Ticking Timebomb

Chapter 64: Into the Viper's Den

A/N: I'm super nervous about this chapter guys. Be easy on me.

. . .

Kazuma and I spent what felt like months in that cell. But with each hour that passed, our energies helped heal and strengthen. The cell's bars were old and corroded, the spells they housed five hundred years in the past were long gone in this time. And with mine and Kazuma's energies filling up the tiny space, what was once fatal became just sore and itchy.

"Pretty stupid of them to stick us in here," he remarked, when he tugged at one of the bars and a bunch of rust crumbled off it. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"Maybe they ditched us. The two useless humans."

Kazuma gave me a sour look and then plopped down across from me, flexing his hands as he tried to produce his spirit sword. He managed several flashing bursts of energy but not much else. Too much of our stores were still going towards healing our wounds.

"You've known them long enough now to know that isn't true."

"Then why aren't they here? We already debated over them being captured or not and decided that they probably weren't...probably."

"You said back when you were here the first time it hid you from Hiei's third eye right?"

"Mhmm."

"And why isn't that possible this time? They just don't know where we are."

"Gimme a break, Hiei and Yusuke aren't that slow. They would have realized this is the only goddamn place we could be."

I picked at some pieces of crumbled rock and mortar, flicking them across the floor and letting my hair hide my face. Kazuma was being optimistic and that was just his nature, I couldn't fault him on that. But where he was a glass half full kind of guy, I was a glass half empty kind of girl.

"You really believe they'd just abandon us? Hiei's in love with you for cripes sake."

"Didn't that squick you out not that long ago—me and him?"

I looked up just in time to catch Kazuma blushing and rubbing the back of his neck raw. "I—uh..." he cleared his throat. "Yeah it did weird me out at first but that was because I thought he was after, ya know, that."

"That?"

"You know," he empathized, "that."

"Are you a grown man or not? You mean you thought he just wanted me for sex?"

"Arg! Don't say it!"

"Don't be a baby."

"I'm not being a baby, that isn't meant to be discussed with a lady!"

"Lucky for you I'm not a lady."

He rolled his eyes but a smile tugged at his lips and before we really realized what was happening, we were both laughing until tears cut tracks in the dirt on our faces.

Kazuma gripped his sides, the laughter making us both ache, but it was such a pleasant release after the past so many days.

"Come 'ere," he said, holding an arm up so I could crawl underneath it.

He tucked me into his side and I burrowed into his warmth. "We'll get out of this, I promise."

At least we weren't dead, I thought. But none of this made sense. Takahiro alone should have been able to break in here, add on three of the strongest demons around and it should have been a walk in the park. So where were they?

I still wasn't sure if it was Hideki who'd captured us or Mikail. Or maybe both.

If they were working together...it would explain how Mikail's armies were able to sneak up on us. Hideki had plenty of power to open rifts large enough for full scale armies.

"Kazu?"

"Mm?"

"Your sword...it can make portals right?"

That's how we'd made it here the second time, I'd watched Kazu slice through space, a thin cut that widened into a full blown hole to demon world.

"It cuts through whole dimensions. Portals are nothin' compared to that."

"So it's easier to create a portal in the same dimension?"

"Uh...I guess. Never really thought about it. But it's probably similar to that freaky teleportation thing you do."

I was about to explain my theory, to jump into a tirade about how I was certain Hideki was behind all of this. But after days of hearing nothing except dripping water and Kazuma's voice, footsteps coming down the dungeon's hall silenced me.

Both Kazuma and I climbed to our feet and rushed to the bars. I could see torchlight in the distance, but it was held at an angle that only allowed for me to see the person's feet.

Fancy shoes and white slacks that were rolled up so as to avoid getting them dirty.

It wasn't until they drew closer that I saw the flash of wicked teeth—opal teeth, that sparkled in the light of the flame.

"Mikail," I greeted, when he finally stopped before our cell, his smile vicious and devoid of all humor.

