Hello guys! I am so glad you still keep up with this, even though I really, really needed ages to post a new chapter. It makes me happy to see that people are still liking this fic. Thank you so much! I was a little worried that nobody would come back to it, but oh my god, i am so relieved and happy.

Thank you!

I gazed at the TV screen, unable to focus on what was playing. My mind was too occupied with things to even notice the title or who the main character was. Sieghart had made some sort of improvised camp at the store, for the chasers that were living too far away to just head home and be there in time in case something unexpected happened. Everyone was on edge. Including me, but for a slightly different reason.

The fact that Berkas had stayed kept me awake most of the night, until I was too exhausted to fight my tiredness. I hadn't seen him yet, hopefully he was sleeping. The thought of killing him briefly crossed my mind, but I had reluctantly accepted that he would be necessary to finish Kaze'aze off.

Things were unusually calm too. Most of them were still asleep and I could only hear soft clinking in the kitchen. It did smell like someone was cooking. It was a foggy morning, raining a bit. After a while I grabbed the remote to shut the TV off, then I noticed Lass walking over to me. She sat down next to me without a word, her hands tightly folded into each other, trembling visibly.

"You okay?" I asked her silently, not wanting anyone in earshot to pay attention to our conversation.

She slightly shook her head and leaned against me. "I'm scared." She whispered. "I'm not sure why, I know you'll all protect me, but I still can't shake this feeling that she'll do something to me."

"You have all the reason." I told her. "She killed you."

"She killed all of us… in a way.

I nodded, not fond of that thought. "…I don't know how that fight back then went." I whispered, unsure now. Things were just so strange to begin with.

Lass shook her head and smiled at me. "You know, we were too afraid to face her again. We're only all here because of you."

I lifted an eyebrow at that. "You're exaggerating. I just made everything more complicated."

She sighed, grabbed the glass of water on the coffee table and drank from it. "We would have never even dared to look for her, without you."

I was about to reply, already opened my mouth when suddenly nothing responded anymore, my body was frozen, I couldn't move. Kaze'aze had her grasp around me again, forced me to stare at Lass without being able to move a hair.

"Rufus?" she asked, brows furrowing in confusion as to why I stopped moving. I couldn't even blink.

Her hands grabbed my shoulders, shook me slightly. "Hey?" Seeing her eyes widen in realization and the color leaving her face made me feel guilty.

She jumped to her feet, seemed disoriented for a moment, then rushed into the kitchen. My vision was getting blurry and the sounds became extremely muffled. I didn't realize when I started hallucinating, it just occurred to me that I was. There were blobs of swirling colors in strange patterns surrounding me. I couldn't get out of it.

Then a sharp pain to my chest, I yelped in surprise, trued to move away from the cause but a strong grip held me in place.

"It's okay." A male voice told me. "Calm down."

It was easier said than done as my vision grew darker and darker. The sounds in my ears subsided and I could clearly hear the conversation going on around me.

"We need to do something…" Lass. She sounded worried and afraid.

"It's hard to break through this." The male voice again. I realized it was Arme. He sounded strained.

For a second I thought I would be able to break out of this grip Kaze'aze had on me, then I couldn't breathe anymore. It felt as if someone was squeezing an incredibly weight onto my chest, my heartbeat was getting so loud on my ears I was sure they would hear it. Fear spread through me, I tried to tell them that something was wrong, but I was unable to as I was still paralyzed.

And while they tried to figure out what was going on, a voice spoke to me. It was different than the last time, deep, husky, obviously male and strangely familiar.

'Calm down," The voice told me, obviously tried to reassure me. 'Your friends will help you.' I knew they were trying to, but I wasn't sure if anything even worked. Not that that would matter for much longer, if things didn't change soon, I wouldn't live to the fight with Kaze'aze.

The voice told me an address, told me not to forget it, no matter what. Then it was gone. And with it the spell that seemed to keep me in its claws.

Before I knew it I was coughing, gasping for air and trembling. Someone rubbed my back, a strangely familiar touch. I felt dizzy and sick before I could even open my eyes again.

"You okay?" Another voice. This time obviously Sieghart. "Been better," I forced out, dared to open my eyes a little. The room was bright and lots of worried faces were staring at me. I hated being the center of attention, especially now when there were people I have barely ever talked to.

And the face of Uno, that I wasn't familiar with yet. He always looked frightened.

"I'm fine… hell, leave me alone…" I grumbled, hoped they would just leave me and go about whatever they were doing.

"The spell is getting harder to break." This was Arme no doubt. "We need to act now."

"I may have a lead." Edel interrupted. I slowly tried to sit up but decided that I needed to wait a little longer. The dizziness was annoying the hell out of me.

