Disclaimer:  I don't own Shadow Hearts.  In fact, even my copy of the game has been lost.  ;.;

**

            Alice and Yuri arrived home that evening, tired from the long drive.  Yuri was not exactly looking forward to sleep, but his wife simply threw herself on the pillows, fully clothed, and closed her eyes.  He grinned and gave her a small kiss on the forehead before going to lying next to her.  Her skin was warm and soft, comforting as he searched out the Graveyard.

            "That was a dirty trick you pulled last night," he growled at the Masks.  "What the heck was I supposed to do with a memory?"

            Staff mask chuckled.  "The purpose was to remind you of your first judgment."

            "Judgment?  I didn't get one," Yuri said.  He searched his memory, forcing himself to call up his other half's version of the horrible Trial.  "Neither did Fox Face.  But you told me I failed."  This comment was directed to Sword mask.

            "Didn't like that trial?" the mask asked scathingly.  "Picky, picky.  You're so demanding."

            "I just want to know why you gave it to me!"

            "Staff mask has already answered your question, then," he said.

            Yuri turned away from the Masks, trying to figure it out.  Neither half got a judgment, how could they remind him of it?  And the night before they'd said the first Trial stood as judgment…but they hadn't given him any judgment at all!

            Was this just their way of telling him he had a blank slate, that there hadn't been any previous judgment?  Given their usual excruciatingly secretive routine, that could be it.  "Fine."

            "Fine?" Grail mask echoed.

            "That's fine with me!  Just this time, either give me a Trial I could pass or don't taunt me," he said, gripping his fists, "Because you know what I do when I'm pissed off."

            "A Trial you could pass…" Sword mask said thoughtfully, "Oh, I can think of one.  Or does anyone else want a turn with this harmonixer?"  He turned to the others, smiling wickedly.  "Who thinks they can torture him the most?"

            Yuri growled in annoyance, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently.  They were using their deal as an opportunity to take potshots at him.  That was their catch he bet.  They hadn't gotten to take a shot at him since Alice and him had defeated Atman, and now they were getting a few freebies.  He wasn't exactly thrilled about where this conversation was headed, and he knew the Masks would inevitably pick the worst one; they knew him too well, and vice versa.  But he'd beat them.

            "Ahahaha, that is a good one," Grail mask said.  "Divide and conquer…what a good idea.  You play with him now…I don't doubt we'll have later opportunities."

            "Wanna bet?" Yuri said.  "I'll pass this one, easy."

            The air became staler as Sword mask attached to his skin, and he reached forward to grasp the sword's hilt as it came to him.

            "Daddy?"

            Surprised, Yuri whirled around and stared at Anne.  She had just entered the temple, her hands resting on one of the doors.

            "Are you taking a Trial, Daddy?" she asked.  "Aren't you too old?"

            "I'm taking another one.  Why are you here?  I thought I told you not to come here without me."

            His daughter seemed embarrassed, lowering her dark brown eyes to the ground.  "I'm sorry Daddy.  I had a nightmare."

            "Oh—" A Graveyard nightmare.  He had experienced many of those as a child.  Yuri wanted to reach out and touch her, but he was also afraid to approach her with the sword in his hands.  Sword mask had forced Anne to bring it up to her father's neck.  Yuri didn't want to know what the mask would make him do.  "That's alright Anne.  You should probably wake up now.  Go talk to Uncle Keith or Aunt Margarete.  You'll feel better after you do."

            "But I want to stay with you." she said pleadingly, taking a step toward him.

            "Anne, I need to concentrate.  Please, get out," he said.  He was grateful that Sword mask hadn't started the Trial yet.  "Anne."

            "No.  I want to stay with you!" she insisted.

            "Be a good girl and do as your father says," Sword mask spoke.  It felt odd when the Mask he wore did that, as if he was actually the one speaking.  But it wasn't his voice, it was the Mask's.  "You know he doesn't want you."

            The girl's eyes widened.  Was Sword mask right?  She looked uncertainly at her father, and then shook her head.  "I'm not going."

            "Anne May Hyuga, I told you not to come to the Graveyard, what makes you think you can stay?" he tried.  She flinched but stayed in place, continuing to shake her head.  She wasn't listening to him.  Again, he thought, remembering how stubborn she had been when fighting Heaven's Fiend.  What good did she think staying here was going to do?  "Anne, you are going to be in a whole lot of trouble when you come back home."

            "But why do you have to take a Trial again?" she asked.  "That's not fair.  If you have to take a Trial, then, then—shouldn't I have to too?"

            "No.  I'm taking the Trial because I want to, I don't have to," he told her.

            She looked back and forth between him and the Masks, judging the situation for herself.  "It's my fault, isn't it," she said softly.

            "You know it is, child."

            "Shut up!" Yuri told the Mask.  It cackled, the sound of its laughter echoing in his ears.

