I'm so scared of you, though nothing's wrong,

You're my new idea of everything I want.

I'm so bad at this, got a heavy heart.

And I've been tossed around and thrown back down, and torn apart.

31 -- Yes  

It took more concentration to jam the key into the Rubicon's door. My hands trembled uncontrollably and I felt nauseous.

"I'll drive."

It was the first time Amyr spoke since dealing with Sharifa. His expression was impossible to read as he caught my hands with a firm grip. The keys stopped clinking when he picked it up from my cold, clammy hands.

Afraid he would see through me, I dropped my gaze while waiting for the others to get in. I followed Kyoshiro and Mei into the backseat.

Amyr started the vehicle and drove without being told. Obviously, he knew where Vincent was. And still, no one bothered--dared--to tell me anything. I didn't probe. It wasn't like it would make any difference now.

I have to admit; it hurt that Vincent still hid things from me. I couldn't blame him, though. I hadn't been completely honest to him either.

"Now, this ritual," Kyoshiro said from the other end of the backseat. "We stop it, we're good, right?"

Vladimir leaned over from the shotgun seat, looking too tired to have this conversation. "As long as Vincent doesn't consent to it, the Binding ritual would not commence. But--"

"There's the but," the Tenth muttered snidely, deliberately cutting off his brother in mid-sentence. "There's always a but! Please, do tell what the but is."

Resting his head back, Vladimir closed his eyes for a moment. "Even if Legion doesn't complete the ritual, she's still capable of massive destruction. As of now, her power is... limited."

Kyoshiro whistled. "Limited," he repeated sarcastically. "Even if we fight her all at once now, it's not going to be an even match. We are way in over our heads this time."

Letting out a long, tired sigh, Vladimir knotted his brows in deep thought. "And worse, Belial thinks that if we don't defeat Legion before the eclipse ends, she will achieve full power. It will be the beginning of the Apocalypse and nothing--not even us--will be strong enough to stop it."

"On the bright side, we have the Grimoire," Kyoshiro pointed out, succeeding to flash a grin. "Once we shove the bitch back to her prison cell in Halo, we don't have to worry about Vincent going dark--"

"He's not going to," I said before he could finish. My voice was low, but a little too defensive than intended. "He will never say yes to her."

"Of course, he won't," Vladimir agreed, the optimism of his voice absent on his face. "Never."

Forcing a nod, Kyoshiro leaned back and closed his eyes. Vladimir trailed into silence as he stroked Byron Flynn's fur. Giving me a look of concern, Mei placed a hand over mine and gently squeezed it as if telling me that everything was going to be alright.

I wanted to believe her, but it all sounded too simple.

No one said another word. It had been several minutes and there were no signs that we were getting there anytime soon, since everyone else seemed to have taken their well-deserved naps.

Not me. I kept trying to reach Vincent. Still, the space his consciousness used to occupy in my mind stayed empty.

I stared at the window, through my reflection, to the blur of tiny lights in the darkness. It wasn't long before those tiny lights whirled into a big one, so blindingly bright that my eyes couldn't see anything but glare and white.

Blinking, I shook my head. I clutched on my seat as a wave of disorientation washed through me.

Where am I? I asked inwardly when I realized my mouth couldn't form words.

The light slowly dimmed like a response. My peripheral vision narrowed, and soon, a figure came into focus: hazy, faded as an old memory.

The naked, white twigs of a tall bush in hibernation spread a few inches over my head. I was watching the figure through the tiny gaps between it.

I shifted on my ankles, trying to ignore the lack of blood flow, perhaps, from crouching down for too long. Looking up, I saw the moon, almost full, a bit flat of the bottom edge. My heart started beating too fast, too loud. I looked sideways just to check if the person hunkering beside me could hear it.

Alex's face came into view. I cringed a little--this time, I was aware I wasn't making the movements. It wasn't my heart that was pounding on my ears. I was just an uninvited observer.

"This is pointless," I said to him in Vincent's whispering voice.

The surprise in me didn't even register in his tone. It occurred to me that maybe I was having one of those Transference Link glitches. I was seeing through his eyes without him knowing. It had happened only twice before: in Halo, when he bolted while we were being chased by Pilgrim's sentries and then, when I saw visions of him when he was being tortured in the dungeons.

"Look," said Alexis, staring at the moving figure several yards away.

Vincent's eyes trained on the prey. Except it wasn't. In this case, it was the predator. It was Adrianna--no, Legion.

To me, she looked so frail, so tiny, so gentle. Like she wouldn't be capable of hurting a fly, much less, destroying the world. That was the Adrianna I had known and I was sure Vincent too.

