Disclaimer:  I don't own Shadow Hearts.

**

[Yuri]

            "Alice?  Are you awake?"

            After repeating the question and waiting three minutes, I was sure she was asleep.  Quietly I got up and went to work.  First making sure the door was locked, then propping a chair from the table under the handle.  There was no reason someone would want to get in here, and now there was no way a common thief could get in.

            I squeezed out the already open window, stifling a curse when I got stuck for a moment.  Finally I fused into Death Emperor, making my body smaller.  I tumbled out the window and barely had time to open my wings before crashing on the ground.  I undid the fusion, jumping up and glancing around to make sure no one had seen.  The alley was empty except for some garbage and, satisfied, I left.

            The plan was simple; it involved the one surefire loophole in 'Thou shall not steal'.  If I stole from a thief, well, it wasn't his belongings, so I wouldn't be stealing.  Alice couldn't fault me for that, right?

            So, now all I had to do was find some thieves.

**

[Keith]

            "Yeah, she scared me too," Halley admitted.  "'You're in heaven'—what the hell kind of greeting is that?"

            "I thought maybe I had died," Zhuzhen said.  "What did you think Keith?"

            "That it didn't look much like heaven."

            "But what do you mean?"  Selphie walked ahead of us, leading to where both Margarete and Sharon were.  Her brown hair swished back and forth, rather distracting actually.   "This is heaven.  How can it not look like itself?"

            "I dunno…you just kind of expect angels.  I don't see any," Halley said, looking around the hallway.  It was full of flowers and plants of all different colors, fully in bloom, almost like the building was a garden.

            "Don't see any?"  Selphie giggled.  "There's one right in front of you."  She turned to face him and grinned, walking backwards with ease.

            "You?"  Halley sounded skeptical.  It did seem rather incredible.

            "Yes.  I was created by God to serve Him!"

            Perhaps ruling for two hundred years had made me prideful, but I could not see why Selphie was so exuberant about being a servant.  "Are we almost there?"

            She turned and indicated a door on our right.  Reaching it, she straightened, dusting off her yellow skirt, and gave a little cough before knocking on the door.  "May I come in?"

            I recalled her knocking on our door once before bouncing in like a rabbit and startling Halley.  Why was she being polite for Margarete and Sharon?  Margarete called out a "yes" and Selphie walked in.

            "Good morning," she said.  "Are you alright?"

            "Hey, why does Margarete get a fancier room?" Halley whispered to me.  It was true that our room had been plainer.   Margarete's had a large window in one wall, showing the dawn, framed with blue curtains.  There were many flowers in here, when there'd been none in our room; but I didn't mind this difference.  Both of the two beds looked very comfortable though.  That was something I wanted.  But one of the beds was empty…  "Where's Sharon?"  This time Halley said it for Selphie and a sleepy Margarete to hear.

            "Was she in here?  She must've left before…"  Margarete yawned and then rubbed at her eyes, her medium length hair tousled and tangled.  She tried to tame it with her hands but found it impossible.

            "The girl?  She should be back in a few minutes.  Is there anything you need, Lamia?" Selphie asked Margarete.

            "Lamia?" Margarete echoed.  She looked extremely confused for a moment, and then shook her head, messing up her hair even more.  "That's not my name."

            "Oh!  Really?  I was afraid you were her—um, um, I mean, no disrespect to your clan or anything—"

            "I'm not from a clan."

            Selphie broke into a grin.  "Oh, we thought you were Lamia.  You look so much like her."

            "She's from the Water clan?" I asked.

            Selphie nodded, then tilted her head.  "You don't know?  She's the ruler of the Water clan."

            "We don't know much about here," Zhuzhen told her.  "We're from Earth."

            The angel smacked herself in the forehead, surprising all of us.  "Of course!  I forgot about that.  You must think I'm such a goof."  She laughed, seeming very relieved to find that Margarete was not at all related to the Water clan.

            I heard a click and the door slowly opened.  Sharon walked in, wearing a plain white dress.  Halley folded his arms when he noticed this.  "What happened to your clothes?"

            "Oh, they're right next to the bed, with her things," Selphie said helpfully, walking over to the other bed and holding them up.

            "Halley!  Halley!"  Sharon was smiling.  "Guess what?"  She was almost bouncing up and down.

            "What?"

            "I'm an angel!"

            I could see the dumbfounded expression slowly form on Halley's face.  "You're not…dead, are you?"

            The girl laughed easily.  "Of course not!  Angels aren't dead."

