This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

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The entire town then got destroyed by a volcano which appeared out of nowhere and burned everything. Feeling like I had nothing left in this world, I took a risk and entered a vortex which seemed on the verge of going critical in the hope of getting back to earth. Unexpectedly, it ended up working perfectly, but this is when I learned something I hadn't thought about.

These vortexes were connected between our two worlds, but were also distorted between space and time, so I ended up at around 10,000 BCE at a time when humans were only hunters and gatherers... I had left the stone age to be plunged right back into it. I then ended up spending 6 months there, but eventually managed to create a new vortex back to this alien world with the dokari contained within my necklace.

There wasn't enough to open a 5 km wide vortex, but... Well the details aren't important. What is important is that I managed to get back to this world and hoped to try my luck again at getting back to earth. If I was lucky this time, I would be transported in the future instead of the past.

But once again, something unexpected happened. When I came back to this alien world, it was totally different from the one I had left. This alien world had roads, ships flying in the sky, enormous cities... They were visibly more advanced than the world I had originally come from.

I obviously assumed that this was the future of the timeline I had first travelled there from, but it ended up being the past of this world. I don't know actually how long before the time we currently are at, but I can say for sure that it can be counted in hundreds of thousands of years.

At that time, there was strangely very little dokari in the air. Being a highly developed and populated world, it didn't take them long before noticing and capturing me. These humans called themselves Nibiru and were red blooded humans just like us, but their facial features were a bit different. I ended up spending 15 years in this timeline... First a prisoner, then later used like a hunting dog for my ability to 'sniff' dokari.

I made sure to be very cooperative and did everything to make myself useful to them. That way, I was slowly gaining their trust and therefor, more freedom. During these years, I learned their language and also learned a lot about their/this alien world. I learned that they were exploiting a liquid dokari mining operation on the 'red moon'.

The material extracted from its soil contained a lot of energy which was being extracted and compressed into liquid form. This 'liquid dokari' was thousands of times denser than red gold. They were using this to fuel their power plants, ships, well basically everything.

The same way petrol exploitation result in carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, their technology was doing the same thing but was releasing red dokari in its gas form instead. Many brilliant scientists warned that releasing this pollutant into the atmosphere could destroy their world.

Some even theorized about a possible wormhole apocalypse, but dokari was too precious to be abandoned and greedy people didn't care if the world was to come to an end in the distant future. Well in the end they did end up destroying their own world.

High levels of dokari in the air made it unlivable and the population gradually began to dwindle. The small purple people you saw living in this world are in fact the Nibiru's only descendants. My time in this timeline ended up not being as bad as it sounds though. I unexpectedly made friends.

I somehow ended up becoming their government's secret weapon and was being deployed at various top secret locations. That's how I came across Arshunfiartan, or as I call it 'EDEN'. Aware that their world would one day come to an end, the rich and powerful had a giant underground complex built for them.

It's what they called an 'earthship'. Similar to my bunker, but this one was a self-sufficient city instead of a small bedroom. It had a capacity of 5000 people and had so much liquid dokari stored in it that the entire facility could be kept running for a million years. This facility was filled with their most advanced technology and they were even working on a way to make it travel across the worlds like I had done with vortexes thus far.

They still hadn't completely understood how it worked, but were well on their way to master world travel. It also turns out that both worlds weren't different planets, but were in fact the same one. Travelling from one world to the other isn't like going from a planet to the other but more like crossing parallel universes.

Anyway, after spending a few weeks working at this facility which they considered as their race's only hope for the future, I ended up learning even more about their technology. I learned that the only way to control most of their 'machines', was via the nanites.

Without going too much into the details, I ended up stealing a shot of nanites, which weren't programmed for my body but still allowed me to control the EDEN facility. Then I unleashed war upon them. I killed everyone in the facility, then activated the wormhole procedures.

Just like that, I was back on earth but this time, I had an entire underground city at my disposal. I kept travelling between the two universes, hoping one day to get back to the timeline I was from, but by pure chance ended up coming back to this alien world only a few years before I had first been teleported here.

I was wondering if I would see another 'me' if I stayed here and waited for Cabano to be transported, so I waited and as predicted, it really did happen. While you were still in your bunker, completely oblivious to the situation outside, I was out there saving as many people as possible and brought them to EDEN.” He explained.

“What? There are survivors from our town in your underground EDEN place?” I anxiously asked with surprise in my voice. “Yes, one thousand people to be exact. I wanted to save more, but this is the best I could do. Well since I am finally bringing you there, you can relax now.

After a few years, I finally found a way for you and I to get back to our respective time-lines. The struggle is finally over for you and I.“ He then added with a smile on his lips. Was I really about to get back to earth? To the place and time I belong to? Hearing him say that, I was happy and relieved, but then my attention focused on Rambo.

“B-but.. Rambo.. What can we do about him? We can't bring him to earth, people will hunt him down...” I worryingly asked. “Don't worry, when we arrive at EDEN, I'll show you the solution I have found to this problem.” He then responded in a reassuring tone. What could he be talking about? What had he planned for Rambo?

