couldn’t blame them if one of his nation's high ranking military officials were assassinated moments before, he too would have been more observant and stricter, interrogating any suspicious nearby characters.

Lucky for Slade he didn’t have to worry about the police for he moved stealthy above them, zipping via clothes lines , climbing and running on stair cases on the side of buildings, and anything he could climb as means of quick transportation , mainly ledges. He had at least traveled two miles before things became hectic.

He was climbing either his eleventh or twelfth building before he noticed he was right below him were a duo of Russian police, one smoked a cigarette while the other was pointing over at something, both were armed with AK-47 assault rifles. The two muttered things to each other in Russian, they were deep in conversation. He noted that these two seemed more laid back and were not as observant as other Russian officers he had seen, this would make things a lot easier. After briefly planning the fastest and stealthiest route, he attached the his grapple on the clothes line and began to slowly move above them. He was at least halfway there when he encountered a bird, it noticed him and began screeching and flapping at Slade, it was 30 long, tedious and loud seconds before the stupid animal had flew away.

Slade knew one thing....he was toast. He heard one of the Russians say “Ostanovis’ pryamo tam!”.

All Slade could think to himself was “shit......”

He had to think fast, so he pulled off one his bags, an irrelevant satchel containing ropes,extra grapples,extra harness’s and hooks, he threw it at the two policemen who had their weapons sights locked on him. The bag was a quick diversion that gave him a brief amount of time to elude his enemies. He then quickly zipped over on the clothes line to the next building. He had been trained to be able to quickly strip off a harness. He swiftly removed it and headed to the nearby window.

PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW!

The confusion of the two policemen was quick to end and they responded with gunfire to Slade’s escape. This attracted more and more police units.

It was not less than a second after entering the building that Slade began to maneuver the halls and find a safe-spot to hold off his enemies. From outside and downstairs he heard the angry and confused cries of Russian police, this was accompanied by the harsh knocking and slamming of doors. After a few minutes of carefully and swiftly maneuvering the halls Slade had found it, a single room which appeared to be unoccupied. As Slade entered the room of the building he had worked hard to get to, he did an analysis of his surroundings. “One door, three windows, a table, two chairs, and a small furnace.....nothing much useful here”.

Just as his thought finished, a Russian policeman burst in through the door and shouted at the top of his lungs “ne dvigaytes’, vy arestovyvayete”.

Slade then slowly put his hands up and walked towards the policeman, who had kept his sights directly at Slade’s chest. When Slade was close enough to his enemy, he punched the Russian in the across the face, following his punch he kneed the Russian in the chest, forcing the Russian to slouch. Using this good opportunity, Slade decided to disarm his enemy. He took his Ak-47 rifle and then used the rifle butt to knock him out. The final blow from the rifle butt had caused the Russian to fall over and crash directly into the one table of the room, causing it to break, he was finally unconscious. Not less than a few seconds later Slade heard more muffled Russian voices from downstairs. He then set his rifle from single shot to rapid fire.

PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW!

Several shots were fired into the room, Slade at first surprised and shocked by the quick attack quickly responded with his own firing pattern.

PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW PTHEW!

Of course unlike the Russians, Slade was spraying and praying, hoping by chance he would hit something or someone. He realized he could not keep this up forever for a two reasons, one he would likely run out of ammunition soon, two Russian reinforcements would probably arrive soon with better weapons or riot shields. Slade then had an idea, he would make for the open window. He decided to fire a few shots to keep the Russians distracted while he made his escape.

PTHEW PTHEW PTHEWPTHEW PTHEW PTHEWPTHEW PTHEW PTHEW!

He fired what was left in his gun and made a made dash for the open window and then jumped out to the other building. He went through the window of that building and then entered. All he could hear behind him were gun shots and angry voices. He then sprinted down stairs of the building and ran out the front doors of the building, emerging himself in with the now massive crowd. He only looked back once and saw several Russian policeman yelling at each other and pointing out orders for one another. Slade knew there was only one place he could go, Belorussky Station.

***

The station was crowded with people, civilians, soldiers, and workers. Slade had now removed his mask and padding and assassin gear. He now wore a trench coat with casual business wear and a fedora. He was more confident than earlier because this part was easier than earlier but still very dangerous, so he couldn’t get too overconfident. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be completely deprived of confidence, for instance he had already planned out his travel route, the train would take him from Moscow, Russia to Warsaw, Poland ,and they would travel through various other Eastern Bloc nations. After arriving in Poland, Slade would take a train to East Berlin, East Germany. Once in East Berlin, he would pose as a border guard at Checkpoint Charlie and when the coast is clear quickly sprint through the infamous checkpoint to West Berlin, then and only then would his mission be complete. Slade began doubting his plan but thought back to himself “Hell, if some crazy German border guard could jump it last year, than so can I, it’s not their fast enough to stop me!”

Eventually the train arrived “Perfect!”, Slade thought to himself, “with this long train ride I’ll all the freaking time in the world to plan and perfect my escape back to the West!” Slade was eventually seated to his cabin, it was a nice small room with two seats on each side. He was very lucky because no one else came in to the cabin. Eventually the train started to go and they departed the station, Slade gazed out the window, entranced by the imagery outside. All he wanted to do was go to sleep, but not yet, not until Moscow was behind him.

Eventually half an hour into the train ride they had finally gone outside of the streets of Moscow and were now into Western Russia. Knowing that Moscow was now officially behind him Slade began to doze off into a deep sleep, being tired from the events earlier that day. At first he tried to fight it but sleep eventually overcame him and he gave in. “Something tells me this is going to be one long trip” thought Slade before he entered the dream world.

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Author's Note

So that's chapter one everyone! Not very crucial to the story....but I wrote it so I can get you familiar with the character of Slade, what he can do, and how he reacts to certain situations. I promise the next chapter will develop the story more, and dive more deep into the personality of Slade and definitely some very interesting character history.

Also I thought this theme song would be fitting for both Slade, and the chapter really

But anyways please leave a comment! :rainbowwild:

Also very big thanks to the following users that helped out by editing and coming up with amazing ideas for the story:

StormLuna
Prospekt
FamousLastWords
FanOfMostEverything
Phoebus Maximus
Whinifree
Cutest Boxer Puppy

Chapter II: The Dreamer

”All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible”
T.E Lawrence
“Lawrence of Arabia”

******Chapter II: The Dreamer******

Slade sat alone comfortably in his train-car. Slowly but surely he was giving in to the sensation to go to sleep. "Come on Slade your tired, you jumped from building to building, evading the Militsyia, while being shot at. You NEED some sleep," argued his conscious. Slade's awake self than argued back, "Well what happens if I do go to sleep? I will be left defenseless, what happens if the KGB did track me onto this train? They'll probably come in here and slit my throat or something!" With that thought Slade finally came to a conclusion, "I go and get some food, see if there are any suspicious characters on board, and then come back and think of it then!"

With that thought Slade got up and proceeded to head to the dining cart.

***

As Slade entered his personal cabin, he noted to himself that his dining cart visit was very successful. Not only did he get a very good meal, he also did not notice any suspicious figures. He had done it! He had escaped the Russians for a brief amount of time! Now and only now could he finally rest. Slade then lied down on the cabin bed and submerged himself into the dream world.

All he saw was the grassy and hilly plains of California. He could tell it was summer time, it was very warm and there was a mild breeze. At first there was only noise from the breeze and various animals, but slowly but surely another sound began to emerge; the laughter of children. He could plainly tell the laughter was of a young girl and boy. He saw a young boy run up the hill but alongside him ran something very unexpected, something one would only find in children's fables and imaginations; a young unicorn filly. Slade smiled as he saw the pair run and laugh together, he remembered those days and wished dearly he could return to them. These moments all happened before his life had really escalated ,before assassinations ,before the CIA, before Korea, and before Slade had really become a man.

Slade remembered the summer of 1946 for it was the best summer of his life, it was the summer he met one of his best friends. The dreamed than flashed and shifted to a small forest opening, there the same boy from earlier sat but something was different about him, he seemed lonely. The boy sat on a tree stump reading a book titled "For whom the Bell Tolls." The boy hummed as he flipped through the pages, he was entranced by each page of the story. Slade remembered the boy being very mature for his age, always taking a liking to more mature topics (mainly war, politics, and internationalization affairs). That's when suddenly there was a snap of a twig off in the distance. The boy quickly looked up and observed his environment.

