Almost laughing aloud in relief, I pull the medicine out of the safe, smiling widely as I do.

So THIS is where it was! I knew it had to be in one of the safes! Oh, this makes things so much simpler; if we can just get Quark upstairs and inject him with this before he wakes up again-

"Clover?" Sigma says from behind me. "What's that?"

I freeze, having momentarily forgotten he was there.

"Ah... I'm not sure." I reply, showing him the tiny container. "The label says 'Axelavir', and it kind of looks like a medicine vial?"

I'd love to just tell him what this is, but we haven't scanned Quark with the ADAM yet, so Sigma doesn't know what Axelavir does or why it would be useful — ergo, I shouldn't either.

"There's also all this other stuff." I continue, hurriedly pocketing the vial before Sigma can ask any follow up questions about why I was smiling at it. "We have two moon cards, a small key, a map, and some sort of journal, apparently?"

Extracting the rest of the safe's contents, I pocket one of the moon cards before thrusting the rest of the items into Sigma's arms. This does its intended job of distracting him, as he ends up frantically bobbling the objects back and forth for a couple of seconds, trying to keep them all from falling.

"Woah, woah, one thing at a time!" Sigma protests, managing to set the items down on the table. "I've only got two hands here..."

I quash the urge to tell him that's technically not true, depending on what one qualifies as "hands", while Sigma picks the journal back up and starts flipping through it... whereupon his normal eye immediately narrows into a disbelieving squint.

"What the...? What language even is this?"

Not being able to actually see it from where I'm standing, nor really remembering what the purpose of that journal was, I just shrug.

"We can examine this stuff in more detail later." I say. "For now, let's just hurry back upstairs."

Which is even more important than when I said it the first time, since we can actually cure Quark now, and thus may be able to avoid having to wrestle him into sedation again.

Sigma nods. "Yeah. Here, you get the door."

He pockets the journal, the map, and remaining moon card, then moves to where we left Quark. Meanwhile, I take the key back and slide it into the ornate-looking lock to the right of the exit door. A simple twist of the wrist, and "LOCK" switches to "OPEN", prompting the door to slide upwards and reveal another hallway.

Nodding approvingly, I turn back around to see Sigma now holding Quark in a fireman's carry... as well as giving me a slightly unhappy look.

"Um..." I squint. "Something wrong?"

"Not really." Sigma says, though with a clear note of disappointment in his voice. "The way you opened that just felt kind of... lackluster, is all. I know we finished the room quickly, but couldn't you have at least done a countdown, or something like that?"

...seriously?

"I'm sorry if I didn't open the door with enough ceremony for you, Sigma," I reply with not a little sarcasm, "but I kind of think we have bigger concerns right now, don't you?"

Sigma at least has the grace to look a little sheepish at that, to which I just roll my eyes.

"Come on, let's go already."

Well aware that I'm likely slower than him, I step aside to let Sigma leave first, then follow him out, glancing back at the interior of the laboratory for a final time as I do. Honestly, we did end up finishing this room pretty quickly, though with Quark liable to wake up and go ballistic at any moment, I'm certainly not complaining. I suppose I'm ultimately just glad we didn't end up having to waste a ton of time messing around with either of the mysterious table machines-

I blink, squinting at one of said machines again. Huh. I didn't notice when I was looking at it from above, but from this angle, I can actually see the words "IG Replicator" engraved around the lower rim of the device.

...and IG... equals immunoglobulin...

I very nearly smack myself.

"Clover?" Sigma says, already having started down the hallway. "Aren't we going?"

I fail to move, my realization having struck me with sudden indecision. The IG Replicator — AKA the machine that can make more Axelavir — is all of ten feet away from me, probably already prepped for use. However, Sigma is also all of ten feet away from me, and I'm still not supposed to know what the Axelavir is for, let alone what the replicator is for, so I can't exactly just stroll back in and use it apropos of absolutely nothing, at least not without looking ridiculously suspicious in the process-

"Clover...?" Sigma repeats.

"S-sorry." I stutter, forcibly wrenching my gaze away from the lab as the exit door slides shut, hesitation having made my choice for me. "Spaced out for a moment... yeah, let's go."

Still looking at me a little oddly, Sigma nevertheless sets off down the hallway, moving away at a fairly brisk pace. I trail after him, doing my best to keep up without tripping over my own feet — though while my eyes stay fixed on Sigma's back, my thoughts remain focused on the tiny glass bottle now pressing rather uncomfortably into my hip, and the horrible, creeping feeling that I may have just made a massive mistake.

