"Hnnn..." Chrono moaned in his sleep, his head tossing to one side. He didn't wake up though. It had been almost twenty fours hours since they had found him and he still slept, his high fever just now starting to abate. Rosette had reluctantly returned to her duties, making those tending him swear to go tell of the slightest change in his condition. Sister Lisa readjusted the cold clothe, it having been tossed aside when Chrono had tossed his head around. She had stayed behind to care for Chrono, allowing the others to focus on their own duties. It didn't mean that they didn't worry though.

Lisa turned her sights back on her patient. She had promised Rosette that he was in good hands. Father Joshua had given her a brief history of their friendship with Chrono. She also knew of him from the Order. The world knew him as a bad guy, who had been partly responsible for the chaos that had struck their world a few months back. But she had been assured by Rosette's former superior that Chrono was just a good guy with bad luck. Extremely bad luck.

"Rosette..." Chrono muttered, his eyes finally opening. The room slowly came into focus for him, warm brown eyes looking around blearily. "You aren't Rosette. I could have sworn I heard her nearby." Chrono's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Rosette was here, but she loves the kids too much to just ignore them, even if it is you," Lisa said quickly.

"She got married during my absence and had kids?" Chrono questioned, confused now. "Well, that was fast." Chrono coughed.

Lisa helped him sit up and handed him some water. "No, no," Lisa quickly assured. "She's the director of the orphanage now. By the way, I am Sister Lisa. I've been taking care of you since we found you in this condition in the woods."

"Oh," Chrono said sheepishly. "Wait, I'm back in the orphanage?"

"Rest easy friend," Lisa insisted. "You were suffering from heat stroke, plus a little dehydration, so you must have been out there for awhile. I'll have someone bring down some food and more water. Your friends were worried about you. I should also let them know that you woke up as well." Chrono sighed and let his head fall back against the pillows. He was thirsty, extremely thirsty. Reflecting upon this, he remembered that just now, Lisa had told him he was suffering from heat stroke and dehydration. That would probably explain his thirst, plus his hunger.

Lisa meanwhile had sent for food and water, also asking a young boy to ask Rosette to come here. "How long was I unconscious?" Chrono asked as Lisa handed him some more water.

"While under my care, almost a whole day," Lisa replied helpfully, taking the empty glass back. "Beyond that, any amount of time unconscious in the woods. We don't exactly know. But we found you in time and you're on the road to recovery." Chrono yawned, but he stifled it. He would at least stay awake long enough to see Rosette, no matter how tired he felt.

"Are you looking forward to seeing your friends again? It's been a few months," Lisa asked from near the window in the room. "They've missed you like crazy, if not annoyed at how long you took to return." She turned to smile at Chrono and the nun's happiness permeated Chrono's exhaustion. There was something about her light green eyes and dark blonde hair, coupled with a dazzling smile, that coaxed a smile from the sick person in the bed.

Someone knocked on the door. "Sister Lisa, it's Azmaria with food for Chrono. Rosette and Joshua are with me. May we come in?" Lisa opened the door and small room Chrono had been placed in suddenly felt crowded. "Chrono, it's so good to see you awake. Here, some food for you." Azmaria placed a tray on his lap. "Eat up and get your strength back."

"I'll leave you guys alone," Lisa told them. "I'm going get something to eat myself. Make sure Chrono doesn't exhaust himself too much, OK?"

"I'll see that he rests," Joshua promised. Lisa left the room, the door quietly snapping shut. "So, where have you been and what have you been doing all this time? We're all extremely curious." He offered the only chair in the room to Azmaria and sat down next to his friend. "We really missed you, you know. Rosette and Azmaria were constantly praying for you to come back to us."

"That's a long story," Chrono answered back, his stomach growling. "Can I eat first and then I'll answer all your questions."

"So you woke up on an empty stomach again? How pathetic," Rosette stated thoughtlessly. Chrono only smiled softly and started to eat, his hands trembling. Azmaria noted this, but knew this was because his body was still in need of rest and nourishment. "Well, I won't be giving you any food this time." Rosette smirked. For a split second, Chrono caught an glance of the young girl she had been when they had first woken him up so many years ago.

"Rose, let him eat," Azmaria admonished. "I'm sure you want to smack him and demand an explanation, but he needs his rest. And his nourishment." Azmaria secretly shot Chrono an encouraging smile. Chrono ate quietly surveying his friends. Both Joshua and Azmaria had gone through growth spurts. And Joshua wore the garments of a priest. Azmaria wore normal clothing, as did Rosette.

