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"I do Aphi, I do. I was different before too," Isi said, trying to say anything that would make the poor man feel better. He shook his head. He couldn't imagine his brother being harsh, let alone hitting another person. Well, Julian might have deserved it, who knows. Isi had only met him once and he wasn't the most likable person. "I've been pretty violent before too, I've actually calmed down a lot since you saved me from Old Maasi...But Aphi, you're still you, got it? Just snap out of it!"

Eiry looked up at his brother from where he was sitting curled up against the corner of the wall. Aphi's sudden change in personalty had frightened him and his confusion frightened him even more. He liked having a definition of things and knowing what they were. He didn't like this sudden change in Aphi, his uncle.

"Aphi will never be okay again!" the minty frei lamented sadly, hugging his ribbon close to him. His wings were nearly healed now.

"That would be the best thing," Isi said finally. He sadly watched him drift over to the couch and disappear over the ridge line.

Sighing and secretly thankful for Aphi's sudden decision to go to sleep, Isi turned away from the table and slipped his crutches back into his hands. Well, he better get started with dinner. Not only that, but clean up that trout...jello...thing that Aphi had been trying to make.

Eiry placed his mouth against Riv's shoulder and muttered little complaints into his clothing. He looked up at Riv and said softly, "You promise you won't change? Heart-promise?"

Eiry forced a smile onto his cheeks that were just earlier sagging with a mopey frown. Adjusting himself and letting his ribbon twirl back down to the ground, Eiry said nervously, "Um...Rivener? I feel something here in the house. Very suddenly, yes. There's something...I need to tell you. Don't get mad, kay?"

Isi turned around from where he had been putting certain things into the sink to wash and from where he was getting out a box of pancake mix. He was thinking...Breakfast dinner wouldn't be too bad right? But now he was thinking different. Dropping the box, Isi turned to find Aphi in the doorway. Frowning, Isi hobbled forward and said in a huff, "Aphi, you need rest. Go lay back down."

Confused by Aphi's sudden behavior, Isi only had seconds to connect within his mind who it was that was actually walking forward him now. This craziness was familiar...That sinister laugh...That crooked smile and frenzied gleam!

"Edgar," Isikoro choked in fright, frozen stiff in place. He didn't know what to do! His first instinct was to hurt the dangerous spirit, but...It wasn't some astral ectoplasm form that he could do battle with, it was his brother! It was his Aphi! Aphismet! It might be Edgar inside, but it was Aphi everything else. For a moment, he thought to smack Aphismet upside the head with the quick and brutal swing of his right crutch, but...His conscience stopped him.

Isi couldn't bring himself to hurt Aphi.

"Brother," Isi choked, finding his voice difficult to find, "Don't do this." Slowly, Isi tried to get his frozen body to move and make for the only exit in the kitchen. If his legs were strong, he could've jumped over the bar...But unfortunately, he couldn't. The only way out for him was the doorway that led to the hallways and that was on the other side of the room.

The reason why Isi found it so difficult to move a couple inches was not because Edgar was there, but because he was seeing his brother, the person who had saved him, turn into the person Aphi had saved him from. This was all to similar to Old Maasi's insanity and that spelled out only fear in Isi's mind.

He couldn't move.

"He's here." Eiry knitted his brows close and leaned in towards his brother's pointed ear to whisper, "It's...Edgar."

"The kitchen!" Eiry squeaked, surprised by the sudden ferocity in his brother's voice. As much as he wanted to float beside his brother and not get dragged around, Eiry found that he wasn't strong enough to even change his route as he was dragged along by his strong brother. "Kitchen!"

The boy tried to back away from the man, but he found that he had no where to go. His back arced back against the counter top and he flailed weakly, trying to pry Aphismet's fingers from his neck. The boy's crutches swung softly from the nook of his arms as he struggled. Isi tried to shake his head and he gasped for air, "Aphi, please...Don't!"

Isi felt as if he were sucking in air through one of those coffee straws. Every time he took a breath it got harder and harder to breathe. His grip on Aphi's arms was beginning to loosen when suddenly he heard Rivener's voice. Trying to twist his head to the side in Aphi's iron-like grip, Isi wheezed and choked out a couple raspy words from his closed throat, "Riv...Paralyze...H-hurry...!" Kicking his legs slightly, Isi tried to struggle more, partly because his strength was renewed and partly to distract Edgar from the two frei. Although his will was strengthened, his strength was dwindling... And it was dwindling fast.

