Glass Pods (before battle)

…….

What an ostentatious production.

... Is everyone seeing this?

There are people... in those glass tubes. Their eyes are closed... no, some of them are open...

Are they... dead?

Dead or alive, it doesn't make sense either way. I just don't understand why there's something like this under this manor...?

The room was filled with rows upon rows of mysterious glass pods, each housing a completely still person inside.

... They are all dressed in different garbs. I don't see any recognizable age or gender patterns among them.

Recall that large-scale cases of missing persons have been sweeping T Corp. lately.

Then...

T-there! Is that the Golden Bough you were searching for...?

At the end of the basement was a woman lying inside a coffin...

CATHY!!!

... and Heathcliff was the only one who immediately recognized her face. She appeared to be at peace, as though in a pleasant dream.

... Look. There are machines attached to her coffin.

Mm. I see two levers, both pointed downward.

Attached to the coffin was a Golden Bough, shimmering with the golden light we'd grown familiar with.

Cathy... Cathy, wait for me!

The room, the glass pods, the chaos... none of it seemed to register for Heathcliff. He began sprinting toward the coffin like a madman.

<... Don Quixote?>

Don Quixote, who I was ready to see sprinting alongside Heathcliff, was standing still, aghast.

There... there ought to have been a misunderstanding...

<A misunderstanding?>

What misunderstanding? Those people in the pods are clearly the same people who were kidnapped at T Corp.

Lo, at those who stand flanking the machines...

We have seen them afore at the manor, have we not?

... Fixers of the Öufi Association.

H-honorable sirs and ladies.

…….

Oft was I told that I am rather ignorant with the goings of the world and my surroundings, so I wish not to so carelessly assume...

Thus I must implore thee to answer us.

All of you... out of my way. Now.

This area is off limits.

Off limits...?

She's there. I can see Catherine right there, before my eyes.

I won't let you fucks stand between us.

…….

Didn't expect them to get here so soon... well, we need to buy some more time.

Unlease the dregs.

The Fixers began fiddling with the lab machines...