Disclaimer: For about the tenth time, if I am asked by one who holds authority over me in regards to this story, I will acknowledge my boundaries, for the willow must bend, lest it snap.

(Did that really make any sense?)

FW: Phew, so I'm back in the groove now, starting this chapter only one day after finishing another from one of my other submission, Vampiric Lone Wolf Blues. Check it out. Ok, enough with the self-advertising. Well, I can say that although it's been a while, we're really almost done here. One or two more chapters, and I'm gonna call it a wrap. I left off... with our heroes going their separate ways. Don't worry, it won't last long. Not long at all. So, curtains drawn, stage set, here's...

Breakdown

Extreme changes in temperature always result in a violent reaction. When you blast something with heat, it fries and singes. When something red-hot is chilled, it usually breaks. So when a person, unconsious, sweating like no other under a direct beam of sun, is doused in the face with a bit of ice-cold water, a violent reaction is sure to occur.

Ghost awoke rather quickly after the chill waved over his face, and droplets of what felt like pure cold ran down his cheeks and tickled his unshaven face. He blinked away the water that tried to run into his eyes, and focused on the source of the rude awakening. His vision wasn't quite what it should have been, considering his poor condition, but he could make out a slender figure, leaning over his prone body.

"Are you alive yet?"

Ghost felt that was a rather unnecessary thing to ask, but he didn't comment. "Yeah, I guess. Couldn't you have been a bit more... gradual, though?"

"I've been shaking you for the past ten minutes. You were out like a light. You seem a bit sick, though, a bit delirious. When's the last time you had water?"

"Just now."

"Don't give me that. You're extremely dehydrated. Here, sit up, I've got plenty of water."

Ghost felt a hand guide him up into a sitting position, and as the haze cleared from his eyes, he took a good long look at the woman. She was young, maybe a bit older than Shinji and Asuka, and pretty. Her hair was a light chestnut brown, her skin was fair, and her figure was trim, with curves in the right places. What intrigued Ghost the most about her was her face. It was one he had seen before, many years before. A face that he had burned into his skull. This young lady, whom he had never met, so resembled his child friend from his buried past that it was frightening. He could see the same innocence through those azure blue eyes. It mocked him to think that she might be standing right before him, but he kept his emotions in check. This wasn't the same girl, it couldn't be. There was a different air about this woman. Maybe it was the age difference, but Ghost couldn't feel that this was his long-lost friend. He just couldn't accept it.

She caught his anylyzing stare, and gave him a smile. "What are you looking at?"

"You just... reminded me of someone, that's all."

She giggled. "Well, I don't know if that's from your delirium or not, but either way, we want to get you moving, and get you some water. Here." She snaked her arm underneath his shoulder, and helped him shift up to a sitting position. She handed him a bottle of water, and he began to suck it down. "My name's Kari. I was just in passing towards the town right over this ridge when I spotted you."

"There's a town over the ridge?"

"Yeah, the village of Tenrai. It's a small place, and isolated, but still standing, despite the recent destruction."

Ghost kept quiet, knowing the cause of it all, but not wanting to reveal too much. Kari studied him for a bit, then shrugged, and got some more supplies arranged for Ghost, as he recovered his stamina, taking an occasional sip of water.

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The brisk chill of the mountain morning was what arose Shinji from his sleep. The large cover that he and Asuka had been sharing had been shifted over to where Asuka had curled up into a ball. With the lack of cover, all it took was a bit of wind to really get Shinji up and scrambling for more clothes. It took a few minutes of sifting through his stuff to find warm outerwear, and within minutes he was sufficently bundled up. He went over to Asuka and tried to get her up.

"Asuka." No response. "Asuka, wake up." He poked her with his foot, but she refused to even twitch. He took a second to ponder methods to wake her, and said to himself, Well, if it worked for me, it'll work on her. He took a handful of covers and yanked, exposing her. Instantly, goosebumps crawled up her arms, and her eyes bugged out as she awoke violently. She found her violater, standing there with her blanket, and he had to wonder why he ever thought that was a good idea.

"SHINJIIIIIII!"

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Shinji sat in solemn silence, stirring a pot of simmering stew ever so slightly. The bump on his head made it hard for him to think, and any movement that disturbed his blood flow caused him immense pain. Therefore, he chose not to budge from his position around the cooking fire, and simply delved in his regret. Asuka emerged from the tent, still a bit miffed that Shinji had woken her up like that, but really she had calmed down quite a bit, and simply wanted to watch him squirm. Shinji noticed her, and buried himself in his meal, trying to avoid her stare.

"Shinji."

"..."

"Shinji..."

"..."

"Quit ignoring me, or your bump is gonna have a bump." That got his attention, and he swung his head quickly to look at her.

