Bound by Corruption by BelovedStranger

Even the Mighty Fall

Prompt: 

'There is honour among thieves.' 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, demon?!” Onigumo shouted, charging Tatsuo.

Tatsuo didn’t glance at him, didn’t raise a hand in his direction; however, a strong force struck him in the chest, sending him flying backwards, only to strike the far wall painfully. Onigumo’s back crashed into the wood, and his skull cracked sickeningly against the wall. Even as he fell awkwardly in a heap upon the floor, darkness lined his vision, nausea threatening to spill his stomach’s contents upon the floor, which he barely kept at bay.

“You are becoming a nuisance, human,” Tatsuo told him after he’d finished chanting in a language Onigumo didn’t understand. “Have a care that you do not anger me further.”

Lifting his pounding head, Onigumo winced, forcing his vision to focus on the two standing several feet from him. Tatsuo had an arm around Kagome’s back, while his other hand cupped her elbow, and she was leaning into his body, looking almost child-like next to the towering Inugami. Her hand was cupping her forehead like she was either dizzy or experiencing a headache. Worry got him back on his feet, though Onigumo had to place a hand on the wall behind him for support.

“What did you do to her?” Onigumo demanded, disregarding Tatsuo’s warning.

“Fulfilling our contract,” Tatsuo answered easily. “You wanted two things, for me to save your worthless, human life, and to see Sesshomaru die for attempting to have you killed.” Now, he turned his cunning, ice blue eyes on him, unnerving Onigumo. Tatsuo drew Kagome a step closer to Onigumo, prompting him to look at the girl. “Here is the key to your vengeance.”

“The key to my—” Onigumo began incredulously, only to scowl at the Inugami. “You can’t mean to pit this girl against Sesshomaru. He’ll kill her! How does that accomplish anything?” he spat.

Tatsuo tenderly stroked the back of Kagome’s head. If that gesture wasn’t strange enough, then Kagome’s meek acceptance of his touch was. Her hair veiled her face as she leaned her head against Tatsuo’s chest, so Onigumo could not tell what she was thinking or if she was alright after Tatsuo had… What exactly had he done to her? Onigumo didn’t know and that worried him.

“Did you hear that, little bird?” Tatsuo asked, mocking Onigumo for the endearment he was wont to call the miko. “Our Onigumo lacks faith in your abilities.”

At his words, Kagome finally lifted her head, her hair falling back from her face to reveal an expression Onigumo had never seen there before. The grin that split her mouth was ugly and mocking. And her eyes. They were black, even the whites of her eyes, leaving nothing but a dark void. Pure evil. Trepidation and unease slithered down Onigumo’s spine at the chilling sight. This was not Kagome standing before him, but a twisted version of the girl.

“Onigumo, do you fear for my safety?” she purred at him.

Even her voice was different, sultrier, but what really caught his attention was the malice he heard beneath her seductive tone. He swallowed thickly. 

“This is not what I wanted,” he said in a low tone. “Kagome isn’t a part of this. I will not have her placed in danger!” he ended in a stronger voice, glaring at Tatsuo.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Tatsuo replied without expression or inflection in his voice.

“The hell I don’t!” Onigumo took a threatening step forward, his hand going to his side reflexively, but ended up empty handed as his sword was not at his side.

“Once you agreed to our contract, all your choices were taken from you.”

Onigumo narrowed his eyes in confusion. “What did you say?”

“Did you really believe there would be no price for an Inugami’s aid? Always something precious is taken from the human who agrees to one of my kind’s aid—wealth, station, family and friends, something. In Kagome’s case, Sesshomaru wanted to corrupt her innocence, in body and mind, to open her eyes to the darkness within herself and for her to bask in its existence.”

“He wanted to take what made her a priestess and corrupt it,” he surmised, understanding completely. Foreboding sank Onigumo’s heart. “And what is my price..?”

He knew before Tatsuo answered.

“This girl.” Again Tatsuo stroked Kagome’s hair. “This miko is the one person you care about in this world.”

“You want her to die!” he charged. Fear for Kagome gave him courage. “I dissolve our contract effective immediately!”

“Going back on our contract means your life,” was Tatsuo’s ominous reply.

That gave Onigumo pause, but only for a moment. “Kill me. Do your worst,” he spat. “Just leave Kagome out of this.” Even thieves had some honor, or at least it seemed he did—for Kagome. 

He tensed, waiting for death to take him, but Tatsuo never struck. Instead, he chuckled, the sound soft and filled with dark amusement.

“I’m afraid your sacrifice would be in vain. Even if I killed you now, I would still use the girl.” Now Tatsuo narrowed his eyes at him, for the first time showing a spark of his ire, obviously not pleased in the slightest by Onigumo’s attempt to dissolve their contract prematurely. “I should kill you now for your impudence; however, I find myself in a benevolent mood. For informing me of Sesshomaru’s strange attachment to this girl, I will allow you to see your vengeance through.”

