Sesshomaru and the Empire Strikes Back
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Sesshomaru had been instructed from a young age to lean into pain. Freedom from all pain was illusory and those who chased a life of comfort were brittle of body and fragile of mind. Sesshomaru had never cowed or bent beneath the will of an enemy or any duress.
Yet, every Demon had a limit.
Sesshomaru pushed the inconceivable notion he had limits out of his head as the magic manacles plunged him through the clear sky towards the cold, salty sea.
Forty nine minutes ago.
Sesshomaru planted himself, stone still, upon the seawall of the impressively massive military base of Norfolk Virginia. He had long ago had ascertained the whereabouts of the vessels that supported the base:
Carrier Strike Group Two, which stationed itself a few hundred kilometers out into the sea. Her flagship carrier, USS Bush CVN 77, commanded the Destroyer Squadron 22. This squadron was comprised of three destroyer vessels and was further supplemented by three additional destroyers and a light cruiser. Each of these vessels had assigned to it their own Strike Fighter Squadron.
Carrier Strike Group Eight, similarly stationed except further south, has her flagship carrier as the USS Truman CVN 75 and commanded Destroyer Squadron 28. This squadron again consisted of three destroyer vessels and one light missile cruiser.
From what Sesshomaru could deduce, the smaller vessels defended the flagship carrier and the flagship flexed the offensive muscle when needed.
Romanoff also informed him three other vessels vigilantly patrolled under the surface of the water. These submarines could attack from the stealth of deep waters. Useful.
He tested their stealth abilities by reaching into the sea with his hand, and pulsing out his youki as far as he could. And while he could sense them, they were in fact, much more adept at hiding their positions and current velocity and trajectory than Sea Serpents he had killed years ago.
Jets, all of various design, circled in formations over him, their shrieks and thunder peeled across the grey sky, awaiting further orders.
"No one has ever sunk a modern-day aircraft carrier. However, that is because when in open sea they're incredibly difficult to locate with our intelligence and counter-measures. Subs, Go-Fast boats, Cruise Missiles, all fail because we have either manage to prevent them from getting into attack formation or in range. This sort of battle is another different animal altogether. They'll have to rely solely on counter measures like noise makers which probably will prove themselves ineffective against magic, and operating in strict formation to stay operational." Romanoff's suggestion did not go over Sesshomaru's head.
"I see. You wish for me to use my prowess to act as an interceptor to defend the vessels so their artillery may bring down the Nycteus." Sesshomaru pondered this suggestion as they both stared out to the horizon, waiting for the smoking, fireball to thunder finally towards their doorstep.
"Yep. Commander McDaniel of Norfolk wouldn't dream of insinuating the Carrier Strike Groups need the extra defense support in front of his own advisers and subordinates, but he may have mentioned it to Fury. Not only have these strike groups have never gone up against something like a space cruiser, but they've never had to defend against an attack on Norfolk Naval Station like this either." Romanoff concluded and Sesshomaru could smell the slightest whiff of uneasiness waft off her.
"Plus, as Loki and you pointed out, we know the enemy is already aiming to capture you, if you were to expend most of your energy distracting them, SHIELD and the United States can do what they do best and knock the enemy craft out of the sky." Romanoff explained, squaring up to him and Sesshomaru searched her impassive face.
The leader of the military garrison Captain McDaniel, had proven himself steely, if a bit young. His preparedness showed in what Sesshomaru could approve of a fine enough strategy of the defense of this military station.
"Additionally, Tony giving the Helicarrier your youki capsules to install in their tomahawk missiles should be enough to bring their shields down. So you don't have to worry about a repeat of the scepter room with your Hufflepuff bro, Steve." Romanoff chided. So. She knew about that incident. Reluctantly he admitted she was indeed was correct about her points, though Sesshomaru knew that was not the only reason she relayed this strategy to him.
She knew about the curse, along with Stark and Rogers. She surmised that despite his intense training, that he would not be of much assistance offensively and was saving him face from revealing this to their allies and enemies.
Sesshomaru didn't respond right away, as the wind rebuffed against his yukata. He had originally wanted to wear his clothes from his time, but the leather jacket proved too confining and he needed his arms covered.
He couldn't reveal to Stark and the others that the markings on his left wrists and triceps had changed from red to blue. Stark interpreted this as him spurning him, and pushing him away.
Perhaps that was accurate, yet Stark shouldn't have taken it so personally. Sesshomaru wanted nothing more than to prove to Stark he had nothing to fear, but in the end, Stark had only become more cagey and anxious.
Sesshomaru would prove here that he had things under control, that he could be relied upon.
As much as he outwardly projected confidence, he couldn't shake this foreboding intuition, his Demon instincts screamed at him that there was something off about this whole battle. That they overlooked some tactic, that they didn't prepare adequately for some angle.
He also, couldn't shake the assumption in similarity between the Aethon and the Nycteus: if both ships would operate the same.
"I will allow your human vessels to attempt with their own might to bring down the Nycteus." Sesshomaru paused, and then continued. "The premise that the Nycteus and the Aethon are in fact identical cruisers should be tested." Sesshomaru locked eyes with Romanoff and her lips hardened and thinned.
"Do you have anything solid to back this theory up?" Romanoff asked again, edging for something hard that he couldn't give her. Sesshomaru almost sighed. Romanoff and Loki had become close and him challenging Loki's knowledge of the ships would most certainly be scrutinized by her.
He didn't want to tell her anything explicit until what he had Stark had theorized had been confirmed:
That the Nycteus was stalling in space for a reason. The Nycteus intended to take down their realm's communication array: their satellites. He informed Stark and the rest of his friends their enemy would attempt this back at the War Assembly.
Stark's D.E.M.O.N.S. was launched into what Stark had communicated to him was one of the highest orbits for humans' satellites: 200,000 kilometers. Most of the humans' communication satellites orbited at a much lower altitude, such as 36,000 kilometers.
Stark had anticipated that one of the cruisers would disrupt the lower orbit communications array, far below D.E.M.O.N.S., when it wasn't the Aethon, which had already arrived in the capital of the province, the Nycteus remained.
And Stark was ready.
"Loki at the dinner told Rin the story of Keiji and Kado, two twin Panther Demon brothers. By all accounts they were raised the same, with the same trainer and treated fairly by their father. Yet, Keiji was by all accounts superior in swordplay and endurance, while Kado excelled at strategy and youki attacks. In addition, that film, Star Wars, had identical cruisers with different commanders, yet they operated entirely differently." Sesshomaru wasn't sure why he remembered this particular story before, but he knew that Romanoff had overheard it because she rarely missed anything.
"Demons are living creatures. They are born just like humans; these are ships that were constructed for a purpose. Also, according to Loki, they look and operate almost identically." Romanoff countered and Sesshomaru's chest hitched minutely. He wasn't born, he was constructed for a purpose.
Different purposes in mind by his mother and father, yes, but purposes nonetheless.
"Yet, they chose the Aethon to conduct the initial attack on Shanghai for a reason. I'll keep it in mind when I'm in the air." Romanoff continued and gestured to the Quinjet which had finished preparations. Banner stood beside it, standing tall though Sesshomaru could smell his anxiety from far off.
"Conduct yourself as you see fit." Sesshomaru turned from Romanoff without a hint of emotion.
"Good luck to you too, Pretty Boy. Don't fret, Helicarrier Two will provide ample cover fire and Helicarrier Three is still en-route to DC from Hong Kong and should be there in an hour." Romanoff informed before she strode off to the Quinjet.
He eyed the Quinjet and recalled how fragile the vessel was. The bomb that combusted the Quinjet he had piloted wasn't overly powerful. If he left Romanoff to her own devices, would she be able to prevail against the forces to come in such a flimsy craft? Perhaps, he would have to assist her as well. He wasn't against it, but he debated how much it would distract him from his task of showing the enemy he was not to be trifled with.
