"One less mirror bird to watch over Jasper." "Murdered like the others were." "Who did it?" "And why?" "To keep us from learning what threatens us." "Without the eyes of the mirror birds, we can't see what's happening at the borders of our land." "Our screens lack power." "I have been warning you about this." "But no one cares at Jasper..." "It's a great pride of our civilization that we prefer birds to machines!" "And natural order to technical solutions..." "Sure..." "But we may have to pay too dearly for our way of life... and too soon..." "Given the urgency of the situation, the Council has chosen our best agent to investigate." "Which one?" "Sylvain." "Syl?" "!" "But he is not experienced enough!" "I've taught him, and I am quite certain about it." "He is very capable." "Surely there are more experienced... and more capable agents than he is." "The Council's vote was unanimous." "Besides, we've already summoned." "Agent Sylvain, Syl, as your friends call you..." "The Council of Women has chosen you for a most important, difficult and dangerous mission." "My life belongs..." "We don't want you to die, but to return and inform us." "An unknown enemy menaces Gandahar." "You must discover where this enemy is, who this enemy is, determine its power, its weaponry and its methods." "And, if you can, probe into its secrets, find its weakness... hoping it has any." "It's not without doubts that I am sending you." "It's too dangerous." "But we did have to send our best agent." "Exactly where are you sending me?" "Your target is vast." "The Eccentric Ocean." "That's where most of the mirror birds have been killed." "However, one bird saw something." "Possibly, one of the invaders." "Here is the image it was able to transmit before it died." "Can we replay it backwards?" "And more slowly?" "I've also hoped to identify the shooter... but with this metallic reflexion..." "It has been foolish of us to expect that our present happiness should last forever." "We've indulged in our sweet life at Gandahar." "And the peace has been lasting so long that we've forgotten how to fight." "No doubt about it." "He was/will be from Gandahar." "Impossible!" "I have never seen any who..." "Gandahar, I tell you." "Gandahar, but before..." "Unbelievable!" "He was/will be alive... but very weak." "He was/will be very careless to fly so far from the capital." "Careless?" "No -- audacious!" "Maybe he was sent to..." "So Jasper would know about the lethal danger?" "Who were you?" "I am!" "I am a son of Gandahar!" "A "servant"... and a prisoner of the enemy." "The enemy?" "Where did you come from?" "From Jasper!" "Were they will always be so smug in Jasper!" "They certainly were when they did this to us..." "Keep quiet!" "Now, do you really believe we're your enemy?" "I do!" "Ready to attack you?" "Yes." "Capable of defeating you?" "No!" "Can't you guess who we are?" "With these bodies... these heads, these misshapen limbs assembled without care." "The Transformed?" "Those who Gandahar calls the Transformed!" " Not the Transformed, the wrongly formed." " The result of monstrous errors." " From the games of chance." " The wretched mutants!" "Gandaharians, yes." "Descendants of Gandaharians, just like you." "But we were/will be the victims of your scientific research in the field of genetic mutations." "How could I imagine?" "Gandaharians who became an embarrassment, and who were banished underground..." "As living proofs so many of your other failures." "As a "servant" trainee, I studied your History, but I would never imagine..." "Of course!" "No one would imagine!" "Forgive me for having taken you... for the enemies you're trying to find?" "I forgive... and understand." "The real enemy has never been seen." "Never." "But we've been listening to him through these tunnels." "The Ears of the Earth." "Shayol!" "I was/will be at your command!" "You shall lead Sylvain the "servant" to the far side of the jungle, until you reach..." "the noise." "I was/will be at your command!" "Why do you say "was will be" instead of simply "I am"?" "The Transformed are terrified of the present." "Why is it?" "Perhaps it's an atavism." "We keep degrading." "At the time of the first genetic errors, we had the gift of foresight." "Unfortunately, we've lost it." "There is nothing left other than a double prophecy, doubly obscure." ""In a thousand years, Gandahar was destroyed and all of its people killed."" ""A thousand years ago, Gandahar will be saved, and what can't be avoided will be."" "In a thousand years, Gandahar was destroyed?" "A thousand years ago, Gandahar will be saved?" "Future in past?" "Past in future?" "But what does it mean?" "We don't understand it any better than you, but these words have become our nature, and past-future our way of speaking..." "and believing." "Shayol!" "These women and children are dead?" "Petrified on the spot!" "Annihilated!" "No!" "Don't turn me to