PHANTOM SHADOWS
Chapter 2: Consequences Entangled - In which Kaito is the wild card
A KaitouKid/Shadow of Destiny Crossover
By
Deborah J. Brown.

Kaitou Kid is Copyright Aoyama Gosho. Shadow of Destiny and all concepts relating to it is Copyright Konami.


He watches through Kaito's eyes with a sardonic air. The boy's shock almost makes up for the headache they're sharing with each other. "WHAT THE HELL?"

Talking to yourself is often a sign of madness. May I suggest you simply think?

There's a moment of dead silence. Then Kaito reaches up and slaps himself.

Would you MIND? This isn't exactly a comfortable state of affairs for me, either. I'd appreciate it if you didn't make it any worse. The boy is off-balance, angry and confused, a mental state his uninvited guest shares. Well, not the confusion. He knew this was going to happen, after all. Still, the sooner the boy gets his bright little mind in gear and starts thinking the better. Homunculus isn't used to physical sensation - his true body isn't built to take much - and he is finding that he dislikes the feeling intensely. Particularly when Kaito pinches himself.

oOo

:OUCH. Stop that this instant, young man.:

Kaito stared into the mirror, seeing the changes in his face. Paler than before, his hair falling loose and silky. The shape had changed, become more doll-like and the eyes burned with inner fire. He took several deep breaths. :Yes. That's it. Calm down. Think.:

:Akako's spell?:

:Indeed.: The voice in his head was more clearly Homunculus' now and he was having less trouble separating it from his own thoughts. :I can't claim to be surprised. I knew this would happen. Unfortunately.:

Kaito took another breath. :Get. out. of. my. head.:

:I can't. Or, rather, I could, but there is something we must do together. Believe me, this isn't something I want either.: The voice in his mind was dry and irritable. :I have spent centuries - no, millennia - in a body that has little to recommend it. Yours has a great deal more strength and skill and yet: There was a faint, tired, tone to the voice. :I find I do not care to be trapped in it, none the less. How do you humans stand it?:

Startled at the almost plaintive admission from someone Kaito had read as being very careful not to show any weakness whatsoever, the young thief went silent. His thoughts were churning but in a very rapid way that was forming a clear pattern. :When are we?: he asked at last, turning to leave the restroom.

:Very good.: Homunculus' mental voice congratulated dryly. :The precise date isn't entirely clear to me, I'm afraid. I don't really pay that much attention to the calendar. However, I believe you humans regard this year as 1998.:

Kaito choked momentarily. 1998. He'd been a kid then. A snot-nosed kid who knew nothing of theft, nothing of hurt. He ignored the amusement he sensed from Homunculus, who no doubt still considered him a kid, and thought, My father. My father is still alive! I have to warn him! He set off at a dead run.

oOo

The feel of time eating away at his flesh is sweet agony. Gravity, dragging at his body, sensations like nothing he has ever felt before. He is as off balance as he was that first time he'd found himself in a time he'd never seen, that long ago day when Eike had finally untangled the knot that had chained himself and all the others to a never ending sequence of death and restarts.

Air burns in his lungs and he is suddenly very glad not to be the one in charge of this body. He would have been incapacitated, unable to tell what was perfectly normal and what was truly dangerous. Like this He forces his reaction to the boy's movements down, he cannot afford to confuse him. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop until there are none left to race over, only a vast height to fall through. Eeep.

oOo

Kaito did his best to ignore the scared little sound his unwanted guest made in his head. This trick took too much concentration. Grabbing the cord of his hang-glider he pulled and was rewarded with the sound of its wings unfolding. A second later the wind caught him up and carried him high.

"You're scared!" he noted to the voice inside his head, speaking aloud out of habit. At least we're where I can't be heard.

:I am not scared,: Homunculus answered with offended dignity. :I am merely appropriately terrified.: His tone was tense. :I have no such experiences in my life to permit me to deal with your skills.:

It occurred to Kaito that his guest had made an unusual confession. It was only the situation, the sense of being entirely out of control that left Homunculus so far off balance as to be unable to hide his fears. :That and the fact that I'm entirely unaccustomed to all the adrenaline that's pouring through your system.:

"Just be glad Akako didn't end up here too, or she'd be doing things to my hormones." Kaito grinned tightly. He might not love the witch but she was a physically attractive girl who often wore far too little for his own comfort.

