Ticking Timebomb

Chapter 58 – The Impact

A/N: I'm sorry about any confusion the rewrites of chapters 56 and 57 caused! If you haven't done so already, please go back and read them again as many things have changed! I updated during the time the site was experiencing a glitch, so if you were not notified of the previous chapters please take the time to read through them! We pick back up in Kasumi's POV. Enjoy!

. . .

I don't think I had ever had such a hard time keeping my cool. Most people would probably be freaking out, maybe even groveling – but not me. I stood before the lord of Alaric's throne, Hiei beside me, his right eye swollen shut and body one giant bruise – and I was pissed. By the smirk on Mukuro's face I was sure she knew it too.

I kept myself still, my fury at the other woman overshadowing the fiery tendrils of pain racing down my spine. I could feel the surreptitious glances Hiei cast my way, checking to see if I was okay standing alone, and I bit back the scathing remark I wanted to send his way. I couldn't show weakness in front of this woman – not an ounce.

We watched and waited in silence as Mukuro looked over and signed several papers her demon lackeys brought to her attention. I knew she was dragging this out just to irritate us and it had me gritting my teeth in order to keep quiet.

I still had no idea where the others had gone to, my search for them having been subverted by this...woman. I had no doubts that they were safe, Yusuke had assured me they would be, but that didn't mean I was happy with my current situation.

As the minutes ticked by and my back became stiffer with the exertion, I shifted my balance from one foot to another. Mukuro's eyes zeroed in on this one simple movement and I glared at her. A subtle change in Hiei's stance occurred then. He had been careful to keep at least a few feet of distance between us. But now he angled his body just enough to make it blatantly obvious that he was protecting me.

His eyes never left the woman sitting on that throne after that.

When she waved off the last demon – a hodgepodge of different species from what I could tell – she crossed her legs and steepled her hands, as if contemplating what to do with us. I felt like I was waiting to be executed for a crime I hadn't committed.

"You've suffered a terrible injury to your spine," she pointed out. "Tell me, who was the culprit that caused it?" she asked. Although I had no doubts that she already damn well knew who.

I said nothing. And neither did Hiei. It was a miracle I was even standing there, but I didn't need Mukuro knowing that.

Her lips twisted with impatience but she was no lord of mine and I wouldn't take an order from her. She could kill me if she wanted. But it wouldn't get her anywhere.

She rose from her throne and Hiei moved, so fast even Mukuro stood there with wide eyes. He blocked me from her view, his short stature somehow imposing and sinister. And it made Mukuro laugh.

Hiei's hands were white knuckled around the hilt of his blade, but he didn't dare pull it just yet. I shuffled forward, brushing a hand down his spine. He shivered, his body betraying him, and turned to look at me with stunned eyes as I moved passed.

"You are brave, girl."

I looked up at the woman, face an impassive mask. "This has nothing to do with courage." I placed a hand on my hip, my lips twisting into a sneer. "It's simple anger."

"Anger...? Or protectiveness?"

"Both," I said.

"And what could you possibly do as you are? Even if you had come fully healed you wouldn't stand a chance."

"I don't care," I snapped. "And you'll find that my stubbornness alone is often what keeps me alive."

She released a bark of laughter and then with her arms held before her as if in surrender, she walked to me. I heard Hiei growl at my back but he couldn't fight all my battles for me, this was something I had to deal with alone. It was a pissing match between the other woman and I, and she knew it as well as I did.

"Follow me," she said as she strode by us towards the large double doors that led out of the throne room.

I cast Hiei a glance and caught him looking at me too, the set of his jaw stiff and muscles tense. I didn't care what Mukuro thought. Didn't care that Hiei didn't want to be near me when he was here. I closed that space between us, my fingers reaching up to prod at his swollen eye. Oh how I hated to see him hurt. It made that fury in me flare to life again, especially when he reared back, keeping that distance between us.

With a seething sea of anger rushing through my veins I pivoted on my heel, suppressing the gasp at the pain in my back, and shouted, "I love him!" Mukuro paused her stride, whirling around to stare at me.

I heard Hiei choke on his own saliva before he released a rasping growl of my name, "Kasumi – !"

