Repeat of ending of Part 2:

The figure turned to Heero with such a look of haggard disarray he almost regretted being so removed. Almost. He was too tired to care right then, too bereft of hope and so wearied by constant disappointments he didn't want to care anymore.

The guest turned distant, strange eyes to the tv then back to Heero, "Somnium Recondo," she whispered in a hoarse voice, staring intently into Heero's eyes, "The cure."

And now, onto the fic....

Part 3

Heero frowned, dropping onto the couch. "What cure?" he asked softly, bitterly. "Duo's dead. We don't need a fucking cure, we need a miracle."

Cressida watched Heero a moment before reaching to her dirty, strangely stained blouse, and pulling it aside. Heero looked up in time to see her slipping her top off her shoulders, revealing a black bra and an otherwise bare torso. Heero's eyes widened in surprise and he immediately looked to her eyes again.

Cressida was staring intently at Heero, her golden-blue eyes gleaming surreally in the light. She slowly took a step forward, then another, then another, until her stomach was right in front of his eyes. Then she leaned down, her face right in front of his.

Heero stared, still too surprised and unsure to react other than, "Cressida...?"

"Shh..." she whispered, reaching a hand out and softly touching his cheek with fingers of ice. She trailed her hand up over his temple, to his forehead, to his hair. The whole time she stared intently at his eyes, so strongly he found he couldn't break the gaze even though he wanted to. Her face revealed no emotion as her other hand came up to cup his temples. Slowly her burning eyes closed, her expression drawn down in concentration.

A few moments of complete silence passed, broken only by the background murmur of the tv. The unreal light cast sharp planes of shadow across Cressida's haggard face and Heero finally had the chance to study her.

Her face was thinner, paler, and her touch was so ice cold it seemed to pull the little heat within him away. His gaze wandered from her face to look at the blouse that had been dropped to the floor on her way. As he stared at it he realized why the stain was beginning to bother him.

Even in the netherlight Heero could recognize the sight and scent of blood when it reached him.

Glancing sharply back at Heero he saw Cressida just opening her eyes. She bit her lower lip, took a deep breath that turned into a sigh, and stepped back.

Finally finding his voice, Heero said quietly, "What happened?"

Cressida stared emotionlessly at him a moment then suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand. Before he could react she pressed his hand firmly to the top of her left breast. Heero's eyes popped open and he tried to throw himself back as a blush heated within him (though very little made it to his cheeks). Just before he was going to ask what the hell she thought she was doing, his eyes widened.

Cressida's mouth twisted into a slow smile that bordered on a burning smirk. Heero looked sharply at her eyes then her chest above her bra, where her heart was. Cressida let go of his hand and he kept it there, straining to feel....

No heart beat.

Heero looked more closely at her torso and drew in a sharp breath when he saw three wounds that looked like healing bullet holes, one directly over the heart, one near her left shoulder, and one closer to the stomach. His eyes trailed over her skin with the gaze of an objective doctor, no lust shining in his Prussian orbs but instead shock, confusion and anger. Cressida silently touched his hand and led it to her left arm, where another bullet hole was partially healed.

Heero was staring at the wounds, trying to gauge how long ago they happened when she pulled his hand to her head and he found his fingers touching two more bullet holes, both barely sheltered by her bangs. Heero touched the wound, noting how her entire body was ice cold.

Slowly he placed his hand over her heart again.

Still nothing.

He blinked several times, finally slowly looking to her eyes. Her golden brown eyes were shining especially golden while the inner circle of dark blue was almost the color of the night sky. She was watching him solemnly. As their gazes caught it seemed she was reading something within him. Finally she pulled back, wandering over and picking her blouse off the floor.

"What...?" he began to ask again but Cressida cut him off.

"The necklace."

He blinked in surprise. "Which one?"

Cressida frowned. "The pentagram necklace I gave you. Do you still have it?"

Heero watched as she slipped the blouse back on and said in a slightly confused voice, "No... it disappeared."

Cressida froze, her eyes sharply searching Heero's. "What did you say?" she asked softly, dangerously.

Heero frowned the slightest bit. "It disappeared. When I was killing Cano."

Cressida continued to stand completely still another few moments before she finally pulled her blouse on completely. "Well... I don't know what to take from that," she whispered to herself in a lost voice.

Heero stared at her with a hard gaze. "Cressida, what the hell is going on? How did you find me? WHY did you find me? What do you mean 'the cure'? Why don't you have a fucking heart beat??" Heero's voice never raised but it did get more intense as he got toward the end.

The last thing he wanted was more hope to be lost, shattering him even more.

