Miracle:

Chapter 2

~*~

Hands on her body woke Robin from the depths of sleep, and she sat up in panic, her heart racing. Not again! Even though her head pounded at the sudden movement, her sleep-blurred eyes focused on the form kneeling by her lower body and willed the familiar flames to kindle on the person. But nothing happened.

Panicked, now that her fire had seemingly deserted her, the blonde hunter rubbed at her eyes and cleared her vision, focusing on the owner of the hands while trying to move away from the touch.

Amon glanced up at the frightened girl. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, holding up a dripping washcloth in one hand. But even so, Robin shrank from his touch, squeezing both her legs and her eyes shut, and crossing her arms over her chest as if in self-defense.

Amon watched, his face set like stone, as the girl seemed to shrink in upon herself. Never had he seen Robin like this; to him, she had never been one to hide, even if she was facing impossible odds, her stubborn nature wouldn't let her back down. Now, as his eyes rested upon the trembling figure before him, he felt as if he could almost see the broken spirit within.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated again, trying to make his voice tone a little softer. The dark hunter wasn't quite sure if he succeeded or not, it had been so long since he had used such a tone. He hid his disgust.

"Please, don't touch me!" Robin exclaimed, scooting as far away from him on the couch as she could. "Just keep away from me!" A note of pure hysteria entered her voice, and Amon blinked in spite of himself.

Once again, he had never before seen the likes of this coming from Robin. The shaking, wild-eyed creature before him was not the Robin Sena he knew; this was a different person, a changed person, and something inside of him stirred at the thought. But he squashed it quickly, refusing to dwell upon such insignificant matters.

Sighing a little, but trying to mask most of his exasperation, Amon tried again, "Robin, do you really think I would do that to you? You're hurt; just allow me to-"

"No!" Blonde hair flew everywhere as she shook her head violently. "I don't need help! Amon, please, just keep your hands-" To put it mildly, she was terrified. And for the rest of her life, from that day forward, whenever she was startled by anyone's touch, dark memories flashed before her eyes and she trembled, if only for a split second.

But this time, it was his turn to cut her off. "Robin!"

Silencing immediately, she looked up at him from under the curtain of blonde hair and froze, even her trembling stopping. This was Amon after all, but still…the memory of those hands and…

Tears began to fall from her eyes, and though they fell silently, their presence did not go unnoticed. A tissue appeared in front of her eyes and Robin took it gratefully, shying away even at the slight brush of her fingers against Amon's as they took the tissue.

She wiped her eyes and tugged at the overcoat still wrapped around her, covering as much of her exposed skin as she could from, what in her mind at least, was a pair of prying eyes. Amon watched all this impassively, no emotion showing in his eyes.

"Now, will you let me continue?" he asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral. Slowly he raised the washcloth before her, and, keeping his eyes locked with hers the entire time, brought it back down to her lower body and let a few drops of the warm water trickle over her skin.

Robin's heart calmed a little as she took that in, and noticed the bowl of warm water sitting on the floor by his feet. She slumped down on the couch and relaxed her body a little, allowing the washcloth to clean away her crimson shame. Still, she shuddered violently with almost every brush of the fabric, and it took all her self-control to not try to light Amon on fire once again.

Slowly, the older hunter's hands returned to their task, and Robin watched as the water in the bowl became stained pink with her blood. "Who did this?" Amon asked, in the same, flat voice he used everyday. He sounded as if he were washing his car rather then her most private regions.

Blushing, Robin lay all the way back down on her back and tried to ignore the pain and bad memories that sparked in her mind from the contact. "I…I don't know…" she said finally, sounding as if she were in a dream. "It was dark and for some reason, my powers wouldn't work…"

Images and remnants of dark sensations flooded her head, and the blond hunter bit her lip hard to keep from screaming out at the man's touch. It's just Amon…he's trying to help me… These sentences soon became a chant in her head; repeated over and over in her head, they helped to slay at least a few of the demons that tore at her mind.

"They wouldn't work?" Amon asked, trying to keep her distracted from the movement of the washcloth on her body. Upon seeing the faint line of red that appeared on her lips, he had almost shouted aloud in frustration. But remembering that she was still young, and had just been raped, he kept his temper in check, and tried his best to play the comforting helper. The role was foreign to him.

