Song: "Candy Heartz" - Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (DDLC+)

After Sara enunciated that, Kira looked at her daughter before she gently grabbed her hand.

"What's going on with her?!" Arven could only ask as he hurriedly walked over.

Even her friends, Scarlet and Nemona, were wanting to know too.

"Sara's body is attacking itself, and her genetics...they're..." Penny began to answer before trailing off for a moment, not sure how to explain this in her own words. "...acting peculiar. She's varying."

"No...It can't be. It's too soon for this to happen to you again." Kira went as she shook her head a little, while she let go and gently stroked Sara's cheek next after stretching out and resting her hand on her face.

Surprisingly, her hand felt just like a human's when Sara felt her mother's touch.

"Huh? What do you mean??" Sara asked as she looked at her mother. "What adaptation is going on with me???"

After being asked that question, Kira looked away from her and didn't say anything in response.

Before she could inquire about anything else, a huge wave of queasiness kicked in, making Sara cover her mouth and get out of her bed fast, moving swiftly into the bathroom before slamming the door shut as her stomach emptied violently when she reached the toilet in the nick of time.

Glancing over at the door worriedly, as she heard the commotion going on, Kira got up and walked over before knocking.

"Sara, are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

"N-No...." Sara managed to reply before her stomach emptied violently again.

While that was going on, Sada looked over at Arven and decided to deal with him, while she waited.

-  -  -

Once Sara stopped throwing up, Kira entered the bathroom to check in on Sara, only to see her daughter sitting on the floor and down on her knees, slumped a little to her right side as she tried catching her breath from the vomiting earlier.

"Feel better?" Kira could only ask.

"No...I still feel like caca." Sara answers as she looks up at her mother before Kira gets down to her level.

Without speaking anything in response, Kira nodded before she pulled Sara close to her chest gently.

"I see..." She speaks next as she gazes at her daughter.

"Yeah. Not really another pleasant thing about what it's like being a human." Sara nods. "Vomiting makes you feel very miserable."

"I can tell, just by looking at your facial expression." Kira chuckles a tiny bit before she reaches over and gently caresses Sara by the left side of her face again, in an attempt to comfort her.

For a while, they remained on the floor until Sara spoke up again.

"Mom, could you help me get back in the bed after I rinse my mouth out?" She asks.

"Sure."

Then Kira helped Sara stand up to her feet and waited until she was done, before helping her get back in the bed.

"Thank you, mom..." She smiled a little, as Kira laid her down and tucked her in.

"No problem, sweetie. Rest yourself up for as much as you need, until you feel better, 'kay? I'll fix you some breakfast too, while you're doing that." Kira replies as she smiles gently and kisses her on the forehead.

Before Sara nodded and fell back asleep, feeling worn out from what happened, Kira noticed the glowing in her daughter's eyes had faded but the dirty blonde streaks remained in her hair.

As for the others, they decided to leave the room for Kira and her daughter to themselves earlier and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Once she noticed they were already gone, Kira took out a syringe from her lab coat, containing a clear, liquid substance inside, looking like it was shimmering as it squirmed inside the glass, before she injected it into Sara's arm, that would help her fully recover while she sleeps.

When she was finished, Kira removed the syringe and slipped it back into her lab coat's pocket before putting a band-aid right at the spot where she inserted the needle in Sara's arm.

Looking over and noticing the pendant Sara found and took with her from the present, Kira picked it up and gazed at it for a moment, until she looked back at her daughter's sleeping figure and slipped the pendant on Sara.

"Like I said before, rest well, sweetie..." She smiled and kissed her on the forehead again one more time.

In response, Sara gently rested her hand on Kira's and smiled in her sleep as she relaxed, before she moved her hand away from Kira's and continued to sleep.

Then Kira left and joined everyone else in the living room.

-  -  -

As Sara lay in bed, sleeping silently and peacefully, everything was all nice and quiet at first until the sound of two pokéballs being opened was heard.

Emerging from one of them, was Sara's childhood partner, Ouka, while the other was Selene.

Looking around for a moment before noticing the sickly state her trainer was in for Arceus knows how long, Ouka leaped up and gently landed in the bed before she walked over and laid herself down next to Sara's head, burying her face into the crook of her trainer's neck as she curled herself up into a little ball of red and white fur.

