Disclaimer: I do not own YYH or it's characters. I do own Angela, Star, and the twins. I own the Darkness, the shadow creatures, and the zombie queen.
AN: If you can't tell, I'm listening to depressing music...My only excuse...Sorry if this seems a bit choppy.
Legend:
-Thought-
-Telepathy-
/Flashbacks/
/Dream/Visions/
Noise
Chapter Seven
Yukina and Kuwabara smelled the blood before they came into the shrine. Yukina looked to Kuwabara. "The twins!" she cried, her first thought for her babies.
They ran into an awful sight. Angela was sobbing against Hiei's bloody body. Yukina froze, her hands covering her mouth as tears rushed down her face to fall to the floor as crystals.
Kuwabara ran to Angela. "Angela! Who did this!" he asked, lifting Angela away from the body.
Angela looked blearily at him, not really seeing him through her sorrow and horror. "I did...He...he...Oh Hiei!" She started to sob again.
"Why!" Kuwabara asked, sensing that there was something more to this.
"He...he tried to kill me..." she cried.
"Why!" Kuwabara asked again.
"I don't know! I don't know why! I don't know why!" she screamed.
Her screaming woke the babies and they started to squall. Yukina, not able to handle the scene in front of her, ran to her children. Kuwabara slapped Angela. "Angela! Calm down! Please! Tell me what exactly happened!" he said, shaking her. Angela shook her head, crying harder.
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Yusuke came back to the waiting room, seeing only Kurama. "So Yukina and Kuwabara left?" he asked.
Kurama nodded, looking up from the magazine he was reading. "Awhile ago," he said as he looked at his watch. "Hiei and Angela should be here soon."
Yusuke sat next to him. "You seem suspicious of Hiei..." he said softly. "Why?"
Kurama didn't look at him. "Remember what Mukuro said to Angela about the fighters that disappeared before the tournament," Kurama said quietly, not wanting the humans to hear. Yusuke nodded. "They began to act strangely or differently when they returned," he continued.
Yusuke nodded again. "And your point...?" Yusuke asked.
Kurama sighed. "Have you noticed Hiei acting a little...strangely...?" he asked.
Yusuke was silent for a few minutes, then his eyes narrowed. "You don't think that...?" he started.
Kurama nodded. "I fear that he may be like the others."
Yusuke's eyes narrowed. "Then we have to warn the others!" he said urgently.
Kurama's cell started to ring. Kurama took it out of its case that was hooked to his belt loop on his jeans and looked at the caller ID. He flipped it open. "Yes Kuwabara?" he asked, worry in his voice. In a matter of seconds his eyes widened and he flipped the cell shut and put it back in it's casing. "I have to go," he said to Yusuke as he stood up.
Yusuke stood up with him. "Why?" he asked.
"Angela colapsed," Kurama lied as he hugged Yusuke. "It's Hiei...Angela killed him..." he said into Yusuke's ear. "I'll call you later," he said out loud as he walked out of the waiting room.
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Kurama ran up the steps, already smelling the blood. -Oh Angela! What happened?- he thought frantically. He reached the top of the staris and sprinted into the shrine. He found Hiei on the floor, his blood coagulating around him. "Oh Hiei..." he said.
Kuwabara ran into the training room from the side door. "Oh good! Kurama! We need your help with Angela! She's hysterical," he said. Kurama nodded and followed Kuwabara to Angela's room. "What do we do with the body?" Kuwabara asked as he gave the body a sorrowfilled backwards glance as they left.
"We can't call the police or anyone else. And since he doesn't exist to the Human world, he won't be reported missing. All we can do is give him a proper burial somewhere in the forest," Kurama said, green eyes sad.
Kurama walked into Angela's room to see her screaming and tossing on her bed where she was tied down. He ran to her and grabbed her shoulders. "Angela!" he yelled above her screams.
She jerked out of his hands. "Hiei!" she cried.
Kurama reached up into his hair and pulled out a seed. He covered his nose and mouth as he concentrated on the seed. Soon a bright purple flower bloomed with a heavy scent. He held the plant in front of Angela's face. After a second Angela calmed down and fell back on the bed, eyes drowsy. Kurama crushed the flower and waited for several more seconds until the air was clear before he removed his hand. He untied her as he looked at her. "Angela? Please, tell me what happened," he said quietly.
Angela turned her head. "I don't know...He...he just tried to kill me..." She cried.
"Tell me what happened. Did he say anything? What all happened?" he pressed.
