I don't own Harry Potter or Virtue's Last Reward

When many jumps are required part 2

Harry twitched as Clover moved. Sigma clamped his hand around her wrist.

"What are you doing?!"

"Clover, listen to me! Alice wasn't killed! Nobody murdered her! She... she took her own life."

Everyone looked shocked.

"What...? No... No, there's no way she'd do that!"

"It's true! She stabbed herself in the heart with the scalpel!"

"Alright, where'd she get the scalpel then?!"

"The infirmary," replied Harry. "There was one there when we investigated it."

"I did hear someone come into the infirmary right after the AB Game ended..." Luna said nervously.

"Was that before I showed up?" asked Tenmyouji.

"Yes. I got up to see who it was but they were already gone. It could have been Alice..."

"So she could have taken the scalpel then," said Sigma.

"Yes, I think so."

"It's possible," agreed Harry.

"You're lying!" Everyone turned to Clover. "This is all a lie! It had to be!"

"It's not," replied Sigma. "It's the truth."

"Then why did she do it? Why would Alice kill herself?"

"She... she probably didn't have a reason."

"What...?"

"She'd been infected with Radical-6," continued Sigma. "That's what killed her."

"But you just said she killed herself! Just tell me the truth!"

"I am!"

"Then prove it! Your ten seconds ran out a long time ago so if you don't have any proof…"

"I do!" Clover looked confused. "I have proof. There was a journal in the lab, wasn't there K? Show it to me."

"A journal?" asked K.

"It would have been in the safe."

"Ah, well, Alice would have it then."

"Phi, can you…?" asked Sigma. "I don't feel right touching a dead woman's body. Could you take a look?"

"Sure." Phi quickly searched Alice's clothes before pulling out the journal. She made to hand it to Sigma who shook his head.

"You read it. It's in Latin; I can't make heads or tails of it."

Phi opened the book then looked at Sigma in surprise and suspicion. "Yes, it is in Latin. But translating this is impossible. It's full of words I've never heard before. I can barely understand any of this."

"Page 216."

"Huh?"

"Turn to page 216. You should be able to read that one."

Phi flipped to the page before staring at Sigma with renewed suspicion. "Yeah, I can read this one. How did you know? No, wait. How did you even know there was a journal in the lab?"

"I just knew."

"You just knew? Come on."

"Look, just read it, ok?! Clover wants to know what it has to say! Right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Right. Give me a moment to look it over." Phi looked at the page before translating it. Clover started to sob and collapsed to the floor. Harry closed his eyes. How did Sigma know? It would only work if he had made a jump in time.

"Uh, we've got a problem," said Dio after a few minutes. "It's almost time for the primary doors to open."

"Yeah, only ten minutes left," said Sigma as they checked the time.

"Sorry but I'll be takin Alice's bracelet. Phi and I won't be able to open the secondary door without it."

"So she was a magenta pair, just like me," said Phi as she looked at the colour and combination.

"Just now noticed that, did you?" Dio grabbed the bracelet and put it in his pocket.

"What colour is your bracelet Luna?" asked K.

"I'm a cyan pair."

"You are part of Clover's pair then. That means the two of you need to come with me."

"I guess so. Come on now Clover. We need to go. Alice would want you to survive, right? You'll never be able to figure out what all this happened if you stay here. Please…"

There was a small pause.

"You're right. Alice, I promise I'll find out what happened to you… I'll figure out who Zero really is. I mean, if you'd never been locked up in here, you never would have… This never would have happened. So… So, it's like Zero killed you. I… I promise. I'll avenge you."

Clover rubbed her eyes before striding out of the room.

"Alright, we're out of time," said Phi.

"You guys head down to the floor B warehouse," said Tenmyouji. "We'll catch up to you later."

"Oh, right. Quark's got the yellow bracelet which makes him your partner, right?" asked Sigma.

"Yeah. Can't exactly leave him behind."

"Without him, we'd end up stuck."

"Uh huh."

"Ok, let's go. We'll see the rest of you once we've picked up Quark," said Sigma.

"Very well. Until we meet again," said K.

