I stared at Death City from the place I stood on a hill of sand. Anger rushing throughout me and fear nonexsistant I saw no reason why not to enter the great city. Death. That was a reason. Emphasis on the word 'was'. I didn't fear death, or anything for that matter. I barely felt anything other than rage and even that seemed numb. My soul felt as though it were being imprisoned by some beast that wished control of my body. It would have terrified me if I had any sense of fear, but I didn't so I became even angrier than before. Charging forwards I felt strangely odd, as though all sense of reality was leaving me.

And that was the last I remembered before fading off into a thick redness that was edged by darkness.

Groaning, I started to wake up hearing some distant sounding voices. They were arguing and sounding somewhat wary. My eyes opened for a moment then squeezed shut against the bright light, which filled them. "Huh?" I groaned, probably sounding rather irritable. "Uh...where am I? Who's there?"

"Relax, Artie, it's just us."

Sitting up I opened my eyes for a second time. This time fully prepared for the sunlight that sure enough burned my eyes again, but that was okay because I could take it. I found myself, none too surprisingly, lying in the middle of nowhere in a desert. I sighed seeing both Richie and Zephyr standing a scant two feet from me. Immediately, I was puzzled by each of their expressions. Richie looked somewhat frightened, nervous, and confused as he stood behind his older brother who looked at me with a grave scowl.

"What the hell are you two pests doing here?"

"Now isn't the time for games, Artie." Zephyr snapped. "You've gotten us all in a load of trouble! The damn reaper has his people scanning this entire god forsaken desert for not just you, but for all of us! Me and Richie didn't even do anything, save for help you when you were about to get your ass killed!"

"What the f*** are you yelling at me for?"

"You were the one who went and got the entire city in a buzz!"

"I didn't do anything!" I spat defensively. My voice softened then as I recalled Death's words, 'You hurt Crona and her friends!' that reminded me that I really did do some pretty bad things. And Zephyr knew as well as I did that I had done some pretty bad things in Death City. "I mean," my voice was a murmur as I spoke, "I did but the Shinigami, Death, he excused me for those crimes and said that as long as I didn't go back-"

"Don't play stupid!" Zephyr hissed. "You've got blood on your hands now and those damned bastards from the city aren't gonna let any of us get away now, you dumb bitch!"

I snarled, climbing to my feet. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me, dumb bitch!"

"I outta tear your motherf***ing tongue out of your mouth!" I shouted. "No, I should freakin beat the living hell out of you, you moronic piece of garbage! You've always been nothing but a waste of perfectly good breathing space!"

"Look who's talking!" he shouted back at me. "You couldn't find your f***ing sister without my help! Hell, you couldn't even escape back there when things got too intense! Me and Richie had to save your sorry ass before the meisters got to you!"

We stood there practically nose to nose. He glared at me and I glared right back. Zephyr was really pissing me off and I wanted nothing more than to tear him to millions of little, tiny pieces. He was a bastard. I hated him and wanted nothing more than to be the cause of his demise then and there. Perhaps, if Richie hadn't spoken up, then I would have been.

"Guys," Richie chimed in, "I think we have bigger problems than who is worse than who and whose fault what is. We're getting hunted like rabbits and unless we do something about it then I think we won't last long out here. Especially if the meisters come after and start tracking us down."

"You're right, Richie." I sighed, feeling my rage dying down a bit. "We need a plan."

"Yeah," Zephyr snorted, "and what do you propose we do?"

"We can't very well stand around here all day." I said.

"No duh!" he sneered sardonically. "But we can't run, either."

"Hey, hey," Richie cried coming between us. He spread his arms out and stood protectively in front of Zephyr. "Don't start fighting again, guys! We have to stick together or else we won't stand a chance. I think we just need to figure out a way to fix this before someone gets hurt."

"No way, Rich." Zephyr sighed. He shook his head, hands falling from his hips and to his sides. "After all the blood Artie spilled yesterday I doubt they'll want to hear us out, especially since two out of us three are witches."

"Blood?" I chirped in surprise. My eyes narrowed at Zephyr warily. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, c'mon, Artie just look at yourself! You're covered in blood from that wicked rampage you went on yesterday evening."

"No, I-" My voice died away as I looked down at myself for the first time. I gaped in shock at realizing my clothes were torn and bloody. Dried blood clings to my skin and suddenly I felt my mouth turn dry. Was it my blood? Why wasn't I afraid? Why did I feel so numb? I wanted to panic and scream my lungs out, but the problem was that I couldn't. I just couldn't. I felt hollow inside and I desperately wished I knew just what was going on. Without realizing it my voice became tiny and quiet, as my thoughts jumped from my brain to the tip of my tongue and swiftly escaped the confinement of my mouth, "What did I do?"

"You mean...you...you seriously don't remember?" Zephyr sputtered. His features took on a combination of suspicion and disbelief instantly. "Artie, what's going on? You were totally berserk yesterday. How can you not remember that?"

"I don't know."

"You're sounding rather calm about now. Something tells me you do know. What happened to you?"

"I...I can't...remember." I struggled with the words as I tried hard to recall what had became of me after fleeing the city. What'd happened? And two seconds later it hit me like a brick. "Shaula."

"What is that?" Zephyr demanded.

