Warnings: OOCness from Hiei, but I guess now that's to be expected, hai?

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's New Life-The Legend Lives

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Healing and Hiei's Ghost

Murmurs filled the deep cave. Hiei walked in, his arms filled with dry logs that would serve as firewood for the flame nestled in the middle of the hollowed cavern. Thorn lay to his left, thrashing slightly and growling in her sleep, her brow furrowed in concentration as flickers of light danced across her face, shadowing and brightening its surface in a ritual of courtship with light and dark. Confused, he put down the wood quietly and walked over to her, kneeling by her side and observing her unusual behavior.

"Stop it.... quit fighting... Stop!" came her desperate murmurs. She was warm, her face flushed as she twitched. Hiei picked up a cool, damp cloth that lay in a shallow bowl of river water beside her and rung it out. He patted her face with it lightly, letting the coolness wash over her face. Her eyes flew open, not with fear, but with unusual quickness, and looked at him in wide-eyed and unrecognizable uneasiness. Her hand flew to his wrist unconsciously, but the grip was not tight, only firm.

"Hiei," she whispered as she released his wrist and looked away, her unregistering eyes gaining the light of recognition. She struggled to sit up on the hard-packed dirt and stone floor, a twist of pain coming to her face. Hiei grunted and stood up, walking to where he had placed the wood and threw more on the eagerly waiting fire.

"You're awake," he said at last, for lack of a better answer to her address to him, watching the flames building upwards toward the arced gray ceiling above it. She nodded solemnly. She looked down at her blanket, fingering its black and red material lightly. Realizing what it was, she turned to look at Hiei, who did not return the gesture, even when he saw her brows pucker in what one could swear was a more thankful form of uncertainty from the corner of his eye.

"Hiei," she said softly, looking at the flames as they reflected off his tank top. He looked up at her, then, if only to get a more prominent look of her expression.

"What?" he asked. She gave a smile.

"Thanks," she said, holding his cloak in her hands.

"Hn," he grunted, turning and putting another stick on the fire. There was silence, but for the snickering of the fire, and it was a comfortable one, but Thorn's curiosity ended up getting the better of her.

"How are they?" she asked.

"Who?" he asked, although he knew about whom her question was aimed.

"Kurama and the others. I put Shizuru to sleep a little rudely, and I didn't know if I over-did it and forced her into something a little more than a two-hour nap like I planned. Not to mention both Kurama and Yusuke were hit badly," she said. Hiei continued to look into the fire.

"Kurama had a few broken ribs. Nothing he couldn't handle. Yusuke had a concussion, but it was little more than that. Shizuru woke up fine. Kuwabara did too, although he was bed-ridden for the day," he explained, his voice blank. Thorn gave a thoughtful sigh. Hiei glanced up at her. "You've been asleep for nearly three days." She gave a half-hearted laugh.

"That all? It seems hardly long enough," she said. She held up a hand, opening and closing it slowly, concentrating on its movements. "Hm. Hardly long enough." Hiei watched from the corner of his eye. She was measuring her energy, he noticed, as it misted from her palm.

She lowered her hand with a sigh and closed her eyes. She struggled to hide a yawn.

"You should sleep," Hiei said. She nodded.

"Yes. I suppose I should." She turned toward him. "Thank you, Hiei," she said simply as she laid back down on the cold floor, drifting back to sleep before he could say anything.

"Hn. Sure," he whispered, gently throwing another log on the fire.

*

"Yukina, how are they doing?" Shizuru asked. She had waken later after the fight to see Hiei trying to lift his teammates from the ground. Together they had taken the three boys and placed them in Shizuru's car, which she had driven to get to the site when she had the strangest feeling that the dream she had had was about to come true. They had driven in silence, now and then a groan coming from one of the injured boys. Upon arriving at the girl's house, they took the three unconscious boys into the house, laying them on random couches and futons that they had placed in a large guestroom. Hiei had left not long after, and Yukina had appeared, tending to their wounds. The fire demon had been in and out constantly, leaving in the night mostly, and returning in the mornings before she woke.

