After the shock wore off, Ryan and Anzeel calmed down, forcing their disbelief and dismay down their throats to compose themselves.
"You wanted to hear our story, doctor," the man said. "Well, you might want to sit down for this."
After that, Ryan proceeded to fill her in on everything she was unaware of. The difference between what they called the Original Sirens and their humanoid counterparts, and the fact that everything seemed to have started from the Original Timeline—her timeline. Then he talked extensively about the existence of the multiverse, Freedom's true origin, the threat that now loomed over the world, and their true reason for being here.
All of that was supplemented by the shipboy and TB, who added their own to the mix.
As they talked, the doctor's face turned into a kaleidoscope of emotions, assuming a series of expressions ranging from shock to excitement to genuine fear, but even that didn't seem to snuff out the rapt, scientific interest she was displaying.
By the end of it, the importance and the sheer amount of the revelations were too much for her, and she was having trouble processing everything.
"Everyone thought they were just a bunch of hostile machines, maybe the remnants of some kind of ancient civilization coming from outer space," she said, kneading her temples. "Heck, we all believed that the seed was some kind of doom-bringing spaceship, but to think that the theory of another world was correct all along! And to think that they could go back in time! That explains everything!"
"You are really saying that you knew nothing about it?" Ryan asked her with a tired expression.
"Of course we didn't! You've seen the crater, right? That island is where the final battle took place. When the seed literally disappeared from under our noses, we thought that the Sirens were retreating to their world of origin. We thought we'd won, but how could we possibly know that they could go back in time?!"
Ryan let out a groan; of course that's how it went… If humanity in the Original Timeline wasn't aware of that particular detail, they couldn't take precautions to prevent it, unlike what happened in the shipboys' world.
While Anzeel's excitement seemed to have been restored, Ryan's seemed to have been completely drained, and Freedom could understand why. When the woman had dropped Ryan's second name out of nowhere, it had been a shock for the young officer. Knowing that this timeline was chronologically ahead, even if only by a few decades, could mean a lot of things. It wouldn't be absurd to say that this Aoste was a relative, or perhaps even... No, better believe it was just a case of homonymy.
"And how does this Aoste come into all this?" Freedom asked her in the Commander's stead.
"Dr. Aoste was my closest colleague," Anzeel began. "During the war, we were tasked with the same job: to study the few Wisdom Cubes that our allies managed to recover from the many skirmishes with the Sirens and come up with a means to fight them back. We worked together until we created the Reality Lens, then we parted because of ideological differences."
Both men perked up at her words. Now it was her turn to explain.
"While I focused on my KAN-SEN program, I ended up creating the shipgirls. His idea was to create humanoid weapons with backup drives to render them functionally immortal, and, most importantly, expendable, as opposed to the Kansen. So, he focused on another project, ANTI-X, or Antiochus, as he called it."
She paused her speech, irritation taking over for a second.
"Ugh, the nerve of the guy… He believed that his project was superior to mine and even said that I was wasting my time with frivolities, like designing the shipgirls' appearance. He just didn't get that my Kansen are not just weapons. They deserve to be as cute and sexy as they can be!"
She let out a calming breath before she resumed talking.
"In the end, the brass liked his idea more than mine, but since he was having trouble perfecting it, the shipgirls ended up being deployed regardless. By that time, the war was already in full swing, and his project ended up being overshadowed by more urgent matters. Regardless, he kept working on it, and at some point, he came up with a plan to bring the seed under control."
"What?!" Ryan and Freedom exclaimed in unison.
"That's right, he thought it'd be a waste to just destroy it, and the brass agreed with him. So, he came up with a way to reprogram the thing and the Sirens with it," she explained, huffing in annoyance. "If you ask me, he was just upset that my research got more recognition than his own, so he changed his goal to something grander. In any case, he went and created a program that, if installed in the seed, would have reprogrammed the Sirens to follow orders. The plan was to install it during the final siege to the seed instead of destroying it, but unfortunately, it didn't work. When the seed disappeared, we all just assumed that the program had failed and that the Sirens were retreating with their tail between their legs… and now it turns out they were time-leaping," she added with a groan.
