[IC] - All the World's a Game

[NeoFox]

Axl's Mind
___________

"Maybe..." Said X as he walks towards the door they came in. However it appears to be locked. "Well... looks like we have to go forward. The door's locked." Said X as he turns back to Yuyuko.

[wonderweiss]

"Oh dear, that is a problem. Well, like you said, we're going to have to move forward."

[WriggleRid3r]

Lunarian Base - Moon

---

"Miss Yorihime! Forward turret 20B have informed that a set of intruders are heading this way!"
A girl with light blue hair tied into a ponytail with a yellow ribbon looked up to find a Lunarian guard reporting to her. Oh, and how she was enjoying this fine, serene day.
"I'll go."

---

Yukari's Resort

---

"Yes, I'm Yukari." Yukari responded, clueless to who this man was.
"Pardon me for being so blunt," Rumia asked from the couch. "but who are you?"

[S121]

Yukari's Resort

Jason looked over to Rumia.

"Oh, me? My name is Jason Stone. John recruited me at the Engi-con because I know how to make Mantis bipedal tanks.", Jason said.

"I need to talk to Yukari, Rumia, and Yuuka. It's about John basically losing his mind."

[Koishi]

Somewhere in Nevada

---

"Aren't you a Sherlock Holmes?" The Higher Power teased. "3:30 left. I would go, if I were you."

[NeoFox]

Axl's Mind
____________

As the two walked towards the other door a rather large Reploid came down and smacked X into a wall and turned to Yuyuko. Suddenly all of the doors become locked shot. Preventing them from escaping.

The Reploid is none other than Sigma, well rather a perfect copy of Sigma created by Lumine.

[WriggleRid3r]

Yukari's Resort

---

"Well, Yuuka is in Gensokyo, training..." Rumia muttered.
Yukari seemed upset.
"Losing his mind? Please do explain."

---

The Consumer

---

"That was early." said the Devourer, clearly impressed. "Tell the pilots that I'll have a big compensation for all their hard work."
"Yes, sir." one of the General nodded. "Are you really going to leave this Extraction to the five Admirals...?"
The Devourer turned around to face the General.
"They are more than capable, my friend. As long as they learn to work together as a team."

[wonderweiss]

"X!"

What is that thing?!

"Who are you?! If you do not state yourself, I will attack!"

---

Somewhere in Nevada; Otori
I was torn. Do I leave? Or do I go after the Improbability Drive? I don't know... Uh... ah...

Hurry up and decide, you fool!

I can't it's too much pressure!

Did your last visit not teach you anything?!

What the hell does that mean?!

Look at you!!! You can't even remember what happened merely a half a day ago! How are you to control the drive if you cannot even control yourself?!

What are you doing to me?!

OPEN YOUR EYES!!!

I opened my eyes.

... how did I get so close to the drive?

[S121]

Yukari's Resort

"Losing his mind? Please do explain.", Yukari said.

"Well you see, when John was at the Engi-con, a strange man said some thing to him that brought up his past, some things that really bother John."

Jason pulled out Huey's laptop and played the Announcer's final words.



"... Heh... Heheheheh, hahahahahaha!!! This may be my last performance, but know this, John! You say you want to do good! But face it: you're a destroyer! You will always destroy something, no matter what! Even if you want to protect someone, yo have to destroy something in turn! It's never a clean slate for you! You can never become a human again!..."

"You see, ever since John was 6, he was trained to be a soldier, a killing machine, not a human. because of that, he is missing very important pieces of knowledge when it comes to 'being human'. This is just speculation, but I think that ever since coming here and being away from the UNSC, John is becoming exposed to what normal humans emotionally face. The only problem is, he never learned how to 'be human', due to having no childhood, never really talking to others in a non-militaristic setting or manner, and pretty much not being taught about situations like the ones you and I face every day."

"I believe John wants to be like us, to be 'more human'. He wants to become less like military hardware and be able to process more complex emotions without becoming confused by them. He was originally incredibly quiet and didn't talk much, but it seems that he's more open with people. That's only because he was forced to adapt. He talked more so that he could survive day-to-day interactions with normal people. The only problem is that his Spartan self and his human self are conflicting with one another."

