Shadows
...OOO...
Naraku shuffled down the darkened corridors of Kikyo's mind, frowning to himself.
Something wasn't right...
Before, even in her waking hours, he had been able to discern her feelings, if not so much her thought. He had been able to poke around all the rooms and recesses, all the forgotten memories as well as all those she held close. Her entire subconscious had been his to explore... but now... It wasn't so much that he was no longer free to wander as he pleased, but now all the doors lead to nothingness, unlit voids that bore no resemblance to their former states.
And there was something else, as well- something he could not quite fathom.
Since the night before, he had felt another presence in her mind, flitting from shadow to shadow, only making itself known enough to make him feel uneasy, but never enough for him to discern who or what it was.
Kikyo was awake- he knew that it was not her. It couldn't be...
But who else could it possibly be?
...ooo...
Sheesh, but Kagome was moody. One minute she and Inuyasha were talking about this or that and he just happened to mention how well Kikyo was looking and why, if she was her reincarnation, didn't Kagome manage to do the same? It was a legitimate question, but instead of an answer all he received was a round of sits before she stalked off.
"Women..." he muttered irately, picking himself up and dusting himself off. Well, no time for that, he thought to himself. Kikyo was finally awake, and he bounded off, eager to find and talk to her.
On his way up the main balcony, he ran into Sesshomaru who regarded him with one cold, distasteful stare before moving on.
What does she in this half-breed? Sesshomaru was wondering, but Inuyasha paid no heed, jumping over his brother and the last several steps to land on the balcony.
Kikyo was standing at the opposite end, her body turned sideways, one hand on the railing while her gaze seemed to be lost to the panoramic scenery the height of the balcony offered. The cool morning breeze blew strands of hair in her face as she pivoted to see him, and he had to freeze- the contrast of porcelain skin and black silken hair and kimono taking his breath away.
She smiled, "Inuyasha."
The sound of her voice coupled with her smile put him into a rigid state of wonderment.
When was the last time she had smiled like that to him? More than half a century ago...
With cautious steps he approached her, afraid that a single missed movement would erase that smile.
"Kikyo... you look- I mean, you're..." Inuyasha stuttered, his tongue not quite able to grasp the right words. He stopped himself, scared of making her angry, but her smile remained, reassuring him. Finally he returned it softly and said, "Hi."
That smile... It's just like the old Kikyo...
Just like his Kikyo.
"You look well," he commented. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes," she answered. "Thank you... and for last night, as well."
"Feh, it was nothing." Bashfully he looked away, and she gave a small chuckle- another sound his ears had not heard for so long.
Giving her a sideways glance, he wondered what had happened to make her so... happy, but he quickly shrugged it off. So long as she was happy, what did it matter why? He had come to ask her more questions about Naraku and the happenings of last night, but seeing her so at peace, he couldn't bring himself to break it, so instead they sank into an amiable silence lasting several minutes, until at last she broke it.
"Inuyasha..." her voice was tiny and hesitant, the smile replaced by a slight hint of a worried frown.
"Hm?"
She wanted to say it- wanted to tell him... tell him what? That she still loved him? Or that they could not be together? Should not be together. It was wrong, she thought. They shouldn't tease themselves with these encounters because in the end it would only make it harder to part permanently... but it was so nice- this moment free of tension and worries, a little peaceful island in a sea of storms... It reminded her of how it used to be, how they used to be. Before everything happened. Before they died...
Where did we go wrong? she wondered mournfully.
Aloud she murmured, "It's nothing..." Would it be so inappropriate to pretend we were still the same? It was a tempting proposition... but she knew it was one they could not take.
He glanced at her, aware of the sudden change in her mood.
"Is something wrong?"
With a half-hearted smile she replied, "No."
What happened? He frowned. What'd I do wrong?
He reached down and lifted her face to him, studying her eyes for the cause, but they had reverted back to their usual melancholy self. Even still, they drew him to her, his heart aching, wanting nothing more than to make them shine again.
Slowly he leaned down to kiss her. She didn't try to stop him, her eyes instinctively closing as her lips readied to receive his. They brushed gently, almost imperceptibly against one another.
Nothing... still nothing...
Without warning her head throbbed painfully, faint at first and then growing fiercer as their kiss deepened.
