Canon: Luceti-verse, Event
Characters: Arsene Lupin III & Syre Atries
Rating: A sad G.

This isn't the way things are normally.  We... We aren't like this.

The short note confused Syre, and a faint frown tugged at her lips.

"We're... not?"  There was a worry in her voice, a twinge of hurt.  "I... I don't understand.  We're so happy together."

She looked down at her lap, wringing her hands together anxiously.  There was the sound of pen on notecard again, and the thief passed it to her once more.

I'm sorry... but we've never been like this.  This is a Shift, and a cruel one, at that.

A pang of sadness lanced through Syre, and she looked away from Lupin.  It couldn't be true....

A hazy, unfocused memory rose unbidden to the surface of the Ecliptian's mind:

A farm over-run.  A mob, unruly and chaotic.  Lupin's voice, calling out.

"I've told you once and I'll tell you again -- stand down!"

Syre's hands went to the sides of her head, her expression slightly pained.

Through the white haze of her thoughts, she heard her own voice.

"Stand grown and leave, lest I stain the ground with your blood."

"Do you think I'm bluffing?  Believe me, I'm not joking."

"I'll slay the lot of you in an instant, if need be."

She clenched her eyes shut, fighting off a headache.

"Syre.  That's good and all, but this is neither the time nor the place -- and it's not my call..."

Only the feeling of being pulled forward pulled her out of her trance.  She was suddenly aware of the wetness that streaked her cheeks, aware of Lupin's arms around her.

She knew, then, that he was right; knew that the happiness she had felt, the love for Lupin that filled her heart, was just another experiment to sate the Malnosso's curiosity.

Almost immediately, she wished she hadn't remembered anything at all.