That night, Len laid in bed, restless as usual. He had been like this ever since Miku got locked in the cell by the elders, fed a constant flow of moonshine and minimal amounts of food. She only ever picked at what was on the tray, longing for her next alcohol fix.

She was becoming emaciated, her bones jutting out beneath her skin. It was painful to look at, and it made the already fragile Guardian look even weaker. Her eyes were too big in her thin face, and if Len was allowed, he would barge into her cell and stick the food forcefully down her throat. How could he just watch her waste away like that?

Besides, she was not ready to give up her position yet - no other green-haired child was born to replace her. And she was too young to stop serving since most Guardians lived for at least two hundred years before passing on. The powers of the gods kept them alive far beyond a man's natural lifespan.

He kept thinking and thinking until his thoughts slipped across the boundary into dreams. Surely he must be asleep now, for suddenly he was out in the forest, which was slowly dying without their caretaker but no less beautiful for that. He had never seen the forest at night before, and the soft moonlight made the trees and leaves look like they were covered in drops of precious silver. He found himself near the hut Miku said the elders were building - after she told him about it, their curiosity had driven them to explore, and they found the dwelling nestled in the heart of the forest, out of sight of the most adventurous villagers.

That time he saw it, the hut was only half-finished, a gaping roof looking out into the open sky. Now, the hut he saw was somehow fully built, and warm orange light flooded out of the windows. It made him think all the more that this must be a dream, but he couldn't force himself to awaken either. In a trance-like state, he walked towards the hut, reaching out to knock on the wooden door. There was silence after the echoes of the knock faded away, and he began to think perhaps no one was home, but then suddenly the door opened and a woman was looking at him.

Green eyes and long black hair. It must be the woman Rin had described. He couldn't help but find her familiar - he had no doubt he had never seen this woman before in his life, but when he looked at her regal stature and her eyes, the same green as Miku's though far more intense, he felt like he had known her since he was born, and perhaps even before that. "I have been waiting for you," she said, and he felt a sudden urge to fall to his knees, in utter awe of her presence. The ring of magic surrounded her words. "It has been eighteen years. You have grown."

He forced his lips to move. "You're Miku's mother, aren't you?" he asked, his voice shaking. She nodded, those deep green eyes piercing him, and he swallowed. He felt almost guilty - it was like she was examining his soul, scanning him for every mistake and sin he ever committed. "Where did you go? You left her alone for eighteen years! And now you're looking for her?" he asked, though he shrank under her sharp gaze. She smiled. It was not a cold smile, but he was still intimidated - she seemed so powerful.

"Yes. I am looking for her because from what I know, she is being troubled by a previous Guardian, one who left the world with bitterness in her heart," she said. He blinked, surprised. She swept her arm around her, indicating the hut. "This place, where I make my dwelling in the land of dreams, was meant for my daughter. The elders foresaw that she might be troublesome, as Gumi was changed following the events of the war. They thought it best to build a home deep in the forest following the Guardian's spirit ritual, in a bid to protect the village from my daughter's possibly volatile tendencies."

He was unsure of what to make of this information. "Who are you, really?" he asked. She continued looking at him with that calm, knowing smile on her face. "If you're able to control dreams, and if you can summon me to you," he looked down at himself, "then you can't be human, right? I don't think even Miku can do that."

The woman laughed. It was not mocking - the sound of it was gentle, like bells pealing in the wind. It reminded him of the silvery moonlight, the way the night breeze swept and caressed his face, a comfortable and pleasant sensation.

"I am Nyx," she answered, her words suddenly filled with the ring of immortal power. He shivered - the very aura of this woman caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. "The night is my domain." She lifted her arms to the sky. "I am Nyx, Goddess of the Dark, the Night and the Moon!" At the last word, a silvery light burst forth from her, making him throw up his hands to protect his eyes. The brightness quickly faded, becoming a silvery glow that emanated from her skin. He peered at her from behind his hands, and she laughed again.

"The moonshine to cure my daughter," she spoke, "is my light. It is not the alcohol humans produce, though I can see why there was a misunderstanding. She is the daughter of the goddess of the night, and to come fully into her own powers, she needs my moonlight." Nyx waved her hands, and in her palms there suddenly appeared an elegant glass bottle. Within it, faint, silvery light glimmered, and it was mesmerisingly beautiful.

Len stared, unable to prevent himself from reaching out to touch it. Nyx held the bottle back, however, and he stopped himself, retreating into position. The goddess' eyes narrowed. "However, the moonlight does not work on its own. The moon is a loving figure - the symbol of women, of motherhood. To help her, it requires the love of someone who knows my daughter, but unfortunately, due to certain circumstances," her gaze darkened, "I was forced to leave her after her birth. My love for her will not qualify. Are you willing to take my place?" she asked.

