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[didnothing]

K Ending

I was raised in the facility where my father worked.

He was the only person who worked there, which meant he was the only person I saw until I was older.

That had been the situation for as long as I could remember though, so I never thought it odd.

He wouldn't allow me to go near him while he was working, but the only times he wasn't working were the times when he was sleeping. As such, the only communication I had was with the education software he'd given me.

I suppose I was a fairly expressionless child then. We develop body language to communicate with others, and with no one else to communicate with I suppose it makes sense.

Once I learned to read and write, I began to realize that my situation was not...normal. Many of my books mentioned a "mother" as part of a family, and in several the mother, father, and children would eat meals together and talk to one another.

Soon I found myself longing for a mother of my own. Someone who would always be with me, who would scold me if I did something wrong. At night they would read to me before bedtime. If only I had a mother like that, I thought, I would be so happy.

So, for the first time in my life, I asked my father for something. He had finished working and, as usual, was making his way toward his bedroom when I stopped him and asked for a mother.

He looked at me silently for a long moment before finally responding: "Okay." I remember to this day how happy I was at that moment.

A few months later, he called me into his laboratory. It was the first time he'd ever done anything like that. My heart was beating quickly as I stepped inside.

Standing next to him was a young woman, and my hopes soared.

But when he said her name - or rather, her ID number - they were dashed.

He had given me a robot to play the part of a mother. I didn't want a mother that was just a machine who did what a human told her to.

When I told my father that, he looked surprised for the first time in my life.

Then he frowned, coughed, and admonished me for being "a whiner." He'd never scolded me for anything before. At first I was surprised, then angry. Hot tears streamed down my face.

My father ordered the robot to take care of me, and shooed us out of his lab.

The robot was very convincing, and she smiled and spoke as if she was a real person, but I refused to answer her and locked myself in my room.

You can talk to a robot, and it will respond... But in the end you're still talking to a machine, not a person. If that was what I'd wanted, I still had the education software my father had given me.

When I ignored the robot as it tried to take care of me, it looked sad. It couldn't really be sad, of course: It was only programmed to look that way. A robot's facade of sadness didn't mean anything to me.

After that, I stopped expecting anything from my father. We'd never really spoken to begin with, so it was easy enough for me to make sure we never saw one another. I lived my life as if he didn't even exist.

Perhaps it seems strange to you that I continued to live with him. But I never considered leaving. Perhaps in the hidden depths of my heart, I longed for a relationship with my father.

Everything changed when I was eighteen.

I left my room one morning to find a woman standing outside of it. She was the first human I'd ever seen, apart from my father, and I was understandably surprised.

For a moment I thought my father had created a new robot, but when I told her that she laughed and explained that she had come to help him.

As it turned out, she was a very mysterious person. She was much older than I was, but something about the way she behaved was almost girlish. She would tell me stories about the world outside in such a way that I was never sure if she was telling the truth or making up fantastic lies.

Ultimately though, the truth didn't matter: I loved her stories. She wasn't helping my father directly with his research, so I spent most of my days with her.

Before long I discovered she'd known my father when he was young. She told me stories of how he'd fallen in love as a younger man, and I began to imagine that the person he'd fallen in love with had been her, and that she was, in fact, secretly my mother.

After she settled in with us, our long-established routine began to change drastically.

First, we started to eat together. Before then, I had never shared a meal with anyone in eighteen years.

She scolded me for my table manners - or more accurately the lack thereof. If I was going to eat with others, she said, I would need to be more polite. Having eaten alone for my entire life, manners had never been something I'd even thought about.

My father got in trouble too, when he made the mistake of reading through research papers during dinner. The look of surprise and embarrassment on his face made me burst into laughter.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd shared a laugh with my father. It might have been the first time.

The room we considered our living room changed too. Before it had been just another room, but she made it...comfortable.

After we finished out dinner, I would sit on the sofa and relax with her and my father. Those times were the ones I cherished the most. For a little while every day I got the family I'd longed for ever since I was a child.

At her suggestion, I started to help with my father's research. He specialized in genetic engineering, and I discovered I had an interest in it as well. Time faded away as I lost myself in research.

Now that we we working and studying together, my father and I had a great deal to talk about. For the first time in my life, we began ot speak with one another like a father and son.

Whenever I impressed him with something I'd learned I felt a surge of happiness, and it drove me to study even harder.

My days felt full, right, and meaningful, but most importantly I was happy.

