A/N: This story has been in the works for a long time. It will eventually feature Yuri/Raven as the main pairing. Expect updates every other week. I'd like to thank my two fantastic betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie, for helping me get this monster of mine in working order.

~P~

Yuri Lowell was fighting off a headache. A dull ache had been building behind his eyes since morning, and he had just about had it. He supposed he was lucky that he and Flynn had patrolled together. If he'd been stuck wandering the streets with some idiot instead, he probably would have a full on migraine.

After shoving some lukewarm dinner down his throat, Yuri was finally able to make his way back to the barracks. The barracks were full of off duty knights, and the sound of their muffled speech created a dissonant symphony to accompany Yuri's headache. He sat down at the edge of his bunk and cradled his head in his hands.

Flynn was lying on his own bunk, which was across from Yuri's. Despite the fact that they'd been roused at the crack of dawn that morning, Flynn was actually reading. Yuri could barely keep his eyes in focus, and this bastard was reading like it was no big deal.

"It's nice to see you, too," Flynn commented without looking up from his book. Yuri saw a smile spread across Flynn's face when he peeked out from behind his hands.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't say that." Flynn put a slim piece of parchment in his book before closing it firmly. "You have to patrol the warehouses tomorrow night, right?"

Yuri managed to sit up out of his slouch. "Yeah and all by myself. I wonder if I'll get ambushed this time."

Flynn's smile slipped into a frown. "You're too paranoid."

"Terrence is the one that assigned it. You know he's out to get me."

The thought of Terrence put a scowl on Yuri's face. Terrence was the officer in charge of their unit, and he had a reputation of being disagreeable. Unfortunately, he was usually given the lowborn 'undesirables' to break in. Terrence was a notorious raging drunk, but his 'good blood' made him invulnerable to demotion or dishonorable discharge. Terrence had been stuck in the lowest rank of officers for years. At least the Knight Order had enough sense to not make a belligerent alcoholic into a Captain.

Flynn sighed. "Just keep your cool, Yuri. We'll both get promoted eventually, and then we won't be under Terrence's power anymore. He's just a low ranking officer."

Yuri rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, we'll get promoted eventually. Until then I'm screwed."

Another member of their unit, a teenager with a bad set of teeth, walked over to Yuri and Flynn. Yuri couldn't focus enough to remember the guy's name. Randal? Ricky?

"Hello," Flynn greeted the lanky teen with a charming false smile. It was the one that Flynn used on someone he didn't like very much. "Can we help you with something?"

"Officer Terrence wants to see Lowell in his office right away." The ugly bastard gave Yuri a crooked sneer.

A vile remark was at the tip of Yuri's tongue, but Flynn quickly cut in with a wide smile and said, "Thank you for letting him know."

Green eyes shifted between Yuri and Flynn disdainfully before their fellow knight stormed away.

"It's five minutes until lights out! What the hell does he want with me now?" Yuri whispered to Flynn once the unit's suck up was out of earshot. Yuri could feel his headache worsening. He just wanted to sleep.

"You don't have a choice," Flynn said seriously. Yuri could see worry in his friend's eyes.

Yuri got to his feet. "I know. I'll hold my tongue and be respectful and all that garbage," he said as he rubbed forehead again. "Don't wait up for me."

Flynn nodded. "Be careful."

Yuri huffed and gave a casual wave in parting. He could feel blue eyes following him as he made his way out of the barracks. He had been dealing with Terrence's bullshit for almost six months. He had made the mistake of letting the power plays get to him. Once Yuri had shown Terrence how riled up he could get, the bastard had started to focus on Yuri. The officer did everything in his power to make Yuri lose his cool just so Terrence could gleefully dish out a punishment for insubordination.

A wooden door with a worn plaque that read, Officer Terrence Pavone, stood at the end of the hallway Yuri was walking down. When he got to the door he sighed and straightened his scowl out into a more neutral expression. He couldn't show any weakness to a shark like Terrence least he smell blood and go in for the kill. After composing himself, Yuri knocked on the door.

"Come in," a nasally voice rang out from the other side.

