Valadium
Chapter XXI
"Sounds like a trap." Golden eyes glowered.
"It's an invitation."
"Or—it's a trap." Sesshomaru advised dryly.
Kagome pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at the quasi-human demon Lord. Perhaps the extended amount of time in her presence had damaged his brain; creating a malfunction between it and his mouth because she swore that, that last statement was too blatantly sarcastic to have come from the Western Lord. But, with a quick look around confirming that there was no sneaky ventriloquist possibly lurking around, the Amazon huffed, "Naraku wouldn't make something so easily identified as a trap, a trap. It's not in his cosmic-genetic-whatever-make up. Besides, you're the one Kagura told the message to."
Apparently it was Sesshomaru's turn to try his hand at making a sour face. Citrine eyes narrowed in disapproval. "Precisely. You have no idea the context in which she had given it. Do not be daft, miko, Naraku's scheming knows no bounds."
She was proud of herself for holding back the urge to stick her tongue out childishly to his face, instead she barked, "Don't speak as if I weren't there!"
His gaze turned bland. "Taken over by your beast hardly constitutes a cognizant presence, Amazon."
"Yeah? Well next time we're in a battle by ourselves, do try to remember holding back your jaki. You might not be able to use it but apparently its gotta be let out some how, and I don't want to be the conduit next time." She seethed. Frowning, Kagome leaned back against her tree with the mar of pain on her features.
Damn she hurt.
On the way back from their most recent travel to Totosai, Kagome and Sesshomaru had been attacked. 'Not that, that's new.' She couldn't exactly remember if it was because of the jewel shards, or for Sesshomaru's hide. And while she didn't care in the least either way, those thoughts scared her. The reasons why her and her pack were attacked were starting to blur and run together in her mind. Not that it exactly mattered. Whoever attacked her, for whatever reason, were going to die. End of story. The reasons didn't matter anymore, and she stopped hearing them a while ago. And that partially scared her. It made her fear that she was becoming numb to taking a life. A fear that made her feel somewhat human still, and that human part of her wanted to know why offenders kept it up even after knowing their plight was futile at best against such a powerful and skilled foe that she presented.
But these were neither here nor there. During the fight, the pent up jaki from Sesshomaru finally burst, and since it obviously couldn't exit the human demon Lord, it found its next best outlet.
Her.
Kagome would never forget the burning sensation of his venomous power forcing its way through her, into her and around her as if trying to suffocate her very essence. It was like Hell on Earth. Then, as its yellow aura made its way toward the bottom of her well of cold, ice jaki, she felt the endless hole that housed her reiki come to life, lighting up her skin like a feudal Christmas light.
She thought she would go insane. Luckily those youkai were dumb enough to have stayed up to that point. The beast that had been Kagome was starving for blood shed. But unlike the western Lord and the Amazon's normally more astute and graceful techniques, the Beast's were awkward and brutal, despite the terrible powers that were housed in one tiny body; the attacking youkai were strong enough to last an hour against her and, due to the uncooperativeness between the combination of both powers and the Beast, the lingering demons were able to wound her severely several times.
It was moments after Kagome had hacked down the final snake demon that Kagura happened upon the scene. Trying to avoid the bestial girl, the wind witch turned to the demon Lord who was, on the outside, coolly leaning against a tree. However, on the inside, the instincts he had been dealing with for the last year told him to stay away from the youkai emitting such power, it nearly made him stagger. The bloodied Amazon, however, did not take Kagura's advance too kindly. A petite, battered body slid between the wind sorceress and the white inu. It had seemed that the small demoness was intent on attacking, when, with much internal struggle, a graceful, striped, pale hand settled on a thin, bleeding shoulder.
"What is your business here, Kagura?"
Cerise calmly met gold before flicking back to the blood filled ones of the inu demoness. "I come bearing a message from Naraku."
