It was not long before a slow and steady navigation that Sophie and Goro found themselves in the heart of the dungeon itself. Nobu Shibusawa, now one of Baron's prisoners, was found cuffed and securely tightened to a torture device like a balloon about to pop. Gashes and scratches were visible on Nobu's body, all infected with the rust and the dirt littered across the dungeon's atmosphere. Vipers electrocuted his body without remorse, and Baron stood on the sidelines, watching Nobu's morale collapse in front of him.
"You knew her, didn't you?" Baron asked, pacing left and right with his hands propped behind him. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have signaled your last resort tracker for her to find you. What kind of person decides to resort to such imprudence? What was it all for?"
"Sick fuck... like you... wouldn't understand..." Nobu voiced out. "Using people... just to get your fucking daughter back... I don't commit to you at all..." He clenched his teeth in rage.
"Mhm, sure, that's the case, isn't it?" Baron spoke sarcastically, ordering the vipers to electrocute Nobu once more. His screams terrorized the dungeon once again as Baron's voice rose to new heights. "What you're forgetting is that ever since you were brought to our use, we started to know all about what kind of person you were, boy. It must have hurt having to betray the person you loved the most at the time. But you did it all because of what you could gain, correct? Wanting to be better... superior... than nothing but an empty husk of a man. But you really are just... nothing."
"Then why keep me alive?" Nobu asked.
"Because... I want to know..." Baron leaned in forward and grabbed Nobu's chin, forcing his eyes upon him. "I want to know who that man you idolized was. He's been causing a lot of trouble for us these past few months. I've heard all about him; the rumors of how he almost killed a little girl just to satisfy his puppetmaster, and how he turned against his superiors out of sheer fright. I heard how he killed Stormfield's brother with the help of his allies. All that and much more, I'd say. But I want to go back to the roots, drill deep into his mind, and get to know his motivations. What does he have... that we don't?"
"I don't... I don't know shit about him other than him working with-"
"And Dyrden confirmed that already," Baron continued. "That's right. The grandfather of Sez Fuma, lost in hatred. Even though his grandson has been making a name for himself, there's no telling what he could do to Dyrden. You should have seen the look on his face when your idol escaped. He was beyond furious. He would have torn your arm and leg off the moment he looked at your face."
Nobu breathed heavily, about to go comatose from all of the added pain inflicted on his body.
"Never mind that," Baron digressed, twisting the time singularity on his bulky jacket. A rift opened up, revealing Star's comatose body in the opening. Baron seized control of her and pulled her out of the rift, showing her state to Nobu. "I want to know who you idolized, and I want to start from the very beginning when you met little Sophie. Because, if you don't tell me, I'll kill this girl and the memory fragment stowed within her so that Sophie can blame you for her death."
"I'd rather... die myself," Nobu admitted, refusing to listen to Baron's intimidation tactics. "Fuck you, and fuck your masters."
Baron kicked open a lever, releasing Nobu from the torture device. He collapsed on the ground with his palms facing down on the cold steel floors, barely able to move a single inch from his injuries. Baron placed his boot on Nobu's back, shoving him off of a high platform onto the floor. The impact made a thud on the floor as Nobu slouched back without a means to recover himself.
"What a waste," Baron said, leaping down to join him on the platform. He placed Star beneath his feet. "All this for a child that doesn't even mean a thing to you!" He grabbed Nobu's hair and yanked him up, forcing Nobu to shout in agony. A hidden blade revealed itself from Baron's left wrist, aiming it directly at Nobu's pupil. "You want to die for this girl that badly? Then be my guest!"
The blood-curdling screams of the vipers near the torture device startled Baron. A dimensional rift tore through the opening of their assassinations, revealing Sophie and Goro stepping through like a shortcut. Baron, using his quick reflexes, tossed Shibusawa over to Sophie as she charged at him.
Sophie caught Shibusawa and pointed her omega gauntlet at Baron, attempting to fire it to end his life. But Baron was swift; he grabbed a hold of Star and used her body as a shield to prevent Sophie and Goro from fighting back.
"Well, well, speak of the devil," Baron amusingly stated. "Sophie Hiragi. What a touching reunion."
"Give me the girl!" Sophie cried, taking a step forward.
"Now, you know I can't do that, Sophie," Baron said, pointing the hidden blade at her neck the more she advanced. "This girl is the key to unlocking the secrets of what lies with the memory fragments. She also makes a beautiful daughter, don't you think?"
