Disclaimer: Still don't own it. May abandon ninja monkeys in favor of ninja elephants, though – they're clunky, but they'll work for peanuts.
This story is rated "T" for language and violence. Consider yourself warned.
A/N: I want to dedicate this chapter to Nefertiri, who diligently reminded me that I had an imprisonment scene to write. We're not quite there yet, unfortunately, but we're getting there. Thanks for keeping me on track, Nef. What would I do without you?
I would now like to point out that the theory I use in this chapter as to What That Fluffy Thing on Sesshoumaru's Shoulder Is isn't mine, and unfortunately I am using it without permission. I picked it up from another fanfic here but, try as I might, I cannot remember the author's name. If anyone recognizes it, PLEASE let me know so I can give her credit. To me, her theory (that the mokomoko-sama is the physical manifestation of the youki that Sesshoumaru isn't using when he's in his "people form") is the one that makes the most sense as to what the mokomoko-sama really is, and that author deserves a lot of credit for coming up with it.
The theory of how the Time portals work, on the other hand, is my idea and is based on similar theories about wormholes in outer space. So who knows, my theory could even be true…now who wants to test it?
Now, on a serious note, if the drop-off in reviews is any indication, people are either losing interest in this story, or miss when it updates (as up until quite recently, this story was rated "R" and Fanfiction dot net did not list anything past PG13 in the main Inuyasha page – with the new rating system in place, I designated this fic at "T" so that it would still show up with everyone else's). If anyone is interested in receiving an email when I update this story, please leave your email address in a review.
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Enter Fudomaru, the Burning Death
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The first thing she noticed was that she was cold.
The second and third things, respectively, were that a piece of armor was persistently digging into a soft spot under her ribs, and that a bit of fluff was successfully attempting to investigate the inside of her left nostril.
'Arg…why couldn't I have just stayed asleep?' Amy grumped to herself, shifting once more on Sesshoumaru's shoulder. Granted, she hadn't slept for even five minutes, but that was beside the point. She had, however briefly, been blissfully unaware of the embarrassing situation that she was now in.
She shivered, turning her head and burying her nose under the daiyoukai's heavy mass of hair, ignoring how close her mouth had come to his neck. The wind, chilly when she had been walking, had grown bitterly cold once Sesshoumaru began to run. It whipped mercilessly over her still form, blowing her own thick hair forward and over Sesshoumaru's shoulder despite her repeated attempts to keep it covering her exposed back.
'Traitor.' she though disgustedly, glaring through the brown and silver hair-curtain that now covered her face. Giving up, she burrowed further into the fluff, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she sank so far into it that bits of the fuzzy stuff began to cover her chilled back.
'If I didn't know better…' she thought warily, 'I'd swear this stuff was growing…'
Sesshoumaru didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed by the woman's silent antics. Awake, asleep, awake – twisting, shifting, she was a never ending cycle of tiny movements. When her cold nose brushed his neck, he was tempted to toss her away out of spite. But in her frail human form, being thrown at such speeds could well be fatal.
So he sighed, and bore her movement in silence, even as her breath blew gently against the lobe of his ear. Without so much as a thought, he stretched the physical extension of his youki, using the mokomoko-sama to wrap the shivering woman in a cocoon of warmth.
Perhaps she would cease her twitching once she was no longer cold.
Neither the daiyoukai nor his living cargo noticed the surreptitious glances their young companion cast their way. Sesshoumaru had pulled ahead when they first started to run, giving Derek a front row view of their antics. In the nearly seven decades of his life, the hanyou had never known his aunt to willingly accept the help of a non-wolf.
Heck, she usually didn't even accept the help of other wolves.
And yet here she was, letting a dog youkai lead them around, giving the most minimal of protests when the youkai slung her over his shoulder like a war prize when she normally would have walked until she dropped. Derek shook his head in bemusement.
His beloved aunt had quite a few faults, and stubbornness wasn't the least of them.
'So why's she putting up with this dog telling her what to do?' he thought, puzzled. 'Yeah, he's intimidating as hell, but it's not like she even knows him, let alone trusts him. I wonder...could she be accepting his help because her back isn't fully healed yet? I would have smelled if it weren't, wouldn't I?'
Thinking of how his aunt had become wounded in the first place made both his heart and his head hurt. She had been with his father when he was ambushed, and had taken a blow from Jiman, the sword forged of his father's own fang. Only a weapon made of another Moon Wolf had the power to seriously injure one of their bloodline.
God, he missed Dad. Seeing the similarities in his aunt's face, despite that they had been only half-siblings, served as a daily reminder that his father was dead and gone.
True, his aunt's coloring was different – she had inherited the green of her eyes and the red cast of her hair from her human mother, rather than the black, silver-tipped hair and grey eyes that Derek shared with most of their clan. But her features, her stature, her very bearing were that of the elite of the Moon Wolf Clan…as his father's had been.
