(A/N): I have no excuse for myself. I'm so sorry. School absolutely gutted me, and I have uni to get ready for, and so many reasons I've dropped this fic the last several months, but I haven't given up on it, I sweeear. And I thank you lovely people who are still waiting for this fic thousandfold.

Guest Ninja: Thank you so much, holy cow! I'm incredibly flattered that you experienced so much reading. I also kind of grew up on these dorks so I love them too, but no easy ride out of the mansion for them yet. I'm glad you like my Karlof, he's a tough one to write! That Chekov quote is good; I'm flattered to have been deemed worthy.

"Ah."

The one syllable spoke well for all of them in the moment.

"Soo. There's more where that came from," Cole continued shakily. "Lovely."

"Just how many people died here?" Zane wondered quietly. The slight echo to his voice reverberated against the narrow, carved-out walls, rough and plain compared to the ruined grandeur and antiquity of the rest of the mansion.

"Well. If people were coming in from all those villages we passed on the way here …"

"Hey," Lloyd tried. His throat had gone very dry. "We never know; maybe some of them survived. Could every single person that was here really have died?"

"I wanna believe there were survivors," Cole said. "But that implies that there were people who lived to tell what happened …" He let the silence hanging in the air speak for itself.

Lloyd had realized that subconsciously, of course. Not a single villager would tell him exactly what had happened here; when pressed, they would furtively look away or change the subject. So it stood to reason that they didn't know. Or that they were too afraid to tell.

Either way, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Zane hummed, considering something.

"All of this is very chaotic."

"Yeah," Cole agreed. "Although, with how dark it is, it's a little hard to tell anything …"

Zane stepped out a little farther, peering into the shadow-cast passage as if looking for something.

"The positions of the skeletons, as well as how scattered they are, suggests that either something disturbed them or that some sort of struggle happened here. Judging by the assorted weapons and items strewn about, I would guess that there was a fight, presumably between the Serpentine and those taking shelter here." He paused. "Analysis of the stains on the wall appear to be —"

"I think that's enough," Cole interjected hastily, with a significant glance at their human flashlight.

Lloyd was still staring, transfixed, at the ground in front of him. A skull at his feet bored into his eyes with its sockets. He considered picking it up. He quickly decided against it.

"My apologies. I did not mean to cause discomfort."

"I-it's fine."

"We know so little about this place," Lloyd murmured, turning both of their attentions towards him again.

"You can say that again. Heck, here we are questioning what we do know." Cole agreed, turning back towards Zane from where he'd been eyeing the path on the right. "You look like you wanna say something."

"Ah, it's just that some of these bones appear to be … Serpentine."

On closer inspection, Lloyd noticed that he was right — a couple of the skulls and hands had hooked fangs and claws that glinted in the light he was casting, their points still sharp — and mulled on it a moment. Cole stepped cautiously away from the disorder back towards them, eyeing the dim path with unease and nervously tipping his head like he could hear something they couldn't. Lloyd wondered if perhaps the restless souls of the refugees, forty years fallen, were trapped in the bones and whispering their pleas for help to him.

All at once the thought that two of them were still missing struck him again.

He prayed again that they wouldn't be too late, wouldn't let the mansion take two more unprepared souls.

"But if the Serpentine got everyone who was hiding here … then what got the Serpentine? Or should we be asking who?"

"Perhaps the answer depends on how long the spirit has haunted these premises."

"We probably won't find out just sitting around and talking," Lloyd cut in, stomach churning at the idea of standing there any longer, with these skulls and their empty sockets boring holes into him; he could just imagine the skeletons reaching out with bony segmented fingers while his back was turned. "Maybe we'll find clues while we look, but come on, let's just go. Our focus is finding Kai."

"Yeah, you're right," Cole sighed, already making his way towards the path that branched off towards the right. "I … let's not go that way unless we have to. If Kai found this, I don't think he would've."

"Nor do I." Zane fell into line behind him. Lloyd took his spot at the front and re-lit his fist.

And so they continued on.

Any sense of novelty Lloyd might have felt from the fact that they were exploring secret passages was quickly tempered by every glimpse of bones. It soured completely once he tripped over a stray femur right into a skeleton pile and scrambled to get himself out of it, biting back a shriek all the while.

As they walked, he noticed something …

The bones would shimmer green in the faint light and shift.

Even when he averted his gaze and looked ahead, even though he was surely just imagining things in the flickering shadows his light cast …

It got hard to ignore them.

They were mostly quiet initially, their footsteps and breaths amplified by the narrow space. Lloyd cursed how ragged his breathing was. Zane, sensing they'd hit upon an important finding, began to mentally map out the layout of the passages, beginning from the gallery.

A while in, Cole suggested that they keep talking, so that Kai would hear them if he was nearby.

(Lloyd wondered if this wasn't broadcasting their location to the spirit as well, but dismissed the thought; Cole was right, and they'd all fought the spirit before anyways. They'd be fine … although hopefully, it wouldn't show up at all.)

They volleyed around theories as to why there was such an intricate passage system in a mansion, of all the places, for a while. Most likely, something to do with the fact that it had been used as a refuge, they all agreed.

