Chapter 14: Infinite Loop

He'd flown through the endless abyss of the veil so many times as a Spirit Caller. Gliding in the space beyond death, eagerly seeking the words of those who came before him. Ferrying their proclamations and advice back dutifully.

Now he felt the sensation of being dragged through it by dark tendrils, trying to fight back against the pounding, scraping, rasping force pulling him further and further. The point of death was to rest, but how could he ever rest? Had they ever rested? Did every one of those he'd fought suffer like this, dragged along and plunged into the abyss, only to be spat out as something new and different?

He tried to cling to everything he was as it tried to wrench him apart. If he failed, he would truly become a menace…

For moments at a time he became aware that even as he was in the void fighting for the right to continue existing, someone was with him, trying to comfort him and promise him safety. How desperately he wanted to reach out to that person and tell them he heard them, but the Noise poured down his throat, drowning out his voice…

Miku jumped as Kaito suddenly lurched forward off the air mattress, trying to crawl around on the floor. "Kaito!? Kaito, can you hear me!?"

Though Kaito's lips moved as if he spoke, nothing but the horrible static noises escaped his lips. His eyes remained empty and unfocused. Finally he fell to the floor, flailing his arms and legs, as if there were something he was trying to pull off of him. At once, Miku was at his side, trying to restrain him before he hurt himself. Finally the fit seemed to pass and his body fell limp. She could still hear his panicked but clear breaths, giving her reassurance that no matter how he suffered… he still lived.

She seethed with anger as she tried to imagine who did this to him. First Gakupo, now Kaito?! Well, they'd certainly regret crossing her if they ever met…

Maybe she just wanted something to fight to deal with how powerless she felt right now. She loved Kaito… but loving him wouldn't be nearly enough.

Once she was sure Kaito wasn't about to jump up at her, she carefully picked him up and lay him along the mattress again. In Gumi's windowless "base", it was hard to recall that daylight had long since risen. No matter how badly Miku yearned for sleep, fear of drifting off only to lose Kaito as she slumbered consumed her. Her friends weren't resting – so why should she?

Rin never thought she'd walk this road ever again. She and Len had happily turned their backs on the Hearts and the sour memories of their childhood home years ago. Secluded from most of the neighborhood, the modest house stood as a paradox to the personal wealth of its owners. 'It's not like they were ever really home though… it just needed to be enough for them to crash and… for their children to have a place to sleep…'

She never wanted to go back either. The memories were too unpleasant. But just the thought of losing another "big brother" drove her forward. A little unpleasantness meant nothing as long as she could return her dear Kaito-niisan safe and sound. As she and Len approached the wrought iron gates, she punched in the familiar code and crossed her fingers that they hadn't changed it…

The gate trembled and separated, allowing the intruders access. "Awww… I was hoping I could hack it!" Gumi whined.

"Focus on hacking their CCTV first," Len said, "I mean they'll probably guess it's us, but it wouldn't be cool if they saw us using our powers and stuff."

Rin was going to ransack her old house and find out anything she could. As much as she feared learning the truth about herself in there… better than the awful thoughts she kept cooking up in her head. And at least she had Len with her – she could always count on her brother.

"And your CCTV's down. I mean, if they're smart they'll know, so we better move fast but…"

Gumi looked beside herself with glee. "So many secrets in there! Maybe they've got a dead alien or something! Or a cybernetic dinosaur?!"

"I'm… I'm pretty sure anything they have in there is Seruva-related…" Rin said.

The emerald-haired blogger was lost in her own wild imaginings. "Or maybe a death laser?! Ahhh, I never thought I'd get this close this EASILY!"

At least someone was happy. "So where do we start?" Len asked.

A sly grin crossed Rin's face. So many house rules she could break now…

"Anywhere the Hearts told us not to go, we start there."

Len flashed her a knowing look. "Oh we gotta hit the basement! The recording studio!"

"And their bedrooms! They had an office in there!"

"And the attic!"

The twins laughed with glee – being able to strike at the people who'd tormented them as children was going to be fun. "Len, I bet I can beat you to the attic!" Rin shouted as she darted off.

As the twins ran through the grass to the front steps, Gumi was left calling after them. "Waiiiiiit! Am I taking the bedroom or the basement?!"

"The entire city is built with a series of advanced shelters underneath, in case of natural disasters."

Luka felt grateful she'd borrowed a ribbon off of Miku to tie her hair back – so much time spent airborne with Gakupo would have blown it apart. Not to mention how difficult it might have been to keep it out of his face.