It's certainly true that just now wasn't a particularly good time for me to use the IG Replicator. However, I kind of suspect it may have also been the only time — once we get Quark to the infirmary and scan him with the ADAM, the machine will identify not only that he's infected with Radical-6, but that the infection can be cured via Axelavir. At which point, Sigma will most likely want to immediately use the medicine on Quark... not knowing that the IG Replicator needs a sample of said medicine in order to make more, or that the replicator in question even exists. And, without revealing I know things that only Zero is supposed to know at this point in the game, I'll have no plausible excuse to stop him from doing exactly that.

I bite the inside of my lip. Quark may be the first to show symptoms of it this timeline, but everyone in this game except Luna is infected with Radical-6, and will succumb to it eventually if it isn't treated. In the last two lines, we didn't even have the option to avoid that, because no one ever opened up the laboratory. In this one though, we do... and I'm still not taking the opportunity, for fear of Sigma becoming as suspicious of me as Phi. It's an admittedly valid concern, since I really don't need him attempting to interrogate me too — but in choosing to prioritize that, I likely just condemned everyone else in this timeline to an inevitable death by suicide.

Including Alice. Again.

Unable to stop myself from quailing at the thought, I shake my head, trying to keep things in perspective. As horrible as it is to those stuck in this timeline, I need to keep focused on the big picture — on myself, and my own, individual future, which with any luck won't be here. And hey, at least my delayed realization of the IG replicator's purpose should help with my epiphany problem...! Although, then again, does that even qualify as an epiphany? I didn't really learn anything, I just remembered something that I should have already known to begin with. I certainly don't feel very accomplished for it; in fact I mostly just feel stupid for overlooking it, like I did with the paring knife in the B. Garden two timelines ago-

My eyes widen in sudden panic. Shit, the scalpel! We just left that sitting underneath the fume hood in the laboratory, right out in the open! I didn't even try to hide it! If Dio can't find his knife and goes looking for a new weapon again, then I might as well have just handed him one on a silver platter-

"Clover, are you feeling alright?"

I snap my gaze back up to Sigma, who's paused in the middle of the hallway just to turn around and squint at me.

"Seriously, you don't look so good." he says, sounding legitimately concerned. "You're not sick too, are you?"

...I am. But, as with everyone else... there's nothing I can do about that.

"I'm fine." I mumble. "Just worried about Quark, I guess."

"Same here." Sigma quietly replies. "Maybe we should we pick up the pace?"

I shake my head ruefully. "Sorry Sigma, but I can't really-"

"An Ambidex Gate has been opened." the intercom suddenly interrupts. "Forty-five minutes remain until Ambidex Game polling closes."

I glance up at the ceiling in astonishment. Wait a second, did Dio manage to get back first again? Sigma and I practically speedran that room; how in the world did his team finish before-

"What the hell? Who opened one of the gates?!"

Before I can actually respond to Sigma's outcry, he suddenly reaches out and grabs hold of my wrist.

"Come on, we need to get upstairs!" he urges, already starting to move again.

"Wait, Sigma I- WOAH!"

Once again I fail to finish my sentence as Sigma starts outright running down the corridor, towing me along behind him as he goes... and not seeming to realize that the shoes I'm wearing are not remotely conducive to such speeds, even were I better practiced in them. Shit-!

Desperate not to lose my balance and end up breaking an ankle or worse, I stop even attempting to balance on the back of my shoes and just put all my weight on the front, lifting the heels off the ground entirely and going from my tiptoes to very nearly en pointe as I frantically stumble after Sigma as best I can. At roughly the same time, it occurs to me that I probably could have used my difficulty with these shoes as an excuse to tell Sigma he should just go on ahead, then quietly slipped back into the laboratory to make more Axelavir as soon as he got out of sight. It would have been a perfect excuse, and a fairly innocuous one at that, but it's too late now...!

Thankfully, the hallway from the laboratory doesn't actually lead to the second floor warehouse like the one from the B. Garden did, instead looping back around to the Chromatic Doors and the elevator everyone first entered from. As soon as we make it back to the latter and step inside, Sigma hits the button to take us up, finally letting go of me as he does.

"Unbelievable..." he grumbles, readjusting his hold on Quark, "who would-"

"Are you a complete and utter moron?!"

