Part 5

Kurapika approached the fallen man, deaf to his gasps of pain, ignoring the pain that was coursing through his own body. Kuroro attempted to catch his breath as he looked up at the younger man.

It was time to end it.

He gave him a weak, but smirking smile. "Well, Kurapika," using the other man's name for the first time, "are you going to dispatch me with that very handy chain you've got there? The same one you used on Ubo? And Paku? And Nobunaga, Franklin, Feitan, Phinks and Machi, too?"

His eyes had widened at hearing his own name tossed at him, like a piece of dirty laundry, but he coolly held out his hand. It was time to use that chain. For the first time ever.

He let the chain drop from his index finger. It was the color of platinum, and at the end of it was a shining watch.

"You know what this is?" he asked softly.

Kuroro stiffened where he lay on the ground. It couldn't be...

"Hmmph." Kurapika snorted in ironic amusement as he lowered his hand and eyes and began walking around the other man. His soft foot falls were like the drum beats of fate.

"This...this is the hell that you will experience before your death," he explained. He held up the chain again so Kuroro could see it clearly. "Every murder you've ever committed...every piece of suffering and agony that you've caused another person...you will relive it all. Now. In a single instant." He suddenly focused his fiery eyes on the black pupils of his opponent. "And you will understand that which you've closed your eyes to, every minute of your life."

He stooped suddenly and help his face inches from Kuroro's face. Stricken with pain and exhaustion, the Head Spider was helpless to retaliate. Then, with sickening, steady slowness, Kurapika touched that shining watch to Kuroro's forehead.

As if in fast-forward, he witnessed the events of the past. He saw himself there from another person's perspective, hating himself more with each passing memory. Sometimes, an event would stop and pass in normal time, drawing out each agonizing minute.

The entirety of the Kuruta massacre was like that.

His brain exploded with the pain...there was no relief, there was no forgiveness.

He screamed, but there was no air to draw in to make the sound. He writhed, but his body was paralyzed.

Memory...memory...memory...

"Make it stop," he moaned, "oh, God, make it stop..."

Kurapika watched the man shuddering on the ground. Sometimes his back arched to the point where he thought the spine might snap, only to collapse back onto the ground. His limbs twitched, his head tossed from side to side. He looked as though he was being electrified.

That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.

Kurapika witnessed this all without a single thought of mercy. When the string of memories had reached its limit, up to the moment where Kuroro had slashed Kurapika's body with the acid-katana, he took out his Judgment Chain. Kuroro's eyes popped open as he gasped on the ground.

"Please, please," he whispered. Begging for his own death.

"Goodbye," came the monotone reply. And then judgment passed.

Shalnark sighed deeply as he looked up at the murderer of his Danchou. Beside him, Shizuku, Bolonolev, Korotopi and Kalluto warily regarded the young man. "And now you've come to finish the job, I suppose," he said in that carefree voice of his.

The Kuruta's face was expressionless as he replied, "My job is finished." To all of their astonishment, the chains on his right hand vanished, and he held it out to them. "You are free to take your revenge on me, and me alone, if you so choose. Elsewise..."

Shizuku gazed up at him with a look of innocence. "Revenge? Why would we want that?" She had forgotten already.

Korotopi shot her a dirty look, but the look vanished when he gazed back at the man in front of him, offering pain for pain. "Danchou is dead," he said. "The past is in the past."

Bolonolev stood and grasped Kurapika's hand in his own, bandaged hand. "Let the dead remain dead. You have a task for us, correct? You would not have said 'elsewise' unless you did." Kalluto nodded silently in agreement.

Kurapika's eyes widened at the response of the five as they all stood and faced him with no trace of malice. "Yes," he replied, finally. The Spiders were an organism, after all, not a group of friends.

"It is time to reband the Spiders."

Authors Notes: Thank you for reading this fic to the end! I know most everyone likes the Spiders, and so killing off their Danchou was a bit of a bold move on my part...but...I love writing more unusual plotlines (see "Notes on a Kurata", ha) and this one struck me as a good chance to practice writing fighting scenes. Actually, I have to admit the Spiders are probably my favorite part of the whole HXH arc (so sad when they killed off Paku!) and I really enjoy reading all the KuroroxKurapika romances out there, really brilliant work.

In this story, I wanted to continue with Kurapika's mood from the 1st OVA, in that I really wanted to draw out the darker side of his character and explore that. Naturally, that leads to not only killing off the Spiders responsible for the deaths of his tribesmen, but also finding that afterward, he can't stop the bloodlust. Hence the reforming of the Spiders. I kinda toyed with the idea of going off on that route, with Kurapika leading the Spiders, but I'll give it a rest for now and see if more comes up later.

So, finally, thank you for reading, and for the constructive and encouraging reviews! Ja matta ne!