Torie-san: Here I am, once again with the third chapter!! YAY! Uhhh...anyway...to get out of the awkward position created by Saturday morning hyperness (yes, you heard me right, Saturday MORNING. They do have'em. And where I live it's about 8:30 AM right now. Well...it was, now it's next month as I type the end of this chapter.) I shall do Review Responses!
Devlinn Reiko-sama: Thanks! Glad you liked the ending, I wasn't sure how well that was gonna work. Here's your next chapter/update!
Desy: Here it is! (Finally!)
And a note: In this fic I am proud to say that Sesshomaru-sama is in possession of both his arms.
The Darkness Before the Dawn
Chapter Three: Memories Not My Own
That night, when all had calmed down and Sesshomaru and Jaken had dried out, a fire was lit with everyone grouped around it but Sesshomaru, who was still sitting up against the tree. His wet and partly bloody bandages had been changed by Kagome and Sango and he sat staring into the dancing flames and ignoring the others.
"So InuYasha, is what attacked Sesshomaru what you smelled?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah. I still don't know exactly what it is, but it's definitely the thing that attacked my asshole of a brother," he responded.
"Where'd the little green man go?" Shippo asked, looking around for the squire.
"I think he's running from you," Sango answered him, sharing a glance of amusement with the others.
Rin grinned. "He's hiding from Sesshomaru-sama too." Laughter rippled around the group.
Sesshomaru, who had tuned the conversation out, felt his eyelids slipping. He struggled to fight off the tide of sleep--- he would not, not in front of his idiot little half-brother. But no matter how much he struggled, it was all in vain. As he slipped into sleep, he also slipped into a dream...
He was walking down a long, dark corridor deep under the earth. He reached out a hand to touch the wall and felt cold stone. Bringing his hand back to his side, he caught a glimpse of it in his peripheral vision. What he saw mad him bring it back in front of his face and stop dead in his tracks.
Where normally pale flesh had been, it was now green scales. His claws and fingers were elongated. He glanced down at his body and saw the most shocking thing yet. Scaly, slightly bent legs supported a flat, muscular scaly torso. As he took all this in, he heard a sound father down the corridor.
He continued along the passage, glancing back every now and then to see a green scaly tail whipping out behind him. Turning a rounded corner, he saw a light moving ahead of him. Stealthily he followed it around twists and gentle curves, sloping downward, creeping forward.
Suddenly, the light stopped and vanished. He now picked up the pace and moved forward, expecting there to be another twist in the passage-way...but when he got there, the corridor was a dead-end.
In puzzlement, he placed one hand against the cold stone wall. The next thing he knew, he was sliding down a stone chute; he came to a stop at another dead end. He placed his hand against the wall again, and it slid soundlessly upward. Standing up, he walked into a huge cavern, filled with lizard shapes.
A large fire occupied the center of the room, the lizard creatures dancing a strange dance around it. Strange music played in the background. As he took a step toward them, though, the music stopped and the creatures turned toward him. He paused in his progression. Then they began to run toward him. They were almost upon him when...
Sesshomaru awoke, panting. He looked up to see all of the rest, including the returned Jaken, staring at him.
"Bad dream, brother," InuYasha said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word 'brother'.
Sesshomaru said not a word and glared at InuYasha.
"Sesshomaru-sama, what's wrong?" Rin asked.
"You're panting and pale," Miroku observed.
Suddenly, the full youkai felt something seeping into the bandages. Taking a small sniff, he realized his wounds had reopened. The hanyou and kitsune seemed to have realized this too, for they were looking at Sesshomaru with shrewd gazes. The next thing he knew, Rin was peering into his face.
"Are you sick Sesshomaru-sama? Is it something with your wounds?" A worried look appeared on her face.
In an undertone he said to her, "I'm fine Rin. Back up." Rin obeyed, returning to the fireside beside Kagome.
The group stayed silent after that...silent, that is, until InuYasha jumped up, his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga and Sesshomaru sat up straighter. The next second, Miroku, too, stood from his position by the fire.
"InuYasha...Miroku...? What is it?" Kagome asked, looking up at them in a slightly puzzled way as Rin ran to stand beside Sesshomaru. Kirara had transformed and was now growling into the trees to the south.
"Somethin's comin'," InuYasha spoke quietly, never taking his eyes from the south.
"More to the point, what is coming," Sango stated, grabbing her boomerang and standing.
Shippo jumped into Kagome's arms, and she hugged him comfortingly.
Answering Sango's question, Miroku said with a grim expression, "It's what attacked Sesshomaru." At this statement and audible gulp was heard from Jaken and Rin grabbed onto Sesshomaru's arm, looking fearful.
Five minutes later, they heard crashing and unintelligible screaming coming toward the camp. Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and InuYasha stood in a slightly curved line in front of the others. Kagome pulled her bow and arrows closer to her, and Shippo leapt from her arms to stand in front of her.
"Rin, go," Sesshomaru said quietly to her. "Take Jaken with you."
"Go where, Lord Sesshomaru?"
"Anywhere away from here. Don't let them find you."
