Ticking Timebomb

Chapter 53 – My Time Has Come

A/N: This chapter is in Hitomi's POV and will be the final chapter I ever write from her eyes. She plays an important role, but I try to stick to either Kasumi or Hiei's POVs. Happy reading!

. . .

I spent another three days at the temple thankful that Kurama had been called away on an urgent errand. I didn't have the energy to hold that conversation with him, not after my final talk with Lord Koenma.

After all was said and done he had come to find me, to speak in private. He'd given me a communicator to the spirit world, much the same as the one Botan and Yusuke carried. Not that I needed it. I could travel freely to and from the Reikai, so long as Koenma did not revoke my permissions to do so. He had thought it would keep me safer.

Nothing would keep my safe, not with what he'd requested.

He was still living under the delusion that he could change the outcome of my fate if we played our cards right. He was wrong. There was no changing my future, just those of the people who surrounded Kasumi. That is how it had always been.

I have traveled across time and worlds much longer than Kasumi realized. I had left her in this time for close to four years...but for me...that time had been much longer.

I have spent ten years trying to change things. I would travel back over and over. When that did not work, I traveled forward and met the Tantei long before Kasumi ever would. Though disbanded, the group of detectives had flourished in the face of adversity. I had seen what became of the three worlds, how they had crumbled beneath the might of what comes.

Out of all of that, they had stood strong. Even when they had lost again and again, they had saved a single human city. And now, twenty years in the future they protected that city with all their might. They built on, expanded, provided places for humans and demons alike to live together.

But outside those walls...war raged. Destruction. Devastation. Darkness.

It is not the world I want to usher into the future. It is not the world those courageous souls deserved to live in.

It is not the world I wanted my nieces and nephews to grow up in. For every day in the future is one where the residents live in silent terror, awaiting the next battle, the next slaughter.

If it was not for a single man, who had risen above all the others, the city would have already been in ruin. He was reigning king and had been for fifteen years of that not so distant future. No other had chosen to challenge his position and I was certain none ever would. And not out of fear either, but reverence.

He was the reason I had come back. Him and Kasumi...and the children.

Except I had found only one solution to stop that inevitable future. And that solution is now why I avoided Kurama as if he carried the plague. If he knew...

He would not keep silent. He would break that promise in the span of a breath if it meant saving all three worlds and all those that mattered within them.

If I wear to oppose him I would need to collect allies and collect I did.

I spent time around Keiko, Yukina, and Botan while I was at the temple. Botan had stayed to keep an eye on me for Koenma. But Keiko made it a point to stop in during the evenings, after school. For some odd reason she had chosen not to divulge what I had told her. And so she kept it close to her chest and spoke of it only in brief undertones while we were alone.

I soon had her under my thumb. Botan had been an even easier acquisition. But Yukina...well, she alluded me. She had a side to her not unlike her brother's. Although she hid it well, it was there and she kept me at a distance. Perhaps she did not trust me, or perhaps like Kurama, she had figured out what I was easily enough.

No, her true friendship would not be given. Not unless a certain someone approved.

I had no qualms that I would not get the fire demon on my side, so soon enough Yukina would be as well. It was just a matter of time.

Always time.

. . .

Another week passed, I was ten days into my time limit. Late one night I sat alone in Genkai's kitchen staring at the moon shining through the window. I had my knees scrunched up in the chair, arms wrapped around them. My long hair lay spread out behind me.

I sensed Kurama long before he spoke. He stood behind me, watching, waiting. It was odd for him to appear so late at night, but I had been dodging him for days now.

"I thought now would be a good time to catch up," he said.

I laughed at that, a bitter sound if there ever was one. "Catch up? Don't be ridiculous."

He walked around the small kitchen table and took a seat opposite me. He folded his hands against the wood and crossed his legs. Ever a gentlemen. But a beast in disguise.

"Ask what you want and leave," I said.

"There's no need to be unpleasant," he replied, "But you assured me you would tell me the truth."

I pursed my lips. "First assure me that you will keep your promise. Hiei and Kasumi can't know. No matter what."

"I swear I will not speak a word of it."

But I saw that flash in his eyes, that bit of the youko shining through. He could lie so easily. I almost chose not to tell him. But I also held on to a vain hope that he could sway Hiei in one direction or another.

"First I must tell you of what I witnessed in the future..."

He stayed silent through it all. My retelling of what I had seen stunned even him. And when I reached the end, explaining what my role had become in all of this and why I hated him in the future so, he finally broke that silence.

It came slow at first and then, "I-I don't think I'm quite clear on everything. How does this all come about?"

