The Finale Of The First Act

Noah passes under countless, stone torii gates. They’re weathered and mossy, dating long before New Kansai became a society of its own. Breaking into a sweat, he focuses his attention on climbing the mountain path.

Aiden’s robots – now following Noah’s command – clack their boots on the uneven steps behind him.

Noah’s attention only breaks when he hears the roaring hum of gasoline engines above him. Four black aircraft, much smaller than a hovercraft, zoom over his head.

They’re not as sleek as the bombers from the Capital attacks. Immediately, they slow and descend not too far away – they’ve found Simon and the hovercraft.

Noah takes another step up the path. If Simon does as Noah instructed, they’ll send an aircraft for him once they’ve finished refueling.

Not a minute later, the engines roar again and the aircraft ascend above the trees. This time, the hovercraft flies amongst them. Noah faces them, ready to signal an aircraft to his location. But no aircraft splinters from the rest – they zoom back overhead, right over Noah and the robots, and leave them to fend for themselves.

Noah lets out an annoyed shout, clenching his fists as tight as he can. One of them’s unable to close like the other, and it hurts him to do so. But he doesn’t care.

Simon must have not told them. Either that, or they shut him up.

Noah picks up the pace, stomping up the stairs and letting out some of his anger through his feet. He accidentally kicks his boot on one and stumbles. Regaining his composure, he accepts his fate – he’ll have to find another way to leave.

Within minutes, he sees where the weathered stone path leads – a hundred meters away, an old wooden shrine sits at the peak of the mountain. It’s grander than the shrines in the old world. The ones he used in his games with Hugo and his brother only months ago.

Except that it feels like years since something like that could have even happened.

Noah climbs the last step and walks towards the shrine. Turning behind him to take in the view, he sees the entire plain of farms and ecovillages.

He also sees the line of four ornithopters, heading straight towards him. Catching them just before they disappear using that new invisibility tech, they’re almost upon him.

Noah bursts into action. Frantically tapping commands into his earpiece, he sprints towards the shrine. Ten meters from the entrance, he hears the rumble of stone behind him being uprooted. He steals a glance behind his shoulder.

A laser from an ornithopter follows him, burning a line of destruction. But a meter before the shrine, it stops, right before it catches up with him.

Noah chuckles, amused. They wouldn’t dare destroy such a sacred place just to kill him. They’ll have to send troops inside – once they’ve destroyed Noah’s robots, of course. He slides down the wall at the entrance, watching his robots shoot at the invisible aircraft. With them guarding the shrine, it’s immensely difficult for them to land.

Why hasn’t Hugo revealed himself yet? He should certainly be in one of these ornithopters. Noah knows this much about him – he wouldn’t have given up.

Half an hour passes, and the situation becomes bleak. The robots fend off the ornithopters, but Noah’s losing, and Hugo still hasn’t made an appearance yet. Maybe Noah was wrong about staying behind. He knew the risks, but didn’t anticipate this kind of outcome.

His heart sinks even further when three more aircraft come into view over the valley. An ornithopter flies in formation with two helicopters on either side.

This is it – Noah’s done for.

But, all of a sudden, the signal of another aircraft appears on his radar, approaching from behind the shrine. It’s not labeled as a New Kansai aircraft.

Noah jumps to his feet, dashing for the back exit of the shrine. He speeds over tatami mats, pushing open a door to the side of the large altar on the back wall.

Only several meters away, the ground gives way to a massive drop. The vast expanse before Noah is filled with steep, rocky cliffs. In the middle of the landscape, a small, black aircraft flies towards him. Just in time.

Beneath the cover of the shrine, Noah waits for the aircraft to arrive. But the noise of the battle behind the shrine stops. His heart pounds faster as he expects the worse – the ornithopters may have won.

Heading for the front entrance to see what’s happened, he dashes back into the main room of the shrine. Out the front, his robots stand still, prepared for an attack. The ornithopters – or, at least, their presence – are nowhere to be seen.

Then, he sees it.

The escorted ornithopter fires its laser at the tail boom of the only remaining helicopter, almost cutting its body in half. The helicopter careens out of control, spinning into the forest below view.

Noah explodes into a sharp burst of shocked laughter. The kind you only let out when you’re too flustered to react any other way.

But he doesn’t have time to gawk; his own, personal aircraft lands amongst the robots in front of the shrine. The cockpit opens to reveal an empty seat.

