All of you know about my love for Maria, with disagreements about my relationship with her, but you all know about her nonetheless. Many of you know the story of how I was created. Some of you know about the early days of my life on the ARK. The stories have been told by many, retold by others and distributed all over the fan base. But what they don't tell you… is what happened when I was released from the ARK, and my ordeal on Prison Island. How did I get to the cryo chamber? Was I given a second, or rather, first chance before I was thrown inside?

Well… listen, and you'll find out.

"Maria!" I exclaimed frantically, but it was too late. She'd already pulled the lever, and the GUN soldiers had pulled their triggers. The last time I saw Maria, blood splattered from her torso then onto the floor and walls around her. Then I fell.

This is when we get to the part of my story that you don't know about. What happened after I was launched from the ARK? The reason no one knows yet is partly because GUN kept everything secret, and partly because I haven't spoken about it before either. I never wanted to speak of it. The torment that I suffered left me traumatised for life. Seeing Maria's death didn't push me to insanity, my barbaric treatment at Prison Island did.

I couldn't even cry when I left the ARK in my escape pod. The speeds were too much, and without feeling the wind resistance against my body, my senses were confused and I began to feel queasy. My mind and body were filled with fear and anxiety when I realised that the falling would not last forever, and that it would inevitably end. That's when I would hit the floor, and I had no idea of how much it would hurt.

How I imagined it would hurt, was so much of an underestimation. I'm not even talking about the fall. When I hit the ground, the capsule took the majority of the impact. I was left with mere bruises. A mortal would have been ripped to shreds… but I was okay. The glass began to crack. I gave it a strong kick; the metal on my shoes added to the damage done. I realised that it wouldn't be so easy to break the glass if it was able to survive a fall from space. Gerald was certainly talented when it came to inventing things. He'd created glass that could withstand and descent from outer space… then again, he also created me.

I worked out that there must have been a button I could use to open the pod, unless Gerald happened to have forgotten about what happened when escapees needed to get out of it! I looked around, there were no buttons or latches. I began to kick as hard as I could, frantically trying to escape from my temporary prison. I didn't even know where I was; I hadn't been on Earth before. I was yet to feel the fresh air on my face and breathe in the clean air from the atmosphere.

I began to grunt and scream out as I tried to break the glass, kicking harder and harder as I went. Then I heard a robotic voice sound from the metallic base of the pod.

"Location detected. Prison Island, Earth. Capsule opening," it said in it's mechanical monotonous voice. Then the pod hissed from the bottom and the base popped out from the glass tube. I rolled out onto the muddy floor around it. I seemed to have made a crater where I landed. Seeing this, I realised that the earth on this planet was no where near as strong as the floors on the ARK. I needed to be careful.

Expecting to sink or slip through the floor below me, I stood up, but stayed where I was.

"Hmph, that was a bit slow. Leave me to panic for five minutes before releasing me why don't you," I muttered angrily. Then I remembered something. "Wait! What location did it say?"

I thought back to what it said again.

'Prison Island.'

I jumped out of the crater and looked around me. My surroundings certainly didn't look like a Prison. There were just an assortment of trees and other plants. I kept a look out for any humans that would try to capture me. I darted my eyes around the area of this white jungle. Then it hit me… it hit me so hard, right in the chest. The pain was so much I felt sick. The humans hadn't even gotten to me yet, this was emotional pain.

"Maria… w-would have loved this…" I trembled. My vision went blurry and my cheeks became damp. Was I… crying? I attempted to wipe my tears with my wrist, but the moisture was replaced a few seconds later. I fell to my knees. "Please say she's alright… maybe she survived," I kidded myself. And that was the belief that would get me through the next day. I really thought that, somehow, she was still alive.

I was such a fool; she was long gone.

"She's okay… someone must have found her and kept her alive… they must have…" I said through gritted teeth. I was hoping so hard, it was almost as if I were praying to fate itself. Despite that, it still took me a while to get back up. Even if she was alive, the good days were over. I knew where I was headed if I didn't get off of that blasted island soon.

But how?

I didn't know where to teleport myself with Chaos Control. This small space in a jungle was all I knew of the large planet Earth. If I performed Chaos Control, I could have ended up in the ocean, a prison cell, or even the jaw of a shark. In order to teleport, I needed to sense of direction, and since I didn't know what direction to go, I wouldn't risk it.

So I began to trek through the jungle.

Maria… we will be reunited again.

Lucy Labrador