Ether/Story

Spoilers!*"Your greatest villain Drake shall warn you, SPOILERS AHEAD!"*The following article or section contain **spoilers!** Viewer discretion is advised.

Overview**Story**VoicelinesGallery

## Behind the Scenes

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Bang Siu

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Lisa Ortiz

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Sayaka Senbongi

## Profile

Ether has a scientifically-inclined mindset, referring to the player as [Test Subject] No.7 and cajoling them into trying whatever kind of shady drug she's cooked up. Her time and focus are so dedicate towards her work that should her stocking tear, she would simply carry on wearing the torn ones than actually taking the time to change, despite being repeatedly told off by her superior over this.

### Nikke Backstory

A mad scientist who believes that science is the domain of humankind. She can often be seen carrying out all manner of experiments and overseeing the lives of her fellow M.M.R. members.

## Story

### Character Story

#### Episode 1 - A Disease on the Surface

The commander seems to have come down with a cold chill today and isn't feeling well. Rapi and Anis come to check on him and upon the latter feeling his forehead, she can tell he has come down with some kind of illness. He admits to have started to feel off since last night and she deduces he caught a disease from the surface since their last operation. His condition suddenly worsens and his vision becomes blurry, he is barely able to speak because he is coughing constantly, and he developed a bad headache. As the two call M.M.R., the ailing protagonist passes out.

He wakes up to hear the beeping sounds of a machine and smells the odor of disinfectant. After hearing some strange scratching noises, he learns that Ether is also in the room and was questioning if she should shower since her head itches, something he strongly wished to tell her to do. Her presence got on his nerves between the scratching and her smelling bad in general. This finally got her attention and after proving he can still recognize her, she proceeds to do a check up to make sure he is functioning properly. After noticing his cough still hasn't subsided yet, she hands him a cup filled with water to drink since the examination was over.

She reveals he was sent to the M.M.R. Research Center after he lost consciousness because the hospital is not equipped to handle what he caught. She tells him his choices are to either stay here or get sent to the Rehabilitation Center. Since No 7. has contracted an unknown disease from the surface that looks and acts similar to a cold but isn't one, there is no way to properly treat him currently. He now understands he is here so Ether can study the virus he's infected with so therapeutic medicine can be developed to treat it.

While he was worried she would also get sick because of him, she assures him that she will most likely never catch a human-transmitted illness since Nikkes are completely inorganic aside from their brains. Only if a virus is modified to affect Nikkes specifically and was injected into her by a syringe would she be concerned. While the two are glad they don't have to worry about Ether (he was just concerned about her general safety and she didn't want to be replaced), she shared that she's spent the past few nights tending to him, something he appreciates. She also gives him a pill that contains an incomplete version of the medicine that will help him. Though he has some worries, she assures him that since he's neither an inmate at the Rehabilitation Center nor is he one of her personal test subjects, she has no right to experiment on him and the pill will cause him no harm. He drinks the water with the pill. After sharing that caring for him was also the reason she hasn't taken a shower recently, she takes out a tablet and asks him to sign a consent form so his personal belongings can remain safe but he will suffer consequences if anything from the lab gets released. After sharing he would be locked in isolation without food or water until either he miraculously recovers on his own or dies a slow and horrible death because he will receive no treatment if he doesn't sign, he does as he is told with some more convincing. Now she's done doting on him for today, Ether tells No 7. to get some rest and to press the call button if he needs anything. After profusely coughing some more, he falls asleep.

The following day, someone slips a piece of paper under his door after he hears someone knocking on it. It has "PM 11. Furthest to the right. CASE01. HEL" written on it with the other end of it torn off. He interpretates "HEL" to mean "HELP."

#### Episode 2 - Furthest to the right HEL

It's 10:30 pm and the commander has only the sound of a ticking clock to entertain him. The moving of its hands to the ticking sounds reminds him of what Ether had done to him earlier. She performed some tests to see how he was doing after taking the experimental medicine. Overall, his health is improving minus the light coughing and a low-grade fever. She collected a sample of his blood, his appetite is normal, and he is able to walk again. After trying and failing to get her to listen to him, he asks her for a watch so he can keep track of time. Though she feels that would be a waste of time since he can't do anything until he is fully cured, she blames that thinking to ignorance on her part and agrees to find one for him. He also asks if he can leave his room and she allows him to move around the current floor if he needs to, but is forbidden from entering the other rooms. No 7.'s requests make him seem suspicious to her since he's acting as if he needs to see someone. She initially allows him to see the person he was looking for, but denies it after since she reminds herself he isn't allowed to see anyone until he feels better. She asks to accompany him on his stroll but he assures her there's no need for her to join him, something she agrees with since she would find the walk to be a burden. After rising from her chair, Ether accidentally rips one of her leggings and initially asks him to get her another one from the first floor until she remembers he's not allowed to go to any other floor. After almost convincing her to let him get it for her, she decides to wear them as is and deal with the consequences. She leaves not long after.

