Part 15

BGM: Warning (AKA Best Track Ever)






Eva is nowhere to be seen. Leaving the cafeteria is our only option.




BGM: Beta-B




: "I know what you are planning to do."

: "I know that you know."

: "Yeah? Well I know that you know that I kn—“

: "Look, our contract is to send him to the moon. And the only way for that to happen. . .is if Johnny is motivated to do so."

: "But if that means removing River, then what's the point? The reason why he even wants to go to the moon in the first place is because she died!"

: "I know. But we are legally bound by the contract to specifically—“

: "#@%& the contract! I didn't take this job to make him miserable, Eva."



: "Me too. And I like this job. But if we directly go against our legal obligations, we'd be in for court hearings."

: "We'll appeal. We know that Johnny'd be happier to not go to the moon."

: "Johnny would be happier with a lot of alternate life tangents, Neil. We are not here to play God. . . our job is to give him what he signed for."

: "Well, we happen to know what he wants better than he does!"

: ". . . Look, I'm only risking losing River because I believe in her, and--"

: "What do you mean 'risk'?! You're removing her!"

: ". . . And besides, I will make up for it."

: "Make up for it how?!"




A loud ‘boom’ interrupts them.


: "We're running out of time. . . Just trust me."









: "Abusing your powers doesn't disable my controls entirely, Eva!"



So we’re now playing Doom 3.

In all seriousness, there’s something I haven’t mentioned up until this point – though I’ve shown the menu screen quite a few times.



There is a subtle but very important difference between Eva and Neil – Eva is the senior technician between the two and is, more or less, the one in charge between them. Technically, Eva’s decision is law.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Neil won’t fight for something he really believes in, authority or not. Would you expect anything different out of him?



Of course, Eva’s more than capable of fending him off.



: "Just tryin' to buy some time!"

: "Gee, thanks for telling me. . .”



: "Seriously, just stay put and wait 'til I'm done!"

: ". . . Oh piss off."



There’s no health to lose in this game, obviously, so these traps are far more irritating than actually debilitating.

We walk for about thirty more seconds in the dark, weaving around thrown computers and massive steel balls…



: "Would you really risk distorting his memories as they are?"


Neil pauses, obviously reluctant to risk it.


: "Just stop trying, please. This won't take long."


The lights go out.


: "Ugh, not again. . . "



Neil’s able to reactivate his pseudo-flashlight…



: "Dear lord, they aren't just zombie Evas. . . they're Zombievas!!"









This entire sequence is entirely ridiculous.

…is what I thought the first time I played, until I realized it’s all to distract from the fact that Eva is effectively destroying the memory of Johnny’s wife while we’re screwing around in the dark with plants and Eva-zombies. A little silliness is, in retrospect, a small blessing.

As a personal note, let me just say that this arrow-key-to-move, w-a-s-d to shoot thing mixed with the booby traps and the already-wonky controls makes this the most frustrating section of the game to play.



After a little while longer, Neil loses patience with it all.





We’re not playing by Eva’s rules anymore.


BGM: Beta-B fades out. Metallic warbling SFX.






We find Johnny…or Joey, I guess - I’m not sure which…over here in the dark.



He leads us into a classroom…



: ( Now the whole construct's messed up. . . )

…that is all kinds of screwed up. In fact, all of the rooms in this hallway are spliced around, probably thanks to a mixture of Johnny’s eminent death and Eva’s manipulation of his memories.













At the end of the hallway…





: ". . . Morpheus?"

: "What? It's Eva, you idiot."

: "No $#*&, we're the only ones here. Listen. . . whatever you've been doing, stop it. We might not know what Johnny wants, but we know what he doesn't want. And what he doesn't want is exactly what you are accelerating."

: "It's already done, Neil. . . "



: ". . . Why don't you come out now?"







The hallway of the school is back to…well, not dark and strange.



Eva is to our north…


BGM: Lament of a Stranger






: "Relax. She's merely going elsewhere."





: "Y'know, it's one thing to disable my controls to feed me some olives. . .but this is way out of line."

: "I'm sorry, but this just won't go anywhere if you keep on resetting the memory. At this point, this is the only way. . .I'm asking you to trust me. So please, just calm down and wait here."

: "Then just pull the trigger already. Where are you going?"

: ". . . There's just one last thing I need to do."




BGM: Lament of a Stranger fades out.


: "Poser. There's no need to visualize a door."

: "What's with all this melodrama, Neil? Why are you fighting so hard for. . . this?"


Neil doesn’t reply and, after a moment, Eva turns to the door.


: ". . . Forget it, there's no time."


She opens it and walks through. It disappears behind her.








Johnny looks confused for a moment and Neil, still cloaked, takes a step towards him.


BGM: Once Upon a Memory (Piano)


: "Sorry, kid. . . "





























: "He can always find another 'River', Neil. . .but he'll only have one brother."

: ". . . C'mon, we're in the way."





(NEW) BGM (NEW): Laura Shigihara - Everything’s Alright


The conclusion to this scene is in mandatory video format due to its unique format - no supplementary screenshots or gifs this time as they would do it absolutely no justice. Sorry - you’ll know why once you watch it.


CLICK HERE.
























_{No, seriously, there’s nothing down here. Just click me.}