Title: Final Goodbye

Chapter: To be saved

Summary: Aoshi is marrying another. How will Misao react? Will either survive losing their love? AxM Warning: Tragedy and suicide. No one dies….yet. NEED TO READ CHAPTER THREE!

Disclaimer: I don't Rurouni Kenshin.

A/n: The rest……………..

Part two b: To Wake from a dream

--------------------Previously----------------------------

Suddenly Aoshi felt Misao's body fall limp in his arms. Aoshi's eyes widened. He thought that he had more time to save her. He had wasted time and his stupidity had killed Misao. His Misao was dead. Rain fell that night, as if morning the death of the sun. A human sun, a radiant being that brought warmth and light. Misao.

--------------------Story!--------------------------------

Five minutes before Misao's 'death'

Megumi watched the pair interact. Aoshi was frantic, that much Megumi could tell. She was worried that he had lost his mind. Misao was fine and obviously not going to try killing herself again. So why was Aoshi being so frantic?

"You can't die." Megumi's eyes widened at his heart felt statement. She had never heard him speak with such emotion, not even when Misao had tried to kill herself. Then Aoshi's words came to her mind. She had been hearing his emotion not his words. 'You can't die.' What did he mean by that? Misao was fine, she had choked on the tea that was all. Megumi heard Misao try to clear her throat, and fail. Then Aoshi said,

"I will not marry Keiko." Megumi smiled, it was going just as she had thought. Aoshi wouldn't marry Keiko and Misao would finally be loved like she deserved. Megumi ,in her ecstasy, did not hear Misao's plea for water. It wasn't until she felt eyes staring at her with a burning intensity, which she quickly left for the said water. Megumi hurried to the well and filled a cup with fresh, cool water. When she returned to the room Aoshi had Misao in his arms and was rocking her in a soothing way. Aoshi took the water from Megumi, and she watched with sick fascination as he slowly poured the liquid down Misao's throat.

Misao's strangled voice broke the silence, "I am glad Aoshi-sama, that you are not marrying her, I would have missed you. I-I-I feel so strange." Megumi then looked at Misao with some fear. 'Why should she feel strange? She has had no medicine.' Megumi thought.

Misao put a shaking and pale hand on her forehead, and Aoshi's eyes glazed over with thought. Something did not add up in Megumi's mind. Why was Misao and Aoshi acting like this? Misao was not dying, Megumi had seen to that. Then Megumi heard a loud commotion coming from outside the shoji. Her curiosity got the better of her concern for Misao, and she opened the shoji and strode out. Carefully shutting the shoji quietly behind her Megumi turned to face the source of the noise.

Her eyes met the sight of blood. It was every where. Even her doctors training could not stop her from gasping. She quickly looked for the source of the noise and the blood. She found the tell tale body not two feet away from her person. Then man was alive, and would not die, however he would never retain his good looks. His face was mangled. As if in a trance Megumi turned her head to face the culprit. She was faced with a blood covered Sanosuke, and a clean Kenshin. Yahiko was not far away, and was in the process of knocking a man unconscious with his bokken. Kaoru was not far from him with her foot on the top of a very badly beaten man's chest. It was an odd scene.

"What happened here?" Asked a confused Megumi. Kenshin did not smile. It was not a good sign.

"These men, no, assassins were sent here to kill Misao-Chan as a type of revenge, for Ejiri. He wanted Aoshi to be unhappy for he was there fro Keiko when ,Ejiri, couldn't." Said Kenshin with a grim face. Megumi must have looked confused because the whole story of the confrontation in Tabana's house, and how Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko had heard the commotion and had come to help. Megumi nodded. And then asked,

"Then why is Aoshi in there acting like………….." Her words were drowned out by a heart wrenching scream. The scream was Aoshi's. The group that had formed in the hall immediately ran into the room. The sight that meet them was one of utter despair. Aoshi was holding Misao to his chest and was crying silently. Her body was limp.

A thunderous racket filled the Aoi-ya as the rest of the Oniwabanshuu appeared in the room. Their faces were questioning until they saw the morning Aoshi, and the limp Misao in his strong arms. As a solemn air filled the room, Megumi rushed to her patient. Megumi tried to pull Misao out of Aoshi's grasp so she could examine her, but Aoshi let out an animalistic growl and did not let Misao go.

"Aoshi-san I need to examine her. I could still try to see if I could do something." Aoshi merely growled louder and backed away with Misao in his arms. Then a cold voice rang across the room making Aoshi snap out of his trance.

"AOSHI, give her to Megumi-san, NOW." Said Okina with an air of finality. Aoshi nodded with reluctance and surrendered Misao to Megumi's caring arms. Megumi looked Misao over before laughing a stained and sad laugh. All eyes in the room filled with anger. Why was Megumi laughing at Misao being dead?