Derek shook his head again, banishing the morose thoughts. That didn't matter now. What mattered was finding the Talisman, avenging his father, and closing the gateway that connected their time with this one. He still didn't quite understand why it was that the Talisman's presence in this time was forcing the gateway to remain open, or why it was that they only had until the next full moon to close it. Heck, he didn't even understand how portals between different times could exist, though Aunt Amy had tried to explain it to him during the last new moon…
They'd huddled around the small campfire, his aunt intent on educating him while he was able to ask complex questions. The firelight had cast eerie, flickering shadows over her face, adding the red tint to her hair that became lacking during what she jokingly referred to as her Time of the Month.
"It's actually not that complicated, Derek." she'd said, a twinkle in her eye betraying the half-truth. "Imagine that you are walking across a field. Now, this field is actually a very big hill that is much wider than it is tall, so it appears to be flat even though there is a definite curve to it. Well, suppose that you were able to dig a tunnel from one side of that hill to the other. You'd be able to travel from one end to the other, back and forth, without having to actually walk across the field-hill.
Now, imagine that Time is that hill. It appears to be flat, stretching only forward, but in reality it curves slightly, so that a tunnel – a portal – can be made from one end to the other. A portal like this would allow people to travel from one time to another, without having to experience the years in between."
"Okay, I get that." he'd said impatiently. "But why is the Talisman forcing the portal to stay open?"
She'd sighed, and prodded the fire, watching the sparks as they soared to heaven like tiny souls.
"A special magic is used to create and maintain such time portals, Derek. Most were made using the wood of the Goshinboku – the God Trees. Such trees were – are – a sort of time reservoir, and act as a natural anchor point for Time itself. To be honest, I don't quite know how the magic of the God Trees works, only that it does and that, once intelligent beings start manipulating that magic, a careful balance must be maintained lest the portal collapse on itself and begin to unravel the very fabric of time.
"When…" his aunt's voice had hitched, then grew hard as her eyes became unforgiving. "When our enemy stole the Talisman, she brought it back to this time, and in so doing she created a paradox." She raised a hand, stilling the question that tried to escape his lips.
"The Talisman already exists in this time, Derek. By bringing its future self here, she created a loop of sorts in the magic the portal uses. It's like entering bad data into a computer – it causes the computer to go into a continuous loop until it fries and crashes. The Monks of Time, the Shinto priests that guard the portals, have already noticed that the area around our portal has been…affected. They believe that if the paradox isn't resolved, that if the Talisman is not brought back to its rightful place in time, that the portal will seriously malfunction. Either it will stay open permanently or…" She had paused, searching for the right words. "Or, it will crash, and create a hole within Time itself."
Derek shook away the memory of that conversation, although a new question presented itself. He quickened his pace, pulling almost abreast of the tall youkai.
"Aunt Amy?" he said softly, pitching his voice low in deference to the adorable little human snoring on his back.
His aunt lifted a sleepy head, blinking her eyes at her nephew. 'Damn it…was almost asleep again...grr…'
"What's up, kiddo?" she yawned, her teeth baring briefly as she shook her head in a rather canine fashion. Sesshoumaru kept his gaze forward, though his head may have tilted in the wolves' direction.
"What did you mean when you said that Naraku wouldn't be planning to attack here, if Ingrid is telling him when and where to attack?"
Her eyes hardened, and Derek winced as he realized that he probably shouldn't have asked around Sesshoumaru.
"Yes, hanyou. This Sesshoumaru would like to know, as well." the lord said in a soft, yet dangerous voice. 'I know there's something you're not telling me.' his tone seemed to say.
"Well, looks like the jig is up." Amy said almost flippantly.
"Jig?" Sesshoumaru's eyebrow arched. The hanyou's strange vocabulary continued to surprise him, though he tried not to show it.
"Well, you may have noticed that we're not exactly from around here, Lord Sesshoumaru." Amy said, her voice growing serious. His snort confirmed her statement, and she plowed forward. "But it isn't because we came here from the South Lands, though to be honest, neither Derek nor I really grew up in those lands. We have come here, to this time, from over five centuries in your future."
The great youkai stopped so suddenly that Derek was nearly a thousand feet ahead of him before he noticed the distinct lack of aunt- and daiyoukai-age.
"Come again?" Sesshoumaru said, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.
"You heard me the first time." Amy said defiantly, attempting to cross her arms and stare the youkai down.
Unfortunately, such a position was impossible to maintain, seeing as she was still lying over his shoulder, and she ended up looking more like an uncomfortable, petulant child than a confident, defiant adult.
"You expect me to believe that you come from the future?" The taiyoukai snorted. "Don't make this Sesshoumaru laugh."
