A/N: My first crossover. AU. Kenshin is taken away, and Tomoe searches desperately.
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki. The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.
Tomoe stumbled through the snowy forest, her breath coming in short gasps and condensing in the air. Her heart pounded and her sides hurt. Her ragged breathing echoed in her ears. But she must keep running, she knew. She must keep searching. For if she didn't find him, he would be lost to her forever.
Tomoe looked ahead, and saw branches snapped, fallen snow churned up, and a deep gouge in the trunk of a tree. Signs of a struggle. So she forced her legs to move faster, faster, faster to reach wherever they had taken him.
Tomoe ran, chasing them, them who had taken her husband away.
She remembered how they struck. Not directly, for no one could defeat her husband in battle. They had been subtle, working in the shadows, weaving detailed plans. They had not let their arrival be known, and had hid in the darkness, creating plots for revenge, for capture of their enemy. They were serpents, all of them, serpents whose minds were corrupted with evil and power. And serpents never attacked with only strength. They used poison.
Poison.
Somehow, they had drugged Tomoe's and her husband's water source. And somehow, her husband had not noticed, and had drank the water. But she hadn't been thirsty, and did not. So when her husband collapsed hours later, she did not. But she could only watch, frozen in shock, as they leapt out of the bushes and dragged him away.
But they had not bothered to deal with her, thinking that she was weak, so now she followed them. Now Tomoe ran after them, following the obvious signs they had left behind. And she would find them, she would catch them, and she would bring her husband back home.
The signs grew more frequent now. All the branches ahead were snapped, trampled into the ground. The trees all had deep gouges in their trunks, gouges made by a sword swung around wildly. And all the snow was churned up, tossed aside by struggling bodies. They had been this way, she just knew it, and she ran on. Hope had began to rise into the sky, and she chased after it, the only light in a seemingly dark tunnel.
She knew they had been this way, she just knew it. So she ran faster, faster. Although her lungs ached and clumps of snow still managed to drag her feet, she ran on, for she knew that her husband would be near. Hope lit up the sky now, and hope lit up her soul, and she felt it warm her body like the sun's rays. Hope shone in her eyes, hope of finding her husband, of rebuilding her happiness. But she shivered, for the cold around her was too cold, and the silence too eerie.
The snowy forest was suddenly still. Too quiet. The air seemed to crackle with tension, and nervousness gripped her heart. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Something had gone astray. The hope in the sky began to fade replaced by growing dread spreading dark tendrils across her heart.
Tomoe looked around, suspicious. The forest around her seemed too familiar. It couldn't be! But she realized that she recognized everything around her, almost as if it was her home.
It was.
The forest had began to thin out, the snow-laden trees being replaced by frozen grass blades. Ahead, Tomoe could see the cottage that she and her husband lived in. Beyond it, the road to the village stretched. The door to her home was wide open, left open by herself during her desperate chase. Tomoe could see her own footprints in the snow, leading from the doorway into the forest. Confusion filled her mind. What? How did I end up coming back to the place I started? I followed all the signs.
The she realized. They had tricked her. They had laden an obvious false trail, one that she would easily fall for. And it had circled back towards her home, where she had started, so she could never find them. Truly, they had vanished, taking her husband with them, and he was gone from her life forever. She had followed the signs, but they were all fake, a false trail, and now she would never find her husband. She collapsed onto the snow, and angry tears fell from her eyes.
Her husband was gone.
How could those bastards take him away from her? How could they? Cold sorrow spread from her heart into her eyes, leaking out in the form of tears. How could they? They had torn apart her life, taking the only one she loved, forcing her to be alone, so alone. For a brief moment, when she was following their trail, she had tasted hope, hope of finding he husband, hope of rebuilding her happiness, but it was gone now, snatched away from her. Tomoe's happiness, brief, but full and bright, it was put out now, blown away, a candle flame blown out by the cold winter winds.
Her husband was gone.
Tomoe got up and staggered towards her cottage, stumbling over the clumps of snow. But the sorrow in her heart dragged her down, and she fell again, this time on a hard patch of earth. There, she could only cry, cry at what she had lost, cry at the sorrow spreading through her soul, locking her in the cold of winter. Tears fell from her eyes, unstoppable, and she let the sorrow spread through the rest of her soul, consuming her in its cold. Snow began to fall from the sky, staining the world white, and snow fell in her soul, too, covering the vast emptiness in her heart with layers of cold.
Her husband was gone.
A light wind blew around the falling snow, carrying it, scattering it. It was soft, like a dove's touch, but it echoed with emotions unsaid. Tomoe sat up and felt it tugging at her hair, whispering quietly in her ear. Even the wind was quiet, quiet like the snow, and even the wind seemed broken, hollow. The falling snow fell in patterns, seeming to form his face, and even the wind whispered his name.
Kenshin.
The wind's whispering grew more frequent, louder and louder. It bore into her mind, her very soul, and longing filled her heart, longing for his warmth. Half-delusional, she reached out with trembling fingers, but they only found air, cold, cold air with not a hint of warmth, of hope. There was nothing around her, nothing left for her, nothing but the cold of winter, chilling her body, her mind. Yet she could feel his warmth, dancing out of her reach like a flickering flame, and she reached for it once more. But it faded from her mind, leaving her empty, hollow. It faded away from her heart, her soul, gone, forever. All her precious memories of him, they all began to fade with it, and it seemed that he was not only wiped off the face of the earth, but wiped off her mind, too. He was fading away, fading away forever, and she would lose it all.
"Kenshin!" She snapped, and screamed in despair. She screamed, and grief echoed in her voice, heart-wrenching grief unable to be contained by the soul anymore. She screamed it all out, all her loss, her sorrow, the cold that fell in her soul like snow. She screamed it all, but his warmth would not return, for he was gone.
Gone.
"Where are you?! Kenshin!"
By miracle, a raven flew from the forest and towards her, a black shape in the unbroken expanse of white. Then it opened its beak, and began to sing.
A/N: I know that ravens don't sing. Which is why this is a supernatural fic.
