Gakupo and Luka shared a brief kiss as they waited for Master to knock on the one-way glass. They were in a room behind the basement that had one solid wall of one-way glass, so that they could clearly see into the dim basement, but no one in the basement could see them.

After the Master had caught one of the members of the horrible gang of black-masked people who were stalking the Vocaloid Family, she had taken her; unconscious, to the dark, abysmal basement for interrogation…

…Then she had raced back upstairs asking for someone to help her mediate between "Torture" and "Interrogation".

Gakupo had volunteered, not only because he really wasn't sure whether or not their Master would really resort to torture; but also because he wanted to hear more about why the gang was targeting Vocaloids and what there scheme was.

Master had made their job clear; when she went too far in her interrogation they were to tap on the glass.

"I don't want anyone anywhere near this girl, understand?" Master had said as Gakupo had started his own decent into the black basement. "She might be young, but she's a violent criminal with obsessive compulsions."

Gakupo had nodded solemnly, but now as he looked into the darkness where the little girl was still unconscious in a beam of bright spotlight he wondered, "Were these really the people who attacked me earlier? Were they all this young?"

He felt another blast of shame. He'd been in a struggle with these gang members. And lost. If they were all pre-adolescent girls, then what did that mean for him?

Luka snuck another kiss on the side of his mouth while his mind was occupied. He turned surprised and found himself encroached with the way the light shimmered off of her glassy blue eyes. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

He smiled calmly and returned the kiss.

With interest.

Gakupo lead a trail of kisses across her mouth and Luka wrapped her arms around his neck. Her fingers cautiously felt along the down hair line and she traced a triangle of the soft hair down his neck.

To Gakupo's great, GREAT dismay, Rin began to giggle. It was a manic, crazy sound that Gakupo had become accustomed to hearing from the other Vocaloid girls. He turned and found that four or five other Vocaloids had slipped in silently while Gakupo and Luka had been getting into their mood.

Gakupo squinted in the darkness and he could just barely make out Rin, Kaito, Miku and Teto; all lining up across the one way glass, eager to see one of their tormentors face-to-face.

"Is that her?" Miku asked her face pinched and tight. "She looks so… normal!"

Gakupo nodded in agreement. The girl wasn't particularly notable; she had average chestnut brown hair cut an average length with average features. She wasn't particularly pretty, but she was a far cry from ugly. She was outstandingly normal.

Kaito chimed into Gakupo's thoughts, "She's UNUSUALLY normal!"

Rin murmured "I once watched a documentary on psychopaths which said 'the most average person can sometimes be holding a deadly secret'. Generally serial murderers are pointed out by their neighbors as being nice men and women with nothing out of the ordinary about them."

The room behind the glass became uncomfortably silent. Rin grimaced, she didn't mean to say something that creepy.

"Well, that's just what it said, probably not true."

But the tension in the room remained. Suddenly the door slammed and everyone jumped. Gakupo instinctively reached for his sword, which wasn't at his side when Rin shrieked.

"Len, you super jerk! You scared the living day lights out of me!"

Len stood sheepishly at the other end of the room, his hand still outstretched to catch the door, which had swung too quickly and slammed.

Gakupo found his heart racing, despite himself. He chastised himself silently for being scared, but they really were in a strange position.

Gakupo had run about a dozen worst-case scenarios in his mind, and he wondered if the black van would come back and all of the people inside would lay siege to the house, or if they would call the police and the Master would be arrested for kidnapping. They were really in a compromised position, and technically they were all accomplices to the crime.

Gakupo followed Len with his eyes and watched him rejoin at his sister's side. The two of them fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Gakupo felt the urge to confront them about this morning's blackmail, but just as he opened his mouth, a knocking came on the glass, and everyone silenced themselves.

A lump formed in Gakupo's throat as he saw the Master calmly pass in front of the glass wearing a doctor's operating mask. He wondered briefly if she was serious about wandering into the realm of torture with her interrogation.

Everyone held their breath as they watched the Michael Myers android stand next to the operating table, just hidden from the bright spotlight by the shadows.

Master held in her hands two belts that she had taken from Kaito's closet and drilled some extra holes into. She used two rags to act as a cushion for the girl's wrists, then tightly strapped the belts around each arm, and secured them to the operating table.

The girl began to faintly stir from her dream and Master gave Michael a little wave. The monster android leaned into the light and its starch white face started to glow.