"I wish I could say it was good to see you again," he said, his voice still thickly accented as it was five hundred years ago.

"This guy's Mikail?" Kazuma said, giving me an incredulous look.

Mikail didn't look much different than the last time I'd met him. He showed his age, though it looked more like he'd only gained ten years at most, instead of five hundred. He was small statured and haughty and held himself as if he were a noble. The only thing that belied his constant toil as a craftsman was the clear abuse his hands took over the years—rough, calloused, and scarred in many places.

His hair was longer but dirty compared to his time spent working for Konstantin. He looked as if he were trying his best to seem presentable...but tiny pieces of his appearance gave it away.

Poor. He was a poor, destitute man now.

"Why did you throw us in this cell? I came here to talk with you. I thought you'd hear me out."

"I held great respect for you after you destroyed Konstantin and his cronies," he said. "But that respect was quickly rescinded when you and your companions slaughtered the people in this city. My people. The people who I freed from slavery and brought together so they may take over this slavers city and claim it as their own."

"What the hell are you talking about! We didn't hurt anyone!"

I placed a hand on Kazuma's arm, a way of placating him. If he flew off the handle I might never get the information I needed off Mikail.

Sensing exactly what I was thinking, Kazuma backed off and let me take the lead.

"We arrived at this city to find your people already dead, Mikail. We had no reason to kill anyone."

"Oh, but that's just not true. Is it, Kasumi?"

The voice sent unpleasant shivers down my spine. His steps were so silent, his gait so well controlled, I never heard him as he made his way down the long length of hall. Even now that I could see him, body half enshrouded in darkness, standing just outside of the ring of light cast by the torch, he was still silent as death.

"Hideki," my voice came out as a growl, low and angry. What the hell was he doing here?

He strode over to Mikail and placed a hand on the much shorter demon's shoulder. "Why don't you tell him the truth, Kasumi? There's no point denying it now."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"We didn't kill anyone you bastard! Not until we were ambushed with your shady tactics!"

Hideki clucked his tongue and with a wave of his hand Kazuma was engulfed by dark smog. Smog that choked him and brought him to his knees, desperately clawing at his throat.

"Stop!" I shouted. "Please don't hurt him!"

Hideki stepped closer, so close to the bars I could feel his breath when he spoke. "Is he precious to you, Kasumi?"

I didn't know what to do. Kazuma was beside me turning blue, my panic was near suffocating, but I knew if I told him yes it wouldn't help me in the slightest. But I could not lie, either...

"Yes," I breathed. "He is precious to me. So please, if you have any heart at all, please release him."

My hands wrapped around the rusted, flaking bars, all semblance of taking control of this situation gone. I would do what he asked. I would never put my friends at risk. Never.

"It's nice to hear you beg," Hideki said. "Almost as nice as seeing you on your knees with my cock in your mouth. That's something I would love to see again."

My face heated, anger searing through me, but I knew if I spoke out now, if I tried to defend myself, he would kill Kazuma.

I was just thankful Hiei wasn't here to listen to this.

Hideki played us all. Mikail believed we were the ones who killed the residents of this city and a large portion of his soldiers. But I knew now that it was Hideki all along, that he'd planned ahead just for this moment.

I had so easily landed directly into his grasp.

I did not have the ability to fight him. No one could kill him without the dragon's heart and Mukuro wasn't going to reveal her hand anytime soon.

I was fucking screwed. Played like a goddamn fiddle.

The only out I had was convincing Mikail of the fact we'd never hurt his people. And I couldn't see that happening, not with how well Hideki could manipulate people.

"You're a bastard," I said.

And he just smiled. A smile I once thought was attractive. A smile that they made me fall in love with him all those years ago.

"Yes, I suppose that's true, considering I murdered both my mother and father," he said. "Will you do as I ask?"

He wasn't going to tell me what he wanted. Not until I agreed.

I looked to Kazuma only to find desperate, watering eyes pleading with me to do something. He would die like this. He would die if I didn't go along with what Hideki wanted.

