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

After they'd carried him out of the room his guards made a brief stop outside his cell to thoroughly beat the crap out of him. One guard held him while the other wailed on him like a piece of chilled meat. Just like every other beating he'd been blessed with, each punch sent shockwaves of pain through his body. But the pain tended to come moments after the punch landed and just as the next was coming.

The pain was truly excruciating. His stomach muscles were aching and stinging at the same time. Sanzo knew at least one of is ribs was cracked. Not that he let this goon know. Instead when the guy stopped, seeming to be worn out. Sanzo just put on his best crocodilian smirk and said: "You hit like a girl you dumb son of a-"

He didn't even have time to finish his insult. The guard holding him tossed him to the ground, where Sanzo clipped his cheek on the floor when he couldn't catch himself, and he jogged his healing shoulder on the floor. His vision danced with sunspots when they started kicking him, and he almost blacked out entirely when one of them thrust their boot into one of the open gashes on his back. One guard wound up his leg for a momentum-fueled kick. Sanzo pretty much knew it was going to break his ribs. But of course he didn't have the strength to get up and dodge.

Sanzo didn't allow himself to scream. His body was being thrashed, but he'd be damned if he was going to give them the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. Nor did he cry out when his ribs cracked under the force of the blow. Hot blood gushing up from his mouth and onto the prison floor was subsequent compared to the snapping sting of his ribs. There wasn't even time to consider how bad the internal injury was before a kick harder than the last jerked his body off the floor and onto his back. The only blessing was that after that they stopped the relentless assault. Sanzo lay there for a moment, struggling to keep his consciousness and pay attention to his guards at the same time.

"Hey, man?" Idiot One said to Idiot Two, "He dead?"

"Nahh..." Said Idiot Two, "Just passed out like a little girl."

"Hey, think I can get a quickie in?"

"Hell no!" Sanzo yelled and used this opportunity to lash his foot out backwards. In his dazed state he couldn't be sure of anything, but he would bet money he'd managed to kick the bastard who said it in the family jewels...after that he wasn't quite sure what happened. Either they got a whole lot faster or his brain slowed down. Each took an arm and slammed him up against the cold bars. The growing bruise on his cheek flared up as his face was shoved into the space between bars, and his arm once again hurt like Dante's Inferno, used like a lever to keep him in place. Maybe it was is brain's defense mechanism kicking in or the lack of blood, but his mind suddenly went to a time when he'd first fled from Kinzan Temple. He was captured by a group of demonic bandits with a similar plan in mind for him. He'd shot that guy in the head. If he had his gun now, or even a working left arm, the demon unzipping his own pants right then wouldn't have that cruel smirk. It would have been ripped off with his entire fucking jaw.

"What is going on here!" someone yelled. Sanzo couldn't place the voice at first. All he noticed was the lack of pressure holding him against the wall, and how good the floor suddenly looked as a place to sleep. He slumped to the ground before cracking open an eye, curious as to who was gutsy enough to break up a perfectly good scene of humiliation

Yaone stood there, the two guards in front of her. From the way they were standing they were obviously trying to intimidate her. Arms crossed and arrogant smirks plastered on their faces. Probably had a pair of over inflated egos after beating up the Great Genjyo Sanzo. What could that poor, little, apothecary of Lord Kougaiji's do to them?

"That's my patient," she spoke cautiously, as if staying with some kind of hope that they could still be civil. It crossed his mind that it was either a little naiive of her, or she was just a little more optimistic than he was.

The two guards exchanged a look before looking at Yaone again, "Why don't you give us a couple more minutes alone," He winked, "If you know what I mean."

He saw her back straighten, the sinewy muscles under her skin prep for action. The change was a subtle one and probably a reflex for when she got ready for trouble. The muscle of her jaw stood out in the skin. She was clenching her teeth in obvious disgust. Good, so she was intuitive enough to know what they meant. "I won't let that happen," She snarled.

"Oh?" one of the guards said, "What're ya gonna do? We aren't Kougaiji's men, and I'm sure Most Beloved Lady Gyokumen Koushu won't take kindly to some apothecary taking us out of service."

