Disclaimer: I own Rhiodoru, Karameida, Zaniistar, Kishotaka, Niishi, and Yuryu. All other characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

The Prison of Darkness

Kilala padded silently down the center of the wide corridor, her large red eyes scanning for any signs of life.

Sniffing delicately, the two-tail stalked through the shadows, following her instincts and continuing to move into the farthest reaches of the castle. With her keen eyesight and acute senses, she was making much better time than her human counterparts, and had traveled all the way to back wall of the castle.

Glancing out an open window, Kilala noted the sheer drop down into the valley below. No one would be leaving the castle from this side unless they could fly.

Moving along quickly, she flicked an ear behind her, listening for sounds of pursuit. Hearing nothing, she broke into a trot, sprinting down the long, empty hall.

Coming upon an intersection, she paused, sniffing the air. There! A scent among the dusty smells of the abandoned building.

She turned right, heading deeper into the most northern wing of the castle, following the elusive scent. There was something vaguely familiar about it.

Dark halls and twisting passageways flew by under Kilala's small but agile feet. Nose to the ground, she followed the scent, noting with a predator's mind that her prey was meandering through the halls with no apparent destination. She was getting closer.

She came to an open area, a small lobby with an adjoining balcony that revealed the breathtaking view of the countryside. It appeared to be empty. Kilala paused, sniffing at the air, hoping to pinpoint the location of demon scent. It was near, very near.

Unable to sense anything in the immediate area, she took a few small, cautious steps into the open space. She paused again, her sharp ears catching the sound of a stealthy footstep.

"Well, hello there, kitty."

A figure stepped out of the shadows.

Kilala took a quick step back, her eyes locked on the demon, her hackles up. A low, warning growl rumbled through her.

The demon was wrapped in a loose, black cloak with the hood pushed back, revealing a handsome face framed by waist-length, fire-red hair and crimson eyes with slitted pupils. His ears were delicately pointed, his build lean and not particularly muscular. His face had an expression of satirical amusement.

Kilala watched him warily, waiting for an attack. He watched her in return, his expression becoming unreadable to the demon cat.

"Well, kitty, you must be with those humans Lord Yuryu wants destroyed, aren't you?" He studied her as she studied him.

With a regretful sigh, he pushed up the sleeves of his cloak. "I suppose that leaves me no choice. Sorry, kitty, but I'm going to have to kill you."

As the demon began advancing on her, Kilala let out a snarl, suddenly realizing where she recognized his scent from. He had the same kind of reptilian scent as Zaniistar!

The spirit dragon took another step forward, his expression vaguely apologetic.

Kilala knew the look of someone about to attack, and, with another snarl, transformed in burst of fire.

Gasping in surprise, the dragon took a step back, raising his hands as though to ward off the heat of the flames.

Snarling, Kilala crouched, warning the demon that she was serious.

He studied her once again, his expression becoming even more reluctant. "Now, come on, kitty. Are you going to make me fight you?"

Kilala snarled louder. Had she been human, she would have found the dragon's continued use of 'kitty' to address her even now that she was transformed most amusing.

He sighed. "Can't really blame you, I suppose," he muttered. His expression suddenly became one of listening. Kilala gave a feline frown. Who was he listening to?

His expression shifting to grim resolve, he looked at her again, his eyes filled with regret and unhappiness.

"I'm really sorry, kitty, but I do have to kill you."

It was the slight shifting of his stance that gave Kilala warning. Without waiting for him to make the first move, she leaped for his throat with a roar.

: x ∙ x ∙ x ∙ X ∙ X ∙ X ∙ x ∙ x ∙ x :

It was so dark.

Inescapable blackness, merciless shadows, unending ebony, eternal night. He writhed in his prison of darkness, slowly being crushed by the ever-lasting night.

He didn't know where he was. He didn't know what was happening. All he knew was he was trapped in this hell, this dungeon, this nightmare. There were no tangible boundaries, yet he was trapped all the same. He could feel the walls of ebony closing in on him, moving inexorably closer.

He seemed to float; he had no weight, only an awareness. Did he have a body? Something told him he should, yet he couldn't feel anything. Occasionally, he felt things he associated with physical sensations—pain mostly. But it was swallowed in the agony of darkness.

This state of being reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite remember. Something . . . a jewel, an arrow, a tree. Another eternal night. A name.

He couldn't remember the name.

He struggled against the weight of the darkness. There was something he must remember, something he must do. But black shadows pulled it from him as he fought to remember. The night was alive. It was killing him, he thought, though he was no longer sure if he was even alive.

Maybe he had died. Maybe that was why thought and memory were being sucked into the darkness, why this unending night had swallowed his body and left nothing but a rootless mind. Was this hell?

No, no, that wasn't right. Surely he would remember dying. This was something else. A memory teased him, dancing just out of reach. He reached forward, trying to grasp it with phantom fingers of thought, but it slipped away again and again.

