Entry tags:

chaptered fic: between the devil and ..., fanfic, fanfic: inuyasha, genre: action/adventure, genre: slash, pairing: sesshomaru/omc, rating: r

[InuYasha] The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Pt.8 [R] slash
.
.between the devil and the deep blue sea.
InuYasha. overall rated r. chapter rated pg-13. yaoi/shonen-ai. adventure/action. violence. Sesshomaru/OMC. WIP. chapter ~3100 words. | Summary: A sinister presence troubles the land, and Sesshomaru is trying to find out what or who it is. Friends and foes, old and new, cross his and his companion's (OMC) way, including InuYasha + friends and Naraku.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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*** = scene change
-I- = POV change

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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,
Part Eight: In the Mists of Destruction
by Chocolate H.-D.

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The last one to fall had been the already dead youkai and leader of this strange group. Reanimated by the sword, and killed again moments later before said youkai even knew what was happening.

But as fierce as they had fought, in the end, they had no chance. Anakin knew. Now they were surrounded by the dead, essence of life long gone and never to return.

Those youkai and their human allies had no idea what they had gotten themselves into, or maybe they did and just didn’t care. Between InuYasha and Sesshomaru, their chance of survival had been so low, had been barely even there. Let alone their human foes. Once they had no backup from their demonic counterparts, a hole in their carefully designed plan, they were no match for him or InuYasha’s friends either.

It was like a house of cards. Take out one card, and the whole conception will crumble.

And crumble, it did.

Anakin wondered not for the first time why they hadn’t simply tried to escape. To get away. Not that they would have gotten away, or not very likely, but it would have been the sensible thing to do. To safe ones life.

Only then he remembered the hatred rushing towards him, them, when he first stepped onto the battlefield and into the battle itself. Takin sides. It had almost crushed him. That unbelievably feeling of spite, had nearly brought him to his knees, choked him right then and there like hands, iron chains around his neck.

He had fought against the feeling, with every fiber of his being, and he had won.

Barely.

Now, that their enemy was gone, blown out like a candle in the wind, InuYasha and Sesshomaru were bickering again. Or, no. That wasn’t quite right. InuYasha was bickering, not realizing that really noone was listeing to him at all. His agitated voice still registered, yes, but his words did not. There was something else calling to him. Someone else, maybe. Or it might have been the blood, ever so slowly painting the green grass beneath his feet crimson.

Like a sick deja vu.

Only it was not. Crimson, that’s what. Or if it had been, it was no longer the case. The blood stains – or what should have been blood stains – were a gray, blubbering mess, boiling and blubbering like… magma. Cooking water. From it emitted a soft mist, just as gray as the stains, wabering in the air between the dead bodies like smoke in a closed room. He hadn’t noticed before, had been to absorbed in the fight, but now that the last foe was slayed, there was no reason not to. And no way one could overlook this.

Unless your name is InuYasha. Who could have probably fail to notice an army of zombies to his right if his brother was standing to his left.

Sighing, he let his eyes drop to eye the gray mist once again, bordering on black by now. What the hell was going on here? How could--how could blood have such an effect on something? Or… something on the blood, for that matter. Who knew. This is not good, his mind decided, and Anakin wanted to laugh. Oh hell! There was so much to say to this, but his eloquent conscious came up with this?!

Great!

It was then that he felt it. An icy chill, crawling up from where the mist curled around his ankles, right up his legs, his chest and right to his neck and from there, into every single bone in his body. Making him shudder. InuYasha was still talking. The chill intensified, and fear managed to sneak in. What was going on? Did the cold come from the mist? smoke? Was it poisoned? Alive? It was almost like--like back at the--

“Uh, guys?”

Anakin jerked.

Kagome sounded just as confused – and disturbed – as he was feeling, watching the bizarre show around them. It was kinda scary, born out of a nightmare. More and more of the creepy black smoke made it’s way around the clearing, flickering like a fire during a storm. Lightning during a thunderstorm at night, maybe.

