Summary: Mephisto's plans lead Rin and Yukio to the center of the maze. It's up to them if they can make their way out again.

Notes: Well, this took 4 extra months longer than it should have, but also that's what happens when ur running a zine, planning a wedding, and running around for work amirite :`)

Song of the Chapter: Seven Devils by Florence and the Machine

"Ah," Mephisto said to three varying stares from across his desk, "he was closer than I thought. Although, he does always enjoy getting as close as possible to his chosen victims."

Really, that the younger twin hadn't realized sooner, given who his father was, only spoke of someone who was ripe for the kinds of mind games Saburota employed. It was difficult to tell, though, because the bruises under his eyes could have been post-exposure to Saburota and the gradual poisoning he'd suffered.

His top-notch grades and records showed Mephisto one side to Yukio, but the stunt he'd just pulled that led them all to his office spoke of something deeper beneath the current.

"So what do we do now?" Rin asked in that forward way Mephisto was beginning to suspect was how he approached everything.

"Now we move to the second stage of the plan," Mephisto allowed and held up the keys to his car, "hiding you two."

"I still don't get it," Rin said in a mutter.

"Saburota is a creature caught up in his poisoned view of the world, and it's consumed him." Mephisto began leading them from the office, letting Belial know he would be taking the rest of the week off and to divert anyone asking after him and continuing to the garage.

"He will track you both to the ends of the earth with a singular focus," he said with an exaggerated sigh, remembering how others had tried to run

Shura met them in the garage, and he happily held the door for her and the rest of his little troupe despite the looks they gave his loudly pink limo.

"Then how is this supposed to hide us?" Rin continued his griping from the seat behind him, the sentiment clearly echoed by everyone else, if their glares meant anything.

He smiled, letting the soft chill across his shoulder center his mind as he pulled into the traffic of his beautiful city. "It's not."

Such sweet sounds were the various indignant cries as he tore through the lanes like a devil pursued him and gained every second.

"I should put this on your record, you damn clown!" Shura screeched from where she clawed into the seats for dear life. Mephisto answered her with a cackle and went faster until they left the city proper and moved towards the quieter parts of town.

Homes appeared, gained actual yards behind their fences, and grew in size until they could hardly be seen at all down the lengths of the drives leading up to their doors.

The ice across his shoulders pressed deeper and he echoed the unspoken sentiment, beginning to slow until he arrived at a home frozen in time, untouched, except to be maintained exactly as it had been once he'd gotten control over it.

"Welcome to the Faust estates," he said, lips twisting into a wry tilt as the gates opened for him and allowed them through.

"Holy shit," Rin murmured from the back, stretching his lips wider as he drove to a halt.

"Everybody out!" Mephisto sang, removing the keys in a flourish of keychains and various baubles he'd affixed to it as he waited for his frazzled guests to exit.

At his side swept a chill, trailing him as he strode up the rest of the way to the doors that stayed locked most of the year because he spent as little time crossing them as he possibly could. What point was there for returning to a hollow place, anyway? He'd thought, at least.

It worked to their advantage now. Specifically in regards to what he'd laid out with Ambrosius and what he'd need from all his key players.

"This has been in the family for generations ever since emigrating here from our home country." Lights flicked on as he let himself in, inhaling deeply and ignoring the memories besieging him around every corner.

Dark halls branched on either side of the entryway, and he could almost hear a skittering of claws over wooden boards and tile. They were followed by feet padding along behind them and echoes of laughter.

"Are we gonna sleep here?" Rin's voice broke Mephisto from the ghosts that haunted his memories and reminded him he didn't need to revisit them anymore, not now that he wasn't alone.

"Yes, I'll show you all to your rooms and give you a tour, then we'll go over your roles and prepare."

There were some changes, obviously. His parents had put their best designers on various projects over the years before he'd gained control.

They hadn't touched his room, hadn't even dreamed of approaching Ambrosius'.

So he'd let things settle, kept the manor as a timeless memorial, and the place in the garden unmarked except by the chips in the stone where metal had impacted that had mossed over so that no signs remained at all.

"And this is an antique from–"

A growl from Shura broke Mephisto out of his tour. He let her, putting on an affectation of curiosity.

