InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Facets of the Living Jewel ❯ Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cuius fidei merces est videre quod credis ( Chapter 71 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters, Ms. Takahashi does. The plot line and any mistakes are all my own!

 

Thanks to everyone who has supported me while I've been so ill. It's amazing how important breathing is!

 

WARNING: Parts of this chapter are…creepy. If you don't like spiders and insects you may not appreciate the last two sections, where there is nonconsensual touching and terrorizing and…let's just say my muse was being creepy. Must have been the lack of oxygen…

 

Fonts:

[Inuyoukai]

(Inuhuman)

 

 

 

Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cuius fidei merces est videre quod credis

By Licentia poetica

 

`What just happened?' Bright light glowed through her closed eyelids as Kagome abruptly regained consciousness, but she could feel cool, unpaved earth underneath her body and smelled the faintly musty scent that she associated with the Shrine of the Well. `Did the explosion blow the roof off of the Shrine? Am I back in Tokyo?'

 

“Mama!” The excited male voice sounded almost familiar, though it was hard to tell because of the echo within the walls surrounding her.

 

`Is that…Sota? But he sounds so much older!'

 

“Gods, I never thought I'd see you again!” Another muffled voice sobbed.

 

`Mama! Her voice sounds so hoarse and she's crying! What did the explosion do? Is she hurt?' Kagome struggled to open her eyes, but when she finally succeeded she shut them tightly in astonishment and shook her head to clear it. `Impossible.' She slowly opened them again.

 

Instead of the shadowed dirt floor of the Shrine of the Well, the verdant grass of the Sengoku Jidai trembled in a slight breeze in front of her face. She flexed her fingers and shuddered as they dug into soft dirt instead of the grassy stems she could see them touching. `I can feel the floor near the well but I can't see it! What is happening?'

 

“Mama Higurashi! Give me a hug, too!” The unknown, silky young voice's final word subsided into a throbbing, melodious hum.

 

`I don't recognize that voice at all...is it…purring?' Kagome fought off a wave of dizziness, shutting her eyes as she levered herself up on one elbow to focus on the sensation of movement rather than on her surroundings. As soon as she lost sight of the Sengoku Jidai, the anger and underlying fear that had gripped her within the time slip resurfaced. `So, you're not finished with me yet, gods? Need to cause more trouble for your little plaything?' Her anger ratcheted up another notch and she felt a pulsing, dark power rise in response, pressing on her consciousness and boiling in her blood. Her heart stuttered to match the rhythm of its beat but, as she breathed deeply in response to the voluptuous surge, another wave of vertigo made her nauseous and the power receded as her anger ebbed abruptly. As she struggled to control her rebellious stomach, the unknown voice broke off its thrumming and continued anxiously, “Have you seen Mama and Papa? Everything is still so strange outside and I can't smell anything out there!”

 

The vertigo lessened enough for her to concentrate and she opened her eyes to search for the owner of the silky voice. Her new position allowed her to see a familiar red figure, standing with his back to her and his body tensed in a defensive posture. `Inuyasha!' She could tell by his motions that he was yelling at something in front of him and suddenly he whipped the Tessaiga to one side. The katana transformed back to its rusted form and she watched in bemusement as he placed it back in its saya but, instead of hearing the unmistakable hiss of the Tessaiga's transformation and the susurrations of the wind moving the grass around her, she heard the cranky voice of Ojiisan grumble, “I warned you that seeing that Kensei fellow would cause problems. Now look at the mess we're in!”

 

`I can see Inuyasha, but I can't hear him. I can't hear anything that I can see! I can't touch anything I'm seeing! But I can feel and hear things in Tokyo!'

 

Inuyasha jerked as if struck by something in front of him and she gasped as all sensation failed. She found herself suspended in an immense black void, but an instant later a blazing light flared into being almost immediately in front of her face; she closed her eyes and jerked her head to the side in response. She kept her face averted and dared to barely open the eye farthest away from the glare as it began to fade. `It pulses light?' She grasped at a vague memory from her science classes and thought, `A pulsar?'

 

Before the complete darkness descended again, she saw strands of a web extending from her incorporeal body. `Not again!'

 

She had a seemingly endless moment of darkness before the pulsar flared into existence again and she squinted against the glare, looking to the side. The web, almost identical to the web of power that she had created when forming the Living Jewel, gleamed against the immense blackness, but instead of being the center of the symmetric, spiral links that had appeared before, she could see that her “body” formed a circle with two thick fibers extending away, anchoring the rest of the web. Below her each of the thin, fragile strands falling away were connected to her and the next filament in a delicate filigree pattern. As the light winked out again she could see a small shooting star headed toward her, coming from the other side of the pulsar. In its glow she could see a dull reflection from other strands. `What is that?' As the pulsar flared through several cycles, she watched the star approach, ignoring the strain she began to feel in her `body' as she focused on the design of the web. `It looks like that picture of colliding galaxies that I saw once in school, except I'm one galaxy and the other surrounds that pulsar. But why am I thicker than the rest and why can I see on one side of the well and hear and feel on the other? I don't understand!'

 

As the small star neared her position it veered between her and the pulsar, its light dimming as it began to change shape. `It isn't a star…it's like…like the moon!' As it sped between her and the pulsing light she could see that the other side of the `star' was the same absolute black as the void surrounding her and she had a moment of epiphany. `The Moonstone!'

 

When the Moonstone came directly between her and the pulsar she was thrown back into sensation again. For an instant she saw Inuyasha frozen in the exact position that she had seen him in before she found herself in the void, then he blurred out of her sight and she saw her father in the space behind. His face changed from calm anger to startled disbelief as his fist, thrusting forward almost too fast for her to follow, flashed through the air where Inuyasha had just been standing. She wanted to cry out but her words changed to a startled squeak when a crack of displaced air almost immediately in front of her was followed by a sharp rumble of thunder and an angry curse. In her vision, her father stumbled forward, his momentum spinning him toward the well, but she heard an abrupt inhalation and the sound of a body moving close by her as startled shouts came from above.

 

“What was that?” Sota yelled. “It came from down by the well!”

 

“I can smell…it's all muddled,” unknown Silky Voice growled at the same time.

 

`Smell? Is that a youkai? I can't feel any youki.' Kagome watched her father try to catch himself before he touched the well, but as he continued to fall forward she felt his time powers began to interact with hers. As a look of horror grew on his face she heard pattering feet and her mother's concerned voice sharply ordering, “Stop! Don't go in there! Look at the well!”

 

“Ka—“ Inuyasha's voice began, but as her father's hands touched the wood of the well she felt her “body” convulse and her name was cut off abruptly as she dropped back into the void.

 

The Moonstone was orbiting away from her, but in the fading light of the pulsar she could see something that terrified her: the web of power directly opposite her was shuddering slightly, several adjacent strands quivering together in a stuttered rhythm.

 

Almost as if some huge spider was treading carefully along those strands and moving toward her.

 

`I'm just imagining things. Maybe it's…some…weird…gravity thing!' She tried to keep the web in focus as the pulsar brightened again, but the light flared too brightly for her to see the strands clearly and her vision was blurred with glare-induced tears as it faded again. She turned her face away from the next pulse of light and closed her eyes tightly, trying without much success to keep her panicked breathing under control. `I don't know why I thought of a spider…it could be anything moving the web…gravity…my eyes playing tricks on me…anything!' She forced herself to keep her eyes closed through three blazing pulses of light, then opened them as the light faded and focused on the area of the web that had been vibrating.

