Except in spoken dialogue, first names refer to the traveling Kaito and Saguru. Last names refer to the natives of the events.

Dark Reprise

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
- Burnt Norton (I.1-3)

When Kaito awoke, the morning sun was already high enough to stream through the agency's second-floor windows. His internal clock informed him that while he wasn't exactly rested, as he'd built up far too high a sleep debt to manage that in one night, he was once again functional.

Joy and happiness.

Blinking sleep out of his eyes, he paused and raised an eyebrow at the sight of Edogawa—No, Kudou, here where all the masks had already been dropped between them—perched on the back of the couch, watching him.

"Enjoying the view of my beauty sleep?" Kaito drawled, amused.

Kudou shook his head, sober expression at odds with his child's face. "We've been waiting for you to wake up."

Kaito glanced aside to see Saguru consuming a bowl of rice and scrambled eggs. The blond waved the chopsticks a little. "Edogawa-kun brought breakfast, if you're hungry."

Kaito's stomach promptly growled. "Starving. Thanks, Kudou-kun."

He slipped off the couch to the floor beside Saguru and forced himself to down his own bowl slowly enough to chew, despite feeling hungry enough to eat an oni. As he did, Kudou continued, "I forgot last night, with everything else, but there are some things you need to know."

"…That sounds ominous."

"Yeah, well…" Kudou sighed, sliding down the couch back to curl up on the cushions. "I don't know how much you know… Does the name Vermouth mean anything to you?"

Kaito promptly choked on his rice, and the ensuing hacking fit lasted for a few minutes before his lungs finally cleared.

My respiratory system must hate me by now.

When it was over, Kudou had a look of grim sympathy. "I take it that's a yes."

"Not… quite how you think." Kaito ran a hand through his hair. "It… she's only a name and face I know from my nightmares."

Saguru swore. "You never mentioned anyone like that before now…"

Kaito gave him a sickly smile. "She's just a memory so far. That… other me's…" If he is real, only if he's real, Kami-sama don't let him be as real as this place… "She's the other guy's foster mother. Real name Sharon Vineyard, I think, but I… he called her Vermouth, if he called her anything at all."

Kudou growledlowly. "She'd be the type to have that kind of sick sense of humor. I don't know exactly how much you're paralleling us, but here she's a Naiad with Protean on par or above Kid's level of ability, and been a member for decades of the crows I'm chasing. Somewhere along the line she stopped aging or de-aged somehow, because fingerprinting confirms that Sharon Vineyard is the same person as her daughter, Chris Vineyard, and her undisguised face belongs to a woman the same age she was twenty years ago… when she was learning disguise magic along with my mother from world famous magician Kuroba Touichi."

…Hyperventilating is not allowed, Kaito ordered his body, head spinning. Your lungs can't take it.

Before Kaito trusted himself to speak, Saguru murmured softly, "If the crows are indeed behind Kid's snipers, Kid was murdered in his civilian identity..."

"Yeah," Kudou agreed. "I'm not positive that it was her, but if anyone was going to know Kuroba-san well enough to recognize Kid…" He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

It likely said a lot about Kaito's state of mind that the only thing he could think to say was, "How long have you known the connection between Dad and Kid?"

Kudou smiled wryly. "I did say my mother learned her mundane disguise skills from Kuroba-san. And Kid used me to send a challenge to my dad, once, ten years ago. After Ran told me you said your favorite magician was Kuroba Touichi at the Magic Lover's Club meeting, I went looking... the death of one magician so close to the disappearance of the other was pretty telling. And I've known about you since I accidentally found a picture of the two of you together from before he died."

"Oh," Kaito replied, intelligently. "He… your dad chased mine?"

"Here, at least, from what I've been able to find."

"The exclamation point…" Kaito murmured, an old memory falling into place. "My dad sent your dad a question mark under the guise of a fan, and your dad responded through your mom with just an exclamation point. No one would notice, because it wasn't unusual for Dad to have lunch with his old students."

"Careful, Kuroba-kun, you're sounding dangerously detective-like."

"Bite me, Hakuba-kun."

Kudou snickered. "You two sound like Hattori and I. I'm sorry I can't give you any more information. Just… watch your back."

"Even Kuroba-kun's flexibility has its limits," Saguru contributed, with a note in his voice that Kaito couldn't identify. "But I rather think I have enough practice from chasing it for so long."

