Where there are two, you see just one.
But if there are thirty, you will see none.
It comes in a month, but not in a year.
Horror has several, but it causes no fear.
It's in Wisconsin, but not New Hampshire.
It's in a response, but not in an answer.

HINT: It is not a letter in the alphabet.

… … … … …

"Cin, don't be ridiculous."

Wrong thing to say.

"YOU'RE STILL NOT LISTENING!" the child yelled at him. As he whirled to face her, he found himself thrown against the wall by an invisible force.

The child approached him, eyes swirling those sickening colors that were etched into his mind. And Cin just watched.

"What is that thing doing here?" he snarled out.

"You still don't get it, do you?" the child stood before him, forcing his chin up to look into her nauseating eyes, "Too impatient for your own good. Never notice anything that doesn't concern you. Too scared that the world will go on and leave you behind, and so gave yourself unlimited amounts of time. You make me SICK!" her voice echoed, even in the open space.

"Cin, what is IT doing here?" he roared. The girl's face only grew pale as she clutched her apple close to her heart.

The child was changing shape again, growing older before his eyes until a carbon copy of Cin appeared before him, all but those eyes.

"I am Cin, and Cin is me. We are one and the same, and yet not. And yet none of you noticed. No one noticed at all…do you have any idea when I first appeared? When I first formed? Any idea at all?"

He gave no response. A wide Cheshire-grin grew on her face as she strutted over to where Cin was, wrapping an arm around the other girl and leaning in.

"Okay, I'll give you that it's a tough question. I guess I've always been there. But I gained consciousness at a specific point, I think it was around the time when we treed ourselves to avoid a tiny, miniscule, insignificant, inconsequential, petty, puny, little papercut," her voice twisted as she talked, mocking him, deriding him, disdaining his very existence.

"What?"

"You remember that time, don't you Cin? We told Deidara that we were just stressed about exams. It wasn't even a good lie, and yet he swallowed it whole anyways! Then, we went off on our own, and they didn't even notice until much later."

Cin bit her lip, eyes sad as she nodded feebly. The other Cin, the Voice (Sasori could recognize her now), grinned.

"And even when we returned, all they did was yell at us. And when they finally noticed how unstable your chakra felt, what did they do? Nothing! And we got kidnapped instead! I bet they even forgot how your chakra felt like it was going to explode!"

"I know," Cin spoke softly, sitting down and plucking a bunny plush toy from the table, and snuggling close to it.

The Voice turned back to Sasori, "So WHAT, exactly, makes you think she's going to go back now?"

Sasori met her eyes levelly, "A second chance."

"Oh, so she NEEDS to redo something in her life? Did she do something SO bad that she has to make it right? Come off it, puppet-boy! The world doesn't revolve around you and your little party! You don't HAVE to drag her out of here, where she can finally get some rest, finally get some sleep without worrying what will happen if she relaxes one second! You say that you want to protect her! All of you claim that! But did you ever ONCE consider that by being by her side, interacting with her, YOU were putting her in danger? You're the monsters here, not me!"

"Nic!" Cin protested, "That's not very nice!"

"Nic?" Sasori sputtered. Cin looked sheepish.

"I had to call her something!"

Sasori walked over to the wall and started slamming his head against it in a parody of what had happened the last time he ended up in limbo.

"You – (slam!) – don't – (slam!) – give – (slam!) – your – (slam!) – alter – (slam!) – ego – (slam!) – a – (slam!) – name!"

"…why not?"

Sasori's head rotated around his body to give her his patented deadpan stare, "Seriously?"

She nodded, "Seroiously."

The head rotated back around and went back to slamming against the wall.

"Okay, Sasori. I think you should go back now. You're running out of time."

"Not going back without you."

"Hey, idiot! She said no!"

The redhead ignored her, turning to look directly at Cin.

"We miss you."

"Oh puh-lease! Tell us another one!"

"So?" she curled her knees up under her chin, "I'm not going back."

"You're acting like a spoiled child again."

"I realize that. However, you're being selfish yourselves. You just want me back for the healing ability."

And now it comes out. Cin's eyes grew wide as she realized she actually said it aloud. She slunk down further into her chair, clutching the toy closer to herself, grabbing the piece of fruit again and starting to play with it.

"What did you say?"

Shoot, why was the chakra pulling at him NOW?

"I know you heard me," the girl muttered.

"You know, this whole scene seems almost romantic," the Voice sneered at him, "I think I'm about to be sick. But correct me if I'm wrong, puppet-boy, but I don't think you like her that way at all."

The two stared at her in confusion.

"Nic!" Cin cried out petulantly, "That was rude and uncalled for!"

The Voice just snorted, crossing over to stand behind Cin's chair, wrapping her arms around the girl and resting her chin on her head.

"You gotta admit," she murmured, rubbing her cheek comfortingly against the healer's hair, "The dialogue sounds like something straight from a bad romance."

"No, I don't," Cin murmured, though it wasn't with her usual force and confidence. It was confusing, and though Sasori would never admit it, a little scary, to see Cin act like this.

Where was her usual, confident, foolhardy self? This wasn't her, this just wasn't Cin.

Where was she?

Where was Cin?

"I'm right here," she smiled softly at his confusion, "Thoughts travel easily here."

"Cin wouldn't keep herself here," he attempted to protest, "She wouldn't give up on life!"

"I'm not giving up. I'm just accepting that mine is at its end. I'm DEAD, Sasori. Accept it and move on. I won't burden you anymore."

"Come back with me!"

"It's impossible, Sasori," she shook her head, as she held up the fruit she had been carrying earlier. A bite had been taken out of it, "Even if I had wanted, I'm bound here now. I can't leave."

