"Break if you must.

Your bones are made of raging resilience –

you will rebuild yourself again even stronger." – Kaitlin Foster

Chapter 4

In the dead of the night Kagome's eyes flew open and she drew a startled, shaky breath. They were watching her, she could feel their eyes burning holes into her back. She remained motionless laid on her side at the mouth of a shallow cave calculating her next moves. There was no sense in pretending to be asleep – they all knew she was awake now – and she knew she couldn't run. She also knew she wasn't defenseless, and they knew that, too. Kagome stared out at the yellow crunchy grass and listened to the horses swish their tails – the sound sliced through the quiet night in the distance like a knife. She pulled her arms into her chest, now free of their binds, and used the bright illuminating light of the full moon to inspect the raw chapped skin on her wrists. The dirty skin was fire-hot to the touch and Kagome looked longingly at the icy stream of trickling water twenty feet away. She decided now was the time to test the limits of her freedom. She certainly didn't call the shots around here, but now they knew she had the potential to be dangerous and they wanted her alive.

Kagome pushed herself onto her feet and took but a few measured steps out of the cave before she heard a voice creep up behind her.

"What are you doing?" he asked, calm but clearly not in the mood to play another round of hide-and-go-seek in the wee hours of the morning.

Frightened, Kagome spun on her heel and faced the man with one luminescent blue eye, and a burning red eye. He was a mere few inches away from her and waiting for an answer.

"I'm just getting some water." Kagome supplied as she instinctually took a step backwards to put another couple of inches between them. He crossed his arms and jerked his chin toward the river giving her permission to proceed.

Kagome walked quickly to the river and kneeled at the bank, not concerned if she dirtied or dampened her itchy pants. The water was so cold it burned her hands but she didn't care and quickly funneled many handfuls into her mouth. The water was so crisp, clean and refreshing that she couldn't help splashing some onto her face and scraping away some of the sweat and grime that had collected there. She took care to submerge her wrists in the water and hissed when the icy water bit at her raw and irritated wounds. She cleaned the area as well as she could and stood up, looking uncomfortably at the horned man. The call to nature had been pressing on her bladder with ever increasing urgency the longer she stood by the river.

"I need to use the restroom" she declared. He raised an eyebrow at her but otherwise did not change his guarded expression.

Kagome coughed, "I have to pee." She tried again.

"Alright. You don't need my permission." He said, jaded and vaguely gesturing at the ground by her feet.

Kagome's voice raised an octave in humiliation, "I'm not going to pee right in front of you on the ground."

"Listen, I don't really care if you do or don't right here right now, as long as it isn't on my horse." He yawned and scratched his chin.

They stared at each other in silence on the river bank until Kagome spoke again, "They're also watching. I need to pee and I can't if they're watching."

The man's nostrils flared in exasperation before he grabbed her arm, dragged her to the nearest tree, and tossed her behind it. Kagome quickly relieved herself, keeping an eye on the horned man's back as he waited for her to finish.

Kagome ambled back to the shallow cave with the horned man closely on her heels. The back of the cave was shrouded in the shadows but she knew Ryuu and the lizard man were back there dissecting her with insidious glares. Kagome laid in the moonlight at the mouth of the cave and faced the stream again, trying to ignore the plethora of uncomfortable sensations around her. Instead she thought about work and the deadlines that were piling up; how many voicemails had been left on her cellphone that was still in Kaede's village; she hadn't thought to forward her mail or set up autopay on her bills. Kagome thought about all of her present-day problems, and if she tried hard enough, she could convince herself that she wasn't in the feudal era or a hostage to a gang of demons. No sir, she needed to call someone about the leaky faucet in her kitchen. Kagome sighed in defeat – it was useless. She laid there for hours, unmoving, waiting for the first sign of daylight to see what the next day would bring.

Morning came when a large hand lifted Kagome's head off of the ground by her hair and released it, letting her skull bounce off of the hard rock of the cave. A headache instantly blossomed in her right temple and she cradled her head in her hand. Kagome must have managed to get a few hours of sleep but would have been willing to stay awake if she knew this is what was waiting for her come morning. Her whole body was aching from sleeping on the ground, namely a particularly bothersome kink in her neck and the sore shoulder she'd slept on. The same large hand seized her arm and dragged her out of the cave and threw her into the dead prickly grass. It was Ryuu, and he looked furious. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and drew her face in to his leg, or at least what was left of it. The skin and muscle had been purified away, eaten clear down the bone. The blue skin was bubbled and sinewy bits of tendons and ligaments, exposed to the open air, were melted to muscle or loose hanging skin. Kagome's nose was assaulted with the stench of burned flesh and she tried to turn her head away from the gore but Ryuu held fast.

