What Happened To My Life?

by Icy Pheonix

This was really fun to write, and I hope it's just as fun to read.

63. Chapter 63 Part A

CHAPTER 63: THE CLASH: PART A

Part I: Introductions

I'm going bonkers. I am going to eat myself soon. I can't figure out what is going on.

I've just snuck toward the light, but I'm not making any headway at all. Maybe it knows I'm here or something. Oh god.

I really hope I'm wrong. If Sensu knows I'm here, I am so a goner. My brain is melting with the heat, I have to pee really bad, and I'm starving. I have to keep out of sight until the other people get here, and they can finish him off while…while I watch. I'll be of no use. I hate fighting. Kurama and the others can handle it. I know I haven't actually ever seen Kurama fight, but he must be good, right? Better than me.

I sigh, and stare at the light. Is it even really there? Am I just seeing things?

I don't know, but one thing is for sure, if it's really there, I should have reached it by now.

I sit down for a short rest. One little rest…I start to calm down and my breathing rate lessens. I am so hot beyond belief…

Then, almost at once, I feel alarmed. My instincts scream at me that something is wrong. I'm sensing something…but what? It's not him! Not this soon!

I feel something with very smooth, oily skin brush me past. I jump a foot in the air, my own normal skin tingling, and stare behind me. Nothing.

I start to breathe really fast, stand up, and pick up speed again. I pant harder, but that does not stop me. When driven by fear or excitement, I can do some pretty amazing things.

Then I notice that the light is getting closer. Too close, in fact. There's no way I am bringing myself that fast towards it. There is mathematical certainty there. As is grows brighter and closer, I see that it is narrow and almond shaped; black and white. There is no longer a greenish glow; instead, it is glowing black. Yeah, yeah, I know, you can't have black light, but this thing does, I swear!

It suddenly comes right next to me, in a very abrupt fashion. I suddenly see what it is.

It's a single enormous eye giving off a brilliantly black sheen. I'm being blinded by black. I gasp, and try to retreat from it, but it moves with me, watching me.

So much for a sneak attack. He already knows I'm here.

It blinks, and stares hungrily at me. I discover I can't look away from it. Another eye that was previously closed to the left of it opens, so now I am staring at dinner-plate-sized eyes that have inky black pupils and irises. I hear massive breathing, but I cannot see the rest of the face in the darkness surrounding us both.

It really is him. HIM. Oh God, why did it have to be me who fought him?

The eyes move away from me, as if it is surveying me from a distance.

I must be brave. I can't show him my fear. "What do you want, beast?" I'm surprised and impressed at how courageous I sound. It must be the fact that I'm just downright stupid. What was I thinking, trying to sneak in unseen? What the hell was I thinking? It's been nothing but pain and suffering the whole damn way!

"Your autograph."

I glare into the eyes.

"I thought I told Parasi to tell you why I needed your father and you."

Parasi. I suddenly remember. Didn't he say Sensu wanted to fuse the human and demon worlds with the help of Sakyo's research or something? Yes…

"Wait…you planted Parasi there so we'd catch him?"

He chuckles. "Of course. He's acted as a very nice spy."

Koenma, you idiot! You didn't kill him after you questioned him?

"I told him to tell you about the operation. Humph. You can't get good help from anyone. They're as bad as humans. At least once this operation is done, I'll have spirit officers. Much more useful. All I have to do is get you and your father."

I start to ponder this. Why us? What makes us special to this? 'You and your father have incredible demon power.' That was what Kurama had said. And it must have to do with this.

Then, I see. I am completely enlightened in an instant. Everything makes sense now in my brain. The thing that makes us different. Sensu doesn't need us. He needs our energies. Our demon energies.

Why didn't I come to this obvious conclusion before? "You needed a power source to make it all work, didn't you? Our powers are your fuel, aren't they?"

The dark football-field-sized room I'm within (when did I get to a room?) suddenly glows with light from above, and I fully come to grips with the fact that it is no longer hot, although my brain is so melted that it doesn't matter anyway.

Even weirder is that I am now staring up at a huge throne, enormous next to the other smaller one. One holds a vividly snow-white man with pointed glasses and dark hair, and on the smaller sits a grey veiled maiden in a grey dress. So then, is that weird guy Sensu? Or Tigoro? Well, whatever it is, it is no Mr. America.