Slade remembered and knew this part very well. The boy then went back to his book shrugging off the twig snapping as "Probably an animal or something." That's when the twig snapped again, and with the sound the boy looked up again, this time he noticed it. A young unicorn filly stared him straight in the eye, she had a Maya blue coat, her mane and tail were periwinkle and both had a blue streak through them. Her eyes were dark blue, same as the boy.

At first the boy thought he was hallucinating or either day dreaming on an extreme level. So he shut his eyes, very tight and counted to five in his head. "One....Two....Three.....Four......Five!" his thoughts counted, he then opened his eyes expecting the unicorn to be gone. But sure enough she was still there, now looking at him confused. Several awkward seconds passed before the unicorn said something "Do you always act like this when meeting strangers?" Her voice was very soft but also a little tiny bit high at the same time, nothing less expected from a young female.

"Nnnnn...nooooo," replied the boy stuttering, "Usually ww..hen I might strangers, they...they aren't usually animals."

"Animals!" replied the unicorn outraged , "for your information, I am a intelligent young filly, I have a high A in my class!" The boy just awkwardly stared back at the unicorn and then looked at the ground, never before did he think he would ever be lectured by a freaking unicorn, a creature out of children stories. The unicorn then stated, "I don't think we can keep this up forever I guess....my name is Minuette, but some of my friends call me Colgate for some reason.....your name?"

The boy then looked up at the unicorn filly, he replied "My name is Slade.....Slade Wilson". The older version of Slade looked down upon this child, he thought to himself "It is very hard to think this kid, someone so innocent, could become me."

The unicorn filly then stuck out her hoof, as if she was about to shake a hand "very nice to meet you Mr.Slade Wilson!"

Young Slade then stuck out his hand and replied while he shook the hoof "Yea....you too". He then noticed there was a very large cut on Minuette's forearm. "That's a very nasty cut you got there, we should wrap it up before it get's infected or something" With those words young Slade pulled out a tissue from his pocket, he then proceeded to take off his shoe so he could take his sock off. After removing the sock he put the tissue on Minuette's wound and used the sock to wrap around the tissue.

"Thanks" said Minuette, she then looked up at Slade and asked cursorily "Say where did you learn to do stuff like that? I've never seen anypony able to do it that fast"

Slade then looked up from the wound, and towards Minuette. "My daddy was a medic during the war.....trust me stuff like this is very minor compared to wounds he seen."

Minuette then looked up at Slade "What war??"

"Oh the "Great World War II" my daddy fought in it, lost his left thumb, biggest war ever, just a young kid when it started"

Minuette blinked and took a few minutes to process it. "Interesting" she said "How did it start?"

Slade thought back for a second, he was searching his memories back to 1939 when he saw the news report of the German Invasion of Poland. Slade then finally remembered how it started "some crazy German guy, named Adolf Hitler wanted to take over the world, as my dad says "Son...everyone looks are the world different ways. Some want to admire the beauty of it while others want to take everything and control it with an iron fist", say do they fight in any wars, you know..... where you come from"

"No...not for a very long time at least you see in my world......" and with that Minuette and Slade began to explain to eachother how one anothers world worked. They also shared personal information about themselves, they also gossiped about stuff. Slade was not going to lie, he really enjoyed the company of Minuette. Sure she may not be human, but she is still pretty interesting. One thing was for sure she wasn't a girly girl (like various females Slade had saw in school) and she never lacked being interesting. This summer is going to be one that is going to be remembered

***

Older Slade's dream then shifted quickly through various days of the summer he spent with Minuette. Through the quickly flashes he saw the countless adventures he and her went on. Like the one time they were pirates or the one time they were knights fighting epic battles against evil mages and monsters. One thing for sure is that Minuette was not a girly girl, and she was not dull what so ever. More and more memories continued to flood older Slade's mind, to point where they were overwhelming. But every time he looked at a memory older Slade noticed the two friends getting closer and closer.

The dream then stopped flashing and landed on a nice summer evening, Slade and Minuette sat together.

"Do you think I'll be able to visit Equestria Minuette? Or do they have some strong laws or hatred against humanity?" asked Slade, who was observing the sunset.

"Of course! I would love it if you could and meet my other friends! They'll think you are pretty awesome!"

The two then sat silently together, staring at the sunset and then Slade said "Minuette....I want this to never end, I hate school, sure I have good friends but the teachers are boring as heck......and I'm.....I'm just worried I'll forget all of this" Slade sighed and then looked down.

Minuette then looked up at Slade "believe me I never want this to end either but sadly a time must come when we must move on and grow up,but one thing is for sure, we must enjoy the moments we are living in currently, for if we spend to much time thinking about the future, we will miss out on great opportunities". Both of them looked at each-other and gave one another a hug. Minuette then got up and motioned Slade to follow her. "So your worried about forgetting, huh?" she asked "I have an idea so you will never forget this summer ever!"

***

After walking back to Slade's home ,they entered his bedroom where they began working on their little project. after various hours it was complete; two matching necklaces, they were shaped like heart's (courtesy of Minuette), and carved in them the words "Slade and Minuette, best friends forever, Summer of 1946". The two hugged each-other, older Slade practically shed a tear at seeing this site, he then closed his eyes and the dream began to flash over various other years of his life. With each year Slade was getting older and older and the memories of that summer began to fade and fade until nothing remained, the necklace was just something that he remembered making when he was a kid.

Four long years had passed and Slade was now enlisted in the U.S army, ready to be shipped off to the Korean Peninsula to the fight the rising threat of communism in Asia. It was in basic training that he met his best friend in the army, Christopher Johns. Christopher Johns and Slade were almost inseparable (almost like how he and Minuette used to be). But even with his long talks with Christopher, he still felt something was missing. At that point in his life Slade had other things to think about than cute childhood memories and imaginary friends, he was a man now, a man going to a war he may not survive in. But even during the war Slade had felt deep down that something was missing.

***

Slade had been in Korea for at least a year now, he arrived in 1950 and already participated in several engagements. It was in 1951 in the Battle of Chuam-ni that he lost his eye, a Chinese marksman had grazed him across the face. It was during the war that Slade learned a lot about himself, he learned his secret talent for marksmanship. A week after losing his eye Slade had at least nineteen confirmed kills. He remembered Christopher saying "Damn best shot in all of this entire army!" . Slade was awarded several medals during the war by his superior officers. But even when achieving personal glory, he still had felt something was missing in his life. Several times he had looked down at the bracelet he and Minuette made trying to remember what it meant.

Eventually the day came where Slade's perspective on life and death would be changed forever. It was September 13th, 1951 and the war had turned various tides. The war shifted from the plains of South Korea, all way to the hills of North Korea. Slade and Christopher's division had returned from leave and were hungry for some action. Older Slade remembered this moment crystal clear, Lt.Ritz had entered their tent and told them "boys! we're moving out to combat, some place called Wendgelhi, other guys are calling it Heartbreak Ridge, anyways get your goddamn asses off the floor and prepare to move out!" Slade and Christopher gave each-other thrilled looks, finally after a long break they would have a chance to fight again!

***

The battle was hell on Earth, Slade and Chris had regretted ever saying they were excited for something like this. It had been three hours and already half of their division had bullets put into their head. Even Lt.Ritz had gone missing either dead or captured, nobody knew. Currently what was left of the division was taking cover behind the blown up remains of a artillery station. Eventually the time came and the highest ranking officer of the group; Sgt. Schultz decided to take action. "Alright boys.....we need to take out that damn MG nest, so I need Wilson,Crane, and David's to stay here and provide covering fire, Johns, Baker and Roberts your with me, we're going to silence that fucking machine gun!"

With those orders several men of the division began to moan,groan,complain, and some even cried. Slade looked at Christopher who was on the verge of tears. Attacking that MG nest was practically suicide, the North Koreans were in to good of a position to successfully assault. Slade, being a good, friend decided to reassure his friend. "Hey Chris.....good luck and I'll see ya around" Slade stuck out his hand (as if to shake) to Chris who slowly put his hand out.

