Aeon lies on some sort of platform, puddles of an unknown substance around her. She opens her eyes, surprised.
Switch scenes to a jungle full of tall, oddly-shaped trees. Aeon stands on a branch. Close in on Aeon, who hears static and garbled noises from her radio and sits down to listen.
She puts on the headphones and the garbled static resolves into voices.
"I'm not going to spend the next six months traipsing around this stinking jungle. We've got to find this place. Just plug in the coordinates."
As the voice speaks, the camera pans across the jungle, closing in on sounds of crashing. Some trees are pushed over, and we see that the noises are eminating from a large mecha-like creation which is stomping through the jungle. We zoom inside and see that it is none other than Trevor Goodchild speaking, and at the helm.
One of Trevor's lackeys: "Damnit, I can't get a reading. Try reading me those figures again."
Another one of Trevor's men starts reading off some numbers. We pan to Aeon, who is eavesdropping, vigorously scribbling the numbers down as they speak.
As some static interferes with the signal, Aeon puts her pencil in her mouth and tries to adjust her radio's frequency to better match Trevor's. She's instead treated to a blast of ear-splitting noise and cries out, dropping her pencil.
"Ugh!"
Irritated, she reaches down to the branch below her, where the pencil fell, and effortlessly grabs it, settling back on her branch.
Back at Trevor's mecha...
Lackey: "I'm sorry sir, I just can't seem to get a fix. Either the coordinates are wrong..."
Trevor: "The coordinates are not wrong!"
Trevor's expression turns from irritated to oddly happy as an odd sound is heard. We pan to outside the vehicle, where we see a strange helicopter-like machine fly by.
We pan back to Aeon, who takes off her headphones and consults a picture of a baby.
Aeon: "Where are you?"
Aeon turns, and as she does, her foot accidently shoves the radio off of the branch. She tries to grab for it, but isn't quick enough, and it dissapears into the darkness below. Nearby, a robotic observation system detects the falling radio, shortly before the helicopter-like machine flies right by Aeon's hiding spot.
We return to Trevor, who glances over at a nearby monitor, and looks rather aggravated.
Trevor: "Ugh! Aeon!"
The mecha changes heading towards Aeon's not-so-hidden spot, and Aeon looks worried. She starts running along the branch, then leaps off and sails into the darkness below. She grabs a vine, lands on a branch and continues running, pursued closely by the helicopter thing. She pauses for a moment, and the mecha comes crashing through the trees right beside her.
The mecha uses its laser cannons to blast at Aeon, as she continues to run, now pursued by footsoldiers as well. Trevor and his crew seem to have forgotten about everything, save getting to Aeon. She dodges their attacks and continues to run. We pan back to Trevor, who is grinning rather self-satisfiedly.
Trevor: "Come, come dearest..."
Aeon stops running as she finds herself against a sheer wall. She's surrounded by Trevor's footsoldiers and as the mecha lumbers to a halt, she stands in its shadow.
She takes a few steps backwards and... dissapears down into the grass.
The footsoldiers look baffled as we pan to Aeon, falling down into some sort of cavern. A splash leads to a fade out.
Fade in on Trevor's camp.
Trevor is angry, and is berating one of his men.
Trevor: "How could she have just dissapeared?"
He walks away and to a table, turning his back on the man.
Trevor: "All she knows is how to destroy. If she finds it before we do..."
Man: "She won't, sir."
Trevor drinks some wine, and the camera fades out.
Fade in on the underground cavern briefly seen as Aeon fell. There's an underground lake here. Close in on Aeon, who is passed out on the shore.
A shadow falls over Aeon, then a hand alights on her arm. It's an odd looking boy. He speaks without moving his lips:
Boy: "Everything that rises must converge."
Aeon rolls over onto her back and wakes, groaning. The boy crouches on top of some nearby rocks and watches. She sits up, looks around her, then turns to the boy. Aeon checks for her gun. It's missing.
Aeon: "Who are you? And what's this all about?"
Aeon nods around to the underground cavern.
Aeon: "I was falling..."
The boy leaps off of his rock and makes his way to an opening in the cavern wall.
Aeon: "Hey! Wait a minute!"
