It took Freedom only about an hour to find the first traces of human life, and as soon as he did, he went back to get the Commander.
Now, the two of them were flying up in the sky at a moderate pace, high enough to pass as a weird seabird if someone were to look up. Ryan was holding onto Freedom's back for dear life, his arms wrapped around his neck as he was settled between his wings like a backpack. The shipboy had to tone down his flight speed for the Commander, but even with that, the wind was so strong in his face that he could barely keep his eyes open, and he had to literally scream into the other man's ear to be heard.
"Is that the place?!" Ryan shouted as the outline of the island they were heading to appeared on the horizon.
"That's right!" The shipboy yelled back at him. "It's the only settlement I found in a hundred-mile radius!"
As they got closer, Freedom reduced the energy output to his wings, slowing down to get ready to land. That gave the Commander the chance to take a better look at the island and the settlement it harbored.
As opposed to the one where they had arrived, this one wasn't as barren, and it was surrounded by an atoll of smaller islands. About the settlement itself, Ryan was expecting some kind of unassuming civilian port or even a small military base, but that place was far too big.
Military installations were clearly visible even from afar, mainly gathered around the port, which was invaded by a bunch of what appeared to be manned hulls of all kinds. Both warships and civilian vessels were sitting idly at the docks. Further inland, separated from the harbor by a series of paved roads, was the city proper.
Ryan and Freedom decided to approach the island from the opposite side of the port; they figured if there were going to be controls and inspections, they'd happen mostly down at the harbor, so they decided to find a good place to land, out of sight but close enough to the city, and then walk in from there.
When Freedom's feet touched land, the shipboy dismissed his wings, and the Commander let go of his hold on his neck, resisting the urge to fall on his knees and kiss the ground at his feet. He groaned as he stretched his arms and popped his back, letting out a huge sigh of relief as his legs regained the sensibility they lost during the flight.
"You know I could have just carried you, right?" Freedom asked him with a smirk, flexing his arms for emphasis. "It wouldn't even be the first time."
"Thanks, but no thanks; that's too embarrassing," Ryan replied, waving him off. "The girls get to do that enough already; my ego can only take so much."
"As you wish," the shipboy shrugged. "But don't forget, there's still the trip back."
Ryan let out an annoyed groan at the reminder but decided to put it aside for later and focus on the present. The two began making their way through the thicket in which they had landed, and upon exiting the tree line, they set their eyes on their destination.
It looked like a respectable, human-sized town. Part of it, mostly the suburbs, was comprised of construction sites and buildings still in the works; they were lucky that the workers seemed to be too busy to care for them as they passed by.
As they plunged themselves into the unknown streets, they noticed that the rest of the residential area was brimming with life. The multi-story buildings, although not as tall as the high rises in the biggest cities back home, were still impressive in their own rights, as they looked much more modern. They had square and slick-looking profiles, and the predominant colors were grey and white, as if they had been constructed with efficiency and austerity in mind rather than flashiness and conviviality.
Despite that, the place made up for the lack of color with the people; the mood in the air was chipper, their clothes glamorous and colorful, some even provocative—mostly the women…
Ryan stopped abruptly in his tracks, followed by Freedom as their brain short circuited for a second before rebooting. They shared a glance, trying to figure out if the other had also reached the same conclusion.
Those were shipgirls.
Not that many, though. The majority of the people around them, walking down the streets and browsing shops and windows, were humans, but the Kansen were still there, blending perfectly with the crowd.
Ryan looked at himself. He had decided to switch to the civilian clothes he had found at Akashi's shop. He was wearing a white button-up shirt over a pair of black trousers—nothing too eye-catching. What's important was that his uniform and everything on his person that associated him with his rank and occupation had been left behind. Good thing he did; now they didn't run the risk of the Kansen or the personnel addressing him in a formal manner out of nowhere, believing him a hotshot. That could lead to a few headaches.
Then he turned to Freedom and winced, chastising himself for not thinking about it sooner. The shipboy's short, white hair with purple streaks and purple eyes, along with the white tribal tattoos on his arms, were bound to draw unwanted attention, but then Ryan thought about it for a second. If Kansen were a common sight in this place, then the people would be used to oddities, which was for the better since it would allow the shipboy to go mostly unnoticed.
Indeed, the only eyes the two of them were catching seemed to be those of a bunch of young women passing by, giggling and muttering between themselves as they "subtly" checked the two men out.
