"What are you doing in the capital city?" Rose questioned rather harshly. The way her eyes narrowed, in complete and utter resentment, made Zeke smirk.

"I should ask you the same thing," he replied. "What business does a thief like yourself have in what is soon to be my dominion?" He focused on the child standing next to the girl. "And with your little brother, no less." His gaze returned to Rose, who took a step back, retching. "My, my. You really should have a lot on your conscience; you're being a terrible role model to such a young, malleable mind."

"Pah!" Rose hissed at him, sending saliva flying from between her front teeth. "Like you're one to talk!"

"How so?" Zeke eyed the girl carefully, noting the fact that she seemed to be almost bubbling over with rage. Perfect, he though. Now that she's so vulnerable, I can work my magic. Opening his arms wide, Zeke continued. "Are you sure you're not angry at me just because of that little thing we had?"

That did it – a sort of mist painted over Rose's eyes. She appeared to falter, slowly listing to the left. Her little brother looked up to her in concern; Zeke looked at her in anticipation.

"N-no! O-of course not!" The cat +Anima quickly exclaimed after recovering. "A-and besides, it wasn't little!"

"Oh? It wasn't?" Suddenly, the evil Zeke had disappeared into thin air. Instead, what stood there was a kind-hearted, silver-haired boy with an angelic smile. "I'd forgotten. But your face brings it all back. Such sweet memories….Don't you remember how it was?"

Rose was very mature, and she was, by no means, stupid. She knew exactly what Zeke was doing; he'd done it on their very first date. Our first date…He was so debonair that night, and his hair was perfect and smiled of tropical fruits….We linked arms and drank our – no, bad Rose! Don't fool yourself, he's – but look at him, all cute and…and he wants to make up! Argh, what am I doing?!

The girl's inner turmoil was taking a toll on her physical self. She was shaking all over, her teeth were chattering, and sweat was running down her forehead. "P-please, Zeke…Don't do this…"

However, Zeke defied her and moved forward. Underneath the gentle expression he wore, his eyes were blazing triumphantly. Oh, Rose…You picked the wrong +Anima to mess with. Now, let's see what I can take from you…. Each step closer to the girl made her twitch in an even more uncontrollable fashion. She tried to step away from him, but found that her legs could take her nowhere. Her little brother clung to her even tighter as the menacing +Anima came ever nearer. "If only I'd known how you felt…how you cherished it…." Zeke began to shove Rose on a guilt trip. "How dearly you held our time together…If I had but only known, I never would have left." Making sure his eyes gleamed with fake tears, he told her, "Can you blame a confused soul for misreading love?"

No, Rose! You can't let him – but he said love…Does he truly still feel that way towards me? I must know…No! Rose! Get a grip on yourself! You know he's nothing but a – but listen to him. He's being so honest…. Slowly, Rose started to open up and her contorted body began returning to its normal shape and stance. A smile adorned her lips, and a light seemed to grow around her. "Zeke…" She was close to tears. "I feel the same. I was a fool when I had you – can you forgive me?"

Even though he'd nearly perfected his manipulative skills, Zeke could hardly believe what he was hearing. It was so easy! But he couldn't let up yet – no, there was still one matter to attend to. So, wearing his carefully crafted mask, he stepped closer and closer. "No, I'm the one in need of forgiveness. These past years, I've torn my heart up because there was…this hole in it. A gaping hole that was made when I left you. If you only pardon me, then I believe it will fill up and I can be whole once again."

And, now more than ever, Rose appeared the vision of happiness. Stars were in her gleaming eyes; her lips were quavering because tears were on their way. Good grief, she's thick! Zeke was almost in hysterics as he reached the girl and her outstretched arms, clutching for an embrace. And he almost there, almost in her pool of forgiveness – Rose sighed dreamily. Perhaps this was the moment she'd been waiting for her entire life….

However, something odd happened. One instant, Zeke was there, about to hug her. The next, though, he was out of sight. Confused, Rose shook her head around to try and get back to reality. What was going on? People, even +Anima, didn't just vanish. He had to be there some where….

Just then, faint cries entered her ears. The voice that made them sounded so familiar, but where were they coming from? Blinking, Rose tried to adjust and figure out just what was happening. And a few moments later, after turning a small bit, she spotted Zeke. But he wasn't the only one in view. In his hand, he was holding someone by the back of the shirt…it looked like a small boy with red….

Like glass shattering, Rose came completely back to the situation at hand. Although now, the stakes had been raised – Zeke was holding her little brother by the shirt and didn't look about to let him go.

"Pinion!" Rose screamed. "What did you do? Let him go!" She raced at Zeke, only to be knocked back by one of his legs. The woman sprawled out on the stone floor as Zeke smiled and Pinion let out a small cry.

