Warnings: Good-byes, confusion… and that's about it. Hiei gets a little depressed. Aww!

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's New Life-The Legend Lives

Chapter Thirty-One: Good-Byes

Dawn shone in the cave, creeping over the entrance's floor warmly. Hiei watched it come from against the stone wall of the cave out of the corner of his eyes, its fingers slowly easing their way toward him. He was fully dressed, even having replaced his cloak about his shoulders. But it wasn't the dawn he was watching. It was the young woman before him, wrapped warmly in the dark blue blanket. Her beautiful hair lay strewn about her, washing over her bare shoulders. Her breathing was steady, regular, a rhythm he had listened to for countless hours with his arms wrapped around her.

They had fallen asleep about an hour after shedding their clothes. That time had been filled with gentle fingertips and warm flesh. They hadn't needed to do more than run their hands over each other in the darkness. They already knew what the other was feeling. They hadn't needed to exaggerate the expression with anything more than their hands and a silent language that only they understood. The night had been cold, but together they were as warm as they desired.

BlackFire had woken Hiei in the hour before dawn. Its fierce and angry buzz made his eyes open to the sword, imbedded into the coarse dirt above his head. It glowed with such a fierce light, it drowned out the fire's dying gleem easily.

The light he emitted now was not nearly as bright, and the last of the flames from the fire were able to skip and dance over her face. Suddenly, there was a low vibration in the air, one that made the last flame from the fire flicker unnaturally. Hiei looked around, his hand fleeting to the katana at his shoulder. Thorn mumbled in her sleep. Another vibration stole through the cavern.

"Okay, okay! I'm up!" she growled, wrapping the blanket tightly around her shoulders against the cold as she sat up, growling under her breath. "Persistent aren't you?" she asked, opening her eyes slowly, blinking out the light. Hiei relaxed as BlackFire gave an answering hum. "Hn, well you could have just done your stupid light trick."

"He already did. It woke me," Hiei said. She smiled at him before surprising a yawn.

"Well, it seems I overslept then. Strange, his light show always woke me before," she said.

"Are you hungry? You haven't eaten in a few days," Hiei said as he watched her glare at the sword curiously.

"No. I can live without eating for more than a week, two or even three if I'm forced to," she said as she stood. Hiei looked away as she dressed quickly. She came over and sat beside him, resting her head against his shoulder.

"I have to go now," Hiei said finally. He could feel her nodded, as well as sigh in disappointment.

"When you leave, I will too," she said.

"Hm. I understand," Hiei said, putting an arm around her.

"I'm sure we'll meet again. Actually, I can guarantee it," she said quietly, snuggling into the curve of his shoulder.

"I don't want to think about that," Hiei said.

"I don't either, but its reality. It will happen." Hiei nodded. She looked at him, her hand moving to caress his face as she sighed. She moved away slowly and stood as Hiei watched before standing himself. The stood looking at each other for a moment. Thorn's eyes were soft, their edges darkened with some unknown emotion. The last flame from the fire drowned in the ashes, making both the scarlet eyes of the youkai and the jade ones of the girl loose their bright sheen.

"But this…," she touched his face again, letting her hand trail down his cheek. He could feel the hesitation of her fingers as they left the soft curve of his cheek and suddenly yearned for them to return, for their touch to ensure that she would never let go of him. "This… wont happen again. And it is unfortunate." Hiei nodded slightly in agreement, his eyes glinting somberly. "This is Good-bye, Hiei," she said softly, her hand falling to her side and her eyes, normally so bright with her hidden pain, darker and regretful. Hiei nodded again.

"It is," he said in a mere whisper, his voice unwilling to raise in volume should it fail him in the process. He pulled his hand up, brushing one unruly lock of hair from the left side of her face with his right hand, placing it behind her ear. It fell back in place a moment later with a seeming haughtily resistance. She gave her trade-mark sad smile, which was mirrored in her eyes with such exactness he could almost feel the pain as his Jagan picked up on her fierce emotions unconsciously.

"Its impossible. I can't change once this all ends, I'll be a different person, and I don't want you to change for me." She began to hum a sad tune. "As the seasons change, remember how, I used to be," she sang in a soft voice that was hardly more than a whisper. Her smile, if possible, seemed to deepen in sadness even more. She looked away and turned from him. Hiei stood, unsure of what to do, watching her as she turned away, gathering up BlackFire from behind her with gentle hands. He clenched his fangs and turned away as well, forcing his eyes into stoic coldness and his expression into its usual subdued position, toward the entrance of the cave. He exited silently, and once in the light, flipping through the trees upon swift feet.