Sigma flinches away as I glare him down. "Wha-"

"I'm wearing heels, Sigma!" I shout, hands planted on my hips. "Shoes which, if you weren't aware, aren't exactly built for running in! I was barely keeping on my feet that entire time you were dragging me down the hallway, and if I'd fallen while you were still grabbing onto my arm, I probably would have pulled you and Quark down with me!"

Seriously, what the hell was the thought process there?! Thank god Clover's shoes are at least flexible enough to have a little give in the front, because otherwise there is roughly zero chance that we, or at the very least I wouldn't have been sent sprawling!

"I realize that we're in a rush," I continue to rant, "and I'm not particularly happy with whoever opened an AB gate either, but calm the hell down! The announcement said we have forty five minutes to make it back, not forty five seconds!"

In the face of my brief tirade, Sigma visibly slumps.

"Right... wasn't really thinking about that." he admits, looking more than a little guilty. "It's just- who would even open one of the rooms before everyone else got back?"

"I have a guess." I fume, crossing my arms under my chest. "Not that I particularly care at the moment."

Of all the potential dangers contained within this facility, Sigma just being plain thoughtless isn't one I really expected I'd have to be worried about, but apparently that was my mistake.

"Sorry, Clover." Sigma says, wincing. "My bad."

I sigh as the elevator doors slide back open.

"Fine... just, please don't do that again. We'll figure out who opened a room later. Getting Quark to the infirmary still needs to be our top priority for the time being."

I look back at Sigma with an unamused expression. "Let's maybe not run this time though, if just so you don't risk accidentally hitting his head on a wall on the way?"

Sigma abashedly agrees, and we start down the hall, thankfully now moving at a more reasonable, less potentially literally-breakneck speed. Even at a much-reduced pace, it doesn't take us very long to reach the infirmary's back entrance, and a quick look around as we walk into the room is enough to know that there's no one else inside at the moment-

I cringe a little as I silently correct myself. Barring Akane's corpse, at least, which is still lying on the furthest bed behind the divider. Forgot that was here again... you wouldn't imagine a dead body could so readily slip one's mind, but between all the other things I've been worried about of late, it's a lot easier than you'd think.

"We should probably examine Quark with the ADAM before anything else, right?" Sigma asks, paying the corpse no mind.

Trying to do the same, I nod. "Stands to reason."

I've already essentially lost my chance at making more Axelavir, so I suppose I should at least endeavor to cure Quark as quickly as possible, before he wakes up and goes nuts again — and to do that without giving anything away, we'll need to actually "discover" what's wrong with him first.

Sigma moves over to the examination bed, taking a moment to remove Quark's hat and place it on the nearby desk, then another to ensure that his head is properly supported as he gently sets Quark down. Meanwhile, while Sigma is otherwise occupied, I take the scalpel from the nearby medical cart and surreptitiously slip it down the drain of the sink again. I may have forgotten about the one in the lab, but that's no reason to make it easy for Dio.

"There." Sigma says as he steps back from Quark. "I guess we'll have to wait for Luna to get back to actually use this thing, but hopefully-"

He breaks off as I walk over and pick up the wand sitting on top of the ADAM, switching the machine in question on as I do so.

"Clover?" Sigma says, his normal eye blinking at me. "You know how to operate that?"

"Not exactly," I admit, "but it didn't look all that difficult, so I'm gonna give it a shot anyways."

I mean, I'm no doctor, but all Luna did with Akane's body was briefly run the scanner over it from a short distance away. Maybe there's some sort of nuance to the process that I'm just missing, but it certainly didn't seem terribly complicated.

Sigma looks a little unsure, but ultimately shrugs and steps aside.

"Well, alright. Guess it can't hurt."

I nod, then begin slowly moving the scanner around Quark's body, gradually hovering it over each part of his prone form. Which feels more than a little absurd — between the shape of the ADAM's wand and the way that it's apparently used, I don't really feel like I'm performing a medical diagnosis, so much as I am scanning a giant, human-shaped barcode. Not that I'm questioning Luna's undoubtedly expansive medical knowledge, but this particular task could probably be handled by just about anyone who's ever worked a cash register before.

Regardless, my efforts soon bear fruit, as the screen to my right begins printing out results. Placing the wand back on top of the machine, I quickly skim through the information, while Sigma waits off to the side for me to finish. Finding essentially exactly what I'd expected to, I adopt my best solemn expression, then turn around to give Sigma the bad news.