D.E.M.O.N.S. had long ago pinged his youki senses to the arrival of the Aethon, which now currently stalled over the Provincial capital of Washington DC, and he now just felt the ping of the Nycteus. The pings jarred him quite differently. He was now sure of it. The two cruisers were indeed more dissimilar than he was led to believe.
Bakusaiga trilled in glee next to him, while Tenseiga pulsed in warning.
Yes, he had made some progress in his tireless training.
Yes, he had gotten far stronger and learned much since first arriving in this realm.
Yes, he knew his enemy and stood amongst countless, unanticipated allies on this battlefield.
Yet, would it all be enough?
Yes. It had to be.
PING
Thanks to D.E.M.O.N.S., Sesshomaru had clocked that the Nycteus had stalled at the edge of the Earth's air and the cosmos. He closed his eyes and focused on the few youki blips across the Province: his own in Stark's youki reactor, and Jaken's. They couldn't communicate explicitly through the link, but they could read the other's youki levels, just he could track Loki's magic.
He spiked his youki twice, a code he and Stark created. Stark responded with spiking his back as well, presumably through his arc reactor. Jaken flashed his too and Sesshomaru sensed him transform.
Once Jaken had undergone his training to hone his true form, he could be sufficiently deadly when provided a fresh water source.
A dark uneasiness crept into Sesshomaru psyche. He trusted Stark would be able to thwart the technological attack on the communication satellites. He had faith in Loki's mind to strategies, and he trusted in Thor's dedication and might…
So why Sesshomaru's talons twitch?
"The Nycteus has entered the lower thermosphere." Sesshomaru's earpiece cut out suddenly into white static. Immediately after, a flash of wicked violet light flashed across high above them and backlit the cloudy sky. Sesshomaru heard silence right before a clamor of humans. The Nycteus had severed their long-distance communication satellite array.
It was Stark's brilliant idea to implement a 'honeypot' into the technological systems of the satellites to lure and entrap the enemy and figure out how they could infect their communications array. It would take the enemy quite some time to pinpoint and destroy each satellite. Due to this, Stark theorized they would somehow try to create a chain reaction through one of SHIELDS' own surveillance satellites, and one of the traitors would assist in hacking it to bring down the others. Stark, however, would intercept this attack with the honeypot, and the attack would be for naught.
So why did their communications falter anyway?
The entirety of the overcast sky alit in a sinister violet shade, quite similar to his former nemesis Naraku. And just then, above the fray, the sirens, the powering up of artillery and armaments, he heard her.
His ears pricked up noticeably.
"Yo, Sesshomaru, long time, no see." Her voice carried on the wind just as if she stood right beside him.
"Kagura. Show yourself." Sesshomaru stated simply to the sky, Bakusaiga's energy curling around his grasp on her hilt. Kagura would have answers. He tugged on Bakusaiga's hilt to free her of her sheath. He ignored the jagged pain webbing own his arm as Bakusaiga sluggishly scraped out of her sheath. He couldn't wield her as expertly as he wished, she felt as if she weighed an entire mountain, but he would take any improvement. He painstakingly pointed the tip of her sharp blade at the overcast sky, precisely where a mixture of Loki's corrupted magic flowed.
Far off, another pulse of purple energy and Sesshomaru's youki spiked in warning. The Nycteus fired her initial attack volley.
"I'll show myself when I'm damn good and ready. I'm the wind, truly free, that means free from doing what you say as well." Kagura's voice was almost drowned out by a high-pitched shrieks as purple light flooded the sky above their current position. Sesshomaru leapt high in the air, Bakusaiga countering the violet in the sky with her own, fierce green energy. Above the low cloud cover, Sesshomaru could calculate that a hundred violet projectiles would shower their fleet with magicked cannon fire. Without proper maneuverability, their initial casualties would be lamentable. This was what Romanoff had spoken of, only he had the maneuverability to save their fleet.
Just as he predicted, the projectiles careened through the cloud cover like Inuyasha's Diamond Spear Blast from Tessaiga. They would surely lay waste to the Carrier Strike Groups if even half of them got past him.
As if he would allow the dishonor of enemy to draw first blood.
With a quick calculation, he determined the optimal trajectory to either deflect, block or annihilate most of the incoming barrage. Bracing for the pain in his arm to arc across his entire body, Bakusaiga's youki exploded through her blade. Sesshomaru tore her through the sky around him in a horizontal, sweeping arcs that spanned like circles. He repeated these arcs tirelessly, each one just as swift as the first.
The multiple concentric circles of Bakusaiga's decomposition youki would neutralize most, if not all the initial volley of cannon fire. Sesshomaru descended rapidly towards the bow of the helicarrier just as it unleashed a wave of countermeasures to counteract a swath of the initial barrage as well.
As he landed on the bow, chest heaving in exertion, the sky erupted loudly in popping explosions of acid green, deep violet and fiery orange.
Still some magic cannon fire eked through his and the helicarrier's counterattack. He ignored the pulsing, hot pain in his left side as he lunged low and leapt again. He swiped through the air in careful strokes to avoid the launching jets. He successfully intercepted the remaining violet cannon fire that would sink one of the destroyers of the Eighth Carrier Strike Group.
Sesshomaru panted, winded, bangs sticking to his forehead with a sheen of sweat.
His attack with Bakusaiga had taken more effort than he really anticipated. He had to focus all his efforts on melding his own youki with hers. It hadn't been this taxing in training!
His stamina, typically unmatched by any enemy, was indeed being negatively impacted by the curse put upon him.
Sesshomaru watched as a singular blast from the Nycteus blew through his attack and brushed the stern one of the destroyers of the 8th carrier strike group. The ship rocked and some smoke emitted from the vessel, but remained afloat.
Shrieks of jets taking off by him didn't drown out a condescending tut from a certain Wind Witch.
"Wasn't perfect, though impressive for someone who's cursed by the most obsessive magic freak show I've seen in a long time." Kagura's trademark laughter rang through the air.
Another voice ribboned through his head, not loudly, hardly more than a distant murmur.
'I see you, Demon Eternal, the one who can walk the Astral Plane. You'll fall in line soon enough, and I think you'll see why.' Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed to the smallest degree. The object of his failed scry, The Other presumptuously thought he could not only predict his behavior, but expect him to obey him? If Loki didn't already state his absolute intention on torturing him viciously, he would take it upon himself to do so.
"Kagura, your flattery rings false." Sesshomaru scathed. The Nycteus advanced closer, Sesshomaru could feel the vessel descend, getting into optimal attack position. His youki instincts spiked high. Something ominous was about to transpire. Something told him to find cover, to bolt to higher ground.
"Not everything I say is a lie, you know." Kagura drawled, a hair annoyed.
"Indeed." Sesshomaru answered. In response, a most unusual attack then occurred.
"… did you just say something sarcastic? The humans have definitely rubbed off on you, that's for sure." A heatwave rolled through the air like a furnace, and almost immediately the cloud cover lifted as if Storm Demons had willed them away.
The tranquil blue of the sky stood in direct contrast to the reality of the battle.
"Yeesh, Gamora is really showing off now. My new superiors are more narcissistic than Naraku, and we both know that's saying something." Kagura's voice flirted through his ears. She wanted to remain at a distance still and that was fine by him. He could seek her counsel after they dealt with this foe.
Through the clouds, just around a kilometer above them, hovered the Nycteus. Its shadow cast down upon them like a transformed Wolf Demon about to pounce on his prey. If Sesshomaru were a lesser Demon, he would have taken a step back.
Why was he randomly reminded of his father in his true form?
To his left and right, hatches opened on the helicarrier. He knew what would occur next. His own youki would be launched from the helicarrier on which he stood. He stood fast refusing to cede his mind to his blind impulses beckoning him to flee.
Three thin, agile missiles trusted upward from the deck of the helicarrier. They appeared to be no more than the typical missile which would simply strike the shield of the Nycteus and be ineffective.
However, he could feel his own youki thrumming in little pods within the missiles.
The Nycteus made no move to intercept the three missiles as they streamed seamlessly up through the now clear sky. Logically, the Nycteus wouldn't need to launch a counter-offensive if they thought the missiles would prove useless.
