Chapter 20
The screen was fuzzy with thousands of black and grey dots quivering rapidly, but that didn't stop the Order of the Phoenix from keeping their gazes fixed upon the television, waiting for more. Silenced reigned in the old Black mansion, save for the muffled sound of an abruptly cut news program.
"That was...that...wow..." Tonks summed up. There wasn't much else she could use to describe the episode between Braeden and Shae. Another, briefer, silence stretched. This time Ron, ever so tactfully, spoke up.
"Who the bloody hell were they?"
Hermione fought the reflex to smack him upside the head for his language in front of his superiors. She was thinking the same thing.
"I think," Dumbledore began slowly, his hands clasped in his lap as his eyes roamed the room and it's occupants, "it is safe to assume the man doing most of the attacking was a more...evolved form of the Beast."
Lupin chewed this information through his head.
"Yeah...but I think he was called Braeden." He added. There was much nodding from the members.
"And that Shae guy?" Casey asked, reminding the wizards of his presence, "Who is he?"
"Maybe he's a friend of Harry's?" Neville suggested. This received many uncertain looks.
"No, I think he has a point." Ginny said, warming up to the idea. "The only people who were able to land a hit on The—Braeden—were Harry and Professor Nagasaki. This Shae has to at least be in contact with them. It would be too much of a coincidence for another person with the power to fight this thing to just show up after all this time."
"So he might have the power to defeat Braeden," Hermione listed of her fingers, "and is definitely a friend or contact of Harry."
"Or Professor Nagasaki," said Cho.
Charlie scratched his chin, light with stubble as he tried to remember what he could about Shae.
"Is it just me, or did he look…I don't know...kind of familiar?"
Hestia turned her head slowly towards him from her seat adjacent to his, eyebrows rising with incredulity, "Who, Shae? How the hell could you even see him? They were moving way too damn fast."
Charlie shrugged, oblivious to his fidgeting sister not far to the right of him.
Ginny sat uncomfortable in her chair, wishing the meeting would end soon. The meeting had been in session for most of the day and she was hoping to get back to the burrow before night fell. The reason was that she simply didn't like the idea of leaving her mother alone for more than a few hours. Ever since the demons got her father while he was rescuing a trapped group of ministry employees from the ruins of the Ministry of Magic, the matron was suffering bouts of severe depression. The youngest Weasley was the only one who was around to comfort her mother (while Ron and Hermione did live at the Burrow, they were usually with the Order or out fighting) and often found herself having to remind the older woman that both Fred and George, along with their respective girlfriends, were safe in hiding and that Bill and Fleur were still alive and doing fine.
To her immense relief, it began to drag to a close.
"We should try and contact Potter again," Moody said gruffly, "...see what he knows about this."
Dumbledore nodded sagely, as if he were thinking along those lines all along.
"That does seem like the best course of action." He admitted. "Though I fear I am at a loss as to how we will achieve that. He keeps himself very well hidden."
McGonagall, who had kept silent all this time, had to refrain from rolling her eyes out of respect for the former icon of the light.
"Albus, I am seriously starting to wonder if your age has finally caught up with you." She stated dourly.
Dumbledore blinked and then stared at his deputy officer.
"Why Minerva, whatever would make you say that?" He said lightly with a distinct pout, "After all those lemon drops I've kindly offered you over the years..."
McGonagall closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath.
"Why don't you use Fawkes?" She ground out with a strained smile that looked more like a grimace than anything, "Like you've always done for the past century."
Dumbledore stared at her a bit longer before breaking out into a dazzling smile.
"Why what an excellent suggestion!" he said cheerfully. The shoulders of the entire order sagged in exasperation at the proclamation.
"Why is he still leading this again?" Susan muttered to Ron, still sporting an expression of disbelief.
"Because...he's Dumbledore." Was the simple answer.
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A dark, kimono-clad figure furiously paced back and forth across the icy floors of an Alaskan cavern, cursing the existence of a certain golden-eyed nemesis of his.
"Damn him!" Braeden swore, swiping a rogue chunk of ice from the ground and clutching within his cold, pallid grip, "Damn him, damn him, DAMN HIM!"
The ice was hurled into one of the crystallite walls, shattering spectacularly upon the impact. Alas, the damage was not satisfying to the incensed man in the least.
