Ninth Resurrection

[link_to_revival]

1.



[A certain someone's in the infirmary, weak but in a stable condition.  Her lungs, along with some of the more fragile muscles are pretty badly off but... to say nothing of the massive gash on the left side of her face that's taken her eye and forced me to flip the image because goddammit nothing can ever be easy in the world of using PBs and then finding out there's this awesome hospitalization pic of a character that goes great with what you had planned for them.

[It's not until hours after she's returned to the Chalice that her one good eye finally begins to open up.  Lights.  Ceiling.  The kind of pain that lets her know she's somehow survived the Izanami Virus...]



I'm... alive.

[No telling how long she'll be conscious.  But she's at least going to try to get something out before going under again...]

[Public video]

Everyone... thank you.

I don't know what happened out there after Typhon's attack but... we must've won, right?  Typhon and Takeda and everyone else've been stopped and it's just one less threat to worry about.

Neptune, Ichitaka, Richard... everyo-

[Aaaand coughing fit again.  Her lungs are still a mess, and her heartfelt video's going to have to be cut short.  Though you can still say something back to her, be it in person or by video!]

2.

[Public video]



[And on top of that, a new face onboard the Chalice!  Well, new face, old friend, because...]

Everyone, this is R speaking.

[In human form!  With an actual voice!]

I never thought I'd have to adopt this form, the gynoid recreation of Greta Wagner, again.  I didn't even think it would be possible.  As it so happens though, it turned out that it had survived the incidents at the Tritech Labs.  A mixed blessing, I suppose.  As much as I hate this body and the identity it represents, it can at least let me keep a closer eye on Lynn while she recovers.  Afterwards I'm just going to throw it in a closet and never even think about using it again unless I need it, which I someday might.

As for what happened out there, what I did?

I don't have any regrets.  In the end, Alice was just a weapon.  One that could talk and had a twisted equivalent of human feelings... but something that needed to be stopped.  And so that's exactly what I did.

Comments

1)

[armored_mother]

Jeez Lynn... take it easy! You almost died out there you know...

[Cora let out a soft chuckle and put a hand to the injured scientist's shoulder.]

Try to save the thank yous for when you get better. Everyone'll be able to appreciate them more if you don't cough your lungs out when you do it.

[link_to_revival]

Alright... alright..

[She has to turn her head more than usual to look at you though. Gah, losing an eye sucks so much.]

So what happened? I didn't think anyone would've been able to treat the Virus in time to save me. How'd they do it?

[armored_mother]

From what I heard they stuck you into some kind of tube to keep you going after you got hit. It was really high tech stuff too, the kind that could've saved a lot of lives.

[Cora lets out a slightly annoyed noise, trust people like the ones that once littered the streets of the non-existent Yggdrasil to have kept it all for themselves.]

After they shut the transmitter off they hauled it here to patch you up.

The kid too... 'cept in his case he tried to kill himself with the damn virus after ALICE got shut down permanently...

[Cora sounded pretty disbelieving of that, a little irritated as well.]

[link_to_revival]

He actually...

... My God.

2)

[clumsy_moe_appeal]

She was that crazy AI right? Robo. The one programmed to love that little kid? Robo.

Good riddance, I couldn't stand her. Robo. The idea of being programmed to love someone's just plain creepy. Robo.

[Elsa shudders in disgust, given that she's a gynoid it was an unnecessary reaction... but then again, West really did go the extra mile in making her lifelike - even with involuntary actions such as that.]

Even the Doctor as stupid as he is had more decency than that. Robo.

[Somewhere across the ship, someone can hear West yelling in triumph - 'ELSA FINALLY APPRECIATES ME! YES! YOUR EVIL SPELL IS BROKEN DAIJUUJI KUROU!'.]

He's still an idiot. Robo. Give me my darling Kurou any day of the week.

['EEEEELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!']

[link_to_greta]

The tragedy is that at the end of the day she was a greater victim in all of this than Caulder. At least he has a life and company to rebuild. And believe me, I wanted Alice to grow beyond her programming. I did it almost twenty years ago, and she wasn't that far off from what I was when I was "Greta".

But she couldn't. And I couldn't let a weapon like her run rampant and continue destroying lives, Caulder's being first and foremost.

[clumsy_moe_appeal]

I'm still surprised people can program robots worse than the Doctor. Robo. Its kind of sad when you think about it. Robo. As annoying as he is, at least the Doctor gave me a choice. Robo. I guess out of the two of you, you were the lucky one. Robo.

[Elsa actually looked contemplative, West really did want to create a living being rather than a personal robot hugbox that only seemed alive. Looking over this mess she was actually a little happier to have the schmuck as her creator.]

Look on the bright side. Robo. We won't have to see either of them again after this. Robo. And maybe he'll learn something too. Robo.

[...At least one can hope he learned from this mess...]

2

[2000_skills]

Uh-huh.

[link_to_greta]

What did you expect me to do? We had three minutes to rescue Caulder and recover Lynn. I can understand you're angry but you weren't coming up with any better ideas.

[2000_skills]

And how we found him in the end didn't require her to die, so that's completely pointless to argue.
You were letting your emotions get the better of you, you weren't any better than her in that moment. Arguably you're not any better than her right now even.

1

[purple_energy]

Thank goodness...

[Finally, a sigh of relief from someone who has come to see you in person, Lynn. She hasn't reverted to her regular form since the end of the mission...]

You shouldn't place any more stress on your body for now. Though...I'm truly glad that we didn't lose anyone else today.

[link_to_revival]

I know... it still hurts a lot.

[Not enough that she won't give Purple Heart a smile.]

But I'm grateful to still be here all the same.

[purple_energy]

After seeing the effects of the Virus, I really thought you were...

['Dead', she would say, but that's not something she'll mention here...]

On top of that, Takeda had already left by the time we got there...

2

[mecha_eihwaz]

She was a mass murderer. An unrepentant one. Everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves, but she didn't even think about it.

Just like the Blitz Valhalla members who became her allies.

[link_to_greta]

Of course none of them would think about it. Questioning yourself like that would be a sign of error and weakness. And their ideology gives no room for that.

But good riddance.

[mecha_eihwaz]

It's over now, though. ALICE died today, all of Blitz Valhalla members either did the same or killed themselves in that sick test long ago. The only one left is Takeda...

1

[rushing_wings]

R pulled a fast one on us.

For once I'm glad that we were played like fools though.

Re: 1

[link_to_revival]

It probably just wanted to make sure everybody would think I was dead. George was still alive at that point, getting the opportunity to kill me would've been a dream come true for him.

Re: 1

[rushing_wings]

It also motivated us a bit you know.

2

[rushing_wings]

She didn't regret a thing...did she.

[link_to_greta]

If she had, she wouldn't have thrown her lot in with a group like Blitz Valhalla.

[rushing_wings]

She even made a NEXT without a single worry about Kojima Particles.

If I hadn't been there...

1

[emorangerpink]

Just about. Don't strain yourself.

[Laura's helping out in the medbay again, checking that none of the things you're hooked up to are malfunctioning or running empty.]

[link_to_revival]

[And she appreciates that a lot, Laura. Especially considering the fact she didn't exactly leave a good impression when they two of them properly met.]

... Yes... that's a good idea... I did enough straining just killing Typhon.

So what's the damage then? I haven't heard it from Ayame or Maxene yet.

[emorangerpink]

You got very sick. You'll be a long time recovering from it. [Laura taps her amplifier.] Even with everything we can do to help, you have a few months of work before you'll get your full range of motion back, and you can expect some trouble breathing for a while yet.

And... they couldn't save your eye.

I'm sorry.