The window on the far wall shattered, glass spraying inward in a torrent of shards. At once, Masaru whirled, his hand dropping to a knife at his hip. "Blade to your throat, Kal!"

Her arm responded to his order, dragging upward through the iron flooding the Shell. It had reached her shoulders, and her hand barely breached the surface as she settled a dagger against the column of her neck, directly over the pulse jumping beneath her pale skin.

Hiei leapt through the ruined windowpane, a blur of black and silver. As he landed, his energy spiked, snapping across his skin in a vicious cloud, unbridled and wild. On his forehead, purple light pulsed from his Jagan. "Release her."

It took her a beat to realize he'd spoken aloud. She'd grown so used to his voice tucked deep within her mind, thrumming alongside her own thoughts. Hearing it with her ears rather than woven into her consciousness seemed painfully impersonal, and though he stood closer to her than he'd been in weeks, he suddenly felt drastically farther away.

"I'm afraid that won't be happening," Masaru answered. With his back to her, she couldn't see his expression, but she could hear the bored irritation in his voice as he said, "I'd have thought you learned from last time, Jaganshi. You've no power here." Then, speaking directly to her, he added, "If he attacks, kill yourself, Kal."

She would.

Happily.

Without her to distract him, Hiei would rescue Nomi. He'd have to—

–You will not kill yourself.–

He didn't look at her as he commanded it, but the thought slid through her own with knife-sharp intensity, cutting past the pain still ravaging her body and casting aside her insistence on Nomi's safety. Moving slowly, his katana ready in one hand, Hiei strode closer. "You will set her free or I will destroy this lab and everything in it."

"Threats will get you nowhere." Masaru drew his dagger and turned the blade this way and that, watching the light dance along its edge. "I don't know how you got past my guards, but with one shout, I can summon every last one of them. Not even you can take thirty puppets."

The bandages wrapped Hiei's right arm caught fire and burned away, ashes drifting to the floor. Beneath, his dragon waited. Perhaps it was a delusion driven by her pain-addled mind, but she could've sworn the tattoo writhed across his skin, twisting around his arm as if fighting to free itself from its confines.

"I won't warn you again."

Arcing a brow, Masaru mused, "You don't care much for her life, do you? I'd imagine you wouldn't risk it so brazenly if she mattered to you the way she clearly hopes she does." He flipped the switch that had turned on the Shell's siphon, and at once, the blistering pain of her energy leeching from her body cut out. "She spoke of you differently than your fellow traitor ilk, you know. A shame she misjudged you. For her, that is. I'm not surprised. I've always known you for what you were."

–When the portal opens, be ready.–

She refused, tossing the notion back at him with all the force she could muster. He had to go for Nomi. Masaru wouldn't be expecting it. If a portal was going to open, if Kuwabara had a means to get someone out of here, it had to be her brother.

It had to.

"Maybe I've been offering the wrong warning," Masaru said softly. He extended a slender finger, tapping a button on the Shell's console with precise care. A ceramic piece beneath her boots shifted, and the iron began to drain from the tank, swirling downward in a molten current. In moments, the Shell was empty. Quickly, Masaru released the latch holding the tank's opening panel closed. It swung open, releasing her.

"Kal, attack the Jaganshi."

The compulsion seized her instantly.

As she leapt from the Shell, the dregs of the iron coating her arms, Hiei slid into a fighting stance, his katana level and ready. He met her in a clash of steel, catching her newly formed blade against the curve of his sword. Sparks flew.

They became a blur of limbs, a whirlwind of attacks and counters, strikes and parries. Through it all, she blasted him with images of Nomi, forcing his attention to her brother over and over. Masaru had commanded her to attack, but not to kill, and she took deliberate measures to drive Hiei toward Nomi's Shell.

The closer they drew, the harder she pushed.

–There won't be time to save you both.–

Then save him.

It wasn't a question. There was no debate. Leave her here. Take Nomi.

Simple.

–It needs to be you. Trust me.–

Never. Not on this.

And why should she? He'd betrayed her, abandoning her to Masaru that very morning. Whatever had brought him back here didn't change that. He'd forsaken her, and in doing so, he'd voided any trust that had once risen between them. He wouldn't get it back now, not when trusting him meant deserting Nomi.

–The portal is about to open. You're coming with me.–

The tenor of her attacks changed. She'd been playing a game, letting the flow of her muscles reveal her next moves, giving him the opportunity to fend her off with ease, but no more. If he wouldn't save Nomi, he was the enemy—no different from Masaru himself.

Her blade snuck beneath his guard, raking across his stomach. It sheared through the fabric of his cloak and found flesh. Hiei snarled and darted backward, beyond the reach of her next lunge.

–Kalanie, don't be a fool.–

She wasn't.

