(For disclaimer and author/story/series notes, see the Prologue.)

0~*~0

Day 3: The Other Side

Zelos Wilder was a total and complete mess. He was cranky; he was irritable; he was reacting to everything more cynically and sarcastically than usual; and he—and his constant moodiness—was driving Sebastian up a wall. He knew it. He hated it. And damn it, he couldn't do a single thing to fix it.

He'd tried. He'd tried desperately to distract himself—he'd wandered around Meltokio, he'd read a book, he'd pestered Seles, he'd sharpened his swords, he'd even made a few balloon animals—but nothing could stop his mind from drifting back to the other him, that guy who'd looked exactly like him and had been with Sheena. Who was he? What was he doing here? Why was he with her? He needed to know what was going on; he'd been through some really crazy stuff before, but never had his doppelganger appeared in his mansion, stolen his clothes, kicked his hunny out of his bed, waltzed around town with a ninja he'd once carried a gigantic torch for, beat him in a fight, broken his nose, threatened his life, and then walked away. Zelos was pissed; he was restless; he wanted answers; and damn it, he wanted his 'groove' back with the ladies—something that had been sorely missing the past two days, which was especially annoying since he really could've used that particular distraction right now. He'd even reverted to drinking more than usual in hopes it would drown out his thoughts and give him a few moments of relaxation, but even that hadn't worked. It wasn't satisfying, it took too much alcohol for him to get drunk enough to dull the pain and confusion, and it still hadn't managed to help him forget what had happened.

He had even tried spying on Mizuho to see if he could get the answers he desperately needed. He'd managed to catch a few glimpses of his 'other self' walking around there, doing—of all things—roof work, but that had been it, and all it had done was confuse him further. While it reinforced the most likely explanation that the guy was Orochi in disguise, it still didn't answer the why—not to mention wouldn't Orochi's wife have an issue with her husband disguising himself as a man she hated? But before he could get answers, one of the ninjas had spotted him—they had to have eyes on the back of their heads—and chased after him, and he, valuing his life (well, at least enough to want to avoid the pain any ninjas would undoubtedly inflict on him), had made a hasty retreat and hadn't tried going back there since.

And now it was the morning of the second night he hadn't gotten any sleep. He'd finally forced himself to get up, shower, and get dressed, and then he'd headed downstairs in search of breakfast. Upon reaching the main floor, though, he immediately froze: his short-haired alternate was sitting on the couch in his living room, reading the newspaper. The man's feet were propped up on the coffee table, he was wearing Zelos's clothes, and suddenly Zelos was seeing red and stalking toward him, eager for blood.

"You!"

His doppelganger didn't look up at him, didn't even acknowledge him, but he suddenly gaped at the newspaper in his hands. "Are you kidding me?! Giannovio is still the Foreign Minister here?!" His eyes darted up at Zelos. "You never became this world's Foreign Minister? Really?!" Those words caught Zelos aback, the surprise briefly derailing his anger, but before Zelos could respond, his doppelganger shook his head and muttered, "Oh, of course you didn't. I wouldn't have either if not for Sheena encouraging me to pursue that. Guess it's not such a big surprise after all." He sighed and shrugged. "Oh, well, it looks like I really do have some business to take care of here before I head back." Zelos's eyes darted at the door where his sword was supposed to be, but somehow his alternate noticed that subtle action, even though he was looking at the newspaper again, and added, "Oh, and I moved the sword by the door so you don't try attacking me with it."

Okay, that was enough of that. "What the hell are you doing in my house? Again?"

The other 'him' shrugged. "Well, technically speaking, it's my house, too, so I figured I'd let myself in."

What the hell was this guy babbling about? His house? That was a big, fat 'no.' "I thought I told Sebastian—"

"—To punch me in the face if I ever showed up here again? Yeah, he told me. At least until I told him the super secret password and explained a few things and then he welcomed me in with open arms." He looked up from the newspaper and held it up. "Even got me this paper to look at while I waited for you to get your butt down here."

...Sebastian did what?! "That's it; he is fired. And you, get the hell out of my house!"

His alternate, however, just smiled innocently. "Nope. Sorry, can't do that yet. We have business to discuss first."

Zelos gaped at him—at the gall of him. "Seriously?! I have nothing to discuss with the likes of imposters like you." He pointed emphatically at the door. "Get out!"

"Mm...no," the other him replied. "I know you've seen what I'm capable of, so good luck trying to make me. And yes, we do have stuff to discuss. Lots of stuff, actually." He motioned at the chair across the table from him. "Have a seat."

"...Right," Zelos muttered, folding his arms to his chest. "By 'discuss' you actually mean 'find another body part of mine to break.'"

His doppelganger rolled his eyes. "No, by 'discuss' I mean discuss. Y'know, talk. I didn't come here to fight you." He gave Zelos a semi-apologetic smile and motioned at his face. "And...yeah, sorry about the nose the other day. I kinda overreacted. But you did deserve it." Well, yeah, Zelos probably had deserved it, but he'd be damned if he admitted that to this guy. "Good job patching it up, by the way. I wouldn't want my nose to be permanently disfigured, either, but it looks like you managed to get it back to normal."

...What in the world was this guy doing?! "What the hell?! You waltz in here acting as if you own the place, tell me we have 'things' to discuss, and all the while you're wearing my face?! I think it's way past time you leave!"

"Wow, you must be in a bad place if you aren't even making snarky remarks yet, just snapping at me like a deranged turtle," his alternate quipped, in his own voice. "But then, I guess I would be too in your position. Now c'mon, don't be difficult. I don't have all the time in the world before Sheena comes here and hunts me down. So sit. Let's talk. I have a pretty major question to ask you."

Zelos laughed incredulously, although even to his ears it sounded like he was verging on hysteria. "Seriously? Seriously?! Do you really think I have any reason to answer any of your questions when you're the intruder in my house? I could have you arrested and thrown in jail for this!"

His doppelganger's eyes narrowed. "...And yet the fact that you haven't summoned the royal guard here to take me into custody yet confirms my hunch: you're curious about me, aren't you? You aren't just pissed at me for wearing your face and walking into your home; you want to know who I am, why I look like you, and what I'm doing here before you ship me off to jail." Zelos didn't answer that, but again he was caught off guard by how right the guy was. And after a moment, his alternate cleared his throat, folded the paper and threw it on the table, and leaned forward. "Listen, I'll make a deal with you. If you answer the one question I came here to ask you, then I'll answer every single one of your questions in return. Sound fair?"

The other 'him' smirked as Zelos hesitated again, considering that. He had to admit, he really did want answers to this craziness...was this guy saying he was willing to give them? And yet... "Not that I can believe a word you say, seeing as I already know you're a fake and a liar who's pretending to be me," he muttered.

"Am I?" his alternate replied, his smirk broadening. "Are you sure of that? Or have you just not considered all of the possibilities yet of who I might be and why I look like you?"

Zelos folded his arms to his chest, his eyes narrowing further, nearly at the end of his rope with this guy and his mind games. Did he really think Zelos was going to buy any of this? "Look, there isn't a chance in Niflheim that I'm gonna answer any of your questions until you tell me who the hell you are."

His alternate's eyebrows rose. "And if I do that, will you sit down and answer my question?"

...Wait, what? He was actually willing to answer that? "...I'll think about it. It depends on your answer."

"Fair enough." The guy leaned back in his chair. "Well, let's start with this: who do you think I am?"

Zelos eyed him closely, trying to see if there were any obvious indicators of this guy's identity. He looked exactly like him, like Zelos Wilder, only with much shorter hair—not to mention a few different scars on his gloveless-arms—but it was impossible for him to be who he looked like. After all, he was the only Zelos Wilder in existence (much to the chagrin of the ladies, he supposed, since he was sure they'd love to have another 'him' to fool around with...but that was neither here nor there right now...stay focused, Wilder). But this guy had a wedding ring on his finger, and Zelos couldn't forget that he'd not only been dressed up as a ninja when he'd first seen him, but he'd also been with Sheena—and since he'd mentioned her again a minute ago, that meant he was still in contact with her.

There was only one logical answer. "I still think you're Orochi disguised as me, for whatever reason."

The other 'him' rolled his eyes. "I'm not Orochi. Honest." He gave Zelos a pointed, scrutinizing look. "You really don't know about Orochi, do you?"

Zelos blinked at him blankly. "Know what?"

"Yeah, that's what you get for cutting yourself off from everyone you've ever known and cared about," his alternate muttered darkly. "Answer my question and I'll consider filling in that particular gap in your knowledge. But for now, try again. Who do you think I am? Who do I look like?"

Agh, why couldn't he just tell him? His scowl deepened. "I think we both know very well who you look like, but you can't be me, so...Matthew Fenimore?"

The guy's face scrunched up in disgust. "Wait, are you saying he's not in prison here, either?! Ugh, that's pathetic. I really do have a lot of work to take care of before I head home. Your world is a mess. And you were right the first time: I'm you."

Yeah, right. That wasn't even an option. "Nice try, buddy, but there's only one me, and I know for fact that I'm the real Zelos Wilder."

"Well, you're this world's real Zelos Wilder—yeah, I'll agree to that one," his alternate said, pointing at him. Zelos paused, trying to wrap his head around that, and the guy who looked like him smirked again. "Aha, got your interest, didn't I? You may be the authentic Zelos Wilder for this world, but in my world, I'm the real Zelos Wilder." He motioned at the chair again. "Now are you gonna have a seat?"

But still Zelos hesitated, continuing to stare at the guy who looked like him but wasn't. He wasn't sure yet if that made sense or not. "I can't say I believe you."

His doppelganger shrugged. "Whether you believe me or not, it's the truth. I'm from an alternate universe, brought here for...well, for a purpose we aren't gonna get into yet. Ask me anything only you would know." He lifted a hand. "Actually, let me qualify that: only ask me anything you would've known over seven years ago, which was apparently when our timelines split and our lives took drastically different routes. Y'know, something like that your password for Sebastian in case someone ever tried impersonating you is 'Melons Are Awesome.'"

Zelos folded his arms to his chest, his brain racing, trying to grasp what this guy was saying. An alternate Zelos Wilder, one from a different timeline? A timeline that had 'split' from his own seven years ago? It sounded absolutely crazy, and unbelievable, and impossible, and yet it made a shocking amount of sense...if it were true, something he wasn't convinced of yet. "Who was my first girlfriend?"

"What, is that supposed to be a trick question?" his alternate replied. "You never had one—or at least not a serious one—before the journey with Lloyd and the gang. That didn't stop you from going out with a different girl every other night and leading on the entire Tethe'allan female populace before that, but in your mind, you never considered any of them to be real girlfriends. Madeline Baker was your fiancée for years, although you obviously haven't been forced to marry her here yet, so chances are you got rid of that unwanted requirement along with the title. Your first time was with those two thieving chicks when you were a teenager, but you never knew their names. And then there was Shirley...do you really want me to rehash that unhappy saga for you right now? I don't particularly want to remember it, but if it'll convince you, I will."

Zelos cringed and shook his head. "Not necessary."