Kudou smiled. "Good to know some things don't change."

"Some places," Kaito replied, thinking of the other Kudou they'd left behind, and sighed. "Thanks for breakfast. We'll get out of your hair soon, I just… need a little time to think."

"Sure. Judging by the snores, you've got about half an hour before the old guy makes it down."

Kaito nodded. "Thanks."

He wolfed the remainder of his breakfast, before Kudou silently gathered the dishes. Saguru collected the bed things, folding them with incredible precision, and followed Kudou. "I'll return momentarily."

Kaito nodded again, unseen, and once alone in the office curled up on the couch and dropped his head against his knees.

When did my life get more screwed up than Kudou-kun's?

Silence.

Okay. One thing at a time. He straightened his mental whiteboard.

One. Saguru-kun and I accidentally bailed on Riku-kun right before the big showdown. But, four keyblades and six fighters should be enough to handle Xemnas, and once we're back on the right plane of existence we can catch up and make sure everything is okay. Problem: I'm not doing too well on the 'getting home' front. Even using Aoko as a landmark, it's like whatever internal compass I'm using for this is broken.

Kaito paused, and re-ran the thought through his mind.

Compass. Lodestone. Ohcrapcrapcrap, the Shadow-Knower-Creature's riddles, this was one of them—it knew we would get lost.

He raked his hands through his hair. Focus. It didn't say we'd never get home afterward. We will, because we have to. I have to get Saguru-kun home, find Pandora, keep an eye on Kenta-kun and Riku-kun… not to mention turn Axel-kun back into a Somebody.

Kaito vaguely heard the door click as it opened. "Kuroba-kun, are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost. For the second time in as many days, I might add."

He raised a hand palm outward without looking up, instead continuing to stare past the far side of the room as he chased after his train of thought. "Quiet. Thinking."

The door closed again without comment.

…Maybe Axel was what It meant with 'change things the same'. But no, it said time factored in somewhere, and dealing with Axel-kun isn't on a time limit. I'm not going to bring him back just to leave him the way he was, either. Kaito growled under his breath. Coming back to both of those ideas later.

A sudden sense of frustrated presence in the back of Kaito's mind made him pause. "Méraud? You've been quiet…"

:I've had more important things to focus on than providing you with a running commentary.: Méraud replied dryly. :Dark Sage and I and a few others have been studying the Shadow-thread I told you about earlier.:

"Do you know what it is?"

Méraud's hesitation smothered the last vestiges of Kaito's peace of mind. :Not exactly. It's… tied to something, we think. We simply can't seem to discover what, or where… I can't even tell you if it's interfering at all with your ability to return home or not.:

Erk.

I am not thinking near well enough these days, if I hadn't considered that already.

"But you think it could be?" he asked, as Saguru settled nearby on the couch.

:Yes, it could be,: Méraud mimicked, sounding oddly less like an ancient dragon and more like an older sister without any answers to the questions her siblings kept repeating. :It could be nearly anything. However, even though there's no way to test for certain, I'm fairly convinced that it is… not benign.:

"Why?" His voice came out surprisingly calm.

:The way it hurt you at its apparent inception... The whispers of Darkness around it.:

Kaito mentally turned the air a fine shade of blue, then took a deep breath. "Is there anything conclusive on that front?" Or if it's linked to my nightmares? He couldn't bring himself to add the question aloud. "Can you do anything about it?"

A sense of a sigh. :Of course there's nothing conclusive. Your first nightmare was before this, but the way they've gotten worse means we can't rule it out as being related. Nor can we rule out that it's influencing your path home, but we haven't found a way to do anything about it, either. The last thing we want to do is make whatever it is, worse.:

So I don't really know anything except that it's bad. But if we don't know what it's doing... I don't have the mental resources to ruminate about what it could be.

"If that's all we know, then my sanity will thank me to not think about it until I have something concrete to consider." He pulled his attention back to the real world, and found concern warring with amusement in Saguru's expression.

Saguru spoke once Kaito had turned to look at him. "If this weren't the age of wireless technology, watching you talk to yourself would be a great deal more disconcerting. What's wrong?"