Only it wasn’t night nor was there a thunderstorm. Or fires.

InuYasha, on the other hand, was acting way more annoyed with his female companion than he seemed confused about his surroundings. “What now?”

“Could you, um, put off your… argument until later? Please?”

“Why?”

“Ask your nose and your eyes, fool.”, Sesshomaru growled.

“Don’t call me that you bastard!”

“InuYasha!” That was Kagome again and she sounded frantic by now. “Just stop arguing for a minute and take a look around!!! Oh and don’t think I won’t use the S-I-T word, boy!”

Huh. That again. Whatever it meant, it worked just like last time, and InuYasha’s golden eyes snapped to attention. He shook his foot at the mist, trying to… uhm, yeah. Anakin wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but since nothing happened, it wasn’t important? Perhaps? Probably.

Next, he was stabbing the smoke with his sword, the flickering light traveled up the blade, latched onto the hand, causing the hanyou to swear quite loudly. “Oh fuck! What is this?!”

“The black mist we encountered in the village the night of the new moon.”, Sango reminded him, voice tense. “It feels the same. Only it wasn’t doing the…the flickering thing then. It was only crawling around.”

Now that he thought about it, that… was a good explanation if he ever heard one. Huh. It did feel similar to what he felt in that village. But how the hell was it possible that it emerged from the blood and-- eh, nevermind. That thing was a mystery in itself, so why was he even surprised? Why would any of this make sense? Yeah, why indeed.

Miroku stood closer to the slayer. “Don’t worry, Sango, I am going to protect y- OW!” Anakin bite back a laugh. The monk didn’t learn, did he? Ah well, it was his own fault.

“Keep your hands to yourself, you perv!”, she snapped, scooping Shippo up into her arms.

“This is so strange.”, the small kitsune muttered. Oy. Anakin had forgotten about him. Poor kid. “Scary.”

“Feh! You are always scared, you little wimp.”

“InuYasha!”

“What?! He always hides anyway!”

“I do not!”

“Do!”

“Do not!”

Anakin tuned them out. Damn. Were they always arguing like this? If so, how hadn’t they gotten themselves killed a long time ago?

Another mystery. One that doesn’t require a solution, not if one asked him. A glance toward the youkai lord told him he was probably thinking along those lines. Or he was just staring. Only none of it showed on his face – what ever it was, - where he was sure his own irritation mixed up with wonder showed pretty clearly. Then again, it would probably have been funny watching them if it wasn’t for that black mist that got thicker and thicker by the minute.

Walking away from Kagome and the others, he made his way quietly over to the silent Sesshomaru. “They remind me of Rin and Jaken, you know,” he stated quietly amused, not expecting an answer, “but then again, Rin is still a kid. She has every right to be this childish.”

But… “Indeed.” And just for a second, the constantly cold, blank eyes twinkled with a hint of amusement. It took his breath away. Only for a second. Damn! Swallowing, and turning back to look at the dead bodies to his feet, he was about to reclaim his daggers.

A clawed hand, gripping his arm a little too hard, stopped him short. “Do not move.”, the youkai ordered when their eyes met.

“Okay…”

And as he spoke the word, the air around them suddenly started to bristle with energy, everything going cold. Sparks surfaced from the mist - out of nowhere, really – and maybe that was the flickering was all about. The electric sparks reached out to the dead youkai, humans and everyone around still alive.

His skin felt like it was being pierced by thousands of needles; sharp and hot and xx Only there were no needles, no blood drawn. He shuddered in pain. There might not have been real needles, but the pain alone was real enough, all right. The cold air only made it worse. Like he was freezing to death at the same time.

Like he felt after they had left the camp, before and after he had that ‘vision’.

Like he was going to die.

Sango and Miroku seemed to have similar problems. They hissed in pain, shuddering like he did. Kagome was the first one to go to her knees, though. He knew what she must have been feeling. It was terrible and the only thing that kept him on his feet, was Sesshomaru’s hand on his arm. He could focus on that one spot, at least for right now, to push the pain away.

