Reconnectivity

By: Lone Inuyasha

Disclaimer: All characters canon to the Inuyasha series are intellectual property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shounen Sunday and Sunrise.

AN: This was an idea based off of a role play. But the back story of it, more-or-less.

Beginning.

She was a beautiful sight to behold, her large aqua colored eyes sparkled like gems and long hair was as beautiful as the finest silk. Her body moved with a fluid grace that could leave someone captivated by simply watching her and her power could slaughter hundreds in a single breath. He had to be honest, he really had low opinions over dragons, but this dragoness was such a gorgeous example of her species that even he had to marvel at her. Now if only he had the opportunity to do so...

Her serpentine body was covered in scales that shimmered like emeralds in the dim light of her lair, her gracefully sloping antlers just barely missed scraping the weathered rock formations above her head as she curled in on her self and lined her nose up with his leaping form. Lunging for him with a large opened maw filled with wickedly sharp fangs. His twin blades met her teeth with a loud clash of metal on bone, each blade slender and curved with a set of wicked hooks running along the back. These swords were specially crafted to fight and dispatch those who heavily used magic, they were also the reason why the dragoness lacked so many of those emerald scales around her face and throat. Once more those swords thwarted her efforts to dispatch her attacker.

As the dragon recoiled back from his blades he leapt in for another attempt to lash out at her throat. Her opponent was a man that stood a little over six feet in height and was clad in a black and navy blue colored armor with a samurais' helmet and mask protecting him from the dragons searing breath. He looked human but his movements were far too fast and too strong to be human. Which only added more to the dragons frustrations as she was left not knowing what creature she was facing. The dragon caught his blinding fast movements from the corner of her eye and quickly reared up as she felt those much hated twin swords rake over her thick hide and rip off yet another line of scales. She recoiled her long body back to give her room for the next step in what has been a lengthy, deadly dance.

He missed the dragons vital throat once more and snarled in his own frustration, he had been trying to dispatch this creature for hours now and each of her narrow escapes added more pressure to his deteriorating situation. He was exhausted, hurt and dehydrated but he could not feel any of it, his ability to feel discomfort of any kind subdued by a powerful spell. He knew his body was past it's limit but he understood the silent order to continue this battle till he brought down his prey or till his body gave out completely. It was a desperate situation stemmed from another desperate situation. Dragons were not usually on his list of potential hunts, but his usual prey had become very scarce. Forcing him to seek out and hunt creatures he would otherwise avoid if he could. He hit the ground running for the dragon as she reared up, a brash move but if he could reach her hind limbs and sever the vital tendons of her ankles or knee he could swing this fight into his favor! He lunged fast and swung out those blades in a pin-wheel fashion as he closed in on the dragons heel.

He had no idea dragons could bunny-hop till he witnessed it himself, the dragoness still reared up with her for limbs in the air, she rocked back on her haunches and hopped out of his blades reach just as he got within range. The hunter dug the heels of his boots into the cave floor to grind his forward momentum to a halt before he spun on the dragon only to feel a brutal blow strike him from his left side. He was airborne for what felt like a minute or two, seeing his world spin and hearing the fragmenting clatter of his smashed armor. Before he landed in a tumbling roll on the cave floor only to come to a stop once he hit a boulder.

That had to have broken something, or many some things, maybe everything was broken? He lacked any feeling of pain or pressure, thanks to that spell he was numb all over so he was unaware of the extent of the damage he'd just taken. But what he did know scared him...his body wouldn't respond. He was awake, he could see the bunny-hopping dragon and her whip like tail responsible for that blow. He could see her hop a couple of more times before she landed back down on all fours. He could see those beautiful aqua eyes that turned towards him and he could feel the panic welling up in him as she started to close in.

Move.

Nothing so much as even twitched, he could smell his own blood and knew he was badly wounded. He only needed to look out a little ways to see the trailing fragments of smashed armor scattered along his flight path to know he suffered a mortal blow.

Move...

He could see the rippling effect in the cave air as the dragons flame began to light up in her throat, Releasing a puff of super heated gas from the corners of her jaws.

MOVE!

