Part 3 {Battle}

I suppose that I should finish telling you my story. I really wish that I didn't have to, to be honest, because the ending has always been hard for me to tell, but I'll do my best.

There is a being above, that, in all of its infinite wisdom, gave the human race freedom. Freedom to love, freedom to live, freedom to choose, and freedom to destroy. Then we went off and it didn't take very long to introduce sin into the world. It took much longer for us to be capable of accepting the being's mercy and becoming a race that can be forgiven.

The being loved us though, so it gifted that mercy, even if it was at the cost of its own kin. It went through all of this just so that people like you and me could have life after death. I was given the gift of freedom and I freely chose destruction.

It was excessively quiet when I awoke. Perhaps that's what should have tipped me off. Like, as in, I woke up and the only thing that I could hear was my own breathing. It was pitch black and the floor underneath me had no substance. It was as if I was balancing on hardened air of some sort. I waved my own hand in front of my face experimentally, but it was clear as day. So, I was in a place that legitimately had nothing in it.

I wasn't based in reality then. Well, that was good to know. Pushing off of the floor, I went through the futile effort of dusting myself off even though there was nothing that could have gotten on me. Some wandering around revealed that I was, in fact, quite right in believing that there was absolutely nothing in this place I was trapped inside of.

I immediately commenced the act of praying to wake up, because I would go totally insane from boredom if that really was the case.

"Evaline." A familiar voice chastised. I jumped violently and decided that I must be imagining things. There was no way that I would ever have been able to hear that voice again, because the owner of it was otherwise belayed. "It's time to wake up." That voice repeated.

I hate dreaming. Sometimes I want so badly to believe that its real…

"Evaline." I try so, so hard not to be sucked in. "Come on, honey." But sometimes, I just can't help it.

"Evali- Eva." The voice changed. My diaphragm immediately halted any and all movement to keep me breathing and my muscles all locked into place at once.

"Look, I know you're angry." I felt a rising tide of unstoppable feelings and I nearly wished for that silence.

"I know that I hurt you." I wanted to scream 'excuses' at the top of my lungs and lash out in rightful vengeance.

"I know. And I'm sorry." There was a tiny crack, perhaps one that only I would pick up on. After all, I knew all of those voice quirks the best.

"But I need you to wake up."

My heart fell and then my eyes snapped open.

A wave of agony followed the action closely.

"So, what are you trying to tell me?" I asked, raising one eyebrow. The irate fire demon ground his jaw and narrowed his bright eyes at me.

"I know that you heard me." He sneered. I blinked, but was actually fighting back a smirk. "Don't play coy, fox."

"Well, why would the great Hiei need my humble talents?" I asked, the tiny smirk still tilting the side of my lip. He looked straight at me and I could see a little bit of how he was actually feeling. The smirk dropped off of my lips.

"She's gone." He finally spat, and I couldn't help but think that I was one of the few people who would be able to pick up on how upset he actually was.

I found myself at a loss of words for a moment or two. That was thoughtless of me to tease him like that. I should have known when I felt that spiritual pressure disappear that someone bad had happened, but it just hadn't really crossed my mind.

That was stupid. Nothing ever went well for very long, especially not when you hung out with the group that I did. Well, we were pretty well known for getting out of things at the last minute; so things usually ended for the best, but they were never boring! A humorless chuckle left my mouth and then I sighed.

"I knew that it was too calm." He rolled his eyes at me, but it sort of helped him see it in a better light. "She's not weak, Hiei." He scoffed and looked away, but I could see that he was listening and just slightly shook my head. "We'll find her."

At that he looked up and some of the somber mood did lift a bit.

"Yeah, same goes for you, you stupid fox." He said and I just closed my eyes and nodded. I knew that we would, I just didn't have quite as much certainty that we could even get the missing girl in question back. What if she was so far gone that-

"She's not. Have faith." And I just kind of deflated at that.

"I- Yeah." Then my mouth closed and we both went off to go find the rest of the group after a few beats of silence. It was all that we could do after all.

Anyway, so it took about twenty seconds to find Genkai and explain the situation concerning Angela and then we had to gather the rest of the group. Explaining the problem and coming up with a plan was significantly harder at that point. I almost wanted to just tell Yuusuke to wing it and see what he came up with. The guy had the luck of- well, not the gods, they had surprisingly bad luck- but of something fantastic, I suppose.

I'm not really going to sit here and argue the semantics of Yuusuke's luck with you; frankly, I have something far more interesting to talk about and that would be how we somehow found Angela and Eva safe and sound.

Well. You know, that's what I had hoped for anyway.

I was so done. Really, I had to be honest, I was so far beyond done, it might have actually been verging onto being over nine-thousand in its percentage count at that point. That is a freakishly high number, or were you not aware?

Anyway, as I was saying, I was done. Very done. Very, very- okay, I'm done. All right, I can't be the only one laughing at that terrible pun or my awful avoidance skills, right? So. What was I freaking out about? Well, I was freaking out because my dear soulmate (I have a really terrible soul-mate, just so you're aware) was being really odd, and I was really angry (worried) at (about) him. I also may or may not have also been recently kidnapped by a large bird.

At least, I think it was a bird. If it wasn't, then someone really needs some nail-filing. Those things were daggers in my shoulders. So, there's that stuff. But, frankly, it all completely pails in comparison to what I was truly freaking out about though — and that was that when I awoke I found that I couldn't see, I could barely move and I was completely unable to use my magic.

Did I have a right to panic at that point? Well, some people (Hiei) might have claimed that to be debatable, but I most definitely did not. The moment I lose control of my senses I begin to lose it and the magic was just icing on top of the cake. Oh, and did I forget to mention the screaming pain in my back whenever I moved too far?

Okay, okay, I was obviously in a really terrible mood. You didn't do anything, I was just very upset. It was an upsetting experience. So, let's just dive right into it shall we?

I jerked out of my half-doze at the sound of a squeaking door, trying to find the source, but it was simply too dark to see. There was a grunting noise and heavy footsteps, so probably my jailor or something. I thought about asking where I was and why in the world there was an insistence on having no light source, but the thing sounded really big so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

A few moments after said grunting there was a scuffle and then a thump not very far away from me. The hulking form that was big enough to feel finally wandered off and I let out a shaky breath. The lump just barely a shade darker then its surroundings suddenly moaned and stirred. I bit down a squeal and went totally still, freezing up. If I jumped then I would hurt my back and just trust me when I tell you that it really hurt and leave it at that.

The form seemed to sit up and, thankfully, it appeared human shaped and far smaller then the huge form of my guard. I was hoping, in a sort of terrible, backwards way that this was a companion in my cell, as horrid as that would be of me, I didn't want to be alone. What if I had to stay there, bored and silent and potentially dying.

I would go so insane. So, yeah, needless to say I was kind of glad for the company.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. So, after the form finally found the strength to sit up correctly I gave it a few moments, hoping that it would introduce itself and identify as a human, not some terrible alien, but it seemed to stay pretty quiet, so I did the smartest thing to do when you meet a total stranger and that was to—

"Uh, hi?"

There was a funny wheezing noise closely following my intensely appropriate introduction and I got really confused, then it hit me that the other person was trying to talk or something but their voice was too shot for them to really be able to get the words out. Well, that was one way to make me feel like a terrible person. Embarrassment coloring my cheeks (not that the other person would be able to tell, seeing as it was pitch black) I decided to make them stop ruining their vocal cords and instead chose to simply chat with them. We were all alone in a dark place after all. They were a guest of sorts, I could at least make an attempt at entertainment.

"So. Welcome to the party." I said, chuckling dryly near the end. It was quiet and the wheezing went silent. "It's a real slice." I added a few seconds later. There was a beat of silence and I was afraid that my new room-mate wasn't going to talk or make any sounds at all, but I was in luck, she (it really sounded like a she) snorted out a laugh a moment later.

"Yeah, I'll just talk to myself, don't worry about it." I added quickly, getting the feeling that she was going to continue wheezing and whistling and making sounds that shouldn't come out of the human mouth. They weren't natural, so I would just chat it up and lie around, wondering what my fate was and why I was in that place.

I kept wondering too, in the back of my head. I wondered where I was, I wondered who I was with, I wondered about why I had been kidnapped. I wondered and wondered why I could never have anything go right; my entire life had been one long line of mistakes and bad breaks and that could be very upsetting after a while.

I wondered if Hiei was looking for me. I can admit that, it was something that wallowed in the back of my head, floated around, poked and prodded. Did he care? Was he worried? Why wasn't I getting hurt by the separation? Was he close by?

All of these questions pounded at my head constantly, like a breaking wave and I continuously frustrated myself by it. I was already in a lot of pain, in the dark, in captivity by who knows what. I didn't need to be spending this much time wallowing in my thoughts about some stupid idiot who I couldn't seem to get rid of.

So, time passed I suppose.

"Any luck?" I asked, pausing my pacing long enough to look at the prickly man beside me; he didn't even bother to open his eyes and answer me, he just shook his head, eyebrows furrowing.

"Didn't you just fucking ask me that same question less than five minutes ago?" He snapped, voice straining a bit. Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair and took a deep breath.

