Warnings: touche'

The Wielder of BlackFire:

The Legend Lives Part II-Rose's Renaissance

Chapter Ten: Watching the Truth, Embracing the Lies

Rose slept throughout the day, waking only a few times during its course to eat a bit and go to the bathroom. Yukina stayed by her side for the duration, observing her in hopes of discovering what was amiss with the girl. Although the healing apparition could sense no physical pain, and thus could not help Rose, she felt as though there was something emotionally wrong with her without the use of her powers.

Botan came over later that day and was given the full report of what had occurred since the day before. She checked on the girl briefly, to ensure her safety, before waiting for Yusuke to arrive downstairs in the sitting room. The room in which the three, consisting of Botan, Hiei, and Kurama, sat was utterly silent, with conversations flowing sparingly and with the life of flame on a short-wicked candle in a suffocating jar. All three of them were worried. Botan knew that they didn't have much time, and the other two sensed her unease. Who knew when the mysterious enemy would attack? Until then, they were unprepared and at their mercy. Until then, Rose was a burden to them. Until then, they were helpless. They needed to uncover her power, and soon. Apparently, though, this was too much stress on the girl, and she continued to weigh them down. But it would only prove to get worse.

Rose woke up early Sunday morning to a yawning golden sun peeking long, amber streamers over the horizon. She looked at her watch, which she had reluctantly reset; it read 6:23 am. She lay in Kurama's bed a long while, thinking. She tried to pry the memories from the locked cell of her mind, reaching hopeful hands between the bars and willing the tips of her groping fingers to brush the memory. She had done the same thing every time a fit had occurred, but had never remembered what the thing was, nor what the meaning it held, even if someone told her what she had 'freaked-out' about. It was a fruitless attempt, and she knew it, but was determined to regain her lost thoughts.

Fifteen minutes later, she heard Kurama walk from the room across from the one she occupied and walk down the stairs. Damn, he got up early, she noticed. Hiei was up as well, she noted, as she heard their greeting. He must sleep on the couch, she thought. She wondered if Hiei would go back to the demon world. Despite their kindness, she still wanted to escape, and thought that, with the help of her pocket knife, she might be able to take Kurama down. Probably not though, as demons were said by Jazz to be far more powerful than humans. But they must see her as a threat if they kept two demons here to protect her. So, she reasoned, Hiei would not leave, at least, not while she was still here. She sighed and waited a bit longer on the bed before getting up, unwilling to leave its warmth. She quickly got a few clothes and checked the door. Locked. She cleared her throat in annoyance.

"Kurama," she called softly, just loud enough for the keen ears of the kitsune to hear her. A moment later the boy opened the door. She muttered a thanks and pushed past him into the bathroom.

"She seems to be settling in nicely," Hiei said as Kurama returned back downstairs, continuing to read the paper that he had discarded to tend to the girl.

"Yes," he said. They listened as she turned on the water.

"Humans seem to have a cleanliness issue," the black-clad youkai muttered. Kurama chucked in mild agreement. The shower was swift and couldn't have lasted more than six or seven minutes. She came down the stairs about twenty minutes later after straightening her things and making Kurama's bed. Her hair was neatly brushed and held back diligently with a black tie. Her black shirt held the expression 'She-devil' in bloody red letters below a v-cut collar, revealing her clawed necklace, the beads dully reflecting the overhead light and the silvery pieces reflecting the bland expressions on their faces in its slight curl. She wore black pants much similar to the ones she had worn the day before, only with red stitching holding the leather together, accenting the scarlet letters on her shirt. Her clean black socks were silent on the floor.

She sat down across from Kurama silently, Hiei on her right. None said a word as Kurama finished the paper and began to start their morning meal. By eight o'clock the food was ready. Silence was their only other company, as well as Hiei's inconsistent mutterings as he struggled with his eating utensils. The meal ended promptly at 8:20.

"So what was it that you showed me yesterday that caused my fit?" the girl asked a long while later, after Kurama had cleaned the kitchen and they had moved into the sitting room. They sat on separate couches, respectfully, and the other two looked up at her, uneasy with her request and uncertain as to whether or not they should tell her. For her own protection.

"Could you show it to me again? Don't worry," she said when they looked skeptical. "I guarantee I wont have another fit." Her assurance finally made them nod. Kurama stood up and walked over to the television, just as he had done nearly 24 hours ago. The screen lit up in the screen as the two watched for her reaction, waiting for her to scream in pain. But the scream never came as the tape continued to play.

…On the Tape…

(In a Vault-like room)

.. The vault was large and very spacious, even though deeply infested with multiple items. One particular item caught one's attention. Near the center of the room, placed on a wire stand that was barred like a prison and was covered in white scraps of paper that held incantations, was a large sword. The weapon was close to three feet long and thick, its body alight with an unearthly glow that made the paper on the thick wire spark and spit in distemper. The stand rattled in time with the sword's vibrations. If sound had accompanied the film, one surely would have heard it buzzing a tone of anger and annoyance.

