Disclaimer:  Lessee, lots of stuff I own and much more stuff I don't own.  Anything you saw in Shadow Hearts, I don't own.

**

[Alice]

            I began to wake up, but at the sight I saw I was convinced I was still dreaming.  Instead of the grassy field or dark forest or inferno I had expected, there were a few wayward trees without leaves, seemingly dead.  There was no other vegetation; the fine, reddish silt lay uncovered.  I pinched myself.  This was not a dream.

            So I was in the other world then.  But wouldn't Lilia have taken us to Regina's tower?  Had something gone wrong?

            I looked around frantically and found to my relief that Yuri was sleeping next to me.  However, the summoner was nowhere to be seen.  Had she left?  That didn't make sense though…

            A few nudges woke Yuri up.  At first he was groggy, and he asked, "Alice?  You're going to ream me out now, aren't you?"

            "There's a bigger problem right now.  Do you have any idea where we are?"

            Puzzled, he sat up and looked around.  Then he swore in awe.  "Shit.  She really did it."

            "I thought she was going to take you to Regina's tower."

            His eyes widened.  "I thought so too."  He scanned the area, but I already knew he'd find nothing.  "Where is that brat?"  There was no tower, no summoner.  No clue to tell us where we were.  Finally Yuri summed up my agitated mood accurately:  "Oh, hell."

**

            Persephone reappeared in Regina's room.  Startled, she looked around but saw that only Regina and herself were in the room.

            "Where is he?" Regina asked, both puzzled and disappointed.  "He didn't change his mind, did he?"

            "He—he didn't—"

            "Then where is he?" the immortal demanded.

            He had come with her, as well as the girl.  Persephone was sure of that.  But he wasn't here.  What if…once again she began playing.  This time the black ropes her flute created snaked along the ground, feeling for something.

            Regina's eyes widened and she demanded, "He's not in the barrier, is he?!"

            "No.  He's not."  She didn't sense him there.  Or the girl for that matter.

            "Persephone, where is Hyuga?"

            She was losing patience now, and it'd be best to answer quickly.  Still, Persephone hesitated.  "He's here.  In this world."  Just not in the tower.

            It was the worst thing that could've happened.

            "Explain," Regina ground out.

            "I did meet him.  And he was willing to go," Persephone said quickly.  Should she tell about the note?  No, it'd only make Regina angrier.  "His companions found out though—they didn't want him to go."  Her words tumbled over each other in her anxiousness to explain.  "Sarah interfered with the crossing—she was using Light class magic—"

            "And you didn't stop her?"

            Persephone flinched as if she'd been stung.  "Both of us tried.  Her magic is very strong, you've said that yourself."  She tried very hard to make her voice sound calm, reasonable.  "After all, she was an angel."

            There was silence for a moment as her mistress accepted the news.  "Of course," Regina said slowly.  "It's not your fault.  You tried your best."

            The words sounded hollow, and made Persephone feel even worse.  She should've been strong enough to block Sarah—with Hyuga's help at least.  But Light magic had combined with Dark magic and created chaos out of a simple crossing.  She'd failed Regina.

            "But I'm so worried about him," Regina continued.  "What if he's in the City of Light?"

            They would kill him.

            "And anywhere else, I do not know that he would have…a warm reception."  Her crimson eyes glistened with tears as she looked at Persephone.  The girl was overwhelmed by guilt.  "Some of them bear grudges against him, some would surely kill him—"

            "No they won't!"  Persephone protested.  "I'll find him first."  Regina seemed surprised, but the servant felt like maybe, maybe there was a chance of making this all right.  "I swear I'll find him for you Regina."

            After a moment, Regina smiled.  "Thank you, Persephone."  She thought, and then beckoned to the child.  "Come closer."

            Persephone did and Regina put her hand on her shoulder, no longer mistress but friend.  "It will be hard to find him in this world, and there may be some danger.  Syth and Kain shall accompany you."  The girl nodded, very slightly.  "It is good that you want to fix your mistake, but be careful that you do not make it again."  A shadow chased across Persephone's face.  "Don't let Sarah interfere again.  If the two of them are together, separate them, no matter what.  Do whatever you have to."

            "Of course."

            Regina smiled as she heard this answer and asked, "Why are you so willing to do this for me?"

