Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Author's Note: West Side Story was an incredible show and I'm so glad I got to see it. I also got to see Cirque du Soleil, which was absolutely breathtaking.

I'm finally playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I think I like the second one better, but this one is still excellent. Also, after writing all this Tales of Symphonia stuff lately, I started replaying it. Every time I do, the game seems longer and longer.

My brother bought a house, so we've been fixing it up. I had the fun job to scrub the grime off the bathtubs and the shower. It wasn't too bad, but it took a while. And I got white paint all over me, though I'm not sure why since I wasn't even using the rollers, but I was painting the trim.

This chapter was stop-and-go during the writing. I find Yggdrasill a difficult character to write sometimes.

-/-/

To tell a woman everything she may not do is to tell her what she can do. ~Spanish Proverb

-/-/

"Dirk is well and truly hidden." Yuan said by way of greeting, annoyed.

"We should learn from him." Anna said from her perch on a sea wall. Lloyd was on the ground, playing with a few toys that they'd been able to fashion roughly for him. They were careful to stay away from the more ruined parts of the Temple that they'd been at for four months already.

"We could if we could find him." Yuan sat beside her. "And the elves are being particularly stubborn about the mind magic."
"Ask Kratos to look for it. He's searching the libraries for any mention of where Aionis can be found."

"You're going to have to pass down the message. I can't stay long. Yggdrasill wants me for something." Yuan had dropped in on all of his Renegades scattered throughout the worlds, had passed around news and supplies. He knows that they can't stay hidden much longer. Or rather, they wouldn't. His Renegades were restless people.

But when Yuan comes back here, it makes going back to the emptiness of Derris-Kharlan much easier. He isn't sure why, but it does. Even if the smell of the ocean does still turn his stomach a bit.

"…Derris-Kharlan's a comet, right?"

"Yes." Yuan replied, not quite understanding where Anna was going with this.

"And the elves came on it?"

"Their histories say so."
"…What are the elven lands like?"

"They have ownership of most of the lands south of Altamira. The land there is rich, and everlastingly green." There was a strange expression in his eyes. A strange mix of fondness and bitterness.

"And they like living there?"
"I would suppose so."

"So then why is Derris-Kharlan white and mechanical like that?"

"It wasn't always like that. It's been built into that over the centuries. Originally, it was a little barren, pretty cold, but still natural."

"If it's a comet, why's it still so near the planet? Shouldn't it have gotten…I dunno, destroyed in the atmosphere or floated away by now?"

"It would, it if it was a natural comet. Derris-Kharlan is a mass of mana. The most common theory is that the elves, when they left…wherever they came from…gathered whatever was left of the mana on that world and made it into the comet so they could travel." Yuan paused before asking, "Derris-Kharlan scares you, doesn't it?"
"Not scare, really. It just makes me really uncomfortable. It's…" Anna wasn't sure there were words for what Derris-Kharlan was.

"Not natural, right?" There is no accusation in Yuan. He'd long ago accepted the fact that the Cruxis Crystals had perverted the seraphim into monsters. The same had happened to Derris-Kharlan.

"That's one way to put it. How does the Great Seed stay alive in an environment like that?"

Yuan's hands tightened on reflex. "He found a way to keep it connected to Martel. And since she won't die because of the Cruxis Crystal…"

Anna caught the momentary flinch of his hands, the sudden tightness in his eyes. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It isn't your fault."
"Doesn't change the fact that I shouldn't've brought it up." She hesitated, eyeing the fourth finger of his left hand, where the ring still sat. "You miss her, don't you?"
Yuan followed her eyes. "Every day."

Anna can't imagine that kind of loyalty, can't imagine living for someone for four thousand years. The thought is a little daunting and slightly frightening. Having your own heart wander outside your body like that? Anna's eyes fell on Lloyd and was reminded that she was in the same situation. Kratos and Lloyd…she can't imagine life without them anymore.

Yuan chuckled when he saw the look on her face. It wasn't a happy sound. "You're officially one of us now."

Anna stared at him. "One of what?"

"The people who are crazy enough to fall in love." He said with a wry smile.

Hard as she tries, she can't hear any regret in Yuan's voice or see it on his face. Then again, she doesn't think she could ever regret any of this either.

-/-/-/-

"I have seen you here more times in the last year than I have in the last two centuries. Why is that?"

Kratos glanced at the Storyteller. "Things have been getting interesting recently."