"A laugh would do you good, jackass. How else would you like to explain my fluency in a language that has yet to be spoken in these islands, Lord Sesshoumaru?"she stated in an almost mocking tone, switching back to Japanese as his eyebrow began to twitch.
"I expect you to believe it because it is the truth, Lord Sesshoumaru." She spoke softly, knowing that allowing her voice to rise in frustration would only harm her position. "Whether or not you choose to believe it is, of course, completely up to you.
"Now, Derek…the reason Naraku won't be attacking here and now is because Ingrid will have already informed him of the futility of gathering Shikon shards. In our time," she directed her gaze to the once-more walking youkai, "there is no written record of Naraku, or of the battles he's fought for the Shikon shards. Were he successful, there's no way we wouldn't know about it. Now, Ingrid could probably tell him what to do here and now so that he would, indeed, succeed. However," she raised her finger to show that she was making a point, "if she did, it would change history as we know it, and thus create a paradox. The history that she came here knowing would no longer exist, and her knowledge of it would disappear with that history. Once her knowledge disappeared, she would no longer know how to advise Naraku, and poof! We'd be back in our current timeline where Naraku fails. Thus, Ingrid cannot tell him what to do here because she would create a paradox in which success would be impossible. So, the only thing she knows for certain is that Naraku, should he choose to continue his pursuit of power here, would ultimately fail. So, logically, she would advise Naraku to gather his forces to attack where the future is still uncharted – our time.
"And also…Ingrid holds a grudge against our clan, and she is incapable of seeking the revenge she desires without help." Amy paused for breath, searching Sesshoumaru's face for a reaction, any reaction. "She would be tempted to bring Naraku to our time just to see him destroy our family."
Sesshoumaru walked forward in silence, digesting Amaya's…tale? Story? Truth? "And she would not ask him to destroy your clan here and now because…?" his voice lilted up in question.
"Because, for her to do so would prevent the events that led to her hating my people in the first place." Amy said quietly. "If the Moon Wolves were decimated here, now, her daughter's kidnapper will die before her daughter was even born. And if her daughter had not been kidnapped…"
"She would have no grudge, and therefore, she would have no reason to come to the past, creating yet another of your paradoxes." Sesshoumaru finished, Amy's nod confirming his conclusion.
"There is one thing you have not touched upon, hanyou." Sesshoumaru spoke calmly, but Amy shivered as his fluff flexed around her. "If your clan is intent on avoiding paradoxes in time, your clan would have to already know that sending you and your nephew to this time would be a successful endeavor. Or do the Moon Wolves have no records of this event?"
Amy nodded reluctantly. "There was a tale, passed from generation to generation, that the power of the Talisman was disrupted for a brief period, though it remained safely on its Guardian's person. It was said that two foreign wolves came to solve the problem, and that they succeeded. Unfortunately, the tale didn't include how it was that we will succeed, or even if we will live through this experience - only that the disruption will be stopped."
She gave a short laugh, shaking her head as Sesshoumaru gave her an incredulous look. "Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing that we don't know what is going to happen. If we did, we would be much more limited in what we could do."
"Because you are not bound by your knowledge of what has been, and will be," Sesshoumaru nodded slowly, "whatever actions you take here will not affect history as you know it." Reluctant as he was to accept such a tale, she spoke convincingly and, more importantly, her scent was nearly clean of the nuances that indicated dishonesty. He was certain that she was not lying, but she was still holding something back from him.
Of this, Sesshoumaru was certain.
"Suppose for a moment, hanyou," he spoke softly, yet as firmly as steel, "that I was inclined to believe this tale of yours. I will not allow Naraku to escape his fate by fleeing this time – the coward will die upon this Sesshoumaru's claws. What do you believe we should do?"
"First off, we need to find the Talisman." Amy said firmly, not allowing Sesshoumaru's tone to cow her. "Once we have that, we can close the portal we traveled through that connects this time and our time. Until my time's Talisman is restored to its proper place, its mere presence in this time is forcing the portal to remain open. Once that portal is closed, only its guardians or another item of great power will be able to re-open it.
"And so Naraku would remain trapped in this time, where he is fated to fail."
Sesshoumaru seemed to digest this information, walking in silence as Amy and Derek traded speculative glances. Deprived of her sense of smell, Amy wasn't sure if Sesshoumaru believed her or was just humoring them, though she was inclined to think that he believed them. 'After all,' she thought wryly, 'if he didn't believe me, I'd probably be dead already.'
Derek's thoughts ran in similar circles, the elder youkai's silence making him uneasy. He could almost smell the intense concentration coming off of Sesshoumaru, an acrid stench like wood being burned…
'No, wait…' he thought, horrified, 'is that really smoke I'm smelling? That's way too much scent for just a campfire!'
