Chapter 11

Artemis opened her eyes, it wasn't dark anymore and she could actually breathe. She looked around her vision a little blurry, she looked down and saw her paws, she clawed the grass, she could move. She turned around and saw her body, her tail intact, her white coat shimmering in the sun light. She looked back around, in front of her Viserys stood smiling. She took a step and wobbled a little bit on her new legs. She looked behind Viserys and saw that boy that Tara had always been around, her weapon or whichever. He was laying on the ground his face a mask of shock and horror. She took another step forward, she was eye level with Viserys, she stared at him. There was something that she didn't like about him, "Welcome back Artemis." He bowed to her.

She scoffed, Do not flatter me Kishin.

He got back up and seemed a little taken back, "I see, I should have known- Are you not glad that you have come back?"

She glared at him, Yes, but Tara and I had a deal, this, this is very unexpected. Especially from a Kishin…

Viserys chuckled, "You made a deal with that mortal? A petty thing like that doesn't deserve to be dealt with, you could have just taken over yourself."

Artemis gave a low growl. "Oh that's right now I remember, the great Artemis swore to never take a life without meaning, and yet you stole hers."

Artemis eyes flashed with anger, HOW DARE A DEMON LIKE YOU JUGDE ME. She snarled baring her teeth. He smiled his cat eyes glittered, "You love the human, don't you? You couldn't bare to lose the body that has been keeping you alive for so long."

That really set her off; she snarled and raised a paw that hit him sending him flying back into the forest. She growled and ran off.

"Wait, No!" James got up, and began to run after the wolf. Akira was still standing there, holding Machi's leach still trying to process what had just happened. Tara turned into a wolf, how? Then she remembered Tara talking about Artemis' soul being attached to hers and how sometimes Artemis could take over her body and turn her into a wolf. Akira looked down at Machi, she looked perfectly calm, and she actually started wagging her tail happily. Machi stopped; she began to run away from Akira but pulled her along in the process. They were going in the direction where Artemis and James had run off too.

James ran through another branch and scratched his cheek. He could still see the wolf running ahead of him, damn she was fast, James mentally beat himself up for letting that happen, he should have known better than to do something so cocky like that. He couldn't afford to think that she was gone because of that, she couldn't have die, not like this. They got to the edge of the gardens; it was a balcony that opened up to view the rooftops of the city. The wolf didn't hesitate and jumped off landing on one of the rooftops. James had to stop at the railing, the jump was to far, he cursed and hit is hand on the railing bruising it. He looked around, there was a staircase to his far right, he ran towards it racing down the steps and began his chase again.

Tara opened her eyes, but it was all black, she blinked and then looked down and saw her hands. She tried to move but it was as though she was floating, she struggled to find a flat surface but found nothing. She began to panic; it was like drowning, not being able to find something to hold onto just floating there. She tried to calm herself and then curled up into a ball and just floated there. She closed her eyes even though it didn't matter she couldn't see anything anyway. Where am I anyway? She thought to herself, she subconsciously opened eyes again, she tried to look around but it was still all black. She remembered hearing a voice and then…well she woke up here. Artemis, it was her voice, that man must have triggered something to let her out.

She started to get a little dizzy just floating there. "Hello?" She called out, no one answered. She sighed, her breath pushed her away and she floated back. She tried it again and she floated back, she was like a feather pushing herself along the empty blackness. She hit something and quickly turned to see it, but it was just a black wall. She pounded her fists against it, nothing happened, she put her face to it trying to see through it. She could see shapes move out there. She gasped, as they got clearer, she floated back as a screen appeared showing the outside. They were running along the rooftops headed towards the desert. The screen panned down and it showed the street, James was running, passing through the crowd trying to keep up. "James, James! I'm in here! Whatever here is…" She pounded on the screen but he only seemed focused on keeping up with whoever was running on the roofs. She tried something, she looked within and tried to find his soul, but all she found was Artemis. She's taken over hasn't she, Tara floated back in despair. Maybe I should just wait it out…no something was different this time.

Artemis arrived at the edge of the city, she jumped down and walked into the desert. Why would anyone build a city in the middle of the desert? The wolf began to jog, "Artemis", she picked up the pace and began to run, "Artemis where are you going?" she ran even faster, "Artemis I know you can hear me, where are we going?" She didn't know, she didn't know anything anymore; all she wanted to do was run and escape the past. Tara stayed quiet as she ran and ran, she didn't care about getting tired, she didn't care about anything anymore, she ran until the sun was setting.

