PART THREE: BETRAYAL

"Our minds sometimes see what our hearts wish were true."
―Dan Brown, Angels & Demons―

Chapter Thirty-Six: Demon Hunters

Two weeks had passed since Rue and the others had left the cave.

Rue's wing had healed completely, but she'd refused to take the harness off at all ever since the incident. Hakkaku had returned to get Ginta after everything had ended, and the two of them had left to go look for Koga once the latter had been able to run. Reiji, on the other hand, had gone back to Kaede's village: he hadn't so much as given them a goodbye or a wave.

However, Rue wasn't doing as well as everyone thought she was.

Even though she was carefully keeping her mask in place around Kagome and her other friends, it had become almost impossible to hide her true feelings after she'd been told not to follow Seshomaru. Anguish had enveloped the girl's heart every morning, usually before she fully woke up. Even though her eyes were always closed, she couldn't stop the tears from trickling out beneath her long white lashes.

The memories were too harsh: Sesshomaru had told her that she was weak and left her behind.

Ever since, she had been searching for a way to cheer herself up.

Or at the very least, find some hope to help her keep her sanity intact.

But it didn't work like that.

Whenever her eyes opened in the mornings, the memory would smash into her.

And even though she constantly fought it back, she always ended up crying.

She had completely forgotten how to hide her emotions.

That's why it felt so good to just lie there… to hide from the world outside and avoid showing the inner pain that would probably never go away. But eventually, the tears had to stop since she couldn't let anyone know how unhappy she was. She would always put on a calm expression and pretend to be her usual self.

That morning had been like all the rest.

Rue had finally halted the flow of tears and reluctantly wiped her cheeks before getting up.

After all, her friends would be waking up soon, so she had to prevent them from finding out the truth.

However, she was startled to see Inuyasha already making breakfast when she sat up.

"Morning," he stated gruffly, slowly turning his head and giving her a grim look. "Food is almost done."

His glare seemed somewhat out of place; the pale girl let out a soft murmur of acknowledgement and slowly put her bedroll away, using her hair to hide her eyes. The violet ribbons keeping her bangs tied behind her head chimed when she finally jammed her fingers into her armpits and walked over, crouching low by the fire.

"Can't sleep?" she quietly asked, not looking up at him. "You're up awfully early."

"So?" he defensively muttered, throwing a glare at her. "Just because I usually sleep in doesn't mean I'm lazy!"

"Sorry," Rue mumbled, not even having enough motivation to argue with him. After dusting off her tattered knee-length school skirt, the girl sat down and drew her knees up to her chin. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Whatever," he muttered, staring at the fire with a frustrated expression. "It doesn't matter."

Rue sighed upon hearing that and stood up, slowly turning away from the fire; after fluffing her hair out and straightening her red neck-scarf, the pale teenager walked over to her backpack to grab her stockings and dress shoes. The half demon's ears twitched and his eyes flicked over to watch when she slid them on and kicked the toe of her right shoe against the ground. Once she was fully dressed, she looked at their sleeping friends before she stretched.

"I'll be back in an hour," Rue stated emptily, glancing over her shoulder. "I need to get some air."

"Again?" Inuyasha demanded, scowling at her. "Don't go too far like you did last time."

He had a good point.

She had a tendency to wander.

Still, she merely shrugged and walked away from the campsite, not feeling at all happy with her situation.

Her casual pace abruptly quickened when the memories of Sesshomaru's anger touched her heart again: before she could let herself think, she squeezed her eyes shut and started running, not caring where she was going. Still, she ran for a long time... longer than she was supposed to, that much was for sure.

When she finally stopped, she was standing in the middle of a field lying on the outskirts of a nearby village.

She had no idea where she was, or even how to find her friends again, since she couldn't smell them.

After a few moments of weighing her options, she finally decided to enter the village and ask for some directions since Inuyasha's group had camped near an enormous gorge. It shouldn't have been too hard to find, all things considered... but when she finally started off for the village, she realized something strange.

She could see smoke from dozens of chimneys... but there was no one on the street.

An abnormal silence had enveloped the town.

Feeling a little weird about it, the girl halted before she reached the first house.

There aren't even any dogs barking, Rue noted, hairs on the back of her neck standing up. That's weird...

Feeling nervous, the girl slowly went against her instincts to get the hell away from the town and entered it with wary yellow eyes. The streets were literally empty: aside from a small fox that darted away as she passed, there was nobody that she could see. All of the houses were dark and foreboding, and the girl slowly felt her eyes widening when she realized that all of them had shattered windows.