Ryan and Freedom shared an incredulous look.
Putting aside the absurdity of the revelation that these guys actually tried to control the Original Sirens, that still didn't explain how their humanoid counterparts came to be. If what Anzeel said was true, the bastards were still in their original form when they were defeated. She shouldn't be able to recognize TB's appearance nor even associate it with Zero's name.
"But then how do you know TB? And why did you call her Zero?" Ryan asked her.
Anzeel's expression fell as the woman was taken over by a pang of sorrow, though it wasn't directed at herself.
"That's because she's identical to Aoste's first summon," she declared gravely. "It was a little girl, created in the image and likeness of his late daughter. He called her Zero, the first of the Antiochus."
The meaningful silence that followed her words was deafening as the outsiders connected the dots. The one who broke it was TB.
"Interesting," she piped up. "And where's this man at the moment?"
"He's still at work on this very same island," Anzeel answered. "I wager you'd like to meet him?"
They didn't need to be asked twice.
Anzeel's story had something fishy; not because the woman didn't seem honest, but because they knew it was born from her lack of critical information.
On the surface, it all sounded like the most basic premise of any trash sci-fi story: humanity bites more than they can chew, trying to bring the alien race of invaders under their control.
It was destined to end badly.
And then there was this Aoste. The way the doctor talked about him was like the stereotypical shady character who wanted to use the power of science for his personal gain, only to condemn all of humanity to a tragic fate with his actions in the process.
By now, it was safe to assume that the guy was the Creator. At least that's what everyone was thinking as they rode Anzeel's car through the streets of Isla Victoria.
The unspoken conclusion they all came to was that the program he planted into the seed didn't fail; on the contrary, it worked perfectly as he intended. By the time the time-leap protocol was finalized, it had already converted the Sirens to their humanoid counterparts, the first of its products being Observer Zero, the avatar of the seed… the Original Program. At least that's what TB was speculating. The AI didn't miss the chance given by the silence hanging in the car to voice her thoughts. But at the end of the day, it was just more speculation.
Anzeel didn't know what to think anymore. Aoste was a great mentor for her, and she always had a lot of respect for him. While the two of them acted like rivals, constantly throwing barbs at each other, they were actually good friends.
But after the disappearance of the seed, she began harboring some doubts. She knew him well; his plan to bring the Sirens under control had failed, but he'd never seemed quite as disappointed as he should have been, almost as if he had been expecting it. With time, the insecurities assaulting her had disappeared in the back of her mind, until Ryan and Freedom appeared before her, and those doubts she thought she had forgotten were now resurfacing.
And when she had first set her eyes on TB, his name had inevitably come to her lips.
Now that she thought about it, she was escorting two men of whom she knew basically nothing—a male Kansen from another world and a human officer from another timeline—to meet the man who was probably responsible for unleashing an apocalyptic threat on the latter's home.
She shivered at the thought of what they'd do to him, and she felt a pang of guilt knowing that it'd be her fault... if he was found guilty of the allegations that they were about to present him.
She pushed that thought back. Aoste's lab was full of his Antiochus. Even if things escalated, she had nothing to worry about.
"So, let's say Aoste really is this Creator you're talking about…" She broke the awkward silence hanging in the car. "What… are you going to do about it?" She tentatively asked them as she drove.
Ryan's mind seemed to be elsewhere, and Freedom was the only one who noticed the doctor's uneasiness. It wasn't hard to guess what was on her mind, considering where they were heading.
"We are not here to hurt anyone, doctor. You don't need to fret for your colleague's safety," the shipboy said from the back seat.
"Aha, you got me," she said, letting out a sheepish laugh.
"We already got what we wanted with the information on the Reality Lens you so kindly gave us; all we want to know now is the truth. After that, we'll take our leave and go back where we came from; right, Ryan?"
"Uh, yeah, of course…" Ryan nodded absentmindedly from the passenger seat, looking out the window as the scenery of the town passed in front of his eyes. It was getting dark, and there were a lot fewer people around the place than when they arrived.