He stared down at long, spindly fingers, now devoid of any blood or burns thanks to his rapid healing abilities. The same abilities Shae shared. His hands clenched involuntarily—just thinking about that...that...man...made him feel sick. He had nearly been destroyed! Him! The most powerful being in existence! Brought to his knees by that damnable, wretched—
Braeden abruptly cut off that train of thought before it brought him any more agony. He stopped pacing and took a deep, calming breath while running his fingers through long, black tresses.
He hadn't even realized his hands were shaking.
He frowned at his own weakness. He was safe now, in the sanctity of his own gate, there was no reason he should be this affected by the turn of events. It was inconceivable, the thought that he could be afraid. That emotion simply did not apply to him.
It seemed to the dark being that, no matter the form, no matter the time—be it days or centuries—his dreams and ambitions were destined to be thwarted by the same opposition.
There had to be a way to gain the upper hand once more. He nearly had Shae with the dementors, but the man had pulled through once again, conquering everything that was thrown at him. Braeden frowned, biting a nearly non-existent pale lip. What was that patronus? He had never heard of a golden one before. And certainly not one that sent dementors back to the depths of hell so effectively. Was it because of the merging? Or had either Potter or the half-breed had the ability beforehand. From what he had gathered from his mixed up intel, the patronus should have taken the form of a stag or a dog-demon. So the emergence of a chimera brought forth a jolt of surprise. A Nue if he could guess correctly, judging by the monkey head and raccoon-dog body. But that didn't make sense! Nues were thought to be bringers of misfortune and illness, something that would befit him more than the ever honorable—and he thought that with sincere derision—Shae.
Braeden's red eyes gleamed with hatred before shook his head to clear it. He was getting off track. He needed to focus on Shae's weakness. He had to have another one...a better one...one that, by some fortuitous godsend, he wouldn't be able to protect himself from.
After subjecting the glacial floors to a few more minutes of his resumed pacing, Braeden's mind was still blank. This was damn hard! Shae was the perfect specimen to counter anything of himself. Where he was evil, Shae was good. Where he destroyed, Shae created. Where he spread fear, Shae spread hope. Where he thrived on hate, Shae thrived on love.
Love—the root of Shae's strength. It was something that both the hanyou and Potter fell back on in the darkest of times, something that never failed to give them that little extra to grant them victory. He couldn't bring himself to understand how such an insignificant emotion can bring immeasurable power to others.
Love. The thought fouled his mind and his face turned sour.
Love.
His crimson eyes widened fractionally.
That was it.
Love was his weakness.
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"I don't know what the hell would ever possess you to do something that stupid!"
"We're sorry—"
"No—that wasn't even stupid. That was brainless, nonsensical, pedomorphic—"
"We—were just trying to—"
"What? Help? You can't help in this. You are humans. Even demons can't help in this. Kagome, I'm surprised at you. I thought you knew better than this?"
The miko looked down into her lap ashamed, her fingers twitching as though she wasn't sure what to do with them. She and Bridget were seated at the kitchen table, Shae pacing aggravated before them, non-relenting in his reprimanding. The others had gone up to visit Alaina, or rather, had given the first and best excuse not to be around to witness Shae's wrath (the ever irritable Harry Potter was a part of him, after all). Shiva had remained. She loved a good scolding.
"I know," Kagome mumbled, her face aflame with shame.
"Yes, you know. You know how hard it is for me to defend someone and fight someone all at the same time. You could have died! It's hard enough trying to fight him without any distractions. And not only that—do you have any idea what would happen if he did defeat me? Do you have any idea what the world would be like?"
"It was Alaina who demanded to go in the first place." Bridget spoke up in the woman's defense, not one to let her sister get away untouched.
"And what the hell were you thinking?" Shae rounded on her, completely ignoring her comment. "You knew better as well! You can't do any magic yet. When you know you're a liability you don't just throw yourself in harms way like that!"
Bridget bit her lip, trying to stop the hot tears brimming in her eyes from spilling down flushed cheeks. She knew she was in the wrong, but her father would never call her a liability even if he was angry. And despite his relatively coarse nature, neither would Harry. It made her think that this man was not either of them.
Shae seemed to have calmed down a bit by now and brushed his bangs to the side with the back of his hand. "I'm going to see Alaina now and make sure she's alright. Stay in this house until it's over. Understand?"
The two girls both nodded and Shae stalked out of the room.
Shiva let out a low, appreciative whistle that immediately turned two sets of glares on her.
Upstairs was a small gathering around a now awake Alaina.
