“Does anybody have my Q-saber?”

“It’s not on your belt?

“No, I looked down and noticed that it wasn’t there.”

“What have you lost this time Carl?”

“My Q-saber,” Carl said, “it’s not on my belt and I don't remember taking it off. Could you and Tim help me look for it.”

“Sure, I’ll look over near the tents and Tim will look in the woods around the campsite.”

“You just want to take a nap,” Tim retaliated, “you're not going to actually look for it are you Luth.”

“I’ll look,” Luth said, “then i’ll take a nap, happy?”

Tim sighed and walked into the woods surrounding their campsite. After walking for a while he saw a silver handle poking out of the ground and went over to look at it. He picked it up and immediately recognized it as a Q-saber, but not Carl’s. He called out to them but there was no response as he had ended walking farther than he thought. He turned around and wasn’t able to spot the campsite.

“Guys?!”

He took a few steps in what he was sure was the direction of the campsite and called again. There was still no response, he started walking and ended up in the middle of the campsite. He looked over and saw Luth and Carl both crouching down on the ground looking at something.

“What you looking a-”

Just a couple feet in front of them was one of the biggest footprints he had ever seen. It was over five feet long and two feet wide. He looked in the direction that it was pointing and saw several others leading through the forest.

“Contact HQ immediately. Something’s on the loose.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sir, a set of footprints were spotted near S-114’s campsite.”

“So, there are plenty of footprints found all over the place. Why is this one any different.”

“Well these don't match anything in the database, mainly because they seem to belong to some sort of machine.”

“A machine? Then why didn’t the radar pick it up?”

“We don’t know, sir. Should I report my findings to Mr. Ryder?”

Mr. Kiwalski tensed at the mention of his name. “No, best not to get him involved, it would only slow down the investigation.”

“What should I tell him then? I am required to tell him something.”

“Tell him that we require his assistance elsewhere, so that he’ll be far enough away to not be a nuisance.”

“Very well.” With that the soldier saluted and walked away, in the opposite direction Jason was to last be seen in Mr.Kowalski noted. He paid no heed to it as he didn’t really care about the whereabouts of the self proclaimed founder.

He would have cared however, if he had known that said founder was at that very moment, ruffling through his office.

“What are you looking for.”

“The report for what they found near S-114’s campsite, it should be here somewhere.”

“It came in less than an hour ago, do you really think that he’d have a copy in his office.”

“No, but i’m hoping he does.”

“Well you’re in luck my friend.”

Jason spun to see a soldier-the very one that was talking to Mr.Kowalski not that long ago-standing in the doorway. He gave a nervous smile as he didn’t remember this particular soldier, “Did you hear me talking to myself?”

“Yeah, though you're not really talking to yourself right?”

“No, just the voice in my head, or rather, the other voice in my head.”

This made the soldier pause, but only for a bit as he had heard about physiological merging before. He walked over to Jason and handed him the file about the footprints. He waited as Jason read through it, then told him about Mr.Kowalski’s wishes to keep him away from the investigation.

“Well I have some business to attend to anyways, so I wouldn’t be able to bother him if I wanted.”

“If I may be so bold as to ask, what business would that be?”

Jason opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, then repeated the process a few times before finally saying, “Complicated.”

                                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smith ran down the hallway, turned a corner and almost slipped, but kept running anyway. Shortly after a small, goblin-like creature charged around the corner after him bearing a pair of chicken wings and laughing sinisterly.

“Someone help,” Smith yelled, “Help, I’m being chased by a gremlin.”

The four beings in the hallway looked at each other but made no motion of going to help. Smith's fear rose as the creature slowly started gaining on him, so much so that it could almost grab his leg. Preoccupied with this fear, Smith didn't notice the man that stepped out into the hallway.

Smith ran into him and was knocked to the ground.

“Jeez Smith, you should watch where you're going.” Phil said, then noticed the creature that had been chasing him. “Morgan, what have we told you about chasing guests?”

‘Morgan’ did his best to look guilty, but Smith could see a bit of a grin on his face.

“Why don't you go see if Amanda's pies are ready?”

Morgan's face lit up and turned to charge back down the hallway.

Phil turned towards Smith, “You going to get up or is the floor comfortable.”

 “What,” Smith said, “was that?”

“That, was Morgan, he stays here every other weekend.”

“But what is it-or he?”

“He’s a goblin, of which seven hundred types we’re not sure.”

