/They didn't find anything they could ride on. No Rune Wing came to help them reach the rest of the group. No dragons landed nearby to carry them the rest of the way—although a few did fly overhead and get Haru and Lucia's hopes up. To Haru's horror, they ended up walking through most of the night and well into the next day. If Lucia looked worn for it, he didn't let it affect his attitude.

"It's your body that's tired. Once we're back to normal, it'll be your problem."

Haru suspected the broken ankle would still be Lucia's problem, but he said nothing.

By noon the altar, or what was left of it after Lucia had his way with the structure, was in sight. It prompted both of them to pick up the pace. Lucia was limping so severely that Haru was surprised each time he took a step without collapsing, but he knew what his body was capable of, and Lucia was apparently every bit as stubborn and determined as Haru could get. In any other situation, Haru would have found that fact unfortunate.

What they could agree was unfortunate in their current situation was the Demon Card had beat them to the altar. They spotted a DC ship from several miles away, docked by the ruins of the altar.

Haru, being a spirit, was fine walking through trees and rocks and right out into the open, but as they drew closer to the altar Lucia took cover behind those same obstacles, only moving when he was certain he wouldn't be spotted. Several hundred years out from where Demon Card had set up base, Lucia sat down behind a large chunk of debris, took a deep breath, and reached down to massage his ankle.

"It hurts that bad?"

"What clued you in?"

"You're the one who insisted we not take a moment to rest."

"Haru, my foot fucking hurts. We're almost there. We have a few hours left. I can sit for five minutes. Make yourself useful and find out how much my men know about the situation. If anyone knows what areas they're guarding, then we can work out what areas they aren't guarding."

Haru studied Lucia, who was clearly struggling to mask exactly how much pain his ankle was causing him, then the ruins, and the heavy guard around them, then back to Lucia. The Sinclaire stone gleamed from around his neck.

"Did you grab all four?"

"Come again?"

"Sinclaire stones. Did you grab all four of them?"

"Of course." Lucia took a break from massaging his ankle to retrieve the other three stones from his pocket. "They were on my person when you took my body. I wasn't about to risk leaving them with you. Last time you people had one of the stones, you nearly stabbed Elie over it."

That had been a bluff, Haru thought, but there were more important things to do than explain to Lucia that not everyone was totally cool with stabbing people whenever they urge struck them.

"When I get back, we have to keep walking. I don't care if it hurts. I didn't make you jump off the ship."

Whatever comeback Lucia planned to make about how it was Haru's fault for falling overboard, and in all honesty he wasn't sure he could have found his way to the ruins on his own. Haru hurried towards the Demon Card guards before he could hear it.

There were about twenty men on guard that he could see, and more hovering near a ship a few hundred yards off. The men were armed, two brandishing swords while the rest held guns. And the idea of Lucia going up against gunmen, with an injured foot, and distance to close, in Haru's body, was not one Haru was keen on.

He found the man who looked most like he might be in charge, and stepped inside of him. Scanning his mind for information, Haru found himself a lucky break. The Demon Card ship was waiting here because his friends' ship wasn't far off. The guard went all the way around the perimeter, but was thickest in this area. If no one left their posts, Lucia would probably be able to sneak through at another point. Assuming he could walk that far.

That was a pretty big assumption to make. Lucia hadn't budged from where Haru left him. He didn't even look up when Haru returned. Just kept massaging the injured area.

"Want me to help?"

"No time." With a grimace, Lucia rose to his feet. "You found something."

"We should be able to sneak past the guard if we go a little ways that way." Haru pointed in the closer direction that would take them around the ruins. "My friends are already on top. Will you be able to climb the rubble?"

"Not much choice." Lucia tested shifting his weight so each leg bore and equal amount, and nearly fell over. "We only have a few hours before this is permanent. I can put up with it that long."

"Yeah. About that… have you ever considered that you… um… breaking your spirit might also be permanent?"

"It's a broken ankle. Once I'm back in my own body I'll stay off it, and that should be enough for it to heal."

"It's a broken spirit-ankle. It might not follow the—"

"Only a few hours," Lucia interrupted. "I'm not going to walk fast at this point, Glory. Point me to the hole in the fucking perimeter so we can get this over with."

-o-

Lucia couldn't climb.

Well, technically he could. Even if the way he could only balance himself with one foot, and kept stumbling in the mountain of rubble when he had to take weight off it, made progress a little awkward. And for his efforts, Haru had chosen not to comment on the short gasps of pain. Although if Lucia started crying, it would not be an option to refrain from commenting.

They had been at in an hour now, Haru passing through inconveniently placed chunks of the altar while easily stepping up to the next good foothold, and Lucia struggling to get over each larger object he encountered. An hour. And they weren't even half way up. Haru was considering acknowledging the obstacles were there so he could take the same paths Lucia did. It might speed things up if the bastard didn't have to find a sturdy enough path in addition to figuring out how to travel it with a busted ankle.

"Does this look like a good path?" Haru asked, hopping up to a large chunk of stone. It was maybe ten feet long, and smooth. With nothing too major blocking the other side of it. It would give Lucia and easier time.

Lucia put a hand on the rim of the stone and tried to shake it. It felt steady. It didn't look like it would provide much cover, but when he glanced over his shoulder neither of the Demon Card grunts that he had spotted patrolling the perimeter were looking his way. And after so much struggling through small, uneven, wobbly rocks, and large flat surface looked inviting.

He climbed up onto it, when something suddenly occurred to him: To hell with dignity. Haru had seen him in more vulnerable situations, and for as bad as his limp had gotten, he could hardly look less physically capable at the moment.

He crawled across the rock. And Haru, bless his stupid heart, didn't comment.

As Lucia was slipping down the other side of the rock, he heard a shout, followed closely by gunfire. Instinctively, he twisted to see who dared fire a gun in his presence, and banged his ankle against the edge of the rock he'd just crawled across in the process.

Lucia hissed and fought the temptation to curl up into fetal position. If he hadn't seen his men opening fire and running into the mess of rubble after him, he wasn't certain he would have been able to resist.

Since he had seen the armed when now pursuing him, Lucia clenched his teeth, forced himself onto the injured ankle, and resumed making his way across the rubble. Although for as fast as he could make himself go, and as fast as the men with guns were going… Dammit. In his own body he wouldn't hesitate to hold his ground, but he wasn't sure what Haru's body was capable of.

"This way!" Haru called, waving for Lucia to follow him onto the next path that provided no cover. "Lucia, come this way!"

"Go ahead!" Lucia snapped back. Pointing forward to a small hill of collapsed pillars a few hundred yards off, he added, "Your friends are right over there. Go make sure no one got to them."

No one had. The Sinclaire would have told Lucia if the mission became futile. Probably would have stopped supplying him with directions and gone off to find a new bearer. And it wasn't like Haru could do anything to help if his friends were in trouble. But Haru wasn't the sort to think of that.

"Can you get there on your own? You don't need support? I thought me being close—"

"A leg brace would be better support than your awful cheerleading. Go!"

Haru sucked in his breath, tried to judge how long it would take the men to catch up to Lucia, then shook his head and took off to see his friends.

The pain in his ankle intensified has Haru stepped away, but Lucia put on a show of still struggling over a few more rocks. Haru kept checking back as he ran, and it wouldn't do for Haru to be anywhere in sight.

As soon as Haru had disappeared over the other side of the pillar pile, Lucia turned and counted the men after him. One… two… four in all. That was good. The more corpses he left, the more likely he was to get an earful from Haru later.

Something about that thought struck him as off, and it took Lucia a minute to realize why. There wasn't going to be a later. Not unless they failed to break the curse. Or, worse, if his ankle was spiritually busted even after he returned to his body. Surrounded by the Rave Master and his allies, with everyone from Demon Card held at bay, he'd make a good hostage at the very least.

No more spirit Haru hovering behind him nagging. Lucia almost wasn't sure if he'd miss that or not. Almost.

Well, fingers crossed that returning to his body would fix his ankle up. And he was sure he'd never hear the end of it from Haru whenever they met in battle. Not if he found out about this. That was almost the same as having Haru's spirit constantly hovering behind him telling him not to be an ass.

The men were getting close now. It pained Lucia to see how fast they covered the distance that he had barely managed to claw himself across. And that made what he did next easier.

"Mother."

The Sinclaire stone responded, gleaming around his neck and egging him to destroy all five at once. And as much of the rubble as possible too. They were already undoing the curse, so what harm could it do. The stone wanted to destroy. Destroy, destroy, destroy.

Lucia blocked the voice out and commanded it to crush one of the men closing in on him. There was a time and place for wholesale slaughter, but this was not it.

The air around his target distorted, taking on a purple hue as the pressure around the man multiplied. The other four stopped, three staring at the soon to be dead man, the other looking at the purple glow beneath the shirt Lucia wore. That lucky man missed seeing his companion collapse in on himself.

Lucia dispelled the pressure zone, gave all four men a moment to watch the dead man's blood trickle down through the cracks, then killed the three who hadn't noticed his Dark Bring.

The survivor looked back and forth between the crumpled up corpses and their murderer. "You stole—but as the… the Rave… you…"

"I require some assistance," Lucia told the man, motioning the direction Haru had disappeared to. "Help me reach my destination, and you won't die."

-o-

Sieg had produced a pocket watch, and all of Haru's friends had gathered around him to watch the seconds tick by. Everyone without a clock was hovering near someone who had one. With less than an hour before the curse became irrevocable, Every second that Lucia wasn't there was agony.

They had crammed as many people as they could into the section of ruins that they had determined was most likely to have been the peak of the altar. An entire town transported to the Mystic Realm with Demon Card on their heels after stealing their leader's body. And now it might have been for nothing, thanks to Lucia deciding to jump from an airship.

The second hand reached the top of Sieg's watch, and the next minute began.

Musica cursed. "Why did he have to jump off? That idiot."

Elie frowned. "If Haru fell—"

"How much do you want to be Lucia didn't just make that up. His word is all we have to go on that Haru was there in the first place."

"I validated Haru's presence," Sieg told Musica. "And Lucia stood nothing to gain from pretending we lost Haru. If we really did lose him, it would be to Lucia's benefit to pretend he was still around, but faking his loss only prevents Lucia from returning to his body."

"What's wrong with Haru's body?" Musica demanded. "There can't be a big difference between those two's strength. If Lucia stops us from undoing the curse, he can use Haru's body and Haru's out of luck."

"Haru's body is shorter than his. You saw it throw him off."

"Didn't stop him from storming his own castle."

Sieg needed to take a moment to consider that one. Could Lucia be aiming for Haru's body? He was about to order a search when cries, a mixture of joy, shock, and fear, started to rise from the southern end of the sorcerers all clustered together in the ruins.

Having the advantage of being tall, Sieg looked over the crowd and saw Lucia, in Haru's body, supported by a man wearing a Demon Card uniform.

"Took you long enough!" Musica shouted.

Lucia flipped the entire crowd the middle finger and told the Demon Card soldier something. The man nodded and let go. Lucia wobbled, unsteady on his bad foot, but didn't fall over. The man scampered back the way he came, and a sorcerer stepped forward to help Lucia over to Sieg and Miltz, who would be leading the effort to break the curse.

Sieg checked his clock. Thirty eight minutes left. Assuming they could get every sorcerer in Mildea to all instantly understand what exactly they needed to do and sync perfectly on their first try, that was plenty of time. Under more realistic circumstances, he hoped no one would get too stressed by the diminishing time frame and the almost certain number of people who needed a bit longer to get up to speed with everyone else. The more people who freaked out, the less likely it would be for them to pull this off in time.

If Lucia gave his own men such ridiculous tasks, Sieg pitied them.

-o-

Lucia crouched over his body, which someone had lain down over the ruins. Haru stood over his, which Lucia had finally vacated.

