InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Facets of the Living Jewel ❯ A caelo usque ad centrum ( Chapter 76 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters, Ms. Takahashi does.

 

I've been ill and had major surgery, so I won't apologize, but I will say it's been a long time. Things are looking up now…I can breathe and I'm pain free for the first time in over two years!

 

I would like to dedicate this chapter and the final chapters of `Facets' to my dear friend Neko-sama, who recently passed away. I'm pretty sure that she's smiling “a caelo” as she reads this.

 

A caelo usque ad centrum

By Licentia poetica

 

“I'm an idiot. A fool!” Kensei muttered, ignoring the ongoing shouting match between Inuyasha and Miroku. He had just turned in the direction of his terrified daughter's gaze and had frozen in position, appalled at what he saw. `Is that what she sees? I thought I could control the Nexus…save my family and ignore the rules, but I've only made it worse!'

 

Within the trees and quite comfortably upside down, as if its world was completely opposite to Kensei's reality, the ethereal form of a massive, feathered serpent pulsed in and out of existence. Is that…is it Quetzalcoatl?' As the serpent reappeared, Kensei rubbed his eyes and shook his head before staring out at the same spot again. Placing his hand against the barrier preventing him from getting closer, he mused, `Now there are more beings. That dog-headed man…I've studied him in ancient history? Or did I meet him in a Time shift? I can't remember.'

 

Next to the Quetzalcoatl a tall man with the head of a dog held a sphere of fire in his hand, nonchalantly ignoring the other humanoid creatures that appeared and disappeared around him with the same pulsing regularity. `Xolotl? Wasn't that the name of Quetalcoatl's companion? Such strange names.' Unsuccessfully trying to identify the other youkai surrounding the two figures, Kensei suddenly frowned as a tiny female that somehow reminded him of a hummingbird blinked into existence next to a diaphanous woman, too tall and willowy to be human. `She wasn't there before, and is that tall youkai dressed in flowers and leav—' he stopped abruptly and stepped back, mouth open in astonishment, as the upside down face of a jaguar taiyoukai appeared, directly in front of him.

 

`Thank the gods there's a barrier and it can't see me!' Moving cautiously to the side, he stared at the beings appearing each time the Quetzalcoatl wavered into existence, too engrossed to notice that the jaguar's eyebrows raise sardonically as it followed his movements with its eyes. Interspersed among the youkai were myriad lesser demons as well as true humans and animals. Some of the humans wore attire that reminded him of shamans or sages; a few of the lesser demons made Kensei's skin crawl. `Youkai and demons, some of them obviously filled with jyaki, and humans, some with houriki.'

 

Each of the beings was emblazoned with a symbol that resembled an equal-armed cross with a square superimposed over the top. In the middle of the black symbol was a bright, white circle.

 

`That symbol…I studied it somewhere. The cardinal points of the compass? Maybe, but what's that circle in the middle?'

 

Oblivious to the sudden, snarling growl behind him, he gasped as a pair of Time Lords appeared next to the Quetzalcoatl, dwarfed by its size and nearly hidden in the massive feathers. `I know them. They're from…South America somewhere, I think.' As they began to fade out, the male Time Lord gestured frantically at Kensei and pointed to the giant cross symbol on the Quetzalcoatl's side.

 

Astounded, Kensei was startled into speech. “You can see me?” He spent the next few seconds before their reappearance searching his memory for the meaning of the symbol. `South America. That symbol on a Quetzalcoatl...it's got to be centuries old!'

 

The South American Time Lords faded back into existence and the woman motioned to the cross, now superimposed on her chest, and then pointed to something behind and above Kensei. He spun around and looked up, unconsciously noting Inuyasha's unnaturally still, tense figure but ignoring it, startled by the new, closer position of the Goshinboku. `What the…how in all the hells did the Goshinboku move next to the well?' His brow furrowed for a moment but he spun back to face the Time Lords as the massive tree jogged his memory. “Gods! That symbol on all of them is the Chakana…the Inca World Tree!”

 

Abruptly his perspective shifted; the Quetzalcoatl shrank in size and a completely new group of beings began to appear, superimposed over the other cluster where they overlapped. `Are those…penguins? A penguin youkai?'

