The day was luridly hot, the air full of dust as the city of Cairo began to sluggishly move. Noonday was typically a time of rest, for those that had the luxury - but these people on the move possessed no such luck, and so they were hard at work under the blistering eye in the sky. Carts and trucks moved into and out of the city from the desert, while boats moved across the water like lazy leaves blown by the wind. From her vantage point on a minaret at the city's edge, Vanya could see every single person coming into and out of the city by horse or engine. Since daybreak she had stood atop the tower in her search for a single man on horseback holding a child, traveling with a redheaded woman.

She felt her gut clench as she saw someone wearing a cloak approach the city on a single horse, and she tensed, ready to spring into action.

He turned his head, and a dark face peered out with a mustache. Not him.

She relaxed again with a slow breath, the air escaping her reluctantly as she turned her gaze again to the crowds that ambled their way into and out of Cairo. For all she knew, he wouldn't come through here. She had guessed that he might - it was the busiest thoroughfare from the desert side, and a straight shot to the African HQ - but as well she knew, Kanda was full of all sorts of surprises.

Her chest constricted as she thought of the sin she was forced to commit, both before his eyes and God's. If all went as she planned, he would forgive her post-haste, and everything would end as it should - with Nthanda in the hands of the African HQ.

Her plan was simple enough. Allow him to get close, detain the two, and then snatch the babe from him, only to disappear from the CROW detail and deliver the child. Otherwise, there would be no stopping the CROW that would pursue him, and they would think she was delivering the child to Malcolm herself. She knew that Malcolm was not about to trust her, however, and so the entire affair would have to happen, not only swiftly, but delicately in order to evade her own brethren.

"Have you caught sight of him yet?" a voice asked over the communicator, and Vanya squeezed her eyes shut.

"Notzing yet. He vould be a fool to choose to show up now. It is the laziest part of the day," Vanya stated as her eyes scanned the crowd yet again.

And then, as if to spite her, she saw something in the distance - a swish of dark hair bound back in a ponytail, a broad white back atop a horse. She frowned as she walked to the edge of the minaret and tried to get a closer look, pulling out a tiny spyglass from her pocket. As she zeroed in on the figure, she could clearly make out his familiar figure, wide-shouldered and thin-hipped - carrying a bundle in his arms, swaddled close to the chest.

What are you doing in the open, tesye idiot?

"I believe I heve a visual. Middle of the road, behind the cart fohl of palm fronds," Vanya muttered into the communicator as she grabbed hold of the drop line she'd placed for a quick touchdown to the bottom of the tower.

"I see him. He's riding a gelding, holding... I think the child. He's looking around."

Vanya quickly slid down the line, the rope passing through her gloved hands like silk before finally putting her feet onto the rough-hewn stone road. She ran quickly and quietly towards the main thoroughfare, eyes on the streams of people. He would have moved forward a few feet by this point, and with a visual, her and the team would be closing in on him.

Something about the situation nagged her though. Where was Lavinia? Perhaps he lost her along the way, or she couldn't hack the journey. She could see why the woman would have left - a solo journey with Kanda was best left to those with miles of patience and several nautical fathoms of understanding.

"Wait... I think he's spotted us. Damn! He's running!"

Vanya took off as she saw her compatriot on the roofs dash, a black blur paralleling the road. A commotion was occurring ahead, the horse trying to fight forward through the crowd. Vanya scaled up a building for a better vantage point and found her target: he'd abandoned the horse.

Not so fast!

The diminutive CROW weaved through the crowd, ignoring angry yells and indignant shouts as she zipped past others in her pursuit of the black-haired man dashing about. Suddenly, he took off into a side alley, and Vanya scrambled to catch up, leaping over a cart full of caged chickens, nearly crashing into a woman carrying water on her head. The CROW cursed as she dug around in her robes for spell tags to slow the man down, often breaking line of sight as he zigzagged into narrow side streets. He didn't have the benefit of knowing the terrain as she and her partner CROW did, but that wouldn't matter for a man like him. If he had to, he would break down walls just with his shoulder if it meant getting to his destination.

She had seen the things he had endured for the child. He would not let him go so easily.

"Kanda!" she shouted after him, and he did not pause as he knocked over a whole stall full of rugs in her way.

