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Chapter 13:

I open my eyes with surprising ease. I haven't been able to do that for a long time. I am in a very brightly lit, white room. I snap my eyes back shut as soon as I open them, and stretch tentatively, to see if everything still works. My right hand knocks on something hard, cool, and smooth that just might be glass.

Glass. The realization hits me. They got me again. AGAIN. What's wrong with me? How could I have let this happen? Two days ago, I was happy and free, and stealing from the New Jersey State Bank, and I got out completely undetected. People actually truly believed that I was some sort of fantasy-aerobic-Catwoman-thief demon, well, the superstitious ones, anyway. No one was even sure if I existed. And now look at me. I can't even walk two feet without getting jumped on and dragged back to my cage. Pathetic. Two stupid kidnappers shouldn't be able to contain me like this, but they have. They've beaten me in every corner: stealth, speed, brains, and even sheer dueling skills. Give me a break. That was not a fair match. AN ELECTRIC SWORD! Where's their honor?

I open my eyes to tiny slits to reduce the light being let in, and squint around. I can't see much, because I must be in the cage again. How dare they. I specifically told them that I didn't want to be put here again, and yet they still do it. They don't care about hurting me. They don't care what happens, and they have no morals. I mean, I know, I'm one to talk, being a common thief, but my exploits didn't actually hurt anyone. But that's all they do to me. Although, I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. They just…want me. I don't think it's sex that they want, because they could have taken advantage of me a long, long time ago. They probably don't want my money, either, because they'd just torture me until I told them where to find it, and they'd probably kill me afterwards. Besides, like I said, unless they were actually watching me in the time of the burglaries, I don't see how they could know about that anyway. I have no idea what they're after.

I chance a quick glance and burn my eyes again with the sheer white brilliance. Maybe if I cup my hands over my eyes and make gaps between my fingers, I'll be able to stand it.

I start to pull my arms down, but they only get about several inches before they are roughly jerked back. Shutting my eyes to focus on the nerves in my hands, I can feel metal bracelets on my wrists. I'm shackled.

I try my legs and receive the same reaction. I'm all tied up.

I finally open my eyes and am not immediately burned. I am staring up a blank white ceiling. My God, would a little color hurt these people? I look upwards at my chains. They are of the typical medieval iron links, and they attach to a foot-tall sheet of metal. It looks like a wall from my point of view. This gray wall surrounds me on all four sides.

A crib. I'm chained in a metal crib with a hard white pad underneath me.

I try to turn my body sideways to see if I can get a better view out of the crib, but it turns out that I'm bound around the middle too, with iron, of course.

I stop struggling and lay back. Well, well. I do seem to be past hope indeed.

I sigh. Why do they want me? Not my body, not my money, not my…

Oh God. What if they do know that I'm a thief? What if they know about the $40,000 reward out for my arrest?

Of course.

My heart sinks as fast as my stomach at the very thought. That's why Kurama went to get a bus. They're going to turn me in to the New Jersey State Police. That's where they'll collect my reward, and I'll be stuck in a true iron cage.

It all makes sense. That's why they're keeping me here. They don't care about what I've stolen. All they care about is that they get the money that is worth all of my stores anyway.

I feel suddenly very cold. I have to get out of here. I twist and struggle against the metal, but only end up hurting myself. I fidget even more, but nothing happens.

Then, I hear voices. It sounds like Kuwabara and someone else.

Then, the metal walls around me slide down where I can't see them, and I have a clear view around me. I'm definitely not in that underground little room anymore. It has lots of little armchairs, and aside from being completely white, it would be almost homey.

"You're awake!" It's Kuwabara and a tall brunette girl. She smiles at me, and I can tell that she's a smoker from her teeth. I pretend that I'm biting her pretty little head off, and gnash my teeth at her.

Her smile fades. Kuwabara doesn't notice, and just keeps talking.

"Kara, I was thinking that Kurama used the wrong spore on you."

"Don't call me Kara. THE CAPTIVE is fine with me."

"All right, O Captive. You've been out for a really long time."

"How long?" I grunt.

"Almost four days."

My eyes widen. "Four days?"

"Yes. But you're awake now, and that's what counts. Listen, Kara—"

"I said don't call me Kara."

"All right already. CAPTIVE, it's time to fill you in on some things that we haven't shared with you yet. We didn't do it before because we had no way to show you th—"

"Because you didn't want me to know where I was headed."

"And—how did you know that?"

"Please, Kuwabara, I'm not stupid. I know this is probably the police station. Have you collected your reward yet? And what is she, a cop in a kimono?" I ask, jerking my head to the girl.

He stares at me, and then her. "No, this is my sister, Shizuru. My blood sister." He adds, as if to reassure himself.

Oh my God. He still isn't entirely sure that he's not a monkey. Just what I need.

"And what do you mean, a reward?"