She suddenly woke up all the way and screamed while thrashing on the table. The girl seemed disoriented, but lucid enough to know she was in danger.

"Nonononono! Please, It wasn't me, I swear!" she mumbled tugging uselessly against the straps

"You swear?" Master said darkly. Gakupo decided it was time to knock on the glass and tell her she was being too scary. Rin had gasped and grabbed Gakupo's hand for support, and Gakupo was a little bit guilty for having to peel his hand from her grasp.

He tapped three times, but Master either didn't hear him, or was ignoring him.

"It wasn't you… what?" she said calmly, but with severity that startled Gakupo.

"I wasn't the one who… It wasn't me!" The poor girl started to cry. She looked from the demented doctor, to the psycho murderer as if she didn't know who to be more afraid of.

"Calm down honey." The Master said sweetly. "I know."

"You know?" The girl looked up with a ray of hope glistening in her eyes.

"I know that you know." The Master held an intimidatingly long needle into the spotlight. "And that's what I want to know, y'know?"

Gakupo gritted his teeth as the poor girl on the table worked herself into a frenzy. "She's going to give her a heart attack!" He mumbled as he repeatedly knocked against the glass.

"Gakupo, you're going to drill a hole in the glass." Luka said as she caressed his other hand. "She's ignoring you for a reason, and you're just scaring the child."

Gakupo let his hand fall to his side and it was immediately seized up by Rin.

The girl stopped struggling and stared at the needle. The Master seeing an opportunity brought it closer to her forearm.

The color drained from her face as she gave one last futile tug against her bonds.

"Now that we've been aquatinted, let's start with some rules. I'm going to ask a question and you're going to answer it." Master dropped the needle on the table beside the girl. "Fail to do so in a satisfactory manner and… well, you know."

The girl nodded, but she looked as though she would pass out again.

"First, what's your name?" Master sat down in a chair that was hidden just beyond the spotlight, and the shadows cast on her face made her seem more intimidating.

"K-kuh…" The girl was struggling for words, she swallowed hard and finally managed to say "Kyoko."

"That's a pretty name. Where were you born?"

"K-Kyoto."

"Very fitting. Where do you live now?"

"Hinabi road. 4337 Hinabi road."

"Nice, I was here when they built that. It's a nice little neighborhood." Master spoke as if she was Kyoko's friend. Gakupo knew she was doing some kind of 'Good-cop, Bad-cop' thing she had learned on television, he just wondered how when the bad-cop would show up next.

"Where are your parents tonight?" Master asked.

"At home." Kyoko said steadfastly.

"What do they think you're doing?"

"They think I'm at a study group with friends."

"That's what you told them?" Master pressed leaning into the spotlight.

"Thant's what I said!" Kyoko nodded, beginning to sweat under the hot light.

"So they have no idea what you're actually doing at night?"

To this Kyoko had no response, she only turned her head away from the Master, as if to hide her shame.

"Who were those people you were with?" Master suddenly started asking the questions she really had wanted answers to and Gakupo leaned in until his nose was almost touching the glass. He was having trouble hearing since the Master's voice had dropped.

"They… Well some of them were friends I met online, others I never knew until… well. It's a long story."

Master picked up the needle and the girl suddenly turned pale as the blood drained from her face. "Don't worry." Master said flicking the syringe. "I've got time."

"I-uh…I-uh…" Kyoko was petrified and unable to speak over her raw fear.

Master leaned back into the darkness. "Like I said, I've got time. Take a deep breath."

Kyoko gaped like a fish out of water. She didn't seem to be breathing so much as trying to breath. But after a few seconds of gaping she was ready to speak.

"I use to belong to a Vocaloid chat group…right?" To this Master shrugged her shoulders. "Well I got this IM that redirected me to this other site where there were a bunch of people. On the other sites, I didn't have a whole lot of friends who shared my… interests.

After a little while on that site we got to talking about how we all ended up together, because we each hit it off right away. I made more good friends in those ten minutes than I have in ten years! Turns out we all got the same IM from the same guy.

Later we all got another IM that told us to go to this place outside of town, and it was awesome! I met all of my online friends offline and it was great!"

Master began to lazily tap the needle against the side of her cheek. Clearly she was bored.