Many doors swung on broken hinges, entrance flaps had been ripped off their foundations, and several food carts had been overturned: everything was so quiet that it felt unnatural.

"What the hell is going on here?" Rue wondered, uneasily looking around. "This town is totally deserted."

The moment she said it, the center of her forehead began to tingle: the feeling flowed across her cheeks and down her torso, spiraling around her body. Rue glanced down at herself but frowned when she didn't see any unusual markings. Directly ahead of her, she could see the village square. Figuring someone would be there, the girl hurried her pace and jogged out onto the open.

Then, she froze, large eyes growing wide in sheer and utter horror.

"Oh, my God!" Rue shrieked, clamping both hands to her mouth and falling to her knees. "Oh, my God!"

That was the only thing she could say.

A mountain of bodies rose above her, the corpses stiff and grimacing.

Their clothes were soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it.

Slaughtered Japanese men lay over the women they had tried to protect... mothers still clasped their children... and young lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death's cold embrace. Deep gouges covered all of them; neither young nor old had been spared. But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby.

Rue let out a choking noise: she tried to look away, but the dead faces held her attention.

She stared at their open eyes with shaking muscles.

However, due to her shock, she didn't hear it when a group of monks wearing flat straw hands walked into the square from a different direction. That is, until one of them spotted her and let out a cry of alarm.

"Master Ungai!" he shouted, making the small girl jump. "Look! It's the demon! The demon came back!"

"Huh?" Rue whispered, looking at them when they flew towards her in single file; she twitched when they started running around her in an alarmingly rapid circle. Startled immensely, the pale girl hastily climbed to her feet and held her hands close to her chest when they all thrust their dark beads out in her direction as they ran. "Hey, w-what are you doing?! Who are you people?!"

"Your time has come, Demon," the man standing beyond the running group stated calmly, pulling out his own beads and making the girl glance at him with enormous eyes. She had a fleeting moment to wonder if these men were the ones who'd murdered the villagers before he shouted, "Evil, BEGONE!"

It was as if the center of her being had been stabbed with a hot iron.

Rue shrieked and arched her back, eyes widening as her hair began to fly towards the sky in a gale of wind.

Agony seared through her veins like fire, burning her from the inside.

However, the monk's eyes narrowed after nearly a minute of watching her endure the pain. After that, he finally withdrew his hand and the monks stopped circling, all of them glaring in her direction.

Rue's knees instantly buckled and she collapsed to all fours, breathing harshly. She slowly clutched the front her shirt, fist tightening in the cloth: her heart was thumping so rapidly that it legitimately hurt.

"Odd..." the lead monk muttered, narrowing his eyes when she slowly lifted her head. "That attack should have destroyed it."

"What is wrong with you?!" Rue wailed, making the Monk stare at her. "That hurt! That really, really hurt, you jerk! What did you just do to me?!"

"Silence, demon!" the man snarled, thrusting his hand out; the monks instantly started running around her again, making her eyes widen in terror. "Prepare to die!"

"Get AWAY from me!" Rue screeched, instantly leaping to her feet and springing into the air in order to get out of their reach. "Inuyasha! Kagome! SANGO! SOMEONE, HELP!"

After she landed, she bolted down the rural street as fast as she could go; her arms pumped madly and her hair flew behind her in a gleaming silver cloud as the monks charged after her. However, when a blast of blue light flew past her left cheek and sliced her skin open, the girl ducked and glanced over her shoulder.

"Atone for your sins, filthy creature!" the monk roared. "Do not flee! Repent for all the lives you took!"

"What are you talking about?!" Rue cried, dodging another flash of light. "I was only passing through!"

More flashes seared past her, proving they weren't willing to listen.

"Do not lie!" he bellowed. "Even if you escape, we will hunt you to the edge of the earth, foul witch!"

Rue immediately felt sick, since these monks apparently thought she'd destroyed an entire village.

"Leave me alone!" she cried, skidding to a stop. "I didn't do it! All I wanted was some directions!"

They didn't stop.

Taking a deep breath, the girl lifted her right hand and held her palm up, letting her power rise to the surface. When her hair fanned out with a jolt of electricity, a blinding flash of lightning smashed into the earth next to the lead Monk with a deafening crack. The lightning not only frightened him senseless, it put his followers into such a panic that they fell over each other and tripped.

The girl's yellow eyes met his for a long moment.

"I could have killed you just like that if I'd truly wanted to," Rue shouted at him. "I didn't do it, so leave me alone! All I wanted was some god damn directions, but instead, I walked into a fucking massacre! That wasn't something I wanted to see, and you have no reason to chase me! Go AWAY!"

