Voices were constantly chattering in the distance, meshing together in to a single and unstable entity of gurgling which mimicked the sensation of being submerged in water. From behind sealed eyelids, a trembling streak of light occasionally appeared and then vanished again in to the veil of blackness. A routine stream of air swelled directly and awkwardly through the neck, filling the lungs and then allowing them to empty themselves on the off beat. With extremely weary muscles, Misaki Tanoh struggled to open her eyes and shift her body marginally to gain a respectable view of her surroundings.

She was inside a hospital, of that there was no doubt. The scent of medical-grade antiseptics and cleaners flowed freely through the confines of the room. Her clothing had been changed at some point, as she was clad in a thin, patient's gown, which felt papery as it rubbed against her thighs with each movement no matter how slight. The coppery taste of blood lingered in her mouth, every so often dominating her taste buds as if it were fresh once more. Despite her sense of sight working at only partial capacity, she could tell that the florescent light above her flickered with unimpressive persistence.

"You're awake," Killua's lightly muffled voice announced darkly from a blurred silhouette.

Sacrificing a great deal more strength that she was proud of, the girl blinked her eyes several times in order to effectively see (though still through a slight halo of static) the silver haired boy. He was seated a few meters from her bedside, elbows supporting his slumped figure against his knees. His eyes were not visible even to the average person, as they were shielded behind the purposefully forward-shifted fringe of his hair.

"Kil'…?" a frighteningly raspy voice croaked out, and it took Misaki a full moment to realize that it had indeed been her own.

"You knew, didn't you?"

"Kil'…"

"You knew," he repeated, his tone still low despite the abruptness to it.

"I… suspected," she corrected him between her ventilator's cycle of breath.

His shoulders tensed and hunched inward before he said, "I… am tolerant to poisoning. I definitely wouldn't have suffered. You should have told us the truth."

A silence passed between them, and Killua wondered whether she was soaking in his words, considering a response, or had become simply too weak to speak any longer.

"If you wouldn't… have been affected… the nen on the ropes… wouldn't have deactivated."

"Idiot!" he suddenly shouted at her, slamming his palms fiercely against the arm rests as he half rose from his seat and lifted his face to her.

The whites of his eyes (even through her hazy vision), she could tell were dry and irritated, as multiple veins of red surrounded the blue of his irises. Withdrawing in to his silvery hair once more, the boy repositioned himself in the chair with his arms folded tightly over his chest. His body quivered mildly.

'He's actually upset that I put my life in potential danger,' she realized with legitimate shock.

Misaki had adamantly insisted that the nen on the ropes were likely linked together only when the victim was at a certain level of health and physical wellness.

This would give them a small, but potentially possible opportunity to sever the ropes and retaliate. Rather, the first person that was taken for their sentence could accept punishment enough to lose the nen in the ropes, accurately feign their death, and still manage to muster up enough aura to sneak attack the unsuspecting L.I.G.H.T. member who was likely responsible for the restrictive nen. This would at least (according to Misaki) leave a window of opportunity to momentarily cease the ability, allowing for Gon to use this time to shed the restraints, as it was crucial to the plot that he was to be the "second" sentenced. The girl had insisted that the only way to ensure that the target was sufficiently distracted was to wait until the next person was retrieved for slaughter. Then Gon, capitalizing on his offensive advantages as an enhancer, was to launch an attack at the cell in order to release the remaining two. The remaining ropes of course, could then be actively severed and the four could escape.

"I still think this is far too risky," Haku had proclaimed as the final touches to their anticipated plot were being laid out.

"I actually agree with the geezer," Killua admitted. "We still don't know how they plan to execute us for sure, and the person that goes first has a high chance of dying even if it does work out."

"I'll go first then," Misaki volunteered with a shrug. "I had planned to, anyway."

"Is there nothing you want to live for?" Haku spat out at her, appalled to hear her speak so casually about something he was so terribly afraid of.

"To complete my mission, I suppose."

Shaking his head in disbelief, the man grumbled, "You haven't changed…."

Ignoring him and tilting her head toward Gon, she asked, "Will you remember your duties? There isn't any room for mistakes."

