I’ve been watching DC through the Event Viewer, and have come to this conclusion: the whole thing was a
Batman/
Thanatos Gambit by Nero to break Weiss from Hojo’s control.
First off: it’s Nero who instructs Shelke to upload Lucrecia’s memories. Yes, he says it’s commanded by Weiss, but as we never see this command given…
Secondly: the pure exposition he gives the Cait Sith robot before absorbing it. There’s no reason for it, and he must know the information is then passed on to the WRO.
Thirdly: Azul’s attack of Shelke. It seems from Azul’s own dialogue surrounding this that it was a subconscious trigger releasing him from having to not harm her. Again, he claims it’s Weiss’ order, but at this point Weiss is
DEAD in a coma jerking off not in the position to give commands. So, it would be fairly easy for Nero to trigger it himself.
This would then give Shelke reason to defect from Deepground, with Lucrecia’s knowledge of Chaos and Omega, taking that information to the WRO. This then gives the WRO further intel, which helps with their offensive.
Fourthly: his ‘surprise’ at Shelke’s presence onboard
the Shera. It sounds completely put on, he had no viable reason he couldn’t have gathered the required souls from elsewhere, and there was no reason or point to kidnap Shelke.
Fifthly: Chaos’ defeat of Azul. Nero simply looks on for a while, assesses Chaos, and then
drops Shelke’s cell phone where Chaos/Vincent will see it. Plus, consider his last line of dialogue at this scene:
“Perhaps I should simply let him live out his destiny of destruction.”
Finally (you’re glad, aren’t you?), consider how easily he jumped to Weiss’ body after his own was killed. That wasn’t a decision: it was either an instinctive response or pre-planned.
As Vincent said,
“when a person has someone they care about that much, giving their life is sometimes the least they can do”.