She leaped over them with little trouble, but those wasted seconds were precious to her and she did her best not to spend her every breath cursing. Her partner was gaining on him, and she could not let him take custody. The other CROW were no doubt closing in as well.

This needed to end quickly.

Around a bend, through a courtyard, over a divider, through unfortunate houses left unlocked - running, running, and running. To her amazement she realized she was gaining on him now, the maze of alleys beginning to widen as they headed back to the main thoroughfare, and a memory flashed violently in her mind.

"Cut off the street full of flowers. Zat's vhere he'll go next. Ferry him into the giant courtyard! Fatima, Abdul, meet us there!"

By now two other CROW had joined the chase while another two were inbound, and both her current squad mates racing in another direction to head him off. Sure enough, he did as she expected - tried to turn off into the convoluted street of flowers, only to realize it was blocked off. He skidded around the other corner instead, and Vanya's pounding heart seemed to skip as she realized that she may catch up to him soon after all.

The courtyard loomed ahead with a covered ceiling and a fountain, completely blocked off as a giant dead end. Kanda seemed to realize his folly just as Vanya caught sight of her teammates throw down spell tags from the rooftops. The tags enveloped him as he dashed into the courtyard, and he rolled in a tumble as his momentum was swiftly brought to a halt. Vanya did not let up her chase, stopping at his back as he began to pick himself up, still somehow able to stand despite the tags that weighed him down.

"Kanda... It's over. Ve heve jyou surrounded end tagged. Please. Give me the child," Vanya intoned quietly but fervently as Kanda stood stock still, the eyes of all other CROW on them.

Kanda looked over his shoulder at her, eyes lined by sleeplessness and an immense weight. She kept her own expression neutral, but how much she wished she could take him aside and let him know that her plans were to give Nthanda a future, not to harm him, but to help him. Kanda turned around, the bundle still held to his chest, and Vanya knew in that moment something was wrong.

Nthanda... is not crying.

Vanya's eyebrows drew together as she stared between him and the swaddled bundle he was hanging on to.

"What are you waiting for?" he growled. "Take it."

Vanya pressed a hand to her communicator to open another line.

"Did anyone see a red'eaded woman come through the gates?"

"I...I did. I thought nothing of it. We knew there was another traveler, but she-"

"Chert!" Vanya spat as she took the babe out of Kanda's hands, unraveling the swaddling to find, instead of a dark-skinned babe, a diaper bag. She looked up at the Japanese Exorcist darkly to find a smug smile on his face.

Lenalee stood at the corner of a massive alabaster mosque, head covered by a scarf to both shield her dark hair from the unrelenting sun as well as appease the local population. She had found rather quickly that going without a scarf was a risky venture, both in terms of the stares she received as well as the come-ons that inundated her all of a sudden. After donning the scarf, it was as if she had abruptly become invisible, both something of a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, finding the redheaded messenger that Kanda had spoken of would make for an easy task. However, getting her to notice Lenalee would be another issue altogether.

She had been told to stand at the corner of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali to wait, a fair distance from the headquarters. Of course, that was where Lenalee's role played a part - they would expect them to head somewhere a bit closer. Lenalee was much more equipped to make a short and fast getaway with Dark Boots, giving them more range. It was a stomach-churning prospect nonetheless to go against Malcolm Leverrier, but she was still glad to rub it in the mustachioed man's face that she and Kanda had bested him at his own game.

Ah, but she was counting her chickens before they hatched, wasn't she?

Suddenly, among the crowds, she saw heads turn, and sure enough, there was the young woman on horseback, all but oblivious to the stares that she received. The redhead held in her arms a squirming bundle, a single brown leg kicking out of the swaddling cloths, and Lenalee smiled at the vivacity of the child she carried. Lenalee began to head towards her, weaving through the crowd, when she noticed that the girl had caught sight of something over Lenalee's head. The Exorcist frowned as she saw the girl's body language shift from weary to alert, hands gripping the reins.

And then, without warning, she bolted back into the thoroughfare. Lenalee jumped into action with a short 'ah!' of surprise, wondering what could have possibly made the girl turn tail - until she saw a black blur in the crowd.

CROW.

