Ch 2
What the Hell?
Sessho and Rain carried her out of that miserable place. It took both Inuyasha and Loeyla to carry the cloak. At first they had taken turns, but as they had walked on, it became too heavy for just one to carry, and it seemed to become heavier with each mile. The group from the cave caught up with Talabinya and the rest, and Rain covered Ankha with his cloak so Shippo wouldn't see the state his heroine was in. Miroku carried nothing, but was burdened by the pain in his hand. While the antidote had kept the poison from killing him, a burning spread through his hand. It hurt so badly that he walked in a daze, his whole being focusing on the pain and trying to keep it from spreading further. Talabinya carried the baby still, though Kagome sometimes took her to give the fox demon's arms a rest. In silence, they walked the long walk back to the hut. They only stopped once, to nap, but they slept so badly, that they just got up and continued on.
They had to wake Ankha up to get inside the hut. They could barely see it, for while they had no ill intentions toward Songo, the blanket was still very protective. It's power shrank back into itself, however, upon Ankha's command. The cranky cat demon had fallen asleep directly after issuing the order, and so missed the emotional reunion between mother, father and daughter. Perhaps it was for the best. Ankha avoided public displays of what she deemed 'weak emotions': love and fear, with almost a religious zeal. Kagome and Loeyla went to work on patching the assassin up almost immediately, after shooing the men (and Shippo) outside. Some things weren't meant to be seen by creatures with such weak constitutions.
And it was bloody work. In Loeyla's opinion, though, the worst thing to take care of was the leg. Kagome agreed heartily. Then there was the long, deep cut on her face and neck, and her mangled shoulder. Those were her main wounds. The came the multitude of cuts, fractures and breaks, including this one place on her ribs where a stone had entered a bone, snapping it clean in half. That was especially tricky to get out. They tended to her injuries as best they could, then went outside to let Ankha sleep in peace. They found the boys telling Shippo and Songo what had happened in the cavern. Kagome sat down to listen herself.
Rain sat by himself, not saying anything, even when they came to his part in the tale. He watched Inuyasha leap up to do a comic rendition of his sword fight, but Rain didn't find it very funny. As Inuyasha came closer to Sessho, the dog demon reached up and pulled him down. Inuyasha landed hard on his butt. Rain was shook out of his reverie by Kagome asking him if something was wrong. He tried his best to smile, and, hoping it was convincing, said no.
The Bounty Hunter's pride had taken a beating. He had lost. He had lost a sword fight. Sword fighting, his specialty and his passion, a thing he had been doing as long as he could remember. What he was known for. And he would've even died too, if Ankha hadn't saved him. How ironic. The person he had been trying to save had saved him. Even half dead, she was better than him. He was pulled out of the mire of his thoughts by the mention of Ankha's name.
Kagome and Loeyla were updating on her health.
"Well, she'll live." Loeyla said. A few people heaved a sigh. "I don't know how long it'll be until she heals. She may be a demon, but she was hit pretty hard. Over and over. And over. I'm hoping that there is no internal bleeding, but it's hard to tell. Her head was really banged up, so she may or may not have her memory. Her neck will heal soon, and her voice will be undamaged." Inuyasha was a bit put out at that. "Rain," Kagome was talking now. "Were you hurt? You fought too." Rain was touched by her concern. He shook his head at her.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you for asking." Inuyasha hmphed. "So, Ankha will be all right?"
"We hope so."
3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.3.
The night passed in peace. They slept well, tired out from their long journey and from their worry. They were going to need that sleep.
You see, cat demons are awful patients. They hiss and complain about every medicine and every day spent indoors. The only good thing was that they had to sleep eventually, and Ankha did also. When she slept, she transformed into her demon form, giving it time to heal as well. It took a full week of torture for everybody for Ankha to heal. Even Inuyasha was sympathetic at first, but that lasted maybe five minutes before she sent him running from the room, dodging a bowl.
