A/N: Sorry this took so long! Enjoy! REVIEW please! They help a lot!

Chapter Eight: A Leader of Men

Kenshin stood, staring off into empty space, wars waged ages ago returning to him in flashes of remembrance. The feel of a blade tearing through flesh, the screams of the chased, the blood of the damned dancing a fatalistic rhythm inside his fragile mind as Battousai laughed at his plight.

Ignoring the concerned gazes of Sano and Megumi, Kenshin bent to pick up the innocent paper that held the devil's message. Clenching it between his pale fingers, Kenshin ripped open the letter and read the words through a haze of amber.

The dead will rise to life when the task unfinished calls.

The letter ended on that mysterious note that meant nothing to the innocent eye and everything to those who had fought and died for a man with clean hands in the chaos of Kyoto.

It's not over

Battousai's voice sounded once more in Kenshin's head as the gentle rurouni sank into the comfort of oblivion, leaving the triumphant hitokiri in the forefront.

"Game over." The amber eyed demons voice shattered the tense silence, "I win."

"Kenshin!" Sano bellowed, "what the hell does that mean? What did you win?" Frantic concern expressed itself as anger as the former gangster roughly interrogated his friend. Megumi scowled at the younger man, placing an arm out, stopping his tirade with a sharp glance.

"Ken-san?" Megumi asked, concern coloring her voice, "did I bring you bad news?"

"No." Battousai said, feral grin gracing his pale features. Sano started at the evil tone in the small man's voice. "This message spelled the end for that pathetic fool."

"Battousai!" Sano growled, "how did you come out!?"

"Simple." Battousai said, with the tone of one deliberating whether or not to crush the insect before them. "I told him it wasn't over."

"Told him WHAT wasn't over!?"

"Bakumatsu no Doran." A smooth tenor graced the air, coming from the dojo wall.

"Who the-" Sano began.

"You're the man from the market!" Megumi exclaimed in shock, hand covering her mouth in feminine modesty. "The one with the message!"

"Yes." The man said, earnest brown eyes clouded by an unrecognizable emotion, "I thank you for your kind compliance with my desire."

"Katsura-san." Battousai said respectfully, yet with an undertone on insolence, "why aren't you dead?"

The man, now identified as Katsura, blinked. Laughing, he gazed down at the amber eyed Battousai. "I see time hasn't dulled your tongue, Himura!"

Tak! Tak!

Battousai glared back at him, amber eyes flashing under bangs stained red by the blood of thousands.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

'Good.' Katsura sighed inwardly, 'it worked. Now it will be Battousai doing the killing and not the innocent soul I shattered.'

TAK! TAK! TAK!

Footsteps pounding down the indoor corridors are a bad background for serious thought, Katsura registered dimly.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" A voice screeched out across the dojo grounds, startling Katsura out of his thoughts.

Katsura started, staring at the image of a small warrior holding out a bokken to challenge him. Katsura smiled. He'd seen that spirit before, that honest and yet reckless desire to do good, in the soul of a red haired boy he had first seen obliterating a log. But, Katsura vowed, this pure spirit would not feel the weight of a killer's sword, nor would it taste the pain of lost hope.

"I am Katsura Kogoro." Katsura said imperiously.

"Who?" Yahiko said, cluelessness shining on his face.

Katsura smiled, that was not a typical reaction.

"God! Read a paper would you!?" Sano said, exasperation coating his smooth tenor. "He's the leader of the Ishin Shishi in the Bakumatsu!"

Still blank.

"Kenshin's captain!"

"WHAT!! I thought you were dead!" Yahiko said, covering embarrassing surprise with rapid interrogation.

Megumi simply stared out at the scene, horror tinging her vision.

This was the war that killed her family.

This was the thinking that made an innocent boy an assassin.

This was happening again.

"I'm sure there's some fabulous reason why he can go against all laws of nature." Battousai drawled, arms crossed over thin chest, the hilt of the killing blade resting against his left forearm.

Yahiko stared. That was not Kenshin. "You aren't Kenshin..."

"Brilliant deduction." Battousai said dryly, "I'm you're worst nightmare."

Yahiko drew back, sticking a finger in his ear, "No, your just Kenshin with attitude."

Battousai blinked.

Katsura burst into peals of laughter.

Megumi was torn between horror and hysterics.

Sano.....agreed with him. "Yup. That sounds about right."

Battousai's eyebrow twitched.

"Yeah. He looks the same..." Yahiko started.

"Sounds the same..." Sano continued.

"Except he's about as agreeable as a poisonous snake that's been stepped on..."

Battousai glared.

"And he has creepy eyes...."

"Oi!" Battousai said crossly.

"And talks like an arrogant teenager.."

"He's still short enough to be...."

"OI!" Battousai growled, eyes flashing in his anger.

"So..."

"It must be..."

"BATTOUSAI!!!" Sano and Yahiko finished in unison, crowing happily in shared immaturity.

"Are you quite finished?" Battousai growled, malice fairly dripping off his voice.

Sano and Yahiko glanced at each other and decided that continuing could be hazardous to their respective healths. "Yeah."

"Good."

Katsura was still laughing.

Battousai glared at the audience surrounding the argument. Seeing the hopelessness of the argument, the small warrior huffed and threw his hands up into the air. "I give up..."

Feeling the stares on his back, Battousai whipped around, "WHAT!?"

"You....uh....seem..." Yahiko started.

"Yes...?" Battousai drawled with annoyance.

"Different." Sano concluded.

