Chapter 9: Maria's last memories of ARK.
Chris is only a bad character when he is not accompanied by his two best friends: Helen and Frances. His relationship with Danny is clearly not as good, and his servants are not kids like he is. And Sonic X is a Kids show, despite its serious tone. Which is what I like about it, compared to the other Sonic Series. I also like how a very competent and caring cast of voice actors was hired for Sonic X, compared to say: Sonic underground.
The biggest kick in the face for me during Season 3 when Chris goes to Sonic's world, is that neither Helen nor Frances nor Danny got to come with him. Which is frustrating, since they were what made Chris work at all. A husband should also not simply abandon his wife without very good reason, and in Season 3 Chris is married to Helen.
We could have had truly epic moments of character development, if some of Chris' friends came with him. As a side note, I also don't like adult Chris' appearance or voice. His deeper adult voice doesn't fit with his fun and childlike personality, and his appearance is not nearly as creative or thoughtful as adult Helen and Frances. So I am glad that he reverted back to a kid when he went through the Chaos portal into Sonic's world.
Maria POV
I was warned that my ressurection process would rob another unwitting human of their free will and persoanlity. Like in Ghostbusters or Blue Exorcist, where a ghost or phantom or spirit took control of a living person's body and made it their own.
This was part of the reason why G.U.N feared grandfather so much. Imagine if everyone could steal the free will of others just to extend their lifespan as I did. While I still hurt from thinking about the painful bullet that ended my life and denied me the chance to see Earth alongside my dearest love Shadow, I could see that G.U.N's fear was not without merit either.
In fact one reason the gunman most likely would have shot me even if I didn't send Shadow to Earth in the escape pod, was because word had gotten out that I had the soul-transferring microchip installed in me already. There was therefore a chance however slight, that the body I chose to possess would be one of G.U.N's agents, or more seriously: one of G.U.N's leading figures of authority. What the shooter did not know, was that the microchip would trigger the instant I died, and that the transfer process could only work on a ready and willing living person who wanted to let me into their body.
Grandfather wanted to further develop the microchip to allow me to possess an already dead person, since this would be completely moral and not take anyone's life away. But since time was running short with G.U.N mobilizing their forces and making him very paranoid to the extent where he saw threats in every shadow (pun very much intended), he insisted I equip the unfinished prototype anyway since it was better than nothing.
It would have taken more enhancements for the microchip to let my soul implant itself into a corpse, and return it to life. And as with many things in today's consumerist culture where the only goal of most people was to work until they keeled over amassing wealth all for the sake of showing-off, most corpses were owned by someone. The cemetery, the church, a scientific society conducting research.
Or it held sentimental value to the departed soul's loved ones who would not exactly take kindly to some stranger they didn't know hijacking their lost love's lifeless corpse, which was their last reminder of the good times they shared together. Especially if they paid good money to buy their lost love a nice coffin of exquisite oak, and a beautifully carved gravestone.
The microchip was also never finished to let me forcefully remove souls from another's body and let me be the only soul to control the new body. I forced grandfather to leave that bit out, since while my desire to extend my life so as to have a hope of seeing Earth's beauty had already made me very evil and sadistic, some of my morals still remained even in my darkest hour. Some.
When I see people deride Chris as a spoiled, self-entitled and stuck-up brat with no appreciation for the wonderful gifts he's been given in his wealthy life, I can never bring myself to jeer and boo along with the crowd. For the exact same scolding could be applied to myself and it would fit equally well. If the shoe fits, wear it. On board Space colony ARK, there was virtually nothing I or any of its inhabitants could want for. We lived a life of ease, with rich food and fine clothes.
There were beautiful sights in every room of the space ship. A carefully attended space garden, expensive furniture, painted velvet carpets that stretched forever and a very nice collection of Hi-Fi DVD's. With Anime, like My hero Academia, and Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh, and Death Note. As if all that wasn't enough, there was even a professional band specifically hired to play classical music at my request.
