Unbroken

Kilala stood beside me, restless. She obviously sensed the demonic presence that was in this building. I, however, not only sensed it, but felt it. I felt like I had been doused with a thick goo. My brain was moving in slow motion as I tried to force my brain to forget about what had happened in this castle, that Naraku was gone, and that I needed to rescue my mate.

I took several forced steps towards the black stone building, my movements slow. Kilala slowly walked beside me, on high alert for any surprise danger. I took another step and she stopped, growling at the spot on the ground in front of my feet. I glanced down, not seeing anything other than grass so I moved forward.

Out of the ground in front of me jumped a very small demon, about half the size of Shippo. It was scaly and brown with large pointed white teeth and completely black eyes. I lashed out with my hand, trying to knock the demon away, when its large teeth lashed onto my arm. Kilala jumped at me and ripped the demon off of me with her teeth and claws. I stood there for a minute, swaying on my feet as my body numbed. I fell to my knees, my brain moving slowly. My vision blurred and I blinked several times only to have my eyes blur more. I crashed forward, landing with my head facing Kilala who was now laying down, concerned for me. I heard her meow under the sound of rushing water in my ears. I closed my eyes to dull the sounds.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I lashed my arm out to shut off the annoying beeping of my alarm clock. God how I hated Mondays.

“Get up, Angel! You’re going to be late for school!” My mom banged on the door.

I groaned, not answering. “Angel?” I heard the hinges of my bedroom door creak open. “Are you okay? You need to wake up.” I opened one eye, looking at her as she sat down beside me on the bed.

My head was covered with the pillow in a way that I could peek out the side of my pillow to look at her. Her soft blonde hair reached her shoulders, her blue eyes showing concern. I removed the pillow at sat up.

“Angel Renee Baxter! What on Earth have you done to your hair!?” Her eyes shown bright with anger, her lips set in an angry fashion.

“Huh?” I reached my hand up to my head and drug my fingers through my hair, pulling some of the blonde wavy strands forwards and into my line of vision. My hair appeared to be the same; soft, blonde, although a couple shades lighter than normal, wavy, shiny.

At my response, my mother stood beside the bed and grabbed a handful of hair from the underside of my hair. I yelped at the sudden pain. She moved the strands in her hand in front of my face. Instead of being met with blonde hair, I was met with blue. I shrieked and grabbed at my hair that my mother held in hand. She was shocked by my reaction. She probably thought that I had wanted to do something rebellious and dyed my hair. Boy was she wrong.

I threw the covers off of me and jumped out of bed, ran around my mom and out the door, slamming the bathroom behind me. I grabbed the brush and began brushing my hair. To my horror, the underside of my hair was all blue. Granted, it was a pretty blue, but I didn’t really care about that now. I prayed that it would wash out. I jumped in the shower and scrubbed my hair with so much soap that my hands felt raw. None of the blue was washing out. After the hot water started turning cold, I gave up and got out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my hair.

“Angel?” My mom was at the bathroom door.

I ignored her, plugging in my blow dryer and aiming it at the mirror to defog it. I leaned forward, looking closely in the mirror for any other abnormalities that might have appeared overnight. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so I began to blow dry my hair, running my brush through the wet tangles until, finally, my hair was fully dried, wavy, and shiny.

I pulled my hair back into a bun, a little hair sticking from the top of it. I grabbed my eyeliner from the cabinet behind the mirror and applied it to my eyes then added mascara. I grabbed my shiny pink lip gloss and dabbed some on my lips before walking to my room.

I froze in the door way. My mother was sitting on the bed, her arms crossed. “Care to explain?”

I honestly didn’t know how to answer. Last night I went to bed with perfectly normal hair and today, it was lighter and blue. I shrugged. “I don’t know mom. And believe me, I’m not happy about it either. Just imagine what dad is going to say.” I groaned and shivered.

My mother, sensing the honesty in my answer, stood and wrapped her arms around me, holding me in a tight embrace.

Then she started licking my cheek with a sandpapery tongue.

I woke, my mind seriously confused. Kilala was licking my cheek, trying to wake me up. She succeeded. I quickly sat up then gripped the ground with my hand as my world spun for a second. ‘What am I doing here?’

I stood and looked around, spotting the black stone building. ‘Oh yeah. Sesshomaru.’ I unsheathed my scythes and cautiously moved forward, waiting for more of those strange scaly creatures to pop up. I took several steps forward, at the ready, when one jumped out of the ground. I didn’t give it a chance to bite me. I slashed at it, cutting it in half.

