Hei took the long way home, a meandering path through busy nightlife districts and quiet parks. More people were out than usual tonight. The sky had remained stubbornly overcast, but humans were just as stubborn, it seemed. He passed through them like a silent ghost.

The whole evening had been almost surreal. Misaki hadn't tried to arrest him; even more baffling, she'd wanted to spend time with him. And he'd enjoyed himself, as much as was possible. Her smiles had come easily, and it was satisfying to know that he could still make her laugh.

But there had still been a distance between them, an edge of uncertainty. When she'd begun to talk about the stars, all he'd wanted was to speak to her about Bai. Tell her everything. Maybe she would have some insight into what had happened to his sister; maybe she'd believe him when he told her that Bai had been worth protecting, even if she had been just a contractor. But then work had called, and she'd left him.

Hei gazed up at the darkened windows of an apartment building, the balconies crowded with hopeful stargazers. Brother, look. I made the stars fall. Lots of them.

By the time he turned onto the block just north of his own street, however, the windows were still dark, but empty. It seemed everyone had gone to bed. Aside from some fitful dozing on his bench last night, Hei hadn't had any sleep in the past twenty-four hours; but he didn't have much hope for tonight either.

"Hei, don't go back home!"

Hei froze on the verge of turning the corner onto his street just as Mao landed on the block wall beside him.

"What's going on?" he asked the cat.

"No time!" Mao snapped, jumping down with a jingle of his collar.

Hei was drawing a blank as to what the emergency could be - and without information, he had no idea how to react. But before he could question Mao any further, a car swerved around the corner, tires squealing. Huang's car.

It screeched to a halt in front of Hei. "Get in the car," Huang ordered.

"What's wrong?" Hei demanded - then he saw the bullet hole in the windshield, and the small red stain that was beginning to seep onto the older man's stomach.

"The Syndicate's cut us loose - we're out in the cold."

Hei felt the world drop out from beneath his feet. "Why would they? What happened?" Had someone seen him with Misaki - had their innocuous evening together still looked too compromising? He should have turned her down, emotions be damned.

"That's what I'd like to know," Huang said.

"Hei," Mao cut in, "we know it's got something to do with the South American Gate. Are you sure you're not keeping anything from us?"

There was just enough time for guilt to wash over Hei before a massive force pulled both him and Mao to the concrete; Huang gave a grunt of pain behind them.

It was like a giant's fist pushing him flat onto the street. Hei struggled against the force, but he could barely turn his head. His fingers scrabbled on the ground, searching for a puddle of water or a metal pipe, anything that could conduct electricity. But there was nothing; Hei swore to himself. He'd been so caught off guard by Huang's announcement that he'd completely failed to follow up with Mao's warning. Sloppy.

Then a movement across the street caught his eye: a blond man limned in blue stepped out of the alley.

"No need to glare at me like that, BK-201," the contractor said. "I'm only following orders."

Hei would have cursed if he'd had enough air left in his lungs. All he could do was hope that Mao had been right, and that this was about South America - not Misaki.

But then the contractor let out a strangled cry, and collapsed. Abruptly the pressure ceased; Hei pushed himself up, resting against the car's tire while he caught his breath and scanned for whatever had killed the contractor. The answer became obvious as Wei of all people stepped out from the alley behind the dead man and crouched down to assess his work.

"A gravity user, huh?" Wei commented offhandedly. "These overpowered types always have a bad tendency to get cocky and let their guard down."

"You." While Hei agreed with him - he'd depended on that tendency many, many times over the years - the last thing that he needed right now was another fight with this monomaniacal contractor, down the street from his own apartment no less.

"Relax; don't get defensive." Wei stood and approached the car, stopping several feet away. "I'm not here to fight you this time; I'm just running a little errand for a friend - Amber."

In spite of himself, Hei tensed at the name.

"She's waiting for you inside the Gate, BK-201," Wei continued.

"Impossible!" Mao protested. "You can't just waltz in there like it's a shopping mall or something."

"Which is why I've been delegated to guide you safely inside."

"That seems a little too good to be true."

