A/N: Sad to say that this story is ending on the next chapter. Due to issues the story has ended a lot faster than I wished.

There is still one more chapter after this so don't count it out yet.

Reviews Please


Chapter 10

Veleda moved up to the "abandoned" warehouse feeling the pressure ooze out. Spirits pressed against her whispering their warnings.

"Turn back…" They said. "Turn back… Don't go in. Turn away. There's nothing here that you seek."

She pushed onward brushing away their fake warnings, knowing full well that they were sent out here to ward off most passer-biers. As she moved closer their warnings got stronger and stronger; finally she had enough. Silence! She commanded in silent strength and the spirits dissipated around her. Just illusions… Not True spirits… She told herself as she stopped and watched silently.

A hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder sending a spike of panic through her and forcing her to jam back her elbow, the person caught it.

"Dang, you know you really should learn some physical defense stuff. You're kinda weak."

Veleda looked over her shoulder to see Yusuke smiling at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well I figured you would need some looking after, which I was correct. And I figured that if this guy really did go after my sister like that I should be the one to put him back in his place."

"You really loved her didn't you?"

Yusuke looked down at the small girl, just now realizing she was barely over five feet, and smiled slightly. "Yeah, I loved my sister. She meant the world to all of us."

Veleda's lip twitched and she looked away. What have I done…? She asked herself.

Exactly what you needed to do… A voice answered back.

Veleda sighed in response; she knew that that would be the answer she received to her question but she still didn't like it; her head shot up. She's fading. She thought suddenly, she knew the voice that had answered was none other than the girl that was hiding behind the boarded up windows of the warehouse. We're loosing her. There wasn't much time left before they lost the girl altogether and she couldn't have that.

"Well come on…" She murmured to Yusuke. "Even one more person helps."

"Oh I'm not alone." Yusuke answered.

Veleda turned to see Shuichi, Kuwabara and the ever-elusive Hiei walked into view. "Looks like everyone came."

Sophie peeked around the corner. "How'd you know I was here too?"

Veleda smiled slightly. "Energy patterns. Each one of you gives off a different type that I can associate with the different person so I know who is here." She turned. "We're running out of time." With that she moved off silently to the door of the warehouse.

Yusuke grabbed her arm and pushed her back into Kuwabara as he kicked the door open. "Hey you creep!" He shouted into the darkness. "We're coming in to get you!"

A sudden blast of air rushed against Yusuke pushing on him until a piece of paper flew up before him and dispelled the wind, he turned to look around.

"It looks like you also need spiritual protection." Veleda answered as she retired her prayer beads around her arm.

"I've been waiting for you Miko…" A snake-like voice called out of the darkness. "I see you brought back up. My, my so many hostile energy signatures out there, they all can't be mad at me can they? No matter… Why don't you step in?"

Veleda moved up to Yusuke and touched his arm. "It's me he wants, let me go first." She murmured as she pushed forward not giving him a chance to argue. She stepped into the inky blackness and pulled out several candles. "Illuminate…" She whispered and the wicks suddenly burst into light before lifting and floating around her. "Stay in the light of the candles…" She called to the people behind her. "You never know what trickery he has waiting for you out in the black night he has created."

A sickening laugh echoed in the room. "You're far too wise for your true age. Here, I shall even the field and take away my night so you can see I have not set any traps for you."

The darkness lifted to reveal a long, wide empty room with a platform at the far end. On the platform was a chair and in the chair sat an extremely skinny looking man.

He smiled, baring yellowed teeth, and waved his hand. "You see? Nothing to harm you here."

Veleda didn't move her eyes away from the man before her. "I see that, but I also know that you are a Necromancer and just because there is nothing to see with the eye there is always something lurking hidden away from view."

"Such distrust in someone so young…" He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I should teach you some manners."

Yusuke shot forward. "You're a sick man, trying to use the souls of the dead to raise a zombie. I'll kick your ass!!" He shouted as he charged but the ground before him exploded. As the dust settled a new figure could be seen beside the man.

