Author's note: Thanks again for the review.

/

Aster hadn't awoken.

They'd stayed with him for a good five minutes. Alexis had had the forethought to put him into the recovery position. Zane had assumed that he would awaken. That it had just been the shock of them switching bodies after such a long period of time. He'd rather been expecting the young man to get sick and so wasn't quite as concerned as his friend who was still struggling to wake him up. Time trickled by. He was still breathing, there was that but it would have been nice to have at least some signs that he might have been thinking about waking up.

Alexis was no doctor or a nurse. She could only do so much and with every passing moment, she was growing increasingly anxious. She did her best to conceal it but it was becoming ever more apparent. Zane wished that he could have assured her that everything was going to be alright. He couldn't however. Right now he was unable to say just how long he would be unconscious for and even if he would wake up at all.

Silently he cursed himself for having ever agreed to this. The first time round had been an accident, they hadn't and couldn't possibly have known that it was even possible for them to switch bodies, let alone the impact that it would have on Aster. The second had been an act of necessity. He'd saved Aster from being sent into a nightmare destination and had even been thanked for it. That should have been the last given how weak it had left the young man. Instead, he'd gone through with it… He should have known better.

It had been more than five minutes and an increasingly desperate Alexis pressed her fingers to his neck. Zane waited for her verdict, already aware that they didn't have too many options. Either leave him be and try to deal with him themselves in the hope that he would eventually recover or go and get some help and risk some prying questions.

"His pulse feels really faint." She spoke after a while looking up to him, eyes pleading.
"I'll stay with him." Zane promised, seeing what she wanted. "Run back to the Academy and get some help."

Alexis nodded once before running off as quickly as she could. No doubt, she was just as aware as he was that if things took a bad turn, he would be unable to assist Aster. In essence, she was abandoning him. Perhaps if there was a sudden emergency – although Zane couldn't have said just what that could be – then he might have been able to jump into the body once more and attempt to move it to safety but it would be a last resort. For the time being, he would watch over him.

He didn't know exactly how long he was waiting. It felt like quite a while. He imagined it must have been the time that it took Alexis to run back to the party, find someone and come back. Aster's condition didn't change. He took that to be as a good a sign as any. It was certainly better than it worsening, although he would certainly have been grateful if someone with some medical background could back that assumption up. It certainly came as a relief when he saw Alexis come running with Mrs. Fontaine, Atticus and Dr. Crowler carrying a first aid kit and a stretcher. That allowed him to breathe a little more easily. At least he was going to be tended to.

They couldn't see him of course. With the exception of Alexis who forced herself not to pay too much attention to someone whom nobody else would be able to acknowledge. All attention was on the unconscious teenager who still showed no signs of stirring, not even as fuss was being made over him once more. Mrs. Fontaine was quick to give him an examination, checking presumably for injuries or any other obvious signs which might explain his sudden collapse. She wouldn't find any and so quickly turned to the young man's companion for explanations:

"Did he say anything about feeling ill? Headaches? Nausea?"
"No. He just sort of… Went." Alexis answered not taking her eyes off of the unconscious teen. "He did say he was tired but that was a few days ago."
"We'll take him to the infirmary."

Zane would follow after them as Aster was carefully placed onto the stretcher and carried along back up towards the infirmary. He was in good hands, the pro-duellist reasoned. They would be able to help him recover and everything would be okay.

It was Alexis who found herself on the receiving end of the barrage of questions, all of them necessary from the point of view of the school nurse as they attempted to ascertain just why it was that an apparently healthy young man had collapsed. She answered as best as she could, which was probably objectively rather honest given that it wasn't as if he'd been complaining about any ailments before hand. What she did neglect was to inform them that only a minute prior his body had been playing host to the spirit of one of their deceased friends. From time to time, she would look in his direction but found herself forced to remain silent.

"It's odd… No temperature." The nurse declared, looking at the thermometer. Instead, she set about listening to his heartbeat. "Heart's on the faster side though. Did he have anything to eat or drink?"
"A little… Not much."
"What were you doing down by the docks? Did he say he was tired?"
"We just went for a walk." Alexis replied with a shake of her head. "Then he just passed out. I-Is he going to be alright?"
"Probably. I would like to know why he collapsed though." The nurse glanced back towards the patient. "We might have to send him to the mainland for some more tests."

There was some commotion from the corridor causing the discussion to come to a momentary halt. A few seconds later, Jaden, Syrus and Chazz came in. As usual, they seemed to be concerned, worrying for one of their friends. Zane could only guess that the news must have spread through the party and now some of their closer friends were coming to make sure that he was alright. The sight that they would find themselves greeted with wasn't particularly frightening but neither was it entirely comforting. No doubt they feared that some dark magic or shadow game might have been involved. The ghost couldn't help but think that if that was their assumption, then they ironically enough weren't entirely wrong.

