"That's good." The woman said as she took the pocket watch from my hand. "You saved you and your little friends a lot of trouble."

I looked away not really want to start a conversation; I just wanted to get this over with.

"I'm just amazed that your little friends didn't come to find you, I guess in the end they really didn't care." She said looking over to me trying to see if I would react to the comment.

"Just going to stand there?"

I shrugged "Pretty much."

"Hm." She said dully. "Come on." She grabbed onto my upper arm used something similar to flash step, except it wasn't as fast but it still got us there in a pretty short amount of time. I looked around once we stopped moving. We were surrounded by trees and in front of me stood what looked like ruins of what used to be a grand ballroom. Somewhere in the back of my head I could see crowds of people in all sorts of gowns and suits walking up the steps to enter. I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't notice that she had tied chains around my wrist until she yanked me forward. I looked at my wrists then at her.

"What? We can't have you trying to escape." She said and pulled me up the stairs. When we arrived at the double doors instead of grabbing the handle she put her hand on the door and it rippled like water.

"Aperire (Latin for open)" She said as she walked through. I hesitated for a moment but then followed right behind her closing my eyes as I felt the impact of the 'door.' It kind of felt like I walked through rubber. I opened my eyes once I was completely through and was stunned. Instead of a late Victorian era hallway like I had expected, it was in an underground passage. The walls were a dark brown with small designs that looked like a cross between vines and bubbles. Each column had a torch that hung on its own stand. The columns held up a ceiling that reached at least twenty feet above my head.

"Move it." She said and yanked the chain making me jerk forward. We started to walk and with each step there were about five echoes for that step. I looked ahead to see that were getting close to an intersection. Then I looked behind me to see that there wasn't a door, just more hallway.

"What happened to the door?"

"Hey, don't space out." She said as we made a turn to the left.

"Sorry." I said and turned my attention back to walking behind her but looked around from the corner of my eyes. As we continued to walk through I expected to see some doors or something but there were none. I bumped into the woman and stumbled back a bit. She looked over her shoulder. I could bet that she had an annoyed expression plastered on her face.

"Sorry, sorry." I said looking down hoping she wouldn't punch me or something.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "Go."

"Huh?"

"Go." She said and motioned to the wall.

"Go to the wall?" I asked confused.

She let out another annoyed sigh. She grabbed my shoulder and pushed me to the wall I closed my eyes expecting the impact of a wall but it was the same as the last door, walking through rubber type stuff. I would have fallen down if it wasn't for the chains on my wrist but that was painful. Falling would have been less painful. I looked around and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark lighting. I heard her step into the room.

"You'll stay here until I come get you, understand?" She said.

I nodded my head.

She walked over to the corner of the room pulling me with her.

"For safe measures." She said and I heard some metal clicking either open closed. "There." She said and stepped away.

I tugged at the chain a bit and my suspicions were confirmed. I was chained to a pole. I sighed and she left me to my little prison. I sat down and leaned against the wall and looked up at the ceiling which was considerably shorter than the ceiling in the hallway.

"What now? I just sit here till my death sentence arrives? Why does this sound familiar?" My eyes were finally starting to adjust. The room was just a plain room tiled with stone. "Homey." I decided to lay down on the floor, which was colder than I had expected. I started to feel extremely sleepy and my eyes started to close. I didn't feel like fighting off the sleep so I let sleep take over.

"Hey wake up." A voice said.

"Hn." I said and rolled over.

"Wake up." I felt a poke to my side.

"Hnn." I whined.

"Fine." I felt my side start to burn and I jumped up.

"Fudge cakes! What was that for!?" I said. I noticed that I was once again in that one forest and I was looking at the girl who was wearing clothes that looked from the Fire Nation. "Oh it's you."

"Why does it sound like you're disappointed?" She said with a sigh.

"What did you want me to be all fangirl or something?" I said while rubbing my side.

"Not to that extent but you know put some emotion into it next time." She said as she stood up.

"I doubt there will be a next time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly that, there will be no next time. Do you want me to spell it out for you?"

She rolled her eyes. "No need…" She narrowed her eyes at the trees then grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet then pushing me behind her.

"What?" I asked as I looked over her shoulder to see three figures coming out from the trees. "Oh…"

It was the other three that I had encountered before.

"What are you guys doing here?" She hissed.

"This is neutral territory; we all have the right to be here." The one with the green gown said.

"Yeah, what Emma said." The younger one said as she pointed at the one with the green gown.

"Anyway it seems you have a little toy with you Phoenix." The one with the blue gown said.

I shrunk behind her.

"Stay away Crystal, she's with me." Phoenix said.

Crystal smiled "Surely she told you."

"Told me what?" Phoenix asked.