 

Only to see three distant, gargantuan, tarantula-like legs; two gripping the strands of power and one raised into the center of the void, flailing toward the glowing Moonstone as it sped away from her. The rest of the body was eclipsed by the utter black orb of the pulsar.

 

She flailed her arms to try and escape from the web, but her `body' merely jerked the strands around her and an instant later the legs of the spider froze in response. They stayed motionless as the Moonstone's light waned. `Oh gods! I just let it know I'm here!' Her heart beat increased as she tried to control her terror in the absolute darkness. `I just have to be quiet and still. It won't come after me, right? I just have to use Midoriko's lessons and stay calm.' She closed her eyes against the next blaze and attempted to control her breathing, but when the light dimmed enough she opened them. `Please, let it be gone!'

 

Then she saw the actual body and head of the “spider” and all pretense of calm abruptly fled.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Her scream echoed in the small island of reality that used to be Tokyo and the four souls there ran to the stairs, shocked by the absolute terror in the sound. They could only stand helplessly on the lacquered upper floor of the Shrine of the Well.

 

On the first step down, the tip of the fully transformed Tessaiga was embedded in the wood, the still-vibrating blade alternating between ivory white and a dull, matte black. Below that step the stairway wavered in and out of existence as blue and green time mists roiled over the steps.

 

Lying prone next to it on the upper steps and landing was a humanoid form with bedraggled wings.

 

“Gods! Sensei!” Sota cried out, forgetting that the others did not know of his former life as he kneeled down to try and pull the taiyoukai out of the time mists.

 

Before Sota could reach him, Yourei Taisei braced his clawed hands on the floor, shook his head as if to clear it, and rolled over.

 

His body went right through the Tessaiga as if it did not exist.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“—gome!” InuYoukai appeared in the Sengoku Jidai with his hand stretched out for Kagome. Even though he had been unable to see her, the scent of her fear and anger as well as the sound of her frightened breathing had been a beacon in the dark, roiling green and blue energies of the time slip. He shut his eyes for a moment against the sudden glare of sunlight.

 

[Her scent is gone and I can't hear her breathing!]

 

When he opened his eyes, he growled in confusion. “What in all the hells?” She was standing almost directly in front of him, one leg touching the wood of the well and the arm on that same side enveloped in a green aura radiating up from its depths. The limbs on her other side faded into the familiar blue energy of the time slip, but as he stared at them he had to shake his head.

 

(Fuck…I must have been hit on the head or something. She looks like she's spread-eagled one second and then…shit!)

 

[Human bodies don't twist like that!]

 

If he looked at her arms and legs too long, it seemed as though her body bent completely in half and both sets of limbs were fastened at the same point, though one side was shrouded in electric blue and the other in a deep emerald.

 

As his gaze flicked back to her face she stared fearfully at something behind him and the muscles in her arms tensed, as if she was trying to pull them towards her body. She writhed in place, obviously trapped.

 

“Damnit! Kagome!” With a quick glance behind him to determine that no danger threatened, he stepped in front of her and reached out to touch her.

 

His hand passed right through the tangled black locks of hair that he tried to smooth back from her frightened face.

 

“Kagome!” She closed her eyes and he futilely tried to touch her again, his hand passing through her hair and even her shoulder as he tried to grasp it, but he could not feel her and she did not respond to his touch. “Damnit!”

 

“Oh, gods. Kagome! What have we done?” Kensei's anguished whisper came from the ground on the other side of the well.

 

InuYoukai whipped his head around, narrowing his eyes and changing his initial snarl into a warning rumble as he focused on Kensei.

 

The Time Lord had fallen next to the well, his shoulders in contact with the wood and his head bent forward at an awkward angle. He stared blankly at his hands, holding them a scant few inches from his face as he slowly fisted them both and began to roll away from the well.

 

InuHuman forced himself to stop growling, clenching and unclenching his fists as he resisted the urge to claw the man in half.

 

[Why do you hold back? Kill him!]

 

(Baka! That's Kagome's father!)

 

[All the more reason to kill or maim him. It is the only way to be her true alpha.]

 

(What about the thing with Sesshoumaru?)

 

[That is…he is Pack. My Pack Brother.]

 

(I can't let you kill her father!)

 

InuYoukai watched in silence for a moment before a jerky movement from Kagome made him turn back; her terrified gaze still looked at something beyond him and her mouth was wide open in a silent scream as she struggled against the blue and green bonds holding her in place.

 

(Damn! Kagome doesn't scare easily any more.)

 

With a snarl, he spun around while unsheathing the Tessaiga, flailing it wildly when it remained unexpectedly light in his grasp. He spared a brief moment to take in the continuing absence of anything that would terrify his mate before staring down at the Tessaiga's rusted and battered form. He willed the transformation again and frowned as nothing happened. “Fuck!” He looked back over his shoulder.

 

[She's stopped screaming, but…I can't hear her, smell her, touch her…damnit!]

 

(What's the matter, Youkai?)

 

[I cannot…are you sure it is Kagome?]

 

(Hell, yeah.)

 

[How can you know?]

 

(Keh! I love her! I know it's her.)

 

[Perhaps it is a human mystery, to know our mate without using our senses and her signature houriki.]

 

(Yeah, it's mystical human shit, baka. Better than yours.)

 

A dark shadow fell over them, and InuHuman frowned at the odd glow surrounding Kagome even as he swept up the Tessaiga in a high guard position.

 

Only to snarl in frustration as it remained untransformed.

 

He stood frozen for a moment, recognizing that the shadow overhead was the falcon form of Yourei Taisei and no threat, but the rest of his brain was occupied in an internal debate.

 

(What the hell is wrong with you, Youkai? Why aren't you transforming the Tessaiga?)

 

[I cannot reach the youki within it.]

 

(Why the fuck not?)

 

[I do not…where is the Hanyou?]

 

(Hanyou?)

 

[Hanyou? Can you reply?]

 

There was no answer.

 

“Fuck.” Fighting to control his inner shock at the loss of his unifying personality and his inability to touch Kagome, he meticulously sheathed the Tessaiga while watching the taiyoukai circle lower. He focused his attention on controlling his breathing and listening to the muffled gasps from Kensei as the distressed Time Lord struggled to his feet.

 

Yourei Taisei landed gracefully, the sweep of his cupping wings creating a wind that snapped InuYoukai's hair against his face, but Kagome's hair and clothing remained unruffled as she continued to stare at whatever terrified her. InuYoukai looked up at his Sensei, growling softly.

 

The taiyoukai cocked his head to one side and stared at Kagome as he folded his wings, making a soft crooning noise. When she did not respond, he turned his piercing yellow eyes to InuYoukai and gave three rising calls followed by two harsh croaks.

 

“I can't understand a damn thing you're saying! This Inuyasha does not speak falcon. Transform.”

 

The taiyoukai cocked his head again and stared hard at InuYoukai, then abruptly brought his head up as a wave of ruffled feathers fanned out from his neck all the way to his tail and his wings quivered. He stilled and resumed staring at InuYoukai.

 

“What?” InuHuman snapped and the taiyoukai answered with a harsh squawk, bating his wings. He flipped them back and ruffled his feathers again. “You cannot transform?” The taiyoukai gave a short, barking call and cocked his head. “Well…fuck!”

