"Results gained in the past..."

'No.'

'No?'

'It's a simple word, Illumi-kun. Learned at an early age and used all through your life as a negative to a request, or as an exclamation to something that's real but you don't want it to be.' I turned my head to look at the redhead. For some reason he'd said that if we talk, we do so outside. So we were standing in the slightly sheltered place where I've had a lot of conversations with Chrollo as well. The snowing had rescinded in the last couple of days, so right now there was just a thin layer left on the ground. It was still cold, but temperature was slowly rising. Seemed like this year January wasn't going to be as harsh as expected.

'I am aware of the meaning, but the meaning is never the interesting part of the word.' Hisoka didn't look back at me. He simply let out a soft laugh and his mouth curled up slightly into an amused grin. But not one of his usual grins.

He wasn't playing around, his answer was serious; merely my reaction was amusing him.

'You're going to be disappointed, if you're looking for an answer as to the why of this rejection.' His eyes didn't stray from the snowed over parking lot in front of us – looking at some people passing in the distance behind the gates. I hadn't even told him what my idea had been for him to distract Chrollo while I get closer to Killua again, and already I got a no.

'Does this still have to do with Chrollo being off-limits?'

'Ma~ybe.' He blew out some air and watched the smoke disappear in the surrounding air.

'You're still not telling me why.'

'"Results gained in the past are no guarantee for the future."' I raised my brow when I heard that slogan exit his lips and I put question marks all around it. Was he suggesting that he's told me before but I have chosen to forget? That doesn't sound like something I would do, I have a near eidetic memory.

'You're speaking in riddles without playing a game, that's unusual for you.' I looked back out in front of me again.

'You'd do well to stay away from Chrollo too.'

'I need his help this Monday for surveillance, and he's given me a liquid that may or may not help me contain my triggers. Right now I can't do as you ask.' Questioning Hisoka's words at this point was futile. I can discern a serious conversation from a playful one easily enough. He doesn't say anything he doesn't mean when he's like this.

He's not often like this though.

'Mah, your choice.' He was keeping a lot of things from me,

'This kind of secrecy towards me is not like you, Hisoka.' He started laughing again before finally turning my way. 'At the very least I can trust you will not push me closer to Chrollo. You can help Killua then.'

'No.' A negative again? 'You're not in a position to decide the best of outcomes for yourself. I'll do what I want.' I raised my voice a little in annoyance,

'So long as instead of Chrollo I'm not being pulled in by you, because there will be nothing left of you if you do.'

'How cruel. I'd almost do just that to get you in that state of mind.' He shifted a little and closed in on me, 'Were it not that I know how scary you can be.'

'Are we still practicing today?'

'I have a session with Feitan later on, after that I suggest we do this at the institution. I don't think Chrollo's all too interested in keeping Killua within bounds, do you? It'd be better we practice your triggers here before your dear patient murders everyone here.'

'Chrollo is more capable than either of us to predict Killua's movements.'

'With all due respect, dear friend, Chrollo's attention has not been on Killua for a while.'

'…Fair enough.' I was about ready to walk away, but Hisoka stopped me before I could move a single step.

'I'll take Killua-kun off your hands until then.'

'I thought you weren't interested in him anymore?'

'Trust me.' Although I often claim otherwise, the one piece of trust I have in him, is that he's not out to destroy me.

'Alright.'

'Hm~ you have no idea how interesting you are to me right now.' I stepped in front of him, blocking his view. I had the feeling I needed to know about his ulterior motives, but something withheld me from actually forcing it out of him. It was mainly that for the time I've known him, nothing was pointing in the direction that he would either force Chrollo on me, or Killua away. But my instincts were unadjusted to dealing with him keeping secrets when he's not trying to get physically closer.

'Is there anything I'm doing wrong that you're… "protecting" me from?' I cocked my head and asked the question directly, but he quickly dismissed it, lazily shaking his head.

