AN: First off I just want to thank everyone for all the comments left so far every single one has been read which helped me create this chapter and I appreciate all the support =)
This chapter is longer than the others which is why it took longer to post up, but after much reading I am finally satisfied. We are near the ending of this story, but there is one more chapter left that I will start working on as soon as I can because I can't wait to post up my winter fic. But this story comes first so I hope you all enjoy it and please R&R!
Disclaimer: I own none of the Inuyasha characters.
"Sue stop," Rin shouted with her hand reaching out to try and sustain the mad woman, but she felt it was too later when Inuyasha pulled her back.
Sue had managed to get close enough to Sesshomaru to try and attack with her bare hands alone. The anger and pain that spread throughout her heart had caused her mind to haze to the point where she hardly knew what she was doing, and is she had paid more attention she would have realized who the demon before her really was.
Everything happened in a quick blur. One moment Sue thought she had a decent grip on the killer of her army, and the next moment the woman found herself landing painfully on the ground with her mind hardly comprehending how she was even flung into the air in the first place. The pain that stung her back and wobbled her legs was hardly considered worth stopping, she thought, and after a few seconds she was back on her feet.
She began to charge yet again with the same anger and hatred pouring out along with the tears in her eyes, but this time she found that she couldn't even land a decent punch. Every punch or kick her target dodged as though her speed and power was that of a snail's, and he seemed to disappear and reappear with every other dodge.
Almost as if he was toying with her.
Sue yelled out of frustration before she felt her body being flung again into the air only to land with an impact hard enough to severally injure any normal human.
The wind was below freezing thanks to the moonless night mixed autumn weather, but the blood boiling in Sue's body caused her to barely notice and soon she was back on her feet along with a few new cuts and bruises. What she did begin to notice though was the massive amount of weapons spread out on the battle field; each sword or spear caked with blood ready for her choosing.
Each weapon looked inviting, but the one laying by her uncle's dead body is what attracted her the most. It wasn't till she grabbed hold of her uncle's spear that she began to notice who exactly was responsible for it all. For once she got a good look as Sesshomaru, and this time her mind was able to focus on every detail he had to offer.
Hair and skin as white as the moon itself, and the burning pools of ember flames igniting deep within his eyes was all it took for Sue to completely forget, for even a split second, what was going on.
She wanted to laugh, and in fact she did hear herself chuckle just a bit causing for an elegant lord-like brow to arch in wonder. "It's funny," Sue started off as she took another look at her dead army. "Earlier today I would have given anything to find you…" the grip on her uncle's spear tightened. "If I had known this was to be the consequence…I would have never even begged my uncle to begin the search."
Sue brought her head down, and Sesshomaru did nothing more than simply stare at her as though he was curious as to what she had to say next. Or perhaps he felt that being the one having to do all the attacking was a waste of his most precious time.
"I imagined this day for a long time," she continued. "However, if things had gone differently I would have been here with my army and we-"
"You would have suffered the same fate as they," he added, not really knowing why he bothered to open his mouth in the first place. His words brought Sue's face up with her eyes wide in shock from what he said as well as hearing the sound of his deep voice. For a demon she never expected for his voice to sound so smooth.
"S-SHUT UP!" she shouted, completely ignoring the tightening of his glare. "Why the hell should I listen to you, especially since you're the one responsible for all this you…you MONSTER!"
With the last word to her sentence spoken Sue began to charge with her uncle's staff in hand, and the urge to kill written all over her face. The closer she got the more she noticed the demon made no move to stop her, and when she felt she was a good distance from him she brought her weapon up and ready to strike.
One flick of a magenta striped wrist and Sesshomaru sent Sue flying a couple of yards back with his intentions fully set on attacking her more head on if she were to try the same poor tactic again.
Sue landed face first into the blood coated dirt, with the addition a few new bruised and cuts added to her face. If she went on any longer her face was bound to look like a blue berry, and she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. Her once neatly braided black hair was now a tangled mess with the hair tie long forgotten to leaver her black locks falling all over the place in a tumbled mess.