As for the Seruva himself, he'd changed into his warrior robes – though Miku and Len had quickly grabbed plenty of other items of clothing for him before setting up in Gumi's "pad", Gakupo had remarked calmly that he saw no point in going to war in human clothes. Though he still seemed sad to leave his ragged samurai clothes behind…

Now the two stood again atop the Kotori Broadcast Tower, the highest point in Tsubasa City. She imagined they made quite the pair, Gakupo looking for all intents and purposes like a traditional Japanese warrior and Luka simply wearing the same white shirt and black pants she'd yet to take off since awakening the day before.

With so little time to locate Meiko and demand answers for Kaito, she needed to give Gakupo as much geographical information as possible. After all, he would be doing all the flying. And he was her best resource for how other Seruva might plan a military invasion.

"There's little in the way of caverns. There's a few cliffside outlets, but they wouldn't be easy to break into without blowing them open… and drawing a great deal of attention."

Luka gestured to some empty, raised plains in the distance. "Those pictures Gumi found are from that area. It's not well populated – the developments out there ran out of money. But there are plenty of shelter entrances there…"

Gakupo stepped to the railing, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed the plains. "To enter without knowing their numbers would be like kicking up a hornet's nest… we'll sweep the air first, maybe we can lure them up. Otherwise… our time is so precious we may need to risk diving inside ourselves. If they're also using Noise, we'll hear the dissonance eventually."

The unspoken advantage Gakupo had, of course, was his recent possession and the knowledge it gave him. The way they would behave and fight, how they were thinking… how little they truly controlled their own actions, their blind drive to obediently follow orders while the whims of the Noise tugged at what remained of their wills.

Were it up to Luka, he would never have to relive that experience again. She herself would spend the rest of her life haunted by the memory of his furious charge against her, those awful seconds when he couldn't even see her and the feeling of the person she loved driving his blade through her chest…

"Luka?"

"I'm sorry… I was just… trying to sort out our next move…" she lied.

"Right."

The way his notes hung in the air… of course he'd recognized her lie, she hadn't even tried to cover it properly. Even when he carried her through the sky, she'd felt not the intimacy of the past, but the divide.

He stared into the city quietly. Luka assumed he was plotting a strategy of his own, ever the warrior. But when he broke the silence, he'd chosen another subject entirely.

"How much of this evil did I unleash?"

Luka placed a hand to the familiar spot on her chest. "I have the person I love… the freedom from the Noise… but deserve neither. I brought destruction, yet received salvation."

He breathed deeply, still looking out at the vistas and not at Luka. "Did I release the Heralds? Did I destroy our home? The Noise deprives me even now of the true knowledge of my actions…"

She couldn't imagine the amount of stress her warrior felt – days lost to the mindless "Harbinger", his botched attempt to overthrow the Elders, then being helpless to protect his charge? But she needed him in top form. She couldn't confront Meiko alone… she needed to find some way to help him cope with the burdens upon his heart.

Luka approached Gakupo and embraced him. At first he appeared surprised, but swiftly he returned the gesture. His hold over her felt as strong as ever, but she detected a hint of fear in it.

"You tried to fix this. Just… just like I did."

As the pulled back and their eyes met, Luka felt as if he understood her. Why she had so swiftly forgiven him. Why no matter what her fears of the Noise, she believed in him.

"The Noise wielded me against that which I loved most…" he murmured, "It wanted me to kill you… it knew I wouldn't resist it anymore if I thought I'd destroyed the most precious person to me…"

He ran his hand along her face. "The only reason I'm still fighting is because you refused to give up on me…"

Now he was starting to sound more like the Gakupo she knew. "Gakupo… we all have things we regret. I intend to make amends for my mistakes. But I can't do it without you."

She finally saw traces of a smile on his face again as he pulled her closer and kissed her deeply, dipping her head back and drawing her body tight.

It was with great reluctance that Luka released him, but he had his cocky warrior's grin back now. "Onward! To save Kaito."

Gakupo scooped Luka up in his arms and took to the air again, the world rushing by underneath her. Something about her warrior's grip on her felt so much more confident now…

Miku studied Kaito's face looking for any signs of distress, but he stayed still. Not peaceful – the static mumblings had yet to cease, and he was clearly suffering, but he was at least staying still.

As her mood dipped, she tried to buoy her spirits the best way she knew how.

Singing.

"Fearing that the most precious person won't love me, I took off on a solo flight to the stars ten thousand years away…"

As he was dragged deeper into the abyss beyond the veil, his fears only increased as he began to recognize how far he'd gone. Meiko had forced him to go this deep, and deeper still, until his spirit nearly snapped. With nothing anchoring him to reality, he realized this horrible place would never release him. The entity of Noise wrapped around him howled in its atonal screeching, though the further into the abyss it drew him, the more he began to perceive the Noise as it truly was. Thousands of destroyed souls bound into one, tormented to madness and trying to destroy everything around them.

He tried to reach out to anyone, shouting at the top of his lungs, hoping against hope someone could hear him and reach out to him, saving him from becoming just another one of those lost souls…

He thought he heard someone's voice and tried desperately to cling to them…

Suddenly Kaito's hand flew out and grasped Miku's wrist, causing her song to cease from shock. He looked so scared, his unfocused eyes staring forward but not recognizing the person in front of him. She clutched his hand tightly. For just a brief second it seemed as though he saw her, that he was finally back… then all too suddenly "Kaito" was gone, leaving only the shell.

She refused to release his hand, even as his strength vanished and his fingers slipped from her wrist. 'I can't let you go… what if you need me? But… what if you're already gone… what if…'

Miku slapped her cheek.

'Positive!'

"Hey Rin? You ever notice there's no baby photos of us here?"

Len flipped through some old photo albums.

"Well we were adopted…" Rin added.

That didn't sound like a good enough answer. Len studied the book, noticing plenty of Lola with her infant son Oliver. She looked like a completely different person – she actually looked happy to have a child in her arms.

"Didn't they always tell us we were adopted as babies?" Len asked, "But they don't even have photos of us from before we were like… six or so."

Rin tore through another box of vital documents. "You know, I haven't even found our birth certificates!" she said, "They didn't give them to us when we moved out either!"

Len really didn't want to think about why he didn't have baby photos or a birth certificate. He put the photo album back. "I think this is a dud, Rin," he said, "I mean, I guess we learned something, but we didn't find anything to bring Kaito back either…"

Rin stood up, tossing the box away. She looked like she was having as much fun as he was just trashing their old home. Two children rebelling against the parents who never loved them.

"Basement's next!" she cheered.

Gumi jammed her USB stick into a laptop next to the master bed. Naturally she'd already cracked the password and learned she was going through Leon Heart's files. Nobody ever kept truly secure passwords – at least not anything Gumi couldn't easily crack. Not surprisingly, the Hearts were savvy with business, not with tech.

She downloaded as much information as she could – employee files, high ranking personnel. Some of them she recognized immediately. Some not so much, but if they had the right rank, she'd look them up later or run them by Finch.

Two former employees immediately caught her eye. A man with brown and white hair and a woman with blond hair. Truncated employee records "Frank Smith" and "Jody Doe".

'Big Sweet…'

Employment dates at almost the beginning Mirror's founding, termination dates listed dates six years previous. Scientists on Project Seraphim.

Gumi began flipping through her employee files and checking projects. Seraphim. Throne. Dominion. Virtue.

"Orders of angels…" she whispered, "They've been at this for years."

She'd have to run some of these projects by Finch. She logged deeper into the system. Of course Leon Heart would have access to any of the projects he wanted, but each one had yet another password she needed to crack and with time growing short, she was stuck brute forcing them.

One of the scientists she finally recognized – a Dr. V. Flower. She'd briefly appeared on the news for a major technological breakthrough in using computer signals and hardware to control nerve impulses. Then Mirror snapped her up… and now she had some of the obvious Seruva-related project names on her record. Project Cherubim stood out – she immediately recognized several of the file photos, all depicting the Heart's deceased son. She didn't have time to do more than skim – she could question the Kagamines later.

One name stood out without a single Seruva-like assignment at all.

Project Gemini.

Someone was going to notice "Leon Heart" downloading a lot of files he should already be aware of… Gumi needed to grab only what was useful and bail… but she also had a sneaking suspicion she'd started to piece together why two otherwise disinterested parents adopted a pair of children.

The telltale dissonance played in Gakupo's ear. The first time he heard it he stopped cold – for just a brief moment, he feared the source was himself. "You can hear that melody, yes?" he asked Luka, trying to check his own sanity.

"Faintly," she remarked, "You don't think there's another rift down here?"

"Possibly…"

He tried to recall what the Noise kept encouraging him to do, but his mind still felt fragmented from his harrowing experience. All he could remember clearly was the will he had to tear the world asunder and use the rift to do so.

He realized that without Kaito, there may not be a way to close the rift.

In that case, the Spirit Caller's safety was not only of sentiment to himself and Luka… but tantamount to the safety of all life.

Finally he heard it – a Seruva battle cry, twisted and distonal. "The Noise has alerted them… be prepared to fight…"

He drew Miburi and steeled himself as shadowy forms approached… at the lead a woman with waist length blonde hair and clad in robes similar to his own…

"Commander Lily?!" he shouted, recognizing her at once.

But her monstrous form and fury filled face as she shouted at him clearly showed the level-headed warrior was well out of presence. She was flanked by three more soldiers and he tried to steel himself as he recognized them as Wil, Yuu, and Kyo.

"Luka! Don't hold back!"

The Commander's powerful dive cracked through Luka's shield in an instant, but the lost momentum allowed him to parry her away. He searched for any signs of sanity, but the red streaks on her face matched her feral red eyes. He felt nothing but pity for her, realizing how frightening he himself must have looked.

