This idea will NOT leave me alone…. Enjoy if you can.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!

Rephiam POV:

If one were to ask me if things could surprise me anymore, in a lot of ways the answer is easy for me to say no. So many things have happened that have changed my life in so many ways that I keep surprising myself for being surprised. I had thought that after the battle against Neferet at the Mayo building, things would calm down.

I was wrong.

After the battle Thanatos had given Zoey and her circle, including myself and the other warriors a much needed break, as Stevie Rae would call it.

I was by myself when it happened. Stevie Rae and the rest of the females (as well as Damien) all left to go shopping at the "mall". Still had no idea what the appeal of going there was. Stark and Darius had left to a "gym" for training. I had no idea where there were going, but it didn't sound pleasant, so I didn't even bother going with them. I hadn't exactly wanted to be alone, but looking back on it, it was almost like fate wanted me to be alone for this.

If that was true, then I suppose it was also fate that lead me to go outside for the night air. At the time an overwhelming wave of nostalgia hit me within the tunnels being alone of when I was injured and the Rouges had used me against Stevie Rae. I left to escape those dark memories and instead tried to go to one place that had that lightest memory: the tree where we hid in the earth for her to drink my blood, imprinting us together.

What I didn't expect was the crumpled body of one of my brothers.

The feeling was instant and the next thing I knew I was rushing over to him, and once I was close to him I instantly recognized him: Nisroc. He body was battered, and I could see several cuts and bruises where his skin was visible, though there was no sign of any blood. But for all I knew, he was probably bleeding internally with several broken bones.

Once I reached him, and knelt down to inspect him over, I found that he was still alive, but barely.

A memory flashed back to my mind of when I was in the same position, though I believe I was probably in a worse condition than Nisroc. Either way, he was badly injured, and for all I knew his share of immortal blood was backfiring against him by flooding his body.

I tried reaching for him, but I hesitated, trying to think through of what I was going to do. That's when it hit me: What WAS I going to do to him? Yes he was my brother, and I couldn't just leave him to die, but what would be the other's response to this? I could only imagine that they wouldn't be pleased.

I heard a strangled groan of pain. It was an unfamiliar sound that I couldn't place, but once I looked down did I discover what it was, and it shocked me to the point that my decision was made.

Bracing myself, I lifted Nisroc's body off the ground, being sure not to disturb any wounds that might make his condition worse.

For a fleeting moment, I imagined that when Stevie Rae saved me so long ago that she probably felt exactly like this. But even I knew better; back then I was the enemy to her, Nisroc was my brother, and though we left off on bad terms, I wasn't going to let that cloud my judgment and leave him for death.

I somehow managed to enter the building with Nisroc still in my arms. I decided that going down to the tunnels wouldn't be the wisest of choices. That left my best bet to the showers, and considering the state Nisroc was in, it was a wise choice since he was filthy, and if there was any wound that his feathered body was hiding that was serious, it would be best if he was cleaned.

Once we entered the locker room I laid him down on one of the benches to give him a proper inspection.

I had hardly started when I noticed something off right away, and it wasn't a wound.

There was a gleam of metal on his chest, but it wasn't like a sword, or a dagger, or even a bullet, it did no harm to his flesh whatsoever. Inspecting it further it was a blackened piece of metal in the shape of a heart connected to a chain. Among his feathers I almost missed it since it was so blackened and warped.

Reaching out for the metal heart, I picked it up from his chest to find that it was actually a locket, and there seemed to be a certain swirl pattern on it, or at least there used to be seeing as how the metal seemed aged and worn from time.

My hand was automatically searching for a way to open it when I felt a hand clamp tightly against my wrist causing me to let go of the locket immediately.

Staring at where the hand came from a shocked breath escaped me as I saw that Nisroc had awoken and gripped my wrist in a threatening manner. His glowing red eyes glaring in a way that I have never seen him do before. Then again he had only declared his hate for me once he discovered that I had chosen the Goddess' path and became a human.

"Leave… Her… Alone…" I heard him hiss out in a painful gasp of breath, though the words did little to ease my confusion.