 

They were almost upside down, but not quite; the angle at which they stood was just off of parallel to the previous group. More youkai and a few lesser demons appeared: sharks, whales, seals, more penguins, and even a large humanoid whose tentacles and size branded it as a giant squid youkai. As more appeared Kensei became aware of a pattern in their stances. `They're…standing on a curve.' As he was trying to understand what he was seeing, two behemoth youkai, floating amid what appeared to be giant kelp, appeared on the other side of the Quetzalcoatl's group. They were canted in the opposite direction, continuing the arc established by the first two groups. He peered at the figures, trying make out their full forms. `Youkai have been appearing first…are they in their true forms? The biggest one's…a blue whale? And the other is—'

 

He sat down abruptly, groaning aloud as he realized what he was seeing.

 

Shorter than the blue whale but still almost 20 meters long, the youkai had a broad body with a short tail, four broad flippers, and slender, dog-like head at the end of an incredibly long neck. Wickedly sharp, dagger-shaped teeth gleamed in its open jaws.

 

`A plesiosaur.' He bent his head between his knees and ran his hands up over his face, fisting them in his hair as he groaned, “Different time periods jumbled together. The kelp, the Chakana, and the Goshinboku…World Trees from different parts of the earth and different time periods. Oh gods, what a mess!”

 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a gravelly, aged voice angrily hissed, “Ye had best speak quickly. Who are you and what have ye done to Inuyasha and Kagome?”

 

Kensei looked up from his seated position and found himself face to face with the pointed end of a drawn arrow; as he focused farther back he met the fierce one-eyed gaze of an elderly woman. `Kaede?' Her bow creaked warningly as she drew the arrow back even further, her aged-spotted hand highlighted by her black eye patch. `She's outside of the barrier…can that arrow get through to me?' Swallowing hard and raising his hands in a gesture of pacification, he tried to come up with a brief explanation. `She won't believe the truth. What do I tell her?' He took a breath and was about to speak when Time suddenly convulsed in his senses and a tremendous ripping sound disturbed the quiet in the meadow behind him. `Gods that hurts! Wait…what?'

 

Ignoring Kaede's sharp exclamation and the danger from the now-wavering arrow tip, he dropped his hands and turned toward the well, rising up on one knee.

 

“Oh, gods!” In the scant seconds that he had been turned away from Kagome, the time distortion around her had changed drastically. She was no longer bent between two times, though her arms were still held fast by strands of power that flowed into the well. Behind her the cold black of space surrounded the only remaining spots of color: the verdant grass surrounding the well and the brown bark and green leaves of the Goshinboku.

 

Standing in front of Kagome and glaring fiercely at something to the left of Kensei, Inuyasha's hanyou form held the Tessaiga at guard position.

 

Startled, Kensei shouted, “What? Where did the youkai…how did you—”

 

Inuyasha snarled viciously, but a slight noise from behind Kensei reminded him of the sharp-tipped arrow pointed at the back of his head. `Whatever is messing with time already hurts like hell. I don't need another injury.' Taking a deep breath, he held out a placating hand to the angry hanyou and turned to the closer threat.

 

Only to abruptly cry out and scramble away, crablike, from the absolute blackness engulfing the woman behind him. For a brief moment her figure was replaced by a scattering of stars that his dazed mind registered, in a moment of odd clarity, as the constellation Sagitta, but with a blaze of houriki the sharp tip of her arrow split the barrier in front of him and Kaede staggered through the brief opening.

 

As it snapped shut behind her Kensei grimaced from the new wave of pain in his head. Kaede opened her mouth and it took a second for his dazed mind to process that the angry falcon's scream he was hearing was not coming from her.

 

`What now?'

 

He glanced up and recognized the constellation Aquila, almost directly above him, as it flashed against the deep black of space. Another scream pierced the silence and the bright stars transformed into the falcon form of Yourei Taisei. For a long moment, the massive raptor seemed to be pinned into place by cords of a white substance, but with a third cry and a sudden snap of his wings he ripped away from the entrapment and began a steep stoop toward Kensei. Strands of white webbing clung to his talons and tail, forcing him off course until he struck the side of the barrier above them. As his body hit the smooth surface starfire flared around him, but he pushed against the glare with his talons and wrenched away with another beat of his powerful wings. The resulting tumbling trajectory caused him to crash into the opposite side of the barrier. Another burst of starfire erupted before he escaped for a third time and dove straight toward Kensei's position.

 

Kensei squinted against the glare from the stars and realized that the sky was, literally, falling.

 

The dome of the barrier, outlined against the black of space by huge ropes of the white substance trailing behind Yourei Taisei, was shrinking rapidly. Kensei had the brief impression of a huge, bloated spider form, attached to the boom of an oddly shaped crane, scuttling across the outside surface of the barrier. `What the hell is that? Is that spider attached to a crane or is that a…gods! Is that a leg?'