"The humans are wearing off on me, they're always in such a hurry." I answered, trying to explain my odd behavior. It was true, too; I was being oddly impatient. Normally I was the most patient out of anyone, in any dimension. I was renowned for my plotting and capability to plan ahead. It was practically legend. I shook my head at that. Legend. Hah, it was just good planning and clear, logical thinking. Also, a bit of luck, probably stolen from Yuusuke or something, because as many things as I was, lucky wasn't on the list.

I would even go as far as to claim myself unlucky.

I just felt like I was falling apart form the inside out. I felt like I was losing sight of what was most important to me even though my demon half was growing more powerful. I was in a place where I could get what I had wanted the most, and yet I only felt empty. I felt like if I made the choice to put my human life behind me, if I abandoned it now that my mother couldn't be in the picture anymore then I would not only be failing her, but myself as well.

She had wanted me to be happy. I couldn't be happy, not here, not alone, not going back to how I used to be. I had been miserable and it was only after being alleviated from that stress that I had realized how horrible I had truly felt. I had been so sad and my heart had been so heavy with all of the failures that I had made that, how could I want that back?

How could I not want my human life? I had always held onto the idea that love was stupid, but really, what was I thinking. It wasn't useless, or dumb. I had been shown that love by my mother and it had changed me into something I didn't even believe that I could be. Then I had been shown that adoration again, but not by something I was going to lose the next day, or the next week. I would have it for as long as I wanted it and my mother had known that. She had felt that and she had wanted me to have that, how could I turn away something that beautiful?

I couldn't.

I couldn't just say, 'well, that was it, it was fun'. I couldn't just say goodbye to that happiness. She was searching and waiting, I knew that and she had that horrible faith in me. She had that belief that I would pull through. She had expected me to be an idiot. I could see that disappointment, but I could also see her just waiting. Waiting for me to see my mistake, waiting for me.

She had been so sad though, and that sadness had overwhelmed her. I had failed her and she had drowned under the pressure. I would say that it was because she had such slim shoulders, but there was something there that I felt I was missing, something that I couldn't see and it weighed down on her more heavily than anything else. I didn't know if it was regret, or sadness, or just sheer loss of innocence.

Some people are forced to grow up very quickly and she had lost that innocence so quickly. She had been exposed to the horrors of the world. A loose nerve ending continuously prodded until it shriveled up and died.

Eva was waiting.

I wouldn't fail.

My head felt like it was going to crack into two when I finally found her. Relief flooded through my system as I felt the connection flicker and then, miraculously, hold. It was the first time, however, that I felt her thoughts not only immediately pick up on my intrusion, but grab it and hold me there. It was as if she was crooning over what was there and it was then that I realized that she was sleeping.

'Hiei, what are you doing here?' Her smooth voice murmured, and I froze up, unable to really answer. I didn't know if it was because I was overwhelmed by her presence, or if I was just nervous, but something was keeping me from feeling truly relieved.

There was a silence and then that haze lifted and she shook off her doze, waking up with a startled vengeance.

'Woah, since when has this been a thing?!' She yelped, rather loudly. The tension left my shoulders in a huge huff and I found myself relieved that she hadn't changed and that she was fine and that Angela was still Angela.

I still couldn't answer that question, though. How was I supposed to explain to her that I had always been able to hear her thoughts without her freaking out? I mean, no matter how you cut it, Angela was Angela and she did not take bad news very well. I might even say that she took it quite violently. So, I just chose not to say anything at all.

She stayed silent as well and I couldn't practically hear her clenching and unclenching her jaw. I went to listen in on where she was going with this, but hit a practical brick wall. Okay, so she just learned how to do and control telepathic communication overnight. Okay.

What.

'About six months.' I finally said bluntly, unable to bear the silence any longer. It was freaking me out that she wasn't absolutely flipping her shit over this, but who was I to say, I couldn't see her after all. I could only hear her and feel what she was doing. I wondered if she could feel that overlay too. It had originally been irritating, constantly able to feel the ghostly movements and hunger and headaches of someone that wasn't me, but eventually it became something that I grew attached to.

When she had disappeared and that connection had abruptly halted, I had fallen into such a panic that it nearly rivaled how I felt the first time my arm was burned by my dragon. She was tame enough then, but not so much before that. The only reason I hadn't spiraled into a craze was because I knew that if she was dead, I would be too, so I had to have faith that she was fine.

And here she was.

Just fine.

'What?!' She yelled. Ah, there it was. I was beginning to wonder if I was dreaming again. 'Were you ever planning on telling me?!' She continued; I only raised an eyebrow and moved into a more comfortable position, resting my head against my fist.

'I was hoping that I wouldn't have to.' I admitted, surprising even myself with my own honesty.

She was apparently quite shocked too, because her blockage against her own thoughts lifted and I found myself overwhelmed by a sudden barrage of feelings and thoughts, it was loud.

There was annoyance and frustration and disappointment, there was a rattling amount of sadness, but there was one feeling that absolutely dwarfed everything else, and that was a sense of elation.

I don't even know if I could correctly describe how much it just overwhelmed any other emotion because spoken language is just not made to capture things of that kind of monstrosity. You can try, but you have to know how something like that feels to understand. I had never felt something like that before, but I knew that I had felt something similar when I had the knowledge that Angela was safe and sound and still intact, just not quite to that level.

My cheeks began to burn as I realized that her sense of pure happiness was directly related to me and my efforts to find her. Oh.

She seemed to come back to reality and in a moment of vibrant embarrassment snapped her thoughts shut. Whenever she had learned that, she had only learned it enough to be able to use the ability because she was no master by any stretch of the imagination. Sighing, I couldn't help thinking that she was kind of over-reacting. I had been able to hear her thoughts for months, although that was why her excitement was surprising. Her thoughts regarding me had never been positive, only neutral on the best of days, hateful on most.

I couldn't help wondering what had changed, but of course she would never tell me. Angela was rather tight-lipped about how she felt and what upset her or made her happy. I was very similar, so it didn't really bother me, but it had never been much of a guessing game, I just had to listen to what she was thinking about — which had been fairly embarrassing on more than one occasion. It was also interesting to know that even her thoughts had a tight reign on them, there were many things that she would stop herself from thinking about (which included me) and other times when she would seem to hold entire conversations and arguments with herself.

Her thoughts were interesting, and they had also been very distracting on more then one occasion. Shaking off my train of thought, I went back to waiting for her answer.

'You so owe me dinner after this.' She finally snapped and then the connection closed.

I sat in almost complete silence for a few minutes, just sort of stewing in shock and then, finally, belatedly, I swore rather loudly and rejected that we had ever held a conversation.

I made a split second decision to find Kurama and get on to finding Angela. Her coordinates definitely held some interest to them.

"Hiei, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked, straightening up from whatever he had been doing. Probably devising some sort of horrible way to kill someone- or just finishing up paperwork, either one.

"I found her." I said, trusting him to know what I was talking about. The gloom around the redhead lifted and he nearly grinned, turning toward me fully.

"Really now. Where?" He asked. I closed my eyes and then reopened them a few seconds later.

"My territory." I stated flatly, feeling an impressive amount of irritation reflected in my voice.

It looked like it was time to head home.

A droplet of sweat hit the floor and a muffled scream echoed in the darkness, teeth grinding down into a piece of fabric with all of the strength a jaw could muster. Another pained cry echoed in tandem with a crack and a sharp burst of pain down my spine.

A small hand continued to dab the side of my face with cold water as I struggled to get my back to go back into place.

Hot drops of something pooled in the small of my back as I continued to tremble and I simply prayed that it was only sweat. Finally, I got far enough up and the small body in front of me shifted around to my back and then those small hands were quick to crack everything back to where it should be so I could heal.

The rag dropped out of my mouth as I screeched in pain, feeling my brain go fuzzy and my prison-mate held me up so I wouldn't collapse and nullify the work we had done. I couldn't try and heal it with magic, something about this room kept me from being able to use it and if I tried to anyway, I would be tasered.

A magic taser.

Who knew, right?

Anyway, so as the pain began to ebb enough for me to think I realized that I had failed to think about how Hiei would react when he felt the pain I was going through. Oops. And now he was flipping out on the other end of our connection. Bracing myself, I opened it and was surprised not to hear just swearing, but a lot of worry too.

'What the actual fuck!' He yelled. I rolled my eyes and then winced as I moved on accident. 'You forgot, didn't you?! You actually fucking forgot that I had to feel that!'

This time my wince was from him being right. I had forgotten and all though you couldn't exactly blame me for not wanting Hiei to know that I was in pain, you couldn't write off my oversight of how worried he would be.

'I… sorry.' I said quietly. My head was still spinning, so it was hard to think, but I could at least apologize. I owed him that. He sighed heavily and rubbed his face with his hands. I noted that he really need to cut his hair.

'Fuck. It's fine.' He finally spat, and then we just sort of sat in silence. 'I just, I just wish that you would- have let me help… or something.' He added haltingly. It took me a moment to comprehend that he had just told me how much he wished he could have supported me and I felt my face heat up. Those questions that had been screaming in the back of my mind suddenly went very quiet and I felt my lip tremble.

