Snowdrop by PhoenixBlade
Ninety Nine Roses
Next chapter! I had little time to edit, so I do apologize again for all the errors you come across! (will fix later!) Enjoy!
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Snowdrop
By: PhoenixBlade
Prompt: Ninety Nine Roses
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Words failed him as he stared ahead at the woman who was his mother and at the same time, not.
“Wh-what are you? Are you…are you Lady Inukimi?” Kagome asked with caution from behind Sesshoumaru.
She looked at Kagome with an annoyed look on her face.
“Are you this Sesshoumaru’s mother!?” Sesshoumaru suddenly demanded, words once again coming to him.
She was silent for a few moments before giving a slight nod, “This Inukimi is.”
Sesshoumaru took a step back, still in utter disbelief. His mother was a yuki onna! A yuki onna!
The Lady of the West scoffed at her son, “This inuyoukai form was to match your father and blend into his society. He gave this one her name, Inukimi, as well. Though you hold doubts, know that this Inukimi carried you for many months and bore you. You are this one’s son.”
Sesshoumaru made no more moves, stunned even in his step. A thought suddenly hit Kagome and she blurted out, “The ice sculptures! Those weren’t made from ice, you froze those people!”
His mother frowned, “They tried to defy this one and by doing so, they were punished. They should be glad for this Inukimi’s mercy in allowing them to exist, in whatever form presently.”
“You froze them! How is that mercy!?” Kagome countered, anger rising as she stepped out in front of the still-Sesshoumaru.
They were still alive in their frozen state. She knew now. That bear youkai, she had heard it scream in pain.
She felt her reiki rising, responding to her call. Inukimi changed her form back to the yuki onna, and sent a wave of ice shards towards the girl. Before it could hit, an arm made of bark intercepted it and wave the ice chunks out of its bark once Kagome was deemed safe.
“Snap out of it, pup! Guard your miko!” he chastised the inuyoukai.
Realizing what had just happened, Sesshoumaru growled as his eyes bled red and took Kagome into his protective hold.
“You tried to harm what belongs to this one,” he snarled at his mother.
“She is what made you rebel and turn from your mother. This Inukimi has every right to get rid of her!” she hissed at him.
“You will not touch what belongs to this Sesshoumaru!” he snarled at her once more, voice more bestial than before.
The Lady of the West sneered, “Just like your father, Sesshomaru. Like you, he fancied a ningen princess and she bore him a son, even though this one and he were mated! Mated! Can you believe that? He dismissed this one and his son for a weak ningen who did not have long left in this world! How pathetic!”
“She is my Eros!” he barked at her, holding Kagome tighter to him.
His mother laughed mockingly at him, “Eros? Your true love? How the apple falls close to the tree! How proud the great Inutaisho would be to hear his son speak the same words he spoke to this Inukimi!”
“You were not his Eros, mother!” he growled at her.
A grim look overtook his mother’s face, “No. This Inukimi was not. Your father made a promise that he would never leave this one and this one in turn promised him power to conquer over his enemies.”
“So you are the being that he encountered in the snows that day!” Bokuseno spoke up.
The lady narrowed her eyes on him, “Yes, after feasting on his men in the snowy mountains of the West, Inutaisho came to kill this one, but this Inukimi became fascinated by his power and beauty and so, this one offered him power. In return, he would become this Inukimi’s, just as she would become his.”
She looked at Sesshoumaru and grinned darkly, “And how drunk he was with this one’s power.”
Sesshoumaru growled softly, but still just as dangerous and on guard. Kagome clung to him, wary still of his mother.
Then she was frowning again, “But then he came to this Inukimi one day, with that ningen and her child to bid this one farewell. He would leave it all; his lands, his people, his son and this one, all for a ningen!”
Kagome sensed the anger rising in him, not just for his mother, but for his father. How sad it was, to learn that your mother was trying to take away the love of your life and your father abandoning you as a child, all in one day!
“He would not leave this one; this Inukimi would not allow it! So in front of that pitiful ningen and her sorry excuse for a son, this Inukimi froze your father and shattered him into a million pieces,” she told him, relishing the memory of it, “how wonderful it was to hear the ningen cry, right before this one threw them from the Western Lands!”
“You told this Sesshoumaru that the ryuu youkai killed him!” he roared.
She scoffed, “He obtained mortal injuries from the ryuu youkai. He became weak, in body and soul. So worried was he that this Inukimi would leave him for a stronger youkai, he left to find Eros, the god of love, to make this one love him and never leave.”
“But it wouldn’t work,” Bokuseno once again cut in, “your heart is made of ice. Your stone cold heart beats for no one.”
“For a tree youkai, who has also eluded this Inukimi for so many millennia, you are quite intelligent.”
