CHAPTER 9
Where blood is loosed.

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

-- The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats

Light. There was light in the darkness.

He was falling...

The pain came next, a stinging stab as he felt, for some reason, an impact with a cold, rough floor...

Voices, sound... nothing got past the whirlwind that was racing through his head and roaring through his ears...

The darkness folded in again.

***

They reached the fortress under the cover of night, and stood for a moment, beholding it's impressive silhouette against the brilliant moon.

"What are we waiting for?" Goku asked, seething with impatience.

"We have to get in somehow. I'm sure there's a backdoor," Hakkai said.

"We came in the front the last time."

"Which is why I'm certain that they've increased the guard," Hakkai told him.

So they skulked around to the back, hunting for another entrance, as the wind whispered through the trees and the cold started to seep into their bones.

"This is hopeless," Gojyo said, after a while. "There's no other way in."

"I still don't like the idea of going in through the front door," Hakkai replied, frowning. He sighed softly. "But I guess we have no other choice..."

"Kyuu," Hakuryuu nodded his assent.

"Then let's go!" Goku stalked off towards the main gates.

"Wait," Hakkai told him. "Since we're doing this, we might as well do it in style..."

The front gate exploded inwards in a shower of light and metal. Guards, hereto preoccupied with dice and cards, leapt up in alarm in time to catch a brown streak racing through the wreckage. Half a heartbeat later, Goku was in their midst, swinging Nyoibou like he was demented. Two guards went down, and as the others closed in on the attacker, two more suddenly went down in showers of blood, as bolt of light slammed into the remainder.

Goku eliminated the survivors as Hakkai and Gojyo appeared in heartstopping suddenness. "Which way?" the eighteen year old asked.

"Don't you know?" Gojyo asked. "After all, you're the one with the Sanzo-compass."

Goku glared at him, but did not deign to reply. He paused, as if sensing the air, then spun unerringly towards one of the side passages. "This way."

They were racing across the courtyard, when the hail of arrows started. Gojyo took one in the shoulder and swore as they ducked into the safety of the passage.

"Let me take a look at that," Hakkai said, probing the wound with gentle fingers. "You're lucky, it's not barbed. Hold on.. this might hurt a little.."

"Do your--ow," Gojyo bit down on his lip as Hakkai got a grip on the arrowshaft and yanked it out in one swift move. He examined the tip for a moment. "I don't think it's poisoned.."

"Then let's get a move on, before the welcoming committee arrives."

"Yeah," Goku said, racing off.

The next moment, there was a sickening rumble. Hakkai paused in midstep, glancing at the ceiling. And not a moment too soon. There was a whisper of air and the groaning of stone as a solid wall abruptly fell from the ceiling and slammed into place just a foot in front of him, blocking the passage beyond completely.

"What the hell was that?" Gojyo said, his voice shaking.

"A trap..." Hakkai glanced back at him, and back at the wall. Then his eyes went wide. "Oh no.. Goku's on the other side."

"And here comes trouble," Gojyo said, nodding towards the crowd of sword-bearing, armored youkai that were pouring through the entrance of the passage. "I don't think we can fight all of them."

Hakkai glanced at the youkai, and back at the wall. "Buy me some time. I think I can clear this barrier."

"You sure?" Gojyo asked. "It's solid stone..."

Hakkai smiled, a little smile that had nothing humorous in it. "I'm certain." He took a step back, a ball of light already forming between his fingertips. "Just hold off those youkai!"

***

Goku jumped a foot into the air as he heard the roar and the crunch. He spun, in time to see the wall come crashing down behind him, cutting him off from Hakkai and Gojyo.

His first instinct was to summon Nyoibou, preparing to charge the blockage. Just as the staff flickered into existence between his fingers, however, a voice drifted down the corridor to him.

"You want the priest, don't you?"

Goku whirled. In the darkness, he could barely make out the figure standing some 10 meters away. There was a glint as a candle lighted by itself, reflecting off deep blue eyes...

Blue eyes....

Goku growled. This had to be that Isir fellow...

"You'd better hurry, if you want to see him.. alive," Isir said mockingly.

"Alive? What the hell are you talking about?"

Isir laughed. "This way, Son Goku." He smiled, then melted into the shadows.

Swearing, Goku abandoned any thought of his companions, and raced after the youkai.

***

The gates were open.

No, make that -- the fucking gates were open.

Sanzo frowned at the fortress before him in bewilderment. He was quite certain that he had been through this before. But that couldn't be, for here he was, standing outside Isir's stronghold, the sutras missing from his shoulders and the gun in his hand.

Strains of mocking laughter seemed to hover in the air, just out of the range of his hearing. Evidently, someone found something extremely amusing.