Angela cried. "I...I was looking out the side door of the training room talking about how I didn't know what I would do if Hiei was in Star's condition. Then I asked him what he would do. He was behind me in the training room. He paused for a second and I felt rage, hate and an intent to kill me rise through him. He said he didn't know but he was about to find out, then he rushed at me with his sword. I dodged and tried to ask him what was wrong, why he wanted to kill me. He said he had come to realize that I was a hassle and he would be better off with me dead." She started to cry again. "I fell but I remebered what he had taught me if I ever fell while fighting someone, so a rolled and kicked his sword from his hands then I rolled to get the sword before him. He came at me, a black fire around his fist. I reacted instantly and drew up the sword..." She sobbed. "He ran into it...Now...now he's dead..." She rolled over on to her stomach, crying into her pillow. Kurama patted her back, thinking about what she had said.
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"Mr. Urameshi," the doctor said as he came into the waiting room. Yusuke stopped his pacing. "She wants to see you," the doctor said.
Yusuke rushed to Star's room. "Star?" he asked as he sat by her bed.
She opened her eyes and turned her head towards him. "Yusuke..."
Yusuke grabbed her hand. "What happened?" he asked, concerned.
Star shook her head. "I'm not sure, I was readying the bath when hands grabbed my head and forced me under the water, I struggled but ran out of breath, then everything blacked out," she said tiredly.
Yusuke kissed her hand. "I thought you were dead."
Star laughed weakly. "Well, technically, since they had to revive me, I guess I was." Yusuke didn't laugh. Star could sense something was wrong. "Yusuke? Did something happen to Hiei?" she asked, remembering her visions.
Yusuke nodded. "Yes, but we shouldn't talk about it here," he said quietly.
"He's dead, isn't he?" she asked softly. Yusuke nodded. "How?"
Yusuke shook his head. "Not now. Rest."
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Kuwabara and Kurama started digging a grave in a glade deep in the forest the next day while Shizuru came over to help Yukina prepare Hiei for the burial. Angela had refused to come out of her room, continuing to cry into her pillow.
"How are you holding up Yukina?" Shizuru asked as they cleaned the body's wounds and stitched it up.
Yukina shook her head. "Terrible. I wish I could do what Angela is doing but someone that loves him needs to prepare him." Yukina sighed.
Shizuru's eyes softened. "How do you feel about what happened?" she asked gently.
Yukina shook her head, "I don't know. I know I don't blame Angela, she was protecting herself and the baby. But I don't know what to think about how she said that Hiei had tried to kill her." Yukina paused. "Sometime ago I felt Hiei...well, I mean I couldn't feel Hiei." A few more seconds went by. "I had been able to feel him my whole life, and then, suddenly I couldn't feel him. It was like he had disappeared or died. Then he and Angela came back. I still couldn't feel him though," she finished.
Shizuru nodded. "I felt the same thing," she said, then asked, "Who all is coming tomorrow?"
"Kazuma, myself, Angela, Kurama and Yusuke. Star is still at the hospital and Botan and Koenma are busy in Spirit world. You can come if you want to," Yukina said. Shizuru nodded. They sat there for a few minutes in silence.
Shizuru finished the stitching. "Why don't you go and get him some clothes. These are all bloody," Shizuru said. Yukina nodded.
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There were no words said at Hiei's funeral. No one could find the words. He hadn't died with honor, and his last minutes in life were spent trying to kill his wife. They didn't understand what had happened. Everyone looked to Angela, hoping that she could give him the farewell. But she just clung to Kurama, sobbing. So Hiei was buried without any words for his passing. A sad ending for a brave hero. Everyone knew he wasn't himself when he passed, so they buried him with the thoughts of him before he disappeared into the Forest of Fools.
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"Mukuro?" Suzuka asked as he knocked on her door to her quarters in the castle a few days later.
After a few minutes she opened the door. "I already know," she said.
Suzuka nodded. "I'm sorry. We just got word. They already had the funeral," he said.
Mukuro walked out and closed the door behind her. "Where's Yomi?" she asked.
"In the meeting room," Suzuka replied. Mukuro walked off. Suzuka stood there, wondering why she would ask for Yomi.
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That night, Angela again had the nightmare involving the Forest of Fools.
/She hovered in the air as she looked down on the forest. She had never hated something so thoroughly as she hated this forest. -You took my husband and turned him against me!- she thought fiercely. She heard the eerie laugh from behind her. She turned to see the meteorite fly through the sky. She again watched it land in the middle of the forest. This time she saw the forest turn that sickly red glow after the impact.
She again saw the eyes and heard their gurgling voices, but this time she could understand them. "Angela, you've hurt us dearly. Now we shall do the same. Know this, you and yours shall never be safe. The Darkness was nothing compared to us. We will have our revenge. "
Angela's eyes narrowed. -Not before I have mine,- she thought as she flew away. She looked back once to mark the area the meteorite had fallen./
Angela woke up, a hard look on her face. -Time to get mine.- She waited until she was sure everyone else was awake before she got up. She knew that they wouldn't be very happy with her plan, but at the moment she didn't give a damn.