'I'll pick up our dear Killua-kun from Chrollo and keep him company until it's time for us to go.' He pushed himself away from the wall, and I had to back away a little when I noticed he was going for touch. There have been a couple of times in which Hisoka was outside of the trigger-zone, but right now he was higher up there than he's been before. He seemed to notice this, and merely turned around after giving me a short goodbye.

Normally I would attribute this whole conversation to him trying to make himself more interesting so I would trigger more easily; but he'd been serious in his answers. What am I not seeing?

Waiting for the opportune moment to trigger my shrink seemed to be harder than expected. For this goal, I had both Illumi and Hisoka against me, I need to create the circumstances myself if I want to make it happen. I especially need a controlled environment to do this so Illumi will be at a weakened mental state, and will give me Gon's current location. I will get him back from you bastards. As soon as I've discredited you and can leave early, I will give his family back to him.

At the very least I'm almost certain Illumi will still let me practice tomorrow – if only to make sure he can handle me the day after. So whatever I do there, I have to keep it within bounds 'cos he will be on high alert. The only reason for triggering him tomorrow, would be if Chrollo were near – but I doubt he'll let that happen.

Besides all that, I'm still waiting on more information on Machi to exploit. I need to know what her specialties are, so I can prepare to protect myself against that.

'I can't say that I haven't gotten curious about your inner workings. I know your goal, but how are you planning to surprise both Illumi and Chrollo?' I turned my eyes to look at Hisoka, but kept attention on him to a minimum. 'Mah~, delivering Illumi to Chrollo is basically taking them both out at the same time, isn't it. Do you think I will let you near my dear friend?' He stretched his arms above his head before standing up from his desk. I have no idea how to deal with Hisoka. What is his weakness? If Illumi knows, he won't indulge me until he's triggered, but I can't trigger him until Hisoka is out of the way, that's a dead end.

'You're being weird for someone as self-serving as you.' He raised his hands and shook his head as if he didn't know why he was doing that either. But he knows. He's the man who understands the entire picture, how can I trick someone like that?

I need to create a circumstance where even though he knows what's going to happen, there's no way for him to stop it…

'Well, even someone like me needs the company now and again, don't you think?'

'No you don't.' You can replace anyone easily enough, you don't defend anyone but yourself, so why're you protecting Illumi? He laughed before sitting down next to me and laying his arm across the backrest behind me. I still didn't move anything but my eyes.

'Mah, both you and Illumi are so cruel.'

'Someone like you is impossible to get offended.' He laughed a little harder than normal, but I remained still. Even when he closed his lips in on my ear to whisper.

'I was wrong, I still find you very fascinating.' He inhaled a little and continued on a lower tone. 'Talk more Illumi to me.' When I felt his lips brush my ear, I instantly extended my hand, and set my nails in his side. With a little force I could rip him open just enough to make him back off from this position. Hisoka took a little distance, and looked down directly into my eyes. He grinned a little wider before taking the small distance we'd had before. Don't distract me.

'You both have very selective logic, you have no idea how amusing that is.' I could contact Kurapika again to check if he knew anything. But Kurapika wants me to use Hisoka as an ally, he won't help me take the redhead out.

…Then I'll resort to a semi-effective way.

'Things are moving faster in there right now, aren't they?' There's only one thing that I know would piss off Hisoka. And most probably the only thing that would work, 'cos Feitan's very able to work under this guy's radar... 'Hm~ I'm wondering what kind of dangerous tricks you're gonna use.' Challenging Feitan to a fight is still very risky though.

'Whatever can we do to make it up to you, hm?'

'You can let me hide the rest of Gon's family here as well.'

'Mm~… no.'

'Then I suggest you take your distance before I gut you.'

'So demanding. But you're right, it is strange for me to defend Illumi, isn't it.' He lifted his free arm and stroke his fingers through his hair, letting his hand rest on the top of his head, 'Seems like there's some kind of history between us that makes him "special" to me, doesn't it.' He lay that arm over the backrest as well, and crossed his legs. 'Tell me, you must've noticed Kurapika knows a lot about this world and me. After hearing his advice, what makes you think the course you're taking is a good idea?'

