Disclaimer: I don't own Legacy of Kain or any other identifiable pop culture references.

The next morning, Jennifer went ahead and brewed Janos' tea for him. He wandered downstairs a couple minutes later, his hair and feathers tousled in evidence of a restless night. Janos took the entire pot and sat on the porch in irritated silence.

Raziel followed a few minutes later and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Don't bother Janos," Jennifer warned. "I think he's beginning to crack."

"I think I told him too much at once," Raziel said guiltily.

"Maybe not. It might have been a cumulative effect," Jennifer said. "No matter how much time you took, you were still destroying his reality."

"I shouldn't have asked you to bring him here," Raziel said, sadly gazing into his coffee mug.

"Hey, he's a survivor," Jennifer reminded Raziel. "I doubt a little thing like the truth is going to bring him down."

"I hope you're right," Raziel said.

Some time later, Raziel decided to check on the old angel.

"I don't care if you've discovered that you're the reincarnation of Ahura Mainyu, I'm not in the mood," Janos said.

Raziel was stunned. "I just wanted to know if you needed anything, like more tea or something," he muttered.

Janos huffed as he shook his head slightly.

"I'm sorry," Raziel said as he walked away, "for everything."

.
.

When Jennifer came home, Raziel almost crashed into the ground in his haste to get off the roof.

"Janos has disappeared," Raziel said.

"Are you sure he's not just doing whatever he normally does during the day?" Jennifer asked.

"Well," Raziel faltered. He actually didn't know, but he feared the worst.

"It's going to be difficult to track him, but let's try some mundane methods first," Jennifer suggested.

Jennifer pulled out the phonebook and scanned through the yellow pages. She confidently dialed one of the numbers.

"Who seeks the wisdom of Madame Obscura?" asked the voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey Diana, has Janos visited you today?" Jennifer asked.

"Who is this?" she demanded, her voice taking on a more ordinary tone.

"This is Jennifer," she said. "Janos is staying in my house, but he wasn't completely stable this morning."

"I haven't heard from him today," Diana said, "but if he's having a crisis then he's probably gone to Bernard."

"Do you know how to find Bernard, then?" Jennifer asked.

"I'm afraid I don't," Diana said.

"Thanks," Jennifer said before hanging up the phone. She turned to Raziel and said, "Diana thinks he's with the theologian. I think it's time to call Janos' cell phone."

That plan proved unsuccessful as they heard right away that Janos had left the battered device behind.

"You can still track him, can't you?" Raziel asked. "I really think that we should make sure that he's okay."

Jennifer grabbed the keys to the van. "We'll go look for Janos," she said. "I have a feeling that you're not going to stop whining until we've found him."

"I do not whine," Raziel said.

The search was much more harrowing than it needed to be. Jennifer could barely sense Janos' presence at all, and it was nearly impossible to try it while driving. Many of her direction choices were simple guesswork. Other times, Jennifer would change her mind at the last minute and turn from the wrong lane. It was a mild miracle that no one was hurt. Jennifer finally parked outside the cemetery that Janos had fled to during his first night on Earth.

"That's interesting," Jennifer commented.

Janos was sitting on a stone bench, gazing sorrowfully at the statue of an angel. "The lore of this world has so many disturbing similarities to the lingering history in Nosgoth," Janos murmered. His eyes never left the stone being.

Raziel gave the statue a glance, then turned his gaze back to Janos. Raziel approached cautiously, unsure of what to say. Finally, he settled on, "Are you all right?"

"I still find comfort in speaking to statues. It is not a sign of madness," Janos said. "You act as if I'm not going to recover, but this too shall pass."

"What do you mean?" Raziel asked.

"There were many times when I felt that there was no hope," Janos explained. "Something always came to rekindle it."

"I think I can explain most of what happened," Raziel suggested.

Janos nodded. "And I am ready to hear more."

"There's something that I should have told you from the very beginning," Raziel began. "It is completely my fault that you had to endure losing your heart."

"You could not have known that you would be followed," Janos said.

"That's not it," Raziel said feverishly, "not entirely." Raziel unsuccessfully tried to calm down, but instead lost control of his form. Raziel was reliving that moment when he discovered that he was the one who had torn Janos' heart from his body.

Janos was aware of how Raziel's emotional state could cause him to return to a destroyed wraith. The old angel waited patiently for an explanation.

"It's not just that I led them straight to you," Raziel said, balling up his claws in anger. "I also…" He faltered. Raziel screwed his eyes shut for a moment before blurting. "I was one of them."

Janos tilted his head in curiosity and confusion. "You were one of the sarafan?" he questioned.

"I was the sarafan that tore the heart from your body," Raziel wailed.

Janos did not say anything for a long moment. Finally, he spoke. "I thought so."

Raziel sat in stunned silence. He recovered and asked, "How did you find out? When?"

Janos held up one talon. He was intending to lay that talon over Raziel's lips to silence him, but he realized that the scarf prevented him from doing it gracefully. Janos still wasn't sure what Raziel was trying to hide. "I think I had always suspected something, but it didn't make sense until recently."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Raziel asked.

"I couldn't be sure, and you never mentioned it," Janos said.

Raziel turned away, overridden with guilt. He knew he had been selfish in keeping that truth to himself for so long.

"Is it true that you don't remember?" Janos asked.

"I had discovered my past, but I didn't know what I had done to you until I witnessed it," Raziel said morosely.

Janos let off a gravelly sigh. "I forgive you."

Raziel blinked in surprise. "Thank you," he breathed.

"I am curious about one thing," Janos pondered aloud. "When you revived me, you said it wasn't a benevolent act."

"I was angry at the time," Raziel said uncomfortably. "I had good intention when I first vowed to restore you, and I didn't forget that. It's just… I wasn't ready to face my destiny."

"What about Kain? That creature said that you murdered him," Janos said.

"I did." Raziel said. "Mortainious used your heart to turn him into a vampire."

Janos grimaced slightly at that.

"Somehow, he managed to survive," Raziel continued.

"The last hope of Nosgoth in the hands of power-hungry tyrant," Janos muttered.

"The entire circle was corrupted. I finally managed to heal him," Raziel said. "Besides, there's a bigger plot going on, and Kain is good at deciphering them."

Janos was thoughtfully silent.

"Come back to the house," Raziel suggested. "It's more comfortable than this place."

Raziel and Janos walked out of the cemetery together. Jennifer had waited on top of the wall in case she was needed. She lightly dropped down on the outside when she saw the pair coming.

"Hop in," Jennifer invited, opening the doors to the van.

"I have seen what happens when these things run into each other," Janos said. "And I have heard about your driving skills."

"I'm a good driver," Jennifer retorted.

All she got in return was a pair of odd stares.

"I'll meet you back at the house," Janos told Raziel after a moment.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Varewulf, who gave my writer's block a good swift kick. (And broke his toe on it, but the block did start to move.)

A/N: Am I done torturing Janos? Sigh, maybe. I didn't realize how bad it would get for him when I decided to use him. The problem is that I can't put him through any unnecessary problems because I'm too busy getting through the necessary ones.

A/N: I realize that Kain wouldn't use the word "washout," but I couldn't get any insult to fit.