"Look what you did to me, you fucking bitch! Look what you did!" Ryuu boomed, obviously not happy with how little she appreciated her own handiwork.

Kagome looked again. The bulk of the wound was to his calf and shin, but black burns crawled up his legs like spider veins and disappeared under the torn off edge of his pant.

"Ryuu is going to lose that leg." Said the horned man, appearing in her peripherals, "We're lucky that's it though. If you weren't so weak you would have killed him."

Ryuu threw her back onto the ground and she landed with a resounding "oof". She wasn't weak, she couldn't let them think she was weak. If they thought she was weak then she lost her only strength against them. She'd purify Ryuu's other leg if it showed them that she wasn't to be messed with. Kagome placed her palms on the ground and began to push herself up when a foot connected squarely between her shoulder blades and she went crashing down. Ryuu held her pinned to the ground and began to add pressure, effectively crushing her. She cried out and clawed at the ground, uprooting clods of dirt up in a fruitless attempt to escape.

"Ryuu stop it. You'll get yours." Said the horned man, not bothering to turn from his task of digging through his saddle bag.

Ryuu continued for but a moment longer before removing his foot and spitting at Kagome, narrowly missing her. She scrambled to her feet and backed away from the group. The horned man found what he was looking for and tossed it to the lizard man before fastening the latches of his sack.

"Furan, take this rope and tie it around her body a few times, make sure its secure." Called the horned man climbing on top of his horse, "Ryuu deserves a little repayment for all of his… troubles."

The man called Furan snickered and approached her with a long rope clutched in his scaly hands. He tightly circled the rope several times around Kagome's midsection; from her hips to just under her breasts before it was tied off with a tight knot. She was then led to Ryuu's horse and secured to the saddle. Kagome had a bad feeling settle in the pit of her stomach realizing that she wasn't in on something they were.

"You will walk today - or run - depending on how much of a hurry we're in." hissed Furan before he turned away to mount his own horse.

The men clicked to their horses and Kagome stumbled into movement alongside Ryuu's steed. At first, the path was smooth and flat so Kagome had few issues keeping up with the pace. The largest obstacle were that her arms had been secured at an awkward angle behind her back and she had limited mobility over her torso, leaving her unbalanced and unstable. Hours passed and Kagome - fueled on little sleep, food, or water - began to trip over her own two feet and struggle to stay upright. The road gradually became more uneven as they traversed over a mountain range but the horses didn't slow. Kagome finally tripped when she stepped on a sharp rock and reflexively jerked her foot upward, hissing painfully between her teeth. The rope stretched between Ryuu's saddle and the knot at Kagome's back stretched tight when she mis-stepped, pulling her head over feet forward and sending her crashing to the ground. She turned her shoulder to the ground to break her fall and avoid knocking out her front teeth or breaking her nose against a rock. She flailed and tried to establish footing underneath her body so she could stand up and walk again but the horse didn't slow so Kagome was dragged along the path.

"Hey! Hey-!" She coughed when dirt got kicked into her mouth, "Stop! Let me stand!" she cried out. All three men ignored her and continued to ride in silence.

Kagome brought her knee up in a fruitless attempt to push herself onto her feet, but in that moment a rock in the path split across her knee and she yelped.

Ryuu, frustrated now with Kagome's noisy wailing, shouted, "Too noisy!" and dug his heels into the horse's sides. The horse took off in an easy gallop and Kagome bounced along after them in tow. A blood-curling scream ripped from her throat as she was helplessly dragged at high speeds, absorbing blows from rocks, sticks, and any other debris that lay in the path. She felt a fiery, scorching pain tear across her legs as the skin there was shredded to bits. She was dragged like this for several minutes, her screams echoing through the woods.

Ryuu slowed his horse to a stop and the horned man dismounted his horse to assess the damage. Kagome choked on the suffocating sobs lodged in her throat and turned her head shamefully away from him when he rolled her body over. He inspected her with careful eyes and tutted at her ruefully crouched down beside her on the ground. The rough-spun itchy pants she'd been given to wear had disintegrated, or at least torn away leaving her in a battered yukata. The horned man reached forward and slowly pulled a sharp stick that was buried in Kagome's inner thigh. She wauled as he pulled it out and held it up between their faces; a sticky, gooey rope of dark red blood connected the stick and wound. The fronts of her legs were flayed open, left raw and bloody, as if she'd been skinned alive. Kagome threw her head back and screwed her eyes shut as he removed another sharp object from the bottom of her foot this time.

