I don't usually like to indicate whose point of view I'm writing a scene from. Here, it's very important to me that the reader understands whose thoughts they are reading, so I do.

(Chihiro)

The white dragon from her dreams, the dragon, Haku, her dragon, golden chains covered his body held in place by a thick golden collar and shackles. His fur was matted with drying blood. Her head was exploding in pain; dark spots danced across her vision; she was screaming something: NO! NO! HAKU! but she couldn't reach him. She pushed on the ground with her feet, plunging forwards but he didn't get any closer, she wanted to touch him to heal him why wasn't she moving? Tears streamed down her face but she wasn't aware of it only of Haku's chains rattling as he roared and lunged at her and the pain in her head and her screaming and when drops of his blood hit her they burned they burned. The world was fading away everything was getting smaller and smaller but she fought against the unconsciousness threatening to take over and she screamed her defiance at the spell Haku was hurt there wasn't time for sleep. But the pain, it cleaved her head in two she tried to close her eyes against it but they were locked on Haku and she became aware that he was the source of her pain and he lunged again and she screamed because it was all she could do but now she screamed in anger and fear…

The darkness closed in, wonderful, cool, darkness and relief.

(Haku)

Chihiro's eyes met Haku's, and she started to scream. "NO! NO! HAKU!" The sound and the force of her thoughts pierced him like ice and pulled him out of the pain-filled haze. For a second he saw himself through her eyes. Chihiro, it's just me, don't cry, it's just me. Chihiro, it's okay, I'm okay…

"And you thought you were her friend," Akuma laughed, talking above the sound of screaming. "You fantasized that she might love you. See what good comes of loving a human. She screams at the very sight of you. You are a monster from her nightmares! You will never be anything but a monster."

Lin's voice rang out in his memory. "Chihiro's memories are being triggered. Be careful. The spell will be especially sensitive." Shika's voice chimed in. "How could you do this to her!"

My dragon form. It triggers her memories. Chihiro can't bear the sight of it. It's too much for the spell. Akuma must have planned this. Haku roared in pain and fury, trying to change back into human form, but the chains on his body and the golden collar tightened when he tried. The spikes lining the inside the collar pierced in deep under his scales. Blood ran in rivulets down his sides. He lunged at Akuma, snapping his jaws closed an inch from his face. YOU'RE the monster!

"Just try to change, boy," Akuma snarled. "You think I would be so incompetent? I designed that collar especially for you." He tapped Haku on the nose, who flinched away as though from a blow.

Blood flew from his mane splattering the ground and Chihiro, who recoiled. She was straining toward him but the oni behind her had grabbed ahold of her arms and every step she tried to take just wrenched them more. Chihiro, Chihiro… Haku wanted to take her in his arms, to comfort her, but she was screaming again, and crying. The blood vessels in her eyes popped from the pressure of the screaming and her tears were mingled with blood.

Haku couldn't help himself. He tried to reach for her with his muzzle, the only way he knew how in this form. Her eyes widened and her screaming became hysterical with fear, sharp, piercing, urgent. Haku shrank back. Am I a monster? And then she collapsed, and was still. The quiet hung like a curtain in the air.

"Big mistake," Akuma commented. "I bet she thought you were going to eat her, a great bloody beast like you. Still think she'll ever be able to look at you again, after that?"

Haku growled, making Akuma glance around. One of the oni had bent down to reach for Chihiro.

"Not yet, you fool!" he said, knocking the offending oni back with a gesture. "We need her whole to break the bond between the worlds. After she's dead, then, you can do whatever you want with her." He looked over his shoulder at Haku, whose eyes were wide with shock, and sneered. "I'll even dress her in her wedding clothes for the occasion, just for you. Now, won't that be nice?"

DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER! Haku screamed, but all that came out was an ear-splitting roar.

Akuma patted his cheek, easily dodging Haku's teeth. "Settle down now," he said. "You'll be here for a good long while. Feel free to bleed to death while you wait, if you'd like. I'll take care of you after we finish our business with your little lover at the borderlands, if you're still alive when I get back. I very much doubt it." With that, he led the oni, one of them carrying the unconscious Chihiro, out of the room. The door slammed shut.

Haku sank to the floor, all defiance gone. The spikes dug into his flesh but he was numb to it, the physical pain almost a relief from the turmoil inside.

Lin, he whispered hoarsely. What am I going to do?

There was only silence.

(Lin)

Lin tore her gaze away from the image in the air. She had seen and heard everything. She had no words to comfort Haku. "Kamaji," she said, shaking. "We have to tell the others what happened." The soot balls crowded around, offering their comfort.

The air rustled with the spider's movements, and Lin heard the twanging of the silk above as he plucked the appropriate strands.

"Yes, Kamaji?" Tenryu's voice filled the room.

"Tenryu," Lin said, "Akuma is taking Chihiro to the border. I think he plans to use her life force to separate the worlds. Haku is trapped in his palace, and he's badly hurt." She fought to keep her voice calm.

"Which Gate?"

"He didn't say," Lin said.

"Shika," Tenryu said on the other side of the connection, "Lin says Akuma is headed for one of the Gates. We need to be prepared wherever they appear. Lin, keep the network open and let us know as soon as they are sighted."

"What about Haku?" Lin asked. The image of Haku still hung in the air above. He seemed to have gone into shock, and blood was beginning to pool around him.

"There are Gates on every continent. We're spread too thinly as it is. We don't have anyone to spare."

"Haku is DYING," Lin shouted. "Where's your king going to come from if you let him die, Tenryu?"

"Haku is not the only candidate, Lin. If Fujisan gets the throne the Spirit World will survive. However, we will not survive if the worlds are split. We can't save both Chihiro and Haku, and right now it's more important to stop Akuma. I'm sorry, Lin." He broke the connection.

Lin looked up at Haku. She could see his chest rising with each shallow breath, his heart pumping blood out of his body with every beat. The breaths were only getting shallower. He was still alive, but not for much longer.

"Kamaji," Lin said. "How can they just give up on him?" Her voice broke.

"Remember… remember when Sen first came here, and Haku was still Yubaba's apprentice… remember how he protected Sen…" She knew that Kamaji had been there and knew all of this, but she couldn't seem to stop talking. "No one else understands but, Sen could easily have ended up servicing the customers here. A girl at her age would have been popular with the guests, even though she was human. Haku understood enough to protect her from all of that ugliness… by giving her the most unglamorous job…with me…"

Kamaji clicked his mandibles, drawing Lin's attention upward. A man and a woman had entered the image, where the white dragon was now almost completely still. Lin took a slow breath. The man was Fujisan.

Fujisan knelt down next to Haku, indifferent to the blood soaking his clothes, and placed his hands on Haku's head. He whispered something. The blood on the floor seemed to boil, and began to flow back into Haku's body. The woman pulled a ring of tiny, golden keys from her sleeve. There were marks on her wrists, as if they had been chafed raw by rough rope, and recently. The woman bent down and unlocked the shackles that bound Haku.

Fujisan ran his hands over Haku's wounds, which closed beneath his touch. The woman pulled the chains aside and tossed them in a pile on the floor.

"Kitsune," Fujisan said. "Stay here with my brother. If he wakes up, take him wherever he wants to go. He's in no condition to fly."

"If…" Kitsune said. "Are we too late? But you just healed him…"

"I don't know," Fujisan said.

"Where are you going?" Kitsune asked.

"Home, to get my father. One way or another, we're going to need him before the day is out."