"Well, the ADAM knows what's wrong with Quark."

"And?" Sigma asks. "What is it?"

I close my eyes for a moment, wanting this to look right.

"It... says that he's infected with Radical-6."

Sigma stumbles back a step, his mouth falling open in shock.

"Radical-6?" he repeats. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." I confirm, glancing back down at Quark. "Doesn't seem like coincidence, does it? Of all the things he could possibly be sick with, for it to be that..."

I keep my wording vague, trying to make sure I don't accidentally allude to knowing more about the virus than the newspaper article implied. Phi already called me out on that once before; I don't need it happening again.

Sigma tilts his head slightly to one side, his shocked expression shifting to one of minor confusion.

"Wait... Clover, you've heard of Radical-6 before?"

I turn around and blink at him. Huh? Why would that even be in question? Even if he might have extra memories from SHIFTing, from his current perspective we both found out about the disease at the exact same ti-

I freeze.

...uh oh. I think, whilst I was busy trying to avoid repeating the way I screwed up previously, I may have just screwed up again in an entirely different way. Because right now, I'm not just supposed to not know what the specific symptoms of Radical-6 are, I'm not supposed to know about the disease at all, because in this timeline-

"When Luna mentioned the newspaper article about Radical-6 that she found in this room, you weren't at the meeting yet." Sigma elaborates, his statement mirroring my own realization. "You only showed up later with Tenmyouji and Quark. None of us there at the time had ever heard of the disease, or the plague that it implied had occurred... but you have?"

I try not to panic, or at least to not show that panic, even as I feel it starting to creep across my features.

"Clover...?" Sigma says in a low tone, frowning when I don't immediately respond.

"I- I mean, I still passed through the infirmary on the way downstairs..." I say, frantically grasping for a viable excuse, and cringing at the one I come up with.

"Okay, but the article wasn't even here by that point." Sigma replies. "I'm pretty sure Luna took it with her after her group initially escaped the infirmary."

He squints at me, and I curse internally, knowing that I'm likely only seeming increasingly suspicious with every passing second — in other words, the exact scenario that I've been trying to avoid. If I don't say something that satisfies Sigma soon, he's probably going to start thinking I'm Zero, in which case...

Damn it, can't be helped.

"...fine." I admit, sighing as I do so. "Yes, I've heard of Radical-6 before. Prior to ending up in this place, I mean."

Sigma's frown grows a little less harsh, but doesn't fully leave his face.

"How?" he asks. "And if so, why try to hide it?"

"It's... for a good reason..." I mumble, my words sounding unconvincing even to my own ears.

"And that reason is?"

"W-well..."

I don't end up getting to finish that sentence, as we're suddenly interrupted by the door at the back of the infirmary sliding up again to admit the rather frantic-looking trio of Alice, Phi, and Luna into the room. Oh thank god, a distraction!

"Clover?" Alice starts as she spots me, seeming a little out of breath. "You're already here?"

"Were you the ones who opened a gate?" Phi asks, seeming more than a little cross.

I quickly shake my head. "Wasn't us. We were still making our way back upstairs at the time."

"Figures..." Phi mutters to herself — just before her eyes land on the room's smallest occupant, and suddenly go wide. "Hang on, what happened to Quark?!"

Alice and Luna gasp in tandem as they too notice the still form of the child laid out on the examination bed behind us.

"He collapsed, not after we all broke into teams." Sigma explains. "Clover and I had to run through our room as quickly as possible to get him back up here."

Luna swiftly moves to Quark's side, grabbing up the ADAM's wand as she does so- only to stop dead as she realizes that the screen is already displaying results.

"Oh... you've already diagnosed him?" she asks, sounding surprised. "Which one of you performed the scan?"

"I did." I admit.

Alice shoots me a subtly annoyed look, which I realize after a moment is probably because operating theoretically-complex machinery once again runs counter to playing dumb like she recommended. Once again however, I can't really bring myself to care that much, as I've kind of got bigger problems to deal with.

"The results... weren't great." I quietly add.

"This is...?" Luna whispers, now scanning over the results herself. "Oh no..."

