The red duster Wanda wore gently brushed over the ground as she and Kurama headed toward the tower Meibatsu was locked in. While on the way, he had told her the story of what had happened to her, or at least what Koenma had told him, which needless to say wasn't much.
It was strange, but Wanda felt like she was fighting herself. Meibatsu and she had both been betrayed and locked way for many years. Funny, they got out the same way too. When the amount of security was lessened, someone had come in and taken them. Fighting against ones self was weird. She was definitely still crazy.
Scarlet Witch was such a strange girl. Kurama had tried numerous times to strike up a conversation while they continued their walk, but he could never seem to keep one going for very long. Whenever he would ask her questions, the answers were always very short and most of the time vague. When he asked about her family and past, she had stopped in mid-stride and glared at him.
"To cling to the past is to fear the future, and believe me, I'm not afraid," that's all that she said to him. Neither of them had said a word since. That was twenty minutes ago.
"Your power, what is it?" He asked, breaking the silence.
"Mystique and my father called it 'chaos magic'. I can create hex fields and control anything within them," she replied bluntly.
"Then you're quite powerful I'm sure."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Do you and the others work together like this often?"
"No, we're on rivaling teams. What is this, twenty questions?"
"Sorry, I just wanted to get to know you better since we'll be working together, that's all."
"…Do you think Rogue and Hiei have killed each other yet?" Wanda asked laughing.
"To be perfectly honest with you, I wouldn't be that surprised."
Time passed quicker then they thought, as soon they fell beneath the shadow of the tower. The smell was unbearable and Wanda had thrown up by the time they reached the stairs. Using a mild hex bolt, she slammed the door open and they stepped inside.
Climbing up the dark stairwell, only occasionally coming across a window, Wanda whimpered as she hugged herself. This place was so similar to the asylum that her father had left her in. She was seven! Of course she didn't know how to control her anger or power! He didn't have to lie then leave her there. It wasn't fair.
Hearing her whimper, Kurama had looked at her a little worried. She had her arms crossed over her chest and her hands gripped her upper arms. Apparently, she could feel him staring at her, and turned her head to scowl at him. Then she had started walking faster until she was almost running up the stairs.
Eventually, feet and knees beginning to ache, they reached the top of the stairs, and Wanda had already opened the door. Stepping into the room, they coughed on the massive clouds of dust. There was like, three inches of it on the wooden floor. They took their time looking around, their eyes scanning over everything in the room in search of any sort of clue. With each step they took, the floorboards creaked and whined.
Despite the torchlight that was provided by the guards at the front gate, it was still very dark. Looking up above, they took note that the ceiling wasn't at all damaged. Apparently, Meibatsu was still not able to use her power to propel herself in flight.
While checking in the back of the room, Wanda came across the chains and shackles and shuddered.
"At least when I was locked up, they had the decency to give me a window," she muttered hatefully.
On the other side of the cell, Kurama had heard what she had said. No wonder she didn't want to talk about it when they were walking. He suddenly felt a little guilty for asking. Though he wanted to apologize to her, for some reason, his head told him to keep quiet…for the moment.
***
Sitting alone in her room, Meibatsu reapplied her make-up and shook her head. Everything was still a little hazy. Whatever that girl did to her, it wouldn't be happening again. She had destroyed the street lights, so she hadn't been able to get a look at the girl's face but still, if she was helping Urameshi, she would have to go down like the others would.
Opening her top drawer, she pulled out a small wooden box. Lifting the lid, she stared down hatefully at the threads and needle that sat at the bottom of the box. Her fingertips traced the outline of her lips. She knew that the scars were still there but that wasn't her concern at the moment. Along with the thread and needle, were a few strands of silvery hair.
It was so strange, she wanted to both kill him and kiss him at the same time. Which one? Meibatsu really wasn't that sure. Perhaps she'd do both just out of spite.
***
The leaves shook and whistled as two dark figures rushed past, one in the air, and the other on foot. The occasional passer-by didn't see or just thought that it was the wind. Besides, they kept within the branches just for that reason.
As much as Hiei liked being away from that dim wit Kuwabara, Rogue was hardly better company. She was brash, emotionally irate, and just too similar in personality to him that it caused them to constantly argue. For the moment, she was keeping quiet; that was refreshing but irritating since he could still feel her loathing and discomfort with being teamed up with him even though it was her idea.
Hiei had no idea how long they had being running for, but they had since left the city and were checking out the land around it, moving in an outward spiral. Still, even though they weren't speaking to each other (the effect of a previous, trivial argument), he had to wonder about this girl. With power like hers, how could he trust her? For all he knew, she could swoop down, steal his memory and power, and then betray the rest of the group. Besides, wasn't it convenient that they should just suddenly show up at the same time as the jailbreak? If there was one thing he learned, it was that most things were never as they seemed.
The sunlight burned the eyes, and Rogue, smirking smugly, lowered her sunglasses to shield her eyes. Looking down below, she could easily see Hiei rush through the tree branches. He didn't trust her though she figured that he had every right to, after all, he had just learned that there was another race aside from just humans and demons. It was natural that he should be wary of her, like the people in Bayville were. Then again, she hoped he wouldn't do what they did, attacking Evan and Morlocks like they did.