There was only one person in this room she owed loyalty. It wasn't Masaru, but nor was it Hiei. And that meant she couldn't hold back. Not in this. Which meant more metal. She needed iron in vast quantities if she were to best the fire demon, and there was only one place to get that much steel.

Nomi's Shell.

As Hiei retaliated, his katana arcing toward her side, she deflected the blow and kept her thoughts tightly focused on that requirement for iron, repeating it to herself like an endless, looping mantra, drowning out everything else—Hiei, Masaru, the compulsions. None of it mattered. Only her plan. Iron. Nomi's Shell. Victory.

To get there, all she had to do was shatter the glass.

Before Hiei could strike again, she circled past him and drove a fist toward the Shell. Simultaneously, she urged her iron into spikes across her knuckles. Upon impact, the steel points fractured the tank, and as cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, Masaru begin to yell, screaming for her to back away, to stand down.

But he was too late.

Iron spilled from the shattered containment cell. It rushed to her, converging around her feet and solidifying as it did so, but she paid no mind to the power growing within her. She could see only Nomi, still dangling from his harness, so weak and frail.

Her precious, beloved brother.

So close and yet so disastrously out of reach.

Masaru's commands sank through her muddled thoughts, shaking free the focus that had kept her honed on Nomi. Her legs moved, carrying her away from her brother—back toward him.

Or at least they tried.

An arm like corded steel wrapped around her waist. She thudded backwards into Hiei's scorching chest. His voice was a snarl in her ear. "No more. You've lost, Masaru."

She felt it then, the warping of space as Kuwabara's dimension sword cleaved a portal between the worlds. The rift tore open to their right, and beyond it, she felt the draw of Kuwabara's energy, distant and cloudy, but discernable nonetheless.

"Kal, kill him."

The order convulsed through her, locking up her muscles and sending her bucking against Hiei's grip. Her iron writhed across her arms. It shifted into knives, twin blades gleaming in her hands and sharp edges forming along the backs of her forearms, but Hiei didn't falter, keeping her trapped firmly against his chest.

"Stop resisting me," he bit out. "Go. Get through the portal."

He followed the words with a shove, and she staggered toward the rift. To her dismay—and utter, bone-shattering shock—her muscles obeyed Hiei just as they did Masaru. Though she fought every step, striving desperately to change her course—to get to Nomi—her body wouldn't listen. It wasn't hers to control. Yet again.

And more than that, with a certainty that crushed her beneath its weight, she realized something seemingly impossible. Somehow, through some trickery she couldn't explain, Hiei had pulled her strings as thoroughly as Masaru ever had.

He'd compelled her.

As the portal closed around Kalanie, pulling at her edges, drawing her from Demon World, she heard Masaru yelling, screeching fresh orders, summoning his guards from the woods, and she spotted Nomi in the corner of her eye, still limp in his harness. For one last fractured moment, she was aware of the puppets closing in on all sides, dozens of auras converging on the battered laboratory.

Then her feet hit solid ground and she dropped to her knees.

Hiei was a heartbeat behind, his energy still burning like a torch, lancing through the air. His shadow slanted over her. Blood from the gash she'd shorn through his stomach dripped into the dirt. Wordlessly, he extended a hand to pull her upright as the portal flickered out of existence.

She didn't take it.

Dully, she was aware of the shrine ahead, buttery light spilling from its windows, and she felt Kuwabara close at hand. Genkai was near, too.

But she had eyes for none of that.

There was only the fire demon. His sick, twisted treachery. She would never forgive it. He'd controlled her. He'd been no better than Masaru. After everything she'd told him, everything she'd shared with him, all the vulnerabilities she'd entrusted to him, he'd still compelled her. Robbed her of her free will. Forced her to abandon Nomi.

In a fluid lunge, she dove at him. The iron still clinging to her arms formed easy knives, and she slashed them across his outstretched arm, cutting to the bone. Commotion broke out—Kuwabara shouting, Genkai cursing, Hiei stumbling backward, shock in his eyes. None of it mattered.

She attacked again. This time, her iron fractured into a dozen throwing stars, and she hurled them like Touya's shards of winter. Five struck home, three embedding their serrated edges in Hiei's thigh, two lancing across his ribs.

"The hell are you doing?" Kuwabara demanded. He sprinted closer, emerging in her peripheral vision, his dimension sword in hand. "The shrimp saved you! We saved you!"

Saved her?

As if.

They'd ruined her. They'd sentenced Nomi to death. Despite her pleading, despite her desperation, Hiei had ignored her wishes. He'd chosen her over Nomi, and in the process, he stripped away the last pathetic shreds of her spirit.

He'd compelled her.

Hell, he'd actually compelled her.

It seemed the reality would never truly set in.

