Author's note: this is a Kenshin OC story. Enjoy!

Your Vermillion 1

I sat in the corner of my cell and waited and waited for Katashi to come with more assignments or beatings. The room was dark and quiet other then the sound of my breathing. It was starting to annoy me. Soon the door opened and one of my master's guards came in. He stalked over to me and lifted me by the hair. "You are going to have a visitor soon. So why don't we have a little fun with you until the new one comes." he said and dragged me to my torture chamber. He chained me in the air and pulled out the cat of nine tails. A bowl of brown liquid was by his side. He dipped the whip into it and smiled. Sadistic bastard. The whip collided with my bare skin. It burned. Something was burning my skin off. It hurt so badly. He hit me again. "You feel that burning sensation your getting? That's a poison. It will soon go through your blood stream and will eventually kill you. Eating you from the inside out." the man grinned I cried out in pain as I felt the affect of the poison. I faintly heard the door open. "That's enough we need our little assassin to meet her new companion," another man said they took me down and threw me into my cell. I cringed and cried out in pain as my stomach felt as if it was on fire. I heard a groan not to far away. I sighed as the pain stopped but I knew it was only temporary. I looked towards the sound of the other person. "So who are you?" I asked, my voice echoing off the walls. "Why should I tell you?" A man's voice replied. "If I tell you mine will you tell me yours?" I asked the darkness. There was no response. "My name is Amaya what's yours?" I asked. "Kenshin." he answered simply. I knew that name well. He is the batousai. "Well it's nice to meet one of the greatest assassins." he hned. I shook my head and closed my eyes, slowly drifting to sleep.

I woke to another dream of bloody rain. I sighed and then cringed as the poison started to burn again. The door opened and Katashi walked in. a whip in hand. I took a glance at batousia. He was beautiful in the morning light. He had blood red hair with pale skin. His eyes were closed and he looked at peace. I looked back at Katashi. "Good morning master." I said bowing my head. He smirked at me. "Tonight you have another job. You are to kill Kogaru Katsura." my eyes widened. Katsura was a friend of my family now dead family. "B-but why?" I asked. "Because, I want him dead. And batousai works under him. If you kill Katsura we can keep the boy for ourselves." I glared dangerously and stood up to hit him but the pain of the poison seared in me, and I fell to my knees. I noticed Kenshin had one eye open. He wasn't asleep, that means he can maybe hit him for me. I held my stomach and screamed again. The wounds from yesterday reopened and bled as they widened. Katashi started to laugh. "What's wrong little girl? Can't you hit me?" he asked. I glared at him with pain filled eyes. I must have looked pathetic. "Here, you'll need this tonight." he said as he threw my sword into my room and leaving closing the door behind him. Kenshin sat up and looked at my pathetic form that lied in a ball. Tears of pain were rolling down my face. "T-t-that... bastard." I said through gasps. Kenshin gave me a cold glare. "Are you going to kill Katsura?" he asked. "No. I would never harm him. He was the only one who saved me. He's the reason why I'm alive." I said the pain started to fade and my body became numb. Batousai watched me closely as I used my sword to prop myself up. "How do I know your not lying?" he asked. I looked at him with week eyes. "Katsura was my fathers best friend. When I was little my family was murdered in front of me, if it wasn't for Katsura I would have been dead too. Katsura was badly wounded because of me and Katashi kidnapped me. I owe my life to Katsura. I would never harm him." I said staring down at the floor. Once again the door opened again. "Batousai, it's your turn to have fun." the man said. I glared at him and pushed myself up. I unsheathed my sword. "Leave batousai alone." I growled. My bright blue eyes narrowed and my voice had gone deep. "You are defying me?" He asked shocked. Kenshin watched as I stood. My legs were trying to give out and my body was tremors. "Yes, I'm defying you. I am not going to listen to your bullshit anymore." The man pulled his sword from its sheath. Kenshin stood and quickly pushed me out of the way and grabbed my sword. "Stand back." he said to me calmly. I couldn't do anything about it. I fell to the ground and watched. Kenshin quickly killed him. Another one of Katashi's men came. Kenshin killed him as well. He looked at me as I forced myself to stay standing. He sighed and quickly was at my side holding me up. Katashi then came to the room and glared at Kenshin. "It's bad enough that the girl defies me. But the batousai, I thought knew better than that." Katashi said. I looked over at Kenshin. His head was bowed and his hair shadowed his eyes. He looked up with daggers in his eye. Slowly helped me to the ground and then turned to Katashi. "I will not do anything that you wish. I work for Katsura and Katsura alone." Katashi sneered in disgust. "You apparently don't know what you're up against boy. That girl, if one of my men haven't of poisoned her, she would be able to kill you. I trained her and she has the strength of thousands of men. But she works under me because I know how to discipline her. And soon you will be too." Katashi went to punch Kenshin but Kenshin was quicker and moved to the side. He took my sword and tried to cut Katashi only to fail. "Kenshin, stop. You'll get yourself killed," I yelled as Katashi tried to slice Kenshin in half. I stood in front of the blade and blocked the blow by holding his arm. Kenshin stared stunned. I am half master's size and bleeding from every scar but I was still able to stop him. But it wasn't for long. The poison reacted again. I cried and fell to the ground causing me to drop my grip on his arm. This was master's opportunity. He back handed Kenshin across the face and brought him to the room. Some of his men found me and dragged me back into my cell.
Katashi came back in a few hours and threw Kenshin into my cell. He then grabbed me and brought me to the room. I was chained up and whipped again. The poison didn't react which I thanked the gods for. After an hour of this he brought me back to my cell and threw me in. I groaned and landed next to Kenshin and looked over to him. There was some light from the moon shining through the rice paper walls. I saw the gouges all over his body. Slowly I dragged my self close to him. He looked me in the eyes. "Why?" he asked as I started to put pressure on his wounds to stop them from bleeding. "Why what?" I asked. "Why are you still here?" he asked me while he gasped in pain. I kept putting the pressure on the deepest wound with out answering him. "You could kill him, why don't you?" he asked. "It's not as easy as it looks. I can't just kill him and leave. If I so much as raise my hand to him his men surround me. And after a fight with Katashi I'll never be able to win against so many. Plus I wouldn't be able to do it now; the poison will soon kill me anyway. So why leave. There's no point. I won't be able to get to a doctor quick enough. And you, you will be killed if I can't help. I know you are the most famous assassin, but I have been hiding in the shadows and killing long before you. No one knows who I am. But, Katashi is known throughout japan. Everyone thinks that he is the one killing people. I have killed millions of people you have only killed thousands. Believe me when I say this batousia. If you try to escape on your own you will die." I said with a glint of sorrow lingering in my voice. I switched from wound to wound until he completely stopped bleeding. "Then we will escape together. Katsura will be looking for me. When he finds us then you can come with me." he said and I sighed. "I don't know when the poison will react so when it does. I'll just be a burden." I said with a sigh and leaned against the wall. "I'm not going to sit here and let them do this to me. And I won't let them continue on you. If that poison reacts then I'll just help you. We can get out of this," he said sitting up. Kenshin stared right into my glowing eyes. I looked down at the ground with a sigh. "You are persistent I'll give you that batousia. But you're a damn fool. How long do you think it will take Katsura to find you? I used to think the same way a long time ago. But the weeks turned to months. Months turned to years. That's when you accept the fact that no one is going to save you and you are never going to get away." he glared at me. "So you are going to give up. Let yourself die!" he yelled. "That's all I can do!" I yelled back. My sorrow filled eyes bored into his angry ones. "I have been beaten, I have been raped, and I have been forced into murder. It has been like this since I was 9 years old. I killed my first person at age 10. I lost my dignity at age 11. I have tried to escape at age 14 I was almost beaten to death afterwards. There's no way out." I said with sigh and I wrested my back against the wall. "If you can seriously think of a plan to get us out of here then I will help but if it's not good enough tomorrow night when Katashi puts me on the mission I will warn Katsura. No matter what my punishment and tell him where you are." I said and fell asleep.