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Darkness	By : NihilEtNemo Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > Sessh?maru/Naraku > Sessh?maru/Naraku Views: 4546 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Darkness
- 1
TITLE: Darkness
CHAPTER:
oneshot
AUTHOR: Ankh Ascendant ( setosgirl0 / neferseti0 )
DATE:
8-28-09
FANDOM: Inuyasha
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own
Inuyasha, or make any money from it.
PAIRINGS:
Naraku/Sesshoumaru
TYPE: Psychological
RATING: X
WARNINGS:
bondage, “toys”, captivity, non-consensual, BDSM
OCs:
none
BETA: none
WORDS: 8472
SUMMARY: Sesshoumaru has gone
looking for Naraku, and unfortunately he finds him. Naraku imprisons
him within his body, trying to break him and finally absorb him into
himself.
NOTES: Written from a writing prompt, the list at setosgirl0.deviantart.com;
this prompt was “the dark”.

* * *

Darkness

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

As
far as he could see, there was no reason to answer the question. His
eyes pierced the darkness easily enough, turning the blackness of the
deep cave into a grey on grey landscape. Even so, it didn't reveal
the speaker.

"Come out, Naraku."

A chuckle as
dark as the cave echoed from the walls. "Why don't you come and
find me, Sesshoumaru? That is what you're here for, isn't
it?"

Again, he didn't answer. The answer was probably
obvious. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be easy. He had tracked
him here, but now the smell of Naraku was all around him, and was no
use to pinpoint him further; his voice was directionless, as though
projected, and also no use. He would have to locate him the 'normal'
way... walking and looking.

"That's why you left your
pets behind, isn't it?" Apparently Naraku tired of his silence.
"Is Kohaku supposed to be protecting them?"

As a
matter of fact, yes. Kohaku and Jaken were capable of protecting them
from normal enemies, and Rin was smart enough to hide. They should be
safe for as long as it would take him to kill Naraku.

"He
doesn't have a good record with that..."

Sesshoumaru
continued to ignore the taunting voice. Naraku was trying to distract
him or get a reaction from him - he wouldn't give him the pleasure.
If Naraku thought that talking about his followers was going to
strike a nerve...

“Do you really think that little
girl is safe?”

“Shut up,” he snapped, hand
moving toward his sword. His sword which was useless, of course...
Flexing his claws once, he left it alone. Naraku was just trying to
get to him... he couldn't let him.

Ignoring the chuckle drifting through
the air, he followed the cave around a corner. The darkness was still
oppressive; without his nose to guide him, all scents smothered by
Naraku's, he felt blind. It was not a pleasant feeling.

"Well, don't worry, I have a gift
for you. I'll lay your fears to rest."

His eyes narrowed
suspiciously, and his hand twitched again, but he didn't answer.
Naraku and his damned mind games...

"Just keep walking,
you'll find it."

Fully aware that he was walking into
some sort of trap and prepared to fight whatever minions Naraku
thought worthy of him, he followed the path around the next
corner.

His eyes widened perceptibly. Rin hung limp and quiet
halfway up the wall, her arms chained above her head, staring at the
darkness her weak human eyes couldn't pierce. If not for Naraku's
damn overwhelming stench he would have smelled her and been able to
free her before this happened.

"Naraku..." His voice
was a low and dangerous growl.

Rin looked up, peering around
in the darkness. "Sesshoumaru-sama?" Her voice cracked and
wavered with fear and hope.

"So foolish of you to put
your faith in those little creatures. For such a great lord,
Sesshoumaru, your entourage is pathetic. Do you just enjoy collecting
things that are broken and useless?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama...?"
Rin's voice was more scared, less hopeful.

He ignored Naraku,
relegating the voice to the back of his mind, and focused on her. He
moved before her and slashed the chains through with his claws, his
arm catching her smoothly. She uttered a startled squeak and clung to
his kimono.

In the background Naraku chuckled, but he was
already running back toward the exit before whatever trap this was
could spring. Involving Rin was a mistake on Naraku's part... It
would get him killed.

He ignored the part of his heart that
felt fear of his own, counterpoint to hers. He had failed to protect
her again and she could have been killed... Again. Only the fact that
she was unharmed kept that in a forbidden corner of his heart rather
than the forefront of his being.

"Sesshoumaru-sama..."
There was no fear in her voice anymore. His hand tightened barely
around her, but he remained silent.

"Sesshoumaru-sama...
You're so predictable..."

His head jerked down to stare
at her as he stopped abruptly. He immediately turned to fling the
girl away from him, but not immediately enough. The body he held
faded into a flower that sailed through the air. Sudden pain sliced
through his back and radiated outward, and his hand came up to feel a
smooth spar of stone sticking through his chest, punched straight
through his armor, connecting to the opposite wall. He was strong
enough to pull himself off of it, but the damage to his body would be
immense.

His head jerked up as he heard movement
in the air. A young-looking man with black hair who reeked of Naraku
as much as the rest of the place landed on the spar through his
chest, sending tremors vibrating up it. He pressed his teeth together
firmly and contained any sign of the pain.

“This is Byakuya,” Naraku's
voice informed him. “My newest incarnation. I believe you've
met? But you probably didn't know that he was an illusionist...”