Three Strays--souls that hadn't crossed over--appeared from nowhere.

She stretched her arms, palms facing upward. Her fingers curled, a shy smile curving her lips.

The Strays drifted closer to her, curious, tempted by her benign invitation. Once they were all within her reach, she opened her mouth abruptly, her jaw unhinging so that her chin could almost touch her chest. A chorus of voices pushed out of her throat all at once like a hungry moan.

If that wasn't horrifying enough, something white and pale and long squirmed out of her mouth. I realized it was a hand, slime and blood and all. The hand snatched the closest Stray and pulled it back into Adrianna's gullet. Then she sucked in the remaining Strays, her mouth reverting back to normal in a matter of seconds.

I wanted to flinch, but Vincent's eyes were wide with horror.

I was wondering why we hadn't seen Strays and wraiths around Centralia. I just got the answer to my question.

Vincent tensed on the balls of his feet, ready to spring when I felt Alex's arm on his shoulder. The Seventh shook his head.

"Not yet," he hissed. "Let's wait for Hector."

A flash of incandescence blinded me for a moment. My eyes were dry and painful around the edges as I blinked. A pair of hands were clasped on my shoulders, rendering me aware of the absence of air in my lungs. In panic, I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes watering with the effort.

"Aramis, what's wrong?" I saw Mei, the glare from the dome light casting shadows on her face. She loosened her hands from my shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Her questions were enough to shake off the daze.

"I..." I gulped. "I saw Vincent. Not exactly saw him, but I think I saw what he's seeing."

Vladimir caught his forehead. "It's the Link. It happens very rarely."

I think I was hyperventilating when I added, "It looks like he's going to fight Legion with Hector and Alex."

Kyoshiro and Vladimir groaned at exactly the same time.

"They are executing the plan without us," Vladimir sounded incredulous. "Hector knows we have the Grimoire."

The gap between Kyoshiro's slanted brows furrowed. "Link to him. He's probably thinking he could keep that monster in a cage for research."

"But Kyo-nii, Hector doesn't listen to me!"

The Tenth rolled the window down, stuck his head out and began half-yelling, half-growling in Japanese. I didn't have a clue what he was saying, but Hector's name got mentioned twice. Everyone was still and quiet until the words got lost in the wind. He rolled the window up and let his back bounce on the seat. The veins on the back of his hand bulged as he crossed his arms over his chest.

His voice was low, bordering strain and halfheartedness when he said, "Tell Hector that if he screws this up again, I'll put him to sleep. Permanently. Now let me sleep," before closing his eyes.

Not a minute later, he was already snoring quietly.

Smiling wryly, Vladimir shrugged. "Kyo-nii needs his power naps."

It was silent again when Vladimir started Linking to the others. From the boy's reaction, I could it tell the mental conversation was turning into an argument. I regretted not getting back my Diviner's Charm from Belial.

Again, I tried to Link to Vincent. But the words seemed to bounce against some sort of wall. I concentrated harder, closing my eyes as I did.

It was then that I saw flickers of light. Unlike before, all I could make out where flashes of images and echoes of conversations.

The first image was a tank unlike anything I had seen before: four corners, thick walls, metal restraints. I saw a glimpse of Hector, waving a tall cylinder of pink swirling liquid--SirenSoul--in front of his face before inserting it into a slot at the back of the tank.

Vincent and Alex's voice alternately echoed inside my head in an incomprehensible hodgepodge.

"Will it work?"

"We'll make it work."

"We need Hector's--"

"--you sure? It's too dangerous..."

All of a sudden, Adrianna was in front of me with the half-smile, looking for all the world like a little girl in Christmas morning.

It was confusing. My head began to throb, the pain causing bile to rise up my throat. Still, I poured all my concentration into it. I was desperate to know what was happening with Vincent.

At first, all I could make out were sounds of skirmish, of struggle. The loud clangor of weapons against one another made my teeth want to fall off. There were shouts, threats, urgent voices. Then it was silent for a while. I strained to listen harder. But all I could make out were parts of a serious but calm-sounding conversation.

"--knew you'd see it our way," Adrianna said.

"--one condition." It was Vincent. His tone was casual, friendly even.

"--for you, Master Vincent."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Then will you be a good girl and get inside the vat?"

"But first, say yes."

"Yes."

The last thing I saw was Adrianna inside the tank, her arms, legs and torso bound by several metal clamps. The thick liquid slowly filling up the tank was now neck-deep, but there wasn't a tinge of fear or panic in her brown eyes. Instead, she had this triumphant smile on.

