AN: Gomen! I know I left you all hanging for waaaaaaaay too long, and picked a really bad point in the story to go on a several-month hiatus. If I'd only gotten this chapter out before starting at my job, I'd have left at a decent spot. And unfortunately, that's what I'm doing anyway. I'm starting classes at UT next week, so there won't be another chapter for another long while, I'm sure.. (big surprise, another hiatus) But I got a break between my last day at work and the start of school, so I knew I just had to finally wrap up this chapter, which had been sitting half-written on my computer all this time. I feel so bad leaving my handful of loyal readers without the conclusion to the battle for over 6 months.. Oh man.. I'll understand if none of you bother to comment after all that (but please do anyway!).
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it, if you even bother to check my story for updates any more. Normally I'd spend a couple more days editing it, but I can always change things later, ne? So if you find a few bits of awkward wording here and there, that's why.
(hands out ramen and cookies as a peace offering to my dear patient readers...)
Without further rambling, I give you at long last the next chapter of Barriers!
fyi, the divider bar button isn't working for some reason. i'll fix it later.
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Chapter 17 - For the Rest of Eternity...
Maina, knocked back from the force of the barrier's cracking, watched in shock as it broke away around Sesshoumaru, disintegrating into a sparkling cloud.
'How is this possible..!'
"If Sesshoumaru can break through Lady Maina's barriers, how can we hope to put a stop to this without killing him?" Miroku pondered aloud.
"There has to be some way to get the saimyoushou out of his body..," Sango said.
Slowly, Sesshoumaru stepped out from the dust of the destroyed barrier and walked toward Maina - as he advanced, she could see his face clearly. It wasn't over yet..
With an eerie calmness, he stopped a mere foot in front of her, just staring at her with his red eyes.
"Sesshoumaru…"
He growled in response, bearing his fangs as he returned to his former ferocity, and shot his arm out at her. Before she could even gasp, his bloodied claws were wrapped around her throat.
"Maina!" Kagome cried from atop Kirara's back. Inuyasha drew his sword and readied himself to charge Sesshoumaru once again.
"Stay out of this!" Maina managed to shout. Sesshoumaru tightened his grip, just piercing her skin - she could feel the tiny rivulets of blood trailing down her neck. Inuyasha looked on with worry, but backed off nevertheless.
"I won't let you die like this, Sesshoumaru..," she whispered with a grunt.
With one swift movement, Maina kicked Sesshoumaru's legs out from under him and tackled him as he hit the ground, pinning down his legs and arm with her own and his chest with her other hand. He thrashed about as much as he could, shaking his head from side to side, snarling, and trying to kick the goddess off, but she only held on more tightly. When Sesshoumaru managed to kick one leg free, Maina caught it again, wrapping her own leg around it to keep it from moving, and she soon bound his other leg the same way.
"You're not escaping me this time!" she told him with a firm grunt. "Do you hear me, Sesshoumaru? I won't let go until you come back to your senses!"
He sat still for just a moment, growling and foaming in his rage but seeming to comply, then suddenly bucked and threw the unprepared Maina off. Though his legs were still tangled with hers, his hand was free. Rolling onto his side, he struck out at the goddess half-sprawled on the ground beside him, meaning to get to her while she was still in shock from her short fall.
But she was ready for him.
She watched the claws coming for her as if in slow motion. It was a stupid idea, rash, idiotic even, but what else could she possibly do? She watched - yes, he meant only to give her a flesh wound like Kagome's, just enough to divert her attention so that he could escape. She pushed away her instincts, the natural fear of pain that she had despite her immortality. It wouldn't hurt for long. It would heal quickly. She couldn't hesitate when the moment came. She had to do this..
As the claws pierced her skin, she shoved herself up and off the ground, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes against the screams of her instincts and the pain of her torn flesh as she held her focus firmly on her plan. She reached out to Sesshoumaru; she grabbed hold of the bloodied cloth of his haori and pulled herself to him. She wrapped her arms around him, one to hold his torso, one to pin his upper arm. Only now, having done what had to be done, could she let the pain affect her..
