Kalanie needed to escape.

To run far from this hellish place and never return.

Taku planned to use her to ruin Genkai's shrine, disrupting the barrier that protected it with the energy a second Shell produced while Nomi's Shell kept the shield between the worlds down. The power she could generate wasn't enough to terminate the world barrier, but funneled through the Shell, it would suffice to destroy the wall Kuwabara and Genkai had built to protect their people.

But she couldn't be a Shell. Her one brief experience inside Nomi's had nearly killed her. After Masaru had released her, she'd spent days recovering. The indescribable pain induced as the machine drew her power from her bones had been too much to bear. Not even Masaru's attempted compulsions had been enough to override her body's sheer exhaustion.

That agony was why she feared she'd failed Nomi, that she was too late to rescue him. How many months had he spent within the Shell, the very essence of him leeched away in a continuous cycle, day after day, hour after hour? If mere minutes had been enough to ruin her so thoroughly, was it even possible for the Nomi she loved to still exist within whatever remained of his body?

And now Taku intended to use her, too. To toss her in his machine, encase her in iron, and suck her dry.

She'd known Masaru wanted her, but she'd always thought it was for his own sick, twisted reasons—his driving need to break her once and for all. Perhaps it had been naïve of her not to realize the truth. After all, there were more barriers in existence than just the one that had divided Human World from the demon plane.

How willfully, foolishly blind she'd been.

So she wanted to bolt, to flee into Demon World's darkest expanses. Out there, she could forget all of this. The detectives. The Binds. The pain.

But she couldn't do that—not without Nomi.

–We'll get you out.–

She hardly heard Hiei.

Ever since he'd revealed the second Shell, Taku had been talking, prattling on and on. About what, Kalanie couldn't say. His voice droned in her ears without meaning. Panic was unraveling within her, quickening her breathing and manifesting in spastic twitches in her fingers, turning her deaf to everything but the pounding of her own heart.

If they put her in that machine…

She couldn't bear it.

She was so tired—so utterly and completely tired.

For six years, fear had ruled her life. It waited around every corner. The forms it took were numerous—new compulsions from Masaru, fresh nightmares about the deeds he'd forced her to commit, the never-ending reality that she'd let Nomi down in unfathomable ways—but inevitably it was there, lurking, ready to seize upon her vulnerabilities.

And now, at long last, its final victory loomed. If they placed her in that Shell, she'd never survive it. The fight wasn't left in her anymore.

–Stop. I'll tell the others about this. We'll free you before you're ever near that machine.–

No, they wouldn't.

There was no such thing as free. Not while Masaru lived. She saw that now. She should have seen it along.

The Fall hadn't just ended the worlds. It ended her life. Forever. There was no going back, no fixing any of it. Believing otherwise had been a nonsense dream, a last ditch effort to keep herself afloat. It had been hope where no hope existed.

She was tired of that, too.

–We have four weeks. Have you heard nothing Taku said? That's a month before they're ready to use this new Shell. Even if you learn nothing else, we'll have you out before then. The oaf will insist on it.–

The oaf. Kuwabara. Not Hiei himself. The distinction stung more than it should have.

A zing of heat shocked through her, its meaning indecipherable.

She wanted Masaru dead. Not soon. Not tomorrow. Now. His time among the living was up. It had to be, because if his wasn't, hers was.

But she couldn't kill him. His compulsions still ruled her, staying her hand against violence, keeping him safe from her even when he slept mere feet away, vulnerable as a squalling, newborn child. No amount of willpower could override the commands he'd given her—even if it meant she died instead of him.

Which left her trapped.

Except it didn't have to.

Puppeteers didn't rule Hiei. He was out there, waiting in the Woods of War, as close at hand as any assassin could hope to be. If he wanted to, he could storm this fortress. Free her. Kill him. End all of it.

