Disclaimer: I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho…Okay, I wish I own Hiei, but that isn't the point. The point is that I don't own either, much to my intense disappointment.
Burning
Chapter 15: Power
Kira's P.O.V…
I could feel the flames licking my flesh as they danced, could smell the stench of burning flesh and hair and cloth as Mizuru burned. His tortured screams were like a sweet music to me and I relished in every shriek. His power moved to put out the fire, but I fed it more of the dark energy that still charged the air from when the stone had shattered.
"Master!" Mizuru cried, voice rough from pain and smoke, "Master, help me!" He flailed wildly trying desperately to draw enough power to conjure up enough water to douse the flames, but I did not let him. As long as I willed the fire to burn, it would burn. As long as I wanted his pain, I would have it. The darkness let me have this power and I loved it. Every shred of my soul was saturated with this dark power, soaked it up as if it was the elixir of life.
Very good, little one, a slightly masculine voice whispered in my thoughts. You are pleasing me to no end.
There was enough left of myself to wonder who this presence was. I ventured for the source of the message, but found only nothingness. A small piece of me said that I knew why this was, but I couldn't remember what.
"Kira! That's enough, damn it. He'd dead already," Hiei said, sounding annoyed. I think the smell was getting to him. The gods know it was disgusting.
When I replied, I instinctively turned my blind eyes toward where his voice had come from. "And here I'd been hoping that he would have been a bit tougher so that I could have tortured him more."
If I could've seen him, I bet I would see a slight frown directed at me.
I began to follow him out of the circle, but something pulled at me from the center. It was so damn persistent… Turning on heel, I headed back to middle of the circle and stood silently. Waves of power still floated in the air, begging for me to take them and use them. It was like a box full of puppies, really dangerous puppies.
Serve me, little one, and I shall grant you this power for eternity. Serve me, and you shall be invincible, the voice coaxed. It sounded so promising, so…tempting.
I wanted it, more and more with each second, I wanted this power. I don't know if it was because it had been offered to me or if my own human nature had reared its little head. Whatever the reason, the want for this dark power was consuming me, burning deep with in my heart. I reached out my hands, asking without words for what it was promising me. That little voice in the back of my head, damn bitch that it was, started to talk again. What about the consequences?
I couldn't remember why that should concern me. What consequences? What are consequences? Nothing was in my mind. Absolutely emptiness except for that want.
Everything has a price.
Price..? What price..? The emptiness bucked about my brain, trying to squash that little voice.
"What are you doing, Kira?" a voice inquired from far away. "Kira?"
What am I doing?
The presence, or un-presence for lack of a better term, felt like it hissed at that speaker. Whispering in my thoughts again, it weaved pretty words together, convincing words. My mind felt all cobwebby, as if a spider wove a web in my skull and snared my thoughts in its sticky threads. It kept telling me things, words dripping with persuasion.
He is no friend to you, little one. You must smite him! Use my-no, our-power. Show him that you are not so easily fooled by his petty tricks.
As my body moved to obey, one thing caught my attention. For some reason I trusted this voice, but who in the world says "smite"? I mean… A few of the webs tendrils fell away. Even as I began to fight off the foreign influence, power gathered in my hands.
What am I doing?
"What are you doing?" Hiei questioned voice flat.
I replied the exact truth. "I don't know."
Destroy him for me, my servant.
As I continued to ponder the use of the word "smite", more of the presence was driven away. I was aware enough now to feel something else. Anger. I felt my eyes narrow at complete nothingness.
Who the hell are you calling "servant"? I thought at It furiously. There was enough of me for my complete and total independent bitch side to come out of its hiding place. It came out a lot, but usually it wasn't as welcome as it was now. More of my memories snapped into place. Panic infused with my anger. Get the fuck out of my head, Anexis!
It laughed and pushed all of Its power at me, trying to steamroll me back into submission. I choked on the rush of power, physically gagging. "Hiei," I managed to rasp, "It's here."
