"Stuck between a rock and a hard place."

She had heard the saying before.

Her father had used the term once during a fight with her mother. Hitomi had come home from middle school and instinctively felt a tense ring in the air as if fury had been cut off abruptly as soon as the door opened. Dropping her bag quietly at the door, she sneaked to her father's study and peeked through the door's cracks. She saw the straight shoulders of her mother shaking with suppressed bitterness. She could see her father's face, his tense mouth lined and his green eyes tight, but his expression one of hard resolve. He said the words then, with a sense of loss, muttering them quietly under his breath. His rock: his crumbling relationship with his family. His hard place: his discovery of the truth. He was the only one who knew where to find Van. He was the only one who could save the world.

Hitomi hadn't known at the time, but now she understood.

She understood all too well.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

As the side of her head hit the stone wall inside the crevice and clawed fingers dug excruciatingly deep into the back of her left arm, Hitomi wondered in a daze why these words had suddenly come up from her memory now.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The rocks split the skin on the side of her head just below her temple and blood spilled down her chin. Within an instant, a concrete-hard, furry forearm pressed her neck against the wall. Through her panic, her feet groped uselessly for the ground. She saw yellow eyes gleaming brilliantly only inches away from her nose. The cat's fanged mouth hissed, jagged claws extending, Hitomi choking as the pressure grew tighter on her neck. Her hands, which were slippery with fright, clutched at the air vainly. Her leg reflexively swung up and she kneed the cat hard in the stomach. He grunted with pain before shoving his larger body against hers, successfully pinning her entirely against the wall. Her throat was crushed, her hands reached hopelessly, and she heard the words again as her eyesight flickered with dark spots.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Suddenly, the male cat let out a terrible yowl and Hitomi was released. Her injured leg wrenched with pain as she landed rigidly on the rocky ground and gasped desperately for air. Sliding down the wall, her crushed throat felt like it was on fire. She could sense something was happening in front of her, but her eyesight was clouded with red spots. Holding her neck with a trembling hand, she blinked away several of the spots to see Bakura's arms locked around the cat's thick neck, his long snout dripping blood. His glasses were gone and replaced by a look of fierce rage. His usual gentle brown eyes were flecked with feral yellow around his pupils. The cat bucked, shaking violently left and right to break his hold. Bakura squealed as he hit the crevice several times, but his claws dug into the cat's side and his jaws snapped around the back of the cat's neck.

Never had he looked more like Grammy than now.

As the male cat lunged forward to throw him off again, Hitomi pressed herself in a tight ball against the wall. They barely missed her as they stumbled past and out into the darkened clearing.

A familiar soft fur brushed against her temple and concerned amber eyes flickered into her dazed mind.

"Chordata…?" she tried to comprehend, wondering how the white cat appeared so suddenly. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting you out of here," the cat murmured, gathering her in her strong arms. Bracing on Chordata's steady shoulder, Hitomi stumbled to her feet just as she heard Van's pain-filled scream.

Hitomi's gasping cry echoed behind him and reverberated tightly in his ears. The female cat was already pouncing towards Chordata.

Van made a split-decision.

Rushing forward with the axe tight in his fingers, he caught Chordata's eye for a millisecond and they instantly read each other movements. She slipped to the right and he stepped in front of the jumping feline with a sharp vertical swing. The yellow tabby staggered back just in time, her claws swiping fruitlessly at the air. As she hissed and lowered to pounce again, Chordata slipped behind him like a flickering shadow and appeared at his left flank.

"Save her," he hissed.

Chordata was gone in an instant. Van leapt forward with the axe ready for a right back-handed swing. Either duck, jump, or dodge to the left, he reasoned as he watched the feline's padded feet stumble backward.

He feinted a swing to the right and slammed his leg into the cat's stomach just as she attempted to dodge out of the way. The momentum of his kick sent her rolling backward several feet before landing on her fingers-tips and the balls of her feet. She was hissing, spitting; her eyes glowing murderously. Van raised his axe to the ready. A stand-off.

Bakura and another cat came tumbling out of the crevice just as the yellow tabby and Van took off in a clash.

