WARNING: This is a Nanoha-Fate Fic and it is rated M for strong or violent content and sexual encounters between two females. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don't have the age for reading M content, please don't read.

DISCLAIMER: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's characters belong to their authors. Plot belongs to Aleksei Volken & Galadan. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and purely coincidental.

Today's soundtrack is "The kiss of Dawn" by HIM

-X-

The Legacy (English Version by Aleksei Volken & HikariFate)

Chapter 4. Discoveries.

Blinded I am and so are you
By shedding tears
Confusion that separates us two
We hold dear
Just look into my eyes
Kiss our fears goodbye
I am reaching for your shadow

-X-

TSAB Headquarter, Unit Six Offices, Special Unit Against Violent Crimes, Midchilda, 13thDay,12thMonth, 23:30 hrs.

During the last few hours, Fate's entire team plus the leaders of the other Investigation Units, Griffith Lowran and Verossa Accoss, as well as Dr. Scaglietti and Nanoha Takamachi, had been locked in the conference room of the Unit Six, mainly catching up with the preliminaries of the investigation.

The authorization passes for Scaglietti and Nanoha had arrived shortly after Hayate and Fate rejoined the meeting so there was no more reason to delay it.

As much as it bothered Fate, who still didn't agree on having a civilian among them, she listened as Hayate gave a more detailed summary of the case: A family had been brutally murdered, they had a survivor whose existence must be kept as a high level secret for the safety of the little girl and the most recent news, they had found other cases of murdered families and there was a possibility that all of them were related.

After the first revelations, Fate could see how Nanoha paled upon hearing the terrible news, but to her surprise, the girl kept cool and behaved in an extremely professional way. She even avoided confronting her, which Fate thanked greatly.

Fate didn't know, but Nanoha was keeping note of every detail in her and the veil of pain in Fate's eyes didn't go unnoticed by the redhead after they rejoined the meeting, as much as the blonde agent tried to disguise it under her cold and professional appearance. After a while Shamal left with Nanoha to give her more specific details about Vivio and so that she could, for the first time, see the girl. One of Nanoha's main responsibilities would be to assist Shamal with the little girl, so she could recover as soon as possible or so that at least they could get some information from her.

Fate saw Nanoha leave the room with relief, she would be fine with Shamal, plus the fact that they could now talk more freely about the most serious issues.

Hayate with the help of Shari and Rein, had already done a first interview with Dr. Scaglietti but Fate's team still had a long list of questions to ask the doctor, besides the typical "Where were you last night?"

"In my lab as I had already explained to Colonel Yagami, a couple of my assistants stayed with me." Scaglietti said calmly.

"We understand doctor, but we had to cover that possibility, I assume you understand that. We also wanted you to take a look at this list," Fate told him holding out a device the size of a folder. " and tell us if you know these people, as well as the extent of your relationship with them."

Scaglietti opened the device with diligence and careful movements to find the summarized dossiers of people he was quite familiar with:

+++ Beginning of File +++

Precia Testarossa (t-2020)

Sachie Ishida (t-2030)

Mariel Atenza (t-2031)

Ixpellia Kaiser (t-2035)

Claus G.S. Ingvalt (t-2039)

Heidi E.S. Ingvalt (t-2039)

Megane Alpine (t-2043)

Olivie Segbrecht (*)

Filith Yazawa (*)

Zest Grangaitz (*U)

Quint Nakajima (*)

Irene Noa (*)

Jail Scaglietti (*)

+++ End of File +++

After looking at each of the dossiers and finding his own photo staring at him in the last page, he put the device away and stared at Hayate.

"This information is classified, Colonel, I hope you know that."

"Perfectly, Doctor," Hayate answered with an enigmatic smile. "Please answer Agent Testarossa's question."

"I know all of them," he said quietly. "I don't keep a close relationship with most of them but I can say that with some I did have a friendship, such as Megane Alpine and her husband, or the Ingvalt siblings. We used to talk frequently a little bit after they withdrew from the project but soon lost contact."

"Then you are aware that the siblings Claus and Heidi Ingvalt died?" Fate asked without looking away from Scaglietti.

"What? Claus and Heidi?" Scaglietti asked in surprise.

Fate and Hayate simply nodded. "Check the dossiers again Doctor, the names of your colleagues marked with a small (t) have died. Or more specifically, have been killed, in the years indicated there." Fate told him.

