After the departure with Meliza, Locke found himself a decent motel room, far away. He sat at the rear end of the bed and felt a migraine coming over. Not good. He was so overly disturbed and tired he couldn’t hear the knocking on the door. Eventually the knocking grew louder and more impatient. There was still no response.

A key was put through the doorknob and the cleaning lady had walked in.

She gasped when she saw that someone was in here. "Oh I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know you were in here."

Locke’s face was covered in his hands and sat still in his sitting position.

Not receiving a reaction or even a look from Locke, the cleaning lady wondered if he was okay.

"Sir..?" She walked closer to him, but still no response. She began to tap his shoulders.

Still no response.

"Are you alright?"

"….."

"Sir???"

"WHAT IS IT." She jumped back, startled at this surprise. "I’m sorry. It’s...it’s nothing. You were just frozen and I was wondering if you were.."

"Please leave me alone."

"Oh, yes…of course, I’m sorry." She closed the door behind her.

Locke ran a hand through his hair, and tear had fallen from his face. No, not good at all..

~ ~ ~

"Wah! Miko did such a good job!!!" The ever-so chirpy cleaner gleamed happily over the newly clean, and sparkly kitchen.

Then Crimson walked in with a stomach crying ‘food…food..’. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed himself a leftover slice of pizza.

"CRIMSON!!!!" Miko screamed in horror.

"Whoa.." Crimson turned around startled as he met Miko face to face."...yeah hey, how you doin’." He put the slice to his mouth.

She screamed again. "AHHH!!! YOU CAN’T EAT PIZZA BEFORE DINNER!" She quickly snatched the pizza out of his hands.

"What...hey!!!"

"Miko prepares a special dinner tonight, save your appetite for later!"

Crimson grumbled as Miko pushed him out the door.

~ ~ ~

Ayame walked around by herself at the mall. There was nothing to do, absolutely no one to see. She thought it would be a nice distraction if she could just take her mind off Kay for just a little while. But was that possible? Noo….

"Arg...come on, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ayame said out loud tugging her hair. She did not notice the weird glances aimed towards her by the shoppers.

Meliza, sitting at a bench with a frappuchino at her side, cocked an eyebrow hearing what she just said. "What in the world.." She looked up from the laptop and standing about 40 feet away from her stood Ayame. Ayame then threw a penny in the water fountain and made a silent wish.

After wishing for Kay to be alright, she turned around and saw Meliza sitting and working on the laptop. They had made eye contact and Meliza shut the laptop quickly as Ayame began to approach her.

"Hey, Ayame." Meliza smiled.

"Hi, Meliza, what are you doing here?" Ayame asked eyeing at the laptop.

"Oh.. " Meliza tried to take the attention off of the laptop. "Just investing my stocks." She changed the subject. "You?"

"I came because I needed to take my mind off some things."

Meliza felt a rush come over her. This was new, she wasn’t sure what it was. Her head started pounding and she felt heat coming in her body. Visions of .. a room.. appeared in her mind. In the middle was the bed and a person. Kay?

"Hey, Mel...are you ok?" Meliza started shaking. "Mel??"

The vision came back, it was Kay!

"Mel? Mel? Answer me!"

Was it a hospital that he was in? *Hello, Kay. Is that you?*

*Meliza?* Meliza heard Kay’s voice through her mind.

*Kay! Oh my god, what happened to you?* Sifting through his thoughts, she could feel something strange had happened to his mind.

*It’s too much to explain.* And as he said that, she felt something come between her and the condition of his mind. Though she felt she could break through them, Meliza dared not less it worsen his condition.

*But! Your condition..*

She felt his presence was fading and she tried to grasp it but she couldn’t.

"Meliza!!" Ayame called again.

"Huh?" Meliza blinked twice. What was that? Was Kay trying to reach me? But for what reason? Why?

"Are you okay??"

"Yeah.. I’m fine." Should I tell Ayame? Meliza wondered. She would be worried wouldn’t she?

"Oh, thank god." Ayame gave her a hug. "You worried me. What’s wrong?"

Meliza decided to tell her.

"Ayame, Kay just contacted me telepathically."

"What?"

"Yeah, and his condition is really weird, his mind isn't as strong as it should be, and there's something else I can't describe . . ." Meliza didn't know the word for it, but with her added abilities as the Incarnate of Wisdom, she felt that the term she was looking for would be Kay's 'soul.'

"What?!"

"I don’t know, he couldn’t give me the details.."

Ayame was shocked. "Oh, god no…please no.."

"I’m not sure what even happened, I felt his presence near though…it was like he was really speaking with me, but it was too short."

Meliza’s pager went on. "Uh oh.. I have to go somewhere really quickly."

"Wait...but what if Kay contacts you again?"

Meliza looked around. "Here take my ring. Kay has a similar one to it on him and I think that’s how he was able to contact me...but I’m not sure."

"Huh..? But Meliza...I don’t have telepathic powers.."

There really was no time. Meliza had to go.

"Ayame...you can do it, please don’t give up." And with that, Meliza took off to the car.

Ayame felt tears coming down again. "Kay, please be safe."

~ ~ ~

Jin Kushina winced slightly as used the vines in the forest to tie the piece of flat wood to his arm. The battle against the former Shadowlaw assassins was worth noting, especially the level of power they had reached. Glancing over at his charge, Jin could not help but remember how they got here . . .

