What really bothered her was the boy.

Duo.

The one she had seen and had been speaking to but no one else saw.

“Am I going crazy?” she whispered fearfully, noticing too late that she’d actually voiced the thought. She froze, waiting for Nadira to groan or laugh or react in SOME way, but the Indian girl just rolled over and fell even deeper asleep.

Cassidy let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and slowly let her heavy eyes close. She needed SOME sleep for the 8:30 class she had that morning. Cassidy peeked one eye open to peer sideways at the large clock facing her. 4:50. Fine, in a few hours then.

“Do you ever dream?”

Cassidy’s eyes snapped open at the comment and she froze, staring into the darkness, hoping she had just imagined that unnervingly familiar voice.

“Well? Do you?” asked the voice, nothing but curiosity marring its sweet and smooth tone.

Cassidy swallowed, her breath coming quick and fearful as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to convince herself that she was sleeping. That was it. This was a dream. She had fallen asleep and now she was just having a really stupid dream that didn’t mean anything at all. Hell, the whole NIGHT could have been a dream! That would make everything so much easier....

She waited for the voice to speak again, almost daring him to speak again, to deny her attempts at convincing herself this was a dream.

“Have you ever had one of those dreams?” the voice spoke again, after a moment of silence. Cassidy slowly turned her head, trying to stop herself as she felt her heart would burst from fear. When she finally saw who was speaking she nearly passed out.

Sitting crouched on her desk, looking incredibly like Crow from the movie with his knees sticking out, his arms draped over them with his hands dangling toward the ground, was Duo. He was wearing a full black outfit, again the color of crimson and cherry black. He was watching her but with so little light he was nothing but a dark splotch within the shadows. His eyes were on her, she knew, but they showed no light... almost like he HAD no eyes....

Cassidy shuddered deeply, swallowing and caught in a terror associated only with things she couldn’t understand at all, like this enigmatic specter that
refused to leave her be. “Wha...?” she managed in a hoarse whisper.

“Have you ever had one of those dreams?” he continued calmly, his spiked crimson and cherry black hair standing out within the shadows. The chestnut
bangs that hung around his eyes hid his expression in the netherlight. When she didn’t answer at first, he continued with a slightly removed tone that implied he had a sense of wonder himself with he was saying. Cassidy was frightened out of her mind. “I mean one of THOSE dreams that are so incredibly real you know it has to be fake? Where everywhere you turn the details are almost scoured into your brain. You remember life outside the dream only if you concentrate, but that is little consolation since real life matters are irrelevant here.”

Cassidy barely managed to shake her head. “N—no... I—I ... have’n....”

Nadira stirred in her sleep and Cassidy turned completely quiet, but the boy, Duo, didn’t seem to care.

“Sometimes when you turn there are weird transitions that lead you onto incredibly new and strange adventures.” From what she could see, it was almost like he was just talking aloud to himself, not really noticing anyone else was there. She looked nervously toward her roommate’s bed, but Nadira hadn’t moved since Cassidy spoke. Almost like Nadira couldn’t hear him.... Cassidy shuddered again and found herself staring, transfixed, at Duo’s unnervingly dead cobalt eyes. “Sometimes you don’t even have to move... the world moves for you. It twitches and pours, molds and forms itself until you’re somewhere else; until you can’t even remember where you started.” He was still staring at her, but she felt like he wasn’t. Like he was staring at something else.

“D—Duo...?” she whimpered. <Oh God, why me? WHY ME? Am I insane? What happened to me? Why am I seeing this... this... this GHOST?!> She wished she could just die so she’d never have to worry about this anymore.

He continued to talk but it was too quiet to understand, even softer than the whisper of traffic that always drifted through their open windows. She swallowed and finally pushed herself up in bed with effort. There was only one way to see if any of this was happening.

She only wished she’d have the courage to do it....

With great effort, Cassidy slowly reached a hand out toward Duo, willing herself to meet air but also fearing that. If there was nothing, she was insane. If there was something, she still must be insane because no one else saw or heard him.

Her hand met cold but very real flesh and she jerked back, falling onto her bed and hitting her back against the wall as she yelped.

Duo shivered then calmly looked over at her and slowly smiled. “Sometimes I feel like I’m in a dream I can’t get out of,” he murmured wonderingly,
“and then I wonder who I am....”

“What ARE you?!” Cassidy shrieked quietly, barely able to keep it a frightened hiss.