Harry headed towards the floor B warehouse while Sigma and Tenmyouji went to the infirmary and picked up Quark. They waited for a couple of minutes until the doors opened and Sigma, Tenmyouji and Quark appeared.

Chromatic doors are now open. Five minutes remain until chromatic doors close.

"You're late," complained Dio. "Where the heck have you been? Quark?!"

"You're awake," said a pleased Luna.

"And fully recovered," added Phi. "Apparently."

"I am also pleased to see you well again," commented K.

"Me too…" added Clover.

"It's good to see you again," said Harry as he lightly punched Quark.

"Wait a minute… What are you talking about?" asked a confused Quark. Sigma held a finger up to his lips. Everybody fell silent.

"Huh?"

"Ah, um, anyway," said Luna, changing the topic. "There isn't any time left! We need to hurry!"

"But there are three doors," pointed out Tenmyouji.

"Which team goes in which door?" asked Sigma.

"Does it matter?" asked Harry.

"We're taking the one in the middle," said Dio.

"Why that one?" asked Phi.

"You want a kill shot, you aim for the middle. You're more likely to miss the extremities."

"That logic is flawed and more than slightly disturbing. Unfortunately, I don't have a counter argument so centre door it is."

"I suppose we could go through the one on the left," said Luna nervously. "Is that ok? I mean, we could go with the other one if you want…"

K and Clover nodded.

"Well, there's only one door left," said Tenmyouji. "The door on the left."

"Any objections?" asked Phi. There were none. "Alright, let's move!"

Thirty seconds remain until Chromatic doors close.

"Hurry it up Phi!" snapped Dio. "This thing's is going to close!"

"It's time we were going as well," said K as the group entered the centre door.

"Right," agreed Luna.

"Sure," added Clover.

"Come on guys, there's no time to waste," said Sigma as they headed towards the left door. Harry quickly followed them. The door closed behind them and they walked along the small corridor to the director's office.

"What's this place?" asked Sigma as they looked around the room.

"An office," said Harry with a sigh.

"It said director's office on the door," said Quark.

"So this might be Zero Sr's Office…" Sigma trailed off.

"Maybe," said Tenmyouji. "Or maybe not."

"Well, which is it?" asked Sigma.

"Why would I know?!"

"Does it matter?" asked Harry.

"We should look around," said Quark. "If this really is Zero Sr's room, there might be some clues!"

"Yeah, you have a point," agreed Sigma. "Let's get started then."

Harry walked over to the computer.

"Well, well, well. Haven't seen a computer this old in a while," said Tenmyouji.

"There's something on the screen," said Sigma as he looked at it too.

"Yeah. A password and a user name," said Harry. "But we don't have those."

"Is that a lion eating a hamburger?" asked Quark.

"No, I think it's a lion eating a sun," corrected Harry. Tenmyouji pressed a few buttons.

"The keyboard doesn't seem to be working."

"I guess we can't enter anything then," said Quark. Harry picked up what looked like a business card holder as Sigma tried to open the drawer but it was locked before moving over to a device on the wall.

"What is this?"

"I think it's a facial recognition device," said Tenmyouji. "You put your hands on either side and place your face in front of it as it checks your face against a database."

"Oh. How did you know that?"

"I'm in the salvage business," explained Tenmyouji. "Every so often, one of these babies turns up."

"It doesn't look like it's turned on," said Quark.

"Then we should try to turn it on," said Harry. Sigma put his face in front of it but nothing happened.

"There's something that looks like a keyhole over to the right," said Tenmyouji. "If we had a key for it…"

"You think we could turn it on?" asked Sigma.

"I assume so."

Harry prodded the balloon before examining a green coaster in the cabinet.

"Ha ha! Now this is brandy!" Tenmyouji removed the bottle. "Fierre Perrin's 200 year old reserve!"

"You can tell that from just looking at it?" asked Sigma.

"I can smell it."

"That's some nose." Sigma snatched it away as Tenmyouji tried to drink some. Harry reached up and grabbed the globe before taking the paper off it.

"A suit of armour."

