Tainted Past, Tainted Future

[Chapter 2] Working for the Greater Good is not Without Sacrifices Part 1

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On to the Chapter!

Looking down onto the gate to the compound Kiba could see a small procession being lead through the gates. The wolf youkai were chained in a strait line pushed on until they were past the gates. Then the guards that accompanied them were turned away as they were taken into the custody of the park. He noticed how the youkai became complacent as they passed the gates, their bodies still and their eyes dull.

Kiba turned to Kagome, her back was to him and she was writing something on her desk. "Lady Kagome are you..?", he trailed off.

She sighed as she continued writing, "Yes, Kiba. You know I have to.", she turned to look at him over her shoulder.

He nodded. Fidgeting with his long blue haori sleeves he walked to the side of her desk where his pillow was. The practice that he would sit on a pillow at her feet rather than a chair at her side was a sign of his status. He was, after all, her slave to all those outside their compound. He also didn't mind his cozy space beside her desk, he thought the tall high backed chairs were stuffy and uncomfortable. He leaned against the side of her desk, resting his head and closing his eyes. His shaggy black hair fell over his face. He wore old feudal style clothing, the fashions had digressed into more function than look.

He planned on taking a small nap, things had been slow lately. Kagome would work diligently under the facade of the owner of a park where wealthy humans could come to be entertained by youkai slaves. She would gather past friends and other unfortunate souls and keep safe as many beings as she could without drawing attention. His plan for a nap was interrupted when he felt a tiny tap on his shoulder and an envelope was held in front of him.

He glanced at the envelope as he took it, his brow furrowed in confusion. Normally he was her personal guard, not her message boy. Looking up at her, he was about to question what this was about but she merely shook her head to quiet him.

"You're the only one I trust with this, it's important. You'll have to pick someone up, return them here immediately. Where to find them is on the note. Now go.", she made a shooing motion with her hand and he left as told.

Trotting down the stairs he examined the outside of the envelope. It was quite thick, probably filled with money. The address was scribbled on the front for him, a little memo on the side. His eyes widened at what he saw and he hurried into a run, leaping down the stairs and out the front gate. She had finally been able to aquire him after nearly five-hundred years! He pulled his youki around him and used to push himself off the ground, he would fly to his destination and arrive with the utmost haste.

/o.o

Kiba landed at the base of a long set of stairs. In graceful leaps he ascended to the holding pens. With no small amount of disgust he noticed that the grounds had been converted from an old shrine into pens for youkai slaves. At the top of the stairs he spotted a skittish little deer youkai dressed in maid's attire and handed her his letter.

Her long oval shaped ears swiveled about her head constantly and her hands shook as she took the letter. Thinking she was afraid of him because he was a species of predatory youkai he reigned in his aura, pulling it tightly around him. She still fidgeted, looking at the envelope and then skittering off without a word. Her wide green eyes darted back and forth as she went. Kiba waited in the courtyard.

It didn't take long before he heard raucous laughter coming from the main building and the doors burst open in front of him. Two human guards came through the doors, bantering loudly back and forth and laughing with one another. Kiba noticed how the little deer girl pressed herself to the door cowering away from the men, and he deduced it was them she must have been worried about earlier.

His attention was drawn back to the men when they threw a filthy blanket wrapped bundle down a small set of steps to roll at Kiba's feet. The sickening thud as it hit the concrete steps made him cringe. All thoughts of the maid's turmoil at the hands of the guards was lost as the blanket fell open to reveal it's package. Pale grey skin pulled taught over protruding cheekbones, Sesshoumaru looked like death. Kiba's keen ears picking the dull distant thud of his heart told him he was still alive, but not long for this world.

With a glare at the clearly amused guards he knelt down to pick up the limp body. He wished he could seek some retaliation without political repercussions, but knew it was impossible. He pulled his youki around himself and once again took the skies with haste, he hoped Lady Kagome would know how to save him. One didn't wait five hundred years to see someone again to give them a funeral.

/o.o
Sprinting up the stone staircase to Lady Kagome's office, Kiba tried not to jostle Sesshoumaru too much. The man was all skin and bones and felt like he could break any moment. Reaching her door, she was already standing there waiting for him. They swept off to a private room beside Kiba's.

After Sesshoumaru was lain on the cot Kagome pulled the filthy blanket from him and threw it to the floor, “Get that filthy thing out of here!”, she hissed. Kiba was quick to comply.

Looking the pale-skinned form over she immediately noticed the pair of shackles binding his wrists. They were tight, cutting into the flesh. The thick metal looked extremely heavy and she doubted he would have been able to lift his hands. Reaching over to him, she carefully held the shackles up for inspection.

There was something strange about them, the emanated a sort of old energy. Holding them for a while, she felt an odd pull, as if it were taking something from inside her. The soon reached the conclusion that the shackles were responsible for putting the daiyoukai in such a state. They somehow stole youki and they were taking more than Sesshoumaru could give up.

