Dianna's sight was so blurred by tears that had she not known the way by rote, she likely would have had to stop walking until she composed herself. As it was she let the tears fall. They got heavier as he started talking to her.

You're just delaying the inevitable.

She was too tired to respond.

We'll never have another opportunity like this. Your mother cannot defeat me in her condition. Neither can your aunt.

"All the more reason to destroy us now."

I'll only be more powerful in my next host.

"That's not my problem." She said as the trees started to thicken.

But then you won't be able to see the suffering. You won't see the world burn.

"Just shut up!" she said as she clutched her head.

You know you want to see the world burn.

"Not nearly as much as I want to spite you." she said as the world grew darker as the canopy of trees grew thicker. "Murdering my baby was the wrong way to go."

It worked the first time.

"But not this one!"

Dianna finally got to her clearing. She took a deep breath as she knelt down on the grass and drew her bag in front of her. She opened it and pulled out her sharp knife that she used for surgeries. She put it to her throat, the blade cold against her flesh. She took a deep breath.

"So it's come to this."

Dianna screeched as she jumped, cutting herself. But it was only a shallow cut. She put her hand to her wound and looked at the grass, shocked that she'd not even heard Attie approach. She exhaled, "What are you doing here?"

Attie leaned against a tree and folded her arms, "I saw how you and Min were. I was worried about you so I stayed close to her house. When I saw you walking in this direction I knew I had to follow you."

Take her down. On her own she is no threat to us. Take her down and no one can stop us!

Dianna shook her head and clenched her eyes shut, "I'm not letting him take over if that's what you're worried about."

Attie's blue eyes flashed, "I'm worried about you! I'm worried that you have a knife to your throat!"

She's worried about having to explain to your parents. She doesn't really care about you. Take her down!

Dianna shook her head, "The whole time I was there I wanted to kill Min's baby."

"But you didn't!" Attie said, "He's fine!"

"But it's only a matter of time before I hurt someone!" Dianna said, "Or before I give him what he wants."

She gasped as she felt him gain power. She saw Attie stand up straighter and Dianna realized her aura must have been changing. Dianna put the knife back to her neck, "Better turn around and go. It'll be easier for everyone. Mom and Dad have a new baby, they can't be worrying about me. Same with Aunt Luna."

"Fine, then." Attie said as she walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "If you're going to do this then do it. But you're going to have to do it with me watching. But I want you to fight him. And if you do, you'll fight him with me beside you. But if you really want to kill yourself, then you'll have to do it in front of me. Either way, I'm standing right beside you."

Dianna sobbed as she dropped the knife. Attie breathed a sigh of relief as she knelt down to pick it up. Dianna collapsed onto her lap. Attie stroked her hair, shaking with adrenaline. "Dammit, Di. If you weren't here who would go to the pub with me when I'm home? Min is too busy playing hostess, advancing her career and raising her kids. And I certainly can't go with our parents. Do you know how much I would miss you if you were gone?"

Dianna gasped for air, "I'm sorry. I'm just so tired."

Attie took a deep breath, "Then let's get you home and get you to bed."

"I can't face Kenneth right now."

Attie looked up at the cover of the trees. She was used to camping outdoors, but something about this place that attracted Dianna so gave her the shudders. Still, she was dead serious when she told her she would fight him with her. "Then rest here. I'll be right here when you wake up."

Gourry gently rocked Pomona back and forth as she lay on his chest, sleeping contentedly while he stared out of the window and reflected. Pomona's slight weight was so reassuring. He knew exactly where she was and that she was safe. As for his three adult daughters, well, that was a different story.

The last of the daylight was vanishing, and it had been hours since he'd heard from them. He worried about Min with her long, difficult labors. He worried about Dianna and her mental instability. And he worried about their typically stalwart Attie, who had been their messenger, relaying news between their households. But they'd not see her since late that morning when she left to find a midwife for Luna (who, incidentally, they'd also not heard from).

Gourry looked at Lina, who was getting some much needed sleep. They may have had spells to heal the physical damage that labor wrought, but it didn't mean that it still wasn't taxing on her body. Dianna had even explained once that, since the Recovery spell took energy from a person's body to be performed, it was even more imperative that a postpartum mother rest least she fatally exhaust herself. The thought of leaving her alone with Pomona was terrifying. What if she overdid it while he was away? But then, so was the thought of leaving the house with a newborn he could not feed. But he was almost ready to chance it. He was desperate for news about his girls.

Pomona started to fuss as she rooted for a nipple. Gourry sighed and got up and gently put a hand on Lina's arm before coaxing Pomona beside her. Even though it had been twenty years since they had Attie, Lina still managed to bring her to her breast in a half sleep state and got her to latch on with barely waking. Surely they would be fine while he went to check on Min?

"Hm." Lina murmured as she opened her eyes, closed them, and then opened them again in alarm as she looked out the window again and saw how dark it was getting. "Is it that late already?"

Gourry nodded.

"Any news?"

"None."

Lina bit her lip worriedly, "Why don't you see what is happening?"

"Will you be okay?"

Lina smiled, "We'll be fine. Go check on them."