After his hands had gone Kagome drew her knees up to her tightly bound chest and wept silently on the dirt path. She didn't care if the men heard her cry or saw her in pain – she was going to die here. She felt a gentle hand on the side of her cheek cradle her face and thumb away her tears. She looked at the horned man, who drew back his hand, now dirty with grime from her face, and grimaced at him. He smiled at her.

"Don't worry, Ryuu will take it easy on you now. I'm sure that was satisfying enough for him." The man reassured her. Ryuu from somewhere behind her laughed. The horned man's smile transformed into something sinister and Kagome was ripped away.

With the crack of a whip Ryuu's horse tore down the road in a frenzy. Kagome, on her back this time, first felt the skin rip off of her hands and she howled in pain. The tip of Ryuu's horse whip licked her neck, shoulders, and cheek and she shrieked until her voice cracked and no sound came out. She couldn't catch her breath, she was choking on the dirt kicked up from the hooves. The fibers of her skin were shredding apart and falling away. She could feel every inch of her skin tearing at the seams and exposed muscle, sinew, and tendons being ground and pulverized by rocks and rubble. Her body was being torn into pieces and it was too much to handle – this was it.

Then, a sharp crack to her skull and everything went black.

Kagome was moving, or at least she suspected she was. She felt like she was floating on the open sea rolling over reckless waves; they tossed her back, and forth, back, and forth. She was going to be sick. Her stomach lurched and she dry-heaved – nothing happened. She slipped back under the waves.

Kagome was still moving and still out at sea. A master of the tide now, she no longer felt nauseous and moved with the waves easily. Now the only bothersome matters were ear-splitting headache she had and the dull roaring in her ears. She wished it would stop.

There was a storm and Kagome needed to act quickly. She was being jostled all over the ship and thrown about by the waves. She reached for the pulley ropes to lower the sails but couldn't move her arms. It hurt every time she tried. Her boat sank and she slept at the bottom of the sea.

With a sharp inhale Kagome awoke. With great effort she managed to open one eye, the other too swollen, and gathered she was draped over a horse again – this time at the front. Her dirt-caked arms hung loosely in front of her and dangled down toward the ground whirring by. Her eye tried to follow the beating hooves of the galloping beast but they blurred together and she couldn't distinguish the ground from the animal. She groaned in pain, the jostling of her tender head more than she could handle. She was also hot – so hot. The air around her was cold but she was sweating. Was she delirious or just tired? She'd decide after a nap.

Kagome was woken with a sharp nudge to the ribcage. She tried to turn her head to see who was poking her but her neck was too stiff and refused to budge.

She settled for using her words, "What's happening?" she croaked slowly, her voice unfamiliar to her own ears. The horse was walking now across a thin dusting of snow on the ground. It was entirely silent save for the clean crunch of the sharp horseshoes cutting into the brittle snow. How long had they been riding?

"We've arrived." The horned man said pleasantly. The horse came to a stop and the man readjusted his position in the saddle.

"Men," The horned man called out to somebody far away. Kagome used her one good eye to look closely at the horse's leg now that they were standing still – was the horse bleeding or was that her blood on it? "We've returned. Open the gates." He shouted.

There was a pause before there was a loud grinding of metal on metal and the creaking of wood. Patiently, the group waited, until a whistle echoed from somewhere far away, and they were moving again. Kagome supposed it was the wrong time to laugh, but now she could sense youkai presence. She could feel the pull in her chest of youkai power sparring with her own, although it was very weak. Maybe all she needed since the beginning was a good thwack to the head to set her straight.

The horses were stopped and the men dismounted their steeds. A voice called out laughing, "Did you bring back dinner?"

Furan called back, "No. Even better: a priestess." Ryuu spat on the ground. There were uncomfortable murmurs among a gathering crowd. Kagome laid still draped over the horse not daring to move, not that she likely could on her own anyways.

A fist balled itself in the back of her yukata and pulled her down from the horse and deposited her on the ground in the thin layer of snow. Her filthy grimy body turned the white snow below her brown and black. Kagome remained face-down in the snow, unable to find the will to move, until someone kicked her in the side.

"Get up!' Ryuu shouted.

She coughed and skidded across the ground, clutching her ribcage and gritting her teeth, and attempted to push herself to her feet. The foot that the horned man had pulled a sharp object out of connected with the ground and Kagome yelped. Pain lanced from the heel of her foot up to her abdomen and she fell to her knees unable to stand. The wound was still open and oozing a cocktail mixture of pus and blood.

