Shintaro was on his back, looking up at a pure white ceiling. He wasn't sure what he was lying on, whether it was a bed or the floor; but he couldn't move to find out. There was a light illuminating the room, a dim yellow glow coming from beside him. His chest felt like it had been frozen over, his lungs trapped in immovable ice. The side of his face felt raw, but the stinging was distant and strange. 

A shout brought him back to his senses, allowing him to sit up abruptly and behold the scene before him. 

Lilac, his mother, was holding Cami by the hand, standing protectively in front of him. Cami's cheek was turning red and his eyes shiny with tears, but he was frowning defiantly around his mother. Brethren was standing in front of them, glowering down at his wife with his blood red eyes. 

Ah, Shintaro thought through the panic in his mind. This is a memory. His young body stood up and rushed toward Brethren angrily, but his father was expecting it. His hand shot out and clapped Shintaro across the face again, flinging him sideways into the wall beside him.

"Enough, Brethren!" Lilac said roughly, though her voice was shaking with terror. She knew not to mess with Brethren when he was angry, yet she did so to protect her children. "Leave them alone. You've done enough." 

Brethren scoffed in amusement, shooting a glare at Cami, who finally wiped the frown off his face and shrank behind Lilac. "Have I, though?" Brethren countered gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Cami is more submissive than his brother, but Shintaro has learned nothing of obedience." 

Shintaro's mouth moved, and in his mind, he realized that this was the time he had showed his father his real first act of defiance. 

"That's because you can't do anything right," Shintaro's mouth spat angrily as he pushed himself off the wall and refused to show weakness by touching his cheek. "I don't want to pollute my future decisions by learning from you. You're a terrible example to follow, so why would I follow it?"  

Brethren's red eyes locked on him, wild with anger and malice. His jaw moved as he grit his teeth, refraining from doing something that Shintaro didn't really want to find out. For a few moments, Brethren and Shintaro simply stared at each other. 

The whole time, his mother said nothing. Shintaro had expected her to be at least a little startled and scold him for saying such a thing, but she did nothing. Cami made a little whimpering sound behind Lilac, one that was full of worry for his older brother.

"If you dare say such a thing again, boy," Brethren finally hissed through his teeth, "you will regret ever learning how to speak." His voice was dangerously low as he stared angrily down at his son. 

"Out," Brethren seethed suddenly, looking away from Shintaro to Lilac. "All of you, out, right now." He pointed his finger toward the door, and Lilac obediently moved forward toward the door with Cami in tow. 

She didn't look at Brethren as she walked by, only took Shintaro by the hand carefully and led him out of the parents' room. 

The slam of the door jolted Shintaro awake, and he opened his eyes to find himself lying on his side on the floor of the guest room with Gabriel sleeping in front of him. 

Slowly, Shintaro sat up, the image of his father's angry face printed behind his eyes whenever he closed them. He never wanted to see the same disappointed, outraged face directed at him; but he didn't know how he was going to avoid that if he was going to battle Brethren. 

Forcing his mind away from the memory, Shintaro took a wary glance around him. He'd forgotten that he'd fallen asleep in the guest room instead of on the couch - then he remembered that Ruby was sleeping out on the couch. Linda and Abby were sleeping on the bed, while Falte and Gabriel had fallen asleep on the floor. Moon wasn't in the room, which meant she'd either gone to sleep beside her sister, or Rachel and Amy had let her sleep in their room with them.

Shintaro doubted the last option, which meant she was probably asleep on the floor in the living room. 

Something thudded out in the living room, making Shintaro jump in fright. He immediately got to his feet and hurried toward the door, opening it carefully so he wouldn't wake anyone else up. As he hurried down the hallway, he spotted the empty living room floor.

Cursing himself for being so foolish as to leave Moon alone at night, he rushed through the living room and was about to head for the front door; but movement in the kitchen stopped him. He whipped toward the kitchen doorway and skidded into the tile kitchen, half expecting Moon to be there, trashing the whole place.

Moon was there, but she wasn't trashing the kitchen. Instead, she was frozen in the middle of walking toward the kitchen doorway, a plain piece of bread sticking out her mouth and an apple in her right hand. She was staring directly at Shintaro, her eyes wide in innocence and confusion. 

Shintaro relaxed, eyeing the woman in front of him with raised eyebrows. 

She stared right back, her eyes searching him but remaining innocent. She reached up with her free hand and took the bread out her mouth, chewing and swallowing a bite. When she was finished, she raised her hands, palms up. "What?" she asked a little too innocently. "I was hungry." 

Shintaro rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You could have at least woken one of us up, or tried to be a little quieter." He noticed a bag of bread on the counter and walked over to close it. 

"Sorry," Moon said with mock-sincerity. "Come on, Shintaro, it's not that early in the morning. I think you can deal with waking up this early."

"I don't care," Shintaro countered, "but some others may." He twisted the bag of bread, opened the cupboard he figured it went in, and shoved it inside, carefully closing the door behind it. 

Moon took another bite of her bread, watching Shintaro curiously as he walked toward the fridge to get something to eat for himself. He had forgotten to eat his spaghetti from last night; therefore, he was extremely hungry. 

"You're not going to go back to bed?" Moon asked from behind him, her words muffled around her bite of bread. 

"No," Shintaro said with a short sigh, opening the fridge and pulling out a bunch of grapes. He almost opened his mouth to give her a reason why he wasn't, but he stopped himself. Why would he have to give Moon reasons on why he was choosing to stay awake at six in the morning? 

"Why not?" Moon pressed anyway, and a moment later, the cracking snap of an apple filled his ears. She was too casually eating her food and asking Shintaro strange questions, which unsettled him a little bit.

"Because I'm not," Shintaro said shortly, closing the fridge and turning around. As he popped a grape into his mouth, Moon shrugged and sauntered back into the living room with her food. Shintaro, not knowing what else to do, followed her out. 

Moon dropped into a crisscross position beside the couch, sticking the bread back into her mouth and chewing it without holding it. She looked strange doing this, and Shintaro couldn't help but shake his head at her as he popped another grape into his mouth.

"So," Moon said around the bread, lifting her head to look at Shintaro, who was leaning against the wall in front of her. "What's the plan?" She gazed expectantly up at him.

"For what?" Shintaro asked, unsure of which part she was referring to - the rescue of Kai, or the defeat of his father.

"Well, first of all," Moon said after taking a bite of her apple, "for getting the kid back. Second, for defeating your dad. I mean, you're not just going to let him roam about doing his funny business, are you?" 

"No," Shintaro agreed instead of answering her. "He's done enough of that already." 

"So you're not going to answer me?" Moon pressed. "I don't get to know?" 

"No," Shintaro agreed again, nodding his head once and eating another grape.

He decided not to tell her that he wasn't really sure yet.

~

ELEVENTH CHAPTER!

Sorry this one took longer than the others. I didn't really know what to put in this one, so I just decided to put in a memory and Moon just being...

Moon. XD

I hope you enjoyed!!

P3ac3!!!~~