Disclaimer:  I don't own Shadow Hearts.

**

[Alice]

            As we took in our view of the city, Fox Face turned around and walked past Yuri.  "Where are you going?" Yuri said suspiciously.

            "I'm going."

            "But why?" I asked.  Seeing Yuri's blank look, I told him, "He said he's leaving."

            "Hold on!  You expect us to go in a city when you won't?"

            "I'm not going because having a talking fox around is going to bring attention to you two, idiot."

            I reported this to Yuri, leaving out the insult.  He waved it away.  "You're not talking, you're growling.  Only Alice hears you talking, and I'd bet that's because she's a Demon Eyes."

            "Halley hears me just fine."

            "Really?  Halley can too," I said, talking to both Yuri and Fox Face at once.  It was a little confusing, having to constantly keep in mind that Yuri couldn't understand Fox Face.

            Now he was frowning as he looked down on his other half.  "Halley never mentioned you."

            "Does Halley know who I am?" Fox Face asked, directing the question to me.

            I couldn't remember, so I redirected the question to Yuri, who only shrugged.  I doubted Zhuzhen, Keith, or Margarete would have told him, so I told Fox Face, "I don't think so."

            He chuckled.  "I must've really scared him then.  You know when, the last night you guys were with them?  Well, he was off in lala land, and I decided to bring him back down to earth."

            "What did you do?" I asked, taken aback by his laugh.

            "Pounced him."  Fox Face was smirking.  "You should've seen him, he freaked out.  Of course, then Zhuzhen just had to clobber me with his staff, so I took off.  Came back a little while later to check.  He was wide awake."  He looked pleased with himself.

            "So how does he know Halley can hear?" Yuri pressed.

            "I just said a few words to him, and he said 'Yuri'," Fox Face explained.  "He must have recognized my voice."

            I nodded and told Yuri, "They talked the night before we left."

            "I see," Yuri said, although he still seemed suspicious.  But then again, he was impossible to persuade when it came to Fox Face.

            "You know, that's leaving quite a few details out," his other half said.  "That's getting close to an outright lie.  You shouldn't lie to your boyfriend."  His seven tails were wagging.  He was teasing me and I shook my head.

            "Oh, be quiet.  It's better than having you two fight."

            Yuri was now quite lost, his eyebrows threatening to stay raised for good.  "What are you talking about?"

            Fox Face sighed.  "As much as I love mystifying him, I can't go in the city, and you two should go sometime today.  Just get some food and supplies—at least two weeks'—then come back out."

            "Why?"

            "I'll be taking you to the City of Darkness."

            I relayed this to Yuri, who crossed his arms and glared at the fox.  "So now you're our self-appointed guide?"

            Fox Face lowered himself on one foreleg.  I had to stifle a laugh at how funny he looked.  "I live to serve you."

            Yuri didn't need the words to understand the gesture.  "You are the most sarcastic person I've ever met."

            Fox Face chuckled, then walked back down the steep hill.  His tails swept from side to side as he did.  His dark brown fur slowly faded and became transparent, until he had disappeared.

            I looked back at the city.  Besides the palace were other buildings that rivaled it in size; from here I could not tell what they were for.  Still…  "I think it's fine," I said finally.  "Nothing seems wrong."

            Yuri sighed in resignation.  "Fine, fine.  But if it's full of cannibals or something—"

            "Why don't you trust him for once?" I asked, pulling him along as I walked down the hill and towards the city.  His only reply was grumbling.

            The City of Air, Tripura…it sounded like an interesting place to me.

**

[Zhuzhen]

            "It's alright, Sharon," Halley said, trying to calm her down.

            "I don't…I don't like this place!  I hate it!"            She was starting to dissolve into tears.  Halley picked her up, letting her cry on his shoulder.

            "Let's get out of this place, quick."

            I nodded and looked around.  There was a street that we could go on, but nothing to indicate which way led to an exit…if either did.

            "Which way?"

            "We'll just have to pick one," Margarete said.  She looked between the two and pointed.  "Right."  She walked briskly, one hand on her gun.  We followed, hoping to get out of there quickly.  However, as the road continued, the bodies were still there, lying around, some piled up in corners—all had been ravaged by monsters.  Halley put a hand on Sharon's head, gently pressing her into his shirt to stop her from seeing anything.

            "What happened here…?"  Keith stopped and stared ahead.  I turned away from a young adult to see what he was looking at.

