Yuuhime's voice was grim and ghastly, like a Victorian ghost child's voice. Her moans, no matter how creepy, always put Ace to sleep, though. He needed the sleep, too. Without her song, he would either lay wide awake the whole night or wake up screaming from a nightmare. The latter was usually what would happen.

Tonight was no different. Yuuhime had come home late, and Ace had gotten into bed all on his own. She was originally very proud, until she was jolted awake by his screams once again.

Yuuhime ran to his room and stared in. His cries quickly disappeared once he saw her, shame growing on his face.

"I'm sorry, mama.." he mumbled as she went over and caressed his face.

"Nothing is coming to get you," she said, before pulling back and returning to her bedroom.

***

Yuuhime's moans filled the hospital hallways. It was like a horror movie to the patients that were awake, but the staff knew she was just trying to get Ace to fall asleep after refusing to go to bed.

She stared down at the boy. He stared back, wide eyed and trembling. She breathed out once the last note of the song was sung.

"This is the last night I'm letting you sleep in here." Yuuhime said. Ace nodded a little, hugging onto his sleeping father.

"Goodnight, love." She whispered, kissing his forehead before walking out.

God, how was she going to tell him? Tell him that Xuan was being unplugged the next day?

Five months. It felt like it passed in two days, but it was five months. With increased miramon attacks, more people were being admitted.

More awake people. More people who could get better.

"More people who needed the machinery more," Raven had put it, teary-eyed but blinking it away in favor of a stern and serious expression.

"Yuuhime!" She turned and saw Suhua running towards her. "Did you..."

"Not yet." She responded stiffly. "I'm waiting for tomorrow. When Ace isn't around."

Suhua gave her a soft expression, watching as Yuuhime turned around and continued to walk away.

***

Ace was awakened by Ahmed gently picking him up and walking outside.

Ahmed was Ace's doctor throughout the days following the incident. Over time, he was the only doctor Ace would see.

"Papa..." Ace mumbled.

"..." Ahmed responded with mere silence.

As they walked past, Yuuhime slowly walked into the hospital room. The beeping of machines was drowned out by her hard breathing.

She stepped over, standing over him. His pale face, sunken eyes. His hair that no longer shined, his teeth that he couldn't brush ever again. The dying flowers next to his bed looked like newly budded flowers compared to him. She just wanted to lift his eyelids up, just to see his sunset eyes one more time.

"We're ready to take the machines." Heng Yue said suddenly, as if she appeared out of no where. Yuuhime turned to look at her, and saw her usual expression of indifference was replaced with a hint of pain.

Yuuhime turned back to Xuan.

One more kiss. That's all she wanted.

One...

More...

...kiss.

Pulling back, she saw his lips were red with her lipstick. And yet, he still slept.

...haha.

Obviously. Fairytales weren't real. That would have never worked.

She turned and ran out. She couldn't bear it anymore.

"I can't do this." She gasped. She fell to the tiled ground, holding her head and sniffling as the high white walls and medical beeps all came crashing down on her.

Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "Yuuhime...?" Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "Yuuhime, it's ok..." Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "He would have wanted this." Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "...please, listen to me." Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "Yuuhime..." Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. Xuan. "Yuuhime!"

"YUUHIME!"

A loud crash came right before she was pulled into a warm embrace. No, it wasn't just warm. It was hot. It was like she was placed in a boiling pot. Like she was stepping on coals. Like she was on the sun.

Raven stepped back, holding her hands out, brows furrowed with confusion.

"Calm down," she said slowly, "Tang Xuan..."

He stared back. Raven couldn't tell if it was with anger, or with sadness, or with nothing at all.

"She didn't hurt Yuuhime." A voice came from behind them. It was Gaius, who slowly approached with Clara, who glanced at the toppled over and shattered screen of a machine.

Xuan clutched Yuuhime tighter. She turned her head to stare at him.

His eyes looked not like a sunset, but the sun itself. He breathed quickly, irises shaking like they were in a snow globe. She felt his nails brushing against her skin as his arms moved with his rapidly shifting head.

"Sunflower...?" She said, reaching out for his face and rubbing his cheek. He slowly focused on her, blinking a little as his eyes returned to their sunset colors.

"What..." Xuan mumbled before slumping into her shoulder. She felt his sweat building up, so she held him ever closer.

"I'm ok," she whispered, "I-"

"I'm here." Said he.

***

"There was no sign that his condition was improving," Suhua said, examining some papers laid out across the table she was at, "in fact, his condition had only improved in the physical outside sense. I have no idea how he woke up."

Raven silently nodded, rubbing the rim of a coffee cup. At the moment, Xuan was being crushed by his friends. Raven gave them time to reunite, but she wanted to talk to Xuan as soon as possible. She wanted to know what happened while he was kidnapped, and if he could recall anything while he was asleep. Yuuhime didn't have the full picture, and she said she never actually saw Xuan while she was there.