"Yeah?"

She took a seat next to him, and served herself a bowl. "If we can't find Ghost soon, we probably won't find him for a while. What do you think we should do if that happens?"

Shinji saw that she was serious now, and he relaxed. Putting his bowl down, he lay back to look at the sky between the trees. Thinking for a minute, he didn't say anything until he was sure, and even then he spoke cautiously. "He moves faster than us, has more experience than us, and is probably pushing himself harder than us. I'd say we'd be hard pressed to reach him. Which means we now have to focus on ourselves, and forget about Ghost for a while, though I hate to say it. Our supplies are limited, and a wild goose chase after him would be ineffecient. We need to find our way back to civilization. After all, that was our goal before we met him, and started to follow him."

Asuka slid her way over to his side, and laid her head on his chest. "Don't feel bad about it. You're right, we can't keep up with him, so it would be stupid to try. Maybe once we've found somewhere to stay we can look for him again, but we need to think of ourselves. Besides, he'd want us to be safe."

Shinji smiled, and she gave him a small peck on the forehead before getting up. "Now, stop worry about your damn bump and come give me a hand with this tent." Shinji's smiled was deflated, and he got up and helped pack up.

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"Okay now, one, two, three!" Kari counted off, and on three she stood up, guiding Ghost up to his feet. It had been about half an hour since she found him, but he recovered quickly with just a bit of water, and he only need a bit of help getting to his feet. The delirium had left him, but his muscles were a bit weak, and he was unsteady in standing up. However, after he was up, he could walk around easily, and stretched this way and that to try and get rid of his stiffness.

Kari slung her pack over her shoulders, in preparation for more hiking, when she spotted Ghost's case. It had been leaning agaist a nearby tree the whole time, but had paid it no attention until just now. Walking up to it, she was dwarfed by it, and she ran her hand against the wood in amazement.

"Have you always carried this monster?"

Ghost looked at what she was refering to. "Yeah. That's my pack. Large, but it fits a lot of supplies, enough for a month and a half, just about."

"Is there anything else in it?"

"Nope, I... used it all up." He was reluctant in telling her about Shinji and Asuka, thinking that he would have to go over the whole story. The massacre. The train. Everything.

"Why are you still carrying it around then?"

"Well... it's my last possession, and I really don't want to part with it." Again, he refrained from telling her everything, like the fact that he had large arms in there.

She tested the weight. "It's incredibly heavy. I think you should abandon it. If there's nothing in it, it'd be dead weight."

Ghost chuckled, and walked over to where Kari and the case were. In one fluid motion, he slung the giant wooden box over his shoulder. "Sorry, but this thing and I do not part. If that doesn't sit with you, then we'll go our separate ways."

Kari shook her head, saying something about men under her breath, but she gave him a skeptical look, while saying, "You're really gonna take it?"

"Yep."

She sighed. "Well, I would feel bad just letting you go off to faint again, so I guess I'll just deal with it." She pointed up the mountain. "That's the way to Tenrai. If you're ready, we'll go."

"I suppose having a destination is better than wandering aimlessly." Ghost looked back down the mountain, maybe hoping that he would spot either of the kids, but of course there was nothing there, and he pushed such thoughts from his mind, and resolved his will. "Yeah, sure, I'll go with you. Lead the way." And together, Kari and Ghost headed towards Tenrai, the closest wisp of civilization to the Third Impact Crater.

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Shinji and Asuka had already been hiking for about an hour. The sun was high, but through such a dense ceiling of leaves light couldn't penetrate very well, so where they were, it was cool, and the altitude contributed to a chillier air than the sun might grant. A draft ran between trees every so often, so it felt like they were passing air conditioning units. There was a constant fall of leaves, and so the path they took was littered with leaves of multiple colors, and an undistubed nature. It made sense to conclude, then, that when anything disturbed the leaves on the ground, it was easily noticable from the rest of the ground, which remained undisturbed for many months at a time.

Shinji was the one to spot the little clearing in the woods, made not naturally but by someone's own hands. Leaves had been pushed to one side or the other, and there was enough room for a small campsite. It formed a rough circle, and more leaves had already begun to fill it in, but nothing in nature formed so perfectly. Shinji was convinced that the clearing was artificial.

Asuka came up to Shinji and peeked over his shoulder, to see what he had found. "A clearing."

"Yup. Somebody was here, and not too long ago."

"Ghost, do you think?"

He placed his hand over his mouth in an intellectual gesture, and mulled for a bit. "I don't think it's a coincidence that we find this here, in the same proximity and time that Ghost has been hiking. It's entirely possible, and I'd even bet that it was him. Either way, it's a sign of life."

