The Oracle Paths

Jake's pupils narrowed slightly. "Your memories are coming back? Since when?"

The memory of her death belonged only to her Digestor half. She shouldn't have access to it.

Ruby grimaced with confusion, then admitted, "I don't know. The memories are just coming back to me bit by bit since you started questioning me. It's just flashes and fragments of memory so far."

Jake quirked an eyebrow. Back on Earth, he had heard stories of patients suffering from amnesia due to head trauma or brain tumor removal who regained their memories when the damaged or removed portion of the brain recovered. This challenged the idea that memory was simply stored in a particular area of the brain, since when that area was destroyed it could in some cases be restored.

Perhaps the soul worked the same way and that was probably how an Oracle Heal lvl 5 had enabled them to remember what they had done when Psykow's spell had driven them to insanity. It was still very disconcerting, though.

'Xi, how are our memories restored when the Oracle Heal heals a damaged mind?' He asked mentally.

'Several possibilities.' Xi replied readily. 'The Soul is like an onion with multiple layers. As with the DNA in the nucleus of your cells, most of your information is stored in it, but your memories are usually not, or only in a highly encoded and imperfect form. The worlds where the concept of reincarnation exists with the notion of heaven and hell use a soul cleansing process to normally purge the deceased of all their past memories. They are not supposed to remember their past lives and they usually develop significantly different personalities upon rebirth. However, certain traits of their personality tend to be retained and the feeling of "déjà vu" often results from residual memories that could not be erased or that reappeared much later. This supports the thesis that our memories are much harder to destroy than we think. It is said in computer science that a skilled expert can retrieve data from a computer even after it has been reformatted ten times. Even after a hard drive has burned out, some information can still be recovered. This means that the Oracle can theoretically use a similar process to restore lost memories as long as the soul has only been superficially damaged.

'Other species, like the Digestors for example, are even more enigmatic. Their souls can be completely annihilated to 99.9%, but if they are allowed to regenerate all their memories come back at once. Each piece of their soul represents both a part and a whole. This is the case of Vexa and his clones and I think it is also your case, or rather that of the Eltarians whose mind is said to be outstanding. Otherwise, you would not have recovered so easily mentally from all the spiritual wounds you have suffered. That's what I thought before, but now it seems that your situation is a bit more complex.

'The third and final method is to use your Oracle Device logbook. Everything you live and do is recorded in the Oracle System database. Your soul is also scanned regularly. If other methods fail, the Oracle Heal can use this data to bring your soul back to the most recent version available. Since our souls are also closely interconnected, I should also be able to do this in theory if you allow me to. Still, from my point of view, it means you were technically dead, even though for the one reborn with those new memories, there will be no sense of discontinuity.'

Jake mulled over this barrage of information with a pondering face and then asked, "What about Ruby then? She's not a Digestor anymore as far as I know. Could she have retained some abilities after being a Digestor Trojan for so long?"

'I don't know... I don't have access to the Oracle System archives anymore either...' Xi sighed in a destitute voice. He could feel how useless she felt at this moment. 'I feel it's still there, but I can't connect to it.'

Jake didn't insist and turned his attention back to Ruby. "Let's not force things. Your memories will come back to you in time. What about your Oracle AI?"

The young woman blinked dumbly and he realized she didn't know what it was. Once he patiently explained it to her, she began to have a vague sense of familiarity and tried to mentally contact her AI.

"Nothing. Are you sure I have one of those bracelets too?" She queried, staring at him with some doubt as if he wasn't in his right mind.

It suddenly tilted. Jake hadn't bothered to check if she was still wearing her bracelet. What he was sure of was that most of the liquid alloy had been on her Digestor half when he had eaten her. If she still had a bracelet, there was no guarantee that it could still function.

He waved his hand casually and a blob of liquid alloy shot into her body, making her recoil in surprise.

"Wh-what was that?" She stammered breathlessly.

"Try again." Jake ordered without explanation.

Ruby raised a suspicious eyebrow, then closed her eyes. A second later, she opened them again and exclaimed, "He answered me!"

"He?" Jake pursed his lips. "What did he say? Ask him if he stored a copy of your memories?"

Ruby obeyed meekly, then answered with a rueful look a minute later, "He couldn't. He said that when I was a Digestor Trojan, my corrupted aura jammed his connection to the Oracle System. The automatic Oracle Scan also worked only superficially on me. However, it claims that my memories will return."

"Oh? Your Oracle AI is so sure of that?" Jake was now puzzled. Even Xi, another Oracle AI who had only recently lost her connection to the Oracle System was not so confident.

It didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was safe and well for the time being. His resentment towards Ruby no longer made any sense. Simply because he understood her and in her current state she was no longer a threat.

The fact that she remembered events experienced by her Digestor half after their split raised new concerns, however. What would happen if she regained her memory completely? Would she become the same Digestor Trojan she was before?

Jake decided not to worry about that for now. He gestured to the wall behind him and suggested,

"Let's go out. Your friends are waiting for you outside. Maybe it will help you get your memory back faster."

"Okay..." She whispered in a small, browbeaten voice.

Jake started to walk towards the exit, when he felt a small, soft, cold hand grab his own.

"What are you doing?" He questioned.

Ruby stuttered with a shifty look in her eyes, "I-I'm a little scared to go out."

Jake was dumbstruck. Was this really the same moody, psychopathic Ruby who had tried to kill him so many times? For a brief moment, the image of the unremarkable girl she had been when they first met overlapped with the scared beauty tightly holding his hand.

"And you're not afraid of me anymore?" He couldn't help but ask. "Just then, you were terrified because you were convinced that I wanted to kill you."

The young woman pouted adorably and grumbled, "You've already killed me. You're not going to kill me again, are you?"

Jake caught the teasing glint in her eyes and recognized the Ruby of the past a little more. At least for now, her humanity seemed to be back.

"As long as you don't give me a reason..." He growled as he strode toward the wall, dragging the young woman along with him.

A second later, they emerged on the other side. Craig and Ryo squealed in delight as they recognized Ruby and pounced on her. The poor amnesiac woman was so terrified that she shrieked and if Jake wasn't still holding her hand she would have crawled back through the wall to hide in her building.

"Hey Ruby, it's just us!" Ryo chided her while poking her chest a few times with an accusatory scowl. "It's really not cool to pretend not to recognize us like that."

As usual, the Japanese Player was shirtless, and with his bald head, his scoundrel attitude and his huge claymore he could only intimidate a flustered young woman.

"I-I don't know you!"

"Okay, Ryo leave her alone." Craig patted his friend on the shoulder. "Thanks, Jake."

"Thanks." Wang Xiaoming, the highest ranking member of their team bowed as well. "We'll take care of her from now on."

The attitude was respectful, but Jake could sense that the soldier wasn't giving him a choice.

"Fine, I'll let you take care of her." He agreed as he let go of Ruby's hand. Seeing her panic, he said, "These are your friends. You grew up with them. They will take care of you and unlike me they never tried to kill you."

He then turned to Wang Xiaoming and the other New Earth survivors and said telepathically in a threatening voice, "Technically, Ruby is still my Oracle Slave. If she is unwell I will feel it. Also, if one day you can't take care of her, let me know. I'll see what I can do."