#p.w.a.b.

I assume that's a typo and you were asking if it's a wasted potential of Testament "not being in Xrd"?

While it is VERY TRUE that the Conclave WERE the ones behind the Postwar Administration Bureau and they WERE the ones that turned Testament in to a Gear… there were quite a few other things going on at that time (cited in GG2 Overture) that impacted the situation.

The first aspect relates to Dizzy and Ky Kiske: Dizzy was forced to go in to hiding at that time BECAUSE the Conclave were active, which also meant that if Ky made any rash moves they could have used their connections to locate and harm Dizzy (or even use her as a hostage to control Ky).

That's also a key reason why Testament couldn't actively act against them, either… they had far too much authority and were also fully capable of manipulating Testament like they originally HAD in the original 2180 Tournament.

It wouldn't be too difficult to assume that Johnny had been keeping tabs on the Conclave's movements as well… and he related all he knew back to Testament as well.

And it was shown in Accent Core's events that Johnny and Ky were working together to bring DOWN the P.W.A.B. and capture Crow Kuruwaba, so it stands to reason that anything Johnny knew… Testament did too.

The second key reason is related to Justice: the Conclave had FULL CONTROL over the Cradle, and they even had the ability to control an army of O.P.U.S. Gears using Justice' power to Control Gears as a Command Type Gear.

Considering the fact Testament could barely resist Justice' influence the first time around, it's very hard to say for certain if the Conclave couldn't simply activate the Cradle and manipulate any and all Gears that tried to resist them on all fronts.

We know that Dizzy and Sol were able to resist the manipulation of the Justice Copy that Crow created, but even in the case of the First Valentine, not only was Sin manipulated, but nearly all of Izuna's Tribe and Dr. Paradigm's Tribe of Gears were completely controlled.

And that alone was from the powers of a Valentine. Imagine how powerful the genuine article (Justice) would be if her powers were fully unleashed on every Gear in the world?

Sol sensed the same type of Headache-inducing "noise" in Ramlethal, though we don't know if Ramlethal and Elphelt both had the same powers to control Gears as the original Valentine could. It's also very likely that Jack-O' had similar powers too.

Anyway, it was a combination of the Standoff situation between Ky and the Conclave and the threat potential of the Valentines is part of the main reasons Testament couldn't get very involved in the situation.

Testament likely didn't want to put Dizzy (or her son, Sin) at risk if it could be helped… and that was BEFORE Happy Chaos became a threat!

As for getting revenge on P.W.A.B… I'm sure Testament considered it, but with the Assassins involved it probably got a lot more complicated.

I can't say for sure what Testament will do from here on in, but it's probably with the family's interests in mind.

Testament was originally an Orphan like a lot of kids during the Crusades.

He was just a survivor whom Kliff took a shining to and decided to adopt as his son. (In that respect, he might've been lucky, since not all kids got to be raised by such a kind parent. Some ended up being trained as Assassins or live as slaves.)

Kliff was still a strict father, but he was still the kindest man Testament had ever known. Testament was inspired by the name he had been given... even ran an orphanage for a time, and even a potato farm.

It wasn't until around 2127 or so that Testament decided to join the Sacred Order of Holy Knights.

But that in and of itself was something Kliff didn't want for his son. He didn't want Testament to fight in the war.

It was bad enough that a lot of young kids were being drafted because of the desperate situation (fighting Gears that could easily wipe out whole cities…).

Kliff just didn't want Testament to live in that world.

But Testament felt otherwise and wanted to prove he was worth being chosen as Kliff's son.

Unfortunately, he chose the wrong time to become a part of that war.

While he did train quite a bit in various Magic Theories and Magic Arts, he actually wasn't that great at using Magic at first and was originally just a low-ranked rookie knight-soldier.

Because of the way ranking works in the Order, usually the more experienced skilled soldiers protect the beginners, but sometimes even younger soldiers end up holding higher ranks compared to the old veterans because of natural talent and merit.

But that also means that a lot of young soldiers often go on suicide missions to their deaths.

Ky Kiske once recounted losing an entire squad, and just recounting the story made him sick to his stomach.

That's how stressful the war had gotten by this point to many soldiers.

Testament's squad was somehow put under the Conclave's Orders, though the reason was never explained, they were led to one of the Conclave's R&D Facilities.

From 2128 to 2139 (11 years), Testament was subjected to any number of untold experiments by the Postwar Administration Bureau (likely a certain Crow Kuruwaba was involved, along with other unnamed researchers).

