Loneliness and Assassinations

"Lucky bastard…" Ritsuo stated through clenched teeth, grinding them in anger while Ayame sat to his right, wings tucked behind her in rest, body rested on her knees on the floor. She only knew violence, quiet in her mind and soul, ears waiting on the next order. She remembered nothing from minute to minute, but the order to kill from Ritsuo. A heavy-set dragon demon, currently in human form, a half-eaten leg quarter of some animal or demon bone held loosely in his hand while he sat on his throne. The cave, settled in the far East, which they lived and ate was enormous, with tunnels dug through-out for separate rooms for his minions, who were all at this moment in an uproar fighting over the last of the carcass that was their dinner meal. "I suppose there was nothing you could do, with the coward disappearing into thin air Ayame, you will be spared punishment from your failure." He stated to her, grease dripping onto his claws and arm from the meat he held in his hand. The sconces of fire set on the walls fluttered from the opening of the cave, seeming to put menace into his statement. She didn't fear him or his words, for she didn't even fear death. She found his rumblings to be the norm in life, she knew of nothing else. Suddenly, there was a rustling to Ritsuo's left, where another dragon demon sat. Her left ear swiveled at the sound, the rest of her motionless, as if a statue.

"You don't think she let him go, because of who he is do you?" The demon asked with a sneer, obviously ready to take her out of the picture, grasping at straws to see her removed from the dragon lord's side.

"You know, for a counsel Hideo, you can be extremely stupid… She has no idea who he is. My spell has made sure of that. She is completely clueless of others, except for me and my commands…" He leaned towards her then, and snapped his fingers a few inches from her face. The action didn't even make her blink. He chuckled, making his belly lift up and down, grease dripping on his lap. He dressed in black silk with a gold obi around his thick waist, in his mind, he should be known all over, so any ostentatious clothing was not needed. With black hair and pale violet eyes, he fit the profile of an evil ruler with a dying sense of morals. Leaning back towards his subject on his left he stated, "We will go on the hunt for him tomorrow, he will not be hard to find with Ayame at my side. We will get our vengeance Hideo, starting with Sesshomaru. Once the Lord of the West is destroyed, I will seek out his bastard brother Inuyasha, and finish with his Bitch of a Mother…" Ritsuo finished the last with an evil grin, thinking of what he would do with Inu Kimi in his claws. Hideo shrunk back from his Lord's smirk, even he had enough empathy to feel sorry for the plans he had made for the Lord of the West's mother, if he let her live after he was done, she would surely wish for death.

Ayame's ear swiveled back forward, done listening to the other two go on about their plans. She concentrated on everything around her, listening with black velvet ears to the bones crunching in the jaws of the lesser dragons in front of her on a lowered floor, fights and screeches let out as claws ripped the flesh of others in a bid for more food. She closed her eyes, waiting on the blackness of a dreamless sleep to over-take her, getting rest for the orders to assassinate that she knew would be given to her on the morrow.

"Mi lord, can you please tell me where we are going?" Jaken, his retainer, whined at his back for the second time that day.

Ignoring the imps whining, he ran over what Inu Kimi and him had discussed that morning before they set off into the dawn;

'We need to get her to where your Father was killed, a human village not far from the Eastern border. It's been abandoned since it burned down that night. You must find a way to lure her there without Ritsuo following…'

'Some sort of distraction?' he had asked skeptically; he wasn't one for games. He realized this the day he tried to trick Inuyasha.

'Yes, make her follow you to that place.'

'Why where Father died?"

'I think it will help with the memories, a sort of place to jump off from.'

'Hn.'

He brought his mind back to the present, his Mother waited at the place where he was to lure Ayame to, he didn't feel good about the events in front of him.

Suddenly, the smell of dragons was on the breeze that reached his nose. He stopped in his tracks, which made Jaken smack into the calf of his leg with an 'Ooomph!'.

Sensing his Lords urgency, Jaken remained quiet. They slipped into the forest, wanting to cut off the herd in the middle, creating chaos within the ranks.

"Jaken," he stated quietly, "when I start to run, I need you to use the staff of two heads to keep the rest here." He ground his fangs, not liking the thought of running from the enemy, something he was taught never to do, but today…

"Yes, mi…milord, I won't let you down!"