<I don't want to keep losing him over and over> he thought helplessly, but said aloud, "Why don't you just leave and let things lie how they are? You're just toying with me." He swallowed, wondering if he had finally gone insane, if Cressida was a figment of some twisted part of his imagination. Or maybe he was dreaming....

Cressida sighed heavily and rubbed at her face. "Alright," she said wearily, "I know I owe you a lot of explanations. So what do you want to know first?"

"Why don't you have a heartbeat? What are those bullet holes from?" <There is no cure, there can't be, if she says there is and there isn't I don't think I could handle that. I can't keep losing him! I don't ever want to lose him again!!> His voice and expression were even and calm even as inside he struggled with intensifying hope and suffocating depression.

Cressida nodded as if she understood exactly what was going through his mind. "Well you already know I'm a Dreamer... actually a Dreamweaver...."

Heero didn't answer and Cressida sighed. Suddenly she looked at Heero's neck, where the necklace WOULD be had it not disappeared. "They wore them, right?"

Heero frowned. "What?"

Cressida sighed. "The golden necklaces I gave the others the first time we met. When you attacked Cano, they wore them, right?"

Heero frowned more, wondering why it mattered. "Yes."

Cressida nodded and said tightly, "Are they still wearing them or at least keeping them?"

Heero answered, annoyed, "I don't know. Most likely."

Cressida nodded firmly to herself. "Those charms were powerful enough to protect only one portion of them so I set them to protect their souls so my... so Cano... couldn't get anything important. If they still wear them they are shielded from the eyes of the Dreamers." She peered at Heero then reached into an inconspicuous pocket in her short skirt. "You threw yours, didn't you?" Heero didn't answer though she was right. Sighing, she threw a nondescript golden chain at him. Staring at her intently, Heero placed it on his neck.

"Your heartbeat?" he prompted.

Cressida looked away. "Right after you three left the Sandman and Dreamers arrived and killed me."

Heero's eyes bugged out and he leaned forward, "What?? Then how... I saw you... several...." He eyed her suspiciously, as if sure now he WAS dreaming and it was her fault.

She smiled wryly. "Stop looking at me like that, and you're NOT dreaming." Heero narrowed his eyes but she said immediately, "By the Fates, Heero! Calm down! I'm not reading your mind, only your eyes."

Heero scowled. "Answer my questions."

Cressida dropped onto his worn couch and laid back with a heavy breath. "We can exist at different levels. Physical, metaphysical, and only the soul. My physical body was killed and it is the result of that you see here.

"My metaphysical body, also known as the Dream Self or Astral Body, depending on the jargon you like, has been destroyed." She frowned minutely, "Well, no, not exactly. Much of it is still encased in the pentagram necklace I gave you." She glanced at Heero then threw an arm over her eyes and continued to speak. "Well anyway, my soul wasn't killed-it was only encased in that ruby. When you destroyed it, all the captured souls were freed to move onto the afterlife or finish any business necessary.

"I was one of those and helped distract Cano. I should have taken the pentagram necklace then," she murmured morosely.

"Is Cano still alive then?" Heero said quietly, murder in his deceptively soft tone.

Cressida raised her arm enough to peek over. "I... don't THINK so," she reluctantly admitted.

"Don't -think- so?" Heero said softly, stressing the word icily.

Cressida looked annoyed and the emotion found its way to her voice. "I wasn't really completely coherent at the time, Heero," she snapped, bringing her arm to the couch and sitting up as she glared, "You know, a simple thank you would be nice! Have you ANY idea how much help you've gotten? I practically GAVE you Cano's demise and all I've gotten back is suspicion!"

"You don't have a heartbeat," Heero replied coolly, still angered that Cano could be alive and he never DID complete that mission for Duo.

Fearful that he had failed Duo...

Again.

"That's because I have so little energy!" Cressida snapped. "I have been drained almost completely and I'm DAMN lucky I'm here!"

"How?" Heero watched her closely.

Cressida dropped her feet to the floor again and leaned toward Heero, a mountain of pain and ocean of tears breaking in her voice, "I had to dig my way to my body after Cano died, Heero. I had to spend all my strength just finding it in time before my soul disappeared and I was nothing. Ever. AGAIN. Can you imagine that, Heero?" her voice broke, "I was lost in a daze of mindless torture, next thing I know I'm free, and I know deep within me that I have merely seconds before I'm gone FOREVER."

She looked away, her eyes unfocusing, her arms loosely wrapped around her thin form. "So I raced, and made it. Barely. But I had to watch myself lie there, my body completely dead, blood falling out, my head partially blown away, my chest open and mutilated." She winced, the sorrow and pain emanating from her in waves even Heero, in his slowly weakening anger, could feel. She pulled in a shaky sigh. "So I pressed myself back into my body just in time. And I had to sit there for weeks, Heero, WEEKS!, while the bits of power I had left slowly mended my body...."

