The title for this chapter came from a Metallica song's title.
'XYZ' – thoughts
'XYZ' – telepathy"XYZ" – speech
XYZ – lyrics
Chapter 15 – Fade to Black
Suddenly a fierce power separated them from each other. Setara found an invisible wall around herself. She tried to transform, but found all her power gone. Hiei desperately tried to destroy the wall, but to no avail. The invisible ball lifted up, and flew away in the night sky.
"Hiei!" Setara tried to shout, but no voice came out of her mouth. She panicked, tried again, but nothing. She tried to break out of the ball, but nothing happened, she couldn't break it with her sword, Judgment either.
As much as Hiei hated it, he had to admit the fact that he couldn't save her alone. So, he ran as fast as he could, to get help. He hoped Setara would hold on. When he got back home, he ran to Kurama, who was yelling after Anna, to come back.
"She got a letter, screamed, and flew off." The fox-demon explained.
"Setara got kidnapped." Hiei said hastily.
"I kind of figured." Kurama nodded knowingly, and they started running.
They got to an abandoned warehouse in the docks. They met Anna, who opened the door silently. They saw Setara chained to the wall. She didn't look up she just stared at the floor, moving her lips, but saying no words.
"Setara!" Anna yelled and Hiei thought. They both ran towards the girl, but an invisible wall blocked their ways. Suddenly, dozens of low-class demons attacked the three of them. Hiei quickly got five of them, Anna got three, and Kurama killed six with his rose whip.
Suddenly the demons stopped dead in their tracks as a dark cloaked figure walked in front of Setara.
"Well, well, well… my sweet white phoenix. I thought you'd never arrive. Though I remember I told you to come alone." The figure laughed manically.
"Let her free…" Anna whispered, raising her blood-soaked sword. "Let my sister free, you sick bastard!" She screamed, lunging at the invisible wall, trying to break it, but it was futile. She fell backwards, landing painfully on the hard floor.
"Anna!" Kurama yelled, running over to his lover. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, so you are the one stealing my mate." The hooded man said, raising the fox-demon to the air with an invisible hand choking him. Then an invisible hand took his rose from his hair and tore it apart.
'I can't breathe… something keeps my muscles from moving… I can't use my rose either… I think I'm in serious trouble for once… Anna…' He thought.
"An…na…" Kurama croaked, before going limp and landing on the floor unmoving.
"Shit!" Hiei cursed under his breath. Anna just stared at the body then at the cloaked man.
"Now, Anna… I need you to erase your tribe. Such an irony, isn't it? Be a good girl, and come here." The man said, stretching his arm out, but Anna just stared at him, still searching for the fox's energy.
"Let my mate free, or you'll die a painful death!" Hiei yelled finally.
"You little shrimp, how could you harm me? Taint me with your forbidden blood, perhaps?" The figure mocked. Setara perched up and tugged on her chains at this sentence. She glared daggers at the man, and shouted obscenities without voice. Hiei glared at him too then he glanced worriedly at his temporarily mute mate. "You can't touch me, but I can easily kill you not even stepping away from this spot. And now…" The man continued, raising his hand.
"Leave him alone, you only need me!" Anna interrupted, stepping forward.
"Shut up, I want to kill him for coming here to ruin our mating ceremony!" The man shouted, slapping Anna away with an invisible force. He then looked at Hiei. He raised him, and whacked him to the wall several times. He couldn't get up, just laid there without a single move.
"Hiei!" Setara yelled voicelessly then started to scream, and soon, her voice came back, as she broke her chains, and set free her demon form. She still screamed, when suddenly, she dropped to her knees, and a painfully shrill voice came out of her throat, piercing the air. The whole building was engulfed in black flames, but it did not burn Anna, Hiei or Kurama. The demons were turned into ash by the black flames. The man tried futilely to protect himself with a wall, but the dark fires burnt it through and smoldered him. 'He's dead finally…' Setara thought faintly as she collapsed and the flames disappeared. The last thing she felt, that she was being carried away.
Several hours later
'Shit… my throat hurts! It's fucking BURNING UP!' Setara thought as she woke up in the white hospital room. 'Huh? How did I get here?'
"Miss. Kazejin. Finally you're awake!" The doctor exclaimed quietly by her side.
"Wha…" Setara started, but the doctor put a hand over her mouth.
"Miss. Kazejin. Your friends have informed me that you're a singer." Setara nodded. She wondered why did the doctor speak so silently. "Your throat and your vocal cords are so seriously injured that I can't let you speak louder than a whisper. This involves everything that would strain your vocal cords. You can't listen to music either, because you'd just worsen your state."
"This means I can't sing?" Setara asked disbelievingly.
"Yes."
"That can't be happening!" She said, but again, found the hand over her mouth.
"Listen to me, Setara. If you do as I say, you can sing again in a matter of time. But if you keep straining your vocal cords, you won't ever get the chance to speak, let alone sing. Understood?" The doctor said, removing her hand.
A/N: MUAHAHAHA! Hn. R&R! Oh yeah, I'm evil! Hey, do you want to read a lemon in the later chapters? No? Yes? Tell me, I wanna know!