Chapter 35: Wake-Up Calls

Chaos. Pure and utter chaos is the only way to describe the castle. Screaming, servants running around, desperate to get out of the way. Out of sight, three courageously ushering two humans to the safety that Kagome herself had used what seemed like a lifetime ago for the first time during her first blue moon here. What had caused this? The enemy. One after the other, servants who weren't quick enough were caught up by his claws. To each, a single question was asked, "Where's Kagome?"

None answered, none caught up by his sharp claws remained intact. After a while, he growls low, this wasn't helping him find his woman. It'd been over a week since he'd seen her last, and he was getting impatient. He stops for a moment and sniffs, with so many servants, picking out one scent was rather difficult but finally, he caught it. A smirk comes to his lips, 'Upstairs, huh?'

He jumps the distance between the floors with ease, sniffing around before running again, tripping every once and a while over those who foolishly ran in front of him in their panic. Finally he reaches a room which his woman's scent disappears under, and he's not happy about it 'That mutt's scent is in there too.' He thinks, listening to a deep voice within the room as it pleads.

"Please Lady Kagome, you must come with me. Lord Inuyasha would have my head if he awoke to find you harmed." Miroku pleads to the inanimate girl, who made no move to respond to his begging, simply remaining as she had been for days now, half-lidded strangely unfocused on anything yet at the same time focused so acutely on the master of the household that seemed that she was peering directly into his soul.

'What can I do? Oh, if only I had my body again, I could simply lift her and carry her to safety.' He thinks frustratedly. He suddenly whirls around as he hears the doors come off their hinges after being kicked. 'Oh no, it's too late.'

"So, the mutt's still asleep from our last fight eh? I told him there was no way he could ever hop to beat me. And now I'll collect my prize." The arrogant wolf demon says before strolling over to where the girl sat, still entirely unaffected by the events around her.

Bravely, Miroku places himself between the two, even though he knows that he has no chance of stopping the wolf. "Stop! Don't take another step towards Lady Kagome you brute! I swear if you do I'll…I'll…I'll use my magic abilities to place a curse on you for a thousand years." 'True, I don't have any magic abilities, but he doesn't know that. I'm a talking, walking, living lantern for Buddha's sake, how does he know that I can't do it?"

Unfortunately, the bluff doesn't work, and he's quickly swept aside my one of the demons feet "Get out of my way, you pathetic excuse for a candle. Nothing's keeping me from my woman!"

From where he lays, Miroku watches helplessly as the monster closes in on the two, stopping momentarily to glance down at the master that he had served faithfully for most of his life. "Heh, once I've got my woman, I'll take care of you. Should be easy enough with you just lyin' there." He chuckles darkly. "I'll rip your heart out and keep it as a souvenir."

He then goes to reach for the girl, only to be refused his prize when a barrier suddenly forms between him and her and electric sparks shoot from it as soon as his claws come into contact with it. "What the…?" He tries to reach for her again, only to have the same results. This time he notices at the exact moment he gets to close, something around her neck pulses, as does the mutt's scent. "So, your tryin' to protect your property even while your unconscious, eh? Well, I've had about enough of you, and now that Naraku's given me the go ahead, I can kill you like I've wanted from the start!" He yells this last part as he raises his hand and plunges it towards the comatose lord's throat.

Just at that moment, there's a light swish, and his hand is deflected by an acute pain in his wrist. He growls, "Alright, I'm getting sick and tired of these interruptions! Who the hell is trying to be a hero this time!" He whirls around, eyes flaming, to find a tall man standing in the doorway, staring him down with piercing golden eyes while his long white hair moves lightly behind him, evidence of his movement.

In a deep, calm voice, he speaks, as if speaking from a very great height. "This Sesshomaru does not wish to 'play hero' as you say, but this Sesshomaru cannot allow to you to kill the half-breed. Law and honor states this Sesshomaru must defend him if he is unable to defend himself, which obviously, he isn't." His grip tightens on the yellow whip he holds in one hand, which seems to have a sickly green glow about it "Now, if you wish to see another sunrise, you will leave. Immediately."

Kouga growls "Screw you whip-boy. Kagome is MINE and NO one, not you, not the mutt, not even Kagome herself, is going to keep me from claiming my prize!" With that he charges at the stoic man, only to find him not there and, unable to stop, crashes into the hallway wall.