Onigumo wouldn’t accept this decree easily. Kagome’s life was on the line, for God’s sake!

“What about what Kagome wants?! It should be her choice if she is willing to sacrifice her life for your vendetta. This isn’t about my revenge, it’s about yours.”

Suddenly, Tatsuo turned Kagome towards himself and cupped her face in his large palms, looking deeply into the void of her eyes. “What do you want, little bird? What do you yearn for?” he murmured to her, surprising Onigumo that he would actually ask her. 

“Vengeance,” she said silkily.

No. This wasn’t right, thought Onigumo. Tatsuo had done something to her. This wasn’t the Kagome he knew, and he doubted she would have ever answered thusly and meant it.

Tatsuo leaned down, bowing his back so that he could place a mockingly tender kiss upon her brow. He acted like he truly cared for the miko, but Onigumo wasn’t a fool. Both of them were merely pawns for Tatsuo’s amusement, toys to be used and discarded without care.

Then Tatsuo and Kagome turned to gaze at him, both eyes demonic and filled with malicious glee.

“There’s your answer,” Tatsuo murmured to him.

What have I done? Onigumo thought, staring at the vile woman who looked like the miko but wasn’t really her.

I’m…sorry, Kagome.

It was a trap. That knowledge was predominant in Sesshomaru’s mind as he entered the abandoned manor of some human lord who obviously no longer took up residence here. Or perhaps he’d died, his men and servants fled. Perhaps they all had died. If so, there was no evidence of a slaughter or battle. No corpses. No signs that the castle had been under siege. Nothing. Merely abandoned.

It was still dark out, though night had yet to fall, the storm continuing to rage, the wind howling, and he was soaked. His wet garments bothered him not in the slightest, a minor discomfort easily ignored as he walked into the receiving room. His footfalls echoed around the vast room, shadows only dispelled with the frequent flashing of lightning through the large windows, but no shadow was dark enough for his keen sight not to see through regardless.

He’d thought that Kagome, perhaps even Tatsuo, wouldn’t be here when he arrived, but they were. He could sense their presence, even caught their scents. Even Onigumo’s. The wretch was still alive, and he could guess how. Tatsuo. He must have been watching Sesshomaru for some time to be able to come to the bandit’s aid in time. And Tatsuo had done it without his knowledge. An oversight he was beginning to regret. There were ways to spy without even Sesshomaru being aware that he was being watched.

It mattered not which means Tatsuo had used, only that he save Kagome and kill that bastard, as well as Onigumo. Was Kagome already aware of his involvement in the man’s attempted murder? Would she blame him? Despise him? More disconcerting was the thought that Tatsuo had informed Kagome of their lack of a true contract, because another Inugami could sense when a human had forged such bonds with one of his kind.

Did Tatsuo plan to take Kagome from him and forge a contract with him? But on what grounds? It was unlikely that Kagome would willingly make such an arrangement with Tatsuo. Unless she was under some type of duress.

Was Kagome praying that he’d come save her once again? Or would she spit in his face at the sight of him if she knew about all the lies he’d given her?

Someone was here.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at the doorway yards away from him, leading out of the room and farther into the manor. He knew not who it was, but he was tired of waiting.

“Show yourself,” he commanded. “I know that you are there, coward.”

A twinkling laugh filtered towards him, the sound filled with mirth and something else.

“Come to rescue me, nushi? How gallant of you.”

Sesshomaru stiffened at that familiar voice even before Kagome stepped out and stood staring back at him, a small, mischievous grin on her face. His eyes narrowed at hearing the term she called him. He recalled teasingly telling her, that first day that they had met, that she could refer to him as such, but it went against her nature to do so. Kagome was far too contrary a woman for such endearments.

As he gazed at her, he knew instantly why she’d mocked him thusly. Her eyes were back, darkness completely taking over. If that wasn’t telling enough, her aura was different. No longer could he sense her purity.

Something akin to a dark miko stood before him. Worse, a soul completely taken over by darkness.

“You seem displeased to see me,” Kagome commented when he refused to speak, only stared at her. “Surely you’ve noticed what’s happened.” She walked towards him, her movements more feminine, seductive, than before. “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted from me?”

“No,” he stated.

He allowed her to approach, didn’t stop her when she lifted her hand and trailed a delicate finger across his chest, circling him. He didn’t turn with her, letting her stand at his back. A pulse of power, wind brushing against his legs, and he knew that she was hovering off the floor to whisper in his ear, her breath hot.