            "I know he's right, Daddy!  You shouldn't have to take it again.  Let me take it instead."

            "No!" Yuri yelled.  He didn't want to know what kind of deal the Masks would make with that offer.  "Listen, if you're going to stay—stand by the doors.  If anything happens, you will leave."

            Anne nodded.  "Thank you Daddy."

            "You're still in big trouble for not listening to me."

            "I know."

            The Sword mask chuckled.  "Love.  Such silly delusions you humans have."

            His hands suddenly seemed to get smaller.  Yuri looked down at his hands and saw the hands of a child, soft and smooth in some parts and bleeding in others.  This again?  It was the same Trial, and the Masks were laughing again at him.

            "Such a young one!  He will be good to break."

            "His taint is too heavy for the fusion to succeed," Grail mask said dismissively.  "Break him and place him below Death Emperor.  Let us be done with him."

            He already was afraid of the strange masks above him, but in a way Yuri was relieved to be here.  There was something else besides fear and relief; there was anger at the masks above him.  He wasn't quite sure why.  They were doing something to him…again?  No, he'd never seen these masks before.  At least he was away from that skeleton of a home.  Yuri already knew he could never call that place home again.

            "But what about when your father comes home?" Sword mask asked.  "What then?"

            The child shivered.  That was right.  Dad would come home, and he'd know something was wrong right away when Mom wasn't outside to welcome him home.

            Then he'd walk inside and see Anne's body lying with the monsters'.  Yuri envisioned it so clearly as he sat on the floor, watching his father's reaction.  "I'm sorry dad," he said in a soft whisper.

            His father knelt in his green army coat to pick up his wife's corpse, cradling her head to hide how her neck had snapped.  He only spared his son a disgusted look before walking outside.

            "Dad?" Yuri called.  Why was his father walking away?  Was he going to leave him here?  He wouldn't.  The snow was already deep outside.  It was the middle of the winter.  All the villagers were dead.  If Dad left him he would starve.

            Did Dad think he should die too, for not keeping his promise?

            Yuri ran outside the small house and saw his father's silhouette, small as a dot, moving away.  "Dad!" he yelled.  When the distant figure didn't slow, Yuri ran as fast as he could, stumbling over and over in the tall snowdrifts.  "Dad, wait!  I'm sorry!  DAD!"

            There was another voice, besides his.  A little girl, also calling over and over for her dad.  The boy turned around wildly but saw no one, nothing but blank, endless snow.  He had lost sight of his father.

            He felt an odd pain in his body, in his hands.  He looked down at his hands and saw instead claws merging into bloody palms.  The disparate images snapped him back into the reality of the Masks.  His hands completed the change from human to monstrous, covered in a black, leathery skin.  The foreign skin was beginning to spread into his arms.

            They were trying to turn him into a monster, Yuri realized.  They were going to turn him into one of those…things…those things that had killed Mom, that had almost killed him-!

            At his panicked thoughts, the black color spread faster, covering his elbows quickly and beginning to sneak up on his shoulders.  Seeing this, Yuri grew even more terrified.  His heart was pounding in his chest.  Then as his chest was covered with the monster's skin, the pounding abruptly stopped as his heart was replaced with something else, a void filled only with dark magic.

            He realized his fear was fuelling the transformation.  Maybe if he wasn't afraid, it would stop?  Would he get his heart back?  Yuri tried to concentrate, telling himself that if he calmed down, he would see his hands, his arms.  He hoped.

            "It's useless," Sword mask cackled.  "Try your hardest boy.  It'll make your defeat most amusing."

            Couldn't he stop it?  His arms remained the same even though he concentrated, tried to make the black color go away.  He couldn't stop—he couldn't stop being afraid completely, it was too hard.  The forced fusion halted for a few seconds, but he couldn't seem to change himself back.  As he began to despair the fusion began spreading again.

            There was only one way he could think of to stop: he had to get the mask off.  He brought up the long black claws to the mask and tried to pry it off, getting fresh gales of laughter from the Masks.  Yuri knew why they were laughing, the mask was attached to his face.  It felt like ripping his mask off would tear off his skin as well.  He didn't care, he'd rip himself in half if he had to, he was getting out of this mask.  He wasn't going to be a monster.  He wasn't going to be like those loathsome creatures that had killed Mom.  He was getting out.

            He doubled over on the ground, writhing as he tried to wrench the Sword mask off.  With only his left hand, his best effort brought a sudden pain, so horrible he screamed as the Mask was ripped off.  Yuri rolled onto his back.  His face hurt so much the pain brought tears to his eyes.

            Something else was by him; their hands were brushing each other.  Yuri looked over and gasped.

            The boy wearing the ugly green mask turned to him.  The Mask had a surprised expression that perfectly mirrored Yuri's.  The other Masks had stopped laughing, dumbfounded by the paradox they saw: the boy was both in the Mask and out.

