"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Revy growled as they saw the police cars around the compound, "fuckin kidding me!?" she'd been trying to dial Eda for the last five minutes as Rock drove. Dutch was already on the way, apparently having a blast at the yellow flag with Benny while they were forced to babysit. And what a job they did of it.

"Calm down, I think I see Watsap," there was no mistaking the beer belly standing in the middle of it all. The uniform it belonged to, and apparent chief of police pulled up his glasses as he looked down at the tarp covered bodies littering the road.

"Bitch! don't tell me to calm down!" she said throwing open the car door and walking towards the scene.

An officer standing near to it put his hand up, "Ma'am this area is closed..." then his eyebrows raised when he saw who she was. He stepped away and motioned another cop who was standing with him to clear off. "Chief's waiting-"

"Shut the fuck up I ain't in the mood," Revy said as Rock followed close behind giving the two an awkward wave.

"Just cause you pay, don't mean we gotta take that..." the other cop murmured under his breath.

She pushed past and stormed right to Watsap. He turned and when he saw her there was a noticeable sink in his gut, "Two Hands, fancy seeing you here. Is it that time of the month already? does Mr. Rock over there have my money-"

"No. We're here for another reason," she said, eyes sharp.

"That being?..."

"There was a buncha money in there, it's mine and his," she thumbed back to Rock.

"Eh? really?..." he rubbed his face.

"Don't play coy with me fat ass, either you have it or someone else got the loot, which is it?"

"I got half a mind to arrest you for that little snide. No, we ain't got any money, trust me, we looked. So, clear off before-"

Rock stepped next to her and placed his hands up peaceably, "Sorry about her, she's...not in the mood today," Revy side-eyed him, "look, you have a job to do, we have a job to do. Let's try and help each other okay?"

"Ah Rock," Watsap smirked and held his hands out, "always so sociable. But...answers still nothing found beyond some bills in an open safe. If I had to use a little deductive reasoning," he clapped his hands together, "either one of his goons cleared him out after he got his ass shot or...some pixies came and carried it away."

"Right. Just...one more question, and we'll be gone completely."

"Sure, all that needs to be done here is moving these sacks of shit. You don't wanna know what we found in the basement, biggest clue I'll give is that they was movies and they was real, real illegal. Breaks my heart, it really does. Almost feel bad for taking so much of Nostra's cash."

"I see, well it's..." he looked to the bullet ridden structure that was once Cosa Nostra's main base of operations. "Did any witnesses happen to see a little girl around here? small, long light hair, white."

He raised a brow, "No, but I think I got an inkling of who you're talking about. You two ain't the only one's after that bounty. I got my guys doing a full sweep of the area."

"How'd you know-"

"Word travels fast, especially when Fry Face is paying good."

"Shit..." Revy grunted and grabbed Rock by the arm, "come on!"

"See you two around!" Watsap waved after them. They were back in the car before Rock could even get a word out.

"It had to be that little shit. Fuck, first she plays jump rope off a second story, next she has our money," Revy smacked her fist against the dash as Rock put the car in drive.

"Um..." Rock chuckled softly.

"What?" she said in an exasperated manner as she dialed on the Nokia.

"You're the one who...wanted to, if I remember correctly."

"...Shut up."

"I'm just saying, nobody to blame but yourself for making me leave her unwatched."

"Rock, this is fuckin serious, okay? cash is on the line."

"I...guess you're right, how much do you think Verrocchio had?"

"Millions, at least. Even if he isn't Fry Face, guy was still a head of a family," the phone finally beeped, "oh shit, Eda's...hang on," she said as they pulled out onto the main road.

"Yo, bitch where the fuck're you-" she paused as a loud voice came from the other end, "woah, woah settle the hell down..." Revy paused, "he's alive!? thought I hit that little bastard-"

She paused again, Rock glanced over at her every now and then. Revy had her brow more narrowed than usual, not a good sign of things to come if he'd learned anything about her in these past few months. "Rico?...so what, where're you? hey look, I'm after the money too bitch," she then frowned, "I swear to god, you call me a dyke one more time and I'll shove my boot up your ass when I find out wherever the fuck you are!"

Revy sat up in her seat and looked out of the window, "What really? oh, no shit? me and Rock here are like a mile away. Alright girl, how's about...there's a closed down corner pawn joint we can meet by. Fill each other in there. I'll tell Dutch and Benny to come, we can all search together. I'll even let ya have a little bit of the money since you've been so helpful. Yeah, fuck you too," she rolled her eyes as she hung up.

"Turn right here," Revy said.

He did so, then spoke, "Hey...if...we find these kids-"

"Rock..."

