PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 12: Gelimer’s Betrayal

(A/N: In the 20th anniversary event in KMS, there were several features from the game that were removed, including the Evolution Lab. While the actual feature no longer exists in the game, the story was still preserved by moving it into Act 1 of Black Heaven as a prologue. There were several minor changes made to the story in order to have it fit into the narrative, most of which involved removing any references to the player completing the questline. If you want to see the original story of the Evolution Lab, check out the pre-Destiny page.)

In the Verne Mine, Gelimer moved Lotus from Orchid’s room to a new area of the laboratory called the Evolution Lab. There, he finished transforming Lotus into the perfect Xenoroid, making him far stronger than his prototypes, Xenon and Beryl. Orchid soon discovered the Evolution Lab and demanded to know why he had moved Lotus without her permission. She threatened Gelimer and reminded him that his experiments should have concluded months ago. Gelimer promised that Lotus would awaken imminently and demonstrated his claim by releasing Lotus from his pod.

Orchid was overjoyed to see her brother awaken, but she quickly grew confused when he wouldn’t respond to her. Gelimer then commanded Lotus to execute Program Alpha-97, which caused Lotus to turn on his sister and drain her half of the Wing Master powers. Gelimer revealed that he had succeeded in taking control of Lotus, who himself had the ability to control others, and explained that he had deliberately kept Lotus’ brain in hibernation, since his powers were all that Gelimer wanted. Severely injured, Orchid weakly asked Gelimer why he needed Lotus’ body. Gelimer explained that the Black Mage required a vessel, not another follower, and with that, he left Orchid to die and took Lotus with him.

(A/N: It’s surprising that Gelimer knows about Lotus’ ability to possess others, although I guess it makes sense when you consider that he’s been closely observing Lotus and performing experiments on him for years. In Black Heaven, Gelimer reveals that he wants to use Retoxin gas in order to turn the people of Maple World into mindless slaves, all of whom would be linked into a hive mind controlled by Lotus.

While I originally assumed that he’d link them through technology, it might actually be that he wanted Lotus to possess them all. Since Lotus can only possess weak-minded people from a distance, it’s possible that he wanted to use the Retoxin gas in order to weaken everyone’s minds for Lotus to be able to control them all at once.)

Soon after, the Resistance discovered the Evolution Lab and found an unconscious Orchid, whom they brought back to the Secret Plaza. Claudine briefed the other Resistance leaders on what had happened between Orchid and Gelimer, adding that Orchid was now just like a normal little girl without her powers. She explained that she hadn’t put Orchid in prison because of her fragile condition, though she hoped to make Orchid pay for her crimes soon enough. In order to learn more about what Gelimer was plotting Claudine decided to send Belle to investigate the Evolution Lab.

(A/N: Originally, Claudine would summon the player and give them the briefing on Gelimer and Orchid, rather than her speaking with the Resistance. It was explained that Checky was the one who had found Orchid, and while Belle did go investigate the lab, the player was sent there first.)

Several days later, Brighton rushed urgently to Claudine and informed her that Orchid had managed to escape. Meanwhile, Orchid traveled to the Evolution Lab, where she encountered a hologram of Lotus, which had been created as the interface for the Evolution System. Orchid quickly realized that the hologram was an AI created by Gelimer and grew angry, causing the last remnants of her Wing Master power to manifest. The AI detected Orchid as a threat and attacked her, immediately knocking her out.

(A/N: In the original story, Claudine sent the player in order to track down Orchid. After the Evolution System attacked Orchid, it would scan the player, whom it had registered as a valid user when they had first encountered it during their initial investigation, causing it to return back to normal.)

The Resistance then discovered Orchid and brought her back to the Secret Plaza, where Claudine treated her injuries. Soon after, she spoke with Brighton and explained that though she had done all that she could medically, Orchid had fallen into a coma. Just then, Belle arrived from the Evolution Lab and explained her findings. She told them that the Evolution System had evolved by itself without any changes to its internal system and begrudgingly admitted that Gelimer was a genius, despite how much it pained her to say.

She explained that the system was capable of making its own judgements, allowing it to evolve into a stronger model on its own. Having recognized Orchid as a strong enemy, it had enhanced its own system to accommodate. As they wondered what this would mean, Orchid suddenly called out to Lotus from her coma, surprising the group. Far away, Lotus shed a tear for the sister whom he had been forced to turn against. Gelimer was surprised to see Lotus crying, as he had believed that he had suppressed all of Lotus’ emotions and desires. As Gelimer set out to correct the behavior, Lotus also called out to Orchid.

As the Alliance continued to use the Evolution System in order to learn more about it, the system recorded the combat data of countless Alliance members and imprinted it onto Lotus in order to have him analyze and enhance his own battle algorithms, thus making him even stronger. Soon after, Gelimer sought out the Commanders and presented Lotus’ enhanced body to them, claiming that it would be the perfect vessel for the Black Mage to inhabit.

Though the Commanders were plainly aware of Gelimer’s hidden agenda, they nevertheless accepted him into their ranks in order to use his talents, though they refused to make him a full Commander. With the support of the Commanders and free from Orchid’s oversight, Gelimer was in the perfect position to achieve his goals unobstructed.

(A/N: The Evolution System was more meaningful when the actual in-game feature used to exist, as players interacting with the system and using it to get stronger was the very thing that made Lotus even stronger. It felt pretty cool to know that Lotus was learning about our own fighting techniques in real-time, although the removal of the Evolution Lab means that we don’t really ever get to see anyone actually training Lotus’ AI model.)