So saying, she whirled around and took off running.

Then she jumped, sailing as far as she could go before landing in a crouch and darting into the woods.

Shockingly enough, it only took Rue a few minutes to catch the scent of water, which she followed to the edge of a wide stream: the girl let out a heavy sigh when she was able to plunge her hands into the water. After a drinking her fill and splashing the cool liquid over her face and neck, she rolled back on her heels and looked at the scenery with dazed yellow eyes.

Upon judging how much time had passed, she realized with dread that her friends had probably moved on.

"I've got to find them," she whispered, getting to her feet. "Once I do, I'm never going off alone again."

Unfortunately, before she could take even one step forward, an ear-shattering roar cut through the air and she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a startled shriek of surprise. She was just to run back into the woods like a frightened rabbit when she realized that the sound had come from... below?

The girl cautiously moved forward and paused.

The stream she'd found was actually the top of an enormous waterfall.

Getting down on all fours, Rue carefully peeked over the edge and spotted an armed man sitting on a black horse. Behind him and sitting on a rock was yet another monk who was writing on some sort of odd-looking scroll with a feather quill that shivered and bobbed in his hand. Luckily for her, the thundering of the falls managed to smother her yelp when the half-decomposed corpses of a horse and rider exploded from the falls.

The bodies flew towards the robed man, who ducked low in his saddle.

"That's all that's left of the last human who tried to take my child!" an inhuman voice roared, resonating throughout the stone beneath her and cutting of her train of thought. "Leave me! Sen is mine!"

Not taking kindly to the threat, the armed man launched his javelin into the waterfall.

Digging her nails into the ground, Rue leaned forward a bit more and blinked when she realized that the weapon had jolted to a stop halfway through the falls, quivering silently for a moment. Then she heard a numerous amount of loud crunching noises and the javelin vanished a foot at a time into the curtain of water. Several pieces of what used to be the weapon were launched out of the falls a few seconds later.

The pieces loudly smashed into the shield the man lifted.

"Leave me!" the voice boomed again, making her jump. "She has no family and no home! There's no reason for you to take her away from me! Sen is mine!"

"I won't let a demon like you kidnap a child!" the man shouted. "Much less a human girl!"

"Go away!" a young female voice cried, making the man narrow his eyes. "Leave my Mommy alone!"

"She has bewitched you, child!" the man roared. "Come out and I will end it!"

Rue immediately went still: she had finally realized what was happening.

"He's one of those anti-demon fanatics..." Rue muttered, scowling as she picked up a fist sized stone. Sitting up straight and letting out a huff, the albino girl drew back her fist and launched the rock with all of her strength. The stone sailed through the air and smacked the armed man right in the forehead, causing him to lose his balance with a cry. "Ha... take that, you jerk!"

"Gods above!" the black-haired man roared, clutching his head. "Who did that to me?!"

"I did, you big bully!" Rue shrieked, slamming both of her hands on the ground in anger. "Leave that poor family alone and go away!"

"You don't know what you're doing!" the monk shouted, worriedly scanning the rocks. "Demons are evil! They're meant to be exterminated!"

"Excuse me?! Don't act as if you know every demon from the inside out, you hypocrite! People like you are the very reason we can't live in peace!" Rue screeched, leaping to her feet and stepping forward until the sunlight illuminated her small form. "People who automatically consider things that aren't like them to be evil are the ones who are truly in the wrong! That kind of thinking only leads to suffering!"

"Mother of God," the monk breathed, "she's just a child."

"Who are you?" the armed man called, frowning as the sunlight played off her snowy hair. "Your hair... you're another demon?!"

"Yes, I am! I am indeed a demon!" the girl shouted, making the man's eyes narrow in disgust. "But why does that matter?! I'm not the one trying to kidnap a child, so just leave whoever's in there alone and go away!"

That said, Rue turned around with the intentions of looking for another rock.

However, the girl froze when the monks from earlier jogged into view and spotted her again.

"Master Ungai!" one of them called, voice echoing around the forest and making her yellow eyes widen. "We found her!"

"I told you crazy people earlier to stay away from me!" Rue shouted, whirling around only to remember that she was backed up against a cliff. She whirled around with a look of horror on her face when the monks drew their sutras. "Stay back! Don't you dare come near me with those things!"

Not bothering to listen, they threw their sealing magic. Rue let out a scream and leapt to the side, heart palpitating as the deadly papers sliced into the stone. When the head monk pulled out one more and threw it at her, the girl tried to take a step backwards… but for some reason, her foot hit nothing.

Right before she slipped off the edge, the sutra smacked into her chest and stuck there.