"We're letting them go Revy, come on-"

"Rock, they're two little killers, like me. Ain't no hope for em besides a bullet to the brain-"

"That's not true and you know it. I'm putting my foot down-"

"That's cute-"

"Foot down Rebecca."

"Ohh, he pulled the goddamn Rebecca card. Okay, Rokuro, dickass, what you gonna raise em yourself? send them off to school? yeah okay. Sure you will."

He stopped the car and looked to her, luckily nobody was behind them as he spoke, "Benny put it best, they didn't have a chance," he shook his head, "not like you and I."

"...Fuck you're real serious about this ain't you?"

"You're goddamned right."

"The tears of my lonely soul..." she sang as they lay on the cold hard floor together. The screams of the dying in the rooms next to them. The edges of sanity there, mocking them, twisting them. Pulling them away. They were barely covered and freezing. "I'll...find...peace of mind...in the dark and cold world of midnight..."

She was quivering and weeping harshly, whispering prayers and begging for it to end. "T-They...m-made me...h-hurt them..." she said through ragged breaths. The girl was holding her brothers arm so hard that it was almost hurting him, but that mattered little. To him, providing comfort was the only thing he could do.

"I'll never let you go...I promise...they won't hurt us again...I have a plan."

"Just...p-pray with me..."

"...Okay...I'll lead...our Lord...blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted-"

"-Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

The girl heard this being said by the boy as she woke in the passenger's side of the car. The leather seat was cool on her back and the air smelt like a skunk. Weed. The air conditioning was on and when she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she saw that they were parked under a highway. The street had scant houses, and no cars or passersby.

He was kneeling on the ground outside before a bundle of bushes and he was murmuring prayers to himself as she walked and placed a hand on his shoulder. She studied her brother. The bob of blonde hair, the hunched forward shoulders, the rigid way he stood to meet her. They were separated by a few inches, and they looked at each other.

"You're awake," he said. He looked so tired. Sounded. She was too.

"Barely..."

"Needed some beauty sleep?"

"Be quiet..." they hugged, and they held each other very tight. He seemed to shift as her arms were around his midsection. "I thought you might've..."

"I'm okay..." he said.

where are we?" she said looking about the small thicket leading back up to a highway.

"Somewhere in the middle of the inner-city. I was lucky to find this spot. There were so many fights going on in the streets. Slipped through the cracks. I think the Russians and the Chinese found out about the ploy."

She looked back to the road and then the thicket. It led back up to the highway of course but the left side netted a small forest, a park forest at that.

"What do you want to do?" she said.

"I'm..." he rubbed his head, "still thinking. Maybe the bridge to this place. We'd...be able to head more into the mainland. Try and find another family outlet there, make something up about-"

"F-Fratele Mea?!" she looked shocked.

He paused, "Is...is something...wrong?"

"Y-Yes! we're...don't you get it?!" she placed her hands on his shoulders, "w-we have a chance! we...we do!"

"A chance to do what?"

"Be free! don't you get it!?"

"Free?..."

"Y-Yes! we could...can go anywhere! do anything! we have to...to...we've...dreamed of this moment, haven't we?"

He watched her as she said this, and he thought, looking at the earth beneath him. "Dreams...yes...but...dreams are made to be broken."

"Excuse me?!"

"Sora Mea, there's..." he shook his head, "no easy way to put this. But...there's no escaping. Not at all. They'll come after us."

"Then we'll go somewhere they can't! they're not God. They can't know where we go."

"They'll track us-"

The girl seemed out of breath, "No. No, they won't. You know they can't. Even if we did go back, this whole thing would happen all over again. We're...disposable..."

He looked from side to side, "Well, t-then what else will we do?"

"Hang on..." she walked to the car.

"What're you-"

"The bag's, I want to check them."

He followed her, "One has clothes and equipment. My...old clothes...speaking of how did you get those?"

"A kind man bought them for me."

"...Really?"

"Yes. The...Lagoon people...spared me. It's...I told them. It's how those people knew...well I wasn't expecting them to come at that time but-"

"You ratted?" almost instantly, regret at the way he'd said that poured into his back like hot lava.

"Why the fuck wouldn't I?!" she said turning back and staring him down. Hearing her curse, that came as a bit of a shock to the boy. In all the life he'd spent with her, he'd never heard even a damn.

He put his hands up, slightly taken aback both at her and himself, "I...didn't...didn't mean it that way."

"It was in your tone," she huffed turning away. They took the other bag out and they set it on the trunk of the car. "How'd you get this?" she asked. "It's...very heavy."

"Verrocchio was emptying his safe."

She'd placed her hand on the zipper, and the girl paused at his words and looked at him. Quickly, she almost ripped the zipper off in one fell tug as she opened the bag and gawked.

