Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams

Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams
Part ten…

I. How to Reverse Petrifaction
If there was any man who could truly say that life had given him nothing, Hiei was that man. Born to a people who despised him simply for the form he’d been born to, he was given no warmth, no affection, only his mother’s tear gem to remind him of what he was denied and an unceremonious farewell. But then came Yusuke and Kurama who took him lovingly into their lives. Life was good to him after they came along. But now, just as he thought life was on his side, life had betrayed him. Yusuke and Kurama were gone, turned into stone statues. Hiei’s body felt numb as he gazed at their unmoving effigies.

A slow clapping started and was soon followed by a low rich voice, “A splendid finale, if I do say so myself.”

Hiei was on his feet in a second, but only by the virtue of many years of martial arts training did he keep his voice steady, “You! I thought I killed you.”

“Thought wrong,” Gareth said, “Truth be told, you got the worse part of that blast. Not to undersell you, of course, it was brutal. So much in fact, I had to make a retreat to recover. And I’d have to thank your friends here for providing the distraction I needed to do so.”

As the man spoke, Hiei couldn’t help but notice something missing-- namely Gareth’s wings. Hiei surmised that he didn’t have the energy to generate the spatial distortion that lent him his angelic look. His face was also less than angelic with his eye’s narrowed and his lips twisted into an ugly sneer. There was confidence in that expression. Hiei told himself not to underestimate this man. He was still dangerous.

“So, what is this then, revenge?” Hiei circled the man, “You trying to get back at us for breaking up your little end of the world party?”

“How vain,” Gareth snorted, “You did mess things up; ruined my ceremony, prevented the Lord Cthulhu from escaping into this world, broke up my cult, you even sent my books of First One magic to the Spirit World vaults; true. But, I still can get my books back and build it all again. So, revenging myself against you would just be a petty, foolish waste of time.”

“Then why--” Hiei stopped when it occurred to him, “You didn’t come after us. You came for Book of Cures and Reverses. The things in those other two books make you a real badass, but if this one got out… What good is a curse if everyone and their grandma knows how to undo it, right? To stay on top, you need to make sure this lost knowledge stays lost.”

“Very good,” Gareth said like Hiei was a dog who just fetched a stick, “Now, you will give me back my book.”

“And uh, why would I do that?” Said Hiei.

“Because it is of no use to you,” Gareth told him smugly, “Don’t you know? It’s written in the language of the First Ones. And I am the only person on this plant who can read it. So, it only makes sense. But here, I see you need to get something out of this don’t you? I can tell you how to reverse the petrifaction spell.”

“You can?” Hiei licked his lips and tried not to glance at Yusuke and Kurama.

“Yes, you can change back all your friends, including them.” He gestured to the frozen demons, “Do we have a deal?”

The cure, that’s what all this has been about, finding that cure and now Gareth was willing to just give it to him? Everyone would be restored. He’d get his Yusuke and Kurama back. It was tempting offer, but… “NO.”

“What?” Gareth hissed.

“What kind of a fool do you take me for? So, I get all my friends back, but for what? You plan to destroy this world. I may not have always cared about it, but it’s their world. And I care for them too much to let the likes of you touch it,” Hiei told him, “No. I‘ll kill you first.”

Gareth laughed mockingly, “‘I’ll kill you first.’ Oh, what a wonderful hero speech. You should write for comic books. Ah, but you don’t like my deal? No matter, I was just yanking you anyway. I planed to kill you from the start.”

“Not if I don’t kill you first!”

Quick as lighting, Hiei grasped the sword hidden under his coat and dashed for Gareth, intending to take the man’s head off before he could so much as blink. But Gareth, apparently, anticipated this because instead of cutting through the man, Hiei’s sword glanced off as several inches from his person, as if it had hit an invisible bubble. It was the same trick he’d pulled in Yorkshire when Hiei attempted to strike him.

Hiei growled, “You think that’s going to stop me?! Sword of the Darkness flame!” Hiei brandished his sword, now blazing with black demonic flames. He rushed at Gareth again and made an obvious sweep for the man’s guts. And the same as in Yorkshire, Gareth’s the energy field grabbed onto Hiei’s attack and stopped it. As the energy field tugged at his weapon, Hiei saw the smirk spread on Gareth’s face and met it his own. He dropped down to one knee while he did a full 360 spin. His sword detached from the Darkness Flames. With the energy field set on absorb for the flames, it could do nothing to stop the simple steal as his came round and hit Gareth bluntly in the kidneys.