He stopped as Sesshoumaru did, both raising their noses slightly and scenting the wind. Amy straightened herself up once more, looking quickly between the two males. 'Damn this time of the month!' she cursed silently. "What's up, guys?" she said aloud.
"Smoke, and lots of it." Derek said grimly, shifting Rin. "Coming from the direction we're heading."
"Not only that." Sesshoumaru said quietly. "The scent of jyaki also fills the air. There is a human village before my fortress." he stated indifferently. "The scents indicate that someone has attacked it."
Even Amy could smell the smoke now, winding through the trees and causing both her and Rin to cough, though somehow the little girl still managed to stay asleep. Amy cast an envious look at her before addressing Sesshoumaru.
"So, are we going to help out, or what?" she asked almost peevishly, her upturned face mere inches from his.
"Or what, hanyou. Unless we are attacked on our way through, I have no intention of interfering." the lord stated in his coldest tones, even as he resumed his running pace.
"You can't do that!" she yelped. "There're probably defenseless women and children there – you don't honestly intend to just let them die, do you?"
"They are human." he said contemptuously. "They are dead already, and have merely failed to realize that fact."
If Amy's ears could have flattened, they would have. Fury sparked in her eyes as she hissed at him.
"And what about Rin? Is she only dead already, and merely doesn't realize it?"
'On second thought, that might not have been the smartest thing to say,' Amy reflected as molten amber eyes met her own.
"Rin is a different story, hanyou. Don't you dare to compare her with that…filth." he spat.
Their noses a mere inch apart, Amy tried to calm herself down before she riled the irate lord further. 'Wait…he's a lord…'
"Never mind that they're human. Isn't this village in your domain?" she asked quietly, not breaking their stare down.
"Yes. It is." he bit out, wondering at her sudden change in tactics.
"So…wouldn't that make that village your property, and everyone in it your vassals?" she said quickly.
"And what would this Sesshoumaru care if one human village in his lands was destroyed?" he said contemptuously.
If it wouldn't have broken their staring contest, Amy would have rolled her eyes.
"What's the point in ruling a land if there is no one left to be ruled, Sesshoumaru?" she said quietly. "The first law of a being a good ruler is to protect that which you rule." 'You dumb ass', she added in her head.
"Besides," she continued, trying to appeal to his pride, "what are the chances that a village in your land is being burned to the ground by another youkai, and that it isn't an attempt to insult you? Are you really going to let whoever it is to just get away with thinking that?"
Sesshoumaru wasn't blind to what the hanyou was trying to do, even if she was making a convincing argument. "Calm yourself, woman. We must pass by this village, regardless. We will soon know who has attacked it, and why."
Amy tried once more to cross her arms, giving up in irritation when the fluff kept getting in her way. "Good." she said crossly. 'There'll probably be wounded that'll need my help.' she thought, before mentally smacking herself. 'Damn it! That toad still has my bag! That's it!' she swore. 'From now on, nobody carries my stuff but ME!'
As Sesshoumaru's pace increased, she worriedly looked to the eastern sky. Already she could see the faint light of false dawn.
Not only was she without her medical supplies, chances were good that Derek would be a wolf again before they even set foot in the ravaged village.
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"Inu Yasha!" Kagome yelled in frustration. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"You honestly don't think I'm going to just let Miroku and Sango go investigate by themselves, do you?" he said crossly, one hand already tensely gripping Tetsusaiga's hilt
"But it's not dawn yet, Inu Yasha." Shippo piped up. "Getting yourself killed isn't going to impress anybody."
"Why you…" Inu Yasha growled, one hand already raised in a fist.
"Kagome! Wah!" Shippo screeched, flinging himself onto the miko's shoulder.
The hard look in the miko's eyes stopped the hanyou turned human dead in his tracks.
"He has a point, Inu Yasha." she said crossly.
"But I…" he managed to say in frustration before Kagome cut him off.
"But nothing, Inu Yasha! Why do you have to be a jerk when all we try to do is protect you, you idiot! If your bones weren't human right now, I would be SO tempted to say You-Know-What!" she yelled.
"Eh, Kagome…" he said quietly.
"What?" she said crossly.
He leaned forward, hands tucked into his sleeves, staring at the skin under her eyes. "Did you know that when you scream like that, you get wrinkles under your eyes?"
Inu Yasha suddenly found himself facing a basilisk wearing Kagome's face. A giant basilisk. With sharp, pointy teeth.
"No." she said coldly, her stare rooting him to the ground and making him feel about two inches tall. "I was quite unaware of that fact, thank you very much for informing me otherwise."
