She kissed his cheek, "Water under the bridge. Let's go brain storm over some food." She wrapped her arm around his and they headed down to the cafe.

They sat in the cafe and Horatio waited for Ciara to bring them some food.

"Excuse me... Are... are you the Time Reaper?" Came a girlish voice to his left.

Horatio lifted his head and turned it in the direction of the voice, "Do I know you?" he asked.

"No. But I've read all about you! Name's Sally Spencer." The sound of several small magazines hitting the table could be heard. "I've read every comic about your adventures and I just want to let you know that you should keep going. That I'm cheering for you." She took hold of his hands, "Love will find a way!"

Horatio looked confused, "... comics? What on earth are you talking about?"

"Sorry, you don't know about them yet. But they've been around for what seems like forever. The last issue I was able to get a hold of before they discontinued them was me getting to meet you and tell you not to give up hope. That you will get better. You'll see again. These comics tell of your journey. All your hardships. What you're really trying to do... And she knows what you've done. She knows how you feel but you need to know that if you want to BE with her... you can't try to make her life perfect. Remember the birthday masquare on Genosha is the key- I gotta go." She slipped a comic under his hand and hurried off before Ciara got to the table.

"What was that all about-" She stopped when she noticed the comic infront of Horatio. "..."

"I.... I have no idea...." Horatio replied, feeling the paper in his hands, "What did she give me?"

"It looks like a comic book," Ciara set down the tray of food and sat down. Horatio could feel the smooth surface of the comic book but there seemed to be... bumps.

Ciara took hold of the cover page and sure enough every page of the comic was covered in braille.

"Hang on" Horatio ran his fingers over the braille carefully.

It told the story of Horatio's life, well a summary. How he'd done everything to save and Love Ciara. How Ciara's soul continued to follow him throughout the worlds. How she knew what he'd been through for her. How much she also deeply cared for him. How... How Horatio would exclaim when he read the magic potion recipe on the last page that would help Eric...

Ciara sat there, rather nevous. "What... What does it say?

Horatio's jaw slowly dropped as he read, finally, after some silence and stood abruptly, sending his chair falling to the floor, "I know how to save Eric. This place has a magic garden, right?"

Ciara blinked, "WHAT?!" She stood up abruptly as well. "Yes, there's one out back."

"Take me there" Horatio stated, "We have to get started immediately. When is the next full moon?"

"Ummm-"

"In the next 3 days." A student near by who was surrounded by magic books.

"Thank you Miss Teatree." Ciara replied, taking Horatio by the arm and leading him off.

They got to the garden and Horatio began listing off the things that Ciara needed to collect, "We're going to have to do this on the full moon" he explained, "but... honestly, I don't know if Eric Lenssur can survive that long."

"He has to." Ciara stated. "We just need to keep him under till then..."

Horatio frowned a little, thinking about it, "Hopefully his body will last that long..."

With Horatio's instructions they carefully prepared the potion and the magic ring. They were all ready to go, they just needed the full moon.
The night before the full moon, Eric went into a cardiac arrest. Even though he had been put in a chemical coma, his body was still under a lot of stress.

Celeste had visited Eric several times but never when Ciara and Horatio were present.

Celeste was there when he had the attack. Miss Turner quickly ran around to the other side of the bed and together, they magically gave him shocks to the heart.

"1...2...3...CLEAR. 1...2...3...CLEAR." Celeste stated, Lightening shot out from their palms on each clear. After about a min, they were able to bring him back.

"I'll keep him stable. But no one must disturb me while I'm in the trance..." Celeste pulled up a chair, took Eric's hand into hers and sat by the side of the bed in a praying position, eyes closed. A pinkish light surrounded her and Eric. The gem in her chest glowing softly.

As Celeste worked on keeping Eric stable she soon found herself drawn into his psyche. The blur of images began to solidify into an old street in Germany. Very few people walked down the road, there was no laughter, barely any noise really despite the many shops that were open along the side of the street.

She found herself dressed in period clothing but her body still had a warm glow to it. She felt her stomach twist as she recognized certain things. "Eric." She called. "Eric are you here?"

The world seemed grey and dull, everyone kept to themselves. There seemed to be quite a few people who had a yellow star sewn to their jackets in this area.
There was the sound of trucks coming down the street, a sound that sent the few people who were outside, running indoors. As the others retreated a familiar looking six year old came running down, chasing his ball that had gotten away from him. A woman was chasing after the boy frantically.

"Max! Max get back here!" she demanded, trying not to call too loudly but it was too late. The ball rolled to a stop under the foot of a soldier and the little boy paused, looking up at the tall blond man with wide innocent eyes.
"Max!" the woman scooped him up in her arms and withdrew a step, "oh-I'm so sorry" she stared at the soldier with fear in her eyes, "he doesn't know any better"

"Well perhaps you should keep him on a leash" the man replied haughtily, "if he is going to run into the street like a dog, then treat him like one." the others with him chuckled their approval as he bent to pick up the ball, looking it over, "ah, how convenient, I've been looking for a present for my boys." he tossed it to his friends in the truck before turning back to the woman holding Max, "You should be more careful, maybe next time I take something else" he patted her on the cheek.
With that, the soldiers moved on.

Celeste felt her stomach twist and turn at the events.
"Max?" She called lightly a little bit off. She wasn't sure if she'd wandered into a memory or if that was actually him.

The memory faded into another, the boys at school picking on him. Year after year, bully after bully, the names piled up and Max did nothing but take it. He had no choice.
People trashed his parent's shop, they threw him in the garbage, even his teachers graded him harder than anyone else. And then there was the camp, where anywhere you turned you'd better have your head down because they were everywhere. All these people seemed to be swimming in Max's memories.

"Get out" Suddenly the face that nowadays terrorized the globe was standing just behind Celeste. Magneto in all his armored glory looked down at Celeste, "Get. Out. of my head."

Everywhere she looked another memory appeared, she soon found herself crying unable to believe the horror this man had been through. She'd slammed her eyes shut and covered her head with her hands when Magneto appeared behind her.

She nearly jumped, "Max. There you are. I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to intrude. We had to put you into a chemical coma to keep you alive. We nearly lost you so I had to step in. I'm the only thing keeping you stable at the moment..." She tried to explain, wiping the tears from her face.