"Alright," Hei said.

"Hang on -"

But Hei cut the cat contractor off. He leaned against the car tiredly. "You want to know what happened at Heaven's Gate? I can't tell you. I don't know what happened. I don't know why Bai disappeared. Only one person knows the answer: Amber."

"So you're gonna go in and ask her?" Huang said worriedly.

Hei nodded, and stood to get into the car.

"And then?" Yin's quiet voice somehow echoed in the empty street. Hei hadn't even noticed her sitting in the back seat of the car until now. "When you see Amber. And when you talk to her?"

Hei knew what she was asking; but he didn't have an answer. He wouldn't - not until he'd seen Amber.

Huang revved the engine. "All aboard - you can hitch a ride with me," he said with a strained grin, one hand on his midsection. The red blotch on his shirt was growing larger. "I'll take you as far as I can, anyway."

~~~~o~~~~

Huang had managed to throw one of Hei's spare gear bags into the car, for which Hei was endlessly grateful. Having to face the Gate at all was bad enough, but going in unarmed? He didn't think that he'd be able to find the courage.

A chopper picked them up about halfway to Pandora, but Wei wasn't worried; he was confident that they'd be able to lose the tail once they reached the expressway tunnel. Both Hei and Huang kept their eyes on the surrounding traffic as well, but nothing stood out. Hopefully the Syndicate assumed that an aerial surveillance would be enough.

"I've been thinking about retiring," Huang said as they drove. "Out in the country. Do some fishin'."

"Seriously?" Hei couldn't help asking. He couldn't picture Huang anywhere except the city. He couldn't picture him relaxed at all.

"I used to go all the time, before this crap. Crucian carp were my specialty."

There had been carp in the lake up in Zhangjiaping. Hei used to be able to tell apart the different species; his father had taught them all to him during those long summer days. Now he couldn't even name one.

"That suits you, Huang," Mao said, saving Hei from a barrage of uncomfortable memories. "You've got the face of a fish."

"Shut up," Huang told the cat mildly. "When you're sitting there watching the water drift, it feels like time stops altogether. You forget we're all just leaves on its surface, and even if we see the end, there's no way to stop the flow."

Amber had said something like that once, as they sat side by side on the bank of a slow-moving stream. Hei hadn't quite understood what she was trying to tell him, so he hadn't paid much attention, and instead just focused on enjoying their brief respite from the fighting.

Maybe someday he'd try fishing again.

Mao sneezed loudly.

Huang glared into the rearview mirror. "I'm trying to talk here."

"Sorry, I must be allergic to rambling."

"We're here," Wei interrupted.

Huang pulled the car into the narrow shoulder of the expressway tunnel, beside a secure access door; everyone save for him got out. He settled back against the seat with a pained grunt and pulled out a cigarette. Hei watched, suddenly unwilling to leave. Judging from the size of the crimson stain on the older man's shirt, the bleeding was slow, but steady.

Huang gave him a sideways glance. "Still here? Then gimme a light."

Hei leaned over, a spark forming between his fingers - and zapped the cigarette instead of lighting it.

"What the hell, man?" Huang said, jerking back reflexively.

"You should quit smoking those things." They might kill you.

"Yeah, and you should quit stuffing your face," Huang grumbled as Yin stepped forward. "Uh, Yin?" The doll leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "What's that for?"

Hei couldn't help but smile a little at the look of panic on his face. Yin gave him a tiny squeeze, then let go and stood with Hei.

Huang coughed a choking, hacking cough; Hei didn't miss the flecks of blood spotting his hand. Then he grinned. "It's been fun."

The car rejoined the flow of traffic and sped off into the night. Hei and Yin stood watching until it disappeared; then Hei turned to follow Wei and Mao through the access door that Wei had directed them to. Yin stayed closed behind him.

~~~~o~~~~

Saitou focused intently on his noodles, as if the process of eating at a roadside ramen stand was enough to distract him from worrying about the Chief.