–If I hurt him, you'll kill yourself—or did you forget what he ordered you to do at the shrine?–

Oh but she hadn't. When Masaru had compelled her weeks ago, he'd been thinking of nothing but that moment. His orders had nothing to do with now. He'd cared only about that nightmarish day in the mountains when he tore away the tenuous scraps of life she'd begun to stitch together. Nothing more.

Certainly nothing that would stop Hiei from murdering him.

–We don't know enough. You haven't learned what we need.–

Like hell she hadn't.

She'd shown him every inch of the stronghold she could possibly reach. At that very damn moment, she stood within Taku's inner sanctuary, in his private suite, the one place where he might be caught vulnerable. There was no more—

–Nomi. He's not here.–

No.

He wasn't.

–So where is he? Without that, this is nothing but a wasted opportunity. If you leave this place without learning where he is, his fate lies at your feet.–

Didn't it already?

–You'll have sentenced him to death. –

That blow struck home.

Nomi couldn't die. Not because of her. Never because of her.

As Hiei's irritation scorched across her consciousness, she resigned herself to the crushing truth in his words. Masaru had to live. The information he revealed to her so carelessly was too precious, too vital, for Hiei to endanger it. She had to remain the detectives' eyes and ears—their window into Taku's operations—for as long as she could, right up until Masaru forced her into the Shell if need be. Whatever it took to learn where they'd hidden her brother. Whatever it took to ensure he wasn't trapped in the Shell for all eternity.

For that reason alone, Masaru would live.

But not forever.

Swiftly, with all the vividness she could muster, she crafted an image in her mind. One of blood and death and the last dying breath of a monster. One in which Hiei carved Masaru's heart from his chest with brutal slowness. An image of Masaru's corpse growing cold and still, all but bloodless at Hiei's feet, never to move again, never to speak again, never to compel again.

Hiei's acknowledgement was slow in coming.

She'd expected a grudging promise or stubborn grunt. He gave her neither.

Instead, when at last his consciousness brushed against hers, it was not words that answered her, but an image of his own making. Once again, Masaru lay dying, his blood pooling around him, but it wasn't Hiei's black boot pinning his chest. Nor was the iron piercing Masaru's throat the Jaganshi's katana.

No.

They were not his.

They were hers.

Her days blurred together.

At dawn each morning, she rose and watched like a bystander to her own life as her body bent before Masaru's will. Clothing him. Conversing when he deemed it necessary. Eating every meal at his side.

The words that tumbled from her lips weren't hers. The laughs that bubbled in her throat rose at his behest. Even the emotions that swelled in her chest came at his command.

She saw and she heard. She watched and she listened. But she did not think. She did not process any of what Masaru revealed to her, laying out Taku's operation like the pieces of a chessboard. Deciphering the information she gathered was Hiei's task, not hers. For her part, she felt nothing beyond a bloodlust rooted deep in her bones that anchored her not in rage but in the cold, killing calm of battle.

This was a war.

One she would win. At any cost.

As one week bled into two, Hiei's presence within her grew muted. He was splitting his attention, moving between viewing her world and conveying what he learned to Kurama. All the while, his shadow remained hunkered somewhere in her mind, a silent observer to all that she showed him, but often his heat faded away to little more than the warmth of dying coals and he kept his over-sharp emotions veiled from her, hidden carefully away.

His absence cut her in ways she couldn't have anticipated.

And, despite everything, she missed him.

He came to her in a dream.

Or, at least, she thought it must be a dream. It certainly wasn't Masaru's bedroom, where she had seemingly just fallen into her cot. Nor was it anywhere, really. Like some odd, in-between space, it had no easy name.

Around her, darkness stretched in all directions. Yet when Hiei appeared, she had no trouble seeing him. No gloom or shadows obscured his features. One moment, she was alone, standing in a sea of black, and the next, he existed, stalking closer, his expression inscrutable.

Her mind spun, desperately grappling with the strangeness of this place—with its many contradictions. There was no floor beneath Hiei's boots, and yet there was. There was no light with which to see him, and yet there was.

