Jeanne listened to the Doctor list off every single chaotic stunt she had pulled over the past few days, her eyes fixed on Kal'tsit, who was striding toward them practically radiating murderous intent. She couldn't help but feel a flicker of pity for the poor soul beside her.
Midway through her tragic recounting, the Doctor caught Jeanne's expression. Sensing that something was terribly wrong, she turned around only to find Kal'tsit glaring right at her, her expression dark enough to cause anyone in the hallway to keep a safe distance.
"Jeanne, Jeanne, let's head back! I don't want to spend another single day on Rhodes Island! Besides, you have plenty of stuff to handle on your end, don't you? Why don't you and Kal—Mercy! Have mercy!"
Before Jeanne could even react, Kal'tsit stepped right up to them. But before the great strategist of Rhodes Island could utter a single word, the Doctor threw her arms around Kal'tsit's waist, begging for her life. The sudden move caught even Kal'tsit off guard.
Jeanne clearly saw Kal'tsit's eyes widen in genuine shock. She froze in place for a long moment, completely motionless, allowing the Doctor to cling to her while wailing for mercy.
Passing operators looked on with wide, bewildered eyes, as if a whole new world had opened before them. They stared at the strange interaction, suddenly feeling as though they had stumbled upon a major revelation regarding the two's true dynamic.
"Let go of me this instant!" Kal'tsit's voice pitched two octaves higher than usual. Though she tried her best to maintain a stony face, the wild twitching of her feline ears exposed the storm raging inside her mind.
"No, I won't! If I let go, you'll definitely make my life a living nightmare!" The Doctor refused to release her grip, holding on tight like a throw-a-fit child throwing a tantrum. Strangely enough, Kal'tsit didn't discipline her as usual; instead, she softened her tone, attempting to reason with her in a low, composed voice.
Well, well... I certainly haven't seen this side of Kal'tsit before!
Jeanne watched the spectacle with amused interest, her arms crossed over her chest. After a few moments, Kal'tsit managed to wriggle free from the Doctor's desperate grip, swiftly twisting her arm and pinning her flat onto the floor.
The Doctor instantly stopped crying and flailing, quietly lying there and waiting for whatever punishment Kal'tsit had in store. But as Kal'tsit looked down at her, her cold expression gradually gave way to a strange look of pity.
That look threw the Doctor off completely. Why on earth was this woman looking at her like that? Did she have something wrong with her head? Facing this version of Kal'tsit, the Doctor felt utterly lost.
"Forget it. I shouldn't expect too much from someone who has lost her memories," Kal'tsit murmured softly before releasing her grip. "Though perhaps it is for the best. At least this way, you don't have to spend every waking hour obsessing over those heavy matters."
She stood up, leaving the Doctor scratching her helmet in sheer bewilderment. Kal'tsit clearly had no intention of elaborating further; she had far more pressing matters to attend to.
"Do you have a moment? There's something I need to share with you," Kal'tsit said, stepping over to Jeanne and completely ignoring the Doctor on the floor as she led Jeanne away.
Only then did the Doctor realize that Kal'tsit hadn't come down the hallway to hunt her down at all—she had been looking for Jeanne all along, and the Doctor had simply thrown herself into the crossfire. Talk about a complicated mess...
Shaking her head, the Doctor dragged herself back to her room to continue studying the mountain of materials Kal'tsit had assigned her. According to Kal'tsit, those files contained vital knowledge she needed to regain, and a strict review was scheduled for the coming days.
"Don't take it too much to heart, she probably..." Jeanne began, attempting to mediate between the two. But despite the apparent tension between the Doctor and Kal'tsit, she couldn't help but feel that both of them were somehow secretly enjoying the chaos.
"I am not angry," Kal'tsit replied in her usual flat tone, exuding the distinct aura of an aloof cat that preferred to be left entirely alone. "She used to pull tricks like this all the time in the past. You've seen her do far worse, haven't you? If I lost my temper every single time, I would have died of sheer aggravation long ago."
