I hope you guys all enjoy this. This was originally done on a message board in a role playing format (all I'm doing is going through and putting it in story format), and I'd like to thank my friend for helping us get this far! Thanks so much!

The beginning of the first chapter (where 3rd person is introduced) begins on episode 19 of the anime (with some minor changes), but after this chapter, it branches off completely and does not follow the anime any longer.

Enjoy!

Finding the Colored Yin Yang
Prologue

I couldn't move. I was frozen in place. I wanted to scream. A few feet away, I heard the door creak open, and two men in white lab coats stepped into the room, their faces obscured in shadow.

"Ayako! Masako!" I wanted to scream, but I couldn't even open my mouth to try and scream. The words wouldn't come out. They lifted me up and out of my bed, and dragged me away from my friends. I could see them, sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of what was happening to me. I couldn't help but feel that it was the last time I was going to see them as the men dragged me from the room by my arms, the door slowly closing behind them.

I wasn't sure where they were taking me. I couldn't see where we were going. Everything passed in a blur. Maybe there was a hallway, a room with a fireplace, a garden, but I wasn't sure. And then there were stairs. Never-ending stairs.

When we reached the bottom, there was a huge door. They turned me so that I could see now. My legs were finally beginning to work, but I could barely move them enough to put my feet beneath me. The door was gigantic. It towered over me. And then it opened, and I felt like I wanted to be sick.

The room was covered in tile, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, everything. There was a bathtub filled with something dark, and there were red spatters all over the floor and the walls. And then, there was a silver exam table. They began to drag me towards it.

My foot touched something wet and my foot looked down. Oh god. I was about to be sick. Blood. I was stepping through blood. What was going on? Where the hell was I?!

They heaved me up on the table, and I felt like I wanted to cry. Nothing before had ever scared me so much. Despite my body's resistance to move, they tied me down to the table, starting with my feet and working their way up. And then the slammed my head back down, catching the back of my skull hard on the sharp metal end, which was wet and slick with blood. I wanted to scream, but my voice wasn't working yet. I could move my hands now. The only thing I could do, though, was ball them into fists. I shut my eyes tight.

When I could bear to open them again, I looked over. One of the men was holding a knife already covered with wet and dry blood. They were coming closer. Why couldn't I move?!

The knife was placed against my neck. I could feel the blade on my skin. And then, finally, I could scream, and God, did I scream...but no one would ever hear my voice as the man in the white coat sliced the blade through my neck.

I was never going to be seen again, and worst of all...

No one was ever going to know what had happened to me.

Lucky them.

Chapter 1

With a scream, she sat bolt up right in bed. She continued screaming, over and over again, her hands coming up to claw at her bare neck, to see if there was any blood, any cut, any damage, any single thing amiss. It had been too real to have been a dream. There was more to it than just a dream...right?

"Mai!"

Ayako's voice. Wait…Ayako?

"Mai, calm down..."

Calm down? Ayako was asking too much. But then, Mai's screams broke as a sharp slap whipped across her cheek. She stopped screaming, just sitting there for a moment before she burst into tears. She could feel arms wrapping around her and all she could do was clutch at the older woman's pajamas and cry.

Not even seconds after Mai had begun to cry, there was pounding on the door to the room.

"Hey, open up!" came a frazzled voice from the other side of the door before it opened. Mai recognized it immediately to be the monk's, Hosho's, though he was mostly referred to as just 'Monk.'

"Is everything all right in here?" asked the same voice as a trio of men ran into the room. The one in front, a twenty-something with shaggy, shoulder-length butterscotch hair, soft brown eyes, and a double-pierced left ear asked as soon as he'd run inside.

He looked tense as his eyes quickly scanned the room and fell upon Mai and Ayako on the bed.

"What happened, Mai?" the monk asked after a moment, his eyes showing concern for the young woman in the priestess' arms.

When Mai didn't answer immediately, Ayako looked to the monk, biting her lip. She was about to speak when Mai suddenly stopped her sobs. As always, she was forcing her own emotions back.

