Hello. I am Iorek. We are quite sorry for the delay of this chapter, but because of a unique mental torture system that Griffin kid insists on doing daily that she calls 'geometry homework' she hasn't had a lot of time to write. No responsibility falls to me whatsoever. Oh yes, and we are both grateful for the reviews. I apologize for my author's tendency to forget saying that. She really is appreciative.

angel hakusho: Don't be so quick so quick to poke her eyes out. You may feel different later on.

darklite-spirit: Omi can't run due to the fact that a person three times his size is on top of him and he is looking at- well that comes later.

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Kimiko was struggling so hard against her ropes, she had managed to get her chair to rock despite its heaviness. She was so angry, she was actually seeing red. She loved Omi like he was her own little brother and was not about to stand for this whore to do this. She had no idea what was going on, but knew it couldn't be good. Soon after a bit of tongue and lip motion, she was able to slide the gag off her mouth enough so she could speak and began screaming at the top of her lungs for Daggereyes to stop, using language so awful it probably would have made the followers blush. However Rustfoot and Moonskin were so busy watching Daggereyes that they hardly noticed Kimiko in spite of her impressive display of anger and Daggereyes was too focused on Omi to even hear her.

Clay was almost relieved the position of Kimiko's chair made it so she could only see Daggereyes's back because Clay was certain that if she saw Omi's face, she would've busted through the ropes and killed the followers single-handedly. It wouldn't have been a bad thing, but he didn't want to see one of his best friends commit murder. Unfortunately from where Clay was sitting he could see Omi's face and it was breaking his heart. The little guy was just slightly struggling as if part of him didn't want to escape and part of him wanted to desperately get away. His expression was a mix of pain, fear, disgust, and shame. Tears trickled out of the corners of his eyes, eyes that were trying so hard to close. Clay wished he had at least half of Kimiko's temper so he might be able to break through the ropes and help Omi. Not that he wasn't trying, but it just wasn't enough.

Finally Daggereyes let go of Omi's eyelids and got off him. Omi's hands clapped over his face and he began sobbing deeply into them, then he rolled onto his side, curled up into a ball. Kimiko stopped screaming and looked down at Omi, concern and worry for her friend washing away her anger. "Omi?" She said softly. "What happened? Omi?" But Omi simply continued to weep and did not acknowledge that he even heard her.

Daggereyes stood still, gazing intently down at Omi, her face betraying no emotion. After Rustfoot and Moonskin had observed Omi bawling on the floor, they looked at her curiously. "Well? What did you see?"

Clay was wondering what he meant by that when he remembered something Daggereyes had said that made his blood run cold. When he had captured her in their world and asked her who she was, she told him that she'd tell him, but would have to pick apart his mind and soul. What if she wasn't trying to freak him out? What if by looking into someone's eyes she could really do that? Would Omi and Dojo be . . . .

"I-I didn't mean t-to."

Everyone looked at the abrupt speaker. Omi's sobbing had lessened and now he was choking out the sentence repeatedly. "I d-didn't me-mean t-to. I-I did-n't mea-mean to. I di-didn't m-mean t-to. I-I did-didn't mean-" His voice broke off started to sob heavily again.

Everyone stared at him for awhile in silence. Not even Kimiko spoke. Then Rustfoot cleared his throat. "Hello? Daggereyes? What. Did. You. See."

Daggereyes continued looking at Omi. After a moment she spoke. "I think Silvertongue wants these ones alive . . . . because he hasn't made up his mind about them yet."

Her words confused everyone who was sitting in the room. "Umm, could you tell us what you mean by that?" Moonskin asked.

"Not really. But Silvertongue's got a right to want them to live, that's all I'm gonna say."

Daggereyes's gaze finally left Omi. She went to the wall where she had tossed her sunglasses, picked them up, and slid them on. Then after she picked up the gloves and the knife she had dropped on the floor and pulled the gloves on, she walked back to the table and resumed her work with the turkey. Rustfoot looked at her, then at Omi, then back at her, then back at Omi, and then back at Daggereyes, this time his face bearing an annoyed expression. "Hey, Daggereyes? Aren't you going to put him back?"

"You know I can never get all the coils snug."

Rustfoot looked as if he were waiting for more of a response, then sighed. "Oh sure Daggereyes. Moonskin and I would be more than happy to tie him back up for you. Thank you for asking so nicely."

Kimiko knew this was a selfish thing to ask considering the distressed state Omi was in and what he had just been through, but now that he was free he could kick the followers' butts and get them out of here. But he would have to sober up quickly to do so. "Omi?" She called again. "Omi?"

But he seemed to be crying too hard to hear her. Kimiko raised her voice a little, but tried to keep a patient, soothing tone. "Omi? Omi, please answer me. Omi, can you at least look at me? Omi please-mmph!"

