A/N:

Dove: Wow. Note the brilliance of the bird. Yes. Me. A Dove is a bird. And me. Isn't that fun. Anyhoo.. in that last chapter of Dark.. I spaced Kaoru's lovely injuries. Y'know, the ankle and wrist? Yes, all bow to my brilliance. Okay, again, using the oh-so-fun adrenaline excuse. *BWHAHA* .. yeah.

Kenshin: She's really excited about her new story, she is quite hyper now. Although that MAY have something to do with the certain.. overdose of sugar running through her system.

Sano:.. and the fact that she brought her Principles of Democracy grade up from a D to a B in two days..

Kenshin: ..although at this moment she's still grounded..

Dove: SHUT UP ALREADY!!

(Anyhoo. This is the sequel to Dark. If you haven't read that, I seriously doubt this will make ANY sort of sense to ya. Y'know? ^-^ Anyway..)

Welcome to Silence. Where pain and hate walk hand-in-hand, and love hides in the corners. Don't wander far, wouldn't want anything to happen to you. Now, take my hand and we'll journey into the Darkness together…

Silence

Chapter One – Revenge

Kaoru waited with bated breath. One moment..two..

"Well? Aren't you gonna say?" She prodded, voice shaking slightly.

The grim look on Megumi's face grew still grimmer.

The door burst open to reveal Sano stumbling in.

"What happened!?"

"Walked into a pole." He prodded the bruise on his forhead tenderly. Megumi interrupted, clearly annoyed at having Sanosuke steal her thunder.

"Soujiro is not brain-dead. However, there is a lot of scar tissue and his brain is enflamed. He is in a deep coma. He may not wake up. We're doing what we can." Kaoru, with effort, kept herself cool and calm and composed.

"I..see." Kenshin took hold of her elbow, intent on leading her away from her brother's body for a drink of water and a place to lay down.

"Thank you, Miss Megumi. Let us know if anything changes, please."

"'Course, Kenshin. I have a rooster to attend to. How many more objects can you walk into?" Kaoru listened to Megumi and Sano's bickering as she allowed Kenshin to lead her down the hall.

"I feel as though it was my fault."

"How," Kenshin asked, "Could this in any way be your fault?" Kaoru shook her head slowly.

"I'm not sure. It just.. feels that way."

"You just feel that way because you weren't there and had no way to prevent it, therefore you feel responsible for your brother's pain."

"Thank you, Doctor Himura." Kaoru replied, managing a small grin.

Kenshin responded with a smile of his own.

Sano called Kenshin, claiming that he needed him to talk to Tsubame.

After making sure that Kaoru was alright with it, Kenshin hurried off to follow him.

"I really do love him.." Kaoru murmured to herself, as she leaned next to the water fountain. "He's so sweet. Yeah, he's a murderer.. which could be a relationship-killer.. but he has certaintly saved me an awful lot." About that moment, Kaoru remembered her injuries. She looked down to see her walking cast still firmly in place, although her ACE bandage was a little unravelled. "Yeah, I guess it's decided. I do love Kenshin.."

"How touching." Came a silky voice from the shadows. Kaoru lunged away from the wall.

A strange-looking man stepped out of the supply-room next to the fountain. He sported wild white-gray hair, and freaky reddish eyes. He wore loose-fitting.. robes? And a floppy straw hat. On his hip he modeled a Katana and Wakizashi family.

"Leave me alone." Kaoru ordered. He smirked.

"I'm Jinei Udo."

"I'm Kaoru. Point?"

"I'm here for you, thank you oh-so-much for identifying yourself."

"Glad to be of service." Kaoru smiled half-heartedly, and took off in the opposite direction.

"KENNNNSSSHIINNN!" She yelled. "WHILE I'M THINKING ABOUT IT, I DO LOVE YOU! NOW IF YOU COULD COME AND SAVE ME FROM THE MAD-MAN WITH THE SWORD, I WOULD BE IMMENSLY APPRECIATIVE!"

The man was behind her, thin hand wrapping around her wrist.

WHY was EVERYONE faster, stronger, heavier, AND taller than her?!

Well.. Misao and Soujiro weren't.. maybe..

She leaned her weight backwards, trying to twist free. The dude was incredibly talented in the grip department.

"Let me go!" She cried, and then heard the barely discernible foot-steps of Kenshin racing down the hall. Swearing liberally. She was pretty sure that he was even making some up.

"Now, why would I do that, Miss Kaoru?" Jinei was in no rush to actually be dragging her off, he was just watching her twist in his grip with an amused/insane smile.

Kenshin appeared in front of them, skidding to a halt when he saw Kaoru wriggling to be free of the tall man's grip. His eyes narrowed.

