We Are the Men in Black

by Velgamidragon

AU inspired by DragonlordRynn's "Black". The Organization is secretly the Japanese branch of the Men in Black and APTX-4869 was intentionally made to shrink its victim. Kudo was shrunk for his own protection, and Sherry shrunk to protect Dr. Agasa and go into hiding. Vermouth was behaving suspiciously as of late, and Gin was determined to find out and expose her secret agenda.

19. Darkest Nightmare: Part 1

Author's Note: Guess what guys! I was right! I knew the "Darkest Nightmare" chapter would be longer than "Black Impact". I just didn't realize that even the first part of the "Darkest Nightmare" chapters would be longer than "Black Impact". Yes, this part of the story is so long that I had to break "Darkest Nightmare" into two parts, so here's the first part. I'm only a month late on my presumed deadline, but in all fairness, I did quit my previous job, move across the country, find a new place to live, and start a new job within the past month, so I think I can be forgiven for my tardiness. I have no idea when the second part will be ready, but it will definitely be heavy. Enjoy!

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Darkest Nightmare: Part 1

It was late at night, but not quite midnight at the National Police Agency Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Deep within the building on one of the upper floors, a woman wearing a black suit jacket and skirt with short black hair and equally black eyes was at a wall-high computer console with the content on the screens flashing by at an alarming rate. Familiar names and faces leapt out at the woman: Stout, Riesling, Aquavit, Rye, Kir, Bourbon, and a few others, but she didn't stop her actions until she had seen the entire NOC list. Only then did she pull out from her handbag a palette of five transparently-colored cards: red, blue, white, orange, and green from left to right. She spread them wide like a fan and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, her black eyes fixed on those colors and just like that, the information from the list she'd only glanced at was immediately and completely stored into her permanent long-term memory.

Then the lights flicked on.

The woman startled and whirled around. At the door was a man in a green suit with short, dark brown hair and oval glasses.

"That's enough," he said and two other suited men came in from behind with guns pointed at her. "Move away from the console and put your hands up!" he demanded.

The woman did so, her eyes watchful of the three men now in the room with her.

The man with the glasses left the doorway to stand between and behind his two subordinates, and he smirked, saying, "Your actions are very predictable."

She smiled dangerously, not listening to his words at all and only caring about his placement in the room. Nobody was guarding the exit. She moved, dashing straight through the center of the armed men and karate chopped one in the back of the neck while she smashed the other in the chin with a flat-palmed jab. Both fell to the ground and she spun in tight turns towards the man with the glasses, her momentum bringing her elbow swinging straight for his face. His left hand came up and caught the brunt of her force, but it was still enough to knock him off-balance and send him stumbling into the metal frame of a glass window. The woman leapt away straight for the open door and dashed down the dark hallway at a full run. She could see the natural evening light shining through the large floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of the corridor, and there was someone else waiting for her there as well. It was a face she knew: the dark-skinned, bleached-blond-haired PSB liaison for the Men in Black, Rei Furuya, codename Bourbon.

There was no hesitation in her movements as she launched herself at him in a flying kick that aimed for his head. Bourbon dodged to the left, avoiding her dangerous heels, and threw a punch with his left fist then swung a kick with his right leg. The woman ducked both, falling to her left side and catapulting her right leg up into the air towards his head with the intent of knocking him to the ground. He managed to block the attack and pushed back, but she used the momentum to instead cartwheel backwards into the air towards the windows and away from Bourbon. She grabbed her hair, a wig, and tossed it aside, revealing her long silver tresses that were pulled back into a ponytail. Bourbon barely registered the wig or her true hair color as he lunged forward to close the distance while the woman tried to back away and he punched first with his left fist, then his right. His first punch was too far and missed, but his second struck true. His fist smashed into the wrist that she'd hastily thrown up to block the attack, but the force of the blow still carried through her arm and hit her face. She gasped in pain and the colored contact covering her left eye fell out as she stumbled backward.

"Mr. Furuya, are you alright?" the man with the glasses from earlier said as he came running down the corridor to where Bourbon and the silver-haired woman were fighting.

"Yeah," Bourbon said, and his blue eyes focused on the laughing woman before him who, now that the wig was gone and he had a moment to think, he recognized much to his shock.

There were only two people in the entire Organization that had that distinctive hair color, and one of them was Gin. The other was this woman, his younger twin sister and Rum's confidante: Curaçao.

"No way! It can't be!" he exclaimed with wide eyes. What was Curaçao doing sneaking into the NPA Headquarters when he worked here and why was she stealing the global NOC list?

"Mr. Furuya, stand aside!" Kazami shouted and Bourbon slid to the left while the other man brought his gun to bear on Curaçao. "Don't move!" he ordered her.

Curaçao gave the pair of them a condescending smirk, very much like her brother's, then spun on her heel and ran straight for the windows. She was going to jump out!

"Wait!" Bourbon yelled and ran to stop her, but he was too far and too late. Curaçao crashed straight through the glass window, smirking back over her shoulder at her opponents.

The expression that Curaçao wore on her face right then was not at all what she was feeling on the inside. In fact, she was downright terrified for the week-old fetus she was now carrying that her body didn't seem to care about one way or another. It didn't, because Curaçao was currently enslaved by a powerful alien mind control serum that was forcing her to act and speak against her will, but she was completely conscious of all of it. Conscious and powerless to stop it, but that didn't stop her from trying. Curaçao had been fighting to regain control of her body from the moment she was forced to tell Vermouth of the discussion she had with Gin on the phone – along with everything she knew about Pandora, the mind control serum, and all of Gin's suspicions – and then received new orders to continue her infiltration of the NPA but to instead steal the global NOC list and return to her afterward.

All of her attempts so far had been in vain, but the fear of one of those glass shards piercing her abdomen and killing the newly-created life within her caused her to redouble her efforts, even as her body hijacked a car and drove it straight into oncoming traffic through a busy intersection towards the highway bridges. Trying to reclaim her body previously had left her mentally exhausted and with no success, so Curaçao tried something different this time. She saw a familiar white Mazda RX-7 in her side mirrors, Bourbon's car, and she had an epiphany. She focused on the memory of Bourbon's shocked face when he realized who she was and what she'd done. Yes, he'd let Rum know, and that was she needed. She needed to get a message out to Rum: something nonsensical that would alert him something was wrong with her. Curaçao strained and forced her will down into only trying to move her left arm. It was like pressing up against a stuck door.

Then something gave and suddenly her left arm was all her own again! Not wasting time marveling her good fortune, Curaçao quickly withdrew her smartphone from an inside chest pocket of her jacket and started typing out a message to Rum that read: The NOCs are Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling, and those you were concerned about, Bourbon and Kir-

Her car was slammed into from the back and it snapped her concentration. A quick glance in the mirrors showed Bourbon's car was responsible and Curaçao could already feel the serum starting to take back control of the muscles in her arms. She quickly pressed the 'send' button before she'd finished the message then tossed the phone onto the seat next to her before she sabotaged herself and sent nothing at all, but she clicked her tongue angrily. Bourbon couldn't have waited a few more damned seconds?! Curaçao glanced anxiously down at the phone and only breathed easier once the message was confirmed as 'sent', even as she lost complete control of her body once more. Between Bourbon's future report and her strange text to her lover, Gin would know what had happened to her and would inform Rum accordingly, so they could stop her. Much as her brother hated him, he wouldn't let that get in the way of rescuing her, even if it was from herself.

Curaçao watched from the dark recesses of her own mind as she rammed into other vehicles so hard that she sent them literally flying into the air just to block Bourbon's pursuit and used a falling semi she'd forced into crashing through the outer wall as a jumping block to land on the stretch of highway below. She heard her phone ding from several incoming texts and it even rang, but she couldn't even look to see who they were from, much less answer. It was the serum that caused her to smirk at seeing Bourbon's car stuck up on the taller highway route and it was the serum that caused her to bang her fist against the window and swear angrily at the long line of traffic ahead of her. She reversed her course, going in the opposite direction on the one-way highway and passed Bourbon's car in doing so, weaving in-and-out of the oncoming traffic with expert skill and years of practice, but it didn't stop Curaçao from freaking out in her mind at her own recklessness. Any other time, she wouldn't have minded so much, but she also wasn't in control of her body and it was taking risks she might not have now that she was pregnant!

She was approaching the bridge arches where she had caused the first accident on the highway and saw stopped vehicles up ahead. One was the semi and the other was the red car she'd shoved into it, but ahead of them was another red car parked at a perpendicular angle to the road and behind the vehicle with a sniper rifle resting on the hood was…

"Rye!" she gasped, her body and her mental voice for once in unison. Akai was still alive? Then Kir hadn't killed him but instead helped Akai fake his own death with her brother's blessing. She smirked darkly, her body no longer in line with her mental thoughts. "Interesting! I'll run you over!" she said and sped up.

No! No crashing and running him over and risking her baby's life!

For a moment, Curaçao thought she had regained partial control over her body again when she leaned sideways out of sight from the window and Akai's sniper rifle, but no. Her desire to get out of the line of fire just happened to be in line with Vermouth's wishes. Her body couldn't care less about her baby's survival right now, but she still needed to be alive with her brain intact for Vermouth to use the information she'd stolen on her behalf. She heard the crack of rifle fire and an explosive pop, then metallic screeching and felt the car shudder unevenly. Akai had shot out the right front tire. Curaçao quickly righted her position and it took everything she had to keep the car under any semblance of control. She narrowly missed Akai's car but crashed the front end hard into the barrier, ricocheting backward. The front window shattered and flames sprang to life from beneath the hood. The car struck the highway barrier in the rear, but she still kept spinning until at last, the car crashed and stopped next to the gas tanker facing backwards with the back half hanging off the road.

There was an ominous metallic groan and the whole world seemed to start tilting. The car she was in was falling backwards off the bridge along with the crashed red car and oil tanker. She had to get out! Curaçao grabbed her phone off the seat next to her just as the car was knocked sideways by the other falling vehicles and was sent plummeting front end first. She threw the driver's side door all the way open and climbed out onto it, holding on to the frame long enough to steady herself before jumping as far away from the vehicles as she could. She managed to land in the cold saltwater below on the opposite side of a dockside warehouse from where the three crashed vehicles fell.

She felt the explosion from the oil tanker blast through the water column, and even on her side of the dock, debris still came falling into the water from above her. Curaçao tried her best to dodge them, but there were too many falling too fast and at odd angles. She wasn't fast enough for one of them and it hit her heavily in the head. Her vision swam and blackened momentarily, long enough for the debris to push her downward a meter or so before she came to and pushed herself out of its trajectory. Curaçao fought off her disorientation to regain that lost height and also get out of the water as quick as possible before the next thing that fell on her actually killed her.

She swam vaguely in the direction of land and when her hands met rough concrete, she crawled out of the water and unsteadily managed to pull herself to her feet. She didn't know where she was, and looking down at her phone, she saw the screen was completely smashed so she couldn't call for help, even if she was able. Curaçao wanted to stop. She'd been hit in the head, it was bleeding, and she was dizzy. She shouldn't be moving around like this after sustaining a head injury, but her body wouldn't stop. She'd been given orders: steal the NOC list and return to Vermouth. She'd done the one and now her body was determined to ensure she completed the other, regardless of its condition as long as it wasn't dead. She stumbled sideways into the wall and shivered, moving to remove her black jacket. It was soaked, as was the rest of her, and she didn't have anything dry to change into, but continuing to wear it wouldn't help at all. She hardly even noticed the windshield glass shards falling out of it onto the ground as she continued walking unsteadily.

Curaçao turned around a corner, and bright multi-colored lights suddenly filled her vision, nearly blinding her. She squinted directly at them to try and determine their source when she felt a sharp, painful twinge – like a pinched nerve deep in the center of her brain – that brought her to her knees. Agonized whimpers escaped her clenched teeth as she pressed her hands hard against her head, unable to reach the place inside her skull that was causing her so much pain, and it was mounting! It was like something inside her brain that wasn't supposed to bend was now being twisted out of place and if it didn't stop, it was going to break! The pressure and the pain both kept building while Curaçao remained curled forward with her hands on her head until…

Snap!

Curaçao screamed.