"Didn't think so. Oh, and I could tell you all about that box in the bottom left drawer of your bedroom vanity, the one where you keep all your—"

Okay, that was enough of that. "Ah!" Zelos said, lifting his hands in the universal signal to stop talking. "Enough."

His doppelganger's smirk returned. "So you believe me?"

Did he? How was he supposed to believe that this guy was him from an alternate universe? He'd never even heard of such a thing as cross-universe travel being possible, and he'd heard a lot of crazy stories before this. Although he'd never heard of it being impossible, either, so he wasn't sure he could dismiss it. But how could this guy know all those details otherwise, things he'd made a point to never tell anyone? "I'm not sure yet. Well, unless you snooped through my stuff that day you broke in here..."

The other 'him' shook his head. "Even if I had, the items in that box would mean nothing to anyone but me, so I'd have no idea the significance they hold for you to mention it now."

"True," Zelos conceded. "I don't know how else you could possibly know all of that."

"...Unless I'm you?" Zelos nodded, and his alternate smiled faintly. "Believe me, I know how weird and crazy this all sounds. If it weren't for Verius vouching for me and my sanity a few days ago, Sheena never would've believed this was really happening, either."

What should he question first? The fact that Sheena actually believed this guy was a Zelos from an alternate world—which apparently she did, since she'd said she had known he wasn't the real Zelos two days ago? Or... "...Verius?"

"He's the one who brought me here," his short-haired alternate replied. "I'm only here a few more days, though, and then I'll be out of your hair for good. Oh, and you'll get your clothes back then, because I have plenty at home. I just needed to borrow them a few days so I could pass as you without raising too many eyebrows or unnecessary questions, especially for Sheena."

...Ah. He supposed that made sense...sort of. "So if you're really a different version of me and not Orochi in disguise, then why were you wearing ninja clothes two days ago?" Before his alternate could answer, another nagging question popped into his mind because the light kept gleaming on it whenever the other 'him' moved his hand. "And whose ring is that? And why are you here?" Sure, he didn't trust this guy yet, but he still desperately wanted those questions answered, and so, damn it, he would ask them and take this guy's words with a grain of salt.

His alternate, however, shook his head. "Uh uh. I answered your one burning question already; the rest will have to wait until later. I'm not telling you anything else about me until you answer the question I have for you."

Grr...am I really that stubborn and annoying? Zelos wondered. "And what question is that?"

The other 'him' looked him straight in the eye, no amusement on his face. "What happened between you and Sheena in this world? I've already heard her take on it; now I want to hear yours."

Instantly, Zelos bristled, rejecting all notion of doing so. That, like the godawful Shirley fiasco, was yet another sore subject he wanted nothing to do with. "Not gonna happen."

"C'mon," his doppelganger prodded, his face softening. "I'm already sitting here, talking to you against my better judgment; the least you can do is tell me your side of the story." Zelos didn't reply; he just eyed his alternate another moment before turning to leave. If that was the question he had to answer before he could get all of his answers, then he couldn't do it. And besides, he'd now had it with the craziness of this entire conversation, of this entire situation, and just wanted out, especially before this guy could force him to relive that particular nightmare. His alternate sighed, quickly going on before Zelos could escape to the kitchen. "Look, I already have a strong hunch that what Sheena told me happened isn't what actually happened. She's a tad one-sided in this. And while I know you are, too, I still want to hear it from you because I have another hunch I already know what really happened between you two. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, I am you, in some weird, twisted way, and I suspect I know what I would've done in that situation. I just need to know if I'm right about that, and you're the only one who can tell me."

Zelos stopped and stood silently for a moment, thinking that through. While he hated to admit it, he really was tempted. His mind would never shut up with all its questions over this situation unless he got answers, and this could be the only opportunity he had to get them. And if this guy really was an alternate version of him...then he shouldn't have to explain everything, right? Just the stuff that had happened since their 'timelines' had apparently split? Not that that was much comfort, because it still meant going through far too many memories that he never wanted to remember, but hey, he was nothing if not a masochist. That meant he should be able to deal with it, and with the fallout from it...right?

He looked over his shoulder at the other 'him'. "And in exchange, you'll answer all of my questions?"

"Assuming my hunch about what happened between you two is right, yeah. I'll answer pretty much anything you want to know."

Zelos turned back toward him. It was a tremendous price to pay for the answers he needed, but it was also likely the only way to get the answers he needed. He considered it another moment, then decided he didn't have another choice and slowly sat down in the chair across the table from his alternate, eyeing him carefully. "You're really me?"

The other 'him' nodded. "I'm really you. Our timelines were identical until about seven years ago, when an event that happened one way in my world happened differently in yours."

Zelos's eyes narrowed. "And what event was that?"

He waved that off. "I'll answer all those other questions later. I promise. Just talk to me about Sheena and what caused your big blowout that resulted in you guys not speaking to each other the past few years."

Zelos didn't immediately start talking, though; for a moment, he just continued watching his alternate closely. If this guy really was him...what had he been through? What had happened differently in that world? How had this guy ended up with that wedding ring? Whose was it? Why did he keep talking about Sheena? And then there was the fact that he'd seemed so familiar with Sheena the other day...no, it couldn't be. Or...could it? It was impossible that in any world a version of Sheena Fujibayashi would put that ring on the finger of any Zelos Wilder...and yet he'd seen how this guy had looked at her. He recognized that look because it was the same look of affection and admiration he'd fought for years to keep off his own face whenever he saw her. Zelos had to know this, to hear the truth, because if his hunch was right...

"That thing is hers, isn't it?" he asked, motioning at his doppelganger's hand. "Sheena's?"

The other Zelos hesitated, observing him carefully again, before replying, "This ring was given to me by the one woman I've ever truly loved and would do anything for, and who's ever truly loved me and would do anything for me."

Zelos wasn't sure how to interpret that. He wasn't sure if he should feel hopeful that there was a chance Sheena might ever consider marrying him, or if the guy was talking about some other woman completely, but now he really wanted answers to all of his questions. If telling this guy what he wanted to know would get him those answers, then fine, he'd suck it up and do it. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The King's party after the worlds were reunited. Y'know, that night you started contemplating a new Grand Master Plan for your life."

That was...random. Zelos wasn't sure what to think about that, but he opted not to argue it. He shrugged. "There's not much to tell. It was a party. There were a lot of people there. Sheena and I talked for a bit, and then I cracked a dumb joke and she stormed off. Y'know, like she usually does. That was it."

His alternate motioned at him. "Go on."

"That was the last time I saw her for awhile. I mean, every now and then I ran into her when she was reporting to the king while she was still his emissary to Iselia, but she was always busy in Mizuho and didn't come to Meltokio any more than she had to, and even when she did, she certainly didn't drop by here just to chat. And then one day she stopped coming altogether."

"When was that?"

"Right before Hilda's birthday party."

"Mm," his alternate murmured. "Must've been hard for you not to see her all the time."

Zelos arched an eyebrow. That was...presumptuous. True, but presumptuous. "What makes you think that? It's not like I was ever lonely here or anything."

His alternate rolled his eyes. "Yeah, what with your adoring fan club, right? C'mon, you can drop the act with me. I was in love with her long before that journey with Lloyd and the gang ended, even if I had trouble admitting that to myself, so that means you were then, too. You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can't lie to me. I can see through your mask even more easily than you can, because at least I've learned to recognize it for what it is and figured out how to let it down. Trying to lie to me right now is...well, it's pretty damn pathetic, actually."

Agh, Zelos was already regretting having agreed to this conversation. He was so used to curbing everything he said, hamming it up, putting on the act for all it was worth, and remaining permanently hidden behind the mask. But apparently this guy, if he really was him, didn't do that anymore, and, worse, he was demanding that Zelos not do it, either. Well, maybe his life was all hearts and candy and roses and he felt comfortable being himself, but Zelos's life was anything but. But then, if he didn't make an effort, he suspected this guy would just keep pestering him until he did. And if he didn't...well, then he probably wouldn't get his much-coveted answers.

"Okay, fine," he replied with a frown. "I'll admit it: I missed her. And the fact that she stopped coming here when she did, meaning I had no chance of bumping into her, sucked. I mean, that night at the party after she left, I realized how dumb it was for me to keep treating her like that. That realization kept nagging at me afterwards, and that nagging just picked up steam after I'd gotten the wheels started spinning to get rid of my title. I started thinking maybe I should do something to change that and, y'know, apologize to her and start treating her better. So I figured I'd make my first move and ask her to the princess's birthday party and hope that might start us in a different direction. I wasn't sure at the time how I'd manage that, seeing as I'm sure she would've been suspicious of my motives and flat-out told me 'no,' but I had to try something." His voice lowered as he remembered the disappointment and frustration that had accompanied this. "But she never came back to Meltokio after I'd decided to ask her. It was only then, a few days before the party, when I'd nearly run out of time and it was too late to hunt her down in Mizuho, that I learned she'd resigned her position as emissary. So I decided to write off that attempt and wait until the next time I saw her to give it a shot."

"I'm not surprised she resigned after only a few months," his alternate murmured. "In my world she never would've continued as long as she did either if not for my backing when it came to fighting Minister Giannovio and his idiotic ideas."

Zelos blinked. "Wait, she quit because of Giannovio?!" He couldn't believe this. Sure, it made sense, because Giannovio was a thorn in Tethe'alla's—and Sylvarant's—side to that day, but still! "Why didn't she say something! I would've gladly helped her fix that problem! I certainly hated the guy and wanted him gone, too, and I would've still had the clout at that point to do something about him!"

His alternate's eyebrows flew upward. "And do you really think she would've trusted you, an idiot who made her feel uncomfortable and embarrassed every time she tried to talk to you, enough to come to you with something like that? I mean, we both know Sheena and how proud, stubborn, and independent she is. In my world she told me what was going on and accepted my help, but by that point things between us were very different than they were here and she trusted me enough to do so."

"...Oh." No, he was right; Sheena never would have approached him with something like that, especially not with the way he'd always treated her. Not to mention she'd still been extremely wary of him after that whole Tower of Salvation betrayal thing—and rightfully so. Trusting him when he hadn't done anything to prove himself trustworthy would've been dumb, and 'dumb' was something she wasn't, no matter what he used to call her. He didn't deserve that kind of trust, and everything he'd done to her since then had proven why her distrust of him was validated. "No, you're right, she never would've come to me with that."

The other 'him' nodded. "Anyway, go on. So I'm assuming you went to Hilda's party with one of your hunnies instead and that Sheena didn't show up there that night."

"Well, I went by myself, actually, but no, Sheena didn't go to it," Zelos replied. "I actually didn't see her again until New Year's."

His alternate's face lit up. "Oh, right, Lloyd's party."

...Huh. Apparently things weren't that different between their worlds if the same events had happened in both. "I take it he threw a New Year's party in your world, too?"

"Yep. Hilda had her birthday party in my world, too." The other 'him' motioned at him. "But anyway, Lloyd's party?"