Christ shakily replied "yyyyea....yooouu too, see you Slllllade". He then weakly shook his hand. Despite all his arguments against it, Slade knew the Sergeant was right, if they didn't stop the machine gun, some unlucky battalion might get attacked by it and be put in the same position his division was in.

"Alright men!" the Sergeant said as he looked at his men, Slade could see the fear in his eyes. "We're going to attack now, guys with me, be as quick as possible and sprint to that MG nest, guys here....provide covering fire so that MG will be distracted!" With those final words the Sergeant looked down distressed and upset he then looked up at his men, took a deep breathe in. In those brief moments before the attack started, time seemed to stop, all Slade saw was the depressed and distressed faces of his comrades, half of whom were about to rush to there doom. Slade then used this spare time to look down at the necklace he wore, and never understood why, he remembered making it but forget why, but that was not important now, he had other things to focus on. The Sergeant loaded his Thompson machine gun and said one last prayer. ALRIGHT, GO GO GO!!" yelled the Sergeant as he jumped over the sandbags, he was followed by his other troops. Slade and his men provided covering fire.

It was after several shots when Slade heard it, the sounds of mortar being fired off in the distance. "Shit! MORTARS!" yelled Slade. His men were quick to look up and react.

One of the men yelled "Quick! Scatter Now!". As the man tried to get up, the dreaded sound of machine gun fire was heard and the man was stopped dead in his tracks. He fell on the floor, lifeless.

"Damn MG got him" though Slade, his thoughts were interpreted by the nearby explosion of a mortar

BOOOOOM!

"Shit......well.........C'est la Guerre" though Slade to himself as the mortars got closer and closer. Finally one hit right next to Slade.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

All Slade remembered was seeing darkness and hearing the muffled cries of his peers, and machine gun fire.

***

Slade then quickly woke up, panting frantically, he was now back to reality, back to the train car. It about a minute or so before he regulated his breathing pattern again. He walked up and went to the washroom in his train cabin, he turned on the sink, let the water flow, cupped his hands, and splashed some on his face. He then looked up from the mirror to his reflection, puzzled he stared at the man he saw, "Shit! I forgot the dream!". Despite all of his efforts, he had forgotten it, all he remembered seeing one tiny object in his dream was the necklace that he protected and cared for so dearly.

Slade pulled out the necklace from under his shirt, he then pulled off the necklace from his neck and examined it. A wooden heart with the words "Minuette and Slade, greatest best friends forever,Summer of 1946." Slade tried to decipher the words ,trying to make sense of what it meant. But it was still a blank, though deeply something was missing, something very crucial and something that had impacted his childhood life. "Well it isn't the first time I had forgotten something....and it will certainly will not be the last I forget something.....bedsides it's only a ridiculous childhood memory, I have better things to think about" though Slade out-loud. "Speaking of better things to think about, wonder where the train is" and with that thought Slade put the necklace down on the vanity and proceeded to exit the restroom and look outside the window to figure out where in the world he was.

The necklace then lied there on the vanity, the only memories of a summer and experiences now lost to time. But something else began to happen, the cracks in the necklace began emitting a dark green mist that was barely visible to the naked eye. The creases and cracks in the necklace began to also glow, with the same color light as the mist, several letters on the necklace began to glow, with each letter with a tone symbolizing where the letter was in the word. Darker was later on and brighter was earlier on in the word, the letters shaped out the word ending

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Author's Note

Alright so this chapter was a little more detailed and introduced you to some interesting character history concerning Slade. But you see.....not everyone is perfect, Slade suffers from temporal amnesia, one minute he will remember something and then forget it later on. (That may or may not cause some problems later on :ajsmug:
Hey also for those people who may get confused about stuff, I have put some images from the Korean War to better explain what situations Slade and his division were in.

Here is a picutre of the artillery thing (before it was in ruins)
that Slade and his comrades too refuge behind

Here is a picture of the infamous machine gun nest

Chapter III: The Investigation

"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"
Peter Abelard

******Chapter III: The Investigation******

**Part 1; The Escape**

The escape was going to be quick and easy, wind of the news of the assassination had not reached the Stasi, so they were completely unaware of Slade being a fugitive, this would be easier than he though. He had already forged his East German military identification papers on the train. He had also already gotten rid of his luggage, or more or less had given it to a Western spy at the train station. The next part of executing his escape plan was getting an East German military uniform.

The first thing Slade did was headed to the East German military headquarters. The streets of this nation shared several characteristics with the streets of Moscow, the police force was extremely violent and brutal, and the weather was both bitter and cold.

After walking several miles Slade found the building was looking for, he noticed the guards doing their patrol around the front gates and the statue of Lenin, this could be his advantage. He maneuvered himself through several alleyways, until he was at the back gates of the complex, as he expected, no guards. It was routine for the guards to do several patrols on a daily basis, lucky for Slade he had arrived when the guards were doing their routine patrol. He then hopped over the wall and began to make his way to the building.

***

Checkpoint Charlie, the most well known border point, a powerful and defining symbol of the Cold War. This was the point that separated east from west, capitalist from communist, and NATO from the Warsaw Pact.

Several East German border guards looked over at their western counter parts. Both sides had cold and heartless stares at one another, but deep down they knew this was pointless, they were both German for crying out loud. But both Eastern and Western Germans hoped, someday, they could be reunited again.

It was the time of day again when the East Germans switched their guards, their Western counterparts also did the same. But more importantly it was the ideal time for an escape. The East German colonel yelled "Achtung! Firma A verlassen, Firma B steht auf Wache!". The first company then left, and the second company then stood at where their predecessors had stood. Slade knew it, it was now or never.

As the guards began talking to one another, ordering one another around, moving to their ordered locations, Slade then decided to make a full out sprint from his post. He ran towards the infamous checkpoint, still at full speed. As he ran he yelled "DON'T SHOOT I'M AN AMERICAN!". He saw the Western guards stand down and began to raise the gate, but he also realized that the East Germans know had an idea of what was doing.

He heard the same German colonel from before yell to him "Halt! sonst wirst du erschossen!". This didn't stop him, if anything this made him faster, knowing he had a bunch of angry communists with machine guns were chasing him.

He ran and ran and then ran even faster until he was there, over the infamous border. But for that brief amount of time while he still ran, everything went quiet and time seemed to stop for Slade. As he crossed over the Western side, Slade practically collapsed from exhaustion. He heard several people began to clap and cheer for him. A western border guard picked him up and began to question him. Sure there would be a hell of a lot of questions for Slade, but he had personal sanctification and relief to keep him going. But he had did it, he had escaped the communists and lived to tell the story.

**Part 2; The Taking**

Meanwhile, in a completely different time zone and continent to Germany, young little Margaret Wallace sat on the swing in her backyard, it was 8:30 and the sun had already set. "30 more minutes until the curfew kicks in". She was smart for her age, she knew the police had instigated a curfew since the disappearance of several children had happened. Some were older and some were younger than her, some were even in her grade. But one thing was for sure, she knew she wasn't going to disappear. She was the toughest girl in her grade, she was faster and stronger than all the boys in the majority of her classes. Whatever would happen, she wouldn't go down without a fight.

She just sat on the swing pumping herself backwards and forwards. She loved being outside, it was always so peaceful and calm. But sadly that would not last long.

She heard a snap of a branch, and quickly cocked her head over to see what made the sound. She saw nothing. Margaret was officially began to freak out, she swore, no.....she knew that she had heard something. She then heard light breathing coming near her. For some reason it calmed her, but also frightened her at the same time. She then saw her.

A woman wearing a black hooded robe had suddenly emerged from the woods. Margaret didn't know what but something about her was unnerving. The hooded woman came closer and closer to Margaret, and when she was close enough, she spoke. "Hello young Margaret Wallace, I have been searching for you". Her voice was calm, soft, and paced.

"Who.....who are you?" asked Margaret, barley getting the words out of her mouth.

The woman then responded "my name is Impius, and I have been searching for you....to complete the forgotten prophecy". After she had finished her sentence, the woman removed her hood and robes. She had nice silk blonde hair, she wore a crown like object that covered her forehead. Her face was clean and spotless, her nice green eyes almost glowed in the dark. She wore a sort of armor that had several designs carved into them, mainly the breastplate had designs. The metal boots she wore matched the designs of the breastplate.

