*High Voltage*

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Chapter Eleven: Fully Restored
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"You arrogant fool," Hiei said in his usual heartless tone as he flipped over Teilen's head and landed on the ground behind her in a crouching position, rising slowly to his feet. The two of them had found a small oasis to spar at. There were a few trees, some bushes, and a small pond nearby. They were about ten miles into the desert, where nobody would interrupt their training.

She whipped around to face him. "What are you talking about?" She growled.

"Your over-confidence is your biggest flaw," he replied, undaunted.

Teilen scowled. "Don't talk to me like you know me, because you don't."

"I don't have to know you to recognize your errors," Hiei shot back.

Teilen wished she had something sharp with her...oh, the things she would do to him with it. Instead she formed her Spirit Pole in her hand. Hiei already had his weapon ready--he had drawn his katana the second he realized what she was going to do.

"What's the matter, is hand-to-hand combat getting too difficult for you?"

Teilen gave him a look that said 'go die'. "Don't even start. I already said I hate you, and there isn't much you can do or say to make it any worse." That said, she leaped at him and swung her spirit weapon, aiming for his head. She was fast, but Hiei managed to dodge it and it was a good thing he did because if he hadn't he would have lost his head. He appeared behind her and swung the katana upwards, diagonally. She blocked it with her Spirit Pole without even having to turn around, then quickly ducked under her opponent's outstretched arm and kicked him sharply in the ribs. Hiei staggered back a few steps, but didn't fall. He glowered at her. He had received a shock when his weapon connected with hers just like the first time they fought, but this time he had managed to stay on his feet--however he hadn't been ready for the kick she gave him.

'It won't happen again,' he thought to himself. This time, she attacked first, swinging her pole rapidly three times, at three of his vital points. He jumped aside to avoid the first two attempts to injure him and brought his katana above his head to block the third, having seen no other way to escape being hit. He felt the electrical energy as it zapped his hands, and he nearly dropped the katana. It was indeed quite painful and it caused his hands to become temporarily numb, but he wouldn't let it bother him. He had dealt with pain much worse than this many times before. Without missing a beat, Teilen spun around with the Spirit Pole, aiming for his lower back. Before she could hit him, one of Hiei's hands shot out to grab her by the wrist and twist it hard, to the point where it was about to snap. She never uttered a sound, but Hiei could see by the look in her eyes that it hurt her. She let go of the Spirit Pole and it vanished.

"Hn. Ready to give in already?" He growled.

"Shut up," she snapped back, and flipped over sideways so that her wrist became untwisted. She now had Hiei's wrist in a death grip, and smirked at him as she bent his hand backwards into a sickening position. "What a predicament you find yourself in now," she commented.

"You think I'm afraid of a broken bone? Go ahead and break it, I dare you." He sneered into her face.

She stared at him in silence for a minute or two, as if contemplating whether or not she should do it, while Hiei waited to see what she would do. Finally she released her hold on him, gave him a look of pure disgust, and roughly shoved him away. "Idiot," she muttered, and turned to walk away.

Hiei watched her walking away, a bit dumbfounded. This was something he hadn't expected her to do. He had fully expected her to go ahead and break his arm into a dozen different pieces. He quickly caught up to her, reached out and clamped a hand onto her shoulder, spinning her around to face him. "Where do you think you're going? We aren't finished."

She didn't answer him. Instead, she grabbed the hand that was crushing her shoulder and hurled him through the air towards the closest tree. He never hit it, of course. He was easily able to right himself and land neatly on the ground in a crouching position before any damage was done. He rose to his feet, smirking in satisfaction. Teilen glared at him.

"What the hell is your problem?" She demanded.

He crossed his arms. "Hn. You couldn't do it. I guess your bark is worse than your bite."

"What's it matter to you, anyway?" She wanted to kick that stupid smirk off of his face. How dare he say something like that! Just because she didn't break his arm didn't mean she was any less ruthless. She was certain that she could end his life any time she wanted to...if she wanted to.

Hiei slowly walked up to her as he spoke. "You aren't as fearless as I thought you were."

