Warnings: Thing are about to get WEIRD. Also, I wrote this chapter after reading 'Interview with a Vampire' in two sittings in one day. It influenced by writing style.

Diclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX


Year Two: Descending Light


Jaden quietly walked up the stairs, complacent and docile as Jesse watched him like a hawk. A soft, sad smile was stretched across his face, his eyes downcast and heavy. He was quiet in his sorrow, content to let Jesse guide him with a hand on the small of his back, all the power and greatness that had possessed him moments before drained. He was little more than a boy again, thin and small and fragile in the harsh light above him. He seemed somehow paler under his tanned skin and flushed at the same time, his cheeks red with an almost feverish bloom. His hands hung at his sides, fingers twitching as if holding cards, and the smile, all that could be seen of his face, broke the hearts of his friends as he came closer.

As he made to pass them, he stopped, tilted his head against his shoulder, and looked over to where Lia sat, unmoving in Mindy's arms. The girl shivered, but that was all, the slow rise and fall of her chest being the only indication of life. Her eyes were also downcast, staring at her shoes as though they could give her the answers she wanted. Beyond that, there was nothing, not even with Mindy rubbing her arms through the fabric of her white hoodie, growing increasingly frantic as the moments ticked on. Atticus was leaning over his chair, hand hovering as though he wanted to touch the girl. His sister was also crowding the two girls. She whispered quickly, trying to coax Lia into responding, but the younger girl did nothing. As Mindy leaned back, Lia fell with her, a rag dog in the Obelisk's arms.

Of all his friends, who shot him worried looks and fussed over Lia with rising fear, Chazz alone held his gaze for a moment. The look the other Slifer was sending him was one of frowning confusion, neither accusing nor condemning, but not absolving either. The gray gaze pierced into Jaden with a kind of unintentional ferocity, as if Chazz was unaware of the power of his own eyes. He was staring at Jaden like he's never quite seen him before, like he was the last piece in a puzzle Chazz had been trying to solve all his life. Surprisingly, the gaze didn't bother Jaden. The intensity of it only made him blinked, not in confusion but in surprise, because he hadn't seen Chazz looking at him like that in a long while. For a moment, Jaden was reminded of the duel arena behind him, with lights flashing and cheers roaring out from the crowd and Chazz looking at Jaden like the Slifer was his executioner and his last hope. That familiar Chazz, newly robed in black, vengeful and scared but still unconsciously eager to be friends, stared at him out of his rival's face. As the gray eyes widened for a second before narrowing in though again, Jaden wondered if the puzzle that Chazz had been presented with that day had finally been solved.

Abruptly, he broke his staring contest with Jaden. He crossed his arms with a huff and leaned back in his chair. When Jaden didn't move, the older boy glared.

" Well?" Chazz motioned to the catatonic Lia with his chin. " Go on."

" Chazz, what are you talking about?" Alexis snapped, her temper worn thin by the goings-on. She reached forward to heft Lia out of Mindy's arms. " We need to get her to Miss Fontaine. She'll help."

" Leave the bitch right where she is."

Surprisingly, it was usually mellow Atticus, not volatile Alexis, who rounded on Chazz with blazing eyes and a face as black as thunder.

" Chazz, this is not the time for you-"

" Yeah, yeah, stop being a jackass. I get it." Chazz waved off their concerns. He fixed Jaden with a sharp look. The other Slifer took an involuntary step forward, still staring at Chazz, trying to figure out what it was that Chazz was telling him. Something was under that fierce look- almost a plea, a favour that could never be voiced, because Chazz's pride would never allow it.

He took another step forward and peered down into Lia's pale, haggard face. She looked cold, he thought, his senses still not fully recovered. Cold and scared. She was shivering something fierce, as though all the warmth in the world couldn't undo the cold that was zinging through her. Jaden frowned.

" Help her you idiot!" Chazz snarled finally, gesturing at the shaking girl. This time, Jaden blinked in confusion.

" Chazz!" Alexis was still trying to pull Lia away from Mindy, but the dark haired girl was holding fast, her own eyes fixed on Jaden with some kind of fervent hope.

