Gabe looked around in a slow, deliberate fashion, deeply nodding at each of the men present in the infirmary until his lips finally curved into a cheery smile quite unbefitting the heavy air of the room.

Gabe: "So the four of us are finally together once again. How nostalgic! No, in fact, vintage!" Once again glancing around, the mad scientist groaned loudly at the sight of the sour faces in the silent room. "Oh, come on people! What’s with the long faces! This is a historical moment and you guys act like you are on a Christmas dinner at your perverted uncle!"

The first to break out of the spell was Pabloc, who slowly reached for his glasses as he spoke in a thoughtful manner.

Pabloc: "Historical or not, there is no time to be carefree. This might be an important moment for the four of us but it’s also way too close to the worst-case scenario."

Soketsu involuntarily raised his eyes upon the scientist with renewed interest.

Soketsu: "Exactly what kind of worst-case scenario are we talking about again?"

Ahazkun: "The possibility where you don’t remember your past at all and all our plans will crumble because of that."

The mad scientist rolled his eyes and lightly hit the overly serious man in the back of the head.

Gabe: "Oh come on, don’t be so dramatic! He is going to remember everything, or I’m gonna punch him until he does."

Now it was the bespectacled man’s turn to roll his eyes in mild irritation.

Pabloc: "Here you go again with your barbaric methods…"

Gabe: "Hey! It may actually work! Ahaz said so!"

Ahazkun: "When I said it has a zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero eight percent chance of working, I meant it as a synonym of ‘No.’."

Gabe: "Oh, that’s a low chance all right…" Gabe nodded absentmindedly and then immediately flashed a grin at Pabloc. "Hey Pabloc, do you want to—"

Pabloc: "No, I am not betting five bucks on it. Drop it already."

The mad scientist clicked his tongue.

Gabe: "Tch. Party poopers."

Soketsu: "… Could we move onto the discussion please?" Soketsu interrupted. "This is getting us nowhere."

Gabe: "Meh, whatever." Gabe said as he sat straight again and cracked his knuckles, making sure Soketsu was looking. "But if words don’t jog his memory I still have my dibs on punching him first, right?"

The bedridden man blinked at the mad scientist and, for a lack of better options, turned to the tall man sitting at the end of his bed.

Soketsu: "Is he serious?"

Ahazkun: "Disregard him. He is just stupid that way. It’s you who we need to talk about anyway."

Soketsu: "I feel a little uncomfortable, but I guess it’s still better than listening to him."

Ahazkun: "Agreed."

Gabe: "Hey! I’m still in the room, you know!"

The two continued on with their conversation without even batting an eyelid.

Ahazkun: "So, first of all: Are you sure you do not remember anything?"

Soketsu paused for a moment. He would have also stroked his chin too, no doubt, if only he could move his hands. In the end he settled with lightly shaking his head.

Soketsu: "As I said, I don’t even know what you think I should be remembering, so no, I don’t suppose I do."

Ahazkun: "Then let me ask you this way: Have you ever felt that places you have never been before were familiar? Or that you know people who you never met before?"

Soketsu: "… Well, I can’t say I haven’t…" The man hesitated for a moment, but then remembered that he was supposed to be a bit more skeptical about things, taken his situation. "But isn’t that just… what is the word… déjà vu?"

Pabloc: "Normally? Maybe. In your case? Definitely not."

In the meantime Ahazkun raised his right hand to his chin and began studying Soketsu.

Ahazkun: "Good. It means there is hope after all. What about dreams? Have you ever had strange dreams about the events of the Reckoning War?"

Soketsu’s eyes immediately snapped back to the oracle with a dubious glint.

Soketsu: "Wait a moment…What does the Reckoning War of all things have to do with this situation?"

Ahazkun: "Everything. Everything ended there and began anew." Ahazkun’s voice suddenly dropped into a low whisper. "Your fate was intertwined with ours in that orchestra of deceit, both as composer, conductor and performer."

