18 The Cat's out of the Bag.

Aidan's heart leaped into his throat.

Terminator? Really? That's what gave him away? He thought about all those countless times he had slipped up during conversations in this world... Nobody ever noticed or said anything, so, admittedly, he had gotten a bit careless. And now out of all people, it was the Regent who had somehow caught onto him? How unbelievably ironic.

Aidan decided to act dumb all the way to the bitter end. In his current position, it was possibly the best option.

"Ridiculous! What makes you think I'm not Adnan Minn?" he asked, feigning outrage as well as he could.

"This is how you're going to play it?" The Regent rolled his eyes. "Fine. If you're indeed General Minn, then you'll have no problem recalling what you told me the first time we met face to face."

"Let me think, huh... We talked about so many things," Aidan stalled. "Was it something about how I hate you?"

"Be more specific," the Regent clicked his tongue.

"You know, a lot has happened since then," Aidan said warily. "Mainly, when I was saving your heir to the throne nephew from imminent death – the first time, mind you – I got this nasty head injury. And after that my memory has been fuzzy." Aidan used the same excuse he did with Corus and hoped the Regent would be just as gullible.

Come on, it was a good excuse after all!

"I'm sure that is not something you would have forgotten so easily. Come to think of it, it would be the first thing you'd throw in my face as soon as you saw me. It was your ultimate leverage," the Regent said mockingly. "The General Minn I know would be delighted to repeat it to me over and over again."

Aidan kept quiet, trying to seem calm on the outside. Inwardly he was panicking like a squirrel who lost all the nuts it had saved up for the winter. Apparently, Minn had discovered something about the Regent that helped him keep Corus and maintain his position for as long as he had. It must have been a hell of a secret. However, the Regent had obviously managed to circumvent it now... or render it useless. Either way, Aidan had no idea what this great secret was. Why, oh why couldn't he have kept the General's memories? It would have made everything so much easier!

"Nothing to say?" the Regent asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Of course I remember your dirty little secret," Aidan said with a calm smile. He decided to go for broke and try to bluff his way out of this. "And if you don't let Corus go, I will tell every single soul about it."

Suddenly the Regent coughed, and as Aidan raised his eyes at him, he realized that the man was desperately trying to suppress laughter.

"What's so funny?" he asked. "I'm serious."

"Oh, this is just priceless," the Regent was now holding his stomach, and literal tears were rolling down his face. "Why didn't I realize it sooner? You're just as much General Minn as I am a prima ballerina."

Aidan saw that his bluff was called, but he was not ready to give up.

"You know what, laugh all you want. It doesn't matter who I am. My point from earlier still stands – sooner or later, one way or another, I will get out of this cell, and then there will be no mercy for you."

"Is that right?" the Regent stopped laughing. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard some rumors about you consuming copious amounts of alcohol lately. So much alcohol that you could barely crawl."

"So what? I can assure you that I'm completely sober now, and I can do much more than just crawl," said Aidan, looking the Regent straight in the eye.

"Do you have any idea why General Minn is, or let's say "was" an ascetic?"

Because he was crazy? What did that have to do with anything?

Aidan had nothing to say, so he continued just looking at the Regent.

"Of course, you don't know. Otherwise, you wouldn't... oh, never mind," the Regent waved his hand.

"And what about you?" Aidan asked. He had suddenly realized some inconsistencies in the blonde man's words.

"What about me?"

"How do you know what a "Terminator" is? Or a "prima ballerina" for that matter?"

The Regent smiled.

"Honesty for honesty. If you tell me your story, I'll tell you mine," he said.

Aidan thought about it for a while. The Regent was extremely untrustworthy - Aidan feared that any information he revealed would be somehow used against him. However, the guy obviously knew enough about Aidan's world to figure out that he was an impostor. So telling him a little about his real identity would not make the situation any worse. At least in theory.

"My name is Aidan. I passed out at a rave, and the next thing I knew I was here, in this body. I don't know why, I don't know how. I've been here for over a month. I don't want any trouble and, believe me, I don't want to maim or kill anybody, but you have to let Corus go. Or... I will do whatever is necessary to force your hand."

The Regent nodded and after a short pause said:

"Nice to meet you, Aidan. I'm Jake. I fell asleep on my wedding night. When I woke up, instead of a honeymoon, I had a whole lot of annoying problems on my hands. It's been... about five years now. Believe it or not, I also didn't want any trouble at the beginning. But it seemed to find me anyway. Corus is safe - you don't need to worry about him. That's as much as I can tell you now. As for forcing my hand, I'm afraid you've reached the end of your rope. If you actually were General Minn, you would have been able to cause some trouble. But you're not, which makes things much easier for me."

