Shadow Reapers

**Since Audra's out cold...hmmm...**

Kon whined when he saw Kai appear, ready for battle. He cringed away as his sight strayed to Audra, who laid limp and bloody on her side. Kai didn't chance a glance; one false move would give Eric an opening, which nobody needed.

"Coming to play hero again? You're too late, boy!" Eric hissed as he rose onto his hind legs, balancing with his tail.

Kai forced himself to focus on Eric's Hollow and it alone. He could worry about Audra later...

And the battle began.



**Just trying to save you double posts. I know they suck...**

(Thanks. Also can you post something in VG Rumble Ayumi? It's just so we can move the battle closer to the fifteen post mark.)

**Yeah, uno momento.**

**Done. Your turn in everything. **

The Hollow cackled again in delight. "You can't defeat me!" it declared. "I've become stronger after every soul I devoured! For every person I killed I ate their soul, you cannot imagine how much power I have gained!"

Ichidan came through the brush. He spotted Audra and her injured state. "Kon! Take her and get her out of here!"

"R-Right!" Kon made his way over to Audra, keeping a wary eye on Kai as he did. Kestrel helped the modified soul lift Audra onto his shoulders and carry her off.

"Stop trying to run away!" The Hollow began to move to go after them.

"Stop!" The creature turned its attention back to Kai. "If you want to kill someone why don't you try to kill me? Audra had nothing to do with what happened three years ago. If you remember, I was the one you shot, not her. So why don't we finish this like men?"

The Hollow cackled again. "If you want to die then I will not argue!"

Ichidan moved up beside Kai. "Kai, support me. I'll come up around it and-" Kai charged forward to attack the Hollow. "Kai!" His sword collided with the enemy's claws, they created sparks of spiritual energy as they touched. They both jumped back and faced each other.

"Ichidan, step back for me," Kai told him.

"What did you say?"

His eyes were more determined than ever before when he said, "Just stay put this time!" He raised his sword. "I'll do it myself!"

"Don't be a fool!" Ichidan shouted. "He is strong. You need my help to defeat him!"

"SHUT UP!!!" Ichidan froze. Kai added very quiet, "Please... don't get involved in this. This is... my fight." The Hollow let out its eerie howl and began to move forward. Kai yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran forward, determined to cut down the Hollow.

(Remember, don't make Kai kill the Hollow. I'm controlling the outcome of the fight because I need this Hollow to escape alive for a future plot.)

Ichidan had never seen Kai so determined to win, so fierce in battle. He was attacking with all of his might, reacting so quickly the Hollow was beginning to struggle. Blow after blow echoed as steel met claws, but it was obvious Kai was gaining the upper hand.

The Hollow screeched as the zanpakto pierced its side, black "blood" spraying from the wound. Kai roared as he snatched the blade away, making the wound worse.

He's really winning...on his own! Ichidan stared in disbelief as Kai lunged. The Hollow arched, pulling its tail back.

"Kai, watch it!"

Too late. The Hollow lashed out, hitting Kai across the stomach with enough of its diminished strength to send him flying. Kai landed on his feet several yards away, blade still in hand.

The Hollow hissed. "I'll be back. Don't you forget!" Then it vanished. It was gone.

Kai growled as he hit the ground. "Damn it!"


*********

Kon and Kestrel had run to the nearest building, a church. They gingerly laid Audra on her back on the floor of the foyer, and knelt beside her.

Kon carefully shifted her torn shirt so he could see the wound to her shoulder. It went all the way through, and she was still bleeding. "That's not good..."

"She was protecting me..." Kes whispered, staring at Audra. This close, she would see the injuries on the unconscious freshman.

Kon whined again, running his hand through his hair. "Kai is going to kill me! Audra needs help, bad, too!'

And to make matters worse, Ichidan and Kai walked up.

Kai finally saw Audra and her injuries. "Audra!" He ran to her, going to his knees and drawing her into his arms. He held her tight against his chest. Tears began to roll down his cheeks.

"She's still alive," Kestrel assured him, "but she needs medical attention."

Kai was silent for a moment before saying, "...Kon."

The mod-soul was suddenly panic stricken. "Look, it wasn't my fault. It came up behind me and got me when I wasn't looking, it caught me off guard! Please, don't hurt me!"