But I cut him off before he could reprimand me, "I love him, against all odds I love him, and you are just another obstacle for me to conquer."

Her face showed nothing. I half expected to be struck down right there for my insolence. And from Hiei's troubled aura beside me I was sure he expected it too.

But Mukuro just held out a hand, her lips twisted in a wry smile, and said, "Come."

We walked deeper and deeper into her fortress. I was forced to stop on numerous occasions, using the grotesque looking walls for support. Hiei always remained nearby, watching and waiting, prepared to catch me if I fell but hoping it wouldn't come to that. He had refused to touch me since we'd been in Mukuro's presence and I knew that wouldn't change now. Hell, he'd barely even spoken a word to me since earlier.

I tried to understand his reasoning, I really did. But I also thought it was idiotic – that if he touched me or showed me any favor it would be a sign of weakness on his part. Hiei's world was hard for me to comprehend and try as I might it hurt for him to treat me this way, as if we weren't even friends let alone lovers.

And with a sudden clarity that felt like a punch to my gut...I wondered if we really ever had been friends? I wanted to think that, yes, we were on some existential level. Was it an unorthodox friendship? Sure. But that didn't mean we weren't friends at all, right?

When we finally reached our destination, Mukuro slipping through a door, I paused again. I reached out and grabbed Hiei, my fingers digging into his wrist so he couldn't shake me off. "Are we friends?" I asked. Because my brain had become stuck on that and I had to know, to be certain that I wasn't stuck in some delusion.

He stared at me as if I was stupid and then wrenched my hand from his arm. He followed after Mukuro, pausing for a brief moment to make sure I was behind him.

I felt something die in me then and my heart cracked. I knew he was cold and aloof at the best of times. But I had thought...

I don't know what I had thought. Why would sex and my confession of feelings make a difference? He'd spent years this way and what did I think, that I could come along and change him? I didn't want to change him, not really. I had hoped he could be more...open...at least with me. Because I knew he hid most of his feelings behind this giant wall of anger and hurt and repression.

I shouldn't have been so naive.

I kept my eyes trained to the floor when I entered the room, noticing that it was quite dark besides an odd fluorescent green glow. It made the floor ripple like water...

"What do you mean bringing us here?" Hiei's voice hissed and I finally looked up.

I could only describe the room we were in as a medical lab...and even that was pushing it. Minus the odd looking walls and floors that permeated the entire bug shaped fortress, this room was especially strange. There were cots and medical equipment such as IV units and heart monitors as well as carts that looked like they might hold medications. Cases lined the walls with surgical items and sterilized materials and bandages and suture kits.

It was a doctor's wet dream.

But even all of that wasn't the weirdest thing about it. Stretching the length of one of the back walls was a row of tanks, shaped like massive vein covered eggs. They were filled with greenish glowing water and I could see wires and cords hooked up to large monitors. Strange masks held in sterile cases were mounted on the wall beside each tank.

I felt a chill travel down my spine.

Where the hell had I seen this before?

And before I could even ask Chronos brought forth the memory, her cackle at my obvious unease making my hackles rise.

This was one of the things she had tortured me with all those months ago – those things about Hiei's past. I was seeing through his eyes, waking up inside one of those tanks, struggling to pull the mask from his face. Fists pounded at the glass, wires surrounded his waist and leads to a heart monitor were stuck to his chest.

I don't know how I hadn't readily recalled this particular memory. More than likely it was because I had tried to purge it from my mind. It was not quite as bad as the memory of him receiving the Jagan implant...but it was horrible all the same.

The odd wires around his waist and arm had been used to knit him back together from a wound that should have killed him. In fact, he should have been cut in half. But whatever was in the tank had saved him...and now he was struggling to breathe, drowning inside it.

Even though I knew he hadn't died, that someone (Mukuro most likely) had freed him from the tank, it still made my stomach twist. I felt bile rise in my throat and choked it back.

Chronos pulled back the memory at my insistence, but she hovered at the edges of my mind, watching the proceedings through my eyes. I let her, if only for the fact I knew she was there...biding for a time to strike.

