Regulus: I ... This is ...
Regulus: I ... I don't get it ...
Vertin: It's alright. It's just ... the end of an era.
Vertin: And you survived.
Vertin: ...
Vertin: You've braved the "Storm." My experiment succeeded. Thank you for your help.
Regulus: What experiment? The end of an era ... What do you mean ...? I-I don't understand what you're talking about!
Vertin: Relax, Regulus. I will tell you, but not here.
Vertin: Say this with me ...
Vertin: "Ne iru milde en tiun bonan nokton."
Vertin: Hold my hand. Let me take you into the suitcase.
Regulus: The ... suitcase?
Vertin: Close your eyes.
Vertin: Follow me. All the way down to the end of the path and into the depths.
Regulus: It's dark. I ... I can't see anything ...
Regulus: Where, where are you taking me?
Vertin: A safe place. An "ark" ... sailing in the "Storm."
Regulus: ...!
Vertin: No one can follow us here. We can speak freely.
Regulus: Wow ... Giant stone statues, huge electronic machines, a whole wall of photos ...
Vertin: Please allow me to re-introduce myself.
Vertin: I'm from the St. Pavlov Foundation—the same place as the investigators you just met. We actually grew up there together.
Vertin: I am the Timekeeper. I keep track of time in the outside world.
Vertin: ... That is to say, I am the one who records the beginnings and ends of eras.
Regulus: ...!
Regulus: You're saying that ... these photos here are ...
Regulus: ... Huh? It's Lewis. I know him!
Vertin: Yes. I took this photo several days ago. He was selling Hoover upright vacuum cleaners in the West End and thought photos would help business, so he gladly posed for it.
Regulus: Why did you take a photo of him? How's he ...?
Vertin: ...
Vertin: This is Marion Smith, a single mother. She worried if she could afford to feed her child every night, but she never gave up her dream of being a writer.
Vertin: I met her at a snack bar at 2 a.m. Her one-act play about the Trans-Antarctic Expedition was a real masterpiece.
Vertin: This is Julie, who once invited me to her house. Her bedroom wall was covered with posters of Rivaldo ...
Vertin: ... the FIFA World Player of the Year, who then became a mass idol.
Regulus: Trans-Antarctica Expedition, Rivaldo, I've never heard of them.
Vertin: They're stories from a long, long time to come.
Vertin: These photos date forward to 1999. My time.
Regulus: ...
Vertin: Our time is going backwards, Regulus.
Vertin: At the countdown to the millennium, before the clock struck twelve, time reversed. We were sent back to the explosion of the supernova in the 80s, to the release of VHS ...
Vertin: .. and to the 1960s, where I met you.
Regulus: Time is going backwards?
Regulus: So the people in the photos—people like me—where are they now? Have they all been "reversed?"
Regulus: Like in the "Storm" just now?
Vertin: Maybe.
Vertin: I doubt I'll ever see them again.
Vertin: Before meeting you, I had done so many experiments.
Vertin: At one point, I discovered that my suitcase was able to cut the "Storm" out. It can preserve items from the last era too, like these photos.
Vertin: So I tried putting newspapers, mushrooms, even Wapaloosies into the case. They all succeeded. However, when it came to the friends I had made in the last era ...
Vertin: I failed.
Vertin: It doesn't work on ordinary people.
Vertin: Maybe I should just record the time ... Be a silent, emotionless observer ... Act as the Foundation has asked me to.
Regulus: But why are we ...
APPLe: Because we can see the mutation of the world? The unusual happenings before the "Storm" ... have left a deep impression on this APPLe.
Vertin: I think so.
Vertin: When you were out at sea, broadcasting on the radio, Regulus cried out, "Shout it to the full moon!"
Vertin: It was the beginning of the month. There couldn't have been a full moon that day. The real moon was to your west ... There were two that night.
Vertin: I realized that you could see what I see in this world. So ...
Vertin: I decided to try it again.
Vertin: One last time.
Regulus: ...
Regulus: Ah, umm ...?!
Regulus: Whoa, what's going on? Is that ... an earthquake?
Vertin: Not good. Seems our suitcase has been found.
Vertin: By critters maybe, or just someone passing by. Sorry, I need to leave for a while. Need to hide it somewhere safe.
Regulus: Hey. Wait.
Regulus: ... The things you're doing ... Does your boss know?
Vertin: ...
Vertin: This is my own will.
Vertin: I can't stand aside and watch you be taken away by Sonetto; have you disappear like the others in the "Storm."
Vertin: There's also something I need to find out for myself ...
Vertin: ... The truth.
Regulus: Solid.
Regulus: Mr. APPLe, could you please give Vertin a hand?
Regulus: I ... need some time to think about all this ...
Regulus: About everything you said.