You know what? I really don't want to be a jerkface, so it's okay that you guys didn't review last chapter. Some chapters are just like that. But maybe drop a review for this one?

I didn't go quietly. I screamed and I kicked, fighting against Miki's vise like grip and the chains that bound my wrists together.

"Amu!" It was the first time I had ever heard Ikuto scream. "AMU!"

He bolted forward, crashing through the king and queen to get to me.

"Ikuto, get back!" I cried. "You've got no idea! Miki -"

"Shh," she whispered, placing an ice-cold hand over my mouth. "We don't want Ikuto to know that he's running into the arms of Death, do we?"

He kept coming, so close to us now. Miki lifted her hand for a what must be a spell to kill, and I -

Was not helpless.

I wrenched my way out of Miki's grip. Though she staggered for only a second before snagging me once more, it was enough to send the magic veering off to the side.

Miki gritted her teeth. "Fine then, you're both coming with me."

She strode forward, grabbing Ikuto with one arm and holding me by the other. We were getting captured, but at least we were alive. I had totally underestimated her power. We were getting our butts kicked by a girl younger than Ikuto. How pathetic.

Miki tossed us in a prison cell, locking us in a single cage. How ironic was this? My worst fear was coming to life. I was being imprisoned, just like Nadeshiko, except I would be bringing eight other people down with me. So ironic, it was almost funny. . .

"Amu?! What are you - stop laughing, it's seriously freaking me out -" Ikuto's voice broke. "Can you even hear me? Where are you, Amu?"

"I'm here," I whispered. "Right here."

It was hilarious. I couldn't see Ikuto. I couldn't see anything. It was all like a big joke. He sounded so worried. He didn't have to be worried though, because I was fine, totally fine.

"Amu. . ."

"Why do you sound so sad, Ikuto?"

"You're - delirious, or something, but please - wake up. . ."

"No, I'm not. You're just being weird like always."

"Then why aren't you looking at me, Amu? Look at me. See me."

"But I can't see you, Ikuto. . ."

Warm hands - Miki's had been so cold - wrapped around me, pulled me into a tight embrace. The thought that this just so comical, that all of this was happening in a prison cell, crossed my mind. I could hear someone laughing hysterically, someone very far away. Maybe it was Nadeshiko?

"Amu, stop laughing!"

I sighed. Ikuto kept getting it wrong. "I'm not. That's my friend laughing."

His fingers tightened around me. "That's not possible. This is all in your head!"

"But she's right here. In this dungeon. Hey, Ikuto, d'you think she'll come and save us?" I giggled, thinking of how nice it would be to introduce Nadeshiko to all my friends.

Ikuto's breathing, in, out. "Amu." His voice was so soft, speaking directly into my ear. "You can hear me, right?"

"Yeah, obviously." I rolled my eyes.

"Then listen to me."

I nodded. "Sure."

"So, once upon a time, there was a boy. He was nineteen years old. He was very lonely, even though he had many friends."

"How is that even possible?" I laughed.

"One day, he and his friends found a girl. She was crying. Everyone thought she was a sad girl."

I yawned and let my weight collapse, letting whatever was holding me keep me from falling. Now all I had to do was listen.

"The sad boy saw the sad girl and scoffed at her, because he thought he was sadder," Ikuto said softly. "He figured they'd host her for a few days, then she'd find a home somewhere. But something happened."

"What?" I asked sleepily.

"The girl wasn't from their world, and there were people chasing her. The girl, the boy, and all their friends were transported to her world and had to get into the capital if they wanted to get home."

This story sounded kind of familiar.

Ikuto continued, his words a soothing lullaby. "In the time it took to get to the capital, the sad boy learned a lot about the sad girl. Turns out the sad girl wasn't really sad. She just thought she was the only one who suffered alone."

"You said that once," I recalled. "To me."

"Yes. Yes, I did," Ikuto whispered. He was shaking so badly, tremors that he tried to conceal wracking his body. "You remembered."

I looked up at him expectantly, surprised when I realized that I could see his face again. Tousled hair, glimmering eyes, the faintest traces of tear tracks tracing his cheeks.

"You can see me now?" he asked, but it was more of a confirmation. "You okay?"

"I always was," I answered. "Get on with the story."

"Of course," Ikuto said with the slightest hint of disappointment. Why, I didn't know. "Anyways, the sad boy and the not-so-sad girl went on a lot of adventures together. The girl taught the boy how to not be so sad. She always stuck with him and his friends. He became closer to his sister because of her. She kept one helping him, but he couldn't muster up the courage to thank her."

Ikuto paused, as if he was gathering up the strength to say the next few sentences. "They eventually joined a plan to overthrow some bad rulers, but it failed. A girl they thought was on their side betrayed them. The boy had actually been jealous of the girl who betrayed them, because she and the girl had become friends."

This was such a complicated story. I wondered who made it up.

His voice dropped to less than a whisper. "They got trapped in a cage, the boy and the girl. The girl was scared, so scared. She started laughing, because that was the only way for her to deal with it. The boy was scared for her. He thought she'd never become all right."

