Notes: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Chapter 16

12 Years Ago

"Describe the man again," Elder Yoshio demanded.

Satoru sat in front of the five elders with his parents on either side of him. A great uproar had gone out from the three great clans concerning the incident that had taken place at Tengen's barrier. Satoru's account had proven that he and Suguru indeed reached the inside of the barrier with the Star Plasma Vessel, but she had still been killed.

The mage-king was in a black fury about the whole incident, both him and the Zen'in Clan blaming the Gojo Clan for the whole thing. The Kamo Clan head had even expressed distress over what the eventual collapse of Tengen's sealing would mean for the kingdom at large, and she rarely had things to say about any incident.

"He was tall, muscular, had straight black hair worn short, and green eyes. He also had a scar through his mouth on the right side. He had a magic creature that looked like a worm. He stored magic tools and other stuff in it," Satoru droned. It was the third time this meeting he had given the description.

The elders had muttered about the man sounding like a Zen'in. Nothing could be proven though. Green eyes may be somewhat of a marker in certain branches of the Zen'in Clan, but black hair was common everywhere. Even if they were right and that was the case, which Satoru was beginning to believe it might be, what did it matter? Suguru was dead and the mission was a bust. When Tengen died, Sukuna would be unsealed and allegedly the world would end.

The corpse of the Star Plasma Vessel had also not been recovered. It was likely the assassin had taken it with him. Satoru had already told the elders about the bounty poster he had seen. Likely the guy needed it as confirmation to collect his reward.

"And he attacked you while you were inside the outer barrier? You're certain it wasn't before?" Elder Shigeo pried.

Satoru nodded. "I felt the barrier when I passed through it."

That fact had been a particular sticking point. The elders had determined it must be a case of Heavenly Restriction. A case of that particular restriction had never been seen in the Gojo Clan or been documented anywhere in the clan records. Of course, this brought up the rumors about some Zen'in girl currently having a condition which sounded similar, but no spies were able to corroborate the rumors, so they remained baseless.

The other issue at play was the magic tool which had nullified Satoru's ability to use magic. Pouring through the records, there were just two documented: the Inverted Spear of Heaven and Black Rope. The former had been created long ago and various clans and organizations had possessed it. Due to its powerful effect, it was in high demand and at some point had been lost to the three clans.

The paper trail ended around four hundred years ago, when massive turmoil over who would be the next king provided an opportunity for its theft and ultimate disappearance from historical records. The Black Rope was newer - an object that was just as it sounded - a rope created by foreign mages. There was only one recorded instance of it in the Gojo archives from less than fifty years ago.

Satoru's story had been checked and double checked and triple checked at this point. He grew tired of answering their questions, which were repeating over and over, and rose. "I'm done here," he stated flatly, turning on his heel to leave.

They allowed him to go without a fuss. Yesterday, he had fired off Red just past their heads. The shoji door paper must have been replaced, as he hadn't noticed the hole during their rehash meeting today.

Gojo Satoshi stayed behind to continue discussing with them, but Saori bowed and took her leave, following after her son. Satoru hadn't complained yet, but she was starting to get on his nerves with her constant hovering about him.

Slipping on his shoes, he took long strides toward the training areas of the complex. His mother soon fell behind and he sighed, relieved. The yard was empty - normal classes hadn't been held due to the amount of missions as well as the tragedy which had just occurred. So he had the place to himself. Red now came to him as easily as breathing. Really, he wondered how he had not grasped it sooner; why it had taken a near-death experience to figure out the spell which seemed so simple to him now.

After he fired his second blast into a target, his mother appeared out of the corner of his eye. She stood a ways off, as if knowing her presence grated on him. Sighing, he lowered his outstretched hand and turned to her. "What?"

She looked up at him sadly. He wondered what she was thinking. Was she worried he would die on his next mission? The elders hadn't cleared him for any yet, though there were more requests than ever. He was actually less likely to die now than at any other point in his life up until this moment.

Walking over, he handed her a knife. "Throw it at me." His words brokered no argument.

She hesitated, but aimed for his shoulder. The throw went true, and the knife hung in the air. "I'm not going to die, mother. You can stop hovering about."

She looked down and then back at him. "Satoru, it's about more than that. I'm sorry about Geto too. I know you loved him as if he were your own brother. I wished he had been my own son so the two of you could have been brothers in truth. He was good."

