Dalila Reyes

> *"...Taking sole responsibility for deciding what's best for the world? That's madness."*
>
>

Agent **Dalila Reyes**, codename **Raiz**, is the main playable character in *Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle.*

## Official description

Agent Reyes acted as a spy during the 1990 Gulf Crisis in Operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Sabre.” She was consumed by war and now struggles with the nightmares of her past. Though extremely clever and trained in combat, she was dismissed by the U.S. Marine Corps, only to be recruited by Major Radek for the H.A.D.E.S. unit. Reyes is currently the team communications and electronics expert, and a second-in-command to the Major for the unit.

## Biography

### Early life

She had a younger sister named Helen. The two girl were growing up together dreaming about changing the world. In 1978, during her college days, she completing the first two prototypes of her invention, the D.I.D. She gave the second prototype to Helen so the sisters could always stay in contact. Unlike her sister, who chose to dedicate her life to science, Dalila decided to pursue career in the Navy. The sisters used their D.I.D. to stay in contact and send messages to each other. In 1983, Dalila made it to Helen's graduation ceremony. Helen's job at the top secret government caused tensions between the sisters. Dalila served during the Gulf War and was discharged feeling burnt out and empty, which caused her to get cold to her sister. Helen eventually left to join the top secret research project at the CASTLE and Dalila turned off her D.I.D. Some time later she received news of Helen's death.

Reyes was eventually recruited into H.A.D.E.S. and was transfered to Lair Dam HQ in Keen Sight. Reyes, assigned as an engineer and communication specialist, didn't find much in common with her H.A.D.E.S. collegues and chose to spent time in her room working on her inventions. Nevertheless, she developed a close friendship, with Major Radek, who became the person she could trust the most in H.A.D.E.S. She kept a old torn photo of her with her sister, along with a shabby doll of Helen in a researcher's coat, as a keepsake from their childhood.

### Operation Sandcastle

On March 11, 1994,  she hears the news report about the earthquakes in Rachel that caused a school bus to overturn leaving many casualties. She is informed by Radek that the mission was given a green light and she was assigned under his command. She notices the high importance of the operation considering the Commander's involvement. Foster compliments her quick thinking, revealing the H.A.D.E.S. presence has to be hidden from Section 8, a unit responding directly to the President.

Arriving at the facility the group finds the camp deserted and the facility locked up with the entrance sealed. Reyes, using her knowledge of electric locks, manages to find the way around and restore the power but ends up being separated from her team. She navigates the base on her own finding corpses of Section 8 soldiers along the way and discovers a laboratory researching a type of metal she never heard of before, RAM77, an alloy capable of teleporting matter that was used to build an aircraft that could remain undetected to radars. She witnesses a lighting orb being absorbed by a corpse bringing it back to life as a zombie that emits electricity that attacks Reyes. She notices how the electric charge that the creatures pass on to each other gives them an ability to teleport and makes them invulnerable to bullets. Reyes manages to escape and reports her findings to Radek via radio who warns her to be careful. She discovers the corpses of H.A.D.E.S. soldiers unknown to her. She picks up an equipment known as the Frost Grip from one of them and realizes she's being watched when a voice heard on a dead agent's radio starts addressing her directly. Using the Frost Grip to freeze the creatures, Reyes finds her way to wounded Radek. He reveals to Reyes that their encounter with the Section 8 led to Foster murdering their contact in an attempt to recover the briefcase. Foster fled chased by a soldier whom he recognized as Gora, leaving Radek behind. The Major warns Reyes of Foster's ulterior motives and orders her to go back to wait for them outside. Reyes tells Radek how she doesn't want to lose him and, giving the Major's condition, locks him in a warehouse, choosing to pursue the Commander on her own.

Reyes tracks down the briefcase in the hands of an H.C.O. scientist when suddenly they hear an unearthly sound that turns the scientist hostile, leaving Reyes with no choice but to shoot him in self-defense. She recovers the briefcase and establishes the contact with Volken, the helicopter pilot, who warns her of the incoming sandstorm. Trying to make her way back to the surface through the water supply plant, Reyes is locked in a pressure chamber by H.A.D.E.S. agent in a gas mask who was taunting her before on the radio. He exposes Reyes to the Daymare Toxin, a gas used for mind control, and leaves her a cryptic message about a mysterious "Him" sleeping in the abyss. Reyes recovers and makes her way to the surface where she is haunted by a vision of a blonde woman in a gas mask. She finally finds Foster, who was wounded by Gora, revealed to be his former subordinate. Foster also accuses Radek of leaving him behind, claiming Radek had sold out, which Reyes refuses to believe. Foster reveals that the real objective of the Operation was to prevent Section 8 from discovering the CASTLE, a top secret research base unknown to the President located in the depth below the Groom Lake. Before Foster could reveal the truth behind the research performed in the CASTLE, he is shot by an unknown assailant and falls down the shaft. Reyes informs Volken of her decision to complete the Commander's mission and tracks down his body next to the broken briefcase, the content of which is revealed to be a sample of blood.

