Hey everyone! Before this chapter starts, I wanna ask you something. Will you still follow Woodwork when Act 1 is over? Act 2: Myth will follow the adventures of the great Ryuga during the World Championships.

And I also want you to know that I read every review and appreciate them greatly! :D

Finally, this episode takes place after the tag-team battle with Yuu/Tsubasa vs. Benkei/DeMorae.

Okay, guys, have fun! :D

~Tsubasa's POV~

I smell flames, like hot waves running up my nostrils and into my lungs. I hear a child crying out.

Laughter. My laughter.

But I'm not laughing.

Then I know, with frightening certainty - it is the voice. It came back.

I failed.

Blackness wants to take me into unconsciousness. I surrender to it. If I am gone, then the destruction is gone.

I wake to incessant beeping near my ear; it is a heart monitor. A white ceiling fills my blurry vision. For a moment I'm disorientated, swimming sightless in a blurry pool of nothingness. Then I remember. I shut my eyes against the memory, but it's in my head.

I failed - again. I failed myself, I failed my team. I failed Japan.

The voice took over, catching me in a moment of desperation. What did I do?

I can't even remember if I won or not. If I lost, Japan is out of the World Championships. Then it's my fault.

My mind reels for a moment. Did I hurt anybody? What happened to Yuu? He was right there next to me. I remember him crying out in fear. I press the heels of my hands to my eyes, and the plastic of an IV scrapes my cheek.

If only you had let me take full control, you wouldn't be here.

I startle. Who is speaking to me? The room is empty. The heart monitor beeps faster with my racing adrenaline.

See? - So cowardly, aren't you? I could have gotten you out of there without a single scratch, but no! - You passed out instead!

All of a sudden I can't breathe. My worst nightmare is coming true.

The voice. It's escaped its confines. It's here, in my mind. I had kept it pent up until now, but it's gotten free.

Just let me talk to you.

"No", I whisper. My voice is faint and hoarse. My throat is dry. The heart monitor plays almost a single steady stream, my heart is beating so fast...darkness calls to me again, and then I am gone.

~Nile's POV~

I feel conspicuous. I'm not used to being around so many people, and hospitals are a rare experience for me. Something sharp is in the air. It stings my lungs. This is why Egypt was much better.

The carpet in the waiting room is the ugly colour of rotting walnuts. It's too hot in here. Suddenly I can't wait anymore. I need to get in and out of here as quickly as possible; I can't believe I'm even doing this. I owe Tsubasa nothing, and yet...

I know what it's like to be on my own. Maybe that's why I'm here.

I follow an orderly discreetly through the heavy doors nearby, presuming this is where the patients are. I hate big spaces. I hate being lost. I hope I fins Tsubasa quickly so I can leave.

I peek through the glass partitions in each door of the rooms I pass. For a moment I am startled by a patient moving inside a room, and then I turn and find the orderly staring at me confusedly.

"I don't think you're supposed to be back here", he says uncertainly.

"I'm here to see a friend", I tell him. "Tsubasa Otori. He got knocked out in a battle today."

"Oh, yeah. I know who you're talking about. Do you have permission to be back here, though?"

I glance at an imaginary watch. "Uh...what time is it? - Listen, I've really gotta be somewhere. Just let me see him for a minute. You can watch from right outside the door. I just need to give him something before I leave."

He looks uncertain, and for a second I'm afraid he'll make me leave and I'll have wasted my time. But then he leads me to a door a couple of feet away. "Just be quick about it."

I thank him and then step through the door.

~Tsubasa's POV~

Voices wake me. I don't remember going to sleep. I must have had a panic attack and passed out.

"...for a minute. You can watch..."

The voices float in and out of focus, like the sun behind fast-moving clouds. I force my eyes open as the door unlocks, and a moment later someone steps in. It takes me a while to figure out who it is, and then there is the question of why.

Why would Nile come to see me at the hospital? He steps closer to the bed and for a second I am apprehensive. Why is he here? But it is the voice influencing me again, making me paranoid for its own sake. It is afraid. I am not.

Silently he sets a small parcel on the table beside me and is gone. In and out of the room; no words.

I reach for the parcel he has left me, squinting at it through bleary eyes. It appears to be wrapped in a cloth napkin. I wonder briefly if he stole it from a restaurant. It falls open in my quaking hands and a small object flutters onto the blanket.

No note. No tag. It speaks for itself.

A single long, brown feather. It could be any old feather, but I know. It is Eagle's. Nile brought it to let me know that I still have someone beside me - above me; I'm not alone.

I'm never alone.