Duo cocked his head thoughtfully, “I wonder that a lot too,” he said in that same removed tone that made Cassidy want to sit in a corner and cry.

He was acting like a body without a soul.

A robot that knew it had no heart.

Something was missing.

Swallowing the bile that rose at the thought, she spoke in a trembling tone, “Then... what do... what do you want... from... from me....?” she asked softly, fearfully.

He stared at her a moment then smiled, but still nothing touched those dead cobalt eyes. “Memories are what I want, but not from you. That wouldn’t
make any sense,” he laughed quietly as if it was a hilarious joke only he could get. “From you, I need a promise. Kinda funny, huh? A promise....” he trailed off distractedly and Cassidy pushed herself flat against the wall, trying to put as much room between her and the freaky boy no one else saw who was somehow perfectly balanced on a very small portion of her cluttered desk.

“A... promise....?” she whimper-yelped.

He smiled simmeringly and nodded, not seeming malicious or even seductive in the manner but somehow much more intent. “A promise,” he said cheerfully, still poised completely still.

“Wha...?” she managed to form but he had suddenly moved and was now sitting right in front of her on the bed, seemingly weighing very little since he
made next to no impression on the bed covers.

No.

He hadn’t –moved-... it was like he had transported somehow.

One second on the desk, one second on the bed. No in between.

“What the FUCK?!” she started to yell but he placed a soft hand to her lips in a dreamlike haze. He was inches away from her, his skin a touch of winter ice but his breath as hot and moist and summer rain. His cobalt eyes were regarding her through long chestnut bangs that, instead of shadowing his expression, managed to only deepen the intensity. Everything was so stark, so clear, so crisp.... Cassidy wasn’t sure anymore what was happening, but she knew one thing: this was fucking freaky.

“Your soul,” he breathed, a small smile quirking his pale lips, “Did you know you really have one? That it can actually be fucked with?”

She felt her heart race even faster. <Oh God he’s going to do something he’s going to steal my soul or SOMETHING and no one will believe me and for
the rest of my life I’ll be labeled the crazy bitch down the street who-->

Her frantic thoughts were cut off by Duo’s eyes suddenly softening and him pulling her into a frost-laced hug. The cold was only from his touch, for the gesture was actually quite gentle and warm. “Don’t let them,” he whispered into her ear softly.

Her heartbeat was racing even faster as she squeaked, “Don—le—wha—?!”

He pulled back and placed a freezing hand on her forehead, making her normal temperature feel like a blast of heat from Hell. “Don’t let your fears rule, Cassidy Esther Jones. We’re watching over you... we always will be....” As he spoke, a surreal warmth began to spread from beneath his fingers, seeming to shoot straight through her skin and skull, seeping into the very core of her existence. The warmth spread, racing down her neck, to her hands, down to her very toes until she was full of nothing but blessed, sheltering warmth that comforted her so completely she felt tears slipping past her eyelids. God, she needed this safety more than she had realized.

Duo’s smile was bittersweet from what she could see, but she was so entranced by this new feeling she was having a hard time concentrating enough to keep her eyes open. He whispered something to her but she couldn’t understand it. Darkness was coming. And it was the most beautiful thing in the universe to her.

The next thing Cassidy knew was her alarm clock going off.

Auto-pilot kicked in and before she knew it she was out of bed, the alarm clock slammed off, already wandering across the room to brush her teeth and get ready for the day.

Suddenly she snapped out of it and realized what exactly had happened last night.

First the boy on the street (what had he been talking about again? It was all so jumbled and everything after that had only gotten more and more confusing so it was harder and harder to remember) then the guys in the clubs, and finally that creepy boy that was a tangible ghost. She’d talked to him in the club and then—

Cassidy couldn’t contain the startled gasp that left her mouth.

Nadira looked over in surprise, halfway through pulling a new shirt on over her head. “What is it?” she asked, pronouncing her English very well to compensate for her thick accent.

Cassidy looked at her roommate through the mirror, shock etched across her pale face. “Nadira... was... I mean... did... you hear something last night? Anything?” She started speaking like normal but by the end her voice was quiet, fearful.

Nadira blinked in confusion then thoughtfully cocked her head. “Hmm...” she murmured, then shook her head. “No. I was sleeping quite peacefully.”

