Chapter 13- Not Soon Forgotten
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story expect Tristis, Astoria, Maaya, Masako, Ikue, Mitsuki, and Tamiko (I've created more original characters than I intended). They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi, I just borrowed them.
Lady Astoria was never a patient woman. Since the day she was born, everything was given to her the moment she demanded it. If it wasn't, well then, the person who failed to please her no longer walked this earth.
This will be the case of Maaya once the demon woman caught up with her. She had not heard from her in a few days and Astoria was livid. Figuring that her worthless servant had failed, the demon lady left Sesshoumaru's home and went in search of one of her other lackeys.
Tamiko really couldn't be considered one of Astoria's servants because of the simple fact that Tamiko was much stronger than Astoria could ever hope. While the noble dog demon had her beat when it came to brute strength and size, the fairy queen's magical powers were what put the bratty lady in her place.
For this reason alone, the lady entered the capital of the fairy kingdom. The placed called Andromeda was an enchanted forest that even Sesshoumaru stayed away from, even if it did reside on the edge of his territory. Queen Tamiko was given her title when she overthrew the former leader with her superior powers and captivate features. With her long dark blue hair, blue eyes, pale blue wings that made her look like an angel, and her voluptuous body, the male gender of her kind gladly gave their loyalty and support. The females did the same at the sight of her power which included placing curses on others, telepathy, creating illusions, and just about anything else to create havoc on their enemies. For this reason she was given the size a mortal woman would have, just like the queens before her, but retained her grace and supremacy.
Astoria had barely a chance to step into the forest before she felt the tiny hair on the back of her neck stand up as a smooth, with a hint of mockery, voice call out to her. "Lord Sesshoumaru took notice of you, even while you were in heat did he, Lady Astoria?"
She felt anger that very instant for the mocking way she used her title, but fear made her push away that emotion. "You have been expecting me then Tamiko?"
Her dark green eyes slightly widen as she saw long pale legs peak out of a horribly short outfit. Tamiko was once again dressed in one of her dark outfits that left nothing to the imagination, and as always the queen had a smirk on her face as she peered up the slightly shaking demon.
Astoria was beautiful but her shoulder length dark hair and her clothes that hid everything from everyone made it clear that she would never be able to compete with the fairy queen. This was another reason why Astoria hated the fairy so much, but her fear of her outweighed any hate she felt for the queen of all fairies.
Tamiko walked a circle around her, studying her with the same superior smirk on her face the whole time. "Yes I've been expecting you. When I heard you were going to Lord Sesshoumaru's home in order to finalize your claim on him, my fairies and I laughed our heads off."
A growl worked its way out of her mouth before she could stop it. Astoria's inexperience of being submissive to another female, especially one that wasn't her kind made her act like a newborn puppy. "Why do you find that so damn funny fairy?"
Despite the fact that Tamkio was much stronger, she was very much amused by the demon and humored her. "I've known of his claim on that human girl since the day he met her. I've also known that he has mated her since she was old enough by human standards and that my dear lord has mourned and cried with her in his heart each time a child of theirs has died. You forget Lady Astoria, I know all."
"If you knew then why didn't you tell anyone else? You know how shameful this is to the dog clans yet you told no one!" Fear was forgotten at that moment.
"Why should I concern myself with what you demons do? I am an immortal, I know nothing of good nor evil; my loyalty is only to my kind who never include themselves with lower beings."
Tamkio looked quite bored with the conversation but she truly enjoyed seeing Astoria fume over her latest findings. The demon lady knew this and sent a glare at the fairy who now sat in a tree above her. "I have one of your kind working for me. It seems that not all of your servants are willing to follow the customs of your kind."
A shrug was given to her before a reply, "I know of Maaya's allegiance to you and while she doesn't follow our ways, I take satisfaction that many of your kind don't follow your old fashioned ways, such as our demon lord. Anyway, I have been disappointed in the past dealing with Maaya, my vision from this morning shows that she will correct her sins. She has or rather will betray you and help Lord Sesshoumaru and his human mate find their way into my kingdom."
"For what? Why will they come here Tamiko?!"
"Her frail human body will not allow her to give birth to his pups so they seek a power to turn her into a demon. The Shikon no Tama no longer exists in this world thanks to his younger brother so it cannot be used to help her. Maaya is growing close to this woman named Rin for reasons she doesn't understand and because of this she will lead them to the greatest power she knows, me."
