Run, run, run. As fast as you can.

Are you running to something?

Are you running from something?

Are you just running?

Run, run, run. Before they get you.

With an awkwardness I never knew I had, I pushed the sliding sunglasses back up my nose. They didn't really fit over the eyepatch, still hidden behind my bangs, but it was the best I could hope for. Miku kept readjusting her baseball cap. Len fidgeted where he stood. Only Rui, Zeito, and Mikuo looked as if they knew what they were doing. It may have been my idea, and one that was accepted only out of desperation, but they seemed to be the most confident in it.

Then again, just because they appeared confident didn't mean they were totally trusting these lame disguises.

Hide in plain sight. That was my strategy. No one could think of anything better. With no other options, we settled. So far, it was working.

Of course, I had no plans to celebrate until we were sure that we were out of the pressing dangers that forced us to flee in the first place.

With little time to escape, we ran to the portal in the middle of this Love World. Love Wreckers and Love Makers alike looked at the six of us – Ona had chosen to stay behind – as we frantically dashed to the center of the market place, but no one stopped us. It struck me as odd that we didn't run into any opposition during our trek there. Did the rogues not take any of the main portals? Did they have their own pocket portals? Rui said that as far as she knew, the technology belonged only to Tonio's groups. Did the Streamers take any pocket portals for themselves when they invaded the place in which Nero and I had spent many weeks together? Were they using them now to go directly to where we were supposed to be?

I had no answers to any of the questions. It didn't cross my mind to ask myself any of them. Up to that point, I had only focused on getting the six of us safely through the portal, have us go somewhere – anywhere – within the human world, and alter our appearances just enough so that we would need a second glance for a rogue Love Wrecker to know who we are.

Hopefully nobody would spare us a second glance.

We made it through, went someplace we deemed "safe," and waited. Ona was supposed to meet up with us after she saw the army that was trying to capture us and observed how many there were and how they reacted when they couldn't find us. She was supposed to. While we waited for her, the rest of us wandered around like those incredibly lost – which we were, but nobody else needed to know that. Agonizing minutes turned into soul wrenching hours, and still Ona didn't show. We had walked down every street, looked through ever shop, and rested at every café, but there was still no sign of Ona. We needed to figure out what we were going to do: we couldn't wander forever. People were already started to give us strange looks, and it was only a matter of time before someone called the police to report our suspicious behavior.

"We need to find somewhere to stop for the night." It was Len who finally made the suggestion. "If we keep wandering around like we have, it will only be a matter of time before we're found by the wrong people. We have to stop."

Nobody argued. I think we all wanted to keep going in order to escape the monsters that would never cease chasing us, but I believe we all wanted to rest more. To lie down in a warm bed, to see some of your closest friends by your side, to laugh at the nonsense things friends say and do when they're together – that's what I tried to pretend. Maybe if I thought of this as a fun sleepover, then maybe I could sleep through that night without worrying about being caught or worrying about what was happening to Nero as I lied my head down for the night. If I just pretended hard enough, I could forget, even momentarily.

I didn't pretend hard enough.

Deeming it too risky to rent a motel room, we found a quiet place under a bridge to rest till sunrise. Fortunately, no homeless people came by and demanded that we leave their spot. Other than the sounds and lights coming from the passing vehicles above us, there were no signs of life. No owls or rats dared come into our view. Even the river beside us seemed empty of life. For the night, we could falsely convince ourselves that we were truly, utterly alone.

Thank goodness that it was near summer when this happened. Nobody had to start a fire, and nobody would have if we really needed it. The smoke from the flames would attract unwanted attention, and I think it goes without saying that we would have rather froze to death that night than risk being found and captured by the Streamers.

For hours we didn't sleep. The six of us watched the sun set and maintained a steady, hushed conversation. There was no time to waste. We needed an action plan, and we needed it now.

"Maybe we could find another hideout. . . ." Rui suggested the idea, but her trailing voice told us how confident she was in the plan.

"We could stay in the human world and pretend to be homeless." Zeito shrugged. "Just until we can find someone to help, that is."

"Can't we just go to the police?" Miku suggested. She had her knees tucked closely to her chest, and her glasses were foggy. From oncoming tears, I guessed. "Isn't there a police system in the Love World that will help us?"

"It's too risky." Len shook his head. He and I sat next to each other, my head on his shoulder. I didn't want to participate. Not yet. I needed to see what everyone else was thinking before I made any unnecessary comments.

