So sorry it's late (again) I just get so busy these days it's ridiculous! Thanks for the reviews and follows, means a lot as I keep saying!

Sansa was eighteen today, the day after the Halloween ball. She, Yuki and Zero stood in the threshold of the main academy hall, which was in the biggest of messes anyone could imagine; food coated the floor as well as spilt drinks, banners hung limply from the walls and ceiling, tables and chairs were unorganised and a danger hazard, and there was even a not so pleasant smell tainting the air.

Sansa couldn't have been happier with the setting.

Her neck ached from the haziness of the night before, the marks easily covered by a scarf to match her outfit; pumps, skinny jeans and a sweatshirt. In fact, her entire body ached to the point it hurt to move, her muscles having been put to their limit relentlessly over the last few days. Her face, though not so pleasant to look at as of the moment, suffered the least pain. In the mirror that morning she'd been met by an exhausted, close-to-death green eyed girl, where a single scratch mark bloodied the skin from her eyebrow, over her eye and down to her jaw. The bruise of her cheekbone from training was more prominent against the paleness of her face, as well as the bags beneath her eyes. She could still taste the rustiness of blood in her mouth even now. Yet, not caring, she'd pinned her hair back and out of her face, ready to face the day without batting an eyelid.

Yuki, concerned about her condition, promised to tend to them herself, ignoring Sansa's protests. Zero, having not said a word all morning, was clearly outraged towards the condition of his stepsister, and Sansa almost hoped Kana didn't face the warzone of his wrath. Almost hoped.

Apparently, Kaien hadn't known that Kana was Sansa's pureblood sister. The shock on his face had been evident early that morning when she'd confronted him. Between the blur of last night and waking up in the safety on her own childhood bedroom, she'd wasted no time in confronting him, ignoring his awaiting birthday wishes in the process. He promised to confront Kana later that day, and to Sansa's relief, she believed him.

"Let's get started, then." Yuki suggested, yet her eyes were still pinned on Sansa's face. Zero, too, was also staring at her.

"Take your scarf off, it's boiling in here." he said, his tone razor sharp. She looked at him and glowered.

"I'm cold." she snapped, and in truth, she was. Through the haze of days of exhaustion, her body seemed to have given up on even emanating heat through her skin, her blood running cold with the hard truths. Her neck was the coldest, Aido's freezing fangs still lingering in the flesh, reminding her with throbbing numbness. She resisted the urge to cradle her neck, and moved on to attack the tables and chairs.

As she worked, she went over last night. She remembered it in images, flickering pictures of shock, screaming and falling blood. She could picture Kana's face clearly, which instantly lit a rage deep in her chest, alive and blazing through her entire body. She didn't want to believe that she shared blood with that girl, the girl who had been nothing but cruel to her for the last two or so years. She wanted nothing more than to hate her with every fibre of her being, and yet…

She sighed as she piled up some chairs, making sure to keep clear from her stepsiblings. Kana had indeed been cruel and selfish, yet she was still her flesh and blood. Once upon a time, no matter how short lived, they had shared a life together, had loved one another for eight months, had been nothing but sisters. Now they were enemies desperate to spill one another's blood, which ultimately pained Sansa. This was all her fault. Because of what she was, because of her own fate, Kana had had her life torn apart just as much as Sansa's had.

She looked up, spotting Zero and Yuki bickering quietly over something, yet they seemed to lack their usual half-hearted hostility. They looked drained, drifting through everyday life simply from routine rather than free will. Sansa knew why. She was doing it to them; this brutality about her, this constant pain she was putting herself through both emotionally and physically, was inevitably taking it out on them, too. She thought of her connection to them, a fierce bond that she shared with no one else. Their pain was her pain and vice versa, yet she was inflicting this hurt on them just as much as she was on herself. She was being cruel and selfish, and she hadn't even realised it until now.

She imagined the red cord that bound her to her stepsiblings, dripping with the blood of their pasts yet as strong as iron. She imagined the cords binding them at the wrists, locking the trio together for as long as they may live. As she stared and pictured the inevitable, she knew; through the blood and tears and angst, these two teenagers were more of who she was than Kana would ever be.