Smith slowly got up off the floor, “This place just gets weirder and weirder.”

Phil nodded, “you get used to it.”

“No,” Smith said, “I don’t think I will.”

“Well, you were planning on returning to your regular life right, because if so then it doesn’t really matter if you do or not.” 

“I don’t think I’ll have an easy time knowing about all of this.”

“If you think you’ll have a hard time after experiencing all this then we can always wipe your memory.”

Smith thought about it for a second. “I don’t know, this doesn’t seem like the type of thing you’d want to forget.”

“Probably not, but then again, it's not like you could convince anyone that this place existed.

“Speaking of which,” Smith said, “what is this place anyway.”

“I already told you, Trountor City.”

“No, I remember that, I meant this campus, and what was that symbol on those jumpsuits we saw.”

“Ah, that would be the Illuminati.”

“The symbol on the jumpsuits was the Illuminati?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Because they work for the Illuminati.”

“Wait, you mean to tell me that the Illuminati is real?”

“No, we just used the name Illuminati for our organization.”

“What, could you not come up with your own name?”

“No, it was so if people like you found us and tried telling someone they wouldn’t believe them. Do you know how many people believe that the Illuminati exists?”

“A-a, A lot I guess.”

“And how many do you think have actually been here? I'll tell you, three.” 

“Only three people have been here?”

“No, only three people who have been here left and started trying to convince people of its existence.”

“Ah, Wait.” Smith said. “How do you know that only three people have tried to convince someone else that this place exists? Do you monitor them?”

“Pretty much.”

“You, you mean to tell me that we actually have an organization watching everything that we do?”

“Yeah, it’s the F.B.I.”

“But, I thought the F.B.I. worked for the Government.”

“The one you're thinking of does. This is the Fundoreal Bintora su Ineqwo.”

“The what?”

“It's Senquin for the Department of Surveillance.”  

“And it just happens to be the same acronym as the F.B.I.”

“Well the Department of Surveillance does work in hand with the F.B.I.”

“The American Government knows that this place exists!?”

“Yeah, and so do most governments.”

“A-uh-w-What! Then why does it ‘not exist as far as the world knows’!?”

“Specifically for this reason!” Phil said, motioning at Smith. “We’re trying to ease humanity into the fact that other Intelligent life exists, so that when the governments finally admit that ‘Aliens are real and have been living with us for a while now’ people won’t freak out as much because most will somewhat have already known.”

“I-bu-I me-you-th-that actually makes sense.”

“Yeah, but since you already know, are there any other questions you want answered?”

Smith took a deep breath, “How long have they been living with us on Earth?”

“Six thousand years.”

Smith's eyes looked like they were about to jump out of their sockets. 

“SIX THO-Six thousand!?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

Jason took a deep breath, he’d been dreading this moment for quite a while, but it was finally time to do it. He stepped out onto the stage, and people started applauding. This happened anytime someone went up onto the stage, but the applause he got was always noticeably louder.

“Ladies, gentlemen, beings of all shapes and sizes. Today is a very interesting day, to say the least. Not only have we been very successful in doing things that shouldn’t be possible, but very soon, we will stop hiding in the shadows and announce ourselves to the rest of the city.”

Jason wiped his forehead, they’d all heard rumors, might as well just get it over with.

“As you’ve probably heard, I'm not all here,” he pointed to his head, “up here. That in itself is true. But there is something else that adds to that.”

He was having trouble breathing. Could barely keep his hands from shaking. They deserved to know, needed to know.

“There are a lot of very dangerous beings in the universe. Some you don’t want to encounter, and some you, thankfully, never have to.

Then there's one, just one, that's so dangerous, it's feared, by everything, because of how, abnormally powerful it is.

That creature, that being, is known as a reaper. A deadly parasite, that exists without a physical form, going, from body to body, consuming and manipulating, the soul of the being it's ‘possessing’.

Scary stuff I know.

Luckily, it's been so long since beings supposedly saw one, that it's been deemed a myth, a fake, this creature doesn’t exist. I am here today, bearing the news, that, unfortunately, this creature, does, indeed, exist. And it's living inside of me.”

The audience was dead silent, for the first time in most of their lives, they were so shocked, so, terrified, that they couldn’t do anything. Jason waited, he didn’t have anything else to say, and probably couldn’t if he did. It was finally out, the reason why he was leaving. And he couldn’t wait to leave, so all this could finally be over.

He forced himself to take a deep breath, then walked backstage.