"Can we cut this short?" she said in a snap. Her muscle she'd brought along seemed to agree with her sentiment, a similar scowl on his face, though he never really lost it, the look a permanent fixture. "We have to get ready for anything and this is going to waste time. Do you have a layout of the place–and where should we put Rin and Yukio so they aren't exposed.?"

"Yes, yes," he said, sighing as if to let her know how disappointing her lack of appreciation of the finer points of history was–which, he was half-serious about, actually. "We've reached the rooms you'll be retiring to tonight."

"And I'll have the layouts sent to your phones now." Mephisto showed himself pressing "send" on his phone, various sounds pinging as they received the email.

"I'm not going to ask how you have all our contacts. For now." Shura promised with a flash of her eyes.

"Uh, Mephisto," Rin, again, spoke up for his silent brother. Mephisto suspected it wasn't entirely on purpose, Yukio still under the effects of whatever he had to work out of his system, no doubt.

"Can I room with Yukio?" The question stopped him outside a door, hand half-raised as he heard more echoes of the past before he completed the motion and covered that there had been any hiccup at all.

"Yes, I don't see why not, this one should do."

Mephisto left them, walking down the hall to deposit the rest of his entourage with a final request. "Why don't you all join me in the kitchen once you get settled, hm?"

The pawns were all in their initial places. He'd grouped his pieces and laid the bait. It was just a matter of time before his years of patience were at an end.

Finally alone, Mephisto went to his own room. The frost trailing at his side reminded him of a long-ago winter, his bones aching with the grim that stalked the halls; a promise of death as they waited for their prey to move into their trap.

All it would take was a slight adjustment and he would have Shura and Ryuji out of the way.

And given the nature of his prey, he wouldn't have to lift a finger at all.

"Magnificent!" Faust proclaimed; another soul taken in by Rin's cooking.

A mirror had been set up on the counter behind him, and Yukio could see the way Ambrosius eyed the food, something that he thought might be jealousy in his gaze as he gnawed at his thumb until he bled.

It made Yukio savor his food more.

His mind wandered as conversation drifted around the table. Initially, he'd wondered at the fully stocked fridge and pantry, but Faust had given an imperious sniff and said he wasn't an animal, his guests wouldn't go hungry. Yukio suspected it had more to do with his own comfort than others.

"Off to bed now." Faust's words made Yukio realize he was finished, had been for long enough that he'd gone through his meal, and had instead gotten lost in staring at Ambrosius.

He was tired. It was the plain and simple truth. Yukio had pushed his body so far that even without whatever Saburota had been slipping him, he was still shutting down.

In a few moments, the dishes were washed, and Rin moved to his side while they returned to their rooms. He'd taken everything in stride as if their situation was the new normal and being in Faust's manor was something they did every weekend.

"You're sure this is going to work?" Shura said in a hard tone with her hand on the door to her room. She'd asked that a few times. "How do we know he'll even come here? Or that having so many people around Rin and Yukio won't scare him off?"

And, as Faust had done from the start, he waved a hand with that smile on his face that Yukio had seen him present to the public in every interview he'd happened to catch. "Trust me, Shura, he won't be able to resist. We just need to wait and watch for the signs."

The irony being that Shura trusted him as far as she could throw him, which despite Faust looking like his body was composed of twigs beneath the layers of his suit, wouldn't be very far because of his towering height.

There wasn't anything she could do, though, so with a last caution for them to let her know if they needed her or Ryuji, they each took their rooms. Then he and Rin were left to trail after Faust.

Behind Faust was his now ever-present shadow. Ambrosius refused to move like a normal body should. He kept forward like an unsteady cat, still graceful even though it seemed like he'd fall over any moment on stick-thin limbs. The tottering steps were accompanied by contortions as if out of boredom, pulling a joint out of place or twisting his body too far for a human spine to bend. Always, he bled, the places that peeked through the tears in his ragged clothes constantly seeping red.

Despite the sheer size of the manor, no shadows hid amongst the corners besides Ambrosius where Yukio had tracked him at Faust's side. It rang with a hollow feeling, quieter than a mausoleum in a cemetery, though those had never been the peaceful resting spots to Yukio that they were to others who couldn't see what he did.

Even the one ghost made himself impossible to ignore.

Sometimes, Ambrosius would dance from Faust to Rin, and those times, Yukio would bite back a hiss of irritation, some part of him watching with hackles raised, wanting to tell Ambrosius to go haunt his own sibling.