'I…' A sniffle cut me off and I rubbed my eyes. 'Yeah. Okay. I'll remember.' I finally said and I knew that he would understand what I meant. I wasn't the only one who only wanted someone to care. We both claimed that it didn't matter, but it did. It really did.

The silence began to turn awkward and I tried to wrack my tired brain for something to talk about.

'So… where am I?' I asked.

'You don't know?' I almost wanted to smack him and say 'don't be coy,' but it was just too ingrained in his personality. He couldn't breath without some form of sarcasm.

'It's a little dark.' I said, and then realized that I could just let him have access to my eyes. It only took me a few seconds to do just that.

'Wow. No kidding.' He stated dryly, and then hesitated. My eyebrows furrowed. 'You're…in the dungeons below my house.' He whispered and I could almost hear the rage beginning to build in his voice. What. I mean, it was almost a good thing that he could figure out where I was and that at least I was in a place he made, that made me feel somewhat better and, admittedly, I was frankly pissed to be in confinement, but… that's what happened when you lead the kind of life that I did.

This wasn't the first time that I was in some sort of jail, though I was hoping that it would perhaps be my last.

'Hiei.' I murmured, trying to chill him out enough to ask him my questions. He took a deep, shuddering breath and then let it out. I carefully continued. 'So… How long have I been here?" I asked, almost too nervous to hear the answer, but wanting to anyway.

'Two weeks and a day.' He answered automatically and once again, I just wanted to reach through our mental connection and kiss him silly for being unwittingly sweet. He had kept track. Really, really well. That meant something, especially when it was Hiei. 'It's about time I found you.'

Oh man. I rubbed at my chest, glaring down at my heart.

Traitorous thing wouldn't stop pounding.

'Are you coming?' I asked, my voice falling to a whisper.

There was a beat of silence and then:

'As fast as I can.'

Sidetracking to pick up Angela was taking up more time then we had. Every moment we were in Demon World, Kurama slowly continued to lose control and become darker and, frankly, more terrifying. I might be able to beat him on a good day, but only with luck on my side, and he was losing control of the part of him that was moral.

He was trying, but you could see it wearing on him, those thoughts of what he should do, what was right and that other part of him that said the exact opposite. Violence and death were common in Demon World. We had such long life spans because most of the time you didn't die of sickness or something, you died because someone murdered you in your sleep or challenged you to a fight or something.

Strength was the currency, not money. Even the best relationships included brawls, it was just how our race functioned. Frankly, I was rather curious to see what would happen to Angela after she completely morphed into a demon.

I was also curious to see what would happen the first time she tried to wake up a sleeping demon. Sleep rage was a pretty terrifying thing, I was curious to see how she would take it. Humans wake up and they're very slow and groggy, demons have an automatic instinct to wake up quickly and violently.

Normally it was a good thing that kept you alive, but you couldn't decide to only react to certain things, so sometimes you could end up accidentally hurting someone close to you because they decided to come too close.

We couldn't just decide not to go get Angela though. I was… too attached for that. I had never kept my Jagan Eye open for more then eighteen hours at a stretch, and yet I had kept it on for almost two weeks, give or take a few moments. I was now drawing on Angela's magic reserves as well, although she wasn't aware of such an intrusion. She couldn't use it anyway was what I had decided and if she wanted me to rescue her, then she was just going to have to trust me with her power.

I knew how to get back to my own house of course, but I had to know what we were up against and the closer we got, the more on edge I felt. The spiritual pressures that I was picking up on were decidedly not demon or human and that made me very, very nervous. And annoyed; but what else was new?

'So, what have you been doing?' Angela asked. The connection had been open continuously since we had come back into contact and she was seemingly quite giddy about being able to talk to me for long periods of time. Admittedly, I had never met anyone who could keep up with my sarcasm quite as well as her. She always seemed to know exactly what I meant.

It was like another Kurama, but less devious and disturbing.

'Throwing parties and dancing the hula.' I snapped, rolling my eyes.

'Um, Hiei, I hope you know that I am never going to erase this picture of you out of my head.'

And the worst part was, I had to see her mental picture too. It was one of the more horrible things that I had been exposed to.

Suddenly, Angela yelped and then her voice broke off.

'Hiei, they're-'

I blinked and held a hand to my ear, as if that was going to help.

"Angela?!" I yelled, knowing that actual sound was more powerful then a thought. There was nothing. Just silence.

No static, no impression, not even any feeling to know what was happening. Once again, we were disconnected. I cursed.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fucking-"

"Hiei, calm down, what happened?" Genkai asked, having stopped with Kurama further ahead after my abrupt bout of shock and yelling. I looked up, clenching my jaw.

"I can't hear her. Something's wrong." I snarled. "We need to go. Now."

I took off, trying to go as fast as I could, but Demon World was huge and it didn't have technology like Human World. Besides, I could run faster than a car.

I couldn't help the panic that I felt though. She was tough, but what if something happened? It was a very foreign feeling. I had never been quite so worried about anything except for maybe Yukina and she was my sister. I didn't even know how to place the things that were happening to me; but I knew that no matter what, I had to find her. I just had to hope that my soul was leading me in the right direction and have faith.

I had never been good at faith or hope.

The huge hand dug into my face as I groaned with pain. My small room-mate was holding onto my foot, but another wave of that huge hand and she was lying on the floor across the cave, out cold. The bright light dug into my eyes and I was nearly crying in pain. I hadn't been able to see in weeks, it hurt horribly, even with my eyes squeezed shut.

I tried to bite the giant hand suffocating me, but couldn't open my mouth enough and my back was such a distracting source of pain that I was beginning to wish that I could be in my cellmate's position, unconscious and unable to feel anything at all.

My vision began to get hazy and I wondered how this had all happened. I had just been sitting and talking to Hiei, waiting for our daily source of food to magically appear when suddenly the sound of heavy footsteps was echoing close by and I froze, trying to go hide, but I couldn't move because of my physical state and had to stay still and hope that nothing bad was happening.

Maybe there was just going to be another prisoner, but I knew that I was just grasping at straws. Hiei was getting close and that meant that they were probably coming for me. I was the one in here that was captured probably as some form of bait. It was hard to say, but that was the feeling that I got.

I felt as if luring Hiei here was the idea, but there was nothing we could do, if he got too far away from me we would both get hurt, so it just had to work like it was at that second. We just had to keep trying to escape, and he had to keep heading toward me.

I hadn't expected that my captors would want to hurt me though, it just didn't seem to add up, but perhaps the idea was to incapacitate me so that I wouldn't be able to fight when I was brought to where I was certain Hiei would be. That was usually how it worked anyway.

Black dots flashed in the edges of my eyes and my vision began to tunnel. I was struggling for breath and my lungs were absolutely screaming, but I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't even try to fix anything. I was too weakened from weeks of no physical activity, partial meals and bad sleep and still trying to heal from a serious injury on top of that.

It was a miracle I was still moving at all, to be frank. As I went unconscious, I knew that I would have a killer headache upon awakening.

And I just hoped that nothing terrible would happen while I was incapable of protecting anyone.

Hiei's panic seemed to grow worse with each passing moment, similarly to my rising levels of insanity, and Genkai wasn't as young as she once was. We were all nearing the edge of our rope. I could see that we were probably walking into a trap, but there wasn't very much that we could do about that. Eva was still nowhere to be found, and we couldn't get too far away from Angela without Hiei collapsing.

We were in a bind. Suddenly, something came to me in a flash of inspiration and I made a split-second decision that actually very well might have saved our lives.

"Yuusuke." The man looked up from where he was running, still easily going full tilt, the guy wasn't one of the most powerful demons in Demon World for nothing after all. "You and Kuwabara need to head back to Human World." He opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. I really didn't have enough to time to explain correctly, but he needed to do it. He and Kuwabara were the only ones who could separate from our group and look for Eva. "Just do it." I said and his mouth snapped closed, he glanced at Kuwabara, who looked much more hesitant, but then they both nodded and stopped.

Hiei glanced at me, but didn't bother asking, because of all people, he was aware that I knew what I was doing.

Yuusuke ripped open a portal a moment later and then they both disappeared, the tear in space time snapping shut behind them. Looking forward, I then glanced at Genkai, who looked like she was well-aware of what I was about to say.

"You wait far out of range. I want to make sure that if something goes wrong, we're not all trapped inside." I said.

There was that rising feeling in me that something big was about to happen and we weren't seeing the whole picture just yet. Genkai slowed and then disappeared from my line of vision. Both Hiei and I turned completely forward, ready to face whatever seemingly invisible foe was ahead of us. We still couldn't seem to tell what exactly was lying in wait back at Hiei's house, but we were now prepared. The only thing that needed to happen was a break before facing whatever was ahead.

It took almost an hour to get close enough to stop. We didn't want to be going in looking rushed and exhausted, even though that's exactly what we were, we needed to go in looking well-rested and powerful. If we looked weak, we were going to get taken advantage of and that was the last thing that either of us needed. We were already running out of time.

It would be a miracle if Eva was still in that body and not completely destroyed, the longer we took, the more likely it would become that she wouldn't be alive anymore at all. I didn't know if I could handle losing another person who was important to me.