"Is she okay?" Selene questioned Ouka in her language as she laid herself down on the floor and looked up at the tiny fox.

"No. She's fallen ill...It started happening to her again." Ouka answers as she looks at Selene.

"No way...That should've happened to her, a few weeks after she turns sixteen this year. Why now?" Selene asked while shaking her head in disbelief.

"I don't know. But, it's starting to grow restless with every passing hour within a day...

Ever since Sara's returned to Naranja, been to Area Zero and Zero Lab, back in the present, her body's been behaving abnormally since all of us traveled here." Ouka responds.

"Elaborate on the abnormal part that's going on with Sara...What do you mean by that?" Selene inquired.

"Abnormal as in spiritual activity. I sense the presence of two ghosts very close by...Both are coming from Sara." Ouka clarifies, before looking over at her trainer.

"Two!? And you say they're very nearby us and are coming from Sara!?!? You don't mean - ?!" Selene went in shock.

In return, Ouka nodded after setting herself up for a moment.

"Yes...There are two ghosts inside Sara. And it's none other than her mother and the original Professor Sada. They're both living inside her body." She only says before laying back down.

"They're the reason Sara's body is starting to act peculiar again. I don't know what their motive is, but that's all I know so far."

"I don't believe this! How is it possible?!" Selene went as she shook her head in disbelief and shock.

"As a ghost, both pokémon types like me and humans alike, anything can be possible. The only thing that isn't is reviving someone from the dead. Only Arceus could do something like that.

And the undead killing someone from the living is against the rules in both life and death. The only thing that is possible is reincarnation." Ouka made a reply.

"That's true. You're the prime example of that. An innocent zorua who was treated badly by humans in Hisui, only to die alone and be reborn as a spiteful fox." Selene nods.

At those words, Ouka cringed a little, not wanting to recall her ancestors' past lives of all those times she and her family were treated poorly until she met Sara.

"Let's not discuss that. We can talk about this another time. For now, we need rest while looking out for Sara." She sighs after retrieving her composure.

"Okay..." Selene replies, shutting her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

Just before Ouka dozed off too, she looks over at Sara for a moment and gently nuzzled her a little.

"Get better soon, Sara..." She enunciates.

Then Ouka dozed off into her dream world.

-  -  -

While Kira was downstairs with Sada, Arven, Scarlet, Penny, and Nemona, an uneasy look was easily noticed on her face while she was speaking to Penny about something.

"Is something wrong, Professor Kira?" Penny asks as she took notice of it.

"Yes. It's about my daughter. You and Sada both know what's truly going on with her, aside from me...Don't you?" Kira answers.

In return, Penny nods as she peeks over at the stairwell that directs back to the bedrooms upstairs, which everyone's staying in temporarily.

"I do. But, mind if I inquire you something about her?"

"I'm guessing it's about why Sara looks extremely parallel to Sada but carries my hair pigment instead?" Kira mentions.

"Part of it, but not all." Penny nods too.

Then she pulled up the app that she used on Sara and revealed to Kira the data she obtained from her rotom phone.

"Do you know anything about this?" Penny, then, inquires about to Kira next.

"Let me see your phone for a moment," Kira speaks before she gently took Penny's phone and glanced at the screen.

When she did, Kira could've sworn she felt her face turn pale, even though it doesn't appear likely to her, since she's an AI.

"What the - ?!" She went before covering her mouth with one hand, while she still carried Penny's rotom phone in the other hand.

"What is this?!?!"

"This popped up on my screen when I was looking over you and Sada, by utilizing my rotom phone to scan her, earlier..." Penny explains. "I even found a small snippet of this in Sara's body too, when I examined her, which I find very bizarre as I already stated previously."

In the picture, a diagram of Sada, Kira, and Sara was shown, but there was something very off about those pictures.

Inside their bodies of them, there were human-shaped silhouettes. But the eyes, it would send chills down anyone's spine. Especially an AI like Sada and Kira.

Looking at the silhouette's eyes, all three of them were solid black by the sclera and the pupils, except for the irises, which were solid white aside from their mouths.

But the chilling part was the shape of the silhouette's irises and pupils. Instead of the usual, circular shape, you'd see in a human's eyes normally, the first silhouette's eyes were triangle shaped and the second one is diamond-shaped.