Noah’s not certain the ornithopters have completely disappeared. Cutting his losses, he breathes in deeply and sprints for the aircraft.

He makes it inside without attracting enemy fire. The aircraft lifts off the ground once Noah closes the cockpit, and before he can even put on his seatbelt. On the old screen in front of him, the word ‘auto-pilot’ shows in big letters. Beneath, the word ‘auto-defense’ shows.

If only he can find a way to disable the system.

He observes the buttons and switches, before his eyes rest on the joystick directly in front of him. He lowers his hand to grab it. As he pulls back on it, the ‘auto-pilot’ warning disappears and the aircraft lifts towards the sun.

Noah has full control. If he can only maintain it.

He banks to the right, doing a complete 180 away from the rocky mountains. The single ornithopter, now flying alone, comes into view. Right in front of Noah.

Even with all that recent military training, Noah won’t let Hugo win. He won’t let Hugo beat him ever again.

Or let anyone, for that matter.

* * *

Hugo flies straight over the coordinates from which the enemy signal was detected. Both the radar and his own vision confirm his suspicions – they’ve escaped. Frustrated, Hugo raises his fist and slams it once on the side of the cockpit. He doesn’t want to even imagine what Lily must be thinking right now.

But then he looks to the sky in front of him.

A black aircraft, about the same size as an ornithopter, flies from a mountaintop shrine. Below, a dozen cyborgs stand guard, protecting the shrine from an unknown enemy.

It’s only when Hugo’s radar starts freaking out that he realizes what the robots are protecting it from – the IDs of three ornithopters approach at frightening speed.

As they get closer, the air shimmers in the formation of the three aircraft. Then, single bright lights appear in their place.

Hugo throws back the joystick, pulling his ornithopter into a steep climb. He yells with all the power he can muster as gravity pushes him back hard into his seat. Glare from the sun catches him off guard, and he’s forced to look away.

But he finds the button, deploying decoy flares. They hit the missiles of light in succession, each blast rocking the cockpit.

On his radar, the three invisible aircraft pass underneath him. He's out of their line of fire. At least, for now.

Another aircraft appears on Hugo’s radar. It’s in front of him, visible, and without an ID. This aircraft is small and made of that black metal, a crude machine between a helicopter and a plane.

The ornithopter and the black aircraft approach head-on. After a few seconds, Hugo can see into the cockpit.

Inside, a person stares Hugo down with a determined look. Mid-length hair and blonde tips – Noah.

Seeing Noah’s confidence triggers something – perhaps anxiety – in Hugo’s heart, and he prepares to change course. He needs to get a grip on the situation. The ornithopters behind him will be approaching in a matter of seconds, after all.

But as Hugo nudges the joystick, the black aircraft rolls sharply to the side. Two missiles shoot out the front of it, smoke trailing behind them. They’re nothing like the missiles on the New Kansai aircraft.

“Careful!” Lily shouts forward.

Hugo makes the ornithopter back-pedal – almost flying forward through the cockpit window – and Lily instantly deploys the flares. This time, they’re deployed out front. The flares hit the missiles right before they land, flames and black smoke clouding the cockpit window.

Before the smoke has a chance to clear, Hugo throws the ornithopter forward. They emerge and Noah’s aircraft becomes visible, traveling back over the shrine and towards the Alps.

How dare Noah shoot at them.

Hugo places his hand on the weapon panel of his own, positioning the ornithopter for a direct hit.

Lily seems to notice what he’s about to do. “Don’t do it, Hugo.”

But Hugo ignores her, and a thin beam of line shoots out of the ornithopter.

At the same moment, Noah’s aircraft wobbles, losing control for a second before righting itself. Hugo’s laser only scrapes the tip of the aircraft’s right wing, throwing the aircraft off balance and careening down towards the shrine.

Hugo firmly shakes his head once, catching himself. If it weren’t for the black aircraft’s blip, he would have killed Noah. Thankfully, this outcome may let him confront Noah alone, out of sight from the ornithopters. On the ground in the forest.

But the thought instantly vanishes – an ornithopter has snuck up behind Hugo, clearly on his radar, while he was busy aiming at Noah.