"One side of him is the Spartan-II, the persona he carries that was trained into him at a very young age. The other is John, the one that was willing to help everyone, no matter the cost to himself. He can't decide which side is really him. Is he a soldier, or is he a human? But that's the thing, he was raised to be a soldier, not a human. The reason why he's holding tightly onto his soldier self is because that's the only thing he has."

"I think he was bothered by being called a 'destroyer' because to him, his status as a Spartan, as military hardware, impedes his progress towards becoming more human. He hates being called that because he doesn't want to believe that it's his only purpose. The catalyst for this line of thinking is Cortana, John's closest friend."


Jason then played the second half of the message.


"I remember a certain someone saying that you could become human again! Hah! The day you become human... WILL BE THE DAY I FINALLY SEE YOUR FACE!!! But look on the bright side! Dying in a final concert in an explosion is a much better way of dying than what the boss would've done to me!!! JUST EMBRACE YOUR DESTRUCTIVENESS!!! YOU COULD NEVER HAVE SAVED HER!!!!! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!"


"As for the mystery person, the Announcer was talking about Cortana. Cortana was an AI, but the surprising thing is, she was pretty much a human. Some say that it was due to the fact that her raw data was also taken from human DNA. She really was an individual, one that could think for herself and believe it or not, feel emotions. She was John's closest friend, someone that John had known for 8 years. She cheered him on when he was shining, and cheered him up when he was depressed. She was actually his last friend in his universe. She consoled him when he was devastated by the death of all of his other friends."

"He cared about her so much, that he fought through a city filled with Flood, just to save her. In all honesty, I'd say that it was utterly insane. Just one Flood creature poses a serious threat, even to a Spartan, but John somehow did it, he fought through hundreds upon hundreds of them. He went through hell and back for her, and that only goes to show how much she meant to him. In a way, you could say that she was his world. She's the one that probably changed his outlook on life. She may not have done so directly, but her death may have caused John to rethink his life. His whole life had just been one battle after another, but she urged him to find out which of them was human. She told him, 'Before this is all over, promise me you'll find out which one of us is the machine.' Her death may have broken through his years of fighting and carrying out missions."

"In order to really show you how much she meant to him, I'll show you a video. It'll explain a lot more than mere words can. The fireball in the video is John falling to the planet."

"As you can see, when John first noticed that something was wrong, Cortana explained that she was going to eventually die, but John couldn't accept that. She kept trying to tell him that it was of no use, but he couldn't handle that possibility, so he grabbed on to whatever solution he could, to keep his friend alive."

"Near the end, Cortana was suffering from something called 'Rampancy'. Rampancy is basically when an AI begins to die. They basically think themselves to death, almost like brain cancer. John promised her that he would save her from Rampancy, but in the end she slowly fell apart in front of him. I don't know about you, but it's probably the worst kind of experience, to watch as somebody you care about slowly loses their mind, crumbles away, and dies. It got so bad that there were times when she'd start arguments with herself and lose touch with her surroundings. There was even a case when she accidentally crashed John into the side of a space station. John still stuck by her though, still holding on to the promise that he made to her."

"This last video is at the very end, when he lost her."

"As you can see, in the very end, she fought against her Rampancy and had all of her personality 'shards' distract the Didact. They were all usually conflicting with one another, but there was one thing that they could work together on; saving John from the Didact. Right as John detonated the nuke on the Didact's ship, to save humanity, Cortana created an indestructible Hardlight Shield around him. That was when she said her final goodbyes to him. During this event, John couldn't comprehend the fact that she wasn't going to make it out alive. John is a person that has seen countless people die, and he quickly got over it, but having her die wouldn't even 'compute' in his mind."

