| abstract
| - Jodie Holmes is the protagonist of Beyond: Two Souls. Her performance is captured by Ellen Page and Caroline Wolfson. The narrative of Beyond: Two Souls follows Jodie through 15 (ages 8 - 24) years of her life. As the player experiences the game, they will receive more information about the afterlife and discover the true meaning of the entity Aiden, the ghostly presence tethered to Jodie. It is revealed at the end of the game that Aiden is Jodie's stillborn twin brother.
- Jodie is a troubled eight year old girl who was born with a very strange and unexplained gift, one which she often calls a curse. Her biological parents were both psychically gifted. Her father, Jonathan Nichols, died before she was born. Norah Gray , her mother, was given a neuro-acid, which leaves her in comatose state (NOTE: canon statements use the term coma though her eyes are open and she is seen upright in a chair). As an infant, Jodie is adopted and raised until the age of 8 by a couple serving and living on a military installation associated with the government lab Jodie is later turned over to. As Jodie grows older, her encounters and interactions with what her parents had assumed was an imaginary friend grow increasingly violent and alarming. Her father going so far as to claim a demon is living in their home. As a result, Jodie's mother and father bring her to the lab for an informal interview with Nathan Dawkins. Impressed by the abilities of Jodie and her "friend" Aiden, Dawkins assisted by Cole Freeman and worried about Aiden's violence and the safety of Jodie's family, community and Jodie herself Jodie is brought to the lab to live. In one of the first experiments the researchers conduct with Jodie, disaster strikes when Aiden gets out of control and badly terrifies a participating volunteer; the effort to control Aiden results in Jodie's nose bleeding. Shortly after her arrival at the lab, her parents visit and tell her that they have been transferred and "everyone" has decided it would be best for Jodie to stay at the lab with Nathan and Cole. Jodie's father is openly dismissive and scornful of his wife's tears and concern for Jodie. As the couple leaves, Aiden has an opportunity to violently interact with her father. Following Jodie's abandonment, she continues to live at the lab and work with Cole and Nathan while attending school in the facility. One evening, she stays up late with Cole and Nathan eating pizza and watching TV. When she finally grows tired, Nathan realizes how late it is and tells her has purchased a new book for her. He offers to read it to her after he puts her to bed if she doesn't mind retrieving it. While retrieving the book, she sees the frightening specters of a woman and a girl older than Jodie with head injuries. After returning to Nathan and Cole, Jodie doesn't have a chance to reveal her vision before the phone rings bearing the terrible news that Nathan's wife and daughter have been killed in a head on collision with a drunk driver. Roughly three days later (the actual time elapsed is hard to say though Cole notes that it's been three days since Nathan has left his office), Jodie, unable to sleep, sees the same specter of the bloody headed girl and follows her to Nathan's office. Distraught and unshaven, Nathan is presented with Jodie channeling the spirits of his wife and daughter in an effort to grant him peace. Sometimes later, Jodie as a young teenager is dropped off at a birthday party for the child of a worker in the lab. As soon as adult supervision has left, the attendees break out alcohol and marijuana. They then ask Jodie questions. If she tells the truth about her life, the attendees will scoff at her; pushed to prove it, she badly frightens them. Later on, the attendees turn on her and lock her in a cupboard under a staircase. With Aiden's help, she can either escape and leave or escape and get revenge. Sometime after the birthday incident, Nathan reluctantly agrees to allow Jodie to attempt to shutdown a project that has gone terribly wrong. Another research facility had created a condenser and opened a rift between our world of the living and the Infraworld of the dead and worse things like the violent entities that had plagued Jodie's childhood. Teams sent in to evacuate and shut down the condenser failed to return. Jodie, possibly somewhat naive but fully aware she is the only one who may be able to stop the slow motion disaster as the effect of the condenser is spreading, agrees. She manages to navigate the complex and shut down the condenser with Aiden's help then collapses in Nathan's arms outside. He apologizes for forcing her in to the situation. She warns him to never let them build another condenser or there'll be nothing left. Later, somewhat older, Jodie has a massive argument with Nathan and Cole when she is denied permission for a "girls' night out" with classmates. Violating the trust placed in her, she can choose to enlist Aiden's help to possess Cole and escape the facility. If she successfully escapes, Aiden "rides" Cole in to the woods off the road and leaves him there while he and Jodie head to the agreed on meeting place. To Jodie's dismay, her friends are not there. Depending on how things play out, Aiden may end up killing the bar patrons and bartender after a patron attempts to rape Jodie on a pool table. Shortly thereafter, Jodie is forcefully recruited to the CIA when Nathan drags his feet on giving her the good news. Ryan Clayton, her recruiter, is initially scornful of what he considers teenage whining. Tearful and heartbroken, she eventually acquiesces and leaves the lab. The training is grueling and covers everything from complicated equations to black ops combat tactics. At the completion of her final training exercise, Clayton greets her with a drawn weapon and scorns her achievement. She blows him off and points out that Aiden is right behind him controlling a possessed combatant armed with a rifle. She passes. Her first field assignment is to utilize Aiden's unique skills to allow them to copy sensitive data from a locked safe. Depending on the success of the mission, she either succeeds and evades notice entirely or is left staggering and loopy from the effort and accompanying nosebleed. Later, Jodie has a very nice apartment courtesy of the CIA. Clayton calls her to ask about a dinner invitation he had sent via email—Aiden had destroyed Jodie's computer. Rather than miss out on the aborted date, Jodie suggest they meet at her new apartment in an hour for dinner. If dinner works out, Clayton and Jodie may become romantically involved. Roughly two years later, Jodie is again working in the field with Clayton. This time, her assignment is the assassination of a war lord. She is under orders to not be seen and warned against direct action against local forces and advised there will be no rescue. She eventually succeeds with the assassination with the assistance of a local boy (after she enlists Aiden's help to heal his gunshot wound). Unfortunately, one of the member's of the war lord's staff turns out to be the child's father. Her stealthy retreat ruined by the child's grief and attempt to kill her an angry mob traps Jodie and, contrary to the previous warnings, she is rescued via helicopter after Clayton and two others rappel down to retrieve her. Once patched up and heading home via an extremely fancy helicopter (Clayton notes that a high ranking member of the CIA loaned it out for this purpose), Ryan Clayton attempts to comfort her and congratulate her on a job well done. Still rattled by the gruesome turn of events, she dismisses him and turns on the news, only to learn that the "war lord" was the democratically elected president of his nation and their best hope for peace in years. Incensed, Jodie and Aiden nearly cause the chopper to crash before Jodie jumps from the craft. She survives easily thanks to Aiden and stops only to call Nathan in order to relay a warning to the CIA before doing her best to vanish. Her warning states they are to leave her alone or she will kill them. Jodie is hotly pursued by the CIA and other law enforcement agencies as a fugitive wanted for treason. On separate occasions, she engages a group of police officers in and on top of a moving train and later demolishes a sheriff's office and the main street of a small after being cornered by a cadre of operatives that appear to be some form of law enforcement. While on the run, she runs out of resources and hope. She is seeing an entity from the Infraworld or world beyond ours after death. She used to call such beings "monsters" as a child and Aiden has fought to defend her from them more than once. On the thin edge of survival, she breaks down and calls Nathan though doesn't give him her location before hanging up. She doesn't make it much farther; overcome by bitter cold, hunger, and despair, she collapses on a snowy sidewalk. Aiden saves her by enlisting the assistance of Stan, a kind-hearted homeless man. Jodie wakens some days later to find herself in a homeless camp under Stan's care. The other denizens are Tuesday, Jimmy, and Walter. Shortly after awakening, she attempts to kill herself (she is able to choose to cut her wrists or throw herself from a great height). Aiden intervenes and she rages at him before Stan gently asks if she'd like to know how their little community works. He takes her to a nearby street and advises her they need to make $5 to get any hot food. After awhile, she wanders off, telling Stan she doesn't think it makes sense for both of them to be begging in the same spot. She is propositioned by a stranger for $10 (if she accepts, Aiden will attack the man and they can steal his money). She can also borrow a guitar from another homeless person too cold to busk. Once she has earned at least $10, Stan takes their collected earnings and heads in to a supermarket for supplies. As he leaves, he is waylaid and accosted by a group of four youths who videotape the encounter. Jodie makes short work of them and they return to the camp. Once at the camp, Jodie will be able to learn more about her companions including how and why they're on the streets. She will also be able to reassure Tuesday that her baby is okay, ease Jimmy's withdrawal pain, and channel Stan's dead wife. Later that day, Tuesday goes in to early labor. She is adamant that the not take her to a hospital because they'll take her baby (she is also on the run from an abusive partner). Stan launches into action, assigning each member a duty while he and Jodie try to get supplies. Once outside, Stan admits he doesn't know how they're going to get any but he wants Tuesday's child to have what any other child would have. Having earned Stan's trust earlier, she then uses Aiden to bypass security on the same supermarket where Stan was attacked and they get supplies. Jodie helps Tuesday deliver her baby, Zoey. That night, the same gang of youths set fire the building the group had broken into so Tuesday could have Zoey in a real shelter. Jodie manages to use Aiden to save her new friends but is not so lucky herself. If she manages to escape the fire, she is attacked in the parking lot by the same gang. She slips in to a coma after the attack. On waking, she has contact based visions from gifts and newspaper articles that tell her Stan cleaned up and found work, Tuesday—actually Elisa—and Zoey were doing well and the gang was captured the same night of their attack thanks to reeking of gasoline. She manages to escape from her 5th story room as CIA agents arrive to take custody of her due to her treason charges. She goes back on the run and after once again slipping away from pursuing forces ends up hitchhiking in the desert. Unable to catch a ride, exhausted, and desperately thirsty, Jodie is directed to the only settlement for miles by Aiden. She knocks on the door of the main building and asks to stay the night. Jay, who originally answered the door at first, refuses to let her stay even after she offers to sleep in the barn. His father, Paul, and Jay have a short conversation in Diné (Navajo) and Paul overrides his son. He agrees to let Jodie stay and invites her to share their evening meal as well. Paul introduces Cory and Shimashani. To Jodie's confusion and surprise, the men rise and insert pre-made boarding on their windows and bid a hasty good night, advising Jodie not to leave her room no matter what she heard. That night, Jodie disobeys her host's orders and leaves her room. She opens the front door and sees an apparition, a male dressed in ceremonial garments and wearing a mask. Before she can interact with the figure, the door is slammed closed by a member of the family and locked. The next day, she is invited to stay on by Paul to assist with the ranch in return for room and board. Jay initially maintains his defensive hostility though Cory is more open to Jodie. After Jay watches Jodie and Aiden calm and befriend one of his more stubborn horses, he begins to think differently about her. It is possible for Jay to become a romantic interest for Jodie. That night, Jodie leaves the home and is nearly killed by a fearsome entity born in the nightly dust storm. She survives and the next day manages to discover more about the nature of the entity, including that it was originally released by Shimashani's ancestors. With Aiden's help, she recovers four amulets and learns the ritual originally used to release the entity. Shimashani is stirred from her apparent vegetative state and gifts Jodie the fifth amulet. Later that day, Paul is attacked by the entity in daylight, as the storm begins to return Shimashani and Jodie prepare to re-enact the ritual. If the ritual is successful, the entity is banished. If it fails, the entity evades capture and Paul and Shimashani die though neither Cory nor Jay blame Jodie. Instead, they thank her for trying and gift her a motorcycle to use to continue her journey. Later, Jodie reaches out to Cole in an attempt to verify information she dreamed of or possibly hallucinated during her coma after the fire the night Zoey was born. She meets Cole in a park and Cole reveals that Jodie was taken from her mother, Norah, and given over to the people she had grown up believing to be her parents as they were assigned to the lab. Her father died before Jodie was born but her mother had been committed to an asylum run by the lab's owning organization. Jodie is adamant about meeting her. Cole attempts to caution her that there may be nothing to see or find if she has truly succumbed to mental illness, then he insists on accompanying her. The hospital is largely deserted when they arrive. With Aiden's help, they manage to find Norah's location and