()()()()()

"Damn it, Emma, why aren't you answering?" Rum hissed frantically through his teeth as he tried dialing her number again and brought his cellphone to his ear, thinking of the weird text she'd sent him:

The NOCs are Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling, and those you were concerned about, Bourbon and Kir-

Why had she sent that to him and what did it even mean? All of those agents were former NOCs turned into liaisons for their respective agencies, and he wasn't concerned about either Bourbon or Kir. As soon as he'd seen the message, he'd tried texting her back to ask her to explain, even jokingly asking if she was drunk (he'd hoped she didn't answer 'yes' to that one because she was pregnant now and alcohol was bad for the baby), but he'd gotten no reply back at all. He'd even tried calling her, and her phone rang, but all of his calls went to voicemail.

This time, Curaçao's phone didn't even ring and Rum's heart stopped. She wasn't answering and now her phone was off… or destroyed…! He had no way of reaching her!

His phone was still next to his ear when it started ringing and he gave a surprised shout, nearly dropping his phone in the process. He quickly caught it before it hit the floor and for one brief, painful moment of hope, Rum thought it was Curaçao finally calling him back, but that tiny hope was crushed to dust and scattered on the wind when he saw from the Caller ID that it was only Bourbon.

Sighing heavily, Rum answered it and snapped, "What do you want, Bourbon? I've been trying to get a hold of Curaçao for the past maybe fifteen minutes and now her phone's either off or damaged, so unless this is an emergency, I'm sure whatever you have to say can wait or be sent to me via text."

"Actually, Curaçao is the reason why I'm calling you, sir," Bourbon said. "Just now, Curaçao broke into the NPA Headquarters where I was working this evening, stole the international NOC list, and fled the building. I chased after her down the highways and her reckless driving caused massive structural damage and many injuries. I have no clue yet if there were any casualties, but she was really trying to lose me in the chase. I have every reason to believe she encountered Akai who was also involved in the chase to stop her, but I've been unable to find any trace of either her or the car she stole after an oil tanker fell off the bridge into the water and exploded. Was her forceful acquisition of the NOC list an authorized mission objective?"

Rum barely heard Bourbon's words after 'an oil tanker exploded'. Curaçao was missing. Curaçao's phone wasn't connecting, she was missing, and an oil tanker had exploded! No, he refused to believe she was dead! She couldn't be! Not now! Not the very same night he'd learned she was carrying his child!

"No, I never told her to retrieve the NOC list…" Rum answered, belatedly realizing Bourbon had asked him a question, but his mind was racing.

Curaçao had talked with her brother sometime after she'd left the office for the night. Had Gin told her to do it? If he had, then what purpose would it serve? What in the world had the two silvery-blonde twins discussed apart from her pregnancy?

"Find her," Rum said stiffly, his voice dark and ringing with authority. "Get in contact with Vermouth and tell her my orders are to find and retrieve Curaçao immediately. Have her assign everyone that can be spared to search for Curaçao. Time is money and I will allow no one to rest until she's found and back safe."

"I can certainly relay your orders, sir, but what are you going to do that you can't spare the few seconds yourself?" Bourbon inquired.

"There's a certain brother of hers I have to interrogate in regards to their most recent conversation if I'm to have any chance of understanding what the hell is going on. Don't delay, Bourbon," Rum warned and hung up on the PSB liaison, then dialed Gin's number.

When the phone finally stopped ringing, Gin's voice answered with a sour, "What now? Isn't it nearly midnight over there in Japan at the moment?"

Rum's brown eyes narrowed. "It is, and I want to know exactly what you and Curaçao discussed over the phone, because about fifteen to twenty minutes ago, I received a very strange text from her saying 'The NOCs are Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling, and those you were concerned about, Bourbon and Kir-'. Not only that, but Bourbon just called to tell me your twin broke into the NPA Headquarters and stole their international NOC list, then ended up in a car chase on the highway and is now missing!"

()()()()()

Gin's ire at talking to Rum for a second time in less than twenty-four hours vanished in an instant and his blood ran cold. "What! Emma's missing?!"

His twin-! His little sister was missing, but how?! It hadn't even been eight hours since he'd spoken with her!

"That's right, and her phone's not working anymore either, so you'd better start talking right now, Kuroda! You can start by explaining your sister's bizarre text to me," Rum snapped furiously, the usually even-tempered man's calm demeanor completely vanished in the face of his lover's disappearance.

Except that Gin didn't understand the text either. It rather sounded like she'd been talking as a Black Organization operative, but why had she done that and then sent the text to Rum of all people? There was no reason for it! Then there was the content of the message itself. The 'NOCs' she'd listed off were Stout, Aquavit, Riesling, Bourbon, and Kir, but they weren't the only liaisons that worked for the MiB and she knew that, so why? It was like Curaçao was trying to be intentionally cryptic and confusing. Just then, a horrible feeling of dread welled up inside him and his breath hitched in his throat. Pandora had gotten to her!

"Oi, Gin! Are you going to answer me or what?!" Rum demanded.

Gin swallowed heavily. He was and, with his sister in jeopardy, he had no choice but to come clean now.

"I think… that Curaçao is now under the sway of a powerful mind control serum," Gin said reluctantly.

There was a beat of silence on the other end and then Rum said, "… What the hell are you talking about, Gin?"

Gin started from the beginning. "Back in July around the time we finally captured Ringore, Sherry was kidnapped by a family unit of Rainbow Dazzleflies under the orders of a being they called Pandora. I first heard the name from Chisenvaal near the end of last year and heard it again from Rikumichi Kusuda before I sent him and the rest of the Cephosanguines to the hospitals to find Kir. Pandora is some kind of shapeshifter-type alien able to perfectly mimic a person's likeness, and I have every reason to believe she's the alien responsible for Akemi's murder and is the one who's after Sherry too. Sherry found this mind control drug in the autopsy she did on one of the dead dazzleflies and I found evidence that suggests Scotch, Calvados, and Irish were all affected by older versions of the very same drug."

He paused in his account for a moment as he sat down on the hotel bed and glanced at the clock as he ran a hand through his bangs. It was nearly 4 pm over here in Berlin, and Riesling had said she would pick him and Vodka up around 4:30 to take them out to dinner. Speaking of which, Vodka should have been back by now. His partner had decided to go exploring the city a bit this afternoon and had sworn up and down to Gin that he wouldn't get lost, despite not knowing the language at all. If he was lost, he would have called, but it was much more likely something had distracted him and he'd forgotten the time. Gin would have to call him next after he was done with Rum.

He continued, "I've suspected ever since then that if Pandora got close enough to three codenamed agents to successfully administer her mind control serum, then there might be others in the Organization under her control and the MiB might be internally compromised. I enlisted Curaçao's assistance with the internal investigation and she discovered many more instances of odd behaviors in agents in the past, but all of them were NOCs that never made it to liaison status and we had no viable liver samples to test for the drug. That was why Curaçao volunteered to break into the NPA Headquarters last night. We didn't want to tell anyone what kind of information we were after in case word got back to Pandora somehow, but she was only supposed to obtain the autopsy reports of all the dead detected intelligence agents for signs of the drug in their livers. She wasn't supposed to steal the entire NOC list itself."

()()()()()

Rum… could not believe what he was hearing coming out of Gin's mouth right now and he was furious! Gin had suspected – for months! – the MiB to be internally compromised by agents under a mind control drug and had said nothing about it to him or even Lord Karasuma! Only his twin had been privy to his innermost thoughts and Rum could understand the logic of secrecy to a certain extent, but this went too far!

Worse still, it was not the first time the Kuroda twins had kept a huge secret between themselves from the Organization they both worked for. Seven years ago, Curaçao accidentally learned important secrets about the MiB and their boss that, for her rank at the time, she wasn't supposed to know, but in trying to neuralyze her, they discovered that neuralyzing didn't work on her. She was immune to it. Alarmed by this ability, the Organization immediately pulled her from active duty, put her on probation, and commenced a full-scale inquiry, including an in-depth medical exam that consisted of an MRI scan of her brain. Of course, the twins had both received physical exams upon arrival after they were inducted into the Organization, but MRI scans were not part of the standard exam. That was how they discovered that the left thalamus deep in the center of her brain had an unusual arched shape – a defect she'd presumably been born with – which was how she was able to remember anything simply by pairing it with a color and was also the reason why neuralyzing didn't work on Curaçao.

While it was a relief to learn that it was just a coincidental brain deformity and not some genetic ability or a new defensive weapon, the whole incident brought Curaçao's integrity into question. With a memorization ability like that, could she even be trusted? She and Gin had both known the extent of her brain's incredible memory and how it worked, but they had kept the ability secret from the very beginning until dire circumstances had forced the truth out of them.

"You've done this before, Gin… keeping dangerous secrets that threaten the Organization's security by not sharing them with those that need to know…" Rum said in a low tone, his voice shaking with fury. "I can understand when you first arrived, because while you were grateful to the Organization, you had just spent five months living on the streets, still didn't fully trust the Organization, and didn't want to put your sister in danger… I can understand that then, but now?!"

Rum's low tone suddenly broke out into a loud shout and his right eye looked wild and mad while his fake left eye remained calm and still, creating a lopsided effect that was even more terrifying than just pure anger if anyone had been present to witness it.

"You've been working for the MiB for nearly eleven years and you still don't trust us?! This is the second time your overly-developed sense of paranoia has threatened your own sister's welfare and it's going to get her killed at this rate! It'll be all your fault if she gets hurt or miscarries the baby because you were too stubborn and prideful to ask for help!"

Without waiting for a reply, Rum slammed the phone down – a useless gesture with a cellphone – on his desk and buried his face in his hands, feeling angry, upset, and worried sick as a choked sob escaped him.

'Emma, where are you?' he thought with despair.

()()()()()

'… going to get her killed…'

'It'll be all your fault…'

Rum's accusation echoed non-stop in Gin's head for the remainder of the day and well into the evening. He was barely conscious of anything either Vodka or Riesling said to him, he had no appetite for food, and trying to concentrate on work was impossible. He tried to think of what to do with the information Curaçao had sent in the text about the NOCs, but his brain refused to work properly. The only thing he managed to do was send a text to Bourbon asking him to keep an eye out for Curaçao by use of his contacts at the PSB. If she really had been caught stealing from the NPA Headquarters, then at least they would be looking for her too even if they had less than benevolent motives. When he finally went to bed – late – he slept fitfully for only a few hours at a time before he was awake again, restless with anxiety over his twin's fate and unable to function.

'… going to get her killed…'

A woman that strongly-resembled Curaçao and had their same ash-blond silvery hair but his green eyes swam unbidden at the forefront of his memory and the old guilt he still felt after nineteen years surged anew. His mother whom he'd killed when he was ten.

'It'll be all your fault…'

Another woman's face claimed his mind space after his mother's European features faded away. A bright, optimistic, ever-cheerful woman – with dark blue eyes and black hair with long bangs – that always hid her pain and her tears behind a smile so as not to worry those around her who loved her. Akemi, his best friend who'd been murdered right under his nose without his awareness.

He'd failed them both. Had as good as killed them both. Now the question of Emma's survival hung in the balance. His younger twin was missing while likely enslaved by the same mind controlling drug that had led Scotch, Calvados, and Irish to their deaths, and he was stuck all the way on the other side of the world unable to assist in finding her.

()()()()()

Haibara watched the kids running off with excited yells to get the tickets and the Professor chasing after them with a fond smile on her face when she noticed Conan sniffing the air and turning to stare at a solitary woman sitting on a nearby bench.

"What's wrong?" she asked, but he was already moving towards the woman without answering her question. "Hey, wait-!"

"Hey, are you alright, lady?" Conan asked the woman once he was right in front of her.

It seemed to take her a moment to register that someone was talking to her, before she looked down curiously at Conan. Haibara decided to walk over and join them. She definitely had a unique appearance, especially for being in Japan, but she didn't look Japanese either with her ash-blond silver hair and Caucasian facial features. Was she a visiting foreigner?

"Ah! Miss, your eyes are two different colors!" Conan exclaimed and now that Haibara was close enough, she could see it was true. Her left eye was royal blue and her right eye was black. The woman still had yet to really respond to what Conan was saying though.

"Maybe she doesn't understand Japanese?" she suggested once she was standing by Conan's side, but the woman shook her head immediately.

"No, I can understand it," she said softly.

"What happened? Why are you alone here of all places?" Conan continued as inquisitive as ever. "It doesn't seem like you have any friends with you either. Also, you're hurt on your hands and knees and your phone is broken as well. Do you mind if I look at this?"

"N-No," the woman said, and Conan immediately started playing around with it.

It seemed odd for someone to come to a theme park all by themselves even if they didn't have kids. Was this woman perhaps waiting for someone? "Miss, how long have you been here?" Haibara asked.

