Gradually, Hei became aware that someone was watching him. He opened his eyes, and came face to face with Yin's specter in a puddle of water. There was a painfully loud ringing in his ears, and it was…raining? He stifled a groan and pushed himself up into a sitting position, shards of glass falling from his back onto the tile floor. Everything hurt, especially his left arm, but that wasn't important right now. Jiao-tu - she had been in the hallway, had she been caught in the explosion?

No, he remembered, she had left before he went into the office. She was fine. Focus on the situation at hand, he told himself. Emotions are unnecessary distractions. Thick black smoke was billowing into the hall, and hot flames licked at the edges of a massive hole in the laboratory wall. The intense heat coming from the burning office stung his exposed face and neck. Dimly, he became aware that what he had thought was rain was just the sprinkler system; the water falling closest to the fire was hissing into steam.

Hei staggered to his feet, still a little dazed. Which way was the exit? Between the smoke and steam, he could hardly see. A flash of blue from the floor caught his eye. He looked down at the floor again; Yin's specter vanished, then reappeared a few feet down the hall. Waiting. Coughing in the smoke, he followed her specter to the stairwell.

His left arm was aching more now; he saw that the sleeve of the gray windbreaker was charred and black. He stripped the jacket off, wincing in pain. A small but steady stream of people was trickling down from the upper floors while the fire alarms blared. He joined them, though not without receiving some curious looks; he hid his face as best he could.

The cool night air stung his skin almost as badly as the fire had; it didn't help that he was soaking wet. He slipped off into the dark as soon as he was outside the building. Mao caught up with him, and said something Hei couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears. Then he realized it was worse in his right ear; he plucked out his ear piece. That helped.

"Hei! What happened in there?" Mao repeated.

"Where's the nearest safe house?" Hei didn't want to have to explain events twice. And now that he was out of immediate danger, he needed a first aid kit.

"Huang's bringing the car around."

Sirens sounded in the distance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't believe how close we were to getting blown up!" Mei-li said with a shudder. "If we'd stayed just a few more minutes…What do you think happened?"

Jiao-tu could only shake her head. The flashing red and blue lights of the fire trucks and police cars were hypnotizing.

"It was probably some kind of laboratory accident," Arakawa said. "People get careless all the time - no one ever pays attention to those safety videos."

First the park, now here. "Contractors," Jiao-tu whispered.

Mei-li heard her. "What? Don't say stupid things, 'Tu, contractors aren't real, they're just a rumor."

"They are real," Arakawa said. He gave Jiao-tu an appraising look, his black eye gleaming red then blue in the reflected light of the emergency vehicles. "Why do you think contractors would be responsible for setting a fire in a physics building?"

Jiao-tu shrugged, wishing she hadn't said anything. She could feel the heat of the fire on her face, even though they were standing well behind the police barricades. Dragons aren't afraid of fire, she told herself. But it wasn't very convincing. She wanted to call Tian, just to hear his voice telling her that everything was ok…how could he not have a phone?

"Wait, you can't be serious!" Mei-li was saying. "People with magic powers? That's impossible."

Arakawa was still watching Jiao-tu. "Not impossible, just unexplained. When the Gates first appeared, some people were changed. They gained special abilities, superhuman powers, but at the cost of their humanity. They don't feel emotion, or guilt, or remorse. They're not human anymore, they're monsters. Killers."

That makes sense, Jiao-tu thought numbly. Who else but a monster would kill Aunt and Uncle?

"How could that happen?" Mei-li asked.

Arakawa shrugged. "No one knows for sure; the existence of contractors is classified, and so is all the research concerning them. But you know the false stars?"

Both women looked up automatically; smoke from the fire obscured only a small part of the twinkling, fake night sky.

"Each false star is linked to an individual contractor; when a contractor uses his ability, his star shows distinct changes in its electromagnetic spectrum, including increased emission of lancer opt synchrotron radiation. Contractors themselves emit synchrotron radiation when using their powers. Don't tell anyone," he lowered his voice conspiratorially, "but Professor Iwakara is researching the source of contractors' abilities. He thinks it has something to do with the link between them and their stars."

"You mean, the radiation?" Jiao-tu asked.

He nodded. "If we can find a way to disrupt the pattern of radiation when they use their powers, we can protect ourselves against them - maybe even cut them off from their abilities altogether."

"Then they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore." Jiao-tu hugged herself, remembering the windstorm in the park, and the dead man with the knife in his chest.

"Exactly. They're a serious threat to humanity - what's to stop them from taking us over completely?" Arakawa's voice had risen steadily as he talked.

