Empire Reborn

Life as he knew it was about to change. By now, too many things were out of his hands to have any fleeting sense of control over the Empire. His revenge was futile and he's done more harm to Alduwitz than he's done good. There and then, Riley couldn't do anything more than hope and have faith in his allies. Hope that Spark and Q would find him, hope that somehow they'd be able to take out the threat, hope that he didn't cause the destruction of the Empire. Utterly defeated, Riley dropped to his knees and hung his head low. As despair flooded his face, he reached for his pistol before he tossed it at Agoren's feet.

 "There you go. Doesn't it make you happy knowing that you made the right choice? And don't worry, I will hold up my end of the bargain." 

Riley couldn't move from his knees, his emotions took over his brain without leaving any processing power for Riley to move his limbs. Agoren still needed Riley to achieve immortality, and he knew threatening him wouldn't work; after losing patience, Agoren decided to deactivate his forcefield and help Riley to his feet, assisting him to walk before he was able to on his own. Even as they left the small enclosed room together, Riley still felt completely defeated; not even noticing when blood suddenly splattered on his face. Another body fell dead to the floor. He finally snapped out of his daze when Spark slapped his hands down on Riley's shoulders.

When Riley and Agoren were leaving the room Riley had been trapped in, the remainder of his allies used the open comms and find his position; they knew Agoren's forcefield would be down when Riley struggled to walk on his own, and all that was left was to wait for them to round the corner where they waited, Q making no mistake to fire a shot straight through Agoren's brain. Spark, still in Riley's face sounds ecstatic; a tone that's usually hard to achieve when blood is spilling from someone's face as they lie lifelessly on the ground.

 "Riley! Was that who I think it was?" 

 "That was Agoren," Riley said, emotion started to seep back into his words as he began to realize what had just happened. His own smile grew on his face when he saw the person who killed countless people was now dead. "He claimed to be the leader of the New Light, and I don't doubt that. Wait, we need to leave, now! Remember that one guy we encountered at the mouth of the cave? Well, he's supposedly going to assassinate the Emperor. If he's still under Agoren's control, I think the rest of the civilians still are too."

 "Don't worry," Q piped up. "We found the back door, must've been how he got all those people down here in the first place." 

They continued through the halls, leaving Agoren lying dead on the floor as they made their way to the main door to the facility. The door was massive, sealing off the bunker from the rest of the world; on the other side of the open area was the wall that trapped all of the remaining people of Hencia in the facility. They all felt poorly about leaving them behind, but there was nothing they could do for them at the moment other than making them stay there and rescuing them in the future. They opened the door and desperately made their way back to the Emperor's train, where they immediately departed to return to Jimat. 

Most of the train ride back to Jimat passed by silently. Captivated by the heat of the moment, this forced downtime brought Grant back to Riley's mind; until now, Riley hadn't even noticed that he was missing. 

 "Wait, hold on... what happened to Grant?" 

 "He's... no longer with us," Ike spoke up, he'd been friends with Grant for the longest time and it was painful for him, to know that he wouldn't come back. "You remember walking through that corridor with us, all those changes in terrain. He stepped on a trapped pressure plate and got... split in half. Then you were gone before we even noticed what happened to Grant, honestly thought you died too until you patched us into your comms. But hey, that's how we took down the New Light though, right? So it wasn't worthless." Ike started to tear up but didn't let any tears roll down his face, believing Grant wouldn't want him to cry.

 "But we did make a call back home," said Q. "When I shot Agoren, I had Spyder notify the House of the Emperor and the military that the New Light was no more. Then Riley, you said that guy who told us he was looking for his daughter was actually going to kill the Emperor. I've been trying to contact them, telling them not to let the Emperor make a public appearance about the news, but I haven't been able to contact anyone." 

By the time they made their way back to the train station on the outskirts of Jimat, a few military trucks were waiting to escort them back to the House of the Emperor. Q told the other soldiers present what was going to happen to the Emperor, and they quickly sped off toward the city square, where Austin was about to make his appearance. They were too late, by the time they arrived in the square, Austin was already out on a balcony, declaring victory over the New Light.

 "Today marks an important day in history. Today, Spark, my son, and a few other brave soldiers were able to find and eliminate the head--" His speech fell short. As blood started to trickle from his forehead, the Emperor's body fell limply off the balcony and into the crowd of citizens. Absolute chaos ensued. Spark and Riley were rushed back into the trucks that took them back to the House of the Emperor, but not before Riley saw that same man they saw at the mouth of the cave, eyes flashing red, on a rooftop overlooking the balcony where Austin had made his shortlived speech. Once back at the House of the Emperor, both of the boys were sent to their rooms and wouldn't be allowed to leave until the following morning. 

The next day, Spark and Riley would meet back in the dining hall, the same place where they first met. Without any servants present, the two of them were free to converse;

 "So, what now?" Riley started.

 "First of all, the Alduwitz needs a leader now more than ever. Thanks to you not only do I have the support of the people, but I also feel like I can make a lot of changes for the better; starting with the old New Light facility. Since we never closed that back door, I'm sending a few squads over there to release the people of Hencia from Agoren's control and start rebuilding the city. But what I guess you want to hear, I overheard Agoren when he said you could go home. I looked into it and found the room attached to my new office and confirmed how it works; your identity lies in your soul. If you're willing to give up the portion of your identity that links you to Alduwitz as a reincarnate, the machine will send you home. As long as no one is in the room with you when you leave, no one becomes immortal, that part of your soul returns to the world."

 "You sure you got it from here? Because if you do, I'm going home. I made promises to special people back there and I really want to keep them."

 "This is what I've been working toward, and you deserve to go home. I'm pretty sure my father promised you some form of compensation, and now that that task has come to me, I see no better reward." 

"Just say farewell to the others for me please."

The two of them stood up from the table and left the dining hall headed toward the Emperor's office. When they got to the room that housed the callback machine, they stopped to shake hands before Riley stepped into the room alone. He powered on the machine, inputting that he wanted to relinquish his identity as an inhabitant of this world. Pushing the button to enter the command, he suddenly found himself back on his home street on Earth and no longer in Alduwitz.

Nothing had changed in the time that he was gone. The trees, the grass, the sky, the wildlife, it all felt nostalgic, but much more comfortable than anything Alduwitz had to offer. After he was finished basking in the glory of having returned to his real life, he knew he had to see Mary. Wasting no time, Riley made his way over to her house as fast as he could, struggling to catch his breath as he knocked on the door. Around fifteen seconds passed before the door opened with Mary on the other side, who threw herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face seeing that he returned. 

 "I told you I was going to keep my promise," Riley said, before planting a kiss on her cheek.

- The End.