"Well…" the woman murmured with an uncertain frown and looked thoughtful.

"Then, how about where did you come from?" she tried instead.

"I don't know," the woman said with a slow shake of her head.

Both she and Kudo gasped and shared a look with each other. Amnesia?

"Miss, what's your name?" Conan asked her seriously.

"My name…?" she repeated and then sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, I can't remember."

"Please show me your head," Haibara said, already going into medical mode.

"S-Sure," the woman said uncertainly, but leaned down over her legs so that Haibara's hands could reach her.

Haibara gently touched the silvery-haired woman's face and tilted her head to the right to view the left side better. She could see some swelling and a freshly-made scab. "It's not a grave wound, but it's recent," she informed Conan as she felt along the injury site to be sure of her diagnosis.

"She probably hurt her head in a car accident," Conan said with a soft sigh.

Haibara released the woman's face and she righted herself. "In that case, it could be traumatic retrograde amnesia and-" She did a double-take. "Wait, how did you know she was in a car?"

That was all Kudo needed to begin explaining the reasoning behind his deduction. "This phone has been completely broken from impact…" he said as he put said phone back next to the woman and picked up something from the bench. "… and look. A crystal shard from a car's windshield."

"So you're saying she hit her head while driving?" Haibara surmised as she stared at the tiny bit of glass held between Conan's fingertips.

Conan continued. "That car was probably an old model. New cars have a film that prevents them from breaking. And besides, she has a bit of gasoline stench on her."

She did? Haibara leaned forward slightly, pulling her short hair back from her face, and sniffed the air near the woman. "You're right," she said.

"Excuse me, lady, but do you have anything else with you?" Conan asked, his voice suddenly much louder than it had been a few seconds ago and seeming to startle her a little.

The woman lifted her arms experimentally and then stood up and felt her skirt. Her left hand slipped into a pocket and when she pulled it back out, she was holding something.

"Huh? What's this?" she said, looking surprised at the object in her hands.

"Can I see it, Miss?" Conan asked immediately.

"Sure, here," she said and leaned down to give it to him, then sat back down on the bench.

"What is that?" Haibara directed her question at Conan.

"What in the world…?" he muttered, completely ignoring her as he pulled the black plastic casing aside and fanned it out. There were five cards of different colors: green, orange, white, blue, and red in that order from left to right. "It looks like a color palette. These cards have semi-transparent colors in them, but what are they for?"

Haibara was just as clueless as the woman the color palette belonged to, and Conan's musings were abruptly interrupted by shouts from the kids calling to them and running back with Ferris wheel tickets in their hands.

"Crap, Trouble's coming back," Conan swore under his breath and pocketed the color palette while Haibara smiled fondly at the returning trio.

When the kids got closer, they noticed the woman she and Conan were standing in front of, and Mitsuhiko said, "Huh? Who's this woman?" as they all drew to a halt.

Ayumi got a quick look at the woman's face and her eyes immediately brightened. "Oooh! Your eyes are two different colors! They're so pretty, Miss!"

"Are they fake?" Genta asked.

"No, Genta, I think she's probably an 'odd-eye'!" Mitsuhiko corrected.

Neither Ayumi nor Genta seemed familiar with the word and were trying to figure out what their friend meant, but Haibara was more interested in why the silver-haired woman looked so upset at the discussion. Had she been picked on so badly for her different-colored eyes that even without her memories, she still had a visceral emotional reaction to it?

"Oh, I know!" Ayumi exclaimed and abruptly drew Haibara's attention back to the conversation. "It has something to do with fur seals because the aquarium lady said they're called otarids! Right Conan?"

Haibara gave a fond, amused sigh that Ayumi knew the word 'otarid', but not 'odd-eye', and it turned out she wasn't the only one that found it funny. The woman was also laughing with her right hand covering her mouth, and she looked even prettier when she was smiling.

She stopped laughing when she noticed everyone watching her and apologized to the kids, but they hardly noticed. "We got the pretty lady to laugh!" Ayumi said excitedly and Genta and Mitsuhiko both looked just as pleased as she was.

"By the way, what are you guys doing over here?" Dr. Agasa – who'd finally caught his breath after arriving when Mitsuhiko was trying to explain to Genta that 'odd-eye' wasn't a name – asked them all.

"You've got great timing, Doc," Conan said, going back into serious mode at once.

"This lady was in an accident and it looks like she has amnesia," Haibara added on, explaining the situation to the professor.

The three kids gasped in shock and Dr. Agasa looked just as stunned. "Is that right, Shin- ah, Conan?"

"Seems that way," Conan said with a nod and looked back up at the woman who sighed heavily and appeared just as tired as when they first saw her. "She might even be connected to last night's accident."

"Then we should call the police right-!"

"-STOP!" the woman suddenly yelled, cutting off Dr. Agasa, making all of them jump, and startling several people nearby that were on their way to the aquarium.

What on Earth…? "Miss, is there a reason you can't go to the police?" Haibara asked worried and confused. Why would she be so dead set against going to them, especially given her current state of memory loss?

The woman looked just as confused as Haibara at her reaction and completely distressed as she resettled herself back against the bench. "I don't know," she said, looking miserable.

"But you need protection," Dr. Agasa protested right before Conan started snapping pictures of the woman on his phone.

She gasped and flinched away from the flash, covering her face. Dr. Agasa and the kids protested since it was upsetting her, but the woman stood up from the bench and started walking away with her shoulders curled forward and her arms crossed protectively over her chest.

"Wait, Miss, we won't report you to the police!" Conan called to her and only then did she stop walking and glance back over her shoulder. "I took a picture so we could find your colleagues," he explained.

"My… colleagues?" the woman said slowly as she turned around to face the shrunken teen detective.

"Yeah, I'll help you look for them and get your memories back," he promised.

The kids exploded at Conan's declaration. "Really, Conan?!" Genta exclaimed.

"Yeah! Let us help too!" Ayumi added.

"Because we are…" Mitsuhiko started.

"… the Junior Detective League!" all three finished simultaneously, beaming, smiling, and posing slightly at the amnesiac woman.

Haibara sighed fondly again at their antics. Were they a youth detective group or a knock-off Power Rangers team? They broke their posing and ran forward around Conan right up to the woman.

"We'll help you look for your friends and get your memories back!" Ayumi declared, repeating exactly what Conan had just said seconds ago.

"Yeah, you can count on us!" Mitsuhiko said.

"Thank you," the woman said with a warm, grateful smile for them.

"Then let's start by searching for someone who knows her," Ayumi suggested to the two boys and both of them agreed.

"Hey, you guys, what about the Ferris wheel?" Dr. Agasa reminded them.

"Forget about the Ferris wheel, Doc! Can't you see there are more important things to do?" Genta scolded the old man, who bemoaned that he'd already bought the tickets while Mitsuhiko suggested they go try asking the nearby dolphin mascot character.

"Step aside, Professor!" Ayumi said cheerfully as she pushed Dr. Agasa out of the way of Mitsuhiko and Genta who started running and dragging the amnesiac woman along with them to begin their search.

"You guys, don't act like this is a game!" Dr. Agasa called out and started chasing after them as well, leaving Haibara and Conan behind at the now-vacated bench.

"Are you really not taking that to the police?" Haibara asked, surprised that he'd told the woman such a thing. Regardless of her having amnesia, if Kudo suspected she'd been involved in the highway car chase and massive explosion from last night, then it didn't seem in-character for him to let her off the hook.

"Of course I am," Kudo muttered as he pulled out his phone. "I'm sending this to Ran to ask her if she can have the old-timer escort that woman to the police, since he's probably just sleeping at his desk in the office not doing any work anyway."

Well, that cleared up her confusion on that score. Haibara waited for Kudo to finish composing his text with one of the attached pictures to his not-wife childhood friend before they started walking together to the theme park to both catch up with the kids and Professor and also find someone who knew the silver-haired woman. While they walked, Haibara considered the woman in question. There was something familiar about her, but she knew she'd never met such a person before, so she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was just the hair color since it reminded her of Gin's.

()()()()

It was nearly 11 am when Ran got the text from Conan and read the message about the amnesiac woman he'd taken into custody and requesting she ask her dad to escort her to the police. How Conan kept running into cases even when he was supposed to be having fun with his friends at the Touto Aquarium continued to astound Ran despite him having lived at the Detective Agency with her and her dad for nearly a year now. Her dad was downstairs in the office, so she could pop down quick and ask him to help out… but knowing how unreliable her dad could be sometimes, it would probably be a good idea to send the picture and message to Detective Takagi as well.

Ran opened up the picture on her phone so she could save it and then send it. When she saw the photo of the foreign-looking, silver-haired woman with one black and one royal blue iris, she suddenly experienced a weird feeling of déjà vu. The woman seemed familiar somehow, but Ran didn't know why, as she was sure she wouldn't have forgotten meeting a person like her with such distinctive features. She shook her head for a moment and sent it along with a message to Detective Takagi before she started down the stairs to the Detective Agency below.

"Hey, Dad?" Ran called as she entered the office and frowned when she saw her dad sleeping at his desk with his foot propped up on it. At least it wasn't littered with beer cans this time.

She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned the volume on the TV all the way down as she made her way over to where her dad was sleeping then positioned herself right next to him.

"Wake up, Dad!" she yelled in his ear.

Kogoro startled awake with a loud squawk, overbalanced, and nearly fell out of his chair, just barely managing to save himself by grabbing onto the back of the rolling chair while his propped-up foot anchored him somewhat.

"Don't slack while working! Are you going to sleep forever or what?" Ran scolded as she opened one of the blinds to let some light in.

"Shut up! Detectives need their mental rest as well!" Kogoro shot back, still trying not to fall all the way to the floor.

"So you drank too much and now you've got a headache, huh?" Ran translated.

"Why'd you… No. I never said that!" Kogoro protested and finally lost his battle with the chair and gravity and tumbled to the floor in a graceless heap.

Ran gave her dad a momentary unsympathetic frown and opened up her phone to the picture of the silver-haired woman Conan was with in order to show it to her dad. "This is from Conan. He's taken a woman with amnesia into custody and wants you to escort her to the police." Her dad perked up and she continued, "For now, I've only told Detective Takagi, but you should help out too, Dad."

"Pretty~!" Kogoro murmured, his eyes glued to the picture of the woman.

"Are you even listening, Dad?" Ran asked in an annoyed tone.

Kogoro shot up to his feet like a cork with a serious expression on his face and clapped his hands around hers holding her phone. "This lady, where is she at?!"

"H-He said they're at Touto Aquarium," Ran answered, thrown off by her dad's sudden energy switch.

"Got it! Onward!" Kogoro exclaimed and used the rolling chair as a step stool to jump onto the desk and freaking leap off of it like a nutjob!

"Hey, wait a minute, Dad-!" Ran protested, but he was already at the door.

"Yes, yes, the Great Detective takes the case!" he declared with gusto.

"-but it's not a job!" she tried to tell him, but he closed the door behind her and was gone, leaving silence in his wake.

Ran huffed in annoyance. Geez, was it any wonder that Mom left when Dad acted worse than teenage boys whenever he saw a pretty woman? She looked back down at the picture on her phone and her annoyance faded, but her brow remained furrowed. She didn't know why, but she still had a feeling that she'd met this woman somewhere before a long time ago… somewhere sad and cold…

()()()()()

It was a little after 3 am in Berlin and Gin was wide awake when his phone rang. He grabbed it and quickly answered it without looking at who was calling before it woke up Vodka in the next bed over.

"Yes, what?" he whispered. As soon as he heard the familiar irritating female voice chuckle in amusement, his previously non-existent irritation skyrocketed and he wished he'd at least checked the Caller ID first.

"I figured you might be awake despite the early hour given what happened last night," Vermouth said, "Then you should be pleased with my call, Gin. I found her."

Gin's eyes shot wide open. There was no need for Vermouth to clarify the 'her' she was referring to and relief surged through him. Curaçao was alive! "Where is she?! Is she alright?" he demanded, remembering at the last minute not to be too loud for Vodka's sake.

"She's at Touto Aquarium and she seems to be well. She's not walking around like she's injured at least," Vermouth answered.

"An aquarium?" Gin repeated, bewildered. What the heck was Curaçao doing hanging out at an aquarium? If Pandora really had gotten to her like he suspected and she'd gone missing, then logistically speaking, they shouldn't have been able to find her so fast. "Does Rum know?"

"Of course. I informed him first before calling you since I could only imagine how worried you were for your dear twin while being unable to do anything to find her," Vermouth said in that slightly condescending tone of hers that she liked to use when she was mocking someone. "Don't worry, I'll bring her back soon."