The bedridden man blinked at Ahazkun as slowly as he could manage, but since the message apparently didn’t get through, he caustically added:

Soketsu: "… Okay, now you are just being cryptic…"

Pabloc: "Agreed." The bespectacled man brought a chair over in the meantime and took a seat next to Soketsu’s bed as well. "I think it’s in our best interest that I take over from here."

At first it seemed like Ahazkun wanted to object, but a subtle but sharp glare from the scientist made him reconsider.

Ahazkun: "Very well. I will look into the exact probabilities of the current situation, please don’t disturb me."

Saying so, the tall man suddenly slumped his shoulders and began staring at the floor in a manner that Soketsu could best describe as if he was actually staring into the inside of his own eyeballs, though even he had no idea why he had this thought or how that would actually work. In the end he let out a small sigh and tried to shrug his shoulders, though the searing pain in his joints quickly discouraged him from the latter.

Soketsu: "I really don’t get you people…"

Pabloc: "No wonder. We are really not showing our best side here." Pabloc grumbled while producing another sneaky glare, this time aimed at the mad scientist absentmindedly scratching his ear on the other bed. Unlike the oracle, he didn’t seem to care, so the scientist turned back to Soketsu. "Anyways, could you tell me everything that you actually do remember?"

Soketsu: "About the Reckoning War?"

Pabloc: "Exactly."

With a small gesture of his hand Pabloc beckoned a small writing table from the other side of the room and it obediently flew over to him and landed in his hand. He pulled out a pen from one of the many pockets of his white MD coat and nodded to Soketsu.

Pabloc: "You can begin now."

The man blinked at the scientist a few times, trying to comprehend just what on earth he wanted to write down, but in the end he decided to just go with the flow for the moment.

He took a deep breath and collected his thoughts as much as the blunt pain of his bones and his fatigue would let him and spoke up with a quiet voice unbefitting his large frame.

Soketsu: "I never really studied history, so please excuse me if my knowledge of the events is a little… spotty. If I remember well, which I might not, it was a war between the… I think it was called the Fairy Nation and some other army. It lasted only a few days and then Nov’Elsfaan descended to stop the battle between the two leaders."

Pabloc: "And those leaders were?"

Soketsu: "One of them was the founder of the Order, the First Prophet, Gabriel Zhul…"

The mad scientist in the other bed coughed in a manner that could be called anything but inconspicuous and winked at Soketsu, who visibly twitched in response.

Pabloc: "And?"

Soketsu: "Errr… yes." Quickly recollecting himself after the intermezzo, Soketsu steeled his expression again. "I don’t know. I’m not even sure his name was recorded."

This time Gabe shuffled beside the still concentrating Ahazkun and began pointing towards him while repeatedly winking at Soketsu. After a brief moment of shuddering the injured man turned back to Pabloc with an exhausted expression.

Soketsu: "Is he always like that."

Pabloc: "Hm?" The scientist glanced up from the paper in his hand, but by that time Gabe was already back under his blankets and smiled at him like a well-fed cat. Pabloc tweaked his glasses and turned back to his patient. "You will get used to it after a while. Just pretend he is not there."

Gabe: "Hey, that’s not very nice."

Pabloc: "So then," Pabloc slightly raised his voice while turning his back on Gabe, "What do you know about Nov’Elsfaan?"

Soketsu: "Nov’Elsfaan is the living god whose infinite wisdom—"

Pabloc: "I meant the historical Nov’Elsfaan."

Soketsu: "Oh." It took the man a second to collect his thoughts on the matter before speaking up again. "He is the physical god that descended from a higher plane of existence and disappeared shortly after he shared his wisdom with the First Prophet."

Once again Gabe started gesturing towards himself. Following Pabloc’s advice and paying him no attention made him stop pretty fast this time.

Pabloc: "All right. Our last topic is the Devastation. What can you tell about it?"

Soketsu: "The Devastation?" Soketsu grumbled. "What does it have to do with the Reckoning War or Nov’Elsfaan?"

