The final story in the Perfect World Trilogy. This story is just an epilogue, and will be short, but detailed.

 

Chapter 1: Purgatory

 

Game over. Game over. Game over. These words pounded in Tao's head as he finds himself in total darkness. He can't feel or see anything, he can only hear. "Is this afterlife?", Tao says out loud to himself. He literally couldn't move his body. Suddenly, a small bead of light appears. The bead of light grows and grows, and Tao starts to regain his sight. He was awakening...

 

When Tao fully opens his eyes, he finds himself in some sort of pod, with wires attached to his head. "What the hell? What is this? I'm supposed to be dead!". Tao attempts to punch the pod open, but realizes his arms are strapped to the mattress inside of the pod. Closing his eyes, Tao tries to focus so his power can come to him, so he could break free. Nothing happens.

 

Did they capture me again and take away my powers? A sense of dread then comes over Tao, and a lump appears in his throat. He didn't want to be locked up again. "Let me out of here", he at first says silently. But he continues to repeat what he said, each time he says it, his tone gets louder until he starts shrieking.

 

"Let me out of here!!!", he says one last time before giving up. Coming back to his senses, Tao realizes something isn't right. Wait...they couldn't have revived me. My heart was blown out of my chest. Tao takes a deep breath. His chest is completely in tact, no pain or anything.

"Impossible", he whispers to himself. He then recalls the words he heard right after he "died". Was all of that...not real?

 

The top of the pod then emits a sound, like it is letting off steam, and then it slowly slides back, exposing Tao to his true surroundings. The restraints that were holding him back released him, and Tao sits in his pod, his hair falling over his eyes. This confuses him. My hair shouldn't be this long. It was cut! Pushing his hair out of his eyes, Tao then looks at the room he was in, and gasps. Thousands of pods lay in the room, adjacent to each other. "What is this?", Tao whispers.

 

Tao tries to lift himself out of his body, but is immediately hit with soreness, as if he hadn't moved a muscle in a year. Fighting the pain, Tao gets out of the pod, but collapses to the ground right after. He was nothing but skin and bones, his body unable to function due to lack of nutrition.

 

Deciding not to get up, Tao stays on the floor, in a state of shock. "All of it wasn't real", he says to himself repeatedly. Suddenly, a door slides open a few pods down from Tao, and two men in white uniforms walk into the room. The first man sees Tao on the floor and smacks his head. "Looks like #T.Y decided to wake up today." Both of the men walk over to Tao and attempt to help him up, but Tao starts swinging his arms and kicking his legs frantically. "Get away from me! Peacekeepers, help!". Both of the men look at each other and raise their eyebrows. "This one definitely needs some fresh air", the second man says. Overpowering Tao, both of the men help him up and lead him out of the pod room and into a cafeteria.

 

The cafeteria, all white, is completely empty. Nobody is in there besides the two men, Tao, and the lady working at the counter. "Here", the first man grunts, sliding Tao a tray with a bowl of soup and a spoon on it. Tao, not trusting the two men, whacks the bowl off of the table. "John, the kid obviously isn't hungry. Lets take him to the boss so he can have an explanation." "Fine then, Rob my man. You lead the way."

 

John and Rob lead Tao out of the cafeteria, to a lobby area. John points to an office door in the lobby, and tells Tao that all of his questions will be answered by the man in there. Tao reluctantly walks to the office and opens the door. He wanted answers. And when he sees his dad sitting in the office chair, he knew answers were what he was going to get...

Lol, I really like stories like this. Can't wait for you to tell me the end. Or rather, write it down and post it, yes?

The end will be posted soon. The wait will be worth it.

Chapter 2: The Truth Will Set You Free

 

"So, you have awaken." Kuroi gives his son a grin. "Have a seat", he says, ushering Tao to the seat right in front of his desk. Tao sits down and looks at his dad with a face full of mixed emotions. He opens his mouth to speak, but Kuroi holds one finger up. "I know what you want to know, son. I will tell you all."

 

Only pausing to sip on his glass of white wine, Kuroi begins his explanation. "When you were transported to this dimension, I knew you were going to be here before you even landed in that field, due to my control over the portals." Tao shoots his dad a surprised and angry look, but Kuroi holds up his finger and continues to speak. "Yes. All you were told in that false world of yours was a lie. I originally was transported to this planet due to myself messing with the fabrics of space and time. After a few years on this planet, I figured out exactly how I was transported here. With this information, I created an experiment. If I were to open portals on Earth, what would happen on our planet? It turns out that everytime I open a portal on this planet, another portal opens on our planet. Wanting people to enjoy this excellent planet, I continuously opened portals, drawing people here."