"What happened? Is he okay? Has he woken up yet?" They were met with a dozen questions, practically each being shouted over one another.
"Easy now." The nurse requested, raising her voice so as to ensure that she was heard. "He passed out."
"What from?" Jaden questioned glancing at the features of the still sleeping young man.
"Well right now if I had to guess I'd say exhaustion. A bit of rest and he should be fine."
"Exhaustion?" Syrus repeated. "He looked fine at the party."

Alexis shifted slightly, still struggling with concealing a vital piece of information which would no doubt have changed everything. She forced herself to look down at her lap. One thing that Zane had noticed was the way that Atticus was fixing his younger sister. Whilst he knew his old friend to be a fun-loving and carefree individual most of the time, his sibling was the one exception. He was concerned and already the ghost could tell that she was going to be faced with more than a couple of questions from him later on.

"It's not the first time." Chazz reminded them. "After that Trueman thing, he collapsed there too."
"So this has happened before?" Mrs. Fontaine asked them, earning a nod from a few of those present. "Well then, I'll do a blood test just to be safe."

At this point, Zane regretted not having asked Alexis to try and carry Aster onto his yacht. It would have saved them all of this. In a few hours, maybe a little over a day, he would have awoken and everything would have been alright. Instead, he could see that this was going to cause some trouble or at the very least create a few rumour for the last few days around campus. He groaned. More trouble, all for him. This was exactly the sort of thing which he'd been hoping to avoid…

It was getting late and the nurse was keen to usher those still lingering to their beds. They could come back tomorrow morning, she assured them and there would be someone here to make sure that their friend recovered well enough.

"I'll be here too." He assured Alexis when she seemed hesitant. "He'll be fine."

It was quite a long night. Most nights were. Usually, he would distract himself to the best of his ability by going for a walk but right now, given what had happened, he stayed put.

In some ways, it reminded him of when he'd first began to suffer from his heart troubles. First being tended to some of the "doctors" (although he was far from convinced that they had the necessary qualifications) that the Underground had to offer and their puzzlement and then when he'd finally managed to drag himself to someone who'd actually gone to school and who knew what they were doing. He saw the same concern on the nurse's face as she considered a boy whose ailment seemed to defy explanation as he had when the doctor of Domino City had first placed a stethoscope to his chest. Aster would get better though. The look in the eyes of the man who'd examined him had spoke for itself.

The hours tricked by slowly, marked by the incessant ticking of a clock. Mrs. Fontaine slept in a chair at the other end of the infirmary, resting her head against a table. From time to time, stirred by some force which Zane couldn't understand, she would wake up and check on her patient, taking his pulse and temperature. It couldn't have been all that concerning as she would inevitably find her way back to where she had been sleeping and go back to resting there again.

He would be okay. Zane told himself. He'd lived through.

Dawn saw Alexis pay them a visit. She was clearly exhausted and Zane couldn't help but wonder if she'd managed to find any sleep at all. She slipped into the room so silently that the nurse didn't stir. Her eyes drifted between the unconscious Aster towards the spirit which watched over him now.

"He hasn't woken up. Has he?"
"He will do." Zane assured her.
"You've seen something like this before?"
"I knew he'd get sick. He did the last couple of times."

Zane made his confession quietly. For whatever reason, it hurt his pride and shamed him more than he felt it should have to admit to such things in front of Alexis. Perhaps it was because he still thought of her in part as he had done when they had both been much younger and more innocent, as friends. Things had seemed a good deal simpler back then. In many ways, he wished that he could have gone back to those days. All the while, he knew that the boy who had graduated from this school two years ago would have loathed the man that he'd become. It was hard to imagine that some of his friends didn't feel the same way inclined.

Alexis waited in silence, glancing back down towards Aster. At the very least, he didn't appear to be suffering. That made things slightly easier.

"Well so did he. Maybe it wasn't smart but you heard what Mrs. Fontaine said, a bit of rest and he'll be fine."
"You..." He cast a brief glance in the direction of the still sleeping nurse. "-probably don't want to talk to me too much. Nobody else can hear or see me. We don't want them thinking you've lost it."
"I know..." She muttered quietly.

Alexis settled down to wait. He didn't attempt to convince her to do otherwise or to go back to get some rest. All those days spent by her brother's bedside during her first year in the school had taught him that it was pointless. She could be impossibly stubborn in that regard. There would be no chance of moving her until Aster had awoken.