“What the hell is this? Let. Go!”

Obviously InuYasha didn’t have the problem. He seemed to be still significantly steady on his feet. So was Sesshomaru, so maybe that has something to do with the youkai blood and or their youki. Because, even though InuYasha was only half youkai, it was still a part of him. Maybe it protected them from this…this… whatever this was.

He felt claws penetrate first his clothes and then skin when Sesshomaru tightened his grip on his arm as the mist intensified its flickering. Energy sizzled on his skin, painful, raw – somewhere from far away he heard someone groan in pain. Maybe it was him, or maybe it was not. He couldn’t tell. Had enough problems to keep himself sane, awake.

Already so close to blacking out, he wondered if he had already, merely dreaming all this.

The pain told him otherwise, certainly.

“Damnit. What the hell is this?”

The slayer, and she sounded pretty much as pained as he did.

“Doesn’t matter… we-we have t—to get out of… of here.” Miroku.

Now that was a good idea. A very good idea. They could try to figure out what the hell this was later. First, they had to get away. He was all for it. There was just one tiny, little problem: how to manage that, when he couldn’t even move his toes in the first place? He very much doubted the others were more lucky. Question was, could InuYasha and Sesshomaru?

If they could, fantastic! If they couldn’t… oh well, then they were pretty much screwed.

And not in a good way either.

“Anakin.”

Huh? “Yes?” Was that his voice? Apparently yes, yes it was.

But when nothing more than his name came forward, he got restless. It took a lot of strange but he managed to turn his head so far he could see the youkai. He was staring at something. Something Anakin, of course, couldn’t see. Ha! Story of his life, but whatever.

Sighing - and wasn’t it great that he could still do that? – he tried to see with his senses, his heart, instead of his eyes, and would you look at that! Something was happening. No idea what, but there was something. The more he focused on that something, the easier it was to keep the pain at bay. Okay, not easier, but… less hard. Less painful.

Then he remembered the hanyou.

If he was feeling the change, InuYasha had to as well. InuYasha was looking around briskly, wide eyes searching the clearing. For what, he only could guess. Golden eyes, so much like those of his brother, skimmed their surroundings, finally comng to rest upon the dead body of the formerly zombie-youkai. Same spot Sesshomaru was staring at, never looking away.

Something was glowing. Like a white light coming from within and--

Oh. OH!

That’s when everything seemed to freeze.

Literally.

Anakin watched in sick fascination as through the dead body – right in the middle of everything – a white mist appeared. Slowly, ever so slowly, it shaped itself into a human form, edges too soft to be real, blurring, but real enough to make out the female body it seemingly was trying to imitate. The only thing not see-through, corporal, where the thing’s eyes. Sharp, bright, almost glowing. Alive.

The lightest blue eyes Anaking had ever seen.

And they flashed dangerously.

Not because of them, not at all, he even felt… something akin like worry from it – her – towards them. The anger, all of it, was adressed at the black mist to their feet. The black mist itself, to him, just felt like danger. Malice. Something sinister. It made him shudder.

But the other.. no there was something different

The black mist didn’t seem to like the intrution, however. It began to attack the white figure with crackling energy bolts, in turn, forgetting all about the others. The pain didn’t go away completely, but it was enough to breath again. Anakin was sure it wasn’t just him.

The ghost of the woman smiled. It actually smiled! “Yes, I am aware of that.”, she spoke. Anakin couldn’t make out a mouth, but okay. He could deal as long as… Wait! Was she talking to… Oh damn. “I may not be able to purify you, or anyone else, but I can harm you just as well. And that is all I need to do.” Out of nowhere, black lighting shoot toward her, not the kind from before, but faster, bolder. She deflected it with a wave of her transparent hand. “Not going to work.”

The mist around them flickered once again, and he had the weird thought that the mist, that creature or whatever it was, was actually communicating with her. One ghost? communicating with another? Huh. Very weird indeed. His eyes flew up to Sessomaru’s. The youkai didn’t seem surprised. Not that he ever looked surprised, mind you, but it looked like he knew what was going on. Or at least had a good idea about it.