evade security. Cole waits outside Norah's room while Jodie enters. Norah is propped in a chair, eyes partially open with an IV attached to her arm. She is wholly unresponsive to Jodie's attempts to rouse her. With Aiden's help, Jodie sees a vision of her birth then. Again with Aiden's help, she sees her mother and manages to free her from her strange malaise long enough to speak. They seem to be in an unknown plane or dimension inside Norah's mind. Norah explains that it's too late for her and tells Jodie she loves her but is caught in limbo by the drugs she's been given for decades. When the encounter ends, Aiden may peacefully end Norah's suffering. If he does so, she dies with a smile. Jodie retrieves a locket from Norah and leaves, only to be ambushed in the hallway by armed soldiers. Cole, too, is taken prisoner. Jodie awakens in an opulent office. After exploring, she realizes the office must be Nathan Dawkins' as the familiar photo of his wife and child from her days with him at the lab is perched on his enormous desk. She and Nathan are reunited. He apologizes for her treatment and promises Cole will not be punished for assisting her. He explains that the CIA have a deal for her, one last mission for her freedom. The complex housing Nathan's office contains a massive new condenser safely housed in an enormous containment field to prevent a similar disaster to the one from years previously. Another nation has discovered the Infraworld and the CIA ostensibly want Jodie to destroy their research and any advanced technology to secure the CIA's secure and primary access and prevent a disaster like the one from Jodie's youth with worldwide consequences. Jodie reluctantly agrees, realizing the potential danger and eager to stop being hunted. She is informed she will be working with a team. When she asks for clarification, Ryan Clayton and her firearms and hand-to-hand combat instructors from the CIA are ushered in. They successfully infiltrate the enemy location hidden in a dilapidated and snow locked fishing village only to find that what they thought was the base was a submarine hangar. The quartet infiltrate the hangar after Aiden wipes out the guards within. Clayton and Jodie steal a submarine and manage to infiltrate the underwater installation below them. They make excellent progress until Jodie encounters a containment field that traps Aiden, causing her great pain and blowing their cover. She and Clayton are then captured and tortured. Aiden manages to kill several guards and destroy the equipment maintaining the containment field. He rescues and heals Jodie, who frees Clayton and retrieves the explosives needed to destroy the enemy condenser. Clayton tries to argue that their work is done and they should flee while they can. Jodie refuses and tells him to head to the submarine and wait for her for 15 minutes. She insists it's the only way as the rift and condenser still exist, bringing more entities in to our world. Clayton reluctantly agrees. Jodie and Aiden manage to navigate their way to a diving bay where she dons deep pressure gear and plants explosive to the pylons energizing the condenser. On returning to the bay, she is viciously attacked by that officer who had been interrogating her and Clayton via torture. Once he lies dead, she and Aiden race through the entity infested flooded facility to reach the submarine bay. Initially, Clayton appears to have left with the last sub. Moments later, the craft surfaces and Jodie races aboard. They manage to flee the installation to avoid being killed in the underwater blast from the planted explosives. However, the hydraulic shock wave from the blast knocks out their boosters, stranding the submarine below surface level in arctic water. Desperate, Jodie suggests they attempt to swim as they're not too far below the surface. With no other options, Clayton agrees. They surface on an ice shelf and huddle together for warmth. If Jodie tells him she is no longer angry with him and they were previously romantically involved, Clayton will admit he loves her and ask her if she loves him. She can agree and request a frozen kiss. They are rescued at the last moment by the other two members of their team in a stolen military arctic transport. After recovering from the arctic ordeal, she then sits in a briefing of sorts and observes an army general rave about the opportunities the Infraworld presents for resources and conquest. Sickened by him and the futility of her previous heroics in the face of such mania, she leaves and meets Cole, who escorts her to Nathan's office. Nathan presents Jodie with a new passport created by the CIA, advising that Jodie Holmes no longer exists and a check for $500,00 for "services rendered." As she tries to leave, Nathan stops her. He reveals that he has been using his time to research a method to see his family in the Infraworld. He demonstrates it for Jodie