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, the zombie queen, and the Crimson Force.
AN: Wow...Is this going to turn into a KA story or will it always stay a HA story even though Hiei's gone? Oooh, we're winding down to the last chapters. Poeple! Please review! I don't care if it's good or bad reviews! Just tell me what you think! Please! I'm down on my knees begging pretty please!
Angela:...That's pathetic. EHI is desperate for reviews. Honestly, I can't tell why she want's reviews, she knows over 750 people have read WA, can't that make her happy?
EHI: (On knees) No! I need reviews!
REVISED AN: I hate working in the time limit of nine months...I'm going through my story making a time line and have found that alot of stuff happens in December in this story.
Legend:
-Thought-
-Telepathy-
/Flashbacks/
/Dream/Visions/
Noise
Empathy/feelings
Chapter Fourteen
Angela watched the pairs of fighters and shielders train so hard that it was almost as if they were battling each other. It was barely three days since the meeting and Mukuro had recruited near to one hundred and fifty fighters and she was expecting seventy more to come withing two days and hopefully more after that. Angela wanted to train with them but Kurama had put his foot down, saying that she wouldn't be battling hand to hand, she had to concentrate on battling with her magic and her elemental masteries, such as her fireballs and tracking energy balls.
She caught sight of Suzuka and gritted her teeth as he took a hit to his chest. She knew he was fully healed thanks to some of Kurama's strongest healing plants, but she also knew that the ghost wound would still pain him, just as the slashes she had recieved from her first encounter with the shadow creatures and the torture wounds she had received from the Darkness still pained her and it had been about fifteen months since the fateful night at the Powerman 5000 concert and around six or seven months since her torture. As if feeling her gaze her ex-'aunt Suzi' looked over at her and waved, showing that he was fine. Angela nodded, trying to smile.
She walked around the edge of the large field that had been turned into a training arena and watched as the fighters practiced their ultimate attacks, building their stamina to be able to pull off their best tricks more than just a few times. She noticed that B class fighters were starting to show signs of turning into A- class, just like A+ fighters were showing signs of becoming S class. The S class had pumped up enough that she was starting to wonder if maybe there was a class beyond S. -Maybe three weeks is enough. If their progression keeps going like this, then maybe over half of our army will be at the highest levels of energy class,- she thought.
Mukuro came up to her and answered her thought. "More than likely. Of course class level has nothing to do with how well we'll combat the nine. Most of these fighters haven't had experience with fighting the Crimson Force and we have no one to imitate their way of fighting. We'll do the best we can to prepare them, but I can't guarantee anything other than we'll take out as many of those bastards as we can."
Angela started to cry when Mukuro said 'guarantee'. It was a special word between her and Hiei. As a guarantee for anything, mainly if he was leaving, he would leave her something of his, usually the necklace with the hiruseki stone that his koorime mother had cried for him. It was the last thing he had given to her before he had gone on that damned mission to the Forest of Fools. The necklace and the baby were all that she had left of him. She had given up hope of ever seeing him alive again, despite having seen him briefly in Star's crystals.
Mukuro saw her tears. "Angela...I didn't know what would happen. If I had even suspected it, I wouldn't have sent him. I don't expect your forgivness. I fully blame myself. I never meant to cause you so much pain," she said quietly before she left to train with Yomi.
Angela stood there for several minutes trying to calm herself. When she felt like she could finish her walk around the training field, she continued on, deep in her thoughts.
She didn't notice Kurama come up beside her and start to walk with her until he spoke. "Angela? Must you battle Seir? I don't like the thought of you even being there, but we need your shield and petrification spell. But I don't want you in any more danger. You're nearly five months pregnant, and will be about six months when they arrive. Hiei will kill me if anything happened to you, whether he's alive or dead, you know he'll find a way to kill me even if he is dead," he tried to joke lightly, but failed miserably.
Angela's only response was to come to a halt. Kurama waited patiently until she spoke. Finally she said, "I know that you're worried. And rightly so, but you won't be able to win against Seir and the Crimson Force without the aid of the Stars. The prophecy was clear on one thing. I must battle them, with or without help." She sighed and put her hand on her swelling belly. "The Angel in me says I must fight, that I must protect the worlds, but the mother in me wants me to be as far away from harm as possible. However, I know that if I follow my mother instincts I will still die. If I do not confront them the worlds will be destroyed. If I die, I would rather die fighting to protect the worlds than die for nothing," she said all of this ernestly, as if not only to convince Kurama but to convince herself as well.
