Jennifer and Ryan's Truth...

The first rays of the day crept through the crack in between the curtains and casted its light upon the room. A blanket was lumped on the ground by the chair's foot before it was graped up and once more placed upon the sleeping brunette hunching over his sister's bed.

A groan made the other man flick his eyes back to the woman whose eyes slowly cracked open, and when they fell on him, she stirred in her bed to sit up.

Jin: " you should rest."

He made an attempt to stop her but she was already up and smiling.

Elie: " I've laid down long enough I assume. My body feels all stiff."

Her eyes then fell on her brother's figure and a shadow was casted on her face, dissipating her smile.

Jin: " he wouldn't leave your side even when your dad asked him to."

Elie: " it seems I've worried all of you again, didn't I?"

His hand was gently placed on her shoulder as an act of comfort.

Jin: " we should have noticed earlier too. I'm sorry you had to endure that much."

She reached for his hand as she shook her head.

Elie: " you have nothing to apologize for. It's just..." ' My own fault for having this body.'...

Not that she could say that loud...

Sirens of ambulances and fire trucks filled the place. By the time the sun was up, the lab's fire was under control and almost out while Yagami and the rest had received a check up and treatment for the small bruises they may have gotten.

When he was convinced his sister was alright, William went back to the once supposedly lake, taking in the sight of destruction and the aftermath of their fight that night.

Firefighters were still putting down the fire and water was pouring all around the place. Looking upon the lab, William's slightest hope died out.

William: " Liam..."

" That was a pretty bad fire. It could have been impossible to control if it spread further away."

One of the firemen told his teammate as he checked the report he just got.

" It's a miracle no one was badly hurt because of it."

William jerked his head towards them and closed on to them.

William: " excuse me, what about the casualties?"

The two men looked back at him and the one with the tablet looked down at it, checking the report once again.

"Well..."...

Tiny Orbit...

Ban: " are you sure it's okay, leaving your bed already."

Elie sighed for the hundredth time that morning as she flailed her fork at him.

Elie: " I'm really fine, Onii-chan. You don't need to worry anymore."

Her words didn't have much effect on him, that much was visible. Seeing him like that made her stomach lurch with guilt. So she focused all of her mind on the late breakfast before her. That was before Eva and the rest made their way into the hall too.

Kousuke: " alright, I'm sorry. Happy now?"

Evangeline : " don't apologize to me, apologize to Lucifer. He is the one hurt."

Lucifer: " I'm fine though."

Their bicker died out as they approached the twins.

Ban: " how was it?"

Kousuke: " you can figure that much just by seeing me walking into this building again."

He got a punch in the arm by the blonde.

Elie: " Gouda and the others came a tad earlier. They seemed to have faced some kind of troubles along the way."

Mirai: " Hiro and the others?"

Ban's eyes were unfocused for a moment. Noticing that, Elie took the explanation upon herself.

Elie: " they will be late. They accomplished their mission, but they were held back because of the lab's explosion."

Evangeline : " no body was hurt, right?"

Ban: " not from what we heard. But something should have happened there."

Elie: " Sendou and Jin went to check on them."

Ban: " they said they will be here soon."

That subdued their worries a bit.

Evangeline : " I see. I bet professor Yamano and Ruri are still working on your LBXs. I should go help out, seeing that more LBXs will be requiring repair."

Ban and Elie exchanged worried looks.

Ban: " actually..."

Elie: " there seems to be something he wanted to discuss with all of us later."

" Eh?"

Ban: " we don't know the details either."

Elie: " but it seems to be something related to Jennifer and Ryan."

Strike: " what could it be?"

Just in that moment, the door was pushed open as it let in William and the rest of his group. Ban and Elie stood up and headed off to them.

Evangeline : " was everything alright, Mi?"

She asked the green haired boy who spared one glance at the blond siblings beside him.

Mizel: " mostly."

Kirito: " mostly?"

His eyebrow quirked up at that. Ban's attention was on the bleary eyes of Lilyan.

Ban: " Lilyan..."

She looked up at him, guessing already what he was about to say.

Lilyan: " let's talk about it later, shall we."

His answer was a simple bob of his head. She didn't appear in a talkative mood after all.

Takuya: " I see that everyone is back. Thanks for all of your hard work."

He greeted them as he walked into the hall along with Kirino and Otacross.

Sakura: " for now, it seems everything is calm."

Kirino: " you can use this chance to rest well. You didn't sleep a wink after all."

Otacross: " we'll be taking your LBXs to be repaired."

