For a while Claire felt lost in the city; that she had no purpose in the city, coming off the back of many failed attempts at Fleeca banks. One day she decided enough was enough; she went to the tuner shop to settle some affairs; threw away her phone, froze her bank account, and then with $95 in her pocket she set out on a journey.
A journey to find her purpose. She began her hike to the top of Mount Chiliad. From the Tuner shop she walked to the Southside asking people what their purpose is, to no avail, nobody knew, until one delivery driver answered "to grind" and then she realized people in this city, their selfish purpose is to make money, and with this revelation came a task from God. To find the true purpose in life, Claire graciously accepted this task and continued on her quest. She had a revelation that, at the tuner shop she had a purpose, but in the Southside she didn't. She decided that she needed to go everywhere in the city to see what her purpose was, but the only way she could do that was with a map.
A False Purpose
She arrived at a densely populated apartment, prime to ask others what their purpose was; this; the answer she received there was "family". But that wasn't enough; suddenly her family, her brother, Aleksander Sazkaljovich appears with Olga Sazkaljovich to give her a purpose, but before they do they discuss Claire's quest. Aleks suggests she hike Mount Jesier rather than Mount Chiliad as it was more spiritual. Claire expressed she didn't know where that is and she doesn't have a map. Olga has a rummage around in Claire's backpack and pulls out a map but it was useless, it cut off half the city including the mountains. Miguel Almerion arrives and picks them up and they drive up to the hills overlooking the city and Miguel, Aleks and Olga invite Claire to be a middleman to sell guns to the people of Los Santos. Giving her a purpose. Still, the purpose was still money; she thought there had to be something else.
The Ones We Lost
She went back to the city to gather supplies, reflecting on the people she'd lost and what she could have done to help them, stopping to put flowers on the graves of fallen AngelsGriselda Ambrose and Kayden Dell'Anno. Regretful that she never asked them their purpose, reliving the terrible decisions she made with Marcus, that perhaps she was Marcus' purpose and she neglected him and because of that he died.
Using her half of the map, she walks to Dean's World, on the way she spots a storefront with a sign reading "The Grain of Truth" exclaiming she needs to find her truth, she continues on and finds, written on a wall "Dream the Impossible Dream! Of a planet of fire and a dinosaur with a saddle. If not for me who am I? Spaceship, Earth, overpopulation means breakdown of order. The Fruit Tree is a Lie" Now added to a quest in uncovering the meaning of the Grain of Truth and the fruit tree. One true, one a lie. She must find them. She finally arrives at Dean's World, hopeful to find the purpose of the people of Dean's World; she runs into Juan Carlos "Flippy" Hernandez and Miguel, who attempt to tempt her away from the path to "kick it back with the boys" but she manages to stick to the path. She meets a mime who tells her in actions that he has a purpose but it does fulfill him, with this interaction; she moves on to the apartments, but not before the mime gives her a gun, to defend herself on the path to Chiliad.
A Stranger
She collects her binoculars up from the apartments ready for her journey to Mount Chiliad. When she leaves the apartments she sees a familiar woman across the street who looked like she was on a journey as well; when Claire approached her, the woman vanished. Claire runs away in fear of what she just saw. And she soon realized the reason the woman was so familiar was because it was her. In the past. She sees her former self walk into an alleyway, so she runs towards her to confront her, but when she turns the corner, the past Claire vanishes again. Claire convinces herself that she was just seeing things and it wasn't real. That this was a distraction from her purpose.
Then she spots her former self again, Claire pulls out her binoculars and zooms in on her former self, it then that past Claire turned to face her, waved and burst into flames, leaving nothing behind but feathers. Claire believed this to be a message that she had destroyed the person that she used to be, to become an Angel; that maybe along the way she diverted from the path, and that maybe she should return to her old ways. She had learned all she needed to know from the city. It's time for her journey to truly start, but Claire was tired and cold, and so far away from Mount Chiliad, she thought maybe it was the end, she sat down to rest by a flaming barrel at a hobo camp, when suddenly a lady in an RV offered Claire a ride, to sandy shores.
The Fruit Tree
On the drive, the two of them discuss Claire's journey and the strangers expresses concern that someone may try to kill Claire but didn't elaborate on why, the stranger decided there is something Claire should see and drives them to the hippie camp and walks away, leaving Claire lost and confused; she tries to talk to some people when suddenly she sees the The Fruit Tree; it was dead, and had been dead for a long time. Standing by the fruit Tree she looks around she sees graffiti saying Karmaand Pleasureand realizes thatthe fruit tree is the balance of them bother that's why it is a lie because Claire doesn't have a balance of karma and pleasure, suddenly Claire from the future appears with a knife phasing in and out of reality taunting Claire, and as was trying piece all of this together a car pulls up, Claire dashes over to investigate and out steps Mary MushkinMac in hand. Claire starts vetting all she has learned to a confused Mary, Claire points out to Mary, her future self, standing on a hill, Mary begins questioning if Claire has had drugs when Lily Pondarrives, which causes a revelation for Claire; Lily Pond, a cop, symbolizes Karma. Mary, a tuner shop salesman, symbolizes pleasure, which means she does have a balance of them after all, and that the fruit tree isn't a lieit's alive!The question remained why did Mary and Pond show up; they collectively decided it was to help Claire kill her future self before her future self kills her. As the discuss the ramifications of killing herself, 3 apples fall from the fruit tree, one for each of them and next to them a feather, which meant that the fruit tree protected her from her future self, they eat the apples bless by the tree, Claire realizes now that the fruit tree was the truth after all and she must now find the grain, and with that she says goodbye to Mary and Pond and sets off on her journey for the grain of lies. She met a bird and tried to give it the feathers she'd collected from her other selves. In return the bird showed her the way to Mount Chiliad. She heads onward, her goal now in sight.