We were both winded and sweating when we stopped. I could see the strain on Hiei's face and he closed the Jagan Eye with a heavy sigh, slumping against a tree. He must have been near falling over to be willing to do that in front of another person, especially another demon who was, admittedly, beginning to lose their sanity.

My head was keeping up a steady pounding by that point and I was beginning to feel nauseous. It was hard to think and when I really needed my head to be clear, that was a huge, screaming issue. No pun intended.

Undoing my hair-tie, I ran my fingers through my hair, checking to make sure that I was well-armed before brushing it with my fingers and using a little bit of magic to get it looking presentable.

Hiei did the same when fixing his clothing and clearing off any sweat.

When we could both breathe and looked as good as we ever would we took off with a nod. And a little bit of a prayer.

I was dozing, I guess. Eventually, complete silence gets to you. You sing, you dance, you murmur stories to yourself, you cry, then you reach a point at which there's nothing to do but think. So, I just… I just thought about stuff. I never got tired, or hungry, or thirsty. I never really needed to move or go to the bathroom. I just had hours and hours of excess time to sit around and think.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. Life doesn't discriminate in dealing you bad cards, or giving you choices that sometimes seem too hard to bear. I have a lot to learn, and not enough time to do it; and I've made mistakes. I've made choices that I wish every day I could take back, and only on the good days, do I realize how necessary they were.

I have to keep on telling myself that I didn't have another choice. I have to keep on telling myself that everything was necessary. Most days aren't good days.

Most days I sit, curled up, trying to tell myself that it's okay. There was nothing in the darkness, nothing was trying to get me, nothing was going to eat me, nothing was going to attack me. There was nothing out there. I had to hide my face and pray that what I was saying was true.

I kept on trying to believe it.

Most days were bad days.

I would close my eyes, but horrible things lived on the backs of my eyelids. I could wake up, and nothing could hurt me, but I was alone. There are some things that you just can't heal from. I couldn't heal from everything that I had gone through. I couldn't truly believe that nothing was going to hurt me, because I had been living in that state of paranoia for too long.

Things did hurt you.

I just had to keep on repeating one line like a mantra, one line that continuously lived in my head. Someone very important had said it, and I was beginning to realize how much I had taken that person for granted.

'It's okay. You're okay. I'm right here. It's going to get better.' I kept on trying to believe it, but I couldn't. He wasn't there. I kept hoping that he would be, but how could he even reach me when even I didn't know where I was.

I was so afraid that I would be lost in the darkness forever and that I would be alone.

I still held onto that hope, though.

I just kept holding on.

I was correct in my assumption. When I woke up, I did have a really terrible headache; in fact, I may have even made the claim that it was one of the worst that I had ever experienced, but it wouldn't have been a true claim. Sadly, I had woken up in worse states before.

Deciding to forgo opening my eyes for a moment, I sucked in a deep breath, coughing a bit because my throat was dry, and then shifted a bit. Well, suffice it to say that it really wasn't my best idea. A few choice words tumbled out of my mouth and I froze, face contorting with pain.

It was really becoming a trend to wake up that way. I wasn't certain of how I felt about that. It was kind of exciting in its own right, but consistently waking up in pain was… unenjoyable. I mean, I could have at least gotten a good night out of it before-hand after all, but no…

Gritting my teeth, I gathered up my will and cracked open my eyes. I thanked Jesus that it was fairly late in the day, because even that dim light pierced my retinas with mind-blowing anguish. It was quite silent and there wasn't much around (well, not much that I could see anyway) so I just went through the methodical process of checking to make sure that everything was mostly in working order.

Not really.

As a matter of fact, I was probably in something that sounds a bit more like 'less-then-stellar' order, and that was coming from someone who spent most of their time getting into life-threatening situations.

My back was doing all right, but I still felt pretty beat up. I could at least move though. Going slowly, I began by simply flexing my hands, then my feet and moved until I had come to a sitting position. My stomach was complaining and I really had to go to the bathroom, but I couldn't looking at my legs (all that hair looked really spectacular, by the way) and wondering if they could really support my weight.

They were thin from disuse and dirty from weeks with no shower. That's when I became aware of exactly how nasty I really was. My hair felt caked to my head and I was streaked with dirt and sweat and my whole body just throbbed with pain, only focused in particular areas.

Basically, I looked and felt like a pile of crap.

Searching the room that I was in, I began to note that it was actually a fair improvement from my last holding place. I was on a cot (which was probably the only reason I could move at all), and there were some sparse decorations. It looked like a room, but now that I was actually at least halfway awake, I could nearly taste the magic in the air. It absolutely saturated my surroundings and I began to wonder if this was what the room looked like at all. This thought distracted me for a moment, but then my bladder reminded me why I had been looking around in the first place and magic became unimportant to me.

Standing up slowly, I actually rather relished the stretch in my muscles. I didn't fall over or anything because I had been rather abnormally strong before this detour. Patting my stomach, I sighed, realizing that I had avoided chub only because I had barely been fed.

Squeezing my eyes shut to clear my head, I began to wander to a door on the other side of the room. Walking made me feel nauseous, and the ambient light from the ceiling made my eyes throb.

"God, who the fuck decided that this was a good idea?" I growled, my voice dry and scratchy. Resting my fingers on the doorknob, I pushed it open. Well, nothing bad had happened, so I continued, realizing that if I didn't find the ladies room, there were going to be some serious problems.

I got lucky. That was my only decision. On the first door that I decided to try, which was across the hall, not only did I find a full bathroom, but I found a store of towels and clothing; which was fantastic, because I really didn't want to look at my shorts and t-shirt. There were duly stripped off along with everything else and the only thing that kept me from actually taking a flying leap into the shower were the wounds covering my body.

I could see though! Even if the bathroom wasn't huge, the water was hot and steamy, there was soap and I knew how to shave with magic. I probably could have cleaned up with magic too, but there was something about a hot shower that was just perfect in a way that magic just couldn't replicate. I needed the simple routine of cleaning myself.

So, I got out of the shower, I got on new clothes, I brushed and dried my hair, I correctly cleaned up my face, I even made myself smell nice. I felt like a new woman and my mood just kept rising with each passing second.

"Now this, this is how it should be." I sighed, my voice sounding much smoother, if not a bit quiet and low. Sighing, I returned to my cot after stripping off all of the covers (I had just gotten clean, I wasn't going to doze on a nasty bed) and then just sat down to think for a while. My mental connection with Hiei was blocked, I was still quite injured, my magic reserves were full, but I was worried about what would happen if I used a lot at once.

That was when I remembered the aura saturating everything around me and felt like a total retard. Flexing a bit, I focused really hard and with a bit of magic more draining then I had expected, my bonded sword popped into existence in front of me. It clattered to the floor and I just stared at it for a while. Finally, my shoulders slumped forward and I dropped my face against my hand.

"Couldn't you bring your other half, too?" I finally muttered, staring at the innocent sword lying on the floor. It hadn't done anything bad to me, but I wanted its counterpart and the person who went along with it. Frankly, I wanted Hiei to hurry up and get to wherever I was, which was apparently where he lived, or something.

Staring at the door, I finally made the decision to get up and go have a look around. I had my magic, I was protected, I had my sword and besides, this was Hiei's house, or castle or something. After all, what house has dungeons?

Groaning, I pushed back to my feet and scooped my sword up off of the floor. Purposefully, I went to the door and cracked it open, checking to make certain that the coast was clear. Naturally, the place was rather foreboding and dim, magic heavy in the air. It didn't feel like Hiei's magic though and that irked me for whatever reason. If this was his house, it should feel like him.

Ignoring the shiver creeping up my spine, I passed through the doorway and into the world on the other side.

I should have noticed the ripple of energy over me as I walked out of the door.

I didn't.

"Ah, as I thought." Kurama noted under his breath. Glancing sideways, I saw him shake his head at me. Frowning, I decided to trust the fox. He had proven time and time again that he knew what he was doing. "Watch your back." He said, and it was his only warning before going completely silent.

Fighting the shiver creeping up my spine, I focused on running the last few minutes to my own castle. We had passed into my territory probably an hour before that, but there had been nothing. If anything, it was too quiet. Something wanted us here, that was for sure. We were probably walking into some sort of trap or another, but it's not like there was another choice on hand, or that would have been what we would go for.

Whatever was on my land had not only intruded, but had kidnapped and beaten my soul-bonded partner. Angela would disagree on the choice of wording, but I wouldn't have asked for her opinion anyway. She was a bit of a feminist and it was annoying.

I suddenly found myself rather glad that she couldn't hear my thoughts right now. It was technically physically impossible, but she would have found a way to beat me within an inch of my life for so much as implying that women were inferior in any way shape or form. I didn't really care either way, if anything I was-

Distracting myself from the topic at hand, that's what I was doing. Something about the air and the dead silence weighing down on my body just put me on edge. It was almost like-

"Fuck." I swore as we finally broke over the last hill and laid eyes on the intruders of my territory.

I should have known that it would the fae. I just should have known. The odd spiritual signature, the creepy silence, the magical pressure in the air, they were all things that just screamed out the presence of the fae. Now I was glad that Kurama had warned me because I probably would have flipped my shit and started killing things without as second thought had he not expressly told me to keep my head. If we were going to get Angela out of there alive and in one piece and my territory in one piece and any kind of information, we were going to have to be careful.