Although Shippo quite enjoyed seeing Kagome intimidate Inu Yasha, he didn't like seeing his friends get so upset with each other. 'Inu Yasha just doesn't like knowing he's pretty defenseless right now.' Shippo thought. 'He hates it when he feels like he has to rely on everyone else, and that's why he's trying to insist that we all should investigate that jyaki that Miroku felt.' He sniffed, and looked around for something to distract Kagome before she and Inu Yasha really got into it.
His ears and tail perked up as a heavily burdened shadow emerged along the trail. A short, heavily burdened shadow. With a strangely familiar staff…
"Umm, Kagome? Inu Yasha?" Shippo said quietly, wincing as their stare down broke with an almost audible crack.
"What, brat?" "Yes, Shippo?" the two replied simultaneously, briefly glaring at one another until Shippo sighed and pointed down the trail.
"Someone's coming this way."
"Shit!" Inu Yasha exclaimed, quickly pulling back into the shadows. 'Damn it, I don't have enough time to get into a tree without bringing attention to myself. Shit!'
Kagome looked nervous for all of two seconds, before pulling herself up to her full height and bringing her bow to bear. "Who goes there?" she called out, proud of the steadiness of her voice.
"How dare you ask me that, wench? If anyone asks who is intruding in these lands, it should be me, Jakken!" the toad squawked indignantly as he entered the firelight in their clearing.
"Oh." she said almost disappointedly, dropping her bow a notch. "It's only you."
"Eh, Jakken, what brings you here?" Inu Yasha asked, still veiled by the shadows.
Jakken sniffed the air suspiciously. 'Human, I smell. Fox youkai, I smell. Hanyou…I do not smell. Hmmm…'
Eyes narrowing, he deigned to answer his master's hidden half-brother. "I am on a very important mission for Lord Sesshoumaru, whelp. And what would you happen to be doing in these lands, Inu Yasha?"
Sensing the tenseness of the situation, Kagome stepped in. "We're just passing through, Jakken. The monk sensed a great deal of jyaki in the nearest human village, and wished to investigate."
Hmphing in irritation, the imp made to walk around Kagome. "What goes on in these lands is none of your concern, human. You and your group should leave here…immediately." he said coldly.
As he walked by, Kagome swiftly reached out and picked him up by the bag slung on his back. "Where did you get this, Jakken?" she asked sharply.
Limbs flailing wildly after the staff that he'd dropped, Jakken squawked out, "That is none of your business, human!"
Holding him up so that she was facing him nose-to-nose, Kagome nearly growled. "This pack is of human making, toad. That makes it my business."
Inu Yasha started from the shadows, barely restraining himself from walking out. "Is it from your…homeland, Kagome?"
"No." she said coldly, still staring the toad down. "Judging from the manu…craftsman's mark on it, it was made in the land of…one of our allies." She shook the toad, ignoring the stream of indignant curses that emerged from his beak-like mouth. "Start talking, Jakken. Where'd you get this?"
The toad hmphed, indignantly crossing his arms. "If you must know, I am carrying it for a companion of Lord Sesshoumaru's."
Kagome and Inu Yasha exchanged a startled look. "The wolf princess?" Kagome said quickly.
Jakken quirked an eyebrow. "No, a wolf hanyou. There's no way that uncouth woman is a princess!" he snorted.
Inu Yasha laughed. "If you say so, Jakken. Kouga's wolves seem pretty convinced of her social standing, though."
Jakken hmphed. "Her social status among the wolves carries no weight with a youkai of your noble brother's stature."
A soft keh issued from the trees. "She must bring him some advantage, Jakken, if he is willing to put up with the company of a half-breed. Tell me, what is my hanyou-hater of a brother doing with a wench like her?"
Jakken stiffened in Kagome's grip. This was a question he'd asked himself many times over the last two days, and he was no closer to an answer now than he'd been the first time he pondered it.
"Your noble brother is not answerable to you on any matter, Inu Yasha, least of all on his choice of companions." He settled for sneering instead, hiding his lack of knowledge. "Lord Sesshoumaru's reasons on this matter are his own."
If he didn't know better, he'd swear that idiot of a hanyou was softly laughing at him.
"You might as well let him go, Kagome. We're not going to get anything else out of him."
Suddenly released, the imp scrambled for his staff before giving the flinty-eyed priestess a glare of his own. Turning on his heel, he stomped off in indignation without giving the three companions a second glance.
"So…" Shippo said as the imp faded into the darkness. "What was that all about?"
The temporary human emerged from his hiding place, quietly laughing. At his companions' raised eyebrows and curious looks, he explained himself.
"In other words, he doesn't know. He has no clue why Sesshoumaru is with that hanyou, and it bugs the hell out of him." Inu Yasha chuckled.
"That bag…" Kagome said quietly. "It was machine-sewn, Inu Yasha."
His soft laughter stopped as suddenly as it had started. "It is from your time then, Kagome?"