To the left of the screen was a wall, and from that wall melted a figure. They were short, most definitely human, and stepped through the steel-enforced wall. They were short, and specific, yet still unmatured bodily curves labeled them as female. Long, dark hair fell neatly down her back, nearly to her waist in an untamed tumble. A dark tee-shirt, with indistinguishable writing on its front clung to her torso, accenting her slight curves, tight jeans following suit. She did not turn and face the camera directly, but its high-tech lens easily drank in her features.

She stepped fully from the wall from which she had come through, and looked about, settling for a mere moment on three mystical items in the middle of the vault, only for her attention to be stolen by the item beside them. Her eyes narrowed as her head jerked slightly toward it, flicking long bangs from behind her ears and easily hiding her features.

The girl stepped forward cautiously, but with a bold placement of her feet as she crept toward. She walked with the careful grace of one who was used to sneaking about in places she knew she had no right being. The sly, stalking stride that spoke of intelligence and cunning.

It took but a moment to reach the caged weapon, and she knelt to come even with it, her head titling as though listening to its vibrations, which seemed to calm slightly as she stopped before it, although its vibrations were now turning into shudders of exhaustion. Her right hand lifted from its place by her side, reaching hesitantly through the wires of warm black metal to run them over the glinting metal surface of the sword.

A brilliant light burst from the stand that blinded the camera momentarily. When it faded, it showed the two once more, still seeming to converse, unmoving but for the slight shiver of the large weapon. The scrolls on the wire had disappeared with the girl's touch and the light. There was a few moments that passed before the girl stood and wrapped long, gentle fingers, about the hilt, unsheathing it from its prison. Her eyes darted a bit, being sure that no one saw the motion as she held it in her hands. Her attention was draw back to the sword when it suddenly shrank into a dagger-like size, and faded from view. Her expression was startled at first, but soon became excepting. She knelt down, pulling up a single pant leg and placing the hidden tool in her tall boot leg before pulling the pant leg back down to its normal resting place.

She quickly stood, straightened, and made back toward the wall from which she had emerged from. She carefully slinked back through the wall, exiting from the camera's view. ..

Rose's expression was curious throughout the playing of the video, her head tilted slightly in rapt amusement. She looked as though both perplexed by the tape, and amused by it. As the black and white scene closed Kurama quickly stopped the tape's play, letting the tempting voice of a commercial overtake the silence. He did not wish for her to have proof of their former mission to obtain her and the sword, it would only prove to further conclude in her mind of how little they could be trusted.

Hiei watched her as Kurama turned off the television with a sharp eye. He was surprised when he saw her smirk, then give a rounded chuckle. Kurama looked over his shoulder at Hiei, who returned the gesture, both hoping that one had picked up what the other had clearly overlooked that might have contributed to her bout of laughter. But their uncertain and startled looks revealed that neither knew the laughter's cause.

"Is there something funny?" Kurama asked, soft questioning curiosity blending in with his musical tones. She chanced a glance to his seemingly sincere features, then closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly and allowing her laughter to dim a bit.

"Not a thing." She laughed a bit at this before continuing. "Except for the fact that this is one very huge joke. Really Kurama, where did you find someone who looked so much like me? And those special effects were very good. I don't think I've ever seen any so real!" The smile her laughter had brought widened with amusement.

"You think it's a joke?" Hiei asked her icily, his eyes and voice hard. "This was no joke. That is you." He paused a moment as she turned to look at him, her eyes filled with more cold disbelief than amusement. "You don't recognize the sword?"

Her smile's edges flattened slightly and her expression gained a hint of a confused shadow. There was silence breeding in the air as they allowed her to ponder over his words. Realization fluttered brightly over her face after the said moment passed.

The sword… The one on the tape… with the black spikes protruding at the base of the blade, as well as the sapphire that sat regally in its hilt… it was the same one that stood regal and deadly over her futon at home, although it currently lacked the awesome glow that it had showed on the tape.

She gasped in a near-silent manner.

"No… I couldn't have stolen it…" Her tone was disbelieving, her head shook slightly in a 'no' gesture, her dark eyes wide and shinning, her features blaring out uttermost shock. "No… Its impossible…"

"Its not so hard to believe," Hiei grunted.

"What is difficult to believe," Kurama said. "Is that you took it from the most heavily guarded safe in all the worlds. And managed to escape without detection." She proceeded to give both of them a startled look before her eyes hardened slightly and her expression picked up a touch of fiery defiance.