So I hung my head and muttered, "Yes."

"Please speak up, Kasumi. I'm afraid I couldn't hear you."

The way he said my name was revolting, but I held my head high and said again, "Yes. I will do as you ask."

With a flick of his wrist Kazuma could breathe again. He fell to the ground, grasping at his neck and coughing, unable to draw in a proper breath.

"Kas..." he choked out, his voice broken and ragged, like shattered glass.

I knelt and placed a palm against his cheek. "It's okay. I promise."

But his pain filled eyes spoke volumes. He knew I was lying.

I stood again, turning burning eyes towards Hideki. "Let him go and I'll do whatever you want."

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "That's up to Mikail, he is his prisoner after all."

Mikail eyed Kazuma as if he were looking at a bug he would very much like to squash. After several heartbeats he waved a dismissive hand. "My business isn't with this poor excuse of a male anyway."

He opened the cell, Hideki reaching in and grabbing me before I could so much as yell. He pulled his sword and pointed it at Kazuma, lifting my friend's chin with its tip.

"You will wait here and leave in exactly fifteen minutes. Not a second sooner. And I will know if you do, so no games." He pushed the blade into Kazuma's jugular, just enough to draw a drop of blood. "Do you understand?"

Kazuma's lip turned up into a snarl, his eyes full of such enraged hatred that I almost didn't recognize him.

Hideki dropped his blade and tucked me beneath his arm. "Come."

Kazuma did not chase after us. Smart. Smarter than I'd been.

He would find the others. I just needed to endure this for a little while. And then I would take Hitomi and be rid of Hideki. I would get the heart and I would kill him in cold blood, and even that would be too merciful of a fate for him.

"I hate you," I snarled.

He just laughed, the sound loud and echoing in the dungeon, and lifted his sword. He slashed an X in the air and cut open a black hole—a portal to god only knew where.

I stared into that maw with hard resolve: I would get out of this. I wouldn't let him win.

And he would regret the day he decided to fuck with me.

. . .

Hideki brought us to a place I did not recognize. A place with no noticeable exit and decorated so lavishly it made me sick to look at.

It was about the size of a large apartment and there were no windows, but all the doors held panes of glass. Easier to keep an eye on me I supposed.

I could see Hitomi through the doors that led into a study, sitting at a desk, reading through some papers. What the hell was she doing? Working for Hideki? And why would a criminal mastermind have so much paperwork anyway?

None of this made sense.

He ran a hand down my back and I jerked away, revolted.

"Make yourself at home," he said, nodding towards the study.

"I didn't come here for fucking tea and cookies. What do you want?"

He strode over to the fireplace, the ornate mantle bedecked with various trinkets. Some moved, others shined like stars, and then there were the more dangerous looking items—daggers and various potion bottles that housed sinister colored liquids.

"What I've always wanted," he said, leaning an arm against the mantle and staring down into the flames. "You."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "You've tried to kill me—repeatedly."

"That was before I realized how special you were. That night I sliced you open...and the thing inside you awoke..." he sucked in a shuddering breath, his eyes shining with some kind of crazed light. It made a cold chill slide down my spine.

He turned from the fire, face once again morphed into a placid smile, the insanity of before gone as if it never were. "Well, what's done is done. I am just glad to have this time with you now."

"You're insane," I said in disbelief. It was like stepping back in time. Back when I was sixteen and in love with an older man.

Hideki looked no different from back then—all hard edges, and dark, styled hair. Eyes almost as black as the night sky and lips sinfully full. He was model perfect—tall, handsome. But beneath that lied a serpent. A serpent that spat venomous words that poisoned my very blood.

Nothing he told me now would matter. No amount of flattery or conversation or gestures even remotely kind would make me wish to remain here, with him, even with Hitomi.

If she chose to betray me, then I would turn against her too. I would do what I must to protect the people I cared about.

My eyes drifted back towards the study, towards Hitomi who still hadn't looked up from her work. Off in her own little world, it seemed.