She was silently perusing the female beast that was standing in front of the Western Lord like a guard ready to die, and Sesshomaru was almost sure she had forgotten the message. When a deep guttural growl from a thin chest and the cracking of knuckles filled the silent, blood bathed clearing, the wind demoness startled out of her reverie.
"Naraku's message is," talons twitched in impatience as lips pulled back to reveal teeth that Kagura was sure did not belong in a humanoid face. Her eyes widened at the implications of the once-miko's silent threat, "Naraku's message is this: He knows of your plight, Sesshomaru-sama, and he knows how to fix it. Meet me at the Southern tip of Nippon in six days. Also," scarlet eyes flicked back to haunting crimson, "tell the…miko that Naraku sends a plea for her help."
Then she was gone, leaving behind a scent of fear so strong that even Sesshomaru's weakened nose could pick it up. When he was sure the demoness couldn't go after the wind mononoke, the white clad inu dropped his hand from its position. Lightning quick, the raven-haired Amazon caught his hand, a single blood-filed eye peering at him over her shoulder. Sesshomaru knew that he had two choices at the moment: submit and live, or try and fight and possibly die. The sword she had given him some moon cycles ago felt heavy at his side, tempting him.
Golden eyes blinked, drawing himself out of his thoughts. Carefully, he studied the female across form him. It didn't look like she remembered anything. And she had been quite embarrassed when she had finally come to, the pain of riding out his powers and the clash of both of hers sending her into her half-woman, half-beast form. When crimson orbs gave way to crystalline, she had the Western Lord in her arms, obsidian talons resting in silver strands, with his head resting on her collarbone. If her skin had been the golden color of her humanoid form, Sesshomaru was sure her face would have been bright red.
The movement of the Amazon's ebony form rising caught his eye. Her wounds were not all healed yet, but he imagined that she was tired of resting. Paws bigger than his head padded towards him. "Hop on, Sesshomaru-sama. We don't have much time to gather the others."
Standing in that fluid way he always managed despite the lack of demon grace, the Western Lord titled his head up to meet her eyes. "So you mean to fall into his trap, Amazon?"
Resolve hardened her nearly white blue orbs, before kneeling her front quarters to let him slide onto her high back. "It's not falling for it if you already see it."
Sesshomaru nodded to acknowledge the simple wisdom in her words, while absent-mindedly reaching up to scratch at angry red fang marks in the swell of his shoulder under the neck of his haori.
Kagome wasn't too sure who was more surprised. Them at seeing a waiting Kagura at the tip of the mainland a whole two days early, or the wind mononoke herself. One thing was sure though, and it was the shining look of genuine relief in the witch's magenta eyes, before they flicked towards the far off islands in worry.
"Please, Kagome-sama," nearly everyone gasped at the honorific she had placed with their Alpha's name, "Please hurry, I'm not too sure how much longer he'll be lucid this time."
"You're speaking of Naraku." The Amazon stated, and it was understood that she was seeking clarification.
The wind witch nodded, "Yes. Please help him. He is my father."
Ice eyes narrowed, "I thought you hated him. What changed your tune, Kagura?"
" I hate that thing that he becomes," she spat, the flame of hatred heating her eyes. "But he has been better for the past three years, and I think it's because of you…being this." Manicured claws gestured to Kagome's form.
A sense of truth came to the futuristic female. 'How is my being youkai got anything to do with Naraku?' Curiosity piqued, black ears twitched forward out of their slanted back position.
Kagura must have sensed a change in the petite inu because she stepped closer. And proceeded to inhale sharply when a twin bladed sword's gleaming tips were a breath's inch away from her throat. 'I didn't even see her move!' She mentally screamed. 'The only youkai who I've seen can move that fast is Sesshomaru.'
"I might still be a little sluggish from the fight you happened upon a few days ago, but I promise I can still tear you apart, Kagura." Ice eyes were as hard as diamonds, the iris' seemingly multi-dimensional, "Don't think for a moment that just because I show interest in your story means I'll let you close enough to possibly do damage."
