Tears filled her eyes and Julia burrowed her head into Train's chest the way she had ached to do for so long that she had forgotten what it was to live without that pain.

After a long time in silence, Lia finally moved.

"Excuse me." She muttered, keeping her face down and eyes averted from the heated gold eyes she could feel boring into her.

Lia tried to get up; only to be held down by Train's arms still clasped tightly around her.

"Let me go, Heartnet." Lia said, her tone going hard instantly, but Train shook his head.

"No. I let go once, Jules, and it was the worst mistake of my life. I'd be a true fool to do it again." He murmured.

Lia's eyes flashed with anger and she snapped harshly, "Release me at once, or I'll deal with you the way I did him and everyone else who ever got in my way."

"If I'm getting in your way, then do it."

Lia stilled while Train continued.

"Go on, try it. I won't stop you - I probably deserve it for not believing in us more, for even thinking you'd betray me, for running away and leaving you. But-"

Train stared at Lia intently.

"I won't let you go again. I won't let you fall, I won't slip up the way I did two years ago. I once told you, you are my most precious treasure, worth more than all the gems in the world combined. That you were my Jules. And I meant that. I always have and I always will. And I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you, didn't stay beside you the way I swore I always would."

Train swallowed and he continued, "I know that isn't anywhere near enough for what I left you to go through… for not trying harder to reach you; for letting my faith in us be broken so easily. But, I…"

He hesitated.

"I'm sorry, Jules." Train finished at last. "But I swear to you now, I'll be here, even if you don't want me."

"I don't want you." Lia said harshly, shoving his arms away and standing up before him with angry tears glistening in her silvery-grey eyes.

"And I don't need you. Not anymore. I've told you, the girl you knew and said you loved, the girl I was: she's gone, Train. She died the night you abandoned her to the fate you escaped from."

"I know." Train whispered, his tone filled with sincerity and guilt. "And I'm so sorry. I never intended to abandon you; I thought..."

He turned his gaze down in shame.

"I thought you had betrayed me, and it… it broke my heart Jules. I couldn't stay, not with Saya gone as well. I thought you blamed her death on me, that you'd realized how dangerous I am even when I don't intend to be, and I… I ran."

He lifted his eyes, gazing up at Lia beseechingly.

"Please - I don't ask you to come back to me." Train pleaded. "I won't ask you to take me back, either. But please, believe me when I say I won't leave you to suffer again. I will protect you, and I ask that you let me do at least that."

"And you think I need your protection?" Lia hissed, unmoving in her anger and - ultimately - her broken heart.

"If you truly want to make amends, you never showing your face in front of me again is the best thing you could ever do for me. I have no need for your so-called protection; I have only one reason to live now and it's not you. Jenos picked up the pieces of my life after you left; Jenos never left my side and Jenos was the one who pulled me back when I thought all hope was gone. He's watched out for me and my brother's happiness is all I need."

"What about your own happiness?" Train asked quietly, part of him dreading the answer.

Lia's entire face went cold, and Train's heart broke as he saw the truth behind the mask even before she answered with a bitter honesty that stung far more than any of her biting comments until then had.

"I can't ever be happy anymore. Jenos's happiness is the next best thing. It's the only thing that soothes the scars I can't ever forget, and that's why he's all I'm living for now. Otherwise I would have let myself die two years ago."

"Don't say that." Train said quietly. "Please, Jules. I'm sorry, I truly am, but if you were to cease existing in this life, I-"

"Why would you care?" Lia cut in scathingly. "Your supposed feelings for me were obviously easily broken - you'd get over it."

"You know that's not true."

Train's gold eyes flashed as he too stood up before Lia once more.

"Jules, if you don't believe anything else I say, please believe me when I say I lo-"

"Don't!"

Lia cut him off, her voice going sharp and high and Train broke off at the pain in her tone and the flash of heartache that crossed her face.

"Don't lie to me."

Lia's voice was more controlled as she continued, though her grey eyes betrayed her as they reflected Train's own aching heart.

"Jenos offered to leave Chronos for me, you know."

Train blinked, confused, before understanding dawned as Lia continued.

"He's loyal to them, to Chronos, and Sephiria and Nizer and Belga; he always has been. It would have broken his heart to leave that behind, yet he would have done it for me because he thought it was what was better for me. That is love, Heartnet."

Lia looked at Train and - despite the fact that she was obviously trying to sound and be the cold-hearted Number she had exuded for two and a half years - for the first time, Train saw the girl she had once been. The bright-eyed girl was now a haunted woman, but her grey eyes were as steady (even filled with pain as they were) as they had been so many years ago when she'd explained her views and stood firmly by her own ideals.

"But I knew what Chronos meant to my brother. For all its shortcomings, Jenos truly believes in Chronos and what they stand for. I couldn't ask him to leave that for me. No matter what he or you or anyone says, I already died in every sense of the word that mattered to me that night, so what did it matter that I hated killing? I have no soul, no life left in me that I care about. But I promised to keep living because I didn't want Jenos to suffer because of me… so I chose to live so he could be as happy as possible. Even if that meant staying in the place where I once thought I never could live."

