A/N: Just a short DISCLAIMER before this chapter starts. If you are uncomfortable with any content regarding sexual assault, I'd suggest you skip this flashback as it goes in-depth to what happened with Kurisu in 2031. This story is M-rated for a reason. I tried playing around with making the whole encounter T-Rated, but it ended up losing some of that cruelty that was needed to truly convey Kurisu's situation. I'm sorry for being so fickle on how to rate this story, but I promise now that it'll stay M-rated.

Date: August 3, 2031

Divergence: 1.048596* (Steins Gate)

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

Time until Overwrite: 5 years, 3 months, 11 days.

"Come here, you fucking bitch!"

Kurisu tried so hard to run, taking all the back-alleys possible to shake her chasers, but she was never capable of losing them. It was early in the morning, Akihabara was empty to the point that it was almost dead, but Kurisu needed to get to ATF to set up for her seminar. She never thought her morning would be interrupted by vile men who decided to chase her out of nowhere. She held her documents in her hands and ran as fast as she could through the empty lots, choosing to go past a taped-off area and try to shake them off, but they always stayed a couple steps behind her no matter how hard she tried. She whipped out her phone mid-sprint, dialing Okabe's number in hopes that he could do something to help. She wasn't sure if these men were a part of the Committee and didn't want the police involved in such matters. Her husband was the only person she could trust.

The phone rang twice. "Hello?"

The voice on the other side was deep and obviously sounded like it belonged to someone who had just woken up.

"Phoenix! I'm in trouble!"

She said his codename in hopes of scaring off the men, but they never turned tail. The Phoenix was a very well-known name within the Committee. Whenever Daru hacked into their mailing systems, they always talked about staying on their toes for The Phoenix. Okabe was The Phoenix. He was the thorn in the Committee's side. He emboldened them as much as he terrified them, but the men chasing her chased her with the same energy they had before. Okabe's voice perked up.

"Give me your location, Chris."

Kurisu's codename. She knew Okabe couldn't let slip that The Phoenix knew her personally. She ran toward an old building that was seemingly abandoned after the Akiba earthquake. It was an old cinema.

"I'm-"

She tripped as she was trying to enter, knocking the phone and her papers out of her hands. She tried getting back up, but one of the men grabbed her before she could, roughly pulling her back toward him. She tried getting out of his grip, but then the two others chasing her surrounded her as well.

"Good idea, choosing this place," the man grabbing her said. "It's nice, out of the way, and no one will be able to hear you scream."

His stench of alcohol and horrible body odor reached her nose, making her tear up from just how much of an assault his smell posed on her synapses. The man had his arms wrapped around Kurisu's body, pinning her arms under him and not allowing her any chance to move. She resisted as best she could, jumping and shaking violently to try and break free, but he had a strong grip on her.

"Let. Go. Of. Me!"

"Kurisu?" Okabe's voice on the phone broke down into total panic. "Kurisu!?"

One of the men trudged over to the phone that was on the floor with Okabe's picture on it. He picked it up and examined it before putting it up to his ear so that he could speak to Okabe.

"Don't worry," he said mockingly. "Your friend's safe."

He then threw the phone to the ground and stomped on it, causing Kurisu to freeze in fear. Her connection to Okabe was severed. The act only served to encouraged her struggle, causing the man to accidentally let go of her. She fell to the ground and tried getting up quickly to run, but she was brought down by a hard kick to the ribs. The third man was waiting for her to break free and took his chance to subdue her. The kick took all the air out of her body, causing her to roll over and try to get air back in. Tears made their way out of her eyes from the pain in her abdomen.

Two of the men grabbed her arms and dragged her into the cinema. She could only groan in pain as she attempted to recover from the kick that brought her down. The men were talking enthusiastically about what they were planning on doing to her. The vile things they said confirmed that they weren't a part of the Committee, they were just outcasts who should never belong in a civilized society.

She felt them pick her up and sit her down on a chair, pinning her arms to the back of it. The third man made his way behind her and tied her hands together, not giving her any chance to use them. She began kicking out, hitting the two men in front of her as hard she can, but they never budged. One of them growled and slapped her across the face with the back of his free hand.

"Stupid whore."

She felt the third man vacate his presence from behind her and bring her legs together so that he could tie them up too.

"You bastards!" she snapped at them. "Let go of me!"

The room was dark. Kurisu could only make out general details surrounding their bodies, but she couldn't see their faces. They were all thin, no surprise because of the fact that they kept up with her. One of the men pulled out a knife, making Kurisu's eyes widen.