"And last but not least. We'll leave you at your rooms," Faust said, bowing to them while Ambrosius hovered and bled and watched them through the wide holes in his skull where sickly yellow light flared.

None of that reached Rin, whose wave and 'Goodnight' came casually, already comfortable with their father's second least favorite person and the ghost who'd tormented him for a month.

"This place is crazy!" Rin said with awe in his voice, head turned to stare at every section of the room they'd been given. "There's so much space, how'd they fill all these rooms? How do they keep 'em clean?"

Rin's babbling drew Yukio along, comforting as he grounded himself away from wondering why he had yet to see a hint of the ashes that had followed him for so much of his life.

An ache had started in his gut, and the longer he went without, the more he craved something to calm himself. Like tea. Which Yukio knew was because of whatever Saburota had given to him, though tea would be welcome just to settle his mind. He didn't wonder about the upkeep of a place he didn't see himself ever returning to, but when the final lingering effects would vanish from his body and mind.

Then he could begin to distinguish reality again. Or at least know what the parts Saburota had poisoned were and what was his own self-induced venom.

"Hey, are you okay?" Rin, worrying about him, as he had earned with his lies and secrecy and actions the past month. It still rankled Yukio.

Looking around them at the strange room and considering the surreal, awful, situation they'd wound up in–yet also one where Rin knew he could see ghosts and the burning man wasn't the enemy–Yukio didn't have an answer, at least not one that would make sense to Rin.

"Let's sleep," he said instead.

Their beds rested parallel to each other, and despite himself, Yukio's body ached for sleep the second he pulled himself beneath the covers.

He shut his eyes.

And opened them to the sound of a gunshot.

Ashes hadn't had time to accumulate, his mind had barely rested, but adrenaline took Yukio from sleep and he rolled from the bed, sharing a wide-eyed look with Rin where he'd also woken.

"He's here, right?" Rin breathed, and Yukio shook his head, silent around the irrational urge to go to the source of the gunshot and–

"Hey," a harsh call came from the other side of the door, Shura knocking as Rin went and opened it to see the hard expressions from her and Ryuji on the other side.

"What was that? Him?" Yukio asked as they moved into the room, Faust trailing them with his usual mask of disaffection. Or maybe he was really as unperturbed by things as he looked, Yukio had yet to see otherwise, just the momentary crack when they'd revealed Ambrosius to him that had quickly sealed again.

"We don't know, but probably," Shura said, peeking through the heavy curtains out into the dark grounds. She blinked and peered closer, and Yukio realized that instead of the cool light of the moon he expected, a warm glow seemed to frame her face.

"What the hell," she gasped, pulling back from the curtains and throwing them open.

Yukio saw the fire then, a pyre coming from beyond the boundaries of Faust's manor, possibly one of the neighboring homes.

"It seems he's begun," Faust murmured. The shadow of Ambrosius behind him stared without sound, gold flares fixed on the glow of the flame as if possessed by something other than himself.

"Why would he attack someone else?" Ryuji said in a desperate growl, hands clenched into fists. "How many people are in there?"

"Ah, that's a young family, recently moved in," came the response from Faust that sent a tremor through Ryuji. Yukio suspected rage brought on by that sense of justice and mixed with a sort of helplessness at being stuck, unable to help.

A deep breath came from Shura, and she turned to Faust. "He planned this, which means he probably expects us to run over there and save those people, leaving Rin and Yukio open for him to pursue."

"Yes, most likely," Faust agreed. "He's done this before, gone after innocents who happen to be in the way to get to his goal."

"Shit," Shura hissed. Her gaze flicked to Yukio. "And that fire will have people coming to help, but how far are they from this area?"

"About twenty minutes, we are somewhat out of the way."

Another gunshot went off and Rin flinched towards the window, a vicious scowl beginning to lift his lips from his teeth. It reminded Yukio of the looks he used to get when he'd gotten into fights as a kid with the bullies in their part of the city. The ones who took shots at local wildlife and strays and who Rin had torn into like a wild animal until he'd been pulled off. Or ended the fight.

Their parents had spoken to Rin, and after enough lectures on how Rin would have to use his words, he'd somewhat figured it out.

Yukio could see that part of Rin rising to the surface at the thought of someone being hurt because of him, and he knew this wasn't like those childish fights.

"You have to help them, please," Yukio said, making a snap decision.