 

“Fractals!”

 

Both Yourei Taisei and Inuyasha jumped, startled, and then turned to look at Kensei, who was standing by the well softly smacking his fingertips against his forehead. “Fractals…maybe chaos theory? I can't think of any explanation. Mom, Dad, why don't you answer?” the older man continued.

 

“What are you babbling about?”

 

Yourei Taisei made a short, screeching sound that sounded vaguely disapproving.

 

“Keh.”

 

Kensei ignored them and lowered one hand, steadying himself against the wood of the well as the other hand ran through his hair.

 

[If you will not allow me to kill him then you should at least show him that courtesy is due an alpha. He has not answered you.]

 

(Oh shut up! He sounds like Miroku, though…he'll probably spout some weird shit that I can't understand.)

 

The older man stumbled toward Kagome.

 

InuHuman stepped in the way. “Leave her alone, old man. You can't touch her, and all this shit happened after you hit me.” InuYoukai followed up the statement with a possessive growl.

 

“She's my daughter! You don't have the right to keep me from her!” Kensei shouted.

 

“I fucking have the right to do anything I want! She is my mate!”

 

Yourei Taisei crooned something.

 

“You will stay out of this.”

 

“Let me…please!” Kensei looked pleadingly past Inuyasha's shoulder. “Something happened to the wormhole. My time powers and hers interacted…I didn't expect it! There were other Time Lords involved and…you don't understand! I need to see the web again!”

 

“You will not touch her. I fucking understand that you can't touch her, and it has nothing to do with me. Whatever you did made it so that this Inuyasha cannot touch her, either. Her scent is on the other side, but here all we can do is see her.” He followed up his statement by turning slightly and trying to touch Kagome's hair again. His hand still went through it and he growled low in his chest in response.

 

“Gods!” Kensei breathed. “You made it to the other side? It's still intact? When I hit the well, I could see Kagome and you and I could see—” he stopped with a gasp and grabbed both of the hanyou's shoulders, staring into his eyes hopefully and ignoring InuYoukai's warning growl. “I have to look again! You don't understand!” He gave InuYoukai a little shake. “It means—”

 

InuYoukai snarled and raised his claws to strike. “Human, you are not this Inuyasha's alpha. Take your hands off this Inuyasha or die.”

 

Yourei Taisei bated his wings and Kensei stepped back, a shocked look on his face as he continued to stare into Inuyasha's eyes.

 

“Inuyasha!” Miroku yelled urgently.

 

At the sound of Miroku's voice, two of the males flinched in reaction, but InuYoukai continued to stare balefully at Kensei until the Time Lord looked away. Giving a final growl, InuYoukai turned toward the sound.

 

InuHuman frowned as Miroku strode out of the woods, Shippo perching nervously on his shoulder. (Why the hell is he walking four feet in the air?) His frown deepened as Sango followed at the same height, obviously struggling with the weight of the Hiraikotsu, and InuYoukai growled in confusion when, as Miroku and Shippo stepped into the clearing, they abruptly appeared to be walking on solid ground again.[What has been done to my Pack?]

 

“Oh, gods, two juxtaposed times, maybe more,” Kensei moaned, staring at the trio. “Oh gods, what have we done?”

 

Miroku stepped closer, his eyebrows raised as he gazed from Kagome to the stunned Kensei. “Kagome? Inuyasha, what—”

 

Before he could complete his sentence Shippo jumped to Inuyasha's shoulder and nudged his head under Inuyasha's chin. “Inuyasha? Is that really Kagome? Why doesn't she look at me? Why can't I smell her? Can you smell what's wrong with me? Why doesn't my fox fire work right?”

 

InuYoukai growled a soft Inu welcome in response to the kit's plaintive questions, but did not answer them as he watched Sango finally enter the clearing and struggle toward the group, her arm muscles quivering as they strained to hold the Hiraikotsu in place on her back.

 

(Gods, look at Sango. She's hurting. She can barely walk with that thing!)

 

[What has happened to my Pack?]

 

Kensei muttered something under his breath, his eyes flickering assessingly from the group to the well to Kagome and finally to the surrounding woods. He began to walk toward the path from the village, muttering “I have to see that web again. I have to figure it out! There's got to be some way to salvage this!”

 

The group watched him go silently and Sango stopped for a moment, staring warily at the Time Lord as he walked toward her. He walked right by her, still mumbling under his breath, and she turned to watch his retreating form as he went toward the village.

 

Miroku turned his gaze from Kensei and looked at Inuyasha, but as he met InuYoukai's angry stare his own eyes widened for a moment. He abruptly looked to the side and spoke in a deferential tone. “Inuyasha, it seems as if each of the three of us lost…a part of ourselves. It is obvious that something has also happened to you and Kagome.”

 

“No fucking kidding, monk.”

 

Miroku flicked his eyes up to meet InuHuman's gaze, shaking his head at the absence of the red eyes and markings that he had responded to just a few seconds ago. “Inuyasha?” He moved closer and peered into his friend's face.

 

InuYoukai reacted by reaching out and grabbing Miroku by the neck. “You are still beta, monk. Do not anger this Inuyasha.”

 

Shippo gave a sharp whimper as Miroku gasped for breath. Sango, still struggling toward the group, cried out wordlessly as Yourei Taisei made a sharp, clicking sound with his beak and bated his wings.

 

InuYoukai glared at Miroku for a moment, then growled softly and let him go. “This Inuyasha and the human do not have the hanyou to help with control. It would be better if you do not do anything to challenge this Inuyasha.”

 

Miroku massaged his throat where InuYoukai's hand had left a red imprint. “I will keep that in mind, Inuyasha.”

 

Yourei Taisei cocked his head and stared at Kensei, who was tentatively reaching out with both hands in the air above the path from the village. It was obvious that some barrier barred his way as he traced a smooth curve in the air above his head. At the sound of his mild curse, the taiyoukai gave a short croon and hopped awkwardly toward the Time Lord.

 

Miroku wryly cocked an eyebrow at Yourei Taisei and smirked at Sango as she finally reached the group. She shared his grin for a moment before dropping the Hiraikotsu with a heavy thud. As he put his arm around her she stared down at the ground, taking deep gulps of air and shaking her arms out. “Something happened here at the well, Inuyasha,” she managed between breaths.

 

“No fucking kidding,” InuHuman repeated.

 

The group watched Kensei as he began to walk around the perimeter of the clearing, followed by the awkwardly hopping Yourei Taisei. The Time Lord's hands were raised in the air, obviously tracing an unseen barrier that seemed to be in his way.

 

“Well, it seems that we all have had a strange experience,” Miroku said with obviously forced calm. He gave a brief summary of the events that had happened at the village as they watched Kensei continue to trace the arching curve of the barrier.

 

“Well, there's nothing we can do about Kanna right now, except watch our backs.” Inuyasha stared searchingly at Kagome for a few seconds, but when she seemed to be calm, he sighed and gave an even briefer version of the events at the well. After a few terse sentences he motioned with his head toward Kensei and whispered softly, “Things weren't this fucked until the jackass over there tried to hit me. I could see his time powers flaring around his fist.”

 

Miroku carefully kept his eyes averted as he gestured to Kagome. “What has happened to her?”

 

“Our mate is on both sides of the well and on this side we can only see her.”

