Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. Love is all around the world!

Chapter 21

Dilandau rushed down to snatch up the knife, but Van wouldn't let him get to it. He tackled him and sent him crashing to the ground. Van held onto Dilandau's collar and backhanded Dilandau across the face. Dilandau kicked Van to get him off of him. They both pushed themselves to their feet. Dilandau swung his clenched fist at Van, but Van blocked it with his forearm. Dilandau dropped to the ground intentionally and kicked the backs of Van's knees, breaking his fighting stance and knocking him off balance. When he hit the cement floor, Dilandau kicked him in the ribs.

Van grunted in pain, and Hitomi grasped her stomach, sympathizing with how much the kick probably hurt him.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Dilandau said with a wicked half smile.

He went to kick him again, but Van caught his foot and pulled, taking Dilandau to the ground with him. Dilandau fell forward on his arms. Van lunged on top of him and dug his elbow into Dilandau's back.

As soon as Van took off even the slightest bit of pressure, Dilandau whipped around onto his back and hit Van in the face. Van was off him in a second. They both staggered to their feet.

Dilandau headed back towards the knife.

Van jumped up and grabbed Dilandau's arm. He swung him around so he would have to look at him. He struck Dilandau across the face so hard it sent him sprawling.

"What?" Van bellowed at Dilandau, who was sitting on the floor with his hand to the side of his face that Van had hit. It was only then that Hitomi saw that Van's lip was cut, and he had a few drips of blood settling by his lip. "You didn't learn how to fight without a weapon? They only taught you how to shoot people?"

Dilandau's hand went behind him, as he reached into his pants. "They taught me how to kill, it didn't really matter how." He exposed a gun, and pointed its barrel towards Van.

Van was anticipating it and kicked it out of his hand. It went through the air, and landed hopelessly far away. Neither of them would be able to get it now.

"Have I won it then?" Van asked a little breathlessly.

Dilandau didn't answer him, but instead got to his feet. He went to hit Van, but Van blocked, catching his fist. He backed off a little then and cuffed Dilandau across the jaw.

Hitomi looked away, but when she looked again, Van had Dilandau in a lock. She sighed. Things were under control now.

Van shouted in Dilandau's ear. "Where have you got my people and where's Folken?"

Folken?

"Oh, they're somewhere around here," Dilandau coughed as he spat blood.

Van slammed Dilandau's entire body against the concrete and thrust his knee into his spinal column to pin him.

"You know, there is one thing in this that I think is really funny." Dilandau said in a broken up voice. It was broken up, because of his constricted rib cage and the blood splattering out of his mouth.

"Oh, really! What would that be?"

"The fact that you're supposed to be some hero for the 'cause' and here you are, beating me to a bloody corpse."

"I'm not interested in what you thought I was supposed to be like. Where are my people?" Van insisted.

"No. I was wrong. You are exactly what you're supposed to be," he said with a snarl on his face unlike any other.

Van exerted more pressure on his back.

"Okay." Dilandau was barely able to say it.

Then Van eased up a little, giving him room to talk.

"They're in the green room."

"And which door leads to the green room?"

"That one," Dilandau said, looking in the direction of the room.

"Hitomi, go get that gun," Van ordered.

Hitomi jumped into action. She went hunting around through the rubble. Some of the smoke had cleared and it was easier to see what she was doing. Van had done everything save utterly destroy this room. He wouldn't burn down the building like he had with the stadium if he didn't know where the rest of the Abaharaki were.

She soon found the gun and came back to them. She held it carefully and did not put her finger anywhere near the trigger.

"Hitomi, put your foot here." He indicated that she should put it on Dilandau's shoulder blade.

She did.

"Right. Then put your other foot here."

He pointed to Dilandau's shoulder, and Hitomi put her weight there.

This freed Van's hands. He carefully checked to see if the gun was loaded. He then gave Hitomi a quick explanation on how to use it. "I am going to have to leave you here with him. If anything happens I want you to shoot him."

"But Van," Hitomi urgently protested. "I thought that you didn't want him to die."

Van stepped away from the two of them. "I don't want you to kill him. You can do better than that." He cocked the handgun for her and then handed it to her. "I'm sure you can think of some good painful places to shoot him without actually killing him."

She took it, still standing on Dilandau. Hitomi then realized that once Van left, Dilandau could get up when ever he wanted to. Doubtless he could do a push-up with her standing on his shoulders. Hitomi supposed that he was only waiting for Van to leave the room in search of the other members of his team. She shook her head at Van. She really did not want him to do this to her. Pistol or not, she still didn't feel protected. Dilandau could easily take it from her. Hitomi touched her necklace, but it did not feel cold. Did the dang thing know something that she didn't?