"'Her'? Nisroc, what are you talking about? Who are you talking about?" I asked him, wanting to know who he was talking about, and if this girl had anything to do with him being injured like this.

"Leave…." He was started to pant now, his eyes losing its harsh edge in focus. The red in his eyes had even started to calm down, which both worried and confused me, but instead of an amber or rust color, they were swimming a cooler color that I could hardly identify.

"Her…" He said even more weakly, his voice shocking me since I heard none of his animalistic hiss in his voice, but instead heard the voice of a dying boy short on breath for his life. His grip had loosened its hold on my wrist.

And before I knew it he had closed his eyes and his arm had fallen from mine, and I knew that he had blacked out.

I quickly checked a pulse and was glad to discover that while it was slow, it was steady and it meant that he was alive.

But still…

His words as well as that locket settled over me uneasily.

Who was this girl that Nisroc seemed to be warning me about? And where and when did he get that locket? What was even in it?

Assuring myself that he was out cold, I picked up the locket again, and found the latch to open it. Opening it swiftly, I peered inside, only to get even more confused. Inside there was a very old photo of a very familiar looking girl smiling shyly at the camera, her hands folding together on top of her skirts. But there was also another picture there, one that looked more like a young child's drawing than anything. It was a blackened picture printed across a yellowed piece of parchment.

At first I thought it was just a smudge, but looking closer I that it was actually a bird in flight. Looking even closer I saw that this "bird" apparently had arms and legs if one were to analyze it closely enough.

'This… This is a picture of a Raven Mocker… What is Nisroc doing with this? Where on earth did he get this? Who is this girl?' Those questions and countless more rattled my brain at what I'd just discovered. Though judging by the works of the drawing it was probably obvious that whoever this girl in the photo was, she was the one the one to draw it. That was the only answer I could work out and did little to answer the others, and in fact it even made more questions left unanswered.

His body shifted and I heard him groan painfully. I dropped the necklace immediately, automatically remembering that he was injured, and quite badly at this point.

Without thinking, I rushed out of the locker room and headed straight back down the tunnels to get medical supplies.

Thankfully, the tunnels were mostly empty as the majority of the vampyres inhabiting it had left or had taken space somewhere within them that was far away from my destination.

It wasn't until I grabbed the first aid kit that I realized just what on earth I was doing.

Yes I was helping my younger brother who was badly injured, but everyone else saw him and the others as enemies. I was once even a part of that line of vision to everyone; Nisroc had even made that fact that we are now enemies completely clear to me, and anyone else who may have witnessed that little incident. And yet here I was, about to grab medical equipment, for someone who I should recognize as my enemy. The more I thought about it, the more I felt a dark, yet familiar part of my being humming in protest. Yet at the same time, a part of me was finding the vast similarities of this situation, and how I was on the other end; being the injured enemy relying only on myself proclaimed enemy to tend to my wounds out of the humane part of their soul.

Humane…

That realization made my decision for me, and I clutched the first aid kit tighter, being extra aware of my surroundings, should I be caught.

'He is still my brother after all...' The thought rang loud and clear in my mind the entire time.

No POV

One hour later

Nisroc had started, slowly, gaining his consciousness back to him; his body didn't feel as pained as it had before.

But when was before for him?

Before his brothers turned on him?

Before he landed in a heap to die?

Before he blacked out?

Or before Rephiam had found him?

Rephiam…

Rephiam?!

Nisroc bolted strait up, crying out in a pain filled hiss as pain shot through his body again, though somehow it had lessened a bit.

Rephiam had found him! What had he done to him?

Racking his brain for any memories, Nisroc came up with one connected to Rephiam finding him… Or more specifically, his…

Gasping in fear he quickly reached his hand up towards his chest, clutching automatically at the cold feeling of a piece of metal connected to a chain. He ignored the feeling of a dull pain running through his arms, as he sighed in relief that he still had it, and that it was, hopefully untouched.

She was still safe…

"I don't think I have seen you look so panicked before brother." A more than familiar voice shot out from the shadows, making Nisroc automatically turn his head towards the source of the voice to aim glowing red glares at the owner.