            "Because I want you to be happy," Persephone said.  "I'll be happy if you're happy."

            "Yes.  You will be," Regina promised before turning away.  "Now, you should probably start getting ready."

            "Yes Regina…"

**

[Margarete]

            "So what was that about?" I asked Keith as we left the castle.  He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.  "The head shake."

            "You shouldn't be rude."

            "I wasn't trying to be rude.  Besides, it's just your dad."

            He shook his head again, looking exasperated.  "He's the ruler of the clan."

            "So?"

            "He didn't tolerate that before."

            I rolled my eyes.  "Too bad for him, we're not in the other world."

            "We will be soon."

            Oh.  He had a point.  Mouthing off to a ruler, especially one with magic, was not exactly the smartest idea ever.

            "Why's that matter?" Halley interrupted.  "We don't have a reason to see any of them.  Except the one," he added with a scowl.  "And I'm not going to be nice to her."

            Keith said patiently, "I know.  But how do you think the other rulers will react when they find out about him?  His ancestor is probably well known for starting a war.  And there will be some people who remember him personally."

            Zhuzhen turned towards him.  "You think he might be in danger?"

            "If they found out, possibly."

            "They won't," I protested.  "I doubt Regina would want someone finding out about this, and it sounds like she's isolated."

            But the other rulers know about her.  They'd want to keep an eye on her.  And kiddo's always been an idiot about bringing attention to himself…

            "If they do though, the situation could become very complicated."

            "You think they'd want to use him?"

            This brought stares from everyone else at me.  "Use him?  Wouldn't they just kill him?" Halley asked, and then he shook his head.  "Let's not think about this, alright?  No point in dwelling on what might happen.  I'm just hoping we can actually go to—"

            He stopped abruptly.  I wondered why but then a heard a familiar sound, like radio static.

            Come here…away…Alice are gone…world…Sharon will take…says…ready.

            Koudelka's voice lingered in my head as I looked at Halley.  "Did you tell her already?"  From the fragments I had heard, it sounded like Koudelka knew the situation, but Halley's eyes were wide.

            "No.  I'm not that good at telepathy yet, I couldn't send a message that far."

            Zhuzhen raised an eyebrow.  "Interesting.  Could one of your clan have alerted her?"  The question was directed towards Keith, though with a careless shrug the vampire told us this was not likely.

            "Perhaps if they'd bother."

            "Who cares?" I asked, though still feeling a little suspicious.  "Least we know Sharon's willing."

            The old man nodded.  "We've got a while to Prague.  Let's pick up the pace," he said, creating a fireball to light our way through the night.

**

            "Where are we?"

            Kain marked the tower's location with a circle.  "Right here on the map.  Do you sense anything near here?  He might not have gone far off."

            Persephone shook her head.  "He's nowhere near."

            The illusionist grit his teeth.  Great.  There went a simple job.  Now it was going to be hard.  On the map, he pointed out the other cities and frowned as one of the dots moved.  "Those damn idiots," he swore.  "Bloody traitors."

            At this, Syth moved closer, craning his neck to look at the map.  Sure enough, the movement was towards the city of Light.  "Hm, Water towards Light again.  Looks like they might have an alliance with them."

            "I'll kill her.  She's sold out."

            "The Water and Light clans did work together in the war—"

            "Stop chatting, there's more important things to do."

            At this, both men looked up at Persephone, who seemed very annoyed.  She pointed towards the black dot.  "I sense many of the Darkness clan here, of course, a few here—"  Her finger went over to the blue dot, "Some here—"

            "Of course, that's Nemesis and his party, trying to talk sense into Mia again—"

            "Don't interrupt me Kain."

            Kain was now looking at Syth with wide eyes, seeking backup.  Persephone was never like this.  "Persephone," Syth began cautiously, "Are you upset?"

            She glanced at him, seeming confused, then looked back down at the map.  "There's two near Air and three near Earth.  Earth has more people.  So we'll go there first.  Get ready."

            Persephone stood from the table, but Syth grabbed her sleeve.  He asked again, "Are you upset about anything?"

            "No," she said.  "Nothing's wrong."

            "You just seem…sort of…snappish," Syth said slowly.

            "That would be because this is important, and both of you seem to think it's not."  She glared at him.  "Don't you understand?"