She screamed, shattering the silent air even with her face buried in the crook of Sesshoumaru's neck..
The saimyoushou gazed, confused, through the taiyoukai's eyes at the clawed hand sticking out of the goddess's back, dripping divine blood onto the grass below. The small wound he had meant to inflict had become one that would have been fatal for anyone but her.
The humans and Inuyasha simply stood staring with eyes more disbelieving than before, unable to utter a word. Sesshoumaru's hand had gone right through her chest - no, she had impaled herself on it. She was immortal of course, so such an otherwise suicidal act was not so unbelievable, but they had to wonder: were she a mortal, would she would have done it anyway..?
"You have to snap out of this, Sesshoumaru..," Maina whispered at last, raising her head ever slightly to speak into his ear, trying her best to keep the pain from entering her voice. "You have to fight the saimyoushou, drive it out.." He growled and struggled, but she only held onto him more firmly. "Please, Sesshoumaru, fight it. If you can't force the insect out of your body, Inuyasha will kill you.."
The saimyoushou thrashed his host's head about as if trying to avoid her words, but he couldn't budge from her grip now. He had to make her loosen it..
Sesshoumaru reared back his head, bringing it forward again with as much speed as he could build up in that short distance, and sank his fangs into Maina's shoulder. Maina cried out, but would not allow herself to lose focus. She maintained her grip in spite of the pain in her shoulder and chest.
"You can't let Naraku win, Sesshoumaru," Maina continued, her voice more ragged than before. "You have to take your body back.." He only bit down harder in reply. Maina grunted, squeezing her eyes shut. She could feel a dewy tear escaping down her cheek, but she was determined not to let herself be weakened. She couldn't give up on him..
"Are you listening to me?" she asked firmly, though quietly. "I refuse to spend the rest of eternity mourning your death, Sesshoumaru. Now fight!"
Had their position been different, she would have seen Sesshoumaru's red eyes begin to lighten..
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Something was different now; he could feel his possessor's primal rage. Suddenly he caught just a faint whiff of Maina's scent. He thought that perhaps the creature's control over him was lessoning with its anger. He latched desperately onto that scent, knowing that if he lost it now, he might not have another chance to gain his senses back. And to his amazement, it did grow stronger, but was somehow changing..
The scent grew steadily stronger and easier to focus on for a short while, but he still was unable to tell what was different about it until a sudden surge of it flooded his nostrils. The forest's scent was mixed with that of metal. There could be no mistaking it: this was the smell of Maina's blood. Something had hurt her, and he could do nothing but float in blackness, trying to follow the scent.
But then, a scream broke through the blackness. Muffled and choked, but it reached him. It, too, was hers; as he fought to follow her blood's scent, it became louder to him. When the sound stopped, he only fought harder to grasp the scent - and swore he could hear, ever softly, her divine voice speaking to him..
"Fight the saimyoushou, drive it out.. Please.."
He struggled to hear the rest as her voice grew more faint, but instead he was hit with another wave of her blood's scent. He felt he must have been drowning in it - it seemed to him stronger now than any scent his nose had ever picked up at its full capacity. But why would he smell this so strongly unless..
Unless he himself had wounded her?
Sesshoumaru grasped the scent firmly, though it pained him to imagine Maina spilling this much blood, and for the second time in less than a week. He had to fight this creature as she said, or it would only hurt her even more. He strained to hear her voice again, hoping he could follow it out of his abyss..
"You can't let Naraku win, Sesshoumaru.." Yes, it was louder now, clearer. "You have to take your body back.."
'I will, Maina..,' he thought, though he could not hear his voice say it. He tried to sense his mouth, but the smell of her blood translated into an equally powerful taste. Nevertheless, it was another sense returning to him..
For a moment, he could smell something different, despite the intensity of the blood. The trace of a salt tear. There was only one reason he should have detected it - his sense of smell was back in full.
"Are you listening to me?" Her voice was louder and firmer now, though he could tell it was no more than a harsh whisper. His hearing was nearly up to its usual sensitivity..