I had it all, but I still failed to appreciate it as much as my grandfather most likely wished me to. The Earth was still so appealing, and it all looked so good. But now that I've seen it up close in Helen's body, both it's good and bad, in some ways Earth only looked good from afar. There is no object so pretty that it won't look ugly under a certain light. If there's one lesson I know now that my previous self did not, it is this one.
The chaos emeralds represent the ideal of synergy. A single one is comparatively weak, but two or more can work miracles. My grandfather had just one. With even two, he could have simply given me a new body of my own entirely, and averted this entire complication of having to find another person's body. But even having a single chaos emeralds got the attention of G.U.N, who already felt threatened by his research on the idea of stealing souls, and the creation of Shadow as a very powerful life form to protect me from harm since I couldn't protect myself.
G.U.N feared grandfather, and Shadow was partially made so strong with chaos power because granffather feared G.U.N. It is fear that caused the entire violent conflict that killed me and ruined the ARK. The one thing we each have to fear, is fear itself.
But at the same time, I sympathize with Chris. He only wanted a friend, and I only wanted to see the great outdoors of nature's beauty spots. First world problems were still problems. Just because we were not third-world prisoners in a work camp being worked to death, did not mean we did not suffer or need help.
I occasionally hear when people speak of me in conversation not knowing I am listening, that 12 years was very young to die. I would disagree. For all my woes, 12 years felt like a time far too long for me. Of the days I spent with Shadow when he wasn't trying to get even stronger, or intimidate the other ARK dwellers into fearing him for his immense power, only those days felt like I was truly living. Ask me to retell my life story, and it is those days I will focus mostly on. All other days are like foggy clouds which I do not even know if they even existed.
It is the same with any person really. I had plenty of time to learn it on the ARK, which was intended to be an analogy and replica of heaven and nirvana (eternal peace). Grandfather didn't always hate the spiritual and occult as badly as he did by the time his life was over. Many people came to talk to me about their life stories, and they mostly only focused on no more than one or two years of their life's best moments. The day they got married, had children, became CEO, went on their dream vacation.
Sometimes the storyteller could be something like 80 years old, and still the retelling of their life would take no longer than a short 20 minutes. It made me wonder if even with a fraction of time to live, they could have had a story of similar length.
A long life isn't all it cracked up to be. Parkingson's law states that work expands to fill the time you make available for it. So a person with 50 years to live, fills 50 years. A person with 100 yearas to live, fills 100. An ill girl with NIDs who has only 12 years to live, fills 12. Many elderly men and women would talk to me when they percieved me as caring, about all their regrets of not making a choice that would have taken them no longer than a few fleeting seconds, tiny fragments compared to their unbearably long and regretful existences.
He never confessed to the girl of his dreams. She never took her dream job to appease her overbearing parents. He never told his son on the one day he wans't working, that he loved his son despite not having much time with him. She kicked the cat because she didn't get her way one day, and sent her prized pet packing into the wilderness with a final wounded growl of pure pain that would forever haunt her dreams.
Then there were the babies in the medical ward which I liked to hang around in. Some were even less lucky than I, and were stillborn so that they did not have even a year to live. Yet their final expression in their early death, were peaceful and serene. Compared to the weary-eyed, grizzled centenarian who wept and sobbed as the grim reaper tapped his shoulder at long last.
In many respects, 12 years was too long for me. Shadow was starting to spend less and less time hanging out with me, to achieve what he called his destiny of being the ultimate life form. I had finished the entire DVD collection I was gifted, and Earth's government cutting ARK's funds meant no more supply ships to go get more. I had memorized the name of very exotic plant in the ships garden centre, and had seen them so many times that I was getting tired of them. I was growing bored and restless.
In the words of Nicholas Flamel the immortal and his family: I had enough life elixir to set my affairs in order and then I died.
If it was so hard for me to fill 12 years without going insane, or doing what some victims of depression did with a rope and chair in the attic, I don't even want to imagine how I would have occupied myself for 75 years instead. 75 being the average life expectancy of the typical healthy American from birth according to the latest data sheet available, which was published when I was about 3. 12 years was an exhausting marathon. 75 would be the equivalent of an endless nightmare.
