Authors Notes: This is my x-mas present to you all since I am flat broke. I hope the chapter's somewhat satisfactory. Ive been sick as a dog and writing with my head on verge of explosion.
Merry Christmas Everyone. I'll try to have another chappy out for the new year.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha's original components, but I do own my original characters and the plot.
Falls On Me
Chapter 24
Sesshoumaru stood in front of them, his travel clothing immaculate, his expression as cold and regal as ever. Gold eyes flashed dangerously as they alighted on the three females , two of which were looking at him with the most innocent expressions he had ever seen. The third, the human miko, had the guiltiest expression on her face that he had ever seen.
"Woman, we are leaving now," He told her in a frightfully cold voice.
"No," She answered, her eyes flashing. She wouldn't be bossed around, and she certainly wasn't about to obey a man who called her 'woman'!
"Why are you being so difficult human? You wanted me, we rutted, and now we must wed, since you might be carrying my pups already," He told her. Not once did any emotion ever enter his eyes.
"I will marry for one reason alone Sesshoumaru. And it is not because I am carrying your pups. Single mothers survive in my time, I can survive here if I have to."
"Kagome, we must make all of it official, or else you will be seen a whore, not fit to guard the shikon jewel. Demons may seek to use you and get the jewel," Sesshoumaru began.
"I've already made my wish on it Sesshoumaru. And I don't care what others think. My heart was in what happened, so I will never be a slut or a whore. I can't say the same of you though," She snapped. Sesshoumaru felt his mind go blank again. She was challenging him, goading him to react somehow. But she'd hardly get the reaction she wanted.
"What is the reason you will marry? What can I do to make you see sense?" He snapped.
"I will marry for love and love alone. If you can't even bring yourself to care about me, I will not marry you!" Kagome shouted at him. With that she quickly left the room, leaving behind the still innocent looking youkai.
"She's strong Sesshoumaru, like your mother. If you hurt her, I will challenge you to a proper battle, and I will rip out that cold heart of yours," Ferimaru said sweetly as she stood and left the room. Only Okibi remained, but now she looked very, very serious.
"Sesshoumaru, do not be your father. See the treasure in your hands, accept it, love it. Otherwise you are doomed to a most lonely existence," Okibi told him. Sesshoumaru sighed and sat across from her.
"While I was on my way here, I heard rumors of several youkai gathering in the center of the land, right where all of the borders meet. I think they might be readying to attack," Sesshoumaru told her, changing the subject.
"We can deal with that in due time Sesshoumaru. For now I suggest you think of a way to win Kagome. At this moment she is truly convinced she can bear the burden alone, but I know that it will destroy her. You cannot let this happen to her Sesshoumaru. I know you fear turning into your mother, but Kagome, she loves you too much to let that happen. She loves you, cold as you may be. Love is never something that should be thrown aside easily," Okibi told the youkai. Sesshoumaru sighed.
"Can I touch your mind?" She asked after several minutes of silence. Sesshoumaru looked at the phoenix warily, but nodded. She would not have asked if she did not have a good reason for it. Slowly, ever so slowly, he felt her touch his mind and sift through it, as if were nothing more than a stack of paintings. Then she brought a memory to the surface. One he had not thought of in a long time. Not since his mother had died.
"Sesshoumaru, you must not be angry at him for my sake," Akari said in a sad voice. Fifteen year old Sesshoumaru was angry and his mother's tears were the cause, that and his father's newest mistress.
"Why not? He insults you and hurts you," Sesshoumaru shouted.
"Because I love him, blind as he may be, cruel as he may be. I love him. I cannot be angry at him, so you cannot be angry for me," Akari told him. Sesshoumaru sighed.
"I hope I never fall in love is this is what it is like," The pup growled.
"Oh little one, never say that. Love is the most beautiful thing that you can ever receive, and give. Never ever give up on finding love. And if you find it, hold it tightly, don't ever let it go, no matter what."
Sesshoumaru was pulled back into reality with a jolt, and he saw a sad smile on Okibi's face.
