Chapter 3.16 - Curtain Call
Bugs: Erich!!
Voyager: …!?
Bugs: Stop already!! Don’t you know what you’re doing?
Voyager: I haven’t fallen so low that I need lectures on morality from a robot. Listen, get out of here. While you still can.
Bugs: …While I still can? You’ve taught me many things over the years. The right thing to do, the wrong thing to do… but right now, I know that what you’re doing is wrong!
Voyager: Bugs… do you want to be scrapped?
Jan: Stop it! Bugs!
Bugs: Seeing this completely different Erich… no, Voyager… I do want to be scrapped! But I’m not dead yet. When I die, I want to die with Erich…
Voyager: Oh, you think you’re going to kill me? Do you really think you can do that? That’s fine... go ahead and try. I’ll burn into your memory that you’re nothing more than a machine.
Bugs: Thank you…
Voyager: …Wha-!?
Voyager lashes out at Bugs. Bugs intercepts the blow and charges at him with a suicide attack.
Jan: Bugs!!
Voyager: …What a stupid thing to do. What can a little support robot do to me… Ah, ahhhhh-!
Jan: Voyager!! You’re…?
Voyager: T-This minor setback doesn’t mean I’ll let you get away!! You’re going down with me, Jan Sauer!!
Battle with Voyager.
The space around them continues to bend until it only contains Voyager and the Zohar.
Voyager: You’ve stalled me long enough… Oh, Lord!! By our contract, come forth!
U-DO: …
Voyager: What’s wrong!? Lord, answer me! U-DO! U-DOOOOOOOO!!
Wilhelm: It’s pointless, you know. He won’t respond, no matter how much you yell.
Voyager: Who are you?
Wilhelm appears behind Voyager.
Wilhelm: He’s already fulfilled his goal, you see.
Voyager: Fulfilled his goal? I haven’t fulfilled anything yet!
Wilhelm: He learned what he wanted to know. As far as “existence” is concerned, the concept of eternity is not necessarily indispensable.
Voyager: Eternity isn’t necessary…!? Then…
Wilhelm: He learned this through your existence. He just wanted a confirmation… In other words, your contract was doomed from the beginning.
Voyager: …Who… are you?
Wilhelm: I'm your new partner. And if you’ll let me, I can make you very happy…
Voyager: I don’t need a partner. With my own mind I can voyage forever on the sea of the U.M.N….
Wilhelm: That's quite a bluff, isn’t it? I don’t think those are the words of a man who was betrayed by Yuriev and had his contract revoked by U-DO before my very eyes…
Voyager: …You, why are you…!?
Wilhelm: If I offer you the things that they couldn’t, perhaps you’ll consider joining me?
Voyager: What do the likes of you have to offer me?
Wilhelm: I’ve been watching you for a long time… the dazzling radiance of your consciousness. Yes, we’d make a good team, wouldn’t we? Don’t you realize… you won’t have to worry about your inferiority complex anymore. This is what I’m giving to you. A new world you haven’t even imagined…
Voyager: That existence… is even more powerful than U-DO?
Wilhelm: That depends on you. If you cooperate with me, I’ll help you out too. So, what do you think?
Voyager: …I have no choice… do I.
Wilhelm: …I’m so glad to have your cooperation.
Voyager’s white cloak turns black.
Wilhelm: Now, what should we do next?
Voyager: Want me to bring Sauer here too?
Wilhelm: Really? Well, then I leave it to you.
Voyager returns to normal space.
Voyager: Hey, Jan Sauer. I’ve gotten my strength back… now for a little demonstration!
Jan: …!!
Battle with Voyager.
Voyager: So, Jan. Things are gradually coming to an end. And you never want to answer the curtain call alone.
Lactis: S-Stop it!!
Jan: …?
Voyager: …Heh. Did you remember something you have to do… “Canaan”?
Jan: …Canaan? Lactis!! What… who are you? You can’t be… with Voyager…!?
Lactis: …N-No!! Of course not, Captain!
Voyager: No? Now really… you can’t deceive me anymore. Didn’t he also command you to search for humans with the “factor”? Like myself… and Jan Sauer!
Jan: Me…?
Lactis: Captain!! Don’t listen to him!
Voyager: Even as you deny it, your instincts… no, you don’t have instincts. Your basic root systems are telling you otherwise, aren’t they? Sauer is dispensable now…
Lactis: …T-That’s…
Voyager: “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” [Revelation 16:17-21]
Lactis: …
Voyager: Ha… My contract with God ended in failure. Now those words are nothing more than a requiem to send your souls off to their prison. So, what are you going to do? You have only two choices now. Take my hand and accept his proposal…
Jan: And… choose to be the same as you?
Voyager: I won’t force you. But I guarantee you'll be able to transcend the notion of 'death.' Of course, the decision is yours to make.
Jan: You’re promising me eternity…
Lactis: …Captain!!
Jan: In a world… without Sharon or Joaquin…
Lactis: His words are a trap!
Voyager: Is that so. If you turn down his offer I will have to kill you… so there’s really only one choice.
Jan: A choice, you say?
Voyager: Come now, there’s nothing to mourn. The people I killed are always with me. Inside of me, their hearts will never fade. You could say it’s a kind of nirvana. You should join too. You could be with the people you love forever… At the very least, it would be peace.
Jan: That’s a false life. I don’t call shreds of memory ‘living’.
Voyager: Where do you draw the line between truth and fiction? Coming to a miserable end in the world you call reality, or obtaining peace in the world of your consciousness. It’s a simple choice. Really, your mind is almost made up. What you intend to do with that gun? You’re in my world now. I make the rules here. Do you really think you can fight me with something like that?
Jan: You deceived Sharon and Joaquin. You used their deepest grief and promised them a false peace… You covered up your own fear by playing with the fears of others…
Voyager: No one can refuse eternal peace…
Jan: You’re just manipulating my mind!
Voyager: Quit this futile resistance… Come to my side!
Jan: …I refuse.
Melisse: Captain, stop---!!
Jan holds his gun to his head and pulls the trigger.
Melisse: Noooooooooo!