When it seemed like Shura would argue, he continued. "We'll stay safe, hide somewhere here. I'm sure there's a place he won't know to find us, but those people won't have time."

"Now would be the time to call back up, yes?" Faust said and folded his arms when Shura sent a suspicious glare his way.

"We can't exactly run into a burning building, we'll end up victims too," Shura said and sounded furious about it.

"The shot didn't come from that house," Rin said, stopping the argument in the room as Shura frowned his way.

"It came from the one next to it," he gestured to a spot in the dark Yukio couldn't make out, and he could see Ryuji about to ask Rin what he meant when a third shot went off and Yukio understood. A flash in the dark sparked from a place next to the burning home. Whether the people inside had already died or not, was impossible to tell.

"Ok, ok," Shura closed her eyes, concentrating as she took in the horrifying information. "We know he's over there, so we can try to intercept him if he comes this way, right?"

If they wanted to save those people, Yukio didn't think they had much choice. Saburota hadn't given them one.

"I can stay back, watch them," Ryuji said, looking torn, then shook his head in a rough jerk and bit out, "No, I can't let you go in without back-up."

Their paths had been decided for them, Yukio could see them all realizing it as each avenue cut off.

"Not procedure, huh, Bon?" Rin said in a wry huff, while Ryuji looked like he wanted to wring his neck.

Any minute now…

"Hide them. Do not let them out of your sight," Shura spat at Faust.

Guilt welled in Yukio as she pressed a firm hand to his shoulder, the heat going through the thin fabric where she squeezed before dragging him and Rin into a tight hug.

A light gasp left Yukio at the sudden move, eyes darting to the bright hair tickling at his cheek from Shura. Almost without his say, his hand came up to return the hug, feeling Rin's join a moment later.

"I need you two to stay safe for me, ok? I couldn't look your parents in the eyes if I let something happen to you on my watch," she whispered, and the guilt drove deeper in Yukio. It hardened into a ball in his gut as she pulled back and nodded, momentary emotion vanished behind vicious eyes and an expression that promised retribution.

"We will, you guys, too," Rin called after them, earnest and with clear concern on his face.

They vanished at the end of the hall, and Yukio turned to Faust, waiting.

"So, where should we go?" Rin glanced around. "Are there like, secret hiding places behind a bookshelf in a library or something?"

"While I'm thrilled to see your interest in my library, that is not where you'll be headed," Faust said, already moving down the hall as they trailed after him in the dark. Moonlight illuminated their passage through lattice windows, not helping the sense of being hunted in the slightest.

"You, Rin," a slice of the acid green eyes from Faust sent Yukio freezing internally, knowing the shoe would drop any time now. "You will take Ambrosius with you to the garden and wait there."

"What?" Rin hurried to catch up, leaving Yukio to watch as Faust smiled at the figure of his brother where it brushed his shoulder as if the cold, bleeding limbs were a comfort.

The figure left him to go to Rin, and besides a quick look its way when it brushed him, Rin continued, "How's that hiding?"

"It's not," Yukio answered for him, staring at Faust and knowing he'd got it right the second that smile widened on him. "We're bait."

"Oh," Rin's pupils dilated, and Yukio waited for the reaction he knew was coming, though he doubted Faust would. "Okay."

A beat and Rin surged forward, slamming Faust to the nearest wall with a hand fisted in his silk robe, mussing the gaudy fabric as he snarled into the shock his violence had put in Faust. He leaned in closer until Faust had no choice but to meet his gaze, not that he'd looked like he had been planning on shifting it.

"We'll play your bait," he said in a dangerous rumble, hands squeezing until the bones creaked and he shook. "But if you let anything happen to Yukio, I'll be back, and I won't be nice like my dad."

There it was. The aspect of Rin that had caused their family no end of grief. He'd gotten lecture after lecture, gone to more detentions than he had classes, and finally, gotten fired from nearly every job he'd tried to hold down since the moment he'd started applying.

Rin's inability to keep himself from fighting what he perceived to be bullying or an injustice hadn't lessened in the years he'd aged, only refined to a honed point.

And that point was aimed at Faust's throat.

The only question was how Faust would take it.

Hands came up to rest over Rin's in an easy motion and Faust's smile turned wry as he answered, seeming without care of the position he was in. "There's no reason for any of that, Rin."