Heero frowned. "You can... heal....?"

Cressida nodded, still staring at that same point. "I don't know why but I've always had more power over the mind than anyone else. I can control my mind so much my physical follows and I can heal myself. I can heal others too, but only to certain extents and only when it's something their mind has control over."

Her eyes caught Heero's and he saw such intense regret he couldn't stay angry, "That's why I couldn't help Duo. Because it wasn't anything to do with him. It was Cano. Always Cano...." She trailed off unhappily.

"So... you're dead...?"

Cressida shook her head. "No, not dead. I'm as alive as you, in many ways. It's just, I don't have the energy of my metaphysical body, which is where my powers to heal exist, and my soul is so drained I can't completely revive myself right now."

Heero frowned. "What do you mean?"

Cressida sighed. "Look, I know the energy thing is confusing to anyone else. Especially to someone so closed to the emotional spectrum of existence, but just trust me when I say, once I get that necklace back, I'll be perfect again."

Heero stared at Cressida and finally murmured softly, ready to handle the answer, "Somnium Recondo."

Cressida nodded and smiled at him. "Like Dori M. U. Shokkou was symbolism for where to find me and also what I was, Somnium Recondo was symbolic of where to find the headquarters of The Sandman."

Heero sighed, feeling the hope already falter and begin to crash around him. "We already understood that long ago. That's not a cure."

Cressida nodded and regretfully admitted, "I honestly don't know or understand the cure myself."

Heero swallowed but glared intensely at her, anger heating his gaze. "Then why the hell did you say anything ABOUT a cure then?!"

Cressida returned his glare with a firm gaze, "Just because I don't know or understand doesn't mean it doesn't EXIST!"

Heero's glare faltered. "What are you saying?"

Cressida rubbed at her face again, pulling at her hair in thought. Finally she looked at him earnestly and spoke in a soft, distant tone. "Ever since I can remember I heard of mythical beings that countered us Dreamers. I don't know who they are, what they are, what they want. I know only that, supposedly, at a price, they could counter the actions of a Dreamer."

Heero felt his heart beat quicken. Maybe there was a chance Duo...!

Cressida continued with a sigh, "But I always heard you needed the body, and I take it you don't have it with the way you're acting."

Heero sat back in the couch, the hope devastated with that sentence, shattering into his heart painfully and making him feel like he was bleeding despair. "No, he turned to ashes in my arms."

Cressida's eyes slid shut heavily as she murmured, "Fuck."

They sat in silence for a few more moments when Cressida finally spoke again.

"Hey, Heero, would it be ok if I stayed here a little bit? I don't... I want..." she sighed in frustration and looked directly at Heero until he returned her gaze. "I can't give up this easily. I promised you all so much, I promised DUO so much, and... I really don't have...." She trailed off, her cheeks coloring slightly in embarrassment. Under the curious scrutiny of Heero she finally continued, "I've-never really had any friends. So, I guess, I feel like... I mean I have... all this power... sort of.... I feel like I should help."

Heero nodded, letting silence reign in the room another few moments. A cheerful woman showed off the new and improved food processor on the tv. Finally Heero said in his same monotonous voice but with a hint of soft understanding, "You can sleep on the couch if you like. There's only one bedroom."

Cressida looked up and her eyes shined with unshed tears as she bit her lip and nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Heero. Thank-thank you...." She hugged herself tighter and looked away.

Heero nodded, pushing himself off and wandering toward his bedroom in a daze.

Again, it seemed like he had Duo with him only to lose him again.

<Why can't I just get him or forget him? Why do I have to exist in this limbo...?> Heero thought mournfully as he reached his door.

Seconds before his hand touched the doorknob, Cressida's determined and very firm voice cut through the silence confidently. "We'll find him, Heero. Even if we have to drag him kicking and screaming back from the Underworld, we'll find him." Heero froze, his hand trembling the slightest bit as he yearned to either turn and beg Cressida for confirmation that it was possible or throw the door open and slam it behind him, never thinking of the braided baka again. In the end, all he did was stare, blindly, ignoring the tears that wanted to surface. Finally he glanced over his shoulder.

Cressida was turned away from him, but when she saw the movement she looked directly into his eyes.

The strength he saw burning behind those strange depths caught him and for that moment he felt enclosed by her determination, sheltered by her will. For that moment, he could believe.

Duo would come back.

To be continued...

A little longer and hopefully a little less evil than last time >_<