Scaglietti hesitated a bit and then checked the dossiers again carefully. As he read, he raised a hand to his mouth before looking back at Hayate and Fate.

"Sachie, Mariel, all of them… this is…"

"Terrible." Fate finished for him. "Besides the fact that we appreciate your help with our investigation, Doctor, we have to put you under protection… for your own safety. In fact, it won't only be you. As you can see, seven of the researchers who held the position of Chief Investigator on the Sankt Kaiser projects have been killed… along with their families. We assume we could be dealing with the same person and we want everyone else to be safe."

"Safe? You must be kidding Agent. You expect me to feel safe when they've killed seven of my colleagues and when you're just realizing that there COULD be a relationship between them?" Scaglietti had suddenly become a little frantic.

"I suggest you calm down, Doctor." Hayate intervened seeing how upset Scaglietti was. "I understand what you mean, but please let Agent Testarossa finish."

"Testarossa," For the first time Scaglietti seemed to understand something, and he once again grabbed the device to look at the first classified dossier. A beautiful woman with purple hair and deep violet eyes looked at him with a smile. He turned to look at Fate with a new gaze. The two women weren't anything alike. "Agent Testarossa, are you somehow related to my colleague…?"

"Dr. Precia Testarossa was my mother." Fate replied firmly. She had to give certainty to her team and other colleagues, that she was whole and ready for battle, whatever the monster was that awaited them.

"God, I'm really sorry Agent Testarossa, I didn't associate the name at first." Scaglietti explained with a strange look on his face that Fate couldn't indentify.

She just nodded and standing up, asked Alto to explain what they had just found out about the scientists' murders. The list that they all already had was of the scientists who had been Chief Investigators on classified project for the armed forces. And not just any kind of projects but those specifically related to the research left by Dr. Sank Kaiser.

Dr. Precia Testarossa had been murdered in the year 2020 and although there was a gap of several years from her and her daughter's death until the death of the next researcher, she was being included in the list as a potential first case since they had never found the one responsible of the double murder. The second case belonged to Dr. Sachie Ishida, when she already had several years retired as a researcher of the armed forces. Dr. Ishida had been murdered along with her family in 2030.

"Is that the longest gap?" Signum asked.

"Yes, ten years between Dr. Testarossa and Dr. Ishida's deaths." Alto confirmed.

At that instant, Alto displayed a chronological graph on the screen where it could be seen the names of the researchers and the years they were killed. Starting with Precia Testarossa in 2020 and ending with Megane Alpine in 2043.

"And the shortest period of time was between the murders of Dr. Ishida and Dr. Atenza," Signum pointed out once again. "Only one year."

"Mariel Atenza was killed the following year that's correct, but the time was actually shorter. Only eight months." Alto clarified placing the detailed dates to the deaths of each individual.

"That doesn't make sense," Lucino intervened. "after such a long time killing, the killer should be shortening his time of action, not making it longer."

"I don't think we're dealing with a 'traditional' killer," Verossa said, taking part in the conversation for the first time. Standing from his seat and going to Lucino's graph. "It is true that this graph is very unusual because its intervals between murders are pretty irregular, but we could be missing something as well. One possibility could be that he was 'morphing' or 'refining' his methods."

"What do you mean Agent Accoss?" Scaglietti asked.

"He means that the killer could have not only killed those researchers during these periods of time but he could've killed within another group as well." Fate said looking at Verossa, who simply nodded.

Everyone got immersed in the heavy silence, until it was once again broken by Scaglietti.

"That sounds pretty bad." He said doubtfully looking at everyone.

"Indeed, Doctor," Hayate answered him. "That's the worst case scenario we could face. We have a killer who for some reason is attacking government researchers and not only them, but their families as well. The victims in this case are from a broader spectrum, a whole family, but there's also a possibility that he's killing other individuals also, we don't know whether they're men or women, their ages or any other characteristics."

Barely taking a breath, Hayate continued looking at the researchers' dossiers she had in hand and at Scaglietti alternatively.

"In other words, this man doesn't have a defined victimology which is the main way that would allow us to track him, also, by what we've seen in the other murder cases, he doesn't have a preset modus operandi, or a particular 'signature'. One of the reasons why the murders weren't associated with each other in the first place was because there was no evidence that it was the same killer."