"You mannequin freak." Sophie insulted, attempting to seek an opening by rotating around the platform with Goro. But Baron followed and was one step ahead of them. "She doesn't deserve this!"
"Which makes her all the more innocent and better for a candidate," Baron said. He then twisted his head in awe, gazing at Sophie's omega gauntlet. "That's interesting. A fragment of my singularity is embedded within that glove. That's forbidden technology, isn't it? And in your hands? I guess it has to do with that child behind you?"
Goro slanted his eyebrows in hate.
"He's got nothing to do with-"
"With your foolishness," Baron finished Sophie's sentence. "But you know what, Sophie? I like you. I really do. That's why I'm willing to make a bargain for that man's life; that pathetic leech!" He yelled, startling Sophie as they continued to rotate around the platform. "He's no further use to me or the others, so you can have him in exchange for the girl. How about that? You have Shibusawa, and I have the girl, and we can all be on our merry way, peaches and roses!"
"I'm taking the girl," Sophie rejected. "We're leaving with her."
"No... you're not," Baron wistfully stated. "You know, I have to thank you, Sophie. You have some kind of hidden power inside your heart, making a cretin like him defect from us. He was one of our most valuable allies, but NO! He just had to go crawling back into his past like a rat searching for scraps. And in doing so, he dragged you into this mess, when in reality, all you could have done was live a normal life. I really pity both of you. It certainly is nothing but a tragic series of events."
"He feels regret," Sophie retorted. "A feeling you don't understand."
"Oh, but I do!" Baron shouted. "I regret taking him in," He smiled impishly as he lowered Star down towards his hips, glaring into Sophie. His guard was down, but Sophie refused to blast him with her gauntlet. He remained still, seemingly surrending Star to her until he opened his mouth again.
"I was there, you know," Baron said. "That night."
That night, Sophie remembered. Her frail body rejected her every movement to save Ash Meguro, which still deeply impacted her to this day. But the idea of it returning to her memory served her nothing but weakness and deep regret for her system.
"Don't say it." Sophie rejected.
"Oh, but I want to," Baron continued. "You know, we both have a lot in common, Sophie. Because I know how it feels. Deep down, wanting to save the one that you love the most? You had that girl, and I had my daughter. And afterward, all we did was crawl back into our holes and try to find a replacement to fill that void in our hearts. And that's what you did, didn't you? It's almost like we were destined to meet, as our goals simply align. You still wish you could have saved her, just like I wish I could have saved mine."
The truth was there. It was irreparable and plainly honest. Baron's words were true, and they sliced through Sophie's heart like poisonous knives. She had to admit it, one way or another. Star was Ash's replacement. She was her fail-safe. She was the one that composed Sophie's sanity, but even to this point, she showed signs of pure unending trauma.
The fact that she needed to create an AIL replica of Ash to seek validation in herself. The fact she called Star by her false name Ash multiple times, repeatedly offended Star and created a gap between their identities. To fill in the void and the shoes of April Springwell as her guardian, believing that everything would fix itself by repeating the past in a fresh, new way.
But it did not help.
Sophie knew it was all true in the end, and she only told herself that it was false. Before she knew it, tears were streaming down Sophie's face uncontrollably, while Goro watched their confrontation continue.
"You don't know a damn thing about me..." Sophie's confuddled words came through her choked conscience.
"But I do," Baron continued. "And now you've proved yourself with those tears of yours. It's all true, isn't it? That's why I feel pity for you!" He held Star up with his arms. "I feel it, Sophie. Don't you? I understand you! I understand your pain and your misery, and you can mourn all you want... as long as you accept my deal. You know, Nobu is to blame. He's the one that got you in that mess, you poor, poor girl."
Sophie wiped her tears with her arm, composing herself once again. She was not the same weak-hearted girl; she was a strong woman who wouldn't let anything manipulate her ever again. Not after those events.
"And then, you can rest safely, doing whatever you want to that rat in your arms," Baron insulted once more. "You can-"
Before Baron could speak, his eyes traced to Sophie's rear, where Goro had vanished completely. His reaction speed was slow as he was mesmerized by Goro's speed. From behind, Goro's dagger jammed through Baron's back knee, forcing him to drop Star down as he howled in pain. Goro snatched Star in his arms and rushed back toward Sophie and Nobu.
"Open it!" Goro cried.
Sophie nodded, turned to face behind her, and opened a dimensional rift targeting back to Sunlight Headquarters. As the four of them leaped through, Baron pulled the dagger jabbed through his knee and snarled like a rampaging beast. He tossed the dagger through the opening of the rift as the four entered safely. It vanished in thin air, entering the rift. He then attempted to activate his time singularity to chase them through, but it was too late. He could not follow through.
