I didn't get a chance to proofread this completely, so please excuse any mistakes. I'll be sure to fix those when I get home tomorrow! Also, a warning: minor descriptions of violence and gore below with Mira's "dream."

Chapter 7

In which everyone discovers Sigma's litter tic, split up, with a promise to meet again in three days, and Mira tries to come to terms with her feelings.

Phi swears that in the full two minutes before Carlos shoots Delta, the bastard's face suddenly goes from calculating to blank, and then suddenly, a hint of fear passes through his slightly widened, purplish eyes. She gets the feeling as if he wants to suddenly to scream in protest, but that is when his face turns blank once more, and Carlos pulls the trigger.

.

They all are settled in Carlos's small living room.

Upon reaching Kingman, Carlos requested Sigma to quickly stop at the hospital so that he could wish Maria a Happy New Year, like he does every year. Akane and Junpei ran in with him, while the others stayed in the RV — they didn't want to overwhelm Maria, nor make a ruckus inside the hospital. The members of C-team came out 30 minutes later, declaring that Maria's unofficial treatment would start tomorrow, when Akane's brother would arrive.

Now, inside Carlos's apartment, Diana sits on a small sofa with Sigma. Perpendicular to them, Eric and Mira sit on a loveseat, while Sean sits atop one of its armrests. Akane sits on the carpet floor with Junpei, both leaning against the nearby wall, and a scheming Phi and a humored Carlos stand suspiciously behind the couch where Q-team sits. In the center of the living room is a coffee table that is cluttered with unread mail and empty glasses of water.

Phi's eyes twinkle with mischief when she breaks the silence that fell over them after they starting drinking their water. "Hey, wanna hear a funny joke?" When the others nod, she continues speaking. " . . . What is Sigma's favorite type of ion?"

"Ooh, I know!" Sean immediately cries out. "A dianion!"

Sigma lets out a chuckle, curling his hand around Diana's, while she simply blushes and looks down at her red stockings. "Actually, that's a good one." He looks impressed with Sean.

Phi appears to be pleasantly surprised by his witty answer, as well. "I'll admit, it's not a bad guess, but the answer is cation." Sigma's smile distorts into a scowl, but it doesn't stop her from smirking.

"Phi," Sigma warns.

"Why a cation, Phi?"

"I'll show you." She gestures a hand towards Carlos, who holds up his grey and white striped, Scottish Fold cat from behind the couch. The whole time, he is biting his lip to hold in his laughter. "Sigma, meet Kitty. Carlos's old, little cat."

Sigma's eyes widen in panic when he sees the adorable furball that is Kitty — he didn't want his problem to slip out in front of the others . . . but it's too late now. Part of his brain tries to stop him from speaking, but he immediately blurts out, "Fur-ck! No offense to Kitty or you, Carlos, but, Phi, you have cat to be kitten me! You meow that I cat stop speaking in cat purr-ns when it comes to cats!" Sigma groans and slaps a palm to his forehead. "Ack, paw-don me, e-furry-one. This happens to me whene-fur cats are purr-ought up in con-fur-sation."

"Mew feline okay, Sigma?" Junpei can't keep a straight face as he speaks and bursts into snickers. The others join him. Akane lets out a chuckle, too, but slaps his arm, anyway. "I'm paw-rry, Akane, but this is hiss-terical!" That finally elicits a laugh to bark out of Carlos, who has been poorly trying to hold in it.

"Why are mew stuck saying cat purr-ns, anyway?" Mira questions laughingly.

"It's a long tail . . . purr-haps, I'll tail mew all anothe-purr time. If I tail you meow, it will con-fur-se you. I'm paw-sitive that — " Sigma stops himself from continuing with a groan and tightly purses his lips shut, as Diana sweetly giggles next to him. That's enough cat purr-ns out of him.

Damn you, Phi.

.

Akane, Carlos, and Junpei decide to stay back in Kingman for three days, while the others leave for the Grand Canyon.

Akane is the one to come up with the plan, but, at first, no one is fine with separating — not even Junpei or Carlos. They all argue with her that Maria is in need of espers for morphic resonance; Akane warns them that having so many espers would only overwhelm Maria and assures that her brother, also an esper, is coming to Kingman later in the night, since he is the one who looked into the illness in conjunction with the morphogenetic field, so they won't lack in espers.