Kai sighed. "Don't worry Kon, it's not your fault." The mod-soul relaxed a bit. "It's my fault for letting the Hollow get past me. If I had only tried harder in the first place Audra wouldn't have been so badly injured." His went very quiet when he said, "It's my fault."

Ichidan came up beside him. "Kai..."

"Don't try to make me feel better, Ichidan. It is my fault." He looked down at the woman in his arms. "But I promise you, Audra, I will fight harder from now on to make sure nothing like this ever happens again." He ran his hand through her hair and whispered, "I promise."

"We need to get Audra to a hospital," Kestrel said.

"And what will we tell them?" Ichidan asked. "The doctors will want to know what happened to her if they see her like this."

"Then what do you propose we do?" she asked.

"Set her on the floor." Kai did what Ichidan said and gently lay Audra on the floor. Ichidan kneeled beside her and placed both hands on her stomach. "Restoration Art 12: Healing Light." His hands were engulfed in a bright blue light that spread across Audra's body. The wound on her shoulder began to close and the blood on her body disappeared.

Audra

I felt his hand on my face, his arms picking me up. It should have been painful, but it wasn't. I felt no pain at all, only weakness.

Kai spoke very softly, then Ichidan. I couldn't hear...everything was still a blur.

The next moment, Kai passed me to Ichidan; there was a moment, then I heard something being pulled out of a bag. Kon squeaked finally as I recognized Kai's embrace again. I shifted in his arms, letting my head rest against his shoulder.

"...awake?" Kestrel asked as everything began to clear.

"I think so," Kai answered, stroking my face tenderly. "Audra? Can you hear me?"

I nodded weakly.

"Can you talk, yet?"

That was a negative; I shook my head, whimpering when everything spun.

"She's still too weak," Ichidan muttered. "We need to get back to campus, so she can rest."

"I'm staying with her." I took advantage of Kai's proclomation. I tangled my fingers in his shirt, holding him as tightly as I could manage. There was no way I was letting him leave me, even to be alone. I knew my Kai; he would hate himself for this happening to me.

"Don't worry, Audra," Kai said as he held her tighter still. "I'll never leave you like this again."

"She may have a concussion," Ichidan pointed out. "If she goes to sleep she may never wake up again."

Panic ran through every fiber of Kai's being. "What should I do then? Audra needs to get some rest."

"She can still rest, but you need to make sure she wakes up every hour for the next twenty-four hours."

Kai nodded. "I'll do that." He looked back down to the woman that clung to his chest. "Let's get you out of here, Audra."

As they left Ichidan turned to Kestrel and said, "Isn't it about time for you to go to Urahara's for training?"

"Oh, yeah. With everything that's been happening today I completely forgot."

"Can you do me a favour when you leave? Take Kon with you."

The mod-soul was back in its original toy lion body. He poked his head out of Kestrel's backpack and shouted, "Hey, stop trying to get rid of me!"

"Kai and Audra need to be alone together for a while, the last thing they need is an annoying stuffed animal running around."

"What if another Hollow shows up?" Kestrel asked.

"If it's weak enough I can take care of it myself with demon magic. If not I'll still be close by so I can help Kai transform. You should hurry if you want to have more time to train."

She nodded and headed off toward Urahara's shop.

Audra

I could open my eyes by the time we got back to the dorms, but I was still too dizzy and weak to move. Not to mention, I had a killer headache. Any false move made me feel queasy.

Kai sat down with me still in his arms, and just held me. I knew I had to stay awake...but I was so tired...but I had a concussion...but...

I moaned when my head hurt worse. Thinking wasn't helping.

"Audra?" his voice was soft, gentle, loving.

"I'm fine," I whispered. "My head just hurts..."

"I know. Ichidan said you may have a concussion...I'm so sorry, Audra. I really am." He held me against him, and I heard him quietly cry. I looked up at him to see that it was true; tears ran down his face. "I should have stopped it. I didn't protect you like I should have - "

"Kai, it's okay. We all make mistakes sometimes..." I lightly kissed him on the cheek, before letting my head fall upon his shoulder. "And it's partly my fault for trying to protect Kes..."

(I meant to post this earlier put I ran out of points.)

