Well, it's been a while. My worst fears came true, and I became a
Respectable Member of Society™. Ho hum, such is how things go. Anyway,
after some gentle prodding (You can put the hot poker down now), I've
decided to extend this work into the second game. Let's mosey. (I said
you could put it down, darnit! Stop jabbing me!)
Interest.
Experience.
Dynamic.
Such was its existance now. Ever since the Vortex fell and the bindings of time were shattered, it was at last able to converse and interact with the other intelligences on the world it dwelled upon. Interact it did. At first, it had just been Ecco. Then a few of his pod made the journey, hazardous as it was, just to meet it and hear it. They told everyone along the way, who told others, who told still more, and so on, until it found its little cavern packed almost wall to wall with those who wanted to hear it, feel it, see it, talk to it. It was overcome with sensation, and tried to answer every question, return every greeting, and listen to every story. Indeed, so many were coming that it relocated to more accessible surroundings, and empowered another old atlantian creation to speed travel through the seas, though few had the skill to utilize it completely. So content and bedazzled was it, that it didn't notice when a far northern sea experienced a brief spike of energy before it was dampened.
However, such newness and popularity does wear off. The visitors came less frequently, the stories were all eventually told, and while things did settle down, it was not disappointed. It knew the patience of the ages, so a visitor every few days was still a vast improvement over what it had once dealt with. And not all would leave it. A few of the Singers would stay, and formed a pod for the express purpose of defending it. It was obstinally for its protection, but it was far beyond everything the world had to meance it with. It humored them anyway, and came to know them all as they went through the motions of 'protecting' it. By sound, by sight, by pattern of thought, it knew them all. It appriciated them more for the good discourse they provided than their effort to preserve it from the Hungry Ones. Kitak, Siren, Yellowtail... It knew their names well. However, none would ever reach the same level as one- Ecco. They kept up communication through the link they shared. They 'talked', as it were, on things of great import and none, about what may have happened to the Atlantians and what sort of fish was the best tasting. It was good.
Until another day of fate arrived.
It knew that something was not right. Everything seemed to be 'thicker' than it should be, as if there were two of everything occuping the same spaces save itself. It used its link with Ecco to communicate this unease, and the reply did nothing to assuage its troubles. Ecco reported that he had run into a mirror of himself while on a regular patrol of his home waters. The mirror did nothing, save block his way until he asked who it was. Then it was gone. Using its orbs of sensing, it reached out and examined Ecco, to find him to be the only other thing without the 'thickness' that seemed to prevade everything. It called for Ecco to hurry back, so it might be able to better focus and determine just what the change was. It settled back, and began its investigations with a handy outcropping of rock, being a fairly simple item to examine. It was still examining and analyzing the change when a sudden shaking began. Rapidly realigning its orbs of sensing, it tried to determine the cause, and found it- something was boring through the upper layers of its cavern, but the something was difficult to identify. Almost as if its senses were being... blocked.
Blocked? Nothing could block it. Its range extended all over the world and beyond, as far as the great mass that created the tides. If something had evolved to block it, it would have noticed the gradual difficulties in sensing whatever creature would have done it. An orb of knowledge shunted a possible solution, and it called to its pod of protectors to investigate, but things grew worse. It couldn't contact them. It couldn't locate them. It couldn't locate anything alive at all. Then the fragments coalesced into a whole, a theory, that explained all the happenings of the past few moments of crisis.
It did not want to accept the theory. The evidence was there.
It did not like the implications. The future was not written by it.
It felt afraid. There was just cause.
It practically screamed for Ecco to hurry, but time was not with it. The ceiling gave way. Rocks fell, gravity taking its natural course. It activated all its orbs of power and defense, the massive energies preparing to be utilized. A massive shape dropped in, and it let loose a shockwave that caused the ocean itself to heave and shake. However, the target was unaffected. It did cause the block on its senses to drop, and it was at last able to directly scan the intruder.
Aquatic. Massive crainium. Multiple tentacles, large jaws. Refined metal armor plating. Intricate components, Atlantian-comparable power sources. Hunger. Massive, all consuming hunger.
"The Vortex!" it thought, as the first harmonic energy waves impacted, fragmenting its senses, disrupting its power, dulling its intellect, disappating its defense. Then it all came unhinged, and there was an abscence of everything.
"So dark..."
"What is darkness?"
"What is?"
A sound.
"What is sound?"
"I'll help you..."
