Well, I was going to wait until I had a real beta, but seeing as so many people still nose at this story for some reason, I decided to put up a newer, decent version of the prologue before the other parts go up, just to let people know that I do write better than this and that I really am editing the story. So if you're interested, hopefully that'll tide you over until whenever I get the other parts revised and edited. I was horrible back then, so it's taking longer than I thought. Part 6 will go up with them to alert everyone that it's done, also, so. Until then. And 'then' will be...oh, I say...two, three weeks. Maybe a month at the most.

Summary: Post series, definite spoilers. When painful reminders of the past appear, more than memories spill from the wounds. Secrets and suspicions bleed into a final confrontation, a fight not only for the truth, but for the STNJ members' survival.

Replacing the Void
Prologue – Tensions

Karasuma didn't know how to describe it, but it was driving her insane.

Every day since what happened, the office was so…rigid. It was as though everyone had turned into ice sculptures, showing off their carefully crafted appearances. They weren't supposed to let their emotions interfere with work. Wasn't that what everyone from Zaizen to herself said?

But it wasn't possible. No one could forget Amon and Robin, forget what they meant to them, forget the agonizing hope they had right after what happened at the Factory because maybe, just maybe, they were still alive, forget the crash and burn when time had started to move again.

And then there was the upper management. How could their bosses expect them to move on so easily after they lost two of their own? Was that why they didn't want them to "fraternize" with their fellow workers?

Perhaps they should have done that. Perhaps it would've made the bitter medicine of reality easier to swallow if they didn't know Amon and Robin so well.

She thought back to all those times that Robin tried to make friends with her, when she merely rebuffed her. All those silent drinks with Amon, at Harry's. In retrospect, those memories were too bittersweet.

The first time that those two had disappeared after STN's attack, the hunters couldn't function. However, Amon and Robin's bodies were never found, so they knew, they just knew they were alive, but not where they had gone.

Then what was so different this time? Once again, they were in an incident where by all rights, they should have been dead. Should be dead. Once again, their bodies were never found.

But this time…it was all so different. How could they have died and left them behind? They weren't like that. They weren't like that, Karasuma thought angrily.

Sighing, she shook her head and slammed the car door shut.

Her eyes lingered on the vespa in the parking space next to her before she walked away.

"Sakaki, wait!"

She entered the elevator just before the doors closed.

"Oh, sorry. G'morning, Karasuma-san."

"Good morning, Sakaki." She leaned against the elevator wall. Why couldn't everything just be like it used to be way back then? Everyone was just…

Karasuma couldn't recall exactly what she had done during that one week of what was supposed to be solace and respite, that recovery period after the Factory's fall. She had wanted to escape, to retreat somewhere relaxing – not a beach or anything typical like that, but still…somewhere. Instead, she lay in her apartment, thinking. Trying not to think. Trying to hold onto those few strands of memory she still had, and trying to let them go all at once.

It was a good thing that she didn't drink too much that week, or she would have had quite a few hangovers.

She dimly recalled meeting Sakaki, Doujima, and Michael at Harry's. When he was finally able to join them in the outside world, it helped. Things just felt better, just a little. And with Master there, she had thought that perhaps they would all finally be able to move on.

When had everything fallen apart? When had everyone distanced themselves from each other? She didn't understand. It had stayed this way for two months, and she didn't understand. She just couldn't.

"Hey, Karasuma-san!"

"Huh?" Startled, she snapped out of her trance and looked at Sakaki.

"We're at the fifth floor." He looked at her quizzically. "What's the matter, something on your mind?"

"No…not really. It's nothing, just the usual."

"Just the usual, eh…" He waited until she exited the elevator, then walked out behind her. "You're still thinking about them?"

Karasuma sighed. "Yeah, I guess… It's just that it's so hard to put it behind us. To forget."

"No one said that we had to forget. We shouldn't. But we have to move on." Even as he was saying this, Sakaki sounded unconvinced of what he himself said.

"I don't – "

"Good morning, Miho, Sakaki." They nodded to Doujima in reply as she walked past them towards the coffee machine, an empty cup in hand.

"Oh, Yurika, get one for me too, will you?"

"Oh, sure." She put on a smile before turning and walking away.

Sakaki went on, while Karasuma watched Doujima's receding form before following him. "Good morning, Michael."

The young boy looked up at them briefly before looking back at the monitor of his computer, his fingers rapidly moving against the keyboard keys. "Oh, good morning, Karasuma-san. Morning, Haruto." The sound of rock music could be heard from the earphones plugging up his ears.

She couldn't believe this. Not today. It was all so…

"Hey, Michael, what's new today?" Sakaki sat back in his usual chair, waiting for a reply.

"Well…" Michael removed his headphones. "The boss said something about meeting in the briefing room to look at a new case any minute now. Something about a witch who caused that string of murders in the upper city region. It's all over the news, and we were lucky that we got past the police this time, because, well…you know."

"Right…" Sakaki murmured, leaning back even farther and propping his feet up.

Karasuma didn't get it. Why, after all this time, were they so persistent in never bringing up the topic of the Factory?

"What, Karasuma?" Michael noticed her eyeing him strangely.

"Why are we always going around the issue every time that something related to the incident comes up?"

"Uh…what incident?" Michael asked with an unsure tone, fingers stilling on the keyboard.

"Are you trying to pretend like it never happened? There's only one thing that I would call 'the incident' – when the Factory was destroyed two months ago!"

"Oh…that incident." The clacking of keys stopped altogether. Sakaki paused as well.

"What do you mean, 'oh, that incident?' Is it something that unimportant anymore? If it's because no one wants to talk about it, why? Are you afraid of something?"

