I'm not sure how I got to the house, and I didn't really care. I was numb, completely numb, and that was good enough for me. I was, however, tired of everything else moving so slowly. I found that with some effort, I could raise the pulse of the beating power that slowly washed over me. After some time, the heart beat in time with mine. But then something unexpected happened. The world changed. The air became humid, there was ozone hanging in the breeze. There was tension in everything, and the earth turned a strange color.
Slowly but steadily, I lowered my heart rate to match the Earth's heart before I had messed with it. And everything was at normal speed.
"Ian! How did you do that?"
"What?"
"You just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Sorry, I'm not sure whats going on. Zoe, where is everyone?"
"They aren't here?"
"Everyone is at the battle, I can conjure things from here... Zach, are you ok? The fighting just ended..."
"What! No time has passed? Then no else knows yet..."
Just then Zaak, Greta, and Alisha came through the door.
"Ian, what the hell happened back there!"
"I uh, well Zaak, uh." I showed the ring.
"What's that?"
"A gift Kuchiki left for me. It's hard to explain."
"Left for.... No!"
"I'm sorry Zoe, she died. Because of me."

We held Kuchiki's funeral that night. We cremated her, and scattered her ashes. When we came back to house, I headed for the music room. It was hard to walk through the halls when I could hardly make out the walls, but the occasional insect made it a lot easier. I sat down at the piano, and I began to play. I played Bach, Brahms, Mozart. And I played Beethoven. Lots and lots of Beethoven. After a few days straight, however, I ran out of music to play. So I began to play violin. Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach. A day or so later, I once again was out of music. So I began to play my guitar. I began to play around with minor chords, and an endless song of death flowed from my fingers. After a couple of hours, Zaak peeked in the door.
"Ian, I'm going to have to ask you to stop."
"Why?"
"Whenever you start playing, Alisha starts bawling hysterically, Greta breaks whatever she's holding, and Zoe has been in the shower for three hours straight."
"Oh. I'll see what I can do."
I made my way to the bathroom, not sure what I'd say.
"Zoe!?" I knocked. No response. I knocked louder. No response. I gave the door a good whack,... and there went the door.
I walked in, and I knew I was about to lose some hearing.
"IAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" Zoe had thrust her head from behind the shower curtain, and I knew the red color of her face wasn't from the shower.
"I, came to get you out of the, uh, shower. And that sounded weird."
"Why are still in here!?"
"That shower curtain doesn't block anything anyway."
"What!?"
"I, ... nevermind. Zoe, we're worried about you is all." Zoe still looked like she felt akward, but I could tell a lot of the tension in her was gone.
"Ok, I'll be out in a bit."
"K."

The next morning, Zoe stood in front of the table at breakfast and proclaimed,
"You're all naked!"
I almost died laughing.
"Ian has X-ray vision now."
The others in the room stiffened, and akwardness filled the room.