"The drugs shouldn't have worn off this fast," Ayame said frowning. She pressed a cool hand against the girl's forehead, checking for any signs of fever and was relieved to find none. Alaina shrugged.
"It's probably because you gave me muggle drugs. Those aren't as potent for us."
Kouga shook his head, still unable to believe the nerve of those girls. He still remembered the short bout of panic he felt when he received the phone call from a hysterical Shippo. He had known Inuyasha so long that his children were like nieces to him and the thought of them in the presence of something Inuyasha alone could not defeat was terrifying. He looked over across his mate's head to see Sesshomaru standing as poised as ever. But if Rin's comforting hand rubbing along his arm was any indication, then he was just as shaken as the rest of them. His cool façade had slipped dramatically during the last month of horror. He turned his attention over to Shippo and Souten, both of whom felt the guiltiest for letting the girls slip away under their supervision.
"So you've healed."
Alaina sat up at the sight of the new arrival.
"Dad!"
"Shae." He corrected impassively.
"Sorry...Shae..." it was so weird, speaking to her father as though he was not him...if that made any sense. She felt uncomfortable under his criticizing stare and knew she had a lot to apologize for.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," she said, avoiding his gaze by staring at her the sheets fisted in her hands, "though I know that probably doesn't mean much at this point."
Fortune was with her today for he had calmed down a quite a bit after telling off the other two and just settled for a hard look.
"You not only endangered yourself but your sister and Kagome as well." He said frostily, "Use better judgment in the future because I will not be there to save you all the time and this is far from over."
Alaina bit her lip and breathed in as she nodded forcefully.
"What happened with Braeden?" Kouga asked.
Shae looked at him confused.
"He got away, the bastard, but I thought it was all caught on television? Please don't tell me I put all that effort into dragging the battle away from the chopper for nothing."
Shippo smiled and shook his head.
"Well as soon as you sent the girls back we were more focused on them. We did see Shiva arrive though."
Shae gave a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat at the mention of her.
"Don't even pretend you didn't enjoy my presence," The woman in question said from the doorway followed by a sheepish Kagome and Bridget. "Hello all!"
The rest of the occupants gave hesitant waves (except for Sesshomaru, who ignored her completely), knowing all too well how unpredictable the half demon could be during her rare visits.
"Anyway," she continued on as though oblivious to all the skepticism of her presence, "How goes the rampant demon situation?"
"The flow of demons has lessened considerably," Shae said, pleased with that particular turn of recent events, "Looks like the other guardians have recovered from the millennium crash and are back on track."
"Hmm, I noticed a huge decline in demons back home," Souten said thoughtfully, "I thought they had just spread out more but it seems things are finally looking up for humanity."
"Yeah, but they did cause a lot of destruction while they were here," Ayame pointed out, "a lot of it irreversible too, like the confirmed existence of Hell to humans."
"And the exposure of the wizarding world to muggles," added Alaina.
"Not to mention the entire death and destruction world wide." said Shippo, "People will be panicky long after all the demons are gone."
"You know Shae," Shiva gabbed, "your entire street is pretty much clear of destruction. How'd that happen? Half of my hometown was decimated by demons before I arrived."
"We have my angry half to thank for that..." he said cheerfully, referring to, of course, Harry and his rule over the ninth gate.
"Mmmm...he was rather volatile wasn't he?" Shiva grinned saucily. "Then again, that was Harry Potter's sex appeal—his violence."
"Will you two please stop talking about him in the past tense?" Bridget spoke up a bit irately for the first time since she was reproached, "Why aren't you more concerned about getting back to your normal self! Selves." She corrected.
"Yes, how will you separate?" Rin asked inquisitively. Everyone stared at the hybrid being having wondered the same thing since the ritual was completed. There was a brief moment of foreboding silence before Shae responded while making sure not to look anyone in the eyes.
"Uh...not so sure that's going to happen."
"What?" surprisingly it was Sesshomaru who spoke the word out with a dangerous hiss. Shae lifted his honeyed eyes to meet a similar color and kept his face impassive. He had nothing to fear from Sesshomaru, now being the infinitely more powerful one of the two.
"There is no reversal that I know of," he said clearly. This was met with many horrified and disbelieving gasps.
"No..." Kagome said shakily. She pointed an accusing finger in Shae's direction not wanting to believe it. "No. You—he wouldn't do that to us!"
"To save you? I think he would." He stated neutrally. But it was clear by the light in his eyes that he felt sorry for her.