Chazz turned to Alexis, red-faced with shame but pushing forward.

" He helped us, he can help her!"

" Helped us? Helped us how?" Alexis asked, looking confused.

" Did you really think we beat the Light of Destruction on our own?" The older Slifer said through gritted teeth. Alexis' mouth opened for a rebuttal, but Chazz's words suddenly seemed to sink in, and she was left with her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish's. Above her, her brother frowned.

" Chazz, what are you-"

Jaden cut him off by moving. He all but gilded to where Mindy was sitting with Lia gathered in her arms, the older girl shaking just as badly as the younger, though from fright instead of cold. Her arms were locked around the younger girl, a protective barrier against any and everything that might threaten her, and it warmed Jaden's heart to see it. Not so long ago, Mindy might not have had the strength to hold Lia like that. She might have crumpled, afraid and unsure of her own power, unable to help even when she wanted to. Mindy had always been the delicate one, the soft one, trailing after them all like an eager puppy. Alexis had her talent and Lia had her anger and even Jasmine had her guts, but Mindy had always seemed to him to be softer at the center than all of them. Mindy had in her a capacity to forgive that none of them, not even Jaden some days, could equal. It was within her to walk through the trials that their group had to suffer, not unscarred, but significantly less scarred than Alexis or Chazz or even Jaden himself.

And in that great capacity to forgive, Mindy had at last found the steel beneath her softness; it was that steel that encompassed Lia now.

Jaden knelt, and Mindy carefully opened her arms, letting the younger girl slump forward until Jaden saw her face.

Her lip was caught under her teeth, being worried frantically in a motion that betrayed her blank eyes.

" Lia..." The Slifer breathed, and in that one word, there hung a weight that should not have existed. Shuddering, Lia raised her pale, sweaty face to meet Jaden's eyes.

For a moment, he didn't know what to do. He still didn't know, not really, what he had done with Chazz that day on the steps of the school. There had been anger, and hate, and a cruel, taunting voice that did not belong to Chazz, but then his memories faded behind a curtain of faint silvery light and crushing, terrible pressure. He couldn't recall what had happened, not clearly. It was as if he was watching someone else talk to Chazz, someone who not only knew the Light, but knew how to beat It, how to push Its buttons and make it angry enough to mess up. Jaden felt totally disconnected from his body when he remembered those long-ago moments, hovering above Chazz in some misty, shadowy space that could be Chazz's mind. The colours muted, the sounds muffled, even the hand that had held Chazz's body down feeling cottony and covered; the memory did not seem like it had come from Jaden's head. And so, he had no idea of what to do when confronted with a problem that once again required that strange, brutal power that lived inside of him.

Uncertain of how he was going to access that power, Jaden reached out to touch Lia's head. Contact, real, physical contact, seemed important somehow, as if touching her head would give him some insight into what was going on in the mind underneath it. Touch her like he was trying to become a part of her. Like Contact Fusion. To touch her meant to have a connection- and a connection of any kind was vital. He'd been touching Chazz when he fought the Light and wrenched it from his friend's body. He touched Alexis softly as she struggled with the destructive power, screaming for it to get out and never darkened her door (irony aside) ever again. He'd even touched the Beasts on that terrible night the previous year, their shadows bruising and breaking him. With long, sure arms he'd reached out, batted the monsters aside, and curled around Syrus fingers that hadn't trembled until he'd come to on the steps. He could remember sitting there, in the non-hostile darkness, for far longer than he should have, shaking and breathing and listening to his own racing heartbeat until he was sure that he was alive, not just having some death-dream.

Touch was essential. Touch was all important. Touch was the bond, because under the skin that touched was the blood, the most sacred of all things. The blood that raced and the blood that burned and the blood that was spilled for every cause, worthy or not. In the blood was the most holy of bonds, the bond to life, the bond those that which had given life. In the blood was the bond of birth and death, and all in between, and Jaden recognized the holiness of it. In the blood, in the blood that sung beneath the fragile cloth of skin, there was the bond to-

Jaden's eyes widened.