'He was good.' Not 'he was a good person', because that didn't cover it. Suguru had been good in a way Satoru had never been and didn't think he ever would be. They balanced each other out, and without him there, he felt like he was falling; spiraling into an abyss he couldn't see the bottom of.

"He was," Satoru replied stiffly. He hadn't cried since the day his best friend had died. He didn't feel much of anything since that day. All he could do was continue going through the motions of life and training so he would never lose a fight ever again. Never lose anyone else precious to him again.

"The funeral is being held here in five days," his mother informed him. "I expect members from all the clans to come pay their respects."

"When will I be assigned missions again?" Satoru asked, not commenting on what she had just told him.

His mother looked him up and down. "The elders don't want you to take any until after the funeral. They seem to think… that you're in a precarious state."

The knife which had continued hovering in the air between them dropped to the ground. Satoru clenched his fists. "I'm going to kill him," he said coldly, looking into his mother's hazel eyes with his own blue gaze, Six Eyes sparkling with fathomless depths.

She held his gaze, which surprised him. She reached out to take his hand - whether to offer her support or try to plead against his revenge attempt for fear of his life he did not know - but her hand slid away off of Infinity. Startled, she withdrew. "You should speak with Ieiri. She hasn't left her rooms since…" she trailed off.

Satoru pushed his spectacles up to fully cover his eyes again. That was one conversation he feared having above all others. But it had to be done. Suguru had wanted him to tell her he loved her. He couldn't ignore that last wish, painful as it would be to fulfill. Brushing past his mother, he headed toward the rooms the Ieiri family had been staying in since they had first come looking for a betrothal to the Gojo Clan heir.

Low voices speaking caught his attention. "...absolutely hysterical. And by the time the mourning period is over, she'll be eighteen." The voice was deep and obviously a man's.

"The period of engagement dragged out for so long. First Lord Geto insisted on getting to know her better before the wedding. As if that were important," a woman's voice scoffed in reply. "Then missions and other distractions continued to pop up."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen next time. An agreement will be made and the wedding will follow immediately."

The rooms he was passing were her parents'. Satoru rolled his eyes up to the sky. Typical. All they cared about was the broken engagement, not their daughter's broken heart. Slipping his shoes off, he walked lightly to the door of Shoko's room and slid it open silently.

Of course he should have known she wouldn't be alone. Several noble ladies and their maids and servants were surrounding her as she sat with a dazed look on her face. Most of them seemed surprised and affronted that a man had entered her room without even the decency to announce himself, then realized who he was and hastily bowed, though they did not depart. Propriety dictated the two not be alone together. But he would not say what he had to say in front of these strangers.

"Shoko," he said, voice as soft as he could make it.

Her head rose, turning to find the source of the voice. She did not reply, though the somewhat dazed expression on her face cleared slightly. She didn't seem anywhere close to hysterical, which was what he had been anticipating after hearing her parents' discussion.

He reached out a hand. "Walk with me?" The gardens would be the closest he could get to a private conversation with her, where prying eyes and listening ears could be mitigated by distance without the danger of impropriety.

To his surprise, she rose slightly unsteadily and did not offer a word of protest as she passed by him out the door, slipping on the shoes that lay outside. She hadn't taken his outstretched hand though. He followed behind as she led - no doubt those behind him were muttering of the impropriety of even that - until she stumbled. In a single stride he was at her side, grasping her elbow to help her balance. Infinity quivered between them, a thin barrier separating them even as he made contact - he hardly noticed he had had it running ever since his conversation with his mother.

"Shoko…" Should he jump right into the reason for their walk or try to lead into it with something else first? She pulled free of his steadying grip but didn't move to walk in front of him again. His hands dropped uselessly to his sides as they continued toward the gardens.

She was the one who ended up breaking the silence between them. "What did he say?" she slurred.

Alarmed, Satoru looked at her. Really looked at her. The unfocused eyes, the stumbling steps. A spike of anger shot through him. Someone, likely her father, was drugging her. He must have been fed up with the hysteria he had mentioned and dealt with it by putting the drugs in her food and drink. He clenched his fists again.

"What did he say?" she asked, words slightly crisper this time.