The Grain of Truth
She makes her way to a farm ranch, in the dirt surrounded by cows; she finds a bag of grain; it was for Claire to assume that this was the Grain of Truth. but to what does she do with it, if it was in fact a lie. She approaches a cow and offers it the grain, the cow takes one look at the grain and runs away, Claire grabs the bag of grain and chases after the cow, they pass through the neighboring field and along the side of the road when the cow is abruptly hit by a truck, killing it instantly, was the cow trying to lead Claire somewhere or was it just fearful for its life? Claire turns around in absolute shock to find the over of these fields and its cows stood there malding that Claire had just got one of his cows killed, he tells her she has 5 seconds before her comes after her and shoots her with his shotgun, Claire runs away and climbs up a water tower close by and watches as the man goes run past with his shotgun, believing she escaped and is safe now she stops to take a breath, when suddenly the man emerges atop the water tower next to Claire, aiming his shotgun right at Claire, knowing that Claire had no escape the man climbs down from his tower to go onto Claire's. Believing this to be the end of her path, her purpose. Claire wasout of options. She stood there, looking out at the skyline, waiting for the man to put an end to her. He reached the top of the tower, but all the running and climbing took a lot out of him. He needed to catch his breath and without a second thought Claire pushed the man off the tower. Killing him. This being the second death since finding the Grain of Truth, this meant to Claire that the Grain of Truth symbolized death. A police officer then arrives, forcing Claire to run away, leaving behind only death.
The Path
At the foot of Mount Chiliad, Claire makes a discovery; her future self wasn't trying to kill her; she was trying to warn her about the Grain of Truth, to give Claire the knife to protect herself from the grain, as it's trying to kill her. Like the woman in the RV had worried at the start of the journey.
On the dirt path up Mount Chiliad, voices start speaking to her, one telling her to stay true to the path, to keep going up the mountain, and one to turn around. As she continues up the mountain people manifest in front of her telling her to stop, to find a different path. If she continues down this path they will have to kill her, but before they can warn her of the true darkness she is in they are sucked out of the timeline. Claire heeds this warning and starts looking for a new path but takes the wrong step, and falls down a mountain leaving her on the verge of death, alone when suddenly the dark time lord appears, he cansave her, but only if she accepts the hand of darkness, the Grain of Truth. Claire accepts what she was once trying to kill and is then injected with nanites, then given a third feather and a message, "Continue on the path; avoid all temptation; the lord awaits you,"and Claire walks, with voices in her head, warning her to stray away from the path, to choose another way. She persists, avoiding temptation; she heads up the path with the promise of forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. She is warned that if he chooses to continue on this path that it will put the ones she loves, her family, at risk. Havingdecided earlier that there was more to her purpose than family, she chooses herself over her family and continues up to the mountain top. When she gets to the top she is met again by the hand of darkness; the dark time lord; he tells her that where she stands is the chard ground of the reminisce of the onyx; he tells her to kneel and prepare for transportation.
The Eden Project
Claire transcends space and time and appears in an office, shocked and confused; she starts leaving the office to explore but is called back into the room by a familiar voice, Dave Watson, who a few month prior had called Claire asking questions about his brother Dean Watson which Claire had answered with no question. Was now standing in front of Claire, he explains, that had Claire not picked up the phone that day, he may have dropped his vendetta he had against his brother; however, Claire enabled his vision of a better future. Claire tried to get Dave to elaborate on what kind of future that was but he changed the subject to why Claire is here now. She explains she was on a journey to find the Grain of Truth, what it means, and if it has anything to do with her purpose, she thought it was protecting her family, but she isn't sure anymore, Dave interrupts, he says he could offer her a way to protect her family, in place he calls the garden of Eden, also known as Project Eden. She and her family could have a place there at a cost that she will provide evidence he needs on Dean, Lang Buddha and Leslie Lingberg, she tells him about Cerberus and the power it holds over the city. Changing topic Dave mentions how Claire came to be in this office. Claire had thought she had been teleported there. But Dave said she was brought in on a stretcher, and she had been knocked out cold for 5 hours he also reveals that in he watched Claire push that man off the water tower, something Claire had thought had happened mere hours ago had actually happened 10 years ago, Dave and his team had retrieved the man's body had found Claire's DNA on him, if Claire at any point decides to oppose Dave he has the evidence to put her in jail for life, in the 10 years since Claire took her path to purpose Dave had conducted research on Claire he knew about her conflict between Karma, Pleasure and the Forbidden Fruit, he said that Eden is the answer to find balance between them all, but needs Claire's help to make Eden a reality, he requires Claire to speak to Lang's disciples, Yeager Demonblood and Lars "Bjorn" Haverford, to convince them that she is on their side and to ask them what they know about project Eden and that she could possibly have the answers that they seek, a password."apple". She is given an experimental drug which transports her back to the Fruit Tree.