A/N: I know you're all blaming Bright Star, but put yourself in the kid's shoes. What self-respecting little boy wouldn't interrupt his older sister if he happened to be present, in the same room with her, standing right next to her while such a moment was potentially happening, haha?

In all seriousness, as a writer, I don't like almost-kisses. While that might sound hypocritical, I'll qualify it by saying I don't like almost-kisses when they're used needlessly to increase romantic tension and are ignored by the characters involved when it's convenient, or when they don't lead to an acceptable resolution. So keep that in mind, because the Reiame (yes, pokelover01, I'm using your couple name) resolution (i.e. 'The Kiss') might be delayed in coming due to plot, but pay close attention to the interactions between our intrepid heroes in the future.

I'm also going to point out, at the risk of saying too much, that when I write romance I don't usually make 'The Kiss' the be-all and end-all of the romantic relationship, nor do I make it the 'start' of the relationship (maybe the official 'start', but not the unofficial 'start') unless that actually fits with the characters involved. So enjoy~

Review Responses:

pokelover01, I'm glad you like the chapter! Yes, Ayame is a lot more level-headed than Black Star, but that's not saying much considering how Black Star is. See above for my response to Bright Star ^^ Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoy this chapter!

skullcandyklive, thank you! It means a lot to hear things like that, and I'm glad you like the story. I've tried to be consistent with character arcs and plot developments, so glad to hear it's been paying off. And yes, it's ending, but don't worry. We still have…about sixteen chapters left plus an epilogue, so the end is still a ways off. Regarding AU fics with these characters, I'd appreciate it if you wait until the story is finished, because certain characters are going to change a bit moving on into the future. I might do a handful of one shots, because there are certain scenes that are going to be interesting, but I don't think I could commit to doing a story like this about another set of kids (Annie, Cori, and Bright Star) again. Hope you enjoy the chapter, and see above for Bright Star related responses.

Diana Raven, wasn't completely my intention, lol. Thanks for reading, and read the A/N above for Bright Star related stuff. Enjoy the chapter!

Arcane Student, read the A/N above~ Glad you like the chapter, and good. Foreboding should be the feeling you're getting, mwahahaha.

Karma88, your comment made me check out Karma, and now I want to watch Assassination Classroom. So thanks for the new addition to my anime backlog lol. Bright Star could very well grow up into a more silent version of that (he doesn't talk much). Thanks for the review and glad you like the chapter!

fanficlove2014, sorry to make you upset, haha. See the A/N above for Bright Star-related responses. Hope this chapter brings you some answers, and thanks so much for the review. Enjoy!


CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Threshold Pt. 1; Hypnagogia


Maka didn't stop to alert anyone, didn't stop to tell anyone what was wrong or what she had sensed. There wasn't time for that. Kid and the others would understand. They had wasted enough time already.

The second that Soul transformed, she closed her hand around the flash of light that would become his scythe form, running for the ship's prow. She pushed past a startled Angela and closed her free hand around the railing, pulling herself up and kicking off of it with one foot. Soul's form stabilized just as she started to fall and she landed neatly on top of the scythe's shaft, wings sprouting from its blade as her partner drew power from her Grigori soul. Soul's wings caught the breeze and they quickly began to rise, coming back to the same level as the airship's bridge.

"Maka!" Kid yelled, darting out from the bridge to lean over the railing and shout at her. "What do you think you're doing? You can't just—."

Maka ignored him, pulling up on Soul's handle to slow their ascent and then putting on a burst of speed. As the two of them shot back towards Death City, she heard Kid shout a curse behind them.

"Dammit!" the Shinigami yelled. "Turn around! Turn this ship around! We've been played!"

Any response was quickly drowned out by the roar of the wind as they flew, and Maka sank down into a seat, silently urging Soul to go even faster.


Darkness pressed in on her from all sides, holding her close like a vise, clutching, squeezing. Morgan struggled to break away from it, arms extended to either side of her as she shoved at the ever-present darkness in despair, her mouth open in a silent scream. The world faded at the edges for a second, and then came back into focus. All around her was the darkness, the world around her swallowed up by it. It twisted and writhed, brimming with hatred and fear.