Jolted out of his sudden epiphany, he turned to meet her eyes, which were focused intently on him. On instinct, he took one of her hands in his, dropping Infinity. "He said… to tell you that he loves you." There, he had said it. But it didn't feel like the weight was lifted.

Instead of bursting into tears as he feared, her shoulders relaxed. "I'm glad," she whispered. "I know I'll always love him too, no matter what happens in the future." She gave his hand a small squeeze before withdrawing it from his grasp, and strode slightly more steadily through the gardens with him in silence.

Perhaps there were no more words that needed to be spoken between them about this. 'I'm sorry' rested on the tip of his tongue but would not pass his lips. His being sorry or not wouldn't change a thing.

xXxXx

The day of the funeral came faster than Satoru had anticipated. With little to do but train, as Nanami, Haibara, and even Ijichi were off on missions and not expected to return until the day of the event, he ended up restlessly pacing the grounds far more than usual.

After the funeral and burial, he would finally be allowed out of the compound on missions again - not that the elders could truly stop him if he wished to leave now. It didn't seem like classes were going to resume for some time, but maybe that was for the best. Their little group would never be the same again.

A few threats from him to Shoko's father had stopped his drugging of his daughter. Still, the calming medicines he had been sneaking her before Satoru had noticed seemed to have taken the edge off her grief even though they were no longer being used. Now she appeared the perfectly demure grieving betrothed that she was at the funeral, draped in a black kimono, face veiled in black as well. Her parents stood behind her on one side of the wooden box containing Suguru's body. Satoru and his parents stood on the other side, past the elders.

An endless line of fellow clansmen and women as well as guests from outside the clan had arrived to pay their respects as well. The most difficult part so far had been when Suguru's actual parents arrived. He expected accusations and anger, but found only sadness within them. It seemed they were not as uncaring toward their son after selling him to the Gojo Clan as Satoru had always imagined.

"I was very sorry to hear about what happened to Geto," came a soft voice in front of him.

Focusing on the woman in front of him, his Six Eyes identified her easily despite the passage of time. It was Utahime. She was holding a bundle in her arms which was moving.

"Thanks," he replied dully, realizing the bundle was a baby. Things had changed indeed since he had seen her last at the Gojo estate. "Congratulations, I guess," he continued, gesturing toward the child.

She smiled and seemed about to continue speaking when another familiar voice joined the conversation. "My condolences for your loss, and the loss of your family. Marriage treating you well?" The statement was directed at Satoru and the question at Utahime. Mei Mei stood before him, tall and slim, her silvery hair draping across her face, though her brown eyes peered out sharply from behind its curtain.

"Well enough," Utahime replied after pausing for Satoru to speak first if he wished to. He did not. "This little one just loves waking me up at any hour though. Gods, I'll be glad when that stage is over."

Mei Mei smirked. Utahime's husband approached, a child tottering after him on unsteady young feet, to offer his own condolences and then led her and the infant away from the front of the receiving room. He was younger than Satoru had always pictured Utahime's unknown husband - some drab, middle-aged Kamo was usually what popped into his mind. This man appeared only a few years older than her. Satoru had failed once again to catch his name. Mei Mei remained in place before him as the other two left. Looking around, Satoru did not see anyone accompanying her.

"I'm alone, if that's what you're checking for. Why do you think I left the Gojo Clan around the expected age of marriage?" the silver-haired woman drawled. "Sharing senses with crows isn't suited for combat, though I can make do in a pinch. Their greatest asset is information." Her eyes glinted. "Get in contact with me if you ever need something. For the right price, it can be yours." With that mysterious statement, she slipped him a piece of paper and sauntered off. The next funeral-goer stepped up where she had just stood.

Satoru routinely greeted the next couple in line, subtly hiding the scrap of paper in a pocket. His mind lingered on what Mei Mei had just said. Was she implying she knew something he would find useful? And if so… His eyes snapped back in her direction. Did she know the identity of the assassin?

His thoughts were interrupted by a very unwelcome voice. "Very sorry for you and your family's loss," Zen'in Naoya said. His tone and facial expression gave nothing of his true feelings away, but his brown eyes glowed with glee. As acting head of the Zen'in Clan, he had come to pay his respects to the deceased and his family on their behalf. His wife was conspicuously absent from his side once again.