She hung up before he could say another word and Gin was left clutching his phone with only silence ringing in his ear. Emma was alive. She'd been found, and she was alive, and that eased a major burden off his chest, but now a new kind of alarm was starting to grow because Bourbon had been at the scene of her disappearance, but the first person to find his sister was Vermouth.

Vermouth, who was involved with both Calvados and Irish before their deaths…

Vermouth, who abandoned Calvados to the FBI to make her getaway and whom committed suicide…

Vermouth, who had created Irish's disguise as the Superintendent to spy on the serial murder police investigation, then later discovered the real Matsumoto being held prisoner in a cabin in a park while also coming across intel that Irish would supposedly be meeting with Ringore at Tohto Tower to sell out the MiB's NOCs…

The same Vermouth that had made one confirmed and one suspected murder attempt on Sherry, who had tried to hint to Kudo that Kir was a NOC, and who had verbally and blatantly balked at his threat to harm Detective Mouri and Conan Edogawa within the brat's hearing.

A thought took root in his mind. A small, terrifying, and dangerous thought. What if Vermouth was a double agent?

What if she was working for the MiB… and also Pandora?

It would… explain so much if that was the case. Pandora might not be able to enter MiB proper, but Vermouth had no such difficulty. With her high rank and having 'that person's' ear as well, she had ready access to any agent she wished, including the codenamed ones, and the required executive clearance for some of the MiB's highest security-restricted zones and information. Like most things, Gin had no concrete evidence to support his suspicions and usually that didn't bother him, but he would be accusing one of the highest-ranked, longest-employed agents of the Men in Black of treason. Nobody would take him at his word about a mere hunch he had on Vermouth's true allegiance without proof, especially not when he had such a rough, negative history with her.

But if Vermouth really was the one who administered the mind control drug to Calvados, Irish, and maybe Scotch… God, for once, Gin hoped he was wrong, but if he wasn't, then that treacherous woman wouldn't live for even a second longer in his presence, and just in case, he'd better take precautions. He started a new text to Rum and warned him that they might need to consider making a move to hide the liaisons named in Curaçao's text until they understood the situation better. Just in case.

He definitely wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep now, but at least Curaçao was alive. She was still alive…

()()()()()

Vermouth was not pleased. Something had happened to Curaçao last night that had prevented the serum from directing her to return after she'd retrieved the NOC list, but neither had she regained full control and returned to the MiB to rat her out. Vermouth had spent literally the whole night searching for the woman only to find her chilling at the aquarium with a bunch of kids as if Rum didn't have half the Organization looking for her.

No, she was not pleased at all.

Well, Curaçao had her fun; it was time to get back to work. Vermouth approached the ramp near the beginning of the line to get on the Ferris wheel and leaned against it right next to where Curaçao was standing.

"What are you doing here? Let's go back," she said in a low tone just loud enough for the female Kuroda twin to hear her and started walking away.

"Miss, what are you doing? We're gonna leave you behind!" one of the boys shouted.

"Sorry, I feel like someone was talking to me just now," Curaçao apologized and Vermouth paused, staring back over her shoulder in bewilderment. Curaçao was running further up the ramp to where the kids and the professor who lived next door to Shinichi were standing, completely ignoring her order.

"Huh? Did you meet someone you know?" a different boy asked.

"No, I think it was just a misunderstanding," Curaçao replied.

What was going on? Curaçao hadn't tried to attack her nor had the younger woman seemed to recognize her. The mind control serum should still be in her system since it didn't degrade that fast, but she acted like she'd never been drugged at all. Before Vermouth could ponder the matter further, she saw two more children approaching that she recognized all too well: Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara, or alternatively Shinichi Kudo and Shiho Miyano.

Interesting. So Sherry didn't know what Gin's little sister looked like and Curaçao didn't recognize her either or else Sherry would have found a way to ditch Shinichi to ask either Curaçao or Gin why she was at an aquarium. Regardless, it looked like that was her cue to retreat for the time being. If not even Sherry knew the silver-haired woman was part of the Organization, then there was no need to alert either of them to watch Curaçao more closely.

()()()()()

Haibara didn't know what it was. She still had this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that the amnesiac woman was familiar to her, and that feeling had only strengthened when she saw the triple bullseye at the darts game station.

"… right Haibara?" Conan said and startled her from her thoughts when she heard her name.

"Eh? What?"

"What's wrong? You've been staring off into space for a while," he said.

"Is that so?" she said and started to walk past him when they heard Genta's voice shouting at them.

"Oi, Conan! Haibara!"

"Over here!" Ayumi shouted.

"Look up! Up!" Mitsuhiko directed.

Both Haibara and Conan looked up and saw the three kids waving down at them standing in line with Dr. Agasa and the amnesiac woman. Genta pulled himself up onto the moving railing and leaned over it, causing both shrunken teens to panic.

"Genta, that's dangerous!"

"Get off the railing!"

Their warnings were for naught. Genta's hands slipped and he fell forward, tumbling over the railing.

"GENTA!" Haibara and Conan both shrieked in fear even as their friend managed to catch the ledge before he plummeted straight down to the ground.

The silver-haired woman climbed over the railing and knelt down next to Genta on the ledge, but Genta was a big kid and even if she had the strength to pull him up herself, she had nothing to brace against and not enough space to do so! Haibara could see Conan was thinking fast next to her, evaluating what gadgets he had on hand and how he could use them to save their friend. Her silent prayer was interrupted by Genta's sudden fall and terrified scream, and Haibara clapped her hands over her mouth with a horrified gasp. NO!

The woman jumped off the ledge at the exact same time that Genta fell and everyone, Haibara and Conan included, watched in shock as she not only landed on her feet on the angled support structure, but then slid down it sideways like a snowboarder in a suit and high heels. In an incredible display of timing and strength, the woman used her downward sliding momentum and launched herself like a bullet straight at the falling Genta and caught him! She caught him and held him tight as they rolled and bounced against the painfully-hard support structure along a rounded downward-descending depression in the wall that brought them close to the ground and the woman slid down the rest of the way, still holding Genta protectively against her. Haibara was amazed! She hadn't seen acrobatics like that from anyone since she'd left the MiB, but she had more important things to do than be impressed! She needed to check if Genta was okay, and she ran alongside Conan and two park attendants towards the fallen duo.

"Genta, are you okay?!" Conan shouted worriedly as they got closer.

After the woman confirmed their approach, she turned all of her attention back on Genta who did not seem to be responding. "Genta, are you alright? Hold on!" she yelled in a panicked tone as she shook him.

Haibara stopped and stared as her eyes widened in shock while the last piece fell into place. That voice…! She knew it! Haibara hadn't recognized it earlier because she'd never heard the woman speak in such a soft, gentle tone, but she'd heard the exact tone of her shouting now from in Gin's car over the phone…!

"… You couldn't have waited until she was at least eighteen?!"

Haibara now knew exactly why she thought the woman was familiar even though she was also certain she'd never met her before in her life, because she hadn't. Haibara had never once lain eyes on the woman that was Gin's younger twin sister, Curaçao.

Until now, that is…

Haibara moved on autopilot with the rest of the group to the infirmary to make sure that Genta was okay, trying to decide what to do now that she knew the amnesiac woman they'd found was actually Gin's sister and a high-ranking MiB agent. If she'd really been involved in the highway car chase last night and there were no other MiB agents nearby, that meant she'd been missing the whole time and they had no idea where she was. Haibara needed to get away from Conan and the kids as soon as possible and let someone in the Organization know where she was so they could get her before the local police did thanks to Conan's tipoff to Ran's father. It wasn't that the Organization wouldn't be able to get Curaçao back from the police at all, and they could even do it the bureaucratic way with proper transfer paperwork, but it would be an unnecessary hassle to go through.

"Thank you, lady!" Genta exclaimed, startling Haibara out of her troubled thoughts and she spun around to stare at the woman in question while he and the other kids excitedly asked her to accompany them to the Ferris wheel again.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a nuisance," Curaçao said uncertainly.

Haibara grimaced. The woman really didn't remember who she was and that wasn't good. She hoped her amnesia really was caused by the bump on her head and not from a neuralyzer being set off. Regular amnesia just needed time, but if she lost them to a neuralyzer, she would never get them back unless she met Karasuma or Rum in-person with the reversalyzer. The technology to reclaim memories erased by the neuralyzer was all but completely non-existent when Kay had to regain his to come back to the MiB over two decades ago. Now, the technology not only existed but was effective, portable, and kept under lock-and-key by the Chief and Vice Chief of the Japanese branch so that the technology could not be misused and abused.

"What are you saying?" Mitsuhiko asked with a confused frown.

"You saved my life, Miss!" Genta reminded her.

"Yeah, you're not nuisance," Ayumi agreed.

"Then let's go on ahead and ride it," Conan suggested and started making his way towards the infirmary's exit door.

Haibara nearly threw herself at him to stop his forward progress. "Wait, Edogawa, there's something I have to talk to you about first."

"Uh, okay," he agreed readily.

The Professor stood up and started speaking, "Well, then we'll head over there first-"

"-NO!" Haibara screamed in panic, and immediately felt guilty for doing so at the sight of Dr. Agasa's hurt expression. "Please wait first," she pleaded in a soft, desperate tone.

"A-Alright," he said.

All three of the kids looked put out at not being able to go on the Ferris wheel right then while Conan's eyes sharpened. Haibara felt bad and she wasn't even sure she was doing the right thing either. She didn't know if telling Kudo of her 'suspicions' that Curaçao was a member of the 'Black Organization' was a good call or just going to make things worse. She wasn't as good at predicting peoples' movements as Gin was and this could backfire on her horribly. While alerting Kudo of Curaçao's likely Black Organization membership would make him more cautious around her and more likely to stay out of sight if other agents arrived to retrieve her, he might also try and use her to get more information about the Organization and/or trap her or another member. The group left the infirmary and headed out towards the benches set along the brick paths leading to the aquarium and Ferris wheel.

Haibara turned to the Professor and the kids and said, "If you all wouldn't mind waiting for Edogawa and I over there, we'll rejoin you as soon as we're done."

The kids surprisingly obeyed without much fuss and Curaçao joined them while Haibara led Kudo to a nearby bench and sat down on it.

"Alright, Haibara, you got me alone; what's going on? Is it about that woman?" he asked seriously.

"It is…" she confirmed, still feeling nervous about her decision. "… Kudo… I don't have any proof and I could just be reading way too deeply into something that isn't there, but I think that woman might be a member of the Organization."

"What?! She's one of them? Are you sure?" he questioned.

"No, I'm not…" she insisted. "… but didn't you also get that feeling when you saw the dartboard with the three perfect bullseyes and when she caught Genta as he fell? Now that I think about it, her right eye could be a prosthetic."

"Wait, you can't mean…!" Conan exclaimed in alarm.

"Yes, the Second in Command of those you call the 'Black Organization', Rum," she said in an anxious, quiet tone. "If she really is Rum, then her amnesia could be a lie."

It was another risky move she was making, but she'd rather Conan think Curaçao might be Rum, who he was never going to meet, than discover she was Gin's sister. It was fortunate that except for the hair color, the tallness, and some of their facial features like their nose, they really didn't look that similar. Related, but not similar. They were only fraternal twins after all, not identical and no more genetically similar to each other than any other pair of siblings.

"If I recall correctly, Rum's gender and age are unknown, right?" Conan said.

"Right. Back in the Organization, I heard rumors that Rum is a strongly-built man, an effeminate man, or an old man, and that after he lost one of his eyes in an accident, he got a prosthetic," Haibara reiterated as she had originally explained to Kudo a couple weeks ago when he asked her about him. "If that woman doesn't have heterochromia and one of her eyes is instead a prosthetic, then…" she trailed off fearfully with shaking hands to keep up the act.

"I see, so you think her amnesia might be an act, but why would she need to pretend if she wants to approach us?" he asked.

"T-That is…" she stammered uncertainly, but Conan wasn't done.

"I admit that after seeing her abilities, I can believe she might be a member of the Organization, but if she's really amnesiac, then I could make use of it to-"

"-No, we can't let her get her memories back!" she protested loudly, her tone both angry and fearful.

She knew it! She knew he would go that direction with this situation and that was exactly what she was trying to prevent!

Haibara jumped off the bench and pointed her finger directly in his face. "You! Don't tell me that you want her to recover her memories to get info on the Organization! You aren't thinking something like that, are you?! If you do that, it won't be just you and I that are targeted, but those kids as well!" she accused, pointing across the lawn at their young friends.