Van gave her a meaningful look, to let her know that it was okay, but she was unconvinced.

She wanted to scream to him that she could find the kidnapped members of the Abaharaki and he could stay here with Dilandau, but she knew very well that Van would not consent to it, so she kept quiet. He didn't know where the other Dragon Slayers were. They could be waiting just outside the door, and sending her out to the unknown was worse to him than leaving her here, fully loaded, with Dilandau. She wouldn't be able to do battle with them with the same accuracy as Van, so she had to stay quiet and stay here. Van was doing the right thing, but it still ripped at her. Would she have the courage to shoot Dilandau if she needed to?

As the door shut behind Van, Hitomi jumped off Dilandau with a start. He had begun to lift his chest off the ground and she didn't want to stay on him long enough for him to cause her to topple to the ground. She fell backwards and ripped the gun in his direction. She didn't even see him, but he tore it out of her fingers.

He didn't point it at her, but instead threw it off to the side.

She didn't think that she would be able to get to it, before he had her, so she didn't move from her spot. She didn't say anything to him either, but only looked at him with large defiant eyes. She knew that he was totally capable of doing whatever he wanted to her.

He paced in front of her. "Are you going to fight me, too?"

"What are you talking about Dilandau?" she said looking at the ground for the first time. Conversation was good. As long as she could keep him talking she might have the chance to get out of this. "You weigh twice as much as I do, or more. It wouldn't be even close to a fair fight, so why would I bother attacking you bare-knuckled?"

"It wouldn't be a fair fight for me."

"So, you still don't believe me. I don't have the gift, the power, the ability . . . whatever you want to call it. I am not the girl you're looking for. What makes you think that I have that power? Because I have light hair and green eyes? Is that why?"

"I was unsure about you for a long time. Shall I tell you when I found out that you had the power?"

"Please." She was still standing on the floor in front of him, and she wasn't sure what she believed. The evidence he had already supplied did indicate strongly that what he said was true, but everything was happening so fast that she was having a difficult time keeping up with it. It couldn't be true. Right? But, she thought she knew what he was going to say next. It was probably going to be something about her threat and his room turning cold.

"When you were standing on the platform in the arena."

Her head jerked up. What did he say?

"Yes," he continued when he saw her surprise. "That cute little charm around your neck gave it all away. You had frost bite from your neck all the way down to," he leaned over and pulled the neck of her tank top to see down her skirt.

She slapped his hand away, startled.

He laughed and moved just a bit away from her. "I noticed when I was cleaning you up. There's no way you could have gotten that unless you had been given a protection pendant from someone. I suspected it was Van, though I didn't recognize him when I met him at your apartment, and I was proven correct when he came flying through the doors. Don't you know? Those only work for people who have the power to activate the gem themselves. It wouldn't even work on an ordinary girl."

"A protection pendant?" she questioned, confused, touching the stone with her hand. It still hadn't turned cold.

Dilandau looked at her necklace, but he did not touch it. "It warns you when you're in danger, or at least that's what I was told."

Hitomi struggled with her emotions. That was exactly what Van had told her, but he didn't say that she had any sort of elemental gift.

Her head ached. Why had she never realized it before? She concentrated as hard as she could. If this were true that she did have the same abilities as Van, then Dilandau couldn't hurt her right now. As a matter of fact, with Van and herself working together, they could take down Dilandau's entire organization that night. There was no doubt in Hitomi's mind that they could do it. They only had get up and do it.

Hitomi brushed the dust off her pants. She began to walk past Dilandau and off in the direction of Van. She had to know what happened to the rest of their people.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Dilandau shouted at her.

"Out," she said in the flattest tone she could manage. "And don't even think about following me."

"Why you little . . ."

She pushed shut behind her and found the lock on the door. She clicked it into place and left Dilandau standing alone in the charred room. She laughed a little to herself. That had been extremely arrogant! She didn't even know if she knew how to use her talent. She knew that it had to be somewhere inside of her though.

She remembered that evening perfectly now. It had been such a small incident. After she learned of her aunt's death, she hadn't even thought that it was a big enough incident to write about it in her journal. She had been dancing with Dilandau on the dance floor at the club, when suddenly she fainted. Having never fainted before, she had no idea that what happened to her was completely different, but now that she remembered and was actively thinking about it, she knew now that it had been the experience Van described to her. Van must have known all along. The brat!