Cassidy swallowed and nodded, saying some random excuse when Nadira asked (Cassidy herself didn’t even know what she said... it had just been
self-preservation more than anything). The Indian girl nodded then smiled and grabbed her keys and bookbag as she went out the door. Cassidy was still staring at her frightened dark eyes in the mirror, remembering with such clarity she knew it hadn’t been a dream.

He had been on her desk.

Then on her bed.

He was cold but his breath was too hot to be normal.

And then the warmth that must have made her fall asleep. Apparently it worked because she felt more rested than she ever had in her life despite the fact she only slept a little over 2 hours.

And then....

“When your world falls out from beneath you, think of me,” he had whispered, “I’ll save you from the demons.”

Cassidy froze then shuddered.

“I don’t even want to KNOW what _THAT_ meant,” she grumbled to herself, violently brushing her teeth as if to wash away the disturbing memories.

Cassidy suddenly jolted awake in class as soon as she realized she had been falling asleep. She mentally berated herself, wondering how the hell she could be falling asleep when she had never felt more rested in her entire life. But somehow, it was still happening. Still, something about it felt important. Something was tickling at her mind and forcing her to listen....

Finally succumbing to the mind-numbing sensation, Cassidy felt herself drift asleep at her desk, the world of linguistics falling away to background noise around her.

~ She was drifting in nothingness, like she always did right before she chose what dream to have that night. She had been able to do that for as long as she could remember, and had actually only somewhat recently realized not everyone could.

Trying to understand what was so important, she decided to replay with her photogenic memory what had happened at the beginning of the night, and what
that boy had said that was tugging at her memory.

^^ She had been walking with Rikki down the street, not paying attention to the sounds of the city, until an Asian boy with surprisingly blue eyes had suddenly grabbed her and looked at her with such hope, Cassidy felt her heart go out to him....^^

Annoyed, Cassidy skipped ahead, looking for a different answer. There was something there—she knew there HAD to be....

^^ She had pronounced his name wrong apparently, the boy named ‘Heeero’. For someone so fascinated with languages, that was rather embarrassing. So
she spoke his name, stressing the ‘e’ to make up for her first misunderstanding. No one would be named Hero, God....

She blushed, ducking her head as she murmured, “Heeero. Right. Anyway, who were you looking for...?” ^^

Cassidy, somewhere distantly in her mind, felt that this was the right place, so she waited in anticipation.

^^ The boy, Heeero, blinked and nodded. When he spoke, he sounded lost and timid. “My... my friend. His name is Duo. He’s my age, about my height...
He has hair a little lighter than yours but it’s really long... he wears it in a braid.... His name... his name is Duo....” Heeero trailed off, staring at her hair in the moonlight. She glanced nervously at Rikki, both thinking how creepy the boy was and Cassidy wondering how she always managed to attract the nuts. ^^

Cassidy thought in surprise, <Duo!> but let the memory continue because she didn’t feel completely satisfied. The boy had something else too, hadn’t
he....?

^^ “You probably won’t see him,” Heeero said a little later as he turned, “He’s dead.” ^^

Ice flashed through Cassidy and she felt her mouth forming words. ~

“Cass! Wake up!” hissed some voice, pulling Cassidy out of her dreams just as she was speaking the words she’d been thinking.

“Oh, FUCK!” she groaned loudly, oblivious to the stares that her classmates were giving her at her random outburst halfway through class. Her friend who had tried to wake her, Blair, lowered her head and blushed brilliantly at Cassidy’s display.

Cassidy looked around, her eyes catching the professor’s startled gaze before she quickly shoved all her materials in her bag, made some hurried excuse, and bolted from the room.

She needed to talk to Duo.

45 minutes later found Cassidy sitting in her empty room, thankful that Nadira would be in class then go to lunch so she wouldn’t be back for another few hours.

Feeling decidedly stupid, Cassidy paced the room and said helplessly, as she had been the last 10 minutes, “Duo... hey, Duo… I... umm... need to
talk to you... k?”

She looked around but there was no answer.

Frowning, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She thought of him, what he looked and sounded like, willing him to hear her silent plea. She
peeked one eye open then the other, looking at her empty room with disappointment.

She was ready to accept this whole subject as 7 shades of stupid when she heard a movement behind her. Startled, she whipped around and backed away.

Duo was leaning against her closet door, looking decidedly content despite the empty cobalt eyes that watched her calmly. “You rang?” he quipped,
knowing Cassidy probably wouldn’t be a junkie of the past and get the reference.