"Since we have time to spare, can you tell us more about him?" He asked after a few more seconds of awkward silence.
"Well, he looks a lot like you, for starters," she revealed. "I thought you looked familiar when I first saw you, but I drew the connection only when you said your name. You look a lot like a younger version of him."
"And you said he had a daughter. What happened to her?"
"Well, I never got to meet her. I know that she died during a Siren raid early in the war," Anzeel declared gravely. "I remember when they told him the news. His hair turned white in an instant for the shock. He used to love to gush about her with his coworkers, but after that, he just stopped… probably because he didn't want to relive painful memories."
"But if that's the case, then why did he model a Siren… I mean, an Antiochus after her?"
"Actually, all his creations bear quite an uncanny resemblance to her. Don't get me wrong, they are still cute, but quite creepy, if you ask me. At least I went out of my way to give my girls some unique traits."
They kept discussing things as Anzeel drove the car outside the line of buildings. Soon, the concrete was replaced by a dirt road that plunged into the wilderness of the island.
"Still a few minutes. The facility's just through these woods," she announced.
"Why this far?"
"The Antiochus' riggings bear much resemblance to Siren armament, so we try to keep them out of sight as much as possible. Their contribution to the war was kept hidden for the most part, and we deployed them only during operations without human personnel, alongside the Kansen," she explained. "Luckily, their human appearance is fairly normal, so it's easy for them to pass as shipgirls when they go out to town."
And not much later, they arrived.
The facility was fairly unimpressive from the outside. It was an unassuming two-stories building in the middle of a spacious, concrete area, surrounded by a steel fence. The entrance was blocked by a barrier, guarded by two men in uniform.
Security wasn't tight at all. Maybe it was because of Anzeel's presence or the peaceful times, but the guards just cordially greeted the doctor, and after a quick check of her pass, they let them through.
Anzeel parked her car, and they stepped out of the vehicle. Ryan took a deep breath to calm his nerves then felt a strong slap on his shoulder. Wincing in pain, he turned to see Freedom giving him an encouraging grin.
"Chin up, man; it's not like we are crossing the gates of hell."
"Heh, we might as well be…"
They were about to enter a facility where the same humanoid Sirens who had tormented the world for decades walked around the place without a care in the world. At least Ryan had gotten used to Purifier's presence back home; that should help him keep his cool.
"C'mon guys, don't stay behind!" Anzeel called out to them as she approached the entrance.
As they got close, Anzeel tapped a few commands into a panel next to the gate, and the metal shutter opened with a loud whir. They all stepped in, but the interior wasn't what they were expecting. Instead of the main hall of a building, they found themselves inside a ten-foot-wide empty square chamber with metal walls illuminated by artificial white lights. There was a panel in front of them, right in the middle, and the doctor raised some kind of pass in front of it.
A scan and a ding later, a small hologram appeared above it.
Ryan was expecting to see one of the humanoid Sirens he was so familiar with, but surprisingly, the hologram didn't look familiar at all. It was a girl with long, dark hair, pale skin, and heterochromatic eyes, one red, the other yellow.
"Welcome, Dr. Anzeel; we weren't expecting you," she said cordially. "What brings you here?"
"Uh? Who are you? This is the first time I see you," Anzeel said. Apparently, she wasn't expecting it either.
"I'm Dr. Aoste's latest design. You didn't know about me because you haven't been here in quite a while. I'm The Devil XV, but just 'Devil' will be fine," the hologram, now known as "Devil," explained.
"As expected, a humanoid Siren… an Arbiter," Ryan thought. "Or should I call them 'Antiochus' now?"
"I can't believe this! The old man finally got over his habit of reusing the same design!" Anzeel blurted. "Though, another Major Arcana name? Aoste, you edgy lad."
"Doctor, time," Freedom reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Anzeel snapped back to reality. "Little Devil, can you tell Aoste I need to see him?"
"The doctor is busy at the moment; I'll have to ask you to pass another time-"
"It's really important. Like, world-changingly important!" Anzeel insisted.
