Some people say there is but one
And others say it just goes on and on
Ain't but one way to know, it's true
But I just want to live, don't you?
I just want to live
And when this life is done
I can't wait to start another one
Some people live for every day
And others squander all their time away
How could I have been caught in this?
Now I just want to live
Some people feel the need to preach
Some others always have to eat the peach
I stay out of their reach
'Cause I just want to live in peace
I just want to live
And when this life is done
I can't wait to start another one
And when this life is gone
I can't wait to start another one
---Bozwell
Chapter 14
Kerr stared at Mia in awe. "But he just...and you are... what if he..."
The 'Chaos Immortal' looked up at him with steady eyes. "I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad that the Kerr that I met is back."
The Thirian had nothing to say to that, but after a long pause, he spoke again. "Mia... you can't let this one go. They had direct access to my memories."
"No... Euode wouldn't be speaking in that manner if it was the case."
"But-"
"Not now," she snapped and walked out to meet her opponent. The Elemental gave her a cocky smile.
"Are you ready?" he didn't wait for an answer and charged forward, slashing at her with a cunning accuracy that was so different from Hiei's that the koorime watched the two's movements with an intrigued curiosity.
Mia dodged the Elementals blows with an ease that didn't seem at all natural. The more the fire demon looked into it, the more he was convinced it was just that; unnatural.
The Forgotten shifted from side to side, not moving a centimeter more than what was needed. Perhaps the strangest thing was that her movements began before Euode's attack was revealed by even the slightest muscle movement. The eerie swaying was unsettling even to her opponent who soon began to faint in order to throw her off, but never succeeded.
The group followed, entranced by the odd battle in which offensive and defensive seemed to blend.
Whap!
Euode landed a stealthy kick on Mia's crossed arms, sending her sprawling dangerously close the plateau's edge. "You're not the woman I met before. She would have grabbed my led and swung me over that very edge with ease."
"Strange how that all works out isn't it? Two-hundred years can do wonders to a warped soul."
"Like you could ever change. Your hands were so blood stained, there was no natural way to remove the color. Nothing could change a person like that," he stated coolly as he stalked her.
"And I suppose now," she stood, facing him, "That my back is to air, that you think this fight is over?"
"It is my element," he smirked.
"Then control it, make sure I can't move, cause now you have to fight in mine." Without a second to spare, she leaned back over the edge and fell. Euode swore and jumped after her, wind tousling his garments.
The left behind team members gathered around the cliff with a growing apprehension.
A stir of trees proved that the battle was still being held. Kurama made a move to follow but Kuwabara stopped him.
"I don't think that this is a good idea." Everyone gave the '...whyyyyyy?' look. "The aura coming up from there isn't... right."
"Elementals are probably different from what-" Kerr began but the human cut him off.
"It's not that. It's the trees."
"The trees." Yuskue stated with a blank expression.
"The trees," Kuwabara confirmed.
"... ..." he blinked. "... ..." and fell over laughing gasping 'trees' between breaths.
Kurama looked over the edge; the startling dark crimson color of the plants below him now suddenly seemed a thousand times more foreboding. "There are a lot of red trees on the Demon Plane."
"But those are different," he fought.
"They have fully formed souls," stated Kerr calmly, now standing next to Kurama. "But they don't match a tree's needs; gathering sunlight, growing bigger. They..."
"Want to see people die," Kurama finished. "And not for food, just for spite."
The Thirian nodded.
"… And this is supposed to stop us how?" Hiei questioned, jumping down the side of the cliff.
"SHRIMP GET BACK HERE!" Kuwabara yelled, having no desire to follow him into the crimson branches.
Edeth and Yuskue looked at each other and grinned. "One, two, three," they counted quickly and shoved the human over the edge, causing him to scream like a moron on the way down.
The detective whispered to Edeth, "That was probably not the best way to keep him alive."
"But well worth it," the Changeling added.
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Hiei slid between the trees, roots branching out like umbrellas, holding the red bark above the ground before sinking into the clear liquid at his feet. Yep, clear, crystal clear even when his feet hit the ground. And it was heavy too, it clung to him, slowing his movement to an irksome pace.
Finally tired of struggling, he gritted his teeth and waded through the goo to reach a tree. Pulling himself up onto one of the roots he took off his boot and shook the thick substance out of it, grumbling all the while (actions he would have never done around the rest of the group, but, hey, there was no one there).
THUMP!
Head snapping back to look up, his red eyes widened at the glimpse of black clothe.
THUMP!
There went a green one too. Mia practically bounced from tree to tree as Euode tried to keep up. Suddenly she stopped dead, sliding off the trunk and onto her current host's root, bending backwards in a show of flexibility that Hiei would have considered impossible with a backbone.
Euode, naturally, bounced right past her, landing hard on the next tree and nearly breaking it in two. He pranced forward again with a roar.
Right at Hiei. "Predictable," the koorime heard her mutter as he drew his sword, but stopped halfway. There was the distinct sound of a breaking bone before Mia's form was even visible. For a moment the two fighters were suspended in air from the force of Mia's kick to Euode's gut. Then he fell into the thick liquid and she finished her flip to land on the opposite tree. "Going for the person who should be least involved."
