Title: Munchausen Syndrome
Author: Umi-chii
Credits: A part of project Rebirth Moon’s Syndrome Trilogy © Umi-chii
Disclaimer: Hitohira no Hanabira and its lyrics belong to Stereo Pony.
Author’s Note: With Stockholm now finished, Munchausen is ready to go through the mill. Now this is to hoping that I won’t get carried away. To the new comers, please: read Stockholm Syndrome first before this, because this one picks off directly after Stockholm.

Editor's Note: Minor alterations so it'll fit SS's last-minute edits.

Summary: With Selene kidnapped and the truth behind Binder’s attack surfacing, Jeanne must bear full responsibility over the second war. Yet all hopes seem lost now that everyone he trusts leaves his side, and the people he thought he could trust are actually the people who want him dead.

Chapter One: A Single Petal

“I don't want to believe our romance was a mistake.”

Selene is gone.

Those three words ring loudly in his head, never ending. Those three words haunt him for the past two days, and Jeanne doubts he could stand it anymore.

Jeanne Vergessen, with his hair now unkempt and already past the nape of his neck, sits on the very head of the long table patiently. His hands clasp together on top of the large conference table of Niebel High’s reception room. With the school under repair and closed from public, Jeanne decided to let Lucian make the entire campus his territory, his base now that he had made the war official when Selene was kidnapped. With some help from Syfer and Shaina, they had turned the gym into a training ground as well. He needs the space to train; he needs the strength to rescue Selene more than anything else.

So far, the only people inside the conference room are Meia Fernandez and Adrian Herald, heads of CEDeR, a solitary investigation team prioritized on the Niebelheim case, and fellow Niebelheim fighter, Shaina Lee. Jeremy Reiner and Mikhail Anderson, the latter now Kritiker’s formal leader, has taken the seats at the end of the conference table, looking away from each other as Armand Botticelli waits for the Shinsengumi Specialists outside.

The meeting will officially start in 30 minutes. Now, he only has 30 minutes to compose himself and break the news to them. He’s the only remaining able fighter in London other than Shaina. Aki Kudoku is still in a coma and might not be waking up for a long time. Former Council president Chris Balteisse had left for Italy under special Romanov orders. In the meantime, Zide Arcanum, Chris’ best friend, is in Germany fixing contact with the Rosenkreuz. Jeanne doesn’t know why they decided to order Zide to handle the deal with the Rosenkreuz’s remaining function. Zion Rosenkreuz had gone missing shortly after announcing his daughter has been kidnapped by his mortal enemy, and his son, Helios Rosenkreuz, had already been missing since a week before. No one knows how to find them, and no one seems to want to find them.

“Jeanne,” Jeanne looks up from the dark spot of black on the table. Meia is watching him with a worried look, her wide and worried blue eyes dull. Her hair’s dyed blondness is fading, and he could spot white strands already. “Everything is alright, right?”

The brown-haired boy looks elsewhere. He couldn’t dare answer that. Cynicism has taught him not to make promises he can’t keep.

The door opened; Armand, his blond hair now shorter, cut clean and short around his nape, led the Shinsengumi Specialists into the room. Krista Eldens, Jennifer Anaheim and Maria Delacroix swept in and took their respective seats next to each other.

“Sorry if we took so long.” Maria apologizes, hands pushing her shoulder-length dark hair back, tying it into a short tail. Everyone seems to be getting their hair cut lately, except him. Over the past few days, out of the three girls, Maria is the only one who has mellowed down, going from ice princess to mother hen. She has nearly taken Hilda Kremilhade’s position as the granny goose.

Shaking his head, Jeanne pushes the significance of that thought aside. He stands up from his seat as everyone settles down, gazing at him expectantly. There are only three things he has to share with everyone. One is that Selene is missing. He’s not going to share with them that she’s kidnapped. As long as the Shinsengumi girls are around, he can’t share the details related to Niebelheim affairs. Second is that the since the school has been closed down, the Romanov has negotiated with other schools to open some seats for NH students. Whether they like it or not, the girls have to move there. They have to leave NH behind, and they have to make the other civilian students move, too. In a matter of weeks, Niebel High will be permanently locked up from public. It still does, after all, belong to private property. Syfer has made of that. The last point is that once the school is closed down… some people have to learn to let go. They’ll be moving in breakneck speed now, and he’s going to take leadership in this. He doesn’t know if there’s anyone in the room who’s going to oppose to him taking leadership, since he thinks everyone sees him as the heart of the Niebelheim, the leader, but who knows. He sorts of has the feeling Shaina is still pining for Chris’ leadership, even if the guy is countries away from them serving life debts.

With one last great sigh, Jeanne begins the meeting.