"…I'll see what I can do," the Antiochus relented before the hologram disappeared.
"Doctor…" TB's voice piped up from Ryan's wrist.
"Yeah?"
"We don't need to remind you that this whole business has to be kept secret, right?" TB reminded her. "While time itself will take care of rectifying the consequences of our presence in the Original Timeline, it can only happen if we don't leave a huge impact. If you spread the news to the entire world..."
"No, no, I haven't forgotten; I was just saying!"
"Oh, forgive me, then. Still getting the hang of this."
After waiting for a couple more minutes, Devil's projection reappeared, inviting them inside. Without them having to do anything, the walls around them began shaking, and the room began moving downward.
Ryan guessed right; this was a lift.
His heart began beating faster in his chest. It felt like plunging through the nine circles of hell, straight into Lucifer's mouth.
He just hoped the paradise awaiting at the end of it was worth it.
The ride on the lift was longer than expected. Or maybe it was Ryan's nerves that made it seem that way. There didn't seem to be multiple floors; the only stop was the bottom.
As Anzeel would tell them, this was the first facility built on the island before it was opened to the public. It was where the wrecked remains of Siren technology found around the previous location of the seed were gathered and hoarded as they waited to be examined and studied.
When the town was built, most of the researchers moved to their new occupations, Anzeel included. Instead of following them and leaving the facility in disuse, Aoste decided to turn it into his own personal lab. Most of his Antiochus had bulky rigging, and he had all the space he needed to work on them without anyone bothering him. Besides, according to Anzeel, the guy didn't like being around people anyway.
As they followed the doctor through the well-lit hallways of the underground facility, Ryan and Freedom were drawn to the large windows on the wall to their left. The glass looked onto a big, spacious area, a hangar of some sort, which was littered with pieces of equipment and heavy-lifting machinery.
What drew their attention the most, though, was the piece of alien-looking technology resting in the middle of the room, surrounded by a bunch of wires and cables.
"So, is that the Creator's latest creation?" Freedom asked aloud.
The machine screamed "Siren technology" from every fiber, and even from afar, its grotesque appearance was enough to send a shiver down Ryan's spine.
It was clearly some sort of rigging, but it looked too much of a mess for them to make out its exact shape. It was covered in black metal plates, grafted with multiple double and single barrel turrets. Its body was marked by red glowing spots, and atop its bulky figure was a big glass tank filled to the brim with a liquid of the same color.
As Ryan and Freedom stopped in their tracks to observe it, Anzeel's attention was caught by something else. At the end of the corridor, diligently waiting for them right around the corner, was The Devil XV.
The woman's breath caught in her throat, and her eyes sparkled as she approached her. "Holy shit, she's even better in the flesh!"
"Welcome, Dr. Anzeel, and apologies for the small reception," Devil said with a smile and courteous tone. "My elder sisters aren't present at the moment, their presence was requested elsewhere, so I'll guide you to see my master."
But Anzeel didn't seem to hear her.
"You are so cute I'm going to get diabetes! Can I get a picture? Strike a pose!" She blurted, all but fawning over the Antiochus.
Devil didn't seem bothered by the woman's enthusiasm at all. She humored her request without losing her smile, making peace signs with her fingers and tilting her head slightly, smiling as the doctor took out her phone and began snapping a few pictures.
Noticing the commotion, the two men diverted their attention from the machine to the photo shoot and approached the woman.
"Doctor, do you mind?" Ryan said, resisting the urge to facepalm as he came to a stop beside her.
"Right, business!" Anzeel exclaimed, putting away her phone. "Little Devil, these are the guests I've brought. I know Aoste doesn't like having people around while he works, but it's imperative they speak with him."
Ryan greeted the Antiochus with a small nod. She was fairly shorter than he was, but her appearance didn't make her less intimidating to him.
On her part, Devil tilted her head in confusion at the sight of him, noticing the resemblance he bore to her master, but before she could voice her thoughts, her gaze fell on the shipboy, and her eyes lit up.
Literally.