She struggled to the surface, fighting back against the fear in her heart as she tried to get her bearings. The world was shadowed, but there were still things she could make out. The light of the DWMA in the distance. The moon, high above, black and grinning. Eyes.

The eyes hung in the sky, large and luminous. They were red, a shade of red so bright that it almost seemed as though it couldn't exist. Fear rushed through her, bright and terrible. She could taste it in the back of her throat, could feel its cold fingers around her heart. A face resolved around the eyes, a fair face, frozen in the prime of her beauty. A pale face, similar to Morgan's, fine of features and almost delicate in appearance. The darkness around the face resolved itself into hair, into black locks pinned up at the back of a head, threaded through liberally with white.

With white in the shape of eyes.

Fear spread, and Morgan woke up with a start.

She sat up in bed, clutching the sheets close to herself as she took deep breaths. The fear was still on her, a terrible cold that seemed as though it would never leave. Morgan hugged her arms close to herself and realized that the fabric of her nightgown was plastered to her skin, damp with a cold sweat. She ran a hand over her face and took several, shaky breaths, trying to erase the terror of the vision. A sound rang in her ears, hard and grating, and it took her a while to realize that Quoth was cawing, that he was perched at the foot of her bed calling continually at her.

Slowly, her fingers unhooked themselves from around her arms, leaving red marks in the skin where her hands had touched. She pushed the blankets off of herself and slipped her legs over the side, getting up to her feet and walking over to her room's window. Her and Cassie's apartment was on the first floor, and so the window opened up on a street-level view of Death City, showing her nothing more than her surrounding area.

If she craned her neck, she could see the towering structure of the DWMA. Its candles were lit, even in the dark of night, and despite the attack a few weeks prior, the building looked whole. In one piece. Certainly nothing like the building in her vision, which had been swallowed by the darkness.

The darkness. Her grandmother. Morgan grit her teeth and leaned forward, her forehead resting against the cool pane of glass.

It took her a minute to realize that Quoth was still cawing. But when she did, she let her eyes drift skyward again, taking note of the ravens that had gathered on the rooftops around her apartment, watching her, their dark eyes glittering in the dark. A shiver ran down her spine as she took in the sight in front of her. One of her hands reached out, fingers tracing the window glass.

Omens. Portents. Foretellings.

She exhaled, stepping away from the window, and ran her hands through the tangle of her hair. With careful deliberation, Morgan pulled her wardrobe open, reaching for her blouse and skirt.

"You can stop now," she told Quoth, a little irritably. "I'm going."


Vayne woke up to the sound of his phone ringing, the song that he had chosen for his ringtone echoing in the quiet of his room. He groaned, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and sat up, reaching for it. His hand didn't quite work the first time, but he managed to grasp the phone a second time around and glancing at the screen. His eyes widened slightly as he realized who it was, and he sat up in bed, pressing the phone to his ear.

"Cassie?" he asked. "Everything alright?"

"No!" said Cassie, sounding frantic. "Everything's not alright, Vayne! Do you know where Morgan is?"

Vayne looked around the room, his stomach sinking. His eyes drifted towards the clock at his bedside table, the bright green letters telling him that it was just a little bit after two in the morning.

"No," he said, now fully awake. He pushed himself out of bed. "No idea. What's going on, Cass?"

"She disappeared!" said Cassie. "I just—she's not in her room, Vayne. She doesn't have a phone. And—and—."

"And what?" Vayne asked, tightening his grip on his phone in alarm. He tried to keep the panicked edge from his tone as he spoke, not wanting to set her off any further. "Calm down, Cass. I'm here to help, okay? Just take a deep breath and talk to me."

There a pause on the other end of the line as Cassie gulped down breaths of air, the faint hint of static over the phone making it sound like she was hyperventilating.

"She took Quoth," Cassie finally said. "And—and her hat. I think she's gone."

Vayne nearly dropped the phone.


"Look, there. That's him…"

"Who? That little boy…?"

"He's the Morrigan's son."

"Oh, he looks like such a little gentleman! But it's rare, isn't it? For a sorcerer to be born?"

"It is rare. They say it's because of his father."

"His father?"