I heard him mutter something, but I'm not sure what it was. It was completely lost to me as Anexis continued to drown me in Its aura.
"It's in the seed, sister, in the blood." Satomi's words echoed in my brain. A stray thought commented that if I kept having all these voices bouncing around my head, then I was going to become a bigger basket case than I already was.
What did she mean? Could she have gotten any more mysterious and cryptic? I rushed to crack her message when I felt hands wrap around my biceps and a more familiar energy coursed into me. Hiei's energy coiled around me, like a snake ready to strike. He'd freed my mind from Anexis' power so I could think clearly.
Blood was obvious…but what the hell was the "seed"? I couldn't figure out what she'd meant. I cursed over and over as I tried to race through all the possible meanings for that word. Why is time always running out when you need it most? I threw more of my own power to shore up Hiei's as we both tried to attack something that wasn't truly there. Anexis wasn't one this plane of existence, so actual attacks had no true effect.
Think, Kira, think! Satomi was in this very circle when she sent that message. It must have something to do with the circle. Now think!
I struggled to remember all I'd ever learned about power circles used in high magic rites. It has to have to do with the anchors…
It hit me.
Anchors. A seed was an anchor, a beginning. It was a euphemism that was used often when explaining how an anchor worked to a novice. The anchor was like a seed. As a seed produces a plant and its roots, so an anchor grounded and amplified your power.
Hiei's power was running out, and so was mine. In fact, most of my energy was gone already. I needed to hurry.
Pulling Hiei with me, I stumbled blindly back to the place where the southern anchor had once been. Shoving my hands into the earth, earth that was still warm from my earlier actions, I reached for the Fire of the Earth. I pushed downward, searching. The heat was at my fingertips, metaphorically speaking. I pulled it up, as a goldsmith would draw gold wire, and remade the anchor.
"What are you doing?" Hiei asked me for a second time this day.
And for the second time this day I answered him, "I don't know. The gods help us, I hope this will work."
I'd run out of spirit energy to work with, so I began to draw on my life force. I needed this circle to not only be strong, but also purified. I injected my magic into the flow of power in the circle, burning away the evil that it had been born out of. In my mind, I could see a golden light replacing the dark purple energy of the original creation.
I pictured my family's book, recalling to my memory the exact words of the sealing spell. I had committed it to memory, Latin and all. The words spilled from my lips. I didn't know what half of it meant, but I could feel it working nonetheless.
What are doing? Anexis demanded in fury. I faintly detected Its recognition of the spell.
"Locking you up," Hiei growled. I could feel that he was exhausted. We both were.
Running the chant in a loop in my head, I reached back and grabbed for Hiei's sword. Realizing, I think, what I was going to do, he drew the katana and put the hilt in my hand. The words and anchor wouldn't be enough to seal Anexis a second time, but a blood spell was something else all together. Using your blood to close a rite was something more powerful than a death sacrifice. It showed a willingness to be bound to the ceremony, a bigger sacrifice than a death since you will be bound forever and not even dying will free the bleeder from it.
Barely noticing the sharp pain of the blade slicing open my skin, I let blood drip from my wrist onto the ground. "Give them back," I hissed as the circle took on a crimson tinge in my head. "Let them go, you fucking bastard! Give them back, and then go to hell!"
Another blood was added to the circle. Surprised I turned my head back; even though I knew I couldn't see Hiei. "You don't have enough power," he explained. I leaned back against him as blood loss made my stomach and the ground roll. This was all we had left.
A scream, worse than any banshee, split the air as the spell reared up and crashed down around us and through our minds to where Anexis hovered. There was nothing but this rush to me and knowing that Hiei still held my body. And then there was nothing at all.
This time though, it was true nothingness. Not something pretending to be nothingness.
(A.N.) I got to update! (dances around) Yay! Now make me even happier by REVIEWING!