Margaret was so transfixed that she almost forgot what she was going to say. "Prophecy.....What prophecy?"

"The prophecy...is a important to my sisterhood and I, it will bring forth the new era, a time of peace and prosperity". stated Impius

Margaret then replied very confused "then how and why am I involved in this?"

"You are one of the chosen few that are known as the elcti, we are to bring you to our master, this is the greatest of honors" replied Impius, this time sounding a bit more stricter in her tone.

This was all making Margaret feel uneasy, a strange woman, dressed in medieval attire, comes to her demanding she come with her to fulfill some prophecy. Red flags went out all over Margaret's mind, she had to get out of there, and fast. "You know....my parents are probably worried about me, and the curfew is about to kick in and......" she was cut off by Impius.

"So you say no?" said Impius in an quiet and dark tone.

"No.......it's just that I'm busy and got school and stuff and....." Margaret was then cut off by the pure fear that consumed her. Impius's hair had several black streaks in them, her eyes glowed red, her teeth had now all but become long and sharp fangs.

Impius's voice then turned very very dark as she said "My master requests you come, and when something is requested by the master, it must be fulfilled, now come with me.......before you get hurt."

Margaret then ran and began to scream "Help somebody help, please!". As she looked back, she saw Impius running after her, Margaret's pursuer then leaped into the air and cut Margaret off. Impius's arms had become long and shadowy and cut off Margaret completely.

They then became longer and longer and encircled Margaret, and Impius began to laugh in a dark,mocking, and demonic voice "no where to run little one". All Margaret could do is scream as this....this monster ensnared her. That was the last anyone saw of poor Margaret Wallace.

Impius then began to walk back into the woods whispering to herself "As times become darker, the prophecy shall see it's completion, and we....the sisterhood of the Myriad shall rise, soon master.....you shall return I promise."

**Part 3; Reassigned**

Many miles and oceans away, Slade sat at a desk at the U.S embassy in London, England. He had just finally finished his reflection on the events that had just unfolded, not less than just two days ago. After finishing the last sentence ,Slade sighed from exhaustion, he then put the papers into the folder and closed it. He observed the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency, after several minutes.

It was one o'clock in the morning, the date was October nineteenth, nineteen hundred and sixty two. Slade was aware of what was going on in the world right now, as he was informed of current events. He was now aware of what was mainly going on in the island nation of Cuba. All he could was pray that no missiles was going to be fired off anytime soon.

Slade then looked at the clock now, entranced by its ticking. As the clock made its usual sound and the dials moved, Slade then remembered something; the necklace. He pulled it out of his undershirt and held it right in front of him. He studied and observed it very thoroughly, trying to decipher what it meant. He had all but forgotten his childhood, with all the events that had occurred in his lifetime.

His thoughts were interrupted though for there were more pressing matters at hand. Several knocks on the door had just happened.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

All Slade could say was "come in!". The desk worker from down stairs, Ms.Helen, had entered the room. She held an envelope in her hand.

She said in quick and somewhat tired voice "letter for you Mr.Wilson". Slade then curioslu took the letter from her hand, a letter at this time in the morning, something was up.

Slade muttered "thanks" to Ms.Helen, and with that response she left. Slade then looked at the envelope, it was sealed with the official seal of the United States of America, this meant either he was getting decorated, or he was in serious trouble for something. He knew he was a bit reckless here and there, but to get a letter from the government, then he would have to blown up a communist memorial or something. He had detained it enough with these thoughts, Slade then opened the envelope. In it he found a letter that said the following

Dear Mr. Slade Wilson

We have seen your skills in both combat and survival, and we know you are one of the best. Both my cabinet and I decided that you, and you alone, are the only one capable of completing this task we are giving to you. You may ask, what task is this, it is fairly simple; to investigate the disappearance of several children in the town of Mirifield in the state of Washington.

The disappearance rate is about 32% above the national average, this has become somewhat of a crisis. Are the communists involved, we do not know, but your task is to find out, and possibly eliminate the source of the abductions. I understand that this may not be your most exciting mission ever, but it is still very important. As you may know, the majority of our other sources are concerned with the whole missile crisis occurring in the nation of Cuba right now, so this may not seem a big deal.

But regardless the threat is still very dangerous, and at large. As said earlier Mr.Wilson, you are the best, and you are going to have to be the best. Mr.Wilson, see to this done immediately.

Sincerely, President John F Kennedy

Well.....that sucked, there went Slade's break. Slade then began to complain to himself and then realized that it was the president of the United States that had ordered him to do this, and besides how hard would it be? Just go around and do some detective work, compared to other things Slade had done, this would be easy.

***

Slade had caught the first flight from London back to the United States, he didn't care what state he ended up in, he just wanted to get back to the U.S first.

He had to take several flights before finally reaching his destination. After he arrived in Seattle, he had to take a train to get down South. He took the train as South as it would take him, eventually he had to rent a car to get him to the final location. He had a brief understanding of this small Washington town, Ms.Helen had given him a dossier containing a brief background on the town and its history. He had studied maps during his long flights in order to get him there the fastest. It was strange never before in the entire history of the town, had this much children disappeared, ever. What ever it was though, it was his job to get to the bottom of it, and possibly put a bullet between some sick child kidnappers eyes.

After another two hours Slade had finally reached the town of Mirifield. It was not to large but also not to small, it was probably the same size as Yorktown in Virginia. Slade drove around a bit to see if he could find any suspicious characters. It was late at night, and that was usually when the creeps run amok. Surprisingly he saw nothing, no people roaming the streets whatsoever, it was a small town, with probably a small population.

With that thought, he decided to crash out for the night. Heck he was practically still in the Russian time zone, he need some sleep and some rest. So Slade turned his car around and began to drive to the local hotel. He swore several he saw a young woman looking at him from the nearby woods, very menacingly. He merely put it off as his mind was playing tricks on him, for he was very very tired now.

As Slade drove on though, Impius stepped out from her hiding place in the woods. She whispered "Master he has come....". She closed her eyes, as if she were visualizing something in her head. "He comes with a destiny decided by his superiors, he is armed and very intelligent". She then took in a breathe and opened her eyes, "but do not fear my lord,
he cannot stop us no one can. Soon the a new era will begin,the tyranny of Celestia and Luna will end, the time of men is all but over. And from both of their ashes, we shall rise. The age of the shadow will soon begin"]. She then put her hood up and stepped back into the shadows.

**Part 4; Day One**

The morning was absolutely awful, Slade was still in European time zone. He woke up when it was exactly two thirty in the morning. He ached all over his body as he slowly got out of bed, he could barley think or act. Both the plane and car rides had killed his morale, this was going to be a long day. "Well better get started" thought Slade, trying to keep a positive spin on things. And with that he stepped out of the bedroom and headed to the restroom to go shower.

Several hours later, Slade was in a much better status than he was in when he woke up. He had gotten in a shower, and nice shave. He had also put on a different suit than the one he was wearing earlier (and had slept in), so he was officially more presentable.

Now that his looks were good, he had to make sure he was prepared. Under his jacket, he had a gun holster, which contained his C7-25 automatic pistol. Also under the suit he had a very very light form of body armor (it was not as effective and strong as his usual one). He had his I.D and everything else set, now one problem remained, where was he going to go first to start his investigation?

"I should probably start at the police station first, they will probably have the most information about these disappearances" and with that thought Slade left the room.

***

The police station was overcrowded with upset and concerned adults, probably parents of the missing children. Slade had to practically fight his way to the front desk. The man working there was somewhat obese and not very observant, he smoked a cigarette and was reading an magazine. It was probably a minute before he noticed him. "Can I help you sir?"

"Yes actually, Slade Wilson, here to see sheriff Wyler". Slade noticed the man rolled his eyes as he put his magazine down to see the schedule.

"Ah yes Mr.Wilson, you can head right in, down the corridor, first door to your left". With that information Slade began to walk down the hallway, he didn't want to waste any more time with that fat idiot.

Slade then followed the man's directions and found the office, he entered.

***

To be honest the whole trip to the sheriffs office was a waste of time. The majority of the things the sheriff told him was stuff he already knew. There was one or two things the officer told him that he didn't know, for example, he was being assigned a partner; United States Marshall John Kruger.