Except the kids and Curaçao were nowhere to be seen! There was only the Professor surrounded and covered with pigeons.

"DOC!" Conan screamed as he and Haibara pelted to the other side in a terrified frenzy, he for fear of the kids' safety and her for having lost visual on Gin's sister.

The yelling and the running startled the pigeons into flight.

"Wait, don't fly away!" Dr. Agasa protested unhappily to the departing birds.

"This isn't the time for that, Doc!" Haibara shrieked, near hysterical.

"Where did the kids go?!" Conan demanded.

"Huh? Wha-? But they were just here!" Dr. Agasa said, looking around bewildered.

"Shit," Conan muttered angrily under his breath and pulled out his cellphone to call one of them.

Haibara hovered by his shoulder to listen, but all they got was Mitsuhiko's voicemail. "Damn it, you guys!" he swore and ended the call without leaving a message.

"They're probably at the Ferris wheel since they wanted to ride it so badly earlier," Haibara guessed.

"Yeah, let's go," Conan agreed and all three of them started running back towards the Ferris wheel again.

They had been running for several minutes already when Conan skidded to a stop. Haibara shot past him a few feet before she too stopped and backtracked a bit.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Conan answered, "My phone's ringing. It could be…"

He pulled his phone out of his left front pants pocket and looked at the screen, his eyes narrowing.

"Like I thought," he said, briefly showing her the screen with Mitsuhiko's name on it, and then answered the phone. "Hey, Mitsuhiko, where-?"

It wasn't Mitsuhiko's voice that interrupted. "Conan, please help us!"

Conan's eyes widened. "Ayumi? What's wrong?!"

Haibara gasped and leaned in close to hear the younger girl's next words. "We were riding on the Ferris wheel and the lady suddenly fell ill!" Ayumi said tearfully.

"How is she right now?" Conan said calmly.

"Umm… she's holding her head in pain and she's saying words, but we don't understand anything. Mitsuhiko is writing it down," she explained.

"Okay, I got it," he said.

"Conan, please hurry!" Ayumi pleaded pitifully.

It pained Haibara's heart to hear her so distressed, but there was nothing she or anyone could do until their gondola got back down to the ground. She was worried about Curaçao too. What happened to her? Had her head injury caused some kind of internal damage that she hadn't been able to diagnose from a simple external observation? Oh please let her be okay! Conan stayed on the phone with Ayumi the whole time and there were more panicked noises from the kids when Curaçao fell unconscious, but Conan talked them through what to do to provide her emergency first aid and ordered Mitsuhiko to perform CPR if she stopped breathing. It was a lot to ask a first-grade child to do, but he was their best and only option, being both the most knowledgeable and level-headed of the kids. While Conan remained on the phone with them, Haibara ran to go find one of the park staff and inform them of the situation on the Ferris wheel so that when Curaçao and the kids finally reached the ground, she could be immediately delivered into the hands of trained adult medical personnel.

()()()()()

Vodka yawned loudly and shook his head to try and clear some of the cobwebs. "Some coffee would be nice right now," he muttered.

"Somehow, I don't see too many coffee places being open at 4:30 in the morning unless it's from a fast food place," Gin said as he peered through the lingering early morning darkness down both sides of the road. His lack of visibility was made even worse by the thick fog covering the city.

He'd slept badly all night, but after Vermouth's call an hour and a half ago along with the frightening possibilities his mind had entertained, he'd completely given up on the pretense of sleep, woke up Vodka, and called Riesling to have her come meet them on Liebknecht Bridge, or 'dear servant' was how the name translated. He didn't like that Riesling's name was on that list Curaçao had sent, and if she was in danger, then he wanted her close by. Neither agent was happy with him forcing them out of bed to match his insomnia, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to let Pandora take another agent under his watch.

"Even fast food coffee sounds really good right now. As soon as Riesling gets here, we're finding the closest Starbucks or whatever place Riesling knows that's closer, and you're paying for everything," Vodka grumbled.

"That's fine," Gin said, one of his hands fiddling with the cigarette pack in his coat pocket.

He was both bored and anxious and he wanted a smoke, but he'd finally reached the point where he was down to smoking one cigarette a day, and he didn't want to waste his one smoke so early in the morning before daybreak even. The sudden ringing of his phone in the silent misty morning distracted him momentarily from his discomfort and he pulled it out, frowning when he saw the Caller ID. Vermouth…

He answered it anyway and brought the phone to his ear. "An hour and a half is not soon when you already have visual on someone; have you gotten Curaçao back or not?" he sniped.

"I do not, unfortunately. There were some complications that prevented me from doing so," Vermouth said unapologetically.

Gin clicked his tongue in annoyance and anger. Of course there were. "Like what?"

Vodka tapped his shoulder and pointed down the road where both of them could make out a pair of car headlights coming their direction. Gin nodded and gestured for Vodka to deal with it. Hopefully it was Riesling since she should be arriving soon, but if it wasn't, Vodka could handle the situation accordingly and move the driver on their merry way.

"She was acting strange, and I was finally able to figure out why. She appears to have amnesia."

Gin's brow furrowed in confusion, as if the words Vermouth had said were part of a foreign language he didn't know. Amnesia…? His sister with amnesia? The woman who had probably the best memory in the world had lost her memory? That was impossible. It had to be impossible!

"Where is she now?" he said instead.

"She was taken into police custody and moved to their hospital," Vermouth answered.

"So the police have gotten involved as well?" Gin muttered, feeling his irritation starting to slip into his tone.

Great. As if they didn't have enough problems going on right now without having to do a run-around to get Curaçao out from under the regular civilian police authority.

"Seems so, and there was something else odd that pricked me as well," Vermouth said aloud in a musing tone, but not sounding like she was mocking him for something she knew, but he didn't.

"What was it?"

"It seems she had a seizure when she was riding on the Ferris wheel here at the aquarium," she said.

"A seizure, you said?" Gin repeated with way more intensity than he meant to.

"Yes."

Gin suddenly found his mouth very dry. A seizure? Just like… he swallowed heavily before saying, "Understood. Let Rum know if you haven't already."

He hung up on Vermouth without waiting for a reply and released a shaky breath. A seizure on the Ferris wheel at Touto Aquarium. Their mother had been plagued with seizures all her life, but since neither he nor Curaçao had shown any predisposition for them, he'd thought they were both safe. Was this first seizure a sign that Curaçao took after their mother in yet another way or was there a separate, unrelated cause behind it? On a whim that Gin didn't fully understand himself, he pulled up the aquarium's website on his phone and tapped over to first the aquarium's map and after quickly scanning the area around the Ferris wheel, he jumped over to the section of the site dedicated to the Ferris wheel itself. The pictures popped up on the screen first and he squinted at them. The first one was in full daylight, but he could still see a familiar light color arrangement. He scrolled down a little further until he finally found a night picture of the Ferris wheel, and it was exactly what he was looking for. It was the same color arrangement and transparency as Curaçao's-

"-Aniki, is everything okay?" Vodka asked, making Gin quickly look up from his phone to see both Vodka and Riesling watching him with concern.

"Not really…" Gin said as he closed the website and put his phone away. "That was Vermouth just now. Curaçao has amnesia, had a seizure, and is now in police custody."

Riesling gasped and Vodka looked alarmed. "A seizure?" he repeated, knowing about his mother's history with them.

"Ah, but I don't think it was a normal one either, and I'll get her back from the police too, but at least she's alive and safe for now," Gin said to reassure them as much as himself. "Now I believe you two want coffee, yes? Riesling, you tell me where to go and I'll drive."

()()()()()

It was a whole half hour later after Curaçao was loaded into the ambulance to be taken to the police hospital before Haibara was able to get away from Kudo and the kids by having Dr. Agasa drop her back off at the house by claiming she didn't feel well. Kudo was going back home with Detective Mouri and Dr. Agasa was taking the kids to Café Poirot for a kinda late lunch since it was about 1 pm. As soon as she was home and the yellow Beetle was out of sight, the very first thing that Haibara did was lock the house and call Gin.

He picked up almost immediately. "Sherry, what's wrong?" he demanded sharply.

"Nothing with me…" she hurriedly reassured him, "… but I wish I was calling under better circumstances. I finally got to meet your sister with Kudo, the Professor, and the kids completely by accident at Touto Aquarium, but she has amnesia. I didn't recognize her at first because I've never met her and have only heard her voice once, but once I did, I didn't want to lose sight of her and I had to tell Kudo something to explain why I was so anxious about her. I had to tell him I believed she was a member of the Organization and I also had to let him believe she might be Rum so that he didn't start wondering if there was a connection to you through her. At one point though, she and the kids gave us the slip and she had a seizure while she was riding the Ferris wheel, so as of this moment, Curaçao's currently in the police hospital and Kudo's still holding on to her smartphone even though it's broken."

When Gin spoke again, he didn't sound either relieved or worried like she expected, but dangerously angry instead. "… Kudo was there?" he said coolly.

"Yes, he was," Haibara confirmed in a small voice. Why was he so mad?

There was a pause and then Gin said, "Vermouth found her at the aquarium too. She told me about the amnesia, the seizure, and that the police have her now… I can forgive her not knowing about Curaçao's phone, but she didn't once mention or even hint that Kudo was involved."

Haibara's jaw went slack and her eyes widened. Vermouth had been nearby and not only had she not sensed her, but Vermouth had kept Gin ignorant of Kudo's presence near his sister and that was crucial information he needed to know! "Gin, what does this mean?" she asked worriedly.

"That we could have made a very grave error in how we handled this situation otherwise, and I now know what I need to do," Gin said darkly, but his tone softened marginally when he added, "Thank you for calling me about this, Sherry."

"Hey, Gin, wait a moment!" Haibara said quickly before he hung up.

"Yes?"

With a short, relieved sigh, she said, "Can you make sure to keep your phone close in case there's a new development that happens on my end that you need to be aware of? I want to know that I can reach you no matter what and I don't want this to be like when Kogoro returned to the Detective Agency the day Kir got captured by the FBI."

"No… I don't want this to turn out like that either," Gin agreed heavily. "My phone will be on and available, but I might not be able to answer a phone call immediately depending on what I'm up to. If you leave me a text or a voicemail though, I will get to it as soon as I can. And Sherry, I'm glad that you're worried about my sister too, but please be careful and make sure to take care of yourself first. I don't want anything to happen to you either."

"I understand. I'll be sure to stay out of the way," said Haibara. "Take care, Gin."

"I will," he said and then hung up.

()()()()()

It may have been nearly 1 pm in Tokyo when Haibara called Gin, but it was barely 5 am of that same day in Germany when Gin ended the call with his young, shrunken lover and returned to his fellow agents with their coffees who were watching him with perplexed expressions, since as soon as he'd seen the call was from Sherry, he'd separated himself from them to answer it.

He looked from Vodka to Riesling with cold green eyes like steel and said, "You're in danger. You, Stout, Aquavit, Bourbon, and Kir were all named as NOCs and that, from an outsider's point of view, would get you all killed. This would not be an issue for us except that that list is currently in the hands of an individual with close connections to the FBI and if that data is accessed and nothing happens to you, the FBI will be rightfully suspicious."

"Well, what should I do?" Riesling asked, understanding but concerned all the same.

"You need to go dark and completely disappear off the face of the Earth by this evening, even faking your death if it comes down to it. Vodka and I will help you go into hiding while other agents will help Stout and Aquavit do the same. We'll have to do something a little different for Bourbon and Kir, but they'll be protected too. I don't know for how long you three will need to remain hidden…" he said, his voice like ice as the image of the blonde American woman came to the forefront of his mind. "… but if I have my way, it won't be for longer than a week."

It took the whole rest of the day to get everything prepared, but by 8 pm, Gin had successfully managed to get Riesling safely hidden away, partly thanks to some of the local alien population who were very fond of their local agent and more than willing to help take care of her. Her boss at the BND had been informed of her situation in only the vaguest possible terms, but he understood and would 'update' her status as KIA accordingly. He had also received confirmation texts from Korn and Chianti that Stout and Aquavit were safe as well and gave them new orders to spy on the police hospital holding Curaçao and listen in on the PSB officers when they moved to retrieve her. All that was left before he and Vodka returned to Japan now was to update Rum on their current status and let him know his next plan of action.

"Yes, Gin?" Rum answered as soon as he picked up the phone.

"Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling have been taken care of, so we're heading back to Japan," Gin started. "Can you have Vermouth fetch Bourbon and bring him to… Warehouse C-1 at Pier 45's shipping yard? Vodka and I will get Kir after we arrive and bring her there as well."

"I can, but what are you planning to do with those two, Gin?" Rum asked, his tone cool and suspicious.

"You know I believe that when Curaçao broke into the NPA Headquarters and stole the NOC list she was under the effects of a mind control serum-" Vodka gasped in shock. "-yet she still made a distinction in her text to you about Bourbon and Kir separate from Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling, which I find odd. I'm wondering if it was maybe her way of telling us that those two have been compromised and are also under the mind control serum's influence."

"I can see where you're coming from Gin, but then why would Bourbon call me and let me know what happened to Curaçao instead of just remaining silent?" Rum pointed out.

"To throw you off the scent?" he suggested with a disgusted sneer. "It's not an uncommon tactic for one spy to sell out another just to curry favor with the group they've infiltrated in order to gain a higher status and obtain more important information. They might not be, but I'd rather be safe, than sorry."

"Very well, I'll leave you to it then. Let me know how it goes," Rum said and hung up, so Gin did so too.

"Aniki… what are you going to do?" Vodka asked, looking worried.

Gin met his gaze through the sunglasses for one silent minute and then said, "I'm going to interrogate the both of them and figure out if they're being mind-controlled or not. Let's go."

"But Aniki, is it really necessary to go that far? I know Bourbon's been acting reckless lately, but that doesn't mean he's being manipulated, and Kir's done nothing at all!" Vodka protested.

"How do you think Kudo knows about Rum?" Gin asked.

"Eh? What are you talking about?" he said, looking perplexed.

"Rum. Sherry was the one who called me earlier to tell me what happened to Curaçao, including her phone being in Kudo's possession, and she also mentioned that Kudo knows about Rum. Kudo's direct sources of information about the Organization are limited to only two people: Sherry and Kir. Sherry never would have told Kudo about Rum unless he already had the name and was fishing for more information, so the only other way he could have gotten it was from Kir through Akai or the FBI, but I never gave her any clearance to reveal a new piece of information, let alone Rum's name," Gin explained coolly. "Maybe there's a different explanation for why Kudo knows about Rum, but I'm not taking any chances."

Vodka swallowed nervously, but didn't protest further and fell into step behind him as they returned to the car.

Gin didn't tell Vodka that he had another reason for why he wanted to interrogate those two that wasn't solely about determining their true allegiance. He wanted to see if Vermouth would reveal herself if he threatened the NOCs she needed for her true master's plans if she was indeed a traitor as he suspected.

()()()()()

"Yes, the woman's at the Tokyo police hospital," Bourbon told Kazami over the phone from his car in the parking lot of the very same hospital he was about to enter. "I don't mind if you have to use extreme measures to get her out of there and into PSB custody. I'm counting on you, Kazami."

"Yes, sir," Kazami answered and Bourbon ended the call.

He knew it sounded ruthless of him, but it would be much easier for him to bring her back to the MiB once she was under PSB custody instead of that of the regular Metropolitan police. He got out of his Mazda to go inside, but stopped short when he saw Vermouth just ahead and watching him.

"Bourbon, what are you doing here?" she asked lightly.

"To bring Curaçao back to us, of course. Why else would I be here?" he retorted.

"Why else, indeed?" she mused. "But I'm afraid I will have to halt your progress on that front. It seems you're needed elsewhere at the moment."

"More than I'm needed here? On whose authority?" Bourbon inquired.

Vermouth smirked. "Rum's. Apparently, Gin wants to discuss something with you this afternoon and if you don't cooperate, I will unfortunately have to resort to force," she said and pulled back part of the dark purple coat she was carrying in her right hand, revealing the tip of a gun silencer.

Bourbon tensed momentarily and then forced himself to relax, though he was far from easy. "Very well. If it's the will of the Organization, then it seems I have no choice but to comply."

The American woman's smirk widened. "Smart answer, Bourbon. Go on. We'll be using your car to get to the meeting location. I'll direct you where to go."

With no other choice and the gun discretely pointing at him all the while, Bourbon backed up and reentered his car from the driver's side while Vermouth slid into the passenger's seat. Bourbon didn't let it show on his face, but he was worried. He had no idea what he'd done this time, but he knew he was still on Gin's bad side after his big screw up over Akai. The fact that Rum had ordered Vermouth to retrieve him on gunpoint in lieu of getting his lover out of the police hospital faster only put Bourbon even more on edge, and he was dreading this meeting more with every passing second.

()()()()()

"I'm sorry, but I still don't know anything about what happened," the silver-haired amnesiac woman answered again, and her response was met with another soft sigh of disappointment from the orange-coated inspector sitting across from her.

She wished she could be more helpful to Inspector Megure's investigation, but she barely knew how she ended up at the aquarium the kids had found her at in the first place. All she had was a vague impression of just needing to get away as fast and as far as possible. From what though, she couldn't remember, and it was impossible for her to remember anything before that either. A sudden ringing sound coming from the younger male officer with the gray suit distracted her thoughts and all eyes turned to him. He freaked and fumbled his phone out of his pockets, quickly apologizing to his superiors even as he answered the call.

"Mitsuhiko, what are you doing calling me? I'm in the middle of something right now?" he whispered frantically, but not quiet enough to not be overheard. "Eh?! All three of you are here right now in the lobby and you want to meet her?! Alright, I'll ask, but I can't promise anything!" Then he hung up.

"What's going on, Takagi?" Megure asked calmly.

Takagi jumped and turned to face the inspector looking embarrassed. "Well, it's Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi who were the first ones to find this woman along with Conan. They're downstairs right now asking if they can see her."

The woman perked up. Those sweet kids from yesterday were here and wanted to see her? "Could I?" she asked brightly, and all three officers looked at her surprised. "If it's not any trouble, I'd like to see them too."

Megure, Takagi, the female officer, Sato, and another male officer named Chiba all gave each other questioning looks. At last, Megure nodded and said, "Very well, I see no harm in it. Seeing as they were the first ones to find you, seeing them again may even be able to help you recover your memories. We can head down to the lobby now since I doubt we'll make any further progress here. Takagi, if you wouldn't mind greeting the kids ahead of us, we'll make an exception just this once."

"Yes, sir!" Takagi said with a salute and left the room quickly.

The woman didn't care much if seeing the kids helped her regain her memories or not, she was just excited to see them again and happy that they'd come all this way to see her. It made her heart feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She stood up and let the accompanying officers and one of the regular ones escort her downstairs to the hospital's front lobby where she could already hear the kids' excited yells. They were here! They were really here!

She didn't even notice how her hand twitched as if to rest on her abdomen.

Takagi ducked down and made a shushing noise. "Quiet! It's a secret that you guys are here!"

"A secret to whom?" Megure said dryly.

"Ah, sorry. I'm too used to these situations," Takagi said as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, but the silver-haired woman only had eyes for the three children who came around from behind and stopped right in front of them, their innocent young eyes glowing with joy.

"Miss, we came to see you!" Ayumi exclaimed.

"I'm glad! You seem much better, Miss," Mitsuhiko added in relief.

"Your head doesn't hurt anymore, does it?" Genta asked.

The woman full out beamed at them. "No, I'm all better now. Thank you so much for asking."

Megure started speaking, "Normally, we wouldn't let you three meet her, but she seems to trust you guys, so you might be able to help her regain her memories."

All three of them lit up like stars at his proclamation and expressed their gratitude with very enthusiastic yells that the woman couldn't pick out individually, though the meaning was perfectly clear.

"But only until the next inquiry begins, alright?" Megure cautioned in a warm tone.

"Okay!" they shouted in agreement and then all three of them reached for her through the officers.

Megure and Sato both stepped aside to allow it and the woman gladly took their hands. They dragged her along behind them, just like yesterday at the aquarium, and led her over to one of the many rows of green couches where an Othello game with black and white pieces and a green gameboard was set up on a table.

"We were in the middle of playing this while we were waiting to see you," Genta explained. "Do you wanna be on my team? Mitsuhiko and Ayumi are working together too, so this way it's more even."

"Sure, I'd love to," the woman said and sat down on the couch on Genta's right side across from the other two kids who happily took up their positions on the other side of the board. "Whose turn was it?"

"Ah, it was Genta's because he tried to put a piece in a spot it couldn't go," Ayumi remembered.

"Oh yeah, that's right, so it's my turn still!" Genta said excitedly and then looked up at her. "Where do you think I should put it?"

"Hmm, well…" the woman said thoughtfully as she looked over the gameboard with a critical eye. "How about over there?"

Genta placed the piece and turned the black piece he'd sandwiched over to white. "Hey, that one worked!"

The three kids and the woman continued playing the Othello game while the police officers watched over them from nearby and it quickly became apparent that Genta having an adult helping him was turning the tide of the game in his favor.

"Here!" Ayumi said as she laid down one of her black tiles and turned another one black.

She hopped back up onto the couch now that her and Mitsuhiko's turn had ended and Genta turned to the silver-haired woman next to him. "Where should I put the next one?"

"Let's see… maybe that square will do," the woman suggested.

Genta followed her suggestion which turned a black piece over to white, but it also severely limited the number of effective moves the other two children could make. "Alright, how's that?" Genta said proudly to his friends.

They looked concerned and thoughtful. "What should we do?" Ayumi asked Mitsuhiko, who seemed to have a naturally more intuitive, analytical mind between the three kids, even for being only seven years old.

"This is a problem," he said as he crossed his arms and rested his hand on his chin, thinking seriously about the board game before him.

"We did it, lady!" Genta said happily.

"It sure seems so," the woman agreed with a warm smile for the boy.

"Oh, that's right!" he said suddenly and reached into his pocket. "Here, this is for you."

"Hm? This is for me?" she asked as she gently plucked the white plastic object from his hands. It was smooth and hard and shaped like a dolphin with a loop attached to the back near the dorsal fin.

"The darts stand staff gave it to our friend Conan after we left," Ayumi explained.

"Yeah, he said you could paint it in your favorite color," Mitsuhiko added.

"Really? Are you sure I can have this?" the woman asked, staring in awe at the cute little dolphin figurine.

"Of course! You saved my life after all!" Genta said enthusiastically.

"And now we all match!" Ayumi pointed out, pulling out her own pink dolphin keychain as did Mitsuhiko with his green one and Genta with his blue one.

"Yeah, what color do you want to paint it?" Mitsuhiko said curiously.

"Red? Pink?" Ayumi suggested.

"If it were me, I'd choose black, but having more of a shattery shade," Genta piped up. The woman wasn't quite sure what he meant by a 'shattery' shade though. "I think white fits you better than black. Your hair is white anyway, so if you choose white, you don't have to paint it. It'd be a bargain!"

"Genta, that's so wrong," Mitsuhiko said dryly.

"It sounds like we're in a bargain sale," Ayumi agreed in the same tone.

"Like it even matters, right?" Genta said, looking back up at her at the last second.

The woman wasn't sure why, but she just found it so cute and funny that she couldn't help but laugh, and then the kids started laughing too until Genta accidentally kicked the table with his foot. The board game jumped, scattering the pieces while Genta squawked and overbalanced, nearly falling off the couch. The woman managed to grab a hold of him just before he did so, and she sighed in relief.

"Are you okay, Genta?!" Mitsuhiko asked worriedly.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that," the bigger boy answered, sounding a little shaken from the scare, but otherwise okay.

"Is everyone alright over here?" Sato asked as she came over with Takagi to check on the commotion.

"Yeah, we're okay," Mitsuhiko and Ayumi reassured the two officers while they and the woman started regathering the pieces.

"Ah! No way!" Genta gasped in dismay as soon as he saw the state of the Othello board. "I was winning and now…!"

"You were winning just because she was helping you!" Ayumi pointed out.

While the kids bickered over the state of the game, the woman replaced the game tiles back on the board in the exact color and square that they had occupied. She wasn't even guessing. Somehow, she could see it in her head exactly what the state of the game had been right before Genta had kicked everything over and she was just making the board in front of her match the image in her head.

"Excuse me, I'm Kazami from the PSB," an unfamiliar male voice announced loudly to the room at large that made the woman look up from her work to glance back at the man in question.

He was wearing a dark green suit with a red tie, had short dark brown hair, eyebrows that resembled mascara wands, and black oval-framed glasses over his long, narrow eyes.

"I was told Inspector Megure is in charge of this case. Are you Inspector Megure?" he asked of the heavyweight orange-coated man who had stepped forward.