One thought crystalizes like an icy blast, as I now lay clutching my heaving chest waiting patiently for oblivion to finally relieve me of my suffering. I sob slightly, knowing that my host body Helen will be dragged along with me into the great unknown, only because she chose to sympathize with my plight and try to help me. An elderly couple had reached the awe-inspiring ages of 132 for the husband and 134 for the wife respecively, to both break the record of the longest lived man in Earth's archives who only reached 127. They could still walk well, see clearly and eat solid foods even in their twilight year together. They were very strong and healthy, with the bodies of titans as I would say.
They retired very early, both in their early twenties and came to ARK to pass their lives with more free time than most of the human population could dream of having. They had no work to do, no bills to pay and could invest themselves basically in any way they wished. But the final words of the wife were what stuck with me forever.
"We never spent as much time together as we would have liked, dear. But I wouldn't have had it any other way." the dying woman croaked, before beatifically shutting her trembling lids with a final smile. The husband died two hours later from what the surgeons called heart failure, but what I knew was really a broken heart. The husband and wife by their accounts, had never had a divorce throught their lives and never been forced to work a single day since they retired onto the ARK with their vast inherited fortunes.
The beautiful couple had more than a century of time to be as close to each other as they liked, and it still wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't. If you had enough of someone, it meant your sweet love for them had died out, and that bitter hatred had taken its place.
"I've had enough of you!" My cousin Ivo's father Zack, angrily shouted as he hit his son in the nose so hard that it broke his nose and nearly chipped Ivo's tooth. "Me too, you miserable excuse for a grandson." grandfather Gerald agreed, as he joined in by kicking Ivo in the chest and knocking him off his back. Yet I said nothing. Nor lifted a finger to stop this wanton abuse. It takes a great man to stand up to his enemies, and a greater man to stand up to his friends. So what did it take then, to stand up to one's beloved relatives and elders that raised you up and showed you the moral code that defined you? Whatever it was, I didn't have it. Not back then, and not now.
This was the last time I saw uncle Zack, since he never came back to ARK again. As much as I wished I wasn't so spiteful, I could not help but hope that he was locked in the deepest prison to decay to rags and bonees.
No. It doesn't excuse Ivo using his robots to try and take over Mobius and now this planet, but it does make me cry tears of genuine sorrow and remorse that I didn't know he had a storm to weather. Or if I knew, didn't care enough to help him.
I want to slap my cousin in the face for trying to inflict the same pain he once went through, for knowing how wrong it was when he felt it first hand. But I also want to give him a hug and kiss, because while any judge and jury will label me wholly innocent if this was a case in court, I know that I was culpable at least to some extent that Ivo turned out the way he did.
"This has to stop!" I moaned, breaking myself out of my panic induced hallucination. "No more killing. No more! Dear Cousin Ivo. You have to let things go. My life may have ended but yours didn't, SO WHY CAN'T YOU LIVE IT!? Your robots have turned you into something you're not. Don't listen to them."
"You are right. Helen. Pointless killing leads nobody anywhere except the violent road leading to nowhere, called violence road. You would make an excellent enforcer of the law. Give me a shout if you want a well-paying job with nice doughnuts as a bonus. I can see why Chris likes you, and I like you too." Chris's uncle Sam praises me, not able to tell that I am a part of Helen inside of her.
He knows that the robots refer to Eggman's robots, and that Ivo is Eggman's real name. He knows to respect my relationship with my long-lost cousin, despite not even knowing I exist at all. All the same, I know that his praises can be applied to Helen much more than they can apply to me.
I smile briefly to let Helen bask proudly in the police chief and champion car racer's compliments, before dropping back into my illusion of past events long past. It helps me conserve my strength. It's like a computer that enters battery saver mode, to reserve power until it can be charged again.
