Chapter 10: Betrayal And Deceit

Ren stormed down the street, walking at a fast pace. He smirked as he reached his destination, standing outside the old building he'd passed many times before.

"…The abandoned museum…?" asked Manta, panting as he and Anna came up beside him.

"Yes." Stated Ren, "Horo is in there…"

"But Ren," said Anna, stopping the Tao from entering by grabbing his arm, "how can you be sure he is in there…? And even if he is, it's a bit risky without backup, and you've only just woke up from a coma!"

"True- but there's no time to loose."

Ren shook free from Anna's grip and pushed hard against the entrance doors.

"…Locked…?" asked Manta.

"Shit!" hissed Ren, answering Manta's question and kicking the door. "…Hey, where'd Anna go?""

Manta and Ren shot up slightly as they heard something rattling inside, and the turn of a key. The doors opened, revealing Anna with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"How the…?" muttered Manta.

"Never underestimate the power of a woman, we females always find a way."

A/N: (nods) So true…

Ren smirked and stepped inside, ordering Manta to go with Anna one way, whilst he went the other.

Ren walked around at a quick pace, eager to find a certain destination. He stopped for a few seconds and winced, putting pressure on his abdomen with his hand. He slowly lifted the shirt up to reveal blooded bandages.

"Great," he muttered out loud, his voice showing he was in pain, "the wound… its come open…"

"Want me to open it even more?" sniggered a voice from the shadows.

Ren spun round, spotting the silhouette instantly.

"W-Who are you? You're not Hao!"

As the figure parted from the shadows, Ren gripped his Kwan-dao. "You!" he yelled angrily, "Tell me were Horo is, or I mean it, I will kill you!"

When the person in front of him didn't reply, Ren raised his Kwan-dao, and prepared to strike.

--

"…Ren…" mumbled the Ainu, pressing his thumb against the blade in his hand, causing a drop of blood to slide down it, "…Don't worry Ren… I'm coming… I'll be with you shortly…" Horo held the worn blade to his neck and scrunched his eyes shut, afraid of the quick agonizing pain that was yet to come. "It'll only hurt for a split second… I hope…"

Before the ice shaman got the chance to take his life, the door to the dungeon burst open, and a certain member of the Tao family stood at the top of the stairs.

"R-Ren… you're… alive…!"

Tears of happiness formed in his eyes, the mere sight of him made his spirits rise and his heart beat twice as fast.

Horo stopped smiling when he noticed the blooded Kwan-dao Ren was clutching; then the bloodstained shirt he was wearing. Even from that distance away, Horo saw that Ren's eyes were dilated.

"Ren…? Ren what's wrong! What happened!"

It was then Horo saw the small but just noticeable point sticking out of Ren's stomach, surrounded by the blood. It slowly withdrew, causing the Tao to utter a small sound; then his body fell down the stairs, falling beside Horo.

The Ainu looked up to see a face twisted with madness, a face that belonged to an Asakura. "Yoh!"

Yoh grinned, his grin no eviler than that of his brothers. "I'd better go… I have other victims waiting. Hao will be with you both shortly." He said, still grinning.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" cried Horo, the same feeling of when Hao betrayed him returning.

"Yeah… about that…"

Yoh left silently without giving Horo an explanation to his madness, adding one more reason to the 'why you should take your life' list, Horo had set out in his head. The Ainu felt betrayed and hurt, like everything around him was falling to pieces right before his eyes, but he couldn't care about that right now, there was only one thing he cared about. "Ren… Ren can you hear me…? It's going to be ok. You're going to live…"

Ren slowly reached up for Horo's hand, grabbing it and keeping hold, as if if he let go he would somehow loose him. "I came for you Horo… I came just like you told me too…"

"Ren, I- I didn't think you could hear me…"

"Yes you did. You believed in me. You believed that I'd pull through the coma and I did… but only because I had something that was worth pulling through for…" Ren winced at the sudden pain that shot through his body. His golden eyes telling Horo he was in great amounts of pain.

"Sshh, try not to speak."

