In the shambles of Luin once again, they watched the evening fade from dusk to darkness. Overhead the stars appeared, dimly twinkling as if to say "Keep hope!". Scattered throughout the ruined buildings were the lights of campfires, all that remained of the inhabitants.

Genis fussed over the preparations for supper, mumbling about missing ingredients. Quick fingers turned the roasting chicken on the spit, while the few seasonings that he did possess waited for the opportune time to be applied to the bird. Behind him sat the Professor, a tattered book open on her lap. Her hands remained busily occupied toying with a magic lens, while her eyes stared somewhere a long way off, her mind wandering far away.

Lloyd sat a little ways off, a discouraged slump to his shoulders. Beside him Collette sat sympathetically whispering to him. Something she said must have helped, for his posture straightened and he looked around with a half smile on his face.

That's when he noticed the elderly man shambling over to the group. Leaning heavily on his staff, he studied the boy for a moment.

"Is Sheena here? No? Ah, well tell her that I'm grateful for saving me. What's that boy? You want to know about the ranch, how to get in? Well I'm sure I don't know anything useful, but the folks up at Hima might. One of the poor unfortunates escaped and headed out for there. He might know how to go about it."

The old man stared at the fire for another few minutes before turning around and bidding farewell to the young couple. His odd shuffling gait vanished in the thickening gloom. Much more cheerful at the news, Lloyd gazed over at the Professor. "Hey! Now we know something!"

Raine nodded from her place by the fire while Genis merely sighed. "Yeah Lloyd, of course we do." His tone was sarcastic, though it was wasted on the human boy.

Raine wrote something in her book before answering. "Yes, it appears so. I think that we should head for Hima then, and find out what we can. Perhaps..." Her voice trailed off as she went into thinking mode again.

Away from the rest of the party, Kratos sifted through debris that marked the place where a house had once stood. With a broken board he listlessly stirred the ashes, looking for nothing in particular and seeing nothing in the present. His thoughts were of the past, of Luin as it had looked that day sixteen years previous...

--Flashback--

Luin, City of Hope

So the sign proclaimed it, and to the young couple moving across the bridge, so it seemed to be. The baby in the young woman's arms wailed loudly as they neared the shore, proclaiming his impatience with whatever the situation that kept him from his supper. A pacifier quieted him down and he sucked noisily while his parents smiled down on him. "He's beautiful Anna, just like you."

The woman blushed and hid behind her flowing hair as she listened to the compliment from her husband. "Stop teasing me Kratos."

He grinned. "I never say things that I don't mean."

She laughed then, quietly. The gloves that hid her hands shifted as she moved the baby around to a more comfortable position. "I know. I can't wait for Lloyd to meet his grandparents."

"They'll love him, just like they love you." The heartfelt simplicity of the statement touched the woman and she threw herself into his arms. Quiet tears streamed down her cheeks as she hid herself in her husband's embrace. "Oh Kratos... Will they ever let us live in peace?"

He shook his head as his arms surrounded her. "I do not know."

--End Flashback--

That had been the last time that Anna had seen Luin, the last in fact that she had seen her parents. They disappeared soon after and although he tried to covertly gain information, it remained out of his reach. Leaving Cruxis for her was not an action that he regretted, but it did have its disadvantages when one was trying to keep a low profile. Mithos and Yuan would have reeled him in hurriedly had they ever discovered where he was and what he was doing.

Even to this day he concealed it from them.

'When Anna had died...'

Grief overcame him then, grief for the love that had died and grief for the son that yet lived.

'Lloyd, don't die on me.'

A single tear fell to the ashes, the only extent that he could allow the cleansing flow. This burden would be his forever; the guilt of a murderer and traitor.

The kneeling angel gazed at his glove covered hands. The leather contained the dark streaks of the ashes that he'd searched through.

'Perhaps this is what my soul looks like. To have failed so many.'

'Perhaps I am not worthy of anyone's love...'
Hidden in the darkness she watched him. Saw him shifting through the debris that was strewn throughout the city. Noticed him stop, kneel down in that one particular spot and stare at the stars. No one was likely to see her in the darkness, too few remained and of the survivors, most spent their evenings staring morosely into their fires.