Testament was converted in to a Gear by them, and has very little recollection of the events that took place, only that he ended up being the only survivor of those experiments (at least, that he was aware of).

Around 2140, Justice and her Gear army raided the facility Testament was in, and Testament was instantly forced to bend to Justice' hive-mind/will.

(Justice recounts that he was one of the few Gears that she could not completely control, and was nicknamed the "Disturbed Gear" because of his formerly-human origins.)

Around this time, Testament was now tapping in to their Gear Powers, though they were still a low-level Gear at this time.

Testament ran in to Kliff's Knights and Kliff himself briefly during a battle, but while Kliff recognized Testament, Testament had no recollection of their former father.

After suffering a near-mortal blow by Kliff, Testament escaped and was struggling to remember their past as a human.

Kliff felt a great deal of regret over this battle, though Testament held something of a grudge afterwards.

From 2141 to 2175, Testament worked to develop their Blood Magic and Poison Magic, though the exact details of the knowledge they gained are not fully known or understood.

But by then, Justice had been sealed away (Testament only found out she had been sealed after the fact).

After this point, many Gears ceased to function, with no commands issued to them… some even went in comatose stasis without any orders to continue to live.

Testament, it seemed, was one of the few Gears that was still operational.

However, Testament could still sense their Master's Will within the seal (Justice' Will).

At this point, Testament was both acting out of hatred towards the humans that had betrayed them, and the will of their Master Justice.

Testament would not be aware of it until sometime later, but the Conclave themselves had been observing them all this time and decided to use their actions as a pretense for recovering Justice' body as a vessel.

Five short years later in 2180, Testament used their former connections within the Sacred Order to set up a fake Tournament.

However, Testament didn't entirely expect their former Father, Kliff to be a participant of that tournament.

But they were still grateful that after 40 years, Kliff still remembered them.

Unfortunately Kliff was a human and had to die… and so Testament fought Kliff to the death.

Once more, Testament used the blood from their own wounds to finish unsealing their Master… even using what remained of their vessel as "fuel" for their Master's resurrection.

What happened next wasn't clear to Testament until the aftermath.

Sol Badguy (another Gear that Testament had never encountered before) fought Justice to the Death… and killed her.

As for Kliff… he spent his final moments with Ky (his other surrogate 'son'), though Kliff spoke briefly with Justice before he died… something about the responsibility of a parent.

When Justice died, Testament could no longer hear their Master's Commands… they could no longer feel their presence.

And, as if a powerful spell was broken… all of Testament's memories came back to them.

Like a flood. An ocean of blood. And they were responsible for all of those atrocities.

Even Kliff's death was all their fault.

Testament fled to wherever their feet could take them… ashamed and scared.

Humans had betrayed them, Gears could not protect them, there was no where to exist.

And yet, somehow, Testament still had the body and appearance of a Human.

A year passed.

It was early January, 2181… and Testament (despite themselves) chose to visit their Human Father's Grave.

There, they met a little blind girl named Josephine who knew nothing of the War, or of the Hero who was Kliff.

Caught up in an incident involving the Assassins, Testament chose to rescue the little girl, only to encounter the mysterious girl named Dizzy.

At first, they didn't know that Dizzy was a Gear until she revealed it herself sometime later, much less how powerful she was.

Testament had reservations about trusting humans, but Dizzy herself was a Gear… and the weight of power was on her shoulders.

Incident after Incident followed them… even the village exposed them as Gears and were very afraid of them. Bounty hunters chased them as well.

Testament grew less and less tolerant of humans, and more isolated (withdrawn inside themself).

However, a certain encounter with Ky Kiske surprised Testament.

Testament repeated his old Sacred Order Oath to Ky… surprising Ky and leading Ky to change his course of actions.

However, Ky's words still rang true with Testament: "Just pulling your hat over your head won't make the Storm go away."

Despite all the troubles that kept coming Dizzy's way, Dizzy chose to meet with humans. Humans who were willing to accept her for who she was.

After the Bureau tried to kidnap Dizzy, Dizzy still made her decision to live with Ky Kiske, regardless of the circumstances, and despite Testament's adamant request she refuse.

Six years passed.

Testament had been in sporadic contact with the Jellyfish Pirates, whom not only sought to maintain the peace, but even set things straight for Testament's sake within the Village that had once rejected them.

Of all people that could have accepted Testament, it was Dizzy's Human Adopted Parents.

Despite Testament's gloomy personality, despite rejecting everyone, despite their bizarre and growing powers, despite not being even remotely human by definition anymore…

They were accepted.