[xxx]

The hallway of the Simoni manor is only lit with amber chandeliers, casting shadows over large, full body tapestries and blue carpets. Hilda Kremilhade braves through the hallway as usual despite the cold chill. At the end of the hallway, on the right side, is a single door standing next to a small painting of Timoteo Simoni.

She pushes the mahogany door open. A lean, female figure, not old enough to be a lady’s, but not young anymore to be a little girl’s, stands inside the lightly furnished room, facing a large glass window. Hilda steps in after a soft knock before closing the door softly. She invites herself into the office, standing perfectly still before the Simoni’s boss, waiting for the boss’ reaction on the latest report in the airwaves.

The Simoni—or what’s left of it, Hilda thought darkly to herself—had received a report of the events happening in London, especially the matter about the reawakening of the Niebelheim’s heart. The report was written by Helios Romanov, who failed to meet them on their assignated date, and knowing whythe blond hitman had suddenly disappeared, Hilda doubted its content.

But then, her boss herself had given the Keeper’s position to the blonde, no matter how doubtful he is.

“Boss,” She said cautiously, not wanting to cross the line. There’s a very thin line between the Simoni’s young, teenaged boss and the rest of the people ever since the end of the first war that had stolen the Simoni’s grandeur. “Zide Arcanum is currently negotiating with the Rosenkreuz…”

“Leave them.”

Startled, Hilda looked up at her boss’s shadow. “P-Pardon…?”

But the Simoni’s young princess didn’t repeat herself. She remained stiff in her stand, looking outside at her castle’s decaying garden, hands clasped behind her back as her long platinum gold hair tickled the ball of her palm. Despite the childlike innocence in her young, porcelain white face, everything in her gray eyes deceives her features. Behind those gray eyes were knowledge and experiences that no normal children her age goes through. And through that unnerving maturity in her is how she shields her expressions, how she keeps others from knowing what she’s thinking of.

That’s the problem everyone in the family has with the boss. She’s hardly responsive, and when she does response, it’s always either in the form of a riddle or a language beyond their comprehension. Nevertheless, her answers always infuriate Hilda very much. After all, she’s always the one being blamed when interpretation went wrong. Two-word answers are never anything trustworthy to go by.

Just as Hilda is about to turn around to leave the room, the door suddenly opened and on Sarah Irise enters the Simoni princess’ office without an invitation, looking very much out of breath.

“Boss, we have a problem,” The older woman said, auburn strands loosening from the tight bun keeping them together. “Zion Rosenkreuz is attempting contact with the family. He’s threatening to fire us in the next ten minutes. What do we do?”

“Ignore it.” The boss immediately answered.

Two words. All it takes are two words to cut off everything they have in connection with the outside world. Hilda watches in grim understanding of how cold-hearted their boss is to keep the family intact, even if it’s through draconian measures.

“But what if he really attacks?”

“Do you honestly think Zion Rosenkreuz has the manpower to do it?” Hilda asks, replying in her mistress’ stead.

“But boss…”

“The palace has enough firepower to kill one man with a god damn grudge the size of America. Now get the hell out of here and take care of what your job description says.”

Sarah leaves the room as fast as she has rushed in. There are times when even someone like Sarah Irise’s caliber wouldn’t bother to argue anymore against someone younger and newer in the family. With the way the Simoni is being handled now, duration of stay or loyalty determines your rank. It’s the power and the knowledge and how huge yours guts is to sacrifice a limb for the better good of the family.

Left behind, Hilda keeps her stand straight, waiting for any further orders from the princess. When none came, Hilda releases an internal sigh and turns for the door.

Again, she is interrupted from leaving; only this time, from her boss.

“Get Hart. He’s late.”

“Understood.” Hilda whispers automatically. When she’s finally outside, she goes back to where she comes from and enters a new set of doors, this time painted white. And sitting leisurely inside it is Binder Hart, his left arm and right eye bandaged, still recovering from a second degree burn.

“The boss wants to see you.” Hilda relays the message tonelessly. She never likes the doctor. He’s always contemplative and morbid, and the fact that he’s a homicidal doctor doesn’t comfort.

When Binder made no notion of leaving his couch, Hilda unconsciously grinds her teeth in frustration, not even knowing why she has to deal with this. It’s never in her job list to deal with infuriating people. She’s the right-hand of the boss here who works part-time as a spy if the boss asks her to do so. Dealing with madmen is not part of it. She had been forced to pretend as a high school student for three years just to keep an eye on Chris Balteisse, even pretended to be his girlfriend, and now, she has become a messenger girl between a cryptic, speech impaired boss and a homicidal doctor.

“Hart, the boss…”

“I heard you the first time,” The doctor drawled, setting down the glass of wine on his hand. “So young and already a bitch. How bad the future will be, I wonder.”

