Mythril

If this is the case as stated and not some sort of long term plan in the works, why are they not pursuing Nim with the same vigor that they show in chasing down Melia? If you wanted to recreate Storm-9, wouldn't it make sense to either recruit or capture the current incarnation of that same power? The closest thing I have seen so far is Clear-cent convincing her to become Lorna. They didn't know about the other 3 Archetype holders. Wouldn't they want/need the whole thing and not just a piece of it? Not even Melia had any idea she had siblings until GDC. They didn't show any real interest in Aelita, and if they want to recreate Storm-9 why not make sure history couldn't repeat itself by capturing the reincarnation of the soul that stopped it from completing it's goal the first time around? It seems to me that their are quite a few holes in their knowledge as well, either that or they are displaying an unprecedented level of arrogance in assuming their plans will work. Honestly with Madam X's personality, it could be going either way there. I have a huge respect for Jan and every member of the Dev team, for every answer they give us we get two more questions. By the end of the story, we are going to need one of those movie crime-boards with the red string hooking everything together to get the full picture of the world and I love it.

Disclaimer: I played through the Saki battle in v13 and with a new save file I am just about to enter Axis High in v13.5 so forgive me if my questions are answered or my theories debunked later on. Team Xen as an organization, lets talk about them. On the surface level, they seem to be a para-military organization. A few issues I have with that though. At the start of the game, they seem to be seen as a nuisance but mostly harmless. We know that is not true and they have a vast membership as well as a large amount of military hardware. Even if they got all their battleships, trucks, flying suits, and other equipment from a different region you would still assume that news of somebody buying up a small armies worth of tech would get around. They also seem to have a huge membership, I know there are some repeat trainers and I plan on doing another playthrough and recording the names off all the Xen members that you fight, but having a group with so many members should also be hard to hide. Even if they are "mostly harmless", if they number in the hundreds, they would be a major power in the region. We are also told that Team Xen existed in the past under a different leader. The tech that they have access to is also a big question mark. They can put Ren's consciousness into a cyborg body, the Deathwings have powered flying suits, Madam X is capable of superhuman speed and strength however we don't know if that is because of her suit or her personal abilities. We don't see that kind of tech used by anyone else in the modern timeline. During the Neo-Geran sidequests we see a Deathwing get his wing damaged and it repair itself later, however it seems to take a physical toll on him. We also hear Madam X say "If it wasn't for this damn suit..." which I take to mean that the suit is not an optional thing for her and also it is limiting her abilities somewhat. All of the members that we really talk to seem to have some personal goal that their membership in Team Xen will help them with. From healing a sick family member to downright cold blooded revenge, they all seem to want something that they feel like they can't do themselves. Team Xen is also a one-way street. Once you are a member, you don't leave without being erased. Being erased is another oddity. If you wanted to control someone, a good old-fashioned way is to implant a little bomb in their neck to pop the head off if they get out of line, but that is not what Xen does. I can't help but assume it has something to do with the green gem they all carry. The way they are erased reminds me of what happened to Aelita in the past with the Vivian situation, making me thing that the green gems act like a timegear amulet. My theory is that Team Xen is made up mostly of people from previous versions of the world or from different timelines looking to change something that happened to them in the past. The gems act as artificial protection from being erased like they should have been in the last reset of the world, so deactivating the gems lets the world correct itself. Madam X took her name from the team, not naming the team after herself. This doesn't explain how Team Xen was able to acquire so much tech and hardware. If they brought things like their Battleships from the previous reset, then they should also have a time-protection device, but if so why wasn't it just remotely disabled when Neved's battleship was stolen, dropping all the passengers off into the middle of the ocean? The Deathwings could have been outfitted with their suits in the previous timeline and brought them with them, the same for Madam X and her suit. And lets not forget our good friends the Silver Surfer and Mysterio, they are using equipment and tech that far surpasses the level of what is available in the modern timeline as well. What do you think?

April 1st, 2024, V14 drops, it will be exactly the same as V13.5 but Team Xen is renamed Shadow Nexus. You heard it here first.

I am convinced that the game is one huge meta commentary on game development along with the question, "What happens to the characters in the game when you delete your save and start again?" Since we as the player are a separate consciousness from the actual person that is the MC, we would have knowledge that surpasses what should be known at that time. We are basically told as much, the only one that remembers the old world is the one that reset it and all that. As for the appearance of older versions of characters, by the nature of the technology we currently use, when you delete a file on your computer, it doesn't really disappear. The 1s and 0s are still there, your computer just doesn't recognize them any more until new data writes over it. It is a common trope that when programming fixing one bug breaks the whole program, well we "fixed" the problem of Vivian unaliving herself and we see what happened there. We literally had to go back and undo the "fix" in order for the game to continue. Even having major characters be personifications of computer programs fits with the theme, it is not uncommon to use third party tools (RPGmaker, Pokemon Essentials) as the backbone of your own work. To be fair, Rejuvenation is a master class on storytelling and world building. It isn't all commentary, but the way that they present the themes entwined within the story is super creative and I love it.

I am only partway through my new playthrough, so my memory may be foggy on the later revelations, but I think it is possible that Madam X is another incarnation of the INTERCEPTOR. Not only does she show superhuman abilities beyond what Ren is capable of after his makeover, but she breaks the fourth wall in talking directly to the player in the form of the MC, saying how many times she has had to save them and how many times she has had to change her plans because of the MC. Sharon straight up tells us that when you join team Xen, you are branded with an X and carry a green jewel, and when you are "deactivated" you die. And the Xen member in the Sheridan ruins didn't fall over with a heart attack or something, he straight up vanished. That sounds an awfully lot like the effect of a Time-Spinner to me. So Team Xen is made up of people who should have died already (Perhaps in a separate timeline), were saved by intervention of Madam X or other Xen members, and are shielded from the consequences of that timeline shift by the effects of the brand and/or jewel. When that jewel is deactivated, they vanish in the current timeline. I can't think of anything other than the INTERCEPTOR that could mess around with the fate of so many people in that way.