Battered, dirty, with broken ribs and bleeding wounds, the redhead laid in his cell silently. He was still almost completely paralyzed and the venom pumping into his blood stream from the fang embedded into his neck was not helping matters. On top of everything, his arms and legs were bound tightly by rings of energy as an extra precaution. He could not even move far enough to heal himself, and his spirit energy was completely drained from trying to escape unsuccessfully.
Barely able to lift his head, and in too much pain to try, he stared through the bars of this cage he was being kept in. All that was visible, however, was the wall on the opposite side of the narrow hallway. He could do nothing but send out a psychic plea for help, and pray that someone would hear his call.
Even if someone did, though, there was no promise that they would be able to rescue him at all. From what he had seen as he was dragged to the cell, the complex he was being held in was fairly secure, guarded, surprisingly, not by human soldiers, but demons, apparently not very strong by themselves but armed with machine guns to keep intruders in line. In line... meaning dead.
"Kurama," a harsh voice called out to him. He lifted his head just enough to see who was speaking, and winced in pain when he did so.
"Allow me to welcome you properly," said the owner of the voice. There, outside the iron bars was the dark figure from the viewing room, still dressed in his plain suit. In proper light, it could be seen that he had the appearance of a normal human man in his late forties. He had greying hair, a slightly wrinkled face, and a deceptively pleasant smile. His eyes, however, were very inhuman indeed. They were blank, milky white and stared endlessly, never needing to blink. The eyes of the un-dead...
"I would not consider this much of a welcome..." Kurama groaned, even in such a vulnerable state, he attempted to maintain his composure.
"Oh, don't worry," the man answered cheerfully, "the real show will begin later, we're just waiting for the guest of honor to arrive."
"Which would be..." Kurama said, straining to hold back cries of pain.
The suited man made a gesture to someone who was not in Kurama's line of sight, and the doors of the holding cell slowly opened. He stepped inside and gazed down at Kurama almost ruefully.
"Why, the only one love struck enough to come racing in here all by himself to rescue you," he answered.
"I haven't the faintest idea who you could be talking about..." Kurama hissed immediately, not even thinking over the statement. The man simply smiled and waited a few short seconds, after which the red haired boy gasped suddenly.
"Hiei..." he barely even breathed out.
The man narrowed his eyes as the realization occurred, and then kicked Kurama in his already aching side before departing. The composure Kurama had been struggling to maintain deteriorated once he was alone. In too much pain to bear, and now fearing for his closest friend's life, he wept uncontrollably. His hot tears poured out onto the grimy cement floor, and his sobs only worsened his pain.
"Hiei... please stay alive."
Though not literally hearing Kurama's request, the fire demon picked up speed, feeling a twinge of increased urgency. Using his Jagan eye to guide him, Hiei had raced with his usual blinding speed to the remote country side. He was now racing up a barren mountain, dodging rocks and sickly looking shrubs as he ran.
When he reached the mountain's peak, he was faced with a thick concrete wall rising up from the ground. The towering barricade protected the perimeter of an entire complex and there did not seem to be any visible entrance. Hiei ran round the outside of the wall, searching for a weakness or an opening.
"It's too high to jump..." he muttered. The wall was indeed too tall to leap over, even for someone with Hiei's extraordinary abilities. "Only one way in then..." he said with a devious grin.
The Jaganshi backed up a few feet, steadied himself, and threw an enormous punch directly at the wall. When his fist made contact, hairline cracks extended rapidly in every direction. That section of the wall shook violently for several seconds, until a huge portion came crashing down, leaving a hole that was more than big enough to accommodate Hiei's size.
The instant he entered the complex, sirens began to go off and he could hear several creatures approaching his position. He moved stealthily behind buildings with his lighting fast speed in search of Kurama. He felt intense pressure burning inside him with each step he took. He followed the lead of the quickening beats of his heart and knew he was getting closer to his missing half.
Through windows and down corridors he crept while obviously brainless pursuers tailed him. They would have no luck for the moment, Hiei was like a wild animal stalking its most sought after prey, and he would not be stopped at any cost.
He then felt an intense pain searing in his forehead behind his third eye. Kurama's psychic wails of pain were deafening now, and he knew he was not far off.
"What have you done to him... bastards..."
He turned a corner and discovered a long yellow hallway, near the end of which he could vaguely make out the doors of prison cells. Just as he was about to begin his dash down the hall, however, he was confronted by a large group of guards coming from both directions.
"Just try and stop me now!" he roared as he ran headfirst into the barricade. Countless bullets flew towards them but he dodged them skillfully as he darted ahead. But the security was apparently more efficient than Hiei had thought. Without warning, he felt a sharp pain in his back and was suddenly paralyzed. He turned to see a large dart, full of venom, stabbing into his skin, and in an instant he could not move an inch. He was grabbed by the arms and two guards proceeded to drag him away, in the exact opposite direction of Kurama.
Whether the paralysis-inducing poison was simply not effective on Hiei's anatomy, or whether his will to save his red haired counterpart overcame the effects is not known, but, somehow, Hiei quickly regained his strength. He burst out of the guards' clutches, flinging them with a tremendous force against the walls and killing them instantly. Rather than go back and try to free Kurama again, though, he made the decision to flee for the time being and formulate a better plan of action.