It doesn’t fire at him, though. Instead, it deactivates its stealth mode and approaches alongside, slowing to match Hugo’s pace. To his surprise, the cockpit opens, sliding back and letting air rush inside. Someone Hugo doesn’t recognise pilots the aircraft.

In the back of the cockpit, Emily, hair flicking wildly in the wind, raises her head out. She gestures for Hugo to open his cockpit. Lily gives no input from behind, probably just as confused as Hugo.

So, apprehensively, Hugo opens the cockpit. The wind smacks his body into his seat, pulling at the skin on his face like it’s trying to tear it off his skeleton.

Emily shows Hugo something small in one hand, then turns and throws it in front of her. Her ornithopter banks away from Hugo’s.

The object she threw glistens in the sunlight, arcing back towards Hugo’s ornithopter. He stands and reaches out his hand to catch it.

But it slips through his fingers.

Hugo throws his gaze behind him, expecting to watch it fall back towards the ground. He’s met with surprise as Lily grips the object tightly in one hand. She shuts the cockpit hatch above, forcing Hugo to take a seat too.

In front of them, Noah’s aircraft doesn’t make it all the way to the shrine, landing between the trees. Real soon, Hugo will have to make a decision about whether it’s safe to follow him.

Hugo turns to face Lily. She’s already putting the object in her ear – it’s a hololens. Hugo sees the slight holographic shimmer appear in front of her as it turns on.

Lily nods a couple of times, uttering a few words into the hololens. Then, he takes it out of her ear and thrusts it towards Hugo.

He takes it from her, nestling it into his ear. The roaring sound of the cockpit is automatically filtered out of his hearing.

“Hey, Hugo. You might wanna thank me for calling off your colleagues, or you and your mom would be nice and dead right now.”

It’s Emily.

Hugo takes this ceasefire as an opportunity. He decreases his speed and steers his ornithopter towards the dense trees below – where Noah’s aircraft disappeared.

“How did you manage to convince them of that one?”

“It was quite hard, seeing as you already took down two of our aircraft. But I’m the commander of this mission.” Emily’s still her sarcastic self, even in the midst of a literal battle. Her tone then becomes serious. “It’s so dangerous, Hugo. Please don’t put yourself in danger.”

There’s a pause for a moment. Even if she’s trying it, nothing she can say will dissuade Hugo from confronting Noah. He lowers the ornithopter between the trees, the slope forcing him to hover a meter off the ground.

Meters away, Noah’s black aircraft is bent almost in half against a tree. Noah himself is nowhere to be found.

“Hugo? I know you're listening. I don’t know your plan, but we can’t take any more collateral damage. We’re already struggling to take the shrine as it is.”

So that’s their goal.

“Hold on a second,” Hugo tells Emily, turning off the chat function on his hololens.

He looks at Lily, who looks back at him, a worried look on her face. Then, she nods – her permission for Hugo to go.

“Be careful,” she says.

Hugo nods back. “You too.”

With that, he looks to the side, at the laser dassler rifle tucked in a side compartment. He takes it out and slings it across his back. Then, he swings his body over the cockpit, landing on leaves and dirt below.

As he climbs the slope – past Noah’s damaged aircraft – he glances back at Lily one last time. Now flown by her, the ornithopter disappears through the treetops.

Hugo turns on the chat function on his hololens, powering up the slope as fast as he can towards the shrine.

“Why the shrine?”

“There might be more people hiding in there.”

“Who is it?”

There’s a pause as she mulls over telling him, but he already knows.

“Simon and that cyborg. They wouldn’t have dared to split up.”

Hugo mustn’t let Noah get back to the shrine, at all costs.

“Well, blow it up, then.”

“Hugo, it’s a sacred place. We can’t destroy it just like that.”

Of course Emily wouldn’t order such a thing, even if the lives of her own squadron were at stake. Her spiritual beliefs are one of her greatest weaknesses.

“If you’re not willing to give the order, let me be commander,” Hugo demands.

“No,” Emily says in the most serious tone Hugo thinks she’s capable of. “Convince Noah to stand down, and it’ll never come to that.”

Hugo huffs. “Suit yourself.”

He turns off the chat function again, cutting off Emily’s reply. Then, his sneakers collect the mud and leaves, throwing them behind him as he races to catch up with Noah.

Within a minute, he catches glimpses of a boy in black, dashing through the trees in front. He doesn’t call out just yet; he doesn’t want to scare him away. Hugo doesn’t know what kind of emotion Noah’s feeling right now.