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"No," Kurama said firmly. He had been staying at the shrine to help look after Angela, so he was there to listen to Angela's insane plan. "We will not go back to that forest."
Angela glared at him. "I want to know what happened to my husband there. And not just him, but everyone that has entered that forest," she argued.
"And what happened to him will happen to you if you go in there," he argued right back.
"Not if we go in from above right to the spot the meteorite hit," she said.
He sighed. "But that means only a few of you can go. Not everyone can fly."
"Yes, but we can carry someone," she said, determined.
Kurama rubbed his temples. "Angela, have you forgotten that your three months pregnant. It's too dangerous, especially for you," he tried to reason with her.
"Ugh! Fine, I won't carry anyone, but I will fly with them. You can't stop me," she said, getting up from the kitchen table.
"Whatever is in that meteorite made it personal before it even started to take people," she said before she left the kitchen. "It said something that reminded me of all those nightmares. It said 'Angela, you've hurt us dearly. Now we shall do the same. Know this, you and yours will never be safe. The Darkness was nothing compared to us. We will have our revenge.' The 'revenge' reminded me of another dream that I had had before..." She told him of the space dream where she had seen nine similar meteoroids. "Not only that, but I've dreamed of the zombie queen. Something behind her was talking through her. I can't remember much about that dream, but I do believe that whatever is in that meteorite brought the zombie queen back." She paused. "If you won't let me go for revenge, then come with me to investigate a possible threat to the worlds." She walked out of the kitchen, leaving Kurama to think over what she said.
After awhile he sighed. "Damn," was all he said.
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Mukuro held a meeting of the higher officers of the border patrol. "We just received word from Kurama and the others," she said. "Angela has been having visions of the Forest of Fools. She thinks she knows what is causing the disappearences. In her visions she witnessed a meteorite fall into the middle of the forest. She sensed an evil and malicious presence in it. She wants us and several of our flyers to go to the forest, each carrying one of the strongest of us. She, Kurama and Yusuke will be joining us."
A blue man with yellow hair spoke up. "If we go into the forest, won't we become corrupted like everyone else?"
"Angela and I don't think so Soketsu," she said. "Angela's plan is to fly to the spot where the meteorite landed and come in from above. If trouble starts then the flyers will take us out of there."
"So who is going to go?" Jin asked, already knowing he was going.
"All of the flyers, carrying me, Yomi, Kurama, Yusuke, Shishi, Touya, and Suzuka. Angela won't be carrying anybody though."
"But then we're one flyer short," Shishi said.
Mukuro smiled. "You can ride on Suzuka's shoulder as usual," she said.
"But why me, Touya and Suzuka?" he asked.
"Because, you all can fight from a distance," she replied. "Now, does everyone know the plan?" Everyone nodded. "Good. We leave as soon as Angela and the others get here."
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"So you're leaving?" Star asked as she laid in bed at the shrine.
Yusuke nodded, vaguely reminded of the last time he was asked this question. Then he had been leaving to investigate disappearences as well and Angela had been the one to ask him. "Yes, but I'll be back soon. You'll stay here where it's safe," he said as he leaned down and kissed her.
"I know," she said softly as she drifted to sleep.
Yusuke walked to the little pond area beside the shrine. Kurama was standing there, looking at the sky. "Botan is still busy I guess," Yusuke said.
Kurama nodded. "I left a note at home telling her what has been happening and where we're going if Koenma hasn't already told her. I'm sure he knows what's been happening," he said.
"Do you think that maybe Botan was the one to escort Hiei's soul to the afterlife?" Yusuke asked softly.
Kurama shook his head as he replied, "No. Koenma has learned from his mistake the first time he sent her to take Genkai's soul to the afterlife during the Dark Tournament. He probably sent someone who wasn't close to us."
"Ah..." They stood in silence for a minute. Yusuke yawned. "Well, I guess I should get some sleep. Seeya in the morning Kurama," Yusuke said as he walked to the room he and Star were sharing.
"Goodnight Yusuke," Kurama said, still looking at the sky. -Botan? It's been a little over two months and I can't bear not being with you for so long, but I know I will see you again. How will Angela bear knowing she killed her husband and will never be with him again? How will she be able to raise their child alone?- he thought.
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Angela laid in bed, fully awake. -Hiei? How can I do this? How can I live without you? How can life be so cruel to take the one I love away from me and our child?- She held Hiei's gem and looked over to the side of the bed where he was supposed to be. The bed was empty except for her and the gem was cold, no sense of Hiei in it. She started to cry. -You promised you would always be here to protect me. You said you would always come back to me. But you broke your promise. Now you'll never come back to me.- She grabbed his pillow and hugged it tight as she sobbed into it.