Ugh. This was where things started getting ugly. Zelos took a deep breath, reminding himself why he was recounting this, and went on. "Yeah, so after Lloyd dropped by and told me about it, and since my plan hadn't panned out for Hilda's party, I figured I should give it another shot with Sheena then. And what better time to start getting serious with her than when I could give her a gift? I figured I'd get her something nice that I knew she'd love and hope she realized I wasn't completely hopeless, and, y'know, maybe give me a shot? I mean, I knew she deserved far better than me, but I'd gotten the impression that Lloyd was more interested in Colette than he was in her, and so that eliminated him as someone I would've trusted her with. And so I figured, what did I have to lose?"

His alternate smiled faintly. "So what did you get her?"

Zelos's heart sank further as he pictured it. "You know that guy in the research lab who makes those amazing sculptures?"

"Kent?"

"Yeah, him. Well, I knew he had a great memory, and so I asked if he could make something in the form of Corinne. What he came up with was this amazing pendant of the little guy, one Sheena could wear on a bracelet or a necklace or whatever she wanted. It even had a little bell on it. Y'know, something so she could always keep him close to her."

His doppelganger's face softened. "She must've loved that."

A lump formed in his throat—and in the pit of his stomach—as he looked down at the coffee table. "Yeah, she probably would have," he whispered.

Even without looking up, he could see his alternate's eyebrows rise. "You didn't give it to her?"

Zelos sat quietly, his face darkening as he remembered that horrible night. "No, I didn't."

"You gave her something else?" his alternate pressed, his face wrinkling in confusion.

Zelos shook his head. "I didn't give her anything. I pulled the present before we started our gift exchange."

"...Even though you gave everyone else something?" Zelos nodded. "Why?"

Thankfully, his alternate didn't seem judgmental about that; he just seemed curious. He swallowed hard, his gaze still focused on the table. "Because that was the night she announced her engagement to Orochi."

"...Ah."

She had waited until dinner to casually drop that little tidbit—and it hadn't even been an announcement to them all, rather just to Colette during normal conversation. Colette, however, had suddenly squealed in excitement and started hugging her, which the rest of them had naturally noticed and asked about. "Sheena is engaged to be married!" she'd exclaimed, which had set off a long series of excited exclamations and questions from everyone. From the moment those words had left Colette's mouth, though, Zelos had fallen completely silent, only able to listen slack-jawed as Sheena had explained. Orochi had apparently been courting her for a few months before that, and then only a week before New Year's, he had asked her to marry him, and she'd accepted. They were to be married soon, and then they would begin training to take over the roles of chief and chief consort in Mizuho. Everyone had congratulated her, excited for her to be the first of them to be getting married...except Zelos, who had been so stunned that he hadn't been able to think of a thing to say the entire time she'd been explaining the situation. She'd even shown them the simple ring Orochi had given her—hidden away in her pocket, not on her finger, because if she'd been wearing it where it belonged, Zelos would have immediately noticed it when he'd first seen her earlier that evening.

At the time, though, no one had asked the main question that had popped into Zelos's mind: if Orochi was now her fiancé, then why hadn't she brought her 'significant other' to the party with her? Eventually he'd regained use of his voice and asked her that ("So Sheena, where is your lovely fiancé tonight? I would've thought you'd have dragged him here to show him off to us"), to which she'd looked at him as if he was crazy. "Why would he want to come to this? This is a gathering of friends." And that, especially combined with the ring she'd kept hidden away even though it fit her perfectly, the same ring she'd put back in her pocket after showing them instead of wearing it proudly like any normal woman celebrating her engagement would, had been his first clue: she wasn't all that enthused about marrying him. If she had been, she would have been far more excited and eager to talk about it—hell, those would've been the first words out of her mouth when she'd arrived earlier rather than as an aside to Colette—and she certainly would've at least invited Orochi to the party. And so his stunned, devastated hope, particularly after the weeks he'd spent thinking about what to give her and working up the nerve to actually do so, even going so far as to write her a heartfelt note to go with his present, had latched onto that uncertainty and...well, okay, so he really had become obnoxious about it.

"Tell us about your beautiful courtship," he'd said.

Her eyes had narrowed. "What?"

"You said he courted you. How'd he win your heart?"

Sheena had blushed. "He gave me little things. We went on some walks together. It was nice."

"Sounds insanely hot and passionate and romantic," Zelos had deadpanned.

She'd glared at him as if he'd grown another head. "What? Orochi is a nice guy! He knows Mizuho as well as I do and will be a good husband and chief consort."

The title of 'chief consort' had piqued his interest then, but he still didn't know what it was and, well, he hadn't thought it worth asking about seeing has he'd had plenty of other things to consider at the time. Never once during her defense of Orochi had she said she loved him or was looking forward to marrying him, and he'd been listening for it. And the way she'd talked about it, too, had been a huge sign that something was wrong; there was a dullness in her voice when she'd talked about Orochi, and he couldn't forget that the announcement had come from Colette, and only as a result of casual conversation, too.

"Wow," he'd stated, not even trying to mask his sarcasm. "Sounds fantabulous. You must be thrilled. I can see the googly stars of love clouding your eyes right now."

Everyone else at the table had glared at him and shot him down after that, insisting he should be excited for her, even while Sheena had frowned as she'd looked at him, her face growing red. At that point he'd decided to shut up for the time being, but the feelings of anger and annoyance and a need to expose her true feelings on the matter had persisted, getting stronger every time he'd looked at her. He'd found himself getting quiet but cold during the rest of the dinner, and he'd kept looking at her in hopes of getting answers and silently pleading for her to announce that she wasn't really going to go through with it—to which she'd just given him confused, prompting looks—but he'd barely spoken to her after that. Even all the flirting he'd done with her up to then—because how could he not have been flirting with her before that?—abruptly stopped.

While he'd somehow managed to make it through dinner, after they'd finished he'd been unable to contain himself any longer. He'd needed fresh air, needed to clear his head and get away from the persisting excitement over her engagement and all the questions about the wedding, and so he'd slipped outside, despite the snow awaiting him there. Naturally, the first question he'd mulled over was whether or not to still give her the present he'd gotten her—after all, what had it mattered anymore when she was already off the market?—but ultimately he'd decided the hell with it, he would give it to her anyway. Until she had a wedding ring on her finger, he'd told himself, anything could've changed. Mostly, though, he'd been pissed at himself, particularly after hearing their engagement had only happened a week before. If he hadn't waited so long to come clean with her, would things have been different? Would he have stood a chance with her? Had he permanently lost any chance he'd had? That had looked likely. Part of him, though, had also been pissed at her. What in Tethe'alla had she been thinking agreeing to marry that boring ninja when it was painfully obvious to him, if not to their friends, that she didn't love him? That was where his mind had been when she'd come outside to find him and tell him it was time to exchange gifts, and since those particular emotions had been overwhelming at the time, that was what he'd confronted her about.

"So, you're getting married, huh?" he'd said.

Sheena had nodded curtly. "Yeah, I am."

"To Orochi."

She'd pulled a face, clearly wondering why he was asking that when she'd made the answer plenty clear earlier. "Yeah...?"

"When's the wedding?"

"In two months." Zelos had snorted in disgust, and she'd frowned again. "Zelos, what's wrong? What's going on with you? You're acting really weird about this. Not to mention surprisingly hostile."

Yeah, he had been, and he'd understood her confusion, but he couldn't help it, and no matter how hard he'd tried, he hadn't been able to calm himself down enough to put on the mask and pretend everything was fine. Very few things in life had ever upset him as much as that news had, and it hadn't just been because Sheena was getting married to a man who wasn't him—although that had been part of it, too. At the time, Zelos couldn't put his finger on what it was, but he'd soon figured it out: he was pissed because she was marrying someone she didn't love and clearly wouldn't be happy with, and no one else, let alone her, seemed at all concerned about that. Did none of their friends care about her happiness? Really care? Just because someone was getting married meant that person must be happy about it? How did that work? Maybe he was just cynical because he'd seen so many miserable marriages in Meltokio, or maybe it was because his own parents had been forced into a loveless marriage for the sole purpose of creating him, but how could he wish anything even remotely like that on Sheena? Or maybe he'd just been irrationally, insanely jealous of the fact that she was marrying Orochi, not him, despite the fact that he'd never made any real effort before that to try to change her mind about him.

She deserves better than me, but then, she deserves better than what she'll be getting with Orochi, too, Zelos had told himself at the time.

He'd abruptly turned to face her, needing to see her eyes—because Sheena's eyes always gave her away, whether she was being truthful or lying. "Sheena, what do you think you're doing? What could you possibly be thinking?"

Her eyes had narrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

"You're marrying Orochi!"

She'd blinked at him. "Yes, I am. What's wrong with that?"

Zelos had gaped at her. "Sheena, it's Orochi!"

But still she hadn't gotten his point. "So? What's the big deal?"

"You and Orochi have about as much chemistry as a pencil and a frying pan! And you're marrying him?"

"Chemistry has nothing to do with it, Zelos," she'd replied, giving him a confused look. He'd been amazed by how calm and clueless she'd been at the time. "He's a nice guy. He'll make a good husband."

And that had been exactly the problem. He'd motioned at her. "Sheena, listen to yourself! I'm not saying he's not a good guy, but the best his own fiancée can say about him is that he's 'nice' and 'will be a good husband'?"

And again she'd blinked at him, shaking her head faintly. "Zelos, I honestly have no idea what you're going on about."

He distinctly remembered having to bite back a growl at her denseness. "Okay, fine. If you still aren't getting it, then I'll stop being subtle about this. Do you love him?"

Her eyes had widened, telling him his words had taken her aback. "What?" she'd asked, her voice lowering.

"Orochi. Do you love him?"

"What does that have to do with...?!"

"It's a simple question, Sheena! Do you love him?"

She'd eyed him closely. "Zelos, what are you doing?"

"Just answer the damn question!" he'd demanded. "Do. You. Love. Him?"

Sheena had continued gaping at him a moment, and he would've had to be blind not to see the anger building in her brown eyes. "Zelos, stop. Just stop, okay?"

He'd shaken his head, no longer able to think rationally about whether or not that was really the best way to be handling the situation. "I'm sorry, Sheena, but no, I won't. I want to hear you say the words."

"Wow," she'd stated flatly, folding her arms to her chest. "Why are you so mad about this?"

But he'd ignored her, dead set as he'd been in getting her to just answer his question. "You can't say them because you don't, do you?"

Sheena had shaken her head in stunned amazement, likely even in disgust, annoyance, anger, and maybe, he'd wanted to believe, a bit of fear. "That is none of your business, and how dare you presume to be an expert about things you know nothing about!"

He'd taken that as her answer. Mirroring her stance, he'd likewise folded his arms to his chest. "That's what I thought."

"You've always been obnoxious and lacking in the tact department, Zelos, but this is pushing it, even for you," she'd said.

He'd arched a challenging eyebrow at her. "Three simple words, Sheena. That's all it would take to get me off your back."

