After my mom and Kris left with them to the palace I went to sit in my room, I was trying to convince myself that I did the right thing, but then the more I thought about it the more I realized that I was wrong, I immediately wished that I could undo it, but like my mom said, once a queen announced a sentence the sentence is official and must be served, their only hope now is the counsel.
The guilt was eating me up, so I left my room to go and sit in the lounge and I grabbed myself a drink, I found the 3 girls there also drinking, but you can see that Zoe has been crying, the moment she saw me she got up and left and went to her room, I can't blame her, I just stole a year from her life and 10000 years from her wife's life, the new prison we designed to hold them is located in a part of space where the time dilation runs much faster then anywhere else in the galaxy, and as the prison is located in a part of space where there is nothing else nearby, even jumping to it makes it impossible, we have to use a beacon to control the jump, and even then due to the time dilation even affecting our subspace communications and tracking it can take up to 3 jumps to reach the prison.
Chloe, "Zoe, please, I'm sorry."
She stops and looks at me, "you are sorry, I am sorry, we are all sorry. Yet that wont change the fact that you have sentenced them both to hell, how does it feel sending your own husband away again?"
I kept quiet for a moment, I couldn't bare the thought, but my pride kicked in.
Chloe, "They broke a law and must pay for it."
Zoe, "The only law they broke was wounding your pride as a queen by doing what should have been done, they disobeyed an order and still saved billions of lives, if I had to choose between an disobeying an order and saving a planet from extinction or obeying the order and losing a planet to extinction then I would do the same as they have "
Chloe, "What about her visits to his cell?"
Zoe, "he already told you what happened. And he was telling the truth."
Chloe, "how do you even know that?"
Zoe, "You didn't notice that your own daughter was acting strange during that time? Keeping lights on, scared to sleep at night?"
Chloe, "I didn't."
Zoe, "that is because you were to self absorbed during that time."
Then she left and went into her room, I wanted to follow but the twins stopped me. "give her time."
I eventually went to bed late, I don't even know how late, I guess my guilt got to me and I had a few to many drinks, but I woke up feeling like crap. So I eventually dragged myself out of bed and went to shower and get ready and as I left my room I found Zoe at the dining-room table.
Zoe, "come sit, I made you coffee and breakfast."
Chloe, "Why?"
Zoe, "that mess I had to tidy up this morning? I think you need to have coffee and eat something, I can't imagine that you are feeling to well this morning, "
Chloe, "I am not, but after what I did to them, I think.."
She then interrupted me, "You can still undo it at the trial. "
Chloe, "I will try."
Zoe, "I have spoken to your mother and her and Krish are putting together a file in their defense, they want to see you, they need to know what the arrest order contains, so they can prepare the defense, and I am coming with you."
We eventually made it to my mothers office to see them working through the footage. They are so busy that they don't even notice us entering.
I hear my mom telling Krish to keep the footage as is. She then notices us.
Azaria, "good morning, how's your head this morning?"
Chloe, "How do you know about that? Zoe?"
Azaria, "I came by this morning to speak to you and found Zoe cleaning up, so we spoke a bit and I left with the twins, Zoe decided to stay and finish up and said you will need to eat before you girls come up."
I just blush.
Chloe, "Thank you Zoe."
Azaria, "You can thank her by helping us get them out of this sentence."
Chloe, "Where are they now? Which cells? Are they okay?"
Azaria, "they are not in the cells, they are at my place."
Chloe, "but what if they try to escape?"
Azaria, "they won't"
Chloe, "Don't be so sure."
Azaria, "They came back willingly and surrendered willingly"
Chloe, "they might have come back willingly, but I caught them off guard."
Azaria, "you didn't, Sin read your mind before you got home, he knew what you were planning to do and he told Cyn and they decided to stay and face it, they could have left at any time, but they didn't."
Chloe, "how do you know that?"
Azaria, "Zoe was there, remember, they spoke in front of her, and the twins confirmed everything for me. And She told me what happened, Sin released you from that Cursed power, he had you cornered there, but he decided to free you and then he surrendered."
Chloe, "And now they are facing time in prison."
Azaria, "Well everything they did counts in their favor, except for one thing."
Chloe, "What is that?"
Azaria, "your daughter visiting him in his cell, and her mind manipulation on you, we can't exactly prove possession or that she has been black mailed by an unknown entity."
Chloe, "What does that mean?"
Azaria, "it means that she might still go to the prison for a few years."
Chloe, "how many?"
Azaria, "Based on those charges alone? A minimum of 10 years our time."
Zoe, "That is a 100 000 years in there."
Azaria, "Well if someone is willing to join her then it will be half."
Zoe, "Can that be done?"
Chloe, "yes it is allowed, but only a relative or a spouse can offer to do that."
Zoe, "Then I will do it."
The time for the trial eventually came and as predicted their charges were dropped and the sentence canceled, but then they got to the matter of my daughter visiting him in jail and her mind manipulation on me. She was eventually sentenced to 20 years our time in the prison we had designed for Sin."
Zoe, Standing up and interrupting the counsel, "I will join her."
Counsel, "And who are you?"
Zoe, "I am her wife."
The counsel speaks among themselves and then look at her and Cyn holding hands now. "Accepted, you will serve 10 years together.
Counsel, "We will now announce the sentence."
"Stop, I will take both their places, if it wasn't for me she wouldn't have done this. "
We all look around to find Sin standing there, he is walking towards the counsel, after the charges were dropped he was removed from the counsel room as he is not a royal.
Counsel, "Your case is done, as you are not a royal you can't be in this room."
We never reinstated his rank as a royal, so they were right.
Sin, "I thought relatives are allowed to be present and can take a relatives place."