'Good-bye, Thorn,' he whispered quietly in her mind, closing his eyes in his own pain.

'Good-bye, Hiei,' was his quiet answer. He fled into the city as fast as he could, using all his strength to keep from looking back toward the cave.

Kurama looked up from the hand of cards that he was holding.

"Hey, Kurama! You have the old maid, don't you?" Botan asked cheerfully.

"How can Kurama have the old maid if I have it?" Kuwabara asked, confused. Yusuke threw his cards in the air.

"Kuwabara! You're not supposed to tell us you have the old maid!" Yusuke yelled.

"Oh," the carrot-top said stupidly, scratching the top of his head and staring blankly into the faces of his cards. Yusuke's eyebrow twitched.

"Kuwabara!" he began, drawing the name out threateningly.

"Hey! Don't get mad at me, Urimeshi! I've never played old maid before!" the tall boy yelled defensively.

"Oh, cut it out you two!" Botan said, gathering up the cards to shuffle and redeal them. Kurama chuckled as he lay his cards down on the table.

"You two are truly amusing," he said.

"Yeah? Well what were you thinking about?" Yusuke asked.

"So you noticed," Kurama said quietly, the smile easing from his features.

"Yeah. What was it?"

"Nothing. I just heard something," the kitsune said, shaking his head as he gathered up a new hand of cards.

"Hey! Shrimp! Where ya been?" Kuwabara asked, looking over Kurama's shoulder at the short youkai. Kurama jerked his head around to look at the shifty shadow behind him.

"Hey, Hiei, pull up a chair and we can all play a game of Go-Fish!" Yusuke said.

"Hiei," Kurama said, his tone hinting an unspoken question.

"How are you feeling, Yusuke?" Hiei asked, ignoring both the question, the offer, and the mention of his name.

"Oh." Yusuke grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "It was nothing, just a bump on the head."

"Well, you sure were out for a long time for a just a bump," Botan said pointingly. Hiei moved to sit alone in the corner of the room. Botan and Yusuke continued to get in a pointless argument while starting another game, this one Go-fish, since it was about the only card game Kuwabara knew. Kurama watched Hiei. There was something missing from his eyes. There was an old spark in them. Kurama sighed to himself.

'He's finally let her go. He knew that he must turn against her some time. He must have broken ties with her,' Kurama thought. He took a deep breath and his eyes widened. Hiei's scent. Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly in thought. He was with her last night.

"Earth to Kurama!" Yusuke shouted. Kurama looked at him, blinking out of his daze. "Yo, what is up with you?" Kurama gave a false smile.

"Oh, nothing. I'm fine, what was the question?" he asked. Yusuke sighed in exasperation.

"Its your turn, Fox-boy," he said.

"Oh, yes, right," Kurama said, turning to look at his hand. "What were we playing again?" he asked innocently. The players all did an anime fall face-first into the floor.

"Kurama!" they shouted at him as he held his hands up in defense, a new smile coming to his face with the formation of a bubbly drop of sweat beside his face.

Hiei looked out onto the street, watching the humans pass by the window. His mind was blank, his eyes taking in what he saw with acute analyzation and documenting it. He was back to his shifty ways. The way he had been before he had stolen the artifacts. And it suited him too, especially since the nights had grown colder.

'Hiei seems to be back to his usual self. That's funny, he hasn't acted like this since before Yusuke defeated him. Very strange. Well, it can only improve our chances the next time we are to fight Thorn,' Kurama thought, shrugging away the thoughts as he turned his attention back to the game.

Kurama walked into his room with a sigh, placing his school bag beside his desk. He unbuttoned the top button on his school uniform as he pulled out his chair from his desk and sat on it. It was sweltering outside, the temperature rising in the nineties with humidity at nearly one hundred. The nights may have grown cooler, but the days didn't even hint at the changing season. He turned on a fan, letting its wind blow over him in cool waves. He sighed and opened up his school bag, retrieving books and placing them on his desk. He opened his desk drawer to retrieve a pencil so that he might begin his work.