"She's evil!" He exclaimed. "Pure evil! I'm not going in there again, you can't make me!" Shippo came in once a day, but his visits only made it worse for Ankha, who hated to be cooped up inside. All he would talk about was what flower or creature he had seen that day, and it made her long to leave that rotten bed and see the newly budding world for herself, but her damn leg wouldn't heal. She was also irritated by Rain. He never came to visit. The guy saves her life, and she can't even thank him. Not that she would, she decided. She'd yell at him for interfering with her fight. Didn't he know that she never lost? So when he was finally forced to visit by Kagome, who had been nagging him the whole time, she gave him the cold shoulder and pretended to be asleep until she really did fall asleep, changing into her demon form as she did.
Rain stared at the golden figure on the bed. He had sat there the whole time, knowing that she wasn't asleep, but not knowing what to say. What do you say to someone you thought hated you when she drags herself up from the dead to save your ass? Really, what do you say? He had been avoiding meeting her again, because of that. He had known this woman for almost a year, and he couldn't make heads or tails out of her. She's an assassin. She loves children. She seems to hate his guts. She saved his life. She acts as if life doesn't effect her. She has nightmares of her parents dying. They had all heard what Naraku had said to her, when she had been lying there, more than half dead. Rain shuddered again as he recalled how she had killed her master. What must he have done to make her do that?
Night Lioness whimpered and rolled over in her sleep, facing Rain now. Asleep, not attacking a man dressed like a monkey, she looked almost kitten-ish. He could see her tail twitching under the covers. He smiled as it wiggled about. Rain wondered what she was dreaming about. His eyes became heavy and he snuggled into the chair where he sat, thinking that he should leave, but couldn't get up enough energy to. Right before his eyes closed, he heard a particular noise coming from the large cat. It sounded almost like a song. A song dispersed with laughter. He slept.
His dream merged with hers. He didn't know how it happened, but suddenly he was dreaming memories of things that had never happened to him. He crouched beside what he assumed to be Ankha, or Night Lioness, really, but whoever it was was a cub. They crouched in the bushes, and watched two fully grown cat demons in their demon form walk along the path in a well tended garden. The cub beside him was unaware that he was there. The cub growled softly and leaped out at the two demons on their stroll. The one she had pounced on fell swiftly, and played as if dead. The cub crept up to the face, worried, and his head snapped up, and the demon snuffed "Boo!" The cub squealed in fright and delight then quickly sprinted away, the male chasing after her. The name for this demon popped into his head, but it wasn't the name he expected. 'Daddy.' This was the cubs father. Ankha's father. 'So that means', Rain turned his head and looked at the female, 'That must be her mother.' The mother huffed at the two that were playing, telling the father to be careful or stop. 'Wait, I don't speak cat.' He realized that since he was witnessing Ankha's memories, that every thing that she understood he would be able to understand too. The father quickly rolled upright and stood. He scuffled his feet like a child who had gotten caught doing something naughty. His daughter and wife laughed.
Then the dream spun ahead, and Rain only caught glimpses of what was an over all happy childhood, interspersed with small sadness': Ankha's first experience with people who didn't like demons, her parents leaving on business trips and her being left at home with a cranky woman, falling out of her favorite tree. Then, came the dream. He huddled beside her under the bush, saw what happened to her parents, was with her as she ran to their bodies, and was picked up by a bad smelling man a few days after, as he found her wandering on the road. He was trapped also in that small cage as she was transported to her new master's home, wandered through the same empty halls, met the man with her.
The next years passed by, and specific memories jumped out at him: Her first experience on the receiving end of a whip; being locked into a small dark room for days on end with no food, no light, and as little water as it took to keep her alive, and only her thoughts for company; the nightmares and the rituals; and then the dream focused in on her first assassination job. A vision of a pale fat man lying in his bed, asleep. The young cat demon crept up to him and started swaying in time to a music only she and the sleeping man could hear. The fat man twisted on his bed, his mouth opened and foamed over, and then he lay there, still. The young Ankha turned and he saw her eyes. They were empty, desolate, but a deep anger simmered there, way near the bottom, he could barely see it. Then there was the fleeing of the house, running back to the mansion. More blurs, more assassinations. Then, there was an explosion of the anger he had seen, and a rage came over him, overwhelming all rational thought. Then he came out of the insanity with her, and saw what she had did with her own hands, all the blood that surrounded her. Her master's blood. He watched her huddle in a small ball on the floor, and shake. But sadness was not the feeling that came to her. It was relief.
