Note: takes place in the first season, roughly around episodes 22-23, but with details from beyond that point and alterations of the real plot-line. November has already died, but Misaki and Li haven't had their little conversation yet.

In honor of November Eleven. 11/11 is his day after all.

Disclaimer: I'd wish upon a star, but all of them are fake.

Revival of Truth

"Where am I?" the blonde man on the table asked. He tried to move, but a sharp pain in his chest kept him bound.

"You should rest for now," a female voice said. The blonde man glanced over at a tall woman with short black hair. She was on the ground, doing pushups. After a brief moment, she stopped and stood up.

"Who are you?" the man demanded. If he could breathe properly at the moment, he'd also ask where he was.

"Her name is Ruby," replied a young girl, stepping forward and dismissing her companion. Ruby nodded and left.

The man's eyes went wide as he saw the girl. "Amber," he breathed.

Amber smiled and continued, saying, "Her ability is to heal. We arrived just in time."

"I don't understand," the man stated. "You told me I would die."

"And you did," Amber answered. "For three minutes. Everyone else thinks you're gone. I need it to stay that way for the rest of my plan to work. After it's done, you're free to do as you please," she offered. Her eyes bore softly into his. "What do you say, November Eleven?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Misaki's mind was troubled at work the next morning. Words from that day and days past echoed relentlessly. It was always safe to say that BK-201 had been her constant puzzle, but her pieces were transforming. It made total sense and yet no sense all at the same time.

"What are you after? What do I have left for you to take from me?"

His eye, showing through the crack in his mask.

There was so much emotion. Too much for a contractor. Then, after he'd collapsed, she'd gone after him, ready with a gun. She'd ordered him to lie flat on the ground. He stared at her. Just stared. He'd escaped, he always did, but for just a split second, she had seen something crying out from those dark depths. Something painful. Something human.

When she thought about November, Misaki still felt her eyes get moist. She remembered the teasing light that shined almost constantly in the blue, blue irises that should have also held no such emotion. He'd been human, too.

Outside the window, the fake stars sparkled. By heart, she knew where both BK-201 and November Eleven's stars were. What she found strange was that both were still there. Well, sort of. November's star had fallen and vanished, but three minutes after it had done so, another appeared in the exact same place. Astronomics believed that, although they'd never seen such a thing, it was possible that a new Contractor had risen and that their star had taken the place of November's.

A call broke Misaki from her thoughts.

"Chief," Saitou announced, "two Contractors are active down by the Nifty building. One of them is BK-201."

Misaki didn't need any other words to get her going.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hei cursed after being flung backward from an attack. He'd been charged to take care of a rogue Syndicate member working in the Nifty building. Even though he knew that the Syndicate was bad news now, he'd taken the job to avoid suspicion. Right now, he was beginning to wonder if they did know after all, since no one had bothered to tell Hei that the Contractor had the ability to suck all the air out of any area he chose. Hei had nearly been suffocated three times already.

"Just get out of here!" the Contractor, CC-592, screamed. "Go back to your reeking Syndicate and leave me alone!"

Hei frowned and threw a knife toward the man. A deep cut was dug into his flesh. The man hissed and grabbed his bleeding arm.

"You have no idea," CC-592 ranted. "You have no idea about what the Syndicate is about! They are corrupt! They'll get rid of us all! I'd rather die fighting against them than for them."

Hei's wire flung out and wound around the man's neck. "That doesn't seem very rational," Hei remarked.

The Contractor fell, his hands struggling to free himself from the noose. His body glowed blue for a second, but a tug on the wire from Hei choked off his powers.

"Don't listen to what they tell you," CC-592 ground out. "We're not all cold beings. We can feel just like any other human out there. We're not…not…dead."

Hei's grip loosened a little. This man knew. The fact made Hei even more reluctant to kill him.

"You feel it, too, right?" CC-592 asked, eyes pleading. "Even though you're the Black Reaper and you're supposed to be ruthless, you feel like you're at least partly human."

It was Hei's choice now: kill this man like the Syndicate told him to or let him live because CC-592 had discovered what Hei had just started to. The next moment, that decision was out of his hands.