The three missiles careened straight on into the underside of the hull of the Nycteus, and Sesshomaru nearly quirked a smirk as the previously impenetrable shield surrounding the Nycteus eroded partially back. The indigo dust from his ice blue youki and the violet shield shimmered down upon the sea. While the missiles only revealed a small portion of the port side of the Nycteus' hull, it was enough.
"Oh….so THAT's your plan. It's clever, but Sesshomaru, but I don't think that's gonna do the trick." Kagura warned and as if on cue, The Other's voice rippled through his head once more.
'Don't think for a moment you've gotten the upper-hand, Demon Eternal. You're going to witness first hand the first lost battle of this pathetic planet. After this you will lead us to the remaining half of the Soul Gem.' The Other's voice snaked through his mind. Is this what Loki had heard regularly? How grating.
Synchronized, the destroyer and cruiser vessels from both Carrier Strike Groups Two and Eight trained their artillery at the gap in the shield of the Nycteus.
He even spotted Romanoff's Quinjet stream by, Banner in his true form, clutching its windscreen. Baffling.
The various squadrons of assorted jets also double backed and locked in formation. At least fifty screaming, blazing missiles hurtled upwards from the ships, not even taking into account the ones fired from the helicarrier on which he stood, and the jets in tight attack formations high above him.
Sesshomaru's eyes widened a fraction and his ears pinned themselves against his head as the counterattack rattled every bone and nerve ending in his body. Intimidation. Caution. Unease. Competition.
Tenseiga shivered in his sheath. Odd.
Sesshomaru frowned slightly, did Tenseiga fear, as Loki did, that if his true nature was revealed that they would covet him? The humans would turn their missiles against him and make him relinquish Tenseiga to them? No. Tenseiga had the upmost faith in his abilities and the humans. There was no way he would fear being taken by them...
Tenseiga hummed in agreement.
Then what was Tenseiga's trepidation about?
Sesshomaru couldn't pay Tenseiga any more mind as thunderous explosions boomed through the air like boulders rolling down a cliff-side. The continuous vibrations of the missiles striking the Nycteus' hull rocked through the sky. Even the surface of the ocean below him pulsed from the impact.
Crimson fires burst forth from the hull, and in response a swarm of chariots sped out of the main ports on the sides of the ship. Those were just distractions though. The Nycteus would charge its cannons again and fire another volley of countless magic blasts at their navy.
He'd have to utilize Bakusaiga's corrosive youki to get one solid strike through the gap in the shield, just like the other vessels had.
Sesshomaru clinched his jaw and his eyes bled slightly as a jagged jolt of pain erupted from his left arm. His left arm spasmed and his talons extended and retracted.
Tenseiga flared to life at his side, desperately trying to assuage the pain.
He didn't need Tenseiga's aid.
A Demon Lord like himself could withstand the pain, would embrace it, allow it keep him sharp. Aware. This pain that coursed through his body down to his right arm he'd endure just like any other.
Slowly, he brought Bakusaiga's blade up to chest level, his right arm rigid in agony.
"Sesshomaru, you don't get it, do you? The closer that sorcerer gets, the stronger his control on you. It's the same with any spirit he rips from the underworld." Kagura's voice lilted by him. "Just like Naraku had my heart, he has your blood." Kagura stated flippantly, almost amused.
The Other controlled his blood?
Oh, then that would explain why he currently couldn't transform, and why his markings changed color on his left arm. It also explained why when the Aethon and Nycteus approached, his link to Bakusaiga had weakened. She had come from his body, the very arm that the Other had carved his name into.
Perhaps it was why his bond was breaking with her.
"Kagura, why do you seek this Sesshomaru out?" Sesshomaru finally asked the wind, studying the Nycteus as it glowed a cool violet hue. No doubt the Nycteus was preparing for another attack.
"Why wouldn't I? I got brought back from the Demonic Underworld and who do I have to interact with? That savage, Hakudoshi, a delusional Fire Demon, and some angry alien chick the same color as Jaken. Pass. Besides, I got a deal to cut with you." Kagura snorted and he could picture her exact expression even though he was only looking at the wind.
"I think not." Sesshomaru's gaze sharpened as he painstakenly pulsed youki into Bakusaiga, the tip of her blade glowing her signature jade green.
His joints began to stiffen and his breath stilled dead in his lungs. Even his vision began to darken at the edges. Was Kagura right? Did The Other have control over his blood, prohibiting it from circulating?
Was the effect now amplified because he was engaging directly with the Nycteus?
It didn't matter, he was taught from a young age to withstand any amount of pain, any torture for the main goal of destruction. Taking down those who threatened him. Protecting what belonged to him and who mattered.
Sesshomaru's fangs lengthened and his ice blue youki spiked around him on the deck of the Helicarrier. Bakusaiga trembled in his grasp as his knees threatened to buckle from the acidic pain clenching his muscles. Sesshomaru fought wincing visibly from the boiling pain coursing through his veins as Bakusaiga powered up her youki, beginning her primary attack they had practiced countless times.
"Die." Snapping green youki forked from the tip of Bakusaiga towards the gap in the shield. Like an impossibly heavy pendulum, the tip of Bakusaiga's blade flung down and hit the deck of the helicarrier.
He couldn't lift her back up, he'd have to rest momentarily.
The twin beams of youki zipped true towards the gap until the last minute when both snaked wide, instead hitting two useless chitauri vessels. The commander of the Nycteus was using the Chitauri to intercept his attacks! They'd surely do the same against the rest of the fleet as well. They'd have to exhaust their entire aerial force or they'd deplete their entire artillery.
It was then giant Cetaceans, like whale Demons, charged out of the ports as well, brutishly bowling over agile jets.
Sesshomaru watched as the Chitauri began to from their own ranks and fire upon some of their own jets causing disrupt their formations.
The situation had just taken a steep turn in the enemy's favor.
'And as you see, Demon Eternal, we will win this war.' The Other's voice echoed in his head.
"Sesshomaru, you and your human friends can't win like this. Think of it like a trade, my help for your help." Kagura finally materialized next to him. He paused for the briefest of seconds because she looked exactly the same, from the feathers in her sleek hair, to her blood red eyes, down to her calloused bare feet.
She thus far looked the most material of all the spirits he had seen, including Hakudoshi on the screen.
Kagura's smirk unexpectedly calmed him. Since arriving in this time, the only remnants of Demons from his time were not ones he would ever associate with. If a wayward soul would have asked him a month ago if he would seek out Kagura for company, he would have had their head.
He would never voice the opinion, but it was pleasant to see her here and her usual confident self once more.
"A barter? You are delusional as always Kagura." He had no idea what she could possibly have to barter with.
"Delusional? Well, maybe that makes two of us." Kagura laughed as the underside of the Nycteus began to glow violet from countless ports.
And he'd have to be rea—
A flare of grey and flame caught his attention downward and towards the sea. Two missiles hurtled towards him and the helicarrier from the sea below. Those missiles came from their own fleet! There was no time to avoid the missiles, nor would any countermeasures fire in time.
They'd surely strike the Helicarrrier and ravage it.
Bakusaiga warbled, she wanted to strike again and she lifted herself to aid his weakened arm. Pain lacerated from his legs as he leapt off the edge of the Helicarrier.
The incoming missiles had come from the destroyer in Carrier Group Eight that had been struck by the magic cannon fire. The destroyer now glowed violet and changed course to charge an allied cruiser.
So, if the Nycteus successfully hit any of their ships, they could control it.
"See?! Everything can be a puppet, even your own ships! The Other makes Naraku look like an amateur!" He heard Kagura yell from behind him. Sesshomaru dove fast, He had to get to the missiles and contain their explosions.
"I will not be some Magician's puppet." Sesshomaru stated placidly in response.
"Sesshomaru, he controls your BLOOD, and those are flying BOMBS!" Kagura could certainly be mouthy, but she had never been this irritating. Maybe she had changed since coming to this time as well. Sesshomaru's hair and white and red yukata whipped through the air in the controlled, if not stiff dive.
