AN: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, and that's probably a good thing.
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This…wasn't what she had been led to expect. Though the panicked catch in her breath and the slight tremor in her hands were still pressing in on her, her surrounding gave her no excuse to have them. Instead of a dank cellar or dungeon, she was in a comfortably appointed study, lined with full bookshelves and painted a rich oxblood color. Really, it reminded her of nothing so much as the Dean's office back at the Academy. If only the people were more like her teachers! She huddled in on herself, assaulted from all sides by the mere presence of so many Seasonal Mages. The tall, icy stranger that had kidnapped her in the street was standing next to Misao, one long arm around her thin shoulders. She wanted to cry out and warn her friend, tell her to run and leave her behind, but the adoring expression on the face of her friend as she gazed at the Mage stopped her. Realization hit her like a thunderbolt—Misao must be one of them. Nausea and anger flooded her body. She had been deceived! She, the flower of the Academy, their finest student and brightest hope had been tricked and snared by a spy for the Seasonal Mages.
And while part of her thought that, a smaller, pathetic, fearful part of her could only watch in dumb sadness. At first that hidden part of her soul had scrambled for excuses—maybe Misao was still enchanted, just as she had been, maybe Misao didn't know who these people were, maybe…
But it had all fallen flat. She had been betrayed, and, in this small corner of her soul, she didn't feel the black wrath she knew she probably should. She just felt lonely and sad and tired. Serves me right for trusting someone, she thought. That other part of her continued to scream in frustration, cursing them for maintaining the block on her Deltography—she should rain fire and ice down from the heavens, rip the room apart with winds, and salt the earth on which it stood—but she couldn't. The frigid bastard was holding a block on her memories, and she couldn't even remember the first of the fire-calling cantrips. Still, she thought, it's a good thing, really. I couldn't bear to do that to Misao, no matter what she's done to me. I hope they kill me quickly. She looked dully around the room, wanting to at least know her killer's faces before she died. The closest was the short, red-haired one. He was still holding her arm looped through his, and his touch made her shudder. His eyes wouldn't stay the same color, with amber and amethyst swirling around and around. An ugly scar marred his cheek, slashing it into an 'X', and though he had affected a dopey expression, she thought she could see something dark and predatory in his smile. I bet he's not even a Mage…he looks more like a demon…
She tried to pull away, but his arm was as hard as a rock, and he had a strong grip on her hand. Well, I'll get no mercy from him, and that's for sure…
He was continuing to murmur softly to her, the words meaningless in her state of rising panic. Did they want to interrogate her, steal the secrets of Deltography they thought she possessed? The angry part of her, the part she had always thought the best of, was still ranting on about final stands and death coming before dishonor and honoring the proud traditions of the martyrs of the Orthodoxy, as if somehow she could will herself dead. She was beginning to be faintly annoyed with herself, if that wasn't a sign of madness emerging.
Kaoru continued to look around the room as she was lead to sit in a leather chair by a heavy desk. She wanted to distract herself from what she feared was a rising tide of angry insanity. The tall man and Misao were by now deeply engaged in soft conversation, it looked like she was briefing him on something. It just depressed Kaoru to think that her only friend had been bought body and soul by these maniacs, so she looked toward the door. A beautiful woman was just passing through it, followed by a scruffy looking man. He was carrying a heavy briefcase for her, but whatever points he might have gotten with Kaoru for chivalry were cancelled out by the hungry looks he was giving her when she wasn't watching. The woman, unfortunately, was oblivious as she instructed him to place the briefcase on the table. Cold fear clenched in Kaoru's stomach, and she fought down a rising tide of nausea, but, for the first time in the presence of her captors, she found her voice.
"What…what do you want with me?" Her voice was pathetically weak, but it was loud enough to be heard by the stupid-looking demon. It didn't help her already battered self-esteem when he grinned ruefully.
"Ah…I suppose we haven't really explained any of this thoroughly, have we?" His eyes had settled on violet, for the moment, and he genuinely looked kind. Kaoru would have trusted him instinctively if he hadn't been a thrice-damned Seasonal Mage. "As you've probably guessed, yes, we're Seasonal Mages. Really, though, we're not as bad as you think we are. We don't eat babies, and before you ask, no, I don't dye my hair with blood," Something that flickered in his eyes suggested that just that had been suggested. "I've never even single-handedly destroyed a minor municipality and its population down to the beasts of the fields, then salted the earth on which it once stood. Shameful, really…" The flicker in his eyes had turned into a twinkle. Kaoru was disgusted. Was he trying to sweet-talk her while preparing her to torture her for information after he had kidnapped her? That little part of her that wasn't so quick to judge, however, chuckled at the bitter irony that kidnapping was the only way she could get a man interested in her. She might have even said this, against her better judgment, if the increasingly furious half of her soul wasn't drowning out anything else she would have liked to say. "Now, if you would kindly sit here?" he asked politely, forcing her to comply with an absurd gentleness.