 

Sango gave a soft whimper and sat down abruptly, falling right out of Miroku's encircling arm. She wrapped her hands around her lower abdomen and rocked forwards and backwards. “What has this done to our baby, Miroku?”

 

Miroku blanched and stabbed the end of his shakujou into the ground, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Sango…I—” he stopped abruptly and swallowed visibly. Shaking his head, he knelt down next to her. Before he could say anything more, Kensei began speaking in a distracted voice while he continued to walk along the perimeter of the clearing.

 

“Oh, your daughter…she's fine…actually…she's right…here, I think.” He patted the air in front of him and began to walk sideways again. “Or at least…part…of her…and…huh!” He ran his hand sideways along a barrier they couldn't see and Sango shuddered suddenly.

 

“Don't…don't do that!” she gasped.

 

Kensei whirled and looked at her. “You can feel that?”

 

“She is mine. Do not touch her!” InuYoukai growled in a low and threatening voice.

 

Sango hissed fiercely and glared up at Inuyasha. “I'm not yours! I—” she quailed suddenly as she got a good look at his face and quickly averted her eyes. “I'm not your possession,” she continued quietly.

 

InuYoukai arched one eyebrow. “Perhaps you feel you belong to the monk? Humans! The monk belongs to me as well.”

 

Miroku raised an eyebrow but before he could say anything InuHuman interrupted.

 

“Oh, screw you. She doesn't belong to anyone but herself, and she'll kick Miroku's ass and ours if you say any different.”

 

“Ow!” Kensei's sudden yell startled the group and stopped Inuyasha from bickering with himself. They turned to find the Time Lord shaking his right hand and grimacing.

 

“Ah, I wondered if something might happen there.” Miroku muttered.

 

“What are you screaming about?” InuHuman asked as he looked between Kagome and her father. “Our mate is facing that way,” InuYoukai added.

 

“The compass point northwest one,” Miroku stated, nodding his head as if answering an unvoiced question, “and, if I'm not mistaken, also the direction to your brother's domain. Kirara and Lord Sesshoumaru must have had experiences that match ours.”

 

At that moment Sango groaned in pain. “Gods! What's happening! The baby!” She clutched at her stomach, which began to visibly swell until her pregnancy was obvious. The stretched leather of her taiji-ya uniform revealed a strange lump moving along her abdomen.

 

“Gods!” Miroku yelled, kneeling and placing his hands over her distended belly. He began to murmur a prayer and then stopped suddenly, a look of wonder crossing his face. “I can't tell if it's jyaki…but…wait.” His hand movements stilled over on one side and he pressed lightly. “Is that…is this her head?”

 

“I…” Sango gasped, her face pale and dripping with sweat. “I think so.” The lump appeared again and Sango gave a strangled cry, placing her hand over her side. “Ow! She just kicked me in the ribs!”

 

“All right. That's enough!” InuYoukai tucked Shippo under his arm and stalked over to Kensei, who was still working his way around the clearing. With his free hand, he grabbed the distracted Time Lord by the neck, shaking him and growling, “Explain.”

 

“What?” Kensei blinked owlishly at InuYoukai.

 

“You will explain to this Inuyasha why my Pack has been changed.” He shook Kensei again. “You will explain to this Inuyasha why my mate is trapped.”

 

Yourei Taisei made a short, crooning sound as he stepped behind InuYoukai and began to groom his hair with his beak.

 

“Cease!” InuYoukai whipped his head around and glared belligerently at the taiyoukai.

 

Yourei Taisei sat down and ruffled his feathers slightly, staring calmly back.

 

InuYoukai turned his attention back to Kensei, stating in a more reasonable tone, “You will explain to this Inuyasha how a pup can complete her growth in the womb in seconds.”

 

“She's moving too much!” Sango cried, leaning backwards to give more room to the obviously squirming baby within her. “I think…I think she's frightened!”

 

“Blessed Buddha!” Miroku breathed, and began to chant softly while rubbing his hands over Sango's taut belly.

 

“That had better be to calm her down, dearest husband,” Sango said between gritted teeth.

 

Miroku merely raised an eyebrow and then began to smirk as the frantically struggling baby seemed to settle down under his ministrations.

 

Kensei watched the exchange over Inuyasha's shoulder before saying calmly, “As for the baby, no one's ever taken a fetus through a time portal before. Who knows why she grew so fast? I can't worry about that now.” At InuYoukai's snarl, he added, “But the way she's moving tells me she's fine.” He reached up and began to pry InuYoukai's fingers loose. “If you will please let go and let me finish, I might have some other answers for you.”

 

InuHuman released Kensei's neck, although it was a struggle, and strode back to Kagome. Looking at her wary face as she stared at something he couldn't see, he threatened, “Find out soon, or I won't be responsible for my actions.” He allowed a softly growling Shippo to climb up to his shoulder. The kit began to nuzzle under InuHuman's chin, begging for reassurance. InuYoukai stroked the top of the kit's head with his jaw and rumbled comfort.

 

Shrugging, Kensei turned back to the unseen barrier. He finished the circuit and gave a huge sigh. Shaking his head and squaring his shoulders, he walked toward the group, stopping in front of Kagome and ignoring InuYoukai's low growl and threatening posture. For a moment his face sagged with worry and misery as he bowed deeply and said to the ground at her feet, “I am so sorry, sweetheart. I had no way of knowing this would happen. I swear I'll fix it.”

 

He rose and walked over to Sango, but as he passed between Kagome and the seated taiji-ya he stumbled over an invisible projection. He gave a startled cry and windmilled his arms to try to avoid falling over on her, accidentally striking Miroku on the back and leaning on him. The startled monk, his hands still soothingly stroking over Sango's womb, unintentionally pushed hard against her skin for a moment. Strands of thin, white webbing appeared in the air where his hands made an indentation, disappearing as soon as he pulled his hands away.

 

“Gods!” Kensei hissed, his eyes wide with shock. “May I?” He looked searchingly at Sango while he extended his hand toward her stomach.

 

“You will not touch what is mine.”

 

Sango glared up at InuYoukai and did not look away when he met her gaze. “We've already been through this before.” She dropped her eyes as his gaze became more menacing. “I may be part of your Pack, but I decide who touches me!” She turned her face away, sweating slightly, and looked up at Kensei. “You won't hurt her, will you?”

 

“I swear I will not harm your daughter.” He reached out and placed his hand on Sango's stomach.

 

InuYoukai snarled viciously and stepped forward, but Miroku swiftly stood and barred his way with the shakujou. “Please, Inuyasha. We need more information to find out how to solve this…and…it is my daughter.” He risked a glance at InuYoukai's face.

 

InuYoukai snarled and raised his claws for a strike, but Shippo whimpered and burrowed under his chin. “Please! Papa, don't!”

 

Miroku held his position. With a soft “churr” Yourei Taisei hopped directly behind InuYoukai and began running his beak through his hair.

 

“What the fuck?” InuHuman abruptly manifested and leaped away from the taiyoukai. “What the hell are you doing?” He reached up and petted Shippo's trembling body while glaring at Yourei Taisei.

 

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Miroku bit his lip to keep from laughing. “If I remember correctly from my studies of Kagome's biology books, I believe he is exhibiting falcon parental behavior. He obviously considers you his…uhhh…his chick.” Suppressing a snort of laughter at the horrified expression on InuHuman's face, he added, “He is grooming you to calm you down, rather like what you are doing to Shippo at the moment.”