Her lungs were sore to the point where she felt her breathing was on overdrive, and not only did her legs burn like heated iron but she was more than positive the impact of the falls had caused her left arm to break.
"Stop already Sue!" Rin protested as she ran in front of Sesshomaru with her hopes riding on Sue's heart as well as her common sense telling her to do what's right. Sue turned her head to see the same foolish girl from before standing between her and the demon, and the glare she sent Rin was even dirtier than it was when they first met.
Even Sesshomaru was a bit surprised that Rin had yet to leave. She must have known that he needed no assistance, and after her witnessing the blood of humans covering his hands he was expecting her to run off with the fear of seeing him again. Instead she stood by his side.
"You…" Sue felt her already harsh breathing increase at the sight of Rin shielding the demon from her view. What a foolish foolish girl she was, Sue thought. "Why…," Sue whispered catching Rin's full attention. "Why are you…Why are you defending him?"
Rin blinked at the woman's response, "Huh?" Of all the words to be spoken Rin was expecting to hear a bunch of other rude nonsense shouted at her, but instead she is given a simple question. A question with the most obvious answer, but for some reason Rin found the words stuck in her throat.
"Can you not see what he has done here?" Sue stated as her hands spoke for themselves when they presented Rin with all the lifeless bodies laying over the red stained grass and dirt, and the very blood of those soldiers covering Sesshomaru's hands and armor.
"Y-you don't even know what happened," Rin replied quietly.
"And I suppose you do," Sue spat back. Rin brought her head down because as far as she knew she didn't know what really happened either. Perhaps her lord really did kill all these men, but by no surprise to her she decided to stay be his side. If he was indeed the killer then just like the fact that he was a demon she knew it was something she would have to accept, but now she only hoped he had his reasons.
"Stand back Rin," Sesshomaru calmly ordered at which, despite her want to go against him, Rin did as she was told and hid well behind his arm. She cringed at the sight of his sleeve decorated with the spatter of blood, but never the less she still felt safe and protected where she was.
"So… it seems you both know each other," Sue observed realizing the obvious fact when the demon said the girl's name as though he had whispered that simple little name dozens of times before, and the sound of his voice was still hard for her to get used to.
It was deep and commanding, but held a certain soft touch that let out a comforting tone if he ever needed to use such a tone in his life. The way the demon's tone of voice changed for Rin reminded Sue of how her uncle's voice would change from when he was commanding his army to when he was giving her some advice during the long star filled nights. The very same uncle who was no longer of this world, just like the rest of her family.
"Why," she wondered rather than asked, but it attracted brown and golden eyes none the less. "Why do you stay with a demon?" Sue asked both Sesshomaru and Rin knowing who the question was referred to. "You've just been given a glance at the hurt he can cause…the blood he can shed…and yet….you still wish to stay by him…WHY!"
Rin huddled back a bit by the sound of Sue's voice practically screaming at her, but for some odd reason found comfort in the way Sesshomaru didn't budge a single inch with his stoic face hardly phased by Sue's loud words.
"Why, why stay with them! Don't you know they are just going to betray you in the end? What's wrong with you! STOP IT! Stop defending them like…she did. Stop protecting them as she did. JUST STOP….stop loving them as…she did…"
The last few words of her sentence came out in a whisper, but Rin still heard. She was also clearly able to see the tears pouring out of Sue's eyes like small diamonds leaking from the corners of her eyes sockets.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Rin responded with her eyes never leaving the other females. "You're not making any sense."
"My mother," Sue chocked. "She left my father for a demon when I was very little. She claimed to have loved a demon, and had the gall to convince my father that the demon's clan should join our army."
"Your mother was in love with a demon," Rin repeated, completely taken back by Sue's story.
Sue ignored her and continued, "She said it would be for the better, and that things would only become more peaceful once the demon's clan joined our army of soldiers. She said it would bring peace to both demons and humans, but of course my father was furious over her decision while I was too little at the time to understand."
The whole story was told with the speaker's eyes held down, until the very last word was spoken when she lifted her black eyes upward to face innocent sweet brown ones.