Hideki moved to stand behind me, his presence looming and suffocating. "She's doing research. She's quite capable, smart, just like you. Although, perhaps she took the best pieces."

I stiffened. He was aware of what she was then.

"It's the reason you have no color in your eyes, the fact that so many of your powers are missing and you can't control the beast inside you. She took that...doesn't that make you...angry?"

I shook my head and huffed out a breath of annoyance. "Of course not. She didn't ask to be made, did she? You idiot."

I heard him snarl just before he reached around me, wrapping his arms tight, one hand at my throat forcing my chin up. He looked down at me with pure rage in his eyes and in my infinite idiocy I bared my teeth at him.

"It seems you will not be so easily swayed," he said.

He let me go abruptly and I stumbled away, surging towards the study door and barreling through it, slamming it closed behind me. I leaned against it, catching my breath, thankful that he didn't give chase.

Not that it mattered. There was no escape from this place. Not unless he wanted there to be.

Eyes closed, hand to my chest to try to calm my beating heart, I nearly jumped from my skin when Hitomi spoke. "Hello, sister."

All I could do was stare.

She was smiling, as if she didn't have a care in the world, as if she wasn't sitting in the viper's den like she'd lived here her entire life.

A horrible, incensed rage built up in my chest.

"What the hell are you doing?" I barked. Angry, I was so angry. How could she do this? How could she stay here with him knowing what he was?

She shuffled around the papers, stacking them neatly into a pile on the side of the desk, and then folded her arms against the wood.

"I asked him to bring you here," she said.

"And he listened?"

"Yes."

I stalked closer, slamming my hands down on the desktop, rattling the pens and lamp and making the papers jump, become less neat.

"Explain," I ground out from between clenched teeth. I wanted to shake her, to throttle her until she spilled all her secrets.

Her face was melancholy, almost sad, in a way that caused me to take in a shaky breath and then fall into a chair close to the desk.

"I've offered him my body for sacrifice. I don't have much longer anyway and by giving him what he wants, he's chosen to protect you."

"You're just as insane as he is."

"Do you...know what I am? Has Kurama told you?"

I sniffed, rubbing at my nose and looking anywhere other than at her. "Hiei did...but part of me already knew."

"Then you understand that my body isn't real. I am essentially a golem, made up of your genetic material. I was never designed to live past the age of twenty-five."

"So, what? Was I supposed to die at twenty-five too?"

"Enma's plan was to end the need for vessels with us. He found a new way to contain the gods, to use their power to his advantage. I destroyed all that when...Amano Ren sacrificed his life to kill the king of spirit world."

"You knew all along?"

"I've seen many outcomes, many timelines, many different choices. I have gone back and forth for so long, not even I can keep things straight anymore."

"You need to tell me. You can't keep things secret anymore. Please, Hitomi, if you ever cared for me at all..."

"Of course I do. I love you, Kasumi. Which is why I must do this. Why you must live."

"I still don't understand...I don't understand anything! All I ever wanted was to save you, to be a family again!"

She sighed and sat a little straighter in her chair, eyes tearful and face sullen. That face so much like mine and yet lacking in so many ways. She did not harbor the same harshness, her edges were softer, even after having witnessed countless awful things. Horrors even I would never be able to comprehend.

"Hiei will be your downfall," she said after only a moment's hesitation. "He has caused a disruption in every single timeline, no matter the actions I've taken to stop him. He always, always causes a ripple that creates a wave of unknown magnitude."

"You're telling me my soulmate is the reason I'm going to die?"

"I'm telling you Jaganshi Hiei is the reason the world ends. In every single timeline."

"No...no!" I shouted, shooting to my feet and pointing towards the study door. "He is! Hideki is the reason! You have no right to blame Hiei for something outside of his control!"

"You are aware he's the reason a piece of the soulmate tether is gone, aren't you? That he caused Penance to join forces with Ryuunosuke. A problem that will not be easily rectified."