Kurama took her into his arms and held her close. "Angela, if you followed your mother instincts you would be trying to save yourself and the baby. I don't think that is dying for nothing." He sighed. "Do what you think is right, but know that whatever your decision, the rest of us are behind you."
She nodded, whispering into his chest, "I know. My decision is final, I will fight Seir and the Crimson Force. I'm an Angel, a being that is destined to protect the worlds at all cost."
Kurama sighed again as he caressed Angela's ashy hair. "Angela, you don't have to bear the fate of the worlds on your shoulders alone. We're all here to help take the burden. Remember that."
Angela nodded as she pushed away from him. "I know. Now we best go train."
Kurama smiled sadly as the woman he might have married in another life walked to her designated training area. He turned back to Shishi, his training buddy, "Well, let's get started."
Shishi nodded, pretending he hadn't witnessed the tenderness between the two. Many of their friends had noticed the two get closer and closer, and now they suspected that something other than friendship was starting to bloom between the two.
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ZRCRACK
The tree five feet in front of Angela split apart as a purple bolt of electricity, more like a mini-thunderbolt, ripped through it. Angela smiled, liking her new 'trick'. -I may not be able to use all five elements at once, but I can definately use two.- She put her hands in front of her chest, fists closed, as she concentrated on another tree, this one ten feet in front of her. The air around her and the tree became statically charged, buzzing. After a few seconds Angela jerked her hands open and splayed her fingers towards the tree.
ZRCRACK
BOOM
This time the thunderbolt was way bigger and the tree, instead of splitting, blew to bits.
"Hwoo," Yusuke said as he came up behind the ex-queen. "Where'd you learn that trick?" he asked.
Angela smiled at him. "Yesterday when it was storming I was looking at the clouds and lightening. I started thinking about how I learned in science that lightening was created by something to do with positive and negative electrons in the air, and how sometimes the positve or negative electrons in the ground attract negative or positive electrons in the air and lightening happens, then I remebered how it usualy hits something tall. I started to think about the earth and wind elements and maybe if I could manipulate the two to create lightening and zap," she said, motioning to the trees, now fire wood.
Yusuke nodded. "Do you think that can fry some zombie queens? How close do you have to be?" he asked wisely.
Angela shrugged. "I'm testing out the distance part." She then clenched her fists in front of her chest and concentrated on a tree six yards away from her.
Yusuke felt the static in the air become almost unbearable before she splayed her fingers out and a loud thunderbolt incinerated half of the tree and blew apart the rest. He whistled. "Does it get more powerful the farther it is or were you restraining your power when it was close?"
"Restraining," was the short answer. She smiled evilly at him. "That was only half of the power I can put in it. And best of all, it doesn't take up that much energy. All I'm doing is charging the electrons or ions, I actually don't remember much about that lesson, in the air and earth in one place, nature does the rest."
Yusuke smiled back. "I doubt the Crimson Force will ever suspect you to use your powers so violently. It was against your natures."
Angela glared at him. "Whether or not it is against the nature of the Angels I will do anything to make sure the worlds are safe." She smiled a little. "I am Human too, and violence runs in that half of me, Humans have a big self preservation thing going on." Yusuke laughed, glad that her humor and wit hadn't totally left her. She looked at the tree. "I'm also thinking if I can make lava and possibly hurricanes, also earthquakes, but I don't want to push it. I also think I've found another way to 'freeze' the zombies."
Yusuke looked at her. "How?"
She smiled slightly. "Why freeze them of course. Touya can help me on that. Together we're bound to be able to freeze a majority of them to give the others time to destroy the zombie queens. It won't take much of my energy, or even his, to freeze them since we enhance our ice abilities when we work together. And the freezing won't wear off like the spell. With the spell, I have to concentrate on it. This way I can conserve my energy for Seir." Her eyes darkened at the thought of the man who had fallen so far to become an Angel of Death and was now threatening the very worlds that the Angels had sworn to protect.