Counsel, "That is right, but you can only share a sentence, you can't take someone else full sentence. "
Sin, "Well then I will share her sentence."
"And so will we. " that is when the twins walked in. "we are their family."
Counsel, "this is ridiculous, you guys are causing chaos here, this is a hearing, not a circus."
So I also got up, "So will I."
Everyone looks at me in shock.
That is when my mother spoke up, "Well there is no law stating a limit of 1 person taking on another persons sentence. And as the sentence is set for a specific prison, well? "
Counsel. "Well then we send them all to different prisons. "
Azaria, "The law however does state that a sentence shared must be served in the same prison and all parties must be placed in cells next to them one another."
Then the counsel spokes woman speaks up. "I don't have the time or energy for this, cancel the sentence."
And all of the Counsel members and queens present eventually gives in and vote in the favor of canceling the sentence.
We all left and decided to join my mother for dinner in the palace just to find the counsel spokes woman there as well, she comes up to our daughter and gives her a hug.
Jyn. "I'm sorry, I never wanted to sentence you, but I was outvoted, that is why Azaria and I decided to send for your dad and your friends, we know the law and we knew it would be the only way to throw everything into disarray, and it worked, you are a free woman now."
She then looks at Zoe, "Look after this beautiful wife of yours and keep her out of trouble, it seems like her parents are doing a horrible job at that." Then she laughs and we all start laughing, but I notice Sin walking away to the balcony. I follow him and take his hand, but he pulls away.
Sin. "I don't blame you, and you are right, I did put our daughter at risk."
Chloe, "She is safe, you taught her to never kill, and you guys saved earth."
I looked inside and see my mom removing Cyn's collar, I immediately reach for my gauntlet to remove his, but he grabs my arm. "No, leave it on."
I looked at him surprised, "Why?, you are free now."
Sin. "as long as I have this power inside of me I am a danger to everyone, and every-time I use it I lose control, it is as if it controls me and I just want to kill."
Chloe, "That is not true, "I pull my arm free and deactivate his collar." I saw everything that happened on Earth, you saved the entire planet, and you didn't kill anyone."
Sin, "I did kill."
Chloe, "yes, but they were going to kill us, they were going to kill every hybrid they had in that bunker."
Sin, "I can't control this power."
Chloe, "yes you can, and you have proved it on planet Sin as well as Earth. Stop it now, you got a big family that loves you and we will help you through this."
Sin, "And what if war breaks out again? What if I hurt innocents again?"
Chloe, "you wont, just keep staying focused."
We go back inside and my mom walks over to us, she hands us each a glass of wine, then she taps Sin on the shoulder. "You my boy, are a hero, I have done my own investigation into everything and I know now that all you ever did was protect lives and the universe."
Sin, "how would you know that? What about all those worlds I wiped out."
Azaria, "They had it coming, believe me, after your daughter brought it to our attention that the old counsel manipulated the investigation, we did our own, and what we found scared us, you might have just bought the universe more time."
Chloe, "Mom, I don't understand."
Azaria, "Why don't you come to my office tomorrow and I will show you footage we managed to recover from most of those planets he wiped out."
Sin and I looked at each other confused.
Zoe. "Whatcha talking about?" and she was her quirky, chirpy, drunk self again.
Azaria, "We found new evidence that will clear his name throughout the universe."
Cyn. "What do you mean? I thought that there are still planets that wants him dead after what he did."
Azaria, "Why don't you all come along tomorrow? Then I will show you.
We all walk back to the balcony, I'm holding his hand and Cyn and Zoe are holding hands as well. My of course mom towers over all of us.
But then my mom receives a transmission, she looks up at me shocked. I could see the surprise in her face.
Chloe, "Mom, what happened now?"
Azaria, "We have been summoned to appear before the galactic counsel."
Chloe, "We don't have a galactic counsel."
Azaria, "looking at me, no we don't, but the milky way galaxy does."
Chloe, "If they send the signal from the milky way, it would take eons to reach us."
Azaria, "one of our subspace communication satellites intercepted the signal.
Chloe, "mom you do know that this is a trap."
Azaria, "I know. "
Zoe, "Galactic counsel? And how would you know it is a trap?"
Azaria, "because of the different alien races that makes up the counsel, none of them are friends or allies, they are the worst of the worst, they claim to exist to maintain peace and order in that galaxy, yet they allow all their members to manipulate none space faring civilizations, controlling them, making them bend to their will, they basically allow their people to abduct and experiment on people from what they see as more primitive races."
Zoe, "that is horrible, why haven't you done something about them yet."
Azaria, "We tried, we have captured thousands of their ships, freed the abductees and resettled them on new worlds where they can't be found. But we could never find them so we could stop them for good."
Chloe, "You are not going mom."
Azaria, "we are going, all of us."
Zoe, "Which part of a trap don't you guys get?"
Chloe, "My mom is right, this might be our only chance to find them and put a stop their terror."
Azaria, "there is just one problem, we will be going in blind, and if the humans figured out how to block blue light and jam our new gauntlets which are supposed to be jamming proof then we will be powerless."
Sin, "I won't be."
Cyn, "neither will I."
Azaria, "Look, I know they wont attack our ship, they want us alive and they know they will be destroyed, but even so, one ship isn't enough to stop them, so we will have to go in, and somehow disable their defense systems so the rest of our fleet can jump in, and at the same time stay alive long enough to disable their scramblers so we can get back to the ships, the biggest problem is getting word out to the fleet when the time is right for them to jump in. Then we need to get out fast."
We all go over the plan a few times, and after that we went home to get some rest, we know what is waiting for us in the morning, we will be leaving here after breakfast, my mother has already communicated with them and they agreed to not fire at our ship, how long they will stick to that agreement, well is anybody's guess. But if this works, then at least we know Earth will be safe.