The fae were conniving, irritating and, worst of all, old enough to back up their stupid pride. They made demons lives look short and a human's life look absolutely miniature. They were also freakishly beautiful, something that I had fallen for at a much younger age. It was one of the many stupid things that I did during my phase of interest in the female gender.

That didn't last very long. I was too bloodthirsty, too violent and I got bored easily. Women were annoying, simple as that.

'Hiei…' A voice whispered from inside of my head. I nearly leapt out of my skin in surprise, but then recognized who had finally managed to reconnect. Slowing to a walk, I settled a hand onto my sword and the other into my pocket. Kurama seemed a bit antsy, but that was probably just because he wanted to get this over with as fast as possible and go find Eva, but he also knew that this would take a while.

The fae were expressly prohibited from being in Demon World the same way demons were barred from entering Human World. The mix was just too dangerous and too likely to become catastrophic.

They were crafty though, and getting them to leave without giving into their demands or causing a battle would be difficult. It was terrible timing too, what with the Demon Tournament planned to begin in two days. You could see our short time frame to work with. The fae would suck up at least a day if we were lucky, probably more, and I was having a hard time getting a solid read on Eva because the angel commandeering her form wouldn't stop teleporting about.

It was up to something and I began to feel uneasy about the fae having to just so happened to show up and cause problems at the same time.

'Angela. About time.' I snapped, secretly rather relieved that she was still functioning enough to contact me.

'Hurry.' She whispered, then the connection went dead again.

I spoke too soon.

Wobbling as if made of jelly, I found myself hard pressed to stand. Something didn't want me moving any further, but I wasn't going to just wait to become bait. I couldn't just stand around pretending that everything was going to work out just because I had cried distress to Hiei.

Real life didn't work like fairytales did. Besides, I wasn't the type to just sit around waiting for my knight in shining armor to show up anyway. It just wasn't in my personality to act like that. I was too cynical to believe that I would ever be saved if I didn't do everything myself, although I at least had some faith in Hiei.

He would come. I knew that he would, so I just had to be ready for when he did.

Still, this was proving to be a challenge. Someone had set up barriers around the area that I was trapped inside of and it felt like a huge amount of weight was pressing down the further I went toward the end of the hallway I was in. You couldn't even tell that the thing existed until you walked into it and suddenly found your fifty pounds heavier and crouching down like some old lady with a sliding walker. Every detail in perfection, right down to the sliced open tennis balls that secretly polished the floor.

I was actually getting past the walker now though. It was getting increasingly difficult to stay of my feet and not simply collapse to the floor, but I figured that it had to end at some point, right? There had to be some place where I would suddenly break free of the pressure.

I wasn't finding it though, and it was only getting heavier. I was beginning to have a hard time breathing and my ears were popping. It was incredibly painful.

Thankful for my powerful sword, I leaned my weight against it, curling over the elongated metal stick in hopes that it wouldn't pierce my chest. I ended up having a pommel-shaped bruise when that was all over.

Gritting my teeth, I yelled out and slid the last few feet before finally breaking free with an almost palpable pop. A yellow burst of light shimmered from behind me as I groaned, rubbing my neck from where I had popped up fast enough to get whiplash.

"Thank Jesus, son of Mary." I said. "Its over. Hallelujah." For a nearly solid minute I just stood with my eyes closed, gasping for breath and celebrating my victory. If you're curious as to why I didn't just take my magic to the barrier, it's because taking those things apart was technical and difficult and I did not possess the talent to do it.

That was something that was more up Kurama's alley then mine and Hiei's. Regardless, I got through, more or less without help. Glancing at my sword, I wondered how much support I had really gotten from it. That was made to keep me in, someone who could make a barrier like that wasn't going to put anything on me that it thought I could handle.

I decided to ignore it. A bonded sword had always been a mysterious type of magic and I wasn't going to understand everything about it just because I took to staring at it for long periods of time. I needed to get going, it was hard to say when someone was going to realize that I was out and I didn't have the capacity to correctly defend myself. I was still beaten up and severely weakened from weeks of little to no physical exercise.

I was a hurting unit.

Pushing the tip of my sword into the floor with a clang, I returned to my feet and took a careful look around. To my surprise, the floor and walls were no longer styled in a japanese fashion, but in true, creepy castle fashion. Everything was stone, with witch-light torches as the only illumination. There was sparse decoration, which didn't surprise me, if this was Hiei's castle.

Something just didn't add up to me though. The guy never would have put in this kind of effort to make a castle. He wasn't one for material possessions. I shivered, rather put off by my surroundings. Glancing behind me, I saw that hall simply extended. There was no sign of the place that I had just come from. There were lots of things that magic could do, but I found it increasingly odd that I could have the wool pulled over my eyes so easily.

I mean, it's true, I had once been a lot stronger and I was out of practice and exhausted, but even I was observant enough to pick up on veils. Nerves began to build in my stomach.

If I hadn't even noticed, then that couldn't only mean one thing. I was up against some really powerful foes. And I was alone.

"Oh boy."

Taking a deep breath, I picked my sword up off the floor and slid it back into its sheath. Now that I was outside of that barrier and into open territory, I needed to take some healing magic to my back. I had full reserves. Hell, even my sword had full reserves. If I didn't use some magic, I was probably going to explode.

Over the course of the next few minutes, I returned to workable form and began to make myself look more presentable.

If I had to fight a pile of demons, I was going to look good doing it. Call me vain, but I wouldn't disagree. I was vain. Some part of me also thought that it would be kind of nice if when Hiei saw me next, I didn't have to look like a total retard either, he already had issues with respect. Somewhere in my head, I knew that he respected Kurama and Yuusuke, and maybe even Kuwabara to some extent. Or at least trusted him.

It was much harder to tell with me. I think that he at least had some measure of faith in me, which was at least progress. He didn't really like anyone, but in all honesty, I knew the feeling. I was far nicer and more trusting, and I could at least like people to an extent, but I preferred to be alone over hanging around people.

Or at least, that's how I used to feel. I had been alone so much though, that I had this yearning just to see people and hear voices that weren't yelling or crying or otherwise in distress. I had gotten the chance to interact with Hiei a few times, but we mostly just argued and I could only hear his thoughts. I wanted people in front of me. I wanted to chat with Genkai, and fight with Yuusuke and argue with Kuwabara. I wanted to prattle along at Eva and Yukina, two people that I eventually began to unconsciously protect.

I missed the small things.

Pursing my lips, I stood and stretched my shoulders out, then finally looked back forward, feeling more determined then ever.

I needed to get back to Hiei, destroy the stupid people who thought they could trap me, and then find Eva.

Right then.

"This is not what I planned on doing when I woke up this morning."

A snort came from beside me as Kurama shook his head.

"Behave." He warned, not turning away from the exotic creatures staring us down.

There were only three of them in sight, but the feeling of death-stares boring into my back told me differently. There were six in hiding, spaced out around us fairly evenly, hidden by the trees. I didn't want to fight, but only because it would serve to slow us down. Connecting to Genkai via telepathy, I told her to warn the council of what was happening. Now that I was certain, it would be a bad choice not to notify them, as much as the stupid pompous assholes irritated me, they did get the job done and right then, Kurama just needed me to get Angela and then leave.

We really couldn't afford to stay.

"We have been expecting you." The one in the middle finally stated, it's voice definitively masculine and smooth. Neither of us said anything and the grove that we were in was completely silent, not even the wind was moving. I found that rather odd. Normally the fae brought with them rather unnaturally good weather and fake cheer.

At least, the summer fae did. The only time you ever had an atmosphere like this was when…

Fighting the urge to glance at Kurama, I cussed in my head, realizing that I couldn't talk to him telepathically without my jagan unless I felt like having everyone listen in, which I most certainly didn't want. Whatever this was though, the summer and winter fae cooperated long enough to make it happen.

"Follow me." The noble finally said. Clenching my jaw, I decided not to tell him what he could shove up his ass before walking off. If Angela dropped dead, I was going to have a problem.

I stubbornly refused to acknowledge how much I wanted her out of their clutches and chattering next to me.

Growling slightly under my breath, I followed Kurama who was already a ways ahead.

Something was just so fishy about the whole situation, I just didn't know what.

I didn't expect to be found quite so quickly after getting out and then so easily subdued. When I woke, I didn't awaken to any kind of terrible headache or other bad thing. If anything I was more well-rested and less achy then I had been in months.

I wasn't dressed in my t-shirt and shorts anymore.

Instead I was clothed in some sort of dress, my hair rather done up and I knew that my skin was kind of glowing in some artificial way. The dress though…

I stared at it for me then a minute or two, amazed. It appeared to be made out of water or something, highlights undulating and a fake sense of depth covering the important parts. It was kind of like looking into water that was a few-hundred feet deep. You could see the light penetrating the surface, but nothing underneath. My thighs were kind of exposed and the swells of my breasts as well.

I wouldn't have called it tastefully attractive, if you know what I mean.

I felt like some kind of whore, going out to parade her body about, but damn if I didn't look fantastic though. I mean, I wasn't ugly. I was rather thin and in shape, I had a good-sized chest and a nice face. I wouldn't have called myself dashing, but at least attractive.