"But, the guy who was sending us IMs, we couldn't find him amongst ourselves. Then he came out and he told us he could make our wish come true."

Master shot up from her seat and the chair clattered to the floor. Kyoko shrunk away, but Master had dropped the needle and instead grabbed the collar of her shirt.

"Tell me! What did he want?" She looked crazy as she shook Kyoko like a doll.

"He wanted a Vocaloid, he told us where to find them and how to get them!" Kyoko started to cry as Master slammed her down on the table again.

"What was you're wish?" She asked staring directly into Kyoko's eyes fiercely.

"I wished that Kaito would love me, like he did Meiko in that PV!" Kyoko blubbered as she wiped away tears with her shoulder. "I knew it was dumb, but I thought... if no one else, maybe he could—"

Master cut her off, "What did the man look like?"

"White beard, kind of tall… um…" Kyoko closed her eyes and thought desperately. "Oh! And a scar across his right cheek…"

Master fell into the shadows and collapsed onto her hands and knees. In all of her very worst dreams and nightmares, she had never imagined such complete betrayal.

"Wait! Wait!" Kyoko called into the shadows where Master had disappeared. "Please don't leave me!" She shot a frightened look at white-faced Michael Myers and cried even harder.

Master stood up and brushed herself off. She was about to start some crying of her own.

She re-entered the spotlight and calmly unbuckled Kyoko. Kyoko sat up and rubbed her wrists. The rags had made it so that even though she should have been noticeable chaffed by the tight belts, her wrists were unmarked.

Master grabbed her arm and Kyoko was forced to slide off the table. Master pulled off her operating mask that was just used to scare the girl and threw it on the floor.

"Come on." Master said grudgingly. "I'll drive you home, we need to talk."

Kyoko looked as though she would rather do ANYTHING but follow the Master, but she allowed herself to be pulled up the stairs of the Vocaloid family basement.

Gakupo stood, stunned behind the glass. "Unbelievable." He whispered as he listened for the front door to shut.

"So these so-called attackers were just rabid fan girls?" Len said sarcastically "Big-whoop, we deal with those every day."

Teto flicked him on the back of the head, "Don't you listen. They're not just a bunch of fan girls, they're organized." She shook her finger as she started on a rambling tangent.

"Probably by some kind of criminal master mind who wants the secret to creating Vocaloids so that he can utilize our technology and make a robot army to TAKE OVER THE WOOOORLD!"

"Rin still held Gakupo's hand. "I can't believe that Master could be so horrifically mean.

I mean, did you see that poor girl? She looked like she was about to have a heart attack!"

"I wonder what the Master wanted to talk to her about?" Luka said.

"I'm not sure how I feel having fans like that." Kaito said as he opened the door out of the one-way room and into the basement.

"You should be very, very worried." Miku said glumly as she followed Kaito out and up the stairs.

"Yeah, well, at least they're ALL not like that!" Kaito said while skipping up stairs two at a time.

Gakupo mumbled mainly to himself "I wonder how many there ARE like that?"

Luka locked elbows with him as they marched upstairs. "More than you care to know, probably."

Meiko watched the Master pull out of the drive way with the girl in the back seat of the station wagon. She had wondered what had been said and done down in the basement, but she knew Kaito would have been there, so she wasn't going to be.

No way.

She sat hugging her knees on her bed staring at the computer screen. The computer had been running for a few days straight now.

It was just that, she was so completely indecisive. She could see it with her own eyes, but she couldn't believe it completely.

She stared at the picture that was his icon for this particular chat site. It was Kaito while he was onstage a few concerts ago. A fan had taken this picture and sent it to him, and he loved it so much he used it as his icon for about a dozen different web sites.

Yes, it was definitely Kaito's.

She stared at his username for this site. Kaitokid1227. It was some date in December, he said it was the day he realized how beautiful she was.

Cute, but not entirely truthful. Right?

She stared and stared at just his icon and his username. Strong, powerful and passionate on stage. Sweet, loving and caring off stage. He would even put up with her while drunk.

When she sobered up she always had the nagging feeling of guilt coupled with her powerful hangover. She knew she could be a jerk when she drank, but Kaito had always been there with a smile and aspirin.

Kaito would smile sadly. "It's alright; I know how you are when you drink. Take a shower, you'll feel better. And some cold water will take the edge off of that hangover."

He was always so nice. Meiko swore. What had she done now? What had made him change so. Damn. Much?