The ice apparition looked up at the tall girl, who stood in the doorway, her arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe. "They are doing well. But they went through much pain during the fight," she said, turning to Yusuke and Kurama. Kuwabara had awaken later on the second day, seemingly fully recovered. Ever since he had been by Yukina's side, growling fuming nothings under his breath as he watched her work. Shizuru had sent him out earlier that day to shop, just to get him out of the koorime's way as she tended to the rest of the Reikai Tantei.

*

Kurama opened his eyes to the setting sun shinning down on him. With a groan he blinked at the blithe orb for a few moments before he propped himself up on an elbow, receiving a burst of pain from his diaphragm and back as a thanks for his troubles. He cringed and pulled his other arm up to hold his slowly healing ribs.

"So, you're awake," came a voice from the kitsune's left. He looked over to see Hiei standing in the doorway.

"Hiei. How long have I been asleep?" he asked, a hand going to his head as he sat up completely, a pain still twisting in his gut.

"Three and a half days," Hiei said, stepping forward.

"And the others?" he asked.

"Yusuke is still asleep. The Black Blaze gave him a concussion. Kuwabara is fine."

"And Thorn? What happened to her?" He turned toward the youkai expectantly, although he could feel the answer would be disappointing.

"Gone," Hiei said simply. Kurama nodded, looking back toward the window.

"How?" he asked quietly. Hiei hesitated, searching for an answer for his friend. He did not want to lie, yet felt he had to.

"She regained control over him using Kuwabara's energy," he said, hoping it would sustain Kurama's curiosity. But it just made the red-head look at him suspiciously.

"Hiei," Kurama began. The fire demon turned away, knowing what he was about to say. He didn't want to tell him what he was hiding.

"You should rest, Kurama. Thinking too much will only weaken your condition." He left, not giving the injured boy a chance to answer or retort. He met Yukina in the hall.

"Kurama is awake," he said as he passed her, meeting her eyes for but a moment before continuing on his way. She nodded and rushed daintily up the remainder of the stairs into the room where Kurama and Yusuke were bedded. Kurama was sitting up in bed, fully dressed.

"Kurama," Yukina said in her small voice, stopping in the doorway where her brother had stood not moments before, unknown to her that he was her brother. Kurama turned and looked at her with a small smile.

"Hello, Yukina," he said.

"Kurama, you should rest. Your ribs are still healing," she said, taking a step forward, her red eyes wide with worry.

"Don't worry about me, Yukina. I'll be fine. Where is Hiei going?" he asked suddenly, turning back toward the window on the bed, contemplating standing or not.

"I-I don't know. He's been in and out lately. Is something wrong with him, Kurama? I did not feel as if he was in pain," she said.

"Not physical pain. Pain of the mind and heart is all," Kurama said, taking his time as he rose to his feet.

"I don't understand," she said quietly, confusion lacing her undertones. He stood and turned toward her.

"Look after Yusuke, please, Yukina," he said as he walked past her. She turned to watch him descend down the stairs. She turned back to concentrate her energies on Yusuke and his wounds.

*

Images flashed through Thorn's mind. It was dark. Black and shapeless. The way they all seemed to find comfort in. Rose stood to Thorn's left, her dark green eyes heated in anger as she glared at a form across from her. BlackFire stood to her right, respective, yet persuasive, his deep voice growling coaxingly as his tail twitched. Thorn sat on a bench between them, her arms and legs crossed and her eyes closed as she both listened and ignored. Another battle was to ensue. This one would determine when the next step of her training would occur, and how it was to be executed.

"Mistress, please, hear me out," BlackFire said sweetly, his tail low and his voice consoling to Rose's fierce temper, which struggled within her to cool its vicious flame. "It is important that you not get distracted from our goal. Hiei is a distraction. He must be taken care of."