There was nothing, and yet there was everything.

"Are you real?" she asked, the words tumbling forward unbidden.

"Hn."

"That's not an answer."

"It's not a question worth answering."

Her hands balled into fists. "I asked it, not to waste my breath, but because I need to know. Are you real?"

He stopped just before her. His crimson eyes glittered in the non-light. "Of course I'm real."

Swallowing down a sudden tightness in her throat, she pressed a palm against his chest. He was firm. Solid. Hot as an exposed flame. If he were a product of her unconscious mind, he was a damn convincing fake. "Where are we? What is this place?"

"I needed to speak with you. Properly."

He paused as if anticipating further questions. Distantly, she realized that he hadn't answered those she'd already posed, but the thought barely registered. Her hand had captivated her—her slender fingers, her bony wrists, her pale skin.

Her pale, unmarked skin.

Hiei's gaze flitted downward. An appreciative growl rumbled in his chest. With rough, calloused fingers, he lifted her hand. The pad of his thumb tracked across the creases of her palm. "So this is what you look like without chains."

"I don't understand," she said, breathless. "How is this possible? I didn't… He's not…"

He knocked the back of one knuckle against her forehead. "In here, the Binds cannot reach you. It's why your thoughts stay yours, even when Masaru controls your body or dictates your emotions."

She couldn't look away from her unmarred hand, still clutched firmly in his. "When did you become so knowledgeable about the intricacies of the Sovereign Binds?"

"Kurama hates to feel idle. While he waits for news from me—from us—he's been digging through the old woman's library, reading endlessly about the workings of a puppeteer's power."

Us.

He'd used that word again. Combining them both into a single entity.

Winged creatures erupted in her stomach.

"Then we are in my dreams. Right now, I mean." It was more statement than question.

Hiei answered anyway. "Roughly speaking."

"Why?"

"Because I need to leave."

He said it so calmly. A mere statement of fact. There was no cushion to the words, no softness in his tone, no apology written in his harsh features. He was about to tear away the one anchor holding her steady against the tide and he didn't even have the remorse to be ashamed.

The darkness seemed suddenly more absolute. Before, she'd had the impression that she might walk in any direction and the ground would stay solid beneath her feet, as real as Hiei's chest had been beneath her hand. Now she wasn't so certain. It felt as if a cliff waited on all sides, ready to dump her into an abyss.

Leave.

He was going to leave.

"You swore." She fought to keep her voice as level as his, clipping each word out with precise, measured care. "I told you I couldn't stay here alone, and you promised you wouldn't go without me. You remember that, don't you?"

A blip of unease tightened his lips. His gaze flicked away from hers, then returned, harder than before. "I'll come back."

"Where is it you're going?"

"The Forest of Fools." He dragged his thumbnail along the soft flesh where her fingers met her hand. He seemed preoccupied, his thoughts somewhere far from this dark, strange place. Then he said, "Yusuke believes we must defeat the puppeteers training in the forest before they begin to muster fresh forces or else we lose the war. Kurama concurs. My sword will be required for a victory."

She clenched her jaw. "So to be clear, you used me to get the information you needed, and now you're going to take it and bolt. Run off to your great battle and forget all about the informant you're abandoning."

"We cannot afford to lose this fight."

"But you can afford to lose me." She jerked her hand from his grip and lurched back a step. The shadows pressed in on all sides, but she could hardly bring herself to care. If he left, the fog would come. It was inevitable.

Hell, what an idiot she had been. He'd fed her lie after lie, promise after promise. First, that he wouldn't leave without her. Then, that they would save Nomi, that he mattered most of all. And last of all, that no matter what, she wouldn't end up in a Shell. She had believed him. Over and over.

Yet here he stood, forsaking her.

Of course he was. She should have seen it coming.