“Duo, what the hell is going on here?” she said strongly as frustration and fear led to anger, glaring at him, wondering WHY, if there HAD to be an
attractive ghost hanging around, it couldn’t hang around the person LOOKING for him....

For once the aloof superiority faded from his expression as Duo asked curiously, “Huh?”

Cassidy waved her hands around helplessly. “What’s going on? With you? Why the hell are you haunting ME of all people? I DON’T EVEN _KNOW_ YOU!” She knew she was shouting but she couldn’t keep her voice down. Years of being considered “different” and “weird” had piled up until this last bit of
random insanity pushed her past her level of tolerance.

Duo looked surprised. “Hey, I’m just here to help. What are you talking about, haunting?”

Great. She found one that didn’t know the important fact that... “You. Are. DEAD, Duo! D. E. A. D. DEAD!”

Duo stared at her in shock, his voice lost and broken when he whispered, “What...?”

Cassidy forced herself to settle down and looked at him with sympathy. “Look, I’m not going to lie. You totally creep me out with all the strange things you do and say, not to mention the fact only _I_ seem to see you! But... Duo... someone was looking for you....”

Duo looked COMPLETELY surprised at that. “What! Looking for ME? Really?” His cobalt eyes were still empty but confusion was colored across his
entire face.

Cassidy frowned. “Yes, for you. I mean, at least, I think....” She peered at him. “Did you ever have a braid?”

Duo frowned. “I don’t know,” he answered immediately, as if that should be obvious and he hated to say the words aloud.

Cassidy blinked in surprise. “You don’t know? How the hell can you _not know_?”

Duo frowned. “I don’t know because I only know a year of my life. Everything before that....” he trailed off. “I mean, I don’t even know what I am. I wondered about that. Well, no, I mean, I know kinda what I am. But I didn’t know who.... They told me my name is Duo Maxwell, but I thought that sounded like a weird name.... And when I woke up, everything seemed weird....”

Cassidy looked as confused as Duo felt. The two stood completely still, silence drifting around them comfortably until finally one spoke.

“I mean, I guess that explains this,” Duo mused aloud. Cassidy looked over at him just in time to see him flicker and disappear from view like smoke into shadows, but with more stark definition between the smoke and the darkness. It was like he jaggedly faded. Cassidy yelped and stumbled backwards, staring at the spot he’d just stood. A second later, he reappeared the same way only in reverse. “I was wondering about that....” he said as if that explained it all.

Cassidy stuttered, “How—di—how—ca—?!”

Duo grinned, “I just tell your mind I’m not here and, boom, you don’t see me.” He waggled his eyebrows as Cassidy shuddered.

Slowly, she took a few steps forward until she was directly in front of him. “You’re the strangest ghost I’ve ever seen, though,” she murmured, tentatively extending her hand. Her fingers brushed the very solid and real flesh of his arm and Cassidy jumped back, her eyes searching his for explanation.

Duo shivered, goosebumps raised on his arm where she had touched him as he stared down at his hands then glanced back up with a frown. He looked just
as confused as her. “Well... I don’t... I don’t know....” he muttered, seeming embarrassed.

Cassidy shook her head helplessly then said, “That’s just creepy....”

Duo looked thoughtful and several minutes of silence breathed into the room before it was interrupted again. “Hey... wh—... who was... y’know... look... looking... for... for... me....?” Duo stumbled over the words like a lost child asking the most important question of his life, but afraid to hear the answer.

Cassidy watched him carefully as she spoke. “Heeero,” she replied.

For the briefest of seconds, Duo looked confused as he mouthed the word. But almost immediately, his eyes widened in shock and the dead cobalt shattered into violet so abruptly it looked agonizing. Now lively amethyst stared back, a mountain of pain and desperation clouding their shimmering depths. Cassidy was too surprised at the transition to do anything but stare as Duo completely fell against her closet door, slowly sliding to the ground. When he found himself sitting on the ground he whispered only one word, but it was the most painfully broken thing Cassidy had ever heard. She felt her heart going out to Duo and his friend Heeero as Duo breathed in that awed, broken near-whimper, “Heero....”

