I fixed the dialogue guys, thanks for letting me know!

Adrian ran his hand lightly over Sydney's arm, expecting the reaction of pleasure he loved to evoke from her.

'Sydney?' Adrian said as he stopped abruptly to stare at her.

'Hmm.. yes?' Sydney replied.

'Your aura... it's changed..your colours aren't the same.'

Sydney stepped back from Adrian, avoiding his gaze carefully. 'What do you mean.. changed, is that possible?'

After staring intently at Sydney for a few moments, trying to decipher the changes to her aura, Adrian replied slowly 'Well the yellow is still there, but there's no more flashes of purple. And when I touched you, your aura dimmed..'

'No more purple? What does that mean?' whilst saying this Sydney had backed away discreetly from Adrian, making space between them. However not quite discreetly enough as Adrian noticed, and testing his idea, he stepped closer to Sydney and saw her aura dim again, confirming what he had desperately hoped was not true.

'Wow, and I thought I'd learnt from my mistakes with Rose' he said bitterly.

'Wait, what? Adrian tell me what's going on, please, you're freaking me out!' Sydney stepped closer to Adrian, sensing his distress. Even without magical aura reading powers, Sydney could still see his feelings radiating off him, as a single thought consumed his mind.

'Do you.. do you still love me?' he asked, attempting to muster a voice close to calm.

'What? I didn't go to mexico, I stayed here to look after you and Jill and everybody else, why else would I go to all this trouble?'

'You didn't answer my question Sydney.' Adrian turned around and began pacing the room, the bright yellow paint that covered his apartment conveying a mood that was completely the opposite of what he was feeling. 'When I touch you, your aura changes. Normally when I touch you, it changes but it becomes brighter, more intense, more vibrant in every way. It was how I knew you loved me when you refused to admit it. Now, it dims, almost recoils when I touch you. And the purple, the passion that used to grow stronger when I touch you, it's not there anymore. The flame in the dark has gone. What's changed Sydney?'

Even Sydney, wound up in her world of facts and statistics could see how upset Adrian was, especially because he was calling her by her actual name rather than his nickname. She recognised his words as part of the spirit-induced madness, but the clarity and confusion in his eyes told her that he knew exactly what he was saying. 'Nothing's changed! I'm still the same girl, I still love you no matter what my aura says otherwise!'

'That's the thing though, you're not the same.' Sydney stared at Adrian in shock. 'The purple of your aura was a part of you, and it should be impossible for it to be gone. It's like forgetting all the words you've ever read, impossible. But it's gone.'

Suddenly, Adrian stopped pacing and swung round to stare at her. Like before, he was focusing completely and utterly on Sydney, something that would usually make her knees buckle and head feel dizzy. Except this time, instead of staring past her and at her aura, he stared directly at her face. Adrian's eyes held Sydney's for what felt like a long time, both silently daring the other to break the contact first. Then in a few seconds, Adrian had crossed the room and was standing directly in front of Sydney. Attempting not to flinch, Sydney kept his gaze but Adrian's eyes had travelled and were staring at her cheek, narrowing his eyes at the golden tattoo that marked Sydney as an alchemist. Feeling self-conscious under the scrutiny of his gaze, Sydney turned her head slightly to hide the tattoo. 'What happened on your trip to the Alchemists?' Adrian asked, his eyes widening as he realised what he had been thinking. As she gave him the rundown of her trip, meetings and planning sessions,without even realising, Sydney's voice had filled with pride when mentioning the Alchemists. Except as Adrian listened carefully, he saw the telltale signs of compulsion leaking into her heart-warming performance as she described the 'beauty' that was the Alchemists. 'Oh no.' Adrian's interruption severed the dream-like state Sydney had fallen into and she jumped, startled.. 'It's not that you don't love me anymore, it's that you.. can't. Sydney, do you remember them touching your tattoo, at all during the trip?' he asked her urgently.

Her answer brought his fears crashing down around him- 'Yes' she replied.

'Oh Sage, they've turned you into the perfect Alchemist spy, one who doesn't even know they're being used.' Adrian said softly, more to himself than to anyone else.

'What, what do you mean? They touched my tattoo, yes but nothing fancy, just re-inking my tattoo, as usual.' She said adamantly.

'But you didn't want your tattoo re-inked, remember! Or is the compulsion making your memory a bit hazy. I guess the Alchemists are covering their tracks, not wanting you to remember why they had to re-ink you in the first place'. Adrian's voice rose as he realised what this meant for him, for them. 'You've been fixed, you're back to playing the perfect little alchemist except this time you aren't pretending. That's why there's no more purple in your aura, they've sucked the life out of you. Oh no, oh shit no, the perfect Alchemist. The perfect Alchemist who hates all vampires. Including Moroi. Including me.'

'Of course not, Adrian! I love you!'

'Then step closer. You don't think I've noticed, but every time I've stepped closer to you, you've moved away. You're afraid of me. Prove me wrong, please Sydney! Prove to me that I've got this all wrong, the tattoo isn't controlling you. Or prove to me that you can fight the tattoo. You're so strong, my flame in the dark, please fight for me.' Adrian had moved past worried now to sheer desperation, clinging to the hope that his guesses had been wrong. The conflicted emotions were clear on Sydney's face, as a battle raged inside her, but eventually her body made a decision. Although looking unhappy, Sydney stayed where she was standing, a 'safe' distance from Adrian. His face fell as all hopes of being wrong were destroyed and after a few seconds, a look of indifference masked all previous emotions. Adrian knew that this wouldn't have fooled the real Sydney, who was so sharp that she would have seen through his act of disinterest, would have seen the feelings of despair threatening to engulf him whole. But the real Sydney was not standing in front of him, and if his eyes did not believe that, a quick look at her aura would remind him.

'I need to borrow your phone' Adrian bluntly told Sydney.

After regarding him suspiciously, Sydney handed it over and asked 'what are you doing?'

Adrian replied grimly, 'I'm calling Marcus and his merry men'.