Water and Fire

Summary: There are only four elementals that walk the three worlds. Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. United, they could rule the world. When the YYH gang finds the elemental of Water, they must keep her hidden, so that a horribly powerful prophecy does not become a reality. But what will the other elementals do when they find out that she is being kept from them? Will she and a certain fire apparition become closer than they should be? Read to find out. RATED T FOR LANGUAGE!

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Previously:

She had made up her mind. If Hiei was not back within the week, Kiya was gone.

She would go to the elementals- so her friends would be safe.

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Chapter 22: Withdrawal Symptoms:

Kiya sat in a chair by Botan's hospital bed in the Rekai medical center- located in Koenma's palace, thankful that all of the doctors in charge of her friend were now gone, and she could have a moment of peace.

Kiya was holding her friend's clammy hand, looking into her flushed face and listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor- hoping to kami that it would keep beeping, for Botan was on the verge of dying.

"I'm so sorry, Botan. It's…this is all my fault. This shouldn't have happened to you…..it shouldn't have happened to Keiko….it should've happened to me..Please wake up Botan. Please…." Kiya closed her eyes tightly so she wouldn't have to see Botan's weakening face any longer- she couldn't take it. It was several minutes before the silence of the hospital room was interrupted.

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"K-Kiya?" Kiya's eyes snapped open immediately at the sound of her friend's weak voice.

"Botan?" Kiya immediately felt her lips form a small relieved smile when she saw that Botan's pink eyes were now halfway opened and blinking slightly. "Botan, are you okay?"

"I-I'm not sure." Her usually bubbly voice was now weak and raspy.

"You can't die, right Botan? I mean, you're a guide to the spirit world….you cant die."

"I wish it were that simple…." Botan coughed lightly and Kiya grabbed Botan's hand with both of hers. "….I can die…and I probably will…"

"Don't talk like that. Koenma will bring you back…right?"

"There's no way to be sure……..this isn't your fault, Kiya."

"Then whose fault is it! Someone has to take the blame for this."

"Everything will turn out okay…."

Everything will turn out okay.. That's what everyone had been telling Kiya lately, and yet everything was just getting worse. Kiya was so into her thoughts that she didn't even notice that she had quietly repeated Botan's question.

Botan smiled weakly in response and uttered a small, "Bingo.." before putting her other hand on top of Kiya's and closing her eyes.

"Kiya?" Kiya noticed the voice belonging to Koenma talking in her mind. "Kiya, wake up.."

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Kiya's head snapped up off of Botan's hospital bed to look up in front of her. There stood Koenma and Kurama.

Damnit, I feel asleep… she thought to herself. Kiya looked down at her warm hands to see that they were being covered by one of Botan's still hands. What the…?

It was then that Kiya heard it.

The steady straight tune of the heart monitor- its' non-breaking sound filling the small hospital room. It took Kiya a minute to process what both the sound and the sorrowful looks on Koenma's and Kurama's faces meant. Her silver eyes darted to the heart monitor, wide with fear.

There, on the monitor screen, was a straight line- traveling slowly from side of the monitor screen to the other. Kiya had seen enough movies to know what this meant, but had never seen it happen in person before.

"Oh, kami…no…" Kiya shook her head slightly at first, side to side, but then began to shake it violently as she stood from her chair abruptly, her eyes not leaving the monitor. "NO! Botan!...oh kami, Botan come back……."

"Kiya…." Kurama stated sympathetically.

"It's all my fault……." Her silver eyes were wide now, not blinking. If she had been even the tiniest bit more sane, she would've leapt at Kurama and wrapped her arms around him, seeking his comfort, since someone else was not there to comfort her. But now, Kiya was beyond sane. Way beyond. The kind of trauma Kiya had gone throught would've rendered anyone insane a long time ago, but since Kiya was a strong willed person, she had held on a lot longer.

And now she had snapped.

Kurama made a move for Kiya, but Koenma (in his teenager form) stopped him, not giving him a reason for his actions. Kurama would have tried to convince Koenma that comfort was what Kiya needed right now, if it weren't for the stampede of doctors hurrying through the door.

They all froze when they saw the heart monitor. It was minutes before anyone said anything. "I'm so sorry." Said the male youkai doctor in the front. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave now." Koenma and Kurama nodded before stepping towards Kiya, grabbing her arms slightly and towing her out of the room, where everyone else- Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, Shizuru and Yukina were waiting.

"Well?" asked Keiko, who had just gotten out of the hospital two days ago. Kiya still couldn't look at her.

"I'm afraid that Botan has……passed on." Kurama said quietly as both him and Koenma let go of Kiya's arms and she just stood there, staring numbly into space.

passed on…. Those two words flashed in Kiya's empty mind before she felt her legs give way, and everything went black.

