~Annie~

The carriage rolled over small pebbles on the road. She hated riding in it. It suffocated but her envious peers outside never assumed it was anything other than a privileged comfort and duly resented her for it.

"Spit it out Kitivian." The Captain said with an annoyed sigh. "At the very least spare me the brooding."

"The Seamstress." He said without glancing up from the documents he wasn't reading. "You have grown quite fond of her."

"It will not interfere with my duty to you, sir." She replied.

"Well at least you're not denying it the way you'd used to." He straightened the large pamphlet with a flick of the wrist and began to fold it. "Don't roll your eyes, Annie. I know you. You put all of yourself into whatever it is you commit to. Admirable but for the tendency to stretch yourself out too thin."

"I just said-"

"I heard you." Kitivian raised his eyes to her. "But I also heard several of the Captains, including a favorite of the Security Chief, Maren, raise the possibility of a more permanent arrangement whereby you would remain in Castletown to train female recruits. A noble cause as well…and one that would keep you close to where we both know your heart will eventually lie if it doesn't already."

"It was a seasonal offer."

"Ah, so you were paying attention."

She gaped at him, at an utter loss of words.

"Regardless," the General continued, "I have made it clear to the Security Chief that such an offer will not be considered."

"You had no right!" She burst out.

"I disagree." He calmly finished organizing his briefcase and closed it. "You are an indispensable asset to my artillery, neither replaceable nor interchangeable. Therefore, it was my duty to make that fact known if you wouldn't."

Her nails dug into the upholstery of the chair and her breath shortened.

"It was for the best, my dear."

Her breath was shallow but her voice was steady. "I don't belong to you."

"That's not what this is about. It's-"

"It is. It's the same as it was the last time this happened." She tried to ignore the brewing storm in her superior's eyes and ran on. "Every time I do something unexpected you dislike, you find a way to sabotage it. And that's because you can't bear the idea of me leaving your side."

"Wanton impudence!"

The entire carriage rocked with the impact of the briefcase on its floor.

Annie clasped her hands in her lap and tried to keep from shaking. She kept her gaze straight ahead, refusing to bow her head.

But the General's voice softened again. He remained a leader who wanted love as well as obedience from his people. "You forget your place, Captain Annabella. And I can understand how easily that can happen, given the way I can also forget myself and look upon you as a daughter at several points."

"Yes." She replied in a tepid voice.

The General braced for a rebuttal but Annie merely leaned her head against the wall of the carriage and began counting the passing trees with misty eyes.

And because she voiced no further dissent, the General considered the matter neatly resolved. He cheerfully commented on the ice thawing in small puddles around the trees and how it must be a nuisance to deal with hay fever in springtime.

~Yelena~

Unlike MD-5, the interior design of MD-2 was drastically more Spartan.

General Kitivian settled in his hard chair and gestured for us towards the seats before him. While his desk was meant to exude authority for him by direct tie to his home field advantage, his own posture rendered it more a shield.

He laced his hands together and set them on the desk. "Captain Annie will show you to your rooms. I sincerely hope that from now on we will be able to remain on open, candid terms with one another."

"That is always the ideal." Valek replied smoothly from his seat. "But of course, that will be completely up to you, General."

He swallowed and his tense spider of hand twitched to touch his collar. "Right. We will be conducting more searches for the rest of the afternoon and as there are a few things that I will have to look over until then…"

He swallowed again, flushing. Even though we were guests in his vicinity, Valek still outranked all the Generals, making dismissals an essential Catch-22.

Valek didn't move. He raised an eyebrow, daring him to continue.

The Captain stepped forward, her hands remained folded behind her back. "I will be showing you to your room, whenever you are ready."

I stood and nodded to Annie before Valek could torture our host more.

The door closed behind him as I stretched myself out on the bed. I propped my head up. "Well that was rather mean."

"On the contrary, I rather believe that I should have been…meaner." He folded his arms and his gaze swept over my body that kindled a fire of anticipation in me.

"Oh come on." I rolled my eyes. "The man looked ready to cry."

"It would have been nothing less than what he deserved, love." He stopped at the fireplace and picked up the poker, silently asking for permission.

I smiled softly and nodded. "What do you mean by that?"

He began to stoke the fire. "That Captain Annie has been looking rather despondent lately, wouldn't you agree?"

So I wasn't the only one who noticed the coolness and the short, terse replies when addressed. I assumed it might have just had to do with displeasure at us conducting further investigations in her jurisdiction. But I should have realized that if that were merely the case, there would have been sheer defiance in her brown eyes, not this…somewhat defeated resignation.