Now that he could see it again, his ankle was terrifying to look at. It had swollen to the size of a grapefruit, and just thinking about it made the pain worse. Haru had offered to try and massage it again, but Lucia had declined. They were to wait over their own bodies. Doing anything other than what they were told might disrupt the sorcerers' attempt to break the curse.

"It looks painful," Haru whispered.

"The way it looks isn't the worst part," Lucia told him, "So why it bothers you, who can only see it, so much is beyond me."

"Because I c—"

The world blurred and whatever Haru said was lost in the vertigo. Both boys reeled, Lucia falling over and face planting into his body, and Haru stumbling and barely catching himself.

Everything blurred again, colors mixing and blending until everything looked brown, then faded to black.

-o-

Haru felt cold stone poking into the back of his neck before he opened his eyes.

People were staring down at him anxiously. It felt weird and wrong, and it took him a moment to realize that he'd gotten used to everyone but Lucia looking right through him over the past week and a half. How surreal. It felt more like he'd been trapped outside his body for over three years.

A moan to his left made him, and everyone else, turn their heads to watch Lucia's eyes flutter open. The blond immediately pushed himself upright, then nearly lost his balance and fell back down. Haru would have laughed, except when he tried to push himself up to be at eye level with Lucia, he did fall down.

"Are you alright?" Elie asked, reaching down and offering him a hand. He took it, but her effort to help pull him up ended with him accidentally pulling her down on top of him.

"They seem a bit disoriented," Let noted as Haru and Elie fumbled to put a bit of physical distance between them.

Lucia rubbed his eyes, flexed his hand to make sure he could do that properly, then reached over the Haru and Elie. With the two of them moving awkwardly around one another, a light shove was all it took to push Elie off, and Haru was still struggling enough with remembering how on moved their own body to stop him when he snatched the Sinclaire stone that he had wrapped around Haru's wrist.

Seeing Lucia have a general idea of how to move his limbs gave Haru the motivation to force himself upright. The crowd gathered around the two breathed a collective sigh of relief as he managed to hold himself in a steady sitting position.

"Back off," Lucia snapped. With the Sinclaire stone gleaming in his hand and the Rave Master still working out how he was supposed to stand up, the crowd obeyed.

With a space safely cleared, Lucia stood. The effort came shaky, and he regretted not ensuring that the audience had been chased away completely before he tried to get up. After Haru had mentioned the possibility so many times, he refused to show anyone watching him that it still hurt like hell to stand on his injured ankle.

But back in his own body, the injury should finally be able to heal. He hoped. Demon Card would probably let him stay off it for a few days if he pretended to be disoriented from the curse's aftereffects, at least.

Haru was fairing no better. If Lucia had given his body the recommended eight hours of sleep, it had been over the course of three days. Watching Lucia struggle through the final stretch, he had thought he would never have so much trouble. Not when the goal was in site and his spirit could easily skip to their destination. Now, he was fairly impressed that Lucia had made it at all. It felt like he spent the last of his energy reserves just to sit up, and he was now running on all the fumes in the world just to keep his eyes open.

Musica stepped forward and extended a hand to Haru, who gladly took it and let his friend pull him up.

"You alright?"

"Just tired."

Musica patted Haru's shoulder. "Better than brain dead, I suppose. Now that you're back, you will be hearing about that one. Good to have you back, by the way."

Haru smiled. "I missed you guys. Even if I could see you. I missed you all so much. There was still Lucia to keep me company, but he can be such a… such a… such a petty brat!"

That wasn't the accusation anyone else would have thrown. Musica wouldn't have thought to go any milder than 'sadist'. But he let Haru have it.

"I missed you too."

"Hey," Lucia said. "This looks like a nice touching moment, but my ride's here, so I'm leaving. You can keep my armor. It's really not worth retrieving."

