A/N: Read after chapter 10.

"God is dead."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

UEBERMENSCH

(Beyond Man)

I wish to inform you, for the sake of genuine clarification, that the potentially rage inducing reference that starts our latest spin-off episode is not meant as a literal statement but, rather, as a profound philosophical concept destined to cause some inevitable moral struggle to some of you, oh loyal spectators. What does the phrase "God is dead" exactly mean in a modern minded society as the one this particular philosopher used to live in? If you think about it for a few minutes, you may be able to find your own answer to this interesting trivia… But as for now, we should return to the prior narration, and we shall do it with the opposite sentence.

"God lives!" Said the man dressed in a white medical suit, the kind of outfit that mad scientists used to wear. His form was reasonably fat yet still moderately contained by his last years of youth; he wore thick spectacles and a broad grin crossed the unearthly large lips under his thick mustaches, as he continued his seemingly derailed speech that seemed to completely denied everything his appearances stood for. "God lives… And thanks to my researches on Chaos energy, along with the rightful technology, Babel's original dream to reach God will finally become a reality!" The eyes behind the glasses enlightened in pure fanatic craziness as his exposition continued. Securely held in his right hand, lay a piece of paper, specifically, the blueprint project of a very peculiar inter-dimensional travelling system he would be able to develop with the aforementioned "rightful technology" in his possession. Needless to say, his rather sheep-like crowd of blind believers, awed in admiration at the fathomed device… Even though, it clearly resembled a water pipe. "Gentlemen... Mankind will prove to be the chosen race once we'll be able to reach the Creator and harness his power! For this is our fate… To become Gods upon animals!" And thus, everyone clapped his hands in appreciation, particularly, a military dressed man who happened to be his primal sponsor.

This disturbing scene happened about 20 years in that particular timeline, right after a certain appendage of handheld doom unleashed its sadistic fury over an unsuspected mob of mercenaries, leaving a sole survivor after a certain black and red ultimate weapon's intervention managed to stop the crisis.

Speaking of survivors…

The room lit up after the old tape ended its noisy recording.

The image of the insane scientist grinning madly over his would be toy of potential condemnation, was printed like undeletable ink in the old man's mind, along side the recent nightmares his consumed grey matter has been forced to endure during his latest bemusing nap… Horrifying memories and remembrances of the day that forever signed his life, the day he witnessed the sheer brutality of God's handheld fury, the day he survived the dreaded Master Hand, only to find out, 20 years later, that his tragedy has been nothing more than a mere experimentation with a simple prototype of Babel, which managed to create a hole in the time / space continuum large enough for the aforementioned giant body part to escape its original prison and enter this particular world, thus giving it the freedom to move from dimension to dimension, from a timeline to another, at its master's will… Quite the mess, isn't it?

In order to avoid the disfiguring yet seemingly inevitable puking sequence that was about to befall on his now turned stomach, he did the only thing any reasonable man would do at times like this: he yelled the ever lasting Inferno out of his rusted lungs. Certain kinds of knowledge can do that to a simple mortal. As if to answer his justified yet incredibly clichéd reaction, the invisible doors of the not surprisingly all white room he was in, opened in a typical sci-fi fashion, revealing the unmistakable form of this frantic man's unwanted host.

The retired mercenary known as Solid Snake stood in the middle of the room, sweat still dripping from his forehead for the recent agitation, his arms were tied up to a metal chair attached to the floor that prevented him to jump on his evilly grinning host's body in a feral fashion. There was the man who shot him in the arm with a tranquilizing gun back in Dr Eggman's former headquarters placed under the city of Mobotropolis, the same man who was behind the whole Project: Babel and the doctor's work… The leader and founder of the "Guardians of the United Nations", better known as G.U.N.

It's time for some useful back story. Yay for back stories!