"What is help?"
"You can't die..."
"What is death?"
"I'll heal you..."
"What is healing?"
"Can you hear my song?"
"Who are you?"
"You still live!"
"Who am I?"
"Come back to me old friend!"
"Why?"
"We need you!"
"Why?"
"To sing, to learn, to teach, to exist!"
It snapped back. Ecco was there, guiding the last of its orbs back into place. It had been shattered, scattered, consigned as destroyed. But it had not been destroyed. It had been painstakingly reassembled, all its orbs collected from the many regions it had been cast into by the Vortex. Various fragments of itself had tried to assist, but Ecco had clearly done an enourmous labor. Looking closer, it saw that it had left many marks upon him. Jagged scars, broken bones, several varieties of poisonous chemicals had all taken a toll. It reestablished the link, once again projecting itself into Ecco, and saw. One future, bright, filled with wonder. One future, dark, filled with nightmares. The stream of time was split, a paradox had been made. Being almost beyond time, it was able to bridge the gap between the futures and see both timestreams, the cause of the 'thickness' it had precieved. But there was still one thing unknown.
"Why did you go to such lengths, even without my power? Was it to survive? You could have simply hid away."
"I could not... My friend needed me."
Something flared up within it. This was totally new to it. All life it had encountered sought to simply survive. It had thought that single drive to be the cause of all actions taken. Some would grasp the larger picture, and know that the survival of a group was best insured by self-sacrifice. But this was different. Something done without a single bit of motivation for survival. Something that overrid the motivation for survival. It could tell, with the direct mind link. Suddenly, entire archives of information poured forth from the orbs of knowledge. New patterns realized, old assumptions exposed and crumbled. New ways of thinking emerged, that when followed led to new conclusions. It knew so much more now. Thousands upon thousands of stored messages from the times of the Atlantians. The multitudes of songs of Singers. It ran through them all, and it knew.
Friendship. Family. Love.
What may have once been merely constructs for survival had grown and changed into something far more than their beginnings. It finally understood a key aspect of interaction with other intelligences. A clue to the great secrets of existance- not the what, the how, the when, the where, but the why. And with understanding, came power. It flung its senses outward. The Vortex were expanding. It could track them without effort now, blocking or not. It could feel the will of the Singers, as they fought back across the planet, with cunning, with knowledge of their world, and with their hearts. It was futile- they knew they were losing, that none would survive the building storm. But still they fought on, because they could not regress and do nothing. And now, neither could it. The Atlantians had started the defence. The Singers continued it. And now, it would join in.
Atlantians, Singers, itself... Through time, through space, common threads of understanding linked them together. It tapped into that web, channeled the powers, and sang with every voice of the family it just discovered it had. What it said was expressed in a way unique to all that heard it, but was elegant in simplicity. It carried a promise of change, a call to action, a single word to link and empower them all. It channeled more power than it ever had with that one word, into every Singer that existed.
"Now."
It was amazed. The power being generated was beyond all it had thought possible. It couldn't move for fear of some disruption causing a catastrophic leak. It felt fear again, this time at itself. However, it was not alone. Ecco was with it, as were the remainder of its pod of protectors. They circled it, using their own fragments of the generated power to help smooth the dangerous flucuations in itself. The pod fell into a dreaming circle, devoting their minds to help control its energies. Ecco did not join them, and it knew why- he had other matters to attend to.
"I must go, old friend, to confront the Vortex at their core. Do not concern yourself with when might happen or what has happened. Just exist for now, we will do the rest."
And exist it did. With the aid of the protector pod, it had regained a tight grip on the energy being generated and channeled, enough so that it could take another look at how the world was faring. Incredible did not do it justice. The Singers had adapted to the new energy provided to them, and were using it to great effect. Looking through one set of eyes, it saw a Vortex group crushed as three pods attacked from as many directions, sonic shockwaves battering the Vortex senseless. Through another set, it saw a lone Vortex smashed to pulp by an Orca with a might tail slap. Through yet another set, it saw a great whale pod swimming towards the Vortex nest, their massive shockwaves simply crushing anything in their way though raw power. Then it noticed that there were patterened sub-harmonics in the energy it was channeling, and upon examination saw that the very thoughts of the Singers were being sent back and forth. It was not on the same level of the communication it shared with Ecco, but it was effective. They coordinated and planned without noticing they were doing so, and it watched, orbs of knowledge recording at a frantic pace. By the time the world completed a rotation, the Vortex had been all but wiped from the world beyond their core. Now there was an impass. The Vortex had been mostly without their technology, but the defenses of their core were enough to resist the power that had worked thus far. The many hundreds of thousands of Singers that had gathered outside the bay the Vortex had claimed as their own could not exert their numbers with such a restricted access, nor could the Vortex come out without being crushed.