A sudden outpour of chilling jaki pushed the mononoke back more than a few feet. Magenta eyes watched as the double fanged sword was lowered to the smaller female's side, her breathing labored at the pressure of that power on her, even for a moment. A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind.
"We are not friends, Kagura. The only time we have faced each other has been with me on the other side of your Dance of Blades. Do care to remember that, witch."
Thoroughly looking chastised, Kagura snapped her jaw shut and fought to catch her breath. 'At least I know that if she can't save him, that she is strong enough to kill him.' The mononoke thought grimly. 'But if what Naraku says is true and she has the Darkness in her, then he'll be free from It forever.'
"Very well," Kagura nodded, "I've hidden him on the islands. I assume your pack has means to carry them over sea."
Kagome dipped her head, and jaki filled the area once more, this time visible, ice blue with streaks of black and yellow starting at her feet and sweeping out in a flurry of wind, picking up her long hair and the loose fabric of her haori under the armor she wore. Soon, the physical manifestation of her power cocooned her and swelled to massive proportions. When the power faded, a slender, graceful black dog only half the size of the Western Lord's true form stood over the Amazon's pack like a sentinel.
Though she was smaller, the once-miko's form was noticeably packed with compact muscles, and paws big enough to demolish small villages. Tall triangular ears gave her slender head an intimidating and fox-ish look, with a mane that started at her breast and moved over both shoulders and around her neck only to flow down her back drawing the observing eye to the long curling fur of her swishing double tails. Eyes the color of fresh blood with blue pupils so light they appeared white gazed down at the woman the creature knew as enemy.
Ryoto felt his eyes widen just as surprise faintly wafted off of Sesshomaru. 'I didn't realize how much power she commanded. And so big for just a pup!' Gleefully he sized up the massive foreleg pressed against him. 'I can't wait until she grows into her paws.'
Warm amber eyes eyed the giant and very prominent knuckling of her paws and deduced that unlike a mere dog, she had much more flexibility and also retractable claws much like her feline cousins. 'But she has not been able to previously use this form yet. So it must be a by-product of Sesshomaru's jaki outburst.'
The currently human-like Daiyoukai in question stepped forward, taking lead when the creature who was Alpha lowered her head between her legs to look at them upside down. "The Amazon will transport her pack and this Sesshomaru to your destination, Kagura." And proceeded to turn his attention to the massive form of his protector. "Lady, Ka-go-me."
Without much more than a huff, the demoness did as he bade, shifting backwards and laying her belly upon the ground with the group safely in the circle of her chest and forelegs. Immediately Rin squealed and clamored up a shoulder before diving into the mane down the inu's back, "So soft, Kagome-sama!"
Shippo and Kohaku followed, the Kitsune just as energetic, but the hanyou much more sedately. Ryoto laughed, picking up Miroku by the back of the monk's robes making the young human curse, before throwing him onto Kagome's back, and lifting Sango and Kikyou gently onto his shoulder's to jump gracefully up.
Kagura watched the boisterous pack with not a little bit of jealousy. Cerise eyes caught movement from the humanized Western Lord and cocked her head when it seemed as if he were turning to walk towards his dragon steed.
Kagome leaned forward to lay her head on the ground, and huffed, the wind ruffling the silver haired male and his clothes. But it had the desired affect. Sesshomaru turned, gold locking with blood red over the top of her glistening black nose. She growled and he blinked. 'Did she…?'
Growling again, Kagome tilted her muzzle and fanned the sleek barely there whiskers. Grunting, the Western Lord grabbed one, and with a well-placed foot on another sturdy whisker, he was soon standing on the slope of her muzzle.
Ruby eyes watched curiously as the once-miko and the once-Daiyoukai stared at each other.
The black inu stood, careful of her passengers and the one who slowly walked up her nose and towards the crown of her head. A warm hand caressed the edge of a giant ear before sitting propped up against the ridged object, "Thank you, Amazon."