Once outside the room, she realized that she had taken the wrong door. She had meant to follow Van into the green room, but had made a mistake and taken the door that led her back out into the hallway. Well, it had still been so smoky that she hadn't been able to tell which door was which, and there were several exits. It didn't matter though; she'd head towards Celena and fulfil her promise, and like she was going to deliberately go back in with Dilandau waiting.

To her amazement, when she entered Dilandau's bedroom, Celena was lying on the floor, and Van was standing next to her. There was no one else in the room. Hitomi's first thought was one of surprise. What was Van doing here?

"Where's Dilandau?" he asked her.

"He's still in that room," she said, moving towards him.

"You left him there?"

She nodded.

"Did you have to shoot him, Hitomi?" Van asked, looking worried.

"No! He got the gun away from me though and I decided to run. I locked him in there, but he probably knows fifty ways out besides the door I locked. Where is everyone? I thought he said they were in the green room."

"He lied. There was no one in there," Van said quietly. "There was a one-way lock on it though, so I couldn't get back in."

Hitomi sighed, then bent down and turned Celena over so she could look at her. "Celena, are you okay?"

Celena's eyes were red. She had been crying. "I … I had to help that girl they brought in here." She was trembling violently. "… Be … before you came to get me."

"You're Celena!" Van exclaimed, looking astounded, and seeking Hitomi's eyes to see if that was the truth.

Hitomi nodded.

Naturally, he was shocked to meet Dilandau's girlfriend, but he looked positively blown away. However, he quickly regained his composure and asked, "What girl did they bring in here?"

"I don't know what her name was," Celena sobbed.

"Have you seen her around here before, or had you never seen her before?"

"She wasn't a Dragon Slayer, or at least I don't think she was. She waited tables at the club.

Hitomi shuddered. It was Eries.

Van kept his cool though. "Was she the only one taken in there?" he pointed to the only other door in the room.

He and Hitomi went to it and entered. The room was really little more than a hallway. There were some liquor bottles and a chair or two, but not much else. What on earth was a room like this used for? Hitomi couldn't think. But there was a door at the end. Was it some kind of antechamber, with a more important room beyond it?

"She was the only one I saw," the girl confessed miserably.

"Are you hurt?" Hitomi asked Celena again, going back to where the girl was huddled.

"Not really," she said touching her chest. "I've had worse."

Hitomi pulled Celena's arm over her shoulders. "We need your help."

"Hitomi, I don't want you to go in there," Van interrupted in a breathless way. "I'll check it out." He went to the door at the end of the hall and opened it calmly. He took one look inside and shut the door sharply.

As he turned around, Hitomi saw how pale he was. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger as he leaned again the doorframe, still holding onto the doorknob. Hitomi wondered if Eries was behind those doors. Was she dead? What else could inspire Van to look so terrified?

"Was Eries inside?" she asked in a voice that she couldn't stop from shaking.

He came over and took Celena from her shoulder. "Eries wasn't inside. Let's get out of here."

Was she there dead? What happened? WHY WOULDN'T HE TELL HER?

"Van! Stop! We have to do something!" Hitomi shouted in her panic.

Celena's eyes fluttered and closed. Van saw her face and lifted her up in his arms completely. "What would you like me to do, Hitomi?"

"Was Eries there or not?" she asked quietly.

"I said she wasn't. She was undoubtedly there once, but she's gone now," Van said.

"Answer me plainly," Hitomi asked, getting more and more irritated with him by the second. "Did they kill her?"

Van shook his head.

"How do you know she was in there then?"

Van stood very still and didn't answer her.

Hitomi made up her mind. It didn't matter what was behind that door, she was going to take a look and find out what Van already knew. She turned to go.

"Don't!" Van warned her. "I'll tell you what I saw, but please don't go in there."

She turned around and waited for him to continue.

He proceeded shakily, "They cut her hair. There were strands of her hair on the floor and on the … They've taken her out. I don't know where she and the others are, but they are definitely not here. I barely stepped into this room by the time you got here. I searched this place carefully before we met up. There is no one here. Our people may be alive somewhere else, but they are not here. This was just a trap to draw me out. There is only Dilandau, Folken, and a few Dragon Slayers, and we are on their ground. I don't like fights where I don't choose the battle ground, and I want us to leave now."

"But won't they be killed if you don't give yourself up?" Hitomi shouted.

His head drooped a little as he pulled Celena out of the room. Then he said in the most dispassionate voice, "Don't misunderstand me Hitomi. I have to get Celena and you out of here. If I don't, Allen will never forgive me, no matter what he's going through. I'll give myself up afterwards if that's what's required," he paused. "Why did you come here anyway, if you only came to encourage me to surrender?"

