Chapter 28

Broken

The black-clad man rose, holding his daughter in the air by the throat. "Da-ren!" she rasped with pain-filled eyes. He tightened his grip, cutting off her air completely. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Yusuke cried, reaching to help his friend. With a wave of his hand, the werewolf sent him flying back, smashing into the others. He set up a spell that would prevent them from crossing the room to help the girl dangling off the floor.

Gabriel was flung backwards, sliding across the floor near a fireplace. She sat up weakly, "Daren- stop! Its me-oh no…" her eyes grew wide with fear in realization, "you're under his control!"

The man stood over her, raising his hand to cast a hex. "Morpheus told me to destroy you, but he didn't say I had to do it right away; I think I'll take my time. And since your spirit energy is drained, you can't escape or fight back."

Yusuke dragged himself up from the crater in the wall; he pounded in the shimmering wall between them, "Leave her alone, you jerk!"

"Be quiet, boy; you'll get yours soon enough." Daren spat, turning his hand toward the Tantei; in a small flash, they felt the very real effect of being stabbed in the heart. Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Yusuke sank to their knees, clutching their chests in pain. They felt the hot pain of internal bleeding and their lungs constricting. Kurama sputtered, feeling his stomach turn, "What have you done!"

The sorcerer gave a chuckle, "Like it? I've learned a series of torturing hexes; they make a person feel the pain of torture, but because it doesn't actually hurt them, one can enjoy another's agony for a longer span, and in many different ways."

"Stop it!" Gabriel rose to her feet, "Fight it; you have to resist!" she cried.

Shaking his head, he swept the air out from under her, flinging her on her side. "You just don't understand, do you, pup; or should I say 'kit'," he added in a dangerous whisper. He began a soft, but menacing tirade only she was close enough to hear. "Morpheus has the Rods, I couldn't resist if I wanted to; and besides, I had forgotten how much fun it is to be bad."

"Excuses satisfy only those that make them; fight it!"

"Shut your mouth, brat! Or better yet, lets take your voice away…" a shadow disconnected from his hand and slid over the floor. The black shape moved over her and found its way down her throat. The shadow flew back out and into its owner's hand. Daren held out a glass sphere the size of a tennis ball with a shimmering, golden cloud inside. "Fascinating!" he said, examining her epiphany of a voice box. "Usually when I remove someone's voice, it is the size of a shooter marble, and doesn't shine so bright. Perhaps it is because you have such a lovely singing voice…"

"Stop it!" Yusuke cried again, pounding on the shield with renewed fervor; she could no longer voice her pain, as she was tortured. Ignoring the outburst, the sorcerer continued.

"How about I show you what it feels like to have your heart ripped from your chest? Your heart has been broken anyway; has it not, Kurama?" Daren eyed the redhead with a smug look. Kurama kept his face an emotionless mask. "Perhaps you would both like to feel this." The hex hit both the kitsune and the shaman. She tried to scream, but no sound came out, however, she heard Kurama's screams of pain from across the room. Their ribs felt like they were being ripped open and their beating hearts were severed from their bodies. "Now, doesn't that hurt?" Daren laughed cruelly.

Kuwabara summoned his reiken and tried to slice through the shield, which was the only thing bottling his rage. "How dare you torture a woman, you coward? She just saved your life!" he roared. The shield did not yield and he stood back in defeat.

"Put your sword away, little boy; you could get hurt." Daren sneered.

Another hex hit him and Kuwabara folded his hands under his arms in an attempt to dull the pain. "I feel like my fingernails are being ripped out!" he said through gritted teeth. Hiei, angered by the man's audacity, tore the ward from his arm and attempted to release the Dragon. "Ah, ah!" Daren said, wagging his finger, which sent another hex towards him. Hiei bent double and bit back his own screams. Intrigued by the smaller fighter's silence, Daren taunted him, "Tell me, Hiei, how does your skin being ripped off feel? Isn't it delicious? Lets add some burning coals being pressed onto your shredded flesh."

Hiei could not keep silent; he clawed at his skin as he screamed, trying to remove the non-existent embers from his body. Yusuke watched his four comrades writhe in pain; "I can't watch this. Daren, please, stop!" he shouted.