His eyes narrowed. Rin... He hadn't
been able to smell her because she had never been there at all...

Byakuya smiled at him and bowed,
mocking him. “Pleased to make your acquaintance without you
trying to kill me.”

He darted forward along the stone,
leaving a smear of blood behind him, claws prepared to rip the false
demon to pieces.

Byakuya lightly jumped away. “Ah.
Well, not at first anyway.”

He repressed a growl, watching Naraku's
offspring silently. Obviously they wanted something of him... They
were only mocking and teasing him. Naraku so loved to toy with
people's emotions...

“Go now,” Naraku instructed
his offspring. “Go find that human girl for real this time...”

“As you wish.” He made a
flippant gesture toward Sesshoumaru and started back down the tunnel.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as they
followed him, for a second, and he moved again, his foot pushing off
the wall. His eyes stayed focused on Byakuya's back even as the stone
ripped through flesh and muscle underneath the stump of his left arm.
The sound of splintering bone accompanied the pain of his ribs being
forced out of place to allow its passage. Naraku's odor was
momentarily overwhelmed by his own blood; it gushed from his side,
soaking his kimono and flooding the floor behind him. That wasn't
important.

He felt the pain but didn't acknowledge
it, moving silently across the distance to Naraku's offspring.
Somehow Byakua was alerted to him and turned in time to get a shallow
cut across chest instead of his upper third separate from the lower
two-thirds, but that didn't deter him; he slashed as him again,
dodging vines that crawled from the walls and floor at Byakuya's
urging to capture him. He continued to just barely avoid him.

“Go,” Naraku's voice
ordered again, and Byakuya turned to flee down the tunnel without
looking back, but he was behind him. He would not let this thing
escape to find Rin and the others...

Diamond spears shot across the tunnel
between them, and he dodged back just enough to miss them, feeling
the air of their passage part his bangs. He had to focus on avoiding
them for a few seconds even as he tried to get past, long enough for
Byakuya to escape, to the soundtrack of Naraku's chuckle.

“Foolish, Sesshoumaru...”
Another diamond spar aimed for his gaping side, and he twisted out of
the way. “You didn't realize that you're inside of me... It was
too late for you the moment you stepped into the 'cave'.”

His breath hissed through his teeth.
That perfectly explained the stench of him through this place... This
was not good.

Without bothering to answer, any more
than he bothered to answer most of Naraku's pointless taunting, he
turned his face toward the exit and ran, calling on his innate speed.
The bleeding wound in his side slowed him own, but there wasn't time
to deal with that yet. Once he was outside again...

The stone of the wall at the far end of
the tunnel shifted and morphed into Naraku's face. He only gave it a
cold glance.

The sound behind him alerted him to
more of the diamond spars coming for him, and more grew out of the
walls an ceilings before him. He moved, but Naraku moved them with
him, and he saw for a split second that he was surrounded. Then every
one of them plunged into his body.

Naraku laughed.

His hand twitched erratically, his arm
pinned across his chest by three separate spars that all managed to
miss his heart. His lungs were not so lucky. He gagged, wracking his
body with pain as it pulled against the diamond piercing it, and
coughed a gout of blood across the thickest spar, that led toward the
floor under Naraku's head. Blood trickled down the dark facets of the
jewels.

He shifted one foot on the ground; his
spine was thus far still intact. That couldn't have been an accident.
Naraku was still keeping him alive... That bastard was still toying
with him. A small growl escaped him as his hand clenched into a
useless fist, and a bubble of blood came with it, staining his
tongue. He resolutely swallowed it this time, unwilling to give
Naraku more than he had to.

If he tried to pull himself off of them
this time, he would literally rip himself apart. Granted, that would
be preferable to being Naraku's prisoner, but it would leave him
helpless.

Naraku's face melted back into the wall
and reappeared above him. He gave it a painful glare, still searching
his choices. Rip himself apart or submit...

“Nice try,” Naraku told him
with a smirk. “But now you're out of options. Don't feel too
bad... Your power won't go to waste.”

He clenched his teeth against a growl
and settled on the third option.

His power surged abruptly, sealing as
many of the wounds as possible, and enveloping him in a palpable
aura. He felt his body changing shape, growing... The darkness seemed
to lighten as his eyes grew... Naraku's reek became even more
oppressive as his sense of smell sharpened further.

As he grew into his true form, the
walls and ceiling pressed against his back and sides, trying to
confine him in this space much too small for him. He ducked his head
and shouldered the stone aside, feeling it crumble around him,
sifting to his feet in piles and chunks. The diamond tore through
him, but in this form, the damage was negligible. Naraku could not
hurt him.

As his solidified he twisted, teeth
snapping through the stone where Naraku's face had last been. It
tasted like rot and poison, like Naraku himself. No sign of it
actually hurting him, however. He spat the stone out and sniffed the
air, then shook his head to try and get the smell from his nose.
Nothing but Naraku everywhere.

He shouldered the stone aside again and
shoved his way through the mountain that was Naraku, his front paw
digging into it. Naku's heart was here somewhere. That was his goal,
and freedom only a distant second. Hard to keep unimportant goals in
his mind now. Naraku, dying... that was the important thing. Killing
Naraku. Hunting Naraku.

“You're a persistent mutt, aren't
you?”