"I refuse to spend the rest of eternity mourning your death, Sesshoumaru. Now fight!"
'Maina..' He still couldn't gain control of his speech, but he suddenly began to see again - a great red blur that was fast becoming clearer. He could see a green patch of ground, but the rest remained red as the objects before him took shape. Blood-stained clothing, and his own clawed hand, red and dripping..
He felt a foreign sticky wetness in his mouth. It hadn't been an illusion of his nose. He truly was tasting her blood..
..o0o0o0o0o..
The grip of Sesshoumaru's jaw on her shoulder suddenly lessened as the rest of his body went rigid. After a brief pause, he slowly let go of her shoulder completely. She felt him draw in a quick breath.
"Maina..?" She gasped at the soft whisper of her name and drew her head back to see his face, careful though not to move her wounded chest and put herself in more pain. He had a bewildered look to his eyes, but the important thing was that they were golden again instead of that horrible red. She loosened one arm's grip and reached up to gently trace his now smooth cheek markings with her fingers.
"Sesshoumaru," she whispered, a smile growing ever wider on her face. "You're back.."
Suddenly his body spasmed, violently jerking his arm out of her chest. She gritted her teeth for a moment, but forced herself to ignore the pain just once more as she reclaimed her hold on Sesshoumaru, fearful that he might be relapsing back into the saimyoushou's control. Squeezing his eyes tightly shut, he leaned his head on Maina's unharmed shoulder. As his head moved out of her field of view, she could see a twitching leg sticking out of the open wound on his back; another soon followed suit, and a third, and finally the insect's terrible mandibles tore out a wider path for the bulk of its body to crawl through.
Inuyasha hurried toward the pair, brandishing his Tetsusaiga, and stood behind his half-brother, waiting for his moment. When the saimyoushou had pulled itself completely out, it immediately tried to escape to the air, but its wings, heavy with the taiyoukai's blood, were slow. Inuyasha cut it in two with one easy swing of his sword. The two hovering sentinels left their comrade to his death, dashing away as quickly as they had come. Inuyasha placed his sword back in its sheath and squatted at Maina's side.
"Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine, but Sesshoumaru.."
"I know. We'll get his wounds treated," he said with a slight smirk.
"Thank you, Inuyasha..," Maina said quietly, her voice rough. She looked down at Sesshoumaru, his eyes still closed, but relaxed now. "He's fallen unconscious. We need to get him to Kaede before he loses any more blood."
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He opened his eyes upon the thatched roof of Kaede's hut. Again. He was lying in the same bed, with a new bandage wrapped around him. He sighed in irritation.
"You're awake at last," said a soft voice beside him. Sesshoumaru turned his head to see Maina sitting on the floor next to his bedding, the edge of a bandage peeking out at the neckline of her white kimono. He suddenly remembered those nightmarish moments after the saimyoushou had lost its control over his senses. He remembered pulling his fangs out of her mangled shoulder - the wound that bandage now hid. And, more terrible, he remembered the sight of his bloody claws sticking out of her back.. But she gently smiled at him, as if she had already forgotten it all.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. He imagined for a moment where her other bandage must be, the one wrapped around her body, covering her puncture wound. A wound and a bandage to match his own.
"Fine," he automatically answered. She only smiled wider, though her eyes betrayed something quite different.
"You're not a very good liar, Sesshoumaru." He smirked in response, just slightly. Even false joviality usually worked well to ease her anxieties - he could give her a moment of that, at least. She needn't be worrying about him, after all.
"What about you? Are you.. in pain?" he asked a few silent moments later.
"I'm fine, too," she answered, doing her best to keep smiling, even if only a little. Her wounds did still pain her, but in a day or two every trace of them would be gone. There was no reason to make him worry about her when he was in such a bad condition himself.
He hadn't noticed until now, but there were wide scabs all over her lower arms, from various degrees of scratches and cuts, and several smaller ones around her throat. He raised his hand and gently traced one of the larger ones near her left wrist.
"Did I cause these injuries as well?"