"They're going to kill her."

"What? How do you know?"

"Tina saw it." Crystal said pointing at the younger one.

Phoenix turned to look at me with a questioning/threatening gaze.

"I was gonna tell you!" I said and held my hands up in surrender.

"You lost Phoenix." Emma said. "Just go ahead and hand her over. There's no need to fight."

I looked over at Emma then at Phoenix with a pleading gaze.

"But fighting isn't a problem either." Crystal said and stepped forward.

Phoenix turned back around to face the three. "I haven't lost yet!" Her clothes caught themselves on fire and from the flames armor formed. "There's still time left!" The remaining flames formed a sword. She swung down the sword and a wave of flames headed towards the others. "Let's go!" She grabbed onto my arm and started to run in the opposite direction.

"Ow! Ow! IT BURNS!" I practically yelled. The flames around her arm and hand died down so it wouldn't burn off my arm. She suddenly stopped running and pushed me to the left and she jumped to the right. I stumbled into a tree and where we were standing lightning had struck.

"Oh jebus, that would've hurt."

Phoenix appeared in front of me. "Listen, I'm going to hold them off, you need to get out of the neutral territory and into my territory."

"How do I get there?!" I asked.

"Head West." She said pointing behind me. "Once you see a right side up triangle you've reached it, now go!"

I pushed myself off the tree and started running in the direction I was told. "Wait why am I running? I'm gonna die anyway… details, just keep running!" I told myself. I heard the clashing of swords and lightning impacting the ground and I could feel the earth rumbling under my feet. I felt a breeze blow from behind me; it was pretty strong, almost made me fall. Sadly I tripped over a tree trunk. "Out of all the times!" I said as I pulled myself up to my feet and looked back only to see Emma. My eyes widen and I was about to scream but I slapped my hands over my mouth and muffled it.

"Calm down, I'm not going to kill you, I'm here to negotiate." She said holding up her hands where I noticed that little roots were hanging off of her hands.

I lowered my hands and raised an eyebrow.

"See thing is I wouldn't mind if you stayed alive or died." She said.

"That's nice." I thought sarcastically and rolled my eyes.

"But personally I would rather stay out all of this and keep living in this forest as it but I know that wouldn't be an option either way." She let out a sigh.

"Okay… and what do I have to do with any of this?"

"I want you to kill me."

"What?" I said and looked at her like she was crazy.

"Kill me, I've grown tired of living, it's become boring, nothing is challenging." She said shrugging.

"So you want me to kill you cause you're bored? You know if that was the reason why everyone died, no one would make it pass the first minute of life."

"Yes but I've been living for over 1,000 years."

"1,000?!" I said in disbelief. "Is that how long the others been alive too?!"

"No, I'm the oldest, the twins are 500 years old and the younger one is only 300."

"Twins?"

"You make it sound like being alive for 300 years is no big deal." I said.

"When you've been alive for 1,000 years, it isn't. Anyway this is getting off topic, will you or will you not kill me?"

"N-no, I mean… how am I supposed to kill you? It's not like I have powers like you guys."

She put her hand over the ground and from it a very thin sword sprang out. She caught it in her hand and held it out to me. " The'How to' is not a problem."

I looked at the sword then at her. "I'm not going to kill you."

"You don't want to?"

"No! Killing people is… weird!"

She laughed. "Weird?"

"Yes, weird."

She looked behind her then at me. "Well none the less I thank you for listening." She said and took a few steps to the right and then a ball fire engulfed the area where she stood. I saw Phoenix come from the flames towards me. For a second I thought she was going to tackle me but she grabbed my arm started to run.

"Ow, Ow, OW!"I yelled.

"Deal with it for a bit, we're almost there." She said as we continued to run, well more like she was running and I was trying to get my feet on the ground.

"But it burns!" I said. With that the flames around her arm died down. "So what happened?"

"I was able to push them back, but I was bluffing about having time, we probably have a few minutes." She said.

"What?! So what now?!"I asked. She stopped running and I crashed into her and fell back. "Ow." I said and rubbed my back. She kneeled in front of me.

"I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this but we don't have another choice." She said as she put her palm to my chest.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked as I looked down at her palm.

"I'm going to give you my soul." She said.

"Wait, wait! What does that mean?!"

"Well technically you have all of our souls but that doesn't count."

"That doesn't help me!"

"Just relax and don't move, trust me it'll keep you alive."

"And you?"