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Kiya awoke in Koenma's empty office on the couch, a blanket draped over her small form. She blinked and sat up, trying to remember how she had gotten here.

Oh, yeah. The hospital……right here in Koenma's palace……..Botan dying……

Kiya suddenly felt like she was going to vomit, the foul taste in her mouth as unwelcome as the memory that had triggered it.

Botan was dead.

Kiya clenched her aching stomach and tried to stand up so that she could get out of this damned office, find Koenma, and get some answers- like if Botan was coming back. She stumbled slightly on her way to the door, still clutching the blanket. Kiya then realized that she must have slept through her transformation, it felt way too late for it not to have happened yet. As soon as she was at the door, reaching a hand to the doorknob, she heard voices outside in the hallway.

"Move it, pacifier breath. I need to see Kiya."

"No you don't, Yusuke. Kiya needs to get some rest. At least while she's asleep she won't have to think about……recent events."

Kiya heard Yusuke groan. "Can you bring Botan back?" Kiya recognized the voice belonging to Kuwabara.

There was a long pause and Kiya gripped the blanket around her shoulders tightly. Please say yes……please.

It was Kurama who answered. "I ran a couple of tests on the poison that was injected into Botan's system. It was plant based- a very rare Makai plant- and the dosage amount was lethal. I'm afraid that it is uncertain whether Botan's spirit has survived. I guess we will just have to wait."

"WHAT!"

"Quiet down Kuwabara! We do not want to wake Kiya."

"Are we just gonna have to leave her here?"

"Actually, Yusuke, you all are going to stay here. I've come to the conclusion that it would be safer for all of you to stay here rather than in Ningenkai. You, Kuwabara, Kurama, Keiko, Yukina and Shizuru will stay here in my palace- that way you can be more heavily guarded. Tomorrow, when everyone has been well rested, I'll let you go back to Nigenkai to get your things and tell your families that you'll be leaving for a while."

"We don't need your stupid ogres 'guarding' us, toddler."

"Yeah!" It was Kuwabara. "We could stand up to anything better than your stupid guards, we don't need any help-" Kuwabara then said something so quietly beneath his breath that Kiya almost didn't catch it. "Although it would be nice if shorty were here."

That just proved how badly Hiei was needed here- by everyone. He was needed so badly, that even Kuwabara had admitted it.

"I agree. Things would be much easier- especially on Kiya- if Hiei were here."

"Yeah, well wishin' isn't going to bring him back. I'm going to bed, I need some sleep. Hey, binky brains, where are we supposed to sleep?"

"I was going to keep you all in my office- so my father wouldn't find out you're here, but your loud mouths might wake up Kiya. I'll show you to some guest rooms."

Kiya listened as she heard footsteps walking down the hallway, and then soon leaving her hearing-range. She was just standing there, staring at the door when she heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the door. "You should get some rest Kiya. You'll need it." It was Kurama.

Kiya didn't say anything- afraid that if she did say anything, her voice would crack from all of her raw emotions. Instead, she turned around and headed back to the couch through the darkness. She sat down on it and waited until she heard Kurama walk away from the door that she allowed herself to lean against the back of the couch and close her eyes. None of this was happening. Botan was still alive, Hiei was still here, Rob was not dead and everything was alright. Right?

First step is denial.

Did I ask you?

Did I ask you to ask me?

Will you just leave me alone for once? I don't need your nagging right now.

Fine.

Kiya groaned to herself and plopped to the side, her shoulder resting on the arm of the love-seat. Sleep was Kiya's only escape from her mind right now- unless, of course, she had a dream- which in her state of both physical and emotional exhaustion- was very uncommon. In a matter of minutes, Kiya had returned to the empty grasps of slumber.

----------------------------THE NEXT DAY-----------------------------

Everyone who had spent the night in Koenma's palace was piled into his office, waiting impatiently for the portal that would take them all back to Ningenkai.

"HURRY UP!"

"Geez Yusuke, patience is a virtue." Came Shizuru's snide reply.

"Yeah, well who the hell cares?"

"Alright everybody," Koenma interrupted, "As soon as I make this portal, you will all have 24 hours to pack all of your necessities and meet back at Genkai's temple. It is no longer safe for any of you in Ningenkai- so make sure you are with at least one other person at all times. Understood?"

Yeah, it's not safe because of me. Kiya stood at the back of the group, her head down.

"Can we go now?" whined Kuwabara.

Koenma sighed and the portal appeared in a 'pop' of blue smoke. One by one, everyone in the office filed into and through the portal, until Kiya and Koenma were the only ones left in the room.

"Kiya-"

"Leave me alone, Koenma." And with that, Kiya slumped through the portal. As soon as she got to the other side, she was standing in the living room of Genkai's temple and everyone (even Genkai- who was in the room) was looking at her. Kiya just kept her head down and proceeded towards the stairs, but stopped walking when hearing a familiar raspy voice.