"I have brought you here because I intend to fix the damage you caused," Mukuro replied to Hiei's biting question. "Just as you asked me days ago."

She cocked her head towards me and Hiei's uninjured eye narrowed dangerously. "What game are you playing Mukuro?"

"No games," she said. "I only wish to see her at her fullest potential."

"What the hell does that mean?" I snapped.

Her gaze turned scathing, and I reared back from that look, afraid if I said another word she'd rip out my throat. "It means that I am considering making an exception to a rule I've had in place for a very, very long time. And I can't cast a clear judgment when you are at half your strength."

"Mukuro...?" Hiei's voice was – dare I even think it – hopeful.

"When she least expects it we will fight her together...and take back what is rightfully yours!" Chronos crowed, her voice drowning out the world around me.

"You're insane. Even with your help I couldn't possibly beat someone like her."

"If you use Oblivion in its entirety you could."

I froze. I hadn't even attempted to use Chronos' finisher since the time it had nearly killed me. And in the aftermath I had been attacked by Penance. I could not risk that again. I should thank my lucky stars the thing hadn't appeared in the aftermath of the battle with Caius.

"There's no way Chronos, I won't do it. If Hiei can't beat her..."

"Hiei does not have the same things at stake. He likes his position beneath her. Do you really think he wants to fight her? To leave her side to be with you of all people? A human girl, an injured human girl whose lifespan does not even hold a candle to his?"

I hadn't considered that, I had just assumed that Hiei had come here to tell Mukuro he was leaving...and that she had hurt him in the process. That she had not taken the news well and had forbid him from returning. I had not considered that this is where he'd planned to bring me all along. That he had been hiding these facts from me, coercing me with guilt trips that I didn't deserve.

I had come to this conclusion after Yusuke's hasty explanation of who and what she was. But perhaps I had been wrong. Maybe Hiei had done all this of his own volition...and this was just part of their daily routine. Maybe he had never planned to return to human world at all. I couldn't blame him...not after that pathetic display from a few nights ago.

I needed to stop assuming things about the fire demon. Just because I loved him did not mean he felt the same about me. And who was Mukuro to him anyway? Surely not just his boss. They seemed too close...too...knowledgable...of each other. The fact Hiei had not spoken a word about her also caused warning bells to signal off in my head. I mean, this was important. Wasn't it? He had a job...a life here. He could rule this part of demon world someday.

Wasn't that something you should tell your fucking girlfriend?

But maybe he didn't care...because I would be dead soon anyway. So why waste the breath?

I felt a coldness sweep through my bones. I blocked Chronos out, ignored her incessant scheming and ideas of grandeur. "What do you need me to do?"

Hiei cast me an incredulous look and I half expected his jaw to fall to the floor. But Mukuro's eye shone with something close to respect...but not quite, as if she still wasn't sure about me.

She cocked her head towards one of the empty cots. "Strip, lay on your stomach." Then she turned to Hiei. "You, leave."

"No," he growled.

"If I wanted to kill her Hiei, I would have done so already."

The truth in her words did nothing to placate the fire demon. He stood rooted to the spot, his hands clenched in tight fists.

"It's okay," I said, voice quiet. "Maybe you could go and find the others."

"What a splendid idea," agreed Mukuro. "Go see what mischief the heir of Raizen has gotten into. And I am sure the fox has done some sneaking about as well. Old habits die hard, after all."

Hiei still didn't move. His single good eye had settled on me, but I averted mine, knowing that if I let that red swallow me that I would break. He held me crushed beneath his thumb, perhaps unknowingly, but one word and I would change my mind. Each second I stood here my legs shook and soon enough my fake bravado would crumble. I didn't need him here to witness anymore weakness from me, Mukuro be damned.

He took in a deep shuddering breath, as if collecting himself, and said through his teeth, "If even a single hair on her head is out of place..."

"Yes, yes, save your threats." Mukuro dismissed him with a wave of her hand. Hiei took one last look at me, imploring me to look him in the eye, but I turned and began to strip off my clothing.

I heard the door slam shut as my shirt fell to the floor, the red cloth pooling there like blood. I wore nothing underneath, because I had found that a bra was painful. As my trembling fingers went to work the buttons and zipper on my pants that is when my legs gave out beneath me.