She spotted something in the distance, a little white fluff ball. It came closer, she slowed down, "Machi." She stopped in front of the little dog. Machi looked up at her blankly and then started panting and wagging her tail. She still had her collar and leach on. Artemis leaned over so she was eye level with the dog. "Don't hurt her." Machi licked her nose, Artemis sneezed, she heard Tara chuckle, "Can we talk now? Please."

Artemis looked of in the distance remembering their deals, their time together, it was time.

Very well.

Tara was in Artemis' mind now, there was actual floor, she was relived that she could finally stand. She watched as the wolf emerged from the blackness with Machi by her side trotting along. "Machi?" The pup ran over to her and she kneeled down to pet her. "What are you doing here?"

I decided to let her in; she seems harmless enough, such an innocent little creature. The wolf laid down. What is it Tara?

Tara was a little bit surprised of how nice the wolf was being. "Well I wanted to get my body back."

Nope.

"What? Why not? You've had your fun."

Yes but don't you see I've been fully restored, I can live in this body forever.

"But why would you want that?" The wolf thought about that and drew a blank."You've already had a full life."

The wolf snarled at her, Don't you dare lecture me on life.

Machi went back over to Artemis and sat next to her nuzzling her shoulder. The wolf softened and licked the dog.

You know what's sad about life Tara? Is that you eventually have to die. I was a mother once, six healthy pups. They were to become my pack, my family, and you know how they died? A hunting game, some humans thought it would be fun to take down the great pack of wolves, they killed my children one at a time, once a day they'd come, in many numbers and we'd fight back. But once they had killed one of us they ran away, they did this everyday until only I was left…. I chose you for a reason and not just to get revenge at your parents, but because I wanted you to be different than the rest of them. So you wouldn't grow up to be like them, killing everything that got in their way. The wolf chuckled. I guess I failed doing that in some respects, but at least you didn't turn out to be exactly like them.

"You don't want to go…"

The wolf nodded, Everything, everyone has a fear, my greatest is death. I saw you also as an opportunity to start new, try something different. I'm actually glad I decided to do so; you've shown me a different side of life. I've decided. I want to show you my thanks Tara.

She got up and walked over to Tara, the wolf made a snorting noise, I wouldn't have died for long anyway, I would've been reincarnated, but I suppose you were only just an experiment. But a successful experiment, use this gift well and remember I will always be with you. You and the little wolf.

"Wait, why did you do this now?"

The wolf laughed, Don't question my motives Tara, I thought you would've learned that by now. I'm tired Tara let me sleep for a while.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I said don't question me. Now shut up and accept my gift.

James stopped, he was exhausted from all the running, but he couldn't give up on Tara. He pushed himself some more and kept running, luckily the stars had just come out and the desert was cooling down. He slowed down to rest a bit, when he looked up he saw a white ball off in the distance. He walked towards it, he got closer and stepped on something. He pulled it out from the sand, it was Machi's collar and leach, but the collar was broken as if something ripped through it. He began walking towards it again, it was a large white dog, no it looked like a wolf. He moved closer, Tara was curled up beside the wolf…naked…well I guess it makes sense since she did rip through her clothes when she turned into a wolf. He took of his jacket and placed it around her and kneeled beside her. He looked at the wolf, it was about as big as a large dog, but there was something familiar to it. It couldn't be Artemis… He heard someone coming up behind him. Akira stopped for a bit panting; she didn't have Machi with her.

"Where's Machi?"

Akira held up a hand for him to wait until she caught her breath, "She got away from me, she was running this way so I followed her."

James looked back at the wolf, Machi? Akira looked down at Tara and then back up to James, she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. James looked at her, "What? Don't give me that look; I didn't do anything to her. What do you think we should do with the…wolf?"

"We should probably bring it or wake it up."

"Why? What if it's not nice and rips our heads off?"

The wolfs leg twitched, they jumped back. "I don't think it would do that."

It was James' turn to raise an eyebrow. He picked Tara up, making sure that his jacket didn't fall off of her. The wolf opened its eyes, they froze, it lifted its head up and yawned, flashing its teeth. It got up slowly and then sat up, it looked at James and started to wag its tail happily and panted, it's tongue hanging out. It walked over to James; he stood there frozen, and licked his face. Akira moved over to them and pet the wolf, "Machi?"

