A/N: I'm going to warn you all, this once. If I'm brave enough this story won't have a happy ending. But it will get much, much better before it starts to decline, I promise. You'll see Anna defying Kratos and you'll see them in love. There will be plenty of everyone else fitted in, including Yuan and Martel. You'll see Kratos soon, on the first day of school. Anna took the name Irving with Lloyd from her adopted father.

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Anna took her time unbuckling herself, even though the car was hot. She put a bookmark in her book and held it in her hand as she reluctantly crawled up past the driver's seat and to the truck's open driver's door, teetering on the edge for a second as the Virginia late-summer air walloped her in the face. She hadn't wanted to ever have to breathe in that stinking air again. Her parents had died with it in their lungs.

"Anna, stop being so slow!" Lloyd called from inside the house, terribly excited. Weren't fourteen-year-olds supposed to be sullen? "The house looks really cool! Dad wants to know which bedroom you want, too, so he can put your suitcase in it!"

"I'm coming in a sec!" Anna shouted at her brother, jumping down from the car so that her flip-flops hit asphalt with a bump that rattled her ankles. "He already brought my suitcase in?"

Lloyd poked his head out the door, hair still mussed from the fifteen minutes he'd held his head out the window on the highway before Dirk had shouted at him to roll the damn thing up because he was wasting the air conditioning. "Yeah, he was carrying two. I already got mine. The boxes are here already, anyway – in case you were worried about not having things like clothes and toothbrushes since you couldn't fit them in your bag with all the books. Come on – you have to hurry up and choose a room so we can start unpacking."

Anna snorted. "Hurry up and choose the room I'll be sleeping in for the next two and a half years of my life, not counting visits home from college. I'm sure you've already made your decision."

"Sure I have." Lloyd pointed down the hall, nearly bouncing. "But Dad said you had to come in and give your opinion to make it official."

"Nice to know at least someone thinks of me," she grumbled, taking her first look at their new house. Dirk's friend had suggested it, the one who had asked him to move down here and be a partner in his metal shop and garage. Which meant he had to take his two adopted foster children with him, however uncomfortable coming back near their home might be.

Lloyd didn't seem to care. He probably barely remembered. He'd been – what, five? Six? – when they'd been killed. He'd barely spoken at all of their foster homes, been silent for nearly a year. Until their newest pseudo-parent came to pick them up and Lloyd caught sight of the only green dog either of them had ever seen.

It wasn't that bad, really. The boxes, plenty of them – Dirk had a habit of collecting fine metal work and figurines, and Lloyd had more collections that most people had strands of hair on their head – were piled haphazardly in the kitchen and the living room and the area around the front door, which meant they had to be dodged when trekking up the stairs to further living quarters. Lloyd barely seemed to notice as he bounced up them, looking at her with an air of someone offering a great and undiscovered treasure to someone who thought it was little more than trash. With a long-suffering sigh Anna put her hand on the rail and heaved herself up. She got to the landing and peered in the open door at Lloyd. "So, is this the room you want?"

"No way!" Lloyd said, gesturing at the curtains, clearly offended. "I'm showing you yours. Mine's down the hall, across from Dad's. You get the one with the girly curtains the old owners left and the purple-painted walls. Yours is bigger than mine, though."

"Gee, thanks," Anna muttered, digging her fingers a little more tightly into the cover of her book as she looked around. "I guess it isn't all that bad." It really wasn't. The curtains were white lace and embroidery, something her mother would have scorned, which Anna still would have rather done without. Those could be removed, at least. The movers had already put the basic things like beds and couches in, so she was able to sit on it and bounce up and down as she examined the purple walls. They were dark, more like stormclouds or bruises than any color of paint in an interior designer's book, and made her remember the teenage girl Dirk had said was the only child of the couple they'd bought the house from. Obviously someone was suffering. At least there wasn't any wallpaper, and nothing else really ridiculous. Her chest of drawers and desk were already in there, so she could have her stereo plugged in by the end of the afternoon. It would do well enough if she had to stay here.

Anna dumped her book on the bed and got up, heading down the hall to see where Lloyd must have run off to. She looked in the master bedroom, which had a very nice bathroom connected en suite, but Dirk wasn't there. She figured he'd gone back out to the car to get more of their stuff or was downstairs, starting the unpacking. Or she supposed he could be ordering some pizza. It'd been a long drive and they were all hungry, and Lloyd ate with the joyful abandon of those who had elastic trash can bags for stomachs.

The door to Lloyd's room was closed. Anna knocked on it. "Lloyd, are you in there? Can I see your room?"

"Don't open the door!" Lloyd shouted, sounding absolutely terrified. Her stomach tied itself into little knots of worry immediately, the way every person's would if it was their job to protect their little brother. "Get Dad! And tell him to bring his boots!"

"Lloyd, why don't you just come out here if there's a spider, then? You can tell Dirk to come get it yourself," Anna said, well versed in Lloyd's very worst fear. "Just stop looking at it. You'll be fine. It's probably harmless."