Despite the straight lash, Hilda forces her temper to remain calm. It would be a shame to fall prey to this man’s provocative words.

Lazily, Binder stands up from the couch and drags himself out of the room, sparing her a smirk. Sixteen years ago, it would be a respectable man calling him to his office. But now, it’s a speech impaired brat with whiny girls under her command.

Then again, it’s better than that damn Jeanne Vergessen to take the Simoni’s non-existing throne.

[xxx]

Jeanne takes a deep breath and reclaims his seat. All he has to wait for now is the information to sink in and everyone’s wits returning. He has never thought talking for an hour straight is this stressful and tiring. It has taken nearly his entire energy just to keep himself from collapsing.

But he has done it; he clapped himself on the back. He has finally told them the truth. He has finally lifted that burden, although just a little bit of it, off his back.

Jennifer is the first one to react after those sixty minutes of silence and attention. She has her hair tied up in a high ponytail, though this time she just used an ordinary hair tie instead of her usually favorite orange satin ribbon. Internally, Jeanne breathes a sigh of relief at the absence of the horrible color on chocolate brown hair.

“If you wanted us out of the picture, you could have just said so,” She says as she stands up form her seat. “You don’t have to lie or to withhold information. We would understand your reason anyway.”

As expected of her. She saw through the excuse like an expert.

“Please understand we’re not doing this because we want to. I… we all apologize for that. We just don’t want to involve you guys—girls into this.” Meia calmly answers her. Beside her, Adrian buries his head underneath the arch his hands made, a migraine attacking him; this is just too much. Jeanne knows without asking that Adrian is finally feeling the heaviness of their situation.

Silenced, Jennifer slowly takes her seat again and keeps quiet. This isn’t a situation they all want; she figures she shouldn’t argue anymore, to lessen the amount of piling stress that she could see has already been plaguing Jeanne since Selene’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, Jeremy leans against his chair and stares at Jeanne, who’s avoiding everyone’s eyes by looking down at the conference table. What else does the boy know?

“Jeanne…” But Armand quickly cuts him off with a hand on top of his, a warning look in his green eyes. Now is not the time, those eyes tell him, and like Jennifer, Jeremy decides to follow that wish. There is no one to point the blame at; especially not Jeanne.

Never Jeanne.

The silence reigns strong inside the reception room, until finally, it’s broken by a shrill ringing of a phone that belongs to Jeanne. Startled—he didn’t even know it still exists—he grabs his phone and hits the Answer button.

Chris answers him on the other line, a country away from him.

“We found a lead, but it’s small. We’re still not sure about it, but hopefully, it’s a start.”

“Alright.” Jeanne answers softly. He’s too tired to even think of any complete sentence.

“Anyway, just want to tell you that there’s a chance Selene might be somewhere near. Like, seriously near. We just don’t know yet if it’ll be near you or near us.”

The line cuts off shortly after Jeanne’s reply. Sighing, he tosses the phone onto the table and collapses onto the weight of his chair, rubbing his temple along the way. He wouldn’t be surprised if he loses ten pounds after this. His entire complexion has already gone pale, his lips lacking its usual full pinkness. The shadows under his eyes are getting darker, and everyone keeps on commenting on how unhealthy he’s becoming. He’s like a walking undead already.

When he looks up from his tired gaze at the table, everyone is watching him expectantly. Reluctantly, he keeps his still-tired sigh and relays Chris’ call.

It is a little startling, but the Romanov has decided to let Chris go without much of retribution. Later, Jeanne realizes it’s actually because both of his parents are working closely with Lucian that has allowed him to be released without a catch. He suspected that if it’s only his father working for Lucian, Chris wouldn’t give a damn. A day later, when Chris told him he’d be going to Italy because his mom says so, Jeanne knew better than most that Chris is a mama’s boy, and he’s a real sucker at it.

“Besides, there’s not much to do now that you guys destroyed the Ægis.” Chris has jokingly told him before he left with Zide, who’s set to Germany. Recalling those words right now sent a huge boulder down Jeanne’s guts. He prefers the Ægis over unknown enemies. At least with Ægis, he knows what to expect.

Then again, he’d prefer it even more if there’s no one around to ruin their peace.

“That’s it,” Startled albeit still tired, Jeanne glances at Krista who stands up from her seat, a little red on the cheeks. “I have enough of this.”

“Krista…”

“We’re not invited anyway, and we’re clearly just standing in their way. Come on, let’s go.”

And without another word, Krista leaves the room with a loud slam of the door. Jennifer rushes after her vice captain immediately as Maria follows, giving everyone an apologetic bow before leaving the room as well.

Meia turns her eyes to Jeanne, silently asking him if there’s nothing he should be doing. The boy only shakes his head; he’s done what he’s supposed to do. The lesser people the better, he thought. At least that way, the sacrifices would be fewer.