"Ungh!" She pushed away from him violently, grabbing her pounding head with both hands.
"Kikyo?" at first he was puzzled, then seeing the distress so apparent on her features, he cried, "Kikyo!"
She tried to respond, but the agony was too much, cutting off her breath as her entire mind came to focus solely upon the pain.
Panic overtook him and he reached for her quivering body, now kneeling prostate on the ground, "KIKYO! What's wrong?"
"STAY AWAY!" she screamed, recoiling from his touch, the force of her voice echoing off the mountain.
Hearing the scream, Sesshomaru instantly returned to the balcony, the disconcerting scene meeting him.
Angrily he whirled around to face his dumbfounded brother, "Inuyasha! What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Inuyasha returned, just as angry at the insinuation.
And simultaneously they felt it- the angry pulsations of dark energy convulsing through her as Kikyo ground the palm of her hands into her ears, trying to drown out the furious voice hissing in her head.
"Go away, go away, go away," she chanted, gritting her teeth against the flaming spasms.
"What the heck happened here?" Kagome cried, crashing into the scene, and automatically Inuyasha shot out his arm to warn her back, eyeing Kikyo apprehensively.
"Stay back, Kagome!" he ordered.
With practiced smoothness, Sesshomaru drew his sword and advanced toward Kikyo.
"Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha cried, seeing his actions. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Ignoring him, Sesshomaru towered above her seemingly oblivious figure.
"Kikyo."
For a brief second the pain abated as his voice hit her but returned even more furiously- as if angered at having been interrupted. She shrieked at the onslaught but her scream was smothered by a shroud of dark shadow energy swirling around her and engulfing her in an orb of black. Sesshomaru raised his sword to guard himself from the wave of invisible power that pushed him back.
As the dust settled, Inuyasha raised his eyes and there, in the spot where Kikyo had been, stood a figure rippling in the breeze.
His eyes grew wide and he could barely whisper out, "K...Kikyo?"
It was her. Or rather, it had her shape- like a silhouette of the real Kikyo in her priestess clothes, all black except for the glaring eyes of white and the red flares emanating all around. Above them the sky had gone black as well, reflecting the scene below.
"At last," it declared in ominous pleasantness, a voice that was Kikyo's but wasn't, "At last I'm free."
"Who are you and what have you done with Kikyo?" Inuyasha demanded.
Her glaring white eyes came to rest on him, and he could not help but take a step back as she answered, "Why, Inuyasha, don't you recognize me? You really should- after all, you're the one who created me." With abnormal speed and agility she rushed for him, and he barely escaped, jumping back as her fist impounded the ground where he had been standing, splintering a wide parameter of the wooden balcony.
"Kikyo, stop!" he pleaded, as he dodged blow after blow, but the entreaty only seemed to fuel her anger. Launching herself into the air, she dove for him and once again he barely avoided becoming part of the crater of splintered wood. Before he could land however, she threw herself at him, catching him in the stomach and sending him crashing into the wall.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed, "She's not real! Use Tetsusaiga!"
"I- I can't," he replied, coughing up blood as he staggered back to his feet.
"Hmph," the shadow Kikyo scorned. "You coward. You refuse to raise your sword against me now, and yet you have the nerve to strike me from behind!" In the blink of an eye she was on top of him, hammering him down into the floor then kicking him away in disgust.
Kagome ran to kneel beside him, "Inuyasha!"
He looked up at her blurry image, his eyes black, and whispered, "It wasn't... it wasn't me."
"LIAR!" the shadow yelled, enraged. "How dare you try to deny it!"
"But it wasn't him!" Kagome shot back, but gulped in fear as the shadow Kikyo turned her seething focus on her.
"Typical that his whore should have such sentiments," she replied more to herself than to Kagome. "You hate me- have always hated me! You took everything from me, and when there was nothing left, you wished me dead. But we shall see who dies." A bow shaped itself in her hand as she stretched out one arm, drawing the arrow that formed in place, and aimed it point blank at Kagome and Inuyasha. "I did nothing wrong," she persisted hatefully. "It should have been you who died- you! But I will make sure this time- this time no amount of mercy shall save you both from the hell where you belong."
