A/N- Thank you, Hell's Harbinger. I'm trying to get better at writing...
Disclaimer- le moo
Twenty-four hours before...
"So you're the little girl that Jin knows so well," Lee purred, touching Ai's cheek.
The girl was frozen solid. This person... this demon looked like he was a year or two older than Jin, but he was different. An aura of coldness surrounded him, and his eyes were black as coal. There was an unexplainable darkness that was about him that chilled one to the bone.
He took her hand and Ai flinched. His hands were cold like ice, just like how he felt. His long fingers encased her own fingers.
"Don't," she whispered, trying to bring her hand out of his grasp. Lee held on tighter and pressed her against the wall even more so.
"Oh, you don't like this?" he hissed, gripping her fingers tightly. "You hate it, don't you? You hate being powerless. That's the real reason why you made a link to Jin. Because you're a selfish little brat who wanted power. You didn't realize that there are bad people in the world, though, did you?"
Ai turned away, biting her bottom lip. She had done it because she missed Jin, hadn't she? All of the sudden, she wasn't so sure.
The eleven-year-old then looked past the demon king to his general. Riku was watching without any expression on his face. She didn't understand how he could do that. She didn't understand why he could just watch as Lee wanted to steal her soul. They had once been... well, not friends, but she was the annoying best friend's little sister. Didn't that count for anything?
"Such a quiet little girl," Lee murmured in Ai's ear. "I wonder... is there anything that we can do about that? Do you think that we can do anything about this, Riku? Hm?"
Riku's smile was easy and silent. Just as Lee chilled Ai to the bone, Riku burned her up. That little smile made her feel like she was in an inferno that was impossible to escape from. She was being frozen and burned to death at the same time.
"No!" Ai cried, tears filling her eyes. "Stop it, Riku! Smile again, but like you did before! Don't you remember Jin? And Miuri! What about Miuri? Don't you care about them at all? Why are you doing this? I... I don't understand at all! Please... just... just stop... Riku..."
Ai began sobbing. At this, Lee laughed and buried his fingernails deeply in her skin. Just as tears dripped from Ai's face, blood dripped from her hand.
"She had a childish little crush on you, didn't she, Riku?" Lee asked, sounding amused. "How innocent and sweet. I wonder how she feels about your betrayal. Ai is the only person that truly understands what's going on... maybe she's different."
Riku frowned. "What do you mean?"
Lee tilted Ai's chin up and looked into her chocolate-brown eyes. Ai looked away, trying to force her lip to stop trembling. Why was she so weak... ?
It was true. She craved power. She wanted people to notice her, to recognize her. Everyone was amazed at Michiru and his smarts. Yume was an athletic genius. Jin was the mysterious boy who had managed to disappear and become a God.
And she was nothing. That's why she forced Jin to know her.
"You understand why I want you to be with me, don't you?" Lee asked, placing his hand on her tear-stained cheek. "You do, don't you? Because you have a sleeping power in you. I can make you great. I can make people look at you with respect. That's what you want, isn't it?"
"No!" Ai cried tearfully.
She didn't want power if there was a price. The price of becoming evil was too high for her. She wouldn't give up her own happiness or her family's happiness just so she could become a powerful person. She wasn't like that. She would not do it.
Lee smile quivered and it became forced. His eyes turned into an icy glare and his fingers went even deeper into her. Ai cried out, watching more blood beginning to drip from her hand.
"I waited more than a month to steal your powers. To suck them out of you. I have waited much too long, it seems. Now it would be my absolute pleasure to kill you and steal them. This is your last chance to live. Lend me your life and I'll give you what you want," Lee hissed.
Ai's chocolate eyes widened and she looked away. Would she give it up? Her life? For this demon who wanted to kill Jin?
Jin... her mind drifted to him. The best older brother she could have asked for, and she was abusing it by stealing his powers by using the link that she had created. She wanted to steal his powers so badly, but she hadn't even known it.
"Keep in mind that either way I'll be taking your powers," Lee stated. "If you live, then you can have at least some control. If I were you, I would live and give me your powers. Give me your life. However, that is just me, and I'm not you. Make your choice or I'll make it for you."
