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The bastard didn't even move. He just sat deathly still staring down at her. Mugen pointed his sword at the silent samurais' heart.

"How could you do this to Fuu? Even I thought we meant more to each other than that! HOW COULD YOU?!?!"

"If you walk through the woods over there," he nodded across the campsite, "you'll see Fuus' campsite and the corpse of the man who dared to touch her like this."

Mugen dropped his sword, fell to his knees beside Jin and stared at Fuu. The face he remembered smiling so happily was bruised and cut, the scratches on her chest were deep and ugly, even her thighs were mottled with bruises. He reached out a hand and stroked her hair lightly, it was still damp, Jin must have bathed her, that explained the lack of clothing.

Still stroking her hair he asked Jin, "How did you find her?"

"It was just dumb luck really, or maybe fate. I happened to be camping here and heard a voice crying out for help. I followed the voice and found Fuu struggling under that man. I-I didn't realize at first that it was her..."

Mugens' eyes flared red at the thought of what had happened. How dare someone think to touch her, she was hi... He stopped the thought at soon as it formed. He knew that she would never be his. What could he offer her anyway? Hunger, danger and possible even his death sooner or later. That was no kind of life for a woman. Remembering the salve he had stuffed in the bag on his back with his sword he turned to get it out.

When he pulled it out and leaned towards her, he felt Jins' curious gaze on him.

"The last time I got the shit beat out of me, I stole this salve from an apothecary. It seemed to work real good," he said as he removed the top.



Jin watched in amazement as Mugen tenderly applied the salve to Fuu's face. He carefully covered all of the cuts then moved down to her chest. He noticed the young mans' hand shaking as he started working on the cuts there. Jin had never thought to see Mugen care this gently for anyone, not even himself. He watched as he finished and put the lid back on.

"This should help her," Mugen muttered, as if to himself.

"Please stop, please. It hurts! Please don't hurt me! Mugen, Jin where are you..." Fuu started tossing her head from side to side again.

Looking over, Jin saw the tortured look on Mugens' face. As he watched it quickly turned to anger.

"Why the hell would someone want to do this to her?" he whispered quietly.

"I've heard her speak in her sleep of what seems to be more than one occurrence, like maybe this has happened to her before..."

Why the fuck hadn't he stayed with her. He had known that she couldn't protect herself. She was always getting into trouble and needing help. WHY had he left her alone?

Jin watched as Mugen brushed back her hair then leaned over to sit her up. Holding her in his arms he spoke softly to her.

"Fuu. Fuu, it's okay now. It's time to wake up Fuu. We're here and we're going to take care of you. No one is going to hurt you know."



Fuu heard the voice talking to her. It-it sounded like Mugen! He was here, here in her dream world, where nothing could hurt her ever again. If she just stayed here then she would be fine.

"Fuu, please wake up now. I need you to wake up. If you hear me Fuu, please open your eyes."

Why would she want to do that? Only pain waited out there. Here she could stay safe.

"Dammit Fuu, wake up, please."

Hm, she certainly wouldn't have dreamed of Mugen cussing at her. Did that mean...

Opening her eyes groggily, she looked into the concerned eyes of Mugen. She felt his hand stroking her hair softly, gently.

"Mugen..." she whispered, half afraid that this still wasn't real.

"Hey babe. It's time to get up now."

She watched as he smiled softly down at her.

"Jin's here too. He found you a little while ago."

Turning her head she saw Jin smiling slightly at her. The smile she noticed, did not reach to his eyes, which were filled with concern.

"Jin...what happened? Where am I? The last thing I remember was..." she scrunched up her brow in thought, then felt the pain that moving her face caused. "That man..." Turning pale as she remembered what had happened, Fuu closed her eyes again.

Mugen felt helpless for one of the first times in his life as he watched the tears seep out from under her lashes. Then the anger came and he wanted to put his fist through something, anything. Laying her down softly, he stood abruptly and walked to the nearest tree. Not even noticing that his knuckles were bleeding, he kept pounding away at the tree, wishing it were the dead mans' face. He wished he could feel the mans' bones cracking beneath his fists, the mans' blood on his hands and he pounded the life out of his worthless body.

"That's not going to help anything Mugen. You're only going to hurt yourself."

Jins' quiet, logical voice floated over to him from where the man still sat beside Fuu.

"It will make me feel a helluva lot better," he mumbled as he planted a particularly hard punch on the trees trunk. He watched as a chunk of bark flew off from the force of it. Sighing deeply, his shoulders slouched in defeat. No amount of pounding would really make him feel better. He looked back and saw Jin pulling his blanket over Fuu. He watched the man stand up and walk over to him.



"I'm going back to the stream to wash out her clothes. She needs no reminders of what almost happened to her."

He watched as Mugen walked over to sit beside her and was amazed at the heartbroken expression on the mans' face.

Turning he walked down to the water and picked up Fuus' clothes. He crushed them in his fist as he saw the blood that was there. How could he have left her? He should have been near when she needed him, and the thought that this had happened to her before was more than he could bear. The guilt was crushing him as he realized that no one had likely been around to help her before, that the attack had probably been successful. The thought of a man forcing himself inside Fuus' body caused his anger to spike. Why the hell hadn't he been around when she needed him...