"People like Rin and Len," Mikuo winced, "people like you and me, don't belong in their society. It would be no different than you or I, as Americans, going to the Mexican police."

"But what about Rin and Len?" Miku asked, brows furrowed. "Won't the people in the Love World they grew up in be more sympathetic? They wouldn't just leave us to the Streamers!"

"They would if they knew what Rin and Len are," Rui answered. "The existence of you four alone challenges a system that has been in motion since the beginning of our time. Love People have no other way to cling to. It would be the same as proving to any religious group that their god isn't real. They either lose faith entirely, life no longer has meaning, and everything they have ever known from there spirals out of control, or they hold onto their faith anyway and murder those who dare speak otherwise." Miku paled. Rui narrowed her eyes. "Do you now see why we can't just 'go to the police'?" Her face ashen, Miku nodded.

"Are you saying that we're going to have to live life constantly on the move?" Len screwed his face up. "That if we are to live, we have to either be running or hiding? This can't be right!"

"Oh, Brother, it is." I weave my fingers through Len's. When I did that, I noticed Miku watch the motion and then quickly turn her head away. Her demeanor was one I couldn't read. "Don't you know by now that nobody wants to accept anything they can't understand? They would rather destroy it. You're aware of this, aren't you?"

"Of course I am." Len sighed. "It's just . . . if this was how life was going to end up for us anyway, shouldn't we have started it sooner rather than later? At least none of this would be happening right now."

"Now's not the time for regrets," Rui cut in. "All we have left to do is move forward."

"Just where exactly is forward, Rui?" Zeito asked.

Opening and closing her mouth, Rui stared at each of us before finally answering, "I don't know." She settled closer to Zeito. "I really don't know."

All the while, Mikuo watched us in silence. He rarely spoke after that. Hugging his arms to his chest, he watched with a haunting look in his eyes. I didn't know what it meant, but I would have ended him in a heartbeat right then and there if I did.

Let it be known.

Don't be mistaken.

You might be hurting someone by going after those they love, but you're also giving them one more reason to hate you.

With no other plans to work towards, we settled for Zeito's idea to live like homeless people. In constant motion, we never had time to take in where we were. The only time our location mattered was when we needed to find someplace to rest each night. As the days continued to pass, we continued to look more and more the homeless part.

Truly, we were homeless. None of us had a place to go back to, a family to take us in. Not at any moment did we feel safe. We kept checking behind our backs, just waiting for our pursuers to catch up with us and take us over once again. Good thing I had spent my entire life under such mental and emotional stress, or else I would have slowly submerged into a mad wreck. I know this because that's exactly what Miku was doing.

"Why don't we just turn ourselves in already?!" she demanded one evening as we walked down the road. We had entered the country the day before and continued to follow the path until we came by an old town or something. There was no idea what we were going to find. Nobody knew what to do anymore. All we knew we wanted was to be out of the open, where anyone and everyone could see us.

"Are you crazy?" I glared at her. We were walking side-by-side, but that was going to change real fast if she didn't stop her handwringing and mumbling. She and I walked behind everyone else, so no one would see me trip Miku and keep walking as we left her in the dust.

"I can't take this anymore!" Tears poured from her eyes. "If they're going to find us anyway, then why don't we just turn ourselves in and get it over with? Carrying all this pressure is no way to live."

"Welcome to fourteen years of my life," I snarled. "Do you remember what they did when they had you? Because I only know what Len told me, and that alone still gives me nightmares! How is this worse than experiencing that? We might not be safe, nor will we ever be again, but at least we're not being treated as guinea pigs."

"But if we're never going to be safe again, then why are we even trying?"

I won't pretend that Miku didn't get me there, but I still had my answer ready for her. "Because we can't just give up. That would be a worse existence, don't you think? To just let it all go and have nothing to look forward to? To abandon all hopes and dreams? Is that what you want? Is that what you really want?"

Her shoulders shook, and she tried to hide her misty eyes behind her bangs. Wiping her nose before hugging herself, Miku simply whispered, "I just want to stop being so scared. I want to stop fearing and to stop hurting. When will it stop?"

Not knowing why I did it, I reached out and placed a hand on Miku's shoulder. If everyone else was listening on our conversation, they did nothing to show it. "I'm sorry I hurt you," I told Miku. "Perhaps Len was right all along. Maybe I am too cruel."

"Hell yeah, you are." Despite everything, it must have no longer been a touchy subject for Miku. She smiled as she continued, "You got me physically, mentally, and emotionally, Rin. You're worse than any ex-boyfriend I'll ever have."