stone!" "Don't turn me to stone!" "Don't steal my body!" "It's not something I would do!" "I've seen them, Ambisextra." "They are made of metal... of metal." "Airelle..." "Your name is as beautiful as you are!" "And what is your name?" "Sylvain, my friends call me Syl." "I am a "servant"." "Ambisextra's servant." "How do you know?" "I've never seen you in Jasper!" "I live far away from the capital, in a fishermen's village." "I will take you there one day, if we get out of this prison." "I was carelessly flute fishing." "Flute fishing?" "Yes, I'll teach you." "If we get a chance..." "When they shot me, I didn't feel any pain." "My body became hard and insensitive." "I lost consiousness, and woke up here, shortly before you." "What is it?" "What's happening?" "How quiet all of a sudden..." "Syl!" "Syl, help, it's turning!" "Don't try to resist, slide!" "I have a gun." "With one last seed." "Syl, what is it?" "It's going to work!" "It has to work!" "What a monster!" "A Sorn?" "It's impossible..." "This species has been extinct from our planet... in theory." "Don't be afraid." "Sorns are not carnivores." "Yet it's going to swallow us." "You are very beautiful, Airelle!" "So are you, hero!" "How do sorns reproduce?" "They lay eggs." "Our sorn is a lady." "A lady?" "How would you know the sex of a sorn?" "Intuition!" "A lady and a mother." "She took our prison for an egg, and us for the hatchlings." "That would explain..." "That does explain." "That she was fighting with the metal men to retrieve her clutch." "The seed provokes the hatching." "Miss sorn takes us for her offspring." "That's why she groomed us and built the nest." "What is she going to feed us with?" "Poor Syl, the brave "servant" turned into a chick!" "It took mysterious metal men to attack my village, that you were sent from Jasper to investigate, that you were captured too, and put in the same cell, that we were freed by a lady sorn... for me to fall in love with you!" "I've just been stupid and way too self-confident." "Expecting this to be just another reconaissance mission." "But I have seen so much in such little time." "I am afraid, Airelle." "Yes... afraid." "If I fail, Gandahar will die." "The metal men are terribly strong, but they are obviously stupid." "They cannot win!" "And I don't want to lose you!" "It's not easy to lose me, you'll see." "No, I won't see that." "You'll be nice and wait for me, alright?" "Syl, let's not argue, I'll go where you go." "You'll be in my way, I'll go alone!" "No way." "Servant, who is not divine needs the help of another (human)." "Empty!" "Inexplicably empty!" "No flesh, no skeleton." "Nothing living, nothing mechanical!" "No gears, no circuits, no nothing." "And yet they are capable of moving, fighting, and using weapons..." "And using their heads too?" "Let's have a look!" "Syl!" "It's a real army!" "I never thought they were so powerful, so well equipped." "So well organized for the purpose of destroying us." "Gandahar doesn't stand much of a chance." "We've got a real advantage:" "They are empty." "Without brains, without hearts." "This is what happened to me." "One of these cold monsters carried me in its arms..." "I'm glad that the sorn shattered them to pieces!" "I don't like that door." "Doesn't close anything, or open on anything, and yet, as they go through it, the eggs disappear." "There's an explanation." "There has to be one." "We must find it." "Oh, it would be too horrible!" "The petrified humans went in, and came out as metal men." "This door transforms Gandaharians into Gandaharian killer robots." "Men of metal!" "Men of metal!" "Our mission is a tremendous success." "Our losses do not matter." "Those metal men which were destroyed needn't to be mourned." "Death only scares fragile beings," "Individualistic beings." ""I" does not exist!" ""I" DOES NOT EXIST!" "I am you, you are us, us are Him." "I AM YOU, YOU ARE US, US ARE HIM!" "We are Him." "The Great Procreator, master of our energies, and soon the master of the world." "We will soon put an end to the scandalous civilization of Gandahar." "Gandahar, civilization of pleasure, Gandahar, kingdom of waste and dereliction, the Great Procreator takes back what you didn't deserve." "Before the final annihilation, our delegates will travel over the Eccentric Ocean... to prove our complete submission to Him." "Contact with the Master will renew our power and our strength!" "Hear me!" "Hear me!" "Tonight you must stay disconnected until we embark." "So is the will of the Great Procreator!" "SO IS THE WILL OF THE GREAT PROCREATOR!" "The Great Procreator?" "Total annihilation?" "He must be insane!" "Alas, he sounds quite serious, you know." "Total annihilation..." "it must be the eggs." "The Great Procreator..." "it sounds like a High Priest." "As for the Eccentric Ocean, it is vast!" "We must travel with them!" "Unbelievable!" "It has been unbelievable since the very beginning." "Even