:3 It's getting light hearted again…

Bad wooords. But you should be used to that now :D

I noticed a hand around my shoulders, probably trying to calm me down. Only a little later I noticed that it was Lass. He seemed worried, desperate. Tears in his eyes.

"H-he won't die… right?" He asked.

What was I supposed to answer? Brain damage usually ended with death. I had Lime and Luca back, but now that I was finally ready to forgive my father for leaving me, he wouldn't be able to hear it? This must've looked pathetic. Brothers hugging each other, both about to cry.

"…Dad?" a familiar voice suddenly asked.

I looked up, slowly showing Lass away. Luca was awake! I never thought I'd ever see those eyes again. He was holding his head, scratches all over his body, but he wasn't badly injured. Lime was fine as well.

"I'm h-here."

Luca sat up and frowned. "Is that really you?"

I flinched. Now my theory about the queen disguising as me was confirmed. "It's me… the woman's dead. You…. You're save."

"Are you crying?" he wanted to know. I didn't bother to answer. It was obvious.

"What happened?! And… who are all those people?"

"The queen of this town used your powers… we fought her. Those people are part of the Grand Chase. My friends."

My son nodded and looked around As if not believing me. I didn't have many friends in the underworld. And there was no one I trusted. Luca noticed Lime on the ground. She was still unconscious. "Is that…-"

I nodded. I had told him so often how she looked like, it must've been easy for him to guess.

"She's… beautiful." He whispered, then flinched when he noticed Lass.

"And you are….?"

Lass sighed, grabbed my shirt and pulled me towards him. The sides of our faces almost touched. Luca frowned, then suddenly grinned. "You're my uncle?"

Lass nodded slowly. My son had turned away and noticed my father. He was still unmoving, Arme and Ronan still fussing over him. This could've been the last time for us to see him alive. The thought hurt. I had no time to prepare when he left me the first time, but I knew he was alive. There was always the chance to run into him. Now when he'd die, he would be gone forever…

"That is Legis. Your grandfather..."

"My grandfather? Is he badly hurt?"

Now I knew it was the right decision not to tell him about my father. He would have been too influenced by my opinion of him. I turned away.

"Yes…" Arme muttered. "We might not be able to repair that damage…"

"Ah come on. You always healed everyone!" Dio complained now. I hadn't noticed that he was sitting next to Zero now.

"Brains are complicated… I might be a nurse hee, but I really don't know much about how they work… You know I can only heal things when I know how the work…"

I bit my trembling lip. "Let's get him to a hospital then." Lass suggested.

"It's not save. The guards a probably still out there." Ronan muttered.

"Dad…? You told me mom can heal…"

"She can. But she's not awake…"

Luca didn't reply as he crawled over to Lime and shook her.

Lime blinked after a while, immediately moved her arms around Luca when she recognized him. Luca backed away. I almost smiled. He hated being touched as much as I did.

Lime sat up, looked around. "Rufus! You're alright!"

I frowned; fell backwards when she hugged me. "This woman… she used my fear… made me think you died… in the name of the creator… I'm so glad you're alive!"

I hugged her back, kissed her cheek. "They're watching…" I whispered.

"I don't care…" she whispered back.

"Are you able to heal someone…?"

"Who?!" She backed away, stared at me. I looked at my father. He seemed pale, in pain, blood under his head.

Lime covered her mouth with a hand as she gaped. "I… I'll try!"

"Sieghart still hasn't moved a hair." Dio remarked when Lime moved over to my father. She had a few scratches, but seemed fine.

"He got a direct blow to the heart… it will take a few hours." Arme explained.

It frightened us all sometimes. Seeing someone die wasn't funny. Even if the person was immortal. Sieghart would just come back to life. Sometimes with a yell, sometimes laughing, sometimes not saying anything. But all that didn't matter to me. I watched Lime healing my father. It seemed to work, but I refused to feel happy yet.

A moan behind us made me turn. The yell that followed made me flinch. Arme dashed over to Sieghart.

"It's alright! You're okay!" She yelled.

Sometimes he was in too much pain to hear us; sometimes he'd flail, crying out in pain. It always depended on how he had been injured. This time he calmed down quite fast. Arme helped him over to us, and when he sat down he put a hand on my hair.

"You happy now?" He wanted to know.

"Almost…"

"Crybaby." I heard my father mutter. His blue eyes opened the moment I looked at him.

"Hell… I feel like someone smashed a rock on my head…"

"It was something close to that…" Arme muttered.