As luck would have it, they didn't have to wait all that long. Zane had rather been anticipating it being a good few hours, if not tomorrow before Aster awoke. Instead, it must have been about nine o'clock when he first started to stir. It still made for nine hours of sleep from which he obviously couldn't awaken which would have been enough to concern most people regardless of the situation. As soon as he saw the younger man grimace however and his eyelids begin to flutter, the ghost breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as she saw the first few signs of his waking up, Alexis called over the nurse. All three waited patiently. It was another few minutes before finally, his blue eyes managed to creak themselves open. They drifted around the room slowly as he groaned, obviously keen to try and pull himself together. It was Zane the first that they fell upon, lingering there for a moment whilst he tried to remember just who he was and what he was doing here. The ghost did what he could, nodding in the direction of those who could boast to still being alive. The last thing that Aster needed right now was for there to be questions about his sanity as he acknowledged something which to many wouldn't be there. When he finally did turn around to see Alexis and Mrs. Fontaine, it was to greet them with wide eyes.

"W-What happened?"
"You passed out." Alexis reminded him. "Remember?"
"Would I really remember something like that?" He asked, shifting briefly but then apparently thinking better of it. "I can remember falling… Thanks for catching me by the way. I guess that'll teach me for skipping on meals."
"At your age especially..." The nurse was stern now that the danger seemed to have passed. "You need food."
"I know. I've just been busy that's all. I must have overworked myself. I'm sorry if I scared you."

Zane rested relatively easily. Perhaps there would be some concerns as to whether or not Aster was telling the truth and if there might not have been something else involved but then those blood tests would come back and tell them that everything was alright. He was indeed faced with a few more questions from Mrs. Fontaine, whether or not that was her being sceptical or simply following medical procedure he wouldn't have liked to say. Whatever the case, Aster stuck to his story.

They got some time alone when he complained of being hungry. The nurse left, promising to find him something to eat and offering to bring Alexis something as well. Her absence allowed the three of them to breathe more easily. Zane had only a single thing to say:

"Never again."
"Don't worry. I don't think I could face it..." Aster assured him, letting out a sigh. "Don't tell the nurse but I can barely move right now."
"Zane said you knew what would happen." He managed a little nod to confirm. "Thank you… For what you did."
"You can see him too?" Alexis gave the ghost a brief glance, a knowing look. It was all that he needed. "Welcome to the club..."

He wasn't up to much. That was clear from a couple of minutes in. He could talk but it definitely seemed to be requiring a fair amount of effort. Again, Zane wasn't terribly concerned. This was, after all, the third time that he'd witnessed the fallout from his possessing his friend. The food that was brought did him some good. Once more, he'd turned into a seemingly bottomless pit. The time that it had taken Alexis to eat a quarter of her own food, Aster had finished all of his.

Their visitors arrived shortly afterwards. Aster was well enough to greet them and make light of the situation. He was safe, surrounded by his friends. They would watch over him. Zane allowed himself the briefest of smiles before carefully and silently slipping out of the room. He didn't need to be reminded that they were part of a circle which he no longer belonged to.

It was a lonely feeling that he knew well. One which demanded that he go in search of solitude least he be reminded of what he'd lost. Despite the unpleasant feeling which hung over him at all times, he found it to be somewhat more bearable than being cut off from his friends. That wasn't quite what he told himself however, his pride refusing to allow him to admit that he might need others. Instead, he silently reasoned that it was easier for Aster and Alexis as they no longer had to worry about his presence and could interact relatively normally with the others.

He'd managed to make it half way towards the lighthouse before he came to a stop. He remained frozen like that for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. He didn't bother to turn around, sensing that the person who had been following him had also halted. He didn't bother turning round to see who it was, knowing just who he would find there.

"Where are you going?" Alexis asked him.
"For a walk." He replied still not turning round to see her.
"No disappearing?"
"Would it matter?"
"It would to me."

He turned round to see her as if to ensure that she was well and truly there as opposed to some figment of his imagination. After all these days being ignored purely because nobody else but Aster knew he was there, he was struggling to get used to it. Some part of him caused it to feel as if he was back in his previous life and things had never changed even although knew it not to be so. It caused him to stare at her, to fix her as if she was some manner of an alien. He knew that he shouldn't have been but he couldn't quite help it.

Slowly however, he found himself to be relaxing.

"I'll see you around Alexis."
"Promise?" He could almost have laughed at how she reminded him of Cyrus in those few moments.
"I promise."

It must have been enough for her, as she gave him a brief smile followed by a nod and turned away, heading back towards the infirmary. He watched her for a little while, until she had disappeared from sight. Not once did she turn round to see if he was still standing him or where he was heading. He supposed that meant that she must have trusted him.

This time around, Zane decided, he would do what he could to avoid disappointing her.