A/N: After a month-long hiatus, I bring you Chapter 7 of Overwritten. I'm sure it's known, but none of the characters in the story so far belong to me, they all belong to the godly being, Chiyomaru. Thank him for allowing me to write this story.

Date: July 1, 2036

Divergence: 1.048596* (Steins Gate)

*Worldline shift in 2020 - Not the exact same worldline as it was before the shift.

Time until Overwrite: 4 months, 13 days.

"El. Psy. Kongroo."

Daru couldn't help cringing at how childish Okabe seemed. He rolled away from his desk by the Memory Storage Unit ver 2.43 and looked at Okabe who smiled proudly at his work.

"Did you really have to sound out your entire letter? It's like I was peeking into your life man and that's weird."

"Couldn't help it," Okabe said. "He's the only person that truly understands me. Well, he is me anyway."

They were in one of Daru's many hideouts throughout Japan. He had an excellent foothold here because of his work as a hacker and resistance leader. It was thanks to their efforts that the Committee is practically non-existent here. Now, the hideout just served as a way to keep their experiments and their operation planning out of the eyes of the public, even then, Okabe couldn't trust that the Committee wasn't watching. The hideout was just a container house, borrowed from a friend that Daru had made over the internet, his name was Takumi Nishijou, but he usually went by Neidhardt. He was gracious enough to allow Daru to take it over and remaster it into the sophisticated place it was now. However, he did keep all the figures that the guy collected, they were in pristine condition and there was no way he'd just desecrate them, they deserved to stay.

Daru looked back over at Okabe. "You sure it's okay to let him take control even though he doesn't know anything about what's going on now?"

"I can't force him to overwrite himself," Okabe responded. "The only job this letter is supposed to serve is to tell him his options. No matter what, the choice is his to make."

"Why a letter though?"

"You honestly think he'd be able to find a note written on the PhoneDroid? Do you really think they have PhoneDroids in World War III?"

"I guess you have a point," Daru shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the computer. "You ready to do this?"

"Let's do it."

Daru leaned back in his chair, stretching his arm away from his computer. Another job that took over the better portion of two days was finally completed and he could finally rest easy. Despite how much the jobs paid, it really cost him the time he wanted to set aside for Suzuha and Yuki and he regretted every moment of it now that Suzuha was all grown up.

It was currently 3 AM in Akiba, Suzuha was attending the University of Tokyo to study Engineering so she lived in a place closer to the campus instead of having to take the morning commute all the way over which left Yuki and himself alone in their humble abode. It was a 4 room house: the living room and kitchen area, the bedroom and all its commodities, the guest bedroom, and Daru's workstation. The 3 separate rooms were close enough to one another which allowed for Daru to swiftly dim his computer light, make his way out of his workstation, and sneak into the bedroom where Yuki lay.

His angel of a wife was visible from the room entrance, her breathing in tune with the analog clock they had on the wall for keepsake. Right next to her was a red-haired girl whom he had chosen to take care of while Mayuri and Luka did their thing out somewhere in South America. Kagari Shiina, Mayuri's ten year old daughter, was nestled under Yuki's arm, acting just like Suzuha had when she had her own nightmares and ran from her bedroom (now the guest bedroom for none other than Kagari) to her parents. Daru couldn't help smiling and was in the process of getting in the shower when his PhoneDroid started buzzing incessantly in his pocket. Not wanting to wake up the girls, he quickly rushed out of the room and into the living room, silently shutting the door behind him.

Daru looked at the contact information on the screen and couldn't help sighing when he saw Okabe's contact information pop up on the screen. He swore that the guy didn't understand the concept of time zones and expected Daru to be awake at such a leisurely hour. He let the call go through, making himself comfy on the couch because he was sure that Okabe was contacting him for some sort of matter that pertained to Valkyrie.

Okabe's face popped up on the other side of the line, looking slightly more withered than what Daru saw before. Nothing changed physically, but Daru could tell that something was different about his demeanor just by looking at him these first two seconds.

"What's up, Okarin?"

"Daru?"

"Yeah?" Daru was getting suspicious.

"What's with the beard?"

"If it looks a little rough around the edges just know that I've been working on that job you wanted me to do these past two days so I couldn't exactly groom myself properly."