She nodded. "There was a manufacturer's logo on the clasp. That bag was made by an American company, Inu Yasha."
"Kagome? Does this mean that this princess is from your time?" Shippo asked, barely containing his excitement.
The priestess nodded her head grimly. "The United States of America won't exist for nearly two centuries, Shippo, and the technology that went into the making of that backpack won't appear for nearly four. If that princess brought it here, then it is likely she is from my time, yes."
She stared out in the direction the imp had gone. "Except for a very few beings who used the Bone Eater's Well, Shippo, I have never seen anyone in my time who had youkai blood. I never even thought of youkai existing in the New World. But why on Earth would an American wolf hanyou be here, looking for family treasures in the Sengoku Jidai?" Kagome pondered softly.
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"Oh my God." Amy whispered, horrified, as Sesshoumaru slowly allowed her to slip to the ground.
The village…what was left was slowly becoming smoldering ash. Flames still roared in spots, the screams of dying livestock filling the air in a macabre symphony.
Derek carefully set Rin down on the ground, torn between waking her and allowing her to sleep through the horror that they now faced. He could no longer hold onto the child. Already he could feel dawn's treacherous rays, the first whispers of his youki seductively slipping under his skin with promises of power.
Power that would only entrap him.
"Aunt Amy, Lord Sesshoumaru." Derek said, his tongue growing thick in his mouth and causing his words to slur. "Dawn is almost here. I can't…I can't carry Rin anymore."
Amy also felt the sun's power, the hair on her arms stiffening as each photon slipped over the horizon. "It's okay, Derek," she whispered, fighting the urge to just close her eyes to the ruins before her and bask in the stolen power that was slowly sweeping into her.
Rin slept on, leaving Sesshoumaru their sole witness as sunrise overtook the two half-breeds. Derek's transformation was the more dramatic of the two, with the increasing light slowly seeing his form change from that of a young boy to that of a giant black wolf, his only markings the silver tips of his ears and his tail. With a stretch and a shake he seemed to settle comfortably into his other form, though he could not keep a hint of sadness from entering his midnight colored eyes.
Amaya simply seemed to become…more her, Sesshoumaru decided. As the youki surrounding her infused her still form, her coloring became more and more dramatic, until only a few traces of brown were left in her hair. Her skin glowed so luminously that Sesshoumaru wondered briefly if it would burst, and her body seemed to grow much more solid, until her human form seemed but the insubstantial ghost of an idle daydream.
His eyebrow raised as Tenseiga began to pulse in time with her growing youki. Sparks swirled around the woman as the youki discharged itself in electric snaps, until her glowing red eyes snapped open and her lips parted in a soundless howl.
With an audible "Pop!" the glow around Amaya vanished, and Sesshoumaru was left wondering as she briskly shook herself and turned her green gaze upon him. The sword had lain almost dormant while she had been trapped in human form but now, judging from the shockwaves radiating throughout his body, it seemed to be making up for its day of silence. 'Tenseiga…' he mused, 'are you welcoming her power back?'
Amy gazed at Sesshoumaru, mourning the slight loss of color vision that came with her hanyou sight. Oh, she was by no means color-blind, and her night vision in this form was much better than it was when she was a human. But some colors just could not be seen as brightly in these eyes as they could through her human ones.
She shook herself, raising her head to meet Sesshoumaru's distracted gaze. Shrugging, she glanced at the children, shoulders slumping when she met the sad eyes of the wolf. 'Soon...' she promised herself, 'soon we will have the Talisman back, and neither of us will be trapped in forms that we do not choose to be in.'
"Do you two smell anything other than ash?" she asked softly, her own nose twitching as she scented the air. Man, but she had missed the strength of this sense.
The wolf barked a low negative, while Sesshoumaru's brow furrowed in concentration. "There are humans to the far end of the village," he said finally, "but the scent of jyaki is much closer to us."
Amy stiffened. "If the humans are still alive, they will probably need the help of a healer." she said firmly. "I'm going to go check it out."
As she turned to stride off, Sesshoumaru's hand shot out and grabbed her by the elbow. 'Now why does this seem familiar?' she thought almost bemusedly.
"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked politely, her left eyebrow quirking up. "Is there something I can do for you?"
Sesshoumaru snorted. "Don't be foolish. Even if the humans are still alive, they are probably already beyond your aid."
Her temper flared. "Don't count on it, Sesshoumaru. My aid can be considerable." She tugged at her captive elbow, glaring at him when he refused to release it.
"Derek." he said coolly, his attention never wavering from her angry eyes. "If Rin rides on your back, can you take her to my fortress? It is not far, now."
At his affirmative yelp, Sesshoumaru broke eye contact with her.
"Rin." he said firmly, yet not loudly. "Wake up."