Inside, there were stacks upon stacks of hundred-dollar bills. That and necklaces and rings with gems and diamonds, one of them heart shaped and it shined like a beacon of light. "How...much?..." the girl murmured.

"No idea," the boy was uncharacteristically wide-eyed. "Hundreds of thousands...maybe?"

They had to move the bag to the ground in order to fully explore it. Dropping with small gasps of exertion, they kneeled and continued to look.

"It's over a hundred thousand...in...in United States money no less."

"Way more than that...more than...we...we..." he swallowed the bile in his mouth that he hadn't realized been there until then. "Wait...there's something at the bottom."

"Oh my goodness..." she whispered. At the very depths of the bag was a shining bar of gold. She put her hand to her mouth as the boy tried grasping it with one hand, then he realized how large it was and two handed the metal.

"Don't dirty it up, put it on the car," she said.

"Okay..." he grunted as he heaved the bar onto the trunk. They surveyed it, bright and huge. Completely rectangular, and indented at the middle was twenty-four karats, below that ten kilos were also embedded.

"How much is it?" she whispered placing a hand on the bar. The feeling was smooth, yet she could feel the sheer density even with her index and middle fingers lightly touching.

"A lot," the boy said.

"Like a million bucks?..."

"Maybe..."

"What do we do with it?"

"I dunno."

"Can we sell it?"

"Probably. But it's gotta be to somebody trustworthy."

"Nobody's trustworthy around here."

"Yeah."

There was silence between them then. The girl bit her lip as she stared down at the wealth. She placed her hand to her mouth and sniffed. "This...we can use...we can use this..."

"First we have to get out," the boy said as he started packing everything back inside. He felt her hand on his back, "what?" she hugged him and it was the tightest hug she'd ever given. "Sora Mea."

She didn't answer, and when he saw her face she was smiling.

Not a fake one like for their employers, no this was true serenity, true happiness he knew her well and yet seeing her smile was still a surprise. "Don't you see Fratele Meu? We're free!" With those words she threw her arms around him. Laughing happily, Hansel was in so much shock that he nearly fell. He'd not heard a laugh from her in years. Her hug only wound tighter.

It hadn't hurt however, "Free from what?" He questioned, sitting up and watching her fall back and start making sand angels. After a moment, Gretel stopped and rose up. The moon almost reflecting off her white hair. The rain had stopped by this point, giving way to it.

"The orphanage! The mafia! The Sicillians! All of them, with this...with this...we're not bound to them, not anymore! we're finally free..." A low huff came out of him in response, and all he could do is stare stupidly as she cried tears of pure childlike joy.

Something moved deep within him, and he watched her. "W...What's wrong?" she said, "come on," she took hold of his wrists in her hands, "you should be happy too."

The words as they came from him made the boy feel truly awful for giving her the news, but he spoke all the same, "We can't."

That stopped her dead cold in her tracks. "H-Huh?"

"Get in the car," he said grabbing the bag. Carrying it to the backseat, he pushed the thing inside and closed the door.

"I-I don't understand," she breathed walking back to the passenger's side. Opening the doors, the two entered and she stared at him as he sighed. "What do you mean Fratele Meu?"

He placed his forearms on the wheel and glanced at her. Thinking for a moment, he said, "Do you really think...after...everything that we can just walk away? we may not even make it out of this city, it's a strong possibility there."

"Of course I do, why wouldn't we?"

"Where would we go?" he shook his head, "who would we be?"

"Anything!" she held her arms out, almost pleading with him. "Anything at all. Don't you want to be free?"

"Yes, but-"

She looked to the back then to him, "This money..." she breathed, "is the best chance we have."

"They'll hunt us Sora Mea. They'll find us and they'll kill us. It's just a fanciful dream on your end-"

Her lip quivered, "Maybe being hunted is a better option than going back to Sicily so I can be...be...r-raped again!" the sudden raise of her voice made him jump. That word, that word made him shiver. It'd never been brought up among them, they'd just known, and comforted each other as best they could.

"I-I..." she was shaking harder. He watched her hands trembling as they dug into her knees. "I don't want to go back to them..."

What was he doing? what was he saying? this was his sister, the only family he'd ever known, the light in all of the darkness, the only family keeping him alive. Here he was telling her that she had to go back to the same people who hurt them both, so much, and for so long.

Something was moving deep within at his chest. He watched her placing her hands on her face. The boy tried reaching his hand out, a comforting hand in her time of need. But his hand drooped.

A breath escaped him, and a strange buzz went off continuously in his skull. There was a frog in his throat, he swallowed, his shoulders rising and falling quick, he wiped his head. There was a lot of sweat on it.