"Don't say that," she said firmly, grasping his hand. "You didn't hurt me, Sesshoumaru. Naraku is the only one to blame for what happened today." Her eyes shifted toward the floor. "Besides, you received the worst injuries yourself."
"That doesn't matter," he growled, taking his hand from hers and awkwardly pushing himself up into a sitting position. "I should have been able to fight off that damned insect's control from the start.."
"That's for sure," Inuyasha muttered from across the room. Kagome and the others stared daggers at him, but Sesshoumaru and Maina ignored his comment.
"You shouldn't try to move just yet," Maina told him softly, taking hold of his arm.
"He's making a fool of me, sending saimyoushou instead of facing me himself. He didn't even bother sending one of his puppets, or even a horde of lower demons.."
"Please just lie back down, Sesshoumaru. Give your wounds a chance to heal…" He shot her a deadly glare.
"I've been humiliated enough. This Sesshoumaru is not staying in bed any longer," he growled, struggling to push himself onto his feet.
"Sesshoumaru!" she cried, trying to hold him back. Kagome and Kaede rushed over and tried to coax him back into bed as well, but he managed to find his footing nevertheless.
"Listen to Maina, won't you? She's only trying to help you," Kagome said.
"Lay ye down, Sesshoumaru. Do not be so hasty to leave, or ye shall worsen thy injuries!" the old miko warned.
He merely snarled, pushing his way between the human women and shaking off Maina's hold. He made his way out of the hut, pressing his hand against his midsection as he tried to ignore the pain that shot through the area with each step. Maina sighed, looking to Kaede and Kagome.
"Just stay here. I'll go after him myself." She slipped on a pair of sandals and left the hut. The humans glanced around at each other, all of them wearing the same concerned look. Inuyasha just rolled his eyes.
"He's just being a stubborn ass like always. I don't know why you're all worried about it."
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"Sesshoumaru!" The white figure, illuminated in the pitch of midnight, paused for a moment before turning to face her. She too seemed to glow in her white clothes, though in the darkness her hair appeared a deep black.
"I will not return to the hut," he stated plainly.
"It took five days for your wounds to heal the first time - what makes you think half a day's sleep is sufficient now?" she demanded, her tender brow harshly creased by irritation.
"I did not say I was healed. I said I would not return there." He turned his back on her and resumed his pained walk. Maina caught up with him and half-jogged alongside, no longer trying to physically hold him back.
"Listen to reason, will you? You're in no condition to run off like this!" Sesshoumaru stopped quickly, turning an angry face upon the goddess.
"Reason?" he roared. "I have lain in that hut for nearly a week - an invalid in the care of humans! My very presence in this village goes against all reason!"
"I know nothing of these lands, Sesshoumaru, but the humans offered to treat you here - where else could I have taken you? Or did you expect me to just let you die?" Maina cried.
"The Tensaiga would have kept me from death. You saw its power for yourself," he huffed, turning away again.
"Is that your grand plan? To die and let the sword resurrect you time and time again just to avoid accepting help from others?" He only gave her an angry grunt in response. She narrowed her eyes at him, though he wouldn't look at her anyhow. "I should think the Tensaiga would grow tired of wasting its power so," she muttered. He remained silent. She sighed. "If only you'd stop trying to do everything on your own and accept Inuyasha and his friends' help.."
"I won't ally with the likes of them!" he growled.
"And why not?" she pled. "You have a common enemy - an enemy who will surely destroy this land and its people if he is not stopped in time!"
"Inuyasha is my enemy!" he shouted. "Naraku is nothing more than a pest - I won't befriend one hanyou mongrel for the sake of defeating another!"
"Sesshoumaru," she began softly, "I know your reasons for resenting Inuyasha, but can't you finally put all that aside? For a long time, I was just as upset as you were Inutaishou, and I blamed his human mistress and child for much of the tragedy as well - but you can't hold them completely responsible, especially not Inuyasha." She gently laid a hand on his shoulder, hoping to calm him, but he refused to look at her any longer. She frowned silently. "He has no idea about the circumstances of his birth. Inutaishou died when he was still just an infant, and his mother, if she knew anything, obviously never told him. He knows nothing of the wars with the panthers, or at least not the reason behind them. He doesn't know of your mother's hardships or of Mai.. It's likely he doesn't know that you had a sister at all."