She'd emerged from her short - unusually short - meeting with the Director looking a bit unbalanced; but she hadn't said a word to anybody. Matsumoto and Kouno had both noticed that something was up as well. "She's working on something off the books," was all that Saitou had been able to tell them. He hated that he really didn't know much more than that, but she wasn't talking to him either, and he hated that even more.

Something significant had happened at that office building last night, and if the Chief was looking into it on her own, she needed backup. Even without knowing any of the details, the rest of their team agreed with that assessment. Tailing her had been Matsumoto's idea; it had sounded reasonable at the time. But she'd just been going to visit the site of November 11's death. They shouldn't have followed.

She'd texted him after she'd left them in the parking garage: Don't worry, I'm going straight home from here. At least if she was home, she'd be less likely to get into trouble. It was the only bit of comfort he could get - but he'd take it.

"Saitou," Kouno said, staring into his bowl. He hadn't eaten even half of the dish. "You don't think the Chief is sticking her nose into anything dangerous, do you?"

Saitou slurped up the last of his noodles, then tipped the bowl into his mouth to drain the broth. He set it down with a hard thunk. "I've got total faith in her."

"Yeah, that's why we're tailing her," Kouno muttered. "We're not worried at all."

Saitou's phone rang; he fished it out of his pocket and answered wearily, "Hello."

"Saitou," Matsumoto said, "What are you doing right now?"

"Oh, just getting some food." He was technically still on the clock for another hour, but meal breaks while on random patrol were perfectly allowed.

"Is Kouno with you?"

"Well, yeah - he's sitting right here."

"Have you heard from the Chief?"

"Relax, she's at her place." The Chief was right; they needed to stop worrying.

"Wrong. Look, she told me about everything you two have been investigating; she's gone to Pandora to get some answers. But something big is about to go down, and I think she could use some help."

"What?" It took Saitou a moment to process Matsumoto's words; then he snapped his phone shut. "Kouno - we're going to Pandora!"

"Huh? What for?"

"Matsumoto says the Chief is there!" Saitou jumped up from his stool and pulled a handful of change from his pocket. "Money's on the counter!"

He and Kouno ducked out from under the noodle stand's awning and raced towards Kouno's car - only to be forced back onto the sidewalk by a convey of armored assault vehicles.