Rustfoot had gotten up and tied her gag back on, this time swiftly stuffing another piece of cloth into her mouth before securing the other one. She started to struggle and he slapped hard her across the face. That stunned her long enough for him to step behind her chair and tighten the ropes until her back was flat against the wood. The ropes were so taut, the most movement she could do from the neck down was breathe.

Then he stepped back in front of her, put his hand underneath her chin, and forced her to look up at him. At first he looked angry, then the corners of his mouth twitched upward a little like he was trying hard not to smile, then he gave up, chuckled and shook his head. "You have got to be one of the toughest, most stubborn kick-ass bitches I have ever met in my life. And that's saying a lot considering the werewolf bitches I know."

Kimiko's eyes were blazing with rage. She wanted to tell him to stop swearing or she'd pull his lip over his head, that he shouldn't call girls bitches even if they were werewolves, and if Omi was hurt he and the others were going to regret the day they were born. She also wanted to kick him in the shins for slapping her. Being unable to do any of that now, she settled on doing it when she got free. Occupied with her anger and thoughts, she didn't notice that Moonskin was kneeling beside Omi, rolling Omi's sleeve up away from the place on his arm where he was bleeding, and extending his fangs.

Luckily Clay did notice. He squirmed and tried to shout, but the gag muffled his voice. Still it was enough to get some attention, but not understanding what the problem was, all Rustfoot did was tighten Clay's ropes as well. Daggereyes looked over her shoulder to see what the noise was about and did a double take when Moonskin caught her eye.

"No!" She leaped and tackled away from Omi just when he was about to sink his teeth into the wound.

Moonskin blinked as if surprised to find her on top of him. "What did you do that for?"

"We're not supposed to touch them, remember?"

"You got to do your thing."

"That was different. I don't physically hurt my victims."

"You still hurt them. Very badly. You can be more harmful than Rustfoot and I put together."

"Sometimes, anyway." Rustfoot said as dragged the still crying Omi to his chair, hauled him onto it, and started to tie him up. "It really depends on who you're doing. You know that, Moonskin. Besides, Silvertongue's going to notice what you do to any of these guys."

Rustfoot had tied Omi down to his elbows and was trying to tie Omi's forearms to his sides, but Omi was extremely reluctant to uncover his face. After Rustfoot gave his arms a couple fair tugs, he started to pull roughly.

"Rustfoot, you can tie him as he is, just leave him like that. Please." Daggereyes said softly.

"Silvertongue's going to notice. He'll know what you did."

"He's also going to notice how puffy his eyes are if you take his arms down. One way or another he'll know. It won't matter what we do. Just leave him."

Rustfoot stared at Daggereyes for a moment, then sighed and tied Omi's forearms to his chest. Suddenly his head snapped up erect, his eyes wide and pupil's dilated. His ears molded into their wolf shape, each hair on them raised and alert. His nostrils were flared as though he was trying to get as much air into them as possible.

"Rustfoot?" Moonskin asked warily. "What's the matter?"

"Shhh."

Everyone and everything went silent after this simple little word. Even Omi's sobbing stopped except for a couple of gasps occasionally. It made Kimiko, Clay, and by the looks of it Daggereyes and Moonskin very uncomfortable. Kimiko wanted to move or try to talk or something, but was almost afraid to. After a few moments Rustfoot whispered a reply to Moonskin's question. "Someone's here."

It was just a whisper, but it sounded incredibly loud against the thunderous silence.

"Daggereyes, exactly how close was the camp to here?" It was the first time Kimiko had heard fear in Rustfoot's voice.

Daggereyes's hand flew up to her mouth and she bit down on her thumb knuckle.

"Fuck." Rustfoot strode to the door, his body changing as he went. He didn't stop to take his clothes off, so they ripped as his torso and limbs expanded.

"Rustfoot, wait!" Moonskin moved as if to stop him, but then Rustfoot flung the door open and sunbeams flew in. Moonskin fell back as if he'd been stung and shielded his face with his arms. Daggereyes all but threw herself on top of him. Rustfoot ran out, closing the door behind him. The sunbeams vanished. Daggereyes sat up and cradled Moonskin comfortingly in her arms. "Are you alright?"

Moonskin was shaking, his eyes wide with shock. "It's morning."

"Don't worry, you won't get burned if you stay in here. You're safe-"

"Daggereyes, I don't think you understand. It's morning. I can't go outside to help Rustfoot and you know that they'll have silver weapons this time. He'll be killed if not captured first. And who knows where Silvertongue is."

