A/N: Sorry for updating so late guys! I'd skipped July because of CampNaNo, but August was not on the list. But because of other things that happened in July, I had competition entries and exams in August that I couldn't risk putting off so I didn't wind up having the time to work on these usual monthly updates.

I've also rearranged a few things in the storyline. Nothing that really affects you guys, except Akiza's father is making an appearance earlier than I'd originally planned. :D

Enjoy!

Rerun
Arc 1: What to Do with the Past

On a withered branch
a crow is perched
an autumn evening.

: A Crow at Evening :

Chapter 4

'Are you going to tell me about what's bothering you now?' Amaterasu asked her husband.

The Doctor lifted his head from his arms and blinked owlishly. His wife had just baked: warm buns overflowing with strawberries and honey, just as he loved them. And she was setting them down on the other end of the coffee table, where he'd have to abandon his papers in order to reach.

'Mean,' he said with a pout.

She laughed, before quickly frowning again. 'It's not often you don't abandon whatever it is you're reading and make a grab for my buns,' she commented. 'And that's not counting all the times you smell them baking in the kitchen.'

'I'm sorry,' he apologised, putting his notes away – a little reluctantly, but chewing his mind to bits wouldn't do anyone any good. 'I'm just having a bit of trouble with this.'

The understatement of the century, but he couldn't well explain to his wife he'd jumped six months into the past and that future he'd come from held their untimely deaths and a weight of destiny on his son's shoulders too large to bear.

'Maybe I can help,' Amaterasu offered. 'That is my job after all.'

He considered, then pulled out the schematics of the reactor. That was one thing he knew he had to try and stop: the reactor malfunction. Though if it happened in the future as well, it might be impossible. But if they could nullify that threat, the Nazca lines might not prematurely awaken and the Ark cradle might not descend from the sky.

She took the papers and scanned them while he bit slowly into a bun. The warm honey spread in his mouth and he let it slip down his throat, and his stomach grumbled, asking for more. He'd had a bento box at lunch, but he'd been so absorbed since he hadn't eaten anything else.

His wife smiled a bit, but it dimmed as she scanned his notes. 'Why are you trying to lock the system?' she asked. 'Is there someone on the team you don't trust?'

Of course his wife would want an explanation. 'It's not that I don't trust them,' he replied carefully – because he didn't know if he still did after seeing what the future held. 'But this reactor is powerful and dangerous and I hear there's some dispute in the government. I don't want to leave the door open for it to be misused.'

'Hmm…' She glanced at the papers again, then up at him. She didn't question further though, simply following his scribbles and sketches and base calculations while he finished off the bun he'd taken and reached for another one. 'I made curry for dinner too.'

The doctor contemplated the buns before him and the delicious dinner waiting not far in the future.

'Those buns won't run away,' his wife pointed out, still reading.

'That's true.' He considered a little longer, then laughed at himself and took the plate into the kitchen. It was amusing how he was putting the same amount of thought into such little things as he was into the end of the world. He couldn't solve the problem overnight, he knew. It wasn't that simple.

He might not be able to solve it at all.

'Hiroto,' Amaterasu's voice called him from the living room. 'Don't you think Roman Goodwin would be able to help you with this?'

'No!' he cried before he could catch himself. Luckily, she couldn't see him: couldn't see the way his eyes widened in panic, the way he remembered seeing that man snatch the reactor away and unleash something so horrible from it –'

'Hiroto?' Her heels clacked on the wooden floor as she made her way over to him, and he breathed slowly and deeply, willing his suddenly fluttering heart to calm. That hasn't happened yet…

There was still time.

'You don't trust him.' Amaterasu's voice was questioning: worried and curious.

'I – ' he began, before shaking his head. 'He hasn't done anything yet.'

'Yet?'

Sometimes, Hiroto regretted marrying such a clever and astute woman. Because she would never let it go, and he would have to either cave in or ignore her. And she knew that as well. That stubbornness ran in both of them, and while in their field of work it was a God-send, in the case of secrets it was a devil in disguise.

'The reactor…' He cut himself off under her expecting stare, shaking his head. 'I'm just feeling uncomfortable about this reactor suddenly.'

Her frown deepened. 'That's a poor excuse,' she said, in a tone similar to a snap as she flapped the papers towards him. 'I hope you don't think I've suddenly turned into glass because I'm carrying our child.'

'Of course not,' he said hurriedly. 'It just that…I need a little more time. Please.'

He couldn't stop the plea from warping that last word, and his wife's expression softened upon hearing it. 'Okay,' she said, shaking her head with a sigh. 'But I expect to hear more about this soon.'

She turned to a drawer and pulled out cutlery and glasses for the both of them. The doctor hurried and grabbed the plates. He would have to tell his wife eventually, he knew – but he was still so confused about a great many things –

He wasn't lying in the least when he'd said he needed more time, and maybe his wife had picked up on that somehow.

Later that night he was working on those calculations concerning the reactor again and the phone rang, startling him. Amaterasu had retired by that point, and he'd been planning on joining her after a little more thinking and planning. Showing those calculations to his wife had been a bit of a diversion, but as he thought about it through dinner, if he could block the Goodwin brothers and the government from being able to fiddle with the reactor programme, it would allow him more leisure and peace of mind to work on the other factors.