I didn't crumple to the floor, as I had expected. Instead, I found myself held aloft in Mukuro's arms, her hold strong and unwavering. She deposited me on the edge of the cot and I shucked my pants, sitting in just a pair of underwear. A blush had blossomed across my chest and traveled its way to my cheeks.

She looked me over, her gaze clinical, a hand going to her chin and eye narrowing. I wondered why she hid the other and soon found out as she removed the piece of cloth from the other side of her face. The other half was a ruined mess, the original eye long gone and a robotic fake in its place. It zeroed in on me and I realized its sight must be far better than her regular one.

"Tortured," she mumbled as she drew closer, crouching to look over my legs. Her hands trailed up them, just as calloused as Hiei's. She found the large scars at my thighs where Caius had forced hot iron pokers through them.

"Burned..." she said beneath her breath, eyeing my chest now where I'd had hot oil poured over me.

She stood and rounded the bed. "Lay down," she instructed.

I did as I was told, laying flat on my stomach and spreading out on the cot. Her hands at my back made me jump and then hiss in pain. "Whipped," I heard her say. It was then I realized she was cataloging things about me for later perusal.

"And finally," she said, "Nearly sliced in half." Her hand traced the long still healing slash down my back, fingers catching in the stitches, ending at my right hip.

"How many fights have you seen girl?" she asked.

"Enough," I replied.

She laughed low in her throat. I was sure my number didn't hold a candle to her or Hiei. She probably thought I was some big joke. And I was starting to wonder if that wasn't true myself. My entire life felt like it was one big fucking cosmic joke after all.

"And how often do you train?"

"I'm sorry, but are these questions relevant somehow?"

Her hands fell away and she worked her way around the cot so she could see my face. She looked down on me with detached disinterest, careful to keep her face blank. "I want to know what he has found of interest in you."

"Why don't you ask him yourself," I said.

She released a single laugh, "Ask him? Do you truly think he'd tell me?"

He wouldn't and we both knew it, so there was no point in my answering. So instead I asked, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because he asked me to," she continued her assessment, testing the strength of the stitches Kurama had done down the length of my back. "And as you well know, Hiei asks for nothing."

She wandered away, opening one of the many cases that lined the walls and pulling out a small pair of shears. "Those stitches will have to go."

I held out a hand, palm outwards as if I could stop her approach. "You're not coming anywhere near me with any sharp objects until you explain to the letter what you're going to do."

She stopped, staring at me with furrowed brows. "You are odd. Most humans would have pissed themselves at the mere sight of me. Yet you show little fear." She strode to the bed, clicking the scissors together once, ominously. "Tell me, are you stupid or just that confident in your abilities?"

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" I said, glaring up at her.

Her eyebrow rose and I could see she was trying to suppress a smirk. "I would end your life in an instant, girl. Do not be so quick to throw it away."

I folded my arms beneath my head, my eyes flicking away to stare at the wall. "You'd be wasting your time. I'm a dead man walking."

She cocked her head, contemplative now. "Why is that?"

"I have a time limit on my life. I won't be in the picture much longer, so don't worry. I've been a ticking time bomb since the day I was conceived."

Mukuro said nothing, she just stared down at me with a curious gaze, her head still cocked. A silence fell over the room that made me uncomfortable but I wasn't willing to elaborate further. It wasn't any of her business anyway.

The woman approached me, keeping the scissors within easy view. "I will begin by removing the stitches. From there I will administer a local anesthetic and reopen the wound. You've been healed...but the internal damage still remains. You will need surgery."

"And you're qualified for this?" I scoffed.

"Yes, and I have a team of healers that are quite capable as well. I am the ruler of these lands first and foremost, but I am a scientist a close second."

"That doesn't make you a doctor," I pointed out.

"I am knowledgeable in the medical field...though mostly with demon biology. Do you think Hiei would have wanted you to come here otherwise?"

"I...don't know."

"Would you like to call him in and discuss it before I begin?"

"No...don't bother. There's no point in troubling him further."

"It won't be any trouble, he's right outside the door."

I lifted my head to stare at her incredulously. I couldn't feel his energy, so how the hell had she known that? Could that mechanical eye of hers see through walls too?

"I know him well...but perhaps not as well as I had originally thought," she explained, seeing the question in my eyes.

My gaze bored into her for a moment, my mind working around that little fact, before I shook my head. "No, don't call him. Do whatever you want."

"You should not be so trusting," she said.

"I never said I trusted you. I'm just past the point of caring. Fix me or don't, it doesn't matter."

"You will never fight again in your current state. That wound, though outward will heal, will leave you aching for the rest of your days. Your body will not move like it once did. Is that what you want?"

I took in a deep breath and released it, placing my head in my arms once more. "If I said that it was would you call me a coward?"

"I would be interested to know why."

She began to snip away at the stitches, each cut efficient and clean. I felt when each thread was tugged from my flesh, the sting of the wound making my eyes water. I didn't understand why she was being...almost...nice. Though I wouldn't exactly call it that. It was more like she was tolerating my presence out of pure curiosity on her part. But surely my ties to Hiei weren't of that much interest to her?

"All I've done my entire life is fight...train...and fight again. And where has it gotten me?" I scoffed into my arms, feeling self pity begin to eat its way through me. "Destiny is what rules me now. No amount of strength or prowess will make a difference."

"What a pathetic way of thinking. I have not met many humans, at least none who lived long enough for me to speak with, but I find that you are the saddest of the lot."

"What do you know?" I groused.

"I've lived for hundreds of years and seen many things. Destiny is forged by those strong enough to bear its weight – not to be used as an excuse for weakness."

The final stitch was removed and Mukuro tossed aside the scissors on an empty table. She marched away from me then and I took notice of her rather uneven gait. I could see near the hem of her pants that one of her legs was metal just like her eye – a prosthetic. It made me wonder what could have possibly happened to her to cause so much damage. But it was not my place to ask, her invasive questions aside.

I watched as Mukuro wrenched the door open. Just outside, leaning against the opposite wall, was Hiei. He had his arms folded across his chest and did not seem at all surprised at being caught.

"Get in here," the woman snapped.

In which Hiei replied with a flippant, "I was ordered to leave, now you change your mind. Fickle, just like most women."

"And you are too stubborn for your own good. It seems we both have our faults."

She ushered him back inside and began to explain the situation. "She needs surgery. Repairs to the L3 and L4 vertebrae as well as T11 and T12. Repairs to the muscle in the lumbar region. I will have to place synthetic binders to hold together sections of the ligaments as well. Whoever healed her prevented the worst of the damage...but it will be hours of work all the same."

She strode away, towards what looked like a computer monitor but it was much larger than any I had seen before. She booted up the green glowing screen and began to type even as she continued to speak. "It's a miracle she can even stand, let alone walk."

Things in the medical bay came to life then. Lights flickered on and nearly blinded me, equipment began to whir and turn on as if by its own volition.

She turned back towards Hiei, ignoring my presence completely, as if I wasn't the one they were so blatantly discussing. "I will call in my team of healers –"

"No," Hiei cut her off, "No one else is to know she's here."

Mukuro pursed her lips, agitation lined her next words. "The entirety of Alaric will know she's here soon enough."

I had no idea what she meant, but it was apparent Hiei did if his face was anything to go by. I felt anger roil in my stomach. He was keeping things from me again. But neither party elaborated further, Mukuro and Hiei stood locked in a stare down. And I waited with bated breath on the table, nerves wracking their way through me.

It was Mukuro who broke first, albeit more out of impatience than anything. "We could place her in a tank."

My breath caught, causing Hiei to cast me an odd look, but his gaze quickly shifted back to the woman before him. A drop of sweat slid down the side of his face. "No," he said again, his tone firm and unrelenting.

Mukuro strode away, her fingers once more at her chin and lips in contemplation. She stood in front of the nearest tank, the green glow casting her in an odd watery light. "While I have never used one on a human I am sure the effects would be similar. It would be interesting to see, at any rate."

"Not on her," Hiei growled.