"No! He will not die! I wont let you kill him!" Rose thundered. Thorn sat impassively, listening. She could hear breath. It was not Hiei's. But it was another youkai. It was no human, for their breaths were quick, unstable. Demon breathing was steady, calm. She would wait. This meeting was important and as long as she was aware of their presents, they posed no threat. Even in her weak state she could slaughter any number of powerful demons with one swipe of her hand, or even a mind trick, without draining herself. She just preferred to play cat and mouse before she killed, but she would kill without thought if it was needed.

"Mistress! Please! You need to understand! Thorn will never acquire her greatest power unless she has no distractions! He poses a threat to our goal!" the dragon growled, a snap hinting in his voice.

"I do understand, BlackFire! I understand the emotions, while you understand the battling. We have our places in this new soul that we have created! She thrives upon us! She thrives upon what we feel! But you treat her only as the heir to your power!" Rose hissed, her fists clenching at her sides, her long, shoulder-length bangs falling from behind her shoulders and framing her angered face. The air was rising in electricity as they shot each other glares. Thorn tried desperately to block them out, to concentrate on the other creature in the cave, but their shouts echoed in the wall-less room of space and she could not.

"No, Mistress. I serve her as I serve you," BlackFire cooed in a rumbling voice. "I want only the best for my Mistress's."

Thorn's eyes opened suddenly, making both BlackFire and Rose stop their argument just as Rose began an incautious sentence. She stood with a growl, her eyes in the distance. Rose caught her breath.

"There is pain," Rose said quietly.

+In the Cave+

Thorn's hand lashed out, clamping itself around the intruder's throat with startling strength. She sat up quickly, although her stomach protested with a shot of pain, her lips curled in a snarl.

"I'll kill y-." Her eyes opened to see Kurama struggling for breath under her grasp. Her expression changed, loosing its fierce snarl and heated icy blue glare. She blinked and her eyes returned to their normal, however bright, hue.

"Kurama," she said, surprised, her grip loosening, but not removing itself from around his throat. He gave a confident smile, although, in fact, he was not feeling as such. His eyes did not stray from her own, but he watched the glowing sword out of the corner of his eye.

It was dark, night, only the fire bringing warmth and light to the cave. But the shadows it had made on her angered face only made her look more intimidating. He ignored it as her features softened in recognition.

"Thorn. How nice to see you again," he said, his voice tight due to the restriction on his throat. She took her hand away and he replaced it with one of his own, rubbing the point where the pressure had been.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a light growl.

"I could ask you the same question," he said.

"Answer me," she said, with more force.

There was the slightest sound of feet on rock and Thorn jerked her head toward the entrance with a glare.

"Hiei," she said, her tone obviously softer than it had been for Kurama.

"Kurama. How did you find this place?" Hiei asked after taking in the situation with a calm demeanor, although it was clear he did not like the sight before him.

"I got directions," he said wittily. Thorn growled, not happy with his answer, her eyes narrowing. She looked down to hide the scowl on her face, and noticed that the mark on her stomach, which should have been a thin, white scar, was gone, as well as some of the immediate pain. She had been healing herself from the inside out, not the other way around, and the scar should still be in place, as well as the pain.

"Kurama," she said, drawing his name out like a mother threatening her child. "I don't need your help." Both boys looked at her.

"Hm. I discovered that soon enough," Kurama said blankly as Hiei approached. She bared just the tips of her teeth, reminding him of the expression Hiei had used when he had woken him from his murmuring dreams.

Kurama stood up with a small sigh. He looked over at Hiei, who was about five feet away.

"I see that you've discovered the ghost that haunted your dreams. I wish you luck in your attempt to understand and contain it. It is such an illusive phantom," Kurama said as he walked past Hiei and out of the cave.

"What was he talking about, Hiei?" Thorn asked, struggling to straighten without pain, and failing, yet refusing to show it. Hiei turned and watched his friend leave, contemplating his words.

'The ghosts that haunt my dreams? He must mean whatever he was rambling about what was bothering me when I slept. Understand them? What's to understand? They were just... nothings,' Hiei thought.

