Celina held the giant seed in her lap, as every bone in her body shook with anxiety and exhaustion. The sailor outfit faded off her skin as she sat on her bed, replacing itself with her regular clothes.  She was not quite sure why she had elected to grab the seed and run, and in fact the decision was seeming more and more foolish by the minute.  The seed was heavy on her legs, so she set it on her bedspread.  It sunk into the mattress, forming an indention for itself in the fabric.  Sh ran her hands over the seed's rough, brown surface, as if expecting it to open and reveal some coveted treasure.  Receiving no response, she lay back on her bed and made an attempt to sort out what was happening.  Her prediction had not exactly come true--Assyrius wasn't covered in blood, after all--but that he had changed for the worse was painfully clear.  She wondered what relationship he had with that girl, and decided not to pursue the thought; instead she focused on the fact that her boyfriend was now, without a doubt, a minion of evil.  She supposed that this would not have been so bad if not for the additional fact that she was apparently a force for the opposing side. She was suddenly consumed by an overwhelming desire to not think about it at all, and in the spirit of that, she took the seed and pushed it beneath her bed.  Celina was a child whose bed had always been elevated several feet off the ground, making her prone to terror whenever she saw that her or arms or legs were somehow dangling over the edge, being that there was ample room for a hideous monster or psychotic serial killer to lie in wait.  However, it was also good storage space.  With the seed no longer in her field of view, she relaxed, curled up under her covers and buried her face in her pillow.

Miles away from Celina's bedroom, another person was also clutching at his pillow.  Charon was fighting the rising violence inside him, desperately trying to kill the foreign consciousness that was struggling for freedom.  He reached for his scythe and squeezed the blade, cutting open the palms of his hands.

"Go... away...," he whispered, smearing the cold, steel blade with blood, his breaths quick and shallow.  Images of Jada flashed through his head.  He saw her as Lumina and in jeans and a shirt, with her friends and alone.  He saw her eyes and her lips and her legs and her neck. His  throat tightened and he choked.  Weakness spread through his bones as his hands bled, and the presence inside him faded as his own strength ebbed.  He breathed in deeply, crawling towards a small table, one of his apartment's few furnishings.  His hands were still slick with blood as he picked up the phone.

Fuu chewed idly on a lock of Jada's snow-white hair, pawing the thick tresses that covered her bed.  His throat sounded like a quiet engine, akin to a cat, but still recognizably something else.  Jada, having grown accustomed to Fuu's taste for human hair, was doing her homework.  Dusk was falling outside, and the scent of her mother's cooking permeated the house's open rooms.

"Know any algebra, Fuu?" Jada asked, punching numbers into her calculator.

"What the hell is that?" he said, slightly muffled by her hair in his mouth.

"Didn't think so," she said. "Do you even know the name of your species?"

"I did... at one time..." Fuu said, releasing Jada's hair and crawling onto her lap.  His long tail arched into the air and slid around her neck like a feather boa, dangling and twitching over her math book.

"Don't you care about where you came from?" she said. "Your mom and dad?"

"They're all dead anyway," Fuu said.  He kneaded Jada's lap, speaking softly, as if he were imparting heavy secrets.  Jada stroked down his spine.

"How do you know?" she persisted.

"Because I do," he said.  "Why do you care, anyway?  You never asked before."

"Well, there were more important things at hand then..." she said slowly, still stroking his spine.

"Oh, okay," Fuu nibbled on Jada's finger. "I see how it is.  I only matter when there's nothing else to worry about."

"That's not true," Jada said, but the phone rang before he could respond.  Jada reached over, plucking the phone off its cradle.

"Hello?" she said.

"Jada," Charon's voice, shallow and breathy, rasped in her ear.

"Charon?" she said, recognizing him mostly because she didn't know many other people who always sounded like they were fighting for air.

"I have a really bad headache," he said, almost with a whimper.  He wasn't even sure why he was calling her.  He merely wanted someone to share in his misery, and her phone number was the only one he had.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He.. he came back again," Charon said hesitantly, knowing that he sounded like a refugee from an asylum.  He considered just hanging up, but nixed the idea, knowing that most people tended to find that offensive.

"Do you need anything?" she asked, and he was quietly delighted by her concern.