"I'm sure you are," Satoru grit out. He stuck out a hand and propriety demanded Naoya shake it. He was clearly hesitant but unwilling to make a scene in front of the entire assembly. Satoru's grip was bruising - he might have even broken a few bones, judging by the other man's rapidly paling face.

"A real tragedy," the acting clan head said with a barely concealed sneer as he tucked his injured hand into a kimono sleeve and retreated, having already greeted Satoru's parents and the Gojo elders.

When the king and his entourage appeared, the service was begun by the priests. Satoru's focus remained on the coffin as the service progressed. Soon that box would be buried in the ground, and he would have nothing but memories left of his friend.

Later, after the burial, he began a note for Mei Mei, requesting any information she had on who had put out the bounty on Amanai Riko as well as the identity of the assassin who had killed both her and Geto Suguru.

xXxXx

The silver-haired woman requested they meet up in person the following week, and Satoru willingly did so. Now that he was back on missions, he wouldn't be missed on the estate if he were out and about. His first task had been tracking down and finishing off all the undead which had been granted a new life due to Suguru's death. While not particularly difficult with his new abilities, it drained him emotionally, not that he would admit it out loud to anyone.

The gold he brought to pay for Mei Mei's information wouldn't be missed either. He had taken it from his own personal stash - the coins from the dragon's hoard he had brought home from his posting in Karuori village.

Quirking a brow at the shabby-looking outside of the teahouse Mei Mei had told him to meet her at, he entered and reclined at a table in a dark corner. The woman herself entered a few minutes after him and ordered for the two of them.

"Wouldn't have guessed a place like this was up to your standards," he told her as their server left.

Brushing her hair out of one eye so she could see him, she replied. "It isn't. But it is a more discrete location than the places of… higher quality."

Satoru leaned forward. "The information is that dangerous?" His blue eyes gleamed with curiosity behind his dark spectacles.

Tilting her head to one side, she simply replied "Yes."

Satoru slid a bag of gold over to her. She counted it in silence and shoved it out of sight within her kimono. Their tea came, and silence reigned until the server once again moved out of earshot.

"Don't leave me hanging," Satoru said, taking a sip. The tea wasn't half bad, though that may have been because of the copious amounts of sugar he had stirred in as Mei Mei looked on in slight revulsion.

"The bounty of 30,000 gold crowns you told me about was put out by a member of the Guild of Assassins," she began.

Satoru interrupted immediately. "An assassin put out a bounty? I thought they were the ones that took bounties."

Mei Mei sighed into her tea and replaced it on the table, crossing her arms. "Are you going to hear the full story or just sit here while I tell you one thing at a time in between your questions?"

The white-haired mage gestured for her to continue and took up his tea to ensure his mouth would remain shut.

"A member of the Guild of Assassins put out the bounty, but this was just after the guild itself had received a request for the assassination of the Star Plasma Vessel. My contact within the guild does not know who the initial request was from, but the bounty was put out by the top assassin in the Guild."

Satoru leaned forward eagerly. Did she have a name?

"One Zen'in Toji, who apparently goes by Fushiguro now after his recent marriage."

The Six Eyes bearer raised an eyebrow but dared not ask why the man had taken his wife's family name when his name was the one of greater status. This also confirmed his clan's suspicions of the killer's heritage. No wonder the mage-king had been so furious, since one of his own clan had gone rogue and done such a thing. But why had he never heard of the guy before?

"He apparently left the Zen'in Clan when he was young and never looked back. So when the request came into the Guild for the death of the Star Plasma Vessel, they turned to their best assassin for such an impossible mission." Seeing Satoru's confusion, she elaborated. "The mission was thought impossible due to her being escorted by two S-ranks."

Ah, that cleared things up, though thinking of Suguru made his face go stony again. If he'd possessed the abilities then which he now had, his friend - his brother - would not have died. Mei Mei didn't continue her story, so Satoru assumed that meant he could ask a question at this point. "Do you have a location I can find him at?"

"That will cost you extra," she stated. "You said you wanted information on his identity, not a location."

Satoru glared at her, though his stare was likely mitigated by the dark lenses covering his eyes. He could see through the black glass, but she couldn't. "You knew what I wanted," he accused. "And I paid what we agreed on. Don't renege on me now."

"Ooh, how scary. Are you threatening the only person you know who has the information you need to enact your revenge?" The silver-haired woman remained completely calm.

