Chapter 15 - Redemption

Chloe here.

I decided to bring Zoe with me and 4 of my mothers royal guards.

We have just arrived at the prison and I ordered 2 of the guards to stand by the docking bridge and that nobody enters or exits the ship. The other 2 came with Zoe and myself.

Usually in a situation like this we would first meet with the warden before going to see a prisoners, specially a prisoner who has been banned from receiving visitors till the end of their sentence.

But I had a bad feeling and a sense of urgency to get to his cell, we have gone out of our way to make sure he can't escape again, we have implanted him with a chip in his brain which connects to his entire nervous system, that is how we immobilized him and blocked his sight, then we designed a special collar outlined with light crystal to block any dark energy, then his new cell was designed with a 2m thick armored blast door and the walls are 4m thick build from the same materials, also lined with light crystals, beyond that his cell is at the furthest end of the prison far away from other prisoners, and if in an emergency it's needed we can eject his cell away from the prison into the emptiness of space. Then there is the bright lights everywhere in the corridor leading to his cell as well as his entire inside of his cell is lined with bright lights, the lights and crystals will block the dark entity from appearing again and breaking him free, and lastly we have turned his cell temp down to just above freezing point, just enough to slow his heart rate, but so he won't freeze. I know it sounds like over kill for one prisoner, but we are still trying to figure out ways to strip him from the energy he has got. You see, crimson light energy is very dark and very powerful and there is basically no known defense against it.

But before anyone judged me for this severe sentence I've given my own husband just remember that he has killed trillions of beings, people and aliens across the known universe, he absorbed their life force energies and even drained the blue light planet of all its energy. So we are talking about a being with immense power here. If we didn't use his only weakness against him, which is his love for me then we would never have been able to catch him in the first place.

Anyway, let me tell you what happened, it took us almost an hour to walk to his prison cell, yes this prison is huge and holds thousands of the most dangerous criminals in the known universe, but all of them together don't come close to what he has become.

As we arrive at his prison I activated the unlocking system, now usually we first check the screens outside to make sure a prisoner hasn't gotten out of their restraints, but with everything we've got in place there is no way he could get free. So as the door starts to slowly slide open all of us gets hit with an icy gust of wind, that shouldn't happen at the temp his cell is set to. I immediately checked the screen next to the door and found that the temp has been set to far below freezing point.

Zoe. "Shivering, geez that's cold. "

Chloe. "That's not right, it shouldn't be this cold. " so I immediately set the temp to slowly increase back to its original setting.

As I walk in I'm horrified at what I saw, he is still there, but he looks like a corpse, so I check the life monitors and notice that his heart is so slow that it's barely beating, his hardly breathing, his got ice all over his body and his skin is broken at places, completely cracked open from the cold, and he looks like his been starved, so I check the system to see if the needed nutrients are still been injected into his blood stream daily to find that it's been deactivated. When I went through the archives I realized that it's been like this for a couple of years now. Honestly if it was possible to kill him then he would have been dead by now, but with all the energy he has absorbed it's impossible to kill him.

So I checked who changed all the settings and I got furious when I finally found the file. Even though he is a prisoner and with all his crimes, this is suffering beyond hell.

I walk up to him and try to talk to him, but he is unresponsive, his head is just hanging down as the tentacles that's suppose to support his head has also been deactivated.

So my anger started to flared up, even Zoe and the guards who feared him are shocked at the state he is in, all voiced their opinions at how even he shouldn't suffer like this.

So I immediately sent a transmission to the ship's medical team to come immediately and sort everything out. Then I ordered the Royal guards that was with me to stand guard and not let anyone besides the medical team into his cell.

Zoe. "I will stay too, regardless of what he has done he needs a friend here when he wakes up. "

I look at her in shock. "Are you sure?"

Zoe. "Yes, anyway he isn't capable of doing anything with all the measures in place."

Chloe. "Thank you."

I immediately left. I'm going to have a word with the warden, her job was to look after him, not try and kill him.

It took me a while to get to her office as it's way on the other side of the station, but luckily on my way there I passed the medical team from the ship rushing to his cell.

My 2 guards from the ship joined me and was replaced by a few other guards at the docking bridge.

As I entered the wardens office I find her sitting in her chair dressed up in her official uniform, the kind of uniform that is only warn for special occasions. She smiles at me.

Warden. "I was expecting the high queen."

Chloe. "She didn't come, it's just me."

Warden. "Well, did you come to reward me, After all I have done a great job, there has been no issues since I took over, no escape attempts and prisoner Sin is still kept in check."

I ordered my guards to wait just outside where she won't see them, I first wanted to test her. But my anger was flaring up again, and you wonder why they refer to him as Sin, well that is what he started calling himself after giving into the crimson energy.

So I took a seat and she offered me a drink which I accepted. She doesn't know that I already went to his cell or that my medical team is there, I made sure to block all the sensors on the station the moment we arrived as I had a feeling that something was very wrong.

Warden while messing on her arm gauntlet, "so what brings you here?"

Chloe. "I want to see my husband."

Warden. "But I thought part of his sentence parameters were that he is not allowed any visitors."

Chloe. "True. But I'm in charge of his sentence and I cleared him to see visitors for the week."

Warden. "You are staying for a week?"

Chloe. "Maybe a bit longer."

I could see that she was panicking by now, getting frustrated on her gauntlet. Obviously she can't understand why she can't get hold of her guards, as said, I jammed her signal just as I entered her office.

Chloe. "Is something wrong? You seem a bit on edge."

Warden. "No, I am trying to get hold of my guards so that they can escort you to his cell, how does tomorrow morning sound?"

Chloe. "I prefer today, I waited a long time to see him."

Warden. "It's just a few hours till morning here, and I'm sure he is still asleep. "

Then I received a signal from our head of the medical team.

It read.

"We will have to move him to the ship board hospital for treatment, his injuries are too severe to treat here and we found more injuries when we examined him. "

I looked back up at the warden. "So tell me, how is he doing? "

Warden, "he is doing fine, he hasn't spoken since you left the last time and our medical team does check up on him once a week as per protocol."

That's when I lost it, "guards. "

My guards immediately entered the room and I ordered them to arrest her.

Warden. "Why am I been arrested?"

Chloe. "Because I've already been to his cell and found the state he is in."

Warden. "Let me explain, everyone here is scared of him, I did what I had to to make sure he doesn't escape again."

Chloe. "By trying to kill him."

Warden. "Come on, we all know that he can't be killed."

Chloe. "You had no right to torture him like that." That's when I got up and left the room, "guards take her away." The guards immediately snapped a prison collar on her neck and I hear her screaming in pain as the collar activates and links to her nervous system.

I made my way to the ships onboard hospital to find him still unconscious with the doctors working around him.

Chloe. "How severe is he?"

Doctor. "If it was anyone else they would have been dead by now."

Chloe. "His injuries?"

Doctor. "Besides what you can see? Almost all of his bones were broken, fractured skull, not one rib is intact and his neck is broken in multiple places."

Chloe. "What? How is that even possible?"

Doctor. "It seems like someone went out of their way to do it. "

Chloe. "How long will it take to treat it?"

Doctor. "I don't know, but it's best to keep that chip active, if he wakes up he will be in a lot of pain and even with our medical technology there is nothing that will be effective for the amount of pain he will be in."

Chloe. "Then keep him sedated, I'm going to pull the footage from his cell to see who did this."

I went to our main control center on the ship where my team has already pulled the surveillance footage from his cell and are scanning it.

Chloe. "Anything yet?"

Then the main screen activates and my team transfers a video to it.

One of my team members, "you need to see this. "

I watch the screen as it comes to live and shows him in his cell, he is just there, I know he can't even move a finger as the chip blocks him from moving at all, so that is expected."