Without further adieu, Kagome leapt off the edge of the cliff side and vanished from the wind witch's sight. Kagura rushed to the edge, only to see the majestic form of the inu bound across the surface of the ocean, thick sheets of ice forming under her paws as she stepped. "These people keep surprises coming like sweets to a fat kid." She huffed before hopping on her feather and speeding to catch up and over take the bigger demoness' lead.
Kagome's excitement could be felt by all of her pack as she touched down on the sandy beach of the island Kagura had led them to. After making sure everyone had dismounted safely, the extreme amount of jaki that sustained the dark inu's form, suddenly swallowed itself up like a futuristic vacuum leaving the humanoid Amazon in a half formed cocoon of ice on the fine grains of sand.
A smile split her tanned face as she bound up to Sesshomaru. "That was so cool!" Lithe arms wrapped around his armored waist. "It was like having a piece of you inside me, channeling my power into the correct form."
Sesshomaru felt an immense amount of pride for his pupil. "Good, Amazon. Did it feel natural?"
The look on her face paused before drooping slightly. "Well, now that you mention it…not as comfortable as the…other one." She ended slowly, and even with his very limited abilities, the human Daiyoukai could sense her hesitation at speaking of her half woman half beast form in front of the others.
"Do not be discouraged." With that Sesshomaru turned his attention to Kagura who seemed too eager to listen to them.
The former time traveler nodded before turning as well, "Alright Kagura, its time to prove yourself. If I so much as smell deceit or a hint of a trap, I have no problems killing you and tearing your body into so many pieces that even Naraku couldn't find them and fuse you back together."
Seeing seriousness in the diminutive inu's eyes, the wind mononoke flinched and felt sweat drops line her brow, 'Sometimes its easy to see the original human miko, but then she says or does something that displays how much she has changed.' Cerise eyes roamed the tanned, scarred and marked face of the female alpha. 'But I have no doubt that her threats are real.' She watched as the pack positioned themselves around the once miko, and yet stayed behind her. 'There is a lot of power in this girl. I just hope it's the kind that will save Naraku.' "The compound is this way."
Kagome narrowed her eyes and began to follow the mononoke. "Ryoto, bring up the rear. Kikyou and Miroku, I want Shippo and Rin between you two. This deer path isn't very big, so be on your guard." Ice orbs locked with cold gold before flicking to the newest pommel at his hip. A small nearly inconceivable nod came from the silver haired lord before Kagome trotted into the bushes following the witch.
Sesshomaru had only been able to barely practice with the unusual sword that was a gift from his future, but the weakened demon rather hoped he got to finally use it.
"Kagome." Her name fell from his lips as a reverent whisper.
Although the petite inu demoness was wary of the spider hanyou laying on the futon in the shadows of the great bedroom, she was curious too. For the last three hours she had followed the wind demoness through the dense jungle-like forest on the island until they had reached an old dilapidated manor that seemed to be perched precariously on a cliff side that overlooked a rocky half-moon bay. It wasn't until she got closer that she realized that the otherwise normal looking manor was actually built into the side of the cliff it sat on.
Once inside, Kagura warned the pack that the manor was just as rickety as it looked and that they would have to watch their step. She proceeded to explain that there were rooms that she had crossed that had crumbled beneath her very feet, and as Kagome padded and tested the path through the hallways before her pack, she caught glimpses through shoji doors that verified the sorceress' words. As she was led further into the house, she became aware of the scent of agony and despair until after the final screen door was shifted and she was finally granted the sight of her greatest enemy since the beginning of her excursion to the Feudal Era so many years ago.
Kagome responded, finally, with a curt nod of her head, "Naraku."
Silence consumed the space between the dark hanyou and the tiny demoness and her pack as Kagura politely bowed to the other female and stepped across the room to sit in a corner near her master. The calming sound of the waves crashing against the rocky shore outside the estate sounded distinctly out of place to the Selva-cão pack.