Aeon follows the boy into the opening and up some stairs. There is a rope handrail along the wall. They walk past some corpses, frozen with a horrific expression on their faces. Aeon grimaces. She hurries to catch up with the boy, who is waiting near a ladder. They climb it, noticing another corpse.
At the top of the ladder are some strange structures.
Aeon: "This is Colloden (sp), isn't it? So much for your coordinates, Trevor."
She looks to the boy, who sizes her up.
Boy: "You're... wet."
He turns and goes back down the ladder, and Aeon follows. There's a strange beeping noise as he leads her through another corridor, again littered with strange bodies. They approach a door, ripped open and apparently the source of the beeping noise. They slip inside.
Inside, in sharp contrast to the destruction and bodies outside, is a nice, well-kept room.
Aeon: "This is... elegant."
There is a set of clean clothes on the bed, similar to the ones she's wearing.
Aeon: "Well well..."
Aeon starts undressing, and the boy unashamedly watches. She taps her upper arm a few times, and the boy turns and sits, facing away from her.
Fade out, and in on a now fully dressed Aeon.
Aeon: "Well? What do you think?"
She kneels and runs a hand through the boy's hair. The boy stares at her as she talks.
Aeon: "Thank you for the dry clothes. Very sweet of you. Maybe you can do me another favor? There's a laboratory..."
The boy gets up and walks off. Aeon follows.
Pan to Trevor, who has just finished prying open a huge door.
Trevor: "Bring the suits. We're going in."
Back to Aeon and the boy. They've found the laboratory, which lies in ruins, broken glass and destruction everywhere. Corpses lie here too, as they do most everywhere else in this strange place. Aeon steps in some broken glass and removes the shards from her bare feet.
Aeon: "What happened here?"
Boy: "What the flame does not consume consumes the flame."
Aeon: "Is everybody dead?"
Boy: "Unborn."
Aeon: "Been here a long time, have you?"
Boy: "Forever."
Aeon fiddles with the part to some machine, then drops it. She walks over to a door, her words strained as she opens the obviously heavy door.
"What will we find in here I wonder?"
She walks into the room she just discovered, and over to a broken machine with broken test tubes strewn around it.
Aeon: "Looks like it's all been taken care of. Came here for nothing."
She turns to the boy.
Aeon: "Who did this?"
The boy looks over at some of the strange corpses which litter this room too.
Boy: "They did. They all did."
Aeon pulls out the picture of the baby.
Aeon: "Don't suppose you've seen her around?"
The boy laughs, an awkward, strange sound coming from him.
Boy: "This one remembers its function, which all the rest have forgotten."
Aeon: "What do you mean? Is she alive? Is she here?"
The boy nods, and the scene cuts to a tunnel. Aeon and the boy walk away from the lab.
Next we see Trevor investigating the same lab.
Trevor: "Too late."
They walk into the room with the broken vials.
Man: "We checked over some of the bodies. They seem ancient, mummified..."
Trevor: "According to my information, this was a working facility three weeks ago."
They kneel and inspect the broken vials.
Man: "Interesting... one of the vials seems to be missing. See? Three here, and one on the table."
Trevor: "Out of five slots. Yes, I know."
Trevor looks thoughtful.
Trevor: "So, play it both ways would you..."
Man: "Sir?"
Trevor: "I want this place searched. The whole cave."
Man: "But sir, there must be hundreds of miles of tunnels..."
Trevor: "Do it! If Aeon Flux has that vial, we may not have come in vain."
Fade out, and in on Aeon and the boy walking through some tunnels. The boy stops, and looks at Aeon. He seems amused. Aeon steps forward, into a large chamber. Loud baby noises can be heard. Scattered bones litter a platform in the center of the chamber.
After a few moments, a grotesquely fat baby crawls onto the platform. A baby with razor sharp teeth.
Aeon screams, and the camera fades out.
Aeon finds herself on the same platform as at the very beginning, surrounded by odd puddles of liquid. She sits up, confused. The chamber she finds herself in is surrounded by corridors on all sides, much like some sort of maze. She tests the liquid by putting her fingers in it, then leaps off of the platform. This seems to have been a bad idea, as immediately after, she seems to become disoriented or dizzy.
She chooses one of the corridors and walks down it. There she encounters the suited corpse of one of Trevor's men, his face twisted into a gruesome expression.