Grandfather showed me and Shadow one day when I was 10, that multiple universes existed. Not multiple solar systems. Not even multiple galaxies. No. Multiple universes. The universe as we knew it, was not all there was. He was kicked from his own research group at Oxford University, for suggesting such conjecture that everyone brushed away as balderdash and pointless drivel.
But it was real. There was solid, tangible proof that it was real. It explained perfectly why Sonic and his friends were sent here by the Chaos emeralds in our present day situation. It even explained why the Chaos emeralds sucked part of Sonic's world into this world.
Chaos always followed the path of least resistance. Like water flowing downstream. This universe and this planet did not have much chaos yet, so the chaos chose this place to manifest itself, and by extension its victims caught in its path.
Grandfather even showed off some of the proven universes, he knew to exist based on various forbidden experiments that everyone on Earth laughed cruelly at him for strenuously conducting in the name of the light of truth.
They were all very nearby universes in comparison to others, and they represented just a tiny drop in the bucket among the infinite others that existed alongside them. He let me as his most loved relative choose their names, and I had a field day.
...
1. A universe filled with many different animals and even living objects called "Pokemon". Among them, a yellow electric mouse whose tail does not enjoy being yanked and who can shock you to death with thunderbolts called "Pikachu". A red dragon with massive green wings and fire on the tip its huge tail called "Charizard". A talking white cat with kleptomania and an urge to steal everything not nailed down. Called "Meowth".
Humans in this universe do exist, though not as the dominant species. They can use coloured balls no bigger than a tennis ball, to catch these animals to be used in competitive battles not unlike bullfights in our world. One standout human, is a ten year old boy with raven hair, Asian skin and a red baseball cap.
He is known for his klutzy innocence, and his ability to seemingly never age past 10. He acts as a magnet for many similarly aged females, yet seems eternally oblivious to their romantic attraction to him, that he effortless garners. He is called "Ash Ketchum", and he wants to catch every Pokemon there is.
This universe is titled, "the Pokemon Universe". It has Shaymin in it, which Helen would love and adore with all her heart.
2. A universe with mostly humans, though a few very powerful beasts with differing numbers of tails also exist and hold most of the power. Where the technology level seemingly never moved past feudal Japan. Hence, no guns, nuclear missiles or power plants exist.
The people are very warlike, and fight with styles that mimic the lore of Samurai and other notable Japanese fighters of Medieval Japan. Some humans are born with innate bloodline powers calld "Jitsu", which they can make use of thanks to a supernatural force that flows within them called "Chakra".
As with the case in other "warlike" cultures, the strongest tend to rule over the weakest. The known inhabitants of this dystopian war with no end, are a blonde boy with an orange jacket named "Naruto Uzumaki" who likes to chow down on spiced Ramen as much as Sonic loves his chilli dogs (I know this from Helen's conversation with Sonic when he took her to the island and then back to her home). His catchphrase is "believe it!".
A sad, brooding dark haired boy slightly older than Naruto, with an equally dark costume that makes him resemble my friend Shadow the hedgehog a little too much for my comfort. Named Sasuke Uchiha.
A long pink haired gal with slightly spiky hair, and a long pink dress. Who chases Sasuke reletnlessly, while ignoring Naruto almost completely unless she needs something from him. She is named Sakura Haruno, after a Sakura flower which is very similar to a rose.
Since Naruto is the only fair-minded person strong or caring enough to keep any kind of order to prevent the heat death of that universe which seems bent on destroying itself as quickly as possible through an insatiable lust for power, it is only fair that it be titled "the Naruto universe".
3. This one is the dullest of the 3. It resembles our world even more in the sense that kids are shoved into schools, and adults are sent off to be worked to death in offices. The one thing that makes this universe exciting at all, and very dangerous like the other two, are magical cards which can be used to summon all-powerful warrior beings into existence. These cards are titled "Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards".
A shady race of corrupt mafia-like crime lords named "the dark siders" run that world, who can only be beaten by playing a sort of card game where your cards are pitted against theirs in a game of skill, luck, wits and chance. The dark siders do actually have a deadly arsenal of guns, laser cannons and nuclear missiles like the armies in our world. But they can never resist a good card game, because their supreme dominance makes their victory boring and they long for any kind of excitement.