Yaone relaxed and Sanzo would have cursed under his breath if he could spare the will. The guy had a point. Yaone probably couldn't do anything to hurt them without instigating the wrath of Koushu. From what he'd heard of the woman it wasn't a far stretch to believe she was the kind to be utterly flattered by one of her toys addressing her like that. Yaone was probably already on Koushu's shit list, the alchemist would likely be punished severely.

"So sweetheart, be a good little girl. Just go right back up those stairs and give us...oh how long will it take? Five minutes?"

She stiffened again. Sanzo wasn't expecting what happened next. Yaone smiled, looking Idiot One over, "Oh...You must think rather big of yourself if you believe it will take that long!"

Anger flashed across the guard's face, "You. Little. Arrogant. Bitch!" Each word was accented by the guard putting a hand on Yaone's shoulder and roughly shoving her backwards. Sanzo could see the anger on her face, and he envied the control it must have taken for her not to grab the offending arm and break it in three different places. "Run along now, little girl. When we get bored with the monk we may come looking for you." He pushed her again, and again. The anger came, and it was pushed down inside. Sanzo would bet she was an old hand at keeping her fury under complete control; otherwise the guard would be lying dead on the floor.

An innocent was an innocent, an enemy an enemy. Sanzo was never the chivalrous type. It had never mattered to him whether they were male or female. So he was fairly certain the sudden burst of energy hadn't come from some instinctual desire to protect the woman, but rather his desire to get one more good smack in and put The Guard with the Overblown Ego back where he belonged on the food chain. He didn't say anything stupid like 'knock, knock' or 'goodnight' when he slipped his one useful arm around the guard's neck and kneed him in the back, as the heroes in Goku's comic book collection always seemed to do. Just silently took him down with a sense of accomplishment.

He turned on his heels, swinging at the other guard. And if he had only been slightly more on his game or his left arm functional he may have managed to overcome the second guard too. As it stood, the guard caught his fist and crushed it in a tight grip. Instantaneously something hit him in the face so hard he could have sworn he'd just been run over with Hakuryu. His world finally faded when his neck snapped back and rattled his spine.

VVVVV

Yaone watched, hesitating for the few moments it took for the scene to play out as she tried to decide whether to help him or prevent his escape. It happened too quickly for her to make her choice. One minute she was being shoved backwards by a pair of sadistic, chauvinistic, pigs and the next Sanzo somehow gathered up what had to be the last of his strength and used it to attack his guards. Demons who were much stronger than he was at the moment. Admiration for him came yet again.

The first guard was recovering. Blood dripping from his nose, and his already unattractive face distorted in rage. "Screw Nii...Let's break his neck!" The second guard did nothing as the first leapt towards the unconscious monk.

Yaone had just watched when Sanzo attacked, not fast enough herself to either stop him or help him. But there was no real moral debate when it came to stopping a sadist from murdering an unconscious man. Yes, she could not kill the demon, like he so deserved. So instead of reaching for her dagger she grabbed one of the many pouches on her utility belt and threw the loose sack of cloth into the man's face. White powder exploded in front of his face as he inhaled, sucking in a high concentration of the spores. He hit the ground with a flop. The second guard looked shocked, and stood back as Yaone prepared another bag of spores. "He'll live," She said as coldly as possible, "But if he ever brutalizes my patient again the dose will be much more concentrated."

The second guard, gripped by sudden fear of the apothecary, grabbed his friend and...vamoosed, for lack of a better word. Yaone turned her attentions to Sanzo. The blonde lay there, motionless. In the light she couldn't even tell if he was breathing. Her heart lurched in the split second before she could put a hand to his lips and found that there was the soft pressure of air coming from his lips. She started by taking a moment to thank the gods. Then systematically went over his bones to make sure nothing was broken. Aside from an array of cracked ribs and a broken middle finger (big mystery how that happened) he was fine. She dragged him back to his cell, worried that she would get in trouble for leaving him out of it. If he kept irritating his guards like that the last thing he needed was her being forbidden to come.