Now, the question was, why was I all dolled up anyway?

It didn't long for my answer to appear in the form of what I was certain were my jailers. They came through the door to my bright, golden room, pretty as you please and the one in the front (who I was debating the gender of) hauled me to my feet and with something that I might have even called a bit gentle, pushed me toward the door.

Not knowing what else to do, I sucked it up and did so. I could still feel my sword and had the feeling that I would be seeing Hiei soon after, so I did as I was told.

"Lovely day, hmm?" I said pleasantly, as if they weren't marching me to someplace that probably held something terrible in store for me and they hadn't imprisoned me in a damp cell for three weeks in the dark half dead. No, it was a pleasant walk in the sun.

It was quite sunny, but not very warm, and there was no breeze. We had emerged from a tent (what happened to being in the castle?) and I was being marched through some sort of pavilion that it was in front of a rather large, foreboding stone castle.

I snorted, leave it to Hiei to be as cliche as possible.

"What, no answer?" I prodded, but my guards studiously ignored me, so I took to glancing around instead. We were in a camp filled with inhumanly beautiful humanoid things and I realized who I had been caught by with a distressed shiver.

I had been captured by the fae.

Why couldn't I ever get a good break?

"Welcome Kurama. Hiei." The imperial voice murmured, and one that was very similar, if not slightly lower and more dangerous repeated.

Stopping, I let my senses sweep the room, picking up on escape routes and the number of guards, the colors, the decoration. It was hard saying what could be important, so I just picked up on most of it. The most important feature of the gold and silver pavilion though, would be the two women sitting at the head of it.

They looked rather like humans in that they were a conventional size, and had normal voices and the feature-layout was correct, but that was where the similarities ended. They were freakishly and inhumanly beautiful. On the left, the woman sitting seemed more of a teenager, perhaps in her early-twenties, with loose curls in her pale to dark pink gradient hair. Modest curves, and long legs. Her skin was kissed with sunlight and warmth and her eyes glowed with an almost violently bright green. Long, pointed ears and tilted almond eyes, she radiated some form of cheer and home, but yet still seemed intimidating.

The other was almost the exact opposite. Looking like she was in her later twenties, this woman was taller and didn't have any kind of baby fat. Her curves were well-pronounced and she smiled with a dangerous tilt of lips that looked like chilled raspberries, skin obscenely pale like a glacier and long, straight white hair with seemingly subtle blue highlights that was pulled up and out of her face in a seemingly businesslike fashion.

They exuded power, which was to be expected, seeing as they were the —

"Ladies of winter and summer. It is an honor." I said, tilting my downward respectfully. Hiei didn't even do that, he didn't do anything but glare even more harshly. I almost berated him for being an idiot, but the action didn't seem to phase the two that were holding his mate's life in the balance. In fact, if I took their smirks and tilted eyebrows as an indication, they found it humorous.

"I don't do pleasantries." The fire demon spat. The two didn't react. They were very difficult to read. "Where is my mate?" Hiei broke into a snarl on the last word and even I gave him a surprised blink.

He never called Angela that, but looking at the archaic and ancient beings in front of us, I understood that it was the only phrase he could apply to make his question seem threatening.

Demons die quickly and often very painfully, if you are lucky enough to get a mate and even bond with them then you will be almost overwhelmed by the need to protect them. If I thought about it like that, his actions were actually admirably controlled to that point.

Still.

There were a few beats of silence where everyone held their breaths.

"Of course." The summer lady finally replied.

"Bring out the girl." Winter added.

I sighed. That had been too close for comfort.

I wasn't dumb. Looking across the courtyard at the large pavilion tent that was our destination, I did my best to square my shoulders and hold onto as much pride as possible that I could have in such a revealing piece of clothing.

The fae dotting the courtyard watched me as I were some sort of exotic animal as I was paraded past them. A particularly ugly one at that. Knowing that I was being underestimated irked me for some reason and so I took some of my rather large stores of magic energy and began to embellish my appearance some. I took the dress and reworked it a bit to seemingly glow a bit from within and glisten against my skin like real water, as if it really was just sliding from my hair or something.

I darkened my hair a bit because I liked how a really dark brown contrasted with blue and paled my skin some, then shook off those ideas because they changed my appearance too much. Instead, I chose to add more breast support, bump it up a bit and some trickling jewelry for effect. I chose not to touch my face, knowing that Hiei, surprisingly enough, really hated make-up, claiming that it was unnatural, and really, perhaps I just didn't want him to think I was ugly.

I took one long, lingering look at my arm before turning toward the flaps of the tent and taking a deep breath.

"Well, let's get this over with." I stated, then, pushing open the flap with one hand, I marched forward. My guards seemed fairly flabbergasted, but to say that I actually cared about their opinions would be a horrible lie, and I was not a liar.

When I say marched, it wasn't really quite that bad. I did glance at the situation before just stomping in like an idiot. I was not Yuusuke.

"Well, good afternoon." I said, surveying the four important people in the room and smattering of guards. "I see that you all started the party without me." The hurt tone was a lie of course, but it never hurts to butter things up. Well, it wasn't really necessary in my case. I may as well have said: 'My name is Stormageddon. Dark Lord of All.' instead of what I actually did for the looks I got.

The two women, models, gods, ladies, at the front of the room just seemed to look up with a pleased smile that said 'oh there you are, we've been expecting you'. The other two faces in the room didn't look quite like that. It was more of a 'what the fuck, what the fuck?!' expression.

They couldn't have just been happy to see me, could they? Kurama unfroze first, blinking and then resettling into a more blank face. Hiei. Well. I was really happy to see him. I think that it worked in the other direction, too.

He just stared at me, like he was waiting for my figure to pop out of existence. Walking forward, I felt more and more at ease as the cold that had been wrapped around my limbs eased and became warm again. A spot in my chest flushed, a pinpoint of heat beneath my breast-bone, and it just made me want to melt into the floor with a dorky smile on my face.

I liked being warm because I had terrible circulation and was always cold, and it also made me feel like I wasn't alone. It was… nice.

Looking down, I realized that what I was feeling was Hiei reconnecting with me after being apart for such a long time. I suddenly felt very embarrassed that I had to be in public looking the way that I did. I just wanted to cover up, because I didn't want everyone to see me like that. It felt horrible. I felt violated for whatever reason.

The feeling broke when I felt the last few pieces clicked into place though. That connection reconnected almost violently, and I felt that overlay of him settle over me comfortably. It felt odd when he flexed his right arm, because I could feel it, it felt like my own. It was… kind of comforting.

I don't know, this all sounds really backwards, but no one else even knew that I was kind of panicking about how much stronger our bond had become since we'd last seen each other. It was almost complete. In fact, that automatic half of it already was.

"Okay. I don't remember committing a murder, so quit looking at me like that." I finally said, feeling uncomfortable under the weight of all the stares. Seriously, there had to be at least twenty humanoid things in that room just staring me down. All of them were prettier then me, men included. Well, except for Hiei. He was pretty manly.

"Angela." Kurama finally said in greeting. I nodded politely at him, and almost gave an expectant look to Hiei, but he abruptly snapped his head away and stared straight forward. Well that was odd, what was up with that?

"Ah, dragon-bearer." One of the ladies finally said.

I looked up. "No, not anymore Lady." I finally answered, turning all the way forward. Their eyes widened at that, and I fought the urge to stare at my own stump too. Suddenly, I realized what I had just said and my heart sank with fear.

'Angela.' Oh, now he chooses to speak. Swallowing hard, I kept my eyes forward, waiting for the freaking out that I was certain would come momentarily.

Clearing my throat, I sat carefully in one of the seats placed across from the ladies. Water tinkled in the background and it was rather silent.

'Yes, Hiei?' I asked, sounding much more certain then I felt. He didn't continue, knowing that I already knew what he was asking, but I kept up my innocence routine, waiting for him. He narrowed his eyes at me, his glare irritated and… betrayed? Reaching up, I began twirling a piece of hair. I somehow didn't imagine that everything would be quite so calm, but I also didn't expect to meet old acquaintances who would bring up the last thing that I had ever wanted Hiei to know.

'Yes, I used to be the container for a dragon.' I finally murmured bluntly. He tried to answer, but then winter lady spoke, and I had to focus.

"Angela. You seem to have ended up with a nice group." She said, almost kindly. The other two looked confused, I shrank back into my seat. "It's too bad that you have a death warrant on your head, isn't it?" She said, grinning even though she was literally threatening to kill me. I didn't say anything at all. Luckily, I didn't have to.

"Don't touch my mate, bitch." Hiei hissed from two feet to my left. And the room just seemed to descend into the most surreal chaos.

I had never, ever planned on telling about my past relationships. Whether it was because I felt like it wasn't his business, or I was just too embarrassed to talk about it, or perhaps too mortified, they never came up. Well, it was only one and, frankly, it wasn't a relationship. Not from my point of view. Not anymore.

A relationship was supposed to be give and take. You gave someone a part of yourself and they gave a part of themselves back. You supported them, and they supported you. You kind of became a part of each other, in your own odd way. Well, I suppose a perfect relationship would be like that. Mine wasn't then, and it hadn't been before either, but what I had had was a bastardization of the word love, because, honestly, I thought that I had been in love.