Seeing how the stoic woman was clearly nursing complex feelings while stubbornly refusing to admit it, Jeanne simply chuckled and kept her thoughts to herself. There was no need to meddle; these two could figure out their own dynamic.
"Speaking of which, why did you come looking for me specifically? Did something happen?" Jeanne asked, genuinely curious about what could be so important that Kal'tsit would drop everything else to find her.
"We have made initial progress in our research on those Originium fragments," Kal'tsit explained as she walked. "It is exceptionally good news, so I wanted to share our findings with you directly—after all, I promised we would share all research results with you."
She was referring to the remnants of "dead Originium" that the Doctor had previously obtained from Jeanne. Back then, the Doctor had sworn to hand over any breakthroughs directly to her, and now it seemed they had hit a monumental milestone.
Kal'tsit led the way down the corridor. Jeanne vaguely recalled that this wing housed the primary research laboratories—the very place where the Doctor had locked herself away for days on end before her memory loss.
Stepping through the heavy doors revealed a whole new world. Arrayed throughout the vast chamber were countless complex instruments and high-tech devices that Jeanne couldn't even begin to name. Unaccustomed to such advanced setups, she looked around with wide, curious eyes.
Deeper inside the lab, Warfarin was staring at a small glass enclosure containing a single mouse as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.
Had Jeanne not known for a fact that Warfarin only drank terran blood—and hadn't partaken in quite a while—she would have genuinely suspected the elder leech was trying to quench her cravings by staring at rodent blood.
"You're finally here! Come look at how lively this little guy is!" Warfarin burst out the moment she saw them enter, flailing her arms excitedly. "Our initial trial is a complete success! I can feel it—we're going to be written into the history books of Terra! I'm going to be famous!"
"Quiet," Kal'tsit commanded, her icy voice instantly crushing Warfarin's wildly hyper mood. "Do not raise your voice in this laboratory. Excessive noise might disturb our only surviving sample, and I have no desire to see such a precious subject die from something so foolish."
Warfarin immediately shrank back, behaving herself obediently.
"This is...?" Jeanne walked over, staring in confusion at the tiny mouse inside the glass box. To her eyes, it looked like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill lab mouse. She turned her gaze back toward Kal'tsit and Warfarin for an explanation.
The two were still engaged in a quiet debate over the subject, though Warfarin was clearly getting thoroughly outmatched, looking like a misbehaving student trying to reason with a strict department head.
Left with nothing else to do, Jeanne leaned in closer to inspect the white mouse. It looked notably fragile, likely recovering from some recent surgical procedure, but otherwise showed no obvious abnormalities.
"Alright, let me walk you through our findings," Kal'tsit said, turning back to Jeanne after soundly defeating Warfarin in their argument. She adopted the authoritative posture of an instructor preparing a lesson, and Jeanne sat down dutifully to listen.
"As the Doctor mentioned to you before, she discovered that the Originium left behind after you use your unique ability is, for all intents and purposes, completely dead. That in itself was an extraordinarily rare discovery," Kal'tsit explained, pulling out a small, transparent piece of material that looked almost identical to clear glass. It was the inert residue remaining after Jeanne's power purged the energy from Originium.
"Under normal circumstances, such a thing is virtually impossible. Originium can be consumed, converted into energy, or pulverized into dust floating through the air. You can even alter its physical state, but you can never truly kill it. Prior to your arrival, no one had ever encountered dead Originium."
Warfarin, sitting beside Jeanne, nodded vigorously in agreement, chiming in to confirm the absolute uniqueness of the material.
Across the land, people had always viewed Originium purely as a mineral or ore. After all, in the eyes of almost everyone, how could anyone claim to "kill" a piece of raw metal or iron ore?
"However, using the unique properties of the material you produced, and building upon the series of research projects the Doctor conducted prior to her memory loss, we have uncovered a truly astounding application."
Kal'tsit's eyes sharpened as she uttered words that sounded almost too incredible to believe.
"A... vaccine... for... Oripathy."
Hearing those three words, Jeanne's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. She stared blankly at Kal'tsit, wondering if her ears were playing tricks on her.