"Nothing that matters," he said aloud.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Authoress' Note: yay! ^_^ yet one more chapter for ya'll! I'm glad everyone liked the last one!

Kurama: well, I wouldn't say everyone, J-san.

J: oh?

Kuwabara: the Shrimp's still at his agent's demanding that he get the right to sue.

J: -pout- oh no, poor baby.

Yusuke: yeah, I kinda feel bad for him

WHAM!

Yusuke: @_@ gaa…

Kurama: really Yusuke, one would think you've learned by now.

J: anyway! ^_^ away from all the dour stuff! Reviewers are wonderful!

Reviews:

SilverKnight7: an update just for ya'll!

Miyako14: ^_^ here's more. Lol. Well, my circles are gone. I started to let my dog sleep on my bed again and she just puts me right to sleep! ^_^ so I'm all good now. Here's yer update!

Spartan dragon: u_u sorry you don't get it. I try not to make it too confusing, but I guess I can get just a little too complicated sometimes. Sorry!

Midnightdream51: lol. Its okay about the reviewing thing. ^_^ no biggy. Lol, don't puncha hole through it! You might need it in the future. ^_^ don't worry, I've had the same problem with my old computer.

0.o err… lol, thanks! ^_^ I didn't know it was F*ing awesome. Lol. Was the setting okay? I thought that maybe I didn't go into enough detail with it and people would think it was like the size of an above ground 4foot pool. ^_^ yeah, the colors were alright, sounds, well, there could have been more. I guess when I wrote it I was in a really artistic mood or something, because, as you can see, I focused mainly on color and movement. Lol, I think you mean imagery. ^_^ and I don't get the voices part, but okay! Feeling, flow, fighting, all I had to edit constantly, and I still feel like they can be improved upon. -shrug- lol, glad you saw it as an episode! That's was I was aiming for when I edited it! Glad you liked it. Oh, and in case yer wondering, inspiration for her transformation can be linked to Sesshoumaru's change in the like 5 ep of Inuyasha. ^_^. But I do agree with you about the more description thing. u_u I was trying to capture it quickly and didn't even think about that in the editing! Thank you so much! I'll keep that in mind in future chapters/stories. Lol, wow, 0.o I can't believe anyone would read a chapter of my story more than once! I didn't think the descriptions were that good. Lol, this is the best praise I've ever had for a piece of work! Thank ye! Yeah, I like the ending too. ^_^ err… ^_^' right… no angst here. ^_^' of course none of that! -cough- well, the romance thing picked up a bit here. Don't worry though, I don't do lemons. Nope! So even intimate relationships would be more fluff than serious stuff. There are times when I wish I could write good, good lemons. Yay! Hiei, ya hear that! She says you weren't too ooc! Yay! -looks around- whoops, forgot that he still hasn't come back. Um, answered the question about what he was going to do with the others this chapter. Lol, me have funny authoress' notes! Yay! ^_^ and yes, you have the whole rose/thorn/black blaze thing figured out. Basically, when Rose and the Black Blaze combined their souls, they made another soul. Rose sacrificed half of her soul, while the Black Blaze sacrificed a quarter of his. They created Thorn in the process. Below is a full explanation as to Thorn's creation and such. Thank ye!

baka-chibi-puffs: ^_^ lol, you give me too much credit! Thank you! And that totally sucks about the probation issue. Damn parents. Lol. Not on anime?! What kind of torchure chamber are you from?! They are considered TV shows. Lol, I wont die, and even if I did, then the story is complete, I'd just have to get someone to post it for me. But then you'll never know the end to the sequel! Because I have yet to finish it… -sigh- anyway, thank ye!

