Author's Note: Wow, this update took so much longer than I meant it to! Between my last posted chapter and this one I have moved (a very large move, from one country to another), not that I am making any excuses for the ridiculously long time it took to post this. Anyway, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and read this story. You guys are awesome! I apologize for how short this chapter is, but it's kind of a transitional one ... but that doesn't make it any less important to the story.

Spoilers: None

Chapter Seven:

Kaoru was warm.

She felt comfortable, and safe. The air smelled both musky and sweet, a strange but pleasant combination. She opened her eyes and blinked several times, unfamiliar with her surroundings. She sat up, unsure of how she had come to be laying down in the first place, and glanced around. She was seated on a grassy knoll, the only one in the wide field that stretched as far as she could see. Everything was calm, and peaceful in a way that she couldn't explain.

The emerald color of the grass was in deep contrast to the blood red of the sky around her. A curious phenomenon, but she felt no fear or trepidation, only wonder.

Where am I? She wondered

You are safe, a voice answered calmly.

She should have jumped at the sound, so unexpected in this place, but the voice sounded both familiar and gentle. She could not pinpoint where it had come from; the sound seemed to envelop her, to be everywhere all at once.

Is this Heaven? Am I dead? She asked again

Do you want to be? The voice responded

Kaoru pondered the question. She remembered the chains, with their biting spikes that tore through her skin, and was uncertain. Surely pain awaited her if she left this place, maybe even more cruelty at the hands of the men who had held her. She was tired, weary to her very core, and her body was undoubtedly well beyond its threshold for pain.

In stark contrast, this place was comfortable, and far from the reach of the people who wanted to harm her. Why shouldn't she stay here? Surely there was some reason to go back, but she couldn't think of one.

Why can't I see you? Kaoru questioned instead

Would you like to?

Yes.

The air around her seemed to shift and ripple. The scarlet color condensed and a dim outline was forming right before her eyes. A broad, smooth expanse that slowly gave way to giant, shimmering scales. She stared, awestruck, at the massive dragon that now perched in front of her. Although the beast was a perfect red color, when she tried to focus her eyes on any part of it she swore she could see the red shift into orange, and then yellow, and a myriad of other colors. The great, long neck arched downward and an elegant, angled head with two sharpened spiral horns came into view. The dragon blinked one crystal clear cerulean eye at her, and Kaoru got the impression she was being laughed at.

Not what you were expecting?

You're huge! Kaoru replied

Again, the impression of laughter.

Is this Heaven? Kaoru asked again

Not exactly, the beast replied, this place has no name. It has been called many things: the in between, the crossroads, the nothing.

Then I am dead, she said in a matter of fact tone.

You are, if you choose to be.

I have a choice?

Again the great eye blinked at her, as if confused that she would even ask the question.

I do not understand the question, the dragon answered.

In that place, I am weak. My body is broken and my soul is tired. But here … I am alive, and whole again. What choice do I have?

Your body was ready to give up long ago, that is true. You are badly injured, but your wounds will heal. You are not weak, little one. You are fierce: you have the heart and spirit of a great warrior. You held on because you chose to, because you refused to give up.

I do not feel fierce, Kaoru said meekly.

The strong never do.

The dragon's answer reassured her, even gave her hope that she truly could be fierce. Even still, she could not think of a reason to return to that place when she could stay here.

Why are you here? Kaoru asked then, as the strangeness of the creature's appearance appealed to her, are you some sort of messenger, or guardian maybe?

In a sense, the being replied evasively, what I am is not important. I am here to help you choose.

Okay, then help me. Do I stay here, or go back?

What do you want to do?

Kaoru actually frowned at the reply. She wanted to point out that the response was not at all helpful, but she had a feeling that the dragon was well aware of that fact.

Something was tugging at her, like an impatient child that pulled at her sleeves to get her attention. She could not place what it was, or why she was suddenly aware of the way it bothered her, but it was becoming increasingly incessant. She glanced around herself in a useless gesture, already knowing that she was alone with the dragon.