I was in a state of shock, overwhelmed by an overload of information that I could barely process. I still had thousands of questions but was soon interrupted by the monotone voice of the A.I. named Emmy. “We have reached our destination. Approach procedure initiated.”

“Finally! Look! Open a digital window and see for yourself.” Said older me, prompting me to do as he had suggested. The ship was currently in the process of descending toward a giant mountain that looked like a smaller version of mount Fuji. As we approached, the top of the mountain then began to split and a giant opening appeared at the top.

The ship then slowly went down into the hole which dwarfed our ship by its enormous size. “The dokari shield has been reactivated.” Said Emmy as we entered the mouth of the mountain. As we went down, I was mesmerized by what I was seeing. All around us were bridges, doors and corridors going in all directions.

This underground facility was simply enormous. The ship eventually reached the bottom and the ship's door opened. “Alright, you must be anxious to meet with the others. Let's go!” Said older me as he walked out of the ship. Still holding the sleeping Rambo in my arms, I stood up and followed him closely.

I was wondering what would the others' reaction be after seeing me. “Did you tell them that I was still alive?” I curiously asked. “Nope. You will have the chance of seeing their surprised expressions yourself hehehe.” He answered with amusement clearly audible in his voice.

In the giant area where the ship had landed, were various vehicle and machines I had never seen before. From the way they looked, I could guess what they were used for but could also tell that these weren't from our world. Ignoring all of that for now, I obediently kept following older me with butterflies in my stomach.

The prospect of seeing the others after so long was nerve wracking to me. We walked through a massive automatized door which was big enough to let a giant dump truck go through and eventually entered an elevator. We then walked down a few corridors before finally reaching a giant room containing tons of tubes, wires and other machines beeping all around.

In front of us were rows upon rows of glass pods illuminated with blue ambient lights. No matter how I looked at them, they seemed quite similar to those cryogenic pods seen in sci-fi movies. Older Nathan then stopped in front of some of those 'pods' and turned toward me.

“There they are.” He simply said while looking at the pods. Confused, I walked next to him and had a look inside one of the pods he was standing in front of. What I then saw made me take a few step back in confusion. Emanuela, Camille, Robert and the others were being kept inside these 'hibernating pods' for some reasons.

“W-Why are they in there? Are those what I think they are?” I worryingly asked. “Yes, they are exactly what you think they are. I, myself spent many years in these pods... It is quite convenient to jump decades or even hundreds of years in the future without getting old. Well anyway... The two empty pods next to theirs, are for you and Rambo...” He nonchalantly added.

“W-WHAT?” What was he saying? Why would we need to go into cryogenic suspension? Weren't we supposed to go back home? I began to slowly back away from him, now unsure and worried about older Nathan's intentions. “Was all this a trap?” I asked, ready to fight my way out.

“Of course not... I just haven't told you all the truth.” As he said these words, he then launched a wave of black dokari which paralyzed my body just like the first time we had met. 'Not again, future me is such a fucking ass-hole!' I desperately thought to myself, certain that I had fallen into yet another trap.

Being paralyzed, I fell to the ground and couldn't hold Rambo anymore. Older Nathan then crouched next to me, took Rambo out of my arms and placed him in one of the cryopods. He then grabbed my body and placed it in the other pod next to Rambo's.

“Sorry for lying to you, but knowing myself, I would never have agreed to do what needed to be done. Truth is, what I discovered over the years happened to be a lot worse that what I had first expected. The two parallel worlds we know are about to come to an end. The dokari vortexes and everything... It's only the beginning of an apocalyptic event that's currently happening.

No matter how many times I travelled across universes, space and time, I never made it further into the future than the timeline we originated from. Emmy and I theorized about it and came up with a conclusion. The two parallel universes are currently merging.

Since it's a never seen before event, there's no way to know what both worlds will end up looking like, but one thing's for sure is that the two universes will merge into one. This 'merge' is a phenomenon that is happening beyond space and time, which means that even if we travelled into the past, we wouldn't be able to escape it.

The only way toward a safe and stable world, is forward into the 'post-merge' future. Going back to our world, to our original timeline is impossible. This is why I decided to make you my 'plan B'. Since the worlds can't be saved, all we can do now is try to save the human race.

EDEN is protected by a dokari shield and should be protected from the incoming 'merge'. You and all the other humans I saved will sleep for a few thousands of years until the merge is over, then it will be your duty to rebuild human civilization and this time, hopefully protect the new world you will be given. I hope you won't be too mad at me for doing this, but this is the only way for us to have a future. Farewell, younger me.”

I couldn't believe what he had just said, nor could I believe the situation I was currently in. Older Nathan then closed the glass door of the pod I was in, typed some numbers on the control panel and walked away as my vision began to fade. I was going to sleep for thousands of years? Then wake up in a strange and newly 'merged' world with a thousand other people from my original town...

We were supposed to be the last hope for humanity? So this is why he had called this place 'EDEN'. This facility was the garden of Eden from where the human race would be reborn into the future. Then as I was about to fall asleep, a thought kept floating into my mind. 'Next time I see you, Emanuela... I won't hesitate anymore.' I thought to myself as I drifted into Morpheus' arms.

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The end?

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(End of Ark1)