Her comment made me chuckle. "I wanted to make sure that you would never, ever get back with Kaito, and now I realize that I unconsciously made sure that I could never have a chance with you, either. Guess the most I can hope for from you now is a relationship as allies?"

"You really played yourself on never getting more from me, huh?"

"Seems so, my dear. Seems so."

It wasn't until she and I were smiling at each other, shoulders shaking with restrained laughs that I realized what we were doing. I never truly understood how friendships work. Were they something that built over an extended period of time? Were they born in an instant? Did you not know that you were friends with someone until moments like this? Not until then, Miku was just someone I felt obligated to help because I was the very reason she went through all of this in the first place. After we shared our deep conversations and joked around look old pals, I discovered that I genuinely liked her as a person and was willing to do everything within my power to protect her.

In another life, we would have been best friends. With the life we've been given, I guess . . . whatever this was would have to do. Were we friends? I don't know, but in that moment, of course we were.

"Len does care for you," I told Miku, ready to dive back into the deep end of the conversation pool. She, on the other hand, did not look eager, but I continued forward anyway. "He might suck at showing it, but Len does care about you in a way he doesn't care about anyone else."

Eyes drawn away, Miku replied, hugging herself, "He told me that he didn't love me anymore. He said that I had become someone who wasn't afraid to destroy another's happiness at the sake of her own, someone he could never love."

"It's not you Len could never love, but those traits." It was my turn to hug myself. "That's typical behavior for a Love Wrecker, you know. Len hates all the Love Wrecker stereotypes. They're what I had to become, what he never wanted to be. You gave up and gave in to your true nature, and all this time, Len had fought it. I don't think it was you he fell out of love with. It was watching you become what he never wanted to be that convinced him that he was wrong to have feelings for you."

For a while, neither of us said anything. We both stared at the back of Len's head. He could tell he was being watched, too. Every so often, he would turn around and look at us. The first few times, he would smile. After he had turned around one too many times, he began to look at us with concern.

"You okay?" he mouthed at one point.

"Fine," I mouthed back. It was a lie. I knew it. He knew it. He knew I knew it. Yet he turned around and kept walking forward. By now Rui, Zeito, and Mikuo were having a full-on conversation. Their topics were mainly trips down memory lane, so there wasn't much room for Len to participate. He seemed all right just listening to the three talk, however, so I didn't think much about it.

"He really does love you," Miku finally said, shattering the silence between us. "Len, I mean. He spoke of you often when we were together. If it came down to it, he would lay his life down for you in a heartbeat."

"It better not come down to it." I shook my head, hyperaware of my eyepatch once again. It was easy to forget, but when I thought about it, this was something I couldn't take my mind off of. "If anyone else has to be hurt, I don't know what I'd do. This has gone on long enough already."

"Agreed." Miku sighed. "Agreed."

At what point do you give up on those you love? When is it too late? Is it ever too late?

Before, I would scoff at those who would risk everything for those they loved.

Yet the hypocrite I was had done the exact same thing this entire time.

We had traveled for days we could no longer number. The last time we had eaten even a scrap of food was a distant memory. Our clothes, having spent ages clinging to our sweaty bodies, were as good as a part of our flesh. Wearing shoes that have worn out, our feet ached with each step. How far had we traveled? Why did we keep moving forward? What or who were we hoping to find?

Mikuo was the one who was most insistent that we stick to this seemingly pointless plan. Sooner or later, our friends would find us. We would be under protection again. There was no reason to fear.

And the fool that I was believed those lies.

"If anything ever happens to me," I whispered to Miku one night, "blame the person you would least suspect."

Wide-eyed, Miku shot her face in my direction so that she could look straight at me. That night we slept in an alley, snuggled between dumpsters and other rotting trash. The others were nearby, but the steady breathing they displayed for the past hour indicated that they were asleep. Only Miku's restlessness gave away that she was awake.

"Why would you say something like that?" she whispered, her words more horror-stricken then I would imagine. The fear of being caught still hovered over her like an anvil that would drop at any moment, but by this point, she had learned to conceal her emotions a lot better. Her showing fear now told me that if I had reason to worry, then she had all reasons in the world to fear the worst.

"Call it paranoia, but I have a feeling the Streamers weren't really after us that day."

Miku didn't respond. All she did was turn onto her other side, facing away from me. Whatever was going through her head, she was not going to let any of it show. If that's how she wanted to be, fine.

