Oh, how I wish I didn't get black mailed into this.

Artemis: You got a problem with me, Crunchy?

(Sweatdrop) For the last time, Copper Curls, it's 'Kunoichi'. I'm Japanese--Like Dragon's mother.

Dragon: I take it she screwed up your title again?

How do you let her take advantage of you like that? It's pitiful--Like Nick.

Nick: HEY!

Hotaru changed into her scrubs and pulled her hair into a flop over bun. She wasn't in a good mood and being called in by the medical examiner, her boss, didn't help improve it all. She gave Kyu-chan a partially opened container and closed her locker door, making sure her combination lock was screwed up enough for no one to figure it out, and left the locker room after reapplying her lipstick. She entered the morgue expecting the coroner that signed her pay checks but that wasn't who she saw. She froze, dead in her tracks.

"Surrounded by death and corpses…why am I not surprised to find you working here?"

"What do you want, Haruka? I've done nothing wrong. I have a job where I'm never going anywhere and I'm going to a State University as a nobody immigrant student. I am as low key as I could get." Hotaru said, unhappily. "I got an used car, a nice and cheap apartment, a part time job, classes both day and night—what more do you guys want from me?"

"You out of the damn papers." Haruka growled, crossing her arms.

"I am not in the papers. I have done everything you have put on my shoulders." Hotaru denied, being defensive.

"Don't lie! Sailor Saturn's been in the papers and on the news every month since you came to America! Knock it the fuck off!" The sandy blond shouted, the sound bouncing off the walls. "Quit playing the hero! You were never one of us to begin with! Stop trying to save the world! This isn't the comic books! This is real life!"

"How long have you been alive? I've lived for centuries! If this was the comics books-I'd have some sort of weakness and that would've been exploited and I'd finally be dead!" Hotaru snapped, her body tensing with restraint. "But no! This is real life where I only have two outs that I cannot exploit! I'll live until you're all dead and then you'll still have me bound to preserving your pathetic life forces and resurrecting your imperfect Terran forms. I will never be free of you fools."

Haruka was about to retort when the nightshift assistant, David Maxwell, came in. His chestnut brown hair was naturally slicked back from his hat and his dazzling mossy hazel eyes were the same as they were from that morning from when he sat next to her in Dr. Alexander's Ancient Civilizations class. He looked up from his clipboard, his eyes locking in on Haruka instantly. Hotaru was always soft spoken under normal circumstances, like David was since sound carried in the large empty chamber.

"Uh, Tokyo, who's this? She ain't a corpse." David was from New York, coming to Louisiana to avoid his anal parents. LSU was the perfect school for his education. "Or is she bothering you? A San Francisco groupie?"

"More like San Fran stalker." Hotaru told him in a low tone. David was 6 foot 5 and only 23. He worked out and lifted weights to stay at the peek of his strength. After all, corpses were a lot dead weight. "I bumped in to her in Little Tokyo. She won't leave me be. Mind showing her the way out, Italy?"

He set his clipboard down and cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, Tokyo. I'll be more than happy to kick this bitch to the curb for you. Just don't tell the boss man. My old man record could come to bite me in the ass."

"Aren't you glad you take after your mother?" Hotaru asked backing up as David strode forward, standing up straight.

"You know it." He grabbed the front of Haruka's dark blue shirt and gold colored sports jacket. "You got to leave, lady. No one's allowed in here except for who we say an' tonight's corpses and co-workers only."

David threw Haruka out and came back into the morgue, b-lining for their little coffee-break room area. He poured himself some coffee and then poured Hotaru some as she leaned up against the wall next to it. He mixed in cream and sugar for the both of them and handed her the cup he had made for her.

"Thanks, David." Hotaru took the warm cup and sipped the still hot liquid. It didn't scald her tongue since David knew how to make coffee just right.

"You know, Firefly, I didn't take Japanese through high school and college just to be given that 'from Little Tokyo' BS." David pointed out gently. "She had an accent that was native Tokyo, like you do when you speak in Japanese."

"It's a long story in a book I want to keep closed until I can find a secure enough lock." David put his hand on her shoulder like a big brother would. He knew better to dredge up her past. It had something to do with that gold bracelet she wore 24/7 and it seemed very painful for her. "So, what are you doing here? I know the Doc's sick but it's only work for one tonight."

"Your technology class got cancelled?" He looked at Hotaru as she nodded slowly, looking into her murky drink. "Aw, Firefly, I'm sorry. I know you love that class. I just got in from my botany class, to tell you the truth and my cell phone died on my way home yesterday morning so I'm SOL."

Hotaru sighed heavily. "Why don't we just hang ourselves, D? It would get everything over with."

"Yeah, but then we'd be urn residents on the Doc's shelf and we'd never get out of this place." Hotaru knew he had a point. It had been a serious question once upon a time but the Doc had turned it into a joke and thus it was used to lighten the mood by both the part timers and the coroner.

A funny feeling played over Hotaru's nerves. "Uh, David?"

"Yeah, Firefly?" David asked, sipping his coffee.

"I think we're about to be in a lot of trouble."