Valek sat at the edge of the bed and began removing his boots. "It was only an offer, nothing more. She would stay in the warmer seasons when the snow cats' natural prey would have come out of hibernation, abating the danger to the district. There is plenty she could teach the recruits at the Castle."

"And the General practically refused for her." I finished.

He reached over and began to remove the lock picks from my hair. "She never even had the chance to hear the offer."

"Oh I want to hate him."

The back of his hand trailed down my neck to the clasp of my cloak. "Want?"

The metal clasp clicked open and the garment slid off. I strained to remember the tame meaning of that. "It's easy to just antagonize the old man. He's unfair, unjust…entitled. But then we have to remember that either one of us could have done the exact same thing in that position."

"I doubt that."

"Well of course. We let each other go all the time no matter how hard it is because we know it's the right thing to do. But imagine if the Commander assigned an undercover mission to you that would keep us apart for an entire year? And we wouldn't be able to communicate with one another to avoid jeopardizing your position. I'd be pretty tempted to stall badly enough so you couldn't go. A season or two may seem an easy bargain to us but for an aging General who has grown more than fond, it could feel like years."

"I agree, but it's still no excuse." His hand began to linger maddeningly over the buttons of my shirt, unfastening them while not quite so at the same time.

"I wasn't justifying or excusing him. It's about it-will you stop that?!" The train of thought was gone either way. Ah, hell.

He snatched his hand away with an innocent smile. "Alright."

I slid my hand up and down his thigh in brutal retaliation. "I have to say that I love how you care this much though."

A shiver escaped him but, impressively, he kept his composure. "Are you honestly surprised?"

"No." I stopped. "It's the exact reason why you've always given people a choice. And why you've always given me one long before I even meant anything to you."

"So here's one, love." His hand covered my wandering one, trapping it. "Do you want to spend the rest of your night discussing the ethics of an old windbag General and anything else for that matter with me or do you want me to make you spend the rest of the night?"

I pulled my hand out from under his and removed my shirt, tossing it with my discarded cloak. Then I lay back on the pillows and pretended to be seriously conflicted. "You know I just can't decide. I mean it'd feel good and all but for some reason I figure more things out talking to rather than touching you. How do you think he became acquainted with Captain Annie for one?"

He was on top of me in an instant, eyes burning with unbridled desire as he crushed his lips against mine. "Then you shall have both."

"What's your secret?" I teased between gasps.

"Simple." Valek tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, fingers lingering across the line of my jaw. "It's always knowing that you chose me…" He began trailing kisses up my chest. "Every. Single. Time."

I couldn't stop smiling.

He kissed the corner of my mouth. "See?" Another kiss at my sternum. "See how easy this is?"

I snaked my arms around him. "Easy?" I pretended to be affronted.

He shot me a wicked grin as his hand slipped between my legs. "I told you I wouldn't even need to take all your clothes off didn't I?"

We walked up to the front of the house. The paint peeled and the eaves splintered from lack of maintenance.

I interlaced my hand with Valek's. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "It's for the best." He kissed my hand. "I'll scout to make sure we weren't followed. I…can't be near here right now."

He released me and disappeared into the trees.

The rat was back in my stomach. I swallowed another deep breath. It's fine, I told myself. If my powers didn't return it still doesn't mean it won't. But chances were good though. Going by the logic that it'd come back when I needed it, a lost soul needed a Soulfinder desperately and that had to be a good enough reason.

I opened the door and stepped inside.

Nothing. Mold and aged dust met me. I tried to not let disappointment cloud me as I entered the abode.

Memory clung to the house. Laughter once gathered at the dinner table in the narrow kitchen by the stove. Rowdy feet ran up and down the stairs that stood across the landing. Quiet companionship rested at the loveseat with soft voices and secret smiles.

I swallowed.

"I knew she'd be pretty." The playful lilt reminded me of Janco.

There was no shock, only immense relief and complete bliss akin to slipping into a warm bath. Not the average reaction to ghosts…I suppose this was why people were always creeped out by my powers.

Another boisterous voice matched it. "Pretty? Was that really the best you can come up with? And after twenty years to think about this too."

"What? Back in my day that was considered a compliment."

"Yeah I'm sure that's all an all-powerful Soulfinder wants to be known as."

