AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story stems from my disgruntlement over Rumiko Takahashi's very brief scenes in Volume 28 concerning certain issues, and my impatience to find out what happens next. So, following every true author's code: when in doubt, make it up! I have done just that…in my own sadistic way, of course. The following will not actually ever be seen in the real plotline developed by the Goddess Rumiko, because she is brilliant, and I am not. That, and I have yet to perfect my telepathy.

On that note, DISCLAIMER: The only thing of Inu Yasha that I own are my manga copies and my obsession, and my DVDs, and tapes, and plushies, and key chains…

Anyway, onto the fic.

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Toe the Line

By Phoenix Cubed

Prologue: Dream a Little Dream

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Inu Yasha was dreaming.

He had to be, at least, because there was no way reality could be this twisted. Unless maybe he was in Kagome's time and her younger brother was once again trying to introduce him to another bizarre magical apparition known as a "Nintendo Game." Inu Yasha didn't appreciate the so-called games as much as little Souta perhaps wanted him to, but the half demon had a problem with children as young and naïve as Souta making light of situations Inu Yasha considered very real and very dangerous.

This was one such instance—and real or not, danger hung in the air like heavy drapes over a fogged window.

Inu Yasha stood, chained to a platform by manacles that reached from the darkness to crush his wrists and ankles and hold him immobile. Above him a spotlight shined down to drench his form and illuminate the small circumference of the platform he was bound to. His senses were dulled by the encompassing darkness around him, letting him see nothing beyond but black shadows. His captured state angered him, and the demi-human snarled and fought against his constraints, trying to force himself to wake up; or at least switch nightmares.

A light, malevolent chuckle sounded from the darkness, causing Inu Yasha to freeze. He knew that laugh; he'd know it anywhere.

"Naraku!" He snarled at the shadows, "show yourself, bastard!"

"Temper, temper, Inu Yasha." The cool velvet voice of the demon Naraku slid through the lightless depths of Inu Yasha's surroundings. "If you become upset so quickly, you'll ruin all the fun we're going to have."

"Somehow I doubt that," the half-demon growled, lacing his ears back against his head, "your idea of fun and mine are leagues apart."

"Are they really?" Naraku's disembodied voice mused, "I beg to differ. That would imply that you and I are different—and I feel that is not the case. We are both demonic, after all, and you can hardly deny the delight that ran through you when my precious Goshinki destroyed your Tetsusaiga, allowing your better half to come through for the very first time."

The darkness in front of Inu Yasha dissipated, and the half demon saw the air ripple like water down a shallow stream until a moving image shimmered into view. Faint and veiled by mist, what he was as real as if it had happened yesterday. It was of himself, but not. It was the full demon Inu Yasha, with the red light of madness in his eyes as his claws tore into the gargantuan monster Naraku had created. Inu Yasha watched as Goshinki fell to the ground a ragged corpse, the demonic Inu Yasha kneeling on the remains with a fierce, wicked smile snaking across his features. Unbidden, the feelings of that moment returned to him, coursing through his veins and forcing him to remember the horrific glee he had gotten from his deed. He recalled the euphoric rush of his actions—the thrill of hunting, of stalking, and merciless slaughter.

"Yes, you enjoyed it, didn't you? Reveled in it." Two glinting red beacons gleamed forth from the darkness with the intensity of sunlight through glass. "You were wild, uncontrollable, a killer to the very core. A monster. Just like me. And just as I do, just as I have; there was blood on your hands, and you wanted more—"

"NO!" Inu Yasha screamed his denial, "No!" He thrust against his chains and roared at the mocking eyes, splaying his claws and straining against his bonds to reach the laughing eyes and gouge them from Naraku's mocking face. But the memories of his fight with Goshinki refused to leave, and were instead joined by the instance in the village where he had lost Tetsusaiga once again; this time destroying innocent villagers and almost, almost his own friends.

Inu Yasha slumped to his knees in exhausted defeat, his eyes closed tightly to ward off the unwanted memories and feelings. "No," he whispered hoarsely, "I'm not like that. Not like you."