"I … uh … I came to help you. Tell me quickly Van, is it true?"

"Is what true?" he asked apathetically.

Hitomi didn't ask him about her abilities, even though she prepared to, because just at that moment, she saw Dilandau rounding the corner and approaching them. "Van!" she prompted and he raised his head to see who was coming.

Dilandau had stopped and was standing in the hall way - alone. His expression held some sort of conceit that Hitomi couldn't understand.

"Celena, my dear, what are you doing with these two?" he said calmly.

Van looked tired, but he wasn't about to back down. "Are we going to fight in here, or do you want to go outside?" He said without humour in his voice.

Dilandau put his hand behind him and pulled a pistol out of the back of his pants. He pulled on the back of the gun, behind the clip, cocking the gun. "Here's good."

Van didn't move.

"Don't tell me you're going to use that little bitch as a shield. You wouldn't want Celena to get hurt, now would you?"

Not a muscle in Van's face flinched, and he never broke eye contact with Dilandau. He carefully set Celena on the floor and leaned her back against the wall. He stood up his full height. "Are you planning to simply shoot me?

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I don't know how Folken would take it if I actually killed you. Still, I can't let you get away." A bullet shot out of the barrel and hit Van in the leg.

Van staggered and fell to the floor. He didn't cry out, keeping his lips tight, just as Miguel had, but his whole face tightened.

Dilandau smiled at Hitomi.

"What do you want from him?" Hitomi shrieked, crouching beside Van and putting her arms around him. She wasn't at all certain how to treat a gunshot wound. What should she do to help him? "How dare you, Dilandau! And who is Folken?"

"On dear, you must know. You mean Van didn't tell you? His lady love and he didn't tell you about his poor little family."

"Shut up, Dilandau!" Van shouted from his place on the floor. He seemed to have gotten his control back and was now working with the pain. Propping himself up on his elbows he was ripping his shirt, and Hitomi helped him tie up the wound. "Don't say another word or I'll …"

"Or you'll what?" Dilandau urged. "This isn't exactly the time to set everything on fire. Could Hitomi really carry both you and Celena out of here? And everyone has to live now, don't they, Van? Isn't that how you work?"

Van clenched his teeth and then spat on the floor, looking angry as hell. He was cornered and he knew it. "Fine," he said. "Let's make a deal."

"No deal," Dilandau said saucily. "It's much too late for that, and besides I've got the upper hand. Besides, I was about to tell Hitomi your s-e-c-r-e-t."

"Don't!"

"Hitomi," Dilandau said, capturing Hitomi's eyes with his.

She couldn't look away. What was Dilandau going to tell her?

"Folken is …"

Van pinched a blade from his boot with lightning speed and whirled it at Dilandau to stop him from speaking. It would have struck him too, if Dilandau hadn't blocked it with the barrel of his gun. It clanged, metal against metal, and fell to the ground. "Nice throw Van, but not quite good enough. So, as I was saying." Dilandau's scarlet eyes looked savage and his lips unusually sensual as he murmured, "Folken is Van's brother, and the one and only sponsor of The Dragon Slayers."

Hitomi's heart jerked. Van had stopped telling his story before he came to that part. Was that what Van had to live with?

"How do you feel about that, dear little girl? He tries to keep it a secret that his brother is the ringleader for a massive syndicate. He tries to keep it a secret that he's not after the Dragon Slayers, but the syndicate that organized us. He tries to keep it a secret that he's not really trying to stop us from hurting people, but he's really after revenge for what his dear elder brother did. A man who could sell out his own family doesn't deserve to live. Isn't that right Van? Isn't that what you've always said?"

Van was staring at Dilandau as though he were the devil himself. "It's not like that!" he denied.

"See Hitomi, he's not to be trusted," Dilandau said with a casual grin that under the circumstances looked extremely evil.

"And you think you're any better?" Hitomi questioned, not at all shaken by his accusations.

"I'll ask you this one more time Hitomi. Join us!"

"So, you think I'm powerful, and you won't be satisfied until I'm your dog?"

"Not my dog. Folken's dog. He's been anxious to meet you."

"Let him wait!" Hitomi hissed, practically spitting. Suddenly, she got an idea. If she didn't move to get Van and Celena out of here, they wouldn't be going anywhere. Van was in no condition to lead them, and she was the only one who wasn't injured, but it wasn't like she could just walk out. She had to get rid of Dilandau first, but how?

"Oh, he won't like that," Dilandau said, scratching the back of his head with his gun. "Why don't you come and meet him? He's already seen Van, so he can wait here for you to come back."