 

InuHuman abruptly stopped petting Shippo and backed nervously away from Yourei Taisei.

 

Kensei, who had ignored the interchange, gave a sudden startled exclamation and fell backwards, catching himself at the last minute with braced arms. “Gaaah! What—” He shook his head and a shiver traveled down his body. “What the hell was that? No one but a Time Lord can trap someone in time!”

 

“What?” Sango almost squeaked. “Did you just say my baby is trapped in time?” She met Miroku's worried gaze as Kensei patted the ground where he had tripped and began tracing an invisible barrier, low to the ground, between her body and Kagome.

 

“Why only for me?” Kensei mumbled, shutting his eyes and concentrating. “Why is this a barrier against time?” Suddenly he gasped in surprise and began to smile. Opening his eyes, he grinned and said wonderingly, “Not a barrier, a brane! And they're all there! I haven't lost them!”

 

“Explain why a brain is attached to my mate!” InuYoukai's body was quivering with barely suppressed rage.

 

“I, too, would appreciate an explanation,” Miroku added politely but firmly as he knelt down next to Sango. “Who was lost, and are there demonic brains attached to my daughter?”

 

Kensei sat back on his haunches, looking at them both with a puzzled expression. “You know about branes? They're not demonic, unless you want to consider the mathematics behind th—” Suddenly his mouth dropped open in an “O” and he brought up his hand, smothering a laugh. As InuYoukai responded with a snarl he waved his hand in the air and looked at the ground, shaking his head and chuckling. “Wait…wait! It's not this kind of brain!” He tapped his fingers against his forehead. “I mean a brane, spelled B, R, A, N, E.” At their blank looks, he added, “It's…well…our universe is the three dimensions that we can see plus time. There are other dimensions, compact ones, that are…well, in higher dimensional space branes can theoretically interact, which means that our space can be influenced by another brane. That's what's happening here.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and continued, “I think. I wish I could contact my mother, but she's in the other brane.”

 

“Fuck. I knew it'd be some shit that we wouldn't understand.”

 

Sango glared at InuHuman and he rolled his eyes. Turning toward Kensei, she asked, “Does that explain why Aiko grew so fast?” She rubbed her hand over her abdomen. “And is that the reason for the webbing we saw? Is Aiko safe?”

 

Kensei sobered. “Perhaps it explains her growth, because time would be different there, but…why did she grow so suddenly and why did I get the sense that she's been trapped in time?” He grew pensive and began to mumble. “If there was a time flux that she was free to resonate in and then she was trapped…then the growth would be a way to compensate for the flux between the branes…but why is it only…wait, is it only?” He began tapping on his chin.

 

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

 

Kensei held up both hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Wait, please!” He leaned over and ran his hands along the ground near Miroku. “Hhmph. Just as I thought.” Turning to Sango, he asked, “Can you stand?”

 

Sango began to struggle to her feet, but her bulky body got in the way and she slumped back. “Ooof!” Miroku grinned and put his arms under hers, helping her to her feet.

 

Kensei stood as well. “Can you walk away from this point?”

 

Sango gave him an irritated look and began to walk away, her normally smooth gait transmuted to something resembling a duck's waddle. Miroku followed, carrying his shakujou in one hand and placing the other protectively on the small of her back.

 

“Wait, please!” Kensei walked between Kagome and Sango again, reaching out with his foot just above ground level. When he struck an invisible barrier, he motioned to Inuyasha and Miroku. “Could you walk through, right here, please?”

 

Miroku stepped over the area. “I cannot feel the barrier that is so obviously in your way.” With obvious deference toward the youkai form now manifesting in Inuyasha, he asked, “Inuyasha? What do you feel?”

 

“Keh. I always knew you didn't have a brain,” InuHuman snorted as he stalked over to the area. “However, this Inuyasha feels nothing as well.”

 

Miroku raised one eyebrow sardonically and opened his mouth, but closed it abruptly and looked away as InuYoukai stared at him. “That was deliberate. And sneaky,” he mumbled under his breath.

 

InuHuman grinned.

 

Kensei, who had ignored the exchange, was pursing his lips and nodding to himself, one hand thoughtfully cupping his chin. “All right, that's one theory blown. But it might explain something else.” Responding to their exasperated looks, he continued, “I think all of you are in both branes at once, but I have to tell you, I don't believe the webbing we saw in Sango is part of the brane. I think that it's wrapping around the part of the brane where the baby is focused, and trapped her there. That's why she was struggling.” He stood up abruptly, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand. “If only there was a safe way to see the web again!” He paced to the well, staring into its depths.

 

“Was it a spider web?” Shippo asked quietly, his tail fluffed out like a bottle brush and quivering.

 

Kensei shook his head. “No.” He began to mumble again, murmuring “It was a web. Like a clock? But that can't be if the brane is…wait a minute…but I need to see—” suddenly whirling around, he practically ran to Yourei Taisei. Motioning upwards, he asked, “Can you fly out anywhere up there? Or only where you came in?”

 

The taiyoukai cocked his head and then carefully walked to his landing place, launching himself from the ground with one powerful sweep of his wings. Flying in a low circle that caused the wind from his down beats to buffet the group, he carefully began to rise. Almost immediately he bumped into an obstacle and had to dive, fanning and canting his tail feathers to keep from crashing into the ground. He tried several more times, but finally was able to rise up, beating his wings frantically, along the steep angle that corresponded to his earlier landing. As he flew higher he found the area that he had circled in earlier and was able to fly more easily, but he ran into an expanded, unseen wall as he tried to fly in any direction but that of the village. As he tried to escape to the west, he gave a harsh cry. Hovering in the air, he managed to insert one talon into a thin, invisible crack in the unseen wall before him.

 

“Compass point northwest one again,” Miroku said quietly.

 

Kensei cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled up to Yourei Taisei. “Thank you!” Turning towards Miroku and Inuyasha, he motioned toward the side of the clearing. “Could you please just try to walk out of here? Anywhere except the path to the village?”

 

After a few aborted tries, they found that the only point where they could exit the clearing, other than the path to the village, was a small path that led directly toward the Goshinboku.

 

“That's odd,” Kensei mused, coming over and reaching into the hole. “That wasn't there when I walked by before. It must have something to do with the baby being trapped…but why?”

 

Miroku waited a few seconds and when Kensei remained deep in thought he motioned to Inuyasha.  “We should find out how far it goes."

 

“I will not leave my mate. If you wish to follow the path, beta, you must do so alone.”

 

“I understand perfectly, Inuyasha.” Glancing back toward the group at the well, he asked quietly, “Will you please keep an eye on Sango, as well?”

 

“Of course. She is Pack.”

 

Miroku walked briskly down the path without incident until he came to the Goshinboku. On impulse, he reached out to touch the familiar tree. As soon as his fingertips brushed the bark he became absolutely disoriented by darkness and snatched his hand back. `Gods! What is that place?' Reaching out again, he tentatively touched the bark.

