Closing The Book On Project Lacedaemon

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Job Sign-Up: Page 36, Post Number 881

-Hargeon Town, Inside Franklin Kerwes' board room-

Wearing her usual Steel Matron t-shirt and khaki cargo pants with backpack, Tall Victoria had been called to Hargeon Town by Franklin Kerwes to discuss what she had found in the late Alexander Kerwes' laboratory in Sin. She initially felt like not answering the call because the memory of blasting the humanoid mutants with high-explosive grenade rounds was too recent, but the realization that she still had the red spiral notebook detailing Agent Lacedaemon and the trouble it would cause for her if Sabertooth caught wind of what she had made Victoria answer the call. While the method with which she had dispatched Alexander Kerwes was questionable enough, if the Sabertooth top brass ever caught wind of what ghastly information the notebook contained, she would have been lucky if a one-way trip to a Rune Knights detention facility was the least of her worries.

As it stood Victoria got to Hargeon Town with the notebook without Sabertooth suspecting a thing, which was good for her because now she could get rid of it. She only hoped that Franklin would not misuse the data to restart the project. Some things were best left buried with their creators and Project Lacedaemon was one of them.

However, Victoria doubted that that would be the case because Franklin was one of the men who had worked on the original medical project that Project Lacedaemon was a derivative of. He would be tempted to give perfecting the medical version of the formula another try, possibly with a new collaborator. The new collaborator would retrace Alexander's steps and see the potential of a super soldier maker and would strike out on their own to finish what Alexander had started. The whole mess would begin anew and more people would suffer for it until it was shut down again. Victoria would likely have to be the one who shut it down because she had shut down the first version of the project and had the strength necessary to deal with a second attempt.

Victoria hoped that today would be the last she heard of Project Lacedaemon, but she doubted it. There would always be the lure of creating the perfect "super soldier" formula and there would always be entities who were interested in such a creation. Whether they were national governments or private individuals, the allure of quickly advancing their soldiers to the next level and getting a huge advantage over the competition would always be there.

Franklin Kerwes entered the room and politely greeted Victoria. As usual he was well-dressed in a three-piece brown suit and brown dress shoes with every thread in its place. However, he looked to be under a great deal of stress, possibly from the passing of his only son. Even though Victoria killing Alexander was necessary to save the world, outliving his son was not something that Franklin was prepared to deal with and it showed. Franklin's morose facial expression gave Victoria twinges of guilt and the feeling that she should not have come here.

"Hello, Victoria. I understand that you have the notebook with my son's notes on Project Lacedaemon?" Franklin asked Victoria. The brunette faced him and nodded.

"Yes, I have it right here, in my backpack." Victoria answered. She would be glad to get rid of the notebook, but she wanted to be sure that what was written in it would never be used by anyone ever again. She did not want to have to kill any more innocent people who were turned into mutants because someone revived the project and injected more unwilling test subjects with the imperfect version of Agent Lacedaemon. The brunette could not stand the thought of killing any more innocent people who had gotten infected by some blue substance from outer space, an imperfect super solder formula, or whatever. Two times was two times too many and her soul might not survive a third time.

Victoria reluctantly took off her backpack and fished out the red spiral notebook that contained the physical notes for Project Lacedaemon, that dreadful effort at creating super soldiers that had only created monstrosities out of unwilling test subjects. She clutched it in her right hand but was reluctant to hand it over to Franklin Kerwes because there was the growing concern that someone would steal the notebook and revive the project under a new name. Franklin sensed her reluctance but did not say anything. There was no danger of the brunette running off with the information and selling it to the highest bidder. She wanted to see it destroyed for good, wiped off the face of Earthland for all time.

Victoria felt the weight of the notebook in her hand and wanted desperately to be rid of it.

But was handing it to Franklin Kerwes the right thing to do?

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Victoria hesitated on whether to hand over the notebook, but in the end she just wanted to be rid of it. She had nothing to gain from keeping it and if the project started up again it would be on Franklin for not letting things lie. Victoria reluctantly handed over the notebook just to be rid of it. He moved to pull it away when the brunette suddenly clung to it.