Why did that hurt all the more?

"Sansa?" Yuki said distantly, breaking through Sansa's reverie. She shook her head ever so slightly, causing her neck to cry out in protest. Her hand flew to the hidden wound, and though she brushed it off as scratching an itch, she didn't miss the flash behind Zero's eyes.

"Sorry, I was miles away." she murmured.

"You always are these days." said Zero heatedly, earning a hot look from Yuki.

"Shut up, Zero." she snapped. "Try being in her position."

"It's alright, Yuki." Sansa said, her voice travelling on an exhausted breath. She felt everything slowly building up on her shoulders, weighing her down, taking all the life from her with each passing day. She wondered how long it would be until she fell asleep and never woke up.

Zero, his gaze still hard on Sansa's, began to open his mouth to say something when the main doors of the hall banged open. Sansa spun, half expecting Kana to be lunging for her, or see a pair of red eyes thirsting for her blood. But no, it was Kaien, ad a very panic stricken Kaien at that. His hazel eyes were wide with worry, skirting the room as if looking for someone before resting on his oldest daughter.

"What is it?" Sansa asked, stepping forward and reaching out a thin, slightly shaky hand towards him.

"Kana," he rasped. "Kana—she's missing."

"What do you mean 'missing'?" Zero demanded, striding forward. "She has to be somewhere."

"No, she vanished. None of her friends have seen her since last night, and she didn't register this morning. I can't find her anywhere."

An odd bolt shot through Sansa's chest, a pulse blurring behind her vision for the briefest of moments. She stood frozen as her family argued, her neck wound suddenly burning, the scratches of her cheek throbbing as if freshly cut.

Missing. Her sister was missing.

A strange fire ignited in her blood, and in her mind's eye she saw an image. Big grey eyes of a baby, sparkling as they looked at her. She heard a distant giggle of a child and saw tiny, chubby hands reaching for her, and beyond that a shock of fiery red hair.

Sansa darted from the room, her family crying out her name in a sea of panic and fury.

Aido didn't think twice when he saw Sansa darting towards the main gates of the academy. He'd expected her to do something stupid once she heard her blood sister was missing, and so did his fellow class members. Flinging himself out of the trees, he ignited his power to travel from his fingertips and towards the fleeing girl, the cold bitter against his skin but not painful. Sansa shrieked when the ice grabbed her feet and stationed her on the spot, her eyes frantically searching for the culprit. When her eyes landed on him, her face flushed with rage. In any other circumstance Aido would have thought she looked even more beautiful when she was angry, but today, with the raw scratches on her cheek as well as the now yellowing bruise on her cheekbone, she looked nothing less than frightening.

"Let me go!" she hollered as he approached her, slowly with his hands outstretched in a gesture for her to trust him.

"Kana may be your sister, but she isn't your responsibility." he told her steadily, continuing to move towards her soundlessly.

"To hell she isn't!" She clawed at the ice keeping her in place, and he could see the muscles in her legs working to the best of their strength. At first he thought she looked almost amusing in her attempts to free herself, but when the ice began to crack, he could feel the wave of astonishment wipe of any smile that had threatened to brighten his features. With a cry and the sound of shattering glass, Sansa was free and ultimately running.

He cried out her name and took off after her, not even bothering to keep at a human run. He fleeted towards her and grabbed her, knocking her to the ground when she began to fight him. She kicked and clawed at him hopelessly, and Aido rolled until he had her pinned beneath him, her wrists in his hands and pinned to the earth above her head. Her scent knocked the breath from him, and she wriggled relentlessly beneath him until she was panting for air. Finally she stilled and glared at him.

"We're dealing with it." he said simply. "Like I said, she isn't your responsibility."

"In case you didn't notice, she's my sister, Aido, my flesh and blood." she spat, her jade eyes blazing.

"Blood doesn't make her any different to you now than she was before." he told her. "She's still the same girl who targeted you from the moment you both met. Just because she has a new status doesn't make her any different now than she was then."