"You care for her Sesshoumaru, do not deny that. You may even love her. If you do not heed my words, at least heed your mother's, she was the most wonderful person I ever knew. And she was also the one with the most love to give. Kagome is so much like her in that aspect. But Kagome, she isn't weak enough to take her life, and neither are you. Jump Sesshoumaru, jump, and for once, don't plan where you're going to land."
Several hours later found Sesshoumaru in front of Kagome's door. He still had no idea what to say to her. Speak words of love? No, it would be false and he wasn't good at that sort of thing anyway. Perhaps he could get her to mate with him again, and he could give her the mating mark. After all, lesser youkai who did not follow the rules of the courts did so. Therefore it must be perfectly fine for him to give Kagome the mating mark without any sort of ceremony beforehand. The mark was the only thing that mattered anyway. He was about to just barge in when he noticed something was off. A slight tinge of something that smelled sweet and rotten tainted the air just a little.
Reacting as instincts demanded he barged into the room and looked around, he smell was stronger in here, making him gag somewhat.
"Sesshoumaru?" A voice groaned. Sesshoumaru looked around and saw Kagome lying on the floor, blood trickling from a split lip. Wasting no time, he rushed to her and picked her up gently, then moved her to the futon. She almost sighed at the tenderness of his grasp, would have if it hadn't been for the pain that was making stars dance in her vision.
"What happened?" He demanded in a cold, apathetic voice.
"Someone came and stole it, the jewel," Kagome whimpered when he jerked and a new burst of stars began to dance in her vision.
"Who?"
"A human man, he was big. I'm sorry, but my powers, they don't work on humans very well," Kagome told him.
"Kagome, I'll be right back, I'm going to go get Okibi," Sesshoumaru said. Kagome nodded as best she could and lay listening to the silence after the slam of the door and a roar that sounded akin to Okibi's name.
"I'm sure that it has something to do with the mass of oni in the area where all of our borders meet," Jinchi said. It had been three days since the jewel had been stolen and the four major taiyoukai were in a meeting, as well as many of the lesser lords. Even Kouga was there.
"Do you think that maybe they're trying to begin a rebellion?" The wolf youkai asked, his eyes narrowed in anger. His people had finally found peace in their little section of lands near the northern border, but there had been attacks on villages and youkai alike recently, destroying what he had worked so hard to gain for himself and his people.
"I think the rebellion has already begun. But we can take care of them, whether they have the jewel or not," Sesshoumaru stated coldly. His eyes still held the pent up rage he wanted to spend on the one who had hurt Kagome. However, no one knew of a human man that looked like what Kagome had described.
He worried for her too, she was growing weaker, and Okibi had tried to find a cause for it, but so far no luck at all.
"I think that perhaps we should amass our forces, and go to war. But not war as everyone here knows it, that would be foolish I think. We need to take them by surprise. I don't know how big their army is yet, or how strong. My scout hasn't come back yet," Ferimaru told them.
"Hunting like our brother's to the west?" Jinchi asked. Sesshoumaru felt his interest suddenly grow. Brothers to the west? Those were merely a fable!
"Yes, but we cannot bring them here, we have no right. No, we must keep this on our island, and we must make sure the evil growing there never leaves this island," Okibi told them.
"What brothers to the west?" Kouga asked stupidly.
"Once there was a bridge between all of our lands, and our kin went to the west, populating a new land because there were too many youkai here for comfort. Several tribes went, the Thunder Tribe, several wolf tribes, but they adapted to the new land and very well, and the humans there live in peace with them, even worship them as messengers and signs from the gods," Jinchi told him.
"Maybe we should go there," Kouga sighed.
"We'd be running away from the problem. I feel that this is much more serious than Naraku, though I don't know why," Okibi told them all.
They continued to talk about battle strategies, and it was not lost on the council that Kagome's time was running up, unless they put a halt to it, a sort of time out. But despite the seriousness of the situation, Okibi hoped that perhaps the situation would push both Kagome and Sesshoumaru to mate, or at least announce a wedding. In Kagome's condition, it would be hard to go through the mating bite and survive without some sort of long lasting damage inflicted.
