"Zanark!"

As soon as he heard the call, he dismissed his team and sent them off elsewhere. The room they were in was big, but Zanark Domain wasn't exactly the friendliest bunch. If anything, them being there would probably cause more anxiety than he alone already was.

Besides, they already know of their newest member's condition long before it even happened.

When the large group arrived, and while leaning in his favorite position against the wall, he gave them all a smirk. "Well, well. Look what the bunny dragged in."

"Technically, it was you who dragged us here..." Shindou pointed out.

"Hah! I knew you'd say that. I was in charge of picking her up when it's time, so I figured why not bring the rest of you with me? Saves time."

"True..."

"Seeing as you're so cheerful," Kidou interrupted. "Does that mean she's doing better?"

The reply came with a shrug. "Beats me. No one's come out with any reports since they brought her in."

"What about your team just now?" A certain pony-tailed boy asked, popping his head out from near the back of the group.

"Nishiki! Long time no see!" His attitude heightened by just a bit when addressing him before he went back to the rather uncaring tone from before. "They were just hanging around. Had to kick 'em out so no one boils over. You know how we are."

Indeed, they (Raimon) did.

"How are you so calm?" Yuuka was next to voice out her thoughts, with a glare too. "Isn't she like a sister to you? Why aren't you worried like the rest of us?"

Another nonchalant shrug. "I knew you'd say that. What good does it do? You'll only end up being a thorn on the smart guys' sides."

... They kind of hated that he had a point.

"Besides, Zanark Domain had more time to process all this than you people did. Hell, we've had more time to process it than she did. We've already set up everything necessary for whichever outcome too, so all that's left for us is to wait."

"Set up?"

"For whichever outcome?"

As the rest of them turned to one another, Masato was the one to understand first. "You mean you're already prepared for whether she lives or dies?"

"Masato!"

"I'm just saying it how it is, mom."

"Do not say your sister is going to die!"

"The chances of her living is higher, right?" The father interrupted, perhaps to avoid an argument from breaking out.

However, Zanark was as blunt as always. "No clue. Though, I'm no doctor, but even I can tell that it was pretty bad."

"Zanark!" Gouenji was the one to hiss this time. "You're not helping."

"I'm not here to help." He said, finally standing properly to face them. "I'm here to give you all a reality check."

"Wha―"

"That kid's been dying since the day she was born. She wouldn't have made it past 20 normally, but the majority of you know she wouldn't have made it past five if it wasn't for me."

The ones who saw that forest incident could only look down, signaling their hesitant agreement.

"Wanna know something else fucked up? Her being born killed her birth mother. Her being born got her father hunted down for coin. Is there anything worse than that, you're asking? How about the fact that I sent her to your timeline thinking that she would be raised well just like Uncle Four-Eyes would've wanted, but ended up having to live in fear anyway? And for what? The sport that's killing us in the first place?"

"T-That's..."

"That's the reality we're dealing with. Don't get on your high horse thinking you're the better one in this. None of you have the right to question me when all you've done is make her suffer!"

No one could respond to that. No one was prepared for any of that. Heck, no one had seen the boy so genuinely furious before.

Suddenly, his narrowed eyes relaxed and he leaned back against the wall. "If you're so desperate for answers, you can always just bang on the doors. Though, I doubt anyone inside would like it."

None of them did. Instead, they just moved to finally take their seats around the room. Masato, however, stayed near him.

"Zanark?"

"Hm?"

"What exactly... do you have prepared?"

Red eyes darted over to black ones. After a short staring contest, he huffed. "If she lives, the others are preparing some... gifts, I suppose."

"Gifts?"

"Pranks, really. Not sure about the others, but Rasetsu said something about time jumping to the day that meteor caused the dinosaurs to go extinct."

"... If her genes don't kill her, you guys will, huh?"

"Figuratively. Contrary to popular belief, we do not put each other into dangers that we know we can't handle. There just aren't many cases like that."

"You think Kimiko could handle a meteor?"