Yes. That was it. That was what he needed.

His hand brushed along Lia's hair. It was soft, a little rough at the edges, and he could feel the tension running through her at the top of her head. Slowly, like stroking a cat (irony again; it was abundant), he threaded his fingers through the brown hair, brushing lightly, untangling the snarls that had twisted up in her otherwise lovely curls. Said curls bounced and swished as his hand moved, falling against her white hoodie to shine dark with colour and bright with highlights. The little fissions of red that crept up when she sat in proper lights glimmered, and Jaden smiled. Yes, red, the blood, the bond. He knew what to do.

He had the distinct impression that the others were trying to talk to him. Alexis' mouth was moving and Atticus' face looked thunderous, and he could hear Syrus, though muted, as if the other boy was yelling at him from a great distance, but Jaden didn't care. All that matter, the only thing that truly existed in the world, was the slumped, shaking figure of the girl before him. His hand slid down to cup her cheek, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb, before he pressed under her chin.

" Lia." He said again, in that same breathy voice. She'd broken the skin on her lip, and thin trickle of blood was running down to where his thumb rested. Blood. In the blood was the bond, and in the bond lay his power. Jaden swiped his thumb, catching some of it, smearing a little across the cleft of her chin. He smiled softly.

" My own, dear little Lia." He whispered, leaning forward until his forehead rested against hers. Around him, the sharp sounds of his friends calling to him faded into a buzz. Beneath it, he could hear the racing thrum of Lia's heart as it pumped the blood through her body, even to the point where it spilled from her lip and onto his thumb. He pressed a little harder against her chin, and rubbed his nose against hers.

" My own dear one. My little one." Affection bloomed hot and sweet in his chest as he drew back, the first ripples of detachment flooding through him. His body seemed so far away, the things his sense were telling him rolling off of his back like water off of a duck's. The same, muted world existed around him, only instead of Lia fading into it as well, she stood out in vivid contrast, a mosaic of colours and sounds against a canvas of gray. Her hair shone, her skin gleamed, and, as he raised her face to meet his, her eyes burned so brightly that he was almost swallowed up by them.

She was beautiful. Achingly, wondrously, impossibly beautiful, in a way Alexis or Mindy or Jasmine could never have achieved. Their beauty was earthbound, tied to the mortal world and mortal conventions, but the instant her fevered eyes met his, he saw what he had been truly meant to see that day he predicted the beauty of her smile:

She was ethereal, shining against the backdrop of mortality, her very face coming alive as she looked into his eyes.

" ...You..." She whispered, her voice a church bell tolling up the number of the dead, stirring sorrow and heartbreak into a frenzy of wretched passion. Something shattered behind her eyes, pain flooding into them in place of tears, and Jaden's hand fell to holding her shoulder. She was shaking still, but it was a different kind of shaking, a tremble not borne from fright but deep, unyielding emotion. He allowed himself to smile.

" You've grown. You've become so beautiful." Her eyes misted over. He squeezed her shoulders. " You are as lovely now as you were then. In fact, time has only been kind to you."

" How...?" She murmured, and he felt her pain as though it was his own. His grip tightened.

" Does it matter?"

She shook her head, still staring at him like he'd hung the moon for her.

" Then don't think about it. Enjoy this moment. This..." He gestured vaguely. "...Our time. Our precious time with each other."

Nothing existed except for the girl before him. Every inch of him called to her, to hold her, to pull her close and never, not once, let her out of his sight again. How could there be anything but her, her soft face shining like a star, her vibrant eyes burning in the whiteness of her face, that terrible, exquisite pain radiating from her form? How could there have been anything but her? How could he have ever seen anything but her? How could he have cared for anything but her, ever?

Overcome with the sight of her, her cupped her face in his hands and brought his forehead to her again. She was warm against him, uncomfortably and feverishly warm, but he didn't care. She was there, real and heavy, soft and as tender as she had always been. Love burned through him, from the top of his head to the tips of the fingers that carefully held her cheeks. He breathed in, and then sighed, the air making her bangs dance.