Lenalee gritted her teeth as she easily kept up with the girl on horseback, managing to keep her in sight, but if she was managing to do so, then the CROW was as well. With a short mutter under her breath in her mother tongue, Lenalee ripped off the hijab and activated Dark Boots, the Innocence-laden shoes winding up to her thighs as she took to the rooftops in a single leap. The tin and alabaster blurred beneath her as she easily kept pace with the horse that was bowling down everything in its way, people jumping back as it raced towards them. The CROW was lost in the crowd as they gained more ground. Lenalee grit her teeth, sweat whisking off her face. She had to do something, and quickly, while there was time!

"Ma'am! I'm here to help you!" Lenalee shouted to the girl below, and the girl looked up at her in fear as she tried to navigate the busy streets. Relief crossed her face, and hope bloomed with the blush that suffused her burnt cheeks as she prepared to shout back.

There was a flash of black to her left. That momentary distraction was enough to give the CROW an opening to tackle the girl off the horse.

Lenalee darted to the ground in panic as the two were sent careening - but she stopped as soon as she heard a loud, ringing POP! rip through the air, the horse rearing and screaming in response. Lenalee jumped back and away from the panicking animal, looking around for her quarry. Yet, where the CROW and the redheaded girl with the babe had been just moments before, there was no one.

They had vanished into thin air.

Lenalee stared, dumbstruck, before finding herself surrounded by other CROW. She looked at the black-clothed agents suspiciously as they advanced calmly.

"Lenalee Lee?" one of them asked curiously behind a porcelain mask, and Lenalee crossed her arms.

"Yes, that's me," Lenalee acknowledged.

The other CROW looked to each other in confusion at the tableau before them.

It seems not everything went according to their plan either.

"He dropped them off...where again?" Ellis asked incredulously.

Vanya paced the 'war room' they'd fashioned in their hotel, the other CROW in attendance as well. Malcolm stood by the window, hands behind his back, silent. Vanya chewed over her words again.

"Nthanda teleported... Lavinia and Bertrand to... Karnak Temple in Luxor," Vanya slowly stated, hands clasped and eyes down.

"So why are we here?" Ellis questioned indignantly, but the look on Vanya's face stopped her mid-huff.

"Bertrand told me that he chased them through the temple grounds. He... he trapped them against... a manmade lake, and..." Vanya shook her head, rubbing her face, a rare display of outright frustration and grief.

"She fell in, trying to get avay. Nthanda vas exhausted from the previous teleport, and the two... the... the two..."

Vanya's low voice cracked ever so slightly, unable to finish.

"You lost the child," Malcolm stated quietly.

"We hed no way of knowing that Nthanda would teleport three people nearly two days' ride away," Vanya spat. "The farthest he has ever jumped is a mile in any direction."

"And... and Kanda? What was he told?" Ellis asked, looking up in delayed horror. The man was not known for his patience, nor his sweet temperament. The news would not be well met.

As if to summon the devil, the sounds of a struggle could be heard on the other side of the door.

"No one... has said anything to him yet, only that we don't heve hi-" Vanya began, the last of her sentence punctuated by the door being thrown open and smashing into the wall.

Kanda stormed into the room, sword out and at the ready. Every single occupant moved to grab their own weapons as he made a beeline for Malcolm, Vanya and Ellis quickly stepping into the angry Exorcist's way as the CROW readied spell tags to restrain him.

Rage was not an adequate word for the expression on his face. Nostrils flared, eyes wild with agony and unrestrained fury, it was not outside the realm of possibility that in this moment he was ready to commit murder.

"Dear, perhaps you-"

"Kanda, go back-"

"Where is he?"

The words were not a shout. They had all the force of a diamond drill bit, all his frustrations and torment packed into a few words which he articulated carefully and simply. Those in attendance could not meet his lit-magnesium gaze, for fear that the panic he harbored was a contagion. He had a frantic energy about him, a jittery kind of discontent that threatened to infect whatever he laid eyes on. The rage seemed a veneer over an even more frightening emotion - a grief in denial.

"Tell me where he is," Kanda reiterated, louder, more insistent.

"Perhaps - "

"I'll tell him," Vanya said in a low voice, her gaze still directed at the ground.

Ellis glanced about the room full of apprehensive CROW, then to her cousin, who had not moved from his spot near the window. She nodded to Vanya, moving out of Kanda's way as the diminutive CROW began to lead Kanda out of the room, the samurai easily legging it ahead of his one-time partner. The room visibly relaxed, as if a communal set of lungs let loose a breath of relief. Ellis walked towards Malcolm and stood next to him to join in staring out the window.

