Sorry about the slow update, but on a good note, the semester is over and now you will get much more frequent updates for a while. That said, thank you for being pacient with me while I finished up with finals! I hope you enjoy this new chapter.
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"Well shit," Zero spat. "What are we going to do?"
"What do you mean 'we'?" Kaname asked cruelly. "There's nothing you can do to help her. There may be nothing I can do to help her."
"You mean you don't know how to fix it?" Zero replied, his tone less haughty than he had intended it to be due to his worry over Yuuki.
"To my knowledge this has only happened a handful of times ever and . . . "Kaname trailed off his mouth refusing to finish voicing what he had seen. What he didn't tell Zero was that he remembered all of the times this had happened before and had been there for three of them, the end results had not been pretty. The ones that were killed had been the lucky ones. Sara's explosion had been a clean, pleasant end by comparison.
"And," Zero demanded ignoring the other man's obvious angst over the subject. "What the hell happened Kuran."
Kaname looked up from Yuuki's face and straight into Zero's violet eyes. Zero flinched at the lack of life in the pureblood's eyes. It was obvious that he had shut down. This is bad, Zero though, as much as I hate him, he isn't the type to shut down.
When Kaname finally spoke his voice was hollow. "Only one of them was able to be saved, the rest either killed themselves as their powers spiraled out of control or had to be killed to keep them from destroying everything around them."
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Yuuki opened her eyes slowly and had to blink a few times to adjust to the brightness around her. She was in a clearing surrounded by flowers, the sunlight a warm caress on her skin and hair. Something within her said this wasn't right, something about the scene felt wrong. The sunlight, she thought, it shouldn't feel nice.
No sooner had she reached that conclusion than the sky became overcast and a mist covered the ground then the light disappeared entirely. I'm sorry, she thought, I was wrong. The light was perfect. Please bring it back.
"Do you really think that will work?" a voice asked with a cruel laugh.
She glanced around her and assumed the voice was just in her imagination since she saw no one. She laughed at her own foolishness at conjuring a voice from nothing. Then she felt a hand grab her shoulder.
She spun abruptly to see who had touched her and almost sobbed when she saw Rido standing there smiling at her. She backed away from him and tripped over her own feed landing on her butt in a heap.
"Why are you here?" she demanded in a voice she wished was stronger than it came out. "You can't be here. I killed you."
He knelt in front of her and looked at her with what almost looked like pity. He reached out slowly and ran his knuckles gently up the side of her face. She knocked his hand away from her and glared at him.
"Don't touch me," she spat.
He leaned back on his heels and laughed at her, "Yeah, because that worked so well for you last time."
"Do not mock me," she snapped shooting to her feet. He stared at her in shock, his mismatched eyes wide at the power in her voice. "I killed you once, I can do it again," She finished.
"Wrong," Rido replied with a sad smile, shaking his head for emphasis. "You destroyed my body, not my soul."
"It's the same thing," Yuuki yelled exasperatedly. "Without a body a soul is irrelevant."
"Wrong again, little kitten," another voice said sadly from the other side of the clearing. Yuuki turned her head and saw Sara standing there with a gentle smile on her face.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Yuuki sighed. "It's bad enough that he haunts my dreams. Are you going to do the same since I killed you too?"
"What do you mean?" Sara asked her blue eyes filled with confusion. "You didn't kill me."
"You survived my attack?" Yuuki asked feeling her throat constrict. "Does that mean you killed Kaname?"
"Why ever would I do that?" Sara asked feeling more confused by the minute. "I have no quarrel with Kaname."
"Then why the hell did you just challenge us to a battle to the death?" Yuuki demanded.
"My dear," Sara said patiently, "I have no idea who you are. Why would I challenge you to a fight to the death?"
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Kaien's heart had frozen in his chest from the moment that . . . woman had grabbed Yuuki. He had felt blood lust stir in his veins for the first time in longer than her could remember. Even when he had dealt death to the level E's that had attacked the academy, he had not wanted to kill them. He had only killed them out of necessity. Now, however, he wanted the person who would dare threaten his daughter to die.
She's lucky that barrier is separating us, he thought viscously. If it wasn't, I would rip her limb from limb a small chunk at a time. She would beg for death before I finally let her have it.
A small part of him was worried at the rage he was exhibiting, but as soon as Yuuki cried out in pain it joined the chorus demanding Sara's slow and painful death.
When Kaname caused Sara to explode, Kaien was the only spectator that didn't flinch at the gore. In fact he was somewhat comforted by the red mist in the air. The red coated grass pleased him and he felt a bit of disappointment when the chunks of flesh turned to crystal. He was about to join Zero and Seiren when she stopped and Zero explained that the barrier was still up.
He wondered how it was possible that the magic had not dissipated when its caster had been killed but he had more important things to worry about: like how to help his daughter. He didn't know why she had attacked Kaname and had yet to get up, but he intended to find out. He couldn't hear the words Kaname and Zero were exchanging, but he could tell from their expressions that it wasn't good.
"Kaname, Zero," He asked getting their attention. "What is going on?"
