"In you go!" A male security guard throws Tenma inside the cell then closes it back.
Tenma, who is sporting various wounds and injuries, sobs as he lays on the ground, just wishing he could go back home.
A slender hand lifts his head and gently places it on a soft surface, "Enjoy, Tenma." He looks up, only to see Meia sadly smiling at him as she strokes his hair.
"Thank you…" He whispers as he presses himself deeper into her thighs with his eyes closed, "What… Happened to Suzuki and Mika…? I didn't… See them," He weakly asks but receives no answer, so he opens them and sees her sniffling.
"They didn't come back…"
Tenma doesn't say anything but sheds a few tears of his own at the painful reality of losing the girl and boy who were next to their cell.
"Hey, Meia… Big sister… When will we get out of here…? It's been three years now… I want the pain to stop…"
She bites her lip until it leaks blood due to previous wounds not healing properly, "I… Don't know. We might… Never be able to leave," She sorrowfully whispers before she presses her head against his own.
"Don't worry. Big sister will always be here."
He ball up his hands as he closes his eyes, "If only we never had this gene in us… You could have lived peacefully with your family…"
She gasps before rubbing her hands on his cheek, "You mean us, you are one of us since we share the SSC gene. No matter if you came from the past."
Tenma enjoys her rubbing until she stops and he looks at her with sadness, almost looking like a kicked puppy, "Sorry, I can't do it for a long time." She holds out her hands to his face, which he can see scars tracing all over while her hands are blue and black in color.
"Meia…"
"Don't. It was either this or going back to the chair…"
Silence descends on them, until he notices her hair almost reaching the floor now, "Your hairs longer," He bluntly says.
She blinks before lightly giggling, "Yeah. I always like long hair since I was a little kid… Had to bargain with the lab coats to leave my hair alone…" She despondently says at the end, though she smiles at him, hoping to not worry him.
Meia sees Tenma opening his mouth, so she continues, "Besides, your hair is longer now. And more swirly… How?" She bafflingly asks as she pats his hair.
"…The lab coats wanted to see if hair had anything to do with my powers…"
"Oh…"
Silence once again descends on them, then she opens her mouth, but gets interrupted by sirens blaring while the surrounding becomes red.
"What?" Tenma painfully gets up from her thigh to see the situation, "What's going on…?"
"Stay behind me Tenma." Meia slowly gets up, though she winces while using her hands to get up.
"No, I will protect you." He also gets up, slowly at first but he pushes on until he stands at a height slightly taller than her. He walks to the iron bars and sees the other inmates also at the cell door.
The sirens slowly stop while the light turns to its original color, prompting him to sigh, "A false al –"
A loud explosion at the door interrupts him from talking. Soon, a boy with tan skin, almost like Tenma's, and hair that looks like wings, wearing goggles that covers his eyes and a scarf wrapped around his mouth.
"I found the captives!" The boy yells behind him before holding up a futuristic gun, "Everybody! We are here to free you!"
The boy aims his gun at the keyhole of a nearby cell door then fires a laser beam, letting the captives go free, then repeating for each cell.
The captives yell and shout thank you's with a few of them dropping to their knees outside of their cell at the boy while Tenma and Meia cautiously go out of their cell with the former first.
"I am SARU. And from this moment on, ALL OF YOU ARE FREE!"