But Gakupo had an advantage. With no more dissonance in his heart, he could finally fight to his full potential. He let out a powerful force melody to break away one of the other soldiers flanking as Luka fired bolts of pink arrows. All they needed was to cause enough commotion and Meiko would come out…

Rin walked down the familiar steps into the basement recording studio, grimacing as she remembered the long rehearsals. What had her parents intended to gain from the three of them working so hard?

Len kicked open the door to the booth their parents always stood inside. Nothing appeared amiss – though it was exactly as they'd left it when the two of them moved out of the house. Rin examined papers of sheet music.

"A god of death with sorrowful eyes speaks, 'Are you the one who will save me?'"

Rin couldn't help but sing the well-worn lyrics to herself. The Hearts had been very insistent about it.

"It's all right. I'll take your darkness upon myself. And I'll change your form into a bird."

She stopped and thought for a moment about the words she'd repeated from perfect memory. Now that she'd even performed a Seruva ballad for herself, the similarities were impossible to miss. "Hey, Len… isn't this structured… like a Seruva song?"

Len walked over and read the lyrics for himself.

"The girl took with her the white birds that covered the entire sky and her appearance became as dark as the deepest night."

He looked up at Rin. "It kinda sounds like that legend Luka was telling us… about the white and black guardians? Sujata Hama and Sujata Raka?"

Rin stuffed the paper into her handbag. "We need to show this to Luka and Gakupo!" she said.

Now Len was rifling through the lyrics sheets himself. Rin recalled another song she used to share with Len…

"I'll abandon my pure heart, if I'm allowed to live and love you, I won't hesitate to cut off these wings, let me surrender myself to the devil…"

'Cut off these wings… that sounds like… a Severing!'

"What they have in their hands is the fruit of lust they had desired, combining in a feverish frenzy, even their pure vow is breaking a sin…"

Len seemed to know what Rin was implying without her finishing. "It's like a warning… it's about 'angels and humans' but… maybe they're not angels?! Maybe's it's like… a religious thing! That Seruva and Humans shouldn't be together!"

He crammed some of the lyrics into his book bag. "… do you think it hurt Kaito-niisan to choose to be with Miku? If he used to hear stories like that all his life?"

Len shook his head furiously. "He's been nuts about her since they met… he probably figured since he pretty much was human, there wasn't much point in getting freaked out about it…"

The blonde boy approached a door in the back, noticing a security keypad instead of a normal lock. "Maybe we should let Gumi handle this…" he muttered.

"No way! We can totally do it!" Rin said with a cheer.

"Eh? We can't HACK it… ohhhhh!"

Len faced the door, gripping his sister's hand. Two heartbeats… one song. A tremendous force blast rocketed the door off its hinges.

The twins stepped into the final room, revealing all kinds of bizarre equipment, as well as a computer setup. "Were there people in here? When we were singing?" Rin asked.

No notes remained behind. Len went to turn on the computer, but it refused to boot. "They must have taken the hard drive…" he muttered.

"… Len… they trying to make the three of us perform magic, weren't they?"

The sudden tension in her brother's face seemed to confirm he thought the same way.

"Hey! HEYYYYYY!"

Gumi's voice rang down through the basement, along with the sounds of pounding feet. "There's a bunch of security guards in the house, we need to BOOK IT!"

"THERE SHE IS!"

"Gumi!" Rin shouted.

The twins rushed up the stairs after her…

The crunching metal… the screams of her parents… her broken body flung through glass, plunging through the air, the earth below as her twin turquoise pigtails trailed behind her. Her heart pounded with fear as she anticipated the impact…

White feathers fell through the air as she saw it… a boy with blue hair and white and purple robes, his arms outstretched… his white wings spread out behind him…

Her descent broke as he caught her up in his arms, pulling her small body tight to his chest. The look of fear on his face, replaced by calm as a soft melody echoed through the air… a heavenly song in a melody she could not understand…

As he carried her over the city, past the buildings, across the sea, she felt the pain in her body fade. She focused only on the freedom of flight, his soft, sad tones the only words he uttered.

Finally they alighted atop the same hill she'd just had her family picnic on… her body completely healed. She began to turn to the wreckage when he whispered something to her… he started to leave and she shouted, begging him to stay. He hesitated, turning his head back to her and smiling before he leapt into the air again… she extended her hand to catch a single molted feather…

Kaito's screaming caused Miku to spring up almost immediately. She cursed herself for having been lulled into sleep. Kaito was standing, wandering around as if in a daze before he dove at her in her chair. Miku yelped and sprang away, instantly regretting it as Kaito hit the floor. "Kaito! Kaito, it's me! It's Miku!"

"Where…. Where is she? I know she's out there, I won't let you take her from me!"