Jumping, he read, and the yellow cat leapt high in the air. Swinging upward, he never noticed the other cat, with Bakura still perched on his back, racing forward. The king felt the wind knocked out of his lungs as a solid muscled body slammed hard into his right side. He stumbled, the axe twisting out of his hands and clattering to the ground. Van's dark eyes barely had time to glance up before he felt the full force of the female cat's body land hard on his shoulders. He stayed on his feet, but her dangerous jaws sank deeply into his left shoulder. Warmth ran down his chest, covering his filthy green shirt in rich dark crimson.

He screamed, his hands grabbing at the cat's hair, her ears, anything. He stumbled on the stones, his balance failing as he attempted to pry the cat off of him. He was dimly aware that he was stumbling away from where he'd dropped the axe.

"Van!" He heard Hitomi shout.

He cried out as he yanked on the back of the feline's neck and her blood-covered fangs tore out of his skin. Her mouth spit and hissed with his blood as he held her off by her neck-collar. Her claws sprang forth, paws raking over his face in attempts to scratch his eyes. He turned his head just in time for the razor nails to scrape painfully over his jaw and cheek.

A familiar screaming roar snapped through the air and a white blur sped towards him.

And suddenly, the yellow tabby was pulled off.

He fell forward, his hands and knees hitting on the hard stones. He couldn't catch his breath. His shoulder was searing in agony. His face dripped with blood that puddled the rocks below him.

"Your sword!" Hitomi's voice was like a faded thought. In his pain, he glanced to his left to see her stumbling towards him. She knelt down awkwardly to pick up his axe from where he'd dropped it and her trembling fingers struggled to hold it steady. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noticed a heavy stream of blood running down the side of her face.

"Your sword!" she called again, continuing to limp towards him.

Her pathway was blocked as Bakura was finally flipped over the brown cat's back and landed hard on the ground in front of her; his eyes dazed and his breath gone from his chest. His snout was a mass of gashes and blood. The cat snarled as he withdrew two small, sharp blades from his vest and bent forward to stab him.

Van found he could only watch helplessly as the knife was lowered closer and closer to Bakura's throat.

And then Hitomi screamed.

CRUNCH.

The axe came down like an executioner's blade.

The brown cat jerked in surprise only once. His eyes wide in disbelief, he landed heavily on Bakura's chest and remained still. Somewhere behind Van, the yellow tabby screamed in fury.

Hitomi's thin arms trembling, her breath gasping as if there wasn't enough air in the world, she continued to hold onto the handle of the axe as it stuck out of the back of the brown cat's head. She seemed to be caught in a fascinated revulsion. Small pools of blood slipped from the cat's skull; drenching his long fur. Bakura let out a breathy whine underneath the cat's corpse as Van struggled to get to his feet. His legs wobbled unsteadily.

"Let go of the handle," he said with a wheezing breath. "It is all right, Hitomi. Let go of it."

"Master Fanel!" Chordata's frightened voice suddenly called out. He glanced back with a lurched stomach.

A yellow shadow had jumped over his head - headed straight for Hitomi.

"I'll rip you to shreds!"

Hitomi let go of the axe to stumble away in horror.

He didn't know where it came from; the sudden strength to stand. The muscles in his legs, once shaking with loss of blood, were surged with power as he watched the yellow feline spread her claws. He sprinted without a second thought. His shoulder was numb. His wounds, forgotten.

All he saw was her face.

"Your sword!" Her shout from before rang in his head. He slipped the blade out of the sheath and thrusted the sword just in time. The razor edge and fine metal slipped into the yellow tabby's back just as she landed beside the brown cat's body. He had skewered her, the point of the blade sticking out of her furry chest. Her claws were still raised mid-swipe an inch from Hitomi's chin. Her bone-chilling shriek tore from her throat.

He expertly slipped the sword out of her body and stabbed again – this time through the throat. The scream died in a gurgle.

As he withdrew the blade this time, she fell to the left, her body landing on top of Bakura to join the brown cat in death.

A panted breath of shocked silence lapsed between the four of them.

Bakura blinked with the heavy bodies draped on his chest, Hitomi stood with her blood-stained, trembling fingers covering her mouth, Van sank to the ground as his legs finally buckled, and Chordata remained quiet and alert behind them, her elegant white ears pricked for any movement from their still adversaries.

It was broken only a few seconds later.

Bakura grunted.

