"Hakkai, hold on! You're getting ahead of us!" Sanzo calls into the thick of trees, following along the clumsily left path through the forest with Goku at his side.
A moment later, the pair comes upon Hakkai around a bend, looking back at them impatiently. "I know Goku is still weak, but we can't afford to dawdle. We don't know what they might be doing to him."
"I'm more worried right now about what they're planning on doing to us. It's obvious they left this path on purpose. This is too easy, and you know it."
Goku nods in agreement, unable to offer any words since he left his pad behind in the bathhouse, knowing it would only get in the way. Sanzo and Hakkai had both initially protested to his coming along at all, but Goku was stubborn and steadfast, and vowed to follow even if they left him behind. Besides, there is no telling how many enemies await them, and even if those enemies are only human, it's always better to have more numbers for the fight ahead.
"We don't even have a concrete plan, and Hakuryuu hasn't come back yet from scouting." Sanzo states with a frown. "What we really can't afford is barging in head first into a trap. You have to calm down, Hakkai. We'll find him."
Since leaving the bathhouse after a quick change of clothes, Hakkai has visibly been the most shaken of the group in facing what is happening. Sanzo isn't surprised, and wouldn't be even if he wasn't slowly beginning to understand what has been developing between his friends.
Hakkai nods in response to Sanzo's words, attempting a smile that falls surprisingly short for one so skilled at feigning one. His heart has been on his sleeve since this whole mess began, and the consequences of that are beginning to show.
Placing a reassuring hand on Hakkai's shoulder, Goku hopes to solidify Sanzo's subtly offered comfort, met by immense gratitude Hakkai can only maintain for a moment before pulling away, intent on continuing through the trees.
"I'm sorry. I won't get ahead anymore." Hakkai assures, looking back over his shoulder as he waits for his friends to follow. "But, please, we have to hurry. I have such a horrible feeling. As if...as if I may never see him again..."
Sanzo and Goku say nothing as they trail behind, pushing forward through the trees, knowing that more unsupported hope is not what any of them need right now. What they need is a shred of real hope. A sign--anything--that might tell them their search is not in vain.
"Kyuuuu!" screeches Hakuryuu's sudden cry somewhere above them, further ahead.
Hakkai stops in his tracks--Sanzo and Goku stopping just behind him--and looks up, searching the sky for signs of that call. A moment later, he spots his pet, soaring at record speeds towards them through the trees. "Hakuryuu!" he shouts, beaming at this possible beacon of good news. That initial belief is rather ill founded, however, for Hakuryuu's flight is not one of urgency to inform, but one of fear.
Shooting past the trees, darting in between them and around them, Hakuryuu appears to be trying to outrun something. He is, the ikkou realizes, for right on his tail is a spear, mystically set to flight as it follows every move the little dragon makes in attempt to escape that deadly blade.
"Hakuryuu!" Hakkai calls again, his hopes mercilessly shattered for the sake of every possibility he is wishing won't come true.
And then...suddenly...too sudden...the chase is over. Hakkai stares, wide eyed, not believing, not seeing, not accepting that he is being forced to see such a sight--a loved one cut down--as he had once before.
The poor dragon had faltered, winded from such reckless flight, and in that moment of hesitation, the spear caught up, pinning him to a tree right in front of Hakkai's eyes.
"Hakuryuu!!" Hakkai screams, his voice shrill with panic as he darts towards the tree, gripping the now harmless spear and pulling it free to toss it aside. Hakuryuu falls limply to the ground, practically cleaved in two. He doesn't move. "Hakuryuu..."
"Hakkai, hurry! They're just ahead of us!" informs Sanzo's vaguely distant voice, though he is barely a foot behind Hakkai's back.
Hakkai kneels, ignoring Sanzo's call, and gently lifts Hakuryuu's still body onto his lap. "Hakuryuu...forgive me..."
"Hakkai!!"
"...always protecting us...always sent ahead to make sure the path is clear...my dear, little friend..."
"Hakkai, get a grip!" Sanzo's voice shouts, right beside his ear now, as the monk's large hand clamps down hard on Hakkai's shoulder. "You can't do anything to help Hakuryuu now, but we can still save Gojyo. Those bastards are all around us, and we don't have time to look back...even if one of us falls."