Irritated, Satoru handed her a second bag of gold. He had foreseen her greediness, having known her from back when she had been on the Gojo estate. Even back then she had been in it for the money. He was certain she made far more now that she took entire cuts for missions instead of just what his family allowed her after receiving the payments on her behalf. "Now cough it up."

She reached into her kimono and withdrew a small roll of paper. Satoru opened it, Six Eyes quickly processing the information.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Mei Mei drawled as he rose to leave.

His only reply was a snort of disgust.

Several hours later - his warping was improving but long distances were not doable, so he ended up hopping through space like a frog across rocks - he stood in the sky above a small farmhouse. It was not part of a village but was within walking distance of the city of Ikawa.

Below him, chickens were clucking and meandering around the yard in search of bugs and other food. Voices sounded in the house, but they were the voices of a woman and two children, not a man. Two auras were those of civilians, one of a weak mage.

Satoru touched his thumb and middle finger together, then let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and curled his hand into a fist. He wasn't like that guy - he wouldn't murder children. Even if they were his.

Warping away, he checked the Guild of Assassins headquarters, causing a panic when he appeared in their midst. To no avail; the man - Fushiguro Toji, he reminded himself - wasn't there. Even searching with the Six Eyes from the sky, combing through an entire city would take time. The man was invisible though, so aura-hunting for him would be useless. He descended in a secluded location and began going through the list of Toji's usual haunts.

xXxXx

The racetrack had closed for the day and a disgruntled Fushiguro Toji was one of the last to leave, frustrated once again at his poor luck. He had thought maybe some good fortune would finally come his way after the good deed of sending some money back home to his wife and the kids from the massive payout he had received from the Star Plasma Vessel assassination, but apparently no good deed went unpunished.

He was blowing through the money at an unprecedented rate, even for him. Over the past two weeks, word had spread through the underworld community of the failure of the mages assigned to protect the Star Plasma Vessel. Apparently one had died but the other had survived. The wrong one. It was only a matter of time before the Six Eyes brat came looking for him. The only way he could have survived was with a high level healing spell, and he had shown no sign of the talent when they had fought. So something had changed.

He held no fear of the mage-king's retaliation. The Zen'in Clan's current existence was solely based on his own whim. Even before he had procured the elusive Inverted Spear of Heaven, he could have destroyed them all. That hadn't stopped them from looking down upon him, casting him to the side because his strength wasn't the kind of strength they valued.

So far, the mages had been doing an admirable job of covering up their failure at Tengen's barrier. The public would likely be in a panic if they found out the barrier encasing Ryomen Sukuna would fall within the next twenty years. Sometimes he wondered if he should be concerned about that himself for a moment before dismissing the notion.

"Hey."

He looked up sharply. Backset against the setting sun was a tall, slim figure standing in his path. Squinting, he could make out white hair. "Come back to let me finish the job?" he asked, his worm-inventory sensing his need and coiling up from his waist to his shoulder.

"I've got a question first," the Gojo teen said in a flat voice, not rising to the bait.

Toji raised an eyebrow. So apparently this was neither a coldblooded execution nor a sneak attack. Who casually walked up and greeted their assassination target? The hilt of the Inverted Spear of Heaven emerged from the worm's mouth and he grasped it, connecting it to the end of the Chain of a Thousand Miles in preparation.

"Who ordered the assassination?" Gojo asked, voice still flat and emotionless.

"Why in the Nine Hells should I answer you?" Toji asked with a grimace. What was the kid playing at?

"If you don't want me to kill your family after I kill you, then tell me."

The assassin frowned. Was the brat bluffing? It didn't matter, he decided. It wasn't like he cared about protecting the client's identity anyway, so he should answer just in case the Six Eyes was serious. "I didn't get a name, but it was a woman with short dark hair and an old scar running all the way across her forehead."

Gojo seemed satisfied with the answer, as he didn't ask for more. Perhaps he could tell Toji had no further information to give anyway. Pointing two fingers toward Toji, red light coalesced at his fingertips and shot toward him. He moved to block the blow with the Inverted Spear, but the power behind it still flung him backward down the road and into a stone wall.

"Heh. You're a monster," he muttered, rising. Blood trickled down his face over one eye, some dripping to the ground. He clutched the Inverted Spear, which remained entirely undamaged. Still, the force behind that last hit had been orders of magnitude more powerful than his previous fight with the Six Eyes.