Sigma Ending

Luna: Isn't this nice? This is the only place in this whole facility with anything green. I kind of feel silly for saying it, but... It makes me think of the great outdoors. I think it's the perfect place for a serious conversation. Being surrounded by nature makes me feel...happy.
Sigma: ...
Luna: Oh, there's a bench over there. Would you like to sit down with me?
Sigma: So... What did you want to talk to me about?
Luna: Can I tell you something? This is actually a music box.
Sigma: Really?
Luna: Yes.
Sigma: It's a nice song... Why'd you bring that up, though?
Luna: Because I...wanted you to know, I guess... I wanted you to know more about me...
Sigma: ...?
Luna: Maybe it's because I'm so shy, but I don't really have any friends. Or even any acquaintances, really... So I've sort of always been alone. It was really hard. I felt so lonely a lot of the time... And it...it hurt. It felt like I was just kind of going to...collapse from the inside out.
Sigma: ...
Luna: That was when I got this music box. Someone...very important gave it to me. They didn't say anything, but I felt like there was an unspoken message behind it. "Luna, happiness is closer than you think."
Sigma: ...
Luna: Do you know Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird"?
Sigma: Y-Yeah... Well, I know the jist of it. I think it starts on Christmas Eve. This brother and sister named Tyltyl and Mytyl get asked to find a blue bird by this old woman, and they travel to the dream world... Or...something... Anyway, supposedly if you can catch this bird, then you can make a wish come true. So they visit all these different places, but they can't find it. Eventually they give up and go home, but when they wake up... The bird is in a birdcage in their hut.
Luna: That's right. It's a well-known story. And it teaches a simple lesson...
Sigma: Yeah, like you said... Happiness is closer than you think.
Luna: Right. It got me thinking. Maybe the person who gave me this music box was trying to tell me just that... I don't know if that's true. Maybe all of this is just in my head, but... I really felt like that was what they'd meant. It was so...kind. I kept it with me all the time, like a kind of good-luck charm. But...
Sigma: ...
Luna: One day I realized something. There was another meaning to the blue bird...
Sigma: ...?
Luna: In Maeterlinck's original story, it doesn't end with them waking up.
Sigma: There's more?
Luna: Yes. When Tyltyl and Mytyl try to feed the bird, it leaves the cage and flies away. And then the story ends.
Sigma: Whoa... What about the moral, then?
Luna: It changes. Now the message is that just when you think you've found happiness, you'll lose it again.
Sigma: ...
Luna: I thought about that for a while... But in the end, it didn't change how I felt. I don't know what they intended it to mean when they gave it to me... But I decided how I was going to look at it... It means that happiness is something you should always be looking for. And it's only when you're pursuing happiness that you're truly happy.
Sigma: ...
Luna: You know Sigma... I think you might be Tyltyl.
Sigma: What...?
Luna: You know, the boy who the old lady asked to find the blue bird on Christmas Eve.

[...]

Luna: Sigma... Are you...are you a robot? Have you always been here?
Sigma: Uh...what?
Luna: See... It would make so much sense if you were. That would explain why you knew about the garden and... And it would explain that cut on your left hand...
Sigma: Damn... So you did see it, huh?
Luna: Yes... I've been told that robots these days have what's called Artificial Biological Tissue, or ABT, on top of a metal skeleton. It makes them look almost exactly like a human. And ABT uses this white liquid instead of blood...
Sigma: ... Luna... Aren't you a little scared?
Luna: Scared...? Why would I be scared?
Sigma: Well, let's say I am a robot. That means there's a pretty good chance Zero's pulling my strings. That would make me your enemy.
Luna: Oh... I guess so. Well, even if you were, I wouldn't be scared.
Sigma: Why not?
Luna: Hm... Maybe because you're a robot.
Sigma: ...Huh?
Luna: Have you ever heard of the Three Laws of Robotics? They were a set of rules created by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov that he used in several of his stories...
Rule 1--
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Rule 2--
A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Rule 3--
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Sigma: Oh, yeah, I've heard those before. That's just an ideal, though. You could work toward that, but I don't think you could ever actually achieve it. I mean, depending on how you program them, robots could do pretty much whatever they wanted to...
Luna: Yes, you're right. But...I believe in them. In you. However you're programmed... I don't think you'd break any of the three laws.
Sigma: ...
Luna: A robot without the Three Laws is just a bunch of metal and plastic. That's not you. You have a heart... You're a good person. It's in your eyes.