Ayako sighed. Stupid Mai…

"A dream…" she whispered, still clutching at Ayako's shirt. "More like a nightmare..."

Tears filled her eyes again, and Ayako was ready to begin comforting the girl if she started to cry again, concern in her dark eyes.

If at all possible, Hosho's expression grew softer as he watched the tears welling in her gaze after hearing her words. She was so young, too young to have to hold back like this when she must have been so terrified…that much was easy to tell just by her screams.

That scream had been enough to wake the dead…

But the monk was amazed by her, really. It was very easy to tell her strengths, her weaknesses, her concern and love. She was so easy to read.

"So…" he began, voice soft, "was it one of those dreams?" He knew that everyone present would know what he was talking about. Mai's dreams had helped them solve cases before…so maybe she'd just had one now. It would be a nice break.

Mai didn't look up from Ayako's shirt as she slowly nodded, fighting the quivering of her jaw in an attempt to keep her voice steady.

"Yeah, I think so…" she whispered, her voice shaking as her grip tightened slightly on Ayako's shirt. The priestess lifted a hand and placed it over Mai's, gently squeezing it to reassure her that she wasn't alone.

"Can you tell us what happened?" one of the three that run come inside, a young man named Yasu, asked.

It was then that Mai moved her hand away from Ayako's shirt and she hugged herself, her body trembling with shivers again and shaking with suppressed sobs.

"I dreamt…" she began, her voice shaking still, "that I was being killed…two men came in…" A flash from her nightmare lit up her vision before it disappeared again. "And they dragged me to a strange room…covered with tiles… Again, another vision like before. "And then…" The bloody knife filled her eyes before she saw Ayako's shirt again. "When they cut me…it felt like there was a thin trail of ice over the skin on my neck…blood – "

She stopped as she felt a hand atop her head, her eyes widening slightly as she was taken out of the memory.

"That's enough," he whispered in a soft, compassionate tone, his voice said. He hoped that his hand and his voice would help to calm her fears. "I didn't mean for you to relive it…"

He stood there for another moment or so before the door opened behind him. Two more men stepped in, one around Mai's age, and the other more around Hosho's. The younger had a jacket around his shoulders, holding it up and closed with one hand while the other hand held a teacup.

Mai lifted her head when the door opened, looking over to see who was the late arrival. They widened slightly at seeing the two men, and she sniffed a bit as he came closer.

"Naru…" she whispered, looking up at him as he came over, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. What was Naru doing here? Did he actually care?

He came closer to where she was sitting o the bed with Ayako, Hosho stepping back a bit to allow him access to the girl. After a moment of standing there, he handed her the cup of tea, his eyes looking sleepy and…sad?

She took the cup of tea from him and smelled it lightly, the strong scent of the tea calming her taught muscles. She took a long sip of it, and, though it helped her relax, she wasn't calmed completely by it. She would never admit it aloud, not wanting to burden the others with her problems, but her mind wouldn't stop replaying the nightmare.

"You okay?" she heard Naru"s soft voice ask her, and she looked up at him. She slowly nodded. She'd lie to any of them in a heartbeat if it meant they wouldn't worry about her. The last thing any of them needed to do on a case was worry about her.

"Yeah. I'll be fine," she told him and smiled. "Thank you."

Hosho watched the situation carefully from where he stood, his eyes soft. After a moment or two, though, he couldn't repress a yawn, stretching widely, his mouth open.

"Geez, Monk, you couldn't be at least a little more respectful here?"

Hosho gave Ayako a friendly glare. "Sorry. It is really early in the morning though, you know," he said after he could breathe from the yawn.

Mai's eyes slipped down to the floor, feeling terrible now after hearing that. She had wken them up.

"How can you be exhausted?" Ayako demanded.

"Hey, I didn't see you giving us a hand helping with the floor plans to this place. I'm exhausted," Hosho said through another yawn, covering his mouth this time.

"That still doesn't give you th – "

"Be quiet both of you," Naru said, his voice hushed, annoyed. "You aren't children."

