Everyone turned to stare at the red haired demon. Never had they seen such an obvious look of shock and regret on his usually calm face. Emotions flickered behind his green eyes. He and Meibatsu held each other's gaze, as if participating in a staring contest.
"387 years Kurama," she hissed. "51,558,075 days of staring into nothing but the dark void of the cell they held me in. And it was all because of you. I despise you,"
"You can't be her! I had heard that you had died!"
"Oh really? Open your eyes Kurama! I'm alive and oh, what plans I have for you!"
"Hoshiko! Don't do this, we were partners, but please, tell me, how is it that you are still alive?"
"Hoshiko is dead, not that you care of course, but none the less, don't you dare try to bring her back! My hatred has been keeping me alive. For years, I waited for you, the one who promised that he would come back for me. You never came back. You left me there, you left me to die in that cell!"
Wanda still clutched Kurama's shirt. However, her grip had slowly begun to loosen. Every word that Meibatsu, or "Hoshiko", spoke echoed in her ears. Kurama had betrayed her? Locked up? Everything that she had come to consider him as had begun to fade. She hoped that Meibatsu was lying, or at least over exaggerating, since Kurama was beginning to sound eerily like her father. Doubts began to float around in her mind. Ugh, she couldn't even bare to look at him. Her heart and head argued, reason versus emotion and emotion was fighting a losing battle.
The world as he knew it was very quickly beginning to tear apart at the seams. For so long he had tried to bury the memories into the crypts of his mind. And yet, every few months or so, he would still be shaken from sleep by her cries of hatred. Traitor, that's what she had called him. He pulled Wanda closer to his chest, like a frightened child holding a toy. When he did, he found to his dismay that she shifted uneasily, half-heartedly trying to pull herself out of his embrace, her hands pushing against his chest.
Meibatsu stared. Her mind reeling and her anger grew as she watched as her former partner pulled that other young girl closer. What was she getting jealous for? She didn't care at all about Kurama any longer. Right?
Why? Why did it hurt her so badly to watch him hold another woman in his arms?
"This your new wench Kurama? If so, then I shall give you a single word of advice girl,"
"My name is Scarlet Witch," she growled. She didn't appreciate being called "wench".
"Scarlet Witch, listen to me carefully, if Kurama ever makes you a promise, know that he never keeps them, when he tells you that he would give you anything and everything if it made you happy, know that he has never given anything without a reason,"
Wanda slowly and gently pushed Kurama away, still refusing to acknowledge him.
"Did he ever tell you? He killed his partner before me because he was of no more use to him, he's using you Scarlet Witch, just like your father did. That's right, I know about you and the others,"
"Then ya should know not to mess with a pissed off me!" Rogue exclaimed, slowly beginning to stand. Cuts had torn her clothes and the fabric was slowly becoming darker as blood seeped into it. A bruise was already beginning to form on her cheek and a cut just above her right eye still flowed freely, giving the illusion of red tears.
Hiei looked over at the mutant watching her poor attempts to stand. He had never seen anything more beautiful. Even beaten and bleeding, Rogue stood her ground. Such strength of will and control over feelings of pain were a rarity.
Meibatsu merely threw the girl a glance before looking back at the cracking Scarlet Witch.
"Think Scarlet Witch, we aren't so different, you and I," a smirk became wider with each syllable. "When has anyone ever talked to you truthfully? When has someone ever wanted to get close to you without wanting to use and abuse your trust?"
"Don't listen to her!" Kurama exclaimed.
"Your father locked you away. For eleven years, you were deprived of your happiness, and now looking back on you childhood, tell me, can you remember any beauty? Any joy? No? Oh, what a shame. However, Yukio has promised me my revenge; he can give you yours as well. Your father, brother, Kurama, none of them really care about you. They only care about your powers. What do you say child?"
The intensity of the moment made it seem as if time was at a stand still. The anxiety was suffocating them all.
Wanda's hands clenched into fists at her sides, blue light, like licks of flame flickered.
"I don't need words," she hissed. Whirling around, she through the hex bolts at her teammates, Tabitha and Rogue, already injured, screamed in pain as Wanda changed the bolts into blazing fires, the smoke burning the eyes but mostly burning the soul.
This was quickly joined by the sonic waves, throwing the group of mutants, demons, and humans into a pile of debris.
A smile crept onto Meibatsu's lips. She was even tempted to laugh as she looked at the scene below. The Scarlet Witch had turned on her friends, and judging by her lack of remorse, she was damn glad she did it.
***
Evening fell and Kuwabara's house was crammed to bursting. It was closer then the mansion, and Rogue and Tabitha nearly collapsed in the doorway. Shizuru had rushed out to help them then left to go down town for more bandages and anti-bacterial.
Lying on the couch, many of her old wounds reopened, Rogue grit her teeth, out of both anger and denial. She had been positive that this whole thing was just some sort of nightmare, an illusion that she would wake from any moment. But no. That itself was an illusion. The pain was real, the enemies and allies were real. That betrayal was real too. She really was a Rogue, she had no friends, no family (not a decent one anyway) and nothing was ever going to ease her pain.
Kurama had more or less come out of that incident better then the others had. Physically better at least.
That battle definitely could've gone better. He wondered what would've happened if Wanda wasn't already wounded by her own life experiences. He should've known better then to think that Meibatsu wouldn't have gained information on the emotional weaknesses of the three mutant girls. Still, Kurama couldn't believe that Wanda had been so easily swayed. She didn't seem like the type that would allow her thirst for vengeance to come before her friends and family. Then again, she wasn't exactly blessed in the family department. And it didn't seem like she had many friends. Rogue, Tabitha, and Wanda always seemed on edge when around each other, each keeping the others at arms length. Perhaps they were still separated by the crevices that their own respected teams had put between each other.
