Chapter 10

Rexi's heart pounded in her head as she tried to figure out what this ploy was. It didn't seem logical to take away everyone else and leave the two strongest of them there to face off against Domica. Even if they didn't have their full powers, Kurama and she both knew how to fight with their hands and feet though they weren't the best at it. She felt a hand grab her own. She looked over at Kurama and down at their now linked hands. She squeezed it back.

"I'm glad that you remember." She whispered, her eyes going back out to the darkening night. All she could see was the path from the door to the gazebo.

Kurama refused to look at her. His own senses felt dull without his supernatural hearing and speed. His eyes were fighting to focus on anything that moved. "As am I. Rexi, promise me you—" he started before he was pulled roughly into the darkness on the other side of the gazebo railing. He grunted as he pushed against the wood. He wouldn't leave her alone. He'd fight until he died to keep her safe.

Rexi got between him and the railing. The darkness felt like liquid as she pushed against his body. She couldn't do this by herself! She needed the one person that remembered that was left. Finally he came free and they ended sprawled out. Rexi lay on top of him, his arms around her waist. She gasped for air as she pushed herself up and then looked down at Kurama.

Green eyes locked with chocolate brown as she hovered over him. She tried to pull her gaze away to look at the darkness and make sure that no one was coming towards them like some horrible horror movie. And then his hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her quickly down against him. Their lips smashed together. He rolled over and pinned her down, his lips seeking the spot he had left alone when she had called him by his real name earlier that evening. When he pulled away, he was smirking down at her.

"Well sister, I'm glad that I know you can be tempted by anyone in Yoko's human form." Came a voice a few feet away. Rexi frowned and looked away from the Kurama that was rising to his feet. His form disappeared and she pushed herself the ground. She should have known. Kurama would have never done that in this situation. Her eyes landed on Domica who lounged on the other side of the gazebo. "But what would Yoko say? Here only two days and you are already French kissing his replacement? Naughty, naughty."

Rexi pushed herself off the floor and glared at her sister who didn't seem too daunted by it. "Let me out of here you no good two timing jackass." Rexi snarled. Her body felt about on the edge of exploding.

"Is that the best you can do Choucho? After so many years, you couldn't come up with a little bit better way of cussing me out?" Domica asked, looking at her fingers as the darkness surrounded the gazebo completely, cutting them off. The only light that came through was from the small candlelight that was above them. She seemed bored and more than willing to wait for the time being.

Rexi lunged forward and forced her leg up and out at her. It rammed into the wood where she had been, breaking it a small bit. She turned and looked around. Her sister was gone. In the middle of the gazebo a knife sat. She ran over and picked it up, ready to use it against her sister if she showed up again.

A disembodied voice chuckled at her. "Dearest sister, you cannot hurt me. Not while I control your dreams. And since I added a little of my lovers blood to my own I should be able to do it long enough for you to die in here. Or you could take the short cut and kiss yourself and save yourself the pain. Swift death or a long agonizing one? It's your choice."

With Koenma

Koenma came running in his teenager form. The team had been gone little less an hour yet they were back with the parents of Domica, Chime and Rexi already? He spun around a corner and into the portal room. He'd sent them to get the parents in hope of them having some way to get the girl and the rest of the team out of this weird sleep. How could they have gotten back so quickly? He came to a grinding halt as he looked up. And up. Over three feet above him stood the head of a butterfly. It was almost as big as the room. That is until it started to shrink. The body of a woman appeared and stepped past Koenma into the hallway to wait. Another butterfly came through and changed into a man and joined her. Then came a woman and man and then Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Our son sent to us before he returned to the Spirit World with Yoko. We were outside the village taking new Bonds. These two are ones that have offered to bring us here before returning. They belong to my parents. I am Syri." Said the woman. Her gold eyes landed on Koenma. She was easily six feet tall but she quickly bowed to the son of king Yama.

The male followed suit and then looked at Koenma with the brown eyes of his daughter. "I am Pywn. Where are our son and daughter? If we are to help them, then we must see them this instant." He told him, though his tone was light and respectful.

"We will wait for you on the other side little ones." The two butterflies said, reaching touching the shoulder and then disappearing into the portal just as two three foot tall children came rushing through. Both were boys and they climbed quickly up the mother and father of Chime and Choucho.

"Where are we?" asked one excitedly as he sat on the shoulder of the father.

"You will have to excuse Tym (Tim) and Kym (Ke-m)." the father said with a fond smile. "They are newly hatched and curious of the world."

"Yes! We are Bonds, these are our Bonds. We love them and want to see father Limrin soon." Said the one that had plopped himself delicately onto the head of Syri. He was smaller in size than the other, almost delicate under the light as he looked around with huge eyes.

Koenma stared at the demons he had allowed into the entrance of Spirit World. Well his plan had gone horribly wrong and now it was up to him to change that. "Come this way Syri, Pywn. Your children are in the infirmary. Domica is in a holding pin however. She passed out after the last questioning and won't wake up now."

Inside Rexi:

Rexi had been waiting for what seemed like forever. She had gotten a cough back and had taken almost an hour to get it to calm down. She looked around and poked the darkness with the knife. The voice of her sister had come and gone several times by now. It kept pushing the option to kill herself. She considered it. Maybe it would wake herself up if she died in the dream. But then her sister would win. She would prove to her that she was weak. She refused to do that.

She was flipping the knife over in her hand when something caught her eye. The darkness on the west side was the gazebo, a picture was forming. Yoko was running through a maze. She pushed herself forward and tried to reach for it but as soon as she moved forward the picture pulled away. She went back to her seat and watched as it came back into focus. Another tease but one she didn't mind as much. It meant that her sister was still there. She hadn't talked for a good ten minutes.

Yoko ran through the maze, a voice taunting him now.

"Do you think the little fox will be able to make it to his mate in time?" Asked her sister. "Or will he make it to the middle of the maze just in time to see her die?" Yoko kept running, trying to ignore the anger that was swelling in him.

"Or maybe he'll make it just in time to help her slide the knife into her own heart?" A few moments pause.

"Or we'll just let him out when it's too late to save little Choucho the butterfly girl. Yeah I like that option." She said.

"Oh but we promised him that if he got to the middle of the maze he could get to Choucho."

The way she spoke it was as if she was going insane. And maybe she was. Rexi knew a little about dream walkers and one of the problems with it was if they did it too much at one time they started to go a bit bonkers. The people they visited started to slip into their mind and give them the perspective of several people in one head. And from the feel of it, her sister had been in not only her dreams but Kurama's as well.

"Oh but he's been running in this maze since we knocked him out and that was almost four days ago."

Four days? But my dream only lasted two. Rexi noted. But then she thought about how a five minute long dream could really take the whole night to play out.

"Would you shut up?" Came a voice that was obvious Yoko's. He'd come to a T intersection and was trying to figure out which way to go. He couldn't afford to make a mistake now. "Once I get my hands on you I'll make sure you never speak again." He stopped as a picture opened up in front of him. It was a picture of her, running down an empty hallway, a man carrying a knife chasing after her. He didn't hesitate any more, he took the right.

Rexi noted that he didn't touch any of the plants nor call on their help. Could it be he didn't have his own powers as well? She couldn't watch it any more. If he'd been running for four days he must be getting exhausted. She launched herself quickly forward as her sister's voice started to taunt him again. She threw the knife through the picture. To her surprise, it went through the picture and flew straight in front of Yoko, digging up to the hilt in the ground.

She stuck her hand through the picture, trying to get through. She could see Yoko turn and focus in on her hand. "Yoko!" she screamed. Just as he reached out to grab her arm, she was propelled back by an invisible force. Her back slammed into the edge of the seat on the opposite side, stunning her.

"Naughty, naughty little sister. How does your darkness grow?" came a little laugh as the darkness started to cover the Gazebo walls, making her area smaller.

She crawled away from it, sitting in the middle as the knife appeared in front of her again. "I suppose no more pictures from Yoko will help you decide. Quick death or slow painful, or maybe I should smother you in this darkness." The darkness started to creep in millimeter by millimeter.