Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki or anything else that anybody in the known universe could sue me for. I own nothing.

At the End of the Tunnel

Yaone made it back to Houtu Castle late that night and feeling dead on her feet exhausted. Just wanting nothing more than to get a hot shower, then collapse on her pillow. The flight was a long one on a sturdy but blunt dragon. But even so the flight wasn't the most physically and emotionally draining aspect of her journey. It was truly hard to see the monk like that. Beaten, bruised, bleeding, injected with mystery chemicals and still strong enough to be stubborn. There was a lot to admire there.

She was too tired to think about it, so she tried to push it from her thoughts. The last thing she needed to think about were those burning violet eyes, filled with defiant fire. It hurt to think that there was a chance Nii could break that spirit. The idea that Nii could kill Genjyo Sanzo before any blade could fall was a depressing one. There was no use staying up at night concerned over things she had little control over. She hated it, but she learned long ago that this was the way of the world. Change what you can, and accept that there are things beyond your control.

All she could do was make him comfortable; she doubted she could change his fate.

So lost was Yaone in these depressing thoughts that she almost had a heart attack when she turned on the light to her lab and saw Lirin was sitting on one of the counters. As in on the counters, sitting cross-legged. Yaone was afraid that Lirin had gotten into her herbs again, and was a little nervous for a potted plant on the counter near her. The healer was about to chew her out. To once again go into detail on the reasons Lirin should stay out of her lab. Yaone opened her mouth to do so...then stopped herself. She was too tired to go through this...Besides, it wasn't like any of it would actually get through to her charge. "Lady Lirin," Yaone said automatically, "You should be in bed."

But that was when she noticed the serious look on Lirin's face. The one she got where she really was keen on learning something. Lirin averted her eyes to the ground, looking around nervously, "I'm sorry...Yaone...I couldn't get any sleep."

"Neither can I apparently," Yaone sighed more to herself than the literal-and-figurative demon child.

"Yaone, it's just, I've been thinking about what I did...Y'know. Messing up your stuff...and about what you said. That someone could die...I started thinking that maybe that someone would be Kougaiji..." Lirin stopped, and looked Yaone in the eyes again. "I'm sorry."

Yaone sighed. She couldn't accept Lirin's apology and tell her everything was all right. If she did that then Lirin would simply forget the lesson. Yaone was busy forcing her tired mind to work up something to say when:

"I want to learn how to work your healing herbs..."

Okay...that was a new direction. A statement that stunned Yaone into silence. She was shocked. Lirin had never shown any interest in learning much of anything, unless Yaone tied it in to some great battle that took place. She'd also never shown any kind of interest in Yaone's herbs at all. A long time ago Yaone had offered to teach Lirin, and Lirin declined. Her exact words were not remembered, but it was something along the lines of: 'I can't be bothered by sciency-crap, that's what we got an alchemist for!'. Of course that was a long time ago, before Lirin actually came to care about Yaone.

Maybe the girl really wanted to learn...or maybe her desire was a fleeting thing and would be forgotten by the morning. The latter seemed so often the case with Lirin. This was probably just another stage that Lirin would get bored with. It was somewhat pointless for Yaone to get her hopes up. Also, she already had a pretty good guess about where this could be coming from. She felt even wearier. The thought that Lirin didn't know that a good many of the plants in this collection were dangerous if ingested in large amounts was discouraging. "Lirin," She said finally, "You can't eat them."

Lirin looked back at her, a little hurt this time, "I don't want to eat them. I want to learn how to use them...Like which one's do I rub on a cut." Only then did Yaone notice the serious look on Lirin's face. The one she got where she really was keen on learning something.

Yaone walked over and put her bags on the counter next to Lirin. There was no use in unpacking any of them. Nii was creative and she assumed there would be a need for each and every one of them at some point. "Lirin, it's not something you can start and just drop. There are doses you need to remember. Where you can find certain plants. If somebody is allergic to one which herbs can replace it, not to mention cure the allergic reaction. You need a large knowledge base just to be remotely useful, " Perhaps everything in the statement wasn't entirely truthful. You could be helpful with a rather small knowledge base. But Yaone was intent on unraveling Lirin's momentary determination to see if it was more deep-seated than that.

Lirin nodded at each statement, "Yaone, I really want to learn how to do this."

Another heavy breath, although this time there was something resembling frustration behind it. "Why Lirin? Why should I believe you want to learn anything? What about the time you wanted to learn how to draw? What about the time you wanted to learn how to dance? What about-"

"This is different."

"Tell me Lirin. What makes this different?" She wanted to know what was behind this.