"Do you want alphabetical or categorical?" Without waiting for an answer, Kaito continued, "I figured out that the thing we met in the wild Shadows predicted we'd get lost like this, and while we were there I picked up something that could be bad, but we don't know anything about it. So until Méraud can tell me anything for sure I'm not going to think about it, just keep doing what I'm doing to get us home and hope to Kami-sama that whatever gave me a headache in the wild Shadows isn't behind this."

And I am not thinking about whether my nightmares are of a real place. Not. Notnotnot.

He couldn't afford to have another breakdown, not until they were safely back home. Or rather, maybe they could find somewhere safe enough, but it would be damn well embarrassing and wouldn't exactly help.

Saguru had a doubtful look, which only deepened when Kaito gave him a careless grin. The blond knew him too well these days, catching on to most of his tells when he wasn't saying the whole story.

The silence of Kaito's too-bright smile suddenly broke with the sound of stumbling, hung over footsteps approaching the office.

In a response completely unbefitting of Kid, he panicked. Trying to explain their presence in the office to a growly Mouri Kogoro would go over very, very badly in this universe, particularly when Kaito looked just like Kudou.

-Time!- pulled from the Shadows, and the footsteps slowed to a near-standstill as Kaito scooped up the two bags—no staff?—beside the couch to over one shoulder in a split second. Trusting instinct to guide what conscious control had yet to learn, he used the rest of that second to grab Saguru by the wrist and –yank- him upright in defiance of inertia and acceleration.

As he did, Kaito couldn't help but wish a little that Kudou could have kept the insanity magnet.

HomenowPLEASE!

The mental summon opened the atom-thick doorway nearly a couch-width across, providing ample space to dive into the next reality with Saguru in tow. Unfortunately, the consequences of their improbable acceleration meant that as Kaito twisted to see when Saguru's feet cleared the opening and he could drop the Shadow's hold, he and Saguru weren't so much running forward as falling horizontally. The instant Kaito dropped the rift's Shadows, the others he'd been calling on disappeared as well, and the pair dropped onto carpet with a dull thud and enough velocity to give Kaito's bare arms carpet burn as they skidded to a halt.

"Ow. Gerrof." Kaito shoved at Saguru's larger frame—he'd twisted towards the detective to look back at their feet, and so had ended up half-pinned beneath Saguru's arm and torso.

The weight disappeared as Saguru withdrew, rising up to his elbows and then rolling off onto his back, eyes tightly shut. "I would sincerely appreciate a warning before you try something like that again, lest I lose breakfast on you next time."

"Bloody hell," a young, oddly familiar voice yelped behind them. "KUROBAAA!"

Dammit!

A Kuroba never despaired—it was hardwired right out of their DNA, mom always said—but Kaito felt himself flirting with the idea as he forced leaden limbs up to see what twisted new reality he'd landed them in this time.

Beside him, Saguru rapped out, "Language, Aidan," in a seemingly automatic response, before his eyes flew open with a curse of his own and he scrambled to sit up beside Kaito.

They'd landed in Kaito's bedroom, skidding from the inside wall to just in front of the bed. A boy with dyed brown hair and a shirt that declared, "I'm not a pessimist, I'm an optimist with experience," pressed backwards into the pillows piled against the wall corner, watching them with narrowed blue eyes. The facial structure was wrong to be Kudou, though, and a moment later the familiar speech pattern and Saguru's comment made everything click into place.

"Hakuba-kun?" Kaito managed, incredulous.

Before the boy could reply, Kaito's perfect mirror image skidded into the doorway from the direction of the den. "What is i… Oh. Oh…kay…"

The apparently shrunk Hakuba Saguru picked back up the hardcover novel he'd dropped at their arrival, but held it in such a way that the closed book was more a blunt instrument than reading material. "Who are you, and how did you appear out of thin air?"

Kaito forced himself to not hit his head against the nearest hard surface. "I'm Kaito. That's Hakuba Saguru-kun. I can do more than just sleight of hand magic, and we're trying to get home from an accidental jaunt outside our reality but keep missing…"

Hakuba tilted his head, curiosity showing through despite himself. "Alternate timelines?"

"I am so glad you are actually intelligent." It made explanations much simpler, if not less repetitive. "Alternate realities, but close enough."

"Lovely." Kuroba rubbed his forehead, as if warding off a headache. "Look, I don't have timefor this right now. I have work to do tonight…"

"Fine." Saguru's eyes were glued to his youthened counterpart. "We can compare notes with—Hakuba-san—while you're off playing target."