As it jumped its preception from one Singer to the next, it caught sight of one pod far different from the others. It was not composed of all the same types, as most were. Instead, it was a grouping of quite a few different types, some of which looked oddly familiar. Shifting prespective again, it was not surprised to find Ecco at the heart of it, but was surprised at the exact identities that composed it. Each was a minor legend. Big Gray, the great Singer that had come dangerously close to exposing it before the time was right, and brother of Big Blue. The Stone Guards, a pair that dwelled in the most hazardous of regions. Ventdancer, who made a game of the rising waters that would entrap the unwary. Starchaser, who feared nothing in any sea, having been to them all. The names went on. As it examined them, the group turned and made for the bay entrance.
It came to be called Lunar Bay, for the moon that rose high and large over the fight below.
It knew so many emotions now. Love, Anger, Happiness... And now Sadness. Things had gone awry on what should have been a simple task, and had taken away Ecco to times and places unknown. At least the treacherous Vortex responsible had been cast into a place where it could do no harm, as it found after careful examination of its own memories. The time machine was now destroyed, no further changes could take place by that route. There was nothing more for it to do. It considered withdrawing again, without Ecco the world beyond its old cave seemed unappealing. Its pod of protectors had other ideas.
"Don't go!"
"Stay with us!"
"We're your friends!"
The pleading might as well have been to the sea bottom for all the good it did. It wanted to distance itself from them, for their own good. If any Vortex still lived, they too would come hunting for it, and it did not want them to be injured. It let loose a bellow to clear out and leave it be, but they simply wouldn't go away. Indeed, yet another one came in. Such foolishness. The others quieted themselves and made way for the newcomer. It directed an Orb of Sensing to the newcomer, and found nothing of note- until a Orb of Knowledge routed a memory of an old conversation with Ecco, and an image along with it. One line was all that was important.
"I think I'm in love with her, and she with me."
Its sadness redoubled. What could it possibly say? All responses seemed inadquate. It had been responsible, it had failed. As things turned out, it didn't need to respond at all.
"Moping around like a half-eaten jellyfish, eh? From what Ecco sang me, I thought you to be above that."
"I-"
"Don't say it. You are mighty, but not all-powerful. The unexpected happens to us all, taking away those we care for, and after the storm, what do we do?"
She turned to leave, her final line bouncing off the walls.
"We go on living. The pain only reminds us to enjoy our time together, be it long or short."
It was such a simple answer, but the wisdom behind it was so deep that it provided for many stimulating conversations over the years.
It spun serenely. The gentle currents in its chamber made the few plants that grew sway to and fro. Outside that chamber, the world had changed. A great deal of time had passed. It had changed too. The power it weilded dwarfed its old standards. The Singers still sung, though now their songs could be heard all over the world, even to the edges of space for the bolder ones. It estimated it would not be much longer before they changed into a form that would let them move into that vast region and seek its depths- and whatever laid there. But, they were ready to confront that unknown. Their minds were keen, inquisitive, ever curious about all things great and small. It had even developed into a sort of mental thumb, allowing them to impart kinetic energy with sheer power of thought. Telekenisis, as the Atlantians had called such powers.
Its own changes were nearly as dramatic. It no longer had individual orbs for basic functions- any orb could fulfill any need, and all new abilities came to it. It knew how it had come to be, though that mattered little due to present circumstances, and it could exert near complete control over time. It was effectively invincible now, since it could simply send any threat to the deep time and could warn itself in advance. It kept a small time rift open along its length allowing for the Guardian Pod to do what was needed when it was needed. However, it knew that the days of time travel were numbered. Soon, the final paradox would pass, and their world would finally re-sync with the rest of the universe. Indeed, that final paradox was about to enter...
A Singer much different than all others entered. Smaller, without telekenisis, no Helium sacs to aid in flight, fins too short to deal with air effectively, it was a physical specimine that was in nearly every regard inferior to the predominant forms. However, it knew that there was much more to existance than mere physical attributes. There was also the power of an intelligent will, and this one possessed such power as to bend reality. This would be a threat to it in even its current neigh-omnipotent state, but it was perfectly calm. The creature would not harm it. They were old friends, after all.