"...I want to help Kougaiji if he gets hurt...What you said got me thinking. What if he's hurt and you're not here. All I could do was watch..."

Yaone opened her mouth to quell Lirin's fears; it was a reflexive thing. But she stopped herself. Lirin really wanted to learn, but the only thing driving her was the thought that her brother could get hurt. If Yaone made her feel better about this then she probably wouldn't feel the need to learn anymore. As long as Kougaiji was involved there was an outside chance that Lirin really would train as a healer, to one extent or another. Yaone knew it would be nice to have somebody else who could be of help during surgery or while she was working. And Yaone had to admit, as long as she would be spending at the prison outpost for now on it would be helpful to have an apprentice who at least understood the basics. She would hate to have a repeat of when they'd been forced to hand Kougaiji over to Nii...

An apprentice could come in handy, if that was what Lirin really wanted.

"Alright, Lirin. If you really want to do this meet me here, tomorrow, at seven o'clock in the morning."

"In the morning!?"

"That's what I said...and make sure you get up early enough to eat breakfast. If you even consider munching on my collection you're out of here."

Lirin opened her mouth to protest, but stopped, "Alright Yaone. I'll be here."

Yaone smiled; at least Lirin's heart was in the right place, even if she didn't show up in the morning. Lirin really was a caring person. The polar opposite of her mother and father, no doubt due to Kougaiji's influence. "Okay Lirin, and get some sleep tonight. People learn best when their minds are rested."

Lirin gave a wide smile and sprinted off to bed. Yaone watched her in reminiscence...Glad and sad at the same time. A part of her was glad that Lirin was growing up, another was depressed about it. Once you grew up you came to realize that the world was not the happy place it had been as a child. It's full of dangers and terrors around every bend. You understand the true meaning of 'betrayal' and 'hate'. Lirin was growing up into a world full of pain. A war where demons and humans were slaughtering each other and people had to do terrible things to survive. The sooner Lirin realized that, the safer she would be. And yet Yaone, Doku, and Kougaiji had all lost their innocence a long time ago. It was painful to think that the child that kept them all grounded in reality was growing up. Yaone just hoped Lirin didn't have to grow up like they all had. That hers would gradually disappear instead of falling away in the crash course.

As she thought of Lirin, she thought of Goku as well. The demon was definitely a little world-wearier than Lirin. Yaone imagined the way he grew up was in chunks, after all he was fighting on the front lines. Traveling across the land, actually being forced to witness the horrible things that were going on. She wondered if Sanzo felt the same way she did watching Goku grow up.

VVVVV

Sanzo had seen people die some creative ways. But only once in his memory could he remember seeing someone get electrocuted.

If he recalled correctly he and Goku had descended from the temple to have dinner in town with Hakkai and Gojyo. Goku was helping Hakkai cook and Gojyo had a snack going in the toaster. Sanzo was sitting at the kitchen table reading his newspaper, and enjoying it when he heard a growl of "fucking shit" from Gojyo. Apparently the kappa's snack was stuck in the toaster. Sanzo was about to go back to reading his newspaper when Gojyo angrily reached in a drawer and grabbed a fork. Sanzo would have told him that was a bad idea if Gojyo wasn't stupid and fast at the same time. Gojyo jabbed the fork into the toaster before Sanzo could get the warning out. Gojyo had writhed, screamed, and jerked all kinds of fancy ways before finally passing out when Hakkai unplugged the toaster. The kappa was an idiot in the truest sense of the word.

Sanzo had never been electrocuted himself.

Nii was about to change that.

The metal part of a spring mattress was hooked up to some kind of battery. Two wires with clips laid beside the metal spring, one was hooked up, the other laying idle. Nii was sitting on a chair next to the battery with a smile on his face. "Good evening Genjyo Sanzo..."

Sanzo remained quiet, hoping his glare said enough.

"Whatever you say," Nii spoke in an almost sing-song tone while two guards grabbed Sanzo and thrust him up against the wire frame. It was warm against his freezing back, a sure sign that Nii had already revved it up and made sure his archaic setup worked. "You should be more polite, Sanzo. It might make this easier," Nii said, typing away on his computer.

The guards thrust Sanzo's wrists down onto the frame and bound them there with...barbed wire. "Barbed wire?" Sanzo snarled, "You really outdid yourself. -Watch it bastard!" He winced and yelled at his guard as several tiny cuts were made on his wrists.

"Mmm? What was that, Sanzo? Oh, you should be careful about thrashing around...you could shred your wrists."

"Mmm? What was that Nii? You're going to eat shit and die?"