Daggereyes went as pale as Moonskin and she started biting her thumb knuckle again. Moonskin put an arm around her. They sat on the floor holding onto each other for awhile. Then Moonskin rose slowly to his feet, walked over to a shelf, pulled off his violin and bow, tucked the end of the violin beneath his chin, and began to play. Daggereyes took a minute to listen to the sad strange tune, then got up off the floor, went to another shelf, and picked up a small drawstring bag, her knuckle fell from her mouth. She held the pouch in her hand for a moment, squeezing and rubbing it before taking a deep breath and heading for the door. When she reached it, Moonskin's music went off key and ceased. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Daggereyes grasped the door knob and turned to face Moonskin. "Maybe you and Silvertongue can't help Rustfoot, but maybe I can."

Moonskin stared at Daggereyes as if trying to read her blank, pale expression. Then he said in just above a whisper "You are aware that there are much worse things than death."

"Believe me, I haven't forgotten." Daggereyes replied in a dead serious, icy tone.

Moonskin looked at her a few more seconds, then nodded and continued playing. She cracked open the door enough for her to slide out, but careful not to let any sunbeams enter and hit Moonskin. Right before she left, she stuffed her thumb knuckle in her mouth and chomped down on it. Kimiko was almost smirking behind her gag. Yeah, that was really going to intimidate their enemies, whoever they were. But the smirk left her face when she realized that Daggereyes kept biting her thumb because she was scared to death. Heck, why wouldn't she be after what Moonskin had just said. What did he mean by that anyway? 'There are much worse things than death.' And what did she mean by 'I haven't forgotten.' Did these kids go through some kind of dramatic traumatizing event? Was that why they had gone bad?

Kimiko was close to feeling sympathetic when another thought crossed her mind. Daggereyes had said so herself that she couldn't fight. How could Daggereyes help Rustfoot if she couldn't? Kimiko couldn't imagine not being able to fight. Her father had always made sure that she was able to defend herself if faced with a situation where she had to do so. What did Daggereyes do when faced with those kinds of problems? Come to think of it, during their encounter with Daggereyes in their world, aside from her kicking Clay in the crouch Daggereyes didn't exactly fight much. She mostly ran. But this time she wasn't trying to escape danger. She was going to meet it head on. Wasn't evil supposed to be cowardly? Why was Daggereyes risking her life instead of running for it? Could it be that Daggereyes and the other followers weren't that different from herself and the other Xiaolin apprentices? That she was willing to do anything at all to help a friend in need? No, that couldn't be. People or creatures who were evil weren't loyal to anyone but themselves. Take Wuya when she was a ghost. She was like a parasite, going for hosts who were strong and evil, but when those were unavailable, she took what she could get.

A wet, muffled sob snapped Kimiko back to reality. She looked over at Omi, who had started crying again. Kimiko's anger rushed back. She pushed any thoughts of pity or admiration away, furious for having them in the first place. Kimiko didn't care how bad Daggereyes might've had it, she'd hurt Omi, and anyone who'd hurt the most good-hearted kid in the world was on Kimiko's hit list, which was getting longer as this quest went on.

As Kimiko went over the list in her head to be sure that she hadn't missed anyone, Clay was worrying about Omi and Dojo, hoping that they would be okay, and wondering about what it was that Daggereyes could do with her eyes.

Clay's and Kimiko's thoughts were interrupted as they heard shouting and crashing from a distance away from the outside of the caravan. Moonskin heard this as well and slowly walked over to a cabinet and leaned against the side that was facing away from the door, his music never wavering. Kimiko thought that this change of position was made so this time if the door opened the sunlight wouldn't touch him.

Then the noise got louder, like the sources had come closer, and it became easier to distinguish some of the sounds. Sharp teeth gnashing, kicks and punches being thrown, grunts and gasps of pain, commands, advice, or names of attacks being shouted, and a couple times a nauseating wet ripping or cracking sound that always came right before a scream. It was clear that there was a large group of people fighting. One of the many voices shouting stood out from the rest and both Clay and Kimiko felt that they should've known it from somewhere, but something about it made them unable to put their finger on it.

Suddenly a horrific howl filled the air, a howl that held so many painful emotions, it was hard to know what separate feelings it was made up of. The cowboy and girl flinched at the awful noise, wishing Moonskin's music were loud enough to drown it out and were grateful when it died away. Just a moment after it did, the caravan door flew open. Sunlight flooded the room, spilling onto the prisoners and illuminating their savior. If Clay and Kimiko weren't gagged, their jaws would have fallen onto their laps. Omi was still weeping into his hands, but if he saw who had just entered the caravan he would have stopped out of shock. The person in the doorway froze and his skin had gone paler than it already was. He opened his mouth. At first nothing came out, but then he choked out a sentence in a tone that sounded as if he didn't know to be pleased or angry. "My xiaolin apprentices!"