Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story. Just don't copy from this and I won't have to hunt you down!

Mizore wasn't sure if Tsukune was dead, feigning death, or just in a really deep sleep.

The guy was still bound to the bed, apparently used to it, but other than that was completely motionless. Not just so still as to be confused with a really profound slumber, but legitimately not moving. She had put an ear to his mouth and hadn't felt any sign of breathing. That worried her the tiniest bit, not because he might be dead or suffocating (because vampires can hold their breath much longer than humans can – about twelve minutes, if she remembered correctly), but because he usually didn't do this sort of thing. She had distinctly remembered him snoring quietly not three minutes earlier, when she snuck around the corner of the doorway to see if he was awake, but now he was completely motionless. Nothing could have killed him, so it must be some mental phenomenon. Mizore resisted the urge to poke him repeatedly and check for breathing, in that order. She didn't think it'd do much good.

As an alternative, she decided to bring a nice hot plate of breakfast to him, and held it under his nose for a good thirty seconds. When that didn't work, she did eventually resort to poking him repeatedly, square in the chest, then the nose, then cheeks, and so on. When those attempts proved futile, she sat in front of him on the futon (unceremoniously shoving his legs to the side) and affected a confused expression. Finally she did check his pulse, and was relieved to see it was still going, albeit very quickly.

Scratching her head (mentally, mind you; she's still as graceful as ever even in an apron), she decided to get a plate of her own and wait it out by having her breakfast in front of him and watching him.

She ate for a few minutes, complimenting herself on the perfection that she had achieved in cooking the rice; the fish, however, was slightly overcooked and the toast was a bit too crisp. Maybe the fact that her special prisoner was tied up in the other room, making her heart race just thinking about it, had meddled with her ability. All throughout these musings, Tsukune did not stir once. By the time Mizore was almost done, she was worrying herself into a fit. Vampires don't just stop. They have to do something. And Tsukune was well known for doing things. The only problem was, the snow woman didn't know how to deal with it nor fix the problem. She wasn't entirely sure rousing him by force would be good for him.

Mizore didn't know what to do in a logical sense, but she did have her intuition. She really couldn't do much else; she had to fall back on her last thinkable resort. Casting aside the dishes indifferently, no longer caring about the food, she placed both hands on Tsukune's forehead and concentrated. She didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she had seen the doctor in the Yuki-Onna village do this when she was little. She felt like she could do the same, whatever it was, if she really tried. Except... she didn't know what to do past this point.

She closed her eyes, entering a meditative state that had served as a retreat more than a tool in her younger years. It had been useful then, but she wasn't so sure how useful it would be now; she wasn't a practiced medic by any means. But that didn't matter; her love for Tsukune would find her means to the end, whatever it may be. Concentrating more resolutely than she had ever before, she spread the winter deep within her soul evenly throughout her body, resonating the demonic power with her soul. The balance was tenuous; she was not used to such a state of being. Mizore could feel her power resonating within her, bound to her will and whim like a whip ready to be unleashed. If she could harness this power... never mind that now. Keep focused on the task at hand. So speaking, she gently nudged the force within her forward, through her hands and into Tsukune's body. It didn't want to leave the confines of herself, but her will would be done. After a couple of pushes, the force went into Tsukune's energy network, invading it forcefully and bluntly. If Tsukune had been awake, the pain would have been enormous; as it were, he winced in his slumber and shifted the tiniest bit. She was surprised this had worked at all; the most she had expected was doing something productive, but this was... different. She was penetrating Tsukune's energy, which meant she could manipulate it any which way. Siphon it, direct it, add to it...

Stop it.

She didn't let herself dwell on the last thought. She would never do something to harm Tsukune, not if she didn't intend to. She'd rather die. So, to be safe, she prodded around, trying to figure out what she could do from here.

After a bit of trial and error, and fearful experimentation, she discovered she could see where the energy in Tsukune's body was thickest, and where it was thin. Which, to Mizore's amazement, wasn't that much of a find; even in sleep, the vampire's energy was evenly spread from every limb, torso, and appendage. Usually a youkai's energy was more diverse, centered in the torso and head, and thinner in the limbs unless preparing to use them. Magic users or those who use mental powers held more of their energy in their mind, for obvious reasons, while their limbs were left with whatever was left (hence why mind users were usually physically weaker). With this kind of setup, a vampire could easily use any part of their body in a fight and still have the same staggering power it would from a preferred limb... add the fact that Mizore could tell the bands of energy winding around each vein and artery were many times thicker than she could hope to see in herself, and she began to understand why vampires were such excellent combatants.

Amidst this realization, she also saw a disturbance in the energy around Tsukune's mind. Figuring this was the reason for the de facto catatonia, she tried interacting with it, careful to leave everything below untouched. The going was slow, but her own tendrils finally reached it without problem. Mizore couldn't believe it; here she was, in the midst of a brand new discovery of her own abilities, and she was going to dive right into one of her friend's minds from the very source (Of course, Kurumu and all of her species had a knack for such things naturally, and could do it with ease; the Yuki-Onna were not known for this ability, but still possess it in trace amounts)! She hesitated, not sure what was going to happen beyond this point. It had all been smooth sailing so far, but one mistake and it could be devastating for her friend.