"Oh, I know that." Sansa seethed. "I still can't stand her; just picturing her face makes me feel sick! But my mother went to great lengths to protect her, and I owe her as much as to protect the daughter she had to give up because of me."

"Do you really think she would appreciate it?" Aido asked carefully. The more he stared at her, the more he could see the little red head in her face. The same cheekbones and rounded eyes, as well as the same fierce fire behind those differently coloured orbs. He wanted to pity Sansa for the sick truth she had to find out on her own, yet he knew she wouldn't want his pity. She was stronger than that. Instead he found himself loathing Kana for keeping the truth from this damaged girl, and wanted nothing more than to assure Sansa that Kana didn't deserve her for a sister.

"Maybe not, but it's what my mother would have wanted." Sansa said, quieter now, Aido's words assumedly sinking in. Gingerly he loosened his grip on her, pivoting ever so slightly so he could roll off her.

"I'll let you up if you promise not to run." he said steadily, watching her and seeking any sign of mistrust in her eyes. They were blank as they watched him, devoid of emotion, and stiffly she nodded. Keeping her wrists in his hands, he rolled away and stood, pulling her with him. She was shaking, her eyes far away, the girl he once knew slowly dying away.

Pulling her towards the cover of the trees and then against him, he nuzzled his face in her throat, inhaling as much of her scent as he could manage. It clung to her scarf like that of washing powder, reassuring him that she was really with him. Through the scarf, he could smell the rustiness of dried blood from the wound in which he had bitten her. He should have felt guilt, but with the images flitting through his mind from the night before, he couldn't manage it. Both of them, worlds apart and so very different, had been together in a wave of pleasure that neither could deny. He wasn't prepared to feel guilty for that.

"Everything will be alright, Sansa, you'll see." he whispered, and she mumbled something inaudible against him. He held onto her tightly, revelling in the feel of her own hands gripping at his shirt near his shoulder blades, willing his closeness upon herself. Wanting to distract her, he pressed a gentle kiss to her jaw, making her shiver beneath his lips. She tasted sweet and inviting, but he had no desire to drink from her, only to be near her.

To his surprise, she turned her mouth towards his, capturing his lips in a slightly sloppy kiss to which he quickly perfected. For a moment it was pleasant, her skin soft and igniting his cold heart, her arms locking around his neck as she reached up to meet him kiss for kiss. She was so warm and fragile beneath his hands, yet the strength that ran through her nearly overwhelmed him with a strange pride. His hand traced the delicate curve of her waist before tracing the skin beneath her shirt, smooth and perfect. She shuddered, the muscles of her abdomen tightening beneath his fingers, but when they brushed the rough skin of her scarred stomach, she yanked back, abruptly ending the kiss. She bowed her head against his chin, face down, and when he licked his lips with nerves he could taste salty tears.

"Sansa!" he exclaimed, alarmed as he tilted her face up to look at him. Tears reddened her beautiful eyes and raced down her cheeks, and he remembered when he'd seen her come out of the headmaster's office after another attack from the Darkling, exhausted and absolutely petrified. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean―"

She cut him off with the simple shake of her head. "What are we doing, Aido?" she asked quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this," she gestured between them shakily. "whatever this is."

He blinked, surprised. Gently he pressed his thumbs into her throat, keeping her head up. He bowed down for a chaste kiss on her lips before trailing his mouth along her jaw, his hands at the small of her back and locking her to him.

"I don't know." he whispered truthfully against his luscious skin. "But whatever it is, I'd like to think it's a good thing."

"Or a disaster." she said, her voice small and cracked. He pulled back once more, looking down at her thoughtfully before brushing a lock of her out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear.

"A beautiful disaster." he murmured, and to his small delight, she offered the tiniest of smiles. Then she blinked, her pupils dilating until her irises were consumed in inky pools, and she exhaled a breath of surprise. Every muscle in her body stiffened, her breath hitching and even her skin chilled alarmingly quickly to the point of ice.

Not a second later she started screaming.