“No?” she inquired in a low, intimate tone. “Really? I think you lie.” Her right arm reached around him, across his body so she could stroke his left cheek, even as she leaned her own against his other cheek. Her left hand rested lightly upon his left shoulder blade. “You’ve been a very bad man, Sesshomaru. I know all your lies. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

She tensed the barest bit, her dark aura flaring, his only warning.

Like smoke, he vanished from her embrace before she could strike, knew she had intended to blast through his back and strike at his heart. Sesshomaru rematerialized a few feet before her. Kagome seemed unconcerned at his escape, unfazed, actually happy to prolong the fight he knew was coming.

She hovered about a foot above the ground. How? She was exhibiting powers even a dark miko could not perform without some type of spell. The answer came to him instantly. Tatsuo. Not only had he managed to blacken her soul, but he’d gifted her with some of his powers. That was why her eyes were black pits, why her aura was so corrupted, all but wiping out her pure light. Or was it gone forever? He could not sense even a hint of the woman she’d once been.

“You lied about our contract.” As she named his sins, she flung her arm outward, sending a wave of dark energy at him, intending to cut him down.

Using his own arm, he easily defected the blow, hitting it with his forearm and sending it away from him, only for it to slam into the wall and blast a hole through the wood.

“You lied when my village had come under attack.” Another wave of her arm. Another blast. Again he deflected it like last time. “You let them die not because you didn’t want to save them.” Again she attacked, again he sent it flying into the other wall. “They died because you wanted me to be in pain.”

Pointing her index finger at him, electricity pulsed down her arm and flared out of the digit aimed at him. Sesshomaru tried to catch it in the palm of his hand and deflect this new attack as well; instead, the bolt zapped him, going up his arm, and racking his nerves with sharp, pulsing waves of agony that went through his entire body. Sesshomaru merely gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out.

“You wanted me to feel loss.” Her voice began to rise, her anger leaking through even as she attacked him, firing her lightning at him, forcing him to dodge. The blast hit the far wall behind him with a loud crash. “To lose everything, to thirst for vengeance.”

Her attacks came swifter, and she was screaming the words at him. Flinging the accusations in his face even as she tried to land another blow, probably intending to kill him. He summersaulted in the air, leaping this way and that, even back flipped at one point, landing on the wall, only to push off the surface to dodge another strike.

As he landed in a crouch, Kagome was suddenly before him, crouching, too, so that she could look him in the eye.

“But you wanna know the worst part?” Her palms settled over his chest, somehow freezing him in place. His muscles stiffened, turning to ice, and though her hands did not touch his bare flesh, they burned him. A cold so glacier it felt like it was burning the flesh right off muscle and tendon.

Even as she leaned in to whisper in his ear, Sesshomaru tried to fight the hold she had on him, but not a muscle twitched, his body no longer his own. He could only crouch there as she seared his flesh.

“You made me care for you, and that I cannot forgive. Ever.” Kagome’s voice was calm as she whispered to him, before a blast so powerful shot out of her hands and nailed him right in the chest, sending him flying backwards at such speeds he went through the wall and into a smaller room.

Debris fell around him, dust choking him as he landed hard on his back, sliding across the floor. Before he came to a stop, he back flipped, regaining his feet as his body was his to command once again.

She came for him through the rubble so fast she was nothing but a blur. But he was still faster. Twisting his body, Sesshomaru did a roundabout kick, his heel catching Kagome in the face, and sent her flying to the side. When she hit the floor, he was on her, his sword drawn, but when he lifted the demonic blade over her prone form, he could not finish the strike.

No, his body was not frozen in place as it had been just moments ago. Staring down at Kagome as she got to her hands and knees, coughing up blood, he found that he could not kill her. Sesshomaru gritted his teeth and commanded himself to end her now. Kagome was far from saving. If he didn’t strike her down, she could only continue to attack him in her efforts to kill him. However, when she turned and lifted her head to look up at him, he didn’t see the black eyes, only Kagome, the woman he knew her to be. When he saw the blood spilling down her chin from the split lip he’d given her, he wished he had not hit her. Regardless, he tried to swing his sword, but he could not force his arm down and end her.

To save his life, he knew he had to kill her—now. Still, he hesitated.

Why?

Kagome opened her mouth. To speak? No. With a banshee like scream that shattered the windows, a great force slammed into his chest, sending him through the air again. A few ribs cracked but didn’t break under the force of her blow.

Male laughter echoed around them as both Kagome and Sesshomaru got back to their feet. From behind Kagome, Tatsuo appeared. He pulled Kagome against his chest by wrapping an arm around her, grasping her chin as he held her close. She didn’t fight him, merely glared hatefully at Sesshomaru.

“Isn’t she a magnificent creature, Sesshomaru? I can see now why you keep her around.” Chuckling again, he leaned down and licked the blood from Kagome’s chin and bottom lip, before ice blue eyes returned to meet Sesshomaru’s gaze. “But it’s more than possessiveness on your part, isn’t it? You care for her.”

