There was pin-drop silence in the Control Room of the ORIGIN space station.
On one side were Star and Stripe, covered in pupilless eyes, and Skycrawler, with his eyes about to burst open. Both were suspended midair within a globe with a transparent, cyan boundary that carried a rule set up by Star related to the arrest of her and Koichi's corruption.
On the other side were three people.
Dr. Samuel Abraham was smiling ear to ear, fanatically, with wet eyes as if he would cry in the next moment.
Watching the scientist with absolute blankness on their faces were Alexander Becking, the Radiant of Gravity, and Gehrman Sparrow, the Faceless.
Only moments ago, Dr. Sam had revealed that he had come to the space station under Mr. Fool's direction to find Him… the real Him — making his words sound even more foreboding.
Slowly, Alex's thick neck creaked as he strained it to look down to his left. "Explain."
Gehrman Sparrow's Danger Intuition didn't even need to scream for him to know that it wasn't the Radiant who was looking down at him, but death itself.
Alexander Becking wasn't a man of emotions, but he certainly and obviously cared for innocents.
Perhaps that was one of the qualities Singularity had seen in him to choose him as a Radiant.
Since setting foot into the space station, Alexander had lost both his men to Rampagers.
Not to mention, all Rampagers, who were nothing but corrupted crew members of ORIGIN, were as good as dead, too.
The USA and other countries might have commanded Alex to bring one of these Rampagers back to Earth. If they hadn't, as they couldn't have known about it beforehand, then they would certainly send another team to collect the remaining Rampagers for experiments once he had taken Star and Skycrawler back to the planet. Because, at the end of the day, America would consider these Rampagers its property — its assets.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons Alexander volunteered to come to the space station.
Perhaps, he might have barged his way into the retrieval mission, despite the USA not being willing to risk losing another high-level asset, especially with communications with Star going cold.
In a way, Alex wasn't just here to collect Star and Skycrawler.
Singularity must have tasked the Radiant to make sure none of the corrupted individuals found their way back to Earth, even if it meant sacrificing himself… along with all other innocents.
So, finding that all this fiasco hadn't happened because of some foreign, unknown eldritch phenomenon, but because of the enemy Singularity had willingly allowed to linger…
Gehrman slowly looked up and saw fury in Alex's eyes.
That fury had a color — blue to the very extreme.
Slowly, that blueness condensed, becoming a boundary, leaving behind an utter blackness within it.
Instantly, Alex's blue pupils became black.
Instantly, Alex's eyes didn't hold pupils, but… two Blue Holes.
Gehrman's gaze dropped to the ground, the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
Singularity.
It wasn't just Alex.
She was furious as well.
And, even if this Singularity felt much weaker than the Singularity Dr. Blessed had met through Yoichi — the Radiant of Hope — in the past, She was still a shadow of something that was closest to a God.
[Fear the God who is close to you…] Miss Justice mumbled. [… not the Devil who is afar.]
Gehrman nudged his glasses, choosing his words very carefully.
"The sacrificial goat may only think Mr. Fool is guiding him," he said. "There are specific steps involved in receiving His guidance, as you must know. We can easily confirm who told the bald goat to come here, how, and for what purpose."
The blue radiance within Alex's eyes flickered.
[… It's possible.] Singularity admitted within Her Radiant's mind. [Let me confirm.]
Sensing something, Gehrman looked up and found Alex's eyes lacking the Singularity's presence.
Then, the Faceless' head snapped toward Samuel Abraham and found the man still grinning, as if the scientist hadn't even noticed when he had mocked him. But there was another, definite change about him as well. Behind the wetness in his eyes, his blue pupils dilated before suddenly expanding even more, becoming black, and gaining a blue radiance at the periphery.
This was the first time Gehrman had seen such a blatant use of authority by Singularity.
Conformity had already shown that He could possess a Quirk individual completely as long as the said individual lacked mental capacity, like the Nomus. Also, to some extent, if there were issues with an individual's mind, then He could manipulate such people as well, like Stain, Shigaraki, and All For One. To some extent, He could also push a Quirk without changing its nature.
But Singularity had always remained a mystery to the Apostles, along with what She was capable of.
The only thing that the Apostles knew about Her was that She could evolve an individual Quirk, giving it many new facets, as She had done in Bakugo's case… as She might have done in Alex's case as well.
This forceful scanning of a Quirk individual was a new finding, making Gehrman narrow his eyes, Miss Justice holding her breath within his mind.
If Singularity was scanning Dr. Sam's mind — if She was indeed capable of ignoring all mental defenses and an individual's will — then the moment She found out about Amon, who He was, where His actual body was, with whom He was sharing the Moon, and how He had already come to a tacit understanding with Dr. Blessed regarding His presence on Earth…
… Singularity would literally lose Her mind, going as far as to combine forces with Conformity to take out the parasites, as Dr. Blessed had initially feared.
And, when it came to parasites, the Apostles of Mr. Fool were the same as Amon and the Evil God's Monocles.
Presently, Dr. Sam twitched.
Along with the scientist, Gehrman Sparrow's hand twitched as well.
Noticing that twitch, Alex slowly put his massive hand on the Faceless' shoulder and squeezed. "Easy…" he said, his voice as cold as ice. "… don't try me."
The pin-drop silence returned.
One second.
Two seconds.
Gehrman's right cheek twitched.
But, just as Apostle Raven was about to burst into the Control Room, the Blue Holes within Dr. Sam's eyes vanished.
For a moment, Alex kept his hand on Gehrman's shoulder.
Then, slowly, he took his hand off before asking a simple question.
"Who…" the Radiant of Gravity asked. "… Who is Klein Moriarty?"