"Kagura. Silence." Sesshomaru frowned, the missiles careened nearly right upon them. It was time to dispatch them.
Bakusaiga powered up in a luster of green.
He dove upon the first missile launched and Sesshomaru noted it was purple in hue. Kagura was indeed correct, the magic had corrupted the vessel and its projectiles. He had to time this perfectly so he would combust the missile and be able to dodge the shrapnel that exploded from it.
He whipped back Bakusaiga prepared to let loose a vast torrent of energy.
Bakusaiga deadened in his grip.
Fresh pain lurched through his bloodstream and his body spasmed and his muscles cramped up. His tendons twitched through his right arm and his fingers stiffened straight. Before he knew it, Bakuasaiga slipped from his grasp, falling through thin air. He gritted his fangs together, the blood stilled in his body as if it hardened to ice.
How!?
He had to think quickly. He could either order her back, but if he did so he'd lose his chance at the missile. He after all, still had his whip.
For the first time in hundreds of years, Sesshomaru hesitated in battle.
"Bakusaiga, to me!" Sesshomaru belatedly ordered, but she continued to plummet through the air. Did she not hear him? Or did she and not want to return to his side?
Was this due to the curse?!
She struck the surface of the sea, immediately disappearing from view.
"It's the CURSE! Don't you get it?!" Kagura rolled left as a white hot spear of pain rendered his right arm stiff, his fingers wouldn't respond. He hadn't been able to move his left arm since he arrived in Norfolk. He didn't think that it would be this dire.
His mother's knowing cold smile blipped into his vision and he forced it out.
The first missile shot past him, the heat from its flame singed the tips of his hair. He flashed his youki out into a giant globe, but was too late. He merely knocked it slightly off its deadly trajectory.
But the second!
The second missile he had a chance at destroying. He drew back his right arm and called upon his whip. He could get in close and sever the cone from the missile, much as he had the nosecone on the jet when he was first called upon the helicarrier.
He summoned his whip, and since his arm wouldn't fully cooperate, he'd have to spin his whole body down to his shoulder to destroy the missile.
A flash of his scry flooded his mind: His useless arm, Bakusaiga shattered. Thor's blue eyes, his hammer. Loki spearing Stark through, later screaming no.
Sesshomuaru's eyes flashed wide. A long dormant emotion trickled into the base of his skull. Apprehension.
He buried it. He had never let fear rule him before, he wouldn't let it now. He committed and dove in a steep descent towards the second missile. With his whip of light streaming behind him he torqued his body into a tight, blinding spin.
"Oh shit, you really do have a death wish." Kagura whispered.
The missile burned impossibly hot, but that Phoenix Demon Lord he killed, Kyoura, had burned hotter. He could endure this. He twisted down the top side of the missile, his toxin carving a spiraled laceration through the metal.
"You're too close!" Kagura shouted and immediately, the entire payload combusted in a violent burst of purple fire. The initial blast concussed Sesshomaru and his vision dimmed to blackness.
Tenseiga pulsed.
Just like he did when Inuyasha had attacked him with the Wind Scar, Tenseiga flashed him away in a stream of white youki. He narrowly avoided being within the lethal blast radius of the primary explosion. Shrapnel and fire ripped through the sky tearing through his clothes and skin, blossoming the white ragged silk of his yukata red.
Dazed, Sesshomaru freefell through the air, his senses all blaring and white static.
-Maru! Look out!" was that Kagura?
Out of the corner of his darkening vision, he saw an array of dazzling lights. Countermeasures. He had read about those in the Quinjet manual.
The missile he had knocked off course struck the countermeasures, and exploded, causing a shockwave through the air. The helicarrier, however, still took some damage as he saw a small fire erupt.
The Helicarrier still flew.
He had to collect Bakusaiga, she would be deep in the salty sea by now. He would gather her and destroy their enemy one slice at a time.
His youki flashed in warning, from his peripheral vision he saw a third missile stream up from the possessed Destroyer.
The missile's target was undoubtedly the Quinjet piloted by Romanoff who had descended to attack it. Banner had long ago leapt off the Quinjet, to decimate what, Sesshomaru wasn't sure.
Romanoff didn't have time to dodge the missile, nor evacuate.
He didn't hesitate, he transformed into light and shot towards the missile.
He typically had a plan in mind, but without Bakusaiga, he had no idea what he'd do once he got there. Anger, fury bristled in chest. How dare this enemy attempt to control him! He was the greatest Demon to have ever lived! Lord of the Western Lands! Unparalleled in stregnth!
Sesshomaru saw red and as he came between the Quinjet and the Missile he flashed out his blue youki like a wave. He ensconced the missile in his blue youki and it instantly detonated.
The explosion shredded through his weakened youki.
PULSE.
Tenseiga amplified his blue youki, pouring every ounce of his might into absorbing the explosion. Fire and pressure built up around him and a shockwave rang out.
Sesshomaru blacked out.
…
...
"Wake up!" He heard a husky voice yell. Kagura.
He opened his eyes. Slick,dark grey metal cooled under his cheek. He had somehow crash landed on one of their allied ships. He struggled to his feet sluggishly and blinked to focus.
The Quinjet shrieked by, so he had indeed saved Romanoff.
His whole body ached as if Mjonlir had struck him several times. He most likely had a broken rib or two. It didn't matter. He had to get off the deck of this Destroyer before one of the humans came and found him this vulnerable. He couldn't appear weak here.
Tenseiga whimpered softly as Sesshomaru stubbornly cracked his back and leapt into the air, aiming to take down a Chariot buzzing slowly in close proximity to the Destroyer.
'You see, Demon Eternal, you are MINE.' Sesshomaru heard the Other's voice echo through his mind.
Suddenly, a whirring noise encroached from behind him. He twisted his head to see a second chariot closing in quickly, throwing something long his direction. So the first chariot had been bait!
Glinting in the sun, he surmised exactly what the object was, manacles. The same sort of manacles used in they used against him in Central Park.
A blast from a Chitauri ray gun hit him square in the side of the head. Blood flowed and pain spiked hard through his temple and his vision blacked out.
Before he knew it, the manacles magicked onto his wrists as icy clamps and yanked him downwards towards the chariot that had baited him. Through sheer determination alone, he willed his toxin to pool in his right hand and he lashed out, carving flesh out of the chest of the chitauri piloting the vehicle.
Flares of pain punched through his back as they fired relentlessly at him with their guns.
"You've got to be kidding me. DANCE OF BLADES!" Sesshomaru heard Kagura attack and the chariot cleaved apart beneath him. An edge of one of her wind blades caught him across his shoulder as a shot from one of the Chitauri hit him again in the left temple.
Between his blood chilling and needling through his body and the shot to the head, Sesshomaru fell.
Present
Barely conscious, the magic manacles hurtled him down. Sesshomaru impacted the stone-hard surface of the ocean in a buckled dive.
Darkness.
The icy void muffled his senses as the weighted manacles dragged him deeper. His body left dark red smears and curls of blood through the murky, salty water. Pressure from the ocean water threatened to rupture his circulatory, respiratory systems, and would if he were a human or lesser Demon. Yet, it was true what told Stark in the bathroom, he was an exceptional swimmer.
His body could withstand the pressure, but his ear devices buckled and broke. His manacled wrists hit the rocky bottom of the ocean floor in a muddy plume.
Distantly, he could hear Bakusaiga… but Sesshomaru couldn't place where his daughter was.
He couldn't hear Tenseiga.
His head spun in vicious wheels of pain. He tried to open his mouth, but it was an impossible feat with his shattered jaw.
Concussions of blasts thudded above him as the battle waged on without him.
'Oh, how the mighty have fallen, Demon Eternal. As soon as we are done annihilating your friends and allies, we will collect you and you will deliver the second half of the Soul Stone, Sounga, to us.' The Other's voice echoed in his head as a dark chuckle.