She screwed up what little courage she had, feeling as if she had to make an effort. That wrathful voice was still ranting. It had begun to repeat itself, and was sounding rather tinny. She was just so tired… "I'll never talk, you know. Never!" She jerked her chin up, catching the full force of his eyes with her own. Unnervingly, the violet had disappeared completely and she was looking straight into hungry gold. The force of his gaze began to burn as he chuckled.
"Don't worry, little one. We're not interested in what you could tell us," She was faintly insulted. "You're here for treatment, not for interrogation. I'll even tell you one of our secrets—we're not after the Orthodoxy. I don't give a damn what you do with your own people as long as you don't move into my territory. What we want you for," he said, ruffling her hair condescendingly, "Is an internal struggle against one crazy son-of-a-bitch," He looked over his shoulder at the lovely woman with the briefcase. "Megumi, the syringe?"
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As the opium slid into her bloodstream, Kaoru's eyes lost their wild look, her rigid posture relaxed, and she slumped lazily back into the deep green leather of the chair. Her pupils dilated hugely, and a rather stupid looking grin spread across her face. Her eyes continued to wander around the room until they finally returned to the face of her 'demonic' captor.
"You're evil," she stated bluntly, her blue eyes guileless. "I bet you're not even a Mage at all. Are you a demon?" she tilted her head to the side inquisitively, her now-unbound hand reaching up to stroke a lock of his long red hair and missing. A genuinely gentle smile tilted the corners of Kenshin's mouth, and he caught the hand just as it was starting to drop, quickly weaving his Autumnal powers of trickery and illusion into a dreamlike trance that caught both of them up, leading them to a strange, internal place where he might be able to convince her to side with them.
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Kaoru was sitting under a tree in a beautiful glade. Soft, emerald moss cushioned her, and tiny blue flowers were scattered across the forest floor. It was a hot day, but neither humid nor sticky, and she felt more comfortable leaning up against that tree than she did in most chairs. The sky up above was clear and achingly blue, and a soft breeze cooled her skin and turned the patter of leaves and branches into subtle music like the sighing of the ocean. She stretched, sighing in contentment, then noted with astonishment that her arms were uncovered. She would never wear a dress so immodest! But…it was very comfortable, and the little inner voice that usually derided her for disobeying any of the Orthodoxy's commands was strangely silent. She poked about a bit in her own consciousness, feeling for that wrathful part of herself and couldn't find anything, even when she (in a purely experimental mindset) tried thinking something positive about the Seasonal Mages. It was strange, though…when she was in that endeavor, the phrase "yummy redhead" kept popping up.
The balmy temperature and the very solitude of the place made any serious worrying about either Mages (yummy or not) or even how she had gotten to this idyllic glade in the first place seem unreasonably cerebral, and her eyelids were just beginning to droop shut when a much colder breeze, scented with woodsmoke and ginger pulled her to attention once again. It was that bloody demon-man! The cool breeze seemed to be swirling around him only branching out and teasing her as he moved closer. What right had he to invade this place, which was so obviously hers? The disappointment must have showed on her face as he seated himself beside her and flopped onto his back in the sun-warmed moss, because he gave her a sardonic grin and chuckled.
"I know I'm not your favorite person just now, but could you find it in your heart to listen to me for just a bit? I promise, if I say any untruth—and you can ask Misao later just what is true and what is false—then we'll leave you, you can go back to the Academy and continue with the life you were leading before now," He looked at her hopefully. Kaoru only favored him with the level glare she had practiced for so long on her tutoring days. He sighed. "Well, that's as close to a yes as I'm going to get, isn't it?" The redheaded mage waited for her answer, but when none was forthcoming, he plowed on ahead. "We might as well get this over with. The sooner you make your decision, the sooner we can each get on with our respective lives. I will try to make this clear and to the point, I promise.
"We are Seasonal Mages, but really the people you saw back in the house are only a small group, and part of a larger tribe. The group I have with me are just the people that I trust unconditionally," he paused for a moment, as if mulling over his next words and looking up at the clear sky.