            Syth understood, and he dropped his hand to fall by his side as she walked away.  Kain watched as his friend scowled once the girl had left the room.  "Regina."  Syth pushed himself away from the table and marched into the hallway, the illusionist following him.

            "Syth."

            He stormed down the stairs, ignoring his friend's call.

            "Leave it, Syth!"
            Down a few levels and now Kain could feel the heat of the inferno beneath their feet.  Ahead of them was the door to Regina's room, just a few feet away.

            "She's fine!"

            His friend pulled open the door.  "REGINA!"  The door slammed shut.  There was no way to stop him now.  Kain slumped down on the stairs, and tried to make out what he could hear from the heated argument.  Syth's voice was louder, but Regina's temper was obviously being tested. Suddenly her words became quieter, lower. Then there was screaming.  Male.

            And all he did was shake his head.  "You stupid idiot.  Just leave it alone."

**

[Alice]

            When we realized that we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, we both decided that we should start walking, following the light I summoned.  We had no clue which direction to go, or where; but we had no food and water and it was obvious that we should get both quickly.

            Yuri didn't say much as he walked, and I didn't say anything either.  I could sense that he was upset that I had followed him, and also worried that we were out in the middle of nowhere.  I was a bit put out by him being upset—how had he expected us to react?—but, thinking on it, I suppose he didn't want more people involved than there had to be.

            Along the way, small blades of grass had sprung up, and now the ground was covered with it.  I took this as a good sign; we must be getting closer to water.  There were leaves on the trees too, although there was no fruit growing yet.  Since it was springtime, we were out of luck for fruit.

            Finally, we came to a river.  Yuri immediately began drinking, scooping water in his hands and gulping it down.  I was a bit hesitant, watching the water flow past us.

            "What's wrong?" he asked.

            "Isn't it dirty?"

            I was surprised that he shook his head.  "It's running water.  That's a good thing.  And I didn't taste anything odd."

            "It's a bit too late once you've put it in your mouth."

            He grinned lopsidedly and drank more.  I was thirsty too and started drinking, careful to lay my things by the side.

            After a while, we both leaned back against a large rock, sitting next to each other.  "Look at that sky," Yuri said wonderingly, his head tilted back.

            In one direction—I was assuming for now that it was East—there was a light glow in the sky, indicating that sunrise was coming.  We had been walking the whole night.  But Yuri was pointing out something else: the absence of stars.  There wasn't a single star in the sky.

            "Bad night for stargazing," I said lightly.

            "Why did you follow me?"

            My eyes went back to him, but he was still facing the night sky.  "Shouldn't you know?"

            His gaze came down, landing on me.  "I'm not sure."

            "I love you."

            And for some reason, it seemed like I had both taken away and multiplied his worry.  Yuri leaned forward and kissed me, pulling away to say, "Thank you."

            What was he thanking me for?  For coming with him?  Or for loving him?

            "Let's get some sleep now," he said, casting a look around while rubbing one of his eyes.  "I think we're safe here.  And it's been a long day."

**

            It was going to be a long day.

            Kain drew this conclusion based on Syth's long face, which prompted the automatic question:  "Are you alright?"

            "Fine," Syth answered dully, joining him as he walked towards the exit.  Persephone was waiting there, pacing the floor.  Kain felt a rush of anger when he saw her.

            "Everyone ready?" she asked, checking over both.  Kain glanced at Syth, but his friend was physically healthy, one thing to be grateful for, he supposed. Regina could have decided to give him a few burns—or make him go on the March.  He shuddered at the very thought of that.  It was one of the reasons you simply did not disobey the Fire ruler.

            Syth nodded, but seeing this, Kain argued.  "Why don't you stay behind Syth?  There's no reason for you to come.  How are you going to help?"

            "You know I can help track him," he answered wearily.  Kain grit his teeth.  It was no use with these two.  They'd both go even if he stayed behind, and then they'd get themselves killed.  No use at all.

            Persephone walked up to the white wall surrounding the tower.  A simple step took her through, and then Syth followed.  Kain turned for a moment and viewed the five stories he could see.  He promised himself that when Hyuga came back, things would change.  He wasn't sure how, but things could only get better.

**

[Margarete]

            I woke up with a start, gasping for breath.  I looked around wildly, trying to figure out where I was.  Zhuzhen's voice came from outside:  "Something wrong, Margarete?"