"You have changed much in three years." He appraised with crimson eyes and a strange gentle curl to his lips. His expression wasn't one of lust or aversion like it had been in the past. Somehow, this lone gaze managed to remind the small inu of the look her grandfather had given her the last time he had seen her off through the well.
Fond longing.
She remained quiet and unmoving, sitting perfectly in proper seiza even as she felt nervous shifting from a few members of her silent pack who sat obediently behind her. She knew that if she allowed herself to think any longer on the lingering feelings swelling in those familiar and yet suddenly unrecognizable crimson eyes, beliefs she had thought unshakeable for many years would suddenly be moved; disturbed. One of the foundations she had built her Feudal life on was going to be shaken, and she knew it.
Her crystalline eyes were intense, but Naraku managed to refrain from squirming under that gaze. Flicking a glance to her left he met orbs of cold suns, and yet found that the Daiyoukai's gaze was much easier to meet. He turned once more back to the demoness.
"You have spent nearly six years hiding from me and mine. Tell me, Naraku, why the sudden invitation to meet?" She finally spoke, her voice rumbling with the assertiveness of an alpha inu and the yawning of fierce jaguars. The effect made goose bumps rise along his skin and his eyes to dilate.
"I did not choose to hide from you!" He nearly sobbed, fists clenching as if the mere idea of proposing that he had been purposefully evading her hurt him. "He made me. I promise—"
The Amazon narrowed her eyes as his red ones desperately searched her face, something wild and unrecognizable in those bloody depths.
"Kagome-sama—my Valadium!"
Something in her gut jerked and twisted at that word. Like the final switch of a circuit, and the diminutive canine felt something else come alive, awake, and alert from the deepest recesses of her being. A thing that was more embedded in her very existence than even the beasts that governed her instincts. And she wondered how a characteristic that seemed so essential, vital, could be over looked; how she didn't even know that it was missing until an individual who was so miniscule and worthless and unimportant and yet such a major factor in her life for almost a decade spoke to her after innumerous taunts and threats and blood-boiling, soul wounding events he had been the mastermind of directed solely towards her and hers?
Anger warred with confusion in her eyes as she heard, felt and saw the being she had only knew labeled as 'enemy' let that blaringly powerful word practically drip from his thin, sick masculine lips. The effect this time was even more potent as it struck her, knocking the wind from her lungs like nothing she had experienced before, and yet it felt as if lightning blitzed through her nerves, like a feudal defibrillator. Even without a mental image, Kagome could feel something dark, and numb raise its head at the very core of her. Something that made the beasts whimper in fear. Another whispering of that vile, strong, precious word had the kuro inu launched forward; sweating palms bracing against the ancient, mildewed flooring she sat on.
Distantly, she was aware of the Daiyoukai and sort-of Daiyoukai behind her trying to control the quarreling cacophonous mess that was now her pack trying to get to her aide, but she found that she could only concentrate on the spider hanyou that was trying his best to crawl towards her from his sweat drenched bedding, agony lining his every movement as beads of perspiration formed on his brow. His eyes were what caught her attention though. Despondency, relief, anxiety, and above all, love shone in his ruby red eyes; eyes that she had only known to proudly show hatred, loathing, greed and a level of maliciousness that was comparable to none.
But she also saw a kindling of the most pitiful hope she had ever seen. A hope that she had seen in various ways, but none so meager and so delicate as the one that shone in his eyes. And immediately she knew what it was that Naraku saw in her as he said that word.
Salvation.