Yugi Muto, a blonde spiky haired boy and Tea Gardner, a gorgeous brunette with an absolutely killer pink jacket and blue skirt are the key members of the resistance trying to save the people of that universe from themselves.
I aptly title it, the "Yu-Gi-Oh universe". Because that's what it is.
4. Yes. There's a fourth one. Actually there's more, but this one is the last noteworthy one. A dungeons and dragons-esque fantasy world where mercenaries and raiders keep the peace, rather than an organized police force of any kind.
The only important member of this universe, is a red haired mage who can conjure up incinerating balls of fire as hot as her entrancing appearance that stuns me for words. The most outstanding quality of this magician however, is that if played on a recorder: her voice is identical to that of Amy Rose, the adorable pink hedgehog Sonic is scared to confess his love to.
In both intonation, pitch and expression, the voice of Lina Inverse the fire mage from that universe, and Amy Rose from this universe, match completely. The similarity is far too striking and important to ignore. As is their shared habit of complaining unnecessarily, that their already generously sized breasts are too small to attract the loving attention, they both feel they richly deserve. Which is not true at all.
Since the only way to get anywhere in that universe is by slaying hordes of bandits, and stealing their loot not to give back to the poor and needy but to greedily keep all to yourself, I dub it "the Slayers universe".
...
These 4 universes and a few others too superficial to require a mention, I grouped into a category called "the 4kids series".
A number of other factors reveal the relative closeness and interdependence that these universes hold to each other.
But chief among them, is that many people of these universes, especially the heroes: have near identical hairstyles, choices of clothes and even voices. As in the case of Amy Rose and Lina Inverse. And now that I think about it, Tea Gardner and Helen Priestly: my host.
This was largely thanks to another striking discovery made by grandfather, which got him ousted from the scientific commitee back on earth for good. The existence of a set of deities with the ability to transcend the confines of time and space, and manifest their vocal abilities in multiple universes simultaneously. Who were above morality as we humans usually understood it, but sometimes did tend towards one side or the other, if it tickled their fancy.
These deities were titled "Voice actors" and "Voice actresses". They definitely had genders. We could not see them, but we could sense their presence with how their voices poured out of certain people, and other living beings.
Two such cosmic beings whose existence was confirmed, both voice actresses, were the fabulous Lisa Ortiz, and the splendid Amy Birnbuam. Lisa Ortiz providing the voice for both Amy Rose and Lina Inverse among others. Such as Oakley the jewel thief, from the Pokemon Universe in a city with majestic, sparking canals called Alto Mare. Where two guardian dragons called Latias and Latios lived.
While Amy Birnbuam's (not to be confused with Amy Rose, Sonic's amazing girlfriend) melodious vocal rapture poured like a heavenly harp out of the mouths of my host Helen, Tea Gardner from the Yu-Gi-Oh universe, and a third being from the outer space of our own universe known only as Cosmo the Seedrian "the white seed". An interstellar being captured only briefly once by ARK's space camera, whose cuddly appearance endeared me to her at first sight. Who belonged to the Seedrian race said to possess eco-technology certain to be of great use to Earth's increasingly rampant pollution of greenhouse gases.
It was because the unusually high number of shared voice actors and actresses, that I chose to group these specific universes into one group.
Grandfather didn't just want to make travel to other planets possible for when the Earth's overpopulation became too severe to ignore. He wanted us to be able to visit other universes with entirely different ways of life altogether. So that Helen could finally see the Shaymin she kept being teased for thinking was really real, which it really was no matter what the bullies at Liberty little school might say to her.
Unlike popular works of fiction such as Bioshock Infinite, or Back to the future, or Doctor Who, there really were an infinite number of universes with truly endless possibilities.
Like a universe where I never became ill with NIDS. One where I was miscarried, and perished at birth. Many more where I didn't even exist at all. Or one where I gained the power of all seven Chaos emeralds, and became an all-powerful being revered by all people on Earth.