 

"However, this experiment backfired on me. Travel through the portals I forcibly created caused whoever passes through them to lose their state of mind. By the time a lot of our people reached this Earth, they were either comatose or crazy. Wanting to restore their sense of reality, I created a virtual one for them, each reality different for each person. When I found out you had landed here, I told one of my workers to go bring you to me. However, you had lost your mind, and began to hallucinate, so he had to knock you out cold."

 

"Once you were unconscious, we placed you in our reality program. However, your mind was so jacked up, you began to hallucinate even in the virtual reality we placed you in. You imagined things that didn't even exist. Jake Taylor did not exist. Peacekeepers did not exist. They were all a figment of your imagination. Tired of you rampaging, I sent 'Jake Taylor' to 'kill' you, so you would awaken from your false reality."

 

Tao, rubbing his hand through his hair, plucks a handful of singed hair from his head. He looks at it, and sudden realization comes to him. "You are lying to me, Father", he growls. Kuroi raises his eyebrows. "Why on Earth would I lie to you?". Tao drops the hair onto his dad's desk, and Kuroi's face becomes a fearful one.

 

Tao then precedes to feel on his scalp, and his finger touches something string-like. Stitches. "Forgot to take the stitches out, I see", Tao says to his father angrily. "This is how I was always found so easily. You planted a tracker inside my head before I even went to jail. This is probably why I saw all of those glitches too."

 

Tao gets up from his seat, a sudden feeling of power rushing through him, and he tosses his fathers desk to the side with ease, sending it flying through the wall. Kuroi gets up from his seat as well, a look of determination on his face. "It's too late to stop what I've already started, son." He quickly takes off his suit jacket and shirt, revealing his bare chest, which had strange markings all around it, as well as markings on his arms and lower neck.

 

"I didn't want to have to kill my own son, but you are standing in my way". Kuroi swings his fist at Tao. Tao, thinking he can easily dodge his fathers punch, gets hit in the face and is sent flying through the office door into the lobby.

 

Kuroi steps out of his destroyed office, cracking his knuckles. "Get out of here. All of you", he says to the staff members looking at the oncoming fight in awe. The staff members look at each other in confusion, and then run down the hallway.

 

Kuroi turns his attention back to Tao, who is laying spread-eagled on the marble floor with a busted nose. "So that's what this was all about, huh. You were harnessing our powers", Tao says as he spits out some blood from his mouth. Kuroi, deciding not to respond, walks over to Tao and lifts him by the neck, pressing him against the wall. "All of the trouble you've caused me. You are going to pay for it with your life."

 

Tao breaks free from Kuroi's hold and punches him in the stomach. Kuroi drops to his knees, the force of the blow overwhelming, and begins to inhale feverishly for air. "You kill me? Hahaha." The purple glint appears in Tao's eyes again. Kuroi looks up into Tao's face with a look of fear. "Oh no." Tao grins and roundhouse kicks his dad in the side of the head, sending him flying down the lobby hallway.

 

He then takes a moment to look out the window to his right. The floor he is on was very high, penthouse level. And before he knows it, Kuroi gets up and is suddenly behind Tao. "Nice view isn't it", Kuroi yells as he smashes Tao's head into the window, sending glass flying everywhere. Tao, his face rigged with cuts, howls in pain and grips his bloody face.

 

Kuroi grins in victory, and grabs Tao's hair. "You fight for nothing Tao. You have no one to go back to. Your mom is dead, and you are about to me next!". Tao's eyes widen when he hears the word dead. "NO!", Tao yells as he lands a backwards kick to his dads leg. Kuroi lets go of Tao's hair, cursing silently. Tao turns around, his eyes now glowing a furious shade of purple. "You bastard". Tao grips Kuroi by the neck and tosses him straight up, sending him through roof onto the roof level.

 

Tears fall down his face as he drops to the marble floor. "He killed her", he whispers to himself over and over again. His body first starts to tremble in sadness, but he then starts to tremble in rage. "I'll kill him", he mutters angrily to himself as he gets up and flies through the hole in the roof.

 

 

The sun beams down warmly and brightly on Tao as he lands on the roof of the building. He sees his dad, who uses the roof ledge as support to pick himself up. Tao points a single finger at him and says, "You are done." I have to do this. It might use up all my power. It might kill me. I have no idea. Kuroi stands himself up straight and spits out a wad out of blood. "You are a fool son. A fool! This world could be absolutely perfect if you just work with me! We are almost near perfect!". Tao shakes his head and flies straight at his father, grabbing him, and then flies straight up into the sky. Kuroi tries to break free from Tao's grip as they steadily climb altitude. "Let me go!", he shouts as he pummels Tao's head with his free arm. But Tao doesn't let go.

