Donec Opportunus Item is Latin for, "Until we meet again".

Chapter Seven: Donec Opportunus Item

"One day, when we meet again, I hope you remember that it was you who were responsible for this."

"This?"

"This path that you have set for yourself," she explained. "The path that we could have walked together, but you have separated. I just wish... I wish I could hate you for it. I wish I could be angry, but... I do not think I could."

She should hate him.

She had every right to.

He always thought so. That had been the plan.

Alas, how much he had regretted treating her thus, but what choice had he had at the time? Dealing with the knowledge of her death has left him with such a void inside himself. Now, to see her alive. Alive and there when he has been trying so diligently to suppress how much her absence in this world had effected him. Seeing her now, still beautiful and still breathing, was like having the breath sucked from his lungs and his heart bursting anew. A foreign warmth that he does not feel in anything else in his life spreads inside him.

He remembers what he felt when he first saw her. That night when he had felt compelled to follow this woman up those stairs and stare at her. He had never felt such a compulsion before. He did not have to approach anyone but, he followed her. That night, at that party, ihis life had taken an unexpected turn. Through the crush of people, he had only caught glimpses of her and it is the fact that he had been the one following should have warned him. When he finally stood close enough to her there in front of Etro's portrait and seen that radiant smile on her face, his world had spun out off its axis. A smile that was real and bright and different from any he had received before. He had known in that moment, that she would mar him and he had not known what to do. He know not what now either.

Everyone had their secrets. He had known she carried her own too, but he always knew what she had been feeling. At any given moment, her face gave away everything and did she never bothered to hide them either. So open and so readable that it was strange for him not to have to read between the lines when speaking with her. It had been as new an experience as the feelings that she garnered inside of him. Which, were many. All of them conflicted. All of them strong.

Now, he cannot see any emotion at all as she returns his undoubtedly shocked gaze. A blank palette where color should be. It looked unnatural on her face. As if, it was a different person instead of the Stella that he knew. Coupled with the equally blank expression on her companion's face, he wonders if perhaps he were in an alternate dimension all together.

"Hei," says the shorter female beside Stella.

He looks between her and his companion and sees that the mask is gone and he can see the other man's face. A face that was anything but blank.

"Yin," Hei says back in response and his look is so anguished, it is hard to look at.

A stillness shrouds over them, like they are trapped within an invisible bubble of shock. Distantly, he can hear the trickle of water from the sprinkler system, spraying them like droplets of rain. The sounds of the water the only thing able to encroach on this moment. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks lest they break this fragile moment.

Looking at this Yin, he notices that though the young woman's face displays no visible emotion, he can sense a wealth of feeling emanating from her. It's impact just as hard to witness as the man's look beside him. She does not even appear to be looking at them but he senses that she can, only not from her physical eyes. How he knows this for sure, he cannot say. He has had a lot of experience watching the subtle nuances of people over the year that he does not doubt his instincts in this. There is a vagueness in her eyes that suggests that she may be blind, so he can ascertain that her ability must help her to see through a different means. One thing is blatantly apparent and that is, all these deeply entrenched emotions mean that this young woman and the Black Reaper had a deep history.

An unresolved history at that.

He can think of all that in length later, but right now he can only focus on her. His eyes do not leave hers as he slowly moves to stand on his feet. The rapid beating of his heart rushes to his ears and finds he does not know what to say.

"Stella?" he asks in a low whisper, still afraid to break this short moment of frailty and cause her to disappear. When he moves to approach, her rune flares to life, making him take a step back.

"Prince Noctis," she replies with a small nod of acknowledgement and he can see a vague curiosity in her gaze only.

He could have accepted that formality had it not been for the vague expression on her face. Vague, because he did not see any feeling behind her eyes. Not quite as blank like the young women beside her, but shuttered. Shuttered in a way that Stella's face could never be. It told him that he meant nothing to her. Something he could not accept when he knows he did. This is not arrogance. This is simple truth because they both meant much to the other and no matter how much time had passed, it would always be there between them.

"Yin!" cries Hei again, this time he rushes forward to the pale haired female.

"Stay back!" warns Stella, unsheathing her rapier and stepping in front of her companion.

Then it is his turn to grab the sleeve of his companion to stop his advancement.

"No Hei," warns Yin with a slow shake of her heard.

"Why?" Hei demands roughly.

"Stella, what is going on?" he asks, turning his attention back to his own.

She blinks at him in what seems to be surprise. Surprise is what he cannot fathom.

He is frowning at her in disbelief when there is another shift in the air and all of a sudden, his feet are frozen in place. Literally frozen in place and it does not stop there. Not only are they held immobile, the ice reaches up and up until he is encased within the icy trap to his waist and he cannot move his lower body at all.

"No! Yin!" cries Hei from beside him and he looks to see that the other man is frozen in a similar fashion.

They exchange looks before turning to find Stella and Yin are gone.

"What the...?"

"I could have frozen you solid," a matter of fact voice says from behind them.

Since they cannot turn, they both listen to the crunching sounds of footsteps on wet grass until a familiar blonde haired man steps into view.