With a snarl, she renewed her assault. The ground rumbled as she called for the iron hidden far below the temple. The soil shifted and groaned, shaking as if suffering an earthquake, but she kept steady as she struck at Hiei, channeling Chu's punishing kicks and reinforcing her punches in an imitation of Jin's tornado fists.

This time, he was ready for her, but he kept on the defensive, deflecting her blows but not returning them. Still, she landing solid hits, scoring an uppercut to his gut and catching his jaw with her iron-coated knuckles.

"Stop this," Genkai barked. She darted closer, seemingly ready to interfere.

Hiei snarled. "Don't."

The old psychic hesitated. "We don't have time for this! We need you to join the others in the Forest of Fools. Until you're there, we've no means of contacting them. If they need a portal home, we won't know it—"

"I'm aware," Hiei snapped. "I chose this plan. I understand what it entails."

His split attention enraged her. How dare he disregard her.

But when he spoke next, his words froze her in place as surely as if she'd been welded to the earth. "Enough, Kalanie. No more fighting. Come to your damn senses."

Her thoughts scattered. The force of his order knocked her breathless.

The suddenness with which she stilled startled him. He remained in a crouch, his eyes narrowed as if anticipating some fresh attack, but she couldn't muster one. He'd robbed her of that ability.

"How are you doing it?" she hissed.

Nonplussed, he said nothing.

She bared her teeth. She felt caged, trapped like an animal, and she abhorred him for it. "How are you compelling me?"

"Hn. I'm not."

"Like hell you aren't."

Uncertainty flickered across his sharp features. A frown puckered his lips, creased his forehead. "I'm not your puppeteer. I can't compel you."

She spat a curse, anger coiling tight as a spring in her chest, but Genkai interrupted. "You're sure he's controlling you, girl?"

An inane question if she'd ever heard one. "What do I gain from lying about it?"

"Fair enough." The psychic stepped closer, looking pointedly from Kalanie's marked arms to Hiei's Jagan, still glowing purple on his forehead. "You're still in Masaru's head, correct?"

Hiei flinched, the color leeching from his cheeks. It seemed he'd pieced together the same puzzle Genkai had, though what they knew still evaded her. With painstaking slowness, he nodded. "I am."

"Then you've encountered something we didn't anticipate. I should have seen it before." Genkai cast Hiei a somber look, one Kalanie couldn't properly decipher. "As long as you're tapped into Masaru, your words act the same as his. The very link that lets you see into Kalanie's mind also allows you to control it. Or rather, forces you to do so."

In the resulting silence, her heart skipped a beat. When the quiet grew too loud, she cleared her throat. "You're speaking nonsense. Hiei talked to me for weeks. None of his commands registered like a compulsion."

"Because those were in your head. To have power, these sort of spells must be heard. Properly. Until you heard Hiei's voice, this power wouldn't manifest."

Her rage flickered. Exhaustion was closing in. Though she'd been trapped in it for only minutes, the pain of the Shell's machinations was catching up to her. She needed rest. Soon.

"I don't understand," she said. "Any of it. You left, Hiei. You went to the Forest of Fools. How did you find me? Why can you still compel me now when we're in another world from him? Where are all the others?"

"There's no time." Genkai pointed at Kuwabara. "Open a portal, moron. Quickly. Hiei needs to go."

Stealing a last glance at Kalanie, Kuwabara nodded. "Right. Sorry." He slashed his dimension sword, cutting a line through the air that peeled open, forming a fresh portal. "There you go, shrimp."

Hiei remained still a moment longer, studying her with an unreadable intensity. Blood dripped from the wounds she'd torn across his stomach and arms, and he couldn't hide his wince as he tugged her throwing stars from his thigh, but there was no animosity in his gaze. Like dying coals stoked back to flames, heat woke in her bones. His mind slid against hers. –I will explain. Everything. But not now.–

Then he broke for the portal, and she had no chance to call after him before he disappeared, swallowed up in a blur of black. The rift faded. With it went her last scraps of strength. Her knees buckled once more, and she thudded into the dirt.

"Whoa, there," Kuwabara said, loping to her side. Gently, he looped an arm around her shoulders, then slipped the other around her thighs and lifted her up. "The shrimp warned you'd probably need to sleep. Let's get you to bed."

She wanted to speak, to ask what he meant about Hiei. What had the fire demon told him? When? Why? But she couldn't seem to work her tongue. Her fatigue was calling, drawing her into the dark. Apparently, she'd found another battle she couldn't win.

She was asleep before he reached the stairs.

Kalanie woke in a room that was at once familiar and unrecognizable, and as she struggled upright, shoving back the blanket tucked up to her chin, she realized she wasn't alone.

Straight ahead, framed in a pale shaft of early morning light, Hiei stood at the window. At her movement, he turned and watched her, his expression somber, giving away nothing of what he was thinking. His Jagan still gleamed on his forehead, lit with a lavender glow.

