Felinis: I skipped class to write this chapter. Honestly, the hold up here besides life was deciding on how terrible a person I wanted to be to you come next chapter. I'll leave it to you to figure that out. Also thank you to everyone who puts up with my writing that has the grammatical sense of a squirrel.

On a shore with blossoming with spider lilies, the crisp air of the sea breeze brushing the faces of the heroes as they made their way inside towards a cave. All the while Patty's heart was clenched in turmoil from a nagging sense of familiarity at the sight of everything. As they entered a cave full of twists and turns the dread only grew inside her heart. It explodes at the sight of stones piled high and one the tallest where a hat sits. The captain hat is so familiar to her. So close to her heart that it hurts because she can't remember who it belonged to.

"What are all these stones doing here? There are so many of them! It's creepy..." Rita says looking over the stones.

Raven pokes one with a hand and looks to Judith who's just as surprised as the rest of them. "You sure this is the right place?"

Judith nods tapering her fingers against the largest grave. "Yes, this where they keep the bell, but I wasn't aware that graves would be here. The numbers are staggering..."

Patty's breath hitches and phantom screams crawl into her ears. Estelle looks at the carving and the words drive into her brain like a hammer. "Here lie the victims of the Black Hope Incident. Here we mourn the dearly departed, and return them to the Earth."

Breath! She needs to breathe!

It can't be true and- No- Her mind is playing tricks on her- Yes- No!

"Patty? Are you okay?" Estelle asks as she shakes her shoulder.

"Well, you can't blame her. There's no way you could expect someone to accept this at her age." Raven adds as the others whisper what to do.

"Repede, can we trust you to watch Patty while we retrieve the bell?"

The little thoughts in her head pile up like an iron scented snow. Red, red snow. Not it's blood! She grabs at the thoughts and the words, but they melt away so quick. One image screams out from the darkness louder than others of a man- and…

Seifer...

It's gone far too quickly as the others return with the bell in hand. She stays quiet on the boat as they fly to Egothor forest. Her mind with a single conclusion. Once they find Yuri she must leave to search for her memories. She needs answers and she finally is at the edge of remembering something after so long. She can taste it lingering at the edge of her mouth as the ground comes into view.

The bed was covered in empty bottles and stained red in spots where Flynn had carelessly spilled on the sheets. A smell of filth and morning breath clung in his mouth as he turned in his sleep with a small snort on the floor. On the bed, Yuri is restless as his mind brings him back to the cage and the experiments. Of hours of feeling his body pulled apart and his eyes rapidly move around the room counting cracks in the ceiling, dots on the floor, dust in the window panes. Anything he can count is a distraction he welcomes.

"one plus one is two." He mutters closing his eyes and repeating basic math, so he can get a bit more sleep. It had been easy when he'd been high to fall into a coma-like sleep but once he woke up and thoughts remerged in his brain Yuri found himself back in that cage. He'd spent a month in that box and he still couldn't grasp entirely yet that he was out and free. That he was safe.

But, still dying.

He turns on the bed and sees Flynn snoring and far more comfortable than Yuri could hope to be. Horns did not make for comfortable sleeping positions and while Yuri could bring Flynn up and use him as a makeshift pillow he also knew from experience that cuddling with horns were a bad idea. Horns, in general, were inconvenient.

He gets up as quietly as he can and shuts himself with a little effort inside the bathroom. The large mirror mocks him on entry and Yuri can't help the passing growl that coats his lips as he looks at that thing that he knows is his face.

Dying…

In that cage, Yuri never had a mirror so his view in how much his body was suffering was limited to what he could see when he glanced down. Now, he looks in the mirror and screams because his face really isn't his own anymore and he can understand if Flynn can't look at him. Yuri can't look himself because that body in the mirror is so deformed from the original. Yes, he saw yesterday but for some reason when analyzing everything and pulling the mess apart piece by piece he could separate himself from the reflection. There was no time for that here.

