Alice thankfully doesn't give me any indication she needs to talk this time, and everyone else goes their separate ways within a minute or so, allowing Sigma and I to walk off together with neither fanfare or notice.

"Alright, so-" Sigma starts as we pass through the front door of the lounge.

"Not here." I cut him off. "If we're really going to talk about this, it needs to be somewhere more private, where we're less likely to be interrupted. Like I said, there's a reason I haven't told everyone else about this already."

Sigma raises an eyebrow at me. "Well, if you really think it's that important that no one else hear us, the crew quarters has doors with-"

"No." I refuse before he can even finish, holding back a shudder. "...anywhere but there."

Sigma squints at me in apparent confusion, but doesn't question my reaction, at least not aloud. "Where would you suggest then?"

I think about it for a moment, honestly not entirely sure where would make for a better alternative, before abruptly realizing that I can probably kill two birds with one stone.

"How about we head back downstairs?" I suggest. "The laboratory should work."

That's where I want to go after this anyways, and if Dio happens to already be there... well, at least I'll have back up.

"Fine." Sigma mutters, matching my stride as we step back into the hallway leading to the elevator. "This better not just be some sort of ploy to waste time before the doors open."

I turn my head and blink at him. "Huh? Why would I do that?"

"No idea," Sigma flatly replies, "but after that act you put on in the AB room, I kind of have to wonder if I can even trust anything you have to say."

I wince, actually a little hurt. Not that I don't understand why he'd see things that way, but I didn't really expect that plan to hurt my relationship with Sigma as well.

"I wouldn't have done it if I felt I had any other choice." I ultimately say as we step back into the elevator. "I promise I'm not going to be repeating that performance... and I am sorry about that."

Sigma grunts. "If you say so."

I sigh under my breath. Don't think I'm going to be making up for that one for a while...

The good news is, I have managed to come up with a plan for how to deal with the coming conversation. One that I feel is even a fairly decent one, in that it mostly just boils down to being honest... in a sense, at least.

Once the elevator releases us, it doesn't take us too long to retrace our previous steps to the laboratory. Intense trepidation fills me as the door slides up, leaving me ready to spring away in the event that Dio comes charging out with the scalpel in hand — but nothing of the sort happens, and all that's revealed is an empty room.

I step into the lab and quickly look around. No one else here, and the scalpel is still sitting under the fume hood, right where we left it.

My body relaxes. Dio hasn't been through here yet. I made it in time.

...now I just have to make it through this conversation.

"Alright, we're here." Sigma says as he follows me inside, the door sliding shut again behind him. "Ready to talk?"

I nod. "I suppose I can manage that."

I take a moment to lean back against the table before continuing, knowing that this might take a while.

"So, you want to know how I know about Radical-6, right?"

Sigma silently nods.

"Well... let's just say I learned about it through my job."

Sigma squints at me with his one normal eye. "That... doesn't explain anything. Especially not why it would be some sort of big secret like you were implying."

"It does, actually." I reply. "See, my job grants me access to certain information that most people aren't privy to. I'm not really supposed to let anyone know about it, but... since you've already figured this much out, I suppose I might as well just tell you."

Sigma frowns. "So what is your job then?"

I smile.

"I'm a member of a government intelligence service. One whose existence isn't actually known to the public at large."

My blunt statement seems to rather thoroughly confuse Sigma, to the point it takes him a few seconds to actually parse what I just said. I can tell once he has though, as his expression rapidly shifts from mere confusion to something verging on utter bafflement.

"Wait a second..." he eventually says, the words slow to emerge from his mouth. "Are you telling me that you're a secret agent?"

My smile becomes a full-on smirk as I straighten up and cross my arms.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. Guess I should reintroduce myself — Clover Field, field agent of the Special Office of Internal Security."

Sigma boggles, his mouth falling open as I barrel on ahead.

"We're in charge of tracking down and investigating various elements that could potentially pose a wide-scale threat to the nation. Terrorists, political splinter cells, extremist religious organizations, you name it."

Lucky I read that entry about them in the file from the B. Garden's safe two timelines ago, else I don't think I'd actually have remembered pretty much any of that mission statement.

Sigma's brow visibly furrows.

"O... kaaaaay..." he sounds out, not sounding particularly convinced. "Let's say I take you at your word about this. What does that have to do with you knowing about the existence of Radical-6?"

And here we come to the reason I'm telling you any of this to begin with.

"I know about Radical-6 because it isn't just a virus." I state in as serious a tone as I can manage. "It's a bioweapon, created by the terrorist organization Free The Soul."

"Free the Soul?"

"An underground religious cult led by a man known as Brother." I elaborate. "They're dedicated to creating a 'new, purer world' by wiping out everyone who doesn't share their views."