He twisted instinctively toward the
voice, snapping at the stone. The pile of rubble he was standing on
shifted, but that was unimportant, barely noticed. More important was
the fact that the stone he bit into melted and molded around his
muzzle, clamping his jaws shut. He yanked it back and shook his head,
trying to shake or pull the stone muzzle off.

His head hit the stone walls, and he
realized they were closing in. Bracing himself, he tried to shove
through them again... This time they were diamond, not stone. They
wrapped around him, forcing him immobile, curled up. He was slowly
being crushed by them.

It took a long moment for him to
realize he should change back. Rather, that he had no choice but to
change back if he were going to escape being crushed.

He lost that form, shedding the canine
size, strength, and bloodlust in favor of agility and having his mind
back. He shrank back almost immediately and jumped away as the walls
tried to shoot him through with diamond spears.

He found quickly that there was no
escape to be had. He was enclosed in a space approximately the size
and shape of his canine body.

The spears chased him, but not as
though they were serious. And as he stepped on another one he
realized why; they were growing together, shrinking his space with
each one.

It seemed Naraku was waiting for him to
realize that. As he did, the walls rushed toward him, and every last
hint of light abruptly disappeared.

_ – =*= – _

An interminable time of darkness
passed. In retrospect, it was probably only a few minutes, but at the
time it seemed much longer.

His eyes slowly detected a faint glow.
As it grew, or his eyes accustomed to it, he found himself kneeling
and holding Tenseiga planted on the diamond in front of him. He
didn't remember grabbing it... Regardless, it was the sword that was
glowing, forming a small barrier around him that kept Naraku's
crushing stone away, saving his life for the time being.

He
looked around slowly, then raised his hand to the wall. The glow of
the sword faded minutely as he let go of it, but faithfully held back
the diamond trying to crush him. Setting the tips of his claws to the
wall, he focused, feeling his venom glands open and the potent poison
seep out; he could spray it with more force, but it would be more
concentrated in small doses.

But the strength of the acid
didn't matter; it only ran down the surface of the diamond in small
rivulets, pooling around the Tenseiga. It reflected the sword's glow
with a sickly greenish cast, giving him a little more light in his
prison. All it revealed was darkness and more darkness beyond the
walls, however.

His claws slid along the surface of the
diamond as he considered. He didn't see any marks left on it... That
further annoyed him. He should have been able to do something to it.
He was not just helpless, after all...

He pulled his hand
back, and after a mere second of careful consideration he shoved it
forward once again, his claws glinting in the light, razor-sharp
edges that could crush stone and easily slice bone arrowing toward
the wall.

Then it hit, and instead of slicing they simply
collided. The rebound jarred him off balance and he fell against the
opposite wall with a hiss of pain, holding his arm instinctively
close to his chest. The middle claw had been completely ripped off,
and was bleeding freely... The first and third were broken hideously.
All of his fingers were mangled, and he might have broken his arm.
That would take some time to heal...

"I find that sword
inconvenient."

He jerked his head up, eyes narrowed.
Naraku's disembodied face swam out of the darkness behind the thick
diamond prison, leering at him. The smug smirk on his face gave him
no feeling so much as the desire to reach through and rip his face
completely off... A low growl escaped his throat.

In time with the sound, the glow of the
Tenseiga brightened a little, throwing shards of light off the
diamond toward Naraku.

He only chuckled. “It's the only
thing standing between you and being the newest part of my body...
I'm sure you're rather attached to it right now. But make no mistake,
I will have you. Your sword can't protect you forever. Then, I'll
have your power... Even if it turns out I don't need you, I'm sure
you'd make an interesting extension... You could work side by side
with Byakua.”

His broken hand clenched into an
agonized but enraged fist. “You would not dare...”
A mere offspring, on the level with the beast from which he'd had
Tokijin made? Even Naraku wouldn't dare insult him like that...

Naraku chuckled,
stoking his rage further. “We'll see. I'm sure I could use that
pride for something...”

“This pride
will see you dead,” he spat.

“One of us...
But not me, I think.” Naraku's face started to fade back into
the stone, but his voice echoed after him. “I have more
patience than you have time. Welcome to the darkness, Sesshoumaru.”

He ground his
teeth; one of the points chipped off and flicked across his tongue,
but he ignored it. He shifted into a better sitting position with his
legs crossed and rested his hand on top of the Tenseiga, staring into
the dark stone on the other side of the diamond while he waited for
it to heal.

One of them... One
of them indeed. Naraku would die.

Tenseiga glimmered
calmly.

_ – =*= – _

He discovered it
was impossible to judge time while he waited in the darkness. The
only way he had of estimating its passage was the progress of his
arm; after it healed, it was all completely subjective. His legs grew
slowly tired from maintaining their position, but there was no room
to stretch them, and so he ignored them instead.

He slowly brushed
his fingers through the dribbles of poison pooled at the base of
Tenseiga, feeling the diamond for cracks or damage. There were none.
It was as smooth and flawless as ever and showed no sign of giving
way...

He bit back a sound
of annoyance and set his claws against it, trying to dig them into
it. Even just a tiny hole would be purchase, and the means of his
escape.

Instead of throwing
all of his strength against it again and injuring himself, again, he
gradually brought it to bear, focusing his attention on the diamond.
One small crack... He only needed one small crack...