Rin nodded, and, still looking fearful, ran out of the camp, followed by Jaken. Kagome was now standing with and arrow notched to her bow. It was then that lizard-like shapes burst through the trees from the south. But, to the surprise of all, they stopped, looking around as if searching for something.
The tallest one's, which seemed to be the leader, eyes caught Sesshomaru's cold golden gaze. Pointing over the heads of the others, it shouted to the fifteen or so behind him. They surged forward as a scaly mass.
"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!"
"HIRAIKOTSU!"
"WIND TUNNEL!"
"FOXFIRE!"
"WIND SCAR!"
Four attacks rang out as one, accompanied by purifying arrows from Kagome's bow shooting into the attacking mass, then the attack form InuYasha. The arrows seemed to do nothing, though, and even Hiraikotsu and InuYasha's claws and Tetsusaiga seemed to bounce off the creatures' scaly hides. Shippo's Foxfire, too, had little effect, and Miroku's Wind Tunnel only sucked in five of them. Kirara was thrown back immediately by the leader she had taken on.
The leader of the group charged through InuYasha's, Kirara's, Shippo's, Sango's, and Miroku's defenses, straight toward Sesshomaru. Arriving on front of him, it ground out a question in its own language. The creatures and Inu-tachi had stopped fighting and had all turned toward Sesshomaru and the Leader. To the surprise of all, Sesshomaru answered its question as if it had spoken in plain English. ((Japanese, whatever.)).
"I didn't call you here," Sesshomaru said, standing up, using the tree as support. He was still, however, looking up at it; even as tall as he was, it was still taller.
The creature said something else, point directly at Sesshomaru's heart. Whatever it had said, it seemed to make the Lord of the Western Lands angry. He took his hand from the tree and conjured the Whip of Light. Lashing it at the leader he darted forward past the stunned Inu-tachi and into the midst of the lizard-like demons, turning into a whirlwind of light, silver, and steel fang as he had now whipped out Tokijin. The rest of the group leapt back into the fray.
With each slash of Tetsusaiga, a demon was cut down; Sango's, Shippo's, Kagome's, and Miroku's attacks, combined with Tetsusaiga, Tokijin, and the Whip of Light, began to do some damage. The demons began breaking up and running toward the north—the direction Rin and Jaken had taken. The Leader was the last to flee, shouting words over its shoulder.
InuYasha sheathed Tetsusaiga. Sango wrenched Hiraikotsu from a tree, Miroku closed his Kazaana, and the group met in the middle of the camp—all but Sesshomaru. He stood, Tokijin still out, gazing to the north.
"That was simpler than expected," Sango said as they stood in a small circle around the place where the now-scattered fire had been.
"I wonder why their fighting prowess seemed to drop when Sesshomaru began fighting," Miroku mused, glancing to the dog demon staring to the north.
Suddenly Sesshomaru turned away from the group, who all were looking at him now. As he did so, thanks to his slightly limping walk because of earlier injuries, his curtain of silver hair swung to the side, revealing a dark stain on the back of his kimono. Kagome gasped.
"What is it Kagome-chan?" Sango asked, not having noticed the stain. Kagome pointed to the youkai, whose hair swung once more to the side, once more showing the stain. Sango, too, gave a small gasp.
"I was wonderin' when you would notice," InuYasha said, Shippo nodding beside him. He soon realized this was a mistake as Kagome rounded on him.
"You mean you knew and you didn't tell me?! SIT! C'mon Sango." With this, she walked away, Sango following her, towards Sesshomaru who was walking towards the north.
Walking quickly after him, Kagome halfway shouted, "Come back here you! You're bleeding through your bandages and kimono."
"Your wounds must have reopened," Sango said, more calmly.
Sesshomaru turned with a growl and an expression of pure anger on his face. InuYasha started forward to Kagome's side. A frightened look crossed Kagome's and Sango's faces for a split second, then Kagome said, "Don't you growl at me! Your wounds have reopened and the bandages need to be changed." Sesshomaru just glared with his, as always, cold expression, then turned his back to InuYasha, Sango, and Kagome.
Kagome, now fully shouting, called, "DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!"
Sesshomaru said, as he kept walking, "I'll do as I wish." With that, he disappeared behind the trees, leaving Kagome, Sango, and then rest blinking and InuYasha growling.
Shippo ran up and hopped on Kagome's shoulder. "Why's he so determined to go north anyway?"
"He's going to find and protect Rin," Miroku said, walking over with staff jingling.
"From what?" Shippo asked.
"From..." Kagome shuddered. "Those demons."
As Sesshomaru walked, he seemed to hear a sneering voice in his head. And that voice made him move all the faster.
We have the little girl.
A new voice joined the old one. And another...
We'll kill her...soon.
She's worthless to us.
Sesshomaru began to run...
Torie-san: First you must know that Sesshomaru's caring for Rin is NOT LOVE. Think of it as...a father caring for a daughter. And if you say he's going insane...well it won't be pretty. Sorry for the long lack of update period.
Next Chapter:
Who's Behind It All