"Listen, I admit to being able to easily sneak my way around places I'm not supposed to be in, if the situation is in my favor, but there is no way I could do both that and somehow take a sword with me too. Not to mention walking through walls! Excluding the fact that that is impossible, it would still be far too difficult," she blurted out, sitting up straighter. She paused for a moment and then fell into an embarrassed cloud of silence. Maybe she had said to much…

"Well, it didn't seem to difficult for you," Hiei said blandly, earning him a hardening of her down-turned eyes in annoyance.

"It wouldn't have been as hard for you then as it is for you now," Kurama said. "You were, after all, deceased at the time. A ghost."

Rose looked up at him, her eyes unregistering and blank before their emptiness was filled with unruly amusement. Laughter erupted from her lips in a river of snickers, before bubbling delicately through the air.

"Dead?!" she gasped through her laughter. "You have b-been wrongly informed dear f-fox!" Her laughter trickled through the cracks of her voice and into her words, making them jump with the disruption. "I was never dead Kurama! I was injured, but not dead! If that was true, I could assure you I wouldn't be sitting here in a real, living body! Now that is amusing. What a laugh!" Her hand slipped to her stomach as her laughter constricted the muscle there. The laugh was not one of joy, or even of amusement, although traces of it could be found there. It was a laugh of pity and understanding of a joke that they didn't know. It was a sound she frequently used, if one judged the ease in which it slipped from her throat.

It took nearly a full minute for her to finally settle down, and there was silence, her smirk keeping the air bouncy, even as it yearned to drown into the silence of disapproval that slithered from Hiei and Kurama. The two knew she would not believe them now that she had no possible recollection of what had happened to her.

"So what's on the rest of the tape?" she questioned, still smiling, but doing so to fill the empty void that hung in the air after her outburst. Kurama merely shook his head.

"Nothing concerning these matters," he said with nearly a cold tint to his voice. Hiei sighed in disbelief and regret, standing to walk across the room. He slipped on his shoes quickly and opened the front door. It shut quietly behind his muscular back, swathed in his black cloak.

Rose stared after him strangely, with a mixture of confusion and distrust, as he left without a word, following his movements to the door, watching it even after he had closed it and, no doubt, left. With every step he had taken a bit of her smile faded until she was left with an unsettling feeling in her stomach at his movements and the glassy look she had seen in his eyes.

"Was it something I said?" she asked Kurama, her eyes drifting away from the door to look at the down-cast eyes of the kistune, which skipped along the floor. She sounded hurt, he noticed. His eyes picked up a fray in his carpet. He would have to tend to that later.

"No," he lied, standing and walked from the room, leaving her to sit alone in the brooding silence.

'Dammit, what have I done now?' Rose thought, her brow knit in confusion.

…….……………………….................................................................................

Authoress' Note: alright!!! I revised this ENTIRE chapter. Its still the same as it was, of course, but its writing style is more up to date as to what my current style is, especially concerning the Vault Scene. I've basically rewritten all of it . Originally that passage was just copied and pasted from the original part in the Legend Lives. So yeah, all better now .

Reviews:

Reiko5: yes, poor hiei, who can never catch a break. Again, I give no hints as to the password. I don't wanna raise any hopes. Here's an update for ye.

baka-chibi-puffs:lol. Don't worry, yer not the only one who wants to know the passy. Hehe, here's the update for ya. behave Kurama.

Ensatsu-Kokoryu-Ha: :P haha, making you cuuuuuurious . But I'm glad that you'd rather find out later. It adds a lot more style to the piece if you don't know right now. Sorry. Lol, thanks for the help though, it really does do good, helps me figure out if I'm giving too much away or not. So thanks. But if you have any more, e-mails rock more socks :P. just don't want people going back into the reviews, reading 'em, and guessing anything that I say yes to. u ya know? Anyway. Yes, I tried to make sure that Thorn thought of just about everything. Although, you'll find out later some more about that. About Rose's power, I wrote it down somewhere about what's going to happen about that, if she has any at all, but you'll just hafta wait until i find it and write it up. lol, thanks for the kickass review. It was awesome. Thanks!!

Black-Rose-Tsuki (formerly Dyinglight): here's an update! Thank you!

Damage145: here ya go. Update for ya. Enjoy!

The Password:

This is just a note for all of you who think you know the password right now. I would just like to say that I will not make ANY comments in yer review replies about it. Not only would, if you are correct, it spoil it for others, but I do not wish to make you think that you are right when you are wrong, or vice versa. I've gotten comments in the past about the password as well, and that's dandy, but please just know that if you think its blatantly obvious that the password is 'Blah Blah BLAH!' please keep it out of reviews. If you would, however, like to send me an e-mail about it with questions, I would be happy to see what I can do as an author without spoiling my story. In truth, I'm going to stop giving any and all hints as to what might occur in my stories out of contexted. I think it really might be spoiling the over-all story. But I do thank you ALL for the great reviews!

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