"No...yes... I don't know," he said.  His voice was soft and weak, as though he had just emerged from a battle (which, in a way, he had).

"Look, we're going to have dinner soon, why don't you come over?" Jada said impulsively, ignoring Fuu's growl.

"But, what if he--" Charon began, but Jada cut him off.

"Just don't think about it.  Come on," she said, gently coercing.

"I...okay," he said.  It wasn't like he had anything else to do, besides wallow in self-pity and loathing.

"Good," she said. "See you in a few."

Jada hung up the phone and left to tell her mother about the newly invited guest, leaving Fuu alone on the bed.

"It is too," he mumbled, curling beneath her sheets.

Kaitlyn sat between Jigoku and Etienne, sipping her latte nervously as the two men attempted to burn holes into each other's heads with their eyes.  The bond they had formed the other day had proved itself temporary, dissolving as soon as one saw the other sit down at the table.

"So," she said, "How is everyone?"

Etienne and Jigoku's glares broke into weak, temporary smiles as they turned their eyes to Kaitlyn.

"Fine," they both answered, their eyes snapping back to one another as their expressions darkened. It would have been almost comical, had Kaitlyn not been in the middle of their staring match.

"Would you guys please stop that?" she said, attempting to slam down her coffee cup but succeeding only in producing an irritated clink against her saucer. "We're all friends here."

"Drunkards aren't my friends," Jigoku muttered.

"I haven't had a drink in weeks!" Etienne cried indignantly, prompting stares from the others in the cafe.  His face flushed a violent scarlet and he fixed his eyes on his coffee as Jigoku suppressed a snicker.  Kaitlyn sighed.

"You're behaving like children," she said. "You guys are older than me.  It's kind of embarrassing."

Her voice faltered as she finished chiding, as though she felt her last words were harsh despite their veracity.

"Sorry," they mumbled sulkily.They lapsed into a tense silence until Jigoku finally said, kindly,

"Have you really not had a drink in weeks?"

"Yes," Etienne mumbled, and proceeded to explain Omnes's torture of his soul.

"Definitely something he'd do," Jigoku agreed, in the manner of one speaking of an old friend.

"You've known him long, I guess?" Etienne said.

Kaitlyn sat in mildly miffed silence as the two launched into a discussion about Omnes, in which they both mostly lamented their relationships with him.  While she was pleased that they had found another patch of common ground, she was somehow disturbed by the fact that it was Omnes.  Kaitlyn politely waited until the conversation stagnated, and then said,

"I don't suppose you guys know what happened yesterday?"

"Oh..." Etienne said, as if recalling something. "You were late home from school..."

"Yes, we fought... hard to tell whether we won or lost, though," she said, taking on a bemused tone as she told them of the new senshi who had run away with the seed.

"Well, that's not good," Jigoku said.

"Nope," Kaitlyn said, staring into her drained coffee cup. "Have any advice?"

"Don't know what you could do," Etienne said. "Seeing as how you don't know who it is."

"I know," she sighed. "I feel like I've seen her before, but I can't place the face."

"I'm not surprised," Jigoku said. "You know, your aura shifts when you transform, despite the fact that all you really did was suddenly change your clothes.  It's a kind of glamour so no one recognizes you.  Omnes told me about it..."

"That's handy," Kaitlyn said.

"Isn't it?" Jigoku drank the last of his coffee as well.

"Maybe she'll turn up next time," Etienne said, half-heartedly optimistic. He stood up from the table, having finished his hot chocolate long ago.  They walked to the bookstore's entrance, though Etienne reached it first.  He held the glass door open for both Kaitlyn and Jigoku, and Jigoku's civil 'Thank you' brought a little smirk to Kaitlyn's lips.  The civility lasted as long as the second leg of the walk, when they reached her car.

"At least you guys aren't at each other's throats anymore," Kaitlyn said as she settled into the driver's seat.  She glanced back at them.  They were regarding each other sullenly, having just ended a dispute over shotgun in a draw.

"For now, anyway," she mumbled.

"Remind me not to send you on a solitary mission again," Amethyst said, glaring at Assyrius reprovingly.