Asuka knelt down to further examine the ground. On one side, there was a depression that indicated someone laying down, and someone rather large, judging by the size. Ghost... Beside that, a very straight edged, cornered mark in the dirt caught her eye. A box...? Wait a second... A large space for a large man, and room for his pack right next to him?

"Shinji, this has to be Ghost. The tracks here fit his physical size, and there's even one for his box."

"Well, if that's Ghost, who's this?"

Asuka made her way over to the other side of the campsite. There was something similar there, two marks for a person and their stuff, but both marks were noticably smaller, and the space for the pack was not that of a box like Ghost carried.

"Ghost found somebody else?"

Shinji scowled. "It's not like him, but who knows? I guess that also raises the possibility that it's not him. After all, he never lay down, like it looks like here."

Asuka took a few steps around the site, and pointed over to some other tracks leading away from the campsite. "Well, they went somewhere. Further up the mountain, in the direction that Ghost was heading."

Shinji smiled. "Then that reinforces it. We would've seen anybody else coming down, and Ghost wouldn't have sat down with someone who was just passing. That means that ---"

BANG, BANG... BOOM... BANG, BANG, BANG...BOOM!

Their eyes dilated at the now familiar sound of gunfire. Shinji clenched his fists at the realization in his gut. It was Ghost, and could be no one else. He could hear the voice in the back of his head telling him that it was him. He was angry and relieved and distressed all at once. He froze for a second, until Asuka came running down and yanked his arm.

"Hurry, Shinji, that's Ghost! He's fighting again. We gotta catch up to him, before we lose him!"

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Ghost and Kari had been walking for about half an hour, when Ghost noticed that the path they were walking on actually was a path. It was more defined, more level, and it lead to a peak in the slope. As they approached, Ghost could make out the fringe of a few houses, a small collection of buildings off in the distance. He reached the high point, and stopped. Kari smiled, and waved her hand in an encompassing gesture. "Welcome to Tenrai. My hometown."

Ghost looked over the little town with a small warmth in his heart. He could make out people, walking up and down the dirt roads, kids stirring up clouds of dust with their play, smokestacks releasing fog into the air, adults tending to their homes, while others could be seen working at some of the large buildings. It was not so small as Kari had made it out to be. There was a clear road for cars leading out of the wooded area that Tenrai was situated in, and he also spotted a few cars parked in front of a few of the houses. Many had antennae on top to recieve broadcasts, and the center of town was moderately developed. This was not isolated to the world. Ghost could really get back in touch with the rest of Japan starting here.

The tiniest of flickers fluttered through his mind. While his sight and mind were on the town, his other senses were reached out into the immediate area. There was something nearby besides him and Kari. Maybe he heard it, maybe he smelled it. He took his gaze off of the town for a moment and focused on his ears. There, to the right, the smallest unnatural rustling of leaves. Somebody was approaching quietly from his right side. Kari was standing a few meters back, on his left. In fact... it seemed as though she was retreating. Yes, she was taking careful steps backwards, slowly. So, she's in on it too. It's quite possible that she's armed too, the way she rests her hand on the outside pocket of her bag. And it doesn't have a zipper... Easy access without arising suspicion. Nice.

Ghost, without looking, slipped his right hand down his case, where his weapons lay. He considered whether he should unholster and fire first, or activate his shield and take cover before he fought back. The switch to slide out the metal panels was closer, so he placed his fingers on that, let all extraneous thoughts exit his mind, and quickly looked to the right, where the soldier had an assault rifle trained on him. Ghost could see the surprise in the soldier's body, and judged when he would tense and pull the trigger. He waited, waited... Now.

Ghost flipped the switch, and two steel panels flew out of the side of the box like wings, just as the camoflauged soldier let off a volley of bullets that ricocheted harmlessly off of his cover. As Ghost opened his case to retreive a weapon with which to fight back, he heard a momentary pause in the firing, and quickly peeked around. A grenade had landed not a foot in front of the case. Although he would survive a blast, at such close range it would unhinge him from his defense, and so he reached around, grabbed the grenade and lobbed it back over. It exploded in mid-air, not a second after he had thrown it, but he was fine. The soldier continued to supress Ghost behind cover, but now Ghost had the time to unlock the case and arm himself with a pistol. The fire from the trees was rapid and accurate, and Ghost would have to carefully gauge when a break would occur in the fire. He counted off bursts, and estimated when his opponent would need to reload... there!

Ghost spun around to the left side of the case, and slid one foot out with the other in a crouched position. He settled the sights onto the soldier, and realized a split second before he fired that another grenade had been loosed in his direction. He fired, and hit the man's outstretched shoulder, but the grenade was timed and thrown well enough that Ghost had no time to throw it back, and it exploded about ten feet from him. The force of the blast was enough to knock over the case and send Ghost flying back another few yards, but Ghost had gotten the better of his adversary.