"In short," Fate intervened and continued after receiving an imperceptible gesture from Hayate. "This man kills within a very broad spectrum, in the most diverse and unthinkable ways and he definitely, doesn't want to get caught. This is the kind of killer that's most difficult to identify."

Everyone remained in an expectant silence afterwards. Fate and Hayate had omitted to mention to the doctor that their "killer" not only killed in the most diverse ways, but also in the cruelest. Fate thought that the Alpine family scene was the worst she had ever seen, but the murders of the other families didn't stay far behind in brutality. Now that they had all the information about the other murders, they understood why they hadn't been related at first. The scenes showed nothing, absolutely nothing, in common. It seemed as if different monsters had attacked each researcher. Scaglietti's voice made them fix their attention once again on him.

"I have one last question, if I'm allowed Colonel Yagami."

"If it's within my knowledge to answer it, I will, Doctor." Hayate said smiling as if they were having tea on a sunny afternoon and not talking about a serial killer at almost midnight.

"What about Dr. Zest Grangaitz? I see a different mark in his dossier. Is he all right?"

Hayate and Fate looked at one another, after so many years, they knew each other well enough to be able to communicate in that quiet and subtly way. To the others, sometimes even to their own teams, they were only looking at each other, but to them it was almost like having a very complex conversation.

Fate finally answered.

"All I can say right now is that since six months ago, Dr. Zest Grangaitz's whereabouts are unknown. We assume he's okay, since he himself got embarked on an exploration journey but we haven't been able to locate him either."

Scaglietti kept an inscrutable expression and made no further questions. Something about him still bothered Fate but she couldn't quite identify what it was. On a couple of occasions his behavior had fired a warning signal on the agent's instincts but it would only last for a few seconds before fading away. Maybe she just disliked the man or maybe she was just too tired.

After placing the Doctor under protection and asking from him all the information he could provide about his fellow researchers, Lucino took Scaglietti to see little Vivio while Hayate and Fate gave final instructions. Fate was already designating tasks to everyone when Hayate interrupted her.

"Fate, let's leave that for tomorrow morning. The whole team has been up for the last 48 hours and it's almost midnight. This case will take a lot of time. I suggest we rest tonight and from tomorrow on we'll take turns. This case is of top priority and for the first time at the Unit Six, its three elite teams that will be working together on it; we can't all do it at once."

Somewhat reluctantly Fate accepted, Hayate was right, everyone was starting to look tired and that was just the beginning. Fate started telling them they could leave when Vice interrupted.

"Fate, wait, there's something else we need to talk about."

Fate nodded to Hayate indicating that she would take care of it, so everybody but Fate´s team, followed Hayate out of the meeting room.

"What is it, Vice?"

"Nakajima. In the list there's Dr. Quint Nakajima, you do know who that is, right?"

Fate slowly shook her head trying to associate the name.

"Dr. Quint is the wife of Midchilda's Chief of Police, Genya Nakajima. Her oldest daughter works in the police force as well but her youngest daughter is a new recruit on Griffith's team."

"So that's the Nakajima?" Fate asked looking at Griffith who had stayed wanting to point out the same thing.

"That's right." Answered her colleague. Griffith held a rank of Captain in Unit Six and although he wasn't an Enforcer like Fate, he was also in charge of an entire investigation team like she and Verossa. The three made up Hayate's elite team.

"We'll have to talk with them in person." Fate said quickly putting on her coat and preparing to leave.

Vice and Griffith looked at each other, both knowing Fate already had too much on her hands for a single person, not counting what she had to be going through by having to confront the ghost of her mother's murder again.

"As Hayate said, Fate, it's too late already. Let me go with Griffith and the agents who will be responsible for the safety of the Nakajima. I'll talk with officer Genya and Dr. Quint and tell them you'll speak with them soon, after all Subaru is part of Griffith's team and they'll also be worried about her. It would be better if you go and get some rest. We're all going to need you."

Fate knew that Vice's younger sister, Laguna Granscenic was also part of Griffith's team, and both men respected each other and worked well together, but still he was having a hard time trying to convince her; until finally with the help of Lucino, Alto and specially Signum, they succeeded.

