At the End of the Tunnel

AN: This story was one started by Qualapec the She-Wolf - who sadly, has seemed to have retired from fanfinction - under the original title At the End of the Tunnel. I fell in love with the story they started and devised a plot to continue it. All credit is given where due, and Qualapec the She-Wolf wrote these first five chapters. I will mention the original author at the beginning of each chapter they wrote. I only modified slight grammatical errors and added a slight shadowing of my plot points for later on. Otherwise, I tried to keep it all true to how they wrote it. It was too great a story to leave alone so I hope you all will enjoy where I have taken this plot.

I have completed this first "novel" in it's entirety, but I will post each chapter after the first 6 on a weekly basis to create more traffic :) A high number of reviews may persuade me to post on a more frequent schedule ;) All and all it turned out to be 108K words and roughly 90k are my own.

I am currently writing the second "novel," so there will be more to come of this epic story.

I have been writing my own original works, but this is my first writing of fanfiction so please R&R! :)

Plot Summery AN: It's a SanzoxYaone slow burn romance with plenty of hurt/comfort.

"Sanzo is captured and is being held at a prison outpost under command of Houtou Castle. Kougaiji, being the man of conscious he is and knowing Sanzo will be tortured, charges Yaone to care for him. What begins as a simple and mostly one sided doctor-patient relationship turns into more as they begin to realize they care about other more than enemies should. Experience Sanzo and Yoane being the total badasses they are, and Nii being the total evil jerk he is. Love is a complicated and multi-sided facet where the Saiyuki character's are concerned. Can Sanzo survive all Nii has in store for him? And what connection does Nii have to Sanzo that would drive him to such heinous acts?"

Mostly Sanzo and Yaone POV but some other characters get some time too. There is some major plot consisting of love triangles between the characters, so they will get their time to shine. I feel the characters are kept well represented and there should not be anything OOC (please feel free to let me know if you think there is though), just some creative liberties taken as far as who has the hots for who. It stays decently canon but with some variances, and begins sometime after reload gunlock according to the manga. As there is a lot of graphic scenes of violence and torture, I will be sure to list any content warnings on a per chapter basis. Lots of strong language, graphic violence, non-con, adult themes, and smoking (of course) throughout different chapters of the fic. Weak constitutions be warned! This fic is not for the faint of heart. Nii is a completely evil M**F**er in this fic (believe me, you will cringe if you have a soul).

Original Plot Summery: SanzoxYaone! Sanzo finds himself captured and taken to a remote prison outpost under the command of Houtou Castle. With torture and execution on the horizon, his future looks bleak. Even he admits it. Yaone was the one thing he didn't see coming...

Chapter (non)AN: the amazing author Qualapec the She-Wolf wrote this first chapter. I feel Yaone is a little OOC in her writing as I think most writers try and self-insert into her personality. I like Yaone's original personalty just fine so she will shift back to the very polite and kindly woman she is my own chapter. She is anything but weak though. She is tough as nails and I give Yaone major street cred.

Chapter Content Warning: language.

Now, on with the show!

Chapter 1

There was darkness, that was all his eyes could see. He could feel rough hands dragging him by his elbows, putting strain on his bound wrists. His bare feet were already unfeeling from the cold floor. His breath was hot against the black sack thrown over his head. The sack itself smelled disgusting.

Genjo Sanzo remained limp in the arms of his captors, he did not have the energy to resist. The injuries he had sustained during the battle were still hurting him. Thankfully though, they had settled down to a dull throbbing instead of the deep, sharp jabs to his nerves.

How long ago had it been since his capture? He had spent so much time passed out, but he could have sworn some of the time had been spent thrown over (already hog-tied by that point) a flying dragon. Sanzo knew this due to the memory of the ice-cold rain numbing his back...at very least that was when the pain subsided. He did not know where he was either. He could guess though. The demons may have taken him back to Houtou Castle, which would save him a lot of time on the off chance he could: break his ropes, defeat five or six guards injured and with his bare hands, and escape the same way under the same circumstances.

Yeah... he could do that... if he could get his body to respond to him.

"Hey, man," One of his guards said, "Aren't you worried? This is Genjo Sanzo, man!"

"Nah, we'll be getting our reward from Koushu long before this drug wares off."

So much for that particular suicidal plan.

Sanzo, despite the joking, knew there were very few ways he would manage to get out of this alive. Most of those very few included different variations of them nicely letting him go with a slap on the wrist. However, he had killed far too many people... he doubted whoever was in charge could retain good standing with their people without violently executing him. That is what you did with war prisoners: you amped up the confidence of your own soldiers by beheading the person who had killed so many of them. Not only that, but his head in a box would destroy Goku, who was at the moment, the worst threat to them.

There were a lot of reasons to kill him.