"No, Audra. You did the right thing by trying to protect her. But I should have been the one protecting you both. Now look what's happened." His voice was full of regret.

"Kai..." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to meet his lips. Kai held her body tighter in his arms as their lips locked together. When Audra gently pulled away from the kiss she said, "It's not your fault, Kai. You did the best that you could and you got rid of that Hollow." Kai's eyes went very solemn. "Kai?"

"I wasn't able to kill him. He's still out there somewhere. He'll continue to kill people and there's nothing I can do about it now."

"Don't worry, Kai. I'm sure the Soul Society Ichidan is always talking about will take care of it. You did what you could, there's no point in worrying about it now."

"But I wanted to be the one to kill it," Kai declared.

Audra

I interlocked my fingers with his as I relaxed again. It was getting hard to stay awake...

"One day, you will. I know you will."

I smiled as he gave me a gentle squeeze before kissing me again. I returned it as passionately as I could, which was still enough. Weariness finally took over; I pulled away from the kiss and began to doze.



**I hate concussions...I got one a couple years ago...ouchies...**

(I can only guess what it's like to have one. Other than karate I don't play any serious sports. The most dangerous part of any day for me is getting shot in the head on a first-person shooting game.)

Kai set Audra gently on her bed and began to tuck her in. "You can sleep, Audra," he told her. "Ichidan said it would be okay as long as I woke you up on one hour intervals for the next twenty-four hours."

"Are you going to stay up all night?" Audra asked. Her voice had suddenly become very weary.

"I have a portable alarm clock in my dorm. It's small, but it's very annoying." He smiled when he said it. "I'll go get it and set it to go off in an hour so I can sleep with you." He got to his feet and leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Get some rest. I promise I'll be right back."

Before Audra could even say "Okay" she drifted off to sleep. Kai quickly went back to his dorm and grabbed the small alarm clock and came back to her room. Before coming back, though, he told Ichidan to check up on them every hour just in case the alarm didn't wake them. He placed the small clock on Audra's bed-side table and set it to go off an hour from now before taking off his shirt and joining her under the covers. He wrapped his arms around her body and held her tight as he, too, drifted off to sleep.

*I'm back! So I've read what's going on. I'm going to put myself somewhere, can one of you come and pick me up? Or just bring me in however you like, I don't mind. Canada was brilliant (I was touring BC if you were wondering Dynamo)...*

Stella-

"Stell? Hello? Stell-ah?" Damien waved a hand in front of my face. I shook myself out of my daze.

"Sorry, I just blanked," I said, blinking hard. "What were you saying?"

Sally had left to go and get her highlights redone in the tattoo place, and we were sitting outside a cafe in the mall. I was delighted to see him, I really was, but...

"I was saying I got you some music," he said, waving a few CDs in my face. "All from home." I grinned. It was a long standing joke that I got homesick for rock with a Dublin accent.

"Thanks," I said taking them and looking at each of the covers.

"So..." he began.

"So?" I prompted.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing," I replied on automatic.

"Come on, Stell. You ring me up all het up about one thing and another, you forget to come and pick me up, you ditch me and Sally and now nothing's wrong?"

"Sorry," I said, whirling my spoon round in my empty mug. "It's complicated."

"I'll bet," he said darkly.

"Can we not talk about it?" I asked tiredly. "Look, it's under control. And I'm sorry, it's totally messing up your trip."

"Are you in trouble?" he asked with a frown. I rolled my eyes.

"Always so melodramatic. No, I'm not."

Being chased around town by undead monsters (or whatever they were) wasn't exactly trouble after all.

**I don't remember much about that night, except that we were playing ultimate freeze tag, I went after one of my opponents, tripped, (everything before is choppy but there's a HUGE blank right here) and woke up the next morning with a KILLER headache, dizzy as hell, and the whole right side of my head tender and swollen. I was out of it for two whole days. Ouch.**

Audra

Kai kept up with his duty. He woke me every hour and checked on me, keeping me awake for about ten or fifteen minutes before I went to sleep again. After the third hour, I began to feel better. I began to sit up and stay awake for almost thirty minutes before getting dizzy again.

By nightfall, I was able to stay awake for an hour. I even ate something - a small serving of soup - without feeling naucious.