He was Hiei Jaganshi. Infamous swordsman. Cunning fighter. Ruthless heir of Alaric. Years ago, she had watched him stand upon a makeshift stage and gut one of her fellow puppets. Back then, she'd wished Hiei was executing her, not mindless old Xien. Maybe now, years too late, he was finally giving her what she'd wanted.

After all, she'd never survive the fog—let alone the Shell—without him.

"If you're going to go, then do it. You don't need my permission." She wrapped her arms around her stomach, her fingers tightening around her waist, digging into her ribs.

Hiei's expression remained indecipherable. "Don't make this something it isn't. If we lose this battle, the rest of it won't matter. Getting you out of here, freeing Nomi, that's all meaningless if their army is too strong to be overcome."

She scoffed. "The mighty spirit detectives aren't what the myths say they are. You're weak and you're scared and you're losing. I can't believe it's taken me this long to see that."

A muscle ticked at his temple. At last, his composure cracked. He lunged near—so close their chests would've touched if she dared breathe. "Enough pitying yourself. Stop hiding behind your fear and your weaknesses."

"I'm not hiding, Hiei. I've never been hiding." She slammed a palm against his chest, but he didn't so much as rock backward. The impassive tolerance in his eyes enraged her. "From the day Kurama and Kuwabara threw me in that pit of yours, I told you what I was. I told you that he owned me. I told you I couldn't be trusted. I told you to release me and never look back. This is what I am. Broken. It's what I'll always be."

"Kalanie—"

"No. I'm not going to listen to you rationalize this. You don't get to tell me why you have to leave. You made your choice. Time to follow through."

He snarled, looking very much like he wanted to shake sense into her, but as his hands rose, she darted beyond his reach.

"Go fight your war, Hiei. I'll fight mine. Alone. Like I have been since they took my brother."

His stoic mask returned, his eyes turning aloof, schooled to utter calm. If her words hurt him, he didn't show it. "You can say it here."

"What?"

He raised a hand, his pointer finger curled so the knuckle protruded—a callback to when he'd knocked it against her forehead. "In here, you're free of the Binds. If you want to say his name, you can."

For a moment, she didn't believe him. It seemed so impossible. After so long, did she even remember how to say it? But then, before she could over-think it further, it was tumbling from her lips, tripping across her tongue. "Nomi."

The sound knocked whatever remained of her strength from her bones. She crumpled, her knees colliding with the non-floor. A sob wracked through her, so broken and vulnerable and wretched.

In an instant, Hiei was crouched beside her. "You weren't meant to cry." Bewilderment echoed in the words, and when his hand found hers, his hot fingers slipping between her own, it seemed as much to ground himself as comfort her. "I thought you'd be happy to say it."

And she should have been, shouldn't she?

But no joy stirred in her. How could it? She hadn't found Nomi. At every turn, a new obstacle blocked her. Masaru's manipulations. Taku's intentions. Hiei's departure. Wherever Nomi was now, he remained beyond her reach.

In light of that, speaking his name was nothing but a trifle. A false victory.

"Leave," she whispered. "Please. Just go."

She'd only meant for him to give her space, to let her grieve in this dark, inexplicable place, but when her sobs at last stilled, she realized he'd gone, not just from her dreams, but from her mind entirely.

As sleep fell away and her body awakened, the fog was waiting.

And so, too, was Masaru.

"Dress," he ordered, and at once, her muscles moved to obey. Where she normally found the dress he'd picked for her to wear each day, he'd instead laid out a uniform in gunmetal gray. The fabric was coarse, rough against her skin as she tugged on the pants and shrugged into the tunic.

Masaru's own usual finery was missing, too. Rather than his typical collared shirt, he wore a mundane, brown jacket snug about his shoulders. His dress shoes had been swapped for sturdy boots.

Lacing a matching pair onto her own feet, she fought back against the gathering haze. Without Hiei, she lacked the fire to force it back, but as she had done before her escape many months ago, she began to build a wall around herself. Brick by brick, she shielded her thoughts against the fog. It wouldn't last, not forever. Over time, Masaru's power would corrode her strength, eating away at her resilience until her wall crumbled away to dust.