'Why don't you just tell me about Illumi if you want me to know so badly.'

'"Results gained in the past are no guarantee for the future."' I raised my brow a little when he said that, and he started laughing again. 'I'm taking the route of most fun and certainty, I'm not telling you anything I don't want you to know.' Standing up, he walked to a random spot at his bookcase, and slowly flipped through the book he took out. "Results gained in the past"…? What the hell is that supposed to mean.

'Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't do anything you're not supposed to.' With their constant eyes on me, I need to find a gap to get to Feitan.

Uhm… well…

… …

What?

I just thought of this ten minutes ago, why…

I guess Chrollo didn't really object to any of this as long as he got to Illumi in the end? I'd underestimated his level of confidence, that everything's under his control. Damn, how bad do you want it that you don't care if you're being framed or not.

"I think I can trust you to stay here, can't I?" That's all he had said after five minutes of looking over me. Directly after that he just smiled and walked out the door. A little taken aback by the free pass I'd just gotten, but I hadn't let the chance go untaken. I'd slipped out, avoided detection, and it took me no more than a minute to find Feitan. The look in his eyes told me he was looking forward to breaking his shrink's most important rule with the way I was now.

I'd led the way outside, and he'd followed suit. We couldn't do this in basketball court, it would be the first place where they'd come looking for us. But we still needed the room, so we moved outside onto the courtyard. It was a big place, so through the light snow that was falling, it was hard to spot us.

He stood about ten feet away from me, and the look in his eyes was unmistakably from someone who's Hisoka's patient. He stood there quite relaxed, stretching his arms and legs a little. I never took my eyes off him, and I regressed my presence some more. With someone like Feitan I can't be so careless as to give away where I am or where I'm attacking from. On top of that, he wouldn't be intimidated in the slightest by increasing bloodlust.

Chrollo really wants to move it along if he's letting me go already. Luckily I'm prepared.

'Can we start now?' He hasn't challenged someone before because they weren't worth the time, right? 'Cos he's more than capable to avoid detection. Thank you for your acknowledgment, but I'm not going down as easily as you're expecting.

I bent my knees a little, and decided not to use any of Illumi's techniques. I'm still way too slow with that. The extra muscle control I've built up will do me good, though.

'Let's go.' He let out an eerie giggle, and contrary to me kept his coat on. He's concealing his moves. He shifted weight a couple of times before tapping one of his feet loosely on the ground, and pushing his body forward like an arrow. I can't be naïve and think he'll be off-balance afterwards.

I shifted weight to the other leg when his arm went for my shoulder, but instead of going along in the motion, I stopped abruptly in my half turn to lash out at his head.

He ducked and stretched his other hand out towards me, but I grabbed hold of his shoulders and leaped over him. I made sure the distance was great enough so he couldn't retaliate immediately, but he did, and his nails scraped the side of my arm. I'd seen how he got his speed though, and focused all my muscle power in my standing foot, dragging my other leg with it limply, lashing out at him. When I did this, he took his distance for a second again.

'You're a fast learner.' I decreased my breathing some more, and put my attention mostly on my other senses and not my vision. Feitan is fast, I will have to beat him with "seeing" him. Anticipating his moves, and quickly finding out what the flow of his fighting style is, those are the main objectives. 'Not taking the compliment? Then shall we take it to the next level?' I was waiting for him to attack again, and kept my senses open when he started coming at me.

That's also why as soon as he stopped abruptly inches away from me, I started to turn around when I felt a second presence. But I was too late to react, and couldn't evade the fist just below my neck forcing me to hit ground.

What the hell had just..!

I barely stayed on the ground for a second, and flipped myself away from the other presence. Noticing Feitan had disappeared for some reason, I saw the only one left now was Hisoka. I've fought a little with him before, I know I can't beat him. But I've succeeded in dragging him away, now I need to get him distracted without getting hurt too much.

'My, my, such killing intent coming from someone breaking the rules. I do believe you've done exactly what I expected. Mah~, I'm still a little unhappy about it though.' I remained standing close to the ground, and saw Hisoka snaking his fingers a little. It was only after that that he slowly turned his head my way, and I was met with the full extent of his danger. 'And things were going so well with Feitan as well. But I didn't think he'd find you worth his time, my mistake. How did you get away from Chrollo anyway? Is he working with you to get to Illumi?' He turned my way completely and lowered his hand, cracking each of his fingers individually. 'Well that wouldn't exactly take Chrollo out, now would it. You have more in the planning.' His voice was so controlled it was unnatural. 'I do think you need to stay away from my patients if you want to get out of here alive.' I narrowed my eyes a little and started calculating my chances and courses of action. I've assessed his physique often enough, and right now it wasn't very hard with his shirt blowing open in the wind.

'Shouldn't you go after Feitan first? He did consent.'

'Oh, but my dear Killua-kun,' He lowered his voice again in danger, 'Any killer here gets their blood boiling with the way you're walking around, I can hardly blame him.' Relaying focus from my vision was actually feeling like a bad idea when I turned to his eyes. My own vision would've told me that they were still golden, but all of my other senses were telling me they were red with blood. The intensity of this was maybe a bit higher than expected.

His eyes almost closed completely when he noticed I wasn't backing off. Everything I've learned through the years was telling my legs to run, but with great effort I stopped this.

He noticed.

'You'll have a hard time fighting me if all you want to do is run.' His smile actually dropped for a second, but immediately raised again when I increased my focus some more. 'Well, how can I resist this?' He bent his knees slightly, and stretched the fingers on one hand. All I can do at this point is take a defensive stance against his style, but that's a bad idea considering his strength…

'Hmph.' He huffed before he moved too fast for me to follow and disappeared for a moment. I got a flat palm against my chest with a force after that moment. I gasped for air deeply, and was glad I'd been able to divert the impact a little to keep a break from happening. Well now's as good a time as any to learn that defensive technique of Illumi's, isn't it,

I responded to this during my deep inhale and lashed out at him, but I hit nothing but air. A fraction of a second later I got a flat palm against the same place on my back, and my inhale worked against me, making me stagger. I refused to stumble forward though, and lodged my complete strength downwards. When I noticed nothing else was coming in the next second, I spit out some blood on the white ground.

'Ooh~ you're still standing, I have to commend your training.' Mercilessly after this, he went for my kidney, but I evaded just enough to keep damage to a minimum, and he ended up back in front of me, taking a relaxed stance. I still hadn't moved from my spot.

I felt the corner of my lip raising.

I felt a laugh escaping my mouth.

First softly, but noticing it was doing my body good, the volume increased, and I threw my head back a second, stretching my knees and standing up leisurely.

This was nothing compared to my real combat training.

I lowered my head again and looked back at Hisoka with a whole new state of mind, and he looked back at me, calculating.

'You're not allowed to break me.' Closing his eyes for a second, he responded,

'Mah, can't say I don't feel tempted.'

'You won't be able to get me to surrender with blows like this.' I grinned at him. His eyes took a different kind of focus, but none of the blood red in it had diminished. He was still close enough to let his leg stretch out to hit me, but instead of blocking it, I bent sideward and turned my upper body back up in time to catch any other attack. He went for my legs next, but I didn't resist the impact. Instead I let them be swept away like rags before directing them back down straight to the same spot they'd been before. He hit me a little lower on my chest this time, and nearly hit my solar plexus. I felt my sternum protesting against the force, but still clawed my nails into his forearm when he decided to stay in position a second.

None of my focus diminished because of this. If anything, I hadn't felt this sharp in ages. I flexed the fingers in my free hand, and smiled when I was about to pierce straight through his arm.

I was thwarted though. He hit my lower arm near my elbow and wanted to redirect me with that, but I made sure this wasn't done. Straight after that though, he grabbed hold of that lower arm and gave it enough of a pull to dislocate my elbow.