" You are so precious to me." He whispered, feeling her eyes on him. " The most precious."

" More than anyone?" Was her eager response. He nodded.

" Of course."

" Even more than..." She drifted off, unsure of her next words. He opened his eyes, pulling back to study her, the slight pout of confusion that had lit on her lips, and the way her brow furrowed in thought. A thousand different thoughts flooded back to him, high-backed redwood chairs and sturdy desks groaning until enormous piles of books and soft sunlight on open balconies. The memories shifted and turned, being lost and rediscovered over and over again.

" More than who?" He asked. Her frown deepened.

" I...I...don't know. I don't know." She looked at him with darkened eyes. " Why don't I know. Why..."

A flash.

" I still don't remember her name."

He went rigid against her.

Ojin.

Duel.

Satellite.

Sartorius.

His grip became painful.

Light of Destruction.

Frantically, he looked down at her. At her pale (too pale!) shining face and her vibrant, burning (oh god, oh god) eyes, and fear took him. With a frenzied motion, he pressed his powers into her, diving deep even as she protested, pushing against his chest as he pushed into her, desperate to find some hint, some clue as to why her eyes looked like that, so sick and wrong when compared to the rest of her ethereal beauty. He pressed his powers deep into her skin, into her blood, into where the bond lived and thrived, and...and...

A tower was gleaming in the distance, shining as the sunlight was reflected off of it, the moat around it lapping at the marble. She willed the image to change, aware only of the fact that the gleaming structure upset her, and she wanted it gone. The tower started to sway, and she wonder if it was going to fall, and come toppling down in a hundred thousand pieces. She remembered something about a card and her cousins showing her different ways to arrange them, and she looked up at the sky. There were clouds rolling in on the horizon, blocking out the sun. She wondered if it was going to thunder. The sky looked dark enough for it.

She looked down at her feet and was surprised to see that she was standing on the edge of a cliff, the wind whipping up clouds of dust at her feet. Only it wasn't dust at all. It was sand, and when she turned around, she saw that she was on the very edge of a desert, under a forlorn, dark green sky. She turned back to look at the tower, gulping as she took in the storm clouds that were rolling in. They seemed even darker than black, and when she looked under them, she saw that they were being reflected by the ocean.

Her eyes widened, and she took a step away from the cliff. The image of the clouds on the smooth water's surface was distorted by a ripple that started in the very center. It spread out, growing larger and larger, waves following its path until Lia realized it was a huge whirlpool, spinning faster and faster.

She took another step back.

The low roar of thunder met her ears, the clouds lighting along their bottoms in sheet lightening. She took a deep breath, trying to force herself to walk backwards. The clouds rumbled again, louder this time, and a bolt of white lightening shot down just behind her. She let out a shriek and darted forward, her hands pressed to her ears.

" What is this?" She called, the wind howling around her.

She turned around to look at the tower again, it's brilliance not dimmed by the lack of sunlight in the sky. Instead, it seemed to be brighter, stark white against the black sky. She watched a forked tongue of lightening strike at the tower, and her mind flashed to the image of the tarot card her cousin had shown her, a tower hit by lightening, with citizens who were on fire leaping from the top, screaming.

The lightening split the sky, and she was struck by how white it was. It even made the tower look dark in comparison.

No, that wasn't right.

The lightening was white, but the tower wasn't white at all. It was silver.

And, she looked harder, squinting her eyes, it didn't really look like any tower she'd ever seen. She couldn't make you bricks and stones that should've made up the body. She couldn't see a roof at the top. She couldn't even find a tiny slit of a window where an arrow might be fired out of, or a princess might sit and watch the world outside, hoping to catch sight of someone who would save her. It was a very slender tower too, incredibly smooth, and she frowned as she tried to make out more distinct features.

Without warning, the lightning struck again. The tower sizzled with energy, and she felt her jaw unhinge as she realized that it wasn't a tower at all, but a pillar of silver light blazing a path up to the sky.

She was so transfixed by the tower, she failed to hear the ringing of power around her until the telltale buzz of electricity had her looking up, straight into an on-coming lightning bolt.

