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Chapter Six
She Sleeps

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"Will those be your last words?" asked Hiei sourly.

The man just cackled at him coldly. "I told you already, boy, stay out of this. That is your last warning." Shifting his attention back to his daughter, he asked, "Well? Do you want to kill me, Rhys?"

Without taking her eyes off her father she nodded solemnly, hatred coursing through her whole body. She had never felt this way before - this mad. Power, yes that was it. She felt power. She flew at him, hands ready to tear at any skin she could reach of him...

…But she never made it. It was as if he was waiting for her to attack, make the first move. Once she had stepped towards him, he reached a hand into his pocket, pulling out a spike - a spike strongly resembling the one that had struck Kuwabara. One easy toss at his on-coming daughter and she was a crumpled heap on the floor, not moving.

Hiei leapt forward in less than milliseconds, feeling madder than he ever had in his life. He ripped off his cloak, covering Rhys' fallen form, and became a shadow, leaping to every corner of the room in blurs - sometimes moving so fast he disappeared all together. Rhys' father whipped his head wildly in all directions, trying to find him.

Hiei finally stopped behind him, swinging his katana gracefully into numerous slashes that looked like mere flashes to the untrained eye. The man jumped away after a few seconds, only to fall to his knees. His hand searching for his pocket for another spike until it was cut off by the short fire youkai.

Only now did he show signs of fear, his eyes shifting to Hiei's shoulder. The fear disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a scornful hatred. "Ah, how sweet. My daughter's mate has avenged her," he said, in a tone that would have been sarcasm if blood hadn't almost completely seeped into his lungs yet.

Hiei was completely thrown off by that. Mate? Since when?

"Confused...boy? Ha, you...you didn't even know...did you?" the man sputtered slowly.

Hiei clenched his katana tightly, his dark eyes narrowing dangerously. "Don't. Call. Me. Boy."

The man paid him no mind, trying to use his last moments wisely. "Look...your shoulder. The mark...it's there."

With one last glare at him Hiei glanced at his shoulder and gasped inwardly. There was a golden handprint on his skin. A print small enough to fit Rhys…. He looked back to her father, not letting his emotions show in his cold eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Deny all you...want, boy...it's there. It'll con-continue...hurting you as Rhys...continues to hurt...herself. Until..." the man took a long, shuddering breath and closed his eyes.

"Until...you want it...to be...there."

With that, the man fell onto a floor as cold as his own lifeless body.

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This time, the group assembled in Yusuke's apartment after making sure Atsuko was out on another booze trip. Kuwabara was laid out on the couch, still unconscious, while Rhys rested the same way in Atsuko's bed. Yukina had tried everything she could, but insisted that it was now up to the two unconscious ones whether they made it or not.

After a drink and a rest, Kurama went back to his house with Yukina and Botan. No one was exactly sure when Hiei had left, or where to, but by the time Yusuke went to bed it was only himself, Kuwabara, and Rhys.

Two days passed without event. Well, unless you count Yusuke skipping school again and getting yelled at - and slapped numerous times - by Keiko.

The third day was when Kuwabara groggily rubbed his eyes and sat up, complaining that he was extremely hungry. He and Yusuke fought about who would make breakfast until Kurama and the two girls showed up - then Kuwabara forgot his stomach and sat to talk with Yukina.

Yusuke somehow managed to talk - or bribe, however you look at it - Kurama into making breakfast for everyone. While he was waiting for the toast to, well, toast, Kurama turned to talk with Yusuke, Botan, and Keiko, who were in the kitchen waiting for their breakfast. "Have any of you seen Hiei? He disappeared after we all came here."

Botan and Keiko looked the slightest bit worried and shook their heads no, while Yusuke just shrugged. "He's probably out training, or getting revenge on someone, or...doing what he does."

Botan shook her head. "Even if he was training, or 'doing what he does', he'd check in with at least Kurama. I think what Rhys' father said kind of...got to him."

Keiko turned a confused expression to Yusuke. "What did he say?"