"Anei, can you call them to you?" Sesshoumaru asked. Anei nodded sagely, knowing what his friend and Lord meant.
"You'd call those horrors to the surface? All of them?" Kouga asked in horror. He knew from the stories that had been passed down from father to son that Anei's family controlled the Shadows from Hell.
"They are loyal to me and will hurt only those that I dictate," Anei said in an even, calm tone. Kouga nodded his head, humiliated he would believe otherwise. Anei was not a weak demon by any means. He could control what he could.
"It would be a wonderful time to call upon your old friends," Jinchi told Okibi.
"No, they will not come, and we know it. They have forsaken my kind," Okibi said, her tone meaning that was the end of that possibility.
"I see. Everyone, I think it is time for us to separate and to relax. We will come back after dinner to discuss possibilities," Jinchi told them all. Everyone nodded and moved quickly away, wanting to forget the horror that lay in waiting.
Sesshoumaru walked into Kagome's room without any preamble, Shisou and Yotogi letting him pass without question. In other circumstances it would be unheard of, but he had already mated to her, and though few knew it, Shisou detected pups already beginning to grow in the miko's womb. But they were weak, weaker than the miko was growing.
"Kagome?" Sesshoumaru said in a gentle tone. Her pale face and current weakness reminded him too much of his mother as she lay dieing in a bed, having drunk one of the few poisons that could kill her.
"Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked, her hand moving slightly, trembling as she reached for his face.
She had gotten worse since the meeting had started several hours ago. Her skin was an impossibly pale shade of white, her body trembling more often from the strain of trying to keep breathing.
"I'm here," He whispered, taking her hand and pressing it to his face, trying not to flinch at the coldness of it.
"Lay beside me," She whispered.
Sesshoumaru complied, holding in a sigh. He had not brought up the notion of marriage to her since he had found her on the floor the night of the attack.
Minutes passed in silence, and the two of them listened to the other's breathing. His steady and even, hers shaky and uneven, more of a rattle.
"They're coming here. They're going to break Inu Yasha's seal, and they're going to use him as the bond to hold all of their power together. More have joined, some not even willingly. The mass has gotten strong enough to take powers with or without consent. They're coming here for Inu Yasha, a strong human with hanyou blood, who, despite his strength, cannot fight them out, cannot be rid of them. Sesshoumaru, they're heading this way now. They have the scout. We will have no warning," Kagome said in a trembling voice. It was obvious the strain of speaking was very great on her already weak body.
"How do you know this?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"A dragon told me," She said plainly, as if it were nothing at all.
But Sesshoumaru knew better. Few people were deemed worthy of receiving a dragon's message, and most were riddles. For Kagome to get such a clear idea from one was seemingly impossible. But she had, he believed that much, believed what she had seen.
"Kagome, can you tell this to the other lords and ladies, tell them what you saw?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"Yes," She said. Before he had a chance to ask anything else, she was asleep, her breathing not evening at all, just going slightly deeper.
He had to face something he didn't want to face before.
Kagome was dieing.
"There's no way! Dragons only come to pure of body and heart, one untainted by love and touch of man! And then, they only come to the dieing ones! Kagome does not fit that criteria!" Okibi exploded a few hours later in the war room.
"My Lady, if I might interject, I think I know perhaps what is wrong with the Lady Kagome," Shisou said. Sesshoumaru glared at the warrior, who should have been at her post.
"Relax my lord, Anei is taking my place. But, I think Kagome's illness is linked to the jewel. You see, once a miko has it totally in her possession, has used it's powers, it becomes a part of her. When it was stolen, Kagome lost a vital piece of herself, almost like part of her soul, and living without part of your soul is hard. Something similar happened to a shaman who lived in a village we protected. There was an object of power in the village that he protected, for many years no less. It as stolen and he began to deteriorate. I think that perhaps, the jewel was giving Lady Kagome something she wished for that she didn't speak of. Something she would never utter for as a wish to the jewel," Shisou said.