"It looks like a campus—the largest university campus I've ever seen," Ryan mused.
His observation was founded on the fact that those girls and plenty of other people around them seemed to have some kind of knapsack or book bag with them; some even wore long, white lab coats as they crossed the street to pass from one building to the other, probably moving to their next class or something.
Which begged the question—why was such a bustling place so close to the previous location of the seed? Was this the Creator's base of operation disguised as some kind of university island? That would be too good to be true; it would certainly save them a lot of time and effort.
"TB, what do you make of this?" He asked in a low tone, bringing his wrist up to his face.
"I believe that the presence of the shipgirls, the proximity of this place to the seed's previous location, and the carefreeness of the people speak for themselves about the Original Timeline's state, but then again, we lack the complete picture to make any safe assumption. Until we find more information, everything we say will remain a conjecture, grounded or otherwise."
"Right, we need more information, but where do we even start?"
"Let's find out," Freedom declared as he stopped a random passerby for indications. "Excuse me, do you know where the information center is?"
After being directed toward their new destination, Ryan addressed TB again, hiding his face behind Freedom's back.
As they walked, they came up with a course of action. They'd head to the offices and ask around for information about the place while also investigating the timeline's overall situation. While it seemed easy, they needed to be subtle about it; they couldn't walk around the place asking people questions like, "hey, what's happened around the world recently?"
That would definitely raise a few eyebrows. They didn't know if being here required some kind of special permit, so they needed to attract as little attention as possible if they didn't want their cover blown. If they were found out and detained, they'd be in big trouble. They had a time limit, after all.
The other option was to look for information in a library by consulting some modern history books, but that alone would take too long, and they literally had no time to waste.
"Okay, we need to watch what we say from here on," Ryan said as they crossed the gate of another complex and walked down the path that led to the entrance of the building. "We're freshmen; we've just arrived, and we are having a look around the place. If they ask for any kind of ID, we've left it in our dorm."
"Maybe there will be no need; look," Freedom said, nodding with his head to the side.
Following his gaze, Ryan perked up at the sight of a large signpost right beside the entrance. It seemed to be made out of aluminum, and it bore what appeared to be an elaborated map of the island, more specifically the town, much like those placards scattered around cities, depicting the most famous sites for tourists to visit. At the top corner, written in large letters and a gold pattern, was the name of the place, if they had to guess.
"Welcome to Isla Victoria," Ryan spelled out loud before switching to read the text written below. "Starting as a research outpost to investigate the leftovers of Siren technology, it is now a place for humanity's most brilliant young minds to gather and develop together."
"And that's not all." Freedom spoke up again.
The shipboy had moved behind the signpost, toward the entrance. Pinned to the wall inside, right next to the door, was a long bulletin board filled to the brim with papers.
The Commander approached the board with curiosity. Among the boring newsletters and academic calendars were also recruitment notices and announcements of public drills. But what caught his eye were the colorful and eye-catching leaflets and flyers.
Isla Victoria. Find your place in the new world with our classes!
A bright future for humanity! Help us rebuild our planet!
Ergonomic application of Wisdom Cube technology in everyday life.
The future of the Kansen after the Sirens. For a peaceful and respectful coexistence.
Azur Lane, after the storm.
Weirdly enough, that's exactly what they were looking for. Those clickbait headings alone gave them more insight into the actual condition of the world than they could have ever hoped, at zero risk of being found out for asking weird questions.
Also, that was another confirmation: Azur Lane existed in this timeline too as an alliance.
"Interesting," TB piped up. "It seems that here humanity came out victorious from their confrontation with the Sirens, as opposed to the other timelines invaded by my sisters."
"Hold on, something isn't right," Freedom interjected, bringing a hand to his chin. "Observer Zero and the humanoid Sirens only time leap when they win, but since this is the Original Timeline and it seems to be still intact, it's safe to assume that humanity had to face off against the Original Sirens since they time leap only when they lose," he summarized. "But if that's what happened, and humanity did manage to defeat them, then when exactly did the Creator make the humanoid Sirens? If the seed was still under Original Siren influence when it went back in time, when did they even have the chance to do it?"
"If this place started as a research outpost for Siren leftovers, then it means it was founded only after the end of the war; that would explain the proximity... Yes, it's the only explanation!" Ryan intervened, a switch flipping in his head.
