Hospital

Seifer watched after Yukino as she was taken somewhere to be looked after. Noel was already in a hospital room, and everyone seemed to be moving about. Through tired eyes, the blonde noticed Xat just... appearing... Though, it could of just been him being really tired. When Raiden approached, he was being helped up along with Rosalia. "I'd stay here... Right now, even with the loss of the units, you're one of the few able bodied people. We need you nearby..." it was sad words, and after he spoke, he flinched. Seifer was then taken to a room, being berated by the doctors who had worked on him after his ribs had been broken. He groaned about being berated, but didn't complain when they put him to bed, Rosalia in the same room.

Satoshi made his way to the third floor. When he stepped into the wing...it was obvious. They were all in rough shape. He hadn't been there, but from what he could tell, what they were up against was something that clearly surpassed what they had before. This wasn't your run of the mill destructive force.

This was being on the brink of total annihilation.

He sat, looking them all over. Honestly, he didn't know what to say. Nurses were flying in and out, tending as best they could. This was all just sort of...happening at once. As much as he wanted to speak to Yugure, it was looking more and more that Sephirot was right.

Trinity started to slowly calm down at the mention of being in a hospital, feeling slightly safe. However her face still looked like she was ready to panic. "W-What happened? Did someone...beat that thing? What happened to Famm and Fianna?!" Her voice had been soft when asking the first two question, but then grew loud with panic and slight hope in that they were alright. She had only recently learned to summon them and bond with them. Trinity had no clue what happened to them if they were to fight and dreaded the worse.

Raiden didn't want to admit he was right, but he was. He needed to make up for the units that were deleted and he wanted to study the energy from the Deleted units, but if he left here then something horrible could happen if they were attacked now. He felt like he hadn't done much, but he was one of the few that were still standing. He was one of the few that could still defend them.

That was when he saw Xat, blinking as he limped over to her. He tried to go to where she was being taken but it was closed and blocked off. It was true, everyone he knew was here right now. All the more reason he couldn't afford to leave yet. He went through his spare cards, the few that weren't completely ruined by the incident as well and started thinking about how he should improve upon what he already had.

Cero held his head, the splitting headache returning. He felt, no, heard something... Calling him? Walking forwards, he payed no mind to anyone else, and bumped into Satoshi before continuing on. Cero had a bad feeling about whatever was calling him, but chose to check it out anyways. Perhaps it could lead to an interesting development.

The doctors moved xat to a room and bandage her wounds to stop more blood from leaking. They then fixed her broken bones that were in her wrist and left shoulder. They then hooked her up to an IV and started a blood transfusion. They also realized that she had a concussion and were going to keep a close eye on her. Next to her was her decks and all her units felt anger towards Malice for doing this to her, but they were also really concerned for her well being.

Chronos vanished, continuing to be a prick.

Bashiro... was just honest with her. "Nobody could stop that thing, and I don't think those names exist anymore", the brawler spoke to Trinity.

Trinity's eyes widened as he talked about Sovereign, then looked confused at the choice of words about Famm and Fianna. "I don't...understand. What do you mean their names don't exist?!!"

"... They got deleted, like a lot of others."

Bashiro had trouble swallowing that himself when he realized how many Brawler victims there were. Narukami in general, really, as he showed concern for Carlos' Thunder Break Dragon as well.

Now Trinity understood. She had been confused when she saw Rias then Fianna and Famme just seem to slowly fade during the battle and even more when Famme and Fianna disappeared all together. Tears rolled down her eyes but she did not make a scene of it. Instead, she did the only thing she could think of doing. She slowly sang. Normally Trinity hated to sing in public, but there was exceptions. When a family or friend died, she'd usually sing to help slowly ease hers and the pain of others. They were usually songs of respect and sadness. Trinity's voice echoed through the hospital despite the soft singing, hopefully to the ears of those that had lost someone to the monster that was Sovereign.

Satoshi listened to the brief discussion passively. Deleted...meant being completely removed from existence. So both Hoshiko and Kizoku...were just straight up gone. Or parts of them, anyway. Well, that was awkward. And it likely meant that...

Right. So what happened to Haruka was likely something akin to that. He got part of himself removed from existence, and his family and Sera were attempting to deal with that. What Mizumi said to him now made a lot more sense to him.

He moved his seat over to what appeared to be Yugure's bed. He couldn't tell if she was awake or not, so he figured now would be a good enough time.

"Hey...you there?"

Bashiro held his face in hand, really unsure of how to help this poor girl cope. Singing seemed to be her choice, and the bustling activity of the hospital seemed to go quiet as they listened. The man placed a hand on her shoulder, a little reminder that he was still here, and he was listening more than anyone else. He wasn't even sure what the song meant, but it was beautiful enough, and her answer to the despair she's feeling.

That alone touched this scumbag of a man.

"I'm awake", Hikari breathed in irritable desperation.

Satoshi scratched the back of his head. "Sorry for not coming. I've been...gathering information, like I usually do." He gave a sort of weak half-smile. "Besides, judging by all this, I'd be here too if I didn't know what I was doing, right?"

Trying to lighten the moment didn't actually cover what he wanted to say, though. "I found out some things about Haruka...and I know a bit about these beings you saw in your nightmares. The Reapers." He sighed. "I didn't think Haruka wasn't from our world."

"... Better you didn't show up to get massacred", the Chosen Sword said something similar she always told others. It's better they don't come join to fight just to lose it. "If I remember right... Haruka and Sera are from another timeline."

This story Sera told back at the old HQ in the Star-vader invasion came to mind.