Pabloc: "Actually, they are linked quite tightly." Pabloc declared while adjusting his glasses. "But back to the original topic: The Devastation?"

Soketsu sighed in resignation and once again began organizing his memories.

Soketsu: "The Devastation… It came about a year after the end of the Reckoning War. Maybe two. I am not really good with dates."

Pabloc: "Never mind, just continue."

Soketsu: "So, it started with It suddenly appearing in one of the old cities."

Pabloc: "By ‘it’ you mean…?"

Soketsu: "It. The Enemy. The Grand Beast. The Devourer. It was this huge, amorphous black blob. Or a giant mechanical monster. Or a dragon. I don’t think there is one definite description of it, but it just appeared out of thin air and started wrecking the planet. "

Soketsu stopped for a moment as he noticed the scientist’s brows rising and bafflement.

Soketsu: "Did I say something strange?”

Pabloc: "No, just…" The scientist wiped his forehead and tweaked his glasses again. "Wow. Dragon? Really?"

Soketsu: "Well, they didn’t call it a dragon as far as I know, but it was pretty much described as one. Why?"

Pabloc: "Honestly? I’m just wondering what kind of incompetent idiots the Order is employing as historians. I mean, Christ! A dragon of all things! How do you even—?"

Soketsu: "Errr… I’m getting a little lost here…"

Finally the scientist focused his eyes on Soketsu again and let out an apologetic cough.

Pabloc: "Sorry, I got a little side-tracked here myself."

Soketsu: "No worries. I got pretty sidetracked as well. I mean, I came here to capture you and instead I am giving you a history lesson."

Gabe: "A very inaccurate history lesson." The mad scientist interrupted with a smug nod.

Soketsu: "Bite me. I am a Rover, not a historian."

Pabloc: "Gentlemen? Could we get back to the topic?"

Soketsu: "Might as well." Soketsu cleared his throat and continued in a level voice. "So when It appeared, whatever it actually was, all forms of electronic communications were disrupted by the Corruption. Do you want me to elaborate on that one as well?"

Pabloc: "You don’t need to do that. It’s only tangentially relevant, and we already know way more about it than you ever would."

Soketsu: "Good riddance. This is already getting pretty long."

Gabe: "Tell me about it…"

Soketsu: "It would have probably gone better if someone wasn’t interrupting us all the time…"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With that the two bedridden men proceeded to trade quips with each other. In the meantime Pabloc quickly skimmed over his notes and let a barely audible groan escape his lips in frustration.

Pabloc: "Just for the record, you don’t find any of these records you just told me strange in any way?"

Soketsu: "Well…" The man tore away his glare from Gabe and seemed to ponder for a moment. In the end he shook his head. "Not really, no. It’s just history."

Pabloc: "And you never felt like it was somehow wrong or incomplete?"

Soketsu: "Honestly, I wanted to get the lessons over with so ‘being complete’ was the last thing I cared about."

Gabe: "Hah!" The man suddenly cracked up with an amused grin. "He might not have his memories back yet, but that’s classic Soketsu right there!"

Soketsu: "And what is that supposed to mean?" Soketsu glared back at the less than flattering tone of Gabe’s words.

Gabe: "That you are kinda—"

Pabloc: "—practical." Pabloc interjected with a withering glare before returning his gaze to Soketsu. "Anyways, I suppose that’s all for the first phase."

Gabe: "Yup. Although I could have told you things would turn out like this. I mean, if official history was all that’s needed to jog his memory, we wouldn’t be here right now, would we?"

Soketsu raised a brow with a skeptical expression at Gabe’s words.

Soketsu: "‘Official history’, you say?"

Gabe: "Yeah. I guess it’s time to hear the proper version, right?"

Pabloc nodded in response and slightly shook Ahazkun’s shoulder.

Ahazkun: "Yes?"

The man opened his eyes wide for a second as if he was just woken from his sleep and looked at Pabloc. Before the bespectacled man could say a word Gabe suddenly put his arm around the oracle’s nape with a childish grin.