"I am Megure," he confirmed.

"In that case, we'd like to take custody of that woman over there right away," Kazami said.

"Why's that? We should also have authority to investigate this," Megure inquired calmly.

"That woman is suspected of having broken into the NPA Headquarters," Kazami answered to the shock of both the kids and the woman in question.

The NPA Headquarters? She knew she didn't have her memory right now, but she couldn't have possibly done something like that, could she?

"We need to figure out her goals as soon as possible," Kazami continued, and the woman ducked her head and turned away, feeling the confused, innocent eyes of the kids upon her as she stared down at the white dolphin figure in her hand with her arms crossed almost protectively over her stomach.

Even if he said that, he wouldn't get anything out of her, because she didn't know herself what her goals might have been. Had she really broken into a police headquarters? And why? Was she some kind of thief or a spy, an enemy of the law? Was that her true nature? If that was the case… then white didn't seem to fit her after all, did it?

"W-What'll happen to you, lady?" Genta stammered worriedly.

"I don't know," the woman said softly, still not looking at them. She didn't want to see their disappointed expressions.

"Come on guys, the visit's over now," Sato said gently to the three kids.

"It's about time for you all to go home, right?" Takagi said.

"Aww, do we have to?" Ayumi said unhappily.

"I'm sorry kids," Sato said and then turned to her. "Come, you should also return to your room now."

"Okay," the woman said and stood up to accompany the officers Sato and Chiba.

"Wait, you can't leave!" Mituhiko protested as she started walking away and all three of the kids jumped out of their seats.

"Lady, don't go!" Genta exclaimed.

The silver-haired woman felt herself choke up at their pleas and paused to turn around and face them, holding up the precious white dolphin keychain figure that Genta had given her. "Thank you, everyone. I'll take good care of this," she said softly, but she couldn't bear to see their cute young faces so stricken with sadness. "Let's all ride the Ferris wheel again one day, shall we?"

They latched on to her words like a ship's anchor in a storm-tossed sea. Ayumi nodded in agreement, Mitsuhiko said "You promise us?", and Genta asked "We'll ride it with you?"

She nodded once; a yes to all of them.

"Come on, let's go," Sato said, not unkindly, and the woman resumed her walk back to her room, with her heart heavy and tears that stung at the corners of her eyes.

She looked down at the white dolphin figurine in her hands and gently clasped her fingers around it, this physical symbol of her bond with those darling children. She hoped she hadn't made a liar out of herself. She truly wanted to be able to keep her promise to ride on the Ferris wheel with them again; she just didn't know if she'd be given the chance to.

()()()()()

Kir had just finished her work at the news station for the day after covering for one of her coworker's afternoon shifts on her day off. She was tired and ready to be done, and that was her only excuse for why she didn't immediately notice the two black-clothed people waiting for her at her car in the parking garage until she was nearly right on top of them.

"Oh…!" she gasped when she suddenly noticed Gin and Vodka and then exhaled in relief with a hand resting on her chest. "Oh, thank goodness it's just you two. I didn't see you there at all."

"I'm afraid it's a little early for you to be relaxing, Kir," Gin said in a deathly cold tone that made her blood freeze and her heart pound. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

"Gin…? Vodka, what's going on?" Kir asked even as she took an automatic step back and her brain was already racing, looking for an escape route.

In a blur of movement, Gin had brought his gun to bear on her and clicked the safety off, and Kir's breath hitched in her throat as she stared down the barrel of the no-doubt loaded gun.

"I'm going to have to ask you to come with us, Kir," Gin said and Kir felt a shiver run down her spine.

The icy green eyes glaring at her through his long bangs were not those of her supervisor and friend who'd saved and helped her recover from her torture four years ago, but those of Jynnan Tonnyx, the fearsome, murderous, merciless scourge – the demonic 'Silver Bullet' – of the alien criminal underworld.

"If you run, I will shoot, and I won't miss, but I'd rather not do that if I don't have to," Gin warned as he slowly approached her, his aim on her forehead unwavering. "I have an appointment scheduled with you and Bourbon for this afternoon to discuss a few of your recent actions in regards to the Organization as of late and attendance is mandatory."

She swallowed nervously and glanced at Vodka from around Gin's shoulders, but the squarely-built man remained determinedly stone-faced and Kir felt some of her hope wither and die. She would find no clemency there, and she didn't even know what she'd done!

"Whatever you think I've done against the Organization, you're wrong," Kir said quietly and didn't react at all when Gin grabbed her arm, still with his gun on her and dragged her to his car which she hadn't even noticed was parked nearby.

"I'll be the judge of that," Gin retorted coolly, not letting up on his grip for even a second.

()()()()()

"Oh, Shinichi, the analysis is over!" Dr. Agasa called and while it was intended for Kudo, Haibara heard the Professor as well, and she crept over to stand just outside the door and listen in from the hallway after Kudo rushed in.

"Great, what do you have?" Conan asked impatiently.

Dr. Agasa lifted the computer screen off the table and angled it downward for Conan to be able to read it. "Here, see for yourself."

Fortunately for Haibara's benefit, Conan read the phone's last sent message out loud, "The NOCs are Stout, Aquavit, and Riesling, and those you were concerned about-" Conan gasped. "Bourbon and Kir-! Damn it, I knew it!"

Haibara gasped in alarm too, but not for the same reasons Conan did. That text was written like a Black Organization operative, but without a reason for doing so and it was a list of only a small handful of the current, active MiB liaisons. Why had Curaçao written a text like that and who had she sent it to? She'd already heard from Conan earlier that three of the NOCs presumably listed had already been killed – though she couldn't trust that was completely accurate since his information source was the FBI and they didn't know about the Men in Black. Whether the MiB had sent them into hiding or another entity had gotten to and eliminated them, they had been compromised and now Bourbon and Kir were at risk too, and a terrifying thought shook her. What if it was Pandora? What if she was finally making her move and going after even more codenamed agents?!

"Please analyze the destination of that message immediately and let me know as soon as you figure it out!" Kudo requested of the Professor and grabbed his skateboard on the way out of the room.

Haibara reached out and just managed to grab his wrist as he was running by, halting his forward progress.

"Haibara…?" he murmured in bewilderment.

She shook her head. "Don't go… please…" she begged desperately.

She wished she could say more and make him understand that this time wasn't like all the others… That it was so much more dangerous with even more at stake that he couldn't even begin to comprehend… but she couldn't say anything, and the heavy silence dragged between them instead, full of things that would remain unsaid.

"I told you before, didn't I? Don't run away from your own fate," Conan reminded her, referring back to when she'd tried to let herself be killed on the bus so that she wouldn't have to face Vermouth, put the kids or Kudo in any incidental danger from being associated with her, and would be able to see Akemi again.

Yes, she remembered…

Conan smiled at her, and it was full of understanding and sympathy, but also pure, unwavering determination. There was no regret to be found in his honest blue eyes. "I don't want to run either," he said.

Even then, Haibara couldn't have told anyone why she released Conan's wrist then and let him go because she didn't know herself. Maybe it was his sincerity or his simple, pure motivation. Maybe it was how even not knowing the full consequences of the path he was about to undertake or what was at stake, he was still willing to jump right into the fire and risk life and limb to protect anyone he could if that was what he needed to do. It was admirable… awe-inspiring… and made Haibara feel woefully inadequate by comparison. Her lover's twin sister was at the epicenter of a disaster, the MiB's liaisons were in danger, and she was hiding away shut up in her safehouse not doing anything. She should be helping; she was just as much a member of the MiB as the others and was even one of the few scientists to be presented with a codename.

Well, she supposed there was at least one thing that she could do to help right now. Haibara retrieved her cellphone from where it was charging in her room and sent a quick text to Gin explaining that Kudo now knew the content of the last message Curaçao's phone had sent, was probably on his way to meet up with the FBI again, and he was having Dr. Agasa analyze the address of the message recipient to send a finishing message to it seemingly from Curaçao's phone and thus clear Bourbon and Kir of suspicion as NOCs.

()()()()()

Gin had just finished lighting his one cigarette for the day and was working on the portable light stand when Sherry sent the text message to his phone, but he didn't see it, too occupied as he was with his preparations for the impending interrogation.

"Gin, what the hell is going on?! You seem to suspect us both of being traitors!" Bourbon yelled at him.

"From the information Rum received from Curaçao after she broke into the NPA Headquarters two nights ago…" Gin clicked the switch and blinding white light flooded the previously pitch-black warehouse. "… you have been named as traitors," he finished as he moved out of the way of the light stand and sat down on a nearby crate.

Bourbon and Kir both were in full view of the light, handcuffed to one of the central load-bearing beams with grim and shocked expressions. This was their first time hearing such a thing and it was Vermouth's too that they might be traitors. Vodka was the only one present apart from himself who already knew that Curaçao had broken into the NPA and what this interrogation was for, but now everyone was all on the same page. Gin had spent most of the plane ride back to Japan from Germany thinking long and hard, when he wasn't recovering lost sleep, about how he wanted to handle the interrogation. He didn't want to unnecessarily kill innocent coworkers, but neither did he want a rat to slip through his clutches.

"Traitors…?" Vermouth questioned quietly, frowning slightly.

"From Curaçao?!" Bourbon exclaimed angrily. "She broke into the NPA to steal the NOC list and it wasn't authorized by Rum! There's nothing on that list that you don't already know that would make us suspicious!"

"Not by Rum, but by me…" Gin corrected. "… and you're right about the NOC list having no extra information, but Curaçao acquired information from other sources that paints a very different picture."

"Well, maybe you should check the other sources she used to come to such an outrageous conclusion that we're traitors," Kir snapped. "What motivation pray tell would I even have for betraying the MiB?"

"The MiB's failure to protect your father from being killed…" Gin answered easily. "… and you, Bourbon, for the MiB's inability to prove the truth of what happened to Scotch and failure to exact justice against his perceived murderer."

"That's bullshit!" Bourbon shot back.

Gin gave a derisive sniff and a slight grin. "I've heard worse reasons."

"If you really thought we were traitors, you'd have killed us already instead of kidnapping us first," Kir pointed out calmly, though her eyes were anything but. "You're as good as admitting you doubt our inauthenticity!"

"That's true…" Gin admitted, sliding his left hand into his coat. "However…" he stood up and drew his gun from the shoulder harness to bear on the two MiB liaisons.

"Gin!"/"Aniki!" Vermouth and Vodka both protested simultaneously, looking just as shocked as Bourbon and Kir at the gun in his hands.

"My way is to root out trouble at its earliest stage. So…" he spat out the cigarette and crushed it underfoot. "… let the judgement of the traitors commence!"

Gin fired and the shot echoed loudly throughout the enclosed space. There was the sound of a lot of liquid splattering on the ground followed by a metallic clatter and Kir dropped to her knees with a strangled cry and her eyes screwed shut in pain. There was a new hole in the left shoulder of her jacket just below the joint itself and the fabric around it was quickly becoming stained red with blood.

"What's wrong, Kir? Continue. You were undoing the handcuffs, weren't you?" Gin said mockingly.

"You shot a comrade even though she's only a suspect?!" Bourbon yelled furiously.

"I decide if you're comrades, not you," Gin said coldly. "I'll give you one last minute of grace, and I'll let whichever one of you who sells out the other witness a rat's miserable death."

He let the threat of the ultimatum and the weight of it hang heavy in the air for a few seconds before he glanced over at his partner who was watching Kir worriedly.

"Vodka, start the countdown," he ordered.

Vodka looked up startled for a moment, but nodded and pulled his sleeve back to look at his watch. "Got it… Sixty seconds…"

Now that time was ticking, the pressure would start building, and then Gin would have his answer. Were they mind-controlled or genuine? He would know soon enough.

"Like that kind of threat will work on me!" Kir shouted.

"If she said she's a traitor, then she'd be admitting it, and there's no way you'd overlook someone like that!" Bourbon protested.

"Fifty seconds," Vodka announced.

"Heh, I wonder about that. I'm kinder than you think, right Kir?" he finished with a low growl and turned his gun upon her again, subtly increasing the pressure.

He heard Vodka call out the forty second mark and he could see the sweat at her temple, her wide eyes, her tight jaw, and her trembling shoulders. She was scared, and she wasn't able to hide it, but she didn't utter a sound.

Gin turned the direct intensity off of Kir and changed tactics a bit. "So you're accomplices and have decided to help each other, huh?"

"Help each other? I don't know if she really is a traitor or not," Bourbon answered.