Then it happens, the warden enters with 6 guards and 2 nurses, I can see him reacting and lifting his head, but as I blocked his sight he can't see them. None of them speaks, they move quickly and quietly towards him, now the thing is that he can't move, and can't feel anything in his body unless it goes over a certain level of pain then the chip can't block it, the next moment the gaurds starts to attack him, all at once. Beating him from all sides, that's the first time he reacts and screams in pain, the one nurse jumps in and tries to stop them, but then she also gets beaten and the warden orders the guards to arrest her and take her away.

Then the warden goes and stands in-front of him and she grabs him by his hair lifting his head up, I can see the bruises on his face and blood dripping from his mouth, well from most of his body.

Then the warden tells him that they might not be able to kill him, but soon he will wish for death. That's when she orders the nurse to shut the feeding system down, the nurse just stands there in shock refusing to, she pleads with the warden to let the medical team treat his injuries, but she just threatens her to lock her up as well after which the nurse gives in and does as she is told.

They then showed me more clips of the same happening, at first he started begging them to just kill him, but they just kept repeating the same routine once a week on a weekly basis, they turned the temp down which explains why his injuries didn't ever start to heal, he eventually just became unresponsive, just going through the same torture weekly.

I asked my team when they started doing this to him and they show the date stamps, so this has been going on for 5 years in the outside time back on my home world, but time works differently here, for every year that passes outside a thousand years pass here.

I'm in shock and disgusted at what I just witnessed, even with everything he has done, to be tortured like this for 5000 years is not right, I'm disgusted at myself for not coming sooner. That's when I notice Zoe followed me in, she's crying now, I also feel like crying, but that won't change anything.

We've now been here for a week already and we are still keeping him sedated, it seems that his body isn't responding to any of the treatments and his injuries are showing signs of infection setting in.

Luckily we have the technology to communicate instantly with our home world using sub space communications. I've sent everything and all the reports to my mother too go through.

My mother has ordered us to bring him home for planet side treatment, she has consulted with our specialists back home and they said it's going to be risky, but we will have to wake him up and speak to him and see how he responds to us, if he is calm then they will treat him, if he is still filled with rage then we can't risk planet side treatment.

We are about to bring him out of his coma.

He slowly starts to open his eyes, and I decided to give him his vision back, I need him to know that he is out of danger.

As he wakes up he opens his eyes but shuts them again immediately.

Doctor. "Take it easy, your eyes will take time to readjust and get its focus back. "

He eventually manages to open his eyes and he looks at me, but he looks totally confused.

Him. "Where am I? And who are you?"

He doesn't remember me?"

Doctor. "He has been in there for over 10000 years in this galaxy's time. It makes sense that his memory would have faded."

Him. "What are you talking about?"

Chloe. "Don't you remember me?"

Him. "I don't remember anything? What's going on?"

Just then he screams in pain, his brain took a while to make sense of everything and then eventually managed to interpret the pain.

Doctor. "Calm down, we are here to help you, you've been badly injured."

Him. "They did it, they wouldn't stop, I begged them to just kill me, but they wouldn't even do that."

I could see tears forming in his eyes, for me it was just 10 years, for him it's been 10000 years, I could feel the tears building up and I was about to burst out into tears when he spoke again.

Him. "I guess I must have done terrible things to deserve the torture, but nobody would tell me what I did. " then he passed out from the pain.

Zoe. "How is it possible that he can't remember?"

Chloe. "I don't know, but we need to get him home. "

Chloe. "Doctor did you detect any brain trauma?"

Doctor. "Sighs, I didn't want to tell you, but he does have fractures all over his skull, his got multiple brain injuries and bleeding on the brain."

Chloe. "Zoe stay with him."

As I left the room in a hurry I heard Zoe.

Zoe. "Where are you going?"

Chloe. "I'm going to the bridge, we are taking him home."

As we arrive home the doctor instructed me that we have to take him planet side in a medical landing ship, he can't go through a portal, it will cause more damage to him.