"No…" Sophie murmured from the back of the group. "I didn't want to believe it, I didn't think…"

"I warned you…" Veleda cut her off as she stared at the new figure.

The man laughed as the dust finally settled and the image was finally clear, the pink haired girl they had all loved dearly now stood between them and their target. "Isn't she amazing? She'll do anything I tell her to do without question. She's absolutely perfect." He smiled and reached out to touch her hair.

"Don't touch her you sick bastard!" Yusuke shouted as he charged towards the platform.

"Teach him a lesson."

The pink haired girl turned and vanished, only to reappear beside Yusuke. Her lifeless green eyes bored into him just before she slammed her fist into his gut sending him back into the group. She slid back into the boxing stance she always took when she was ready to fight.

"Damn it…" Yusuke cursed as he pushed to his feet. "She's so fast."

"That's right… You see I can tap into the abilities she had before she died. That amazing acceleration technique she hadn't be able to perfect is not only perfected here in death but also enhanced. She's not only faster but also stronger. She's the perfect body guard."

"Mattie…" Sophie chirped. "Don't you recognize us? Don't you know who we are?" She moved forward. "We're your friends. Come on Mattie, wake up." She moved closer to the girl in question. "Please… Don't let him do this to you…" She was within range of the girl now, reaching out to touch her.

"Stop!" Veleda shouted before she ran over to Sophie, knocking her to the ground just as the green eyed girl swung a punch right where Sophie was just standing. She pulled Sophie back to the group. "Don't touch her. She's not your friend anymore. She's just a doll used by that man to confuse you. She's nothing but an empty shell, a corpse! There's no one in there anymore. She doesn't know who you are or who you were to her before she died; all she cares about is doing what he's telling her to do. She's not the girl you knew." She knew she was lying but there was nothing she could do about it, she had to make them think that the body before them didn't harbor the soul of their dead friend but was an empty corpse; she needed to move fast.

The man laughed. "What a lie… You know as well as I do that her soul is in that body there or else I wouldn't be able to use the abilities she had once before."

"Muscle memory." Veleda answered back in hopes to keep the others influenced by the lie. "It's in the corpse's muscle memory."

He sighed. "You just want them to believe you."

Veleda flinched inwardly but stood her ground. "I have something you want more than a silly dead body."

"And what could that possibly be?"

"This." She pulled out a small crystal vial and held it up. "The demon essence. It's said to heighten the abilities of the consumer. The power it grants is unimaginable." She smiled. "I propose a trade. You give me the poltergeist charm and I will give you the demon essence."

The man sneered. "I will do no such thing! Get it!" He shouted and the pink hair girl charged.

Veleda raced to reach for her sealing charms but was knocked back. "Hiei?" She gazed up from the spot on the ground.

"Whatever you're trying to do you better hurry up." He snapped as he pulled back and slammed his fist into the gut of the girl he once loved.

She bit her lip and nodded. "Right…" She threw the papers on the ground and untangled the beads from around her arm. "Be as I command thee!" She called to the beads and instantly they transformed into a knife, cutting her arm with it she smeared her blood on the strips of paper and threw it into the air. This has to work…

She knelt and began chanting, her words blurring together. Faster and faster she chanted and suddenly a barrier shot up around the pink hair girl as an unearthly scream tore from her throat.

"What are you doing?!?" The man shouted as he leapt from his chair.

Hiei appeared behind him. "This is what happens to you when you make me hurt someone important…" He hissed silently to the man before he beheaded him.

"All the power in the world couldn't save him from Hiei…" Sophie murmured as she watched her friend writher in pain, beating against the barrier around her. "What's happening?"

"I don't know…" Shuichi murmured as he put a hand on Sophie's shoulder.

Suddenly mist shot from the pink haired girl's body and descended upon Veleda.