 

Before he could determine whether the spider and the oddly shaped boom were real, the stars where Yourei Taisei had crashed flared brighter, blinding Kensei. He retained just enough vision to see that they were coalescing into two humanoid forms. As the falcon taiyoukai continued to stoop, two brightly burning blue stars in the first constellation moved together to form intense eyes in the face of a young male youkai. The rest of his body formed from starfire as he dropped, following the falcon to earth, but before Kensei could make out what kind of youkai he was facing a harsh voice hissed from behind him.

 

“Kouga!”

 

It took all of Kensei's self-control not to scream. `Kaede! I forgot she was here!' Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, trying to find a measure of calm amidst the chaos impinging on his Time senses. Nausea from the intensifying space-time distortion twisted his gut, and he swallowed hard to keep from vomiting as the pain condensed into white hot agony in the center of his skull.

 

“Time Lord, is this of your doing? If so, you will reverse it before I kill you.”

 

It was almost a relief to focus on the coldly sneering feminine voice. The small portion of his powers still responding to his will recognized the Time signature of one the Generals. Opening his eyes, he squinted at the beautiful female taiyoukai floating down from the descending barrier on a cloud of youki. `She must have come from the other stars he hit.' Blinking hard to try and clear his blurred vision, he forced his aching brain to remember her name. Swallowing again to control his nausea he ventured, “Inu no Taisho? Lady Mizuki?”

 

Her lip lifted in a sneer. “Correct, Time Lord. Do not believe that I will be merciful because I am the yin Taisho. What have you done?”

 

Yourei Taisei landed on the ground and the barrier ceased descending with an abrupt lurch. Kensei flinched as another stab of pain throbbed in his head.

 

“Yeah, yeah, you're the Big Bitch. So what?” the youkai called Kouga snarled, the volume of his voice aggravating Kensei's splitting headache. “I'm the male alpha here, so shut up. He's mine to kill.”

 

“You're no alpha of mine, little wolf.”

 

“Prove it, bitch.”

 

Kensei felt dual flares of youki from the arguing youkai. `Gods, they're going to transform and fight!'

 

Kaede stepped forward, nocking her arrow in place and lifting her bow. “Peace.”

 

Kensei felt a flare of houriki, but suddenly Kaede sagged and had to use her bow to keep her balance. “What has happened?” the old woman breathed. She turned to Kensei. “I cannot reach my powers. What have ye done?” As she took a step toward him Yourei Taisei gave a harsh screech.

 

The pain in Kensei's head intensified and his control finally snapped. “Nothing, damnit!” Turning to the two fighting youkai, he screamed, “Don't you understand? I've done nothing! Now leave me alone until I can figure this whole damn thing out!”

 

The identical expression of shock on each of their faces corresponded with an abrupt cessation of the pain in his head and he almost smiled. `If the situation weren't so serious, this might almost be funny.'

 

Yourei Taisei crooned and one wing wrapped around Kensei, gently turning him away from the others.

 

“What the hell?” Kensei gasped as the falcon finally coaxed him into position and withdrew his wing.

 

He and the four others stood on a small island of reality almost completely surrounded by the pitiless black void of space. The only stars glowing in the vast darkness were those of the constellations of the zodiac, and he couldn't see all of them, but a small, bright band of light tethered his bit of reality to a larger island surrounding the Goshinboku and the well. Kagome and Inuyasha's hanyou form stood together in front of the well, their forms illuminated by a pulsing light emanating from inside it. Across the black void Kensei could see another tethered island. “Innin!” he cried out as he recognized his wife, son, and brother-in-law among the five figures standing there.

 

Yourei Taisei gave a long falcon's scream and the tall male youkai on the other island raised his hand, pressing it against the barrier as if he would try to reach across the gulf that separated them.

 

“Yourei Taisei!” breathed Lady Mizuki. “What has happened to you? How can you live separated from your humanoid form!”

 

“Mama! Papa!” Softened by distance, the frightened scream came from the fifth being on the other island. She was a small female with ears similar to Inuyasha's hanyou form and was the only figure not looking at them across the black void of space. Instead, she was frantically trying to reach something below her island.

 

“What the hell is she looking at?” Kouga growled.

 

As Kensei started to look down to see what she was trying to reach he was blinded by an immense blast of light from the Goshinboku. He staggered back, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the glow.

 

The World Tree was completely enveloped in white flames, though neither the leaves nor the bark were being consumed. Awestruck, Kensei watched as Inuyasha began a leap over Kagome to get between her and the tree.

