Felix opened his eyes while lying in bed. He stared at the ceiling. The ceiling appeared to be a hospital ceiling. Felix wondered how he got to the hospital.
The last thing he remembered was being slashed in the back with a sword and telling Melina to take SPACE. The rest was blank.
"O tsohile. Ere kelo jwetsa doctor o tsohile."
[T/L: He's awake. Let me go and tell the doctor he's awake.]
The nurse in the room said something after noticing that Felix was awake and left the room to call the doctor.
'Wait, Sesotho? Why is the nurse speaking Sesotho? Ain't I in America?' Felix was confused by the language the nurse had spoken. He started questioning himself and everything.
'If the nurse is speaking a different language, was I not reincarnated?' Felix thought to himself and had complicated emotions. He didn't know what his emotions were, but he knew they were conflicting with one another.
'Was everything a lie? What about my mom, grandma, Maria, and everybody? What about my best friend who got killed? What about me almost dying to the ninjas? What about all my suffering trying to study everything in that world? What about me creating SPACE, OSEONG, and the rest of my stuff?'
'What about my existence?'
Felix questioned himself about everything that had happened since he reincarnated into that world. He didn't realise it, but tears started flowing down his eyes since he was lying down. He cried without making any sound, and the background sounds started disappearing.
After a while, the nurse arrived with the doctor. The doctor was Caucasian, had bright cinder-orange hair, and orange eyes. He was dressed casually under the white coat; he was wearing a black hoodie with jeans and sneakers. For a doctor, he was dressed like a person who was visiting someone and had taken a doctor's coat.
"Mr $@&+)/_€%, it appears you survived a fall from a scaffold at your workplace."
The doctor opened his file and said something to Felix, which Felix understood.
'Scaffold? Are you telling me I survived that fall and didn't reincarnate? Should I feel glad I'm still alive or angry about my experience in the other world? Wait... Why can't I hear my own name?' Felix thought to himself and started getting worried.
"Anyway, Felix, I came here to have a talk with you, or maybe answer some 'concerns' about some things."
The doctor said to Felix, and Felix became suspicious about something because the doctor called him Felix.
'Why did he call me Felix? That's my name from the Marvel universe, and I didn't get to reincarnate.'
"Wrong. That's your name. You can't use the name of a dead person because the name, @$&£ $+(#@, completed its story."
The doctor said to Felix, and Felix realised that the doctor was reading his mind.
In a moment, the coat started disintegrating around the doctor, along with the inside of the room. The walls started disintegrating first, then the equipment in the room, as well as the furniture, and the nurse disintegrated.
The entire floor disintegrated, and Felix was left in shock and bewilderment. Felix found himself in what appeared to be space, with the doctor floating in front of him without much care. There was what appeared to be a small white ball far away, and the rest was pitch black, but he could see just fine.
Felix and "The Doctor" appeared to be in space. Felix was wearing casual clothes. Felix didn't know when he had worn them, but he just appeared wearing them.
"So, why did you bring me here?"
Felix said as he looked around himself, certain he was in space.
"I'm starting to think you're dumb or you're not thinking at all," the doctor said to Felix, looking worried. Felix realised that he had already been told why he was brought here and started to become serious.
"Can I ask what your name is?" Felix started questioning the guy.
"I don't have a name, but I could be called by what I govern or control. I am Essence."
Essence answered Felix without much thought. Felix started doubting the guy, but after remembering what just happened, he didn't doubt it.
"So, am I dead?"
Felix wanted to know something, because there was no way any being could do what he did on Earth, and if he was still in the Marvel world, that meant he had died somehow or something was happening to him.
"Well, your soul is still connected to your body. You're not dead."
"(Sigh)..."
Felix released a breath he didn't realise he was holding.
"Why was I reincarnated?"
Felix wanted to know what the reason behind his reincarnation was.
"No reason in particular. I just thought we should see something in particular."
Felix heard his explanation and felt angry but caught something Essence said: 'we'. That meant he wasn't alone in his reincarnation. Felix thought to himself.
"Oh no, I'm the one who reincarnated a you."