Struggling with the dead weight of the corpses, he pushed as hard as he could to roll them off his body. Chordata, a little worse for wear, but still in better shape than the rest of them, hurried forward to help him; her white dress more crimson than white. Meanwhile, Hitomi limped towards Van, a strange blankness covering her green eyes. The blood running down her face framed the side of her cheek and he could see now it was coming from a large gash near her temple. He watched her slowly come forward, expecting her to join him on the ground. He was surprised when she moved to his back to fumble through the flaps of his bag.

He had forgotten he was carrying it.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, wiping his family's sword clean on his jeans before setting it on the ground near his leg. His adrenaline was still spiked and his joints felt twitchy. She didn't answer, picking out the soft white bandages that they had packed just that afternoon. Her cold fingers slowly touched the sticky cloth on the edge of his sleeve and attempted to ease the fabric up to his bicep. He swallowed down his cry of agony as pain shot like a rocket down his spine all the way to his toes. Only a small whimper escaped through his lips.

"You… You're so hurt," She finally said, her voice breathless, but holding no emotion. "There are scissors in here. I'm going to cut your shirt. I don't think I can roll it up properly without hurting you further."

It was several minutes of audible silence as she snipped and peeled away the blood-stained fabric. "We can use your shirt as a wrap or something," she said, sounding strangely business-like. Her breath brushed against his neck and he shivered. She snipped the last part around his torso and the shirt fell away. Goose-bumps rose on his skin. He was caked in blood. His thin chest was bruised and bleeding. Scarlet trails ran down his stomach and stained the top of his pants.

"Your shoulder is still bleeding."

"Hitomi," he said gently. She continued as if in a hypnotic trance.

"You've got scratches on your face, Van, but I think your shoulder is the biggest issue. You've got two really huge holes on either side. She bit you really badly. I think Grammy said to clean it before applying the onion poultice. It's almost too big for that…"

"Hitomi."

She dug back into the bag to find the sterilizing bottle. Tossing a generous dab onto one of the white bandages, she winced though he couldn't see it. "This is going to hurt."

"Hitomi, are you alr-AHHHHHHH!" The alcohol connected to his wound. Van's entire body reactively rocked forward; rolls of fire engulfed the left side of his body. The bandage retreated quickly from his shoulder, but the pain continued to stream forth like an unbridled tempest. Sour bile rose in his throat and he choked down another scream.

"I'm-I'm sorry!" Her soft voice gasped as if his cry had finally woken her. "I'm so sorry!"

"Okay, okay, okay. I am okay," he panted, blinking hard through the tears unwillingly streaming down his face. "You need to clean it. Give me the shirt and I will bite down."

His mouth tasted iron as his teeth gripped the green fabric. Another shock of pain shot his system, but his screams were effectively muffled this time.

"It's almost done," Hitomi announced hurriedly, and he felt her shaking fingers gently touch the middle of his back – the one place he felt like he didn't have a wound. Van forced himself to concentrate on her small fingers, the tiny movement of a caress. It helped as the waves of sharp, knife-like throbbing made him almost dry-heave. Her small touch. The simple press of light fingernails.

She had touched his back last night as he made love to her. She had held him tightly, rocking against - his scream broke against the shirt and he saw darkness creeping over his eyes.

"I've almost got it clean. Just try to be still, okay? Be still. It's almost done."

The light of dusk morphed everything into one solid, muted navy blue. Through squinted watering eyes, he tried to train his eyes on the stained blade of his sword resting by his side and his mind focused on her fingertips, which were now ever-so-lightly slipping around his right side as if to hug him. It was so intimate, and yet, it had become so familiar. He had never had someone touch him like she did. She did it freely, reaching out to him, allowing him to come near.

Van had been a young child when his mother died. His brother disappeared not long after that. He had spent the better part of his life in this world, raised to live with survival. Chordata was affectionate in her own way, but Hitomi… Hitomi was so… different.

She had closed the space between them last night, hadn't she? In his dazed mind, he remembered her wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him in. He had come willingly, but she had been the one to start it.

His thoughts touched randomly on the kiss they'd shared on the rooftop in Joko. She had started that one, too.

What about the one on stage? Yes, she had been a mermaid and he, the drowning pirate. It was part of the play, but she had kissed him.

