A.N: hello everybody. Our traitorous computer deleted this chapter, so we've had to rewrite it. In addition, we edited five chapters (3-7), effectively erasing Rhiannon. For those who care, that story is one we've been revamping for a while now. Thus its serious lack of updates. More on that when we know more. Oh, and if you don't want to go back and reread the edited chapters, we replaced Rhiannon with a program called Loki. Loki never actually appears, just as Rhiannon did not, so it's really no biggie if you don't go back and reread the same junk only for a few pronoun changes. The two main reasons behind the change (for the curious) are our general hatred for Rhiannon and the new plotline for that story leaves no room for excursions to the Mero, both of those beside the fact that we were never really happy with Rhiannon in the first place. And in other news, the Merovingian is quite ooc, but we don't feel too compelled to change anything, partly because we've left ourself a nice out for the last chapter. Never fear, all shall be resolved! (note for the slow: 'we' is our equivalent to 'i')

D.C: not ours, don't sue. (and we won't sue either) (haha, did you get it? Sue and sue? as in mary sue? oh nevermind…)

Pandora the Brave

Chapter 17 (I don't care if it says 18, it's actually chapter 17. feh!)

Aside from Abel's magical ability to get himself stuck in the revolving doors, the hotel check-in was not particularly eventful. The Merovingian had reserved the entire top floor of the hotel, saving the penthouse for himself and his wife, of course. The sisters had their own room, across and down from the Twins and next to Vlad's room. Cain and Abel's room was next to his and the Merovingian's and the Twins shared a room across from them while Pandora's room was between theirs and the two vampires' room.

Now, everyone in their respective rooms, Eris and Ate were loudly arguing over who would get the bed by the window.

"Dibs on the window," Ate said as she walked into the room.

"Hey," Eris protested. "You had it last time."

Ate retorted, "I did not, dummy." She tossed her luggage onto the bed.

Eris snapped, "I'm not dumb! Besides, why would you want it anyways? It's raining outside."

"Well, why would you want it either?"

"You did too have it last time! It was at the Ramada in Vegas."

"That wasn't the last time, fool!" Ate said.

Eris glared and then brightened. "Oh yeah… It wasn't…"

"See?" Ate said. "My turn."

"No, it is not your turn," Eris declared. "It was your turn last time when we stayed at the Plaza Hotel."

"Again, the last hotel we stayed at was not in America."

"Whatever! It's my turn!"

"No, it's mine!"

"That bed is mine!" Eris yelled.

"It's mine!" Ate cried, leaping for the bed.

"No," Eris said, as she manipulated the Matrix into stopping Ate in midair. "It is my turn."

Eris then jumped to the bed, but Ate stopped her in midair, too, and the two hung there in silence for several minutes.

"Okay, let's put each other down on the count of four," Eris said.

"Okay," said Ate.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Four!"

Neither put the other down.

"You liar!" Ate screamed.

"You didn't put me down either!"

"I don't trust you!"

"Well, I don't trust you either!"

"Fine! Well you can just hang there all night!"

"You can, too!"

Ate glared and said quietly, "I hate you."

"I hate you more," Eris replied lightly.

Ate grumbled and shouted, "Well, I hate you most!"

Eris glared and muttered, "Damn you."

"Yeah? Well, damn you more."

"Damn you most. Ha! I win!" Eris cried.

"Damn you most-er!"

"You're an idiot."

"Am not!" Ate screeched, reaching for Eris even though she was anchored in place.

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"There! See? You just butchered the English language!"

"Yeah, well, baka ne, SHI NE!!"

"Oh, I'm so scared. Not only did you just pathetically combine two common phrases from Inuyasha, but they also don't exactly make a complete sentence."

"Shut up, Eris!"

"You shut up!"

"You shut up!"

~@~

Persephone sniffed. It was a delicate sound, and it seemed slightly repulsed. The Merovingian sighed, and turned, moving away from the window and his wife. If he had seen her face, he would have seen the single tear. It hurt; it hurt both of them. Yet neither had the courage to show their feelings for fear of rejection. So the screaming silence wore on, stifling and mocking. When they could finally take it no longer, they stormed for the door. It was an awkward moment, both of them reaching for the doorknob at the same time. Persephone looked down, swallowed, and glanced back up.

"You go on," she said.

The Merovingian hesitated for a moment, deciding whether or not he should invite her down with him. He smiled faintly and stepped from the room. She wouldn't come anyways.