Ai hesitated. What to say? What to do? To live and betray or to die and betray? What to do?
"Take my powers and let me live," Ai said softly, feeling like she had made a tragic mistake. Lee smiled cruelly. And that was the exact moment that Ai knew that she had made a terrible horrible mistake.
Lee shook her blood-stained hand and Ai felt faint. Wisps of white were coming out of her, and her mouth was forced open by Lee. Ai felt so weak that she couldn't protest against this. In fact, she knelt down and leaned against his cold body.
Lee lifted up her chin, his eyes cruelly flashing. After the wisps of white that flew from Ai came to Lee, a whisp of gold came from her mouth and took the form of a Chinese dragon before resting upon the demon king's shoulder. Lee smiled, looking down at Ai.
"This is like making deals with Satan; you'll forever be burned by horrible choices. You'll live, but you'll share your body. And since I've taken almost everything from your body, you might as well not have your consciousness in your body. Be freed while I place an Ukiyo in your body."
Lee took his fingers from Ai's face and her eyes opened wide. A piercing last scream erupted from within her body as the last bits of her soul were released into the world.
And it was her fault.
"This isn't fair!" I cried angrily. "This isn't fair at all!"
"No, it's not. This didn't happen in my time," Other-me said, sounding stunned.
I glanced at him, blinking. If this didn't happen in his time, then that meant that something in this time had switched. Something had made them take the wrong turn in the road, the turn that lead to certain doom. But what could have... ?
"It's my fault, Jin," a terribly said voice said. "All my fault."
"Huh?" I asked, looking around. "Who said that?"
"Who said what?" Larka asked. "Are you going berserk or something?"
I blinked. Larka hadn't heard it... but the voice was so clear. It was as clear as someone whispering in my ears when there's total silence.
"I can only talk to you for a short time, Jin. You need to go back in time. You have to stop me from making a terrible mistake... the worst mistake that I've ever made, Jin. Please. Go back exactly one day ago... go... to.. my school... save.. the world..."
The connection abruptly ended, leaving me bewildered. Other-me looked at me, a frown on his face. He had heard it, too.
"Help me out," I stated easily.
Other-me nodded. "Everyone, hold hands."
"More time-traveling, huh?" Yuuki sighed at me. And, rather bashfully, she took Other-me's hand.
That just freaked me out.
"Wait!" Larka cried. "We can't leave without Dravis! He's still out there somewhere."
I wanted to tell her that there was no time. That she would have to forget about him for now. That she couldn't deal with that sort of thing right now. But the fear in her big blue eyes pierced me in the chest. Her eyes begged with me.
"We can't," said the Other-me. "Not now, Larka. We'll get him later. I'll take you back to your regular time after this, but this Dravis will be lost. Please. We have no time."
"I'm not leaving without Dravis," she said firmly.
I glanced at Other-me. His eyes were worried but they said a lot. One of the things was that we would have to leave Larka here. This Larka, the one in this time, would be lost. There would be a Larka in the past, but this Larka would become nothingness.
And that freaked me out, too.
"You'll be lost in this time that has no meaning and will change and be destroyed," Other-me said softly. "Are you sure you want to stay?"
"We can't leave without Larka and Dravis!" I cried in a panicked tone. "We-we just can't! They're part of my team. I may really dislike Dravis, but I kind of need him! And Larka's... Larka is really special to me! We can't leave them here to be lost and destroyed!"
Other-me let go of Yuuki's hand, and put a hand on my shoulder. His eyes were serious. For the first moment since I'd met him, I saw the pain in his eyes. He used humor to hide how he really felt. And now... now he was telling me that I would lose Larka and Dravis, no matter what I did or said. He didn't like it, but it was true.
Tears stung my eyes and I wiped my eyes angrily. It wasn't fair. Nothing was. I hated it all.
"There you are!" I heard an all too familiar voice call. "Damn, it took forever to find you guys!"
For the first time in my life, I was happy to see Dravis. I turned, ran to him, and gave him a hug. Yes, I hugged Dravis... ugh... don't remind me. He called me and F-er and told me to get the F away, D it. And to think I was crying... over losing Larka, but still.