Kaito rolled his eyes. "Hakuba-kun…"

"Yes, still slightly annoyed with you about that. If you'd run out of luck…"

Hakuba shrugged before Kaito could retort. "It's not as if he has to worry about anyone but Inspector Nakamori."

"Unless I find the stupid thing," Kuroba added, pausing in the doorway. "Then all bets are off."

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "No occasional sniper?"

Kuroba glanced at Hakuba. "Go finish up," Hakuba waved a hand, "or you'll be late. We can catch you up later."

"Going, going…" Kuroba ducked into the hall, padding towards the den and Touichi's painting.

Once Kuroba was gone, Hakuba re-arranged his legs to sit cross-legged, apparently satisfied that Kaito and Saguru weren't enough of a threat that he needed to be prepared to dodge.

"Well. It's still close to an hour before the heist time, so we can talk." Hakuba gave Saguru a sidelong glance. "…You said the name Aidan earlier. Judging by the context and my current appearance… you have a younger brother?"

Saguru hesitated, eyes closing, but the bittersweet smile that crept inexorably onto his face was all the answer Hakuba would have needed. "Yes. Just… the one. Do you?"

"No… I'm an only child. What's his name?"

"Aidan. Akira, if he were to ever visit Japan, but… Aidan. He's eight. He's a raging computer geek and takes to mathematics like a fish to water. I suspect he has Asperger's syndrome, but Grandmother would have conniptions if I ever tried to have him officially diagnosed."

Hakuba's lips thinned. "Of course. Atypical neurology is something that happens to other people."

"We have too many good genes," Saguru agreed, tone dry.

Kaito listened quietly. He'd known about Saguru's family, of course—there was a reason why the Kid Task Force called him their friendly neighborhood stalker, and the existence of a semi-high society and monied British clan was hardly a close-kept secret—but he'd never heard Saguru's perspective before.

Said blond now gave him a wry smile. "I missed more than one heist because Aidan would ask me to visit. It's difficult to deny him a trip home and next to impossible to then drop everything to return halfway around the world on short notice. He could hardly visit Japan, either, because he's enough of a trouble magnet that I'm positive he would cross paths with Edogawa-kun—someone you wouldn't know, I expect, Saguru-san, but dead bodies tend to crop up around him—and I'm not ready for Aidan to know what a corpse looks like yet."

Hakuba replied, "I'll take your word for it, and I wouldn't either. Given that you came after Kid, I presume you also prefer missing persons and thefts to murder... I saw my first corpse at twelve, a complete accident unrelated to my initial forays as a detective. I can handle one, but I won't go looking."

It was only thanks to Kaito's experience facing off against Conan that hearing a grade-schooler reference being a teenager was not more disconcerting. Glancing at Saguru's face, he saw no surprise at the statement, only a pale melancholy, and let himself wince a little that the blond had seen death so young. Kaito wouldn't wish that loss of innocence on anyone else.

Saguru nodded. "Yes. One of the advantages of working in the private sector, rather than public service. Civilians don't hire detectives to review murder scenes in person."

Hakuba smirked faintly. "All you have to do is avoid being throttled by the jilted lovers and jealous spouses."

"I never said the cases were any easier, nor without their own dangers… But the mundane I can handle, at least." Saguru sighed and looked down, voice softening. "Aidan thinks I'm gone on a case. I don't know if it really sunk in when I said I would be entirely out of contact for the duration... he's too accustomed to a weekly phone call. Let alone when or if we'll make it back at all."

I knew better than to use Aidan-kun against you when trying to convince you to go back home, Saguru-kun. Don't make me regret that.

Particularly not when a squished, niggling part of his conscience suspected that if Hakuba hadn't been there at DiZ's suicide, Kaito would have overreached his capabilities with fairly messy consequences.

"You'll make it home." Kaito joined Saguru in raising an eyebrow at the confidence in Hakuba's young voice, and the blond grinned a little. "In a contest of wills between Kuroba and the universe at large, I fully expect Kuroba to come out the victor."

Saguru chuckled. "Against all sense, I have to agree with you."

"You flatter me." Kaito smirked. "And insult me, too, but that's nothing new. Thanks for the backhanded vote of confidence."

"Kuroba-kun, I expect the labyrinthine ways of your mind to not recognize a compliment unless delivered in a similarly twisted fashion."

