Inverse System

Earlier…

Reggie caught the collapsing Core before he hit the ground, blood running through his mouth and ears.

"The hell? Core..?" There was a long silence, receiving no response from the blue-haired man.

"Master Reggie, please set him down on the ground," said D8 as she ducked down to listen to his breathing.

"..." She didn't say anything. She just had a confused expression plastered on her face.

"What's wrong..?" Reggie asked as he also ducked down, feeling no air come out of his mouth.

"No way… He's… Dead?" Reggie uttered, putting his hand on Core's stomach. Give me a second, I can find out his symptom…" He said, using the Greybrewer family autopsy technique.

"Nothing… I can't get a read on what made this happen…" His words made Chloe, who was still resting on D8's back, twitch, then stand up.

"I can… Get him to breath… With my Spring..."

"Please just rest princess. I don't know how, but he has died. This is an abnormal amount of time though, he usually recovers within 10 seconds. He should be recovering any second now."

Chloe put her shoes back on, and it wasn't until about 40 seconds in until Core opened his eyes again, sitting up from his death.

"Thank goodness you are alright master, you had us worried," D8 greeted him.

"I had you worried? How long was I out for?" He asked.

"About 40 seconds. You spit up blood through your mouth and ears all of a sudden, we have no clue how though…" Reggie informed him, which made Core think to himself.

"That's weird… What could this mean? I randomly spewed blood from my ears and mouth? Maybe… that sound Spring earlier was poisonous, and whoever was hit by it dies after a certain amount of time?" As he said that, the group dawned on an awful thought.

"Then that means…" Chloe uttered, thinking back on who else was hit with the Spring.

She shot up, forgetting her exhaustion, and sprinted to the center of the volcano, followed by the rest of the group who shortly caught up to her.

"Hey, it's just a theory! I'm probably wrong!" Core yelled as they continued running down the long tunnel that took Clyde and Quint 10 minutes to cross.

"..." Chloe didn't say anything back. She continued down the tunnel, with a devastated expression on her face.

As they continued down the tunnel, they heard a voice call out to them.

"Why are you guys in such a hurry?" It said. They immediately recognized the voice, Chloe immediately calling out after it.

"Rein? Is that you? Where are you?!" She asked frantically.

"Look up," he was sitting in a hole above them that lead to the surface, all of them hadn't noticed it as they were so tunnel-visioned. He dropped down in front of them, all of them looking like they had just seen a ghost.

"Woah, you guys look relieved to see me. Did you miss me that much?" He said jokingly, Chloe suddenly hugging him, pressing her face into his chest.

"I'm so glad… You're okay…" She regained her exhaustion, as she collapsed in Rein's arms. Rein caught her, then held her light body up.

"What happened Chloe?" He asked as held onto his ripped shirt while he was still holding her.

"We thought you were…" Chloe didn't say anything after that. Rein looked at Core, who explained the situation to him.

"You collapsed while coughing blood from your ears and mouth? And you thought the same would happen to me?" Rein re-told their words to him as they continued down the tunnel.

"Right. We thought the same would happen to you since you were also hit by the sound Spring," explained Core.

"Oh well about that… I'll tell you guys all about it later. We need to hurry to the center though. There was a weird blue light that came up from there."

"A blue light..?" Core said with a worried expression.

When they made it to the room, they saw Quint sprawled out on the ground, squirming in pain, trying to crawl towards the blue plate in the center. They saw a man with brown hair and green eyes standing on the plate, with his hands on his face in an irritated pose.

"Hey D8, can you hold Chloe for a second?" Asked Rein, handing the princess over to D8.

"Of course," she responded, taking her off Rein's hands.

Rein ran up to Quint, who was still trying to crawl towards the plate, writhing in pain.

"Hey, what happened here Quint?" He kneeled down to ask him, Quint looking at Rein with tears in his eyes.

"They're gone… They disappeared… Clyde and Xenia…" He struggled to speak, crying out of pain and frustration. Reggie approached him and put his hand on Quint's stomach, closing his eyes.

"Looks like a metallic poison is in his stomach. If he's not treated soon, he could die…" Reggie summarized, using his family's symptom identifying technique.

"Metallic? I can extract it out then, would that fix him up?" Rein asked.

"The mercury already damaged some of his organs, but taking the rest out would definitely help," concluded Reggie, making Rein extract the mercury from out of Quint's mouth.

Reggie held Quint on his back, then Core walked past them, addressing the man standing on the plate.

"Galo the Green, mind explaining why there's a teleportation plate here?" Core asked him, making Galo turn his attention to him.

"You must be the leader of Checkmate. And that guy beside you… He must be Rein?" Galo inquired.

"Answer the question," Core ignored him.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, Clyde wasn't supposed to go through. We were after someone else, but I guess it's too late now," Galo scratched the back of his head.

"Where'd they go? Where does the plate lead to? And who were you after?" Rein interrogated.

"Sorry, can't spill the details about that. The plate's a one-time use too, so it's a pain that I can't even use it to get back," he snapped, un-amalgamating the gold Quin spit mercury on, then hopping on to it like a platform. "You captured Riskel, right? Maybe he'll tell you if you ask him nicely. I honestly can't be bothered," he said, flying out of the cavern on his floating gold platform.

"Shit, what do we do now?" Asked Reggie.

"There's nothing we can do… Principal Julianne gave us until tomorrow night to return, if we don't get back by then, we're expelled," stated Core.

"Yeah… Our best bet is to go back to the academy and—" Rein was interrupted by the man on Reggie's shoulders.

"Don't fuck with me."

Rein turned to look Quint in the eyes, having said those words. He didn't say anything to him, he just stared into his swollen eyes.

"If you think I'm going back without Xenia, then you've got another thing comin'," Quint said, struggling to stay conscious.

"You're kidding, right? Look at us. You're barely conscious, Chloe is down, and I'm fucking exhausted. More than half of our firepower is missing, and both you and Chloe need medical attention."

"..."

"We're going back to the academy and resting up. Trust me with this Quint, didn't I promise you something?" Rein asked Quint, making him remember. "As long as you get the ring on her finger, I can guarantee your sister's safety. Don't worry. I'll stand by that promise."