"What are you laughing for, Megumi? It is not the time for your sick humor." Said an irate Kaoru. Megumi merely smiled at the aggravated and sad raccoon girl.

"Misao is not dead." Megumi said before breaking into her annoying fox laugh once more. This time the eyes of the beings in the room filled with awe. None could believe it.

"She is merely in a deep slumber. She has been put to sleep with a normal sedative. Someone must have slipped it into the green tea here in the Aoi-ya. It looks like this ,Ejiri, wanted you to lower your guard by drugging Misao. With you in morning, his assassins would come in and kill both Misao and your self. Anyone who got in the way too. It was a clever plan, but with some errors." Megumi said while handing a sleeping Misao to Aoshi. Aoshi stared down at the young women (Misao) and kissed her forehead. He could not believe that he had nearly lost her, again.

Four Hours Later

Misao felt a strange pain fill her mind. 'What is that?' She thought in annoyance, she had been at peace before. Suddenly she felt as if her life was being flushed back into her veins. She could ,for the first time in hours or years, feel all the parts of her body. Misao hesitantly tried moving her left pinky. It moved slowly up and down. She felt sluggish and stupid.

Suddenly she was aware of another's body heat. She then attempted to open her eye lids. At first the effort was too great, but after a few battles with the lids, they opened. She slowly and stupidly looked around the room, before looking up. Her gaze was met with a sleeping Aoshi's face. It seemed that since she had passed out he had moved to sit behind her.

She smiled at the closeness. This simply felt right. And in some part of her conscious mind she knew that she had earned a few moments or years of happiness. With these pleasant thoughts in mind Misao fell asleep again. If she had the strength to look up once more she would have seen a pair of loving and understanding icy blue eyes gazing at her.

A/n: Okay that's the end (I mean it this time), but there is an epilogue(I had to write it), but if you like the way the story ended and want no more then don't read the epilogue. It is the ONLY real fluff in this story. But if you read the epilogue or not, don't forget to REVIEW!

Epilogue:

Aoshi sat in the corner of the Aoi-ya's garden meditating, or at least trying to. His keen ninja sense could feel another's gaze on his own form. Frowning unconsciously, he opened both icy eyes to stare into a pair of matching blue ones. The little girl in front of him seemed his match in every way. She was stoically glaring him down. Her black hair fell into her face, much like his own. They were like a mirror. She was a younger female version of him, down to the way they acted.

"Why do you stare so, child?" Aoshi asked in an emotionless voice. The child's face suddenly split into a smile, showing the other side of her personality. She looked like an imp now.

"Staring at you Aoshi-sama."

"I am your father, not Aoshi-sama to you. Where is your mother?" The little girl scrutinized her father for any sign of joking ness, when she found none she answered in all seriousness.

"She said she needed some time alone. She said that she was looking at a "slice of her life" and wished me to find you." Said the seven year old. Upon hearing his daughter say the words "slice of her life", Aoshi quickly got up. Something was wrong with in Misao.

"Stay here. Okon is over yonder. Do not move from this spot." Aoshi said with a tone of iciness in his voice. It left no room for retort or disobedience. It was a tone that Aoshi had used on Misao many years ago when she was but a child.

Aoshi nodded to Okon as he passed. Okon nodded back, she understood the silent order. She would watch the child.

Aoshi silently swept into his room, and found Misao sitting in a corner with her back to him. Aoshi walked briskly up to her and pulled her into his arms as he sat. She was in a trance much like the one she had been in just before she had slit her wrists all those years before. She was staring at a kunai and her wrists. Aoshi spoke in a low tone as to not scare her when she came out of her trance.

"Please don't Misao-mine." This was successful in waking Misao from her waking dream. She shook her head and then turned it toward Aoshi. She smiled a sad smile only for him and set down the kunai.

"I wasn't going to Aoshi, I was just remembering." With an afterthought she added, "And rejoicing." Aoshi must have stared at her in confusion, though he would never admit it. Misao merely smiled and motioned out the open window not far from where they sat. Out the window one could just see the little seven year old playing with an older Okon.

"If I had died, I would have never gotten to meet Nao(the daughter). My saving grace. She is so like you Aoshi-sama." Aoshi winced at the nickname that had never seemed to go away, but answered anyway.

"She has you in her also. She can be an imp." Misao smiled. She certainly was proud of her little brood. Misao stared at the setting sun, just visible above the Aoi-ya's walls. She would never forget her family and she would never repeat past mistakes. She had two strong reasons for living, and she would protect them with her life.

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A/n: COME ON! Like I would Kill off Misao, I swear if you believed that then……well you did. Anyway I just wanted to have three chapters of one story. Yeah I know it's sad. Moving on. Nao was the name of a japanese girl in my middle school. I don't think I spelled her name right though.