"Sad, but true," Hakuba agreed. "And said mind is given to undertaking the most insane projects when Kuroba's bored. It's a pity that he hasn't managed to finish his sonic screwdriver prototype yet, or I'd offer to try giving you a universal roaming phone."

Saguru chuffed. "Given the slippery nature of time and space, it might be better to avoid a method of communication tied to my personal timeline even if it were possible. Though we do seem to be going primarily across time, not up and down it."

"Geeks," Kaito complained half-heartedly. "Yeesh."

"Says the man who references cult American movies and heaven knows what else."

"American popular culture is different." Kaito grinned. "But did I ever show you my registered silly walk?" He ducked the thwap aimed for the back of his head. "Now we see the violence inherent in the system!"

As one, Saguru and Hakuba covered their face with a hand and groaned. "Whoever gave you access to the internet," Saguru griped, "should be shot."

"That would be me, and been there, done that, got the scar... Oops." Kaito leaned away from tandem glares. "Did you not know that already?"

"No," Saguru intoned.

Maybe it was the way Saguru's voice had frosted over, like when they'd argued in Solomon's study, but Kaito felt obliged to give a real answer rather than a glib dismissal. "Snake—the bastard who killed dad—thinks that he's still Kid, and seems compelled to finish the job. He's managed to wing me." Twice, and also would have shredded my heart once if not for the suit's inside breast pocket being the perfect place to carry the Blue Birthday, but let's not mention that. "Seeing as Snake went after the Kid we just left behind as well, he must be a universal nemesis or something."

"Not here." Hakuba's quiet declaration interrupted any response of Saguru's. When they both turned back to look at him, he elaborated, "He's dead."

"What? How?"

Hakuba shifted. "His body was dumped in a warehouse a few months back with an 'apology for Kid's loss.'" The last phrase held a turn of vicious sarcasm.

Kaito hissed through is teeth. "A note? Was it signed?" If Vermouth—Sharon—was the type of person that Kudou had described and Kaito had vague false-memories of, then she would be the best candidate for that type of stunt.

"A note, yes, but not signed. We have yet to identify the instigator, but since then, there have been no attacks on Kid." Hakuba paused, then pulled out a very familiar-looking pocket watch from his jeans and flipped it open. "It's almost time. If you don't mind, we can continue talking after Kuroba is on his way home…"

"Sure." It wouldn't hurt to postpone learning exactly how Hakuba had run afoul of Kudou's drug, and Kuroba ought to be home before Vermouth entered the conversation in any way, shape, or form. Kaito was still trying to process that one himself, let alone broach the idea to anyone else—alternate reality counterpart or not.

As they relocated to the den, Hakuba paused in the doorway. "Forgive me, living with Kuroba seems to be eroding my manners. Can I offer you both anything to eat or drink?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Kuroba-kun?"

"Tell you what—I'll forage for something myself, so you don't risk missing any of the heist." He waved off Hakuba's protest of etiquette. "Either I've already seen it, or I'll think of it myself soon enough."

"When you put it like that… very well."

Kaito padded out to the kitchen and gathered a second breakfast, snacking from the bowl as he headed back down the hallway. He'd just reached the doorway when he heard Saguru's voice ask, with deceptive casualness, "This may sound a bit odd, but have you ever heard of 'Nightmare'?"

"International… well, assistant to various thieves. Wanted by the ICPO… Oh, blast," Hakuba cursed, as Kaito caught sight of the museum that had hosted four of his heists, including the disastrous ruby from last month, on the TV screen. "It's starting to rain. He's going to have a problem with the glider, and the neighborhood around the museum is maze."

Kaito's bowl smashed on the carpet before he noticed that he'd dropped it. "Oh, Kami-sama…"

Both detectives whipped around at the sound of broken ceramic, and Saguru was suddenly at his side without Kaito having processed how he'd gotten there, tugging on his elbow. "You. Sit."

Kaito obligingly sidled past the shards of broken bowl and sat on the low-backed couch, eyes glued to the TV. Saguru sat backwards on the corner where the back turned into the arm, facing Hakuba.

"What's wrong?" Hakuba asked, even as he picked up the mess Kaito'd made of the den floor.