A growl rumbled through Sesshomaru's chest. He had to find his power here. But instead, throbbing agony overtook his senses, and everything stilled. Still water... just like the bathwater. Could he scry? Would it help?
He had to try to reach someone.
Ping.
Jaken!
Jaken's youki flickered and a flash of fresh, sharp agony cut through him.
He saw an image of Jaken in his true form, lariats grappling him down as the Aethon opened fire.
NO.
Sesshomaru's bloodshot eyes shot open underwater.
Jaken's youki signature vanished from his senses.
No. That couldn't be. Loki had assured him that Jaken would have adequate protection. Jaken couldn't have perished…impossible.
He had to reach Jaken again.
Sesshomaru pinged for his youki signature again.
Ripple.
Nothing.
Jaken was gone.
Gone.
Jaken, his trusted retainer, had been slain. Jaken had pledged his life-debt to him with no hesitation and stuck by him though some of the most difficult trials of his adulthood. Jaken had believed he was the pinnacle of Demonic Might and had listened and took to heart his instructions on how to control his True Form. Jaken had always warned him when there was trouble afoot and educated him on historical matters his father thought too trivial for him to learn, or purposely kept from him. Jaken, no matter how obstinate or cowardly he could be, always listened.
Yet, he had failed to listen to Jaken.
Jaken had warned him repeatedly that this war would be the end of them all, and he paid him no heed. He had led his most loyal vassal... no, his most loyal friend, to his death twice now.
Tenseiga had already revived him once when Jaken went to collect Tokijin from Kaijinbo and was cut down by him. Tenseiga could only resurrect someone from the dead once.
Sesshomaru, curled into himself onto the seafloor.
A different, adjacent type of pain knotted plumb in the center of his chest. It creaked open something deep and dark inside of him. A hidden, stashed away part of himself he thought he had rid himself of long ago:
Dark, cavernous loss.
How dare they take something from him he could never have back.
He would reach out to Loki, have him explain what befell Jaken.
Ping.
Loki's magic energy surged high then promptly vanished.
This caused Sesshomaru's ears to pick up. Loki had lost the ability to hide his magic signature due to The Other keeping him and tampering with his mind.
Ripple.
A flash of Loki, blue skinned, burnt, and red-eyed laying lifeless on scorched Earth darted through his mind. Rogers, injured, hunched over him, face set in a grimace. His oldest friend had been slain by the enemy. Images of Loki flashed through his mind: the amused smirk when they first met, his laughter when they acquired their first treasure, the prideful angle of his chin when he crafted his Uru daggers, Their spar on the rooftop of Stark's Tower when they reunited after fifty three years, his desperate plea.
Loki risked everything to protect this realm, and it was all for nothing. It all held no meaning now.
He didn't get the chance to witness Loki break down the Other!
Tenseiga flared to life in a spiking, bursting flash of healing blue youki. He screamed and screamed, rattling almost completely out of his sheath. Tenseiga's youki turned icy cold, and his yells ebbed into deep, haunting wails.
Tenseiga had never cried before, but now he was sobbing.
Something then, sparked to life deep within Sesshomaru.
Despite the jagged, icy pain, Sesshomaru's blood itched and boiled. The temperature of the sea water around him increased tenfold.
His blood simmered in his veins, and the ocean water around him began to glow a deep red. He'd break his enemy down to nothing. He would splinter their bones and devour their flesh.
If Jaken couldn't prove his might, he'd prove it for him. If Loki couldn't drink the blood of the Other, he'd drink it for him!
Loki had told him he'd be relied upon to lead the defense of this realm, but he would do more than just that. If they retreated, he wouldn't rest until he hunted every single Chitauri down and powdered their bones.
He'd show their enemy the unparalleled greatness they both believed him to be.
An image of a damaged red metal suit landing near Barton. Stark!
Sesshomaru reined in his emotions. If Loki and Jaken had been slain in the capital, Stark could be next. He had to focus and not lose himself here.
He needed Bakusaiga.
Ripple.
Echo.
Bakusaiga was close! Only she wasn't alone. He looked up to see Kagura floating above the sea floor a few meters from him, holding Bakusaiga in her manicured hand.
He must have looked somewhat perplexed because Kagura rolled her red eyes.
"Spirit, remember? I can literally go through anything, including water. And no, don't ask me how I can pick up your sword when I can't pick anything else up from this realm." Kagura's voice slinked through his ears as clear as if she were above water.
"Bakusaiga is a Demon. She is my progeny and no certainly no mere sword." Sesshomaru could hear Bakusaiga hum lightly, she must have taken to Kagura.
"Huh, well could have fooled me. She's not causing a racket like Tenseiga. Maybe the Other is suppressing her power as well. You know that sorcerer is going to stop at nothing to capture you, just like Naraku wanted to. He wants you so he can collect all those jewels, sound familiar?" Kagura held Bakusaiga out to him. It was eerie how natural she looked wielding a sword rather than a fan, especially under murky, pitch black water that no human would be able to see through.
"I don't care about the Gems of the Greater Cosmos. My enemy has slain Jaken and Loki, and for that they will pay dearly." Sesshomaru seethed and Kagura frowned, her mouth turning into a small bow.
"Not that I was close to Jaken, but he didn't deserve to die here in this dirty, human infested place. Who is Loki? Don't tell me you're this upset over a human." Kagura examined Bakusaiga who remained dormant.
"Loki is an Aesir, from the realm of Asgard. He is a comrade of this Sesshomaru." Tenseiga spiked in mild and vague disagreement over what, he couldn't ascertain.
"So, you weren't always a loner, huh. You know, if their Master gets all six cosmic gems, he gets one wish. It's the shikon jewel all over again. You think these deluded warlords would come up with something more original! Ugh, how do I get caught up in these messes?!" Kagura complained. So that was the purpose of the gems. They granted a wish, potential dominion over an entire galaxy for instance.
Kagura continued.
"I tried to get away from Mephisto, but as long as I remain a spirit, he can control me." Kagura's face contorted into anger.
"So, you're a puppet once more." Sesshomaru thought about this. So that is why Ryukotsusei wanted to be purified, to be free of Mephisto's control.
"I can't harm him as a spirit since he conjured me. Hakudoshi believes if we can get our own bodies, we can defy him. If I get my own body, I can cleave his head from his shoulders and make his corpse dance." Kagura grinned in glee.
"You claim you cannot harm the enemy, yet you destroyed their chariot." Sesshomaru still awkwardly squatted on the seafloor, the manacles still preventing him from standing.
Kagura canted her head to the side.
"Hmm, I don't why I could do that. Hakudoshi tried to damage their ships before and couldn't do it. Maybe I just wanted it more." Kagura furrowed her eyebrows in thought and Bakusaiga chirped softly.
She began to glow a faint green.
Sesshomaru's eyes sharpened in realization, Kagura's dampened Demonic energy was feeding Bakusaiga and awakening her.
Tenseiga then hummed at his side, he knew this hum.
He only sang like this when he wanted to revive someone.
"You wished to barter with this Sesshomaru, here is your chance. Cut through these manacles, and I will bestow upon you the ability to cut through those who keep you." Sesshomaru spoke through his youki and Kagura paused and canted her head to one side.
"That's not what I wanted to barter over, but a woman in my situation can't afford to be picky. You got yourself a deal." Kagura flashed a sharp smile and held out Bakusaiga.
Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow.
"I can't use my wind underwater. Here's hoping if my wind can cut through their technology, I can with your daughter." Kagura could always read him even when he said nothing. Quick as a breeze, Kagura swung Bakusaiga and she sliced cleanly through the chains.
Kagura and Sesshomaru blinked in mild disbelief.
Immediately the magic wore off and Sesshomaru tore the remnants off his wrists. His limbs still encumbered due to the water tension and pressure. His hair and clothes still floated around him as Kagura held out Bakusaiga closer to Sesshomaru, her spirit shimmering in ethereal light from Tenseiga.
"Here. Now your turn to uphold your si—" Kagura's response was immediately cut off when Sesshomaru grabbed onto Bakusaiga's hilt.