"I—I...didn't know."

"His intentions were good," she said, "he did it to save you when you nearly succumbed to the Makai's air. It was given in trade for an antidote. But it caused many problems nonetheless."

She rose from her chair, running her fingers along the spines of all the books housed within Hideki's study. Absentminded, cold...different. The Hitomi of my childhood was long gone. She was what I needed back then—someone to protect, to care for. But now...

Now she was my dose of reality.

"I love Hiei," I murmured.

"You would in any lifetime, sister. In any time, in any space. He is your chosen."

She turned to me, her gaze piercing and breathtaking. "But that does not mean you must bend to his every whim. You have an intelligent, inquisitive mind. Think for yourself, do not worry what it will do to him or anyone else."

I felt choked up, my chest suddenly hollow and aching. "Please...don't tell me that. Don't tell me what I think you're about to..."

She knelt in front of my chair, her smooth, unblemished hands squeezed my knees. Meant to be a comfort, but only made my heart clench.

"I will not tell you what to do. From here on I can no longer see the path ahead. There are too many variables, too many tangled lives and timelines. I've lost my ability of clairvoyance."

Something surfaced in my mind, unbidden, but a weight that I hadn't been able to ignore for sometime. Hitomi's powers were meant to be mine...but what about the key?

What would happen...if Hitomi were to die?

I reached out, cupping Hitomi's cheek. "What is the key, Hitomi?"

Her lashes fluttered, eyes surprised, but it soon melted into understanding. "That...is your best course, my sister. You know this."

"All I ever wanted was to protect you."

"And you have, until the very end. Even with this, you are still saving me, saving yourself."

I trembled, my hands shaking, tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. It was something I long wished I could purge from my mind, a choice Chronos had given me sometime ago. I'd never spoken a word of it, couldn't bring myself to.

But I knew...I knew it was my only option now.

"You were always a sister to me," I told Hitomi. "And I will always love you like one."

"He will still open the door, Kasumi. He will use any means necessary. There are other ways...than just the power granted by the gods."

"I will stop him. I swear it."

"It calls for a sacrifice of a vessel. But Koenma's information is incomplete. There is more than just us, find them...before he does."

"But that makes no sense...we are the only ones that control Purgatory, aren't we?"

"There are more than just two Titans, Kasumi. There are many ancient gods."

"So you're telling me there are people like us, roaming around with other gods inside them? That's ridiculous."

"The key is not a physical object. I am no different than you. What is inside me is no different. The gods all ruled over something different, their powers coinciding with that, but it doesn't make a difference in the magnitude of the power itself. Any one of them could open the door if given up as a sacrifice."

"There's another god inside you?" I breathed. "You can't be serious?"

I could barely handle the one...who the hell was inside Hitomi?

A surge against my mind, a straining, desperate call for me to listen and obey.

"Yes. Please, child of man, accept what she is offering. Take it and use it and defeat your enemies. But do not deny me this."

Chronos...she sounded so...heartbroken.

"Please. I have waited so long...far too long."

And in all this time, not once had she ever begged. Not once had I ever heard her so desperate.

"Who is inside you, Hitomi?" I finally asked.

"A god known as Kairos. A lord of time, just like Chronos."

I felt, more than heard, when Chronos broke down. A horrible, maddening pain that made the tears still lingering in my eyes finally spill over. Soon I was sobbing, in pain for more than one reason. But the emotion that fueled it all...was love. A love so strong it was blinding.

Chronos...you were in love all this time. All that you have done was out of love, devotion for the lover you had lost. All your motivations, your manipulations...made so much more sense now.

"Please, Kasumi...I must be by their side again."

It wasn't often she used my name, or acknowledged me as anything other than the bag of flesh and bones that housed her. So I knew what she was feeling was genuine. That she'd gone millennia without the being she loved and cared for. And that separation had made her cruel and cold and wrathful against those that wronged her.