She stared at him, her gaze unyielding.

"That is love." She finished determinedly, clearly expecting that to be the end of the conversation.

But no longer was Train the man who had just listened, who didn't voice his own opinions because he really couldn't care to. He was no longer Black Cat, and this was the woman he loved; whom he knew he would love until the day he died.

"And is feeling pain so excruciating that I ran from everything when nothing I'd ever faced could drive me to, not also love?" Train challenged, stepping toward Lia again.

She held her ground too, although Train could see she wavered as he took another step closer to her while he continued.

"The all-encompassing confusion and ache that follows a seeming betrayal, the inability to think with a clear head because of that - are those not also symptoms of love?"

Lia tensed as Train took one last step, placing himself right in front of her so that their bodies almost touched - would touch at the slightest movement. He gazed down into her grey eyes as she looked up at him with a conflicted expression.

"Is the desire that I could go back in time and save you; that I could bring back that bastard so I could make him pay one thousand times over for what he did to you… Are those not also signs of love?"

Lia's breath hitched as she stared up at Train lifted his hand and softly cupped her cheek.

"Is the wish that I could erase all your pain, that you would always smile and never shed a tear… Is that not because I love you?"

Lia's eyes filled with tears and Train bent his head so his forehead pressed against hers.

"I love you, Jules." He whispered, his gold eyes boring into hers with an ache that matched hers. "And that won't ever change. Please… believe just that."

Lia closed her eyes and shuddered at Train's confession, his plea. Train continued to watch her, hoping and desperate; but his wishes were not answered as Lia opened her grey eyes. They were still haunted but they were once again deadened and Train despaired as Lia stepped back before she turned away from him.

"We should start looking for a way out of here." Lia said, her voice not quite as cold as it had been but nonetheless final. "Your friend is likely in danger, and this place is only going to warp us around even more the longer we stay in here."

Train's face was painfilled, but he nodded. For now. But he had meant what he had said and he no longer had any intention of letting Lia out of his sight. He would follow her to the ends of the Earth, staying in the shadows if she didn't want to see him; but never would he let her be hurt again. No longer would he live without her.

It was as he thought that, that the light from before appeared before him. Lia tensed in surprise and wariness but Train recognized the warmth flowing from the light and he closed his eyes.

'Saya… thank you...' He said silently as Lia began, "What-?"

She then flinched as the light enveloped them, but Train wrapped his right hand around her left. And despite everything that had happened between them and all she had said, Lia trusted him as he pulled her through the light… and straight into Doctor's operating room.

Both Train and Lia saw the way the black-haired man that Lia vaguely recognized from somewhere (she supposed from pictures of the Apostles, though Lia briefly wondered why she didn't remember it exactly) was leaning over Eve, who was strapped down to the operating table, and the scissors in Doctor's hand as he made to cut Eve's clothes before he dissected her… and they saw red.

"You."

Train snarled at the same time Lia launched forward.

Doctor barely had time to turn in shock at Train's voice before Lia's fist was slamming into his cheek. The force of her punch sent him spinning to one side - right in front of Train. The sweeper leapt, his foot colliding right into Doctor's other cheek. The man went crashing into the opposite wall from Train's kick, the dual blows momentarily incapacitating the man as he sunk in a dazed pile against the wall.

"Tr-Train!" Eve gasped, relieved as she looked up at her friend and also sending a curious look at his companion. "Julia."

"Hey, little princess." Train grinned down at Eve, but he couldn't quite hide the tension and sorrow on his features.

Eve noticed but Train pretended he was fine and his relief wasn't for show as he continued, "Looks like we got to you just in time, huh? Thank goodness we made it."

Lia glanced at Train at that, but Train ignored her as he moved to free Eve.

"How'd you get here?" Eve asked in wonder, when they were interrupted.

"Bastard!"

Lia and Train glanced over at Doctor, who was staggering to his feet and glaring at them despite the dual bruises on his cheeks.

"Don't touch my precious research specimen!" Doctor snarled. "If you're going to interfere, then I'll dissect you two first!"

"Go ahead and try." Train replied coldly as he glared at Doctor while freeing Eve.

Doctor's gaze darkened and suddenly knives began to appear out of all the walls and the ceiling of the operating room. The trio looked around in surprise while Doctor said lowly, dangerously, "I don't know how you two got in here. But if you don't stand back and watch, you'll regret it. This is a world that I control. I'll slice you up with scalpels from every wall. The way I should have done to you, Number VI, long ago!"

Both Lia and Train frowned in confusion, and Doctor smirked.

"Oh? You don't remember me?" Doctor asked Lia, who continued to glare back though she was puzzled. "I don't blame you… There was hardly anything left of you when Katashi called me in."

Both Train and Lia's eyes widened as they understood, and Lia in particular abruptly remembered where she had seen Doctor's face before; why it appeared she had never seen his face in the pictures of the Apostles of the Stars. Jenos had probably hidden them from her - and now she knew why.