“Gyhhh!” Gareth cried out and stumbled forward.

Hiei wasted no time and summoned, “Fists of Moral Flame!” He plunged his fiery fists into the invisible barrier only to let go of the flames to follow through and pound Garth with his bare fists.

“This is for Yusuke,” Hiei punched him in the gut and then punched him again, “This one’s Kurama. And this one’s for Ianto!”

“Ianto?! How did you hear that name?” Gareth snapped but the only response he received was a fist to the face.

“And this should cover the rest,” Hiei said darkly, sword in one hand and a bundle of black flames in the other.

He was about ready to spring when Gareth muttered, “Oh, screw this.” This was followed by a string of incomprehensible syllables.

Then suddenly, Hiei’s feet were struck! Hiei fell, face first on the ground. He had a moment to glace down at his feet. They were dull colored and heavy, and he couldn’t feel them and it was spreading slowly up his legs!

Gareth smiled down at him, “Normally, this trick works instantaneously, but I slowed it down, just for you. Give you enough time to know what’s happening, feel the horror, before the spell seals it on your face forever. It‘ll be so pretty, I think I’ll put you in a fountain. The other two aren’t that awe inspiring, so I think I’ll just crush them up into gravel.”

“No!” Hiei cried out as he tried with all his will and energy to move his legs.

Gareth howled, “Now I shall speak the final recitation. Farwell-- uh!” His eyes crossed and he fell over. Almost as soon as he hit the ground, the color faded out of him and his body turned into ridged stone. Standing directly behind him was a dainty young blond man brandishing the thick tomb of Cures and Reverses, which he had just used to bludgeon Gareth on the head.

“Basic rules of magic, if you fail to seal a curse with the final recitation, it turns back on the caster,” The blond voiced pedantically.

Magically, Hiei could feel his legs again, but he wasn’t so sure his eyes were working. He sputtered, “I-Ianto?”

The man’s eyes narrowed at him as he paced closer to Hiei. He spoke carefully, “You seem… so familiar, somehow, but I can’t for the life of me guess where we may run into each other.”

“Dreams,” Hiei snorted. Of course, passing from dreams to reality had veiled the blonde’s memories, but no matter. He reached out and touched the startled blond on the cheek, “I remember it was in that city, on a wharf made of porphyry.” He took Ianto’s lips and held them. Started, Ianto jumped and made to gasp, which only allowed Hiei to deepen the kiss. His hands moved down the blonde’s sides, down to brazenly cup his ass.

When the demon released him, Ianto was red with blush and gasped, “Hiei? Oh Hiei, it’s you!” His arms flew around the demon’s neck, in his excitement and hugged him. Hiei, for his part, wrapped his arms around the blond and held him tight.

He kissed him again, briefly and breathed, “Ianto, I can’t believe it. I found you and you‘re alive!”

“I’m as surprised as you are,” Ianto half laughed.

Then without preamble, Hiei urgently snapped, “Ianto, can you read that book?” He pointed to the thick volume that the blond was still holding.

“Read it-- I transcribed several pages of it,” Ianto told him.

“Fantastic,” Hiei led Ianto by to the hand, “Yusuke and Kurama need your help.”

“I see,” Ianto gasped when he saw the petrified bodies of Yusuke and Kurama.

“Well?’ Hiei pressed.

“A moment… I need to identify it first,” Ianto sat on the ground and startled flipping through pages in the back of the book. “Let’s see, uh, Immobilization? Or solidification? Ah, I know petrifaction!” He stabbed the book with his finger when he found what he was looking for. “Here! Petrifoid Regressagen: page 2,388.

“Ah, it is achieved by the use of a specific mold spore that hauls from a remote dimension, which may be summoned and set on a specific target area by means of certain spell recitations. The spore attaches itself to organic material and envelopes it at a cellular level. However, the spore can not live more than a fraction of a second, outside of its native dimension. When it dies, it regresses into calcium sediment, subsequently turning the organic host to stone.”

“Can it be reversed?” Hiei asked.

“How to reverse petrifaction… Ah, yes. The book prescribes dissolving the calcium between the cells with an acetic acid. Of course, it‘s so simple,” Ianto stood up.