"Wrong again, Inu Yasha. We have so very much in common. Our quest for the completed Shikon Jewel; the desire to become a full demon; and, dare I might add…"

"Inu Yasha," a soft, calm voice drifted to his ears, causing him to lift his head and look about wide-eyed for its source.

"Kikyo," he breathed, seeing a glimpse of her on the village hillside, kneeling in a state of meditation with her bow and arrows resting on the ground by her side.

"Behold, the lovely maiden Kikyo. Long has the foolish heart of Onigumo, as well as your own weak organ, dwelled on her image. But time changes things, does it not? I have expelled the weakness of desire from my body. And your eyes, it seems, have drifted elsewhere."

A rich, full laughter burst forth from the gloom as a bright and cheery-eyed Kagome came running toward him, waving and giggling.

"Inu Yasha!" She called out, her voice echoing strangely in his mind, "There you are! I've been looking for you, Inu Yasha!"

"Kagome?" That's what was wrong; she was too real, too life-like for him to be dreaming. He jumped to his feet and yelled at her, wanting to ward her away from the danger he felt rushing towards her. "Kagome, no! Run away!"

But it was too late. Chains reached out from the shadows and clamped over her waving limb, lifting her into the air as she screamed and called his name.

"Kagome!" He shouted, leaping after her. But the biting metal of his iron cuffs brought him to an immediate halt, slamming him back against the platform and stealing his breath away in a painful gasp. Desperation pulled him back to his feet in time to see Kagome disappear into the lightless depths overhead. Inu Yasha cried out for her again and pulled hard against the shackles, but they failed to break against even his incredible strength. So instead he turned and snarled at the gleaming crimson eyes that watched the display with naked amusement.

"Bring Kagome back!" He barked, "now!"

The eyes slanted wickedly, "Kagome? Only Kagome? What about our beloved Kikyo?"

"Damn it," Inu Yasha snarled again, "you bastard, Naraku! Kikyo's dead! You killed her!"

"Did I really?" Naraku mused, "then, pray tell, who might this be?"

In front and above him at a distance of almost half his ability to jump another spotlight flickered forth, revealing Kikyo suspended in the air by a gnarled arm with bony fingers digging into the priestess's wrists. Beyond her dangerous position, she seemed unhurt; but with her eyes closed and her face cast in her usual neutral expression, it was difficult for Inu Yasha to be entirely sure.

"And then of course, what is a mirror without its reflection?"

With Naraku's words, one last light shone down, and in it Kagome hung in much the same way as Kikyo. Though her head was tilted more downwards, allowing Inu Yasha to see clearly the pained expression that pinched the young girl's face. His breath hitched in his throat and he tried to reach up with his hand, but the chains caught him and held him still.

Inu Yasha clenched his teeth and fisted his claws deep into the flesh of his palms, allowing the warm blood to rush over his skin and drip down his knuckles to the cold platform he was bound to. "You're sick, Naraku." He bit out, "not even my damn brother would sink this low."

"Maybe so," Naraku laughed quietly, "but think about how much more fun you and I have."

"This isn't fun, ass hole," Inu Yasha snarled, "This isn't even real! Its just—"

"A dream? A tragic nightmare, perhaps?" The eyes drifted closer to him, leering at him with uncontainable mirth, "Your mind's way of punishing you for mistakes made long ago? No, Inu Yasha, this is something much better."

"Anything that sounds better to you is something I don't wanna hear," Inu Yasha spat, glowering with his fiercest expression possible.

Naraku didn't flinch, if anything, his amusement heightened. "Oh, but I think you do want to know; for what you see before you is neither dream, nor nightmare, nor even reality…yet."

"Yet? What do you mean, yet?" Inu Yasha growled, "tell me!"

"So eager. Very well, then. What you see before you, little half beast, is the future."

"What?" Inu Yasha said, "the future?"

"The future," Naraku repeated, his cold voice creeping with malevolence, "what is to come."

And suddenly Naraku vanished, taking the darkness with him and leaving in its place fires that burned with the wrath of Hell and Inferno. Inu Yasha coughed and crouched down to cover his nose and mouth with his sleeve. He looked over to see the fires spreading and growing larger, their hot tendrils becoming tall below the suspended bodies of Kagome and Kikyo who were both still immobile and unconscious.

Then he saw it. