A/N:

---

27.

Hiei leapt down beside Lyn and growled when she remained immobile. He leapt forward and in a flash, dismembered the demon. The human who was being attacked dropped to the ground, half crawling and half running away.

"W-wh-what kind of cult is this?!" he yelled.

Hiei glared. "Hn. We're called demons. Foolish human..." He turned away and wiped the blood off his sword, not caring that some stupid human was having a mental meltdown. Why, it made Hiei enjoy this job even more.

When he came back to Lyn, his glare hardened. "Baka onna, how could you come into this being as frail as that? You're not equipped for battle -- go back to that other girl. It's where you belong, being protected, not to protect!"

Once Hiei came into her field of vision and blocked out all else, Lyn blinked and came back to herself. Her voice was hoarse but normal as she said slowly, "You think I stopped because I was afraid? Because I couldn't fight when it came down to it?"

Hiei glared. "Well, what else?"

"... Because otherwise, I would have killed him myself," Lyn hissed, her eyes suddenly losing their blankness and seeming to catch fire. "And by 'him,' I don't mean the demon. I mean that freaking piece of scum he was attacking."

Hiei raised an eyebrow. "You know the human?"

Lyn's jaw clenched and unclenched as she tried to find words. Her arms crossed over her chest defensively, but her nails were digging into her forearms in anger. Finally, she looked away from Hiei's gaze and growled, "I grew up here; I was raised as a human. That one is named Kyle. Kyle Eames. You could say he's one of the reasons I came to realize no one can be trusted."

Hiei shrugged. "Like I said... friends either leave you... or hold you back."

Lyn's lip curled into something halfway between a snarl and a dark, humorless smirk. "If he had just been my friend, it wouldn't have been a problem when he decided he wanted to sleep around." Her eyes flashed to the body of the demon on the ground and snarled, "If anyone ever deserved to be demon chow, it was that smug douchebag."

Hiei merely said, "Hn," and left it at that, but his eyes showed something else. He knew how it felt to be betrayed by a person you had cared for, but he didn't dare let anyone, especially some random girl he had just met, know that.

"Then you should have stopped me before I decided to let him live," he growled before turning on his heel and walking off.

Lyn didn't bother answering or trying to follow him. For a long moment, she stared at the scene before her, watching the blood of the renegade demon soaking into the ground. Then, when the pain clawing at the inside of her chest became too much, she spread her wings and beat them toward the ground hard. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care; she just needed to fly until she forgot how to feel anymore.

---

Reneey sighed. She was worried for Lyn but she knew her friend could take care of herself. She, Youko, and Kuronue were walking in random forests until a familiar gust of wind passed them at a very fast pace. They looked up to see Lyn but then in a flash, she disappeared among the clouds.

"... Where's Hiei?" Kuronue growled.

"Maybe he left... if he found the demon, he should have notified us," Youko said simply.

"Maybe she just killed him," Kuronue muttered hopefully.

---

The longer Lyn flew madly through the sky, the more her mind and emotions slowly went blank. It felt so much better letting go than feeling that constant pain in her chest. She didn't know where she was, nor did she care much. Until something hit her -- and hit her hard. It almost made her lose herself and fall to the ground, but she managed to regain composition.

"What the heck?"

You should go back, a voice sobbed in her head. Go back and protect her... Go back...

Lyn shook her head and descended a little, certain the high altitude was causing her to hear things. "I'm going insane," she muttered softly.

She's in danger... You left her... She could die... Your fault, the same sobbing voice rang louder inside of her head.

"No one's gonna die! Seriously, what's the matter with you, Lyn?" she chastised herself.

Suddenly an image of Reneey lying in a puddle of her own blood on the grassy ground flashed in Lyn's mind; then that changed to Reneey dead in a bathroom; then to her being attacked and ripped apart by a couple of demons; then to her being tortured and shot dead. All of these images came rushing so fast and so unexpectedly that Lyn lost it and came crashing down. She hit a tree and tumbled down branch after branch until finally she hit the ground.

She's dying... Your friend Reneey is dying...

"N-no one's dying," Lyn objected, but her mind was shaken. Everything else was lost... What did she have left if her best friend was gone, too?

---

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LEFT HER?!" Kuronue yelled when Hiei came into the clearing.

"Hn. She wanted to be alone and seems perfectly capable of taking care of herself. So I left her alone."

"Well, may -- AHH!" Reneey screamed as she felt arms wrap around her waist and pull her up into the air.

Youko had his rose whip out in a second and was about to attack but stopped when he saw that it was Lyn. He blinked, wondering why she had decided to swoop down and literally kidnap Reneey, so he started to follow by jumping from tree to tree.

Reneey's screaming did not stop, just going louder as the pair climbed higher into the air.

You must protect Reneey... She will die, too... your fault... protect her... That voice, which Lyn could now identify as a man's, rang even louder in Lyn's ears than Reneey's screams.

Had Lyn remembered how to cry, tears would have been streaming down her face at the mere thought by now. Tears, however, were not her forte; she was pretty sure her tearducts had been disconnected from her emotions a long time ago.

"Calm down," she said quietly, pulling Reneey closer. "It'll be fine. I'm saving you."