"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but they say he was a king…"

Mordred closed his eyes from where he stood on a rooftop in Death City, long-forgotten voices resounding in his ears. For a moment, he was a boy again, sitting on the grand steps of the entrance hall in Avalon, pretending to ignore the whispers. Pretending that he couldn't hear them. For half a moment, the centuries were falling away, and he was a boy…

The book in his hands was heavy and thick, dusty with the passage of time. He ran a hand uncertainly over the cover, but didn't open it to read, his ears still trained on the conversations around him. The courtyard was full of activity and light, the witches that surrounded him cooing at him and offering platitudes in his direction before heading up the stairs to find his mother. From somewhere upstairs, he could hear muffled laughter. He sat there uncertainly, unsure what to do with himself. He was supposed to be studying, but somehow, he didn't feel like it anymore.

"There you are!"

Morgana's voice was sharp as she marched over to him, sunlight reflecting off the beads of silver sewn into her gown. Even in her childhood, she was striking, their mother in miniature. Her hair was the same raven black as his, tied in a complicated pattern at the back of her head. Her skin, like his, was alabaster pale, her eyes the color of dark wine. Light gleamed in them as she strode over to him, the crowd giving way around her like mists giving way before the dawn. She made her way up to him and grabbed his wrists, and he stared at her with wide eyes, uncertain as always when it came to his sister.

"I should have known you'd be sitting around here," she said. "It's a beautiful day outside. Come play with me."

"I…I have to study…" Mordred began.

"Study later," said Morgana. "There's something I want to see."

She tugged him to his feet, moving quickly towards the front door, and he followed, stumbling at first, but quickly matching her pace, the book tumbling out of his hands and onto the tiled ground. Morgana kept a hand on his wrist, almost tight enough to hurt, but he didn't complain, throwing his free arm up over his eyes and turning away as they emerged into the noontime sun. He followed her pace and didn't complain, because that was always how they were, and things were as they should be.

Morgana was bright and beautiful, and she always knew what to do. He was content to follow her, content to stay in her shadow as she grew and brightened and shone. Because she was his sister and he loved her. Because they were twins and he loved her.

Because they were ten years old, and they had the whole world…

He opened his eyes on a heavy exhale, a breeze moving through his hair and tugging at his cloak. The memory faded like smoke, leaving him back in the present day, the weight of his burdens pressing down on him like chains.

The weight of his sins.

His hands opened and closed at his side, fingers flexing and releasing as he looked out over Death City. The city slept on, unaware of the events that were soon to occur within it, unaware of the events that would soon shake the entire world beneath it. Above it hung the structure of the DWMA, always watching, a constant presence and a reminder. Mordred eyed it for a second before lowering his eyes back towards the streets itself. He thought of Morgana and how he had failed her twice, thought of Morgana and how he would fail her again.

Another face came to mind, a man this time, dressed in gleaming armor. A hand on his shoulder, the weight of the armor pressing down on him, a cheerful voice in his ear. A laugh.

"Come now, brother, don't look so glum. When the battle's over, we'll feast together, you and I."

His eyes hardened, the fingers of one hand clenching into a tight fist as he banished the specter of his memory away. The memory of Morgana's tears.

An old maxim came to mind, something that had been adapted from another dark time in history, something that seemed especially appropriate today.

Duty is heavier than a mountain…

Mordred's eyes moved over the rooftops and streets of Death City. He unclenched his fist, gathering power to his fingertips, pooling together the raw energy of the world.

The lamplight reflected off of his eyes as the shadows closed in around him, swallowing him up, hiding him from view. Morgana's eyes, eyes the color of wine.

Eyes the color of blood.


Rei opened his eyes to the sunlight warming his face, a soft breeze stirring the grass around him. He pushed himself up, his weight crushing the soft grass beneath his fingertips. The air smelled sweet, like a spring day after the rain, and the breeze was pleasantly cool. The world around him was an endless sea of green, a cloudless blue sky stretching on in all directions.

He wasn't alone. Rei looked to his left and saw the stag from his dream standing there, staring intently at something hovering in the air in front of it. The hovering thing looked almost like smoke, an orb made of smoke that shifted and turned, so that it was difficult to grasp the whole picture. It was wispy, insubstantial. If Rei didn't know what to look for, if he hadn't had any experience seeing souls in the past, he wouldn't have known that it was a soul.