so." "To take your own head off?" "They've been told to disconnect, they just obey." "Would you be able to swim to the ship?" "I'll even be there first!" "You have the sweet smell of the sea." " And you swim like a siren." " A siren?" "Yes, a siren." "It's a creature from the terrestrial mythology." "An irresistible creature." "We who only live by your will, and for your will, we have begun to obey your command." "Gandahar will become what you want it to be." "We have already increased the number of our raids." "Many Gandaharians have been struck with no-life." "We deliver them to you as you have ordered us." "Soon the civilization of wasteful pleasure will disappear forever." "And now, men of metal, prepare to be part of the substance of the Great Procreator himself." "SO IS THE WILL OF THE GREAT PROCREATOR!" "The Great Procreator stays silent." "Gods rarely respond." "Probably because they do not exist." "That thing..." "Will surely take us too..." "Swallow us!" "Sylvain!" "This body that contains us doesn't know ours." "Those, who inhabit us, are inhabited in turn." "And all these bodies, one inside another, are the body of Eternity." "What is it?" "A terrestrial poem that I liked a lot." "Hello Sylvain!" "Who or what is speaking?" "You know very well." "Is it you, the leader, the god of the metalic carcasses which worship you?" "Neither leader, nor god." "But it is true... that they worship me as a god, whereas I am only a..." "Murderer!" "If I were what you say I am, would you still be alive?" "Think." "I know who you are, where you come from, what you're after and yet I allowed you to approach me, and even to insult me." "Don't you find it a bit odd?" "Are you or are you not the master of the metal men?" "That's what they think." "In killing are they obeying your orders?" "They think they have received them, and sometimes I even believe I've given them." "Where do you stand in this war of extermination?" "It would be physically unpleasant for me, should the men of metal fail." "And yet I don't want to see Gandahar die." "It must be on account of my sentimental disposition." "That's admirable." "Yes, child of Jasper!" "We're cousins, in a sense." "I am the Metamorph." ""Who are you?"" ""Airelle."" ""Your name is as beautiful as you are."" ""And you?" "What's your name?"" ""What's your name?"" ""You have the sweet smell of the sea."" ""And you swim like a siren."" ""A siren?"" ""An irresistible creature."" ""No..." "Syl!"" ""Do not harm Airelle!"" "I've just stirred her dreams a little." "It seems that she cares for you." "Of course, that's something that a brain would have a hard time understanding." "You are just a brain, Metamorph, aren't you?" "Sorry to be alive..." "If you're saying you yourself are from Gandahar, why would you not help us?" "On our own we don't stand a chance against the men of metal." "But if they draw their power from you, it would be easy for you..." "Easy?" "Easy!" "..." "You're getting carried away." "But I must first understand this connection between me and them!" "The connection that would make their failure physically unpleasant." "I told you that I have to think!" "He didn't promise anything, only told us that he has to think." "But it's a lot already that he didn't kill us." "And let us go back to Jasper, and even helped us with it." "The flying extension is getting less and less extension." "And less and less flying." "Look!" "Terrorised Gandaharians flee from their homes." "They hope to find refuge at Jasper." "Syl!" "The mirror bird!" "It will spread the news of our arrival." "This time, it's done for..." "Farewell, amorphous Metamorph!" "And so?" "This won't surprise you much but the flying beast and let's say..." "the brain of the metal men are of the same nature." "The only difference is the age of the cells." "It's a huge difference, incomprehensible." "And Metamorph pretended he didn't know anything." ""I must find the relation."" "And here it is for you, Metamorph:" "These killers... these metallic beasts are born of you." "Nothing would stop them, even dead they would still move forward." ""PRIORITY, PRIORITY..." "AMBISEXTRA AND THE FEMALE COUNCIL..." "TO THE CENTRAL LABORATORY... "" ""PRIORITY, PRIORITY..." "AMBISEXTRA AND THE COUNCIL"" "Well, Blaminhor, any good news?" "Perhaps the beginning of an explanation..." "Have a look!" ""Jasper Department of Research."" ""Experiment:" "Biotype."" ""Code name:" "Metamorph."" ""An experimental brain characterized by extremely rapid growth."" ""During the experiment, its volume has almost doubled within a few days."" ""Yet, it had a capacity inferior to the ordinary brain."" ""Due to its rapid growth, the Metamorph experiment had to be transferred from the laboratory to a special platform on the Eccentric Ocean."" ""The brain's appearance experienced profound changes."" ""Most surprisingly, it creates its own senses:" "vision, touch and