To the wolves' amazement, the little girl's eyes fluttered open, her mouth opening in a yawn even as she stood up and stretched. "Yes, my lord?" she said sleepily, her eyes barely open.
"You know the way home from here, Rin?" he said, his grip tightening on Amaya's elbow as she began to lean away from him.
Rin nodded, her eyes widening as she began to realize what lay in front of them.
"Good." Sesshoumaru said before she could react. "You and Derek are to go there immediately. He has agreed to carry you on his back, but you must hold onto him and act as his guide. Is that understood?"
She nodded quickly, showing only a hint of hesitation before she obeyed her lord and jumped on the black wolf's back. 'Wow, I think he's had a growth spurt,' Amy thought, disconcerted by the difference in the children's sizes. 'Why, he looks as big as a pony, compared to her!'
"Would you let go of me now, please?" she said testily, watching the children as they disappeared back into the woods. 'Good boy. It'll be safer for them to remain in the cover it provides, and just skirt the village.' she thought approvingly.
Sesshoumaru released her arm, watching as she rubbed circulation back into the lower half of her limb. "The youkai that did this…I can still smell him, not just his jyaki."
"Him? It's a male, then?" she said in surprise. "With all the smoke in the air, how can you tell?"
At his smug, superior look, Amy rolled her eyes. "Never mind. I don't want to hear about how much better your senses are than mine right now, oh mighty Lord Sesshoumaru." she said sarcastically. "Which way is the punk?"
"Between us and the remaining humans." Sesshoumaru shrugged off her sarcasm, though her lack of respect was beginning to grate on his nerves. "Help them if you wish, hanyou." His lips parted in a disturbing parody of a smile, making the little hairs on the back of her neck stiffen in distaste.
"But leave the intruder to this Sesshoumaru."
She nodded, falling in step behind him as they entered the village proper.
'God, I'm glad the kids aren't seeing this.' she thought, her stomach roiling as the smells of fire and death seemed to engulf them.
Her ears pricked as she caught the faint sound of sobs, and her pace increased. Breaking into a run, she followed the sound of crying, not caring that Sesshoumaru was keeping pace just behind her.
'Dear God, did any of the buildings survive this?' she thought in despair, leaping out of the way as a hut crashed to the street in front of her. Gathering her leg muscles, she leapt over the debris and landed running, Sesshoumaru her silent shadow.
The crying was louder now, and Amy could start sorting out scents to match the sound. More than one person was crying, although the loudest sounded like a young female.
It didn't take long to find them, and Amy barely registered Sesshoumaru sharply veering away from her once she reached them. A group of four humans sat huddled on the outskirts of the village, watching her approach with something akin to horror. An old man and woman embraced each other, the woman's eyes peering fearfully over her husband's arm. A younger woman and a girl child were huddled over a blackened pile, shaking and wailing. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she realized that it was the child that she'd heard first, crying for her father.
Holding her hands out in a peaceful gesture, Amy slowly approached the group. "What happened?" she asked softly, reassuringly, stopping close enough for them to see her, but far enough away to reassure them.
"Are you a youkai?" the old man asked suspiciously, his arms tightening about his wife as she buried his face fearfully in his shoulder.
"No." Amy replied, keeping her tone as calm and soothing as she possibly could. "I am Amaya, and I am a healer. What has happened here?" she asked again.
The young woman looked up, her eyes wide in shock and hope. "Lady Healer! Can you help my husband?" she asked frantically.
Amy's heart sank as the woman's movement revealed the extent of the man's injuries. All of his hair had been singed away, and burn marks covered half of his face and most of his upper body. "I can try." she said firmly, quickly striding forward and kneeling behind the unconscious man's head.
"If nothing else," she said gently, placing a palm on each of the unconscious man's temples, "I can lessen his pain."
As she felt her healing energy sweep like a cooling wind through her patient's body, Amy closed her eyes, focusing on his aura. Her heart sank further as she discovered that not only did he suffer from severe burns, several of his ribs were broken and most of his major internal organs were bleeding heavily. 'Dear God, somebody beat the crap out of him, and then set him on fire!' she thought indignantly, slowly feeding her power into his aura so that his internal wounds would heal first.
Once she was satisfied that his body could finish the healing on its own, she focused on the burn marks covering his body. He would never again be handsome, she realized sadly, if indeed he had ever been. He would, however, regain full use of his left arm despite the scar tissue.
What worried her most about his cosmetic injuries was his face. Moving her softly glowing left hand from his temple, she covered his burned left eye and poured her own healing energy into him. 'Please work,' she thought faintly, 'please work!'
The angry burns on his face began to fade, healthy flesh appearing as the charred flaked away. Amy frowned in concentration, sighing as she realized that his body had reached its limits for fast healing. She opened her eyes, looking sadly down at her patient's face.
