Wow, 10, not including the intro chapter. Man, and I have 5, going on 6 more in wait, with more after that... wow, how one little plot point will change everything. Anyway, enjoy!

Short 10

Plague Knight sighed as he entered into his room, Xenon following by way of circling his feet and almost tripping him an unfortunate number of times.

He launched himself at his bed, forgetting momentarily that he wasn't tall enough to make it, and slammed (luckily painlessly) into the side, landing in a dazed heap on the floor.

Lying there, he resisted the urge to scream as Xenon approached his face and nudged him with her cold, wet nose. Chuckling, he bopped his companion on the muzzle. His laughter increased at the startled look the kitten gave him.

While moving into a sitting position, something caught his eye from under the bed. Reaching for whatever it was, he grimaced when he realized that it had been so long since he had last cleaned out from under his bed that he had to briefly remove his hand in order to remove the dead spiders, live spiders, and cobwebs clinging to it. Xenon immediately thought this was a game and bat at the hand brushing at the unwanted things.

After letting out a screech of shock as the cat scratched him, Plague Knight pushed her away and stuck his hand back under, this time successfully retrieving the object. As he pulled back his hand, he recognized the object from the smooth round shape.

"HA!" He yelled triumphantly, showing the object to Xenon. It was a grimy bottle with a small spot that was clean enough for the fading light to reflect off of it, which is what had caught his attention. "I told Mona I lost this in my room! Did she believe me? Nope! That'll show her!"

He stood and walked out the door, intent on shoving the dusty container in her face just for laughs. Sure, it wasn't nice to annoy her about something they had both forgotten about in less than a day, but he wasn't exactly known for being nice, now was he? Even if the victim in question was the woman of his dreams.

As he walked, he dusted off some of the remaining cobwebs and filth. When half of it was clean, he saw his refection and stopped mid-step, causing the trailing Xenon to ram harmlessly into his ankle.

Staring back at him was not his face. He'd never really given what he looked like in this alternate form much thought, though now he knew that he didn't even look like him. He wore a stranger's face, one that wasn't even the one he had when he was naturally a child. At least, not that he remembered. It had been so long since he had gazed upon his own refection that it was actually surprisingly difficult to remember any face being his besides the mask he always wore.

The bottle slipped from his grasp, shattering when it landed on the ground. Confused, he stood there for a long while, before a minion appeared to bring him back to reality.

"Adam?" The man asked. "Hello?"

Plague Knight physically shook himself out of his thoughts. Turning his gaze to the minion, he asked, "Yes?"

"You were spacing out there, bud," the underling told him gently. "Can you get away from the broken glass? It wouldn't do to have you slicing your foot open."

Plague Knight looked down, and realized that though his hand remained in the air as though it still held the bottle, said object had long since broken and lay at his feet.

Carefully taking a step back, he realized that Xenon was being underfoot again too late, and he accidently kicked her. Hearing her annoyed meow, Plague Knight turned to her and snapped, "Why don't you try not being right behind all the time, ya…" He trailed off when he realized the minion was still there, listening. He let out an irritated huff. "Come on, furball," he muttered, to which the kitten followed at his side this time, rather than behind as he had 'oh so kindly' requested.

Suddenly, without anything to act as a warning, the door to Mona's room was being slammed up, making the occupant jump.

"Geez, what's gotten you all riled up?" Mona asked as her partner walked in, clearly in a bad mood. "I mean, yeah, you're stuck as a kid for a while longer, but calm down."

"It's not that!" Plague Knight ground out. "I can't remember my own face!"

Mona raised an eyebrow at the seemingly random reason for storming into her room and pulling her attention away from her book, of which had just gotten interesting. Standing, Mona ushered him over to a mirror that she rarely utilized, but had in her room regardless, pointing to the refection of the child standing by her side.

"Does this help?"

Plague Knight stared at his face for a good long while before muttering, "Christ, it's even worse than in the bottle."

"Excuse me?" Mona asked, confused.

Plague Knight raised a hand, gently resting his fingers on his face in disbelief. "I… My…" He trailed off, distraught.

Mona, though thoroughly dumbfounded and unable to discern just what was going through her colleague's head, crouched and placed her hands in a comforting manner upon his shoulders. She refrained from speaking; preferring to wait until he had said whatever was on his mind.

"This isn't my face; it never was," he finally elaborated. His hand resting on his face slowly curled, sinking his nails into the skin. "It must have been some sort of side-effect to the magic."

"How do you know?" Mona asked gently.

"My eyes are not blue!" He yelled, enraged. True to his word, his irises were a deep azure color, a fact that he had somehow missed for several days. Then again, he never was bothered to look at his new form.

"And what color are- er, were- they?"

"I remember them being…" he paused as he attempted to recall. Quickly, he grew annoyed, and his nails sunk deeper into his cheek. Finally, it came to him. "Amber," he whispered.