Something fluttered from the drawer and landed beside his chair, the wind from the fan removing it from its position. Kurama looked down curiously after evicting a pencil from its resting place. It was the feather from Thorn in her eagle form. Kurama knit his brows in confusion as he looked at it. But she had been golden when she had shed this feather, yet now it was white. As white as freshly powdered snow, and just as bright in the sun's unforgiving light. But then it changed to black, as dark as the wing of a raven. He picked it up, holding it above the drawer as he pondered over this baffling new predicament. Something else caught his eye. He looked back into the desk, down at the note the girl had given them almost three weeks before. The sword, it was glowing. Then, it changed, and the red rose began to glow, its light a determined dark green. It reminded Kurama of Rose's eye color. The feather too, changed its color, changing back into its snow-white hue. Kurama picked up the paper in his other hand, confused. The sword on its surface began to glow an icy blue once more, and the feather turned black again.

'What is this?' he thought. This pattern went on for a long while, the colors of the feather changing from black to white, and the card's energy fluctuating from the icy blue around the sword to the dark emerald around the rose. He didn't know what to make of it.

"What's the matter, Kurama?" came a deep voice from behind the kitsune. Kurama turned around to see Hiei standing on the sill of his open window, hands in his pockets, watching him with a fixated gaze.

"What do you make of this, Hiei?" Kurama asked, holding up the feather just as its color melted from white to black and then back again. Hiei narrowed his eyes and stepped down from the window, walking towards the desk. He took the feather from his friends hands, looking it over. His eyes drifted to the note in Kurama's hand just as the energy wave shifted from the rose to the sword. He looked at the paper, then at the feather. Suddenly, he felt a spread of energy coming from one of his pockets. Confused, he dipped into his pocket and pulled out the 'map' Thorn had given him. Kurama stepped back, confused.

"Hiei wh-"

"Don't ask. She gave it to me when I was hunting her," Hiei said, comparing his card with the note. "It seems that she can make these cards pick up her energy any time she commands them too."

"If that is true then why isn't it pulling us anywhere?" Kurama asked.

"Hm. Perhaps she never diminished the abilities of this card like she did with mine. It looks like that mine's power is replenished because of this one. But, it seems to me, that these two, the red rose and the sword, are fighting," Hiei said, thinking out loud. He grimed. "I know what's happening."

"What?"

"Rose and the Black Blaze are fighting for control over Thorn."

"What do you mean?" Kurama asked. The youkai glanced at the kitsune with untrusting eyes. But, he reasoned, if there was anyone he could trust with this secret, it would be the boy beside him. He sighed and explained vaguely how Thorn was 'controlled' by the biddings of Rose and BlackFire and how they fought for the ability to do so.

"How did you learn this?" Kurama asked the youkai after he had finished his explanation, leaving silence to yawn between them as the cards and feather shifted in power.

"She showed me," Hiei said simply, his voice suggesting not to press him on the subject. Kurama took the hint.

"So what does it mean?" the kitsune asked, changing the subject.

"It means that they are deciding the next step in her training. And if the Black Blaze wins this round and gets his way, then it means someone has to die," Hiei said blankly, trying to keep emotion from creeping into his voice.

"Who will it be?" Kurama wasn't answered for a long moment. But when he was, it shocked him.

"Me," Hiei said quietly, his eyes intent upon the card in his hand as its energy and color shifted once again. The black rose, he noticed, did not respond as the other two did, and his eyes couldn't help but fix themselves on it. "She'll be forced to kill me."

The feather continued to emit energy for two and a half days. By the time Saturday morning had rolled around, Kurama had taken to checking both the feather and the note, making sure that they had not change since he had discovered them. Hiei kept his own close. It seemed that the two, Rose and BlackFire, had not stopped their battle for some time. All he could think about was how Thorn must be feeling, having the two fighting like that so constantly, not to mention the arena where they battled was in her head. But the victory for one must be close. Surely no battle, even one of such importance, can last for more than a few days.

"Hiei," Kurama called late Saturday afternoon. The fire youkai looked toward the window behind which Kurama stood. Hiei stood, nodding.

"Yes, I know. Their fight is over. She calls us now," the demon said. "Let's go."

Authoress' Note: there ya go! goodie, eh? I know its short, but it was supposed to be one GAINT chapter, but I wanted to draw it out a bit more. . The last chapter is next, and then, as an epilogue, I'll put in part of the first chapter [or maybe the whole thing] of the sequel "The Wielder of BlackFire: Rose's Renaissance".