But then, did they lead anywhere besides other rooms?

Or perhaps … outside?

It was an exciting prospect, but the conversation fizzled out after a while. Even if somewhere within the elaborate maze there were a way out … finding their friends was the bigger priority at the moment. There was no leaving without them, and the sooner they found them the better.

Zane stepped up next, explaining a theory that PIXAL had regarding the ever-elusive magic surrounding everything like a blanket. According to her, it could potentially be viewed as acting similar to radiation — rather than fading like normal magic, it decayed, or "corrupted", into a twisted, progressively more unstable version of itself, with increasingly unpredictable effects. Of course, there was no way of knowing if all dark magic operated the same or if this version of it was just fundamentally different, considering the only magic PIXAL had ever been exposed to was Clouse's brand of sorcery, on Chen's island. And all that was ignoring any possible tie-in the spirit had to it. Lloyd listened with one ear and an iota of interest, grateful for a distraction.

By the time they were too worn out to do anything but call it quits, they'd learned plenty that was interesting enough to take note of. It turned out the passages actually held switches inside them leading to other tunnels — so there was more that they hadn't seen. If Kai had stumbled into the passages the same way they had, he could've easily gotten lost within the labyrinth — he didn't have the advantage of a path-mapping nindroid. Even with him though, they had to be careful — as an added precaution, they dropped pieces of rope down every so often to mark where they had been.

Eventually, their roaming had them find a switch that opened to another room. There was a moment of initial surprise, but if they'd found the passages through a gallery room, it made enough sense that the same system would open up to other places throughout the mansion. Aside from the gallery, they'd found openings to two small, quaintly-decorated rooms that looked like children's bedrooms; one of them had dark, day-old stains on the bedsheets and floor that made Lloyd's stomach turn upon hearing that those were Kai's blood (reassurance that he'd been treated did little to calm the sinking feeling in his gut, but he didn't dare let on).

Upstairs, the only room they could find any entrance to was a grand, rustic-looking library that Zane recognized as the spot he'd found Jay in; there was only one other door on the third floor, and none of the keys Zane had picked up worked on its lock.

Back downstairs, a passageway spat them out into a small, study-like workshop, with cozy shelves and cabinets stuffed with assorted parts, as well as a couple clocks in various states of repair on the walls and in pieces on the floor — the room Zane had found a key in. Barring that, there was also a smaller library, opening with a key that had apparently been found by Cole, as well as an untidy dining room, cabinets surrounding a large, unsteady table and weapons carelessly lying about. Not to mention, a kitchen that was barely recognizable as such under all the disarray and damage — if he was to choose one part of the mansion that looked the most like it had been hit with a tornado …

It was with a sinking feeling that they spotted more bones strewn about each room.

The reek of death and must clung to the air and the furniture, seeping into their nostrils, and wouldn't leave.

Several other doors just refused to open, regardless of how much muscle went into trying to pry them open, and just as many passageways dead-ended. Just like with the gallery, there was always some unassuming object in every room that made the passages open and close when moved.

Zane made note of each prop once they found it — and he'd also found another key. Almost like he was looking to be a nindroid keychain.

Every so often, they'd go back out into the main hallways and roam around for a bit, calling Kai and Karlof's names — didn't want to rule out the possibility that they hadn't found the passages, after all.

Lloyd kept his eyes peeled for anything worth noting, in the passages, halls, and elsewhere, though it was difficult with the state of disarray almost everything was in. Scuff marks, faded bloodstains, and distressed wallpaper were the prevalent adornments. Without the spirit on their tails, he could properly notice the decor that would have been impressive, once upon a time. Antique drawers, closets, chairs and tables sat in obsolete glory, intricate engravings peeking out from under wood rot and dust and jagged gashes — almost like they'd been scratched, cut into, scarred and damaged. Over the washed-out pattern of the wallpaper hung faded tapestries and torn drapes framing the broken, barred windows.

Zane pointed out the occasional portrait or even vintage photograph, framed or hung — most of them, according to Zane and Cole, of the family that had lived here: a man with glasses, a nervous face, and curly hair pulled into a low ponytail; a wiry woman with sharp, flint-like eyes but a genial smile; and a little girl, likely their daughter, with long black curls and a playful grin.

It was strange to think this place had once housed life between its walls. One had to wonder what had happened to them.

Clocks of varying builds carved so delicately they had to be handmade rested on the walls, with carefully-painted bodies and faces. Maybe they'd even been made here. Lloyd also vaguely remembered seeing similar clocks downstairs, resting on shelves or drawers in several rooms, so it would make sense.

… Wow, this was an awful lot of clocks for one place.

Someone must've really had a thing for punctuality. Or maybe they just liked clocks, who was he to judge.

With no small amount of interest, the group also finally noticed several weapons mounted on small hooks — javelins, swords, smaller daggers and shields. To his trained eye, they didn't look like the kind made purely for display; the edges were sharp and only mildly blunted with wear and disuse, hilts and handles adorned with small beads and designs inlaid in shimmering stone. Briefly, the group discussed whether there would be merit to taking some to use for themselves, but decided against it — between them, they had plenty of weapons; that wasn't their problem. Besides that, it just felt wrong, to disturb what hadn't already been touched by the hand of chaos.