"Jinei." An extremely pissed assassin growled. Jinei gave another mad grin.

"Battousai! Well, I'll be.." Jinei responded, a wicked edge to his voice. "Thank you for verifying the importance of this girl."

"How about you let her go and I run you through with my sword?"

"How about.. no?"

Kenshin had a mini internal battle with the Battousai. It consisted of an mental arm-wrestling match, followed by 'Rock Paper Scissors', and finished with a staring contest that neither one managed to beat the other at.

Kenshin won by convincing his angry counterpart that Jinei hadn't actually hurt or taken Kaoru yet.

About that time, Jinei gave an insane giggle and wrapped an arm around Kaoru's lithe waist, lunging backwards, through a window.

A paper fluttered to the ground before Kenshin.

"Meet me here, at the appointed time, Battousai. Be ready to fight!"

Kenshin gave a growl, as they went out the window.

"JINEI!"

'I don't suppose that this would count as taking?'

'You're still not getting out, Battousai.'

'Ha. Ha. Haha. I laugh at your weak and idle threats.'

With very little effort, the Battousai brought himself into full control again. He adjusted his Katana underneath his coat, pushed a few stray strands of his red hair from his boiling eyes of lava, and snatched up the paper.

He scanned it, and then crumpled it up and tossed it into a trash can. Without furthur ado, the Battousai flowed from the hospital, intent on getting Kaoru back, making sure that she had REALLY said that she loved him, and getting some sleep.

Oh, and Soujiro waking up would be really good, too..

"I'm bored."

"I'm glad to know that."

"Nothing ever happens here!"

"..yep.."

"Aren't you bored?"

"Could be."

A small laugh followed the last dead-pan statement.

"Wren! Stay in character!" The irate drama teacher shouted.

"I'm sorry, it's just so hard!" The smallish girl of sixteen, whose golden locks fell straight to an inch past her chin and whose cobalt eyes sparkled with immense life, responded with a large smile.

Her smiles came easily, and made those around her grin as well.

"Since our lead cannot seem to focus today, class is dismissed.. what, two minutes early? Is that all? You may leave. Come to class prepared to stay in character tommorrow, Wren."

"'Course!" The chipper girl responded with a wave over her shoulder.

She found her best friend, a tall boy with short blonde hair and a somewhat forced but very real smile.

"Hey, Auden!"

"What, Wren?"

"I want to walk home today!"

"You aren't allowed, you know that."

"Just 'cause daddy has some enemies? Feh. You comin' or not?" Auden shook his head helplessly. She was a stubborn girl, and once her mind was made up, nothing short of brute force could change it.

"Alright, I'm just coming so you don't get hurt."

"Such a fabulous friend."

"But if you get in trouble, I was never there."

"A pal to the end. C'mon!"

*****

"Wren. This is not the way to your house."

"I wanted to swing by the mall on the way home, to get that new book by Terry Brooks. Y'know, the High Druid of Shannara series?"

"The first one? Jarka Ruus?"

"Yep!"

"In that case, double-time. I want to get that one too!"

*****

"This looks like a fantastic book."

"It really does."

"But you're going to be late in getting home."

"Oh well." Wren grinned at her friend, holding her purchase to her chest protectivly.

Auden just shook his head, also grinning. He turned to face forward.

Just seconds later, something unexpected happened.

A block from Wren's house, a black van pulled in front of them. Four masked, well-armed men lunged out.

Auden leapt in front of Wren, only to be shot with no remorse. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the way of the wrong people.

Wren screamed. She turned to run, but two men caught her arms, and she was jerked back. The book fell from her hands, cracking into the pavement with a muffled thump.

The daughter of Shisho Makoto was dragged, thrashing and shrieking into the van as her best friend bled on the sidewalk.

The van took off with a screech of tires.

The boy rolled over slowly, a hand clasped to his stomach, where the bullet had passed cleanly through and flown past Wren Makoto harmlessly.

"Have.. to get her.. help.." He groaned, mostly to bolster his own confidence. As he began to crawl on his hands and knees, heading towards the closest house that he could see. He didn't have long. He hoped that whoever had kidnapped Wren had only done it for a monetary reason, not for revenge.

Dove: I'm ungrounded! Funny, I started this during the grounding and ended it the night of the ungrounding. Fun. For those of you confused, yes, Wren is going to become a character. And yes, I made her up. ^-^

Sano: Aren't WE creative.

Dove: Thank you.

Kenshin: Sarcasm much?

Stay tuned next Wednesday for the next installment of Silence!

(Sorry this one was so short, I am hoping that the next one will be better. It all depends on the response! ^-^)