"You will have no control over the power once it's been transferred to you. Your body will not be your own. Allow the gods to handle everything, if you don't you'll never make it back to them alive," Hitomi explained on hurried breaths.

"I still don't understand! If there's more gods, why did Hideki only target us?! It doesn't make sense!"

"Because we are the only ones awakened. The others were not given a purpose and just needed to be locked away. The rulers over Purgatory would not place their own kin there."

"So...Hideki didn't know about the others?"

"Not until I told him, at any rate."

"Why would you do that?!"

"I tried to divert his focus from you, but they're of no use to him while they're in hibernation. And waking them up is no easy task."

"This is some sick cosmic fucking joke. I keep hoping someday I'll just wake up in an insane asylum somewhere and realize this was just a fucked up dream."

"I wish I could tell you it is, that I could solve everything like I hoped...but I wasn't capable enough. I didn't have what it took."

"That's not true—!"

"This isn't the time to argue about what ifs and what could have beens! You need to make a choice, you need to make it now."

I felt like I couldn't breathe, that the air was fire in my lungs. My tears turned bitter and agonizing. Every second that ticked by felt like the razor sharp edge of blade, slicing into my skin, into my soul.

I needed to make a choice.

Stay here, do as Hideki asked, play his games to the fullest of my ability and just keep hoping he'll leave my friends alone. Or...

"I need you," I said. "I don't know what to do, Hitomi, not like you."

"I am you, Kasumi. I will return to where I belong, my memories included. You'll know all that I do."

"I can't, how can I do something like that?"

She smiled, soft, genuine—everything I wasn't. "I was never supposed to be, don't you get it? I am just a part of you, so please, place me back where I am meant to belong."

She slipped a letter opener into my open palm, closing my fingers around it. "Make it quick. Before he notices."

The chair was angled just right to block us mostly from view. He wouldn't see unless he entered the room. Giving us this privacy to reunite could very well be his undoing.

Or perhaps in the end...it would only be mine.

I gripped the makeshift dagger with both hands, hands that shook and trembled to the point I couldn't keep them steady. I couldn't do this. There was no way I could look her in the eye...and murder her. This grown woman who I still looked at and remembered as the little girl from our childhood. The gift I thought an angel brought me after my parents' deaths.

"Kasumi—!" she pleaded, eyes imploring me to do what needed to be done.

The only way...how could this be the only way? How had I gotten myself into this mess?

I blocked out Chronos' ill begotten encouragement. I let my mind go blank, as if I were falling into meditation. I pressed the tip of the letter opener against her throat...

And let it fall from my fingers to the floor.

It clattered across the wood, disappearing beneath the desk. I slumped back into my chair and buried my face in my hands.

"I won't do it," I said. "I can't."

"Kas..."

Even if it would solve all my problems, even if it would give me the power to stop Hideki...

I would never be able to kill Hitomi.

Not in any lifetime, not for any reason. Even if she was never meant to exist in the first place.

This was a Spirit World fuck up.

And I would be damned if I didn't make them take responsibility for it.

The door opened behind us. That dark, suppressing energy filtered through the room like smog.

I rose from my chair, pushing Hitomi behind me, and turned to face the man my stupid teenage self had found a way to love and said, "I'll do whatever you want. As long as you don't hurt the people I care for."

Hideki smiled, perfect teeth and five o'clock shadow making him appear devilishly handsome—a wolf not even trying to hide behind a disguise. He knew he had me, hook, line, and sinker.

He held out a hand and I grasped it, giving it a firm shake. A deal struck.

"Welcome aboard, Kasumi."

. . .

A/N: Lots of confusing plotty shit this chapter. And lo and behold, Kasumi has gotten herself tied up with Mr. Big Bad. I was honestly really excited to have Hideki (aka Ryuunosuke) finally play a larger roll in the story, instead of just the background mastermind behind everything awful in Kasumi's life. Everyone will get to learn a lot more about his character in the coming chapters.

Next chapter will be in Hiei's POV!

Thanks for reading!