There was a whistle and suddenly two men hooked their arms underneath hers and hauled her away, her legs dragging behind her uselessly. Kagome let her head hang limp, she was exhausted, battered, feverish, broken, hungry. You won't make it out of here alive, her brain finished. Kagome knew that already – she was just waiting for the finishing blow. Her body couldn't take much more without water, food, or medical attention. Just please let it end, she pleaded and began to silently weep. The men turned into a building and swept her down long corridors with perfect polished wooden floors. The polished floors irritated the raw skin on her legs and tore open the delicate, barely-healed skin. A messy trail of blood was left in her wake and Kagome almost cracked a smile at this, chalking this up to her having the last laugh. Maybe they'd hurt her and kill her, but she would tarnish this entire home with her human stench and they would have to clean it.

A few more corners and Kagome was brought to a stop. The room was bright, the lights glared off of the impeccably shiny floor and gleaned into her one good eye. Gasps and whispers filled the room all around her – people were talking about her. Probably about how bad she smelled and how bad she looked – both were bad. Kagome continued to keep her eye on the ground – she was emotionally, mentally, and physically checked out. She was ready to close her eyes and sleep.

Somebody cleared their throat behind her, "My Lord," the horned man called out, "We have brought a woman of interest to your court. She was a bit of trouble… but she is a priestess and we couldn't resist retrieving her for you." He said with a smile in his voice. An audible wave of nervous gulping passed over the room occupants. Suddenly five clawed fingers tangled themselves in her hair and held tightly, reopening a large wound on her head. Kagome felt the sick sensation of warm thick blood weaving its way between tendrils of hair until it found a way to escape in tributaries down her forehead and face. A drop of blood slipped down the bridge of her nose and dripped to the floor below her, and then another.

"Forgive us, My Lord, if this is a waste of your time." The horned man started but was quickly cut off by an indignant blue ogre.

"it better not be!" Ryuu bellowed, "The damn wench purified my fucking leg off!" There was a round of gasps and cries around the room as Ryuu presumably showed off his gnarly wound to the room. Feet shifted uncomfortably and the horned man hissed in Ryuu's direction. There were sounds of scuffle and doors sliding open and closed. Once the court had settled to silence the horned man spoke one more time.

"Her face, Lord Inuyasha." And with that the horned man jerked Kagome's head up to face the room but she could only see blinding white fury.

Lord Inuyasha. He said Lord Inuyasha.

Kagome bared her teeth and hissed hot air as the wound on her head only grew bigger and hotter. Blood now freely dribbled down her face to the beat of her heart pounding against her chest – suddenly she felt so alive again. Her one good eye searched the room but there were skylights and open walls and with so much natural light pouring in she couldn't see anyone.

And then she saw him.

He sat upon a great throne made of bones and black iron. The throne was made from the carcass of a massive monster – a dragon maybe – its skull mounted at the top and ribs organized neatly down the stiles of the throne as if he were a precious organ being protected within. He still wore the same red robe of the fire rat, but it was covered by black armor and shoulder plates with horrible large spikes protruding from them. A red and yellow obi cinched his waist and held Tessaiga at his hip. His hair, long white and pristine, was swept into a high pony tail and his shaggy bangs framed his face. Large, purple, jagged stripes sliced across his cheekbone, one underneath each eye. Kagome searched his steely gold eyes but they were unyielding and he gave nothing away. His face was stony and cold - he showed no signs of recognition. Kagome wanted to cry out It's me! Kagome! Inuyasha you idiot! Stop staring and help me! But his icy glare held her paralyzed and kept her quiet. Something in Kagome's chest clenched sharply and crippled her visibly. Kagome realized that she did not know this man; this was not the Inuyasha she knew. She wanted to tear away and run from this imposter and never look back.

"My lord…" said the horned man. Kagome watched all the subjects in the court bow down lowly to Inuyasha, including the guards her supported her upright. She felt the horned man thrust her head down to the ground and her forehead connected with the palace floor sounding a resounding smack. She waited for his verdict, her eyes mere centimeters away from a puddle of her blood. After an eternity, Kagome heard him speak.

"Take her to her to a cell and restrain her there. I will kill her myself." Like black smoke and honey his voice easily sliced through the room and held everybody captive.

The guards immediately jerked her up and hauled Kagome away from the court. Kagome allowed them to, breathlessly, unable to process what had just happened.

This was not the same conflicted but caring Inuyasha she had come to love and adore.

This was not the same Inuyasha with a compassion for human life.

This was not the same Inuyasha that loved her.

This is who she cried out for when the city guard and then the three demons kidnapped her? Kagome was seething. She felt so stupid; so played. She had been pleading for the man that just sentenced her to death. She was fool – a reckless fool. She could have been picked up by the next passing wind and carried away if her heart hadn't been so heavy in that moment.

Kagome found the strength to turn her neck, and lock eyes again with the man on the throne.

There sat Lord Inuyasha on his throne, in all of his glory and wickedness.