            Yuri was free.  He was free from the nightmare.  Realizing this, he scrambled to his feet, terrified of what would happen if another Mask took him.  He had to get out now, but the other boy, in a voice identical to his, was pleading, "Help me."

            Was it really him?

            "Please, help me!"

            No, it might be a trap.  And even if it wasn't, if he stayed, the Masks would catch him.  "I can't.  I can't."  He shook his head, slowly backing away.  He'd barely gotten out himself, he couldn't help anyone else.

            "You have to!" the boy yelled.  But instead of helping him, Yuri turned and ran. He was too scared to do anything else.  He ran, leaving his other half with the Masks.  His soul was still aching, scarred from the pain of being divided.

            "Daddy?  Daddy," Anne called.  Her voice sounded very far away, but Yuri finally realized that she was trying to shake him out of his memory—had been for the last two minutes.

            "You've failed again," a cold voice said.  A hand reached up and ripped the Sword mask off of Yuri's face, making him wince in pain.  He opened his eyes and then stared at the person in front of him.

            "Daddy, who are they?" Anne asked.

            There were two of them, one with his arms folded against his chest and the other looking up at Yuri with curious round eyes.

            "I really hope I'm dreaming," he muttered.

            The man opposite him scowled, his almond brown eyes dark.  "No, you idiot, we're not dreaming."  He let the mask go, allowing it to float up to join the other Masks.

            We.  Yuri stared at the younger man, who looked like a twenty-ish version of himself.  Then he looked at the other one, a small boy with dark brown hair and Japanese and Russian features in his face.

            Finally he faced the Masks.  "Whatever kind of trick this is, you make it right before I rip you all to pieces," he said.  Deal or no deal, they were just trying to piss him off now.

            "It's not a trick," Sword Mask laughed.

            "Don't you remember?"

            "The first trial stands as your judgment."

            Yuri rubbed his forehead, confused.  "You said I failed last night?"

            "That wasn't your first trial."  Gold Mask laughed.  "Your first trial, Harmonixer.  The one you just retook."

            "Oh."  Why hadn't he remembered before?  "I didn't get a judgment then."

            "They didn't say our judgment," the young man interrupted, "But we were split in half, thanks to that coward."

            "It wasn't my fault," the dark-haired boy protested.  "What was I supposed to do?"

            Anne was looking back and forth between the boy and the man.  They both looked strangely like her father, but they seemed completely different from him.  "What's going on?"

            The man laughed at her confusion.  "Your father has once again screwed everything up.  I'd say at this rate you're as good as damned."

            "Fox Face, you shut up!" Yuri yelled, knowing well who the older look-alike was.  He glanced at the younger one and then back to the Masks.  "What's he?"

            "Another part of yourself," Grail Mask responded.

            He bit his lip.  "I know I'm going to hate this answer, but why are there three of me?"  Yuri gestured at the youngest, the nine-year-old.  "Before there were two."

            "Are you sure?" Sword Mask asked, unable to hide his glee.

            "Well, I'm pretty sure, I just went through that trial again…but…"

            "You don't remember the first one, do you?"  The mask was cackling now.

            Yuri looked down at his daughter, who was watching him closely.  She still clung to him with her hands.  "No," he admitted.

            "Do you remember what happened before you took it?"

            "No."

            "Or after?"

            His head was starting to hurt.  He held his head in his hands.  "Daddy?"

            "Anne, I think you need to go now," Yuri said quietly.  He was aware now he had done something wrong, and he needed to figure out just how badly he'd messed things up.  No point in scaring Anne. Or scaring her anymore than she already had been.  "You go back to sleep."

            "But—"

            "Go to sleep," he said firmly.  "Don't worry.  I'm not going to take another Trial tonight.  Nothing's going to happen, we're just going to talk."

            "O-okay," the girl said uncertainly.  She took one last look around the room and left.  Yuri followed her with his eyes until she reached the entrance and passed through the gates.  Then the harmonixer turned to the Masks and his other selves.

            "What's going on here?" he said simply.  Fox Face scoffed.

            "Oh, come on!  Are you that stupid?" he asked, shaking his head.  "Our first trial ended in us being split up.  They're saying that we'll always be broken."

            "But Alice—Alice helped us—"

            Fox Face only laughed.  Although he no longer had the fox mask, he certainly had the same attitude.  His eyes were rimmed with red, like Yuri's were when he got mad enough.

            Yuri was starting to get worried now.  Fox Face seemed to think that Alice hadn't done anything.  And it was starting to look that way to him too, or else why would they be separate again?  Desperate for someone to back him up, he turned to the child.  "Didn't Alice help us become one again?"

            The small boy nodded, though he said nothing.