Hakkai gives no hesitation as he lays Hakuryuu back on the ground and stands. "I would have made them pay..." he breathes, just loud enough for Sanzo and Goku to hear. "...but now they will suffer. And if anything has happened to Gojyo...they will wish they'd never been born." Turning briskly back to the path through the trees, Hakkai offers no other words to his friends, his features twisted into an expression neither ever imagined they would see.
It is something fiercer than the look of a killer. It runs deeper than the youkai blood in Hakkai's veins, because his hatred runs deeper than all forms of love. And it shows.
Sanzo and Goku pay no mind to Hakkai's pulsing anger and determination. There isn't time to dwell, and Gojyo is still somewhere ahead, along with whatever scheme the Akaanai have planned.
Looking back briefly over his shoulder as he follows Sanzo and Hakkai into the trees, Goku bites back his tears at the sight of Hakuryuu broken--gone. The little dragon has always been a friend to him, and a close companion to them all. Not just by acting as transportation, but by coming to their rescue when least expected. Once again, Goku can't help thinking this is all...somehow...his fault.
"Goku, watch out!" cries Sanzo's voice ahead of him. Goku realizes he has allowed his thoughts to drift, and instinctively throws himself to the ground at Sanzo's warning. Just then, a bullet goes soaring above the saru's head, having only just missed him.
Looking up, Goku's eyes dart wildly to spot a familiar face, or even an enemy, but the trees have become so thick ahead, he can't even make out Sanzo's robes. That is, until they come flying towards him from the side as the priest slams into him, knocking him down again. Goku looks up, at first pleased, assuming Sanzo has saved him from what must have been another attack, but then...then...his expression of gratitude slips into unease. Sanzo is holding him down with one hand, while the other...is clicking back the cock of his gun.
Opening his mouth to question this strange act, Goku grudgingly remembers he still can't speak, not without causing further damage. But what the hell is Sanzo doing?! Is he actually steadying his gun...? The barrel is pointed right at Goku's forehead, and the monk's expression betrays a wicked smirk, not befitting him at all.
Sanzo is going to shoot him.
Still stunned into immobility, Goku stares at Sanzo beseechingly, pleading with the sheer force of his eyes, something that has often proven to soften even Sanzo's worst moods.
The blonde priest would never truly want to kill him. Would he? Has Goku done something unforgivable enough to warrant this untimely demise? Has Goku proven to be too worthless after all this time? Has Sanzo lost his mind!?
Goku stares down the barrel of Sanzo's gun...and closes his eyes, unable to fight something he can't understand, waiting for the shot to come.
"Goku!!"
Sanzo? But how could it be? Sanzo is on top of him, and that voice sounded as if it had come from a few yards away.
"Goku, that's not--!" the voice cuts off, ending in an odd, strangled cry, following the echo of a blast--a blast sounding very much like one of Hakkai's.
The voice had indeed been Sanzo's, there is no question in Goku's mind. Which means...! Goku's eyes spring open, glaring daggers at the grinning blonde on top of him, who is preparing to fire his oh so familiar-looking gun. But familiar is not enough, and the truth screams its way into Goku's mind: This is NOT Sanzo.
Bringing his knees up fiercely, Goku slams them hard into the stomach of his attacker, knocking him to the side and causing him to lose the grip on his gun, slipping it from his fingers. More proof; nothing could ever make the real Sanzo lose his gun so easily.
Goku gets to his feet and immediately sprints ahead, searching about madly for his true companions, but before he can make a complete escape, a strong grip clasps onto his wrist, holding him back. Spinning quickly and readying his fist, Goku swings, connecting with the imposter's jaw.
"Damn saru! What the hell was that for!?" Sanzo barks.
Oops.
Goku smiles sheepishly and shrugs, pointing back at the real imposter, who is still on the ground.
Sanzo rolls his eyes, momentarily favoring his injured jaw, before swiftly pulling out his gun to point it at his double and fire. The fake Sanzo smiles as the bullet approaches, but vanishes before it can make contact.
Sanzo gapes, lowering his arm slowly. "A mirage?" he questions. "A mirage with solid form and the ability to attack. Perfect. Just what the hell are we up against?"
As he and Goku are about to turn forward again in search of Hakkai, the brunette suddenly appears on the path, panting heavily. Exhaustedly wiping at his forehead before approaching the others, he offers them his best attempt at a weak and winded smile.
"Any idea what's going on?" Sanzo asks him, wearing his usual scowl. "We keep pushing ahead, but all we're finding is more trees. Then, when we think we're dealing with the enemy, it's actually copies of us. I've already dodged one of you and dusted one of myself. Just how many more are there?"