Toji rose, stretching to reassure himself nothing was broken. So that was Red, the power to repel. I've already dealt with Blue, the power to attract as well as Infinity, the power to stop motion. None of them are a problem. He began to swing the Inverted Spear on the end of its chain. His stopping magic hasn't been an issue from the start. I can nullify the attraction magic with my extended reach Inverted Spear and counter with my speed. As long as I don't mess up the timing, I can use the Inverted Spear as a shield against his repelling magic. Then what is this uneasiness I feel?

The Gojo brat hadn't moved from his spot in the road. Toji whipped the Inverted Spear toward him on the chain. The mage shot upward into the air, seeming to just float there, dodging his next attacks with unnerving casualness. Purple light coalesced around the boy and came flying at him. It was too broad to be blocked entirely by the Inverted Spear, but he tried regardless. The attack ripped right through him and the chain, though the Spear itself was unscathed. It was neither Red nor Blue, but some unknown combination he had not known of despite his Zen'in Clan roots.

The pain felt distant, and he wondered if that was because of the physical prowess granted by his Heavenly Restriction. Still, he knew the injury was fatal.

That uneasy feeling. The awakened power of the Limitless stood before me. He's probably the greatest mage alive now, and he wouldn't have stopped coming after me until he got his revenge. If the necromancer had lived, would he have bothered? Or would the same thing have happened if only the Star Plasma Vessel had been killed? I guess I'll never know.

The worst part of dying, he decided, was having the last voice he heard be the Gojo brat's. "You lost when you didn't cut my head off. And you didn't use the Inverted Spear when you stabbed me in the head."

At least the misery of his life was finally over. It's not like anyone would miss him. Not even…

"Megumi…" Fushiguro Toji fell forward into the dirt road and saw and heard no more.

xXxXx

Classes had resumed, but they were quieter and far more solemn than ever before, not to mention sporadic. Satoru seemed more focused, actually taking notes and answering questions. Perhaps if Shoko herself had not fallen into such a complete state of apathy toward life in general, she might have questioned him about these sudden changes.

As it was, the two only spoke of unimportant things in between Satoru's many missions. The Gojo Clan, scorned currently for their failure to protect the Star Plasma Vessel, was still very much on the rebound, and this included more assignments than usual for their mages from the king.

Whenever Shoko passed by the training yards, Satoru was almost always there if not out on assignments. At his request, she had helped him by throwing both dangerous and non-dangerous objects his way. He was working to automate Infinity so it would constantly run but still allow non-harmful things through without him having to make a conscious effort.

He even stood at her side in the infirmary every day he was available at the Gojo estate for the first three months after Suguru's death, watching her heal others with his Six Eyes uncovered. His many attempts to replicate her healing spells all failed. Honestly, she was surprised he kept at it for so long in the first place. In the past, he would have given up after only a few tries. Despite his extra efforts, he remained only able to work that magic on himself. The scar on his neck, which had been extremely noticeable when he had first returned from the doomed mission, was fading month by month. He must have been further healing it almost every day for it to have faded by such an extent.

She worried about the stress he was putting on his brain by constantly utilizing his innate magic, but he had assured her that he also ran healing on his brain constantly. Fixing while destroying, destroying while fixing. He needed less sleep than any human had a right to now, but she wasn't sure his sudden changes were all for the better. Her repeated efforts to examine him herself to ensure his health were continuously denied.

As her time of mourning continued, Satoru's ability to travel via warping space improved markedly as well. Of course, this just meant he could be assigned more and more missions by the elders and the king. Still, he had not complained. Once, not so long ago, he would have lamented endlessly about it to both her and Suguru as well as anyone else within earshot.

Satoru seemed to have a sharper edge to him these days. Just a week after Suguru's funeral, he had come to her rooms and stood in the doorway. She had been watching Fukkatsu - still a small chick but growing rapidly - pecking at the seeds laid out before her on the tatami mats.

"I killed him," her friend had stated bluntly.

She froze, then turned. The other women in the room glanced at him in alarm. "I see," she replied carefully.

For some reason, she didn't feel either happiness for the death of the assassin or fulfillment that through his death Suguru had been avenged. The gaping hole of nothingness that lived within her remained unchanged.