"You cannot keep blaming yourself, Kiya. Suck it up and stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Kiya turned around slowly to glare at the old woman, her jaw clenched. "Fuck you, you old hag." Kiya hissed through gritted teeth. She respected Genkai greatly, but right now was not the time to try to preach to Kiya- no matter how much you thought it was necessary. With that said, Kiya left that room and hurried upstairs to her own, closing and locking the door behind her. Sighing, she leaned against the door and raised her hand to her forehead, rubbing it slightly. This was all too much----so much that it's brutality towards Kiya's sanity was beyond words. She needed a reprieve- a break. She needed her normal life back- as normal as it could have gotten. She needed her parents- Rob- somebody.

She needed Hiei.

It suddenly dawned on Kiya how attached she had gotten to the fire youkai. After years of hating nearly everyone, that one koorime had managed to get through her tough façade and beneath her skin- the only person to be able to do that in her entire life.

She sighed to herself and began to pack, all the while hoping that- by some miracle- Hiei would come in through her open window.

------------------------IN MAKAI-------------------------

The dark-clad youkai stood in the middle of the body-covered field, and with one swipe to the side with his katana, it was free of any blood. Looking at the 20 some odd bodies lying in the grass, the youkai expected that he would've smirked- or something. But he didn't.

No matter how many lower and middle class demons he had killed did not rid him of his frustration. He came to Makai to get his mind off of Kiya, and the things she dad said to him that he could not say back- and so far, it hadn't worked- not one bit. Which meant one thing.

He was going to have to kill something bigger.

With that last thought, the dark youkai flitted off- in search of a higher class demon he could mutilate.

----------------------BACK WITH KIYA-------------------

Kiya zipped up her black, necessity-filled duffle bag and sat next to it on her bed, staring out the window. She had gotten done packing in under 20 minutes, all the while moving like a mad-woman just to keep her mind occupied. In that 20 minutes, she had become utterly frustrated.

She suddenly realized that instead of sulking about Hiei leaving her, she should be pissed off! She should be angry that he left her- abandoned her!

"Kiya-chan…are you finished?" She heard Yukina's soft voice say from the other side of her door. Since Koenma said that they had to be with someone else at all times, Kiya and Yukina decided to pair up.

"Yes, Yukina. I'm finished." Kiya picked up her bag and walked to her door with it. She opened the door to see Yukina with a small brown suitcase in her hand. Okay, so they hadn't stayed together when they packed, but who cared. Kiya needed more time to think anyways. She would've been horribly depressed right now- maybe even a little suicidal about Botan's death if it hadn't been for the hope that her soul would show up soon in Rekai and she would be back. That thought kept Kiya going.

In silence, Kiya and Yukina walked down the hallway, down the stairs and finally into the living room, where everyone else's bags were piled on one poor couch. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Shizuru and Keiko were already in the living room.

Everyone stayed quiet as Kiya and Yukina both placed their things on the floor next to the couch and Yukina went over to sit by Kuwabara on the couch and Kiya walked over to the windowsill, sitting up on it and looking outside. There was silence in the small room before someone finally spoke.

"I'm bored." It was Kuwabara.

"We'll have to find something to do until tomorrow," declared Yusuke.

"Train." Came the small but firm voice coming from the elemental on the windowsill. She had just realized that for the past 6 days, there had been no training. That's what she needed- back-breaking, sweat producing, hard-core training! Just the thought of it made Kiya sigh in relief.

"That's a good idea, Kiya. Alright, Yusuke and Kuwabara, you two can spar if you like, but I think I will train Kiya." Kurama looked over to Kiya who was looking at him and smiled.

"Fine by me." Yusuke left out the part about him afraid of getting his ass kicked by some ticked off elemental- for that would bruise his inflated ego.

Without another word, Kiya and Kurama walked out of the room, Kiya ahead of him, and outside- through the forest and to the familiar break in the trees that created the training field. Kiya walked over to a tree where she had hidden her sais' and pulled them out of the owl hole. She then, with the sais' (each in one hand) walked over to stand in front of Kurama, taking her fighting stance.

"I won't go easy on you, Kiya."

"Good."

With that, Kiya used her ability to fly to charge at the kitsune, her sias' aimed straight for his chest, but as she was nearing 4 feet away from him, he quickly reached behind his ear, pulled out his infamous rose and it transformed into the dreaded whip that had mutilated Kiya not too long ago- just in time to block her sais' with a loud 'clank'.

Kiya growled as she tried to attack him from behind, swinging her blades at his legs, but Kurama simply jumped out of the way. As Kiya kept attacking him, she oculdnt help but notice how he wasn't even trying.