Gabe: "Morning, buddy! It’s time for your specialty! Info-dumping!"

Ahazkun sent a slightly annoyed glance at the mad scientist’s direction and swept off the man’s arm from his shoulder with a lazy swipe of his hand.

Pabloc: "Were you listening?"

Ahazkun: "Mostly. Our chances are pretty grim."

Gabe: "Here you go with your chances again. Like they ever did us any good on the first place…"

The oracle frowned at the mad scientist but in the end didn’t respond to his goading. He silently limbered up his neck and shoulders and focused his gaze on Soketsu instead.

Ahazkun: "Where should I even begin…?"

Pabloc handed him over his notes and pointed at the top of one of the pages with a small smirk.

Pabloc: "Here, we should start with the Reckoning War and then move on from there."

Ahazkun: "I see." Ahazkun quickly scanned over the pages, occasionally nodding to himself, and in the end gave an appreciative nod to Pabloc. "Thank you."

Pabloc: "Much obliged."

The oracle finally cleared his throat and looked over at the man in the other bed. Soketsu was looking at him expectantly, with curiosity and anxiety mixed in his gaze in equal measures.

Ahazkun: "The Reckoning War," With cold detachment, the man much less spoke the words than spat them out like they were a painful memory he would rather forget. "The part you know about the war seems reasonably correct. There really was a Fairy Nation led by the man about to say something stupid right behind me."

Gabe: "Hey! Using clairvoyance for things like that is cheating!" The mad scientist complained in an obviously tongue-in-cheek manner.

Ahazkun: "I didn’t use clairvoyance. I just know you."

Gabe: "Ugh… Touché."

Ahazkun: "Anyways," The man turned back to Soketsu like the previous exchange didn’t even happen and continued in the exact same tone. "As for the other faction, it was a hastily created army made of cybernetics and simians used for lab-testing dressed as Japanese assassins."

Soketsu: "… Excuse me?"

Ahazkun: "Please don’t interrupt."

Soketsu: "Say that before you try to tell me that there was an army of robot monkeys next time, thank you very much."

Ahazkun: "Cybernetic simians, but that’s beside the point."

Soketsu: "I beg to differ!"

Pabloc raised a hand a spoke to Soketsu while trying to keep his voice as level as possible.

Pabloc: "Please hear us out first. Things are going to make…" He paused for a moment and then let out a defeated sigh. "Some sense by the end."

The bandaged man didn’t answer for a while. In the end he dropped his shoulders and groaned in resignation, which Ahazkun took as a signal to continue.

Ahazkun: "As I was saying, it was a makeshift army that was led by me. Our goal was to cause an event so outrageous that the media had no chance but to focus all their attention to us, and we decided that a war between flesh and blood fairies and cybernetic simian assassins was about as good as we could get."

Soketsu: "Wait… Are you telling me the whole Reckoning War was a publicity stunt?"

Ahazkun: "In practical terms, yes." The man nodded with an expression of outmost seriousness. "We needed something that would draw the attention of all of humanity in one way or another for our future plans, and the war served the purpose and—"

Suddenly Soketsu raised one of his bandaged hands, albeit with visible effort, stopping the oracle mid-sentence.

Soketsu: "Okay, I promise I won’t interrupt anymore, but can I have two questions?"

Ahazkun: "Yes?"

Soketsu: "Right, so… First off, fairies are real?"

For a second the three men in front of Soketsu blinked at him in unison, like he just asked a question so dumb it took them several seconds just to process it.

Gabe: "Of course they are real! What kind of question is that!?"

The mad scientist seemed oddly upset about the issue, much more so than the other two, so Soketsu decided to quickly drop this particular line of inquiry and move on as fast as possible.

Soketsu: "Right, just checking. So, my second question is… Errr… You do realize that all of this happened more than three centuries ago, right?"

Ahazkun: "Yes?"

Soketsu: "Yet you say that you," Soketsu pointed at Ahazkun, then turned to the mad scientist. "… and you were there. Doesn’t that sound a little, you know, crazy to you?"