"Damn it, what's the military doing here?" Saitou wondered aloud, his chest tightening. Matsumoto was right: something big was definitely going on, and it had the Syndicate written all over it. But what on earth was the Chief doing at Pandora - and could they get to her in time?

~~~o~~~~

The security camera outside of Pandora's side-access gate looked unnervingly like an eyeball. Misaki held up her badge and stared it down, uncomfortably aware of the heavily-armed guards flanking her. A cold memory of metal encircled her wrists.

"Public Security Chief Kirihara, Foreign Affairs," she told the camera. "I have a few questions for Dr. Robert Schroeder."

The intercom beside the camera crackled. "Do you have an appointment?"

She pocketed her badge. "No I do not."

Hei didn't know - or wouldn't tell her - what had happened five years ago. Amber was impossible to track to down. But last night the research scientist had sounded as if he understood the Heaven's Gate disaster. If her father was right, and the city was in danger of disappearing forever just like Brazil, then she had to know, now. She brushed aside the question of exactly how her father knew that a crisis was imminent; she would deal with that later.

After a moment, the intercom crackled again. "The doctor will see you now."

Security escorted her first to a screening checkpoint. Two female guards were waiting: one pulled her aside for a body scan with a hand-held metal detector while the other emptied her purse onto a table and cataloged its contents. The wand beeped as it passed over Misaki's left suit jacket pocket; the guard pulled out her voice recorder.

"That too?" Misaki asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

"You'll get it back when you leave."

Suppressing a sigh, Misaki followed the guard down a maze of corridors and through two more checkpoints, one with a metal detector and one with some kind of scanner that she had never seen before; the guard at that station refused to explain its function. At last, she and her escort reached what was clearly a hallway of offices. The woman stopped her at the last door on the right and knocked once, then held it open.

Misaki stepped through and bowed. "Thank you for meeting me."

"Chief Kirihara - what a pleasant surprise," said Eric Nishijima.

Misaki looked up sharply as the guard shut the door behind her. "No offense, sir; but I was under the impression that I'd only be meeting with Dr. Schroeder."

The scientist was standing beside Nishijima's desk; he appeared to have recovered completely from his shock of the night before. "Of course I'd prefer it was just the two of us," Schroeder told her with a cheeky grin, "but Mr. Nishijima insisted. You know how these suits love to supervise things."

Nishijima steepled his fingers. "I'm not here to impede. Actually, I was just about to call you when you showed up. There isn't much time to explain everything, so we'll have to make this quick." He picked up a remote control and a television screen on the wall behind Misaki clicked on. "Please, have a seat."

Dr. Schroeder plopped down on one of the two leather sofas in front of the screen. Misaki followed his example - albeit with less enthusiasm - and sat down across from him. She'd come here with the intention of arming herself with knowledge that would throw the Syndicate off balance; but now she was the one who was having trouble finding firm footing. Why would Nishijima want to call her?

A map of the Heaven's Gate area appeared on the screen. "The catastrophe at Heaven's Gate five years ago wiped out hundreds of millions of people," Nishijima said. His seat at his desk coupled with his didactic tone made Misaki feel as if she was in class again - and she hadn't done the assigned reading.

"It's common to say the Gate vanished," Nishijima continued, "but this isn't exactly true. The area just became inaccessible, so we can't tell if anything's there or not."

"I know," Misaki said. She wanted to question Schroeder, not listen to a prepared lecture from Pandora's director. Time to lay some bait and see if anyone bit. "The physical impenetrability zone. And BK-201 created it. He killed all those people in that atrocity, and yet no one can tell me why."

To her satisfaction, Dr. Schroeder straightened up. "Hold on - you said he. I'm afraid you've got it wrong: at the time of the Heaven's Gate incident, the Messier code BK-201 was assigned to a young woman."

So I was right? But… "How is that possible?"

"We can talk about the past some other day," Nishijima smoothly interrupted. "But right now you need to understand the present. As we speak, the EPR is attempting to cause the same type of destruction that happened in South America right here."

Misaki narrowed her eyes. "May I ask exactly where you got that information?"

"Pandora oversees the Gate these terrorists are targeting; we make it our job to know."

The smugness in his voice was beginning to get on her nerves. But he preempted her next question by clicking to a map of Hell's Gate in Tokyo. "We're calling it the Tokyo Explosion. Based on the Heaven's Gate incident, we've calculated the fallout if the EPR transforms Hell's Gate the same way."

Misaki watched as a tiny red blip at the center of the Gate began to expand: first encompassing Tokyo; then the surrounding cities; then the entire island.

"It would create an impenetrability zone two thousand kilometer's in diameter, blocking out mankind forever," Nishijima said. "The country and everyone in it would vanish. But we're not going to let that happen."

"So you've devised a strategy to stop the attack."

Dr. Schroeder held up a finger. "The only sure way is to annihilate the Gate entirely."

"Destroy the Gate - is that even possible?"

Nishijima nodded, the fluorescent lights reflecting off his glasses and hiding his eyes. "Of course. The wall wasn't just designed to shield our people from the anomaly's dangers; it also houses and protects one of the greatest achievements in modern physics and engineering."

The image on the screen zoomed in to a top-view schematic of Hell's Gate. A ring of lights overlaid the outer wall.

Misaki squinted at it. "What is that?"

"We call it the Saturn system."

"Tonight," Schroeder broke in excitedly, "forty-five days after its onset, the sun spot cycle will reach its peak. This will last approximately thirty minutes, and create powerful anti-Gate particles in the Gate's center. It is within this half-hour window that our system extracts the particles, accelerates them in the Saturn Ring, and smashes them back into the Gate's core, causing a devastating reaction."

"And then Hell's Gate will be completely destroyed?" God, not physics. Misaki wished that Kanami was there to help interpret; her friend's endless patience and late-night tutoring sessions had been the only reason that Misaki had passed her college course.

"This concentration of anti-Gate particles cuts both ways," the scientist continued as if he hadn't heard her question. "It's the only time BK-201 can cause the explosion as well."

Nishijima nodded. "That's one of the key lessons we took from Heaven's Gate: that the sun spot peak could be a weapon for either side."

"Compelling, isn't it? After a decade of continuous struggle, the battle between contractors and mankind all comes down to thirty minutes on the clock! Five hours and twenty-seven minutes until the defining moment of the century."

Whatever liking Misaki might have had for Schroeder evaporated. She normally enjoyed people who were enthusiastic about their work, but those were real lives that he speaking of so casually.

The intercom on Nishijima's desk buzzed. "Yes, go ahead," the Pandora director said.

"Central forces have engaged the enemy in the Kida district, sir. They've made their move."

Misaki sat up straighter as Nishijima responded, "Understood."

Schroeder, on the other hand, leaned back comfortably. "Well well, it's started already."

Nishijima pressed a button on the intercom; the metal blinds covering the wall behind his desk began to roll upwards, revealing what looked like a mission control center for a space program. Three huge screens took up the far wall; below them a dozen men and women sat at large computer workstations.

"What is that?" Misaki demanded. But as she watched lines of spectral activity stream across the screens, she realized what it was that she was looking at. "Astronomics is meant to be an independent agency…but you have a direct line to their data in real time." Well, there's Kanami's mysterious administrative override. Damn I wish they hadn't taken my phone.