Yusuke took a big breath, then explained. "First I think he was talking about wanting to kill Rhys, and then he said that he was her father. Rhys tried to attack him and he threw a spike with poison on it at her - that's why she's out - and Hiei fought him. When he was dying, he told Hiei that Rhys had marked him, or something, and that Hiei was Rhys' mate." He paused, took a breath, and was cut off by Keiko.

"Her mate?"

"Well, yeah."

"Couldn't you put it, I don't know, more...nicely than 'mate'?"

Yusuke just shrugged. "Not really. But whatever you call it, they're stuck together now."

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A shadow climbed nimbly through Atsuko's window, converging with the dark room and almost disappearing altogether. It moved stealthily across to the room to the bed and looked down at its occupant. Rhys was breathing softly and slowly - almost not at all.

The shadow stood by her side, gazing at what the moon's light showed to be her face. Such a peaceful expression - quite unlike her true self. He sighed to himself. So this was the person he would be with all his life. It wasn't that he didn't want her...not at all. He sat near her feet, staring at her face, and reflected.

He remembered how cautious and cold she was at first, but after his first few sentences became gentler, warmer towards him. And then how she reminded him of himself - lost in three worlds, shown kindness by strangers.

Fast forward to that night. She had saved his life and she didn't even know it. Was that why had he been jealous when Kurama kept watch over her? He didn't remember the reason anymore - if there was one to begin with.

Then she had woken up to a dead demon laying on her. He supposed he could have been a little warmer towards her...okay, a lot warmer.

Then that afternoon - when he had entered her mind and discovered her...secrets. Why was she so angry? So she had killed her sister - could she live in the past forever? And if the source of her pain was her father, she had nothing to fear now that he was gone.

'But she doesn't know...' he realized. He remembered Yukina telling them something. 'It's up to them now whether they make it or not.'

Of course Kuwabara had woken up faster than Rhys: he actually wanted to come back.

She had no reason to. All that welcomed her was a hateful father, a sorry life, and abusive secrets.

Rhys shifted back and forth uneasily in her sleep, tears moistening her cheeks. What was she dreaming? Hiei pulled her blankets to cover her more, his hand brushing against her skin.

It was burning. She was still burning. His forehead glowed a soft purple as he used his Jagan to enter her mind once more.

All he could see was black. Was this some kind of block, a side effect of the poison? Or was she lost in the darkness of her own mind?

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-- In Rhys' Dream --

It was dark.

That was pretty much all Rhys could make of where she was. It didn't scare her, though, but made her almost content. She liked the dark, preferred it over light, but she wished she could at least have a candle.

She started walking, hoping she wouldn't bumb into anything when something warm and furry ran past her legs. Rhys gave a little scream and started walking faster. She had no clue where she was going but she suddenly wanted light desperately.

In the distance she could make out the outline of a door, and it looked like light shining through its edges. Her legs ran towards it and she thrust it open, then slammed it shut. As much as she had wanted to reach the door a minute ago, she now didn't want to go through it equally as much.

She opened the door a crack and peeked through it. She saw the living room of the home she had run away from, and someone sleeping on the couch.

It was herself, only younger!

Rhys watched in shock as a smaller girl with red pigtails and freckles approached the sleeping younger Rhys.

Stahr? It was Stahr!

Then, with a sick feeling unfurling itself in her stomach, Rhys realized what she was seeing. Any second now she would kill Stahr!

She threw the door open and took a step into the room, stopping when Stahr knelt down beside the sleeping Rhys and raised the knife she had been holding. The real Rhys' breath was coming short and her heart was pounding like a hammer in her chest. She didn't want to watch, but was mesmerized by the sight of her own body starting to glow a bright gold.

Then the scene went black. The door she was leaning on disappeared and she fell, surprised, to the floor. She looked up to see light streaming in from what seemed to be a hole in the wall of darkness surrounding her. It looked like the exit to a cave, but that was ridiculous. She had just been in her house, how could she now be in a cave?