"I can't help it, there's so much that needs to be said…"

"Oh, like what?"

"Like I love you."

Horo let go of Ren's hand; accidentally letting it hit the floor, but quickly recovered from the shock and picked it up again.

"…You mean that…?"

"Yes, I love you, I've always loved you; it was only when I started having those dreams that I'd actually started to realize that me feelings for you were real… I'm just sorry it took me so long to realize it- agh!" Ren winced again.

"No, don't be sorry." said Horo softly, and stroked Ren's cheek with his free hand. "It's ok Ren… its ok…" He sighed in bliss at just being able to touch Ren; then a thought of something he'd forgotten returned to him.

"Hey… Ren, I think I can get us both out of here… but I need you to pass me the key that's beside you."

Ren turned his head and was sort of surprised to find the key right next to his head. "…Ok…" Ren slowly reached for the key, and passed it to Horo.

"Let's just pray this works…"

Both Ren and Horo jumped as Hao entered the dungeon. He walked casually down the steps, a huge smirk spread across his face as he looked upon the injured body of the Tao.

"What a pity." He grinned. Hao walked past Horo, at the same time, dragging Ren by his arm away from him.

Horo grabbed onto Ren to stop Hao from taking him, only to be kicked off.

"Horo!" cried Ren, seeing Horo recoil quickly.

"Its ok, I'm… fine…" said Horo through gritted teeth.

"Don't worry Ren, I wont hurt him. You however, I'm going to kill."

"Don't you fuckin touch him!" Horo gained a quick burst of energy, which he used to stand and try and swing his first at Hao, only to fail to strike him and be restricted by the chains that restrained him.

The Ainu could only watch as Hao strapped Ren to one of his creations, this one in particular, looking like a cross. The cross held Ren up right, and limited him so that only his head could move.

"Don't worry Horo, after I've killed Ren here, you won't love him anymore."

"No! I'm not going to let you kill him!"

"It doesn't matter…" utters Ren; "Even if you kill a thousand people… he'll never love you…"

"Is that so?" Hao punched Ren deliberately in the abdomen, were both the injury from the car had been, and the nasty deep wound he received from Yoh; causing him to cry out in pain.

"Stop it!" cried Horo.

"Why should I stop? I'm going to kill him anyway."

"No your not, I'll never let you! …If you kill him I'll kill myself!"

"No you wont, you don't have the balls too. Besides, I would only capture your spirit. I love you Horo, and I will do anything to make you love me back… even if it means killing Ren."

"Yoh… I saw Yoh… you told me you killed him, but why?"

"Oh, him. Don't worry, he won't hurt you, he knows very well that he can hurt anyone but you."

"B-But… so… so he betrayed us…?"

"Well, not really… you see, Yoh is crazy. He snapped long before I came up with this plan. He said it was something to do about him being everyone's slave and that they thought he could do no wrong or something… after that, he discovered my plan and he offered to help… amazing isn't it? How being pushed around can cause a person to snap, and offer to kill the ones they once fought to protect."

"Y-You're lying! Yoh would never do that!"

"See, this is the reason he snapped in the first place. As we speak, he's lurking in the shadows of the museum, watching you're two other friends."

"Two other friends…?"

"Anna and Manta… they came here with me…"

Hao turned to Ren, "When you're ready to die… drink this..."

Hao removed a bottle from a bag. The bottle was light purple with yellow triangles painted on it, he then slipped it into Ren's pocket and patted it.

"That's fuckin stupid… even if I wanted to drink it I can't because I can't reach it…"

"Oh well, just means that I'll get to give you a slow and painful death like I wanted too."

With that, Hao left, sure to return again.

Horo quickly fitted the key into the lock and fiddled it about, but to his horror, his only ray of hope snapped- it was too old.

"No!" yelled Horo, panicking, "No! No! No! No! NO!" The Ainu threw the key down on the floor in frustration, listening as it made a sharp pinging sound as it hit the floor.

