Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long. Ugh… bad Clez fell back into old habits. ::whacks self with rolled up newspaper:: Ahem… much better. Anyway, on with the story… not much left now!

Raven Silvers: Aww… you spoil me, Raven… and I love you for it! ::hugs::

tp96: Thank you. I'm glad you think I can bring the characters to life. That's very reassuring for a writer. And that last comment… wow… that meant a lot. Thank you.

LotRseer3350: Nice? From me… wowza. Had to give Gladius a memorable finish, didn't I? Was it a short update? Um… oops? Sorry. I'm glad you don't hate Anise… worked hard on that gal, I have ::wink::

Sethoz: Hehe, glad you loved the last line. Hehe, your quoteage is expanding nicely, good to see. All the evil people are dead, yup, save for Lacertus… who reverted… so the alter ego did kinda die ::slaps self:: Okay, I'm good. Anise is alive, yes indeed. Lol, unlike me to leave a cliffy, 'eh?

Mrs. Mina Harker: Hehe… another baddie bites the dust. I like it. Sorry about the wait.

funyun: Lol, no he wasn't naked. When Tom transforms, he's a bit like Jekyll, he manages to keep his 'pants' (we call them trousers, lol), so his modesty was protected. Wow… first fanfic from the start? I think I feel blessed ::smiles::

Beck2: Thank you, thank you. Don't worry about the delay with your reviews; I'm just glad you enjoyed it. Hehe, I think you hit the nail on the head with the asking-too-many-questions thing.

BloodMoonLycan: FF.net can be a bugger, yes, but that's beside the point, as you said. Lol, everyone seemed to find that last line amusing, hehe. Thank you for the compliment on how I handle Tom's character. I do try with him especially, as he's my favourite… no duh! But I hate it when characters are 'out of character', so to do it myself would make me a hypocrite. Ugh. Hehe, you called Gladius a jerk… amused me muchly.

Graymoon74: Anise kicked butt! Yay! Thanks, GM.

Silversnow: Not quite… lol, one more after this.

And without further ado, here is the penultimate chapter of By The Light of The Moon…

                The trek back to the Nautilus had been long and slow, with injuries to nurse on the way. Tom and Anise stuck close together, the two majorly injured parties, and the others, keeping danger away, surrounded them almost protectively. The sun was coming up now, and people were starting to trickle onto the streets, as carriages drove here and there sporadically. The group gathered some odd looks, and Dmitri tried to hide Skinner from view, succeeding quite impressively, which shouldn't have been too shocking given his height and build. Zachary was on the other side of Skinner, effectively blocking him from view.

                The rest of the League crowded protectively around Tom and Anise, with Quatermain and Nemo to one side, and Mina and Jekyll on the other. They really did look very… odd, striding down the street. But whenever one of the group returned the gaze they received, the onlooker quickly realised they had other places to be. They ushered themselves along swiftly, and were gone before long… thankfully. The last thing they wanted or needed was unnecessary attention in the four of inquiring observers or officials from the city.

                Skinner felt a little uncomfortable, but relieved nonetheless, to know that his friend was safe… Tom Sawyer had been saved. He didn't want to even think about what would have happened had their rescue attempt failed. It would have been disastrous. He hadn't seen Sawyer as a brainwash victim, but he doubted it was pleasant. Something told him that it had been a very frightening thing, given his lycanthropy.

                The thief was just overwhelmed with relief that all was back – for the most part – to how it should have been. Of course, the oddities of the return from the dead by Quatermain, and Sawyer's sudden reversion to a werewolf had thrown him… but it felt good to be a League again.

                Though Skinner rarely admitted such things – given how they could be perceived as weaknesses – let alone share his feelings and thoughts with others, the people around him… the League was his family.

                The infirmary was a welcome place after the government building where he had been recently, and even as he slept on the bed, lying on his side, he couldn't help but feel at home. There was a calm over the place now, as they drifted out a little way into the Atlantic, safe from attack, stationary as they sat on the surface, the waning sunlight from above reaching the portholes.