That had been the part I wished to avoid. But my telling him was inevitable. So without preamble I said, "The door to purgatory opens, just as Ryuunosuke wants."

"Are you saying we lose?"

"In a sense...yes."

"How?"

My lips narrowed into a thin line. "Hiei makes a choice."

"You need to elaborate Hitomi-san, I am not a mind reader. What choice?"

I could no longer look at him. So I stared at my toes curled against the edge of the chair. I was about to place a nail into Kasumi's coffin. Because if Kurama had his way she would not live through the opening of the door, not like she does in the future. I had set out to stop her death and I had succeeded...

But the cost had been far too great.

"Answer me! What does Hiei do?!" I'd caused him to feel fear. A twisted part of my mind found pleasure in that.

Softly I explained, "In my original timeline my sister never meets Hiei. They go through another lifetime without each other. And when Hideki returns she plays straight into his hands."

I took a breath, stealing my resolve. I would regret this. But I had already chosen that this would be the final timeline. No more games, no more traveling. It was now or never, come what may.

"He kills her and opens the door," I continued, "And I sacrifice myself to close it."

"But you changed things," he said.

"Yes, to save her, I traveled back in time. And then accidentally to the future before I had full control of my powers."

"And you met all of us there?"

"I explained that already, didn't I?!" I snapped.

"Take a breath Hitomi-san, I am just trying to make sense of what you've told me."

I waited a beat, counting to ten in my head to calm myself. He never failed to irritate me in one way or another.

"How long did you spend there?" he asked.

An easy question. One I could answer without consequences. "Six years," I replied.

"Six? But you've been missing barely four."

"That Kasumi is aware of."

He nodded, catching on to what I meant. "I know you are afraid I will betray you, but it is imperative I know what brings about the end of the worlds. I can't help stop it otherwise."

"You will not have that choice. It lies in Hiei's and Kasumi's hands alone."

"That can't be possible."

"It is. Because when I changed things Kasumi meets Hiei. Just as she does in this timeline. And they...fall in love."

"What does that have to do with the ending of the worlds?"

"Everything," I snarled. "It has to do with everything! Because Hiei saves her. Do you understand?! He saves Kasumi!"

Because the door would open. One way or another. And when that happens, there must be someone to close it. There is only a set amount of time, mere-minutes to seal it again.

And in my last timeline it took Hiei just a split second – the length of a breath, the beat of heart – to choose which option he thought was worse.

Kurama sat back in his seat, once again shocked into silence. After a bit, that he spent lost in thought, he took a deep shuddering breath and said, "Oh."

And that was the final conversation I would ever have with Youko Kurama.

I stood from my seat, bid him goodnight, and left him in the kitchen to mull over what I had told him. I would not...could not elaborate further.

And a knew, as I walked back to the room I pretended to sleep in, that he was already thinking of ways to change his closest confidant's mind. He was a strategist at heart and he would use every ounce of his cunning intellect to bring about that change.

If he succeeded...everything I had done would be in vain.

. . .

"Are you ready?"

I spent the next day around the people in the temple. If only because I knew them better than they realized...and I was lonely, if I were to be truthful. The Kuwabaras had come to visit often during my time here. Only Shizuru, the older Kuwabara sibling, didn't trust me. Or like me for that matter.

She could sense that hidden part of me, just like Kurama had. And so she kept her distance, shunning me. I was fine with that. She was Kasumi's friend after all, not mine. I was just thankful she kept her mouth shut and didn't tell anyone else what she knew. She had acted much the same as Keiko in that regard. Against my better judgment Yukimura Keiko was fast becoming someone I actually liked. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a friend. Sometime before we moved out of our Grandparent's home from what I could recall.

But I knew any form of friendship I created with the girl would be lost in short order. So I started to keep my distance from her too.

"Hit-chan, did you hear me?"

Hit-chan...oh how I hated that. Takahiro and his stupid nicknames...

"Yes, I heard you uncle Taka."

"It's almost time. Have you prepared?"

It wasn't time. I still had three days. But he'd arrived early. And had proceeded to pester me every day since. I knew it was to keep my mind off of things...maybe it was even a form of comfort. It brought me back to my days of childhood, where things were so much simpler. But even if his intentions were good it hadn't made me feel any better.

"All that is left is to paint the summoning circle. I don't do that until an hour before I call for them."

"Are things going according to plan?"

"If they're all together, then it should."

"And if not?"

"Then only Kasumi comes back."

Takahiro turned from me, his ridiculous amount of hair piled on his head in a messy bun today. He placed a pipe in his mouth and lit the contents with a match he pulled from the in between. It disappeared again with a flick of his wrist.

