AN: If you haven't been scared off yet, this is the chapter that may get you. It is pretty disturbing thanks to Nii's creepiness, but I leave certain things vague enough. You have been warned though. Feat: BAMF Yaone! Hope you held on to that tissue, if you don't use it on this chapter, you will on the next.

Credit to Qualapec the She-Wolf for starting this story and writing chapters 1-5.

Chapter Content Warning: language, non-graphic nudity, adult themes, dub con themes

See below for possible trigger warnings.

Chapter 24

Pain. The urgent, gnawing sensation of raw nerve endings pulsing into his brain and overloading the neurons had been a constant in Sanzo's life for the past month. Unconsciousness was his only respite, but dreams had been just another form of torture as well. Now, as the murky fog of his blackout began to lift, pain was once again the first thing to greet Genjo Sanzo. Sanzo moaned and wished for nothing more than the darkness of oblivion to return. Instead, however, he was roused further into waking by a sensation more unwelcome than pain.

A hand traveled across his bare chest down to his abdomen and continued on, repeating its leisurely stroking. Sanzo's eyes shot open, and his heart began franticly battering against his ribs. Even though he was on his side facing away, he knew the identity of the sick bastard laying on the table behind him.

"Shh, calm down. No need to get startled, Kouryuu." The man's slimy voice slithered as much as his hand as he whispered in his ear and stroked his hair.

Sanzo immediately tried jerking away to fight against the physical assault, but he found that his arms and legs would not respond. Though his head felt like a lead brick, he strained with all his strength against the weight. To his horror, when he looked at his body, he found he had not been bound. Fuck. Guessing he had been dosed with some sort of paralytic, he cursed inwardly it was not one which made his body numb.

He was well and truly fucked.

Knowing Nii's ultimate intentions, Sanzo felt a knot growing in his stomach. There was no reason Nii would hold back any longer, and the resignation Sanzo was beginning to feel towards his situation did nothing to staunch the fear. However, he would be damned if he let any fear show, and he would make things as difficult as he could for the pervert. Sanzo would never go down without as much of a fight as he could give.

When the feeling of cold lips lingered on the back of his neck and began to suck, Sanzo growled and fought to pull away. "Just what do you think you are doing?"

A noxious giggle erupted from the lips leaching against Sanzo's neck before the blunt answer followed, "What I want." Nii pulled away and rubbed at the spot he had undoubtedly marked before getting up. He walked around to a table in front of Sanzo wearing a bunny printed bathrobe and picked up a jar of something before coming back around.

"Kougaiji made a mess of your poor back. It was quite brave of you to take on as many injuries as you did. Sacrificing yourself for someone else like that; it is quite commendable," Nii said as he gently applied a salve of some kind to Sanzo's back.

The priest desperately tried to move away from whatever the scientist was rubbing into his wounds, but his body remained frozen. Closing his eyes to the unwanted treatment, he was loath to admit the medicinal smelling ministrations were actually relieving some of the fire in his back as it numbed the area. "What the hell is that?" Sanzo asked with as much contempt as he could.

"Poison," Nii flippantly replied.

As much as Sanzo wanted to protest further, the lull of exhaustion and pain relief was engulfing him, so he let it happen. When Nii switched over to using a needle and thread, the monk began to zone out as the minutes ticked by with the steady rhythm of sewing behind him. He did not trust Nii's nursing for a second, but it was better than torture.

What he would not let happen though, was the sudden feeling of the man's nudity against his backside when he finished stitching. Sanzo growled but could not remove himself from the situation as madly as he struggled. "You sick asshole. Is this how it goes down? You drug me powerless while you have your way? Pathetic." He let out all the burning hatred engulfing his mind with the venomous words.

A dark chuckle followed the wake of cold fingers trailing down Sanzo's spine. "That depends…" Nii slid off the table and came around to crouch down in front of him and stared his soulless black eyes into the monk's. "Your friends are here to rescue you, struggling as we speak to defeat my newest creations and find you."

Sanzo grit his teeth and scowled, but he could not hide the worry in his eyes. There was not a single part of him not urgently wanting his companions to help him escape, but it was more likely they would die trying if Nii stood in their way.

