The Last Stage

THE LAST STAGE is the final quest of ACT III and the main story of the game. Its name is a reference to the last chapter of The Hobbit, which is also named The Last Stage.

Plot
Following the events of Diverting Actions, Edward and PC arrives on the first of November 1989 in the gamma timeline. The time machine is broken, and they need to repair it, but first Edward wants to sabotage the Deep Sea Base.

Preparations
Edward sends PC to meet with his younger self while he takes a walk, however the younger Edward is nowhere to be found. PC runs into an alternate Clint Westwood, who puts him in jail because of younger Edward's disloyalty to Mayor Crimson.

Edward and the PC then head to Bill's mechanic shop, where Bill and Edward have transformed the car to be capable of flying underwater, and Edward explains the plan to PC.

PC deactivates the anti-air cannon at the North end of Cape Dun before diving under the sea.

The Deep Sea Base
As they approach the Deep Sea Base however, the window of the car starts cracking, and the time machine is destroyed just as they enter the base, although Edward salvages the time core from it so they can rebuild it later.

They split up and sneak around the base in different directions. PC hacks two core towers with the virus chip given to him by Edward.

However, they are then captured by Crimson, who uses Edward's time core to power the giant time machine in the base. Crimson gives an evil monologue before leaving PC and Edward in the accelerator tunnel to die, however a miscommunication causes the time travel sequence to initialize before Crimson and the agents could evacuate the chamber. PC is sucked into a wormhole along with an agent.

2387 BC
PC wakes up in the prehistoric landscape of May 11, 2387 BC at 5:20 AM, observing a giant laser forming some kind of time tunnel, where one exit creates another entrance. PC needs to head on, in the direction of the laser, chasing down one of Crimson's agents, who has the access card for the Deep Sea Base time reactor, who is stuck in the same predicament, past some chasers and bee swarms.

They run past a camp of tall Vile Cultists while explosions emanate from the East. A statue in the middle of the camp gets destroyed and the sky gets covered by red smoke, obscuring a perfectly smooth Moon. It starts raining as a massive tsunami wave of biblical proportions rushes towards the camp from the East, and PC must enter the exit portal that the laser is creating before he gets killed by it. PC most likely witnessing the Great Flood.

2381 BC
PC next finds himself in an icy landscape on Feb 12, 2385 BC at 4:20 AM. He chases the agent through the blue mist into an ice cave, where icicles fall from the ceiling. The time laser goes North, but they take a detour to the East to avoid a large crevasse. The Moon can be seen to now be covered in glowing red spots and cracks. They pass underneath a frozen giant cococrab, and a gigantic chunk of ice containing a frozen mammoth, slides past them. To the West, Mount Uroruh has a volcanic eruption, spewing burning debris into the sky and covering the landscape with a thick pyroclastic flow that will kill PC is he doesn't enter the time portal fast enough.

300 BC
PC next finds himself in front of Bandit Cavern on May 11, 0300 BC at 6:30 AM. The Moon can be seen, and it looks normal now. The agent and PC pass an aging Crimson, who is still in the cage at the native camp from the ending of ACT II. Crimson is delighted to see the agent as it means his younger self got the message he sent into the future, however to his dismay the agent ignores him and continues running to the next time portal.

280 BC
PC next finds himself very briefly falling into the magma at the bottom of a volcano on Feb 2, 280 BC at 12:11 AM. People can be seen standing on a landing in the magma.

1844 AD
Next PC wakes up on Park Hill on April 12, 1844 at 08:11 AM. The time laser leads him to the top of the Courthouse, where Clint Westwood is pointing a gun at the agent, who has dropped his gun and fallen into a sitting position. After a monologue referencing Clint Eastwood from Dirty Harry, Westwood shoots at the agent with his 6th bullet, but the agent gets away into the time portal. Westwood nods to PC, telling him to go get the agent.

2012 AD
PC goes through the time portal again, finding himself now on a futuristic hover train train traveling Southbound through some kind of tunnel on April 11, 2012 at 4:30 AM. The train is occupied by the same kind of robot soldiers that the CORE owns and is also carrying a cargo of wooden crates. PC has to reach the time portal at the front of the train before it runs out of track and crashes.

202#>
PC next appears in some canyons somewhere. To the East, a giant cross appears in the sky. The PLC displayed the year as "202#>", but the date is technically March 11, 2024 at 6:20 AM.

20AA
PC next finds himself on some winding pathway somewhere covered by very dark clouds. The agent is struck by lightning and succumbs to his gunshot wound, allowing PC to pick up the launch codes the agent was carrying. The PLC displays the year as "20AA", but the date is technically April 3, 2027 at 6:20 AM.

Back at the Deep Sea Base
PC next re-appears at the Deep Sea Base's accelerator tunnel, where he sees Crimson hanging on for dear life. Crimson says that "This is not the end" before finally losing his grip and falling into the wormhole. The player is then sucked into the control room, and finds a wounded E.R. Athor.

Using the launch codes, PC can shut down the reactor, however the button needs to be held to keep it closed for long enough for someone to escape. Edward decides to sacrifice himself to save PC and the younger Edward, who hurry to the last escape pod to escape just in time before the older Edward loses consciousnesses and can no longer hold the button, causing the entire Deep Sea Base to explode.

In the end, Edward decides that it is not their place to attempt to fix the past and entrusts the duty to a higher power.

Ending
PC wakes up where it all began, at the start of the prologue, as if the events of the entire game were just a bad dream.

He once again grabs the reactor and follows Edward to the time machine, but this time the time core blows up when Edward tries to insert it. Edward starts to realize that he remembers the future and his death, and that a time reset may have occurred. They both decide that maybe it is for the best that the time machine doesn't work. Edward asks PC to tell him the entire story, and they talk while walking to Ben's Doughnuts while Crimson and his agents spy on them from afar before the credits roll, marking the beginning of The Epilogue.