David never took her feelings for granted. She had saved his life when a dirty bomb had nearly killed him. The only reason why he was here today was because Hotaru had warned him that something was wrong, that if he didn't wait, he was going to be dead. How right she had been.

"Shit! Get down!" David dropped his cup and tackled Hotaru into the ground, his body shielding hers. Her coffee spilled onto the ground and her cup rolled in a circle, bumping the toe of the boot of a man who had fired a handgun with a silencer. He was blond with sunglasses and dressed like a biker.

"And here I was hoping to just get the male out of the way." The blond said as he stood over them, his gun pointed at them. "On your feet, both of you." David got up first, then Hotaru, their arms up in surrender. "Now, to do what I had started to do." The barrel went to David's forehead and her classmate's brains was splattered on the wall behind them. "Now, on to you, pretty girl."

"Oh, my God…David…" Hotaru's hands flew to cover her mouth as David's body collapsed onto the ground, his eyes wide in shock. The man grabbed the front of her scrubs and jerked her to be closer to him. He was close enough to kiss now but Hotaru had never gone for guys with guns or for those who made her feel like a Solarian really had survived.

Suddenly, he tensed and let go of her, letting her land on her butt at his feet. He exploded into a cloud of gold dust that fell on her and onto the floor. A knife landed on the ground with a clatter.

"Oh, shit. I didn't mean to get you in the dust cloud." A younger man was only by the tables and he jogged over to check on her. His callused hands and fingers lifted her up to her feet and dusted her off with a rough gentleness. "Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?"

"N-no, I'm fine, b-but David, my co-worker…" Hotaru tried to look down at her fallen friend but her rescuer gently gripped her chin as he dusted the gold dust off her cheeks and hair.

"It's okay, he's gone to a much better place. Saving you sent him to the Fields. You were his great saving grace." He assured her. "But you shouldn't've seen me dust that daimon. I accidentally chased him in here. When I leave, all you will remember is that David was shot and you went into shock, suppressing the memories." He looked into her eyes, the swirling silver classing with pools of amethyst. His eyes told her of regret, of suffering, of long, hard trials. He kissed her forehead. "I pray this doesn't do lasting damage to your future. I pray to the gods that you'll have a long happy life."

Hotaru felt an odd surge in her mind as he gently held her chin. "What are you doing to me?"

"Shhh, little one. It'll be over soon." He told her softly, like a father would. Hotaru felt her body grow heavy and her knees collapse beneath her.

"…Titan…" She mumbled as she dropped to the floor.

0-0-0

Acheron felt bad about knocking the coroner's assistant out using telepathy but he didn't want her to suffer, looking at her friend David's body. His chase had knocked his sunglasses from his face since something blocked his powers somehow. As he turned to leave, the sensation of an ancient power zinged up his spine as he heard her utter one word: "Titan".

A snarl made Ash turn to face the girl but something was rising out of her shadow. Acheron hadn't expected to see something so old coming out of someone so young.

"Nice Arithian feline. I didn't hurt her. I just didn't want her to suffer." Ash said, trying to calm the beast. A second beast rose up, a canine this time. "Oh, shit…I am screwed…" The feline resembled a panther with large bat wings and a dragon head and neck for a tail. The canine was more of a shark and wolf mix with large vein filled wings that were like long swordfish spines. "You two are going to rip me apart before I even get to the doors…yeah, and me without my powers…"

The canine's fin wings collapsed against its back, its tail dropping as it turned back to sniff and lick the cheek of the girl. It whimpered and glanced back at the feline. Did Ash do lasting damage to her? No, he couldn't have…could he?

"I can't wake her up…Titan, we're using too much power. I have to return to her." A cool, strong male voice said, canine nudging the girl again. The feline looked back at the canine.

"I cannot take this one down on my own with her unable to wake up. I need you out here with me, Mimas." The feline, Titan, argued back. "Without her conscious, I must rely on the reserve power of the Castle and that could drop it out of orbit and she will die. I cannot risk that."

"She is my Chimera's companion. I will not lose the last proof of Morva's existence!" Mimas slipped back into the girl's shadow, disappearing.

"Mimas!" Titan was distracted and Acheron took his chance-he grabbed the scruff of her neck…and then the dragon head bit him. "Keep your filthy hands off of me! You hurt my Chimera! I ought to rip your throat out!"

Titan's body began to dissolve as the girl started coughing, her skin turning gray and her veins a dark blue, showing through her skin. Only one race could be poisoned by his blood, could have that reaction-the Arithian race and he was killing the survivor. Titan dissolved in to a black mist and fled back to her shadow. Ash wrapped his hand in a piece of his shirt then scooped the Arithian girl, holding her against his lifeless body against his own.

"Alexion! Alexion-get me out of here! My powers don't work!"

Alexion: So, that's how it happened...

Julian: You have got to be kidding...

Kyrian: Ash can't use his powers? I didn't honestly see that coming.

Nick: (pops knuckles) About time. I'm kicking his ass.

Ash: Now, Kaz, that wasn't fair.

Gimme Styxx and I'll turn it towards your favor.

Ash: What?!

Hey, it's either you or your evil twin. Take your pick.

Ash: ...I'll talk to Hades...