            "Alright…"  Even though he still seemed confused, he didn't ask anymore about it.  "Hey Sharon, are you fine after what happened?  In your world?"

            Her smile was small now, but still there.  She clasped her hands together and said, "I didn't like it, but…I feel warm here."  Sharon brought her hand up to her chest.  "I know everything's fine."

            "Well, that's good, but shouldn't we start looking for Yuri and Alice?"  Margarete had ransacked her bag for a brush and was now yanking her hair with it.  She directed her next question to the angel.  "Have you heard anything about—"

            "Yuri Hyuga, a Harmonixer of the Dark class, and Alice Elliot, a Light class who's a 'Demon Eyes'?"

            Margarete stopped brushing and stared at Selphie.  "How did you know that?"  Then she looked at the rest of us.  "Did you guys tell her…?"

            "No, they didn't.  But I'm an angel," Selphie said, as if this explained everything.

            "So, if you know so much, do you know where they are?"

            Selphie was silent for a minute, and then shook her head.  "No.  I don't know."  She opened her light green eyes and said, "But I doubt they're here.  We would know immediately if there was a Dark class person in Eden."

            "Eden?  You mean, like the Garden of Eden?"  I did not know what Margarete was talking about.  I recalled Alice mentioning something like it once but did not know what it meant.

            "Then you know.  This is Eden, also known as the City of Light."  She paused and then said, "You want to see something interesting?"

            "What?"

            "Just follow me!"

**

[Yuri]

            I was whistling to myself as I walked back into the alleyway.  It was still dark, and I quickly fused before flying up to the open window.  After a little trouble getting Death Emperor's wings folded right, I rolled into the room and undid the fusion.

            A sudden light lit the room.  Startled, I turned to the source—and saw Alice, wide awake at her bed.  She was holding the ball of light in her hand, which was so bright I had to squint at her.  I knew she was looking at the bag I held.

            "Um, am I in trouble?"

            She closed her hand, making the room plunge into darkness.  "Alice?"

            There was no response.

            I'm in big trouble…

**

            Syth opened his eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight.  He groaned and rolled over, making light shine across the room with his crystal hair.  Then he felt long nails go down his arm, just hard enough to feel uncomfortable.  Regina's silky voice said, "Wake up.  Now."

            Startled, he sat up, realizing quickly that he was in Regina's room.  She was watching him with a neutral expression.  His eyes widened as he remembered.  He must have fallen unconscious.  She had roused him.  For what?  More punishment?  Syth tried to back away, fearing what would undoubtedly come next.

            But Regina's red eyes suddenly showed concern.  Then they changed to a dark blue and the voice became deeper as Kain said, "There.  I know she's done something to you, now will you tell me what?"

            Regina's room had become a room at an inn.  It had all been one of Kain's illusions.

            "Come on Syth, just tell me."

            "Get out."  Syth's arms were shaking.

            "What did she show you?"

            "I don't want to talk about it."

            Syth heard an aggravated sigh from the older man.  "Fine then.  But even Pers noticed last night—mind you, she hasn't noticed much else with the state she's in."

            "Then, she's getting better?"

            "Gods!  Will you focus on yourself, not her?  I swear you two are impossible.  One's going 'Regina this, Regina that,' and the other is going 'Pers this, Pers that'.  I'm surprised I haven't gone mad yet."

            Syth listened as Kain continued his rant against his fate stuck traveling with the two 'love birdbrains', chuckling softly at some of the more humorous ravings.  He felt himself calming down, realizing his friend hadn't meant any harm.

            "Well, at least I've made one of you smile," Kain noted.  "Let me see if I can get Pers to loosen up and stop sounding like Regina."

            "She's still doing that?" Syth asked, surprised.

            Kain nodded.  "It's uncanny sometimes.  If I put an illusion over her, you probably wouldn't be able to tell her from the real thing.  Of course, she parrots Regina sometimes when she's normal, so…"

            There was a sharp knock on the door, and Persephone demanded, "If you're both awake, get ready!"

            The illusionist glared at the door even once her footsteps faded.  "I like her a lot better when she's normal.  Gods, I have two and a half millennia over her.  Didn't she ever learn to respect her elders?"

            "She'll be back to normal soon," Syth said hopefully.

            "Better be," Kain grumbled.

**

[Keith]

            Selphie stopped in the middle of the hallway.  On the right side there was a large set of stairs and she went halfway down, then motioned for us to follow.

            Once we were all standing on the stairs, the angel said, "Turn around."

            Zhuzhen turned and then almost fell backwards down the stairs, exclaiming, "What?"