Ironically enough, it was three nights later that it happened.

Perhaps it was the uncomfortable position I was in, or maybe it was something more I could never be able to explain, but I woke up in the dead of the night, my skin clammy from a cold sweat. If I had a nightmare, I didn't recall it. I quickly evaluated my surroundings. Len, Miku, Rui, and Zeito were asleep. Mikuo was nowhere to be found.

Heart caught in my throat, I slowly rose to shaky feet and began to search for him. He woke up and had to use the bathroom, right? Just something that normal, right? Why else would he be gone?

Ignoring the warning bells that went off in my head, ordering I stay exactly where I was, I rolled over and pushed myself to my feet. I should have woken someone up to go with me. The fear of being wrong and worrying another for no reason stopped me from seeking the company I needed. Had I been a bit braver in taking that chance, perhaps the events that immediately followed would not have taken place.

The voices were what I heard first after I traveled a few blocks. The tones I picked up next. I stopped in my tracks.

"They're tired, hungry, and weak – all from this pointless travel. What more do you require from me? Hasn't this whole unplanned road trip been enough?"

I froze, blood pounding in my ears. That was Mikuo. The little bi-

"Tie up the blonde girl and gag your sister, and then we will consider your work satisfactory." This voice belonged to a woman. Her pitch was high, but her words came out in quick bites. "In case you have forgotten, your sister isn't bound. As for that pretend Love Wrecker . . ." A sigh. "Her brother was bad enough, and if she's half as bad as I expect her to be, I don't want to take any chances."

Silence, and then, "I understand."

"Well I freaking don't."

Okay, perhaps it was pretty stupid to come out of hiding and make myself known, but I was acting purely on instinct. None of my actions were thought through. As reckless as it is, that's when I'm my most brave. I have yet to decide if that's a bad thing.

"What the actual hell, Mikuo?" I threw my arms up. "How long have you been going behind everyone's back? After Nero I rescued Len and Miku? After we fled the home and Nero was left behind? The whole time?" I narrowed my eyes. "Was your friendship with Rui and Zeito ever even real?"

Mikuo had the nerve to look ashamed as he all of a sudden found his shoes of great interest. The other speaker, the woman, smiled at me as she studied me with her ginger eyes. She came alone, or so it seemed. In times such as this, no way I was going to judge by appearances alone.

"You're the sister of that foul-mouthed Love Wrecker." The woman looked me up and down. Her clothing was all gray. A Streamer. "Mr. G is very interested in you, Rin Kagamine. Why, I don't think your missing eye would matter to him that's how much he wants you. He's never been one to care whether or not his items were damaged."

Maybe random strangers knowing my name was supposed to throw me off a little bit, but I had been through enough to know not to question anything. From what I could gather in those few seconds between replies, this woman knew who I was, what I was, and pretty much everything else about me. By this point, I gave up in believing that I had at any period some sort of private life.

"What happened to him?" I snarled, unable to form any other words. He had to be alive. He had to be okay.

"What happened to whom? Him?" The ginger cocked her head to the side. The she giggled. I wanted to rip her throat our with my teeth. "Oh, him. The really cute, goofy dirty blond with the dimple and great sense of humor."

I growled. She laughed. "You had better tell me what happened to him before I make you tell me," I threatened.

Huffing, the woman placed her hands on her hips and places all her weight on one leg. "He's in one piece, if that's what you're asking. Honest, we took good care of him. He would have been a useless package deal if he was damaged."

"And I should believe you because?" I asked.

The woman looked at Mikuo, who curled so far into himself it was as if he was trying to vanish from our presence. "Ask that one," she answered. "He's spoken with the blond recently. He's a witness to prove what I say is truth."

Eye glaring at Mikuo, I spit out each word. "Where. Is. Nero?"

Mikuo's Adam's apple bobbled. "Nero's okay. I swear! They were just saving him for a trade, when we were sure you would accept the trade offer."

"When we were sure." Mikuo was involved in this. He was involved in all of this!

"How long, Mikuo?" I asked, the words forced through my teeth. "How long have you been going behind our backs? And where's Ona?"

"No need to worry about that now." The ginger waved a hand. "What you should be concerned about is this trade he and I have been discussing."

I felt my heart throb in my throat. "What kind of trade?"

"Why, I think it's obvious," she answered with a smile. "In exchange for the safe return of your friend and the promised safety of the rest of your friends, we want you, Rin Kagamine. Leon G wants you specifically."