Other-me smiled, Larka pushed me out of the way and gave Dravis a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, and Yuuki clapped, smiling happily. I rubbed my eyes again and turned to the Other-me, grinning broadly. We were all together again.
"I'm glad you're here," Other-me said. "Now hold Larka's hand. Let's all get in a big circle of happiness and love, yes?"
"And do what, play a kid's game?" Dravis snorted.
"Oh yes, we're going to play this lovely new one I found," Other-me said sarcastically. "It involves magical rainbows. Not. We need to get to the past and save the world, already. This time, close your eyes Dravy-poo, and don't get distracted."
Dravis blushed and grabbed Larka's hand, grumbling under his breath. I took the Other-me's and Larka's. Her hand was very... warm. Pleasantly so. I smiled.
Yuuki took the Other-me's hand and Dravis's. However, as she took Other-me's, she blushed deeply. I was going to have to ask her about that. I knew it wasn't just the fact that she thought that I was hot when I older. There was something else, too...
Other-me clicked his heels together twice and said, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
I could have died of embarrassment right there, considering that he is me and me is he, but I didn't because I had a world to save. Those sorts of things are the reason why I get up in the morning. The knowledge of saving the world is in my grimy hands...
Oh, and I'm usually hungry when I wake up.
"So you're the little girl that Jin knows so well," Lee purred, touching Ai's cheek.
"I wanna punch him..." I growled. "He's screwin' around with my little sister, isn't he? I'm gonna kill him..."
Other-me patted my head gently. I rolled my eyes at him but remained silent. He wanted to do the fighting for me since I had no weapon. And it wasn't like he did... honestly, it was so freaking annoying how freaking annoying he was...
I hoped I wasn't that freaking annoying.
"Now?" Larka asked.
"Now," Other-me agreed.
Larka transformed into her wolfy-self and Other-me took out a pen. Maybe I'm crazy in the future. Dravis said he had ninja skills. Lucky.
Yuuki was staying back because Other-me was worried about her getting hurt. He said that she didn't have her sweet bowstaff yet, so she couldn't be too careful. So, of course, I was being used as a last resort type of thing. Great...
Other-me stepped out from behind the corner. "Hello, Lee."
Lee looked up, his eyes wide. Riku glared as though he had been expecting this. Ai's eyes widened, then tears came into them.
"Prepare for hurt, King Idiot," Larka growled.
"**** yeah," Dravis agreed.
I watched with interest. Lee was outnumbered. I had defeated him before(?). He was against two Gods. Dravis was a demon, and couldn't be killed by another demon (at least that's what Larka told me a while back...). I only wondered how he would handle this.
Yuuki took my hand. I blinked and glanced at her. She looked scared. That wasn't reassuring.
"So, you try to question my power," Lee growled, removing himself from Ai. "That wasn't the best of choices. I can kill you all. Especially you, O God of Time. Your powers are dwindling. I can feel it. Is it because you have children? Is that it?"
Other-me flushed with anger. "You'll never hurt them."
"It's true. I can only go to the time's that were given to me by you so many years ago. However, I promise you that those children will die by Dravis's hand. I forsee it in his future," Lee said, fangs beginning to grow. "Dravis will hurt you and your little family more than you could ever know..."
Yes, good news kept flowing in! Let's make a little list, shall we?
1) I was sucked into the past.
2) I was the God of Time.
3) I was supposed to save the world.
4) I fell in love with a girl who has a boyfriend.
5) The girl's boyfriend hates me and will one day kill my children.
6) Yuuki thinks I'm hot.
And that's what I've got so far... I'm sure that the news will get better and better as we go along in this story! Oh, look, here's something else to add...
The person that I'm saving the world from is some sort of dragon-beast. He was at least ten feet tall and both fur and scales grew from all over his body. A cape was attached to his body by two piercings were his breast bones (eh heh... heh...) supposed to be and white, ripped-up wrappings covered most of his body. Around his neck was one small necklace with a black pearl on it.
He had one black wing that looked like a raven's wing. It was oily and most of the feathers had fallen out, showing the disgusting bloody skin.