“Simple?” Hiei sputtered, “Where are we supposed to find this acetic acid? There‘s no chemical labs here, it’s a deserted island-- and I‘ll be damned if I’ll leave my lovers here like this.”

“You don’t have to,” Ianto dashed over to the place where Yusuke and Kurama had been setting up lunch, “If Yusuke is anything like I remember him-- ah-ha! Pickles and canned peppers!”

“Pickles--” Hiei suddenly put it together and realized exactly what acetic acid was, “Vinegar!? Wait. I wasted all that effort, venturing to the Dreamlands, fighting my way from the continent of Zak to the cursed Land of Zura, came back to the Waking World, traipsed my ass half way from end of the globe to the other, took out an entire cult and then climbed nearly to the stupid north pole-- All to find out that the answer was vinegar!”

“Well yes, in essence,” Ianto responded flatly. Then with a touch of shyness he added, “But if it’s all the same to you, I wouldn’t call your efforts wasted.”

“Huh? Ah, of course,” Hiei reached out to fondle a stray lock of hair that had fallen in the blonde’s face. It was shorter than it was back in Dreams; it barely reached the tops of his shoulders, “I guess this venture did have its bonuses.”

“Uh, yeah,” Ianto let out a shaky laugh with a blush. “Okay, so let’s get your boys all soft and squishy again. Here ,you take the pickles. All you have to do it pour it on ‘em and the brine will do the rest.”

“Oh, one thing,” Hiei said hesitantly before he opened his jar, “they, uh, don’t remember you.”

“Hmm, I don’t suppose they would,” Ianto said evenly, “I wasn’t partially important to them at the time.”

“Ianto--”

“We’ve been over this,” Ianto cut him off, “And it’s okay, really. And hey, who knows, maybe it’s for the best. Kurama and I might get along this time round.” He paused in front of Kurama’s statue and frowned like he was in thought. “You know, he’s actually rather attractive when he’s not scowling at me.”

Hiei gave a humorous snort as he opened his pickle jar and splashed it’s continents over Yusuke’s front. The effect was almost instant. The area where Hiei splashed the pickle juice erupted with a network of fine cracks that spread their way all over Yusuke’s form. The cracks grew in number until it looked like Yusuke was about to crumble into dust. Then the spaces between the crack started to dissolve and a blush of soft skin emerged.

In seconds, Yusuke blinked, looked down at Hiei and jumped, “Hiei! Don’t sneak up on me like that. You scared me witless-- and I thought for a second I saw something over there-- and why do I have pickles in my hair?”

Hiei snatched Yusuke by the front of his shirt, dragging him down into a lip crushing kiss effectively cutting off his rant. Yusuke was dizzy from the sensation by the time Hiei released him. He breathed, “Wow Hiei. That was… heh wow.”

Hiei was about to say something clever in response, but at that moment there was a muffled cry, followed by a harsh thud. The pair turned to find Kurama, blissfully returned to life. However, since he was in mid-run when he was turned to stone, his balance was a little more than awkward at his moment of reanimation. Thus as soon as life returned to him, he crashed down on the blond who was mistakenly standing in front of him. And that’s the scene that Yusuke and Hiei came upon; Kurama spread out on the ground, nose to nose, on top of the blond.

“Heh, good morning,” Ianto blushed awkwardly.

Kurama who could only look confused at that point replayed lamely, “Um, morning.”

“Hey, the cute blonde’s alive!” Yusuke blurted out.

Ianto turned a few shades brighter, “He- he called me cute.”

“Yusuke, Kurama, this is Ianto,” Hiei introduced him.

“Well, uh, pleased to meet you Ianto,” Kurama said with a polite smile and an offered him a hand, whilst he gave him a good look over. So this was an aeon; small, pleasant faced, blond. Put a cute little pair of wings on him and he’d be right at home on a valentines day card, Kurama thought as his eyes narrowed suspiciously on the man. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar. He shook the thought away and said, “I suppose we owe you for helping us. Is there anything we can do for you?”

“Um, now that you mention it, there is something that you can do-- something that needs to be done,” Ianto said a bit shyly.