others,"" ""of the kind unknown to us."" "Monstrous!" ""For security reasons, it was decided to stop the experiment."" ""But would it be possible to destroy Metamorph?"" "In the end... it was Metamorph who destroyed his creators." "Jasper disengaged from this kind of experiments, and the monster was abandoned in the Eccentric Ocean..." "Abandoned!" "And his cells continued to proliferate, and formed the brains of the metal men." "Thus, Gandahar produced its own mortal enemy without even being aware of it." "They disconnect at night." "It is merely a short truce." "The only way is for Sylvain to kill Metamorph!" "Wait." "Metamorph did let us go back to Jasper," "It's a proof that he ignores his connection to the metal men, and is not looking to our demise." "I'll talk to him." "I'll convince him" "And if he doesn't listen?" "Then only will I kill him." "How?" "I've conceived the perfect weapon." "At least, I think so." "One injection should suffice." "I've been waiting for you." "Monster..." "liar!" "You knew that the metal men..." "I know." "I know what you know:" "the men of metal are my tools." "But I know something that you don't." "They come from the future!" "But I've seen them in action." "They petrify any living thing, imprison it in cells, and suffer horrible mutations." "Do you want to understand something?" "Do you want to save Jasper?" "Do you want to kill me?" "Leave that ridiculous syringe alone and listen." "I repeat:" "This invasion is coming from the future." "Absurd!" "Impossible!" "What do you know of time, of its continuity, its traps, its false perspectives, its apparent paradoxes, its relation to space?" "So according to you, Jasper is the victim of an invasion that has not yet occured." "It's nonsense!" "That's another logic." "The invasion has occured even though it is coming from the future." " And how?" " Through the door." "The door?" "The Door of Time!" "You saw it, yet you didn't understand." "Can you go both ways through this Door of Time?" "As with any door..." "So the cells with the prisoners are carried into the future." "Why, Metamorph?" "I don't know it yet." "Give me a proof of your good will!" "A proof?" "you have it: you're alive." "I could have destroyed you the moment you came, but I've been looking for this encounter as much as you did." "Is this a new trap?" "There is no trap, Syl, but our future." "and I cannot be caught in it." "I can't bear the idea of becoming an insane tyrant sending an army of killers." "I want you, Syl, to kill me in a thousand years!" "Why not now?" "Because I do not want it, and you're not capable of it." "I am not vulnerable." "Not yet." "We'll meet in a thousand years." "It's imposible." "I'll be dead!" "Over these thousand years, you'll be neither dead nor alive, but hibernating at the bottom of the ocean." "On the appointed day, on the appointed hour, you'll awake, just as you're now:" "young, strong, determined." "You will try to kill the old Metamorph and therefore his army of metal men." "If you succeed, Jasper will be saved!" "And I will stay a prisoner of the future." "Exiled from my time, away from those I love." "A mere professional risk, "servant"." "But you still have a chance to return to the present." "The Door of Time." "The Door of Time." "Still no news from Sylvain?" "We've completely lost contact." "The Council considers Sylvain's mission to have failed." "For what reason?" "We can't afford waiting longer, there is no hope." "Wait!" "Wait a bit longer." "How do you know that Syl has failed." "If he did succeed, the metal men would have stopped killing." "It can't be that simple." "Syl..." "Hurry up." "Hurry up, my darling..." "Were/will the Transformed be going to resign to being destroyed by the metal men?" "We were/will be capable of fighting and winning..." "Winning?" "Winning what?" "For us, the war was/will be going on inside of our bodies, forever, without victory." "Then it was/will be death without struggle?" "No Shayol, no." "This IS the struggle!" "We have succeeded, but not for long." "Too bad..." "Our power has its limits." "We could use this power to help Jasper." "They never helped us." "No Transformed was/will ever be allowed in Jasper, This is how it's always been." "In the face of deadly menace, everything changes quickly." "Gandahar will remember that the Transformed are its own children too." "Oh, mirror birds, the guarding birds, the birds of vision, deliver us from the impending destruction." "Take Jasper away from the ground." "Farewell, Gandahar!" "We've been so happy living here." "In a thousand years, Gandahar was destroyed, and all its people killed." "A thousand years ago, Gandahar will be saved, and what can't be avoided will be." "IN A THOUSAND YEARS, GANDAHAR WAS DESTROYED, AND ALL ITS PEOPLE KILLED." "A THOUSAND YEARS AGO, GANDAHAR WILL BE SAVED, AND WHAT CAN'T BE AVOIDED WILL BE." "Here I am, Metamorph." "The thousand years have