Yay! Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! I would love some more ;D
Tell me what you think! Seshomaru's grand entrance! Duh duh da nuh!
Kee-Ara's heart pounded ferociously in her chest, overwhelming emotions consuming her as she saw him for the first time in seven years. Fear fought to crush her as she glanced back to see her son standing behind his uncle, but it was overrode by strong determination and anger. Her face hardened as she turned back to Sesshomaru and yet, she couldn't stop her eyes from devouring the sight of him, drinking in his presence like he was the rain to her drought riddled earth. He was exactly as she remembered, every piece of him perfect as he stood gilded in silver. When her eyes met his it took her breath away. It felt like a physical blow to her chest and it was just as painful.
His eyes did not hold anger, or surprise. They were completely devoid, the golden orbs she so loved once before, and now cherished in her son, made the hair on the back of her neck stand up in the pure emptiness they held. It was not that he did not recognize her, no, his eyes raked over her leaving her feeling exposed and distraught in a way that she hated. It was that he immediately knew who she was and didn't care. Not at all. It was so much worse then the hatred she was expecting. At least that would mean he had cared.
She didn't know that a tiny piece of her shattered heart had hoped for some miracle, some surprising shard of her had hoped he would see her and want to be with her again, in the same way that she ached to be with him. She only realized that she had harbored that hope amid the ashes of their future together when it died in a fiery blaze that seemed to burn away at her very soul.
She instantly snapped out of her internal misery when he took a smooth step forward, coming closer. Her son. None of her emotions mattered, not when he was in danger. Her knuckles turned white as her hand tightened on her bow. She had always known that no matter how she felt, she would kill him if necessary. She was willing to die for Takeshi. Killing the man she was still in love with would be worse than tearing out her own heart with her bare hands but she was willing to do it. Nothing would harm Takeshi. She tried to will her son to stay in place, his scent mingled amidst InuYasha's and her own and his small form hidden.
Every step Sesshomaru took seemed to take an eternity as warring desires fought to control her. The desperate hope that he would leave without noticing her son, just turn and go and the instinctual need inside her to see him up close once more, struggled against one another until he was in front of her, fasterrrrr than she thought possible.
"Sesshomaru," she said, the name sighing out of her lips before she could stop the syllables. She had not said his name in seven years, fear that her son would seek him or someone would know him. She had kept it locked inside her with her dormant desires. They sprung back to life again as his golden eyes flickered to her, coldly turning away once more as if she was insignificant. Why would they come back now, these traitorous emotions that seemed to want her to bleed from the inside out?
"Rin," he said, making the girl jump guiltily as she inched in front of Takeshi. Her heart swore to her that her noble lord would never hurt this boy, his son, and yet Kee-Ara's palpable fear seeped into her as well as she saw a hardness in her Lord Sesshomaru's face that she had not seen in quite some time.
"My Lord Sesshomaru," Rin said, a grin spreading across her lips that his presence always seemed to bring.
"What do you want, Sesshomaru? Shouldn't you be off slaughtering defenseless humans or something?" InuYasha asked him abruptly, capturing his attention with his scathing tone. Kee-Ara nearly stabbed him herself for dragging attention to himself when she could see Takeshi's small body behind him.
Sesshomaru merely laid his eyes on him without his cool expression faltering, his brother's derisiveness seemingly having no effect on him at all.
"Really, InuYasha. You are too weak to even control your own blood and yet you speak. Mindlessly slaughtered anyone in a savage attack lately?" Sesshomaru asked him, each word carved of ice and dripping with disdain. Rin frowned, surprised by the acidic tone between the brothers. Their bickering had turned mostly harmless since defeating Naraku, the years making their hatred dull and yet the situation seemed to sharpen their blades, the sharp edges at each other's throats.
Takeshi unconsciously gasped, forgetting himself at Sesshomaru's words. Fear flooded him at the image he painted of his future. Was he like that? The sound was small, barely audible to Kee-Ara's ears but her heart stopped in her chest. Sesshomaru's eyes followed the sound and Kee-Ara's heart leapt into her throat, beating violently against her rib cage as if the make up for stalling. Takeshi froze, his eyes widening like a deer that was staring into a mountain lion's eyes. Moments before it tore it limb from limb.
Two pairs of golden eyes stared at each other in silence, the moment seeming to stretch into an eternity as Kee-Ara's worst nightmares came to life before her eyes, ripping the breath out of her. And then Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, the first sign of emotion on his face, and fury filled her veins, carrying the golden glow of her magic with it as she hot waves of anger overtook her.
"No," she hissed, loosing a golden arrow and drawing the bow once more, the golden power forming at her command. She didn't need spells to focus her power, not for something this instinctive. The bolt of magic passed Sesshomaru's face so close he felt the heat tighten his skin. It was like the warmth of the sun rolled into a beam of power so hot it burnt and he instinctively reacted to the attack. He turned quickly, too fast for her to react, and he was before her, eyes a burning red as his fangs elongated. But she was not afraid, not this time. She had so much more to fight for than herself and that drove her to find bravery that she did not know she had.