"I definitely will," he said with a decisive nod.

The girl ran her amber eyes over the features of her two critical skeptics. She nodded her head low before looking up at them once more.

"They will use physical force, probably," she told Killua, who scrunched his face in hesitant disbelief. "Think about it; they scouted the island intending to kill intruders that way, did they not? Now that they have us it's likely they would resort to physical violence in order to really enjoy the kill that they've had to delay. You saw the look in that woman's eyes; that's what this is all about. This gives me a good chance to fake death, and then they'll want to move immediately on to the next one in order to keep the rush from fading."

Consequently, Haku and Killua were fairly convinced by the girl's argument. Despite the possibility of failure and ultimately death staring them in the face, it was uniformly difficult to brush off the only plan of action they had managed to acquire. Besides, Misaki sounded so very certain of her statement. Her wealth of experience had to stand for something, Killua had decided, and so with a deeply hopeful attitude sweeping over the group, the strategy was officially and unanimously accepted.

Of course, the girl was never one to admit fully her presumptions, especially if she ruled them to be an unintentional deterrent. In fact, she was quite positive that the method she had so seriously debated was not in truth the one that L.I.G.H.T. would be using.

As the time for judgment drew upon them, Misaki inwardly recalled her own concealed knowledge, which she was certain would deter the others if she had admitted it to them:

'Lethal injection… exactly what I should expect from a government hired organization.'

"Where are… Gon and Haku-san?"

The boy did not respond immediately. Instead, he ran his fingers through his hair from his forehead back to the nape of his neck and then sighed out a long, exasperated breath.

"They're guarding Taiki until we decide how we want to use him."

"Which one… is Taiki…?"

"The geezer that called himself 'Bao'. One of the members of L.I.G.H.T. can trade peoples' appearances if he has some of their blood. The real Bao and Mei were killed while they waited for us to show up disguised as them," he explained, avoiding eye contact. A pause, and then: "What you did was stupid."

"I always… intended for your… lives to be spared," she whispered.

A quiet rage had been slowly filling Killua, coursing through his veins, since he'd discovered Misaki's unconscious and body stretched out across the floor following his escape from the cell. It stemmed from an odd fear, one he could feel impeccably but not truly identify. The plan had indeed been a success, but the outcome had not at all leveled his expectations.

'She was willing to die to save us,' he'd understood then, vowing to do everything in his power to repay her.

Of course, the girl had perhaps been less heroic than she was being credited for. Misaki had known for certain that she would not die from the injection, as she was confident in the spirit that the boys shared that she would be saved.

'It was a bit reckless, but in the end I'm still here; just as I thought,' her groggy mind assured her.

Meanwhile, Killua's emotions had reached a peak. He stomped up to the bed with a stare that would make the devil pale and grasped her wrist too firmly to excuse in his non-dominant hand.

"Do you want to die?" he asked despondently with an eerie calm.

Through increasingly wearying eyes she attempted to study him, still limited greatly by her ailments. Her pulse echoed in his palm as the blood struggled to reach her fingers.

"If you ever do something like this again… I won't ever forgive you."

"Killua," she murmured, resting the fingers of her opposite hand against his firm knuckles. "This is…"

Her amber eyes were softening, despite the unshakable cloudiness inside them. A very small smile graced her lips, and the former assassin loosened his grip. For a moment his features expressed a level of vulnerability to the girl which startled him, and he forced his face to stiffen, if only very slightly, to erase the feeling.

"You're the one… that saved me… aren't you?" she asked quietly.

"You knew I would, right?" he said with a shrug, his tone a little sharper than he intended for it to be.

As her body began to give way once more to much needed slumber, the fingers she was resting upon his knuckles weighted and then dragged from position, caressing the flesh slightly.

"Thank you, Killua-san," she whispered almost incoherently before nodding off.

The tickle of her skin against his startled him, but he did not retract his hand. In fact, as she slept, he eventually opted to drop to one knee so that he did not immediately lose the curious feeling that seemed to flow from her hand in to him. It was warm; this feeling. Was it some form of nen?

'You'll heal soon,' he promised in his mind as though she might somehow hear him. 'I'll…We'll wait for you.'