Even the people whom Testament hated the most (the Postwar Administration Bureau) were being completely reformed from the inside out… and even Ky was seeking to provide citizenship for Gears.

Kliff had never told Testament that Ky was a part of their family, whether he'd realized it or not… even Sol was a part of that family now… it was simply all very amusing.

Perhaps it was time for such a family to grow even further… and so Testament "created" children of their own, even if the original EXE Beast was still a part of them.

After the incident with Babylon… it was clear that Magic itself was still dangerous, even Blood Magic… but Magic (in moderation) can still be used to make a brighter future… or so "they" believe.

Frasco (or Flask if you prefer) was Paracelsus' original Mansion to begin with... so he had already made a name for himself long before the Government took an interest in him.

According to Rev2 information, there was a SECOND Frasco Laboratory built to replace the original, though it seems as though this was built under the Conclave's supervision with regards to the Cyprus Project and O.P.U.S. Gears.

Leon Mining, Crow Kuruwaba, Paracelsus... and a man named Director Repro Crowley... these four were the ones responsible for the O.P.U.S. Gears, Cyprus Blacktech, and the Robo-Ky Series, not to mention past history with experimental Forbidden Magic linked with the Assassins Organization.

Even if the Illyrian Government absorbed most members of the former Assassins in to their numbers, it's not clear how they would treat the Scientists and Researchers who had conducted inhumane experiments over the years. Even Bedman was a partial result of their meddling so it seems.

While Crow did try to mass produce Justice, and even tried to recapture Dizzy to clone her, I doubt High King Ky would permit any further involvement with a man like Crow (even if, perhaps, Happy Chaos might've been involved). Leon Mining himself is also responsible for trying to clone Zato and Millia's powers as well, against their will.

There's also evidence that suggests Testament's origins lie with these researchers as well... though we don't know the full story on that quite yet.

I do not know if Paracelsus himself is entirely innocent of these affairs, but if he created A.B.A. and experimented on Flament Nagel, then he is capable of a whole lot more, even if he was taken by the Government against his will.

Crow Kuruwaba is comparably a "bad example" of someone who might be an expert on understanding Vampires.

Case in point, most of his creations have been destroyed by wary humans, so they aren't nearly on the same level as something like a Vampire.

On the other hand, Zato=ONE, Venom, Millia Rage, and Bedman would probably be more ideal in terms of expertise on "Vampire" knowledge.

Given Nagoriyuki's origins (buried in cement for 60 years under a building foundation), I would think that most Vampires have enough money and connections to control humans however they see fit, even in modern society.

The reason Nagoriyuki himself was sealed was because he initially couldn't control his powers and was manipulated by Happy Chaos for it.

Now, Happy Chaos is an exception of an exception in terms of collective human knowledge on Vampires... he's barely human as it is. Even when he "was human", he had a genius intellect and expertise on Magic!

That's an unfair advantage, even against a Vampire, even for a lowly Human!

On average though, most humans know next to nothing about what real Vampires are like, let alone their weaknesses...

The P.W.A.B. (Assassins), the former Zepp Empire, and the Conclave collected that knowledge because it would serve them either if they ever made a Vampire an enemy, or if they had an opportunity to negotiate with the Vampires to their own advantage.

Slayer was aware of Human craftiness and ambition, that's why he created the Assassins Organization in the first place... to put a "lid" on that ambition.

The Assassins originally worked "outside/alongside" the P.W.A.B. The PWAB itself was a Bounty Hunter system originally run to maintain order for the International Police and also supervised by the United Nations and Sanctus Populi.

Over time, the Assassins "made deals" with the PWAB, and eventually the two fused as an organization, using backdoor deals (including deals with Zepp) that would profit them both... "make conflict", "create false order", "provide weapons"... it was a corrupt cycle of power.

Slayer lost control over the Assassins after they had been influenced by the P.W.A.B., which is why Slayer intended to disband it.

Venom (the current leader of Assassins) used his influence with PWAB to try and gather intel on Slayer in order to kill him (or if not possible seal him for good), but Slayer still found a way to best Venom and defeat him.

So you see, even with as much intel as PWAB gathered, it still wasn't enough to stop someone like Slayer.

However, that was short-lived... several years later, Bedman appeared and he was an even stronger threat to Slayer than Venom was.

His origins were tied with that of Happy Chaos, so of course he was blessed with incredible power and intelligence... but he was also being manipulated behind the scenes as well, as Ariels took advantage of his relationship with his Sister.