"Don't worry," Suhua said, "Tang Xuan will be ok now. Physically, that is. We'll have to see if anything changed emotionally."

Raven nodded again, this time getting up.

"Thank you for your time, Ye Suhua," She said, "please let the medical department to keep taps on his health, please."

"Of course, you can count on me!"

Raven smiled then left, large strides down the hallway of doors and windows to giving her speed without running. Soon enough, she heard a commotion that could only be one thing.

"I ain't letting you outta my sight!" Ling yelled. Xuan smiled a little and gave him a hug.

"I missed you too, Li Ling!" He said. Lewis smiled at them and grabbed them both into a bear hug.

"Come on, you dickwads!" Mona yelled. "Don't hog him all for yourself! The rest of us wanna know if he's ok!"

Arcana, who leaned nearby on a windowsill, chuckled. "You can join them, you know!"

"Naaah! Too stinky and sweaty!"

Leora, Q, and Arcana chuckled, as Lewis let go of the bear hug and let Xuan greet the others.

"What was it like?" Brynn asked, "Being like that?"

"I think I had a few dreams," Xuan said, "but I can't remember them all that well."

"Papa!"

Xuan shot his head to the screaming, and saw Ace running to him. He knelt down onto the ground and held out his arms, catching Ace as he jumped into his arms.

Ace sobbed incoherent words as he clutched onto Xuan. At this moment, everything crashed into him at once and he felt tears bubbling into his eyes.

Yuuhime and Ahmed slowly approached them. Yuuhime knelt down beside her boys and put her hands on them. Ahmed lightly kicked his foot, glancing at the lights in the room, dimmed to give Xuan time to recover from being in the "darkness" for so long.

"Good call on the lights," he murmured.

"It was Drew's idea!" Q said.

"Don't flatter me, it's what anyone would have done." Drew said, though his ears twitched with embarrassment.

"Alright, everyone," Raven came walking in, after watching from the large entryway for a moment, "I need to take Tang Xuan for a while. Yuuhime, can you come with me?"

Yuuhime nodded, helping Xuan up as he rocked Ace in his arms. Raven led them to a meeting room not too far. Its walls were covered in bookshelves, each full with books on topics about espers and the Rayan civilizations, medical terminology, and laws and government practices, from what they each saw and read. In the middle was a round and small table.

"Take a seat," Raven said, "I will get you something to drink, Tang Xuan."

"Don't worry yourself," Xuan said, "I don't need anything, really. I can tell there's something important you need to say."

"...your wife has something much more serious than I." Raven said, glancing at Ace then Yuuhime, then walked over to a coffee machine and started some coffee up.

"Yuu?" Xuan asked, looking at Yuuhime as she grabbed his arm lightly and began to massage it. Ace looked at her too, knowing exactly what she was about to say.

"Tang Xuan..." Yuuhime said softly, "...Yamato got him. He got Amon. He..."

She trailed off upon seeing Xuan's face loose color. He shook his head, in disbelief and disgust.

"That bastard, that—that bitch, th-tha—that monster-!" He was cut off by Ace's small hands wrapping around his torso.

"You can get Amon back, right papa?" He asked, tears steaming down his face. Xuan felt himself soften and rub his hands across Ace's wet cheeks.

"I will get Amon back." He said confidently, but feeling like he was just shot a million times.

Yuuhime sat in silence as she watched them hug and cry. She knew that Xuan was having doubts about if he really could find Amon and bring him back, the way his eyes glazed over as he thought about what he could even do. She rubbed his arm again, looking at nothing in particular as she waited for Raven to come back.

"Are you feeling up for more bad news?" Raven asked.

"Sure. Why not. Shoot it." Xuan said, feeling as if nothing could be worse than finding out his son had been kidnapped.

"The Underground miracle is acting up again," Raven explained, "you know this. But, it's going to hurt more people than we can handle. In fact, it's already filling up our medical centers near it, and patients are being sent here."

"Does it have anything to do with that saliva stuff we found?" Xuan asked.

"No, rather, it's a dust we theorize comes from the liquid that you just described as saliva." Raven coughed a little. "But you don't need to worry about that unless for an emergency. You need to rest still, and we have many questions for you."

"About what happened while I was kidnapped, right?"

Raven nodded, "Yuuhime wasn't able to get information, so I was hoping you knew anything else."

Xuan took a deep breath. Biting his tongue, he glanced at Yuuhime, then looked back at Raven.

"...I did find some things out." He slowly said. "It mainly started when..."

***

Chu Yao stared down at Xuan, tapping his fingers lightly against his legs.

"If it isn't that woman who has the power to give birth to powered children," he said slowly, "then it must be you."

"What did you...do to her-" he said, getting cut off by being grabbed by the hair by Chu Yao.

