Phi, Luna and Sigma leapt out of the elevator and hurried swiftly back towards the warehouse, where an Ambidex Room had been prematurely opened. As Luna started to trail behind, Sigma spun around to face her, still running along the corridor – now backwards – with surprising agility.

"Luna! We've gotta keep going!" Sigma's expression showed both his desperation and his confusion; even he didn't know exactly the source of his urgency.

"I… Yes, Sigma! I can do it!" Luna's face creased up with extra effort. She picked up the pace.

The three of them sprinted down the corridor and swung round the door that led to the lounge. They crossed the lounge in less than a second. And then, moments later, they skidded into the warehouse.

Tenmyouji, Clover and Dio stood there, contrasted from the new arrivals by their stillness. Sigma advanced purposefully, panting heavily, on the three players who had gotten back before him, his head swinging wildly between them as he tried to gauge their reactions.

"Hey!" Sigma roared, "What the hell is this?! Why'd you open one of the AB Rooms before the rest of us got back?!"

Tenmyouji folded his arms tightly and turned to face Sigma square-on. "Clover and I haven't done anything," he replied neutrally, "Dio didn't feel like waiting, I guess."

With only a couple of sharp steps, Sigma moved to stand right in front of Dio.

Dio regarded him coolly. "You got a problem?"

"Yes! Yes, I do have a problem!" Then Sigma paused. He seemed to be weighing up how much to explain about his dread, and how much to conceal.

Before Sigma could speak, Dio brushed him aside with a casual shove into his shoulder. "I don't remember anyone saying anything about waiting until everyone got back to open the AB Rooms."

Sigma struggled to recover. When he had finally done so, he gasped, "Are you kidding me? We didn't talk about it because we thought it was common sense!"

Dio just shrugged. That argument – indeed, all arguments – would have no effect on him. As far as Dio was concerned, the entire conversation about the AB Rooms was over and should never have been started in the first place.

Phi took stock. It had been the announcement triggered by Dio's opening of the AB Gate that had driven her, Sigma and Luna into their mad rush back up to the warehouse. Despite Sigma's desperation, it seemed that the only crisis had been resolved. Sure, the forty-five minute time limit imposed by the Ambidex Game could have been dangerous had they still been trapped in the control room. But they were out now. If this was the danger that Sigma had warned them about, it was over. Phi let out a sigh of relief.


At that moment, K burst into the warehouse. His feet clanged gracelessly against the floor; something terrifying had robbed him of his usual restraint.

"Oh, thank goodness!" K boomed gratefully, "You're all here! It's Quark, you see. He…"

"What?!" Tenmyouji exclaimed, "What happened to Quark?!"

K answered, "He collapsed."

Tenmyouji sprang forwards, racing towards the yellow door. He had made the connection as quickly as Phi had: if Quark was in medical danger, the best place that K and Alice knew to take him was the infirmary. That perfectly explained why Alice and Quark were absent, and why K had entered alone.

This had to be the catastrophe Sigma had foreseen. Phi's paranoia then corrected her: this could easily be the start of a series of entangled catastrophes. Phi accelerated instantly to follow Tenmyouji towards the infirmary: to no surprise at all, Sigma did likewise.

Phi arrived in the infirmary to find Tenmyouji standing over the hospital bed that contained Quark, desperately shaking the unconscious boy by his shoulders. "Quark! C'mon, kid! Get ahold of yourself!" Tenmyouji shouted hoarsely.

Alice stood passively by the bed, respectfully allowing Tenmyouji to express his grief. Even as Tenmyouji's unthinking attempts to rouse Quark grew more and more jolting, Alice didn't intervene.

But when Clover entered the room behind Sigma and Phi, she did. "H-Hey! What are you doing?!" Clover exclaimed as she tugged on Tenmyouji's elbows, "He's sick, and we don't even know what's wrong with him! What if you're making him worse?!"

Tenmyouji's shaking arms gradually wound down till they stopped. He looked Clover in the eye, the beginnings of tears forming in his own. "Then what am I supposed to do? I have to save him."

By then, all the other players had arrived: K led Luna and Dio into the infirmary. The gravity of Quark's situation was immediately clear to all of them.