They already knew that the goal of the humanoid Sirens was to assist humanity's evolution along with their own, all to prepare them and themselves for the threat of the Original Sirens. Based on what they were able to extrapolate, that was the will of the Creator.
"Hear me out," he began. "The seed appears, the Original Sirens attack, humanity finds out how to create the Kansen from the Wisdom Cubes, and they defeat the Original Sirens, but for some reason, their time-leap protocol doesn't activate. The Creator takes advantage of it to experiment on the seed, and then they send it back in time themselves."
The only question was, if the Original Sirens had already been defeated, what was the need for preparing humanity by sending the seed back in time? Was it just a precaution? A failed experiment?
"That's a plausible explanation, Commander, but as I said, until confirmed, it's just a conjecture," TB said. "There's no evidence that supports the failure of the seed's time-leap protocol's activation."
"Cut me some slack, TB; I'm just trying to..."
His words trailed off as his eyes settled on a particularly drab piece of paper. It wasn't the generic title that caught his attention, but the name at the bottom.
Seminar on the variability and characteristics of Wisdom Cubes.
"Presiding, Dr. Anzeel..." Ryan mused with a frown.
"What is it, Ryan? Does the name ring a bell?" Freedom inquired.
"I'm not sure... I've heard it somewhere, but I can't remember…"
"Dude, are you for real?" A sudden, unfamiliar voice startled them.
They both turned to see a young man in his early twenties standing next to them, the knapsack on his back identifying him as a student. He had been looking at the board himself until he overheard their last exchange and couldn't help the incredulous, almost indignant look on his face.
"I'm sorry?"
"You really don't know Professor Anzeel? Were you living under a rock or something?"
Ryan remained stunned for a moment, the cogs in his brain straining against each other like a rusty mechanism as his mind was divided between the answer on the tip of his tongue and the stranger's accusation.
And then it clicked.
Doctor Junam Anzeel, the genius scientist who pioneered Wisdom Cube research in his timeline.
When humanity had only just discovered the Wisdom Cubes, and the first Kansen appeared, the man was the one who found out how to harness the power coming out of those weird, alien contraptions. He was the one who created the Manjuus and the Bulins by studying the process that brought the Kansen to life from their Cubes, and his contribution was instrumental in the development of things like the energy shields protecting the major ports around the world, as well as the ASD system.
Ryan remembered because the man's name was at the top of the Basilica incident deceased list.
"Pfft, of course we know him…" Ryan said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. "He's the one who did the… thing with the Cubes…"
"Him?" The stranger's frown deepened. "Dude, the professor's a woman. She's the one who created the Kansen."
Ryan's sweat dropped, and his breath died in his throat at the revelation. He resisted the urge to gawk and sought Freedom's help with his gaze.
"I'm sorry, we've just arrived, and my buddy here is tired from the long journey," the shipboy said, strongly patting his back for emphasis. "He's seasick, and he hasn't gotten a wink of sleep, so he's a bit out of sorts."
"Oh, well… If that's the case, you can buy some medications at the clinic," the guy said, his eyes widening in understanding. "It's only a couple of blocks down the road."
"Thanks, man, we better get going now, right, pal?" Freedom said, grabbing Ryan's arm and dragging him outside of the building as the Commander faked a wobbly gait.
The two breathed a sigh of relief as the automatic door closed behind them. They shared a glance, looking at the pliant that Freedom managed to snatch from the board.
The seminar the paper was advertising, for some sheer twist of fate and luck, seemed to be happening at that exact moment. They quickly checked for the location on the map and began speed-walking toward it.
"I see, so that's why you already knew the name…" Freedom mused after the Commander finished explaining everything.
"Yeah, and thinking about it now, it makes sense that they aren't the same person," Ryan said, internally chastising himself as he sighed at his own slipup.
The Anzeel he knew was too old when he died; the chances of him being still alive at this point in time were pretty slim, considering that the Original Timeline was several decades ahead in the future. Maybe Junam was actually this woman's father or grandfather.
"This could be just a case of homonymy, but it's worth checking out. It's the best lead we have at the moment," Freedom declared.
"Indeed. If what that person said is true and this Anzeel woman is the creator of the Kansen, then it's safe to assume that she's the one in possession of the knowledge we seek, unlike what we presumed..." TB convened.
Ryan hummed in agreement at their words.