Okabe still seemed slightly confused. "Never thought you'd grow out so much facial hair at any point in time."

"Listen man," Daru was getting impatient and it didn't help that he was tired. "In case you haven't noticed for the umpteenth time, I'm 8 hours behind you guys and it's 3 in the freaking morning right now. Whatever you have to say, just get it done with because I'm tired and I'm sorely lacking the love of my wife."

Okabe's complexion lightened up slightly. "How's Yuki?"

"Please don't tell me you called just to ask how my wife is doing."

"Get to the point already," Daru could hear a female voice in the background.

"Is that Kuri-tan?" Daru could recognize that voice from a mile away.

"Hi Daru," the phone tilted to show Kurisu behind Okabe. "Sorry for bothering you at this hour, but it's kinda important."

"More important than me getting my well-deserved sleep?"

"Yes."

"Well then," Daru adjusted himself. "I'm all ears."

"Go on," Daru could see Kurisu stare at Okabe. "Tell him."

Okabe finally looked straight into the PhoneDroid's camera for what seemed like the first time since the call began. It was then that Daru could immediately tell why Okabe seemed so different. The way his eyes looked, the way they seemed so devoid of the life and character that Daru was used to.

"Don't tell me," Daru blurted out before Okabe could say anything. "You came from World War III, didn't you?"

"How'd you know?" Okabe eyed the camera in seeming awe at the fact that Daru picked up on the fact well before any emotion was shown.

"We've been as close as brothers can be for 27 years now," Daru explained. "Those are not the eyes of the same Okarin I spent those 27 years with."

"Oh," Okabe's eyes darted downwards almost as if he were ashamed.

Daru sighed. As much as he hated the fact that every single memory he made with Okabe was basically stuck inside that memory converter in the storage container in Shibuya, he understood that he shouldn't be so hard on the man that stood before him. Sure, it may not have been the Rintaro Okabe he grew up with, the Okabe that was his best man and vice versa, the Okabe that was practically the uncle to his little girl, or the Okabe that was the leader of Valkyrie, but the man was Rintaro Okabe nonetheless and he couldn't hate him for that.

"So?" Daru asked.

"So, what?"

"Did you read the letter you wrote to yourself?"

Okabe nodded, his eyes still facing the floor. Daru could see Kurisu lay off her stare and instead softly rest her head on Okabe's back. She seemed to have adapted pretty well to the fact that her husband had become a completely different man.

"And? What's your answer?"

"I was hoping you'd help me come to that conclusion."

Daru sighed exasperatedly and looked toward the ceiling. "Damn you, Okarin. Damn your indecision and damn your rules."

His words came out as a whisper, but Okabe couid surely hear it.

"I'm not allowed to make that choice for you," Daru said. "Strict instructions by you yourself. No matter what I'd like to say on the matter, I'm bound by respect for you to make your own decision."

"Daru!" Okabe snapped. "Tell me. Tell me you want that man you knew back. You want him back, don't you!?"

Kurisu backed off of Okabe and eyed him carefully. Daru could see her hand extending to her nightstand where a bottle of pills lay.

"Tell me this Okarin," Daru calmly responded. "Why are you so intent on sacrificing yourself for no other purpose than to make your friends happy? Don't you care about your own happiness too? What is it that you want? And don't give me all this crap about keeping everyone happy. Give me that one selfish reason of yours that keeps you motivated. That one reason that benefits you and only you."

Okabe muttered something that Daru couldn't hear, but it seemed like Kurisu could hear it clearly. Her eyes softened and she smiled.

"What'd you say?"

"I said I want to be with Kurisu."

Daru smiled warmly. "There you have it. Ponder on it will ya? You don't have to make that choice right this second despite what the letter says, we're well past the time of a proper bridge and we'd probably have to catch the other guy up with a letter of your own if you do decide to sacrifice yourself."

"Anyway," Daru switched the conversation over to Kurisu. "Any word on what the New Encephalitis Cases could be, Kuri-tan?"

"Nothing to report," Kurisu responded as she returned to leaning on Okabe's back. "It doesn't seem to be contagious, but it seems like a quarter of the population that experienced it in 2010 re-experienced it last night so I haven't had a chance to head to the Institute and examine those who have it."