A better part of an hour found the quartet back at the vault where the Book of Cures and Reverses had been kept. The blond seemed reluctant to actually approach the thing-- but for good reason. After all, it was also the place where he had been entombed. Regardless, there was something that needed done and that vault had a part to play.

“He’s in,” Yusuke reported, taking one last glance at the statue he’d left laying at the foot of the dais, “Uh, Ianto, you sure ya want to do this? I mean, I know he hurt you and all--”

“He’s not being spiteful,” Hiei cut him off, “Gareth was dangerous. And he may still have followers out there yet. We can’t take the chance that someone might try to reverse his petrifaction.”

“Well put. Thank you, Hiei,” Ianto said as he fiddled with some mechanism in the side of the vault, with a ping, something moved inside the thick walls and the three doors slammed shut. “It’ll be water tight in there, now. Go ahead.”

Hiei unraveled his bandaged arm as his comrades discreetly slipped away to a safe distance. “Dragon of the Darkness Flame!” Hiei yelled as his fiery black dragon erupted from his hand. It swelled in size as it rushed closer to the stone vault. By the time it got there it was big enough that it could pick the structure up in its jaws. And then it was off into the distance and over the horizon. Hiei’s dragon would carry the vault all the way out to the sea, where it would drop the it, and the man inside it, deep into the frozen ocean where it will never be seen again.
* * *
II. In a Roundabout Way
“Mukuro. Can you hear me?”

It was a very confusing time for her. For one, a moment ago she was in her study inside her fortress waiting for her comrade, Hiei, to arrive. Now she was someplace different altogether. She was in the middle of a big dustily plain, surrounded by scores of other apparitions that looked just as confused as she felt-- and statues? There were also men walking around with tanks on their backs and spray nozzles in their hands. One that was quite near her stepped over to a statue to her left and sprayed it with a very pungent fluid that smelled suspiciously like vinegar. Then to her utter shock she witnessed as the statue’s surface cracked and melted to real living flesh! Mukuro was sharp woman and it didn’t take much conjecture to figure out why she was there among the perplexed and the petrified.

“Mukuro?” Her name was called again, but it was only this time that she registered the caller’s identity.

Her head slowly turned in his direction as she acknowledged him, “Hiei.”

Then she was confused again. The demon before her was as tiny as a man can be, yet had a distinctively strong aura, like Hiei. He had deep red eyes and ridiculous spiked black hair, just like the Hiei. And that was undeniably his voice. She was sure it was Hiei, until suddenly the small man’s arms seized her around the back and pulled her into a hug!

“H-Hiei?!” She sputtered.

He let her go and stepped back. His expression would have looked irritated to anyone who didn’t know him any better. He pointed at her and declaimed, “You’d better be more on guard in the future. I may not always be there to pull your ass out of the fire like I was this time.”

“You saved me,” she deduced with the slightest of smiles. Though, what she was saved from was still a mystery to her.

It was only later when they retired to a makeshift tea room inside a tent did she get the full story-- however chopped up. There were three people telling it to her, that is Hiei, Yusuke, and Kurama. There was also some blond creature there who only spoke when something technical and boring needed explaining.

“In a roundabout way, you’re almost lucky they stole the Second Life Charm from you,“ he told her, “Now, it is possible for a drained being reabsorb its entire energy supply, however that does not take into account the bodies ability to absorb said energy. You see, if you expended your energy in battle, as you planned to and then absorbed the stored power, your body would have been too tired to handle it. In other words the energy would have torn you apart from the inside-- which I imagine would be quite embarrassing, being destroyed by your own power.”

Regardless of his lackluster dialogue, she found this one intriguing, if not just for the fugitive glances he frequently received from Hiei-- occasionally Kurama. Yusuke Urameshi seemed rather comfortable with him as well. Very interesting indeed.

Hiei caught her eyeing the blond. She raised a brow at him and smirked. He grunted and looked away. That told her everything she needed to know. Later before the group left, she gave Hiei a hug and whispered, “Thank you again, for everything. And good luck on getting… everything it is you want. You deserve it.”

Hiei left her, muttering something about meddling old ladies.
* * *
TBC…
A/N: Short chapter, but I hope an exciting one. There was going to be a 3rd part, but it’s going to too long when it’s finished and I don’t want to cut it down. (You’ll understand why when you read it.) It’s the epilogue-- and of course the ‘epilemon’-- coming up next time!