InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 129

Pride (In the Name of Love) 129 / ??
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!
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// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - So. Mental soundtrack for Naraku last chapter? "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top. XD

And I must thank some of my recent reviewers for giving me some good ideas...especially Nyko-chan, you really gave me a good one... I love you guys.

Sorry for the delay on fanfiction dot net, its been down for me all day and now, much later, it STILL is down. Otherwise, my delays are largely due to the fact I just worked three days straight and it was crazy busy and kicked my ass...and sleep won out over sticking around and writing.
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// Do you not desire it? I can grant you power beyond anything you ever imagined. //

// I don't need it, though...and I don't really want it. //

// How can you not want it? Would you rather I slowly rip you apart? I am PERFECTLY willing to go that route. //

// Shut up and just...die or something. //

// You're growing soft. //

// I'm not. I was strong enough to subdue you, anyways...so what does that say for you? //

// You bloody FOOL, I'm willing to DEAL with you rather than just DESTROY you, and you deny me? For what? They do not care for you, in fact, do not even LIKE you! You owe them nothing. You were enemies forever and that will not change, no matter what new leaves you turn over. You cannot redeem yourself, they will not allow it. If that damned whore hadn't stripped your brain, you would even now be questing for their blood or reveling in it! //

Naraku twitched, wishing very much that he could just make Tsetsukosei SHUT UP. The dracolich was enraged at his continued captivity and had woken him in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. The fight to subdue the beast had been brief but brutal. It was not something Naraku had ever had to deal with before. He had absorbed resisting demons before, of course, but once he did their individual sentience and minds would vanish, evaporate and meld into the collective under the power of his central mind. They would submit to the control of his 'hive' mind, so to speak.

Tsetsukosei was entirely different. While he had been able to more or less sap the beast's strength and keep his flesh bound within his own body, the dracolich couldn't be killed and therefore couldn't be wholly absorbed. He was very much still alive and active and ANGRY at his continued captivity. Subduing the beast once was one thing. Having to continually enforce his will and endure surprise bursts of strength was something else entirely. And, as Sairex had cautioned...Tsetsukosei was old and frightfully powerful.

Worse, some of the things the beast was saying was striking chords deep within the kumo. Confusion gnawed at his brain. He... he DID want to stay like he was, surprisingly. He had dim and incomplete memories of his dark conquest and... somehow, this crippling blow Sairex had struck him had healed him in ways. He found he actually DID desire companionship. While being feared was nice...there was something very nice about NOT being feared. It was frightfully pleasant not to be alone, not to be watching his back at all times... to laugh and joke around.

Of course, it was distressing that he could not think too much on anything, no matter if it was good or ill. He basically was forced to live a simple life bereft of any real goals.

// I wonder...if I had another chance, and my mind was healed... if I WOULD revert to the dark side or if I could... could stay. //

Tsetsukosei cut easily into his thoughts. // Don't be a fool. Even if you DID possess the desire to be different in full possession of all your faculties, their trust in you, slight though it is, would be instantly and irrevocably shattered. The only reason they tolerate you now is because you are shackled and incapable. //

Naraku scowled. Incapable...well, he was.

// Make no mistake, kumo. I WILL get out of here and I WILL destroy you. I have given you your chance to treat with me, but you deny it. //

Naraku winced as Tsetsukosei assaulted his mind again, although this time it wasn't in an effort to escape...just an effort to hurt him, make him suffer for daring to thwart him in any way. In that instant, Naraku made up his mind and jumped out of bed.

// What are you doing, kumo? //

// Getting rid of you the only way I can! // Naraku ignored the subsequent insults as he pulled on a robe and then made his way down the hall.

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

Kagome blinked sleepily at the knock on her door and looked towards the clock. // 3:32 a.m.... what's going on? // "Just a minute..." she called out, getting up and squirming into her robe. She pushed her bed-mussed hair back from her face and opened the door, peering out blearily. "Naraku?"

Naraku frowned. "I... need you to help me."

Kagome yawned. "It couldn't wait until morning?"

"Perhaps...but perhaps not."

"What's going on?"

"The dracolich I have contained is attempting to free itself. I am concerned that I may, indeed, be unable to prevent his escape."

"I think Sairex might know a little more about him than me..."

Naraku shook his head. "No. I know what needs to be done. The chance of us finding his phylactery and destroying him before he can break free are practically nonexistent. He will not be caught off guard so easily again. I only succeeded in taking him because he wasn't expecting it. We have this one chance, right now, and to squander it would be foolish."