His voice… she'd finally heard his voice… but Kaito still wasn't there.

He turned and started to attack her again… Miku felt so guilty but…

She dodged his mad swipes, grabbing his arms and pinning them to his back, just as Gakupo had shown her to do. The fact he wasn't able to wriggle free meant she was either getting a lot stronger than she was giving herself credit for, or Kaito just wasn't strong enough to fight back like this.

"She's waiting for me… I have to get back to her…"

Kaito fell backwards, Miku trying to catch him before he hit the ground but falling over herself. His body felt still in her arms.

"I… I love her… why can't I… find her…"

Kaito's voice trailed off into incomprehensible noises again.

Miku needed to push him off and get him back to the bed but… instead she found herself hugging his body.

Gumi backed up to the wall, attempting her most threatening judo stance. "C'mon, just TRY me!" she shouted, "I can take you!"

The men with guns didn't seem terrible impressed. "Mr. Heart… she's got a laptop. What do you want us to do?"

She strained to try and hear the voice on the other side of the Bluetooth.

"…understood. We'll bring her down."

Before Gumi got even a chance to show of her mighty judo throws, she heard a single melody from two synchronous voices. Light erupted behind her attackers before a crack of lightning tossed them apart.

Len grabbed Gumi's wrist and dragged her along. "Come on, we need to GO!" he shouted, "Get anything good?!"

She shoved the laptop roughly into her messenger bag. "Oh, you're not going to BELIEVE what I found!" she said with a broad smile, "I don't know if any of it's gonna help Blue, but oooooh have I got dirt on the Hearts!"

Perhaps it truly was madness to storm the hornet's nest. It had taken Luka and every one of the other Vocaloids to try and contain Gakupo when the power of the Noise coursed through his veins. Trying to take on three warriors in a similar state with merely two of them?

Yet they appeared individually weaker than the tengu. Perhaps Meiko's technique in molding them differed from how she created the "Harbinger". Regardless, fighting many of them at once still proved a mighty task. Luka found herself slammed into the ground as Lily broke through her shield, screeching at her like a crazed animal. She let loose with a few force melodies, pushing the two off the floor and forcing the corrupted Seruva to stop trying to attack her… but she did not let go. Luka tried to suppress the flurry of emotions of being pinned again by the very same woman that stole the skies from her so many long years ago…

"Luka!"

Gakupo briefly broke the tight pattern of the other two Seruva he fought with, trying to reach Luka and drive back Lily. Yet a familiar voice sang a dissonant melody, echoing across the tunnel as black chains wrapped around Gakupo's limbs, yanking him back to the Earth. He tried a few force shouts of his own, but failed to loosen them. His opponents stood over him, talons extended and ready to pounce…

"Truly your insolence knows no limits."

Meiko.

"No, don't kill him. He would not have flown down here on a suicide mission. He is far too conniving for that."

Somehow it would have felt better to Luka if the woman showed some form of cruelty or malice. The emotionless blank felt worse. Like someone had taken everything wonderful about the brazen child and pulverized it.

The brunette priestess looked to Luka and Gakupo out of confusion. "The Spirit Caller is absent. Did learning the truth of your treasonous actions finally drive him to seek reason?"

"Kaito is dying because of your foul magic!" the warrior shouted.

The wild Seruva roughly pulled him up to face Meiko. "What insanity is this?" she said, "I've not touched him."

"The Seal, Meiko!" Luka cried out, "Every one of the Heralds spoke of it, saying it would kill him!"

Upon hearing Luka mention "The Seal", Meiko's confusion faded. "Of course they did. Because every one of the Heralds died from it."

For just a second… Luka thought she heard an actual emotion in Meiko's melody. "As did Lady Prima."

She approached Gakupo without fear. As he twitched as though he were to cast a spell, she let forth a distonal shout and the chains wrapped around his throat. He gagged for a moment, but ceased trying to sing. "Did you sincerely come all this way for revenge? Over that?"

"Meiko, please… if you know what the Seal is, you must know a way to save Kaito. The last Spirit Caller is about to die."

Appealing purely to their once unbreakable friendship would not suffice. "If not for the sake of a friend… then surely for the good of the Seruva."

The priestess allowed a flicker of sadness to reach her face. "Do you not understand?" Meiko said, "His death… is for the good of the Seruva."

She looked to Luka and all traces of that emotion faded. "The Noise originates beyond the veil, from the lost souls murdered by Sujata Raka crying out for vengeance. If left unchecked, it would have obliterated all life by now."

She clenched a fist to her chest. "The Spirit Callers themselves cannot destroy it… but they could become a protection against it. Thus every one of them undergoes a Sealing ceremony, their bodies becoming a barrier against the power of the Noise. With the curse that their bodies would continue to act as beacons for it until it consumed them."