I listened contentedly, waiting for the end to this fairy tale.

"In the dark cage, as the boy held the girl close and told her a story, the boy realized something." Ikuto's voice cracked. "She had saved him so many times, and he had done nothing in return."

"No," I contradicted him. "The boy's saved the girl as many times as she saved him."

Ikuto's eyes widened. He could see the clarity that had returned to me.

"I'm back, Ikuto," I said, smiling. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"Don't be." Ikuto choked, strangling me in a tight hug. "You being okay is enough."

And so we sat together, the boy and the girl who had saved one another.

Time seemed to have stopped. It wasn't that kind of frightening pause, where everything stood stock still. This was more like the never-ending intermission of a play.

Ikuto and I sat in silence, sitting with our backs to the prison wall. He shot a glance at me every once in a while, probably to make sure I wasn't becoming crazy again. He had good reason.

Even I didn't understand what had happened. I had just. . .freaked. The prison, Miki, everything, it all came crashing down on me. I cracked. And Ikuto had saved me all over again.

"Amu." Ikuto met my gaze. "We have to get out of here, eventually."

I sighed, a wave of fatigue sweeping over me. "I don't know. Give me a while to rest, okay?"

Ikuto didn't say anything.

"I'm fine," I continued.

"Yeah," Ikuto said, "I know."

"Are you?"

"I never have been."

"Since your mother and friend. . .?" I trailed off, not knowing how Ikuto would react.

He looked up at the cracked ceiling. "It's been so long. Everyone else got over it."

"Who said you didn't?"

To me, it was impressive enough that he had kept his mask unblemished, walked around for years without showing a single crack in his impenetrable armor. He had lived in the face of grief. I of all people knew how difficult this was.

"Tell me now," Ikuto said softly, still looking at the ceiling. "You said you would tell me everything."

The time had come.

"I'm a criminal," I confessed bluntly.

"Well, yeah, most of us figured something like that. You said that they chased you because you were considered human. That's not true." It was a statement, not a question.

"No, it isn't," I replied. "I'm going to start from the beginning, when I was just a kid. As a Guardian, I went to my assigned human at the age of seven. I wasn't going to live with her, I was simply to shadow her like all Guardians do."

Ikuto turned to face me. "Humans can't see Guardians, but you are one. I can see you, and you've never made any mention of our Guardians."

"You don't have Guardians. That's why you can see demons. And you can see me for that same reason. It's a special insight of sorts, much like the kind my friend had."

I took a deep breath. "She. . .I think it was a mistake that I was assigned to her. People like her, that can see, aren't usually given Guardians. But she was. . ."

". . .And she saw you," Ikuto finished.

I nodded. "I didn't freak out and bail on her, though. I grew up in two worlds, Earth and Tiraldae. I was drawn to Earth more than most, because I had a true friend there and not someone I just had to protect. She was sweet, and kind, and talented at everything there was. Her name was Nadeshiko."

The color suddenly drained from Ikuto's face. "Nadeshiko."

"What about her. . .?"

"What was her last name?" he demanded.

"F-Fujisaki."

"Haven't you ever heard Nagihiko's last name?" he pressed.

I shook my head numbly.

"It's Fujisaki, and that. . .Nadeshiko is - was - Ko."

Of course. Of course I should have trusted my instincts that she and Nagihiko looked similar. Of course Nagihiko had lied.

"Nagihiko told me he didn't have a sister," I explained. "Why?"

"He never took her death well," Ikuto said in a tumble of words. "He's always tried to pretend that she never existed. It's not something you'd expect him to do, but he's like that."

I sat in silence, trying to process this. Ikuto, Utau, they all had known Nadeshiko. They had been the friends she rambled about. They had known her, she had known me, they knew me. It was a circle of cruel fate.

"You met her at the concert, didn't you? The time I told you about my baking friend - that was her."

I still remembered telling Ikuto about Nadeshiko, never thinking to use her name. Nadeshiko and I had talked of Ikuto, never thinking that the links of friendship could bind us all in a web where all of us never connected as one.

"Just. . .continue," Ikuto murmured. "Show me where the dots connect."

"Nadeshiko was always powerful. She was gifted at magic, which I taught her, to the point where she surpassed even me," I began shakily. "At around age eleven, she started to have an unhealthy desire for power. She always wanted to go to Tiraldae, even though it was strictly against the law. She believed that the secret to ultimate power lay at the magic's core - Tiraldae's capital."

"She was always so much stronger than all of us," Ikuto mused. "And she did start changing as we got to be that age."

"She begged me to go to Tiraldae. I said no. But as time went on, she started getting violent. She wouldn't sleep at night. I began to spend all my time on Earth, trying to bring the old Nadeshiko back." I shuddered at the darker memories of my friend. "She just kept falling further and further into that pit of greed. It was scary for me, as a young girl, to see her so torn apart by her desire for magic."

"And then?" Ikuto prompted me. His emotions, free to see just minutes ago, were hidden once more.