"What?" Ferimaru asked.
"Immortality. The reason the shaman died so quickly was because the artifact, a jewel of a sort, kept his body young and strong, when he should have died long before. I think that perhaps his body was trying to catch up on the spent years. I think this may be happening to Kagome," Shisou finished.
"But she didn't have it long enough to be this weak!" Sesshoumaru roared. The entire room looked at him in askance and disbelief. He had not acted this way since his mother had died!
"I think it's also because the jewel is like a second heart as well," Shisou told him.
"We're not sure, so we can't determine that!" Kouga snapped.
"I am sure! I may be some lowly servant you fool, but I have seen things beyond your years, and I know what I am seeing!" Shisou finally snapped.
"She has a point," Okibi finally sighed.
"Except for that brief time when the jewel was being collected and pieced back together, Kagome has always had it in her possession, and even when it was in pieces she had a shard. So I think Shisou is correct," Jinchi told them all. No one would question the old tiger youkai's wisdom.
"But she still doesn't, a dragon couldn't have-" Okibi trailed brokenly, on the verge of breaking into tears.
"His name was Keiei," Kagome whispered as she was carried into the room by Anei.
"Keiei? But he is the strongest of his kind, the eldest, he could not have," Okibi began again.
"He was your polar opposite. You were the strongest, the eldest, and he was the same. He was the mate of your soul," Kagome told her. Okibi looked stricken, as if she had been slapped.
"He told me a lot of things, but most of all is that the mass is heading here, for Inu Yasha to keep them together, to give them a cohesive strength in one body. Inu Yasha will no longer be a hanyou to us, but a pseudo youkai like Naraku, but it will be much worse. Their power is a hundred times that of Naraku, because the mass is no longer taking in weak youkai. They have most of the stronger minor lords and their kin. The name they will take when all bonded will be Hyouden, the field of eternal snow. They will turn Japan to a wasteland," Kagome told them all.
"But you are from the future! This cannot be!" Okibi shouted.
"The future is never set in stone. Shisou was correct, part of my condition is caused by the jewel, but another part is because the future is no longer steady and certain. My future, our future, Japan's future, is nothing but a ripple in the water, one of many. A thousand choices and possibilities," Kagome told her.
"No! I will not accept this as truth!" Okibi said, finally breaking down and crying, her tears a golden color.
"Even now you have not truly lost the blessing of the Gods, your tears are the gold of long past. Okibi, the time's come," Kagome said in a gentle voice.
"No. No!" Okibi snapped as she stood. Too much of her past, too many things that hurt were being exposed and she could do nothing to stop it. It could not be true. Her kin had been abandoned. No matter if her tears were gold or clear or blue, they would not change anything.
"The mass is heading for Inu Yasha, correct?" Okibi asked in a cold voice, rivaling even Sesshoumaru's usual apathy. Kagome shook her head, sighing.
"Then we must bring Inu Yasha here and hide him with the strongest sigils we know," Okibi told them as she left.
"Anei, go find Inu Yasha," Sesshoumaru told the youkai. Anei nodded and gave Kagome to Sesshoumaru.
"It doesn't matter. She's just scared to believe. Scared to hope. But it's okay. I know what to do," Kagome told him. Sesshoumaru nodded, not wanting to know anymore. He had a feeling he wasn't supposed to know.
"And Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked.
"Yes?"
"I accept to be your mate," She whispered as she kissed his lips gently.
"Not advice from a dragon I hope," He joked feebly, trying to get her to smile.
"No, just something I always wanted and now I'm ready to jump for it," Kagome told him as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.
"Alright, Mate," He whispered in her ear. Everyone saw the gentle exchange, the love radiating from both of them. But no one questioned it. Instead they all began to leave, Sesshoumaru leaving last, carrying a smiling Kagome. What he didn't know was that the dragons were keeping her alive right now and giving her strength. They were doing their best to make sure she could go through with what she had to do, no matter how much it hurt.
Authors End Notes: Yeah, I hope you guys liked the chappy. Im going back to bed now.