Hero of Darkness

After granting a soul-shivering death to the Hero of Time, the surroundings changed again.

The scene then shifted to a compact courtroom.

The room consisted of three military judges, a prosecutor, a defense counsel, and eight officers sitting as a panel of court-martial members. And in one of the booths, was Gideon in a Marshal's uniform.

In this setting, Gideon was a soldier who was facing court martial. The story went like this…

Gideon was the leader of one of the top special ops units that fought on the borders and he was a patriot of his country. But just 2 months ago, his team received intel that someone from their side was selling the military supplies covertly to the terrorists and there were a bunch of corrupt officers within the military who were profiting from the deaths of their own soldiers by prolonging the conflict between the military and an extremist organization.

Gideon made a complaint to high-ranking officers but his request for an investigation was shut down by his superiors.

But having lived for his country for almost half his life, he followed his gut feeling and defied them, taking off with his unit to covertly investigate one of the enemy encampments to find the trail of how the weapons and supplies were being handed to the terrorist organization.

After infiltrating the camp and taking samples, pictures, and video evidence… they left through a secure route without a single casualty.

But it's as if the terrorist group already knew, they were ambushed during their return and killed the entire team of soldiers.

Gideon was the only survivor after seeing the crewmates that he served with getting killed in front of his eyes.

Two of his soldiers sacrificed themselves just to create a route for his escape and since that day, he lived with the trauma and guilt of leading his people to their deaths.

After he returned to the base with the proof of the military weapons being stolen and sold to enemies and to make sure that his comrades didn't die in vain…

The whole thing turned upside down.

Instead of working to root out the traitors, Gideon stood with gunshot wounds on his left shoulders and right knees while being questioned by the Military Court.

Despite providing the proof, the judges dismissed it as fabricated evidence without even proof checking.

"Officer Gideon St. John. You have been recused of your duty as of this moment.

Your disregard for your superiors in command, then leading your unit into an enemy encampment without evidence or approval of higher ranking officers; resulting in their deaths is a grave crime." said one of the 3 judges.

"You will serve 2 years in the military jail after this Court-martial.

You will be dishonorably discharged from the service along with the forfeiture of pay and allowances." spoke another judge.

"No! This is wrong! I'm the victim here!" shouted Gideon. "We have traitors among our ranks who are selling our weapons to the terrorists just to fill their own pockets." he pleaded to the judges.

But no one acknowledged his words and even his own defense lawyer didn't say anything.

Despite his struggle, Gideon was put in confinement before being transferred to military jail.

As he was contemplating where things went wrong…

Step!

Step!

A man in uniform appeared.

This man was Kahn… his superior to whom Gideon reported the findings to in the first place. "You fucking idiot… I hate overzealous patriots like you the most.

Do you not understand the simple thing, you idiot?" spoke Kahn coldly.

"I was one of the people who was secretly shipping off the weapons and ammo in the name of patrolling units at the border.

But I wasn't the only one. There are plenty of people higher above me." he stated shamelessly.

"And your entire trial was just a facade. Because the Prosecutor, the Judges and even your own Lawyer are part of the system.

You would have made just good money if you kept your mouth shut." he spoke in a mocking tone.

"But no… you had to be the righteous soldier." spoke Kahn in a condescending tone.

"We now live in a world where wars are not waged for the protection of the people or the country.

Even in the old times, wars rarely occurred for the good of the people or to protect them.

War for religion, country, or whatever reason you give… they always happen for profits." he iterated sternly.

"In old times, it used to be mainly for the land or the resources. Nowadays, they happen for the money that these corporations who run the government want.

Because we need a justification to tax the people in the name of war, while we kill innocents from the enemy nation and spend a shit-load of money on the weapons made by these very corporations using the taxpayer's money.

And this is where we send idiots like you to die on the borders." spoke Kahn with a grin, having no sense of honor.

"The men and women of our great nation's army are just disposable vermins, sent to fight a war that does not affect us or serves the benefit of the population.

And people like you die for it while people like me who run the system profit off your blood." he declared in a conceited tone.

"That is how our sweet capitalism works. You should have just become one of us instead of trying to blow the whistle.