~~~~o~~~~

Kanami stood with her arms crossed, surveying the large bank of plasma screens on the wall in front of her. Bright blips of light indicated individual specters as they roamed across the city's power grid, searching for contractor activity. As far as she'd been able to discover, the doll network was still functioning correctly; she just wasn't able to override any of the existing programming. Mizuta was at a workstation in the corner, muttering and swearing to himself as he tried to untangle the access codes.

It had already been a long night. Kanami hadn't wanted to take Hanada aside, worried that she might tip off the Syndicate and ruin Misaki's strategy; but she needed to be back in control of her department. Contractor activity was predicted to be at a five-year high tonight, and not being able to direct her mediums was unacceptable. But it hadn't helped anything. Hanada wasn't the one responsible. At least Kanami wasn't worried about the diffident lab tech anymore; she'd apologized and cried over betraying her chief that Kanami had actually felt guilty for confronting her.

She sighed. The way things were going, it was doubtful that she'd be able to make her breakfast date with Sekine. Then again, if contractor activity really was as high as the predictions were saying, the emergency rooms would be busier than usual; Sekine might end up working an extra shift as well.

"Multiple contractor readings, ma'am," Hanada spoke up from her workstation. "They're all over the sector map."

"'Multiple' doesn't tell me anything - I need precise reports. How many are there?"

"I'm sorry." Hanada turned to face her, worry swimming in her eyes. "I can't count them all!"

"You - what?" Kanami flicked her gaze over to the right-hand screen; specters were swarming over a discrete sector just outside Pandora's main entrance. The blips flitted back and forth, and for a moment it made no sense. Then Kanami realized that that was what Hanada had been telling her: the contractors exhibiting activity outnumbered their dolls. There were too many to even track. "What's going on?" she whispered.