And the third one is star-shaped, but instead of five sides, there were four.

However, Kira noticed the second silhouette was gradually moving over to the first one with the triangle eyes.

Like it was wanting to become one with it.

"My Arceus, that's so creepy! Get that away from me!" She says before lightly pushing the rotom phone back into Penny's hands, not wanting to see any more of it for today.

In her mindset, this was far creepier than the time when she and her original self had met Giratina along with investigating the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest while visiting Sinnoh region for a day or two until they returned to Paldea.

It's not that she's afraid or hates ghost-type pokémon, it's just the fact she doesn't like really scary stuff. Especially, horror movies and very dark lore stories about ghost-type Pokémon.

Like Mimikyu or Frosslass for example.

Those were enough to give the poor AI nightmares for days until they finally stopped.

"Sorry..." Penny apologizes.

"You're fine." Kira sighs. "I'm just not a huge fan of really eerie stuff. Especially when it comes to certain kinds of ghost-type pokémon...Don't even get me started on the pokémon, Spiritomb, for example. Chills me down to my spine."

Just even thinking about the pokémon made Kira shudder a little.

"As for what's going on...I don't know for sure. This wasn't supposed to happen in the first place." Kira sighs as she looks back up at Penny.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. I'm very certain of that."

However, as Sada returned with Arven, Kira took notice of them and nodded, before hearing footsteps from the stairs next.

"Sara? Is that you?" Kira asks as she turns to face the stairwell.

"Mommy? My head hurts really badly...Do you or anyone else have any ibuprofen?" Sara asks, as she appeared while clutching the side of her head lightly, with her left hand.

"Yes, I do. Even though AIs don't get headaches from what I know of, I still carry medicine around with me." Kira nods as she takes out a bottle of ibuprofen from the pocket of her right lab coat and approaches her.

"Scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in?"

"Ten..." Sara answers as she looks at her mother, before leaning forward a little to rest her head on Kira's chest, as tears of pain appeared in her eyes.

Looking back at her, Kira started to rub Sara's back soothingly with her left hand, while she continued to hold the bottle with her right.

"It hurts...so much...." Sara whimpers a little. "Why does it have to be extremely painful?"

"I don't know, honey..." Kira softly says as she shushes her gently. "I don't know..."

Once Sara was comforted enough, she parted and looked back up at her mother again.

"Here. Take the medicine and drink some water when you're done...Surely you brought a water bottle with you?"

"Y-Yeah...I did. Do I have to eat something with it too, when I take it?"

"Yes. It'll make you feel sick if you just take the medicine with water and don't eat something."

Nodding in understanding, Sara pulled out a water bottle from her school bag and took the medicine, before she drank the water next.

"Here. I already made you a sandwich too...I was originally about to head upstairs and leave it on the bedside table earlier, but, you had already woken up." Kira mentions as she smiled and hands the sandwich to Sara.

"Thanks, Mom..." Sara smiles back, taking the sandwich, before she begins to eat it.

"You're welcome, sweetie."

Once she was done, Kira slipped the medicine back into her pocket and sat Sara down on the couch.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you? Not only was my original self a professor, but she also has a master's degree and a license in medicine. I suspected that before she passed, she made me a robotic nurse too, not just an assistant and a caretaker." Kira mentions as she took notice of Penny, Scarlet, Nemona, and Arven's expressions.

"Oh..." They went, understanding it all now as to why Kira had a bottle of ibuprofen with her.

"Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mention it sooner." Kira nods.

"No, you're fine." Scarlet went.

In return, Kira smiles, grateful that they understand.

Unfortunately, her smile faltered when she heard a soft groan from Sara and turned around to see her laying down on the couch, taking notice that the dirty blonde hair streaks in Sara's hair had gotten thicker and to the point where there was no trace of white seen in it.

"Sara! Your hair - !" Arven spoke up in shock, as he took notice of this.

On cue, Sara clutched her head again, as her body trembled in pain.

"What on earth - ?" Penny could only say before Sara winced.

For a moment, an unfamiliar memory flashed in Sara's mind, seemingly belonging to Sada.

"Please...Defeat me..." She hears the same voice, from before, echo in her head.

When Sara did, tears emerged and started to blur her vision, as they streamed down to her cheeks, making her grip on the couch cushion tightly.