Akane also explains, that based on her brother's research and conclusions on Reverie Syndrome, it will take around two days to cure Maria; she then adds an estimated a third day for Maria to recover and be discharged from the hospital.

It does prompt Sean to suggest, "Why don't we just stay in the motel for three days, then?" The others nods in agreement but Akane shakes her head.

"According to Carlos, something awaits us at the Grand Canyon in three days." Carlos nods in confirmation. "If it has something to do with the religious fanatic, then we can't afford to miss anything. You guys, at least, need to start heading up there."

Phi nods in agreement. "Spectaculorum procedere debet — the show must go on."

That does get everyone to acquiesce to Akane's plan, albeit reluctantly. They decide to travel to the Grand Canyon and stay at a motel nearby until Akane, Junpei, and Carlos follow them. So, they check out of their rooms, (while Carlos, who spent the night in his own home, goes to bring the RV to the lobby entrance) — all of them moving in a certain, uniformed square of sorts (with Sean in the center), to discreetly keep Sean's helmet out of sight from the motel staff and guests.

"Three days," Akane promises, as Sigma prepares to board the vehicle. "We will come to you."

He nods in response. The others have already said their goodbyes to the members of C-team, and he has already bid Junpei and Carlos goodbye. "See you in three days, and all the best for treating Maria."

Akane smiles and nods back.

.

Since escaping DCOM, Mira has been trying to distance herself from Eric. Now that she knows that his mother was her first victim, she is slightly unnerved to be around him. He, however, is insistent on staying by her side; she doesn't understand it at all. Throughout the journey to Kingman, she was trying to explain to him that she ripped his mother's heart out. Eric assured her in the RV that he forgave her for everything she's done and wanted to do — just as how his mother said she forgave Mira, as she tore through her chest, searching, seeking for her heart, killing her. But it is not only that, she tried to remind to him; she's the reason why his father became abusive, why his brother, Chris, is dead — she didn't just rip his mother's heart, she ripped his whole family apart. And yet, he still sat by her side, smiling, forgiving, loving.

She was, and still is, completely befuddled by this: why doesn't he hate her? She wants him to scream, be angry, and hate her. She needs to satisfy a strange want to see these emotions spill out of his heart — and, for the first time in her life, she means this metaphorically, not literally.

Mira is unable to shake off this strange feeling that his presence evokes in her . . . guilt? Not exactly. Remorse? Perhaps she feels it, but that's not quite the feeling she is trying to classify. She can't properly define the emotion, at least, until she goes to bed that night in the motel near Carlos's apartment.

She sees flashes of blood in her sleep, — though, the sensations are too real to be a dream, which makes her believe she is recalling one of the many timelines of the Decision Games — and sees herself digging a familiar, memorized path through a ribcage with a knife and her bare hands; she feels the flesh when finally being able to touch the soft tissue of the body's heart; in her ears, she hears his voice whisper almost the exact words as her first's last words as his blood-covered, smiling, motionless face comes into view.

Eric.

She is startled awake with a gasp. She is covered in a thin sheen of sweat, she is panting, and it takes her a minute to realize that there is that dysfunctional thing of hers pounding against her ribcage. Why is her heart beating so fast? Usually, all of this only happens when Mira exercises or runs, but this is an exception.

Her eyes quickly flit to Eric, a strange feeling of relief washing over her when she sees he is safely sleeping beside her. She tries to calmly think over her dream and comes to the conclusion it is one of those night terrors that she has read about in books. She has noticed that the nightmares elicit feelings of fear and distress that can cause the reactions she is experiencing at the moment.

Her dream of that presumed timeline turned into a nightmare for her when she saw that it was Eric's heart she was seeking — it was what caused the fear and distress. This is how it feels to be in fear and distress? She wonders why she would even feel like this in the first place, since she has always planned to kill Eric for his heart. She tries to think about doing it again, just for her internal argument's sake, but an unexpected shudder runs through her body. The thought suddenly seems awful and unbearable, which astonishes her. What is going on with her?

One thing is for sure, though. After that awful dream, Mira doesn't need to touch a heart to realize that the strange, indescribable emotion she has been feeling whenever she now sees Eric may be shame.