Gabe: "Actually, Pabloc was there too. He made the cyborg assassin ninja monkeys."

Pabloc: "Apes, and I told you already that calling them ‘assassin ninja’ is redundant."

Now it was the bandaged man’s turn to return the previously received incredulous stares to the sender.

Gabe: "Not to mention, you were there too, though I honestly can’t remember what you were doing back then. Painting the kitchen, I guess?"

Soketsu: "Oh, great— So now even I am three hundred years old." Soketsu rolled his eyes with as much flair as he could muster. "When was this supposed to start making sense again?"

Pabloc: "It’s a little more complicated than that."

Soketsu: "Really? Fantastic. More complicated is just what we need!"

Ahazkun: "Project Rebirth is a discussion for a later time, and I fear once Gabe finishes telling you the details you will wish you never asked."

Soketsu: "Why? Too gruesome?"

Pabloc: "Worse." Pabloc quipped gloomily. "Boring."

Soketsu: "… Oh."

Using the momentarily silence, Ahazkun quickly caught the reins of the discussion again by tapping on the notes in his hand.

Ahazkun: "Back to the war. As you know, Nov’Elsfaan descended during the final battle and thus the war ended. At least on the surface."

Soketsu: "What? I hope you are not trying to tell me that the war is still going on or something…"

Ahazkun: "Actually, there was no war to end there."

Soketsu: "Oh… Okay, so we have been talking about a war that was actually a publicity act that actually wasn’t even there. Yup, this just keeps getting better."

Ahazkun: "Would you please stay silent for a while? We are never going to get to the end of this at this rate." After a moment of intense staring contest Soketsu grudgingly conceded and gave a nod to the oracle. "You are technically right, except that it wasn’t a war to begin with. It was a giant experiment conducted by the four of us, following a tight script and every event of the war was planned out in advance."

Soketsu: "I have a bad feeling about this, but… What was the goal of this experiment again?"

Ahazkun looked eye to eye with Soketsu, apparently taking the new interruption in stride and spoke in an even dryer voice than before.

Ahazkun: "To summon Nov’Elsfaan, of course."

The Rover’s eyes first opened wide, not in shock or surprise, but in the almost childishly innocent pity one shows to someone clearly insane without actually offending them. The gaze meeting his own was, on the other hand, deadly serious, prompting him to narrow his eyes again and silently nod, apparently giving the man the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Ahazkun: "On a second thought, summoning might be the wrong term. All that we did was creating the exact circumstances required to gain his interest, and we succeeded with flying colors."

Soketsu: "So, even if I presume that what you are telling me is true and not just the ramblings of some madmen as they sound like… What does that have to do with me?"

Ahazkun: "That is the second part of the story. I could only predict things as far as Nov’Elsfaan’s descent, so we had no back-up plans when the Bahden Glis appeared."

Soketsu: "Baden what now?"

Gabe: "The dragon." Gabe quipped, an act which was immediately followed by the sound of several small objects crossing the airspace of the room. In the meantime Pabloc lightly cleared his throat and gave a small smile to Soketsu.

Pabloc: "What he means is the thing you call ‘The Enemy’ and such. And by the way, no, it was most definitely not a dragon."

Ahazkun: "It wasn’t as much a creature as it was a force of nature. It had a physical form, but the real threat was its Corruption spreading through anything and everything with an electrical current. The more complex the system the worse the Corruption wrecked it. In only a few days it leveled most of the developed countries just by courtesy of destroying infrastructure and driving people crazy, and then the rest was glassed with nuclear strikes to contain its spread. Of course it did nothing to the Bahden Glis, only killed even more people."

Gabe: "And made the thing radioactive, don’t forget about that." Gabe added while rubbing his forehead and tucking a handful of pens into his pocket, all the while sending annoyed glances at the bespectacled scientist by his bedside.