A man in black slacks and a tight blue shirt flew in from out of nowhere. A white jacket clung loosely to his shoulders, left wide-open in the center, but buttoned around the collar so as to cover his mouth. The hood from his blue shirt had been pulled up, however, to cover his hair. There was only one thing about his appearance that irritated Hei. As if to mock him, this man also wore a mask. The difference was that this man's mask was solid black and covered only the top of his face. The high collar of his jacket hid the rest.

The mystery man cleanly sliced Hei's wire in half, freeing CC-592. The emancipated Contractor wasted no time in escaping. Hei returned his stare toward his new opponent.

"Who are you?" Hei asked.

The man smirked. "Let's just say I'm an old acquaintance."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Misaki's phone vibrated just as she was about to break into the building. Clutching her gun and plastering herself against the wall, she answered.

"Misaki," her best friend Kanami addressed from the other end, "we have another Contractor."

"Who?" Misaki inquired.

"The person whose star took November's place."

Misaki hung up immediately and rushed through the door. The matter was personal now. She had to see who it was. Fighting reached her hears from up ahead. She ran faster, Saitou right behind her. The storeroom opened up. Black and white clashed in a blur. She gasped and pulled to a stop.

BK-201 and another masked Contractor were in a heated battle.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hei shot his wire toward the intruder. The cable wrapped around the man tightly. Yet, as electricity was sent through it, the unknown Contractor only smiled.

"Rubber is a wonderful invention, isn't it?" he teased.

With a quick jerk, the Contractor pulled back and knocked Hei off balance. The wire snapped around the bound man. Hei bolted forward with his knife, trying to get a hit in on the man, but his opponent side-stepped so that Hei's strike only grazed his shoulder. What was more crucial was that this position gave the black-masked Contractor an opportunity to grab onto Hei's wrist. Suddenly, the Black Reaper was getting very cold. Hei began to shiver uncontrollably as he was pushed downward.

"Shall we find out if the Reaper himself is afraid of death?" the man taunted. Hei stiffened. A smirk pulled at the man's lips. "Relax, it was a joke. I won't kill you."

"What do you want?" Hei demanded.

"Personally, I want nothing with you, although I wouldn't mind seeing who it is behind the mask," the Contractor announced. "It's Amber that needs you. I feel it would be pointless to ask you to come along quietly, but the offer still stands."

"…What's your name?" Hei asked.

"Aisu," the Contractor answered.

"Did Amber give you that name?"

"Yes."

Hei turned his head to the side. "I'm not coming."

Aisu released him. "I figured," he said, "but it didn't hurt to ask. You will come eventually, though."

"Did Amber tell you that, too?" Hei interrogated.

"Amber told me a lot of things, Hei," Aisu replied. "And, personally, I find it hard to argue with someone who has seen the future."

Aisu began to walk away as Hei stared moodily at the ground. He felt like he was being thrown onto a path that he could not control. Everyone except him seemed to know where his life would lead. He wanted nothing more than to break those expectations and follow his own decisions instead.

"Freeze! Police!"

Both male Contractors turned to look at Misaki. Her exterior was just as hard as her grip on the gun she pointed at them.

"Interesting choice of words," Aisu commented. He pulled a small bottle out from under his jacket and threw its contents. The water splashed onto Misaki's gun. It froze instantly. She stared at him in astonishment.

"Goodbye!" Aisu called with a wave, darting out the door.

By the time Misaki's attention had shifted back to BK-201, he was gone as well.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hei cursed as he slammed his hand against a tree. Yin sat on the bench beside him. Angrily, he fell onto the seat. Yin placed her hand on his shoulder, only to have him shrug it off.

"Don't know what's got you so riled up," Huang remarked, puffing on a cigar. "It's not like you wanted to take the mission in the first place."

"It's not the mission," Hei growled. "There was another Contractor there. Aisu, he said his name was."

"So?"

Instead of answering, Hei stood up and walked out of the park. Yin followed closely behind him, holding onto his bulletproof trench coat. Huang puffed on his cigar again and stared out at the setting sun. He kept thinking about how each time they met might be the last one. There was no telling when the Syndicate would decide that their group was too dangerous to have around. He snuck a glance at Hei and Yin moving farther and farther away. Smoke poured out from his mouth as he wondered if he would miss them.