The world exploded into white light around her. Unable to move, unable to think, unable, even, to tremble before the might of everything, she fell like a ragdoll, down, down, her visions clouded over with vicious white. She was blind, deaf, and dumb, her screams silenced before they touched the air, air that was humming with a strange power that was both foreign and familiar. Every inch of her hurt, but she was numb at the heart of it all, her senses dulled and her skin feeling oddly cut off from. Despite the blinding whiteness, the world before her was muted, cotton in her ears and mouth, gumming up her words until she couldn't speak. She kept falling, weightless, baseless, a feather blown about in a storm.

Storm. The clouds had been gathering for a storm, a storm which broke around her now, shattering the white light of the lightning bolt. Only it wasn't a storm, because there was no roar of the winds and no icy stabbing of rain. There was nothing but the heavy hanging clouds about her, and she couldn't distinguish one from another. They swirled together, a formless mass of black thunder, but no thunder echoed, not even thunder pretending to be the cries of beasts. Instead, the clouds were sliding into one another, rolling over and over and over until they were one thing, one great, terrible, black cloud. And the cloud descended on her, encompassing her, carrying her far, far away...

And then there were sand dunes stretching out overhead and a sun, brighter and hotter than she'd ever seen it, blazing down on her. She stared out at the vast sea of sand, taking in the barren landscape and the faded, colourless sky. The air scorched the inside of her throat as she breathed in, and her skin felt itchy and tattered as the wind whipped about. An overwhelming sense of sorrow swelled in her chest, spreading slowly outwards until her arms felt heavy and her legs were water, unable to support her. She dropped her knees, hands braced on the stone railing in front of her. Her eyes stung as the tears slide down her cheeks.

She didn't even remember beginning to cry, but the tiny drops dripped off her chin and spattered on the stones beneath her. Cracks spider webbed out from where the tears had hit the stone, and cracks raced along the firm platform that held her. To her horror, the cracks converged, sliding together and opening up great holes in the rocks that supported her. She leapt to her feet, but when she tried to run, her legs were stiff, unmoving, rooted down to the crumbling floor. She looked down, yanking at her immobile limbs, and the dread that had been filling her magnified tenfold.

Seeping up out of the cracks in the ground, in curling, horrible tendrils, was a thick, entirely solid darkness, like the mist back in the cave so long ago, like the mass that had carried her to this desolate place. It had wrapped itself around her ankles, rooting her to the spot as the stone under her crumbled and shook, falling away to reveal a great, black abyss. Her eyes widened, taking in the gaping nothingness, and she tried to struggle, but the tendrils had crept up farther up her body, holding her in place.

And then she was back in the cave, the moonlight casting all the rocks around her into a blue glow. The etching in the stone floor shone in the light gleaming in through the skylight, and she almost had to turn away to keep it from blinding her. All around, the cracks grew, letting the darkness seep in, hauling her down into the abyss beneath her feet.

She blinked, and suddenly she was in the dead center of the circle carving, standing over the glowing stone, the only light in the total darkness around her. Then the sturdy stone under her feet vanished, and she slipped through, falling faster and faster into the inky black chasm, staring up at the circle that shone above her. And then it was the impossibly bright sun from earlier, beating down on her as she slipped away from the light.

The wind whistled around her, and not even she heard the name that was ripped from her lips in a moment of terror.

He gasped, reaching out to touch her, to grabbed, to do anything to pull her back to him, but he was held back. That same dark void that had pulled her down was hauling him back too, holding him in place, preventing him from going to her. The void, having pulled him away from her falling form, dissipated slightly, but lingered around him, as if daring him to try and go after her. He took a step back, staring in horror as the blackness slid up to his feet, curling around the stone where he stood. But it didn't touch him, it slunk around his feet, going around wherein he stood in a small oval, giving him enough berth to step back and forward, tapping lightly at the inky black that ran by him like water.