Thorn's Creation-Rose's and Black Blaze's/BlackFire's relationship:

Alright, here it goes. When Rose acquired the Black Blaze (okay, let's ease this up a bit. The sword/dragon is going to be BB, Rose is R and Thorn is T, okay?) he started to teach her martial arts. He needed a strong body and was waiting for his chance to overtake her. The problem was, the stronger he helped make the body, the stronger he made her mentally. He had been binding his time in hopes of getting the body stronger, and, at the time, could force R to release him from his prison so he could feed [kill people and eat their souls] for brief moments. Even later, after the creation of Thorn, he would overtake them and force them to release him so that he could kill. He needs souls to survive and needs to acquire one every six months. Think of Gouki when Hiei and Kurama stole the articles of darkness, including the orb, sword and mirror. Okay, back on topic, so he eats souls. Big whoop. But once he eats a soul, if its power is stronger than his own, then he takes a sliver of the soul and binds it to his own, and thus comes about the reason for why he is so evil, because most of the souls he acquired and infused within himself were sick with greed and need for power. So he became as such. So in hopes of creating a strong body with a soul he could control, he put up the offer to R of creating another soul to rule the body. She did eventually agree and so they fused half of R's soul and half of BB's soul to form T. thus, T was born! Lol, sounds like the power puff dude, huh? ^_^ anyway, so the relationship with BB and R is straight, right? They argue over her body to assume control of it. But that comes up next chapter in more detail. Onto BB and T's relationship. Basically, she listens to whoever is in control of the situation at the time. Mostly it is BB due to the fact that all three agree that she should be strong and train hard, but R takes over when she thinks that the situation is too human for the dragon to take care of, due to him not feeling emotions as forcefully as she does.

J: ^_^ alright, well that about sums it up. Hope it answered some questions! Review if you still have more! And even if you don't! just because reviewing it cool. ^_^

Teaser:

"Hn. Glad you made it in once piece." Hiei looked down. Thorn was sitting on a bench, the only furniture in the entire 'room', her arms and legs crossed, her eyes closed and her face lacking definite expression.

"What is he doing here?" came a deep and guttural growl in front of the youkai. Hiei quickly turned his attention to the interruption, his eyes cold as they landed on the figure. A tall humanoid creature was looking at him, his eyes a shinning and icy blue, his shoulder-length hair jet black with light blue highlights was held back in a neat pony-tail. He bared long fangs at the youkai menacingly, glaring at him hatefully.

"Thorn, please explain," came a softer, yet very firm voice. Hiei recognized it. He turned toward his left and across from the man was a young woman with long brown hair, its highlights a cheerful copper even in the darkness. Her dark green eyes watched him, her expression as blank as Thorn's eyes. It was Rose.

"I thought he had a right to know if I will have to kill him," Thorn said with a shrug.

"Mistress," said the tall male, turning toward Rose. "You can't let her do this."

"You'd better calm down, BlackFire, or you'll be sprouting your tail early today," Thorn said. The man growled.

"Silence," he grumbled. Thorn said nothing. He turned to glare at Rose, who raised her brows in an expression that clearly stated the course of wordflow that would spill from her lips had done so many times before.

"I have no control over her, BlackFire, she is her own person whether or not you or I like it. I can only encourage," Rose said. She sighed and turned away from the young woman on the bench and Hiei. "Let's get back to the manner at hand. Today is the final meeting about this subject. When the next step in Thorn's training should commence."

Hiei looked down at Thorn. "BlackFire prefers to come in his human form. It really doesn't suit him, but he insists upon looking presentable. He'll be in his true form soon enough. He cannot hold this image when he is angry," Thorn explained.

"Where is this place?" he asked.

"Just space. We are images in our minds here. We cannot touch but we can hear and speak." She lifted a hand and lowered it to his arm. But there was no feel. Instead, the image fluttered and died until she retreated her hand, then the image returned. "I guess you could call us ghosts."

"Thorn, quiet. Keep to listening for others," Rose said, turning her attentions back to BlackFire. Thorn nodded.

"Don't you have a say in this matter?" Hiei asked.

"No," Thorn said simply, and fell silent.

++++++++++++

J: ye likes? I hope so! ^_^ please review! Tata!