It said what had to be said, communicated what needed to be known, as demanded by time, and sent it back to finish the paradox. All things were now resolved. The old one swam down the spiral, as it sought to record every moment of their brief time together. It held no expectations of ever meeting with him again, so it took great pains to carve the memory into itself, something it had not had the chance to do at their other final parting. As the old one entered the final stage of the time rift, it sent one last message, something it had waited millions of years to say.
"Goodbye, Ecco."
And Ecco was gone. The time rift, no longer needed or desired, closed. It felt deep sadness, but there was also pride at having the good fortune to have met such a being. It realized that now there was nothing more for it to do- time was resolved and safe, and its family of Singers had grown so much that they had been able to instigate some of the changes that brought it to its current form. However, it was not alone with its thoughts for long. The Guardian leader, Trellia, entered after only a few moments.
"What was that all about? Send me back to pick up some ancient one, then turn around and send him right back? That seems like a waste of effort."
"No... It was absolution. The end of the final paradox. The universe is opening to us now, the twin streams of time are at last one again."
"Such grand words. Who was that, who had so much impact upon us as to split time? I have his name, but nothing more."
It felt amused. Hasn't heard the legend? Or prehaps the name change over the ages... Eck'toe and Ecco aren't that similar after all...
"Well then old friend, I will have to tell you a story."
"A story?"
"About an even older friend of mine... When to begin..."
And thus it passed its first evening without a written future, telling one good friend about another good friend, until the sun set and the stars came out, shining with a fierce brilliance. As the tale continued, five of them, far from their old places yet still linked by spirit, twinkled as one in the darkness.
-FINIS-
Well, not bad I'd say. It's a bit looser since the dialoge from Ecco II seems to have gotten itself lost in my system. Maybe it fell into the IDPFFZOE «winkwinknudgenudge» (Yeah, you know who you are. All of you. And now you know I'm me. Cool, ain't it?). I need to get my email back into shape... About the only thing that's remained constant in all these years is that I'm still bloody difficult to get a hold of. Well, just have to wait and see. I've got other projects sitting around in various stages of incompletion.
And now that the nonsensical obligatory author ranting is finished, drop a review. I hunger for your tax dollars, er, opinions.
Interest.
Experience.
Dynamic.
Such was its existance now. Ever since the Vortex fell and the bindings of time were shattered, it was at last able to converse and interact with the other intelligences on the world it dwelled upon. Interact it did. At first, it had just been Ecco. Then a few of his pod made the journey, hazardous as it was, just to meet it and hear it. They told everyone along the way, who told others, who told still more, and so on, until it found its little cavern packed almost wall to wall with those who wanted to hear it, feel it, see it, talk to it. It was overcome with sensation, and tried to answer every question, return every greeting, and listen to every story. Indeed, so many were coming that it relocated to more accessible surroundings, and empowered another old atlantian creation to speed travel through the seas, though few had the skill to utilize it completely. So content and bedazzled was it, that it didn't notice when a far northern sea experienced a brief spike of energy before it was dampened.
However, such newness and popularity does wear off. The visitors came less frequently, the stories were all eventually told, and while things did settle down, it was not disappointed. It knew the patience of the ages, so a visitor every few days was still a vast improvement over what it had once dealt with. And not all would leave it. A few of the Singers would stay, and formed a pod for the express purpose of defending it. It was obstinally for its protection, but it was far beyond everything the world had to meance it with. It humored them anyway, and came to know them all as they went through the motions of 'protecting' it. By sound, by sight, by pattern of thought, it knew them all. It appriciated them more for the good discourse they provided than their effort to preserve it from the Hungry Ones. Kitak, Siren, Yellowtail... It knew their names well. However, none would ever reach the same level as one- Ecco. They kept up communication through the link they shared. They 'talked', as it were, on things of great import and none, about what may have happened to the Atlantians and what sort of fish was the best tasting. It was good.
Until another day of fate arrived.