As the four rushed through the dimensional tear and through the opening to Sunlight Headquarters, Nobu awakened from his frail state to grab a hold of Sophie's arm. The opposite tear opened, leaving the four of them the enter the living room of Sunlight Headquarters. The four collapsed on the ground with Star's comatose body remaining safely in his arms. Nobu fell further across the room near the kitchen, knocking over potted plants as his body slumped back.
The room was devoid of any of the other Sunlight members there, leaving them alone at the time. Nobu, although weakened at first, was reinvigorated by his escape from his captors. With the last resort signal removed from his body, a stark new contrast to his restricted life was born anew. He gained the strength to rise from his position and sprint out the door to leave. That was his goal, at least, but something had stopped him from doing so.
A faint sobbing stopped him in his tracks. Nobu turned around and found Sophie on the floor, bleeding profusely with a dagger through her chest. Goro attempted to move, but his body was too weak from carrying Star and the fatigue from dimension diving. Instead, Nobu fought with his heart, just like he had done so years ago when they were just teenagers.
Leaving her to die with a goal to become better than Ryo to impress his master was no longer the case. It was a new life, born strictly from the ties that he had from the past. His fingers twitched and his feet lifted themselves the moment he saw Sophie dying from the pain. The same girl that treasured his friendship, the one who always spent time with his delinquent identity in school when no one else would, ignited his body to come to the rescue.
And the faded image of Ash Meguro watched, judging his every move like an illusion from heaven.
"Sophie?!" Nobu cried, sliding toward her to lift up her shoulders. The moment he did, Sophie cried even further with her hands soaked in her blood. "Okay, okay, sorry, shit. Shit!"
"Ahh...!" She squealed, shocked by the amount of blood stained on her hands. "It hurts..."
"What do I do? What the fuck do I do?" Nobu panicked, looking around for answers. He looked at Goro, who remained uncertain. "Kid. Kid! Help me! Help me save her!"
Goro placed Star on the floor and rushed toward Sophie. He checked the wound that the dagger inflicted upon her, but it was too deep. Goro's eyes widened in trauma. His fingers clenched onto Sophie's arm as he began to relive a memory that he had purposefully sheltered away as well. A single look upon Sophie's state transformed her into his own mother, suffering on her own as he watched in peril.
"Don't leave me, Goro!"
"Don't leave me!"
"Mom, no! NO!"
"Sophie?" Goro whispered, finally breaking through his intellectual state. "Don't you dare die on me. Don't you dare die on me!"
"Naoto... Dolphin... Ash... Nobu..." Sophie whispered. "I..."
"Don't say a word!" Nobu shouted. "Just hang in there, okay? Just-"
From behind Sophie's position, Nana, the medical monkey, leaped onto her body. With a swift shine of Nana's eyes, its tail reared up and injected a dose of medical nanomachines. Yet as soon as Goro witnessed the color of the nanomachines as the omega prototype's liquid, Goro lashed out and tried to prevent it from doing so.
"NO!" Goro shouted at the top of his lungs. "What are you doing!? You don't know what you've just done!"
"The Omega will save her," Nana stated. "At the cost of her blood," After Goro failed to stop Nana, Nana injected a final stabilization device to stop Sophie's cries with ibuprofen. "She will remain still. This was the only way."
Sophie's entire bloodstream began to metamorphize into the omega prototype. The nanomachines within the suit's material infused with her blood, adding new omega machines within her bloodstream to gradually heal her wounds from the inside. Yet the omega-class machines within her were still unstable, causing the neural interface design from the suit itself to integrate it into Sophie's mind. Her brain raced to rapid speeds, unmeasurable heights, and ceaseless regeneration.
Her wound automatically closed up as soon as the omega machines transferred throughout her entire body. Her veins began widening as a side-effect of the injection, almost to the point where they would pop. However, more time passed as Goro and Nobu watched as Sophie lost consciousness, but remained alive. Nana removed the dagger from Sophie's chest with a rough pull.
The wound left by the dagger was nothing but magic to their eyes; the opening that the blade had struck began closing up, weaving muscle fibers, closing vital streams, and automatically creating skin in a matter of seconds. Goro sat back in awe, completely in awe after the omega had begun rejuvenating her body, but at the cost of her humanity.
Nobu carried Sophie up with his arms and eventually onto his shoulders, closed his eyes, and thanked the heavens for saving her with a miracle.