There are neither official files nor personal info about this man. Some rumors implied that his entire military career was the result of his personal relationship with several influent political figures; others stated that he was just that good in killing people… Choose your favorite one. About a couple of years after the establishment of the dreaded Eggman Empire, he founded G.U.N., a peace preserving organization (laugh with me), born specifically for prevent the madman's advance… In truth, this group's ultimate goal was to capture the once allied scientist in order to force him to finish his work. I can see by the sheer size of those exclamation points that popped out of your heads that I managed to twist your general, and limited, view of things, a little more… Or, maybe, it's just gas. But why, you may ask, why did Eggman betrayed his former companions, turned his shoulders to the project he was so ecstatic about and, ultimately, tried to take over the world by using the same technology he borrowed for his original work? And from where that particular technology came from?

It's an interesting topic, if I could say it myself, and it surely deserves an answer… Too bad I'm not going to give it to you! Eeh eeh eeh. Oh come on, don't look at me like that, there's no reason to be angry… Fine, I'll arrange something, you crybabies.

The leader and founder of G.U.N. didn't have an official name, therefore everybody simply referred to him as… The Commander. He was dressed up in the typical green military outfit any kind of general would wear, fancy and shiny badges hanged from his cold heart, proudly showing his doubtful merits to the demeaning and ungrateful world he so openly despised. He had white-grey military hair that constantly said "I'm in the army, therefore I'm better than you", glacially cold eyes of different colors from one another fixed themselves over the now calmer figure of the wounded snake he managed to capture all by himself; predator's pride was depicted on them.

The obvious satisfaction of his recent accomplishment, however, was soon replaced by a more important matter, a matter that once again required his personal involvement since he didn't relay on his henchmen that much after discovering that almost half of them were Eggman's lackeys, during the whole G.U.N.'s leak affair in the last year of the war. It irritated him beyond rationality the fact that his former employee then improvised overlord seemed to always be two steps beyond him… And it literally made him burn in ominous wrath the fact that the doctor's plans have been foiled by a bunch of animals, making him look like a fool. Then again, those animals (Mobians) were somehow in possession of the full power of Chaos, which brought him to the current matter… The 7 Chaos Emeralds. For years now, the shiny stones always managed to slip from the Commander's grasp; years and years of restless research didn't produce the desired effects. The only emerald in their possession was the one used from Project: Shadow's genesis but it disappeared along with the hedgehog himself God knew where, and the azure one happened to be in the doctor's grip for his feared Roboticizer… That until those cursed creatures who dared to breathe the same air as his, found them all and used them to defeat the scientist in his very virtually impregnable fort. As dreadfully ironic as it could seem, the Commander saw in this defeat, a whole new opportunity: he figured out that after using the gems, those unholy beasts had to be smart enough to keep them hidden in some secret place, a place that he couldn't find in 8 long years of frantic research masked as humanitarian missions of reconstruction and refunding, until his chance of success finally knocked at his door… Almost literally.

It was in your average full moon night, when the Commander's already strong beliefs over the possible existence of God, turned into pure untainted fanaticism as he received the unexpected visit of one of his angelic messengers… Or should I say, devilish, since this angel's wings weren't made of white feathers but sharp spikes, like the ones of a hellish demon. The rather rotund being descended upon his presence, bringing the illumination he so desperately needed in his life. Once the creature reached the ground, his wings turned themselves into his previous purple cloak, his metal knight-like mask shined under the moonlight, revealing golden ominous eyes beneath it. It spoke with its deep tone, giving the fearful general, precise instructions and orders, gifting him with awareness of the following course of events and what he would have needed to do. After its speech, the loyal servant of the one and only Author, Meta-Knight (for this was his name), disappeared from the nothingness he came from, which, as we know, was another dimension.

And thus, all the man had to do was to observe as all the events the demonic knight foretold him, happened with the sheer regularity of a clockwork orange, and then act. All the unsuspecting pawn could do before falling asleep with that poisoned dart, was to acknowledge his foe's presence. Everything went according to plan, except for a very disdainful detail… The emeralds were nowhere to be seen. He had revolted that underground dungeon from start to finish but they were simply gone. Little did he know about what really occurred in that place, since he hadn't been granted with all the details by the not so straight messenger, or what was happening / has happened / was about to happen, in several different dimensions and / or timelines as I narrate… Therefore, a single question was currently hanging mercilessly from his lips with the same determination of an ice climber.

"Where are the Chaos Emeralds?" He suddenly asked to his forced guest, taking him by surprise.