            I looked.  There was a large painting with a gold frame.  In the center was a tree with pink blossoms.  Alice…or a woman that looked like her, leaned against it.  She smiled at whoever was painting, her long blond hair cascading over her white dress.

            "That looks just like Alice," Halley said wonderingly.

            Selphie nodded.  "Sharon described her a bit and I thought that it reminded me of this painting.  This is of Sarah, one of God's most trusted angels."

            "What did she do?" Sharon asked.

            "She was the destroying angel."

            I turned at the new voice to see a man walking up the stairs.  "Sarah, the destroying angel…but then she was destroyed."

            Selphie bowed to the brown-haired man.  When she straightened, she told us, "This is Michael, one of the six archangels."

            "Six?" Halley echoed.  "I thought there were seven.  Isn't six supposed to be the devil's number…"  He trailed off as the man focused his dark blue eyes on him and he realized that that might have been a bad thing to say.

            "There are six archangels," Michael said.  "No more are needed."

            I instantly disliked him, though I wasn't sure why.  But that cold voice…

            "I don't…understand though.  It doesn't belong here.  It's…it's not right."

            I broke off glaring at the archangel to see Zhuzhen put a hand on Margarete's shoulder.  She had never broken her gaze from the painting, not even to see Michael.

            "Margarete?  Hello?  Anyone in there?"  Halley waved his hand over her face and she started.

            "Let's get out of here," she said decisively.  "Yuri's not in here, Alice isn't, let's go."  The spy turned to Selphie and asked, "Where's the nearest town or city?"

            "The City of Water."

            "Is there anywhere we can buy a map here?"

            "Um, well…"

            "Here," Michael said.  He took a piece of parchment out and tossed it over to me.  Surprised, I barely caught it and unrolled it.  "Use this—and make sure you don't get lost.  That would be a pity."

            I narrowed my eyes at the sarcasm in his voice but examined the map.  There were six dots, one of each color: black, white, red, yellow, green and blue.  Black and white were furthest from each other, with white in the far east and black in the far west.  Blue was west of white and very close, with yellow northwest of it, green west, and red southwest.

            "That's all you need to find the different cities.  Since Water is closest, you might want to try there," Selphie said, pointing out the blue dot.  It was easy to figure out.  Each city corresponded with the color of its element.

            "Then, let's go there," Margarete said.  But she sounded a bit uncertain, and she kept looking back as Selphie led us out of the room.

**

Author's Note: Selphie is an FF8 reference.  I wanted to write a fanfic that put various members of the cast in either heaven or hell, so I decided what the heck, stick Selphie in here.  Although she was supposed to be a devil at first, then later become an angel (it's a whole long story, and you're probably not interested) in the fic.

…I can't think of anything to say.  There's probably a lot of things I'm supposed to say, but I can't think of it.

**

Reviewers:

RinoaOHeartilly:  Well, Alice is kind of ticked off at Yuri for the next chapter…maybe towards the end a little Yuri/Alice.  You might hate me a little later in the fic if you hate Regina.  (Actually, it's…I'm not sure how many ch.s it'll come in -.-)  Anyways, thanks for your reviews!

Araschid:  I wanted to get one naughty Yuri quote in there.  'Let's push the beds together' worked.

MikoNoNyte:  Halley will be getting very pissed off at Yuri later in the story.  (mini-spoiler I guess, so I can't tell you why.)  Yes, Foxie has a mean streak, and so does Yuri.  Foxie just had a better opportunity for the mean streak to strike.  I also kind of imagined an older brother/younger brother relationship; Halley doesn't really have anyone to look up to (although Yuri might not be the best role model), and I think young Yuri says in one of his conversations that he wanted a younger brother or sister.  Aww…and now we have Foxie pouncing Halley!  :p

…I've got to remember to look up all my mythology before I use it.  Your quotes about Lethe got me confused; the only other name I recognized was Styx.  I had to look them all up.  ^^;;  But yes, he did choose to.

Actually, I once got the idea that maybe he was used by a gang (okay, what gang wouldn't want their own monster at their disposal?)  But most likely he was a thief, especially since he didn't seem to mind their money getting stolen in London too much.

Hmm…what part did you laugh at?

Greyfriars:  Yuri always tries to find the easy way.

Ex-Xox Plus Three:  Did you have a different pen name before, or am I just getting confused?

The Fire tower bit was a dream.  He really was in heaven (or Eden).

Steelers:  My trip was pretty fun…but now I'm back in school.  x.x  They gave me homework on the first day, those sadistic teachers.  Glad you liked the lines.