I did that several times as I made my way to the castle. Soon, with a few dozen little bodies dead behind me, I reached the front of the building. I only knew of one way in and one way out; through the front door. I grumbled at the design, upset that my presence would easily be detected.

Kilala slowly followed me, her eyes moving over every surface. She looked fierce and ready to kill at a moment’s notice. I was glad she was on my side, fighting this battle with me.

I pressed myself against the wall, Kilala trailing behind me. I crouched when I came to the corner where the stairs extended past the wall, forming an ‘L’ shape. It was deathly silent out here, I couldn’t hear anything besides my own steady breathing. At least the walls on the side of the stairs stayed an even height and were thick, giving me enough cover to move along the wall and sit, my back again the entry pillar where, at the top, a dragon head sat.

I leaned to my left and peeked up the stairs. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding when I saw that there were no one outside. Staying crouched, I made my way up the steps, pausing every once in a while to listed for footsteps, speech, or anything that would tell me that someone was near. I watched for warnings from Kilala too.

I inched closer to the top and finally pressed myself on the side of the door. Kilala had her ears plastered back against her head and she slowly stocked towards me. She came to stand beside me against the wall and I reached for the door, unsure of what lay behind it. I slowly creaked open the door and peeked inside. Seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, I inched inside. When Kilala made it in with me, I quietly shut the door and looked around. The black stone was draped in different colored clothes, dark purple, blue, and red. The furnishings were made of bamboo, just like the room I had been staying in had been.

I moved past the entry way and came to a staircase that moved up and curled to the right. I looked to my right and left and saw two very long hallways. I moved off into the shadow of the staircase, crouched, my back to the wall. I reached out with my mind, searching for Sesshomaru. I could tell he was close, really close, but I wasn’t sure in which direction I should go to get to him. As I extended my senses for Katsuro or Yamiko as well as Sesshomaru, I was immediately relieved to find that I was the only person who was free to roam the building. The two were nowhere to be found, or so my senses told me.

I finally found exactly where the room I had been was and Sesshomaru was still chained to the wall. He was awake but groggy, his mind blurred from a poison that was coursing through his body. He didn’t acknowledge me but I knew he was there. And I knew I had to get him.

I opened my eyes and followed the hallway that was on the left of the stairs. When the hall branched, I took a right, then another left. I traveled up a single flight of stairs and turned left again. As I progressed through the castle, the walls became more and more bare, the furniture becoming sparser, the lighting becoming darker.

As I moved closer, I could feel Sesshomaru’s presence. I touched his mind once more and stopped at a solid dark wood door. He was behind this door. I felt him.

I moved to open the door, only to realize that it was locked. I turned to look for Kilala who was no longer behind me. I had been concentrating so hard on finding Sesshomaru that I failed to see her stalk off in another direction.

I knew I couldn’t go look for her now. I knew that there was no one here besides us so I knew she would be safe until after I got Sesshomaru out of this room. I stepped back until my back was against the wall. Luckily the hall was wide for what I was about to do. I closed my eyes, concentrating on the power within myself. I felt my feet leave the floor and I opened my eyes. My scythes were glowing a soft blue. I made an ‘x’ slash with my scythes and the blue ‘x’ hit the door, causing it to explode. Shards of wood flew everywhere as I landed back on the ground.

I stepped inside, waiting for the smoke to clear. It was dark in the room, tiny slits showing a dark sky. I knew it was day outside, which the sun was shining brightly but somehow, this room shown stars through its windows.

As the smoke cleared I saw Sesshomaru chained against the wall. He was limp, though I knew he was conscious. I stepped towards him, completely happy that he was here in front of me. I stepped over a large chuck of the wood and ran to Sesshomaru. I stopped in front of him, by body inches from his. His head was down, not looking at me, even though I knew he was awake. I sheathed my scythes and tilted his head to look at me. His eyes wouldn’t focus on me, or anything else of that matter. I assumed it was a side effect of the poison that his body was fighting.

I crouched in front of Sesshomaru, and pressed my hands to the locks that were around his ankles. I concentrated until I felt power rushing through my body. The shackle fell from his foot and hit the floor with a loud clang. I repeated this with his other ankle, then his hands. Sesshomaru stumbled forward, his eyes finally focusing on me. He wasn’t seeing me though, but someone else.

“Winch, you will pay for keeping me captive here!” His voice was angry and he extended his right hand to stand out from his side, his middle and index finger pointing out while the other two were curled into his hand.

“Sesshomaru?” I took several steps back as his eyes glowed a fierce red.

I saw a thin golden light move out of his fingers to form a long whip. Then I heard an evil laugh.