It was ironic, then, that Venom (with all his 'working' knowledge on Vampires) chose to defeat someone like Bedman as an act of redemption for the sake of the surviving Assassins.

So for all intents and purposes, Slayer finally retired, and the Assassins became the newly reformed P.W.A.B.

Of course, it goes without saying that this reformed P.W.A.B. has even MORE intelligence gathered on Vampires than previously considered!

But this time, rather than manipulating Vampires, rather than experimenting on them, rather than going to war with them... this P.W.A.B. has the goal of giving Vampires a "place to live".

Peace between Humans and non-humans... even before the Crusades, that was a difficult possibility to achieve.

And it may not be easy from here on in... there may even be people like Crow and Happy Chaos still out there, trying to take advantage of Vampires and Gears and Youkai... but there's also people out there trying to put a stop to all of them as well!

Millia Rage currently works for the Illyrian Government and is the NEW CURRENT HEAD of the Postwar Administration Bureau (Reformed/P.W.A.B.)!

Even Zato is impressed when she barks orders at him in her intro with him.

She is currently recruiting/scouting for other fighters to work within the New Bureau, much like the Sacred Order did with their tournaments in times past.

While the “New PWAB” basically functions essentially the same as before (giving former soldiers a place to work), it has reformed it’s policies regarding “human experimentation”  (obviously Millia was a former victim of this).  And while it is centered in the Illyrian Military, its reach is still global, as they still interact on behalf of the United Nations and Sanctus Populi (just as before).

And yes, she does grade her opponents depending on how well they do against her both in the immediate battle “round” and as the fight progresses.

For example, in my recent video/fight with Giovanna, Millia might grade Giovanna with an A- due to how aggressive she was, but as the rounds progress, that A- would drop to a C- if Giovanna kept falling for the same tactics, or losing round after round (meaning, Millia will grade you with even tougher grades the more rounds you play against her).

It’s been a long time since I made a diagram that explains everything, so here goes:

(Full Size Image here)

(Full Size Image here)

Basically to sum up, the PWAB were originally meant to give Soldiers a place to work after serving their Military terms post-wartime, but because the Crusades were dragging out because of the Gears, the U.N./Conclave basically sanctioned them to perform Gear experiments on soldiers as a desperate attempt at fighting back against Justice, the leader of the Gears.

They also used Assassins as a Testbed for their projects as well.

Still, if it weren’t for the fact the Sacred Order worked alongside the PWAB, Justice would never have been sealed away in 2175.

As of now, post-2187, the U.N., Sanctus Populi, and the PWAB are being completely restructured because of what the Conclave and the Pope tried to do.

The former “leader” (that we know of, at least) was Leon Mining, but because of his connections with the Conclave/Assassins and dubious activities, he was likely ousted.

The current “leader” of the PWAB is Millia Rage, former-assassin, now working for the Illyrian Government.

To our limited knowledge, Forbidden Beasts were created as disposable weapons, mainly because the Conclave didn’t want them being influenced by Justice’ ability to manipulate and dominate other Gears.

While Forbidden Beasts seem to have a limited capacity to resist Justice’ Command Type abilities, there was still concern that they would disobey orders and evolve a conscience because they were still based on Human test subjects.

The reasons for this largely relates to how Eddie was born from Zato’s body and mind... almost like an exact replica of Zato’s soul in some regards.

In other words, because Eddie is still technically “of human origin”, there was still a possibility that he might develop a will of his own... and so failsafes were put in place to control and limit his lifespan.

However, because of Zato’s revival during experiments in an attempt to revive Justice, Eddie’s “lifespan limit” was removed (or to put it more simply, rather than removed... they both simply exceeded it naturally).

As for Bardias/Baldias it’s implied he was bound to a “Cerberus” beast in an attempt to protect himself when Sol Badguy raided Harden Fortress (GG VastEdge events).  It’s implied to be an imitation, but there hasn’t been any strong evidence or information beyond that.

We do know that up until recently Leon Mining (one of the members of the Postwar Administration Bureau) was working for the Conclave in order to revive Justice (with Zato being a byproduct of that).

Leon was also responsible for creating “imitation Forbidden Beasts” based off of Zato’s and Millia’s DNA samples (Night of Knives events)... so his involvement corroborates with the prospect that Bardias was using an imitation Forbidden Beast.

Most likely Bardias was prepared to die when facing Sol, so as to keep the Conclave’s actions a well-guarded secret.

To what extent he was successful however... isn’t quite clear.