Author's note:

Okay, tell me what you think the pace for my story is. Too fast? Too slow? Rushed? Boring?

Btw, I will dedicate the next chapter to the person who identifies what the new catchphrase is becoming. It's really short, but everyone's using it. I'll stop using it after a while, so don't worry about it becoming reaaaally annoying. It'll fade out like all catchphrases, dattebayo~!

Takuma flicked the syringe lightly, his nails clanging against the glass. He made sure all the bubbles were at the surface and squeezed the air out of it carefully, dabbing up the dribbles that escaped. Then he placed it on the tray.

Technically, Dr Minami should be the one carrying out this injection, but Takuma knew it was best to keep things like this quiet. He and Kaname had always kept it quiet when he had been shot some of Kaname's blood. That suggested secrecy was best.

Also, Dr Minami was a pain in the neck when it came to dealing with precious Pure blood.

He pushed Shiki's door open, peering in, expecting to see him on the bed.

But Shiki wasn't on the bed. He was standing in front of the full-length mirror, one finger on his scar, the other stretched out towards the mirror.

"Sen?"

Shiki whirled around. For a second Takuma thought there was something wrong with his face. It must have been a trick of the light though, because Shiki's face was in its usual stoic expression by the time he was standing in front of him.

"Look Sen. I think this might be a cure, maybe, I'm not at all sure it will work, but-"

"Should I sit down?"

"Um, yes, that would be good,"

They both sat down on the bed, Takuma set the tray on his knees. He pulled up Shiki's sleeves, smiling at the healed wounds. He ripped open an antiseptic wipe, swabbing a small patch of arm.

"What is it, then?"

"Kaname's blood, I've read that Pure blood-"

"It won't work, Takuma," Shiki gently pushed the needle away.

Takuma took hold of his arm, "Yes it will,"

"It won't. Don't you remember when we were brought here all beaten up, just before the Coronation? I felt his blood in me then. It healed everything, except the scar,"

It was true. Takuma had forgotten that they had all questioned why of all the wounds Shiki had sustained, it was the scar that remained. Even with Kaname's healing blood, it hadn't healed.

If it didn't work then, it wouldn't work now.

Takuma sighed, placing the injection back on the tray. It rolled along into the packs of sterilised wipes and tiny dot band-aids.

"Can't we at least try? Kaname's gonna kill me if he sees I wasted his time like this…" he whined.

"I guess," Shiki shrugged.

Takuma readied the syringe again, and carefully pressed the needle into Shiki's arm, squeezing the blood into him slowly. He daubed the spot with cotton wool and then began to rip open a band-aid, when both their attentions were drawn to the small dot, where the needle had gone into.

A stream of blood was pouring out, steadily, like a river.

Thick, dark blood. Kaname's blood.

"What the…"

Takuma frantically pressed extra cotton wools against it, soaking them pink with the blood that was pouring out.

"Senri! Why-"

The blood trickled to a stop after a few minutes. Then the dot wound closed, fading to the same colour as Shiki's skin.

It was like Shiki had completely rejected Kaname's blood. His body hadn't even taken it in!

Shiki levelled Takuma with a death stare, clearly saying "I told you so,"

Takuma sighed. "Okay then. Guess we're back to square one…"

Kaname waited for the other two to catch up, gently shifting his sleeping cargo so it was hanging more comfortably over his back. He suspected Zero had passed out some time ago, the hypnotic, sleep-inducing effect of the revolving world at the speed Kaname ran at must have knocked him out.

Ruka and Seiren collapsed onto the floor as they reached Kaname. They had been running non-stop at a speed that pushed at Ruka's top speed, as a Noble. She had no idea what status Seiren had, but she also looked like she was exhausted from the run. They had covered the land that Aidou and Kain had walked for one day in only four hours, but now it was nightfall.

It was incredible that Kaname was still carrying Zero, standing tall and strong with barely a layer of sweat on his brow. But then again, he was a Pureblood. They found many things easy.

"Kaname-sama, is it wise to attack now?" Seiren asked quietly.

"No, it isn't. You all must rest, and we must make a plan," he replied, falling into a low crouch, where he then carefully rolled Zero onto the ground, catching his head with his hands and cushioning it before it knocked on the hard floor.

"What plan can we make?" Ruka panted, rubbing her aching calves, "We don't know where they are, or who we might face there-"

"We can make some basic guidelines for what we do when we get there tomorrow," Kaname explained, "First of all, we'll have to find Rima and the recruit army. They're near here, just a few hundred metres ahead. Ruka, you'll join with Rima, both of you will be in charge of them. You can provide the support we may need. We don't know how many people we may be fighting against,"

He knew that Ruka would want to be in the main fight, not the support, but she was volatile and they all knew she wasn't the strongest fighter. She was smart though, and bossy, so she could help organise the recruits into units and provide a valuable back-up.