"If I were you, I'd burn this notebook and bury the ashes. But you'll probably keep it, so if you ever use anything in here, be careful." Victoria warned him before relinquishing her grip on the notebook. It was likely that she had just stepped over the line by saying what she had, but she was not going to let something she had literally bled to get go without giving a warning about it. As the developer of the original project, Franklin should know exactly what he had just been handed, but she felt obligated to warn him anyway.

"I do not plan on using any of what is in here. I plan to either burn it or lock it away so that no one ever sees it again." Franklin assured her. Victoria looked at his face and determined that the older man was telling the truth, so she did not question him. She only hoped that he would eventually follow through with the promise to destroy it or to lock it away.

"I hope not. It's something that never should have been written down. Project Lacedaemon should never have been created." Victoria replied solemnly. There was no place for witty action movie one-liners in this conversation. Project Lacedaemon was morally repulsive and something that should have never been researched because it used up so many lives for something that was only an expensive pipe dream.

A "super soldier" would be much more costly to maintain than normal ones because in addition to food, equipment, training, and medicine, she doubted that Agent Lacedaemon was a one-and-done injection. She suspected that periodic injections of A-LAC would be needed to keep a "super soldier" performing at a super level. Then there was the cost of A-LAC... it was composed of special ingredients that could not be whipped up in a basement lab whenever supplies ran low. It required special facilities and highly trained chemists to make, so there were two more factors that drove up the price of the agent even more.

Assuming that the formula was perfected, the formula was kept secret from rivals, and the supply chain for the ingredients was kept secure, what did one get in return?

A stronger, faster, and tougher soldier who could still go down if hit with enough bullets or an explosive.

Victoria thought that the whole project was a colossal waste of time and money. Why bother with it when one could just spend the money on better training or better weapons or both? The brunette could see the allure of powering up a few of a country's best of the best, but using it as a quick fix for an entire army would be an expensive mistake.

"I analyzed the data at the lab in Sin and discovered that my son was dangerously close to completing his... work. He only needed another week and the formula would have been perfected. I shudder to think what he could have done with a perfected Agent Lacedaemon." Franklin said to her.

"He could have sold it to interested parties and would have made more money than Capital Crocus could hold in its borders. Or he could have used it on himself and become almost unstoppable." Victoria gave her own take on what Alexander would have done with the perfected Agent Lacedaemon. He would have sold it for large sums of Jewels or he would have taken it himself, stomped Abigail and Victoria into the floor, and then continued to make more A-LAC for sale. Now that Alexander Kerwes was dead, all Victoria had to worry about was people getting hold of his research and continuing it.

"There is that too." Franklin conceded.

"I noticed that as it stood A-LAC induced a whole lot of symptoms that ended with a fatal heart attack after forty-eight hours. It's good for creating a one-shot army of berserkers out of people you really don't care about and using them as bullet sponges for your people. Alexander did that with a big group of adventurers he had captured." Victoria opined about the imperfect A-LAC formula, hinting at the tactic's use to create an army of mutants that forced her to use high-explosive Grenade Launcher rounds to kill them all. She was sure that he saw the red-stained hallway where she had used the weapon to great effect. She hoped that she would never have to do that sort of thing again. It was every bit as soul-crushing as what she had to do in the Phaaz-coated village, which was probably the point. Alexander wanted to impress upon Abigail and Victoria that saving the mutants was impossible and that killing them was the only way to get past them with enough strength left to defeat the rogue scientist who had made them.

He also wanted to crush their spirits before the fight, but that did not happen. Victoria dug deep and killed Alexander Kerwes, but the mental damage had been done. Victoria would carry the memory of firing grenade after grenade into the mutants for the rest of her life... however long that was.

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Franklin and Victoria stood in awkward silence as both of them tried to think of something meaningful to keep the conversation going. Franklin did not want to talk about the demise of his son and Victoria did not want to talk about how she had killed him. Both people were at an awkward impasse and Victoria was hoping that the meeting would be dismissed so that she could get on with something else like finding another job, but the older man looked like he had something to say. Out of respect for him the tall brunette lingered to try and give him time to say what was on his mind. It did not take long for him to finally speak up.