Tatsuo stood back to his full height and moved his hand to grasp Kagome’s far shoulder, laying his arm across her breasts. “Onigumo claims you love her. Is that true?”

Sesshomaru sneered at that. “He is a fool, as are you if you believe such rubbish.”

“Is that so?” Tatsuo asked, unconvinced. “Why then did you not kill our dear miko when you had the chance? Why hesitate if not out of love for her?”

Sesshomaru was asking himself the same question. Why had he hesitated? Was it because Kagome was rare amongst her kind, a pure soul? Staring at Kagome, he knew that was no longer the case. The gem he’d once thought her to be was rusted and broken, beyond salvageable. A worthless stone now, and yet it didn’t change anything. He still could not kill her.

Why?

He did not love her. But if she was no longer a means to an end or a priceless jewel to keep as his own, then why did he hesitate? What was she to him? Did he…care for her in some small way that prevented him from ending her life?

Onigumo claimed his jealous attempt at having him murdered was because he loved the girl. Sesshomaru had been aware of the slight change in his thoughts and feelings towards the girl, but if they were so obvious that Onigumo had been able to detect them then he felt more than mild affection for her.

Sesshomaru blinked. Affection?

The answer came to him, as if it had been locked away inside his mind, only to be revealed when he just opened the door. Kagome had cared for him, accepted him as he was, even after all the cruel things he had done to her, after everything he’d made her do. She hadn’t seen a monster when she looked at him, but a man. Some part of him must have realized that, prompting his feelings to gradually change.

And he’d realized that they were changing. Consequently, he’d rationalized them into a concept he was able to accept—that his feelings derived from desiring to possess a creature of the light. Kagome had been right. He was a liar. He’d been lying to himself.

I am truly pitiful, he inwardly mocked himself.

New resolve tightened his muscles as he tensed, preparing for battle. Perhaps if he killed Tatsuo, the magic coursing through her veins would dissolve, returning Kagome to her original self. As if sensing his change in demeanor, Tatsuo kissed the top of Kagome’s head and released her without a word.

As if it were a silent signal, Kagome rushed him, floating through the air, flying straight at him, her hair and clothes rustling wildly behind her.

Even as he danced around her, his sword still drawn, Sesshomaru wondered how he was to attack Tatsuo with the miko trying to kill him. While her back was turned after dodging another attack, Sesshomaru turned towards Tatsuo, lifting his blade, intending to send a powerful blast his way, but the other Inugami was gone.

However, he remained close, watching. Sesshomaru could sense his presence.

An arrow pierced his back. He’d heard the projection flying towards him but hadn’t been fast enough to fully dodge it. Instead of going through his heart, it jutted out of his shoulder. Even as he turned to face Kagome, the magic infused in her arrow zapped him with powerful bursts of electricity.

Kagome was standing several feet before him, the bow he’d given her that very day armed with another arrow and aimed at his heart. Where had she..? Tatsuo wasn’t far behind her, and when he caught Sesshomaru’s stare, he grinned. He’d given Kagome the bow and quiver of arrows.

Twisting his whole body, Sesshomaru dodged another projection, feeling the air shift as it missed his face by inches. Even as he finished his turn, dancing in a circle to once again face Kagome, he threw his sword, embedding it into the wall near him. His hand free, he grabbed the arrowhead protruding from his shoulder and yanked the shaft out. The pain of removing the arrow was fierce, but as it lay forgotten on the ground where he dropped it, the energy infused within it no longer savaged his flesh.

Even as she fired off another arrow, Sesshomaru swiped his arm, breaking it into splinters with the green whip that flashed out of his claws.

He noticed that Tatsuo had again vanished from sight but knew he wasn’t far.

“Why won’t you just die?!” cried Kagome.

If it had been her intent to toy with him, to drag out his pain from her attacks, she was obviously fed up with such tactics, wanting to kill him now. She’d only been playing with him before. Now that had come to an end.

She was crying.

Sesshomaru hesitated at the sight of the tears spilling from her black eyes. Why was she—?

Pain flared as a blow came from behind forcing him to take a step forward to remain on his feet. Gazing down uncomprehendingly, Sesshomaru saw a blade sticking out of his chest, glistening red with his blood.

“That was foolish of you to dismiss my presence, Sesshomaru,” Tatsuo murmured behind him, before yanking his sword out of his chest.

Even as Sesshomaru fell to his knees, he glanced up to meet Kagome’s wide eyed stare. There was such sadness and pain etched in her expression, wiping away the malice that had been there before as she stared at him. 

Don’t look at me like that, he silently told her.

“Die, Sesshomaru,” Tatsuo said from behind him, and Sesshomaru knew the next blow would kill him.