"Do you want to know what happened then?" she asked. The look on Sesshomaru's face stated that he could care less while Rin almost found the urge to nod; completely intrigued by the story.
Sue let out a very maddening chuckle, "They all died…."
An elegant brow arched above silver bangs, and a small gasp was heard behind silver moonlight hair.
"The demon my mother claimed to have loved ended up having his clan slaughter every single person in our village as well as a few of our soldiers. One of those brave soldiers happened to be my father…."
Sue felt her breath hitch at the sound of the word "father", but held back any tears.
"Those demons began to set the village I lived in a flame, and one of them even managed to get a good wound off of me," she explained while touching the scar sliding over her mouth.
"My mother was found dead soon after by the demon she so claimed to love I presume, and I was put into wooden chest by my father and set afloat down the river. When I was released my uncle was the one who found me as well as a few of the remaining soldiers, and my village had burned to the ground along with all those murderous demons."
Somewhere along the story Rin had uncovered herself from behind Sesshomaru and, without him stopping her, she walked up to the trembling woman till she stood a few inches from Sue without the woman even realizing till the very last minute. Pitch black eyes locked onto dark chocolate ones, and for a few second the two girls simply stared at one another like that.
Rin was the first to speak, "I can't say I know how you feel because I've never felt the pain of betrayal." Sue's eyes completely dried at her words, and Rin tried her best to ignore the large amount of bruises growing on the woman's cheeks and eyes.
"But I do know what it feels like to lose people you love, and there is nothing wrong with holding onto memories." Rin took one more step closer to Sue, "But if you don't let go of the past then you'll never be able to move on and be happy again." Sue blinked and Rin did her best to smile.
To let go of the past; Sue distinctly remembered her uncle saying something very similar to that. Her uncle….Sue looked to his dead corpse, and all of a sudden it seemed as though everything Rin had just said simply washed away along with any thought of calming down.
"Don't talk down to me," she growled at which Rin backed away some. "I-I'm not I was just trying to-"
"You were just trying to distract me so that beast over there can attack," Sue cutoff as she pointed to Sesshomaru. Rin felt her eyes darken at the "beast" comment, but held her tongue in. "Look at what that demon did! He killed every one of these soldiers without a second thoug-"
"These weak mortals were already considered dead when I arrived," Sesshomaru suddenly stated with a huff added to his voice. "Huh?" gasped both Rin and Sue as they looked to Sesshomaru to have him finish his explanation. "I merely finished the job, simple as that."
"What do you mean simple as that," Sue replied with her fist waving in the air, "what you're saying is making no sense did you kill them or not?"
"Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin whispered.
"Oh he killed them alright," Inuyasha stated as he approached from the side, "And by the way thanks for forgetting about me."
"Inuyasha?" stated Rin as she could not deny the fact that she did indeed forgot about him. "So I was right." Sue brought her spear to aim at Sesshomaru's armor covered chest, "He did kill them!"
Inuyasha brought his hand to grasp Sue's weapon and tugged it out of her grasp. "If I were you I would start inspecting these bodies more thoroughly. Tell me what you notice about this body," he asked as he grabbed the corpse of Sue's uncle roughly by the collar of his torn up clothing.
"You will put him down this instant," she growled. "I hate to break it to ya, but he's already dead," Inuyasha stated as he shook the dead body to prove his point. Sue's groan of frustration did nothing to faze Inuyasha, but the sound of Rin's gasp certainly did.
"Feathers," she stated as she had her eyes fixed over the corpse's bloody chest, "Black feathers."
"What about them?" Sue asked as she did take into consideration the amount of feathers scattered all over the battlefield. "They're called buzzards, and in case you didn't know they like to feed on the dead."
"Why don't you take a closer look at that wound?" asked the half demon as Sue's confused glare look straight at her uncle's blood covered armor. "Or do I have to show you myself?" he then added.