He jumps up and whirls around, only to find Sesshomaru right where he'd been moments ago, not even turned around to face him. "This Sesshomaru will not warn you again, surrender or face dire consequences for standing against this Sesshomaru's will."

"I don't care about your 'consequences', I'm getting my property back!" Kouga yells as he charges again, and this time the demon lord doesn't even try to dodge it, opting instead to block it head on, grabbing the impudent young man's arms and growling in his face before throwing him back as carelessly as one would a piece of paper. Kouga isn't deterred as he charges again and again, only to be denied the slightest concession, completely and totally outmatched, yet to thickheaded and stupid to see his own incompetence

After a few minutes of this, Sesshomaru gets bored, saying in a commanding manner "Wake up to your own fragility and cease this useless struggle weakling. This Sesshomaru would have killed you long ago, but this Sesshomaru doesn't want to dirty his hands on such a low-level demon as yourself. You have no chance of winning, leave and just accept defeat."

This enrages the wolf demon further "I won't! I can't be beaten by anyone! I'm invincible, and I'll kill you! I'll keep your heart as a souvenir as well! Just you wait and see!" He says as he tires once again to charge against him, fruitlessly.

This is met by a huff from the elder, more powerful demon as he once again blocks his attack, this time keeping a hold on his arms "Only the pathetic and weak boast such idiocy. Tread carefully fool, you try this Sesshomaru's patience, not a wise thing to do." He then squeezes his right arm so that a cracking sound is heard and Kouga cannot contain his scream. Sesshomaru tosses him away again "This Sesshomaru did not break your arm, it is only sprained, be warned against charging again though, this Sesshomaru will not be so generous again."

Kouga almost charges in blind fury and bloodlust once again, but the entire scene is stopped when a familiar gruff voice breaks through the tension "You know, you guys make it really hard for a guy to catch any shut eye with your carrying on like that."

Kouga looks over the tall man's shoulder, a spark of fear finding it's way through the rage and bloodthirst that his eyes hold 'No, it couldn't be. He was unconscious, dead to the world! I was this close to ridding the world of that mutt! It can't be…!'

But sure enough, there he was, Kagome behind him looking slightly dazed and looking around, looking ready for a fight. "Yo, greetings from Hell guys." He says, with his customary smirk in place, as if he hadn't been asleep for over a week with no contact with the world outside his own mind.

Sesshomaru's eyes simply narrow slightly "Inuyasha, you should learn not to play with the garbage. Having this wolf get this far into your territory disgraces the noble blood of our father."

Inuyasha just keeps smirking "Sorry about that Fluffy your highness. Just had some personal business that I had to sort out first. I can handle things from here."

Kouga at this point regains his voice "Please, I handed you your ass before, I can do it again. The last half of the last fight was a fluke. I'm gonna kill you this time for sure, then I'm gonna skin you and make your fur into a coat for MY Kagome."

Inuyasha huffs, still smirking "Just try it, you wimpy wolf." Sliding into a fighting position as Sesshomaru clears the way between the two combatants. They charge, and the fight for Kagome begins once again.

A.N. Wow! I haven't written that much for a chapter in a while. And I got it out so soon too! So, I've decided to move this story right along, next chapter will be what I think will be the final battle between Inuyasha and Kouga, in which, of course, Kouga will eventually get his butt handed to him in, but not so suddenly that there's nothing to the fight of course. I hope you liked this fight, I tried to stay as true to the characters as possible. Well, not much more to say for now, so, onto Reviewer Replies! First off, thanks to Neko-Yuff16, harryptaxed204, Lady Dark Angel, Bloody Rin, glenlightarrow, SitDog-Boy, and ThatOneNerd for their lovely reviews. I appreciate them so much! As for individual responses,

marlett- Sorry I didn't have much in here in the way of Inuyasha and Kagome, but don't worry! After the fight with Kouga I'll be sure to have the two explain themselves to Fluffy-kun at least. I'm also sorry that it took me so long before to get this up, writer's block's a pain in the butt. I'll be sure not to leave you hanging for such a long period again.

galaxy guardian- Lol, no, I've tried chains and shackles, they just get my muse in a bad mood lol. You're right, I won't tell you who the two ppl at the end of the chappie were quite yet, you have to guess, but as you may have guessed, the golden-eyed 'warrior' was indeed Sesshomaru. Thank you for your support, it is much appreciated.

Well, that's all for now, please R&R!