"A fine mess we've made for ourselves," she muttered to him. "What do we do now? It is all too possible we have on our hands a dead woman and child, one of whom was an Exorcist."

"We do what we must. Get the Innocence fragment and deliver it to Hevlaska," Malcolm intoned flatly. "There's naught else we can do."

Ellis stared into the man's face, his stoic expression grating something deep inside of her. The real blow had not hit her yet. Perhaps something about the distance made it less real, less tangible, than her own sons' deaths, but nevertheless, she felt as if she were a woman standing on train tracks looking at a locomotive barreling towards her and knowing she could do little to prepare for its impact.

Yet, for Malcolm, this was a setback, a stumbling block to Bigger and Better Things, rather than the tragic loss of a fussy, somewhat stubborn, hilariously precocious child, inhaling water, drifting to the bottom of a man-made lake...

"Is there nothing else you'll say on it? Nothing even about how we have all but caused the end of a young life? Nothing about the-the-the vagaries of fate? Just 'do your job'?" Ellis pleaded.

Malcolm did not answer her.

There was loud bang out in the hallway, as if a bull had collided with the side of the room, and each person jumped in unison, looking towards the door. Ellis hurried over to fling it open and see the commotion - not that she'd be any use in that case - only to lay eyes on a fist-sized hole in the wall and a young man sitting at the end of the corridor in a wicker chair with his face buried in his hands, Vanya leaning against the wall opposite him with a hand over her mouth. Ellis' shoulders fell as she considered comforting him - but the hole in the wall spoke his mind for him. Now was not the time.

Though it was hard to tell if it would ever be 'the time'.

Kanda stared at the ceiling of his hotel room. It was all he had done for several hours. The time in which Nthanda had once occupied was now spent listlessly peering into space, trying hard to avoid the thoughts which nibbled at the back of his mind.

Here, he had too much time. He should have left the day they told him what happened. His usefulness had reached an end. He had no reason to stay. It was not his job to fight the Akuma on this stinking mass of cursed land, and he had no need to oversee the mess Malcolm had created, nor did he find it necessary to escort the shard back to the headquarters. All there was left to do was go back to Europe, to regular life.

So why was he still here then?

A knock resounded on the door, filling the empty air. He ignored it. The knock resumed, this time a little more insistent, a stark percussion. He turned over on the bed and stared out the window. There was another knock, and Kanda finally levered himself out of bed, not bothering to try and smooth down his three-day-old clothes, or brush back his three-days-unwashed hair. He cracked open the door with a jerk, and he stared out.

Lenalee stared up at him, and her eyes welled with tears.

"Oh, Kanda," she breathed, covering her mouth.

Kanda stared at her a little while longer before shutting the door, undoing the security latch, and pulling it all the way open. He left the door, saying not a word, as he sat back down on the bed. Lenalee wiped her eyes and looked about the largely pristine room. The only thing touched was the bed, the sheets tossed in every direction.

"When was the last time you ate?" Lenalee asked seriously.

"Not hungry."

"Or slept?"

"Two hours ago."

Lenalee sat down in a chair, moving Mugen out of the way. She glanced at the clock on the wall.

"It's... five in the afternoon."

Kanda sighed with a sour look on his face, rubbing his eyes.

"Why are you here? You're supposed to be home."

Lenalee pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands. Kanda waited, knowing that - with Lenalee - she had a tendency to say exactly what she meant, and that entailed letting her craft her response. But he had the time, didn't he? It stung him, the realization of the time he'd gained, time he didn't want.

"I heard what happened. I talked to, um, one of the CROW who was on your team, and..."

She looked up at him.

"...it just sounded like you needed some company. You spent three months with that baby, and you seemed to... grow on him. And I know you, and you don't want to... admit it. That it hurts."

Kanda's stare hadn't changed, but his shoulders seemed to slump a little more, his hands folded together into a white-knuckled knot. He hated to hear her words, hated to lie to her. But if he let any of what he felt in... He didn't know if it would ever stop. If he was honest with himself, that scared him.

Not that he was ever honest to himself. The little lies were sometimes all that would keep you on your feet.

"Was that all?" he asked.

It seemed that Lenalee had expected as much, and she shook her head, crossing her arms.

