Which World is Real?

Chapter 10 - The prison

As everyone starts taking their seats in the counsel meeting room Chloe and I look at each other and Chloe gives me a nod.

She walks over to Azaria to excuse us from the meeting as meetings like these are only for royals, counsel members and top level leadership.

Chloe "mom we are leaving, we will be in our quarters when you are done."

Azaria looks up at Chloe with almost surprise. "Why are you leaving? You are part of this."

Chloe. "I'm no longer a Royal, I was stripped of my title and rank when we were arrested."

Azaria. "And your title and rank was given back to you when I revoked your sentence."

Then Azaria looks at me. "As you are the son of Queen Krish you are also royalty and part of this meeting."

I could feel my head spin, well the whole room started spinning, the next moment I was on the floor with Chloe sitting next to me.

I think everything is just getting too much now, from one thing to another, within a few days I found out I'm not even human, but part of this advanced off world race, then I found my mother, then I was told the only reason I am even able to exist in this universe is because the other me died by been dissected. And to top it all off now I've been given royal status and am expected to join a meeting which might determine the fate of all of existence.

Chloe. "Are you okay?"

Me. "I think so." I try to get up but it feels like every time I try to move the room starts to spin.

Azaria. "Call medical, we will resume the meeting when he has recovered."

After a few minutes I find myself in a white room surrounded by medical professionals.

I could see a doctor speaking to Azaria and Chloe in a corner in the room.

Doctor. "His body took a knock, you know that whenever anyone goes through the procedure they must take a month to recover, he didn't even have a day to recover. "

Azaria. "What does that mean?"

Doctor. "It means he must take it slow, no excitement for a month, and I mean a Seleon month, not an earth month. "

Chloe. "Mom I will stay with him, you need to finish the meeting."

I try to get up from the bed, but the moment my feet touches the floor I just drop, everything just go black, just to find myself waking up back in the bed with Chloe sitting next to me.

Me, "where is everyone?"

Chloe. "At the meeting, but that's not important, what is important is that you need to rest."

Me. "I can't, we should be there."

Chloe. "Don't you even try to get up again, your body is still going through changes and it's weakening you. "

I try to lift my upper body up, but then realize that I'm restrained to the bed. "What the hell?"

Chloe. "My mother made the call after she figured out that you might not listen. "

I eventually calmed down and decided to wait it out, even though I really hate hospitals.

Chloe did go to the meeting eventually and I only saw her again the next day. Krish came to visit me as well a couple of times and couldn't stop talking about how happy she is that I'm back in their lives and that I've found Chloe and about the baby and stuff. She also asked me a lot of questions about the world where I came from and how it got destroyed.

Chloe eventually came back again, but this time she wasn't her happy cheerful self, she had that look of defeat on her face again.

I kept nagging her to tell me what's wrong till she eventually gave in and told me that I started the merge of the parallel universes.

Me. "How did I cause that?"

Chloe. "Remember that you told me that before your world was invaded and destroyed you accidentally entered the void?"

Me. "Yes, but it was an accident, I was trying to understand existence and then got sucked in."

Chloe. "No, you knew about the void before, and you still allowed yourself to be pulled in, well when you entered the void you broke the fabric of time and space, allowing the void to leave its dimension and to start expanding and thus consume parallel universes. From what we know most has already been consumed."

Me. "What do you mean?"

Then I heard Azaria's voice. "That means there is only one left, this one, and every time one gets destroyed then a few beings from that dimension gets displaced into the dimensions that's left. "

Me. "What do you mean? That everyone living there are now here?"

Azaria. "No, only people and beings that isn't alive in this dimension or has died here but still exists in another dimension will be displaced."

Me. "I'm trying to follow you, but it's not making sense."

Chloe. "Basically if you were still alive in this dimension then you wouldn't have been able to get here, or one of you would still have died when you arrived. "

Azaria, "and it gets worse, when the merge begun many dangerous races that we have defeated or hunted extinction in this universe has also been displaced. "

Me. "Meaning?"