§ § §
It knew that something was not right. Everything seemed to be 'thicker' than it should be, as if there were two of everything occuping the same spaces save itself. It used its link with Ecco to communicate this unease, and the reply did nothing to assuage its troubles. Ecco reported that he had run into a mirror of himself while on a regular patrol of his home waters. The mirror did nothing, save block his way until he asked who it was. Then it was gone. Using its orbs of sensing, it reached out and examined Ecco, to find him to be the only other thing without the 'thickness' that seemed to prevade everything. It called for Ecco to hurry back, so it might be able to better focus and determine just what the change was. It settled back, and began its investigations with a handy outcropping of rock, being a fairly simple item to examine. It was still examining and analyzing the change when a sudden shaking began. Rapidly realigning its orbs of sensing, it tried to determine the cause, and found it- something was boring through the upper layers of its cavern, but the something was difficult to identify. Almost as if its senses were being... blocked.
Blocked? Nothing could block it. Its range extended all over the world and beyond, as far as the great mass that created the tides. If something had evolved to block it, it would have noticed the gradual difficulties in sensing whatever creature would have done it. An orb of knowledge shunted a possible solution, and it called to its pod of protectors to investigate, but things grew worse. It couldn't contact them. It couldn't locate them. It couldn't locate anything alive at all. Then the fragments coalesced into a whole, a theory, that explained all the happenings of the past few moments of crisis.
It did not want to accept the theory. The evidence was there.
It did not like the implications. The future was not written by it.
It felt afraid. There was just cause.
It practically screamed for Ecco to hurry, but time was not with it. The ceiling gave way. Rocks fell, gravity taking its natural course. It activated all its orbs of power and defense, the massive energies preparing to be utilized. A massive shape dropped in, and it let loose a shockwave that caused the ocean itself to heave and shake. However, the target was unaffected. It did cause the block on its senses to drop, and it was at last able to directly scan the intruder.
Aquatic. Massive crainium. Multiple tentacles, large jaws. Refined metal armor plating. Intricate components, Atlantian-comparable power sources. Hunger. Massive, all consuming hunger.
"The Vortex!" it thought, as the first harmonic energy waves impacted, fragmenting its senses, disrupting its power, dulling its intellect, disappating its defense. Then it all came unhinged, and there was an abscence of everything.
§ § §
"So dark..."
"What is darkness?"
"What is?"
A sound.
"What is sound?"
"I'll help you..."
"What is help?"
"You can't die..."
"What is death?"
"I'll heal you..."
"What is healing?"
"Can you hear my song?"
"Who are you?"
"You still live!"
"Who am I?"
"Come back to me old friend!"
"Why?"
"We need you!"
"Why?"
"To sing, to learn, to teach, to exist!"
§ § §
It snapped back. Ecco was there, guiding the last of its orbs back into place. It had been shattered, scattered, consigned as destroyed. But it had not been destroyed. It had been painstakingly reassembled, all its orbs collected from the many regions it had been cast into by the Vortex. Various fragments of itself had tried to assist, but Ecco had clearly done an enourmous labor. Looking closer, it saw that it had left many marks upon him. Jagged scars, broken bones, several varieties of poisonous chemicals had all taken a toll. It reestablished the link, once again projecting itself into Ecco, and saw. One future, bright, filled with wonder. One future, dark, filled with nightmares. The stream of time was split, a paradox had been made. Being almost beyond time, it was able to bridge the gap between the futures and see both timestreams, the cause of the 'thickness' it had precieved. But there was still one thing unknown.
"Why did you go to such lengths, even without my power? Was it to survive? You could have simply hid away."
"I could not... My friend needed me."
Something flared up within it. This was totally new to it. All life it had encountered sought to simply survive. It had thought that single drive to be the cause of all actions taken. Some would grasp the larger picture, and know that the survival of a group was best insured by self-sacrifice. But this was different. Something done without a single bit of motivation for survival. Something that overrid the motivation for survival. It could tell, with the direct mind link. Suddenly, entire archives of information poured forth from the orbs of knowledge. New patterns realized, old assumptions exposed and crumbled. New ways of thinking emerged, that when followed led to new conclusions. It knew so much more now. Thousands upon thousands of stored messages from the times of the Atlantians. The multitudes of songs of Singers. It ran through them all, and it knew.
Friendship. Family. Love.
What may have once been merely constructs for survival had grown and changed into something far more than their beginnings. It finally understood a key aspect of interaction with other intelligences. A clue to the great secrets of existance- not the what, the how, the when, the where, but the why. And with understanding, came power. It flung its senses outward. The Vortex were expanding. It could track them without effort now, blocking or not. It could feel the will of the Singers, as they fought back across the planet, with cunning, with knowledge of their world, and with their hearts. It was futile- they knew they were losing, that none would survive the building storm. But still they fought on, because they could not regress and do nothing. And now, neither could it. The Atlantians had started the defence. The Singers continued it. And now, it would join in.