A small, nervous, chuckle touched Kaito's thoughts. :Oh, believe me. I am.: A sudden flash of memory, the blonde man Kaito had seen in that window earlier. He was walking with a pretty blonde woman, looking more than a trifle addlepated. His guest's wry amusement was a dry taste in Kaito's mind and the young thief decided he really didn't need, or want, to know more. :It's an adult thing. I have a feeling you won't want to understand for a while.: Not said was the fact that Homunculus didn't really comprehend it, either. Though how I know that isn't really clear.

Realizing that he was allowing himself to be distracted, Kaito focused on shifting his flight in the direction of his house. "I don't suppose you can tell me what's going on?"

:The entire story takes up millennia of the same centuries,: Homunculus answered. :Nor is all of it important to our current predicament. Perhaps the best I can say is that you follow in your father's footsteps in more ways than one.:

oOo

The trouble with the entire situation is that what repaired Time elsewhere will not work here. He is trapped by the pattern, forced to follow the flow because to do anything else is to recreate other, older, paths. Paths I can't take again. Paths I can't bear again. The involvement of the first thief had been unexpected, a problem that nearly set everything off again, that nearly ruined a carefully balanced system. Only a hurried repair had staved off disaster. And a hurried repair wasn't good enough.

My own fault, I think. I was too sure things were all right. I didn't pay attention to what was happening outside. It should have been obvious that someone would notice what was happening. Someone with enough experience in such things to realize what a prize they could win. Someone who would send their own agent in to capture a prize worth far more than all the precious gems in the world.

oOo

Kaito landed, undoing the straps to his glider and rushing for the door. In the back of his thoughts he could feel his 'guest', thinking things that he couldn't really hear, just get the feelings behind those thoughts. Whatever it was, it was something that Homunculus couldn't bear to think about. He was getting small momentary visions of a raging torrent spinning out of control, a whirlpool that had nearly destroyed what it had carried along.

It seemed, however, that Homunculus was disinclined to explain. Besides, I have to get to my father. Warn him. As he flung open the front door, Kaito came to a dead halt staring at the carnage. Blood. Too much blood. He didn't remember something like this. His father had died elsewhere, surely. Had fallen to his enemies away from home.

There was a man kneeling in the middle of the carnage, a man Kaito knew. The same rough unkempt hair as his own, the same general build. Kuroba Toshi, his white outfit soaked in rapidly darkening red, his body bent over two slumped forms. The scent of gunpowder filled the air, the stink of blood, the sound of tears.

"BASTARDS!" Kuroba Toshi raised his face to the ceiling. "BASTARDS!"

I don't understand. How? They didn't kill mother and me. They killed Father. Kaito stared, shaking his head, confused and almost too bewildered to think at all.

:Time is not a single path. There are many streams and this is what would have been, had your father not sacrificed himself.: Homunculus' tone in his head held little emotion, sending a deep wave of anger through Kaito. It satisfied Kaito deeply when he felt that other presence flinch away. :Don't Please.:

Kuroba Toshi turned and his eyes widened. "You! You again!" He rushed at Kaito, fist clenched, obviously ready to beat Kaito to a pulp.

oOo

Still stunned by the force of the emotions raging through him, it is only instinct that permits him to fade his shared body a step out of time. It's not enough that they disappear entirely but Kuroba Toshi's fist flails through empty space and the man sprawls.

The boy is stunned at his father's reaction. Too stunned to speak or move on his own, Homunculus hurriedly takes over, locking the boy's control of their shared body momentarily. "I did warn you," he says quietly. "Some things are better left undone."

Kuroba Toshi stares, "You've changed."

"It's temporary." At least Homunculus hopes it is. "But never mind." He looks at the mess and feels the boy's nausea as his own. "For what little it is worth, this was not my desire." In the depths of their mind he can feel his companion in misery struggling to break free and he has to work incredibly hard to keep the boy from interfering.

oOo

Kaito raged, trapped within the depths of a mind that held entirely too much knowledge, entirely too much power and entirely too much pain. The last almost surprised him out of his anger but he was too caught up in the fury of the moment to really examine it. :LET ME GO!:

:Not now, boy. This is simply not the time.: Homunculus' voice in their thoughts, then his voice spoke aloud again. "I am sorry."

Kaito's father glared at him, though grief and sorrow seemed to have overcome even his momentary rage. "Sorry? SORRY? Have you any idea what it is to lose everything that's precious to you?"

Homunculus' words in Kaito's mouth were soft and tired. "Yes. You took it."