"You just turned me in!" I half-scream. "Aren't you getting the reward for locking me up?"

"What the hell are you talking about? We're going to fill you in now because, not that we're locking you up, but that we had no proof back in the lab."

I stare at him in disbelief. "You gotta be kidding. There's no way that what you have to show me now is any weirder than what happened back in the mine."

"What mine?"

"THE TUNNEL!" I yell. "WHEN SOMEONE CHUCKED A SWORD AT MY HEAD, WHEN THE GREEN GUY TOLD YOU TO KILL ME WITH THE ELECTRIC SWORD, AND ALSO WHEN I GOT PUT TO SLEEP BY SOME POLLEN!"

"Oh, the tunnel, you mean. Yeah, that had to be pretty disconcerting—"

"OOOOOOH, big word."

"But now, we're going to bring in someone—"

"Who actually knows what they're talking about?"

"No. Someone—"

"With half a brain?"

"SHUT UP! Someone who knows more about this than I do. It's Shizuru." He waits.

I shudder. "She's already here."

"Oh, right, I meant Yusuke. Yusuke Urameshi."

I blink, unable to think of a comment. This guy must be Japanese like all the rest of them with a name like that. Shizuru still hasn't said anything, but she keeps watching me carefully.

Then, I see a teenager come walking in. He walks like a cat. I didn't hear a single footstep.

I look him over. He looks pretty short, and is definitely Asian, with the black hair, brown eyes, and complexion. He looks pretty beat up. He has a huge white neck brace and both of his arms are in slings, and he has a cast on his right leg. He is entirely dressed in green. It's amazing how he can mask his presence even with all of those injuries. He's no more than my age, but at the same time, there is something commanding about him.

"Your boss is a teenager?" I ask, disgusted. I don't care how intimidating he is. He's still a little boy.

Yusuke glares at me. "Yes, girl, a teenager."

"A teenager who just had a refreshing trip through the trash compactor."

He slumps into an armchair, and rubs his forehead. "How observant of you. I didn't think you'd notice that every inch of me is covered in plaster."

I say nothing for a moment. "Why did you bother keeping me here for so long if all you're going to do is turn me in?"

Yusuke looks confused, but then Shizuru whispers something in his ear for a few seconds and confusion is replaced by realization. It's the first time I've heard her talk.

He says to me, "Oh, you think we're here to give you in to the police for your habit of breaking and entering?"

"NO. I was just thinking that maybe I was being given a Nobel Prize for it. Come on! Where are the police? Why am I strapped to a table? And why aren't I in a cage yet?"

"Because we're not turning you in."

"Yeah, right."

"No, we aren't. Believe me, if we turned you in to the jailhouse, we'd have a hard time getting you back, what with all the security systems. You are the only person we know who can slip through there."

"And why would you need to get me back?"

"We need you."

"Why? Why does everyone keep saying that and not saying exactly why they need me? I was just a common thief, trying to make my way illegally, when all of a sudden you and your pet—" I jerk my head at Kuwabara, "—decide to capture me? If it's not the money you want, if it's not my body you want, if it's not the reward out for my arrest that you want, then what do you want?" I suddenly realize what's been going on. "You don't want anything except the satisfaction of knowing you beat me. That's why there's no cops. That's why you tortured me. You want to make this as long and drawn out as possible so that I have no confidence left and I'll always know that I have a better. That's your plan."

Yusuke looks at Kuwabara, and they both burst out laughing, in these huge guffaws. I stare at them angrily.

I start to speak, but they keep cutting me off with their insane cackling.

"JUST WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

They stop laughing. Yusuke again speaks.

"We want your skill."

I stare at him. "My skull." I LIKE my head that way it is!

"No, your skill. The fact that you can slip through any barrier undetected. The fact that you have never been seen by anyone human. The fact that you are the perfect thief."

I narrow my eyes. This isn't adding up. "So what if I'm a good criminal? That wouldn't explain why you had to torture me. If you needed my skill, you should have just asked for it. I would have done anything for a reasonable price." I say. It's true. I've done it before. Once this old lady asked me to steal this old piece of artwork for. Even though she was very poor, she baked me a lot of really good homemade pies of various flavoring, so that was my price. I got the art for her, and I never saw her again.

Come to think of it, she had weird colored hair like the rest of this bunch. It was very neon pink…

"If we had just asked you, you would have thought we were barking fanatics."

"Uh…I already do."

Yusuke shakes his head. "Trust me on this one. When we first tell you exactly why we need you, and why it can only be you, you won't believe us. This is what I came to talk about. Kara—"

"The Captive."

"Captive, you are about to become very confused."

"Oh. Joy."

"We just need to wait for Hiei and Kurama to get here—I don't know why they're taking so long…"

Yusuke pulls a mirror out of his green pants pockets, and stares into it.

O.o;

What is up here? Does Yusuke usually spruce when he's waiting for someone?