He took a deep draw off it before turning back to me. "That can't happen Hitomi, you hear me?" he said, smoke curling from his nostrils.

"It shouldn't with your help."

He nodded, the pipe clacking between his teeth. "Do you think they've found the heart yet?"

"I don't know. I won't until it happens."

"Your powers are seriously inconvenient sometimes."

I rolled my eyes and strode away from him. Genkai's gardens were in full bloom by then. It was the tail end of Spring, cresting on the first vestiges of Summer.

The time of the prophecy seemed so far off and yet it loomed ever closer. Six more months was all I had. I had to make the best of them – make sure my plan went off without a hitch. One mistake and I could kill billions of people including Kasumi.

I bent to run a finger along a colorful Tsubaki, ignoring Takahiro's presence at my back. He'd followed of course, just as annoying as always.

"Hitomi –"

"I know," I snapped, "You don't have to say it."

I heard him sigh and I knew when he finally gave up, because he settled in the grass a short distance away from me and pulled out his guitar.

I never understood how he got the damned thing to work, because it was electric...yet it was never plugged into anything when he used it.

The first cords of song reached my ears, one I recognized. It brought a slight smile to my face. That was a good memory.

"Hey! You know Megallica?" the excited voice of Kazuma – who had wandered out onto the porch – reached my ears.

Takahiro only smiled, playing a bit louder and chuckling when the orange haired man took a seat so he could watch him play. This went on for an hour, the three of us just enjoying the nice weather. Takahiro's raspy voice joining the twang of the guitar's strings.

Only I enjoyed it for a much more depressing reason. This simple time spent with them would be one of my last good memories...and soon enough, all of those would fade to the ether as well. I would turn into dust, a forgotten being in a world full of so many others. My light did not shine nearly enough to overshadow any of them.

It was my time. My fate. And I would accept it with open arms, if it meant saving those I had grown to care for.

As the sleepy day ebbed into night, I found myself staring at the ceiling of my chosen bedroom. I never slept. Hadn't needed to in quite some time. All my time-traveling had messed with my body's biological processes and so sleep eluded me.

Come morning I would have two days left – just two. And I knew in those two days I would have to have a confrontation with Kasumi and it was one I was dreading. I couldn't leave again without some kind of explanation...without setting her mind somewhat at ease.

If I left without a goodbye it was inevitable that she would continue to search for me. It had been her life's goal for so long she had forgotten everything else. Kasumi had a much greater purpose than merely chasing after me.

She needed to grow as a person – without me. I wasn't what was important. I never had been. It had always been her. It would just take someone special to make her realize that.

"You've been avoiding me," she didn't sound angry, just a tad miffed.

"Yes I have," I replied, forever blunt and to the point. I hadn't been like that as a child. I had liked to tell stories and weave tales even about things I knew were truth.

She entered the space without my permission, although I had left the door open, so I couldn't complain too much.

She sat on the edge of the bed and I didn't bother getting up. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that."

Keiko had been staying at the temple during Yusuke's absence instead of at her and Kasumi's empty apartment. I hadn't asked why she just didn't stay with her parents, but I also hadn't cared enough to bother.

"I'm anxious...about Yusuke's return," she said.

"I will do everything within my power to bring him back safe."

"I know," she said, "But when he comes back...I'll have to tell him, you know that right?"

"I never told you to keep it a secret."

She shifted, laying down next to me, folding her hands against her stomach. Together, we stared up at the the blank ceiling in silence. I tried my best to ignore the warm body beside my own, because it made me think of nights long past with a sister I had long since lost.

After several long moments, where we just listened to each other breathe, Keiko spoke, "Do they really lose?"

"In a sense, yes," I replied, voice soft as the night surrounding us.

"That has always been the worst of my nightmares," she whispered. "That someday Yusuke will come up against something stronger and...and..." she couldn't finish.

She hadn't needed to. It was a fear shared by many, the death of someone they loved. But Keiko, for what it was worth, did not cry. She merely pursed her lips and sucked in a deep breath.

"You have a plan, don't you?"

I turned my head to look at her then, but she was still staring resolute at the ceiling. A fire burned deep within her eyes, a determination that hadn't been there in recent weeks. And with a sudden clarity I realized I could use Yukimura Keiko to my advantage.

My lips twitched, wishing to turn up into a grin.

"Yes..." I said, "I have a plan."

And so I told Keiko everything that I knew. Far more than I had told anyone before. And so she became the rock that would sway the sea in the coming days. Because she was no fool and although her emotions often ruled her, they would work in her favor.

