Darkness and Light, Sorrow and Joy
by Ranma Inverse
-Alternate Universe-
Fushigi Yuugi
Chapter Two



Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews, you few that were kind enough to! On the coupling...well, I think it'll be obvious after the next chapter (which will be MUCH longer than this one). It was REALLY hard to decide who was going to go with Miaka in this fanfic, really. Next time I'll write a TasukixMiaka, I promise. ^_^ *Has a really super-good idea for it, too.* Just..Tamahome fans, don't flame. I think Tamahome's a perfectly good character, it's just: 1) Drugged-follower-of-Nakago Tama fit better in this story and 2) Give the other men a chance with Miaka! ^_^ Mainly Tasuki, Hotohori, Chichiri, Nuriko..*drifts off*

. . .

"You saved my soul in the dark of the night. . ." -In The Dark Of The Night, DJ Mystic & DJ Epic.
. . .

A young man ran as fast as he could, leaping and dodging trees as he went. He had, he had to escape this time! Freedom...

"You fool. You really think you can stand up to full-blooded vampires? You, a filthy dhampir?" mocked a familiar voice. The young man turned to face the location of the voice in time to watch a hand send him flying into a tree. His silvery gray hair flew out of his ponytail and sprawled out everywhere. The familiar antagonist snickered and took a step towards him.

"Why, Hotohori, I thought you were strong enough to block such a weak attack like that," His antagonist mocked him.

Hotohori lifted his head up to him and glared with his golden eyes. "Tamahome, you used to be such a good, honest man...now you're just a filthy piece of dirt. To think I once respected you."

"Respect me? Oh, you'll do more than that eventually. You'll bow to me someday, son of..."

"Don't you say his disgusting name!" Hotohori yelled and stood up, forcing himself to ignore the pain shooting up his spine. By the time he found himself able to move, the greenish-black haired antagonist gave him a bolt of lightning that he would not likely forget. As he began to lose consciousness, Tamahome laughed and made a guesture with his hand. Several other vampires left their hiding places in the bushes and when they began to bind the dhampir, he had already left consciousness.

. . .

Nakago made no movement of any sort when Tamahome burst into the room, his loyal vampire mercenaries carrying the dhampir. The hint of an evil, conceited smirk formed on his lips before taking another sip of his blood-wine.

The mercenary leader bowed to the blonde man before speaking. "Lord Nakago, I and my mercenaries have taken back the Dhampir, Hotohori," as he spoke his mercenary vampires brought the one spoken of into view, chained and tied.

The vampire lord nodded and motioned for him to be taken away. "Put him in a different tower this time, one that's more heavily guarded, since he manages to get farther and farther from us everytime." Tamahome nodded and followed his orders. As he left, the blonde man smiled cruelly. Cute, that Tamahome. Far too weak to ever be as strong as himself, but perhaps...perhaps the mercenary leader could be of a better use.

But, how could Hotohori be getting so strong so quickly? What was going on? It was something he would need to think more about, Nakago decided.

Meanwhile, an unconscious Hotohori was having prophetic dreams. . .

. . .

"Yui? Yui, we should turn back now. This is the wrong way, we should have turned west at the last fork in the road...we're in Nakago's territory now," Miaka spoke up worredly.

"Miaka? Don't worry! I have a perfect sense of direction and I am absolutely certain that I'm--" The blonde girl stopped in the middle of her sentence as she felt eyes on them. She froze in place, frightened.

"That yer right, girl?" A wounded, hoarse but human voice spoke up. The two human females turned to the source of the voice to see a wounded man with wild orange hair and molten amber eyes stumbling towards them, trying to look unwounded. "Sorry, but yer wrong."

Yui and Miaka ran to the man and held him up. "What happened to you?"

"Vampire bastards. . .they take everything away from you but won't fight you to the death. They'd rather have you live in pain. Fuck the lot of them." He grumbled.

Miaka looked him up and down. "He's not wounded in the head, just in the chest area where that big rip is coming from, his arms are all bruised and his legs are probably hurt too...what's your name?"

The orange haired man spat a small ammount of blood out of his mouth and looked at her. "Tasuki, and don' worry 'bout me...I can take more of a beatin' than that and live. That was nothin'." He bragged and half-smiled. "What's your name?"

"I'm Miaka, and that over there is Yui. Where are you trying to go? We'll try to help you get there."

"I don't think any of you are going to get out of Lord Nakago's territory without his permission. We've been looking for nice-lookin' females for slaves lately. You two seem perfect...well, the blonde one at least, not so sure about the burnette..but, you're not leaving." A grungy voice spoke and three equally grungy, equally ugly vampires stepped out of the bushes and jumped them.

Yui screamed and kicked, Miaka tried to keep the wounded Tasuki from harm, and Tasuki tried his best to keep them at bay. None of them succeeded and soon, they were bound and being taken to 'Nakago's Lair', where ever that was.