Abruptly his eyes widened more and his back straightened. His entire body looked tense and as stiff as board. All Cassidy could think as she remembered Duo sitting on her bed earlier then seeing him so stiff there was that old ghost game that she used to play with her friends where they surrounded someone and repeated over and over “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” until they could pick the prostrate person off the ground with their fingers. Duo’s mouth opened as if he was going to say something, the movement bringing Cassidy back to reality. But before he seemed capable of speaking, pain flashed through his figure in an almost tangible wave. Moments later he slumped forward and immediately shimmered from view.

Cassidy stared, and was still staring 20 minutes later when Nadira returned early to get some money. She was staring while Nadira wondered what was
wrong, and staring when the phone rang later from a friend asking her to go to class. She was staring through lunch and, some indefinite time later but long enough to show she had taken quite a bit, Cassidy had pulled her eyes from that spot to concentrate on something else. Too disturbed to leave her room for the rest of the day, she tried instead to distract herself with homework but continually found herself looking over at the closet where one very strange ghost had passed out then disappeared.

But there was nothing there now. She knew; she had checked almost immediately. When she poked her foot in the area, and later when she waved her hands around the vicinity, there had been only air.

Nothing but air.

Duo was gone, for now at least.

And he had taken with him all the answers she craved.

Heero dragged himself out of bed the second the morning light broke through his hazy cloud of dreams. Immediately the weight of the last day broke through his mind and he groaned softly. Trying to keep himself from thinking, he flipped on the radio. Some sort of an instrumental song was playing. He frowned, sitting on the bed and just listening to the repetition. About two minutes into the song a girl started singing softly in the background wordlessly, her soft voice echoing to blend into the music. Somehow, the contrasting softness with the hint of sadness that was barely present reminded him of Duo. Just as the thought came, the girl’s
voice came to the front, even more enchanting, yet somehow more sad. (1)

Heero closed his eyes, his head dropping into his hands as he listened. In the darkness behind his eyelids, he saw flashes of Duo run through his mind. It was strange... it was like the song had so many emotions he could pull from it if he tried, yet at passing glance it just seemed pretty. Enigmatic. Beautiful.

Like Duo.

Heero listened, not realizing that close to 10 minutes passed before the song finally faded into quiet, the same repetitious instrumental continuing to the end. Softly the music retreated to the back of his mind, to be replaced with nothing but blessed silence.

For once in the past year, Heero felt fine with the fact Duo wasn’t around, because it was almost as if the song had enchanted him into believing he was
sitting right next to him, a hand placed on his knee as he comforted him.

Heero’s eyes snapped open and he looked over abruptly, searching the room for Duo, convinced for one brief moment he had actually been there. But
instead of laughing violet eyes and a cocky, lively grin, he saw only pristine cold and a dead braid that hung listlessly on his wall.

Heero shuddered, falling back onto the bed again.

He didn’t want to get up anymore.

He closed his eyes, willing sleep to pull him into its amnesiac grip.

“Why didn’t you TELL me?” he was asking in frustration, hurt shadowing his voice to a dark tone.

The man barely glanced at Duo before turning back to the plant he was tending. “It was unnecessary at the time. You needed to recover first.”

“Fuck recovering!” Duo shouted, tears staining his amethyst eyes the color of midnight rain, even though they would never actually spill to his cheeks.

He glanced over with a bemused expression. “Duo,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, “You do not understand. You would have been unstable....”

“Like I’m not now?! By the GODS, Bakari, I had to have my ASSIGNMENT tell me!” Duo made a soft growling noise in the back of his throat, his hands
off to the side.

The Swahili man barely turned his head as he spoke calmly, “Do what you must, Duo. Just remember the promise.”

Duo slid his eyes shut, all the anger suddenly draining from his form as he slouched forward. “Yeah. The promise. I remember,” he murmured.

Bakari finished with the plant and went on to the next as he continued in his rich, calm tone, “One cannot get something for nothing, you understand.”

Duo nodded as he turned, already wandering out of the Greenhouse Room. “Yeah. A life for a life sorta deal.”

Bakari paused and shrugged minutely, “If you wish to view it so.”

Duo glanced over his shoulder, stopping and turning as a disturbed expression filled his features. He ran a shaky hand over the top of his spiky hair as he said with the slightest of trembles, “I can—I can get... it all back.... Right....?”

Bakari stopped his ministrations. A moment of silence passed before he answered, almost regretfully, “With a price.”

Duo nodded, muttering miserably as he left, “Yeah, yeah. It’s all for a price. Nothing is free anymore. Not even life.” He shut the door behind him, letting out a deep sigh as he went.

Time to return to the real world.

