The rocks give way and flood the room. Feitan, Machi, and Nobunaga jump up in time to avoid them. Between the three of them Feitain is the fastest and will likely try to behead me. I jump around him and hit him in the jugular. If Machi's stitches hold up he should be fine, but the wound'll still hurt like hell. After I chop his neck he grunts and falls down, one hand clutching it as he tries to regain balance against the rocks. A needle and thread come at me next wrapping around my arms and stomach and pull me toward Machi. Too bad I've already taken in Pakunoda's power, these nen threads would've been much more useful right now. Nobu jumps towards me with his sword bare, sunlight glints off the edge. He raises it as if to slice me down the middle, but I dodge in time for him to miss me and his sword lands on the line of thread, but it won't cut. I didn't realize it was that strong. The force of Nobu's blade causes me to fall. In order to move I have to roll out of it. Machi yanks me up towards her, causing me to sail through the air. I feel like an ice skater as I twirl in the opposite direction to get out of her snare in time.

As I'm about to slam in to a wall, I see all three of them come at me at once. Machi throws her thread at me again and a plan forms. But it requires them getting closer than I would like. I hit the wall, feel the pound of stone reverberate through my body. My vision briefly blurs and I see two of everyone, but Machi and her thread are the only things that matter. I open my hands at two different angles to catch, one of them being close to my neck and the needle lands in my right thumb, sending a shock wave through my hand. I gather as much momentum in my feet and legs as I can when I begin sliding down the wall. I launch myself in the air and circle the thread around them.

I manage to snag Machi and Nobu, but Feitan jumps out of the hold in time. He takes out his sword as he flies toward me. I let myself fall a few inches to grab a sizable rock to launch at him. He crushes through it. I decide to grab two rocks the size of small boulders and throw one in his face. While there's still dust and bits of stone clouding his vision, I move in. Launching myself from a rock beneath my feet I come around to side of Feitan's body and throw the boulder at his head.

As the rubble finishes falling to the ground, I realize no more than 10 seconds could've passed.

I tuck and roll against the ground to land on my feet. I look for a split second to see the boys standing in front of Hisoka, his hands on their shoulders. Likely to keep them from intervening. They look so scared while his eyes gleam with excitement. Would you believe me if I told you I was having fun and getting a little turned on?

Phinks, Franklin, and Shizuku surge up through the fallen rock. Franklin roars like a pissed of bear as he looks around for me. The rest will follow shortly, my best bet is to try to use each of their powers against the other to shield myself. Before Franklin lets off a few rounds of his nen bullets I flip and jump out of the way. "Franklin stop! You could hit one of us!" Shalnark shouts. Phinks socks me in the jaw knocking me sideways and Shizuku comes at me from other side, knocking me in the ribs with her vacuum handle. As I kneel on the ground I see Shalnark throw one of his antennas towards me. I swoop a foot around to knock Shizuku down and the antenna shoots into her arm when she hits the floor.

Phinks moves towards me and from above I see Nobunaga coming down with his blade ready. Meanwhile Machi comes from behind me. I stand still for a moment as if I've been cornered, and when the time is right I dart out of the way. Nobu misses me and slices into Phink's arm. Phinks shouts in pain and punches Nobu in the face with his other hand. "It was an accident!" Nobu says rubbing his jaw. The sound of curious flute music fills the air, but I can't tell where it's coming from. Machi is on me trying to lasso her thread around my neck. I pick up my hair and use it as a whip, then get close enough to swipe her face. I can feel my dreads snatch at her cheek and the scratches they leave behind. Nobu and Phinks come at me, but I snap my hair around Machi's unrealistically small waist and throw her like a bowling ball to pins into them. The flute music continues to fill my ears like a fly buzzing around a light bulb. As they fall to floor, I see Shalnark by Shizuku's side taking out the antenna. That's it. If I can get to him, take the antennas and his remote control then manage to throw them into some of the spiders, that might be enough to stop this attack, or at least get them to fight each other, while I escape with the boys.

I lunge for Shalnark knocking 3 antennas out of his hand along with the remote, but when I reach for it a small earthquake shakes the ground and knocks me off balance. I turn and realize everybody's shook to the ground except Franklin. He must've stomped the floor to keep me from getting the remote control. It's so powerful, I can feel my bones knocking inside my skin. The flute music reaches the pitch of a hummingbird before silencing. Suddenly I feel and hear a whoosh approach me and see it's a spear thrown by a warrior in a mask in the background. Uvo told me Bonolenov could play music through the holes in his body and transform into different weapons. I can't believe I didn't remember that. I jump up, trying to get out of the way in time, but the spear pierces through my left side, slicing clear through my flesh before continuing to fly towards the wall. Hisoka ducks and the spear lands where his head was resting moments before.

"Oby!" Gon and Killua shout out.

My stomach feels like a bowl filling with water, but I can last long enough to fi—

A cold, silver object shoots through my chest. It hurts so bad I can feel my heart cramp around it. I drop to my knees and cough up blood as I look at Feitan standing over me. The left side of his face is scratched up pretty badly. "We're done playing games with you."

"No!" Gon screams.

My body feels like it's drowning inside itself. The tips of my hands and feet grow cold. At least I put up a hell of a fight. That was the goal wasn't it?

"What the hell's wrong with you all? She was just trying to defend herself!" Killua yells.

As my body grows weak, I lean against Feitan, feel the rocks cut my knees. I take his sword out, it makes a small sucking noise. I feel Hisoka's eyes on me, the most stoic I've ever seen him. It looks like this game isn't fun to him anymore. Does he care that I'm dying? Probably not since he did nothing to stop it. "Let the kids go, " I mutter, "they don't know anything."