Assyrius trained his eyes on the table in front of him sheepishly.  He, Amethyst, and the others were gathered in the bar, once again just a few hours before it was due to open. Pathos was in fact preparing buckets of ice and cleaning the counter as they sat, doing his best to listen as he worked.

"Should have killed the boy," Harmatia said, after hearing a recounting of the events from Assyrius.

"No," said Amethyst, "trails of blood are too easy to follow."

"No fun," she pouted, though next to her, Peripetaia looked relieved.

"Where's the next location?" she interjected.  Her eagerness to switch subjects was masked by her soft, brittle voice.

"I'll get there," Amethyst said, though she was already taking off her earring. "We must recapture the seed that was stolen.  If these girls appear at the next location, incapacitate them--"

Amethyst paused at Harmatia's excited expression.

"Do NOT kill them.  I need only to discover where the seed was taken."

Harmatia's face fell.

"Can I go, at least?"

Amethyst positioned the crystal over the map, which was spread out over the table.

"Yes." She raised her voice slightly, for Pathos's benefit, "All of us will go."

His dismayed reaction at this was hidden by the full mask he wore, but before he could open his mouth to object, the crystal reacted.  It was hovering over a diagram of the abandoned mansion, near the center of the town.

"Hm.. we may not encounter our opposition here, but we may as well get it out of the way," she said, as the image of a young man's scarred face, partially obscured by his dark brown hair, flickered in the crystal's light.

"When will we go?" Peripetaia asked. Amethyst looked at Pathos as she spoke.

"Tonight."

"But--my work--" Pathos started, taking off the mask, but turning his head, so that the ruined side of his face was not visible.

"She'll let you off," Amethyst said coolly.  Pathos blinked, and the insignia on his forehead greyed slightly.  Amethyst rose from the table and pressed her forefinger against the inverse moon, blackening it with her touch.

"You work for me now, Pathos," Amethyst said.  His eyes focused as she talked, and he nodded slowly, as though hypnotized.  The others were looking away. "Nothing matters but our mission."

She stepped away from him and turned her piercing, empty gaze to the booth.

"You would all do well to keep that in mind."

They exchanged looks, much like children who have just been scolded by their parent, and nodded submissively.  She smiled.

"But...what if the target isn't there?" Peripetaia ventured. "That house really is abandoned--no one lives there.  It's condemned, in fact..."

"He'll be there," Amethyst said confidently, tapping the tip of her earring.

"Guess who's coming for dinner," Jada said casually, glancing at Rana, who was carefully laying out white napkins.

"Mom?" Rana said earnestly.

"Yes, but there's somone else, too," Jada said, patiently.

"Me and you?"

"Someone else..."

"Fuu?"

Jada shook her head, and Rana gave her a helpless look.

"Remember Charon?" Jada prompted.

"Oh, the nice man..." Rana said, her eyes brightening as she processed the clue. "He's coming to dinner?"

"Yep," Jada said, pleased by her sister's broad grin.  She figured her mother might take a little work, given Charon's appearance and general demeanor, but at least she had her sister's approval.  She remembered Fuu when he growled in his throat behind her and jumped on a chair, preening himself sulkily.  Jada didn't think there was any way to force the two of them to get along, and she silently hoped he wouldn't make a scene.

But, as it turned out, she did not have to worry, because Charon never knocked on the door.  Jada could amost feel her mother's disapproval as she frowned at Charon's empty seat, and Rana ate quietly, obviously disappointed.  What angered her most, though, was Fuu's smug, pleased expression.

"This isn't like him at all," Jada said finally, setting down her fork. "Something's wrong."

She excused herself, much to her mother's annoyance, and stalked up to her room, stuffing her transformation pen into her jeans before striding out the door.

"Jada, where are you going?!" her mother called worriedly.

"Out!" Jada snapped.  She was so intent that she didn't notice Fuu skittering out behind her.
 
 

Charon really thought he was going to make it.  He was, after all, over halfway to Jada's house when he passed the condemned mansion.  He slowed his walk as he approached it, reflecting on the events that had happened there in months past.  Ever since that time he had been returning to the old house periodically, having discovered something about it that drew him.  It was a beautiful house, with Gothic style architecture and weeping willows and wild rosebushes overgrowing in the front yard.  A carved stone table and bench stood, cracked and stained with water and age, beneath one of the willows.  Seeing it, Charon wondered what the house was like when it was new, and who had lived there, and what they were like.  In the moonlight it was eerie, like a picture from a horror movie.  Possibly one about vampires.

