Dead End

The trail had gone cold, evaporated into the night.

It had been easy enough to follow the path of the hanyou-turned-demon, all one had to do was follow the trail of devastated trees and the remains of forest creatures, youkai, and human alike, all rendered into retched masses of blood, bone, and flesh. Nothing had been safe from the creature's rampage, nothing held sacred, no life spared. Blood had been spilt, not in defense or out of need, but for the simple reason to see carnage, to revel in the taking of life.

It was repulsive. That a being of his blood could have such little restraint, such little control, such complete disregard for everything. The hanyou's mind had been lost to the fires of his blood, his weak mortal half collapsing in the face of such furious might.

But it was more than that, he knew. He had detected the residual currents of power from the very start, from the well where the trail of blood had begun, and afterwards, in the attacks that had given the killing blows to those unfortunates that had crossed the creature's path. It was the Shikon. There was no mistaking its dark power. The hanyou had been corrupted by it, stolen away in the dark light. Even the strength of their father's fang could not hold out against the darkness that was laying siege to the very soul of the hanyou boy.

A new breeze lifted out of the night, soft and tranquil, a whisper against his senses that told of the coming dawn. Sesshomaru stopped walking to listen, to taste the air, to feel the words of the land. But what it told him was nothing he didn't already know: the trail he followed, the creature he pursued, had vanished.

Creature. He couldn't call it anything else. He had seen the fire in the hanyou's eyes the last time they had taken over. And they did take over. There was nothing of the mind in that savage burn, no trace of conscience or will. There was only the fire, the drive to instinct, the beast without thought or care or anything that made it what it was. It was carnage, bloodshed, wrath, fury, and death. It knew nothing and felt nothing. It was nothing.

No, he would never call that thing his brother. His brother was foul, crude, brash, unkept, untrained, uncouth, feeble, weak, shameless, and pathetic; but he was not that thing.

'Will I really have to take your life, brother?'

He had said so many times that he would, and yet…he had never truly meant to do so. He had been testing him, gauging his strength, watching as his power grew; but when it really came down to it, he could never strike the killing blow. The hanyou boy, no matter the curse he had been born to or the acts of selfishness and betrayal that had least to his birth, was his blood, his brother. But to all others, he was a kill claimed by the Lord of the West, an untouchable mark. So long as he openly claimed hold over the boy's life, no other could touch him lest they face the wrath of the Lord.

Now though, it seemed he had no choice. There was nothing left of Inuyasha so long as the fires reigned. All that remained was the creature.

'If only to keep you from this madness, I will not hold back.'

But in order to finish it, to put an end to the carnage and bloodshed, to stop the reign of the demon fires, he first had to find the creature that had once been Inuyasha. It didn't make any sense. It wasn't possible for the creature to have just vanished, for such an obvious trail to have run cold with no indications of conflict or struggle.

What was he missing?

A sudden pull across his senses, something that spoke of death and magic in the scent to bone and soil and the soft sob of lost souls. The walking dead. But Sesshomaru knew this presence, knew the sad song of the tragic priestess, of the restless soul that sought revenge and fulfillment of a promise broken so long ago.

Yes, Sesshomaru knew of the priestess, of the woman that had bound his brother to a tree for fifty years. He had known her in her life, had sought out the rumors of an inu-hanyou that had taken to the protection of a human priestess. It was no surprise that it had been Inuyasha that stood by her side. He had always been a slave to his human blood, to his weak heart and his mortal emotions. But at least his choice had been somewhat amiable; given the cesspool of filth that the human had been born from. At least Inuyasha had chosen a mortal of strength, a being holding some amount of power. The priestess had even the sense to show him the proper deference…unlike now.

Really, what was that boy thinking with that strange miko he traveled with now? She was nearly worse than the hanyou when it came to her disrespect, her hot temper, her loud mouth, her willful and stubborn displays, not to mention her outrageous dress. Then again, maybe the two were perfect for each other. He had to admit, that her control over the boy was at least amusing. He could watch the effect of Inuyasha's subjugation all day and not get tired of it. Really, sit? The girl had a twisted sense of humor.

The close passing of a soul-harvesting insect pulled Sesshomaru from his thoughts. He was almost grateful for the distraction. Far too often lately had his thoughts managed to sway to that mortal girl. He supposed it was the fact that she was the only mortal alive that had ever managed to survive his attacks, to live after having struck out at him as well. She should have been dead so many times over, and yet still she persevered.

She was more than just willful or persistent though. Knowing that the girl was indeed the guardian of the Shikon, despite how ridiculous the notion that such a creature could be placed in protection of such a power, Sesshomaru had sought to gain knowledge of the miko as he had her predecessor. What he discovered though left him no more satisfied. There was no knowledge of her anywhere. No family, no history, no trace at all. Only the village that bordered Inuyasha's forest knew anything of value about the strange miko, but their knowledge proved even more surreal.

'The miko from the future' they would call her. 'The girl that crossed time to come to our aid.'

What did they mean? And where did she disappear to when she crossed through that enchanted well?