            The street had just suddenly stopped.  Both it and the buildings ended into a wall of white.  Why hadn't we seen that before?  Margarete stood in front of it, looking curiously into it.

            Halley sighed.  "Let's go back, hurry up."  I turned back, ready to follow him, but—

            "Wait!"

            I looked back.  Margarete was grinning.  "I think I know how to get there!"

            "How?"

            "We go through here!"

            We all stared at her.  Finally Keith came up to the wall and put a hand on it.  Sure enough, his hand couldn't go through.  "I don't see how that's possible.  There seems to be a barrier."

            "Ms. Spy Genius or Ms. Nut Squirrel," Halley muttered.

            Margarete shook her head.  "I don't know for sure…I've just got a gut feeling about it."  She turned to the wall.  "And didn't Leon say…we have to create the path?  That's why all four elements are needed…"  She put her hand on the wall and closed her eyes.  The hand began glowing blue, and a thin, blue line appeared in the wall…no, it wasn't a wall, but…

            Keith stepped forward and pressed his hand against it as well.  Now there was green, and both lines combined to make a turqoise one.  I joined and did the same.  The lines went wild at this, Margarete's sparking off of mine.  They were reacting to each other.

            Halley sighed, then walked forward.  Still keeping one arm and hand on Sharon, he pressed his left hand to the wall.   His line began to react with Keith's and sparks flew, all different colors surrounding us.  They became so bright I shut my eyes…

            Then quickly opened them again, as I suddenly felt pain.  Sharon screamed, and I could tell all of the others could feel the same pain throughout their bodies as I did.  It was overwhelming, too much.

            An eye watched us as we struggled with the pain.  Large and horrible, it calmly observed us, and then—

            I see.

            Everything flashed white, then dimmed.  I was in a room with stone walls.  There floor felt hot on my body.  A man watched me from above.

            "How ironic," he said.  "To have looked down on mortals and now…is this her idea of a joke?"

I sat up, looking at him in the eye.  He smirked.

            "Tell me…do you recognize me?  Or is that another effect of—"  He stopped abruptly and frowned.  "Damn."

            Recognize him?  I looked him up and down, but I didn't know who he was.  "Another effect of what?"

            He shook his head.  "Never mind.  It's no good talking to you, so you might as well wake up."

            I sat up again, this time in a bed.  A woman smiled at me, her short brown hair flying around as she approached me.  "Good.  You're awake."

            "Hm…where am I?"

            "You're in heaven," she replied cheerfully.

            "WHAT?!"

**

            Fox Face padded quietly into the Graveyard.  He stopped for a few moments, glancing at the group of Earth, Fire, and Water gravestones, then entered the gates.

            "I take it they're in Tripura?"

            The kitsune nodded to Hyuga.  "Yes.  I just noticed something."

            "What?"

            "Are the gravestones glowing?"

            Underneath the hood, Hyuga nodded.  "I noticed that as well.  Not quite glowing though…they're faint.  Very faint."

            "It's not just those three, is it."

            "No."  Hyuga sat up and leaned against the tree now, folding his arms.  "It's all six."

            "I thought there weren't any more fusion souls," Fox Face said, sounding uncertain.

            Hyuga shook his head.  "There aren't, not from the gravestones."

            At this, the fox's ears perked up.  "If it's not fusion souls, why are they glowing?"

            He could hear the other's barely audible sigh.  "Regina is a catalyst, it seems…she's breaking the bonds."

            "Bonds?"

            "The bonds on me.  There will be a chain reaction, of course.  Sarah is beginning to come free as well.  Soon the others were follow."

            Fox Face rested, lying down.  "Why are there bonds on you?"

            "They were created by Lethe…"

            "Lethe?  What's that?"

            For a moment Hyuga did not respond, and Fox Face lifted his head to look directly at him, waiting for the answer.  Then Hyuga sighed, this time loud and exasperated.  "I cannot answer.  I am still bound."

            Fox Face did not press the issue and rested his head on his forelegs.  So it means he can't say certain things?  I wonder…

**

            "This really pisses me off," Yuri said offhand.  He had spread out all of our combined money on the bed and was just staring at it.  "All this, and we're poor.  We're bankrupt."

            "We'll find a way to get some money," I said.

            "I guess we could steal some," he mused.  "I don't think I've gotten too rusty…what?"  He had noticed I was glaring at him.

            "We are not stealing."

            "We only have five coins.  It cost twenty to get us one room for one night.  And I think these ones are worth less than the ones we gave him," he said, holding the coin up and looking at it suspiciously.  "There's no way we're selling our armor or weapons."