"And they're planning on using Radical-6 to do that?" Sigma asks.

I nod, ignoring his still rather skeptical tone. "Hit the nail on the head. SOIS hasn't uncovered all the details yet, but we do know that the virus was intentionally designed to be as lethal and contagious as possible. If it's unleashed on the world, it could easily cause a global pandemic, and leave utter catastrophe in its wake."

"If it's unleashed?" Sigma repeats. "You're saying that hasn't already happened. So why was there a newspaper article reporting on the virus in the infirmary?"

"...I don't know." I reply in a low, frustrated tone. "I just know that it can't mean anything good. Either the article was fabricated, in which case whoever kidnapped us knows about the virus too, and is probably in deep with Free the Soul... or Free The Soul has already released the virus, and we've been asleep for a lot longer than we thought."

"Or both, seeing as they also provided us with a counter-agent for the virus." Sigma points out.

I nod. "That's also possible, yes."

Sigma hums. "I don't suppose you know anything else about Radical-6?"

I shake my head. "Like I said, we don't have all the details yet. Free the Soul isn't really possible to infiltrate, so our knowledge of them beyond the broad strokes is limited. I was actually in the process of investigating them personally, before I ended up... here."

With that, I fall quiet. Sigma does the same, seemingly occupied with simply trying to process and evaluate the excess of information I just dumped directly in his lap. I try not to fidget under his gaze, my doubts returning in force as silence lingers over the room.

...god, what was I thinking telling him any of that?! What a stupid idea! Even though none of that was actually false, save for my not truly being Clover and the fact that SOIS probably didn't know about Radical-6 specifically until it was already too late, if I were in Sigma's place I would absolutely think that was one big lie, and a pretty terrible one at that! Clover's backstory is just too ridiculous to be taken at face value, especially after I just established myself as moderately untrustworthy. What possessed me to come up with this asinine idea-

"Alright." Sigma finally says. "I believe you."

I struggle to keep my own mouth from falling open, honestly kind of astounded he bought that, for all that it's mostly technically true. I rally as quickly as I can however, determined not to waste the out I've bought for myself.

"Glad to hear." I say, trying to match Sigma's now-serious tone. "Listen though, you can't tell anyone else about this, alright? I know that might sound like an excuse, but I'm really, really not supposed to let my cover be blown. So just... keep it quiet, okay?"

Sigma nods, looking almost excited now- then suddenly pauses.

"Wait a second. Alice said that you two are coworkers, right? So does that mean she's also-?"

"Ssshhhhh!" I frantically hush him, barely restraining myself from outright putting my hand over his mouth as I half-fakingly, half-seriously look around to make sure Alice didn't somehow step into the room when neither of us were looking. Once I've confirmed that, I look back at Sigma, glaring a little.

"Do not finish that sentence." I whisper. "And what I just said about keeping this quiet? That goes double, if not triple, for Alice."

Sure, my "cover" may not matter in the ultimate scheme of things, since SOIS has already long since failed by this point in the future, but I still really, really do not want to try and explain to Alice why I spilled not only the organization's existence, but also a bunch of other confidential information about it, "myself", and her to a guy that she doesn't know from Bob, all because I lost track of which pieces of information I was supposed to know in this particular timeline.

"Anyways, we should get going." I say, stepping back from Sigma. "I'm sure I'm not the only one you wanted to speak to before the next round."

"You're not wrong." Sigma replies, glancing over at the door. "Uh... thanks for trusting me with this, Clover."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You didn't exactly give me much choice in the matter, but you're welcome."

Sigma scratches at the side of his head in embarrassment, even as he wordlessly opens the door we came in from and steps back out of the room. I don't immediately follow, instead waiting until it shuts again before turning to the scalpel.

Time to take care of this thing.

Gingerly picking up the medical blade, I glance around for a moment, then move over to the shelves at the back of the room. Once in front of them, I lever myself up onto my tiptoes, then toss the blade as far back as I can onto the highest shelf I can reach. It lands behind half a dozen glass jars, completely out of my line of sight.

There. It's not necessarily the best hiding place, but the scalpel shouldn't be visible just from a casual once over of the room anymore, which is what I was truly worried about. I highly doubt Dio is going to literally climb the shelving unit just in case there's a potential weapon on top of it, so that's probably good enough.

Dusting off my hands, I walk back around the table, giving the IG replicator another once over as I do. Which... damn. Now that I give this thing a second look, there's even another empty medicine vial already plugged into the thing, presumably to serve as a receptacle for synthesized fluid. I just didn't see it initially because it's inside one of the glass tubes crowning the replicator, and is also made of glass itself, so it kind of just looked like the room's lighting was distorting the interior. If I'd been even slightly more observant, or remembered this thing's purpose just a little sooner...