 

The hanyou was brought up short in the first arc of his trajectory and the island beneath Kensei jerked. Renewed pain stabbed through Kensei's head as he felt the shuddering of the island in the very center of his Time powers. As the quaking continued underneath him, he shook his head to try and clear the pain, raising his eyes toward the flaming Goshinboku.

 

Just at the juncture where the band of light tethered their island, a black shadow with three pinpricks of light shining through it rolled to its feet.

 

`What in all the hells?' Kensei blinked hard, convinced his eyes were seeing things.

 

He glanced at Inuyasha and his eyes widened as he realized the shadow was moving in perfect synchrony with the hanyou.

 

On the center island Inuyasha's form, backlit by the flames, glowed with a single bright spark of light. Glancing between the two, he recognized a pattern. `Oh please, let this not be what I'm thinking!'

 

He looked toward his wife and son as they struggled to regain their feet. “Damn!” he breathed as he saw a human-shaped shadow, perfectly mimicking the movements of Inuyasha, standing in the corresponding position on the other island. Two stars glowed within the shadow.

 

The island bucked wildly as Inuyasha struggled against the forces holding him in place and Yourei Taisei screamed; a harsh, short, guttural sound of warning.

 

On the center island, Inuyasha stopped straining against the bonds that held him to the ground and whipped his head toward the falcon. Out of the corner of his eye, Kensei saw the shadow on his island mimic the action. As the head turned, the shadow tip of one youkai ear was momentarily silhouetted against the glare from the Goshinboku.

 

`Inuyasha's youkai form is on this side!' Kensei slitted his eyes to filter the light from the Goshinboku, focusing on the pattern of stars within the two shadow Inuyashas and the hanyou.

 

“Dear gods,” he gasped as he realized what he was seeing. `Those are the stars of the Inu no Taisho's zodiac constellation!'

 

Unfortunately, he was not the only one on his island to come to that conclusion.

 

“Time Lord,” the Inu no Taisho snarled, “What have you done? Why is the bastard hanyou son of my mate in control of my stars?”

 

“Peace, my daughter, your responsibilities have not been stripped from you. Inuyasha is merely manifesting another aspect of your stars. After all, in the western countries of your world the stars are known as Libra, the balance scales.”

 

Before Kensei could look for the owner of the deceptively mild but commanding voice the flames from the Goshinboku erupted into a blinding blaze. From the center of the flames a human figure stepped out, its face shining with a light that surpassed the brilliance of the World Tree. It regarded Kagome and Inuyasha with a warm smile.

 

“Welcome to the center of the Nexus, my children.”

 

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

Translation:

A caelo usque ad centrum. Latin; from the sky to the center. Literally from heaven all the way to the center of the earth, but I like the former translation because of the Nexus.

 

Scientific hint: South America (specifically Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) is about as close as one can get to a geographical opposite of Japan's location. If you're interested in the Chakana and Inca mythology, check out http(colon)//en(dot)Wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Chakana

 

Constellations:

Sagitta: the arrow, not to be confused with the zodiac sign Sagittarius (the archer). Sagitta lies within the Milky Way, near the constellations Vulpecula (little fox!) and Aquila.

 

Aquila: the eagle (all right, so it's not a falcon…it's still a raptor!). It can be found almost at the celestial equator. Let's see…equator, equal, equanimity. Oh, and its alpha star, Altair, is the vertex of the summer triangle. Does this mean anything, other than I'm an astronomy fan? Well, check Libra below.

 

Libra: Otherwise known as the same group of stars that make up the Dog in the Chinese zodiac. Depending on the viewer's discretion, the brightest stars, all of 3rd magnitude (oh, I do like that number 3) form a quadrangle (what was that? The jewel of four souls?) or you can envision a triangle top (three again with beta librae as the tip of the balance and gamma and alpha librae as the balance beam) with the right pan of the balance represented by sigma librae and the left pan represented by upsilon and tau Librae.

The whole point is balance. I've been getting to this point for ages. AGES!

 

R&R thanks: first of all, if I haven't responded, forgive me. I had major surgery in November and am only now recovering.

 

PM: Neko-sama

FF: snowecat, TheInuyashaKaidanWriter (a.k.a. TaiYoukai-Lover), Forest Sentry Koneji, laughingatmyself, mysterychild

MM: Ranuel, Leo-mae, KawaiiGirl, Murasaki-chan, Ivellios, ginhayashi85, Snowfall, ER

 

Thank you to all who have listed `Facets' or me as a favorite recently.

 

Bless you all for reading!

 

iPoe