Yusuke frowned when he saw her eyes become distant. -What happened to the girl that I used to exchange perverted jokes with and that was so quick to laugh?- he asked himself sadly, though her knew the answer. -Will that woman ever come back? Will I ever see that light in her eyes again?- A shout tore him from his thoughts.
"'Ey! Yusuke! C'mon and train!" Chu shouted form behind them. Yusuke briefly hugged Angela's shoulders then left.
Angela studied the trees around her, waiting until she was sure everyone was at a safe distance away from her. As she stood there the air all around her became so charged that her hair was nearly sticking up on end. She threw back her head and let out some of the anger she had pent up inside of her. Anger that had started when she found out about the doomed mission Mukuro had sent Hiei on, how the woman had kept the secret of his disappearence from her, and had built up through out all the time that he was gone, the anger that she felt towards the Crimson Force, the hate that she reciprocated towards them. She screamed and all around her the trees were instantly evaporated by the thunderbolts that flashed down from the heavens in a fury close to that of a 'scorned woman'. Hell might not have the fury of that of a scorned woman, but the last Angel in the worlds did. And plenty of it.
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All of the fighters stopped as a physical wave of a thunderclap rocked over them, originating from Angela's training field. Kurama started to run there but was stopped by a frizzy haired Yusuke and Chu.
"Uh..I wouldn't go there if I were you, not only would your hair become a bushy mess but you would probably get slightly fried," Yusuke laughed as he ran his hand through his hair, tiny sparks flashing through it. Kurama looked questioningly at him. He explained, "Angela's trying out her new trick with lightening. I'll tell you it's quite a shocking sight. Pun intended."
Kurama nodded though his eyes still showed worry and concern when he stared in the direction of Angela's training field. Yusuke nodded to Chu, who hadn't bothered to mess with his static charged mohawk, and they walked into the crowed of fighters as training restarted.
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It was well into the second week and close to three hundred fighters filled the large training grounds, over half of them were now at least S- class and half of that were definately S+ class, and the other half of the fighters were getting close to S class.
Mukuro smiled grimly as she surveyed the training battles. -We may have a chance, with the help of Angela and Touya, we will only be dealing with half of the zombies. But seven hundred and fifty is still a big number. Can we pull off this stunt?- she asked herself, going over a plan that they had come up with to deal with the fifteen hundred zombie army. -It's risky. But then again, going against the nine is risky in itself. How many of us will survive. With all of the recruits now at least A- levels, do we stand a chance if something goes wrong? If it does, can we get away?- She smiled even more grimly as she shook her head to dispell the weak thoughts. -It doesn't matter. We must do this, more than our skins is at stake.-
She continued her circuit around the fighters. Satisfied at their progress she entered Angela's training field. She paused just long enough to test the static in the air to make sure Angela wasn't practicing her new trick. -Maybe she can repeat that lightening show in the battle. That will definately help,- she thought to herself as she walked up beside the Angel.
Angela smiled, hearing the woman's thoughts. "Yes I can. And I can also set a wildfire on them, knock them off of their feet with a directed earthquake or sweep them into the sky with a twister. That will help, but remember, I can't waste too much energy so I'll have to stick to one trick." Mukuro looked at her. Angela smiled again. "Mukuro, I've made this training area my territory throughout the last two weeks. Anyone who steps in it is subject to my powers. Yusuke once told me of 'territory psychics', I guess I have a technique like them, but it takes awhile to create it." She looked at the orange haired woman. "Besides, you weren't sheilding your thoughts very well."
Mukuro smiled at the young woman. "Are you ready?"
Angela didn't have to know what the woman was talking about to answer. "Yes and no. I don't think I can ever be really ready. But I'll have to do with as much readiness as I can get in the next week. What about you?"
"The same."
"And the others?"
Mukuro shrugged. "I think what you said applies to everyone. We can never be trully ready. We can only train until the day comes."
Angela nodded. "Exactly in a week," she said and sighed. "And if my calculations are right, they'll land in the ruins of the stadium."
Mukuro nodded. "Then we'll have to surprise them with a welcoming party. One they'll never forget, even past death."
Angela's eyes narrowed. "They just might need to forget," she said crypticaly before starting to train again.
Mukuro looked at her oddly. -What does the girl mean?- she thought as she headed back to the other fighters.