Mirai: " we'll be thankful for that."

She said already depositing her LBX on the table next to her, the rest followed her lead and leaving the hall one by one.

Evangeline : " I'll be heading to help with the maintenance the-"

However, she was grabbed by both Mizel and Mirai.

Mirai: " bed, now."

Evangeline : " but..."

Mizel: " no buts or I'll lock your tablet for the next month."

Evangeline : " oh no..."

Mirai: " oh yeah, now go to sleep."

And they dragged her out...

Jinn turned back with a broad smile as the long blue haired male walked in with a suitcase dangling by his side.

Jinn: " I see you finished it in time."

The man smirked as he pushed up his glasses.

Albert: " it's dedication and hard work that allowed me to finish before they could detonate the lab."

He placed the suitcase on the table, cracked it open and turned it around so Jinn could see the finished product.

Jinn: " seems promising."

He said running his hand on the fabric of the suit folded inside.

Jinn: " this will change the odds."

He looked up at the other man.

Jinn: " what about Himari Liam. He was sent for your protection after all."

Albert shrugged nonchalantly.

Albert: " I don't know. I made it out on my own."

Jinn hummed in thought as he closed the suitcase.

Jinn: " well, he was nothing but an expendable pawn after all. We got what we wanted and that's what matters."

He patted the suitcase...

Later...
Tiny Orbit...

When he went to grab something to eat, he found the blonde in the cafeteria, sitting with her thoughts and humming to herself as she stared down her cup of water. He inwardly debated on whether he should walk to her on not. Though her brother had tipped him on the details, he was still considering her feelings for she didn't want to talk earlier.

The debate however was cut short as her humming stopped. It seemed she had noticed him and her focus tore from the cup of water to him. He rubbed his head uneasily and gave the best smile he could master back then as he strolled over to the table.

Ban: " sorry if I interrupted."

She shook her head and looked back at her cup again. Ban sat down on the other side of the table, his facial expression shifting to worry when her silence lingered for so long.

Ban: " Lilya-"

Lilyan: " Onii-sama told you, right? About what happened."

Uneasy couldn't begin to express how he felt.

Ban: " he said he couldn't leave me in the dark and..."

William: " sorry but... I don't know if I even can initiate the subject with her. There is a lot to figure out myself so... I need you to be there for her."

He squinted his eyes. Even if he wasn't told of course he would be there for her. His eyes blinked twice when he noticed her hands clasping tightly to the glass, any more pressure and it will break.

Lilyan: " I... I can't believe I didn't notice... For the whole time I thought I was the only one who had it hard. But Nii-san had it worse than any of us. And I couldn't..."

Beads of water fell from under her shadow covered face. She hastily mopped them away while trying her best not to break down. Ban's head hanged low for a moment before he spoke in a low soft voice.

Ban: " I know exactly... What you're going through. How all of that feels."

Beneath the table, his knuckles had gone white at how much tight his fists were clenched.

Ban: " but it's not late. Lilyan, you still can set things right."

Lilyan let a barely audible sniff.

Lilyan: " can I really... Someone as me... Who ignored him all this time..."

Ban: " there is a chance right. He is still out there, somewhere."

Her red swelling eyes met with the green ones, like if clinging to the only hope she may still have.

Ban: " you know what you want to do."

I want to apologize. With that thought her head bobbed up and down slowly.

Ban: " then it should make things easier. You need to find him and set things right. It's not late yet to fix everything."

Lilyan: " you think so?"

Her voice wavered with doubt. Could the lost time be once more redeemed?

Ban: " as long as you have the will to start over and try to mend things..."

I do... I really want to...

Ban: " I'm sure your feelings will reach your brother."

She looked down at her glass again, exactly at the blue eyes staring back at her on the water surface.

Lilyan: " you may be right... There is a lot I need to tell Nii-san... So much I want to apologize for."

Ban: " I'm sure you can talk things out one day. After all, you're siblings."

Lilyan's doubt morphed into assurance as her blue eyes brightened again.

Lilyan: " you're right. I'll make sure to have a good talk with him as soon as I find him."

She smiled at him softly.

Lilyan: " thank you, Ban-kun."...

A Nation...

The sounds of the oxygen machine and the heart monitor filled the room, but they didn't seem to bother the occupant who laid down on the bed, immobile. His body wrapped in white bandages, however, the edges of his burns were slightly visible.

Jessica stood by the glass wall, her face unreadable as she stared upon the figure of the older man hanging between life and death. Her hand clenched on the blood stain on her suit tightly.