Basking in her comforting embrace, which was just a simple stroke of her fingers on his side, the pain was still sharp, but it was somewhat… less… in the wake of her caress.

Another memory surfaced. Waking up this morning with her in his arms. The lovely curve of her hips. The feeling of her breast in his hand. Her various smiles of pleasure, of need, of happiness.

She had told him she loved him.

She was always the one to start it.

"It's good. It's good. I'm going to put the poultice wrap on it, okay? You need to stop moving, Van."

He hadn't realized he was moving. He stopped the small rocking motion and the scream was swallowed down as the spicy medicine hit raw flesh.

"You saved me again," she whispered behind his head. He blinked, her accusatory tone taking him by surprise. "You're always doing that. You're always just leaping to my rescue whenever I need you. And now look at you. Look at us. I'm…so… so useless. I can barely stand on my feet. I have to be carried everywhere like some princess. Some damsel in distress. God, we almost died just now! Grammy… Grammy's fighting an entire pack by herself!" He could feel her getting worked up, her breath starting to come in short gasps, but her fingers remained as gentle as ever against his skin. "I don't know why destiny or whatever the hell chose someone like me, you know? I don't get why, out of everyone in the whole fucking universe, I am the one who you are stuck with! I'm nobody! I'm just me!"

As the poultice's raging fire dulled to a pool of molten lava, he shook his dizzy head slowly and dropped the shirt from his mouth. It landed with a wet plop on his thighs. Unknown to them, Chordata and Bakura were watching with quiet eyes, the dogman finally dug out from underneath the bodies.

"Hitomi-"

"I understand why you don't feel the same! I completely get it! I'm not anything special at all!"

He tried again. "Hitomi-"

"God, I'm so-"

"You saved my life, Hitomi," Bakura cut in and her hands froze. All eyes slipped from the canine's face to the still bodies of the cats lying in a heap on the stones. The axe, still jammed the male cat's corpse, was like a visual thorn. "You killed him. If you hadn't, I wouldn't be here right now." The dogman gave a weak smile through his bloodied snout. "That has to count for something right? That's not being useless at all."

"You saved me first," she answered in a hard tone, but her fingers had started tying the poultice again.

"You have never killed before, have you, Lady Hitomi?" Chordata's voice was quiet in the still, chilly clearing. Van blinked in startled realization. She hadn't. This cat was her first kill.

Suddenly, he understood her behavior.

"And he will not be your last," Van added tightly. Her hands jerked at his voice and the one touching his side dropped away – to his disappointment. "We are headed straight into the Winged Palace, Hitomi. There will be soldiers there. Humans. They are the enemy. Once we are in, it is kill or be killed. They will not hesitate to put a bullet through your head. It is either us or them. And I…" Start it! Van's mind suddenly shouted. Start it!

"I-I choose us," he ended in a whisper. The inflection on the word didn't pass Hitomi and he heard her give a small gasp behind his head. Feeling a hotness creep up his cheeks, he wished she would say something as the silence dragged on for several heartbeats.

"…I know."

It was as if those simple words were enough for her. She backed way slightly as Chordata stepped forward to take the filthy shirt from Van's lap and started wrapping it around his back. "Hold the poultice still," she commanded gently, as she slipped the shirt over his left shoulder. Hitomi's hand pressed on it lightly and the shirt held it secure. The wrap was a simple tie and probably wouldn't last, but it would have to do for now. Van hissed through clenched teeth, but relaxed once it was done and they backed away. Now that the red-hot medicine had kicked in, the onion poultice had a numbing effect that was strangely pleasant.

Well, better than the alternative.

He felt Hitomi move to the right to grab the open bag and stuff the medicine back inside. She took out the flashlight and flicked it on. Chordata braced him between her hands to help him stand. Grabbing his sword hilt, he leaned on the cat lady heavily, standing with only a small groan. Glancing back, he saw Hitomi replacing the bandages on the inside pocket. He also noticed the large crimson smear of blood spreading down her pale cheek.

"We should stop the bleeding on your head," he said softly.

She frowned for a moment as if forgetting before reaching up to touch her temple. She winced, but shook her head.

"It's not bad. We've wasted enough time. Let's keep moving."