The faint light filtering onto the floors in stripes got brighter as the hands on the clock ticked unevenly forward, but it did little to warm them or their spirits as it hit their gi and skins.

Through it all, there was still no sign high or low of either of the people they were looking for.

Worn down by disappointment and stubbornly-clinging exhaustion, Lloyd let out an irritated sigh.

"I hear you," Cole agreed, briefly leaning against a shelf before heaving himself back upright and continuing to half-heartedly paw around the books and papers. "We've been out here longer than an hour. Two, even! Still zilch."

They'd come back up to the second floor, finding a key that opened the door to a cozy workspace, larger than the more cramped one of the first floor. A small glass kerosene lamp sat on a desk. Laying on said desk was an assortment of mechanical-looking parts, tools, and papers, and there was more of the same to be found stuffed within the many drawers poking out from under it. Presumably, they were related to the several clocks hanging on the wall, as well as the unfinished ones lying around. When they'd first stumbled into the clocks, Cole had pondered aloud if they hadn't wandered right into the house of a clockmaker, but with the unnatural number of clocks they'd seen since then, they had to wonder if he was more on the mark than they'd realized.

Not to mention, they were literally in a room full of unfinished clocks and repair tools. That was only so open to interpretation.

Presently, they were rather experimentally feeling around for anything that might open up another passageway.

…Kinda video game-y, if he thought about it. Darn Jay for planting that thought.

"Yeah, well then, we should just keep looking." A flurry of yellowed documents, elaborate sketch lines visible on them, flew out of a drawer; he vehemently shoved them away and swallowed an unwarranted wave of irritation welling up in his chest and bubbling up his throat. "There's other passageways we haven't found yet, or maybe we need to go back out and check from the hallways! Or —"

Nothing was working, nothing was activating it —

With a despairing groan, he moved back and dropped his face into his hands.

Cole and Zane abruptly looked up from their own scouring and exchanged a glance. Cole came up and clapped a hand on his shoulder; Lloyd turned and buried his face in Cole's gi.

"We'll find them."

He said nothing about what condition they'd be found in, Lloyd noted.

"It's been, what, a day? It's been a whole day now, hasn't it?"

"We have no accurate time-measuring device," Zane said, "but in all likelihood, it has been less. Still … I do have confidence we will find them."

"We've been looking so long, though! We've looked in so many places, and there's still no sign of them! Not even a bad sign!" Almost angrily, Lloyd blinked back tears. Where was his determination? Where was his resolve that it would all work out?

He was not about to cry and make it look even worse for himself. Cry and that meant that everything was already gone to pieces.

It wasn't.

It couldn't be.

They were all quiet, Lloyd desperately trying to regain composure, Cole rubbing small circles into his back.

"All of us got split up yesterday."

Lloyd waited for him to continue.

"We had this spirit hot on our tails. Kai was injured. We were so afraid we barely got our wits together." He paused, then laughed. Lloyd blinked at how self-deprecating it was. "Or at least, I was. My point is, we found each other again. A lot of it thanks to Zane, heh."

"I'm glad I was able to find everyone," Zane chimed in, sending them a small smile. "I believe it will be no different this time."

"Yeah! Besides, Kai's probably smart enough to avoid a fight if he's injured. And if he's found Karlof and they're taking safety in numbers, even better."

"... Probably?"

"Yeesh, if he hasn't learned anything from all these years, I don't know why he's still a ninja."

Despite himself, Lloyd chuckled.

"There ya go. Chin up. You've got it in you."

Lloyd took a deliberate breath and released it.

"Yeah, you guys are right. Guess I'm just not used to this place." He smiled gratefully at Cole. Cole smiled back, squeezing tighter before letting go of him and leaning against a bookcase.

"Not sure there's any getting used to this place. This is as good as it gets, bud."

Then, abruptly, he fell with a yelp as the case moved. On the opposite end of the room, part of the wall shifted, cleanly closing the gap in the wall that had been there seconds prior.

Cole pulled himself up, bewildered and rubbing his head, before staring at what he'd done. Then he burst into a grin.

"Well. I meant to do that."

Lloyd smirked a little as Cole carefully dragged the shelf back, confirming that it was the switch to the passage system in this room when the wall near the desk opened up. "I guess that's the passage for this room, then."

"Guess so." Cole brushed off his gi. "What do you say we go back and rest a little?"

"What? We haven't found Kai or Karlof yet —"

"I know, trust me. I ain't happy about it either," Cole said. "But we're all tired, and we really stand a better chance of holding our own if we've actually got the energy to fight. We keep searching like this and we're liable to get ourselves lost."

"That is correct, and it would also be pertinent not to leave Jay and Skylor alone for too long. The door is locked, and Jay knows how to handle the spirit, but just to be on the safe side, we should return soon."

"Good point," Lloyd conceded. "Let's at least check out this bit of passage, then we can head back."

A beat.

"... Cole?"

"Oh! Right."

Cole pulled the shelf back again, opening the passage once more. One by one they crawled in.