"It's a boy!" Drake announced joyfully as he opened the door and let Gourry in.

Gourry felt some relief. That Drake was joyful indicated that Min and the baby had both made it through the ordeal okay. "That's wonderful." Gourry said as he followed him into the house. "Are Dianna and Attie here?"

"Attie? I think I saw her hanging around the house when I came in. That was some time ago. Di left after the baby was born. Not sure where she went."

"Hi Dad." Min said as they walked into the room, "You ready to meet Wally?"

Gourry smiled as he picked up his newest grandson. "Welcome, little one." He said.

But his anxiety prevented him from fulling enjoying the moment. "Min, do you know where Di went? We've not seen her since she left to help you this morning."

"Oh," Min said, "Well, we heard from Attie that Aunt Luna had gone into labor. Perhaps she's with her? Dammit, I should have asked her where she was headed before she left."

Gourry patted her knee, "I'm sure you had other things on your mind. I'll check back as soon as I can."

Gourry barged into his in-laws house hoping against hope that Dianna had decided to go there.

"Hello?" he called when he found the ground floor empty. He looked at the stairs, but he was nervous about intruding on his fearsome sister-in-law.

His father-in-law suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, looking morose. "Gourry." He said he climbed down the stairs. "Is Di with you?"

Gourry's heartrate accelerated. "No, I was looking for her, actually. Why, what's wrong?"

Mr. Inverse chewed his cigarette as he got to the bottom of the stairs and sat at the kitchen table, looking in a state of shock. "Luna's fine. But her baby...She really wants to talk to Dianna."

Troubling as the news was, what was more troubling to Gourry was that Dianna was not there. He started mentally smacking himself. Dianna had been so fragile after her latest miscarriage. And with all of them busy birthing and caring for babies, somehow the rigorous watch they'd always kept on Di had faltered. Gourry debated going to her house or checking the woods first. He settled on the woods. If she was at home asleep the world would be safe either way. But if she was in the woods…

"I'll send her over as soon as I find her."

There was a part of the canopy that thickened right before it thinned dramatically. But until that happened, Gourry never had a clue about what it was he would find. Dianna peacefully tending to her shrine? A field of slaughtered animals with no trace of Dianna? Or worse, bodies? Or nothing? The possibilities petrified him. And in the dark, it was only worse.

He pulled back some branches and exhaled as he solved the mystery of what happened to not just one, but two of his daughters. Dianna lay slumped in Attie's lap. It was easy to piece together what had happened. He saw a knife on the forest floor and a trace of blood from a shallow wound on her neck, but thankfully it looked as though Attie had stopped her. Attie was dozing and stirred as she heard him approach. She smacked her lips as she swiped at her face, obviously exhausted. "Hey." She said.

"Hey." Gourry said as he came up and knelt beside them. Dianna didn't even stir. He put a hand on Attie's shoulder, still shaky from relief. "How is she?"

Attie looked at her sister, "I think she'll be fine now. I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner. When I saw how she was while Min was in labor I was worried. I mean, she was fraying pretty bad, you know? I was so scared that if I even left to tell you what was up she would flee and do something stupid so I stayed around just in case."

Gourry wrapped her in a sideways hug, "You look like you did fine."

Attie smiled, "How's my newest sister?"

"She's amazing." He said.

Dianna's eyes suddenly shot open. "Dad?"

"Hey," he said as he pulled her into a hug, too giddy with relief to be mad, "I thought I told you to take care of yourself."

Dianna sighed as any hope of this brush with suicide being kept a secret between her and Attie vanished. But then, Dianna was resigned to the loss of privacy that most adults enjoyed. Sometimes she wondered if her family passed around a newsletter with the latest gossip about her printed on it. "Min had a very difficult delivery. It was all I could do to take care of her."

Gourry pulled away, "Your neck."

"Here." Attie said, "Recovery."

It didn't take long to heal the wound, and Dianna found some rags to clean it with. Fortunately the blood did not stand out against her red robes. As Dianna was gathering her stuff she asked, "How are Mom and the baby?"

"Doing well." Gourry said, suddenly anxious to get back to them now. Attie was more than capable of caring for Dianna.

"How about Min? Have you seen your new grandson yet?" she asked as she finished packing her bag and they started to walk through the woods.

"Yes, they're both doing well."

Dianna relaxed. Surely if she had messed up and harmed him then he would have been floundering by now. Her fears truly had been in her own head. But there was still another person she had to check on, "Any word on Aunt Luna?"

"Oh," Gourry said. "I can't believe I forgot. She's asking for you actually. Something is wrong with her baby. I'm not sure what, though."

Dianna had been worried that it was some sort of negligence on Connie's part that had harmed Luna's baby. But as soon as she saw him resting on Luna's chest, she realized that even if she had been there the whole time nothing would have changed. Sometimes there's just nothing that can be done for the babies.

"Oh Aunt Luna." She said. The first thing she had noticed was that, for a full term baby, he was tiny. Then more troubling things became apparent. The bluish tint to his skin. His facial features with the small, slanted eyes and flat nose. His tiny chin and mouth. Like many babies with such features, Dianna could tell just by looking at him that he had a fatal heart problem. It was the reason his skin was blue. She estimated that he wouldn't make it through the night. "I'm so sorry."

