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NOTES

No warnings - it helps to have read through the Burial arc, but won't really spoil you.

I wasn't happy with this chapter, so a revision may happen in the future.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

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The quick repetition of footsteps echoed down the hallway: the sound of the heartbeat of a bird.

When Ririn reached the laboratory, the doctor was waiting for her, as always. He stood as a silhouette, surrounded by silver reflected light, where pillars of glass and metal grew tall behind him.

She approached him, holding the Seiten Sutra in one hand, hanging at her side, and took a breath.

"I'm late. I've been dreaming."

"Have you…?" He seemed amused, tapping his chin with a thoughtful finger. Ririn noticed the stuffed bunny sitting on the table, peeking around its master.

"I want you to tell me what it means."

"Sorry," he said. "I can't do that."

"Alright… then tell me something else." She closed her eyes for concentration. Still lightheaded. "Why… should I apologize to you? Why should I feel guilty?"

"Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to get what we want." He was thumbing the ear of his doll absently. His eyes were hidden.

"I know that… and I still feel bad."

"You don't need to, Princess. All of your feelings will be for nothing. Always. In the end, it doesn't matter anyway," Smug pride tugged at the edges of his words, like a teacher imparting the final truth to his student. He smirked. "Life is but a dream."

"So you don't really care about me," she said sadly, hugging the Sutra closer to her chest.

"No…I suppose I don't," he said. "Not in the way you're thinking, anyway."

"Well… here. I came to bring this back." She held out the Sutra between clawed fingers. "I don't need it anymore." The doctor slid over on silent slippered feet to take the scroll, standing too close.

"I'm afraid I can't give you back what I took."

Ririn slid her eyes sideways, but refused to be embarrassed. "I know that."

"You can't change the past," he added. Ririn thought it sounded bitter.

She didn't answer.

She took the handle of the door and paused. "You're wrong." It didn't take a scientific mind to understand. "It doesn't matter to me if my feelings are only dreams." This man had power and knowledge, but not understanding. "They are more important to me than anything. That is what makes them real." She smiled at him, deep, like the grey sun in her dreams. "I'm sorry. I couldn't change the past."

The door slid shut behind her.

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At midnight she had her last dream, and she was ready for it.

The sun had set, and there was no moon. Ririn saw herself as she was, pajamaed, hair rumpled and tumbling down her back. Next to her was the rejected man (man? he couldn't be more than twenty, but it was hard to tell) who stared straight ahead at nothing. Looking at the side of his face she could see behind his glasses. His eyes were ocean teal.

"I was in love once," he said.

He can see me? Her thoughts sounded far away, somewhere under the ground.

"I was in love with someone," the main said again, "but he loved another."

"Yes," said the dream Ririn. "It happens to everyone."

"Amazing," the man said. "I didn't think you could hear me." He paused and lifted his hand, staring at it as though it were alien to him. "Jealousy isn't something I'm used to." He put his hand down. "It turns out I was right all along. Love doesn't exist more than anything else. " Ririn noticed the Sutra hanging limply around his shoulders.

"It doesn't matter if it isn't real." The dream Ririn reflected real Ririn's earlier words. "Love is still important."

"No," the man replied. "I want the truth. I can't be satisfied with anything less. In the absence of God, only logic is left." He smiled, that same proud and wicked smile, but not turning to look at her. "Thank you, ghost. For trying."

"What's your name, anyway?" She asked, finally.

"The last time I changed, I got a new name. I'm done with this one now."

Because in the end, it didn't matter anyway.

"I'm sorry," she said, and the apparition faded away into the darkness of the moonless night.

He was right, she thought, wondering at the woven images that wrapped around her like blankets, I could not change the past.

And her mind wandered into dreams of cake, ice cream, and joy.

--fin--