“Never were the likes of you capable to control the likes of us, not then and not today, not ever, why do you think that changed? We exist of a different line then any human, youkai or whichever individual, be it dead… or alive.”

Looking past InuYasha to his friends, he noticed that they seemed just as confused as he felt. Their eyes wide in alarm, or maybe it was a very bad case of aforementioned bewilderment. He could relate. He felt just as lost. Like he was completely out of his realm, and with every second ticking by, it dawned on him that he might just be.

Out of his league.

So far, he couldn’t even see the doors.

Then, all of the sudden, there was this crackling noise coming from all around him – them. It reminded him of… of the sound of burning wood when it was consumed by sizzling flames. Only that it was so much more intimadiating. So much louder.

Another cold shiver ran down his spine.

The ghost only laughed. “Do not insult me, fool. My power is a different one then theirs. You should know that.” The flicker acted up once again. “Yes, yes, you are right. You can try. And maybe the gods won’t stop you this time, that might be true as well, but I am confident you will be stopped a new.” A pause. “One way or another.”

Again her eyes flashed. The black mist quivered like tender leafs on a stormy day. His hand went to the pendant around his neck, out of habit or fear, it wasn’t clear anymore. It always gave him comfort. Comfort in times that lacked that kind of sentiment and others, and required it all the same. So much that it hurt.

Abruptly – faster than he could tell – the black mist was gone. He almost didn’t notice it at first. As if he blinked and zip, it was gone. The mist left merely the ghostly figure in its wake, nothing more, nothing less. Pain left with it. It took them a moment, but everyone seemed to un-freeze, if that was a word.

Sesshomaru took his hand away, therefore shaking Anakin from his thoughts yet again. So much that he almost, almost jumped out of his skin.

Oh for the love of... Resting a hand over the pounding heart in his chest, he took a deep breath, grumbling a sharp, “don’t do that unless you want to scare me to death.” Running a shaky hand through his hair, it was all he could do to calm himself. At least at the moment, and it took a lot out of him to not let the shaking show off more.

Letting his eyes wander, he received the next shock.

The—the ghost like figure? Wasn’t ghost like anymore. Nope.

Not see-through. She was corporal . Yup.

And the best part? He was sure he knew her. Or no, rather met her. Yeah that fit better. “My Lord,” the lady greeted Sesshomaru, her blue eyes already turned toward him. “Anakin. Meeting you again, seeing you are well, I am glad.”

Without a thought, Anakin went to one knee, bowing to her like he had done the first and only time. “Milady.”

In the distance he heard someone mutter a confused, “Lady, what?”

“You may stand up, Anakin. I told you you needn’t kneel before me.”

“Yes, you did. But I… um, it’s a habit I guess.”

The Lady watched him for a moment as he got to his feet. “You do not kneel before your lord, and he is of a higher status than I.”

“I forbid it.”

Now that was Sesshomaru and yeah, he rememberd. It was not in his rights to address this issue, though, so he had kept his mouth shut. If the youkai lord wanted to address it, fine. As he had entered the Palace of the West for the first time, Sesshomaru had banned him from doing that. He still bowed on occassions, yes, but never like it was asked of his kind in regard to the ‘upper class’, as his mother used to say.

The Lady seemed to smile. Barely, but she did. “I see.”

Turning to InuYasha and his friends, the whole group seemed to flinch once her eyes lingered upon them. “Do not be afraid, young ones. I mean no harm to you or your kind.”, she said gently. Her tone gentle, soothing, she’d used it with him too.

“But you are with Sesshomaru! That is reason enough to not trust your words.”, InuYasha spat and Anakin wanted to smack himself. Open mouth. Insert foot. Yup, well done. Couldn’t he control that big mouth of his for once in his life? Well, obviously not, a voice whispered in his head and he grinned.

Yeah, obviously.


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