"Uzura, can you check her heartbeat for me?" Rue asked the child with the drum.
Uzura smiled brightly, "Okay –zura!"

The toddler closed her eyes and raised her drumsticks. Within seconds she was mimicking Ahiru's heartbeat.
"Perfect. Her heart is at a normal pace." Rue turned back at to Edel and the twins. "What else are you trained in?"
"Pique and Lillie can check her mental state." Edel gestured towards the girls.
Pique and Lillie both put their hands on Ahiru's head.
"Her mind is"
"Very active."
"We can try to"
"Talk to her, if you want." The girls reported.

"Talk to her how?" Rue asked.
Edel put a hand on Rue's shoulder. "They can communicate through each other mentally. They can also connect with other people's mind if that person is in between them."

"Then yes please! Ask her how she's feeling."

The twins closed their eyes. The room fell quite.
After a few minutes the girls got an answer.
"She wants to wake up,"
"But she's asking about how everyone else is."

Right then, those in the operating room heard a disturbing loud comment from the other room.
"Might as well tell her things are tense." Edel said flatly.

Pique and Lillie returned to Ahiru's mind to let her know.
They had a new answer.
"She wants to know"
"If Fakir and Jaden are okay."

Everyone looked at each other.
"We don't know."

The twins passed the message onto Ahiru.

And at that moment, Ahiru awoke.
The twins released her and everyone crowded around her.
"Are you okay, dear?" Edel begged.

"I… I think so…"
The first phrase Ahiru uttered since she went under.
"What happened… to the shadow?" She questioned, unaware of what she was saying.

"What shadow?" Rue asked.
Ahiru processed what she just said.
"Oh… sorry. I don't know where that came from."

The day came to an end and Ahiru was reunited with her troupe.
The pirates were willing to wait at the Port and be present at the next council meeting to confront Bradly for all he had done.

However, unknown to everyone, Jaden had hatched a plan with the voice that had been talking him through all this. Using the voice's power, Jaden flashed himself underneath the deck of the pirate ship. There he stalked to the storage space and loaded up as many spirit jars as he could get.

With his bag filled to the brim, the voice used its power to flash Jaden back to the council headquarters. He quietly snuck around the HQ, following the voice's orders and setting their plan into action.

But Jaden was quickly taken by surprise when a certain someone called out to him.

"Jaden? What are you doing?"

Jaden froze.

Why here?
Why now?
Why her?!

Jaden slowly turned to face Ahiru. Her blue eyes offering the only light Jaden could really see.

"Its… its nothing really." He said pushing his bag full of spirit jars behind him.
"Jaden… are you doing okay? You seem a little…" she tilted her head over to the side, noticing the very ominous shadow behind him, "off lately."

Jaden took notice of her ogling and tried to act on it.
"I've got a new way of thinking after this whole adventure. I want to act more and talk less. I want…" he watched her for a second, "you… to be safe, to be happy." He fell silent for a second.
"Now, I realize the mistakes I've made trying to do this. But this time… I know I can make it happen without putting you in danger."

Ahiru shook her head, "Jaden, you know I'm not some porcelain doll. And you don't have protect me from anything anymore."
"That's not necessarily true. How do you know Bradly won't come after you again? How do we know he won't stop trying to harm the gypsies until their completely eradicated?"

Ahiru shook her head, "Jaden, things are different now. Tomorrow, Bradly won't be able to stand against a whole crew of pirates and victims once he hears there testimonies."
"So naïve." He mumbled, "People's feelings are next to impossible to change with just a few words. I can already tell you Bradly is more than set in his ways. He won't feel remorse for what he has done. I bet going up to him will just inspire him to try and do it again."

"But if we tip the scales with the information we now know-"
"What information?"
"Gypsy abilities sometimes skips generations. Drosselmeyer told all of us that. Which means that several people out there, maybe even Bradly himself, carry gypsy blood in their veins! Just because people can't openly see that they could be related to gypsies, doesn't mean there's a chance that they are."

Jaden didn't want to hear anymore.
He turned his head from her bright blue eyes. What did this mean for him? What was he fighting for any more? If everyone was on the same level than they realized, did that mean that fighting for gypsy rights and Ahiru's happiness was meaningless?

"Jaden," Ahiru pressed, "You can stop fighting now. Only if you're willing to work with us and put away this notion that you need to fight the world for the sake of my happiness."

Jaden clenched his fists.
What else was there left to do? Should he keep going with this blind trust that he could save the gypsy culture in one fowl swoop, or should he follow his heart and listen to the girl he wanted so badly to be his?

He looked back at Ahiru.
Why did so much light come from those eyes?
And why did fate decree that he would have to fall for her?
Even worse, that she could never be his.

No, he would always come in second compared to that sailor. That man who probably did deserve her. Being so devoted to her, and never giving up. Even calling a truce with the boy who put her in danger to begin with.

Thinking all this over, Jaden came to realize… no matter what he did, or how hard he tried, nothing good awaited for him once the morning would come unless he turn and run now for this fools errand.

"Thank you… Ahiru."
He leaned in and pecked her cheek.
He was ready to surrender, to let everything go.

But right as he was about to hand over the bag of spirit jars, he felt something over shadow him.

His vision blurred and Ahiru's light could no longer be seen.
The only person that remained in his sight was the Shadowman.

"I'm not finished with you yet! That girl may have changed your mind, but you're still mine to play with as I please!"

Now it all made sense:
The familiar voice…
The sweet temptations…
The bitter darkness that preyed on his heart…

Jaden was just being used as a vessel to carry out the Shadowman's fun.

And Jaden was swallowed into the darkness.

A/N: Well I don't know about you, but I kind of liked writing this chapter. At least until the Shadowman showed up…

Any who, I want to thank mayuralover for reviewing!

And thank you for reading this far with me, it means so much!