She began with the Echinacea ointments she started him on the day before, rubbing it on the strange cuts on his wrists and the wounds on his back. Then she applied Cayenne and Blue Vervain to the areas where bruises were forming on his stomach. She would try and make him eat some later; it would help to prevent any kinds of abnormal bleeding. She would have loved to give him some Comfrey or Damiana but...

But Lirin spilled them...

Yaone sighed. As it turned out Lirin was intent on learning. Yaone had been rather happy when the young girl showed up right on time. The only problem was that she couldn't stay out of trouble long enough for Yaone to teach her anything. The demon child spent all day cleaning up the mess she'd made. This left the apothecary discouraged. If Lirin kept spilling things then she would always be cleaning them up, if she was always cleaning things up she would get bored, if she got bored she would just give up. It was a vicious cycle that Yaone feared wasn't uncommon with Lirin.

So instead, Yaone went for Devil's Claw and rubbed it on the areas where his bones were broken or dislocated with the hope it would lessen some of the pain of the skeletal problems. Comfrey would have helped to nourish his bones and help them heal faster. When she laid him back down on the clean cloak she'd give him the day before she didn't put his shackles back on. He wasn't going anywhere. Besides, she would definitely need to stitch up those cuts on his wrists. The one on his back was starting to look inflamed and worse than it had yesterday; she'd have to stitch that up too. Frankly she didn't want to do it while he was unconscious. After his display yesterday, and with the guards today, she figured that sticking a needle into him while he was unconscious was a very unintelligent thing to do. So instead she took water from the canteen and a cup she brought with her to make a cold tea. She threw a variety of herbs and teas in there, primarily Catnip. It would help him relax and sleep.

After she convinced him that it wouldn't get him stoned...

VVVVV

Sanzo had a killer headache...

And a killer stomach ache...

And his ribs...

Well, to cut a long list short he hurt all over. Like Hakuryu really had driven over him...

But he'd had broken bones before, and realized that none of it hurt like it was supposed to. Yes, it hurt, but not like the gods intended broken bones to hurt. He took a breath through his nose, to try and smell his surroundings. Like most prisons it smelled of urine, and blood and other things. But after he could smell underneath the thick layer of rotten stench he could pick up traces of sweet, exotic herbs.

The monk opened his eyes to the sight of Yaone doing something with her back turned to him. It hit him how careless of her that was, and how he could easily overcome her right then...Naturally he disregarded the thought. She was the closest thing to a luxury he had in this place. Considering the fact he was crapping and pissing in a bucket, luxury was something he needed a lot of. He watched her work for a while, wondering how long it would take her to notice he was awake. Finally, he got bored. "Hey," he said in what was probably his least threatening, threatening voice, "What did you slap on this time?"

"Cayenne, Blue Vervain, Devil's Claw, and Echinacea ointments."

"Uh huh," He said, suddenly a little annoyed. If he knew what the hell any of those did he wouldn't need her help. "Am I supposed to have a clue what any of those do?"

She sighed, "Echinacea for the same reasons mentioned yesterday. Devil's Claw for skeletal disturbances, i.e. the broken bones. Cayenne for the bruises. And Blue Vervain because I felt like it."

In his wounded state it took him a moment to register what she said, but when he did he tussled with himself on whether it was an honest joke or if she was just annoyed he'd asked. He went with the all round reply, "And you want me to trust you?"

He could hear the strain in her voice when she spoke, as if she'd wanted to say something else but whatever Polite Translator she was installed with had it come out: "I'm sorry. I've just had a rough day..."

"You mean to tell me you were hooked up to electrified bed springs and got the shit beat out of you?"

For the first time she turned to face him with a look of honest apology. "I'm sorry...that was insensitive."

He didn't quite know what to say to that, so he did was normal people did and changed the subject, "So is there a reason I'm not bandaged up?"

"Yes, I'm going to need to stitch your wrists...How did that happen anyway? I know you didn't try to kill yourself, so what happened?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?" He was interested in his healer's observational ability. Who wouldn't be? How could she know that he wouldn't kill himself, especially seeing as how prior to this they'd only had very brief encounters? As a matter of fact he wasn't entirely sure he'd exchanged more than ten whole words with her before The Capture.