"Kaoru?"

This time she did jump at the noise. Her name had been spoken aloud, in a voice that was intensely familiar. The creature before her did not stir, or show any sign of having heard the voice, which only assured Kaoru that the voice had come from some unseen third party.

"Kaoru, I know you can hear me," the voice came again, "At least, I hope you can. We really need you to come back to us, okay? Nothing is the same without you …"

A memory floated somewhere at the edge of her consciousness; a name danced on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't recall either. Both were important to her in some way, she could feel it in the strange tightening sensation she felt in her chest as she tried to remember, but still she could not grasp why.

"… we barely recognize him anymore," the voice continued, having never stopped, "Are you listening, Busu?"

Busu … the word rang out crystal clear in her mind, with all the force and resonance of a war drum. The memory she couldn't grasp assaulted her with its presence, and the name fell easily from her lips.

"Yahiko?" She murmured

She remembered the young boy, small body tense and chocolate eyes fierce as he stood in front of her, bokken raised and pointed at a man she couldn't see. He had tried to protect her from those men, he had tried to shield her from them …

"Yahiko?" She said again, more clearly

He can't hear you, the dragon finally said.

Why not?

Because you are in the in between, the land of nothing. The living can not reach this place.

"…Kenshin is like an animal, Kaoru," Yahiko continued to whisper, "He doesn't sleep, and Megumi has to threaten him to make him eat. He just prowls around, or sits in the corner of your room and waits. He's getting better though: when he first brought you back, he wouldn't leave your room. Every time your door opened he'd draw his sword. Megumi almost had a heart attack the first time he did it."

You said I wasn't dead, Kaoru said to the dragon then, almost accusingly.

I said you were, if you chose to be, the dragon replied placidly.

But that doesn't make any sense! Kaoru challenged

The dragon made no reply, either not caring or not sensing the slight frustration coloring the young girl's tone. Kaoru listened more intently, but Yahiko's voice seemed to have disappeared. She was alone with the dragon once again. Her thoughts raced over what little she'd heard, and her mind seized on one word, a name that seemed to bring with it a stinging sensation in her chest: Kenshin. How had she forgotten about him, her wanderer, her protector and friend and …

Her mind, which had been pleasantly blank and calm only moments before, was suddenly bursting with images and memories of her friends and their life together. She thought of all of them, but mostly of Kenshin. There, at the edges of her memory, she could vaguely remember her last glimpse of him as he'd been only a few feet away from her, those last agonizing moments in the chains. He had come for her; it had taken so long, and she'd very nearly lost all hope, but he'd been there, so close that she had seen the amber glint of his assassin's eyes.

"She's getting worse," A very soft voice said then, and she recognized Megumi, "Her wounds are deep, and she lost so much blood, Kenshin …"

Kaoru felt the first vestiges of panic coil tightly in the pit of her stomach - was it already too late? Time did not exist in this place, in this nothingness; was it possible that she had taken too long to decide? What if her chance to return was gone, and the decision had been made for her?

Have I taken too long? She asked the dragon then, Is it too late to choose?

The angular head tilted towards her slightly, the one beautiful eye blinking at her slowly.

Time is a foolish human notion, it replied by way of a cryptic answer.

Answer me! Kaoru half demanded, half pleaded in sudden desperation, is it too late?

It's never too late, little one.

Then I want to go back. Do not keep me here any longer, I beg you! Send me back to my family.

It was never I that was keeping you here, Kaoru.

The deep tones of russet began to ripple then, and the long emerald blades of grass around her legs began to sway as if taken up by a sudden breeze, but Kaoru felt nothing. The dragon's outline wavered and started to fade: the color that was both red and not red, that was one color and all colors simultaneously was dissipating as she watched. The one great eye blinked at her a final time before vanishing all together, and the last thing she was aware of was a strange warmth flooding her body.