"Yuuki has lost control of her powers," Kaname said simply. "Since we are protected from everyone without pureblood, I don't think it will be an issue, but I am going to try to enter her mind and help her regain control, can you make sure that no one comes near us while I do so?" He waited until they nodded and then added, "I don't think her powers can get out of the barrier, but if they do, just keep backing away from them or they will destroy you. Seiren, make sure the nobles are kept away. I want them to think she was injured. They are not to know the truth." She too nodded and then he closed his eyes and placed his hands on her face despite the way it burned him.
He steadied his breathing and allowed most of his consciousness to leave his body and attempt to enter her mind. She had surprisingly strong shields for someone untrained in psychic skills and it explained why he had been unable to completely bury her memories when he had kept her from Zero's conflict with Shizuka. But in the end he was stronger and soon he was inside her mind.
Her deep thoughts were a swirling miasma of pain, confusion, and frustration. He knew that Rido had hurt her deeply, but he didn't realize that her mind was so broken. He wished that he had been there and could have prevented her from being driven to this state. He needed to find her consciousness within this cloud of suffering and quickly but he had no idea where to start.
As though sensing what he wanted and intended, a tunnel appeared in the cloud and he decided to follow it. He was confused as he felt the tunnel lead out of her mind, but still continued to follow it knowing, somehow, that it was leading him to her.
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"I don't know why you would," Yuuki sighed, "But you just did."
"That's impossible," Sara whispered.
"Not really, I was fighting you until I ended up here," Yuuki replied.
"Yes, it is," Sara said angrily. "I've been dead for about three days. We are in the place pureblood vampires go after they die if they are not ready to be dead. "
"B-but," Yuuki began around the sob rising from her throat. "H-how? I. . . I was just fighting you, or your twin, even though that is impossible. Wait, does . . . does that mean that I . . . am I. . ." She couldn't finish the thought. If she was dead, that meant she . . .
She was so shocked by the possibility that she might be dead that she didn't even shake off Rido when he pulled her against his chest in an attempt to comfort her. She didn't even realize that he had grabbed her.
"But," she looked up at him, tears beginning to pool in her eyes, "I can't be dead."
"Technically anyone can be dead," Rido replied gently, pity in his eyes at her pain. "No one lives forever. Except apparently Kaname of course."
"Kaname," Yuuki breathed. "This will crush him. I can't leave him alone. Not like everyone else always has." She tried to sink to the ground and curl up in a ball, but Rido just pulled her to him and made her sob into his chest. "It's not fair."
"Though I don't know you, you must be young," Sara said gently. "Life is seldom fair. But I don't know why you are allowing him to comfort you. This is all his fault."
Yuuki looked up and seemed to realize for the first time that it was Rido who was holding her as she cried. He however was glaring daggers at Sara. "Why did you have to say that," he growled. "I should—"
"What," Sara cut in, "Kill me again? To quote you a little earlier, 'yeah, because that worked out so well for you last time'."
"Wait," Yuuki said, attempting to push out of Rido's embrace but unable to do so. "You killed her?"
He gave a kind of non-commital shrug in response as if to say "yeah, so?" and just looked down at Yuuki as if confused by her question. "Yes," Sara replied. "He killed me three days ago."
"But why?" Yuuki asked. "I thought you were after my blood. Sara would not have helped to protect me, what good did killing her do for you?"
"Why would killing her have to serve a purpose?" Rido asked in return. "I could have just done it because I wanted to." She sighed and continued to stare at him. "Ok, fine, I killed her because I knew there was a chance that I would not succeed in getting your blood in one try, Kaname is old enough to have more than a few tricks up his sleeve, and killed her so that a portion of my mind could take control of her body in case I failed in my first attempt."
Then his expression melded into one of hurt, "I didn't expect you to be the one to kill me though. That was cruel of you."
"I'm cruel," Yuuki scoffed. "Really?" That's the pot calling the kettle black. I'm only cruel when I am because you made me that way." Then the full implications of what he had said dawned on her. Without warning she stomped him on the toe and smacked him across the face simultaneously. In his surprise he released her and she fell on her butt again.
"What the hell was that for?" he demanded, leaning over her threateningly. "I didn't do anything this time."
"Bull shit!" Yuuki replied thinking that she may have spent too much time with Zero, she was picking up his foul language. "It's your fault that I may be dead! You were the one controlling Sara's body when she attacked us!"
"Yeah, well," he replied like a petulant child. "It's your fault that I'm here so we're even."
She stared at him incredulously before she retorted, "If you hadn't attacked me, you wouldn't be here either, so that's your fault too."
"I'm not having this argument with you," he said pinching the bridge of his nose and turning to walk off.
"Really," she snapped grabbing his arm and turning him around to face her. "Because I think we are."
He grabbed her shoulders and leant down to look in her eyes, "No," he replied slowly, "we are not." She glared back at him defiantly and he started to laugh and pulled her against him, "You know, I really like it when you glare at me like that."
"You're crazy," she replied trying to squirm out of his embrace. "Now let me go."
"I don't think that will happen any time soon," Rido replied nuzzling the top of her head affectionately.
"Let her go, Rido," another male voice replied.
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So what did you think? I know that the idea of killing Yuuki is not popular, but things will work out. . .probably. And she's not technically all the way dead yet. Only mostly dead (if you get the reference I will give you a cybercookie). Please review if you have the time and/or inclination.
As always thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorite, or placed this story on their alerts so far,
Stickdonkeys