Of Love and Death.

The Present Chapter 13: Appropriate Chapter Number Pt. 5

Valt somewhat pitched forward in his seated position. He had died before. He had died and been reincarnated. Many different times. How and what and why? Was that what happened after people died, or was that just something weird about him? Did it have something to do with how he was able to read minds? What had his past lives been like? Who had his families been and did he know anyone in this life from those in the past? How was this possible? "I-I I. HUH?" He asked Valtryek in a confused shout.

It would appear that his reaction was humorous to the warrior bey. Her shoulders shook a bit as she laughed. "Yes. You've died before. While I'm sure that Life and Death know how it's possible, they've kept that secret to themselves over the years. So I'm sorry, but I can't answer that question." Disappointment momentarily struck Valt. Here he was, curious again and actually pretty sure that the answer wouldn't be "your sucky ex tried to kill you" this time.

Maybe it was for the best that Valt didn't know the exact logistics of coming back to life. After all, curiosity killed the cat. Wait, was that literal in his case? Had he been a cat that curiosity killed, and that's why he was reincarnated? Oh no, was this his ninth life?

Again, Valtryek laughed. "No Valt, you were not originally a cat. Nor is this your ninth life. To be honest, I don't know what number this is. You've had millions of them." Millions. Valt had had millions of lives that he currently only remembered through flashes of dreams and deja vu. That-that made him kind of sad. He was struck by a fierce longing to know who he'd been before.

Well, at least Valt was sitting in front of a door that led to his memories. Unless he woke up with unfortunate timing, he'd get them back. He wondered how Shu would take this news. Would his friend find him weird? Or had something similar happened to Shu?

A nod came from Valtryek. "Yes. The exact same thing as a matter of fact. You two died at the exact same time in your first life. The prevailing theory as to how you are both alive again is that your 'great love brought you back to life'. Although I've never checked with Love to verify that."

Wait. That something was off about that sentence. It wasn't a lie. Valtryek's words had the ring of truth to them. But it was almost like "You said "love" like it was a name," Valt realized. Then came to another realization a moment later, "And earlier. You did the same thing with Life and Death."

There was a knowing smile on the bey's face. "That brings me to the other big thing I need to tell you. In your first life, you were not any creature known to humankind." Valt froze. That was, that was an interesting statement. This whole conversation had been full of interesting statements. All of which had been true. Which made them even more interesting. Or terrifying.

"What... what was I?" Valt asked with a dry mouth. He wanted to know. He really wanted to know.

The number one blader's partner took an audible deep breath. Which was a bit strange since she didn't have a mouth. "How much did you pay attention in physics class?" Valtryek asked. But, instead of giving him time to reply, she just kept going. "Don't answer that question. I was there. You didn't. Which is a grand shame, because physics is basically you.

"Okay, how do I explain this in a way that makes sense? Um...so the universe is governed by a lot of things. Some of which are the fundamental forces of the universe. Humans know of four. Gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. These guys do a whole bunch of stuff.

"But all of them have these things called force carrier particles associated with them. Electromagnetism has the photon. The weak force has the positive and negative versions of the W boson, as well as the Z boson. And the strong force has gluons. Gravity might have Graviton's but that's still theoretical, I believe.