The lower half of the demon's body was a snake. It was a dark gray color and had a little rattle at the end. It somewhat looked like it was half-way molted, half-way not. Pieces of skin were dragging off his body. Now, I'd like to say right now that he was absolutely disgusting.
Yuuki squeezed my hand, looking somewhat sick. I nodded, but kept watching. It was oddly entrancing to watch.
"Still think you can defeat me?!" Lee-demon demanded, brandishing his claws. "I will kill you all!"
Larka and Dravis acted as one. Larka attacked the top half of Lee, going for his neck, while Dravis went for the end. Lee made a freakish screeching noise, and hit Dravis back. He then grabbed Larka in mid-air and pushed her to the ground, attempting to crush her neck.
Don't ask me where Other-me's sword came from. One minute there was a regular pen in his hand and the next there was a long, thin sword in his hand, like one that the samurai used. Anyway, he sliced at Lee's hand with expertise.
I half-expected him to dodge, half-expected it to go straight through, cutting off his hand. However, neither happened. It barely even made a scratch on him. Apparently, instead of having rock hard abs, he had rock hard skin. Personally, I'd rather have the first than the latter. Mm hm.
Lee made the freaky screeching noise again, his yellow eyes open wide. Larka got up and snapped at his arm, latching on. Lee tried to shake her off, glaring and growling all the while.
Dravis, meanwhile, put his arms around Lee's neck and began choking him. Lee bit Dravis's arm, and the boy cried out, letting go quickly. Blood began to flow from his already scar-encrusted arm. I suppose he deserved it for being emo.
Finally, Lee screeched once more. This time, though, it was different. The scream put fear into my soul. It was the sort of thing that made you want to run away. Made you want to cry. Made you want to never see the person who made that noise ever again.
I hated that noise with the burning fury of a thousand suns. Especially since, while everyone was covering their ears, Lee made a portal.
He stopped screeching suddenly and laughed, "See you next time! The time for battle is not yet; but the time for invasion is here! Goodbye, D. A. K. L. S.! Goodbye forever..."
And then he disappeared through the portal, which shut behind him. And, for the first time, I noticed that we were all alone. As in, there was Riku. There was no Ai. There was just me, Other-me, Larka, Dravis, and Yuuki.
"Where did they go?" Yuuki asked, voicing my thoughts.
"He took her," I said, sounding shocked. "They... they took Ai!"
"Isn't this place... to horrible for her? She's just a human child," the imp said.
"Keep her with Tachigami, just as I have said," Lee growled. "Do not fail me, imp. I will capture all of the gods... even if it kills me!"
"Y-yes, sir!" the imp cried, saluting him.
Ai looked at the imp slowly. Whatever was up with this imp... well... he wasn't very bright, anyway. He would probably be easily confused.
As the imp put her in handcuffs, Ai asked, "Do you know about the God of Time?"
The imp coughed lightly, looking away. He was obviously not supposed to talk about such things. So, that being known, Ai decided to press the matter further. There was no harm in it, after all. She would be locked up either way.
"Are you scared of him?"
"Yes..." the imp said. "Now please be quiet. They're serving miso soup for dinner and you're distracting me from my work."
Ai smirked at this. She could get what she wanted easily from him.
"Who's Tachigami?" she asked.
"The God of Powerful Slashes," the imp replied. "But he doesn't know who he is. Don't tell him. It could release his power and then you guys could get out. My pay would be docked..."
"I won't tell him," Ai assured the imp.
"Thank you, kind maiden," the imp said. "Maybe I'll bring you food later."
"That would be very nice. Now can you please take me to my cell?" Ai asked politely.
"Certainly."
The guards here were not very bright. Ai didn't need to be a genius like her elder brother to know that.
As they walked along the rows of cells, terrifying screeches came from some of the places while low moaning came from others. Either way, Ai didn't want to know what those cells held. She suddenly hoped that her cell mate wasn't a freak of nature.
The two went down a row of cells that held almost no terrifying noises (you could still hear some of the awful noises from there). Finally, at the last cell, the imp nervously took out a large key. The imp stuck it into the huge keyhole and, before beckoning her in, gave a little smile to Ai.