He nodded helplessly. How could he refuse such a request, when it was made to him by a goddess and it involved helping the girl he loved? "That's good. I knew I could rely on you." The goddess beamed. "But this sacrifice - the moonlight needs your memories." He stiffened at her words. "From the realm of the gods, I bestow this power upon her, but love is needed to ground her and prevent her from dissolving back into the heavens. Memories of love and being loved, someone who cares for her fully and deeply, someone who would risk anything for her - without that, she would not be able to stay in the mortal realm, which I understand is not what your village would want."

He was running her words through his mind, trying to understand what it was that he needed to give up. Nyx's dazzling smile turned sad, and she sighed. "I would ask your mother, for she looked after Miku in my place and the love of a mother usually qualifies. But I am aware of your feelings for Miku. And it would seem disrespectful not to ask you first since you care for her with all your heart." She paused. "You need not worry, this spell only requires the memories you have of my daughter. Everything else will remain intact, though you will forget who she is and what she means to you. I'm truly sorry, I know it must hurt you, but it is the only way to save her."

Len deliberated. If he sacrificed everything he remembered about Miku, then what would he have left? They had no future together. The most precious memories he had were those of her, and he would hate to let them go. But at the same time, he couldn't be selfish. While he basked in his memories, the real girl was withering into skin and bones, and her mother, the goddess Nyx herself, had come to him for his help. How could he possibly say no?

He didn't want Miku to die, or fade into nothing, not when he knew he could save her. He knew his mother loved Miku as well, but he didn't want her to be the one making this sacrifice - no, if anyone were to save the Guardian, he wanted it to be him. Slowly, he nodded, and the goddess sighed in relief. "Your help is essential to rescue Miku from the manmade influence wrecking her body - the alcohol suppresses Gumi, but it also dampens her magical abilities, and that is not what we want." She passed the bottle to him, and he took it with a grunt - it was surprisingly heavy. "Here, take this moonshine and bring it to the jail tomorrow. Remember to pass it to the girl behind the bars!"

It was strange that she was already referring to Miku as though she was a stranger, but as Len thought about her, the fuzzier the memories of her seemed to become. It was as though the girl he loved was becoming a fairy tale, a story he could not grasp no matter how hard he tried. Thoughts of her faded like water trickling through cupped palms. "When you wake up, you will forget who she is, so let me tell you one thing, the answer to that burning question you've been asking yourself all these years - yes, she loves you too," Nyx whispered. She was already fading away, leaving behind only her voice in the wind.

Happiness surged through him, but he couldn't be sure why because he no longer remembered who this Miku was. He only knew that once upon a time, she was someone precious to him. Why was she no longer precious anymore? He looked at the bottle he held - it grew heavier and heavier as he struggled to remember, and he knew Nyx told him to bring it to the jail tomorrow morning. He wondered if the bottle would still be with him when he woke up.

The silvery moonlight was threaded through with another substance now, something that looked like white silk. He wondered what it was, and why there seemed to be more of it the longer he looked into the bottle. His eyes closed, sudden sleepiness overwhelming him - he felt himself falling into nothingness, and the last conscious thought he had was just the word love.

Hatsune Miku smiled at the boy sitting opposite her. He smiled back tentatively, looking shy. Her heart ached when she saw how far away he sat, as though she was a complete stranger to him when they shared an entire history. When once, she would have done anything to hear him say I love you to her. In the past, it seemed as though there were so many occasions where he almost said those words, when she caught him looking at her with a particular look in his eyes...

"Len," she whispered. He jumped and his smile became nervous. It had been a few months, and he was learning about their past. Her mother, the goddess Nyx, told her that with time, his memories might return, but she shouldn't cling on to that hope. It would be better to create new memories with him instead, so that was what Miku was trying to do. Sometimes, she could fool herself into thinking that the glimmer of recognition in his blue eyes was due to a memory recalled, but that was never the case.

She refused to give up hope though, the same way he wouldn't give up on her in the past. It had been an entire year since the incident with the moonshine.

When she was addicted to alcohol, she remembered nothing but darkness, pain and misery. She lost all concept of time - her days were split into the periods where she had moonshine and the periods where she did not. She liked the numbing effect the drink gave her - no longer did Gumi's whispers pierce through her head, no longer did she feel the urge to strike down the village the same way Gumi witnessed soldiers burning down an entire town - but she also forgot herself. She was just a being, defined only by alcohol. Without her drink, she remembered, and she hated to recall.

One day, while she was curled up and shivering on the floor of her cell, Len came in, carrying a bottle. In it, a silvery substance swirled, and something in her instinctively yearned for it - the bottle drew her in, somehow. It beckoned to her, and the more she stared at it, the more she felt like she was coming home. She reached for the bottle - she didn't notice then how Len flinched back from her, something he would never have done in the past - and, uncorking the bottle, she gulped down its contents.