passed." "I awoke on the appointed day on the appointed hour, as you wished." "And I will now do what you wished." "Who sends you?" "Were you will be from Gandahar?" "I were/will be." "And you were/will be my friends." "Syl the Servant, I know you!" "I know you too!" "We met during my first mission, just about a thousand years ago!" "A thousand years ago!" "A thousand years or one day... it doesn't matter once you've passed through the Door of Time." "The petrifying beam, the egg cells, the jump into the future." "Humans converted altogether into something else." "Then they sorted us when we arrived... the normal to one side, the monstrous to the other." "For once, we monsters were the lucky ones." "We were/will be found unusable, unrecoverable." "They relegated us to the underworld, just like at Jasper." "And the others?" "The Gandaharians with beautiful faces and perfect bodies?" "Yes, those who looked like me." "For once they had to regret they didn't look like us." "Were they systematically exterminated?" "Worse than that, you'd better not know about it." "But I have to know!" "I have to understand, so that I can stop these horrors." "Servant, no one doubts your courage or your valour." "But how would you destroy such power?" "Where are we?" "In the city of the metal men!" "Don't you recognize it?" "Nothing existed around Metamorpus except the Eccentric Ocean." "Now it is all covered with metal." "Other than the Door of Time, everything has changed." "More and more prisoners." "The machine draws all life away from them." "I must see what happens to them." "How can you imagine such horror?" "And such absurdity!" "Such a complicated system of extermination." "On the contrary, it's terrifyingly logical." "A thousand years have passed." "Metamorph has become very old, and his cells no longer reproduce." "To continue living, he needs new cells." "Then, all the petrification, the egg-shaped prisons, the Door of Time are necessary... to deliver the precious substance and keep it intact." "Intact, until it is needed." "The invasion of metal men who ravaged the planet, it comes from Metamorph." "And what if Metamorph has changed into metal, as everything that surrounds us?" "What if this metal were something else?" "Our flimsy powers can show it to you!" "Dead cells... agglomerated..." "fossilized." "Degenerate cells of Metamorph..." "which through an aberrant process..." "We know of others which through an aberrant process metallize with aging." "Metamorph is afraid of that ultimate phase." "He wants me to kill him before..." "He wanted!" "How do you know he would still honour your pact from a thousand years ago?" "I'll take the risk..." "Besides I have no choice." "You had/will have allies..." "While you confront him, we'll take action." "Priority target: the highest reservoirs, which feed Metamorph." "Once disconnected, Metamorph will quickly loose strength." "We must also free the prisoners." "First things first:" "we must neutralize the metal men." "Now leave me." "It's a personal appointment." " I'll go with you." " No." "It's personal." "It's the beginning of the end, Metamorph." "Don't try to bury me too soon, servant..." "Those cells will keep falling off like scales, spreading around me, covering everything." "And they will be replaced by fresh ones, for ever." "Then for ever, you'll have to kill." "This substance is the substance of your victims." "It's a very practical system!" "Remember." "You asked me to kill you in a thousand years." "I've never uttered such nonsense!" "It looks like your memory weakens with age!" "I haven't aged..." "I'll never age!" " And you've come to kill me?" " Yes, I've come to kill you!" "As I was asked by the Metamorph, when he was still in his right mind." "It seems the sages of Jasper must have put all their science into one small syringe..." "The ultimate weapon!" "Why don't we test it?" "On yourself, for example." "The reservoir is out!" "I am losing the left hemisphere." "Alarm for all posts!" "Double security!" "Mobilize the reserves!" "I am calling to all posts!" "Such peace suddenly such silence true silence why is the sun black this morning?" "...a stained snow is falling, swirling it covers everything I feel no pain and no fatigue..." "How can I sleep forever without this dream of explosion?" "The howling water..." "Men of Metal, obey my orders!" "Destroy the Door of Time!" "Who opened the back doors of memory?" "Everything is mixed..." "Everything is in disorder why did you create me?" "...Sylvain, Sylvain it's too late for the present no... no... not alone in this freezing ocean I am also a child of Gandahar wait for me, wait for me..." "Why did we then have to kill the Metamorph?" "Gandahar is in ruins." "Jasper is decapitated, and its people are probably petrified or lost somewhere in the future." "We can find them." "When?" "In a thousand years?" "Mirror bird!" "Jasper has been saved?" "!"