My eyes nervously flicker over to Sigma, but he thankfully remains silent, not choosing to use the easy potential segue. I guess he's not suspicious enough of me just yet to bring up that I have preexisting knowledge of Radical-6 in front of the others, or at least is waiting to hear that "good reason" I mentioned before doing so, but I know the question is in his mind now... damn it, I should have just told him that Quark told me about the disease when I met him in the infirmary before the meeting. He was with Luna when she initially went through the room and found the news article, and while it would have been easy to disprove in the event that Quark wakes up later, Sigma likely wouldn't have had any real reason to question it... but once again, it's too little, too late for that.

A door abruptly opens again, though this time it's the infirmary's front entrance, allowing K and Tenmyouji to come walking in as well — minus one team member.

"Ah." K says, detached as always. "It seems as though everyone has already gathered again."

"Looks like it." Temyouji agrees, eyes panning around the room. "Though, why is everyone just standing around in the-"

His gaze settles on Quark, and immediately turns panicked. "Wait, what?! QUARK!"

He scrambles over to Quark's side, very nearly ramming Luna and me aside in the process. K looks on in what I assume to be concern, even as Phi turns to him.

"Dio isn't with you?"

K shakes his head. "Our group had something of an... internal disagreement. As a result, Dio declared that he had no desire to wait with us for the rest of you, and left for the time being."

...I really don't like the sound of that. Hope he doesn't find his way to the lab...

"Come on kid, say something! Anything!" Tenmyouji pleads, desperately checking Quark for a pulse before rounding on everyone else. "What happened?! What's wrong with him?!"

Luna looks down with a mournful expression. "Well..."

"He has Radical-6." Sigma rather bluntly interrupts.

Those of us who didn't already know recoil in surprise, while Tenmyouji's eyes go wide. "What...?"

Sigma quickly recaps what happened again, this time explaining in slightly more detail how, just as we were about to enter the laboratory, Quark suddenly fell to his knees and started babbling nonsensically, then just as suddenly fell unconscious. Luna jumps in mid-way to explain what little we currently know about Radical-6 to Tenmyouji, not that I imagine he personally really needed the refresher.

"As soon as we got back here, Clover scanned Quark with the ADAM, and... that's how we found out." Sigma solemnly concludes.

Tenmyouji stumbles, almost swaying on his feet.

"No, that- that can't be right!" he insists. "Clover must have just used the machine wrong or something!"

Luna slowly shakes her head.

"I'm afraid that the scan appears to have been performed properly. The ADAM's diagnosis is most likely correct..."

Tenmyouji's gaze sinks to the floor in despair. "No... Quark can't be..."

His breath audibly hitches, before he looks back up with what almost looks like terror in his eyes.

"There must be something we can do!" he all but screams. "How can we cure him?!"

I ready myself, expecting Luna to start explaining the disease's one potential remedy in response — but to my surprise, K suddenly steps forward instead.

"Perhaps the treatment center's cold sleep pods?" he suggests.

"Treatment center?" Alice curiously repeats.

"The room that our group visited." K elaborates. "It contained a trio of pods meant for cryogenic storage, which were additionally noted to be capable of curing illnesses and repairing injuries... supposedly, at least. None of us were capable of testing that claim at the time, but as we now have someone in need of such, I see no reason not to at least attempt to make use of them."

...oh right, those things that Alice, Phi, and my current body were stuck inside of several objective hours ago. Kind of forgot they did anything other than freeze people.

"Fine, let's try that!" Tenmyouji says frantically, not sounding particularly confident in the proposal, but clearly too panicked at the moment to really care. "I'll carry Quark!"

I barely manage to stop myself from objecting. Now that I've been reminded of their existence, I'm pretty sure there was a scene in the game proper where it was shown that those pods couldn't actually cure Radical-6, only stop it from getting worse. While that's not totally useless, we have a much better solution right now; I just need an opening to say as much without making myself look-

"There... is another option." Luna hesitantly, and to my personal relief, speaks up.

Tenmyouji pauses mid-motion. "There is?"

Luna nods.

"ADAM says there's an anti-viral serum called 'Axelavir'." she explains, nigh-identically to how I recall her doing so two timelines back. "It's the only known way to counteract Radical-6. If we can inject him with some, he should... he should be okay."

Desperate hope flickers across Tenmyouji's face. "Where is it then? In here...?"

Luna falters.

"I... don't believe the infirmary has any in stock..."

For a brief moment, Tenmyouji looks utterly crushed, before his expression twists itself into a scowl. "Why even bring it up then?! If we're truly trapped in this place, where else could we possibly find something like that?!"

