Chapter 4
March 5, 2017 AD
All at once, across the entire planet, everyone, everywhere, regardless of race, gender, or nationality, suddenly became aware of them. Aware of Yin and Yang, the Twin Gods of Karma. To the faithful, regardless of their religion, the experience was controversial. Here was proof of Godhood, but it was not their god that appeared.
To the faithless, it was the beginning of a divide, between those who would grow to believe that these ‘Gods’ were mortal entities of great power or a product of reality and science that is yet to be understood, and those who would turn to faith in these new Gods, believing now that proof lies before them. March 5th, 2017, a day that would go down in history. A day that would forever more be known as the Awakening. Five days later, another great change would come to the world, but not one brought about directly by the Gods.
On March 10th, and until March 16th, was the occurrence of what would be remembered as the Week of Surrender, as terrorists and other religious extremists around the world turned themselves in to face judgement for their crimes against the Gods’ will. That is not to say that everything was sunshine and roses, however. Terrorism did not end in one go. Nor did religion.
Of the various religions around the world, the vast majority of those created in recent times did not last long. Within a month, more than 60% of religions and faiths born in the past century had become a memory, and within three, nearly all from the past millennium had faded away. The Catholic and Protestant Churches, alongside the two main braches of Islam, Sunni and Shi’a, survived by preaching that these Twin Gods were clearly a creation of God or Allah, new children sent to guide mankind.
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism were largely unaffected, sue to the existence of Karma within their teachings. Several over religions, such as Sikhism and Taoism, were also able to survive due to their own Karmic teachings. Many other faiths were not so lucky. Various minor faiths – and conspiracy theories – that focused on the concept that man was born and guided from the influences of alien life died out, although a few survived by claiming the Gods were aliens.
Some faiths, such as Rastafarianism, were heavily shaken by their own beliefs. For example, the Rastafarian belief that all are one and equal is inherently opposite of the most commonly believed form of Karma, which suggests that all are not equal, for some have committed viler acts, and greater acts, than others. Interestingly, Scientology actually grew in number of followers, due to its belief system happening to match with the concept of Karma.
Of the various terrorist organisations across the world, the worst hit were those similar in nature and structure to Al’ Qaeda, which was almost totally disbanded following the Awakening. Others, such as IS, showed how few of their leaders truly believed in the messages they spoke. IS in particular, simply changed its tune to that of being ‘holy warriors’ sent by Yin and Yang to judge those of evil Karma, and renamed themselves KS, the Karmic State.
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May 20, 2017 AD
On this day, North Korea ceased to be its own nation. The entirety of its regime, including its ‘Glorious Leader’ fell over the prior three weeks, until on May 20th its final members, and most of the potential successors, died. In the aftermath of this event, alongside numerous accidents and incidents that had befallen world leaders across the globe, no one wanted to start a diplomatic incident over North Korea.
As such, the leaders of many major powers, including China, negotiated and came to an agreement: a new government would be created to control the nation, now called the Korean Union, and would answer to the joint oversight of South Korea, China, and Japan. For the first 10 years of its existence, it would be under great scrutiny from these nations, and for the 20 years after that, it would be monitored, but would possess far greater freedom to act on its own.
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Less than two weeks later, on May 31st, KS fell. It had faced little more than bad luck in its existence, with a variety of failures and chance mistakes tearing it apart from within. Couple that with the fact that its leadership would occasionally die in tragic, and sometimes convoluted, ways, and it is hardly a surprise that it fell in the end. If anything, it was surprising it lasted that long.
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December 31st, 2017 AD
On this day, the major powers of the world, and many other nations besides, chose to begin the new year with a new name. A new era. From the next day onwards, the year would be 1 PA, Post-Awakening.
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March 5, 1 PA
For an entire year, Youssef Khalil had prayed for guidance. Once, before the Awakening, he’d been a low-ranking member of the Islamic State. He had truly been devout, falling for the twisted lies of his former superiors who claimed that what they did was the will of Allah. He’d even aided in the torture of American soldiers, although he’d never touched a civilian. Then came the Awakening, and his eyes were opened.
He realised that he had been deceived, for he had known, long before leaving Britain to join IS, exactly what Karma was, and his actions, against those who had not personally wronged him, were inherently negatively Karmic actions. If Karma existed, than that meant that the actions of IS, which spat in the face of what Karma had forever described as being ‘right’ could not be the will of Allah, assuming he even existed.
But unlike many others, who participated in the Week of Surrender, he did not turn himself in to the other nations. He knew that although he may be rightly punished for his actions by doing so, he would not redeem himself. To do so, he left for America, hoping to find a chance to truly do good things, and as such he prayed, every day until today, for an entire year, for guidance from Yin and Yang, to be given a chance to once again walk the right path.
There were times when he doubted they listened, some where he nearly gave into despair, believing he had been condemned, but he persevered until this day. The day when Yin answered his prayers. “Youssef Khalil,” she said within his mind, “You have proven your dedication to the concept of redemption. Now, you must prove your ability to follow through, and redeem yourself. In the coming years, you shall be given 100 tasks. In each task, you shall only be told what is happening that you must stop, who it is you must help, and so on, but how you perform each task is up to you.
The actions you take in doing so will determine whether or not you are said to have passed or failed each task. But be warned, you may only fail 10 tasks, before you will be said to have failed to prove your ability to redeem yourself. Your first task shall be given to you now.” As she spoke, information related to the task flowed into his mind. “In seven days, a young woman will enter an alley near a restaurant.”
The woman’s face and the alley’s location became clear to him. “There she will meet a man, an addict who is desperate for his fix, and out of funds to purchase it. Knowing he will not succeed in convincing the woman to give it to him for free, he will bring a gun with him, and threaten her life. You must stop him from taking her life, and save him from his addiction, however you can.” The man’s face had also become clear to him. Thanking Yin for this chance, he left, for he needed to prepare.
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March 12th, 1 PA
He was almost too late. He’d arrived just as Joseph, the addict, was preparing to fire. It took several minutes, but he was able to convince Joseph not to shoot Elise, the woman responsible for his addiction, and was also able to convince Joseph to leave with him. Elise had run off as soon as she could. Youssef was able to take Joseph to a Rehab centre nearby in Miami, where he paid for Joseph’s treatment.
That’s not to say he did nothing about Elise, however. Before going to the alley, he identified Elise’s storage unit, in her own name, where she kept her contraband, and had contacted the authorities once he was certain she wouldn’t be there. When Elise returned to her house, she found police waiting for her, and was arrested for possession of controlled substances, including cocaine and heroin.
Three days later, Youssef, while praying again, was contacted by Yin. “Youssef Khalil. You have done well. Not only did you prevent the man from killing the woman, thus breaking a Natural Law of Karma. Not only did you help guide him from his darker path. You also brought Justice to a cruel woman who had addicted dozens of innocents to substance which kill them, slowly, with every use, and who took their money for doing so without a second thought. You have passed your first task, and shall be given another when next we speak.” Youssef thanked Yin once again. He had his new purpose. His path to redemption. And he would never turn from it so long as he lived.