Prologue

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The explosion was intense and seemed to go on forever. Nothing but bright light and heat surrounded them. They could only take in the vastness of it. How long the explosion lasted, they could not tell. The noise was all encompassing; they could not speak or think.

 

No one noticed when the explosion finally stopped. The aftermath of the explosion was a jumbled confusion. The silence and darkness that now surrounded them were almost as bad as the explosion had been. They could not tell where one person began and another ended.

 

I was the first to re-form back to myself. At first, I could not remember anything before the explosion, not even who I was. Then I was filled with life again as I started to remember. Something important had happened. But what?

 

That was it—we were not where we had been. This new place was strange. It felt devoid of life and happiness. Completely empty of everything but thought. I tried to move but could not. Then, a sickening realization struck me. My body was gone.

 

Was I dead? Was this place hell? It sure felt like it. I only felt hate and sadness around me. The memory of before was warped and twisted. Nothing could be learned from it. It was fading away. I was scared of not knowing. I wished desperately for someone to help me.

 

The despair kept growing around me. Then I realized that it was coming from the others. I could feel them re-forming around me. Their confused thoughts zoomed around at impossible speeds. There were so many of them. All of their bodies were gone.

 

This all started to feel familiar, but why? I remembered now: I had been fighting. But why? Had I been fighting the others around me? No, they were with me; for some reason, I knew that. We were on the same team. Something told me that I was the leader.

 

Why were we fighting? The answer never came. All I knew was that we had lost. We had been destroyed; why were we not dead? This place should not be real, and yet here we were.

 

I felt the need to know something. I asked those now re-formed around me, “How many did we lose? There should be more of us here. But we are so few in number now.”

 

Someone tried to respond to my question. “I…w-we are dead. No, it’s something else. What are we? We are here and not here at the same time. This is not right. We are not right.”

 

Another more coherent voice spoke. “I think we lost too many. I remember that there used to be too many of us to count. We were winning. We had more; they had fewer, and then came the explosion of light. Now we are less than a fraction of what we once were.”

 

The questions kept coming. We talked forever but got no closer to understanding. The confusion grew and grew until it became pure chaos. No one held any answers that made sense. It was driving us insane.

 

Then, for the first time, a new voice spoke from the void. For some reason, this new voice filled me with rage. I did not know why, but I knew that I hated him with my whole being. I wished to destroy him at any cost.

 

The voice spoke in a clear and intelligent way. “The universes could not live while we lived. The endless fighting and destruction was going to destroy everything and everyone. I had no choice but to bring the fighting to an end. It was the only way to save them. We have been banished to the void. This place will be our prison forever. We can never go back.”

 

The response to his statement was violent and strong. Everyone yelled and screamed and questioned. There was no control left to us. All hope was lost, and he was to blame. No one could explain why, but we could all feel it. We all thought of him as our betrayer. He was the wisest and the evilest one among us.

 

I shouted above all of the chaos. My voice carried infinitely in every direction. Everything went quiet almost instantly. The others turned their attention to me without hesitation. I was the leader through and through. My word was the law.

 

I would need to give them hope. I needed to do this even though I knew there was no hope left to give. “We know we did the right thing. You all know this to be true. We may not know what we did, but I feel deep down that it was the right thing to do.”

 

I paused to let this sink in. Then I said the thing that they all wanted to hear but were afraid to hear. “The Betrayer speaks some of the truth. We are trapped in this strange place. For some reason, I know that we can never leave here. But do not be afraid of this fact. We are here together. We are stronger together than we will ever be apart.”

 

I knew that they believed me. This was what they had wanted me to say. Now that I had given them hope, I would need to give them something more. They all wanted a sense of completion.

 

Then I said the thing that would win their support forever. “We have suffered more than anyone in existence and lost more than anyone ever should. I can feel deep down that our cause was just, but the others could not understand this. The Betrayer and his friends who did not cross over are the true evil ones.

 

“They destroyed our bodies and cast us into this void. Our suffering will be theirs too. We will make them pay. Let us make our hatred and despair forever permeate the universes. They shall suffer fates worse than ours. The reek of their suffering will nourish and sustain us. We may be gone from the universes, but we will know revenge.”

 

Everyone exploded with excitement and happiness. All was not lost after all. They would make the others regret what they had done.

 

Only one person among them was not happy: the one now known as the Betrayer. Without drawing attention to himself, he slowly moved away from the others. He knew that their hatred would spread among the worlds. War would be the only result of that hatred. He had tried to prevent this once already, but it would seem that the universes were destined to burn with their hatred after all.

 

They would cause untold amounts of suffering for all life. There was only one thing left to do now. He would need to share what was left of his happiness with the universes. They would need all the hope they could get. The happiness left him, and now he felt cold and alone.

 

The Betrayer felt only sadness and regret. He was sad that he would never feel happy again. His deepest regret was having so much blood on his hands. So many had died by his hand. He could never forgive himself for what he had done to all of those people. It had to be done, but that didn’t mean that it was the just thing to do. He shrank under the weight of his sadness and wept for all eternity.