Hakkai gives no reply, walking more purposefully as his smile widens and he raises his hands, a small ball of warm light building with crackling energy between his palms.
"Shit! Goku, get down!"
BLAST! The ball of light crashes into the ground, upturning a shower of grass and soil, having missed Sanzo and Goku by mere inches when they dove to the side. Both gather themselves up quickly, though, Sanzo readying his gun as Goku summons his long-forgotten staff.
The Hakkai-look-alike smirks wickedly, preparing another energy ball as Sanzo and Goku surround him. On the surface, he is wholly Hakkai, down to the paleness of his right eye in comparison with the left, but that smirk, the light behind those eyes, is as foreign as the fake Sanzo--nothing like their friend.
Pulling back, the Hakkai imposter readies himself to release the growing ball of ki, looking from one prey to the next, making them guess at which one will actually be targeted. But just as he is about to release it, a blast of energy suddenly collides with him, shattering his copied form into a million cosmic pieces that fade as they fall to the ground.
"Stealing someone else's image? I hardly call that playing fair." reprimands the REAL Hakkai, with his pleasant, though understandably strained voice. The brunette appears from out of the trees, gesturing his companions to him. "The clearing is just ahead. I'm afraid I have also had the displeasure of disposing of an imposter-Goku, and I dearly hope there aren't any more."
"If they think that little parlor trick is enough to do us in, they aren't as bright as I thought." Sanzo comments, meeting up with Hakkai at the final line of trees with Goku just behind him. "Still, we better be on guard. They may not be real, but they're still solid. Who knows what's waiting for us."
With a unified nod, the members of the shrunken ikkou ready their weapons--or flex their fingers, as in Hakkai's case--and position themselves accordingly before bursting through the trees into the clearing beyond.
Nothing could have prepared them for what they see on the other side. The Akaanai, yes, but so much more than that. An army of...themselves...awaits them. A hundred replicas of Sanzo, Goku, and Hakkai, if not more, all lie in wait for an impossible ambush.
At the other end of the clearing, a small stone complex rests with a large tree just beside the entrance. "Nice to see you found the place." booms a voice from inside the doorway. "We assumed you would. Our mild diversions before were only a taste. We wanted you to get this far. I would have hated to rid the world of one of its vermin without its friends to witness the execution."
As these words finish, the voice's owner appears from inside the complex, followed by two lower ranking Akaanai, each holding one of Gojyo's arms. They drag the redhead along--they have to, it seems--for Gojyo's legs don't appear to be working. He is dressed in a pair of ratty, black pants and is covered in grime. His hair is tousled, but somehow manages to retain a small bit of its shine and beauty, as do his eyes, staring out at his friends with a mixture of great relief and great pain.
He doesn't even take notice of the many copies of his friends in all directions. All he sees is the real thing.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai cries, unthinkingly lowering the hands that had begun to crackle with energy.
A coarse laugh answers that call, though it is not the voice Hakkai had been hoping to hear. "You came just for him, didn't you?" the Akaanai leader sneers, leading the men holding Gojyo to stand just in front of that large tree, a straight shot from the ikkou, though it is still a good distance away. "How...touching. But I'm afraid we have no intention of letting him go."
This phrase holds a certain permanence, and Gojyo looks panicked, not for himself, but for his friends. None of them can bear seeing him so distraught and weakened, but that look of sheer hopelessness clings to his features, looking over the heads of a sea of obstacles separating him from his friends.
Staring at each of them in turn, Gojyo eventually focuses solely on Hakkai, and his mouth begins to open in an attempt to speak. But no words come, for just as he is about to offer whatever wisdom or words of affection he has inside himself to speak, the leader of the Akaanai reels back and punches him hard in the stomach, sending Gojyo into a fit of raucous coughs.
Hakkai steps forward, wanting so badly to push ahead through the many bodies between him and his friend, despite the danger he would be putting himself in. "Stop this!" he pleads, his eyes unable to leave Gojyo's withered form. "Let him go! He has done nothing to you!"
"Nothing?" the leader challenges, signaling to his subordinates, who immediately begin wrapping Gojyo's wrists with rope. "He murdered one of our members, and you call that nothing?!"
"You attacked him. He was only retaliating. How can you blame a man for fighting back?"
But Hakkai's words are offered no immediate response, and he watches in horror as Gojyo is strung up from a branch of that tree, hanging from his wrists with his feet just enough above the ground to grant him no reprieve.