In amidst that, she felt a hollow and heavy, dull ache feeling in her heart.

The heavy feeling of grief.

"Ouka! OUKA!! Where are you!?" Sara managed to choke out tearfully, her breaths becoming shaky, as she sits up and looks over at the direction of the stairs.

At her words, Ouka immediately appeared and bolted downstairs, heading over to her, as the sound of the tiny fox's footsteps was heard, before leaping into her trainer's arms, as Sara reached out for her.

Once Ouka was in Sara's embrace, Sara hugged her tightly a little and started crying, burying her face into the tiny fox's head fur while she wept.

"No.....N-No.....I don't wanna see that...." Sara choked out.

"Don't want to see what, Sara?" Kira asked worriedly.

In return, Sara could only shake her head, not wanting to talk about what it was her mind just showed her.

While that was going on, Penny noticed the pendant Sara was wearing had cracked a little...But, when in the world did that happen?

She didn't recall Sara falling to the ground hard or at all, for it to create the small damage that was done to the pendant so far.

Unfortunately, whatever was going on with Sara was too much for her, because she got up, knocking Ouka off of her by accident, and bolted out of the building while she clutched her head.

"Sara! Wait!!" Kira speaks up as she extended her hand out to her daughter, but was too late to try to stop her.

"Muan!" Ouka went as she got herself back up to her feet and immediately hurried after Sara for Kira, since her duty as her pokémon, that she was told by the original self of AI Kira before her death, is to stay with Sara at all times. No matter what the cost is. Even if she loses her life again.

Without hesitating, Kira got up and followed after Ouka, worried for Sara.

-  -  -

As Miraidon lay outside, he gazed up at the trees in Tagtree Thicket, wondering one thing that's been on his mind lately, since before and after traveling here, back into the past of Paldea region, 87 years ago.

And that would be about Sara.

The way she was calm around him...And when she stood herself up against him to protect Arven, the son of the original Professor Sada, to stave off another tragedy from happening again, back at Zero Lab.

And that strange presence he felt when a scarlet aura appeared and surrounded Sara's body...

That all felt way too familiar for him.

It was almost like...the original Sada and Kira were still alive.

Standing right in front of his very own eyes, like the accident had never even happened at Research Station No.4 in the first place.

Thinking about this made him regret his actions both back at Zero Lab and on the day the accident happened with Sada.

If only he wasn't such a big douche to Scarlet's Koraidon back at that time...Then maybe Sada would've still been alive today right now. And he would've protected Kira from the 'thing' that killed her too.

But, no...It had to be over the dumb, whole territory thing.

Thinking about the 'thing' that killed Kira before, made him shiver a little.

However, before he could think more and reflect on his actions and the damage that he's done, Miraidon perked up when he noticed Sara running out of the building unexpectedly and so suddenly, while Ouka was seen tailing after her.

"Sara! What's wrong?!?! Come back!!" He heard the tiny fox say, worriedly, making him aware that something was wrong.

"Ouka? What's going on?" Miraidon asks as he gets up to his feet.

"Sara...She's - " Ouka began before quickly explaining to him what was going on.

When she was finished, Miraidon now completely understood the situation, before he sprinted after Sara, making her stop in her tracks.

"Sara, get yourself together!" He speaks to her next, as he stands in the way of her path.

"No! Get out of the way, Miraidon!" Sara responds as she tries to push past him, which lead to no avail, before clutching both sides of her head.

"Please, Sara!" Ouka says next, while finally catching up to her trainer.

"You have to fight her, if you don't want her to try consuming and taking full control over you!" Miraidon adds, trying to help Ouka out with this predicament Sara's gradually getting herself into.

"I can't! I...just...can't!" Sara choked out as tears started emerging in her eyes again. "She keeps showing me memories that easily devastate me emotionally!"

"Crying isn't gonna resolve things and make her leave you alone temporarily, Sara. You have to stand up and fight back...Just like what Koraidon did!" Miraidon argues a little, while noticing Sada, Kira and the others hurrying over their way.

Unfortunately, they were too late, because Sara unexpectedly stopped speaking to him and Ouka, before lowering her arms, dipping her head, and slumping forward a little, while her breathing slowed.

Like something suddenly just snapped or woke up inside her.