Left alone in his dark, lifeless room, 27 minutes have passed and he once again reads the paper he found earlier. Curious about what it means, he leaves his room to follow the instructions on the slip. He heads to the furthest room down the hall and attempts to peek into the room on the right while coughing all the way. He eventually has to stop to catch his breath, but after hearing someone else coughing louder than him, he continues his shambling march. Turns out, the coughing is coming from the room the slip instructs him to go to. The room itself is called "CASE 01." After listening in further, someone else also appears to be inside. After moving closer to the room, he can tell Ether is the one talking. After pushing the door open enough to see inside, he sees Ether's back as she was working on something that hasn't been going well. She wants to determine how much of a dosage of the disease she has can be lethal and after putting it in a syringe, she walks over to some Nikkes who are coughing and tied up to a bed and decides to make one of them a guinea pig to find out. His next cough alerts the scientist of his presence and he proceeds to make his way back to his room while coughing up a storm, but notices the words "CASE 0" assigned to the room he is in. Fortunately, she doesn't notice him and heads back to her research so as to not waste time on a wild goose chase.

#### Episode 3 - In the CASE

As more time goes by, the protagonist slowly recovers though his persistent cough still remains. After questioning him about what he did last night, she shares she noticed someone sneaking around and was curious if he saw anyone suspicious. He had no answers for her which was a shame. After taking his medicine again, she decides to call it a day since she spent the past three nights researching without any sleep so she wants to nod off and take a bath. He asks her what "Case 0" means and while she forgets at first, she reveals that the 0 means "Original". He admits that he was curious about it, something she can understand given that he has been bedridden for a while now, but she assures him that he will be well enough to resume taking on missions soon. After telling him to think more clearly, she shuts the door to his room behind her.

Since it's now 3:00 PM and the protagonist has nothing better to do, he decides to take a nap. His slumber was haunted with what he had discovered before. After thinking things over, he still has no idea what Ether's intentions with the virus she extracted from him are, why she modified it to target Nikkes specifically, why she has Nikkes trapped in that room, or what "CASE Original" even means. His thoughts cloud his mind for eight hours. Now 11 PM like the paper says, he is determined to visit CASE 01 again to find some answers.

On his way back to the room he peeked into before, he notices the rooms he passes all are called CASE with numbers after them in descending order starting with 5. He tries to open a few of them, but they are locked. After stopping to cough again and to regain his breath, he realizes that he can no longer hear coughing coming from the room. He eventually reaches CASE 01 and proceeds to open it again only to discover it is completely devoid of Nikkes. The Nikkes that were here have disappeared and only the syringe that Ether used before was left as a clue to anyone's presence. He moves towards the table with the syringe but feels a muzzle touch the back of his head. The scientist now knows that he was the rat she's been searching for, but he wants her to explain everything that's been happening in this room to him. She initially refuses to tell him since he is not her superior here nor is he a commander to her. She only considers No 7. to be her lab rat. After stealing the syringe, he threatens to inject himself with whatever's inside of it into his arm unless she starts talking. He understands that the syringe contains a modified strand of the virus he contracted that can afflict Nikkes. Though she was surprised he was willing to potentially kill himself for this, he warns her that as her patient, if anything happens to him, she will have to take responsibility for it. She finally understands why Syuen considers him a pain in the neck and confirms that if he did die from the modified virus, word would certainly get out. Despite how troublesome explaining things will be, she has no choice but to do so given his threats. She tells him that they should go somewhere more private to talk and she then shoots him with an anesthetic bullet as payback for threatening her. Though it won't kill him. He passes out as a result.

#### Episode 4 - Laboratory Rat

After No 7. regains consciousness later than she expected, she realized she should've just knocked him out. He discovered that Ether moved him to another room. After giving him some water to drink, he makes it clear that he wants her to explain herself and will refuse her treatment if she doesn't, even if she administers it by force.

After getting annoyed at her constant rambling, she shares that this center specializes in diseases found on the surface and each floor deals with a different type of virus. She in particular is studying the one that afflicted him to understand things like its molecular structure, any negative effects on the body, how it changes after it deteriorates, the rate and speed of infection, as well as serving as a basis to help ultimately create therapeutic medicine that can cure it. Each individual virus is studied in a "CASE" room. He was placed in the "Original" Case as he was the first one to contract it and he will return to the Ark once he fully recovers which is her main goal.

As for why other Nikkes are being experimented upon, they are the cheapest test subjects money can buy despite the fact a virus needs to be modified so it can be transmitted to them in the first place. Though their anatomy is different from humans, their souls are similar to them and they are good at verbally responding to her questions. None of them consented to being experimented on, but know what they are getting into. She considers this a necessary evil since if the Nikkes don't get infected so the research center develops new medicine nor tests them for safety reasons or side effects, no one would willingly volunteer. She also shares the medicine he's been taking has been swallowed by Nikkes beforehand with the end result being it is safe for human consumption. In more elaborate terms, CASE 01 is where the virus is studied to determine its infection process and symptoms compared to other similar viruses and where therapeutic medicine is created to treat it. The first dose of the medicine is tested in CASE 02 and as things progress, the most effective and least dangerous medicine is sent further down the rooms. CASE 03 deals with the most amount of side effects the medicine can have while CASE 04 deals with the opposite. The resulting concoction is thoroughly tested in CASE 05 and is then able to be consumed by the patient.