"Absolutely not, Karasuma-sa- "

"Then why do we always dodge the topic whenever we're all together? So we were lucky that we got past the police because, you know. Is the subject of SOLOMON losing influence here and of the Factory being completely annihilated that touchy? Is it?"

No one said anything for a few moments.

"Miho." Doujima walked up to Karasuma, handed her a steaming mug of coffee, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"

"This is what's wrong! It's the attitude that our office has had for the past few months! We'll never get over what happened with the Factory if we keep avoiding the topic!" Karasuma was getting to the point where she wanted to vent.

"Excuse me, Karasuma-san, but I think you're avoiding the topic as well."

"What do you mean?" she questioned, fixing her gaze on Sakaki.

"Well, I mean…you keep saying how we're all avoiding the issue, and you keep saying things about how the Factory was destroyed, but… You never say a single thing about…you know, Amon and Robin…"

Murmurs of the mentioned hunters' names came from the others.

Karasuma sighed. "It's not as though anyone else is willing to say anything, and it's not like we can get over the loss of our fellow comrades any easier. It's much harder to accept than the fact that SOLOMON's repute has gone down over the last half year…no, than that the whole political situation of SOLOMON and everything is so unstable."

"I don't know…" Michael said. "It's just so much easier to avoid the topic altogether…to go on thinking that nothing happened…to not remember at all…" He trailed off.

"Yeah, well, there's no way that we even have a chance to forget!" Sakaki said loudly. "I mean, look at this place! Look at our jobs! We're reminded of everything that happened every day here."

"We know, Sakaki," Doujima said. "There's no more Factory, no more taking witches down alive, no more orbo. SOLOMON is arguing with different governments in different countries, especially with ours. Obviously the police are with the government. They're making it that much harder for us to get anything done, which in turn makes the bosses work us harder and longer! Then the police finally let us take the witches down when they realize that they can't do anything against them without our help."

"And somehow this cycle repeats every single time!" Karasuma said forcefully. "Not to mention that we're understaffed. How do they expect us to do anything with only three hunters? They haven't even sent us a single replacement!"

"No, Karasuma. It's more like two hunters," Sakaki said pointedly while looking at Doujima.

"What do you mean by that!" Doujima snapped, her voice strained.

"Well, you've fallen back into your old habit. Honestly, the first time that we lost Robin and Amon, you were actually working. What happened to that attitude? I mean, you completely skipped out on the mission yesterday and didn't even show up! I had to take down that witch all by myself!"

"Hey, you look fine right now; you're not injured or anything. Besides, I thought that you said you could handle a small witch like that," Doujima sneered.

"I never said that, but it would've been nice to have had some sort of backup. Even a backup that can't do anything to help her fellow hunter."

"Take that back!" Doujima yelled, her fists shaking.

Here we go again, Karasuma thought grimly.

"Why should I? It's true, isn't it? Like that time last week when we went after that one witch that was blowing up the buildings a few blocks away. Your aim with your gun was so poor that you almost hit me!"

"Well, it wasn't my fault that you were practically standing right next to him!"

"For God's sake, I was standing maybe five feet away from the guy!"

"Yeah right! You were basically inches away from him! And I didn't hit you, did I?" she retorted.

"That's not the point! You should have had better judgment with shooting if I was as close as you said! Besides, that gun was loaded with very lethal witch hunting bullets! If you had hit me, then who knows how long I would've been out and in the hospital!"

"Huh, you're just the rookie of our group anyway. It's not like it would've mattered."

"Oh, this line coming from the slacker who doesn't do anything and couldn't get anything done if she tried anyway?"

"Why you little - "

"Stop it, both of you!" Karasuma nearly shouted, hands on her hips. "This is exactly what I'm talking about! Everyone's so strung up here that no one says anything anymore! Then when anyone does, it gets close to being a fight! And when we retreat from the issues like this, we'll never get anything resolved! Everything's just so rigid and…dead!"

Everyone completely stopped everything that they were doing, but Karasuma was too wrapped up in what she was saying to notice. "Then it all just explodes, like what happened a second ago! Why haven't we discussed this issue in the whole two months that everything's been like this? We probably could have put this all behind us if we did!"

Everyone lowered his or her eyes. "I don't know, Karasuma-san," Michael quietly said. "I just don't know…"

Sighing, they all returned to whatever they were doing, heading for their desks.

Something was going to give. Things were going to change, or they were going to break.

Karasuma didn't need her Craft to tell her that.

The smoke of their cigars rose like serpents in the darkness.

"Hasn't enough time passed?" said the voice of one man.

A smirk. "They think they've recovered. SOLOMON thinks it has recovered. It's the perfect time."

"They've underestimated us for so long. Too long."

Deep, dangerous smiles in the dark. "Shall we start, then?"

The smoke from one cigar ceased as its smoker rammed it into the crystal ashtray. "Let the games begin."

Several wine glasses clinked together.

It was a toast to the future.

---

The suffix –san is an honorific attached to the end of one's name that is basically the equivalent of Mr. or Mrs. in English, and a common way to greet someone.

Witch Hunter Robin belongs to...um, whoever it belongs to. Yeah. In other words, not me. Bandai and Sunrise, if I remember correctly.

Mnkay, this has been edited massively. I posted it almost 2 years ago (right now it's July 2006), but now, things are being changed. Wow, I was a ridiculous writer in 8th grade. Either way, this is…slightly different. Same story, same premise, different details. If you've read the old version, I'd advise you to start over. And if you read it from ages ago, thanks for sticking with it even now. I promise I'll finish it one day, haha. No more 2 year hiatuses for me.