Atlantians, Singers, itself... Through time, through space, common threads of understanding linked them together. It tapped into that web, channeled the powers, and sang with every voice of the family it just discovered it had. What it said was expressed in a way unique to all that heard it, but was elegant in simplicity. It carried a promise of change, a call to action, a single word to link and empower them all. It channeled more power than it ever had with that one word, into every Singer that existed.
"Now."
§ § §
It was amazed. The power being generated was beyond all it had thought possible. It couldn't move for fear of some disruption causing a catastrophic leak. It felt fear again, this time at itself. However, it was not alone. Ecco was with it, as were the remainder of its pod of protectors. They circled it, using their own fragments of the generated power to help smooth the dangerous flucuations in itself. The pod fell into a dreaming circle, devoting their minds to help control its energies. Ecco did not join them, and it knew why- he had other matters to attend to.
"I must go, old friend, to confront the Vortex at their core. Do not concern yourself with when might happen or what has happened. Just exist for now, we will do the rest."
And exist it did. With the aid of the protector pod, it had regained a tight grip on the energy being generated and channeled, enough so that it could take another look at how the world was faring. Incredible did not do it justice. The Singers had adapted to the new energy provided to them, and were using it to great effect. Looking through one set of eyes, it saw a Vortex group crushed as three pods attacked from as many directions, sonic shockwaves battering the Vortex senseless. Through another set, it saw a lone Vortex smashed to pulp by an Orca with a might tail slap. Through yet another set, it saw a great whale pod swimming towards the Vortex nest, their massive shockwaves simply crushing anything in their way though raw power. Then it noticed that there were patterened sub-harmonics in the energy it was channeling, and upon examination saw that the very thoughts of the Singers were being sent back and forth. It was not on the same level of the communication it shared with Ecco, but it was effective. They coordinated and planned without noticing they were doing so, and it watched, orbs of knowledge recording at a frantic pace. By the time the world completed a rotation, the Vortex had been all but wiped from the world beyond their core. Now there was an impass. The Vortex had been mostly without their technology, but the defenses of their core were enough to resist the power that had worked thus far. The many hundreds of thousands of Singers that had gathered outside the bay the Vortex had claimed as their own could not exert their numbers with such a restricted access, nor could the Vortex come out without being crushed.
As it jumped its preception from one Singer to the next, it caught sight of one pod far different from the others. It was not composed of all the same types, as most were. Instead, it was a grouping of quite a few different types, some of which looked oddly familiar. Shifting prespective again, it was not surprised to find Ecco at the heart of it, but was surprised at the exact identities that composed it. Each was a minor legend. Big Gray, the great Singer that had come dangerously close to exposing it before the time was right, and brother of Big Blue. The Stone Guards, a pair that dwelled in the most hazardous of regions. Ventdancer, who made a game of the rising waters that would entrap the unwary. Starchaser, who feared nothing in any sea, having been to them all. The names went on. As it examined them, the group turned and made for the bay entrance.
It came to be called Lunar Bay, for the moon that rose high and large over the fight below.
§ § §
It knew so many emotions now. Love, Anger, Happiness... And now Sadness. Things had gone awry on what should have been a simple task, and had taken away Ecco to times and places unknown. At least the treacherous Vortex responsible had been cast into a place where it could do no harm, as it found after careful examination of its own memories. The time machine was now destroyed, no further changes could take place by that route. There was nothing more for it to do. It considered withdrawing again, without Ecco the world beyond its old cave seemed unappealing. Its pod of protectors had other ideas.
"Don't go!"
"Stay with us!"
"We're your friends!"
The pleading might as well have been to the sea bottom for all the good it did. It wanted to distance itself from them, for their own good. If any Vortex still lived, they too would come hunting for it, and it did not want them to be injured. It let loose a bellow to clear out and leave it be, but they simply wouldn't go away. Indeed, yet another one came in. Such foolishness. The others quieted themselves and made way for the newcomer. It directed an Orb of Sensing to the newcomer, and found nothing of note- until a Orb of Knowledge routed a memory of an old conversation with Ecco, and an image along with it. One line was all that was important.
"I think I'm in love with her, and she with me."
Its sadness redoubled. What could it possibly say? All responses seemed inadquate. It had been responsible, it had failed. As things turned out, it didn't need to respond at all.