“What did Chris say?” Jeremy asks without much care towards Jeanne’s delicate feelings.

Jeanne stares at Jeremy squarely then at his phone. It is still small, the lead. Chris didn’t even elaborate on what that lead is. He doesn’t even know what lead Chris was talking about. How could he answer the question now that he doesn’t even know its answer?

“He said he found a lead, but it’s still small, so he didn’t say anything else.”

“Just that?”

“Just that.” Jeanne whispered, words coming out in barely audible gasps.

Meia’s heart cracks at the sight of this usually bright boy deteriorating slowly. She doesn’t even know anymore if it’s Selene’s absence or the great burden that this situation is putting on him.

Jeremy groans at the answer, making it clear it isn’t what he wants to hear. It’s frustrating that he’s stuck here in London, sitting around and doing nothing when he’s more fitted to go out and solve the mystery. Two years ago, he’s the one who went all the way to Vatican City and beat its heavy security system just to save Selene from being brainwashed by Ægis. Now, he could barely do a thing to save someone.

“Anyway, we still have to know where Helios disappeared to.”

Everyone turns and stares aghast at Mikhail, who remains his passive yet cold face. Jeanne’s eyes immediately narrow at him. Armand groans at the way things are going; of all topics to open, why must it be Helios’? Everyone knows how sore Jeanne is with Helios. The guy had practically come and go as he pleases. Every good trait the blonde has that’s worth a cent disappeared the moment not a shadow was left of him. Jeanne can understands if he’s worried, but damn it, there’s something called teamwork.

But maybe it’s because Helios doesn’t see them as a team. He doesn’t see himself as part of the team, and doesn’t see himself as becoming one of them. He’s going to do things his way, and not even Jeanne can change that plan, even if this is, after all, supposedly his fight.

Despite the rather obvious flinch, Jeanne wills his body to keep calm and clears all dark thoughts away from his mind—well, as much as he could, considering that nothing but morbidity is inside his mind.

“There’s nothing about Helios.” He calmly answers Jeremy, forcing the latter to straighten himself. Idly, Armand notices how robotic and automatic Jeanne’s reactions have become. What would the scene be like then if they’re suddenly under attacked? It would definitely need someone out of the blue—Selene, most probably—to appear and shock this boy back into the world of the living, he thought.

Simply put, Jeanne is still very much dead, and Armand doubts there’s any way to bring the boy back into consciousness other than vengeance.

[xxx]

The operation is a failure. The moment they remove the bandage covering her left eye, the wound opens and blood oozes out of it in thick rivulets. It has stolen precious hours and ounces of blood just to heal that wound, and Syfer has strained more than half of his power’s limit in closing that wound. He had to force the wound close with sheer will energy.

Sitting next to the hospital bed where her daughter remains unconscious, Natsume Kudoku prays silently for her daughter’s safety. It’s hopeless, Syfer thought darkly to himself. Aki has to remain blind in her left eye if they not risk losing her entirely due to blood loss. He couldn’t even understand why the wound keeps opening itself whenever it’s tampered with. Unless, of course, if Chris’ earth element power has seeped in and make itself a pest inside Aki’s stream, causing it to reject the invasion, thus affecting her bloodstream.

“There should be something we could do.” Syfer whispers to himself. There should be, no matter how small it could be, because he knows even just a 0.1% of success can change a lot. All he needs is to have faith in his team’s power and Aki’s will to leave. And besides, Aki’s loss will bear a great impact on the entire Kudoku lineage, and such a huge and deadly impact it will be.

“Doc, we can’t do another operation.”

That was what his assistant had told him an hour after wheeling Aki back into the intensive care unit. And looking at the girl’s prone and pale form, Syfer has to agree. Aki could almost pass for dead; she’s paler than those dead bodies in the hospital’s morgue.

He was shaken out of his reverie when Natsume suddenly leaves her daughter’s side. Watching the yakuza leader’s movements warily, Syfer keep still as if waiting for any queer movements from her. But when Natsume does nothing other than moving to stand before door, hand hovering over the door knob, Syfer finally understands the heavy weight on her shoulders. There is nothing else worse than choosing between love and duty, and right now, Syfer doubts there’s much reason to defend Natsume’s desire to stay by her daughter’s side.

Letting out a great air of tiredness, Syfer calmly says, “We’ll take care of her. I’ll make sure everything will be alright.”

The reassurance isn’t much, but Syfer’s very well damn intent on having no other patient other than Aki, because he can’t let Natsume down at all. Life returned to his cheeks when Natsume’s shoulders righted a little, her hand finally turning the door’s knob and walking out of the heavily sterilized room.

Eyes trailing back to Aki’s barely living body, Syfer ponders how he could fix this large disaster without killing himself.

TBC