Sheena had waved that off. "This conversation is over. I have no idea why you're so upset and being such a jerk about this. I expected you'd all be happy for me and congratulate me, and you're the last person I expected would've been this hostile about it!"

"Guess you don't know anything about me then, do you?"

"Well, I guess I'm finding out now, aren't I?" she'd countered. "This is my decision, Zelos, and it's already been made. I'm not gonna change my mind, no matter what it is you think you're insinuating. Don't bring it up again."

"I can't promise that."

She'd ignored that and had turned, heading back toward the door. "I'm going back inside. We're opening presents, if you'd like to join us."

"Oh, and by the way, congratulations on getting to spend the rest of your life in a boring, loveless marriage!" he'd thrown at her before she could open the door and step inside, once again making no effort to hide his sarcasm.

Sheena had stopped, turned, and glared back at him, her anger building again, and it had been obvious she'd had to literally force herself not to walk back over to him and slug him. "I'm gonna ignore that," she'd said through gritted teeth. "This is supposed to be a fun, happy night, Zelos, not...whatever the hell you're trying to turn it into, and I refuse to be sucked into whatever bizarre mood you're currently in. Now, are you coming back inside or not?" Instead of answering, Zelos had just looked away from her, fuming, just knowing she had rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, be that way. I'll just tell the others you're being a brat and throwing a hissy fit like a three-year old over nothing."

She had slammed the door shut behind her, and he had stayed outside another few minutes before following. She had inadvertently confirmed his hunch simply by refusing to answer his question, and what made him even madder was that she didn't seem to care. It was at that moment that he'd decided to be the three-year-old she saw him as and not give her his gift, to tell her he'd 'forgotten' to get her something, even if he gave everyone else something. He'd finally gone back inside, grabbed his bag with the gifts, pulled out her special gift and the card, hid it with his coat, and then headed back to the party. At the time he'd felt smugly satisfied when he'd seen her face fall as he'd coldly stated, "Whoops, guess I forgot about you," but that satisfaction had quickly turned to emptiness, guilt, and regret. She had been hurt by that, deeply—even through his puerile anger he'd been able to see that—but she'd quickly covered it over and waved it off as 'no big deal' (although their friends hadn't been quite as tolerant of his 'slip,' not that he'd been in any kind of mood to humor their demands that he get her something ASAP). The rest of the night she had made a point to ignore and avoid him, though, to the point of refusing to even look at him. And the next morning, she hadn't said goodbye to him or given him a hug, like she had with everyone else, although she'd extended her invitation to the wedding to all of them, Zelos included, promising she'd send them more details later.

"So basically you took the passive-aggressive jackass route with her when you found out she was marrying another guy," Zelos's alternate stated.

"I was hoping by pointing out that she'd be marrying someone she didn't love that she'd reconsider and call it off," Zelos replied, folding his arms to his chest. "I mean, how could I just stand back and not try to convince her what a bad idea it was so she'd change her mind before it was too late? How could I let her do something that would result in all of her passion draining out of her having to live with a boring guy like Orochi when she's so full of life and fire and deserves someone who'll challenge her and make her feel? I had to do something to try to stop her from making a horrible mistake!"

There was no trace of amusement on his alternate's face as he observed him. "You could've done that without being such a jerk, though, no matter how vindictive and justified you must've felt at the time to see her hurt the same way her decision hurt you."

"It's not like I'm proud of how I treated her!" Zelos countered. That was actually an understatement; he outright hated himself for what he'd done to her. But at the time he'd been so mad—at her for accepting Orochi's proposal and at himself for not acting soon enough—and devastated that he hadn't seen any alternatives. "I was just so upset about the whole situation, and hurt, and...okay, so I was jealous, too. You're right, I childishly wanted to hurt her the way I was hurting at the time, and I could see it worked. In retrospect, I knew very well that it wasn't my greatest idea ever to act like that and refuse to give her that gift. But it's not like giving it to her would've changed anything anyway."

His doppelganger shrugged. "Maybe; maybe not. I guess you'll never know now."

"No, I won't." Because what had happened had been said and done years ago. "The time for fixing things is long past; I can't change anything now." He motioned at his alternate expectantly. "And besides, if you're really me, then what would you have done in that situation?"

"This isn't about me," the other 'him' replied softly, his face growing somber and sad, but then he quickly cleared his throat. "Anyway, what happened after that? Based on what Sheena told me, more happened before she wrote you out of her life for good."

Oh, yeah. More had happened after that. And each new thing was worse than the last. "I didn't see her again until a few days before the wedding. Some random ninja dropped off the invitation a few weeks before that, with a cordial note asking that I RSVP if I'd be attending. She also included a long, detailed description of what the wedding would be like, what I could or could not do, what I could or could not say, what I should or should not bring, and so on, to make sure I'd comply with Mizuho's traditions."

His alternate nodded faintly. "Yeah, Mizuho weddings are complicated affairs. They have more traditions that need to be adhered to than you have hunnies. I'm sure she sent an identical list to all of our friends."

Zelos's eyes narrowed. How did his alternate know that? Was it from personal experience? Or had he heard about it from someone? "Yeah, well, from my perspective it looked like she was putting a leash on me to make sure I didn't wreck it by saying or doing something 'inappropriate.'"

"...Or there could be that," the other 'him' conceded with a tilt of his head. "But I can assure you she relayed the same information to everyone not from Mizuho who attended the wedding, either in writing or in person."

"Whatever," Zelos said, brushing that off. He still thought it was more likely that Sheena had wanted to make sure he didn't embarrass her there. "Anyway, I was having trouble deciding whether or not to actually go because, y'know, despite the invitation, I had some serious doubts she really wanted me there after what happened at New Year's, so I put off RSVPing. And then two days before the wedding, she hunted me down in Meltokio."

He'd been on his way back to his mansion after a particularly irritating meeting with the king and Minister Giannovio when Sheena had found him. He'd already been in a nasty, rotten mood, it had been pouring outside, he'd been making a beeline home to change out of his wet clothes and dry his pretty hair, and then suddenly he'd turned a corner and found himself face to face with Sheena, leaning back against the outer gate to his mansion, her arms crossed tightly to her chest, standing beneath an overhang to stay dry. He'd been surprised to see her there—she hadn't given him any indication she'd planned on dropping by—and he hadn't been sure what it meant, but he doubted it could be anything good, and because of his already awful mood, he hadn't wanted to deal with her right then. After all, it wasn't like his feelings on her impending wedding had changed since New Year's, and unless she'd had a drastic change of heart since the invitation had arrived, he had a strong hunch he already knew what this particular 'conversation' would devolve into. The problem had been that he'd had no way to avoid her, seeing as she'd been standing mere feet ahead of him, and so he'd had no choice but to go through with it and find out what she wanted.

"Hi," she'd said. She had actually smiled and seemed rather friendly at that point, and for a moment Zelos had found himself wondering if she'd been hoping to pretend that whole New Year's fiasco had never happened and act normally with him.

But he hadn't had the capacity—or the decency—at that point to respond similarly. He had still been pissed at her, he'd been stuck in that godawful mood, he'd been drenched, and he'd been afraid that if he tried to talk to her, he'd do something drastic and stupid...like kiss her to show her the passion she'd be missing in her life if she married Orochi. And that was...well, that was something he could not do. And so he'd done as he always seemed to do with her: he reverted to using the obnoxious Chosen One mask that he knew would get a rise out of her, despite the fact that he'd long since shed the title and held nothing but revulsion and disgust toward that mask.

"Well, well, if it isn't my voluptuous—and currently very wet—banshee!" he'd quipped as lightly and irritatingly as he could. "Finally came to your senses two days before the wedding and decided to see what it would be like to be with a real manly man, eh?"

And instantly, as he'd expected, the friendliness on her face had faltered. "Zelos, stop it. I don't want to fight with you right now."

"Well, tough. I'm feeling feisty today." He'd cleared his throat, telling himself to stay off of himself as the topic; she'd find out soon enough just what kind of mood he was in. "No, but seriously, have you done the smart thing yet and dumped your boring-as-watching-paint-dry, hopefully-not-soon-to-be husband?"

The last traces of friendliness had vanished from her face, replaced instead by a warning scowl. "Zelos..."

"Or maybe, y'know, you've fallen madly in love with him since I last saw you and now you two have already gotten started passionately making little ninja babies who'll come out of the womb with shurikens already in hand."

He could see her take a deep breath, despite the steam that had started seeping out of her ears. "Really? You're going to be like this again?"

Zelos had folded his arms to his chest, trying to ignore the cold rain still falling on him—there was no way he was sneaking under the overhang with her when he was already desperately trying not to kiss her and prove how wrong she had everything—and gave her a cold look. "Why are you here, Sheena? Really."

"I came to see if you were coming to the wedding, since you never responded to the invitation. But now I'm starting to think I wasted my time."

"Yeah, just like you're going to be wasting the rest of your life being chained to someone you don't love," he'd muttered darkly.

Sheena had shaken her head, eyeing him with obvious disgust. "You really are a jerk, Zelos, aren't you?"

He'd waved that off, needing, again, to get the subject off of him and back onto her and her ridiculously stupid decision to marry Orochi. "Sheena, I'm going to ask you this one more time, and hopefully this time you'll give me a straight answer. Do you love Orochi?"

She had growled and pointed at him angrily. "My emotions are none of your damn business, Zelos."

...Just as he'd expected. And just like that, his mood had darkened even further. "And yet again you just sidestepped the question, Sheena—which answers it far more clearly than I think you think it does."

"Emotions are expressed differently in Mizuho, Zelos," she'd countered. "You have no right to judge me over things you know nothing about!"

"Yeah, I remember you telling me that last time. And I'll ask you again: are you seriously planning to spend the rest of your life married to a man you don't love?"

Sheena had thrown her hands up in the air. "Agh, you are impossible! I never said I didn't love him!" She had motioned at him. "And like you have any right to talk about being with someone you don't love anyway, considering how you flit from hunny to hunny faster than a gnat flits between rotting fruits! You can't tell me you seriously love every one of those ditzy, garish women you bring to your bed!"

Oh, Sheena, if you only knew the truth about those hunnies, he'd thought ruefully. But at that point he'd opted to stick to the ruse, seeing as acknowledging just how many 'hunnies' he'd ever had in his bed would have just raised too many questions about him that he definitely didn't want to answer. "Believe me, hunny, I'm not trying to pass that off as love; I know the difference between love and lust, thanks. But this isn't about me; this is about you, Sheena, and I know you. You keep describing Orochi as 'nice,' but 'nice' is the last thing a woman like you needs in her life."

Her eyebrows had flown upward. "Oh, and I suppose what I really need is a perverted, selfish idiot like you in my life!"

"Well, it would certainly be a step up! At least we have chemistry and passion and sparks fly when we're together! And believe me, hun, I'd be more than willing." But that had been getting way too close to the truth for his comfort, and again Zelos had realized he needed to divert her attention elsewhere, immediately. "But like I said, this isn't about me; it's about you making a horrible mistake and paying for it the rest of your life. How can you willingly walk into a loveless marriage like this?"