Duo glanced above the door to the Greenhouse and couldn’t repress a smile as he saw the quote that always gave him hope.

With a bounce in his step, Duo set off on his new mission, an ironic smirk touching his lips at the thought.

Cressida closed her eyes sadly, not remembering when she had wandered back to the couch after she had awakened a few hours earlier, and frankly not
caring. She let the heaviness of the night before wash over her, drowning her in its intensity, inspiring her with its force. With sudden conviction, she inwardly called upon Ken, Rune of Inner Light, of the Element Fire.

^^ The sun was high over the lush fields, beating warmly down on the Earth below. A smooth wind shifted soft tendrils through the tall grass, brushing the tips on a laughing woman’s hips. Beside her, a little girl giggled merrily, holding her mother’s hand tightly as the two ran through the fields as fast as they could.

Birds raced above the two, swirling around in dizzying patterns as they swished in front and behind, to the left and the right, daring the two females to jump into the air and take off, fly into the clouds and the blissful oblivion that dreams always promised.

Before long, the little girl was too tired to run so she slowed, her mother following her daughter’s lead as the two suddenly plopped to the ground, still laughing. The mother sat up, pulling her girl onto her lap as she looked down as her daughter.

The little girl looked up through red-brown bangs that shined auburn in the light, almost obscuring strange golden brown eyes that sparked with happiness, her pupils ringed with a blue the color of midnight. The mother paused before smiling to herself and hugging the child close, burying her face in the brown locks.

“Mommy loves you, Cressida,” she murmured softly, “Mommy loves you very much.”

The little girl, Cressida, giggled and pushed back, looking up into her Mommy’s eyes that were the color of a shining twilight, yet somehow they seemed to shine golden. “I wuv you too Mommy!” smiled the girl, burying her face in the white robes of her mother as she giggled. ^^

Cressida flipped on her side, not bothering to open her eyes, her left arm extended above her with her head resting above her elbow, her right arm curled in so the back of her hand rested on her silent left breast.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she tried to focus her thoughts on the memory she knew was trying to surface.

Her right hand reached forlornly for an absent necklace.

^^ The young woman stepped into the large, echoing chamber, her face set in a studied mask as she forced herself to forget all emotions. Creasing her eyebrows down in determination, unconsciously setting her jaw, she looked up with burning golden brown eyes swirling to midnight in the center.

The chamber was filled with silent witnesses in varying shades of grey robes, their stoic faces a testament to the seriousness of the situation. As they watched in anticipation, the teenager took a few cautious steps forward. She glanced only once at the others before taking in a deep breath and striding toward the altar.

Standing before an altar set with various sacred tools and paraphernalia were a man and a woman. The man wore robes of the purest black, his long, straight black hair cascading down his back. His midnight eyes were narrowed in thought but a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he watched his daughter approach. Beside him stood a woman, her silver robes glittering in the flowing candlelight that cast soft shadows across her aristocratic features. Her full mouth was set in a thin line of concentration but her golden twilight eyes were dancing with joy. Long brown hair the color of a lighter version of mahogany mixed with gold spun in lively curls down to her lower back. Against her forehead was a silver circlet, a full circle with two half moons on either side facing away centered above her Third Eye Chakra, directly between and above her two eyes.

Turning the golden twilight eyes to the audience just as the teenager in the pure white robes reached the bottom of the steps, Alickina Aurelia rose her melodic voice to a strong level, piercing the silence like a midnight symphony as she spoke words from her heritage.

“May the powers of The One, the source of all creation; all-pervasive, omnipotent, eternal; may the Goddess, the Lady of the Moon; and the God, Horned Hunter of the Sun; may the powers of the Spirits of the Stones, rulers of the elemental realms; may the powers of the stars above and the Earth below, bless this place, and this time, and I who am with You.” (2)

Cressida bowed her head, long locks of red-brown hair obscuring her face and falling in front as she silently asked for the blessing of the Elements, her Ancestors, any Spirit Guides, the Goddess and the God, and any Elders who wished to lend her their aid.

