Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ A Well Too Deep ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Story rating: R

Chapter rating: PG-13 to R for graphic violence

I want to thank all my reviewers for being so patient with me. I've been absent from writing for much longer than I planned.

No one has correctly guessed either the meaning of the title of why Morana's army is called the `Plague Army,' though I have received very interesting and logical answers - thank you to all that responded to the question. I would also like to say that I've discovered my train of thought to be a little different than that of other people so I apologize if the answers seem unfair. For now, though, I will give all of you a couple of hints.

Title hint: A well too deep to drain and the empty bucket that can't take the strain.

Morana's Plague Army hint: A devastating Middle Ages Plague

The question involving the story's title has a more general answer and train of thought from one thing to another, while the answer to the question about Morana's army is very specific. For that one, I'm looking for two words.

Warnings: Violence

I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

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A Well Too Deep: Chapter 4

"Wake up Kurama." Yusuke frowned. It wasn't like the fox to sleep so heavily. He leaned down and shook the Kurama's shoulder, "Kurama!"

Kurama was curled up in a limp, sitting fetal position. He felt so tired. The ache wouldn't leave his body nor would the sleep abandon his eyes. Something was smothering him, smearing the line between the dust of his dream and Yusuke's urgent calling.

Kurama gradually awakened, blinking illusory sand from his eyes, and raised his head to look at Yusuke. "Hmm?"

"We've got to get moving, Hiei says the Plague is spreading much faster than we planned. And we need your help with Kuwabara," said Yusuke.

Kurama caught Hiei's comforting scent underneath the myriad of fleshy smells. "Come on fox, the sooner we can clean Kuwabara's sickened stench off of us, the better," said Hiei. Kurama smiled wearily. Yes, he would appreciate a bath for all of them as well. Few people realized how sensitive his nose really was. He rose to his feet, swaying slightly.

"Kurama?" Hiei watched him warily, prepared to step in and support the fox if necessary.

"I merely stood too quickly. Let's leave."

Kurama's gate was halting, too human in its lack of balance and direction. His head ached and he could feel his limbs numbing, the same sensation as when one's leg is on the verge of falling asleep. Moisture was quickly draining from his body in a light sweat making his tongue seem too large for his mouth. No, he was not all right at all, but what would it matter - what could be done if he were to say otherwise?

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"Talk to me Hiei," Yusuke yelled out. He could sense it, the dark, swarming army slowly overtaking them. Every few yards he could sense their oily presence closing further in upon his haggard team. It slid repulsively against his aura; they were reaching out with the sheer mass of their energy to feel their targets. It both disgusted and terrified Yusuke, and his fear drove his anger

"Stop talking and run faster!" Hiei shouted back.

The simple fact that Hiei was scared spurred Yusuke's speed to new heights. He only noticed the cumbersome weight of Kuwabara's unconscious body slung across his shoulders when he had to readjust his grip.

Hiei, for all his talk of speed, was running nowhere near his maximum. His fox was trailing behind. `What the Hell is wrong with him anyway?' thought Hiei. He didn't have time to ask, nothing could be done until they reached the Styx River anyway. He just hoped that Kurama could manage in the meantime.

The afternoon light faded and shadow overtook the entire land. The sky darkened to the black of a moon and starless night. It was a full, demonic solar eclipse spreading a darkness thicker than any that would be found in the human world.

The team was forced to slow their pace, coming to nearly a complete stop. Hiei's boots on the dead forest's floor, Kurama's too ragged breathing, and Yusuke's muttered curses suddenly became painfully obvious - that and the swift approach of Morana's army of diseased blackened soldiers: soldiers that could only be fought with the spirit, soldiers that could so easily destroy the weak of mind, soldiers to whom light and shadow made no difference. Flesh meant nothing to them and the emotions and physical feelings of flesh even less. These beings, torn from Morana's spirit, were the ultimate mass army. But the creatures that drifted free from her fragmented mind were far worse, gifted with only the ability to think of obedience and loyalty to their master, and of cruelty to their victims. These were her personal guards, her `babies,' and these awaited any who dared to truly anger her. No one knew what really happened when any of her creations killed…and no one wished to think of it.