Hosho and Ayako both sighed then, realizing how they had been acting. Ayako looked away while Hosho rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Sorry," they both murmured.

Hosho's brown eyes then turned back to Mai.

"Do you think you could get back to sleep? Do you want one of us to stay with you?"

Ayako glared a bit at him, cleared her throat, and gestured to the other two beds in the room. "I think Masako and I have that covered."

"I wasn't asking you," Hosho glared, turning back to Mai, waiting patiently for her answer.

"I'll be fine," she whispered quietly, putting the tea back on the side table. "I'll try to go back to sleep…"

"Ok…if you're sure," the monk replied, still eying her warily.

"Try and have a pleasant dream this time," he added, starting to follow the other guys out of the room.

"I'll try," Mai said after him, not looking up from the bed sheets. Hearing her, Hosho lingered in the doorway, however, as everyone was saying their good nights to each other out in the hall. The only one who waited was Lin, whose eyes were locked on Naru's back, who was still standing by Mai's bed.

"Are you sure you'll be alright now?" he asked, his eyes locked on hers.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, Naru…" she whispered, but she didn't look up at him. She began to slowly lie back down, curling up under her sheets as though she were trying to hide.

Naru, seeing that she was going to sleep, turned and, after grabbing the leftover tea from the side of the bed, walked out. Lin waited for him to walk out the door before he started to follow after him.

However, Naru stopped beside Hosho, who was still in the door. The monk looked down at him, his eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"If you really don't want to leave, you don't have to," Naru told him in a surprisingly soft voice. "Yasu is with John, so they will be all right." And then he and Lin were gone down the hall.

Mai opened her eyes one last time and her eyes fell on Hosho, who was still standing in the door. She locked gazes with him before she closed her eyes again and tried to go back to sleep, despite the images of her nightmare covering the backs of her eyelids, as Ayako turned off the light so they could all go back to sleep.

Hosho was staring after Lin and Naru for a moment in amazement, not having known that their young boss had a heart, before he took a step back into the room. He placed his back on the wall and slid down it, letting out a sigh as he did. Of course, he was fine with this. He just wanted to make sure Mai would be ok. She'd looked so scared, and he didn't want to leave her alone…even though she was with Ayako and Masako.

Mai just lay there, though, unable to sleep, even as the two other girls lay down and were out like lights. An hour later - she knew how long it had been, she'd been counting the minutes - she opened her eyes again to look over to where Hosho was still sitting.

"You're still here?" she whispered, not wanting to wake either of the others.

Hosho looked up at hearing her soft voice. Because it was dark in the room, he could only just see Mai's form on one of the beds, the whites of her big eyes watching her. He nodded in response.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"And you're still awake," he shot back then in a gentle tone, his voice soft. "Don't worry, Mai, no one's going to be coming through here to grab you while I'm here. You're safe." He smiled gently. "Just go ahead and go back to sleep."

"You make it sound so easy," Mai whispered, her voice shaking again, sighing as she sat up. She hugged herself, pulling her knees up to her chest. After doing so, she patted the bed, motioning for him to come and sit beside her.

Hosho got up at that and walked over, treading as softly as he could over to Mai's bed.

He sat down beside where he could see the darkened form of the young girl, in the free space she'd indicated.

"You do need to get some sleep, you know," he said, smiling a little to her in the dark. "Better now than when we really need you on the investigation, right?" He chuckled quietly, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"But…I can't sleep…" Mai whispered in a shaking voice, tears brimming in her eyes as she looked up at Hosho in the dark. "Every time I close my eyes…all I see is them…"

Hearing the trembling in her voice, Hosho's eyes went softer.

"Hey…" he murmured, reaching over to gently pull her over to his big shoulder. At the action, she moved closer to him and closed her eyes. "It's alright…"

After another few moments of silence, he added, "Nothing's going to get you with me here."

As he sat there beside her, his mind reeling with ideas of how he could calm her tears – he always hated to see her cry – , he remembered something that his mother used to do when he was a child. Turning to her, he began to run his fingers through her short brown hair, chanting a few warding spells in a soft, musical tone.