Except Dio. "'Save? That seems a little extreme. Maybe he just has anaemia or something?"

Tenmyouji glared at Dio furiously. "No, that's not it," Tenmyouji growled, "I know him better than any of you. He doesn't have anaemia. He's never just… collapsed before."

Dio shrugged. "Well then. Call an ambulance and stop freaking out about it."

"You son of a bitch! This is serious!" Tenmyouji clenched his fists at Dio, but didn't do anything.

Phi glanced at a machine that had been attached to the bed that Quark lay in. "The infirmary seems pretty well equipped. There are plenty of diagnostic tools, but…" Phi had no idea how to use them. Simple first aid was, of course, well within her grasp, but to get anything more out of the equipment, they would need a proper expert.

"Well, we've got Luna," Sigma said. As all eyes turned to him, and Luna shrunk backwards modestly, Sigma explained, "Luna has a medical license. She told me that earlier."

Phi recalled the conversation she had had with Luna earlier. The medical license had come up, but during the hectic events that followed it had slipped Phi's mind. "That's right. Luna, you're the best person we have to treat, or at least diagnose, Quark."

Luna held her hands up in front of her face bashfully. "Um, well, yes, but…"she stuttered.

Tenmyouji wheeled around and held out his arms pleadingly. "You have to take a look at him, then! Please! Quark needs your help!"

"Okay. I'll see what I can do." Luna gently motioned Tenmyouji aside, then switched on a machine right next to Quark's bed. "I think this machine is a medical scanner. It's called an 'ADAM'. It uses nuclear magnetic resonance imaging…"

Phi interrupted. "I don't want to rush you, but the sooner the better, Luna. Just let us know if you need anything."

"Of course." Luna retrieved a scanning attachment from its storage slot in the ADAM, then waved it precisely and thoroughly over Quark's body. Once she was done diagnosing Quark she stared at the screen, turning deathly pale as she read the results. "I… I know what's wrong with him. I feel so terrible saying this, but… Quark has an infection. A viral infection. Radical-6."

So the newspaper had been telling the truth. There was no way to get around it. Even if the ADAM was also lying, it was too much to believe that Quark had coincidently succumbed to another debilitating disease.

Tenmyouji sunk to his knees beside the bed. "Quark can't be… There must be something we can do! How can we cure him?!"

Luna read the results of the ADAM once more, double-checking everything it said. "The ADAM says that there's an anti-viral serum called Axelavir. It's the only way to counteract Radical-6. If we can inject him with some, he should… he should be okay."

"Where is it?!" Tenmyouji yelled, "Shouldn't it be in the infirmary somewhere?" His face swung quickly between Dio and Luna, the two people still conscious among those that had first explored the infirmary.

Dio shook his head. "We looked around, but we didn't see anything like that."

Tenmyouji cut him off. "I don't trust a damn thing you say! I'm asking Luna!"

"I'm sorry, but…"

Tenmyouji let out a primal yell and scrambled over to the medicine cabinet opposite Quark's bed. He rummaged through it, quickly taking in all the words on the labels. None of them were 'Axelavir'. He turned back to the other players. "Damnit… What about the other rooms?"

Phi turned her head to the side apologetically. "No good. All that was in the control room was the generator, and the machinery to control it. No medicine."

Tenmyouji didn't acknowledge Phi's response, instead turning to focus on K. "What about you, K? Was there any medicine in your room?"

"I'm terribly sorry. There was nothing of the sort in the archives. Books and so on in abundance, but… no medicine."

Sigma gestured awkwardly. "Look, just to be sure… Tenmyouji, Dio, Clover, where did you three go?"

Tenmyouji opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if straining to answer. Clover answered for him. "Some place called the 'B. Garden'. It was kinda like a park, with trees and stuff. But yeah… no medicine there, either. Maybe some medicinal plants?"

Tenmyouji collapsed against the wall and slid down to the floor. "Then Quark's… he's going to… Oh God no…"


Before anyone could console Tenmyouji, Luna spoke hesitantly. "Quark?" The boy was standing stiffly beside the bed, a weary and vacant expression marring his once cheerful face.