"F-Fratele?..." she said. He looked to her and saw her, but she was in this odd haze. "You're sweating a lot."

He looked around, first down the street where he saw something moving, then a light on the road above made him jerk his head up, and when it was all too much, he grabbed the steering wheel and moved his hand to the stick only for her hand to reach down and stop him.

"Leave...leave...they're...here!" veins were popping out of his throat as he stared out of the window. She looked and saw nothing.

"It's okay! it's okay! I'm here with you!" she said as he tried wrestling away. His breaths were rapid, and he could feel his heart beating in his head. She helped him sit up and lean back, "Fratele?! Fratele can you...can you hear me?"

Then he was there again, and he saw nothing. Closing his eyes and opening them he looked over and he saw her desperate small face. "...Yes..." his heart was beating rapidly as he glanced back over to her, his face caked in sweat. When he saw her face, however, everything went calm.

"What...was that?"

"I...I don't k-know..." he grabbed the handle of the car door and stepped out onto the dirt, "stay in the car, I need some air..." the girl not listening exited the passenger's side and walked around the hood to him.

His breaths were still heavy as he stared out into the woods, he placed his hand on his chest once more, then moved it away when he saw her round around to him. "I said-"

"I heard you."

"Then why-"

"Because I'm your Sora, okay?" she said placing her hands on his face, "and no matter if we're twelve, or a hundred and twelve, I'm still going to be your Sora. Let me be here for you for once. Please..."

He stared down at her for a moment, then he looked away, then back to her. The boy found himself surprised as she went in and held him, placing her head against his chest.

The sound of their breathing was the only thing audible in that broken street, deep within a broken city, and two very broken children. The boy wrapped his arms around her and sniffed.

"You...said you met a kind man? he gave you those clothes?" he murmured.

She was silent, then answered slowly, "Yes...he was...one of them. Those Lagoon people."

"They spared you?"

"Yes. His name is..." she paused once more, "Rokuro."

"Rokuro?"

"It's Japanese, cause...he's well...Japanese himself."

"He was nice to you?"

"Mhm. We talked about...my life and his. There were some others, a woman named Revy, a big man named Dutch, and some dirty guy...Ben...yes Benny. Revy and Rock were supposed to watch me, make sure I didn't escape."

"They failed?"

"Trusted me a bit too much. I jumped from a window while Rokuro-San and Miss Revy were in his bedroom...um..."

"...Fornicating?"

"Y-" she snickered, "yep."

"I-I see..." he almost laughed then, almost. "Is your leg still hurting you? you're walking funny."

"Not as bad as it was an hour ago, that's for sure." She was silent for a moment, then looked up at him, "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Where did you get those clothes? stolen?"

"No...surprisingly," he thought, licking the roof of his mouth as he did. "A kind mother gave them to me."

"A mother?"

"She um...had a little girl with her. Very...big into monster movies."

"...What about the mother?"

"...She was kind to me."

"Was she?"

"I..." he breathed in and breathed out, "very. I liked her quite a lot. It felt..." he sighed, closing his eyes as if he were imagining himself in a different place than this, the girl would know, "for the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to have a mother. I...wanted to share that moment with you. I wish I could have...but...now...now I can't."

"It's okay."

"She fed me, took care of me, but...I wasn't that nice to her. The truth is...I ratted to her. She can't do anything about it, but I did. Something...took me over in that moment. I think it was...me."

"...I know how you feel. With Mr. Rock...he...I felt like I could be myself around her. Like...like I didn't have to act. It was a nice feeling, being myself. I bet it was for you too."

He nodded slowly, "Yes, yes it was."

"I'm...I think I'm afraid. Because now I know what it's like and...and I want it again. But...can...can we really be n-normal?...what they did to us...I think about it every day, I see it, t-the faces of all those little boys and girls and...when it's real bad...I feel...feel the men..."

She took a gentle hold of his face and looked directly into his eyes, the matching grey eyes, one vibrant with light from the only working lamp pole a couple yards away. His own, just colorless, two voids, like two buttons for eyeballs stitched onto an old doll.

"Fratele, look here. We have no idea what this night or tomorrow will bring. We may escape and live free, or we may die in this city and that would be that. But...there's nobody else I'd want to be with other than you. Because you're with me, and I am with you. I love you."

"...I...I..." and he was a child whole. Tears streamed down his eyes as he cried into her. Always acting as the older sibling, always giving her the comfort she needed, always stoic in the face of the evil they encountered or willing to act gleeful about it. But here, in her arms, he was nothing more than a little boy being held by the only family he'd known. "I'm...I love you more than anything..."