Azaria, "the merge is turning this universe into a megaverse, basically we now have more enemies to fight off then we ever had before, as well as the dark empire."

Me. "The dark empire?"

Chloe. "The original humans, they were relentless to conquer as many galaxies as possible, they had similar technology to ours, but we defeated them in this universe, then we sent the survivors to Earth to give them a fresh start and we have since been trying to guide them and teach them a better way."

Me. "Has anyone seen any signs of them yet?"

Azaria. "Not yet, but if our home world survived in another dimension and has now appeared here then it won't be long for them to show themselves here as well."

I could feel my stomach drop, all this because I got curious and now every life in the universe is in danger.

Chloe. "Mother I think I should tell him the next part alone. "

Azaria. "I understand, I will be outside."

Me. "Next part?"

Chloe. "Yes, there is more bad news."

I didn't like the sound of that, but it's best to hear it and deal with it I guess.

Me. "Please tell me."

Chloe. "While you were sleeping a few of the counsel members has arrived, they are aware of what is going on and what started it. " then her face dropped, she had that same look of defeat on her face I saw when we were collared and sentenced.

Me. "What is wrong?"

Chloe. "They demanded that you be punished for the crime of entering the void."

Me. "Crime?"

Chloe. "It's a forbidden practice."

Me. "But I didn't know."

Chloe. "We know and we all pleaded your case, but an arrest order has already been drawn up, my mother and Krish managed to get you a lighter sentence, but it's decided that as soon as you recover you will spend 10 hours in the mind prison."

Me. "10 hours doesn't sound so bad."

Chloe looking up at me with tears in her eyes, it was 20 hours, but I agreed to join you to make it less for you."

Me. "You didn't have to, I am sure I can cope for 20 hours."

Chloe. "No, every hour here is 100 years in there. " she was on the brink of crying now. I tried to move to hold her, but realized I'm still restrained to the bed.

Me. "A thousand years in a prison?"

Chloe. "Atleast we will be together."

She then leaned over to kiss me and that's when I noticed the collar on her neck. "What the hell, why do you have that thing back on?"

Chloe. "We have been arrested, yours was put on while you were sleeping."

That's when I realized that I could feel something metallic around my neck, but it didn't occur to me what it could be.

Chloe left with tears in her eyes, time went slowly and I slept mostly between the visits from Chloe and Azaria, Krish and the Emperor left now and went back to the acturion system, Chloe told me that they did come to say goodbye, but I was asleep.

I woke up to Chloe's voice. "It's time."

Me. "Time for what?" But as I opened my eyes I realized what was coming, no answer was needed. Chloe had a strange outfit on with cuffs around her hands that looked similar to the collar. But before I could move a guard yanked me out of bed and ordered me to put a similar suit on, then he placed similar cuffs on my wrists and we were guided to another room, when we arrived I looked at Chloe, she was pale and scared, but she also had tears in her eyes.

The guards led us to 2 seats with arms rests and foot rests and made us sit down, they pushed our wrists palms down into the arm rests and immediately the cuffs on our wrists stuck to the arm rests.

Then Azaria came in and told the guards to leave.

She came and told us that she is really sorry and never wanted this for us, Chloe was almost crying by now. I could see out of the corner of my eyes that Azaria went and gave her a hug and kissed her in the forehead. Then Azaria put something on her left hand on her finger and then she came and did the same to me. While whispering in my ear. "Please look after my daughter in there, but use this time to work on your relationship, don't see it as a prison, but instead as a long honeymoon, otherwise neither of you will cope."

I tried to speak but realized I couldn't even move my mouth. And that's when I realized I couldn't even feel my body anymore.

I woke up in bed next to Chloe, I looked around and noticed that we were in a log cabin similar to hers on earth, I just smiled at Chloe sleeping peacefully next to me and I was glad it was all a dream, so I went downstairs to make us coffee and decided to wake her up with a cup of coffee.

I gave her a kiss from on her neck to wake her up and she woke up smiling, I handed her the coffee which she took with both hands cupping the coffee cup while sipping it.