For she immediately sang both Kagura and Sesshomaru were vacuumed into an ill-timed scry.
Standing, ankle deep in demonic blood, three Demons and one Hanyou both glanced upwards. Where dark, polluted water once enveloped them, now clusters of winking stars fell all around them. The stars collided into each other, as if at war with each other.
Far off, he heard the screams of the souls from Sounga, however he knew his cursed birthright wasn't near.
"This lake of blood smells like you! Is all this your blood?!" Kagura recoiled back in disgust.
"It's my father's, and the blood of grandmother's Eternal ancestors. It's why we can walk on the Astral Plane. The blood acts like a scrying mirror, and the bones of the leyline guide us." Bakusaiga weakly explained. It all clicked into place. Sesshomaru remembered when his mother attacked him with that Astral Lagoon attack and collected his blood. She must have been preparing him to gain his power at some point.
Sesshomaru reached out to Bakusaiga, but she turned away, panting, and exhausted, little chest heaving. Frustration prickled through him, the curse was affecting her as well. He gently turned her towards him and his jaw dropped slightly. Her markings, even the ones on her eyelids, had turned blue, just like the ones on his left arm.
"Bakusaiga, this curse ails you too." Sesshomaru's voice darkened. It was one thing to curse him, it was an entire other matter to curse his daughter.
"I'm the greatest weapon in existence, I can withstand this, father." Bakusaiga wheezed, smiling faintly. She reminded him too much of himself.
"Hey, I'm still over here. Shorty, why did you bring us here, now?" Kagura asked, now gazing up and around, eyes wide.
Sesshomaru had the same question.
"I'm not that short, and I didn't do this. Someone strong called us, but don't worry, my Leyline also cloaks us from their sight. Whoever wanted to speak to us, they're fighting off the Other to talk to us." Bakusaiga whispered, breathy and weak then collapsed. Sesshomaru tried to reach out and catch her, but he too fought an overwhelming wave of freezing pain that struck him down to his knees.
"My Lord! Bakusaiga! Please, stay conscious, I can't navigate a scry nor the Astral Plane!" Tenseiga had a barely conscious Bakusaiga in his blue arms.
Blue?
"Re-lax Tenseiga, geez, just a little light headed. What happened to your skin, why are you blue and cold?" Bakusaiga reeled back and managed to stand, albeit doubled over, hands on her knees.
"What is the meaning of this, Tenseiga? Why are you blue as well as and Bakusaiga's markings?" Sesshomaru looked over Tenseiga and sure enough, his skin had turned a cornflower blue, with raised arched lines across his cheeks just like his father's markings. Or Inuyasha's when he'd let his blood lust overtake him.
"What? They're not supposed to be blue?" Kagura pointed her fan, uneasily stepping back from him.
He still glowed a white blue, youki bubbling off him into the starry expanse of the Astral Plane. Was she afraid she would be purified?
"It's complicated, my Lord. I'll explain my appearance later, first I need to revive Lady Kagura's spirit." Tenseiga stood tall, apparently unaffected by his new appearance.
"Oh, like you did with Ruykotsusei?! Like hell I'll let you purify me once I got my shot at freedom." Kagura snarled and unfurled her fan, wind coiled around them and Tenseiga put out a placating hand.
"Not Purify. Ryukotsusei's spirit had no fight for life left, so he was sent back to the Underworld, to be left at rest. You, however, wish for life, fight for freedom. I can release the corruption on your spirit for you to achieve just that. I don't know why I couldn't revive you back in our era, but I feel I can revive you now. It's an instinct deep in my youki." Tenseiga hastily explained, almost pleadingly. Sesshomaru had never seen Tenseiga look repentant before, but the gleam in his golden eyes shown true.
If he hadn't seen Tenseiga's might and usefulness firsthand, he would have claimed he was too soft to be a blade, and a shawl would befit him better. He wasn't responsible for what befell Kagura.
Kagura flipped shut her fan realizing the same.
"That wasn't on you. Do your thing quick, then, and let's get out of here. I got things to do." Kagura snapped and to his credit, Tenseiga looked down to his ailing Lord for affirmation before teaching out his hand to her chest.
The white light from his hand shown as bright as the lighthouse he had seen on the island. Kagura squinted as the blood pool they stood in began to whirl and stretch upwards over her form.
Strangely enough, blood also began to stream upward, filling in wounds he sustained in battle with the Chitauri, including his head wound.
"Hold still it's working!" Tenseiga's triangle shaped ears flapped down in concentration as Demonic Blood from the Astral Lagoon coated Kagura's spiritual form. Was Tenseiga calling upon his own Demonic blood to revive Kagura?
As soon as the light stopped from Tenseiga, the blood had congealed and changed form. Slowly, the blood shifted to reveala very real, a very alive Kagura. Sesshomaru's ears pricked up.
Impossible.
He could hear her rapid heartbeat, smell her sweat, and a scent of rain and flowers. She looked exactly the same, with the exception of two magenta markings on her neck that curled up into a spiral and two magenta dots on the outside of each of her eyes.
"I don't think this is what Inukimi had in mind for the Astral Lagoon, but I don't believe I care!" Tenseiga gasped excitedly. While she was a far cry from his powers, she was every bit a Demon Lady.
No one spoke for a moment as stars continued to collide around them.
"I have a heartbeat. I can breathe. I'm alive." Kagura gasped in disbelief, patting herself down.
"Well, that is what Tenseiga is good at. Father, I'm receiving a vision! The person who wanted to talk to us prevailed over The Other! I can show them to you, if you'd like, Father." Bakusaiga said, and turned to Sesshomaru who merely nodded. Precisely at that time the stars stopped colliding, and swirled around to reveal a being Sesshomaru had not seen in centuries, and only met a handful of times.
Yet he would not forget that regal face.
"Queen Frigga. How timely." Sesshomaru set his jaw and used every ounce of free will to stagger to stand. He would not allow himself to kneel before the queen of a raving half blind warlord.
"Finally, I'm able to see you and your consort, Lord Sesshomaru, and oh, you have a Demon Lady with you. My apologies for scrying you in this manner, but this is serious." Frigga looked panicked and grief stricken, yet she wasn't blameless herself.
He didn't need some lofty Aesir to tell him that they were in the middle of a serious predicament.
"So, you're Frigga, Loki the magic user, and Storm God's mother. We know about Loki, we felt him fall. Tenseiga's literally blue over it." Bakusaiga muttered, squaring up to the image as well. His eyes narrowed as fresh pain crawled up his left arm. He knew Bakusaiga didn't particularly like Loki, but seeing Tenseiga's reaction to him falling tempered her bite a bit.
"I know. I know, my child. That is originally why I scryed you, but something else has occurred with my other son while you have been here on the Astral Plane. Thor has succumbed to the same mind altered state as Loki. Thor has the scepter, and is currently battling in the tower with a Priest, a Blue Luphemoid, and a possessed mortal. Everyone in that Metropolis, the Big Apple, is in acute danger." Frigga wrung her hands; it then became apparent she had been crying. Crying over how she allowed Odin to ruin both of her sons most likely.
How could Thor had been so dense? No, something had to have transpired to call Thor back to Stark's fortress. The enemy! Could their attacks on the two other cities been a mere ploy to get to the scepter somehow?
"Hmph, I told Hakudoshi his plan to take that scepter would never work. Even if he got to it, there was no way he could even hold it, much less use it. Then, if he could manipulate that blue mechanical woman into helping us, she can't be depended upon. Too unstable, just like Muso was." Kagura explained and Sesshomaru sighed through his nose. He should have seen this tactic coming. Loki should have too. They had thought the enemy would forgo regaining the scepter if they had put themselves out in the open. After all, they had only gone after the scepter to capture one of them.
Only, the Other had captured Thor instead of him or Loki. Unfortunate and irritating.