“As the world was spun to existence, so too was spun our existence.” Cano’s voice boomed into the quiet chamber, filling the very corners with a soothing undertone that balanced perfectly Kina’s melody. “From the depths of the physical was borne the world as we know it.” Cano reached down and slowly lifted a handful of sand, the crystalline grains slipping through his fingers to fall in a golden haze back to the bowl they came from. “From the chasm of the mental came humans, borne of mind and strong of cause.” Cano paused and looked directly at the people gathered, his arms encompassing them all in a widespread gesture. “And from the spiritual, the Astral Plane where all exists beyond the material, was borne we who would shape the Dreams of Existence into a Song of Truth.” Cano’s hands moved gracefully but quickly, lifting a mirror to the air as Kina quietly lit a stick of Sandalwood incense next to him. The drifting smoke of the incense floated in front of the mirror and for one brief moment, it was as if the smoke existed on two planes, two realities; one definite and pure, the other blending into the shine of the silver light off the mirror’s surface.

Cressida kept her head down until she heard the cue, knowing at that moment the incense would be reflected in the mirror. She looked up, seeing her own
face staring back, the smoke rising in front and obscuring parts of her determined expression.

“As all exists in a balance of the physical and spiritual, so too do we. By the blessing of the Dreamers with the Nightwalkers, I consecrate this Dreamer as a Dreamweaver, higher form of Dreamer, second to the Sandman, Keeper of the Dream of Life. May she live in peace—“ ^^

Alickina’s voice was interrupted as Cressida sat up with an excited jolt, her eyes wide and shining in the night. “Of course! Nightwalkers!!” she nearly yelled with happiness, clutching at the couch’s cushions. As she mentally smacked herself for not remembering earlier, Cressida threw herself from the couch and bolted to Heero’s bathroom where a large mirror would serve her well....

Heero was jolted awake somewhere in the middle of the day by Cressida’s excited yell about night or something akin to that. Confused, and very hopeful though he would deny it even to himself, he silently slipped from his room and padded across the room. Just as he was about to find her exact location, he heard a knock at his door and paused in confusion. Who could that be...?

Heero slowly made his way to the door and peered through the eyehole. Someone he thought felt familiar but somehow seemed very different was
standing right on the other side. The newcomer –looked- male, but through the distortion of the hole it was almost impossible to tell.

Something told him he wanted to let this person in despite the logic that told Heero to keep the door shut and forget the inconvenience, concentrating
instead on Cressida and (hopefully) her breakthrough.

Heero’s hand reached for the doorknob without his control and was already twisting it, pulling the door open just as Cressida suddenly came flying out
of the bathroom, crying energetically, “Heero! Duo’s—!!” She slid to a complete stop, shock forcing her to grab the back of a chair for support.

Slowly Heero turned around to look at the newcomer. He had been distracted by Cressida and looked back at her, but now he wanted to see what was
scaring the ex-Dreamweaver so much.

When his eyes finally met the other’s, Heero felt his grasp of reality start to slip in a hazy, dreamlike fog.

Amethyst eyes calmly stared back, dancing with entertainment as a wry smile split those full lips. Long chestnut bangs hung about his eyes, sheltering
the heart shaped face with familiarity despite the long cherry black and crimson spikes that replaced the previous braid. The newcomer cocked his head and said in an amused tone, his voice sweeter than Heero remembered due to the length of time since he’d last heard it, “...Alive?”

Heero barely felt himself fall against the wall beside the door, didn’t even realize the look of pure shock that had permeated his entire body, nor the soft gasp of “Duo...?” that fell from his slack mouth. All he saw was amethyst. Endless, beautiful amethyst.

“Oi, Heero... I hear you’ve been looking for me?” Duo said in a slightly playful tone, looking more amused than ever.

Heero slid down the wall, darkness threatening to engulf him.

Alive.

Duo was alive...!

Heero tried desperately not to cry.

(1) This is One Dove’s song “My Friend”. I don’t know if I happen to have a weird version or what but mine is 9 minutes long with a repetitious instrumental and then the girl’s voice flitting in and out. I thought it would be ironic to have a song called ‘My Friend’ remind him of Duo. While the song also slightly reminds me of Quatre because of the almost Arabian-like parts, I could see pictures of Duo when he’s showing his different moods flashing in the foreground. Enough of this. Heero will be seeing the same thing. *bwahaha!*

(2) The Blessing Chant, excerpted from “Wicca; a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” by Scott Cunningham, page 123, can be said at the beginning of any type of ritual as a general invocation. Mostly just a blessing for anything to come in that meeting. And, yeah, if you hadn’t realized, that would be a Pagan chant (although I suppose it comes from a Wiccan book, it’s more Pagan....)

To be continued ^_^