"I'm sure." The Storyteller studied the shelves that Kratos had been looking through carefully. "And what is it that interests you about the dwarves?"

"I was told that they mine a rare mineral known as Aionis."

"They do indeed. It has been rumored to have magical properties. But the dwarves will not let you know where they keep it. It is a treasure among their people."

"You know quite a lot about dwarves. I thought that the elves had never gotten along very well with dwarves."

"That is because my people are, as a whole, fools. We are blinded by our arrogance, our pride. We want to believe that we don't need to concern ourselves without outside affairs, that we can make it on our own."

"Do you believe that as well?"

"I used to. Long ago."

"Not so long. "

This angel is the only one who has ever said something like that to him and yet, he comes to him for advice. Kratos and Yuan are trapped in a strange in-between place where they have experience and age, but they are still in the physical mind and development of young men.

"In the grand scheme of things, yes. It hasn't been very long."
"What changed your mind? What made you think that perhaps the elven way of thinking wasn't entirely in the right?"

"What is the vice of all men?" Kratos doesn't answer. "Love."

"You were in love once?" Logically, it had to happen, but Kratos had never thought of the possibility.

"Oh yes. She is gone now, but I remember thinking that she was heaven on earth. She was a free thinker, one that caused the Elder many problems. She wished to help the humans. She managed to change my mind."

"Yes, women tend to do that." Kratos agreed, thinking of Anna and Martel. "Do you know anything of the dwarves or not?"

"As it is, the prejudice runs deep on both sides, so I have been able to gather little information. But there is a rumor that a dwarf has been hiding somewhere in the northwest."

"Very specific. Everything is northwest of here."

"Few rumors make it this far south."

"True enough." Kratos' hand absentmindedly turned the pages of the book in his hands, eyes skimming the words. "Where did the rumor come from?"

"Travelers in the inn."

"Where were they from?"

"Sybak. They are the only travelers that frequent through here. They want to do research on an alternative energy since mana is running low."
"Heaven knows what they'll think of." Kratos muttered. But Sybak was a common travel point through the entire continent. A dwarf could stop there for supplies and be out before anyone knew they were there.

"They're trying to be helpful at least."

"An alternative to mana? I'm not entirely sure that exists." Even if the possibility was out there, Kratos can't imagine a world without mana. How would the trees, the animals survive? People could live with alternatives to mana, but they couldn't. And what would the air feel like? Empty, stretched too thin?

"I'm surprised. I would think that a man like yourself would be the first to believe in such a thing."

"I'm a traditionalist. And I must be going."

The Storyteller watched him as he carefully closed the old tome and placed it back on its shelf. The man still respected books, still brushed his fingers across their spines subconsciously, even as he stepped away from the shelf and began walking out of the library.

"Who is it that you must be getting back to?" The Storyteller asks suddenly. He hadn't expected to ask the question, but he sees the way that the angel stiffens momentarily before it's gone again. Really, had he not been expecting the Storyteller to notice? Whenever the angel would come, he would stay until he found the answer to whatever he'd been looking for, whether it take him a night or a month. After all, those measurements of time were so meager to one who had lived for four millennia or even a person who had lived for one.

"No one." Kratos replied before he flapped his wings once and was in the air.

-/-/-/-

Kratos returns to Anna holding Lloyd tightly to her protectively and she was snapping defensively at Yuan.

"…Is crazy, Yuan! Heaven knows what he'll do, but I'm not giving him a chance!"

"Anna, he knows. Somehow, he knows about you and about Lloyd. If you refuse now, the consequences could be much worse."

"And who told him about Lloyd?" Anna was in full spitfire mode and there was no mercy from the sharp side of her tongue at times like this. "The only people who know about him are here. The others don't know that he was born already or his name. So where'd he get the information?"

Yuan bristled. It was difficult to get him angry, truly angry, but once you did, it was devastating. "Are you calling me a traitor?" He demanded.

"Are you?" Anna challenged. "You're the one who gives him information. How do we know it's all false?"

Before Yuan can start in on her, Kratos intervenes. "What is going on?"

Yuan looks at Kratos. "Yggdrasill wants to see her."

Kratos' answer is immediate. "No."

"That's what I said." Anna told him. "But-"
"He knows about Lloyd, Kratos. I don't know how, but he does. I shouldn't have to tell you what could happen if Anna refuses."