And if he could shut down the reactor and then lock it under the guise of the "problem" discovered being the cause, he might be able to avoid scrutiny on him at the same time. But that wasn't something he could work on under another's eyes – even his wife. Not for risk of betrayal – because he knew there was no betrayal to risk from her. But for their safety. At least for now – because Amaterasu would find out eventually.

But not right then. He picked up the phone: their personal line. 'Fudo residence, Hiroto speaking.'

'It's Rex.'

Hiroto stiffened a little, before forcing himself to relax. Nothing has happened yet, he told himself sternly. Nothing's happened yet.

Besides, there were a few timelines where Rex had not succumbed to the power of the Dark Signers at all. Or fallen under Ylliaster.

He blinked suddenly. He knew how Rex had fallen under Ylliaster – through his brother. But how had Roman?

'Dr Fudo?'

'I'm sorry,' he apologised, rubbing his head. 'I've been – ' He almost let the statement hang. 'Distracted.'

'Your wife's first pregnancy will do that, I imagine.' Rex sounded sincere, and genuine. 'Sorry to call this late at night, but I've been stuck on this paper…'

Hiroto relaxed fully at that, and they spent the next half hour chatting about the string theory. It was an easy subject, and as Hiroto cast his mind around for answers for his eager assistant, he found the thoughts and words easier, like he'd had that very conversation before, sitting on the couch with legs crossed and a mug with the coffee inside slowly becoming cold. Which he had, because he'd done nothing to change that particular thread of the future – but he hadn't felt it with all he'd talked with his wife.

It was a silent message that he had to be very careful about what he did in this rerunning past.

'I'm good now, Dr Fudo.' There was the sound of rustling papers. 'Thank goodness I have no interest in old legends like my brother. To try and find traces of a five thousand year civilisation –'

'A lot of people are interested in duelling mythology,' Hiroto said automatically – before suddenly pausing. 'Which civilisation was this?'

'Uhh…' His question seemed to catch Rex off guard. 'I think it was the Sky Temple. A Pre-Incan population who worshipped the Dragon Star.'

'The Dragon Star,' Hiroto repeated, and in his mind he saw a crimson dragon appear in a burst of life above a temple.

'It's said that when the spirits sealed under the Nazca lines attacked,' Rex explained, 'the people prayed to the Dragon Star, who in turn released a crimson dragon to seal these spirits into the Nazca lines.'

'I remember hearing about that.' It was a while ago, when he'd been applying for his own PhD, attending seminars at the university and searching through all sorts of information in order to find a topic that interested him. He'd heard about the story of the Dragon Star and the Nazca lines back then, but the area that had truly fascinated him had turned out to be particle science, and that was what he'd chosen to pursue.

What else he knew about the legend came from the future when that crimson dragon and the Dark Signers awoke.

Which reminded him – and he couldn't believe he'd forgotten – the Signer dragons, those duel monsters cards – they hadn't been created yet. If memory served, they hadn't gone into development until after Roman had taken control of the project and Hiroto had been reduced to a mere assistant, only able to watch from afar.

There had been four dragons. Hiroto tried to remember what they looked like, but Rex was still talking. 'I'll just add these new notes and then I think I'll turn in for the night.' He yawned to prove his point.

'That sounds like a good idea.' Hiroto looked at the clock. 'Ama told me to go up almost an hour ago.'

Rex laughed at that. 'You shouldn't keep her waiting too much longer then.'

But Hiroto had something new to think about now, and even after Rex had hung up he pondered over it. Those four dragons… He knew one had belonged to Yusei, and that was the one he remembered most easily. He'd heard that name shouted across multiple timelines, and seen that shimmering light blue dragon cutting through the air. That was Stardust Dragon – but the other three, he hadn't paid nearly as much attention to them, and he couldn't remember.

'One was a red dragon,' he mumbled to himself. 'A little demonic…but more flames than ill-intent…' He frowned, but when he couldn't remember the name he tried the next. 'Black skin, and pink rose petals – Black Rose Dragon?' He wondered if that name was just wishful thinking on his part, but wrote it down anyway. 'And then the other one.' He hadn't seen that one very clearly at all – and why hadn't he read the names of the cards when he'd had them in his hand?

Of course, he'd been busy running away with them to think about doing that. He shook his head again. 'A blue body again…and light, colourful wings.' He thought of his wife's favourite card suddenly: the Fairy Archer whose design was splashed with colour. 'Something Fairy Dragon?'

And try as he did, he couldn't remember a single detail beyond that. And sleep started tugging at his eyes soon enough, so he decided to turn in for the night. Hopefully when he awoke, refreshed, in the morning he would think of something new. But now he had three major goals to pursue: to collect everything he'd learnt about the future and change it to avoid the doom that seemed to await at every possible future tried out so far, to make sure the reactor doesn't initiate the Zero Reverse that would solidify the doom of their world, and to create these Signer dragons and the keys to the Ener-D reactor and keep them out of Roman's reach.

Because if he didn't create them first, Roman would.

He caught that thought. Roman hadn't yet done anything, and yet he was distrusting him so. But I can't help it, he thought, rubbing his forward. Not while knowing what had happen in the future between them – and in regards to the fate of the world.

Unless there's a way to divert him…

But without knowing the catalyst, that would be an even harder job than keeping the Ener-D reactor under control.