She tried dialing Misaki, but the call went straight to voicemail. Great - either Misaki had let her phone die again, or she was in trouble and didn't have access to it. Normally the former wouldn't have even been an option with Misaki, but lately she'd been a bit scatterbrained, and it wouldn't be the first instance of a neglected battery. Maybe someone on her team would be able to track her down. Kanami scrolled through her contacts list and started with Ootsuka. She paced the floor of the observatory as the phone rang.

~~~~o~~~~

"It's no use," Kouno said as he trotted back to where Saitou stood, several yards from Pandora's gate. "They're not letting anyone in. The guard wouldn't even look at my badge."

"You don't say," Saitou said through gritted teeth. The Chief had been right - whatever was going on, Pandora was in the middle of it.

Sudden gunfire erupted in the distance.

"Do you hear that?" Kouno said, turning in the direction of the sound. "Something big's going down, and it's got contractors written all over it. Maybe we should go back to the office and tell them to -"

"We've been ordered to stand down. They called me while you were talking to the guard - they want our whole division to report to headquarters." The Syndicate's orders, no doubt; they would want anyone with the ability to interfere with…whatever they were doing, off the streets and out of the way. "If we go back there now, they won't let us leave until it's done."

"But we're Public Security!"

"That's what I said!" It had been a useless argument, but he'd had to try. "We're the most experienced with contractors, but they don't want us to fight. What's Upstairs thinking?"

Worried about which side we'll choose, maybe? The Syndicate was making their move, and the Chief was in Pandora while her team was sitting helplessly on the sidelines. He thought he understood a bit more now how she had been so willing to work outside the law in order to investigate.

Outside the law…where was Hei during all of this? Regardless of which side he'd chosen - Syndicate or EPR - Saitou suspected that he would want to help extract the Chief if he could. But Saitou had no way of getting in touch with him; he and Kouno would just have to figure it out on their own.

~~~~o~~~~

Hei, Yin, and Mao emerged from Wei's blood-spattered tunnel into the desolate wasteland that was the interior of the Gate. Gazing up at the barren trees and clouded night sky above them, Hei repressed a shudder. This might be that Pandora job all over again. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to handle it if he saw his sister's ghost for a second time.

But Yin had been there for him, before. And she was here now. Mao was too. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"So this is what it's like in the Gate," Mao said, scanning the street.

Cars stood empty and rusting, trash bins were overturned - but there was no litter anywhere, no old clothes, no corpses. It was completely empty. Then a flash of blue caught Hei's eye, emerging from the concrete; Mao saw it too.

"It's a specter!" the cat said in surprise.

"It's calling us." Without hesitation, Yin walked towards the specter.

"Wait, Yin - be careful!" Mao called. "We don't know whose side they're on!"

"This way." She didn't wait for them to join her, but took a step forward and disappeared into a ripple in the air.

Mao cringed. "Come back!"

It was strange, certainly. But Hei had seen stranger around the Gates; and he had a feeling that Yin would have known if she was heading into anything dangerous. He followed her, Mao's warnings blurring oddly in his ears as he stepped through the portal.

A wave of charged air washed over him; then he was through. He was standing with Yin on a mirrored surface that looked…off, somehow. Then he realized what it was: a glass skyscraper, turned on its side. Or rather, they were standing on its side, while it was standing straight. Hei took a careful step forward; he may as well have been walking down the street.

Mao stepped out of the portal with a quiet jingle. "Where are we? You guys seeing this too? Mysteries of the Gate, huh?," the cat muttered as they headed off towards another beckoning specter. "I'm so happy I came along."

They walked, following a trail of specters. Each time they reach one of the little blue ghosts it would point them towards a junction, or another invisible portal. Hei was completely lost within minutes; he realized that when he'd been at Pandora those months ago, he'd barely even brushed the edge of the true Gate. Inside it was another world. He could only hope that there would be a path to follow out once more.

The jingling of a bell caught his hear; he turned to see Mao lagging some way behind them, shaking his head.

"Sorry," the cat said as he trotted up to rejoin Hei and Yin. "I'm trying to dig up any information on the Syndicate's network that might be useful; I keep getting hung up on firewalls. Hard to hack and walk at the same time, I guess."

"Yin, can you carry him?"

In answer, she bent down and scooped Mao up. He oofed as has the air left his lungs, but settled in her arms without compliant.

They walked for what felt like hours; without the stars overhead, it was impossible to track time. And Hei had a feeling that even if there stars could be seen, the light would be too distorted to be any kind of reference at all. Shadows shifted and stretched oddly, keeping him on edge. Logically he knew that there were no other living beings inside the walls of the Gate beyond the three of them and Amber; but logic didn't rule here.

Mao let out a strangled yelp; Hei tensed immediately, one hand gripping the hilt of his knife. "Mao, what happened?"