No, he doesn't. But his protective instincts are roaring inside him that they can run, can hide, can do anything except go. "Why?"
"I can't read Yggdrasill's mind, Kratos." Yuan runs an agitated hand through his hair.

"We can do something else. Anything else."

Yuan glared irritably at the other seraphim. "What? Go on the run again? Jump from town to town? It isn't so simple now. You have an infant son to worry about."

Kratos and Anna both glanced at Lloyd, who was gripping Anna's shirt and watching them all with wide eyes. "It can't be worse than Derris-Kharlan."

"No, it can't." Yuan agreed. "But the running won't stop. Not ever."

"I think I get a say in this." Anna said. "And I vote no. Lloyd isn't going. That's non-negotiable."

"You can't go." Kratos told her. "It's too dangerous."

Anna's eyes flashed. She was still riding the temper that Yuan had worked her into. "I think I can decide what's too dangerous for me or not."

"Considering that you marched right up to him-"

"And I'm standing here now, ain't I?"

"It took twenty Renegades as well as Kratos to get you out. We don't have those resources anymore." Yuan reminded her.

"You still ain't answered why he wants to see me."
"And I told you that I don't know!"

Anna snarled in frustration, but cut herself short when Lloyd began whimpering at the raised voices. "He's not going anywhere near Derris-Kharlan. I'll go, but he won't."

Kratos opened his mouth immediately to protest, but Yuan cut him off. "It's not like she'll be going alone. I'll be there."

Kratos wants to continue arguing and he almost does, but he knows that there's little point. Anna and Yuan butted heads all the time, their stubbornness very nearly legendary, but when they worked together, he knew that this was one argument he couldn't win. And it wasn't that he didn't trust Yuan to look after her-he couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather ask to do it—but the fact that they had to hide the fact that they had anything to do with the Renegade organization cut them off at the knees. Any suspicious actions would send them on a downward spiral.

Kratos wants to go, wants to be there in case the worst happened, but he looks at his son in Anna's arms, quivering slightly from fear despite Anna's gentle bouncing, and knows that he can't simply leave him here with someone else. Not this time.

"When do I have to go?" Anna asked Yuan.

"I'm supposed to go looking for you, so in a day or two."

A day or two until she had to see Derris-Kharlan again, until she saw the stark whiteness, the floors made of little more than glass so that every step felt like a leap of faith. Until she has to see the floating bodies of angels, real angels whose wings were feathered in white and whose faces were emotionless. Angels who didn't snap at her protectively, who didn't make her laugh or feel fondly irritated, much as an oxymoron as that was.

It's not a whole lot of time, but Anna will take what she can get.

-/-/-/-

"You shouldn't go." Kratos murmurs into her neck that night.

"I know. But I have to."

They're slowly being boxed into corners and Kratos hates it. He's never liked corners, not even as a child. "You won't do anything stupid?"

Anna chuckles. "Define stupid."

"Like suddenly decide to give Yggdrasill a piece of your mind."

He could feel her quiet laughter. "No, I think he got the message. As much as he's capable of getting it anyway."

Kratos isn't sure why this cold rattle of fear is suddenly here. It had been a long time since he'd felt fear. Centuries, in fact. But he's chained to this Temple because of Lloyd, chained because he can't leave his son right now. Something won't let him.

Perhaps Anna senses his mood or something shows on his face because she kisses him gently. "I'll be fine."

What was it that one of the men had said, so long ago in the army? Hope strengthens, fear kills. Something like that. One of the other soldiers had been being pessimistic (realistic) and the other had snapped out that pessimism would do them no good.

Somehow, Kratos finds it very difficult to be optimistic. When he mentions it to Anna, she laughs again. "It's because you're getting old." She tells him, flashing a grin before curling closer to him to go to sleep.

-/-/-/-

Derris-Kharlan hasn't changed. Not that she expected it to. Yuan keeps a light grip on her upper arm—she was technically supposed to be his prisoner after all—and his pace is brisk.

It should terrify her, by all rights. It was a not-place. There is no life here, no real life. There is no real color and Anna thinks it's a little hard to breathe. The air here is strangely thick and it hurts her head.

Yuan glances back, stopping for just a moment. "What's wrong?" His voice is uncharacteristically quiet.

Anna explains about the air.