He barely flinched in fear, reminding Nisroc just how little he had sunk, and that something never change between him and his older brother.

"Come and mock me, have you?" He asked an angry hiss evident in his voice.

"Nisroc, when we last spoke to each other you called me your own enemy, and I offered peace between us. Why would I do that?" Rephiam asked, slowly approaching his brother, who just flinched back from him. Though it ended badly and Nisroc winced from the pain of his battered body, letting out a hiss of pain.

"The others! Come and mock me, they have. Any different, what makes you?" Nisroc explained, clutching his arms together.

"The others? Why?" I asked, but then a thought came to my mind. "Who did this to you?" Rephiam asked, motioning his hands to indicate Nisroc's battered up body.

"The otherssssss" He said in a low, drown out hiss. Like it both saddened him and enraged him.

"Nisroc that doesn't make any sense. Why would they do that to you?" Rephiam asked, not being able to comprehend the other of our brothers ganging up against him to cause this much abuse. Nisroc was the second oldest next to Rephiam, before he met Stevie Rae and joined the side of the Goddess. And since he was out of commission to all of the others, that technically made Nisroc the eldest and the one in command. Why would they ever think of doing this to him?

Nisroc didn't answer my right away, he just looked down. Rephiam noticed that one of his arms went back to the locket, clutching it tightly.

"Found out… They… They found out." Nisroc said after a long while, shocking Rephiam with his speech pattern.

Nisroc, as Rephiam remembered him, was the only one out of all of them who had enough sense to learn how to speak. But Rephiam was the only one out of the two who had perfected it, where Nisroc's speech was choppy and misplaced. And where Rephiam could speak without his hiss when he wasn't enraged, Nisroc always spoke with a hiss, it was almost like his own accent that would never leave him.

But this time when he spoke…

Nisroc barely had a hiss to him, and his words sounded more thought out.

He could even swear he heard a tinge of sadness within his brother's words.

"They found out about what?" Rephiam asked, daring to step closer to him, though he was pretty sure just what Nisroc was talking about.

When Nisroc didn't respond, both to his question and to him moving closer, Rephiam risked getting closer; kneeling down to face his brother's raven face, being careful of his beak, should Nisroc choose to attack.

Nisroc still didn't do anything; he just clutched the locket tighter.

Rephiam sighed, knowing that he wasn't getting anywhere with this.

Being cautious, he reached out his hand to join his brothers around the locket.

"Nisroc…" Rephiam started looking Nisroc in the eye.

"When I found you, injured as you were, and discovered that necklace around your throat, that was the first time I have ever seen you act that way over a trinket." Rephiam said calmly, ignoring the dangerous red glare Nisroc was now aiming at him. This made Rephiam regret his poor choice in calling the locket a "simple trinket". But still he continued.

"Do you remember what you told me when you had the brief moment of consciousness?" He asked softly, wanting to calm Nisroc; to gain his trust enough to make him easier to cooperate.

"No… It's blurry… Remember… Only you discovering…" He said softly, clutching the locket tighter, probably not caring that Rephiam's hand was still on top of his.

"You told me to "Leave her alone." Those were your words, undiluted and uncensored." Rephiam informed him, and there was no hiding the fact that Nisroc immediately tensed up when he heard what he said. Rephiam even felt his hand drop, like he had lost all hope.

Rephiam took the opportunity to fully take the locket in his hold and open it up again.

"I guess that makes my new question for you Nisroc," Rephiam said, holding the now open locket in his hands, ignoring the shocked look on his brother's face and the hiss filled gasp that came from his beak.

"Who is she?" Rephiam finished, holding the picture of the girl in the locket up to his brothers face. He didn't say it in a forceful manner, which took every ounce of will in his power to do. It came to him as automatic as a breath, and felt just as natural. But he knew it wasn't right, and now was not the time to be a cruel dictator to his little brother.

'Like you have been all your life.' The thought crossed him mind bitterly, followed by a wave of regret.

Nisroc didn't answer, or at least not right away.

