Due to the nature of Sven's condition, this chapter might be more than a little confusing. It's hard the write his replies to Train's question without writing the question in the first place and having the whole conversation understandable. Bear with me.

If you were wanting clarification, Sven's condition is like this: he's blind, so he cannot see, but he uses his foreseeing eye to see seconds in the future, and it gives him "sight." But since he's seeing the future, or possible future (such as Train's death when he hadn't died yet), he can prevent it. But upon changing it, the future is changed, so the eye gives him a vision of the changed future. That, however, is really confusing (like seeing one minute, Train's dead, and the next, he's alive and well), so his replies make no sense. I will put what his eye sees within "/blah/" to make it easier to read.

The Echo of Saya

Train groggily woke up to soft white light dancing across his face, as if he was underwater. Instinct slowed his heart rate and thought waves to that of sleep. He slowly but efficiently felt out his surroundings. He really was underwater. A soft, constant bleeping was going in sync with a soft but labored breath somewhere 8 meters in front of him to the right. So he was being monitored also.

Finally deciding to risk a peek, he opened his eyes and then immediately closed them again. To the outside observer, it was merely a rare reflex of the body; a blink in sleep. As Train stared into the back of his eyelids, he allowed his thought process to speed up a little quicker than one would have in sleep, processing the full sight of what he had glimpsed during his blink.

And then his eyes immediately shot open as his memory rushed back to him.

He floundered inelegantly for a moment, loosing equilibrium in the slight viscosity of the liquid. As he felt the liquid slide coolly around his skin, regaining balance, he stared out across the clinically blinding white lab to where a body dangled from a chain tied to a pipe in far ceiling. It wasn't a corpse (amazing considering how none of Doctor's or Creed's victims in interrogation ever survived the first hour) and it was still conscious, considering the slight flickering of its eyeballs under its lids

Train was about to inquire who the man was, before the man suddenly spoke.

"You don't remember me, Train? I'm Sven, your sweeper partner?"

Train was confused. How the hell did this Sven know his name? Who the hell was this guy? Why was he important enough to keep alive and generally healthy in Doctor's lab instead of getting slain on sight? Why was he being familiar? What is a sweeper? Why would this Sven even think that he'd partner up with a guy like him? And why the hell did he answer Train's question before Train could even voice it?

Observing the monotone lab of Doctor, he deduced that there was nothing interesting to do from his stasis chamber until Creed let him out, so he decided to ask his numerous questions.

"Why--?" /…do you talk so familiarly with me/

"Because I know you," the man's voice pounced before another syllable could be said, "don't you remember me? And Eve? What has Creed done to you?"

"Creed has—" /…nothing to do with this! The question is who the hell are you/

"I told you, Train! I'm Sven, you're partner! And I'm going to kill Creed after I wring your memories out from him. Don't you remember anything from the past? About us? About how we fought against the Hoshi?"

/Train floated in the stasis chamber, bewilderedly looking at Sven before sinking into silence./

"DAMN IT ALL!"

Train stared at the ranting man, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Perhaps Train's initial impression was wrong. Perhaps this Sven was actually a mad project of Doctor's. Mad incompassing Doctor, project and man.

"Don't tell me you joined Creed, Saya's murderer, and threw away all memories of her!" Sven's violent outburst was emphasized by a crescendo of chain rattling.

Train was more confused than he had been since his parents were murdered. Creed had told him…but why would this man lie? Every word was underlined with frightening certainty.. The crash of vehemence, despair, grief and who knows what else in Sven's convictionbroke Train's emotional barriers and allowed a flood of reactions to pour into him. The anger in his voice surprised even himself as he let all façade of calm confidence go.

"The Time Guar—" /..dians killed her! You KNOW NOTHING/

"And what do you know?"

The calmness, as well as the overly readiness of the response stopped Train short. Then, like a bull who had just been stunned at seeing red, che harged on ahead in unjustified anger.

"Why do you always answer before I ask! Just SHUT UP!"

Silence. Was Sven really complying? The man's face seemed to be entirely focused on his strained breathing. There was no indication of defiance or annoyance or defeat.

Train, on the other hand, was having no such luck. The emotional wave that was pounding against his barriers was destroying all control he had. He was thrown helplessly into a tidal of hundreds of sensations he'd kept at bay so not as to interfere with his work. Train's face softened into one of longing and desperation, much like the face he wore when he observed the stars at Sven's side not long ago. His memory of her was so vague, but sometimes a bittersweet heartache would take over unexpectedly. Who was this person that haunted his dreams?

"You knew her?" Even that sounded pathetic, never mind the sudden urge to beg this supposed friend to tell him about Saya.

Sven had almost given up hope. This tentative question sounded more like the old Train than he dared to imagine. He wanted to demand answers from Train and wring it out of Creed's scrawny little neck. He wanted Eve's scientific analysis and Annette's (1) it's-common-sense-you-idiot logic.He wanted answers.

But he was desperate not to loose this piece of Train to the cold darkness that seemed to surrounded him.So he pushed aside his frustration and decided to settle for talking about Saya, hoping that speaking of the dead lady would jolt a few of Train's brain cells into activation.

"I never knew Saya, but you told me once that she was the one you failed to protect. The one that found you on the sidewalk one day bleeding from a wound when you purposely failed to kill your target on the order of Chronos. She took you in and…"

Sensing Train's discomfort at voicing any questions, Sven tried to cover as much as possible. As Sven told Train about this Saya, all of it sounded both familiar and surreal to the bewildered Black Cat. There was no way that he had met this kind and soft woman in the past. There was no way such a person could exist, not to mention approach a cold blooded killer such as him, in such a cruel world.

But her feelings of compassion and freedom echoed through Sven's word tormented his mind regardless.

(1) That retired Sweeper who watches over the information net, running a bar or resturaunt or somthing. I forget really.

I was just watching HunterxHunter the other day and it struck me as odd how much Creed Diskence and Kororo Lucifer are alike. I mean, the same slick hair and wild eyes, the same fluffy fur around the coat collar, leading the same type of group against the same type of organization that approve of the same type of methods. Creed is blond; Kororo is brunette. Creed's collar is fluffy white; Kororo's is black. Creed has Tao; Kororo has nen.

No worries though; I still like Creed better!