Hiei bristled at the insult, and glared at her. She didn't seem to notice.
Euode erupted from the syrupy liquid, unperturbed from his broken ribs despite that they were spreading blood down his legs. He flew straight at her and she naturally dodged jumping from tree to bloody tree, deep into the forest.
Euode hit another tree hard, and as he erected himself. Hiei froze in that instant from joining the fight. The man never looked at him, never recognized his presence, as if Hiei didn't even exist in his world. With a cold thought, Hiei realized that he didn't. The only reason he had been involved was to try and anger Mia, and now that she was gone, the Elementals enraged mind was back on destroy, and Hiei had no place in that mind set.
Sliding his sword back into it's sheath, he watched the man bound after the strange girl. Leaning against the trunk he sighed. There was something going on here, and he had no right in it. Mia's words seemed to take on a whole new meaning.
Closing his eyes, Hiei spoke. "Hello, Kurama."
The kitsune on the branch above him just chuckled good naturally. "Interesting fight."
"You didn't see half of it..."
"Perhaps, but it's not hard to tell he's not going to stop until the woman who killed his father is dead."
"That's not my problem."
"And not Mia's apparently either..." The only reply he got from Hiei was silence. "She's not worried in the slightest, and if you haven't noticed, she's very perceptive."
"Why should she be? She's got the upper hand."
"Perhaps... but she can't kill him here remember?" Kurama added gently, bounding off after the two leaving a icy stake of disbelief in Hiei's chest.
Mia's only other choice than to let Euode chase her around the rest of the tournament was horrifying and unreal. It was to let the Elemental have his way.
To die.
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Mia bounded through the branches, nearly loosing her balance with every step. It had been so long since she had jumped from these trees. So long since she had been chased in such a manner.
Too long. She had waited too long, and now here she was, neck high in a mess she had forced upon herself. Something flickered in the back of her mind -a memory. There was a mild sized clearing up ahead. Charging forward, she tried to keep her mind in the present, not in the eerily similar past. That horrible fate that Enma would so love to shove upon her once more.
"I will not!I will not submit to that heathen!" she growled between clenched to teeth. "To that pain." But it was too late. The images were already flashing through her head, pouring violently into her mind.
"Paran! No, get away, stupid child that's-" the memory wrenched from her mind as she fell face first into the thick liquid before her, her feet finally betraying her. 'Curse this body, I still can't control it,' she lied to herself. She knew it was her own guilt weighing her down.
Something pulled her out of the water and slammed her against rough bark. White flashed behind her eyes and pain filled her chest. Mia could feel the it moving dangerously close to her lung as her captor pushed her harder and harder onto a broken branch's stub.
"Got 'cha, witch!" Eoude growled into her ear. "This is for my father!" he bellowed, but the pain in her ear was overcome by blood filling her lung. White hot agony as the dirt fell in grains where it should never be, ruining her blood.
"Your nothing," the Elemental growled. "Nothing. You traded in your own comrades, and this is your fate."
"Nothing, Mia. Your nothing anymore but my pawn. Now scream."
"Scream for me!" Euode bellowed, pulling her out of her near unconscious state.
"No!" she whispered, snapping her eyes open to glare at him. "I refuse to submit!" Her voice rose hoarsely. She slammed her heel into Euode's wound and pushed herself off the protrusion. Grabbing the man's neck she paused slightly at the thinness of it before slamming his head under the water.
Something within her stirred strength into her frail, injured form. She held him under the water, refusing to let him back up for air. Slowly his thrashings softened and her arms began to shake. Pulling him up to the surface, she loosened her grip enough to let him breathe. Dragging his near comatose form through the liquid was almost enough incentive to drop him and let him drown, but she knew it would solve nothing.
"Listen to me, you misguided brat," she gagged, blood coming up from her punctured lung. But she ignored it. The plus of her only possessing the body, she couldn't feel the pain in the sense that most people did. Not that it mattered. "I didn't kill your dad on purpose. Though I am responsible for it, and I did kill him, I had no intention of it going into that war and I tried desperately to save him."
"Liar," he croaked earning another rough shove under the water. His reprieve came a little sooner than he had expected when ground hit his back. Slowly but surely his body leveled out onto solid ground and then above the water. He flicked open an eye to see Mia looming above him, hand still locked on his throat.
"Listen carefully child to what I have to say," she murmured. Her teeth were stained red and her eyes were glazed. "Your about to go unconscious, you were underwater too long. I didn't take in to consideration your element. When you wake up, you'll be on my team."
"No fu-" he was cut off by her ramming his head into the ground and effectively knocking him out.
With a deep sigh, Mia sat on the ground, the pain in her back so common now she barely noticed it. Crossing her legs, she set Euode's head in her lap and gazed down at him with soft eyes. "Oh, little one, what have I done to your soul?"
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"Hiei, I found her."
"Kurama, why are you whispering in my ear? It's not like-" the little koorime was cut short by a hand over his mouth.
"Shhhh! I don't think she's realized we're here!" he hissed with a pleading expression.