Several suited men come down the corridor, wielding guns. They shoot at Aeon, who then knocks them out. She then experiences the dizzy sensation again, and the men she knocked out get up and capture her.
Fade out, and in on Trevor's camp. Trevor is feeding Aeon some noodles.
Trevor: "You've been exposed, Aeon. When will you learn to take precautions? What did you do with the vial?"
Aeon: "What?"
Trevor: "The vial from the vault."
Aeon subtly fiddles with the ropes binding her.
Aeon: "There was no vial. They were all broken."
Trevor: "Were they. Pity. If I had that vial, I may be able to cure you."
Aeon: "If you had that vial you could infect the whole world."
Trevor walks away from Aeon and goes to his own dinner.
Trevor: "I'm sorry about the restraints, Aeon, but it is for your own protection. I suggest you relax and get used to it. This particular strain of the virus causes permanent insanity. But don't worry Aeon. I'll take care of you. Always."
Trevor puts his feet up on the table and Aeon fiddles with her restraints again.
Aeon: "Naturally, I'd prefer to be dead."
Trevor: "Odd. The virus has never been fatal. In fact, there's some evidence exposure actually extends life. Why Aeon, you may have another 80 or 90 years of this. Fresh ground pepper?"
Trevor gets up and adds pepper to Aeon's plate, then begins feeding her again as he speaks.
Aeon: "Universal madness? Is that your current project?"
Trevor: "As usual Aeon, you only have half the picture. The virus they were working on here does produce a particularly nasty psychosis, as you're learning firsthand. The sauce is good, don't you think? But, we believe that at one time, before the dawn of history, a form of this virus existed in every human brain. In fact, it was an essential component of human consciousness. What it produced then was not a madness, but a sense of connection. Of being in and of the world. But somehow, we developed an immunity. That was the fall, Aeon. Ever since, we've been missing a part of ourselves."
Aeon: "I think your chef uses too much terragon."
Trevor: "Hard to say where the mutation occured, in the virus or in the human mind, but if we could reverse the process... My project is not universal madness, it's universal happiness!"
Aeon: "Who was it, you said was insane?"
One of Trevor's men enters the tent.
Man: "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir."
Trevor: "Quite alright. I'm just doing my weekly volunteer work with mental patients."
Man: "We've recovered two of the missing men from the cave. Dead."
Trevor: "How irritating."
Aeon: "Trevor. You have only half the picture."
Trevor: "Thank you, number two."
The soldier exits once more.
Trevor: "Is this your work?"
Aeon: "You know nothing. Take a look at the photograph in my top."
Trevor hesitates.
Aeon: "Go ahead."
Trevor: "My pleasure."
Trevor retrieves the photograph and looks at it.
Trevor: "How cute. Is it yours?"
Aeon: "One of the test subjects from the little experiment. I came here to get her out."
Trevor: "A test subject. How interesting. It's not dead?"
Aeon: "Not dead, but not human. You want a killer? There she is."
Trevor: "A baby? Poor Aeon. I keep forgetting. Still."
Trevor goes to the flap of his tent.
Trevor: "Krev? We're going back into the cave. Tonight."
Aeon: "Take me!"
Trevor laughs.
Trevor: "Now? I have more important things to do."
Cut to outside the cave. Trevor's instructing his men.
Trevor: "...But don't go blowing anything up. Whatever this thing is, I need a clean blood sample."
Back at the tent, Aeon manages to wiggle out of her ropes. She returns to the cave, and to the room that the boy took her to when she needed to change clothes. the boy is sitting on the floor, indian-style. She steps into the room, and gets a dizzy spell. The boy stands.
Boy: "The waker sleeps."
Aeon: "You have to tell me what happened here."
Boy: "Nothing happened. Nothing happens. That is the secret."
Aeon: "Did everyone go crazy? Or did that... thing...
Boy: "She's very strong. You have to be good to her. I bring her things.
Aeon: "Like me?"
The boy grins and seems to shrug a little.
Aeon: "Listen. The others down here. The men in the yellow suits. Have you seen them? Take me to them."
The boy looks around.
Boy: "The waker sleeps."
Aeon: "You must do it! Or they'll all die."
He shrugs again and leads her down a corridor and to the baby's room.
Aeon: "They went in there? The suits? You wait here."
