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If she can really hear the voices of her loved ones... she will make the choice that's most beneficial to them.

I wonder what she sees at this very moment?

Lacking sufficient reliable data.

I was able to feel them, but I did not receive a 'Transmitter' injection.

One hypothesis is that the Device #9's sensitivity to signals has allowed me to receive fragments of some of the messages.

But those fragments contained certain specific words.

They were emotions.

Language is a set of rules for command input and output. It cannot describe every tiny brainwave fluctuation in detail.

If I must make a conjecture, I postulate that... Director Franks is dreaming.

She's dreaming...?

Whose dream? Is it Dorothy's own dream, or... a collective dream of all the Pioneers connected to the 'Hub?'

I do not know.

Just like... when I was dreaming, I could not ascertain whose dream it was...

Joyce, your manner of speech...

Olivia...? I... I don't know what's going on...

Is your... device being jammed again?

I don't know either.

Olivia, I feel both sad and happy.

Are we all walking a path to an unknown destination, and a starting point we can no longer see?

I think so... especially for researchers like us.

There is one thing... I've wanted to tell you for a long time.

Device #9 may have given me a lot of pain, and my journey may come to an end at any moment, but...

It is thanks to your companionship—

I never once felt alone or lost hope.

Mary, I gotta ask... am I gonna die here?

If you're free enough to think about that, why don't you try to work a little harder?

Heh... Hah... We don't have too many bolts left, do we?

Before these... well-armed fellas shackle up my neck... while I can still breathe and think freely...

I got something to say.

Then say it. Look at how hard you're panting. Careful not to bite your tongue when you talk.

Haha, I love it when you say things like that.

Ever since I became their boss, they take every word I say as pure gold. It's exhausting.

Mary, I oughta be satisfied enough that... I get to die next to you.

This isn't how you saw yourself biting it, huh?

I used to think that, it'd be great if I got to go out on a soft bed with my wife and kids holding my hand... and a bunch of letters from the people I'd helped sitting there on my nightstand...

Right, a window... The room's gotta have a window. I wanna see the sunlight one last time.

When I think that, whether there's a room... or a bed...

It feels like it's not so important whether I have a wife or kids anymore.

Looks like...

I stopped caring about dying somewhere along the way, a long time ago.

Mommy, isn't a long journey hard? Why didn't everybody choose to stay somewhere safe?

Dorothy, everyone is hanging on because they want to see with their own eyes what the path far ahead holds.

Will I go on the journey with you one day?

Dorothy, you will make your own journey.

Mommy, why are you crying? Is it because you don't want me to leave? I don't have to go to the summer camp if you don't want me to go.

No, Dorothy... Your future doesn't belong to me.

Dorothy, one day, Mommy will stand here and send you off on your journey.

Dorothy, the sights you will see in the future will be like nothing I've ever seen.

Dorothy, why are you crying?

Don't you like this place?

The child stands on her tiptoes and reaches her hand out to try and wipe the tears on Dorothy's face.

Dorothy lifts her hand as well.

And just as she is about to take the girl's hand...

She puts her hand down.

No, my dear friend.

This is... the land of dreams that I've been searching for all my life.

How I hope I can find peace and happiness for all of you...

But your futures don't belong to me.

I shouldn't trap you here.

And I... shouldn't trap myself here.

I will send you off on your journeys...

The sights you will see in the future will be like nothing I've ever seen.

Dr. Silence, am I seeing things? Are all the silver liquids... retreating?

The laboratory...

Why is it suddenly turning around and heading toward the labs?

If it keeps going, it'll reach...

Right, that's its target... The place it was born.

With a loud bang, the remaining half of the building suddenly crumbles.

Unlike its previous growth stage, it does not patiently wait to dissolve the crumbled building's structure.

It simply retrieves all the energy and, without hesitation, it tears into its own heart.

The large, geometric construct rapidly crumbles away.

The dust scatters in all directions, and a stream of silver liquid slowly flows on the ground. The sky, too, has returned to its original color.

No...

Impossible.

The data... Show me the data.

The test subject disconnected from the 'Hub,' and its structure completely collapsed...

The 'Hub' is... destroyed?

Mary...?

Hm?

I'm not dreaming, am I? That monster... is actually gone?

We're saved.

We're saved—Mary, did you see that?

Don't... let your guard down. Huff... We still have the bad guys from Rhine Lab to deal with...

Wait, are the Rhine Labbers retreating?

Hold on... Who's that...? And are they wearing...?

Director Franks destroyed her own creation.

She did it...

You believed in her the whole time, didn't you?

Greyy, she said... you have the same kind of courage as the Pioneers.

But I couldn't tell her in time that... she was just as brave—

So brave that she was willing to wake up from the dream she weaved of her own love.

Dorothy, how do you feel? Does it hurt anywhere?

I can't say I feel very good, but...

I feel relaxed.

So... did you find your answer?

Answer?

No... What I found was a new journey.

And it belongs only to them.

I... I have another path to walk.

How does it feel to have your dreams crushed?