"Well, it's not really a full suit of armour. I mean, it's missing the helmet."

"So what would we call it?" asked Sigma.

"I'm not sure…"

"Ok, well, I'm just going to go ahead and call it a suit of armour."

"Suit yourself."

"Anyway, it's got some red paint on the shoulder and neck."

"Are you sure it's paint?" asked Tenmyouji. "It could be blood."

Harry swiped the letter and sniffed his finger. "Smells like paint."

He forced the small spear and the slingshot out of the armour's grasp.

"The tip looks kinda like a diamond," said Tenmyouji. Harry walked back to the desk and inserted it into the lock, collecting some books along the way. He pulled out the key inside.

"What's this? A vacuuming robot?"

"It's a machine of some sort," said Tenmyouji with a shrug as the three studied the machine on the floor.

"Well, is it turned on?" asked Quark.

"Don't think so," replied Sigma as he tried to get it to work. "Nope. Nothing happening."

"This is cheap brandy," said Tenmyouji as he pulled the bottle out. "Alcohol like this shouldn't even exist. So I think I should be disposing it safely…."

"I'll be taking that." Sigma snatched it, causing Tenmyouji to grumble. He pulled out a tablet without a battery judging by the conversation. Glancing over, Harry noticed that they had put the expensive alcohol in the shelves and were trying to open a safe. They opened it to find a deer and a binder.

Sigma walked over to the cards and rearranged them before turning them over. "Book 334."

Harry placed the books in the right order on the shelf before moving the deer head onto the wall. Pulling out the slingshot, he shot the balloon.

Inserting the key into the recognition device, Harry turned it on before trying to see if it worked. No one else worked either.

Face not recognised. Gender mismatch.

"What does it mean by gender mismatch?" asked Sigma. Harry hit his head on the wall.

"It means we're the wrong gender. It wants a girl's face."

"We could dress Quark up," suggested Sigma. No one agreed with him. Eventually Tenmyouji pulled out a photo and placed it against the scanner. Part of the wall turned round.

"It's like we're in the villain's secret lair!" exclaimed Quark.

"Huh. Didn't think that would happen," said Tenmyouji.

"Well, that was surprising," said Harry as he calmed down.

"I guess the recognition worked," said Sigma. "Oh, hey, look. There's the helmet for the suit of armour!"

"Let's put it back where it belongs then." Harry picked it up and placed it on the rest of the amour. He quickly turned around as he heard the wall rotating again. "What have you done?"

"Sigma pulled a lever," said Quark. The wall turned again and Sigma reappeared with the tablet working.

"It needs a password."

Harry reached over and typed in Hel. "There's a letter missing."

Sigma entered a p and pressed enter. A password appeared and they used it to open the safe.

"Good job! It opened!"

"Let's cut the talking and check what's in here," said Harry before anyone else could talk.

"Hey, Mr Sigma. I know that's stuff is important but aren't you, you know, curious?" whispered Quark.

"About what?"

"Grandpa's picture. The one in front of the facial recognition thingy. Don't you want to take a look at it? Come on, hurry!"

Harry quickly linked himself with Sigma as the two walked over to the recognition device and looked at the picture.

"Hey! Stop…"

"She's just a girl," said Sigma as he flipped the paper over. Harry had the strangest feeling that he'd seen her before somewhere. "Is she your granddaughter?"

"No."

"Then who is she?"

"Ugh. Fine. You've already seen her after all. Her name is Akane Kurashiki. I've been looking for her for… for a long time."

"Why?" asked Sigma.

"Because she's his first love," explained Quark.

"No! You've got it wrong!"

"But you carry around that photo all the time. I don't think I've ever seen you leave it somewhere. And when you think nobody's looking, you talk to it. I've seen you do it."

"Huh. Didn't mark you as a hopeless romantic Tenmyouji," said Sigma.

"Look, it's not about love and I'm not a romantic!"

"Ok, ok." Sigma tried to placate him. "You don't want to talk about it. I get it."

"Can we get on?" asked Harry.

"There are only two things in here," said Tenmyouji as they looked into the safe.