Sue huffed in response and slowly brought her hand to her uncle's armor, and gently peeled away at the broken metal pieces. With the last piece removed Sue watched in horror as something black fell through the armor along with a considerable amount of blood. The motionless object now layed drenched in a puddle of dark blood.
"W-What is that thing?" Sue asked as her eyes grew the more she stared at it. She thought it first to be his heart, but found it was much too big and only took it to be some other organ lying within the chest area.
"A crow…." Rin spoke softly, finally understanding the situation all thanks to Sango's teachings. "A….c-c-crow," Sue repeated as her eyed began to shake to know such a vial thing had been inside her uncle. "W-What the hell was it doing there?"
"This isn't just any crow," Rin explained, "This is a demon crow, and they are much bigger and dangerous than regular crows." With a shaky hand Rin grabbed the disgusting creature by the large talons on his feet and used both her hands to hoist him up for Sue to see for herself.
"They crave blood in order to survive, and the blood they love to feed on the most is humans. During this season is when they like to travel in groups the most because they know how vulnerable humans get in this weather."
"That still doesn't answer my question," Sue said as she grabbed the creature by the feet and winced when she almost felt it move.
Rin gulped as well, "S-Since they are not strong on their own they have the ability to take hosts, preferably humans since they are much weaker than demons. They strike through the skin and bones with their strong beaks, and bury themselves deep within the human's body to take control…as well as killing them in the process. Or so I've been told."
Rin found she was more than grateful for Sango and Kohaku's teachings when it came to important information needed to be given out on demons. For some reasons she was able to grasp more of the lessons than the training, but it was times like this that she found she could hardly complain.
Those words hit Sue like the first lightning to strike a stormy night, and after she turned her head from left to right she did begin to see more feathers scattered over the bodies of the army. Her head began to feel dizzy. So much happening in one night, and she felt as though there was so much more to take in.
"Crows…Are you saying my army died by mere demon crows? We have battled and killed demons even stronger than that so how can some demon as weak as a crow have killed my army!"
"Weren't you listening," Inuyasha objected, "The girl said that they travel in groups. I've had to take care of these things before, and let me tell ya they aren't exactly slow nor are they easy to kill." Inuyasha felt his pride decrease at the words, but he spoke the truth when he remembered ever moment spent having to use the windscar just to kill a bunch of flying bastards. It was maddening at the amount they traveled in, but with the village at stake he inhaled his pride and used his precious sword to discard them.
Sue exhaled the breath she didn't even know she was holding, and looked to Sesshomaru as did Rin with her eyes shining brighter than they had since nightfall had arrived. "T-Then he….."
"They were probably already controlled by the time he arrived, hmm well he did finish the job as he said," Inuyasha stated as he dropped the corpse near Sue.
"Yes, he did…" Rin agreed.
But he had his reasons.
And for that she was starting to see less blood on his cloths and more of those golden eyes she loved so much. He may have killed them all, but to know that his intentions weren't necessarily set on that from the beginning Rin felt her heart flutter at knowing she had made the right decision to stay by him.
Lord Sesshomaru…I
"I DON'T CARE!" Rin heard, interrupting her thoughts, as she looked to the source of the voice. Sue grabbed her spear again and held it ready for battle. "His fault or not I will not allow a monster like him to keep roaming this world. And once I finish him off you're next half demon, and as are you you foolish g-"
Suddenly the bones on Sue's cheek cracked to the point to where she cried out in pain, and when her eyes opened a tiny bit expecting to see some clawed hand making contact with her cheek she instead saw a simple delicate smaller hand crushing the bones of the knuckles to her face.
Sue fell to the ground with a loud 'thud' near her uncle, and when she went to touch her cheek she automatically winced in pain while her tongue could taste the tang of copper invading her mouth.
Rin stood hovering over her with her lungs out of breath and her eyes burning with rage. She didn't understand why the "monster" comment made her so angry to the point to where she would harm someone. To call her lord a demon, she accepted because it was true. To call her lord a killer, she couldn't deny because she knew that was part of who he was and may always be. However, to call her lord a monster set her heart on fire when a monster wouldn't dare do half the things he's done to make, if only her, happy.