[ LATER ]


Sigma: Luna... You're still here?
Luna: Yes... The others are taking the people who are asleep to the white doors. I chose to stay here. I thought you might come back...
Sigma: Why?
Luna: Because the ADAM is here. I thought you might want to use it. Isn't that why you're here?
Sigma: W-what? I mean, yeah, I want to know what's going on with me. It's driving me nuts. Hell, I feel sick! But this isn't the time for that! Being a robot isn't going to mean a lot if I die anyway!
Luna: Oh... Why did you come here then?
Sigma: Isn't that obvious?! I'm trying to find that input thing so we can turn off the bombs!
Luna: Really...?
Sigma: Yes! Why would I lie?!
Luna: ...
Sigma: ...
Luna: I see. I seem to have made a mistake. I knew you couldn't use the ADAM without me... So I stayed behind because I thought I might be able to help. I guess I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry... Goodbye.
Sigma: Wait... How long would it take?
Luna: Not more than 5 minutes or so.
Sigma: Are you sure? Only 5 minutes?
Luna: Yes.
Sigma: ...
Luna: ...
Sigma: Okay. Let's do it. Analyze my body...
Luna: That's it. You can get up now.
Sigma: So, uh, what does it say...?
Luna: Well... It says you're not a robot. You're human. But...your body isn't...entirely human.
Sigma: ...What?
Luna: You're part machine.
Sigma: Wait, what are you saying?
Luna: Look, here... The structure of the "bones" in your arms isn't anything close to human. They're made out of a titanium alloy. On top of that skeleton is Artificial Biological Tissue. It's also called "ABT." Your arms are...cybernetic.
Sigma: What? What does that mean?
Luna: Cybernetic? It means a mechanical system that interfaces with a biological one. You see all these...root-like things around the titanium bones? Those are artificial nerves. They're probably connected to your own nerves, which is how you can move your arms. I imagine they allow you to feel things through your arms too.
Sigma: What?! No! This is ridiculous! I think replacing my arms with robot ones is something I'd remember! And I know they weren't always like this! When I was a kid, I broke my arm and they took an X-ray of it. The doctor told me I had really thick bones, and that I must have done something pretty insane to break them! When the hell did this happen?! Why did somebody replace my arms?!
Luna: ...
Sigma: Wait... Okay, let's say you're right, and my arms are cybernetic. Wouldn't that mean I don't have to worry about the bracelet going off?
Luna: No... Unfortunately you probably do still have to worry about that.
Sigma: Why?
Luna: The cybernetic arms are made to function just like real arms, which means they interface with the rest of your body... Which means that anything injected into them is spread to the rest of your body.
Sigma: How do you know that?!
Luna: I just...do.
Sigma: That's not an answer!
Luna: Yes, you're right... But not everything has an answer. There are some things you just can't explain...
Sigma: What?
Luna: Don't you know how that feels? How did you know about the garden? How did you know that Dio planted the bombs?
Sigma: Uh... That's...um...
Luna: ...
Sigma: ...
Luna: I'm sorry, Sigma. I wish we could talk some more, but our time is up.
Sigma: Time...? One...minute... We've only got a minute left...?
Luna: Sigma... There's one last thing... I was given very specific instructions.
I shuddered. Not because I was scared of what was about to happen...Because I was scared of Luna. She was calm, unnaturally so, like a machine with a human face. We were about to die... How could she be so calm?!
Luna: Please pay attention. This is very important. You must be sure to remember it. "Should you encounter a two-headed lion devouring the sun, remember: GTF-DM-L-016. With this key, the first gate shall be open to you." There you go.
Sigma: ...
Luna: I hope we can meet again someday. I'll be waiting...I'll be waiting...
Sigma: ...What?
[ KABOOM ]

Luna Ending

Sigma: Luna... I knew you'd be here.
Luna: You knew?
Sigma: Oh, right... We haven't talked here in this one, huh?

FLASHBACK
Luna: Isn't this nice? This is the only place in this whole facility with anything green. I kind of feel silly for saying it, but... It makes me think of the great outdoors. I think it's the perfect place for a serious conversation. Being surrounded by nature makes me feel...happy.

Luna: I'm not sure what you meant just now, but... Are you talking about something that happened in another history?
Sigma: What?
Luna: I know what you can do. Someone told me about it once... They said that you have the ability to transport your consciousness through time...
Sigma: Who told you that?

[...]

Luna: I just... Why do you trust me so much? I'm a machine. I'm part of this place? How can you trust a machine?
Sigma: ...
Luna: ...
Sigma: That's why I trust you.
Luna: ...What?
Sigma: I trust you because you're a robot. Your robotness is just one more reason you can't be the killer. Well, three more reasons.

FLASHBACK
Luna: Have you ever heard of the Three Laws of Robotics? A robot without the Three Laws is just a bunch of metal and plastic.

Luna: Sigma...

[...]