Instead he just stared at the picture with a sadness that Rephiam was sure that he would be the only one to ever catch in his brother's Raven Mocker face. Nisroc lifted his hand and grabbed the locket out of Rephiam's grasp, bowing his head as he did so; an off sounding hiss came out from his beak. Rephiam wasn't sure what to make of such a strange sound from his brother.

It wasn't until he saw Nisroc's body shake, and a more familiar sound mixed with that off sound that he realized what was happening, though the fact shocked Rephiam to his very core: Nisroc was weeping.

He had never seen any one of his younger brother ever cry like this before. Rephiam was sure that Nisroc was crying when he saw his black feathers around his face darken in wet streaks that ended up as small splashes onto the hard, tiled floor.

Nisroc soon covered his face with his hands, bringing the locket with them.

Rephiam had never seen Nisroc like this. Or any of his brothers act like this. Who was that girl in the locket?

"Nisroc..?" Rephiam asked before he was answered, finally, by Nisroc.

"Cindy… I'm… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…" Nisroc finally said through tears. This whole situation had Rephiam feeling on edge. Who was Cindy? Just what did she mean to his brother? And who was he apologizing to?

Yet another thing Rephiam had never heard from any of his brothers. And yet here Nisroc was; crying, apologizing, with word that their younger brothers had gained up on him because of a locket containing the picture of a girl. Rephiam was giving several answers, and yet he felt as if he gained absolutely no knowledge.

"Nisroc..?" Rephiam said calmly, trying to give his, what appeared to be, grieving brother some form of comfort.

"Pathetic…" He finally heard from him.

"What's pathetic?"

"You should know… You're thinking it, I know." He said in a slightly bitter tone.

"There's no thought of anything pathetic in my mind. All I'm seeing in front of me is one of my brothers injured and crying. If there's anything pathetic in this room it's me for not knowing enough to try to help him." Rephiam said stubbornly.

Nisroc grunted with a hiss, telling Rephiam that he didn't believe him.

"Nisroc, when we last talked; you had labeled us enemies, and claimed that you now hate me." Rephiam recalled, earning nothing but Nisroc turning away from him, his eyes lingering on the still open locket.

"And do you remember what I offered you? I offered you peace between us." Rephiam reminded him.

Nisroc just clenched the locket tighter in his grip.

"I did that, not so I could turn you against father. I also didn't do so because I wanted to trap you. I made the offer to you because I am your brother, and I realized that how I treated you was wrong: Everything I did back then was wrong, and it took The Red One's guidance to show me that." Rephiam explained, gently placing his hand on his brother's shoulder, instantly feeling him tense up. He wasn't too thrilled to call Stevie Rae that title knowing that his brothers only knew her by that title and not by her true name.

"Nisroc, please understand, that I made that offer to you to make amends. So that you could see the Light and join me, but not so we could turn our backs on father, but so we could make amends with each other and properly act as brothers." Rephiam said in a gentle voice.

He waited for Nisroc to answer.

He was only greeted by silence.

"Nisroc?" Rephiam spoke out, after a long moment of silence.

And after an even longer moment of silence did Nisroc finally speak.

"I couldn't accept your offer…" Nisroc said, in a voice Rephiam had no idea what to make out of.

"Why not?" He asked, not daring to hesitate.

"I… I was…" Nisroc said, though he had no problems hesitating.

"What? You were what?" Rephiam goaded him.

"Jealous!" Nisroc barked, after a moment of strained silence. Rephiam noticed that Nisroc snapped the locket shut.

"I was jealous and I have no idea why!" Nisroc practically screamed, but his tone didn't sound anything at all like his normal voice. Instead, it sounded like a boy venting out his frustration for things he had not been taught, not the normal voice given to a Raven Mocker.

Nisroc didn't give Rephiam a moment to respond on this though.

"For centuries, I have always known that you were the most favored, the one with the higher lineage, and the most power. I have known all of that and more and not once, have I ever felt any need to feel envious of you. And yet…" Nisroc trailed off, like he wasn't sure to explain the rest or not.