Both father and son were silenced by the strange creature's tone and his words. Within their shared body, Kaito felt a surge of memories. A constantly shifting river, twisted and tangled into a whirlpool of agony, time replayed until all within the knot were thoroughly sick of the whole thing. It left Kaito too stunned to fight as, at last, Kuroba Toshi stammered. "The Pandora gem? It's just a stone. You should have guarded it better if you valued it!" A Kaitou's purpose, to force those with things they valued to protect their possession. "I had no choice, anyway! My family's life for the stone!" He broke off, staring down at the bodies with an expression of despair.

Homunculus eyed the man, forcing Kaito to watch him as well. "Indeed. And we see how much of a choice that was, now don't we?" Kaito watched the ache in his father's eyes and felt it as his own, even as Homunculus continued. "You cannot say I didn't warn you, Kuroba Toshi"

As Kuroba Toshi stared, Kaito noticed another shimmering in the air behind his father. Homunculus sighed, cocking his head as the newcomer stepped forward, body forming out of thin air, speaking quietly. "Do you see now what?" The voice was Homunculus' as Kaito had first heard it, echoing softly. Now he could feel the way time shifted around the creature, could see his existence as something vast and powerful. Eternal and serene, a single existence in infinity, both shaped by time and shaping it.

:Indeed,: the Homunculus in Kaito's head murmured. :That is what I am. What you partake of at this moment. Now, hush, while I try to salvage something from this disaster.: He moved their body forward to stand closer to his true Self and Kaito sensed vast amusement at his other Self's shock.

"This is different," the 'real' Homunculus said quietly. "Yet" His eyes seemed to glaze over and Kaito could see him looking forward into his future Self. "Ahhh. I see. How amusing."

"I am not finding it so." Homunculus/Kaito glanced at Kuroba. "But don't concern yourself. My control of time isn't complete - the price of this binding - but you know as well as I do what has to be done."

Ruby eyes met Kaito's. "Mmmm. Well, it isn't yet disastrous for us. I'm not entirely sure why you thought it necessary to place ourselves in so much danger." A small hand gestured at Kuroba Toshi. "Vengeance alone would drive him to assist me."

Kaito felt his Homunculus' eyes roll and a deep sigh escaped their lips. "Would you care to explain exactly how all of this came about to Eike? I assure you, it won't be a pleasant exercise. I know."

Rather to Kaito's surprise, the Homunculus standing in front of them flinched ever so slightly. "That has nothing to do with this."

"Who the hell is EIKE?" Kaito's father exclaimed angrily.

Two pairs of eyes rolled. Two pairs of arms crossed in a gesture of aggravating patience and two heads cocked themselves to exactly the same angle. "We're not going to get anywhere at this rate." Homunculus murmured. Then he looked at Kaito. "I could, of course, take the time to examine the pathway leading to your presence and prevent it. However, I must trust in myself. You will shift the line for us?"

Kaito found himself nodding. "I will try. Enlightened self-interest, as Eike so elegantly puts it, ensures that I'm unlikely to do anything to risk our continued existence."

"Then I shall leave the next step to you. I'm sure you know how to contact me if you require my assistance."

"I already do," Kaito's Homunculus answered. "As I said, my control on time isn't complete. I'll need a digipad, fully equipped."

"Done. It will be waiting at the library. I trust you can get that far?" As his other Self nodded, Homunculus disappeared.

Turning back to the still enraged Kuroba Toshi, Kaito's Homunculus sighed. "A picture, I believe, is worth a thousand words. Come, and hurry. Those who slew your family will be coming for you next."

oOo

Once again to the library, to the place where everything begins - at least for this particular cycle. It requires Kaito's cooperation, however, since Homunculus' powers are limited by the binding.: It will only confuse the issue, if you try and tell him who you are. It is also entirely possible that he won't believe you - considering what we have just left.: Kaito is an intelligent boy, he concedes the point, at least for the moment.

But I want explanations,: Kaito tells him. :Satisfactory ones.: His temper is near its breaking point. Games would be unwise, for all that the boy is ordinarily a creature of mischief and chaos. In this, however, he is entirely serious and completely focused.

oOo

"I just came from here," Kuroba Toshi muttered under his breath as the two made their way through the halls of the University Library. "The only things there, other than the gem, were books and old equipment." Kaito noted the synchronicity but wasn't surprised by it. Everything began with that particular collection. He had a feeling everything would end with it as well.