"You have a choice, Genjo Sanzo…" The full use of his name and the intensity in Nii's piercing eyes, conveyed his sincerity. "I will let you go to escape with your friends, if you let me have you. I swear on your master's Seiten Scripture, I will release you afterwards and not stand in the way of your freedom." Standing up, he continued, "The alternative: you can choose to refuse me, and I promise I will back off. But it will be at the cost of your friends' lives and your freedom."

Fuck… Sanzo felt all the blood drain from his head and a churning nausea rising in his throat. What kind of sick choice was that? Give up a piece of his soul to die in concession for finally being free of the twisted monster who would poison it? What was that part of himself worth?

The hard truth of the matter: it was not worth a damn thing.

Hold nothing.

He had been holding on to something that had no value when the only thing that should have mattered was his mission and his master's sutras.

"Tell me, Nii, what am I worth to you? Would you trade the Seiten Sutra if I willingly gave myself to you? Let you do whatever the fuck you wanted to me without fighting back even without this damn paralysis?" Sanzo did not let his defeat gain an edge in his voice when he firmly countered the offer.

Something in the callous eyes of the ex-priest sparked to life, and for once Nii's smug grin looked genuine. "You really do want that scripture… 'A for effort', but it would have been a better offer if I wasn't already going to obtain your consent without it. I'll leave the Seiten Scripture up for negotiation another time. For now, you only get to choose from my ultimatum. So tell me, Kouryuu, what's it going to be?"

It had not been hard for Yaone to find the trail of Sanzo's blood, and it was a similarly easy trail to follow. She only hoped the priest had not lost too much blood as he had already been dangerously anemic, and the amount left in that hideous torture room he came from was frightening. The marks of red took her down two stories and in several winding directions through the long hallways before she found the drops passing under a locked door.

Carefully, she placed her long ear to the door, but no sounds could be heard through the thick steel. There was no lock to pick, so her only option was to lose any element of stealth and go in guns blazing after blasting it open.

She set the fuse and held her breath as she waited for it to blow. Without knowing what would greet her on the other side of the blast, Yaone prepared in hand a poisoned dagger, a smoke bomb, and a couple grenades. When the explosive detonated, the youkai's heart raced, and she exhaled an unsteady breath as she charged into the cloud of dust.

Once clear of the lingering smoke, the revealed scene scarred Yaone's corneas for life. Nonchalantly, Nii stood fully exposed, smoking a stinking cigarette. The creep just smiled at her as though he had been expecting her as a guest for dinner, and not like she barged in threatening to take his hostage.

Sanzo on the other hand, was lying face down on a table, in much worse shape than when Yaone last saw him. Clearly drugged, he struggled to lift his head towards her. "Yaone?"

Warily, Yaone rushed over to the priest. "Sanzo!" Aside from a terrible bruise engulfing the left side of his face, she first noticed a horrific mess of torn flesh across Sanzo's back that had been stitched by an expert hand. Quickly taking in the rest of his condition, Yaone could see many new injuries still in need of treatment. The man was at least surprisingly clear headed, and he watched her with an anxious concern.

Fortunately, the smug freak made no move towards stopping her and instead shrugged on a robe. "You came just in time, little apothecary. We were just waiting on the paralytic I gave Sanzo there to wear off."

"What did you do to him, you sick bastard?" Yaone ferociously stood at the ready in front of Sanzo and scowled at the grinning psychopath.

"Oh, Kougaiji did a lot of that." He waved a dismissive gesture towards his prone victim.

Holding herself back from pouncing on her enemy in rage, Yaone snarled and said, "Yeah, I saw what happened to Kougaiji too, you sick fuck."

Nii took a leisurely long drag from his cigarette. "Mmm, that was entertaining. These boys of yours do know how to please."

That was the last straw. She did not know how she was going to do it, but she was going to take that bastard down. Leaping towards him she threw a smoke screen, followed by an explosive.

"Yaone, stop! You can't fight him." Sanzo's normally impassive voice sounded uncharacteristically worried.

Yes. She knew Sanzo was right. Nii was far outside of her league, but she had to try. She had to get Sanzo out from that monster's clutches.