Walking towards the exit, the sunlight dazzled her eyes for a few moments and she let her eyes adjust to it.

Green grass tickled her bare feet and she looked at her surroundings. To her left lay a clear blue lake with floating ducks quacking and swimming in it. To her right was an open meadow, complete with pleasant-smelling flowers and chiriping crickets. Straight ahead of her lay the beginning of a forest, tall trees reaching towards the sky and their foliage blocking out the sunlight.

She walked over the the lake's bank and watched the ducks play and quack at each other. A soft breeze swept through the air and trees, making a soft whooshing sound sounding almost like whispers. The wind picked up, making the whispers sound like real words. 'Trust...trust the dragon...' She looked to the sky. Who - or what - was the dragon?

She shrugged at no one and her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten for quite some time. But there wasn't any food here...perhaps in the forest? Rhys had stayed with demons long enough to learn what was safe to eat in the woods, if there was nothing else. And there usually wasn't.

The air dropped a couple degrees and a high green canopy blocked the majority of the sun's warm light as Rhys settled on entering the forest. The kiyone glanced around, deciding to take a right when she could distinguish no path.

Someone grabbed her wrist and she found herself being pulled through the forest by none other than - "Hiei? What are you doing?"

He was holding her wrist where he had originally left his finger marks a few days ago. "Follow me," he stated simply, not looking at her but to where he was going.

It wasn't as if she had a choice; he was much stronger than his height let on. They twisted around trees, over fallen trunks, and even jumped over a small stream before arriving at a small clearing. Here the canopy had parted and the sun shone strongly, its rays visible around the edges of the clearing where the shadow of the trees lay. Hiei let go of her wrist and, still not looking at her, turned and walked away from the clearing.

"Hiei! Wait...!" Suprisingly enough, he turned around. But the person who had turned around wasn't Hiei - it was her father.

His face was contorted in a maniacal grin as he advanced toward her with slow, heavy steps. It seemed she was too scared of him to do anything other than back away, until she bumped rather hard into the trunk of a tree.

Her father was only a few feet away and in seconds would cause some considerable - and definitely painful - damage. She needed something - anything - to defend herself. Her hands grasped wildly around her to find anything sharp or blunt enough to keep him away from her and she found, to her surprise, a dagger laying on the forest floor as if waiting patiently for her to use it.

Just in time, she swooped down and grabbed the dagger from the floor as her father lunged for her. Her arms thrust themselves almost naturally to block her face and she had the dagger in a death grip. He aimed a punch at her stomach, but she jumped and landed quite neatly behind him, not even breathing hard or shaking - which was quite something, being as scared as she was.

Almost robotically, she shoved the dagger into her father's back and just about screamed in surprise when she saw that the weapon she wielded was no longer a dagger. Instead it was a sword, with a blade of what seemed to be shining, white light.

Rhys pulled it from her father's wasted form and stood back to admire its glow. If you forgot that it was a killing weapon, the sword was actually pretty in a way. She loved the warmth it emitted and how it almost seemed like a glowing piece of the sun itself.

Her hand released its death grip on the handle as she went to hold it at her side, but at once the weapon was reduced again to a mere dagger. She looked at in confusion, wondering where the sword had gone and if it had only been a hallucination. Shrugging to herself, she tucked the dagger into the waistband of her pants, figuring she could at least protect herself now.

A deep grumble sounded from her stomach, reminding her why she had gone into the forest to begin with. Fortunately she spotted some berries on a bush and started eating them right away.

A couple minutes of eating brought her to a complete stop. Panic stemmed from her cramping stomach and flooded her heart and mind. These were purple berries - one of the most poisonous, next to orange.

She let out a moan of anguish and pain. How could she have been so stupid? The pain from her stomach intensified, causing Rhys to bend over and vomit while holding onto a tree for support. She sat heavily and leaned her back against the tree, head pounding and vision blurred, feeling the worst she ever remembered feeling.

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