"I understand you very well," he continued in a murmur, gaze falling and smile twitching before he glanced to the place over Rin's shoulder where a chill came from Ambrosius.

"Besides, things are different now, and we are not so desperate."

Maybe not Faust and his vicious brother, but Yukio had begun feeling desperate at a random point in his life and couldn't quite say when or what he might do at any given moment now that the secrecy he'd lived under had been stripped from his shoulders.

"Good," Rin stepped away, allowing Faust back from the wall. Another moment where Rin's gaze swept over Yukio, and he found arms squeezing until his back ached as Rin wrapped him in a hug.

"Let's go, Ambrosius."

Rin's arms left him and he vanished down the hall, taking Ambrosius after like a wraith at his spine.

"Come, Mr. Okumura, we have our own places to be."

The shadows in Faust's manor drew long fingers across their path, and every now and then the glow from the burning home melted through the edges of the windows. Ahead, Faust moved with purpose, the robe he must have worn to sleep slipping around his feet with every step they took.

"How are you so certain he's already here, sir?" Yukio said in the silence. They'd reached the front wing. Faust had given a long stare towards the kitchen when they'd passed, and Yukio had needed to repress his shivers at the reptilian lack of humanity flickering there. It reminded him of Ambrosius and the way he watched them every conversation they had.

But Faust hadn't made a comment and the empty kitchen vanished as they kept on.

"Because he'll feel comfortable here, confident," Faust murmured. "He's been all over these grounds and this neighborhood; wormed his way into this home before."

"And he's eager to get you and your brother alone."

That was the truth. Yukio knew it like he was sitting in Saburota's office again, listening to him talk about any number of things while dust motes in the sun mixed with the ash he'd hallucinated from the poisoned tea.

"Can you perform your role, Mr. Okumura?"

Thinking about it and what he was about to do, Yukio nodded, seeing something like regard in the gaze he caught on his peripherals.

"That won't be a problem, sir."

"Good," Faust continued, "because he's already here."

The doors of the foyer reached his sight just as a click froze him where he stood, mid-step and heart covered in a spreading frost.

Growing up as he had, he knew the sound of a gun cocking.

"Ah, I had hoped your brother would be with you, Yukio, although I can't say I'm not pleased to see my oldest friend."

From the shadows cast in the tall windows, Saburota emerged. The light gleamed off cold metal in his hands where he held an ornate gun pointed their way.

"Leave Rin alone," Yukio hissed before he could stop. His mouth thinned as he caught up with his words. They were irrational, an outburst he hadn't intended.

Mostly they were useless. What would a man like Saburota care about his pleas?

"Peace, Yukio, your brother could never replace you to me," Saburota said with the same pleasant smile he always wore. "He doesn't have any appreciation for the more nuanced things in life. Certainly, he'd never have been able to keep up in our conversations together."

Soft brown eyes seemed flat and deadened in the cold light of the night when they flicked to rest on Faust as he moved to stand in front of Yukio, a bulwark in the face of Saburota's approach.

"You should take the opportunity to speak with Yukio, Johann," Saburota said, "I've been suggesting to him that he apply to one of your internship positions for some time now. He just can't seem to break away from his family's wishes."

Yukio couldn't see the expression Faust wore, but his voice when it came out lacked any sort of emotion, cruel and empty. "Mr. Okumura is of course welcome to apply. I've no doubt he's more than capable."

"As for being your oldest friend, I really should correct your assumption," Faust presented his words like a silk-covered dagger. "You were never anything more than a passing fancy."

"Ambrosius was right from the start," he murmured, and the daggers struck home. "You should have burned up with your family."

A scowl twisted the expression Saburota wore into a rictus of fury and he raised the gun in his hand just as Faust shoved Yukio back down the hall, turning and snapping out a command.

"Go! To your brother, find him!"

He grunted as a sickening crack sounded in the area when Saburota brought the gun down across his skull. Yukio had already fled, darting away and ignoring the red he'd seen blossoming at Faust's hairline, at the way his green eyes had dimmed, and the thud of a body to the floor.

Was this part of Faust's plan?

What he'd explained had made sense at the time, and Yukio thought he'd seen the shape of it, could guess his part and act on that. But the gun in Saburota's hand was very real, and the calls coming from behind Yukio as he ran just fast enough to evade the deadly range, but not enough to lose his pursuer, put doubt in his mind.