"Otherworldly entity detected. Proceed to the termination of the target."
Before he even had the chance to process her words, Freedom found himself slammed into the window, glass shrapnel falling around him as Devil pushed him out of the hallway, into the hangar, and down to the floor.
Keeping him down with her smaller frame, she extended a hand toward her rigging at the center of the room. It came to life with a loud hum, and the compartments it had on either side of its body opened as she mentally reached for it to unleash its battle drones.
But Freedom was quick to compose himself. Instead of waiting for an explanation, he pushed the Antiochus holding him down with all his might, switching positions with her.
Now on top and in control, he was about to pummel her with his bare hands, but before he could take a swing, three human-sized, alien-looking, red and black contraptions came out of the rigging, hovering in the air around him and aligning their guns at him.
Two of those drones unleashed a laser beam from their single barrels, but the shipboy quickly deployed his wings, easily deflecting them with a swipe.
The Antiochus took advantage of the distraction to wriggle out of his grasp. Freedom was quick to notice, and his wings changed configuration, aiming their thrusters down and taking flight right as the third drone dropped its payload on him.
He quickly flew up into the spacious hangar to locate his opponent, only to realize that she was already riding atop her bulky rigging, which was now completely alert and awake.
It turned its turrets toward him and unleashed a flurry of blasts, forcing him to move out of the way. He began circling the contraption, zigzagging to avoid its attacks as he looked for an opening to strike.
Of course, the attacks he dodged all ended up hitting the walls of the underground facility, making the surroundings shake and pieces of plaster and rubble fall around him. As spacious as it was down there, he didn't have enough room to pick up speed, so he had to watch his movements while also paying attention to the three drones chasing him.
He considered talking to the Antiochus, but trying to reason with someone who had just attacked him out of the blue for no apparent reason wasn't going to bear much fruit.
Taking a quick glance to the side, he noticed Anzeel and Ryan still in the hallway and grimaced. They were too close for comfort. He could only draw the fight as long as he could to allow them to get to safety before he started getting serious, then, he'd make the Antiochus regret starting it.
Meanwhile, the two humans were down on their knees, trying to keep their heads low as the male Kansen and the Antiochus went at it. The cacophony of loud noises coming from the fight taking place only a few feet away from them was forcing them to clasp their ears and shout as they talked.
"Doctor, the Antiochus went crazy! Do something!" Ryan shouted urgently.
Anzeel regarded him with an incredulous look. "Me?! What am I supposed to do?!"
"I don't know! You're the expert here!"
"I don't have a magic wand! And she's probably just following her program!"
"Attacking every Kansen she crosses is part of her program?!"
"Of course not... At least I think..." she trailed off.
The way Devil had attacked Freedom out of nowhere made it seem like a switch had gone off in her head, as if she was following some kind of priority protocol.
And what did she say? "Otherworldly entity detected?" Could it be that she had sensed his origin and mistook him for some kind of Siren?
With the new understanding in mind, Anzeel sprang to her feet, and, ignoring Ryan's dismayed look, she scurried through the hole in the wall, running out in the open and in the middle of the fight.
"Little Devil, stop! Freedom's not your enemy!" She yelled as the Antiochus' rigging shot another volley at the shipboy. "It's true that he's not from this world, but he's just a male Kansen! He's not a Siren in disguise!"
But Devil didn't hear or simply ignored her.
"What the hell are you doing?! Get out of here!" Freedom shouted back as he narrowly dodged another volley.
The sturdy walls of the underground facility were doing a great job withstanding and dispersing the impacts, but the umpteenth shock they received caused the many thick pipes hanging from the ceiling to come loose and fall... right onto Anzeel.
Noticing the danger, Freedom tapped into his Cube and with a burst of speed granted by his thrusters, he dove down full speed on the doctor, dragging her away and out of danger as the tubes fell to the ground with a loud clangor.
To avoid landing with a crash, he slammed his wing blades into the ground to forcefully arrest his momentum as he skidded to a stop with his back right next to the wall.