For some reason, she didn't care about that anymore. The sun was so warm on her skin, and the breeze was wonderful. Blue skies stretched for as far as the eye could see and the clouds lazily floated passed. There was a lake down below that glittered like liquid sapphires. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Sighing heavily, she flew lower to the trees, hoping that Hiei had found something.
"Hey, Hiei…" She trailed off, as he turned to meet her gaze. His eyes, they were red like Gambit's but were so sad. Like he was holding in some secret pains of his own. She had no idea why, but she suddenly felt sad or lonely or something. Like someone had suddenly started choking her and she couldn't breathe.
"What? Is there something on my face or have you found something?"
"No and no"
"Then why on Earth do you keep staring at me for? Oh, I see, I remind you of someone"
"How did you…?"
"Telepathic."
"Just who gave ya permission to go inside mah head?!"
"I did!"
"Just shut up will ya?!"
"Or what? You'll use your powers to throw me into a permanent coma like what you did to Cody?"
Time just seemed to freeze. There wasn't a single thing moving, there wasn't a sound. Rogue had suddenly stopped, falling the ten feet or so to the ground. She had lost her concentration that allowed her to fly. Jumping down from the branches, Hiei stood away from her, a stoic expression on his face as he looked at the emotionally crumbling Rogue. She knelt on the ground, gazing at him like a deer in headlights, desperately trying to mask the small tears that welled in her eyes. Lowering her head in self-hatred, she wiped away the tear that ran down her cheek. When she returned his gaze, her eyes were narrowed and anger like he had never seen flared within them.
He was taken completely by surprise. Rogue had launched herself at him so quickly that he hadn't had time to react. Wincing a bit in pain, his back was slammed into the trunk of a nearby tree.
"What's the matter? Did I strike a nerve?" he growled, refusing to back down.
"…Shut…up" she hissed in reply. Her hands trembled as they gripped his shirt. "GO TO HELL!!" she cried.
Without another word, she shot off; up into the sky until she was above the clouds where he could no longer see her.
***
Yukio set the phone receiver down and smirked. It had always been so incredibly simple to manipulate those who wanted revenge. After all, that was all they thought about, they didn't care at all about what they had to do to get it as long as they got it in the end. Meibatsu wasn't at all different from the others. Well, she was a demon, so yes, that was different, but the vengeful mentality was the same.
They say that hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn. Ah, so true to life, that phrase. With all of the scorn Meibatsu held bottled up within herself, she would be able to finish this little task with just enough time to tell her that he used her and then kill her.
There's a thought! He could wrap her up, like a Christmas gift and give her back to Spirit world. Wouldn't that be entertaining?
***
"So bored…" WHAM! "Can't focus."
"You know, you shouldn't slam your head against the table like that," said Yusuke as he flipped through one of the books Koenma had given them. "You're killing brain cells when you do that."
"What brain cells?" Kuwabara grumbled from the other side of the table. He still wasn't over her last smart remark.
It had been an hour and twenty paper cuts since they had started looking through the library. Books were stacked up all over the place that they were beginning to have trouble remembering which ones they had already read. Koenma had told them that they would be unable to find anything, but still, it was worth a try. Though they couldn't find anything on her specifically, they had found a few things about her life and history.
"OUCH!" Tabitha yelled waving her hand around in the air. Her fingers looked like they had gotten caught in a blender already. Whimpering pitifully, she reached for the industrial sized box of band-aids.
Yusuke grinned. Though he hated what Rogue assigned them to do, it wasn't so bad. In fact, if it wasn't for the headache and paper cuts, he could say that this was almost pleasant. Tabitha and Kuwabara's quarrels were the perfect comic relief and her cheery personality gave the dusty room a good working atmosphere. Besides, for all of her hatred of studying, she was the one who always managed to find bits and pieces of information about the race of demons that Meibatsu hailed from.
Climbing up onto the ladder, Tabitha ran her fingers along the bindings of the books, trying (most of the time in vain) to translate what the characters were in English. Although, this was great practice for her so that she wouldn't struggle so much if they ever got back to school, being her usual, short attention span given self, it was starting to get annoying.
"Hey, I think I found something!" Kuwabara proclaimed proudly. Yusuke and Tabitha went around the table to look over his shoulder. "I can't read the writing but look at the picture," he said pointing.
The picture was of a woman. Her hair was long and glistened like her eyes.
"That looks like the demon who attacked us!" Tabitha said.
Pulling out an Invader Zim book bag, Tabitha took out a stick of gum and stuck it in, as a bookmark. She did this to a couple of the other books and then stuck them all into the bag.
"It's Sunday, remember? We have school tomorrow, besides, Wanda can read these symbols."
"All right, oh yeah, you remember our bet, right Urameshi?" Kuwabara grinned.
"Yep, if Hiei and Rogue have beaten the crud outta each other, I owe you 500 yen!"
Author's Note: Wow! This was such a long chapter! Well…long compared to the others. See ya next chapter.