"Once she died, John was alone, completely alone. When confronted by one of his acquaintances about his loss, John simply fell back on his training and said, 'Our duty, as soldiers, is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost.' Having no one else to turn to, John could only internalize it. He probably buried it deep within himself, so then he wouldn't have to accept that she was gone. The guilt of her death probably weighs so heavily on him that he is afraid of losing other people around him. Her death probably made him hollow. I think the reason he hold's on to his Spartan training and procedures is because it distracts him from acknowledging Cortana's death. If he's cold and unfeeling, then he doesn't have to feel the pain of her death. At the same time, he wants to make her death seem like it wasn't for nothing by becoming more human. That's where even more stress piles on top of him."

"He's dying from grief and straining himself by trying to be two things that conflict one another. Now you can see why he's been acting the way he is.", Jason finally finished.

[NeoFox]

Axl's Mind
____________

As X stands back up he sees Sigma. His eyes widened with horror and rage at the sight of him. "Sigma!!!" Yelled X as he glares at Sigma who just turned to him. "Well hello X. Long time no see." He said as he turned to Yuyuko.

"You may call me Sigma." He said as he grins wildly.

"Yuyuko go now! I'll keep him busy while you go confront Lumine!" Yelled X as he readies his X-Buster.



London-Chris's Apartment
________________________

Chris looks at Gerard. "Okay... but tell them to be careful. If they do find Wesker they have to stay on guard at all times. Wesker is a dangerous man." Said Chris as he goes back to the kitchen.

"Not much... I can make you a sandwich, but that's pretty much it."

[Koishi]

Somewhere in Nevada

---

Hank grabbed Otori and put him on his shoulder, and headed out of the room, along with everyone else.

[WriggleRid3r]

Yukari's Resort

---

"Deep." commented Rumia, eating potato chips.
"Damn straight. It's like Romeo and Juliet all over again." Murasa added.
"Yukari, I think the only solution here is to erase John's mind." Rumia suggested. "Bring Reisen over. It'll be easy, right?"
Yukari was silent for a few seconds, then she looked up, determined.
"No, I'm not going to let Reisen rape his mind like she does to everyone all the time." Yukari announced. "If Cortana is the reason why he's going mad, then... then I'll be Cortana."

---

Lunarian Territory, The Consumer has landed

---

Three hunched figure, each carrying a spear-like weapon that has a glowing blade, strode across the bare landscape. They all looked like a deformed human, clad in metallic armor that covered their chest, shoulder, and legs. One of them had a giant machine strapped to his back that looked like a radio.
"You sure this is safe?" One of the figure, the one with a small heart tattoo'd across his arm, asked the other figure that was wearing what looked like a tiara.
"Of course!" The tiara-wearing figure shouted annoyingly. "This is a wasteland, no civilization can thrive here. We scout ahead, come back, and get our Seneschal degree. Easy."
"Wait, somebody is up there." The radio-carrying figure pointed at a humanlike figure ahead.
"Bahaha, that's it?" The tiara-wearing figure laughed. "I heard that Gen, whatever, place had a security force ahead, but one person? And a woman, all the less?"
The lady ahead of them walked towards them.
"Stop! Drop all your weapons and put your hands in the air where I can see them!" The tattoo-d figure pointed his spear-gun at the lady... or did he? The lady seemed to have vanished... and reappeared behind the figures.

In a flash, the three figures were beheaded, clean. They didn't have any time to react to the hypersonic slash the golden blade offered to them.

"Pathetic."

[wonderweiss]

Axl's Mind; Yuyuko

---

"Right! Be careful!"

I went ahead. Now where are you, Lumine?

---

London; Gerard

---

"Oh, that will do like heaven for me!!!"

---

Somewhere in Nevada

---

I... that's it. I lost my chance.

Idiot. You will never obtain the drive like this.

Well, how do you suppose I do it now?!

You're not going to do anything any longer. I'm taking control.

What?!

All of a sudden, my body fell limp. Then it reanimated... but I was no longer in control!

"Hey, Hank, I think I can walk now."

[S121]

Beach

John waited for Jason to come back, but it had been a long time.

"Huey, Do you know what Jason is doing? It's taking a lot longer than it should.", John said to Huey.





Yukari's Resort

"How do you plan on doing that?", Jason asked Yukari.

[wonderweiss]

Beach; Huey

---

"Huh? Oh, I don't know. Something about talking to someone about your problem."