J: -looks around- -sigh- it seems so empty without Hiei here.

Kurama: it does. But he said he'd come back for the sequel, because you've told him that there's no romance in it to any real extent.

J: :3 of course!

Yusuke: -skeptical look- you didn't… lie… did you?

THWAP!

J: -twitch- of course not! -crosses fingers behind back-

Kurama&Kuwabara: -snicker-

Yusuke: gaaa …

J: anyway. Here ya'll go.

Teaser:

"Kuwabara, its time for us to go," Kurama said. The taller boy looked at him, confused.

"Where?"

"To fight Thorn again," the kitsune said, holding up the sheet of paper.

"Damn," he swore. "Okay, let's go."

"Hey, be careful little brother," Shizuru said as she watched them leave with an uncertain gaze.

"Don't need to worry about that! She's not gunna steal my energy from me twice!" Kuwabara said over his shoulder. They all walked down the street grimly, without speaking. Kurama followed the gentle pull of the card.

"So how are we going to beat her?" Yusuke asked at last, his hands in his pockets as he looked up into the sky, watching the sun slowly set.

"As long as we don't let her release the Black Blaze like she did last time, we should have a chance," Kurama said.

"Yeah? Well how do we do that?" Yusuke asked.

J: :P REVIEWS ROCK MY SOCKS! I GOT 101! YAYZA!

Reviews:

SSSRoaB: glad you liked all the fluff. And as for the training question, you'll find out next chapter when it is going to be finished. For the Hiei question, I really don't know the answer because the sequel has yet to be completed. no more hints! I've already blabbed enough! Lol thanks for the compliments. TANKIES!

Midnightdream51: lol. I appreciate the time ya'll take to review. ' ahh, no, not a lotta action, huh? But some next chapter! A small, little bit! yes, the courtroom line was original and I found myself liking it as well. GROPING! -giggles hysterically- lol. Anyway.. About the whole 'fire demon thing' I do realize this was a mistake when I edited it, but as I think about it, this is all I can say: he gave up all of his ice demon and fire demon powers when he got the Jagan, so therefore he can't have the ability to keep himself warm by using his energy like a normal fire demon. So, basically, that's my answer to that. About the rekindling thing, frankly, I never thought of that, but if I had, I wouldn't have changed it because it would alter the mood of the scene a little. Yeah, its only been about a week or so. I kinda did drag it on, huh? not too much fluff! And I myself don't really know the progress of the others. My story really never got into that and I never exactly thought about it either. But I'll use that advice in the sequel when I can! Well, I can say this about Kurama, he plays one of the main roles in the sequal. No pairings in the sequel, though. Actually, his thoughts come into play just as much as Hiei's! lol. Glad you liked the mental conversation, as ya put it. Yes, he addresses both as 'mistress' as a sign of his respect. Mostly because, essentially, they are both part of the soul that unbound him, not just Rose, but Thorn as well. Sorry if I got the soul thing confused, but its half of R and a quarter of BF. The rest is hers alone. And you are correct in mentioning that it evens out with the power struggle, them having to fight for control, because, although they are using Rose's body, the strength that BF contributes evens that out. And yes to the whole thing about immortality. Lol! Yeah, well, the thanks only get more intense next chapter uu sorry. Lol. And yes, I've reread this half a dozen times and edited the 'thank's' many times. Actually, I'm not exactly satisfied with them STILL! Lol. and the fluff is done with for the rest [as far as I know] of this story including its sequel. Lol. hehe. Thanks again! Yer a laugh. To the PS: you don't decide. HERE'S YER COOKIE! -hands her a cookie- thanks for the 101st review.

Hiei's1girl: akk! i nearly missed you! lol. anyway. Thanks fer yer 102nd review! Here's an update fer ya!

J: THANKS FOR THE 102 REVIEWS EVERYONE! sorry that this was so late! My prom was on the 8th and so I didn't do anything but prepare and then sleep before and after! So sorry! The next chapter is the last, so be patient! Then, onto the sequel! Yay! Thank ya'll once again!

REVIEWS ARE LIKE COOKIES, GOOD TO EAT WHEN THE MIND IS SAD….OR EVEN WHEN ITS NOT!

J