I shake my head and look away. No use dwelling on it — what's done is done.

In any event, now that Sigma's gone, time to refocus on my larger scope goal. Which, at least for the remainder of this timeline, is really just to stick around long enough to learn something, solve something, and in turn hopefully make SHIFTing easier and/or controllable for myself in the process. In which case...

My gaze drifts up to the ceiling. Alice is probably my best bet. So far as my mental list of mysteries goes, she's the person with the most questions still surrounding her that I'd wager I have a decent chance of "puzzling out", and likely the easiest person here for me to get a private talk with to boot. Thanks to my choosing to betray Quark, she should also at least trust me for the immediate future, which makes now the best time to try and ferret some answers out of her and up my epiphany levels.

Nodding to myself, I open the door and step out of the lab. I wonder if she's still upstairs, or if she came down here? I'd assume the latter, since it would make sense to check out the newly-opened rooms. She's not in here though, so maybe the rec room, or the treatment center?

As it turns out, no, Alice is not in the rec room or the treatment center, neither of which presently appear to hold anything of much interest. In fact, I end up fruitlessly traversing the entirety of the second floor of the base — what's currently open of it, at least — before finally giving up and heading back upstairs, figuring she must be in one of the earlier rooms.

My second guess turns out to be correct. Passing through the back hall, I finally find Alice in the lounge, sitting on one of the barstools with a mostly-full cocktail glass in one perfectly-manicured hand.

"So what's- oh, Clover." she greets, seeming a bit surprised to see me.

"Phew, there you are." I say as I sit down next to her, glad to be off my feet again for at least a little while. "Was starting to think I'd never find you again. I figured you'd be investigating the new rooms downstairs."

Alice rolls her eyes. "Well, that was the plan, but Tenmyouji waylaid me before I could even leave the warehouse."

I glance down at the glass in her hand. "What, for drinks?"

Alice laughs.

"No, something far stupider, unfortunately." she says, sounding rather exasperated. "He was annoyingly persistent about it too. Wouldn't drop it even when I refused to indulge him, and was too fixated on the subject for me to even probe him for more information. He only left once Quark suddenly started speaking gibberish."

I blink. "Quark? Gibberish?"

"Yeah, the kid was here too." Alice replies, idly sipping at her cocktail. "It was weird. He just sort of started... babbling? It was like someone hit fast forward on his mouth; even sounded higher-pitched. I figured it was just a side effect of that serum you gave him, but Tenmyouji got worried and took Quark to the infirmary to look him over."

Wait, then she must mean-

Oh.

A smile ghosts over my lips. Well, I feel a little better about my earlier choices now — though I failed to specifically realize it at the time, at least one symptom of Radical-6 most definitely was still present at the time Quark entered the AB room, meaning the virus indeed hadn't fully abated yet. Guess the mental time dilation is wearing off for him now... not sure how we're going to handle or explain that in the round to come.

"Anyways," Alice moves on, "Sigma didn't look too happy about the outcome of the AB round earlier, so I assume you had to work around him to pick betray? If so, well executed."

My expression droops.

"Thanks, but... in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have." I quietly reply. "Sigma and I had just saved Quark from that virus, and even before that, the chances of him betraying us were pretty minimal."

My gaze drops to the floor. "Honestly, I feel sort of terrible about it."

Even with this recent revelation, I can't really think of what I did as anything but a bad move anymore, now that I know the outcome.

Alice leans over and wraps an arm around my shoulder.

"I get where you're coming from, Clover, but think about it for a moment." she says consolingly. "Even if you were willing to bet your life on Quark not choosing betray, if he gets out of here on his own, he can't realistically do anything to help the rest of us escape. He's just a kid, and we still don't know exactly where this place even is."

She looks me in the eyes. "On the other hand, we have the authority to not only call in a rescue for the others, but to have SOIS and any related branches of the government come down on whoever it is that kidnapped us. It may sound egotistical, but it truly is more important that one of us gets out than anyone else here."

"...yeah. I guess." I say, averting my gaze.

Her logic makes sense... or at least, it would if this situation even remotely resembled Alice's current perception of it. Hell, SOIS probably doesn't even exist anymore. Unless I suddenly decide to come clean about an awful lot of things though — again — there's not much I can do but stay quiet and silently accept her logic.

"Besides, from what I saw, you got away with betraying without really making any enemies anyways." Alice continues, smiling down at me. "Nicely done with that speech. That was clever of you."

"I wasn't trying to be clever." I deny, frowning at her as I pull away. "I really meant all that."