            "She made it so we could act as one," Fox Face corrected.  "Actually being one would be impossible for us.  Because of him," he ended, glaring at the child.

            "It's not my fault!" the boy protested.  "What was I supposed to do?"

            "You should've helped me when I asked you to!" Fox Face snarled at him.  His hands curled into fists and he was about to hit the child when Yuri grabbed his arm.

            "Leave him alone, that's not going to help."

            "You think anything can help us?" the younger man asked.  One eyebrow was raised to show his incredulity as he gazed at Yuri.

            "Alice might—"

            "Oh, I see.  You're so weak you have to depend on a woman for help."

            Yuri bristled at the insult and folded his arms.  "Why can't we just join again like we did last time?"

            "Why would I want to join with you two?" Fox Face said venomously.  "He abandoned me, and you—you're just like him."

            "Better than being a monster like you," the child replied.  This time Fox Face moved faster than Yuri, and the next moment the young boy was sprawled on the blue floor of the temple, crying in pain.

            "A monster?!  If I'm a monster, it's only because you were a coward!  You didn't even lift one finger to help me!"  Yuri held Fox Face back as he struggled to hit the child again.  The young man was screaming at the child, who flinched at every true word.  The Masks were snickering above and Yuri glared at them until he felt Fox Face's arms becoming thinner in his grasp.  Fused as Death Emperor, Fox Face escaped his hold and bore down on the boy.  Yuri almost fused until he realized he was sharing a bed with his wife, and settled for wrestling Death Emperor off the boy.  He was still stronger than Fox Face, he noted with relief.

            The boy held his hand over his chest.  Yuri forced his hand down and saw the blood flowing out of the wound.  Would it make his real body bleed if one part of him was bleeding in the Graveyard?  He hoped not, or Alice would definitely be panicking in the morning.  He concentrated enough to fuse only his hands into the claws of Raging Tiger and drew on the spirit's magic to heal the wound.  "You alright?"

            The boy nodded, his face pale from fear.

            "Why are you siding with him?"

            Yuri turned to Fox Face.  "I'm not siding with anyone.  I want both of you to join with me, and I can't do that if you kill him."

            "Forget it," Fox Face said angrily.  "I'm not joining with either of you."  He stormed out of the temple, the brown trenchcoat flapping as he left.

            Yuri sighed and then gazed up at the Masks.  They looked very pleased with themselves.  "This is what you wanted, wasn't it?" he asked.  They all chuckled in their various ways, answer enough.

            This must have been their plan.  They went through both versions of the trial, enough to stir up Fox Face and the boy, leaving…him…

            What was he?  He didn't remember anything about the first trial, so he couldn't have come from that.  What did he come from?

            "You came from me," the boy said.  Yuri looked down at him, startled.  The boy was still covering his shirt with his hand, though the wound was gone.  "Alice wanted me to accept Fox Face, but I didn't want to."

            "So…since you were reluctant, we split?"  Yuri grabbed his head and moaned in frustration.  "God, why do I do this to myself?"

            The boy smiled, the corners of his lips barely turning up.  "I just didn't…know what to do.  So I left it all up to you.  Everything seemed alright, so I didn't mind…but then Anne had her Trial."  He hugged his knees, seeming insecure in the presence of the Masks.  "We failed her…just like we failed mom."

            "No we haven't," Yuri said.  "All I've got to do is pass a Trial.  For the love of…if you guys would just help me this might work out."

            "I can't.  It wouldn't work anyway."

            Yuri stared at his younger self with contempt.  If he'd ever been like this, he must have been pathetic.  "I can see why Fox Face hates you," he told him as he left the temple.  He saw Fox Face resting against the grave of Darkness but exited the Graveyard without saying anything to him.

**

Author's Note:  The original chapter was supposed to be about this trial and the two weeks after it.  Then I realized if I didn't split it up, I was going to procrastinate it forever.  So here is the first half, just the trial.  The next part, I'm not sure how long it will be.  Might be fifteen pages if I get really in-depth with the additional trials.

If anyone is confused about the split, it should become clear how they've been split up in the next chapter.  If you're really confused, well…just tell me and I'll try to clear it up.

**

Reviewers:

MikoNoNyte:  You're my only reviewer again!  ^^;;;  Oh boy…

Yep, the masks are plotting.  Let's see how the next two weeks go…^^

That's what "Bort" means?  So Urmnaf is his real name and Bort's…something?

Alice does not yet know that anything is going on with Yuri.  She thought he just had a nightmare, and he hasn't told her why he had the nightmare.  The trip away was because…I probably should have explained this a bit better (and I'll try to in the next chapter), but they wanted Anne and Isaiah to stay to make up with Locke, but they can't be away from their shop for that long.  So they left them at Blue Castle and went back to their shop.  Although you got to admit, minus two kids they have a lot more free time ^^.

Hm, I want to see what kind of payback you'll give me : )