"That's impossible," he growled, lowering his voice none the less. "We trained with her for three weeks, remember? None of us could sneak up on her?"
Kurama smiled, "Ah, I almost forgot about Yuskue convincing you to sneak up behind her and-"
"Not. Another. Word." he growled,glaring venomously at him. Naturally, he just chuckled.
"Here," Kurama stated quietly, pulling back a red tinted branch, the kitsune revealed the strangest sight.
Mia was doubled over Euode's peaceful yet unconscious form, breathing slowly through her mouth, eyes softly shut. The land she sat on was lit a gentle green against the crimson surrounding. To Mia's back was a long, pearly marble tombstone stretching nearly as high as the trees themselves as if they had been there just to protect this strange clearing and the even stranger moment.
The stone read only one word, but it was enough.
ZEPHYR
Dusk set around them, and the two could do nothing but stare until the rest of the group arrived. One by one the other team mates appeared in the tree next to them, watching, waiting. What else could be done.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and still none of them said anything. There was a stirring, something was moving uncomfortably in every nook and cranny.
Mia strange eyes locked onto the group. Strangely calm eyes. In a slow, smooth motion, she waved them over.
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Hiei sat in the tree, watching the group on the island before them. None of them had said a word as they set up camp or laid down to sleep. No one protested when Mia left without a word or when Edeth followed her nearly an hour later. So naturally, no one stopped Hiei from spying after them.
He could sense Edeth up a head, his strange aura that had been barely noticeable before, now stuck out like a sore thumb.
Hiei froze in complete surprise. He wasn't expecting that.
Standing before him was Mia in waist high water, staring blankly off into the woods, her cloak off, her pale body revealed. But he couldn't see her back.
Because Edeth was holding her gently from behind, wrapping his arms around her slim shoulders. His face was buried in her midnight hair, but he could still see his eyes squinted shut in some sort of mental pain. It radiated off of him in waves, the Changeling was in some strange form of distress.
"Please, don't shut me out, Mia," Edeth pleaded, his voice cracking. "I tried so hard to get close to you,so many years,and now you won't even tell me why your injured."
"Edeth..." Mia began, but apparently she didn't have a good enough reply.
But he wasn't subdued. His voice rose with every word. "You have to tell someone! What's going on with Enma, what happened to your parents, why your so cold when everything we did was to keep this from happening again."
"It's not that simple..." she muttered.
"What's not that simple! What's going on!" he yelled, holding her tighter.
"Edeth-" but he cut her off hearing the slight tone of protest in her voice.
"NO! What's going on with y-" he froze, eyes as big a saucers.
Hiei stared in disbelief at this. It was too unreal, to much a corny comic book plot twist.
Mia had turned in Edeth's grasp and wrapped her arms around her waist. There was a strangely long pause and her wings slowly formed on her back and unfurled.
Then the moment was shattered. With a massive beat of her wings it became clear that it wasn't an embrace that Mia had been seeking, but to pick him up. A roar shattered the eerie silence as a giant beast crashed through the trees, landing right where the two had been standing just a moment before. It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and three snakes for a tail.
The koorime drew his sword, ready to spring forward, but was stopped dead.
"Hiei!" It was Mia, she knew he was here. Without warning he felt his face flush the slightest bit. He had been watching a very... personal moment, and she knew the whole time. "Now's, not the time, Hiei." Something was thrown at him. Edeth. "Take him a get back to camp!"
"But!" Edeth called out.
"Chimeras hunt in packs, Edeth! This is a distraction!"
The Changeling stared at her in indecision for a minute before growling. "Let's go, Hiei. The group can't handle this."
"And she can!?" the fire demon shot back, following after. Edeth didn't get a reply.
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"What? What's wrong?" Yuskue asked groggily.
"Get up, baka, and get the ningen to carry the Elemental. We've got company," Hiei snapped at the drowsy detective.
"Ah, a fight!"
"NO! No fighting!" Edeth cried. "Fire breathing! Not good!"
"Fire breathing!"
"MOVE FOOLS!" Hiei bellowed.
Needless to say they all moved quickly.
Jumping from tree to tree, they rushed over the thick liquid until they hit semi-marsh ground and hit the ground hard running as fast as Kuwabara would allow. Eventually Yuskue took the green haired creature, increasing the pace considerably.
But the beasts suddenly stopped, turning around, growling. Edeth's face grew pained. "Mia!"
"Keep going," she commanded quietly from the circle of chimeras around her. "I can handle it." She smiled wryly at him, and for the first time, it wasn't a frightening smile. "What good is this body if I don't use it?"
He almost tried to protest again, but instead turned and kept running. "Come on. I'm the only one who knows the way."
The gentle sound of Mia's gold bracelets hitting the hard ground followed them. Then the most horrible roar they had ever heard.
They kept running. There was nothing they could do for her now.
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A//N:: I'm BaaaaaaAAAAAaaack Sorry for the wait, school got in the way and then babysitting and and... never mind, I don't have a good excuse. But here it is, and I'm starting up again, so... don't kill me? And Icy, if your reading this, I'll reveiw your story soon.
Oh, and the song that Edeth sand a few chapters back was something I wrote down one day and decided to put in.