"Please, stop this." Hakkai tries again, every nerve in his body itching to spring into action, no matter how foolish the action may be. "You're mercenaries. With your skills, think of all you could do to help the people out there being attacked by youkai. Stop this campaign against hanyou. Even the many youkai, so confused and misguided now, are at the core no different from you. Gojyo, who has suffered none of the affects of what is afflicting purebloods, is not your enemy."
"When the youkai were our friends, we eagerly accepted them as equals." the Akaanai general replies, bringing himself parallel with Gojyo's dangling form. "We have been out there helping now that they are diseased, but our campaign is a just one. We are hunting down something that never should have existed. Humans and youkai CAN coexist, but the races canNOT interbreed. It's unnatural, and the products of something so disgusting must be wiped from the earth." The Akaanai leader pulls a syringe from his coat, filled with a sickly, yellow liquid. "I have already given him a small dose of this. It is only a mild poison, enough to weaken his responses and keep him immobile. Another dose, however, while the other has yet to finish coursing through him...hehehe...that would be fatal."
Unable to do anything to stop him, the ikkou watches in horror as he injects the poison into Gojyo's arm.
"Let's see if you can get to him in time, shall we?"
Almost immediately, the many copies of the ikkou begin moving forward, readying their mirror-image weapons. Hakkai, Sanzo, and Goku all tense, preparing for the worst. Hakkai, however, cannot steal his eyes from Gojyo, even as the battle is about to begin.
The half-breed is already beaten, his eyes already dimmed as he stares out at his friends, begging for something they may not be able to give.
"You cowards!" Sanzo seethes, firing off a few haphazard shots to fend off the impending attack. "You won't even fight your own battle!?"
They are offered no reply as the many copies descend, grabbing at their arms and pulling them each in different directions until all three are surrounded and unable to tell their real friends from the fakes.
Sanzo fires a few random shots at some of the fakes near him, but he hesitates in fighting much more for fear of hitting the real thing. The others are having the same problem, Hakkai and Goku only striking out at those bodies closest to them, hoping the targets they hit are indeed the ones they should be hitting.
"This is insane! How are we supposed to fight like this!?" Sanzo barks, slamming the butt of his gun over the head of an imposter-saru who had gotten a little too close.
"Sanzo!" calls out Hakkai's anxious voice, sounding from somewhere hidden from the priest's direct line of sight. "We have to get to Gojyo! We can't afford to be held back like this!"
"And what do you suggest we do?! If we barrel ahead, firing at everything in our path, we'll end up killing each other! That's what they want us to do!"
"If we don't get to him, Gojyo's going to die! That's what they want! There has to be another way!"
Jerking to the side to free his shoulder from a merciless grip by one of his own look-alikes, Sanzo suddenly catches sight of the true Hakkai, recognizing him by seeing his lips move with the words of that last phrase. "Hakkai, keep talking!" he shouts, gesturing wildly to capture the brunette's attention.
Hakkai spots him and nods, instantly understanding, but when he shouts out for Goku to speak up as well, they are both struck by the brutal reminder of their friend's handicap.
"I'm...here...!" forces out a strangled cry off to their right.
Somehow, Sanzo catches sight of him, and holds tightly to that image--along with Hakkai's--locking the positions of his friends within his visual memory. "Don't lose sight of each other! Hakkai, keep talking! Goku, I swear I won't take my eyes off you! Now...let's show these fakes what the real thing can do!"
A succession of gunshots, blasts, and the impact of wood sound all around them, all their weapons firing and striking out, rapidly ridding the immediate area of their imposter-selves. True to his word, Sanzo's eyes somehow remain on Goku even as he fires, with Hakkai's voice forever echoing near him.
The path is cleared more and more as they move ahead, but there are still many enemies to go. As for the stagnant Akaanai, they have all backed off to a safe distance, watching in fascination, though none seem to fear the possibility of the ikkou succeeding. The leader, too, has backed off towards the entrance of their complex, leaving Gojyo to hang like a figurehead, vulnerable to the battle progressing around him.
(This is madness!) Hakkai screams within, his eyes darting from side to side as he fights, extra sensitive to the possibility of hitting one of his comrades. (It never ends. One falls and another takes its place. And Gojyo is still so far away. I have to reach him...I have to. Gojyo...)