Even though Snake knew the answer, which was too ridiculous for even being considered, he decided to play his way into further knowledge and answered his captor in a different manner.

"Tell me about Project: Babel, first." He sort of blackmailed.

The Commander looked pleased, mainly because all he wanted was an excuse to finally outing out his scheme… Just like any villain. He took a deep breath and began his speech.

"As you could see from the videotape, Dr Ivo Julian Robotnik, aka Eggman, was the head researcher and original creator of Babel, an inter-dimensional travelling system alimented by Chaos energy, which is the true power of God as you should know!" His gaze was lost over some unspecified place as he began to daydream. "Because only a God could control Chaos, since he is the one who created it in the first place, thus creating Order… And since, we are the only beings intelligent enough to handle this power in the rightful way…" He said with sufficient disdain obviously referred to a certain animal population he loathed. "… then WE, and nobody else, are the predestined race that shall rejoin our maker in the Promised Land! All we needed to do, was to find a way to reach him… And then, Ivo came, and his wondrous technology too!"

Snake had to resist the urge of throwing up in more than justified disgust at the deranged military's utter fanaticism… A portal to reach God, was a ludicrous idea, even for a videogame.

"How do you know for certain that there is an actual God waiting for you to find him in another dimension?" He asked in a tone of obvious smartass-ness. The answer didn't late to arrive.

"Because… I saw him!" He said in blunt credence. "He came to me and gave me this as an undeniable proof of his existence!" He showed to his now more baffled than ever guest, a unique, black covered book he was so eagerly holding in his left hand… Yes, oh loyal spectators, he was actually in possession of the Dark Prognosticus, the book that foretold the end of times by the hands of their own maker. How could the foolish human get a hold of it, you may ask? Well… "It happened 30 years ago. I was lost in the Dusty Desert after a failed raid of some kind, when a giant shadow that resembled a winged creature appeared out of thin air and obscured the sun… A second after, I found myself out of the desert and with this book in my hand!" … That's a convenient enough explanation, eh?

"So… You met God and he gave you a book… I hope it's autographed, at least." Snake jokingly remarked, which made the general redder than a Mexican food victim.

"SHUT UP, YOU BLASPHEME FUCKER!!!" He yelled in spite of good mannerism. "This isn't just a book, this is The Book!"

Since the over fanatic commander will spend the following few hours explaining his utterly bored guest why that book was The Book (for reasons that we already know and fear), I'd like to divert your doubtful yet deeply challenged attention span, to a certain topic I've brought you earlier in this chapter: the death of God meant as a necessary path for Man's evolution… Yes, folks, according to that peculiar philosophical concept, the only way for Mankind to reach the next step of his mental status, is to abandon his previous established beliefs, such as Religion and Moral, and create a whole new ones without the poisoning external influence of a dying society. In other words, the so called "Uebermensch", the Superman, the one who goes beyond the awful limitations of a man, is nothing more than a human being that manages to become his own man and obey his own rules.

As you can imagine, this stone pillar of modern thinking, as been abused a lot by the wrong people over the ages… Especially when the "Supermen" wanted to make others follow their rules.

Dr Ivo Julian Robotnik, better known as Eggman, was the last big name of this list. The last would be world conqueror. The last "Uebermensch", if you will. In all of his life, he always felt himself to be superior to others, human or not, and the immense IQ he possessed didn't help his ever growing ego to reach legendary status. It's been his desires for knowledge that pushed him, along with his unwilling nephew, the late Snively, to join the military's scientific researches for Chaos energy, like his cousin, Maria, did before him with consequences we all know about. It's been his thirst for power that made him swear allegiance with the Commander for pursuing the ultimate goal in humanity… And it's been his less theoretical and more scientific side that made him understand what kind of idiot the Commander really was. That man turned out to be a delusional psychopath who wanted to open a portal to God only to be his loyal servant. His puppet. The doctor's intentions were far more ambitious and greater than the Commander's humble ones… He didn't just want to meet God, he wanted to be God! He wanted to harness his powers and become a literal Superman, and thus, dispose of the old useless divinity for good.

A God would be dead and another would be born.