He had been waiting outside of her door for about a week now trying to apologize. She was half-tempted to let him. He seemed so sincere- so sorry!

But then she would look back to the hateful words on the monitor and she would fill herself with pure hot rage.

"How DARE he!" She would think. "I'm going to kill him!"

But he was so nice, and so sad, he seemed so sincerely sorry. Meiko would think back to all of the good times when Kaito had been there for her, and she would want to forgive him in her heart.

Then she would look back to that hateful-hateful monitor! And she would feel anger tearing at her insides.

"Don't say anything you'll regret." She reminded herself for the umpteenth time, but she couldn't take much more of this. Her emergency food supplies were running out and she was bored and cramped in her room filled with garbage.

To forgive, or not to forgive. That was the question… whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer, or fight against a sea of troubles?" Meiko was rewriting Hamlet for her own purposes, but she soon became bored with that and she slouched over in her bed.

"Should I ignore this insult, should I beat him up? Should I break up with him, or forgive him entirely?" Meiko had been running through scenarios for several days now. Caught in between what she wanted to do and what she should do she had hidden from every one, determined to make some kind of decision on her own.

She had drowned out Kaito's voice and everyone else's with music. She had been determined to come to some kind of conclusion on her own.

Unfortunately she hadn't been able to break her stalemate. Unable to decide what to do, she had done nothing.

And she hated herself for it.

Meiko banged her head against the wall. "Why. Am. I. Such. A. Dummy?" Meiko couldn't take the dissonance in her own mind. For once she wasn't telling herself what to do.

"Break up with him. Don't leave him hanging!"

"No, no! Make up with him. He LOVES you Meiko!"

Meiko held her head in her hands. "Makeupbreakupmakeupbreakup." She didn't know what to do! It was a little bit over whelming.

Suddenly her door swung open. Meiko gaped in amazement as the little kitten Picaro, clutching the door knob with its tiny paws entered the room.

"…..the hell did you get in here? The door was locked!" The kitten stared at her with its glassy blue eyes.

Meiko picked it up and Picaro gave a tiny indignant meow.

"Since when do we have a cat anyway?" Meiko had never met Picaro, and she scrutinized him carefully.

Picaro stared at her with his big, blue eyes and Meiko thought of Kaito. She didn't want to admit this to anyone, not even herself; but she really missed him. She missed his eyes, his warm hands; she missed his shoulder to lean on and his smooth voice.

But most of all she missed having a partner.

As members of Vocaloid 01, or the senior Vocaloid members, they had been marketed as partners. Meiko didn't care; until that partnership was gone.

It didn't matter that their original Vocaloid programming was marketed as partners, because now that they were personified as androids nothing that happened to their original marketing mattered. And besides, she had out sold Kaito, then Kaito had out sold her. They were never REALLY partners.

Were they?

Meiko held Picaro close to her chest and the kitten allowed himself to be hugged. Meiko was grateful. It was nice to have something warm and alive near her again.

But suddenly the kitten squirmed out of her hands and bounded out of the room. Meiko watched it leap towards the door with disappointment. The cat was nice and warm.

Meiko gasped in horror. Her eyes searched up and down, but she still couldn't believe what she saw.

"Oh, no." She thought. Suddenly she was about to be forced to make a decision, because Kaito stood in the open door way.

"Damn cat." She thought as she searched for the right words to tell Kaito.

Kaito watched her sadly. He knew that he would need to say, or do something to help her change her opinion, but what?

"The door was open, so I came in." He said shutting the door with a sigh.

"I know." Meiko said frostily.

"Of course she does, you idiot." Kaito scolded himself silently.

"Are you here to apologize?" Meiko asked, while lightning flashed in her eyes.

"No."

Meiko was confused. Apologizing was ALL he'd been trying to do for the past few days, could it be that he'd finally decided that she wasn't worth the effort? That all of his hateful words were true?

Was this the end?

"I can't apologize to you. I'm still not sure what I've done that's made you so mad." Kaito took in a deep, calming breath. "It would be disrespectful to you if I didn't mean what I said."

"Well, isn't that chivalrous?" Meiko's voice was dripping with sarcasm. She knew she was just being cruel, but she couldn't help it. She'd looked at the monitor again and all of those hateful words cut through her like a knife.