Edel moved in my field of vision. "The person who told us about Kaze'aze gave me information on how to find her. It's a male, held captive by her for a very long time." He began silently. Then he looked around the room and crouched down in front of me. "He sent me this picture." It was a picture of a flame, funny enough it was blue.

"I have no idea what this means," Edel muttered. "However, he told me that this apparently is the way to find him and therefore Kaze'Aze whereabouts. And that 'Rufus and Lass' would know."

I stared at him, trying to process the information I had just been given. The flame was interesting enough.

"The blue flame." Lass whispered next to me. "But… how would he know about it?"

It was easy to put two and two together, even easier to figure out who this person was. I sat up again, this time able to do so without getting too dizzy. "Legis." I hissed, caused Lass to stare at me as if I told him I was Kaze'aze herself.

"Y-you think-" She shook her head. "No. He abandoned us. He wouldn't-"

"It's the only lead we have." I sighed, forced the flame out. It was still hard to do but as I did so a path seemed to light up that went straight to the door.

Lass stood and followed it, opened the door and hung her shoulders when she closed her eyes and forced her own flame to react. The path continued then. "It'll lead us to him…" She concluded, extinguished her flame and went back to me when I did the same.

"Are we prepared to take her on?" Sieghart asked. Edel had given us weapons of sorts just a few days ago. Physically we were ready, but mentally was a different question.

"I can provide tactical information." Veigas spoke. I had forgotten he was there. For the battle he was useless, with no magic or weapon skills to call his own he couldn't do anything. "That is the least I can do to pay back for what you did for me."

"You wouldn't want to fight with a weapon?" Zero asked then.

The demon smiled weakly. "Deus was the source of my power. Without him I am useless. A mere powerless demon, unable to do anything, except talk a lot…"

Zero was gently shoved aside by Grandark, the demon that was so rough with everyone else was so careful with Zero it was almost comical. "I may be able to take on a different form, if I am provided with a proper vessel."

Zero's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Gran, you would do that?"

Grandark shrugged. "You can't use my magic anymore, and you're pretty good with the sword even without me in there."

"That is very kind of you, Gran."

"I'm just trying to save everyone's asses."

A small smile had crept onto my face without even realizing it. Veigas chewed on his lips for a moment before he closed his eyes and summoned a cube. "…This is all I could preserve. I'm not sure about this…"

Grandark reached for the cube, turned it around a few times and inspected it closely. "It'll do." He confirmed. "However, I will only do this under the condition that I will be freed from this thing the moment this battle is over."

"Of course." Zero nodded.

I stood when I suddenly couldn't move again. My legs just gave in and I would have landed on the floor if Grandark hadn't grabbed my arm to keep me from doing so. He pushed me back onto the couch and I couldn't figure out what had just happened. My legs felt fine, I wasn't feeling dizzy or anything. It was as if the strength had just suddenly left my body.

Zero took the cube out of Veigas' hands and sighed deeply. "Should we wait until she strikes, or should we barge in?"

A small commotion broke out in the room and the noise was starting to get too much to handle when Jin whistled on her fingers to shut them up. "We'll vote." She declared.

And with that we decided that it was better to go now than when it was possibly too late. An hour later everyone was dressed and ready to go. Edel stayed, both to watch the kids and because he wasn't able to fight properly at the moment. The thought of this snob having to watch them amused me a bit.

Lass and I activated our flames, still needing effort to do so but it was becoming easier. Everyone followed the path and things seemed strangely distant to me, as if I wasn't really there, watching things through a window. A hand on my back made me flinch violently. I lost control over the flame and it disappeared. In turn Lass couldn't hold her flame up and the path vanished.

I stumbled, Lime grabbed my arm to hold me up. "You okay?"

I wasn't sure. Something wasn't right, but was this Kaze'aze or something else? When I opened my mouth to reply, I couldn't voice anything. I couldn't even tell him that I had no idea, so my only choice was to shake my head and stare into his worried face when he offered his hand to me. "I could carry you?"

I rolled my eyes and walked past him to catch up with the others. Somehow I was sure it was Kaze'aze that was doing these things.

Things worked fine for a few moments, then I was suddenly engulfed in a pain that was indescribable. I couldn't even yell before I was on the floor, twitching and trembling and unable to cope with it. When I heard Lass scream, I was sure it was Kaze'aze, but I didn't have the mind left to say anything about it before I passed out.

When I woke up I was leaning against a wall, covered in a warm jacket and Lass next to me. She was unconscious as well.

"Rufus?" I heard Lime ask silently. Hadn't expected him to be there, but it felt good to be with someone who was awake.

"Sorry," I whispered, felt guilty for delaying everyone.

"The others went ahead. The area seemed familiar to Veigas and Ronan."