This was something only Yukio could do. Rin couldn't act to save his life, as he would have needed to do in Yukio's place. Though Yukio was finding it less of an act than initially anticipated.

The rapid pulse in his veins and cold sweat on his skin was real. The lead ball of fear that sank deep in his gut to weigh him down as he fled was real.

"Just think, Yukio, of how free you'll be once I've cut your tether." The voice reminding him that Saburota had his own plans was very real.

"Or I've cut his" Saburota sighed while Yukio fought for breath, nearly to the side exit into the grounds Faust had shown him earlier. His exhaustion hadn't abated with the short sleep he'd gotten that night, and it was mostly adrenaline pushing him forward on shaking limbs.

"It always seems to be the youngest who fall," Saburota said from right beside Yukio and he cried out, scrambling to cut around the corner to escape the soft chuckle his fear caused.

He'd come from one of the side passages–was there a shortcut? Yukio's wild thoughts spiraled as he gasped for breaths that struggled to come, chest squeezed, too tight and fighting to expand. In his mind, the layout of the manor spread out and he forced himself to remember the path he needed to take.

"The oldest fight so hard to save them, save their chains because they haven't realized how caged they are, living in each other's shadows their whole lives."

His hands fumbled with the knob of a door, wrenching it open and wincing at the blast of cold air in his face, ignoring it to push through and into the dark of the grounds. Towards the garden.

High stone walls drew him on, Yukio letting the sight keep his legs from trembling as he heard Saburota's laughter–as if it were a funny joke he'd told and they'd been talking like usual after class–fill the air.

"And what about your niece?" Yukio shouted, hoarse after running so hard. "She's a tether just like the rest of your family. What makes her different?"

"Didn't I explain already?" Yukio made it to the edges of the garden and his palms scraped to the stone as he tore around the walls, nearly slipping on a patch of frozen ground before righting himself and stumbling on.

"I've raised her to shuck her tethers. We aren't truly connected, either one of us can slip free at any moment." Saburota's voice followed as Yukio tried to find the center of the garden, tried to find Rin. "She knows true freedom, just as you and your brother soon will."

Another corner turned, and Yukio met furious blue eyes. Rin's face darkened into a storm cloud, clearly having heard their shouted conversation from his position and shivering at having to keep silent.

Above him, a shadow darkened the pitch of the night, and Yukio thought he could hear a steady drip of blood to the frozen ground through the muffling thrum of his pulse in his ears.

"Come on," he whispered, taking Rin's hand and fighting not to flinch at the heat where it burned his skin that had grown numb with the cold.

He ignored it, tugging as they turned to the other side of the maze from Yukio's entrance. They would leave the maze and–

"There you are," Saburota said, a light huff of breath and chuckle following as he waved at them from where he'd appeared at the entrance opposite a gnarled tree.

In his hand, the gun reflected the moonlight. His cheeks darkened from the cold and his lips looked blue where they stretched across his teeth.

The sight of gleaming metal stopped Yukio in his tracks, hand squeezing in an automatic reaction to Rin's as he froze.

"I always liked this place best," Saburota said as he came in further. Another step and he frowned, glancing to his feet.

"Hm," he knelt, gun still steady on them, as he righted the small bowl filled with smoldering flowers at the base of the tree. "I didn't take Johann as one for sentimentality or faith."

"How can you say that?" Rin spat, the rage in his eyes and face making it seem like he'd forgotten his fear. Yukio could feel his hand quaking in his and knew the feelings would be melding together into one molten pool of lava until it washed Rin's mind into one of those berserk states.

Saburota cocked his head, waiting.

"This is where you killed Ambr-killed his brother!" Rin's lips tightened with his snarl. "Why wouldn't he care?"

Nothing, just a shake of Saburota's head, gaze pitying on Rin. "You don't know Johann like I do. He was a monster the same way you think of me long before I became what I am. They both were."

It didn't surprise Yukio, not after meeting both Faust siblings and learning what he had. His gaze searched out the shadow hanging over them but couldn't find it and his heart stuttered.

Where was he? Yukio's eyes flicked over the gun, drawn to the sight of it trained on them even as he listened for the steady drip of blood, hearing only its absence beyond Rin and Saburota's voices.

A realization hit Yukio, punching a hole in his chest as he sucked in a thin breath, remembering, suddenly, how Saburota's presence kept the shadows away, and Amaimon would be included in that number.