After saying goodbye to her team with a sad smile, promising that she would go straight home and literally getting pushed by Signum to the exit, Fate walked to the underground parking.

"I have a really great team." Fate thought as the echo of her footsteps filled the empty corridors. "Not only do they work well as a team but they also look after each other, including me."

As she was thinking she couldn't help wondering how Scaglietti and that girl, Nanoha, would adapt with them. Scaglietti was obviously an expert who knew how to move in a military environment, but the girl… despite being determined and fearless, still had an innocent look in her eyes that touched Fate's heart. Hopefully she wouldn't get lost in the road they were about to take.

Nearby voices made Fate turn around to find Shamal saying her goodbyes to Nanoha and Dr. Scaglietti.

Scaglietti was already with his new bodyguards from the Field Operations Unit. Fate immediately recognized their uniforms because that unit was headed by her adoptive father, Admiral Clyde Harlaown, and her brother, Chrono. And although she didn't recognize the agents accompanying Scaglietti, they greeted her with a lot of respect when she approached the group.

In those moments they were discussing whether to take Nanoha with them or get her an independent transportation since it was better to not get her too involved with Scaglietti, for her own safety. It was obvious that she worked with him but it was better if they weren't seen together more than usual.

"I'll take her." Fate offered before she could control the words coming out of her mouth. "Damn, why did I do that?" She mentally slapped herself, but it was too late because apparently, Shamal had loved the idea and was already pushing Nanoha to go with Fate.

Nanoha however, wasn't very convinced.

"Are you sure, Agent Testarossa? I don't want to be a bother, we can always call a shuttle…" Said the girl barely looking at Fate.

"Don't be silly, Nanoha," Shamal said cheerfully. "Agent Testarossa's offer is the best option and it isn't a bother at all, right Fate?" Shamal's piercing gaze on Fate indicated that contradicting her would be a very, very, VERY bad idea.

"Uh… of course not, it won't be a bother Miss Takamachi, besides… I already know where you live."

Since Nanoha continued nailed in place, as well as Shamal's warning gaze, Fate tried to smile a little.

"I understand your distrust, but believe me, I'm not a bad person… and I'll be happy to take you home, Miss Takamachi."

"Well, it seems that you actually are human, since you can smile." Nanoha said smiling as well a little timidly to Fate's embarrassment who blushed at the comment. "Ok, I accept you offer Agent Testarossa, thank you very much."

Shamal visibly relaxed and looked approvingly at Fate for the first time that day, then hurried them to leave.

Fate and Nanoha walked to where Fate had her car and the young scientist was surprised to find a shiny black sports car. It wasn't the latest model but it was a very impressive modified vehicle.

"You seem to have an interesting taste, Agent." Nanoha finally said, while Fate in an unexpected and kind genteel gesture, opened the passenger door for her to get in. The redhead took a couple of seconds to react not being able to believe that that was really the same Agent Testarossa.

"I just like speed." Fate said as she got in as well and adjusted her belt.

Nanoha was shocked seeing the inside of the car, besides being a sports car, it had multiple technological additions, for her rather than being a car, it was almost a spaceship.

They stayed in an uncomfortable silence for the first part of the trip, Nanoha felt unusually nervous and couldn't find something to talk about with the serious girl on her side. It had never been hard for her to be friendly and talk to people, but now it seemed that they both had so little in common that she didn't know what to say. Everything that came to her mind was irrelevant, inappropriate or simply silly. It actually got a little worse when Nanoha started to realize that that was the first time they were alone, and she felt a little intimidated by the security and firmness of the agent. She didn't know if she should thank her for what she did last night, apologize for the incident in the morning, thank her for the ride, invite her a cup of coffee… God, it had been a long day and it seemed like ages had passed since the night before and that morning when she had thought she'd never see the blonde agent again or know her name. What Nanoha less expected, was to end her day with her by her side.

Fate, now she knew her name was Fate and although she hadn't left her mind that morning, after the reencounter with her, all they did was argue. The irony of the situation made her smile.

"Something funny?" Asked Fate, who was also racking her brain thinking about things to say to the girl beside her. Even if she gave no indication of it on the outside, she was really nervous.

"What?" Nanoha asked caught by surprise by the sound of Fate's voice in the silence of the car.

"I asked if you had remembered something funny. I thought I saw you smile."

