28.

Lyn had flown Reneey to a cave on the east side of the forest. As soon as Reneey's feet touched the ground, she clawed, bit, and thrashed her way out of Lyn's arms. This wasn't Lyn, it wasn't her!

"Let me go! Whoever you are, let me go!" Reneey screeched, knowing Lyn's ears would be sensitive to loud noises.

The echoes the cavern created just made it worse; Lyn clapped her hands over her ears. The screaming was muffled but the words in her head just came louder.

Once Reneey was out of Lyn's arms, she scurried away to the opposite side of the cave. "L-Lyn?" she asked slowly and shakily.

YOU MUST PROTECT HER! the voice started to screech, turning from a sobbing man's voice to one full of power and intimidation like that of a possessed creature. DON'T LET HER OUT OF YOUR GRASP! SHE'LL DIE AND IT WILL BE ALL YOUR FAULT!

"I'm trying!" Lyn shouted back, but it wasn't under her control that her hand reached out and grabbed Reneey's arm. Reneey's cry of pain at the tightness of her grip broke Lyn's grasp, sending both hands back to her ears, but suddenly she was having trouble keeping them there. Her arms shook, fighting against her own will to break away and pull Reneey back toward her.

Reneey winced when Lyn's hands closed on both of her arms this time. "Please... Lyn, you're hurting me!" She was used to Lyn's bear hugs that sometimes were tight, but this was almost bone-crushing tightness. At the sound of Reneey's whimpering, something in Lyn snapped; she pushed Reneey off.

"Go away!"

"W-wh-what?"

"You're not safe. S-something's in me!" Lyn yelled as her hands tried to grab Reneey again. Lyn ground her teeth and shut her eyes tightly, fighting not to close her arms around Reneey again.

"Go!" she ordered, digging her nails hard into her own arms in attempt to restrain them. "Now! Get Youko or D --"

Lyn's eyes opened then and they were suddenly electric blue -- eyes that weren't hers. The voice that came from her mouth was smoother, deeper, but fragmented as if it was being transmitted across a bad electronic connection: "No, you must stay... I'll protect you this time, I swear it..."

Reneey swallowed hard. "W-well... What if you hurt me? Who will protect me from you?" She knew she had to get away and find Youko or Kuronue -- hell, maybe even Hiei.

NO SUCH THING! I WILL NEVER HURT THE ONE I LOVE! the Satanic voice rose in Lyn's head.

"Of course I won't hurt you... I have to protect you. You know that, right?"

Reneey showed Lyn the bloody lines on her arms from Lyn's nails. "What about these cuts?"

"... I... I didn't," Lyn's voice broke through. "Go -- go now!"

Reneey ran from the cave as fast as she could while Lyn was distracted by her inner conflict.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! SHE'S GOING TO BE KILLED, ALONG WITH THE CHILD SHE'S CARRYING! YOU STUPID -- NO, I'M STUPID! I'M GOING TO RESCUE HER!

---

Youko was jumping from tree to tree, following Kuronue, who was flying above. For some reason, he couldn't find them anymore. Why? He could still sense people when they masked their scents...

Then another odor caught his nose, one that made his eyes blaze: Reneey's blood. If possible, he just sped up more.

"What's going on?" Kuronue asked half of Youko but half of himself. "This isn't like Lyn. There's no way she would let Reneey et hurt if she could stop it."

"Daddy!" Reneey yelled. Youko leapt down and instantly took Reneey's arm. The bleeding had stopped, but there were visible red lines on her arm.

"Something's wrong with L--"

Before Reneey could finish her sentence, Youko was hit hard and fast and sent flying backward.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!" a darker, deeper, almost growling voice snarled from Lyn's mouth as she pulled Reneey closer to her, nails cutting into Reneey's arms again.

Kuronue's eyes widened in disbelief. "Lyn? Wh-what happened to you?"

"You're not taking her," the voice coming from Lyn's mouth snarled -- Kuronue refused to call it Lyn's voice even in his thoughts, because it wasn't.

Somehow, Kuronue was certain this was all Hiei's fault.

"Hn," said Hiei. "Onna, let her go or at least loosen up -- her whining and screaming will make me chop both of your heads off."

Lyn's eyes -- or rather, the freakishly blue yes that were definitely not Lyn's -- switched to him. "It was you, wasn't it? You were the one who did it last time." A feral snarl tore from Lyn's lips. "You will not take her away from me again!"