"The Noise… is everywhere…" Gakupo choked out. At least Luka had some comfort that he was breathing.

"Because it was never to be a permanent measure," Meiko continued, "We were supposed to find a way to break the Noise somehow. But we never did. And thus… every Spirit Caller simply died when their bodies took on too much Noise, their spirits falling beyond the veil but still serving as Seals to cease its growth."

Luka tried to think of Kaito's most recent actions. Every time he fought a Herald… he had seemed weaker. Perhaps he wasn't merely over-exerting himself… "Kaito freeing the Heralds… simply took their burdens and placed it upon him…"

The priestess turned from Luka, walking towards the back of the tunnel. "Indeed. I know not what summoned the deceased Spirit Callers from beyond the veil, but the Noise has never truly weakened. That's why… that's why I realized we must live with it instead of against it."

She swept her arms up into the air. "The Elders tried to make another Spirit Caller out of me, using their power over Dark Notes to try and replace the power of the bloodline… and they failed. But I became something far greater. And… I realized the only way to truly satisfy the Noise's hunger… is the deaths of humanity."

She turned back to Luka and she saw a familiar madness in the eyes of the Priestess. "I had hoped to drag the knowledge of the Hymn of Desolation from the last Spirit Caller, call forth Sujata Raka and Sujata Hama, and finally create the world we should have made. But when he was lost… I had to find another method to achieve that aim. The Elders… disagreed with my methods."

She tossed a glance at Gakupo. "A rather simple obstacle for the Harbinger to remove for me."

"Kill all who interfere…" Gakupo murmured as he realized what Meiko had compelled him to do. No wonder Meiko had such confidence in him as a tool.

"Meiko! If you're just going to wipe out the humans with soldiers, then there's no need for Kaito to die as the Seal!" Luka pleaded, "How do we save him?"

She began to study the ceiling above her, looking for an escape route. She would not let Meiko continue torturing Gakupo. Or worse.

"Hmph… his spirit is being dragged unanchored by the Noise…" Meiko said, "Perhaps if something could reach him, forge a connection to his spirit? But of course, nobody ever tried to save the Spirit Callers when their deaths were necessary."

An anchor… Luka had some idea of how to forge one, but that would still leave Kaito in the grips of the Noise even he could follow a voice…

"Besides, neither of you will be doing anything about it."

Luka's careful eye spotted some telltale cracks in the ceiling from the long disuse of the tunnels in this part of the city. She had one chance.

"Take the two of them to the rift and-"

"GAKUPO THE CEILING!"

She began to sing her melody, shooting forth a wild wave of sound. She hoped he'd understood… when she felt his heart beating with hers as he let forth the same song.

The resulting explosion blew a hole in the roof of the tunnel, raining debris all over. As she felt Lily loosen her hold on her to dodge a large piece of falling cement, she began to fire arrows in the direct of Meiko. She heard the melody maintaining the chains disperse and within seconds a winged form was zooming towards her.

Gakupo grabbed her and shot through the opening, taking to the sky. Luka pulled out her phone – the signal was back. She rapidly dialed Miku…

As Miku watched Kaito lying still, his breathing seemed to grow weaker. "No… no!" she pleaded, "Please! Please stay with me! Kaito please!"

But right before her eyes… a familiar aura surrounded his body and all color began to drain away.

"At the boundary lines mixed with jokes, a little farther ahead of the stairs, there is nothing good there at all, huh? Shall I try to guide you instead?"

Miku grabbed her phone as she heard Luka's ringtone. "Luka! Luka Kaito's going to-"

Luka was practically screaming in the other end. "Miku! Make your voice into a beacon! Focus everything you have into trying to reach him! Think of nothing but Kaito and sing until he hears you! You must anchor him until Gakupo and I get there and we'll try to-"

The phone call cut off to the sound of a wild dissonant screech. She felt so powerless – her friends were in mortal danger, she wanted to help them! But as Kaito lost more and more of his color, she knew she had to at least try to save him… and hope that Luka and Gakupo could arrive and finish whatever they needed to do.

'Let's see… he did react to this one…'

Finally, his journey seemed at an end as he was pulled into an inky, living entity. He had failed to save himself. His body became trapped in the murkiness of the heart of the Noise itself, slowly sinking further and further within.

He was to become everything. He was to become nothing. Simply… the Noise.

"As I slowly open my eyes, a dark sea of sky stands before me… The hundred million away lands come streaming into me…"

Her voice. Trying to draw him back.

Miku focused every part of her being into thoughts of Kaito. She had no earthly idea of how to send them somewhere but… surely if he was in front of her, he could hear it?

She tried to focus on every wonderful moment with him and channel those feelings into her voice…

"Breathing the coldness of empty space, before my senses start to go numb…"

'I… I have to return to her…' he thought.