At least that way… your crewmates wouldn't have died." he spoke with an evil smile.

"You did this?!" asked Gideon as he realized that something was amiss.

"Yes, I did. It was me who informed those terrorists about your arrival. Sadly… you survived and here we are. Alas, it makes no difference." iterated Kahn solemnly.

"You bastard! I'm gonna kill you." said Gideon in a rageful tone.

"Tch! Tch! How are you going to do that while behind bars?" asked Kahn mockingly.

"No matter how long it takes, the day I get out… will be the day your clock starts ticking." declared Gideon, his eyes filled with pure hatred and thirst for revenge.

"Hah hahaha! You're really slow, aren't you? Did you think you were going to jail just because you defied the military high command?

A dishonorable discharge and stripping off your rank would have been enough in such a case.

But no… the judges who sent you to the jail did it for a reason." revealed Kahn.

"Because you're not coming back after 3 years.

You barely have 3 days left until we bury you in the ground." he revealed their evil plan.

Gideon turned furious and yelled at Kahn, cursing him names and swearing an oath to seek vengeance for his dead comrades.

Kahn then got out of the holding facility and looked at the sunset.

"Ah, this pretentious bastard with protagonist syndrome. Even in his worst dreams, he sees himself as the righteous one and a victim of circumstances. Well, not that I care." spoke Kahn as he left with a smile.

2 days later, while being transferred to the military prison…

Gideon was shot dead by the very marshals who were escorting him and then the case was closed by saying that Gideon tried to flee during the transport.

In the upcoming days, various cases and records of his abuse of authority, sexually assaulting female officers of his crew, and siphoning of military funds came out.

In this life, Gideon, the patriot who fought and lost his soldiers for the sake of his country was branded as a traitor, a deserter and died as a corrupt and rapist officer.

He died the most shameful and unfair death as the higher-ups made him the fall guy to cover their corruption.

After thousands of such scenarios came to be and Gideon lived a different life in all of them…

He felt like he was living multiple lives and perspectives of different people as if they were his own lives in different times and different worlds. And in every single one of them, he was tortured and suffered in numerous ways as Kahn was the great evil who always destroyed his life. In most of them, his loved ones were dying, and he was helpless to protect them. He was sometimes the monster who killed his own family. Sometimes he was betrayed by a lover or a friend and sometimes he devoted his life for his nation, but was sold to enemies because he knew too much. In these different lives, Gideon was living every possible worst-case scenario. Because of the Dragon Magic that Kahn used with the rune he imprinted on Anakin's head… the Hero of Time was living an Unending Nightmare.

In just 10 minutes, the Hero of Time lived thousands of lives and endless possibilities to the point he couldn't tell whether he was living in the past, present, or the original timeline from the future. This wasn't done by the current Kahn who was still finding his purpose and place in Vantrea, but by the future Kahn who was as many times stronger and ruthless after being hardened by battles against powerful foes in the future. In many of these dreams, future Kahn showed Anakin many realities where the Hero of Time had come out as the final victor, lived a fulfilling life, and even won the war against the Demon God… But in the end, it was always Kahn who destroyed everything and took all his glory, and accomplishments, and even turned him into the villain that the entire world despised.

Through this process Kahn was mentally scarring the Hero of Time, turning him into a schizophrenic who was constantly in a time loop, reliving the same memories and repeating actions.

After an hour passed in the real world…

Finally… Hero of Time turned braindead.

"Alright, the job is done." spoke future Kahn.

Kahn then took out Gideon's space ring and took one of the golden glowing orbs out of it.

This golden orb seemed to carry a vast amount of world energy and a transcendent essence that he had never seen or felt before.

This was what all the empires sent their heroes to Babylon for… an Apple of Eden.

Kahn just took one of the Apples of Eden while intentionally leaving one for some reason.

"Alright, the urgent matter is settled." spoke future Kahn and heaved a sigh.

"Now, it is time to complete the overdue task." he declared and closed his eyes.

Finally, the future Kahn entered his mental world.

In here, he faced someone adorning a dark gray longcoat.

And the one that stood before him; who watched this entire battle with the Hero of Time was a familiar man.

Because now was the time for the faceoff between…

Present Kahn and Future Kahn.