Walking up to the line of dragons, he counted just twenty, they must have thought they didn't need more to accomplish their task. One stood out behind Ritsuo, and it was Ayame. With a snarl, he lashed out with his poison whip, slashing Ritsuo up his cheek reaching to his hairline. Blood instantly gushed out of the wound, blinding the dragon as he screamed. Jaken jumped out as soon as Sesshomaru took off as fast as he could go, a blur to the untrained, human eye. He heard Ritsuo scream the order to Ayame to exterminate him, slowly.

Sesshomaru sped on foot, careful to not fly as he would become an easy target for Ayame. He heard her before he saw her following him, her wings beating in the late morning air at a fast pace, so she could catch her prey. He knew the moment she spotted him, for she let out a low growl. He leaped over fallen trees and boulders the size of huts without missing a beat, the blur of trees in his vision as he looked for a way to not be plucked from the forest's protective cover. He heard the rushing of water ahead of him, and the breaking of the tops of trees above him, as claws reached out and slashed across his back. The narrowing of his eyes the only thing he gave up to the pain, Ayame was intent on his blood coating her claws. She raised up out of the trees again, waiting for another opportunity to swoop down and catch her prey. Narrowing herself, her wings suddenly tucked to her back, she dove again, like a hawk to a mouse. Just as she was about to reach Sesshomaru from the sky, he leaped over a water fall and into the river below, Ayame crashed to the ground.

Pulling himself out of the water, he picked up his Mother's scent on the breeze and kept running towards it. Ayame righted herself, her mind mad for the kill, and took to the sky to find Him. She caught sight of her prey, reaching what looked like a burned down village long abandoned. Nearing the sight, her prey turned and faced her while on the ground. As she outstretched her arms, claws unsheathed, ready for his blood in her mouth, a sudden choking sensation over took her. She was yanked violently to the ground, screaming, until a blackness over-took her as if in a dream.

"Never thought I would see you run that hard son." Inu Kimi said with a smile. Sesshomaru knew she was hiding her appreciation for what he had done behind sarcasm. He was no stranger to the tactic, being one to use it himself.

They sat in silence, watching as Ayame twitched as if in a nightmare. Slowly, before their eyes, the blackness that surrounded her started to melt into puddles of tar around her, revealing fur as white as snow, and black stripes like onyx. The shape on her leather vest slowly revealing itself. Sesshomaru walked to her side and knelt down, running two claw tipped fingers over the shape stitched into her clothing. It was a blue crescent moon, one that looked exactly like what was on his forehead, the symbol of the House of the West. He drug his gaze to her face, taking in the face of a white tiger, fangs so long they rested on the outside of her jaw with her mouth closed. His gaze traveled to her wings splayed out underneath her, no longer black but the same white that was her fur. She made a sobbing noise, innocent and imploring that caught his attention. As he was studying her face, it started to transform slowly.

Before his eyes, she transformed from being in full demon form, to being a woman in human form. Her hair was a silky golden blonde, so long it would reach her waist if she was standing, her skin was the color of a young peach. Her body was what one would expect from a fit younger woman, breasts as full as a cherry blossom at the end of its season. She wore a kimono under her leather vest while in human form, white with small blue robins embroidered over it. The two blades of wind and fire still attached to her side, the blades now shining with the spell removed from her. He leaned down farther to look at the etching upon them. They were decorated with dogs, ones that resembled his true form, his Father's form. The blades were made with the same material that Tenseiga and Tessaiga were made from, they were bladed with his Father's fangs…

"Hhhmmm…" Ayame stirred, tears running from under her eyelids.

Sesshomaru sat up on his haunches, still at her side. Inu Kimi sat much the same way, both waiting for her to wake.

Slowly, Ayame blinked her eyes open. Sesshomaru's breath caught at the color of her eyes. They were as green as the earth that rested underneath her, piercing it seemed right through him. At first, in her confusion, she must have thought he was someone else, for she instantly reached for him. Realizing she must have thought he was the Inu no Taisho, Sesshomaru stiffened and stood, backing away from the scene. When realization set in, she shrunk back, still seated on the ground. Another sob escaped her. Inu Kimi reached for her. Instantly knowing her, Ayame threw her arms around the Lady and sobbed softly on her shoulder.

After a few minutes, Ayame seemed to come back to herself, to Sesshomaru's relief. He wasn't one to deal with crying, especially from females…

Pulling away from Inu Kimi, Ayame asked the one question the Lady didn't really want to answer.

"Did I really kill all those people?"