"You have no say in that, dearie," the man with the knife said before approaching her.

She closed her eyes. "Please don't hurt me. I'm begging you."

She felt the cold hard steel of the blade touch against her throat, causing her to freeze. "Look at me."

She obliged, slowly turning to face him. The face she saw was one of pure evil. His face donned a contorted smile, his eyes wide with the wickedness that emanated from them. He was missing teeth, making his appearance even more undesirable to her. In one quick moment, she felt the knife retract itself from her throat before she felt a slash across her chest, tearing her shirt in the process. It was a button down dress-shirt, and it came undone by the slash of a knife. She could feel her skin break and blood begin to slowly seep into the rest of her shirt. The cut wasn't too deep, but it put her in a lot of pain. She cried out.

One of the other men reached for her chest, tearing the shirt in two from the hole in the fabric and exposing her black bra.

"Please!" she cried. "Someone help me!"

She was screaming for someone to help before she got a hard slap to the face again by the same man that slapped her before. "Shut up, whore!"

The man that exposed her chest began grabbing her breasts roughly, pushing the bra to the side to play with them.

"I would have appreciated bigger, but I guess I'll have to make do with what we got here."

He unbuckled his pants and stuck his free hand down them. The third man knelt down, spreading her thighs and slowly creeping his hand up her skirt toward her entrance. Tears were flowing freely out of her eyes. Sobs intermingled her moans of pain as all three men violated her. She was helpless. All she could do was cry as she felt one man's hand creep slowly up her thigh toward her sex, one man playing with her breasts and getting off to it, and the other having fun behind her by making tiny cuts on her body that she could hardly feel over the other two groping her and sucked on her wounds.

"Kurisu?!" she heard out of nowhere.

All three men froze from their spots and quickly switched their attention from her toward the entrance to the cinema.

"Kurisu, are you in here!?"

It was Okabe's voice.

"Okarin!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Help me!"

She could hear a hurried pair of footsteps approach her spot. The three men abandoned their position around her and went to go check who was annoying them. However, Okabe closed the distance on them before they could get out of their spot.

There he was, long hair flying as he ran at full speed to her spot. His lab coat billowed in the wind he created before he slammed into the first person in front of him at full force with his shoulder, knocking him down easily.

The other two, caught by surprise, jumped back quickly and began circling Okabe before he could close the distance on them as well. He carefully eyed both of them as they walked around them, one with a knife in hand and the other cracking his knuckles in preparation.

"Who are you people?" he said. "What do you want with my wife?"

"I don't think the answer matters if you'll be dead before you hear it!"

The man with the knife charged Okabe, but her husband easily dodged the first swipe, grabbed the man's hand as he went around for the second swipe, and punched through his elbow, bending it backwards and effectively breaking it. The man screamed in pain before Okabe elbowed him in the face, knocking him out onto the floor.

The last man stood before Okabe. He was scared to face him and wanted to run away, but Okabe had the only exit blocked. The man, the one responsible for groping her breasts, fell to his knees and bowed his head toward Okabe.

"Please don't hurt me! I apologize for everything I've done!"

Okabe slowly approached the man who had no intention of doing anything against him. The man shook as he could hear Okabe's footsteps get closer and closer to him, but Okabe never broke stride.

"Apology noted."

Not giving him a second to react, Okabe viciously kicked his heel into the back of the man's head, forcing his face to hit the floor hard. The man slumped to the ground. Okabe then walked over to the first man who he had run into. He was still awake, but air had rushed out of his body from the sudden impact. Okabe picked up the man's leg and rammed his knee into it, practically snapping the man's leg in half. The man screamed in immense pain before Okabe angrily and silently stomped him into unconsciousness.

"Okarin!" Kurisu cried out as he finished. "Okarin!"

She began sobbing uncontrollably. When she lost all hope in staying alive, when she cried out for help, her knight in shining armor came at her call. He ran to her and began untying her.

"Kurisu, I'm so sorry." he said. "I should have walked with you. This was all my fault."

He untied her feet and made his way to her hands. However, he was so focused on getting her out that he never noticed just what the men had done to her. He saw her exposed, he saw the bruises on her cheek, but the sight that scared him most was the cuts that were all over her arms.

"Oh my God," he gasped. "Kurisu..."

He quickly made his way behind her and untied her arms from the seat. Kurisu jumped out of her seat and into Okabe's arms, crying the whole way. She sobbed into his shirt, drenching it quickly in both blood and tears.