"He has a healthy appetite," Joshua said, relieved. Chrono had cleared the tray of food in a matter of minutes. Joshua got him some more water, this time with ice in it. "Now, are you up to explaining?"

"Yeah, I am," Chrono agreed happily, setting the drained glass down. "I'm not sure exactly how much time passed. But I remember clearly giving Rosette her time back, and her farewell kiss." Both Chrono and Rosette blushed. "I had thought that it would result in my death, and felt my soul float up to rejoin the Astral Line. But when I finally hit it and was about to merge with it, I was suddenly rejected from it, and thrown back to the earth. I'm not sure about how long I spent in that mindless stupor, but when I finally regained my senses, I found myself in Mary Magdalene's tomb. Even more, my horns were functioning normally still."

"What about the kids saying they saw you in the fire in the sanctuary?" Rosette asked eagerly, her annoyance with Chrono momentarily forgotten.

"Ah, that," Chrono remembered aloud. "After I worked the stiffness from my limbs, I spent some time calming my mind and foraging what I could from the woods nearby. We still have physical bodies, therefore the need to eat. I wanted to be reunited with Rosette at my full strength. That obviously didn't work. Anyways, I finally felt ready enough to sneak out of the tomb to find Rosette. I resumed my true form and took off into the sky and noticed the fire, hearing the kids within the building crying out for help. I also saw Rosette running there and knew she would probably charge in without thinking of her own safety. So I entered the building and protected the kids, but was weakened once again by inhaling too much smoke."

"Ah," Azmaria said, enlightened.

"I used my powers to give them safe air to breathe and give them a safe place to stand in," Chrono resumed. "After that, I had to leave the building or risk losing consciousness. I was rather delirious, so who knows what I did during that time. The next thing I knew, someone who sounded familiar was putting me on his back and taking me somewhere. I woke up here with Lisa watching over me."

"Classic Chrono," Rosette complained darkly. "You did all those wierd things while delirious."

"What are you talking about?" Chrono asked her. Rosette dug something out from her pocket and held it out before Chrono. It was the lock of his hair with the red ribbon around it. "My hair?" Chrono felt his hair for a place that was shorter than the rest of it.

"Here," Azmaria guided Chrono's hand to the place he was trying to find it.

"Geez, crazy demon," Rosette moaned. "You sewed while delirious. For crying out loud, what was going through your mind?!" Rosette pointed out the word he had sewn into the ribbon. Chrono shrugged nonchalantly. He had no clue either. Chrono bit back another yawn.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"What about the tomb then?" Joshua asked him. "We stopped by there awhile ago and we saw something wierd." Joshua explained the image they had seen amidst the dancing flower petals.

"That wasn't me. Even if I was delirious, I don't have any powers like that. If anything, I'd say it was probably Mary Magdalene's lingering power. She felt your confusion and want to have me back, and showed you something that she thought would comfort you," Chrono explained.

"So she's still aware of things?" Azmaria wondered, confused.

"No, but people with strong spiritual powers sometimes have their unused power stay in the spot where they were buried unknowingly. These powers go unused, until they feel something that was familiar to their original soul. Then they activate, sometimes in unusual ways. In itself, no awareness. But when you prayed and Azmaria sang, it stirred old feelings. Since you wanted to see me, they showed you me with with her." Chrono failed to bite back another yawn.

"Remember what I told you when you got that fever?" Rosette asked him. Chrono nodded sleepily. "Then do so again. Sick people should be quiet and rest." She pushed him back onto his back, covering him up. Azmaria re-wet the cold clothe and placed it on Chrono's forehead. But Chrono didn't want to sleep, not yet anyway. He still had yet to hear his friend's stories. "No buts. I can tell you're resisting sleep. We can catch up at any time. We aren't going anywhere." Chrono's eyes drifted shut, despite his many attempts to keep them open. "Rest!"

Chrono was out like a light, a small smile teasing at his lips. Rosette felt exasperated at the sick person in the bed. She really wanted to knock some sense into him. But there was no way she could do that to him while he was still recovering. She would wait until after he was back to full strength to knock some sense into his brain. "Sometimes he really can be an idiot," Rosette stated simply. "Even more so than me."