Feitan moves away from me, letting my head hit the ground and his foot. But before he can move I see him, his past. Perhaps to have something to focus on besides death. A drop water falls from a leaf into a pond. I see a pale paper thin boy, bones as fragile as a bird's. There are bruises on his back like branches on tree. A trash bag blows by in the breeze. An older man wraps a belt around the boy's throat. A small, grubby hand slices the man's Achilles tendons in both heels with a shard of glass. The man's screams haunt the boy. Factory smoke appears above the heaps of trash. The hand belongs to a girl the boy runs away with. They have no other names aside from boy and girl. They eat the raw meat of a dead cat. Boy washes his face in a puddle of dirty water. He walks up and touches the beloved girl's feet, uses her calves to hide his tears, as she hangs dead from a tree, a rope around her crooked neck. A crow land's on her shoulder. The man's screaming still haunts him.

The boy grows up hiding in trash. Mute. His hair hides his eyes. He collects sharp objects. One day he finds a sword. He wrestles a man with black hair and grey eyes. Chrollo. They sit in a junkyard with several other troupe members. I see him buried in the arms of a naked plush woman, a lover outside of the underworld. Does he think that the folds of her flesh will protect more than the thin love of his past could? I see the blood behind crimson eyes stain his blade-like fingers. He reaches for a child with blonde hair and grey eyes. Kurapika. He slits the child's throat as he moves back. But it isn't deep. A woman runs up to grab Feitan, but is quickly cut down. When Feitan turns back he discovers the child is gone, only a few drops of blood are left on the floor. Feitain assumes the child will die in his attempt to run away.

Feitan stumbles away from me, his face crumpled in horror. I guess I'm not the only one that's hurting now. I wanted to die as a warrior, but not like this.

"She has possession of Pakunoda's power somehow," Feitain announces.

"What the hell did you do that for? We weren't done questioning her," Nobu says as he walks over.

"She wasn't going to answer any of your damn questions," Feitan responds.

"It's probably for the best that one of us put her down. She's kind of a wild card," Machi says.

Shizuku sighs. "But she's so strong, we might've been able to use her."

"Now's not the time for you to fan girl out," Feitan says.

As the spiders argue over what to do next, I look over at the boys. Gon's crying and the shadow of Killua's hair returns to his face, like he's trying to hide what he feels. Hisoka catches my eye, a small smirk returning to his face. He looks from Feitan to me as if he's trying to tell me something, still waiting to be impressed. I think back to our conversations at Heaven's Arena about how to use my abilities. Parasyte. What if there comes a time where your opponent doesn't let you get to your energy source? I've never tried to regenerate from dying, but now's as good a time as any. My vision is beginning to fade so I don't have very long. I close my eyes and focus the little energy I have left on the living things in the room. Their voices, their breath, their movements. Visions of white I've never seen before come to me, the outlines of bodies, aura, flesh, skeletons. I see their hearts' beat, their organs move, the thin hum of aura around them. I reach a hand forward in the ground trying to feel a pull in my veins.

Nothing happens at first, but eventually every part of my body feels open: pores, veins, ligaments, muscles, even my bones. All of me sucks desperately for life and takes from the nearest forces around me. Nobunaga, Feitan, Bonolenov, and Machi. I hear their conversation come to a halt as they gasp for air and fall to the ground. Their veins pulsate.

"What's happening?" Shizuku says.

I feel their auras begin to fill me in white slivers. I'm filled with new blood and flesh, wounds healed, my body made whole.

"Somebody kill this bitch!" Machi says through gritted teeth.

I jump up before any of them can touch me, feeling refreshed. "I'm not interested in fighting or killing any of you. I've told you all I can about Uvo. I'm just here for the kids."

"Too bad. Because none of you are going anywhere," Nobunaga says through heavy breaths. He struggles to get to his feet and uses his sword to support himself. Since he's an Enhancer, it makes sense that he'd recuperate the fastest. "You still have answers to give us. And I think those boys would be fine additions to the troupe now that Uvo's gone."

"No way!" Gon pipes up, "We'd rather die than work with you."

"Well if you're nominating them, I'm nominating Oby," Shizuku says crossing her arms.

"Are you out of your mind?" Franklin says, "Look at the damage she's done. She almost killed several spiders just now."

"Exactly," Shalnark says rubbing his chin, "that might be why she's a good addition. She's tactical and powerful. And it's not like she actually killed any of them."

"Enough talk!" Phinks growls, "Let's put an end to this!" He runs toward me with a balled up fist.

But before he gets close, Shizuku jumps up and swats him down with her vacuum. "I don't think so."

The troupe bickers like siblings over what to do with us. Hopefully they'll reach a peaceful conclusion. I have no interest in joining their troupe, but I'd rather than not tempt fate and try to fight my way out again. If I did, I have a feeling my head would be knocked off my shoulders pretty quickly.

While the troupe argues, I walk towards the boys who come close to see if I'm okay. I cut them off to give directions. "If you see an opening to escape, take it. It'll be harder to capture you if you go in opposite directions. But if you need to attack one of the spiders first in order to get away, do it together." When I look up I see Hisoka playing with his cards as if trying to mind his business. "If you're still here when I shout 'bounce', one of you go left and the other to the right. Through a wall if you can since those are harder to see through and get through. Get outside and we'll meet at the aqueduct a mile from here." The boys look at one another and then me, Killua's the first to nod in agreement, then Gon. We're getting out of here soon, even if it means I have to kill a spider to do it.

Note: Please vote, comment, and archive the story if you like the chapter and want to see what'll happen next. The second part of the Phantom Troupe finale will be posted shortly. xoxo