For all of his demonic abilities, Hiei really wished that there had been some way that he could've stopped Wanda. It was his fault, for being distracted by Rogue. But the way she kept her stance despite the blood and bruises had stunned him. However, he somehow couldn't bring himself to praise her for it. If he had struck down Meibatsu during one of her seemingly endless speeches about revenge, it probably never would've happened.
Standing up to go get himself something to drink, Hiei was still deep in thought. So deep in thought, that he didn't notice Rogue approach and start walking beside him.
"Hiei," Rogue began, her eyes were still a bit glazed over from the loss of blood. "Ah don't think Tabitha and Ah should continue working with ya."
"What? Why?" he exclaimed. Oh yeah, he was having a great day.
"Ah just don't wanna have Tabitha fightin' against one o' her teammates. It ain't right. The three of us are just takin' ya down. We're takin' ya down hard,"
"No, you were able to hold off Meibatsu until we arrived. And you, Rogue, managed to stand despite your injuries. We need strength like that. Besides, we just pulled you into this, without so much as asking your names," Hiei replied.
"I think some trust games are in order," Yusuke said sarcastically, handing each one of them a soda. The three stood there in the hall. None of them speaking.
"Ah wonder how Kurama's doing? He cares a lot for Wanda. It's so obvious, it's laughable, if it weren't for the circumstances at least."
"I'm doing alright, thank you for your concern Rogue," Kurama said joining them.
"Me too, nothing's broken," Tabitha added. "Where's Kuwabara?"
"He and Shizuru went out to get more bandages."
"Oh."
"I think we need to spend a little time contemplating our next move, and perhaps getting to know each other better," Kurama suggested.
***
Koenma stared horrified at file before him. Having looked up Yukio Kuromori's file, he never thought that they would be dealing with a man like this.
Yukio Kuromori: wanted for the murder of 16 demons, information stealing, and file corruption. The one thing all the murders had in common was that all of them had wanted revenge on people that had also gotten in Kuromori's way. So that's how it worked huh? To the people being used, it was just killing two birds with one stone. The murders appeared to be done by means of poisoning celebratory drinks.
'Maybe I should get a more experienced team on this case' he thought in dismay. As soon as the thought came to mind, he immediately dismissed it. Meibatsu wanted Kurama, even if he did assign a different team, it wouldn't change the already dire situation. She would still be hunting him down, and, if she managed to kill him and Yusuke, she would ultimately end up another number on the list of murder victims.
***
The room was dimly lit, casting dark shadows in the corners. The dining room table was long, the polished wood glittering. Wanda poked absentmindedly at the food set in front of her, despite the fact that she was starving.
"I didn't slip anything into your food or your drink, if that's what you're thinking," Yukio said. "This is merely a simple meal of gratitude. Besides, discreet deaths aren't my style,"
"Sorry," she replied bluntly. "I have issues,"
"So it would seem."
"Can you help me take out my father?"
"And just who would your father be?" He asked, cutting at the meat with a knife.
"A mutant like me, you might have heard of him, he's called Magneto,"
"Magneto?!" He exclaimed. This was bad. Had he known this before, he never would've allowed her to stay. Great, just frickin' great, he was dealing with the daughter of a powerful mutant terrorist and he had let her waltz into his home as if he had known her his entire life.
Throwing an angry glance at Meibatsu, his gaze soon fell back on Wanda.
"Something wrong, Mr. Kuromori?" she sneered grinning wickedly.
"No, not at all"
***
"-And so, mah mother Mystique used me to spy on the X-men and in return for the favor, Ah shoved her stone body off the cliff after Apocalypse turned her into a lawn gnome"
Hiei stared, a smirk spreading across his lips. He had to admit, the girl had spirit. Maybe being her partner wasn't so bad.
"Something 'bout that woman seems to make it hard for her to rest in peace, or pieces in the case of the statue incident,"
The door clicked open and Shizuru and Kuwabara walked in, countless bags of medical supplies in their arms. Tabitha whistled, "What'd you do, raid a hospital?"
"Nah, chances are we could probably open one though," Shizuru replied. "I heard that a lot of the hospitals are getting over crowded. Since that earth quake wasn't natural, they had no way of detecting it,"
"Ah see that the ability to sense supernatural beings runs in blood don't it?"
They were lucky. Meibatsu (surprisingly) did less damage then they thought. Most of the neighborhoods were left standing. Some of them, like Kuwabara's had only felt a few small tremors. They guessed that it must've been because Meibatsu had been focusing her powers specifically on them, not the area around them. Still, their ears were ringing, and already they had gone through two bottles of pain killers.
Hours later, around twelve thirty, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama, Rogue, and Tabitha had settled to lying down in the living room. Trying to get home would've been too much of a hassle, since most of them lived further away from the school then most people.
There was a heavy silence over the room and Kurama seemed to be spreading a depressing aura throughout the house.
Suddenly, Rogue woke to a faint beeping sound. Like a cell phone or something. Her eyes fluttered open as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her communicator.
"Yeah?" she said a little drowsily.
"Rogue! It's me! Wanda!"
Author's Note: Hey! Well, how did you like this chapter? Tell me or I won't continue got it?!?! Bye-bye!
