((a/n NOT AN INTERMISSION, just a scene that was too long to include in the real update which should be up before the end of the weekend.))

It is entirely possible to begin walking from Ikebukuro station and find oneself in the neighborhood of Shinjuku after about an hour’s leisurely stroll. The streets between the two shopping centers are relatively featureless and it wouldn’t make for great sightseeing, but it’s still possible, if one were in the mood for that sort of thing.

Taeyeon and Jessica covered the distance in about 15 minutes.

There were, here and there tucked away in the choked alleys, little gems of novelty: homeless mediums, whose displays of fortune sticks and incense they lunged over; shops selling kitsch collectibles which they knocked into; small hole-in-the-wall eateries with sandwich board signs they pivoted around.

Taeyeon barely saw any of it as the sound of a thunderous gallop dulled her senses with blind fear. Her only priority was her grip on Jessica’s hand. They turned another corner and stumbled out onto a main thoroughfare. Taeyeon could tell they were nearing Shinjuku station, as the buildings got taller and the streets wider, but the increasing crowds of people threatened to hinder their advance.

“C… come on… we’re almost there,” Taeyeon coughed, completely winded from their flight. Jessica couldn’t even spare a breath to reply as she trailed doggedly after the Beast.   

He wouldn’t follow them into the station, would he? Wasn't he too tall? But there was always the threat of him popping in and out of the Hedge as he pleased in order to catch up with them and Taeyeon had no idea where any portals might be in this unfamiliar place. A clarion call pierced the dull roar surrounding the world’s busiest train station, and she let out a breathless cry, renewing her efforts to break through the throng.

They pushed through to the entrance and scrambled over the turnstiles, but Taeyeon found herself being yanked to the side by Jessica. Taeyeon could only look at her quizzically as she panted.

“No… down!” Jessica gasped as she dragged her towards the stairs to the lower level. Of course; maybe Jessica’s Seeming could help conceal them in the darkness of the tunnels.

As they slowed for the multiple flights of steps, Jessica could start to feel a numbness creep through her legs - the buildup of toxins in her muscles from such a dramatic, sustained exertion of energy. She knew Taeyeon could keep this up for hours if it came to it, but that she herself had just about reached her limit.

“Fae-touched!” a deep voice rumbled down the wide stairwell. They could hear the echoing of massive, iron-shod hooves striking the tiled steps behind them.

They didn’t dare look back, their flight instincts not letting them pause for more than a moment as they reached the final landing and looked around. Jessica took the lead again and tugged Taeyeon down towards the end of the platform, but to their dismay a train was stopped, letting passengers disembark and blocking them from jumping down onto the tracks.

Taeyeon and Jessica helplessly slowed and came to a stop as they reached end of the platform.

“I thank you, ladies.” They turned, hand in hand, and faced him.

The Horned One.

His magnificent figure cut through the crowds easily; adults never saw anything they didn’t want to see, and the rush-hour salarymen of this sprawling metropolis were less inclined than most to spare any thought or awareness for anything outside of the stresses of their own daily lives. What was the horror of the True Fae against the cruel struggle of the common man in the corporate world? So they mindlessly brushed past his flank, and absently stepped over the point of his spear where it lay at rest against the concrete platform, as if he weren't really there at all.

Taeyeon was sure she was going to be sick, first from their sprint, and now from being assaulted with the memories of her childhood when she looked at him. Every hunt he ever set upon ended the same. He always found her. Always. She barely felt it as Jessica adjusted their grip, threading their fingers together.

“As expected from one of my own stock; you have provided me with great sport today.” The gold torques decorating his antlers sharply reflected the flourescent lights in the ceiling he barely cleared. His swarthy face crinkled into a large smile, his black eyes almost disappearing in his mirth as he regarded Taeyeon in particular. “But it is over now. Perhaps at this very moment the rest of my party are rounding up your other fae-touched friends.”

Taeyeon swallowed, trying to force herself to think past the blind fear consuming her senses. She glanced at Jessica and she could see her eyes were locked on the Horned One, watching him warily.

“Well, fawnchild? Is this all? Are you giving up?” His dark eyes fixed on Taeyeon, his humor gone. He was testing her, daring her to make her final play.

Taeyeon couldn’t catch her breath as she stared up at him, assailed by the memories his implications dug up. She couldn’t defy him again. She didn’t have the strength for it. She didn’t have the heart.

He saw her struggle, being so used to watching the different layers of fear play across the features of his quarry. “You won’t even try,” he taunted. The sound of the train finally departing to its next stop barely had the decibels to match his booming voice. “Not even to save the Darkling.”

Taeyeon felt Jessica’s fingers clench, and their eyes met. She could see Jessica asking her with her expression what he was talking about, but Taeyeon couldn’t hold her gaze for long.

How natural the instinct to protect Jessica had been at the first call of the clarion they had heard while they sat outside at a cafe in Ikebukuro. Without a thought, Taeyeon had reached across the table and grabbed her hand, urging her to run. If she had dropped her Masque, she could have made it nearly to Yokohama by now, but she knew Jessica didn’t posses her unnatural swiftness, and it never occurred to her to leave her behind.

But now the guilt of her own weakness clouded her senses. This was it. They were going back to Arcadia, and it was all her fault. She just wasn’t brave enough.

The sound of another train approaching startled her and she raised her eyes to Jessica again. And to her surprise, Jessica was giving her a faint smile.

“No need for goodbyes, children. I will take you both.” He lifted his spear and turned it in his hand, wielding it blunt end first.

A voice came over the platform's intercom, announcing the train's arrival, and Jessica’s smile split into a slightly manic grin as she grabbed Taeyeon by the shoulder and ran her to the edge of the platform suddenly. “JUMP!” she shouted at her and threw her across the tracks. Taeyeon was caught too unawares to prepare herself as she hit the far wall with a sickening crack, barely clearing the distance before the train rushed past.

And there was more. As she crumpled to the ground on the far side of the tracks, swimming on the edge of consciousness, she could feel something cool and soft draped around her. It was like she was wrapped up in a thin, transparent sheet: a swath of Jessica's Seeming. As her vision swam and she let her head lay against the grimey unfinished floor, she could see between the passing railcars, Jessica and the Horned One still up on the platform.

The Horned One looked furious as he stared at the train as it continued to rush past. He stamped his hooves in agitation. “What have you done?” He bellowed at Jessica.

Jessica let herself lean up against the wall at the end of the platform, feeling the cool tile against her palms. “I gave her a chance to escape,” she replied in her best attempt at a taunt. Her knees almost gave out as he turned his furious gaze to her. She looked away, her eyes settling on one of the platform’s brilliantly lit signs. “I-I bet she’s halfway to Roppongi by now,” she stammered, noticing, in a moment of disassociation, where these trains were heading. Funny that they had actually decided against going to Roppongi earlier that day, as it was on the other side of the Yamanote line from where they had been shopping.

The train past and the Horned One leaned out over the edge of the platform, looking up and down the dark tracks. Taeyeon felt his gaze sweep right over her and beyond. Couldn’t he see her, lying there in her pitiful state?

But Jessica's Seeming kept her concealed, and with the Horned One’s back turned to her momentarily, the Darkling gave her one last, small smile before Taeyeon finally lost consciousness.