He wasn't about to let Mai even feel like she was in danger anymore.

His soft, whispering voice in her ear soothed her and calmed her fears, and, within moments, she was asleep, her hand lightly fisting around his shirt. Even in her sleep, it appeared that she didn't even want to be alone.

Hosho smiled at feeling Mai calm against him, and ended his chant in a very soft whisper. Not wanting to disturb Mai too much, he let her keep hold of his shirt as he laid her back down under the blankets.

Because of her grip, this brought him down beside her, on top of those same blankets, but at her side.

A soft smile came to his face. Ever since that date in the park they'd had to go on to solve a case and help out one of Mai's friends – and consequently Masako's – , he'd felt better beside her, despite any difference in age between them.

He was just happy to actually be able to protect some one, and live up to those expectations of him back home.

"Sleep well, Mai," he murmured, closing his eyes. He knew that as soon as he fell asleep the barrier he'd put around her would drop, but he felt secure in the fact that he'd wake up in time to protect her should something actually come after Mai again, dream or no dream.

And then, within a few minutes of lying beside Mai and listening to her quiet breaths, he was asleep, too.

xXx

The next morning, the sound that woke Mai was someone loudly clearing their throat.

She jumped and gasped lightly, looking around wildly until her eyes settled on the person.

Ayako was standing by the bed, her arms crossed over her chest with an eyebrow raised. She motioned with her head to what was beside Mai and the girl looked. There was a bright blush on her cheeks, making her head look like a ripe tomato, as she noticed Hosho sleeping beside her and she moved away quickly. However, the damage had already done.

Ayako and Masako were now covering their mouths, giggling to themselves as they turned away to finish getting dressed.

Hosho groaned at the sound of the giggling, and at the loss of warmth he'd so recently experienced. He reached his arm out and found Mai still within reach, but much farther away than before.

He opened one eye, and then the other, and tiredly rubbed at them with his other hand.

"Mn…wha…?" he grumbled as he started to sit up himself…only to really understand the reason that Masako and Ayako were giggling.

His face turned a bright pink.

"H-hey! D-don't get the wrong idea! I was trying to help her sleep! That's all!" he defended.

"Riiight, Monk," Masako giggled. She and Ayako were already dressed.

"You two better get dressed, breakfast is ready," Ayako giggled as she headed for the door. Mai was still blushing, and now she was beginning to get up and dig through her bag to find something presentable to wear for breakfast.

But again, her mood was already plummeting. The nightmare from before was racing through her mind, replaying and repeating over and over again, and she could still feel the blade slicing through her neck every time she closed her eyes.

Still looking pretty embarrassed, himself, Hosho got up off of the bed. He shook his head, feeling that Mai was still in the dumps after last night, watching her back as she dug through her bag. Her shoulders were slumped…he could tell she felt like crap, for lack of a better word.

He couldn't say he blamed her, though. That had sounded like a horrible dream…or nightmare.

"Hey, did you sleep ok?" he asked, wanting to make sure before he went to go change in the other room that he was supposed to be sharing with Yasu and John.

"Yeah," Mai whispered quietly, but she did''t look at him as she headed for the bathroom, her head down, eyes to the ground. "Thanks…Monk…"

And then she went into the bathroom and leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes. Something wasn't right. She looked up at the ceiling, fighting against the tears that wanted to flow down her cheeks.

Out in the room, she could hear silence before she heard Hosho sigh, and then she heard the soft footsteps of his feet, and then the closing of the door behind him as he left.

When she was sure she wasn't going to cry, Mai shakily began to pull on her clothes and brush her teeth. Afterward, she looked in the mirror, and in her eyes she could see the terrifying image of the men in their white coats. She looked away and began to make her way towards the dining room by herself, sighing quietly.

Behind her, Hosho was returning, fully dressed.

"Hey, Mai, wait up!" he called, moving forward to catch up with her. Every time he did, though, she seemed to speed up in front of him. "Mai! Hey!" She began to turn down the wrong hallway to go to the dining room, and that caused him confusion, and even a little concern. "That's the wrong way…where're you going?"