Just as Kiba came back into the room after getting rid of the blanket she turned to him, “Get Kouga to fetch Totosai.” She spoked with urgency and he dashed off to fetch them.

As she waited she started pressing towels dampened with warm water to his skin, he was filthy and his body was growing cold from the lack of energy. His breathing was so faint she feared she might lose him before they ever got the shackles off.

Pressing the damp towel to his forehead and wetting his dried lips, she took in the raspy quality of his breath. “Don't go..”, she whispered her plea to him. She had grown stoic and cold like he once was, but seeing him like this hurt her deeply. The close calls, little saves, and subtle negotiations she made over the years to bring him back to her couldn't end in a frivolous death like this. She had promised his mother and she had to make sure he was safe.

Lost in her musings of years passed she was startled as the door to the room flew open. Kiba ran in flanked by Kouga who carried the flustered Totosai on his back. The grimace from Kouga and the horrified gasp from Totosai only made her ache more for the condition Sesshoumaru was in. Numbly she went about preparing herbs and keeping him warm while Totosai examined the shackles with a grave expression on his face.

After hours of carefully placed puffs of flames and incantations and chants Kagome had never heard, even in her long life, the shackles loosened before falling to the floor. A muttered curse from Totosai and Kagome quickly got to tending the wounds on Sesshoumaru's wrists.

The rest of the night and into the next day was a blur of preparing herbs, making sure he was warm, and taking turns watching over him. Kouga stayed off in the corner beside Totosai and when Kiba watched over Sesshoumaru Kagome would join them to speak of the mysterious shackles.

It was concluded that they were old relics someone most likely found and used without the knowledge of how to remove them. Wanting to get some money on the seemingly dead demon they sold and resold him until he was at deaths door and reached Kagome's hands.

By night of his second day their Sesshoumaru was merely in a recuperative sleep, his youki no longer being drained was now healing his worn body. From time to time he would roll over in bed or groan in his sleep but otherwise he had not woken, and most likely didn't know of his new home.

Kagome stood from her seat by the wall. Totosai had recently left to return to his spot atop the mountain at the edge of her lands and Kouga was asleep. “Kiba, will you watch him for the night?”, Kagome asked quietly so she wouldn't disturb the two sleeping demons.

“My Lady.. you haven't slept in two fortnight.. would it not be best if Kouga watch over him so that I may accompany you?”, Kiba asked in a worried tone. Kagome no longer needed sleep often because of the power she siphoned from the Shikon Jewel within her made the practice unnecessary, but when she did sleep she always refused to do so without someone watching her. Some of the side affects of her uses of the jewel could get out of hand when uncontrolled during her slumber and she needed someone nearby to wake he in case something happened.

She shook her head, “I trust you to watch him, Kiba. I'll be fine, I have gone longer without rest.” With that she slipped from the lamp lit room into the darkened hallway and off to her own chambers.

Slipping into her night clothes Kagome sighed. She had been remiss in her duties the night before while she tended to Sesshoumaru. Many years she had perfected the use of the Jewel's power to her own needs. She had learned how the jewel would control youkai and make them mindless, and she bent the power to her own will and could now control youkai with it. She could slip into their minds as well, taking thoughts and memories and replacing them with something of her own creation.

Each night since she had begun to gather demons at her sanctuary she would slip into the minds of the sleeping and guard their dreams, taking the nightmares upon herself so they would sleep in peace. She hoped one night without her to watch them didn't hurt them.

Sitting in bed with her back against the head board she exhaled a calming breath. Emptying her mind of all errant thoughts she tapped into the jewel. Through it she expanded her senses. The keep and all it's rooms, then the courtyard outside, the small village that housed more demons, the forest, all could be reached in her minds eye. A soft touch against the aura of each sleeping creature and she could feel their sleeping emotions.

Sifting through the people she searched for the one's who needed her. The ones underneath her charge who's devils came to catch them in their sleep. Deep into the forest her mind pulled her. The monochromatic vision of a young looking boy laying on top of a tree branch came to her mind. She saw him, monkey tail curled around the tree for balance and his long clawed fingers digging into the bark. His face twisted into a frightened expression and his sharp fangs gnawing into his bottom lip, she delved into his mind.

[I] The metallic, cold interior of and armored truck loomed over the figures trapped inside it's walls. The door hung wide as children bearing demonic traits were thrown inside, screaming and crying out for parents and guardians alike.

Curled in the corner whimpering she could see the tiny form of Toboe. Tears streamed down his face as the other children crawled over one another to try and escape through the open door, each one thrust back into place when the reached the opening.

An older girl tried to comfort him, her quiet cooes, shushes, and assurances lost against the screaming chaos in their metal prison. She rocked back and forth, holding him and shielding his eyes from the sight of the madness unfolding in the streets. She let out a hiss as one of the children was thrown into her. She looked up to see a long metallic device emitting sparks thrust at her, pushing her further to the back of the truck.