Kruger was young, late 20s and early 30s, but he was good. He had hunted down and apprhended several drug lord, prison escapees, and criminals. But Kruger would not arrive till mid-day, and it was still early morning, so Slade still had some time to gather some information on his own.

Slade sat alone in his car in the parking lot of the police station. "So...where to start?", thought Slade to himself, "I should probably go investigate the sight of the most recent disappearance...the Wallace resident, according to the sheriff." And with that thought, Slade studied his map and found the Wallace resident on it, he then drove off from the parking lot.

The ride over was weird, it was still somewhat warm out, and there were no children outside. Halloween was around the corner, but there were no decorations or anything outside to celebrate the holiday. The only people he really saw on the streets were both older and middle aged people, barley any children. The looks on the people were both unhappy and concerned. Another thing he noted were the amount of ads he saw. On practically every alleyway and store, there were missing poster's. Something foul and wicked was afoot, and it had destroyed the once good spirit of this small town. It was Slade, and now Kruger's, job to find out what was causing this and stop it.

After being helplessly lost for a few minutes, Slade finally got back on track and finally arrived at the Wallace's home. As he exited his car and began to walk to the front door, he thought to himself "this isn't going to be pretty".

He knocked on the front door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

He heard some yelling from inside, a middle aged man and woman, and a female teenage voice. Already he could tell that this family was a wreck since the disappearance of their daughter.

A young woman then answered the door, she was probably the sister of the missing girl. She spoke, in what was practically a whisper, "who are you...and what do you want?"

Slade responded very politely and confident "my name is Slade Wilson, I'm with the CIA, here to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Margaret Eileen Wallace, do you know her?"

The girl looked down at the ground know, it appeared that the very mention of the name had both attacked her, and destroyed whatever confidence she had. The young woman then responded "Yea...I was her sister."

Well Slade's analyzing skills had not failed him, that was good, to know. Slade knew the sooner he could get this conversation done the better. The girl began to motion him inside, which was both a burden and a curse. "Well c'est la vie"thought Slade to himself as he entered the home.

***

Slade knew stared at a small wooden swing-set, the last known place where Margaret could have been. After several hopeless minutes, he took in a breathe and decided to use a technique he had learned from the CIA. Slade then closed his eye and took in another much deeper breathe and began to talk aloud to himself. "There was a girl, a young one, sitting here on the swing-set." Slade then stuck out his hand as if he were feeling or pointing at something, "suddenly a figure, most likely the assailant, approached the girl from the woods, she was surprised by it, the assailant most likely tried to convince the girl to come with them, and when they refused the assailant took her by force."

"How did you manage to do that so quickly?", the question took Slade by surprise, he was very quick to look over his shoulder and maneuver his body into a defensive position. To both his relief and disappointment, it was the same teenage girl from earlier.

Slade let out a sigh and said "ah, it's only you."

"Yea, just me, but that doesn't answer my question, how were you able to come up with those facts so quickly" asked the girl .

"Well". said Slade "it's very simple you see, based on the evidence from the local surroundings, I was able to play out a possible scenario of how your sister was taken."

"Evidence?!" asked the girl in a more confused and angered tone, "what evidence? my parents have been combing this place like crazy, and haven't found anything, and neither have I, and I am pretty observant."

Slade then retaliated in a sluggish tone, "well you nor your parent were observant enough to notice the different boot marks near the foot of this swing-set."

The girl now whom was calmed down took a look at the foot step and indeed found some boot markings on the ground. The markings were deep into the ground, as if the boots were medal or a strong iron.

"Wow" said the girl, "what else can you find out about this situation"

Slade then looked the girl in the eyes and said "not much here, but maybe we should try following them to see if we can find anymore clues"

So they began to follow the deep and engraved footprints in the ground. "Say, I never really got to introduce myself" said the girl blushing a little. "My name is Alexandria, but my friends just call me Alex, I already got your name Mr.Wilson."

Slade responded with "Alex, what a nice name, I knew a guy named Alex once, back a long time ago."

Alex looked down at her feet time to time as they walked, and when she was not looking at her feet she was looking at Slade's face. "Hey Slade, just out of curiosity, this is not meant to be rude whatsoever, but how did you lose your eye?"

Slade then responded "it was shot, by a Chinese marksman, back when I was in Korea." Alex then went silent for the remainder of the somewhat short walk. They finally reached where the footprints ended. It was a little grove, but on one of the black trees hung a black robe. "How interesting and peculiar, what in gods name is a black robe doing in the middle of the grove, what do you think Alex?"

Alex was confused and taken by surprise by the question at first but then was able to get her mind around it. "Probably they did not want their identity to be revealed, just in case anyone was to notice them." Slade knew one thing, Alex was very mature, she gave both a sophisticated and well thought out answer, pretty good for a high school student. Slade knew this was probably going to be the beginning of a very interesting partnership, a determined high school student and a CIA marksman, this was definitely going to be interesting.

***********************************

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Author's Note

Boy :twilightsheepish: this was a hard one to write, but I got it done. More characters introduced, several issues from the previous chapters solved, a plot is being established etc, etc.

Anyways not much else to say other than, I'm very happy I was able to develop the story more, and hope to make it go further on. Anyways I'm tired and am going to bed now

Please leave a comment! :rainbowwild:

Chapter IV: The Journey

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step"

Lao Tzu

**Part 1;Strangers**

Shortly after finding the robe, Slade decided to head out, mainly to meet up with his partner, U.S marshal John Kruger. Slade got into his car and sat in the drivers seat. While he was putting the robe in the back seat, something felt wrong. He got the eerie sensation that he was being watched, he looked out the window, nothing as he expected. Somehow he felt that he had the same feeling earlier, while patrolling the town the night before. Well its just his mind playing tricks on him, better head out before he was late to meet his partner.

***

Slade was scheduled to meet his partner at the small restaurant known as the Rustico. But before he could even do that, he had to review the dossier to find the secret phrase to identify his partner. The dossier was left at the hotel room, so Slade would have to head there to obtain what he wanted.

The drive over there was moderately short, which was good since he was in a rush. Slade speed walked through the lobby and headed up the stairs to where his room was. He quickly unlocked the door and walked over to the shelf where he put the dossier earlier. But there was one problem, it wasn't there.

Slade was officially concerned, he swore he had left it there. It was not like room keeping had come in and reorganized the room, because he had left the do not disturb sign on the door. Maybe he had left it in the car, sometimes he takes stuff with him, and he probably wanted to read it over in the car. As Slade began to walk to the door something caused him to halt dead in his tracks, the sound of gun clicking. A voice followed the sound of the gun's click, a somewhat deep voice, but it had a light ring. "Not so fast Wilson, now only when I tell you to, you turn around." It was a male voice, probably someone in their mid 30s early 40s. "Alright turn around" Slade obeyed instantly, he turned and saw the man that the voice belonged to. He had short hair on the sides, and enough on the top to do a parting, he held a model ten smith and wessen revolver pistol.

Slade now staring directly at his enemy quickly asked "Alright, who are you, how did you get in here, and where is my dossier?"

The man smiled and said, "some, but not all of those questions can be answered in time. But let us start with your identity first, your full name if Slade Joseph Wilson, born in 1931. Served three years in the Korea as a army marksman, and is currently the CIA's best sharpshooter and hit-man. You prefer to, and currently, carry a c7-25 automatic pistol."

Slade wasn't going to lie, he was impressed with this guys observation skills. "Impressive, but that information is about you and does not answer my question, who are you?"

The mans smile grew a little bit and turned into a friendly chuckle. "I'm really surprised you don't know who I am but I guess an introduction and refresher won't hurt, I'm your partner, US marshal John Kruger."

To Slade it all made sense now, the observation skills, the knowledge on him, and where his room was. This information was both good to know, and reliving (since John wasn't some creepy stalking psychopath that infiltrated Slades room). "Well John, I was wondering when you were going to show up" said Slade, in a much more friendlier and comforting tone.

John chuckled and replied "I was thinking the same thing, you realize we were supposed to meet half an hour ago, right?"

Slade felt embarrassed, it was part of his reputation that he was consistent and always on time. "Well John, you see I was working on gathering information that has to do with the current situation, your aware of it?"

Johns friendly chuckles and expressions died down and became much more serious and concerned now "Yes I am aware, small town, children disappearing, higher than the national rate, in my opinion pretty serious stuff. Let us talk Slade, and tell me what you have found out"

***

So the next fifteen minutes was Slade explaining to John what he had observed and investigated. John would frequently tell Slade to stop and repeat certain snippets, so John could write it down in his notebook. Eventually Slade finished off the story with telling John about the robe he found in the woods, and the footprints that he and Alex were following. "Now you are sure the family did not notice anything relating to the disappearance?" All Slade did was reply with a shake of his head. John looked down at his shoes, he was deep in thought. After a few seconds John looked up at Slade "I'm not saying you and this young girl did a bad job at investigating the area, but I still feel something is missing, take me there now." Slade was about to give a reluctant response, but realized that John was probably right, so within the next five minutes the duo were already downstairs and in Slades car, ready to head off to the Wallace resident.

After arriving at the house, the conversation with the family was quick. John was polite and explained his intentions to the family, they agreed to let Slade and John investigate their property right then. As John was talking to the Wallace's, Slade noticed that it was getting darker out, this is why he was reluctant earlier. Slade thought to himself "Well I should just let this slide, besides, John is an expert that has a ton of experience with this kind of stuff, what could go wrong?" Within the next minute Slade and John were outside, with Alex tagging along as usual. All Slade and Alex could really do is tag along behind John, for he was extremely concentrated and refused to let anything distract him from his work. Alex began to yawn after five minutes of hopelessly following John, who was still submerged in his studies on the footprints. Slade wasn't going to lie to himself, he was pretty bored, he had done this earlier. Slade closed his eye and took in a deep breathe, "don't worry old buddy, John will be done soon, and then you will get to go back into the hotel room and retire for the night."
Slade then opened his eye, and was very startled, a person was staring at him right from the woods.

He looked directly at the person, this was no trick his mind was playing on him. Slade then yelled "hey!" and began to run over to them. Shortly both John and Alex noticed Slade and began to slowly follow him, they were confused. As Slade got closer to the person they ran off into the woods. All Slade could do was sprint after them.

This hooded person was fast, but Slade was faster and had managed to qucikly catch up to them. Both John and Alex were behind Slade in full pursuit. Slade was right behind the person when he finally managed to get them cornered, a river had cut off the mysterious persons path and left them nowhere to run. Slade drew out his gun and aimed it at the person. "Seems I have you cornered, I'm going to take you in for questioning, I'm with the...."

Slade was cut off by the mysterious persons voice, it was female, young, maybe mid to late 20s. She said in almost a whisper "I know who you and your companions are, who you work for, and why you are here, you shall not succeed!"

All Slade could do was respond with "rather farical statement, from someone I havent met, who are you?"

Both John and Alex caught up now, both were out of breathe. John quickly noticed the person and drew out his revolver. The figure took notice of John aiming his weapon at her, she then said "I bid you to put your arms away and turn back and head to place thy once came, if this is not met, then there will be penalties."

John lifted his revolver even higher. "Oh yea hot shot....what kind of penalties?" asked John in a defensive, but at the same time, curious tone.

The figure removed her hood, her facial features were now visible to the trio. She said "the only penalty for interfering with the prophecy of the shadow...... is death!"

The young woman then looked down at her feet, after a few seconds she lifted her head up and opened her eyes, the glowed red in the dark evening. Her teeth suddenly became long and snarled fangs, a red aura surrounded her fists and she began to yell certain words in another language, as if she were casting spells. Quickly large pointed rocks began to come out from the ground, they knocked over Alex, and almost impaled John, but he was quick to dodge. Slade had dodged the rocks from the ground, he was on the ground now in a tactical kneeling position, he had his gun locked on whoever this was. He fired two shots at her, but she noticed and did a quick hand maneuver and a shield bearing the same color as her eyes and aura appeared in front of her.

The assailant then looked over at Slade and began to taunt him. "I really expected more, especially from a warrior like you, guess I was wrong then, your not the eternal one, just a pitiful mockery of him "

Slade was quick to come up with a response "Listen bitch, I don't know who the hell you are, or what the fuck you are talking about!"

The figure then began to slowly and menacingly walk over to Slade, as she walked she did another one of those spell thing, which caused another rock to come up from behind Slade and knock him over. So much for that tactical postion. Slade then looked up and was looking directly into the eyes of the now demonic woman, the eyes with their blood red stare. She whispered to him "a shame, you were innocent in all of this, Slade Wilson, to bad you will not live to understand any of this!" From the red glow a knife quickly formed, and then appeared into the hands of the evil woman. Slade knew what she was going to do, he wasn't going to like it.

The woman then lifted up the knife and was ready stab, she flung down the weapon at Slade's chest.

KRACKOOM

Some kind of etentity or force had caused the woman to fall back, and completely disintegrate her knife. Slade was confused at first, he should be lying on the ground right now with a knife jabbed into his chest, how was he still alive. He looked down at his chest and observed where the knife should have been jabbed, but he found something else, his strange medallion that made no sense to him, it had a mild green aura, and mist was emitting from it. Slade looked at it and said "what the fuck?!?"

He heard the evil woman yelling and muttering to herself not to far in front of him. "How is this possible?" she said "your a common human being, you should not be able to possess magic like this, how is this possible?".

Slade was about to say something, but the green mist began to surround his face, at first it was barley visible, but soon it was the only thing he could see. The mist then entered into his eye and caused him to faint. All Slade saw was black.

**Part 2; Remembrance**

Flashes after flashes occurred and surrounded Slade, he was in the realm of his mind. At first the flashes were barley visible and moved very fast, which caused them to be blurry. The memories soon began to slow down and become more clear, which made them more images than flashes. There were also sounds he could hear, laughter, crying, yelling, and other emotional sounds.

He then observed the pictures and saw various moments from his life. They ranged from his time in Korea, to his fifth birthday party, and the near death experience he had in Russia a few days prior. But amongst those memories there was one that stuck out and was brighter than the rest of all the memories. Slade went over to observe this memory and saw something that changed everything, he saw a young boy, and next to him was her, Minuette.

How in the hell could he forget something like that, something so magical and unforgettable. But this new discovery did not just cause Slade a remembrance it also caused him a realization. The strange necklace that he wore around, those strange and mystic words in carved into it, it all made sense now, why he carried it around and never parted with it, and why he always felt that something in his life was missing. But why now, why not earlier in his life, it must have something to do with magic, some-kind of event or something must have triggered it.

The memories then began to fade out and the area surrounding him was misty and windy. Somehow this reminded him of the part from A Christmas Carol, when Scrooge is seeing the future. He then heard some screams around him followed by some gunshots. He then saw a tower emerge from the mist, it was dark and dreadful, it pained Slade just to look at it. He saw cities and town burning around him, people locked up in chains and being forced to work in coal mines. Was this nightmare true? Was this actually going to happen? "No it can't be, I don't want to see it anymore! I NEED TO WAKE UP!!"

***

Slade then awoke from his nightmare, panting heavily. He looked around him to make sure none of what had happened was true, and thankfully it was not. He then peered over and observed his companions, Alex was wrapping John's leg up with a cloth. John then noticed Slade was awake, "hey Slade, what the fuck were you doing all of that, taking a goddamn nap, we nearly got impaled!"

"Twice" added Alex, she had just finished her wrapping's on John and now diverted all her attention to Slade. "Do either of you two, agree with me when I say what we witnessed was because we were drunk or something, like that's, just both impracticable and generally impossible."

Slade was now finally able to stand again and had walked over to the nearby stream, "no sadly what we had witnessed was all to real, whoever she was and whoever she is working for, is most likely behind the disappearances of the children. We need to stop them, before more children disappear, and worse, their "prophecy" is complete.

"And what the hell might that just be?" asked John.

"I don't know the details exactly, but all I know is it's going to be bad for us. I caught a glimpse of what might become of our world if it is completed, and that is something I never want to see again!"

Slade now saw it, both John and Alex were deep in thought, which caused a great silence among them. After a few seconds the silence was broken by John, "Slade let's be real for a second, suppose we we're crazy enough to go after them, what would we fight them with? As you just saw bullets aren't very effective against them and...."