Then there were the reasons for keeping him alive: torture, public humiliation, more torture... all of which would still end up with them exterminating him anyway.

Things were looking pretty bleak.

This made itself even more apparent as someone jerked him up off the floor and onto a chair. Then someone ripped off the black bag. Bastard took some of his hair with it. Sanzo grunted as bright lights stabbed his eyes. Ugh... it was worse than a hangover. "Ow..." he said, not as an expression of hurt, but as dry irritation.

A form in a white lab coat appeared as soon as his vision adjusted to the light. Glasses and an unshaven face. Hair as dark as Sanzo's was golden. Eyes somehow a shade darker than his hair. The hair was spiked. His eyes obscured by glasses. But Genjo Sanzo would know his master's murderer anywhere. It was the strange presence he felt around the man, how he had known he had been there when Goku was injured, how he had known the man was in the room when Koumyou Sanzo died. It was him...

Ukoku Sanzo.

"Hello, little Genjo Sanzo..."

"Bite... me..." Sanzo rasped out. A weaker man might have let his head droop to the floor, but Sanzo held his head up. Despite the immense physical strain, he would look this man in the eyes.

"Mmmm. Still a little spunky, are we?" Nii said, before reaching out a hand towards Sanzo's neck and chin. "Well, we'll just have to work on that, won't we?"

Sanzo hated this man. This man who was responsible for all the pain in his life. For all the rainy days spent locked in one dark night. His memories always setting themselves on loop.

Sanzo hated this man. So, he told him so. The only way he knew how.

"I am going to kill you, fucker."

Nii just smiled the same twisted smile, "Oh dear, Genjo Sanzo..." Nii slithered a hand around Sanzo's head, fingering his hair with the other. Calmly he whispered in the blond monk's ear; with a voice that slithered into his brain with the ease and vileness of a snake, "There are places, beyond the heavens. Celestial whirlpools that are so dark and so powerful that not even the light of a star can escape their grasp. Koumyou Sanzo could not escape me, what makes you think you can?"

"If I recall, a black hole is made when a star collapses in on itself," Sanzo said back, going with the analogy. He shuddered inwardly at the vile contact and tried not to show it.

"...Yes. But it becomes more powerful than any star in the sky when it does," He laughed. "That's what happens when you sell your soul to darkness." Another laugh echoed through the air as he gently released Sanzo's hair. Striding over to a surgical stand not too far from the wooden chair Sanzo was tied to, he picked up a needle. Sanzo would bet good money that whatever was in there was going to be detrimental to his health.

Nii walked back over, the twisted grin still there as he squeezed the end of the syringe, sending a tiny arc of the clear fluid into the air. "I hope I don't need to tell you how much this is going to hurt. I'd lose myself going into such intricate details."

Sanzo had a feeling Nii was not just talking about the pinprick, "Just get it over with, bastard."

"If you insist." And he jabbed the syringe deep into Sanzo's arm.

VVVVV

Yaone had just finished putting Lirin to bed, the girl managed to keep her busy all day. Now she wanted nothing more than to rest, but work needed to be done. Her headache was, at the moment, too great to work with gunpowder, so she supposed she would get to work with organizing her herbs and medicinal equipment... Lirin got in there earlier and mucked it all up. Yaone chewed her out, warned her that if her remedies were in the wrong place at the wrong time then somebody could die. She left out about how that person could be Lord Kougaiji. How a girl Lirin's age did not understand that on her own was beyond her. She groaned; her day had consisted of chasing Lirin while Kougaiji and Dokugakuji followed a rumor about the Kouten Scripture. As it stood, she was utterly exhausted... There were times when Yaone wished Kougaiji would take her with him and let Doku care for Lirin. Then she immediately denounced the idea. Doku... was father material, but she did not think he was ready to rumble with Lirin yet. The demonic child had far more energy than a four-year-old on caffeine. Besides, taking care of Lirin was just one more way she could serve her lord. And she had to admit that if she never got to do it, she would miss little Lirin. All she wanted was a break every now and then.

But as she opened up the first of the leather bags and the smell of catnip washed over her, she realized that this was the best it was going to get for a while. So she sat there, re-organizing her herbs and her other medical equipment. She did not have Chi Gong to her advantage like Hakkai did. So, she made do with things like bandages, tourniquets, and other things she would need for surgery in the field.

She could not contain the sudden yawn. Oh, how she just wanted to go to bed! But her equipment needed to be efficient again as soon as possible. It far too dangerous to just let it stay as it was. In the very likely occurrence that Kougaiji or Doku needed her help, precious moments spent fumbling around could mean the difference between life and death. Besides, if she did not organize it again that would just make her a hypocrite for what she told Lirin. How could she go into such intricate details about how dangerous it was if she just let it stay like that?