She snarled right back, her teeth less impressive, but the determined look on her face made Sesshomaru hesitate as she dropped her bow. It was just a hindrance, this close to him, and she let the glow envelop her hands in golden light. She drew her hand back, clenched in a fist and swung. She knew that he could have easily stopped her, perhaps it was his surprise that made her fist make contact with his cheek, her power burning as it made contact. His head snapped to the side, her magic enhanced strength surprising him.
He reacted instinctively to being struck, an acidic glow dripping from his hand as it shot forward and reached for her chest in a fatal attack. She gasped as it ripped through her shirt and started to melt away her flesh before it even made contact. She hardened a shield of gold in front of her and his hand glanced aside as it made contact with the smooth edge with sparks that burnt her eyes. She immediately dropped her shield and attacked once more, pulling the knife that had been carving up their apples moments before, out of her sash. She stabbed expertly, the metal gleaming as it aimed for his throat. He moved so fast she didn't see him raise his hand as it grabbed her wrist, his crushing strength tightening around it with a crack that made her gasp.
When InuYasha had seen the first sign of danger, he had grabbed Rin around the waist and wrapped his hand around Takeshi's, leaping into the trees some distance away and dragging the resisting boy with him. Now he approached once more, unsheathing his Tetsuiga. The slim blade widened into a huge curved fang as he approached his brother. He couldn't believe Kee-Ara had hit him, actually made contact, and was now holding him off. Before this moment he had not realized how strong the woman was, she was only human after all and the word witch didn't mean much to him. Now it did. But he still couldn't leave her to fight by herself!
His approach was abruptly stopped by a low growl from behind him. The deep sound rose quickly, unearthly in its viciousness. InuYasha turned, raising his sword and searching the trees for the enemy, when his ears twitched. It was coming from above. With surprise that was bordering on horror he looked up to see his nephew's blood red eyes. His fangs were long and emphasized by the jagged stripes on his cheeks. He had just met this boy and yet he had seen the pure goodness of his heart in his small smiles. This was not that boy. That boy had been lost as the hopelessness filled him at the sight of his mother's blood and the pain on her face.
Kee-Ara's eyes widened in horror as she heard the dreaded sound. Her heart sunk as her eyes turned immediately to her son, finding him hunched menacingly in a tree trunk next to the horror struck Rin. Rin pressed her hands over her mouth, eyes wide in sorrow as she saw the sweet boy change. Sesshomaru turned as well, the aggressiveness leaving him as his eyes turned once more golden.
"Takeshi! No!" Kee-Ara cried, stepping around Sesshomaru and forgetting her pain as Takeshi leapt from the tree and soared through the air. He landed before them lightly, baring his fangs as he approached his father for the first time.
His claws had lengthened but now they started to glow, reminiscent of the power his father controlled. Everyone saw the blue light drip from his claws but Kee-Ara could see the magic that swirled in it as well. He was more dangerous than they could tell. She leapt in front of Sesshomaru, throwing her arms out as her son lunged to attack him. She raised a shield, hoping to stop him long enough to talk sense into him but his claws sliced through it easily, his own magic doubled in this purely demonic form.
"Takeshi!" she cried as his claws neared her face, flinching away and into Sesshomaru as he pulled her back. She wrenched out of his grip, kneeling on the ground to look into her son's rage crazed eyes. They didn't seemed to look through her and to the demon that was the cause of this change and attack. But with the demonic blood of the strongest demon in Western civilization running through his veins and the magic of the oldest and strongest witches as well, all he sought to do was destroy and rend this man to pieces. It did not matter if he had to go through the woman in front of him. It didn't matter that she was the reason he was fighting in the first place.
"Takeshi, my son and love, come back to me , shan del nadwa, come back to me my little warrior. I need you, rewen. Here with me, not fighting but with me. Please," Kee-Ara pleaded, voice firm and gentle as she watched for any sign that he was going to transform back. Her words soothingly slipped into the language of their people and back into the one they belonged to now and she saw him slowly relaxing, the muscles that tensed loosening as his eyes turned towards her.
She waited as his demonic eyes stared into her, not blinking and not looking away. She stared into them with acceptance, waiting for him to come to her and she smiled at him as he took one step forward, and then another before he was in her arms. She held him close, stroking his hair until she felt him calm the rest of the way, the turmoil of his opposing blood settling for now.
She stood, holding her son to her side as he straightened to look at Sesshomaru. Kee-Ara's shirt and skin was burnt, her hair was a mess, her wrist was cracked, her neck was bleeding and she wore one very protective glare as she looked at Sesshomaru once more. He of course, looked absolutely perfect, only one thin scratch on his cheek left from their fight. He responded with a look of aloof disdain but when his eyes flicked down to the boy at her side they lost the emotions. They were unreadable, the cold vacant emptiness from earlier back once more as he regarded the upturned face.
Takeshi tilted his head proudly, returning the look with one enviablely equal to the man's who had years of experience.
"Takeshi. This is your father. Sesshomaru."