"And yet..?" Rephiam goaded.

"And yet… When I saw what happened to you; what your relationship with the Red One had done to you…" Nisroc said, and Rephiam could see more tears rolling down his face. "And once you gave me that offer… I… I felt… envy… for the first time… I don't like it." He said in a serious tone at the last of his words.

"What made you feel envious?" Rephiam asked, hoping to get eh answers he was looking for.

"When you gave me the offer, looking back on it now, not a single thought was given towards father, and what he would think if I betrayed him for your offer." Nisroc said, ignoring his question. Rephiam couldn't tell if Nisroc was still giving his answer, or just talking to himself at this point, so he remained silent.

"At first I wanted to accept, I can't explain it, but I did. But then something held me back." Nisroc said haltingly, like even he wasn't sure what he was trying to describe.

"What held you back?" Rephiam chanced to ask.

Nisroc didn't answer right away, in fact, Rephiam wasn't even sure if he heard him. He just stared at the locket again, but he didn't open it.

"Jealousy… I… Why it finally came, I have no idea. Just did…" Nisroc answered, his voice still sounding impossibly human to Rephiam, but also soft.

"Why did you feel jealous?" Rephiam finally asked.

"Because… because…" Nisroc tried to say, but seemed to be failing.

Rephiam just brought himself closer to his brother, resting a comforting arm on his shoulder, ignoring that he felt him flinch from the contact.

Nisroc opened the locket again.

"I was jealous… Because I realized… You were able to be with the girl you loved…" Nisroc said, and Rephiam could see tears form in his brothers, shockingly calm eyes, that stopped glowing red, and had calmed down to a cool, blue color. A fact that Rephiam would never be able to explain even to himself.

But the truth of what Nisroc said had hit him hard.

"You… You fell in..?" Rephiam tried to voice the question, but found it a very difficult task.

"It was centuries ago… I hid her from you, father and the others for a very long time. I just didn't think she would return to my life like this…" Nisroc said, holding the open locket in a loving gesture.

"What do you mean Nisroc? Who is this girl?" Rephiam asked, hoping that he didn't sound too demanding.

"Cindy… Her name was Cindy… Not that it matters… She's dead now." Nisroc said, in what Rephiam noted as a sad voice, but still couldn't shake the feeling of dread when he announced that this girl was dead.

"But… How..?" Rephiam asked, not sure how to phrase his question, though he wasn't all entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.

The feeling of dread intensified as he heard a hiss of anger come from his injured brother.

"Killed her," Rephiam swore he felt his heart stop if only for an instant, before he said his next words. "They did. Killed them, I did."

""They?" Who're they?" Rephiam asked, letting out his breath that he wasn't aware that he was keeping.

"The foolish mortals who took her from me!" Nisroc snapped, but as quickly as his rage came, it depleted once he looked at his open locket again, shocking Rephiam once again with the soft expression he found on his face. "I… I heard her calling out for me… For help… Understood her… I did not. Managed to reach her room, once I finally did… Too late… It was… too late. They pinned her down, and sliced her neck open." Nisroc said, his voice wavering in a manner that Rephiam refused to put thought into. He was already confused by his brother's behavior, no need to further agitate it.

But something didn't feel right with Rephiam. Before, he remembered one of Nisroc's favored means of killing was doing the exact same thing, just with his beak. He can't say that he remembered his brother killing anybody in any different fashion… But… How long has he's been in relations with this girl?

"Nisroc..? When did she..?"

"Several days before Aya trapped Father in the earth. Remember, I do, because that's when I felt that a piece of death within me. Like death had a grip on me Rephiam… But it refused to fully take me." Nisroc explained, making Rephiam feel like even worse of a brother for not noticing his brother's depression that long ago. If he felt that way, and they had to give up their physical bodies… But then, if this Cindy girl made his brother feel humane, then what happened to it?

"I'm sorry for not realizing it… I have been a horrible brother to you." Rephiam apologized.

"You did your duty. I would expect nothing more of you from that. It was another fact that I have long since accepted." Nisroc explained, in the most sincere voice Rephaim had ever heard come from him or any of their younger brothers.

