"What do you mean she's gone?!" Fakir snapped.
"I mean just that," Envy frowned, "she ain't here."

A sudden swelling anger rose within Fair. He shoved his pistol's barrel further on Drosselmeyer's skull.
"How could you lose her!?"

"Hey, hey, take it easy boy." Drosselmeyer said, trying to pull the gun away, "I don't keep tabs on everything I do."

"Well for your sake she better be back here soon!"
"Fakir!" Mytho snapped, "Calm down. Drosselmeyer will pay for his crimes in time, but we will find Ahiru."

By this point Drosselmeyer got agitated. "My crimes?! MY CRIMES!? What about you Councilman? Have you stood trial for your crimes?!"

Mytho was taken aback by this while trying to hide the fear that was surging within him. He quickly pulled himself back together and (in his most councilman-like voice) he stated, "I have no idea as to what you are talking about."

The captain rolled his eyes, "Please, you're no more innocent than me! If you won't come clean about what you did, then I'll be happy to let everyone here know all about fifteen years ago."

Mytho's posture had a sudden change to it, almost as if he was about to jump out of his own skin. His pulse began to speed. What was he to do? Let this pirate trash his identity? Or trash his own?

Finally Mytho swallowed his pride and spoke, "No Drosselmeyer. I will tell them…"

All eyes were now on Mytho.

"About 15 years ago, Bradly stumbled upon a legend that a man with two souls could be invincible. Although he always saw gypsies as well… 'freaks' he did find their love of the spirits much more interesting after that, specifically the spirit jars that came from them."

"Spirit jars?" Fakir asked

Mama Edel turned to the soldier, "Spirit jars are ancient objects that gypsies created to capture evil spirits and have them burned out by the sun. But good spirit willing to go into it could create a strong protection spell. It was a very powerful tool that we stopped using due to fear that someone might use them for evil purposes."

Mytho looked down, "I'm afraid that is exactly what happened. Because Bradly became so obsessed with creating this invincible army by using the spirit jars and various experimentations. He forced me to help him understand how spirit jars work, had me conduct experiments on many of his enemies and gypsies and… Ahiru."

Silence fell over the crowd. Many hearts were made heavy at the moment while emotions were mixed even more than ever.

"Ahiru is the only survivor left of the experiments. But the dangerous part is, if the side effects of the experiment begin and she can't defeat it, she will die."

"You forget, there was another survivor." Drosselmeyer stated, "He defeated the side effects, and is very powerful, but he has no moral compass anymore. There is no sanity left to stop him from what he is doing."

"I know, I didn't forget. The only thing I remember about him was how it was impossible to keep him restrained. Bradly actually tried using him to cause certain 'accidents' to round up new victims for the experiments…"

Now Drosselmeyer was furious. He quickly got up from Fakir who was still pointing the gun at him, to shake down Mytho.

"And yet you let him kill all those innocent people to trap their souls within the spirit jars and turn them into that stupid brick wall because he wanted protection! That man killed my daughter! He killed my Retzal and her child!"

It was at that moment Fakir turned pale and almost dropped his pistol.
"Your daughter's name was… Retzal…?"
Drosselmeyer let go of Mytho and turned to Fakir with a questionable glance, "Yes… why?"
"Did she die in a fire in Gold Crown? About 10 years ago?"

"…Yes…"

Drosselmeyer looked over Fakir carefully, as he began to notice a familiar face within the boy.
He shook his head as he stepped closer to Fakir. "You… you can't be him. Can you?"

Fakir had an almost horrified expression on his face, but refused to speak.
"You're… you ARE Retzal's son."

Fakir swallowed hard, "I am."
The brightest expression anyone had ever seen appeared on Drosselmeyer as he crushed his now found grandson under his arms.

"I never thought I would get the chance to meet you! I thought you died in the fire with her! I only became a troublesome pirate because of what happened to you both! And knowing that you're alive makes this so much better!"

Everyone just stared awkwardly at the reunited family. Was Fakir finding his grandfather a good thing?

Since no one seemed to try and help him, Fakir broke free from Drosselmeyer's death hug.
"As many questions as this raises, can we get back to the situation at hand? We need to find Ahiru."

"Well, perhaps the shadow man took her to the city?" Envy suggested.

"No need to look there!" A voice called from the dock.
Almost everyone rushed to side of the boat only to find Jaden with his arm around a shaking Ahiru.
A wave of relief flooded over everyone… well everyone except Fakir. Something didn't seem right here.

Jaden helped Ahiru walk up to the ship's deck. Fakir watched her mannerisms.
Shaking, breathing heavily, unable to walk properly.

Yeah… something was definitely wrong.

And apparently Fakir wasn't the only one who noticed, seeing as no one else was moving in to help her.
That's where Fakir made his move.
He cautiously walked up to her and in a gentle voice asked, "Ahiru, are you okay?"

The moment Ahiru laid eyes on him, she panicked.
She quickly pulled the closest object to protect herself with and prepared for an attack.

"What do you want?!"
"Nothing, I just want to know if you're okay. Why are you acting like this?"
"Because you attacked me and handed me over to the sky pirates!"

At that moment you could hear a pin drop.
But right before Fakir could make a case, Ahiru soon dropped what she was holding and collapsed onto the ground. She began to thrash about as what sounded like a man's voice started cursing and chanting horrifying phrased about death came out of her mouth.

"What's wrong with her!?" Jaden shouted as he crouched down to try and stop her thrashing.
"The process of the side effects has begun." Mytho said sadly, "She will die in three days if something doesn't happen…"

A/N: What did I just do? Drosselmeyer's a good guy? Jaden might actually have a chance with Ahiru now? And Ahiru is dying? Oh wait… that happens in a lot of my fics doesn't it?

Well anyway, let's see if I can keep up with writing now that school is back in session.

Now for the important stuff:
My biggest thanks to…

Happycafegirl for favoring
mayuralover for following, favoring, and reviewing!
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AngetianPrincess18 for following

And you especially for sticking with me for this long with this kooky story!