I can feel my knees trembling. This is IT. It's really him. The mysterious demon that plans to destroy everything I and everyone else holds dear.

"I can give you that autograph now." Wow. Do I always make such bad jokes when I'm terrified?

He smirks, a cold cruel smirk unlike any human's I'd ever seen. He has a very ripped male human's shape, but he must be a demon, right?

"What are you? Are you even a demon?" I have to know. I've wondered for so long.

"I am evil. Evil does not always have a simple name. I am everything and nothing."

How the hell am I supposed to beat that? He removes his glasses for a second and looks into my eyes. His are so piercing. I look away, and my eyes rest on the woman.

"She is my queen." He sees where I'm looking.

I remember what Kurama said about Mie thinking I'd be shocked if I knew who it was. I stare at her, but I can't place her. She fidgets a little. Who could she be? And why does she have a veil?

"Would you like to know who she is?" He says. He—he's teasing me. He certainly is…strange. Isn't there a bad guy rule that you have to be cold and morose?

"N-no. I want to defeat you. I-I don't care about anything else." Man, I sound really pathetic. My knees start shaking harder, which doesn't help matters.

"Don't lie to me, girl. I know you're curious."

He can read my mind? Or was it just a lucky guess?

"I won't keep you waiting." Sensu nods to the demon queen.

The grey woman, nods, moves her hands and slowly starts to remove the veil.

Time moves at the speed of a tortoise. And then—

With a rustle and flourish of grey silk, it's off. She has eyes that once had dark pupils that have had a horrid transformation. Brown iris lines an ivory pupil with insanity. What?

Part II: Revelations

Eyes glowing ivory with insanity…

Back when Mie was stabbed…

God damn it. Of course…

"Beauty." I whisper.

Lahri grins, and I finally recognize who it really belongs to. "Took you long enough to figure it out. I thought after the Farina drug incident that I was done for." She smirks, a look of Lahri's I had always wondered about but could never place. Now I know where it came from.

"Of course. It all makes sense!"

"Do you finally figure it out?"

"God damn it, I thought I killed you! Why couldn't you have just stayed died? How the hell did you survive?"

"I wasn't dead. It was all because of you that I wasn't dead."

"Give me a break. I watched you die!"

"True. But not like you think. I'll get right to the point. Even you deserve to know why I'm here today, and as it's such an amazing success story, I think you're going to like it."

I cough loudly, for some reason it resembles 'pompous bitch'. How very odd.

"The day you killed me, or my physical body, you did not destroy my soul. I believe you saw me, as a silvery spirit whooshing out of my disintegrating dragonish shape, but you thought simply that was Mie's stolen power. Having listened to my master's talks about Kurama, I knew the only way to return was to flee to the human world and inhabit a mortal host. I searched, and finally found a weak beggar girl. She was dying of starvation anyway, so I extinguished her remaining soul and inhabited her body, this body." She touches her skin lovingly. "After that, I reached out to my master with my mind and set up a plan. He was annoyed that I had failed to capture you, but was willing to take me on again, just because I was such a good mercenary."

Sensu coughs loudly just like I did, and I would have laughed if my situation had not been so serious. She, Beauty, doesn't notice.

"He said that you were bound to come by shortly, to open the Spirit World portal Koenma had set up for you. He has many spies within the quarters. Indeed, shortly after, I saw you and Hiei come around, in Tokyo, when you came off the train. So, I tailed you, and grabbed onto Hiei's cloak to follow you to the portal. When I got into the Spirit World, I separated you from your friends, and found Sensu. We decided that it would be best if I could act like I was kidnapped, in my newly acquired human form, so then you would come. We knew that you would be the one because, well, let's just say that we nudged your teacher Genkai along to make her see that sending you to rescue me would make a fine test for you. Of course Koenma agreed, he's terrified of her and her unrivaled strength. I took the Commir so you would not be able to call for backup during this crucial time period, if for some reason you should be given the time to do so. I must compliment myself…I even fooled the great Katrina Kon when I went on that Whiris. Boohoo," she mimes with her hands. "Oh Katrina, please save me!" She smirks. "But you escaped, so we had to go for the next best thing: I would serve as a spy in the quarters, along with Parasi and Mie, eventually luring you out while giving Sensu valuable info on the Spirit King and his movements.