"I'm no different than I always have been." Battousai conferred icily.

"No, Himura, you have changed." Katsura broke in, finally ceasing his laughter. "You're calmer, less of an anal retentive bastard."

"I am not anal!" Battousai yelled back.

"Yes you are!" With affirmation coming from all sides, Battousai glared up at the sky, refusing to grace the conversation with his attention any longer.

"At least I'm not going against all natural law!" Battousai roared, pointing up at Katsura. "How are you still alive anyway!?"

"Who, me?" Katsura said, feigning innocence. At Himura's glare he smiled lightly and continued. "I never died."

"But reports of your death were sent throughout the country..." Battousai said, a slight purple tinge in his eyes as the news baffled him, "how?"

"Who better to protect the peace than a dead man?" Katsura stated simply.

"What the hell does that mean!?" Yahiko broke in.

"It means that he wanted to be able to make sure that the idiots ruling the country didn't mess up without having to become one himself or having to watch out for assassins around every corner!" Sano brutally elaborated.

"Oh."

"You do have a brain in there..." Megumi mused. "Pity."

"Why you!" Sano started.

"Moving on." Katsura broke in, sobering the atmosphere. "Himura, will you help you help us bring back heaven's justice?" Katsura stared down at Himura, their gazes locked in the battle for the past.

Sano started, 'No...not again!'

The crimson haired warrior lowered his gaze.

"No." Battousai stated firmly, head bowed.

"What?" Katsura gasped.

"I will help you destroy the Shinsengumi and bring hell's justice in my wake."

Katsura closed his eyes in remorse. "Very well." Turning to the outside, he called back. "You know the signal."

Battouosai nodded and spun around as well, stalking into the dojo in the direction of his room.

Sano, Yahiko and Megumi remained outside as the day faded into night. Each lost in their own thoughts as they remembered what the last war had cost them and wished not to pay the price twice over.

ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?ORO?

Katsura walked down the path to the old inn on the far side of town. Moonlight shimmered through the leaves as he moved as a wraith through the night.

The man who had stared him down tonight and sworn to complete the revolution, was a far cry from the small youth he had met in the rain with the Kiheitai.

Katsura thought back to that day, remembering how the small boy had stepped out from his turn on the log like an avenging angel, slashing the log in two with his divine fury.

It was at that moment that Katsura saw victory.

A boy with the power to change the world.

A man who would guide him to it.

A soul to be damned.

A promise to never kill again.

A friend left to die.

That night would be forever emblazoned on his memory.

Shaking himself from his revere as he reached the old inn, Katsura knocked on the door.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

The door opened, casting a patch of candlelight out onto the dusty ground as it was flung open to allow the commander entrance. A tall woman stood in the kitchen, kimono wrapped tightly around her elderly frame. Her eyes, black as the depths, stood in stark contrast to her gray hair and blazed in furious understanding.

The woman was Takani Ayaka. Hidden for all the years since the battle of Aizu, the famous lady-doctor, mother of Takani Megumi, was once more in the revolutionary spirit, housing Katsura and his men in her halls and feeding them with her hands.

Ayaka owned the Kame inn, the inn that was hidden in the secrets of Tokyo and Aizu. She had bought the small, green painted inn when she had escaped from Aizu. Hearing of Megumi's apprenticeship to a doctor of repute, she rushed to see her daughter. However, at learning the man was a tool of Kanryuu, Ayaka stepped back and let her daughter continue alone. News that Megumi was the Takani daughter of Aizu would put her in undo danger, so she sat back and she waited.

Katsura sighed, "Takani-san?"

"Yes?" Ayaka replied measuredly.

"Is the puppeteer here?"

"In the theater."

Katsura nodded and bowed respectfully to the aged doctor, who returned the bow. Smiling bitterly, he turned and swept off to the 'theater'.

Entering the dark room, Katsura struck a candle and softly illuminated the red curtained room with its flickering light.

Yamagata Aritomo was sitting in the center of the room.

Katsura walked up to him and bowed before dropping into the seat next to the 'puppeteer'.

"How did it go?" Yamagata asked after a period of silence.

"It could have gone better." Katsura replied, head in his hands. 'I don't want to do this again!'

"He didn't agree?" Yamagata questioned sharply.

"He agreed to trail Hell's Justice in his wake. He refused to see the cause as noble." Katsura's distress colored his voice.

Yamagata sighed heavily. "Himura-kun...why must you always make everything so difficult?"

"He still bears the burden of Kyoto and refuses to let it go! No matter the cost to his soul!"

"I am aware of that." Yamagata said calmly, "He has become two separate people: Himura Kenshin, rurouni and peacelover and Hitokiri Battousai who hunts the night as sport and kills for a living."

"I did this to him." Katsura stated it as a fact.

"Yes."

"I made a child a murderer."

"Yes."

"I damned a young soul."

"Yes."

"For what!?" Katsura broke out in anger. "For my ideal!?"

"Start thinking like that and the Shinsengumi will win and the shogun will rise again!" Yamagata replied vehemently.

"But, I destroyed the life of a child!"

"Yes, and in doing so you have saved us all."

Katsura and Yamagata fell to silence, contemplating the man they rested their fates on.

Suddenly, a man burst into the room, bowing hastily, he blurted out: "Katsura-sama! The Shinsengumi have just attacked! A battle has erupted in downtown Tokyo!"

Katsura and Yamagata leapt up from their seats, grabbed their swords and raced into the night.

To Be Continued.....

Coming up next!:

Chapter Nine: Preemptive Strike