Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters. Chaos on the other hand…is mine.

Note:  There was a question of what's in Hatori's 'closet'…the answer to that is back in chapter 16: Haru's Torture. (If I'm not mistaken that is) There was also the question of why Haru was crying and my reply to that is: Can ya blame the poor guy? Because I'm lazy, I'll put it this way: He's been through a lot. Hmm…I think that's all that was asked…(if not, I'm sorry!) I had to cut this chapter off kind of short because of th…well, you people probably don't care. Hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks to all the people who have reviewed thus far. ^_^

Chapter 20: Gathering Allies

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                Kyo…

                "Mhn…"

                Kyo…

                '…Wha…?'

                Kyo!

                'Yes!? What!? …Ugh…What is it already? Keep it down, my head's killing me…'

                Grr…You'd better be happy that's the only pain you feel at the moment! Now listen up…unless you want me to fry your brain…

                'Alright, alright! I'm listening, damn…what is it that you want!?'

                Do you remember your neck getting wounded before you passed out?

                'Yeah…'

                It wasn't an injury from the other two vampires that were in the room with you. I'm the one that did it…it was the only way for me to get rid of the curse.

                'Great. So if the curse is gone, then why are you still here?'

                Don't mock me! You may not be a mortal but you still have no right to mouth off to me when I just finished saving your life from a curse that was meant to destroy your body and soul!

                'Ok, ok! Just quit yelling…'

                The cure caused you to pass out in one of the worst places and so you're now chained to a wall within one of Akito's rooms. When you wake up, you'll need to contact the one called Hatsuharu after you've made sure Akito's not in the room…He'll be able to help you out of the chains. I leave the rest up to you.

                'Wait! How'd you cure me without Akito and Ayame noticing?'

                I have my ways…Now…WAKE UP!

                Kyo's eyes shot open and he had to force his breathing to slow down so that he wouldn't gain much attention. He slowly—and carefully scanned the room…He saw nothing in the room until he came to the far corner to his left. There, Tohru had her face buried into her lap that she had tucked up near her chin. She had her eyes closed, but he could easily hear her nervous breathing patterns. Aside from her, he couldn't see nor sense anything in the room…and so he whispered,

                "Haru! …Haru, I know you can hear me…where are you!?"

Almost instantly, he got a response,

                "Kyo? …What is it?"

Haru appeared right in front of Kyo and looked on with apparent curiosity and confusion…at least he didn't appear to have been crying…

                "Haru…can…will you get these off of me?"

                "…Yes…then we'll get Hatori to patch up that wound on your neck."

He went to work on Kyo's chains and within a few seconds, Kyo was free of them. He rubbed his wrists where the chains had been as he asked,

                "How will we get a hold of Hatori?"

                "I'm in a similar situation as Haru, so I'm already right here."

Kyo turned around to see Hatori walking towards him. As he lifted his hands, silver flames suddenly appeared in them and he stated,

                "Don't be afraid. The more this flame 'burns' the more it heals. You won't even feel any sort of pain."

He was a little worried but Kyo remained still and decided to trust in what Hatori had said. Hatori turned his palms towards Kyo and the flames leaped onto his body and moved to cover every inch. As the flame spread, a cooling, refreshing feeling was felt whereever the flame 'burned'. An interesting tingle traveled throughout his whole body, but it could be felt mostly where the wounds on his neck were. After probably two or three minutes, Hatori extinguished the flames within his palms and the flames on Kyo died down quickly.

                "Thank you…that's some trick. I take it your healing powers got quite a boost, eh?"

                "We should leave now…You should tend to that girl."

                "Wait! Let me propose something right after I talk to her."

                "We'll keep an ear out for ya, but it's not like we couldn't hear you even if we wanted to…besides, Hatori should try to rest up a little after that. It was only the first or second time he's tried that little trick."

                With that, both Haru and Hatori disappeared. Kyo then turned and walked over to where Tohru was still curled up. He laid a hand on her shoulder and she let out a gasp,

                "Hey, it's just me. We need to get you out of here. There's absolutely no reason for you to stay amongst us vampires anymore so long as you won't tell anyone about us."

                "I-I…I won't…I…I promise…"

                "Right. Haru?"

                "Yes?"

                "Quickly lead her out of here…teleport her if you have to, but don't let her run into Akito."

                "Ok. Come on, this'll be the last you'll have to see of me. I'll lead you out so you can go to somewhere you want to be."

                Kyou watched them shimmer out of sight before he called for Hatori.

                "What?"

                "I'm gonna need your help in taking down Akito."

                "What!? It can't be done. He—"

                "He'll just keep hunting us down if we don't do something about him now…Surely there must be someway to seal him just as he could seal us?"

Hatori didn't reply to that, he just put a hand on his chin as he began to think about all the possibilities…

                Haru suddenly returned and said,

                "She's at one of her friend's house now…"

                "Good. I need your help as well."

                "I'll do whatever I can to help."

Kyo looked back and forth between Hatsuharu and Hatori…this wouldn't be enough to seal Akito…

                "We need at least one more person to…"

                "I'll…"

The temperature suddenly dropped several degrees.

"…help…"

Frost crept across the floor and walls.

                "Great. I take it that you're Yuki?"

                "…Yes…idiot…"

Ice sickles began to form on the roof.

                "Yeah, now I've just about seen it all…I was just insulted by an overgrown ice cube machine! Do us all a favor, Yuki…and don't speak unless absolutely necessary…other wise you'll end up killing us."

The temperature slowly began to rise back to normal temperatures.

"Now…is there anyone else that would be able to help?"

                "I might be able to do a thing or two."

Everyone turned to see Shigure shimmer into view.

"…but first, I think it's best we move this little meeting to another room so we'll have a little more time before Akito discovers us."

                "Shigure's right," Haru calmly stated, "but where can we go?"

Kyo closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he began to think of where they could possibly go…

                "I…I know of a place…" Hatori stated with a hint of sorrow in his voice.

Kyo was about to ask 'well, where is it?' but Shigure lifted up a hand, signaling him not to say anything. He then looked at his old friend for a moment before saying,

                "Is it…Kana?"

The sorrow deep within his eyes and a tear that was running down his cheek told them the answer.

"Just lead the way then…that is the best place for us to hide out."

Hatori said nothing and turned before shimmering out of sight. The other three vampires followed suite. While on their way, Kyo whispered to Shigure,

                "Just where are we headed?"

                "Kana's grave."

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((AN: Good? Bad? Reviews please! This story's finally looking like it might end soon…Sorry if this chapter's a little short…Oh, and I'm sorry if the cure to the curse was kind of anticlimactic…I'm pretty good at starting up trouble, but I stink at bringing it to an end. ¬.¬; Gomen.))