Xuan was placed in a plain room. He was tied to a chair, and the only thing he could see was Chu Yao's cruel face. He could hear the beeping of a computer behind him, someone tapping on the keyboard.

"Answer my question," Chu Yao said. "How did she conceive children?"

"Why do you want to know?" Xuan asked.

"To make the world better."

Xuan didn't believe him for a second. But he couldn't glare, couldn't even disagree.

Witnessing Yuuhime being beaten like a wet shirt was too horrific. He had a feeling that Chu Yao wouldn't hold any punches either, if he refused to cooperate.

"Now answer my question." Chu Yao demanded.

"We had sex...?"

Chu Yao slowly blinked before pulling Xuan's hair harder.

"Of course you had intercourse! Explain to me what happened, what did you do?"

Xuan's reaction must of told Chu Yao everything, as he let go of his hair and stepped back.

"I'll be back." Chu Yao said, walking out with an impossible to read expression.

***

"...and after that, they took a lot of looks at the inside of my body." Xuan concluded. He failed to mention how Chu Yao began bringing woman in as well, these woman constantly changing.

"Ohh, that Tang Yun..." Yuuhime hissed. Getting beat up by Yun for the first part of being kidnapped wasn't horrible—Xuan could just self-heal—but it did take a lot of of him, and by the time he was supposedly saved, he was completely out of his Esper healing.

"Hey, I'm ok now, right?" He rubbed her hair, a smile on his face. "We'll get them into prison, and we'll be ok."

'We won't be ok until I find Amon...' he thought to himself while he turned to look at Raven, her brow furrowed in deep thought.

"...well," Raven said, "as long as you're ok, that's all I care about."

Xuan nodded and gave a thumbs up. Yuuhime smiled a little at him, and then stood up.

"I'll be taking Xuan home now," she said, "is that ok?"

"Yes." Raven nodded. They waved and left, leaving Raven to rub her fingers across her temples and wonder what Xuan kept from her.

***

"Yuuhime, it's fine, I had my powers to heal me!"

"But they failed you in the end! You were out cold for five months, Tang Xuan!"

"I'm fine now, right?"

"They were going to unplug you! You were going to die!"

"Yuu-"

"Your brother was beating you to death every day. You didn't think that would bug me just because you could heal yourself?!"

"If I had to die for the greater cause, then so be it."

"Why do you always get like this!"

"Get like what?"

"You act like your life doesn't matter, but you mean EVERYTHING to me! You mean EVERYTHING to EVERYONE!"

"Yuu, I-"

"I swear to god, I'm going to have to tie you down just so you stop getting yourself hurt!"

Xuan backed away to the kitchen counter, unable to think of anything else he could say to that. Yuuhime, standing by the fridge that contrasted her hot face, inched closer to him, her face red with anger and her eyes dotted with tears. Then, very suddenly, she pulled him into a kiss. He gasped, feeling her tongue dominating over his.

She pushed him down onto the counter and pulled back, still angry, but her anger turned civilized.

"I want you to be mine tonight, Sunflower," she said, tracing his chest with her finger. "You owe me."

Xuan stammered, baffled by her sudden shift. He'd never seen her this angry before, nor had she ever looked at him like that either.

She led her hands down his body, and he stopped them, giving her a look.

"Yuuhime, not in here." He hissed.

"I have to make sure you're ok." She said in a tone of voice that could only be described as a special kind of anger special to her.

"Yuu, come on, I could just heal myself there, it was fi-"

She locked lips with him again. He couldn't pull away, it felt too good to kiss her, no matter how much he wanted to argue back.

"Stop arguing with me," she said after she pulled back from him, "of else I'll have to do more than just some kisses."

"Come on, Yuu-" he yelped as she pinched his thigh. He pulled away and sighed deeply.

"We have a kid in the house," he argued. "He's traumatized and I have to be here for him."

"You can be there for him tomorrow," Yuuhime said, "just apologize now."

He wanted to scowl, but the more he stared at her, the less he saw anger and the more he saw worry. His breath hitched when he saw her begin to weep.

"Tang Xuan," she sniffled, "I thought I had lost you forever, Ace thought he lost you. Please, I just..."

She lowered her head and wiped her eyes in shame. He stepped forward, hating to see her cry more than anything. Then, he pulled her into a hug, soft and shaky around her delicate body.

"I'm sorry. Don't cry. I'm here."

She hugged him back, burying her face in his chest. They stood like that for a while, Xuan rubbing Yuuhime's back while he cursed himself for ever acting like he did.

"Mama, dad?" A small voice chirped from by the fridge. The two looked down, pulling apart and smiling at Ace.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" He asked in a mumble.

"Of course, Ace." Xuan said, patting his head. Yuuhime nodded.

"Ok, thanks." Ace replied, then he asked very frankly, "Mama, were you gonna hit dad for making you mad? I heard you say-"

"Ahahaha! Just ignore that, Ace!"