I stood from the bed, reaching into the single drawer housed in a bedside table. From within I pulled the letter Koenma had handed me just days ago along with another, smaller envelope...and gave them to Keiko.

She looked up at me with confusion but I only smiled. "Give those to Kasumi, please."

"You don't want to?"

I shook my head, "Once I bring them back I will leave through a portal before they even have the chance to see me."

"Why?"

I turned away from her, wandering over to the open window, letting my arms dangle out against the sill. "I never wanted to come back to this place. Twenty years in the future became my home. I loved them as I would family."

I swallowed hard, emotion swelling in my chest. They were just residual feelings of the stolen heart that beat beneath my breast, I told myself. They were not real. Just as I was not real.

"What about Kasumi?"

"I love her Keiko, I always will. But she cannot become the woman she is meant to be with me standing in her way."

"I don't think that's true."

"It is. I have always known that to be true. So please, give her those letters in my stead. And tell her..." Here I paused, my throat closed up. "Tell her...that she will always be my light. My person."

I didn't realize tears had begun to stream down my face until the first droplets fell and landed to roll down the flesh of my arms. I cried, silent, the tears falling without rhyme or reason.

The letter I had written Kasumi was as much a good-bye as it was an explanation. She needed to know who I was – what I was – before anything else. Her mindless vendetta of saving me needed to come to an end. Her life held so much more meaning than that – mate, mother, warrior, queen. I was not the be all and end all of her, never did I want to be.

With my back still to Keiko I said, "Don't let her cry over me. Not for long." I turned, tears still falling but with a smile now on my face, "I trust you can beat her into shape."

Keiko laughed, a sad smile gracing her own features, and then nodded. "Of course."

. . .

The two days passed in quick succession. I spent them getting my final affairs in order. And like some kind of martyr, Keiko stayed with me the entire time. It worked to chase Takahiro off, however, so I didn't complain.

Even though Takahiro had always known what I was he'd never treated me any differently. But now that I was aware and – I guess you could say – awake, I didn't want that kind of treatment. So I had begun to shun him just as I had everyone else.

I knew he didn't deserve it. That he meant well. But a bitter part of me didn't care.

I chose a stone room in Genkai's temple for the summoning. It needed to be a big enough space, but small enough the vortex did not get out of control. I warded the walls, the windows and doors. I spent the entire morning painting the room in blood – my blood. Because what flowed through my veins held more power than my ill begotten energy. It had never been rightfully mine.

Everyday since I'd received the key it had screamed inside me to take it home. To give it back to its proper owner. It was a battle of wills, not unlike the one Kasumi fought with Chronos, but perhaps not quite as mind breaking.

Soon...soon it would return and things would be set to rights again. But Kasumi was not ready. And neither was anyone else.

The god needed to be absorbed before all else. The heart had to be consumed before that. I had gotten a vision, in the wee hours of the morning, that the heart would arrive in due time. They would come back broken and feeling as if they had failed. But Kasumi had changed things...too many things and the heart would fall into their hands one way or another. But she had to be the one to eat it.

In previous visions she had given the damned thing to Hiei. Over and over she gives it to Hiei. And that is what brings on the downfall of the worlds. Because Kasumi tries to save me. And fails.

So Hiei, who loves her deep in the depths of his soul, makes a choice. He eats the heart. Becomes something...far more demonic than his original heritage. It was a power meant for gods and he wields it with an unending determination. Except...eating the heart comes with its own set of rules. It demands payment and payment the fire demon had to be willing to give.

He saves Kasumi. The world as we know it ends. And Hiei...

Well...

That is not my story to tell. This story was never meant to be about me. It was Kasumi's to tell and live.

It had always been her. And would always be.

I sat back on my hunches, blood flowing steadily from a long cut I'd sliced into my arm. It would heal soon enough and I would be forced to slice through the flesh again. My body had always worked that way.

It was a power I had always wanted to give away to Kasumi, for how often she was injured during training.

Thoughts of Kasumi's childhood, or lack thereof, made me think of my own. Our grandfather hadn't trained me because there had not been a point. Why bother, when I would never be able to take over his title? Kasumi was the only logical choice. And he pushed her. Every damned day he'd pushed her.

I knew Kasumi was under the impression that he just didn't think I was capable. That he wanted to torture her day in and day out. Because even though she liked to fight, in the pits of her heart she had wished for an easier life.

Grandfather's training had turned her into an adept figher. But the experience she would receive fighting alongside the Tantei would turn her into a warrior.

She needed to let her bitterness go. Once and for all.

And I knew she could. Had seen with my own eyes that she could.