"Hahahaha!" Doctor cackled as he looked at the pair of ex-lovers.

"You never even knew! Katashi intercepted the mail from Train after he was done with you, and he called me to come and decipher it. I was able to extract the meeting place from your memories, and well… Train, you know the rest."

Train's eyes widened as he realized where the mistake of Lia's supposed betrayal and their fallout had begun. Then both his and Lia's eyes went cold and glinted with fury while Doctor continued to laugh.

"I never told Creed. It was too amusing to watch you two destroy yourselves all on your own. And how he hated that other woman, Saya Minatsuki, with no idea how wrong he was!"

Doctor stopped as he noticed Eve now standing up behind Train and Lia, the girl's gaze dark and angry as she glared at the hateful man.

"You still have no idea how it feels to be someone who's been hurt." Eve said in a low voice, her gaze pitiless. "And you still can't understand that after this… since all you've done is leave the fighting to something else, never doing it yourself."

Her fists clenched, something Doctor noticed and the man scoffed.

"You still intend to hit me?" He asked condescendingly. "Then I guess we'll find out which is faster, your attack or my scalpels."

He scoffed.

"Stop this nonsense and get back on the bed. If I can, I'd like to have you live through the dissection-"

He'd barely finished when suddenly Doctor was pummelled on every inch of his body in the span of one second, and Doctor gasped out blood as he stared at Eve in shock. Her attack had been so fast that even Lia had barely seen it coming; someone untrained and unused to physical battle like Doctor had had no chance.

But the man was now furious, angry and embarrassed. He staggered, his legs spread wide as he fought to remain upright, and he yelled, "Fine! I don't care if you're a corpse!"

His gaze shifted to the side, looking to his scalpels as he made to have them shoot out of the walls. His mistake.

He didn't see as Train leapt at him. He didn't notice as Lia launched from a low crouch at him. Doctor never saw it coming as Train's fist smashed into his face, breaking his nose and smashing it and his glasses into Doctor's skull before Doctor's scalpels could even fly. He never had time to react as, at the same time, Lia's foot collided with his crotch, her kick hitting him so hard his balls almost imbedded themselves into his pelvic bone.

The man collapsed, knocked out for good, and Lia's eyes steeled. Her hand itched to lift Elysium, to ensure the end of the devil before her, even as Eve came over and - out of spite - kicked Doctor's unconscious back. But a hand closing over hers had Lia lifting her gaze to Train's, and the sweeper shook his head.

"He doesn't deserve to be tainted on your soul." Train said quietly and Lia glared, suddenly defensive.

But before they could argue, the entire room began to swirl, warping around strangely and disappearing.

"What?" Train began, and Eve piped up urgently, "He said this world was a place he imagined. If he lost consciousness..."

"The world will disappear." Lia realized and Train said, "Don't tell me… that we're going to disappear along with it?!"

"It's all right."

The group started as a voice called down from seemingly nowhere and a light appeared above their heads.

"That's..." Lia began, her voice faltering in shock as she stared up at the familiar light and the more familiar voice.

"If this warped world disappears, you three will surely return to the real world."

"Huh?" Eve asked, puzzled. "Who's voice is that?"

But neither of the other two answered, Lia because she couldn't and Train because Saya addressed him next.

"Train. Despite having told you that it's okay to forget about me, it seems that you and Lia still remembered. Although the memories are steeped in pain for both of you… because you didn't forget about me, in this world where imagination and memories come to be, I was able to create a miracle. Thank you both."

"It's me who should thank you," Train answered with a small smile. "Saya."

Eve looked at Train in shock, while Lia's eyes widened as Saya's voice continued.

"Jules… I'm sorry for what you went through."

"No, don't be, Saya." Lia replied quietly. "You died."

"But what happened to you was worse than any death."

Lia went silent, and Saya continued kindly.

"Jules… Train… Strong faith will become a power that rival even the strongest of weapons. Do not stop believing, in yourselves and in each other. Only then.. can you stop Creed."

Lia glanced at Train, her gaze troubled. He looked back at her, and then they were all bathed in blinding white light as Saya helped them travel back.

A corridor on the second floor

With a crash, Train landed face-first on the floor, Eve sitting atop him.

"So this is where we returned to…" Train groaned, while Eve rubbed her head.

"Huh?!"

They looked up to see Sven staring at them in shock.

"You guys?!"

Meanwhile, in a corridor further away, Lia landed in a crouch on her feet that was more befitting of the mammal Train's old alias had been named after.

She straightened slowly, her gaze troubled as she glanced back at the empty wall from where she had appeared through. Saya's words to her as she transported her away rang in her mind, weighing on her heart.

"Don't let your fears hold you back, Jules. Don't stop yourself from being happy… otherwise they ultimately win. He loves you - believe in that. He wants to help you, but no-one can heal you except yourself. Find your happiness, Jules. For me… and for you. Please find that joy to live once more."

*A/N Song of the Day: Confession, from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. This is a repeat from before, but I wanted to have it again as almost Train and Lia's theme. The link is: /zpj5ye6DIjA