"Please! Please don't!" Captain Cain grappled at the hands around his neck, legs kicking out as they swung in the air.

"You will tell me what you know of the man called Edmond Dantes." He warned, tightening his hands for good measure. "And do not lie, I don't have the patience."

It was night, and they awaited port by the glare of a lighthouse. Leaving the docking of the ship to the aging number one, the robust and brightly dressed Captain had retired hours ago.

Under the stealth of a night without wind, the fugitive from the Château Di'f had crept wily into the cabin.

His strength, superior to that of many men thanks to Gankutsuou, had lifted the Captain from his sleep with a rather irregular awakening, hosting him up and above Edmond, who's height exceeded his own already.

Shaking the man and barking questions he slammed him against the far wall, caring not a bit if he should be discovered. There was a plot here, and he would find it before the past repeated.

"Edmond, Edmond it's me! Don't you recognize me?"

Eyes narrowed, what trickery was this? But, yes, a familiar face hid behind years of change and growth. Stunned and confused, he lowered Cain, and released him.

"God Edmond, I can understand why you'd be careful, maybe a bit funny in the head, but really!? Strangling your captain!? What exactly did you think you'd accomplish?"

"H…Henry? Henry Mcabby?"

"Damn it! That hurt!" his face was red as he rubbed his neck.

Serendipity, ever at his side, had played another hand.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" the perturbed, but good humored man frowned, "I'm not the one who's supposed be locked up!"

The memories of betrayal, tasting of iron in his mouth, made him bristle immediately. He retreated a few steps, keeping a clawed hand ready to strike.

A friendly man, Cain didn't notice what the dark concealed. He smoothed his erratic red crown of balding hair. "You look good, too good…I almost didn't recognize you. When I finally heard you speak though, I knew 'that's got to be Edmond.' Course I suspected it, with the way you can sail."

His emotions whirled. What was happening? How should he respond? For once the Demon gave no suggestion, equally thrown off.

"When..when they took you…I made the whole crew sign a petition speaking for your character. All the witnesses to the captain's death signed a letter to, saying the document had been his and not yours. Guess the judge didn't care."

Hostility twisted within, but he restrained himself, recognizing irrational panic.

"How'd you know?" Cain laughed. "How'd you know I'd figured you out?"

Edmond's mouth would not form words.

The technologically advanced ship pulled easily into dock, and giant underwater clamps thumped, holding it in place. Although not as fast as air born ships, such transports were far more economical -- as far as cost of shipping large goods. It's silver and sleek design made many an engineer proud as it sailed on with pinpoint accuracy.

Someone knocked on the door to alert the captain of their arrival. He switched on the lights, "Alright, be there in a minute."

At last Edmond spoke, his voice soft and deep. "Is that why you gave me such notice?"

Cain laughed. "Well like I said, you're a brilliant sailor. When I head your voice it made sense. You were trying to avoid attention. Oh, the crew of the pharaon, our old ship -- we figured it out. It took us a while, but we caught up. Danglar and the others had set you up. Course a bunch of scrawny, non-aristocratic sailors couldn't do much to help! Luigi wanted to storm the Chateau Di'f ! Said he'd make every damn aristocrat pay for what that judge did to you."

"Yes…" he mused at an empty wall. "Luigi and I had a run in, recently."

"Really?" The captain ran to his mirror, putting his appearances in order. "I heard he went to Luna or something like that. Said he was sick of Paris and its corruption. So how'd you get out?"

"EDMOND!" Gankutsuou suddenly shrieked in his mind. "A ransom! That's it, I'm sure that the courts would pay for you to be returned. They may think your dead now, but not if he parades through the door with you!"

It took no more than just the possibility. He flew forward, a knife in hand, and flung the helpless man back to land painfully on his elbow.

"I will not go back there!" there was such damage in his voice, so many razors cutting at his speech.

Fangs bore the threat, and Cain, shocked, scrambled in his dingy white sheets to stand.

"Edmond, are you crazy?! What are you talking about? I tried to keep you out!"

"Lies are easy." His feet moved forward.

"Edmond no!" he crawled to his knees, "I haven't done anything to you!"

"No." he agreed, grabbing him by the collar and hoisting once more into the air. "Not yet."