 

Black void, punctuated by pulses of light from a center star, surrounded him. `A pulsar?' To his left, he could see Kagome suspended between two massive, glowing strands, one the familiar electric blue of the worm hole and the other a deep forest green. Both strands were surrounded by two shafts of swirling energy that he recognized immediately. `Finally! In here I can detect youki!' “Kagome!” he called out to her, but his voice did not carry in the airless void. Feeling somewhat nauseous as his visual perceptions did not match what the rest of his body was feeling, he spent a few moments breathing deeply and trying to get his bearings. `Thin, white strands of power connect the two of us to each other and…six others? Ah, the Living Jewel. But where is everyone else? Wait!' He squinted against the glare from the pulsar and smiled as he was just able to make out a beautiful, black-haired baby situated directly opposite Kagome. A strange power web arched both above and below her, looking like an oddly distorted version of the luminous clock face which had been in his bedroom in Kagome's home. `Is that Aiko? Perhaps that other power web connected to her is the brane that Kensei is talking about, but I need my binoculars.' He frowned as his vision registered changes as the pulsar's strobe lighting revealed the power web. `That's odd. The brane seems to be moving…wait…what is that over…oh gods!'

 

Snatching his hand back from the tree, he turned and sprinted to the well, yelling, “Inuyasha! You must come quickly!” Skidding to a stop at the edge of the clearing, Miroku yelled, “Quickly! You must come!”

 

He could see that in his absence, Kensei had picked up a stick and had drawn what looked like a clock in a smoothed area of dirt. Inside the twelve hour points was a smaller circle of eight points, corresponding to the clock positions one, two, four, five, seven, eight, ten, and eleven. Finally, he had drawn four points corresponding to twelve, three, six, and nine o'clock at the center.

 

Sango began to waddle over to him. “What is the matter? Kensei was just beginning to explain the web he saw.”

 

Miroku motioned to the drawing in the dirt. “I've seen something like that as well,” Miroku gasped. “And I've seen our daughter.” Ignoring her startled intake of air, he insisted, “Inuyasha! You must come to the Goshinboku!”

 

“What's the fucking rush, monk? I don't want to leave Kagome alone.”

 

“You have to.” Miroku leaned against his shakujou for a moment, dizzy from his experience in the void and lack of air.

 

“Why?”

 

Miroku looked up, both hands gripping the shakujou. “Naraku.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

As the concussion of competing time forces, youki, and houriki blasted the Moonstone from Kagome's hand and changed reality within the Nexus, the miasma above a dead lake swirled and parted, revealing a small island from which a spinning spear of bright, untainted light and coal-black radiation lanced up from a rocky outcrop. The roiling cloud of miasma condensed into Naraku's humanoid form, but before he completely solidified the shaft of light and radiation suddenly snuffed out.

 

He balanced precariously on the sharp edge of one slime-encrusted rock, staring balefully down at the incomplete Shikon no Tama where it rested in a niche; the stone had reverted from a nearly perfect purple-black to a neutral pink.

 

“Damn!” The rock surrounding the jewel had been blasted clean of slime, but as his long fingers reached for the stone the underlying healthy lichen blackened and peeled away before coming into contact with his skin. “Missing my touch?” he sneered as he picked up the jewel and fisted his hand around it, allowing the sharper broken edges to cut deeply into his palm. Malevolence marred his patrician features as he imbued his blood with malice, resentment, and cruelty, bathing the rough surface of the stone and causing portions of it to turn the dark, purple-black of complete subversion to evil. He turned his hand over and let the blood run in rivulets around the remaining smooth surface of the stone and drip, hissing, onto the rocks below.

 

Satisfied with the almost black color of the jewel, he healed his cuts and watched the last congealing drops collect slowly into one mass, concentrating his malevolence into a heavy, pendulous globule. `I'm almost tempted to reabsorb that.' He allowed it to fall, but it caught in midair and elongated on miniscule, faint threads that spread in a delicate pattern which his strongest demonic senses recognized immediately. `A web! Who dares to take the Shikon no Tama from me?' The threads winked out as the drop fell, hitting the rocks below with a dull splat.

 

He brought his other hand up and chitinous, segmented legs grew from the tip of his index finger, clawing at the space next to the jewel. Closing his eyes to concentrate on the minutest of sensations, he focused the spider within him and tried to find the strands of the web. After a few moments of patient hunting he snarled in triumph as one hairy bristle on the tip of his eighth leg bent against a strong thread. He twisted the pincers at the end to grasp the thread, bringing the other legs to that point and tracing along strands that he could not see, frowning as the thread continued on past the point where he had seen the web. `This is not the work of a youkai, and it is larger than what I saw.' He found a connection branching off toward the ground, but when he moved to snap it the thread followed his hand. Frowning, he lowered the Shikon no Tama, but the thread did not go slack. `Damn. I'll have to let it take a bit of control.'

 

His face warped as he suppressed his sentience and allowed the spider demon ascendance, reforming his human eyes and growing six additional ones. When the transformation was complete, long black hair streamed back from a pasty white, domed forehead which contained eight bulbous eyes and scattered sensory hairs. His human nose was completely reabsorbed and long fangs protruded from his remnant of a human mouth, dribbling acidic poison down onto the rocks below. Though colors faded to black and white he was able to see the strands of the web of power easily in the ultraviolet spectrum of his eight-eyed arachnid vision. Maintaining just enough command over the spider to keep it from taking complete and permanent control, he allowed it to absorb most of his human body and grow to monstrous size, the one remaining human hand connected to the thorax of his body by a long, purple stump of flesh. While continuing to hold the Shikon no Tama in a tight grip he lifted his thorax and thrust the spinnerets on his abdomen forward, balancing on his front legs to wrap the jewel and the hand together with his strongest silk. His threads passed through the surrounding web of power as if it did not exist and, as his legs turned the hand within the spray of silk to cover it completely, the web of power did not rotate with it. Spiders within him hissed in anger as they recognized that the power web and the connections radiating away from it threatened his possession; he began to pull the shrouded hand into his thorax to anchor it with in his chest cavity.

 

Without warning a sudden blast of energy opened a doorway into another dimension directly below him. The Shikon no Tama was nearly torn from his grasp as it was pulled through the hole, dragging him after it. His bloated abdomen and three legs caught on the edges of the dimensional gate, allowing him just enough time to attach a wisp of silk to the rocky outcropping before he was yanked through.

 

The remnant of his rational mind recognized the void immediately as the place from which he had called forth Kanna.

 

That, the fact that the calculating predator instincts of the spider demon were uppermost in his psyche, and the tether of silk anchoring his spinnerets to the rocky island allowed him to remain calm as his perceptions altered and the web of power suddenly enlarged around him.

 

He swung wildly in space next to a conjunction of two power strands as his thorax was pulled hard to one side by the Shikon no Tama. As he swayed backwards he made sure that it was still clutched in his silk-wrapped hand and pulled it closer to his body by absorbing more of the truncated stump connecting it to his thorax. Before he could completely absorb it, he was jerked forward again and his frontal eyes responded to movement; a small, bright star sped toward him that emanated the aura of a jewel shard. He let out more silk and jolted forward, allowing the larger fragment in his hand to pull his bulk closer to the fragment, but a sudden flare of light in the center of the black void sent searing pain through his multiple eyes. Unable to close them against the glare, he spat hissing curses in the spider language and flipped upwards to crawl back up the tethering line away from the blinding light, though it took all of his strength to resist the pull of the circling shard.