"It looks like one of the poisonous ones, though!" Lloyd protested. "I can't come to the door. It's on the door. It built its web on one of the hinges on this side. I can't go near it. You've got to get Dad."

Anna sighed. "Fine. I'll be back in a second. Try not to panic." She ran back down the hallway past her new room and scrambled down the stairs, weaving between the boxes to get to the front door and outside. She jogged down the steps of their new porch. "Dirk? Are you in the garage?"

"'Course I am, sweetheart," he called, stepping out into the waning sunlight a few seconds later with a box in his hands, one of those filled with his old business records that were destined for the attic and storage. "What is it? Did Lloyd show you yer room?"

"Yeah. It's okay." Anna shrugged off the opinions of a teenager and said, "Lloyd's trapped in his room. There's a big spider web on the inside of his door and he won't come out. He needs you to come and bring your boots."

"That boy." Dirk shook his head. "Someday he's going to have to face his fears, but maybe not the first day in our new house. Put this box on the kitchen counter for me, sweetheart, while I go rescue your little brother."

Anna took the box. "Oof," she grunted. "This thing is heavy. You're already trying to clutter the kitchen counter?"

He laughed. "That's right." Dirk backtracked inside, through the garage, stomping for the boots he'd left in the kitchen. Anna followed, much slower. She felt bent like a turtle.

She heard his footsteps going up the stairs as she set the box down with a huff, pushing it on a little farther so it wouldn't fall and let loose all the papers. What was in this box, anyway? Well, there wasn't any harm in opening it, since it was probably just boring business papers. She hardly ever exercised her natural teenage curiosity.

Anna eased open the lid of the box, and pried out the first paper. It was a letter from the state, officially asking Dirk as a foster parent to at least temporarily take charge of their upbringing. She set it on the counter and moved on to the next one. The forms. Some reports on them, Dirk's observations.

Lloyd may not like school, but he's finally started to open up to me and he treats Noishe like a stuffed animal, holding on to him most of the time and actually smiling and laughing a bit. He's the cutest little thing, really. When I check on him at night he sleep with Noishe, now, and his nightmares have gotten a lot better. Anna's different. She watches him like a hawk, and doesn't talk much either. At night she whispers the names of her parents. Most children scream, or thrash, but no matter how I leave her when I peek in she's on top of her blankets with her arms around herself, whispering. I'm worried about these two. They've been through a lot, and I've heard they used to be a really happy family. No one's told them about the trial. They think the man who did it is dead. I haven't said anything to them, because I don't want the poor dears to think life's even more unfair, and I don't think I will, either. I don't think I'll be taking any more kids in right now.

Anna stared down at the words that she'd never see before, didn't remember, couldn't process. Whisper? She barely remembered their faces … and she hadn't been there to see the crash. Their killer was dead. Both of their early social workers had said so, that he was gone, that he was somewhere down below receiving his eternal punishment for the stupid drunken crime that took two lives that happened to belong to both of her parents, who had been happy, out for the first time in months since Lloyd had started to be afraid of spiders and think that they lurked in the dark, since she had promised that she would be a good big girl and help the next-door neighbor watch him. Dead. If he was still alive, when neither of her parents was ... with what he'd done to her, not to mention Lloyd –

She set the paper aside. There had to be more to the story. And at the moment it seemed like the entire hidden truth was contained, unshakably, within this box. The one Dirk had so casually handed to her.

Anna took out the next paper. It was more in Dirk's handwriting.

Both of them are doing much better now, especially Lloyd. He's just outright blossomed. Always talking, always asking questions about things to me and Anna – he still doesn't quite get things at school, bless him, but he's finally making more of an effort. Anna helps him with his homework in the afternoons, at the kitchen table. I must admit I can't make head or tail of it myself. It's a good thing she's so smart. His nightmares only come about once a month, now, and today at the breakfast table he narrated a full-blown dream sequence involving Noishe being chased through a forest by nut-throwing squirrels.

Anna's different. She still hardly talks to me, and now that she can't look after Lloyd so much I don't think she knows what to do with herself. She's gotten him through three foster homes before this one and this is the first one he's liked. The others all had more kids, who tried to pick on him. Apparently there used to be some of that going on at school, too, but he's still little enough that he's got some friends now that his whole personality's changed. He said yesterday that he wanted to stop sleeping with a nightlight because it was babyish and slept completely fine, but I think he's still afraid of spiders. Anna never says anything about school and does most of her homework in her room before Lloyd comes home, and is always buried in some or another book. I think she gets them from the school library. She doesn't watch TV, except for Lloyd's cartoons, and those she calls babyish and doesn't laugh at. I don't know if anything I do can make a difference, at this point. She's got to figure out what to do with her life now that she doesn't just have to survive and protect her brother in a world without parents.

