Chapter fourteen: Nightmares and miasma.

'Youkai,' Kagura announced suddenly as the others emerged from the bunker where Robin stored his spares. 'One. It….'

'For the love of little green apples, it's dog-breath!'

Everyone stared at Kouga.

'Little green apples?' Robin said finally.

To the time travellers' surprise, Kagura and Kouga both blushed violently. 'Long story. Really long,' the Wind User said sheepishly.

Inuyasha landed smoothly among them, still smiling a little, though it slipped right off his face when he saw Kouga. 'Keh. Wolf.'

'Dog-boy,' the ookami returned with equal dislike. 'Now I know why my nose was giving me pain.'

'Well, it won't hurt anymore if I cut your head off–'

'Act your age, imbeciles,' Kagura snapped, smacking him up the head with her fan. (A/N: Saiyuki Reload moment, anyone?)

'Don't any of these guys ever act normal?' Beast Boy whispered to Miroku.

'Define normal,' the monk replied.

'Good point.'

'Hey, where's Rin?' Kagome said. The little girl was conspicuously missing, and Kagome kind of missed the leg-hugging.

'We left her with the Police Commissioner,' Robin said. 'It doesn't really get more safe than the Jump City police headquarters, and they're used to hosting people for us.'

'Sesshoumaru won't like that,' Inuyasha predicted.

'While he'll be just peachy if we go off to face a horde of youkai who might outnumber us with his kid, you say? Well, well. So is everyone stocked up? Kagome, I believe you'll want this?' He tossed her a quiver full of arrows and a sturdy bow.

'You do think of everything,' she said.

'(cough)controlfreak(cough),' Beast Boy mumbled behind them.

'At least I'm not a grass stain with attitude problems,' Robin shot back.

'I've got a problem, all right. It's four feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel!'

Robin froze. A second later, Beast Boy and Starfire did, too. That had always been Cyborg's line.

'All right,' he said harshly after a second. 'This isn't the time. J-Trigon could reach the library any time now. Let's go.'

'Not so fast.' That voice definitely didn't belong to any of them.

They all turned to face the direction the voice had come from. A man stood about six feet away from them, leaning against a sturdy pine. He was dressed in an outfit that looked like a tracksuit of pure unrelieved white. His features flickered wildly, as did the colour of his shoulder-length hair, but his eyes remained the same. They were different shades of green, with no whites or pupils to them. The effect was such that looking into them created a falling sensation. His hands were tucked into his pockets.

'And who the hell are you?' Inuyasha spat, going into I'll-kill-you mode instantly. 'And why don't you have a scent?'

'I'm your death,' the man said calmly.

'That's my line, swamp-eyes!' Inuyasha growled.

'One of Trigon's creatures?' Robin was worried, though he wasn't showing it.

'What do you want to bet this guy's worse than Slade?' Beast Boy murmured.

'It doesn't matter,' Starfire said softly. 'We're going to kill him, and then we're going back to the library and we're going to finish Trigon, too.'

He looked at the Tamaranean, troubled. After the attack on the Tower, she had barely spoken. Her red hair was crackling with sparks of green and there was a steely anger in them that none of them had ever seen. Even in the battle against Blackfire, she hadn't been this furious. And she never, ever, ever said that she wanted to kill anyone.

'My name is Nightmare, and I am going to kill you.'

Kagura sneered magnificently at him. 'Your conversation is both boring and repetitive,' she said, because it was. Tetsusaiga flared golden as Inuyasha and Kouga readied themselves as well. 'Get back to the library. I'll take care of this nut by myself.'

'I'm sorry, but I can't permit that.' Nightmare's eyes narrowed, and one hand left its pocket faster than a snake, fist uncurling to reveal a handful of red powder. He flung it into their faces before they could react.

The youkai, who were nearest him, caught the powder full-on. Two more handfuls followed, hitting the humans (and alien) squarely. One handful fell squarely on Miroku's face. They choked as they breathed it in, unable to stop.

Nightmare knelt down next to Inuyasha, whose eyes were already closing. With a supreme act of willpower, the hanyou forced his fingers around Tetsusaiga before falling limp again. 'I suppose that, compared to the other spawn of Naraku you have fought, I am insignificant in physical power. But I know everything about the body, human or youkai. This poison I carry is more powerful than anything you have ever faced.'