Slade cut off John in the midst of his sentence, "maybe those aren't strong enough, we probably need something bigger."

Slade's statement had failed to calm down John, if anything it fueled his argument even more. "Where are we going to get that Slade, the only people who can supply us with that stuff won't believe anything we say. And even if they were to believe our story they wouldn't care, all of their attention is focused on Cuba right now, biting their nails Castro won't get trigger happy and fire a nuke at us." John took a quick breathe and then resumed his rant "and speaking of where, where would we even think to search for this witch and her cult, it's not like their local to anywhere, and....."

Slade intervened this time with a better argument, he had thought up off. "I may have a solution to some of these issues you bring up, where we are going, and what we are going to use to fight this cult."

John began muttering something before Alex intervened "listen you two, bickering and arguing is going to get us nowhere, but Slade, John is right, where are we going to find this cult and how will we find them?"

"Alright have a seat, I have a story to tell...you see this necklace I wear, almost all of my life I had forgot it's meaning. I had always thought it was some cute thing that reminded me of my childhood, but tonight I learned I was wrong. Nearly 16 years ago, when I was still very young, I.....errr...encountered something in my backyard." Slade didn't know how he was going to explain meeting Minuette, but he was going to have to try. "What I encountered was...was...a unicorn filly", Slade saw it, the shock and confusion in his two colleagues eyes, "anyways, this unicorn, her name was Minuette, and she was one of the very best friends I grew up with." He saw it now, in Johns eyes all he could see was confusion and denial, but in Alex's eyes he saw understanding and compassion. "Eventually, I don't remember how, we parted ways, but that is not the point. The point is she came from a world full of magic, where some wise princess ruled or something, she called this landEquestria or something. So magic is no big deal to the inhabitants of this world,I'm pretty sure they even use it on a daily basis, so overall if anyone is going to understand it, it's them. You see my point?"

John shot Slade with a very concerned look "Slade are you sure your alright....you sure you didn't lose some brain cells when you hit your head?"

Alex then hit John's arm, signalling him to be shut up. It was a brief silence before Alex said "given what we just witnessed, I believe you Slade, but how will we find this Equestira place even, I'm pretty sure they don't have a bus that just takes us there."

"And that my dear had already been solved, if these crazy withes got here then there's got to be a portal or something that we can use to get there."

John finally perked up the courage Slade " That's good Slade, but where? These withes could have came from a portal anywhere in the world and somehow ended up in this small town."

Slade quickly thought of a something to say, "trust me...I also have that figured out". A lie, he literally had no idea where he was going to even think about searching for this portal. "But before we do that, we need to head back to my hotel room and get some supplies ready, maybe two or three days max and then....." Slade continued his long speech about what supplies they would need and how long they would be gone, as the group got up and began to walk towards the forest path.

***

Immediately after arriving in the hotel room, Slade got suited up, in the same gear he had used back in Moscow. He didn't wear as much armor though, and he also decided to ditch his mask for the time being. He and his colleges packed various supplies; food,water,weapons, and other necessities.

They were ready, now it was time for the long walk to wherever the hell this portal thing was.

To not get the attention of any local citizens in the town, they simply walked back to Alex's house, she showed the two men several shortcuts in the woods. One reaching the area where they were attacked, they followed the large and hurried footsteps that the assailant had left behind. They went on for sometime, but they eventually ended, this must be where the portal was.

Before entering though, the trio took a vote and decided to sit down and take a break before entering. Using this break time Slade decided to check his watch, one Am, damn they had been up late. Besides the feeling of tiredness, there was also the feeling of fear. Who the hell knew what was on the other side? Sure Slade had met an inhabitant of this world, but that didn't mean that she was the only one there. There were bound to be more creatures in this land of Equestria, and most probably didn't have well intentions.

After regaining their strength, the trio headed to the portal, they stepped through. It was the weirdest feeling Slade had ever felt in his entire life. All that surrounded him for a few seconds was a bright and white light, it practically blinded him, but Slade had to keep going. The light became so unbearable, that he had to close his eyes, it took at least fifteen second before Slade was brave enough to look. Once he opened his eyes, he was relived to see that the light was gone, and that he could see the forest again, but it was a lot different.

The trees had a different color and design to them, so did the plants and the grass. Also the night sky was a lot brighter here than it was back in the other forest, this was all the evidence Slade needed to see to say he had traveled dimensions. Both John and Alex had not been far behind them, and they to took in the different scenery. "Holy shit, you were actually right Slade." stated John as he walked towards Slade "Now where do we go now? The footprints have officially disappeared".

Slade looked blankly at John, how did he know where to go? This was all new to him to. But luckily Alex saved Slade from embarrassment by giving him a thought. "Didn't you say that the unicorn girl you met lived in some city or something?"

"Yes, she said she lived in Canterlot, but never gave me a description of the freaking place, so sorry I have no idea" replied Slade.

"Well not much we can do now except wait until tomorrow morning, we need the rest, and then we shall go exploring" stated John.

The trio then set up camp and went to sleep for the night, an action they would soon regret.

*****

Author's Note

Man this was a long haul to write, finally Slades got his memories back! And the our favorite trio has finally ventured to Equestira! More to come very soon! :raritywink:

Chapter V: We Are Here

"You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common"

Lyle Lovett

******Chapter V: We are here******

So far, all night, Slades dreams had been plagued about his reunion with Minuette. How was he going to do it? It had been sixteen years since they had last seen each other, and if Slade forgot about it, Minuette probably did to. The only solutions Slade could think of was to play it by ear or something. Well that would have to wait, there were more pressing issues at hand, getting rest and staying alive.

Slade awoke the next morning, tired, and clueless on where to go next. This was like nothing he had done before, because usually when going on missions for the CIA, he had some background knowledge on the country he was going to. But Equestria, other than ponies living there and some city names, Slade was blank.

**Part 1; History Lessons**

After some arguments with John (which had died down since entry into Equestria), the group decided to walk north, and hopefully stumble onto a path or a town or something. After walking clueless for two hours the group came across a statue /memorial of some sort. It depicted a tall armored unicorn mare, with a long mane and tail, she had an evil and serious face, but much to the groups confusion, she had wings.

"What the hell do you think this is Slade?" asked Alex.

"Probably some messed up deity or incarnation of the devil" replied John blandly. But Slade did not agree with this statement. Ever since his encounter with the crazy demon shadow lady and his necklace enabling, Slade had been getting visions. He didn't say anything earlier because he didn't want John and Alex thinking he was a schizophrenic, but the visions were happening. The visions usually showed events that were relevant to what was going on at the time.

So when Slade looked at the statue, he got a vision. He saw the same mare in the statue, except she seemed younger, and more innocent. Then the vision flashed and the mare seemed older and had a look of jealousy when next to a tall, white, and truly beautiful mare. The vision then flashed again and the dark mare from the statue was identical to her statue. Slade heard her yell at the white mare "there can only be one princess in Equestira! And that princess...will be me!" Could the white mare possibly be Celestia? He then heard the dark mare yell "Luna? I am Nightmare Moon! I have but one royal duty now... To destroy YOU!" The white mare had to be Celestia, she matched Minuette's childhood description perfectly. The vision then flashed to the two mares fighting, after a fierce struggle, Celestia was victorious, and Nightmare Moon was gone. Did Celestia kill her? Did she banish her? Slade had so many questions that weren't going to be answered.

"You good Slade?" asked John, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yea I'm good, just figuring out who this statue is" replied Slade.

"Who is it? If we are travelling in this world I would like to now a little bit about its culture." asked Alex curiously.

Slade then began his lecture, "well the statue depicts Nightmare Moon, who pretty much tried to be the Napoleon of her world an dethrone the current leader Celestia, she........"

***

Slade continued telling the story for fifteen minutes. After that the trio decided they were rested enough and continued their journey. After pushing through some trees, the group found a path, finally some good luck! They followed the path for an hour, until they reached a town.

The trio took cover in several bushes along the towns outskirts, they were still aliens in this world, and didn't want to be confused with some type of monster and cause a crisis. They simply took the time in hiding, to investigate their surroundings, a ruralish town that matched German like town architecture, in its center it had a town hall, and on its outskirts it had a large crystal like castle. It bustled with different types of colorful ponies, both male and female. One thing Slade noted is that they all had some type different of symbol located on their flank, could this be a social class or something?