Hanging motionless from the tree, Gojyo's crimson eyes can barely focus. As Hakkai watches him, the half-breed's head slowly falls forward, limp, and those tired eyes begin to close.
(No...!)
There is no time. There is no thought or reason left inside of Hakkai's to stop him. All care towards being wary of hitting the true Sanzo or Goku leave him, and he blasts ahead, tossing bodies out of his way like parting reeds along a riverbed. Thankfully, Sanzo and Goku are behind Hakkai when he erupts, and they do not get in the way of those angry balls of light.
In amazingly little time, Hakkai has somehow reached the tree, and Sanzo and Goku find the path before them clear as the few remaining copies vanish into nothing around them.
The Akaanai make no move to stop them.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai cries, shooting out a small blast to cut the rope holding Gojyo up, and catching him as he falls to the ground. Hakkai immediately removes the rope from Gojyo's wrists, sinking down and holding the redhead gently in his lap. "Open your eyes, Gojyo. Everything's going to be all right now." the healer soothes, immediately beginning to pour as much of his healing energy into the man in his arms as his fatigue will allow.
Goku and Sanzo approach slowly, both positioned outward to guard against any Akaanai who might attempt an attack. Surprisingly, none of them are even moving, looking on with odd smiles and raised eyebrows, taunting the ikkou without a word.
Hakkai's ki subsides, the man himself exhausted, but none of the energy he spent has gone into Gojyo. Not a drop. It merely ebbed away, lost but not absorbed, as if it had nothing--no life--to absorb into.
"Gojyo..." Hakkai calls softly, raising Gojyo's head and smoothing back the dirty yet still silken red hair. "Wake up now. We're here. I'm here. Please...look at me..."
But Gojyo does not stir. His skin is chill, his limbs stiffening. His chest is no longer rising and falling as it should...
"G-Gojyo..."
A ring of laughter filters through the Akaanai audience, and the leader, standing just outside the doorway to their complex, releases a confirming, arrogant huff. "It seems everything is turning out just as we had hoped. You never should have stood against us."
"Urusai!" Sanzo barks, whirling his gun around to point menacingly between the general's eyes. "Your lives mean nothing to us, so you'd do well to keep your mouth shut."
With a quick nod to Goku for the saru to take charge in keeping an eye on the Akaanai, Sanzo moves to kneel down next to Hakkai. Gently, he reaches out a hand to place two fingers against the side of Gojyo's neck, and after waiting longer than he knows he needs to, he pulls back with a somber shake of his head.
"I'm sorry, Hakkai. There's nothing."
"Don't say that!" Hakkai cries, clinging to Gojyo possessively and staring down with stricken features into the redhead's still face. "Gojyo, open your eyes! You're fine...you're not...you're not...you're fine. Everything will be okay. You have to be okay...Gojyo..."
Sanzo looks at his dear friend with deep remorse, and at his once strained friend with more sorrow and indignancy than he ever would have dared reveal before. Goku, too, has abandoned his job as lookout, and takes a step closer, horror-stricken at the thought of Gojyo actually being...dead.
"You're stronger than this, you hear me! I know you are! You have to be. Please, Gojyo...please...just...look at me..."
"Hakkai...he's--"
"He is NOT dead!" Hakkai cuts Sanzo off, something wild stirring within his emerald eyes. "Gojyo can't be dead. He...we...he's everything. Everything. And I've only just realized. He can't leave me. I can't go on like this without him. I can't...lose him...not like this...not again...not someone else...I love..."
A small string of laughter filters out again, beginning with the Akaanai leader as he takes a step forward towards the ikkou. "Now, the real fun can begin."
Rising from his crouched position on the ground, Sanzo begins to back away from the pair at the foot of the tree, grasping Goku's shoulder firmly to pull the boy away as well. With a stone-cold expression, he stares over at the general, knowing the Akaanai couldn't possibly be prepared for what is about to happen. "You are going to regret those words." the monk promises, and he is not--in any way--talking about his own forms of revenge.
Clutching at Gojyo's cold body so tightly his knuckles are beginning to turn white, Hakkai breathes heavily, hot tears streaming down his pale cheeks. He is trembling, his expression wild and unfocused. Something dark is stirring within the depths of his sorrow. Something blacker than his fiercest anger.
Most importantly--something the average on-looker might easily overlook--is that the three, silver cuffs on Hakkai's left ear...are beginning to glow.
tbc...
A/N: I'm not saying anything.
Crim