"STOP CALLING HIM A MONSTER!"
With a hand still cradling her bruised cheek Sue gazed at Rin in utter shock, the look on her eyes when realizing a crow was nestled inside her uncle was nothing compared to the surprise in her eyes now. Her spear lay on the ground, but she made no move to pick it nor did she even try to stand. The fall allowed her to lie right next to her uncle, and for the first time Sue felt the pain of the loss hit her harder than it did since she first say his lifeless body stare back at her.
The first teardrop fell on the ground, and the next landed more on the body of the corpse. The third landed on the broken armor, and finally fresh streams of tears fell from Sue's face as she layed her head on her uncle's bloody chest with her mind finally set on giving in.
"I think she's done," said Inuyasha as she couldn't help but pity the pathetic girl. "I think you're right," Rin nodded as she rubbed her now bruised fingers before she heard footsteps head her way. She turned her head to see Sesshomaru already a good foot away from her, and after a good second of silence she smiled with a soft "Lord Sesshomaru".
For a moment he said nothing, but after his eyes settled on her hand he quickly responded. "…Hmm," he grunted before he took Rin's hand in his own and inspected the purplish blue marks himself. Rin knew the color of the blood on his hands was beginning to match the color on her cheeks, but neither once did she flinch or pull away.
With sharp fangs making contact with pure white cloth Sesshomaru ripped the material from his long sleeve despite Rin's gasp of protest. "M-my lord your clothing-"
"It's replaceable," he added on before she could utter another word. With the long strip ripped he slowly began to work on tying the silk tightly between and around Rin's fingers to keep them from moving or else the bruises could get worse. He had not tied such a wound since he made his own first punch years and years ago, but he could still recall the technique of wrap he used.
Once he found that his job was complete Rin looked at her hand now wrapped in the same silk her lord wore, and when she looked at him her sweet smile and quiet, "thank you" was all that needed to be seen for his stone cold gaze to soften to melted heated gold.
(Pulse…)
"Hrm," the noise in the back of his throat caught Rin's attention as she looked to find Sesshomaru staring down at the tenseiga. "My lord is something wrong?"
(Pulse…)
Tenseiga is stirring, what is it? His soft gaze went stoic again, and his eyes settled on all the bodies around him as he felt yet another-
(Pulse…)
These dead men…are you trying to tell me to save them? "Ridiculous," he growled as Rin questioned him with another, "What is it?"
Why tenseiga? What reason would you have to have me…..Ember orbs fell on the corpse of the dead general that the assassin girl still clung too. Out of every dead body he saw he could only see the embraceries of afterlife taking hold of that certain body. The image of the small imps of the underworld poking at the dead body presented only to the demon prince's ember eyes as he felt another-
(Pulse…)
Him, does tenseiga want me to save that human?
"Why?" Sesshomaru then growled as he began to walk to the dead body while he drew out the tenseiga. "Lord Sesshomaru," Rin said as she watched him approach Sue with the tenseiga in hand. Even Inuyasha was beginning to catch on with the thought of, "He's not gonna…."
When Sue heard footsteps approach her she turned her head to reveal red tear stained eyes and red and blue cheeks. A more pathetic sight is Sesshomaru ever saw one. "Move," he growled, and at which Sue clutched onto her uncle when she saw the sight of the sword. "He's already dead what more do you-"
"Would ya shut your trap and watch," Inuyasha huffed as he peeled the woman away from the corpse and set her near him with his hand on her collar.
With Sue near Inuyasha and Rin not far behind Sesshomaru the dog lord's gaze narrowed to show he was not happy about this, but had come to trust his swords judgment regardless. He lifted his sword up and over the human's body, and with an elegant stroke he guided tenseiga's blade to slice through the creatures of the afterlife sending off a warm purified light from the general's body as well as the sword's blade.
The light shined on Rin and she smiled at its warmth, recalling a time in her life that she felt this strange feeling before. Even Sue herself felt the blue tinted light shine on her, but made no move to stop its shine from hitting her face as she could do nothing but embrace the warm feeling spreading throughout her body like a warm cotton blanket.