Yes, that used to be the actual goal of the scientist, who's own ego and mind managed to transport him beyond the so-called borders of everyday's sanity, making him reach a whole different view over things than the average lunatic, a whole new scale of values and ideas, just like the fathomed "Uebermensch". Then, Realization stroke him with the sheer force of a roboticized ram (which he would actually invent, later) as he finally understood two things:

1) How realistically insane was the idea of freeing a destructive God from his other worldly prison, especially since the one who came out with the idea was a total nutjob;

2) He didn't need Godlike powers to become a God. He could have simply conquered the world in the old fashioned way: the super villain's way!

Needless to say, this subtle difference of opinions brought to the doctor's defection from the human society and the foundation of his famous would be empire… All under the Commander's ignorant nose.

Ivo has been that fast.

Now that we had clarified that point, let us return to the current course of events, or better, to these people's present, which is not ours. The Commander finally managed to finish his diabolical rant of foreboding annoyingness (or baffling bafflement, if you will), which naturally caused our old snake to fall into the heaviest form of boredom induced slumber… Or at least it would have made him fall asleep, if his host didn't have the bright idea of reading an actual line from the Dark Prognosticus, a very disturbing line.

"And thus, the world shalt be purified from the unholy heretics, within the earth shaking force of God's handheld fury!" At the mention of "earth shaking" and "handheld fury", Snake snapped out of his alienated state in, I have to say it, divine terror. Now that the fanatic general had his guest's undeniable attention, he could continue. "Do you know what this specific pass refers to?" He asked. The other shook his head in negative answer. He added: "… Then you need to ask yourself: was the great earthquake that almost extinguished our kind all those millenniums ago, a natural event or, perhaps, a divine way to select the chosen ones from the worthless ones?" And then, Snake yelled, while the Commander laughed.

So, to recap: Master Hand and Crazy Hand are the direct responsible for both the missed extinction of humanity and the planet's extreme makeover which is a task they could accomplish only after their liberation operated by the first Babel prototype and a successive travel through time and space… Humans being the trigger of their own demise, would have been a genuine irony per se, but the fact that the Commander was willing to bring back to this world the very entity behind the catastrophe that, on the bright side, made the rise of the Mobiankind possible, even though he was aware of what this supposed God did to his species… Well, that's simply priceless. If you would be so kind to excuse me for a moment, I'll be laughing my lungs out of pure sadistic delight…

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA - anf - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

I feel better now. Where was I? Oh yes!

Once the deaf making effect of the combined yells and laughter ceased, a bunch of full armored G.U.N. soldiers entered the room, ready to take the hostage to his proper cell. The man behind them gave one last glare at the distressed cornered serpent, savoring his victory over Snake's psychology and already thinking about his next course of action in order to retrieve the lost emeralds. As if on cue, right after the guarded hostage's departure from the briefing room, the 7 Chaos Emeralds appeared right in front of the baffled general, floating and shining in midair without a sole caring in the multi-verse… How convenient!

The cell was painted in pitch black, causing claustrophobia to rise even in the most un-phobic individual. Despite the devouring feelings of utter loneliness that such place inspired in his mind, Solid Snake soon realized he was not alone in the darkness. A rusty, old voice spoke to him from an unspecified corner of the room, showing a rather obvious amount of physical and mental injuries from its owner's part.

"Well hello there… I wasn't expecting visitors, otherwise I would have been more presentable. Oh wait… I forgot it's always dark in here. Ehe… My fault!" At first, the new voice startled the old man but then he eventually got over the initial shock and answered back.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"My, my, where did my manners go? I guess you could say that I'm the master of this humble house… Since I happened to be here for the last 8 years or so… Since the day they 'arrested' me after my miraculous escape…" At that statement, the snake's blood began to run colder than usual as a dreadful doubt crossed his potentially befalling mind.

"Who. Are. You?" He asked again, slowly this time.

And thus, the light of a self-made torch illumined part of the room, revealing the slightly less fat and slightly more bearded, form of a certain fallen, world conqueror never-was.

"I'm Dr Ivo Julian Robotnik… Better known as Eggman!" Said with hinted emphasis, the last "Uebermensch".