I don't know it she has friends of school, but she's brought one girl home a couple of times nearly every week and they sit in her room and giggle. She also says sometimes that's she's going to visit her friends and that she can walk there, which I think may be just a lie. I've tried to insist on driving her, but she just leaves. I think she may need the alone time to get it out of her system, to let herself go where Lloyd can't see. I mostly just keep an eye on her, now. She also has a journal she writes and draws pictures in. They're both recovering well, considering, but I'm extra worried today because of the high publicity for the trial. It's today, and Anna likes to read the paper, even the news sections. They probably won't have anything on it, though, since it's back in Virginia. And she doesn't watch the news, so there isn't much to worry about.

I hope that bloody bastard gets sentenced to life in prison. He deserves it, for what he's done to these poor kids.

Anna was pretty much numb now. It was kind of funny, seeing as that was how she had been back then. The girl had been her friend, Marissa, the only girl in the class who had a dead mother. She'd died the year before last and people still avoided her like the plague, just because she looked sad since she wouldn't forget. And she hadn't been going to visit anyone each time she walked out. Just going to the old park, which was deserted, to sit on a rusty swing and feel the wind in her face, different here, farther northward, and hear the trees rustle with the souls of the dead. When Dirk had moved, three months before he'd adopted them, it had helped her change. If she pretended her parents lived in that grove it was easier to say goodbye, and then, to forget.

He'd again mentioned a trial. She'd read about the subject, learned more about it when she was older, and knew the most he could be charged with would be drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, and possibly second- or third-degree murder. It would be extremely unlikely he would have gotten a life sentence. Which meant that he could be walking around, in this area. He could be in jail, waiting to be released. He could be eating prison food or showering or commiserating with the other inmates. He could be playing a board game, like Trouble or Monopoly, and winning or losing. Her father had been terrible at Monopoly. Her mother had been good at it, very good, which was understandable, considering she worked – had worked – in real estate. Lloyd had just like the little toy car and drove it around the board, playing with the spare pool of houses. Anna was a careful player. Her mother had always helped her out, teaching her how to do it better, how to buy things and keep them safe.

Anna wondered if he'd ever played Monopoly with his family. She wondered why he should get a chance to play it ever again, seeing as her parents couldn't. And they weren't the ones who had been doing things wrong.

The next paper wasn't a paper, at least not one of Dirk's; it was a newspaper clipping. Anna devoured it with all the single-minded concentration she'd gotten out of her parents' deaths.

BARNES KILLER FINALLY RECEIVES SENTENCE, the headline screamed. She read on. The case has been in trial all week, with the prosecution trying to prove on the counts of two second-degree murders and the defense pleading not guilty to all but the charges of driving while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter. At last the jury has released a verdict. Gregory Aurion, age 43, is convicted of only the first two charges; sentenced, consequently, to twenty-five years in jail on account. Parole is not forbidden after the first ten years. Much of the populace in the area who knew the parents felt concerned about the two children surviving, ages eight and five, who have been taken into foster care and moved to another area of the state. Many are outraged about the verdict of this trial. There is expected to be no appeal to a superior court.

H. R. Barnes, Court Reporter

Two charges of second-degree murder, denied. Apparently the jury hadn't thought that someone who didn't deliberately set out to kill her parents hadn't done the job. Anna trembled. She shoved the paper back into the box, away from her, and followed it with all the rest, which she slammed shut. Too bad the knowledge, like Pandora's evils, wasn't going to leave her.

She heard Lloyd shriek upstairs. Noishe had gotten used to crushing spiders for him, but Altessa had taken him in for the week they had to move and wasn't going to drop him off until tomorrow, when Dirk went to look at the shop. Anna ran up the stairs to the sound of heavy something, still with the instincts from earlier years that left her at the beck and call of a lonely, frightened brother. "Get it, Dad, get it!" Lloyd shouted as she saw him curled on the bed, squeezing his eyes tightly together as he cowered. "Don't let it get near me! Don't let it get near me!"

Dirk moved another step down the wall to the cowering spider, which now had one of its legs bashed in, and slammed his boot down on it again. The thing skittered away nearly in time, losing half of its abdomen. No more silk-making for it. It still, weakly, tried to get away. The boot hit it again, and again, and another time, until the twitching mess of skin and vital organs hit the carpet and Dirk scooped it up, a gruesome trophy for a loved one. "There ya go, Lloyd. It's fixed now."

"Thanks, Dad," Lloyd said, opening his eyes with relief at the death of another creature.

Anna turned away before either of them noticed her, racing down the hallway to her room, where she threw herself on the bed. Her book dug into her side. She'd known this move wouldn't have any good come out of it. Her life had almost been a happy thing, forgetting, living with Dirk and Lloyd, pretending to have actual friends. Now Dirk wasn't who she thought he was and maybe Lloyd wasn't, either. How did you know? After all, for the last eight years she'd thought the killer of her mother and father was dead, like he should be.

Gregory Aurion.

She was going to learn to hate that name.