Hiei raised an eyebrow. "Listen, onna: I have no idea what you're talking about but if you're going to hold that baka, at least cover her mouth."

"It won't do any good, trying to reason with her," a new voice said as Koenma popped in, floating in the air between Kuronue and Hiei, so suddenly that his appearance caused Lyn to snarl and drag Reneey back half a step.

"What are you talking about?" Kuronue half snarled, himself.

"She's possessed," Koenma explained in a voice that sounded almost sympathetic. Almost. "By an emotion spirit... Human spirits who would not cross over due to their strong emotional baggage left unchecked in life. They usually can't possess humans because they can only latch onto a soul of great power... that is also in great pain. The power, obviously, is necessary to keep hem from totally destroying their host. The pain, well... It's what makes them vulnerable."

"But why is it trying to protect Reneey?" Kuronue asked.

"Presumably, that was the spirit's unfinished work," Koenma said with a shrug. "Someone he was supposed to protect, but couldn't, so now in the afterlife is still trying to make amends."

Hiei growled. "Then how the hell do we get rid of it?"

"Maybe we let it think it did what it stayed around to do," Youko suggested. "If someone did attack reneey and it kept that attack from happening, its work would be done and it would let Lyn go, right?"

"Mm, maybe," Koenma said slowly. "There's really no way to know for sure, though."

"Uh, no offense, Youko, but if that thing knows how to use Lyn's fire powers, you and your plants are screwed," Kuronue pointed out. "Somehow I doubt it'll hold back from frying you if it really thinks you're attacking so maybe you shouldn't be the one to try that."

All eyes landed on Hiei.

"No," he said firmly and simply.

"Yes, you will," Youko said.

"No, I won't."

"You'll go to jail," Koenma said.

"And I'll escape again."

"Um, guys... um... yeah... the whatever it is... is sort of PULLING ME UP IN THE AIR!" Reneey interjected.

"Now, do you want Reneey to keep whining and screaming?" Kuronue glared at Hiei.

"FINE!" Hiei snapped, adding in a mutter, "Stupid rotten jackasses..."

"Well, if you're going to try it, I suggest you do so before they're a hundred feet off the ground," Koenma pointed out

Hiei didn't even acknowledge that Koenma had spoken, just jumped off the ground with his sword out and ready. Lyn -- or the spirit possessing Lyn, at least -- snarled and beat its wings toward the ground. Only they weren't aimed toward the ground; they were aimed at Hiei because just then, a wave of flame and scorching heat erupted from the tips of her wings.

Kuronue's eyebrows shot up, his face a little paler than usual. "I didn't know she could do that," he said slowly. "That was Kisami's attack."

Hiei glared as he dodged the flames, barely singing the edge of his cloak, still heading straight toward Reneey. Lyn snarled again, strangely blue eyes wild as talonlike nails stretched out, slashing across Hiei's arm and chest before grasping a handful of ihs cloak and throwing him, hard, toward the ground. It took all of Hiei's restraint not to lash out and try to kill Lyn as he was knocked back down.

"You will not touch her!"

"Fine... I won't hurt her, you baka onna."

"You're lying!" the voice accused by now it was slowly fading closer to that sobbing man's voice that had first spoken in Lyn's head. "You killed her because I wasn't there to protect her... You killed her for some -- some stupid things from the house she would have given you anyway! Why?!"

Hiei growled. This spirit is getting on my fucking last nerve. "No, I'm not lying... If you let me go, I'll go away..." And then maybe not kill you, he added in his head.

The spirit, however, didn't really seem to be listening. Shaking, Lyn's feet hit the ground, pulling Reneey close and sobbing with no tears. Even under the influence of a slightly psychotic spirit, Lyn's eyes still seemed incapable of crying. "Why...?"

Reneey swallowed hard as she hugged the spirit inside Lyn's body. "It's okay... you protected me... see... You did what you wanted... You protected me... her..."

"... Reneey... That's right... You're not Rachel... But I tried... Maybe somehow, this makes amends... I'm sorry I hurt you... I just hope she forgives me..."

The voice faded as the spirit of a young man with blue eyes and glasses slowly stepped out of Lyn's body. Lyn's eyes faded back to green and she blinked twice, looking confused.

"... Where the freaking heck did you come from?"