"Thank you," she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

She couldn't form many words for the gratefulness she could feel toward Okabe. Okabe broke the hug so that he could examine her.

"The cuts look superficial. I should be able to bandage them up at home," he said. "Do you think you need to go to the hospital for anything?"

Kurisu shook her head, sniffling as she tried regaining composure.

"Good," he said softly. "Let's head home then, shall we?"

Okabe draped his lab coat over her, covering up her cuts and her partially naked body from the public view. She huddled close to him and he held her, not allowing her to leave his side. This was what it meant to be loved. They walked together out of the cinema, not allowing anything to get between them. Even though she was violated, she was happy that her Okarin saved her in the end.

"So, what do we do?"

Kurisu gazed questioningly at Okabe, her violet eyes shining radiantly under her glasses. The trio made their way back to the couple's home, opting to cancel Okabe's lecture for the rest of the day in order to address the situation they were in with total seriousness. Okabe had ditched his labcoat, rolled up the sleeves on his shirt, and took off his red necktie. It was his usual ritual whenever he began to focus that he take off anything that hindered him and rolled up his sleeves so that he could keep cool. He brought the ritual over from the constant wartime of the Beta Attractor Field and never seemed to be able to get rid of it. He looked at Kurisu and Maho, both women taking a seat on the couch in the living room. The size difference betweeen both of them was noticeable. Both of them had their backs on the couch, but only Kurisu's feet were able to touch the ground. Maho seemed to be at peace with the fact that she couldn't touch the floor.

He breathed in and closed his eyes, imagining the situation as it played out and thinking of the best way to handle it. He had been boots-on-the-ground several times on extraction and escort missions in World War III, but the big problem for him to face was adapting that knowledge to the Steins Gate world line. He didn't have the use of soldiers, and the agents he currently had were tagged, making them unable to use for ground missions anymore. Killing was now nowhere near the table, such a thought about using that method was to be left behind on that lawless world.

He opened his eyes once more and eyed Maho's university tag. The idea he had hit him like a truck going in at full force as he continued looking at Maho's tag. He began chuckling.

"So that's what I'll do."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Maho furrowed her brow.

"How much of a recognizable face do I have in the science world?"

It was a questioned aimed at both of them. Maho leaned forward, her feet hitting the ground at the same time as the excess cloth on her obviously oversized labcoat. It was the same as it was on the Beta Attractor Field, she just never seemed to care about her looks as long as it didn't get in the way of her research and development. Kurisu's eyes narrowed to slits, showing obvious distaste with whatever Okabe may have been thinking.

"Don't tell me you plan on going in there by yourself."

Okabe leaned back into the wall, getting himself comfortable so that he could begin to explain just what he planned to do.

"Answer the question."

"Wha-"

"You're not," Maho interrupted Kurisu. "For the most part, you've stayed behind the scenes, so your contributions to our work has been unknown to everyone except our circle in the Neuroscience Institute."

"And that circle includes..."

"You, me, Kurisu, Dr. Leskinen, and Dr. Reyes."

Hearing the last two names together sent a cold shiver down Okabe's spine. His eyes widened as images flashed before his eyes. Memories of the Beta Attractor Field began flooding into his head, filling his synapses with images of death, decay, and brutality. At the center of it all were Reyes and Leskinen. Two scientists working for opposing teams behind the scenes, both of them having obviously nefarious goals for the time machine race, both of them equally responsible for the pain and suffering his friends had to experience in wartime and in peacetime before war broke out. Images of Kagari being strapped to that blasted chair by Reyes, of Leskinen torturing him for information, of the general wrongs the pair committed against him began making their way into his head, blocking all conscious thought. The sight of the two women began morphing before him. What was once the short, black-haired scientist, was now the tall blonde menace that was Alexis Leskinen. His wife, with her hair tied neatly in a ponytail and her glasses resting on her nose, began morphing into Judy Reyes, the maniacal woman who could rival Hououin Kyouma in insanity.

"No, no, no, no," Okabe quickly caught on to what was happening to him. "This isn't real."

"Lintahlo?"

Okabe quickly fished his hand into his pocket, trying to grab the bottle that held his Reading Steiner pills. He had his eyes shut the entire way as he grasped the capsule and pulled it out quickly. He popped open the top and placed one sole, blue, capsule on his palm before slamming it into his mouth. He swallowed as soon as he could, feeling the pill make its way down his esophagus. He opened his eyes, but the two sources of terror were still in their spots, sporting a concerned look on their faces.