“That’s right, Sesshomaru. Kill her.” A bubble appeared to shift through the wall and Katsuro stood inside the bubble, Yamiko keeping quiet behind him. It was strange. Not too long ago Katsuro was saving my life. Now he wanted me dead.

Sesshomaru growled and lashed out his hand, the golden whip hitting me on my right arm, splitting the fabric of my outfit and drawing blood. I flinched and placed my left hand over the wound.

“Sesshomaru?” I took a step forward and he lashed out at me again, this time the whip hit the same arm and wrapped around me to strike me in the back. I felt blood begin to ooze and soak into the fabric.

I refused to let the pain stop me as I took another step forward. “Sesshomaru, please.” I knew it wasn’t really Sesshomaru who was attacking me. Yamiko and my son, Katsuro, were controlling him somehow. I refused to fight him, refused to hurt him.

Sesshomaru lashed out at me again, his whip wrapping around my left leg, shredding the cloth and leaving a bloody mess behind. I hissed in pain. I summoned my powers and focused on Sesshomaru. Hoping to see what was controlling him. ‘There!’ Between Katsuro’s shield and Sesshomaru glinted a very thin, very fine thread. It was invisible to the eye but, with my powers, I was able to see it. I had to find a way to sever it somehow. ‘But how?’

Before I could find a way to sever the connection, Sesshomaru twirled and spun, his hair and fur pelt spinning in the air. With each turn his whip bit into my skin. I felt blood trickle down my skin as my clothes began to fell to the floor in tatters. One pass hit my cheek, blood oozing from the wound.

The pain was intense and the only thing keeping me standing was his movements. When he stopped and the whip disappeared, I collapsed onto my knees. My whole body was in pain. Burning, searing pain. It was hard to breath and I was becoming dizzy.

“Se…..Sessho…maru.” My voice was weak.

I heard Katsuro laugh again and a shill danced up my aching spine. The moved through the wall again, leaving Sesshomaru and I alone. Once the connection between the two and Sesshomaru was vanquished, Sesshomaru fell to his hands and knees, his face looking towards the floor.

I was queasy, dizzy, and blood was starting to pool around me. “Sessh…” I couldn’t finish his name. I was concentrating on not passing out.

He jerked his head up and his eyes met mine. When they did, I fell sideways, unable to keep myself sitting. Sesshomaru caught me before I hit the ground. He carefully turned my body over so that my head could rest in his hands. He ran his fingers over the cheek that wasn’t injured.

It was cold, oh so cold. I was shivering. Sesshomaru wrapped his pelt around me in an attempt to warm me. I loved the gesture, but it didn’t help. I knew I was cold from blood loss and nothing else. We didn’t say a word as I looked into his sad golden eyes. We didn’t have to. We felt everything we needed to through our bond.
I knew I didn’t have to say anything, I knew he felt every feeling I did, but I needed to say the words. I had grown accustomed to this man, even if he was cold and distant at times, okay, most of the time. I chose to mate with me and anyone’s guess was as good as my own since I didn’t know why he chose me. I was very weak as I reached my hand up and touched his left cheek with my hand. My fingers left a bloody trail along his skin. He closed his eyes to my though. I felt his sadness, his mourning.

I took a deep breath, praying that I could get the words out. “Sess……ho…..maru.” I paused and he opened his eyes as I took another deep breath. “I……I love…” I flinched at the pain that talking was causing but I didn’t care. “You.” I finished. It wasn’t how I wanted to tell him, it wasn’t how I planned, but I had to tell him now because I may never get the chance.

Sesshomaru didn’t have his Tenseiga, it was probably being stored no telling where. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to bring me back and hopefully, he would be able to find Tenseiga in time, but even then, there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to wake up.

Sesshomaru held me close, his head bowed. I swear I saw a tear run down his cheek. “I know. I-” Before he could finish I groaned loudly. A look of panic crossed Sesshomaru’s face. My hand fell from his face and I gripped his kimono, staining it red with my blood. The pain intensified the deadened.

And suddenly I felt like I was floating, weightless, all the pain gone from my body. But I wasn’t in that little room with Sesshomaru holding me anymore. I, instead, was in a large field full of wildflowers, a waterfall roaring in the distance, the stars twinkling above me, the trees heavy with fruit, and a calming mist spread across the ground.

I looked around and before stood a woman. She looked exactly like me except she didn’t have the stripes on her cheeks or the blue in her hair. She opened her mouth to speak and the words drifted to me as if they floated on air.

“Hello my daughter.”