Mai stopped then, blinking a few times. She could hear Hosho behind her, jogging now to catch up now that she had stopped. She had only heard the last of what he'd said…when had he come up behind her? She looked up at Hosho, a confused look on her face.

"Monk…" she whispered, blinking as she looked around and then back up at him. She knew that this wasn't the way to the dining room…where had she been going?

"Yeah, it's me," Hosho said, voice soft, hands resting gently on her shoulders when he caught up to her, looking down at her.

"You're going completely the wrong way…you ok? You should know this house front to back with all the measurements we've been taking…where were you going?" he added, turning her around to walk with her back the other way.

"I don't…I don't know, Monk…" Mai whispered, looking up at him. She looked back and over her shoulder, and a flash from her dream hit her like a truck and she stopped, still looking down the hallway.

"It's that way…" she whispered quietly.

Hosho looked over his shoulder when he heard her say that.

"The room?" he asked, looking down at her then. He had a suspicious feeling that caused him to bite his lip and keep Mai close to him. "We should probably go check it out…but with reinforcements. Let's go eat, first. We can tell the others and go looking later… maybe we can find Suzuki-chan… that is the only direction I don't think anyone's looked."

Mai just silently nodded as he began to lead her back toward the dining room. She was silent the entire way there, and when they got there breakfast was already underway. She sat down in her seat, but she didn't do anything but look at her plate. She wasn't hungry at all.

"Hey, you've got to eat Mai…" Hosho said when he noticed halfway through his meal that she hadn't touched hers, blushing a bit at the snickers he gained from Akayo and Masako, who had no doubt told the others about what had happened, by now.

"I can't…I can't stop thinking about that nightmare…" Mai whispered in reply with a shake of her head, not looking up. She didn't want them all to see the fear in her eyes.

Just as she said that, Yasu, on Hosho's side of the table, picked up his head.

"What does everyone think about this theory…" he began, looking around at the entire group. "We know there's a chance that Suzuki and Atsugi have passed on, so could your dream have been an accurate representation of what they suffered at the hands of this unknown killer?"

John looked to him in disbelief. "A dream that's... telepathic?" he asked in his highly accented voice, his eyebrows up in shock.

"If that's the case, then they have both been murdered, right?" Ayako asked.

As the theory had popped up, Hosho had been looking around, lost in the thought of it all. His eyes focused then though.

"This may sound crazy, but…" he began, his gaze shifting to where two of the staff members were tidying up the dishes from the others who'd eaten earlier, placing them on a tray to cart out to be washed in the kitchens. "But is there any chance that the people working here are up to something?" He looked to Mai when made an inquisitive noise. "Just think of the situation. The employees have been working here for a full week and nothing's happened to them. We've only been here three days and two people have already disappeared."

That line of thinking got Yasu's gears turning again. "Now that you mention it…no one associated directly with the house has disappeared."

"So…only outsiders to the house are the ones being affected," Mai said, looking over at Hosho.

"Wait a minute, what about this?" John began. "Is it possible that the spirits prefer people of a certain age? All the staff is of the older group…everyone that's disappeared has been younger!"

Mai gasped, staring wide eyed at John.

"Oh man, you're right…why didn't we think of that before?" Hosho exclaimed. "That makes perfect sense…"

"It was only because Atsugi looked so wasted and tired all the time that we all probably thought he was much older," Yasu replied. "We should get back to base right away and explain this."

Mai nodded and slowly began to stand. Her plate was completely untouched, but she wasn't about to eat. She wasn't hungry, and this was just the excuse to not eat.

"Let's go, then," Mai said.

Once they got back to the room where all of SPR's equipment was set up, the group explained the going's on to Naru, and all of the theories that were making some real sense.

All the while, dressed in black as usual, Naru was leaning up against the table where his and Lin's computers were, arms folded across his chest.

"Good work. Yasu, Mai," he began, looking to Omasu and Mai as they stood close together, "make sure you're never alone while in this house."

He then turned his cool attention to Ayako. "Priestess, how much faith can I entrust in you?" he asked.