            "N-no," I said shakily.  I had shouted, hadn't I?  Or I had tried to—but then the water had gotten in my mouth and I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe…

            "We slept longer than three hours.  It's been four."

            "Okay."  So we were supposed to get moving an hour ago.  Well, an hour wasn't too bad.

            "You're sure you're alright?"

            "Yeah.  Yeah, I'm fine.  Just need to change."

            I twisted around to look for fresh clothing, and then looked down in my hand.  In it there was a yellowed, ragged piece of paper.  On one side was Yuri's note—but on the other side, there was another note.

**

Author's Note:  Zzzz…::snaps awake::  Huh?  We're done?  'Kay…::goes back to sleep::

Yuri: …::pokes awake::

What?

Yuri:  There's other fics you need to write, too.  So don't be lazy.

Hmph.  Don't insult the all-powerful author.

Yuri:  ::rolls his eyes::

You don't think I am?  Fine.  I'll prove it to you later, now…::goes back to sleep::

Yuri:  ::prods::  Reviewers.

…Darn.

**

Reviewers:

The Nightopian:  Yes there is a good/bad ending (it sounded like you were confused).  And thanks for the review.

Kimgrasshopper:  Yuri's note would probably be in Japanese.  After all, since he grew up in China, he probably learned Chinese, Japanese, and Russian up until his parents' deaths; afterwards, he might have learned Chinese and Japanese (since the military was there) but he probably wouldn't learn anymore Russian (unless he went there).  ::shrugs:: It just seemed natural to me that he'd write the note in either Chinese or Japanese, not Russian.

            Um…I'm not really big on vampire things either, but I'm glad that you thought Keith was in character.  Now hoping that Margarete is in character (as she always seems to be the troublemaker for me).

            Actually, we have figured out today that we are lost too.  ::Is tangled up in the big yarn ball of string plot::  Meow?  ^^

            By the way, Alice's philosophical treatise is the Syadastan Affirmation, a Discordian catma.  A dogma is a proposition and either true or false, but a catma is a propositional function and so can have many meanings, some true, false, or in the Excluded Middle (or in the Syadastan Affirmation, meaningless).  This all according to Everything is Under Control, a kind of encyclopedia on conspiracies and cults.  Sound weird for Alice to be reciting that little piece?  It should be explained later.

            (Also, some claim that if you repeat the Affirmation 666 times, you will have Total Enlightenment.  I got up to about 6 before losing count.)

            As for Faithless, the problem is that when I first posted the third chapter, it counted the number but didn't display the chapter.  So I had to repost that, and it added that to the tally as well.

SQ:  Yeah, I've heard about SH2…one article I saw said there'd be four character battles, so there's got to be at least four characters…probably more…so maybe Yuri and Alice can fit in there somewhere.  Hopefully.  ::crosses fingers::

Araschid:  It was not just you or ff.net.  It was my own laziness and sleepiness when I posted the chapter.  I thought I had finished the sentence, saw in the preview that I hadn't, and realized I didn't really care.  ::sweatdrop::  In fact, there's a lot of things in previous chapters I need to fix.  Incorrect spellings, switching tenses back and forth during a scene (the end of ch. 4, I believe) and conflicting eye colors (Keith has both blue and green eyes).  That, and there's a few paragraphs that didn't belong in the first chapter but were put only because I was obsessing about a different story I'd chosen to postpone (probably indefinitely) for this one.

            I hope I can organize my thoughts too.  Sometime.

Nights Mistress:  Well, I already gave you permission and you've already used the message so moving on to…your suggestion.  ::Grins::  Advent on Yuri.  Let's see if that can be worked in…

Yuri:  That is not fair.

Greyfriars:  Actually, when I first fought Simon, I thought he was a Light class (because of the Revelation attack).  And I thought this be a great game, because how many games have you fighting against supposedly holy people or whatever?

            …Well, it's a great game, but we never see any bad Light class people.  And they had all these Dark class bad people, and it's like frustration.

            Earth people all live for abnormally long amounts of time.  How 'bout that?

Rex:  Yep, Sharon is back in.  I'm still kind of unsure how she'll fit in the group (in relation to everyone except Halley) and I'm hoping to figure it out.  By next chapter.  This is going to be interesting…

            Yes, I have heard of SH2.  Very excited, although the official website is only in Japanese…