Kaito's 'guest' nodded. "And now something else," he agreed, stepping past guards who were more unmoving than usual. "Hurry. I cannot hold time long for us and we must reach the digipad soon." The phrase brought a vision to Kaito's mind, a flat boxy shape with a set of buttons on it. The sense that the thing was rather more complex than a mere piece of technology, that its shape was merely to provide a focus for more limited minds.

Glancing sideways at his father, Kaito felt a terrible longing to reach around, to wrap his arms around the taller man and just hold on forever. His father looked so awful, so shattered by what had happened. I had mother. I didn't see his dead body. All he has are a pair of ripped up corpses. It was beginning to hit him what was going to happen, beginning to become clear where all this was headed. NO!

:Wait, Kaito. There are things you must see. Things you must understand.: The attempt to soothe was a failure and Kaito flailed wildly inside his head, struggling to break free, to warn his father. :And will you sacrifice your mother's life for his? That is the price, child. One parent or the other. Never both. Never both.: That gave Kaito a moment's pause and Homunculus pressed the point, showing him that horrible scene once more. :Is that what you want?:

Whining was a child thing but Kaito had never felt so much like a child. :I want both my parents. I want a happy life. I want...:

:You are not the only one.: The pain in Homunculus' mental tone was enough to silence Kaito for the moment.

They stepped into a storage room and Homunculus guided Kaito's body to a cabinet. "If you would unlock this?" He gestured and stepped away as Kuroba gave him a sour look then started picking the lock. For a moment Kaito was charmed by the sight. He was good, had learned to be better, but to watch his father at work - even on something so prosaic as a simple padlock - was an education. Every movement as delicate and efficient as a watchmaker's or a jeweler's. Then the door swung open and Kuroba stepped out of the way, bowing sardonically at Homunculus. "As you command."

Kaito's hands picked out the metallic box that Kaito had visualized earlier. His fingers moved delicately over the surface, picking out symbols. Then he pushed a button and the world turned inside out.

oOo

Time never truly stops. Never truly ends. Yet it is possible to move outside of it, to gaze upon it, and upon the great river bed that contains all reality. From this place, floating high, it is as if they fly over a vast plain marked with braided strands of clear water. Beside him, Kuroba cries out, startled, expecting to fall without his glider. Inside himself, Kaito manages to contain his own reaction. "What the hell is this?" Kuroba demands.

"You wish to see. You wish to understand. This is the only way I can show you." Homunculus wonders, what would have happened if he'd just shown someone this truth before, when he and the Wagners were all entrapped in that endless parade of deaths and re-creations? Would anyone have listened? It wouldn't have happened, though. I wasn't the sort to try. This time, though, he would have to depend on these humans' sense, have to find a way to solve their mutual problem with the least pain.

It helps that this time he is not forced to do so. That this time he has a choice. He still bears the internal scars of that other time, of the endless circling, but he has learned from those scars. Humans will do much to protect those they love. Will hurt others horribly in their efforts. If he is to survive this, if he is to repair this, he must not allow things to go that far, no matter how irritating humans can be.

That and Eike really would be out of sorts with him if he didn't.

oOo

The patterns below Kaito made a strange sense. "Time itself, Phantom Thief. Is she not a beautiful mistress?" Homunculus' voice was hushed, held the first real respect Kaito had ever heard from it. "I should warn you, though, she goes her own way. Chooses her own path. And if you attempt to change her course, you may be shattered in the process." Kaito found himself pacing, hands moving in delicate gestures. "Tell me, Kuroba Toshi. How much will you sacrifice, to remake your world? What will you do, to save your family?"

Kaito wanted to scream at his father, to demand that Homunculus shut up. He couldn't stop Kuroba from shouting, "ANYTHING!"

"Oh, really? How many will you sacrifice? How many will you destroy? A child? A family? A whole town? A world?" Homunculus' voice was soft, distant, and from inside Kaito he could feel the creature's sadness and anger. Could feel the frustration. "Everything?"

"Don't be a fool. Of course not." Kuroba spun in mid-air, glaring at Homunculus. "I'd sacrifice myself."

"...no..." Somehow Kaito's word escaped his lips, then Homunculus sighed. "I am of two minds this day," he murmured. "I cannot save you all - not as things stand. It is, quite simply, beyond my skills." He gestured down at the vast river, drew them closer. "That," he murmured. "Do you see it?"

