Xenogears Part #148 - Episode CXLV (Part 1): The Last Days of Zeboim

Part 148: Episode CXLV (Part 1): The Last Days of Zeboim

Episode CXLV (Part 1): The Last Days of Zeboim

Why hasn’t anyone bothered re-inventing subways in modern times? The only modes of transportation seem to be giant ships cruising water/sand/air, giant robots, the occasional dune buggy, and easily dirt bikes. And that last one is easily jacked by any passing kung fu practitioners.

After a bit of a jog, the party finally arrives at a station platform and are free to explore further into the ruins.

Specifically, a big open mall plaza. And more specifically, only Fei and Emeralda get to look around here. Billy gets door guarding duty with a hoagie we packed for the trip.

Music: October Mermaid (June Mermaid Piano Version)

”I’m getting that tingling flashback feeling coming on...”

Merry Christmas! I guess they used to have Christmas in Xenoworld. And all other “normal” holidays we have here (according to Perfect Works, in our calendar it is currently 17,277 AD.) I think the only holidays around nowadays are ones celebrated by fighting tournaments and International Apocalypse Memorial Days (of which there is almost one each season at this point.)

"Yes, Happy New Year, Kim! I don't know what it is, but just now... you sounded like an old person speaking."

”Well, I will be hitting the big two-six this year. I’m getting up there. But...”

"No, well, this time last year I never thought the war would come this far."

"...Yes. But we managed to get by without getting involved."

"But, it's not over yet. Why, at this very moment people are still dying."

"...Let's stop talking about this... Let's not dwell on the past year... Not at the start of a new year."

"Yes, well... today, at least, I want to spend a day without worrying."

”I’m gonna worry double tomorrow though. If just for something to take my mind off the hangover. C’mon. Let’s go celebrate properly.”

"Kim... you're too loud."

"I don't care if they hear me. All the people here are also fools!"

"Kim!!"

"Think about it. What's the purpose of fighting each other on such a tiny planet as this? Fighting out of fear of being hunted into a corner... Rushing in to fight as if there were only so many 'reserved seats' to the right of life..."

“Killing people as an act of terrorism or as a protest against wars that kill people is just as stupid. You're all fools!"

*sigh* “This is why I said we should wait for drinks after we get back to our apartment...”

"...Kim, I felt sorry for that child. But I don't think people in Ravine destroyed the generator with that intention. They don't have any other ways to express themselves. The government is the one to blame."

"Is that a good enough reason for that child, or those dead people? It wasn't much of an operation. It was difficult, but there was enough chance to win... We'd have won if we had better equipment... That child would have been saved if there was electricity..."

”They come out with a new jet fighter or giant robot every month for war. But they’ve yet to come up with a generator that lasts for more than 20 minutes! What a bunch of buffoons!”

"It's not just that child. Five people died in my hospital. The ICU didn't function..."

“Why do they want to die out? Why do they strangle themselves? Humans are defective creatures. A bunch of fools! That's why genetic damage is up lately. The birth rate is also going down. Only 30 years to live... Nature, this planet, won't allow humans to live any longer than that."

"..."

”Not everyone has to be like that. I heard that Joe Balboa is half way to 40.”
“Don’t you read the papers? That fool tripped over his own two feet and got brain damaged. He must have some genetic damage to pull off a chin that big anyhow. He’s just as foolish as the rest of them.”

"Huh...?"

"I had a physical at the hospital today... They said I can't have children because of hereditary genetic damage."

*looks up* "...I can't create life. I am a creature waiting to become extinct. ...Am I also a fool?"

"..."

”...”
<No kids huh...?>

That night, Dr. Kim railed Nurse Elly without his gloves prepped for surgery.

Kim gets up and walks to the window...

"Somehow we must break the spell or the humans on this planet will die out. No, I don't care about humans... Life itself will be ruined if we don't do something..."

”Who shall inherit the earth? Chu-chus? Tch... Please...”

"Some... pure life... not cursed..."

We now jump ahead to Thanksgiving of the next year. I don’t even want to know how that holiday resurfaced in Xenogears world...

"It hasn't awakened yet. The form was created by nanomachines, but neural simulation hasn't been done by the Assembler Tower yet. It's physically stable, but still doesn't function as a living creature yet."

"A nanomachine colony..."

“...the impressions embedded in our bodies cannot be stopped. It was necessary to pursue this further. We had to recreate the molecular... no...actually the atomic level, by referring to the structural patterns of you and I. This child... holds our futures and possibilities..."

"Can this child be the angel who can give us more time?"

”Perhaps...”
”So what are you going to name her...? A child needs a name.”
“Hmm... Uhh... I hadn’t thought of that... Well err... Well her hair is green like umm...grass...leaves...emeralds... Ah. Emeralds. Emerald...a...? Emeralda! There we go!”

“...God. You always did suck at coming up with names.”

“...long ago... you...... Kim,... died... right before town died... It was because soldiers of town... tried use me..."

"...That's right... The memory in my soul... It was left in me for your sake..."

"While I being held... Krelian told that I...the ultimate 'work of art' that technology gave birth to... Yes, I knew I was thing. Look, my body... Different from Maria, Margie... and Elly. ... Human imitation...... but different. Kim and Elly said... I was angel..."

"...Yes, you are the child I, or Kim, wished for. Kim has been a part of me, in my blood - passing his memory down the generations - for the past 4000 years. Existing for the day that the child, who Kim was never able to embrace for so long, would be born."

”Sorry I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to you, kiddo. You know... End of the world... God waking up... Recovering generations of memories... All that... Not really the best of times for a reunion.”

Music: The Treasure Which Cannot Be Stolen

“I be strong and make Kim and Elly proud that I their child!"

*looks around* "...W, wha...?”

”Eh? What’s wrong? Is it another flashback?!”

“Fei... body... so... h... hot..."

Emeralda runs over and grabs Fei...

”Uhh... Emeralda... Please don’t explode or anything...”
“...Is everything alright over there?”
“Umm...yeah. I think...I think we’re go—“

“Crap crap CRAAAAAAAAP! WAAAAAAAH! LET GO! LET GO!!”

”...”
“...”
“...What...the hell?”

*spins around* "...I became adult... adult... I... I not get in your way anymore!!"

And so that is the story of how Emeralda hit tiny robot puberty. Good old Xenogears...

*wanders into a mall plaza* "Feel like a flashback?"

"Sure."

"Alright."

"Not you, Billy! You weren't around 4000 years ago. Go away!"

4000 years earlier...

"Happy New Years."

"Huh. You sounded like an old geezer just then."

"...Thanks for reminding me I'm going to die within the next few years. Life sucks. War sucks."

"Let's just not worry about that today."

*shrug* "You're right... I mean, how bad could things get?"

Some time later...

"Goddamn hippie terrorist fools blew up the power generator and a kid I was operating on died. And other people!"

"Honey, calm down. You're had too much to drink... People are staring."

"Well fuck those fools too. Fool. Fool! FOOL! I PITY THE FOOL!"

"I'm barren."

"..."

"..."

Kim and Elly go home and bang...

"I am tired of all this foolishness!"

Sometime later...

"So I made a nanomachine daughter for us. Maybe we can use her to make everyone not drop dead by 30 or something."

"Aww. What a little angel."

Elly goes on to get gunned down by government soldiers later that week, a nuclear holocaust goes down that month, Kim dies from radiation poisoning soon after, and Emeralda sits in a stasis tank for 4000 years... Happy times for all!

"Thanks for being a replacement Kim."

"It's cool."

"Body is...getting hot..."

*bursts into flames*

*becomes a teenager* "I an adult now!"

"..."

"I hate my life..."