CHAPTER 20 - HOWARD
Author's Note: Here it is, the penultimate chapter of Plankton's Eye View. Enjoy!
"Oh, barnacles!" Spongebob shouted as soon as he got to the door leading to Mr. Krabs's suite. "What is going on here!?"
"Well, sir, there's these two…" the muscled fish with an X on his chest replied.
"PLANKTON!" Spongebob shouted in surprise, looking down at me. "What in Neptune's name do you think you are doing here!? Are you trying to steal the formula again? I thought you had changed! Have you no respect? The crab is already bedridden, and yet all you still care about is the formula!? By the way, that formula is MINE, and I'm supposed to get it now!"
"No, Spongebob," I replied. "I went here in order to apologize to Mr. Krabs. It's the least I could do after all the things we had been through together so many years ago. Look. I don't care about that Neptune-damned formula anymore. All I want is to be able to be friends with him again even in his inevitable final moments. I want him to go to the other side in peace without the burden of hate in his heart."
"Well, is that so?" Spongebob questioned my sincerity.
"I understand that you doubt me," I replied. "For all these years I had tried to fool you into thinking that I have changed… remember that time I frolicked with you in the meadows and sang the FUN song? Remember that time when I attempted to befriend you in order to get the formula off your hands? Those were the days. But now…"
"Look behind you!" Spongebob suddenly pointed to the other side of the room in surprise.
"Nice try, Spongebob, but that's just a ruse to get me to…"
"Seriously! Look behind you!" Spongebob said as he ran towards Mr. Krabs's bed. There was a brilliant, golden glow surrounding the bed, and Howard was floating over Mr. Krabs's head, with a glow surrounding his body as well.
"HOWARD!" I shouted. "What is this!? What is going on?"
Spongebob just stood there, staring in awe at what was happening. He didn't even get the bottle with the formula from the table yet. The two muscled fish guarding the door also entered the suite, curious about what is happening. Suddenly, the room went dark, and from the void, a green cloud of smoke appeared. The room lit up again, this time with a greenish glow, and the cloud of smoke dissipated to reveal The Flying Dutchman.
"No! Mr. Krabs!" Spongebob shouted and started to cry. "You can't be gone yet!"
"Well, it looks like this is the end…" I said, accepting the inevitability of death. "But what is Howard doing up there?"
"Mr. Sheldon James Plankton!" The Flying Dutchman's voice boomed across the room.
"W-what is it, Mr. Dutchman? D-did I do something wrong…?" I stuttered and trembled in fear.
"Quite the contrary, actually," he replied. "In fact, I came here to tell you that you have succeeded in the mission I had given you. You've done what you must do in the second life I had given you. You have finally let go of the burdens on your back. There is a good reason why you had been shown that newspaper article of Mr. Krabs suffering a heart attack…"
"Huh?"
"In fact, I set it all up," he explained.
"Huh?" It was all I could say.
"But why would you do such a thing?" Spongebob asked. "He's my boss!"
"In order to teach him a lesson as well," The Flying Dutchman replied. "Long ago, I almost had to collect Mr. Krabs's soul and send it off to the deepest depths of Davy Jones's locker after he ate a spoiled Krabby Patty. He was such a cheapskate. I did the same thing to you, Sheldon. I decided to give you the second chance, hoping that you will make the best out of it. Now, I gave Mr. Krabs another chance yet again..."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "But you caused him to get a heart attack! How is that giving the crab a chance?"
"You notice Howard, your friend, floating over there?" he pointed to the bed.
"Yes. And why is he floating there?" I asked.
"Howard is actually Mr. Krabs's soul separated from his body," he replied. "Howard is a fragment of his consciousness. That is why he is eager to meet Mr. Krabs. It's not because he idolizes him or anything like that. It is actually your mission to help Howard, the soul, reunite with the body, and you succeeded."
"I… I don't understand," I said. "For someone who has been working with laboratories his whole life…"
"That's because you are a science-oriented creature," he said. "This is the supernatural we are talking about here. These are matters of the heart we are referring to, and by heart, not the organ that pumps blood. Okay, let me explain fully. I set up Mr. Krabs to get a heart attack after he turned down your apology. While that was happening, you were crying alone in the ruins of your old home in a fit of insanity. You ran away and went off to a faraway city that was very hostile and apathetic. You wanted escape. But then, you never really lost that determination of yours. You never really were one to give up and just run away. I always knew that. When you befriended Howard, you never gave up on him even though he gave up on you when you were traversing those underground tunnels. You never gave up in your journey to go back here and apologize to your old friend in an attempt to make the final moments of his life better. But you know what? This isn't the final moment of his. I will give him another life. I will return Howard to his body."
"But how was the machine able to receive transmissions from Mr. Krabs's brain?" I continued to wonder.
"You notice those times when Howard would sometimes lapse in thoughts and actions out of nowhere? Those are the times when he would think as Mr. Krabs and transmit his thoughts to the machine. Howard is, basically, a slice of Mr. Krabs's personality. That is why he has forgotten many of the details of his life. I made him forget about his success and just remember himself as a washed-up restaurant owner when those aren't his true memories. I gave him the rudimentary body of a plankton to continue his alternate life as. I wanted to teach him what it feels like to live in the Plankton's Eye View, to always be trampled upon and looked down on by literally everyone."
"But if Plankton is destined to be looked down on by everyone, why do we even bother to exist?" I asked. This has been a question that has bothered me all my life. I had always wondered why I had to be much smaller than everyone else.
"Nature has her way of harmonizing everything," The Dutchman replied. "Small creatures like you exist for a big purpose. Whatever that purpose is, it is your life's purpose to find out. Furthermore, I just want you to know that deep inside, everyone and everything that lives is Plankton. Everyone and everything that breathes is evolved from you. Even the largest of great whales have a piece of you in their double helix. In the grand scheme of things, everything on Earth is actually very small. The soul is just the size of a cell, and when you all depart to the great beyond, you are all just equal in the eyes of Neptune. No plankton, no whale, no shrimp, no anchovy, no jellyfish, no sponge, no starfish, no squid. You are all but souls living forever, and whether happily or not, that would depend on the life that you have led."
"All right…" I said, trying to comprehend everything I've been told. For a smart one such as myself, I found it difficult to comprehend such mind-bending philosophy.
"I know, it's difficult to comprehend, but there are just some things that you are meant to ponder on for a lifetime's worth," he replied. "And now, it's time." With gestures of The Dutchman's green hands, Howard's rudimentary body disintegrated into dust, and all that remained is a small, floating ball of light.
"Thank you, Sheldon," Howard's familiar voice resounded through the room. "And I forgive you as well. In fact, I should be the one apologizing for making almost your entire life miserable. When I finally get out of this hospital, would you like us to re-establish Plabs Burger? Of course, we'll follow MY recipe."
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The-Artist-64: Thank you. That means a lot to me.
Third Kind: Just one Chapter more. I have yet to reveal who is the writer of One Less Lonely Gurl in this fanfic.