Nanoha blushed not knowing how to answer, it would be very embarrassing to tell her what she was really thinking, so she tried her best to make her answer as brief as possible.

"I was thinking that is kind of a…. weird coincidence that we meet today…" Nanoha hesitated a little about how to paraphrasing her thoughts, "the way we did, after you helped us last night Fate… Agent, I mean."

The two young women look at each other.

"Sorry Agent, we are not in a 'first name' basis but you look so young that I find hard to address you as 'Agent' all the time," Nanoha said smiling trying to cover her nervousness.

"Young?" Fate asked smiling as well. Sometimes, like that night, she didn't feel young at all. "Young in what sense?" she asked instead of her inner thoughts. After all, she also thought it was such a piece of coincidence that she had to meet precisely with that girl.

"It's ok if you call me Fate. You are part of the team now… if it is ok with you," Fate said holding the wheel of her car with probably more strength than necessary.

Nanoha smiled warmly, 'Fate' worked just great for her. "Really young to do what you do, working for the TSAB, being a special agent in these difficult cases, all that… Fate."

"I'm 28 and have been working for the TSAB for 10 years, perhaps I started working very young. My family works there as well."

Fate stopped herself from giving any more information, she usually didn't talk so casually with anyone, much less outsiders. It had been a long time since she had talked with someone who had nothing to do with the TSAB, with the army, navy, police, who wasn't her relative or Hayate's, with someone merely normal. Somehow talking with this girl was, refreshing. But still, she decided best to change the subject.

"You're also very young to do what you do."

"We're the same age." Nanoha said pleased. "I started my master's degree research a couple of years ago, but what I do with the Doctor doesn't compare to what you do."

Nanoha remembered perfectly Fate's look at the meeting, she could almost feel the tight control exercised by Fate over herself to talk about the families who had been murdered. Vivio's family in particular. Hayate felt it was necessary for Nanoha to at least know the details of that case to help Vivio, and what she saw was so horrible that her heart shrank with the mere memory.

"What you do is really hard, Fate." She finally said after some time, turning to look at the agent and catching her breath by just watching her. Fate was looking at her with that piercing crimson gaze that seemed to see through her and touch her soul. Inside of her, she felt the growing desire to rip off the veiled of pain behind that look. She was sure those eyes would be much more beautiful without that hint of sadness in them.

"I don't know if hard is the right word to describe it, I've trained all these years for this, to do what I do," Fate said. "whenever we catch those…bastards who do that kind of atrocity to people like Vivio's family, I think that everything else is worthwhile."

Nanoha simply nodded watching Fate's gaze hardened, but she felt comforted to know she was the one in charge of the investigation. If someone could bring justice to Vivio, that would be Fate.

"I started working with Vivio just six months ago," Nanoha said. "but I've gotten really close to her, it… makes me sad to see her like that."

Noticing how Nanoha's face darkened at the mention of the girl, Fate asked. "What's your opinion after the preliminary observation?"

"She's still deeply sedated and I think that was the best decision, tomorrow I'll create a care plan with agent Shamal and run several tests to see what we can do." Nanoha said.

At that moment, she got so deep in thought about Vivio and how she had looked in that bed of the Medical Investigation Unit of the TSAB, that Nanoha didn't realize they had already reached her place until Fate lightly touched her hand. It was such a short touch, so light that, although she was startled, Nanoha doubted that Fate really touched her.

"Sorry," Fate said. "I didn't mean to scare you. We count on you to help Vivo. The most important thing is for her to get recovered."

Nanoha simply nodded, and they stayed sited in silence, glancing at each other a little timidly. Nanoha felt at ease with the agent's company, she had briefly seen a side of her that she had never imagined existed and now she didn't know how to say goodbye. Deep inside, she feared that if she got out of the car, if she broke that brief connection that had formed between them, the dark shadow in Fate's eyes would return and she would never see that kind smile again.

"Is everything okay?" Fate finally asked.

"Yes," Nanoha quickly answered. "Thank you for the ride, Fate."

"Don't mention it, it's the least I could do. By the way…" Fate was silent for a moment, her hands gripping the steering wheel, trying to find the right words. "I'm sorry I was so… insistent this morning, as you saw we have a complicated case and…" Nanoha's hand over hers, interrupted her.