Inuyasha struggled for consciousness. Next to him, Kouga had already gone still.

'Do you know that your body responds to the dreams you have? That your heartbeat, respiration and perspiration all increases as you dream? All I have to do is give you a nightmare and remove your ability to wake. As your fear increases, so will the speed of your heart. It works on everyone. I imagine it will take you youkai longer, but soon, your heart will implode under the pressure of the nightmare you'll be in. Sleep, hanyou. May you have bitter dreams. Don't count on waking up.'

He closed the golden eyes almost gently and resumed his post by the tree, waiting for death. Theirs.

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Across town, Raven stirred restlessly.

'Is something wrong?' Sesshoumaru inquired acidly. After giving her his fluffy pelt, she had promptly fallen asleep, while he sat on the palm of the stone hand and thought bitter thoughts about pack-feel and manipulative female hanyou with puppy eyes.

'Maybe. I'm not sure. Something feels off.'

Sesshoumaru shifted. 'Go if you wish. I will not leave this place until I kill Trigon.'

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Nightmare waited patiently as his prey lay silently dying. Their eyelids were twitching and when he placed a finger on their wrist, their pulse was racing madly. Through his connection to them via the poison, he felt it clearly when the first one's heart stopped. It was the red-haired girl. Nightmare frowned. She had died very quickly, almost an hour before a human would have. Maybe it was her alien constitution.

'So long, sister!' Blackfire said with an evil smile. The broken bodies of the Titans lay all about them, and Starfire thrashed uselessly at her handcuffs, hyperventilating, fear clogging her mind as her sister powered up a starbolt not unlike her own, and her vision blanked out as something exploded in her chest and she felt herself fall………

'Pity,' Nightmare mused. 'She died so quickly.' He turned away from her body and bent to check the monk's pulse. Yes, he was coming along nicely.

A starbolt hit him in the back, turning him around, breaking a rib and flinging him through several trees. The alien girl, glowing with power, powered up another green bolt, her eyes completely opaque with green brilliance. The second one hit him in the chest, destroying most of his body. 'H……how?' he croaked.

He died in absolute disbelief.

Starfire stepped up to him and hit him with another starbolt just in case.

'Tamaraneans have more than one heart, you idiot,' she said. 'So I guess you didn't know your anatomy after all.'

The glow faded from her eyes and hands, and suddenly she was the sweet and slightly clueless Titan again. She ran to the Titans, shaking them, calling out, slapping them lightly. None of them responded. She turned her communicator on.

'Raven! Raven, are you there?'

The communicator crackled for a second with static before the empath's dry monotone responded. 'Starfire. What's wrong?'

Starfire told her as quickly as she could.

'All right. I'll be there as soon as I can.'

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Raven snapped the communicator shut and rose to her feet, weariness washed away temporarily in a wave of fear and adrenaline. She prepared to turn into her soul self, but Sesshoumaru grabbed the neck of her cloak, stopping her.

What was it with him and her cloak anyway?

'What do you think you're doing?'

'I'm going to help my friends, if that's all right with you!' she flared.

'That's precisely what Trigon expects. The minute you leave here, he will attack.'

'I don't care!'

'If you heal them – if – you'll be too weak to fight. Do you really wish to die today?'

'No. And I won't lose them either!'

'Fine, then. I'll go.'

'What?'

'Are you deaf? I said I'll go. I am a poison youkai.'

'You're serious,' she said in disbelief. 'You're actually going to pass up a chance to kill Trigon to help a bunch of people you barely know?'

He looked away. 'My priorities have changed. And there are people in that group that……matter to me. Besides, I can always kill Trigon later.' And before she could respond, he transformed into his energy form and vanished through the open doorway.

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The worst memory of her life played out before Sango over and over, and there was no buffer of time or healing to stop it.

Kohaku's blade rose to end Kagome's life, and suddenly they were fighting in the woods again, her sword against his sickle and chain, and her heart was pounding in her chest with fear and grief and anger and her breaths were uneven and rapid. Finally, she pinned him to the ground and, sobbing, raised the sword above her head to stab it into his body. And this time, there was no Inuyasha to strike the blade from her hand. The sword plunged into his body with eerie slowness, and then she turned it on herself just as she had promised and thenKohaku's blade rose to end Kagome's life, and suddenly they were fighting in the woods again, her sword against his sickle and chain………

And then, suddenly, the dream faded in a burst of white-hot pain, and the taijiya sank gratefully into a deep healing sleep.