He stopped when the
first of his claws snapped cleanly off. Raw skin in the nail bed was
stung by the poison and he lifted his hand, idly shaking it off. His
eyes lifted to the wall in front of him. He had to admit that was a
pointless course of action; his claws would not dig through diamond.

Reaching up, he
shifted his fur and let out his power again, to retake his true form,
the form with the strength to free him. It swirled around silently
him and his body began to change, filling the space rapidly with fur
and solid muscle.

It had no more than
started however before he let out a high pitched whine of pain and
collapsed to the side on his fur, abruptly back in his lesser form,
his arm lying mangled across his chest and his armor shattering to
dust around him in a pile and Tenseiga forced against the farther
wall. The space was too small. He had known that, but normally he
could make the space bigger as he grew. ...Now, his brute strength
couldn't force his way out. If he transformed fully he would be
completely crushed.

His claws couldn't
free him. His strength couldn't free him.

Golden eyes rose
toward the stone. Somewhere in the darkness, he heard Naraku
laughing.

_ – =*= – _

Either time was
taking much longer to pass, or he was healing more slowly.

His dislocated and
mangled arm across his chest, he considered the darkness above him,
lying against his fur propped on the wall. He thought it was the
latter. As he realized his situation, his body had begun to shut
down, instinctively conserving his power and energy. He was starting
to feel hungry, which he wouldn't if he hadn't expended as much power
as he already had in his attempts to get Naraku, but he ignored that;
he didn't have much choice, unless he wanted to eat his own fingers.
It was relegated to the back of his mind with the pain of his arm and
the weary aching in his legs and back and the excruciatingly slow
healing as his remaining power was hoarded. He made no attempt at
accessing it, either. He had no idea how long it would have to
sustain him... or what good it would do if it did.

The light of the
Tenseiga propped against the other wall flickered, and he felt the
diamond shift infinitesimally closer. His eyes flicked silently
toward the sword. Was its shield failing? Already? It wouldn't matter
how long his power could sustain him then...

After watching it
glow steadily for a few moments, he determined that it had likely
been a momentary flicker. It seemed fine now, and the diamond wasn't
moving again. It was holding again, at least for now.

But now that was
something else on his mind. How long would Tenseiga hold out? It had
never had to sustain its shield so long before... he had never
thought about its limit. He supposed it must have one, even if it
wasn't something he wanted to consider. If he didn't know its limit,
however, there was no way Naraku could.

Fucking Naraku.

Thus far, Naraku
hadn't returned to taunt him any more. Perhaps he really was being
patient, waiting for him to lose his shield so he could be absorbed.
The idea revolted him... Naraku, of course, knew that, and was
letting the idea fester in his mind, so that he could bother him
without having to do a thing.

It worked. He would
never allow himself to become a part of Naraku – never.
It was not an option.

He shifted so that
his left shoulder was touching Tenseiga. There were a lot of things
that weren't options right now... Most things, in fact. There was
only one choice, and that was to wait. He was not good at waiting,
and never had been; inactivity rubbed him the wrong way when there
was an enemy or a purpose. However, for the moment, despite the enemy
and the purpose, he had no other option. Eventually, Naraku would
make a mistake... and he would wait until he did, though it disagreed
with him, because he had to.

Tenseiga's glow
seemed to strengthen, fortified by something unseen. If the effect
wasn't his eyes playing tricks on him, he welcomed it, though he
acknowledged the possibility that it was an illusion brought on by
the dimness and the reflections in the diamond. Perhaps Tenseiga had
found its inner strength and was ready to protect him for a while
longer.

Or perhaps he was
ascribing noble motivations to a sword that was basically nothing...
Just a scrap cast off of Inuyasha's.

His mind needed to
be occupied, and imagining things about his sword would do that for
the moment, at least. He didn't try very hard to deter the thoughts
about it. It was a piece of Tetsusaiga, but it still existed after it
had been broken and returned the Meidou to the original... That meant
something. That it was a real sword and not just a discarded piece,
perhaps. And if that were so, there was no reason that it, like
Tetsusaiga, couldn't have a will of its own and protect the one it
chose.

Nobility might
stretch that a bit far, however. It might have a will, but he
sincerely doubted it had intelligence, or feelings. If it did, it
would have abandoned him long since for the insults he'd heaped on
it. No, rather like a pet, it simply protected its master.

Either way,
however. At least it was shielding him from Naraku.

Tenseiga continued
to glow placidly, unaware of his thoughts. He didn't go out of his
way to enlighten it, either, but shifted the remains of his missing
arm on top of the hilt. Tenseiga's power might outlast Naraku's
patience... with that, he could win this. When Naraku grew impatient
and came to kill him, Naraku would die instead...

Tenseiga's glow
seemed to agree with his plan. Although that support was of course in
his imagination, it was a slightly reassuring imagining, not that he
needed reassured or supported. It seemed he was imagining Tenseiga
playing Jaken's role. He had grown accustomed to the kappa's inane
babbling and sycophantic worship... He hadn't heard it since leaving
them behind and going after Naraku. It would have filled the silence
nicely, if nothing else.

His mind would have
to do that for now, however, until he got out of here to hear Jaken
and the others again, and then shortly thereafter wish for the
silence back.