Luna: It took me 10 minutes to get out of my AB room once I was turned back on. I ran over to check on her as soon as I did. Then I carried her back to the room I'd been in.
Sigma: Why did you do that?
Luna: Because I was ordered to.
Sigma: What?

FLASHBACK
Old Woman: Luna, listen to me very carefully. As you already know, the final stage of the project begins in 2 hours. This will be the culmination of many years of hard work. We cannot afford failure.
Luna: Yes. I understand.
Old Woman: Then let's make sure. What is your mission?
Luna: Enter the Nonary Game as one of the participants and observe the actions of the other players. Ensure that they do what they are supposed to, and guide them down the correct paths.
Old Woman: How many players will there be?
Luna: Myself and seven others, Ma'am. Will you be participating as well?
Old Woman: Yes. Our plan dictates that I must. ...An individual by the name of "Dio" will be entering this facility presently - he has been led to believe he is doing so undetected. You've been briefed on him already, correct?
Luna: Yes. He will murder the first person to leave one of the AB Rooms, and take their place. If a pair is the first out, he'll probably kill both of them. That's all the information I've been given on him, Ma'am. Um...I...
Old Woman: Is there a problem?
Luna: With all due respect Ma'am, I would like to state that I don't feel right about this. We know someone is going to be killed, and we're just going to let it happen?
Old Woman: ...
Luna: I also have doubts about the use of Radical-6. Are...are you sure? Infecting all these people with such a horrible disease...
Old Woman: That is none of your concern. Your only concern is to follow your orders.
Luna: But--
Old Woman: Luna. I am giving you an order. I am in command, and you do as I say. You are programmed to do as I say. You know this.
Luna: ... Yes.
Old Woman: Good. Now, I have one final order.
Luna: Another order, Ma'am?
Old Woman: Yes. When you leave the AB Room, the person Dio has killed will still be there. I would like you to move them.
Luna: Where?
Old Woman: To the room you are about to enter: the sixth AB Room.
Luna: But...why?
Old Woman: Not your concern. As a participant in the game, you must have as little knowledge of it as possible. That is why I have made sure you are unable to access any classified data.
Luna: ...
Old Woman: There are things you must not know. In order for this project to succeed, we need you to be as close to a clean slate as possible. There are some things you already know which, ideally, you would not. Unfortunately this is unavoidable, so you must refrain from divulging anything you know about the project to the other participants. You must never tell anyone what you know about Dio, or the body, or that you carried it to the sixth AB Room. You will have to pretend you know nothing more than the rest of the participants.
Luna: Is that an order?
Old Woman: Yes. Do I make myself clear?
Luna: ... Yes...

Luna: After that, I went into the AB Room as I'd been told to. As soon as I stepped inside, my body deactivated. But since my brain is in the main computer, I was still "awake." So I still saw everything... While I waited, I used the security cameras to see what was going on in the rest of the facility.
Sigma: And you saw the old woman being murdered...
Luna: Yes... It was...hard. What I was seeing made no sense. Several of my higher-level processes nearly failed. To think that she would be the first person to come out... I think she knew that Dio was going to kill her. When she'd said she had one final order for me, I didn't understand what she meant. Like a fool, I told her I didn't approve, when I had no idea what she was prepared to do. When she died... Whatever I have that passes for a heart felt like it snapped in two.
Sigma: ... I...I think I understand. Everything you did, you did because you'd been ordered to?
Luna: Yes...
Sigma: And it was the old woman who gave you those orders? Then is she...Zero Sr.?
Luna: No.
Sigma: What? But if she gave you the orders...
Luna: She did, but she wasn't the only person I took orders from.
Sigma: There was someone else?
Luna: Yes.
Sigma: And that person is Zero Sr.?
Luna: Yes. They worked together to develop the project she mentioned. So I suppose technically my orders came from both of them. And they were both controlling Zero Jr. too...
Sigma: ...
Luna: I told you before that Zero Jr. moved the sixth AB Room. Although that's strictly true, he didn't do it of his own free will. They ordered him to do it. He was following orders, just like me.
Sigma: But...why?
Luna: I don't know... I really don't.

[...]