Aeon walks into the room, which is littered with yellow-clad corpses. In one corner lies trevor, without a suit. She kneels beside him and takes his head in her hands.
Aeon: "Trevor..."
Trevor: "T... t... t... time... is in... our minds. Aeon. The vial."
He produces the missing vial.
Trevor: "You know what to do."
Trevor then dies, the vial slipping from his grasp and rolling along the floor towards the darkness.. Crying baby sounds are heard. Aeon then spies the evil baby...
...And with the usual scream, she finds herself back on the platform. She sits up, tries to stand, and gets dizzy again. She wanders through the doorway, and things seem to replay themselves. She finds the same dead corpse, and the same two men walking down the corridor. She's quicker this time though, and hides behind a wall as they pass. Then she jumps them, knocks them both out, and steals one of their guns.
She walks back out to where she started, along the sparkling underground lake. There she sees the boy.
Aeon: "Why doesn't that thing kill me?"
The boy is silent.
Aeon: "Okay. I have to go back to where the baby is. There was a vial... a small container."
The boy produces the vial and waves it around.
Aeon: "Give it to me."
Boy: "You are not yet ready."
She shoots to the side of him.
Aeon: "Hand it over."
He shrugs and does so. Aeon peers into the vial.
Aeon: "What's going on? I died twice. Is death only a frame in time? Or was I dead already?"
Boy: "She still sleeps. Fear not. The waking comes soon. Like a storm."
Aeon: "Take me to the lab."
Aeon suffers another dizzy spell. The boy smiles.
Boy: "I do love thee. To you, I deed all that I am."
Aeon: "Why... thank you. The lab. Let's go."
They stand in the shattered ruins of the lab.
Aeon: "My god... the baby..."
Boy: "You have looked in the face of death. You have not guessed its' secret."
Aeon: "I'm sorry about this."
She grabs the boy's arm and leads him to a ladder, where she ties him up.
Aeon: "But I need to cut down the variables here."
Back at the baby's chamber, the baby lies on the platform, bleeding. Aeon sits beside it. Trevor walks in.
Trevor: "Beautiful, isn't she? It's clear to me now. Madness is the way!"
Aeon: "My god, Trevor, you've been exposed."
Trevor: "Exposed! Yes, exactly! Exactly!"
Trevor doesn't seem to be too sane.
Aeon: "We have to get out of here!"
Trevor: "Why, Aeon? We were never here to begin with! We were always here!"
Aeon: "Trevor..."
Trevor: "Always will be!
Trevor has been shaking Aeon as he talks. He then begins choking her, and as she struggles for air, his face rips off and becomes the gruesome visage of one of the corpses.
Scream, and fade to black...
...And fade back in with Aeon lying on the same pedestal as before. This time the dizziness comes earlier, as she sits there. She remains sitting this time. Baby sounds come from one of the corridors, and she sees the fat visage of the bloated baby watching her. Then she hallucinates some people, flashbacks from some of her other episodes. The hallucinations accuse her of various things.
Aeon: "I didn't mean to..."
Fade out in splashes of blood applied like paint.
Aeon awakes in Trevor's tent, on his bed.
Trevor: "Aeon? Are you alright?"
Aeon: "Trevor?"
Trevor comes over, carrying two glasses of wine.
Trevor: "I thought we'd celebrate your cure. But, if you're not feeling up to it..."
He hands Aeon one of the glasses.
Aeon: "What is this?"
Trevor: "I thought we had an understanding. I would give you the cure, and you would give me what I most desire."
Aeon: "The vial?"
Trevor: "The vial? Aeon... you. Come now, this is what we both want."
Trevor puts his glass down and moves towards Aeon.
Trevor: "And it certainly beats a Breen prison."
Aeon: "No!"
Liquid splashes across the screen, and it fades out again.
Fade in with Aeon standing near the corpse of the grotesque baby. The boy is standing nearby as well. She kneels beside the baby.
Aeon: "I knew you'd come eventually. Never did catch your name."
Boy: "I am before names."
Aeon: "Good for you! How long does this go on?"
Boy: "Always."
Aeon: "I'm bored already. You were the test subject, weren't you? You were the one I came here for."
Boy: "No. It was her. I was here first. Before they came here with their experiments."
He laughs a bit.
Boy: "A virus that produces human happiness."
Aeon: "So you killed them."
