#all bets are OFF okay. sig is like cool. now its my life mission to Ruin Pebbles' Life

[acaciapines]

writing rain world fic so fun i love coming up w all the background iterator dynamics <3 we arent gonna see any of them but i WILL keep leaving hints about their relationships <3

[zrtranscripts]

Season 6, Mission 32: The Man in the Mirror

Trip down memory lane

[flashback scene]

MOONCHILD: We're both heading in the same direction, man. But I bet I'll get there first. Race you!

SAM YAO: Oh God. She let go.

Five, that building's coming down now! You've got to get out of there! Run! [building collapses]

[present time]

MOONCHILD: Man, this is intense, Five.

[VERONICA MCSHELL, KYTAN, SAM YAO, and MAXINE MYERS shout at each other and call out for Runner Five in background]

We found a tape I made talking about something that happened to me. The other me. The real me. The me that used to have a body. I kind of know what it's from. It's when Sigrid invited me to stay at her house in the Scottish Highlands before the zombie outbreak. But I can't really remember what happened there.

That tape has triggered something. I think we're... merging in my memory. I think we're becoming one. Oh! Maybe I'll take over your body for good now. Maybe this is how it happens. Don't panic! I've had trips like this before, Five. Just stay calm. We're going into my memories. Stay with me. We're going to open the doors of perception, ja?

[flashback scene]

SIGRID HAKKINEN: [knocks on bedroom door] Open the door! Open the door! Wake up and open the door, Moonchild!

[door unlocks and opens]

MOONCHILD: What is it? It's the middle of the night, Sigrid.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: He got out. He wasn't supposed to get out, but he's got out. If he escapes over the wall now, it's all over. Moonchild, put your clothes on and come with me. We've got to search the grounds of the house. We've got to run, now!

[flashback scene]

SIGRID HAKKINEN: All right. We've run the perimeter, and there's no breach in the wire. Whatever he's done, he can't have got out of the grounds. Even if he has got out of the grounds, where would he go? It's 30 miles in every direction to a station or a road. We're going to find him and bring him back. You're going to help me, aren't you?

MOONCHILD: Oh, ja. Well, my tarot readings tell me I should trust you and help you. If... someone's escaped, you need to bring them back. I can understand that. I just... want to ask you something, okay? There's no need to be afraid or angry. You know I'm your friend.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Yes, of course. You're my only friend. One of the few who really understands what I'm doing. You think if we quartered the shrubbery to the north, we could flush him out onto the lawn?

MOONCHILD: Okay... do you think it's good for you - uh, karmically - to keep your husband imprisoned in this house? You know he always comes back to you in the end. He needs you.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: My husband? [laughs] No! Ernest is... oh, I don't know. He's off with one of his women, I think. We're looking for Professor Holloway, the leader of the Wakened Land. If he manages to get to a phone, or if he makes contact with any of those people who work with him, it'll all be over.

MOONCHILD: So this isn't about your husband, Ernest Van Ark?

SIGRID HAKKINEN: No. No! He's irrelevant. But Holloway's a real threat. He's misunderstood everything. We've got to find him before he gets out of the grounds. Come on!

[flashback scene]

SIGRID HAKKINEN: [laughs] I can't believe you thought I'd go to all this trouble over Ernest.

MOONCHILD: You told me once that you'd rather die than live without him.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Did I? No. I don't think that can be right. That's not the sort of person I am at all. No, no. [laughs] Poor Ernest can hardly keep up with me these days. I am going to remake the world, Moonchild. At least, as long as we catch blasted Holloway.

Listen, we're doing a little experiment right now. It started earlier than we expected, but it's all very interesting. There's this virus that used to periodically wipe out large numbers of people up to the Viking era. I have a theory that it tends to select out the groups and individuals who can't work together, who aren't clever enough to survive.

It seems so relevant to me, to Holloway's work, that stuff about the land reclaiming those who aren't needed, the continuing evolution of the human race.

MOONCHILD: Sig, are you high right now? Because you're kind of manic, and if you're high, it's okay! You just need to tell me.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Only high on life and possibility.

MOONCHILD: Uh, oh. Okay. Uh, tell me if you've cast the I Ching or something. Any answer is cool, really. But uh, why have you kidnapped Professor Holloway?

SIGRID HAKKINEN: He's turned against his own work. His imagination is blinkered. He can't see the truth! He needs to be taught. [laughs] I had to have a Eurostar train stopped so I could get him off, can you believe it? Lucky he's on the register as a threat to national security.

I just had him brought here for a few days so we could talk. I could tell him what I'm doing. He'll understand it if we just bring him back and I explain it properly. But if he gets away now, he will destroy everything we've worked for. I think he must be in that part of the garden. Look, you take the right-hand fork, I'll take the left one. Go, quickly. Now!