Sheer will and adrenalin was probably to credit when he finally pushed himself from that boulder and rolled away from the direct blow of the dragons fireball. Escaping the impact that shattered the boulder, but the wave of flame that washed over everything around it though wasn't as easily avoided. He scrambled as the fire burned at his exposed flesh and devoured all the oxygen in the air around him before he could have a chance to take a breath. He scrambled to his feet only to discover that his body was far from structurally sound and he could not even so much as stay on his feet without hearing the grind of broken bones moments before falling back down to the cave floor. He tumbled onto his back and gasped for air inside of his now stuffy helmet once the flames flickered away. His bloodied hands reaching up to pull at the buckles holding his samurais mask and helmet in place. Prying it free a moment later as he gasped out for a lung full of air, least for the lung that still worked.

His silvery white hair spilled out around him, framing his face that was covered in burns from the fire. Two deep blue stripes standing out over his cheeks marking him as a demon along with golden eyes that shimmered dully, reflecting his weakened state as they looked for the dragoness. Finding her a second later as her paw came down beside him, driving a large talon through his torso. That huge claw not only pinned him to the cave floor but crushed the last scrap of hope he had that he would survive this. Defeated again by a dragon and this time the dragon managed to get him. His head lay back onto the dusty cave floor as his golden eyes rolled up to the serpent like head above him. He remembered his closest victory against Ryoukotsusei, looking into the eyes of his enemy as he watched the life drain from them. This time though, the tables were turned, for at that moment he was looking into those aqua blue eyes, knowing their shimmer would probably be the last thing he would see. Those aqua pools vanished a moment later as the dragoness opened her huge jaws. He closed his eyes then and turned his head away, calmly accepting death, after all, this wasn't the first time he'd been killed.

His master was cruel, here he had done everything that was asked of him and fought as hard as he could under orders and how was he repaid in his dying moments? The spell that numbed his body was revoked unleashing a flood of pain that swept over every nerve ending in his body. Every broken bone, every gaping hole, every gouged-torn-ruptured organ assaulted him full force with pain. Thinking rationally, he knew there was only so much pain he would suffer before shock would set in and dull him naturally. Not that he figures he would have the time to hit that threshold. He could not see anything but he could feel the hot air around him and the teeth of the dragon pressing against his broken body as he lay trapped in her jaws. He knew all his pain would be over in a second or two and with that thought in mind he calmly waited for it all to end.

But when that second or two turned into a few minutes he began to get impatient. 'Damn this beast to the seven hells and back, I am in agony here are you going to eat me or not!' He opened an eye and looked about, despite the unnerving sight of seeing the inside of a dragons mouth he was rather calm about it, if still annoyed. He wished he could at least lift his head but he was in such a state of exhaustion that the smallest of movements were impossible. Leaving the youkai to stare at the back of the dragons throat. What was she doing? She had him, was she debating how to kill him? He was wedged firmly between her teeth, a simple bite was all she needed. What else could she be planning here?

He got his answer a minute later when that huge tongue came up to unwedge him, the dragon rolling her head to the side before spitting the youkai out, a deep growl rumbling from her. He landed hard onto dried grass which helped to aggravate his injuries all the more and rolled onto his back limply. Those golden orbs gazing up through a haze of pain to the night sky, a black velvet back drop filled with stars. Not something one sees right after staring at a dragons tonsils for so long, He was outside and that realization left the poor demon very confused. His golden eyes drifted back towards the dragoness though the hulking beast now was gone. In its place was a petite sized woman dressed in richly decorated Chinese silk robes. Her hair done up elaborately and her face painted with traditional Chinese makeup. She bore wounds and cuts along her face and neck where his swords had succeeded in reaching her. But those wounds did not mar her beauty, or make her look nearly as frightening as her scowl did.

She was at his side before he knew it, glaring down at him as she growled something in a dialect of Chinese he did not recognize. He wanted to shake his head but found that to be nearly impossible so instead he forced his dry vocal cords to work and responded back in Mandarin, only to watch her face flush in growing anger. He blinked realizing that he somehow managed to insult her, yet he tried again in Cantonese only to end up with the same result. He sighed softly and looked up calmly to the petite, beautiful, frightening woman and giving up, resorted to his native tongue. " I'm sorry" He stated in a raspy voice as he squeezed what air he could out of tortured lungs.

