| Wow, flaming logo of doom. Zaizen hears of SOLOMON's atack, and decides to watch what's available of Toudou's ROM. He casually tells Research Gimp to get rid of useless test subjects, because he is Evil and Evil People do that. Meanwhile, STN-J is trying to decide what to do. Doujima and Nagira are going to go up in the elevator to warn SOLOMON troops, while Michael directly hax0rs the elevator controls and Haruto gives him cover. Robin is about to go up with Doujima when Amon stops her and tells her to stay down there with him. Doujima and Nagira start the long elevator ride up, and Amon and Robin go looking for Karasuma. Zaizen hears of their activities and sends security to the elevator. Haruto gets into a gunfight and Michael keeps the elevator going. Meanwhile, Zaizen plays back part of Toudou's ROM to Karasuma Miho - the part where Toudou explains that Robin's the perfect witch and must be erased. Miho is offered a gun - if she Hunts Robin, she'll live as a Hunter, or she'll die as a Witch. Miho takes the gun and leaves. The elevator stalls, and Michael smacks his equipment to make it work. The elevator reaches the top, and the doors open to a hail of gunfire. When it pauses, Nagira and Doujima run out into the floodlights... Robin and Amon reach Zaizen, and ask where Miho is. Zaizen gloats and says that she's still a loyal employee, unlike Amon. Robin asks Zaizen about Toudou's ROM, and Zaizen projects it on his nice flat-screen monitor, which apparently can be controlled by dramatic hand gestures. Toudou's explaining about his research on Witch genomes, code-named Project Robin after the King of Witches (Robin Goodfellow?) People nicknamed it Project Devil's Child. When he met Maria, the focus of his research changed, and he began to secretly engineer the perfect Witch. Zaizen pauses the video to gloat, but Robin wants to see the whole thing, even the incompletely decoded parts. Zaizen yells at his Research Gimp, and the whole video comes up. Toudou calls Robin the symbol of the past that must be erased, where Witches were worshipped as "gods" by ancient people. A genetic mutation three thousand years ago somehow made Witchcraft non-hereditary, so Witches lost power and ceased to be the successors of mankind since they couldn't pass their powers on. Mankind has struggled ever since to repress Witches, and that's the heresy that SOLOMON sought to bury. Zaizen doesn't like the implication that humans are inferior to Witches. He orders Research Gimp to erase all the data, but Miho appears and holds a gun to Research Gimp's head to force him to keep playing the tape. Toudou talks about how he hoped to create a child that could change the future, the new Eve of Witches. Zaizen has more happy freakout moments, saying that Witches pollute humanity and must be erased. Robin says that both Witches and humans were chosen by God, and Zaizen counters that the genetic abnormality means that God abandoned Witches. Amon says that God doesn't abandon anyone, and Toudou must be speaking the truth. Zaizen grabs an Orbo gun and levels it at Amon and Robin as the Self-Destruct Alarm goes off. Apparently the trapped Witches are rebelling and setting off the alarms. Zaizen accuses Robin of attracting the attention of the Witch ghosts, and when Amon tries to protect Robin, shoots him with the super-pure Orbo gun. Robin's flame can't affect it, but using the Orbo affects Zaizen like everyone else. Robin is disgusted that Zaizen's using Orbo made of Witches to defeat Witches, and she can stop all his next bullets. Zaizen runs off and escapes in a elevator, but the flames chase him up the elvator shaft, and he dies laughing. Miho comes through and tells Robin she has to escape, but Robin rambles about how inside her flows the blood of the grieving oppressed Witches, and that's why she's called hope, since she understands their grief. Amon then tells her that they have to survive to find out if Robin's existence is rightful, but he'll kill her if she goes apeshit. Robin says that this makes Amon her warden (sugardaddy) and gives him a coy smile. As they escape, Robin can hear the trapped Witches screaming, so she puts them out of their misery them with her flame. SOLOMON collapses as Toudou's final rambling philosophical thoughts are heard. Doujima (who's code-named "Worm") has survived, as has Nagira. Michael and Haruto drag each other out, and Miho is seen stumbling out. So that just leaves Amon and Robin unaccounted for, and nobody saw them leave. Nagira's pretty sure they're alive, though, somehow... Michael gets to give the final words. Kosaka is the new Director of STN-J, Hattori is still his whiny underling, Master is still serving coffee, Hanamura is still bullying Nagira (and asking when the delinquent girl is coming back), and Michael's wandering around, but he's allowed to leave the building. Amon and Robin are still AWOL, and nobody knows what their fate is. The gatekeeper is reading his horoscope, and today's lucky encounter will be wearing black - as a person dressed in black gets out of the taxi at the front gate. [previous] |