                In a kind of half sleeping, half waking state, Tom felt something slide around him, and recognised it to be an arm. It was Anise, he knew. He could smell her, and was comforted by that fact. She was all right. Jekyll had managed to get the silver out of her wound, which had pained her terribly, but she seemed to be recovering well… as did he. His wounds were sealing themselves, and over the last two days, he had pretty much been left to his devices in order to heal further. It was coming along nicely… something that should have scared him. It only reassured him. Of course, he was still a little disturbed by the alter ego that had taken over during his being brainwashed. Exuro – as it had been called – had been cruel and vicious, and had loved the combat he and Mina had partaken in.

                "Are you awake?"

                Her soft voice soothed him, and he stirred slightly, turning his head a little but refusing to open his eyes as he smiled in assent. He felt her hand brush against one of his arms, and it was a gentle touch, reassuring and soft. She kissed his cheek, and said, "Thank you."

                The two of them hadn't had much of a chance to talk in the last couple of days, given their need for rest and healing. They had been asleep most of the time, and had barely said more than two words to one another. It had seemed that, when one was awake, the other was asleep.

                "For what?"

                "For coming after me. I would have understood had you not."

                Tom opened his eyes then, and looked to her, trying not to move too much in the bed given his still-fading injuries. "How can you say that? I had to come after you. I couldn't just leave you with that maniac. He would have killed you."

                Anise smiled. "I know. But, given the threat in the past, with your identity and all, I thought you might not have come. I would have under-"

                He quickly interrupted, "Hey… I would have come for you no matter what. Okay? I wasn't going to leave you there."

                Anise did not say anything else for a while, simply rested her chin on his arm for a moment, watching him. It was a most peculiar sensation, to be watched by her, with her chocolate gaze falling over him almost in study, and when he looked to her, she grinned. "What?" he asked, a little suspicious.

                "Nothing," she told him, running a hand over his cheek and jaw line, playing through his head carefully. "I am just glad you came… and that Mrs. Harker and Mr. Quatermain could save you from… what you had become."

                Tom nodded, not really sure he wanted to talk about it at all. It still haunted him, the intentions that had flooded through 'his' mind when he had been Exuro. He had wanted to tear Mina apart, and Quatermain too, for daring to interrupt the combat. He shuddered slightly, and Anise seemed to notice.

                "What's wrong?"

                "I was just thinking… what might have happened," he began, in a faraway voice, as though lost in his reminiscing, "if Quatermain hadn't got there in time. Would I have killed Mina? What if I hadn't… what if I had stayed that way?"

                Anise stroked a lock of blonde hair from his brow tenderly, saying, "It is not good to dwell on what might have been, Tom. Simply concentrate on what has happened, and how things are now. We are safe… you are safe, and those… men, are dead. It is over."

                "What about Fairfax?"

                "Zachary?" Anise arched a brow. "What about him?"

                Tom sat up in the bed, Anise resting a hand on his chest, as if afraid to release a hold of him completely, for fear of losing him altogether. "Well… I know he's 'cured'… like me. So that's not the problem. It's just… what's going to happen to him now?"

                Anise donned a look of deep pensive thought, and furrowed her brow, before she shrugged very slightly and offered him one of her light smiles, saying, "It is his choice, is it not? He may wish to return to some semblance of the life he had before. He may wish to remain in our company… your company or mine."

                "Wait…" Tom shuffled back from her slightly. "What did you mean by that?"

                "By what?" Her eyes diverted, and she only looked to him momentarily.

                "Your company or mine… that's what you said. What did you mean?" Tom was frightened by these words; what they could mean. There was something hidden beneath them, in her voice, but he could not lay his finger on it definitely, making it an annoying enigma that he simply wanted to understand.