A chill ran down my spine. It was like she knew I was watching.

I was gasping for air as my eyes flew open. Clutching my chest, I started coughing. My hands shook as I held onto the back of Amyr's seat to hoist myself up.

"A-are we there, yet?!" I half-screamed, half-cried.

Amyr shied away, rubbing his ears. He threw me a worried look in the rear view mirror. "Relax, Noob. A few minutes more."

Vincent, what did you just do?

Tremors rolled back and forth my body as I sagged back into my seat. I clutched my hands together, bit my quivering lip and stayed as still as possible. Or else, I was scared I would start bawling all of a sudden. If that happened, I knew everyone would start asking questions. Questions, I didn't want to answer in my current disposition.

I could only breathe once the vehicle slowed down to a stop in front of St. Ignatius. I was out and running before everyone else. Ignoring the calls behind me, I vaulted over the knee-high rock ledge, my eyes sweeping the area.

Steam broke out of the cracks on the dirt. Where smoke didn't come out, thin patches of grass thrived. The trees, dark and looming, were left to grow massive as though crouched monsters guarding the graves.

Aimlessly, I wandered around. I refrained from calling out for fear that my voice would crack. It was hard to see through the dark, through the steam billowing out of the holes in the ground.

The barely audible sound of dirt crunching under pairs of boots were the only sign that the others were catching up. I didn't wait for them. My feet moved as quick as they pleased. I knew I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. It was only when I found the tank did all the energy seemed to have escaped from me.

Like in the visions, Adrianna was in the tank, her eyes closed as if in peaceful slumber. Then, her eyes suddenly opened. She looked at me, a corner of her lips twitching into a crooked leer.

It was like my feet were cemented to the ground. I had been hoping against hope that the visions were just a product of my desperate imagination. But here was the proof, mocking me.

"A!"

My head whipped to the direction the voice was coming from.

Approaching me in a light jog was Vincent. He waved, wearing that smug grin that made my heart sink.

I wanted to run to him. To throw my arms around him. Punch him in the teeth while crying my eyes out. Scream at him until all the anger in me had run out. Whisper to him that nothing would make me happier than seeing that he was alright. But I couldn't. Fear had turned me into a statue that if I tried to move, I would break into tiny little pieces.

When I looked back at Adrianna, she had already closed her eyes.

Alex and Hector followed Vincent, taking their time as they did. As soon as Vincent had reached me, he took my hands and enclosed them in his. I tried not to get distracted by his smile, his laugh. Tried to keep the terror in my chest from showing on my face.

"We did it, A," he said, his eyes searching mine. "We caught Legion."

I didn't answer. I couldn't with the twisting, swelling lump in my throat.

Yes, they caught Legion. But he also did something else. It was just a single word. But that single word was the only thing that could have made the difference between winning and losing. One word that when given, could not be taken back.

With a lopsided smirk, his gaze shifted behind me as I heard the others arrive. Letting go of my hands, he pocketed his own and walked to them.

"You're late," he told off Vladimir, facetiously. "And don't blame traffic this time."

"I can't believe you morons--" Kyoshiro began to say angrily only to forget his words, his mouth opening and closing twice as he noticed who was inside the tank. "--caught Legion..." Excitedly, he headed for the tank, not before slapping Vincent hard on the back repeatedly, yelling "You morons! You morons!"

This time, it sounded like he meant morons as a compliment.

Vladimir pressed his lips into a thin line, as he entered a staring contest with Vincent.

"You sneaky scoundrel," the boy muttered, shaking his head in mock-disappointment. "There is a plan, Vincent. It's there for us to follow."

Vincent threw Amyr a sardonic look. "Is he going to lecture me?"

With a sigh, Amyr answered, "He's gunna lecture you."

Folding his arms on his chest, Vincent put on his listening face. "This is going to take a while."

As if he hadn't heard that, Vladimir went on. "For Eldessakes! I should kick you in the teeth right now! If you've an idea, say it! It isn't as if we'd bend heaven and earth to stop you--unless it's a stupid one, obviously. A lot of things could have gone wrong! Besides, have you any idea how scared to death Aramis was not knowing where you'd run off to?"

Again, Vincent turned to Amyr. "Did he just throw me the girlfriend angle?"

"Yep. He just did," Amyr nodded, brows raised.

Vincent shook his head, throwing Vladimir a look. "You're really trying to make me feel bad."

Mei couldn't help but smile while watching the three banter. Kyoshiro had joined Alex and Hector, apparently forgetting the death threats he had just given his brother just a few minutes ago.

Everyone looked relieved. No one seemed to notice that this was too easy. No one, but me.