"But after you 'rescued' me, there were some flaws. I had not counted on this human's body dying slowly, for I was in for a rude awakening – the correct soul needs to be in the original body for the body to live properly. While eavesdropping to find out anything useful, I overheard a conversation between Genkai and you right outside Koenma's office. When you hijacked Genkai's body, she told you about the Farina drug and it's properties. One of those properties were exactly what I needed—to keep the human body alive. After that, it was too good an opportunity to miss, so I stole some daily, but I was caught several times by both you and Kurama. But Genkai was such a sound sleeper, when you were not around I had nothing to worry about. When Mie staged getting kidnapped by Sensu in front of Keiko, and traveled back here, we all waited for you. So, I'm happily fine and here you are. The wait is over for me."

"Happily? Happily? I must have something in my ears—"

"SHUT UP! The day in the garden when I was to apologize to you all to try to earn back my wallflower status, I went crazy. That was because of deprivation of the Farina drug. My body was dying, and I could not take the pain. When Genkai tried to figure out what was wrong, she felt me—my presence in the human's body. I hit her so she wouldn't remember. And well, I think you know why I smashed the Deceit Sensor early on. I couldn't let them find out, naturally, so the day Koenma was to get another one, I was conveniently kidnapped again, but that served as a double function to lure you here."

"You bitch. That whole thing was staged."

"Yep."

"But why Mie? She was so innocent!"

"She was slanted towards evil, well, jealousy and hate so to speak already and lived in Koenma's palace, so she was ideal. She only needed a teeny little nudge to go over to the dark side. When the late Rhiharl found her, he knew she was perfect, for he sensed her evil feelings toward you, Keiko, and the Shinobi that shunned her. She's been following you a lot more than you realized. Anyway, she kept asking you about me because she wanted to know how much you knew about me, and whether it would be best to kill you right then and use your spirit energy later. We had a common boss. We helped each other."

I clench my fists and teeth. Mie really did want to kill me… "Did it not bother Mie that the bitch who nearly took her life with an illegal knife was now her teammate? The knife in your bedroom?"

She smiles evilly. "She never knew who I actually was, I made sure of that. If she did know, there was a good chance that she would break herself out on her own."

"You bitch. You had bird posters in your room because you are a crow. The knife was Beauty's. Why didn't I see? Why didn't I figure it out?"

"You're stronger than your brother, but much stupider." She smirks again.

I hiss at her. "Drop dead, you ugly little—"

"Shut it. You are in no position to be insulting me. Not when you're so close to death. My husband will take care of you easily."

On cue, he stands up. I ask boldly, "What happened to your hairy green face? And they told me Tigoro died! Are you his spirit?" I have remembered that he looks like a white version of Tigoro in Genkai's memories.

"I'm anything I want to be. And Tigoro isn't dead, but it wouldn't matter if he was."

"…What?"

He removes his triangular glasses. Again, he has such piercing eyes! "Child, you do not understand. I suppose you know he went to the limbo? Well, he is still there, in constant suffering, constant pain, and he will be for 10,000 more years. The limbo works by slowly stripping all parts of your soul except for the ability to feel pain…including me, the demonic or evil portion of his confused soul. The evil, in the real world, eventually rematerialized into me. I am the crystallization of the evil within Tigoro, and this evil that makes me up cannot be stopped or swayed. Eventually, I plan to make human and spirits alike see my views. I not yet have the power to do so. The Spirit Army would be too much trouble to tackle now, and so I need…a power source, as you said earlier, to fuse the two worlds to considerably weaken them. In short, a consistency of energy from the souls of two incredibly powerful demons." He glances at me hungrily. "I knew of only one demon with the potential. He was your father, Tatewaki Kon. He was no trouble. I wiped the floor with him. He had no chance in hell. I captured him, and set to work trying to discover children of his that might have had his bred strength.

"The first and most obvious was Kurama. I did not know of him when I attacked them, so I foolishly did not try for him either. But, it all worked out for the best. Kurama has none of your father's genes."