They came here looking for a way to repair damaged and defective Wisdom Cubes, and to find a cure for the Metamorphosis. Everyone assumed such information would be in the possession of the Creator… of the Sirens, of course, not the Kansen's.
In Ryan's timeline, there's no one known as "the creator of the Kansen."
The shipgirls began appearing from the Wisdom Cubes sporadically as humanity studied them. They didn't "create" them in the strict sense of the term; they simply found out how to facilitate a process intrinsic to some of the Cubes they found.
Sure, after a few interactions with TB and Purifier, the Commander was now aware that the Sirens were the ones who made sure that humanity found out about the Cubes and the Kansen, but still, the historic discovery wasn't accompanied by a name.
Which was why he was so surprised to know that there was someone who could boast that title in the Original Timeline.
It was only natural for their investigation to take a turn toward their new findings. It meant giving up the chance to confront the Creator about the Sirens, but they didn't have another lead to follow.
"…but it also means that no one else we know fulfills the requirements to qualify as the Creator of the Sirens," TB added.
Ryan raised a confused eyebrow at her. "TB, are you trying to imply that this Dr. Anzeel is both the creator of the Kansen and the Creator?"
"Not quite, Commander," TB replied. "A human being capable of freely manipulating the data contained within the Wisdom Cubes to shape them into their desired form does fit the Creator's identity. But I find it hard to believe that a single person could be able to achieve such a result by herself. My previous assumption may as well be wrong, but I'm positive that this Dr. Anzeel will have some insight on the Creator's identity."
Ryan thought about it for a second.
TB was right. There was nothing suggesting that the Creator was only one person. Zero herself said that the information she had was fragmented at best. It could be a group of researchers that Anzeel was or still is a member of, or someone completely unrelated.
The possibilities were endless, unlike the time at their disposal. Good thing that it had only been a handful of hours since they arrived. They still had room to breathe before they started feeling the pressure.
"Well, we are about to find out," Freedom announced as they came to a stop before another complex. "We've arrived."
It didn't take them long to find the room they were looking for. All they needed to do was follow the flood of people meandering through the hallways of the building.
The auditorium in which the seminar was being held was already full. Every seat was already taken, and there was barely enough space to stand.
Ryan noticed that Anzeel seemed to be treated like some kind of celebrity among both the scholars and her fellow researchers, which was fair considering the scope of her accomplishments. The result was that most of the people weren't interested in the lesson itself; they were there only to see her in person.
Half the room was filled with the buzzing coming from the people in the back. They went in and out as they pleased, whispering and pointing in awe at the woman standing on the podium like she was some kind of endangered animal in a zoo. Some of them even snapped a few photos with their phones.
Luckily, no one in the room seemed to mind, not even the doctor herself. On the contrary, she seemed used to the occurrence. She just diligently went on with her lecture, ignoring the nuisance and talking in the mic hitched to the rostrum she was standing at.
Ryan and Freedom managed to squeeze into the room and find a spot in the back. They stood there, near the corner, as they watched and listened.
Dr. Anzeel looked like a normal, young, academic woman, wearing a pair of red glasses and a white lab coat over a black shirt. She had long, auburn hair, held in a ponytail, with a few streaks of white in it. She also had a long, thin, retractile staff in hand, which she occasionally used to point at the large screen behind her as she talked.
She didn't bear herself with an air of superiority. On the contrary, her attitude was casual and her speech lighthearted, all without downplaying the seriousness of the topic she was discussing. She beamed as she talked about energy fluctuations and Wisdom Cube engineering. Her mood was also contagious; it was probably the only thing allowing the few serious students to focus on the lesson and ignore the disturbance coming from behind them. Some even overcame the embarrassment and the annoyance, advancing a few questions to the doctor.
Ryan and Freedom decided to wait for the convention to end before trying to accost her, but soon they realized that, between the obnoxious chattering and the complexity of the topic being discussed, they couldn't follow the debate.
Luckily, it was only a few minutes later that Anzeel announced the end of the seminar, shutting down the hopes of the disturbers of taking a selfie with her by inviting the people to orderly leave the auditorium without making too much noise. As the dejected crowd slowly began filing out of the entrance, some of the scholars and fellow researchers, instead of following them, lingered behind to address her personally. They stepped on the podium, approaching her in group as she packed her stuff, but judging by the interaction, it wasn't to request an autograph or a sign, but rather to ask additional questions on the topic discussed, to which Anzeel seemed happy to answer.
