How could one person's words haunt you like a horror film?

"Do you believe it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you believe that Kokoro is nothing but a dream?"

And to believe, he almost had the compulsion to say 'no'. The class tour of the Ministry of Science was no place to tell anyone about what he had secretly started to do three years ago- let alone finally revealing it to a bunch of thirteen year olds. There was no way that young Uran knew what he had been trying to repair in his free time; if it wasn't for her connection to someone that was present at the time, O'Shay was almost entirely sure that Uran wouldn't even be thinking about the Kokoro Theory. At least Carrietta had been stronger at handling the situation than what most gave credit for.

Similar to how Tenma fell into a whirlwind of despair and grief, the former Ambassador slowly started to lose bits of her own sanity. Unlike Tenma, who had no medical reason to be sane, Carrietta was able to keep enough strings of her psyche in place to give birth to her daughter. How effective her strategy was is debatable; the young child (although primarily healthy, if not premature) was born with a rare case of hyperparathyroidism and from what he heard, the newborn child was barely going to survive her first two months.

Nothing but a dream…

Professor O'Shay moved some papers from his desk to another spot, then started to get ready to go home for the night. Something about young Uran struck a chord in him- something that made his mind switch to autopilot as his body carried him over to a small safe at the corner of his office. The professor spun the dial for the right combination, let the small door swing open, and he took out a manila envelope with a red inked stamped marker on it that read; PRIVATE DOCUMENTS. O'Shay held the envelope in his hands and stared at it for a rather long time.

There was no way she had actually known… Was it all just a coincidence? Sure didn't feel like it…

Without a second thought, Professor O'Shay tucked the envelope in his business suitcase and finally left the Ministry of Science for the day.

That night, O'Shay sat in his bed and tried to force himself to not look through the manila envelope that he placed on his bedside stand. A few weeks ago he told himself that he was never going to look through the contents of that envelope again, and yet…

"Professor O'Shay?" a voice came from his door. "Are you still awake? You should be sleeping."

Shocked for a moment, O'Shay recognized the voice. It was the voice of his housebot; she had been a rather expensive model, mostly due in part to her more human-like appearance (although it truthfully only meant that she had a distinguished head part) and mostly due in part to her multiple functions as a housebot.

"You must go to bed now if you wish to be fully rested in the morning!" the housebot informed him, nagging in a way that faintly reminded him of his own mother's nagging. Now remembering all the times his mother used to correct him for reading in the dark, O'Shay let out a light chuckle as he turned off his light.

"I'm going to sleep now," he shouted happily to the housebot, "Go recharge your batteries while I recharge mine!"

O'Shay heard the housebot give a light chuckle of her own (a forced one, unfortunately) and she replied, "Very good joke Professor, good night."

The Professor grinned with good thoughts as he snuggled himself under his blankets and fell into a blissful sleep.

. . .

Laboratory lights hummed brilliantly as they carefully lit up the workspace Professor O'Shay needed to work on his robotic 'puzzle'. Every now and again the professor would go review the papers that were once inside the manila envelope to make sure he was doing everything as written in the notes. So many of the notes were hard to read -some notes O'Shay had tried to rewrite himself, if he could- and from the source that they came from it was hardly much of a surprise. If people were to find out what he was doing, would they consider him crazy too?

"Let's see if we can get you going again." Professor O'Shay mumbled under his breath as he started to work on the chest cavity of the robotic frame. He didn't have to talk to the frame, but in some ways it made the time go by faster.

"You have such a revolutionary design- astronomical even." The professor then went on the ramble, "Why would he try to burn it all like it never happened…?"

Not all the pieces are here Professor, how do you plan on finishing the puzzle?

"I'll find a way."

Several more minutes of fiddling with the control panel, and Professor O'Shay found that he could do no more to the frame if he had tried. Dissatisfied, the professor went to a manual switch that was connected to many different wires that went into the robotic frame.

"Alright now," O'Shay said to the frame, "Let's see if that gets you to wake up."

Crossing his fingers with one hand, Professor O'Shay threw the switch with the other and watched as the electrical pulses in the wires flowed into the frame like a coursing river after a heavy rainstorm. O'Shay watched with a great deal of impatience as the electric current filled inside the frame but never seemed to come back out. Slowly, Professor O'Shay increased the voltage and more electricity poured inside the frame.

Then, for a brief moment, the frame started to move its fingers. Ecstatic, Professor O'Shay forgot all safety protocols he could have had and rushed to the frame to get a better look; but when he was mere inches away, the examination table that the frame was on started to smoke and fizz. Helpless, Professor O'Shay stood where he was as the electric wires fell from the ceiling they were connected to and prayed that he wouldn't get zapped by one as the power cells in the room slowly lost its charge.

"Still as dead as a doornail." Professor O'Shay mumbled grimly as he rubbed the corner of his eyebrow. So sure that the activation was going to work this time, O'Shay walked back over to the notes and looked them over again for the umpteenth time.

Do you believe that Kokoro is nothing but a dream?

"What am I missing?!" Professor O'Shay wondered out loud as he balled his hand into a fist. The better question, he dimly figured, was how did he think he could pull this project off as easily as Tenma made it seem?

Not all the pieces are here…

What was he overlooking?

Uran.

The name hit Professor O'Shay like a hailstone smacking the back of his head. But there was no way that she could be involved in all this. What connection could that little girl, of all people, have to the late William Tenma?

Hyperparathyroidism.

There was no way.

She shouldn't be alive right now. He saved her.

No way.

Certain medical records are public domain nowadays…

Making a sound almost inhuman, Professor O'Shay dashed out the experimental laboratory with the plan of telling his secretary to cancel any meetings he had for the rest of the day.

The pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to fit together.