With a quick glance at the woman in his arms, he checked on her condition and noticed that she was slightly dazed by the whiplash but otherwise unhurt.
Then he lifted his gaze and scowled. He was staring right into one of the Antiochus' barrels. Devil herself was standing atop her rigging, looking down at him with a glare.
"Let her go," she commanded.
His defiant stare turned into a confused frown.
"A humanoid Siren worried for a human… Now, that's a first," he remarked as he delicately put Anzeel down.
He slowly stood up and moved away from her, taking one step after the other as Devil kept him at gunpoint all the while. His wings were slowly changing configuration, his thrusters whirring loudly as he pointed them downward, ready to bolt and retaliate as soon as she made her move.
And when he was far enough from the human woman, he came to a stop, staring the Antiochus down as if daring her to attack him. She stared back at him, but before she could take the invitation, a voice echoed through the air.
"Devil, stand down!"
The Antiochus stiffened in her place, turning toward the owner of the voice.
Freedom followed her gaze, frowning at the unexpected interruption. Coming out of the automatic gate on the other side of the room, alerted by the ruckus they were making, was a man wearing a lab coat, calmly walking toward them.
"Why did you stop me, Master?" Devil asked him as the new arrival approached them.
"Because I don't want you to tear this whole place down," he declared. "And no matter what your sensors say, this man's not a Siren. There must be a reason Anzeel brought him here."
Those words were enough for the Antiochus to lower her weapons and cease all hostilities. Her rigging stopped squirming as she jumped down from it and recalled her drones, taking on a more sheepish attitude after being rebuked by her creator.
"It was about time you showed up, old man," Anzeel said with an annoyed tone as she stood up on her feet and soothed her sore neck; then she turned to the shipboy. "Thank you for the help, Freedom… and sorry for the trouble. I'd be a stain on the floor if it weren't for you."
"It's nothing, doctor, really. Though, maybe next time try to stay clear of the explosions…" Freedom said as he relaxed his stance and dismissed his wings, still keeping a watchful eye on Devil.
"So, Anzeel, what do you think of the new Antiochus? She puts your silly puppets to shame, don't you agree?" Aoste asked her.
"All I can say is that she's leagues cuter than the other ones. I was getting tired of the white hair."
As the two doctors bantered, Freedom took a good look at the new arrival. A glance was enough to identify the man as the infamous Dr. Aoste. If the fact that Devil followed his orders without question wasn't enough of a giveaway, his face was identical to Ryan's.
Based on what Anzeel had told them, the man should be well past his middle age, and yet, he looked too good for a man that old, in both appearance and the way he carried himself.
By the looks of it, his body never went past its prime. He had well-kept, short, white hair tied in a small ponytail, his face was devoid of wrinkles, his short beard was well trimmed, and his penetrating eyes were full of life. He was dressed neatly with a black sweater under a white lab coat and white pants; he wore a pair of glasses and a watch on his wrist.
The more Freedom looked at him, the more he felt like he was looking at a much more mature version of Ryan, whose age seemed to have never caught up to.
Speaking of Ryan, the Commander had just come out in the open, and judging by the expression on his face, he had come to the same conclusion.
"Dr. Aoste, I presume," he spoke up, prompting the man to turn toward him.
"Yes, and who… might you be?" Aoste frowned at the sight of the Commander. Based on his reaction, he also noticed the resemblance.
"My name is Ryan A. Travis, Commander of Azur Lane," Ryan said, prompting Aoste to deepen his frown. Then the Commander's gaze lowered to the man's chest, where his name card was attached. He read the name and pursed his lips. "I'm… you from another timeline," he declared.
A pregnant silence filled the room as Aoste processed what he just heard. He sent a questioning look to Anzeel, who averted her gaze from him.
"Let's go to my office. I believe we have much to talk about."
The atmosphere inside the room was tense.
The group had spent the short walk in silence, and that silence had carried itself inside the office.
There were so many things Ryan wanted to say, but he found himself unable to utter a word; his gaze was fixed on the photo frame on the desk Aoste was sitting at with his hands folded in front of him, and his elbows resting on the counter.