~*Flashback . . .*~

Diving over the cliff, Jin paid no mind to the pain as adrenaline pumped through his veins, his vision focused on the military uniformed woman falling below. He wouldn't be able to reach her this way, gravity wouldn't allow it. Spotting a small ledge from towards where she would fall, Jin narrowed his eyes as he focused. The feeling of being displaced from one space to another was felt as he suddenly found himself at the ledge.

With a small cry of pain, Jin leapt forward to catch Natalie in his arms, and the feeling of displacement came again.

~ ~ ~

Juliana had left, even more crazed now than he remembered from his memories as Kay Lee. And Darius, in a fit of uncharacteristic rage, found himself facing the Phoenix bearers. Dodging projectiles of flames, Darius knocked an arrow of light as he ran, letting loose a volley of arrows in their direction, causing a chain explosion in the wall behind the two.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Nis shouted. "No fair using a weapon!"

"Sorry." Darius murmured as he leapt upon a small boulder, arrow knocked. "But I can't pull out fireballs with my hands." With that, a stream of light smashed into Nis-Nis chest on. Suddenly, he felt as if something was binding him, and he peered from the corner of his immobile body to see the male phoenix bearer recover from a throwing motion and begin advancing on him. "Call me Houdini." Darius murmured under his breathe as leaves exploded around him and he disappeared, leaving the three pieces of Zuke's belt at the floor.

"What?" Zuke blinked, then whirled around to block a blow from Darius' metallic bow. Wincing as he pulled his hand back for a moment, the two continued battle as Darius attempted to overpower Zuke. Flipping backwards quickly, Zuke grabbed the pieces of his belt and calmly tied it around his waist as Darius paused for a moment, looking at his opponent in mild bewilderment.

Zuke attacked. And Darius felt the hair stand behind his neck as he blocked each of Zuke's attacks. Whirling around, he found a dim image of Nis behind him standing where his shadow had been from what light had been given off in this cave. Darius whispered a curse and disappeared in another burst of leaves, standing at the opening of the cave now and running away rapidly. Zuke and Nis made pursuit,wondering what this man's problem wa.

But Darius had paused, his bow held at his side, and he seemed to be focusing. Suddenly, a brighauefrom the ground beneathe him. And as he raishis bow in their direction again, wisps of flames curled up from where his arrow of light should have been. Zuke and Nis leapt to the sides to avoid the hot stream of firey death. Nis glared at Darius and her eyes flashed with flames, and the archer letted out a yelp as his clothes suddenly caught on fire. Rolling in the sand, Darius snarled as he pulled out another arrow, this time it was trailed with wisps of icy smoke.

They fought on, unknowing to an innocent bystander who decided to go on a morning stroll along the beach and maybe find a hot dog stand or two. John Heagy had left the house when Miko forbade him access to the fridge. Him, of all people! He was huuungry! He could eat whatever was in the fridge and whatever she would make at dinner! Thinking this with an empty stomach, he did not notice Zuke, trailing with wisps of icy smoke, crash into him.

~ ~ ~

*Kay, you've recovered.* Victoria said telepathically, looking across miles of sea towards the mainland.

*Only a little . . .* Kay whispered softly, his mind sounded weak. *I'm recovering little by little, but I won't make it to the final stage.*

*You know what's going to happen, huh?* Victoria said gently so as not to strain his mind too much in receiving her messages. Since giving up his mantle as the Essence of Wisdom, Kay was not as strong in the psychic powers as he once was. But his martial arts was focused upon the power of the mind, so he was still strong enough to perform mild wonders. A pond compared to the ocean which he once was.

*I tried contacting Ayame, but I'm not strong enough to reach into her mind without her knowing how to open it up, yet . . .* Kay's whisper seemed to grow fainter each passing moment. *We'll talk again when I recover enough . . .*

And with that, he was gone.

~ ~ ~

His room was a mess. Never before had he been so intoxicated, but the depression helped greatly. Bottles of wine tossed everywhere as his depression finally drove him to this for consolance. Getting up unsteadily, Locke reached over toward the bathroom sink to splash his face with cold water. Looking at himself, he could not help but shake his head. He had moped enough, now it was time to actually do something.

Walking over to his closet, he thought about which outfit he should wear, unmindful of a shadow moving its way slowly towards him.

He screamed as if in terrible agony.

Then there was laughter. Loud, maniacal laughter. Smiling a small smile, Locke reached into his closet to pull out his favorite black suit, the one that was durable enough for a war. Draping it over his shoulder, Locke reached down under his bed and tossed it out of the window with a loud clatter of breaking glass.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" the manager of the motel shouted in alarm as he bursted into the room, staring at the man dressed in the black suit and packing away several of his clothes into a duffel bahg Locke drew out a gun from another suitcase and shot the man in the leg, causing him to fall to the floor in pain.

Locke frowned visibly as the demon within struggled to gain complete control of the former assassin. Shrugging that it really wasn't all that necessary to kill the man, anyway, Locke slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and lifted a suitcase containing various weapons. Pulling out one that held a particularly large canister, he shot down the wall of his room and walked out with a smile on his face and a dark glow within his eyes.

The expression remained after he hotwired an expensive looking black sports car and drove off towards the main part of the city. The Master would be pleased, he had gained a strong body into the service of Naar.