He shifted in the abyss, trying to wrench himself free but he felt so weak… so many voices trying to drown out just one… how could just one simple human song defeat them?

"This body, give it a piece of your love… your love…"

Miku's tears ceased as nothing but her will to protect Kaito consumed her. She didn't know where he was but she would find him. She would tear the fabric of the world apart if she had to. But right now all she had to do was sing.

Easy.

She thought she felt a breeze in the room but she ignored it as she continued to keep her mind clear of nothing else but her goal…

"I definitely just had been drifting in space along these debris… Going on like this, before I fade away, please..."

He refused to fade away! He could hear her, she was right there, by his side! But at once she was across infinity itself. He stretched out his hand as though somehow trying to touch the song, focusing every piece of his being on the melody…

But as the tendrils entwined around his extended arm, he feared it wouldn't be enough… how many more had died like him with their lover singing at their side? What made his love for Miku any more special than the love of any others?

Even so… Kaito felt Miku's heart beating in perfect harmony with his as the Noise still tried to pull him within.

"Your love."

In the darkness, Kaito saw five brilliants lights glimmering, streaking towards him.

"Right now."

The Noise tried to block his vision, but white feathers began to fall towards him.

"Your love."

Before even his face was pulled into the living Entity, he saw a brilliant rainbow chain of paper cranes.

"Right now."

Kaito heard five voices ring out at once and the Noise blasted apart around him as five light arrows pierced through it. He let out a gasp, trying to pull the rest of his body free as the tendrils reached out for him. "Tch! Get the hell away from him!"

Yuma's swords sliced through the living Noise as Haku rushed forward and grabbed Kaito. "Let go of him, jerks!" she shouted, waving her fists.

The white-haired Seruva pulled him free and began to fly forward. As soon as he snapped away from it, he felt the Noise leave his body. "Ha… Haku…" he coughed out, relieved his own voice had returned to him.

The Noise shrieked, a series of wild chaotic tones as Kaito departed from it. Blasts of dark energy flew through the air. Kaito heard a cheerful melody and watched as waves of pink cherry blossoms pushed back at the projectiles. Mizki waved her fan and giggled. As a few tendrils shot through, silvery white chains shot through the air and tore them apart.

"Your love."

"Don't stop flying! Keep going!" Miriam shouted.

As they left the abyss further and further behind, Kaito saw the eyes of the one person he'd been willing to die for the most.

One last wretched tendril wrapped itself around Kaito's waist, pulling him back and ripping him out of Haku's arms entirely… before Prima dove forward, holding a brilliant white dagger, and sliced it clean. She gripped her son and flew with all of her might.

Kaito realized with enthusiasm that he was actually going to survive. He was going home.

"Right now."

A bright light flashed in the room, interrupting Miku's song. She panicked for a moment as it engulfed Kaito's body… but as it vanished his color had returned. His eyes glowed with white light but his face was content.

Her hands shook as she touched him. His body seemed so calm…

"… so that's what the Seal was…" Kaito said.

"I'm so sorry we couldn't tell you!" Haku said, "We all wanted to but even we didn't know how to save you… we were afraid we'd never find you before it tore you up!"

He looked to the faces of those he'd nearly died to save. Fellow Spirit Callers, every one of them. Others who understood the weight of his burdens, carrying them until death. "What's going to happen to you now?" he asked.

"We can finally rest…" Yuma said, "I mean, we DID die already. We just… spent our afterlives as part of that."

"The Noise kept sending us after you, trying to kill the last Spirit Caller and finally flow freely," Miriam explained, "But once you purged our spirits of the Noise, we lost the false bodies."

But if there was no more Seal… "What's going to happen to the Noise?"

Prima looked grim. "It won't stop… it was already flowing past the Seals as it was. The ancestors fell silent because it consumed them already."

Kaito felt a chill – Meiko had been sending him deeper and deeper beyond the veil and he'd been chasing spirits who no longer existed.

Prima continued. "It found allies in both humans and Seruva as well… human technology freed the Heralds, but the Seruva's actions led to Noise spilling out both on Earth and within the Islands."

"But if we don't stop it, it could wipe out everyone on the planet!" Kaito said.

Mizki giggled. "Well, there might be one way… buuuuut… it's really dangerous."

She was grinning from ear to ear like she had a secret. "Should we teach him?"

"He can't learn it if he's still Val'Sharess though!" Haku said, "He needs to be able to soar!"

"And don't forget… it's also what caused all of this…" Miriam warned.

Kaito grew impatient. "Don't I get a say?" he said, "I'm getting tired of everyone choosing my fate for me."

As he approached the edge of the veil, Prima released him. Her face appeared stoic and grim. "We must give him the choice. The worst thing that happens is… the End. Either way."