"So we won't have to sacrifice much manpower in regards to this?" Daru asked to be safe. "I don't want to throw it to the trash and just let the Committee gobble it up and achieve some plan for world domination."

"I wouldn't believe it to be that important yet, no."

"Now I remember," Okabe interrupted the two. "The New Encephalitis Cases happened in 2010 on the Beta Attractor Field. It's not a disease."

Okabe drew puzzled looks from both Daru and Kurisu.

"You said you thought it was some form of Reading Steiner back in 2010, but you didn't have anything concrete to back it up." Kurisu responded.

"It's Reading Steiner," Okabe swiftly said. "It's not at the level of my own, but these people who are labeled as New Encephalitis patients are people who experienced Reading Steiner. I'd know. Leskinen exploited them in the Beta lines."

"Wait," Daru stopped Okabe from speaking more. "The professor exploited people? Why?"

"He never said exactly why, he just said that his motives were complex and that I wouldn't understand. I feel like he was trying to use worldline convergence and their unique cases to develop something in the time machine race."

"You think he still has those plans?" Kurisu asked.

"Does he still work as a neuroscientist?"

"He retired a couple years ago," Kurisu said. "No one knows exactly where he's gone though."

"Daru," Okabe never answered any of Kurisu's questions but he was working on it. "How much manpower do we have to spare for these New Encephalitis patients?"

"Depends on what you want," Daru shrugged his shoulders. "We have a couple men to spare for assassin-"

"You can stop there. I want extraction, I don't want anyone killed."

"I was only kidding Mr. World War III Vet," Daru raised his hands in defense. "We have a few hundred men scattered across the massive population zones in America as well as a couple agents currently working here in Japan."

"Okay," Okabe seemed to have already come up with a plan. "I need all their hospital records deleted off the face of the Web. I also need there to be no physical evidence of their stay in their respective hospitals whatsoever. We can't risk Leskinen - or more importantly - the Committee getting their hands on them. I don't want to go through seeing them wired up and tested on again."

"You got it boss," Daru said. "I'll make sure to send the message out before I go to bed. Is that all you need?"

Okabe looked over at Kurisu who nodded then looked back at the camera. "That'll be all."

Daru was about to shut off the call before he was interrupted.

"Hey, Daru."

It was Okabe.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the advice."

"Anything for the greatest resistance leader on the planet," Daru chuckled. "Welcome to your 'beloved worldline' as I'm sure you'd call it. Enjoy it. You earned it."

Daru waved one last time to the couple and then shut off the call. He made sure to put his PhoneDroid on silent so that he could at least peacefully get through the night. He slowly rose up from the couch and made his way back to his workstation, re-lighting the dark screen of the computer. He opened up the Deep Web page that housed all the information that Valkyrie held and typed in a single message on the bulletin board:

Code Red: All active agents in America and Japan must begin working on freeing the New Encephalitis patients from any hospital they may reside in. Use any means to make it seem like they never checked in to begin with. Failure will mean the Committee would be one step closer to achieving time travel once again. Get moving boys and girls.

Daru hit send and watched the new message pop up on the bulletin above all the past messages he sent. He finally let his computer sleep and quietly slipped into the bedroom. The good thing about Daru was that he was quick at taking showers so it took him about 5 minutes just to get ready for bed without disturbing the two sleeping angels.

He slipped into the covers, sandwiching Kagari between himself and his wife, and closed his eyes. Feeling all the weight of his eyelids come crashing down and forcing him into a deep slumber, a slumber that was only possible for people running on 48 hours of nonstop work.

A/N: Eh? I hope this was enjoyable. I found Daru's character really fun to write and I feel like I got his 2036 character down better than I could nail the other characters. Anyway, I hope this was enjoyable despite the seeming month wait-time for a new chapter. School and novel-writing has really taken away from my fanfic writing, but I do my best to give this sucker some love every now and then. Thank you so, so much for reading! It means a lot to see people sticking around even though I seem to have commitment issues. I promise, I don't, I just have time-management issues. I will keep true to my promise of ending the fic and -who knows - maybe I'll include some sort of exciting sexual topic to explore and make sure that M rating is well-deserved ;)

It depends on how I feel though. Anyway.

Thanks,

~Quil