[flashback lines mixed with narration from the present time]

[footsteps through foliage]

MOONCHILD: I do remember this now, Five. It's coming back to me. As each path unfolds, another memory reveals itself to me. It's beautiful in a way.

Once Sigrid had left me, I tracked Professor Holloway through the undergrowth. It's not too difficult if you've learned to hunt with the Hopi.

I bent down to sniff the earth. It was rain-sodden and clean. I listened. Tiny rustles and a flight of woodland birds told me he was to my left. The land is always saying something if you know how to listen.

I don't think much of human beings, Five. I didn't then, and I don't now. We've got above our station! We're only one animal on this planet, but we act like we own it. There are too many of us! We've put our heads above our bodies, and we think that makes us special.

You know, people say that life is sacred, and it is, but that's all life, Five! Those birds, the trees, the tiny creatures in the little stream that ran through Sigrid's property. It's all sacred! All I really wanted was to make people happy, but it's a hard problem, Five.

[foliage rustles]

Found you!

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: No. Oh God, no!

MOONCHILD: You don't have to do this! Sigrid just wants to talk to you.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Stay away! Stay away from me!

[footsteps]

MOONCHILD: He ran, Five. So we followed him. You and me, because we're one now.

[flashback lines mixed with narration from the present time]

MOONCHILD: This Holloway was clearly not a man who'd ever learned to live in harmony with nature. He didn't even know how to cover his tracks or steer away from - [PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY shouts] muddy places. I chased him, and he fell. And then I was standing over him. [gun clicks] There's a gun in my hand. I remember it. How did that get there?

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Please, you have to help me.

MOONCHILD: Of course. I want to help you. I want to help everyone. That's why we're here.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: It's Sigrid. She's perverted my teachings. She's totally misunderstood everything I said. She read my book, she - have you read my book?

MOONCHILD: The Wakened Land? Oh, ja. Really intriguing. I'm all about Gaia.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Then you understand! It wasn't a blueprint, not a manifesto. It was a-a set of problems. Hypothetical. It was a prediction that the human race would end up dooming itself one way or another.

MOONCHILD: I agree with you, man!

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: But she's actually trying to do it! Do you see? Do you understand? I wanted to warn about what was coming, to explain where we've gone wrong, and she - she wants to kill everyone! She really wants to make it happen!

I said there might have been viruses in the past that kept us in check. She's found one, and she's trying to bring it back. Those people who died in the quarantined hospital a week ago - they were infected with a virus that hadn't been seen for a thousand years! She's deliberately brought it back. We have to stop her!

MOONCHILD: You want to get out of here?

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Yes. Yes, I do. Please! If I can talk to the Wakened Land, she can be stopped. Please, help me!

MOONCHILD: I know how to get out of here. Follow me. Hurry!

[flashback lines mixed with narration from the present time]

MOONCHILD: I'd forgotten this part until right now, Five, but yes, this is right. I led Holloway around the side of the house. I was trying to save him. It's good to remember myself, remember who I really am. I tried to save this poor man from Sigrid! Listen.

[footsteps]

Professor, you stay here. I'll distract Sigrid, and you can creep through that gate.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Thank you. Oh, thank you!

[footsteps]

MOONCHILD: Sigrid! Sigrid, I found something important.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: What is it?

MOONCHILD: Yes, that's right. I tried to distract her, but she was too quick for me.

He's over there, Sigrid. See him, crouching by the gate?

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: No! No!

MOONCHILD: No, that can't be how it happened. I tried to save him. I must have done! Life is sacred!

SIGRID HAKKINEN: So he is. Well done, Moonchild, my only true friend.

MOONCHILD: Life is sacred, Professor Holloway. Death is sacred, too! Meet your death with the knowledge of its sanctity, and everything will be okay with you when you pass over the great river.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: Please, please, help me!

SIGRID HAKKINEN: All I need you to do, Professor, is to stand with me on this. We are going to enact your dreams - the dream of a wakened land. We are the inheritors of your legacy.

PROFESSOR HOLLOWAY: You are no inheritor of mine. The Wakened Land will not stand for this, Sigrid. When the land awakens, when she speaks, she will not be your friend!

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Then return to her. Now! [gunshot]

[present time]

MOONCHILD: I helped her kill him. Is that who I was, who I am? Did I want to make a new version of myself, a cleaner one? Is that why I'm here?

I can see how to take your body. It's very clear to me now. I could take you over if I wanted. But I... I think that was the other me's plan. Five, I have to think about this. I have to go, Five! I have to go!

KYTAN: Five? Five, you're here. You're in Moonchild's underground base. You've just been sitting there for ages. We thought you were catatonic. Did it work? Is Moonchild gone?