Shit! Had they miscalculated? Of course Faust wouldn't know about Saburota's strange ability to negate spirits because Yukio hadn't told him, still unused to sharing that aspect of his life with others, or just subconsciously untrusting of Faust.

It was going to get them killed. His gaze narrowed on the metal of the gun, unable to tear himself away from it and the ashes that had started to drift around the cold edges.

"Ambrosius was beautiful that night." The gun dipped in a casual wave towards the spot against the stone wall where the flowers burned. Yukio tracked it unerringly. "In his final moments, he couldn't call for help with the iron in his body, he was truly alone."

The swirling ashes picked up and one fell to get stuck in Yukio's lashes before he blinked it away and realized it wasn't the ashes from his mind, it was snow, and it was real.

"When Johann found him later, he looked like a porcelain doll."

Yukio's mind flashed to the horrifying image Ambrosius made and the soulless places where his eyes should be and couldn't picture him as doll-like at all, except where they both lacked a heart.

"But we all have to outgrow our dolls someday. Need to put them away," Todo said, the snow on his hair giving him a soft glow that matched his words while Yukio trembled.

The shadows trembled with him, or maybe that was his tunneling vision.

"You're sick!" Rin's shout pierced the silence and shook Yukio. He jerked around to see Rin glaring sulfur at Todo, who frowned, pity in his expression. Most likely he'd heard whatever it was they would say before.

"Rin," he breathed, voice tight. Where was Ambrosius?

Stop yelling, he screamed internally, because it was all he could ever seem to do. Rin never froze. It was only Yukio who couldn't seem to act.

His gaze went back to the way Todo caressed his finger to the trigger, back to Rin, torn between the two as his breath thinned in his lungs.

"Love isn't some kind of chain!" A slash of Rin's hand disturbed the swirling snow as the wind picked up and it became stinging on Yukio's cheeks. A scent like ion mixed with the faint floral musk of the flowers burning in their bowl and the ice rapidly numbing whatever senses he'd had left after his desperate fleeing from the manor.

One spot of color burned through the chill deadening Yukio's limbs. The blue eyes searing back at him from Rin stopped him from slipping under, gave him a platform to cling to in the storm of his mind that mirrored the one surrounding them in the physical world.

"And-" Each word buoyed Yukio even as the part of him that was afraid–always afraid–rattled at the cages to do something to shut Rin up before he pushed too far past the breaking point.

"-If it's a tether, it's the only one I'd choose every time."

Rin.

A shot rang out, louder than all the chaos in Yukio's head.

Blue eyes widened on Yukio, uncomprehending and searching him for an answer.

"Yu-kio?"

Another spot of color sprang in a vivid patch through the snow. Rin's gaze traveled down his chest as a stuttered gasp left his mouth.

Everything stilled. A calm in the storm let Yukio see the world in crystal clarity for one long moment that stretched to eternity. He saw the blue of Rin's eyes again when they rose to meet his.

Rin collapsed, hand to his middle where the red bloomed, reaching its tendrils to the snow around him and staining that too.

Whistling air escaped Yukio's lungs as he fell back against the stone wall. The scrape of the frigid surface stung through his clothes as he made a failed lurch towards Rin, flinching as Todo responded by cocking the gun his way.

"Rin. Rin, Rin–" Yukio whispered the name to the still body without hearing himself speak, barely feeling the syllables tumble past his shivering lips.

Oh god.

They'd failed.

It was all for nothing.

They'd suffered for nothing.

"Yes, yes. You can't see it now, but you will soon."

You'll see?

Yukio turned his gaze to Todo.

"Now, your real test," he said, though Yukio couldn't hear it, not really, not when–

"Will you free yourself and let him bleed out?" There was so much blood.

"Or," Todo said as he brushed his finger to the trigger, smiling, "will you die in his place and cut his tether?"

He'd wanted to move as far away from his family as he could. Yukio had searched universities and internships that would have taken him across the ocean in an effort to distance himself from the love they gave so easily. As ungrateful as a person could possibly be.

Ungrateful son, ungrateful brother…

His gaze found Todo's over the gun. Yukio spoke without doubt or hesitation, knowing now what path he'd choose.

"No."