"I think you mean who is that?" Richie corrected. Ignoring him, Zephyr pushed him off to the side and walked up to me with a serious expression that didn't seem to belong on his face. I decided then that I liked him better when he appeared carefree and smug. It suited him better than the intensity he held then as he studied me silently, and then asked, "You want to talk about it?"

I sighed. "Why not?" I said, as I began to walk in a random direction. The two brothers followed sticking to either side of me. I continued as we walked, "My life officially sucks now. Telling you guys how I screwed myself over can't beat all the other sucky stuff that's going on right now."

I explained to them what happened starting from when I finally met Crona up to when I had to make a run for my life after meeting my aunt, Shaula. They both listened. I was actually impressed by how well they both listened to me, especially Zephyr who didn't normally give a damn about whatever I said.

Then again, I usually insulted him so it made sense that he'd tune me out every now and again. Once I finished my story they stopped walking. That took longer than I thought it would, which was okay considering we didn't have much else to do at the time. Richie sat cross legged seeming to be in deep thought. Zephyr flopped back, sprawling out on the warm sand and taking a deep breath while he too gave the story some thought. I just sat and hoped that whatever conclusion they came up with it'd be useful, helpful even. I really wished I knew what happened the afternoon before. Maybe if I did then I'd know just what to do to get us out of the current predicament we were in.

"Artie," I turned to see Zephyr was sitting upright with his legs crossed like Richie's were. I just jugged my legs to my chest as I stared at him with blank eyes.

"Yeah?"

"You're family is really screwed up."

I laughed awkwardly at that.

"No, seriously." He said in a thoughtful tone. "We should find that bitch and make her reverse whatever it is she did to you. I think that if we-"

"No, Zephyr," I said firmly, "we've got bigger problems and way bigger fish to fry. We shouldn't waste precious time finding some stupid witch that's probably long gone by now."

"Don't be stupid. What if you snap again? We've no idea what made you lose it yesterday, so what if you lose it today? What if this thing ends up killing you?"

"Then it kills me. Big deal. Lots of people are trying to kill me nowadays anyway."

He gave me a look, which suggested that I was crazy, and then shook his head. I guess he wasn't really wanting to argue because he went over to where Richie sat and they started to whisper to each other, back and forth. It was bothersome because I knew they were talking about me and I hated the fact that they were probably pretending that I wasn't there. Still, whatever they were talking about I figured it was stupid. Finally, they stopped their whispering and came to sit in front of me next to each other. They both looked somber.

"Artemis, we have to fix whatever Shaula did to you. Otherwise, nobody is safe."

"Yeah, well, what do you want me to do about it? It's not my fault. I-"

"I know it's not, but listen Zephyr and me have been thinking and compromising and we think that maybe we can kill two birds with one stone."

"Okay. I'm listening."

"First, we need to find some way to get to Death."

"That'll be a piece of cake." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes for added effect. "I mean, we're already being hunted by his goons."

"Exactly." Richie agreed, ignoring my sarcasm. "I think one of us should surrender, preferably me seeing as I'm not a witch."

"No way! You could die!"

"That's not likely." Zephyr argued. "Think about it. Why would they kill Richie if he surrenders? He can't fight them off by himself and besides wouldn't they want to question him on our whereabouts?"

"You have a point." I admitted. "I just hate the sound of this plan."

"Listen," Richie continued, "after I get in I can explain everything to him. I can convince him that it wasn't your fault and that Zephyr and me didn't do anything wrong, other than helping you, I mean."

"Splendid. Oh, wait, no it isn't. That entire plan sounds like total bunk! Why would the Shinigami listen to you? And what would the two of us be doing in the meantime?"

"Because I expect him to be able to tell whether or not I'm lying. And believe me, I won't be."

"As for us," Zephyr said, "we get to go kidnap that sweet little sister of yours."

"Swell. How will we explain that?"

"Trade." Richie said sternly. "Me for her, and then we see if they'd be willing to fix you up. If not then we make a run for it and try to plan out another course of action."

"No. I don't like the sound of this."

"You mean you're against the kidnaping part?" Zephyr questioned with a deadpan tone. "You do know this should be really damn easy considering she's nothing to you. She's a traitor an-"

"I don't care!" I snapped. Both boys gave me their complete attention then. Richie's lips were pulled together in a tight line, whilst his brother looked at me with slightly widened eyes.

"Are you sure you're thinking about this clearly?"

"Yes!" I hissed at him, glaring weakly. My teeth gritted as I then let out a small growl and gave Zephyr an utterly serious expression to show how firm my stance was on this matter, as well as how much that plan bothered me. "I just want to leave her alone." I said with a sigh. "I don't ever want to see that...that...whatever's face again!"

"Sheesh, fine. Then what do you think we should do?"

"Everything." I said. "Except the kidnaping part. If it comes down to trading then trade them me and run for it-"

"That's out of the question, Art-"

"Shut up and listen, you birdbrain! After you two get away then figure a way to bust me out, otherwise I'll be very pissed at you two and you can both expect an eternal ass kicking for the rest of our afterlives."

Reluctantly they agreed and we set out to start our plan. None of us expected it to work, so when we were all captured no more than forty minutes later it didn't come to us as a real big surprise.