"What do you expect of me then, Hiei? What is your suggestion? For you have offered up nothing." She rounded on him then, her body held tight with tension, fury written across her face. "I will not operate on her without a team of healers at my beck and call. But if she's placed in a tank it's as simple as monitoring her vitals and it's far faster of a recovery time for her."

"No," he repeated.

Mukuro scoffed, folding her hands across her chest and glaring at the fire demon. "Then get her and your group of delinquents out of my fortress. You've brought enough ruin upon Alaric as of late, I do not have time to play your petty games."

"My games?!" he snarled. "What of you? Do not stand there and pretend you were not wishing for this outcome. What better way to vilify her if she can't fight back!"

Mukuro released a humorless bark of laughter, tossing her head back to add to the dramatic effect. "She has fight in her yet if you'd care to look. It is you who wishes for her to become a complacent doll, chained to a bed and safe for the rest of her days."

Something in Hiei's one good eye turned hard as stone then. A preternatural stillness fell over his body, it was hard to tell if he even still drew breath. I wondered if he would pick a fight with her, deny the words she had spoken. But he said nothing.

It was then that I lifted myself up on the bed, ignoring the glances the other two threw me as it took me far longer to sit than it should have. And when I had finally risen, turning my gaze to pin Hiei with a hard stare, was when I noticed the pain etched across his face. The way his eye swam with an emotion that would not have been there just months ago.

My heart sank.

Don't fall in love with me.

Please...whatever you do...do not choose to love my wretched soul.

I am not worth that suffering.

I am not worth that devotion.

I am not worthy...

I turned to Mukuro, even as true fear ate its way through me. "Put me in the tank."

A wicked smile curled across her mouth. "So be it," she said.

I didn't know who Hiei wanted to throttle more – me or her. But this had never been his choice to make. He was not the deciding factor.

And although I had resigned myself to death...

That did not mean I still didn't want a fighting chance.

As Mukuro helped me from the cot, Hiei's gaze burning holes into my back, and I stared up into that unnaturally colored water I thought to myself: Kasumi, this is a new level of stupid – even for you.

Even through my fear my heart picked up its steady rhythm, my resolve steeling, power molten and hot beneath my skin. I took two deep breaths...and nodded.

The water drained from the tank...the glass in front slid open. Mukuro held my hand, helping me up the dais and inside the now empty tank. I was fitted with a mask, the thing grotesque in shape and smelling of earthy things I didn't want to think about.

Mukuro stuck monitor leads to my chest and arms, testing each connection to make sure it worked as it should. Next came the cords, the wires, the needles connected to them that she stabbed into my spine, into my back. It made me grit my teeth, made me bite back the screams I wished to release and couldn't. For if I did he would stop this, he would pull the plug and carry me off and forget he had ever asked Mukuro for help.

I kept my gaze steadily on her the entire time. I couldn't look at him, not now. Not with tears streaming down my face from the pain. And I knew my budding trust in the other woman was surely misplaced. But she had just advocated for me, she had given me the choice...where Hiei had been unrelenting in his demands.

Because while what I had told her was true – I wished for a life where the fighting would come to an end – I could not lay down and die like a stray dog. I had people to protect, Hiei included. And it was time he realized that he was never meant to be my proverbial knight in shining armor (or fiery demon in black).

I was the heroine of my own narrative.

And I would save them all, if not myself.

The glass slid shut with an ominous whoosh.

As the bright colored water began to pool at my feet I did everything within my power to push down the rising panic. The memory of Hiei waking up in this tank was still fresh, still pushing at the corners of my mind, trying to choke me.

I did not let it.

I stared through that glass, my eyes never leaving the fire demon's. Not until my eyelids began to droop, the anesthetic coming from the mask connected to my face making me woozy.

I wished I could say I was thankful that the man I loved was the last thing I saw.

But I wasn't. Because I could see that pain swimming in his eye again, the other still swollen shut, making my gut clench. And I was left to wonder when he'd fallen so hard for someone like me.

And how the hell the impact hadn't killed both of us.

. . .

A/N: I've always headcanoned Mukuro as a scientist or someone with a medical background. I frankly love this chapter quite a bit and hope you all loved it too. Let me know what you thought, I love hearing from you guys! Thanks for reading!