InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 101

Pride (In the Name of Love) 101 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Het, Rape, Lemon, Violence, Language, Torture, Angst, Incest, Dark (at times). It's a massive story, folks, it's got a little bit of everything.
Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Sidestories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
Archived at - inu.adultfanfiction.net, fanfiction.net, and mediaminer.org ::: Anywhere else, ask!
Questions or Comments? - Email me at megami_no_remon@hotmail.com
Update List - If you wish for new chapters of this story to be e-mailed to you directly, please send me an email and I'll add you to my update list! Chapters will be mailed as soon as they're ready to go! If you are on my update list, I still appreciate reviews at any of the usual sites I post to!

// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - Come on, guys, you didn't REALLY think I'd go through ninety chapters just to say it was all a dream? How horribly cliche and cop-outish. XD Though the panicked reviews I received did bring me something of a sadistic pleasure... It seems I nearly drove some of my fine readers mad as well...I truly never did realize what a sadist I was...

Even though it really WOULD have been a delightfully unexpected twist.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm personally stable enough to write this story...lol...
-------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------

"It is done, Jormandar."

Jormandar inclined his horned head in the barest of nods, although he couldn't hide the malevolent grin on his face. "Very good, Tsetsukosei..."

"Hn. It was more draining on me than I expected, especially manifesting a physical body strong enough to accomplish my goal of distracting the Inu no Taisho. Careful of that wretch's youngest, by the way...his sword can dissipate barriers. But no matter."

"How is it you intend to go about breaking the dog in?" Jormandar asked, idly fondling the glowing crimson orb in his fingers. It was distressing news to find that the enemy could so easily break down magical barriers...but he had alternative defenses.

"In truth, I already have broken him. In a way."

"Explain." Jormandar peered curiously at the dracolich.

"I told you I would not have to do much. Sesshoumaru, for all his resolve to live and keep on living...has become a creature burdened with emotional attachments like any other. Waking up in a carefully prepared setting...the same one I first captured him into, in fact....and suddenly being told it was all a dream..." The dracolich chuckled wickedly. "With the help of his long-standing psychosis, it was easy to convince him that all the happiness and bonding he'd had since his escape was false."

"Psychosis, eh..."

"Hn. Sesshoumaru is not now, nor has he ever been a particularly stable creature. His mind is warped. He has a long list of complexes and disorders, some mild and some more severe. He functions normally enough, but hides behind thick walls of his own creating. Thinking that he let those walls down and received exactly the sort of pain he feared...but worse...well. Despite all his reassurances of late, he convinced himself over the years that he was hated and no one liked him....that the only one that ever really cared for him outside of the human brat he took in was his father. I simply played off what he gave me to work with. I believe I have driven him quite mad."

"You are brilliant."

"Now give me what I came for."

"Of course. What now, will you do, Tsetsukosei?" Jormandar asked casually as he tossed the orb, the lich's phylactery, to him.

"Go to present them with my terms. They will assuredly not accept them and it only heightens their anguish. I want the Inu no Taisho to know precisely why I am doing this. Even were they to come to try and rescue Sesshoumaru...by the time I'm done with him, he will never believe them to be anything but figments of his imagination."

"Do not be careless, Tsetsukosei. Your plan is not without its flaws. Some things the inu has learned are beyond his ability to create without previous knowledge."

"Do not underestimate me, Jormandar."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It took a tremendous effort to finally get Toga back inside the castle. The stricken inu lord had run around, frantic, refusing to accept that Sesshoumaru had been taken. When they did finally get him inside, he slid into his throne, staring at the wall and shaking slightly. No one said a word, although Sairex and Inuyasha were both on high alert in case Toga decided to try something foolish.

Things went south when Tsetsukosei's smoky form manifested across the room. Toga was on his feet and in the air, claws leading, before any of the others could even react. However, he passed right through the apparition, and Tsetsukosei's voice grated out.

"You would do well to sit back down, dog, else your pup will die. It would be a simple matter for me to drown him or crush him, even at this distance, with nothing but a thought."

Trembling with rage, eyes more crimson than amber, Toga sat back down. His fangs were bared and his claws gouged into the arms of his throne.

The dracolich chuckled before turning his gaze to Sairex, staring at him for a long time, then settling back on Toga. "I have come to offer you a deal, Inu no Taisho."

"What do you want?" Toga growled.

"Beyond revenge? I want only what is mine. I will offer you my terms. There will be no negotiation and no second chances. You will accept my offer or I will leave. You will have one hour to decide."

"State your terms."

"I will give you back your precious puppy as he is now...alive, if not well..." Tsetsukosei paused, enjoying the way Toga's teeth ground together, the way his muscles tensed and his claws gouged deeper into the stone. "...And in return, you give me back my raven."

Toga growled. "I am unable to make such a trade and you damn well know it."

Sairex gently rested a hand on Toga's arm. "Toga."

Toga turned to stare at him. "Don't you even try."

The raven sighed. "Toga, please. I've lived a very long life, and I've zurvived Zetsukosei's tender mercies before. I can...handle it better dan I fear Zezzhoumaru can."

Sairex suddenly sucked in a startled breath as the dracolich loomed behind him.