"What kind of demon has this sort of power?" she thought.
When the light dissipated Sesshomaru re-sheathed his sword with a classy swing to the blade while his mind held no doubt that what he did wasn't successful. With his eyes closing to end the case he turned on the now breathing body to meet Rin behind him.
"Return to the village," he ordered her calmly. Rin was a bit confused that he would ask that all of a sudden, but nodded either way. "Huh, um…yes, but what about you my lord?"
"You are to wait there until my return," he stated as which Rin smiled knowing he was going to return to her, and soon she hoped. After a moment long exchange between glances Sesshomaru finally broke eye contact to move onward past Rin, and find his way to the nearest source of water.
Rin turned her head to see him disappear into the forest, and then she turned her head back to see Sue crawling to her uncle.
At first the woman herself looked dead by just the way her eyes held no color, but when she choked out "uncle?" the color lifted in her eyes when she saw her uncle's black eyes open to meet hers. Another waves of tears spilled when Sue realized what just happened, and when the general whispered her name Sue allowed her head to lie on his now healed chest.
Rin couldn't help but smile at the scene, and even though Sue put her through a lot these past few days Rin would rather the woman not suffer the feeling of loneliness as she herself once did. Rin was also quit proud that she was able to land a good punch out of her, and the thought brought Rin to smile at the silk bandage her lord wrapped.
"Will you find your way back alright?" Inuyasha asked as he approached Rin. Rin was about to reply when a sudden-
"Inuyasha!"
"Rin!"
Both looked up to see Kagome and Kohaku riding Kirara as they waved down to meet them. "Yes, I should be just fine," Rin replied.
Inuyasha nodded with an added, "Tell Kagome I won't be far and I'll be back later."
Rin nodded herself as she saw Inuyasha take off after Sesshomaru until she turned her head back around to wave back at her friends.
~~~o0o~~~
The sounds of a crashing waterfall irritated the half demon's sensitive ears, but Inuyasha could only image what it must be like for Sesshomaru who at the moment had his head under the falls with the mineral water cleaning his hair and hands.
"So you ended up saving another human life today," Inuyasha mentioned as he sat criss-cross on a large boulder not far from his brother.
"Your point is," Sesshomaru replied as he turned his head with water spilling down his face and back. He swore that half breed was only here to annoy him. He would have brought Rin along if he knew Inuyasha would be here pestering him right about now.
"Well you couldn't save the others or what?" he then asked as his chin rested in his palm with his eyes ending off a bored look.
"I'm not so merciful," he simply replied until he ducked his head right back into the falls with the sounds of the crashing water tuning out his brother.
"Whatever," Inuyasha replied as he closed his eyes at his brother's distant attitude, but what was new. "I don't know. If you ask me I think you actually decided to be nice for once," he stated as he watched Sesshomaru lift his face from the falls while whipping his hands clean with his sleeve and allowed nature's wind to take its course on his wet dripping, yet now clean hair.
His only response was the usual death glare that Inuyasha found hardly phased him anymore, and kept up with the fun loving teasing.
"To think that the cold hearted Sesshomaru could actually have a kind enough heart to heal-"
The sound of a boulder landing on thick ground filled the mountains and sent the birds flying away from the distant trees.
There beside the waterfall Inuyasha's foot twitched while the rest of him layed flat beneath a massive boulder with the word "bastard" mumbled underneath as Sesshomaru walked away from his pathetic excuse of a brother with his hair dancing along his back
"Don't mock me."
AN: Awww brotherly moment…sorta lol This was a much longer chapter than I anticipated, and I wanted to add more fluff moments between sess/rin but I thought it would be better to add that to the next and final chapter of the story. And just in case any of you are wondering I do have a reason for bringing the general back to life, but as for now you'll just have to keep reading to find out why.
As for now it's super late so I'm going to get some shut eye and work on the next chapter tomorrow. Thanks a lot for reading! And leave a comment if you like I would appreciate any! Till next time.