My mother met us at the hospital and she was horrified to see the state he was in, and she looked into his memories before he went into surgery and found that his memory has been wiped after we left the prison, unfortunately because he couldn't see we don't know who was responsible for it, but we have instructed our teams to filter through the footage to find out who is responsible.

My mother decided to pardon him of his crimes and cancel the rest of his sentence, and right now we might need him soon as a few of our newer colonies on some of the remote planets has come under an attack by an unknown enemy who seems out to wipe my people out, some of the colonies were already completely destroyed, others managed to evacuate in time and a lot of our jump ships are unable to make jumps due to been attacked, our specialists has managed to treat all of his injuries and my mother gave him his memory back. Unfortunately he is not himself anymore. We told him that we need his help, but he refuses to fight.

Azaria. "We are going to remove your collar now and deactivate the chip in your brain, we need your help."

Him. "After everything I've done?"

Azaria. "Yes you did commit hideous crimes, but we forgive you, you have suffered enough for your crimes."

Him. "I'm sorry, but I am not killing again, you saw what I become, I can't do it anymore."

Chloe. "Please, our people need you, our daughter needs you."

Him. "Our daughter? She won't want to see me after what I've done."

Azaria. "That's not true, she wanted to come visit you, and she was going to, but then the war broke out and she went to fight for our people."

That's when he finally reacted, he immediately sat up and looked at us. "Who is this enemy? Where is she now?"

Azaria, "the enemy is unknown, we have never seen a species with this kind of technology or capabilities. They are more advanced then us and their ships attack in swarms, outnumbering our entire fleet by thousands to one."

Him. "You do know this isn't going to end well for them, I thought you don't agree with my methods."

Azaria, "after the amount of our people they have killed already, planets they've destroyed? I think your methods are the only methods that can safe us now."

Him. "Finally a threat worse then me?"

Azaria. "Don't underestimate them, we know nothing about them, we don't even know what they look like."

Him. Touching his collar, "well I can't do anything with this on."

Chloe. "Oh sorry." I immediately deactivate and remove his collar.

Him. "Let me guess, if I step out of line you will use the chip in my brain?"

Azaria. "No, this time we need you to step out of line, do whatever it takes to stop this enemy."

Him. "I love the sound of that."

As he steps off the bed his body starts to emit crimson energy and his wounds immediately regenerates, you won't say he had bruises or scars a few seconds ago and the crimson energy just builds up shooting crimson lightning around the room, some even frying some of our equipment, until it subsides and his body is covered in black and crimson armor.

Him. "Sorry about the equipment, it's difficult to control something you haven't used in a while. "

Azaria. "The equipment can be replaced, but we need to move, people are dying, my ship is ready to jump."

Him. "Destination?"

Azaria. "Planet Sin."

He looks shocked, "planet Sin? Why would you name a planet after me?"

Azaria. "It was your daughters idea, she found the planet in a scouting mission and it's our youngest colony, but they are trapped there due to the enemy overwhelming them."

Chloe. "Okay it's all a nice education and he has a lot to catch up on, but if we are going to help them we need to move now."

Just then Zoe walks in "wow, nice armor."

He looks at her and smiles. "Nice to see you too. "

Then he looks at us "you guys take the ship, I will meet you there."

Azaria. "How will you get there?"

But he doesn't answer, he just gets surrounded by crimson light and then he is gone.

Zoe. "That's so cool."

Azaria. "I forgot he could do that, " she then looks at me. "I just hope he doesn't turn on us."

Chloe. "He won't, he has an enemy to fight. "

As we arrive at planet Sin we find multiple enemy ships in ruins drifting aimlessly through space.

And more of them trying to leave the atmosphere, but everytime it looks one is about to get away it gets hit by crimson lightning and explodes.

Azaria. "Well looks like we've got a new secret weapon. "

Chloe. "No, my husband is back. And now we turn the tide of this war. I need to go planet side and help."