If he had to duel Thor, he would have to devote his entire attention to it, and not be able to assist in the battle against his true enemy. It had not been overlong ago since he had dueled Thor, but it had been five hundred years for the Aesir. How much stronger had Thor gotten in half a millennium? Had Thor been obscuring his aptitude with Mjolnir much like he had been with Bakusaiga? He didn't wield Mjolnir when he last matched against him, not that the melee tournaments would ever really allow for weapons.
Well, except for that one Vanir who smuggled in those daggers, but he won that melee handedly regardless.
Thor had not revealed much in the way of his skills since he had been in this time…could he possibly be as powerful as his mother's scry showed him?
It didn't matter. If it came to it, he would kill Thor.
"Queen Frigga, why do you continue to waste this Sesshomaru's time then?" Sesshomaru nearly growled out, patience wearing thin.
"Because I know how to rid yourself of the curse, but first I want…." Queen Frigga turned to Tenseiga. "I want you to revive Loki, and to use mercy on Thor but if it comes to it, I will not slight you if he meets Valhalla by your sword. I'd rather him dead than see him turn into a slave of our enemy." Frigga pursed her lips and Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed into suspicious sickles.
How could she have known that Tenseiga could revive the dead?
"How do you know about Tenseiga? Loki, said that you didn't believe in him! That his true nature was only stories!" Bakusaiga scrunched her claws into Sesshomaru's yukata, struggling to stand. Frigga couldn't have seen Tenseiga revive Kagura just now, she admitted to not even knowing she was present.
"I too thought they were mere stories. I've been scrying you all in the big apple since Heimdall's vision was blocked. I saw you revive that adolescent boy, the thief who attacked your dear Rin and Jaken. I just know you can do the same for Loki, repay what he did for you." Frigga explained and Sesshomaru's face froze. So, the Distant Realm had found a way to spy on him other than their all-seeing sentry.
Sesshomaru also had dually noted that she was attempting to barter with him for the fates of her sons with the knowledge of how to break his curse. He wanted to say that he wouldn't accept this barter. That he didn't need her assistance.
"Please, accept my barter and help me save my sons." Frigga begged. How unbecoming.
Loki and Jaken were gone, and Thor was now possessed by the enemy. Stark and Rin had been fine when he left for the Astral Plane, but he already knew time flowed differently here than on Earth. If he continued to bicker with Queen Frigga here, when he returned to Earth it could be hours later.
Yet, if she truly cared about this realm, wouldn't she have simply given him this information from the start? It still held true, only Jaken and Stark gave him something he wanted without anything in return.
He remembered Stark's sly smile, his caress on his wrists.
Sesshomaru's chest constricted, he hoped that Stark wouldn't try to try to duel Thor in his fortress. While Stark was a commendable adversary, Thor was an Aesir and his power was not to be understated. However, nothing would stop Stark from protecting his fortress an those inside it, like Miss Potts and Rin...
Rin! She was in the fortress along with Polly.
Sesshomaru knew the answer.
"No." Sesshomaru said simply. "This Sesshomaru will overcome this curse by his own means and merit." Sesshomaru's gaze darkened and sharpened. There were scant exceptions in his life where his instincts told him incorrectly about barters. He had a dark feeling about this one. It was if he accepted Queen Frigga's assistance, he'd be at the mercy of the Distant Realm later.
Queen Frigga at first appeared shell shocked, then regained her composure.
"I see. You're still stubborn and distrusting. Though, suppose if I were you, I wouldn't trust me either. I, however, trust in Loki's faith, and Thor's respect of you to overcome this and defend Midgard." Frigga smiled wanly and Sesshomaru fought the urge to cut her image down, but she wasn't worth it.
"Leave us, Queen Frigga. Do not attempt to contact this Sesshomaru again." Sesshomaru warned placidly. He doubted she would, but he wanted to make it clear that his only contact with the Distant Realm would be on his terms, not theirs. Sesshomaru noticed that Tenseiga's face turned stricken and pale.
"I understand, good luck, Lord Sesshomaru. I'm sure our paths will cross in the future." The vision vanished and Sesshomaru sighed though his nose. It wasn't a total loss, he had an idea of how to rid himself of the curse, thanks to Queen Frigga.
"…Just great. Another busybody, no wonder you're buddy-buddy with her, Tenseiga." Bakusaiga grumbled, scrunching her nose.
"I don't get it, you bartered with me, why not her? She seemed to actually care about whatever you got dragged into." Kagura snapped, genuine confusion darkening her features.
Sesshomaru paused. He hadn't realized his own contradiction.
"I don't know her." Sesshomaru said simply.
"And you know me?" Kagura challenged incredulous. Was she being dense on purpose? No, her levels of deception didn't draw that deeply.
"Yes. You are Kagura of the wind and now of my blood. You are this Sesshomaru's ally." He just leveled a sharp, stony gaze at her.
"You have changed." Kagura's eyes flashed wide and soft briefly before she hid behind her fan.
"My Lord, how do you plan on lifting the curse without Queen Frigga's help?!" Tenseiga asked tentatively, ears flat on his head.
"Queen Frigga, for all her wisdom, gave away the method in her delivery. Bakusaiga, I need you to return to your blade form." Sesshomaru ordered and she nodded and returned to her blade form to his right hand. The ivory leyline dangled and glinted from her hilt.
Bakusaiga said she could hide them from the Other here, perhaps that meant he could disable the curse here as well.
He raised his left arm, still throbbing and pulsing in agony and pushed the long sleeve of his yukata back. The Other had carved his signature on his left arm, the weakest, newest part of his being. His left arm was also directly linked with Bakusaiga, as they she had sprung from it. It had to be why she was affected with the curse.
He gazed at the cerulean blue markings with disgust.
He didn't need his left arm before against Naraku, and he certainly didn't need it now. He had fought before with only his right arm, and he would do so again.
Enough hesitation.
He brought Bakusaiga down cleanly over his accursed left arm, right at the faint scar that Tessaiga carved long ago.
Bakusaiga shrieked high, as if shocked by a Thunder Demon.
"MY LORD!" Tenseiga's shout rang out as Sesshomaru's left arm fell, only to hover in mid-air above the Blood Lagoon, along with the blackened, diseased blood that poured freely from his severed limb. Tenseiga ran to his arm to heal and staunch the bleeding as his arm and the diseased blood began to dissolve from Tenseiga's purification. Sesshomaru didn't need Tenseiga's help, but he accepted it anyway due to being distracted with relief.
The pain, the scorching cold agony arcing through his blood finally ceased. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He should have thought of this solution earlier, he had let his mother blind him from the easiest, quickest answer. Always cut loose what weakened you. Always break free of what clearly held you back.
"Talk about full circle, didn't know you felt this nostalgic about the past." Kagura reared back her head, scoffing behind her fan.
"It's time to return to the battle." Sesshomaru wasn't entirely sure how long it had been since he was in the Astral Plane, but he knew that his body, wherever it was under the water, would most likely be fine.
"Uh, sure, but you know we're at the bottom of the ocean right? I can't swim!" Kagura balked, eyes flashing bright crimson.
"Not my concern." Sesshomaru responded mildly and the stars began to swirl around them, fading into blackness.
"WHAT? Weren't you the one being a softy about how we were allies?!" Kagura paled and Sesshomaru glanced mildly over to Tenseiga. He had another idea.
"Tenseiga to Kagura." He ordered and almost immediately he assumed his blade form and shot over to her. She would need him soon anyway to accomplish a task he had for her.
"You want to give me your savior Hanyou sword? What's the catch?" Kagura held Tenseiga in her hand in his blade form.
"Queen Frigga gave me another idea. You will go to the capital of this province and revive Loki of Asgard with Tenseiga. Tenseiga will lead you to his body. Afterwards, you will meet me in the metropolis called the Big Apple." Sesshomaru informed as the stars began to dim around them back into the sea water.
"Yo, you can't order me around! If I do this, then I get the barter I really want. I want you to help us find Kanna." Kagura smirked slyly, her new magenta markings by her eyes crinkling.
"Us? Kanna?" Sesshomaru's eyebrows knit together. Kanna. Wasn't that another of Naraku's incarnation? The girl who gifted him with the mirror shard to minic Tessaiga with?
