The Big O Act 25: The War of Paradigm City

Roger drives his car down the road, the book Metropolis in the seat beside him. Dastun confronts the boy and girl in the theater, who are scared to death of him. Standing on the movie set, Angel wonders how this could be and thinks about her mother and home. Roger’s car is fired upon by the same type of machines that kidnapped Dorothy but he is able to jump over them and leave behind a bomb that blows them up. Big Duo continues to ascend and Alan’s body falls out of it. Some of the machines continue to follow Roger and he fires at them, destroying them. Lights start falling from the sky, causing destruction when they hit the ground. Repairs continue on Big O and Norman wonders if this will be the last task they ever perform. Dastun helps the children at the destroyed theatre and wonders if this is the same as what happened 40 years ago. The ground shakes near Roger and he sees a nearby dome open up, with light emanating from it. Big Fau rises out of the dome. Alex Rosewater sits inside its cockpit. Alex Rosewater says it is time for action and the grand finale. He fires into the sky. The lights continue to fall from the sky and the road collapses beneath Roger. He is able to save himself by shooting a wire from his watch at a street light, but it collapses and he falls into the abyss. Meanwhile, Angel suddenly notices Gordon Rosewater sitting at the table on the stage. She calls him the king of Paradigm City. Gordon asks her to hurry and serve him tomato stew. Vera steps in, speaking in a voice that Angel recognizes as having belonged to her mother. Angel is shocked at this revelation. Vera complaints about the Rosewaters and cracks a whip towards Gordon as he tries to approach a pot on the stove. Back above ground, Alex calls for the lights from the sky to destroy the city and that he will rebuild the city himself like his father did. He says that those who don’t deserve to exist in his world will be eliminated. Tanks fire into the sky and Dastun wonders what they are doing. His troops say that these are orders from Paradigm HQ and Dastun tells them to stop. Big Duo continues to ascend, revealing stage lights hanging in the sky. Vera tells Angel that she saved Gordon Rosewater from the domes. She says he is the father to all of them. He had created ‘tomatoes’ and subjects like her and Angel were inferior stock that was cast aside. Those that were able to remember couldn’t remember past 40 years ago and were killed once they started to remember. Vera says the man who believes himself to be Gordon’s only son was responsible for this. Vera says that the Union was a collection of those cast out of the city and are hoping to take revenge now which is why they are in search of the memories. Angel asks what could be left under the Earth. Angel pulls a gun out and shoots at Vera, who takes out a whip and starts whipping Angel.

Roger comes out and manages to overtake Vera with a wire in his watch. He comes onto the stage and says he is here to take Angel and Gordon back. Vera jumps onto the stage and stabs at Roger but her knife goes into the Metropolis book that Roger is carrying. Roger knocks Vera down and tells her to stop so he doesn’t have to attack a woman. Vera tells Roger he is just like them. He says the way one was given life shouldn’t impact how they live their life. Gordon says that neither Roger nor Angel is one of his beloved cultivated children. He says Metropolis was written from what came to him in a dream and that no one had memories prior to 40 years ago, including himself, although memories have existed in unexpected forms. Vera thinks Gordon is senile and that the Union will destroy the world he has built. Gordon says the Union is just a small scattering of people across the wilderness and that such an organization may have never existed in the first place. Explosions continue which Vera speaks of, but when Gordon says her companions never existed, the lights from the sky stop appearing. Big Duo rises to the stage lights above and hits one of them, blowing up. Alex finds it impossible that stage lights could exist over Paradigm City. Barcodes start appearing on Big Fau’s monitor. Gordon says that just because they have memories doesn’t mean they can retrieve them and calls Angel a memory herself, with the marks on her back being the proof. They prove she isn’t human but just a memory. Angel starts crying and Vera laughs. She says no one else can have the memories either and jumps backwards, setting off an explosion that kills her. A rumble appears from where she had jumped. Gordon notices the Metropolis book and his half-torn picture inside. Roger calls for Big O. Gordon grabs the other half of the photo from his hat, revealing that Roger was in it as well. Roger wonders how this is possible. Gordon says he hired a Roger long ago to conduct negotiations for him. He says that if the world is a stage then they are merely actors on it. He wondered if there were those who could change their roles, and wanted such a person to negotiate with the person who directs this world. Roger is surprised to hear that he had memories. An image of the bald children appears on Big Fau’s monitor and the tall one is revealed to be Alex. Alex proclaims this impossible and that he couldn’t be one of the defective tomatoes. Beck walks into Roger’s mansion and finds Dorothy. A large MegaDeus, Behemoth, rises from the ground where Vera had fallen. Gordon says it is after the memories. Roger tells Angel the message that Vera had left him previously. Big O rises from below them. Gordon tells Roger to continue his negotiations. Alex watches as the Behemoth is lifted out of the ground by Big O. Alex says he has a hard time accepting that Roger is the only dominus. Part of the ceiling falls apart and lands on Paradigm City below. Big O tosses aside the destroyed remains of Behemoth. Alex says that one God is enough for this world. Roger says he doesn’t have the slightest idea who he is, but even if everyone else has forgiven Alex for the sins he has committed, he won’t agree to that. The two shout out that it is showtime.