"Kiya, you must focus. All of your emotions are getting in the way of your fighting. Clear your mind." Kurama instructed in such a calm voice, Kiya knew he wasn't at all concerned about her hitting him.

I'll show you emotion, pretty boy..

The next 3 hours of Kiya's life were spent trying- and failing miserably- to attack Kurama and prove to herself, as well as him, that she hadn't totally lost it. By this time, Kiya finally realized that maybe Kurama was right- maybe her emotions were getting in the way. She cursed herself for being so stupid. She finally stopped moving and looked at Kurama.

"I'm going to meditate, this is ridiculous."

"I was just thinking the same thing…" Kiya shot him a glare and he quickly added "….I agree that you should meditate…" Kiya sighed and let her glare disappear, she wasn't in the mood to pick fights. She plopped down right where she was and closed her eyes. She listened to Kurama's retreating footsteps and cracked open one eye to see him watching her, leaning against the base of a tree. Kiya closed her eye again and began to focus on her breathing.

Inhale deeply through the nose, hold it as long as comfortable- exhale deeply through the mouth, hold it as long as possible. Repeat.

She then worked on relaxing every muscle in her body, Since Kiya hadn't done this in a while, it took her a little longer to get started. She started with her head. She relaxed her eyelids, her cheeks, her mouth and her chin. She then moved lower, relaxing her nech, shoulders, arms hands, fingers, torso, legs and feet. Within a matter of minutes, Kiya's body was entirely relaxed and her mind was completely blank- focusing on nothing but her breathing.

This went on for 20 minutes before Kiya's senses picked up on some movement to her right, coming from Kurama. She opened her eyes just in time to see his rose whip hurtling towards her- and she had barely enough time to block his attack with an energy orb. Kurama smiled, happy to see that Kiya's fighting was back to normal and brought his whip down towards her again. Kiya reached behind her back to get her sais' and created an 'X' with them above her head, connecting with the thorny whip. Almost too quickly to be seen, Kiya dropped the sais in one of her hands and held out that hand towards Kurama.

"Water Ball!" She yelled and a water orb soon materialized in front of her hand and flew to Kurama, connecting with his gut. He flew back about 2 feet and landed with a grunt. Her attack didn't pack as much of a punch as Kiya would've hoped, but she was proud of herself none the less.

Kurama rubbed his torso and stood to his feet. "Good job, Kiya."

"Yup." Kami, it felt good to mouth off to him again. Kurama changed his whip back into the rose and placed it behind his ear. Kiya's eyes widened. "That's it?"

"Yes, I'm afraid. I have something to discuss with Genkai-sama before we leave to Koenma's palace." With that, Kurama turned and left. Kiya cursed to herself and shifted from foot to the other- anxious for something to do. She had gotten moving and now she couldn't stop- she needed to sweat more- so she wouldn't feel useless. With that thought, Kiya broke off in a sprint to the forest, her jaw set in concentration.

------------------------5 HOURS LATER (7:00 pm)----------------------------

Kiya crawled up the temple steps in a panting heap of damp blue hair and sweaty clothes sticking to her body. She stood shakily to her feet and stumbled through the front door of the temple, grasping the wall for support. That run shouldn't have left her this breathless- which just proved her point about her being out of shape. Without paying any attention to the eerily quiet teens in the living room and made her way upstairs, all the while thinking, me……need……Shower!

She walked right into the bathroom in her room and stripped off her sweaty clothes, wrinkling her face at the smell of them. She tossed them in the corner of the small bathroom and walked into her shower, sliding the door closed behind her. She turned the knob, which sent freezing cold water pouring all over her. Kiya just stood there for a while, letting the water soak her already damp skin, before grabbing the bar of soap and covering her entire body with scented suds. While she washed away the suds in the water, Kiya shampooed her hair with her favorite lavender-scented shampoo- her long fingers swaying between her blue locks, her eyes halfway closed.

Kiya stepped back into the flow of the water and while she let the liquid do it's job, riding her hair of the suds, she made 3 water balls, about 3 inches in diameter, rise from the bottom of the tub and sway in-between her outstretched fingers.

When the suds were all gone, Kiya conditioned her long hair, rinsed it out and turned off the water. Getting out of the tub, Kiya grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall and wrapped it around her figure while she gathered all of the water from her hair and made it drop into the tub- so that her hair was just a little less than dry. She grabbed a brush from the counter and ran it through her straight, midnight blue hair repeatedly. Still brushing her hair, Kiya opened her bathroom door and took one step out of it………

………….that's how far she got before her gaze caught the gaze of the blood-covered person standing against her wall- and she gasped, feeling the brush drop from her fingers and fall to the floor.

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Kendra a.k.a. Blazin' Blondie

Keep on Truckin'!