"Hakudoshi and I. He is sadistic, but after what we went through together with Mephisto…" Kagura trailed off, eyes distant. "Anyway, Kanna was just as much as his sister as she was mine. When Kanna died, her spirit didn't go to the Demonic Underworld because she was of the void, so she must be out there, drifting. We wish to be reunited with her, be free together, get it?! So you will help us find her spirit in exchange for me reviving your dead Aesir friend." Kagura explained, glancing at Tenseiga's blade, he shimmered a new blue hue.
So, she and Hakudoshi had an alliance. That, by proxy made Hakudoshi his ally. How irksome.
"I acquiesce." Sesshomaru affirmed with a tip of his pointed jaw.
In a blink the sea rushed in.
Sesshomaru's lungs had filled with salt water, but he could hold out for a few minutes longer.
As Tenseiga aided Kagura upwards to the surface he surmised that he had been absent for far too long.
The blackened wreckage of ships, at least three destroyers, and a cruiser, littered the ocean floor around him.
The ominous presence of the Nycteus still overwhelmed his youki senses above. The battle still waged.
He'd end it now.
He drew Bakusaiga and she sang sharp, high, and vicious.
Her signature green youki lit the entire ocean floor in a poisonous, thrashing green aura that soon vortexed and condensed into a familiar attack he had not used in a long time.
His signature dragon strike.
The ocean water whirlpooled around him as a magnificent green dragon coiled around him. He had never before rendered one with such ferocity and clarity. The massive head and open, sharp-toothed jaws of the dragon rose upwards, as if it's goal was to drag the sky down into the sea.
Sesshomaru opened his eyes and they glowed a sinister red.
This was for Jaken.
"Jade Dragon Strike!" He bellowed deeply through his youki as an acid green dragon launched brutally upwards, shocking all the wreckage away from him in a singular, murky seismic wave.
His youki told him his attack struck the Nycteus as a direct hit.
Now for the killing blow.
He crouched low under the water and with a deft spring of his legs he leapt, exhaling all the way to burst from the surface of the sea.
In a burst of blue youki he dried himself and shot up into the sky, calculating a landing on the closest available surface, a nearby cruiser. Bakusaiga celebrated in his right hand as he pointed the tip of her blade into the sky for a follow up attack.
Most of the Nycteus had already begun to crumple and corrode into nothingness.
"Witness your meager power be instantly eclipsed by mine!" Sesshomaru taunted, markings dancing as a torrential, crackling wave of decomposition youki crested into the overcast sky.
The cetaceans shrieked in pain as their flesh deteriorated, and the chariots ashed to nothing into the wind. He insured the wave spared what few jets still streaked through the air.
As the last vestiges of his pitiful enemy flaked apart, Sesshomaru sheathed Bakusaiga and assessed the losses around him.
The first thing he noticed was that the helicarrier was nowhere in sight. It must have been destroyed by their enemy, a logically high priority target.
Fire, oil, and wreckage floated among other jetsam on the surface. The aircraft carrier, USS Bush CVN 77, had taken some damage. The Carrier Strike Group Two assigned to it had taken significant losses, four of its six destroyers and its cruiser had sunk.
The other aircraft carrier, the USS Truman CVN 75 listed heavily to its port side, crippled and inoperable. However, with the exception of the destroyer, that had been used against them, all of its Strike Group destroyers remained operable. It's cruiser currently was sinking into the harbor.
The base itself, however, had taken substantial damage. Sesshomaru wasn't knowledgeable enough to determine how much repair the naval station would require, but it was enough to make him crinkle his nose.
However, the naval vessels had taken down many Cetaceans on their own, as shown by their floating, blooded carcasses. Felled chariots also speckled the sea and ground, along with boated, broken Chitauri bodies. Large, charred, violet panels also had impaled themselves in the seawall and in parts of the ships, indicating that their attacks had proven effective against the Nycteus before he finished her off.
This was neither a defeat nor victory for either side.
Nothing to be done now, he had to be off to see to Rin. His youki reserves had depleted some, but he could fly to Stark's fortress swiftly enough.
"You had us going for real there, Pretty Boy. Tony finally swore to stop asking for a status report every thirty seconds after he saw that massive energy dragon. He said 'Saves me time that I don't have to go drag him out of Davy Jones Locker by his fluff'." Romanoff's voice sounded entirely too loud and muddled from behind him. He'd need yet another pair of the hearing dampeners. He turned to see her bruised, but standing straight.
"Stark lives." Sesshomaru asked more than stated. He pinged for his youki, but with his own youki reserves so low, he was having trouble getting a sure-read.
"Yes, he's alive, rough shape, but alive. He is en-route to the tower with Steve." Romanoff nodded.
Sesshomaru's shoulders relaxed and his face softened in hidden relief. Even his ears raised, pleased.
"You shouldn't have saved me back there. Because of that, you deviated from your mission and were almost captured. Glad you're in one piece." Her features remained pallid and hard as metal.
Was she irate that he saved her? Ridiculous. He would not be blamed for an outcome no one could have predicted. A breeze ripped off the water and blew through his empty yukata sleeve
"Oh, mostly in one piece." Romanoff amended her statement, startled and a recognizable stench filled his nostrils. Guilt.
He would employ the same tactic he used on Loki during the Uru stone quest when he felt similarly guilty.
"This Sesshomaru did not save you, he destroyed a projectile that was in his path. If you were spared as a result, it was mere coincidence. This Sesshomaru does as he pleases." Sesshomaru blinked, aloof.
"Smooth, Pretty Boy, fine I'll let you win this round." Romanoff smiled dimly. "We lost two-thirds of our forces here, not to mention the losses in DC. Loki, Jaken, and Rhodes are confirmed KIA, and Thor is MIA with the scepter. We think he succumbed to its mind control as multiple cameras spotted him flying over New York with it. We aren't entirely sure what the losses are in Stark Tower, but Clint hasn't responded to any mayday. Overall, this wasn't a win. We know Loki told us there would be losses, but...this is sobering for the first wave." She informed him, voice thick, biting her lip. He could smell the stress and tension wafting off her even over the salt. The youki in Stark Tower's arc reactor only told him if it or its inhabitants were in danger. Since the enemy had left, he had no idea who remained alive.
He had a firm belief that Rin lived, something deep in his youki reassured him.
"I'm returning to Stark's fortress, if you wish to accompany me to see to Barton, you may." Sesshomaru materialized his pelt, and Romanoff debated for a brief minute before pressing her hand to her earpiece.
"Agent Hill, I leave the rest to you, I am reporting back to Point Tango. Banner is currently stable, but unconscious on the deck of the CVN 75. He may need medical." Romanoff reported crisply into her mic and stood next to him.
He wrapped the white pelt around her as his blue youki sparked back to life.
"What was that streak of blue light leaving the ocean with the trajectory of DC? Did it have something to do with your missing blue sword, Tenseiga?" Romanoff asked, motioning to Tenseiga's empty sheath as their forms melded into dazzling light.
He wished Romanoff had other targets for her impeccable powers of observation. It strangely reminded him of the movie night, when she had eyed him sitting next to Stark for the first time.
Pause.
"In the educational film, the Empire Strikes back, do you remember what turned the tide of battle for Luke during the execution scene in the desert with the carnivorous Plant Demon?" Sesshomaru asked through the light.
"I'll humor you only because you're driving. Luke signaled for R2-D2 to launch his lightsaber off Jabba's sail barge to him." Romanoff sounded almost offended, but mostly irritated and distracted.
"You just answered your own inquiry, Romanoff." Sesshomaru calmly informed and he heard her scoff beside him, despite the seriousness of the situation. Due to the rushing of wind, he couldn't make out what he heard, but it was probably nothing complimentary.
hello!
I am back!
Thank you all who have stuck with me so far, and I hope you please please continue to drop me a review and let me know what you think about this chapter. I worked hard to research the Norfolk Naval base as much as I could!
Yes, Kagura is back, and we shall see what happens from here!