Jeanne D: " Jessica..."

Her LBX leapt on top of her shoulder, worried about her long silence. She didn't speak since she came along with the wounded male and it was hard to figure what was going in her mind.

Jessica: "... I won't forgive them..."

Her sudden declaration made Jeanne D jerk her head towards her player.

Jessica: " they blew up the place... Not caring about the many people who may get hurt.. who may lose their lives... Those people, I will never forgive them."

Jeanne D couldn't find words of consolation, after all, she knew there was no way Jessica will ever forget the sight of her injured teammate. So she solely stood there, being by her player's side...

Next Day...
Tiny Orbit...

Ryan and Jennifer fidgeted uncomfortably as every eye was focusing on them like if they were interrogated, or rather, they were.

In front of them were prof Yamano, Jin and Sayaka, all of whom waiting for a satisfying answer.

At the very back of the group, Kousuke yawned before folding his arms in front of his chest.

Kousuke: " what's happening here."

Kirito: " you'll get to know eventually."

Evangeline : " anyway, why are you here again?"

Kousuke shrugged.

Kousuke: " since I can't be in Goliath right now I figured I would hang around you and Kirito. Not that Takuya minds it anyway."

Back with the two kids, they swapped uncertain looks as they mulled over what they should do. Everyone were pretty much waiting for them to fuss up.

Jun'ichiru: " this is going to take so long so I'm going to repeat my question."

He placed both their LBXs on the table between them.

Jun'ichiru: " where did you get those two LBXs?"

Jin's glare warned them against using the original design fib again. Not that Jun'ichiru would buy it anyway.

Elie: " I don't get it dad, what's wrong with their LBXs?"

Jun'ichiru: " the way they're made is very similar to those handmade by me, slightly advanced but the exact same. If I didn't know better I would have said I made them."

Jin: " not to mention their goggles. I'm pretty sure they have something to do with overload. It's pretty obvious by their LBXs moves and speed."

Sayaka: " which makes them the same as my system. But it was never brought to public. How did you get my father's work?"

Ryan and Jennifer kept silence, still hopping for a way out without the need to spit the truth.

Ban: " Ryan, Jennifer..."

Ryan heaved a breath at that and nodded at his cousin. She seemed reluctant at first but she nodded back. Taking a deep breath, she finally spoke.

Jennifer: " well, it will be quite shocking. Despite that are you still willing to know?"

Their eyes didn't flick away from them. They weren't backing.

Ryan: " well, you're right. You made Astray and Zeon."

He said facing the older brunette male. This seemed to take him and everyone by surprise.

Ryan: " you really made them, but you did so years in the future."

Jun'ichiru: " eh?"

Ryan: " it's not like we're prohibited from telling you or anything. But we tried to keep quite so not to alter your timeline much. But I think there is no running away now. To make things easier to understand, let us introduce ourselves properly, my name is Yamano Ryan."

Jennifer: " and my name is Kaidou Jennifer."

Silence lingered for a moment.

Asuka: " Yamano..."

Sendou: " Kaidou..."

They looked back at both Jin and Ban who seemed like their brains lugged for a moment.

Jennifer: " that's right. We're both your children."

Asuka was frantically looking between the kids and the adults before she pointed at both men.

Asuka: " eh! How! But! You're just 18 or 19!"

Sendou grasped her head and pushed it down to shut her up.

Sendou: " of course not you idiot. There should be a logical explanation."

Ryan: " there is, we came from the future."

" Eh!?"

Lillia: " you know that's the exact opposite of logical."

She sweat dropped.

Aya: " but... We can't ignore the fact that both of them are similar to Ban and Jin."

William pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a smirk.

William: " interesting."

Jun'ichiru: " what do you mean by that?"

Jennifer: " the old man with the clock brought us back in time to help out with your fight."

Momona: " does this mean the world in the future is endangered!"

Ryan calmed her down as she was about to freak out

Ryan: " no, not actually."

Wataru: " then, why did he bring you back?"

Jennifer: " to make sure Leviathan has no chance of winning in this timeline."

Jin, who finally snapped of his shock, asked.

Jin: " this timeline?"

Jennifer: " we may be from the future, but it's not 100% your future. We're from a timeline that's quite similar to yours."

Ban: " eh? What do you mean?"

Ryan: " like for example, dad-"

Ban flinched slightly at the word.

Ryan: " when you were a kid, grandma prohibited you from LBXs right. But nevertheless you kept playing. At the same time, in another parallel timeline, you completely lumped LBXs."