She put an old and battered cup of tea down in front of him, "It's easy. The angles and placings are all wrong. I believe your smart enough not to cut from the top of the wrist if you wanted to kill yourself."

Sanzo admitted he was mildly comforted to know that the person in charge of saving his life had a brain on them. If she really was as practiced in the healing arts as she claimed to be then he was probably in decent hands. As long as Kougaiji didn't need any information from him he didn't think she would drug him either. He turned his attention to the tea in front of him, "What's that?"

"Catnip mixed with other spices known to calm the nervous system. I also want you to eat some Cayenne pepper."

"Didn't you already do that?"

"You need to eat it for it to have the full effects on the blood stream. With all those bruises I'm afraid of clotting...Oh! Cat's Claw to strengthen your immune system."

"Is it gonna taste like shit?"

"Yes."

Growling he downed the pepper and the other herb she gave him before chasing it with the cold tea mixture she had for him. Even cold it tasted good, and only a few minutes after he drank it he felt for the first time like he wasn't about to tear the head off anything that moved. When she started stitching up his wounds he only winced occasionally when she really dug that needle in there. She was gentle, careful not to hurt him with her claws, and she kept the damage with the needle to a minimum. She was very neat about it too; the stitches were perfectly lined up. When she was done with his wrists she slapped more of that...Echinacea ointment.

"Lirin wants to learn about my healing herbs." She mentioned it offhandedly, like small talk while stitching someone up was perfectly natural for her.

Sanzo felt a moment of pure terror, "You aren't going to start sending her are you?"

Yaone laughed for a moment, careful not to hurt him while she did it. Why was she laughing? It was a genuine question. He choked back a groan as the needle began digging into the flesh of his back, "Why didn't you do that yesterday?"

"It didn't look that bad in the light last night. I'm sorry, I should have caught it sooner."

Sanzo resisted the urge to roll his eyes; she sounded way too much like Hakkai for his comfort when she talked like that.

"When did Goku want to learn how to fight?" Yaone asked while she worked.

Sanzo answered honestly, "Didn't need to really...he was good at it the moment I found him. He helped me trash some bandits. It's the only reason I kept him around." Partial honesty anyway. He would have kept Goku around anyway, he'd known from the moment he reached out his hand that the boy's karma was so tightly bound with his there was no way in hell he could get out of it. Damn the boy.

"Lirin wants to learn, she just doesn't have the patience for it. Do you know the domino effect? Well that's what most of my jars looked like after she'd been in there for all of fifteen minutes."

Sanzo smirked, "You think that's impressive? Goku caused all kinds of shit at the temple...Always eating the peaches dedicated to that old hag..." At her inquiring look he clarified, "The Merciful Goddess."

It must not have been strange for someone to refer to the Merciful Goddess as a hag, or she chalked it up to the drugs. "Still, that's hardly compares to spilling medicinal equipment."

"I don't think I can top that...Once I went away for one freaking day. I came back to find Goku'd brought a dog into the temple. They tracked mud all over the place, and by the time I got there a collection of ancient relics had already been smashed or...eaten..."

Yaone made a sound that oddly resembled choking, "Eaten?"

"The dog ate the knucklebone that got cut off from some saint."

"So...what did you do about it?"

"Smacked the monkey upside the head."

"No, I mean about the relic."

"I didn't do anything about it, wasn't my problem. The monks on the other hand waited until..." He trailed off, then craned his neck around to look dryly at her, "On second thought, you're a smart girl. Figure it out."

Again, he got a smile from her.

After that it carried on in silence. When she was done bandaging his wounds and getting ready to leave she turned and calmly said, "Sanzo...I love a suicidal, stubborn push for male dominance as much as the next girl. But please, ease off the smart ass. They would have killed you in your sleep if I hadn't interfered." As she ran her key card through the reader she turned to him, "Please?" And walked away.

He sat there, a little dumbfounded that she was giving him orders and a little angry about it too. Getting or taking orders from anybody was not something he was keen on.

But she had a point. Damn her.