"Me either, but I swear I'm not a traitor!" Kir declared, even as Vodka announced the thirty second mark.

"That's my line!" Bourbon exclaimed.

Gin nearly grinned. They were at half-time now and even Bourbon's composure was faltering. Mind-controlled or not, a dead spy was a useless spy and unless there was literally no way out, spies had good preservation instincts. They would do anything they could to stay alive, whether it was begging for mercy, running away, or selling out a fellow spy. His threat that he would kill one of them at the end of a minute was successful because that was the kind of man he was, and they both knew it. His reputation and his history of past behavior made him a highly-effective interrogation tool.

"Now…"

"Twenty seconds," Vodka said.

"… which of you is the rat?" Gin asked in a soft, sinister tone as he adjusted the aim of his gun from Kir's head to Bourbon's.

"Gin, don't tell me you're serious about this!" Vermouth said, and she actually looked concerned. Well, well! Was his tactic actually working on Vermouth too?

"Which one will bail first?!" he demanded, his tone taking on a feral intensity as he casually shifted the gun back to Kir again.

"Ten seconds… Nine…"

Down to the wire!

"Eight… Seven…"

"Well, then?!" Gin said. They were running out of time to act if they were going to!

"Six…"

"You, Bourbon?" Would they break or persevere to the bitter end?

"Five…"

"Kir!" It was now or never!

At four seconds, Bourbon suddenly dropped to his knees and Gin's eyes flashed malevolently. Gotcha!

"You go first…" Gin said triumphantly as he aimed the gun straight at Bourbon for what would be the last time.

"Zero!" Vodka called the end of the minute.

"… Bourbon!"

Just as Gin was about to pull the trigger, there was a clatter from overhead and small metallic pieces seemed to rain down on him in slow motion. He saw an object tumbling through the air out of the corner of his eye and managed to retract his arm and step away just in time. The object collided head on with the portable light stand, knocking it down and smashing the bulbs, immediately plunging everyone into pure blackness.

"What the-? What happened?!" he demanded.

"The lights!" Vodka exclaimed.

"Kir! Bourbon! Don't move!" he snapped and aimed his gun in their general direction.

He couldn't make out specifics in the darkness, but if he saw any odd movement, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot first, ask questions later.

Light appeared to the right of where he was aiming and he briefly saw Vermouth's face lit up by the screen of her phone before she turned on the flashlight and aimed it at the tied-up liaisons. Or make that a single liaison since Kir was the only one there, sitting there limp and lifeless-looking on the ground with the only trace left of Bourbon being an open, empty pair of handcuffs.

"Bourbon's gone! He ran away!" Vermouth exclaimed.

And that meant he was as good as marked in Gin's book as he approached the unresponsive Kir, observing her with a critical frown. She hadn't given in. She didn't try to sell out Bourbon or anyone else, nor did she beg for him to spare her life. She was clean and remained entirely herself. However Kudo had come to learn of Rum, it wasn't because of Kir. Gin only regretted that he'd gone and put her through all of this. His only mercy for her was that at least it had only been for a minute instead of the hours she'd suffered at the hands of her father's killer all those years ago.

"Damn it, how?!" Vodka swore as he set the light stand back up again, even though it wouldn't do them any good now that the bulbs were smashed.

'That's exactly what I'd like to know,' Gin thought as he dropped to his knees beside Kir.

He held up the lockpicked handcuffs with a silent snarl when the warehouse door suddenly burst open with a bang and orange sunset light flooded in.

"After him!" Gin barked. That rat was not getting away from him that easily!

Vodka abandoned his work resetting the light stand and ran out of the warehouse after the traitor with Vermouth bringing up the rear, but a buzzing noise stopped her and she pulled out her phone. Gin ignored her and instead turned to Kir who seemed to have revived from her lifeless stupor, but she was now watching him warily.

"I'm sorry, Kir," he said sincerely as he laid his gun down on the ground and instead pulled out a key with which he unlocked her handcuffs. "You didn't deserve that, but I didn't know how else to test you. I'm glad to say you passed and are no longer under suspicion."

He gently helped Kir stand up, mindful of her injured, still-bleeding shoulder. As soon as she was standing on her own though, she glared up at him hatefully. That was Gin's only warning before his head suddenly snapped to the right with a loud smack and was accompanied by a new, painful stinging feeling in his left cheek.

"You deserved it!" Kir said shakily, her angular blue eyes seething with fury and her right hand still raised.

"I did," Gin said calmly.

"I should slap you again!" she said a little louder and more hysterical.

"You should," he agreed.

"Damn it, stop agreeing with me!" she spat furiously. "I was this close to having a relapse thanks to you and this sick joke of yours!"

"Believe me, Kir, it was no joke at all, and it gave me no such pleasure to do it to you either," Gin said with a squirming guilty feeling in his gut. He'd known she wouldn't take it well, but he hadn't realized her reaction to it would be quite that bad.

Kir scoffed in open disbelief and threw her hands up in the air. "Could have fooled me! You looked like you were about to start salivating at getting to kill one of us! It's no wonder Bourbon chickened out and risked running away rather than facing you!"

"Speaking of Bourbon…" Vermouth piped up and interrupted their conversation, apparently having just gotten off the phone. "… it appears Rum received a new text from Curaçao that said Bourbon and Kir aren't involved."

Gin frowned in suspicion as he stooped down to retrieve his Beretta. "Did her memories return?" he asked while he activated the safety and returned the gun back to his shoulder harness.

Even if they did though, according to Sherry yesterday, Kudo was the one who had Curaçao's phone, so she still shouldn't have been the one who sent that message to Rum. Quickly, he pulled out his own phone and saw to half his surprise that there was a new text message. He opened it up and saw the sender was Sherry. Kudo had found out about the content of Curaçao's last sent message, had been on the way to the FBI to inform them of it, and had the Arquillian send a finishing message to Curaçao's same recipient – in this case, Rum – that stated Bourbon and Kir weren't involved, so that they wouldn't be offed as NOCs discovered within the Black Organization.

That meant the object that had fallen from the ceiling and collided with the light stand right as he was about to kill Bourbon had more than likely been Akai's work. He didn't know how Akai would have found out or even guessed that he'd bring Bourbon and Kir to this specific location, but then Akai always seemed to have a frustratingly annoying habit of being able to predict his moves. If Akai had been the one to cause the blackout though, then maybe…

"Bourbon, I know you're still in here!" Gin called out into the warehouse. "Come on out of hiding now, and I promise I won't shoot you on sight!"

"He did actually put his gun away and turn on the safety for all the good that means for us!" Kir added in a very dry, sarcastic manner that seemed much more appropriate coming from Sherry than it did from her.

"You know what? Fuck all of you!" Bourbon's voice snapped just as irritated and he actually came right out into the open from his hiding place behind several stacked crates, glaring at Gin all the while and just as mad as Kir.

Gin raised a curious eyebrow at Bourbon while his hands remained visible and weaponless. "Well, now, you didn't actually run or remain hidden so you could run later. I guess that means you pass the test too."

Bourbon looked taken aback. "Test? I do?"

"Gin, what test are you talking about?" Vermouth demanded.

Gin's eyes flickered to her and narrowed slightly before shifting back to Bourbon and Kir who were looking at him confused. Vermouth was the only one he'd gotten nothing out of except for some momentary concern at him threatening to kill the CIA and PSB NOCs, but that wasn't enough for him to point fingers. Vodka had been concerned too; it was normal. That didn't mean he'd given up on his suspicion that she was a double agent working for Pandora against the Men in Black.

"I lied earlier," he revealed as he stuck his hands back in his coat pockets. "Curaçao didn't name either of you as traitors in her message to Rum, but we did discover a few odd things that might have compromised the MiB's secrecy and could have been linked to either of you. I had to quickly verify if you were both legitimate before any more information leaks occurred, so that's why I treated you both like branded traitors instead of merely suspected ones."

He was still lying, but there was a bit more truth to the lie this time. Even though Bourbon and especially Kir deserved the full truth from him, he wasn't about to give it while Vermouth was still standing next to him.

"Vermouth, did Rum say anything else while he was on the phone with you?" Gin asked.

Vermouth nodded and crossed her arms. "Yes, he wants us to verify that the message he received was really from Curaçao because she's still not responding back to him, but if we have to break into the police hospital to retrieve her, that'll be hard to pull off, even for us, and going through the bureaucratic hurdles would take a while."

Gin smirked and pulled his phone back out again. "Don't worry about that. If I'm right, then they should have started moving by now," he said with a meaningful glance at Bourbon and brought his phone to his ear, listening to the rings.

"Nice timing, Gin! The PSB airheads have finally gotten on the move," Chianti reported gleefully.

"As I expected," Gin said, his smirk widening with satisfaction.

"They don't even realize they're being tapped. What amateurs!" the Irish-descended woman scoffed.

It was a good thing Gin wasn't on speaker phone right now, otherwise Bourbon would have been offended at her comment. "Where are they heading to?" he asked.

"Heh, they're heading exactly where you said they would," she said smugly. "They're putting her in the car right now."

Finally she was out of the damn police hospital and was now under a more manageable amount of police security. Better yet, they were planning on taking her back to the aquarium which was key.

"Excellent. Pull out and get that aircraft ready," he ordered.

Everyone, including Chianti and Korn over the phone and Vermouth, Kir, and Bourbon on his end, gasped in shock. "You don't mean…?!"

"It's as good a chance as any to try out its equipment," Gin reasoned.

"But isn't it still in the prototype testing stage right now? It doesn't even have working camo tech on it yet!" Chianti pointed out.

"It's an order from Rum to get Curaçao back as soon as possible. We have to make sure our mission is successful," he said.

"Got ya!" Chianti crowed and ended the call.

"Gin, don't tell me you truly intend to use that thing!" Vermouth protested immediately as soon as he got off the phone.

"Aniki, it's no good, Bourbon got aw- wait, hold on, how did he get back here?" Vodka asked in bewilderment as soon as he saw the other blonde half-Japanese man standing in the warehouse next to Kir both unrestrained and unhurt.

"It's alright, Vodka, he's good," Gin said. "Akai was probably the one who caused the blackout and kicked the door in to make us think Bourbon ran out while he was actually still stuck in here with us. When I realized what had happened, I asked Bourbon to come out of hiding, promising I wouldn't shoot him if he did so, and since he did, that told me he wasn't a traitor, and neither is Kir for that matter."

"Oh… Well, that's good at least. A lot sure happened in the few minutes I was gone," Vodka commented.

"Indeed," Gin agreed and that reminded him… He sent off a quick text to Rum confirming that neither Bourbon nor Kir were mind-controlled, and then turned to Bourbon. "Once we get out of here, I need you to call your subordinates at the PSB and whoever's taking Curaçao to Touto Aquarium, let them know that she has to be taken to the Ferris wheel. We'll be easily able to retrieve her from there with the aircraft's equipment and if Curaçao really hasn't regained her memories yet, I think that Ferris wheel will be the ticket."

Bourbon nodded grimly. "Understood."

Gin quickly shot him a stern look. "And don't you dare let your vendetta with Akai get in the way of your work again…" he warned, guessing that the FBI agent had probably also figured out what their next move would be and would try to thwart their attempt to retrieve his sister. "… but it would be helpful to have you there on site if Akai's efforts to stop us threaten to be successful."

"Yes, sir," Bourbon snapped off a little too readily for Gin's comfort, but he couldn't afford to be too picky right now. At least in this situation, Bourbon's animosity towards Akai might be helpful instead of a hindrance.

Then Gin turned to Kir, looking at her blood-stained shoulder with both guilt and regret, and he handed her his handkerchief. "Here, use this to put pressure on the wound. Vodka and I can at least drop you off in the city so you can take a taxi to the nearest hospital. You'll be reimbursed for the travel cost and the Organization will absorb the medical billing as usual if it's not an MiB-sanctioned facility. You have the rest of this week and all of the next for paid time off if you want it. Just get that wound taken care of, and then go home and relax. Don't worry about anything else tonight."

Kir silently accepted the handkerchief with a nod and replaced her hand with the cloth. She was hiding it well, but Gin could still see in the jerky twitching of her eyes how badly shaken up she was by what he'd done.

He turned to Vermouth last. "I'll need you to head over to the Ferris wheel at the aquarium as well and set up the power system to fail so that the grounds are cast into full darkness and nobody will be able to see the aircraft coming."

"I can do that," Vermouth agreed with a nod.

"Good, you all have your assignments, now let's go," Gin said as he led the way out of the dark warehouse. He had a sister to save.