As Hugo approaches, Noah notices him. It makes Noah press even faster, clearly wanting to be in the safety of the cyborg and his robots. He’s right to want as such – Hugo eventually runs alongside him, dodging trees while looking for an opportunity to strike. He finds the opportunity, lunging into Noah’s side and knocking him off his feet.

Noah rolls a couple of times on the ground, before righting himself and staring Hugo dead in the eyes. It might even be a look of anger. “Come with me,” he demands.

His decisiveness throws Hugo off for a moment, before he replies with the demand himself: “No. You come with me.”

Noah bursts off from the ground. They exchange blows, trying to hit hard enough to knock each other out. Despite Hugo’s raw strength, he begins to tire under Noah’s strikes. But Noah’s boot slips out from underneath him, sliding down the slope on the mud.

Hugo takes the opportunity and leaps on top of him, pinning him to the ground by his neck. He sees rage flash in Noah’s eyes – something he’d never seen in their games in the old world.

“Get off me,” Noah growls.

“Why are you doing all this?” Hugo shouts directly in his face.

“Are you dumb? They’ll kill me.”

“No, they won’t! I won’t let them!”

Noah struggles underneath him, refusing to give in.

“Why would you betray them in the first place?” Hugo demands. “Why would you betray me?”

“My bitch of a father. You don’t get it – we’re not all born with saints for parents.” Noah chokes as Hugo squeezes his neck tighter.

“It doesn’t look like that to me.”

Noah snickers. “Always got to be right, don’t you?”

“Then come with me! I’ll protect you!”

“Fuck you! I don’t need protecting!”

Noah musters all his strength. With a sharp shout, he rolls over, swapping positions with Hugo. They’re not in that position for long, though, as Hugo’s boot finds Noah’s chest and Noah’s launched backwards.

Hugo hit a tree stump from the force of his kick, pain erupting over the back of his head.

When the world stops spinning, Noah’s already running off through the trees. Hugo gets up and chases after him, but the trees quickly fall away up ahead. They’ve reached the shrine at the peak of the mountain.

Hugo takes the rifle off his back as he enters the clearing. He closely follows Noah; the robots won’t dare shoot at him when he’s not far behind Noah.

As they approach, the robots create a formation in front of the shrine, taking aim at both of them. Noah passes through the formation, turning to face Hugo with a smirk on his face.

But the smirk doesn’t last for long – Hugo pulls the trigger on the rifle, aiming directly at Noah.

A brilliant white flash illuminates the clearing. All of the robots, electronics becoming scrambled, hang their arms lifelessly by their sides. To Hugo, who’s wearing a hololens, the flash doesn’t burn in the slightest. But to Noah, it might have permanently blinded him.

Luckily for Noah, Hugo gave him just enough time before he pulled the trigger; before the flash went off, Noah spun around and covered his face with his arm. He staggers over to a robot, prying the gun out of its hand. Then, he retreats backwards into the shrine, gun pointed at Hugo.

“Stay back!” he barks, blinking in an effort to regain his full vision. “Drop the weapon!”

Hugo freezes, then reaches down slowly to place the rifle on the ground. He’s used up the one shot in his rifle, but Noah doesn’t know this. He doesn’t want to take any chances, even though he doesn’t suspect Noah will shoot at him.

“Get inside!” Noah flicks his head backwards.

Hugo holds his hands open, cautiously stepping inside after Noah. He takes a quick look around the interior of the shrine – Simon and the cyborg are nowhere to be seen. It’s almost the exact same traditional layout as the shrine near the ecovillage where he used to live. No wonder why Emily doesn’t want to destroy it.

“What’s your plan now, huh?” Hugo says.

Noah slightly scrunches his nose in annoyance. So he doesn’t have one.

“Come with me,” Hugo continues. “It’s your last chance at redemption.”

Noah ignores his words. “Eugene was the cause of all this, you know?”

Hugo’s mouth hangs open. “Huh?”

“He and Simon were working together. With the cyborg.”

Hugo shakes his head. “Bullshit.”

But his mind instantly flashes with the memories proving Noah's right: Hugo leading Eugene to the military bunker, Eugene’s request to speak privately with Simon, and – perhaps most prevalently – Hugo’s lack of any knowledge about Eugene.