Something in his eyes is sad. "Derris-Kharlan is a mass of mana, probably more than you've felt ever before. I think that this is what the air felt like, before the War." The air here is thick for him too, but he can stand it because his elven blood revels in the mana. It makes the magic in him sizzle and spark, makes him feel very alive, which Yuan thinks is ironic here in this lifeless place.

"I didn't notice it the last time I was here."

He's tugging her back into the brisk walk. "That's probably because you were too angry to notice it."

She watches the large, gaping windows, the transparent floors. She remembers her cell in the ranch, how she could only see a piece of the sky from just the right angle at the right time of day from when the door to the prisoner's quarters opened. The sky had seemed so very wide the day Kratos had broken her out.

"It took a bit to track them down again." Yuan says as way of greeting when they find Yggdrasill.

Anna hadn't noticed that they'd stopped. This world is dizzying and blurring and yet, it doesn't seem to move at all. This room is one she doesn't recognize, the only one with color that she'd seen. There are bronzed machines with enormous orbs powering them, which Anna recognizes as Exspheres and her anger sparks. There is an enormous seed, dark blue like the evening sky, hovering above one of the machines and there's a body lying beneath it.

Anna feels Yuan's hand spasm ever so slightly on her arm at the sight of the body and Anna looks closer. Pale green hair spread about like a halo, in robes that looked ancient in their design. The skin was pale, the palest she'd ever seen and the lips looked like they were more accustomed to smiling, though there was a distinctive sorrowful tilt to them. The woman was pretty, but Death had robbed her of the vitality that would have made her beautiful.

It's when Anna sees the ring sitting on the fourth finger of the woman's left hand that she realizes who this must be.

Yggdrasill is much like Derris-Kharlan, Anna realizes when she sees him standing by the machine. Pale, cold, otherworldly. But there's something…odd…about his eyes. "The Angelus Project."

He's already fraying her temper, but she reminds herself of Lloyd and Kratos, waiting back home. "Yggdrasill."

"You don't sound afraid of me."

Yuan's hand tightens warningly on her arm. He knows her too well and Anna swallows the smart remark that had already made its way to her throat. "You wanted to see me."

"I did. I wished to know how the Project was doing."

Anna bristles instinctively. "What makes you think I'd tell you?"

"I know of your son." Yggdrasill said, moving a little closer. He towered over her and where most men would be sounding angry by now, his voice was as mild as before. "And I know that women will do anything to protect their children."

As much as she hates to prove him right, Anna can feel her protective instincts rearing their heads. "What makes you think I know how your precious Project is doing?"

"You wouldn't, but Kratos would and I assume he would tell you."

"Assuming things only makes an ass out of you and me." Yuan grimaces mentally after spelling out assume in his head—ass-u-me, clever. He knew all too well just how good Anna was at getting under people's skin. This probably wasn't going to end well. "And why do you care anyway? You could just lock me up again, throw away the key. Wouldn't have so many problems then, would you?"

"Yes, I could do that. But Kratos would only break you out again."

"Yeah, he's stubborn like that."

Yggdrasill eyes her. She knew Kratos, obviously, but she knew him well. And the guarded words were underlain with fond exasperation. Martel used to talk like that about Yuan sometimes. And Mithos can remember her sounding like that a lot to him too.

"That made me come to the conclusion that perhaps you're simply better off outside of a ranch. As long as you check in, there are no problems with it."

It was a good compromise, Anna had to admit, a good way for all of them. But her mind instantly rebelled at the thought of being connected to Cruxis in any way. "This isn't a thing about cooperating. This is a 'I'm not doing anything that helps you' kind of thing."

"You refuse my generosity?"

There's a warning flag going up in Anna's mind, but she ignores it. "If that's what you wanna call it."

There is no noise, not a one, for a few beats, save for the thudding of Anna's heart that she's sure both angels can hear loud and clear. It's the silence before a storm, and the air is just as electric.

Anna doesn't think, doesn't have to because instinct is telling her to Get Out. She slips one of Jayson's homemade smoke bombs out of her back pocket and activating it. The smoke stings at her eyes and the smell is acrid, but Yuan's hand lets go of her arm and she's sprinting in the opposite direction.

With luck, Yuan could keep Yggdrasill distracted long enough for her to get the hell out of here.

Derris-Kharlan is twisting labyrinth of white and glass. No two rooms look alike, but they form dizzying pathways and Anna has to focus on not tripping over her own feet.