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Starfire, who had been expecting Raven, was surprised when Sesshoumaru arrived instead. The youkai's eyes swept the place once.

'Where is Rin?'

'She's in Jump City. Can you……are you…….here to help?'

'Tcheh,' he said before gliding over to his brother. He knelt beside Inuyasha and sniffed delicately at the red powder on his face; swiped his forefinger across the residue and licked it.

'It's poisonous,' Starfire warned him. She shut up immediately when she was placed on the receiving end of a DeathGlare™.

He closed his eyes for a second, concentrating on the poison slipping down his throat, analysing its properties. The antibody formed within seconds, and he focused it on the poison. Once he was sure it was gone, he focused the antidote on his fingertips.

Starfire yelped in alarm as Sesshoumaru slashed his brother's chest with his glowing fingers. 'What are you doing to him!'

'Curing him, you nitwit. Check his pulse.' Starfire did. Sure enough, it was slowing down. His erratic breathing was calming, though he still made no noise.

'How did you survive?' Sesshoumaru inquired casually as he sliced into Kagome's side. There was surprisingly little blood, and the cuts were smooth and clean as a surgeon's incision. 'I…….have more than one heart……the poison ran out after one heart exploded. I hadn't inhaled enough to kill me.' She turned her back as Sesshoumaru 'applied' the antidote to Robin and Beast Boy.

The Titan shivered. Ally or not, cure or not……..watching him cut people up with such ease and…..practice…..was terrifying. 'Do you really have to do that?'

'Would you prefer to watch them die? That can be arranged.' Sesshoumaru stood up, his dress as immaculate as ever, without any trace of having knelt on the ground. 'They should be back to normal in an hour. For the humans, maybe two or three.' And then he transformed into his energy form and zipped off without another word.

Starfire stared after him. 'Just plain freaky……' she mumbled before she sat down heavily on the grass next to the Titans. Now that the urgency of the situation had faded, the pain in her chest was clawing at her. She closed her eyes for a second.

Just a second………..

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Raven was asleep when Sesshoumaru returned, and she was floating slightly above the floor, still wrapped up in the fluff. He supposed that meant she was healing. The empath's magic was strange at times.

He settled down again to wait for Trigon. What was taking him so long? Was he making more incarnations, like Naraku had? Now that was a chilling thought. Some of Naraku's spawn were…….quite troublesome; with Trigon's power added to the mix, they had the potential to be dangerous.

The communicator beeped a while later, and he waited for Raven to wake up. She just mumbled something with the word 'die' in it before rolling over in midair and beginning to snore gently. He huffed and picked it up.

'Ra-oh, it's you,' Inuyasha said, annoyed.

'Why are you using this?'

'Why are you?'

'……she's asleep.'

His brother smirked and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Sesshoumaru carefully repressed the urge to snarl and coldly inquired what the matter was.

'Is Trigon there yet? Kagome wants to know.'

'Of course he's here, you moron. He's being resurrected right now, while I talk to an ass.'

'Why, are you talking to yourself?' Inuyasha shot back immediately.

'Funny, very funny,' Sesshoumaru complimented him through gritted teeth. 'Well, as you may have noticed, he is not here. Now go away.' And he snapped the communicator shut and replaced it in Raven's cloak. She stirred as he did, poking herself in the eye as she rubbed the sleep from it.

'How long have I been out?' she said in a sleep-blurry voice.

'Two, almost three hours.' Sesshoumaru yanked the fluff from her, eliciting a soft cry of protest as she found herself tumbled unceremoniously to the floor six inches below. He inspected her former bedding and picked a lavender hair off it with one claw, absolutely disgusted. And was that drool on it? Ohhhh. 'Remind me never to let you do this again. Are you still near your limit?'

She sat up and stretched, looking more alert. 'I don't think I am, not anymore. The sleep really helped.'

Sesshoumaru sniffed the air routinely, and stiffened.

Raven was on her feet, crackling with energy. She knew even before he said it.

'He's coming.'

The communicator crackled. 'Raven? It's Kagome. We're under attack.'

A/N: 'Your conversation is both boring and repetitive,' she said, because it was. Any reviewer who can name the quote gets a special mention in the next chapter. In bold. Hint: it's from a famous sci-fi series about a crook who becomes a cop.