He shrugged. The mind played weird tricks sometimes... He performed a cursory check on the Smith and Wesson, noted the five remaining bullets, and stepped up to the fortress.

***

The first blast shook the entire wall, but did not succeed in blowing it away. Hakkai gritted his teeth, summoning his ki again. With an effort, he ignored the sounds of a massacre happening just behind him, putting his faith in Gojyo to hold them off.

The second blast went straight through the center of the stone, but more of the wall caved in to take it's place. One more blast would do it... Hakkai paused for breath, beads of sweat collecting on his forehead. It wasn't often that he had to exert so much energy at one sitting.

He glanced over to where Gojyo was being swamped by youkai. The narrow passageway ensured that only a handful could attack him at one time, which was to his advantage...

Gojyo rammed the fixed blade of the shaku jou through another youkai's stomach. Before he could yank it out, however, another youkai slipped past his guard, sword raised for the kill--

--when the small ki ball slammed into him, throwing him off balance. Gojyo spun, kneed the attacker in the gut, then swept his head off with the blade. "Thanks.. but hurry up there!" he called to Hakkai.

"Hai." Hakkai clenched his jaw as he readied another attack. He poured all his energy into it, draining all his reserves, until the strain grew unbearable... then he released it.

When the dust cleared, there were only smithereens where the wall had been.

Hakkai turned slowly. Candle light from the passage beyond cast a glow around him, a glow that shadowed his face. One eye, narrowed in dangerous contemplation, was barely visible.

It suddenly struck the attacking youkai that they had lost almost half their number against one of the two intruders... and that the other intruder, who was capable of levelling walls of solid stone, had just turned his attention on them. Several guards began to back away discretely. When Hakkai readied for another attack, even the most stout hearted quailed.

Gojyo grabbed hold of the moment with both hands, stepping back to give himself room, then unlocking the mobile blade of his weapon and letting it fly. The cresent blade arced down, decapitating one youkai in a stroke, then burying itself deep into the back of another. The youkai went down with a scream as Gojyo recalled the blade.

Most of the remaining youkai took that as a cue to flee. The two that remained were treated to an unparalleled display of Hakkai's light and magic show, and ceased to be a problem.

As the sound of footsteps disappeared down the corridor, Hakkai slumped against the wall, breathing hard. Gojyo limped over, clutching at his arm where a youkai and his sword had scored a lucky hit. "You okay?"

"Just need to catch my breath," Hakkai replied. "That was tiring.."

"Yeah," Gojyo squinted into the darkness. "The bakazaru ran off without us."

Hakkai sighed. "We'll catch up with him eventually, I guess."

"Oh well, the kid's old enough to look after himself."

"Yes... he is."

***

Goku rushed after the retreating figure in front of him. No matter how fast he went, he never seemed to gain ground. He spun down corridors, through the twisting depths of the fortress. He didn't notice as he pounded up stairs, he hardly even noticed as he passed darkened windows. His mind was intent on one thing -- he had to catch Isir. He had to catch Isir to find Sanzo, and Sanzo was hurt.. Sanzo was.. dying..

He shook his head. Sanzo couldn't die!

Desperation gave him new strength, and he flung himself forward, racing up the last bank of stairs and through a massive pair of doors. And paused, gasping for breath.

It was a large room, a seemingly endless room, barely illuminated by rows and rows of candles in little hollows in the wall. He could smell blood in this room; blood had been split, and recently.

In fact.. he could smell Sanzo's blood.

He summoned Nyoibou once more, clutching to it like a life line as he glared around the murky darkness and tried to spot his quarry. There was a flash of movement to the side--

--he dived, rolled, and sprang to his feet. Isir stood in the place he had just vacated. The youkai was not even breathing hard from the long run.

"Well met, Son Goku," Isir said, the courtesy in his words unable to mask the chilly undertone. "This is an unexpected honor."

"What did you do to Sanzo?" Goku demanded.

"Him? We had a fight." Isir smiled unpleasantly. "Simply put, he lost."

"Where is he?"

"If you want to know.. you'll have to kill me first."

"You..!" Goku snarled and glanced around. He didn't have time for this fight. Turning, he peered towards the ends of the hall. There were no other exits. Isir had led him to a dead end.

"See this?" Isir indicated a small pile of rubble, stained with black tracks that could have been blood. "This is where he hit the wall. Broke his arm, I believe."

Goku turned slowly back to regard the other. Fury burned in both eyes.

"And that large patch of blood by your foot? That's exactly where I ran him through." Isir hefted a katana hilt with just the remains of a blade. He tossed it into the air and caught it again. "I was quite disappointed. He didn't scream as loudly as I would have liked."

Goku was clutching his staff so hard that his knuckles were dead white.

"Are you sure you should be taking so much time?" Isir taunted him. "After all, Sanzo might die at any moment. And only I know where he is."