Bakura grunted as he ripped the axe out of the cat's skull behind them and went to pick up where the other one had fallen. He heard Hitomi give a small gag at the noise before standing awkwardly with the bag on her thin shoulders. Van still leaned on Chordata while Hitomi limped behind them as they slowly made their way across the wide clearing. The sun had completely faded and stars studded the unblemished black sky. Hitomi's flashlight slipped over the landscape and her heart flew with a wash of surreal, almost dreamlike, astonishment.

The angels' bodies, covered in graffiti, their arms lifted pleadingly to the sky, were just as Van, Bakura, and Grammy had said. It was strange to see something like this. These elegant tall statues carved from the past, only to be torn apart in the future.

Something so beautiful and majestic, tainted.

The small open slot for Van's sword was hard to see in the darkness, but Bakura's flashlight found it within a few minutes. Van, still braced by Chordata, lifted the blade with his right hand and slid the sword inside. There was a quiet click.

Then all was still.

According to Bakura, Chordata, and Van, the doorway remained closed.

But Hitomi saw something entirely different. Two wisps of white smoke slipped from the open mouths of the angels and fluttered with long, feathered wings to the dark sky. Their humanoid figures danced together for a brief moment before gliding down to hover over Van.

It was like the spirits of Fanelia were welcoming him home.

"It is not working. I could have sworn-"

"Can you see them?" Hitomi breathed as she watched their ethereal faces smile kindly down at him.

"See whom?" Chordata asked with a tilted head.

"I don't see anything," Bakura piped in.

"The angels! They're right there beside you!" She pointed at Van and his eyebrows raised. Meanwhile, translucently fluid hands caressed his face and neck where the yellow cat's claws had jaggedly cut him. One of the angels reached down to his chest and touched the pink pendant around his neck. Hitomi saw it glow in response. Van glanced down in surprise as the two spirits suddenly launched into the air once more, their hands intertwined. They glided around the clearing together briefly before rushing towards the mountainside where their statues were. Hitomi gasped and her heart clenched, waiting for the impact, but the spirits slipped smoothly through stone.

And the clearing began to tremble.

"Whoa!" Bakura yelped. Van and Chordata jumped out of the way as a sliver of a line appeared between the statues. It grew bigger and bigger while the rumbling increased.

A doorway was slowly opening. The angels parted forward.

A true secret passageway.

Suddenly, Van let out a startled laugh.

"It worked! I cannot believe it! It actually worked!"

"What do you mean, 'it worked!'? Weren't you positive it would?" Hitomi scowled through the noise.

His laugh died in his throat and he cleared his throat. "Never mind that." Glancing at the side which still held his sword, Van's face fell further.

"You have to leave it behind?" Her heart clenched as he gave one short nod. His precious sword. The only thing he had left of his homeland.

"The sword keeps the passage open." Van avoided her eyes and turned back to the passage.

Slowly, carefully, and anxiously, the four stepped forward into the slowly opening passageway. Van took the flashlight from Hitomi, while Chordata took both axes from Bakura. With a deep breath, her amber eyes flicked up and down Van's body and she asked, "Are you okay to walk without assistance?"

"I'll be fine." He nodded, his back straightening with forced strength.

"Alright, I'll take the axes and lead the way. I can see the best in the dark," she instructed quietly, "Lord Van, you follow me and keep the flashlight forward. Lady Hitomi, after him. Bakura, bring up the rear and keep your eye on Lady Hitomi. Don't let her fall behind. Also, keep your light on the ceiling so it will illuminate our surroundings."

With a silent nod from all three, they got into line formation and picked their way into the Tunnel. Only ten feet in, it became terribly dark. Bakura's flashlight showed the Tunnel spanned several yards across and about ten feet high. Much better than that long crevice, but still a bit claustrophobic. They walked in silence, tripping on the occasional stone. Van was slow, but Hitomi was even slower. The pack on her shoulders weighted her leg down, but she kept her complaints to herself.

In a few hours, it wouldn't matter anyway.

The tunnel grew colder each passing minute. Soon, they all were shivering, breath visible even in the small light. Van's bare torso was trembling and Hitomi wished she had thought to pack a blanket in one of their packs.

"Do you remember it being this cold?" Bakura whimpered quietly. His voice ricocheted off the walls dangerously.