It rippled out where he touched it, spiraling circles emanating from where his toe had touched it. And then it was black water, rushing up to meet him, splashing against his legs and rushing back and forth, as though dragged by a vicious tide. He looked up, confused, and above him a great blue moon hung, dragging the water back and pushing it forward again, until great waves rose and fell, crashing against the rocky shore he was standing on. And the crash of the waves became monstrous roars, breaking over the eerie silence with trembling force that nearly shook his legs out from under him. He fell to his hands and knees, submerged up to his elbows in the black water (was it water, it felt too thick, too full, too alive and burning and hot to be water), staining his red jacket to ebony.

And the water seeped up higher and higher, hardening and molding to his arms, glinting like obsidian in the golden light that was shining overhead. He looked up again, and saw that he was in the abandoned dorm, his flashlight casting a singular beam of light out into the dark hallway. In front of him was the mural of the Millenium Items, glowing a blazing gold in the darkness.

"It feels safe." His own voice echoed out in the emptiness, and he reached his fingers up to touch the glowing eye of the Millennium Puzzle.

And then it was the medallion he'd own from the Gravekeeper Chief, huge and spinning, staring back at him as he was bathed in its glow. He took a step back, almost blinded by the intensity of the heat and radiance coming off of the enlarged medallion, which had begun to spin. As he watched, the piece of gold spun faster and faster until it was a blur, the intricate carvings all whipped together, and all he could see was the great eye in the center, staring down at him. It began to rise, still glowing.

" May it serve you in times of need." The Chief's voice echoed as the medallion rose to the sky.

And then it was a blinding sun, blazing out over an empty desert, the sand whipped into the sky by an unforgiving wind.

But he couldn't see the burning sun or the ruined ocean before him. The blackness was solid on top of him, closing him off, severing him from his senses as though he was losing a limb. The air around him felt dark and damp and all around the smell of death and decay hung like unlit lamps from a ceiling. Something pushed hard on his chest, and his mouth flew open to release the air that was forced up. At the breath escaped him, something coiled around his middle, pulling him upright (but what was upright? What was up and down in this insane, spiraling world that he couldn't see?) as he struggled to take another breath. The stuff slid over his mouth, covering it, choking off his air. Another, thick strand, so heavy he could actually feel it settling on his face, clamped down on his eyes, molding itself onto his skin, forcing him to remain blind.

Frantically, he tried to raise his hands to his face, but found them bound at his sides as the substance thickened and became heavier, seeping into his clothes and wrapping around his body, molding itself into hardened, black coils that hung from his arms and legs like twisted, ripe fruit from a tree. Choking again, he tried to move his limbs, but the weight held them firm, hanging uselessly at his side. His lungs burned, but the grip of the strange blackness around him had not lessened, and his eyes watered under the thick limb laying over them.

It smelled like a tomb, like a-

No. His mind whispered. No. Anywhere but here. Send me to any grave but this. I will not rest quietly here.

It happened in a split second. There was a half an instant of silence, and then the shadows let out pitiful wails as they were blasted off of Jaden's body, flung by some unknown force into the far corners of the surrounding abyss. Their shrieks of pain echoed all around, and Jaden stood at the very center of it all, unmoving, his face still down-turned and his eyes still hidden in shadow. The light surrounding him grew brighter, swirling over his limbs and through his hair until it was a shifting, blazing sphere. It encompassed his whole being, hot and strong and pulsating in time to his steady, sure heart.

And then he was moving, moving within the sphere of the silver light, being hurled through time and space, jagged edges memories sliding over his eyes, remembered, understood, and forgotten in a split second. He was flying beyond time, beyond space, hurtling towards a destination that had no name and no reason. Fields of emerald vanished beneath him, lakes of sapphire little more than blue blurs as the sphere pulled him closer and closer. To what, he didn't know, but he knew he had to reach it, had to see it, or fall.

As the green gave way to gold that finally gave way to churning black, his eyes got something. She stood, on the very edge of a high cliff, eyes transfixed on something in the distance. She was slim and pale and very beautiful, and so familiar to him that it made him ache. He reached out a hand to touch her, but the sphere pulled him forward once more, and she was lost as he crashed, flung backwards into oblivion...