Something was greatly wrong, that much was obvious. Kisame was doing his best to pull the puppeteer back, and he was fighting it, pained expressions flickering across his face with every jolt.

Why was it taking so long? It had been twenty-three hours since Sasori had gone under. The redhead's precise control of his chakra, as well as the larger amount and the preparations for this ahead of time, had allowed the scorpion a much greater time under than had been available to Cin.

But even though time inside Limbo was different than out in the real world (according to Sasori), it shouldn't take this long for them to return. The great beast without a tail was waning in power; almost all of Sasori's was gone, causing this venture to rely mostly on Kisame's by this point.

But that wasn't what worried him, not right now. Kisame still was able to hold on. For now at least.

But Pein was starting to raise the possibility of cutting the line.

Why was it happening again? Why was this taking so long?

Leader had given them one more hour.

One more insignificant hour. All-in-all, only 24 hours to save her.

It was as though this was some kind of horrible story, with the clichéd time limit.

24 hours. And then their way out would be cut.

He couldn't rely on the way out Cin had found before to work again. That was a fluke. It wouldn't happen, never again. Cin had possessed enough latent power, healing power, to get them both back home. She hadn't been under nearly as long as Sasori had, and the power left in her reservoirs was only that which she couldn't use with her conscious will.

Sasori would be out of chakra. And even if he wasn't, his chakra was not specifically crafted for healing.

Not like Cin's.

Of course, no one had power like Cin, did they? That's what this whole problem was about.

If her power was common, they wouldn't all be fighting over her. If it was common, Orochimaru wouldn't have abducted her, just for the sole reason of finding out what made her "tick".

They wouldn't have gone looking for her in the first place if that was the case.

She'd be yet unaware…and safe. It was only after she found out that she entered REAL danger.

And it was all his fault.

It was his fault from the very beginning.

He had been in a rush, in a reckless and excited mood that day, and he had fallen from his bird.

To be completely honest, he was lucky that he hadn't broken his neck. Or maybe he had.

It seemed so insignificant, the reason behind his slip. One would expect the reason for him to lose his footing would be something monumental. He had ridden his birds many a time, and had not fallen off since his first year of learning this technique.

But it wasn't. It was a foolish move made by a foolish little boy.

He was unable to stop his fall, he was so shocked at his idiocy. His mind had blanked, his reflexes had shut down.

There was nothing he could do but watch as he plummeted to what he felt sure was his death.

He had wondered, many times since discovering Cin's identity, whether or not he had been knocking on Death's door that day. Perhaps the only reason he had survived was that his plight had pulled some of Cin's healing chakra out by force. Maybe that was the reason she was able to find him.

All pure speculation, of course. But he couldn't see any other real possibility. Not now. Not ever.

Why had she wanted to die? They could've found a way to rid her of the Voice. Why couldn't she have waited a little longer?

He had seen the desperation, the pure fear in her eyes before it all vanished. All she left behind was the Voice, and even that disappeared, after mocking him.

Healing her body, yet taking away everything that had made her the person he…cared for. Yes, he cared for her. He cared greatly for her.

So she had better hurry up and come back already. Deidara was an S-class criminal, after all. He wasn't used to not getting what he wanted. Call him selfish, call him greedy.

Call him whatever you want!

He just wanted Cin to come back. It was too soon for her to leave him.

She had to come back, right?

He heard a thud that came from inside the room, and he rushed over immediately.

Kisame, the great blue beast without a tail, had fallen to the ground, unconscious. They had run out of time, ten minutes short of Pein's deadline.

Sasori's body was stirring as he too came back to himself.

But why wasn't Cin moving?

Sasori slammed his hand on the table, as he realized that he had failed in his mission.

Why was she being so stubborn? She had thoroughly wasted his only shot of getting her out of there.

Now…now, he had no clue what could be done. Having someone coming back from Limbo was unlikely enough. Now, it wouldn't happen at all.

Why'd she have to be so stubborn? She should've known that he'd come for her. Why make the contingency plan if she hadn't thought that? It'd be too much effort otherwise.

Why had she eaten that fruit? Why did she have to stay?

"I'd have been lonely if you had gone."

"I'm not going anywhere, Nic. You know that."

"Not really, no," the Voice grabbed Cin by the shoulders and turned her to look her in the eye, "You didn't eat the fruit, after all."

The healer avoided her gaze as best as she could, her eyes shifting to the ground.

"I had thought you wanted to stay with me."

"I do, Nic. I do want to stay with you!" Cin pleaded, "I just…"

"Do not lie to me," those sickening eyes glowered at her, "I am you. Your lies are unpalatable."

"I'm sorry…"

"You're scared of the finality of it all, aren't you? You're scared to stay here forever. Poor little Cin, forever afraid of making the wrong decision, to the point that you can't make any at all!" she spat at her clone, who shrunk back against her seat.

"Why are you so scared of me?" the doppelganger mocked as she came closer, "Why are you so scared of yourself, hm?"

"I'm not scared."

"Then make your choice. You either stay here with me forever, or you try to find a way back to reality. You must choose now, Cindra. I will not permit you to change your mind if you decide to stay with me."

From nowhere, she pulled out a new, unblemished apple, and placed it in Cin's hands, wrapping her fingers around it as she kept eye contact.

"I will give you twenty-four hours to make your decision. I'll even be nice enough and have it be by Limbo time instead of the real world. But you must give me your answer then, or I'll take it by force. And Cindra…you won't like it if it comes to that."

… … … … …

Stream of consciousness writing is certainly interesting. It's amazing where you'll end up.

Hope you enjoyed!