Nii laughed- no -giggled, "You're so funny. Brace yourself."

As much as Sanzo hated to follow any kind of order given by Nii, but he only had a heartbeat to get his tongue out of the way before it started. If not he would have bitten it off. It was a pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Every nerve in his body seemed alight with fire. He writhed uncontrollably as jolts of electricity shot through him. Jerking this way and that. The tearing sting as the barbed wire cut into his wrists took a close second to the widespread agony.

As much as he hated to, he screamed. There was nothing to do but scream through gritted teeth. When finally it stopped he managed to turn that scream into an angry shout, "Mother fucker!" His buzzing hands felt sticky and wet. Warm blood was already dripping from the places where his wrists had been cut. Not deep enough to kill him...unfortunately.

Nii's smile widened, "You cut yourself."

Sanzo, panting heavily and barely able to stand, glared at the other man, "What do you want Nii? You've been pulling the strings on this Vacation from Hell since it started, which means you were aware of me before I was aware of you. Why? This can't be about just the resurrection..." He trailed off, as he spoke he became more aware of the situation, and realized something, "It's about my master..."

Nii didn't respond, he just calmly reached over to the battery and placed his finger on a switch. This time with a glint of hate in his black eyes. Good. It was about time Sanzo was the one drilling for information on his enemy's mind.

"Oh?" Sanzo said with a smirk, "Did I hit a nerve?"

Of course all that got him was more pain.

As he writhed this time he tried to focus on his hands. On holding them as still as possible so as not to injure his wrists any further then they already were. But still the involuntary jerking found a way to drive the barbs deeper into the flesh.

The shock lasted longer this time. The searing pain in his body told him it was lasting an eternity. But he knew from the frantic beat of his heart that wasn't true.

"Dr. Nii," he heard a woman's voice through the haze. Right, the assistant that always hid her eyes behind those god-awful glasses, "You have to stop the charge now. His heart rate is too high. If you keep this up much longer he could go into cardiac arrest."

"Ohh? Good, then we won't have long to wait," He heard Nii coo again, the malice still there. For the first time Sanzo figured pushing his torturer's buttons might not have been the brightest idea he'd ever had.

"Dr. Nii!" the woman yelled again, "His vitals are unstable! You have to stop this now!"

His heartbeat drummed in his ears beside the steady buzzing of the current. Growing more frenzied and overworked to pump the blood. Sanzo was afraid it would explode from the pressure it was under.

When it finally stopped he collapsed to the ground. His legs no longer capable of supporting even his lithe frame. As he fell he was sure he practically skinned his left wrist. To add insult to injury he jogged the shoulder Yaone fixed. There was a twinge, but it was nothing compared to his fresher injuries. For once he managed to keep his mouth shut.

"Nii, that last shock was too much, if you want your...toy to live then you're going to have to take it easy on him." What was that in her voice? Disgust? So she wasn't the sadist her boss was.

"Oh...alright. We have a while to get to know each other. Besides...I'm bored today." With a wave of his hand the two demon guards moved over to Sanzo. He wanted to leap up and rip their throats out with his bare hands.

It was when one of his guards pulled the barbed wire free from his hands, and caused it to bleed by pulling out a barb that had become lodged in his wrist at some point. Rage flowed through him, a burst of energy that yearned for freedom. Even for a moment of it.

He slammed his fist into his captor's jaw, sending the demon sprawling to the floor. Sanzo then grabbed his left fist in his right and slammed it backward into the other demon's stomach. In a matter of moments he stood there in front of the two scientists. The woman moved slightly behind Nii. That was a laugh. As if she thought she would really be the first one Sanzo went for. An even bigger laugh was the idea that she thought Nii would protect her if Sanzo did make a move. Utterly pathetic.

But he only had Nii in his sights. The blonde leapt and in two easy bounds vaulted over the desk between him and Nii. The blood pumping out of his wrists and the ache in his muscles, the throbbing pain in his left arm. And most importantly a man he truly hated standing before him with a shocked expression on his face. Freedom never tasted so good.

The bastard didn't so much as move when Sanzo flung himself at his enemy. Those demons he nailed were quite a bit faster than he'd given them credit for. They tackled him to the ground and held him there, barely a foot from Nii's...bunny slippers? Hell...this guy was even more demented than he thought.

Sanzo shot Nii a smirk, "Hey..." He said before he raised his middle finger.

Then Nii did something that reminded Sanzo of Hakkai in a twisted way. Nii smiled then smoothly twisted Sanzo's middle finger. The snap of bone could be heard even before the pain kicked in.

VVVVV Chapter end