The five former Heralds joined together. "We shall teach you the melody of your heritage," Prima said, "I entrust you, my son… with the choice in how to use it. Just know that when you awaken the notes will recede. Until you soar once again."

Kaito's mind filled with a powerful, ancient melody, burgeoning with power and strength. As if contained within these notes were the powers to birth and destroy worlds. The words barely left his lips before he finally found his spirit back in his body…

Kaito felt the weight of suddenly having physical form again. He twitched his hands, and at first they moved awkwardly, as if he were trying to manipulate gloves instead of appendages. But finally he felt enough strength to force his eyelids open…

…and right above him was his beloved. The girl who refused to stop trying to protect him.

"Miku."

His voice barely above a whisper, he tried to say something else before the girl had him scooped into a tight embrace. Kaito felt dampness on his bare shoulder as Miku sniffled. As his strength flourished, he gladly returned her embrace. He was no longer living on borrowed time. He would never have to leave her again.

"Kaito… oh Kaito…" she whispered.

Suddenly she pushed her head up and glared at him. "How… how DARE you lie to us all like that?! Pretending you were going to tell us the truth when you knew you were going to die!"

Her angry, wounded melody melted as her face returned to a happy smile. "Idiot."

"I'm so sorry Miku…" Kaito said, "I… I just felt so defeated. I figured out what was happening to me and it didn't seem right to take your happiness away by telling you I was dying."

He clutched her tighter. "But you saved me… again. You never gave up…"

Miku shook her head. "I just sang to you because Luka told me to try it…"

Suddenly Miku jumped up. "Oh god, Luka!"

She checked her phone, frowning as she apparently didn't see what she wanted. "Everyone had their own missions to try and find ways to help you!" Miku explained, "We didn't know what to do for you so Rin, Len, and Gumi drove off to their parent's house to find out what Mirror knows… and Luka and Gakupo went after Meiko."

"What?!" Kaito exclaimed, "They put themselves at risk for me?!"

"Oh, lotta talk coming from YOU!" Miku said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Kaito tried to sort out everything that had happened to him as he'd been nearly devoured by the Noise. What the Heralds had told him. The song they'd taught him. He tried to sing it a second time… yet he only got a few notes out before the memory faded.

"A song that even a Seruva can't remember…" he murmured.

Miku looked up at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Kaito put a hand to his chin. "The people I saved from being Heralds, they all flew out and saved me… and they tried to teach me a melody but…"

He shook his head. "Maybe I can't remember it because I can't fly anymore," he remarked, "They said I'd recall it when I next 'soar'"…

All of a sudden an ear-piercing noise emanated from the room. Kaito covered his ears and tried to find the source. 'Wait, I know this…'

"This is NERU!" Miku shouted.

Kaito finally narrowed his eyes on Gumi's TV set. He cast his ballad of purification and the piercing sound ceased.

"Kaito… if you heal Neru…"

"…I'll be fine. I broke the Sealing over me."

He grabbed his jacket and stood up, throwing it on quickly. "We have to set her free, Miku! I'll worry about the song later!"

Miku grabbed her sword and belt. "If it's coming from the TV… maybe Kotori Broadcast Tower?" Miku suggested.

Kaito wrapped his scarf around his neck and threw it over his shoulder.

"Then let's put an end to this… for good."

A/N:

Phew. That was a hell of a thing. One of my readers has been expecting the former Heralds to show up again, so I hope their appearance significantly earlier in the story was a reasonable surprise.

"Frank Smith" and "Jody Doe" are references to Big Al and Sweet Ann's otherwise unknown voice providers. Since all we know of Al's is the name "Frank S." and Ann only as "Jody", I gave them appropriately generic last names.

Song Credits: You know, you wouldn't think THIS would be a chapter with a lot of songs but… Miku sings Starduster to lure Kaito back from death. Story time – I didn't know anything about this song the first time I heard it in concert. But when they played it at Miku Expo, they displayed the romaji so the audience could sing along. I had no idea it was a song about someone begging to be heard – I thought it was a happy song. Because they actually set it up so every "Ai wo…" had a response from her fans. Like we were all trying to save her! I looked up the lyrics after the show and was quite surprised to know that's why we were calling out to her. I sort of kept that in the back of my mind and when it came to this chapter of Broken Wings, I thought my misinterpretation mixed with the intent would suit this chapter fine.

Beyond that, I finally got to use some bird and angel songs from the Kagamines! "Soleil" and "Alluring Secret ~Black Vow~". It's kind of fun to take Vocaloid songs and give them a "lore" reason for existing.

And completely outside of lore, apparently Miku set "World's End Dancehall" to be Luka's ringtone.

The chapter title itself is named for the Kaito song "Infinite Loop." Watch the PV and you'll understand why. I'd like to thank Oderin-Kuro for recommending the song to me :)