However, Goku did not rise to the challenge. Grinding the end of his staff into the floor, he glared back. "Get out of my way."

"I'm afraid that it's not so simple," Isir smiled darkly. He snapped his fingers, and the doors swung shut with a massive clang that reverberated through the hall. "Even if you find him... I've put him under a spell, that only I can release. So.. Goku.. what will you do?"

There was a long, long silence.

Finally, Goku spoke.

"Since you want to die so badly," he announced in a voice that was nothing like his normal, chirpy self, but dark and deep and furious, "...I will kill you."

"If you can," Isir replied softly.

***

The sense of unease grew as he stepped through darkened corridors. Sanzo glanced around, feeling strangely disoriented. There had been no sentries at the gate, no youkai in the fortress... the grounds had been completely empty. But the youkai were there - he could sense their presence all around. Diffused and somewhat distant, but there.

Something.. is terribly wrong.

He was quite, quite sure that he'd seen all of this before, which was impossible..

He stepped through another corridor that looked exactly like the one before. And paused. He could hear the sound of footsteps heading down the corridor, headed towards him...

He ducked back around the corner, readying his gun to shoot whoever was coming, when--

"Sanzo!"

Goku?

"SANZO!" The brown haired boy streaked around the corner and collided into him. He bounced back, eyes shining. "You're safe! We were so worried about you..."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sanzo demanded. "I told you not to follow!"

"But we were worried..." Goku sulked. "I don't want to lose you, Sanzo. What if you had run into trouble? So we rushed after you, I'm so glad that we got here in time.."

Something is definitely wrong. This.. is not the Goku I know.

"And I'm starving, Sanzo! We didn't stop for breakfast!"

On the other hand...

"Ah, there you are."

Sanzo glanced up at the new voice. Hakkai had rounded the corner. The brunette smiled, but there was something twisted, something terribly disconcerting about that smile...

Without realizing it, Sanzo tightened his grip on the pistol.

"Hakkai?" Goku asked, turning. "What's--"

"Since we're all here, I might as well settle this." Light glinted off his monocle as he ducked his head, still smiling that sinister smile. "Nothing personal, Sanzo, but certain parties want you dead."

Sanzo ducked to the side even before his brain registered the full import of the words. But Hakkai had anticipated his move, and the ki ball he had been covertly summoning was dead on target--

--when Goku leapt into the path of the blast.

His mind flashed instantly back to that horrifying night ten years ago...
... when Koumyou Sanzo had leapt in front of the stroke that was meant for him...

"GOKU!"

Everything went red for a moment, then Goku was falling backwards, a gaping hole where his chest had been. There was the stink of burnt flesh and vaporized blood.

"GOKU!" Instinctively, Sanzo caught the boy as he fell. Oh shit, this is not happening...

THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.

"Sanzo..." the voice was almost too weak to catch. "I'm.. sorry..."

Not now, not again...

"Fucking ape!" he railed. "What the fuck did you do that for?"

Goku smiled, a small strained smile that betrayed the incredible pain he was in. "I didn't want.. to ...lose you... be.. alone... again..."

I swore that I would never let anyone die for me again...

"You stupid damn idiot!" Sanzo cried, anger and grief twisting inside him.

"Sorry..." the body in his arms shuddered once...

...and was still.

"Goku... ano.. bakazaru! Don't you dare to die on me, you idiot! You're harder to kill than that! Damnit, Goku, answer me!"

But the golden eyes had gone terribly, terribly blank, with a glazed look that they could never have worn in life...

Desperation welled up. Dropping the gun, Sanzo grabbed Goku's limiter and wrenched it off, and held his breath.

1... 2... 3... come on...
Come on...

When nothing happened, the sinking feeling he felt in his gut was all too reminiscent of the same pain he had felt when his master had died.

You were.. never supposed to die on me..
Not like this, not this way.. not here, not now...

Not anytime...

"I'm afraid that he's really dead," a voice intruded into his thoughts. "No one could survive a blow like that."

Deliberately, Sanzo lowered Goku to the ground, his right hand closing around his pistol. When he rose to his feet to confront Hakkai, the look on his face was dreadful to behold.

And Hakkai smiled. "This time, there's no one to protect you."

"I'll kill you first."

"I don't think so. Goodbye... Sanzo."

As his finger even pulled the trigger, the entire world was filled with yellow-white light. He heard the report of the pistol, curiously soft in this enclosed space...

Then he was flying backwards, and there was just this massive fiery pain that was burning him up and tearing him apart, and the smell of blood blood blood...

... then nothing.

***
TBC
***

sf : To those of you who don't understand what's going on, wait for the next chapter. However, it is technically explained in this chapter. Read the dialogue between Isir and Goku carefully.