If he was lucky, he would regain sight in the eye. His face was indeed scarred for life, but was much better than it would have been had she not aided him.
The scarred flesh was still an angry red, and Amy frowned at its odd shape. Shifting, she looked at it from different angles before she realized why it looked odd.
Perfectly printed across her patient's face was the imprint of a giant hand.
Settling back, Amy bowed her head as she sighed. "He will live, but his body must finish healing on its own."
"Thank you, Lady Healer." the young woman breathed and, to Amy's surprise, bowed low to the ground, the child copying her elder's movement. Feeling the wind shift, Amy was shocked to look at her side and discover the elderly couple bowing as well.
"You are welcome, all of you." she said softly. "Now, would somebody please tell me what happened?"
The young woman raised herself, refusing to meet Amy's eyes. "We were attacked by a strange youkai." she said softly. "My husband is the headman of this village, and he led our men in the defense against it." The young woman's arm swept out in a scornful gesture, directing Amy's gaze to their decimated home. "The youkai said that he was but a messenger, that his lord required soldiers and that if our men did not come willingly that they would be killed. When my husband refused, our men foolishly attacked the youkai. After…" her voice choked, but she quickly resumed in a scornful tone, "after my husband had fallen, the youkai said that he would be merciful so long as the remaining men went north to join with his lord. As soon as they departed, the youkai decimated our village and slaughtered the defenseless people left in it, as a lesson to others who would defy his lord. We were left alive so that we would live in shame, knowing that our people died while we could do nothing."
Amy made a sympathetic sound, and placed her hand gently on the grieving woman's shoulder. "No, not nothing." she said gently, "because now you can spread the word of what this lord's 'mercy' really is. What are the names of this horrible youkai, and his despicable leader?"
Amy was suddenly overcome by a feeling of dread, the people in front of her fading as her more primal senses kicked into overdrive. 'Jyaki…omigod, how did I miss sensing this much jyaki?' she thought in panic as a shadow loomed over her and silenced the now-trembling human woman.
Heat bathed her back as she slowly turned to look behind her. Giant feet filled her vision, drawing her gaze upwards, upwards past legs like redwood trees, past a torso that looked carved from a cliff side, to a face that was straight out of a Grimm brother's nightmare.
Saying this youkai was ugly was an understatement.
Saying that he was scary as hell simply did not do him justice.
For a brief moment, Amy trembled with fear before squaring her shoulders and boldly gazing the giant straight in the eye. "And just who the hell are you?" she yelled out bravely, quickly standing and unsheathing her dagger, ready to protect her patient as well as the other humans.
Red teeth like stalagmites grinned down at her, leering in a horrifying fashion. 'I take it he's never heard of dentists?' Amy thought distractedly, trying to ignore the overwhelming stench of sulfur that issued from his mouth.
"Ingrid's description of you does not do you justice, Princess Amaya of the Moon Wolf Clan." the giant purred, his velvety voice a shocking contrast to his roughly-formed exterior. "It truly is a pity that my lord Naraku has promised to give that woman your head – I would have greatly enjoyed having a beauty such as you to warm my bed." He laughed at the disgusted look that crossed her face. "Oh my, 'tis truly a pity. I would have enjoyed teaching you to keep such unbecoming looks off of your face, that I would."
"You know, I don't know who the hell you are, but I can already tell that you are one sick bastard!" Amy yelled defiantly at him, forcing the bile that had risen at his words to go back down her throat.
"Coming from Ingrid's only living descendant?" he said mockingly. "I shall take that as a compliment, Princess Amaya." He bowed slightly to her, a giant caricature of a gentile courtier.
"Allow me to introduce myself, princess. I am the latest incarnation of Naraku, his deadliest warrior, and the last opponent you will ever face.
"I am Fudomaru, the Burning Death."
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A/N: Dun-dun-dun! 'end dramatic music' So, should Sesshoumaru come to the rescue, or should Amy do her own ass-kicking? I'm leaning towards Amy…my girl has a couple surprises up her sleeve!
I really hate to leave this chapter as a cliffie, but I'm already almost a week late in updating this story (blame my stupid house – some of our electrical wiring went bad, and my computer didn't have power for a good two weeks), plus this update is over 7,000 words long, and that's not including all of my notes (could have made it shorter, but that would have meant an extremely boring and dull "lull chapter", whereas this way, we know the next chapter will be jam-packed with fight scenes). Also, how was my lead up to the revelation that Ingrid is Amaya's grandmother? Good? Bad? Obvious as heck? I'd really like to know – foreshadowing isn't one of my strong points.
On to Reviewer Responses:
Ephona: Thank you very much for your kind review. I'd actually been quite depressed because the last chapter had been up for two days and no one had reviewed it – I was feeling quite unloved until your review popped up in my inbox. Thank you.
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