But something was off, she kept looking around the room as if she was expecting something to happen. Then she got up and walked over to the wall to open the curtains and window, but as soon as she opened the curtains we both got a shock, she staggered backwards and then turned and ran down the stairs, I just stared at the solid spot where the window was supposed to be, then I heard her scream. I ran down the stairs to see her frantically running from wall to wall, opening curtains, but no windows, then she ran to where the front door is supposed to be and gave a final scream. Then she just turned her back to the wall and dropped to the floor sitting with her back against the wall. Her face showing complete defeat and terror.

I walked up to her to try and comfort her, but she jumped up and stormed past me going through every room. And that's when she cracked.

Chloe. "Mother!!! Mother please don't do this." She spent hours running around the cabin shouting and screaming the same phrase over and over until her voice was almost completely gone. Then she eventually just sat down on the floor against the wall and burst out crying.

I tried to comfort her and speak to her, but she didn't even react to me. All she did was sit there crying. I tried to give her water which she just ended up throwing the glasses against the wall shattering them, but as soon as the glass shattered it vanished.

She refused to move, she just sat there for days just crying, honestly I don't know for how long she sat there, we had no concept of time. It could have been days, weeks, maybe months, or even years. I would sit on the floor close to her, but I eventually gave up trying to talk to her, I couldn't blame her for not responding to me, it was my fault, all this was my fault, us been here, the war, the destruction of all those universes, it was all on me. I eventually ended up sitting in a corner and could feel myself going through the motions of what I've caused, but most importantly of the fact that she is here because of me. I eventually fell asleep, but I woke up to a door slamming, so I got up noticing she was no longer sitting in her spot. I went upstairs to find the bedroom door closed, but when I tried to open the door it was locked. I tried knocking, but no answer, I called her and still no response. I eventually got tired and I must have fallen asleep infront of the door, but eventually got woken up from a sting in my face, Chloe was standing over me, her eyes red from all the crying, but before I realized what was happening she hit me again and again, I tried to block the punches, but some got through. Until she landed one in my face, I just saw a flash and it went dark.

I woke up to something cold on my face, I tried to open my eyes but could barely open them, they were swollen shut and everything hurt. I was laying on the couch on the bottom floor and that's when I realized that I was dragged down the stairs. This is not the Chloe I know, but I can't blame her, she has a right to be angry with me, to hate me, I am the reason for this entire mess, I'm the reason for the war, and now all of reality might end because of me.

I closed my eyes again, they were too sore to open, I decided if her hurting me will atleast help her cope in this hell then I will take it.

I heard her footsteps approaching, and I prepared myself for the next round, but instead of her hurting me she started nursing me, she placed ice on my eyes and I could feel her wiping my face and body with a cold wet cloth.

I tried to speak, but I couldn't, even my jaw was hurting.

Then she planted a kiss on my forehead and she hugged me and started crying, apologizing and begging for forgiveness and trying to explain that she doesn't know what got into her. She eventually just cried. I put my arms around her and hugged her.

I don't know how long it took me to recover fully, and how it was even possible to sustain such realistic injuries in a digital mind prison, but everything in here feels real.

I eventually recovered fully and we sorted things out, she calculated that we must have served most of our time by now, but as we didn't even experience day or night in here it was difficult to figure out anything.

We eventually made the most of our time, we would play games to keep busy, make each other romantic meals, have romantic dinners, we started to get really close and our relationship became stronger, we really worked hard on our relationship and we learned to communicate better.

As time went by we didn't even care about how much time was left, we started to focus on the moment making every moment special and memorable.

We just finished the best meal we ever came up with and went to bed and had an amazing night. She fell asleep in my arms as usual.

I woke up back in the chair, I could feel my body again, Azaria was standing next to Chloe's bed just holding her hand, she immediately ordered the collars to be removed and for us both to be sent to medical for after care and a full medical check.

It took us days to adjust back to life outside the digital prison, but we were eventually released by medical and allowed to go back to our quarters.

We were just about to get ready to go to bed when all the lights in the room went red and started flashing.

Emergency speaker in room - Azaria's voice. You guys need to get to your ships immediately and get out of here…