?


    "A strange dream?" Sam asked.


    "Yea." A little boy nodded. "My head started to hurt really bad, and then I heard strange voices, and I saw these reaaaaally strange pictures. But I don''t think it was real. I mean, when I woke up it was all gone."


    "Do you remember what was in those pictures?"


    "Nope."


    Sam turned to the woman sitting beside him.


    "You said you found him passed out, right?" Sam asked. "Were there any signs of nosebleeding?"


    "Yes." The woman answered, looking a bit distressed. "I was nning to take him for a check up but… we were a little busy preparing for the evacuations…"


    "I see…"


    Sam wrote something down on his tablet, his mind in deep thought. After a few seconds the woman asked him a familiar question, one that every mother has asked in thest neen interviews.


    "Doctor, is there something wrong with my son?"


    "Hm? Of course not." Sam replied, wearing his fake smile to put her heart at ease. "Your boy is perfectly healthy, as the tests have shown. You have nothing to worry about, ma''am."


    Her expression seemed to change at that moment, her eyes widening a little before she turned away with a slight blush on her cheeks.


    "I-I see. That''s great to hear…"


    "Alright, only one more thing before you''re free to go." Sam turned his sight to the little boy. "Earlier when you were flying up in the air, did it feel like you were getting tired really fast?"


    "Yeah! I was having so much fun but then… but then I got really sleepy…"


    "I see." Sam said with a nod. "Remember to listen to your mom, And do not use your new superpowers, alright? We don''t want the monsters to find you."


    "... Okay…"


    The little boy seemed a bit disappointed as he walked out with his mom. After his meeting with the parents, Sam managed to convince them to allow him to personally do a check up on the children. Of course many of them were against the idea, but when he suggested that the parents can be present they finally agreed to it.


    Sam looked at the tablet in his hands where he had written down the data he managed to gather from the interviews. Most of them had simr answers to the questions he asked, which means they all went through the same process before gaining the ability to use halos.


    As expected, it all started when the strange wave washed over the world. Though the adults felt only a slight prickly sensation, the twenty children who would go on to manifest halos had apletely different experience. All of them reported hearing strange voices and seeing strange images in their heads. Some of them said that they felt like they understood everything they saw and heard, but at the same time it felt like they didn''t. It was like a strange hallucination that caused them a great deal of pain that eventually led to them passing out.


    Twenty children under the age of ten, all of them saw and heard iprehensible things that led to them losing consciousness. It was clear that those hallucinations didn''t juste out of nowhere, and knowing that the strange wave was the cause, Sam could only theorize that it had forcefully uploaded something into the brains of the children.


    The process was rather painful and the stress resulted in the children bleeding from various ces such as the nose, the ears or even the eyes.


    Another strange pattern was that only the children who were left on their own were effected. Those who were around adults only experienced the strange sensation on their skin.


    ''Do the adults work as some kind of deterrent?'' Sam thought. ''This doesn''t make any sense…''


    Then again, when did anything ever make sense?


    Logic has been flipped over its head ever since they arrived in this world. No, he was sure it began long before that. Sam had long since lost track of the absurdities he had to deal with, but if he had to decide on a point where it all started, it would be when he agreed to move to the forty sixth base at Alice''s request.


    ''Alice…'' remembering his white haired childhood friend, a strong sense of loneliness filled Sam''s chest.


    He wondered what she was doing at the moment, if she was safe, and if she was still angry about everything. Learning that she wasn''t who she thought she was must''ve left her with a much deeper scar than anything Sam could imagine, and because of that she decided to leave with Shizuru, the one other person who was in a simr situation to hers.


    With everything that''s happening to Nino Sam realized that Alice''s situation might be even worse. Unlike most Valkyries she had lived her life as Alice for more than twenty years. If she were to regain the memories of her past life a sh of identities would be unavoidable.


    In the end Sam never had that one conversation with Wolf. They tried talking about it many times, but in the end neither of them could bring themselves to think about it.


    Whatever the old man''s reason was, Sam didn''t care about it. The only Alice he knew was the Alice that has always been by his side since they were little. Though her memories before then were just a copy of the original Alice, the ones they shared were real and nothing would change that.


    Sam wished he had the chance to tell her that''s how he felt, maybe then she would''ve stayed with him.


    "Doctor?"


    His thoughts were cut when the door opened and Zero Three walked in. To ensure that the parents had nothing toin about, Sam had asked the Valkyries to wait outside until he was done with the interviews. Now that thest one has ended she was eager to return to her position as his guard, however when she came in she noticed he had a sad look on his face.


    "Ah, Three." Sam quickly wiped whatever expression he was wearing and reced it with his usual smile. "Did something happen outside?"


    "Nothing, really." Zero Three answered, staring at him for a couple of seconds.


    She turned to the door and nced outside. After a while she came in and locked it behind her before turning to face Sam once more, a hint of red on her cheeks.


    "Say, I know we don''t have the time but… it''s been a while since west got to cuddle..." She spoke with a smile, looking at him with upturned eyes as she fidgeted in her ce. "I mean, it''s okay if you don''t want to, but…"


    Now that she has mentioned it, he never had the chance to spend some time with the young Valkyrie on her own ever since he woke up after the battle against Shizuru.


    Right now they were in the middle of preparing for their next confrontation with the Olympians so it was unlikely that they would have another chance until everything has ended.


    After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Sam let out a sigh and motioned for her toe over.


    Three''s eyes lit up and she quickly walked over, climbed on hisp and wrapped her arms around him, burying her head into his chest with a satisfied smile on her face.


    Sam returned the hug and gently patted her chestnut colored hair. As her warmth slowly spread to him, the loneliness he felt began to fade away.