"Destroying one of those would be far easier than dealing with a battalion of fully trained alien soldiers, don't you think?"

"Wha...?" Masato paused before shaking his head. "Space. Right. We're still going to need everyone to fill us in on that."

"Maybe later, after we hear about Kimiko's condition?" Tenma piped in, earning nods from all around.

He nodded as well. "Yeah, okay..." Then he turned back to Zanark. "And then?"

"Hm?"

"What's your plan for if she... you know...?"

That cursed three letter word just kept echoing inside their heads no matter how hard they tried to block it out.

"I'll take care of it." That wasn't the kind of answer they were expecting, but at this point, they wonder why they were still surprised. It was Zanark after all.

"What do you mean by that?"

He only smirked.

Before anyone could question him further, the door opened and two men walked out. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Rei immediately stood up and saluted them.

"Chairman Toudou and Coach Sakamaki?"

"It's a pleasure to see you all again... is what I would like to say, but..." The chairman barely held back his sigh. "While it would be much less dangerous for so many of you to not come to the future, I'll allow it this time as I understand how important Kimmy Avalon is to you all."

"Who...?"

"Kia named her that before she was born." Zanark said.

"Kia?"

"Her mother."

"Kimetha Avalon, wife of Houou Avalon, who once was the head of this lab." Sakamaki interrupted. "However, we are not here to discuss her past. I'm sure the majority of you already know anyway, so those of you who don't, ask them later. Now, I believe you'd all like to hear about her current condition."

All the adults stood up at once, but he held a hand up to stop them.

"No need for that. I'll announce it for you all to hear."

"But―"

"I understand that you do not want to scare the children, but they deserve to know the truth as much as you do, don't you think?"

"W-Well..."

"Wow, is this really El Dorado?" Kurama muttered.

"They're not trying to cover things up from kids anymore, huh?" Sangoku smiled.

Saru nodded. "It's part of an agreement that we came to. Feida wouldn't trust them if they were going to continue lying to us just because we're children."

"They thought they were doing us a favor before, but now they know better." Fei added. "There are still some rough patches here and there, but for four or five months, this is quite a lot of progress."

"That's great! I'm happy for you guys!" Tenma said, with many others sharing the same notion.

"Alright, now lower your voices." Yuuichi suddenly cut in from behind them, smiling wryly. "That man's about to tell us about Kimiko."

"S-Sorry!"

Turning their attention back to the front, they found Sakamaki had already begun his explanation.

"... Plenty of scientific jargon is involved, so to keep it simple, the prototype vaccine that is within her is fighting with the amplifiers. Ordinarily, they would only cancel each other out, but with the large dosis she had been taking, she had become dangerously unstable."

"Amplifiers? You mean the ampules?" Shindou asked.

"Did you see her take them?"

"She took one on the day before the final match, and then another earlier, when we were about to fight against the Space Rankers."

"Only then?"

"That I saw, yes..."

"... The DNA test we took showed that she had resonated with more than five in the past 72 hours."

"WHAT?!" Fei, Saru, and the remaining children from the future all had their jaws to the ground.

"H-How many exactly... Master?" Alpha, of all people, was stuttering.

"Seven."

"T-That's... Even taking one once a day for a week straight is dangerous!" Gamma exclaimed. "What is she thinking taking so many in such a short time?!"

"Even without taking the vaccine, activating more than two within 24 hours would put your life at risk!" Saru added. "We've warned her about this! Did she forget?!"

"Knowing her, she probably did." Zanark huffed. "She isn't exactly a fan of warning signs."

"Even so―!"

"After hooking up the analysis to our time scanner, it showed that she took one today, two on the day of the finals, and four almost at once 60 or so hours ago." Toudou continued.

"Four?!"

"It's a miracle she's held out for this long."

"What the fuck did she need four ampules for?!" Alpha and Gamma's eyes were wide. This was the first time that Beta's nice side was completely gone in the face of her higher ups.

"If one was enough to boost your physical abilities so far..." Kirino's thoughts went straight to the match in Ragnarok.