Kagome peered at him with a sigh. "What do you want me to do?"

Naraku squared his shoulders. "Purify me and the beast with it. He can't be killed, per se, but he is a demon. Eradicate him."

Kagome's jaw dropped. Sure, she had harbored a distinct desire to purify this very demon more times than she could count, but...it was different now. Especially after spending the day with him as a friend... she was a forgiving sort, and it no longer sat well with her to think of Naraku as a terrible enemy. "Naraku, I... I can't do that."

Naraku frowned, finding it difficult to hear her over the sudden rage in his mind as Tsetsukosei had a bloody conniption. "You have to! This thing needs to be destroyed and I... well. I'm an acceptable sacrifice. I'm sure any of your friends would agree." This last was said a bit more bitterly than the kumo intended.

"I won't."

"I'll attack you and force you into it in self-defense if you do not. If you do not eradicate me, then I shall continue to do so until you do."

"Then why haven't you already? It would have been far easier than coming here and simply asking me. You knew I would say no."

Naraku was silent for a long while. "I cannot hold this thing forever and I don't think you'll like it when he either overwhelms me and I fight you then, or breaks free here in your world. Regardless... I do not wish to attack you. I was hoping I could logically convince you to do what needs to be done."

"I won't do it. There has to be another way, and we'll find it."

Naraku was about to debate the point when Tsetsukosei withdrew abruptly, recoiling far back into his mind. The kumo paused, curious. What was the fiend up to now?...

The dracolich surged forward abruptly in a tremendous rush of power. Naraku let out a strangled, choked noise as he lost immediate control of his motor function, hitting the ground hard. Kagome gasped in surprise and alarm and kneeled down next to him in concern. A shuddering convulsion, almost a seizure ran through Naraku. His eyes flared, pupilless and crimson and glowing like twin bloody moons. The kumo's body jerked helplessly as he waged a mental war.

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

// Curse you, Naraku, let me GO! I will not let some pathetic human girl destroy my body just because YOU found some sense of morality in your bloody incapacitation! //

// Stand down, you wretched thing! I will NOT let you go and if it requires me going down with you to take you down, so be it! //

// You never would have felt this way previously... the same thing that makes you weak is what is making you ridiculously stubborn about all this. You WERE so delightfully twisted. //

// Sorry to disappoint. Stand DOWN, damn you! //

// I will not! If you intend to keep me, so be it, but I will not allow this to continue as it is! // Naraku felt the dracolich ripping into his mind. The kumo fought with all his mental strength, but couldn't get a solid grip on the slippery fiend.

His body jerked sharply as Tsetsukosei found what he was looking for...the gap in his mind, the ragged cut Sairex had inadvertently made in their desperate struggle earlier. With a triumphant growl, the dracolich reconnected the kumo's mind.

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

Naraku blinked several times, his body slowly relaxing. Kagome was kneeling over him, her concern evident on her face. The priestess let out a sigh of relief as the dark power surging about within the kumo slowly settled back down, retreating and becoming quiescent again. "Naraku?"

Naraku sat up slowly. It felt vaguely like waking up from a long and convoluted dream. Memory was flooding back into him at a shocking rate. Everything was so much clearer, made so much more sense... how could he have ever, ever found his incapacitation to be enjoyable?

Slowly, his eyes locked on Kagome. He found himself surprised that, with the return of his mind, that all the things that had happened in the interim still had the power to affect him.

// So I have changed after all. // "Kagome."

Kagome heard the change in his tone - it wasn't the lazy, almost always amused drawl that he had affected of late. "Are...are you alright?"

"I am not sure how to answer that question...but I can promise you a painful death should you take me up on my prior plea of purification."

// Uh-oh... // Kagome frowned deeply. This... sounded more like the Naraku she remembered of old. "You...your mind has been..."

"Yes." Naraku continued to roll thoughts through his head, pleased at his regained ability to fully process his thoughts.

"So...now what?"

Naraku paused for a long moment, mulling it over. He was surprised at his own answer...and so, apparently, was Tsetsukosei. "I would...like to keep things as they are. I will not suffer the indignity of remaining a prisoner...but I do not desire conquest. I..." Naraku's tone was surprised and sounded almost as if he felt he was admitting to something shameful. "I think I would like to have you as...friends."

Friends. The concept was so foreign...but these past few years had changed him. He had been a wily bandit and been overwhelmed by demons...his dark nature had shown him no path save conquest, blood, and pain. But of late....living with these people, sharing in their lives and realizing that maybe he, too, could have something more...

Perhaps there was a different course his life could take, after all.