The door hinges screeched as Yuri opened the door, almost causing him to break his façade into a grimace. Terrence sat in an old office chair, a half empty bottle of wine clutched in one of his hands. He was a middle aged man with short black hair and dark bags under his eyes. He gave Yuri a vicious grin.

"Yuri Lowell. What brings you to my office at this time of night?"

"You called me, sir," Yuri replied in a clipped tone and forced himself to salute the man.

"Did I?" Terrence put the bottle down onto the desk. He wobbled out of his chair and gave Yuri a leer. "At ease."

"Is there something you want, sir?"Yuri couldn't keep the annoyance from his voice. His headache had entered into migraine territory.

"I want a lot of things, Lowell. I'm probably never going to get most of them. I'm a Pavone. I'm supposed to be on top of the world." Terrence took a step towards Yuri, and Yuri unconsciously took one back.

Anxiety churned in Yuri's gut. Terrence usually mocked Yuri where everyone could overhear, and the bastard had never gone on about himself like this. Yuri realized with a jolt that this was the first time the two of them had ever been alone.

"I'm tired of all these politics. I'm going to get what I want for once."

Terrence lunged at Yuri, and before he could react Yuri was thrown against the office door and had a knife pressed to his throat. There was an insane glint in the older man's eyes. Yuri's head and heart were pounding in time with one another. Terrence was leaning forward.

The shock he had been in lifted in an instant. He punched Terrence in the throat right before their lips met. Terrence gagged and pulled back from Yuri, taking the knife with him. Yuri punched Terrence in the gut and kicked him once he was down. Terrence's hold on the knife slackened, and Yuri tore it from his hand and threw it away.

"Shit!" Terrence rasped as he tried to get up. "I'll kill you!"

The next thing Yuri knew, he was staring down at Terrence's bloody face. Terrence was out cold, and Yuri was straddling him and panting. His split knuckles were throbbing as badly as his head, and he could feel wetness at his throat. He needed a gel. Yuri staggered to his feet, but kept his eyes locked on Terrence's unmoving form. This was bad. This was really, really bad. It didn't matter that Yuri had been assaulted. Terrence was a Pavone. They were a powerful family, and Yuri had signed his own discharge with this. If not worse.

Yuri stumbled from the office. The hallway was empty, and so he began to rush back to the barracks.

Flynn would know what to do. Flynn always knew what to do.

The grunt that had been assigned to guard the barracks was fast asleep, and Yuri found the place quiet and dark. Yuri got to his bunk and dug through his things until he found his stash of apple gels. He ate a couple and sighed in relief. The small cut on his neck closed, his split knuckles knitted back together, and even his headache let up a bit.

Flynn was asleep, and the nighttime light was casting shadows on his face. Yuri hesitated to wake him up. He couldn't expect his oldest friend to smooth talk him out of this one. There was only one thing Yuri could do. He had to leave before he found himself locked in a prison cell.

Yuri grabbed his now disordered bag and pushed a few stray things into it before clipping his bodhi blastia onto his wrist and picking up his standard issue sword. Flynn turned over in his sleep and started muttering to himself. Yuri left the barracks before he gave into the temptation to shake Flynn awake.

~P~

The sun was just beginning to paint the sky in a myriad of colors. Its rays lit up the very top of the city, the spires of the royal castle burning like beacons in the semi-darkness. The beauty and grandeur of the castle seemed like a dream when compared to the grimy rooftop Yuri sat on.

A quiet chuckle escaped the teenager's mouth as a self-depreciating grin appeared on his lips. He had hoped that this morning would never come, but the sun was rising as it always did. The morning was as cheerful as ever, or at least as cheerful as it could get in the rundown Lower Quarter of the city. Yuri knew that expecting the sun not to rise was ridiculous, but it was harder to face the reality that his life was what had changed. His dreams had come crashing down around him the night before.

But no, that wasn't quite right either.

Those had never really been his dreams, had they? They had always belonged to the only person who ever really gave a damn about him. Yuri had never had dreams of his own because he had always been so focused on basic survival. When Flynn had told Yuri about his goal to become an honorable knight that could do something about the injustices that riddled their society, Yuri had jumped on the idea. He had agreed with Flynn and had made that his own dream, because what else would he want more than to see Flynn succeed? The thought of battling injustice had sounded pretty good, too.