"Still…"

"After her death… Do you think… I died as well?" Nisroc asked out of the blue.

"What?" Rephiam asked, shocked.

"When we shed our physical forms, I at first thought that death had finally decided to show mercy and finish me. But then the Tsi Sgili freed father and we came back. But during that time I no longer felt sorrow. Anger, at first I thought I felt. But then… Hollow… was all I felt." Nisroc explained.

'So that's what happened to it.' Rephiam thought to himself finally fitting the pieces together.

"Perhaps a part of you did die… But it seems to be resurfacing to me." Rephiam said in the calmest manner he could think of. This earned him Nisroc looking at him with what Rephiam could only decipher as confusion in his, now cool blue eyes. It still rocked him to his very core to see his brother's eyes be that cool a color after burning red for so long.

"When did you first feel it come back?" Rephiam asked, getting a sense of déjà vu as well as weird presence of Stevie Rae filling him, like she was there by his side, guiding him with his words.

"When she gave me this." Nisroc said, holding up the locket, shocking Rephiam that Nisroc had warmed up to him in this respect.

"But… Isn't she..?"

"Yessssss…" Nisroc answered him before Rephiam could properly ask his question.

"She's still dead… But her spirit is anchored to the world of the living. She is nothing more than a ghost girl now." Nisroc explained.

'A ghost child…' The thought was fleeting in his mind. Then he suddenly remembered a chatter box of a spirit of a little girl when he was still injured at the Gilcrease. A ghost girl who looked a lot like the girl in Nisroc's photo. But it couldn't be could it? Though it would explain her unusual behavior towards him.

Rephiam mentally shook the thought away.

"Rephiam…?" Nisroc said out of the blue again.

"Yes Nisroc?"

"If Aya was reborn as Zoey…Then… would it be possible for Cindy to be reborn into a new living body?" Nisroc asked, sounding like a lost child not wanting to accept the fate of death.

"Hard to say. If she was anchored to this world, then she probably didn't want to move on. But who knows… if her spirit knew that she was leaving you behind, she was probably just waiting for you." Rephiam said as best he could, not really knowing if he really believed his own words. "So now that she knows you're still here, who knows? She might, but then again…"

"Please stop… Whatever this light feeling is, I want to keep it. I don't want you to say "but" and ruin it." Nisroc said slowly.

Nisroc didn't need to say anymore. Rephiam stopped talking and let his brother have this one, tiny shred of hope.

"Rephiam?" Nisroc said again, though Rephiam was starting to grow accustomed to this new behavior of his younger brother.

"Yes Nisroc?"

"Can… Can we be brothers again? Can… Can I join your side?" Nisroc said, jarring Rephiam's thoughts to chaotic levels. But after a moment to think it through he finally decided on the best choice of words.

"You do know what that would entail don't you?" Rephiam said in a sure, calm, yet firm manner, hoping that his brother will be able to answer correctly.

"Joining the side of Light, the Goddess, and leaving behind our brothers and Father?" Nisroc answered in a formal manner. "Yesssssss." He continued with a hiss. "I undersssssstand… But… I am left with no other option." Nisroc said, sounding truly lost that Rephiam was almost to take him in right then and there.

"How do you figure?" Rephiam asked cautiously.

"My… Our brothers had labeled me their enemy now. So they are already gone to me. And even then, none of us has seen Father in weeks. So he's already lost to me." Nisroc said in a sad voice.

"And the side of Light and the Goddess?" Rephiam prodded, hoping that Nisroc was smart enough to know that losing his family wasn't enough to change sides.

"The Darkness… Feels wrong now… like it's trying to deplete any lingering memories of her… I want to know what Light feels like, and if it will let me keep the memories alive." Nisroc said.

"Nisroc…" Rephiam started, but was interrupted by Nisroc again.

"If the Goddess forgave you and included you… Then couldn't she..?" Nisroc said, but it was Rephaim's turn to interrupt.