"Don't worry about me." She said as her hand caught fire. I flinched thinking it would burn but it didn't. I looked at her and she was turning into flames and the flames were starting to flow into my chest. "I'll be with you the whole time." Her voice faded as and the flames became extremely bright. I closed my eyes and I felt the warmth of the light spread through my body but then it disappeared and I felt a small flame burning in the center of my being. I opened my eyes and for a second I was blind. I blinked a few times to let my eyes adjust to the lighting. I was looking at straight into a light. I tried to move but I felt something around my wrist and ankles. I looked around and realized that I was hanging from my wrist with only a small pedestal at my feet. I also noticed that I was in a silky white gown. I looked up and I was looking up at the stars through a hole in the ceiling and the moon was starting to inch its way over my head.

"Ah, you woke up."

I looked down to see the woman in the cloak.

"About time."

I looked behind me to see a guy in a cloak. I looked around to see if there were any others but there were none.

"We had more members but most of them died recently." She said.

I looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Someone from the assassination squad came and took them out, she was pretty strong until she had to face off." The man said.

"Although her Bankai and Shikai were interesting."

"Yeah it was interesting."

Somewhere in the pit of my stomach I had a bad feeling about this whole thing. "Who?" I asked, my voice cracking a bit. I already knew who it was but I had to make sure.

They both looked up at me then at each other. "Kanya, although I believe you would know her as Sydney." She said.

I nodded my head. "Is she alive?"

"Barely." He said.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "Okay." I mumbled.

"Don't tell me you actually feel bad for that Shinigami, after all she wasn't really your friend." She said.

I stayed silent, it was true but I just didn't want to accept it. Sydney was a close friend of mine, once we walked ten miles together because we didn't have a ride home. If we didn't bond there then there is no such thing as bonding.

"Hn, I guess we can take that as a yes." She said.

"Anyway are you ready to get this started?" He asked as he cracked his knuckles.

"Heh, alright." She cracked her neck.

"Wait." I said.

They both looked up at me.

"Before we go any further, can I ask for one thing?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "Why not? What is it?" She asked.

"What are your names?"

"Yuki Kit-Tora." The girl said.

"Kenshin Hebi." The guy said.

I nodded my head. "Okay."

"You know I still find your name ironic, you're anything but truthful." Yuki said.

"That's the best part." Kenshin said. "Anyway shall we?"

"Let's do this." She said and jumped up so that she was standing on the air in front of me and Kenshin did the same.

"Let's get rid of these cloaks, they're starting to get annoying." Kenshin said and threw his off. Of course though, he would be wearing a mask that covered the upper part of his face. He was wearing all black from head to toe.

"Good point." Yuki did the same but she was wearing a mask too. She was wearing all red from head to toe. She had her pulled up into a ponytail with a couple of strands that fell over her eyes. Then I could see her fox tail swing around from behind her. I turned to look at Kenshin and I saw two snake tails.

"You're…"

"He was the one who first attacked me back in the forest."

"Huh?" He said and looked at me then at his tails. "Oh no, that was my younger brother. He was a weakling; don't think I'm as weak as him." He said smirking.

"Anyway, let's start." Yuki said and snapped her fingers. The torches on the walls died away and the only thing that illuminated the room was the light from the moon that poured in from the roof.

"Right." Tenshin said as he put his arms in front of him with his palms facing me. Yuki imitated his movements and they closed their eyes then they began to chant. I listened closely to see if I could pick up any words but I didn't recognize the language but then I heard a random word in Spanish thrown into the mix. I listened again and realized that it was a combination of languages. How I realized this, back in my middle school we took a third of a school year of Russian, French, and German. I also picked up a few Japanese words which I learned from watching many, many, different anime.
"Who said watching anime doesn't come in handy?"
I looked up above to my arms because I felt like something was peeling off of them. My eyes widen when I saw letters and different characters start coming off my arms. They were glowing white with a tint of gold. They organized themselves into a small circle around my wrist and once that circle was completed it started another one a few inches under and it was a bit bigger. More letters and characters started to come off the rest of my body, creating circles around my body until I was inside a sphere of letters. As soon as the sphere was completed I felt something inside me lock into place and I couldn't move my body anymore. The individual circles then started to spin to either the right or the left. Every once in a while a few letters from three circles would stop and lock into place. It was like some sort of puzzle. At this point Yuki and Kenshin were taking turns chanting almost like they were having a conversation. I watched as the different letters and characters grouped and locked into place, slowly but surely the circles were stopping. Finally there was one group left and as they locked into place, Yuki's eyes snapped open and they both chanted in unison in a loud voice. The letters locked into place and the sphere glowed even brighter than before turning into a pillar of reiatsu. My body began to ache at the extreme amount of reiatsu and my breath was caught in my throat. I looked at Yuki and noticed that she was using her Reiatsu to create two arms. Just by guessing I knew that Kenshin was probably doing the same thing. The hands that Yuki created were coming closer and closer towards me. They came into the pillar of reiatsu and soon they were only inches from my body. I looked at it as it slowly began to go into my body causing an extreme amount of pain. I could feel the hands the Kenshin was manipulating piercing into my back. It was like a double attack but slower and more painful. I felt each of the hands grab onto something within me but not something physical, something spiritual. Then they began to pull out whatever it is they grabbed onto. As it pulled out the amount of reiatsu in the pillar became greater, so much that it felt like a strong breeze trying to blow me away. In each of the hands there was one orb each a different color, green, blue, red, and gray. I already knew what they were, who they were. From the orb there was a light trail that connected to my chest and it felt like something was being drained out of me. I took in short staggered breath, my body was starting to feel heavier and fragile. Finally Yuki let her arms drop to her side and she tilted her head.
"It's working." She said.
"Yeah, it won't too long now." Kenshin said as she appeared beside her. "Whoa, Okay, when they said it would drain her life, they meant it."
"They're draining the life out of me?"
"Hm yeah, she looks older already." Yuki said.
"Older?"
"Take a look." She said and pulled out a mirror holding it out to me. My eyes widen, I was no longer a teenage girl still in the process of blooming, I was an adult that has already bloomed. "How long do you think it will be until she's all gone?"
"Hm, from the looks of it." He said looking at the four orbs that were already taking human forms. "Probably not too long, she might still have some life left in her but not enough. It might actually take less time than we expected." He said.