 

As the blazing light dimmed to black again the shard veered past him and the Shikon no Tama within his hand pulsed with power; he felt the evil that he had imbued within it recede. Spitting poison in anger, he forced the spider demon to allow a portion of his human torso, one arm, and his head to grow out in place of its head; though the loss of his arachnid vision meant he no longer had the ability to see the web of power, he was able to turn his human head and shield his eyes with one hand as the star within the center pulsed with light again. The tug of the shard diminished as it moved away, so he took a few minutes to rearrange his body, absorbing the stump and hand and replacing them with several insect jaws. He then used his spider's silk to bind them and the Jewel fragment flat against his thorax. `I must bind it more tightly to my body and find the web. If I hold on to the power strands, perhaps the shard will come to me when it returns.' Looking back along the line that tethered him to his reality, he noticed a bright spark of light that was soon overwhelmed by the blaze at his back. `At least the portal remains open. I must anchor this tether to the power web so I can find my way back out.'

 

It was at that moment that the Moonstone passed between Kagome and the blazar, throwing her out of the void and creating a sudden vacuum of houriki that rebounded within the void as if a magnet had suddenly reversed polarity. The force slammed against Naraku's jyaki and thrust him back through the portal. He found himself tumbling toward the opening and almost immediately thrust halfway out of the dimensional gate, holding it open only with the swollen bulk of his abdomen as he braced his one arm against the rocks of the island.

 

“Grraaaaaahhhhh!” Cursing in all the languages of the vermin making up his body, he allowed his insect and spider forms free rein to hold the portal open. Spinnerets, mouth parts, and multiple legs sprouted from his bloated body and began to deposit jyaki-impregnated silk, spittle, and secretions to cement the hole in place. After a few moments, satisfied that the dimensional gate would remain open, he forced all but the dominant spider to retreat within and allowed the old tethering thread to drop into the hole. Turning around, he attached a new tether to both the rocky outcropping and the rapidly hardening secretions. Pulling his second arm and hand free of the spider's thorax so that he resembled a distorted centaur, he crawled into the void head first, hanging upside down for one moment. `Why is there no resistance to my return?' He launched himself into space and reeled out silk, following the old tether so that he could locate the conjunction of the power strands again. `Why was I thrown out and why is there nothing to prevent my return? The power that nearly threw me out was immense. What lies within the void that was not here when I called forth Kanna?'

 

His inability to detect time powers prevented him from being aware of Kagome as he splayed his legs, reaching blindly for the web. As before, one sensitive hair bent and he stopped abruptly, scrambling with his other legs for purchase. He crawled around the unseen strand within his grasp several times, finding the conjunction of other threads and anchoring his new tether to his old with a series of short, strong cross-bridges that wrapped the conjunction tightly within his own silk. Satisfied that he had a safe way to retreat if needed, he then used the same strong silk to anchor the hand holding the Shikon no Tama firmly to his thorax, noting in the brief episodes of darkness that the shard was moving closer to his position again.

 

`I must have it. If it is strong enough by itself to influence the large portion of the Jewel that I hold, when I pervert it I will be strong enough to destroy Kanna. I will retrieve my heart and the final shards of the Jewel that it holds. Then the Shikon no Tama will be complete.'

 

Unwilling to wait for the shard to come to him, he crept along the web toward it, laying down web of his own as he moved. As he reached with one leg for the shard, the predator spider within him made him freeze abruptly.

 

A convulsion had vibrated through the web.

 

Prey.

 

He cursed as the shard passed him, though he noted with satisfaction that it swerved slightly in his direction. Aided by the spider waiting patiently within his consciousness, he remained frozen in the darkness with all senses attuned for another vibration. `There is something within the void. Something attached to the web.' Focusing all his concentration on the unseen strands of web below his eight feet, he resisted the pull toward the open portal as the shard passed his anchor points. `I must find out what else is in here, if only to take the shard from it if it manages to get it first.' He felt the slightest of vibrations and waited for it to repeat. It came again, and again, and again, and he was able to identify a familiar, rapid cadence.

 

`A heartbeat. The heartbeat of something that is terrified.'

 

Not bothering to suppress a wicked smile, he began to follow the web toward the beat while laying down his own non-sticky silk in a pathway, anchoring it by tying it around areas where he felt junctions. Odd powers seemed to congregate at these connections, but he could sense nothing actively moving the web and the vibrating heartbeat called to the predator spiders within; he continued to follow it to its source.

 

Time passed and the slight vibration slowed for a while, but it began to increase rapidly as he crawled closer to its source. Though the vibrations indicated that he was closer to the prey, even with the pulses of light he could see nothing but the black of the void around him. As he came to the area where the heartbeat seemed strongest, the web thrashed underneath him and he closed his eyes, drunk with the feel of panicked prey trying to escape. `Whatever it is, it is trapped. I must make sure it is unable to break free.'

 

After a few moments the thrashing ceased, but the heartbeat and what could only be the vibrations of rapid breathing moved the unseen web beneath him in an almost continuous thrum, nearly breaking his control over the most powerful spider within. He allowed it enough freedom to crawl over and under the thick strands, laying down entrapment silk. The prey struggled underneath his pincers, but after a few passes it began to reveal its form. `It is smaller than I expected, but it is part of this power web. I must be sure that it can't harm me.'

 

Forcing the spider to suppress its desire to bite and poison, he stepped back to view the oddly curved shapes his webbing revealed. `Was it this that threw me from the void? It must have some power that isn't revealed by its size.'

 

The heartbeat and breathing slowed as he stayed away, considering his options, and the spider lost interest. As he gained more control over his thoughts, he decided, `If it could attack me with power, it probably would have done so already. I must find out what it is.'

 

He raised one leg from the web of power and allowed a smaller spider demon enough freedom to form at the tip of it. Standing back as the prey thrashed again, he drew the larger leg back and forth across the area, using the small demon's spray of silk to partially reveal the entrapped form.

 

The torso, arms, and upper legs of a female, spread-eagled and struggling like a bound sacrifice.

 

`I sense no youki. It must be a human female…and it can't have holy powers, or it would have used them already. Such an attractive body…perhaps I should try to see what her face looks like? Then I can decide whether to poison her now or wait until after I violate her. There is no doubt that she can feel my touch, and poison would only lessen her responses.'

 

He forced the smaller spider demon at the tip of his leg to shrink. When it became the size of a large tarantula he allowed it to crawl between her breasts and pause there, resting its abdomen and thorax over the pulsing vibration of her rapid heartbeat and silent, panicked breathing. Every demon in his being quivered at the exquisite sensation of terror as it was amplified through the spider's body and the sensors in his leg.

 

He waited until her heartbeat slowed slightly and then let the small demon move again, just slightly, extending a leg toward the place where her face must be.

 

She jerked underneath him, her heartbeat speeding up again, and he had to close his eyes as the almost orgasmic pleasure induced by her terror swept through him. The hunting leg came in contact with the strong pulse point in her neck and the small spider crawled purposefully over that spot, pausing again over the throbbing beat to savor his trapped prey's fear as she struggled against the web.

 

`The absence of sound and vision only emphasizes the sensations. If I had known of this pleasure before, I would have been much more creative with my former victims. Still, I would love to see the terror on her face.'