In an instant... it was like her limbs weighed a ton.

"Huh?" Rue whispered, eyes going blank as the world tilted upright. "I can't... move..."

"Look out!" the monk yelled, watching in horror as she plummeted thirty feet to the water below. "Oh, dear!"

"I CAN'T MOVE!" Rue weakly cried, squeezing her eyes shut. "HELP!"

Before she could say more, she hit the surface of the pond.

She automatically tried to take in air only to have water fill her nostrils; the choking liquid pressed in on her from all sides as she tried to breathe. She was frozen: she couldn't move her arms or her legs. Rue couldn't do anything at all as she slowly began to sink underwater, arms stretched out toward the surface.

She watched as the faint rippling above her grew dimmer, fading by the second.

However, her head lolled as something hot and hard gripped her around the middle.

The sutra on her chest was ripped off and she was viciously jerked backwards.

In that moment, her hazed mind began to flicker and remembered she needed to breathe: yellow eyes going wide, the girl clutched at her throat and began to flail around as something pulled her. Then her head broke the surface and she took a deep, ragged, painful, and absolutely wonderful breath of air. However, she choked when something jerked her to the side, nearly cracking her ribcage with the force of the tug.

A few seconds later she was being dragged on land.

Rue instantly had a burning coughing fit and was forced to roll on her side.

She rapidly began to expel the water from her lungs, coughing and choking for several minutes as the liquid came up. However, the second her vision cleared, she was treated to the sight of Inuyasha's face looming disturbingly close. Frankly, she was so startled by his appearance that she nearly fainted.

"Whoa!" Rue squealed, flailing her arms and smacking him in the nose by accident. "What are you doing?!"

"Ow! I just saved your life!" the half-demon hollered, clutching his nose and glaring at her when she scrabbled to her feet and glanced up at the falls. "Twerp!"

"Inuyasha, be nice!" Kagome scolded, slowly approaching them and touching her shoulder; the girl flinched, which made the Asian girl stare at her. "Whoa... you haven't acted like that in a long time. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, mind telling us what the hell was going on with you?!" Inuyasha snapped, glaring at her with an intense scowl. "After you ran off, Kagome and I had to look around since we need to get going."

"You, there, demons!" the armed man snarled, making the trio glance at him. "Leave this place before I smite you!"

"You're the one who had better go!" Rue squeaked in defiance, looking at the waterfall behind her. "To whoever's hiding in there right now... take your daughter and run away! We'll hold them off!"

In response, the waterfall behind Rue exploded.

The girl's yellow eyes widened when she found herself staring straight at a gorgeous Chinese dragon, which leapt through the curtain of water. Her silver fur glistened in the sun as her wings spread to their full width, beating strongly to gain altitude. Just before she vanished, the dragon lowered her gaze to Rue's, and their eyes met: silver to gold. Sitting on the dragon's back was a crying little girl with short black hair.

Anything else Rue could have seen was obliterated by the flying water.

"Damn, it's getting away!" the armed man roared, running over to his horse and leaping onto it. "Come on! After it!"

When he and the monk with the quill galloped off, Rue watched them go with glazed eyes.

"Oi," Inuyasha growled, causing Rue to fall back into the water with a splash. "You alright?"

Parting her soaked white hair like a curtain, she glanced up at him and nodded with a pale face.

"So, what happened here?" Kagome hesitantly asked, glancing at Rue with a dumbfounded expression. "Seriously, how did you end up falling in?"

"It's long story—and I honestly don't want to talk about it until we get back to the others!" Rue stammered, unsuccessfully trying to mask her fear as she looked around for the team of monks. "So... can we get going now, please?!"

Her friends were perturbed by her jittery reaction.

"Well, since we have nothing better to do, let's get back to Sango and Miroku," Inuyasha sourly muttered, hefting Kagome onto his back. "We shouldn't waste time."

"All right!" Rue sighed, shaking herself off before glancing at her soaked clothes. "God, it's gonna take forever to dry my uniform out. Not to mention clean up my feathers and get them neat again... ugh, this is more than five hours of work."

After staring at herself for a moment, the girl heard a twig snap and jerked around to see the group of monks watching her from atop the waterfall: the girl shivered and backed away, pressing her hands against her chest. Then she whirled around and took off into the underbrush, long hair flying behind her.

She didn't want to become a living pincushion.

"Why can't my life ever be easy?" she muttered, following Inuyasha's trail with pumping arms. "God, why me?"

Nobody answered.

Although, perhaps that was a sign that he was watching over her.

Either way, Rue would never have the answer, and she knew it.