"The CROW I talked to - Vanya? - she wanted you to know that they're going to dredge the lake day after tomorrow, because the bodies haven't come up, and that if you... wanted, you could be there. They'll be leaving at eight tomorrow," Lenalee relayed, and Kanda nodded.

"You going home?" he asked quietly.

"Not if you don't want me to."

"No. Go ahead."

His words held little of the sour bite they typically did, and Lenalee wondered if it was worth it to try and stay. She tilted her head and stared at the man, trying to glean something else from his stone-still posture, but he remained impregnable. The young woman got up to head to the door.

"If you ever need me for... for anything. Just call me. You know where I'll be," Lenalee offered with a chip of a smile, and Kanda nodded his head.

With that, she left the room, closing the door. Kanda remained motionless, the only movement the cotton curtains behind him flowing in the wind. After several minutes, he swung his legs back in bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"I think that should be everything," Ellis said.

Vanya and the older woman stood in the middle of the small courtyard, surrounded by trucks. The majority of those within them were CROW, though there were a few general workers as well to ensure that the job was done properly. It would be a long journey, and Karnak was quite a bit of distance from civilization, so they'd decided to pack several tents and other amenities with them, rather than rely on Luxor to house them all. By eight that morning, it was already sweltering, and the last of the luggage was packed.

Vanya stared out the courtyard entrance expectantly, and Ellis scrunched her eyebrows in sympathy.

"Dear, I don't know if we can count on him showing. We have to be there by eight in the evening if we want to... make any progress," Ellis said, trying not to choke on her words. It was a horrible thought, that they had to rush because their friends may not remain intact much longer. "We'll be cutting it close as is."

"It iz hard fohr me to believe he would not come," Vanya muttered.

"I know. But grief works on people in strange ways, and some... it's too real, in that moment. And Nthanda will..."

Ellis swallowed the lump in her throat, toying with a strand of hair.

"Nthanda and Lavinia will not be in their best states. Perhaps it is best that he remember Nthanda as he was. That this not be the last image of his boy."

Vanya nodded slowly, agreeing with reluctance.

"When Alexei died, I... he vas on top of me. His eyes were empty, end so much of him was burnt, but I could still see he was my Alexei. I wish I did not remember," Vanya offered. "It is my last memory of him. It is good end bad, to know he gave his life to save mine, but... I would rather not know. I do not hold it against him if he does not want to know, either."

Ellis nodded.

The two began to head towards the lead truck, ready to depart, their steps heavy as their minds turned to the gruesome task that was before them.

"Hey."

With a start, both women turned at the sound of a familiar voice, and in the early morning light of Cairo, they could see a male figure, wan but standing tall, casting a long shadow across the courtyard. His hair remained somewhat unkempt, his clothes rumpled, but Mugen was slung to his hip, even if his eyes appeared almost foggy. Ellis sighed, though she could hardly tell if from relief or disappointment.

"You're late, tesye idiot," Vanya drawled.

"So are you. You were supposed to have left by now," Kanda said, lugging his bag over his shoulder.

"Well, there's quite a lot to pack, dear. We're camping out in Karnak," Ellis fussed.

"Right. I forget you need fifty bags for a single night's stay," Kanda muttered as he walked to the truck, and Ellis ruffled a bit, Vanya rolling her eyes with a brittle smile. The three clambered aboard, Kanda sitting in the back of the truck, while the two ladies sat up front with the driver. Vanya glanced at Kanda as the trucks began to move, and she momentarily gripped his shoulder. He jerked around to look in surprise, but he instantly calmed upon catching sight of whose hand it was. They locked eyes for several moments, before Vanya turned back to look out at the unforgiving landscape rushing to greet them at Cairo's edge.

The drive was an arduous one, for more than the heat and rugged terrain. Their minds were weighted heavily with each mile they traversed, a sobriety that could not be shaken. The journey was silent, for the entirety of its 10 hours. Not a word needed saying, and they were loathe to waste them. When they did at last pull near the ruins of Luxor, it was quickly approaching evening time. They swiftly parked outside the massive basalt pillars, their entourage taking several moments to ogle the remaining edifice.

Kanda was less impressed with its size, concerned more with its significance. A heartsickness took over as it dawned on him that this was the very last place Nthanda had drawn breath, and something in that thought made his gut churn. He turned away and began to unload his things with undue force, Vanya watching as he left with a slight dip of the brow, a quirk of a frown at the edge of her mouth.