...Tenseiga was not
good conversation.

His eyes slid away
from the sword, his mind and body growing restless at the lack of
stimulation. As though almost saying he missed Jaken weren't enough
to prove it, he wanted to get up and walk, anywhere, which was
obviously not an option. He closed his eyes, willing his mind to turn
from the boredom to at least sleep. It would dull the pain and help
recover his energy and power, which it would be smarter to do earlier
rather than later.

Pushing his breath
out slowly, he ignored the darkness outside his eyelids and passed
into the darkness within.

_ –
=*= – _

Movement woke him
with a start, the subtle shifting of the wall behind him. He jerked
his head up, and it collided with the ceiling in the darkness.

He realized
simultaneously that Tenseiga's light had nearly gone out and the
space was closing in around him. With a painful twist he grabbed the
hilt of the sword and poured power into it. The sword flashed
blindingly for a moment and the walls stopped moving in, but he could
only look at them blankly. They were so close now. Tenseiga fell back
to a dim glow, leaving him mostly in darkness, and the walls were
closer together than the length of his one arm. When he crossed his
legs, he was touching them on all sides.

It didn't come as
much of a surprise that he couldn't sleep, in retrospect. Tenseiga's
light had been flickering... now it was feeble even with his
conscious addition of power. Sleeping and paying it no attention
would spell his doom that much faster. Likely, he wouldn't wake
again.

Tiredness, then,
was pushed to the back of his mind with the hunger, aches, and pain.
He sat holding Tenseiga calmly in front of him with the blade planted
on the diamond floor, contemplating the dark walls. The dim light no
longer cast back reflections and refused to pierce the diamond much
more than the width of his hand, and it seemed now that he was
encased in a murky void like the Meidou, where light simply fell away
into depthless darkness and ceased to be.

Only endless dark
and oppressive silence surrounded him.

The darkness
ignored him as he watched it. It didn't have to pay him any mind...
Compared to the bottomless blackness of Naraku, the light of his
small sword was nothing. It probably did have the patience to wait
him out... It didn't have to even try to take him. Eventually his
defenses would come down...

Tenseiga flickered
again, and he looked at it, willing it to keep the shield up. For a
moment more it wavered, then found its light again and the light
returned to its latest normal strength, weak as that was.

It would hold for
now. How much longer he didn't know...

_ –
=*= – _

“Are you
afraid of the dark, Sesshoumaru?”

He lifted his head,
eyes skating around him as he heard the quiet whisper in the
darkness. Naraku's face didn't show itself in the stone walls outside
his prison... not that Tenseiga's dim light could show him, at any
rate. Of course his nose could find nothing but Naraku around him,
the stench he had grown numb to... he didn't detect any change in his
surroundings.

“Don't you
like to be alone?” The whisper came again, and his ears
twitched, searching for the source of it. He didn't change his
position or actively appear to look for him, but his ears strained.

Fruitlessly. The
silence returned, settling over his prison again like Naraku's
miasma, seeping into everything. He couldn't even hear his own
breathing or heartbeat; both had slowed, of course, just like his
healing, but it was still oppressive. It was a lot like he was losing
his senses one by one... Smell was his primary sense, but there was
nothing to smell but Naraku and himself, and those were both now
smells he was so accustomed to that they almost disappeared. Hearing
was secondary, but the empty darkness gave him nothing to hear. His
sight was the third most important to him, but the darkness was
encroaching...

He shifted and took
a firmer hold on his sword. He could still feel, at least; pain shot
up his arm, but not close to what it had been. It was almost healed,
finally. In a way, the pain was reassuring... it was something that
was real in the slow sensory deprivation of this prison, proving that
he had at least one sense that wasn't failing or being stolen.

“Are you
afraid of the dark...?”

He started and sat
up straighter, so that his head brushed the ceiling again, more
alarmed this time because he knew where the voice was coming from.
His ears weren't hearing it at all. Somehow the voice was in his
mind...

“Are you
enjoying it, Sesshoumaru? Are you relishing it? It's the last thing
you'll see.”

“Naraku!”
He was surprised to hear his voice rough. How long had it been since
it was used? “Show yourself.”

Only a chuckle in
his mind answered him. Tenseiga glowed slightly brighter for a second
as he clenched the sword in annoyance.

“You're a
coward, Naraku, hiding in the darkness...”

The chuckle taunted
him again. “You know they must have gotten your humans by
now... Your little girl is dead.”

A small growl burst
unheeded from his throat. He was not threatening Rin and
Kohaku, and Jaken...

No, no, he didn't
have them... If he did, he would have brought them here and made him
see what he did to them, not simply sent a taunting voice into his
head. As much as Naraku loved to turn people's emotions against them,
he would never have passed up such a perfect opportunity to torture
him with that... nor the chance of breaking him. His taunting was
just yet another attempt to get inside his mind and get to him. He
wouldn't allow it to succeed.

"The darkness will have
you, as it has them."

This voice could not be in his
mind. Byakuya... It had to be the illusionist, making him think he
was hearing this. Even more of Naraku's tricks, then.

"You
lie," he said coldly, gripping the sword just a little tighter.
He did not have them...