She knew he saw the moment she realized what it was that he wanted. And in that moment as Valadium became so heavy on her as if gravity had decided that her insignificant amount of mass was the most laborious thing that existed on the planet, despite the fact that she did despise him as an enemy and that she wanted to loath him for what he was making her do, Kagome fought to reach towards him as the scent of brine sighed through the room. For each tear that slipped his eyes, the Amazon inu struggled to inch closer to him, and for all of the ten feet that separated them it felt as if thousands of miles stretched the distance. Until finally, the now silently sobbing hanyou was collapsed on the floor, and the once-miko now demonic-other-savior was able to keep her stance with all of her might standing only as far as her arms could keep her from the floor. Ice blue eyes scrutinized the pale face hidden underneath thin strands of kinked black hair the same shade as her own, and the power of his word made the thing inside her that she knew was not beast nor priestess rumble in triumph at being so close to the one who murmured.
Contempt swallowed, the demoness worked to get the words she needed to out, "Know what you ask of me, Naraku."
The power affected him too, she could tell, as his throat worked fervently yet producing no sound. For the first time since what felt like long ago when this began, a sound other than him and her crossed her attention as cerise eyes nearly identical to those of the man just in her reach flashed outside of her bounds, "Stop! Can't you see this is killing him as it is?! Just help him!"
"Shut-up witch!" Crimson veins so dark they seemed black leaked into the demoness' eyes, something behind her voice that was stronger and even more dangerous than the Alpha. "You know nothing of what you ask!"
Her attention snapped back to the quivering hanyou as cold, clammy fingertips brushed the edges of her fingers and claws, and Kagome noticed that he had crawled the last little bit of way to her, which caused his haori to loosen and slip so far down that she could completely see the spider scar that scrawled the majority of his back, "Kagome."
The mere whisper of her name and the relief that etched itself across his pained features at the simple touch of their hands shook that foundation in her once more with an air of finality to it and caused her to shudder and made her decide what to do before she could have to chance to back down. She reached for the nape of his neck and beckoned to him, "Say the word again, Naraku."
He gasped.
"Say it." She growled.
The dark haired hanyou seemed to concentrate all of his power on voicing the words that needed to be spoken that Kagome knew, knew, this could be where she saved him and he lived, or she didn't and he would die. If she had had the ability, she would have howled at the moment of precise clarity: this was just like with the dog in the woods that made her into him.
"My…Valadium."
The power came to a crescendo; a moment of calm center before what she knew was going to be a ferocious storm as that something rebuilt that shaking center of herself, and flooded her from deep in her gut with terror, relief, numbness, passion, fury and a coldness she could feel it in her bones. Resolve filled her so completely it nearly frightened her but she knew that this was not going to be anything like the incident with Tacheal. 'Not this time.'
"You are mine, Naraku." With a flash her hand reached forward and grasped the back of his neck.
The room exploded in black light and thunderous winds through which Kagome shielded her eyes from the strength of the gales to watch as that very same darkness she felt at her navel reached up through the skin of her arm, turning it the deepest black she had ever seen, and stretched to Naraku's form. It poured down to the bottom edges of the hideous purple scar before it tried to pull back. For a few seconds, she watched the strange darkness as it seemed to try to eat the scar.
Horror filled her when she realized that the scar was fighting back.
'He's possessed.' Jeweled eyes drifted across his face and saw that he was cringing and the scent of his pain had intensified drastically. 'He's been possessed. And this thing in me is ripping it out.'
She narrowed her gaze and allowed the passion and anger to rise. 'Give up, you fucking bastard. Give up, damn you!' More black power poured from her and something sick and twisted that came with this thing settled securely in her belly; satisfaction at seeing her win as the sheer darkness of her viciously decimated and feasted on the thing that tried to keep her newest acquisition from her. A sinister snarl ripped from her mouth as a warped smile stretched her lips, black bleeding into her eyes. "Not this time, fuck face. I let you have the last one, but I won't let you have this one. He has so much potential for a familiar. Now. Let. Go!"
She opened the channel all the way.
Naraku screamed.
Kagome laughed.
A/N: Well, what did you think? Please review. Also, if you would like to get a good idea of how I see Kagome as an Amazon Inuyoukai, please visit my deviantArt page, this link will send you directly to the sketch after you replace the.s: art/Kagome-s-face-in-Valadium-354960493
~Draco