            "I didn't say we'd do that."

            He stretched out his legs and looked at me from his bed.  I was sitting on the other one, just three feet away from him.  "So, what's your idea?"

            "We'll work, of course."

            "Of course."

            Yuri's tone was sarcastic, and he looked back down at the pile of useless currency again.  I laid down on my bed and gazed at the off-white ceiling.  The room was nice, although a little small.

            "Stealing would be a lot faster, you know."

            "It's still wrong."

            "Come on.  We saved the world, didn't we?  Stealing would just be evening out the karma."

            "You're forgetting I don't believe in that."

            "Oh."  There was silence for a minute, and I closed my eyes, thinking the conversation over.  "…so what do Christians believe in?"

            "Thou shalt not steal."

            "Yeah, but there's gotta be some kind of loophole…"

            I found myself smiling.  "Go to sleep Yuri."

            "Alright…"  I heard the window being opened, and then the light went out.  A fresh cool wind blew into the room.  I was comfortable even though fully clothed, and I  was ready to fall asleep until Yuri asked, "Could we push the beds together?"

            I took a pillow and chucked it in his general direction.

**

Author's Note:  Pretty short…but I'm going on vacation this weekend and wanted to finish it before then.  I'm rushing this, sorry.

**

Reviews:

Someone:  I don't think I ever mentioned Dragon Wolf in the story…maybe as a part of the A/N.  It was a reviewer's invented fusion soul.

Jrdragon2003:  I'm glad you like the story.  I'm not sure though what you mean by not meeting Yuri's fighting potential…he's won all the fights he's been in so far except for two (right?  I can't even remember my own story ^^;;).  One is against the new villain, which usually is more powerful than the hero, and the other one is against Fox Face—basically himself (except Fox Face had a little trick up his…um…foreleg).  I will admit that the Seraphic Radiance has probably been understated, because I've never gotten Seraphic Radiance in my game.  I'm trying to get him this time though, and maybe it'll be more accurate once I have him.

Greyfriars:  I actually made Sharon's spiritual world in this chapter a lot shorter than it was originally planned.  But I think they will be going back there sometime, which is when they will go down the left side of the street ^^.

The section with OOC Alice was heavily edited by Alice herself once she got back to normal.  She was appalled at some of the things she'd done.

Alice:  You made me do it!

^^  Anyways…OOC Alice made a certain offer to Yuri, had the whip as a…um…toy…and the scene ended with Yuri wrapped in the cat-o'-nine-tails and yelling for Alice to be turned back to normal.  With Halley all recording it on video camera.  But then normal Alice destroyed the video camera with Blessed Light and demanded a rewrite.

Alice:  This is still PG-13, if you've forgotten.

Dang.

Araschid:  I never have the romantic scenes ready when you want them ^^;.

Steel:  Yay!  We've made a convert.

If it helps you on the children thing, over the past six months my little brother has morphed from innocent to a jealous little fiend.

MikoNoNyte:  Hey, armor is uncomfortable to sleep in, you know?  And luckily Yuri kept from going overkill.  (Only because he knew how mad Alice would be if he destroyed their gear.)

I've read Inuyasha, and that was part of why I put it in there.  Besides, it's just funny.

Well thought out?  Um…I can't claim that I thought it out beforehand.  I rarely think things out.  But the idea that Yuri wasn't able to understand Fox Face has been in my head…since Fox Face was introduced in my story.

Kawaii!  Kawaii!  Kawaii!   ::grins::

Hyuga told, which is almost the same thing.  Alice trusts Fox Face…when has he led them to enemies?  Granted, he's tried to kill Yuri…

Alice:  …

I'll shut up.

Alice:  What's hentai mean?

Oh, it usually means pervert.  Why?

Alice:  So she's a happy…with Yuri in her…?!  ::twitches::  ::twitches violently::  ::falls over twitching::

::Sigh::  We'll need another talisman.

Nights Mistress:  That will be explained about what she's seen.  In my story, Yuri's Graveyard would've been the same no matter what age he became a Harmonixer.  Except for possibly the Masks (but this story is going to ignore them).

My story's about…twice yours?  I couldn't believe it when I actually read the numbers.

Rex:  Heh heh…sorry.  I was just joking.  Glad you like it.  Sharon's weapon was actually chosen last minute…I'm not planning for her to have to use it much.  She probably won't be in battles that often, since the others would try to keep her protected as much as possible.

Ast:  Thanks for the review.