 

Concentrating in the flashes of light that allowed him to see his own web, he gave the small spider freedom to begin crawling up the woman's throat, laying down the lightest web to delineate her form while placating the clamoring voices within. `It is too soon to sting or asphyxiate her. Besides, the pleasure of her terror is exquisite.' She tossed her head back and forth once, trying to crush the smaller spider with her chin, but it used her movements to scuttle across her face and anchor her head to the power web below. It crawled across her forehead and began to lay down silk in what could only be locks of her hair, and his body writhed in pleasure as each demon within responded to her revulsion shuddering through the web below him. `Gods! Incredible!' As the spider anchored her firmly to the power web by her hair, her struggles and frantic heartbeat increased his arousal to a peak that nearly fractured his control. For a long moment, multiple insectile limbs, eye stalks, tentacles, and gaping mouths writhed in the strobe lighting of the blazar until he regained his will, suppressing the multiple demons and freezing the small spider demon in place. `Patience. There will be time for each of you to savor her fear and pain.' After a long moment he allowed the small spider demon freedom of movement again. `Let's find out how her face looks when she's terrified.' It began to delineate her features with the barest coating of silk, but he began to frown as the diaphanous web outlined her face. It was almost as familiar to him as his own features.

 

`Masses of long hair above a high, commanding forehead, a pert nose between almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and a delicate chin below the full lips of her heart-shaped face.'

 

“Kikyou?” As his word was swallowed in the empty void, his frown changed to a malevolent sneer. The hand holding the Shikon no Tama melted into his figure as he drew the jewel within his chest cavity and reformed his body, forcing the spider into the background and taking an almost completely human form. The spider's legs remained, protruding from his human backbone and creating a deformed halo that suspended his aroused human body just above her trapped form.

 

The void consumed his malicious laughter as he reached out to violate her.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

He would not have been so pleased if he could see the battered form that crept toward the point where his island was closest to the shore of the dead lake.

 

In the hours of his absence, the swarm of hell wasps had arrived at the lake and used the mud from the shore to begin a new nest on the last standing post in the shattered village. The frantic building stopped a total of four times: first when a solitary wasp whose markings identified it as the spy from the hilltop near the Kai-wolves hut arrived, clicking and dancing its information to the queen wasp. The queen ordered the hell wasps back to work and left the safety of the swarm, flying upwards with her antennae raised to detect the traces of her master's pheromones.

 

It took her a moment to identify the signature of her master because it was pulsing oddly, but she followed the chemical trail to the source, flying to the small rocky island while clicking her mandibles in an alarm call. Though she flew over the open portal several times, her compound eyes could detect no infrared signal and she could not perceive the dimensional gate beneath her or understand the other powers emanating from it. Clicking agitatedly, she flew back to the swarm. All motion stopped for a second time as she gave new orders, then building resumed as a large group broke off from the swarm and followed the original solitary wasp back in the direction from which it had come.

 

Several hours later all motion stopped for the third time as most of that group came back, flying awkwardly and low, burdened with a small, paralyzed body that was mostly hidden by their straining wings. A clicking call from the agitated queen caused them to abruptly drop the body at the edge of the lake, revealing the bone-white form of Kanna clutching her mirror tightly to her chest before the force of the landing popped it out of her arms. Rolling toward the putrid water, it caught on a smear of slime and fell in a wobbling spin, landing with its reflective surface pointing upwards. The hell wasps, convinced that the venom of their multiple stings would leave her paralyzed for many hours, left her lying motionless in the mud, her face turned toward the swirling vapors which partially hid the center island.

 

As they flew in a group to convey their information to the queen, the breeze stirred by their combined wings parted the fetid mist and a shaft of weak sunlight hit the surface of the mirror. The etched symbol in one quarter stood out starkly against the reflected light and an answering glow appeared under the torn fabric on Kanna's back where Miroku had seen blood.

 

If the hell wasps were able to read, they might have been confused by the twin symbols: both the mirror and Kanna's shoulder were inscribed with the kanji for “love”.

 

Kanna twitched and her eyes, which had been tightly closed, opened abruptly. Over the next few minutes, she merely stared unblinkingly toward the island while the hell wasps ignored her. If they had possessed eyes which could see the alternating powers erupting from the open dimensional portal they would have noted that the tempo of her breathing matched that pulse, but they were too busy finishing their nest to pay attention to the small movements created by her shallow breaths.

 

Then her eyes began to change, but she was facing away from the swarm and they did not notice.

 

Slowly, her formerly obsidian eyes began to echo the emanating powers, radiating light and dark in synchrony with the blazar. Then the stark white of her body and clothing began to turn ebony with the same pulsing beat, so that within seconds her form alternated between stark white with ebony eyes and absolute black with glowing white eyes. The pulses of a perfect negative contrasting with her normal coloring attracted the notice of the queen wasp; she flew over to sting her master's prisoner back into immobility.

 

The queen landed and raised her abdomen to drive her stinger into Kanna's white body, but as she stabbed down the demon child turned black and simply rolled out of the way, allowing the stinger to sink deeply into the foul, viscous mud. As the queen struggled to free herself, Kanna's negative calmly reached over to grasp the base of the trapped stinger, waiting until the hell wasp managed to pull it free of the mud before ripping it from the queen's body. Spinning into a standing position, she turned white again and stabbed the stinger down into the thorax of the already dying queen, impaling her into the mud in an unknowing parody of an insect collector.

 

The hell wasps stopped construction for the fourth and final time, answering the death scream of their queen by angrily swarming toward Kanna, but the demon child snatched up her mirror before the first wave reached her. Raising it just as she became black again, she drew in the youki from each wasp with an avid smile, stepping backwards as the twitching pile of bodies grew at her feet.

 

Moments later, she turned from the reflexively jerking mass of insect bodies and walked along the decayed beach, her alternating black and white eyes trained on the center island where the open portal beckoned.

 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Translation:

Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cuius fidei merces est videre quod credis: Latin; Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. (St. Augustine)

 

Just for the scientific record: spiders have simple eyes (not compound like insects) but they appear to respond to the green wavelength of “visible” light in addition to the higher energy wavelengths of ultraviolet. Also, you can find a picture that almost looks like the brane webs if you check out ESO 593-8 (a picture of two interacting galaxies with a feather-like galaxy colliding with a companion galaxy).

 

Pheromone: a chemical secreted by an animal (usually an insect) that acts like a hormone (influences behavior or development) in another animal of the same species. They are typically sexual attractants, and can have cross-species effects as well.

 

Fractals and chaos theory: a fractal is most easily thought of as a geometric shape that can be split into parts that are each a smaller copy of the whole (think of a snowflake…it appears similar at all levels of magnification). Chaos theory describes the behavior of dynamic systems, mathematically describing the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space (in other words systems whose state evolves with time) in which the dynamics are highly sensitive to initial conditions (also known as the butterfly effect).

 

Thanks to doggieearlover, leg, and kojika00 for nominating/seconding `Facets' for Best Serial, Best Characterization (Sesshoumaru), and Best Action/Adventure in the third quarter of IYFG!

 

R&R thanks:

 

Hugs to Taiyoukai-lover for reminding me that there are, indeed, still readers over at FF.

 

PM: Neko-sama, Taiyoukai-lover, DEL, Ranuel, OneInuLover (namaste!)

 

MM: Snowfall, Ranuel, Murasaki-chan, Knittingknots, DarkCuriosity, Deathmvp

 

FF: Inuyasha05, Forest Sentry Koneji, taiyoukai-lover,donaplaya

 

Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who put `Facets' or me on story alert or favs!

iPoe