"Whose soul is that?" he asked, surprised at the sound of his own voice. It was hushed, as if he had just woken up from a long sleep.

The stag glanced at him sidelong, and Rei felt the weight of its gaze as it turned towards him, taking him in. He wondered for half a second if the stag could even speak. It seemed like an odd question to ask, but there was intelligence in those eyes, the sense of centuries of experience behind that gaze.

When the stag spoke, its voice was surprising. Gentle, almost, but with a weight behind it that Rei couldn't place. Its mouth didn't move, the sound seeming to emanate from the air around it.

"Are you telling me, Rei Evans, that you don't know?"

Rei gave the soul another look, taking in its shifting patterns, its smoke-like quality. His eyes widened, and he placed his hands over his own chest, as if by doing so he could grasp at his own soul. "That's not—it can't be…mine?"

"This space exists outside the bounds of your usual reality," said the stag, turning its gaze back towards the soul. "This is your dream. Your soul can technically manifest anywhere."

Rei looked at the soul again, studying it in a new light. He had seen the soul of everyone close to him before, at one point or another, but he hadn't realized until now that he had never actually seen his own. He stood up, pushing himself to his feet, and walked over to it. The air had a heavy quality, slowing his movements and reminding him that he was moving through a dream.

He reached out, stretching his hand towards the soul. There was a protective dome around it, preventing him from touching it, but he could still feel the warmth that suffused him as his fingers came in contact with the dome, the pale orb shying back as if hiding from his touch. He looked back at the stag, who Rei noticed with a shiver was now watching him, gold eyes on him.

"It's so…thin…" he said.

"Like smoke," the stag agreed. "Like mist on the breeze. Hollow."

The word felt like a pronouncement, and it sat heavy in Rei's chest, weighing on him as he looked back at the soul. He studied it, pressing his hand against the dome that surrounded it, taking in its shifting patterns. "It's trying to hide," he said.

"It doesn't seem to favor observation," the stag said, its eyes still on Rei. Rei kept his gaze fixed on the soul, trying not to look at the stag standing next to him. "You are…different, Rei Evans. I have encountered many young warriors before, but I'm not sure what to make of you…"

Rei felt his face burn, and despite the fact that he tried not to look at the stag, he could still see it out of the corner of his eye, a weight at the edge of his vision. "I'm not a warrior," he said.

"Aren't you?" the stag asked.

Rei shook his head, his fingers curling slightly from where they were pressed against the soul's dome.

"Then who are you, Rei Evans? Are you a demon?"

Rei shook his head again. "Not that either."

"Then who are you?"

Rei was silent for a long moment, considering the question. He didn't know the answer. Something squirmed inside him, uncomfortably, and he found his attention completely grasped by the soul in front of him. The center of his being, and it did its best to elude observation. He wasn't sure what that said around him.

"I'm just…"

A nobody. A student. Someone doing the best that they can.

"…a ghost," he finished lamely, his eyes fixed in front of him. Something like sorrow settled into his chest as he spoke, and he felt the truth of that statement curl around his heart, around his very soul.

"Interesting…" the stag said, after a moment that felt entirely too long. "I don't give my power to ghosts."

"Who are you?" Rei asked, trying to change the subject, to divert the stag's attention away from himself. He felt laid bare, everything that he was spread out on a table, and he didn't like the feeling.

"I?" the stag asked. "I am the cumulative power of centuries. The Will of the Nakatsukasa Clan…"

"Ayame…" Rei breathed, looking at the world around him. Suddenly the brightness of it all made sense, the sunshine and the green, green grass.

"Ayame," the stag said, "And Tsubaki. Sanjuro. Noboru. Mitsuhiro. Kaede. Daigoro. I could go on."

Rei shook his head. "There's no need," he said. "I think I get the picture. You…talked to all of their meisters this way?"

"All of them," the stag said, "And more. More who failed the test. More who weren't worthy of the power they held."

"What happens to those who fail?" Rei asked, although he already knew the answer.

"They die," the stag said. "Although not by my hand. Power comes at a price, young one. The people that have passed beneath my gaze have been varied, some worthier of power than others, but there has been one constant between them, one invariable link. It has always been a price that the meisters of the Nakatsukasa have been willing to pay." He turned that gaze towards Rei again, and this time, Rei couldn't avoid meeting the stag's eyes. "You are not so different."