She seized him by the shoulders, since he wasn't wearing a shirt that she could grab onto. "You know what, you are--you're such a...what's that word I'm looking for? Oh right, ASSHOLE!" She yelled in his face. He didn't counter her insult with one of his own...instead he did something that she never expected him to do--he rushed forward using his incredible speed, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Speechless, Teilen's first instinct was to break loose, but he had a firm hold on her legs and he was much stronger than she was. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself flying through the air. Unable to stop herself, she prepared for a hard landing...however, that didn't happen. Her landing was cold and very wet. With a 'splash!' she went under water, a bit confused, and when she surfaced she realized that Hiei had tossed her into the pond.

She began to tread the water, looking around for Hiei and seeing him standing at the edge of the pond, looking quite satisfied with himself. Her expression immediately turned into a frown, and she dove under the water again. She quickly swam up to where he was and shot a hand out of the water to grab one of his ankles. Not giving him time to react, she pulled him into the water with her, making sure to use extra force so that he went sailing over her head and landed where the water was deepest.

"Ha," she said with a cocky laugh. She waited for him to come to the surface before she rolled out of the water and onto the land. "I'll show you who's bark is worse than her bite, Khewew Jeret!"

"What the hell are you muttering about?" The wet fire demon demanded. He was about to head towards her general direction when Teilen sat up and held up her right hand, which was crackling with electricity. He stopped. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" This time it was her turn to smirk. That bastard was going to pay for all those insults she'd had to take from him. She plunged her hand into the water without a second thought and let the electricity loose. She held most of it back...but he did get quite a shock. She watched in amusement as his body violently twitched in the water a few times, his eyes wide. Why hadn't she given him the full shock? She mentally chided herself for going soft on an opponent...especially one who deserved to get a full blast of electricity and have his brains fried.

'Damn it...why does that bastard have to look so good without a shirt on?' She thought before she could stop herself. Embarrassed and disgusted with herself, she averted her gaze from the glaring Hiei, who had quickly recovered from the shock and was quite obviously more than a little irritated.

"You bitch," he growled as he slowly strode out of the pond towards her, droplets of water rolling off his hair and into his glaring crimson eyes. Teilen readied herself to run at any moment, and she couldn't help but let a smirk cross her face. She almost hoped he would chase her...this was rather amusing.

"What are you going to do about it?" She asked, before adding, "Fen wexa." She could tell it got on his nerves whenever she called him names that he couldn't understand.

"Hn. I should kill you."

"Then what are you waiting for?" She asked, her smirk growing larger. "Go ahead and try it, I dare you."

A split second after the word 'you' left her mouth Hiei vanished from the spot in the water where he had been standing three feet away from her. Teilen wasn't going to wait around to find out where he had gone and when he was coming back either–she jumped up from where she'd been crouching by the water's edge and zipped through the trees. She knew that Hiei would be able to catch her easily if he really wanted to, and also there wasn't really anywhere to run as the oasis they were training at was rather small. Still, she could try to avoid him as best she could while trying to figure out where he had gone and attack him before he could get to her.

For a few minutes she neither heard nor saw anything that could give her a hint as to what had happened to him. Becoming a bit bored, she scaled the nearest tree and was about to check her surroundings when suddenly a black mass traveling at a very high velocity crashed into her from behind, dragging her down to the ground. The next thing she knew, Hiei was sitting on her back, pinning her elbows to the ground and though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was smirking.

"Too easy," he remarked, a hint of cockiness in his emotionless tone.

Teilen, who's face was pressed into the dirt at that particular moment, only rolled her eyes–sure he had the top half of her pinned, but he had foolishly forgotten about her legs. And kicking was one of her favorite moves. "Idiot, I'm a lot more flexible than you may think," she informed him just before he felt a boot collide with his skull, which caused him to roll off of her seeing stars. Teilen took that opportunity to gain the upper hand as she rolled onto him and put him into a tight headlock, making sure that he was having a hard time breathing because of it. Then she kneed him in the back.

"That's for knocking me out of the tree," she told him. He got to his feet, causing her to rise the slightest bit off the ground, and then he flipped her over, tossing her to the ground and then kicking her in the side.