"But not after...I just..." and she broke down into tears, falling into the awaiting, comforting arms of Ayame. Bridget was frightened by all that was happening around her and climbed onto the bed to be close to her sister. Kouga watched Alaina wrapped her arms around the smaller girl before turning his gaze back to Shae with his brows furrowed as though he had never seen him before.
"This doesn't seem to concern you at all," Rin said skeptically, her intelligent brown eyes suddenly seeing the man in a new, less familiar light.
"Why would I be concerned? Even if there was a way to separate them...if that happened I would cease to exist."
The simple statement brought forth a flurry of concepts that no one had even thought of before. Up until now they had thought of Shae as just a healthy, temporary mixture of Harry and Inuyasha...the threat of Breaden keeping them from having any time to doubt otherwise. But now they are learning that Shae was a completely different person. He was a stranger to them. What if Shae was unwilling to give them back their loved ones once it was all over? What if there really was no reverse to the transformation? Would they be able learn to live with him without being reminded of what they lost?
To Alaina, that last sentence was like loosing her father all over again. It hit her suddenly as she stoked the thick black curls of her shaken sister's hair soothingly, that, in fact, her father no longer existed. Neither did Harry. There was just Shae.
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Up in Burlington, Vermont, happily sipping a cappuccino in her full-sized, winter cottage, was forty-one year old Mona Crawford—formally known as Mona Nagasaki just five years ago. Despite her recent over-the-hill status she still could be called stunning with her long golden mane and clear blue eyes. She stood only at five foot four, a petit woman, and even after giving birth to two children she still had a killer figure that she clearly took time to maintain.
She had come out of the divorce quite well, if she did say so herself. It had seemed at the time that Inuyasha was willing to pay any expense to get rid of her, not that it left much of a dent in his account. And while she was still a bit sore with him after all these years she had to be thankful. Because of her ex-husband she remained relatively unscathed from the demon attacks. He had been kind enough to set up protection wards around her residence to keep her safe. Since then she had been able to enjoy her uninterrupted sanctuary in the peaceful setting on the outskirts of the once beautiful Vermont town.
So it came as no small surprise that she let loose a piercing scream when the very foundations of her home began to tremble as an explosion took place right outside her window, blowing glass across the once pristine kitchen. She leapt from her seat, her ornate teacup shattering around her feet, and ran to the door. Whatever was attacking was going to bring the whole house down and she'd be damned if she was going down with it. She made a brief stop to the small entryway closet to swiftly throw on a woolen coat and grab the gun she hid up on the top shelf. She wasn't fool enough to expect the wards to stay standing when the house came down.
She reached the door and hurled it open, only to scream for a second time when she nearly ran into the shadowy figure of a man standing just outside. Two scarlet eyes brightened at the sight of her.
"Good evening Ms. Crawford," he hissed pleasantly as though he were delighted to see her.
Mona took an involuntary step back into the failing house. She recognized this man. His long, groomed, ebony hair and fitting, black and violet kimono marked him as the same man she saw on the television.
"What do you want?" she asked in a hushed, unsteady voice, wanting nothing more than to get out of the house and away from this man. Unfortunately for her he was blocking her only escape route.
"What do I want? I simply want to make a statement, my dear. And you're going to help me."
He took a step towards her, forcing her to back completely into the residence. Something in the recess of her mind was telling her to get away from him as fast as possible, but it seemed her legs weren't obeying her. She was paralyzed with fear and could do nothing but shake as he lifted a bloodless, bony hand in front of his face. The hand erupted into menacing black flames that seemed to cause him no pain.
"N-no..." she whimpered. Now she knew her paralysis was not natural. It felt as though invisible ropes from all directions were holding her in place. "Please..." she said weakly.
He merely smiled at her. His fangs gleaming in the dull light manufactured from his flaming hand. He reached towards her, slate flames of death dancing in anticipation of her end.
"You can thank your ex-husband for your untimely death when I send him to meet you in hell."
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Right. Lots o' controversy brought up here. Will Shae ever separate, let alone defeat Braeden? Who's Braeden going to kill next? Has Dumbledore finally lost it? Who knows!
Roar! Good times good times. What am I going to do with myself?
If anyone read that insanely random Naruto one-shot, Expectations, I just posted the other day then you are probably wondering what the hell is wrong with me as well. Ah, well.
But if you like timeskip-NaruSaku...and are a pervert...then I suggest you read it!
Thanks for your patience and reviews! I lobe them very, very much.!