"Are you okay, Lintahlo?" Leskinen asked.

"Get away from me!" Okabe screamed, causing Reyes to grab Leskinen and guide him away. "Just stay the hell away from me!"

He was in disbelief. The world line could not have shifted to Beta. Yet, he didn't know why he was experiencing such vivid visions, even less why he was actually able to hear Leskinen's voice and dialect very clearly. Okabe collapsed onto his knees closing his eyes shut, hoping against all hope that the pills just took a while to act on his mind. All he could hear were the screams of the countless innocents who were forced to suffer a war that they should have never gone through. They years he spent stuck in the time machine, the wailing of Suzuha and Mayuri as they slowly went insane from the isolation. He never wanted to put the girls through that. He began hyperventilating.

Then, just as suddenly as his memories began appearing, they flowed out of his head like water. The muscles which had tensed up all over his body began relaxing themselves and he could feel himself come out of the shell he had built. He looked up at where the two visions once were and in their place were Maho and Kurisu, both looking equally as worried and shocked as the visions that replaced them for the time being. Kurisu had a hand on Maho's shoulder, both keeping a careful distance against the man who just had an outburst against them.

Okabe sighed and slumped back against the wall behind him. Kurisu broke away from Maho and hurriedly made her way toward Okabe who had his hands covering his eyes. She kneeled down next to him, and pried his hands away from his face.

"Hey, Okarin," she said as their eyes made contact. "I'm here. You're not alone anymore."

"Kurisu..."

Okabe could only manage uttering her name before resting his head on her, forcing her to sit down with him. She gently caressed his hair, humming to make her chest vibrate and soothe Okabe as he had his head placed on it.

"What happened? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"

Maho was still there and she was even more worried than before. It was as if she wouldn't be able to live with herself for being the cause of Okabe's panic attack, and even less so for seeing him crumple the way he did just now.

"No, you're fine Maho," Okabe said. "It's just..."

Even thinking about the two names in combination sickened him. He could handle one or the other, but never having both at the same time.

"Dr. Leskinen was an immoral person from the world line Okarin came from," Kurisu finished for him. "He caused a lot of suffering for him."

"Not just him," Okabe shivered. "Reyes was so much worse on so many levels."

Maho gasped. "I'm so sorry Okabe, had I known-"

"You're fine," Okabe softly said. "I didn't expect myself to react the way I did. But it is what it is. There's no telling that they're the same people on this world line anyway."

Okabe took his head off of Kurisu, flashed her an appreciative smile, then cleared his throat.

"Back to the matter at hand, ladies."

He got up, helping Kurisu to her feet as well. The trio made their way back to their former positions, Okabe choosing to lean on the wall for support while Maho and Kurisu took their seat on the plush leather couch.

"In any case," Maho continued from where she was left off. "You wouldn't have to be worried about being recognized in any setting unless it's among friends."

Okabe rifled through his memories on the Beta Attractor Field. He locked onto the memory he had in the first couple months after he had murdered Kurisu. At the time, when he was acting as a test subject for Leskinen and Maho by interacting with Amadeus, he kept reporting every once in a while in a building whose construction could never be complete because of the fact that World War III started. He locked onto that idea and started to run with it, hoping that such a building existed on the Steins Gate world line.

"Was there ever a Neuroscience Institute built in Wako City?"

It was the grounds that Maho and Dr. Leskinen resided in during their stay in Japan for ATF. It was there that Okabe was first introduced to Amadeus in person, beginning the long road of pain that led him to the world line that he was currently in. It resembled a college campus, but it was an expansive site with many main labs, visitor centers, and auditoriums.

Kurisu, catching on to what Okabe was thinking, answered.

"Yes," she said. "We left one of my acquantainces in charge of it since she seems like an incredibly capable person to handle such a task. You're planning on taking them out of the Committee's influence, aren't you?"

"Bingo," Okabe snapped his fingers. "It's nice to see that my assistant is thinking on the same frequency I am. However, we use the Wako City Institute as an excuse so that we can wipe their records clean from the Committee databases and then we can silently re-insert them into America as if nothing ever happened."

"That sounds like a good plan," Maho eyed the floor with her chin in her hand. "But what if the people looking over the patients don't want to hand them over to us? The Committee is well aware that their influence in Japan is almost non-existent. What then?"

"We use Dr. Leskinen. Exploit his connection to Stratfor in an attempt to get them to hand over the patients."

