Author Speak: Here's chapter two of the improved version.

Disclaimers: Yu Yu Hakusho does not belong to me, Zel belongs to wonderful Inuyasha writer SilentDignity. All else is mine. Read and review, flames accepted.

Echo had found it hard to concentrate the last few days. Her past was screaming in her mind, and the face of all her suffering laughed at her every time she blinked. It was driving her insane. The dreams Echo had were of people she had betrayed and demons she didn't even know. No matter how bad she felt and wished she could fix it, the dreams, the screams, never left her mind. After Echo was brought to live with the rest of the Takuya family, she spent her time trying to train them so they could correct the wrongs done to their family. She had heard Styx on many occasions claim revenge for their parents, but she feared that no matter the training she gave him, he wouldn't be able to take the murderers life. Then, she thought of Trix, Echo thought of all the potential the young Healer had, but she just goofed off with Knox. Even though he was obnoxious, Knox was actually helping his family more then they knew. He kept non-sense mixed in with the cruelty of their position, Trix would have been a mess after seeing the murder if Knox's innocent jokes hadn't kept her optimistic.

Echo sat in front of a large boulder, legs crossed, meditating as well as she could, as a skinny figure moved silently through the trees closer to her. The figure stopped as Echo surrounded the boulder in shadows, it was a second too late for the figure to jump completely out of the way of the flying rock. It hit the person and sent it flying backwards, even though it didn't crush them. Echo quickly cloaked herself in shadows, she couldn't identify the person's energy, and if anyone could recognize her it could mean trouble. She stood in front of the persons sprawled body, as a mass of shadows, "Who are you?" She asked in a cold, emotionless voice. The figure jumped up swiftly as it heard she was so close. The girls eyes looked blind, pale, milky violet, no sign of a pupil. Her hair was long, stringy, washed out blond. She wore a black trench coat over a black corset, with plain black cargo pants and loosely tied army boots. She laughed slightly before speaking.

"Didn't expect that. Knew you could do it, just didn't think you would."

"You didn't answer my question. Who are you and why are you here?" Echo demanded, losing patience.

"He said you lose control quickly, anyway, I'm am just a messenger. I was sent to invite you to this years Dark Tournament." She said with a grin on her face that Echo wanted to rip off right there.

"Who sent you?"

"He hoped he wouldn't be so easily forgotten, you haven't spoke to him in two years, but you should remember him just the same," the girl turned and started walking away, "Oh, and if you don't show, he said that you will start to have a much harder time hiding from Spirit World." The girl kept walking, and when she was out of sight, Echo could hear a shriek from the girl, "Squirrel! Get back here so I can riddle you with holes!" after this shout a series of gunshots were heard.

"Echo?" A cold voice questioned from nearby. The shadows around Echo dispersed.

"Yes Styx?" she asked as if nothing had happened, although inside her mind she was screaming.

"You're hiding from Spirit World?"

"No, but it was a threat that I will need to if I don't go." She lied partially.

"To the Dark Tournament?"
"Yes."

"You know my brothers and I have your back, we'll crush the asshole who's threatening you." Echo smiled weakly, not looking at him. Styx on the other hand was caught off guard. Echo was smiling, and it wasn't a murderous smile like normal, it was a sincere smile, and it had him worried.

"You came out here to spar didn't you?" asks Echo in a voice barely her own. Styx merely nods, "Okay, well, it seems I need to sign up for the tournament."

"Go ahead and sign us up, too, I'll tell them it was my idea." He said.

"Okay, we'll spar when I get back," Again, he only nods. Echo turns and starts running off in roughly the same direction the messenger went. Styx turned and went back to the house to tell his brothers what he had gotten them into.

Echo didn't get back until very late that night, Trix was asleep on the couch and the triplets were in the kitchen discussing what they knew about the Dark Tournament. Carefully, Echo picked up the twelve year old and quietly walked up the stairs to Knox's room and laid her down under his covers.

For two years, Trix has snuck into Knox's room, because she felt safe with him, and her nightmares made it hard for her to sleep. Knox didn't mind, if anything it made him feel special because he didn't think of himself to be the type to calm people's nerves.

When Echo walked into the kitchen, the triplets stopped talking and looked at her.

"What? Did something horribly grotesque start growing on my face while I was gone?" she said in an irritated tone.

"No, we just recall the tournament requiring five members. We wondered who our fifth one was." Nyx Echo predicted what their reaction would be when she told them, so she changed the subject.

"Knox, I put Trix in your room, she was asleep on the couch, and we'll talk about the tournament tomorrow. It's one in the morning, we need sleep." She could tell they didn't like that answer, but she also knew they wouldn't ask for a better one until morning. Styx knew something was up, Echo only ignored questions when it might get her into trouble. Slowly each of them, got up and went to bed.

It was late at night, but Koenma had to figure out why the blond had told him that he would be surprised by the participants in the Dark Tournament. This Tournament was a lot smaller then the last, only five teams had signed up so far, and only one more could. Koenma had looked each of the demons over, looking for any sign of what the strange girl had been talking about. The only oddity he had come across so far was the combination of Jin, Touya, and Shura on the same team as the strange blond girl who had given him the weird tip, also on that team was an unknown demon named Zel, but he seemed pretty plain. Then he saw the picture of the last team, Team Echo. Each team that signed up for the tournament had to send in a photo for security reasons. All the other teams had separate photos for each member, but not Team Echo, four of the members where in the same picture, a fifth person must have taken the photo. It showed triplets with brownish hair and a girl with long black hair. The girl was holding one of the boys down on a couch and pressing a spoon against his throat. Another of the triplets watched helplessly as the third went for the camera with a cold expression on his face. The second photo was discarded as Koenma found what the blind looking girl had meant. It had taken two years of tracking her down, and someone just gave her to him. He had been waiting for the chance to arrest her for several years before she went into hiding. He wasn't letting this opportunity go.