"You won't be able to watch as your eyes feel like being ripped from their sockets." The detective joined the chorus of screams, to the sorcerer's delight. Gabriel, crying silently, sat up from the pain of the hex as it faded, this redirected Daren's attention and he bore down on her with all his power. "Would you like some more, sweet-heart? I have a whole book's worth of hexes I learned just for you. You wasted twenty years of my life; you know that? Here, try a chain whipping on for size."

She leaned forward on her palms, flinching noticeably with each imaginary tongue of fiery pain that lapped her skin. She panted heavily after the hex wore off, glaring at the sorcerer defiantly through her tears. He frowned, "What's the matter? Not painful enough for you? Or is it that you don't appreciate anything I've ever done to raise you? Try feeling having most of the bones in your body crushed, maybe you'll be grateful this isn't your true fate." She fell back, jerking with each wave of white-hot needle-like pain that coursed through her limbs, but her jaw set grimly.

"What the hell is she doing?" Kuwabara whispered, rubbing his hands absently to make sure his nails were still there. Kurama took several deep breaths to relieve his chest from his own hex-experience, "She's distracting him."

"Why! That must hurt like hell!" Yusuke hissed.

"Dumb ass, she's distracting him so we can find a way to escape." Hiei said, inspecting the perimeter of the imprisonment. "We have to figure out a way to get out of here before he gets bored and decides to kill her." They discreetly began to chatter and brainstorm while Daren continued to torture Gabriel.

"I should never have rescued you that day;" he snarled, hexing her again, "this one is special, its what a trout feels like when it's gutted. You would have been gutted if I had not rescued you that day anyway, and made into a lovely coat, or a rug. This is what it feels like to have your skin sewn into something else," he watched her curl up in a ball, shivering and weeping, "with lots of embroidery. I can't say you're all bad though; you did turn out to be a shaman after all, and what parent wouldn't be proud of their child's accomplishments? Oh yes, I remember whom, my father, after you riddled him with arrows and later tore his soul out. Lets see how you feel being ripped apart!"

Tears fell from her cheeks as she rolled across the ground, trying to get away from him. Her back hit the fire screen in front of the mantle, knocking it down. "You little witch, you ruined my life by being born! I say burn at the stake!" she shuddered and rubbed her arms, trying to put out the imaginary flames that made her feel like her skin was melting off. "You bore me, little fox. Let's kick it up a notch. Have the feeling of decapitation, oh and being raped, just to make it interesting."

Her limbs lost their feeling as she felt like they had severed from her body, replaced by stinging bands of pain around her arms and legs, and the sensation of carnal knowledge that could not be nursed. He grinned, staring down at her; her body was perfectly unharmed, but she looked ready to let death come by any means. Sweat mixed with her tears, and her eyes dulled; the spark of resistance- her spirit- her attitude- faded.

"Had enough? So have I, lets get this over with and call it a day." He drew one of the reiguns from her holster and aimed it at her chest when-

CRASH!

The marble floor began to shatter beneath the Tantei as Yusuke blew a hole in the floor, jumped through to the third floor, and fired a second Reigun blast at the ceiling. The shield, which did not penetrate the floor below, was useless as the four angered men exploded up through the floor under Daren's feet. Yusuke pounced on the stunned man, and forced the remainder of his coffee down his throat. "What on God's green earth is that vile liquid!" he sputtered, sitting up.

Yusuke swung the thermos on its strap casually, "Coffee-zilla from Reikai. You okay there, Merlin?"

"Okay? I-" he gasped in realization and ran to Gabriel's side. She lay on the floor, eyelids half closed, jaw slack. He gently slapped her cheek as she had done to him, "Pup! Gabriel, snap out of it, dear!" she blinked and scuttled away from him. Yusuke ran to her side and stopped her, "Its okay now, he's awake. I mean really awake. Oh, and you lost this," he presented her voice back to her, which disappeared back into her being again. She turned back to Daren, looking very small and helpless and sad. Yusuke directed the others away from the two in search of a door to the next room.

Gabriel wiped her cheek with her fist as more tears poured down her face. Daren ran up to her and buried her in his cloaked arms. "Oh, Gabriel, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do this!" She clung to him, shaking, "I didn't mean all those things I said, and all the things I've done. Forgive me, daughter!" he whispered. She managed to contain herself enough to stop crying and pulled away, smiling. She had forgiven him already.

"Before we go on," Yusuke said, turning to the others, "I'd like to know how you're able to do magic, I thought you were human."

The werewolf said sagely, "There are many questions, Yusuke, to which I cannot give answers; but in time I believe all will be made clear."