Rei stared at the stag with wide eyes, a sinking feeling settling into him. "Black Star passed the test."

The stag bent its forelegs, lowering its head slightly. A nod, though it looked odd coming from its body. "Demonstrably."

"You can't possibly compare me to him," Rei said, feeling the beginning of panic.

"I do not," the stag said. "I compare you only to you."

"What do I have to do?" Rei asked, hearing and hating the quaver in his voice.

The stag inclined its head back towards the soul in front of him, watching the way it shrank from his gaze. "Decide."

"Decide what?"

"Decide. Are you a warrior, or are you a demon? But that is a topic for another day, little ghost…" The stag bowed its head, taking a careful step back. "For now, you must awaken…"

Shadows started to swirl around the edges of Rei's vision, his soul starting to glow as the dreamscape crumbled. He felt something surge inside of him, as if he were waking up. The stag's eyes burned in the growing darkness, like a pair of lamps hanging in the air. A sense of wrongness permeated his very being, some instinct that cut through the peace of his dream and forced him awake. As he slipped from sleep into waking, the stag's voice cut through the air, one last parting remark.

"It's time for you to decide what you would live for..."

The world faded away.

"…and what you would die for."

The scream woke him, shattering the remnants of his dream and sweeping them aside. Rei rolled out of bed, tangling his feet in the blankets and nearly crashing to the ground in his haste. He managed to twist into a proper fall, minimizing the sound of his landing. The impact shook off the last remaining vestiges of sleep, and he kicked the blankets off of his legs, his eyes widening in alarm and his heart pounding.

The room was momentarily unfamiliar to him, used as he was to his room in his DWMA apartment, but the memories of last night quickly made their way back to him. His eyes darted to the left, where the wall that separated his room from his sisters' was. The scream had come from there.

Rei didn't hesitate, running for the door. He paused only to activate his Soul Perception, throwing it out like a net around him and letting the darkened world assume some sense of clarity. The twins' souls were in their room, and they were alone.

No, Rei thought, they weren't. He couldn't sense another soul in them, but there was something else, an emptiness that seemed too strong, like a patch of shadow darker than it had any reason to be. It was an emptiness that he had noticed before, once, when he and Ayame had walked into an empty bar looking for Morgan.

He threw open the twins' door.

"Annie!" he shouted. "Cori!"

The man from the bar stood in the twins' room, wreathed in shadow. The window was open in front of him, darkness pooling into the room from it like mists and making the room look like something out of a nightmare. In one of his arms, he held Annie, who slumped forward unconscious, arms and legs dangling limply. In the other arm, he held a struggling Cori to himself.

"Rei!" Cori screamed, kicking and thrashing as she tried to get away. The man's grip merely tightened around her middle, holding her close.

Rei's eyes narrowed in anger, and he sank down into a crouch, his hand slipping away from the doorknob. "Let them go," he said.

The man turned towards him, fixing him with eyes that seemed to shine even in the room's shadows. His eyes swept over Rei, taking in his stance and demeanor, before finally settling on Rei's eyes, meeting his gaze.

"I have no wish to kill you, boy," the man said. "Stand down. This isn't a fight you can win."

Rei grit his teeth, one of his hands clenching into a fist. "Let. Them. Go."

The man frowned at him, fixing him with a baleful stare. His posture never changed, but he let out a sigh.

"Come then," he said.

Rei stretched out his hand towards his sister. "Cori!"

Cori nodded sharply, transforming in a flash of light. That flash coursed into Rei's hand, forming a gleaming black scythe, one that looked as though it was made of liquid metal. It was identical to Annie's scythe form, separated only by the color of the sinuous stripe that made its way down the side of the blade. Blue, where Annie's was red. He gripped the handle tightly with both hands, Cori's eyes narrowing in her soul space as Rei charged forward, letting out a shout.

The man snorted softly, a sharp exhale, as if he had been expecting this but still found it ridiculous. He lowered Annie to the ground, almost gently, and extended his left hand. Magic traced itself into the air at his fingertips, forming a glowing shield. Rei's slash struck that shield, and Cori let out a small gasp of pain as sparks started flying, striking the scythe's flat. She crouched down in the void of her soul space, pulling her hand to herself, and Rei pulled back quickly, leaping back and spinning the scythe in one hand.