She sat there in the gory room until she came up with a plan. Than she ran around the house, gathering things, destroying others. He watched her snatch up the map and jar, her cloak, the blanket and a few other items he couldn't recognize. Last of all, after stealing all the money, she crept into his office, the room across from the one designated for her whippings and the other punishments. The Punishment Room, Huko had called it simplistically, belittling her pain. She smashed the desk with a large bust the was sitting in the room, a bust she had always despised, though she never knew why. Once the desk was 'open', she searched through the heap of wood and pulled out a glittering item. He recognized it as the ankh she always wore around her neck. It was the only thing she had that belonged to her parents. Huko had taken it from her. She pressed the cold metal to her cheek and stroked it lovingly. It was different from the one of the pair she had given Songo. Ankha stood and hung the ankh about her neck by its smooth chain. Then, he went with her to the room as she scratched the message into the wood, and followed her as she left the place of her imprisonment, never looking back.
Suddenly, they weren't in her dream. They were standing face to face in a void, still not in the real world, but not dreaming either. It was a full grown Ankha he looked at now. A full grown mad Ankha, with ten sharp claws.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She yelled at him. "Get the fuck out of my mind! How did you get in here, anyway? Never mind, what did you see?"
He just stood there, speechless. That was one trip he never wanted to take again. How could she stand going through that every night? She had asked how he had gotten here. Why was he here, was his question. Then the answer came to him like a flash of lightening. She was overburdened by memories. One of his attacks was the ability to take memories away. He kept them in a little bag around his waist, much like what Ankha did with her daggers. When he needed one, he'd reach in there and search around for the specific marble the memory had turned into, hold it in front of his eyes, and be able to 'read' it. The attack was called Amnesia. Somehow, he had come here. He had seen what she had been through, lived it with her. He turned and looked at the cat demon.
"Ankha." He spoke urgently, stopping her verbal attack on him. "I have the power to take all the bad memories away. If you wish, I could do that for you." Now it was Akha's turn to be speechless. Get rid of her memories?
Did she want to? 'Yes!' a part of her cried out, a part she had nearly forgotten existed. But without her memories, who would she be? Some air-headed nitwit, a person who lacked drive and skill. With out her memories, she would just exist. 'But it would be a happy existence,' that part of her whispered. 'You could go on with your life, instead of living in the past. All the bad things would be gone.' Tempting.
'But then more bad things would happen, and fill up your mind again. Life can't be life without its imperfections.' Came the other side of the argument. Great, she thought. Give me an important decision, and what do I do? Become schizophrenic. 'If you got rid of your bad memories, you'd be living half a life, throwing away half of what makes you you, throwing away all that you've worked for. Throwing away revenge, dishonoring your parents.'
Rain watched Ankha as she paced back and forth in this dream world. Finally, she stopped. He waited for her decision.
With sad and confused eyes, she looked up at him.
"I don't know."
1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.
B.B.- (Jumping up and down) "Mine, mine, mine!"
W.W.- "Settle down." (Hugging story close)
B.B.- (Still jumping) "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
W.W.- "NO!"
B.B.- (Stops jumping) "W.W., give me OUR story."
W.W.- "It's my story!"
B.B.- "It's our story now." (Snatching story from her hands)
W.W.- (Looking at her shoes) "I know." (Sighs)
B.B.- (Already sitting at desk writing story. Whispering to the paper) "You're mine, all mine!"
1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.
Loeyla walked into the hut to find Ankha's sleeping body pacing the floor (the cat demon was in her human form), and Rain also asleep, standing with a small blue marble between his index finger and thumb. Ankha stopped pacing as Loeyla felt everyone come in behind her. Ankha faced Rain, and whispered, "I don't know." Then she lunged at Rain, yelling "Get out!" She was strangling him. "Get out of my dreams! Leave my brain alone!" They both then dropped to the floor in a heap. A few seconds passed, and Rain awoke, while Ankha slept on. More time passed before Rain was able to get himself out from under the cat demon.
Carefully, Rain placed Ankha on her sleeping mat. He whispered in her ear, "Think about it, Kitten." As he said this he became aware of the presence of the others and how close he was to her. Red faced he sat back in his chair and went into a deep meditation.