Wind tore into the center of the maze, a force behind it that slammed Yukio to the wall and shocked the rest of the air from his lungs, stole it to leave him gasping breathlessly as he saw Todo stumble back with shock in his eyes.

With the wind came the snow, stinging again and merciless, colder than Yukio had ever felt before as he curled in on himself to escape it.

It blew in flurries, building until he saw shadows more than solid figures and a single sound like blood dripping in a steady, constant pattern seemed to reach his ears from a place beyond the physical.

They weren't alone anymore.

Through the whiteout came a pair of sulfur-yellow lights. Behind the light, another he recognized as well as he did his own reflection appeared. Glowing embers and blackened ash wavered like a mirage in the snow.

Yukio smiled vicious triumph and grinned in a baring of teeth, feeling like Rin in that moment, feeling truer to himself than he ever had in his life as he called to Todo where he backed up, gun slack in his grip as he stared, dumbfounded.

"Saburota!" He shouted, standing in a heave of his body and releasing the last sentence with a hiss of relish. "Love may not mean anything, but vengeance sure does."

The gun in Todo's hand rose to meet the two wraiths over him and he pressed his finger to the trigger.

"Wake up!"

Mephisto's eyes snapped open to a dark room and it took him a while to focus on the face glaring vitriol that filled his vision. Given the way it swam in sickening twists, he'd say he had a concussion of some sort.

He'd recognize the person looking two seconds from knocking him back into unconsciousness anywhere, though, and the one behind him staring with fear tightening her features.

"Hello, Shiro–yes, yes, I know, I'm a rotten bastard," he said, groaning as he rose to send a bright smile over his shoulder. "And Yuri, dear, it's always a pleasure."

"Now–" he accepted the hand from Shiro, half-surprised he didn't use it to drop him straight back to the ground and straightening his rumpled robe when he was semi-steady– "if you'll listen, we've little time to–"

A shot rang out, startling a gasp from Yuri and Shiro's expression turned stricken. His grip went bruising on Mephisto, but he allowed him the lapse of manners to continue. "Ah, yes, that was the signal. Time to go!"

The cold ate through the poor protection his robe brought him as they left the manor towards the garden, the thin silk pants beneath it hardly a help either.

Nothing would stop him, the cold only a passing hindrance his mind recognized. He'd put everything into neat little baskets where they wouldn't interfere with the timeline of events he'd planned out, and that included trivial things like the fact that he could see two Shiro's and Yuri's wild curls of hair whipped like a living creature behind her, and that he wasn't quite capable of running.

But this went far beyond discomfort and his body's signals to stop.

Walls enclosed them as they made it past the edge of the maze and a scream split the air, long and piercing and full of an animal pain.

It urged him on, Mephisto pulling himself around corners on bleeding hands after he'd scraped them to the stone, its icy surface eating into the burn brought on by the cold and reminding him of a day so many years ago.

This time, he would make it before it was too late.

Another turn-his head ached in a constant throb-and a localized storm swept the three of them into its midst as they reached the center.

Howling swallowed the scream his gaze traveled to see the source pinned to the far wall with a rod of cruel iron.

Todo gaped, eyes shot open behind his cracked glasses and hands frantically scrabbling at his middle where blood seeped from the hole pierced through to the other side.

On the opposite end of the rod and twisting it further was Ambrosius. His hands wrapped in white-knuckled claws to the metal and allowed his own blood to travel down the line of it until it mingled with Todo's.

He laughed through bared fangs and inhuman features as Todo bled out beneath him, then louder when a soft mirage set burning hands to Todo's skin and blackened it despite being nowhere near an open flame.

Behind them, Rin and Yukio huddled together. They held their hands to Rin's stomach where a red stain told Mephisto why he looked moments from collapsing but it all fell to the side as Todo gave a last, choking rattle and faded away staring into the hollows of Ambrosius' eyes.

Over. It was over.

The storm began to lessen and the burning figure vanished. Ambrosius slowly lost his form, more mirage than anything, but not before he turned to Mephisto. They shared a smile, haunting and terrible and mirrored between each other as their endless chase came to a close.

It was the truest expression he'd worn in years.

"Rin!"

Yukio's shout brought him around as Ambrosius faded completely from view just in time to watch Rin fall to the snow, unable to keep conscious anymore.

He still bled.

End Notes:

One more to go! That and a short for funsies epilogue to reward myself for finishing this damn thing lol