Tenmyouji recovered instantly from his grief, leaping up from where he had sunk and joyfully crossing the room towards Quark. He shouted, "Quark! Oh, thank God! You're awake!"

That joy didn't last.

"Get away from me!" Before anyone could react, Quark yelled inhumanly. His hands swept up purposefully, and Phi suddenly saw that Quark clenched a scalpel between them, the blade aimed directly towards his own chest. "I'm sorry Grandpa," he muttered, "I have… have to… I have to escape. Like this!"

Quark drove the scalpel in towards himself. Phi didn't react in time; she was frozen by shock. Sigma was not. He leapt across the intervening space and grabbed Quark's hand at the last moment, throwing them both across the bed. Quark struggled, his entire body shaking furiously under Sigma's grasp, but though Sigma was old, he held on tight.

It took the others a moment to realise what exactly had happened, but before long Phi, K and Dio were also restraining Quark, and with the pressure relieved from Sigma he was able to force the scalpel all the way away from Quark, Alice knocking it safely out of his hand. Quark's shouts were getting increasingly shrill and frantic, and it was clear that Quark would not calm down. There were only two possible ways this would end. One was not tolerable. The other…

"Luna! Are there any tranquilisers in here?" Phi asked, "Hit him with some!"

Luna arrived next to her wielding an injection gun. After an intense effort to immobilise Quark's leg, Luna struck, injecting the contents of the gun into the thigh. After a few agonising seconds Quark relaxed; he soon fell mercifully unconscious.

As Phi released Quark, she shuddered. That was one more piece of the mystery revealed. If Sigma hadn't been there… he had been only person to react in time. That was enough to unnerve Phi completely.

Luna checked the screen of the ADAM once more. "Respiration, blood pressure, brainwaves… Everything's normal. According to these readings, he's in a very deep sleep. He should be alright for now."

"What about the anaesthetic?" Phi asked, "How long will it last?"

"He shouldn't wake up for a few hours," Luna replied.

Dio started pacing about the infirmary, flexing his arms. "Man, he sure was strong for such a little guy."

Luna explained, "I think that might be the virus's fault. It probably attacks the part of the brain that governs reason. Without anything to hold it back, his body was using every ounce of strength he had."

"So when Quark tried to kill himself, was that because of Radical-6 too?" Clover asked.

Luna agreed that it probably was. She asked the others if they had heard anything about Radical-6. One by one, they explained that they knew only that which had been explained by the newspaper article found in the infirmary, until…


Tenmyouji gasped. "U-Uh… What are you doing?"

Phi turned around and saw what Tenmyouji was reacting to. Alice stood right in front of the exit door, which had opened behind her; she stood stiffly and with an empty, hollow expression that was all too reminiscent of Quark's. In her hand was clenched the scalpel she had taken from Quark. Phi was hardly the only one who had noticed; the seven players formed a wary semicircle around Alice, all of them staring at her. None of them could bring themselves to speak first.

"We're going to die…" Alice muttered.

That just had to be the final piece of the unfolding disaster. Phi played it out in her head, imagining every last detail of the scenario where she Sigma and Luna had taken longer in the control room. Without Sigma present, Quark would have… would have… And immediately after that, Alice would have… would have…

"Huh?" Luna took a step towards Alice, but Alice's right arm twitched, the tip of the scalpel moving ever-so-slightly upwards, and Luna froze.

"We're all dead already…" Alice continued, "Only terrorists would resort to biological warfare like this… But they will… soon."

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about?" Dio asked exasperatedly.

Alice's voice dipped to a soft, breathy whisper. "You don't understand?" Then, her entire face contorted as her mouth gaped open to its fullest extent. Alice roared, "All of humanity is going to die! The virus will spread! Adults! Children! Everyone! Everyone! There won't be anyone left! I'd… I'd rather die here!"

For a moment, Alice didn't move. It seemed as though her outburst had ended.

Then Alice took a single step back. The door closed in front of her; only the rapid, echoing footsteps gave any indication of Alice's flight.

Alice had gone, taking the scalpel with her.


This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.