"…Its o-"

"NO! IT'S NOT OK! YOU KNOW WHY! BECAUSE HAO IS GOING TO KILL YOU! HE'S GOING TO TAKE AWAY THE ONE THING I EVER CARED ABOUT! HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU REN, AND THEN HE'S GOING TO- TO-"

"…I know… I love you too."

Horo looked up at Ren, a warm smile placed on his face. "Ren, I am so sorry, it's all my fault, if I-"

"If you what? If you sacrificed your happiness? If you allowed yourself to be with someone you didn't want to be with? If you lived in misery for the rest of your life! No, don't ever say 'if you' because there was nothing you could have done about it. You weren't to know Hao was obsessed with you, and that Yoh was a crazy psycho!"

Horo changed his gaze to the floor, "…Yeah… but still… I cant help but wonder… if I'd just said yes and pretended to love him back… would it have gotten this far? Would you have been put in a coma, or beaten badly? …Would Anna and Manta be in danger and not know it…?"

"And the answer to that is 'no'. None of this would have happened if you had just said yes."

"What the hell are you doing here?" said Ren coldly, glaring at Hao.

"Well forgive me for walking in my own dungeon, how rude of me." Said Hao sarcastically.

"…Bastard…" mumbled Ren.

"Guess what Ren…"

"What?" answered Ren, refusing to look at him.

"I have time to spare."

Hao grinned evilly, and Horo's eyes widened with fear and regret as he removed a whip from his sleeve, along with another knife.

"No, wait!" yelled Horo as he approached Ren. "Please, don't!"

As Ren looked at Hao, he quickly sensed he was in danger as he too was fearful of the whip and knife.

Hao ripped off Ren's top half of his worn outfit, revealing his torso.

"Hmm, what shall I do now…?" asked Hao cruelly.

Tears formed in Ren's eyes as he cried out, feeling the leather slice through his skin as if it where the knife itself, and as he cried, Horo cried with him. It killed the Ainu from the inside out, watching as his love undergoes this torture, just for loving him. This was punishment, for loving him. For caring for him. For feeling anything more than friendship… this was his punishment.

"Let's press on." Hao grinned, and dropped the whip, pressing the knife against Ren's torso.

As the blood spilt onto the floor, Ren felt letters being carved into his body.

"Stop! Please!" begged Horo desperately, wondering how long Ren could take this kind of abuse.

"Just a sec." said Hao, shouting over the cries of the Tao.

"HAO! IF YOU STOP RIGHT NOW I SWEAR I WILL… I SWEAR I WILL BE YOUR KOI!"

Tears began to yet again flow down Horo's cheeks as he heard the knife hit the floor.

"…You swear…? Because I can always come back and finish what I-"

"No! …I swear… as long as you leave Ren alone… I… swear…"

Hao grinned in satisfaction. "Ok, I'll leave Ren alone."

Hao was about to un-latch the Tao when voices coming from outside the dungeon caught his attention. Hao quickly left, telling Horo he will be back in a moment.

Horo tries to stop the tears as he looked upon the words that were inscribed into Ren's flesh, which was most likely to scar.

"…What's it say…?" asked Ren, feeling the blood gush out as he breathed.

"…It… It says… Ren, I'm so sorry!" he cried.

This worried Ren. "What the hell did he do!"

"…It says… 'Horo belongs to Hao'…"

"BASTARD!" yelled Ren as loud as he could, yet using all of his energy just to do so. "… Why… Why did you say you would be his koi!"

"Because he was going to-"

"I don't care! I'd rather go through this every fucking day of my life than be the reason you are to live with that sick bastard! …This isn't what you want Horo... don't end your happiness because of me… I don't want you to be with someone you don't love… Horo please, don't do this."

"…You say you would rather go through this torture every day of your life if it meant me being happy… well I would rather be Hao's little… thing, than let you die. Please, understand that I have to do this…

"No, I won't allow it! If Hao lets me go, I'll only keep coming back! …I would die for you Horokeu, and if I have to fight to get you, then so be it."

"Ren please, don't try anything, he'll kill you!"

"So what, I'd rather fight him to the finish than watch as you throw your life away… I love you, and I will do everything in my power to protect you."