It was a person, he mused. A name; not that other name, but a different one, a different person. He felt a flash of confusion. Was it a different person? The two unknown names seemed connected somehow, though the reason escaped him, just like the names.

The darkness was so heavy, a huge blanket of weight that pressed down on him unbearably, sucking the life from him, his will to resist. He should be resisting, shouldn't he? He had been resisting for a long time, but he could no longer remember why. What was the point? Fighting the night was so hard. Maybe he should just give in and wait for the morning to come.

Something told him this night would have no morning.

He returned to trying to catch the illusive names. He chased them through the landscape of darkness, dodging around other thoughts and memories that kept blocking his path. Other things he needed to know, to remember, but that name seemed more important somehow. Somehow.

Pain.

Pain suddenly filled him, tore through him. He screamed voicelessly, the darkness writhing around him in shared agony. The pain, where was it coming from? It felt like a wound—he had been wounded many times, hadn't he? He knew this pain. Pain in his . . . arm? But he had no body in this place. It didn't make sense.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain diminished to a sharp ache that wouldn't go away, but one that he could endure.

Time seem to have no meaning in this place. Moments or millennia, it made no difference to him. But he had the feeling time was passing. He didn't know why, but he did. It seemed important, but he didn't know why that was either.

Not knowing what else to do, he did nothing. Floating in his prison, wherever it was, he waited. What did he wait for? Nothing. Everything.

Emotion was becoming another memory, and that memory was fading too. This darkness, this evil surrounding him, it drew everything away from him—thought, memory, feeling. He felt flat and empty, emotionless. He knew it was wrong to feel this way, but with nothing left inside him, but he didn't really care anymore.

Surprise filled him. The memory, the name, was now right in front of him, hovering, waiting for him to reach out and seize it.

Suddenly, he was afraid. But then the fear was gone, sucked into the void. He had nothing else to do so he reached out and grabbed it before it could run away again.

Kagome!

The name filled his entire being, flooding him with too many feelings to count. He clung to that name, his only lifeline, clung to it, his relief so strong, for a long time he could not even think.

Inuyasha understood now. The darkness was crushing his sanity, drawing all he had from him, leaving nothing but an empty husk where a mind should have been. One by one, it had swallowed his memories, even his self-awareness, slowly destroying him. But Kagome, her name, her scent, her voice, her love, it anchored him, and he drew the shards of his mind back to him, piecing himself back together. And the more he began to remember and realize, the more he was filled with dread.

This dark prison was his mind, and he was trapped inside. He didn't know how, or what this darkness that was filling his thoughts was, but it was dangerous, very dangerous. One slip, and he would fly apart again, leaving nothing but that dull awareness which would eventual be smothered as well.

Drawing himself together, he examined his situation. He had completely lost connection to his body. The thread that bound mind and body, body and mind, had been severed, and he could not sense even a whisper of it. This state reminded him of the mind lock he had imposed on himself on a very few rare occasions. Only this time, his mind was poisoned with this hideous darkness, and he was too enclosed, too locked in, to find the way back to the outside world again.

He afraid, very afraid, but he gathered his fear and pushed it away, allowing the darkness to consume it. He had no need for fear. He needed to think. Slowly, he began to explore, gliding through his own mind, occasionally stopping to gather up a memory that had been drawn away from him by the repulsive blackness surrounding him.

And then he found the first wall.

It was a solid barrier, impenetrable. Inuyasha did not know what had happened to him—his freshest, most recent memories had been the first ones consumed by the darkness, and the last thing he remembered was something vague about fighting a bear demon and getting a jewel shard, presumably the last one. He didn't have a clue what had happened, but he knew that someone had done this to him—he sure as hell hadn't done it to himself—and he did not want to alert that person to his returned awareness, so he did not push hard on the barrier, only scouted it out.

Disturbed by the wall in his mind, he turned continued searching—and found another wall. And another. And another.

He was trapped!

He was completely enclosed, locked in his mind by this black wall, trapped with that sickening black fog that was slowly consuming him despite his best efforts to keep his mind together. He couldn't escape.

And sooner or later, it would destroy him.

His fear returning, Inuyasha fought it back, pushing it away again. Waiting would do him no good. He had to act.

He gathered himself. His mind powers were gone—blocked from him by the black wall. He didn't know how an ability that was a part of him could be separated from him, but there was no power in his mind, nothing to grasp and use to fight his way out. He had no more power than any other mortal. But that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

He drew his mind together, summoning up all his willpower. Wrapping the shield of Kagome's name around him, he turned to face the nearest black wall.

And with everything he was and everything he possessed, he slammed his mind into the wall of his prison.

: x ∙ To Be Continued ∙ x :

A/N:

:sheepish look: Heh…so I guess that makes seven cliffhangers now…but I promise that next chapter I'll start to resolve some of them! Not to say that the resolutions won't involve cliffhangers of their own… :cowers: Please don't hurt me…

Chapter 27 – One Mistake Too Many