Between Life and Death

Lost and Found

"When you said that she's not with us, did that imply that she's dead?" Fury asked, biting at his nails.

Truth shook her head. "What I meant was that she's gone. She's disappeared."

"Where is she? Where did she go?" Death said, eyes lined with worry.

"I don't know. All I know was that she was taken by someone."

"Who would have enough power to kidnap Life?" mused Time. "Surely no human could - she could easily break any compartment they try to keep her in. The captor must be someone like us. A god or goddess perhaps?"

Vengeance nodded. "That makes sense. Truth, could you try to figure out who -"

"Already on it," she said before closing her eyes, brows furrowing one more.

While Truth searched for the answer, everyone sat in a tense silence, with Death fidgeting the most of all, pacing holes in the carpeted floor. He appeared to be the most worried out of everybody, but that was to be expected. He continued to sigh and mutter incoherently to himself. Worry gripped his heart the way a toddler grips their mother on the first day of school. When Truth finally opened her eyes, the whole court looked at her expectantly.

"Do you guys remember Karma?" she asked, and everyone nodded. "It was him. He took Life. For what reason, it's not clear."

"We need to go save her now," Death demanded, striding for the door, but he was stopped by Truth's grip as she shook her head.

"I still have no idea where they are, but I know they're not in these lands. They could be anywhere, Death, and until I figure out where they are, we aren't going anywhere. We would be searching in circles and would get nowhere."

"Then hurry up and find her!" Death ordered, tears threatening to spill.

Once he saw her nod, Death stormed out of the room. No one dared follow him or stop him on his rampage.

He didn't have a clear destination in mind, he was only trying to distance himself from Truth and her brutal verities. His head was pounding, and worry for Life was all he could process. Knowing that she was out there and could be hurt unsettled him, and knowing that he could do nothing to help her infuriated him. The fear of possibly never seeing her again, of seeing the light and joy in her eyes, was pushed deeper inside of him than he thought possible, for that idea would only anger him more.

When he decided that he was done walking, he turned into the nearest room and sat down. For the first time in centuries, he felt the urge to cry, to fill a lake with his tears and drown in them. It took all he was made of to keep the burning emotions threatening to explode out of him from escaping. He forced his feelings deep down where they could never reemerge, focusing on doing just that for the next couple of minutes. It felt good to have a task on hand to take his mind off of the current situation. His temporary bliss was interrupted, however, when Mercy burst into the room and said, "Truth has figured out where Life is. We're all planning what to do next."

Death ignored the fact that Mercy had found him so easily and instead said, "Alright. I'll be there in a second."

Mercy nodded and left, and Death took the last few moments alone to secure the rest of his feelings inside. It would do no good to get emotional during the planning of Life's rescue, for his court to see him vulnerable like that. Though he had no idea what room he was in, it was easy to regain his bearings when he left the room, and was able to quickly find his way to the common room. When he got there, he received some sympathetic glances from the rest of his court, but he pretended to ignore them.

"Mercy told me you figured out where Life is," he said to Truth, to which Truth nodded vigorously in response.

"Yeah, I did. Both she and Karma seem to be near the border of his realm - he's dangerously close to Luck's realm, but knowing Karma, he's too careful to ever cross into Luck's territory."

"He'd better not, because he'd be putting Life in danger, too," Death growled. "What's the plan? How do we get her back?"

Vengeance shrugged. "I don't know. That's why we called you."

"I have no ideas whatsoever. Do you guys have any?" Death asked his court.

Justice, who was sitting on the armrest of a chair, stood up and said, "I think we should infiltrate Karma's home. He's bound to head there eventually, and we can confront him about kidnapping Life there. He'll be so surprised to see us he probably won't be able to act on his feet. We can have Mercy neutralize his powers while we question him so he won't cause any trouble. Then, we can grab Life and go."

Time rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then nodded. "That might work, Justice. What do you think, Death?" Time asked, looking at him expectantly.

Death slowly nodded. "I agree with Time - let's do it. But remember, we must not cause any disturbances in the balance. We cannot harm Karma."

Truth clapped her hands together. "Then it's been decided - we're following through with Justice's plan to invade Karma's home. Is there anything else you guys want me to find out?"

Death shook his head while saying, "No, but things may come up soon. Stay alert for any requests for information."

Truth inclined her chin in agreement, and Mercy spoke up. "I'm not sure about neutralizing Karma's powers."

"What do you mean?" Fury asked.

"I don't know if I can neutralize Karma's powers for longer than an hour - even that is near impossible for me. It drains too much energy. I only resort to neutralization if I'm trying to heal someone and they keep thrashing around - and even then I choose to knock them out within a few minutes instead."

Justice frowned for a moment before saying, "Okay, then we can knock Karma out in the few minutes that Mercy can neutralize his powers. While he's unconscious, we can secure him in place and ready for the interrogation."

Everyone else agreed with Justice's plan, and so they began to plan some of the more finer details. Nobody pointed out the lily that now stood in a vase in the center of the table, its petals already beginning to wilt.