(AN: This explanation, hopefully, will answer two questions, both of which the game merely brushed aside like nobody would notice. Also I had the chance to explore this in A Second Chance, but thankfully I'll be able to refine it in this chapter. Seriously, describing things that can't be described seems to be a challenge I face often in my stories [yay!])
Born Again
The pain of rebirth was almost worse than the pain of dying. I coughed and coughed, my body hungering for air so strongly that I felt my windpipe aching as though it had been squeezed with strong hands. I was breathing again after so long without breath, merely to breathe again was a joy. Then my body began to shiver from top to bottom: I could feel and I was so very cold. My hands curled instinctively around my body to provide warmth, and it was then, as my elbows bumped against hard wooden walls, that I realized that I was trapped in darkness, buried in a coffin. I banged against the walls of my prison, I screamed as loud and as hard as I could, but my voice died in my own ears and nothing came to my rescue.
Suddenly there was the sound of rushing water and I panicked. My wooden prison had burst open and I was swimming in an ocean, thrashing about madly as I could feel water pouring into my lungs. Surely I would drown, for I could not swim. But it was then that I felt something in my hand. I could not open my eyes for the sting of salt water forced me to shut my eyes against the pain, but the thing was in my hands, wrapping itself around me and leading me onwards. I let myself go and let my savior, my second umbilical cord, lead me on into whatever awaited.
At last I coughed and choked again, as I could feel once more air in my lungs and not the sting of salty sea water. That so much pain should be attendant to life is perplexing to me as I write this now. Then I was indeed like a babe in arms all over again. I was born, naked and helpless, like Venus from the sea foam and washed upon a nameless shore with only my life's cord in hand. Pain had been my earliest memory in my first life and so, once again, it was only fitting that pain should be my first memory in the next life.
I do not know how many hours passed, but when I finally opened my eyes, the storm had passed and the sun was out again. It was so bright that I squinted and winced against the light in pain, having spent so long in darkness that the sunlight was nigh painful to me. Slowly the sunlight was not so painful and I was able to open my eyes a little bit more upon my surroundings. The beach upon which I was reborn was soft and pebbly, with little to no sand. The umbilical cord in my hand was my sword, Valentine the Ivy Blade. As it had protected me throughout my life, it was there to protect and keep me as I was reborn. I had nothing else, only my sword: it was to me more precious than anything I had ever known. For only it knew me as well as I knew myself, and it was always there to save, guide and protect me.
Presently, I came to the realization that I was naked and it was cold. I looked over my body, noticing that many things were different. The first thing that I noticed was that my body bore no wounds upon it. This perplexed me, for there should have been at least the wounds still fresh from my battle with my father, and yet my body bore not even a scar of that battle. For a moment I wondered why I had escaped thus unharmed or why, having escaped, there should be no wounds upon my body. Then came into memory the great plan which I had devised. I had it in mind to build myself the perfect servant - a homunculus I had imbibed with a summoned spirit - to use to find and destroy Soul Edge using Soul Calibur. Then came into my mind, in fragments such as I have detailed earlier in this account, the things I had experienced in the Void. How it came to be that I entered this body instead of my own was a mystery to me, but that mystery would soon be solved.
Casting my eyes about, I saw the wreck of the merchant ship lying upon the beach. In curiosity I arose to see what had befallen the ship. As I made my way thither, I realized that I walked with more of a hunch than I usually did. Looking down, I noticed that I could scarce see my feet, for my breasts had grown in size from how they were in my normal body. Once more the desire to find and take possession of my natural body came over me, and I wondered if there might be some knowledge of its whereabouts in the wreckage of the ship.
There was nothing to be found in the ruin of the ship. The sailors were gone, no evidence of their bodies: methought that they had either abandoned ship when my father attacked or else they had been slain and their bodies thrown overboard or had drowned in the sea. It mattered not to me for they were no use to me now, whether alive on some other shore or dead at the bottom of the sea. I searched on until I found a sight that chilled me to the very bone, a sight that will surely stay with me until my dying day.
I saw myself, lying pale and dead upon the deck of the ruined ship. It was my body as I had seen it in the mirror, I knew every inch of myself far too well to fool myself into believing otherwise. The body that lay before me was heavily scarred with the wounds from my battle with my father. The eyes remained open, their blue-green reminding me of the horrors I had endured. But now it came clear to my mind what surely must have happened: this body, the body into which I was born, was no longer fit to house my spirit after that dreadful fight, and I, by my own will, had pulled myself back from beyond death and entered into the only body fit to house a living soul: that which I had procured for my homunculus.
I began that moment to undress my corpse. My old body would not need it, and my current body had the need greatly. But I would not leave my old body lying here in the wreckage of the ship, the feast of carrion fowl and wild beasts. Once I had removed the harness, I dragged my old body off the ship and to the pebbly shore. There I rummaged about until I found a good deal of stones of worthy size. These I piled around my body into a small mound. The last stones were placed around the head, which I saved for last that I might close my own eyes. It felt so strange to me, to be burying myself and yet to be still alive. To this day I am haunted by the thoughts that assaulted me after that morning. Was I indeed myself or had Isabella Valentine died that day and it was that person that I was now burying? Maybe I shall never truly know, but I bear all the memories of my old life and all the thoughts and wishes and aspirations thereof.
Once the eyes were properly closed I placed the last stones upon my mound, then found some broken planks from the ship to use as a marker, which I placed over the head. There were no words to be said at that moment, for no one else was witnessing this death. Nay, not even the gods would have taken notice of my passing, un-blessed by fate as I have walked all the days of my life. But now I felt that I had a renewed sense of purpose. Whether by my own power or by the will of my sword, I had survived this encounter. I would now go forth and seek the Spirit Sword: with it I would be able to finally put an end to the evil of Soul Edge. It had gone unchallenged for too long. I left that beach a changed woman. Isabella Valentine had died and lo, I was born again anew. This new life would see the end of Soul Edge.
(AN: I wish FanFiction didn't have so many troubles. Every time I try to update a story, there's always something wrong and I can't do it! It's like the universe hates me: first the band I'm in breaks up, then two of my flash-drives are stolen, then my laptop's hard drive expires, and now I can't even update any of my stories!)
(Took me forever to finish this, but I hope that this is a sign that I will have the ability to keep on updating for a while. I miss being able to write and express myself, especially now that I have found a niche which I enjoy and can make the words flow easily. Once again, I hope that this is something that stays enough for me to bring you [if anyone is still reading these stories] more enjoyable reads.)