Sansa could feel the warm pressure of a hand on her cheek, soft to the touch and most reassuring. Huge gray orbs looked deeply into her own, murky like a foggy graveyard but eerily beautiful. Coils of red hair momentarily blinded her until she laughed in delight at this little creature in front of her. She reached up her own hand in a gesture of what looked like a high five, and the child reached up to press her palm to Sansa, their hands steeped between them in peaceful harmony. Sansa marvelled in how small this child's hand was against her own, even though she couldn't have been much older.

"'Ansa!" the little creature cried happily, red coils bouncing with her laughing. Sansa laughed, too, bowing forward so that her forward pressed against the other's.

"Kana..." she breathed in a tiny high voice. "Kana, Kana, Kana."

Hands stills pressed together, the two girls laughed at one another, staring at their connected hands with complete content. Distantly Sansa heard a door open, drawing her attention away for the briefest of moments.

A lady who she instantly recognised as her mother's stumbled into the room with a crash, her back hitting the corner of a table. Sansa's father rushed her mother, his eyes big and red and furious, his mouth wide as he reached for Sansa's mother. Sansa screamed, and so did Kana, and instinctively Sansa outstretched her arms to her cornered mother, who was shouting and whimpering in terror.

There was a sudden sharp pain in Sansa's fingers and a burning behind her eyes that was worse than tears, and for a dreadfully long time all she saw was white light and the pain that came with it. She screamed, her arms outstretched, her little fingers cramping.

What followed was her waking up after a short while, shaking and afraid, her mother lifting her into her arms and cooing her softly. Kana was crying somewhere in the distance, followed by the weeping of a man. Sansa's eyes searched for the sounds, and when her eyes landed on her father, blood dripping from his mouth, nose and ears. Kana was in a play pen not far away, screaming and screaming and screaming, and Sansa couldn't shake the stench of something thick and rusty and foul.

She closed her eyes, allowing her mother to brokenly sing her to sleep.

Voices roused Sansa from her sleep. She was lying on something soft, possibly a bed or a couch, and every inch of her felt weak and heavy, so much so she couldn't open her eyes. However she wasn't robbed of her hearing, and through the singing of her blood and fearful pounding of her heart, she ached to hear those voices that drew her towards consciousness no matter how much she wanted to keep such a dread at bay.

"... no time! She's losing an unbeatable battle. With the amount of stress pulsing through her veins, there is no way she can withstand the pressure of the Darkling."

"She is not to die, I won't allow it."

"Then we must work quickly. That was the worst of the attacks; for goodness sake, she bled, and if I stand correct that hasn't happened before."

Without even thinking Sansa inhaled silently, and indeed she could smell the sweetness of her own blood clotting her nostrils. Her ears felt sticky, and she could taste it in her mouth. Her mind niggled for a connection, knowing that she had seen this reaction before on someone else, but nothing came to her.

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Find the Masoni girl. She and Sansa share the same blood, and her disappearance can't have been a coincidence. If we find her, perhaps we will find the Darkling."

There was a beat of silence, and then, "Gather up the others and send them out. Have them search the grounds and town centre. I don't want to see them until they find something useful."

"Will you not join us?"

"I will. Do as I say, and gather them to the main gates of the academy. Send Ishio and Cho to secure the Day Class students; they are not to leave the Sun Dorms until I command it." Another beat of silence. "Go, I will be down soon enough."

"Yes, of course."

There was the sound of a door shutting, and for a long time nothing happened. Sansa could feel herself drifting again, her soul desperately willing for the black cloud of nothing rather than this hell she was trapped in. Through the heaviness, she felt a pressure on her wrist, a thumb massaging the area of her pulse. It was a distant pressure, though, for a sheet of welcome heaviness overcame her, taking her away slowly but blissfully all the same. She heard the whisper of a voice in her ear yet she couldn't pick out any individual words, and just as the deep black sea pulled her down into darkness, she felt a prick of pain in her wrist.

She sank, falling deeper and deeper into the depths of her own head, and after a few moments the only thing she could hear was the steady thumping of her own heart, strong and reassuring, so unlike herself.

However, through the noise and thickness, she was fairly sure she could hear the raging caws of a raven, wild and desperate, until a dead silence killed off any element of life from her ears.

Dun dun dun!