"WHAT! Does that make him my half-brother!"

"It's true. Your mother had him from a previous man."

I'm in shock. Why did he never tell me? Oh my god, I am so going to kill Kurama after this. "Why did it work out for the best that he was not related to Tatewaki?" I ask, my voice shaking.

"Well, to be honest, it was Beauty's death that set my sights on you. Who heard of a thirteen year old half demon defeating a full blown pureblooded one? I knew you were special, and this was confirmed when I realized who your father was. Your mother, too."

"Mom?"

"Your mother is a quite amazing person. Shiori Minamino has some excellent Spirit Power." (He is using her mother's maiden name because she is a feminist and does not believe in changing the woman's name).

"Wha-what? My mother is a demon?"

"No, but she does have energy that I am not sure she has discovered yet. In fact, watching you battle Beauty, I realized you must have her strength as well. Kurama can use his fox powers although he is now human because of her essence. Have you wondered why you have so many useful side-powers, like your bubble and fireballs-"

Damn, he even knows my attacks!

"-While other demons like your friend Hiei only have the added gift of speed or healing? That's her strength; mixed with and thus reinforcing your inner demon. But still, it is your father's genes that made you who you are."

"Where is my father? Show him!"

He motions for Beauty to tick a switch on the arm of her chair. I feel a muscle in my cheek twitch uncomfortably. An overwhelming state of mixed emotion has befallen me. I'm being a lot calmer than I though I would be.

A wall on the far side flips over just like that, (this is also the wall that is attaching Sensu to it), making a huge scraping sound of stone against stone. It makes my spine tingle the way fingernails on chalkboard do.

When it flips over, I see a huge golden dome with more than its fair share of dials on a large steel panel in front. So that's where the cords to Sensu are initially connected to. And inside---

Inside is a rugged looking man with untamed long black beard and hair, and his eyes are open. I can clearly see within them a great intelligence. But the most startling thing about them is that they are a dark yellow, like…well, you know.

This man is my father.

I can see myself so clearly in the chiseled features. That's my nose, and definitely the hair. He looks so much like me. I hate that.

I stare at the face, hoping to spark some sort of recognition, years gone. Nothing comes to me. He never read me a book. He never taught me how to ride a bike. He never even bothered to watch me grow up.

One half of me wants to punch him so hard the earth will shake. I want him to pay for what he did to me. What could be more important than your own family?

The other half of me is not present to vote.

"Get inside."

I'm hardly hear Sensu. I see the golden eyes of my biological dad's flick over to me, and settle there. I watch him evenly, and I stand up a little straighter, and engage in a violent staring war and fail instantly under that powerful glare.

Instead, I study the cage surrounding him. Aside from being chained with binds like mine were, what looks like laser cannons are pointing at his chest. He's probably been zapped quite a few times, knowing my enemy, who I imagine is quite laser-happy. Aren't all major bad guys laser-happy? Why should "the crystallization of the evil within Tigoro" be any different?

Thinking about him, I look back at him to see him smirk.

"Are you really that surprised to see how much you look like him?"

Would he stop that already? "That isn't my father. I have no father. A real father wouldn't have abandoned his wife and daughter. He did it all without regret, and I can't ever forgive that." I take a deep breath. "But I still can't forgive you, either. For taking this all away from my family and from the earth. And you will be the one who pays the price."

Why the HELL can't I make any good speeches today? And they said I was good at English!

Part III: Initial Battle

Suddenly, red fire flares up around him, and I can tell by the smell of burnt oxygen that is not a Spirit fire. He's changed into a fire demon.

I suddenly realize my huge mistake. Oh God. I threatened him. I told him he'd pay. Oh no. He's going to come after me now. Where are the others? The others that would fight this battle? Kurama, Touya, Botan? Why was I so stupid? I've done stupid things, but this tops them all. How could I have been so naïve as to think I could be undetectable by Sensu himself? I just counted on Kurama and the others showing up in time to stop this. And look where it got me.

Not for the first time, I regret not listening to Kurama and staying put.

He advances towards me, and heat washes over me, getting stronger and stronger, until it was just as bad as when I first walked in. On my hands and knees, I shrink away.