Now his eyes began slipping into tunnel vision and the tips of his lips began tingling with the lack of oxygen.

Isi groaned, "Hurr..."

As soon as they skidded into view of the kitchen, Eiry felt like he had run headlong into a brick wall. All other noise was suddenly blocked out and all Eiry could hear was the struggling breathing of his guardian. He knew where Edgar was. He didn't get distracted by Edgar's current host.

Without warning, something snapped in Eiry and he felt a terrible anger well up in his chest, mixed with the tangy sensation of fear. They had to stop Edgar! But how could they when they didn't want to harm Aphi? They couldn't waste any time debating this because Isi was in danger! His guardian...His Isi, was in danger, and Aphi is doing something that he'd regret for the rest of his life! If only they could get Edgar out of Aphi's body...Then...

That's it.

"ISI!" Eiry shouted. Whipping his head towards Rivener, Eiry bared his teeth in an un-natural defensive and growled, "Use the ghost poison! But on Edgar! Not Aphi! Follow me!" Eiry nodded his head and rushed at Aphismet, charging through every object that got in his way of his bee-line towards the two interlocked humans. As he got closer, Eiry opened his arms in what appeared to be a longing embrace and threw himself through Aphismet's body.

As he dived through Aphi's body, he felt himself connect with something hard and ethereal.

The feeling of smacking right through and into another body had Eiry discombobulated for a brief couple of seconds, but that didn't stop him from wrapping his arms around Edgar's in a bear hug. He gave a loud shriek as the ghost's fingers raked into his back, but he swung the man around just in time for Riv to stab him with his stingers. Then, doing as his brother told him, Eiry threw him down to the floor where the ghost curled in tight upon himself and he ducked behind Riverer's protective form.

"Is it done, brother? Is it done?" he whispered.

Isi didn't see what happened as Eiry tackled the evil spirit from Aphi's body. All he heard as movement, a hideous cry, some talk, and a whisper. Slowly his sight flooded back to him and he was unceremoniously dragged off the counter top to the ground by Aphismet's falling body. Blinking and coughing violently, Isi tried to regain his dizzy bearings. He was breathing heavily and loudly as if he had been stuck underwater forever and he felt sick and lightheaded. All the oxygen rushed back into his limbs and he felt a sick feeling clutch and rip at his stomach and lungs. Looking down to where his legs were stuck underneath Aphi, Isi slowly registered the terrible change in his adopted brother.

His hair was bone white...

Isi didn't notice that there was now a considerable new amount of gray and shimmering white in his own hair after everything that had happened, but he didn't care. He didn't even notice the blackening swelling fingerprints around his neck. He didn't pay attention to anything, but to the unconscious man lying in his lap.

"Aphi?" he whispered, still choking on his own breath and coughing, "Aphismet..." Isi leaned over the man and pulled him up weakly into a soft embrace. Leaning over the man's chest, Isi held him tight. Then he began to feel something he hadn't felt in a long time.

What was this? What was this feeling?

Shaking terribly, as if an earthquake shuddered within his own body, Isi held Aphi's limp body tight and protectively to his own weak embrace. This...This was fear. This was the thing he felt when he discovered the black charred bodies of his parents in the fire. This was the feeling that shook his entire body as he was pulled from the wreckage and thrown into the orphanage. Alone. Weak. Unable. Absolutely terrified. Warm hot salty tears welled up in Isi's storm eyes for the first time in years and he let himself weep. The storm in his eyes quelled and simply flooded, breaking free of the glassy white orbs that were Isi's eyes. Rocking himself and Aphi's limp form back and forth, Isi let himself become free. He couldn't contain it anymore. Pretending to be an adult, pretending to handle the situation with ease, pretending to be able to take care of himself and others, he couldn't do it anymore. Burying his face into Aphi's shoulder, the boy became a boy again for the first time in years and he wept, holding the back of Aphi's head close to his own.

And so the boy who became a boy again grieved.