The cat was dangling loosely in Yin's arms. "I hacked into Pandora's server and looked through some old theories and research papers from their scientists. Security found me - but before they did, I found an interesting thesis. It discusses dolls and surveillance specters inside the Gate: they found that a single doll experiences great pain when sending a specter here; and it's more debilitating the deeper they go. But by creating a network of linked dolls and amplifying their power with the meteor shard, it should be possible to send specters all the way to the center. Beacons, to light the way."

Was that why Amber had stolen the meteor shard - to guide them here? Yin had sent that specter to him, when he had been so shaken by the sight of his phantom sister. He hoped that it hadn't hurt her to do so.

Then something else that Mao had said caught up with him. "You read research papers?"

Mao snorted. "I didn't always used to be a cat, you know. I'd just finished my doctorate in applied physics when I became a contractor. That's how the Syndicate first recruited me."

Hei had had no idea. He'd never bothered to learn any details about any of his teammates, past or present, beyond what was necessary for the job at hand. He hadn't cared. Now, he wished that he'd taken the time to…talk. What had been Huang's job, before?

"I think I stayed in their server too long," Mao said almost sleepily. "I feel my mind slipping. I don't have much time left; it's been good working with this team."

Hei's heart clenched. "No, Mao."

"One day, if a black cat like me comes calling…" his voice trailed off; then the cat in Yin's arms yowled and squirmed. She dropped it, and it promptly scampered off down the dead-tree-lined street and into the gloom.

Yin examined her finger, then sucked delicately at it. Hei caught sight of a small drop of crimson. "Let me see."

She held up her hand: the cut was long and shallow, and starting to bleed more. Hei cut a thin strip of black fabric from his shirt and tied it tightly around her finger. The pressure would slow the flow of blood and help numb the pain; though he didn't think that the pain in her eyes was physical.