"With the first batch of vaccine in her, it would've only increased her power to the level it normally would be at." Sakamaki stated. "A second one would've boosted it the same way it did for The Lagoon."

"In theory, a third one would've heightened more than just our physical abilities." Fei stated. "Teleporting to even further distances, using telekinesis to a more precise degree and with much more power, and telepathy... I-I'm not quite sure what a stronger version of telepathy would've been like."

Their heads went down and they sat in silence for a while. But then...

"What about... reading the minds of aliens?"

All eyes turned to the younger of the two navy haired boys, but his eyes remained casted on the floor. His hands were fidgeting with each other as he continued.

"60 or so hours ago is the day before the finals... She found me at around that time, I think... She also said she couldn't read aliens' thoughts without taking the ampules."

"That sounds about right. Back before we took the vaccine, I was able to read their minds by taking two." Saru confirmed.

... Wait, what?

"S-Saru, you've... met aliens before?" Midori asked.

"Why are you so surprised? After the Grand Celesta Galaxy, and Galaxy Eleven's win against Ixal Fleet, a new galactic council was created and―"

"Rei Rukh." At Sakamaki's call, the android stopped talking. Though they felt bad for their friend, they all also knew that they weren't ready for how that was going to continue. Especially those who still had no clue on what happened in space.

"If I am following correctly, two for you back then would equal to three for Kimiko's current state." Manabe stated after a cough. "What would a fourth do?"

All eyes went back to Tsurugi, yet his eyes were still on the ground.

After a bit of thinking, he spoke up again. "Sensory... manipulation?"

"Eh?"

"She made some sort of illusion... or hallucination... to disguise herself at one point." He suppressed a growl as he scratched his head roughly. "I don't know. That's the first time I've seen her do that."

"You mean when she pretended to be part of the royal guards for that purple planet?" Zanark's extremely specific question made them all turn his way next. He shrugged. "I said I'll try to watch her every move, but time cameras can't exactly pick up what goes on inside someone's head."

"But you could've done something if you saw her use four ampules at once!" Beta argued.

"I thought you'd say that. I'm flattered that you think I could do anything in that situation." Red eyes remained as steady as ever, his tone unsettlingly lacking his usual snarky demeanor. "However, even I can only do so much for Kiko at that point."

Yuuka's glare was back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He was about to throw the question to the navy haired striker, but one glance told him that it wasn't such a good idea. Oh well, he'll take it. "She's truly a member of Zanark Domain."

"Which means?"

"She doesn't let anyone, whether they're family, friend, or foe, get in her way on whatever she sets her sights on to achieve. In this case, 'fear of death' very much counts as a foe."

"... And what exactly is it that she wanted to achieve?"

His gaze went back to the navy haired boy. This time, he couldn't be the one to answer.

The entire room's attention was back on him. He could feel it. It was the same feeling as when he was staring into the black hole, only sharper.

"Tsurugi...?"

"What happened over there?"

"You said Kimiko went to find you, right?"

"Wait, why? Where did you go?"

Dozens of voices were overlapping. Most of them were asking questions, others were yelling out... things. Were they answers? Or were they demands? He didn't know.

Didn't know what? The things they want to hear? What he wanted to say? Who was asking? What was even being asked?

No, no, he knew that much. He knew they wanted to know about her. About how she came to save him from that prison. How she was dressed as a soldier in one minute, and back to her casual clothes in the next. How she... was shot... twice...

But she was alright. She had protective gear on. After that, they were visited by King Acrous and made that whole plan to save the planet from Ozrock. He went with Coach Kuroiwa to lead Faram Dite, and she went out to... the battlefield... that probably... forced her to take another ampule...

But she came back safe! Her hair was burnt a bit, but nothing serious was inflicted on her! She was okay! And then they had fun for the entirety of the final match! And then they destroyed that satellite! ... Which was when she used another for the bomb they kicked (but does it count if it wasn't injected into her body? Or did she have to do something to it in order for it to explode the way it did?)... and then timelines went to shit and she disappeared...