Kaito shuffled through the mountains of trash on the floor and sat down on Meiko's bed, but as he did she shot up.

"So, you mean everything you say?"

Kaito looked at her sadly. He seemed so drained, so tired. Meiko felt as though she was sucking the life right out of him.

"Meiko, is this about the lie? About tricking you into coming home? I'm sorry."

"No, no. This isn't about THAT!" Meiko was beginning to see that he honestly didn't understand, but at the moment her hate and anger won control of her.

She grabbed the computer monitor and turned it towards him, unleashing mountains of trash and wires that had been piled up on her desk.

"Look at it!" she shouted. She knew that the message was shocking. It had nearly killed her from horror at four-o-clock in the morning. But since then she had burned it into her mind, every derogatory adjective, every hateful slew. Every cursed line.

"Are you telling me you don't remember THAT? What you'd rather do than spend on more evening with Alcoholic, unattractive me?" Meiko huffed and puffed in triumph. Kaito's face was a mixture of horror and understanding.

Meiko knew that he knew.

"That's not my username." Kaito looked up at her in mingled shock and numb horror.

"What?"

"That's not me, my username is Kaitokid1221. One-two-two-ONE!"

Meiko stared at him as the feeling of dread began to creep into her stomach. She tried to say something twice and failed.

"Here, I'll prove it for you." Kaito jumped on the computer and quickly typed in the RIGHT user name and password. Once he was logged on he found the message and typed in "Hey, go muck up somebody else's chat site you imposter TROLL!"

Immediately there was a response. "NO U!"

It really was just some troll. Meiko felt her blood run cold. She should have KNOWN. She should have been wiser, smarter. She was a Vocaloid senior, but she fell for some stupid troll instead of listening to Kaito.

"Oh my God." She said with her head in her hands. "Oh my God."

"One-two-two-one," Kaito said turning and pulling her hands away from her face. December twenty-first. You came downstairs with snow in your hair to tell everyone that it was snowing outside. I remember everything from that morning."

Kaito knelt down on one knee. "They say that when you meet the love of your life, time stands still." Meiko started to cry as Kaito pulled a small black box from his pocket.

"I'll never forget. It's as though that moment is forever frozen in my mind. The way you're cheeks were rosy from the cold, and how red your lips were… How the crystals in your hair glimmered like starlight, and your eyes twinkled."

Kaito caught himself in a monologue and he laughed briefly.

"But if there's anything I've learned in the past week, it's that every day I only learn to love you more!"

Kaito opened the box. Inside was a dark blue stone, wrapped in the folds of a lotus flower made of gilded silver.

"If I thought you were beautiful before, I can't possible describe how beautiful you are to me now."

Meiko shook her head and fell on her knees with Kaito. "No, I've been so cruel. I can't…" she wiped the tears away with one hand and the water ran down her wrist onto the floor.

Kaito gently held her chin and she looked up into his dark blue eyes. She felt the guilt melt away and she was just happy to see into his soul again.

Kaito looked into her warm brown eyes and it was all he could do to keep from laughing. He was so happy! Warm, golden, good happiness welled up inside his chest and he felt as though he might burst with good feelings.

"Meiko…" he said gently. "…this isn't a diamond. I'm not going to tell you that I want you by my side forever."

Meiko looked at him confused and Kaito couldn't help it. He kissed her, long and passionately. It felt so good to be back in Meiko's arms where he belonged.

"This isn't a diamond. I'm telling you that no matter what I'll always be by your side.

If you want me, I'll be with you forever and a day, if you don't then I'll always be nearby." Kaito paused as his thoughts began to get off track.

"I love you. And I couldn't imagine one more day without having you close. If you're still uncomfortable with me, then so be it. But I'll never ever stop feeling this way about you."

Kaito kissed her briefly. "I love you." He said softly.

Meiko kissed Kaito, then she tore herself away for a moment. Her thoughts were rushing around and she needed to get a grip.

"This isn't a diamond." She said holding the box in Kaito's hand.

"Nope."

So you aren't proposing?"

"Not unless you're ready." Kaito started to smile. He knew where this was heading.

Meiko calmly closed the box. "Take that back to the store." She said smiling and leaning in for another sweet kiss. "And bring me a diamond."

Kaito laughed and pulled her on top of him. They rolled around in the wrappers and trash kissing and laughing.

It was good to be home.