Sometimes in life there are moments when we, as mortals, are faced with death, and the prospect that we are about to experience awful pain. In those moments, whatever our habits, appearances, or words -- we show our true colors.

Henry Mcabby, a man now hiding within his own alias, proved his soul. The fear melted from his eyes, and his pleading stopped. When he looked into Edmond, he saw the pain of a man maddened by loss, the ages of stone imprisonment, and silence within the monstrous torment. The amber of Edmond's eyes was a manuscript of human breaking point, and the pages turned with disrupted mutiny.

His voice became that of compassion, intelligent, and aware.

"God man…what must it have been like for you?"

Weather it was the affect of his tone, their history together, or the hunger for companionship after yet another life left behind, Edmond's hands faltered. He dropped the man and staggered backwards, knife at the level of his chest, as an abused dog bares his teeth.

* * *

I think things are finally getting better. I'm good at my job, my mom lives above a flower shop, I talk to Eugenie on the phone every weekend, and Valentine and I go shopping in the city every third Wednesday! This city finally feels like home. You'd be so proud of me Franz, if you could see me now.

It's kind of nice walking to the places he used to go and seeing things that make me happy, things that I own, that are me. The people that I know, the places I like to go, the things I like to do; I'm my own person here.

Sort of like, well it's sort of like I'm living for both of us, like I can feel Edmond walking with me!

It would have been so beautiful to see how he looked at the beach at sundown! The colors I've seen there - I didn't even know existed!

It's only taken a year, and maybe I'll never be able to feel this way all the time, but even to have moments where I remember him, and feel peaceful about it, instead of that panicked denial, its nice.

Not that I'm all the way there yet. Things are still pretty frantic, mostly at night. It's hard to be alone with it sometimes.

Maybe I'll go and visit Eugenie next spring. She's dating someone... That's okay with me, in a twisted way. Kind of feels like I deserve it.

Maximilian told me he was afraid I'd turned myself into a masochist in one of his letters. Can't figure out where he got that idea.

That reminds me, mom's girlfriend is coming over for dinner. Wasn't expecting that one, but I'd be done with men if I'd lived her life to! I'm not so far from being fed up with romance myself!

I like her girlfriend though. She's clean and sweet, and she actually looks me in the eye! Her names Jamie and she's a really pretty lady!

Jamie told me, when my mom finally went into the story of the count, that all pain passes eventually. How it passes isn't certain, but eventually it will end. You just need to keep your head up and keep going.

No secret as to why that struck home. To my credit, I even told here that was similar to what a really close friend of mine said to me once – bide your time and hold out hope. Couldn't say his name though. Too emotional that day.

* * *

"Ha! Read them and weep boys!" Cain chortled a winner's laugh, "That's what you get for playing with a gambling master!"

He pulled the pile into his hands, fondling his newly won gold.

The candle light within the mess hall made many convenient shadows, and Edmond tried to meld with them, heading towards his room, hoping to go unnoticed.

In the back Cain and his brood of companions sat on stools and shipping boxes around an elongated oval table with the ships cook. Above them an open window caught mists of clouds darkening in twilight, allowing sea air to mingle with that of the enclosed ship.

Just a moment ago Edmond had rested to the side of the helm, its master happy enough to ignore him. Reading a book, drinking hot coffee, under the purples of sunset that can be only viewed at sea, he'd leaned his head back – bewildered he was still on this ship.

Because he had threatened to expose them, Morcerf and the others had attempted to have Henry exiled. Thus the alias and new job. With his experience he'd rose to captain quickly, and apparently had collected something of a misfit crew. He'd revealed to Edmond that, to his knowledge, only a few of the crew actually went by their real names – and ironically few of them had committed any crime.

"Humans." Gankutsuou snorted. "Easy to corrupt. You turn on each other whenever there is the slightest gain."

Cain was married now; his wife lived at their port of birth. There was always the risk he would betray Edmond, turn him in, and in fact he was considering disappearing at the next drop off.

Until then bed, after a backbreaking day, and a journal would do.

"You wouldn't need to sleep," Gankutsuou reminded him lazily, "If you'd just use more of my power."

The groans of the loosing participants of Cain's poker game distracted him from the demons monotonous lecture. He thought himself out of danger and nearly to his room, when an all too forgiving voice yelled out at him.