She hardly dared breathe as she asked, "Are you in my head?"

"No."

"Are you in his?"

"Hn."

"Then you can control me."

His jaw tightened. "If I misspeak."

She considered forbidding him to talk at all. The idea of him compelling her made her sick, and though she knew now he hadn't intended to control her, the dreadful sensation as her body had carried her away from Nomi was not one she could readily forget—even if it hadn't been his fault.

But as the room came into focus, revealing itself to be the same bedroom she'd occupied weeks ago, a splinter of calm wormed its way through her tumultuous emotions, dampening her anger and quieting her fear. If nothing else, she'd escaped him again. At least for a time. That was something to be thankful for.

"You're here to tell me what happened?"

"To the extent that you'll listen."

She drew her knees to her chest and rested her chin atop them. The blanket slipped downward, gathering around her feet. "I'll listen. But I don't want excuses. I want the truth. About everything."

"I can show you—"

"No." She couldn't handle that—being him, feeling everything he did, seeing the world through his eyes. Right now, she needed space. For too long, he'd been inside her, their minds cohabiting a place meant for only one consciousness. To meld with him now, as fully and completely as sharing his memories required, would undo her. "Tell me."

He exhaled slowly. If she didn't know better, she might have called it a sigh, but there was something off about it. It seemed steadying rather than resigned, bracing instead of forlorn. "Where do I begin?"

"At the start."

He left the window and crossed to the foot her bed. "It would be easier if I could show you. Quicker, too."

"I can't, Hiei. I can't have you in my head. Not after what you did." She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the sight of him before the hurt tightening around his eyes could weaken her stance. "Nothing can ever be the same now."

"Don't hold—" He cut himself off. A growl reverberated in his throat. He chose his next words with measured care. "I wish you wouldn't hold that against me. I had no way to know that might happen. Compelling you… I never intended it."

"Doesn't change what happened." Cracking an eye open, she peeked at him. His features were drawn, strained with a stress she'd never seen in him before. It was nearly enough to buckle her resolve. Nearly, but not quite.

"I'm not your enemy. Stop treating me—" he cut himself off again, then cursed, "Fuck." With a snarl, he punched the mattress. The blow shook the bed, rattling it to the very frame. The legs whined and squealed, scratching the wooden floorboards. Genkai wouldn't be pleased, though Kalanie imagined divots in the floor were a better alternative than him striking the wall or something equally foolish.

He bent over the bed, his hands balled into fists against the comforter, and she couldn't see his face as he drew a hissing breath in through his nose. "I can barely talk to you. If I could show you, we could avoid this."

She felt the tentative brush of his mind against hers, but she walled him out, forcing back his probing touch. "Not happening. You can already control my body. Must you control my mind, too?"

Her words hit him like a physical attack. He stiffened, tension knotting in the corded muscle of his exposed back. "You know that's not what I want."

"Maybe. Maybe not. The lines have gotten a little blurry."

She was still exhausted, too tired to keep up this fight, and as Hiei fidgeted, grinding his teeth as he searched for the right words, she felt mercy rise within her. Who was she kidding? He was right. She knew he didn't want to manipulate her. That had never been his game. Conflating him with Masaru would get her nowhere.

Gingerly, all too aware how vulnerable she was if he spoke a single line out of turn, she patted the mattress. "Sit. Tell me what happened. Start with when you first got through to me—when you helped burn away the fog. Back then, you'd promised not to leave me with him. I want to know what changed. How did we get to yesterday?"

He surveyed her a moment longer, seemingly waiting for the trick, for the hidden barb she might still loose. When none came, he kneeled on the bed and scooted over. He stopped as he reached her feet and pressed his back to the wall perpendicular to hers. Through his pants and the jumbled blankets, his thigh cast heat against her toes, toasting them as if they were exposed to an open flame.

Despite everything that had happened between them, despite all his betrayals and missteps, despite his abandonment of Nomi, she couldn't resist squirming her feet closer to him, tucking her toes beneath the press of his firm, muscled thigh.

His contented purr sent a shiver down her spine.

She closed her eyes again and forced away everything but her need to know what had transpired. The rest could come later. For now, she needed answers. "Enough stalling," she murmured. "Start talking."

And he did.

AN: How's that for developments!? Hiei accidentally compelling Kalanie. Ignoring her desire for Nomi to be saved instead. A return to the shrine. So many shenanigans!

Hehe, I can't even begin to tell you how delightful it is to have written Hiei into a place where he can't rattle off declarative statements like he's the boss of the world. It softens his edges a bit when he can't toss commands around like they're nothing.

And Kalanie is free again—at least for now—which means the whole gang will be back in the picture. I've missed them thoroughly. I think you're all going to enjoy next chapter quite a bit. Can't wait to post it!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You all rock!