Part 85: Alice
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
Until you tell me what you know.
Then why don't you just ask Clover?
Clover?
You already know she works with me.
...
...Well, yeah.
Then why don't you--
I wanted to hear it from you.
Why?
That's a good question.
Remember the crew quarters? Or this garden?
We got paired up for two separate rounds.
That means I've spent more time with you than anybody else here.
Maybe that's it.
I guess I'm just curious about you.
VLR OST: [Blue Bird Lamentation]
If you won't click on that link, click on one of these:
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
What? Why?
I... I tried to kill you.
You mean in the AB Game?
Yes.
...
I was so scared...
Who wouldn't be? Kidnapped and locked up, forced to play some sort of bizzare game...
And then we found that bomb.
I know I probably sounded calm, but as soon as we found that thing all I wanted to do was run away from it as fast as I could.
Things just went downhill from there...
What do you mean?
I remember hearing that Quark had collapsed, and running to the infirmary with everyone else.
When I got there, I realized I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.
Then I started to feel like... It's hard to explain. I guess you could say I didn't feel like I was myself, and it only got worse.
That was probably the Radical-6.
Yes, I think so.
I don't remember much after that...
But when I woke up in the infirmary, suddenly all that fear was back.
So I...
It never even crossed my mind that it could kill you!
God help me, even if it had I don't think I would have cared!
...
See?! I'm horrible!
You hate me, don't you?! Just do it!
What? Do what?
What the hell, Alice. I'm not going to kill you.
I don't even hate you.
You're lying! I could have killed you! I would have killed you!
C'mon, calm down! No one's killing anyone!
...
...
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
Why are you doing this?
...
You know, you kind of remind me of my father...
That's who you were after, right? The people who killed your dad?
Yes...
Did they have anything to do with the Myrmidons?
...
...
Ha! Come on...
If you keep your mouth shut, I'll tell you what you want to know.
About myself, and about the Myrmidons. Deal?
Sure. My lips are sealed.
Really?
What crying? I don't remember any crying.
Good.
All right then...
[Music fades out]
Alice took a deep breath and began.
VLR OST: [Confession]
By my ninth birthday, we'd been there for six years. That was when it happened.
In the middle of the day, my mother showed up at school.
Her eyes were red and puffy, but she didn't say anything to me on the drive home. When we arrived, there were several policemen there to meet us.
My father had always been a very punctual man, and when dinnertime came and went with no sign of him, even I began to realize something terrible had happened.
It wasn't until several years later that I finally learned the truth: My father's lab had been attacked by terrorists, and he had been kidnapped.
Fortunately, I was an excellent student and did especially well in math. I earned a full ride scholarship straight out of high school and spent the next several years studying.
After graduation I took a job with the Department of Defense, hoping that they might have the resources to help me look for my father. I was immediately assigned to the Special Office of Internal Security. Their purpose is to investigate, and sometimes deal with, terrorist organizations and other serious threats to the state.
I could tell my mother wasn't happy about my decision, but she chose to remain silent about it.
Eventually I learned that the terrorist organization that had taken my father was none other than the Myrmidons, although at the time that name didn't mean anything to me. They were suspected of human cloning. Specifically, it was thought that they had been using cloning techniques to copy their most useful members and expand their ranks.
The Myrmidons apparently believed that they could use cloning to create a new race of humans. Now, at last, I knew the reason for my father's abduction.
The commander of the Myrmidons is a man named "Left".
We know his name and his gender, but not his appearance or his age.
The Myrmidons are closely associated with a cult known as "Free the Soul". We believe that Free the Soul provides their funding...
But trying to pin any kind of misdeeds on the cult's leader, a man named "Brother", is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Brother is supposed to be fairly advanced in years, and rumors say he's so old he can't even get out of bed. Unfortunately, his mind seems to be as sharp as ever.
At that point, I hit a wall. I knew the Myrmidons had been behind my father's kidnapping, but that was all I could learn about them.
Then, one day, I got a tip that some of them were hiding in a building in the Nevada desert. I headed out immediately.