I look down to the huge door that I came through. It's closed. It must have shut behind me. They are on that other side.

"Your friends aren't coming." Sensu says in a final tone, reading my mind again.

I gasp. What did he do to them?

I stare at the door some more. They…they aren't coming. They are really not coming. It's that simple. I am alone.

I stare at him in horror. I…I have to fight. There's no one else. I have to fight him…alone.

I start quivering all over, but summon my own blue power so it makes a kind of flame around me. I stand up, barely managing to stay upright, and glare at him to mask my fear. Oh god oh god oh god why me?

He looks surprised at my flame. I hesitate for a split second. I'm…I'll be honest. I'm probably not going to survive this.

But I can't just go down meekly. If there's some small chance I can pull this off, I'll take it.

Suddenly, I go for a head on charge to see if he can block me. Before I really power up and fight him with everything I am, I need to know what I can and cannot do. He smiles, and when I'm two feet away from him, he blocks easily with his forearm, hitting my forehead. As he comes up for a knee kick in my stomach, I jump up on the thigh, leap into the air, and aim my legs for his face. It's a warm up with Genkai…that's all…try to beat Genkai…

He grabs my legs like toothpicks, throwing me off balance and tosses me aside. I spring back up into the air, aiming my legs for his arm this time, and he dodges all together, flashing to the left, making me land safely on the ground behind him. I whirl around and go for a sweeping kick, and he just jumps a mile up into the air, avoiding it, and aims his body to land right on top of me. My eyes widen. I dodge to the right, but trip over my own fat feet, and fall flat down, right on my knee. Damn. I grab it and start to rub it. Come on, come on, I just need to get back on my feet.

Sensu lands softly where I was and stares at me on the ground, a smile playing around his lipless mouth. He's not even trying to hurt me. He knows my weaknesses, and he isn't even trying to hurt me. I start shaking again, on the ground. He's holding back and he still can read my every move.

I crab-walk away from him, but all too soon, he grabs my foot quickly, yanks it up, and hangs it, and me, upside down. When my and his eyes are level, he speaks. "Why are you holding back?"

"I'm…not." How'd he guess so fast?

"Fight me like you fought Beauty."

"And what a fight it was!" She chirps from the background.

"Nrrgh." Actually, I can't. I'm not warmed up enough. Once I have exercised a little bit, then my power exponentially increases. I'm not wasting power until it's at the maximum level.

He drops me on me on my head. He moves away, watching me, and stands in front of my father's cage. He turns his back to me. I sweatdrop. What is up with this guy? But then I see him take wires from a little stand next to the panel and he connects them to his back. As soon as they are slightly implanted in his flesh, they drive themselves further into him, like roundworm parasites. Blood drips from the 4 wounds, staining white skin. I look away to avoid being sick. I have never had a strong stomach.

What are you doing? I wish I could scream.

He looks at me expressionlessly. "What does it look like?"

He's reading me again. I have to do something that he's not reading. I have to use the spirit energy now. I'm not warmed up, but I have to. He won't be expecting that.

I summon my power to my hands to make molten fireballs of sapphire energy. Without warning I fire it, full power level. Hehe. There's no way he can get out of this one. If he moves, the contraption gets blown up, and if he doesn't, he gets severely injured. My brilliance amazes me when I'm panicked.

I start to relax.

He sidesteps at the last second, and my beam hits the panel, like I thought it would. Instead of blowing up like I thought and hoped it would, the panel fizzles with electric electricity, and it turns on the lasers within the cage that I noticed earlier, and my dad gets zapped with red frap rays. But that's not all. Both my father's yellow energy and my own blue power that I fired travel through the cords. The power hits Sensu, and he glows a brilliant green, and he increases dramatically in size. The control panel, on the other hand, looks like nothing hit it. Damn! So much for that! It benefited him, of all things!

Oh, what have I done?

"Did you really think I'd fall for that? All humans are the same." He laughs cruelly, and I notice his voice has deepened further.

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A/N Part A is over and done! Review please! And next chapter, I've included a tangent about her mom. So, don't be confused about the first section!

Also, I'll be posting the next chapter 2 days after the original right up until the end, so in a week, this story will be done, damn it. Finally I can work on Elves, Kara, and Everything He Knew.