"Hey, Yaone!" Doku's voice echoed through her workshop.

Yaone spun around in her chair, snapped awake by her friend's voice. The first thing that crossed her mind was that something was wrong. Damnit. She was not ready! "Doku? What is it? Is someone hurt?"

"You could say that, Genjo Sanzo's been captured by Koushu's men," He said gravely.

"What?" Yaone asked.

"'What'? That's all this gets is a 'what'?"

"I'm sorry, it just took a moment to sink in..." As a matter of fact, it was still in the "sinking" process. Sanzo? Captured? The violent monk who mowed down hordes of her kinsmen without much more than his own physical capabilities and a snub-nosed revolver? That was not even counting the Maten Scripture. Speaking of which, "Well... do they have the Maten Scripture?"

Doku had crossed his arms and was making himself comfortable leaning on one of the counters in her lab. "Nope, from what I can gather they separated him from his weapons as soon as possible. They decided to transport them separately..."

Yaone caught on, "But Goku and the others caught the soldiers that held the scripture." She could not hold the sad tone from her voice. The more she thought about it, the more she realized what was going to become of the monk. Koushu was notoriously cruel to her own people. She tortured and killed her servants for not much more than painting her nails unevenly. It made Yaone tremble to think about all the horrible things they would probably do to him. She wondered if the brain washing techniques Dr. Nii used on Kougaiji would be used on Sanzo. No. Kougaiji snapped out of it too easily, Sanzo is too dangerous to risk escape. Much less keep alive for very long. "So... What are they going to do to him?" Though she already knew.

Doku ran a hand through is pepper dark hair and sighed. "Gods know. They took him to the Prison Outpost."

"The Prison Outpost?" Yaone said, in a little under a gasp. She knew that place. When she first began to work for Kougaiji, he wanted her to understand the history of Houtou Castle and the conquests behind it. He gave her a book and she read it. Gyumaoh used the Outpost when he was still in control. It was almost as notorious as the war monger himself. Far northeast of Houtou castle, it had imprisoned Gyumaoh's personal and political rivals. As for what went on in there, it is said you can still hear the echoing screams.

"Nii and Huang have temporarily transferred there," Doku added grimly.

Yaone bit her lip at that news. Nii was a despicable man. 'Mad scientist' never had a better use. It made her physically ill to imagine what Nii would do to the priest. She never knew Sanzo particularly well. It was true he may not have been the best of men, but he had an unwavering sense of pride, very much like Lord Kougaiji. He was probably the greatest human warrior she had ever met... he did not deserve what was coming his way. "What are we going to do?"

Doku shrugged, "Damned if I know what's going through Koushu's mind."

Yaone knew what Doku meant. Koushu would not do anything unless it was for her own personal gain. Yaone knew what she wanted to do. They were officially enemies, but she could not help wanting to take the nearest flying dragon to Sanzo's friends and tell them where he was in the hope they wouldn't be too late. But she would not do that. Koushu and Kougaiji both had operatives watching the others like hawks. The risk was far too great. If she were caught it could easily come back around on Kougaiji. If that was what he wanted then she would do it without hesitation; she wouldn't, however, risk their lives without his consent.

Suddenly the door burst open, slamming against the wall hard enough to rattle the bottles and tools on her counters. Kougaiji stormed in, and said between gritted teeth, "Yaone, is Lirin around?"

"No. Lord Kougaiji-"

"That whore!" Clearly speaking of Koushu, he no longer bothered to restrain himself. In anger his fist slammed down on her counter; again, the bottles rattled. Yaone even had to reach up a hand to steady a jar of Blue Poppy seeds. "She's disgusting. She lives with no sense of honor."

"You forgot slimy, slinky, manipulative bitch," Doku quipped dryly. Yaone could not help but notice how much like his brother he sounded, and she certainly did not disagree.

Kougaiji ran a hand through his hair, "I hate her..."

Yaone rose from her seat, "Yes, Lord Kougaiji. But what's going to happen to Sanzo?"

Doku gave a quick smile. "Don't you mean 'what are we going to do about it?'"

The demon prince sighed. "I spent an hour in the same room haggling with her. And for the effort I expect to be put in his goddamn will.

"Yaone?"

"Yes, Lord Kougaiji?"

"You will be flying to the Outpost every day to care for Sanzo's injuries. From this day until he is deemed... no longer useful. Anything more would include risks I'm not willing to take."

Yaone nodded, it was the least he deserved. "Yes, Lord Kougaiji."

Well, she had wanted a break from Lirin.

AN: I know it is only speculated Nii had Koumyou killed, and I'm pretty sure Sanzo wouldn't know that in the manga. But it makes sense, and the original author wrote it that way, so I went with it. Find out why later ;)