Yaone ducked low and sliced her dagger where her foes ankles should be. However, the scientist had vanished. A chuckle sounded behind her and that was the only warning she had before an invisible force struck her into the wall.

"I really don't care to fight a pathetic insect like yourself, but if you insist on attacking me, I will be happy to put you in your place." Dropping his carefree motif, Nii's haunting voice sounded like the grim reaper himself was making the threat.

Shivers trailed down Yaone's bruised spine, but she shook them off as she rushed towards her enemy again. Using the same tactics, she threw smoke and another bomb where Nii stood waiting. This time however, when she lunged in with her blade, she swerved around to attack from behind. As expected, Nii was there, having somehow moved fast enough to stand at the opposite side of the room. Without wasting a single millisecond, Yaone threw her poisoned knife at the man. The slight clenching of his jaw was the only variance to Nii's otherwise aloof face, but it gave Yaone enough of a sign to know she had surprised him.

"I commend you on your choice to use batrachotoxin, miss assassin," Nii said, unmoving, a glare from the dim lighting hitting his glasses.

Then a trickle of blood began to bubble from a thin cut along the scientist's cheek, and hope bubbled up inside Yaone's chest along with it. Could she really have won? Batrachotoxin was an extremely potent neurotoxin that could drop an elephant instantly with just a milligram, and she had coated a liberal amount around the blade that scored Nii's face.

So, why was the bastard laughing?

With another psychic blast, Yaone was once again thrown into the wall. A resounding crack preceded a sharp flourishing of pain from her ribs at the impact. She gasped for air once she smacked into the floor and struggled to push herself upright. Her efforts were prohibited as a rough hand pressed her head further into the stone floor with enough force she wondered if the stone or her face would break first.

"It's just too bad I already knew what your favorite poison was and prepared myself against it."

"Nii, leave her alone, you bastard!" Yaone could barely hear Sanzo over her own struggling to be free of Nii's crushing grasp.

Striking out with her legs swinging around towards her captor, Yaone managed to just barely clip his ankle as Nii jumped out of the way, still holding her head down. It had shifted his hold enough to at least bring some respite to the crushing force. Yaone looked up towards the man she came to save, and she hoped she could convey her regret for failing him as tears filled her eyes.

Sanzo took one look at her expression and cursed. A fire lit the man's previously vacant eyes – the same fire Yaone had seen only a few days before when the monk did the impossible and saved her from being killed by Nii's hand. With sheer willpower, Sanzo fought against the weight of whatever drug was in his system and pushed himself unsteadily off the table. Huffing against the strain of standing, the priest squared his bare shoulders and put as much power into his voice as he could muster. "Let her go, Nii. We are leaving."

Without loosening his grip, Nii turned to face the monk. "I never said anything about letting Yaone escape," he said darkly.

Sanzo audibly ground his teeth and began walking towards them. He stopped mere inches from Nii's crouched form and loomed over him. "I. Don't. Care. We're leaving." There was more toxic venom in his tone than had been on Yaone's blade as the monk spat the words down at the man he so distinctly loathed.

With an uncanny shift in his demeanor, Nii released the healer and stood, smiling at Sanzo. "Very well," he said smugly before giving a hard kick to Yaone's broken ribs without even turning his sleazy smile away from the priest. "I can always kill her another time."

Putting his hands inside his pockets, Nii casually walked away through the busted doorway, his cackling echoing after him as he vanished down the hall.

As soon as Nii was well and truly gone, Yaone watched in horror as Sanzo crumpled to the ground, landing on his badly injured left side. She had been unable to move to catch him. The pain in her side was overwhelming, and she was doing all she could to hang on to consciousness. Tears streamed from her eyes as she crawled over to the groaning priest.

"Sanzo?" She tapped his cheek to stir him, but he was thankfully not losing consciousness. He was just trying vigorously to fight against his own agony. When his violet eyes found hers, elation melted over her, and she could see his own tears glazing his thick eyelashes in pure relief. She had never seen such raw, unconcealed emotion in the man as he reached up and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Trying to regain some composure, Sanzo swallowed and said, "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Yaone vigorously nodded her head, barely able to form any words. "Yes." Gingerly, she rose to her knees next to Sanzo, and before helping him stand, she handed him one of the most sacred keys to their whole war. "I believe this belongs to you," she said as she held the rolled-up scripture in offering to him.

