Free From Dream

How could this be...?

...Helen?

Why...?

Dirk! Gale! Sophia!

They're all here...

Let them go.

......

Please, keep your voice down. Don't startle them.

Wait here a while, my friends... everything will be alright, once I take care of this little problem. I promise.

Are you talking to them? I doubt they can hear you.

I've never seen symptoms like these... except on the unconscious Joyce.

The electrodes and the silver liquid... they're connected to their central nervous systems, aren't they?

Dorothy... why is Helen here?

She was worried that she would fail Ferdinand's test. I made a suggestion.

A suggestion... to become a test subject?

Helen was chatting with us just this morning. Now she lies here as conscious as a plank of wood.

I want to help her, Elena.

I can feel her pain... just like I feel all of theirs.

Helen's debts are weighing an entire family down.

She lives in constant fear... she would take her own life if Ferdinand fired her.

To stop now would be to deliver them into the hands of merciless fate.

I can't do something so cruel.

Stop.

Stop with the self-righteousness already, or I can't promise I'll keep my finger off the trigger.

Your hatred of me stems from your lack of understanding of what you see, and of me.

But I understand you.

Like hell you do!

You understand us so well you'll oh so benevolently give us a chance at a new life. Instead of dying in a Catastrophe or getting eaten by monsters...

We get to be technically-alive half-corpses in the lab of a big corporation!

Where do I line up to kiss your feet?!

Have you never thought about it, Sonny? Why is it that some people with Oripathy can keep working, while others are forced to leave their homes?

Don't need you to tell me.

The day after I got diagnosed, I found my insurance contract and pink slip waiting for me.

The contract was five hundred and sixty-nine pages. The sheet telling me I was fired didn't fill half the paper.

There aren't a lot of companies out there willing to hire an Infected. We gotta prove we're worth that outrageous insurance premium.

......

Sigh...

Don't you think it's unfair?

Kinda goes without saying, doesn't it?

Then you should understand.

I can't reach Silence or Greyy.

The site must be entirely closed off.

Fer...dinand...

Closing off the lab is just the means, not the end.

Ferdinand is planning something at Site 359.

Doctor, Silence and the others are in danger.

We're not getting anything from the site... should we move to assist?

True... data transmission from Device #9 is different from standard communication. We only need a moment's signal to see what Ptilopsis is seeing.

I'll try to sync up with her.

Everyone deserves a chance, we should all have equal access to opportunity. Differences in talent should not determine one's destiny.

When someone with talent becomes privileged because of that talent, they are infringing on someone else's interests, undermining fairness.

I'm among the privileged. And I'm ashamed of my 'luck.'

I wanted to pull you out of the bog before it swallowed you—Dirk, Helen, and you, Sonny.

I have done all this in the hopes that one day, fortune will smile only upon those who work hard, rather than favor the so-called 'talented'.

......

I've spent many years working towards this goal.

Altering the individual to make it stronger does not solve the problem.

Those who were born strong can be even stronger with the same alterations, widening the gap even further.

In order to achieve true equality, I must...

You wanted to eliminate individual differences?

The unconscious test subjects... Originium Arts constructs with emotional responses... a massive machine that links them together...

Your experiments... they're...

I've heard of something like them before, but I thought it was just a mad dream, one that failed a long time ago.

Mad dream?

There's no such thing as 'mad' science. It's just a means to an end.

We can't ignore or forget the innate differences between individuals, but that doesn't mean we have to be burdened by them forever.

My technology will allow people to stand before each other as equals, sharing equally the soil, the air, and the rain.

No longer will their footsteps be stopped by mountains, nor their sight be obstructed by storms.

They will look into the distance from a place of safety, without having to endure the toil of long journeys and separation from their loved ones.

Don't you understand the beauty of such a future?

Did I never actually understand...?

What exactly were we doing here?

We've been looking for the caster behind the silver constructs.

We thought it was the individual Pioneers, but we were wrong.

The caster was all of them.

You have sharp eyes, Dr. Silence.

Director Franks, the future you imagine is just that... your imagination.

I see something different.

A skilled Originium Arts caster can destroy a building. Three skilled casters can suppress an entire city block.

What would happen if you joined the power of ten people, a hundred people, a thousand people?

Nothing under the sun will escape its gaze. The strongest fortress will be little more than a toy that it could crush with a thought.

As for the people you care about, the ones you call friends... they will never be more than test subjects in the eyes of those who want to harness the technology.

Those who fail will be the lucky ones. They'll be ignored, allowed to live and die on their own.

A worse fate befalls those who succeed.

The day their experiment succeeds, they'll be doomed to live under the watchful eyes of corporations and governments.

Olivia... I've never seen you like this...

You may have changed their destiny, but at what price? They'll lose their freedom forever, their lives no longer their own.

...I'll protect them.

If it costs my very life.

Killing you, right here, right now just might be best for everyone.

If that's your consensus...

Then I won't resist.

Don't lose your head, Sonny!

Lose my head, Doc?

I'm calmer than I've ever been.

Dorothy Franks... I gotta admit, the picture of the future you're painting has some appeal.

Same as how I almost walked into your lab... you don't know how many times I thought about taking your hand.

Why didn't you?

Because my future... belongs to me.

The things you say, not to mention the look of you there... the more welcoming the whole deal, the clearer I see it...

You're controlling us.

I...

It's harder to break out of a sweet dream than a nightmare.

Maybe you're living that dream, Director Franks, but the rest of us are here facing reality.

Doc Silence was right. An experiment like this should never have existed to begin with.

The lands across our world have given birth to enough madness. This kinda madness oughta get buried deep, and never dug up again.

Whatever it costs.

We gotta put a stop to this.

Olivia! Make Sonny listen!

Whatever came of it... Dorothy was only trying to help these people.

Even if I thought she needed to be stopped, to be punished, it shouldn't end like this... not by the ones she truly loved...

......

Sonny...

Joyce?

You... you're awake?

Don't hurt Director Franks.

Synchronization failed.

The situation at Site 359 may be worse than we thought.

Uhh...

Thank you for the help, Doctor.

I can feel my legs now.

You know who Ferdinand is working with, don't you, Saria?

The power armor you've been tracking just might end up in the hands of those who most need cutting-edge weaponry.

You've seen them. Evidence?

You'll have it.

That warmth I felt back there, that was a little wishful thinky on my part, huh? I put my life on the line to get the evidence you wanted.

—

Our hypothesis was right.

Ferdinand is no longer hiding his ambition.

...and he'll use it to seize control of Rhine Lab.

We have to find Kristen. She is Ferdinand's prime target.

Did you get my last message, Saria?

My contacts inside Rhine say everything is normal.

That's because they're used to Control's absence.

Ferdinand's been planning this for years, undermining Control's authority, little by little... this experiment is the last step.

Or maybe not the last one...

I hadn't been in contact with Kristen for a week before they got me.

What about the site?

I wouldn't be too worried about Dr. Silence. I still remember that time she got the upper hand of me.

......

This is no time for indecision, Saria.

You have to make a choice.

This is no multiple choice question, Doctor.

The key to resolving the situation at the site is Ferdinand, and the key to taking care of Ferdinand lies before us.