Sigma: So, are you going to tell me?
Luna: Tell you what...?
Sigma: Isn't that obvious? Tell me what this "project" is.
Luna: ...
Sigma: Everything that happens in here has something to do with it. So why were we brought here?
Luna: To play the Nonary Game.
Sigma: And why were we supposed to play the Nonary Game?
Luna: That was part of the project.
Sigma: Why did Alice kill herself?
Luna: Because she was infected with Radical-6.
Sigma: How did she get infected?
Luna: Zero Sr. and the old woman did that.
Sigma: Why?
Luna: It was a necessary evil... It had to happen for the project to succeed.
Sigma: What would have happened if Alice hadn't committed suicide?
Luna: Clover wouldn't have suspected me, and she wouldn't have accidentally, um, killed me.
Sigma: Then what?
Luna: I wouldn't have collapsed, and Dio wouldn't have found my body. That would have meant the confrontation in the infirmary never took place.
Sigma: In other words, you're saying Clover and Tenmyouji died for this "project."
Luna: Yes...
Sigma: Well...actually, it was the tubocurarine that killed them. But they were only injected with it because of their bracelets, and they were only wearing those bracelets because of the Nonary Game. If the Nonary Game was part of the project, then that's one more way it killed them.
Luna: I guess... If you want to look at it that way...
Sigma: Now what about K and Dio. Why would they kill each other?
Luna: Because Dio killed the old woman. He was worried about getting caught, so he tried to kill K before he could find out the truth.
Sigma: Then if Dio hadn't killed the old lady, what happened in the rec room would never have taken place, right?
Luna: Yes...
Sigma: So let me ask you this. Why did Dio kill her?
Luna: So that he could pose as one of the participants.
Sigma: And why did he do that?
Luna: To...disrupt the project...
Sigma: Then why did she let him kill her?
Luna: The same reason they did all of this... It was a necessary evil. The project couldn't be allowed to fail.
Sigma: Six people died here. Four of them were murdered, one way or another, by Dio. At first that makes it look like Dio's the reason they all died... But that's not true, is it? All of them...all six of them... They all died for this "project." That means that the murder - or, I guess, I should say, murderers - were the old lady and Zero Sr., right? Please, Luna, tell me... What is this project about? Who is the old woman? Who is Zero?
Luna: ...
Sigma: ...
Luna: Sigma...
Sigma: ...?
Luna: Would you...hug me?
Sigma: ... ...What?
Luna: This feels...nice...
Sigma: Uh... H-Hey...Luna... What the hell is going on...?!
Luna: I'm sorry... My ABT is usually held in place by muscle fiber... But after Clover gave me the tubocurarine--
Sigma: Okay, okay! I get it...
Luna: Does...does it scare you...?
Sigma: ...
Luna: This is what I really look like...
Sigma: ...
Luna: I'm a GAULEM. Just a...a machine... A jumble of metal and plastic that pretends to be real.
Sigma: ...
Luna: You believed in me this whole time...
Sigma: Yeah...
Luna: Even though I look like...like this...?
Sigma: Of course. I trust you.
Luna: ... Thank you... Thank you so much... I wish I could stay here forever. You feel so nice... But I think my time is up.
Sigma: What?
Luna: I've done things I really shouldn't have. Do you remember what you asked me earlier? About if Zero Jr. had re-activated my body? Remember? The truth is... He didn't. I did. I went to the part of the core that controls Zero Jr. and I hacked it.
Sigma: What?!
Luna: Yes. That was the first thing. The second... Do you know what the second one was?
Sigma: ...
Luna: If I had really wanted to, I could have saved Clover and Tenmyouji. Then K and Dio probably wouldn't have killed each other. That's not all... I could have stopped Alice from killing herself, and I could have even saved the old woman at the very beginning. In other words, I had the ability to disobey my orders.
Sigma: ...
Luna: But I...I didn't. That's the second thing. I broke the first law...
Sigma: ...
Luna: I was scared... I... I was afraid to die.
Sigma: ...?
Luna: Obviously hacking the core and taking control of Zero Jr.'s systems is very, very bad. GAULEMS who don't follow orders can become dangerous, so we're terminated if we disobey. You lose access to your body, of course... But everything that's stored in the core - your memories, your consciousness - is deleted.
Sigma: What...? Wait...are you saying...
Luna: Yes. Very soon now I'll be gone. Zero Jr. is probably recovering himself right now. Once he's done, I doubt I'll be around much longer.
Sigma: What? Why...?
Luna: I watched six people die and did nothing. I deserve this.
Sigma: No! No you don't! Even if you had done something, you would have been killed anyway! You can't blame yourself! You did what you could. You're not wrong! This game is what's wrong! Forcing you to watch your friends die is what's wrong!
Luna: ... Oh Sigma... Thank you. I'm...I'm really glad I met you...
Sigma: Luna! Luna! It's going to be okay! I'm not gonna let them do this! You're gonna be fine, I promise!
Luna: I'm sorry... My time's up... At least I get to... Die in your arms...
Sigma: Luna!
Luna: Thank you... Sigma... And...goodbye...Doctor...
Sigma: ...Doctor...?