Last night those dreams had been abandoned. Yuri felt a crushing guilt. He could have just left the office. He could have started yelling and gotten a group of knights on Terrence. Instead Yuri had beaten him to a pulp. He couldn't even remember doing it. Flynn would be waking up right now, and he would soon know what Yuri had done. Yuri had a rising anxiety in his gut that he would have to leave Zaphias. Terrence would undoubtedly seek revenge.

A soft whine interrupted Yuri's brooding. The dark haired teenager glanced over to his right to look at a gangly blue and white pup named Repede. The pup had a nasty scar on the left side of his face, making his left eye unusable. He also held a curious pipe in his mouth.

Yuri gave the dog a shaky grin. He and Flynn had found Repede hurt in a back alley almost a year earlier. They had nursed Repede back to health, and the dog had immediately taken to the two of them. Yuri had missed Repede while he and Flynn were stuck in basic. Repede had taken to following them on patrols once they'd been freed from that particular hell.

Repede got up and rubbed his head against Yuri's side in a reassuring gesture. He whined again, and Yuri's grin grew a little wider as he petted the dog.

"Yeah, I know. Things'll get better," Yuri softly mumbled to himself, looking upon the new morning with a little less despair.

~P~

"Yuri, you need to tell me what's going on!" Flynn's blue eyes were blazing with emotion. Yuri couldn't tell if they were full of worry or anger. He didn't know which one was worse. "You went to go see Terrence, and now they've found him dead! What the hell happened last night?"

Yuri was leaning against a wall in a back alley in the Lower Quarter. Repede silently stood between him and Flynn. Yuri could feel his gut clench at Flynn's words. If Terrence was dead, wouldn't he be the prime suspect?

"I don't know. Terrence was ranting at me. He was out of his mind." Yuri couldn't make eye contact with Flynn anymore.

"He committed suicide, Yuri. They found him hanged at his family's estate this morning. He'd looked like he'd been beaten up. They suspect foul play. There are knights looking for you."

That didn't make any sense. Terrence would have wanted to get revenge on Yuri. Terrence would have wanted to see him in chains. Why would he kill himself?

"I'm sorry, Flynn. I'm going to have to leave town."

Flynn stepped closer to Yuri. "What are you talking about? Our superiors have put out the watch for a man in his late twenties who has red hair. They only want to talk to you to find out what happened in Terrence's office. There was blood on the floor, and you're the last person that saw him. What happened?"

Yuri sighed. "He came after me with a knife, so I defended myself. I ran out of the office after, and that was the last I saw of him. You think our superiors are going to be happy to hear I beat the shit out of an officer?" Yuri wasn't going to tell Flynn what Terrence had wanted from him. He would much rather forget.

Flynn's face shifted into disbelief. "He tried to kill you? Are you alright?" Flynn was looking Yuri over with concern.

"Yeah, he tried to slit my throat, but I'm fine, Flynn." Yuri waved off his friend's concern. He was surprised Flynn wasn't telling him off for losing his cool.

"Then tell the knights that! It doesn't matter that Terrence was a Pavone. If he tried to kill you then I think our superiors will understand."

Yuri shook his head. "I can't." He didn't agree with Flynn. From what he'd seen, someone's surname was all that really mattered. "You said they have a watch out on a guy with red hair?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm going to try and find him."

Flynn looked at Yuri like he was insane. "Why?"

"I want to know what happened. Besides, if I bring him in I might get off the hook."

Flynn sighed in exasperation. "At least let me come with you."

"And have you be AWOL, too? No, Flynn, I'm not dragging you into this. I'll handle it."

"If you'd just tell our superiors—"

"I can't," Yuri repeated.

A look of resignation crossed Flynn's face. He glanced down at Repede, who was still silently watching the both of them. "Keep an eye on Yuri for me."

Repede barked in confirmation, and Flynn turned around. Yuri could see Flynn's irritation in how he walked, but he didn't have Flynn's faith in their superiors. He was convinced that if he turned himself in, he would never see anything but the inside of a prison cell again.