"Amber?" Mona parroted.

Plague Knight nodded vigorously, his hand finally peeling itself from his face. "Yeah, I remember that! My eyes were the color of amber! My mother noted it, saying it looked strange, and-" he paused for a micro-second, his voice lowered as he suddenly remembered the extra detail, "that it fit a freak like me perfectly."

Mona scoffed. "And you believed her?"

"What do you mean?" Plague Knight asked, cocking his head to the side as he gazed at her refection.

"About you being a freak, what else?"

Plague Knight let out a bitter laugh. "I thought I had long since gotten over it, but apparently not."

"I guess that's not too much of a surprise. Something like your mother calling you a freak is bound to haunt you."

"But it shouldn't!" Plague Knight protested venomously. "It's been years since she died; her ghost shouldn't be fucking with my head now." He let out a small, shaky sigh that was half a sob. "Maybe it'd be better if I didn't change back. This face… it-" He didn't get to complete the thought, as Mona interrupted him.

"No!" She yelled.

"What?" Plague Knight asked.

"No," she replied, calmer this time. "I want to see your real face. I, for one, think that amber eyes would look pretty fucking sweet."

Plague Knight chuckled at her terminology.

"And just what are you laughing at?"

"'Pretty fucking sweet', huh?" He laughed, to which Mona averted her eyes as she realized just how ridiculous she sounded. "Alright, dear. Just for you."

Returning her gaze to its previous location, she muttered, "Good."

Plague Knight let out another snicker. "Oh? 'Good', not 'Thank you for so graciously deciding to return to your normal self for me and me alone'?"

Mona smiled, and crossed her arms across his chest in a backwards hug. "Fine then. Thank you for so graciously deciding to return to your normal self for me and me alone."

Plague Knight snorted. "I cannot believe I just got you to say that. In that case, I should have added that I was sexy as shit."

This comment prompted a return snort from Mona.

"You know you'd say it," Plague Knight told her smugly.

"Yes, I would, if only to appease you. Honestly, do you even realize that I can't tell if you're even remotely good looking when you wear baggy clothing and a mask?"

This thought gave Plague Knight pause. "Fair point," he conceded.

"Are you appeased now?"

Plague Knight hummed thoughtfully, relaxing in her arms. "Maybe, maybe not."

"Well, you'd better make your choice soon. I think Xenon is starting to get annoyed."

Plague Knight turned his head to look at the kitten. He was met with a stare that asked him in an irritated tone 'Can we go now?' After realizing that her friend had noticed her, the look on her face turned to an adorable pleading.

Plague Knight heaved a sigh as Mona removed her arms from around him. "Dammit, cat," he muttered. To his ire, this amused Mona for some arbitrary reason, and she grinned. "She's a feline. Don't they sleep wherever they so desire without any thought to what the humans think about it?"

Mona shrugged helplessly. "Maybe she's just special."

"Just what I need," Plague Knight said sarcastically.

"At least it's better than her sleeping on a paper you're attempting to read."

Plague Knight shook his head in exasperation. "I guess." He looked to the cat. "You don't need me to go to be sleep, you know."

Xenon continued to stare at him.

"Do you remember that she's too small to get onto your bed without assistance?" Mona asked.

"Then she can sleep on the floor!" Plague Knight yelled. "It's not that difficult!"

"Well, clearly it is. Come on." Mona straightened and followed Xenon, who moved as if leading the way to where she so desired to be, Plague Knight trailing behind with an unhappy look on his face.

Sorry if it confuses you as to why he had the idea to not return to his normal, adult, form. But think about it like this:

What would he gain? This story, if I wanted to shove it in with the canon, which I'm still deciding if I want to, would be before that, so he doesn't even know if Mona likes him, and let's face it, he clearly seems to have some sort of insecurity about it, probably believing that she could never see him like that. Therefore, he has no idea if reverting to his normal age would do anything besides shorten his lifespan (at least compared to his child self). And who wouldn't want to live an extra... 16-something years? I'm unsure of his actual age, but for some reason the number that pops into my mind first is 23. Mona comes off as 21...

Besides, what would he lose? Sure, he'd have to accommodate for his height for a while, but everyone would underestimate him, and no one would be finding 'Plague Knight' for a while because he's practically a different person. The only thing he'd really lose is the ability to actively fall in love and all that crap with anyone within his true age group.

Also, something interesting is that I believe things like your mother, say, chewing you out over something that wasn't even your fault, nor did you even know about can affect you later in life. I learned a couple months ago that my mother found out from her therapist that something that happened in elementary school affected her for a good long time afterwards, and the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous when thought about. Thought I'd say that.

Anyway, next time is the start of a new... well, I guess I could call it an 'ark'. Actually, I'm not sure of what to name it. Saga? I don't know, that might fit, since according to Google it's a long, involved story/series of incidents.