After learning how medicine is made, the commander felt sick to his stomach. He asks about what happens to the Nikkes after they are no longer needed for experimentation and she reveals none of them receive treatment and they are either discarded or are killed. Now that she's been thoroughly clear as to how things work here, she wants him to swallow the pill. He refuses unless Nikkes are no longer used for medicinal research. Though she thinks he is threatening her again, he offers the use of his body to test the medicine instead and pleads with her to cure the Nikkes who were infected for his sake. His refusal to cooperate, his disregard for her orders, and his constant threats are proving very troublesome to her. If Ether abandons using Nikkes as test subjects for the sake of his idealism, she would have no means to create new medicine anymore. He would rather die than sacrifice others to keep him alive. She believes using others for science is human nature. After sharing that Splendamin is created through similar research, she calls him a hypocrite for suggesting that her methods are immoral when more Nikkes die fighting on the surface. Despite their back and forth, Ether agrees to make No 7. her lab rat and after the medicine is completed, the Nikkes who she experimented upon before will be treated with it. However, she warns him for the next week, he will be enduring the experiments the Nikkes would have dealt with and will suffer the same consequences as they have, something he is willing to tolerate. She can't wait for the agony to crush his courageous spirit. Despite how stubborn he is, she is grateful for him lending himself for the pursuit of medicine.

His first test will be to be reinfected with the virus he contracted and after she injects it into his veins, she promises to take good care of him.

#### Episode 5 - The Abyss of Necessary Evil

After finally starting to recover from his illness, the commander is now in constant pain having been willingly made into Ether's guinea pig. His throat is burning, his coughs are worse than before, and he is dizzy while his head is metaphorically on fire. Throughout it all, she keeps her promise and gives him medicine constantly. Despite her insistence that he should give up for the day, he will continue the torture he is dealing with. She doesn't understand what he hopes to gain out of all of this since even if he does provide useful data, Nikkes will still become test subjects anyways. After revealing he is doing this for his own self-satisfaction, she calls him cool and after injecting something into his arm, she tells him she thinks a cool guy can handle this. She reminds him that he has braced three out of the seven days of experimentation and hopes he survives the last four. He is forced to close his eyes afterwards and as she warned, the pain becomes worse as things go on.

As the days go by, his condition becomes near critical. He coughs up blood and he has so many chills and aches, he also developed shivers. Despite it all, he braves the physical and mental anguish nonetheless. The last four days come and go and at last the final day arrives. Now, he feels completely fine and as if he wasn't in near endless suffering for the past week. Ether congratulates him for surviving and making a full recovery. He still worries about the Nikkes and after giving him a meaningful stare, she admits to still not understanding why he would risk his life for their sakes. She can't tell if he has nerves of steel or is mentally unstable with his personal assessment being both. She reveals that the medicine works effectively and they were cured of the infection because of it. Though he worries she will take her anger at him out on the Nikkes, she assures him despite how she may call them disposable, they are not slaves and she considers them fellow staff members. She will not play god to make herself feel better and will only follow the rules and procedures specified by the Research Center. In regards to the Nikkes, they will only be destroyed if a Mind Switch occurs regardless as to why it happens. Since he's in full health, she's ready to send him off so she can focus on other research. After thanking her for treating him, she personally escorts him outside.

Now able to venture outside again, No 7. takes in a deep breath that he has been waiting so long to take. Ether can clearly tell he's elated to be able explore the Ark again. She wants him to remember that the happiness brought by peace and liberty is valuable and wants him to enjoy life even if he has to pretend to be blissfully ignorant by ignoring the Ark's darker sides. This is how she thinks he can live in his hypocritical paradise. He doesn't think that is the case because sooner or later, people will become aware of the flaws the Ark has and while Ether feels everyone will just ignore them, she assumes he never will.

After hoping he gets an incurable disease from the surface so the next time he sees her, he becomes so weak that he can't threaten her with his own suicide, she wants to see if his sense of justice can overcome human instinct. She wants to know if he considers this a necessary evil and he has no response for her. She then says her goodbyes to her righteous lab rat and expects to see him again once he's on the brink of death from contracting a fatal illness.

As she turns her back on him, Ether has a parting gift for No 7. She gives him a piece of paper, but before he can get some answers about it, she runs off. Upon opening it, he finds a note that reads...

*P. No. 7, you'll be my experimental subject, won't you? You are such a righteous person.*

Upon taking out the other piece of paper that he was given before, he puts them together and they make a full message.

*PM 11. Furthest to the right. CASE01. HELP. No. 7, you'll be my experimental subject, won't you? You are such a righteous person.*

Having just realized becoming her lab rat was Ether's goal all along, he turns back to her only for her to "shh" him before returning to the abyss, where the necessary evil is brewing. He stares at her back, and silently walks on the abyss.

## References

Notes

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