Laying within the blackness was a ruby serpent, coiled in upon itself, tangled up in an intricate knot that drew one stream of time along itself. "Undo that knot and your family will not die. Undo it, though, and lives you do not know will be destroyed. Undo it - as those who would have that gem would do - and everything unravels. There is simply not enough of me to repeat what was done there. Even this much has required I submit to a transformation that I would much prefer to avoid."

Kuroba shook his head. "I don't understand."

Homunculus shook his head. "I think you do. You are not a fool. You understand paradox when it stares you in the face." Kaito found himself pointing down. "The future cannot change its path in the past. Only reach back and ensure itself." There were marks upon the plain, signs of something flailing wildly, struggling against the flow and another of Homunculus' memories flickered through his mind. Fighting, twisting back and forth. Destroying and being destroyed, until the only hope is that everything would shatter and end entirely. Until oblivion would be a blessing. He felt Homunculus acknowledge his comprehension. :Only one thing saved us. Only one thing brought peace to the tangle, created a path where all could rest satisfied. A state of grace, unexpected and undeserved. I cannot risk that state without destroying everything that has gone before.:

Kaito's father was gazing down at the river. "What is that?" He pointed and Kaito saw the serpent had split, one head following a broad stream, the other a fragile rivulet that twisted back upon itself. "Another path?"

"Bingo." Homunculus started moving again, as if unable to remain still anymore, pacing back and forth in mid-air. "I am already pushing myself to my limits, Phantom Thief. I cannot change your timeline. I cannot save your family. But I can choose a different pathway. I can hope to make it stable, to turn your timeline to the rivulet and the rivulet to the stream. If I do, the split will erode away, leaving only the tracks that I may use to show the danger of that path."

:Have you already?: Kaito couldn't help asking and felt Homunculus' amusement. :You wouldn't tell me, if you have, would you?: He wanted his father to live. He wanted to protect his parent, to make everything okay for everyone. And I can't see any way to do it, either. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to throw a tantrum that would shatter everything. He couldn't.

A Phantom Thief must master his emotions, Kaito reminded himself. Must control anger, pain, sorrow. Behind the mask, we may weep, but we must not be slave to what we feel. Jiichan's words came back to him, reminding him of the hardest lesson he'd had to learn.

oOo

The emotions roiling through his shared body are agony. The boy is trying to control them, but Homunculus is unaccustomed to a true physical form, rather than the hollow shell that contains his true Self. Were this body not essentially human, he would shatter under such strain. At last, though, he turns to face the boy's father, who is has been strangely silent throughout these long minutes.

"What is wrong with you?"

Homunculus chuckles, though it is a hollow, fragile, sound - nothing like his usual amused chuckles. Entirely without the superiority that he has often felt. "As I have said, I am of two minds today." He shrugs. "Never mind that, Kuroba Toshi. Tell me, what would you have me do? How much do I sacrifice? Whom do I sacrifice?"

oOo

It was no surprise that his father answered, "Me. Just me." A solid knot of pain was forming in Kaito's belly, yet he couldn't see a different resolution either. He sensed Homunculus' agreement. :I searched, boy. I searched every pattern I could. There are no paths that do not lead to death for one or all of you. No paths that can make your world perfectly right.:

:Maybe. But I don't have to like it,: Kaito shot back at his unwilling companion. :Oh, I see what you mean. I understand. And I HATE it.:

Faint sad amusement flooded the link. :Ah. And you believe I enjoy it. I assure you, I do not. The time in my existence when watching you humans squirm was pleasurable is long since past.: If Kaito couldn't feel the aching regret that twisted through his unwilling companion he wouldn't have believed it. As it was, he was hard pressed not to cry out under its pressure. :Now. Allow me to finish here:

Kuroba Toshi was speaking, repeating, "I said, what would you have me do? How do I fix things?"

"First, give me the gem you have stolen." At Kuroba's startled expression, Homunculus smiled. "I know. In that other time I told you that I could not touch it. That I could not take it to protect it from you. This body is not the one I wore, in that time and place. I can touch and hold it now, where I could not before."

Slowly, Kuroba removed a slender ruby colored stone from his pocket. "Here, then." Homunculus reached out and Kaito could feel the heat from inside the stone, feel the pressure of the energies within it. Then his hand tightened, energies from Homunculus' self merging with the stone and shattering it. Pain seared through them, an agonized scream echoed in their ears. :WHAT ARE YOU DOING?: His question was echoed by his father's.

