"Where is she? Where is she?" Zelda muttered under her breath as she kicked open doors in the Rozen Kreuz's castle. She glanced up at a large, ancient staircase but hesitated using for fear of it breaking. After searching the entire floor, she decided that trying it out was a risk she'd take if it meant saving Caterina.

Taking a deep breath, she poised herself in a running position and sprinted up the stairs. For the first ten steps, everything seemed fine. That is, until her foot missed a step and her face personally met the wood below her. "Well, at least it's not breaking," she sighed at her own clumsiness. A small creaking sound reached her ears. She raised her head as it grew louder.

The bottom of the staircase gave way, and like dominos, the rest of it began to fall. She let out a yelp and scrambled up the crumbling structure just in time. She looked over the railing to see the damage and inhaled sharply, "Why is it my luck that I take out these old stairs? But on the other hand, whoever else is here would have heard that. Surely they'll be coming to see what has happened." A thought then occurred in her mind that someone besides Caterina may be here and she decided to disappear from the scene before they came.

As she wandered around the second floor; two beautiful, giant doors appeared. Slowly and quietly she grasped a tarnished silver handle and pushed it open. Even though it creaked, she was so entranced by the room inside, she hardly noticed. Dust covered the once glossy marble tiling; small bronze lamps on the walls sat darkened because of years of inactivity and light streamed in dirty, full length windows. Zelda loved it anyway.

She inhaled as she stepped into the room but forgot to let it out. Clutching at a necklace she wore under her clothes, her eyes wandered up to the ceiling where painted angels slept and played in the heavens. The sunlit clouds rolled around them, constantly changing. Their smiling, cherub faces laughed and greeted one another. They extended their hands out to her, calling her.

"Won't you play with us? It's so much better here than it is there."

"No thanks but I'm fine here."

"But that room will make you cry."

"What do you mean? It's perfectly-" she stopped looking at the painting and turned to the front of the room. Gradually, she raised a shaking hand to cover her trembling mouth. Her eyes widened and water spilt over and down her cheeks. She took a step forward, "…Tres?"

At the other end of the room, her former tovares stood patiently, simply waiting for her conversation with the roof to end. After seeing that she noticed him, he started to walk towards her, "You are surprised? Your Nanites shut down my system for only an hour."

Forgetting the fact they were enemies, Zelda ran to him. She cried, "I'm sorry Tres! I'm sorry. I didn't want you to die! I love you!"

He wrapped his arms around her and she felt something hard against the small of her back. A gunshot went off and she stiffened, her eyes wide- ceasing the flow of tears. Besides pain, she felt a trail of liquid slip down her back, staining her dress. A small, strangled sound caught in her throat.

"Forgive me," he bent his head and kissed her lightly. "I'm sorry."

A smile tugged at her lips in remembrance of those words, "I… deserve it. But I… love you. I'll definitely… save… you…"

She went limp in his arms and he stared at her for a moment. Unemotionally and detached he finally answered, "'Love'… does not compute."

Tres noticed a necklace that came out from under her dress and lifted the hanging object off her neck. It was a small circular part from him that resembled a ring. He recalled when she obtained it.

His arm had been ripped off during a mission and the Professor was putting him back together. Zelda sat by his side even though most people didn't bother to care when things such as this happened.

William tossed an object into the trash can, "I've got a new one for you, you don't need that one anymore."

She stooped down and fished it back out. "Oh please, can I keep this??"

"Don't ask me," he shrugged. "Ask Tres, it's technically his."

She blushed deeply, "Oh, right. Tres, please, may I have this?"

He opened his eyes to see the ring-like part. "I no long have use for it. Keep it."

Zelda lit up, "Thank you! Thank you!"

He was still holding her body when Caterina contacted him. "Tres, we're leaving. Are you ready?"

"Positive," he laid her on the ground and strode out the door.