"Like I'd go anywhere with you," she muttered. The intensity of the heart pounding was becoming harder and harder with each passing second. Her green eyes met Dilandau's red ones, and she had no plans of backing down. She just saw Dilandau and the feel of her blood pumping into the tips of her ears. The memory of the night she got her abilities coming back in a flash. She hadn't allowed herself to feel it before, but now she let it tear wildly through her rib cage. The beat of the music, the light show; she allowed all of it into her consciousness and allowed the melody on the dance floor become one with the beating of her heart. She was so cold she was burning, and she let it burned though her like a forest fire, and knew the feeling was only getting stronger. Her fingers bit into the palms of her hands.

She could do it.

Dilandau pointed the gun at her. "Let's go."

She knew she could do it.

"Why would I do anything you ask?" she whispered. She pushed her hands away from her the way she had seen Van do it when he unleashed his fireball and let the heat go. She watched as blue/gold light gathered in her hands and then escaped from her. It shot out in a straight line in front of her, right at Dilandau.

He pulled the gun up again to cock it, but suddenly dropped it because of how cold it was. With one last look at Hitomi, he started at a dead run away from her, as the walls froze solid, and an unknown wind blew hard behind her.

She could feel the ice too. It was becoming too much, it was hurting her. She couldn't seem to slow it. It was just getting colder and colder and colder. The wind was getting stronger too. She had to stop this. The pain was too much for her to handle. She had to stop this feeling that was raging through her.

She looked behind her at Van. His eyes were bright and he was smiling, then suddenly he brought his fingers up to his lips and blew a stream of heat towards her. The sensation on her back was like a tropic breeze and it awakened her from her ice-induced trance. The blue/gold stream she created was gone, and they were left unharmed, for now. The wind slowed and stopped as Hitomi fell to her knees.

Van lurched over to her and put his arm around her back. "See? I told you. Practically made for each other."

She heard him. Hitomi's heart skipped a beat. She opened her eyes and examined him. "You knew you would be able to stop me from raging out of control."

He nodded.

She examined her surroundings before turning back to Van. She wanted to see what she had been able to do. The walls further down the hall were coated in what looked like solid ice. In some places the drywall had been broken away completely, and you could see between the studs into the next room. Van was right. There were none of their people in those rooms.

Hitomi looked down at her arms. They were white with tiny crystals. So much had accumulated on her hands though. It looked like she was wearing mittens. She wanted to cry it hurt so badly. Then she realized she was already crying.

She turned back to Van and Celena with a face smeared with snowflakes and tears. She looked at the two of then in anguish.

Van reached for one of Hitomi's hands. She had been clutching them to her chest because of the pain. She gave one to him reluctantly. He took it and brushed away the crystals with his hands and then blew on them with his warm breath. At last he kissed her lightened wrist, leaving a white mark on his mouth. Then he blew a delicious hot breath onto her hand. It wasn't a natural breath of his, but he made it heated. She instinctively pulled herself closer to him and put her other hand to the stream.

He stopped blowing on her hands, and said quietly, "What you just did was wonderful." He held her hands gently in hers. "I am sorry that you hurt yourself though. I can't heal it you know, but I hope I made you feel better."

She nodded.

"We have to get out of here," he said with urgency, seeming to realize that they were wasting time.

She bent and pulled Van's arm over her shoulders. "Do you think you can walk, Celena?"

Celena tried it, and half limped over to where Dilandau's discarded gun was. "I guess I can." She bent to pick the metal up, but quickly withdrew her hand when she felt how cold it really was. She pulled at the back of her shirt and tugged it off completely. Hitomi saw there was a bandage on her chest above her bra. Hitomi flinched, even though she knew it would be there. Celena bunched her shirt up into a tight wad, and wrapped the gun with it. She picked it up and began to head down the hall after Dilandau.

Hitomi saw at once what she was going to do. She was going to go after him! "Celena! Stop! You don't have to do that. You can come with us."

Celena turned on Hitomi. She ripped the bandage off for Hitomi to see her wound. It was far more brutal than what Hitomi had seen in her dream. It hadn't even stopped bleeding. Hitomi looked at the floor.

She only heard Celena's footsteps as she walked away.

Hitomi stood there stupidly, wondering what she could do. "Van," she whined at last in a small voice. "We have to do something."

He pulled his weight off of her shoulder and fell to the ground before she could catch him. "You know what you have to do," he said. "Allen would appreciate it if you saved her."

Hitomi nodded and ran down the hall after her. She ran some distance like a rat in a maze before she found them, but she stopped when she saw them.

Dilandau was standing with his hands in the air, and Celena was holding the gun level with his heart.

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