"First we've got the star cards," said Sigma as he pulled them out. Harry hid a wince as his bracelet heated up. "You guys take one and I'll take the other."

"Right. We're a pair and we only need one for the two of us," agreed Tenmyouji.

"And the other thing is a key as usual."

"Yes! Now we can get out of here," cheered Quark.

"Great. No point in waiting around," said Tenmyouji. "Let's get out of here."

They walked over to the door and unlocked it before following the corridor to the elevator.

"No! Damnit!"

"What is it?" asked Quark.

"I left something in the director's office!"

"What was it?"

"The picture," said Harry as he understood.

"How could I forget it?!"

"Oh yeah. We must have set it down after using the face recognition thing," said Sigma.

"Yeah. I'm going back. You three go on ahead to the warehouse."

"I want to come with you," protested Quark.

"Me too," agreed Sigma.

"I'll wait in the warehouse," said Harry after a second. "The others are probably waiting."

He entered the elevator and Sigma joined him after a second. They walked to the warehouse and found everyone else there. Dio dashed over to an AB room and unlocked it.

"There. Happy? This time I waited for you to return before opening the gate. You see? I can be considerate."

"But Tenmyouji and Quark aren't here…."

"They already know that the gate has been opened," pointed out Harry. "That announcement goes everywhere."

"Yeah, where are they?" asked Phi.

"I guess they forgot something back in the room we investigated," said Sigma with a shrug. "They ran back to grab it real quick."

"Then they'll be here in a few minutes," said Dio. "No big deal."

Everyone started to exchange information. Getting bored, Harry wandered back to the director's office to find it empty.

"That's weird." He jumped as something powered up and looked around wildly to see a light from the machine on the floor. "What?"

He cautiously approached it.

"So you made it. You must have as many questions for me as there are stars in the sky." Harry stared at the man projected from the machine. He couldn't have been older than seventeen or eighteen. "This is only a recording I made for you Harry. It will only run when the machine detects that you're in here, alone. I can't directly answer any of your questions. You can ask if you want to but there's no point as I can't answer them."

Harry frowned before deciding that he had to know his name. He noticed a bracelet on his arm and walked around to see the colour.

"You can't be…"

He checked again but there was no mistake. A black solo.

"You will have worked out who I am as I knew you would. Now, I'm supposed to talk about termites and how they can't see the beauty of what they make but that's boring. Now, is it possible to create something, a chemical or a potion, that would change the perceptions of the person injected with it? If it is, it would be possible to make them believe that they had a smaller body than they do. I spent a good number of years developing a potion that would do this. Another thing you could do is to get to know Zero Jr. you will be spending a lot of time with him after all. My time's up. Before I go, there's something I need to tell you. It is the password to the bomb numbered one. BQZ RGJ DXR. As usual, you can't tell anyone about this or you will be penalised."

The hologram disappeared.

"What was that about?" muttered Harry as he left the room. "Was that really me? But I don't remember anything about that. Is it possibly a future version of me?"

Shaking his head, he headed back to the warehouse on Floor A.

"Where did you go?" asked Phi.

"Looking for Tenmyouji and Quark but I must have missed them." Harry glanced at Tenmyouji's face. "Something wrong?"

The announcer's voice echoed around the facility as it told them they had ten minutes left.

"Grandpa, look! Mr Sigma's back!"

"Hmph. Took you long enough."

"Where are the others?" panted Sigma.

"In the AB Rooms," explained Quark. "Harry got here a few minutes ago."

"They went in already?" asked Sigma.

"Do you expect them to wait?" asked Harry.

"Why didn't you go in? Have you been waiting for me?"

"Yeah. Grandpa told me that he had something to tell you no matter what before we voted so we waited," explained Quark.

"Just wanted to tell you that we would choose ally this round. That's it."

"And you had to tell me that no matter what?" asked Sigma in confusion. "Seems kinda pointless… I mean, words are cheap. You can promise me whatever you want."

"True but we've got something to back it up. Just hear me out."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, go ahead."