Moving carefully, not wanting to do anything rash, she probed one tiny tendril of energy toward the pandemonium of energy surrounding Tsukune's mind. Slower and slower she made it move, so slowly that it took a minute just to get close to it. A bit further on and...

Shit! Mizore thought. When she got too close, the wave lashed and spit at her tendril, snapping it before she could proceed further. It seems it knew that something foreign had gotten near... Mizore thought if she could resonate her energy signature's frequency, she could enter it without knockback. Mizore didn't really know how she knew this, but it made sense once she got it into her head. So saying, she observed Tsukune's energy for a minute or two, and tried to copy its every move onto her own probes. Once she was sure she got it right, she tried again, edging forward toward the knot of violently swirling energy even slower than before. Closer... closer...

One hesitant tendril of light blue (almost ice colored) energy entered the coursing bright gold stream swirling around her friend's mind. Mizore froze, wondering if anything bad was going to happen. Ten seconds passed, and nothing happened, so she let a few more join their companion. And a few more, and a few more, and so on until her entire energy signature was resonating with Tsukune's own.

As soon as the last one entered the golden stream, linking the two completely together, Mizore's mental eye snapped shut, and was forced open to blindingly white light. This was another view. One that was not her own. The image she was seeing was fuzzy, white, and bleak. She tried looking around, but couldn't move her view anywhere. Getting scared, she wondered if she had done something to Tsukune... until over a horizon, figures emerged. A feeling of relief and happiness, alien to her, washed over her in immense amounts.

Is this what Tsukune is seeing right now? Mizore wondered. The vision she was seeing certainly wasn't her own... the feeling intensified when the image began to grow hazy around the edges, as if in response to some deep emotion. But, as she watched, black leaked in from all sides, drowning out the once blinding light to a dull glimmer. Mizore wasn't sure what was happening, but she knew it was bad, and based on the terrifying amounts of fear and rage flooding her system through Tsukune, she knew she had to withdraw. If she stayed, something bad would truly happen. Entering the stream may have been difficult, but exiting was not; Mizore simply cut the energy flow to her de facto probes and they dissipated into nothingness.

Returning to her own senses fully and truly, Mizore opened her eyes and backed away, not wanting to be too close to Tsukune when he woke up (which the snow woman knew he was going to). For a moment she pondered whether or not to release the bonds she had playfully strapped him to, but in the current situation she thought it might be better for her own safety if he stayed in them.

However much she prepared herself for the inevitable, Tsukune's awakening was brutal, violent, and bloodcurdling. One minute he was sleeping peacefully, a slight but detectable snore present. In a mere millisecond, he was awake; the only precursor to it was a slight movement of the head, a shift in the hairs of his head. The next moment his head lashed upwards, a scream deafening to the ear erupting from what had to be an empty set of lungs not a second ago. Mizore held her hands to her ears in response, but they didn't help at all, such was the agony coursing through the scream. It held for nearly eight seconds before the man slumped back down, completely limp and shivering from what he saw (or thought). Mizore's heart broke at the sight, at the sound that screamed desperate, pained, and desolate. She had little as to what the image was or meant to her friend, but she'd never seen him like this, and she would've heard a scream like that from another dorm...

Mizore's head snapped up as she thought about that. People couldn't have possibly tuned that out, so there was some answering to do. She got a rag and wet it, draping it over Tsukune's sweating forehead before going to the door. There would be some anxious people to keep off.

X-X

Tsukune felt a pressure in his mind.

It wasn't some physical pain that could be prescribed with any normal physical treatment, nor was it some mind trick used by nefarious youkai meaning ill will to him. It was purely emotional, so intense that it manifested into a physical sensation akin to a headache, but without pain. So great was the pressure, that Tsukune felt as if his mind would explode if it got any worse. So, left with nothing to do but wait it out, he knelt as he were and breathed (which was more like panting), his body going through the motions of homeostasis for him so he didn't die. Thinking was out of the question; his mind was numb, shocked to the point where thought simply did not form. Later, he wouldn't believe how such an ambiguous dream could affect him so deeply, but sometimes the body knows its true feelings more so than the mind itself.

Some minutes later, Tsukune more or less recovered and realized he was still bound to the bed. Apparently none of his thrashing about damaged the walls or bedpost or anything, or even let out noticeable amounts of youki. Surprising, considering the mental backlash that he was experiencing right now just from waking up, but weirder things had happened. Finally able to function somewhat normally again, Tsukune wondered where Mizore was. He noted the plate of food haphazardly left on the ground near the futon, and how none of his actions were noticed by the snow woman (or so he thought). Either way, he thought it'd be a good idea to get up. Some things had to be explained to people if you didn't want people to think you were a nutcase who belonged in a mental asylum. He broke the rope bonds with ease in human form, and absentmindedly rubbed his wrists out of habit more than to assuage them while he sneaked some food from the kitchen. He was starving, but he didn't want to take anything from Mizore's plate; you just don't take someone else's food, uneaten or not. Before he knew it, all the food that Mizore had made curiously disappeared, sizzling or not. Tsukune walked out, one cursory glance thrown over his shoulder to make himself comprehend he ate the entire kitchen's contents, and headed toward the door. Said door was slightly ajar, which clued Tsukune as to the whereabouts of Mizore's location.