But it would do for now.

"Are we traveling somewhere?" she asked.

"We are." He strode for the door, waving lazily for her to follow. "Come, Kal. We've a long day's run ahead of us. I hope you're in shape. We'll need to be quick."

"Of course."

"No leaving me, Kal. Remember that." As they stepped into the hall and the door hissed shut behind them, he seized her bicep in a crushing grip. Annoyance glimmered in his eyes, though at what she couldn't say. "Don't attempt to escape. Don't become falsely separated from me. Don't attack our guards. Best behavior only, Kal."

The compulsions settled dully into her bones, sliding insidious fingers into her muscles. There'd be no running. That much was clear. "Understood."

"Good. Now let's move. We're expected by sundown."

They ran for hours, from dawn until dusk, the pace Masaru set so unrelenting that only his compulsions kept Kalanie on her feet.

Their path wove east into the Woods of War, and through the burn of her exhausted muscles, Kalanie tried to determine where Masaru was taking her. In her mind's eye, she pictured the map tacked up in Hiei's bedroom, envisioning all those pins stuck across its surface. Unless her memory was failing her, their route ran directly opposite the one Hiei must have taken when he'd left her in the night. The Forest of Fools lay behind them, its massive expanse waiting on the far side of the Plains of Peril.

Whatever Masaru had in store for her, she would face it alone.

She harbored no illusions to the contrary.

As twilight descended, a clearing opened ahead, and the party of ten that she'd run with all day finally slowed. Through the orange foliage, a squat building materialized, the very last of the sunlight gleaming off its metal walls. It ran low to the ground, one singular story. Nothing about the place denoted it as anything important.

Yet she could feel it. Iron.

It was everywhere, humming through the earth beneath her feet, calling to her as strongly as the cache beneath Genkai's mountain shrine ever had.

And she knew.

What this place was. What waited inside. Who waited inside.

Her emotions dulled, the fear and unease that had haunted her all day falling away, dimming as if someone had swept them beneath a rug. In their place, her thoughts sharpened, turning pointed and calculating.

She took in every detail of this place. They'd passed guards in the trees, but they all faced outward, watching for incoming threats, not paying attention to those within, and the forest provided decent cover. If one could get beyond the clearing, it would be easy to lose pursuers in the woods.

Of course, to get that far, an escape would be needed.

And she wasn't allowed escape.

At a word from Masaru, the rest of their company—all puppets like her—fanned out into the trees, bolstering the perimeter guard already keeping watch, but he curled a hand around her elbow and propelled her toward the building. "Our timeline was moved up," he said as he shouldered the door open and steered her over the threshold.

She didn't need to ask him what timeline—not once she saw the room waiting for her.

She'd seen it before. Sterile. Featureless. All polished metal and shining floors. The new Shell was waiting directly ahead, a massive glass tank, empty now but calling her name. Promising a hell she refused to accept.

But her focus didn't stay on that Shell for long.

When Taku had put on the video feed of this place, she'd thought the Shell destined for her was the only one located here. Now she saw the truth—the reality the camera angle had concealed before. A second Shell. Much larger. Its glass chamber filled with molten iron—and a body.

A frail, intubated body.

His mop of dark curls was limp. His eyes were shuttered closed. His skin was paler than she had ever seen it, stretched paper thin across cheeks gone gaunt with malnutrition. Nothing about him resembled the boy she once knew.

But it didn't matter.

She'd know him anywhere. Always.

Nomi.

AN: We're closing in on this story's end game! At long last, Nomi is making an actual physical appearance, which means answers for many of the questions you all have been asking are not far off now! It's a shame Hiei upped and left her though...

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I cannot believe this story is almost to 100 reviews. It has been an absolutely joy hearing from you all. I hope you enjoy this one, too!