Astoria growled, "And will you help them? You do not care about humans so why help this one?"
"Well she is the mate to my lord. I may have never met him but my clan does reside on his land and he and his ancestors have never threatened us. I suppose I do owe him my loyalty."
"Why, you are stronger than him, why do him any favors."
The queen laughed from her tree. She pushed away her long blue locks and gave a curious glance at the tall demon. "Have you turned against him? Is he no longer the great catch you have believed he was since the day you met him? Foolish little bitch, I told you I know all. Your blood cries out to you to take revenge for your hurt pride and now you want me to help you hurt him, as well as his mate."
"I want you to crush them all, anyway that becomes allies with him should die. His father disgraced their family once and he is doing the same thing over again."
"I can't, even if I wanted to. They will come and I will help them because the girl has something living in her that not even I care to mess with."
Astoria looked up at the now scared looking fairy queen. "Is it a demon living in her?"
Tamiko sighed, "It was at one point. Come with me puppy and I will show you something."
The two women walked for about ten minutes until they reached a clearing in the forest with a large lake. Several of Queen Tamiko's servants danced around it but they all stopped when they saw their queen. They all made to pay homage to her but halted their actions when they caught sight of Astoria. The queen smiled warmly at her subjects, "Do not be afraid little ones. You are safe in our kingdom and as your queen and I would never allow anything to enter that would threat us."
After the reassurance the fairies went about their business and left the two tall women. The demon lady looked at the lake with disappointment. "Is this it? I have seen lakes before fairy."
Tamkio scoffed, "You have never seen a lake like this one puppy."
Tamiko bowed her head and clasped her hands together. After a few minutes like this the queen's once blue eyes turned into endless black orbs. She fixed her gaze at the lake gave a girlish giggle. "Ghosts of the past, present and future…show me your tales and let me learn from your journeys!"
The ground shook and Astoria found herself grabbing hold of the other woman's arm to hold herself help while the queen stood perfectly still. Day became night before the frightened demon's eyes and a soft glow surrounded the two of them as well as the unordinary lake.
"Now I will show you what I have seen."
With horrified eyes, Astoria saw the water rise and begin to take shape. The harmless liquid took the shape of a room with people inside it. The images looked horribly distorted but the texture of the water seemed to melt away and before the demon stood a huge picture that looked as real as the fairy in front of her. A emitted a soft whine but was silenced by the Queen Tamiko.
"Hush puppy, I'm going to show you the birth of the mortal woman who threatens you so."
*~Vision~*
The actual birth itself had already passed now only a crying baby girl sat in her exhausted mother's arms. The woman was smiling down at the wailing baby while a midwife exclaimed over the beauty of the boisterous child.
While the two mortals cooed over her they of course did not notice the light purple energy floating above the child. The newborn, however, did notice and giggled at the sight of it. With a tiny hand she reached out to it and had the women laughing at her odd actions.
The energy moved closer and gently nuzzled the girl. A happy squeal came out of the baby and the energy flew into her now open mouth. The baby shook for a moment but then fell into a peaceful slumber.
*~End Vision~*
"What was that? What went into her?"
Tamiko waved her hand and a new vision began. "A very old spirit that has been protecting her since she was born. I later learned that it had been following the mother almost as soon as the child had been conceived. I kept track of her and imagine my surprise when I looked deeper into the future and saw the child had become the mate of the Western Lands. Something greater than I, is guiding the girl and what will come to pass is upon us."
"Can I stop this wretched thing from happening?"
"Foolish bitch, I have seen the events of this timeline and for the sake of my amusement I do hope you do not go through what I have seen."
Astoria glared, "What have you seen me do?"
"If you continue to peruse the life of this girl you will die a death not fit for even the evilest of creatures. I cannot do a thing to stop you or even protect you but I can give you this warning. Lady Astoria, stop your foolish mission and retreat to your home. The spirit inside the girl is gentle but fierce when something threatens the girl or our lord. It has seen your actions against its host and cries out its warning to you. Leave the Western Lands and join the few demons that will make it into the future."
The arrogant dark haired beauty snorted. "I will not leave my destiny in the hands of water and a babbling fairy."