I was wrong.

'His name was Demetri.' I said, and even though Hiei was still visibly bristling in his seat and had also called me something that made my heart feel like it was actually coming out of my chest, I still felt like I owed him an explanation. 'I met him at a party, a long time ago, back when I still… still knew my parents.' I added. He seemed to go very quiet.

We were both lucky that Kurama was present, because he could apologize for us (the look in their eyes when Hiei got mad was freaking me out) and he was also better at peace talks. It kind of appeared like he was stalling for time, but I couldn't really pay attention. I was busy talking about one of my worst memories.

'I don't — know what he was doing there, but he was there. He was obviously not human, too tall, too perfect, too attractive, and that's exactly why I spoke to him.' I said. Hiei seemed to be watching Kurama and the ladies argue back in forth with words that were too big for me to get dully, but I knew that he was listening. 'I had finished my training to get my wizard license only a month or so before, and was back home, thinking about all the new stuff I had learned. He was of the fae, of course. And mentioned Demon World, something I had heard about, and then told me about how it was so dangerous and the treasure I would find there and — I don't know how he knew what to say.'

I had to break off, because I was beginning to get lost in my memories.

'I started becoming obsessed with getting there, and he stayed for awhile, making me that much more obsessed. I kind of, started to fall for his charm, his looks, what he told me he would do if I were to come with him.' I knew that he didn't understand where I was going with this, but I did. 'Then he disappeared, saying that he had to go back. I followed him, of course. And it was my mistake.'

'You're not allowed to go to Demon World as a human without a pass. I knew that, and when I asked, they turned me down, saying that I wasn't strong enough.' A humorless chuckle escaped my mouth. 'I have an issue with pride, and besides, I didn't think that anything should get in the way of love. I was incredibly naive, and stupid if I thought that I was any match for a demon. I was in military school at the time, and in a class that taught us how to use swords. It took me a few months, but eventually I finally managed to go through the process of getting a full-bonded sword. Of course, I thought I was invincible then. He came back, and took me with him, saying that I was ready.'

Then my face went completely blank as I remembered the biggest regret of my life.

'My parents didn't agree, so I erased myself from their memories. I erased all of the parts of myself that existed in Human World. My friends, memories, letters, pictures.' I paused. 'He said he loved me, how could I not?'

It was so hard to explain the coming of my dragon. I did in fact know of Hiei's own dragon entity living inside of him. I'd heard the stories and seen the tattoo that spiraled down his muscles. Well, they were more like burns actually, as if someone (or something) had literally branded him with the mark.

From what I'd heard about it, the thing was violent and hurt Hiei. Mine hadn't hurt me. I would have given anything to get it back, too.

"You must call off the Demon Tournament." That made me listen. Kurama was trying to make the fae leave without bloodshed. There had been plenty of fighting, plenty of heartache, we didn't need more of it. I was tired of getting hurt, and almost in answer to that thought my back twinged.

Both Hiei and I focused in on what was being said with near surprise. Well, I did. He was better at multitasking then I was.

"Why would we do that? Implying that we even have the power to do so." I pointed out in shock. Painfully green eyes turned to me and I fought the urge to squirm in my seat. The Summer Lady was deceptively kind. She might kill you as much as save you, suffocate you as much as put a blanket over you, it was hard to tell with her. The Winter Lady was much less bipolar, and far closer to being simply bad-tempered. She was beautiful, but vicious, but at least with her you could at least guess what to expect. Kind of.

She freaked me out a lot less, anyway, though that might stem from the fact that I was a lot more involved with her then I was with the Winter Lady. Her name was Nightingale. She changed it about every millennia or so to shake things up or something like that. There was nothing worse then a bored faerie queen, their favorite way to kill time was just that, actually kill things. But not the normal way, they weren't serial killers or something, no it was much worse then that.

I don't even want to describe it.

"That is my agreement for your freedom and my leave." She said, eyes glinting. I didn't like that look. "It is your choice." Her archaic flair left a bad taste in my mouth.

I just wanted to take Shakespeare and suffocate her with it.

"And if I said no?" Kurama asked, the hidden threat of violence running beneath his polite smile.

She just smiled back. The Winter Lady, Mauve, didn't say anything at all. She seemed to think this all rather dull. Well, I couldn't blame her. It was pretty boring. It was almost like they knew what we were going to say though. Shrugging, I figured that it was because they had done things like this more then a few times.

"I could just call the council to remove you, what makes you so certain that I won't do so?" He asked. The Lady's eyes drifted to me, and he glanced beside him. Hiei bristled again, knowing that she meant that they might kill me if they got involved. Why would they do that, though?

"Would they choose violence over peace through her death?" She asked. My face froze.

"As if I would let them, bitch." Hiei said, snorting with derision. I felt my eyes go wide and a shiver crept up my spine. It wasn't unpleasant, mind you, just…

"I could crush you if I so chose, mortal. It would be best to keep control of that tongue." She said. My eyebrows furrowed. That had been almost… impatient. That was odd. The fae were immortal, why was she in such a hurry?

Why was it that I never got to finish my stories without being cut off? Bad memories drifting through my head, I shivered and decided that I would rather avoid finishing it. Hiei sent me a pointed look and I realized that I wouldn't be getting off quite that easily. A price on your head from the fae wasn't an easy feat to do, and pulling the blinds ever their eyes wasn't easy either.

I was unrealizingly more of a part of the problem then I had imagined that I would be.

"If you kill me, what does that get you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "You didn't come here just to kill me, Nightingale, I think we both know that." The Winter Lady seemed to perk up and I had successfully narrowed the conversation to me and the Summer Lady.

"Perceptive." She commented. She had planned for me to figure it out. Darn, I had so been hoping to get her on that one. "If I kill you, tiny mortal, then I kill your dear mate." My jaw clenched. "So I suppose that I get what I want then, don't I?"

I froze, how did she know that we were soul-bonded? She would have done this on purpose, and when I thought about it, how did they know kidnapping me would lure Hiei and Kurama. It just didn't add up.

My eyes widened. There would had to have been a spy in Genkai's house, but none of the people there would ever be two-faced, except for perhaps… I blanched.

'Hiei, we need to leave. This is a ruse!' I yelped in my head, seeing the smirk spreading on Mauve's face. He seemed rather startled when I yelled, and I would have been proud of myself for causing the expression was it at any other time.

'We can't.' He ground out, leveling his eyes with women staring us down. I couldn't help but wonder how she didn't flinch. Hiei had eyes that were almost too bright of a red, as if they glowed from the inside. I wrote it off as something demon-related, but that didn't make them any less terrifying.

Then I stood. They wanted me. Fine.

"If you weren't going to give us a choice, then don't pretend as if you are." I said, almost snarling. Not only had bad memories been brought up, but then she had to remind me that my arm didn't exist anymore. Wherever my dragon was, I didn't know. It didn't exist inside of my head anymore, I was certain of that. A different dragon had replaced it.

"Angel-" Kurama began, but his voice cut out from my ears as an icy hand gripped my neck and dragged me backwards through the air almost impossibly fast.

"Angela!" Hiei yelled, jumping to his feet, hand hovering over his sword. Kurama stopped him and we all stood perfectly still. Well, everyone except for me. I was too busy gagging and struggling for breath from where I was suspended in the air. My magic that I had been using to fix various parts of me abruptly cut off, and I screamed in pain as my back popped and cracked without my magic helping it work correctly.

The hand shook me and I bit back another cry, the taste of iron coating my tongue.

"Every time you move, she does as well." Nightingale said calmly. I hung still, trying to keep from making the vertebrae stretch and move.

I could almost feel Hiei's anger buzzing in my head saying 'mine, mine, mine, mine, mine' over and over again, almost obsessively. I would have been pissed, if it wasn't his way of being worried. I wasn't a weakling, I wouldn't die from this; but I also didn't need any more injuries. I was enough of a burden as it was.

The other two returned slowly to their seats, even though the tension in Hiei only grew. I shivered remembering that he had called me his mate. That was… That was a big step. It showed utmost respect and trust in me. It was basically the Demon form of asking someone to marry you, it was… a big deal. I didn't know how it worked though, but I had my guesses and wondered what about me would change if that really were to happen.

It was totally innapropriate for me to be distracted by thoughts of mating rituals when I was basically hanging like a stuck pig seven feet in the air, but at the same time, I was trying to distract myself. Breathing and moving were anguish, so I thought instead. That wasn't quite so bad, anyway. My ears were ringing and my vision was beginning to tunnel.

I was the most useless thing ever, and it angered me to no end. I didn't want to hold everyone back and destroy Hiei and — could he feel this? I didn't even notice that I was descending through the air until my feet touched the ground and it took every drop of my willpower to stay standing when the pressure hit my back.

I took a heavenly gasp of air and my bruised chest ached when expanded, but in the best way. I didn't understand why I had been let down until I looked up and saw the council standing at the other end of the pavilion. My heart stuttered.

How did I get myself into these things?