Hesitantly he took the scroll as though not willing to believe his eyes. "Where'd you–"

"Goku wanted me to give it to you. He had to stay and help protect Hakkai and Gojyo. They ran into trouble on the way here; we better get back to them as soon as possible." Yaone reached around Sanzo and aided him as much as she could to get him on his feet. A sharp, stabbing ripped through her chest with the added strain, and she groaned before she could contain her reaction.

Still having to put much of his weight on her in order to stay upright, Sanzo turned his head and looked her over with a skeptical eye. "Are you alright?"

With her breathing beginning to pop and cackle, Yaone knew the truth was 'no', but she could not concern him with that right now. They just needed to get out of there. "I'll be fine. A couple broken ribs, but nothing bad. Come on." She urged him forward, and they tediously made their way back towards their comrades.

As they continued, each minute Yaone could feel her pain worsening and her breathing became more laborious. When they were only about halfway there, Sanzo's unsteady gate pitched forward too much for her to compensate and she slammed into the wall before sinking down to the ground in agony. She clutched at her torso and whimpered through her attempts at regaining her lost air. Feeling a concerned hand on her shoulder, Yaone opened her tightly closed eyes a sliver.

"Hey." Sanzo's deep voice marginally soothed her frantic pain. His eyebrows furrowed in a scowl. "Just broken ribs?"

Damn, he was not an easy person to fool. But she could not tell him; the man was so pale and shaky, he looked like he was half a ghost already. He still needed her help. She could hold on. "It's not that bad; I'm just not very tough when it comes to pain. I'll be alright, promise."

"Hmph, remember what I told you about promises." His stony frown formed a solid line on his face as he started to clamber to his feet on his own.

Yaone reached out to help him when he made a bad move and almost tumbled back down with a hiss, but her own pain froze her in place. Surprisingly, the priest made it up and offered his right hand as he leaned against the wall. "Come on, I can walk on my own."

Had it not been Sanzo, she would not have believed that, but the man always managed to surprise her when it came to surviving off of sheer stubbornness. Yaone reached out to take his offered hand but froze as a familiar sound halted her. Whipping her head down the hall, her whole body stiffened when she saw the looming creature of Nii's latest experiments.

"Fuck," she whispered.

Sanzo growled and flexed his jaw. "Figures Nii would not call off his goons."

"Honestly, I'm still floored he let us go; I'll never understand that psycho. But trust me, Sanzo, these guys are no joke."

"Heh, Nii's easy enough to figure out when you know his motives. He probably thinks there is something larger to gain by letting us go for now. I would not trust he doesn't try to stop us at the last minute though… As for this guy, Nii was a dumbass for using a demon."

Confusion over Sanzo's words plagued Yaone for a second before she looked up to find the monk placing his one hand in a manner she had only seen a handful of times. "on ma ni hatsu mei un…" She watched in awe, being so close to the awaking of a force so powerful it could obliterate her in an instant had she been the intended target. Sanzo's blond hair thrashed around as the Maten scripture unraveled behind him and he called out the final words, "Makai Tenjō!"

In a blinding instant, the demon was annihilated.

Trigger warnings: Sanzo is paralyzed and Nii kisses and touches him, dub-con/rape proposal, off page dub-con/rape if you squint.

AN: Ok, so there is still some plausible deniability that Nii did not just get away with fucking Sanzo. He could have been waiting for the paralytic to wear off and Yaone came in time. Nii could have left because he is chaotic evil and wants to toy with everyone and save it for bigger plans.

Decide what you like. There is enough there to believe he did as well.

If so, then eiii! :''( Sanzo made a huge sacrifice and chose to save his friend At least you can't keep Sanzo down for long, but there would surely be baggage after that.

I'm a huge fan of Sanzo's badass lines in this chapter. Basically telling Nii to go fuck off and then insulting Nii for using a demon to stop him when he has the scripture! Ha ha :D Badass Makai Tenjo! So many props to Yaone as well.

Batrachotoxin: Poison Dart Frog poison.

They still have to escape Houtou with the whole Ikkou. Only 2 chapter left!