She grudgingly nodded. He also knew that Ruka would follow his orders and not desert them, despite how strongly she wanted to go save her best friends. Ruka had complete faith in Kaname. She knew there were always reasons to his decisions, even though they may seem unreasonable at times.

"Seiren and I will go directly to the Hanadagi castle after that. Seiren, you'll go find Kain and Aidou. Zero will come with me,"

"And what will you be doing?" Ruka asked.

"I will confront Hanadagi about his betrayal. His treason deserves death, even if he is a Pureblood. He has turned his back on the King," Kaname spat, "If he has any good excuses, it will involve Rido holding a knife to his throat. Otherwise, he is dead to me,"

"You were friends?" a heavy voice asked.

They looked down to see Zero stirring awake, rubbing his eyes open. There was a new bruise on his face, near his left temple, curved into the shape of a backwards C.

"Who, with Hanadagi?" Kaname asked, propping Zero up on his knees, "We were acquaintances. He's my neighbour, after all,"

"Pretty fucked up neighbour, huh?"

Kaname chuckled, nodding, "Well, Purebloods are definitely born with pride and a lust for power," he nodded at Zero's frown, "Some more than others. The Hanadagi's are good vampires. They stick to themselves, perhaps more than others, but that's not unusual for a Pureblood family. They like to mind their own business, but they've always been agreeable with us, loaning land to us when we needed it. We do likewise,"

"The Pass?"

"Yes, Fuyu Pass. It's just between those mountains up there," Kaname said, jerking his thumb behind his right shoulder. It was pitch black darkness though, so they couldn't see anything, "There are two mountains. One on Hanadagi's land, one on ours. The pass between it belongs half to both of us, but Hanadagi asked me long ago if he could use it for a few years. The rock there is rich with minerals he wants to mine. I was reluctant to give up our half. Digging it up would ruin a lot of the mountain.

"But his requests dropped when they all went into sleep. I thought it would soften them up if I gave them the Pass, if they were still upset with my rejections, and they would let us use their land again. But clearly," he pulled out the blood scroll, "They disagreed. Either that, or Rido's got them under his control,"

"They've awakened then?" Zero asked.

Kaname nodded, "I believe so. There's something different I sense about the border. It's become stronger, and more hostile. I hope it will let us through, otherwise I will have to break it down,"

Zero was confused- hadn't Kaname said that the Hanadagi's went into hibernation a hundred years ago, or something? Why did he say then that he had been asked for Fuyu Pass a "long time ago" before they went into slumber? That would mean Kaname was over a hundred years old!

Suddenly he had a flashback to the conversation he'd had with Kaname before the plane had lifted off for the Castle.

"…Purebloods live for an incredibly long time… Some have even been said to live for millennia…"

Was Kaname suggesting, that he had lived for that long? Zero couldn't believe it. He barely seemed old, apart from his sometimes stuffy old-fashioned attitude.

Honestly. Here was Kaname thinking he could trade off some land for a favour, like they would've done ages ago, when what Zero would've done was to send a bunch of money (if he had any). Nowadays no one traded land.

God. Maybe Kaname was really old.

He certainly acted old, in some of his mannerisms.

"Kaname-sama,"

Seiren for once was looking slightly troubled. She had stepped back from the group, far away from Kaname, and she looked poised to defend herself.

"It has suddenly occurred to me…I apologise for not thinking…"

"Seiren,"

"Yuuki-hime! We left her at the castle!"

Kaname gaped at her for a few seconds, and then leapt to his feet. She flinched as he began storming towards her, but didn't dare pull back any further. But Kaname reached her side, and then doubled back, storming back to where he'd started. He was pacing.

"Seiren, I want you to go straight to the castle, as fast as you can," he ordered through gritted teeth.

Seiren bowed, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Zero briefly wondered why she had run along with them all this time instead of transporting like that, but his mind was more on Yuuki. Why was it bad that she was at the castle? Wasn't she safe?

His heart sank as it dawned on him.

Takuma and Shiki were there, alone in the castle with Yuuki.

One of them was cursed by Rido, the other was Bonded to him.

"Oh god…" he whispered, clambering up onto his feet. "Yuuki!"

"She'll be alright," Kaname soothed, "She knows how to fight. Also, I have a feeling that Rido's obsession isn't focused on her anymore,"

"You have a feeling?" Zero sneered, "What do you know? We have to go back!"

"Hell no," Ruka chimed, moving to block Zero off from the path they had come from. "We're here already. We aren't going back,"

"Ruka is right, Zero," Kaname added, "We've come a long way. You need to sleep, and get your strength back up for tomorrow. Yuuki will be fine. Seiren is fast, you just saw that, and she'll protect Yuuki with her life,"

"What if she doesn't get there fast enough?" Zero demanded.

The other two could not answer him.

