WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS: a little gore and incest innuendo. It isn't that bad, but just be prepared.

Chapter Ten: The Saving Grace

*Hiiro pulled the darkened figure away from Serenity as forcefully as he could and moved to put himself between the man and Serenity. His body protested under the stress, but his years of training mentally blocked the nerves that tried to tell him he was in pain. As he stood before the taller figure, he tried desperately to get a good look at his face. In the dark he couldn't make out his features clearly, but Hiiro knew that he had never seen the man before. Only heard the voice…

"Damn you! Stupid man of the Damned! Keep out of this, it's not your business!" The man growled.

"It is."

"How dare you suggest that! You're a foreigner from a world of heathens! You have no class and no sense of tradition! She denied me, not once, but twice, and in doing so, insulted my pride and status. I have the right to punish her."

"By beating her within inches of her life?"

"Yes!" The man roared. Hiiro could tell the man's face was turning purple with rage. Well, he could use that to his advantage. If this turned into a bigger fight, he could use the man's rage against him. That might help to balance out the fact that his opponent could see in the dark.

"Hiiro." He heard Serenity weakly call his name. He grunted in response. "Please go." She begged before she submitted to unconsciousness. He nodded, but made no move. Her mindset told her that he was the one out of line, just as his mindset told him that this man was out of line. The difference? Basic human rights versus tradition- there was no contest in his mind which was more important. Hiiro remained standing between Serenity and the man.

"Are you going to move man of the Damned?"

"The name is Hiiro Yui." He glared.

"Move it!"

"No."

"Then you're going to get the pounding of your life." The man shouted, and advanced towards Hiiro. Hiiro knew he couldn't step back- he would chance endangering Serenity's battered form more. So instead, he had to stand his ground and let the man come at him.

As the man closed in, Hiiro dropped low and punched him hard in the stomach. The man's arm came around, aiming for Hiiro's face. But Hiiro went under the swinging arm and came up on the other side, causing the man to wobble off balance. As if in a graceful dance, Hiiro grabbed the man's elbow and twisted it behind his back. Then he grabbed the other arm and did the same. Now standing behind the man with both arms in his possession, Hiiro commenced in pulling the arms back. The man groaned and cried out in pain.

Trying desperately to escape, the man wrapped his leg around Hiiro's ankle and tried to knock him off balance. The trick nearly worked, and for a second Hiiro was disarmed. The man wriggled free of Hiiro's grasp and went for another punch. But Hiiro grabbed the arm and pulled it forward, sending the man past him and knocking him into the wall across from them. Down the man slid, cursing and holding his nose the whole time. Hiiro just grunted at him. Then he turned around and picked up the motionless girl behind him.

He carried her limp body all the way back to her room and placed her in the bed he himself has only been laying in fifteen minutes before. He knew her wounds would be serious, and he was ashamed he had let the beating carry on as long as he had. Unfortunately, without light he couldn't see anything. There were a few candles around, but nothing to light them with. How could a society that was reputed to be so perfect be so corrupted and primitive? He was forced to wait to treat her wounds because could do nothing in the dark. Cleaning a scratch was one thing, but checking for broken bones and deep slashes was another.

Exhausted, Hiiro sat down in the chair beside the bed and rubbed his face with his hands. His wounds were screaming with pain, his chest pounded and it was getting hard to breathe. He leaned back and closed his eyes. It felt so good to close his heavy eyelids. Soon he drifted off to sleep- a strangely dreamless sleep.

)(

When Hiiro opened his eyes in the morning, he immediately looked towards the bed. Serenity's prone form was still lying just as he had placed her the night before. Quickly blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he carefully knelt beside the bed to assess the damage.

Her entire face was swollen to twice its normal size. Her eyes were a disturbing greenish blue and black color, as were her cheeks. Her nose had dried blood caked over it, and her chin still had the trickle of blood that had spilt from her split lip. Her left ear was covered in dried blood as well, where her piercing had been ripped slightly. Moving lower, he found she had a large, deep bite mark on her neck. He shuddered in revulsion at how twisted that man had been last night. Her shoulder had been dislocated, and there was massive bruising on her arms, legs, and stomach.

He grimaced slightly, but stood and looked around the room for her medical kit. He had seen this kind of injury before, but only on himself after major battles in the war. Finding her medical kit on the top of her dresser, he began his task of cleaning her up. He used the bowl and pitcher of water that rested on the table beside his bed to gently clean her face off. With the blood gone, he could see her nose wasn't broken, only bloody. Her lip would be very tender for a while, but it would heal nicely. Her ear, he wasn't sure about. She wouldn't be able to wear an earring for a while, much less ever again. Cleaning the bite mark, he shivered. Sickening.

As he made his way down to her shoulder, he found he needed to take her shirt off to fix it properly. This stalled him for a moment as he gathered courage. He felt dirty doing this, wrong and guilty. But he knew that it was necessary to fix her shoulder first and foremost.

He thought his training should have overridden his emotions as he cleaned her wounds, they should have made him ignore any improper feelings immediately, but he found they did not. Of all the times from his emotions to begin to resurface, why now? Christ he needed to get home simply for the purpose of re-training. He couldn't deal with his emotions! He needed them to be locked away thoroughly where they could not interfere with his life!

By the time he was done convincing himself of this, he was also done cleaning Serenity's wounds. Just then a knock came on the door. He stood and opened it, fully expecting to see either the hideous woman from yesterday, or the man form last night come for a rematch, or even Serenity's brother Darien come to check up on his sister. He saw none of the above. An older woman stood in the doorway, holding a pot of soup. She gasped when she saw him and nearly dropped her pot. Hiiro took the pot from her and moved aside so she could come in.

The woman stepped inside, but said nothing. Keeping her head low, she dared not look him in the eye. But when she saw the figure on the bed, she did choke back a strangled sob. Hiiro looked at her pitifully. He suddenly remembered she wouldn't speak until she knew she could.

"Speak." He meant to sound softer, but it came out more as a command.

"Seren!" She cried out, and rushed to the bedside. She ran her hand over the comatose body of the once beautiful girl and held back tears. "Oh Seren! What happened to you?"

"She was beaten." Hiiro answered. It was immediately apparent the woman hadn't expected him to answer her rhetorical question.

"Beaten?" She whispered. "Oh Seren! I told you not to deny him! I told you to just let him have you! Why did you have to be so opinionated? Oh Seren!"

"Who was he?" Hiiro asked.

"Don't you know? Didn't you watch the punishment?"

"What gives you that idea?"

"You knew how she had gotten hurt and why it happened."

"I didn't watch. I stopped it. He was going to kill her." The woman whimpered. "Now. Who was he?"

"He was her cousin, Andrew. They've been betrothed since birth."

"Her own cousin is betrothed to her?"

"Well, not truly betrothed, but it is highly assumed that they will marry; that it the tradition, an unspoken betrothal. She has been avoiding it for years now, but now he has gotten impatient. I told her to give in or this would happen! Stubborn fool of a child!" The woman turned to berate the sleeping girl.

"Andrew is injured. Someone should tend to his wounds." Hiiro stated rather randomly.

"Really? I never thought Serenity would put up a physical fight!" The woman looked disgusted.

"She didn't. I beat him." Hiiro defended Serenity.

"You?"

"Yes. Me. She asked me to leave. However, I did not."

"Oh dear! Oh Serenity! At least you have some honor left!" The woman tisked.
"Who are you?" Hiiro asked.

"I am Jeana. I've tried to watch out for Serenity since her mother died. Unfortunately this girl is anything but docile. She is far too opinionated and talkative. And look where it's gotten her!"

"You made the soup yesterday. Good food." Hiiro changed the subject. He could no longer listen to the woman berate Serenity for having opinions or wishing to speak her mind.

"Oh, thank you! It's a recipe my great, great grandmother taught our line before the salvation of the city." The woman beamed.

Then she realized what she was doing and quickly became more reserved and quieter. She drew into herself and became smaller looking. "Food?" She offered the bowl to him. He accepted, and the room became quiet. Serenity tossed in her sleep slightly, but for the most part remained still and silent. Jeana left a few moments later, and Hiiro simply sat and watched Serenity sleep.

For some reason he became intrigued with watching her. Her lithe form was so fragile he couldn't understand how her body had withstood the beating she had taken and still looked so normal. In fact, in the last three hours since he had cleaned her wounds, she already looked twice as good. Her face wasn't quite so swollen, and her eyes and nose were almost their normal size once again. Her flaxen hair was matted to her head, but to the touch it was still soft. Her soft, full lips that had once smiled at him so sweetly were still bruised, and it angered him to think it would hurt her to smile.

As cowardly as it had seemed, her letting that man beat her, it was actually brave. To her, she had been doing the right thing, the correct thing. And knowing that a beating of this multitude was coming and not running though she had the chance, it was amazing to fathom. But now the results were in, and she would be labeled as a rebel for not giving in in the first place.

Why he cared, he didn't know. He didn't care for this girl anymore than she had cared for him when she had first helped him. He was returning the favor. Besides. He already lo… cared for someone else- his dream woman, Serenity. There was something about that name! But every time he thought of it, a cloud covered his mind and his thoughts became muddled. But that didn't last for long. He was shocked out of his reverie with a loud groan. *