Ahazkun: "Of course at that point we did the best that we could, but our response was late. We could only defeat the Bahden Glis almost a year after it first appeared. By that time it not only destroyed most of the modern civilization, its corruption also destroyed huge swathes of the fertile farmlands wherever it went, leading to a worldwide famine on top of everything else. Even its defeat cost us dearly. "

Soketsu: "As in…?"

Pabloc: "You."

Soketsu abruptly glanced over to the scientist on his left, playing with the temple of his glasses.

Soketsu: "You mean…?"

Ahazkun: "You took it upon yourself to assault the Bahden Glis before it could move onto the only spared continent, even though the preparations weren’t ready yet."

Soketsu: "So you want to tell me that I was the one who killed the Bade—, I mean It?"

Gabe: "Well, technically mutual annihilation involves killing it, so yeah; I guess that’s what we are trying to tell you." Gabe told him with almost apathetic nonchalance.

Soketsu: "And I am here now because…?"

Gabe: "Ah, that was Project Rebirth. We collected all the bits of you that we could find and used them to send your Core into the future, that is technically our current present, to grow up so we could reunite again and have this lovely conversation." The mad scientist paused for a moment and then added, "By the way, your Core is like your soul, except it’s real and you can use it to make reality do a stand-up routine for you with some training."

Pabloc: "And then we followed after you by doing the same to our Cores."

Soketsu: "… and you did all this because…?"

Ahazkun: "Because the circumstances required to contact Nov’Elsfaan are lining up again in the near future and we need your help so that we can fix the world that we destroyed."

For a few second Soketsu was silent, face aghast and periodically shifting trough a handful of other, similarly horrified combination of expressions until he finally spoke again.

Soketsu: "So, just to see if I got this right… I am supposed to be the reincarnation of some sort of hero from three centuries ago whom, along with you, who are also reincarnated since then, first scammed a physical god and then fought the thing that destroyed the pre-Devastation civilization, and now you want me along for the second round?"

Gabe: "In broad strokes, yes."

The man stared at the mad scientist, then his gaze moved over to the other two men in the room. They all looked solemn but expectant at the same time. In the end he pointed at Pabloc and spoke.

Soketsu: "You are crazy," His finger moved over to Ahazkun. "You are insane," Finally he settled down on Gabe. "And as for you, I simply don’t know a word that can even begin to explain how mad you are!"

Gabe: "Tch. Harsh."

While saying so, the mad scientist threw off his blankets and started messing with his slippers. In the meantime Pabloc also moved closer and spoke in a reserved voice.

Pabloc: "I know this all must sound crazy to you, but please try to think about it for a moment and—"

Soketsu: "What is there to think about? You are all obviously delusional madmen, and I can’t think I single reason why I would ever—"

The sloppy sound of a hand hitting a hard surface echoed in the room for a moment, observed by two baffled pairs of eyes and by one victim who appeared to be a little slow on the uptake.

Soketsu: "Ouch!"

It took Soketsu almost a whole five second to actually speak up in complaint and reach for the top of his aching head.

Ahazkun&Pabloc: "Gabe!"

Gabe: "What?" The mad scientist raised his voice in protest. "I told you I will punch him if he didn’t remember! Did it work?"

For the moment Soketsu could only hold his head in pain. Probably because of his previous injuries the mad scientist’s comparatively weak smack echoed in his aching head like a hammer striking an anvil and he felt like his brain was about to split open from the pain, littering his field of vision with an entire sky’s worth of dancing stars.

Soketsu: What the hell are you doing you bastard!?"

Gabe: "Nope, it didn’t work. Let me try that again."

Before Gabe could move again, Pabloc suddenly appeared behind him and grabbed hold of his hand.

Pabloc: "You are not helping! You cannot do that to an injured person!"

Gabe: "Oh come on, just one more whack and he will be as good as new! It works on my old TV!"

Soketsu: "For god’s sake, someone get Jill over here already!"

Burdened by his headache and already high-strung by the previous discussion, Soketsu’s roared out with such frustration it seemed like the entire infirmary quaked in response.

