This was written for the Alternate Reality challenge at iyfic(underscore)contest.

And, just so you know, writing this went against every fan-girl bone in my body...

Title: The Puppet-Master's New Face
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Alternate Reality
Word Count: 366
Characters: Naraku. Sesshoumaru.
Squicks: Gore, character death, and overuse of animal-metaphors
Summary: 'The itsy bitsy spider…'
Notes: It'll be easy to guess where I'm diverging from the original story line…

-

It was going just as he planned. Pieces of his body lay scattered about the daiyoukai's feet, lumps of decaying flesh and gore that still had an eager part to play. The dog was all show; surely one so brazen and contemptuous could only fall through his own failure?

And it was a failure…a failure to see the spider's web. He wove it with slow, steady strokes, making it strong, making it fast, and he had a patience to rival none other. He closed in slowly, inching forward with a bitten-back smirk on his borrowed face.

The dog didn't scent a thing.

It was ready; a mere jerk of his silken puppet-string and it was all over. He made certain of that. Wrapping thick muscle around that pearl-white neck, he squeezed and for the first time his prey began to struggle. That dog really should have known better--but since when had such a creature been required to build instincts against the lowly spider?

He slid himself along that priceless skin, just feeling that power pounding beneath his questing reach. He only had a short time to savor it, to memorize it. The dog was fighting now, but it was of no use. One could not growl through a crushed throat, nor could one claw and bite from within coiled limbs. There was only one option left to him.

Exactly the one the spider had waited for.

The moment those eyes bleed red and that power surged about him, the spider pulled. Pitiful that the end of such a proud creature would be a simple snap.

The spider had a feast that day, lapping up the bitter energy left over from the futile fight, digging his teeth into the newest façade he was to don. He had little time to enjoy himself, however, before he was forced to test his skills.

"Sesshoumaru!"

He turned at that voice, unfamiliar white hair sliding before his face as he caught sight of that mongrel. Inuyasha.

"Where's Naraku? I smell him all over this fuckin' place!"

The one called Sesshoumaru smirked. This would be easy enough to handle. "Naraku is gone. You were too late, little brother."

Much too late.