Felix remembered that he could read his mind but wondered why the entity could speak broken English. 'Did he not go to school?' Felix wondered to himself.
"You wouldn't get it, but let me explain. I reincarnated your spirit multiple times, more like four times, in different worlds. So, when I say I reincarnated 'a' you, I mean your spirit."
"I got reincarnated four times. How come I don't remember?" Felix was confused and surprised by that statement.
"I didn't reincarnate you four times. I reincarnated your spirit four times. There's a difference."
Felix was confused by what he was saying. "Isn't that the same thing?" he questioned.
"How should I put it? Spirit represents memories, and a soul represents character. It's like RAM and ROM."
Felix understood what he meant but wondered why he couldn't just say he reincarnated his memories of Earth.
"Why did you reincarnate my memories four times? I don't think I would have accepted that if you asked me," Felix said, knowing full well he wouldn't have agreed to that.
"I didn't ask. I wanted to see how a person with nothing but power acts, a person with everything but memories of the world acts, a person who's trying everything to survive, and a person with nothing to do but trying to restore everything.
A person with no parents but power,(The Day Broke)
A person with parents but intelligence,(A Hero Within)
A person with power and resilience,(A Peaceful Monster)
A person with loss and power.(N/A:U/C)
You are a person with parents but intelligence, Felix Cole Vale."
Essence said to Felix as he got closer to him. Felix became afraid of Essence.
"Is that why the abortions didn't work?" Felix really wanted to know why each and every abortion didn't work.
"Yes, and it's because of Genesis Gestation or GenesisPregnancy. No matter what anyone does, the child will still be born. So, the bearer is invincible while GenesisGestation is still active. Even though your mother committed four abortions, she still gave birth to you."
Essence said as a couch began to materialize behind him, and he sat down. Felix was confused by what he said because his mother clearly told him she tried abortions three times.
"What do you mean four times? Isn't it three?" Felix heard what he said about Genesis Pregnancy but was confused by what he said afterwards.
"Oh, she didn't tell you that she tried to commit suicide while pregnant but failed to die nonetheless," Essence said, unbothered.
Felix began to understand it clearly.
"If you were going to reincarnate me, why couldn't you give me a system?" Felix wanted to know why he didn't get a system while most MCs got one or at least some power.
"I don't specialise in creation. That's my brother's domain. Besides, it's a lot of work and it doesn't show the character of a person. Every user follows the same route and they gain powers easily while the other has to train for a long time before mastering a single ability. Besides, it's boring."
Felix agreed with his reasoning but still thought he should have at least had a system. 'I should have gotten a system panel at least.'
"If you want a system panel, you should create your own or ask your daughter to create one for you."
Essence said as he started to close his eyes. Felix thought to himself that he was right, but he remembered that he didn't have a child.
"I don't have a child," Felix said as he looked at Essence. Essence opened his eyes and stared at him. He saw that he was serious.
"Didn't you create SPACE? Besides, she got her own thoughts and personality. Ohh, I forgot that anything that doesn't bleed is not a human and anything/anyone that is differently is an alien or monster."
Essence said, not caring much about what he was saying. Felix thought about what he said regarding SPACE and personality.
"What do you mean SPACE has her own thoughts? I thought she only had personality," Felix thought he understood the personality of SPACE, but it seemed he was wrong.
"I mean she lied to you two or three times, or more like she didn't lie at all. It's just that you didn't think much of it."
"What do you mean she lied?" Felix was confused.
"When you told her to decompose the super soldier serum picture, she recreated (simulated) the entire super soldier serum and failed 37 times until she created a perfect super soldier serum and gave a list of what you might need as well as instructions on what to do. You thought she decomposed a picture. That's highly impossible for a mortal to do. That was the first time she lied."
[A/N: I thought she did.]
[ESSENCE: BECAUSE YOU'RE DUMB.]
[A/N:....]
Felix had a realisation that what he was saying was right. He started feeling bad about the whole thing.
'Maybe I should do something,' Felix thought to himself, and Essence didn't say anything to him.
