Wingless Bird
A Collaboration between HateBecomesYou & BlueWater26

Author's Notes: Wow, what a leave of absence, eh? This is HateBecomesYou, by the way. Well, here's the next chapter, in any case, and roughly 1,000 words. My last chapter was way less than that, so, at least, this is an improvement (and I'm advancing the plot, kind of, yay!)...

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho, its characters, plots, and any other related objects belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and his affiliates. Damn.

Chapter Four:
With Your Eyes Full of Roses

When 063s6 opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the liquid pushing in on her on all sides. With half-lidded eyes, she swiveled her head around to survey the room, but could barely see beyond a thick, murky glass casing that curved over her head and into a sphere. She lifted a pale, limp hand and swirled a finger over the greenish surface. The light reflected inward and gave everything around her the same prismic, emerald color.

On her face, the girl finally noticed, was a mask type of thing. It covered her nose and mouth and a thick, heavy-duty tube spiraled downwards from the center of the mask to the floor. It connected to something outside, she guessed, and it was keeping her alive. Her fingers itched to rip the mask off, but she refrained. The thing reminded her of her state of nakedness.

From what she could make out beyond her own prison, there were at least a dozen more tubes, just like hers, all bunched together and forming an irregular circle. She rubbed at the side, attempting to clear it a bit, but to no avail. She couldn't see what the other cases contained.

A sharp clicking alerted the girl of another's presence, and she looked up through the foggy glass to see a brown-black figure approaching the identical glass tombs that surrounded her. She shivered involuntarily at the sheer ominous force he gave off. It washed over her, like tiny pulses in the back of her head, and the liquid quivered slightly in the glass tubing.

The man stopped in front of her, or in the vague direction of her, and she felt a wave of anxiety shake her frail body. She retreated to the back of the curling tube, but could barely move further than a foot away from her original place due to a strange tugging on her right ankle. The girl glanced down to see it tethered to the floor.

A whispery sound entered her mind, and her eyes closed of their own volition. She was barely aware of strange gargling noises before she slipped into darkness.

-:-

"We can't just sit here!"

Botan, Keiko, and Yukina all looked up in unison as Shizuru began pacing the room, lighting a cigarette with faintly trembling fingers. The remaining girls glanced at each other, not quite sure what to do or say to put themselves at ease. Botan bit her lip and took the initiative. The ferry girl stood up from her seat on a low, flat cushion and grabbed Shizuru's arm until she finally relented and stopped her movement.

"I'm afraid there's not much else we can do. None of us have any idea where they could be..." Botan trailed off at the bitter look on the other woman's face.

Hiei snorted at their panicked antics. He had been lounging on a windowsill for the greater part of an hour and had rarely conversed with anyone- not that that was quite out of character of him. He seemed content on letting the others worry about his fellow teammates.

"Hiei-san!"

Said demon lazily looked upwards as Yukina jumped to her feet and quickly strode towards him.

"Did Koenma say anything to you? About the mission?" The anxious ice maiden questioned, twisting her pale fingertips into the folds of her kimono.

"Yeah, and why didn't you go, anyway?" Shizuru asked, a suspicious look already in place.

"Hn. It was just a simple mission to capture some demon who had begun to spawn some sort of bloodthirsty children. It was pointless for me to even attend, likewise for the fox, and Yusuke had agreed to go by himself- unless you even want to count that stupid invalid always following him around as a person."

"Hey! Don't-"

Shizuru's outbursts to defend her brother were cut off by a sudden shrill, pinging noise. It started off extremely loud before reverberated softly throughout the room. Then it rose in pitch and started the process over again.

"What's that noise?" Keiko asked, raising her voice to be heard above the quick shrieking sounds.

Botan looked stricken before replying, "It means that someone has tripped the wards around the temple. And, judging by the frequency and tempo, it's someone with immense power."

No one even noticed when Hiei disappeared from the room in a thin black blur.

-:-

When 036s6 woke up, she could barely remember the brief moments of consciousness that had occurred in the glass bubble, but it was still lingering in the back of her mind. When she opened her eyes into narrow slits to peer around at her surroundings, she was surprised at the sharp yellow light coming from directly above her. With it's glare, she couldn't see anything else in the room except the cold silver table she lay upon.

Glancing around at her body, she was as devoid of clothing as before, but this time a thin white sheet had been draped across her. After a few moments of paralysis, she tugged her wrists and legs, only to find she could not move. She was strapped to the platform with a rough feeling cloth that bit at her limbs.

That same ghosting noise entered her mind and she did her best to investigate it. But the irritating whisper was very much the last thing on her mind when the darkened silhouette of a person - a man - appeared above her.

"Awake, then?"

The words all merged together as they reached her ears, and she could do nothing but stare up at him helplessly, not comprehending whatsoever. Goosebumps rose on her cold, still wet skin, and the man chuckled. That dark, hard sound was something she could understand, however- and something she desperately wanted to get away from.

"Don't be frightened," he whispered, and although in a way that was meant to be comforting, it did not do anything to calm the girl.

It was not long before 063s6 began to struggle, and the man smirked and laughed once more. She felt a pinprick on her wrist before she, once again, blacked out.

Author's Notes: So... uh. Yeah.