Jaden pulled back, gasping, trembling, his epiphany flying from him like startled birds. A violent shove sent him falling backwards into a stunned Jesse, and then there was a blur of motion as a figure in white (Lia, that was who she was, right? That was Lia, wasn't it? Sweet Lia, cold Lia, terrible and kind Lia, his Koneko-chan; for a moment, he didn't recognize her) scrambled past him. She flew down up the stairs as though she had wings, ignoring the desperate calls behind her. At the very top, right before the doorway, she paused, and looked back. Her wild, frightened eyes found his, and, for a moment, he could almost imagine her thoughts.

' What was that? What just happened? How did it happen? Who are you? ...Who am I?'

" Lia..." He whispered, not at all surprised (though he should have been) when her eyes widened at the sound of her name.

Then the spell broke as she twisted around and ran out into the hall. Jaden leaned against Jesse, exhausted and shaken. Without having to open his eyes, he felt Alexis turn to him.

" Ja...Jaden?" The question was in his name, and she didn't need to say anymore. He brought a hand to his throbbing temples.

" I don't know, Lex. I don't know any more than you."

" You were..." She struggled to find the words. " ...You two just sat there...staring at each other for so long...and then..."

" Then she jus' came alahve an' ran." Jesse finished, hefting him to his feet.

" Neither of us...spoke?" Jaden asked softly. Alexis bit her lip (a habit she'd undoubtedly picked up from her friend), and shook her head. Jaden frowned. He remembered speaking. He remembered calling her name, telling her how beautiful she was, that she meant more to him than anyone in the world.

No.

Not anyone.

There was someone else, a spectre hanging over his every move, haunting his every memory with its presence. The name escaped him but the eyes did not. Vibrant orange and green, Jaden could easily picture those eyes, bright with adoration, fixed on him. He could easily recall his own joy at that image as well.

" You two were sahlent as the grave." Jesse offered. Only he and Alexis seemed able to speak, the others still rendered silent under the thrall of whatever had happened. Jaden flinched at the phrase, reminded of the crypt he never seemed to be able to escape.

" I see..." He muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. Sounds and colours danced on his closed lids, the images he'd seen in that brief trance with Lia coming back to him in shards, the whole picture lost to him. It was troubling, but not unexpected. He always lost something when he used that power inside of him.

" Jaden?"

He opened his eyes. Alexis was looking at him like he'd never seen her look at him before. There was fear in her eyes, yes, but more than that, there was faith. Blind, perfect, obedient faith, the kind that the piteous had in their gods and followers had in their leaders. She was looking at him as though she were before an altar, kneeling and wholly ready to give herself over to her faith. Jaden felt himself shudder at that look.

" Yes, Lex?"

The look didn't leave her eyes.

" What...What was that? For a second...for just one second...the world was so silver and I felt...I felt..." She trailed off, and Jaden finally understood why the look made him so uncomfortable.

It was far too similar to the ones the Society members gave Sartorius.

He closed his eyes, unable to bear her looking at him like that.

" I don't know, Lex." He answered honestly. Jesse's warmth at his back was comforting. He leaned more into it, desperate for some kind of contact, something tangible and real and committed to memory. He wanted something, just one thing, to take away from the day; something that had nothing to do with the Light of Destruction or his own, mysterious power, or the strange pain his every action caused Lia. He wanted something mundane and human to remember from the grueling day, and Jesse's arm on his shoulder was good enough. He sighed.

" I don't know anything anymore."


...

I uh...

Yeah.

...

Damn you Anne Rice! Damn you and your angsty vampires and your Lestats and your pretty, pretty language! I am helpless before it! Also, this. THIS.

I don't actually know what this is. Well, no, I do. But I can't tell you because it would spoil the surprise.

But be afraid, guys. Be afraid.

Lia: What the HELL did you do to me?

Oh, you're back. Good. We'll continue this next time.

Lia: No, we'll continue it NOW!

No time, updates to look after, food to eat, buh-bye!

Lia: You bitc-!

See you in an hour!

MoS