It's annoying to get his pants off just so he can use the toilet and a longing for functional thumbs hits him when he does manage to get the things off. Sitting on the toilet is another matter entirely… "Really?" It takes a bit of think for Yuri to decide to sit facing the wall, so he doesn't have to deal with his tails getting squashed.

"I can't even take a shit right."

It's all a reminder of things that cage had let him ignore. Dying… his body is dying. No, this is worse than dying because death meant there'd be an end for him and that people could move on. He's going to become a vegetable that can't think and that's worse. He does his best to ignore it and take a walk into the calm night air.

Yuri just needs to clear his head and let those ugly thoughts fade for just a bit longer. Looking up to the sky he notes the filter of green over everything and the strange humidity to the air that almost feels like breathing in the way it blows on his cheeks. He feels the presence of an Entelexeia, but he can't see it and it makes him itch. Where is it?

"Kronos seldom talks." A voice slides in and Yuri sees a figure that he remembers briefly from Heliord. Dark skin and blue hair trailing behind. "He won't answer anyone, but he is always listening."

"And that is?"

She pauses in realization. "Oh, right. He's the Entelexeia that holds this city aloft. We're inside him right now."

Yuri looks further up at the green-tinted sky and notes how there is a slight pulsing. That's a little… gross… no, it's just very weird. "So, you were part of the rescue party."

"Yes…"

"You knew. You'd have to have had known what Alexei was doing in that place." Yuri can feel it like he does with Ba'ul and did with Belius. That buzz of kinship that he's really getting sick of. "Why?"

He waits patiently for the answer to finally tumble from her mouth. "I just hoped that if humans had a new source of power that it would help to better things. By the time Alexei reached this point, it was too late to do anything."

"So you're just leaving the rest of those people to suffer in cages and lose their sanity?" Yuri hisses.

"I can't do anything for them. Not without risking my life." Khroma crosses her arms and Yuri feels his blood start to boil again. "I need to stay alive as it is my job to watch over this world. It's humanity's fault for betraying. Alexei will fall. I'll see to it. I just wish he'd been more useful towards you."

A realization… no a faint clouded memory from nights long ago makes his way that shifts to a conclusion. "You-you-!"

"I did it to help you. I don't want to see you die so soon."

He got locked in a cage, tortured, prodded, and stripped of his dignity! Like hell, Yuri is going to forgive that! His legs lunge at her but he's still clumsy and trips at every attempt till Yuri start crouching on all fours. Why did everyone around him decide that they knew what was best to do? Nobody knew how to fix him or what to do and even a team of scientists who dedicated themselves to stopping his transformation found nothing.

"Can't any of you just give me some goddamn peace?" Yuri whines as the muscles in his legs give way and he finds he can't stand. This shitty body! Everything in him is broken yes, but he's still thinking and still himself. He's still Yuri Lowell.

"But soon you won't be." The words are dry as the desert sands as Khroma holds a hand out that Yuri refuses. He still has time before his body and his mind… Yuri can't stand thinking about it but since he got free the issue has done nothing but stare him in the face. "I think it's important that you follow me."

"Fuck off."

"You'll want to see this."

They didn't expect cannon fire from a hoplon upon reaching the Egothor forest. Perhaps they'd been reckless to assume that Alexei wasn't keeping eyes out for an entrance into a city crawling with new materials for his sick experiments. They only skirted around death with the help of Estelle's power and as they hurried towards the blastia in hopes of shutting it down a growing sense of nervousness filled the group.

"Patty keep focused," Karol said as he noted the way the girl kept falling behind if even by just a few steps. "I know you have a lot on your mind, but you need to keep focused."

"Sorry, I just keep overthinking things," Patty muttered as she fiddled with her gun over and over. Karol grabbed her hand assured her it was fine as long as she didn't get hurt. The knights here were clearly with Alexei from Raven's declaration on the uniform and judging by how well guarded the first cannon was when they disarmed it another should be nearby.

Judith scanned the horizon from atop the blastia. "I see it. It's on higher ground." Their movements were stopped when another shot fired at them and once more Estelle just barely neutralized the fire.