Aidan's head was spinning. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. The whole thing just seemed surreal.

"It means," he said slowly, "that we are from the same world."

"I guess so," the Regent shrugged.

"Then why are you so evil?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

Aidan almost choked on his own tongue when he heard such nonsense.

"I haven't done anything evil since I've been here."

"Oh really?" the Regent pursed his lips. "Let me see, you say it's been about a month... From what I've heard, you've tortured somebody to get Kai's location. You've also killed about three dozens of people, you've injured countless of my men, and... you seem to have no qualms about owning a slave."

Aidan felt his cheeks burn. Unfortunately, this was all kind of true.

"I had no other choice," he said quietly. "And I do mind slavery, ok? Corus implied that you might be doing something horrible to his people. So don't blame me for trying to protect him from you."

The Regent looked at Aidan thoughtfully.

"You know, in many ways, I also had no other choice," he said, his voice suddenly hoarse. "And I'm not harming Corus or his people, though I understand how it might seem so."

"Then let me see him," Aidan said.

The Regent shook his head and sighed.

"That is not so easy. Even if we are from the same world, we are still complete strangers. I can't just trust you like that."

"I feel the same," said Aidan. "I'm sorry, but before I see Corus safe and sound, I will treat you as an enemy."

"Fair," was all that Jake-the-Regent said in response. He then turned around and left without another word.

Aidan rubbed his temples and was just about to lie down when he saw the man coming back again. A familiar guard was following him.

"Please make sure to feed this prisoner very well," said the Regent right under Aidan's incredulous gaze.

The guard nodded, looking extremely confused.

"Also, bring him as much wine as he wants," the blonde man ordered with a weird smile that didn't reach his eyes. "At any time of day or night. If you disobey, I will know."

The guard nodded so energetically that it seemed his head might fly off at any moment.

"I'll come to see you when I decide what to do with you," the Regent narrowed his eyes at Aidan and then finally left.

"Oh no, buddy, you're being fattened up before the slaughter," the guard said with sympathy. "I wouldn't want to be you."

Aidan didn't know what to think anymore. It was clear that the Regent was a very bad guy. But was Jake just as bad? Worse? Better? Aidan couldn't say.

From the very beginning, he had thought that he was a much better person than General Minn. But was he really? The Regent was right – he had used this super-strong body to kill people, and he didn't even feel particularly bad about it. Yes, he hadn't maimed anybody as of yet. But he was not above injuring the guards just to get to the Regent. He had explanations for all of his actions, of course. But aren't all evil people convinced that they are doing the right thing? There probably aren't any villains that run around all day thinking their raison d'etre is to perform malicious acts out of pure malice.

At this point, the only thing that Aidan was sure about was that poor Corus deserved to have a better life. So next time the Regent came around, Aidan would plead with him again. He would even offer his complete cooperation – no violence, no fighting. Just to see that his guy was doing all right.

Incapable of dealing with his thoughts anymore, Aidan asked the guard for two bottles of wine, which he received almost immediately. The guard obviously took the Regent's orders to heart. And Aidan was all too happy to get wasted and be distracted from his anger and his grim thoughts. Thus he happily spent the next couple of days in a drunken stupor.

Until one morning - or evening, it was hard to tell anymore - he woke up with a horrible headache and was just about to ask the guard to bring him some more alcohol to cure his hangover. That's when he saw the Regent looking down at him through the bars.

"I actually thought you'd try to break out... But instead, you spent this whole time drinking. You really do have a problem," he scoffed.

"Yeah," Aidan responded. "My problem is you, keeping me in this cell."

"Where else would one keep somebody who hit the Regent Emperor in front of countless witnesses?"

"On a pedestal?"

The Regent smirked.

"You'll be happy to know that I talked to Corus."

Aidan got very still.

"Luckily for you, unlike me, he trusts you. I can't imagine why but he is not against seeing you."

Aidan got up and impatiently walked up to the bars, ignoring the dull pain in his head.

"I will take you to him. But there will be some ground rules. If you attack me or anybody else on the way, you will die. If you as much as look funny at me or anybody else, you will die. On the spot. Do you understand?"

Aidan nodded.

"Also, the place where I'm taking you – nobody can know about it. So you will have to take an Iron Vow before I let you in there. Is that clear?"

Aidan nodded again.

Only then did the Regent unlock his cell.