Right. This wasn't especially new information. "I met with Mizumi tonight and she told me about this stuff. She's taking care of Haruka right now. You've probably already visited him. But..." He frowned. "I think he's there, in his Uncle Toshiki's basement, and not here, because Mizumi knows something about the Reaper's power of deletion that we don't. And the only way to find out is somehow get down into that basement and see Haruka."

Of course, Satoshi didn't really have an idea of how to do that in a simple way. Perhaps this dinner excursion he was going to have with the girl at some point would provide a better solution, but really, it didn't look like they had much of a chance of getting answers.

Once her song was done, Trinity took a deep breath and let herself tiredly lay on the bed she was assigned to, though her tears was still there. She looked up at her savior with gratitude. "Thank you." Now she needed to figure out what to do. She couldn't let something like Sovereign to be running around and causing more pain. But she already lost two of her companion. Was it alright to risk the other witches to the same fate as Famm and Fianna? The thought caused a conflict within her, unsure how to proceed.

"I can... get a search authorized." Hikari breathed, ready to bust down the doors of Uncle Toshiki's residence if it meant finding a solution. More importantly, if it meant retrieving her beloved.

Bashiro sighed, rubbing the back of his head as Trinity went to her bed. His phone buzzed, seems like Jessie was back at Umano, helping in an effort to get people to hospitals. Good ol' Jessie didn't take after his older brother, little man's a saint.

"I wouldn't be that drastic. Sera's there." Satoshi shook his head. "If there's anyone who won't let him go until he's good, it's him. And if he's really still got Link Joker under his wing...I wouldn't mess with that."

He lightly pat her shoulder. "I'm going to see if Mizumi can get me in there. I need you to trust me on this."

"Bah, I don't care for Glendios' presence..." Hikari held her face in hand, visibly struggling with a growing headache. The stress of everything was slowly breaking her down, even when she was supposed to be resting. ... No, it was actually the fact that she was resting instead of fighting and plotting at HQ in the first place that helped stress her out.

"If you can do it, good. Otherwise... I'm barging in."

"Alright. One other thing."

He was going to get thrown out for this, but he had to. Satoshi reached for his leg, grabbed the holster and put the gun on the bed next to her. "It's about this. Apparently it's not from our timeline. It's also got connections to Cray, and for some reason, I'm the only one that can shoot it with this." He showed his marked hand. "Do you know why that is at all? Since you're one of the only ones to practice with powers tied to Cray, I figured maybe you'd know..."

Hikari immediately held a hand up to anyone about to rush in, letting them know it's a fine situation. Being the commander of the Resistance, they had to protect her with extra care. They lose her, the entire chain of command falls apart, and the whole army likely falls into panic soon after.

"I've... never heard of a gun like that before in either timeline I've been in." I can only assume it was designed specifically for you."

Carlos woke up... In an hospital bed. "What the-!?". There was chaos outside of his room and that was likely the reason he woke up. Doctors, nurses, everyone running back and forth carrying victims of the monster attack in the shopping district. A battle he lost because he wasn't prepared for something more than a simple cardfight. Everything he brought with him to that country and that he left on the hotel was with him in the room. He didn't know who brought his belongings to the hospital, but he needed to thank him or her because it was likely that there was no more hotel to come back.

The TV of the room was on, showing a report of what happened in the shopping district the battle took place - There was absolutely nothing left of it. Just a crater occupied the place where once most likely a city was located. All the lives lost thanks to that monster... Made Carlos feel sick. All the people he knew in his short stay were probably dead - Aoi, Sera, Seifer, Rosalia, Jessie, his brother... But, he thought, they were acquaintances at best. He didn't have to feel sad about them... But why was he crying then? Maybe because he was injured, or because he lost a cardfight to a monster from another planet, dimension or whatever... Or simply he couldn't just don't care.

Lowering his head, he noticed that in his lap was a Vanguard card. Once he picked it up, he noticed it was the card of one of his favorite Units - Thunder Break Dragon. Or that was what the card name said, as the illustration was all grayed out. "Just like Rosalia's card back then... It's like it was deleted from existence" He thought to himself as he hold the card. "I made a joke about this happening. I'm not a card collector so... Why do I feel like I lost someone important when I look at you, Thunder Break Dragon?" He said as a small tear ran down his cheek. He then quickly grabbed his deck case, located in the small table at the right of his bed and starting checking his cards. All of them were fine, including his Recklessness Dragon card. "It's a relief... You are fine" He said in a affectionate tone to his deck. If only he was that certain about the fate of his companions and friends...

With the coming of the next day, Raiden awoke from his rest. He had been looked at but he wasn't considered injured enough to warrant a hospital bed. It would probably sound strange if not for so many others who needed them. Raiden had some injuries and internal bleeding but he was able to be patched up rather quickly, leaving room in the hospital beds for those who weren't so lucky.

Raiden was now awake, looking for Yukino's room as he still had something to speak with her about. After searching and asking, he found the room, going inside as he hoped he wasn't interrupting anything important. "Yukino, we need to talk about yesterday," he said to her. He remembered she was cracking before and wanted to give her time to recover. Hopefully she'd been given enough.

"... What?" The commander was still a mess, her hair messily flowing apart, eyes tired, she was simply exhausted. Of course, she wouldn't sleep either. Doctors were scared to bother her, but were contemplating putting her to rest by force if necessary. The woman's icy blue eyes flickered about, trying to focus.

"Well...that's the thing. Haku told me it just...poofed into existence. Like it belonged to someone else who wasn't eliminated, and then---"

Wait.

"...Yugure. Was there a Seed who wasn't killed properly?" Getting peppered with questions from two people wasn't exactly something she was going to expect in a hospital bed, but this was the first time Satoshi could have a lead.