"Quark and I both have 8 BP. We're already on the home stretch. So what do we need to get to the magic number? Well, we need you to choose ally. If you do that, it doesn't really matter what we pick."

"You'd get to nine whether you chose ally or betray," said Sigma.

"And we'd get stuck here," said Harry.

"Exactly Sigma. That being the case, we don't have any reason to betray you. And if we both choose ally, we both gain points."

"True but you must have considered that I'd choose betray," pointed out Sigma. "That would mean that you'd choose betray to protect yourselves."

"But that's why we're telling you that we won't choose betray," said Quark. Tenmyouji nodded in agreement.

"And how do we know that you won't just open the number nine door?" asked Harry as he looked at it.

"I can guarantee it."

"How?" asked Sigma.

"I can give you my word. I will not open the number nine door even if I have enough points to do so. I swear it. We aren't going to abandon everyone just so we can escape."

"I swear too. I promise."

"So all you've got is a promise," said Sigma.

"I keep my promises."

"Please! You've got to trust us," pleaded Quark.

"All right, fine," said Sigma after a few seconds. "I'll trust you."

"Just don't betray us," warned Harry.

Harry glanced up as the announcer informed them that they had two minutes left. He walked over to the scanner and pressed his hand to it. The gate opened and he entered it. The gate closed behind him and he walked to the back of the room. One minute remained. Hesitating, he thought of the options. He could choose betray but that would mean breaking the promise. But he hadn't made the promise.

Ten seconds left. Harry reached out and pressed ally. The door opened and he walked to the projector.

Results from round three of the Ambidex Game will now be displayed. Please direct your attention to the screen.

"What?" asked Harry as he saw Tenmyouji's and Quark's decision. "You chose betray?"

He glanced at his bracelet to see the number change to one.

"Hey! What the hell guys?!" asked an angry sigma. "Why's you betray us?!"

"Quark had nothing to do with this," admitted Tenmyouji. "I made the vote."

"Grandpa…"

"Alright, fine! Why'd you break your promise?"

"I only promised you one thing, that we wouldn't open the number nine door. We couldn't open the number nine door even if we did have nine points."

"What?" asked Sigma. "So you're not going to leave?"

"Not what I said. Of course we're going to leave."

"Clover!" Harry turned towards the door. "You were counting on her to open the door, weren't you… Junpei?"

"What? How did you know that name?!"

"So I was right. Call it a lucky guess. That means you knew Clover from the Nonary game last year."

The lock beeped as the door opened.

"That bitch!" swore Dio.

"Wait, Quark and Tenmyouji have…" The two ran over as Phi spoke.

"No! Godamnit!"

"Are you really going to leave?" asked Luna.

"Well, yeah. Why else would I open the door?"

"But why?" asked K.

"I'm going to go call the others. So we can capture Zero Sr."

"Tenmyouji, are you and Quark going too?" asked Phi.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Sorry…"

"So Sigma… Happy?" asked Tenmyouji with a sudden edge to his voice. "I kept my promise. Clover opened the door, not me."

"Like hell I'm happy! That's some shady shit Tenmyouji! We're stuck here now!"

"If you say so. I have to get out of here and that's that. He's going to pay for what he's done."

"He?" asked K.

"Zero."

"You mean you know who Zero Sr is?" asked Luna.

"Yeah. No point keeping it a secret now I suppose. I know exactly who Zero Sr is."

"What?" asked a surprised Phi.

"How?" asked Harry.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Clover as the door finished opening. "Time to move!"

"Right," agreed Tenmyouji.

"Oh, wait! This is for you, Mr Sigma!" Quark handed Sigma something.

"What is this?"

"It's a letter. I wrote it in the director's office before the AB game. I wanted to tell you the kind of guy Grandpa is. So… Read it ok? See you later Mr Sigma."

He ran for the door with Tenmyouji and Clover following.

"See you."

"Goodbye."

The door closed. Harry peered at the letter as the announcer repeated its recorded message.

"Shit…" muttered Dio. "They're gone."

"There's nothing we can do now," said Harry, feeling strangely calm.

"All we can do is hope they bring help back," said Phi.

"Indeed," agreed K.