Charon walked to the wrought iron gates, and his heart began to throb as he stared at the stone path leading to the entrance, which was choked and half-hidden by grass and weeds.  Before he could stop himself, he was opening the gate.  He didn't even hear Jada call his name as he pushed open the decrepit double doors and walked inside.

"What the hell is he doing?" Jada hissed to herself as he disappeared into the darkness of the house.  She stalked up the path after him, with (unbeknownst to her) Fuu racing behind.  Charon was gone from sight by the time she crossed into the foyer, and she squinted into house's depths, searching for an open door or other sign of human presence.  Seeing nothing, she at last ascended the flight of stairs in front of her, each step creaking beneath her weight.  Fuu followed silently, being careful not to get his claws stuck in the fraying black velvet that covered the staircase.

"Charon!" Jada yelled, her voice filtering through the old, rotting walls of the corridor.  The house was enormous, as houses go--she was on the second of five floors, and above the fifth was the attic, while below the first was a basement.  Further below was an underground network of rooms, once used by Jada's old enemy Riordan.  The house was, oddly, fully furnished, and Jada was surprised that these furnishings had been left alone, since many of them were precious (if not damaged by age and use) antiques.  It was as if whoever owned the place had simply left one day and never come back, a bit like the deserted Native American villages historians had puzzled over for years.  The building had been officially abandoned for around twenty years, and the strangest part of it all was that no one knew the real owners.  Jada recalled reading a small story about it in an old newspaper, when she was working on a school project.  It seemed that, since no one ever left or entered the house, the general public assumed that the residents were just very private.  But in fact the house was in the legal possession of a person who lived several states away, and who had died a year before the article was published (which was, Jada further remembered, the year of her birth), leaving no mention of the house in his will.  Why anyone would simply give up--or want to forget--such a beautiful house was beyond Jada, but she realized that its history was not her concern at the moment.

She poked into every open door and rapped on the ones that were locked, yelling Charon's name periodically and just generally making as much noise as possible.  Fuu was appalled by her boldness, but at least she was too focused to notice him.

"Charon, I know you're in here, I saw you!" Jada shouted, stalking down the hallway.  She climbed a second stairwell and continued yelling, slamming doors and shaking knobs.

"I really wish you would stop that," a soft, female voice came through a door she was about to investigate.  Startled, Jada jumped back, narrowly missing Fuu's long tail.  He scuttled behind a desk against the wall, wrapping his tail tightly around his body.  He watched, trembling, as the door opened and a tall, emaciated woman stepped out, a long, blue dress swishing around her ankles.  Speechless, Jada gawked at the woman's gaunt face and deep, almost mournful eyes.

"This isn't a good night for you to be in this house," the woman said, never raising her gentle voice.  Black triangles facing downwards marked her cheeks, and Jada could see also the black moon symbol standing out on her forehead, violently contrasting with her sickly pale skin. This shocked her somewhat, as this woman looked far too kind--and far too ill--for a member of villainy.

"I...I'm looking for my friend," said Jada, recovering her composure.

"He'll be fine," the woman said. "Go home."

She was nearly pleading.

"I won't," Jada said stiffly.  The woman was silent, though her eyes were moving, running over Jada's face.

"As you wish," she murmured finally.  "He went to the attic."

"Thanks," Jada said, a bit put off by the woman's casual acceptance of Jada's will.  She lingered for a moment, and then thought to ask,

"Am I walking into a trap?"

The woman nodded. "You are."

"What's your name?"

"Peripetaia."

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

Jada leaned over, so that she was looking directly into Peripetaia's gentle eyes.

"What is your quest?"

A small smile touched the corners of Peripetaia's lips.

"I'm afraid that's one question I can't answer."

"Worth a shot," Jada said. "Thanks for the directions."

She turned away from Peripetaia and strode down the hall, towards the attic, and hopefully, Charon.  Peripetaia stood in the doorway, watching her retreating form. Then her gaze ran along the floor, pausing when she noticed Fuu's body crouched beneath a desk.  She reached down calmly and took him around the middle, hoisting him in front of her.