Reyes enters the underground levels where she sees the blonde woman again and recognizes her as Helen whom she believed to had died years ago. She is then attacked by the creatures but is saved by the gas masked agent, who introduces himself as "Aptom". He brings her to the underground train station but refuses to answer her question, only telling her of an entity he believes to be a manifestion of the god Hades. He is then stopped by the unearthly sound that forces him to attack Reyes taking the blood vial from her and shattering it to the ground. Reyes reawakens in the detention area completely filled with the Daymare gas. She sees Helen again and realises her sister's death was fabricated, when in reality she left to take part in the research at the CASTLE. Reyes accuses her sister of abandoning her, but the latter assures Dalila, whom she keeps addressing as "Raiz", they can be together now. Reyes realizes Helen is a hallucination caused by the toxin. She is then greeted by the voice on a radio belonging to a female researcher, who locked herself with a group of survivors in the control room, asking Reyes to reactivate the ventilation system as they lack oxygen. The researchers were originally a part of the Abyss Scan Program that discovered Ram77 but were forced by Hexacore to work on the teleportation experiments using human test subjects (T-3). Those who refused to comply were locked in the detention area and were subjected to Daymare Toxin that eventually led them to become obsessed with the same entity Aptom worships. Reyes discovers a series of religious paintings depicting an octopus-like creature absorbing the light from people and several H.A.D.E.S. corpses murdered in a ritualistic fashion with a symbol of Hades next to each victim, painted with their blood.

Eventually, Reyes restores the ventilation system but the doctor refuses to fulfill her end of the bargain, leaving Reyes outside to fight off the incoming decoys. Reyes destroys the devices that isolate the electromagnetic anomaly, allowing the decoys to teleport into the control room and massacre the researchers inside. Reyes manages to leave the area and through the monorail system makes it to the CASTLE entrance gate, where she catches a glimpse of Helen before being ambushed by Gora. Despite his bias against H.A.D.E.S., Gora offers to work together as they need to recover two parts of the entrance code, so Gora goes to the Residential District, while Reyes travels to the Medical Area. She finds the place had become a "nest" full of cocoons made of melted human flesh that contains the twisted bodies of the T-3 victims, who were brought back to life as a result of electromagnetic anomaly. She also finds evidence that the Groom Lake personnel were given CRM-114 pills to treat the side effects of the Daymare Syndrome. After surving the fight at the nest and recovering the code, Reyes receives a distress message from Gora who pleads her to come to help rescue the remaining survivors, including children, locked in the school. Reyes makes her way to the Residential Area only to find a delirious Gora suffering from hallucinations. He claims the children were taken away by the creatures and breaks down in front of Reyes, who comforts him as she understand Gora's pain. She warms up to the Section 8 soldier, even allowing him to her by her first name. In return, Gora reveals that Foster was his Commander in Grenada who forced him to abandon his team, leaving Gora to live with the guilt. Gora now wants to bring Hexacore to justice for all the inhumane experiments they performed by revealing the existence of the CASTLE to the President. Reyes advises him not to assume responsibility for the rest of the world as they are only soldiers meant to follow orders. Deep down, however, she ends up questioning her dead Commander's motives after everything she learned.

Before they could enter the CASTLE the two soldiers are confronted by Radek, to Reyes' shock. He helds them both at gunpoint, threatening them to stay away from the CASTLE and warning Reyes of Gora's true intentions. Reyes tries to plead with Radek, but the latter takes Gora hostage and drags him into the Castle with him, leaving Reyes behind. Reyes is devastated by Radek's betrayal, when her D.I.D. picks up a signal that she assumes is Radek's. She follows a trail to a different part of the Residential District, where she discovers her sister's apartment. The signal is revealed to have come from an old D.I.D. prototype she made for Helen years ago, along with a shabby doll of herself in a soldier's uniform, that makes Reyes realize Helen had never forgotten about her. She listens to the message Helen recorded before she left for her laboratory in the area below, known as "Sarcophagus", to put an end to "something" but the message ends abruptly. Reyes also discovers Helen had a lover named Brian. She finds a passage below Helen's house that leads to Aptom's lair, where she learns Aptom is a surviving victim of a T-3 experiment.