On the way there my car had some engine trouble and stalled out. I was trying to decide what to do when an SUV appeared out of nowhere.
I'll give you one guess who was behind the steering wheel.
...Clover.
That was the first time we met.
There were four other people in the car with her, and when I asked them what they were doing I got what was just about the last answer I'd expected.
They told me they'd been locked up inside of the very building I'd been on my way to investigate, and that they were currently in pursuit of the people who had kidnapped them in the first place.
My priorities shifted very quickly. After a short discussion, I convinced them to allow me to come along. My hope was to find the people they were chasing, who I was certain were the Myrmidons.
In the end, however, we were unable to track them down.
In fact, I still don't know where they might have gone.
There was also a sixth person in the SUV, although they weren't... riding in it, per se.
A middle-aged man, who I'll just call "H" for now, had been bound and placed in the trunk. According to the other four, he had been behind the disappearance of the children nine years earlier.
We also learned that his pharmaceutical company, a major player on the world stage, was effectively controlled by Free the Soul. More specifically, I suppose, H was a member of Free the Soul, and very committed to their cause.
So why had he kidnapped all those children?
Apparently, it had been part of an experiment designed to test the ability of certain people to access what's called the "morphogenetic field". I don't imagine you've ever heard of it before, so I'll give you a quick rundown.
Simply put, these people can access a sort of field that allows their consciousness to resonate with the consciousnesses of certain other people. To be honest, it might be simpler to just call it telepathy...
The SOIS had heard of this particular ability before, and had actually used it in a number of investigations, so I wasn't surprised to learn of its existence.
I was shocked, however, to learn that these experiments had been carried out by a member of Free the Soul. If that was the case, then Brother must have known about it... The thought of him discovering a way to control and harness that power was terrifying.
It wasn't too long after the incident in Nevada that another tip about the Myrmidons crossed my desk. This time it claimed that the Myrmidons intended to launch a large-scale biological terrorist attack.
My bosses decided that we needed more agents to deal with a threat of that magnitude, and Clover was recruited. Because she'd been a test subject in H's experiment, we knew she had the ability to access the morphogenetic field, and we wanted to put that ability to use.
After several months of training, she was sent on her first mission. She would be tasked with the infiltration and investigation of a Myrmidon cloning lab.
I was assigned to be her commanding officer. I hoped that our investigation might also give me a lead on my father's whereabouts. At last, I had a chance to find out what had happened to him. I wouldn't let that chance pass me by.
Perhaps that was what kept me from noticing the truth...
The whole operation was a trap.
The lab was fake, and Clover was captured almost immediately.
I got there as fast as I could, but when I arrived the building was only an empty shell. All of the conspirators who had pretended to be researchers and the like had already fled.
I searched frantically for Clover until at last, in a basement room, I found her.
She had been tied to a chair, but on the floor next to her was another body.
It was my father.
He looked as if he'd just been dumped there, and when I got to him his body was already cold. He was covered in dark, ugly bruises. It wasn't until later that I learned he had died from ruptured organs and intenal bleeding. They had beaten him to death.
As soon as Clover had been captured, a Myrmidon in a mask had come to visit her. He'd said that unless she wanted to end up like my father, she would leave them alone, and tell her masters at the SOIS to do likewise.
In retrospect, they must have known who I was, and who my father was. That was why they'd killed him. Perhaps they'd thought they were sending a message to me. Or that once he was gone, I'd lose my reason for chasing them.
I took Clover with me and left. I tried to console myself with the fact that I had, at least, been able to save her.
Some time later I received a call from the coroner. He told me there was something I needed to see.
There in the morgue was my father, cold and pale on a steel table. I could barely stand to look at him, but the coroner insisted.
On his arm were two rows of numbers, comprised of 8s and 9s. It took me a moment to recognize my father's handwriting. He had carved them into his own skin...
On his chest was another message, but they were letters this time, not numbers. Not many, just enough to make a short sentence.
I broke down crying, right there in the morgue.