"Moping around like a half-eaten jellyfish, eh? From what Ecco sang me, I thought you to be above that."
"I-"
"Don't say it. You are mighty, but not all-powerful. The unexpected happens to us all, taking away those we care for, and after the storm, what do we do?"
She turned to leave, her final line bouncing off the walls.
"We go on living. The pain only reminds us to enjoy our time together, be it long or short."
It was such a simple answer, but the wisdom behind it was so deep that it provided for many stimulating conversations over the years.
§ § §
It spun serenely. The gentle currents in its chamber made the few plants that grew sway to and fro. Outside that chamber, the world had changed. A great deal of time had passed. It had changed too. The power it weilded dwarfed its old standards. The Singers still sung, though now their songs could be heard all over the world, even to the edges of space for the bolder ones. It estimated it would not be much longer before they changed into a form that would let them move into that vast region and seek its depths- and whatever laid there. But, they were ready to confront that unknown. Their minds were keen, inquisitive, ever curious about all things great and small. It had even developed into a sort of mental thumb, allowing them to impart kinetic energy with sheer power of thought. Telekenisis, as the Atlantians had called such powers.
Its own changes were nearly as dramatic. It no longer had individual orbs for basic functions- any orb could fulfill any need, and all new abilities came to it. It knew how it had come to be, though that mattered little due to present circumstances, and it could exert near complete control over time. It was effectively invincible now, since it could simply send any threat to the deep time and could warn itself in advance. It kept a small time rift open along its length allowing for the Guardian Pod to do what was needed when it was needed. However, it knew that the days of time travel were numbered. Soon, the final paradox would pass, and their world would finally re-sync with the rest of the universe. Indeed, that final paradox was about to enter...
A Singer much different than all others entered. Smaller, without telekenisis, no Helium sacs to aid in flight, fins too short to deal with air effectively, it was a physical specimine that was in nearly every regard inferior to the predominant forms. However, it knew that there was much more to existance than mere physical attributes. There was also the power of an intelligent will, and this one possessed such power as to bend reality. This would be a threat to it in even its current neigh-omnipotent state, but it was perfectly calm. The creature would not harm it. They were old friends, after all.
It said what had to be said, communicated what needed to be known, as demanded by time, and sent it back to finish the paradox. All things were now resolved. The old one swam down the spiral, as it sought to record every moment of their brief time together. It held no expectations of ever meeting with him again, so it took great pains to carve the memory into itself, something it had not had the chance to do at their other final parting. As the old one entered the final stage of the time rift, it sent one last message, something it had waited millions of years to say.
"Goodbye, Ecco."
And Ecco was gone. The time rift, no longer needed or desired, closed. It felt deep sadness, but there was also pride at having the good fortune to have met such a being. It realized that now there was nothing more for it to do- time was resolved and safe, and its family of Singers had grown so much that they had been able to instigate some of the changes that brought it to its current form. However, it was not alone with its thoughts for long. The Guardian leader, Trellia, entered after only a few moments.
"What was that all about? Send me back to pick up some ancient one, then turn around and send him right back? That seems like a waste of effort."
"No... It was absolution. The end of the final paradox. The universe is opening to us now, the twin streams of time are at last one again."
"Such grand words. Who was that, who had so much impact upon us as to split time? I have his name, but nothing more."
It felt amused. Hasn't heard the legend? Or prehaps the name change over the ages... Eck'toe and Ecco aren't that similar after all...
"Well then old friend, I will have to tell you a story."
"A story?"
"About an even older friend of mine... When to begin..."
And thus it passed its first evening without a written future, telling one good friend about another good friend, until the sun set and the stars came out, shining with a fierce brilliance. As the tale continued, five of them, far from their old places yet still linked by spirit, twinkled as one in the darkness.
-FINIS-
Well, not bad I'd say. It's a bit looser since the dialoge from Ecco II seems to have gotten itself lost in my system. Maybe it fell into the IDPFFZOE «winkwinknudgenudge» (Yeah, you know who you are. All of you. And now you know I'm me. Cool, ain't it?). I need to get my email back into shape... About the only thing that's remained constant in all these years is that I'm still bloody difficult to get a hold of. Well, just have to wait and see. I've got other projects sitting around in various stages of incompletion.
And now that the nonsensical obligatory author ranting is finished, drop a review. I hunger for your tax dollars, er, opinions.