"It will never be a loveless marriage!" she'd countered. "Orochi loves me!"

"But you don't love him! Why can't you just admit that?!"

And again, she had growled in frustration. "You think you know me so well, Zelos, don't you?! But the truth is you know nothing about me!"

He'd smirked nastily. "Oh, I know you far better than you want to admit, hunny."

"No. You. Don't," she'd seethed, her brown eyes wild with rage. "I don't get you, Zelos. I've never seen you like this before. Why are you acting like this?" But before he could even think of a sarcastic retort to once again divert her off the subject of him, she'd thrown her hands up in the air. "No, you know what, I don't even want to know. I don't want to talk about this anymore, because you're being a stubborn idiot right now."

"Maybe, but at least I'm not the one who's refusing to face her true feelings and what they're gonna bring her in the future," Zelos had snapped back at her.

Sheena had been breathing heavily, her nostrils flaring, as she glared at him. "This conversation is over. Now, despite this bizarre, obnoxious, infuriating stupidity you keep displaying that, for the life of me, I just can not understand, you're still a friend, Zelos, and you're still invited to my wedding." Before his eyes, she had visibly softened, just a little. "Are you coming to it or not?"

He had paused, considering that. Heaven knew the last thing in the world he wanted to do was that, to watch her marry a man she would never be happy with, and yet the fact that she had still been asking him, almost hopefully, even when she could've told him she didn't want him there anymore after how he'd been acting, made him say the words before he could talk himself out of them. "I'll be there." Before she could reply, though, he quickly walked around her and headed through the gate to his mansion. "Now if you'll excuse me, my hair is getting wet." He could hear her growl, maybe even scream, in response, and then she stormed away, her footsteps stomping loudly through a puddle, but Zelos didn't look back at her. He'd hated himself for what he was doing to her, he'd hated the entire situation and wished everything was different, but it seemed nothing he'd tried could talk sense into her, and so at that point all he could do was concede defeat, go to her damn wedding, wish her the best, and then make a point to avoid her for, well, the rest of his life.

"But you never went."

Zelos gave his alternate a wry grin. "That's the thing: I did go."

His doppelganger's eyes narrowed. "But Sheena said you were a no-show."

"That's because she never saw me—none of them did." Agh, he'd have to go through all of these memories, too, wouldn't he? Just remember all the answers he promised you'll get in return, Zelos told himself. "I decided I'd buck it up, put on my best face, relinquish the fight knowing I'd tried but lost, and go to it, no matter how hard it might be and no matter how big of a mistake I thought she was making. But when I got there, before I'd even entered the village, I saw her talking to Colette, dressed up in her traditional Mizuhoan wedding kimono, looking absolutely incredible, and I...I froze, especially when I saw there was no excitement on her face. In fact, it looked like she was still uncertain about the whole thing—and I'm positive it wasn't just nerves, it was uncertainty. I tried to suck it up and walk up to her, be polite, and congratulate her, but I couldn't. Martel help me, I couldn't. My legs refused to move. I couldn't stand there in the background, silently condoning the future she was bringing on herself, especially seeing that she even recognized that she wasn't looking forward to it."

"Was it really that, that you just wanted to see her happy?" his alternate prodded, arching an eyebrow. "Or were you just mad that she'd accepted Orochi's proposal before you had a chance to make things right with her?"

...This guy really was him, wasn't he? He had to be, because he knew too many things Zelos had never told anyone, things he'd done everything he could to hide from the world. "...I'd be lying if I didn't say both. But I was never mad at her, not really. I was..."

"...You were mad at yourself for not working up the courage to act before it was too late."

"...Yeah." Definitely. It was something he would regret to his dying day: that he hadn't even had a chance with her. Sheena had always deserved far better than him, and he'd known it better than anyone, but still...his heart would never forgive him for not even trying, for not seeing if he was capable of doing something right with her. It was too late now, though; that was a chance he'd lost years ago. "But there again, I didn't realize all of that at the time; I just knew I couldn't stay at that wedding." No, at the time he'd known his heart had been aching, dying, with regret and longing and anger and frustration and hopelessness over his inability to change the situation, and that unholy amalgam of emotions had overwhelmed him and refused to let him stay in Mizuho. "And so I left."

His doppelganger nodded thoughtfully. "According to Sheena, you were busy in bed with a hunny while she was off getting married."

Zelos snorted. "Yeah...not exactly." Seeing his alternate's eyes narrow, he sighed. It didn't pay to hide this, either. "Yeah, I spent the rest of the day—and that entire night—in my mansion, but not with a hunny. I was alone the whole time—even gave Sebastian the day off and told him to get lost. And then I did what I had to do to get through it: I got totally plastered. Which, mind you, took quite a few bottles of the hardest stuff I had, thanks to my angel physiology."

"Yeah, tell me about it," the other 'him' muttered. "I've only managed to get wasted once since the angel transformation. Royally pissed off my wife when she found me like that, too." He shrugged. "Of course, it led to some positive results and discoveries, so I can't worry about it too much now, but I swore I'd never let it happen again. So far it hasn't."

"Apparently you're smarter than me since that was just the first time of many," Zelos replied. He could really use a drink right now, actually.

"I had incentive not to do it again. It doesn't sound like you did."

"That's one way to put it," Zelos mumbled. Simply put, no one cared enough to stop him. It wasn't like he'd become an alcoholic or anything, but he definitely had found himself relying on it more and more heavily to get through the pain and emptiness. "That time was the worst, though."

His alternate nodded thoughtfully. "So you didn't see her again after that?"

Again, Zelos snorted. "Not quite. So there I was the next morning, completely hung over, when who showed up at my door at an ungodly hour of the morning but Lloyd Irving. I could barely stand up straight at that point, and my head was pounding like a deranged drummer from Niflheim, and then he came barging in, demanding to know where I'd been the previous day, asking if I was okay and telling me everyone had been worried sick that something had happened to me when I hadn't shown up. And genius me resorted to the Chosen One act to get him off my back."

"Oh, was that yesterday?" he'd replied as blasély as he could. "Y'know, I got completely caught up here and forgot all about it. See this hunny came over and one thing led to another and, well, you know me! I did what I had to do! I mean, I can't let my adoring fans down now, can I?"

Every trace of concern Lloyd had been displaying toward him had dropped in the blink of an eye, replaced by an anger Zelos had never seen from him before. "Are you saying you skipped Sheena's wedding so you could fool around with one of your hunnies?!"

Zelos had given him the best innocent look he'd been able to manage, given how awful he'd felt. "What? It was an accident! I lost track of time! The Great Zelos has a populace to please, and I couldn't very well let her walk away disappointed, could I?" To seal the deal he'd swept his hand up to his eyes and released an exaggerated sigh. "Alas, the trials and tribulations of being as rich and famous and fabulous and desirable as I am..."

Lloyd had just gaped at him disbelievingly for a full minute—Zelos knew because he'd counted the seconds—before his face had suddenly grown so hard that Zelos had been sure it had transformed into an iron slab. "What happened to you, Zelos?" he'd asked, his voice low, warning...dangerous.

Zelos had blinked at him blankly. "What? You don't like the awesomely amazing stud muffin that I am? Well, then, why are you still standing there? This is just the way my life is. Always has been; always will be."

"I thought I'd figured out who you really were, Zelos," Lloyd had replied, his voice unchanged. "But this...if this is the real you, then you're disgusting. You have no idea how upset and worried Sheena was. She tried to wait until you got there, but when you never showed up, she finally had to let the ceremony start. She deserved so much better than this from you, and on a day that's so special to her, too! I thought you were our friend...despite the way you always used to treat her, I thought you were her friend, that you at least respected and cared about her enough to not do something like this to her. But now I guess we've seen your true colors. You're not someone I want to call my friend anymore." He'd turned and headed down the steps, never looking back as he added, "Don't worry, I won't come back."

Lloyd's words had hurt, far worse than Zelos had anticipated. They'd been nothing less than a dagger to his heart, actually. Even if what he'd told Lloyd had been a blatant lie, to know he'd just permanently lost one of the only real friends he'd ever had, all because he'd been a coward who couldn't sit through a simple wedding...he'd felt empty, and alone, and worthless, and like a wimp who'd had to run away instead of facing reality and lending his friends the support they deserved. None of that would've happened if he'd only been able to convince himself to stay. But now...now his idiocy had cost him dearly, a price he would never be able to earn back...a price that for over six years he hadn't been able to earn back, nor had he even tried because he knew how hopeless it would be. That moment, that decision, was just another of the many things he'd done that he would regret to his dying day—another painful memory to put in that box of regrets he kept in his vanity to remind himself of all the bad decisions he'd ever made.

But the worst had been yet to come. As he'd feared, only a few hours after Lloyd had stormed off, his already godawful day had gotten that much worse. There'd come a knock on the door, and next Zelos knew he'd been staring at a face he'd suddenly realized he never wanted to see again: Sheena's. Lloyd, naturally, had reported to her everything Zelos had told him earlier. One look at her had told him exactly what she was feeling: utterly livid, perhaps even bordering on murderous. He had seen her angry at him before, plenty of times, but it had never looked like that.

And Zelos, being the hopeless, unrepentant idiot he was, instead of coming clean and risking exposing his true feelings only to be rejected and ridiculed for them, had opted to stick to the story he'd told Lloyd. His eyes had fallen on the ring on her finger—confirmation that she'd actually gone through with that damn wedding and was now married to Orochi—and his heart had hurt unbearably, he'd just wanted to get as far away from her as he could before he threw a fit or broke down crying, and so he'd done what he'd had to do to make that happen, falling back yet again on the stupid Chosen One act, complete with an overabundance of snarkiness, sarcasm, and obnoxiousness. He'd been completely prepared to push any buttons he'd had to to get her away from him for good so he didn't have to face the reality of what he'd done and what he'd lost before he'd even had a chance to find it.

He'd plastered on the smarmy grin. "Well, well, look who's here! If it isn't the voluptuous banshee herself."

"You promised you were going to come," she'd growled, her voice tight, making it obvious she was barely holding her fury in check.

And he'd just arched an eyebrow and nonchalantly asked, "To what?"

Her lips had parted. "To what? To what?! My wedding. Yesterday? Remember that?"

Zelos had shrugged. "So what if I didn't make it there? I had things to do."

"You mean you had women to do," she'd spat, folding her arms to her chest.

"So? What's your point?"

For a moment, Sheena had just gaped at him incredulously. "Do you even realize how horrible every single word you've just said to me has been?"

He'd given her a goofy—and most definitely fake—grin. "I see nothing wrong with any of it from my point of view."

She had shaken her head in pure disgust, looking at him as one looked at a fly buzzing about a lump of dung. Ironic, because that was what he'd felt like at that moment. "I have no idea who you are anymore, Zelos."