Following the alternative route through a monorail station, Reyes finally enters the CASLTE. She finds herself in the H.A.D.E.S. office, where she realizes Foster has been in charge of the Castle security all along and established the unit to work in secret from the main HQ. Moreover, the Commander was the one who authorized the use of the Daymare Toxin and worked directly with Helen. She also finds evidence suggesting Foster was planning to steal the blood sample for himself to sell it to a third party. Reyes is angered by her Commander's betrayal and blames him for getting her sister involved in his schemes. She finally makes it to the Womb, a laboratory her sister build inside the Sarcophagus located below a giant portal, where she confronts Aptom, who is revealed to be Brian, trying to awaken the prehistoric sea creature known as "Ogre" that was dormant below the Antarctic ice for millions of years before it got trapped in the Sacrophagus during an accidental teleportation. Mistaken for her sister, Reyes is hugged by Brian, who soon remembers the truth: he had killed Helen to stop her from murdering the creature and then injected her body with Ogre's blood to revive her and make her one with the creature. Brian, overtaken by grief and his violent alternate persona, shoots himself in the head, hoping the Ogre will reunite him with Helen who is revealed to be standing next to him. "Helen", who appears to be a mental image only seen to Dalila as a result of her exposure to Daymare Toxnin, speaks to Reyes, claiming to be the surviving part of Helen's consciousness preserved by Ogre's residual life energy that had overtaken the entire facility. She reveals the Ogre was just as much of a victim of the researchers' as they were of his, and the creature's only wish is to be free. "Helen" claims because of the sisters' love for each other their bond can surpass the will of the creature and asks Reyes to complete Helen's mission and destroy Ogre, reassuring the tearful Reyes that her sister will always be with her. Reyes is stopped by Gora, who to tries to preserve the creature to use as an evidence against Hexacore. Reyes realizes Gora is delirious as a result of the toxin and is left with no choice but to shoot the Section 8 soldier.

Reyes escapes the self-destructing laboratory and observes the remains of the creature, a set of giant tentacles. She is contacted by Volken and Radek, who is waiting for her in the Evacuation zone promising to give her answers later. Part of Ogre, however, survives through Helen, who was given his blood, transforming her into a grotesque hybrid with Helen's human's part still trying to reach out to her sister. Dalila refuses to stay and has to avoid her sister's deadly embrace and a swarm of teleporting decoys she keepts summoning after her. Reyes eventually makes it to Radek hanging from the helicopter on a rope, who shoots Helen with a rocket launcher and catches Reyes into his arms. The Major finally reveals that he was aware of Foster's real motives but the Commander used Reyes as a collateral against him, knowing how much she means to Radek. He also gives back Reyes her old D.I.D. prototype that he somehow got a hold of, revealing Radek was in contact with Helen. Reyes is deeply hurt by Radek's keeping secrets from her but hears the Ogre's scream again that causes her to lose her grip and she falls down back to the destroying facility as Radek fails to catch her. Reyes survives the fall and tells Radek to leave her. Radek promises to wait for her on the surface, confessing how he doesn't want to lose her as well. Despite Radek's plea, Volken chooses to leave her in the middle of a sandstorm. Reyes sees Helen again who reaches her hand to her sister and she reaches back in a symbolic gest confirming the sister's reconciliation.

Unknown to Radek, Reyes survives and reawakens in a nearly destroyed base. She listens to Helen's last message she left for Radek thanking him for everything he had done for the sisters and asking him to tell Dalila her feelings for her had never changed. Following Helen's voice in her head, Reyes activates a working teleporting devices and sees an image of two dolls holding hands. She contemplates of injecting herself with the last sample of Ogre's blood that could allow her to pass through the portal safely, leaving her fate unknown.

## Gallery

### Concept art

* Reyes character profile
* Reyes on the cover
* Death by sparker

### *Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle*

* Reyes in the alpha demo
* Face closeup
* Reyes in the promotional screenshots
* Reyes facing her enemies at the end of the demo
* Reyes using the scanner
* Reyes finds Radek
* Reyes and Radek
* Reyes locks up Radek

### Other

* Helen's doll of Dalila
* Dalila's first D.I.D.
* Lady of the Castle

## Trivia

* She is the first female playable character in the series.
* She has possible Hispanic heritage as "Reyes" is a common Spanish name meaning "kings" or "royalty". The Platinum trophy for the game refers to her as "Lady of the Castle".

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyes\_(name)