Oh wow, it's been 20 days since I last updated! Sorry about that! We're almost to the end now. We only have about two chapters left now, if that. So, enjoy this chappy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Warning!: Did a half-assed job of editing so sorry for any grammar errors, awkward sentences, ect.

Chapter 18: Truths and Losses

Gene rushed from the room followed by Yasu, Mai and Naru. The rest of the group sat there in stunned, inconsolable silence, Desi standing off to the side because the grief of the room was not grief he could share in. Turning to the window, he watched as Gene ran out of the house, turning in a circle with rage painted across his face.

"Desi," a soft voice he could have recognized even if he was on the edge of death whispered behind him.

"Nat!" Desi breathed, turning to find the woman they called Masako standing behind him with a soft, sad expression. The woman's eyes had lightened from black to Natalia's natural crimson. He blinked and Masako's appearance melted away. In her place stood Natalia, whole and unharmed. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close.

She returned his hug, squeezing him tightly. "I need you to do something for me," she whispered in his ear so the others couldn't hear her. She'd let Desi explain her plan after. It only needed one person to carry out, but more hands were never unwelcome.

"Of course, what is it? I'll do anything within my power," he told her in the same quiet tone, burying his nose in her hair. He tried to ignore the hole that was being burned into his back by a certain Australian priest.

Smiling against the side of his neck, she said, "I'm going to try and kill Ash, or as close to killing him as i can get."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist. She was so much small in Masako's body than she was in her own. The discrepancies were throwing him off. Normally, he was shorter than Nat.

Nat's breath was hot on his neck. "I need you to gather all of the children. Each and every one of them has something to contribute. If we can overwhelm them and then reach in and rip the souls he's collected from him, I think we can do it. They'll need to work harder than they ever have before with their abilities, and he'll fight back, but they can do it. I know they can. We can't do it without them. If we succeed, we'll help them find homes, and they'll finally be rid of this place," she whispered.

"I can do that. How long do I have to get them together? Where do you need them?" Desi clutched at the back of her t-shirt, but his hand only slipped on the slick material of Masako's kimono.

"I'll give you a signal. Just be watching from windows somewhere. You can open them, but you don't have to be. I don't think you'll have to wait long." Nat pulled away, the sad smile back to curving down her lips.

"Why do you think that?" he asked.

"One," she said, pointing towards the door. The pounding of a hundred tiny feet stormed passed, rushing for the front of the house. "Two, he's calling me back."

Desi frowned. "He's-" Natalia flickered. "Wait, no, you can't go!" He grabbed her shoulders as if that would keep her bound in Masako's body.

"I have to," Nat told him. She took his face, quickly pressing her lips to his. When she pulled away, Masako's black eyes blinked up at him, the last of the crimson leaking away. "Did you get to talk to her?" Masako asked.

Desi nodded. Stepping away from Masako, he said to the rest of the team, "Nat needs our help to kill Ash, or at least strip him of the spirits he's collected. I'm going to have the kids help, but if you guys could, we need as much help as we can get." Before they could answer, he moved out the door, jogging towards where the kids were gathered around the windows.

…..

Ash's captives converged on the four of them, holding out hands with grasping fingers for their throats. Gene's anger exploded from his body in a shield thick enough to shove the captives back. "Ash!" Gene screamed at the top of his lungs.

Turning quickly as he felt the pressure of a new presence pressing into his back, he found himself standing before a smug teen with dark hair and swirled green eyes. Gene snarled, "Ash, give them back! Give them all back! They are not yours to do with as you please! You already have what you wanted. You got that many years ago. Now, give them back!"

Mirth flashing in his brown-green eyes, Ash grinned wickedly, flashing shiny white teeth. He was still as handsome as the day Mai had met him, but now there was a darkness that made him uglier than even Urado had been. "Oh, I think not. You say I got what I wanted all those years ago, over the past years in this place? Tell me, what exactly was that?"

Glancing up to the windows, Mai could see the orphans with their eyes just barely peaking over the ledge. Two kinds of fears flashed across their faces, the kind that came from fearing for one's own life and the fear that came from fearing for other's lives.

"You wanted the death of the father who abused you and the mother who never did anything about it. You wanted to hurt others like you had been hurt. You wanted power over anyone and everyone you could get your hands on, to feel powerful. Most of all, you just wanted power. Didn't matter what kind you got, you just wanted it," Gene snarled, his voice deep and predatory as Ash continued to play games with him. Soon, Ash's parents wouldn't be the only dead ones of his family.

"Is that really what you think of me?" Ash asked coyly. He tapped a long finger against his lip in feigned thought. Beside him appeared a girl that was the identical copy of the body Gene currently resided in. "You're right to a point. I do want power, I did want the death of my parents, I do want power over everyone, but that's not exactly what I want."

"Nat!" Mai whispered, eyes focusing on her friend. Natalia's red eyes were squeezed shut, her face contorted in a mixture of concentration and pain.