Moaning, Rose lifted her head to look at Zeke; he was grinning wildly. "Ha! Women are so easy to manipulate!" he declared with a laugh. "You don't have any sense about you, and always let your emotions take control! It's pathetic but so damn funny!" He made his point by laughing even more, and slapping his leg as a jest just to make sure.

"Wh-what do you want with him…?" Rose breathed. She would do anything to get Pinion back.

Unfortunately for her, this was something Zeke knew. "Oh, it's not really him I'm after." Upon seeing the bewildered, puzzled expression on Rose's face, his grin widened. "I want you." But he paused for a moment, thinking. "Well, truth be told, it's more of your skills."

"What do you want with my skills?" Rose asked him in the most furious voice she could muster at the moment. She attempted to spit at him, but couldn't build up enough force to stop it from merely running down her lips.

"Ha ha ha…! You know that I know just how good of a thief you happen to be," he explained. "I want to put this to my use."

"You mean control me?"

"No, no, never!" Zeke smiled. "I want to employ you."

Rose almost barked at him. "Employing me means that you'll pay me."

Nodding, Zeke told her, "And I have every intention to. If you meet my demands, then you can have your little brother back." He held Pinion out, swinging him back and forth so that the cat +Anima could get a good look at him. And the boy seemed to be very scared and unsure of the situation, which flared Rose's sisterly instincts.

"Please!" She tried reaching her arm out to the child, but she could only go so far. "Please, let him go!"

"If you get what I want, I'll be more than happy to."

"Fine! What do you want?!"

Zeke bent down so that he was more at eyelevel with Rose. "Simple." But something about his demented smile made Rose believe that this wasn't going to be easy. "We're in the capital city, so this shouldn't be too hard. I want you to break into the palace and steal the interior map." When he saw the disgusted expression on Rose's face, he decided to cement his plan. "Well, if you don't want to, I guess I'll just leave with your brother…."

As he started to walk away, and heard Rose's shouts for him to stop, he knew that he'd succeeded. Nonetheless, he turned back with an almost hopeful expression on his face. "Yes…?"

Breathing heavily, Rose finally told Zeke, "Alright. You win. But once I get that map, how do I find you…?"

This one took a little thought on Zeke's part. He hadn't exactly thought that one up. "Okay…How about in, say, five days, you meet me back up here. And you'd best have the map with you."

"You…" Rose gasped out. "You have to promise that you won't hurt my brother – at all!"

"Alright, alright. I promise. Well, for now, it was nice doing business with you." Zeke stepped back into the shadows, still carrying Pinion, and was gone. Rose felt herself try to get up, but then she fell flat on her stomach once again.

"Pinion…"

Cooro was walking down the hall of Zeke's base when he met up with the shaggy black-haired man with the cigarette clenched in his teeth. As they passed, the crow +Anima took a closer look at the man's tail. It was a dark, forest green with spikes and scales. It swished as it traveled the floor.

"Excuse me…?"

The man stopped, turning around to face the boy. Tommy pushed hair out of his face and asked with a smile, "Yes?"

"What kind of +Anima are you?"

At first, Tommy had a bit of an astonished look on his face. But it soon melted away into a smirk. "You know, it isn't exactly polite to just come out and say something like that. But since you must know, I'm a crocodile +Anima. Got it when I was in the swamps, swimming for my life from a bunch of piranhas." He licked his lips. "And boy did they taste good when I ate them." For a moment, he flashed his curved yellow fangs at Cooro before stalking off in the direction he was originally going.

Cooro stayed still for a moment, thinking about Tommy. His story rang a bell in his head, but he couldn't tell what. Something about…a boy, with silver hair, maybe blue…But why was he thinking those things? And why was that boy always appearing in his dreams?

Shaking his head to try and rid himself of the odd thoughts, the boy continued down the hall. Minutes later, as he was approaching a large oak door, he heard something. In fact, it was the door opening.

Zeke entered, holding a scarlet-haired boy in his left hand. Scowling, he tossed the boy to the ground. "We'll see what your sister has to say when she gets back," he said in a frightening tone. "I don't easily forget things, like how she nearly got me killed when we were dating. Pah! I can't believe I had to do that…." Eyes flaring, he told the small boy, "You seem like the perfect candidate to take my wrath out on….But I'm tired from all this…." His eyes shot over to Cooro.

"Cooro!" The crow +Anima stood up straight. "Take the runt down to the dungeon and lock him up tight. I'll deal with him later." As Cooro nodded, Zeke walked away down a different hallway, holding his forehead.

The crow +Anima then looked at the small child, whose big eyes were on the verge of tears. But Zeke had ordered him locked up, so Cooro grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and drug him towards the dungeon.