"I can't believe it.." she said, as she scrutinized her find.  "How could one of you end up here?"

"What are you talking about, lady?" Fuu growled, writhing and squirming, attempting to sink his teeth into one of Peripetaia's thin fingers.

"You don't know?" Peripetaia said. "You don't know the name of your own species?"

"Sure I do," he said, but his voice was wary.

"Then what is it?"

"None of your business," Fuu answered promptly.

"I already know it," Peripetaia said. "I also know that it's extinct."

"Obviously not, if I'm here," Fuu said, but he was panicky, and he added, "so there must be others."

"There aren't," Peripetaia said.

"How do you know?"

"Because my people wiped yours out," she said this without remorse, but without delight either, as though simply stating a historical fact. Fuu stopped thrashing.

"Who are you?"

She turned back into the room from which she came and shut the door, sitting in an old armchair and placing Fuu on her lap.

"Why don't you and I have a talk..."

He raised his eyes fearfully.

Jada panted as she stood before the attic door, having run up several flights of stairs to reach her current position.She stopped herself from dashing in, having the foresight to pull out her pen before facing  what was waiting in the attic.

"Lumina Power!" she cried, thrusting the pen into the air.  It reacted at the sound of her words, and within moments she was standing before the door, fully changed.  Lumina, in a fit of dramatics, kicked open the pliant door and strode in fiercely.  The attic, which had once been home to Riordan's daughter Rose, had been stripped of all the things that made it a little girl's room, leaving behind nothing but the layers of dust and piles of memorabilia that were there in the first place. Broken lamps, torn books, shattered picture frames, all sleeping beneath a gray blanket of dust and cobwebs.  Charon was on his knees, with his arms pinioned behind his back by a boy with black-blond hair as a girl with fathomless eyes reached for him.  His scythe lay next to him, useless.

"Charon!" she said.

His crimson eyes turned towards her, and his pupils contracted as her image filled his irises.  He broke free of his captors in a sudden burst of strength, an almost rabid expression contorting his features as he scrambled for his scythe.

"Holy Jesus," said the boy, who Lumina now recognized from the previous fight as Assyrius.  The girl (Amethyst, she remembered) was even taken aback.  Her attention splintered as she turned her head in the direction of Jada's voice and then back to Charon, who was walking quickly towards Lumina, brandishing the scythe.  His face was crazed, twisted into that of a man possessed.  In her peripheral vision, Lumina saw two others moving forward through the dust, seemingly intending to help detain Charon.  One was a tall, slim man wearing a mask that covered his entire face, with a blue-white ponytail resting on the collar of his black trenchcoat.  The woman next to him was infinitely more disturbing, in a lurid pink dress with wavy hair to match, and a look of murderous glee.  Lumina thought of a deranged doll sprung to life as she watched her move.

"Wait!" Amethyst said, and violent aggravation shadowed the pink woman's face.  The masked man halted and faced Amethyst expectantly. "Let's see what he does."

They all stopped, skeptical, but complacent.  Charon staggered unsteadily towards Lumina, his fingers clutched so tight around the scythe's handle that his nails were chipping off wood.  He stared at her, his eyes hollow.  He raised his scythe, his eyes shifting into a look of pathetic helplessness as Lumina watched, stricken with terror.

"I'm sorry... I can't fight anymore..." he whispered, and then the hollow gaze returned, accompanied by a hard, gravelly voice.

"What was once done will be so again," he said, and swung the weapon.  But Lumina was not his target--instead he spun the blade in a wide, flashing semi-circle that cut Assyrius's knees and the hem of Harmatia's dress.  Pathos and Amethyst were out of range, but Charon was now moving back in an effort to correct that problem.  Assyrius fell to the floor with a shriek of pain as blood ran down his legs and colored the dust around him a dull red.

"See what he does?!" he gasped. "See what he does?!!"

"Well, we all make mistakes," Amethyst muttered, focusing her energy at Charon.  She threw him back against the door violently, the force increased with her frustration at her misjudgment.  Pathos and Harmatia moved, with Harmatia grabbing a stunned Lumina around the waist and Pathos lifting a weakened Charon off the ground.