Naraku's voice chuckled again. "Why
would I lie when I know you would know I was lying...? That would be
a waste of time. There's more than one way to be taken by the
darkness..."

With a growl, he shifted, ignoring the
daggers of pain up his numb legs as he moved to his knees, gripping
the sword as though it were actually a weapon. "Naraku...!"

The bastard laughed
again. Sesshoumaru shook his head a touch, trying to dislodge the
voice. It was stuck there like a flea he couldn't get to, gorging
itself and driving him insane from the petty annoyance.

“You'll find
out all about that. You'll have forever to find out all about that..”

“I will never
submit to you, Naraku!”

There wasn't even
laughter in answer. The silence returned as thick as the darkness,
leaving him unsure if the voice had truly been Naraku or his
illusionist.

_ –
=*= – _

As Tenseiga's light
began to fail visibly, Sesshoumaru realized he might die here.

He held the sword
pressed down on the diamond floor in front of him, watching it
flicker and feeling the wall slowly shift at his back. There was
barely enough light to see the walls around him, though he could have
leaned forward and licked any one of them.

He would sooner
kill himself than become a part of Naraku...

That was not a
decision he could come to lightly; Naraku was not worth his life. It
was not that he was afraid of death or so in love with his life, but
that he had so little esteem for Naraku... for everyone and
everything. Though he was strong enough that it had never been a
question before, there was nothing he could think of that was worth
his life. Yet, to keep Naraku from winning this, he would pay that.

Nor was it a
decision it did him any good to come to. Naraku could absorb a dead
body as easily as a living, or perhaps more so, and there was no way
to destroy himself completely enough that he could not. If Tenseiga
still had the power of the Meidou... But no. It didn't, and if it
did, he wouldn't be in this situation. That was just a useless
thought.

If he took his
life, he would be leaving his body here, trapped within Naraku for
him to use as he saw fit. At that point, the only thing he would be
doing was saving himself from whatever torment Naraku had planned in
the interim, and the shame of losing to him...

And he
was not that sort of coward.

Even if he had lost, he
would continue to defy him until Naraku finally killed him, even unto
his last breath... There lay the true escape from shame. Naraku could
torment him as he wished, he would not beat him.

As he thought that firm, if depressing,
vow, Tenseiga's light flickered and died completely. The darkness was
absolute; for a second, afterimages swam in front of his eyes, but
they slowly disappeared, leaving him in total blackness. Turning his
head to the side, he couldn't even see his fur.

He braced himself and pulled the sword
close, sitting on his knees and making himself as small as possible
already, attempting to make himself ready to resist being absorbed
into Naraku. He was prepared to die, finally, but that didn't mean he
would welcome it or give in to it easily.

The cold diamond
wrapped around his body, but chose not to crush him yet. Instead he
was left exactly enough room to breathe, but couldn't so much as turn
his head or twitch a finger; his body was encased in solid mineral,
harder than stone, trapped in the position he had been sitting in
with Tenseiga pressed to his chest, his fur flattened against him,
legs folded and head bowed stiffly.

Rather than taking
him now that he was at his mercy, Naraku kept him that way, trapped
in the darkness, to taunt him.

_ –
=*= – _

“Sesshoumaru-sama!”

His eyes shot open.
It took two blinks for him to make sure they were, because there was
no difference in the darkness.

That voice –
Rin's voice. Here. Where?

“Sesshoumaru-sama!”

Jaken's voice this
time. They were calling to him... They were looking for him? They
should not be here, Naraku would take them, and they would die slow,
terrible deaths... This was not safe.

A whisper of an
echo of a scent drifted to him, Rin and Jaken and Kohaku, and he
jerked his head up – tried, rather. It slammed into the diamond
above him so hard that he briefly saw brightly colored lights flood
across his vision, and hissed in pain. The throbbing in his head
brought back his senses, though.

They were not here.
Even if they were here, he would not be able to hear them through the
stone... let alone smell them. This was another illusion of
Naraku's...

Or he was imagining
it.

His head drooped
onto the diamond again and he closed his eyes. It was easier to deal
with the darkness when he didn't have to actually see it, and he
could pretend it was only the darkness inside his eyelids. Perhaps it
was his own mind betraying him... It needed something to experience.
As it was, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, for it. He could
not see any better with his eyes open than closed. His sense of smell
had been dulled so far by Naraku's stench he might as well have cut
his nose off. He could have gone deaf and never realized it for all
the change in the silence. His body was going numb from the the cold
diamond and there was nothing to even taste... He was being deprived
steadily of all of his senses, and he knew even consciously that it
was getting to him. He was beginning to feel like an isolated mind
floating in a void... Sometimes, he didn't know if he was awake or
not. His mind drifted. It was conceivable his mind was slowly turning
in on itself and summoning random thoughts and memories to try not to
simply fail.

If Naraku's plan
was to consume him in sheer emptiness until he didn't have the mind
left to resist him anymore... he might just succeed.

His eyes slid open,
but he didn't notice. Staring at the darkness, he tried to remember
what light looked like, but that was one thing his mind couldn't
summon.

_ –
=*= – _

“There are
many, many ways to be taken by the darkness...” a voice
purred quietly from the black stone nothingness around him.

Sesshoumaru gave a
slow blink and roused his mind, trying to remember if that voice was
real or not. It wasn't Rin's voice or Jaken's voice...