Eventually I did get used to the darkness. I must have spent weeks in it. I also perfected the art of lying around staring at nothing again. I had been hoping never to have to do that again, but on the bright side, at least my surroundings weren't white. I'd had enough white to last a lifetime. It was bright and liked light, but it was painfully bright and only reminded me about how much of a nightmare my real life was as well as my dreams.

This time I got used to the dark. Eventually, it wasn't as much of a terror as a comfort. The dark was warm and like a heavy blanket, I felt like I was hiding behind it. I could construct various things to make myself more comfortable as well, I soon learned.

Only things, not people or constructs. I still dreamt as well, at times. I was met by lots of things and people, coming in and out of my unconscious mind at random. They were things that I might have seen at one point in my life, and people that just passed by my peripheral vision. It was kind of hard to tell, but none of them were all that important to me.

I had to keep on telling myself that I would make it through this, but I could feel it, every day my body inched further away from me. At first, I could feel what was happening kind of, I was sort of present for things. Like a ghost of sorts. Images would pass through the darkness, showing me what was happening, what was being planned.

These constructs terrified me. They were filled with death and plans for the death of the people that mattered the most to me. I couldn't get out though. I couldn't help, I couldn't do anything, and soon I began to forget that I had once had a body. I started filling my world with buildings and constructs to fill up my time, and what my world actually once became fuzzy.

At some point I became so far gone that I began to believe that this was my place. It was filled with people and life and things worked like they should and I was going to school. It was odd because I only every seemed to be learning about math and art, but that was okay I just kind of overlooked that.

Then this place shattered into pieces. It had been months, I was certain. I had a calendar and had been keeping track of the days that passed. Every day, I would go home to my house where I was alone. All of the lights would dim and wink out, and I would be left as the only light in a sea of buildings that seemed to be kind of familiar.

Everything disappeared one day when I heard a voice that was echoing over everything. I looked up to the night sky, confused. Voices didn't come out of the sky. They just didn't. That's not how the world worked. Squinting up into the darkness, I couldn't see anything and eventually, I just shook my head and returned to my room. There were a lot of plants in it that I had entered on a whim.

I wanted them to be there, even though I didn't really know why.

The voice echoed again, louder, clearer, and I froze. My head began to pound as if there was something that I was supposed to be remembering, but wasn't for some reason that I didn't understand. Gasping in pain, I dropped to the wood floor, knees crashing and then crying in pain.

I didn't understand what was happening. I hadn't done anything wrong. I was trying to understand the words being spoken, but they were just too far away. I couldn't understand.

"Stop!" I screamed, pressing my face against the floor in agony. Abruptly the clamoring noise, the light, the dirt digging into my forehead, all of it ceased to exist. Gasping, I slowly let go of my head and pushed off of the ground, cracking open my eyes.

My eyes rested on one woman standing in front of me with a soft smile, golden hair pulled back into a comfortable ponytail. My eyes widened exponentially as I stared at her and then suddenly everything flooded back to me. Almost dying, wishing for things in an antiseptic smelling hospital room, making a deal with some entity to save the two most important people in my life, not giving it my body when it tried to take over, suffering under it's torture and then-

"Mom." I murmured, my voice getting thick with emotion. She smiled softly at me. I just stared like a deer in the headlights, coming slowly to my feet.

"Evaline, you look so much bigger." She said, her eyes sad. My lips shook, and I swallowed hard to clear the lump in my throat.

"Is it…"

"It's me." She said, and I just stared into her pale blue eyes, so much less startling on her warm face. A shiver ran over my shoulders and I ran forward with a cry, wrapping myself around her taller form and squeezing as tightly as I could. She was warm, and smelled nice, like she always had. Cornflowers and soap and cinnamon.

Finally getting a hold of myself, I stepped back and just looked at her.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered. Her smile turned sad and she sighed.

"I had to wake you up." She answered. I shuddered again. "I had to warn you. You need to know… Lasciel didn't pick you on accident, honey." She continued, and my head jerked up in shock.

"What?"

Wavering, the council and I just stared at one another. I specifically went wide-eyed at the one in the lead.

"Oh good, more idiots." Hiei commented, looking even more on edge if that was possible. I fought back the urge to scream. I couldn't handle more then I already was and here was another burden to be dropped onto my shoulders. I had powerful shoulders, but even I could only handle so much.

A harsh gaze passed over me, but settled on something over my shoulder. Glancing behind, I realized that Nightingale was just watching what was going on with no expression at all. If I thought that leaders of the faerie realm could be exhausted, then that's what I would have named her expression. It was an odd feeling.

My knees began to quake. I couldn't stay up much longer. My back was screeching with agony and I simply didn't have the energy. I silently cursed my luck. I had just wanted to be able to help of my own accord, but everything was over my head. I just didn't understand the scope of the problem, whatever it was that we were dealing with.

Hiei had kept me in the dark. It was obviously a big deal if they called the council, and I had no idea. My jaw clenched and when Hiei's eyes suddenly widened I knew that he'd caught onto how furious I was. Furious and disappointed. I didn't know why they didn't tell me, but I had a guess.

My shoulder clenched and I reached up with a wince to rub it. The muscle liked to spasm a rather large amount and sometimes really hurt, but it was my punishment. It was my continuous reminder of my mistakes. It was my constant note of failure. It was exactly what told me that nobody here trusted me.

I could claim my innocence, but nobody would ever believe what I was saying.

I didn't move even as everyone began to speak, and then the fae seemed to give in and still, I just stared blankly forward. I had moved to the side though, staying out of everything. I could feel eyes on me though, eyes that judged, eyes filled with distrust. Raising my chin, I brushed them off. Fine, they could hate me all they wanted. I didn't need those people anyway.

It was just such a stark reminder that I was here because of my irreversible connection with Hiei and no other reason. The screaming in the silence, those were my feelings. I was brimming with uncertainty, standing on the precipice of decision and actions that could change my life forever, with no real control. About to fall.

My eyes drifted to the short, irritable fire demon of their own accord and it felt like I was falling into a chasm. I was not the right person for him. Hiei was powerful, kind of blood-thirsty, secretly pretty nice at times, and very loyal to the people that mattered to him.

I was tall, short-tempered, prideful and regretted most of the decisions I had ever made. If opposites attract, then we were so similar we repelled or something like that. I wasn't the peanut-butter to his cracker, I was hot sauce getting dumped all over a plate of sashimi, and that would never taste good. He couldn't stand humans, especially not me, and didn't understand most of our customs. My only talent was pissing him off on a daily basis.

It's just — a warmth suddenly spread over my skin, making my shoulders relax and the pain in my back and head break up. I sighed in relief and then blinked, recognizing that heat. Sliding to finally sit down, I ran a hand through my hair and yawned.

It only took a few minutes to correctly replace my spells and get myself looking right. Carefully checking my surroundings, I realized that most of it was made of carefully woven illusions. I began to pick at the one that was constructing my dress, but as I was finally figuring out how to get it to unravel, I realized that it wasn't using my clothes as a base.

I just wasn't wearing anything else. Eyes widening and ears turning slightly red, I immediately reset the magic and didn't touch it.

I just wasn't wearing anything else. Eyes widening and ears turning slightly red, I immediately reset the magic and didn't touch it.

Looking up and nearly laughing at myself, I just kind of watched the goings-on. The brown-haired leader of the council seemed to be in quite a heated debate with Kurama and the two lady's. The guards looked very on edge, but weren't doing anything because of the influx of powerful wizards in the room.

"His name is Koenma. I would have thought that you'd know that." A voice sneered. Looking up, I felt really exhausted rather then excited at the sight of Hiei and wanted to slap myself across the face. What had happened to all of my passion a few hours before that?

"I don't get along well with royalty." I commented. I had in fact known the name of the head of the council, but he and I had a terrible past going, so I attempted to ignore him and his existence.

"I couldn't tell." He muttered, snorting. I shook my head, but then couldn't help wondering, why was Hiei even over by me anyway? Glancing around his form, I realized that the two arguing parties had come to an agreement of some sort. My stomach began to feel fluttery.

I knew that Koenma didn't trust me. I mean, technically my even being here was violating my probation rules that kept my head safely on my shoulders. Well, kind of safely anyway.

Face screwing up, I began to wonder why the creature across the pavilion was backing down so easily. She held the power here, and had set this up on purpose, for whatever nefarious reasons brewed about in her alien cranium. This was a trap, right? Why had I thought that, anyway?

The shiny gold details of my surroundings began to blur into tinkling water and bright light, becoming one swirling mass of faerie-generated finery.

"Angela?" A growling voice questions. I fought through the haze of confusion and giddiness, trying to make my mouth work. Fiery hands closed over my shoulders, and I went limp, head snapping backwards and lolling painfully.

"Somethings… wrong." I finally bit out, feeling like all of my strength was getting drained. I felt like I was slowly getting smaller.

"What is?" The voice pressed, and I groaned, trying to remember.

"I - I can't - Ngh!"

A whimper escaped my throat as a sharp barb of energy dug into my head. Loosening up the barriers, I let it in, recognizing the energy signature.

My head cleared, Hiei holding off the brunt of whatever spell was effecting me. My thoughts restarted with a violent cacophony of pictures and memories. The end to my story.