Sheena gathered her wits around her and glided nearer, curiousity driving her to see what the mercenary was staring at. What was so important in the carnage that he would be driven to this very spot? Her footfalls were silent, her breathing lax as she crept ever nearer.

She was nearly close enough to peek around him, just another few steps...

The ninja stiffened suddenly, the blade of a sword at her throat. Her mouth felt dry and her heart was pounding. "Kr-Kratos."

Slowly he withdrew the blade, berating himself internally for being caught in such a situation again. The tremor in her voice as she said his name betrayed her fear of him. It wasn't what he desired.

"Don't walk behind me." The tone was nearly emotionless, the advice the same that he had dispensed to his son several days earlier. He looked at her in the small amount of moonlight that was available and found himself flushing. He had really scared her. Having cut himself off so totally from his senses as to be oblivious to her sneaking up behind him...

Well, he was back in contact with them, and they were speaking volumes.

Her heart was racing with all the adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream. Sweat glands were working overtime, and breathing had picked up. He saw her raise her hand to lightly brush against her throat. It was trembling.

"Sheena."

She started.

All right, so he'd done more than just scare her. This bordered on terrified.

Pausing in his assessment of the situation, Kratos replaced his sword in its sheath and crossed his arms. Bowing his head allowed his bangs to fall over his face, concealing his features. "Am I such a hideous monster that you would fear me? It was my error for not being more alert to my surroundings."

Gulping, the girl from Mizuho shook her head. "N-no! Its just that I wanted... I wanted to ask you..."

Turning his back to her, he waited. "Yes?"

"I've seen you fight." Her voice wavered once, the tremor still plain in her tone. "I know that you would have had no problems detecting me. So I'm wondering why. Why did you leave me? Why did you save me?"

He could have laughed bitterly at that. What game had the fates played, that she should ask him the question that tortured his waking hours. For a second time, even. His hand reached up and covered his eyes, unmindfull of the dirt that would mar his face when he took the hand away. "I do not know. Perhaps... perhaps it is because you remind me of her. She... never gave up."
She stood trembling, fearing the end of her life and mission, confusing though it was. And then he put away the sword again. He turned away and his voice came to her from the darkness. He wondered why she was afraid of him, assured her that it was not her fault. And for some reason she found a miniscule amount of comfort in that.

And even more it brought forth the curiousity that had been stirring since their first meeting on the top of the mountain path.

So she asked him the question that he hadn't answered for her before. "Why did you save me?"

His reply didn't shock her as much as the raw pain in his voice did. Kratos was the stone faced mercenary, the man without emotion. Very little passed his eyes, and of the little that did, most remained concealed behind the long bangs that hid his face. But here in the darkness the pain that remained inside of him came out in the words that he spoke. "...you remind me of her."

Sheena gathered up her courage once more. "Kratos?"

He didn't answer immediately. "Yes."

"She died didn't she."

He remained silent, not answering the statement. And in its own way, the silence answered the question, speaking the depth of the pain carried and how long it had been borne.

She sighed as he walked away, losing his form quickly in the darkness. The last question touched very near to her own personal demon, her most painful failure. Maybe that is why she could see into him better than the others, if such a thing could ever be claimed. Sheena turned away and started back towards the rest of the party. The mercenary would take care of himself, walling himself back into the cold hard exterior that armored his soul against the pain.

Maybe she would do the same.

'If only it were that easy...'
Raine looked up as the ninja returned, eyeing the girl warily. Of all the members of the party, only she had advised caution against an alliance with the assassin. Having been over-ruled by the majority had been a slightly bitter experience, but nothing to bother her, and nothing that she hadn't expected. How many times during this journey had she declared that they were too tenderhearted?

Sheena looked up and in that instant in the firelight, the healer caught the sight of an inner darkness that resonated with her own hidden secrets. Abruptly flames died down in their dance as Genis banked the fire down for the night, and the moment was lost.

But not forgotten.

For in that moment they had recognized a kindred spirit.
AN: Tension. Lots of tension. Can't help myself for this chapter. Read, review. Tell me what you think.