"I... I regret that my son had to die in order for Project Lacedaemon to be shut down, but it had to be done. He was too dangerous to leave alive because he would never have stopped until he had completed Project Lacedaemon. Things had to end like they did... for the good of Earthland." Franklin recited the reason that Alexander had to die to Victoria. It sounded like he was trying to justify it to himself by emphasizing the logic behind the decision. Victoria looked briefly at him and saw that the old man was not buying his own story... he was clearly conflicted about what had happened. The brunette did not dare point this out or criticize him for feeling sentimental about his late son. Aside from having been the one to kill Alexander Kerwes and thus in no position to criticize Franklin, Victoria could also tell that part of Franklin wished that things could have turned out differently, that Alexander could have been saved.

Victoria herself was conflicted about how she had ended the fight. She had used her control over shadows to bind Alexander and had fired a Beam Cannon shot to the head from only two meters away in what amounted to an execution. At the time she had justified it as doing what had to be done, but looking at Franklin and seeing him try to justify the kill order made her reconsider if she had done the right thing.

Should she have ended the fight the way she had?

By the time the fight reached its conclusion, Victoria was in dire straits. Abigail had been knocked unconscious by the rogue scientist and the brunette was badly beaten and lying on the floor. What was more, Victoria's magic reserves had been so drained from fighting her way past Kerwes' mutants that she only had enough left for a Beam Cannon and a single healing spell. She had to make her last Beam Cannon shot count because if she missed the shot she would have had nothing else to kill Kerwes with.

Should she have refrained from using her shadow power and tried standing toe-to-toe with him for what amounted to her last shot at defeating him, a shot that could have easily missed if she had not bound him in shadows first?

No.

Victoria had done the right thing by binding him in shadows so that the last shot she could take would be all but guaranteed to find its mark. It was do or die and Victoria had chosen to do what needed to be done to kill Alexander Kerwes. Taking the unpleasant course of action had ended the threat once and for all. Alexander Kerwes would not be coming back to use anyone else as a test subject for Project Lacedaemon.

If she had done the right thing, why did she fell so bad about it?

Maybe Abigail was right when she said that the pair needed a vacation after completing the mission to Sin. After everything they had went through to get to Alexander Kerwes and stop him, Victoria needed to lay off the violence for awhile; it was likely that she needed to go on a week-long vacation or so, but the brunette could not bear to stay out of the action for that long. Time was money. Besides, she was Sabertooth's second-strongest mage in terms of raw magical firepower and there was always a demand for someone of her strength and ability.

Completing and surviving the mission to Sin should increase her the value of Victoria's stock dramatically. While that success would not make her as valuable as a Wizard Saint or a God/Goddess of Ishgar, surviving one of the most inhospitable places in Earthland would show potential clients that the brunette had what it took to survive in danger zones and still complete the mission. Being hired for dangerous jobs meant more money in Victoria's pocket when they were completed and success led to further dangerous but lucrative jobs.

Victoria thrived on the high-risk/high-reward jobs because anything less than that made her feel like she was not really doing anything but wasting time. Any job other than high-ranking ones did not make her feel alive, which was why she courted disaster by tending to take jobs that put her in harm's way for a big paycheck. That was a bad attitude for a mage in a Legal guild to have because no job was "beneath" a Legal mage. Victoria would need to work on changing that attitude... in the meantime she would have to add that to her "to-do" list because she had other priorities, namely finding another job after the meeting between her and Franklin Kerwes was concluded.

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Now that Victoria had handed over the notebook and Franklin had assured her that the data within was going to be destroyed instead of used, she felt that her role in the events surrounding Project Lacedaemon was at an end. If Franklin followed through with his promise and the data was destroyed, this would be the last time she would ever hear about it. However, there was the issue of the data on Alexander Kerwes' computers back in Sin. Had that data been destroyed before the lab was rendered permanently inaccessible by controlled demolition courtesy of the military contingent Franklin had brought with him?

Recalling what Abigail had asked Victoria back in the lab about the data, the brunette was moved to ask a very important question.