Machi turned to face Akira and licked her face, Akira whipped her face off, "Yup, that's Machi."

"But how? She's gotten so…big."

"Hmm…maybe you should take her to the vet later."

James scoffed, "Yeah right, let's just go. I'm sure Tara will know what happened."

They started on their way back to Death City.

"You have a lot of explaining to do to mister."

James smiled nervously, "Yeah I guess I do…"

Tara woke up on an unfamiliar bed. She looked around and saw a couple other beds beside hers; James was sleeping on her right in a chair, snoring like a bear. She looked under her covers and saw she was dressed in her pajamas. She sank back down in the bed covering her head with the blanket, wait a minute… she realized was in the dispensary, Nurse Medusa's domain. She panicked and jumped out of the blankets and stood up on the bed. James snorted awake, "Wha, what happened."

He looked up at Tara who was standing on the bed clearly freaked out.

"What are you doing up there?"

"You brought me here? Why would you do that? You know I hate the nurse!"

James thought for a bit, "Oh yeah, that's right. Well we wanted to make sure that you weren't hurt or anything."

Akira walked in and looked at up Tara, mumbled something about it being to early and then walked out. Tara sat back down and crossed her legs facing James.

"What time is it anyways?"

He looked back to the clock, "8ish, we've been here all night waiting for you to gain consciousness."

Tara blushed, "You didn't have to do that."

James smiled at her, "Well I knew you were going to be upset when you woke up here so I stayed."

Tara frowned, "Where's Machi?"

James laughed, "She's at home, almost smashed the couch though. You have a lot of explaining to do missy."

Tara looked shocked, "Me? I need to explain things? What about you! Some random creepy white guy comes out of nowhere and starts calling you young master and then mind controls our friends. Not to mention him being able to let Artemis out, well actually that wasn't that bad… But still, I don't need to explain anything unless you talk first."

James looked at her for a bit, he reached over to her ear and he grabbed a cluster of hair and brought it out so he could see it better. "When did you dye your hair?"

Tara looked at him confused, he was awfully close to her face, "What do you mean…I've never dyed my hair before…"

She looked down at the hair he was holding, it was red, she grabbed the rest of her hair and looked at it, it was her normal color, silver. James let go of the strand he was holding so she could see it. Yup, a cluster of hair that was behind her right ear had turned red.

"What the hell…when did this happen?"

James leaned back in his chair.

"I see you're awake." They didn't see Medusa walk in; she was wearing her lab coat and holding a clipboard. Tara wanted to hiss at her but she knew that was rude after all she was just the nurse.

James looked happy to see her though, Tara felt a pang of jealousy, the way he looked at her… "So is she ok then?" James smiled at her.

"Well it doesn't look like there's anything wrong with her so she's good to go. You'll be happy to know that you've been cleared for today and tomorrow, so you don't have to come to school." Medusa smiled at her innocently.

"Thanks…"Tara said cautiously.

"But you need to get to class soon." She said to James. James looked up at her like a puppy waiting for a treat; she really wanted to slap him. She could tolerate a lot of things but this…this was getting ridiculous. "Ooook," Tara let out, "Well I guess we better get going then, James has school stuff to get to and I have home stuff to get to. Thank you very much Nurse."

She was already heading out the door, "Tara don't you want to put some clothes on?"

She looked down at her pajamas, she trudged back to James and held out her hand, "Fine, give me my clothes then."

She got changed and they headed out. Tara punched James in the shoulder as hard as she could almost knocking him over. "Ow, what was that for?" He said rubbing his shoulder.

She kept walking, looking straight ahead, "You know why."

James walked her out to the front steps, he stood in front of her, looking down trying to see her face. She looked away from him, "Where'd Akira go anyway?"

"It's her first day, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. Check on her once in a while ok?"

"I will, oh and Lance and Melody are coming over tonight I hope you don't mind." He chuckled, "They also want some answers."

She looked up at him and frowned, he gave a playful frown back. She looked away wanting to slap him again, "You should get to class."

"Oh alright, see you later then." He kissed her cheek and then ran off to class. She watched him go.

(AN: Well that took longer than expected. I try to make the story as true to the original as possible…I try…but it gets really hard getting it right in the time setting, like I have no idea where they're at right now! Oh well I guess it doesn't really matter; all that really matters is that I have it before the Azura awakens. Phhhh what else… this chapter was defiantly not some of my best work. But anywhoo; Thanks for reading! Write that review!)