"I'm sorry too, Fate, let's make a truce, okay? I've seen you're almost actually human and you've seen I can talk without complaining about something. We're even."

Fate couldn't help but smile when listening to that argument.

"You should do it more often." Nanoha said smiling as well.

"What?" Fate asked still smiling. "Try to be more human?"

"Ummm, I mean smiling, but yes, that also helps you to be more human."

Still smiling, Fate got out of the car to walk Nanoha to her building entrance.

"I won't promise anything, but I'll try. I do accept your truce proposal, though." She said with her lips still slightly curved.

"Then Fate, at least call me by my first name, we had already agreed to be more casual, right?" Nanoha now smiled openly as she reached her hand out and waited for Fate.

Blushing for doing a gesture that seemed a little childish, Fate took the offered hand saying, "I accept the truce… Nanoha."

"See you later… Fate" She said after a moment and slowly dropping Fate's hand Nanoha waved goodbye entering her building, standing at the door pretending to be closing it and entertaining herself with other things as she watched the agent get inside her car and disappear through the night.

Fate Testarossa definitely was way nicer in her almost human role.

-X-

Midchilda Downtown Area, TSAB Residential Area, 14th Day, 12th Month, 00:30 hrs.

Despite the lateness of the hour, Shamal was sitting on the spacious balcony of the penthouse belonging to the Yagami family in Midchilda city's downtown, in a residential area reserved for TSAB personnel, especially for commanders and strategic personnel. It was relatively close to the TSAB offices which, with the work schedules they sometimes had, was really convenient. Plus, it had an amazing view of the city.

She heard perfectly well the stealthy footsteps behind her, but didn't move a muscle, waiting.

"Don't you think it's a little late to be getting some fresh air here? Besides, the temperature is already lowering much more these days."

Shamal stayed quiet, not answering until the owner of the voice moved to face her. Even so, Shamal had managed to look somewhere else but towards those blue eyes of the tall pink haired woman who was standing in front of her with her arms crossed.

"Are you still angry?" Signum asked even if it was pretty obvious. During the light dinner they had upon arriving from the office, her place had been the only one without a served plate and Shamal had avoided talking or looking at her during the whole time they had been on the table. Hayate and Zafira would throw curious glances at them but decided not to intervene… at least for now. Vita had already gone to sleep a while ago, so Signum was alone in this.

"Do you even care?" Shamal asked without looking.

"Shit, she's still angry," Signum thought. "But what was it that happened to make her so angry?"

"Shamal, listen, it's really late, we're all tired and need to be ready early in the morning, of course I care… but, could we talk about it tomorrow."

"Always tomorrow, right?" Shamal finally looked at her and even though she was standing in the shadows, Signum could see in her eyes that Shamal was not only angry but somehow she also felt… hurt.

"Shamal, I… I don't know why you're so angry, really, I don't understand. Fate has been acting strange since last night, since we were at the crime scene of the Alpine and I think we all know why. I don't understand what that has to do with your anger."

Rising from her seat, Shamal confronted Signum standing in front of her, very, very close to her, so much that she could feel Signum tense but without stepping back.

"Fate has nothing to do with my anger. On the contrary, I think that now more than ever we need to be by her side and support her. You heard what Hayate said, Director Carim wants Fate out of the investigation."

"What is it then?"

"You!" Shamal almost yelled. "and your attitude of 'I don't care about anything in this fucking universe!'"

Shamal swearing, now that was a new level of anger.

"That's not true." Signum said, not very convincing. "Of course there are things I care about."

"You're attitude says otherwise, come one, tell me, what are these… 'things'… you care about? I mean, other than your damn automatic gun Laevantine… don't you even dare mention that." And crossing her arms Shamal started waiting for an answer.

"Uh, well… I care about our family, of course… our friends… work…" Signum struggled to say something brilliant that would take her out of that mess she was in.

"That's SO general that not even you believe it, could you say something more specific? Is there something or someone you really care about?"

"Like what?" Asked the other a little irritated.

"Do you care about me, for example?" Shamal asked almost in a whisper and starring at her.

"Of course, Shamal, I care about our whole family."

Shamal was intensely watching her and Signum just wanted to turn around and run away, which was quite irrational on her part. The starring contest lasted until Shamal, without saying a word, turned around and left her there, alone, on the balcony with the cold as her only answer.

-X-