Yet such travels were never without risk. Just one look at some of the horrible atrocities happening in some of these alternate universes, was enough to drive the bravest man to madness. G.U.N would naturally fear such phenomenon, especailly since if everyone discovered their existence then it would prove grandfather perfectly sane and right.
This would mean more faith in science, and less faith in an armed force built upon fearmongering, censorship and white tape. Especially since some of these universes contained people and other beings, that could turn the laws of nature on their head. G.U.N as powerful as it was, could be trodden on like a fly.
Shadow only laughed bitterly, as he usually did when trying to appear tough and unaffected.
"Hah. Other universes. How ridiculous Gerald. How can you worry about a future in these other universes that you most likely only fabricated as a feel good lie for poor Maria, when the present situation in our universe now should concern your full attention. Stop doing all these pointless experiments, and get on with giving Maria a cure already. The Earth can't wait forever for her to be ready, and neither can I."
One thing I could not like about Shadow, try as I might, was his impatience.
In my humble opinion at the very least, those who stood on their tiptoes did not stand firmly. Those who rushed ahead did not get far. Those who tried to outshine others, did not shine. Those who called themselves righteous, couldn't know how wrong they were. Those who boasted, lessened their accomplishments.
But when I said these things to Shadow to try and calm him down, he only redirected the attention to all the wonderful wonders awaiting me on Earth and how things would be better for me soon when we went there together.
If ARK was meant to be like Heaven, why did Shadow, myself and many others apparently living it up here, want so badly to return to our cradle, if this was our reward for a good life spent working hard? If I was like Shadow often called me: a pure and innocent Angel, why did I so desire to be down on the ground rather than up here in the sky?
It took a while for me to figure it out. But now I understand thst while an Angel's wings let them soar to the highest clouds, it can also let them descend into the lowest depths of what we humans would call: hell. There in hell, permitting the Angel is careful, the Angel can take the rough shoulder of a hopeless sinner who has lost all reason, hope and faith. The Angel can carry the screaming, crying and tortured soul of one who feels themselves to have no chance of redemption, and lift them all the way up to Heaven to live with them there.
WIth how few people seem to meet the sometimes very harsh standards for attaining Angel wings and being allowed through the golden gates to the fluffy, puffy clouds above, this Angel really can use some fine company. But I had company in the form of the ARK dwellers when I still lived there in my previous life. Just as Chris had his servants, Helen and Frances. So I say of those who still condemn Chris for his misdeeds, continue to do so only if you are willing to direct the same righteous spite towards me also.
To those who accuse my cousin Ivo of never being conent with his lot in life, let me be his shield for some of your hatred since I am guilty of similar crimes against humanity.
One can argue that I didn't really take Helen's life away from her, since it is indeed true that my soul fusing with hers was the only thing that gave her the strength to be born at all. But all the same, it was a murder and a theft since I was only supposed to have one life like everyone else. It is hard to think about how fortunate my second chance at life is, when I hear the sadness of terminally ill patients, or the tragically bereaved crying over how unfair it is to have only one life which often ends when you least expect.
If Helen was strong enough to be born without the aid of my soul which was also a possibility, I would indeed be depriving her of half her life by taking up half her body and half her attention. While it's true that Helen and I share similar tastes, prejudices, likes and dislikes, they are still not identitical. Helen still wants some things I don't, while I want things she doesn't.
But I only took one life away, you might say. While my cousin Ivo, my grandfather Gerald and G.U.N took hundreds or thousands between them. But if each life is a priceless treasure that can neither be bought or sold with money, then one life lost is one life too many.
You can't put a value on life. You can't simply go around saying one life is important while another is not. G.U.N said exactly that when they ordered the seek and destroy mission on ARK. In their seemingly noble quest where they deemed their own lives and the lives they cared for were important, my useless life clearly had no importance and neither did poor Shadow's.
..
Thank you so much for reading. Special thanks to Momijifan Low-Ki. Please read and review if you like this story and want to see more. Bless you all.
