Title: Tears in Heaven

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack. 6-16-07: Most of the next two chapters will be written to the album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" by My Chemical Romance.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: Second part of a massive three-part update that will, unfortunately, end Tears In Heaven. Yeah, this fic is over soon. Weep, damn you! Nah, not so much. This ends out the battle, please enjoy, and remember- if this sucks ass, I don't tend to write fight scenes.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

Part Twelve: Battle For Heaven and Hell (Part II)

"Now… you didn't think I was going to be defeated so easily… did you, my angel of destruction?" she asked, standing up and tugging the wing out with her, taking a few more feathers. Her other hand reached out and slashed the sensitive area of the back, around the base of Solaris's wings, and she laughed as the angel's eyes went amber and her shriek grew higher.

"Let her go, Azura! She'll be of no help if you kill her!" the angel yelled as he came out of hiding. Azura scowled and slapped him backwards.

"Shut up, you traitor! Tonio, you don't think I didn't know you warned her companions in her form?! I'm no fool! You are her first target! Solaris… my angel of destruction… kill him!" Azura demanded. Solaris turned a sad look to Tonio, blood tears falling from her eyes as she soared high into the air, her shriek ceased. With no warning, she dove, the butt of the scythe aimed at Tonio's heart. There was a sick thud as it connected, and Azura's laughter rang through the night.

I'm so sorry, Tonio… I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry… Solaris's voice projected to Tonio, unspoken. The dying angel coughed once and smiled.

"I understand… commands must be obeyed if you're a gray… otherwise the pain will kill you… am I right?" More tears of blood fell to the ground, and he nodded. "That's what my research told me… someday, you should look it up… Little angel of music…"

"He always called her that…" Shiroi said in stunned shock. First he found that his daughter's favored (re: only one she never tried to kill in conscious mind) babysitter had betrayed them by releasing the Fury, now he found that he had tried to help, and now, the angel lay dying… never to return to Heaven as an angel… unless…

"Solaris used the butt of the scythe, didn't she?" Shiroi asked Kurama, who nodded. Shiroi seemed relieved then, for a split second as Solaris rose back into the sky, a silhouette against the blood moon shining in the sky. And as the angel, cherub, half-angel, and four men stared at the sight of the almost-cruel look on Solaris's flame lit face, a feeling of dread rushed through them.

Solaris didn't seem like she was in her right mind anymore, like the pain had driven her insane, and she was willing to listen to Azura if it would just make the pain stop. And the Fury just stood there, laughing as she watched her 'angel of destruction' hold her place in front of the moon, a furious insane avenger.

"And that was just the first! Soon, I will rule heaven and hell, and earth will be my hunting grounds! With my little Angel of Destruction at my bidding, I'll rule all!" she laughed maniacally. Foxglove's eyes were wide with horror as she noticed the blood dripping from her sister's various cuts in her feet and arms, and the blood staining the fox tail's crème-colored tip red as it dripped from the deep slashes in her back.

"She's gonna bleed to death… it's dripping down her back, her hair must be holding a lot of that too…"

"Quiet!" Azura commanded. "My angel of destruction… KILL! Kill those that hurt you! Kill the ones that made you cry! KILL!" she shrieked with laughter, never noticing as Solaris took off towards her, whipping her hair around. The others could see a spray of blood coming from the ends of her hair as she lowered the scythe at Azura. Foxglove looked around and found the bottle of holy water, and rushed forwards, flying over patches of cloud-ground that were missing.

"Solaris! Catch!" she yelled, throwing the bottle to her sister, who barely had to put out a hand to catch the water. With eyes clouded and amber, she threw the remainder of the water that had trickled out slowly at Azura's eyes, hitting right on the mark and blinding the Fury.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked in horror and confusion, before the blunt end of the scythe blade plowed into her stomach. Solaris's face was blank, except for hatred shining out of amber toned eyes.

"You're the only one here who's ever really hurt me. You're the only one here who's ever really made me cry. You killed my mother, that hurt me more than endless centuries of angelic torture ever could. You tried to cut my wings off my back… you made me kill Tonio. He's the only angel I've ever been able to even halfway stand. Now tell me one good reason why you shouldn't die?"

"I-I-I can give you power! More power than you've ever imagined!" Azura tried, paralyzed with fear. She'd never heard of Grays turning against the commands of those who had them under their control… ever. But none had the most powerful gray ever born in their power. And Azura was coming to realize that maybe she never had either, aside from the few minutes she had ordered her to kill Tonio.

"I don't need your excuse for power! What you think of as power is merely fear! And do you want to know what they feared about you?" Solaris asked, driving the blade harder into Azura's stomach as she leaned forward. "A legend, a myth, a fucking story told to frighten children into behaving! And do you want to know what I did when I heard those stories?" Solaris moved the blade to the side, pressing the point into Azura's side. "I. Laughed.

"Because I knew no-one was powerful enough to do all the things they said a fury could do. Sure, you can tear down buildings, you're powerful enough that you have to be held in a special cell, all that happy shit… but I knew you couldn't do it alone. I looked over every tale of Furies and I saw they all had one thing in common: They had a Gray under their control.

"So I figured it out. It was the Gray that was the driving force behind the Fury, not the other way around. The Grays that had been controlled by Furies were misled, thinking that the pain the Fury put them through could be numbed if they followed every instruction given by the Fury to the letter. So I did. I killed Tonio, yes. But I killed him with the end of the scythe. The un-enchanted end that wouldn't judge. Tonio will still be an angel when he's reborn, because he was misled too… just like you tried to do to me." Solaris straightened up and raised the scythe over her head.

"I know if I listen to you, that I'll never recover from the pain in my heart. I'll be following not only my mother's murderer, but the murderer of thousands of others whose only sin was to be born at the wrong time. Physical pain only makes a good controller for a short time. Eventually the load will be too great, and I'll die. Then you'll have no power over anyone. But I will have died responsible for the deaths of uncounted masses. I'd rather only have two deaths on my hands: Tonio's and yours!" And with that, she brought the scythe down into Azura's chest, pulling as she shouted over the Fury's shrieks of pain.

"See you in Hell!" With one final shriek, a dark energy rose up from Azura's body, and shot away into the horizon, vanishing in a small flash of light. Solaris pulled another vial of holy water from her medicine bag, and broke this container on the dead body. As the corpse went up in flames, Solaris leaned heavily against her father's scythe, breathing ragged as the blood steady flowed down her back, only beginning to clot now. The others rushed over to her.

"Is it over?" she asked, staring at the burning body. "Is she gone for good?"

"Yes, musume. She's gone to hell, forever." Shiroi nodded. "You stopped the Fury, and saved Heaven. And Tonio… he will be reborn."

"Good. I knew how your scythe worked. I didn't want him to die forever just because he made one little mistake and was misled by that Fury." Solaris was hoisted to her feet by Kurama, and she handed the scythe back to Shiroi. "Trade you. Your scythe for my sword." Hikaru handed the sword back to Solaris, and Shiroi took his scythe.

"So what happens now?" Kuwabara asked, the first thing he'd said the whole time they'd been in Heaven.

"Simple. We rebuild." Shiroi said calmly. "This has only happened a few times before, but all the angels put together could usually beat the Fury. This one snuck up on us. But we'll do what we always do. Rebuild. Cope. Learn."

"Good. Let this be the first lesson. Grays are not all going to kill you. And this should be the second: all that makes the Furies a threat is pain. Make sure that the cherubs understand that even if they obey someone causing them pain, it won't stop it. Maybe that should keep something of this magnitude from happening again." And with that, Solaris passed out. She'd fought hard to save the only home she'd really known.

"Where will you go from here?" Hikaru asked.

"We'll probably stay at the temple. I don't want to go back to Makai. And I'm willing to bet Sis would rather stay with Kurama… so the temple's the only place we can go, especially with these wings… that is, if you'll have us?" Foxglove asked Hiei.

"You're more than welcome." Hiei said calmly. Yusuke understood it, and stomped on Kuwabara's foot to keep him quiet. This, of course, escalated into another argument… until a sword was leveled at the two of them and they saw a very pissed off vixen glaring over Kurama's shoulder.

"Shut up you two. Or do I have to have four deaths on my hands?" With that, she withdrew the sword, kissed Kurama on the cheek, and promptly went back to sleep.

"Well… first things first, you need to tend your wounds. Then you can go home." Shiroi said calmly. "Foxglove, daughter… I'll teach you how to withdraw your wings if you promise to teach your sister."

"I would even if you told me not to." Foxglove grinned.

--

"Solaris? Wake up, Solaris…" The vixen sat up slowly, feeling bandages wrapped all around her torso and arms. She looked over at the red-headed man by her blearily.

"Kurama?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"Home, Solaris. You're home." She grimaced and flopped back, causing him no end of amusement. "Not Heaven, not Hell. The temple… where we're going to live." She looked at him sideways.

"We? As in Foxglove and me?"

"As in you, me, Foxglove, Hiei and Yukina. Sure, I still have classes, but I know you like to fly. You can't do that in Tokyo. So I've decided I'm going to only live in Tokyo during the days I have classes. Every Friday night I'm going to come here and stay with you. Hiei's already cancelled his lease on his apartment, he and Foxglove are moving the stuff out now."

"How long have I been out?" Solaris asked. Kurama had to think a moment.

"Three days. But your injuries were severe. Oh, and Foxglove told me to teach you how to withdraw your wings." He smiled and helped her sit up again. "Now, just imagine yourself without wings again. They should revert to the birthmarks. And if you want them again, just imagine yourself with them. It shouldn't hurt for them to come out anymore." He watched as the wings retreated into Solaris's back, but she stopped them just as they became cute, manga-sized wings.

"I'm used to them being there. I don't want them to go away completely." As she shrugged, she sighed and shook her head, and withdrew them totally. "Itchy."

"I imagine so. Come on, let's go for a walk." He smiled, and helped her up, walking with her around the courtyard as he filled her in on what all had happened after her passing out.

Yukina watched the two laughing, walking like old friends, and smiled. She knew the two had some sort of connection, a strange one. Or maybe… not so strange. After all, love crossed all boundaries, human, demon, angel, some odd mix of them…

"Welcome home." she smiled to no one, saying the words no one had said yet.