Out in the desert, silhouetted against the horizon, he made camp alone.

Night fell upon the encampment in due course. As the stars peered from behind veils of thin clouds, it grew cold among the tents. Each one was meant to hold two or three people, though as an Exorcist Kanda was granted the privilege of being his tent's sole occupant. Besides, there were few who would brave his company, especially with the knowledge that this was more than a volatile time for him. That was perfectly fine by his account. He wasn't much for entertaining others.

Much to his surprise, after having a somewhat disappointing dinner of goat soup, he managed to crawl into his cot and drift off to sleep, his mind reeling nonetheless.

Yet, he dreamed. How he dreamed.

There was a moving wall of a sea in front of him, a waterfall flowing in reverse, and he was standing on one side of the sheer veil. Through to the other side, he could just barely make out figures walking away from the wall, some stately, others stumbling, all of them human. If his ears did not deceive him, he also heard something like a baby's cry, and he put his hands to the water, trying to push through to the other side. It was a struggle, but not insurmountable, and he pushed his head and chest through the hole he had created...

...and on the other side, men and women and children walking out of the waters towards something in the distance, knee deep in water. He could still hear the cry of a babe, and in his heart of hearts, he knew whose it was, and he tried to pull the rest of him through, but he could not. His eyes searched frantically for the voice, but the crowds of people were thickening, the voice growing fainter. He screamed a name he could not process in his mind, a name he knew through some clandestine, surreal knowledge, but the crying only grew fainter. He tried once more to force his way into this odd in-between world -

He woke to a weight atop him, straddling him as someone let out a breathy 'ha!' His eyes fought to adjust to the darkness around him, and to his confusion, and perhaps interest, he found a pitch-black woman-shaped thing in his cot, sitting on his midsection.

He lifted himself up and growled, "What do you think you're doing?"

The Loa within Vanya's body grinned, pearl white teeth seeming to glow against her inky skin.

"You dreamed it, and oh, you tried ta get to dat world, dincha, churchman? 'N dat soul a' yours, so strong..."

Kanda sat all the way up, mind snapping into focus as it shook off the last cobwebs of sleep, and he gripped the Loa by her shoulders, bringing her close as he demanded in guttural tones, "Where did I go? What do you think you're doing?"

The Loa cocked her head to the side carelessly, the smile still playing across her lips, as she said, "Oh, I been listenin' to dohse dreams. It be a world beyond dis one, churchman, a world you seen before. Are ya so little of faith, you think dis de end of de road?"

Her hands had come to snake up his shoulders and the back of his neck, rubbing the taut sinews, and he ignored the warmth of her hands, the pervasiveness of her scent.

"That was the afterlife," he drawled out.

"Dat would be tellin', Mr. Kanda," the Loa chittered with an ear splitting grin and a light laugh. "You got a ways to go, 'fore I be set free. I'm still here, aren't I?"

They were nearly nose to nose, and Kanda dared not ruin the Loa's good mood. She talked more when she was having fun, he'd learned.

"How do I get there?" Kanda asked as the woman played with his hair, pursing her lips.

"Not really a place ya get. Not easy like, anyways. But I can give ya a hint...for a price."

Kanda deliberated as the Loa leaned away from him, hands on his shoulders with a look that brooked no amount of good feelings. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach that the price would not be easy to pay, whether it be money or favors, and he weighed his options. Yet, the dream stuck with him, and knowing that the Loa was not only aware, but knowledgeable, about this 'other world'...

"What do you want?" he asked slowly after a deep, heaving breath.

The Loa bit her lip in anticipation, and she finally said, "You gimme just one kiss."

He recoiled back and made a face, the Loa remaining stationary, and he rubbed his face. For all he knew, it was all a scam, but the fact that she had never lied to them before only added to the uncomfortable nudge towards accepting the offer. He looked up at her, and he reiterated, "One kiss."

"One kiss," she stated, crossing her arms.

"Whatever," he mumbled, and he leaned forward and pecked her, fast and hard, on the mouth, before drawing back as fast as he could.

For perhaps the first time, the Loa looked not the least amused. She leaned a hand against her cheek, and she said, "Dat were de worst kinda kiss. Hn-nn. Dat don't count."

"You didn't say it had to be a good one," Kanda shot back.