He peeked around the door to see the hallway, which by this point had some visitors coming to see what all the commotion was about. Further investigation revealed Mizore was standing outside, embarrassed to be on display in front of so many other girls, but she had to disperse them. It must have been hard for her, talking to all those people in nothing but her bathrobe in an authoritative, if slightly annoyed tone.

"...It's just a show I'm watching, I said. Nothing to worry about. I just forgot the volume was turned up so loud," Mizore asserted, coming up with the excuse on the spot. However, the others weren't pleased, and kept pestering the snow girl with more asinine questions.

Tsukune despised seeing his friend stuck in a situation like this, so he decided to help out. Because he couldn't be seen in a girls' dorm, he used the icy winter vested in him to cool the hallway considerably. The girls outside (except for Mizore of course) noticed the drop in temperature immediately, being dressed in pajamas or sleeping clothes, and shivered. Mood soured and cranky because they thought that the snow woman did it, the crowd finally drifted apart, with only a few stragglers remaining.

Mizore sighed, getting ready to make more excuses, but realized the stragglers were actually Moka and Kurumu. Her visage improved dramatically; she would rather have seen her friends more than anyone else besides Tsukune at that moment. The two came forward, apprehensive but still carrying the same curiosity the other girls had. They knew that scream, would know it from anywhere, through any building and any number of distortions. When they spoke, it was in whispers; as if someone were listening in to get to the bottom of the situation.

"Was that who I think it was, Mizore-san?" Kurumu asked. Moka nodded to show she had the same query. They were afraid, and rightly so; people don't normally scream like that unless something is terribly wrong. Or was. Mizore didn't really want to answer the question, so she merely gestured to the door and let them in. Moka noticed how clean and uniform the place was; she liked to keep her room tidy, but Mizore took it to a new level. She also noticed the after smell of cooking in the kitchen, which made her wonder. Does the snow girl usually cook her breakfast big enough to make a smell like that?

All this passed through her mind in seconds, though, and was quick enough to recover when Kurumu commented on how clean the room was. "Kurumu, you really should do some cleaning of your own, you know! It's good for keeping yourself organized!" Kurumu ignored the reply, not really worried about cleaning habits at the moment. Seeing this, Moka dropped it and followed Mizore and Kurumu into the bedroom, where Tsukune was.

Tsukune sat on the bed with one leg propped up and one prone, one arm laid forgotten on the prone one while his other held his head, elbow strutted against the knee to support himself. The pose painted an image of a man crestfallen and defeated, but that's not what worried the girls. What worried them was the absolute lack of confidence and determination that was nearly always found in his figure. Throughout all he'd been through, his will had been stout and strong. Now, it seemed broken and shattered, as if someone had sucker punched his soul while his back was turned. When he looked up, though, his eyes still held that same fire, albeit dim; the resolution in them still held. Their faith in him never failed, even though he was the most awful person to place faith in, but this bolstered their belief.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he asked nonchalantly, as if none of them were worried sick or anything. Kurumu laughed out of surprise, but grew serious again when they subsided. Moka was the one to ask what the matter was. She wasn't in the mood for light chitchat, not right now. Tsukune grew equally serious when he heard her tone, and looked at Mizore inquisitively. She nodded her agreement; she, too, wanted to know just what the hell is going on. The boy desperately trying to be a man sighed; it was never easy relaying bad news. Especially when it was almost certain.

"I had another dream this time, guys."

They waited for more, waited for him to go on, but he had to take a moment so he could still convey his message without sounding like a complete idiot. He could see that they were puzzled by the statement, and realizing how silly it was, tried to explain. "You see, ever since... turning... I've been having dreams of a sort. Not really good ones, or even normal ones; they're more like premonitions. But they're so vague that I can't even tell what the threat is.

"But I know it's very real this time." He met their eyes, tried to make them understand the fear he felt for all of them. "This vision was so bleak I don't even think all of us will make it out alive."

Author's Notes: Yes, I'm still writing this story. Yes, I understand the chapter's laughably short. Lemme explain. You see, shortly after chapter 24 was published I took a miniature break. That extended to Christmas. By that point, I was too lazy enjoying my time off from school and my new toys (and especially my new computer! Yay!) that I rarely found the time nor energy to write. Then I realized that I'm also desperately struggling for plot advancement again. I can't tell if you guys notice, but I'm downright horrible at advancing the story when fights or emotional scenes aren't involved. At such a point, my writing ability fails and I work at the bit to get this story written. So, with those two elements I couldn't get far.

Have no fear though! I think I know where I'm going to take the story now, and hopefully I'll stop being too lazy to actually write it :)