Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story but the idea and the title.

A/N: No, I'm not dead. I'm now officially a college student once again, and I have NO time. But I had most the weekend off, so I decided to do one big update. Hopefully, you'll see more before spring break, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. pout Special thanks go to EmpressAuthor, you'll notice I changed the spelling in this chapter, and Lysia Croft for the support. My next project is to do all the reviews I promised. I haven't forgotten you, Rikou!

"This is disturbing."

Jadeite turned away from the window to meet Nephrite's gaze with a little grimace. "True. But it really is the best place to keep guard."

"Still…" Nephrite stared uneasily at the rusty brown splatter stains. "Unbelievable. I didn't realize anyone could bleed this much."

Jadeite returned to his vigilance by the window. "Then you are lucky. Your memory must not be as sharp as mine."

"Nani?" Nephrite frowned in confusion, then suddenly gasped in understanding. "Oh. That."

"That," his fair friend agreed. A long moment of silence stretched between them, until Jadeite asked, "Do you remember?"

"Hai." He crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the wall. "I remember all too clearly. The battle, the screams, her blood…"

"It is always there, isn't it? Just behind your thoughts, ready to pounce the moment you think you are safe."

"It's in her eyes," Nephrite added. "They are like twin stages, holding a never ending play, a tragedy retelling your every crime over and over again."

"She looks at you like she is in a nightmare."

"She looks at you like she is shattered inside."

"And you know," Jadeite whispered, "deep down you know, there is no way you can ever mend her. You cannot give her back what you stole. And you cannot end this terrible dream. Even if you were to disappear, even if you were to die again, the memories will haunt her forever."

No answer came from the other man. The words hung heavy in the air, the way truth always does. There was nothing more to be said.

"So… So you don't think that, maybe," Nephrite began slowly, "that just maybe-"

"Iie, Nephrite," Jadeite cut him off firmly. "Leave her be, or she'll be attacking you with books next."

A short bark of laughter made him turn, frowning. Nephrite shrugged guiltily. "It really is kind of funny."

"No, it isn't!"

"And if Mars had attacked me with a book, you wouldn't find it at all humorous?"

"Not as humorous as I'm going to find pummeling you myself!"

Blue eyes narrowed, Jadeite took a menacing step forward. Nephrite straightened, a challenging grin on his face. The two men squared off, ready for battle.

CRASH!

"What in all the rings of hell?"

Before Jadeite finished his exclamation, Nephrite had flung the door open and raced into the hall. There the men paused, having no idea where the source of the noise came from.

"GET OUT!"

"Up!" Jadeite shouted, running for the nearby stairwell. Nephrite flew after him.

A series of smashes drew them two floors up. Huffing and sweating, they raced down the hall, neither noticing that they were the only people reacting at all to the sounds of trouble. A door slammed open, and a young boy stumbled backwards into the hall.

"Mama!"

A tall woman with long red hair appeared in the doorway, a rolling pin in one hand. Her wide eyes saw only the child as she advanced through the door, tears rolling unchecked, her mouth open in a horrible gasp.

"YOU MONSTER!"

To their horror, the woman raised the rolling pin and brought it down hard. The child twisted, and the pin missed his head by centimeters, meeting his shoulder with a sickening crack. He fell with a pained cry.

"Jadeite, grab the boy!"

The mother spun towards the voice, raising her weapon too late. Nephrite slammed his body into her, thrusting her back against the wall. He grappled with her, but she seemed possessed of an insane strength. She squirmed and kicked, desperately surging back towards the boy with a terrible gleam in her eyes.

"Help me!" Nephrite shouted to his friend.

"I'm having my own problems!"

The boy apparently had no desire to be rescued. He struggled in Jadeite's arms, kicking and clawing in desperation. "Let me go!"

"Damn it!" Jadeite snarled. "The kid's strong!"

"It's genetic!" Nephrite yelled back. "Ma'am, please! I don't want to hurt you!"

"HE'S A MONSTER!" she screamed. "HE KILLED MY SON, AND TOOK HIS BODY! HE'S A DEMON!"

"My problems are worse than yours!" Nephrite declared. "Get over here!"

Gladly releasing the enraged child, Jadeite rushed to grab the swinging arm. Together they managed to wrest the rolling pin from her, their entangled bodies slamming against a neighbor's door. The weapon clattered from their struggle to the floor. Nephrite seized her hands, pinning them to her sides before she could inflict anymore scratches.

"Ma'am," Nephrite tried in a calm, soothing voice, "please listen to us! Your son is not a monster! You are just- GAH!"

The men had lost track of the little boy during the tussle with his mother. This turned out to be a mistake, as the child was now attached to Nephrite's arm by his teeth. He wrapped his arms around the tall man's waist and bit harder.

"Get him off! Get him off!" he shouted.