He tried to twist
his head toward the voice and was only permitted to strain the
muscles in his neck without moving at all. His mind slowly awoke and
remembered. “Naraku...” It was a low growl, his mouth
barely moving.

There was no
answer, but the diamond moved like liquid around him. All of his
strength didn't slow it at all, and it pulled his arm behind him and
his legs straight and apart. They ached from being cramped so long,
but he heartily resented being forced to do anything, even something
that actually felt better.

“Naraku...
You will not-”

He cut his words
off as icy hardness began to grow over his mouth, trying
instinctively to jerk away. The diamond held his head steady, though,
and grew, sliding over his tongue. Without planning on it,
overwhelmed by revulsion at the idea of any of Naraku being inside of
him, he tried to bite it... that ended only in blinding pain and the
taste of blood coating the diamond when it broke his teeth. It left
only enough room for him to pant around the diamond as it slid down
his throat, trying not to make a noise of either pain of disgust.

This was what
Naraku meant to do, then... consume him from the inside out...

Naraku didn't even
bother to taunt him, now that he had his victory. There were no
sounds in the absolute darkness, no sights or smells... The only
sense left to him now aside from the blood on his tongue was
sensation, as the movement slowly woke his body, and all he could
feel was the immobilizing diamond that shifted silently around him.

He wanted so badly
to fight it. He tried, but there was no room to move a muscle. He was
completely bound, and helpless to stop the diamond sliding down his
throat, tasting of blood and evil.

The pressure
increased behind him, and he braced himself, as well as possible,
taking a deep breath around the diamond intruder. He would hold out
as long as possible as Naraku tried to crush him, until in the end he
succeeded.

Coldness touched
the back of his leg; his hakama must have been torn, though he hadn't
heard it. Revulsion made him shudder slightly, as the cold stone slid
along his skin, down his legs and up over his ass, pressing painfully
against him, but not enough to crush him.

He realized his
mistake when he felt the motion up his legs again and began to
struggle again in earnest, only a fraction of a second before Naraku
forced the diamond inside of him. The pain of a broken jaw and
fractured arm, inflicted on himself as he tried to wrench free,
barely registered against the pain of the patient penetration, as
more and more diamond was pushed through the tightly clenched ring of
muscle, spreading him wider relentlessly. Revulsion made him want to
throw up, but his enraged yell was swallowed by the diamond down his
throat.

Naraku didn't stop,
only kept pouring the diamond into him. It climbed up into his body
and forced him open, spreading pain and coldness as it grew.

A whine of pain and
helpless rage escaped his throat. The spreading pain mocked his
anger, and the sick pulsing feeling of the diamond tentacles that
caused it. He gagged as the diamond actually slid out of his throat
and left his mouth empty, but his head forced straight back, neck
bent very uncomfortably and held in place by shifting stone.

“Naraku!”

His yell only
echoed back to him in the cramped space and sent more pain running
through him when he moved the broken jaw. It mixed with the helpless
whine of pain as diamond dug through his insides from behind, without
a care for his body..

As he panted,
something else slid over his lips,ignoring his attempt to turn his
head away. His eyes widened, though there was nothing for them to
see, as he tasted metal and the ancient taste of his father's scent.
No... Not that. To use his own against him...

He gagged
helplessly as Tenseiga was shoved down his throat. The sword couldn't
harm him, not really, but it was a blade and it would cut through him
even without pain, to make a place for itself and leave no marks in
its wake. And it did. While diamond filled him from behind, the sword
slid smoothly down his throat. The hilt passed his teeth and pressed
against the back of his throat where it stayed, leaving him impaled.
The blade was literally in his stomach, he could feel the pressure of
the metal filling him with every heartbeat.

Like the diamond
Naraku was no content to leave it still so that he could even start
to get used to it; the sword continued to shifted a little, drawing
out and pushing in endlessly. Continuously. He continued to gag, and
to whine when he couldn't help it.

Naraku didn't want
to kill him yet... He wanted to humiliate him. He was fucking him
with his damn tentacled, fucking him with his own sword... He would
rather have died.

The diamond slid
through him, piercing him painfully and spreading his entrance beyond
endurance. It seemed there was more of Naraku within him than
without, like he was little more than an empty shell filled with
diamond. Like the sword, it didn't remain still, always pulsing and
moving, expanding and shrinking, driving him mad.

He wanted to claw
it out of him... or claw himself to shreds to escape it.

Endless pulsing and
thrusting filled him. He could no more tell time than he could
before, nor was he paying attention. The eternal torture only paused
finally, and the diamond went still around him, so that deep inside
of him something could explode, a foul mockery of hot seed that
filled him, burning and agonizing, another eternity of punishment.
His cry was silenced by the sword shoved completely down his throat –
he gagged and closed his mouth reflexively and couldn't feel it.

Knowing it wasn't
real semen, only something Naraku generated to mimic it and humiliate
him, didn't help his revulsion or his shame any.

And when the flood
finally stopped and his muscles trembled from pain and anger and
humiliated disgust... the darkness started to claim him again.

And continued.

_ –
=*= – _

Light.

Even through his
eyelids it dazzled him, but he wanted to see it. Light he had
forgotten, been made to forget.