"Best of wishes. It's only been here for a few weeks, but... I'm not sure if I'd touch it if I were you, fair maiden," the imp said, quickly opening the door. The imp then pushed her in the cell quickly and locked the door behind her. The sound of the door locking seemed to clang annoying loud in the eleven-year-old's ears.
"How rude," she simply huffed, turning away.
Ai blinked. There was a person sitting down, staring at her. His black hair fell down to his shoulders and he had tight lips. Deep black circles under his eyes stated that he hadn't slept for two days at least and he was slightly pale from being locked inside here for such a long time.
All in all, he was rather frightening. So Ai squeaked, trying to hold in the scream that had been threatening to come out since she had first met up with that horrible person-demon-thing, Lee.
"Shh," the person, Tachigami as Ai guessed, said, standing up. "Please don't scream..."
His eyes pleaded with her. Although it was obvious that he wasn't a normal sixteen-year-old, it was also obvious that he wasn't a bad person. His eyes had a certain warmth to them. Different than Riku's fiery depths, though. More like a fireplace than a burning inferno.
"Are you... Tachigami?" she asked hesitantly.
"Tachigami?" he repeated, sounding confused. "That's not my name. My name's Ethan. Ethan Satoya..."
"Isanu?" Ai asked blankly. "That sounds foreign..."
"I-tha-n," Ethan said, drawing out every syllable. "It's English."
Ai blushed and looked down. Even though her own mother had an English name, she still couldn't pronounce anything that was English right... was it just her in her family that had that problem? Maybe Jin did, too, since he was more Japanese than anyone else in their family...
"Why did you think that I was somebody named Tachigami?" Ethan asked. "And do you know what's going on around here? Can you tell me... ?" He drew out the last part, realizing that he didn't know her name.
"Ai," she said. "My name is Ai. And I think that we have a lot to talk about, Ethan..."
Miuri frowned. The Game of Death (which is very similar to the Game of Life) wasn't too fun. Mainly because she sucked at it.
"Not to be annoying or anything, but you loose again," Kyoufu said sympathetically.
Miuri rolled her eyes and sighed. Here, they were biding their time until something bad happened or the scouts saw something. Now that Miuri thought about it, where exactly were the scouts? They were supposed to be here ten minutes ago...
"Where are the scouts?" Miuri asked, voicing what was on her mind.
Kyoufu frowned and looked around. It was true; they still weren't back. It was odd because they were forever prompt. And he did mean forever prompt...
"I don't feel their presenses," Diyu stated, pushing a few snakes that happened to be his hair back. "That can only mean one thing... just like the Game of Death, they're gone. But... it's really weird. I would have noticed sooner that they were gone if they had been killed..."
He suddenly paled and looked at Kyoufu like this was all his fault. Kyoufu blinked, fear showing in his eyes, but not in his face. Miuri looked back and forth between the two in confusion.
"What? What? What is it?" she asked.
"They most likely went to the Cell of Hell," Kyoufu said, his voice cracking. "It is somewhere that no light has ever reached. Blackness and death weigh there so heavily that you can't move, no matter what kinds of strength you have. It's the only place that you can't be sensed... that you just disappear to."
"Okay... but what does that mean?" Miuri asked.
"You go in there and kkkttt! It's all over," Diyu said, his three eyes wide. "No one has ever escaped it. It's said where the darkness of Yami and his followers were put after his death."
Chills went up and down Miuri's spine. By now, she was very familiar with the tale of Amaterasu and Yami. From what she'd heard, she didn't like. And to think, if some of her friends were put in his darkness forever... she shuddered. What an awful thought.
"What do we do?" Miuri asked.
"At the moment, Lee has control over the Cell of Hell," Kyoufu stated. "Which means he's on the mountain. We have to tell Nokori... before it's too late."
Suddenly, Miuri realized how Jin felt. The weight of the world on your shoulders wasn't exactly the greatest thing to have there.
A/N- TA DAAAHHH. Wheeee...... I think this is my longest chapter, but I could be wrong. It's my birthday present from me to you... so be happy!! And review! Reviewing makesh meh happeh!