"Hm, well if she did I would be scared." Yuki said almost laughing.

"Hahaha! Yeah I'll be sooo scared!" Kenshin said.

Then the ground started to rumble and what was like an explosion was heard. Kenshin and Yuki exchanged glances.

"I'll go take care of our visitors." Kenshin said as he stepped down.

"It's probably Soul Society." Yuki said

"Yeah, I'll be back in a bit."

"Well I guess it's just you and..."
Her sentence was cut off by another explosion coming from the wall behind her.
"What the!" She said as she spun on her heels and looked into the cloud of dust.
"Looks like we made it in time."
My eyes widen I didn't even have to see through the cloud of dust to know who it was now.
"We would have made it earlier if you would have listened to me!"
"Yeah, yeah, we made didn't we?"
"I don't think now is the time to be arguing guys..."
I felt relief and happiness deep down with in me. I closed my eyes and smiled. "Thank you." I whispered.

"Now." A gust of wind blew making my eyes open as the dust cleared away. "Let's get you out of here." Ichigo said as he held his sword in front of him with his usual smirk.

"Don't think I'll let her go that easily!" Yuki said as she pulled out her pocket watch and as she did it transformed into a sword.

"I wouldn't bet on it." Ichigo said as he charged at Yuki. They clashed swords and engaged on a full out battle. I watched in amazement as I noticed that I could keep up with their movements.
"Is this some sort of side effect?"
I felt a wave of pain shoot through my body making me draw my attention to the orbs. Well by now they weren't orbs they were already in the shape of each of the four. I could see my own reflection in the outlines. I was starting to look like a flower that was on the verge of wilting. However I only got to see my reflection for a second before the forms started to solidify. I didn't have much time left, they had to get me out of there and quick.

"Addie!" Orihime said from below me.
I looked down and saw Orihime, Ishida, and Chad standing just outside the pillar of reiatsu.
"What is this reiatsu?" Ishida said as he put his hand against the pillar of reiatsu then immediately moved his hand away.
"What's wrong?" Orihime asked.
"It's made of strongly condensed reiatsu, it burns to the touch." Ishida said.
"What do we do?" Chad asked.
"I could try to use my arrows to drain the pillar of reiatsu but the reiatsu burns to the touch so I doubt that I'll be able to use them." Ishida said as he pushed up his glasses.
"Maybe we could try to blast through it." Chad said as his arm turned Black and grew in size a bit. He balled his hand up into a fist and reiatsu started to glow around it. He drew his hand back and then punched the field with all his force sending a blast of reiatsu into impact with it. At that moment what felt like thousands of waves of pain shot through my body at dangerous speeds. The pain was too great and soon I found myself screaming at the top of my lungs. I felt my life being drained out of me even faster than before. After what seemed like an endless eternity I stopped screaming and my body became very very weak, so much that I couldn't hold my head up and I was just staring at the shackles on my feet, feet that were pale.
"Haha! You fools! You only made the process quicker!" Yuki said as she appeared in front of me, stepping into the pillar of light, holding her arms out to the sides with her palms facing the sky. "Just in time too, the moon is directly over her." She looked up into the sky with a wide smile upon her face. "FOR A SOUL TO RETURN A SOUL MUST BE SACRIFICED!" She yelled. The moonlight from up above intensified and poured down on my body like rushing waters. I screamed.