He slowly sat up, noticed Lime and Luca then. A smile spread over his face.

"You're Luca, right?"

Luca had gotten pale. "I…I… you really… look like…" He pointed towards me. "That's frightening…"

"We should head back now…" Ronan said. "Before someone notices that the queen is dead. Take that stone with you. I'm not touching that thing."

"Stone?" Sieghart asked. I picked the necklace up and showed it to him. He seemed confused when he touched it.

"That can't be… We have to hide it. It's dangerous…."

"You know what it is?"

"The power is similar to the soul stone."

"What?!" Arme and Ronan exclaimed. I had heard some stories about it. No nice stories. The end of a kingdom, the end of Aernas… Duel being involved with all this, some other guy who planned all this…

"An outsider shouldn't be able to use this power… I have a bad feeling about this…" Sieghart muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"Ashtaroth."

"You mean that guy is still alive?!" Ronan yelled.

"Who knows… Now that this woman here is dead, we will notice it soon enough. But for now, let's get home and treat the wounds."

We chose to move over to my father's place. It was bigger than Lass apartment and it wouldn't feel so crowded with ten persons in there. After all wounds had been treated it got silent. Sieghart was staring at the necklace. Zero had left to get Grandark. I didn't know exactly why, but he probably had his reasons.

Luca was being less shocked than I had been at how different Kanavan was from what I told him. He asked a bit, but seemed to get used to it quite fast.

"Who is this Ashtaroth?" Luca asked Sieghart

"Bad guy. Destroyed a whole kingdom and tried to destroy Aernas. Also killed all Highlanders, except me. Created Kaze'aze and killed someone important to Ronan."

"Don't bring that up now, please." Ronan muttered.

I heard about this before. Ashtaroth killing a friend of Ronan, and the whole chase ended up boarding the train to the underworld. The story was so absurd that I didn't believe it at first.

"Ashtaroth is a bad guy, don't ever get close to him." Sieghart explained.

"So, where do we hide that stone now?" Lass asked.

"Aernas is not a good place. Also, Elyos will not be able to keep an object like this hidden. I assume it will be the safest in the Underworld." Zero muttered. He had entered the living room, the humanoid form of his sword in tow.

"You should consider, locking your front door, Legis."

My father sighed.

"The Underworld?" Sieghart repeated. "That might work!"

"There are a few places to hide it... I could take it there." I said.

"If we get a working portal that is."

"I was thinking about this earlier, that is the reason I brought Gran. He will open a portal to the Underworld."

Perfect. I could go home. Finally! But… Lime.

"You're coming back, aren't you?" Luca asked, biting his lip.

I nodded without thinking . Lime took my arm, looked at me with sad eyes. "Don't leave me alone for so long again… I know it's selfish… but please… please come back as soon as you can…"

I moved my arms around her, kissed her hair. I wouldn't leave her alone. Not ever again. "As soon as possible." I whispered.

She smiled and backed away. Traced the blue line on my arm. Then I remembered something.

"Dio, you're coming with me."

"What? Why?!"

"Consider it a surprise." I like to surprise them as much as I hated being surprised. My father seemed to know what I was planning was he threw a small bag with money over to me. I caught it, nodded to thank him, noticed a rolled sheet of paper attached to it. I would look into that later.

"Why me? What about Zero?"

"We will be back in a few days."

"I will be fine, Dio. Do not worry." Zero told him, then turned to talk to Grandark. Seemed like every one knew what I was planning, except Dio. Perfect.

Sieghart stood and handed the stone over to me. "Don't lose that thing. And never even think about using its power. And hide it well."

I nodded, taking the stone and put it into my bag. I tied it to a strap inside so it wouldn't fall out, then turned towards Zero who was nodding at me. He moved over to Dio and jumped up at the taller demon to kiss him. What a weird reaction… I turned away, not wanting to see this. A bit later Grandark opened a portal.

"This portal will be open until you are back. Take your time." Zero said. "Be careful."

"Why the hell do you let me go with this guy?!" Dio complained.

"I believe you will like the surprise."

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

I shook my head, then stepped through the portal. Someone must've pushed Dio as he was stumbling into me.

"Zero you-" he yelled, but there was just a portal now.

"Fuck, why is it so dark here?!"

"it's always this dark."

"But kind of dimension is this?!"

"The underworld. Now stop yelling or they'll get suspicious. They're not exactly fond of asmodians here."

"You could have told that before!" Dio hissed.

"They know me. They will not attack anyone in my company."

I heard Dio grumbling something, but I didn't care as I started walking.

