Part 75: Apocalypse
Part 75: Apocalypse
Let's see what's going on with that moon fragment.
Just a couple of nodes here.
Well, that's not ominous or anything.
Music: Sinisterness Phase 3
Carlos isn't coming...
He promised he'd come. Maybe he's...
Missing Lip Animations: 60
I'm going to go check in the Lounge.
H-Hey, Junpei!
Wh-What the hell is...
I've seen that pile of rubble before...
Music: Solitary Snail
My guess is that something exploded. Exploded...?
Who'd do that...
Unauthorized escape...? Do you get it? D-Team set the bomb.A few of you already guessed that this event was coming. We're in the timeline that leads to VLR. The main hole with the ending we saw before was that Akane and Junpei weren't there, even though they showed up in VLR. Well, now they're here. But there's also a suspicious gap on that board...
But why is it now completely buried in sand?
Jesus...
Music: Anxiousness 2nd Mix
Seems you found your way here safely. Zero...
First, Akane...
The first Radical-6 patients have left. They should reach the hospital shortly. The pandemic is unavoidable now. The virus is spreading all over the world.
That seems more like a live response than a recording, doesn't it?
Free the Soul's plan is progressing smoothly.
Many call me Brother. You bastard...
If we do nothing now and let time pass, an even worse future awaits.
Eight billion... All of mankind will perish. Unfortunately, the fanatic's identity is unknown.
Why...
Well, now you know one of Zero's primary motivations.
Sinner or innocent, people will die or be killed in an unjust manner.
Like your parents, Akane Kurashiki. Wh-What are you talking about?
In grief, your mother killed herself.
My parents were involved in an accident--!
What I shared just now is the truth. No... Think about it.
You'd never have been involved in that child abduction case 10 years ago. And clearly, the incident a year ago would not have happened either.
The path you've walked during your life would've been completely different too.
As I said, that's just the way it is.
Only God decides who lives and who dies!
Very well. I will let you see the true god that we believe in.
The evening of April 12, 2029-- Wear those and take part in our ceremony.
Well, that was certainly something. First we've got more data for the genocidal snail story, then what I think is a tie-in to the epilogue of VLR?
Music: Bereavement
If there is no rescue, then the remainder of your lives will carry out at this sacred site.
This is the sacred site where the birth of Brother, founder of Free the Soul, occurred.
Are you saying you were born here?! Yes. But raised elsewhere.
Back to April 1904...So Zero/Brother is 124 years old?
Wait.
Yes.
Do you mean your little brother...?
He was the son of the couple who raised me.
Missing Lip Animations: 61
You know this person very well.
Nope, don't know any 124-year-old women...
But I will impart to you something very important. The spell to open Pandora's Box.
Remember these words well. It will come in handy someday.Ok!
Cut to me writing down the words later.
It's Latin. "Live for today".
Bye Zero! Thanks for the chat and all the weird information!
Fade to black...
Music: Aftermath (Decontamination Room)
Maybe he won't be coming...
Maybe... Maybe nobody's going to come to save us. Like Zero said, Diana and the others probably don't know we're alive in here... It'll just be us two in this place, forever...
Or maybe, more like something...
Gab...Music: Clarification 2nd Mix
I'm glad you're safe...
This is...
Anagram?
But we need to know the sentence to work from...
Y-Yes... What did it say on the wall?
Akane walks away.
Or maybe she's just pacing.
How many?
That's almost a freebie. But these two never learned that name.
Lated? Taled? Alted? Gee, I wonder...
Ten?!
Where are you going, Junpei?!
I don't know what's going on with the upper half of these character models while they're running that they only ever show the legs.
Hey, why isn't Q on this board? Why? Well, because he's not dead... Wait, he's still alive...? I think so.
"We are ten"...
Well, that was sudden.
Music: Sacrificial Demise (Demise 2nd Mix)
[Muffled Voice:] Well, I guess I was the one who waited...
Carlos you big idiot you almost killed us.
Music: Interminable Dilemma (Credits)
Oh, hey, another ending.
Music: Glacial Solitude
We're, ah, not quite done yet, though.
So, let me get this straight...
The Decontamination Room.
After which Carlos runs into the wall. Or at least, that's what it sounded like. Maybe he was really tossing a barstool at the wall or something to get rid of the holographic projections and get to the Transporter Room?
He couldn't directly follow Akane and Junpei, after all.
I needed 10 months to charge the device again after I used it.
That's right.
If I did that...
Carlos doesn't quite understand the implications of what Zero did yet. But even if he had tried to stop it, then Akane and Junpei would've been stranded here since Carlos would then have gone off into a new timeline.
Huh...?