Rita's body tightened in an uncontrollable rage. "They were willing to destroy their own blastia just to kill us! That's it, Estelle get behind me because I am taking care of these fuckers!" Scarves ready and blood pumping Rita charged through and past enemy attacks with the sole purpose of defending her friends and the blastia.

Patty looked at it all from a distance even as she batted off a knight with a clumsy parry of her knife. As she was pushed back the thought of how she should have just stayed on the ship crawled to mind. How she was burdening everyone in being here and not helping the others in the long run. Her body was knocked back into Raven and he adjusted her upright quick enough.

"Maybe ya really shoulda stayed back at the ship and took it easy."

Patty swallows. "Aye... This isn't an easy fight. If I'm just in everyone's way, maybe I should—"

"Quit your grumbling! Now's not the time!" Rita hisses as she pulls Patty by the arm. "Everyone's friends here, so don't worry about it!"

Karol trots ahead with a wide grin. "Friends?"

"That's unusual coming from you, Rita," Judith notes as she roundhouse kicks a knight who charged at them in the face.

A blush takes the mage's face as she lets go of Patty's arm. "Oh shut up! Come on, we've got to stop that hoplon blastia." Friends… No, what's going on right now is something bigger than friendship. It's redemption for her family name and the chance to do good in this world. For that reason alone, Patty cannot afford to be a burden to these people.

She follows the charge onto the second hoplon blastia and grins at the victory when Rita cracks the code. There's victory, a small one, and in that victory, there is hope. Patty looks at the motley crew and thinks that maybe once everything is sorted that they have a chance. Now all they have to do is ring a bell.

Myorzo is a bigger city then one thinks at a first glance. As Yuri follows Khroma slowly and on unsteady feet he notes how long they've traveled to reach this place. Thick trees and forest surround them as the city breaks way to a park and farmlands that are green with ready fruits and vegetables.

"Over the centuries if half-breeds were born they were quickly euthanized once the changes started or became some of the Giganto monsters known today. Some… well, some are like Nuxia." Khroma pulls Yuri along a stone path as she does her best to support his legs. It's funny, the muscle is still there but he feels it in his feet that the support can't handle walking. It's not even a matter of crawling his legs just aren't up for long distances. There are statues of bronze monster along the path and Yuri notes one that looks distinctively like Belius and another like the Entelexeia from Caer Bocram.

"Nuxia?"

"Yes… she's one of the few living examples of your condition." Khroma pushes aside a branch and mutters something along the lines of pruning. "Nuxia was still herself when my father was a child. I heard stories over the years that she was an avid scholar at one point. I think it's why she likes it here."

There's a giant dome building sitting at the end of the path. "It's her old home and the city's grand library. Everything in there is as just as old as her if not more so."

"She lives in the library?" Yuri swallows and the nod he receives is too pleasant for his liking. "I- how- how many cases have there been of things like… like-"

"You?" She stops as she unlocks a white painted iron gate to lead them inside a new garden of flowers and orange trees. "Enough that I can say she's not even close to being the oldest one in the city. But, I hoped she'd be the last."

They enter inside where a garden lies inside as well in the center of a library large enough to rival Aspio's. "At least they never saw fit to take her from her own house." Yuri wants to run back now that they're inside the dark library. He feels her… Just at the edge of his brain, he feels that presence.

"How many…?"

A sigh, "Ten last I checked. Nuxia is the youngest so I figured seeing her will be easiest."

Khroma calls with a strange throat click and whistle that Yuri can say he understands but can't translate. Yuri finds he's panicked at the idea of seeing the monster being kept in Myorzo behind a gate and in a dark library. What can it be, but something horrible? He doesn't see her until a mound of trees lifts from the ground, dirt shifting as the creature sits up from the garden center and hitting them in clumps.