I lifted an eyebrow at that, surprised but also glad that I hadn't held up any of them. Lass stirred awake next to me, held her head and grumbled in discomfort. At that point I started questioning where Arme was, he should have stayed with Lass.

Lass struggled to get back to her feet, Lime helped both of us, concern clear in his face.

"Was this Kaze?" Lime wanted to know, voice silent and trembling.

Lass nodded before I could say anything. "She's trying to keep us from getting to her, seems like she realized we were going to ambush her. "

"This is unnerving." Lime muttered when both Lass and I activated out flames again and kept following the trail it lead us to. Soon enough we caught up to the others, as they seemingly didn't know where to go anymore. Veigas looked as if he had seen a ghost and Ronan didn't look too happy either.

"What's going on?" I found myself asking.

Sieghart shrugged. "We were waiting for you. You okay, kid?"

I nodded, looked at Lass who did the same.

"That's the place." Veigas announced. "This is where I remember ending up before we found you. I don't know how to get in, but it was underground…"

Lime huffed in annoyance. Ronan stepped forward and inspected a few trees before he drew a pattern on one of them. A hatch in the floor slid away, almost swallowed Rin. Ley pulled him away in time and they stared at Ronan who only shrugged.

"It felt like this was the entrance. I don't know why."

The possibility that he was mind controlled briefly crossed my mind, but I had no time to dwell on it when my legs gave in yet again and I sank to the wet ground. Lime pulled me on his back, obviously fed up with this. I couldn't tell if he was annoyed at Kaze for doing this, or at me. After all, I let this happen. There was no way to tell when she was going to mess with me and had no idea how to prevent it.

Brave as he was, Sieghart began to climb down a ladder that had appeared under the hatch. Soon enough all of us followed and we crawled through a small tunnel that was barely big enough for one of us. I heard Dio curse a lot. He complained about his horns getting stuck everywhere. A dry comment of Grandark followed.

"If your horns poke my rear end one more time I will shred you to pieces."

A snort escaped me, but the uneasy mood that kept following us wouldn't go away this easily. Someone grabbed my leg, I was about to lash out, then I realized it was Cam. It was hard to turn around in the cramped space but I managed to take a look at his pale face. His eyes stared at me as if he had seen a ghost. One hand gripped his shirt, the other clasped around my leg as if he would fall into a hole if he let go.

"Cam?" I whispered, uncertain what was going on. "I-" He gasped, a wheezing breath followed. "I can't breathe" he managed to say. I now realized he was trembling too. Lime was behind us, snaked a hand around Cam and pulled him close.

"It's okay, we're almost out." He tried to reassure. Lime had understood a lot faster that Cam was just panicking. I had almost forgotten that he was jumpy like that. Sully was in front of me, glancing back in sympathy for his brother. I hoped we would make it out soon, I was getting nervous as well. What if this place was a dead end?

It took some effort to force myself to think about something else.

Cam was crying now and freaking out, that in turn caused a murmur that wouldn't stop. Jin whistled on her fingers, as if it was a new hobby of hers. "Everybody stay calm." She ordered. "This isn't the end, and you know it."

I wished I could have believed her words, but it was hard. Instead I just continued on, glanced back a few times to make sure Cam was doing okay, and soon enough we were out of the tunnel and entered a corridor. While Cam seemingly had calmed down by then, Ronan and Veigas were now getting nervous.

The area seemed to be familiar to them. It was dark and the smell of blood made my stomach turn. Lass shoved herself past me and the others until she was next to Sieghart and activated her flame for a second. "We're close." She announced.

"How can you tell?" Arme asked. He sounded curious but also judging.

"It's getting stronger. Wherever this is leading to, we're close."

We followed the long corridor and up seemingly endless stairs. There were a lot of paths the flame was leading us to, and after a while I had lost orientation. This was more like a maze than anything else. But after what felt like hours, we finally reached a door.

It reeked of fresh blood, as if there had just been a fight. Us demons had picked up on it quickly. To humans this scent wasn't strong enough yet.

I forced my flame out and the whole door seemed to be engulfed in flames. It had various locks, whoever was in there had no way of getting out. Or was it to keep us out? Was whatever was behind there dangerous?

I pointed at the door, was surprised when Lime and Arme both smashed themselves into the door to break it. It wouldn't budge on the first few tries and I was getting fed up with it. Was this door really the way to Kaze'aze?

Would we finally face her when we broke down this door?

Grandark seemingly had enough of this and cleared his throat loudly when he expectantly reached a hand out to Zero. Zero removed the sword from her back and handed it to the green haired demon. Cautiously we stepped away to give him freedom to swing the sword. The weapon got caught in the door, but had done significant damage to it. Enough for Grandark to kick it in. He handed the sword back to Zero and waited.