"Well considering how I don't know her all that well, any comment I make to her personal attributes would have to be considered false flattery. And I get a feeling she's not all that fond of liars."

"Anyone ever tell you that if you've nothing good to say you should just not say anything?"

"You do. I just don't listen."

A silent brother coalesced next to me by the mantle. He shook his head. "They'll grow on you."

"Vincent?" I asked.

He smiled and nodded.

I beamed back in spite of myself. They were strangers but being here somehow just felt so much like coming home.

"Alright she's adorable." The first voice morphed into a boy on the cusp of manhood with black hair and laughing eyes. "At least admit we've one adorable baby sister."

I raised my eyebrow at the youth.

His twin appeared and shrugged playfully. "You picked the baby of the family. De facto."

Vincent placed a hand on the twin who spoke first. "Victor." He gestured to the other. "Villiam."

Victor held a hand out. "I'd shake your hand or offer tea but ya know…"

I laughed. "It's alright." I bowed and they returned the gesture warmly. "I'm sorry it took this long."

Vincent waved away the apologies. "No worries. At least we were able to stay together." He made a face. "For better and for worse."

Villiam floated over and said in dramatic aside. "Yeah it's not easy hanging around a stick in the mud for this long." He indiscreetly indicated toward Vincent. "Enough is enough if you know what I mean?"

He jested but there was impatient tension in his voice.

I opened my arms. "Shall we?"

They closed their eyes and stood together.

I shut mine and tried to pull at the power blanket.

Nothing.

I concentrated and imagined healing a wound, pulling at tendons and vessels, but with souls instead.

Sweat beaded my forehead and a gust of wind threw me back. The ancient cabinet broke my fall and my gloves protected me from a rusty nail that threatened to pierce skin. A mantelpiece clattered to the ground and broke into more pieces than it was already in.

I wiped tears away furiously and stood.

Victor opened his eyes first and blinked. He shrugged. "Looks like it isn't time yet. Ah well."

"I am so sorry." Was all I could say.

"Don't be." Villiam said with immense gentleness. "It's not your fault."

With a small sigh, I perched on the edge of the mantle.

Vincent raised a hand to lay on my shoulder but stopped midair, remembering himself. "Try not to worry too much about this. It will come back."

"And it's not like we're going anywhere." Victor added. "We'll still be here when your heart's in it again."

They both turned to glare at him.

"Oops."

Villiam shook his head. "What I believe Victor meant to say was your power should return to you when every part of you is in alignment once more."

But I only blinked. "How did you know?"

"We're ghosts. It's pretty much our job to pick up on unrest and anguish. Fun stuff. And until then…" Victor began walking on his hands, "I don't know man, for what everyone complains about…sometimes being a ghost is fun. Look how funny my feet look. Oh! Right. Until then, your only duty is to live as if none of this matters. That's how you'll get better."

"What?"

Villiam poked him. "Oh for Sand's Sake, Victor, can you do that some other time? You're going to give somebody nightmares."

"I believe by 'baby' sister we were only referring to you know." But Victor stood right side up again.

"I was talking about me."

They launched into a passionate argument over the metaphysical ability of ghosts to have nightmares as sleep was already considered abstract in the first place.

Vincent walked through them, smiling wryly. "Since you look like you're having a bad day I'll make it easy for you." He rested an arm against the mantle and leaned closer. "If you were to offer me at this very moment, not only my life back, but all the years I would have lost…so that I would have had everything I deserved…I wouldn't take it."

I stared at him.

"I wouldn't take it…" He smiled sadly. "…because I know it'd all mean nothing to me."

"And it's because we're done here, Yelena." Villiam paused in his speech about it being perfectly possible to have nightmares wide awake to chime in. "And no amount of adorable baby sisters is going to make any of it better."

Vincent steepled his fingers. "So let's think about your powers for a minute. Did any of it start coming back at some point?"

"My healing." I said quietly. "When I stopped hurting myself."

"And not to be morbid or anything but let's think for a second about how things would have worked out if you had your powers the whole time you were doing all of that."

I didn't have to say it aloud. But we all knew. Forget healing. I would have just let my soul leave my body to quench the agony within me for good.

"And what I just described…the way I feel right now…" Vincent continued, "it's how you're feeling right now, isn't it?"

Like a ghost. Not the best way to put it but incredibly accurate.

"Only it'd make sense for me to feel this way. You? Wildly inappropriate for the simple reason of you not being dead wouldn't you say?"