"You," he hisses disdainfully.

Niveus.

Alive.

Also alive.

"Me," is the amused reply.

"I should have known you were behind this."

"Only you thought you had killed me," Niveus replies with a tsking sound of reproof.

"I can always rectify that," he growls, summing his broadsword.

"Now, now..."

Then he feels the ice creep up to his hands, making him drop the sword.

"Why such hostility?" Niveus mocks, eyeing his frozen half and raising a challenging eyebrow. "When I have been in the process of giving you a gift."

"What are...?" he stops to think it over. "You are considering these murders gifts?"

He only receives a smirk in return before his rival glances over at Hei curiously.

"Very curious," Niveus comments to himself, before turning his amused eyes back to him. "We are adding more players to the game."

He manages to scowl at him through his chattering teeth, trying to disregard the cold seeping into his body quickly.

"And I do so like our games," Niveus continues with a smile. "But I think that is enough of this round. Seeing as you are otherwise engaged at present." He gives him and Hei an amused look. "Tell the boys I said hello."

A shot rings through the air, halting Niveus from his retreat.

"Hello yourself," Ignis says with no small bit of condescension., with Glad and Pro directly behind him.

"Was wondering where you boys were," states Niveus, with a grin."But you are late to the party this time, I am afraid." With a flourish of his hand, all the water around them freezes, creating a small prison of ice around them and cutting off their pursuit.

"Noct!" yells Glad, who comes running towards them to search for any injuries.

"I am fine. Just stuck," he bites out through his shivers.

"Since when does that loon know how to do that?" demands Pro.

An explosion of ice beside him halts any response he may have had and they all turn to stare at Hei who is no longer stuck in ice.

"Stand back," is their only warning before a gloved hand touches the ice at his feet and a series of much less dramatic explosions frees him.

They exchange another look before turning to the wall of ice around them.

"Well he always did have a flare for the dramatic," remarks Ignis dryly, tapping at the solid wall experimentally.

"Thought he was dead," says Glad gruffly.

"You gonna tell us your name now?" Pro asks, looking at the man beside him.

"Hei."

"You know that pale young woman beside Stella," he says, which garners a nods in answer. "What do we need to know?"

"Right now we need to know what they did in that house," is the clipped reply. "Who Yin is, can wait."

"I would like to know right now, what she means to you," he presses in a cool demand.

Hei gives him a very long look and without the mask, he sees a man that was very much like himself; complicated and multifaceted. Not only were there emotions involved, the feelings ran very deeply.

"The same as Stella means to you," is the knowing reply and it is his turn to nod.

That was that.

Now it was on to the next business at hand.

"Can you do your trick thingy so we can get outta here?" Pro asks Hei.

Without a word, Hei puts his hand against the barrier of white and it crumbles in large chunks at their feet.

"How do you do that?" Pro asks through an open mouth.

"I manipulated the molecules and made them implode."

"You can do that?" this time from Ignis, who not only looks impressed, he has that look on his face that meant he was going to have a new project to research.

"Not all the time," Hei replies seriously. "Mostly I can conduct electricity."

"That is so totally awesome!" cries Pro.

A mild shrug is the only reply, which Pro takes as more awesome if the look of admiration is anything to go by.

"And what is your price for being able to do that?" he asks.

That earns him a sharp look before Hei replies. "I lost my sister."

Without waiting for them to respond, Hei moves back towards the house and they move to follow.

"It looks like a snow globe in here," comments Pro as they cautiously make their way towards the basement stairs and down to the panic room.

What is left of the door is now scattered everywhere in the small entry way area.

"First explosion set off the emergency sprinklers," explains Hei. "The second explosion was to shatter the door when he froze it solid with the resulting water."

"But how could you have know in advance?" he asks, thinking of how he had stopped him from rushing in when it was all happening.

"When dealing with people who can do anything and you don't know what that is going in, you learn not to rush into a situation without waiting a second," Hei says with firm warning. "That is the only time you hesitate. Once engaged, you kill them as fast as you can or get out of the way or you're dead."

They all nod respectively in answer before making their way into the panic room to find the once well organized panic room in chaotic array of blinking alert lights and debris with only one thing fully intact. The council man. The man's face is frozen in terror, along with the rest of his body. A solid statue of ice like a demented piece of art, both disturbing and morbidly elegant.

"He was the last one, wasn't he," Hei states, already knowing that it was.

"Which means that there is no one to stand in the way of Noct taking power."

"Unless the people think him responsible and they revolt," says Ignis.

Which they all knew has already been widely speculated about.

"I cannot take power," he says.

"Why not?"

"My father did not want a successor. He left power to his council."

"That doesn't apply anymore. They're all dead and you're still the prince," states Glad.

"Which will cause a revolt from the people when they find out."

"No doubt that is Niveus' plan. To expose that," he says.

"So he wants the people to revolt against you and with no working government, the nation will be reduced to marshall law," Glad puts in.

"Which would be the perfect time for Niveus to force himself in," adds Ignis.

"Especially with Stella by his side."