"Hee hee hee," Harmatia cackled. "I think you need a better bodyguard."

Lumina's eyes widened painfully as she felt a knife bite into her lower arm.  She squirmed involuntarily, noticing the array of weaponry strapped to Harmatia's legs as she did so.

"P-prepared, aren't you?" She stammered as her own blood trickled through her fingers, unnerved by its warmth.

"Oh, yess..." said Harmatia, with a furtive glance at Amethyst, who was helping Pathos re-capture Charon.

"You know, I could cut your throat open...call it self-defense..." Harmatia mumbled, half to herself.

"I didn't do anything to you!"

"It's not you, it's your filthy species," Harmatia hissed, and the knife Lumina couldn't see dug deeper into her skin.  The pain was quick and sharp, and she jerked away so hard that Harmatia lost her grip.

"Well, whatever we did to you, it wasn't my idea, okay?" Lumina snapped, wincing as she raised her arms. "Lucent Beam!"

Her shout filled the attic as beams of light shot through the room, striking Harmatia across her cheeks, arms, and legs.  Harmatia howled--quite literally.  There was something wolvish and animalistic in her strangled reaction that disturbed Lumina.  This disturbance was augmented when Harmatia's body began to shift, reforming itself into an enormous, claw-and-fang bearing wolf.

"My God!" Lumina cried, stumbling with renewed shock at the sight. "A werewolf?"

"Not quite," Harmatia said nastily, pouncing Lumina and tackling her down to the wooden floorboards. Since Assyrius (still on his knees, but trying) and Pathos were trying to help Amethyst restrain Charon, none of them took much notice of Harmatia's change. "This ability is always available."

Lumina examined the white triangles that marked Harmatia's fur, and thought of Reve, who could transform at will into a cat.  She wondered if he was possibly of Harmatia's same species, but didn't have much time to ruminate on the matter, as Harmatia's open jaws were fast closing on her neck.  Screaming, she kneed the wolf with all of her terrified strength, an action which did not do much but annoy Harmatia.  She snarled, pulling back and clamping her sharp teeth together, as though she had just remembered something.

"Where is the seed?" she said. "Tell me and I might not rip out your jugular."

"I don't know!" Lumina said, struggling for air as Harmatia's considerable weight bore down on her ribcage.  She screamed again as Harmatia raised a giant paw in fury.

Far below the attic, Fuu heard her.

"Jada!" Fuu cried, interrupting Peripetaia mid-sentence. "I know that shrill yelp of terror anywhere!"

"Do you think you can help her in that body?" Peripetaia said irritably, nonplussed at his rude interjection.

"I--no--but--" Fuu stuttered. "Weren't you saying that we could--that I could--"

He was frantic, his tail twitched as though in a spasm, waving every which way.

"Yes," Peripetaia said. "You can change your form.  I can't imagine how you wouldn't know how, though..."

"Well, tell me!" he pleaded, pawing her leg.

"It's innate," she frowned. "You just have to focus on it, I suppose.  Calm down."

"CALM DOWN?!" he said. "How can I CALM DOWN?!  What if she's DEAD?  I KNEW that Charon guy was psychotic--I bet he's killed her--"

"You're going to have to relax if you want to change," Peripetaia said.  He stopped, breathing in deeply, causing his furry belly to contract and then expand as he exhaled. He put Jada's impending doom out of his mind with great difficulty and focused on having legs, arms, hands, and all the rest.  He formed an image of what he might look like as a human in his mind's eye, and it was surprisingly clear.  His body began to shift as he concentrated, an ancient magic reviving in his veins.  He was growing taller--his limbs were lengthening--his fur was disappearing.  When at last the transformation was complete, he was sitting in Peri's lap--almost human.  He was nearly feral in appearance, with long claws for nails and slits for pupils.  He retained his fangs, though they were considerably smaller, and his lengthy tail wiggled high above his head.  His ears pointed outward, and on his face was a black mark that resembled a primitive drawing of a sword: a thin, black triangle with tiny rectangles on either side, like a hilt.  He wore nothing save for a tattered pair of black shorts.

"Wow," Fuu said, jumping off Peripetaia's lap. "Wow."