Well that was another question he would have to ask Minuette, if he could ever find her. After some close thinking Slade and
Co. decided the group should simply head to the crystal castle thing, that looked royal enough for a princess to live in. So the group began to maneuver through the cover of the bushes towards the castle. All this sneaking around had brought back memories of Moscow to Slade, which was just a few days ago, but felt like a lifetime ago. At least now the only threat was a bunch of colorful ponies offering their friendship to him, not an angry group of Russians with machine guns.

After a while of maneuvering the trio had reached the castle, there were no walls or anything so it would be fairly simple to enter. Not only had luck allowed them to find a path in the forest, it now bestowed them with the gift of a small window being opened on the castle. It was not too high up, so Slade threw one of the ropes they had brought with them, and prayed it would latch onto something, it did! Luck was just on the groups side today because no ponies or any form of life were in the room with the opened window.

This infiltration was slight work compared to some of the missions Slade had experienced in his life. Now he just had to find a map or something that would show him where Canterlot was.

Slades heart then stopped, he heard a noise from another room. He then put his mask on and cocked his pistol and headed to the room where he heard the sound.

**Part 2; The Encounter**

Princess Twilight Sparkle sat alone in her castle's library, submerged within the pages of her book. She had been so busy lately, she didn't much time to herself. Spike was out on an errand, and all her friends had their respected chores to do, so she now finally had some free time.

She quickly levitated the mug next to her with hot chocolate in it and took a sip. After the sip, Twilight put the mug back down on the table, which caused a sound to happen. Right after she put the mug down, she swore she heard a sound coming from the storage room next to the library. It was probably her mind playing tricks on her, she was tired and had a late night the previous night. Not less than a second after brushing the sound over as mind tricks, she heard it again. Now she was convinced that someone was in there, and they were moving around. Perhaps it was Spike, he probably forgot to tell Twilight he had arrived home, but that was one of his habits ; announcing his arrival. Perhaps it was Rainbow Dash trying to play a prank on her, she did usually sneak in through the extra room's window, they had to leave open to regulate the temperature in there. Well only one way to find out, investigate.

Twilight got up and creeped towards the door, making little to no sound as she moved. Upon arrival to the door, she heard breathing out there, somepony was there and they breathing heavily as if they were anxious. Twilight then planned her strategy, open the door and confront whoever was out there, and she wasn't afraid to use violence on some burglar.

She then counted to three, and then used her magic to do it, she opened the door quickly and very strong. Much to her surprise it wasn't Spike nor Rainbow Dash, nor was it anypony at all. It was a big, creature that stood on two legs, its face was divided by two colors, black and orange. Orange on the right and black on the left. On the right side she spotted an eye, she could see the look of fear and surprise in the creatures eye. She saw it was holding some kind of device, perhaps a wand or something, she wasn't going to risk being ponynapped.

So Twilight quickly screamed and slammed the door on the creature, she heard it yell at the top of its lungs, "SHIT!!". Twilight used a spell to keep the door locked, after regaining her confidence she leaned her ear against the door to hear if it had left or not.

Much to her surprise Twilight didn't hear the sounds of breathing near the door, nor the sound of hoofsteps running away, but she did hear two masculine voices, and one female, conversing. She heard muffled phrases such as "Slade....what the hell happened....why was there a scream?" And "If you didn't wear that stupid mask everywhere....we wouldn't have this problem, now some poor pony thinks we are terrorists or something!"

Twilight put all the events through her mind, perhaps these weren't some evil beings trying to capture her. After some quick deep thought, she decided she was going to give them one chance, and one chance only to be peaceful. She yelled through the door "Alright, whoever you are, I'm going to open the door! If I see any signs of hostility, I will shut the door and call for the royal guard to come and apprehend you, understand?"

She heard some quick whispers from the other side "alright, we agree to your terms, open up the door."

For Twilight, time seemed to stop as she opened the door for the strange creatures, standing outside her library. After the door was finally fully opened, she gazed right at them, three tall creatures, wearing different types of clothing. She noticed the one she had seen earlier had removed his mask thing, and had an eye patch over his left eye. For was an awkward silence before the male without the eye patch came up to Twilight and said, "hi, we're from America."

**Part 3; Gathering Confidence**

It had to be a straight half an hour before the trio could get it through Twilight's head, about what and who they were and why they were there. Twilight then asked again "So your telling me that some dark magic bearing cult, is stealing young children, planning to overthrow the governments, enslave the entire population, on both our worlds. And Slade here is looking for a pony that has some type of magic that can repel the magic of this cult, is that all?"

The trio shook their heads and Slade said "yea that pretty much sums it all up".

"I'm really not sure what to say" stated Twilight, "I've never heard of this cult or any type of magic like this before, we have to consult the princess's and my friends about it, but first we must list down our tasks at hand!"

It was evident to the group that Princess Twilight Sparkle had OCD, since they first introduced themselves. It was thanks to her that they now knew where Canterlot was, what an alicorn was, and what these "Elements of Harmony" were.

While Twilight was rambling on and writing her list, her helper Spike the dragon walked in with some food and drinks on a plate. While taking one of the sandwiches off the plate, John asked the young dragon "is her OCD always this....extreme?"

Spike just chuckled a bit and said "Boy you haven't seen anything yet! Just wait until you see how she organizes her books!"

John then took in a deep breathe and muttered to himself "wow! How did some child snatching case, escalate to this? Me a U.S marshal talking with a baby dragon about a magical pony princess's OCD issue, you really got to stop taking those whiskey shots in the morning John."

***

After Twilight had finally finished making her list the trio set out to go meet with Twilight's friends and discuss the situation at hand. Much to Slades disappointment, the train to Canterlot wasn't going to leave until that evening, so another few hours until seeing Minuette again.

The first place they went was an apple farm known as Sweet Apple Acres. Apparently one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony lived and worked there, her name was Applejack or something.

So the group now walked to the very rural area of the town, where they found a few acres of farmland, and in the middle of it, lied a classic barn house and silo. Animal pens surrounded other certain portions of the farm. And out to the northwest of the property was a tree area, where a orange mare, with a blonde mane, and a cowboy hat was working. She kicked at the trees until red and ripe apples fell from it, and into her bucket.

It took Twilight several attempts before she could get the orange mares attention. "Applejack, can't you hear me?!" yelled Twilight for the third time.

The orange then looked over, and took notice to Twilight and Co. "Howdy Twilight, sorry I didn't see y'all over there.....say what in Equestria are those things!" The startled orange mare pointed a hoof at Slade, John and Alex.

"Don't worry Applejack" started Twilight "those three are not evil creatures here to take over Equestria, they are actually really civilized and nice creatures called "humans"."

"Howdy y'all, I'm Applejack, and this is my home; Sweet Apple Acres, making best cider in Equestria for as far back as I know!"

"That sounds very nice, Ms. Applejack..." began Slade.

"You can call me AJ" interrupted Applejack.

"But we kind of have a crisis on our hands, one that threatens both of our worlds, is there some where more private we can talk about this?"

***

The group now sat in the middle of the living room in Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's younger sister Applebloom had been bringing food and drinks to the guests as they explained their experiences and theory to Applejack.

"Well you call me rotten as an egg, that sounds absolutely horrible, what kind of cruel and vile creatures would ever think of to do something like that. Say if my younger sister Applebloom was taken by evil fellars, I would do anything in the world to get her back, how can I help you."

John was quick to reply "I am glad to see you are with us AJ, something you could really do to help s right now, is to gather the other four bearers of elements of harmony, and tell them about this to, about us, about the abductions, about everything". John quickly took in a breathe and continued "then have them all meet at Twilight's castle at half past 12, we shall than take a train to Canterlot and carry on after then."

**Part 4; New faces**

The trio then met the rest of the bearers of elements of harmony (or the Mane Six as they referred to themselves as). They met the kind but very timid Fluttershy, the egotistical and athletic Rainbow Dash, the energetic and happy party pony Pinkie Pie, and the generous and creative Rarity. They all had the same reactions as AJ and Twilight, and were ready to do anything to help them, this was good, things had changed and turned in the favor for Slade and his companions.