Ayako looked pretty offended, hand on her hip as she asked, "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"It's become very dangerous here and Yasu is unable to defend himself. I need people I can rely on to protect him under any circumstances."

The priestess sighed then. "Okay. I understand."

"So to what extent can I count on you?"

Ayako looked down then, as if embarrassed, and said with a sigh, "Just some warding magic."

Naru didn't seem too pleased with that. "That's not good enough. Masuzaki-chan and Hara-chan, you two cannot leave each other's sight. I know you focus mainly on being a medium, but you can at least protect yourself, right?"

Masako didn't even nod as she replied, "I can."

It was then that Naru turned to Hosho and John where they were standing by the window. "Monk, John, the two of you will protect Yasu."

"Got it," John replied with a nod.

"Right," Hosho added, pumping his fist in the air.

"But who will protect Mai?" Masako asked then. "Unless…"

"Lin," Naru stated simply, causing Lin's fingers to halt in their movement across the keyboard of his laptop, "will be protecting Mai."

"But Naru!" Lin protested immediately, standing up with such force that he nearly knocked his chair over, causing him to grab the back of it to prevent the action. "Who will be looking after you?" He stood up completely and pushed the chair back so he could stalk determinedly towards Naru. "Don't forget, you can't perform warding magic!"

Mai bit her lip. That was right…Naru wasn't a spiritualist. He was a paranormal investigator and researcher…

"What're you gonna do?" she demanded in a quiet voice, her eyes slightly wide.

"I'll manage," Naru said simply, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closed in confidence.

"You're out of your mind!" Lin hissed in annoyance. "You need to have some protection." He turned and motioned to John. "Takegawa will cover Yasu. Father Brown will be protecting Mai, all right?" he demanded, looking back at Naru.

"Monk can't handle it alone," Naru said coolly. He just had a comeback for everything any of the others could send at him. Always had, always will.

But, the wording didn't go without causing offense. Hosho took a menacing step toward Naru before Lin's glare stopped him.

"Hey man," he growled, raising a fist in the air instead. How dare this little punk insult him. Sure, half the time he turned out to be right, but still. "I'm no amateur."

Naru just seemed to ignore him however, beginning to speak before Hosho had even stopped.

"I don't think you understand the danger here." He closed his eyes, as if anticipating something, just before Lin stepped in front of what would have been Naru's line of sight.

"Then send one of them away," he said, his voice acidic when he mentioned the others, of course talking about either Yasu or Mai again. At hearing this, knowing it was directed at her, Mai looked offended, and was about to say something when Lin spoke again.

"I cannot allow you to be alone in this house!" Lin was saying, almost pleading.

Hosho's anger seemed to fade a bit then as well, and he stood more straight, watching to see what the outcome would be of this.

"If you were to come to harm on a job," Lin began, looking down at Naru, who seemed to want the lecture to be over more than anything. His eyes were still closed, as if he were ignoring Lin completely as he finished with, "Then how would you expect me to explain that to the professor?"

That got Naru's attention. He looked straight up and into Lin's eyes.

"Think of how your father would feel if that happened!" Lin continued.

"Lin," Naru's voice was like an icy razor when he spoke next. "If you don't like the way I conduct my investigations, then leave." His wording was finite. The discussion ended there, and would go no farther, period.

But Lin wouldn't have it.

"How quickly you seem to forget," he glowered, glaring down his nose at Naru. "My main objective here is to protect you at all costs."

Everyone stared at Lin in shock, Mai's jaw even going slack, her eyes wide as she looked, agape, at Lin. What the hell was he talking about?

Was he a bodyguard or something?

"I'll volunteer," Yasu said then, raising his hand.

"Right," Naru said. "Problem solved."

He then looked over at Lin. "You should probably call a cab."

Lin nodded, turning to do just that.

xXx

That night, they all stood in their central control room.

"This house is built up higher in its center. The floors first level slopes upwards towards the center, leaving it about two meters higher than the perimeter of the structure. Judging from the placement of the windows, it looks like the owner added rooms and increased the overall size outward from its center. That's about everything we know up to this point," Lin said as he looked to his computer screen, the rest of the team reading from the papers that Lin had given them moments before.

Naru flipped his page, looking over the data that was written on it.

"What we don't know," he began, "is what's inside this empty section."

"If it's a hidden room it's gigantic," Hosho said, gazing at the print outs Lin had given them of the maps they'd all helped to make.

"But," John started, looking over at Hosho and sharing a glance with him, "we've searched all over and there doesn't seem to be a way inside."

That got a nod from the priest. That was right…this place was build like a maze going out…but the real puzzle was inside, and getting in there was just one of the tricks to the case.

How were they going to find out about what was going on?

Naru straightened then.

"What if the way inside doesn't actually exist?" Him saying something so cryptic – even for Naru – got a confused 'huh?' out of the assembled group. "Well, what if this area wasn't originally intended to be hidden but was sealed later?"

"But why would they do that?" Mai asked, confused. "What's the point of it?"

"The room must have had a purpose at some point in time," Ayako said, looking down at her paper. "I don't see why they'd want to keep building around the room if they didn't want to hide it."

"But what would be the point of hiding it?" Mai pressed. This really seemed to be bothering her, especially since the mystery of the hidden room seemed to remind her so much of her nightmare. "What was so bad about the room that they had to hide it?"

"This house is definitely hiding something…but it's pretty clear that whatever's causing the disappearances has to be linked to that room," Hosho said. "It would be big enough to hide bodies in if something could get in there."

"But that's just it…there's no entrances," John repeated.

"Not that we know of. We've all seen it; this place is like a maze. We've already found one hidden space, why wouldn't there be more?" Hosho went on.

"Maybe the way in is just hidden somewhere else that we haven't gotten to yet…what if it's deeper in that hidden space?"

"…" John couldn't come up with any sort of rebuttal that time.

"Ugh…you really don't expect me to go crawling through all that dust, do you?" Ayako asked, sounding exasperated.

"It sure would help," Mai said, but then she sighed at the glare Ayako sent her.

"Fine, you want me crawling around in there, I'll do it."

"Mai, no," Lin immediately protested.

"What? No one else is going to do it," Mai protested, her hands on her hips. "No one else is willing to try it."

"You're not going by yourself!" John protested then.

"Then who wants to come with me?" Mai demanded. "You?" she looked to John. "You?" she looked Ayako. They both shook their heads. "See? I'll just go by myself." And then she stalked off to the door, Hosho making a sound of protest as he turned to go after her.

"Hey, Mai, you didn't even give anyone a chance to volun – " Hosho began, only to have the door slam in his face.

"Oh…" he whimpered, hanging his head.

From where he stood, Naru sighed, shaking his head.

"It's just a door, idiot," he grumbled, and walked through it, following Mai before anyone, including Lin, could protest.

As she heard the door shut again, Mai looked back to see Naru following her. She blinked, looking confused as she stopped to wait for him.

"Naru?" she asked. "Why're you coming?"

"Well, I didn't want to be lumped in with those cowards back there," Naru said as he caught up with Mai.

"Besides, Lin pisses me off when he's like this, and what sort of boss would I be if I made you go off on your own and just sat around? No, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty."

Mai smiled, blushing a bit.

"That's awful nice of you, Naru," she told him as they walked down the hall. She turned a corner, though, and she was grabbed. She screamed, but then her mouth was covered and the sound was cut off.

She could just barely see Naru get grabbed, too, but she couldn't scream again. The last thing she saw before they were dragged down a dark hallway was a flash of white coats.

Oh god…not again…

xXx

Back at base, Ayako lifted her head.

"Was that a scream?"

Wow, okay, this chapter was waaaay longer than I thought it was going to be...but I'm not going to worry about it now! :D It'll make you all happy!

So, okay, all the scenes from the episode are now gone. Everything branches off from here. Please review! I'll update in a few days, but the more reviews I get, the more likely I'll update sooner!

Thanks for reading! There's much more to come!