"Ah...the Gladii," Peripetaia mumbled, but Fuu was too impressed with himself to hear.  He stared at his face in a nearby mirror.  His eyes were mis-matched--one red, one green--and his short hair was a creamy brown that faded to white at the tips.  He touched the mark on his cheek, but another shriek from the attic broke his self-fascination.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, wishing they could talk more.

"Think nothing of it," she said, as he stumbled out the door, not being used to having legs. "Perhaps I'll see you again sometime..."

"Jada!" Fuu said, without thinking. "Er.. I mean--Lumina!"

She and the wolf both raised their heads, and Fuu took the opportunity to administer a swift kick in the side to the wolf.  He felt the blow resonate through his body as the wolf fell, and he was surprised by his own power.  Lumina saw his tail and said, dumbly,

"Fuu?"

"Yep," he said, helping her up.

"I didn't know you could..."

"Neither did I," he said, "till just now."

Meanwhile, Harmatia recovered and turned, growling ferociously.

"I'll kill you both!"

But Lumina wasn't listening.

"Charon!" she said, holding out her blood-stained palms.  "Lucid Barrier!"

A ring of light encircled her, Fuu, and Charon, shimmering gold before twinkling and disappearing.  Amethyst and the others were repulsed by the magical field, and Charon took up his scythe again.

"Fools," Amethyst snapped, bringing them to their knees with another psychic blast, "I don't need to touch you to hurt you."

Charon massaged the side of his head, which had met with the sharp edge of a mahogany table. A stack of books crashed down beside him, opening on their spines as they hit the floor.  Most of them had pages torn out, with the remains stained and yellowed with time.  Charon got to his feet, using the scythe's handle for support and pressing his hand against one of the open books as he stood. As he lifted his hand away, he saw that the particular book beneath him was not a book, but a photo album.  Each page held two photographs, which were in color but still showed signs of age.  In three of the four that lay on the pages before him, a boy with short, dark brown hair and cloudy crimson eyes stood, beside his family and friends.  The boy's white skin was free of scars, but Charon knew that the relation was unmistakable.  The sight of his younger self broke the grip of his other conscious, and he picked up the album, his hands trembling as he turned the pages.  The others in the room were mildly perturbed by this--after all, they were in the middle of a battle, or so they all thought.

"Charon?" Lumina said, crossing the room to stand next to him.  She peered over his shoulder and at the photographs, unable to contain a small gasp. "Charon--is that you?"

"I.. it is," he whispered, turning another page.  The top left photograph caused his insides to twist.  It was a portrait, of a man who bore some resemblance to Charon and the other members of his family, but his eyes were entirely gray and his hair was black.  The longer he looked at it, the more nauseated he felt--but he hadn't the faintest clue why.

"Do you think--this is your house?" Lumina said.

"I don't know," he said, closing the album and turning it over.  A gold plaque on the cover had the name 'Asteri' engraved into it.

"Of course it's his house," Amethyst said, as though she were surrounded by dullards. "Why else would he be drawn to it?"

"But--" Charon said, too stunned to even comprehend, "it doesn't make any sense... I never felt a connection with this place until recently."

"When was the first time you entered it?" Amethyst said shrewdly, ignoring the impatient growl of Harmatia.

"A few months ago," he said. "I've felt it since.  But if this was my house--wouldn't I have felt it earlier?"

"You probably never lived here," she said. "I would expect that it merely belongs to your family."

She stared at him, her eyes narrow, as though she were probing the depths of his mind.

"You have a disorder, don't you?  Split personality..." she mumbled.  He flushed angrily, and supposed that she was probing the depths of his mind. "Usually that's caused by a terrible trauma."

He said nothing.

"You don't even remember what it was, do you?" she said, stepping closer to him.  Amethyst flicked her wrist, and the scythe broke free of his grip, falling back against the table.  "Why don't you take off your trenchcoat, Charon."

"Why don't you fuck off," he said, backing up against the table.

"I could break that girl's neck with a passing thought," Amethyst sneered, with a quick nod to Lumina. "Talk like that again and I'll do it."

Intense hatred flared up inside him, but he undid the coat's belt and slipped it off slowly.

"And your shirt," she said, with a small smile.

