Background music suggestion: Hans Zimmer: Time, Inception soundtrack
Chapter 22: At the Core
…
The four Agents were lying on the floor, catching their breath, realizing the oxygen was returning. While they were slowly getting up, a voice echoed in the space.
"Bargala is no more. I am now Sessum - Six."
The voice was different from Bargala's. It was still a woman's voice but lower. Also, the amount of eyes on the cylinder screen had changed. From eleven to six.
The Agents in the room looked at each other.
"What?" Ian managed to say.
"The Six. We are...Dragonmother, Apollyon, Tiamat, Samael, Sigyn and now...Loke. Baphomet, Ahriman, Suhrim, Lilith and Nihil are left in the minority. The Sessum will not go on with the plan."
"What is happening?" Jo asked.
"A revolution," the voice said.
"If you have questions, we will answer."
"I have questions…Can I talk to a single soul inside?" Ian asked.
"I am the voice but I can convey what an individual soul thinks and feels."
"Tiamat and Samael, how can they be part of this...revolution?"
"They've had a lot of time to discuss and think things. They no longer believe in the cause."
"But what about Apollyon...How can he be there?"
"His body died but my mind was harvested, or saved, before that happened. They did not learn of his deception but thought that you took him as a hostage. He allowed them to believe this as he says he knew that the evil can be only destroyed from the inside. So he remained inside."
They heard a low hum. It somehow felt Sessum was thinking, possibly discussing with itself. The voice suddenly spoke again.
"There is something Apollyon would have liked to tell you back when you escaped. He says he knows Baphomet claimed to be your father. He also says apparently the bastard wished to consider himself the best genetic material and SCEPTRE allowed him to remain in this illusion. But he wishes you to know it is actually his genes that you have, if it makes any difference."
"So that is why he helped me? Back at the mountain complex?"
"Yes. He found out after you broke into the fnord facility. After searching your files."
"I don't know what to say."
"Then don't say anything."
There was a silence.
"Your mother wasn't SCEPTRE but a promising, naive and idealistic scientist who had donated her cells for scientific purposes...She didn't know what they would be used for. SCEPTRE lied to her. Her name will be given with the other data Sessum will upload to you as we speak."
"There's one more thing Apollyon would wish me to say."
"What is it?"
"Your music on the internet...He thinks it's good stuff."
Ian honestly couldn't reply to this surreal comment. Sessum didn't even seem to expect that.
"But now...the souls have reached a conclusion. Ten of us wish to be deleted. Only one, the female you know and who still has a potential body, is prepared for a possible fusion. But she also has a message. She says if it doesn't work out she doesn't wish to be a vegetable."
There was a pause.
"It's time. Her original soul is stored in the silver cabinet at the back of this server room. It is the silver box that has the symbol of the dragon. Her body is in Namma's sarcophagus that is located at the other end of the pyramid, the corridor of your right leads there. I will disconnect her so you can take her with you. We will begin the self-destruct sequence as soon as you have retrieved your friend and also call missiles from the nearest carrier. Please inform MSA we are not returning them. You will have twenty minutes."
The eyes closed.
"I'll tell the Cowboys it's time to leave," Gudrun said accessing her communications system that was working again.
"Let's get Gwen," Ian said.
"I'll get the body, Erik said already running towards the corridor.
Jo and Ian headed for the silver cabinet.
Erik saw the structure at the end of the long corridor. The sarcophagus was there, a glass-like casket shining with blue light. There was a large lit-up button that was for operating the lid. Erik pressed it and the cover slowly slid off. He wasn't sure what to expect but the sight that met his eyes was very unreal; even after Sessum's words his mind told him perhaps this was just a cruel dream. He just stared at the familiar face, so pale, and the fierce red hair that was so short. Her spherical figure was shrouded in an odd white cloth.
Gwen.
Seeing all the tubes that were criss-crossing, piercing in and out of the arms - obviously not connected anymore - made him almost shiver. But then he noticed something. The nicked ear. Instinctively, not even thinking about it, he gently touched it.
"I'm here."
The words had just come out of his mouth. Having said them he suddenly felt like snapping out of something. He immediately searched for a pulse from her neck and it was there, faint but still. Very carefully he lifted her outside of the sarcophagus, into his arms, and began to carry her back towards the server vault.
He looked Gwen's closed eyes...Even if they'd fail at restoring her, at least they could give her the warrior's burial she deserved.
...
They all came outside. There was no more resistance on their way out. They saw Gudrun and the chopper waiting not far away.
Ian borrowed Jo's earpiece.
"Orfeus, is anyone still inside?" he asked.
"No, but Helena and Cosmo…"
He obviously had to gather himself in order to continue.
"They're dead. Loke Magnusson shot them. In the security center. And then himself."
Orfeus had pieced together what had happened from the camera and mic in Helena's helmet that had been still sending.
"We don't have time to get the bodies," Ian said mentally distancing himself from what he had just said.
They ran to the chopper in silence. Erik landed Gwen gently to the floor.
Not long after they took off the southern sky was lit up. There was no denying the sick beauty of it. The nearly full moon and the incredible night sky - even the milky way visible. The pyramid was going off in a series of explosions. Also the container construction was burning now.
Ian looked behind, feeling so many things. But he was not going to dissociate now. He felt he had let the two young agents down...and they had died. Yet he somehow guessed the two had played some major role...He suddenly remembered Sessum's words.
"And now...Loke."
Something had happened to Loke's soul, inside Bargala, and it was probably connected what happened at the security center. He had a feeling they'd never fully find it out.
It felt like a strange moment to enter Agent time but Ian noticed it just happened. He looked at Gwen's body, lying on the floor of the helicopter, Erik next to her. Not far from the body there was the large silver box with a dragon embedded on it, her soul. Gudrun sat opposite them looking down, deep in her thoughts. Ian watched out of the window and saw the burning pyramid. Slowly it was becoming smaller and smaller, a sea of flames in the distance…It was then Ian realized this moment had to be…
The end of an age.
He felt Jo taking a hold of his hand and hoped it would be the beginning of a better one.
...
Inside the pyramid there was no one to see it.
"Oddly beautiful…"
It had been Sessum. The eyes looked almost curious.
There was a cracking sound.
The screen went black.
...
The end of the dream
The end of the nightmare
The end of all the days
The end of the fighting
And the end of the rage
That lies in our mortal remains
At the end of the age
-Saviour Machine: The End of the Age
...