Saguru ignored the question for the moment. "Kuroba-kun, is there any way to stop him without endangering…" The blond trailed off. He still didn't know Jii's identity, Kaito realized numbly, just that Nightmare had threatened someone.

"Don't know."

"What are you talking about?" Hakuba demanded, louder.

"I'm not certain how this works, but we've already experienced these events. And the ramifications…" Saguru swore under his breath, and added more to himself than to either of them, "It's impossible to say if it would be better or worse to try changing anything."

"I'm still here, you know," Hakuba growled, aggrieved tone sounding oddly like Conan.

Saguru sighed heavily. "Somehow, possibly because of the events that made you small, this heist is occurring further along your personal timelines than it did in ours. We've already lived through this… and it wasn't pretty by the time it was over."

"…Tell me."

Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose. "I never got all the details from this idiot, but… Kuroba-kun was blackmailed into a heist by Nightmare to protect his assistant's identity from the police."

"Oh, hell."

"It gets worse."

"Of course it does. It's Kuroba."

"Mmm. By the end…" As Saguru hesitated, Kaito's legs moved up onto the couch while he continued to stare through the TV. "…Nightmare was dead. Fell out of Kid's hand into a multi-story drop."

Hakuba's immediate response was unprintable. "He didn't take that well, I'm sure."

"I was confronted by a half-hysterical thief at 4 AM after he'd dreamed of murdering me." Saguru's gloved hand slipped onto Kaito's shoulder, a faint but grounding pressure. "It was the catalyst to move us beyond fox and hound, but that's about the only good to find in the entire mess."

"Lovely. If this is the heist where they make contact, he's already watching Kid," Hakuba mused aloud. "Calling him back here won't do any good."

"It might make things worse, yes. That's the bloody problem. If Nightmare's alive, he's going to be a threat."

"…The last person to threaten Kid didn't stay alive. This one might meet the same fate."

That does not make me feel better!

"He has a little boy," Kaito whispered. "Five, maybe six. Mom's dead. The kid was willing to hide overnight in a toilet just to see his dad for a few minutes. Needs neurosurgery… supposedly why the man worked with thieves at all."

Saguru's hand tightened, just a little.

Hakuba moved behind Kaito, ceramic scraping. "We'll figure things out once we're absolutely certain that we're paralleling in this. After all, it is possible that this is a point of divergence between us."

"True enough," Saguru agreed, and stood. "Why don't you let us clean the rest of that up while you keep an eye on the heist."

Kaito forced his thoughts out of their horrified stupor. Better to believe in the chance than the alternative, and scrubbing the floor would be a nicely mindless task to focus on for a while.

"If you're sure…" Hakuba demurred, but even a rock would be able to tell that he wanted to trade places with Kaito. Kaito stood.

"I made the mess; it's only fair I clean it." He relieved Hakuba's small hands of the bowl fragments.

As he settled onto the couch, Hakuba replied wryly, "If only that rule applied to pranks and Kid heists."

A tiny smile quirked Kaito lips. "Didn't you know? Pranks and heists were both designed to break every rule in the book, and then point and laugh at the writers."

"And those who abide by them," Saguru added.

"Duh."

He needed more humor, Kaito decided as both detectives chuckled and he led the way to the cupboard of cleaning supplies. It was the best way to stay sane.

By the time Kaito and Saguru had cleaned up the carpet, and Kaito had eaten a real second breakfast, the heist was over. Kid had escaped, and the journalists were trying to mob the nearest hapless police officer for an interview.

"That's odd," Saguru muttered, eyeing the TV.

"What is?" Hakuba asked.

"I would have expected Kudou-kun to have been chasing Kid at the heist, given your circumstances, and he's a better interview candidate than the police."

"Who?" The honest bewilderment in Hakuba's voice was disturbing.

"Kudou Shinichi-kun. Detective…"

After a moment, Hakuba ventured, "You mean the novelist's son? He disappeared three years ago."

"Three years?" Kaito parroted, stunned.

"Yes… on a trip to New York. It was all over the news for a while, what with who his parents are."

No Savior of the Japanese Police. No Edogawa Conan. How many cases never were solved?

…How many people got away with murder?

"What did you mean, 'given my circumstances'?" Hakuba added, glancing at Saguru. "Where you're from, did he catch the eye of the Syndicate after Kid rather than me? …Or rather, you."

"Yes, though through a different avenue. For him to have simply disappeared is… very odd."