He hates contractors, Jiao-tu realized. I wonder who he knows who was killed by one? That made her think of Tian again. It didn't matter if he didn't have a phone.

"I have to go," she said, and pushed her way through the crowd, Mei-li's questioning shout fading behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Just great," Huang muttered. "You're sure he's dead?"

"No." Hei wrapped a strip of gauze around the blisters on his arm. His burns weren't extensive - he'd gotten far enough from the lab that only his left arm, brought up to shield his face from the blast, was injured - but they were second degree, and extremely painful. There were some spots on the side of his ribcage and back that were a little tender, not bad enough to require dressing. His shirt had fallen apart when he removed it to assess his burns. "But it's probable. And I doubt the computer survived."

"Damn it. You couldn't have taken the computer out with you?" They had regrouped in a motel room, two miles from Tokodai. Huang was occupied with his usual nervous pacing, while Hei sat at the small table with the first aid kit.

"I didn't have time," Hei said. He reached for another bandage, only to find that Yin had already opened it and was holding it out for him. The doll had stayed close by his side since they'd arrived.

"I don't get it," Mao said from his perch on the bed. "Why kill our contact? I mean, I know he thought those contractors in the park were there to kill him, but I thought he was just being paranoid - they were obviously after the item."

Hei took the bandage from Yin. "I don't think the bomb was meant for him," he said slowly. "It wasn't even a bomb, not really. It was rigged to look like an electrical fire. Whoever set it up can't have known that Iwakara would be there when it triggered. I only noticed it by chance." He should have noticed the acetone smell right away, but he hadn't been as focused as he usually was.

"Could there still be another copy of the key?" Mao wondered. "What did he say in the motel; someone stole it off the flash drive in the first place?"

Hei started to shrug, but the motion stretched the burned skin on his back painfully. "He said someone wanted to stop him from selling the information, so this person removed the key from the flash drive and hired the contractors in the park. If the only other copy was on that computer in the lab, then they were trying to destroy it. Iwakara was just unlucky enough to be there when they did."

Huang stopped his pacing. "So who is this person?"

"No idea," Hei told him.

"You didn't ask?"

"It wasn't directly relevant to the job, Huang," Mao told him. "How could Hei know it would end up being important?"

Huang rubbed at his forehead. "'Try to avoid killing him', I'm sure I told you that. Damn it. The Syndicate is not going to be happy about this."

Hei thought Huang was probably right, but he didn't care. The contact was dead or close to it and the key was lost. That meant that the job was over, and he could focus on dealing with the Jiao-tu situation and getting life back to normal.

"I'm going to call this in," Huang continued. "Mao, you come with me, I don't think I can explain this without backup." He looked at Yin. "Just go to sleep or something until we're done."

"I can take her home," Hei said.

Huang just grunted, which Hei took for assent, and left the room with Mao. Hei found a change of clothes in the motel closet, and carefully buttoned the shirt on over his bandages. Together he and Yin walked to the nearest train station.

"Good job tonight," he told her quietly when they had taken their seats on the mostly empty train.

Yin didn't answer, just tentatively touched the bandage on his arm that was only partially hidden by his shirt sleeve.

"It's fine," he assured her, though it wasn't. He had taken four aspirin, but the pills weren't helping. Hei was exhausted and his ears were still ringing from the explosion; he just wanted to get home and go to sleep. They rode the rest of the way in silence.

When they arrived at the station, Hei took Yin's hand and led her onto the platform. He turned towards the street exit, but Yin didn't move. He gave her hand a light tug. "Yin."

"Hei."

Her face was turned towards the opposite end of the platform. Hei followed her blind gaze; a young woman was sitting hunched on a bench, fidgeting with a purple phone. Jiao-tu.

He turned away. "Yin, let's go."

But Yin slipped her hand out of his and walked towards his cousin. Hei gave a weary sigh. He had no choice but to follow.

She had been crying, he could see. "Are you lost, Xiao-tu?" he asked her.

Jiao-tu looked up, and just as in the park last night (had it only been last night?), threw herself into his arms without a word. He held her tight, despite the pain on his skin. She's not Bai, he told himself. A small voice in the back of his mind answered, No, but she's still family.

A/N: Just a quick thanks to everyone who's reading this story! I haven't responded to every review, but I definitely appreciate all your feedback =) I'm really glad people are liking Xu - I was a little nervous writing her, because I'm not a huge fan of OCs, but I kinda had to have one for this storyline...

Chinese translation:

Xiao...small/little