“It just went all wrong before he could be airlifted away like us.”

“No. No. No. You’re lying.”

Noah smiles, sensing he’s struck a chord with Hugo. “Let’s escape. Together. Then you can really find out what happened.”

Hugo lowers his arms, head hung to the floor. Acting dejected, he walks towards Noah. As soon as he gets within arms length, he lunges.

Taken off-guard, Noah’s gun is knocked out of his grip and slides against a wall. He rushes over to it. By the time he’s retrieved the gun, however, Hugo’s escaping out the back door.

As he exits, Hugo sees an ornithopter in front of him. It hovers over the cliff behind the shrine. Lily locks eyes with him, but Hugo doesn’t stop running. As he leaps off the ledge, Lily scrambles into the rear seat of the cockpit.

There’s a moment where he isn’t sure if he’ll make it, glancing at the steep, rocky cliffs below in fear. But he lands in the seat, banging his shoulder hard on the side of the cockpit.

Hugo pulls back on the joystick, pulling the ornithopter back into the air. As he does so, the cockpit slides back overhead, closed by Lily.

The military ornithopters have landed in front of the shrine. Military personnel apprehend the robots, taking the opportunity now that they’ve been dazzled. It angers Hugo – how dare Emily try to finish the job herself.

Noah exits the shrine at the back, oblivious to what’s happening at the front. He glares up at Hugo, gun in hand. Then, he opens fire, shooting blasts of light at Hugo.

In response, Hugo rolls the ornithopter to the side, narrowly avoiding the hits. But Noah shoots again. This time, Hugo can’t avoid the hits entirely – they hit the laser guns on the ornithopter. On the screen in front of Hugo, errors alert them to their inability to function.

For a moment, Hugo isn’t sure what he feels. Then, it all comes at once. Noah just tried to shoot him out of the sky, with Lily in the back of the cockpit.

“Hugo, let’s go!” Lily shouts forward at him.

But Hugo has all his attention focused on Noah – the boy who betrayed him and his own society. The boy who tried to gaslight Hugo into believing his own brother betrayed him too. And the boy who almost killed Hugo and his mother.

“Let the military do their job.” Lily’s voice barely makes it into Hugo’s mind.

She must be forgetting – Hugo’s part of the military. And he takes orders from no-one.

Noah shoots at Hugo once again. The blasts hit a couple of the wings, immediately destabilizing the ornithopter.

Hugo absentmindedly rolls the joystick forward. Towards the shrine. Towards Emily’s squadron. Towards Noah.

Noah’s eyes widen as he realizes what’s about to happen. Instead of running away from the ornithopter, he runs towards it, diving off the cliffs and onto the rocks below.

It’s too late for Hugo to change course – the ornithopter makes a direct impact with the shrine, exploding immediately.

Hugo shuts his eyes. He hears the crunching of wood and shredding of metal, before feeling immense pain all over his body. His bones break from the force and his skin burns from the heat. Then, his mind becomes hazy, beginning to shut down.

When he opens his eyes, he’s in the burning remains of a house – the house he lived in at the ecovillage years ago. Somewhere in the mess, his father screams out in agony.

Hugo tries to move, to rescue his father, to escape, but it’s clear that every bone in his limbs is broken. His brain actively numbs out the pain.

He knows how this story ends.

The screaming stops as Hugo’s subconscious fades. From within the fire, the figure of a boy emerges – a younger Eugene.

Eugene picks up Hugo in his arms, stifling sobs in a strong attempt to be brave. He staggers, taking one step at a time, as he walks through their house and out of the fire.

This is the part where Hugo blacks out. Where he wakes up in an operating room, seeing Maria for the first time as she replaces his organic tissue with that of metal and synthesized materials.

But this time, all these years later, he doesn’t black out.

Eugene places him down in front of a gathering of people from their ecovillage. They’re sprawled out on the ground too, and they all wear military vests. Only Emily stands upright, albeit barely, pointing the dazzler rifle directly at them.

Hugo manages to turn his head to watch Eugene walk away. He tries reaching out with his heart, trying to get Eugene to come back for him.

But as Eugene turns to face Hugo – burnt bleached tips swishing to reveal his face – Noah’s black hovercraft descends from the sky behind him.

That’s right. Eugene’s already dead, and soon Hugo might be too. Regardless, Hugo’s already killed any chance he’s had at redemption.