"How about it, Adnet," Cain used his alias, as they had agreed after the short talk following his outburst only a few nights ago, "you up for a game?"

After several futile attempts to refuse he was bustled over, room made between a large and burley set of men.

"I don't understand this man." He thought. "I almost kill him, and now he wants to play cards."

Gankutsuou nodded in distracted agreement, attention trained on Cain. The man, as that boy's soul on that first night on the platform, pestered him. It was something distinctly…not what he would call human, and he wanted to lash out at it.

Instead he tilted his head, watching his host with undue interest.

Edmond stroked his goatee, not wanting to offend Cain out of a sense of guilt at having attacked him. He was dealt a hand, and regarded the cards in quiet contemplation. Despite his beauty, particularly in comparison to the sloth like crew, thus far he'd managed to keep a low profile, for which he was glad.

Most of that was an affect of his demeanor; intensity and confidence rarely invite bullies, and keeping one's head down conceals physical appeal from those too shallow to really look.

Now, however, he could not help but feel the stairs of his co-workers. Most of them were politely startled, concealing such thoughts as 'has this gent been here the whole time? How did I not notice a man with pointed ears and fangs?' others, more romantically inclined, had more visceral reactions.

However, his tendency to say less and observe more only furthered that ever-troublesome air of mystery, and in three games he had captivated most of their fancies.

Cain, however, was frowning at his distinctly smaller pile of chips. "Okay," he spat, "so you win a few games. I say we make this more interesting before he takes all of our money."

Horrible images of strip poker played through his mind. The thought of it with this bunch made him shudder. He controlled the urge to wretch and asked, with his calm and usual manner, "what do you suggest?"

"Let's gamble with something else." Cain was not about to loose what he'd earned so swiftly, and money had not been his agenda in stonewalling Edmond into socializing.

"Such as?" He silently prayed it would not be strip poker.

The term 'be careful what you wish for' took new meaning to him, for Cain suggested something that (to Edmond) caused much more fear.

"I will bet you a month of paid leave and use of the captain's quarters…" the men awed, "if you bet me one simple thing."

Edmond's right eyebrow arched in inquiry.

"You become first mate of the Forbin."

"That," he corrected in that adult and mature manner so fascinating and unique to his persona, "is not something that should be decided by chance."

"Everyone on this ship thinks you're the man for the job, they all like you're work, and during the last three raids from those damn pirates, you really took charge! Why, most of the men at this table owe their lives to you! Why William's here said you the best choice to replace him after he retires, and he's done this job for years! If any man knows a suitable sailor – it's him!"

He frowned, standing, "I think I must refuse."

"Come on Adnet!" a sailor in a striped bandana chided, "you've won plenty of games! And it's a win-win situation! I'd like that kind of luck in the casinos on Luna!"

"Have you ever heard of the gamblers fallacy, my friend?" he retorted, a hand on his stubborn hip.

"You're a Virgo, right?" Said a woman. She turned over cards in succession, sitting across from Cain. He grinned at her and nodded.

Edmond had seen her around the ship, giving similar readings to his coworkers. He'd never thought much of fortunetelling or divination, but she seemed constantly bombarded by the rest of the crew.

With blonde hair tied into a ponytail under a full brimmed hat and blue trousers she seemed deceptively ordinary and simple. She turned another card and shook her head.

"You have a dark past, full of betrayal…betrayal at the hands of your friends. You returned it, after much time."

That could have been a lucky guess, and he refused to react. Cain could even have told her most of it.

"There is a more recent union, you lost it…the tower… the chariot. Something ground shaking changed, and you moved in an all-new direction…but there is another influence. The devil….there is a masculine energy – someone influencing your decisions, not always for the better. He is a dark figure…something you keep hidden to yourself…something to do with caverns."

...What the hell was this? He made sure to keep his figure still.

"Odd," she finished. "You're the wheel of fortune, yet there is no progression. You are stuck in a cycle. This devil man, and yourself, you're stuck in a cycle. Until one of you breaks it – you will only create what you fear."

When she at last looked up, her voice insisted with no uncertainty. "You should sit back down."

His hair bounced as he landed squarely back in his seat.