"Quiet," Van breathed sharply. "The rocks are unsteady. We should be absolutely silent."

Even Bakura's low swallow of fear was audible as they continued their walk.

Bile had built up in his throat as he stepped over the corpses of his dead Zaibachian comrades and the still-warm bodies of the dead felines. Attempting to keep his voice steady, he flicked open the holster and pulled out his pistol with his right hand as his left reached for the communicator on his shoulder.

"Scan 3-358 reporting in, over," he said into the receiver and pushed down the bitterness creeping up his esophagus.

"Scan 3-358, give us your number, ove," the communicator buzzed in.

"Uh… Serial 45697…29," he murmured hesitantly, "I have found… I have found what happened to Scans 1, 2, and 4. They are dead. Repeat: they are dead, over."

"Any hostiles?"

"None that I can see. Permission to advance in The Wastes, over?"

There was a slip of silence before: "This is Strategos Hatchet. Permission granted. Find them, over."

The man almost dropped his pistol in surprise. "Y-Yes, sir! Over!"

His stomach almost emptied itself as he followed another blood trail and ended up in a sea of mutilated coyotes surrounding a dead female wolf. Reporting in his findings, he waited, attempting to keep his gagging inaudible. Permission granted, yet again by the Strategos, he moved to the crevice with a weak stomach and continued.

Upon leaving the crevice, he stumbled upon two more bodies. Both feline and both sporting terrible stab wounds. The male cat appeared to have been bludgeoned by an axe of some sort.

Just as he reached for his communicator, his flashlight ran through the clearing and stopped over something he would have never thought possible…

An opening…

Hurrying over, he frowned in confusion as he studied the open-mouthed angels, their arms raised. Moving to the right, he saw only solid stone open like a doorway. He stepped to the left and saw it.

The hilt of a sword stuck out of a small slot in the stone. His eyes narrowed, he belted the pistol and grabbed the handle. He pulled hard. The sword slid free rather easily.

The stone doors slammed shut with a solid, resounding BOOM, violent enough to throw him off his feet and hard on his backside. The tremor rocked the clearing. He desperately crawled away, hands grasping at loose stones and dirt as both angel statues crumbled forward; their arms and faces colliding on the ground. Rocks piled over rocks, burying any semblance of a doorway. It felt like an hour, but it must have only been a few minutes; the boulders continued to tumble.

And finally. All was still.

Gasping for breath, the Zaibachian man shakenly reached for his communicator.

The sword in his other hand momentarily forgotten.

Hiomi's fingers were like ice after about an hour. Or maybe it was two hours. She'd lost track of time. The tunnel just continued to grow colder. It was also starting to head uphill which made her leg throb terribly. Blinking away the tears of pain, she forced herself to continue. Her green eyes focused fully on Van's stumbling long legs. A small trail of blood slipped from the wrap on his shoulder and trailed down the tan skin of his back. The blood looked dark in the muted light. She was tempted to wipe it off of him, but with the pace they were going, she was already having trouble keeping up.

"Wait," Chordata's sharp hiss erupted suddenly from the front and all of them stopped in surprise. "What… what is that?"

"What is what?" Van asked tensely.

All fell still. The white lady's long ears perched forward on her head, then swiveled back and forth, listening. There was nothing. Nothing but silence and darkness.

Van broke the line and put a hand on the wall.

"It… it is trembling…" he whispered. "Why?"

"What does that mean?" Bakura cried quietly.

Hitomi bit down on her lip. "Maybe opening the tunnel made some of the stones shift a bit. It's so old."

Each pair of eyes turned to the white cat as she stood ramrod straight, her fluffy white tail up and alert.

"Chordata?" Van said softly, stepping forward.

"It's… close…" she murmured. Her amber eyes went wide as her gaze moved to the ceiling and the back towards Bakura. "Shaking. It's coming closer."

The canine yelped as he turned to stare behind himself. The blood left Van's face, and, finally, Hitomi started to hear a tight waterfall sound. The ground beneath her feet was beginning to tremble.

"Cave in." The cat lady's voice was barely audible.

"Run."