Sigma unfolded Quark's letter and started to read. Harry peered over his shoulder.

'It was a really stormy day when he found me. He said the rain was coming down so hard, it almost hurt but somehow he managed to hear a baby crying. I guess I must have been crying pretty loud. He took me home and did his best to raise me but he'd never been married or had a kid before so I think it was really hard for him. He couldn't figure out the formula so he was away scarring the directions around with him. Also, I guess u was a pretty picky eater so if he didn't get the water to formula ratio just right, I wouldn't eat it. I guess I was kind of a pain huh? But he didn't give up so here I am. When he found me, I was really, really small and he was worried that I might not make it. That's why he named me Quark. A quark is a really, really small thing and I was really, really small too. Grandpa didn't need to worry though because it turned out that I was pretty tough. When I was one, he forgot that I was sleeping in the bed of his truck and drove off. I rolled out and went off the back but I didn't even get scratched.

I started walking when I was two and when he wasn't looking, I fell down the stairs. I didn't get hut then either. When I was three, I got really sick. I had a super high fever for a week but eventually, I got better. I guess you could say that I'm pretty lucky.

Anyway, I didn't have any more accidents after that and I was a pretty healthy kid. By the time I was six, I'd started helping grandpa with his work. His job was to gather junk from abandoned buildings. Then he'd fix it up or pull out the useful parts and sell them. There were plenty of abandoned buildings but finding good stuff in them was hard. You had to know which parts were useful or you'd end up wasting a bunch of time. Every time I found something, he'd explain to me what it was, how it was supposed to work, how to fix it, all sort of things. Usually though, I just wanted to finish up work so I could go to the theatre.

The theatre came to our town once a week in a wagon. They'd show old news or movies. I went every single week but Grandpa only went once in a while and he'd only go weeks when they showed movies.

Oh yeah, I didn't know that I'd been adopted until I was seven. One of the other kids on the block told me. I guess after Grandpa found me, he looked all over town to try and find someone who'd take me. The kid from my block actually had a mom and he'd asked her if she would take me too. I got to admit, I was pretty shocked when I heard that. There wasn't a lot of kids with parents around so hearing that someone lived with his actual mom was pretty impressive. I was also surprised that Grandpa had tried to get someone else to take me. Did that mean that he didn't love me?

The kid who'd told me about Grandpa trying to get rid of me was a real jerk. He was totally spoiled and he'd brag to everybody about how he had a mom. He liked to come up to me while I was working and say stuff like "must be hard not having a mother."

It never bothered me before but after I found out that Grandpa had adopted me, I started to think that maybe he didn't really want me. If I could work on my own then he could get rid of me. I was scared to know the truth so I never asked him.

Then one day, he took me to a bar in our neighbourhood. During the day of course. He went there to drink scotch but I'd never been before. When we got in, he walked up to the counter with that grumpy look he has and I thought "Oh no, he's going to make me work here." But I was wrong. I saw him pass something to the bartender and then he picked me up and set me down on a stool next to the counter. The stool was high, especially for a seven year old kid and my legs just dangled off of it. It seemed really, really high to me and I was pretty nervous.

Eventually the bartender came back over with a glass of scotch and another big glass of something else. As I looked closer, I realised that the second glass was full of brown liquid with a scoop of ice cream in it. It took me a minute to realise what it was. A root beer float! I'd never seen one before! I was so surprised! Root beer was even more expensive that the nicest alcohol in the bar. To me and the other kids, it seemed like an urban legend rather than a real drink. But there it was, right in front of me. I stared at the float – I still wasn't sure it was real at that point- and then turned to Grandpa. He looked back at me. I didn't know what to do so I turned to the bartender. He'd already turned around and moved off though so I assumed he must have put the glass down in front of me on purpose. It still didn't seem like it could be real and I was just starting at it when grandpa told me to hurry up and drink it before the ice cream melted. His gruff voice sounded like an angel's.

"Is this really mine?"