"Look out!!" Yusuke shouted as he tried to push her away but the candles that had once encircled them with light now kept him from touching the Miko.

The mist engulfed her as she cried out but didn't move.

While all eyes had turned to watch the priestess struggle with the spectral essence the girl behind the barrier woke up.

Her once lifeless eyes glittered like the spring as she turned to see everyone. "Guys…?" She called.

They all turned. "Mattie?!?"

Veleda stood, breathing heavily. You only have a few minutes. That's all I can grant you…

Mattie turned to the priestess. Thank you… I know what you did… You took that creature inside you. She turned to the group. "Hey…"

"Mattie…?" Hiei moved to the group as he stared at her.

She smiled. "I'm back, if only for a little bit." She looked around at the barrier. "I guess I'll be here as long as this holds up so I should get started." She turned back to the group. "Grow up."

The all looked taken aback.

"What?" Sophie asked.

"Look. I died, not you. Good god you all walk around like zombies! Acting as if the world had ended. Grow up! Life's not over for you, it's over for me. I mean seriously!" She stomped her foot. "You are all insane to act so childish. I didn't die so that you all could wallow is self-pity; I died so that you could learn a lesson!

"I had hoped that my life would show you not to take things for granted just like knowing all of you taught me something. If I hadn't had the life I had I would have never known any of you. Now it's your turn to take those lessons and teach them to someone else.

"Life doesn't stop because you want it to. Life doesn't care if you're upset, or if you're in a self-pitying mood. Life goes on. It's always moving forward and it's your job to pick yourself up and keep moving with it.

"I know that I had only known most of you for a month but I had hoped that during that month you would have grown to see that you all need to live your lives to the fullest. If not you're going to miss out on so many things." She turned to her former partner. "Sophie, look at you. You're going nowhere and you have so much before you! Just look at who's standing behind you. That man loves you and you're almost throwing that out the window by wallowing over the fact that I died. And Yusuke!" She turned to the man in question. "What happened to the 'I'll never regret anything' thing you had going on? Man up, you have a lot of life a head of you for you to be moping around.

"This isn't a time to sit and throw a tantrum over things you had no control over. I lived my life to the fullest that last month with all of you; I have no regrets about my death, you shouldn't either. I finally got to see what a true family was like and I was even lucky enough to see what true love really was." She stopped and smiled at Hiei, he moved closer to her.

"Don't keep looking back…" She murmured as she moved her hand close to the barrier. "Start moving forward. Look for the new tomorrow. I know you will never forget what we had or me but I know there is another that will be waiting for you. It's time to move on with your life and when you find her don't push your memories of me onto her, let her be herself. I will always love you." She closed her eyes against the tears she felt and pushed hard against the barrier that had begun to crack and it shattered.

Hiei's arms reached out automatically and caught the lifeless body of his former love.

"I'm sorry…" Veleda murmured as she walked over to him. "I couldn't stop her."

"No…" He answered. "It's what she would have wanted." Carefully he laid down the shell.

"You know…" Sophie murmured as she moved up. "It doesn't hurt so much now."

"She taught us all a lesson on how to live." Yusuke answered. "I think she had wanted to do that the first time but we just didn't want to hear her."

"We heard her this time…" Kuwabara said.

Shuichi nodded as Hiei pushed his way through the group and left.

Veleda watched him silently knowing that he still had to listen but didn't pursue him, instead she turned to the body before her. "I can have her taken to my shrine and have the body cremated. That way no one will ever be able to harm her again."

"I think that's a good idea." Yusuke commented as he lifted the body. "I think Mattie finally deserves her peace."

With that the group turned and left the empty warehouse, shaking off the sadness they had all been swallowed into. Soon they would all live the life that she had wanted them to live.

Thank you Veleda… If it weren't for you I would have never been able to reach them.

Veleda smiled to herself as she placed her hand up with the prayer beads. Be in peace Mattie. Everything is as it should be. You have taught us all.