"Cori?" Rei asked, alarmed.

"I'm fine!" Cori said, shaking her hand out. "It just burned a little. Don't worry!"

Rei scowled, because how could he not worry, but Cori was right. There were more important things. He darted towards the man, feinting high, then ducked beneath the shield that the man created, dropping into a crouch. Rei shifted Cori's weight to his left hand, bracing his free hand on the floor and sweeping at the man's ankles with the scythe blade. As the man leaped back, dancing nimbly out of the way of the scythe, Rei pushed himself forward using the hand on the floor, launching himself towards Annie.

Magic crackled in the air as he stretched his hand out towards her, a dome of energy appearing in the air above Annie and stopping him in his tracks. Heat coursed up his hand, and Rei let out a shout of pain, struggling to force his way through it. The shield fought him every inch of the way, but his hand stretched forward towards his sister, his teeth clenched even as traces of magic whipped at him, sparks striking his cheek and face, burning him.

"Cori!" Rei said, yelling the word into the air.

"Right!" said Cori, clasping her hands close together over her chest. She closed her eyes, her brows knit together as if she were struggling. Light flared up around her and then faded out of existence, flickering twice like an old lightbulb before a slow, steady stream started to rise up around her. The scythe in his hands began to glow with a white light, lending him strength, parting the magic. His hand slipped further through the shield, an inch from Annie's arm.

"Enough of this," said the man, raising his hand towards them.

Tendrils of shadow reached out of the darkness like strips of cloth, runes engraved in violet light along their length. They wrapped around Rei and his outstretched arm, slipping around the length of Cori's scythe form and tightening. In his hand, Cori let out a scream, her concentration and her grip on the Anti-Magic Wavelength breaking. Rei fought to hold onto her as the tendrils tried to pry her from his grasp, but one of the tendrils wrapped around his wrist and twisted, forcing him to loosen his grip.

There was a crack of magic as the man drew the scythe towards his left hand, and Cori let out one final scream, her scythe form fading. She appeared in the crook of the man's arm, hanging limp like Annie, the faint traces of smoke rising from her skin. The man stared at her as Rei struggled against his bonds, a faint look of annoyance on his face.

"A weapon with an Anti-Magic Wavelength," he said, almost to himself. "A nuisance, but I suppose that's why we need her…"

"Put her down, you bastard!" Rei yelled, thrashing in the net of tendrils that held him in place. "Put her down or I'll kill you!"

The man drew his eyes up towards Rei, frowning at him as if he had only just remembered that he was there. "You," he said, "are in no position to be making threats."

Before Rei could reply, the tendrils lurched forward, slamming him into one of the bedroom walls. Rei let out a choked cry as the impact struck him, reverberating throughout his body. The world went dark for a second as the tendrils released him, letting him slump to the floor.

From the doorway to the twin's room, someone let out a scream of fury, launching themselves at the man. Rei grit his teeth against the pain, rolling over and looking up. Ayame was running towards the intruder at high speed, both of her hands transformed into gleaming blades.

The man turned towards her, his brow furrowing in annoyance and anger, and the shadow tendrils he had been manipulating before converged on her position. Ayame leaped to the side before the tendrils could catch her, slashing at his chest. Magic crackled over his skin like a sheet of armor, and Ayame's blade skittered off of the shield surrounding him, going wide. Her momentum carried her forward, but she quickly shifted it into a spin, lashing out at him with her other blade.

This one slammed into his side, catching on the shield as well, but Ayame planted her feet squarely on the ground and continued to turn, letting out a yell of effort. The sorcerer's eyes widened slightly as the force behind the blow picked him up off his feet, sending him into the nearest wall. He slammed into it, wood and plaster cracking.

Ayame was at Rei's side at an instant, human hands on his shoulders as she tried to draw him up. Rei looked up at her, eyes wide, shaking his head frantically.

"No," he said. "Get the twins—!"