The three other men in the room froze in mid-motion with varying degrees of surprise plastered on their faces. Gabe let down his raised hand with a small frown flickering in his eyes, only for Pabloc to push him away from Soketsu’s bed with excitement he had never seen in the man before. Or did he? It suddenly seemed hard to tell.

Pabloc: "Jill? Do you remember her?"

Soketsu: "Yes, that little fairy advi… sor…?" Soketsu paused as he was trying to make sense of the words coming from his own mouth. "Wait… How do I…?"

Ahazkun: "Please continue."

Soketsu blinked at the oracle. His face seemed so much more expressive than before, though he could not tell what actually had changed about him. At the same time, his lips involuntarily started forming the words flooding from a strangely alien corner of his own mind.

Soketsu: "There was this fairy… About this tall, green clothes, blue dragonfly wings…" Soketsu paused again, suddenly finding the idea of fairies much more plausible than only a few minutes ago. It felt both normal and really vexing, but he continued nevertheless. "She was always with him, like one of those little morality angels on his shoulder tugging at his ears whenever he was getting out of hand. If not for her, I am sure I would have strangled Gabe a long time… ago… I… Why is…?"

The man’s words slowly trailed off into confused mumbling, but by then Pabloc was already at his side and gently pushed him back into a half-lying position again.

Pabloc: "Calm down. Take a deep breath and try to organize your thoughts, one memory at a time. How much do you remember?"

Soketsu: "I… Don’t know. I’m a little confused right now."

Ahazkun: "It’s okay. It will be clear in time." He said, his voice full of relief and warm reassurance that sounded unusually profound from the stoic oracle’s lips. It somehow made Soketsu feel at ease for the first time since... he couldn’t even remember the last time. It felt good even though it was tainted with exhaustion and confusion.

He was still trying to tame his rushing memories when the door of the infirmary opened with a quiet hiss. In the heat of the moment the others probably wouldn’t have even realized it if Gabe didn’t speak up from the doorway.

Gabe: "I’m going home now. See you later."

The bespectacled man spun around so hard he almost dropped the syringe he was preparing.

Pabloc: "Wait, where do you think you are going?"

The man standing between the doorframes seemed uncharacteristically gloomy and gave an almost hostile frown in response to Pabloc’s worried words. It looked like it took a considerable amount of effort but in the end he managed to wipe away said frown and speak in a controlled voice.

Gabe: "Soketsu seems to be fine, so I have no reason to stay here. I was only staying here because the beds were comfy anyways. I better get back to my work."

He added ‘I have work to do…’ in a mumbling whisper that was just loud enough for Pabloc to hear, obviously not by mistake. After a moment of consideration the man in the white coat finally nodded.

Pabloc: "… Fine. I’ll call you if something happens."

Gabe: "You do that."

With those words in parting, the mad scientist left the room with heavy steps. Soketsu couldn’t help but take notice of the man’s expression, pained yet trying his best to hide it. It obviously didn’t work out for him.

Moments later a sharp spike of pain reminded him that he had no time wondering about such things. A staggering amount of familiar memories kept swirling within his head, and most of them went completely against the current mainframe of his past.

In the end he could feel a numbing exhaustion overcome him, no doubt thanks to some of the drugs Pabloc gave to him before the mad scientist left, and he slowly began slipping into a restless sleep, not entirely against his wishes.

After Soketsu finally fell asleep Pabloc returned to the medical apparatus he had been operating earlier with a conflicted expression bordering between silent contemplations and utter disbelief.

At the end he turned to the other man silently staring at the sleeping figure of their comrade and said;

Pabloc: "What were the chances of the punch-to-the-head approach again?"

The oracle sent him a sharp glance and answered in the driest tone he could manage.

Ahazkun: "Zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero eight percent."

Pabloc: "That’s…" The scientist seemed to be counting for a moment. "One in one thousand and twenty-five hundred million."

Ahazkun: "Roughly."

Pabloc fell silent while working on the medical equipment and then suddenly he let out a small groan.

Pabloc: "… I knew should have taken that bet after all…"