Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, I don't make profit off of any of this, although, like everyone else, I totally wish I did. I also don't own Pompeii (the movie or the city), and while this is going to be heavily influenced by the movie, you certainly don't need to have seen it to understand.

Prologue

Londinium, Capitol of Britannia | 79 AD

InuYasha's ears twitched as he stood in the dark tunnel, waiting for the Iron Gate in front of him to open. He could already smell death in the air, thick and heavy, tinged with the unpleasant copper of blood. It was sickly and overwhelming, even though he hadn't gone more than a month in the past seventeen years without being assaulted with the same scent. The rain was pattering loudly against the ground, but even that wasn't enough to clear the stench. The jeers and boos from the crowd scratched at his ears, irritating him as normal, and though he had gotten relatively accustomed to the scent of arena days, the crowd never failed to piss him off.

Seventeen years. Seventeen years since he had known what a free life was. He had been caught by slave traders when he was six, so long ago that he almost couldn't remember what freedom was like. Admittedly, he realized that seventeen years was a long time to live when his life was in jeopardy every time he stepped into an arena, every time some bastard who claimed he had more worth decided that he wanted to be entertained by half-demons and humans hacking each other to pieces. Still. Seventeen years of slavery was bound to take its toll. But what had he expected? That when his family was slaughtered, that he would merely be allowed to walk free? Half-demons and their dirty blood were hot commodities as far as slavery went, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Not for the first time, InuYasha wondered, had he been a full demon, would he have been saved from this fate? His mother probably would have blathered on about his future being the will of the Gods, but he was a little more realistic than that. Or was it cynical? Your life wasn't worth shit if your blood was mixed, hell; even humans were losing their traction with importance in the world as demons were slowly taking over. Even a lowly Gladiator slave could see that. The goddamn newfound Emperor of Rome was a demon, which really didn't ensure the survival of humans and their welfare. Feh.

Not that he cared.

The only human who had mattered to him had died a long time ago.

InuYasha was unbeatable. Undefeated in the arena, and seventeen years' worth of skills had been accumulated from fighting, and at first, watching others tear each other to pieces in the pits. Even unarmed, he could still rip his opponent to shreds. Word of the half dog demon and his skill – or was it luck? – had spread, and that was why he found himself being dragged from slave-owner to slave-owner, each one looking to get a pretty penny for the Gladiator who had cut down hundreds of men, and who was, thus far, undefeated.

The gate finally clicked, and with a loud screech, rolled open. InuYasha stepped forward into the arena, his large amber eyes taking a quick scan around to make sure he wasn't about to be ambushed. They liked to do that sometimes, apparently it upped the entertainment value. Keh.

The arena was small, a perfect square that was completely caged off, and gated high enough so he couldn't even attempt to jump or climb. And if he did, surely someone would shoot him down before he could get away. Not that an arrow would incapacitate him, but he sure as hell didn't want to start the fight at a disadvantage. The sand was slick with both rain and blood from the previous fighters. He noted that there was a group of men sitting at the top of the small arena, higher than the rest of the crowd. Demons, by the looks of it, no doubt the slave traders who would be bidding on him today. From what he could tell, they looked completely bored and disinterested. Too bad men taking each other's lives weren't enough to interest the idiots. Resisting the urge to spit, the half-demon turned away before he could really get a good look at them. It wasn't like it mattered. The only person looking out for himself was him, and he would be damned if he let himself get distracted now, and lose his victory streak in this shithole.

He could almost remember back to a time when he would first step into the arena, and his heart would pound, his palms would sweat, and his mouth would get so dry he couldn't even swallow. Gone were those days, and they were replaced with cockiness, exuding from every pore. And hell, maybe his cockiness was the reason for his victory streak. It wasn't that he enjoyed killing others, or the nightmares that had haunted his dreams for the past decade, no, that was far from it. He'd just gotten so used to it, that it was all he knew. All he could really remember. It was a dog eat dog world. Kill or be killed himself. All he knew was that he wasn't going to die today. Fuck that.