The blonde glowered angrily at him. "If you hadn't told me to let him go in the first place-"

"Damn it, Jadeite, the boy's about to hit an artery! Get him off me!"

Seizing the boy around the waist, Jadeite yanked him free. The child let loose an infernal shriek, twisting in his arms, trying to get hold of him with his sharp teeth. He tried shaking the child, but that only made him scream louder.

"Stop screaming! No one is hurting you!"

"HE'S A MONSTER!"

"He is your child!" Nephrite shouted, shaking her as well.

"HE'S A DEMON! KILL HIM!"

"BITCH!"

Nephrite twisted around to look at the boy pummeling his heels against Jadeite's shins. "WHORE! SLUT!"

"Maybe there is something to her story," Jadeite mused, trying to dodge the kicks.

"HE SPEAKS ONLY LIES!"

"SHE'S A WHORE! I KNOW EVERYTHING!"

"SHUT UP, YOU BEAST!"

Lunging, the woman almost freed herself from Nephrite's arms, one hand seizing a doorway and pulling. Grunting, the dark haired man seized her wrist and pulled her back into a more secure hold.

"Stop it! Listen to yourself!"

"LET ME GO! I HAVE TO DESTROY HIM!"

"BITCH! YOU ARE THE LIAR!" The boy swung both legs hard, earning a pained shout from Jadeite. However, the angelic faced Shitennou refused to let go. "I KNOW! I KNOW EVERYTHING! YOU THOUGHT THAT YOU COULD HIDE IT, THAT YOU COULD MAKE ME BELIEVE YOUR LIES!"

She turned her head away, her voice suddenly weakening. "He's a monster! A monster… Not my son…"

"LOOK AT ME, MOTHER!" he shouted, tears now on his face. "LOOK AT YOUR MONSTER! YOU MADE ME!"

Her forehead wresting on the wall, she sobbed. "Not my son! Not my son! I didn't do anything wrong!"

Carefully, Nephrite loosened his hold on her, watching her trembling shoulders. The fight seemed to have left her. She clung to the doorway now for balance, shaking her head back and forth.

The boy glared at her, his voice lowering. "You thought he would believe you, your husband. But I don't look anything like him! I look like some other man, don't I? Because I am not his child!"

"Not true! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"He was afraid of people talking, so he stayed with you! But I hear them, whispering, saying I'm not his! And they're right, aren't they! YOU WHORE!"

Nephrite looked to his partner. "I think there is more to this than the wind, Jadeite."

"I know everything!" the child snarled. "Why did you have to have me? Why must I be the living reminder of your betrayal? He hates me, and everyone knows what I am! I should never have been born!"

"A monster," she moaned into the wall. "Make him stop."

"I won't stop!" he shrieked. "Every heartbeat is a reminder of your sins! You have to kill me, don't you, to be free? Well, do it!"

Like his mother, he suddenly drooped in Jadeite's arms, defeated. "Just do it. Kill me, and let us both be free of all you did."

Silence at last filled the hall, mother sobbing, son crying silently in Jadeite's arms. Sighing, Jadeite put the child on his feet and released him, only to see him fall to his knees in anguish. He wiped his nose with his sleeve, let his head fall heavily forward, and sat still.

"Okay," Nephrite began slowly, looking to Jadeite, "let's just-"

"DEMON!"

She moved frighteningly fast, slamming an unsuspecting Nephrite into the wall in her rush. The rolling pin was in her hand before Jadeite could shout. He barely had time to move as it arched through the air, and slammed down onto soft tissue.

"Oh, shitshitshit!"

Jadeite staggered back, tripping over the child on the floor, dropping the arm used to block the blow. "Damn it, is every woman in Tokyo trying to kill me?"

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!"

She swung again, catching Jadeite in the ribs and driving him back further. Her son scrambled out from under Jadeite's feet, and she turned after him.

"MONSTER! CHILD OF A MONSTER! I WOULD NEVER BETRAY MY HUSBAND!"

"Nephrite!" Jadeite shouted. "She's really going to kill him!"

Strong hands caught in her hair, yanking her head back as she swung wildly. "I CAN'T STAND TO LOOK AT HIM! HE LOOKS JUST LIKE THE MONSTER WHO DID THIS TO ME! HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN!"

"Let her finish it!" the boy cried. "Let her be free of me!"

"Not gonna happen!" Nephrite snarled. "Jadeite, we have to lock them in somewhere!"

"Oh, really? Thank the gods you're here to take charge!" Jadeite snapped. "Knock her out!"

"I can't hit a woman!" Nephrite said. "You knock her out!"

"Why me?"

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HIM!"

"Whoa!" Jadeite shot her a startled look. "This is getting worse by the second!"

The woman had eyes only for her son, who, in turn, stared back at her in shock.