"I agreed. I told her I would go with her to Tiraldae's capital and steal the magic, something that I didn't even know the powers of. We were twelve, just twelve. Two kids attempting to steal priceless magic. . .it was a miracle that we survived until the magic was literally in our hands."

"This was how you were banished. What happened to Nadeshiko?"

"She was sent to prison," I answered softly. "I hated her for years, and yet I couldn't stop thinking of her. Her voice was always in my head. I thought I was hallucinating, but in Tiraldae I realized that Nadeshiko had been speaking to me through my mind all along."

"Prison," Ikuto said blankly.

I nodded grimly. "She's here."

"Ko is here."

"Here."

Ikuto stared out the prison bars. I wished I could see through his mind's eye, see if, to him, Nadeshiko was standing outside, waiting, beckoning. She was for me.

"Amu, you could have. . .all it would have taken was a minute of our time. We would have helped you, stayed by you. If this was why you were always so sad."

A warm feeling bubbled up inside me. Ikuto wasn't mad. "I couldn't say it. I don't think I could have, in front of everybody. Just one person is more than enough."

Ikuto looked at me right in the eyes. My breath caught.

His eyes were steel once again.

"How much have you been hiding, Amu? Can we even trust you? Nadeshiko was dear to all of us. You took her away. You agreed. Why?"

"You don't understand," I choked out. "In my place -"

"I would have said no. Are you really that weak?" Ikuto's face softened, so that he looked almost sad. "This sounds unfair, especially after all we've been through, but I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?"

"Accept a girl who's always lied, who's scared of her own friends. I thought you were brave. Why didn't you just say something? Why didn't you try and get Ko out of prison openly instead of keeping it a secret?"

I stared blankly back at him.

"Why didn't you save her like you saved me?"

There was a sudden creaking. I stiffened, drawing my sword and forgetting Ikuto's stabbing words for the time being.

"Calm down, Amu."

I nearly collapsed with relief. That melodious voice was Utau's.

"I got the lock," Rima announced. I could see her petite figure fumbling with the lock of the prison cell, though her face was shadowed by the darkness of the dungeon.

"Tadase rejoined the rest of us. We heard what happened with Miki. Right now, her sisters are trying to figure out what happened. For now, we need to get out of here," Nagihiko reported. I pressed further against the wall, seeing Nadeshiko's movements in his all over again.

"Wait." Ikuto's voice was deadly quiet. "Ko is here."

All three of them stopped in their tracks.

"...How?" Utau asked after a long pause. "I was the one who caused her to her commit suicide. So how..."

"It's a long story. Amu's heavily involved." He spoke my name like it was poison.

"Amu?" Rima asked incredulously. "But we just met you a couple months ago."

"I'm Nadeshiko's Guardian," I muttered. "It's my fault, indirectly, that she was captured here."

"Nadeshiko..." Nagihiko whispered. His face was white as a sheet.

Utau frowned. "We'll deal with this later. Let's get Ko and get out of here."

"Wait," Ikuto said. "Is Amu coming?"

"Of course," Rima replied without a moment's pause. "It doesn't matter what she's done. She's saved our lives so many times. It's about time we pay her back."

I felt like throwing my arms around Rima. I'd never thought much of her as a person until recently. She was amazing, really. Her ability to choose her loyalties and stick by them was something I admired in her. Rima, with her pouty frown and long hair, Rima, with her cold demeanor and good deeds done in silence, had saved me.

"Ikuto has a point, though," Utau pondered. "We wouldn't leave you here as an act of cruelty. But you're the one they really want, and if we split up their focus will be divided. We'll get everyone else out to safety first, then a few of us will come back for you and Ko. The most lives will be saved that way."

My mouth went dry. It was so like Utau to come up with something this brilliant. But if she failed, I was dead. How much was Utau, who lived in the face of chaos, who led us through thick and thin, willing to risk?

"I-I don't know," Nagihiko stuttered. "My vote is neutral."

"Ikuto." Utau eyed her brother. "It's up to you now."

Ikuto grit his teeth, dark eyes narrowing in thought. He was weighing the options, his feelings now versus how he would feel later. And Ikuto, who had saved me from despair, who had saved me from destruction, who had saved me from everything that stood in my way -

"We'll come back for you later, Amu."

He was walking, quickly, silently, over to his real friends. His hands were clenched tightly, every step he took almost taking him back to me. This was what he wanted right now, to leave me if only for a little while. Even though his logic, his mind, his deepest feelings told him to come back, he just kept walking outside the prison cell. Ikuto's eyes, the glittering steely seas of hidden emotion only I could decipher, finding me in a silent farewell.

"I'm sorry."

With one moment, one word, one step, he had shifted the future of a criminal girl who thought she had control over her destiny.

One wrong move, and those who saved one another would also destroy one another.

I started this chapter because I had to get it done sometime. I finished it feeling really good inside.

God, my wrist freaking HURTS. From overuse, probably. 3,000 word chapter, 'tis good, no?