But they defeated Ixal Fleet and got her back! They hugged! They partied! They were safe together! And they could go home! They were intersected by the Space Rankers, but it was a fun match at least! A fun match where... she... took another fucking ampule...!

AND NOW HERE THEY ARE! 200 YEARS IN THE FUTURE! WITH HER POSSIBLY ON HER DEATHBED! BECAUSE OF THOSE STUPID LIQUIFIED AMPLIFIERS! THAT SHE WAS FORCED TO TAKE! FOR HIS SAKE!

CALLING HER STUPID WHEN YOU'RE THE REAL IDIOT FOR MAKING HER GO THROUGH ALL THIS!!! WAY TO GO ME!!! NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF ONLY YOU DIDN'T. FUCKING. EXI―

"Kyousuke." Warmth suddenly enveloped him, a soft voice cutting into his thoughts. "It'll be okay. Kimiko will be okay. None of this is your fault. It never had been, and it never will be. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not even yourself, alright?"

... What in the universe did he ever do to deserve such a caring brother?

It got warmer, though he wasn't sure if it was because he leaned in or if he was hugging him tighter. Or maybe both.

"You're safe, Kyousuke. No one will hurt you, or me, or Kimiko ever again. Everything will be fine."

But though his tone and hold was kind, unbeknownst to the younger brother, his brown eyes held a glare no one had ever seen him wear before. They were pointing towards everyone else in the room, or at the very least, the ones who pushed his brother into such a state. A gigantic, black and blue sword was aimed at them as well, so that could be another reason why they all had stopped and moved back.

"You can just hide here and let it out. No one will judge you. No one will come after you. And if anyone tries, let your older brother and his Pendragon handle it, okay?"

Yuuichi got a nod before his brother curled into a ball in his arms, as if to hide himself from the rest of the world. The last time he did this was when he was being bullied over seven years ago. It only fueled his rage further.

Covering one ear with his hand and pressing another to his chest, he directed his next, much harsher words at the rest of the room. "I don't give a shit if Kimiko is your family or friend or student or whatever. Either way, she would be fucking disappointed in you all for turning the love of her life into this mess over something that she chose to do herself."

No one dared to comment on any part of that statement.

He nodded once in satisfaction. "Glad we agree. Now, as for my own personal feelings about this..." The giant on his back let out a growl, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. "If you make my brother spiral again, even by a fraction to just now, I will end you. Am I clear?"

"That could have consequences on the timeline." Rei Rukh pointed out before anyone could stop him.

"Did I fucking stutter?"

They all (or at least, the kids) shook their heads quickly. The adults, even though most are older, found themselves speechless.

"Good." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he directed a gentle smile towards the a certain brunette. "Tenma, why don't you lead everyone somewhere else and tell them all about what you did in space? I'll stay here with Kyousuke and we'll let you know if anyone else comes out with any updates about Kimiko's condition."

"E-Eh?"

"Asurei Rune is currently overseeing her treatment, along with Professor Crossword Aruno." Sakamaki stated. "I will also be returning to the lab shortly."

"O-Oh, okay..." With some help from Endou, and Saru and Fei as well, the captain led everyone back into the hallway they came from, with the exception of Sakamaki (who went back into the lab like he said he would) and Toudou (who used a teleporter to get to someplace else).

The last voice he could hear was from Zanark, who seemed to be the least affected by his words, that casually said, "By the way, she used three at once. The first one ran out of juice after a couple of long distance teleportations." as they walked.

Once they were all gone, his hand left his brother's ear, but he continued the hug. He needed it after all.

He let out a sigh and the knight-esque giant disappeared into his back at the same time. He felt tired, but no amount of exhaustion was going to keep him from comforting his brother. Not when he was finally allowing himself to be vulnerable in front of him after so long.

Perhaps, once he's regained his senses, he'd feel embarrassed. But that's something he'll deal with when it happens. Right now, the most important thing is that he keeps his younger brother safe and comfortable.

Because he owed him at least this much after being practically absent for seven years.