"It's more complicated than that. I fully accepted her because I truly wanted to join her side and accept the love that was forever missing in my life: Because I wanted to be good; not because I just didn't want to be on the side of Darkness anymore." Rephiam explained as best he could.

"But you choice the side of Light because of the Red One!" Nisroc cried out at his older brother.

"Because she opened up the world that I secluded myself from, she gave me the choice to join. It was all up to me if it was really something that I truly wanted for myself." And it was… He didn't say the last words, but he knew it was still known to his brother. But more than anything did he hope that he finally understood.

After a long moment of silence did Rephiam feel, or at least hope, that his words were finally sinking in.

"So you're rejecting me?" Nisroc said in a voice that made Rephiam's heart pained.

"No. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not rejecting you. Far from it. But I suppose I'm not doing an impressive job at making my message clear." Rephiam said in a calm voice, hoping that Nisroc would believe him.

Nisroc didn't say anything just looked at him, still holding his locket open in his palm.

Rephiam just sighed.

"What I'm trying to say, is that you should really think this through: Make sure that this is what you truly want. I will accept you as my brother, Nisroc. That I can assure you, but for the later that's something for YOU to decide not me. It's also something that I cannot properly do. The Goddess has to accept her herself. All I can do is offer you empty words that only hold a promise that you, yourself, have to fulfill." Rephiam explained, not letting his small sense of panic show through when he found that Nisroc's expression didn't change.

"Think of it, as me opening the door to you: to give you the chance to truly accept the side of Light and that of the Goddess." Rephiam explained in a more simplistic manner.

"But… how will I truly know?" Nisroc asked finally.

"Trust me you will know." Rephiam said, a small smile forming on his face.

"But… The others…"

"Now is not the time for our brothers…"

"Not them… The vampyres… What about them?" Nisroc asked in a panicked voice, and this made Rephiam pause in his thoughts.

"Well… That's just going to be another thing you should take into account then. I'm still having a hard time being accepted. We did do a lot of damage, Nisroc." Rephiam said in a soft tone.

"Where… where could I go then?" Nisroc asked, and though Rephiam knew that this was probably what Nisroc wanted most after being rejected by their brothers, he still had to stifle a sigh.

"Couldn't you stay where her spirit is?" Rephiam asked, not wanting to suggest Gilcrease on the off chance that Nisroc's Cindy WAS in fact the Ghost Girl Rephiam encountered there. But if it was, Rephiam felt confidante enough to send him there since that's where he went when he was in his brother's place.

"No… I can't… Live with myself, I could not… Stayed there, if I did. Even if it meant seeing her again…" Nisroc said in a voice that almost made Rephaim's heart cringe for him; it was made especially worse when he opened the locket again looking sadly into the photo inside. And yet all in all Rephiam had to agree with Nisroc's opinion in the matter; it's the place where Nisroc had made the critical failure that had haunted him, probably for decades, centuries even. The place where the young love of his life had been killed by humans while he was too late to stop them, and could only view it. Had he been in Nisroc's place with Stevie Rae, he probably couldn't stomach staying anywhere where she had perished without losing his mind. And the fact that Nisroc explained that she was now a ghost just probably drove him mad now; she was still there, but he could never touch her, and would just be another reminder that she is forever lost to him.

"Then… Perhaps you could stay in the abandoned rooms above us." Rephiam offered.

Nisroc looked back at him in shock.

"None of the fledglings or vampyres here go above this level. You could hide out in the above rooms in this building and take your time to heal and think about my offer. And perhaps, to make sure your living quarters are acceptable, I could bring you food, drink, and help with your wounds." Rephiam offered him, praying that his brother would accept.

Rephiam only had to wait half of a breath for Nisroc's answer.

"Yesssssss."

Hope ya'll like this! BTW this is supposed to be a ONESHOT! Yes I know it's the base for a regular fanfiction, but I already have enough on my plate so shut up! I just wanted to have a nice, cute scene between my favorite Raven Mocker and explore my fav ships in the series as well… Hehehe…. SHUT UP! Yes I still ship Nisroc and the ghost girl. Cut me some slack!