"That's for–" he began, but she caught the foot that kicked her just as he was bringing it back and pulled him down to the ground again. Suddenly, just as Hiei landed in the most awkward position he could possibly be in, Kurama chose that exact moment to make his entrance.

"Oh dear..." he blushed slightly upon seeing Hiei on top of Teilen. "I must apologize for my intrusion."

Hiei jumped up quicker than you could blink, and Teilen did as well, her face tinted pink with embarrassment. "It's not what you think," Hiei scowled.

"We were training," Teilen added. "Nothing more."

"Hn," Hiei grunted in agreement.

Kurama shrugged, amusement sparkling in his eyes but the rest of his face remaining serious. "If you insist. I came to inform you two that there is something very strange happening with the pyramid. Yusuke, Kuwabara and I were just about to go investigate it if you would like to come along."

"Not like I have a choice," Teilen muttered under her breath. "Fine, let's go." She zipped past him and headed off to catch up with the others.

Kurama watched Hiei collect his cloak and katana. "So I see that the both of you are getting along much better now."

"Don't read too much into it, kitsune," Hiei responded as he threw the cloak around his shoulders and put away his sword. "I had to train with somebody, and it might as well have been her. After this mission I'll never have to look at her again." With that he turned and stalked off ahead of Kurama.


. . .


"Whoa..." Yusuke's eyes grew big as he looked up at the sight before him. Everyone was gathered out in the desert in front of the pyramid, trying to decide what they should do and gawking at the new sight. The red lightning had grown to mile high streaks that danced around the pyramid and threatened to touch the ground, while directly above it there was a very large black orb swirling and flickering in the midst of all the lightning.

"I think it's almost time," Botan said.

"Yeah, I'd say so," Kuwabara agreed. "You guys, I have a feeling our vacation isn't gonna end very good..."

"Fool," Hiei spat. "This isn't a vacation!"

"Quit callin' me a fool, Shrimp! I should squish you under my boot for saying that."

"Hn, as if you could, you incompetent."

Kuwabara glared at him. "I could too! You're ego is almost too big for you to handle, Hiei."

Hiei narrowed his eyes at Kuwabara. "If I wanted your opinion, I'd beat it out of you."

"Will you two shut the hell up!?" Teilen snapped as she stepped forward, appearing to be listening to something.

"What is it?" Kurama wondered.

"I hear him," she answered, her voice low and dripping with bitter hatred. She tilted her head slightly to the side. "He's inviting us to come inside. He's mocking us..." Her eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists at her sides.

"Well how do we get in?" Yusuke wondered. "I mean it's not like there's a do–" He was cut of as, at that exact moment, the outline of a rectangular door appeared on the front of the pyramid and slowly began to slide open, spilling dust from the cracks and blowing it all towards them. "Huh, cool," Yusuke remarked.

Without another word to the rest of them, Teilen marched forward and disappeared through the door into the darkness. A few seconds afterwards, Hiei followed. Kurama turned to Botan.

"I think it may be best if you wait out here for our return," he said to her.

"Alright, if you're sure..." Botan shrugged.

Kurama nodded before glancing at Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Yusuke replied. He jabbed Kuwabara. "C'mon, let's go kick some Aztec butt!" With that he raced towards the entrance after Kurama.

Kuwabara rolled his eyes as he followed the Spirit Detective into the pyramid. "It's Egyptian, Urameshi! Egyptian! Don't you know ANYTHING?"

Botan smiled slightly as she watched them go. It was good to see them so enthusiastic, but the enthusiasm would not last. She just hoped they knew what they were doing, and that they were going to make it alright...


. . .


AN: OMG I UPDATED THIS!! *ducks the many flying items aimed at her head* Yes I know I KNOW I'm sooo sorry! I left ya'll hanging back there and just decided to take a break on this fic for, oh, I dunno...was it three months now? I don't even remember! I'll be surprised if anyone hasn't given up on this fic. Well I only have a few more chapters to go, so hopefully I'll get 'em done soon and then I'll be finished with this story. I hate leaving things unfinished, that I do! ^_^

Next Chapter: Army of the Undead