Deciding that's probably my cue, I pull the small jar of medicine from my pocket and hold it out in front of me.

"Right here."

Everyone turns to me, various expressions of surprise plastered across their faces — well, minus K, since I can't see his face.

"Wha- Clover?" Tenmoyuji says, his furious distress nigh-instantly replaced by shock as he reads the tiny bottle's label.

"Sigma and I happened to find this back in the laboratory." I explain. "It was in the room's safe... a sort of secondary reward for escaping, I guess."

Sigma blinks, then gives me a rather funny look. I take it he's figured out that, in addition to the Radical-6, I already knew what Axelavir was used for as well, and thus why I was so excited about finding it in the first place. It's a pretty natural conclusion to make, based on what I ended up having to admit to him... ugh, why couldn't he be just a little denser?

"W- well what are we waiting for then?!" Tenmyouji exclaims as soon as my words have fully processed. "Luna, you know how to inject that, right?"

"I do." Luna confirms, smiling slightly as she turns to me. "May I administer the medicine, Clover?"

I nod, handing over the medicine in question. "Of course."

Not sure why she even asked, since it's not like I was going to refuse her. Unless she was asking if I wanted to administer it, but I hardly have the knowledge to do this part myself — operating the ADAM was easy enough, but that by no means makes me a medical professional, and there's no way I'd risk screwing this whole process up when we have someone I know can do it better. That dose is only enough for one person, after all.

A small spark of hope abruptly rekindles within me at the thought — isn't there a chance that Sigma will bring up the replicator himself around now? It's certainly possible that, should he have already SHIFTed to the correct times and places, he already "knows" what the IG Replicator is, and will run the Axelavir back to it on his own given proper prompting, which this very well might qualify as. True, I've seen no indication of that from him thus far, and given how much I've already unintentionally screwed with everything, I'm not certain he'll have had the opportunity to gain that information in any timeline he might have already been through, but-

...but nothing, apparently, as Sigma remains silent, merely watching along with everyone else as Luna locates the injection gun and loads it with the vial of Axelavir. No one seems to be bringing up the possibility of anyone else here having the disease either, and I certainly don't want to be the one to do that given what I already accidentally revealed to Sigma, so I'm forced to stay quiet as well — leaving me to merely sigh internally as Luna quickly and efficiently injects the Axelavir into Quark's left thigh.

Well, that's that then. I guess I'd just better hope I can get out of this timeline before everyone else's infections kick in.

"Here's hoping it works." Sigma comments.

"Yeah... hopefully." Tenmyouji says quietly, no longer visibly panic-struck, but still sounding fairly uncertain. I suppose that's only reasonable, given he's currently gambling Quark's well-being on a supposed miracle cure for a disease that he's personally known for many years to not have a cure at all...

I take a quick moment to look around the room. With the immediate crisis averted, everyone mostly just seems varying degrees of relieved, which shows in their expressions — barring K's, obviously, and Phi's, who's still frowning.

"Something wrong, Phi?" Sigma asks, evidently having noticed the same thing I did.

Phi shakes her head.

"It's nothing." she says dismissively, glancing over at the medicine cabinet. "It just seems... awfully convenient."

Despite how she's currently facing almost directly away from me, her comment still manages to make me feel like she's psychically staring a hole in the back of my head. Great, she's still riding the "Clover is hella suspicious" train of thought, isn't she? And now Sigma might be boarding it as well...

"Well," Phi continues, now addressing the rest of the room, "since Quark is apparently taken care of for the moment, let's all take a few minutes to discuss our findings. Clover, you said you and Sigma went to some sort of laboratory?"

"...er, yeah." I reply, caught a little off guard. "Weird-looking place, but we didn't find much of interest there other than the Axelavir."

"Well, that's not quite true." Sigma points out. "We found a small journal in the safe as well, but it's either written in code or in some sort of foreign language."

Phi hums to herself. "Interesting... we should take a look at that later. Did you also manage to get the 'secret archive'?"

I shake my head. "Sorry, no. We prioritized getting Quark help rather than risk looking around any longer."

Phi frowns at me, but before she can say anything, K suddenly speaks up again.

"I'm afraid that our group similarly failed to obtain the treatment center's file. Assuming there was one, at least."

Alice makes a disgruntled-sounding noise. "Why's that?"

"Because-"

The door slides open for a fourth and final time.

"-Dio unlocked and left the room before we could do so." K finishes — just as the man in question steps into the room.