She knew him, the traitorous thought whispered before Kaito could squelch it. She knew his parents, and she was working in New York around then. What if she decided she wanted a detective's blood rather than a thief's?

Kaito quickly shoved the thought into a four-layer lockbox and threw away the key. It didn't try to resurface, but that was helped by the distraction of Touichi's portrait turning. In a sort of horrible out-of-body déjà vu, Kaito watched Kid stumble through the portrait, sans hat and monocle and face nearly grey.

Kuroba swayed once as he took in the three of them, and then swooped down on Hakuba like an eagle on a rabbit—if eagles plucked up their prey into a tight hug, heedless of any surprised squawks, and sank to the floor with Kid's cape wrapping around them both like a protective barrier.

"Kuroba, what on earth…"

"Shut up," Kuroba rasped, with a shudder. Sheer surprise seemed to keep Hakuba quiet for the next few moments, until Kuroba finally pulled back enough to see the blond's face. "I keep telling you, you have to be more careful!"

Wait, what?

"Oh, hell," Saguru murmured.

"I have been! What happened?" Hakuba demanded.

"You got FOUND OUT, you idiot!"

Kaito's stomach plummeted, feeling the situation spin completely out of what little semblance of control he'd been holding onto.

"What?" Hakuba had gone dead white. "Who—How?"

"This psycho by the name of—"

"Nightmare," Saguru supplied, causing Kuroba to startle and look up.

"How did you…?"

"Met him," Kaito replied, dully. "Watched him die."

"…Oh boy."

"What did Nightmare say this time?" Saguru asked.

"He said…" Beneath the cape, Kuroba's arms visibly tightened around Hakuba. "That it was an amazing coincidence how Hakuba Saguru mysteriously vanished, and then the spitting image of Inspector Hakuba and Elizabeth Harcourt's only child appeared in the audience of Jody Hopper's magic show, sporting brown hair and avoiding news camera lenses like the plague."

"Bloody hell. He's an ICPO agent—at least he was for us. Jack Connery." Saguru glanced at Hakuba. "Perhaps he met you when you were this age the first time around."

"Doesn't matter why he recognized Hakuba," Kuroba snapped, voice tight. "He wants me to steal for him. Or he'll out Hakuba's identity. And even if no one else believes it…"

"They won't care," Hakuba finished, voice pale. "I'll be a dead man, and likely you and Mizuki-obasan with me."

There was grim silence for a moment, before Hakuba added, a touch wryly, "Kuroba, you're rather effectively blocking the blood flow to my arms."

"Gah!" Kaito full-body twitched, seeing Saguru mirror the action from the corner of his eye.

The blond ran a gloved hand through his hair. "That's rather more déjà vu than I'm comfortable with, considering what our points of variance are."

"It doesn't matter." At the resignation in Kuroba's voice, Kaito closed his eyes, remembering the helplessness he'd felt when it had been him in Kid's shoes. "I can't take the chance that the bastard will do it… the heist will be tomorrow night."

"Damn. Sooner than ours was," Saguru mused. "He must not want to give you a chance to think of anything."

Kaito's hands clenched, nails digging into his palms. The thought of Kid being used and then disposed of by Nightmare set his teeth on edge. These were his people; you didn't threaten them, ever… "And what happens afterward? If Nightmare doesn't kill you when it's over, do you let him use you for another heist, and another, until he decides you're not an asset anymore?"

Kuroba growled at him, a full-throated noise that caused both Sagurus to startle slightly. Kaito would have as well, except he could and had done the same thing himself on multiple occasions. "I don't know, and you're not helping. I've got to find some way to take him down, but…"

"But jail may not be far enough. Not with what he knows, what he could do..."

Not again. Not again…

"…I don't want him dead," Kuroba confirmed. "I can't be responsible for that. I just…"

The threat that Nightmare could still pose to Kid and Hakuba, even incarcerated, was too great to ignore.

"You may not have to," Hakuba murmured, "given what happened to Snake. But I know you won't like that any better."

"Damn straight."

She knew him…

Kaito swallowed. "You said there was a note. Is it… do you have a copy of it?"

Just to be sure. Just to know it's not…

"Kuroba-kun…" Saguru was giving him a worried look. The blond was too damn quick, if he was already figuring out what Kaito was concerned about. Kaito ignored him, fingers curled into the back of the couch as he leaned against it.

