Yelena only makes it four blocks before pulling over to the curb and sitting on the idling bike. Her eyes fill with tears for Marco and tears for herself then she shakes her head in anger and frustration. Again, she is taking the easy way out. Marco says some confusing words and Yelena just walks away. She softly recites the words tattooed on her arms and is ashamed of herself. Again. All her fine words about loyalty to the Bratva family and here she is ready to abandon Marco to whatever may befall him. True, he seems willing to accept his lot, but that does not remove him from the family. She has failed her friend, her lover, and her family and it hurts. She lifts her face to the falling snow that is covering the streets in a symbolic measure of purity. Then, further resolved, she kicks the bike into gear and turns back to the parking garage. Leaving the bike parked, she pays in advance for several days and makes her way back to the church.
Some of the homeless are standing around a couple of burn barrels in the vicinity of the church and shelter. Some nod their heads at the passing Elf, but no one stops her as she approaches the church and steps inside. She moves up the center aisle and takes a seat behind Marco. She witnesses the priest talking to him and the remarkable................something that happens when Marco begins to pray out loud. Nothing in what he says resonates within Yelena, but it seems to be felt by others. Her own love for any sort of God died on the steps of a small church in Siberian Russia when she was three. She remembers nothing of those years except that brief moment when the divine and protective God had turned a deaf ear to the pleas of a small child and allowed a State Security officer to shoot dead a kind and generous man, a priest who had never had anything but a good word for the God that killed him.
Yelena watches as those around her take up Marco's prayer. When he is finished he begins talking to himself, almost as if asking questions that seem to have no answer. Almost as if he is two people, but both are confused. Yelena does not understand what is happening to the man and feels that she is completely unable to do anything to directly help him. He has lost all pretense of his former life, even to giving her his prized comb. His actions are clearly those of a very confused individual. Yelena has never really been this confused in her life, but then she had the shadow to call on for help and protection and Marco had denied any acceptance of the shadow as even being real, much less able to lend him power if were only strong enough to take it. Instead, his mind seems to be fraying under the pressures he has been facing. Yelena feels responsible for some of that pressure, as it was she who steadfastly refused to accept God as real and change her ways to make this God and Marco happy. But she also knows that there are other factors at work on Marco, factors that have combined to ruin the man she loves.
And she does love him. With all her heart and what remains of her soul. She has found the man she could live forever with, and his mind is rejecting her and all she stands for............all she is. The shadow is telling her to leave, to let this miserable man wallow in his own pity, but she cannot. She does not pay attention, but instead forces the shadow to do her own bidding, wrapping it about herself. So she sits and listens and watches. Eventually, a woman approaches him and speaks to him tentatively. She slides forward in her pew and places her hands on the back of the one Marco is in. She speaks softly and slowly, forcing the words out as grammatically correct as possible, desiring to be understood. "Marco is with me. I lost him twice and now I have found him again. We thank you for your kindness, but I think we will stay here for a while."
[spoiler]This adventure takes place after Yelena and Firefly return from the bar and motel. That took place the same night that Marco told Yelena to leave the apartment. Sorry for any confusion. Of course all of this is just a dream if Yelena and Firefly die in the motel.