Her formidable aunt was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the window. "Sit down."

Dianna felt nervous as she did as she was asked. Her relationship with Luna was complex to say the least. Her feelings about her mixed. She wasn't even sure if those feelings were from her or from Shabranigdu. But she did fear Luna greatly. Was she mad at her for not catching it? She waited anxiously for Luna to say something else, but she didn't.

But, sad as she was for Luna, there was also a feeling of great sympathy. And, horrible though it may be, Dianna was now not the only one in the family who would be grieving the loss of a baby. And somehow, the fact that it was Luna, the most powerful member of the family, made it easier. Because of their curses, they both shouldered heavier burdens.

Finally Dianna could not stand the silence anymore, "I guess it makes sense. I carry the soul of Shabranigdu. You carry Ceifeed's. Neither of our passengers would want a family to interfere with what they want for us."

Luna's mouth pursed. "Don't go making the mistake in thinking they curse their human host with the same trials just because they want opposite ends of the same spectrum. Ceifeed would have loved for me to have children. Because of my power they would have been powerful allies for him. This was not Ceifeed's doing. I guess it was something wrong with me."

"Aunt Luna, plenty of women who have a baby like this have had healthy babies." Dianna said. "Give yourself a few months to recover and we can dredge up that statue and…"

Luna put a hand on her arm. "I never understood you."

Dianna looked at her, paralyzed with fear over what she would say.

"Until now."

Dianna waited for her to continue. Luna sighed, "I never wanted a child. Serving Ceifeed has dominated my life so thoroughly that I never had room for anything else. And it was one thing he wanted from me that was my right to refuse him. This much, and nothing more."

Luna stopped for a moment as she readjusted the baby and then continued, "I never understood why, given how Shabranigdu dominated your life, you tried to have anything resembling a normal one. For me, I embraced the powers I was given. But then, you can't exactly embrace your powers, can you? They stem from the source of evil, so unlike me, you had to embrace being human if you were going to fight him. I didn't understand that until now. Wanting a family was your way of asserting your humanity, only he wouldn't let you have it."

Dianna stiffened, unsure of what to think about what she was saying. Luna continued, "I couldn't understand why, given how much effort pregnancy is and how miserable it makes women, you would go through it over and over just to come to the same tragic outcome. But now I see, when you put so much effort into something and get nothing out of it you feel cheated."

Dianna looked at her cautiously as she continued. "I didn't want a baby, but now that I'm not going to have him for long I feel cheated."

Dianna batted away tears, "You know, this is still so fresh. You don't have to make any decisions right now."

Luna reached out and stroked Dianna's hair, "I know I've been hard on you. And I know that you truly are your parents' daughter. But you were the closest thing I have to a child of my own until today. Closer even than your sisters. I didn't have to train them like I did you."

Dianna wiped away tears from her eyes as Luna continued, "And the best thing was that when I got tired of you I could saddle you with my sister and she couldn't send you away because you were hers!"

Dianna gave a watery laugh and wrapped her into a hug. Luna looked at her son, "This could become my obsession. But I don't want it to be. Perhaps I could go on to have a healthy one, but seven years later I could find myself in your position. I'm going to end this here."

Dianna nodded, "Do you want me to stay or go?"

Luna stroked her son's dark hair. "I want to be alone with him. While I can."

Dianna nodded. "I'll check on you in the morning."

Dianna quietly walked into her parents' house. She still wasn't ready to face Kenneth. And besides, she had to do her rounds. She walked over to her parents' room and knocked as she came in, "And how are we settling in?"

Lina looked up from the bed where she was nursing Pomona while Gourry was sorting through some linens. "Going well." Lina said. "She's nursing like a champ and I'm starting to get my energy back."

Dianna sat on the bed, "Well, you're still bedbound for another day."

Lina smiled at her indulgently, "Yes ma'am."

"Stop lying." Gourry said, "I caught you out of bed twice already. One more time and I'll have to tie you down!"

"Shut up, Gourry." Lina said. "How are you doing, Di?"

"I'm better now." She said. And she was telling the truth. The fact that she was now not the only woman in the family to lose a baby had helped her gain some perspective. And that she had been in no way involved with the delivery and could say with a clear conscience that she had not doomed Luna's baby also helped.

Lina smiled at her, but Dianna picked up on the worried tint to it. "Hey, your father and I were talking and we were wondering if you wanted to be her godmother."

Dianna looked at her in surprise. Somehow she had thought they would appoint Attie for the job. "Really?"

"Of course. I'm afraid we can't let you alone with her, but we want you to be a part of her life, and, well, your father and I aren't as young as we used to be so we're going to need a bit of help with her, so you can come over as much as you want and change all of the diapers you want!"

Dianna laughed and put a hand on her knee as she remembered some of the things Luna had said. "I'd be honored." Then Dianna smiled as she looked at the baby, "And hand her over and let me hold her before I fireball you!"