“Your curse was no easy task to shield myself from, my lady, but not so for the Western Lands,” he smirked sadly at her, “they fell quite easily under your power. No one remembers a time when there used to be green in the land or that they were once warm-blooded.”
“A curse?” Kagome spoke up questioningly, “how cruel…”
“Curses can always be broken, miko,” Bokuseno told the concerned miko.
Sesshoumaru roared in anger, “A curse, mother!? You’ve betrayed the Western Lands!”
“It was your father who betrayed this Inukimi first!” she roared back at him, the snow becoming restless around her, “the people will carry out his punishment for him!”
“And this Sesshoumaru?” he asked her, anger dropping from his voice, now filled with sorrow, “did you punish this Sesshoumaru for his sire’s transgressions as well?”
The snows began to die down, now just fluttering in the breeze. His mother changed back to her inuyoukai form, graceful, but cold all the same. Her face looked dark, but her silence told all. Seshoumaru suddenly howled, he howled in pain and sadness. His mother had betrayed him.
“This Inukimi did not wish for you to leave her,” she confessed finally.
“You have become too possessive,” Bokuseno mused aloud, “beings like you should not know about such a feeling.”
“In doing so, you have truly become a cold being, mother,” Sesshoumaru sneered at her.
“This one did not wish for you to leave her,” she told him as the snows suddenly became harsh and unforgiving, and darted her eyes to Kagome, “and now this petty ningen miko breaks through this one’s barriers with her untrained reiki, and is trying to take you away. This Inukimi will not allow this!”
A sudden cacophonous gust of cold wind crashed into Sesshoumaru, pushing him back into the tree youkai, who had been pelted with large shards of ice, trapping his wooden arms to the ground. Kagome was left alone, looking back at Sesshoumaru and screaming his name.
“You should worry for yourself, little Kagome,” came a whisper.
Kagome turned just in time to see Inukimi, in her yuki onna form, right in front of her. Her mouth opened to yell for Sesshoumaru, but no sound came out as Kagome was now a statue of ice.
“KAGOME!” roared Sesshoumaru as he was suddenly on his feet speeding towards his mother.
His claws dripped poison as he lashed his poison whip to get her away from the frozen miko. Inukimi jumped out of the way, giving Sesshoumaru the time he needed to get to her and summon a barrier around them.
Angry that her own son had shut her out, she pummeled the barrier with chunks of large ice, even going as far as slamming into the barrier herself.
“Sesshoumaru! You cannot deny this Inukimi, your own mother!” she screeched, voice reaching a shrill pitch as the snow exploded and flew into the air with the rush of freezing wind.
He ignored his mother as his hand went to where the frozen miko’s cheek was. He whimpered.
Kagome, his Kagome. She was gone… She was gone!
“Kagome… Kagome…!” he repeated over and over again, trying to coax a response from her, anything, but she neither moved nor gave any hint that she could hear him or reply.
“Kagome…”
“She is gone.”
He turned to his mother, whose eyes narrowed at the ice figure of the miko.
“She is no longer your concern. Return to the shiro and this Inukimi will forgive you for your insolence,” his mother told him.
“Return her to this Sesshoumaru!” he demanded her.
She narrowed her eyes in annoyance, “Once done, it cannot be undone. The miko is gone. Tenseiga cannot save her if even you wished it.”
Sesshoumaru glared at his mother, red fury burning in his eyes as he bared his fangs at her. He howled his anger and his pain to the cold world. How he hated her! He could kill his mother but that would not bring Kagome back to him. He did not want to return to that cold world if Kagome was not with him!
The snows died down, but were still restless as his mother floated down before the barrier, her dark black hair in billowing disarray. Her figure changed back to the mother he knew, the one he had been raised with. She put out her hand as if wanting Sesshoumaru to take it.
“Come, Sesshoumaru. It is time to return home, to the Shiro.”
He stood where he was, unmoving for a long while until the red faded from his eyes and his lips closed over his fangs.
“Have you come to your senses, Sesshoumaru?” Inukimi asked him.
He gulped as he stood up straight and looked straight at his mother.
“This one must know,” he said grimly, “was it you who placed this Sesshoumaru under a false sleep to run Kagome out?”
Her hand dropped and she said nothing for a few moments.
“Did you?”
Slowly, she nodded, “Yes. It was for your own good.”
Sesshoumaru growled and turned from her, walking to where a large sharp piece of ice was.
“No, it was not,” he snarled, “you have always thought of yourself, mother. Father wanted to leave you and you could not bear it…”
Standing next to Kagome, he raised the sharpest edge of the shard to where his newly beating heart lay in his chest, earning the wide, surprised, eyes of the Lady of the West.
“Now you will lose this Sesshoumaru, because you tried to kill his beloved, his Eros,” he started to say as he started pushing, making his chest start to bleed.