Mira and Eric died. Sigma lost his arms and an eye and he's in the hospital! That's not all. Zero said...
We can't stop the spread of the virus.
Music: Morphogenetic Sorrow (Mix 3)
This is the end.
Start over...?
In 45 years, I'm going to call Sigma and Phi's consciousness to the future.
Here's where people really hate Akane.
Let me join Crash Keys, or whatever you're calling it!After all, the Junpei from VLR never found Akane.
I can't do that...
Why?!Or at least, never remembered finding Akane...
Something metallic, then the screen flashes white. Junpei cries out, and falls.
H-Hey Akane...!
How did she get the bracelet off? How did she get the needles out? Did it just come off when they left the facility maybe?
Why...
You need to forget...
I'll never forget...
I won't...
You couldn't just have him, like, pretend to forget or something?
That is just how I am.
Even if that means I must lose my life, I--
In VLR, Akane dies in 2/3 of the timelines. The "AB Project" is what they called the setup of VLR.
This version of Akane sure seems to remember a lot more than she let on in that VLR epilogue, though. I guess she doesn't actually know what happened to Sigma? Also, Carlos never appears in VLR, of course - was he part of the 75% casualties, then?
Ohhhh, this is the Moon End! The D-Team version must be something else; I'll call it the Virus End after the biohazard symbol on it.
Not too much left to go, now.
The first "Circle of Fate" was the D-Team ending two nodes above. Your hint was that the D-Team node was called "Circle of Fate (1)" even when we first unlocked it. I even showed it to you at the end of that update!
No point in voting - we're headed for the penultimate showdown with Q-Team: Transporter Room.
Extras:
Lots of files from those last scenes. We got a ton of information, after all.
"The murder 17 years ago (1)" posted:
Seventeen years ago, a young mother went jogging in the park. She reached a fork where she usually goes right, but on this day she decided to go left. Why? Because there was a snail on the path. No one knows why she avoided the snail. Was she afraid of them? Or felt a sense of danger from it? Whatever the case may be, the snail caused her to switch to the left path. As a result, she was killed by a girl.
"The murder 17 years ago (2)" posted:
The suspect who was taken into custody, a Japanese man, was not the culprit. He was falsely convicted and executed, and his wife committed suicide in her grief. The two left young children behind.
The convicted man called a taxi before his arrest, but the taxi ended up picking up another fare instead, a brilliant surgeon. However, the car became involved in an accident, killing the surgeon as well as the young boy who was waiting for an operation by the surgeon.
If that snail hadn't been on the right path 17 years ago, what would have happened? Life is simply unfair, don't you think?
I'm counting that.
LP title reference counter: 5
The fifth and final(?) Gabletter.
"Post-Apocalypse (1)" posted:
"This must be fate."
"Fate?"
Diana smiles weakly from the bed at Sigma's question. "Don't you remember? You told me that yourself."
"Me? I never said it. If it really was me, then..."
"Yes. The Sigma who was 67 inside." Diana shifts her frail hand closer to Sigma, and he gently grasps it between his own.
The Sigma before her is not the one who was trapped in the shelter. It's the same body, but a different consciousness. On April 13, 2029, Sigma was at the headquarters of Crash Keys, his eye and arms replaced with robotic ones. There, the young Sigma returns to his body from 45 years in the future, and begins to carry out Akane's instructions...
"How many years has it been since you came here, Diana?"
"A little over three, I think. I followed you here in May 2029."
A violent coughing fit takes over after she speaks. Sigma helps her sit up and softly pats her back until it subsides.
"Why didn't the Medical Pod work...?"
"I told you. It's fate."
Diana's skin is deathly pale, but her eyes still shine with life. Just like a child's...
"Post-Apocalypse (2)" posted:
"I've always dreamt of coming here. Did you know that 'Diana' is the name of the goddess of the moon? I've wanted to do this ever since I was little...so I'm perfectly fine with dying here..."
"What are you saying..."
"I've been able to spend the last three years living with you, Sigma. I have treasured every moment."
Sigma lowers his head, his expression pained.
"Please don't make that face. You don't need to be sad. In the year 2074, you will SHIFT back to Christmas 2028 and the next day--"
"Old me will head to the Dcom facility in the Nevada desert and meet you..."
Diana nods. Sigma closes his eyes and shakes his head.
"That's not it. I mean, I'm in love with the you--"
His declaration stops as Diana's lips close over his in a kiss, and the rest of his words are lost.
After a moment, Diana murmurs, "It must be a wonderful future. The future where we found each other... In 2028..."
Sigma holds on to her tightly. Aching, heartfelt sobs echo within a cold, silent world.
That was a little dark. How about I throw in a bonus update?