 

They break through a layer of clouds, and reach the first layer of the Ozone. "You firetrucking idiot!", Kuroi shouts. "You'll take us straight into space. What the hell are you thinking?". Tao doesn't respond, he continues to fly up. In a matter of seconds, they go through all of the layers of the Ozone, and are floating on the edge of space. Finding it hard to breathe, Tao stops flying.

 

Looking down below, he could see the Earth itself. So beautiful. Not tainted at all. Kuroi, who is let go by Tao, screams at the top of his lungs, the marks on him all glowing white. He puts his hands out towards Tao, and sends a blast of pure white energy towards him. Tao sticks out one hand and attempts to block the attack, but it pushes him back. Kuroi puts more of his energy into his blast, pushing Tao back further.

 

Tao, now struggling to hold the blast back, begins to give up. Don't give up Tao! You have to stop him!, says a female voice in his head. "Mom", Tao words to himself. Was she actually speaking to him, or was he just hearing things. Either way, he knew what had to be done.

 

Tao moves his body out of the way of the blast, and the energy shoots towards the deep end of space. Kuroi, who's marks stop glowing, knows that he is out of energy. Tao clenches his right fist, and it begins to glow with purple energy and sparks. Then, at top speed, Tao flies straight at his dad, swinging his fist back. Before the punch lands, Tao's mouth gets close enough to Kuroi's ear for him to whisper one thing. "Bang."

 

The punch hits, and Kuroi falls down towards Earth, dead. Tao smiles weakly when he realizes he was victorious. "Perfect", he says as he begins to breathe his last breath. Falling towards the Earth, Tao's eyes close slowly, the feeling of death starting to overcome him, but he still can see its magnificence. "Perfect", he whispers to himself before he sees no more..

Final Chapter: Hello and Goodbye

 

I'm sorry. Jake couldn't feel any sadder right now. The fact that he betrayed his best friend for freedom overwhelmed him. And the fact that his wife thought he was dead....

 

It was all too much. Tears well up in his eyes as he continues of his walk of solitude back to the place he called home. The sound of the night, the crickets chirping, the dead leaves rustling, and the wind, was the only thing comforting Jake as he heads up a dirt trail in the middle of a forest.

 

Memories of his wedding day play in the back of his mind. Him and his beautiful wife, dancing on dance floor. A dance that seemingly never ended. Only the two of them, eternally entwined in each others love.

 

The sudden sound a twig snapping breaks Jake out of his daydream. "Probably a squirrel or something", he mutters to himself as he zips up his leather jacket fully and quickens his pace. He didn't feel completely safe for some reason. Anxiety filled him.

 

After about 10 minutes of walking on the trail, Jake sees a small cottage with smoke coming out of the chimney. "Jessica", he whispers. His walk turns into a jog, and then into a run. His wife, his beautiful wife. The wife he longed to see for so long. Jessica.

 

Jake makes it to the front door and frantically knocks on it. "Jessica!", he yells. "Jessica, it's me, Jake! Jessica!". The front door swings open, and a muscular, tall young man is shown on the opposite side of it. "What the hell are you doing screaming at my door at 12 A.M.?". Jake stares at the man in confusion. "What are you doing in my house?", he says angrily at the man. "This is my house". The man looks at Jake as if he were on drugs. "Are you okay buddy?", the man asks.

 

"What's going on?", a woman's voice says. "Some weirdo is out here for you, Jess." Jake swivels his head in order to see inside of the house fully. Jessica walks slowly down the main steps, griping her belly. Her bulging belly. She looks up, and her jaw drops when she sees Jake standing outside of her house. "Jake", she whispers as she tries to hurry down the stairs. But Jake had already turned on his hills, and began to run back down the path.

 

"Jake!", she yells as she tries to run after him. But her husband holds her back.

 

As Jake continues to run, he tosses his ring off his finger. The ring he had once wore proudly. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing at all. The love of his life had betrayed him.

 

Finally making it to the end of the forest, Jake starts to pant from the amount of running he did. But he keeps pushing towards the edge of the forest, an 200 foot cliff that led to the sea. Running up the now steep hill, Jake makes it to the very edge of the forest, and stands on the peak of the cliff. He slowly puts his hands in his pocket, and pulls out a single cigarette. Putting the cigarette in his mouth, Jake takes a moment to look up into the sky. The moon is full, and hangs beautifully in the middle of the sky.

 

Jake's world, his perfect world, had betrayed him. He holds left hand up to his cigarette and snaps his fingers, creating a spark to light it. Taking one puff of it, he then tosses it to the ground, and blows out the smoke through his nostrils. Taking one last look into the sky, he could see a shooting star falling. A purple one. Smiling, he then leaps off the cliff..