Jennifer: " there are as much timelines as the possibilities you may have encountered in your lives. And ours is the one with the most ressemblance to yours."

Arata: " then, Leviathan will be defeated or not?"

Sendou took out a tarot card.

Sendou : " the wheel of fortune, it's unsettled. Only by proceeding we can find an answer. For all we know, it may be where our timeline and yours differ."

Jennifer nodded her head.

Jennifer: " we don't know how things in your timeline will go. It's a future that only you can make. We can do as much as trying to predict, but still, even if we're 99% sure that something will occur, the remaining 1% is still yet a possible future."

Yuuta: " I didn't get that much..."

Ryan: " well, we had the old man to explain it for us. Though we didn't completely get all the stuff he said..."

He sweat dropped.

Sayaka: " then, about your goggles..."

Ryan: " they're the standard CCM in our era, made by your father, and other professors as well."

Evangeline: " and your talking LBXs? Were you chosen the same way we were?"

Astray spoke for the first time since the trial began.

Astray: "not quite. Our AIs were specially given to us by the old man."

Zeon: " unlike all of you who had been chosen by Minerva, we weren't."

" Eh!"

Kousuke pursed his lips as he wasn't yet convinced.

Kousuke: " how can we trust that what you're telling us is true?"

Kirito: " to say that you came from the future, it's quite farfetched for us."

Everyone else apparently shared the same thoughts as them.

Jennifer: " that's the problem, we can't prove it. Other than those LBXs that were made by grandfather, there is nothing else we have."

Ryan: " other than a DNA test maybe..."

Ryan chuckled with a sweat drop, not that they will be eager to do it, and by the looks of the brunette and black and white haired man, that was out of question. Ban then shifted his look between them before finally setting his mind.

Ban: " I believe them."

That took everyone by surprise.

Jin: " Ban-kun..."

Ban: " I mean, there is no reason why they would lie to us. Also, the fact that dad admits those LBXs are made exactly the same way as the ones he created so far is enough for me to trust them."

Elie: " Onii-chan..."

Evangeline : " to think about it, it's true. Not like they would have any merit in trying to fool us with this story."

Kirito: " it will only make us think of them as crazy people."

He shrugged. Slowly, everyone started to take in the truth.

William: " seems I have a lot of questions for the old man next time he shows up."

Mizel quirked his eyebrow.

Mizel: " in the first place, who is this old man exactly?"

Lilyan: " from the few encounters we made with him, I doubt it will be easy to get a straight answer to that question."

Touko: " guys..."

She caught their attention as she spoke out loud.

Touko: " you're forgetting something important here."

She turned to the two teenagers with a wide smirk which made them take a step further from her.

Touko: " we knew you fathers, we still need to get to know your mothers too."

Ryan&Jennifer: " eh?"

They swapped looks and then pointed at themselves.

Ryan&Jennifer: " isn't it already obvious?"

Arata: " is it?"

Hikaru: " it is."

Asuka: " really?"

Ami: " I mean, they're cousins, and they just called prof Yamano 'grandpa' and... There is Ryan's hair color too."

She listed with her fingers.

Touko: " come on, why don't you say their names loud?"

Ryan and Jennifer sweat dropped as she closed on them with an insisting glimmer in her eyes before they were met by Jin's gaze. Something told them that if they were to speak, it will be the last words they will ever utter in their lives.

Mirai : " come on Touko, stop bullying them."

She walked over to the younger woman, slightly pulling her away from them.

Ryan: " than-"

Mirai: " wait until their parents are clear of earshot, then we can ask them all kind of stuff about our possible future."

Ryan: " eh?!"

Jennifer had and awkward smile as her eyebrow flexed up and down.

Jennifer: " that's exactly why we shouldn't have told them."

Jun'ichiru stood there, completely still as a rock with his glimmering lenses covering his eyes.

Elie: " dad?"

Jun'ichiru: " ... I have grandchildren... How should I feel about this..."

Elie sweat dropped.

Elie: " you better not think about it much, dad."

Ryan: " oh, by the way. Since you know everything now, can we... You know, call you dad and all? It's been really weird calling you by your first name."

He said scratching his cheek with an awkward smile. Everything about their situation was awkward to say the truth.

Ban: " ahaha, that way it will be awkward for us..."

He sweat dropped and turned to his friend.

Ban: " what do you think, Jin?"

The black and white haired male was hardly keeping his composure by then as he eyed the teenagers.

Jin: " I think this is the most embarrassing situation I've ever been put into."...