I headed for the castle. There was a place to store magical objects. Nothing had ever been stolen from there, and I hope it stayed like this. The person guarding this place wasn't the nicest, but at least the objects were safe there.

Once we reached the castle the guards blocked out path.

"Rufus Wilde, in company of Dio Burning Canyon. I have to store a rare object here."

The guards moved aside. "I heard You were in Aernas." One of them said.

"Don't believe the rumors, they can kill." I muttered when I passed them.

Dio followed closely. Seemed like he didn't like the atmosphere.

"You could tell me what I am doing here." He muttered when I found my way through the castle, down to the basement.

"You will see it soon enough."

We reached the end of a long corridor and I headed left. All this wasn't really interesting to me anymore. I stored a lot of things here. I reached the counter and a familiar woman greeted me. She wasn't very pretty, but trustworthy. She ran this storage since I had been a child.

"Hello Mister Wilde. A friend of yours?" She asked me and pointed to Dio.

"Yes. Don't mind him, he's not from here."

She nodded and smiled. "What can I do for you?"

I took the stone out of my bag. "This has to be put in a sealed storage." I told her.

The nodded and opened a drawer behind her. She took out a box and put it in front of me. I put the stone into it and she closed it.

"Please set a password." She told me.

I moved my hand over the small, green glowing stone and closed my eyes. I always wondered how I managed to remember so many passwords. When I took my hand away the stone had turned red.

"I put this in your storage then. Anything else I can do for you?"

I nodded twice, and tapped a finger on the counter. This was my way of getting my money out of the storage. I learned it from my father and picked it up. She knew what it meant.

"Wait a moment please."

She left behind a door and I turned to Dio. He was staring at the ceiling, and the decorations.

"Not at all like Elyos… This is actually pretty."

"I've never been to Elyos."

"It's just a dark and ugly place… I don't want to ever go there again."

"Why?"

"They banned me for nothing. You read that book… "

I nodded. He rubbed his eyes. "Can't you do something about this darkness, it's starting to hurt.

"Isn't Elyos dark as well?"

"I'm living in Aernas for quite a while. I don't need to see in the dark anymore. Not for long that is. My eyes got used to it."

Right. Like how my eyes reacted to the bright light in Aernas after living in the Underworld for so long.

"Bear with it. We're going to a brighter place soon."

"I hope you have a damn good reason to keep me from Zero for this long."

"You'll like it."

The woman came back, two small bags in her hand. She put them on the counter, and smiled.

"That's all for now. Thank you."

"Come back whenever you need something."

I nodded, stuffed the small bags in my bag and left the room.

"Charming old lady…" Dio muttered sarcastically.

"She's okay. The one we're going to visit now is a bit weird."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh she has some screws lose. But she's great in what she's doing."

"And what is she doing?"

"You'll see."

Dio asked more, but I didn't answer. He was following me out of the castle and through the town. It didn't take long to get to the building I headed for. When I knocked at the door Dio sighed deeply.

"Armor?" He muttered.

"You'll see."

"Fran, open up!" I yelled as no one opened.

"I'm coming you impatient bastard!" the voice of a woman answered.

I saw Dio blinking in surprise. "Told you." I whispered.

The woman ripped the door open. Bright light made it almost impossible for me to keep my eyes open. But I didn't have to get used to it as she stepped out and closed the door. Her hair was short and fuzzy, colored in a rainbow. Glasses on her nose. Her green eyes stared at me. Nothing out of the ordinary, but certainly a surprise for Dio.

"Who dares to bother?! I'm taking a break!"

"Sorry, I have-"

"Ah! Rufus! I haven't seen you in forever! How's the arm?!"

I sighed deeply. "It's fine. Listen I want you to-"

"Alright alright. Come one in, I have a lot to finish. You can tell me everything inside."

Dio and I followed her inside. The shop hadn't changed at all. All kinds of armor on the walls, weapons – mostly guns- in displays, and tools on every table.

"So?" She asked as she hopped on the table and told us to sit down.

I pointed towards Dio. "Look at him, you tell me."

She adjusted her glasses, tilted her head and jumped off the table. "You brought an amosdian! Can I examine him?!"

"Hey!" Dio yelled.

"Fran, pull yourself together… look closer."

"Hmmm…" she mumbled, as she was walking around Dio, tapping her fingers to her lips as she was thinking.

"Oh now I got it! He's missing an arm."

Dio lifted an eyebrow and glared at me. The eyes where telling me what he didn't voice.

"If you don't have a good explanation for this you're dead."