Kaden slowly opened his eyes, his body feeling weak. Luckily, the pain is gone, mostly, except for a few aches in his chest where Tachyon threw him against the wall. Definitely broken ribs, he thought. But as he becomes more conscious, he suddenly realizes that he isn't dead. But then, that raises the question; where was he?
As he looks around, he sees that he is in a medical room of some sort, with an IV drip next to him, along with a heart monitor that beeps with his pulse. He looks down, and sees that he's wearing a hospital gown, along with bandages where Tachyon managed to graze him with a few shots.
He then thinks back to his last memory. It was a little fuzzy, being so overwhelmed with pain and confusion, but he remembered the basic fact of falling through a portal and being surrounded by Lombaxes. But how was that possible?
Before, he can delve further into it, the door to his room opens, and a Lombax wearing a white coat walks in, looking over a clipboard as he quietly whistles a tune. He takes a moment to glance up at Kaden, but when he sees his eyes staring into his own, he freezes.
"You're finally awake!" He says, rushing over to him. "How are you feeling? Any pains? Dizziness? Amnesia?"
"Erm… no, I'm okay, I guess. I still ache a bit all over, though." He responds, confused. "But what do you mean I'm 'finally awake'?"
He frowns slightly. "Well, when we first got you in here, you had the most severe case of heart arrythmia I've ever seen, and that was on top of the broken bones and gunshot wounds you endured. Nanotech wasn't cutting it, so I was forced to induce you into a small coma and use a defibrillator to 'reset' your heart, shall we say. I'm happy to see that it worked, despite the risk, with little to no side effects as well!" He finishes with a proud smile.
His eyes widen. "I was in a coma?"
He raises a finger. "Small coma." He clarifies. "You've only been unconscious for about a week. If I'm being honest, I thought it'd take another week for you to wake up, so I think you can forgive my surprise."
Kaden takes a moment to process this information, before realizing he has an even bigger question than a coma. "Where am I?"
"You're on Fastoon II, in the new dimension." Before Kaden opens his mouth, he raises a hand. "I'm sure you have even more questions, but I'll get some of your colleagues in here to answer them. They know more than me. And, fortunately, you happened to wake up during their usual visiting hours, so I imagine it'll be a few minutes. Please sit tight."
Kaden only nods as he processes this information. The doctor swiftly leaves the room as Kaden falls back onto the bed. Just what happened? He was about to die, but then the next thing he knows, he's woken up from a week-long coma, apparently, in the new dimension?
Was everything just some vivid dream? No, that couldn't be the case. The doctor's description matched the injuries he sustained during his fight with Tachyon. But what about being in a new dimension? He hid the Dimensionator, and it was the only one they managed to produce in the circumstances, so how did he end up here?
The door opens once more, and Kaden recognizes them as the two Lombaxes who rescued him before he blacked out. Now in a clearer state of mind, he realizes they are some of his fellow Councilmembers from the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. As they see him, he could see their faces light up with happiness and relief.
"Thank the Zoni you're alright!" The female Lombax says, with yellow fur and black stripes.
"Julie?" Kaden asks, sitting back up.
"We thought you were on the fence for a moment there!" The white-haired Lombax standing beside her says, wearing a pair of round glasses, who Kaden recognizes as Mags.
"Where… what happened?" Kaden asks them, dazed. "Last thing I remember, Tachyon almost killed me, but then I woke up here, in… in the new dimension?"
Mags nods. "We managed to jerry-rig a new Dimensionator to extract you from the old dimension."
"Just in time, too. If we were any later, then that Cragmite would've killed you with that weapon of his." Julie adds. "Pretty primitive design if you ask me. If I made that, you'd be dead in 45 seconds instead of ten minutes." She mumbles.
"Woah, woah, woah, you made a new Dimensionator?" Kaden asks, sitting up straight. "Why?"
"Well… after we evacuated, we found out you didn't make it back because the old one was damaged." Julie explains. "Me and Mags thought it was unfair that you had to sacrifice yourself for all of us, so we worked together to make a new one with what we got."
"I'm honestly surprised it worked." Mags adds. "You know how Julie is when it comes to the safety of her designs." He says, glancing over at her.
"That's why I had you and your interdimensional know-how to make sure I didn't make something to destroy reality." She returns to him before looking back at Kaden.
"I… I see." Kaden says. He felt grateful that his friends cared enough to take so much effort to save him. He knew how complex the Dimensionator was, and to pull off what they did, they must have been working day and night to build one.