He opened his eyes
slowly, wincing from it. The light shone through the diamond,
reflecting through the walls of the gem prison, increasing in
intensity as it went and throwing itself into his dark-abused eyes.
He squinted through it, however, because he needed to see something,
anything, and he saw that the stone above his head was gone, and it
was being torn away at his sides, letting in that breathtaking light.

A flash of red. He
couldn't see well enough to make out what it was, and his head was
still locked in place, but the light followed that red streak as it
crossed his vision.

Something reached
his ears. It was muddled and confused, distorted crashes, but it was
a sound. Noise. There was something to hear, finally... His ears
twitched, drinking it all hungrily. He had never been so relieved to
simply hear...

And then another
sense returned. Pain. The diamond squeezed him abruptly, trying to
crush him before he could be released, but it only lasted a split
second. The sword in his hand began to glow, soaking up the light
from outside his prison, the light of freedom that was so close, and
pushed back the walls, not even the span of a hand, but enough.
Enough that he would move his head and his arm, enough that he could
begin to feel again.

Enough that he
could pull to the side and avoid the blade that sliced through the
wall of the prison that held him like the diamond was so much grass.

“-oumaru!”

He raised his head
slowly as shattered diamonds fell around him, raining on the floor
with a gentle tinkling sound that he savored. Golden eyes and perked
ears looked at him in open concern, over the top of Tenseiga's
magnificent dragon scaled blade.

“Sesshoumaru,
you're alive!”

It wasn't even in
him at the moment to resent Inuyasha's interference, or hate him for
saving him. “Yes,” he answered simply. His throat was
sore and his tongue felt foreign, but the word sounded right. Good.

“Well, come
on out...” his brother invited, and offered him a hand. He gave
it a single glance and pushed himself to his feet without his help,
surreptitiously using Tenseiga to support himself until he regained
his balance and the feeling in his legs. Sweet air moved his hair,
and carried a thousand thousand different scents to his nose. He
closed his eyes for a moment and simply breathed. Naraku, vanquished
for the moment. Inuyasha, victorious. His friends. Shikon jewel
pieces. Grass, trees, animals and water and soil, the oily smell of
the girl's strange contraption, the fires and filth of a human
village a day's walk away. Rin, Jaken, Kohaku, Ah-Un, all together,
safe, and sound. Death, blood, fighting... Life. His nose painted a
picture of the land and went far to making him feel miraculously
whole again.

“Sesshoumaru?”

He slowly opened
his eyes to the light again and looked down at Inuyasha. “Yes?”
He felt light-headed, he noticed absently. He needed to eat and rest
for several days, but not until he was out of sight of Inuyasha and
his group.

“Are you
okay?”

He simply looked at
him. If his legs were more steady, he would have ignored the question
and left.

“We found
Rin, Jaken... they said you were missing for two weeks.” He
stood looking at him like he expected and answer, but he didn't get
one. “...Did Naraku have you all that time?”

His eyes slid
slowly from Inuyasha to the diamond prison they still stood on,
standing on a thin support of the same, above the ground. All that
was left of Naraku here. “Yes.”

“What was he
doing...?”

Silence fell as he
considered that. Did he even know? His body was whole, and seemed
untouched... his sword was here in his hand. Was that... torment,
what Naraku did... all in his mind, as well?

Had he done that to
himself in his desperation to experience something, anything? In a
final effort to not give in to the darkness, his mind had envisioned
the most painful experience it could imagine, and made him live
through it? Forever, until it simply couldn't do any more?

Or was it an
illusion granted by Byakuya to try to drive him over the edge? A
cruel and careful plan on Naraku's part to destroy him?

...Or had it been
real?

“Sesshoumaru?”

“He was
attempting to absorb me into himself. He failed.”

Sesshoumaru raised
his eyes again, past his brother's concerned face, and judged that if
his legs couldn't hold him now, there was no choice but to let
Inuyasha see it. He jumped down and landed gracefully, covering the
fact that they nearly gave out, and walked toward his own group, not
far away. He would collect them, move on, and finally rest...

“Sesshoumaru-sama!”
The chorus from all three of them rang nicely in his ears. It was
nice to hear anything. They ran toward him but he kept walking,
because when he next stopped he would be stopped for good for some
time, and simply expected them to follow. His eyes lingered on them,
though. Jaken was nearly leaping around for joy, his bugged eyes
positively alight. Kohaku remained aloof but pleased, and relieved
that the burden of protection was off is shoulders. And Rin looked so
innocent and happy, and her smile was as bright as ever.

They ran after him
as he passed. “Sesshoumaru-sama, I was really worried,”
Rin said as she trotted at his side. “But I knew you'd come
back. Jaken-sama was sure you had died.”

“I was not,
you stupid girl! I would never have thought the great
Sesshoumaru-dono could be slain by such a measly beast!”

“Why do you
lie so, Jaken-sama?”

Their babbling
faded into the background as the wind rustled through the trees,
carrying the old scent of Naraku toward him from the battleground and
prison he had just left. Tenseiga pulsed at his side gently. A voice
whispered on the wind.

“Are you
afraid of the dark, Sesshoumaru?” the voice asked him quietly.

He touched Tenseiga
lightly and didn't answer.

~end~
- 1
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Darkness