And though he would never admit it, talking also helped him to hide the slight discomfort he felt at having to do this.

"No, it was as if there was a barrier there, stopping the Craft from affecting the other person." She winced and squirmed a little as the washcloth rubbed uncomfortably, and Amon pulled his hand back, waiting until she calmed a little before continuing his ministrations.

"Was the man using Orbo?" He continued his questioning.

"…No." The answer came after several moments of silent thought. "It seemed like it, but no, he wasn't using Orbo."

Frowning a little, Amon wiped away the last bit of blood from between Robin's legs and stood up, spreading the overcoat out a little more over her bruised body. "Get some sleep," he told her, taking the water and washcloth and walking away. "I'll take you to see a doctor later."

Confused, Robin propped herself up on her elbows and stared after him. "Amon. Where are we?"

"My apartment," he answered, hesitating only for a fraction of a second before admitting that fact to her. "Now go to sleep." The door that separated the main room from the kitchen shut behind him and the Craft user flopped back on the couch with a sigh.

Trying to get more comfortable, she rolled over and cringed as a fiery pain shot through her body. A bruise on her arm cried out as she put pressure on it, and, giving up, Robin rolled over once more so she was on her back again.

Almost as if on cue, an overwhelming exhaustion set in, and the girl found her eyelids growing heavy. Fighting sleep, she tried to sweep her eyes around the room and take in her surroundings, but before her emerald orbs had gotten even halfway around the room, she was asleep.

The door to the kitchen opened softly a few moments later, and Amon stepped out, drying his hands on a towel. He strode over to the couch where Robin lay and looked down at her sleeping form. Waiting a moment to make sure she was truly asleep, he nodded to himself and turned away again, grabbing a jacket from the rack by the front door. His coat was still on Robin.

Her sleep did not seem troubled, but he suspected that was because she was so exhausted, both mentally and physically. The real pain and reality would not hit her until she was warm, safe, and rested, and then the real trial would begin. He could only hope that someone would be there to help her through it…

Glancing back once more to double check that Robin was asleep, Amon grunted and closed the door softly behind his dark form, locking it up tight. He would make sure to return before she awoke, but even so, no harm in being prepared for the worst.

Pocketing the keys, he stalked down the hallway, the wheels in his head turning furiously as he tried to make sense of this entire situation.

Robin…

~*~

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Doujima's high-pitched whine grated on Michael's nerves so much that he stuffed his headphones in his ears and cranked up the volume on his rock music.

"I wish I had a pair of those," Karasuma muttered to herself as Sakaki's answering shout rang in her ears.

Chief Kosaka's own loud voice soon joined the fray and Karasuma knew that if it weren't for the fact that she was waiting for news from Amon, she would have left by now, regardless of regulations or time.

But as it were, she desperately wanted to know what had happened to their youngest hunter. So the only thing for the brown haired woman to do, was grit her teeth and try to focus as much as she could on the reports in front of her.

"Will you shut up?!" Kosaka roared, finally silencing what had been the beginnings of World War III.

"Thank you," Amon said, striding into the room, the absence of his overcoat obvious, as there was no material to swirl around his ankles and make the entrance more dramatic.

"Amon!" four voices exclaimed at once.

Tapping Michael on the shoulder, Sakaki jerked his head towards Amon and the scratchy sound of the too loud music was suddenly cut off. "Did you find her?!" the rookie hunter asked needlessly.

Nodding, Amon took a seat in one of the computer chairs and watched impassively as the others all did the same. "She was raped," he said plainly, once all their attention was focused on him. "I found her in an alleyway not too far from her apartment."

Mouths dropped and gasps from the other female members of the team flew sounded loud in the sudden silence. Michael let out a strangled sound. "Raped?!"

Even Chief Kosaka seemed a little shocked by Amon's abruptness. Things like this should be broken gently, and as tactfully as possible, but it seemed the leader of their team had no use for such trivial things.

"Yes." His face was unreadable and his eyes were like obsidian, blacker then the blackest night and deeper then the deepest oceans.