"What difference does it make?" he snapped. Maina gave a slight huff in frustration.
"You've hated him all his life, and the only reason for it, as far as he knows, is that he's not a full-blooded youkai like you. Inuyasha is a good person, Sesshoumaru, but years of unrelenting hatred isn't an easy thing to get over. He's not going to go out of his way to ally with you. You're the one who has to break the ice and end this pointless feud," she pleaded.
"I don't need allies," he stated firmly. "I don't need Inuyasha and those humans slowing me down and getting in my way," he continued, turning to her with a harsh look, "and I don't need you helping and worrying about me."
"I'm not worried about you; what I'm worried about is defeating Naraku. An alliance between you and Inuyasha would make that possible," she replied, matching his glare.
"That isn't what I meant," he said quietly. "I heard what you said earlier." She blinked, breaking her serious look.
"I don't understand.."
"I'm not sure what happened after the saimyoushou possessed me, but before it left my body I had mostly gained back my senses. I heard what you were saying to me." He looked to the side, away from her face. "You said you'd mourn for the rest of eternity if I were to die." Had there been any light in the sky, a tinge of red would have been seen in Maina's cheeks, but Sesshoumaru did not notice this as he looked toward her face again. "You have no business worrying about me so. You are my ally, and nothing more. You know that," he said coldly. "And you know that we cannot be anything more."
"Yes, of course I know that. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be concerned about you..," she stammered.
"You're being more than simply concerned, Maina, and you're getting in my way."
"Sesshoumaru.."
"You are a hindrance to me. You've been coddling me like a child. You've made me so weak that I couldn't even fight off a lowly insect without your interference."
As he briefly paused, she could do nothing but stand rigid, unable to speak for fear that her welling eyes would drop a tear. Though it was too dark for one to be seen, she knew his keen nose would sense it the instant it fell. She couldn't allow him to know how his icy words hurt her. The single moment of silence felt all the longer for it, but perhaps it wasn't long enough until Sesshoumaru gathered his voice and dealt her heart his final blow without even a blink.
"I have no need for you, Maina. Go back to your forest."
She stood still a moment, wondering if what she had heard was real or some bad dream, but it didn't take long for her conflicted feelings to turn to anger.
"You're nothing but a stubborn, ungrateful dog!" she shouted. The smack! of her palm reverberated throughout the little village. Sesshoumaru didn't retaliate, or even respond at all; he stood still, his head facing the side as her blow had left it, not even lifting his hand to touch the offended cheek.
Her stinging hand began to tremble, and there was no longer any use trying to stop the tears from coming, but her own obstinacy wouldn't let her give the callous youkai the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She stormed off into the woods, ignoring the village footpath altogether, without any goodbyes.
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In the dark of his castle, an inhuman creature grinned with human teeth as he gazed into an adorned silver mirror, his dry, arrogant laugh filling each crevice of the dank hideaway.
"She is now headed in the direction of the protected forest, Master Naraku" whispered the pale girl dispassionately.
"Yes..," the creature murmured. He looked past the girl and to the back of the room, where two oversized bees hovered within a large cage, buzzing with malice at their imprisonment. "It seems, Kanna, that I needn't get rid of Sesshoumaru after all…"
..o0o0o0o0o..
AN: Ah, a bit of closure at last - the battle is done, and now the story is at its 'intermission,' you might say. Not exactly a midway point, but a definite turning point in the plotline. Next chapter begins the second major section of the story (which is why I wish I'd gotten to this point before the hiatus). The plot will be moving along much faster, and each chapter will be a lot more eventful than those in the first section.
Sorry again for the wait, but thanks to all who read, though I know I've prolly lost a lot of you by now. For you, I give my promise that I will eventually finish the story. No matter how effing long it takes me, now matter how many more hiati I have to take, I won't let it die out!
Remember, patience is a great virtue, despite how annoying it is to observe it.
...silva aeterna...