The stench of blood assaulted me, almost made me gag. I couldn't stand this smell. There was a person on the floor, leaned against a desk and severely injured. It was obviously a man, head hanging down, every breath forcing the form to shudder violently.

Sieghart pushed himself past me, a purple haze floating around him. He readied his sword and was about to charge, when the man on the ground lifted his head. Sieghart was halted midway when I screamed and threw myself at the man on the ground before I even realized what I had done, or why. The sound of my unusual screech seemed to linger, but the sudden pain to my back blocked that out. Sieghart stopped in mid motion but couldn't avoid hitting me with his sword. I briefly hoped the wound wasn't too deep, then I backed away from the man I had shielded.

Red eyes stared back at me, a weak smile in the bloodied face. Lime and Arme rushed in now, both obviously in shock at what had happened.

"Why did you do this?!" Lime scolded me. I saw Sieghart step away, eyes wide in shock.

I needed a moment to sort my thoughts enough to say anything and while I was doing that, Berkas had forced himself into the room, an expression of amusement on his face.

"Legis Wilde I assume."

A short Silence fell over us, interrupted by Lass shaking her head in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"Forget about that crap!" I yelled, "He needs help."

At some point Lire had crouched down next to Arme and seemed to work together to get Arme's healing magic to work.

After making sure, my wound was harmless, Lime turned to the man on the ground and helped. I couldn't tell if anything they did was actually working, but that barely even mattered anymore. Kaze'Aze was forgotten.

"This is the man Edel spoke to." Jin muttered silently. She rummaged in her bag to get bandages and various other items out.

"Wilde…." Sieghart echoed after he had calmed down enough. "This man-"

I nodded quickly to keep him from saying the words I didn't want to hear. Yes, this man was my father. But I refused to accept that he was sitting here in flesh and blood, injured badly enough that I couldn't even think about confronting him about what he did to me so many years ago.

"But what if it's Kaze'Aze playing tricks?" I wanted to kill Ronan for even thinking that. This man was undoubtedly the one I thought he was, there was no way Kaze'aze could have impersonated him correctly.

"She's done with me…" I heard Legis croak. He had trouble breathing, that was obvious. "Left me to die…"

This wasn't right. I was the only one who was allowed to kill him for what he did. No one else had that right.

"You… got my messages. That's good."

"So you lead us here?" Elesis wanted to know.

Legis smirked and created a spark of the blue flame in his hand. "I didn't think you would be this fast… but you found me in time…" He genuinely seemed relieved about that fact.

I couldn't figure out why, he had abandoned me and even Lass to pursue his own interests. We obviously weren't important enough. Him feeling guilty for this seemed absurd.

"…I delayed her." He explained. "But she figured out a few hours ago." He shifted and gritted his teeth, about to clutch the wound to his side when Lime grabbed his hand and shook his head.

"I tried to contact you, Rufus."

I felt their eyes on me. Everyone was staring at me. "I probably scared you."

"Hold on-" I whispered, throat dry and voice hoarse. I couldn't believe all of this was really happening. "Just to be clear on this… you forced my body to shut down and not Kaze'aze?"

Legis sighed. "If it had that effect , I apologize…" he grimaced at the pain, but didn't comment on it. "I was trying to guide you here. She had sealed away my flame… but when she attacked she released her control over me…"

My legs were shaking, about to give in. This was so unbelievable and yet… it was so real. "…How long did she keep you here…?" It was all I could ask. I was too shocked for anything else.

He nodded over to Lass. "Shortly after he was born."

I held my breath for a second, didn't realize I was about to fall until Sieghart gripped my shoulders.

"Sorry. I have no sob story or excuse for what I did to you, Rufus." Legis told me, his face so straight that I was sure he was telling the truth. "She captured me, locked me up and held me captive. Just like she did with these two." He turned to Ronan and Veigas again.

"As well as these two…" He weakly lifted a hand to gesture at Cam and Sully who were huddling together in a far corner of the room as if afraid.

Legis let his hand sink when Lire told him to stop moving, but his gaze lingered on the eyeteeth. "I saw what she did to these two."

"And you didn't do anything about it?" I hissed.

Legis shook his head. "I couldn't. I was locked up in here, unable to act. However, when I realized that it was the eyeteeth she had transformed, I figured that you had finally returned. I saw what happened in that facility…"

"And you didn't do anything!" Lass shouted now. "Rufus almost died! Multiple times!"

"I am very aware." Legis replied calmly.

"You can't make up for what you did to us." Lass continued, her voice like acid.

"I may not be able to do that, but I know how to defeat Kaze'Aze."

Silence settled in the room, hope and disbelief spread on the faces of the chasers.