But despite how awful he'd felt, he'd just continued hamming up the act even further...and digging the knife in deeper. "Aw, looks like someone didn't have a good wedding night! What's the matter, Orochi didn't live up to your expectations? Didn't please you like a real man would?" He knew he was pushing her too far, especially dragging sex into the conversation, but that was the point: he couldn't stand being around her anymore, and he had to find a way to get her out of his life for good. He was just curious to see how much it would take to push her over that edge. "Well, I guess that's what happens when you marry someone you don't love, someone you have no chemistry with, someone about whom the best you can say is how nice they are." He'd sidled up directly in front of her, leaned closer to her, and gave her his most despicable smirk. "I can show you how it's supposed to be done, you know..."

And then she'd smacked him, hard, just as Zelos had expected she would. "You're despicable," she'd spat out, seething, her voice laced with deadly venom.

He'd taken the blow without flinching and stood up straight, looking down at her coolly. "So why are you here anyway when you just got married yesterday? Why aren't you off cavorting with your new husband, showing him what a tigress you are in bed?"

Her hands had clenched into fists. "What is your problem, Zelos?! I can't believe you!"

"Neither can I!" he'd quipped, lifting his hands to feign amazement. "Every woman just wants me so bad! Even the ones who now have husbands to take care of all their carnal needs still come hunting me down, desperate to get in my bed! I am just soooooo irresistible, wouldn't you agree?"

She had closed her eyes, growled, but surprisingly not smacked him again. "Seriously, Zelos, knock it off. What's with you? Why are you acting like this?"

He'd given her a blank, innocent look. "What? After everything I've already told you, do you really expect me to suddenly do an about-face and approve of your marriage? Or of the fact that you really want to spend the rest of your life married to a man you've made it abundantly clear you don't love?"

Sheena had motioned at him derisively. "I still can't believe you, of all people, are trying to lecture me about love! What do you know about it, huh? You just jump every girl who comes into your sight!"

He'd shrugged again. "So what if I do? I'm not trying to pretend that's love! I know better than that! And notice I haven't married any of them yet, have I?"

"Agh, you're disgusting!" she'd retorted, turning around and lifting her hands in frustration. "There's no way you'd ever understand this." She'd suddenly spun around and pointed at him. "And you still have no right to say I don't love him! You know nothing!"

They'd just kept talking circles around that point, making Zelos feel like a broken record. "No, Sheena, this is something I know way too well. You don't love him; I have no doubt about that."

"You're unbelievable!"

"Yes, I am, and I—and every other woman in the world—knows it!" he'd replied, giving her a cheesy, over-the-top grin before shrugging again. "And really, hunny, what the hell do you care if I didn't come to your wedding? It's not like you wanted me there; you only invited me so our friends didn't ask why you hadn't so you didn't have to justify your decision to exclude me."

"Zelos, you used to be a friend." His heart, which had already been teetering near the lowest rung of the ladder, had fallen even lower as he'd caught her 'used to be' loud and clear. "Of course I wanted you there! No matter how inexplicably frustrating and accusatory you've been about this whole thing, I did still want you there!"

"No, Sheena, you didn't," he'd stated, no doubt about that in his mind. His mind had kept telling him at that point that he needed to end the conversation using whatever means necessary before he completely lost his cool and regretted what he said or did even more than he already did. It had been time to shift gears and start twisting the knife. "Besides, it would've been as boring as your new husband is! I gave up on that gigantic list of dos and don'ts you sent me at the third bullet point because I was bored just reading it!" He released an exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes. "All those stupid, pointless rites and traditions you guys have..."

Sheena had blinked at him, her lips parted in shock. "Wait, is that what this is really about? You didn't come because you thought it would've been boring?!"

He'd waggled his eyebrows at her. "I dunno, I certainly wasn't bored last night...unlike what I'm sure you were with your new boring-as-dirt hubby." He'd taken a step closer to her, directly into her personal space, just to irk her further, and adopted his most seductive—yet smarmy—voice. "Are you sure you don't want to send him my way so I can give him some pointers? Heck, if you want to experience some real pleasure, I'd be more than willing to allow you the honor of being my assistant and show you both how it's really done..."

And it was at that moment, when he leaned close as if to kiss her, that he could see it happen: she'd given up. She'd shut it all off. She'd moved past the point of fury. He'd gone too far and had sent her over the edge. At that point, she had made her final decision and he was now cut out of her life for good.

...Just as he'd wanted.

"You're a disgusting, arrogant, selfish, perverted pig and hopeless bastard, Zelos Wilder," she'd replied, suddenly frighteningly calm and certain, her brown eyes empty...dead. "I'd been so sure there was some good somewhere in you, but now I know better."

Zelos had shrugged. "Maybe, but at least I know how to please a woman in bed!"

"I don't know what I ever..." Those word had caught his attention, but he hadn't had a chance to ponder what she might have been about to say when she'd shaken her head and calmly gone on. "Go shack up with your precious whores. They're obviously more important to you than your friends are. I don't want to see you or talk to you ever again. If I do, or if you ever try to come to Mizuho, you won't walk away from it alive. So do us both a favor, and leave me alone. For good."

"Gladly."

Sheena hadn't said anything else after that; she'd just turned and stormed away, never once looking back. He'd slammed the door shut to make his point—he wasn't sure what his point was, but he had to have one...right?—but only a second later the shaking had started, although he'd had no idea if it was from being hung over, from emotion, or from stress. He'd felt sick, and dizzy, and clammy, and hysterical, and on the verge of passing out. He'd stumbled into his bathroom and thrown up the meager remains of his breakfast. And then he'd thrown a fit he didn't care to remember; it had taken Sebastian nearly two weeks to quietly replace the carpet, the drapes, and all the other items in his mansion that he'd wrecked that day.

"Two mornings ago was the first time I'd seen her since then."

It took Zelos a moment to break out of the memory and realize his alternate was watching him, no expression on his face. "And let me guess, that was the first night you finally embraced your reputation and went out in search of a fling," he said quietly.

"...Yeah."

"Did it work?"

Zelos looked up at him, his brows furrowing. "Did what work?"

"The fling," his alternate replied. "Did it make you feel any better?"

"...No. Actually, it made me feel worse." A whole lot worse, in fact.

"And yet you've continued doing that very thing since then? Seeking out women and bringing them back here every night?"

Zelos shook his head. "Not every night." Just those nights when he couldn't bear the gnawing emptiness inside him any longer and desperately needed the distraction. Or when he needed to feel good about himself, like he could accomplish something by properly pleasing a woman, even if that feeling only lasted a few brief, fleeting moments.

"But enough," the other 'him' prompted.

"Yeah." He couldn't—and wouldn't—deny it. And in the blink of an eye, he could feel his defensiveness over his choices reemerge. He motioned at his alternate. "And why not? You obviously have a wife you can have sex with whenever you feel like it. I don't. It feels good, it's an effective distraction, and besides, a man has needs. Not like I've ever had any hunnies complain about it; they just keep lining up for more. I'd be a fool not to take advantage of their generosity."

Yet again, however, his doppelganger just stared at him, shaking his head faintly. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

Zelos's eyebrows flew upward. This 'I know everything about you and how you think' crap was getting really annoying. "Oh? And what's that?"

"You're trying to fill the gigantic, gaping hole that was left in your heart when Sheena married Orochi," his alternate replied. "You might have been able to lie to her about that, and to everyone else, too, but you can't lie to yourself, and you can't lie to me."

To his dismay, Zelos didn't—couldn't—respond to that, because the guy was absolutely right, even if he'd never been able to put it in such clear words before. Every single time he'd found a woman to spend a pleasurable night with, it had always worked for awhile, but soon afterwards he'd always felt awful and empty and alone and dirty and...well, he'd hated himself even more than he had before. That was what he'd ended up trading everything of any value and importance in his life for?

...He really was pathetic.

His alternate nodded knowingly. "Does it ever work? Does spending the night with some unnamed woman ever fill that hole for you?"

"...No. But at least sometimes I'm able to forget and let myself feel wanted, at least for a little while." He hated to admit that to anyone, but it was the truth, and it was pretty clear he'd never be able to hide it from this guy anyway. His alternate nodded faintly, his expression somber, clearly upset, and finally Zelos sighed and motioned at him, recognizing what was coming. "All right, fine. Let's have it."

"Have what?" the other 'him' replied, arching an eyebrow.

"The chastisement. The judgment. The declaration of how horribly I messed up and how despicable and worthless I am and that it would've been better if I'd never been born, yadda yadda. I tell myself that all the time, and I can't imagine you aren't itching to tell me what a failure I am, too."

His alternate considered that a moment, watching him closely. "I have to admit, part of me wants to, to smack you over the head for being so stupid and pathetic and for handling the situation so badly and hurting her like you did. But I can't." Zelos's eyes narrowed. Say what? He hadn't expected to hear that. "Because the truth is...everything you just told me is almost exactly what I expected really happened. I'd be lying if I said, in your position, I wouldn't have done the same things you did. As awful and gut-wrenching as it is to realize that, I would've." He cleared his throat and leaned forward, his face softening. "Sheena was the love of your life. She certainly is mine. If I'd had to watch her go off and marry another man, one she obviously didn't love, without knowing why she was doing it and without even having had a chance with her...yeah, I hate to say it, but I would've self-destructed like you did, too. And I would've tried to take her with me the same way you did by trying to guilt her into changing her mind and then, when that didn't work, hurting her as much as I could. The only difference is that I never had to do any of that. In my world, I was the lucky one. You...weren't."

And just like that, his hunch had been confirmed. Zelos wasn't sure if that revelation made him feel smug for having guessed right, hopeful that if this guy had stood a chance with her then he might too, or even emptier at the implication that he, too, could've had what this guy obviously did—only now, after everything he'd so thoroughly decimated, that wasn't an option, nor would it ever be again. He motioned at his doppelganger's ring. "So I was right before. That really is her ring."

The other 'him' looked down at the wedding band shining on his left hand. "Yeah, it is."

As he'd feared, that confirmation didn't bring with it the relief or excitement Zelos had hoped at finally having his curiosity appeased; instead it brought with it a sharp jab to the gut that left him feeling breathless with despair. Against all odds, against all logic, in another reality, he had somehow managed to win Sheena Fujibayashi over. And if he'd done it there...could the same have happened here if only he'd done something differently?

Zelos swallowed hard, trying to bite back the nausea welling within him. "How long?"

His alternate eyed him carefully again. "Nearly six years."

Oh, Martel. That was almost exactly how long it had been since this nightmarish separation from Sheena had begun. And they were obviously still married or he wouldn't still be wearing that ring. Zelos didn't want to hear any more...and yet his sense of self-loathing, which was far stronger than his sense of self-preservation, wanted to hear every single detail of their life together. "Any kids?"

"A little girl," the other 'him' replied, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "She's two and a half. And we have another kidlet on the way, although Sheena swears up and down that this one's going to be a boy."

It was impossible. This man was living his dream life. And the worst part was that it wasn't some random stranger who was living it; it was him, just not...him. And suddenly, jealously the likes of which Zelos had never felt before reared its ugly head. That was everything—everything—he'd always wanted for himself. And the thing was, he wasn't upset that his alternate had done everything right and had gotten his happily ever after with her; he was upset that he wasn't his alternate.

