"He is one of my incarnations." I didn't bother to look at Naraku, knowing very well that he was assessing my reaction to this. To see if I was afraid . . .. Unease oozed throughout my body. This was right. Usually Naraku would be sending people to kill me or capture me. So far he had only had his minion advance on me with some minor attacks . . .. Unless . . .

My head snapped up and I continued to back away, my eyes searching the trees surrounding us. It was a trap, it must have been. There was no other reason that Naraku would stand here still and not act at all.

I sniffed the air, hoping to detect something strange, something different in the air. One. Two. No those were Naraku and his demon. I sniffed again, desperate to catch different in the air. Wait . . . And then I caught it. Inuyasha's scent, then Kagome's and Miroku's and Sango's. They were all on their way. Hope flares in me and I couldn't hide the smirk that started to form on my face.

Without another thought and ran ahead, targeting Naraku. He let out an amused laugh as I flew off a couple punches and kicks at him. He dodged each attack, even within the confides of his ridiculous disguise.

I concentrated straight at Naraku, ignoring everything else around. There was no sky. They were no ground. There was no forest surrounding us. There was no demon waiting to kill me . . .. There was no fear. All there was was Naraku, and me. My eyes scrutinized his every detail. Of course this thing wasn't Nark himself, it was his usual puppets. But that didn't seem to matter much. I refused to let him keep messing with me. I would not falter because of his minions.

Red covered my vision and the familiar heat was coursing carefully throughout my body. It burned bright and bubbled within me, as if someone had lighted me with an energy boost. Focus. Focus. Focus.

My mouth curved, a new elation filling me up like air in a balloon. It was intoxicating, much more heightening than adrenaline or anything I had ever felt before in my life. A long laugh escaped my mouth, soaked with excitement and. . . . something unnerving . . .

Naraku froze still, standing not just ten feet away from me, watching. Target ahead. Attack the man ahead. Attack the demon ahead!

Flashes of red burst from my hands, piercing the darkness in its wake. The red sored up and high as the heat burned my hands. I waited for the pain to come, for the flames to take me as they did before . . . Nothing.

I nearly lost focus in the frenzy I was in. . . .But no. It didn't matter. The red surrounded my form, rising high in the air. I could feel it all. Oh it was delicious. The power. The firmness of it. I relished it and I started to let out a long laugh that didn't belong to me. I knew what to do.

"Onwards and destroy," I hissed, my eyes widening at Nark as I imagined him squashed like the vile bug he was. The wave of energy gushed forward, pivoting where Naraku stood still. He dodged it, but that wasn't the end of it. I cackled. Wait, I thought to myself, noticing that that didn't sound like me at all. My hands started to move on their own accord lifting and flexing my fingers with unnatural grace.

The red balls of light diverted and swerved to the right and followed Naraku with great speed. Wait, how am I doing this, I thought to myself trying to stop the assault? My hands and body didn't move though. I tried again. I attempted to lift my foot, shake my head, and open my mouth. Nothing.

I ultimately lost it and I tried anything to strike movement. Pinch myself, kick the dirt, do anything . . . My body remained still though. What is this? No, dammit, what the hell is going on, I tried to scream, but my lips remained sealed.

"Give up Kaname. . ." called a voice in my head. "Your body is mine. . . it belongs to me. . . " My mind went blank and crazy at the same moment. The sky was falling. The earth was tumbling. This had to stop. . . .

"KANAME!"

"KANAME!"

"Damn you Kouga! What the hell are you running for!"?

My scent prickled, and I could smell inuyasha and the others approaching with great speed. Hope flared in me like fireworks, horror coupled along as I realized that I might attack them unwillingly. I heard another nasty laugh in my head and my body turned around, the red energy swerving into the forest.

"NO!" I screamed my fingers threading in my hair tightly. I gripped my head hard and shut my eyes, struggling to fight off control. I screamed and screamed. It was agony that I never felt before. Something began to flow away from me, I didn't know what.

"Stop fighting me Kaname! You have no right to keep this power—"

"GET OUT OF ME YOU PARASITE!" I screeched, my knees giving out. So this was what Naraku was leading to. He had set up a trap for that woman in my dreams to take over. I bent my head into the earth, inhaling the sweet scent that escaped it: life. I wasn't dead. I wasn't weak. I would fight this. I would fight this.

From the distance, as if light years away, I could hear Naraku giving the demon orders to venture off, probably to Inuyasha and the others.

"Kaname. . . " I froze where I lay. I sniffed. This stench, its . . . I opened my tear streaked eyes and tipped up my head. The masked man from the mansion where they're, crouched down before me. His eyes bore into mine with so much intensity that I shivered. Breathing hard and ragged breaths, I went into a sudden hysteria, mumbling nonsense through my terror.

"Wha- this voice. I don't know. She's in my head and I can't stop." My eyes scrutinized the forest, falling particularly on the scorch marks that were impeded in the ground around me. They looked like someone had burned the grass and soil, the stink indicating so.

The masked man just continued to stare, watching me carefully as I rambled. He seemed to assessing wither or not I was crazy. Maybe you are, I thought to myself. Bam, it hit me. The voice wasn't droning anymore. I searched and search my mind, looking for the presence I had detected before, the one that stank with malice.

"The voice its . . . its—'

"Yes," the masked man said in a low voice. "It's gone. Don't worry you haven't gone mad." If not for my hysteria I would have given him a dirty look, but I just stared taking in every word like gospel. "That demon Naraku sent a diversion to your friends." He paused, lowering his head so that we were literally face-to-face. "I found you. You were screaming and yelling like a maniac. Didn't I tell you to work on control."?

I snorted, remembering his vague statement back at the mansion that had unnerved me so much. I pushed against his shoulder, disliking the way he had no sort of boundaries.

"Why would have learned from anything you said. All you said was that I was like you and that you were—"

"Descended from a demon," he ended. Now I gave him a dirty look, resisting the urge to smack him a new one.

"Yes well—wait!" I gasped, my gaze snapping into the trees. "Inuyasha and the others!" I quickly mustered the strength I had to get to my feet, which wasn't much.

My body tilted slightly and the masked man approached me, his hands out to catch me. Luckily enough I righted myself, waving off the concern that burned in his gaze. I had had enough of being the victim.

"You can leave now," I addressed him politely. He didn't need to be involved in our fight, even a stuck up mercenary like him. "You don't need to get muddled up in our fight. Thank you for helping me." I bowed brisk fully, before turning and disappearing into the trees.