And it was well worth it. Now, he was safe from Tachyon, separated from him in another dimension. Now he could live the rest of his life, and spend time with… with…
Oh no.
His eyes widen, and he suddenly snaps back to his colleagues. "Wait, my son! He's still back there! I-I left him in an orphanage on Veldin, in the Solana Galaxy! We have to open a portal and get him back here!" He hastily says, trying to get up from the bed.
Mags rushes up to him, stopping him from moving any further. "Woah, there, Kaden, sit down. You're still healing."
He stares at him with desperate eyes. "My son is alone! He's back there in the dimension with that maniac Tachyon, who's going to hunt him down and kill him! We have to save him!"
Mags and Julie look at each other sadly, as if they were having an unspoken conversation. Kaden sees this, and his heart drops. "What? Why are you looking at each other like that?"
Julie walks over to him, and rests her hand on his. "Kaden, I… I'm sorry." She says, struggling to meet his gaze. "The Dimensionator we built was far from ideal, to say the least, and it broke after we used it."
"Well… make another one then!" Kaden argues, yanking his hand away from hers. "You already did it once!"
"We can't." Mags says sadly. "The Council voted to never rebuild another one again after we all evacuated here. You were a special exception."
Kaden seethes as he begins yelling. "Then why not make another one for my son?! If I was worth an exception, then why can't he?!"
"Because you weren't an exception." Julie explains, shooting a look towards Mags. "Me and Mags disobeyed the Council and went behind their backs to save you. It's why it took so long for us to get you back."
"Then do it again! What's so hard about this?!" Kaden retorts, tears starting to form from the anger.
"Because we were caught, Kaden." Mags answers, trying to be as gentle as he can. "We were lucky we weren't kicked off the Council, since we managed to extract you with no problems, but as a result, they instituted new policies to stop it happening again. Now, you can't get a fleck of Phase Quartz without an entire committee investigating you for why you need it. And if they find out it's for a Dimensionator, you risk banishment."
"Or execution, if it's bad enough." Julie finishes gravely.
Kaden's eyes widen. "Why is it so harsh? I've never heard of the Council taking something this far, just why are Dimensionators banned in the first place?"
"They say it's too dangerous." Mags says. "Your son may not be the only Lombax behind, and if we start opening portals back to the old dimension, we might risk Tachyon following us through to carry out the rest of his genocide." He sighs. "You and I both know something like that is ridiculous, but everyone's too spooked by the possibility that they decided to prevent it from happening at all costs. So, they figured the best way to do that was to outright ban Dimensionators."
Kaden looks down as tears begin to form. It did make sense for the Council to be so strict if it was Tachyon they feared. After all he's done, Kaden didn't really blame them for being so scared, especially after he almost died fighting him. This was an enemy who forced an entire civilization to up and leave reality as their only salvation.
But he still couldn't help but think it unfair.
"I… Can't we make an appeal?" Kaden asks in desperation. "Please, I-I need to see my son again! He's the only thing I have left, and I can't lose him to Tachyon, too!"
Mags looks at him with worry. "Wait, is Marie…?"
"Dead!" He confirms, making Julie gasp lightly as Mags' eyes widen. "I promised her I'd protect him, and I can't break that promise! Please, they have to listen to me, they have to let me save my son!"
"We… we could try, Kaden." Julie says, still processing the news of Marie's death. "But I can't promise it'll pass. They're all dead-set on this asinine prohibition, and if we couldn't even convince them to go back for you, I'm not sure how we'll convince them to go back for your son."
"But we will try, Kaden." Mags says as he rests his hand on his shoulder. "Me and Julie will help you in whatever way we can to get him back for you."
She nods. "We promise."
Kaden looks at their faces, filled with stern determination, and Kaden looks down, closing his eyes. His son was alone in another dimension, stuck with a genocidal maniac trying to hunt him down, but he knew he was safe. And most importantly, Kaden was alive. The Council might stand between him and his son, but as long as he breathed, he would do everything he can to fight them and rescue Kieran.
But until then, he had to wait. It could be days, months, or even years. But he vowed that no matter how long it took, he would hold his son in his arms again.
"Just hang on, Kieran." Kaden whispers, inaudible to Julie and Mags. "I'm coming for you."
You'd be pretty scared of someone if they forced you to leave your entire reality, too.