[color=D6CC88]The child struggled and shrieked, but Ethan refused to set her down until they had reached a room and he closed the door.  Her protests had devolved into incoherence, and she slumped on the bed when the man finally let her go.  Moved by a deep fear that she'd tried hard to ignore, when Ethan placed his hand on her head her howls turned to choked sobs, and she flung her arms around him.  Sensing the shift from frustration to hurt, Wyth leapt up on the bed and settled next to the pair, rubbing his head against his girl's side.

It was a minute or two before Amuné could manage an understandable sentence, but when she did the real reason she was so upset became clear.  Yes, she saw Cecil as being in her position, but the truth was far more.  "He's not okay, he's not!  He was just lying there and he was too still and that means -- that means--"  She gulped a breath, the images she'd put from her mind for so much of their travels flooding back into her thoughts.  "Like...like when I dreamed about Mommy and Daddy...and they were lying like that...a-and...."  She was shaking, unable to get herself under control.  She'd tried so hard to believe, to pretend she'd not seen any of it, that she was just having nightmares.  She'd kept believing and kept hoping and now with one disaster piling on the next, her faith was eroding.  She wanted to believe Cecil would be okay.  She wanted to believe her parents were okay.  But it hurt her to do so, and allowing the idea that her Machina friend was gone had allowed in more doubt than she'd intended. "They're gone, and he's gone, and everyone keeps dying and I just want to go h-home but I'm not supposed to.  I w-want my Daddy!"  Her fingers dug into Ethan's shirt, curling around folds in the fabric.  "I'm scared, I want my Daddy and M-Mommy.  All I do is get in trouble and get in the way.  I wanna go home!"[/color]