Then, he starts talking to it. I'm not even kidding. He's telling what he thinks is Kurama that they need to get here really fast, and that the paperwork can wait.

O.o

"You realize that you just talked to your reflection?" I ask, as he puts it back in his pocket.

"Yep. You'd be surprised how fun it actually is."

I stare in horror. Not only are my captors sadists, but they're also psychopaths.

Then, the metal door swings open again, and the girly Kurama and the midget Hiei walk in together. They also have an aqua-haired girl with them. They all appear to be very stressed.

I stare at them as they sit down in chairs. Yusuke motions to Kuwabara, and he and his sister sit down in the two remaining chairs. When they are all seated, Kuwabara presses a button on his chair and all of a sudden, my table is cranked up vertically. My hair falls all around my face, and I shake it out. I am now stuck staring at all six people all at once. And I glare really, really hard, particularly at the aqua haired girl. Too bad. She seems kind of sweet. Too bad I'm going to kill her and everyone else if they ever are stupid enough to let me out of here.

"Well? Is anyone going to say anything?"

Yusuke clears his throat. "Okay. Um, I'm not good with this philosophy stuff, but you're not going to believe what we tell you. Just accept that for right now."

I say nothing. I just glare even harder. I think I'm making a burn in his shirt.

"Okay. The reason that we brought you here is because you are an excellent thief and we can really use that skill."

"So I've heard."

"Right. And the reason that we need this skill is because we need to reclaim something."

"Ah, reclaiming. The thief's language for stealing. What is this? Some priceless gem? Some nuke that's just waiting to destroy the world? Forget it."

"Just hear me out! It doesn't matter what you'll have to steal. All you have to know is who you'll be stealing it from."

"Some major business lord? I don't really care. I won't help you."

"Just so you know, you owe us your life. Our healer, Yukina, completely fixed your wounds."

I look up and down. Is that why I feel so great? "It still doesn't matter. You still owe me a lot more than some fixed bones with some new kind of medication. Like, trying to fry me alive, and sending me those bolts of pain, threatening me with death, and throwing swords at me!"

At this, Yusuke goes white. He gapes at Hiei and Kuwabara, who look instantly worried. "What did you guys do?" He hisses dangerously. "I told you to bring her here, not to kill her!"

Hiei stands up at this comment. "I'll talk from here, Yusuke. This way, the Captive and you will both understand. I'm going to say what really happened on the night that she defeated Keiko and ran."

"I'll tell you what—" Hiei silences me with a death glare even better than mine. I shut up pretty fast.

"I don't really know what happened with the light." He says blandly. "It's possible that there could have been a technical problem, or there might have been some interference from a being of sorts. As for the night when Kuwabara and I chased her, when we finally caught up to her, she was ready to collapse out of all of her injuries, but somehow, she was still holding on, and her life aura was so strong it worried me. I instructed Kuwabara to kill her because she couldn't be killed. Not with a life aura like that. To "kill" her would be to weaken her considerably so that we could have her back in the cage. But the thing was that her life aura flickered into death several times. It just completely blackened for several seconds at a time. I think that was what she was referring to as bursts of pain. It was not our doing. But as for the swords used by Kuwabara and I, those were only to be used to weaken her spirit energy. They were not to kill her. Then, Kara set up a white light around herself as a protective barrier, and her spirit energy increased phenomenally. I don't think we could have defeated her. It was good that Kurama came when he did. He gave a sleep spore and we brought her here."

Yusuke looks very grim. So does everyone else. "He's found us already." He says quietly. "This is not good. Not good."

I talk again. "So, you only tried to kill be because I only had too high of a spirit energy. You know, it might be possible that I might be even more confused than I was before. What is a spirit energy?"

"It's the amount of power a person has resting in their soul."

"Ah, I see." I say genially. "So, all this is just a happy little séance where we get to find out how powerful our souls are. GOODY!"

"No, this is not a 'happy little séance'."

"Of course it is! Where else are auras read?"

"This is way more serious than what you're thinking." Says Shizuru, speaking for the first time. "I had a premonition a while ago of this happening, and—"

"IT IS A HAPPY LITTLE SÉANCE! I'VE NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN!"

"SHUT UP!"

I smirk at Shizuru. She glares.

"Just tell her and put her back in the hold." She says irritably.

Yusuke walks right over to me. "Captive, you must steal something very valuable from something very dangerous."

"I told you I won't do it."

"You don't have a choice."

"Yes, I do. I'll escape from here."

"You really think so, don't you? That's so darling, but it's not happening."

"I'll make sure it doesn't." Says Hiei, and suddenly, in a flash of fire, he vanishes. In his place is that horrible green creature with all of the eyes that I Saw back in the tunnel. Drool drips from his sharp teeth. He holds a sword in his waistband.

I actually scream.

Yusuke smiles. "I'll make this quick. You are to steal from God."

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