A/N: The second prologue of my new crossover, Mobius. To repeat, there will be four separate fics altogether, written from Itachi, Kisame, Sasori and Deidara's point of view. This will likely be the longest fic I have ever written, so feel free to cheer me on as I attempt to finish it. Assuming, of course, you like it.
This mostly takes place in the Games canon, although I have borrowed content from both the manga and the anime and messed around with the mythology a bit. Enjoy. Review. Tell me what you think. Where I went wrong. Inconsistencies you noticed. Things you liked. Et cetera.
This one is from Sasori's point of view. I'm putting it up even though I haven't made as much progress on his storyline. Itachi's side will be updated sooner, and Kisame's side will probably follow. The storylines diverge starting from chapter 1, although the overarching plot will be the same and there will be some overlap.
Chapter One: Missing-no
It was, Sasori reflected, a rather ominous silence. He sat with his back pressed to the rock wall, shattered puppet pieces littering the ground around him and flickering strangely in the poor light of the dusk. He heard the frustrated crunch of Kisame's boots as the shark man paced nearby; the quiet slop of Deidara's mud as his partner played with it broodingly. He glanced up at Itachi, who stood staring past the cliff wall to their opponent.
"It is not a demon." The Uchiha spoke calmly, as usual, but his body was too tense. Sasori knew the other man well enough to pick that out. He wondered, briefly, how the creature looked to Itachi's sharingan. Was it even alive, or just a mass of aberrant chakra? He frowned at the puppet pieces surrounding him, remembering how half the puppet had just...dissolved on contact with it. Even now, the pieces of what survived seemed as if they were only half there. Had the rest of it simply ceased to exist? It was a disconcerting thought.
Nevertheless, their orders were clear: find the creature's weakness, subdue it, and bring it back to the base. As usual, failure was very much frowned upon. He sighed and pulled out a warded scroll, then joined Itachi in his vigil. "It has to be something. Even the Kyuubi has weaknesses." The Uchiha nodded in agreement, absently. "Is it made of chakra?"
The red-eyed man was silent for a moment. "I do not know." Sasori glanced at him curiously, and the Uchiha shook his head. "It is as if...it does not exist." Ah. That complicated things. Kisame came up beside them; motioned to the scroll.
"We're going in again?" He gripped the sword slung across his back restlessly and shifted in place. Itachi didn't respond, so Sasori began to nod his head - 'we have no choice'. He stopped when Itachi suddenly took a step backwards. Kisame glanced at his partner and whipped the sword off of his back, even before Itachi made signal for an approaching enemy. Behind them, Sasori heard Deidara stand up.
They stood ready for several seconds. Sasori had opened his scroll and extracted several vials of acid – perhaps this, at least, would have an effect on it. Kisame stood on side of the opening, Samehada poised to strike, and Deidara took up position on the other. Itachi simply stood before the entrance, with the impassive face that Sasori had always found rather impressive for a living human. He looked just like an ivory puppet, waiting for his marionette to pull the strings.
Then Sasori saw movement within the cave - a silvery glow that slowly crept over rocks and around walls. He balanced a vial in his hands and took up a defensive position, nodding to Kisame and Deidara. Kisame gripped his sword, tension visible in his body. Were those silver tendrils moving faster now?
"No." Itachi's clipped voice was all the warning they had. Suddenly the ground around them seemed much more indistinct. Sasori bit back a curse and scrambled away, but it was too late. The air itself seemed shot with silver now, and he couldn't make out any of his colleagues. A strange, cold sensation wormed its way through the puppetmaster's body – the first thing he'd felt since making this body. He heard a faint ringing sound in the distance, and then everything went white.