"I didn't know him," she whispered. "Our stove was broken. He came while Yukio was at work. Of course I let him in." Her head bowed again, this time in shame. "He was a very strong man. I could not fight back. I was so afraid.

"Yukio never believed me. I was bleeding, but he would not believe me. He only stayed when I found out I was pregnant, so people would not talk. They talked anyway."

"Mama…"

"He wanted me to get rid of the baby. But I would not. How can a man understand, the feeling of another's life inside your own body? So he had to stay. I did not want him to. He has blamed me all these years for something I did not do, and something I could not do.

"I'm sorry I hurt you, my baby. I'm sorry you had to suffer for my weakness. Please, forgive me…"

The rolling pin fell from limp fingers, and she, too, went to the floor, her hands out. The child crawled around Jadeite's knees, across the floor, into her lap. She folded her arms tightly around him, burying her face in his shoulder and sighing.

"Ano…" Nephrite looked at Jadeite, who shrugged back at him.

"I guess that take's care of that problem," Jadeite muttered. "I have a feeling Zoisite and Mercury-"

"Ami."

"- the blue haired girl are going to say, 'Hmm. Interesting.' I, however, have no idea what just happened. So-"

"He has made you this unhappy all my life?" the boy asked, leaning back to look his mother in the eye.

"Don't think about that, Tohru."

"He hates me, doesn't he? I always knew it!"

"Uh-oh," Nephrite muttered. "Jadeite…"

"He has," the mother whispered. "He always makes me feel guilty for what was not my fault!"

Their eyes met with shared fervor.

"Not good!" Jadeite yelped. "Grab one!"

Both mother and son darted forward, but the men were ready for them. They each caught an arm, Nephrite seizing the son, Jadeite the mother. The blonde grimaced once in apology.

"Gomen!"

A little knock to her temple, and she slumped forward in his arms.

"What have you done to my mother?"

Nephrite, looking equally sorry, tapped the child in the same place. He went rigid, then fell forward.

"Next time, we skip the reasoning and just knock them out!" Jadeite grumbled, picking the woman up in his arms, her red head slumped on his shoulder. "Come on."

They carried their burdens into the apartment, which looked like it had been on the receiving end of an earthquake. Jadeite laid the woman on the couch, picking up a blanket from the back of a fallen chair to cover her. Nephrite looked into the first bedroom, then the second. This room contained all the trappings of a young boy's life, from model airplanes to clothing tossed carelessly on the floor. He put the boy gently on the bed, picking up the quilt from the floor and spreading it over his thin body.

Returning to the living room, he found Jadeite rubbing his arm painfully and looking thoughtful. He raised questioning eyebrows at his friend, and earned a shrug.

"I thought for a moment we had found a way to stop the Abyss's influence. But we just redirected it."

"That's still something. Apparently, true feelings, like a mother's love for her son, and his for her, can beat back the evil tide, even if it just turns their anger to its true source," Nephrite reminded him.

"Yes, turning them in a murderous rage towards an unsuspecting man is much better. Wait a minute! Where is that bastard?"

"Her husband?" Nephrite looked around. "Huh! He's not here."

"Please tell me they haven't already killed him," Jadeite prayed.

"I don't think so, but we had better return to the apartment downstairs. We're supposed to be watching the portal."

Jadeite walked to the open window, putting his hands up to close it as he looked out. "Everything seems to be quiet, except… Oh, no!"

He sprang through the window, falling three stories towards the ground.

"JADEITE!" Nephrite flew to the window in time to see Jadeite land on his feet, then sprawl forward from the momentum of his fall. He grabbed something and rolled across the pavement, just outside the alley, and the portal's reach.

"Damn it!"

Nephrite turned and ran to the door, but darted back to slam the window shut. He sped out of the apartment, securely closing the door behind him, then made for the stairs. He just barely made it to the ground floor when Jadeite entered with a pronounced limp, scrapes all over his arms, and a very startled looking stray dog in his arms.

"What the?"

"It was heading straight for the alley," he explained, patting the mongrel's ugly head. "Even something this little could give it energy."

"You jumped out a three-story window to save a puppy?" Nephrite burst into laughter. "Oh, wait till the others hear this one!"

"You shut up!"

Jadeite's fierce glare was much undermined by the affectionate ministrations of the dog on his face.

"Yeech! I've been licked enough lately, you! Stop it!"

"Come on," Nephrite called, opening the door to the apartment they had commandeered. "We're still on guard duty for the rest of the night."

"You're on guard duty!" Jadeite shot back, slumping against the wall and sliding into a sitting position. "I'm back on invalid status!"

"Weakling," Nephrite muttered. He took up post by the window, looking out at the deceptively still alley. "What do you think the others are up to?"

Attempting to ward off the dog's helpful tongue, Jadeite said, "Nothing this exciting, I'm sure. But we have learned one more interesting fact tonight. It takes more than two people to properly guard this damn thing!"