act25side

The flowers... they're so beautiful.

Have you come to see me again? I don't know today's flowers. Can you teach me how to spell them?

Of course, Narcissa. What do you want to do after you learn it?

I want to put these petals in my picture book, just like I used to.

Mom loved flowers. Dad knew a lot about plants, just like you.

They're not around any more, but I want to record these new flowers, and tell them about them when I visit their graves.

You'll bring me there, right? It's almost April.

Narcissa, my child, you're always the strong one.

Leave the flowers on the table. I'll teach you writing once I'm done with my work.

It smells good. What's for dinner?

Why did you come over here?

Sit down over there. We're having your favorite potato soup.

I'm hungry. Can you cut quicker?

Do you want to help out? No need to be scared, I'll hold your hand.

Like... like this?

Well done. You'll do even better in the future.

The future? Will I grow up to be as tall and strong like you? Become a great scientist?

No, you'll be greater than I am. Much greater.

Does the wound on the back of your head still hurt?

Not anymore.

My brothers gave me lots of sweets. They say that one sweet before going to bed helps with the pain, and makes me dream of cotton candy.

Good girl.

You can have them once you've had dinner. Then there's a place I want to take you to.

Over at the corridor?

The place my brothers went yesterday?

They said there's a nice garden there, just like those in the storybooks, and that's the place you get your flowers.

Yes.

Those who pass through its doors are blessed by fate.

At the end of the corridor is...

Rosmontis! Rosmontis!

I can't get the door open! Any ideas, Muelsyse? We need to go!

Rosmontis...

Don't go... not alone...

Rosmontis.

Who is Rosmontis?

Who is Narcissa?

Welcome.

You're waiting for me?

Always have been.

Where are the Doctor? Where are the others?

Where they were. This court does not need an audience.

Court?

Is this a court? Who's on trial?

I, Loken Williams.

I am both accused and accuser.

In these last moments, before fate devours me—

I implore you to witness my life.

Here and now, I confess to all my crimes.

Greed.

Yes. My teacher reproached me.

He chided me for my recklessness, and admonished my extraction of infected organs from the dying as being both illegal and immoral.

He said my actions did not help patients, only accelerated their deaths.

They were already dying; their consciousness had already passed over to the other side. I did not intend to cause any more pain, nor did I change their fate.

But my teacher did not agree. He and <i>his</i> teacher pronounced my death sentence in academia, in a private trial with no justice to speak of.

They refused to admit that greed is a virtue for a scientist.

A small-town boy's biology education is limited to delivering burdenbeast calves, unless he musters the courage to dissect the newborn calf in the middle of the night.

The thirst for knowledge was enough to overcome his empathy. He needed to seize every opportunity to climb, to continue on the path of exploration.

Cowardice.

I have not often been found wanting of courage, but there was one thing that I yielded to.

Maylander banned me after my teacher reported me, a mark of shame that shut me out of all universities and government-sponsored research institutions.

It was the cruelest punishment you could inflict on a scientist in his prime. They stripped me of my right to research. It was akin to murder of the soul.

I began drowning myself in drink. For a year and ten months, I forced myself to face my trembling hands, so that I could forget the pain of not being able to hold a scalpel.

That was when they found me.

They. The shameless rascals.

The Department of Defense. They funded Loken Watertank. In return, I was to develop the most powerful weapon for them in five years.

Science is neutral, pure, and free. Practical value, especially in terms of weaponization, can only be a burden for science.

I did not want to contribute my research for them, but they knew what my weakness was.

Knowledge is expensive. Instruments, equipment, materials, down to the bricks that make up the laboratory—it all takes money.

Building the lab of my dreams costs more than building a skyscraper in the middle of Trimounts.

I had to admit my weakness and prostrate myself before their power.

How pathetic.

Is this nation any less so? They have allowed barbaric power to control the lifeline of science!

There is no one more short-sighted than the soldier. They are at the helm of science, yet they know not how to use such precious knowledge except to kill their own kind.

Folly.

Yes, folly. The most unforgiveable crime that a scientist can commit.

The foolish soldiers are easy to deceive. Getting subcutaneous Arts units, the result of billions in investment, was enough to satisfy them.

But I was too busy, too obsessed with my research, to realize the weakness and ambition of those around me.

A foolish student of mine handed part of my experiment data to the Department of Defense.

They learned what Loken Watertank was really researching, and were eager to see results, even threatening to take direct control.

How could I allow them to steal my dream, when I was so close to finishing my masterpiece?!

You took a risk. You failed.

You lost everything.

Narcissa destroyed your lab. That wasn't so bad, but then Maylander came again. They took Narcissa, robbed you of your dream again.

You were like a walking corpse. The Department of Defense confiscated the scraps, then wanted you to repay the billions of investment. You could not repay it, and you refused to work with them anymore.

So you were thrown into prison, like a piece of rotting meat that no one paid any further attention too.

That was my greatest crime—failure!

Now, my final and greatest failure stands before me.

Narcissa!

The only flower in my garden that has not been trampled into the mud. Broken, but still beautiful.

Look at me. Look at the Loken Williams who raised you, educated you, oppressed you, tormented you.

You witnessed me, inches away from the summit, and witnessed my fall from grace into the abyss.

Now I invite you, child, to be the stick that measures my pain, my regrets, my crimes.

You are the only one fit to do so.

Push forward!

Area suppressed!

Gamma and Delta?

No more reinforcing power armors!

Excellent. Continue the attack and prepare to breach the building.

Argh—!

Not so fast.