He watched her face quietly as she glared at him. Her small hand reaching down to a fragment of his armor, adorned with a delicate looking symbol of an eye. Prying it free from him with a twisting motion that aggravated his wounds even more and made him grunt. The jolt of pain he endured though had lost it's edge as thankfully, shock was beginning to set in and he was loosing awareness of everything around him. He barely noticed when the dragoness took a hold of his chin and pushed his face to the side. Running a slender finger along that blue youkai marking, she mumbled something else in the same dialect as before but at this point he didn't care. He closed his eyes and gave into the urge to sleep that was becoming hard to ignore. Knowing well that he was probably not going to wake up again.

…"There is nothing more that you can do for us, you are not fit to return, when your physical body is lost your soul will come back to me, where it belongs...mio Tesoro... "

Those words echoed softly in his mind and through his dream, He was sitting out on a hill top over looking a field of wild flowers. The summer wind was blowing through the country side, catching and tossing those silvery white locks of silken hair. He sat there garbed in a dark grey/blue top and hakama bottom. His gaze locked on the sky a moment as he saw a glimpse of his shiro hidden among the clouds. Taking a moment he reflected on what had happened, It was odd to him, he did not remember his first death, maybe because it was so traumatizing and he was not ready for it. He fully intended to escape that burning castle and reunite with his mate and new born pup. But sadly the collapse of the castle over him put an end to that. It was an abrupt and terrifying death which left him angry and fearful for the woman and newborn he was leaving behind. This time around though he was ready for it, welcomed it, was perfectly calm about it. Maybe that's why it felt so peaceful at the moment, maybe this was a sense of relief that his trials were finally over...for now. He was already told once long ago that of he was ever to fall in battle his soul would be retrieved to be raised again. His predicament denied him eternal rest and his master made sure he did not forget that.

He looked out to the field of wild flowers then, thinking about the time when he ruled this land, remembering when he was known and respected as the Great Dog General, the Inu no Taishou. He was a force to be reckoned with, a Daiyoukai that managed to conquer and defend a large territory in the western part of the country. But because of a string of poor decisions, an ill fated wish and one misplaced hope he died in a blaze of glory only to be raised back into the living world again as an Inugami. He smiled a little as he reflected on the fate he brought on himself and how he doomed himself forever. Not that it mattered anymore, no one remembered him, his mate had been gone for hundreds of years and his sons knew he was dead. No one was aware of him, no one would care about what happened to him now, no one would come looking for him either and with that he dismissed that thought as he laid himself back on the soft grass. He gazed up to the blue skies above only to blink in confusion when a bald head came into his vision. He stared up at what looked like a man in his 60's, flinching a little as a wash cloth was pressed to his cheek-it stung!

He blinked again and the blue skies and flowery fields disappeared, instead he found himself in a room laying on his back on a mattress of straw. Around him there were people all muttering in a language he didn't recognize, one was leaning over him and dabbing a wet wash cloth over the burns of his face. Others were unraveling crimson soaked bandages and replacing them with clean ones. He realized he was in pain but nothing nearly as bad as what he'd experienced earlier. He shifted some and flinched a little as a string of sparks lit up, effectively stopping him from trying to sit up. Forced back onto the mattress, he looked down at himself and realized he was naked, bandaged and draped with prayer beads. No wonder he could not get up, yet he was surprised there were still spiritualists in this day and age that had real power. He looked at the people around him then and realized all were shaved bald and all wore a wrap of orange cloth as a robe, they were Monks. He looked to the man leaning over him again as he tried to talk to him, the dog demon sighing a little and trying again to communicate in his native tongue.

" I do not understand a word you're saying, I don't know who you are and I don't know where I am.." He looked to the man a moment who gave him a strange look before one of the younger monks stepped over and responded to the monk first with a smile before looking to him and answering back in Japanese. " You are in Sichuan, this is the Palpung Monastery." The youth looked at his further confused look before smiling and giving a more understandable answer. "You are in Tibet. "

Chapter one owari