She walked away and Tamiko's gaze never left the visions of Rin being held in a very passionate embrace by her mate. Her hand once again waved and Astoria's screams rang out from the newest vision. "I have warned you puppy and now I will never see you in this form again. For your sake I hope the higher beings allow you to return as something gentle for your exit from this world will be a sight not soon forgotten."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know, I know; I'm taking a lot longer to write new chapters but like always my life outside of anime, manga, and fanfiction take up all my time. I worked my ass off on a project that I ended up doing the entire thing when I wasn't even the leader, plus I raised my failing grade in my math class to a B!!! So yeah I'm sorry for the wait but those two things and spending time with family over the holidays was something very important to me. Also I wanted/needed to bring Astoria back into the plot because after all her visit is what started the whole story. I felt like this story was becoming PWP or never-ending this chapter actually doesn't have any of the Inuyasha characters in it besides the small scenes with Rin. Anyway, chapter 12 seemed a bit rushed to me and I wasn't able to explain everything quite the way I wanted to but hopefully I can correct that in a later chapter. Actually the story is reaching the end, I don't see this story going over 20 chapters and this is number 13 so I'm getting close to the end.
Babsie: Yes the whole thing of those soldiers coming in under Sesshoumaru's "command" was not done by him. I'm thinking that many of the demons in their father's household would not approve of the union between their dad and Inuyasha mom, so when their lord dies they assume Sesshoumaru won't want Inuyasha and his mom around because they are the reason for Sess' parents failed marriage and his mother's death. In my earlier chapters I've hinted that Inu's mom was kind of scared of Sess and didn't want him to influence Inu so it's kind of natural for her to believe that Sess would turn against them. I'm glad you like the name Tristis, I actually borrowed the name from one of my original things I've been working on; in that story Tristis is the angel of death, very different from the Tristis in this story. I'm thinking of Inu & Kag having another child and most likely it will have Inuyasha's features. Rin's problem will be solved in the next couple of chapters. Once again, thank you so much for review and asking questions. I want to make sure everyone understands.
Lunatic Pandora1: *blushes* thank you! I was trying to find a way for them to kind of form a truce that sounds believable and I'm glad you think it is.
GreaterBeast-Xellas: More than a few are pissed at her; if they didn't hate her in chapter 11 then they hated her in chapter 12.
Airen2: Rin will be fine but she most likely will have to go through more angst as I'm getting closer to the end. I was never specific on why Kagome was able to survive giving birth to her son but here's my reasoning. First off Kagome is a miko (priestess) so she already has some power and in my story she's a hanyou so that gives her even more strength. Rin doesn't have this advantage but in this chapter we see something is inside of her, Myouga talks about this in chapter 11.
Badgerwolf: Thank you! Well, we'll see if Rin actually becomes a demon or not. As for Kagome I didn't change her appearance whatsoever. While I think Kagome would look cute with doggy ears but I just couldn't do that cliché. I already did a few (i.e. Kagome wishes to be a hanyou with the jewel) but I just didn't want to do that.
Angel of Darkness Flame: I'm *SO* sorry!!! I have read the fic that you asked me to review but every time I've tried to review it won't let me; also I was without a monitor for about a week. I read on the latest chapter that you're grounded for your progress report, believe me I remember those days. In high school I would get grounded for them, sometime I just "lost" them and I got very good at forging my mom and dad's signatures. *sweatdrops* Um… never mind… I shouldn't be giving you any ideas; there was hell to pay when I was caught by my parents.
Bebopin' Dreamer: Lol, well thank you, don't worry about the name change. *DB Goku* "I like both." Sorry, it's late and I was just thinking about some of the early episodes of Dragonball. If you've actually seen the episode I was talking about or heard me say it, it'd be funny… excuse me…. *blushes*
Moonlight Shadow Princess: *grins* Thank you, I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far and I hope you continue to read and review.
Ryoko-onee: I'm glad someone still thinks Sesshoumaru is in character. He's such a difficult character and nothing pleases me more when someone reassures me that I am making him believable.
Also thank you so much to my other reviewers, your reviews mean a lot to me to: kitsune-youkai-17 and Loki *_* TheGrimScreamer.
Ok I'm not promising the next chapter out soon because when I do it takes me two months to get one out. I hope everyone has had a happy and safe holiday break and continues to do so. Also, (just in case) happy Valentine's Day if I don't get chapter 14 out by that time.