"Am I getting paid for this?" he said, complying.  He burned with shame as every pair of eyes in the room turned to him, openly gawking at the myriad scars that marked his pale flesh.

"Whatever trauma you experienced...it gave you those, didn't it?" she said, and suddenly she was right in front of him, close enough to touch.  Charon pressed his lips together firmly.

"You have a lot of secrets in your mind, Charon," Amethyst said, taking the photo album off the table. "But there's only one I really need."

She took off her earring and pressed the sharp tip against the album's leather cover.  A seed, much like the one from the other day, emerged from the book.

"I am not even going to ask how THAT fit in there," Lumina said, eliciting a chuckle from Amethyst. "But you realize that we can't let you keep it."

"Oh?" Amethyst said. "Come get it, then."

"Don't mind if I do." Fuu had slipped behind Amethyst while the others gaped at Charon's scars.  He ran one clawed hand down the skin of her neck, and caught the seed in his other hand as the resulting pain caused her to let go.  Amethyst clutched the back of her bleeding neck and constructed her fury into a powerful wave of energy that slammed Fuu through the attic door and down the steps.  Harmatia bounded down after him, snarling, followed closely by the rest of the room.  Fuu, ever limber, scrambled to his feet and raced down the halls, trying ignore the shooting pains in his legs.

"Peripetaia!" Amethyst yelled as he approached her room. "Stop the boy!"

"Sorry," Peripetaia said, opening her door and catching Fuu by the wrist.  Her grip was amazingly strong, and he was stilled--but he held the seed.

"No," Fuu said, cutting so deep into her thin wrist with his nails that he drew blood, "I'm sorry."

"Ack!" she drew her hand back, and he ran on, not daring to look back.  He appreciated everything Peripetaia had told him, but he would not let her have this seed.  He didn't know quite why they were so important, but he figured they must be, if everyone wanted them.  The seed suddenly glowed in his hands and opened, surprising him so much that he skidded to a stop in front of the final hallway.  A spear, impossibly large for the inside of the seed, was nevertheless rising from its depths.  Once fully emerged, it became airborne, speeding over the heads of his pursuers until it reached Lumina, whereupon it stopped until she pulled it from the air.  The sight was so absurd that Fuu nearly lost his nerve.

"This is complete madness," he breathed as the seed shut itself.  He broke into a run again, dashing out the door and down the street.

"Isn't this what happened last time?!" Assyrius yelled.  His knees were still in a great deal of pain, and as such, he was lagging behind the rest of group.

"That's why I brought along the lot of you!" Amethyst yelled back. "Why didn't one of you grab him!?"

"Well, I did try," Peripetaia said, though no one heard her, as she was walking, and thus even farther behind than Assyrius.  It was early evening still, and the cars and people that were roaming the streets gave Amethyst pause.  Ahead of the group, Fuu realized that he had nowhere to go--he certainly wasn't leading them all to Jada's house.  A moment later he realized also that Harmatia, still in her wolf body, was gaining on him rather quickly.  The only way he could outrun her was if he transformed, but if he did that then he wouldn't be able to hold the seed.  He sped up a bit, turning as he ran, and yelled to Lumina.

"Catch!" he cried, hurling the seed.  She--and everyone else--reached for it, but it was Charon that caught it.  He shrugged, thought "Good enough" and transformed, skittering up the first tree he happened upon.

"Little rat," Harmatia growled, clawing the bark.

"Harmatia, turn back," Amethyst snapped. "You'll be seen."

Harmatia obeyed, though she continued to growl as she did so.

"Oh, forget this," Pathos said, holding his hands out on either side of him. "Futilis Vociferari."

A blast of energy tore up the sidewalk, sending both Lumina and Charon flying into the street (Amethyst had the sense to move, and the others were behind him).  Charon let go of the seed, which also went flying.  Several cars screeched to a halt to avoid crushing them into street pizza, and the situation worsened when a pedestrian picked up the seed.  The situation worsened further when they all realized that Judas was the pedestrian in question.

Yes, that's the end.  That's why the chapter title up there says 'Part I.' XP; Sorry it took so long.  I suck.  FEEDBACK.  Surely you have something to say.  Post it or mail it to me.