'Shin- Shin are you alright, how's Adjani, and the baby,' Touma asked Shin from the Mansion, Shin still wasn't responding...

'I... I'm fine, so is Adjani-... we lost the baby... I have to go,' he responded at last. Shin turned to the baby, which had passed from Adjani's body, it lay on the table as the doctors waited for the doctor from the morgue to pick it up, he'd already been alerted and was on his way. Shin took this brief moment to absorb everything about this small body. He wished he could see her eyes, wondering what color they would be, but knew he would never see the child's eyes open in sadness or joy. He reached a hand for the dead infant, taking its hand between his fingers, "I'm sorry sweet angel, we will never know each other this side of the light..."

He took back his hand just as the man from the morgue arrived; he took a small tag and began to write in something, he looked up to Shin, "Did the child have a name?"

Shin stopped for a moment, "We... we hadn't given a thought to names yet." He put a hand to his chin and looked to Adjani, still asleep from the emotional and physical drain of passing the lifeless child.

He looked at the tag as it read: 'Mouri X'.

"That won't do," and he took another moment, looking to his wife. Adjani gave a small stir, and Shin rushed to her side, "Are you alright?"

"No, but I am unhurt, I heard- I heard what you said, your right, she needs a name."

"Shh, don't waste your strength."

"No!" she took a few deep breaths until she had the strength to speak again.

And so the baby was taken to the morgue, the tag on its tiny toe reading 'Mouri Brooke.' Shin stepped out from the room. His sister and her husband were resting in each other's arms, Zaire, in the seat next to them, was asleep; a stuffed dolphin tightly nestled in his arms.

Shin walked slowly to his boy, and carefully took him into his arms, sitting himself into the seat. Shin's mournful expression filled with a slow and steady march of tears. When one of them found its way to Zaire's cheek, he began to stir, looking up into his father's face.

"You cryin' Da-da?"

"Yes, I am."

"Why you cryin'?"

Shin swallowed hard, he wasn't sure how to explain this, "The baby, your little sister, she died-" he choked there, he didn't know where to begin... leaving the child to beg the obvious question he was afraid to answer, asking what it meant to die. Shin hugged Zaire tightly, looking him in the eyes, "Well Zaire, when someone dies- their body stays still, like a deep sleep, so deep the soul goes somewhere else to rest and- they never wake up..."

Zaire rose up his hands and wiped away Shin's tears, "It be a'rite."

Shin managed a smile, staring back at Zaire's face, "Yes Za-za, it'll be alright."

"When I get ta see little sister?"

"You'll see her soon, and we'll all say goodbye to her..."

The sun had fallen behind the horizon, but the glow from the moon was brilliant tonight, and as Asami stepped towards Naaza, she no longer felt the need to conceal herself, fully revealed in the brilliance of the moonlight. Naaza blushed as Asami came close enough to touch, as she examined his features, his otherwise stern and snakelike features only revealed his strengths to her, his otherwise 'inhuman' features seemed as beautiful to her as her brilliance and flesh and hair to him.

"What manner of person could be so-" she didn't have the word she wanted, she retreated, her eyes downward cast, he seemed simply too much to behold...

Naaza was as caught for want of words as her, so he simply said what came to mind, in a disorganized stream of thought. "I... I once was of the worst breed of man, seeking only for myself, crazed. Arago discovered me and had Badamon cast his spells over me, using me as his Doku Masho for 4 centuries, then the Troopers stopped Arago and I was freed, I learned I could use my potions to cure as well as to harm, and I found a balance in my life... A Libra..."

"Libra?" Asami mused momentarily, "A human reference to the alignment of the stars, I believe I would be what you know as an Aquarius. Most of my people are Aquarius or Pisces... a rare few are of Sagittarius." Her cobalt locks fell behind her as she looked up to marvel the stars and their beauty. "The moon has long held its sway over our people, as it has been as long as my people have. Its governing force rules all things in or of us; from the tide's rise and fall, the mood of the ocean dictates over anything in its keep. It is and always shall be my people's duty to preserve that balance, it is our purpose."

"Beautiful," he said under his breath, in deference to both her and her words, which has found their way deep into him.

Asami smiled back, narrowly catching Naaza's murmur, in the same low tone she replied, "Thank you greatly."

Naaza brimmed with emotions he hadn't the words to express in all his years. Taking up his nerve, and casting his heart upon his sleeves, he stepped closer to Asami, leaned forward, and placed his lips to her cheek. Asami gasped, overwhelmed by a bliss entirely foreign to her. Shyly she smiled, and spoke.

"W-why?"

Naaza thought for a moment, and could not sum any reasons to mind, so at last he replied, "Why not?"

"I- because a kiss is so much, holding great power of emotion, it's almost like a promise, what does it mean to you?"

"In the world of Humans? A kiss can mean different things depending on where and how it's done on the body, and sometimes what part of the world you're in, for example, a formal greeting was once accompanied with a bow, curtsy, and a kiss to the fingertips, this is no longer so in modern society." Naaza took a moment to dam the flow in his mind, "In this instance it was meant to express what my words cannot, the feelings and impressions I have towards you that threaten to flood my mind in a world emotions I do not fully grasp." Naaza was told by the wisdom of ages taught to him, those that had told him time and again that patience was the most important virtue in any situation, and yet, the lovesick would proclaim that hesitance in matters of love were of the greatest magnitude of folly...

"What are you thinking of," Asami asked, seeing his vast eyes awash with contemplation.

"You."


Shin opened his eyes to emergency lights, he looked down to his arms and found only the dolphin doll Zaire had been holding. He stood up immediately and looked around, "Zaire... Za-za?"

The room was empty, cast in a red and yellow glow from the emergency lights. He heard the distinct sound of metal armor stepping on the linoleum tile. He turned to the room he'd left Adjani to see Mamoru's black armor of death in the red, menacing glow of the lights. He turned his head up to look at Shin through the black faceplate, red eyes glaring through black metal.

"ADJANI! Mamoru, if you've done anything to her I SWEAR to you I'll-"

"You'll WHAT!" his voice menaced, "her sorrow and pain was exactly what I needed right now." He licked his lips, "Such delightful despair in her heart."

Shin looked back to the empty room behind him, remembering his sister and brother, "Where is my family, my sister, brother- my SON!"

"Somewhere," he lifted one hand and pretended to examine it as if admiring his nails through the armor, "I've forgotten."

Shin looked at Shi, his eyes were reddening with tears, "Don't hurt my family..." he said, falling to his knees.

"Hurt them? I don't need to! You do that yourself, it is your destiny to experience only pain and suffering and spread it to all who know you."

Shin moved his lips to talk, but his throat caught the sounds, he could say nothing... His lips violently moved to scream, louder and louder...

He felt someone reach for his shoulder and his whole body jumped as he rose to his feet, the toy dolphin still in his hands.

"Shin?"

Shin took in his surroundings, the hospital was bright and white as usual, his brother had taken his shoulder, Mamoru was nowhere to be seen, and the nurse behind the was staring at Shin like perhaps something was wrong with him...

"A dream?"

"You started thrashing in your sleep, like something was the matter, opening your mouth as if to scream."

Shin looked at the Doll in his hands, "Zaire! Where's Zaire?"

Sayoko looked around the room, as well as Ryuusuke, "I- He was just here?"

"The boy? I thought I saw him go down the hallway, past his mother's room," the nurse spoke aloud, "I'd have said something, but you all were asleep, and I didn't figure he could hurt himself in a hospital."

Shin walked a terribly fast pace as he went down the hallway, looking in each door along the way, "Zaire?"

Shin followed the Hallway to its end, coming to a gasp as he stopped and read the last door in the hallway, 'Morgue.' Shin carefully pushed open the door to the morgue.

"May I help you," a doctor asked as he noticed Shin.

"Yes, I'm, I'm looking for my son, I was told by a nurse he came down the hallway, this is the last room down the hallway.

"Well, I haven't seen any living children down here today, had this poor infant brought in earlier-" he stopped when he saw Shin choke back a sob. "You're Mouri-san aren't you?"

Shin nodded, "Yes."

"Well, I'm sorry I can't be more help to you Mouri-san, but I haven't seen any little boys in here."

Now Shin was really getting worried, perhaps the dream had been a vision. His eyes widened as a though hit him, "Adjani!"

Shin tore from the morgue and towards Adjani's room, he prayed it was only a dream and that both Zaire and Adjani were safe. He hurried down the hall, people stepped aside as he rushed past. He stopped just in front of the door as he pushed it open. He peered over to Adjani, she lay in the sleep of the distraught. Out cold, but she breathed steadily, the monitor of her heart showing a stable rate.

Shin stepped into the room, he was still worried about Zaire, but at least Adjani was safe, and that had to mean the dream couldn't have been a vision. In the dream, he seemed more interested in Adjani and her pain.

Shin walked over to Adjani and took her hand. He had no idea where Zaire was, certainly he didn't mean to be hiding...

Shin heard a phone ring in the room, a doctor went over to pick it up...

"Yes... This is... He's here..." The doctor stopped cold. "That's not possible... I'll be right there."

"What is it?"

The doctor turned to Shin, "Ah, somebody at the morgue saw your son- but... Follow me..." The doctor just shook his head, he was obviously thrown out of his element somehow. Shin followed the doctor, how he was a little worried.

The doctor opened the door to the Morgue and the two stepped in, the two followed the man he saw earlier, "I don't know how I missed him, but he was just standing there, looking at his sister, then- I don't know, and…"

Shin looked over at Zaire, his eyes were aghast with shock. Zaire seemed aglow with something, some kind of healing energy. Zaire turned, as if only now aware of the presence of others, "Da-da, baby says she's ready to come back now."

AN (holy cow I just remember that all my scene seperators were charaters that FF eats... damn- I might have to go back and repost them all... maybe...)