Inukimi was suddenly on the barrier again, “No! Stop, Sesshoumaru! Do not take your life for a stupid ningen!”
He ignored the pain as he began shoving it in more, blood spurting out like a waterfall and staining his pale kimono in a deep red.
“Just as she is this Sesshoumaru’s, this Sesshoumaru is hers. This one will not let her walk alone into death,” he choked as blood began to well up in his mouth, spilling from his lips.
“Do not be a fool, Sesshoumaru!” screamed his mother.
He let the shard rest right over his heart. One hard shove and it would be over for him.
“S-Sessh…shou…maru,” breathed the injured tree youkai, “c-curs-ses c-can always…b-be… b-brok-ken!...”
Perhaps your love for this miko has melted your frozen heart… the tree youkai had told Sesshoumaru before.
Hmm… perhaps it has, Sesshoumaru thought sadly, though he understood now.
Raising his hand into a fist, he readied to shove the ice shard into his heart.
“I love you, Kagome,” he said and sent his fist flying.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!” came a high-pitch shriek.
His hand never reached it as a bright light suddenly engulfed the area. The shard was pulled from his chest none-too-gently by a wooden hand that belonged to Bokuseno. The place quaked and rumbled as the snow flew through the air. The winds pushed and pulled in every which direction, making it impossible for Sesshoumaru to discern where his mother was as it threw off her sound and scent. His mother continued shrieking as he held tightly onto Kagome’s frozen form to keep grounded.
Kagome!...
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He woke up to the pure whiteness of the cold snow, almost blinding in the sun’s light. He pushed himself up, shaking the snow off and gathering his wits about him. As he moved to stand, a small shimmering bauble bumped onto his heel, making him look down. It was almost beautiful in its own way, but he felt a malevolent aura about the strange bauble, just as he felt something pure about it as well. Not knowing what to do with the strange thing, he picked it up, and though the thing caused him some small discomfort, he ignored it and placed it in his sleeve. Now he had to try to remember what had happened to him.
Suddenly, the images of what had transpired before he blacked out came rushing like a storm. His head snapped up, looking around for his beloved, but he didn’t have to look for long. Not too far off, an unfrozen Kagome laid still in the snow. He sped over to her and held her in his arms… his two arms!
“Kagome!” he called for her, hugging her chilled body to his.
She was cold, freezing cold.
“Kagome!” he called her again and still she did not respond.
He checked to see if she was breathing... No breath. Fingers quickly darted to where her pulse was… No pulse either.
“Kagome!” he called for her, desperate this time as he shook her limp body.
She made no response, nothing to say that she was alive. He spread his youki out, feeling for her reiki. It didn’t lash back, but it was there, very faint, almost like a small dying flame about to be snuffed out, but it was still there!
Her spirit still remained within her and if he didn’t do something soon, she’d truly be dead. He didn’t have the Tenseiga with him and it would be too late to save her if he rushed them to the shiro now. He didn’t know if she had enough of her spirit left to make the trip there. What was he to do!?
Something warm and wet fell down his cheek. Was it melted snow?
He wiped his hand against it and realized he was crying. A tear trailed down the other side. Tears? He was crying tears? For Kagome!
He was going to lose her. He knew he was going to lose her and he could do nothing about it!
“Kagome...” he choked on a sob as he buried his face into her shoulder.
He loved her. He would have died for her if not for his mother. If not for some cursed fate his mother had bestowed upon him, Kagome would not have died. She would live and laugh with her beautiful voice, smile with her sparkling eyes, and hold him in her warm embrace. She did not deserve to die and he did not want her to die.
The Meido Stone…
His head shot up as a strange voice spoke to him.
“What?”
Use the Meido Stone…
“Who…?” he knew that voice.
Though worthless in life I was, in death I do not wish to be so… this is my last gift to you… my son…
His sire was speaking to him!?
“Father?”
The stone showed her the way to her death… but you, you will give her the way back to life!... Use the stone, and be happy, my son…
He called for the voice again, for his father who did not truly abandon him, but it disappeared. Though he almost believed that he had been hearing things, when he looked down and saw his mother’s amulet, the Meido Stone glowing, he knew that it must be true.
This Sesshoumaru thanks you for your gift, father… Sesshoumaru spoke to him through his mind, hoping his father had heard it from beyond the grave.
Looking down at his beloved, he accepted that he loved this woman and wanted her to be with him forever. He’d even present to her ninety nine roses, flowers which she had told him existed in the world beyond the Western Lands, her home, just to bribe her to stay with him. He loved her dearly and wanted her back.
Picking up the amulet, he let it hover it in the air, by itself, as it glowed brighter and brighter.
Please… bring her back to this Sesshoumaru… Return Kagome back to me!
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ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO!