I had begun the arduous trek through the desert, cursing my lack of foresight for my forgetting water and other key things for maintaining life and all that, and attempting to find out if I really did have any special desert demon powers, like Liam said he thought I did, when I walked into the demon world.

Now, that's not something that it's very easy to do. It's not like the entrances are just dotted around for people to trip over and go head-first down into that place. Although that's probably what Alice did, only she called it 'Wonderland', instead of 'the place where I used to live before I became what I became'.

Descriptions aren't my strong point.

But walk in I did, and it was only when it was too late that I felt the cool pull of a different wind and tasted the non-air that drifted into my mouth that I realised something was odd. Honestly, you'd expect someone like me at least to sense these things. There are full humans out there who are more in-tune with tiny details like overlaps of this world into a different dimension. This is unfortunate, especially given my situation at that time.

Maybe I just didn't realise because it was night time in the desert, and it was night time here, in so far as they have a night (I would say it's more like they have midnight, and dusk, and small variations between the two). That world isn't actually a desert either, more of a place that doesn't even realise that plants should be growing there, or that the sandy ash that covered it wasn't the usual mineral-rich soil of other worlds. No wonder you get so many demons chancing it in the human world, that place is so freaking depressing.

Once I realised, I whipped around, but all I could see for miles were the gently sloping hills of ash that characterised the landscape everywhere here. Oh shoot.

Then, when I turned around again, possibly the worst thing that could have happened had happened. Three demons had materialised in formation in front of me, and I doubted that they were the welcome team. I smiled shakily, as they began to slowly circle.

"How did a human child end up here?" One murmured in a voice that grated like sandpaper on skin.

"There wasn't a known portal." Another one hissed, as if it were my fault that I had haplessly stumbled into one. I cleared my throat.

"Um."

"It speaks, it speaks!" The second one cawed, and darted at me. I leapt away, to the sound of their tinny laughter.

"Boys, boys... you are boys, right?" At this they bared their teeth, and I realised that it wasn't the most diplomatic of things to ask, given the circumstances. I moved hurriedly on, "I would check those noses of yours. Human child? I don't think so." I closed my eyes and prayed that they would smell enough demon on me to be fooled. Sure enough, the third one, who had up until now been silent, drew a deep croaking breath and let it out in a sharp gasp,

"I- smell- demon." It panted, and the others looked at me, eyes wide with shock.

"Yeah...so, if you don't mind, I'll just be on my way-" I moved towards the edge of the circle, but the second demon snarled at me, and I stepped carefully back,

"Demon-human-what are you...?" The third asked and the first one growled,

"I have heard of them- Mergers!" It spat and I winced. From the sound of things, I wasn't going to be skipping happily into the sunset with these guys any time soon. From the second one's mouth, dripping with venom (literally) came the slow steady chant,

"Merger, Merger, Merger!"

"Can-we-kill-it?" The third asked breathlessly and I watched as the first one gave a slow and measured nod. Double shoot.

They leapt, but I spun away, and threw up a barrier of glass. But one strike from the second was enough for my defence to disintegrate into sand. I jumped into the air, but one grabbed my ankle and pulled me back into the middle, throwing me onto my back. I shot glass at them but that too just drifted harmlessly as sand into nothing. This had never happened before. Worrying. I tried again, pushing myself onto my feet, but after a couple of times I had realised that it was hopeless, and the three demons were crowing with unkind laughter. I swore, tried one last time, then a swipe with some kind of knife protruding from the first's elbow floored me.

"Don't think your little Merger tricks are going to work on us!" The first mocked me, and stalked around me in an ever-tightening lock with the other two. The second leered into my face and I tried feebly to punch him,

"Your demon half is home! It declared delightedly, "Don't you think it's going to try to get out?"

And then it hit me. An idea, not a demon. Our existences, us Mergers, are fragile at most. At the best of times we're a whirling mess of chakras that fight for dominance, and through years of training we can hope to contain them into one form in the human world. But here it was a different story, and of course the demon part was going to be more at ease, more destructive, more overpowering, than I had ever experienced.

"There was just that one boy." The second muttered slowly, "Fooled us and then came out with perfect demon chakra. Stupid Merger."

My future brightened distinctly. I assumed they meant Liam, and that he had gained control of his gold demon chakra here just as he had controlled his metal human chakra in the other world. His Merger chakra is white gold, an alloy of gold and copper. He never lets me forget that his is something so cool.

Back to the fight, and I was dragging myself to my feet again,

"Thanks, demon." I said slowly, and the three looked surprised, "You just told me how to win."

I breathed deeply, and retreated into myself, quickly, as quickly as I could. Sure enough, I could feel the suppressed demon chakra straining inside of me, and I bit my lip, hoped I knew what I was doing, fairly certain that I didn't, and let it loose.

xxx

When I came to, they were all knocked out, and I was in a battle stance, my fists slightly bloody, a thin trail of sand leading from the three of them to me. Breathing heavily, I watched as it retracted to me and disappeared under my skin. Creepy. Remind me never to let my demon chakra control me to such an extent. It makes me thirsty.

I heard a polite cough and spun around to see a demon, made out of darkness and something almost shadowy but material, slink up into the ring I had created around me of half-dead demons.

"That was some show." It said, and I tensed, ready for battle once more. It shook its head, laughing a little demon laugh, which sounded a little like a steam train's chugging, "I'm not an enemy. You're a Merger, yes? I've been working with your comrade, Liam."

I faltered, dropping my guard, then tightening it again. The demon just laughed once more and motioned with its head (it didn't have arms) to our left,

"What? What's there?" I asked suspiciously.

"The headquarters of our operation. We've been wanting to meet you ever since you escaped, Youko."

"Hey! How do you know my name?" I cried, but it merely turned around and headed off in the direction it had indicated. Hesitating, I looked between its departing back and the pile of now semi-conscious enemies, then ran to catch up.

His name was Ara, it turned out, and he'd been sent on a recon of the Centre before, which was why he knew who I was. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, I followed him into a small cave in the side of one of the ash hills that then opened up into quite a well-lit room, with a few demons seated in conversation at the other end. They looked up at our arrival, and then jumped up. Ara put his hand up and barked an explanation military-style, at which point their panic turned to wonder, as they sized me up,

"Liam was most praising of you." One elderly demon said kindly, and I smiled,

"I'll ask him about that. It doesn't seem like him." I said in reply, and turned to the room in general,

"Yes, I'm Youko. Um, hello." I was greeted with such a warm welcome that I really hadn't expected, especially after my experiences of councils at the Sand village. But they sat me down and crowded round, listening in interest as Ara described my battle to them.

"Hey, why didn't you help?" I turned on him, but he merely shrugged, a strange thing to watch when the shoulders in question are made out of a peculiar dark substance that seemed to mix itself with the shadows on the walls and then settle back down into an almost-humanoid shape again.

"I didn't know you were a Merger to begin with, you were too far away. And then when you used your demon strength, I didn't feel the need to help."

I nodded slowly in acceptance and then sighed,

"I guess I'd better ask how the resistance is going, then."

There was silence, and then the guy who appeared to be the leader stepped forward uncertainly,

"We have a plan."

Something in his voice made me instantly suspicious, and I narrowed my eyes at him,

"Do tell."

he hesitated, and his deputy stepped in,

"The thing is... we have observed your movements within the Village Hidden in the Sand, and have calculated the probability of your humans attacking the Centre first very high. So..."

"They're waiting until you start, so we can join with minimal damage." Ara finished for them, and they looked away. I turned this information over in my mind for a minute.

"You're basically waiting for us to take on the most dangerous, and then just step in to finish it off." I stated, and they winced. Tactically, it made a lot of sense, but morally... I would prefer that they didn't sneak into a battle midway through and then claim half of the rewards. I stood up, and strode a little way off, then turned to face the group,

"I guess you guys have different morals anyway." I shrugged, "It's good to know we have some kind of back-up." They breathed a sigh of relief, then one jumped up,

"Wait, where you're walking-"

I felt the familiar coolness of an evening in Suna, and sniffed the fragrant scent of a thousand jasmine plants that entwined their way around the walls and houses of the city,

"You're falling into a hole between the worlds!" I heard one cry, as if from a long way away.

"Hey, I just keep doing that!" I grumbled, feeling myself spinning dreamily.

"It's because of your existence. It puts a strain on the fabric of these dimensional barriers. Most people can't slip through the cracks that you do." Then I felt their presence vanish altogether.

"Good for me..."

The unfortunate thing about drifting between dimensions is that you always have to come out. And when you're drifting through one that doesn't really exist, except for you, really, there's no telling whether it's going to be a lovely little one that sets you down all nicely on the other side.

And I discovered, flying through the air fifty feet above Suna, that this wasn't one of those nice portals between dimensions. I discovered that as fashionable as jumpsuits are, they don't make very good parachutes. And I discovered that, after thinking you're about to crash into your painful and high-speed gravity-induced doom, there's something incredibly lovely about crashing into someone's arms.

Especially if that someone happens to be Gaara.