Persephone turned after the door closed and walked back to the window seat. Somehow, the drizzling rain and the dreary world drenched in it were comforting.

~@~

In the utter silence of their room, Two heard every single noise as One shuffled through the magazine rack. He'd read every one twice already. Finally, he rose and began to fiddle with the thermostat, taking it off the wall and dissecting it.

Us, stop, that's annoying.

One ignored him as restlessness engulfed the both of them. Nothing was happening. A faint knock on the door announced the arrival of Pandora, who pushed it open slowly.

Did we forget to close the door all the way?

No answer. Pandora stole up to Two and looked up into his sunglasses.

"D'ya got an extra chair? I'm so bored," she said.

Two pointed her to the cushy armchair beside him. Sighing, Pandora sat down and pulled a mess of plastic yarn from the pocket of her jean jacket. Two watched in silence and fascination as she wove the four strands together, looping and pulling tight. After several minutes, Two asked, "What is that?"

"It's a lanyard. Ate gave it to me back at the château," she replied without looking up.

Two watched for several moments before asking, "Do you have any extra?"

Pandora looked up, grinning. "I started one for you. I was wondering when you'd ask," she said. "Here." She pulled a second tangle from her pocket and handed it to him.

Two inspected the yarn for a moment. It was actually two strands, but the lacing at the bottom made them seem like four. Two also noticed that Pandora seemed to have picked the colours out just for him; where hers were blue and gold, his was silver and black. "What do we do with it?"

Pandora spent the next two minutes helping Two lace his lanyard; after he had sufficiently learned, they sat in comfortable silence. Nearly an hour later, One looked over.

"What are we doing?"

~@~

"And I'm too sexy for my hat, too sexy for my hat, what do you think about that?" Ate sang.

Together they sang the chorus. "I'm a model you know what I mean, and I do my little turn on the catwalk. Yeah on the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah, I shake my little tush on the catwalk!"

Both girls took turns singing each verse, and when they finally came to the end of the song, Ate cried the last line.

"And I'm too sexy for this song!"

"That's not part of it," Eris protested.

Ate replied, "Yeah, it is."

Eris said, "No, it isn't."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Na-uh."

"Ya-huh."

They fought for several minutes, but a knock at the door interrupted them.

"Come in," they yelled.

"I can't," Pandora replied. "The door is locked."

Ate and Eris glared at each other, both unwilling to let the other go.

"Guys?" Pandora asked when they did not answer.

Hanging in the air, they could do nothing, but at the same time, they sort of enjoyed it. The joy between them had been only distance for the longest time; they did not particularly want to leave.

"Why do you need us?" Eris asked.

"I don't," Pandora replied curtly. "They want to play cards."

"Ate, put me down," Eris snapped.

"No way!" Ate retorted.

Eris screamed, "Let me go, btich!"

"Hell no! You put me down first!"

"Dream on, psusy."

"You cnut!"

They ended up dropping each other at the same moment they forgot everything but anger. Lunging, they began to claw and scratch at each other, pulling at the other's hair and shredding her clothes.

Outside the door, Pandora sighed, and made her way back to the Twins. When she knocked on their door, Two answered it. She sighed again and said, "They're fighting again."

One rushed to his brother's side. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "Actually fighting?"

"Sounds like it," Pandora said wearily. "They wouldn't let me in."

The Twins cursed and ran to the sisters' hotel room. When they rushed in, Ate and Eris looked up before falling back to attacking each other. The Twins had to pull them apart, and after struggling to keep them from tearing the other to shreds, One led Eris back to their room.

Pandora sighed before shuffling across the hall to bother Vlad. She had never spoken to him before, other than a polite 'hello'; so with slightly elevated energy, she knocked on his door and stood expectantly, absently lacing the plastic strands of her lanyard. As if time had slowed to an indelible crawl, Vlad came slowly to the door, and it opened sluggishly, leading Pandora to believe the very air had thickened and stood resistant to it.

~@~

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Vlad leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands. The curtains were drawn although there was no need in the driving rain and misty conditions; no sunlight would seep through the clouds above. It was merely out of habit he closed them upon entering the room, and it was merely habit that kept them drawn. Older habits, long forgotten but easily revived, pulled his thoughts to more dreary subjects, perfectly dovetailing the waterlogged day. Bitterly, he laughed aloud as an acrid thought struck a chord. For all that time passed him slowly by, he but once wished the next few hours would accelerate. Living life in a bloated hourglass was hard enough; living life in an hourglass filled with quicksand was agony. Time, which for him dragged on and on, slowed even more as he waited impatiently for the phone to ring.