She's large, larger than Belius by a good ten feet. Nuxia's eyes are a milky white that look at him back and forth with a sad fascination. Her body is a soft tawny brown with gold moss growing in it; a body and face like a mole with thick large claws that curve up in a painful way that seems agonizing as she lumbers over. The trees in the garden aren't trees… They're bronze spikes that jut up and curve, twist, bend. The leaves and vines are an absurd decoration by others, It feels cruel to decorate her with hanging plants to Yuri when she can't protest. The Khroma smiles and holds out a cucumber for her to eat. No teeth, just a smooth wall of flesh and thick saliva that takes is whole. This thing couldn't hurt people if it tried… A long stony tail comes into view as Nuxia walks closer in steps that seems inches despite the size.

This thing… it's miserable… All Nuxia does is stare and flex the muscles of its lips. The breath is rancid, and Yuri is only kept from running by a firm hand on his back as the thing gets closer. Yuri has never been afraid of monsters. Afraid of death, yes! But this thing- Nuxia is literally harmless. The limbs on this creature barely function beyond nudging it closer and the more he stares the more the real fear sinks in.

This thing can't hurt him. This thing that was once human or at least close can't move or speak. Looking at the eyes closer Yuri doesn't even think it can see. At least the things in the cages looked dangerous and like they could still- still- function in some capacity. It was breathing on him in unsteady heavy breathes that made him want to hurl.

"Hi?"

If Nuxia can talk, it's incomprehensible gibberish to his ears as it presses closer to him. It makes Yuri think of an infant trying to speak out loud for the first time. All he hears are whines and cries that come as low bellows from a toothless mouth.

"Why yes. Good Nuxia. He is just like you."

A stone drops in his throat as Yuri is finally able to back away from her. He's not like that! He refuses to become like this- this thing! Bits of saliva fall to the floor as her, no its, mouth opens back and forth.

"Book? I see… it has been a long time since we read to you." Stop talking to it like that! Yuri crawls back on the floor till he's pressed against the bookshelf. "What kind would you like?"

"Why do you keep her alive? This isn't right- I just look at- it's!" He screams, and Yuri thinks of those cages of those people in the cages of how he's just like that. That he's going to end up some lumbering pet if nobody fixes him… if nobody kills him.

Breath.

Just breath!

There's still time!

Time for what?

Something?!

ANYTHING!?

Yuri's not sure when the bile got on the floor, but he knows his head is spinning as Khroma looks down at him in pity. "Why?"

"Because it be crueler to kill her when it's been so long. Nuxia was already mostly claws and fur when my father met her. She barely remembered how to read or anything yet, the poor girl begged not to die." She scratches the things long drooping shredded ears. "I think it would be rude if we dishonored that wish now."

"But that-"

"You should know that as far as her condition goes she's more functional than the older ones here." How can anything get worse than that? "They never become proper Entelexeia even though they feed purely on aer. The best way to say it is that in time their bodies become living tumors. They can't evolve so the cells expand the body goes through an almost immortal necrosis."

"You actually saw some on the way over." On the way- there was nothing but- "They mostly hibernate till the body hardens and turns to stone. The flesh inside converts to aer and they become an apatheia crystal. A weak one, but an apatheia all the same."

So that's what's supposed to happen? His brain turns to mush and he'll either be killed by some guy with a sword or his body will break and swell itself up till he turns to stone. "Why show me this?" Yuri could have lived without this truth. Just like every other truth he'd learned since he left Zaphias with Estelle.

"I want you to understand. This process is slow and takes centuries, millennia even. Nuxia only reached this stage in the past century."

"Saying how long I'd be suffering doesn't help." It doesn't change anything.

"it's going to happen. You need to be prepared." Yuri pushed off Nuxia's attempt at comfort and stood on shaky feet.

"All you've done assured me of what I'll have to do." He looked closely at the two as he hobbled towards the door. "If you bring Flynn here I'll kill you!"

"But, it is important that you under-"

"You gave him false hope! If you hurt him by telling him what's happening then- then-" Then one of them would do something stupid and that they'd regret. Flynn was already suffering enough just looking at him and watching Yuri die.

Burning…

Something in him was burning

Tossing and turning with an infection