Kagome shut her eyes in preparation for the pain, clinging to Inuyasha desperately. The shadow released the arrow and a blinding flash of light washed over them... but the pain never came.
Cautiously she opened one eye and was surprised to see Sesshomaru standing in front of her and Inuyasha, his sword raised in defense.
He had been standing to the side, trying to make sense of the unraveling events, but when he saw that she was intent on killing Inuyasha and the girl, he stepped in.
The darkness that she feared, he thought piecing it together. So this is it...
"You," the shadow proclaimed in amused mockery. "I should have known- you betrayed me for that witch and here you betray me for these cowering insects."
"I will only ask you once," he said steadily, ignoring her comment. "Release the priestess."
"And if I don't?"
"Then you shall taste the edge of my blade. Do not think I am as Inuyasha- I will not hesitate to strike." And to prove his point, he slashed at the image, but she evaded it easily, hopping backwards to the edge of the balcony as he pursued her. She scowled as Tokijen crashed down once more on the spot where she had been.
"If you are so insistent to die first, then so be it," she said, leaping over the railing and into the air. Another ball of shadow enveloped her, growing larger and larger, assimilating into her body enlarging her form until she was as large as the castle itself.
"Now DIE!"
Her hand smashed into the balcony, causing it to collapse but sparing the thin ledge closest to the castle where Kagome and Inuyasha were, and where Sesshomaru jumped to.
Inuyasha forced himself to his feet, keeping Kagome behind him. He no longer knew if he could even protect her- his strength was gone, and he was driven now only by sheer desperation. At last he drew Tetsusaiga.
I'm sorry, Kikyo...
Sesshomaru watched him out of the corners of his eyes, knowing whatever attempt his brother would make would be futile. If he did nothing soon, he and the girl would end up dead for certain, and Sesshomaru was not too sure of his chances either. Never in his long life had he ever come across anything such as this- a vengeful shadow whose only goal was destruction. It was the accumulation of all the bitterness that was too inevitable in human nature, but which Kikyo had tried to overcome. With no other part of her soul to keep it in check, however, it had finally broken loose, determined to devour that which it coveted but was always denied- life.
Inuyasha staggered forward, but Sesshomaru stopped him.
"Stand back, Inuyasha," he ordered, launching himself at the phantom tp distract her attention.
She whirled after him, sweeping an arm to demolish the remainder of the balcony and much of that side of the castle.
With all the strength he could muster, Inuyasha barely had enough to escape with Kagome, but they managed to land safely in the courtyard, momentarily forgotten as the shadow Kikyo moved for Sesshomaru who landed in the grassy field just beyond the mountain base.
He had to do it...
"Se...Sesshomaru..." His head jolted up to the sound of Kikyo's weakened voice and he saw her- just a passing glance, but he saw her underneath the dark matter.
The shadow stopped in her tracks.
"Pathetic creature," she murmured to herself. "I will not allow you to interfere this time." Reaching into herself, she pulled out Kikyo's body, conspicuously white against the dark hand.
"You will succumb!" It ordered.
"Nn... never," Kikyo answered, wincing from the tight grip. "You are not who I am- I've fought and conquered you once, I can do so again."
At that, the shadow laughed harshly, "No- you've got it turned around. I am you- the only reason for your existence. You think you can deny me, but you only deny yourself. You are nothing more than a doll sculpted from clay. I am the real Kikyo, and you shall relinquish power to me!" She squeezed Kikyo's body tighter and tighter, reabsorbing her into the darkness.
"No! STOP!" Kikyo screamed, but even as she said it, she was drowning into the shadow.
Down below, Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
"Kikyo..." the silent, agonized cry issued from his mouth, and something within him reacted.
His blood coursed through him like liquid fire, and his eyes flashed red. The pelt around his arm unwrapped itself, entwining around him as his hair raised with electricity.
The wraith glowered at him, her eyes burning brighter as she sensed his energy raise.
Sesshomaru stood before her no longer in his human form, but as a pure white dog demon as large a herself, his crimson eyes gleaming with deadly menace. Readying himself to attack, he let out a low growl in warning.
She only laughed, "Pathetic fool. So eager to die... Well, you shall have it!"
And they charged at one another.
...OOO...