"This is our best chance. We need to approach her before she leaves," Ryan declared softly as the woman conversed with them. "But we can't just drag her away. We need a way to catch her attention."
"Leave it to me, I have an idea," Freedom responded, sending him a knowing glance. "You just play along," he said after giving him a quick explanation.
Ryan gave a nod of acknowledgement to the shipboy, and the two began descending the stairs between the seats down to the podium. They approached the group of students, who were too busy listening to their professor to pay any attention to their surroundings. Instead of making his way through them, Freedom simply stood behind them.
"Excuse me." His voice resounded in the hall, not loud enough to be obnoxious but strong enough to cover theirs. The conversation came to a sudden stop as he startled a few of them, drawing a bunch of confused eyebrows to himself.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we have official business Dr. Anzeel," Ryan intervened, trying to sound as convincing and authoritative as possible.
Before anyone could voice their complaint, Freedom stepped forward, coming to a stop right before Anzeel and extending a hand for her to shake.
"Um… yes? What can I do for you?" She asked him, confused, instinctively reaching out to shake it.
Freedom leaned slightly forward, tightly clasping her hand to make sure she was looking straight into his eyes, and said, "My name's Free…man… Morgan Freeman, nice to meet you... Dr. Anzeel."
Her jaw went slack in surprise and astonishment when she noticed the flash of light passing through his eyes. It was only a brief instant, and no one else around seemed to have noticed, but it was enough for her to understand.
That really was important business.
After the male Kansen introduced himself to her, Anzeel quickly made up an excuse and dismissed herself, dragging Ryan and Freedom toward her personal office, much to the displeasure of her students.
She pushed the two of them inside the room and shut the door, double locking it, as the men shared a confused glance.
"I can't…" she said in a low, dangerous tone, lingering by the door, her back turned on them.
"Uh, Doctor?" Freedom tentatively asked her.
"I can't believe this! You are a shipboy!" Anzeel squealed in delight, spinning on her heels to face them.
She all but jumped him, eyeing him up and down like a predator with a piece of meat, her eyes sparkling in excitement.
"B-but how? Since when? Why didn't I know anything?" She questioned, and then her mouth went wide in shock and offense. "Wait… It was high command, wasn't it? I bet they've been working behind my back to summon more Kansen, even though the Sirens are no longer a threat. The nerve! When I first presented them with the shipgirls, those pretentious asses said, 'we have no need for a weapon with free will and an indecent design,' and then they go and make a shipboy?! How is that fair?! I mean, look at you; you are so hot!"
Freedom tried his best not to show his discomfort at her proximity, but Anzeel got so close in his personal space that he had to recoil back slightly. And she seemed completely unaware of Ryan's presence; she was too preoccupied shamelessly ogling the shipboy.
"Doctor, please! We need to talk about something important!" Ryan snapped.
"Oh, right, sorry, hehe…" Anzeel laughed sheepishly, chastising herself for letting her excitement get the better of her. "So, what can I do for you, mister...?"
"Commander Travis, of Azur Lane. This is Freedom, and yes, he's a shipboy, as you can see, but no, high command has nothing to do with this."
Anzeel perked up at his words. She knew that name, and now that she got a better look at him, even his face looked familiar…
"We've come here from another timeline to seek your assistance," Ryan added.
His words hung in the air, interrupting her thoughts like a bucket of ice-cold water.
"I'm sorry, Commander, could you repeat that?" Anzeel asked him, not sure of what she just heard.
"We're from another timeline, doctor," Ryan said calmly. "One several decades behind in chronological terms, where the Sirens haven't been defeated yet."
More silence.
Anzeel tried to wrap her head around his statement. She was sure he was pulling her leg, so she tried to come up with a logical explanation to refute his words without sounding too conceited, but a simple look into his eyes was enough to make her resolve crumble.
She turned to Freedom, as if asking for confirmation, only to see the same determined gaze in his eyes as the Commander's.
"It's true, doctor. I wasn't born here. Your superiors have nothing to do with any of this," the shipboy said. "I'm accompanying Ryan on an important mission. We've infiltrated the island without anyone noticing to look for someone with enough expertise on Wisdom Cube research, and we've found you."
"I know this may sound hard to believe. We only ask that you answer some of our questions," Ryan intervened with a pleading tone. "This should be right up your alley… doctor?"