and she sees the frightened reaching silhouettes of the familiar figures from her childhood haunting and the photo on Nathan's desk. Their mouths are open as though pleading or shouting. Nathan begs Jodie to help him in his research so he can hear their voices for the first time in fifteen years. She refuses then with Aiden's help, reluctantly channels Nathan's wife. She is in furious agony and begs him to allow herself and their daughter to die. Horrified, Jodie breaks the trance and tells Nathan he is torturing them, that they're being torn apart by two worlds. Upset, she leaves Nathan. The army general from the previous briefing secretly captures Jodie and drugs her. Barely conscious, she struggles to stay awake as he reveals that he is going to administer the same neuro-acid to her as the one given to her mother and for much the same reasons. She is too dangerous to be killed since her potential influence on the Infraworld is unknown but can not be allowed to leave. Later through the same fog, Nathan visits and reveals that he is going to cheat death by disabling the containment field and allowing our world and the Infraworld to mix. Desperate, Aiden tries to stop the chemical being pumped in to Jodie after Nathan leaves but he's too weak. Jodie orders him to get help. After her meeting with Nathan, Cole had asked Clayton to join him for a drink in his office. Aiden hurries there and manages to harass the men into realizing he's there and following his signals to Jodie's location. Aiden helps them pass security and Jodie is freed. She reveals Nathan's insanity and the quartet set out to stop him, only to discover they're too late. They manage to fight against the flow of panicked people and ravenous entities to reach the containment field control room but can't shut down the condenser or reactivate the field. In a desperate bid, Cole equips himself with a portable belt-based containment field and says he has to get to the black sun at the heart of the condenser and activate the self-destruct to stop the carnage. Barely hesitating, Jodie joins him, followed by a frightened but determined Clayton who jokes he always knew he'd die a hero. Then Cole reveals that the delay between triggering the self-destruct and the blast will be almost instantaneous and they're going to die. They manage to infiltrate the condenser before Cole is badly, possibly mortally, wounded. If Aiden heals Cole as much as possible, he may survive. The duo keeps going, reluctantly leaving Cole behind. As they grow closer to the Black Sun, they encounter lost souls shrieking their regrets and Jodie catches glimpses of her mother and others. Clayton and Jodie are temporarily separated and Jodie encounters Nathan equipped with a belt, desperately searching for his family and carrying a hand gun. Jodie speaks with him and tells him she is determined to stop the mingling of worlds. Depending on the course of the conversation, Nathan may shoot himself and be reunited with his family. He will ask Jodie to stop the condenser for him. They're assaulted by a vicious entity and Jodie's field fails. Clayton desperately tries to think of a solution and failing, demands Jodie take his still working belt. She is reluctant but knowing what is at stake doesn't hesitate for long. She continues on and enters the Black Sun. Once inside, she is shown a new vision of her mother giving birth; this time, it is revealed that Jodie had a twin brother who died strangling on his umbilical cord. Her twin brother, Aiden. Tearfully, she encounters a spectre of Aiden in a beautiful field; she realizes he couldn't leave after the death of his body because he was part of her and she loves him. As she reaches for him, he disintegrates and drifts away on the wind. She is given a choice between going beyond and being reunited with the people she has lost in her journey or returning to our world and continuing to suffer as well as love and live. If she returns to our world, she races to find Clayton and embraces him moments before the condenser explodes. They both survive. Jodie retreats to an isolated cabin in a beautiful forest on the banks of a river. She reveals that she has been writing down her life story because her memories are disintegrating. She spent too long on the other side and her past is now fractured and fading away. She continues to deeply mourn Aiden, spending days crying. Eventually, she recovers and begins to heal. She can then choose to re-enter life and return to Ryan Clayton, share a life with Jay on his father's ranch, or seek out baby Zoey and her mother. Whatever her decision, it is revealed that while not tethered to Jodie any longer, Aiden is not truly gone. Jodie also states that she has terrible dreams of a bleak future with an out of control condenser. She states, "I've died twice already, I'm no longer afraid of death."
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