She crashes into walls and slips around corners until it seems like she can't remember which way is up anymore. She freezes automatically at the sound of rushing wings and, against her better instinct, she looks back.

Angels. Hundreds of them. Real ones, with feathered wings made of flesh and blood, not mana. And they all have the exact same dead look in their eyes, on their face. Anna starts running again and her side is beginning to hurt. She takes sharp turns, trying to get away from that sound of wings.

She's jerked around a corner and her first instinct is to scream and her second one to fight back.

"It's me!" A familiar voice hissed in her ear.

Anna relaxes immediately and Yuan releases her. "Where's Yggdrasill?"

"Searching the other side of Derris-Kharlan."

"How'd you know where I'd go?"

"Lucky guess." Seeing the look on her face, Yuan said, "You can yell at me later. There is an emergency teleporter not far from here. Take this hallway all the way down, and take a left. Two more lefts and a right and you're there. The teleporter will take you to a cave outside of the Tower. Noishe should be nearby. Get out of the area, get to Hima and stay there until somebody comes for you. Understand?"

"Got it." Anna hesitated. "What's going to happen to you if Yggdrasill knows you helped me?"

"Don't worry about it. Go. I can only distract the angels for so long."

"Good luck."

Yuan smirked. "I'm not the one that needs it."

-/-/-/-

Noishe is good company, Anna thinks. Protective and warm. The innkeeper in Hima hadn't been able to turn away a woman travelling alone, so she'd been given a corner in the back room to sleep in. Noishe sleeps wrapped around her and she falls asleep to his wild smell.

It takes three days for someone to come.

She's gently jostled awake—she's done that a lot while in hiding. Sleep, that is. Anna is awake in an instant, not recognizing the face above her for a minute, but then she registers Noishe's calmness against her and she knows that this is no enemy.

Jayson smiles at her. "Hey. C'mon. Let's go home."

Anna allows herself to be helped to her feet. "I didn't think you'd be the one to come."

"Well, I'm not wanted by the evil overlord, am I?"

It's chilly up in Hima at this time of year, the frost that wouldn't hit Luin for several months beginning to coat the rooftops. Anna crossed her arms in an effort to stay warm.

"How are Lloyd and Kratos?" She asked as they begin the slow descent down the mountain. The path is winding and the rock sometimes crumbled below your very feet, but it wasn't too terrible.

"Lloyd's been missing you, so that keeps Kratos awake. But I don't think he'd sleep anyway. He paces a lot. You know how he worries."

Anna smiled faintly. (You won't do anything stupid?) Yes, she knew how he worried. He was the first one that had ever worried for her like that. "How have you been, Jayson? It seems like we haven't really had a chance to talk since I've been so busy."

Jayson smiled at her. Not many people asked him how he was. Shera did, but she was family. Anna wasn't quite a sister, but she wouldn't have been a love interest either, even if he'd found her before Kratos had. "I was getting restless, so thanks for being crazy enough to go see Yggdrasill."

Anna chuckled. "I always knew my insanity was good for something."

Jayson hesitated before saying, "I've heard the others talking. They're getting sick of hiding."

"Do they have a better idea for getting out of Cruxis' range, because the rest of us are all ears."

"I don't think they do. But…they heard the argument with Yuan a few days ago. They heard you accuse him of being a traitor."

Anna closed her eyes for a moment, remembering her words. "That wasn't…I didn't mean any of that. I was angry and-and afraid because Yggdrasill found out about Lloyd somehow. Yuan is as much of a traitor as I am."
Jayson held his hands up. "I'm just the messenger, but…I think you'll have a hard time convincing the others. Yuan…he's a great leader, a better one than we could have ever asked for, but…he is an angel."

"You know the story."

"I do. And so do the others. But Yuan has already betrayed Cruxis, the organization that has guided the worlds for millennia. What's to stop him from betraying us as well?"

Anna turned to look at him and Noishe accidentally bumped into her when she suddenly stopped. "Are you saying that you don't trust him?"

"Me, personally? I do. Of course I do. But again, the hard sell will be against the others."

"I don't get it. After all he's done, why would he betray us now?"

"They don't know. What they do know is that you were arguing with him and that you accused him. You've trusted him from the beginning, Anna. We all know that."

"And if that's good enough for me, why not for them?"