"How did you do it?" he asked. "How did you win her heart?"

His alternate chuckled. "That's the thing: I didn't. I wasn't trying to impress her or steal her heart away. None of that would've had any effect on her even if I had been trying, which is one of the many reasons I love that woman so damn much."

Zelos refused to believe that. "You had to have done something, though, because Sheena's always hated me for one reason or another, which means she had to have hated you, too. And if she gave you that," he pointed at the ring, "then obviously you figured out how to undo all her hate for you."

The other 'him' eyed him carefully. "I wouldn't say 'hate' is the right word for how she felt about me. 'Disappointed' and 'frustrated' are probably more accurate." Zelos still wasn't following that—no, he was pretty sure Sheena had always hated him—and seeing that, his alternate sighed. "Everything changed between us that night at the king's reunification party—which is why I asked you to start there. That was apparently when our timelines split. You said Sheena found you out on that balcony and you two talked briefly before you chased her off with a stupid joke?" Zelos nodded. "Well, in my universe, Sheena didn't leave; she stood her ground until I stopped fighting her. I'm guessing your reason for being out there that night was the same as mine: because your mask was down and you didn't feel comfortable sticking around at the party because of it. Right?"

And again Zelos couldn't help but feel unnerved at having someone, even himself, pointing out his own private motivations like that. "Right...?"

"Well, the same happened with me, and that was the mood I was in when she found me out there," his doppelganger went on. "I don't even know if it was conscious on her part, but she could apparently tell the mask was down and she kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing at all my walls. She was like a bulldozer, determined to see behind them. Eventually I couldn't fight her anymore and my walls just...fell. All of them. I ended up telling her things about my life, about my family, about my choices, about the real me, that I'd never told anyone before that. None of that was done to 'win her heart'; once I got started, I just couldn't stop talking. I guess I wanted to make up to her for all the times I'd acted like the world's biggest ass, and so I decided it was time to start being completely open and honest with her, seeing as by that point I'd no longer had any reason to keep being the world's biggest ass and keep her at arm's length. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, taking that kind of chance with anyone, let alone with her, but I tell you, it was worth the risk and all the discomfort. I'll never understand why her feelings toward me changed so drastically after that and she decided to give me a second chance, but she did. We started dating soon after that, and a year later we were married."

Oh, Martel. In that alternate world, Sheena had stuck around that night. Zelos's doppelganger hadn't chased her off. He was having trouble wrapping his head around that—and around all the implications that came with it. But one thing he did know was that with every new thing he learned, he felt more nauseous, especially as it became apparent this whole disaster could've been avoided. He wasn't sure he'd ever experienced a nightmare this horrific before—and he'd had some doozies. "So this world...this whole mess is my fault, for continuing to be an ass to her and cracking stupid, perverted jokes that pushed her past the point of giving me that same chance."

His alternate quickly shook his head. "I don't know, and I refuse to say for certain if it's your fault or hers. I cracked some really bad jokes in my world that night, too, that were intended to get her to stop digging and to push her away, and yet she refused to budge. There's no way to know who's to blame here—you for cracking whatever joke pushed her over the edge, or her for not being patient and determined enough to get past your walls and keep digging. There's no reason to beat yourself up over it when it's something that can't be changed at this point anyway."

While he understood that, Zelos wasn't willing to let himself off the hook for it yet, either; after all, generally all bad things that happened around him were ultimately his fault. But he wasn't going to argue that, either, not when there were other things he now needed to know. "Is she happy? Your Sheena?"

"Yeah, she is," the other 'him' replied, giving him a faint smile reminiscent of the one he'd worn when talking about his daughter. "I have no doubt about that."

Unbelievable. Zelos motioned at him. "And you?"

His alternate's smile softened even further. "I am far happier with my life than I ever believed myself deserving of, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

He swallowed. His mouth was getting very, very dry. He wasn't sure how much more of these revelations he could take...and yet he couldn't stop asking the questions. "What about this world's Sheena? You said she believes you about who you are?"

"Yeah. Verius vouched for me, so she had no choice but to believe it."

"You said Verius was the one who brought you here?" The other 'him' nodded. "Why?"

Oddly, though, his short-haired alternate waved that off in a way that Zelos identified as dismissive and not entirely truthful, seeing as he'd done the same plenty of times himself. "Eh, he was just playing a joke on us both. She needed some help with something, and he thought it would be a riot to bring me here to help her with it. Like I said, I'll be out of your hair in a few days."

Zelos wasn't sure what the truth really was, but he also knew himself well enough to know that prodding wouldn't get him anywhere. And this...this he wanted to know far more than that. "Does she know you guys are married in your world?"

"Yeah," his alternate replied with a slight smirk. "Not surprisingly, she had trouble believing that at first, but she eventually came around."

Sheena knew and accepted that this guy—another version of him—was her husband in an alternate reality. He could only imagine what kind of torment that knowledge had put her through, especially given her opinion of him, her world's Zelos Wilder. And then, of course, there was the little problem of Orochi... "And what does her husband think about you being here?"

For a moment, his alternate just stared at him blankly, as if he'd just stated that the world was made of cheese. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. "You truly don't know, do you?"

Agh, he kept asking that but never gave an answer! Didn't he know how infuriating it was to constantly be kept out of the punch line like this? Although now that Zelos had recounted his miserable tale, his alternate did seem to be answering his questions, so maybe it was worth asking again. "Know what?"

His doppelganger released a low sigh and looked away from him, but then he nodded and gave him a pointed look. "Orochi is dead. He died years ago."

...And there came yet another blow to the gut. Zelos's eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he was pretty sure his heart stopped. "...What?"

"He was killed a few years ago. They were only married about two months. Sheena's been a widow for years."

Orochi was...dead? He and Sheena had only been married two months? Zelos had pushed Sheena permanently out of his life for absolutely nothing because her marriage had been doomed to suffer a premature end anyway? He...he wasn't sure he could handle this news right now. "I...I had no idea."

His alternate's face hardened. "Of course you didn't, because you made a point of cutting yourself off from everyone and everything you've ever cared about by becoming the world's biggest, most idiotic jerk."

Zelos couldn't accept any of this—his brain simply refused to—and so he did what he had to do to stay sane: he let anger and defensiveness overtake him. "Well, can you really blame me? You obviously loved her enough to marry her; would you have wanted to hear about how wonderful the life of the woman you loved turned out to be without you—or, worse, how miserable she'd become by marrying someone who was completely wrong for her, even though you'd tried to spare her from that? There was no way I could've stood to be around her after that, even if she hadn't threatened to kill me if she ever saw me again, so I did what I had to do."

His alternate tilted his head slightly, conceding that. "Okay, so I admit I would've had trouble being anywhere near her after that, and like I said, I probably would've done the same thing you did, but you had to push your friends away, too? You cut them all out of your life, not just her. I understand why you did what you did to Sheena, but everyone else...that just seems like overkill."

"Lloyd made it clear he didn't want to talk to me again after I skipped her wedding, and I guarantee the rest of them felt the same after they heard what I'd told him," Zelos said. It still killed him how much he'd lost that day, all because he'd lied to cover over his own cowardice, and now he suspected it would kill him all the more, especially knowing that, in another world, he hadn't had to go through any of it because he'd resorted to honesty rather than piling lies on top of lies. But hey, he couldn't change that now, either, so what was the point in beating himself up over it even more? "Besides, I didn't want to run into her or the rest of them anywhere, either. At least if I didn't see any of them—"

"—You wouldn't have to hear about her or her life."

Zelos motioned at him. "Bingo."

His alternate shook his head, still eyeing him carefully. "Still, I'm surprised you didn't at least hear about the poisoning in Mizuho, if not from one of the gang, then from the king."

In the blink of an eye, all defensiveness faltered, and Zelos felt lightheaded. "What poisoning in Mizuho?"

"So you really don't know about that, either, huh?" his alternate replied, his eyebrows rising. "Mizuho was poisoned by some creep who hated ninjas. I don't know if they caught the guy here, but we did in my world, and that was what we learned from him before he offed himself. Only a handful of the villagers survived it here, though. Orochi...wasn't one of them."

...And now Zelos really felt faint. "Sweet Martel," he whispered, horrified. "Sheena...is she okay?"

"What do you think?" the other 'him' countered, his face grim. "She survived the attack, but now she's all alone. She's lonely. Most of her people are dead. Mizuho is in shambles. She's not even sure they'll survive the upcoming winter. She wants to rebuild her village, but she can't do it on her own, and most of the remaining villagers aren't in any state to help her do everything that needs to be done in addition to the usual planting and harvesting of crops. There are a few capable villagers left, but not nearly enough. I've been helping her out however I can, but I'm only here a few more days." His voice dropped and his face softened. "Honestly, she's at the end of her rope."

"I...I had no idea," Zelos murmured. Oh, Martel. Sheena. "I bet no one ever told the king about it, either, because I know I would've heard it from him, if not from Sheena herself. And really, now that I think about it, I do remember him mentioning how all the ninjas had suddenly vanished. He figured they'd finally cut themselves off from society for good." His voice lowered. "I figured Sheena had made that decision because of me, because she never wanted to run into me or hear about me again, considering how much she hated me."

"Well, seeing as Sheena never became chief here to be able to make those kinds of decisions for Mizuho, I'd seriously doubt that," his alternate replied. "Knowing the village as I do, chances are they didn't know who they could trust here—or if the poisoning had been caused by the king, trying to get rid of them all for good—and so they made a point to avoid Meltokio altogether. Tiga has always been distrustful of outsiders, so it makes sense he'd cut the village off from the rest of the world after something as devastating as that."

Zelos blinked once, then twice, then his eyes snapped up to his alternate. Say what? "Wait, Sheena never became chief?"

His alternate shook his head. "Nope. Tiga did. She'd just lost her husband, the man who was supposed to become her chief consort and help her run the place, and she didn't feel qualified to step into the role without him. It didn't help that Igaguri died during the poisoning, too, and that he hadn't finished training her by then." He shrugged. "Speaking from experience, I don't blame her. It was hard enough for the two of us to take on those roles in my world, and we'd had months of training before that; Sheena is an extremely capable woman, but even she would've cracked under the stress of trying to take it all on herself, especially given the circumstances Mizuho found themselves in here."

Chief consort...he still had no idea what that was. Maybe he should ask. "I remember Sheena mentioning a 'chief consort' once. What is that?"

And just like that, all softness vanished from his alternate's face and his eyes became piercing. "That is a question you should've asked her years ago, back when she first announced her engagement, because it's the sole reason why she married Orochi here even though she didn't love him."

...Huh? "What do you mean?"

"The chief consort is the chief's spouse, and it's his or her responsibility to take on half of the chief's duties and help them run Mizuho. It's a requirement of the future chief that they be married before they're allowed to take the role upon themselves. In other words, Sheena had to be married before she could become chief. Igaguri had been pushing her at the time to find a suitable spouse so he could step down and she could become his successor, and so she'd done what she'd had to do."

Oh, Martel. He'd had no idea. "And so Orochi...?"