"I'm sure you did," Alice replies, still smiling, "but that doesn't mean it wasn't clever anyways. You played Tenmyouji's own guilt against him well enough to stop him in his tracks, got Quark to forgive you outright, and even managed to justify yourself to everyone else well enough that they'll likely still trust you later. All told, that was nearly a best-case scenario. So like I said, nicely done."

Not really knowing how to feel about Alice complimenting my supposed talent at manipulating people, I just nod, choosing not to reply to that. I didn't seek her out to talk about the last AB round anyways; I have other things to discuss.

"Can I ask you something, Alice?"

"Of course." Alice easily replies. "What is it, Clover?"

...er. Come to think of it, how exactly do I bring this subject up in a way that won't seem like a complete non sequitur? Any of the subjects I have in mind, for that matter? I can't really ask Alice about her apparent fear of sedation, since she didn't have that freakout in this timeline, and while I still want to know maybe if she noticed anything odd getting out of her room, I'm not exactly sure exactly how to naturally bring that up... but I have to at least try.

"Do you feel... off, at all?" I ask, tentatively.

Alice squints at me a little. "What do you mean?"

"It's just... when I first woke up in the AB room, I noticed I felt kind of strange?" I continue, slowly working out my words as I go. "It's... like there's something's weird about the air here. Like I'm lighter than I should be, and it's throwing me off. I was just wondering if you'd noticed anything similar...?"

Alice leans back and thinks for a moment. "Hmm... now that you mention it, it did feel a little easier than it should've been to get out of the AB Room I woke up in."

"Just a little easier?" I hazard.

"Well, yeah." Alice says, waving me off. "I mean, it's not like I couldn't have climbed out of that hatch pretty easily even on a normal day."

I give her a quick once over.

...seriously?

"Yes, seriously." Alice replies, at which point I realize I said that out loud. "We both went through the same training, you know."

She pauses for a moment, considering. "Well, maybe not the exact same training. The esper division of SOIS tends to be hyper-focused on the information-gathering aspect of your skillset, which I still think is a mistake..."

She trails off into a grumble for a moment before resuming. "Regardless, I know we both had the same basic physical and combat training. That was made a requirement for all agents a while back, just to make sure no one would be left totally helpless in the event of disarmament or capture."

...wait, so her seeming lack of athleticism is an act? Really? That's...

Just like the "airhead" suggestion she's been encouraging me to put on, come to think of it. Okay, wow, this probably should have occurred to me a bit sooner.

Alice frowns. "Did you really not remember that?"

"Ah- no, I did!" I hastily reply, nervously fiddling with my hair. "I... guess I just forgot exactly how much stronger you are than you look, is all. Told you I felt off."

Alice's frown lightens, but doesn't disappear. I'm thinking that perhaps I shouldn't linger on this topic any longer.

"Er, another thing... this is a bit embarrassing to ask, but, how come you're not cold right now?" I ask, hastily switching topics. "You're wearing almost as little as I am, and I'm freezing."

If I weren't specifically watching for her reaction, I'd have missed it — Alice's eyes widen fractionally, and she stiffens for the briefest of moments. Then I blink, and it's gone, Alice's composure instantly reasserting itself as she smiles at me.

"Come on Clover. You should know better than anyone that I'm simply too hot to be cold."

She strikes a pose and winks at me in exaggerated fashion, and I laugh as I think I'm expected to — even as I silently note that Alice didn't actually answer the question. She just turned it into a joke, allowing her to ignore the actual substance of it. So she is hiding something...

I wonder for a moment if the real Clover knows what the secret is already, but discard that thought as unlikely in the next. Why would Alice be so cagey about it in that case? It's not like there's anyone else around, and we've not been acting like we're worried about this base having hidden cameras or the like.

It can't... really be related to Tenmyouji's theory, can it...?

"Hey, why don't we walk and talk?" Alice suddenly suggests as she stands up from the barstool, setting her drink down on the counter. "Now that I think about it, Quark's babbling could actually have been something more serious, like the first sign of a stroke. Let's go see if they've at least figured out what's wrong."

I'm not terribly thrilled by the suggestion, as I know that isn't it, and I can't exactly probe Alice for more info in front of other people, but she's already heading out the door. Hurrying out into the hallway after her, I privately note that I'm ironically getting kind of sick of the infirmary — I don't really feel the need to say hi to Akane's corpse again. But, if Alice is heading there...

Sighing, I content myself with simply dogging Alice's footsteps back down the hall for the moment, trying to figure out exactly what she could be hiding. The infirmary isn't far, so we reach it within less half than a minute, the door sliding up as we both step forward.

...and are greeted by the sight of Quark and Tenmyouji's blood-covered bodies.