"I guess I better explain a bit more about how we work and who we are…I bet you've only gotten the nastiest propaganda available," he said lightly, with just a hint of a self-deprecating laugh in his voice. "For starters, we Mages are always Seasonally aligned, that's where we get all our…special abilities. Which abilities we get are also determined by the Season that claims us. There's Winter—that's tight control of yourself and your surroundings, even the people around you. Minds, bodies, and to some extent, hearts, all can fall under the sway of a Winter master. Many people even consider them to be the most dangerous of all the Seasonals; they're certainly the most insidious," He looked over at her, trying to judge her reaction to all of this. Though she had been wearing a look of keen interest just a minute earlier (information this specific was exceedingly hard to find anywhere in the Academy), when she saw him looking she schooled her features into a mask of indifference. It wouldn't do to let him know how curious she was. He continued haltingly, as if embarrassed. "Aoshi…that's the tall man who…" he paused, searching for a way to describe her kidnapping without offending her. "He's the man who helped bring you in. He's a Winter master, and his powers of control are how he helped catch you. I don't suppose it could be consider a point in our favor that he only controlled your body, could it? He could have taken your mind as well, made you believe that this is what you wanted. We…I wanted to give you the right of choice," he shook himself slightly, trying to draw the conversation away from a discussion of his own failings.
"Your friend Misao—and she's still your friend. Every briefing she gave us, she told us how guilty she felt, deceiving you like she did. You'll need to talk with her later, I'm sure…anyway, Misao is Spring-aligned. Spring mages tend to be…well, a bit eclectic. You can't expect anything of them, and they're always surprising even the people they know best with something new. I've never actually known another Spring-mage that was a spy, but I blame it on Aoshi's early and corrupting influence," He shot her a grin designed to melt bones and inhibitions. She returned fire with a blank stare until he withered slightly.
"That brings us to Summer, I guess…Summer mages can be a mixed bag, too, but they generally fall into a few categories. Healers are common among Summer mages, and there's a good deal of earth-based magic that goes with being Summer-aligned, but every once in a while there's a Warrior hidden among them. Of course, they're rare, and you probably don't want to hear about something like that…" he trailed off, looking up at the sky in apparent contentment.
"W…wait! You can't just say something like that and then not explain!" Kaoru fumed. This was interesting, dammit, and she couldn't learn anything like this in the Academy library. And then, just when his words were starting to really strike a chord with her the infuriating little man just stops! She could throttle him, she really could…But just as her fingers were tensing and she was ready to storm away through the trees, he responded.
"It's funny, you know…you get Warriors of both genders from the other Seasons, but from Summer, the Warriors are almost always women," He said this nonchalantly, as if it were the price of tea in the market place, but Kaoru was staring at him with wild eyes. Something about his words, his phrases, had caught her utmost attention and held it tight. There was something very important about Summer Warriors, and she needed to find out about it right now.
"These Summer Warriors…how can you tell who they are? Do they look alike, or are they marked from birth or something?"
"Well…" The hateful little man drew out the word, dawdling (on purpose she was sure) to draw out the suspense of the moment. "I'm not one, obviously…but from the one Summer Warrior I've ever spoken with, they generally find out who they are just about when they're needed, or when they find their right teacher," he shrugged. "Anyway, you probably don't want to hear any more about that. It's so esoteric that most mages don't really bother too much. Did you have any other questions?" At first, nothing came to mind (at least, nothing not related to these strange Summer Warriors…), but eventually a question so obvious that she should have thought of it sooner came to mind.
"Umm…Where are we, exactly? The last thing I remember is the syringe, and…" she trailed off, wondering if she was going crazy.
"Oh, that…We're in your subconscious mind, or at least a place modeled on it. I needed to talk to you here because of some thought-compulsion placed on you by your precious Academy and this was the easiest way to work around it without removing it. Who knows, you might want to keep it…Anyway, to get out of here, just concentrate on the study where you were before. I'm heading back—why don't you think over what I've just told you?"
His tone had been light and playful, but with a note of melancholy and worry in his voice. She was still wondering what exactly he meant and what she was going to do with herself here when he reluctantly stood, brushing the loose pieces of grass off of his shirt and winking out of existence in just a few seconds. Kaoru stayed in her glade for another long moment, staring at a single leaf that had fallen into the hollow where Kenshin had lain. It was the same brilliant scarlet as his hair.
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AN: Aaaugh! pounds head against desk I wanted to get this up a week ago, I really did. What happened is this: I'm with my family on Malta (more information on my author profile) and spring break time came around. We were all up on Malta's sister island Gozo, without any internet access of any kind. Since my parents don't exactly approve of fanfic writing or reading, I couldn't exactly ask for time in an internet café to post this. Gomen, and more up soon.
P.S. I do in no way condone the use of opium or other drugs to induce trance states. I'm not even sure that this would work. Like I said, I was away from the 'net while I wrote this, the opium bit is more of an homage to Megumi-san's past in the manga. Drugs are bad, kids!