"Who be askin' da questions, 'n who be answerin'?" the Loa sighed, twirling a strand of Vanya's hair about a finger as she looked off with feigned disinterest, and Kanda rubbed his eyes. "You be lucky I'm askin' for da one kiss. I could be askin' ya fer much, much more."

Kanda glared at the spirit practically in his lap.

"Conditions?" he snapped. "What counts?"

The Loa laughed low, and she said, "All it gotta have is fire. If it don't stand out, what's it matter?"

Sighing low through his nose, his mind fixed on the vision in his dreams, he leaned forward ever so slightly, unsure of where to go next. The Loa remained still, practically a featherweight on the cot. He chewed the inside of his lip, his mind at a standstill -

"It make it easier if you pretend it be someone else," the Loa muttered, her breath washing against his cheek, and for a moment, the world became a lighter, starker place.

It was as if a piece of music he'd heard in childhood had wafted by his ear, and for a brief moment his heart swelled. He knew, somehow, that this had been that feeling, when he was close to her, the one he'd been searching for ever since he'd come alive, a sheer ghost of a memory that haunted him even while awake.

And he took the plunge then as he thought about her instead, and he was surprised to find that her lips were soft, and his were hungry. His hands wandered to her face, and into her hair, pulling her closer as he let both imagination and memory supersede reality. Her body heat pressed close to his in the cold, and a starvation took hold of him, a yawning depth that had been left unfilled. Her arms wound around his neck as he strove to bridge the gap physically, emotionally, with mouth and hands and arms. The world was a microcosm of burning bodies, tangled hands, and an almost earthy softness.

A series of images burned themselves into his mind, as if a brand had been impressed upon his soul, of swimming down and deep into murky waters with a bloodied hand before wiping it against a stone, and being yanked out the other side into a world of brightness and sorrow. Yet, he found that he oddly didn't care, too immersed in the tandem movement of lips, the deep breath of the woman he held close.

With a gasp, she broke it off, and his eyes opened to see Vanya staring back at him, pale and surprised. Yet, she did not move, locked in place, bare millimeters away as she took one deep breath after the other.

And it alarmed him that he didn't want to be alone.

"She... asked," he explained succinctly, breathless. He was aware that he had no idea whether or at what point the spirit within her had reciprocated, or Vanya herself.

Her thumb brushed the edge of his bottom lip as her gaze was locked on his mouth, and she glanced up at his face.

"I... I know. She showed me, too," she answered haltingly. She pressed her eyes shut tight, lips pressed into a firm line as she shook her head. "But what... what good does it do, Kanda? He iz...gone. And even you cannot raise the dead."

Something within possessed him to take her chin and turn her face towards his, the Russian CROW's eyes blinking open with a sheen of tears.

"Then we leave it to tomorrow," he only said, and Vanya slowly nodded.

"Tomorrow," she echoed, as the two began to lean towards the other, letting the cold envelope them both.

A/N: Hello all again! It has been quite a lengthy period of time since the last chapter, so I understand some cheering as well as jeering, seeing as the author is... horrible at maintaining a schedule. That said, if you can forgive me, what are your thoughts this chapter? Hopefully it engaged you, brought some feelings to bear, and maybe brought with it some anticipation for the next installment. And of course, if it didn't - be sure to tell me!

Big thanks to karina001 for being my stalwart beta, especially for braving this chapter!

Much love to my reviewers! To amenokuma - yes, I have definitely put Vanya through the wringer, but now everyone's getting it in some fashion, so I guess that makes it equal? I'm glad that the spirits gave you chills - that was definitely the intended effect. I have a thing for powerful visuals, and if someone gets goosebumps, I am super excited! Sorry that I'm having to make your day about eight months later... but better late than never? To DGMFan, you give me high praise! Lenalee and Kanda share a very different kind of relationship to me, and I hope to express that. I'm glad that you liked to see her included, seeing as I don't write Lenalee particularly often! And to pikaree1, you've given me a lot to cut my teeth on! I love that your reviews are so specific. As I said earlier, I'm glad Lenalee came across as natural, as she's not a character I write often. She'll feature a little less from here on out, but we'll see her again before things close out, no worries. And while it's late, to my Guest, I have not yet made the changes. I usually go back and edit old chapters and just haven't got to it yet on this story.

Thank you to all of you, and God bless! Have fun reading out there!