"Yes, I have a photograph," Hakuba allowed. "Why?"

"Peace of mind. I want to check something."

Hakuba and Kuroba exchanged a glance, and then Kuroba relinquished his hold with only a bit of reluctance. "You can get it. I need to change."

"Right." Hakuba squeezed Kuroba's wrist briefly, then headed out of the den. Kuroba stayed on the carpet for a moment longer before levering upright and disappearing behind the portrait again.

"Fascinating…"

Kaito glanced over. Saguru's eyes raked across the revolving portrait as he shifted, trying to see beyond the threshold. "Oh. Right. You haven't seen it."

"No. I… always speculated, but… well." Saguru shrugged.

"Tell you what. When we get back, I'll give you a tour before you head home."

Saguru smiled, a bit crookedly. "I think I would like that. Thank you."

Kaito nodded. One more reason to make it home. One more thing to hold on to, while everything else went crazy.

Hakuba returned with photograph in hand just as Kuroba reappeared through the portrait. "Here…"

Kaito took the photo carefully and turned it right side up to read the contents of the note. A moment later, it fluttered to the floor as he dropped it in sheer, utter horror. "Kami-sama…"

It's him. She knew him, and she stole him... Invert and ossify and hollow out, until all that's left is a puppet hanging from strings...

Kaito swallowed hard against rising nausea as Saguru retrieved the photo from the floor and read the note's handful of kanji. "You're sure, Kuroba-kun?"

"I've forged it a time or two." A bubble of half-hysterical laughter leaked out against his will. "I wished he could have kept the weirdness magnet, just before we came."

"He, who?" Kuroba demanded, a hand on Hakuba's shoulder.

"Kudou Shinichi." As Hakuba's eyes went wide with realization, Kaito continued, "You met… No, wait, you wouldn't have. He would never have been at the Clock Tower."

So many heists went differently. All the Suzuki challenges, to play with Kudou and keep us both sane against murder and snipers and failure… did they ever happen? Or Sunset Mansion, or the Magic Lover's Club…

"The novelist's son who disappeared?"

Kaito forced himself to refocus. "Yeah. Where we're from, Kudou Shinichi was a well-known high school detective. Brilliant at poking his nose where it didn't belong."

"Hence getting…" Hakuba gestured at himself.

Kaito nodded. "It's called Apotoxin. There aren't a lot of records on it, even where we're from…" He closed his eyes, fists clenching again as he forced his voice to stay steady. "Hakuba-kun. I can't—leave him here. Not with them."

No matter what it costs me.

"I know," Saguru answered quietly.

"Something else we don't know about?" Kuroba inquired.

"We've…" Saguru paused, and looked at Kaito. "Do you want to talk about this?"

No.

"I—We've seen something like this before. Just… don't ask for details." Saguru's hand was on his shoulder again. "Kudou Shinichi wasn't—isn't—he's not an assassin. Something's gone wrong."

"I think it's safe to call that an understatement," Hakuba said, voice dry.

"Of the millennium. I just need to think…" Kaito's hands strayed toward the card case clipped to his jeans. There had to be something in there that he could use. Something to break Vermouth's rules—Connery's rules—all of it.

"I'll leave that to you," Kuroba said. "I have to get ready for tomorrow."

"Let us help? We can't predict if this will echo at all, but the more minds are tackling this, the better chance there is to not miss anything." Unless Kuroba survived tomorrow, everything Kaito wanted for Kudou would be superfluous.

Kuroba smiled wryly. "I've wondered what it would be like to collaborate with myself. Okay… I hope you don't plan on sleeping for a while."

"Give me hot chocolate and I'll be fine."

Hakuba rolled his eyes. "Does yours overdose on chocolate too?"

"I've never seen it," Saguru replied, "but I've heard stories about the Valentine's Day he was ordered to clear his desk of chocolate. The level of confetti was legendary, even after he made it back down off the ceiling."

Despite the situation, Kaito grinned reminiscently. "That was a good day."

"It was," Kuroba agreed with a matching grin, then sobered. "Come on, then. Let's get started."

The chapter title is a reference to the TVTrope of the same name. Go look it up, and feel free to bemoan about the subsequent lost time. :)

Next time: Real Life Nightmares, take two. Don't forget to review!

Ocianne

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