Maho and Kurisu's eyes both widened at the fact that they were supposed to lie and use the name of their retired mentor in order to coerce the Committe's henchmen. While Leskinen may have been an evil person in the world Okabe came from, he never did anything wrong and, in fact, taught the trio everything they needed to know about being good, ethical, and moral scientists.

"What does Dr. Leskinen have to do with this?" Maho objected.

"Yeah," Kurisu agreed. "That's going too far, Okarin."

Okabe felt himself deflate a little. He was so accustomed to using whatever means necessary and deceit was one of the tamest options he could have ever imagined. He had no reference point for how he handled situations like these on this world line without getting his hands dirty for the right purpose. He wasn't even sure if Dr. Leskinen was involved with anything shady like he was on the Beta Attractor Field. He continued racking his brain, hoping for ideas to hit him. He finally pulled the letter which his past self had written out from his pocket. He had carried it around all day and used it every now and then to help him get through his day-to-day.

He read and reread the letter, hoping to figure out the nature of his past self so that he could come up with a plan that followed the morality he had always seemed to display on such a peaceful world line.

Out of nowhere, an image he had never recalled from his time on the Alpha or Beta Lines flashed across his eyes. It was himself, fighting a group of people with skill and precision. He never was able to achieve such a feat in his life. Just what the hell was it? He shook the image out of his head. There was no way he'd turn to violence especially because of the fact that he could never hope to defend himself in hand-to-hand combat. He had experience in war, but he never engaged in fisticuffs.

"We'll just have to cross that line when we get there, then."

He folded the letter and placed it back into his pocket.

"That's a pretty important thing that you're just planning on winging," Kurisu said crossing her arms. "We can't figure this out now?"

"There's no point in thinking about it if there's a chance we may not have to resort to anything else," Okabe responded. "Plan B will happen covertly. That doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen on the same day."

Okabe continued on with the initial plan. "It'll only be me and Maho. If the Director of the Neuroscience Institute at Victor Chondria is with me, it might give me some credibility and make them more likely to hand off the patients."

"But what about me? I can be useful."

"I know you are, but as it stands, I don't want to risk you getting tagged by the Committee. Maho is safer because of the possibility that the Committee has its hands entrenched in Victor Chondria, thus making her more credible with them. I'm an obscure face who is only known to work at Victor Chondria so it wouldn't give them a reason to tag me."

"And if you get tagged?"

"Then I flee."

"And what about me?"

"You flee too. The Committee will know that we're married by that point and may try to use you to get to me."

Kurisu leaned back into the couch, hardly satisfied with Okabe's answer, but she no longer had any questions. Maho seemed to still be thinking, her emerald eyes dancing in her head as she processed the information she was given with the expectations she had. She finally stopped and nodded her head.

"Sounds like a plan," she said. "I'll relay the information to Hashida."

"Wait, I could-" Okabe tried saying.

"No," Maho interjected. "It's the least I can do for making your nightmares surface like they did. You focus on getting your head back in the game because we'll need you at 100% for the operation to be a success. What will we call it?"

"We shall dub this operation, Operation Vidar," Okabe said. "Tomorrow marks the commencement of Operation Vidar."

Both women giggled in familiarity of the naming system Okabe used to name his operations. Maho made her way out of the couple's abode, promising to call Daru as soon as she got to her house. Kurisu and Okabe waved at her as she ventured out of sight, taking an elevator to get to the first floor of their highrise.

As soon as Okabe shut the door, he leaned on it and slid down to a sitting position. He looked at Kurisu who was eyeing him with worry, her hands were caught in between wanting to catch him and pulling back in defense of what he might try. Here, it seemed like he could finally clearly see her for the first time. Sure, he may have seen her red hair finally freed from its ponytail from earlier before; he may have seen her bright, violet eyes before; he may have seen her aged face that donned no wrinkles many times before; he may have seen her white dress shirt, red tie, and long, black skirt before; he may have seen her thin, black-framed glasses which rested neatly on her face before; but it was here that he could finally see her for who she was on this world line. She wasn't a recreation of the girl he loved on the Alpha Attractor Field like Amadeus, hell she had differences between now and the version of herself on the Alpha Attractor Field, but it was likely because of her growing up and becoming more experienced.

All the distractions he experienced between arriving to the Steins Gate World Line to having to come up with a plan to stop anyone from unlocking the secrets to travelling through time didn't allow him the reprieve to stop and appreciate the main reason why he kept fighting to begin with.