"Wanting to live is the key." Victor checked with his index finger and thumb. "And until you feel it again, you can't be anyone's Soulfinder. Otherwise, how are you supposed to tell the difference between a soul that belongs in the sky and one that doesn't?" He coughed emphatically, "Yours."

"I want to live don't I?" I clenched at the wood of the mantle. "Going until now meant something didn't it? I could have just let myself die on the ground that day but I healed myself."

"Let's be honest." Villiam crossed his arms. "If you didn't have your friends and you didn't have Valek, would you have honestly wanted to keep going?"

A difficult question. But I believed that I would have forged ahead anyways. I managed to choose to live as opposed to the noose the first time around, after all. I voiced my thoughts.

"You're right. But pushing through because you have to and pushing through because you want to are two very different things." Vincent said patiently. "Deciding you have to live for the sake of others, or in that other case you mentioned, for the sake of good principle, might be an adequate temporary fix to save yourself for the time being but it's not enough in the end."

"So if living for the people I love and my cause isn't good enough, then what is?" I bowed my head. "I don't know if I can even find it. And if I do, what will happen if it doesn't last?"

Villiam's mouth turned down and his eyes shifted awkwardly. "You're probably asking the wrong people that there."

Without warning, my mind imagined us having cheerier conversations around that dinner table. Victor and Villiam would bicker again at some point like Ari and Janco while Vincent would look on and shake his head. We'd linger at the landing like this at the end of the night, too affectionate to be anything but reluctant to part ways.

I wanted to weep at the unfairness of it all.

"It's alright to cry, Yelena." Vincent said softly. "It means you're alive. And it also means that you'll find your way back."

"And take care of Valek for us in the meantime, won't you?" Victor winked as his apparition began to fade. "He can be…what is it about him, Villiam?"

Villiam smiled faintly as his feet disappeared. "He can take himself a little too seriously sometimes."

"Yeah that's it. You two dorks were just made for each other."

They left laughing.

It was late afternoon by the time I emerged from the house. I walked down the path slowly, the frost covered gravel crunching beneath my boots.

Valek appeared beside me and I slipped my hand into his.

"I'll be making another trip back." I said.

He squeezed my hand.

"I wish I could have met them."

"Me too." He met my eyes.

The skies darkened and bulked with grey clouds as we quickened our pace. A sharp wind cut through my cloak and I shivered violently. Valek pulled me closer.

He abruptly stopped. I froze, waiting and discreetly searching for the threat.

Valek yanked me behind him and brandished his sword. I clung to his other arm, stumbling from the sudden impact of the wind.

A feral snarl. The rustle of four limbs and a lunge.

Valek shoved me to the ground, using his entire body to cover my back. "Stay low."

The snow cat disappeared again. He stood slowly and waited.

A branch broke. A splash of blood.

Valek fell.

I screamed. The beast howled in agony.

And somehow I was at his side, numbly putting pressure on his neck where there the blood flowed a crimson fountain.

He grasped my hand weakly and rasped, "Sorry, love. But it looks like I won't be making it this time."

I could already feel the tears streaming down my face at the inevitable. "No. Don't talk. Save your strength." His blood seeped through the cloth I had pressed against the wound, flowing through my useless hands. "Damn it, Valek! Why the hell did you have to be immune to magic?!"

I would have killed to hear a saucy retort that had been so easily set up for by my comment.

But he had gone quiet.

I shook him in alarm and cried his name out.

His slow, labored breath in the howling storm signaled the end. His grip on my hand slacked. I sobbed as I felt the last of this strength leave him and his soul threaten to fly towards the sky. "No. No, no, no. Don't leave me…please. Not now. You know I couldn't bear it. Please…please…"

A weak meow several feet away broke me from my trance. I looked across Valek's body and saw his killer. It seemed so much smaller than it had been when it attacked us.

Suddenly I saw the triumphant Commander, exalting as he drank from the blood of the snow-cat in the wintry scene. I saw his strength return, his fatal injuries heal and fall away, signifying a complete victory over his enemy.

Slowly, I released the pressure over his wound. I took his gloved hand and kissed it. He looked at me with rapidly fading eyes. "Stay with me just a little longer, Valek. I will save you."

Picking up the discarded blade, I willed myself to stand and to leave his side. The snow-cat watched with its wide, yellow eyes as I approached, completely ready for battle.

It goes without saying, please review!

Livy2019: Thank you for such a sweet review. It means so much to me that you want to read more. And that does sound like a good story idea so I will keep it in mind!