Anzeel's expression had darkened as they spoke. A lustrous sheen was covering her glasses and her shoulders shivered as she tried to hold back the excitement.
"Oh my gosh, an actual male Kansen from a different timeline! I can't believe this! What a sensational discovery!" She swooned, her focus back on Freedom. She was breathing heavily as she went on with another rant, and her face flushed, much to the shipboy's discomfort as he tried to keep her at arm's length. "I wonder what the girls will say... Oh, I can't wait for the fanfictions!"
It was at that moment that the Commander realized. The creator of the Kansen… was a degenerate.
Because of course she was. Who else, at the request of their superiors for a weapon to fight the Sirens, would respond with "hot women in skimpy outfits?"
She was completely lost in her world by this point and was literally salivating; Ryan could even swear that her pupils had turned into hearts.
"W-wait, doctor; the less people know where we come from, the better it will be," he interjected.
"Uh? But why?" She complained.
"Because we don't know what would happen to this timeline's future if something of this magnitude were to be made public," he explained. "Worst-case scenario, the whole spacetime continuum will crumble, along with all of this world's other timelines."
"Other timelines?!" She shouted in ecstatic disbelief. "Tell me more~"
"Ssh! We'll be happy to tell you everything, but please, can you tell us what we want to know first? We don't have much time," Ryan said in a hushed tone, trying to make her lower her voice lest someone outside her office heard them.
"Oh, but of course, feel free to ask me whatever's on your mind," she said after clearing her throat and puffing her chest with confidence. "My knowledge is at your disposal!"
Ryan and Freedom shared a glance and breathed a sigh of relief as they got ready for the long talk.
"The level on which Wisdom Cubes operate is deeper than we imagine, so much so that you can consider it an entirely different plane of existence. A normal human mind can't possibly comprehend the full scope of that, let alone interact with it. In fact, this realm is only accessible to Wisdom Cube kin existences like the Kansen…"
Ryan hummed in thought as he listened to her. He was aware that the shipboys were able to interact with the consciousness of defeated Elite Sirens by resonating with their Cubes; was Anzeel saying that there was an even deeper level of interaction than that? Thinking back to it, Enterprise did experience something akin to what the doctor was describing during her confrontation with Ash.
He didn't know exactly what happened in there; the carrier seemed reticent to talk about it, and he decided not to dig further out of respect. What he knew was that she came out physically altered.
"And yet, with the help of science and progress, we've managed to breach that barrier," she continued. "In the past, thanks to microscopes and other appliances, we've obtained a way to interact with a world previously thought inscrutable. With that in mind, what if we created a device that allowed us to investigate the forbidden realm of the Wisdom Cubes using the same technology?"
She moved behind her desk and began fiddling with the touchpad resting on its surface as she continued, "The prevailing view of Wisdom Cubes is that they can give form to thoughts and feelings. However, the exact nature of this process is still not well understood, as are its exact limitations."
Then, a hologram appeared above the desk. It looked like a helmet—an advanced, slick-looking headgear with a dark visor and cable connections sprouting from the nape.
"This is a Reality Lens," she declared proudly. "A device meant to allow a human mind to operate in said realm. I used a more outdated version to run a few experiments to program the Cubes to resonate with humanity's weapons. Ultimately, I ended up creating the shipgirls with their current human appearance. Though that was more me, taken over by excitement, trying to push the boundaries of what could and couldn't be done rather than following a clear agenda, hehe," she added sheepishly. "Now we use it to project our consciousness inside the Cubes of the Kansen to correct imperfections, repair damage to both their bodies and hulls, and so on."
"You were able to... project your mind into the deepest sections of the Cubes? With this?" Freedom asked her. "Even though you are a human?"
"It helped that my resonance with the Cubes is particularly strong. Most people can't even bear the burden it puts on their minds," Anzeel said as the Commander peered at the holographic image.
This was it; this was exactly what they were looking for. Repairing damaged and defective Cubes was their main goal; the risks they were taking with this trip were worth it!
But there was one thing Anzeel didn't mention in her explanation. He really hoped it wasn't unfeasible.
He steeled himself and asked, "What about the Metamorphosis?"
The doctor cocked her head in confusion at Ryan's inquiry. Based on her reaction, he figured that either the Kansen in the Original Timeline never experienced it, or they knew it by another name.
"Can you restore a corrupted Cube with this?" He asked again. "Possibly without tampering with the memory of the vessel?"