Jayson shrugged. "Fear does things to people. We've all given up everything to help Yuan. Families, lives, homes. Maybe they weren't the best, but they were there. Yuan knows or has files on everything about us. If he betrayed us, the people we love are at stake too."
Anna shoved her hands in her pockets. "I would've kept my mouth shut if I knew it was going to cause problems like this."

Jayson huffed a laugh. "No you wouldn't have. You were angry with him. Nothing was safe."

"Are you saying that because it's me or—"

"It's 'cause you're female. Shera gets that way too and so did Mama. Poppi always said that a woman's temper is the scariest thing of all."

Anna chuckled. "He sounds like a smart guy, your dad."
"He was."

-/-/-/-

It takes almost three days to get back to the Temple, as they're on foot, but Anna enjoys Jayson's company. He's surprisingly intuitive and he makes her laugh.

They have to wait until nightfall to go back into the Temple, as the geyser was still a tourist attraction. They throw stones into the opening high into the cliff wall and someone's face pokes out.

"Jayson?" They call softly. "That you?"

"Who else would it be? Can you toss the rope across? It's late and we're tired."

There's no reply for a moment before a long rope is tossed across. Jayson barely catches it before tying it off against one of the pillars. "Come on." He said, climbing onto the damp rocks before carefully stepping onto the rope.

"We're gonna walk across that?" Anna said, eyeing the rope doubtfully.

Jayson grinned at her. "Yup."

Anna glanced down at the hot water that fed the geyser. One misstep and she'd be boiling faster than Doria's stew. "How long've you guys been working on this?" She asked, seeing how Jayson balanced fairly easily on the thick rope.

"A few days now, but we used to use ropes like this to play games in the slums. A few pieces of advice—don't look down, keep your hips balanced and your arms out."

Anna swallowed hard and climbed up the rock before tentatively putting a foot on the rope. It seemed to almost give under her weight, tightening at the last moment. Spreading her arms, she took a step onto the rope. Left, right, left, right, she kept reminding herself. This was like walking in Derris-Kharlan, each step a leap of faith.

About halfway through, the rope wavered and Anna felt her concentration go with it.

"Anna! Look straight at me." Jayson said firmly. "Don't look anywhere else."

It was easy to focus on him, but it was hard to keep her focus there. Step after step she made it almost two-thirds of the way there before a powerful gust nearly blew her off. She was left clutching at the rope, hanging upside down, and wishing very much that she was elsewhere.

"Anna?" Jayson's voice sounds very close, but Anna doesn't want to open her eyes to check. "Hey, you're still okay. Just…shimmy the rest of the way over."

Anna took several deep breaths. It wasn't as if she could stay hanging here forever, after all. Slowly, hand over hand, she obeyed Jayson and began to shimmy. The rope was rough under her hands and in between her knees and it feels like she's hanging somewhere in eternity, not moving (It's somewhere after today, yet before tomorrow).

A warm hand is over her own, carefully pulling her up. "Anna, you made it."

The earth feels too solid beneath her feet. "Never again. You hear me, Jayson?"

He chuckled and steadied her as the world was still spinning a little.

-/-/-/-

Kratos looked up when he heard a familiar voice. He'd been dimming his hearing while he was in the Temple. The echoes hurt his ears and Lloyd's already shrill crying nearly broke his eardrums the first time.

He hasn't let go of Lloyd since Anna left, though he's not entirely sure why. Perhaps it was a nervous habit, like pacing. They'd gotten the message from Yuan four days ago that Anna was in Hima. He would have gone himself, but Shera had told him that under no circumstances was he leaving his son behind and that if he tried, she'd gut him.

Anna was bickering with Jayson, who was grinning and laughing. Tension that Kratos hadn't known had been there eased out of him at the sigh. She was okay.

When she saw him, Anna's face lit up with a smile. She sped her walk up a little to reach him, embracing him tightly. "Derris-Kharlan smells." She murmured and Kratos nearly burst out laughing.

(It doesn't smell. Not of anything. Perhaps the distinct lack of any kind of smell, of electricity humming through the machines or stale space made it the worst kind of smell)

"You didn't do anything stupid, did you?" He asked quietly.

"That might depend on your definition of stupid." She was smiling and she pulled back a little, looking at Lloyd, who was bundled in his blankets and fast asleep. "How's he been?"

"Would you believe me if I said he was a little beast?"

Anna laughed quietly, kissing their son's forehead before leaning up and brushing her lips against his. "Seeing as how he's your son, absolutely."