Kain couldn't see Aidou through the flames. They were too high and bright so even he had to look away from them from time to time. He let out a yell of success as the bars glowed red hot, like coals.

Immediately he called back the fire.

He could hear a hissing sound, like when cold water touches the side of a hot pan- fizzing and bubbling. There was steam, lots of steam which he couldn't see through.

"Hana! Hana are you alright?"

Kain coughed as the room filled with humidity, the steam rising and spreading into his cage. As it dispersed, he was able to see him.

The ice skin had melted by half its thickness, as far as he could tell, and Aidou was still curled up in a ball inside it. Kain sighed in relief. All Aidou had to do was break it apart.

Why wasn't he breaking it apart?

Kain waited. Maybe Aidou was too weak. He was already injured. Maybe he had suffocated. He'd had to hold his breath in the ice for…how long had he been firing the cage? Kain couldn't remember counting the seconds. Oh god. Oh no. Not after all this!

"Hana!"

The ice cracked. Kain's heart leapt in joy as he saw Aidou bashing against the ice, hammering at it. The ice was smashing easily, obedient to its master as he escaped its hold.

Aidou fell out onto the floor, sucking huge lungfuls of air. He was wet from head to toe, completely soaked, but he burst out laughing too. Kain couldn't stop himself joining him. The sounds of steam hissing just brought him back to their childhood game, and he burst out into peals of giggles.

"It worked! It worked!" Aidou chortled, standing on shaky legs.

Then Kain saw what was on his feet.

It looked like crystal slippers, like from Cinderella, bound around his feet. Aidou followed his gaze and broke out into new laughter. Kain realised he had been laughing because of them, these ice shoes he had clearly been making inside the protective shell whilst he'd been blasting fire everywhere.

"What d'you think? They're totally functional, and they're heaven to my blisters," Aidou grinned, walking over to the cage bars carefully. "They're just a- AAH…. Just a bit slippery,"

Kain scoffed, watching Aidou reach for two of the glowing hot bars, hands covered in blue frost.

Aidou grabbed them, yelling out in concentration as he sent out everything cold he could through his fingertips, curling them around the bars.

There was the loud sound of cracking, and then the bars shook in his hands. He held them until they were completely encrusted in ice.

Kain met Aidou's uncertain gaze, and nodded, mouthing, "Do it,"

Aidou shuffled backwards, and then swung his leg in a half-roundhouse kick (only managing to reach half as high as he should have, to about the same height as his hips). The bars smashed.

"Yes! YES!" Aidou cheered, squeezed through the gap and stumbling over to Kain's cage.

Here came obstacle two.

Aidou wrapped his fingers around two of the bars here, but released them quickly after. The bars needed to be hot and then cold. But Kain's powers didn't work in his cage. How was he going to heat them up then?

"Crap, no way," Aidou groaned, sliding down onto the floor. Just as they were getting somewhere, another problem arose. He banged his head against the cage.

"Oi, oi, don't do that! We need your brain to figure a way out of here,"

He sent Kain a dry look. "There is no way out of here. At least, there's no way for you to get out of your cage,"

The fire-master gave one more struggle against his chains, knowing it was useless, but wanting Aidou not to give up. Aidou never gave up. That was one of the reasons he was so annoying. He mercilessly solved puzzles, labouring over the harder ones but never losing his drive, his motivation to succeed. It worried Kain to see Aidou slumped against the cage, head hung in defeat. He wasn't like this. He was never meant to give up.

But he knew that Aidou was exhausted, and injured. So was he. They were both mentally and physically drained, and so even he had to admit, he didn't blame Aidou at all for giving up.

But Aidou was free.

"Hana, you're out. Go. Go find help,"

Aidou's blue eyes peered up at Kain, causing his voice to crack. In all honesty, Kain was terrified of being left alone, especially with the candle mere inches from the bottom and the room getting darker and creepier by the second. He wasn't by any means afraid of the dark, but being left in the dark in a place like this was terrifying, especially with Rido hanging around.

"You're free," he urged him, "You can go,"

"I'm not leaving you, Kat," Aidou protested, "Don't be stupid,"

"I want you to go, it isn't safe here! Rido could come back. Go while it's safe-"

"Hell no, you git. Stop being stupidly selfless. Rido could be anywhere. I could bump into him on the way out," Aidou sighed, "Anyway, I could never leave you,"

Kain attempted a chuckle, "Yeah, you need me too much,"

"Yeah, well so do you," Aidou mumbled, crossing his arms.

"You're right, I do need me-"

"Oh fuck you!" Aidou snapped, restraining a grin as Kain chortled happily. "We need each other. And I'm not leaving,"

"Good," Kain said, inwardly relieved. His stomach warmed contentedly, despite his cold surroundings, when Aidou curled up against the frozen cage bars, as close as he could possibly be, his arms wedged between them, reaching towards him.