"Did you destroy the data on Project Lacedaemon on the computers in Alexander's lab?" Victoria asked pointedly. She was likely overstepping boundaries by asking such a question, but she had to know that this nightmare would not begin again because he had hidden the data instead of destroying it and someone broke into Franklin's lab and stole it. She had to know. Franklin faced her and nodded. Victoria saw that his answer was truthful, which was a relief.

"It has been completely destroyed. I saw to it personally." Franklin told Victoria. Again the old man was being truthful with her. Again Victoria was relieved to see that the only data left was contained in the red notebook that she had given to Franklin for disposal. That answer left her feeling partially satisfied, but that gave rise to another question.

"Did you see if he had sent the data to anyone before you got to it?" Victoria asked. While she had seen in the notebook where Alexander had pointedly refused to sell an imperfect formula, that was not to be taken at face value. The scientist could have known that Victoria or some other do-good adventurer would stumble across the notebook and have left that line as a lie to deceive her into thinking that he had not sold the formula to anyone else.

"No. I checked all the computer files, every last one of them. He did not give or sell the formula to anyone because in his opinion the formula was not perfect enough to be sold. My son's perfectionism did the world a huge favor." Franklin answered truthfully. Victoria saw that he was telling the truth on this matter and relaxed. Satisfied that Project Lacedaemon was soon going to be consigned to a dark corner of history, the brunette had no further questions for Franklin. She would rather see him burn the notebook right here and right now instead of keeping it and risking some shady character stealing it from his safe and bringing the project back online. However, Victoria had no say on what Franklin did with his son's notebook, which was the last thing that was left of him.

"OK." Victoria answered laconically. She was not going to keep grilling Franklin. She would just let the matter go and hope for the best.

"Thank you for your part in ending this... this fiasco, Miss Sheridan. I must also thank Miss Windstrider and Miss Manderley for their part in stopping my son." Franklin expressed his appreciation for Victoria's hard work. She had chased Franklin's son and fought his creations on an island-hopping adventure that took her to Snowfall Island, Shadow Island, Divide lsland, Crescent Island, and back to Snowfall Island before reaching the end of the line in Sin. It had been quite the adventure and the last fight with Alexander Kerwes was worthy of the promise that their meeting in Sin would be the last one. Having run out of places to hide, Alexander was so strong and determined that he would have won if it were not for Victoria's power to control shadows and her willingness to finish him in what amounted to an execution.

"It's no problem, really. I'm just glad it's over." Victoria answered calmly, careful to leave off any remarks that could be construed as bravado. Franklin quietly nodded.

"So am I." Franklin concurred. He then walked towards the door to the board room and opened it for Victoria. It seemed that the meeting between them was finally over. Project Lacedaemon was no more and Alexander Kerwes would not be coming back to- wait, what had Franklin done with Alexander's body? Furthermore, was this really the time to ask Franklin about his late son?

"I must go see to preparations for my son's cremation. I am cremating him because I do not want any necromancers bringing him back to learn how Agent Lacedaemon was made." Franklin provided an answer of sorts for Victoria's question.

Victoria heard that answer and decided to let the matter drop. She trusted that Franklin would make sure that his son's body was reduced to ashes and that no one could bring him back to either learn the secrets of Project Lacedaemon or get the revived Alexander to make more of Agent Lacedaemon. She would let Franklin have some time alone and see to his son's cremation without her tagging along.

"All right then. I'll be on my way back to Sabertooth Guild Hall. If you need me for anything else, you know where to find me." Victoria said to Franklin. He nodded and walked out of the room before stopping in the hallway and turning to face the Sabertooth mage.

"Thank you for your hard work." Franklin thanked her one last time before turning around and going down the hallway to the right. Victoria did not bother to go after him and instead went left. She would see herself out and leave him in peace.

-The outskirts of Hargeon Town, twenty minutes later-

Victoria had left Franklin's lab behind and was now on her way out of Hargeon Town so that she could return to Sabertooth Guild Hall and find another job to take. She wondered if Dr. Hanlon had perfected the DH-40 Chiron yet. She also wondered if Serena Anderson of the Order of Lightbringers was staying out of trouble after having been rescued from Haunted Castle. She would find out once she returned to Sabertooth Guild Hall and checked the job board.

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