They were the first tears I'd shed since the operation had started, and there was no stopping them.
There would be no forgiveness. Not for the monsters who'd put my father through this. They'd destroyed my family.
I would make them pay, even if I had to die to do it.
That night I made a promise to myself...
I would avenge my father.
It didn't take long to figure out that the numbers he'd written were latitude and longitude.
They pointed to a chemical factory that had been disguised as an abandoned building. Further investigation revealed that it was the mother lode we'd been looking for: the headquarters of the Myrmidons.
I think my father must have known how things would turn out. Knowing he was going to die, he'd written the directions to our enemy's fortress on his own body.
He'd sacrificed too much for me to waste this opportunity with recklessness. This time our operation would succeed. This time, I wouldn't let my excitement put Clover, or any of my other agents, in danger.
So we took our time. We gathered information, we did our research, and we planned. Finally, we were ready.
December 25th, 2028 was going to be the day we finally set foot inside the Myrmidon stronghold.
[Music fades out]
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
Yes...
...
Well, there it is. Everything that's happened with the Myrmidons and me.
I left a few of the details out, of course, but you get the idea.
Yeah. Thanks.
Not yet.
Your story explained a lot, but there's still one big question.
Which is?
VLR OST: [Portentousness]
Who here is a Myrmidon?
One of us planted the bombs.
And based off the code we found, it's pretty clear that person is a Myrmidon. Right?
Yes.
And I agree that we need to figure out who they are.
What do you propose we do?
Well, thats what I wanted to ask you about.
Do you have any clues?
Well, if I could decrypt that code, it might tell us something, but...
How can we do that?
I told you. We need a key.
Without that, it's pointless.
What's a key?
A key is a key. It allows you to sort of... unlock a code.
Myrmidons usually use this huge string of numbers as a key...
Wait... A long string of numbers?
Could that be...
Lock no. 05
What is the long string of numbers?
You'd think they could at least make some effort to frame some of these a little better...
At this point I'd like to make a quick note on a small localization change. If you've been listening to the Japanese voice tracks you may have noticed that the name "Myrmidons" is entirely an invention of the localization team; the original name for the terrorists is the "Clay Dolls". You will note that "Clay Dolls" happens to sound almost exactly like "Cradle", especially if you sound them out in Japanese; this somewhat foreshadows the revelation that Gentarou Hongou - I'm sorry, "H" - is linked to them. It also has some very tidy symbolism; most notably it calls to mind the Golem, a literal clay doll.
The localization team changed the name because in their opinion - which I share - the word "doll" is too closely tied up in the idea of a children's toy and wouldn't be taken as seriously in the name of a terrorist group as it would in Japan, where the word "doll" ("ningyou") can also be used to mean someone under the control of another (Also, maintaining the near-homophone with "Cradle" requires placing the emphasis on "clay", which is not at all intuitive to native speakers). Eventually they settled on "Myrmidons" because... well, in the absence of a way to directly localize "Clay Dolls", they just had to choose something that sounded cool. The new name has somewhat different symbolism that links it to something else in the plot... but now I'm getting ahead of myself.
Also, three out of three games I've LP'd feature Myrmidons.
I guess we'll know when we see it.
And so here we are again. Now what?
Our choices:
cd ~/magenta/ally/green/betray
Betray Luna after escaping the Gaulem Bay
cd ~/magenta/ally/red
After successfully allying with Luna, go through the Red door with Alice and Clover
cd ~/magenta/ally/blue
After successfully allying with Luna, go through the Blue door with Alice and K
cd ~/magenta/betray
Betray Luna after escaping the Lounge
cd ~/yellow/ally/green
After being betrayed by Tenmyouji, go through the Green door with Clover and Quark
cd ~/yellow/ally/blue
After being betrayed by Tenmyouji, go through the Blue door with Clover and Tenmyouji
cd ~/yellow/betray
Betray Tenmyouji after escaping the Infirmary
cd ~/cyan/betray
Betray Alice after escaping the Crew Quarters