The small demon raced down numerous halls and leapt out the first window he set his eyes on. Running as fast as he possibly could, he escaped the complex and went down the mountain, vanishing into the forest below.
****
'Woo! Go, Hiei! He's such a bad-ass!'
'Sir, calm yourself! It's not like you didn't already know about all this.'
'But the way you tell it, it makes everything seem so much more exciting.'
'Why thank you sir, I don't think you've ever actually complimented me before.'
'Well, don't get used to it... now keep going!'
****
Hiei, who for the past several minutes had been sneering at the hilltop complex, glanced down to the forest floor below his perch in a tall tree when he heard Yusuke's voice calling out to him.
"Hiei!"
He leapt down from the treetop and landed gracefully before them.
"We finally found you! We've been running around that stupid wall thing with guys shooting at us for half the day!" Kuwabara shouted, catching his breath.
"More like five minutes, Kuwabara..." Yusuke corrected with a glare.
"Well... I'm glad you're here," Hiei said to the two.
"Uh... really?" Kuwabara asked, scratching the back of his head, somewhat surpsied to hear the fire demon display any type of gratitude towards them.
"Yes, a diversion is exactly what I needed."
"Diversion!" Yusuke yelled. "We're here to help rescue Kurama, not to be your decoys!"
"A diversion is all I need you for!" Hiei suddenly roared, shaking the smaller tree branches surrounding them. "I can handle this myself!"
"What's the matter with you!?" Yusuke roared back, getting right up in Hiei's face. "Kurama is all of our friend, not just yours!"
"Just do what I say or I'll kill you myself..." The Jaganshi hissed, glaring up at Yusuke with his piercing red eyes.
"Uh, guys!" Kuwabara said urgently. "Don't you think we ought to go save Kurama instead of arguing? They could be ripping his head off or something right now!" He pointed up towards the complex and waited for Hiei and Yusuke to give some kind of response.
Hiei took a step back from the Spirit Detective and started to run up the rocky mountainside.
"Follow me."
They dashed up the slope and through the hole Hiei had blasted previously, having to take out six or seven guards on the way.
"Just draw as much attention as possible," Hiei commanded. "And don't get hit by their tranquilizer darts, they're filled with a paralyzing venom."
"Must be from that flying monster thing..." Kuwabara deduced.
"Now shut up and go!" Hiei hissed as he vanished from sight.
"Hey, now why the hell should we take orders from him!" Kuwabara began complaining.
"Just do what he says this time... I think he knows what he's doing," answered Yusuke, deciding that Hiei knew more about the compound they had just entered and more about Kurama than he or Kuwabara did. Yusuke had a steamy temper, but he was not completely unreasonable.
The two of them sprinted off in different directions and began making a ruckus to attract a majority of the guards away from Hiei. Meanwhile, the fire demon followed the same route he had taken before, though in a much more hurried manner. He met barely any opposition on the way and reached Kurama's holding cell quickly. He stopped short when he looked through the thick bars when he saw the sight within.
Kurama was on the floor in a heap, his normally well groomed hair was matted with blood and tangled. He drew each ragged breath with much difficulty, and did not appear to be able to move. Hiei's hardened heart came close to breaking when he saw the normally proud and graceful Kurama in such a condition.
"Kurama..."
The injured boy moved slightly and then began to sit up. The paralysis was finally wearing off, but he still could not move very easily at all.
"Hiei... At last."
Hiei gripped the bars of the prison cell tightly and used all of his strength to rip the door from its hinges and throw it behind him. He was by Kurama's side in an instant, giving him the support he needed to stay sitting.
"You must get out as quickly as possible," Kurama said suddenly.
"Why, after I get you to safety I'm going to destroy this place with my bare hands," Hiei replied.
"No, you don't understand, it's you they are after."
"What...?" Hiei raised his eyebrows and gave Kurama a very puzzled look. Before he could answer though, a whirring sound was heard from underneath the floor of the cell. Kurama, who in his former life was a master of locks and booby-traps recognized the sound very easily.
"Hiei! Get out right now!" he yelled.
In an observation room on the other end of the complex, the dark figure who was the mastermind behind all that had happened, was watching everything on his gigantic monitor.
"I'll bury you alive, little demon. Then you're mine."
Hiei had hoisted Kurama over his shoulder and dove down the hallway just as the row of prison cells began exploding. All around them fire erupted from the walls and the building began to crumble. The Jaganshi skidded around a corner just in time to see Yusuke and Kuwabara race past.
"Get out! The whole place is about to collapse!" He screamed, and dashed through a wall of fire towards the door he had come in through. He sensed Yusuke and Kuwabara were following not too far behind and picked up speed, holding onto Kurama's body tightly. When they had nearly reached the exit, the whole ceiling suddenly collapsed in front of them, blocking the way. Explosions and fire surged from the floors below them, and the only way out now was up.
"Hey! Hiei! There's stairs right behind us!" He heard Yusuke shout through the fire. He turned on the spot and began climbing the staircase with his two allies. Up they went, with fire nipping at their heels and the ground shaking beneath them. The entire complex was seconds from crumbling to the ground when the group reached the roof.
Hiei could see only one means of escape. He ran at full speed towards the edge of the flaming roof and took a flying leap off the edge just as the surface they had just been standing on erupted into a huge mass of flames. The power of the explosion flung all four of them down the mountainside, and they only stopped when they made impact with the forest floor...