(Sorry I posted wrong! Erm...it was a Halloween trick? Many thanks to bp for pointing it out!)

Smoke.

Kotetsu's awareness sharpened as he clawed his way out of unconsciousness, coalesced into the single word smoke.

Then, an explosion of thoughts: smoke can't breathe Kaede where am I Kaede safe basement Yuri fire smoke-

He couldn't breathe very well, but he could breathe. He tried to sit up, and dissolved into a fit of coughing.

"Easy, easy." The big hand patting his back was familiar, at least.

"Antonio?" Kotetsu rasped. His eyes burned worse than his throat, and the left half of his face was a massive flowering pain. "What happened?"

"The NEXT, Yuri. He knocked you out. I...I wasn't fast enough." Antonio slammed a fist into the ground, hard enough that Kotetsu felt it through solid rock. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what? Antonio, what happened?" He tried to get to his feet, but Antonio kept hold of his arm.

"Kotetsu, wait. The...Yuri did this thing with fire, and he shot right up through the door. I heard him and the cops yellin' at each other, and then...they took him."

Fear raced through Kotetsu. He couldn't stop seeing Yuri's scars in front of his face. He wanted to tell himself that Yuri always got free, but he heard that quiet voice in his mind say, "Someone figured out how to keep me." "I've got to-"

Antonio still held him fast. Kotetsu stared in confusion. "What is it? What aren't you telling me?"

"Kaede."

Kotetsu's eyes went wide, and he tried to wrench his arm free of Antonio's grip. He made ready to activate his power, but Antonio hauled him around by his collar. "Listen to me, Kotetsu! She's gone!"

Gone.

Gone.

"In the fire."

No. He just had to find her.

"She was at the top of the stairs. When they took Yuri away, something happened. I couldn't see, but..."

Kaede was not gone, could not be gone. He was going to take care of her.

"The stairs went out in the blast. There was fire everywhere-Yuri's fire, the blue stuff. There was no way up, none."

He'd promised Tomoe.

"Kotetsu, I'm sorry. I tried to get to her, but everything happened so fast, and the stairs were gone, and I couldn't see anything. All I could do was pull the basement door shut against the smoke."

Failed. He'd failed. He hadn't protected Kaede. He'd brought a dangerous murderer into his home, and now his little girl was gone.

Images flooded his mind of Kaede, all of Kaede, his Kaede, and he needed her back. This was nothing like the pain and grief he'd felt when he'd lost Tomoe. This was hotter, acidic, violent.

I took him into my house. I listened to his beliefs. I trusted him.

Was this how Mr. Legend had felt, risking his life over and over to protect those who needed him, only to be betrayed? Was this how he had felt in the last moments, knowing he would never see his child again?

Kotetsu didn't know. He didn't care. He only knew two things.

Yuri had killed his daughter.

Yuri was going to pay.

The inside of the old school was pitch-black. It had been abandoned for a few decades, left to turn to dust and mold in peace. Some kids had busted all the windows years ago, and most of them had been boarded up.

One of the plywood barriers had been attached loosely. It swung open at the bottom-not far, but far enough for a slender, agile person to scramble through.

Once he was inside, Ivan had no trouble spotting Kaede. For one thing, she was glowing. No, not glowing. She's on fire. But she's not burning. How? "Kaede?" he asked softly.

The girl was hugging her knees, curled up into the smallest ball she could manage. "Don't come any closer."

"Kaede, sweetie, it's Ivan."

"I know. Don't touch me. You'll get hurt." A sniff.

Ivan's heart hurt. Probably some of it was for Kaede. It was hard to tell, under everything else he was feeling right then. Do I talk to her? It should be Kotetsu having this conversation. Not me. He had it planned. I saw him practicing. Hell, I changed into Kaede to help him practice.

"If I promise not to touch you, can I sit down?"

A miniscule nod.

Ivan took a seat a few feet from the girl, not directly facing her. "Can I tell you a story?"

Another nod.

"I was really shy when I was a kid. That probably doesn't surprise you. I...didn't get along too well with my parents. I had a best friend, though." Ivan's throat closed up for a second. He quivered like a too-tight string on a guitar, sure that if anyone so much as brushed against him he'd snap. "I...h-he was the only person who ever made me feel like I could be myself."

He took a deep breath. "He was the only person who stayed close to me when I found out I was a NEXT."

Kaede's head shot up, and her flames flared brighter for a moment. "Ivan! You're a NEXT?"

He nodded, looking down at the ground.

"Did my Dad know?"

"Yeah."

Her lip trembled. "You didn't tell me. You didn't trust me?"

"Your dad didn't want you to know."

"He didn't trust me."

"No, honey. He was trying to protect you."

Tears rolled down her face, and she hugged her knees even tighter. "He was right. I turned the other NEXT in. Maybe he thought I'd turn you in for the money. I wouldn't, though!"

"I know. I'm not scared. I trust you, Kaede." He didn't have to say that Kaede couldn't very well turn anyone in as a NEXT now without being the world's biggest hypocrite.

"What was it like? When...when you got your powers?"

"Scary." Everything had been scary, back then. Everything was scary now too, but...it had been better, with Edward. The heartstrings vibrated again, painfully tight. "I can turn into different people. See?"

He meant to turn into Kaede-it worked best, the first time, to convince people-but messed it up and turned into Edward. Doesn't matter. She doesn't know what I was trying to do anyway. And at least this way...

He touched his arms, feeling their familiar shape, and tried not to cry. Never feel them around me again. Stop it. Later, Ivan.

"Who's that?"

"My friend Edward." God, it hurt to hear Edward's voice, even from his own mouth. "He helped me practice. He helped me learn to control it, so I wouldn't get caught. Then when I found out he was a NEXT, he thought it was great." He turned back into himself, unable to hear Edward's voice without hearing it gasping out a last breath, trying and failing to say his name.

"Can you be anyone?"

"Yeah."

"That's pretty cool. I guess...is that why they never found you?"

They never found me because Edward and your Dad protected me. Without them I'll probably be on the block by tomorrow morning. "It's part of it."

Kaede buried her head in her knees. The way her shoulders moved made Ivan think she was crying again, but trying to hide it. "Mine's not good for hiding, is it? Ivan, I don't want to be a slave!"

"You won't be."

"But-"

"I know people." He tried to give her a reassuring smile, all too aware that it probably looked more like a grimace. "Outside the city. Your grandmother lives out there, doesn't she?"

"I can't go there. Not like this. I'll...I'll just..." Kaede's breathing came faster and faster, and the pulse of blue flames lit up the abandoned school building. "I'll just kill her like I killed my dad!"

Fire exploded out of her, but this time, Ivan was ready. He leapt in the fastest backflip he could, landing hard behind a pile of rubble just as the skylight went up like a torch.