Before he could finish his sentence, there was movement in the shadows. The sorcerer got to his feet, brushing dust and plaster off of himself. He frowned at Ayame as she stood protectively over Rei, raising an eyebrow at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"You have your father's brute strength, girl, but if you honestly think that that will be enough…"

He trailed off, his eyes sliding from her to Rei. Rei had taken advantage of the man's distraction to start pushing himself to his feet, his eyes fixed on the man in front of him. They were narrowed in anger.

"Ayame," Rei said, his voice soft.

She didn't look at him, but transformed in an instant, becoming the form that Rei most favored, her kusarigama form. His hands closed around her scythe hilts as he looked up at the man, the chain settling around him. The man frowned at him, meeting his eyes.

"This is a waste of time," he said, "for both of us."

Rei ignored him, his blood pounding in his ears. He was hardly looking at the man. Instead he was looking at his sisters, at Annie slumped unconscious against the wall behind him, at Cori tucked under his arm. Anger coursed through him, and in the middle of it, he could still hear the stag's words.

"It's time for you to decide what you would live for..."

"…and what you would die for."

Rei charged towards the sorcerer with a shout.


"Dammit, Rei, pick up your phone," Vayne muttered under his breath, his cellphone pressed against his ear as he scanned the night sky of Death City. To his right, Clark was running back to him, having finished checking the park. To his left, he could see the thin outline of Cassie making her way back towards him as well, breathless.

The phone in his hand continued to ring, before the sound of the ring broke off, replaced by the now-familiar sound of Rei's voicemail prompt. "Hey, you've reached Rei Evans. I can't pick up the phone—."

Vayne scowled in disgust, ending the call.

"Any luck?" Clark asked, running up to him.

Vayne shook his head, staring at the phone in his hand. "The one time we need his Soul Perception, and he's asleep," he said, rolling his eyes. He turned towards Cassie as she reached them, her eyes wide in worry. "Any sign of her?"

Cassie shook her head, gasping for breath. She rested her hands on her knees, gulping down huge breaths of air before looking up at him. "No," she said. "She's not at the library or the tea shop."

"Or the park," Clark said. "I just checked."

"You don't think she's at the school, do you?" asked Vayne, his eyes moving past them and fixing on the lights of the DWMA's candles, hovering in the distance.

"Dressed like a witch?" Cassie hissed.

"Good point," said Vayne, nodding. He took a deep breath to keep the panic from taking root, looking at the world around him.

Dammit, Morgan…he thought, feeling desperate. Where did you go?

"I just had a thought," Clark said, looking up at the sky.

"Spill," said Vayne, turning towards him.

"Notice something weird about tonight?"

Vayne frowned, following his partner's gaze. Clark wasn't looking at the stars, like he had first thought. Instead, he was scanning the rooftops, his eyes tracing the edges of them, looking for something. At first, Vayne couldn't tell what he was looking for, and then he remembered. A chill ran through him, one of his hands clenching into a fist.

"No ravens," he said.

Clark nodded. "They've been here since we started at the DWMA," he said. "Where did they all go?"

Vayne felt something sink in his chest, a bad feeling that seemed shared by the people around him. The ravens hadn't been here before Morgan's arrival at the DWMA, which was why Vayne hadn't noticed their absence. He had lived in Death City since his childhood. Not having the ravens didn't feel odd to him. He hadn't even thought to look for them.

"Morgan…" Cassie breathed.

Light shone, flickering at the edges of his vision. Vayne's eyes widened, and he turned towards it. It was a light so dark in color that he almost missed it, a deep violet that was almost camouflaged against the darkness of night.

It seemed like he wasn't the only one who had noticed it. Clark and Cassie both paused, turning their eyes around it. It was coming not from the school, but from a residential neighborhood within easy walking distance of the DWMA.

"Hey…" Clark said. "Doesn't Maka-sensei live over there somewhere?"

Maka-sensei. The Evans house.

Rei.

A chill coursed through him again, his eyes traveling from the light to the phone in his hand, already calling Rei again, already not getting an answer.

"Hey, you've reached Rei Evans. I can't pick up the phone right now—."

Vayne stuffed the phone into his pocket, taking off at a run.


A/N: Hypnagogia, this chapter's title, refers to the state between wakefulness and sleep, when a person is neither fully asleep nor fully awake, and may have waking dreams.