He took a few moments to breathe, as he had just had another close encounter with death. However, this was not so bad as some of his battles. He was just glad no one was hurt.

AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

A scream to left ruined his victory, as he quickly vaulted to his feet, and trained his gun in the direction of the sound. There, he saw a horrid sight. His blood ran cold as Kari held a small revolver up to Asuka's head. She must have entered the area during the battle, which means that Shinji can't be far behind. As if on cue, Shinji leapt up from down the path and charged at Kari. She deftly changed her aim to Shinji's legs, and fired a single shot which pierced his thigh and brought him tumbling down.

Damn her. He raised his pistol, straight at Kari's head. You think you can get away with that? His teeth were clenched and his blood was flowing. No one messes with them. No one.

"Kari!" She heard her name, and faced Ghost and the barrel of his over-sized .45. She only smirked, and brought her own weapon up to Asuka's head again, with her armed clenching her neck in a vicegrip.

"Don't even presume to think you have control of this situation, Ghost. It's you I want, so if you cooperate, the little missy here won't lose her head. Don't worry, I'm not afraid to shoot."

This should have angered him even more. This should have been the last straw, and by his very nature he should have taken care of this situtation in mere seconds. He had the ability. He'd done it before. But now he hesitated. There was a visible hesitation in his eye. He couldn't summon the guts to fire. He wasn't afraid of missing, or killing. It was...

It's the resemblence. She looks so much like...her.

A flash of a picture echoed through his mind, and once again Ghost could see the her. The sea-blue eyes, the flowing golden hair, the innocence. All of these and more were present in the young woman standing before him. Maybe... just maybe... it was her. Ten years... The age was right. The face was right. Even her mannerisms, her voice... could this be her? It had to be. He wanted to believe it was, but... now evil was present in her, in the way she stood, in the way she snarled... what evil had possesed her so? Didn't she remember him?

"...W-Why? Why are you... doing this?" Ghost couldn't suppress tears. His lip was quivering. He couldn't breathe straight. It hurt to speak.

Kari sneered at him. "Stupid. Do you think that your little stunt, out there on the outskirts of Fuji, went unnoticed? There's a large bounty on your head now, for the murder and destruction of Fuji's Ring and all of it's passengers."

"W-What?" Ghost could clearly remember that day, when the three of them were picked up by the caravan, and treated to a stay, with dinner and conversation... They sheltered them for the night. Ghost never touched the train. In fact, he was the one to take revenge on the pirates that did destroy it. Why couldn't she see that? "I never... those people were my friends..."

"Liar!" Kari's face contorted, and she screamed like a feral wolf at him. "You were there! You, the killer, the freak, the tireless machine. You, who should have died ten years ago! I did my research, I know who you are, you're dead! Back from the grave, pretending to be human still. You murderer, you don't deserve to walk!"

Ghost was flustered at this outburst. His hand was trembling so much. He couldn't keep the sights still, and he lowered his gun in fear he might hit one of the kids. The fight had been taken out of him. Murderer, freak, killer... I'm not dead anymore, but... should I be? Am I really just a... just a ghost from the past?

Kari took her weapon away from Asuka's head, and shoved her to the ground. She was now in a crimson rage like no other. "Ghost, you're head's worth alot..." She started shuffling over to Ghost. "... but I won't hesitate to blow it off..." She raised the gun to his head. "...you, who are nothing but a monster..." She tensed her arm. "You, who killed my brother, that day on Fuji's Ring! You deserve hell, you demon!" And with that, she fired.

... or would have fired, had she not already been dead. For no matter how strong he loved that little girl, however vehemently he believed that this woman was that girl, no matter how much he would protect her... he would not die for her sake. His instincts overwrote his thoughts, and in one fluid motion, he raised his pistol up to her face, and fired, his hand continuing up with the kickback from the bullet.

Her now lifeless body sailed backwards through the air. It was a graceful fall, her hands floating upwards, releasing the gun, her head craning back, her hair a veil around her face, her whole body arched, and a mist of crimson to encompass the entire scene. The beauty only held for a split-second, and the reality of a dead body slamming against the ground overpowered the scence, and overpowered Ghost. With the realization that he may have just killed the one person he had ever fought to protect with his life, and had given his life, and dedicated his rebirth to, a cloud descended upon him. It was the final line that held his mind intact. It was what he had from Third Impact. And he had just thrown it away.

Without hesitation, his mind crumbled to dust, his body fell into a slump, and his soul regressed. For all inensive purposes... he died.

AW: Phew, how long did that one take? Well, the intensity is rising, and everything is coming full circle. I really don't want to say much, other than... THERE'S ONLY ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT!1