                Anise sighed, and lifted herself onto her knees on the mattress. "I just thought… it might be best, if you go with the League and… I don't."

                Tom felt like someone had delivered a blow to his face… a harsh one. "You can't say that."

                "I can, Tom… I think it would be for the best. Every time we are together, something terrible happens, ever since Paris, and I do not want that to happen."

                "But I can't just leave you… not now, after what's happened to us… to me." Tom's eyes were burning with a passion he had not known existed.

                "It happened to you because of me, Tom. If I had just said no to Evans in the first place, you would not be…" She touched a hand to his face; let it run through the hair at the side of his head. "You would not be like this."

                Tom's hand reached up and took a hold of her wrist, not rough but insistent. "This is not your fault, and I'm not sending you away because of a mistake. I can't do that… I won't."

                Anise smiled again, an almost bittersweet expression of melancholy that showed her reluctance. Nevertheless, she persisted in her case, saying, "Oh, but I've already decided, Tom. You will eventually see that it is for the best. I don't want to see you hurt-"

                "Then don't go."

                "But I'm only trying to protect you. You may not blame me for anything that has happened, and it may be overly zealous to blame myself… but I do. I don't think that… I have never felt for anyone as I do for you… and that is something special to me." When she smiled, the tears shone in her eyes, saddening Tom even more. "But though I do feel great love for you, Tom Sawyer… I do not think that we should stay together."

                Before he could argue any further, she slid off the bed, turned… and left the room. Tom stared after her, too stunned to do anything else. After a while of simply wondering what had just happened, he ran his hands roughly through his hair, climbed unsteadily off the bed, and pulled on his boots. He took off after her, following her scent.

                The people he encountered were not the ones he had planned to – Dmitri and Zachary looked at him in puzzlement, and the Russian inquired, "What is it?"

                "Anise…"

                "She told you." Zachary's voice was soft, gentle and soothing, and his brown eyes were compassionate, like his light smile. His hair curled around his eyes pleasantly, and he continued, saying, "She's been thinking about it for a couple of days now, Tom. I think she might be right."

                Tom stared at the fellow American as though he had been insulted.

                Nevertheless, Zachary was not to be dissuaded, and persisted whole-heartedly, "She has every right to leave, Tom, though I'm sure it hurts. I can't completely understand it, and I can't relate… but I can support her in her decision. I just hope you can come to understand why she's decided what she has. She loves you… but she doesn't want to hurt you."

                "Then why is she leaving? That hurts." Tom's voice was unsteady, as though tears lingered just around the corner, ready to fall at a moment's notice. He tried to force them back, and for the time being, succeeded.

                "Yes," Zachary said, nodding, "it does hurt. But imagine… if she stayed with you, with the League, and something happened to her. She was killed, for example."

                "Don't say that."

                "You see my point? Her point? If she stayed, and something terrible happened to her, you would blame yourself… she doesn't want that kind of thing to happen… and she's decided that leaving to go into hiding is the best option for her… for us."

                Tom registered what Zachary had just said. Dmitri and Anise had accepted the American, and for that, he was warmed inside. The two had a friendly outlook, and were willing to take the other werewolf in, but that still didn't solve the problem at hand.

                In a quiet voice all of a sudden, his volume lost with his understanding, Tom said, "… But I don't want her to go."

                Dmitri narrowed his eyes, and then furrowed his brow sympathetically. "Do you know why you don't want her to go?"

                Tom lowered his eyes for a while, thinking over everything that had happened, from when he had first seen Anise Delacroix in that alley in Paris, to just a few moments ago when she had told him her decision. It flashed though his mind, images and sound spinning and visiting his consciousness for a brief time, before he lifted his gaze to meet that of the Russian.

                "Because I love her."

A/N2: Ah yes… the next chapter will be the last. This chapter went in a little bit of a different direction than I had planned, but it ended in a good place… and what do you think is going to/should happen next? See you next chapter… ::wink::