A couple-contact thud sounded - Kurama had collapsed. "Kurama!" Hiei was at his side faster than a blink, eyes wide in anxiety. "Kurama, what's -." A silver light was pouring out from a single point underneath Kurama's shirt. Too bright to look at, too cold to touch, the pendent was activating.

Hiei's body chilled at the sight. It wasn't a feeling of evil. It was chaos and unbridled energy that spoke of an utter disregard of everything.

"Yusuke, get the Hell out of here, now!" Hiei yelled.

"But-" Hiei threw fire in the direction of Yusuke's voice.

"Get yourself and Kuwabara out of here. No need for him to die because of you!" Hiei's ploy worked. Yusuke stood stalk still for a split second before nodding his head in an unseen gesture of respect and gratitude, and leaving them behind.

Kurama's eyes rolled back and glowed hot white. His skin veined and his muscles tensed. Different parts of his body kept shifting shape between his human, Youko, and fox forms. Then he went limp as any corpse ever was. The light in his eyes died to nothing and he was left in a mutated form: his face was elongated, he had a fox's ears, one green eye and one golden, pale skin, red hair and four red tails, and fox forelegs and paws instead of human arms and hands. The pendant's light expanded and streamed outward from Kurama's body, slowly taking the shape of a massive, glowing stag too blinding to see anything by. Strangled gasps and short, periodic seizures were all that indicated Kurama still lived. During each spasm he reverted, step-by-step, back to his weaker, human, form.

Hiei closed his eyes and tried to look with his jagan. In his altered vision, the stag was a huge bulk of nothing, less than blackness, against a pulsing green background the color of Kurama's aura. In his vision, the stag lowered its head and charged straight into the evil eye. The eye screamed a high-pitched psychic whine. It turned to yellow hued ice and fractured. Hiei's agonized snarls only added to the chaos.

The black space amplified sound and brought the terrifying noises crashing down into Yusuke's guilt. He was abandoning two of his greatest friends in a time of ultimate need. They were probably going to both face worse than death because of his betrayal. Kuwabara's body nearly slipped from his back, Yusuke had to readjust. He shook his head clear. There would be time for guilt later, but he couldn't decide Kuwabara's fate by staying to probably die with Kurama and Hiei. `Shut up!' he forcefully told himself. `No one is going to die!' All he had to do was get Kuwabara to Botan and then return for the demon pair. `No one is going to die.'

The stag tossed its mighty head and galloped madly away in an erratic charge. With it went the branding light, making the night only darker and more impenetrable. The sheen faded from Kurama's drained body to a dull silver glow. Kurama could now feel the draining of his energy, the stealing of his life. He knew he was going to die. There was screaming, gasping, moaning, sounds of pain all about him. Kurama froze when he realized those noises had ceased to come from just himself.

"Hiei!" with all his remaining strength Kurama clutched desperately to Hiei's cloak, "leave me. You cannot save me." When Hiei didn't move Kurama shoved him away, "Go! Don't you dare die for me!" Hiei stared; shocked, confused, unsure of what to do then he picked himself up and fled.

Without the support of Hiei's body holding him up, Kurama collapsed and didn't - couldn't - move again. The power of the stag pendant wouldn't gift him with unconsciousness. He could only lie there too weak to move, reeling inside with the ache of battered body and spirit. He only whispered at Hiei's retreating form, "Don't you dare die for me. I'm not worth it. I'm nothing…." Then he lay still, silent and frozen as a corpse, but for a single tear that fell in miserable irony, feeling the dregs of his life energy sputter out.

So this is what Kuronue felt; underneath all our selflessness…and love…is this, `I am nothing….'