Thanks for the alerts and the review, they let me know you read and enjoy! Even saying it was a good chapter and you're looking forward to the next one makes me feel all awesome! :D And just a clarification, last chapter Miku and Rin were both around 8-10 years old. I've decided to boost the rating up to T for this chapter, but it's nothing major. If you seriously think anything... horrible is going to happen... get your mind out of the gutter.

Five Years Later:

Rin hadn't touched those beautiful monochromatic keys in over five years, and she avoided the room where the monstrosity rested whenever she was there.

And to be quite honest, she was perfectly fine with that.

She and her mother had moved out of the large house only a few years ago, and had found a spacious apartment in a downtown area. The now-empty house still remained, its gardens and shimmering windows tucked between houses, used only as a summer's getaway; a hidden sanctuary from a turbulent world.

The political world had devolved into nothing more than adults bickering about money and supplies, their nations held together only by citizens' pride. It was a right mess, one that no one wanted in the first place, and Rin now knew the reason.

The world hadn't managed to fully heal since the War, and it was slowly sinking back to the level it had been at.

Looking back through those five years, she felt a distinctive difference between then and what she considered the here-and-now. Ever since Miku's mother had nailed her with that piercing gaze, she had fallen into an introverted, desolate personality. In fact, she considered her current outlook to a completely different existence from then.

Rin currently found herself on the balcony of the apartment, her brilliant yellow hair blowing in a pre-storm wind. She began to hum a melody floating through her head.

A flare of lightning flickered across the sky, lighting up the darkened room behind her in bright blue and white for a split second.

Another crash came from behind her, and this time it wasn't lightning that caused it.

She began to turn around to see what had made the noise, when a thin line of pain flared on her neck, and she stiffened.

"Move, and you are dead, little girl."

"W-what?"

"Quiet!" Hands pulled her into the room an covered her eyes, and dark figures forced the doors closed, even as a strong gust of wind rattled the panes of glass and tore off one of the draperies. It billowed angrily and ended up wrapped up around Rin and her captor. It obscured her vision and sent her into a panic, thrashing wildly. The knife on her neck slipped, drawing a bead of blood that dripped down her neck.

The captor cursed, and his (for the voice was too deep to be a female) two henchman jumped forward to control the fabric.

Rin scrambled towards the door, which was ajar into the hallway.

She shrieked in pain as a boot came down on her hand and wrist, sending flashes of pain into her mind. Her body collapsed onto the carpet, the air in her lungs coming out in a great big rush.

"Thought you could get away, little girl?"

Still limp, hands grabbed just above her elbows and dragged her out of the room, down into the living room. They dumped her in a plush chair, and Rin made to jump out of it, when she felt the knife pressed against her throat again, and she crumpled back into the chair in defeat.

A loud thumping noise came from down another hallway opposite to the one she came from reached her ears, and she glanced over. Two more men dressed in all black tromped into the room, dragging her wheezing, startled mother behind them. Her brown eyes were wide and seemed curiously filled with life.

"You know why we are here?" The leader asked from behind Rin. Her mother chuckled.

"Anton, how delightful of you to finally join this mad game! I was wondering when you would succumb to the lure of extreme power. Tell me, what does my daughter have to do with this?" Rin was bewildered, what was going on? They weren't trying to kill her and her mother?

Anton growled and pressed the knife harder against Rin's throat, drawing another bead of ruby blood.

"It has everything. As soon as she takes up her role, everything will be skewed in your favor! We can't allow that!"

"Mo-mother... What g-game?" Rin struggled to speak without putting anymore force on the blade near her neck. The man laughed.

"Oh, you haven't told her, have you? How wonderful! Maybe the world isn't as lost as we thought it was!" Rin's mother looked at her with sorrowful eyes, shaking her head. She glanced above Rin's head at where Anton was standing.

"It's nothing dear. At least, nothing..."

"Silence!" Anton roared, "We made a deal twenty years ago, when we started this!"

"Pity."

Rin's mother shook her head in mock shame, but didn't look to be saying anything else.

"We're leaving, my fellows," Anton drawled in an aloof voice. The two strangers around her mother grabber her, and headed towards the door into the tower's hallway.

"Mother!" Rin yelled, struggling against her captor. Anton growled, and whapped her head with the knife a bit harshly. Not enough to send her into unconsiousness, but it left her dazed nonetheless.

"Goodbye, little girl. Don't go looking for answers too soon, or else you may lose yourself in it all..." He said mysteriously, drawing away from Rin.

"Goodnight, sweat dreams. I'll see you under the midnight moon." He sang softly, caressing her cheek in and odd gesture of familiarity. Anton grinned wickedly and in a blur of motion, he hit Rin on the head with the blunt side of the knife, and made to exit the door with her mother and the 'nappers.

The last thing Rin saw before she slipped away was Anton removing his mask and gazing back at her, his cool eyes so similar to Miku's mother's, and yet so different.

They too would remain engraved in her mind for as long as she would remember.

Excerpt from The Domine Plant Incident: A History -

No one knows the exact political factions at the time of the War, and the fifty-one year period afterwards referred to simply as the Proceeding. Without this information, it is difficult to decipher exactly how intricate the Proceeding really was. Was it simply two sides (which would simplify the mess immensely)? Or did it feature as many as ten (Which would imply political intrigue and deception on many parts)?

The only records the are confirmed hint at two groups given the named the Union and the Alliance of the Northern Hemisphere (henceforth labeled at tU and ANH for practicality). As most likely implied, the Union later evolved into the United Union, which was able to crush the ANH in the bloody Battle of the Pacific Rim. The battle will be discussed in further detail later on, however membership documents from the Union show a sharp uptick around a year before the battle, which indicates the absorption of other, undocumented groups...