He nodded. Words can't describe how awesome it was. I'd never tasted anything like root beer before. The creamy sweetness of the ice cream made my entire head feel light. I felt like the luckiest boy in the whole world. That's not an exaggeration, I really thought that. The root beer float was delicious but what made me feel even happier was Grandpa. When I looked over at him, he was smiling. I know that's going to be hard for you to imagine but he really was! Right then, I didn't care whether he'd just found me and adopted me or not. He'd bought me a root beer float. That made me way luckier than some kid who had a mother but had never had a root beer float.

Of course, after we left the bar, he was the first kid I bragged to.

So Grandpa and I were doing pretty good until the fight. I was in a super bad mood that day. I'd torn one of my shoes that morning and some old drunk guy had yelled at me. All the junk I found was totally useless. The day was almost over so I'd just grabbed some random trash and took it back to the house. When I showed what I'd found to Grandpa, he frowned. He started going through each thing I'd brought back, explaining why they were all useless. I got really mad and just yelled "I don't care!"

Then he got mad and I couldn't take it anymore. So I ran away. I was pretty upset and I started thinking that maybe Grandpa had only adopted me so he could raise me to work and make money for him. After a while I went and hid in an abandoned building but by then I'd started to calm down and think that maybe I should go back and apologise. It had started raining pretty badly though so I decided I should wait for it to stop. But that was just an excuse. The truth was that I was nervous. Part of me knew that I'd done something wrong but I didn't want to admit it. The rain didn't stop though so I just sat there, staring out at the gloomy, grey sky. I imagined Grandpa coming to get me.

It kept raining all night and he never showed up. I gave up waiting and decided it was time to go home. I was about halfway there when I heard somebody groaning. At first I thought that I should just ignore it and not get involved but I went over anyway and… it was Grandpa.

He was totally soaked and I could tell right away that he'd been there for a really long time. I yelled and he opened his eyes a little bit. He smiled weakly and said he was glad I was safe. He'd spent all night out in the rain, looking for me.

I felt awful. Grandpa had been out in the rain looking for me for so long that he'd collapsed. I was horrible. He heard me crying in the rain but I hadn't heard him. As I ran to get the doctor, I promised whatever god might be listening that if they would only save Grandpa, I'd never ask for another root beer float ever again. He got a real bad fever and his temperature wouldn't go down for days. The doctor said that if it kept up, he'd die.

If he died, I would be all alone. There wouldn't be anyone left to care about me. The thought of that happening terrified me.

Fortunately, I must have passed some of my luck onto Grandpa because a week later, his fever broke. I was glad that he wasn't going to die but I was also a little scared. What if he decide that he didn't want a stupid kid like me around anymore?

My plan was to apologise as soon as he woke up but when the moment came, my brain just stopped. Grandpa was starting to talk and it took me a minute to realise that he was apologising, I didn't know what to think.

He explained that he was an old man and that meant he was probably going to die sooner rather than later. He was strict with me because he wanted to make sure I'd be able to make it on my own after he was gone but maybe he'd been a little too strict. All of the things I'd worried about had been stupid and selfish. Grandpa cared about me a whole lot. He'd been worried when I had run off and he'd gone out into the rain to look for me.

I tried to apologise but when I opened my mouth, I just started crying. I don't think I cried that much since I was a baby.

But he just smiled and patted my head. I asked him if he'd ever regretted adopting me. His eyes got all wide and he said "Of course not."

He told me that he was looking for a really important lady and because of that, he had to give up on pretty much everything else in his life. But when he took me in and started raising me, he felt like he'd gotten some of what he'd lost back

That was when I decided I'd stay with him forever. Even if he said I couldn't.'

Harry sighed when, out of the blue, something took control of him and forced him into a previously visited timeline.

Harry grumbled as he found himself looking through Sigma's eyes as he and K discussed the bloody bracelet. He walked through the motions but separated when they looked for Tenmyouji and Clover. Eventually, he entered the infirmary and froze as he saw the bodies.

"So that's what happened to them."

He felt the needles jab into him and collapsed to the floor.

"Nine minutes left then I'll end back up at the beginning again. This is so getting repetitive."

Time passed and he felt the needles jab into him before everything turned black.