The airy silver slid smoothly down her throat, soothing the ravages of alcohol. But besides the cooling effect, the moonshine cleared her mind, and for the first time in a while, she felt both lucid and alone in her head. She felt like she was in total, complete control of herself. She looked at her skin and saw that she glowed with a radiant silver light, like that of the full moon, and she gasped in joy - she had never felt more fulfilled. Tears ran down her face, and suddenly she heard a new god's voice in her head, her mother's voice - Nyx, who told her about Len's sacrifice and his subsequent need for her to guide him.

At that, the euphoria abruptly crashed, and she looked at Len with horror - Len, the boy she had known her entire life, who looked after her and took care of her every need. Who hugged her when she was afraid and always told her he would protect her. The boy she knew had, on several occasions, almost kissed her - she saw it in his eyes, the desire to lean close to her and pull her in and tilt her head so that their lips could meet. He loved her wholly, though she never acknowledged it because they had no future together - and he made the ultimate sacrifice for her recovery. He lost all his memories of her. He had no idea who she was.

She approached him from behind the bars. "Len." The boy looked curiously at her, and she swallowed, her fingers gripping the bars tightly - it was only now that she realised just how thin she had become. "Do you know who I am? I'm Miku, remember? We grew up together. You remember me, don't you?" He continued staring at her for a while, and she thought he might actually recall something since he looked at her for so long, his gaze flitting from feature to feature.

Then he smiled, his blue eyes meeting hers straight on. There was no hint of recognition. "I'm sorry miss, but I can honestly say that I have never seen you before in my life."

And that was the first time she knew what heartbreak felt like. People always said it was a figurative thing, that the heart couldn't really break, but then how could they explain the ache in her chest - the line of pain that seemed to radiate down her breast, making her whole body tremble?

"Len," she whispered his name again now, lacing their fingers together. They were in the hut that the elders had built for her, in the heart of the sacred grove. The elders let her go after they witnessed her full recovery, and she had regained all the weight she lost while she was locked away. The elders, upon realising the pivotal role Len played in her recovery, allowed him to make contact with her regularly in an attempt to jolt his memories.

They even hinted that if a relationship blossomed between them, the elders would not interfere - she suspected that, upon realising her mother was a goddess, they respected and feared her more than they ever did before. She was a demi-goddess now, half-god and half-human. She did not know who her father was, and Nyx remained tight-lipped on that, but she would like to find out one day if she could.

Len reacted at the sound of his name. He watched her inquisitively, waiting for her to continue. Hesitantly, she reached for his hand, and he didn't shift away. She was afraid that if she moved too fast she might frighten him, like how deer ran from humans if they approached too quickly. Finally, she placed her hand on his, a familiar gesture she hadn't done in a long, long while. It had been an entire year since the last time, she realised.

There was turmoil on his face. "I wish I could remember you. I really do," he murmured. "You're almost familiar to me. Sometimes, when I look at you, I get flashes of spending time with you, and I know I never felt happier. It always felt like I…" he paused, and she waited patiently for him to continue. He looked her in the eye for a moment, then quickly averted his gaze. "Like I wanted to kiss you," he blurted out, "but something always held me back and I can't remember why or what." She felt her heartbeat quicken at his words. "You make me feel good. Even now, just sitting here with you, I feel so calm. It's like I've known you a long time, Miku."

Her happiness soared with the sound of her name. It had taken him a while to start calling her by name, clearly uncomfortable with calling her Miku when everyone else referred to her as the Guardian. "You did. You knew me all your life," she answered. "If you hadn't sacrificed your memories for me, I wouldn't be here today, and for that, I will always be grateful." Boldly, she squeezed his hand, and to her surprise, he shifted his hand on top of hers, squeezing it back. It felt almost like the good old days. When he had his memories and she was carefree and the two of them were simply happy.

"I want to love you," he said. "I wish I could. I'm trying, I really am." He closed his eyes, looking pained, and he let her go when she pulled away, though this time he seemed reluctant. She walked over to him, and his eyes remained closed - she leant down and hesitated for a moment before she brushed her lips against his forehead. It was a light, gentle, fleeting kiss, and his eyes flicked open in surprise at the contact. There was shock in those deep blue depths. She smiled at him, reaching up to push some of her teal hair behind her ear.

"I hope that helped with your memories," she teased, careful not to say anything too pointed lest he tried to push himself too hard into remembering. He seemed dazed, but slowly, his lips curved into a smile and he looked intently at her - before she could react, he pulled her down to him and let his fingers twine in her hair, keeping her head still as he pressed his lips gently against hers. It was a chaste kiss, no longer than a second or two, but when he parted from her she felt like her face was on fire. She reached up to her lips, stunned by what he did.

"It did," he answered. "It helped a little. Maybe you should do that more," he suggested, mischief in his eyes. She laughed, and he smiled, and the future seemed bright, as bright and mysterious as moonshine. She wondered what else Nyx had in store for her, and imagined that somewhere up in the heavens, her mother was smiling upon them.