Boy: "Except you."
Aeon: "What do you want?"
Boy: "What I have always wanted. You."
Aeon: "Always?"
Boy: "My time is not your time."
Aeon: "So I've noticed. Well? Here I am."
The boy circles around her, sizing her up.
Boy: "You resist me!"
Aeon: "No."
Aeon spins to face the boy.
Boy: "I will have you!"
Aeon: "Have me."
Aeon walks towards the boy, sexually and mockingly.
Aeon: "What's the matter?"
The boy holds his head.
Boy: "No! Not like this!"
Aeon: "Fine."
Aeon walks off.
Boy: "No! Wait. I will show you the secret of time."
Aeon: "Thanks, but, um..."
She shakes her head and wanders off. The boy looks a little angry.
Boy: "To you, I bequeath..."
Cut to Trevor and one of his men going through some paperwork.
Soldier: "Forgive sir, we didn't get here in time."
Trevor: "We got here in plenty of time."
Soldier: "What do you mean? The missing vial?"
Trevor: "I don't even know if there was a missing vial. Doesn't matter. It's pretty clear to me that this entire experiment was a sham. Jascow was either an idiot or a charlatan. There was no virus."
Soldier: "Sir! The bodies! If there was no virus, then what happened here?"
Trevor: "I don't know. But whatever it is had nothing to do with the work here. Just in case, we should keep the men on alert. I don't want any casualties down here."
Another man enters, escorting Aeon.
Trevor: "Aeon! Turning yourself in? You know you went to a lot of trouble for nothing down here. You don't look so well."
Aeon: "I know, I know, I've been exposed. Permanent psychosis. At least the colors are nice."
Trevor: "What are you talking about?"
Aeon: "The virus."
Trevor: "Sorry to dissapoint you. There is no virus."
Aeon: "What?"
Trevor: "Hmm. Fever. Dialated pupils. Aeon, I think what you have is... the flu. Fortunately, I think you'll find the medical facilities in Breen prisons quite up to date."
Aeon gets a weird look on her face, and fade out.
Trevor's mecha is stomping through the forest once more.
Trevor: "I apologize for the bumpy ride, Aeon. Are you feeling better?"
Aeon: "I don't know."
Outside the mecha, there's an explosion.
Soldier: "Sir, we're under attack!"
Trevor: "A Monican trap. I knew it!"
A weird light flashes, some screams, and Aeon finds herself back where she'd been before, laying on the pedestal.
Aeon: "Not again..."
Laying next to her this time, however, is the vial. She picks it up and looks at it. A weird sound is heard, and she looks at the ceiling, where the strange boy is hanging in a net. His eyes are closed and his mouth doesn't move as he speaks.
Boy: "To you, I bequeath... To you, I bequeath..."
A drop of what looks like blood forms from the center of his forehead. It falls on Aeon's forehead.
Boy: "...My inheretance."
The drop fades into her skin.
Boy: "Composite things are like dreams. Fantasies. Bubbles."
Aeon's clothes change more and more rapidly as the boy speaks.
Boy: "Thoughts. Like a dewdrop and a flash of lightning. A new dress and a burning tire."
Aeon: "No."
Boy: "Waves of sand and sinking ships. The shadow of a statue, and an entry in a diary. A brain tumor and an ice cream sundae. We are thus to be recorded."
Aeon: "Noooooo!"
Her clothes stop shifting, and she stumbles into a corridor, still holding the vial. She sits down and shrinks back a bit as the boy approaches her.
Boy: "This, I bequeath to you."
She looks at the vial in her hands, then throws it against the wall. The boy folds his hands and smiles at her, then she screams and starts glowing.
Things shift and you see stillframes, colorless statues of Aeon, Aeon and the boy, posed certain ways. The air sparkles.
The scene cuts to the interior of a car. A baseball glove and ball rest on the dashboard. Happy music is playing on the radio. It seems almost as though an entirely different animator took over. The colors, the lack of advanced technology... this is far from Aeon Flux's world.
The car is turned off. The odd boy is now wearing a baseball jersey, he grabs the glove and ball from the dashboard and smiles. He exits the car, and you can hear children playing. First from a first person perspective, then from a third person, Aeon exits the car as well, dressed in moderate clothing and seeming happy. The camera zooms in on her eyes, then fades out.