Anzeel brought a hand to her chin in thought.
"A corrupted Cube, you say. I'm sorry, Commander; I don't know what you are talking about…" Her words caused Ryan's heart to drop into his stomach, then she added, "But I should be able to use the Reality Lens to bring a Cube back to a previous, mended state while leaving the memories of the Kansen untouched, if that can help."
"So, it's like formatting a computer after doing a backup of the data?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Anzeel confirmed.
"Thank goodness…" Ryan let out the breath he was holding, relief washing over him. "Hey, TB, do you think we'll be able to replicate the process back home?" He asked aloud, bringing up his wrist to address the AI.
TB's hologram appeared in front of him, and she replied, "Possibly… I recommend retrieving at least one unit for me and Akashi to analyze and reverse-engineer."
The appearance of the Siren AI left the doctor speechless for a second.
"Oh my gosh! Who's that cutie? Where were you keeping her?" She squealed, excitedly bouncing toward the Commander and the hologram.
"Greetings, mother of the Kansen," TB said cordially. "I am TB, the Commander's personal assistant; pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Oh, hello there~"
Anzeel came to a stop right in front of her, pausing her rambling and looking at TB as if she just saw a ghost.
"I-I can't believe this…" She took a step back, bringing a hand up to cover her gaping mouth.
Ryan and Freedom shared a confused glance, which turned to a frown when the woman said, "Zero? Is that you?"
The two men perked up at her words, and a pregnant silence filled the room.
"That name belongs to the Siren I refer to as my mother, doctor," TB said after a few seconds, her tone steady despite the tension in the room. "She's the avatar of the seed in the timeline we are from; she created me with the purpose of assisting humanity."
TB's words made Anzeel gawk. She was so taken aback that her brain short-circuited for a second.
"Haha, you almost got me there. I thought you were serious," she said after recovering from her shock-induced stupor. "Commander, can you please explain why this program is in your possession? You said you're from another timeline where the Sirens haven't yet been defeated; you shouldn't… have her with you…" She trailed off, her eyes widening more and more as she spoke, and slowly pieced things together.
The two men peered intensely at her, as if trying to read her mind.
While Anzeel had been very welcoming and accommodating, they still couldn't trust her completely. If she actually was the Creator, then it was in her best interest to lie about her identity and withhold information from them; her carefree attitude could all just be an act to lull them into a false sense of security.
For that reason, they wanted to give out as little information as they could about themselves, at least until they found out what they were looking for. But now, with the matter of the Reality Lens resolved, it was time to take the conversation to the next step; that's why Ryan had pulled TB out of nowhere.
They had been planning this with the AI since the beginning. They wanted to see how she'd respond to the sight of a humanoid Siren, but they didn't expect her to react like this. She seemed to recognize TB, but at the same time, she looked more than shocked at the fact that she was of Siren origin.
Something wasn't quite right.
"TB told the truth," Ryan declared; it was time to lay their cards on the table and address the matter directly. "She was given to me by Zero, the leader of the humanoid Sirens. Humanoid Sirens, who, by the way, seem to come from this timeline, Dr. Anzeel. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, right?"
The man and the shipboy stared intensely at her, and she shrank under their piercing glares. Feeling a headache coming, the doctor brought her hands up to cradle her head. Humanoid Sirens? With Zero's appearance? Coming from here?
"Ohhhh noooo…" She whimpered.
"What? What is it?" Ryan insisted, but the woman seemed too lost in her world to respond.
"Aoste… What have you done?" She mused aloud.
Ryan's heart skipped a beat at the mention of the name; now it was his turn to gawk.
"Did you just say, Aoste?!"
"What's wrong, Ryan? You know that name too?" Freedom inquired.
"I do," he grimaced, turning to his friend. "My full name is Ryan A. Travis. 'A' stands for Aoste."
AN: And this is my take on the Reality Lens. No manifesting dreams and memories in a virtual environment, just pure and simple "virtual" reality dive.
Just a heads-up that the stuff the characters have been discussing, speculating, and guessing hasn't just come out of nowhere. Everything is based on information that has already been tackled extensively in the plot.
Of course, I don't expect anyone to perfectly keep track of every single line spoken by every character in the story; I'm aware that it would be too much, and I've always written while keeping that in mind. So don't be afraid of asking for clarification; I'm always open to dispel doubts and clarify misunderstandings.
Next Chapter: Project Antiochus