"Wait... You said she lied twice or thrice, but what's the other lie?" Felix said as he remembered what Essence had said.
"It's about that mutant group in your city."
Felix tried to think about which group he was talking about, but the only group that came to mind was the Chicago Morlocks.
"Wait... Are you talking about the Chicago Morlocks?" he said.
"Oh, you remember. You're in my presence; that's probably why the mind control got undone."
"Why wouldn't I remember..." Suddenly, Felix had a realisation in the middle of his words and remembered that he didn't even know about the Chicago Morlocks until he met Essence. He had forgotten the entire group.
"But why wouldn't I remember any of their members? I thought his power was manipulating minds about something and not trying to make me forget every member," Felix thought as he realised something.
Before he approached them, he had done research on them and found out that the leader could only erase something from another person's mind, but not everything at the same time. So there was no way he had made him forget each member.
"Oh, that. That's on you. The guy in that group said [GRIEF], and you forgot everything related to GRIEF. So, you forgetting every member of the group was you dealing with GRIEF. You forgetting your prom dance was you dealing with GRIEF. You forgot everything related to GRIEF... I mean EVERYTHING," Essence said as he increased his voice on the word GRIEF.
Felix finally remembered the prom dance he went to with Maria, the conversation he had with her, and the events that happened afterwards.
Felix felt sad about his memories for a moment.
Felix realised something that was either gaslighting on purpose or a mistake.
"Why did I wake up on a hospital bed while I was my previous self? Did you gaslight me into not asking about that?"
"Oh, that. I wanted to talk to you somewhere you're familiar with but also not confused about everything around you. So, waking you up in that hospital where the nurse spoke your language and you had no relation to anything was my way of not freaking you out about ME but not making you freak out about YOURSELF. So, I had to cancel that."
Felix listened to his reasoning but didn't understand and started questioning him.
"Don't you have omnipotence and omniscience in your abilities? Didn't you know I would freak out?"
"Oh, those abilities automatically turn off when we're in the presence of a mortal. We're simply in the same form as the being we talk to, but our powers are still with us."
Felix understood right away what he was saying. Felix decided to stop asking about other things and focus on some things.
"So SPACE lied about SSS, about mind control, and what else?" Felix wanted to know what SPACE had been hiding.
"She lied about the other guy."
"What other guy?"
"The guy you told her to kill."
"I didn't tell her to kill... Wait, are you talking about Arnim Zola?" Felix realised who he was talking about.
"She told you the guy escaped, but she let him escape. She's afraid to kill. She could've killed him; heck, she can kill him anytime she wants. She's just afraid."
Felix finally understood why she told him she couldn't catch him all this time, but she just didn't want to.
"What's making her afraid?" Felix desperately wanted to know, so he leaned forward.
"YOU. More specifically, she's afraid of disappointing her father or making her father afraid of her."
Felix said nothing and became quiet for a while.
After a while, Felix began to talk.
"Why was I reincarnated in a mixture of the MCU, Marvel Entertainment, Fox, and a little of the comics?" Felix wanted to know about that combination.
"That was the deal I had with TOAA."
"What deal?"
"You'll find out yourself about the deal."
Felix desperately wanted to know about the deal, but he figured Essence wouldn't answer no matter how many times he pushed, so he reluctantly gave up.
"Anyway, that's all the questions I will answer, and the rest would be boring," Essence said as he made the couch disappear and stood up.
"Anyway, is there anything you want to know?" Essence said as he looked directly at Felix, like he was staring at his soul.
Felix thought for a while, but all he came up with was, "Can you give SPACE a mortal form or any form, if possible?"
Felix wanted SPACE to have a physical form that was not made of metal but flesh.
"Give her a soul and find a vessel for her. You'll know what to do," Essence said to Felix, and Felix started losing consciousness.
"Okay, now that he's gone... I'm bored. Oh, T8129so, I'll see you next time."
[A/N: ...]
Essence disappeared after saying that.
Felix began to wake while lying on a bed covered in bandages.
"Shit. My body is all sore. I guess I'm back to reality."