Instead, an almost inaudible knock roused him from his reflective haze, and he moved like a turtle for the door. Hoping against hope, he looked to see James at the threshold but instead beheld the forlorn yet cheerful countenance of one Pandora. She smiled faintly, and Vlad caught wafts of pain from her mind before she abruptly caught herself and forced herself into brighter thoughts. He ushered her inside while she babbled a quick greeting and explanation for her 'disruption.'

As she sat down in the chair by the window, Vlad noticed something oddly familiar about her, but it was far too vague to be anything but the ghost of a memory. While on that tangent, he began to remember every time he had seen her in the past, occasions thankfully sparse as they were, and he remembered, quite to his own surprise, the apparition in his dungeons. He watched her quietly as she regaled him on the recent events in which the Twins and those damned women recently partook, or at least he supposed she spoke on that subject for he was paying little attention to her words. Like a rollercoaster, her voice was fast and loud against the silent stupor of the room. In watching her, he noticed her fear of him ever so slightly echoing in the farthest reaches of her subconscious. Ah, thought he. She notices, too. For indeed he recognized the familiarity of her mind against his own; her reeling thoughts reminded him of the child-banshee he had nearly caught.

"wish there were some way I could help them," she said, taking a breath to continue.

Vlad said, "You enjoy exploring, do you not?"

Caught off guard by his sudden speech, Pandora nodded slowly and realized this was the first time she had heard him say anything more than, "Good afternoon."

"And you went exploring recently," he continued, "Did you not?"

Again, she nodded.

"In the basement?"

Pandora nodded slowly before realization struck, and she pulled her knees up to her chest in fear. The terrible shadow was this man before her, and here she had sat in his presence prattling on about such mundane things as the woes of her fellows. Petty. Mentally berating herself, she missed Vlad's attempt to placate her, but it did not matter for she had rationalized her safety. They sat in empty silence for several minutes, each absorbed in his own thoughts. After a time, Pandora reached down and retrieved her fallen lanyard. While Vlad lost himself in the tumult of his mind, Pandora began lacing again, slowly as if to enjoy the movement of her fingers.

And so the remainder of the afternoon drifted into twilight and from there into real night, which found Pandora lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She was only staring, not attempting any real thought, and for all purposes, she was asleep. At one point, however, she stood up, walked across the room, and stood in front of the chest of drawers where she looked past the silvered glass of the mirror for several minutes before returning to her post on the bed. She did not hear the faint sobs coming from the Twin's room, nor did she notice the restless pacing of Vlad across the hall. Nearing eleven, she gave up her useless vigil and crawled under the bedclothes, still wearing the ensemble Ate had chosen for her. Yet even then, sleep would not come, and Pandora lay awake far into the night, her mind numb.

The rain continued long into the night, and the splashes of cars driving past could be heard well past midnight. Eventually, twilight crept back into the sky, dawn stretching her rosy fingers across the night, sending light back into the world. The clouds were gone.

The crowing of the cock woke Eris, who stretched silently and sat up in bed. She slipped out of One's arms, gently kissing his cheek. With hatred, she glared at the rising sun, declaring quietly, "The day has come."

~MnI~

I don't have to, I know I don't, but I can't help it… MORE FORESHADOWING! *pant pant* hahahahaha, doncha just looooove me? Yeah. I bet you could tell i'm an old rules gal, what with my 'his own thoughts' bit. Hah. This is me---ignoring society. Keh. If only, if only… ah well… please review, and let me know what you think of this chapter. If you want to know why there was such a long delay, message me by email or im (see le profile), and you can listen to my longwinded excuses. So, with this I bid you adieu till next time, in which there will be a fight scene, so I may take a little longer. Reviewers get virtual pockyyyy!

CuteHappyBunny: *grudgingly* okay, fine… you can take all my pocky and eat it yourself… jkjk. Have some! What's your favourite kind? Chocolate, strawberry, dark chocolate, double chocolate, white chocolate *counting on fingers*… I'm glad you think it's that good, but would would be so surprised how much stress I devote to this. It's like… dammit! I need a different article! Augh! *is a perfectionist* mmm… pudding…

Protectress: hola chica, unfortunately, I don't want to develop my ocs too much… it's my weirdness kicking in.