"It will be different this time, kittosei."

Sairex's eyes narrowed into a dark glare. "Do not call me dat, you twisted beast..."

Tsetsukosei's long-taloned fingers suddenly grabbed Sairex by the throat and lifted him. "No, this time WILL be different. I will devour your prized mind and shred you to ribbons. And when finally you die, I will drag your soul back and do it over and over...or keep you as a mindless plaything...kittosei."

Sairex hissed in anger.

Tsetsukosei smirked and dropped him before looking back to Toga. "Well, dog?"

Toga growled. "Why do you do this? Why are you so damned bent on revenge against me? What in the blue bloody hell did I EVER do to you?!"

Tsetsukosei's eyes narrowed. "You took from me what was mine! HIM!" One claw pointed accusingly at Sairex.

"What? If I recall, he ended up trapped in YOUR castle!"

"But you had him before I did...you took from me what was rightfully mine, so suffer the consequences of your actions, dog!"

"You mean...to tell me... because I unwittingly fell in love as a child...it is the cause of all this?"

"Call it what you will, but you knew the raven was mine. Or at the very least...I do not know how much the whore told you...at the least, HE knew he was to be mine. So make your choice, dog. The bird or your puppy."

Toga closed his eyes, fighting desperately to keep his calm. "I already told you, I cannot make such a choice. And even if I agreed and Sairex went with you...you would not release my Sesshoumaru, would you?"

Tsetsukosei chuckled. "Mm, I might...I'm not sure how long he will last. You see...your precious puppy has lost his mind. It was a simple matter to convince him that all that has occurred since you freed him...was naught but a dream, his subconscious desires and prayers brought to life."

Toga's eyes widened, some of the crimson fading in his shock. "What?"

"Ah, yes...it took a heavy toll on him. Especially thinking that his lust and love for his precious Lord Father was nothing more than a fantasy...and that you are long dead." Tsetsukosei turned his gaze back on Sairex and smirked. "My dear raven...you know of the talent I possessed that set me apart from all my clan, yes?..."

Sairex scowled. "Emulation...zhapezhifting...but..."

All eyes widened as Tsetsukosei's form wavered and shrank, warping before their eyes into a perfect likeness of Toga. Even his voice had changed. "It will be such a simple matter to deepen his insanity....to prove to him you were nothing but dreams and hallucinations. I will return in one hour for your decision."

With a wicked laugh that sounded just...wrong...being as it was borne of Toga's voice, Tsetsukosei vanished.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hazy gold eyes opened and glanced around the dark floor of the cell. Sesshoumaru did not move for a while, simply feeling the cool, damp stone beneath his cheek.

// Is this even real, or am I again lost in my mind? // A laugh bubbled up in his throat but he bit it down. Some dim thread of sanity tried to manifest itself, to take root in his mind.

Sesshoumaru's gaze fell on his hands, which where chained together at the wrist. There was something distant and fascinating about them, although he couldn't figure out what it was.

Sesshoumaru could not very well figure out what much of ANYTHING was. Any time he concentrated too hard, his focus blurred as his mind began to scatter, careening out of control. It all kept coming back to the fact that he had never left.

All the times he had spent, slowly coming to bond with his brother...gone. He couldn't even bring himself to feel the familiar anger or rage at him. How could a mere dream change his feelings so whole-heartedly?

// But why would he ever come here to save me? All I have ever done is try to kill him...been terrible to him....said horrible things....//

The monk...the priestess and her impossible world...the little fox demon....his Rin, all grown up....

His Lord Father. All the happiness, the love, the feeling of safety and protection and sheer simple bliss...nothing more than a fantasy. And a terribly inappropriate one at that. Having such thoughts about his father!... His father that had died hundreds of years ago.

// It is impossible for him to come back...I tried everything long ago. All that I felt...all that has been...it has been nothing more than a simple fantasy. I was alone...am alone...and I have nothing. I traded my life for the single creature in all creation that cares for me...I have nothing, am nothing...//

Slowly, Sesshoumaru dug a claw into his opposite palm and drew a deep red line, watching his blood pour out of the nasty cut. It fascinated him, drew his mind from his thoughts and allowed him to fall into the deep crimson flow. His coherent mind skittered away with a lunatic giggle as the strain of his accepted reality again intruded. He could not handle losing so much. It had all seemed so real, been so good....it had remade him. Every imagined suffering along the way was worth it to sit down at dinner with his strange adopted 'family'...to engage in meaningless, playful teasing with his brother...to curl up at night in the warm embrace of the only being he had ever trusted to keep him safe...

It was gone He had nothing, did he...nothing but himself and this beautiful crimson. Slowly Sesshoumaru raked his claws down his arm, watching the blood well up and run down his skin. He had nothing but this...this beautiful red. This was his. It belonged to him. He slowly raked his claws through the spreading pool on the dark stones, admiring the way the crimson streaked the dark stones and dripped slowly from the sharp points of his talons.

Sesshoumaru stared at the slow drips of blood coursing down his claws with a wide and peaceful smile, listening to the distant and sing-song laughter in his head until his vision grew heavy and dark and the world slipped away from him once more.