If there were any doubts left about them being the same person, that photo just dispelled them. The picture showed Aoste when he was much younger, and lo and behold, he was the Commander's spitting image.
But what was making Ryan's throat parched wasn't the striking resemblance the two seemed to share; rather, it was the fact that the man was holding a kid in his arms, both of them smiling as they looked at the camera.
Ryan remembered what Anzeel told him, and he felt his stomach twist on itself. The little girl couldn't have been older than eight and was identical to Observer Zero and TB, except the white hair.
That was Aoste's daughter.
"So, Anzeel, why did you bring a shipboy from another world and a doppelganger from another timeline with you?"
Aoste's question took the woman by surprise.
"Me? Are you really putting me on the spot like this? Why don't you first explain how Devil knew that Freedom's from another world?" She said as she pointed at the Antiochus standing beside him.
"Devil is my latest model. I equipped her with a special sensor that allows her to recognize otherworldly entities," he explained. "I've been working on it since the end of the war, in case the Sirens show up again."
Anzeel blinked at his words.
"Aoste, the theory of the Sirens coming from another world has always been... well, a theory," Anzeel said. "Don't tell me that you already knew it was correct all along."
"I did," Aoste stated matter-of-factly. "I found out while I was working on my ANTI-X project."
She brought a hand up to her forehead, letting out an upset groan.
"Please don't tell me that you also know about-"
"...their time-leaping ability, I do," Aoste cut her off, much to the woman's dismay.
His words left everyone in the room speechless, but also with more doubt in their minds.
"You really are the Creator…" Ryan spoke in a breath.
Anzeel was unable to look him in the eyes. "After everything Ryan's told me, I came here with the hope of proving him wrong. I wanted you to clear everything up, but you aren't even trying to deny it."
"I'm sorry for deceiving you, Anzeel, but I had no other choice," Aoste said, not a hint of remorse in his voice. "As for you, Commander, I take it you have a lot of questions."
"You can bet your ass I do,"Ryan blurted. "But you are awfully nonchalant about all this, doctor. Either you believe you are so in the right that you don't care about what has happened because of you, or you don't even know the full scope of what you've done," he added, his voice dripping with venom.
Aoste didn't miss the accusation in his tone and frowned.
"If you'd be so kind as to enlighten me, then."
"Not a chance. I'm done talking. I'm only here for the truth and nothing else." Ryan stepped up to the doctor and slammed his hands on the desk, leaning forward to look him in the eyes. "We've been investigating the true origin of the Sirens for ages, but there's only so much we could figure out on our own. Anzeel already told us a lot, but she wasn't sure to what extent you had a hand in all this, and now you've confirmed that you've been deceiving her and everyone else the whole time. Your Antiochus used to work alongside the Kansen to fight the Sirens, but when the seed went back in time, you took advantage of it to have your creations take the place of the Sirens and pit them against humanity. Am I wrong?"
Aoste held his gaze without flinching.
"I must congratulate you," he said. "Gathering so much accurate intel on such a matter is no small feat."
"I don't need your praise; I want to know why."
"Do you know how a vaccine works, Commander?" He inquired.
"What?"
"We use them to subject our body to a weaker version of a virus; that way, it can produce the antibodies necessary to protect itself ahead of time when the real thing appears."
"Spare me the sanctimonious talk, doctor!" Ryan snapped. "I've got enough of it from Observer Zero already!"
This time, his words managed to elicit a reaction from the man. His posture stiffened under the Commander's glare.
"So, you've met Zero... How is she doing?"
"Is that what you're more concerned about?" Ryan said, his tone dripping with venom. "After everything that's happened because of you, you care more about her than humanity's state?!"
"And what exactly happened because of me, Commander? I know I forced humanity into a war it was ill-prepared for, but that was exactly the point. Thanks to the pressure my Antiochus put you under, you were able to put your hands on technology you would have never dreamed of, am I right? The fact that you are here is irrefutable proof of that."
Ryan was doing his best to keep his anger at bay, but the doctor's words and attitude weren't doing much to help him. "Do you have any idea how much it cost us? How many lives have been lost to this folly?"
