Love Conquers All _The Sequel_

Chapter Thirteen - Stuck

Michael's POV:

I'm not dead anymore. I remember when ET's knife was plunged into my back... The surging pain grasping my spine with its tendrils as I lost consciousness, the deep ache emitting from my being as I fell forward into darkness, feeling as though I had utterly failed in the most ultimate way. I left Mary and Tex at the climax of danger, with ET present and Mary immortal and everything chaotic.

When I died, I was submerged in a pit of blackness. In this darkness, I could hear a voice, singing. It was Mary, singing my song "Speechless," and I wondered if it was in my own delusional mind or if it was real. Moments after her chorus ended, I was blinded by a magnificent white light. Although I never entered any sort of afterworld during my departure, I dwelled in some sort of surreal place, with arrays of colors and shapes always swirling around me... And then suddenly my eyes opened and I had feeling again, I could curl my toes and pop my fingers and swallow. I was lying on a bed, in my house, in a rather oddly smelling room. It was actually rancid, and I didn't know why. So I stood, wobbly, on feet that it felt weird to have regained. I didn't ache anywhere from my previous wounds, I actually felt and still feel perfectly awake and healthy, even though as I left the room, I could see stains of my own blood on my left shoulder.

Out in the hallway, I peered down to the right, and that's when I saw Mary, crying with her head in her hands, sitting on the floor. So I walked over silently and stood before her, waiting to see her reaction to my reappearance.

And that's where we are now.

She's turned the entire population of the world into clones of herself in a desperate attempt to... Win my love? Bring me back? Or maybe it was just to satisfy some sort of crazed grief? She told me that it was because I could loved her and only her. But I was dead, so what was the point then? Did she know I would come back?

The world is empty without the people. Although I understand her reasoning for murder and don't mind it, I just want things back the way they were, especially now that we've finally won, for good, ET is gone and burned with his freaking ship. So I've convinced Mary to change the people back, somehow.

"Um, I've never actually tried this, so I don't really know what's going to happen," Mary says, holding her hands out toward one of the clones as she readies to transform it.

"I know if I kill one, it'll morph back into its old body, but obviously it was still dead... So... If I reverse it, I don't really know if they'll still be alive?" Mary looks a bit worried as she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. She inhales and when she does, a golden beam of light seeps from the stomach of the clone and enters Mary's fingertips. I assume she's retrieving the bit of her soul which she gave to the body. When all the light leaves the clone, it suddenly turns into a stranger, the real person it once was. The body drops to the floor, dead, and so do I.

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Mary's POV:

I turned back the clone, just like Michael asked me to, and nothing could've been worse. It morphed back into its old body but it's still dead, which is what I feared. What if Michael hates me for killing everyone, now that there's no way things can be normal again? I would've changed everyone back, for him, because he's actually alive, and that's all I could ask for, but...

The second the body of the clone drops to the floor, Michael falls, too. I let out a scream and immediately assume the worst.

I run to his side, sheer panic racking my body as I lean down and put my ear to his chest, listening for a heartbeat. There is silence.

Crying, I look around, searching for an explanation. I guess it was foolish of me for thinking that Michael was back alive for good without even knowing how he was back at all.

Then, an idea strikes me.

Michael didn't come back until every single person in the world was a clone. He appeared right after I had transformed Tex. And just know, the exact moment I convert the clone back to normal, he drops dead. That must be the reason why he's back... I brought him back! By making everyone a clone, I revived him! I gave the clones my soul, and since my soul contained so much pure love and beauty and grace and elegance and fervor, when it possessed the whole world, it was enough to give him life! I did it! That must be the reason for it all.

Quickly, I turn the dead body back into my clone. It works, and my twin rises from the floor where it previously lay, looking dazed.

Michael rises as well, clutching at his chest with fearful eyes. I hug him tightly, spit leaking from my mouth in giant globs of excited drool.

I wipe them from my chin as I look up at him.

"Michael! I figured out how you're alive! There's good news and bad news," I say, finally happy.

He doesn't say anything, he just looks at me as he waits for me to say what I need to say.

"Because I converted the entire world into my clones, and I filled them with my soul, they also attained my love, and it resurrected you! And so, when I tried to change the clone back, that's why you dropped dead... And that's the bad news... I can't revert them without killing you, and even when I did reverse the clone it was dead afterwards. The good news is, we know why you're here, and... And your alive!" I say in excited bursts of speech, feeling accomplished.

Michael looks down at his feet and furrows his brows in confusion.

"So, the only reason I'm here is because you diffused your soul, and it contained so much love, for me, that I rose? It was all your love?"

I nod, smiling.

"And, this is off topic, but, you've aged? I mean, I can see it, but... You're in your forties?" He asks.

Sadly I am. "Yes," I say, my smile shrinking a small bit.

Then, Michael does the unexpected.

He holds my hand in his left, then places his other on top. He looks me in the eyes.

And then he begins to lower, until he's kneeling.

With a straight, sincere face, he opens his mouth and speaks the words,

"Will you marry me?"