"In your timeline, this stone would give its owners what they desire. Are you at all inclined to allow them that grace? To permit them to defeat time?" Homunculus cocked Kaito's head and smiled wryly. "I thought not." He opened the hand, fingers shaking, strange fiery blood pouring down and fading away into nothing. "Now. There are two more things."

Kuroba Toshi straightened. "What?"

"I must take your existence. I must create a false stone that contains your memories, a trap that will show your past self what will happen, should he continue on the path you took. Without that encouragement he will certainly ignore my warnings and your family will die."

Dark blue eyes blinked. "I see. But will that be enough to save them? Even if I... he... chooses not to obey, they hold his family hostage."

Kaito knew the answer to that and Homunculus allowed him to speak. "He'll give them the false stone." His throat hurt. "And they will kill you, to keep your silence. They won't kill your family because they are ignorant of what is going on."

A startled look crossed Kuroba's face. "Your voice.. changed."

The next answer was Homunculus. "I told you I was of two minds. And that is the last thing I would have of you." Kaito felt himself being given control as Homunculus continued, "Your son would like to speak with you."

oOo

The moments that follow are private and Homunculus carefully shields his entire awareness from what is happening. He must trust that Kaito will not betray their cause, will not permit his love for his father to interfere with what he knows must happen. The sadness he feels is intense and it is not - entirely - Kaito's alone.

In the past, though such a concept is inaccurate for a being like himself, Homunculus would have been disgusted, would never have taken such risks. That past, though, was one of continued pain, of self-destructive lashing out. He is not that creature anymore. Humankind has changed him, softened him enough to make it impossible for him to see them as mere pawns in a game of life and death.

Anymore than he, himself, was.

oOo

Reality had returned around them, Homunculus' use of his digipad bringing them back into Kuroba Toshi's timeline. "Good luck." Kuroba's voice ached as he eyed the body that contained both Homunculus and Kaito. "Both of you."

"You... be careful... here," Kaito whispered, fingering the false stone Homunculus had created with this version of his father's memories. "I wish..."

"I know. But it can't be. I can't see a way to make it work," Kuroba agreed. "Go on. Don't waste time."

Now that amused both Homunculus and Kaito, though it was Homunculus who answered, "Time is the one thing we can't waste right now. Goodbye, Kuroba." He fiddled with the digipad and once again the world turned inside out. The next thing Kaito knew, they were standing in darkness. Through Homunculus' eyes, though, he could see clearly, as if by another light entirely. The room was nearly unchanged, though the padlock on the cabinet was - once more - locked. :This is where you come in,: Homunculus thought at Kaito, who nodded. His body was entirely under his control again, though he could feel Homunculus watching through their shared eyes. :It really weirds me out, being watched over my shoulder like this.:

:I'll stay out of the way, Kaito. I have no clue how to do what you do. But it's fascinating, watching a master at work.: The compliment felt very real, surprisingly so. :Best hurry. I can feel the time your father reaches this point approaching.:

Kaito went to work. It was with some pride that he realized that he was undoing the same lock his father had, and doing so with equal skill. Certainly it took no longer for him to pick the lock than it had his father. :Et voila.: he thought at Homunculus and was amused at the soft mental applause the gesture elicited.

This time the cabinet held something other than the digipad. A small book, exceedingly familiar to both himself and Homunculus. The strange pentagram on the front caused a small headache and it was an effort for Kaito to reach past it to take the elegant little wooden statue of a worm swallowing its tail beyond it. :My turn, I believe.: Homunculus' fingers pressed and twisted, worked tiny levers using Kaito's picks. :You could do it, of course, but we don't have time.:

Kaito agreed as the central part of the statue clicked open, revealing the ruby stone that was the cause of all the troubles. The Pandora Gem. Its heat burned at his fingers, the power within it echoing with the power inside his Self. :You could destroy it now,: Homunculus told Kaito quietly. :But...:

"I've already agreed. I hate it. I hate everything about this. But I've agreed." Kaito took the false stone out of his pocket, slid it into place, then returned everything to normal. "Dad's turn, I guess."

oOo

They hide in the shadows, watching as the Kuroba Toshi of this time period does what he has come to do. Listening as the Homunculus of this time appears and tries to convince the thief to relent, to convince him that his choice would only lead to disaster.

As he always does, however, Kuroba Toshi is unable to listen. His family has been threatened. He cannot refuse to steal the gem. Cannot leave his family to die. He reaches out, opens the statue containing the stone and takes it in his hand.

The light as the power within it explodes is blinding.

To Be Continued...