He let go and leisurely stood back up straight after that. The pull had been hard enough, but the dislocation wasn't complete, and I could pull it back in without much of a problem. I then looked back up at him, and narrowed my eyes.

'I've had fractures and dislocations everywhere. I can handle electric shocks, I have a certain level of immunity for poison. I have bled more than twice of what I now have inside of me. What made you think you can do worse than my family?' I spit out some more blood, and wiped my mouth. 'I am used to being brought to the brink of death. Someone who's not going to kill me will not be able to let me back down.' My smile dropped again, and I regressed my vision completely to focus on everything but.

'So this is your true potential.' I could feel the interest in his voice. 'You were already able to dodge my second attack, although not completely. Very frightening talent indeed.' He raised a hand to his chin, 'Mm~ this is such a conflicting feeling.' The lust was dripping off his words. 'On one end you're boring because you have nothing left to lose. On the other end your potential is so high that I physically can't wait to fight you once you're on my level. Mm~ but I really do need to back off, don't I?' He breathed in and out deeply and changed his stance. 'You're not moving from your spot unless I break you, and my dear Illumi has prohibited me to do this. I really don't want to end up on his bad side. Especially because it's more important for him to know you just confessed something genuine about your family.'

I relaxed my vision again when I felt Illumi enter the field, and walk up to Hisoka. I had forced myself hard to have been able to say that. But knowing there's actually nothing in my head... It wasn't anything concrete though, so it had come out well.

'If you're not going to break me, then I'm wasting my time.' I looked up at both of my shrinks for a second before turning around and leaving the site.

Hisoka was now interested in me.

With that he was easily distracted by his lust for fighting – whether he wanted it or not.

Mission accomplished.

###

'You know you just played right into him by interfering?'

'Oh, but there's not really anyone besides us that can and will stop him, and Feitan does need to be stopped. He played it quite well.' I had to agree with that. Because of doing this, he had both made Hisoka just a little more distracted than usual, and had ignited a fire in Feitan again as well. This meant he would be more difficult to handle in the coming weeks. Perhaps Hisoka had underestimated Killua's skills too much, that he thought he wouldn't be able to keep standing, or that Feitan ultimately wouldn't be interested even with this bloodlust dripping off the boy.

On top of all of that, he'd just forced himself to actually say something about his family. This was not uninteresting to me.

'He's quite the fearful youth, don't you think?' He is. His body can take a lot of punishment. Mentally now as well. For the first time, I have to admit I have made miscalculation. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken Gon's death completely upon myself. It will take time to get him back to a social level. 'I think I like this state of mind you've put him in.'

'I will have to work on getting him out of it.' Hisoka licked his lips before walking off, closing his shirt on the way.

'Oh well, time to get Feitan.' Hisoka had barely gotten me into a trigger before he noticed our patients passing by, and had followed closely after. It had taken me a little longer to go with him, trying to subdue my heartbeat.

With Hisoka distracted with his patient, it was now easier for Killua to put me in a trigger and deliver me to Chrollo. Meanwhile he will have all the freedom to find the information needed to take us all down.

We have to take countermeasures quickly; Killua is working fast, and Chrollo even faster.

A/N

*to Amel*
Sssshhhh, I'm not in love with Illumi's hair at all. I wouldn't continuously stroke my fingers through that black silk if I got the chance, and play with it all the time. Not at all. Whatever gave you the idea I'd make love to it if I could. How preposterous...

...

RIGHT!
The chapter

You have no idea how satisfying these chapters are for me. There's only one chapter left before chapter 1 actually happens, and I'm here like "OMG AND THEN I CAN FINALLY CONTINUE WHAT I STARTED THERE IT'S BEEN SO LONG"

Aw yea

It is hard writing Killua at the moment though. He's like an aimless beast, but with the instincts of his upbringing. On top of that he's not lost everything yet; his body knows this and keeps him slightly sane, but it hasn't reached his conscious mind yet.
Oh yes, there still IS something to lose.