Anger flashed in little amethyst eyes. Determination set in her face as she let go of the sobbing Toboe and stood. She ignored the insistent tugs and the begging from the young boy to sit back down and not to do anything. She was the oldest girl at the orphanage and when Inuyasha and Kagome couldn't keep them safe then she had to do it.

Her feet set in a fighting stance she lunged, leaping over the mass of children to the guards at the doors to the truck. A frightened cry of, “Chio!”, fell upon deaf ears. The metallic black of the gun flashed before her eyes before the mechanic boom.

Toboe sat beside her limp body holding into her hand, he stared into her wide lifeless amethyst gaze and whimpered. Spots of her blood sprinkled across his shirt and face from the spatter of the shot. Laying down beside her dead body, Toboe found restless exhausted sleep. [/i]

Coming back to herself Kagome reached up to wipe the moisture from face. She didn't have the right to cry when she failed to save him from having to see the deaths of his bunkmates. The best she could do now was to take the memories each night and save him from reliving them by taking them as her own.

After a few moments she brought her mind back into a still, calm state. Reaching into the Jewel again she went about searching through the crowd of aura. This time, she followed a heavy, insistent pull, much closer then that of Toboe's. A few rooms away, lay Sesshoumaru on his bed. His features, smooth and placid, belied nothing of his inner turmoil but his aura cried. The call of his youki begged for peace long denied and she followed like a frightened child to it's call. Whether she was ready to face what she failed to save him from or not he needed her.

[i]A group of men stood a vast dark room. Growling and snarling could be heard as they all fought, pulling and wrenching on long ropes. Soon a tall white hair figured was wrenched from the stone cell he was kept in. He was unable to pull of the ropes as his hands were bound behind his back. His crimson eyes promised a painful torture if he were to ever get loose of their hold.

They pulled him towards a steel bench. The wide apparatus had two higher planes that one could be easily bound to. Sesshoumaru pressed his heels into the ground, fighting back against their tugs and pulls. His youkai strength suppressed by the mechanical devices in the walls was little use and he was easily overpowered.

His shins hit against the edge of the metal bench, throwing him off balance. The humans took advantage of this, the one holding the rope around his neck pulled forward and the ones holding his arms followed suit. He fell onto the table, his shoulder hitting the sharp raised platform and he growled at the pain of bones being bruised.

Soon he was bound to the table, his knees tied together and held to the second raised platform on the table. His feet were bound to the edge of the table, his body held completely immobile. Sesshoumaru growled, snarled, and hissed viciously as one neared his back but his warning went unheeded.

A pained howl reverberated against the walls when the man in the white coat thrust a long thin object into his anus. Sesshoumaru bit down on the metal table as a shocking sensation over took his nether regions. A man stood in front of him, collecting his seed and then taking it away to be stored. When they were done with him they threw him back into his stall, this time his forming unmoving and he put up no fight as he was dragged and tossed carelessly onto the concrete floor. [/i]

The last Kagome saw in her minds' eye was his crumpled form on the ground before the vision rippled and swam. Slowly it faded into another...

[i]Sesshoumaru stood in a thirty foot wide ring, fifteen foot high concrete walls surrounding him on all sides. No doubt they were equipped with mechanical devises to keep him and the other youkai inside the ring. His stance was heavy and strained, his breath hoarse. Cuts and slashes decorated his raggedly clothed form. He was angry, desperate, and ready to defend himself.

Outside the ring were seats all set up arena style. They were filled to capacity with people shouting, booing, cheering, yelling out jeers and bets. Higher up rich men in dark suits, sipping expensive sake watched from box seats.

His next opponent entered the ring. Her blue hair hung in waves down to her knees and her angular features set in a cold mask. She stood still, staring down Sesshoumaru. She nodded once.

Lunging forward he leaped above her head and landed hard, pinning her to the ground while sitting on her torso. She stared at him, her expression one of resignation. One of his hands pressed flat to her sternum he pulled the other one back. His finger tips held together and his hand ready to slice her head clean off in one stroke. He hesitated.

The world had come to this, hundreds of years their clan fought and for many more they were allies. These years had long passed now and here they fought for their own lives, no loyalties and no allies.

“I am sorry... Touran”, Sesshoumaru spoke just loud enough for her to here.

Her cold expression melted and she gifted him with a watery smile, “Do not be sorry Milord... It is a blessing...”, at that his hand shot forward slicing through the air poised for her throat.

Sesshoumaru snarled as he was pulled back from killing her. Being dragged backwards he watched as handlers came from doors on the ring to Touran's still form. She curled in on herself as she received kicks and heavy blows for her failure to fight properly.

A pained howl echoed through the stadium, singing of the helplessness of a once proud and powerful Daiyoukai. [/i]

Biting her lip to keep from whimpering Kagome opened her eyes. The first rays of morning peeked through the curtains. She slipped her feet over the side of the bed and set them on the cold floor. Today she would have to face her her failure and begin to rebuild the Sesshoumaru that once was.