InuYasha wasn't going to die until he had avenged his mother's death.

How exactly he was going to do that, he had no clue. For all he knew, the man who had killed her was dead by now, but rational thinking wasn't really his forte.

A low growl erupted from his throat as the gate squealed open a second time, and three men emerged, fully covered with armor, which was more generous than the pathetic excuse he had been given to cover himself – it barely covered his upper torso and right arm, leaving his left arm and abdomen completely exposed. At least he'd been able to tie his long silvery hair back.

InuYasha couldn't help it as the corners of his mouth twitched up into a cocky smirk. Three to one, eh? At least they were giving him a challenge. He couldn't tell if they were humans or half-demons, and quite frankly, he didn't really care. It was better on his conscience not knowing.

A jolt of energy zapped through him, and he charged. All the aggression, anger, bitterness he felt towards countless events and countless people fueled him forward every time he was in an arena, pushing him forward, pushing him to victory, pushing him to kill so that he could live. It was almost as if he lost grips on himself and his sanity when he was forced into the arena, something took over and he ran purely on instinct, not taking the time to think about what he was going to just allowing his body to react instinctively to the danger. Only once had his demon blood fully taken over, the only time he had ever really been close to death at the hand of an opponent, but that was something he tried not to think about. It had taken him weeks to calm down, and they blurred together, he had a difficult time remembering what had happened during those weeks, and how he had snapped out of it.

After a cry, two of the men ran forward, and InuYasha quickly dodged, ducked, and kicked until he had one of them on their back, the most vulnerable position, and with one quick slash of his sword, he was down to two opponents.

Whipping around just in time to hit his sword against one of his opponent's with a loud clang, InuYasha ducked, feeling his strength pulse through him so he could push the man forward into the third and final opponent, and the two fell together into a heap.

One more slash of his sword, and he was down to one opponent.

The crowd jeering was causing his ears to ring, and he pressed them flat against his head so he didn't lose his focus.

InuYasha had assumed that the man was staying back because he was nervous, or new, but it seemed like he had been keeping back to survey InuYasha's skill. As he had fallen, his helmet had been knocked askew, and InuYasha could see a determination in his red eyes. Still, he didn't let that distract him, and the two swords met with another loud clang. He tried to duck around him, to push him forward, but the man moved his sword so quickly that InuYasha had to drop to block it from slashing through his leg.

Panting, a little jolted, but definitely not worried, he stepped to the left, and the as the man stepped to meet him, InuYasha whirled around the other side, used his free hand to land a punch straight to the man's jaw, and with another slash, the third and final opponent fell. With a quick glance around to make sure that none of them were playing dead, he turned his head and spat.

The crowd that had been loud before was now screaming, cheering for him and his victory. InuYasha rolled his eyes in annoyance, wishing he could shut them up, but even he wasn't such a brute that he would kill bystanders. The slave traders, definitely, but they were hardly innocent.

Taking a moment to really take a good look at the slave traders, InuYasha could see that one of them had long, silvery hair, not unlike his own. He was staring at InuYasha with such a cool, calculated disinterest, not looking any more interested than he had at the start of the match. InuYasha spat again, tossing his sword into the muck below, and turned around, watching the gate rise so he could walk back into the tunnel that would take him back to his captivity.

Another day. Another fight to survive.

A/N: I feel like I need to explain myself a little. I decided to combine my two favourite things currently; Inuyasha, and the movie Pompeii with Kit Harrington and Emily Browning. If you haven't seen the movie, you certainly don't need to in order to understand what's going on, but I do recommend it because it's really good. This was going to be a short drabble, as there is nothing I love more than a good AU, but it turned into a full out fic, so here we are.

If you've decided to take this wild ride with me, thank you! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and if you happen to leave a review, thank you for that too!