The Wrong Ending

Not even in her darkest dreams had Sango thought it might ever come down to this. Sure, there had been moments of hopelessness, but that had never been anything like this. There was simply no imagining this place, this deepest, darkest pit of hell. It was Naraku's doing, after all.

At first they had been together, but then he had taken Kagome. Her screams of agony and pleas for mercy had echoed for hours, and nearly driven Inuyasha insane. Inuyasha had been next, and Kagome's pain paled in comparison. Sango could picture what was happening out there, though she tried hard to block it out: Naraku, doing horrible, obscene things to Inuyasha, with teeth and tongue and tentacles. Call it rape, maybe.

She shook, angry tears falling unbidden from her eyes. How much more depraved –

Her thoughts were interrupted by Miroku's hands rubbing her shoulders, soothing. "He desires your anger, Sango. You'd let him win?"

"What else can I do? This is… disgusting." She fumbled. There was no word for what this was.

"Have hope. We can never know what the future will bring." The words were empty, pointless. They both knew, more or less, what would happen next. Sango guessed that he would take Miroku next, just so she could suffer the anguish of being utterly alone again. He might even make her watch, the way he'd made Inuyasha watch as he dismembered Kagome, just before he'd tossed what was left of her back into the pit where Miroku and Sango waited.

They had covered the body with Miroku's kesa and said worthless prayers to unhearing gods, but the empty feeling in Sango's heart remained.

And despite all that, Miroku was as eager as ever to be alone with her. He leaned in close, his breath hot against her flesh. "This is probably our last chance," he whispered.

She nodded numbly, only half aware of what she had just agreed to. Miroku was all too aware of the situation and wasted no time with pleasantries or subtleties. With expertise she had long suspected, he moved unruly fabric aside, just enough. Like her, he had no desire to be naked in this place.

Sango found herself only idly interested in the details of his physique or the way it responded to her presence and their imminent demise. Focusing on anything had become difficult, but she was jolted back to reality by the sudden feel of him inside her. She did not remember lying down or spreading her legs for him, but the shock of his flesh inside her was burned into her memory.

It was painful and unpleasant, nothing at all what she might have hoped to experience as her first time. But Miroku pounded into her and spent himself quickly, and then held her close and was silent.

As they huddled together in one corner of their cell, he said nothing even when tears formed again in her eyes and slid, one by one, down her cheeks.

Somewhere, away and above them, Inuyasha howled at some new torment. The long silence afterward was broken only by the sound of Naraku's echoing laughter.