"...Was the only man in your world who loved her—and Mizuho—enough to step up and offer to take on that role for her." His alternate fixed him with a cold glare. "That's why Sheena married him: not because she loved him, not because she was settling for the first guy who asked her to marry him, but because she had no other viable choices." It took Zelos a moment to realize he was gaping at his alternate stupidly, and even once he did, he couldn't shut his jaw no matter how hard he tried. "In my world, she did have another option, and she took it. Orochi pursued her there, too, and he hated my guts for being involved in her life and being his 'competition' for her hand in marriage, but in the end she chose me." He motioned at Zelos, his face still icy and full of disdain. "But here, instead of realizing the torment she was going through and trying to understand why she'd agreed to marry him, you treated her like crap and tore yourself out of her life completely. And when her village was attacked and she needed a friend the most, someone she could rely on and go to for help and a shoulder to support her when her world came crashing down, you were nowhere to be found, and you made it clear to her you wanted nothing to do with her ever again."

Zelos swallowed hard, stunned and horrified and utterly speechless. All of it, every horrible thing he'd said and done to her...it had all been for nothing. Sheena had been right all along: he hadn't understood a damn thing about what she was going through. He might have been right that she hadn't loved Orochi, but people—especially those in Mizuho—obviously didn't marry solely for love. It had been a duty, a responsibility, an obligation for her to find a spouse, someone qualified to help her run her village, and so she'd accepted the proposal of a 'good man' who she'd known would be 'good' for Mizuho. Part of his brain couldn't help marveling over the fact that he had obviously taken such an important role onto himself in that alternate world, but there was no denying the facts. And as a result, Zelos felt...he felt...

"Y'know, if your goal in coming here was to make me feel even worse about what happened and make me hate myself more than I already did, then congratulations. You did a bang up job of it."

And finally, his alternate's face softened. "No, actually, that wasn't my goal."

Zelos's eyes snapped up to him. "Then what was your goal?"

"Like I said, I needed to find out what really happened between you two. I needed to figure out why you did what you did...and if I would've done the same." His voice dropped a notch. "I needed to figure out if you felt guilty about it and regretted what had happened or if you just shrugged it all off as being 'no big deal' and had moved on happily with your life. Since I can tell that you do feel awful about everything that happened, that means deep down, we really are the same man. We had some very different experiences in our lives that led us to where we are now, but that didn't change who we are. And that means...that means I can trust you."

...Wait, what? Zelos's eyes narrowed. He wasn't sure he liked where this seemed to be going. And he especially didn't like it when someone else said they trusted a worthless, hopeless idiot like him, even if it was an alternate version of him who was doing that trusting. "Trust me to do...what, exactly?"

His doppelganger leaned forward, looking Zelos straight in the eye. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat this: Sheena is miserable. She's lonely, and she's hurting, and she's despairing for the future...she's lost. Even though this Sheena isn't my wife, I know she's what my wife would've become in this situation. And I love that woman far too much to let her go on suffering like this without trying to change that situation for her."

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. "You'd better not be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"Yeah, I probably am. It goes against my better judgment, but I am."

Zelos shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. That woman will never forgive me for what I did for her. And she's right not to. She's completely justified in believing me to be the spawn of Abyssion."

"Maybe. But I still think you should at least try talking to her."

Uh uh. Not gonna happen. "I won't. I can't."

"Yes, you can," his alternate stated, way too much certainty in his voice. "I mean, at the very least, you owe her a colossal apology for how you treated her, don't you?"

Well, of course he did, but that was beside the point! Zelos could feel himself beginning to panic at his alternate's proposal. Part of him certainly wanted to talk to her again, to maybe unburden a tiny portion of the overwhelming guilt and regret he'd been carrying within him for years by expressing his deep remorse for his actions, but the other, stronger part dreaded the very thought of it, not to mention the inevitable beating that would accompany it. "Of course I do, but...I really don't think I can do it."

His alternate shook his head. "No matter how hard it might be, I have faith in you. You can do it."

Well, wasn't that ironic? Heaven knew Zelos had never had any faith in himself. He motioned at the other 'him.' "C'mon, you know very well how it would go. She'd take one look at me and walk the other way. Well, that or she'd outright kill me like she threatened to do if she ever saw me again. Either way, even assuming I could talk to her, I'd never even get the chance to talk to her!"

"Don't underestimate her or what she's capable of," his alternate replied with surprising calmness.

His eyes widened. How was it that even though this guy was him, he just didn't get it? "I'm not underestimating her or what she's capable of! That's how I know I'd end up in a pile of bloody, severed body parts after she got through with me!"

"That's not what I meant by 'underestimating' her," the other 'him' replied. "That woman is capable of incredible understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. I have a hunch she'd even consider extending it to you, despite everything you did to her, but you'd need to do two things first."

Zelos's eyes narrowed. That...sounded way too good to be true. He couldn't possibly believe it...but he was also curious what two things this guy was talking about. "What?"

"One, like I said, you need to apologize to her with the utmost sincerity."

As difficult as it might be to actually say the words, to admit how badly he'd messed up and that he regretted every single cruel word he'd said to her, he'd have no trouble being sincere, because he was sincerely apologetic about it all. "And two?"

His doppelganger gave him another piercing look. "You need to be completely open and honest with her. Not just about what you did to her, but about why you did it, about who you really are, about how you feel about her, all of it." Zelos's mind blanked, balking at the very thought of doing something that devastating and destructive, but his alternate didn't give him a chance to voice his concerns, instead plowing on, "Listen, I'll talk her into coming with me to Meltokio tomorrow morning. I'll take her to that park near the entrance to the sewers and then find an excuse to leave her alone there for a few minutes. It shouldn't be hard to do since I really do have to look into a few things here having to do with Giannovio and Matthew Fenimore. At that point, you can approach her and handle the rest."

No. Not going to work. No way, no how. Not possible. And yet, the thought of seeing her again, of talking to her again, especially knowing now all the things he did... But no, he couldn't think like that. He would be better off just stating the obvious and trying to talk this guy out of his bizarre plan. "This is a really, really bad idea."

But his alternate just shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but my time here is limited, I don't have any other options, and I have to try something to change the situation for her. I can't see her like this anymore. And honestly, I don't know of anyone else in this world capable of loving that woman as completely as I do...except you, because as much as I hate to admit it, deep down, you're me. Whether you deserve it or not, I don't think it's my right to say, but at least I know you are capable of loving her." His voice lowered. "And I know you're capable of turning your life around, becoming a better man, and giving her what she needs, because I was."

This guy was an idiot if he truly thought that was possible. "You might've been capable of that, but I'm only capable of one thing: messing things up. I mean, telling her the truth, about even one of those things...I can't do it."

"Yes, you can," his alternate repeated, more forcefully that time. "I have no doubt about that. If I could do it, then so can you. I refuse to believe that a few years would've taken that ability away from you."

How was it that this man—another version of him, no less, and therefore someone who should know better—was capable of trusting him like that? Was he really that different? Had being married to Sheena really changed his mental makeup that much and given him that much self-confidence and self-esteem? Well, if that was true, then good for him, but Zelos was unfortunately incapable of sharing in that, seeing as he had yet to see anything even remotely trustworthy in himself. "This'll never work. I'm the last person in the world she ever wants to see again."

"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't possible. I mean, as it is, when she finds out I've plotted to set her up with you and get you two talking to each other again, she's gonna be royally pissed at me. She'll feel like I betrayed her. I'll be lucky if she ever trusts me again. She may be so pissed that she won't even hear what either of us is trying to say to her." He gave Zelos another certain look. "But it's a chance we have to take."

"If you say so," Zelos muttered.

The other 'him' frowned. "Don't try to worm your way out of this by telling me you don't want to see her again or want a second chance with her. I saw the way you looked at her two days ago; that was the face of a man who never got over her."

Damn, so he had given himself away that morning, hadn't he? And naturally he, of all people, would notice and recognize it for what it was. "Of course I want to see her again. There are a lot of things I need to say to her, even if I have no clue how to actually say any of them yet. I'm just a little more realistic about how this is going to play out than you apparently are."

"Just try, okay? You'll never get anywhere, be it with her or with anyone, unless you at least try to be honest with someone other than yourself. Whatever we do, though, we'll only have one shot at this, which means we've gotta play it right the first time. Figure out what you want to say to her, work up the courage to tell her the truth about your feelings for her and why you did everything you did, and be ready to say it tomorrow, or you'll likely never get another chance."

"...Right." This was the dumbest idea in the world. Seriously.

If his alternate recognized his disbelief, he didn't comment on it and instead just arched an eyebrow. "So if I bring her here tomorrow morning, say around ten, you'll meet with her?"

For a long moment Zelos just sat silently, mulling that over. He still suspected only one thing could come from this—a total and complete train wreck—and yet...he had to admit, after everything he had learned about Sheena and what had happened to her, and about what they obviously had together in that alternate world, it was making the thought of seeing her again very, very appealing. If he could ever convince her to forgive him, and if he could change to become a better man, could they actually have a shot at a future together? His alternate, while not coming right out and saying that, did seem to think they might at least be able to salvage their decimated friendship.

And he really would like to be back in her life again and have her back in his. It might take her the rest of her life to extend him even an iota of trust, but the truth was these past few years, being cut off from her, had been miserable for him, too. He'd missed her dearly. He'd always tried to forget about her, and sometimes he'd managed to for a few minutes, but he'd never been able to, not really. He still saw her in his dreams at night, still wished, whenever he was with another woman, that everything had happened differently and that woman had been her. He would give it all up in a heartbeat—the hunnies, the flirting, the fake endearments, the casual sex, all of it and then some more—if he could have even a taste of what this alternate version of him had. And while he didn't really believe this had any chance of working, because he didn't trust himself to tell her everything he apparently needed to, this, what he was feeling at that moment, was still far more hope than he'd had in years—hope that his life could change for the better and he could stop feeling so damn empty and alone all the time. It was an incredibly appealing, powerful thought.

And so, against his own better judgment, against all common sense, against all instinct for self-preservation, Zelos found himself saying, "All right, fine. I'll do it."

His alternate nodded curtly. "Good. Then I'd better get back to Mizuho before she starts getting suspicious and I lose all of her trust and can't get her here tomorrow." He pointed sharply at Zelos. "Just remember, be honest with her. Drop the Chosen One act; you don't need it with her, and she hates it and it'll wreck everything we're trying to accomplish anyway. Avoid any obnoxious nicknames. And by all means, definitely don't call her 'hunny' because nothing will turn her away faster than that." He arched an expectant eyebrow. "Got it?"

"Yeah, got it," Zelos replied softly.

The other 'him' rose to his feet, giving him one last pointed look. "Don't make me regret trusting you with this, okay?"

"...Right."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow morning." And with that, he showed himself out of the mansion, leaving Zelos alone to ponder everything that had just happened and everything he'd just learned, and choosing to be optimistic and ignore the nagging feeling in his gut that things were going to get far worse before anything good could possibly come of this.

0~*~0

(Continued in Day 4: The Setup)