She was worried for him. Even though he housed no memories of the world line he resided in, she still worried for him deeply and it was present in her desire to help him. It was that brief moment that he understood what he meant to her. He may not have been able to recall the day she was sexually assaulted in Akihabara, but she still forgave that because she truly believed that he was her husband. He didn't deserve her in the slightest yet she was still there, fighting by his side, willing to adapt and overcome the pain he inadvertently put her through by coming to the Steins Gate World Line.

Two lone tears worked their way out of his eyes. Still, looking at Kurisu and appreciating who she was, he couldn't stop himself.

"Okarin?"

"I told you I'd see you again," he said. "Admittedly, it was more my desire to see you talking than my actual certainty in that statement."

Kurisu retracted her hand completely. She got confused.

"I went as far as suffering through 11 years of isolation with Suzuha and Mayuri just to make it here," he continued. "The more I think about it, the more this feels like a hallucination spawned by my mind going mad in such a cramped place. This feels so real, but at the same time it feels like a dream that I could wake up from at any time."

"It's a good thing it's not a dream, right?" Kurisu softly smiled. "Come on."

She extended her hand for Okabe to grab. Okabe obliged and grabbed it, pulling himself up with Kurisu's help. Kurisu proceeded to wrap her arms around his neck, keeping them close to each other.

"You're still my Okarin, Rintaro."

For the first time since he had visited the Steins Gate World Line, Kurisu addressed him by his first name.

"Over these past couple days, I've seen you as the man who saved me all those years ago more than I've seen the man who had replaced my husband. Your mannerisms, your attitude, your personality; they're all the same. You suffered so much for my sake. You almost died multiple times, but you kept on fighting. Okarin, this isn't a dream. You've found me."

She put her forehead against his. "I love you."

Okabe could feel her breath against his face. The lemony scent that emanated from her lips made its way up his olfactory nerve, causing his Central Nervous System to bounce multiple different electrical signals in his neurons.

His arms, which were at his side for the most part, wrapped around Kurisu's body pulling her closer to him.

"You were the obsession I chased," he said. "And now here you are."

He laughed something that sounded like a half-sob. More tears began working their way out of eyes and started flowing down his cheeks.

"And I'll always be here for you, no matter what," she said. "In sickness and in health. I chose you. You were the recipient of my loving vows. You will forever be my darling, Okarin. I hope I can hold you as dear as you hold me."

Kurisu broke their contact and looked up in his eyes. She broke the hold she had on Okabe's neck so that she could wipe away the tears that flowed down his cheeks.

"Come on now," she laughed. "Hououin Kyouma doesn't cry, does he?"

"You're right," he sniffled. "But Okabe Rintaro isn't immune to shedding a couple tears."

Kurisu smiled. She put his cheeks in her hands, prompting Okabe to do the same. They both looked deeply in each other's eyes, understanding each other on a deeper level than words could express. Kurisu was in pain, but she hid it in order to stay strong for Okabe. He could tell just from the way her eyes looked.

"It's okay to cry," Okabe said. "You don't have to be so strong for me, Kurisu."

Another image flashed in his head. He was in the same room where he had to explain himself to Maho at the Neuroscience Institute.

"Just let go of the tears," he said. "Just like you said all that time ago in the Neuroscience Institute, I'll always be here for you."

It was an image of him crying into Kurisu's shoulders. She said those words to him a long time ago. The fact that he was able to remember something that happened to him on this world line impressed him, but it still wasn't enough to have hints of memories here and there rather than an actual understanding of where he stood.

Kurisu's strong smile shattered. It was that one push that she needed to start crying. She wrapped her arms around him, clutching at the back of his shirt tightly as she sobbed loudly into his chest. He held her tight, not allowing her to ever be taken from him again.

"I love you, Kurisu. Nothing will ever change that."

He held and rocked with her. Allowing her all the time she needed to cry it out.

It's only right, he thought. It's only right.

A/N: Well, there you have it folks. Chapter 11 is done and dealt with and it was probably one of my darker chapters just because of the flashback that took place in the Steins Gate World Line. I took a page out of some other authors and started focusing more on internal feelings and descriptors rather than just dialogue and this chapter was the byproduct of that. I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for supporting this story as much as you have, it warms my heart that people are entertained by this! Chapter 12 will take a little longer than usual to write, but it'll come. I can't begin to express my gratitude for you all, so I'll just leave it at that,

~Quil.