Gene's eyes flicked to the girl. "Then what do you want?" he growled, looking back to Ash.

A smile curled across Ash's lips. "You really want to know? I want you and Noll, your sister, you children, your lovers. I want your entire family."

"We don't have a sister," Naru interjected, stepping up beside Gene, pulling Mai behind his body. Yasu took a place behind Gene, staring around at the surrounding captives with their vacant eyes and blank expressions.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Oh, don't you? Did you never realize who the baby you saved was? Did you never wonder why she looked so much like you, even as children? Gene, did you not wonder why her body fit perfectly?"

Blinking, Gene glanced over at Naru, catching his twin's eye, then turned them to his body. He'd noticed that the body wasn't uncomfortable to wear like Mai's had been, but he hadn't realized that Natalia's body was a perfect fit for his soul. His body was the same height with legs and arms that were the same length as Naru's. The skin was the same pale tone, the hair the same onyx black. The features were the same, only modified for the look of a female. There was no discomfort, there was no pain. A perfect fit. Locking eyes with Naru again, they both saw the realization in the other's eyes.

"Ah, now they see," Ash said even as Mai and Yasu were still putting the pieces together, looking between their counterparts for comparison, "Yes, that you girl you two saved, the one who followed you around for years after I left, the one who looks so much like you is your sister. For geniuses, you're both pretty dense."

"That doesn't make sense. How can she be our sister?" Naru asked, his temper beginning to rise alongside his twin's already blazing temper.

"Stop screwing with us! Just give me back my children!" Gene shouted, a burst of energy knocking down a row of captives. Slowly, they began to get back to their feet, their efforts laborious and strained.

Ash clucked his tongue. "Not so fast. I still haven't finished explaining things to you. The longer you waste, the quicker your babies becoming like one of my usefully useless dolls." He nodded towards the captives still struggling to their feet. They continued to fall and trip over one another, their limbs getting caught with others.

"Ash, don't you dare," Mai threatened in a low growl.

"Oh, hello, pretty flower, I didn't see you there," Ash said so cheerily it sounded condescending. "I see you've got your man. Good for you. Too bad you won't have each other much longer. Oh, and I have another present for you once I'm done here." Fishing in his pocket, he pulled from its depths a thin silver choker studded with emeralds and axinite gems. "A collar just for my favorite pet. I'll make sure you get it after this is over. I made it especially for you. I found when I was quite young that I am rather gifted at making charms."

Naru pushed Mai further behind him, growling low in his throat, "Don't you dare touch her."

"Oh, how sweet," Ash sneered, dropping the choker back in his pocket, "Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted. Ah, that's right." He licked his lips, returning his eyes to Gene. "When your mother decided she didn't want you, she left you hear, am I right?" Gene and Naru kept their lips sealed, glaring fixedly at the man before them. "Well, five years after the two of you were born, she decided once more that she didn't want another one of her babies, a baby that looked too much like her last babies. So, she thought, 'maybe my first babies are still where I left them'. She thought that maybe the three of you could grow up together like you were meant to. So, she left another unwanted baby with her twin brothers."

"You're lying," Gene said, fear and anger and despair and hope all raging through his body.

"Am I now?" Ash asked, his eyebrow jumping towards his hairline, "Then how do you explain the fact that you were left at an orphanage before you could even remember your mother's face? The only things she ever gave you were your first names and each other. She only did half of that for dear Natalia, though." He ran a gentle hand through Nat's hair. She trembled, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "She left her daughter with only a name and no sister to keep her company. Once you two left, she was alone, having to figure out how her abilities worked without the help of another. She even took your last name once she turned eleven. Natalia Davis, that is what it says on her paperwork. Oh, poor, lonely, sweetling. She only has one friend and family that didn't even know she existed. What a tragic existence.

"She was going to give in to me. She was going to let me take her, body and soul. She was going to become just like one of them. She was so close to breaking. And then you had to go and ruin everything by showing your stupid faces."

"Stop it," Nat whispered, hatred in her voice.

"Now, I'll just have to take your precious twins. They submit with a little bit of patience, a little bit of pain, and of course these burned into their tiny breast bones." He held up a chain, two small brooches dangling from the end.

Mai flinched, pressing a hand over the burn scar she'd earned from dreaming of being tortured by Ash.

"Stop it!" Nat shouted, jerking away from his hand, "Just stop it! You can't have us! You can't have me, you can't have the twins, you can't have Mai or Yasu, and you can't have Naru and Gene! I won't let you!"

Ash smiled sweetly. "And how are you going to keep me from getting what I want? You've already used up too much of your power resisting me and doing my bidding."

"Like this," Natalia said and then screamed at the top of her lungs, "Now, Desi!"

Well, there you go. The next chapter will be the last to do with this case. Then we might have one last chapter as a wrap up. This was fun. I hope you guys liked it while it lasted. Thank y'all for reading, putting up with my crap, and especially those who reviewed. You guys kept me going.