Or maybe he was just projecting his own feelings.

~~~~o~~~~

Dr. Schroeder poured out two cups of coffee; Misaki left hers sitting on the table in front of her.

"Our research has shown us that the two gates are actually like a single passageway, with two sides," the scientist was saying. He fished a piece of notebook paper out of the pocket of his lab coat and unfolded it; then he used a pen to punch a hole through the paper. "And if you close the opening on one side," he pushed the flaps of paper back down over the pen hole, "the other will disappear as well."

The visual aid was helping Misaki understand better than his previous attempts; but she couldn't care less about the mechanics. "So, if the Gates cease to exist…what will happen to the contractors?"

Schroeder leaned forward and tipped a couple of spoons of sugar into his cup. "Like the sugar in this cup of coffee, they will immediately dissolve."

"Dissolve? You're talking about thousands of people!"

"Believe me, it's true. We've done numerous tests -"

Misaki jerked to her feet, her arms stiff at her sides. "That's genocide - you can't do this! They may be changed, but they're still people - you can't judge them all guilty and condemn them to death!"

Nishijima, who had been silent during the doctor's explanations, now spoke up, his voice cold. "So we should sit on our hands for the sake of a few thousand, while they take the lives of over a hundred million people?"

Misaki had no answer to that; neither possibility was one that she could accept. But if they were right, and it was Hei's power and his power alone that could cause such an explosion…then it had been his sister who had annihilated Heaven's Gate five years ago. And that was what Amber wanted from him now. Was that what had been weighing so heavily on his mind tonight? For all her earlier doubts, she didn't believe him capable of such an act. But if the alternative was the permanent erasure of all contractors and dolls…

The door to the office opened behind her, interrupting her thoughts. Misaki turned to the newcomer - only to see Hourai step inside.

He cast her a stern look. "It's easy to talk of humanism; but to turn a blind eye to reality in the name of ideals, while you put your nation at risk, is something a policeman should never do, Kirihara."

"Director?" Misaki said weakly. Who was he to tell her what a policeman should or shouldn't do?

"I apologize for my subordinate's rudeness, Mr. Nishijima."

"Oh, no, I enjoy the enthusiasm she brings to her job. I'll let you take it from here - as you know, there's a lot of work to be done."

Misaki frowned at the patronizing tone, but for the first time all night, worry began to eat at the edges of her mind. Nishijima and Schroeder hadn't held anything back; knowledge couldn't be un-shared. If she didn't dance to whatever tune they played, she could be in very real danger. But why tell her anything at all - why risk it? She still couldn't figure that out.

Nishijima exited his office; Dr. Schroeder followed closer behind. "I'll see you around, young lady," the doctor said. The door shut behind them, leaving her alone with Hourai.

The Director stood looking out onto the control room floor. He didn't turn when he spoke. "Activating the Saturn Ring was a very difficult decision for us to make."

"Really," Misaki said flatly. She didn't buy that for one minute. Well, to hell with it. "So you're telling me that you're one of them." He turned slightly, eyes narrowed, but she continued, "Pandora is nothing but a research organization under the authority of the UN. They have absolutely no authority to make policy, especially when it affects the future of a whole nation. This is an abuse of power and a clear violation of international law. We both know that. For Pandora to get away with this - without any suspicion or resistance from the government - they would need the backing of an incredible power. This is what November 11 tried to prove: a secret organization with unimaginable influence and reach."

"You shouldn't think of us as some mysterious bogeyman," he said, unperturbed by her allegations. "The truth is, you've already been working for us for a long time now."

It made her skin crawl to know that he was right. She regretted her voice recorder more than ever now, but even if she couldn't make a record, she could at least learn as much as possible. "What do you mean - tell me."

"To maintain world stability, the Syndicate's reach extends to intelligence agencies, governments, and power brokers throughout the world - including you."

"I see. And BK-201 as well?"

"As a matter of fact, that's correct. His codename is Hei. He's been one of our key operatives - although we now suspect he's gone rogue."

Misaki tried not to react to that last statement, but she couldn't stop her pulse from picking up. Had the Syndicate taken action against Hei and his team - was he alright?

"You're really telling me the truth," she said, half-disbelieving still. "So after all the cover-ups, why reveal this now? I could react like November did."

Hourai didn't even blink are the implied threat. "Killing you would be simple enough. However, our organization is always in need of exceptional personnel. We've been grooming you."

All those little nudges from her father - pushes towards a promotion, networking meetings with people she had no desire to meet - just how long had they been prepping her for a role in the Syndicate?

It didn't matter. "You're making the assumption that I agree with your philosophy and ideals," Misaki told him.

"Humans are flawed," Hourai said coldly. "War is in our blood; and when we fight, there can't be justice for all. All we can do is look for the path of least error, and know our sacrifices are needed. That's our job - to dirty our hands for the sake of mankind. Life is ugly. It's time to grow up."

~~~~o~~~~

Gradually, the pale light of morning began to seep into the interior of the Gate. A chalky white mist formed and hovered over the ground as Hei and Yin walked. Hei's feet told him that they'd traveling for only a couple of hours, but to his mind it may as well have been days.

Waiting on the stone post of a footbridge just up ahead was another specter. It flickered as they approached, then disappeared. They stood for several minutes, but nothing happened. There was no portal, no junction, no Amber. They were at a dead end. Hei knew on instinct that it would be impossible for them to backtrack and leave the Gate the way they had come.

He should have found some place for Yin to hide, rather than bring her here. Now she was trapped along with him, and -

Yin was standing with her eyes squeezed shut, as if in pain.

"What's the matter?" Hei asked in worry.

She opened her eyes, then climbed up onto the stone railing of the bridge.

"Hold on - Yin!" Before Hei realized her purpose, she had dropped out of sight. He ran to the railing and looked over. It was only seven feet or so below; Yin was standing ankle-deep in a pool of still water.

She raised a thin arm, pointing. "That way."

Hei's worry evaporated into relief, and he jumped down to join her.

They walked for another quarter of an hour, though Hei couldn't tell what distance they covered, following the water. At last, he spotted a broken piece of a pier emerging through the mist. Waiting on the warped and sun-bleached boards was a girl of about five, with long blond hair and wearing a too-long pink dress that was torn at the bottom to allow her to walk without tripping over it.

He didn't need to see her golden-brown eyes to know exactly who she was. Her smile would never change.