Sesshomaru knew of the well, but he was wary of it. Ever since he could remember he had been warned against what lay beyond the well, warned of the consequences of traversing the portal. One day, Sesshomaru had always known that he would forgo his father's warnings, that he could make the crossing; but he had yet to do it. For hundreds of years he had simply avoided the place, never thinking of the magics that he had felt when he was a child and brought to the clearing by the Ageless Tree.

Even now when he recalled the place, he could see the look in his father's eyes when he looked at the well. It had been a look of regret and remorse, of pain and sorrow, of longing and need. Never had seen his father look as he did then. He had seemed so vulnerable, so completely broken, that Sesshomaru never questioned his words, never thought to make little his warnings.

And he hadn't. For many hundreds of years, the old well had been nothing but a childhood memory. That was, of course, until she had come.

"You will not find him."

The slow, toneless voice of the dead priestess brought Sesshomaru's attention fully to her. He was angered that once again he had managed to allow his thoughts to drift, but none of his inner thoughts were revealed as he turned his piercing gaze upon the figure of the walking dead. She stood away from him, her distance maintained as she kept herself close to the line of trees. Her hand was wrapped loosely around her longbow, but Sesshomaru was not fooled by her relaxed stance. All around her, her parasites were winding their way through the trees, restless in their motions as they responded to their mistress' evident agitation. Still, she held her composure, speaking to him in soft but sure words.

"Inuyasha's aura had been concealed. His scent as well, I would imagine. I followed him in response to the cry of the souls dying; the same reason as you if I am not mistaken."

"The affairs of this Sesshomaru are not the concern of one such as yourself, nor should be those of the one you betrayed."

Her eyes hardened, the dark surfaces shifting with rage. "Betrayer and betrayed," she responded darkly, "but which was left alive? It matters not to the dark hand of corruption, to the one seeking our pain through the darkness."

"You speak of Naraku." It wasn't a question.

"Naraku seeks the jewel," she replied flatly as she turned back to the trees. "But what he desires is to see its light corrupted." Her form began to fade into the long shadows cast by the trees in the first light of the morning, but her voice carried back to him over the breeze. "There is no darker act than betrayal, no greater sin than breaking the trust of the one you love."

Irritated by the cryptic words of the dead priestess, Sesshomaru allowed his eyes to narrow in the only outward sign of his agitation. Still, he knew what she was implying. Naraku did not only seek the jewel, but also the corruption of its pure light. He desired above all to see the Shikon fully tainted, burning black with dark power. He had thought to do it once before by using Inuyasha and turning him against his miko, and it seemed that now the dark hanyou sought to do the same thing again.

If Naraku truly had somehow been the one to locate the mindless creature created by the Shikon, if he had managed to cloak the scent and energies that marked its passing, then it would be a predictable move on the behalf of the vile wretch that he seek to use the creature against the ones that Inuyasha had most cared for, breaking them all before he took their lives, deepening the darkness of his precious stone by feeding it on the blackest emotions of those he trapped in his wicked games.

It was repulsive, but Sesshomaru could not deny the fact that the creature would not have been able to cloak its passing without the aid of an outside source, and since the creature was a mindless savage, there was no likelihood that it would have sought out that aid. Naraku was the most obvious culprit. Unfortunately, that also meant that his target was now the miko of the Shikon, the girl from the well named Kagome.

His teeth clenching as his jaw set in anger and frustration, Sesshomaru weighed his options.

Finding Inuyasha and putting an end to his rampage was his first priority, but killing that bastard Naraku was so close a second that it was useless to distinguish the two goals. And it seemed that Naraku was giving him the option to do both. The problem, however, was that the obvious target of the coming assault was the loud, mouthy, whiny, aggravating, wench of a human female that he couldn't even shadow in wait because regardless of the untrained state of her powers, they were still far too strong to miss his presence even from a great distance. That, unfortunately, meant that he would have to endure her presence if he wished to be alerted immediately of the dark hanyou's movements.

It seemed that there was really no other option than to confront the girl, to inform her of the situation. If she was not compliant with his wishes he would simply have to show her the error of such judgment. She would come with him, serve as his lure to draw out his pursuits, regardless of any argument she would present to the contrary. And he knew she would argue; there was simply no escaping that fact. The girl was entirely too willful for her own good. But that wasn't about to stop his plans. She would cooperate, regardless of her feeble mortal mind, his logic was undeniable.

So Sesshomaru turned, setting his path back towards the ancient well and the human girl that was at the centre of so many plots and plans.

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Hiya! It's been a while, ne? Well, I cam blame my computer for that one; apparently it decided that it was no longer going to work for me and promptly crashed. But, thankfully, I have managed to fix it and have found my way back to my little hobby/obsession. And I must say it is such a relief! I mean, I was offline for almost a week, and I thought I would go insane! LOL but I'm all better now.

Anyways, that's all I gots to say. I'm off to the movies :) 300! Yeah! Hot bodies and deadly battles! That is sooo right up my alley.

Well, Ta

Shadow