Chordata's wild amber eyes flashing with the flashlight was the last thing Hitomi saw before they all plunged together in a daring sprint in the darkness. Her leg spiked with agony, but her adrenaline was her lifeline, propelling her forward. Her heart raced, her brain churned with self-preserving panic. Van stumbled ahead of her, but he didn't slow his pace. Bakura was right behind her left shoulder, his panting breaths falling uneven.

It was growing closer now. Faster and faster. The waterfall transforming into the horrifying sound of thousands of boulders and stones falling in on each other. It was a scrambling, maddening mess of darkness, flashes of light from the jumping flashlights, running uphill, pain in her leg, in her side, in her head. Van's shoulder had three more rivers of blood running down it. Hitomi fought the burn in her throat, the twist in her stomach.

Bakura's hand was on her back. Pushing her forward.

"It's here! The exit!" Chordata shrieked from the front and the pace grew faster. "I can smell it!"

The tunnel seemed to respond in the exact same way; the falling pebbles hitting the back of Hitomi's calves, then thighs. Then larger stones tripping her feet. Bakura's hand remained pressed in the middle of her back; keeping her going.

God, she had to keep going.

A rock slammed on her shoulder and she gasped in pain. Several others plummeted on the back of her legs, scarring, painful.

She knew she wouldn't make it.

There was no escape.

They were hitting her head now. Stars were flying over her eyes.

"It's here!" Chordata screamed and Hitomi could barely see the cat lady racing up an incline so steep it was practically a hill. Van followed, shambling as best he could. As Hitomi started the incline, grabbing at the dirt and small bits of dried roots sticking up from the ground, her feet slipped uselessly from underneath her. Her chin hit dirt.

She couldn't do it. Bakura pushed on her, grabbed at her arms, and she couldn't. She wasn't fast enough, strong enough.

The rocks. The boulders. It felt like that was all was left in this world. Van shouted her name, muffled. Shouted Bakura's name. A feeble sound compared to the roll of the chaos around her.

And then a roar, so loud and familiar, blasted behind her ears. Hard hands, strong fingers. Grabbing her off her feet by the back of her arms and tossing her up the hill like a rag doll. She was hit by several flying stones, but her knees landed on the top of the incline painfully and another set of strong hands was instantly there to pull her further along. Pressed against warm skin, she was coughing hard, not realizing the racking sobs that attacked her body. She cling desperately on Van's chest and waist. They backed away together.

The rocks were already starting to slow their fall.

A small hatch was open to the right. Van stumbled out with Hitomi clutched in his arms. Her tears silent, but heart-wrenching.

"Bakura…" Chordata whispered quietly, dropping both axes with a loud clatter on the marble ground. She turned sharply away from them.

It felt like a breaking dam. Like a small fissure of something pressuring on her body. Ready to spill forth the loss. The guilt.

She couldn't do it and Bakura had saved her life.

Saved her yet again.

"Destiny doesn't give a-a shit about us. You… You and Van have to make it to the yew tree alive. And if that means taking a bullet for either one of you… I-I'll take it."

"I will take that bullet because I'm in love with you. And I will take that bullet for Van because you love him."

"I think I'd rather be a bloody unsung hero. I think I can live with that."

"You saved my life, Hitomi."

"You killed him. If you hadn't, I wouldn't be here right now. That has to count for something right? That's not being useless at all."

She could swear he was talking to her. His sweet eyes flickering lovingly on her face.

She wanted to scream, but her voice had left her.

All she had left was Van's arms. All she could see the tan skin of his chest pressing her close. All that was left was dust, blood, and the overwhelming urge to sink to the floor and never get up again.

Hitomi stumbled her way out of Van's arms and openly slapped herself in the face. Tear-stained, bloody, weak, and exhausted with grief, she turned away from the hatch in the wall and vaguely realized they were standing in a corner of a room in ruins. Burnt, ancient furniture, withered and decayed. Walls crumbling forward. As she loudly slapped her face again, she felt Van's hand grab tightly on her arm.

"Stop that," he hissed, but hesitated as he saw her clear green eyes. She didn't try to shake off his hand, but instead pressed it against her tear-stained cheek.

"We have a job to do."

Her voice was raspy and hard with grief, but she stared up at Van with a sharp determination he'd never seen before.

"I, for one, am tired of this world."

Thank you again to the wonderfully awesome and so very patient Kerapal Bubbles. Also another special thank you to Nainari.