"Less than what the Sirens would do to your timeline if you were unprepared to face them," Aoste stated. "War brings progress. A few casualties are an unpleasant but inevitable consequence."
That was the last straw for the Commander. Aoste's disinterested tone was one thing, but his appalling words were enough to make him lose his cool.
"You disgusting piece of shit!" Ryan yelled in anger as he lunged at him with unrestrained fury. Before he could vault over the desk and reach for the man's neck, Freedom grabbed him from behind, holding him back.
"Hey, Ryan, chill!" Freedom called out his friend as he struggled to get free.
"Dammit, Freedom, let me go!" Ryan tried to pry himself out of his friend's hold, but even with all his might, there wasn't much he could do against his Kansen strength.
"Trust me, I know what you are feeling. I also want nothing more than to punch him in the face, but this isn't the right moment to pick a fight," Freedom said, and the Commander paused his struggling, his gaze falling on Devil.
The Antiochus was standing behind the desk, next to Aoste's chair, and was ready to intervene in case any harm came to her creator.
Freedom's words and the memory of their previous altercation were enough to convince him. He deeply exhaled as he stopped struggling; his anger was still there, but his reason was slowly coming back to him.
Feeling him deflate under his hold and making sure he wouldn't just try to jump Aoste again, Freedom let go of him as Devil relaxed her posture, and Anzeel breathed a sigh of relief.
Aoste didn't even flinch during all that, which made the Commander even more upset.
"If you really want to know about Zero, why don't you ask her yourself?" He asked him, his tone full of contempt. He took off his wristwatch and set it on the desk, right under Aoste's nose.
The doctor's questioning look turned into disbelief when the small display lit up, projecting TB's small hologram right into his face.
"Greetings, Creator," the AI said. "We finally meet after so long."
"Z-zero? How is this possible? I sent you into the seed..."
"Correction, my name is TB," she interjected. "You could say that Observer Zero is my mother, which would effectively make you my grandfather. I'm the one responsible for bringing the Commander and Freedom here."
"This doesn't make sense. I gave Zero specific instructions to never make contact again. The risk of the Sirens finding a connection between the two timelines was too high; everything would be for naught if they came back."
"The two timelines?" Anzeel intervened from the side.
"Yes, this one, and the one the seed created when it went back in time—the same one the Commander's from," Aoste responded.
The woman grimaced as she figured out where this was going. "Aoste... I'm sorry to tell you that the situation is far worse than that."
Turning his questioning look toward her, the man inquired, "What do you mean?"
When only silence answered him, a bad feeling crept over him.
"If there's something I need to know, speak." His words hung in the air for a few seconds as various pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"TB, how many iterations did it take your comrades to get to our timeline?" Ryan asked the AI.
"The exact number of times my mother and sisters restarted the simulation is five hundred forty-seven," TB answered.
A loud thump signaled Aoste slumping in his chair, his legs giving out after hearing the news, and his gaze looking far off into the distance as the weight of her words fell on him.
"Devil…"
"Yes, Master?" The Antiochus snapped to attention after being addressed by her creator. She had been switching her incredulous gaze between him and the others, seemingly taken aback by the unexpected development.
"Go tell the guards out there that everything's under control and there's nothing to worry about," Aoste ordered.
"But-"
"Now!"
"As you command," she replied, quickly dismissing herself, but not before sending a glare of warning at the other man.
After she left, Aoste straightened his posture on his chair, took a deep breath, and began talking.
AN: We are treading the path of delicate worldbuilding stuff here, and I don't want to be constrained by numbers. So, once again, since it doesn't affect the story in any meaningful way, I'm leaving the year of the timelines and the age of certain characters unspecified.
Also, I would like to remind everyone that while I've been drawing heavily on the canon of the game, this is still an AU; everything that has been said and will be said has been readapted for the sake of the story, so don't take it as entirely accurate canon information.
Of course, I still want to know your opinion, so feel free to tell me what you think about it.
Next Chapter: Back to the Present