It was the first step to the person she was meant to be – letting go of that anger. I wished I could be there to see it...

Someone clearing their throat behind me had me snapping from my reverie. I noticed that my arm had knitted back together, so I picked up the long forgotten knife beside me. I cut down my arm in a single stroke, without even making a face. I couldn't feel it. This body had long ago gone numb and soon it would degrade completely.

"You haven't done the circle yet?"

It wasn't accusatory, just a question. But it made my lips curl anyway.

"I will start now," I said, instead of snapping.

I dug my fingers into the fresh cut, letting the blood coat them, and began to draw. The runes were intricate, the most important part of the whole ritual. I focused solely on their composition, ignoring the presence at my back.

"You've used a lot of blood," he mumbled.

"Mm," was my reply. "It's okay."

For although my body was made up of the same chemical composition – carbon, nitrogen, calcium, hydrogen, phosphorus – I was not human. I had never been human.

The soul inside this body was manufactured. The heart was stolen.

Yes, I had once thought I was the true blooded sister of Morimoto Kasumi, and in a sense I was.

Just not how you'd expect.

That is why as the blood fled my veins it did not matter. I would not bleed to death. My body regenerated on its own...but it wouldn't for much longer. What held it together was whittled away by time and space and energy usage. It would decompose, fall to ruin...and return to the earth where it belonged.

Soon enough the presence of others joined Takahiro at my back – Kazuma, Keiko, Botan, Genkai, Yukina, Kurama and even Shizuru.

All of them were anxious, like balls of kinetic energy trying to break free. It electrified the room with emotion that only set me on edge.

They were worried, afraid I would not bring them back. Or if I did, it would be in pieces. I understood that. And yet...it still left an unpleasant feeling in my stomach.

I stood, the summoning circle finished. The wound on my arm had already begun to heal. I used the remaining blood on my fingers to draw ruins on the backs of my hands and my forehead – identical to Kasumi's while using Chronos.

"It's time," I breathed.

Come hell or high water, I would return them to this world whole and hale.

A set of large hands settled over my shoulders and for the first time in days I took comfort from his closeness.

As that wild energy, like the brewing of a storm, fled from his palms and into me I began to chant. The words, in a language as old as time, grew louder and louder. I held my hands in front of me as if in prayer, my eyes falling closed.

As the spell reached it's peak I fell to my knees, Takahiro following, and slammed my palms to the floor. They touched the edge of the circle and the blood began to glow. Brighter and brighter until the vortex opened and the floor disappeared.

I could feel them there. Deeper and deeper I delved, until my energy touched theirs. It called to them, pulling them up as if from perdition. I counted three, again and again, just to be sure I had all of them.

When the first hand reached from the vortex, gripping the floor that had turned into an edge. I once again stood and backed away.

They would finish from here. My time was done. I needed to go.

But even as I thought it, I stayed...I needed to be sure. Just let me see her...just once more.

The first person through was Yusuke. He plucked himself from the vortex as if it were a normal event in his daily life. He stood on solid ground, brushing off his dirty clothes. And then shot the room at large a bright, shit-eating grin.

Keiko launched herself into his arms a second later, kissing him with a smile on her own lips.

I turned from them...watching, waiting.

The next hand was distinctive. Years of holding a blade had turned it calloused and rough. The skin tanned and scarred.

When Hiei emerged, his other arm still stuck in the vortex, I sucked in a sharp breath.

Something had gone horribly wrong.

His eyes found me as if on instinct, pinning me to the spot, the red unfathomable.

Yusuke untangled himself from Keiko's arms, darting back towards Hiei to help haul him from the vortex. The fire demon took his hand...and finally...she emerged.

He had her wrapped in the crook of his other arm. The runes of Chronos stood out stark against her skin. But it was the giant wound spanning across her back that had me leaping forward as if to piece her back together. The blood spilled to the floor in droves, mingling with my runes as the vortex closed the second Hiei's feet landed on the stone of Genkai's temple.

"What the hell happened to her?!" Kazuma screeched.

But I could not stay to watch. I could not wait to make sure she lived. I had to hold onto hope that she would, that Hiei would not let her perish before her time had come.

And so I backed away, even as the fire demon's eyes burned bright, a fire in their depths promising a swift death should I betray them.

I called my power around me, the bright green wind storm surrounded my body...

And I left them in chaos.

. . .

A/N: Some insight into Hitomi and what she saw in the future. The next chapter will skip back in time a bit.

I want to thank everyone for their continued support! This fic has been a true labor of love and I'm happy to receive each and every one of your reviews, favs, and follows! Till next time!