Haru and Musica jumped, and the more alert of the two looked around. Demon Card men were gathering all around the group. How many had come? Enough to take on everyone from Mildea? Lucia also had the Sinclaire with him, while Haru looked like he might fall over at any moment. If it came to a fight they…

Wait…

"Leaving?" Sieg asked. Several of the Demon Card men who were close enough to their leader to hear looked equally surprised.

"Yes. It's that thing where I go somewhere else."

Sieg looked up at Musica, who could clearly see from the look of confused relief on his face that he had also estimated things would go poorly for them in a fight. That might have had something to do with how tired he looked. A curse that took an entire village to dispel couldn't have been effortless to deal with.

"Sir?" One of the Demon Card men asked.

Lucia cast him a disapproving look. He recognized this man. This was the screw up who forced him onto the ship to Mildea in the first place. Was he the one who ordered they fire at Mildea's ship to? Either way, there was a punishment on the horizon.

"Sir?" the man repeated. "I feel confident that we could take them."

Lucia looked back at the crowd of sorcerers and friends of Haru, half-heartedly considering an attack. His main concern was making his injury too obvious to his men, and Elie might also get caught in the crossfire, but…

"What kind of idiot responds to being saved by killing their savior? If I find myself in need of a hand again, that won't inspire anyone to reach out," Lucia said. Is was true, but then he also didn't expect the world to last long enough for him to need help again.

This explanation seemed to pacify the man who was soon to be punished. He turned and began barking orders to the men surrounding the sorcerers. Some were told to ready the ship, others to keep a path clear for their king.

He'd missed being called that. Lucia stepped towards the path, doing his best to conceal his limp, but knowing it still showed. He hadn't made it more than five feet when something tackled him from behind, catching him in a bear hug. He was going to murder

"Lucia?"

Hearing Haru's voice, soft in his ear, Lucia hesitated.

"I mean what I said back at the Star Vestige," Haru whispered, holding tight to Lucia. "If this war ended, we could be friends."

"Get off me!"

Lucia twisted out of Haru's tired grasp and turned to face Haru, who was still unnervingly close for someone who had developed a habit of walking right into people in the past week.

"Really," Haru said softly. "Sieg said you hurt yourself because you have a wounded spirit, right? If you had a nice relationship with someone, you might get better. If we could stop fighting, I wouldn't mind being that someone. You weren't completely unbearable." Although how much of Lucia's compliance and assistance over the past week and a half had been out of self-interest and how much had been hints of human decency, Haru couldn't say.

Lucia started at Haru, studying clouded and tired eyes for any hints that this had been said just to take a jab at him. That this was something said in half-asleep delirium. But Haru looked sincere, and a shudder ran down Lucia's spine. He took a deep breath, shoved the idea that Haru might care to the side, and gave his answer.

"No."

And just because he was apparently a petty brat, and certainly not because Haru hugging him in front of his men again would look bad, he place a hand squarely on Haru's chest and shoved him back.

Haru stumbled, and fell over on his butt.

Musica, Elie, Sieg, Let, and even Lazenby, who Haru had completely forgotten was there, all rushed to help him back up, but his gaze stayed on Lucia. Or, more specifically, on the way the blond had completely stopped limping.

Had it been alright for him to do that? Haru didn't know how much damage Lucia might yet cause, but if they could work together under more optional circumstances, if there was a way to completely bring Lucia over, or at least to convince him to stop without having to end things the way their fathers had, if he could be persuaded to connect with others, then surely healing his spirit would be worthwhile.

For now, it was healed enough. Haru let Lazenby pick him up princess style, ashamed though he would be to recall the incident later. There was still time to figure out how to save Lucia on top of everything he threatened. For now, he had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

-o-

STA: Feelings about this ending are really mixed. It's got the points I wanted to hit in it… but is it too Lucia-centric? He's easily my favorite character. Like, not ever my favorite Rave Master character. Just my favorite character. But I didn't want to make this story too much his… but… hm… And how was the ending itself? Okay? Too weak? I spent three and a half years on the story. Sort of. Technically. I spend a few weeks on it, left it alone for three years, then picked it back up. But for as long as this story was waiting for an ending, I worry that I might not have given it the best one.