"Where is she now?" Doujima asked, her voice layered with worry.

"She's resting; I'm taking her to the doctor when she awakens." No one really seemed to notice how the most experienced member of their team danced around the actual question; if they did, they said nothing about it and did not question his reasons.

"What I don't understand," Michael mused, "is how someone like Robin, with powers such as hers, could allow something like this to happen. I mean, couldn't she defend herself against something as simple as an everyday rapist?" His voice rose a little as he directed his last question to Amon. "Were there any burn marks, or ashes around the spot where you found her?"

The dark haired man shook his head. "Nothing."

"That's odd…" Karasuma said.

"But I did find these." A clinking sound echoed in the room as Amon set a broken pair of glasses down on the table in front of him. "The lenses were reduced almost to a fine powder when I found them."

"What the-?" Sakaki murmured, peering at them intently. "What could have crushed the lenses like that?"

"Another witch's Craft, perhaps?" Doujima chimed in, the questioning tone now overriding her worried one.

Meanwhile, Michael was also staring at the glasses; his brow was furrowed in deep concentration and his hands lay still for once in his lap. "Something's just not right…" He trailed off. "I don't like this."

Sighing, Karasuma replied, "None of us do, but what can we do?"

"I'm going to look into this a little bit; check out the powers of other witches in the area and she if I can get some locations on some of them. There's got to be some sort of a hint as to what happened…" He turned back to his computer, mind already spinning with thoughts and ideas none of the others could hope to understand. When it came to computers and hacking, none of the other STN-J members asked too many questions, if they tried to understand his computer sense, it only confused them more.

Amon grunted and rose from his seat.

"Where are you going?" Doujima asked.

"Back to the alley where I found Robin."

"I'll come too!" Sakaki exclaimed jumping up.

"As I will," Karasuma added. "Maybe I can pick something up from the emotions they left behind…"

Nodding to show he acknowledged their presences, their leader left the STN-J building, walking purposefully to the sleek, black car parked beneath Raven's Flat. The other two hunters followed behind him, their steps just as decisive.

A minute later, the sound of three engines revving up reverberated in the concrete parking garage and was immediately followed by the sounds of screeching tires.

Rolling her eyes, Karasuma followed behind Sakaki's motorcycle, and watched as Amon's car turned up ahead of them. The sun was beginning its afternoon decent as the three stopped at the site of Robin's rape and their shadows stretched before them.

"Let's do this," Sakaki said unsurely, stepping forwards.

Karasuma followed, slipping off her glove and crouched down upon the blood-soaked ground, the wrinkling of her nose showing exactly what she thought of the entire situation.

But the moment her hand touched the ground, all thoughts of that nature were driven from her mind. A loud scream escaped her lips and she fell backwards, unconscious. Leaping forward, Sakaki caught her in his arms before she hit the pavement and held her suspended in the air.

"What the hell just happened?!"

~*~

Okay, SanoGirl here! It seems we have a lot to discuss…First off…

Thanks so much to all of you who offered to be my beta reader, but I took the first one I got! >.< Sorry, but all the offers were much appreciated!

Secondly, Kelli, my beta reader, thank you for taking the time to look over my stuff for me! I know I might have missed a few corrections here and there, but I wanted to get this chapter posted and only gave it a quick scan. But don't worry, all corrections will eventually get made.

Thirdly, Finchgirl…*blinks* Wow, I think that was the longest review I've ever gotten! ^.^ And all of it was constructive too! I'm glad you thought it wasn't a run-of-the-mill fan fiction, and actually gave it a chance. Believe me, everything you said made total sense, and for the most part, it was stuff I was going to include in the fic from the start. And as for the rapist being someone close to them…just you wait and see… I hope this chapter lived (somewhat at least) up to your expectations! Once again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your suggestions; they were appreciated and very helpful.

And lastly, I now realize that I am treading a very fine line between a decent fic, and a shitty one. I didn't know how tough fics like these would be to write! @.@ This is going to be harder then I thought, and I can only hope and pray I live up to everyone's standards…

So feedback on this chapter would be welcomed with open arms!

~SanoGirl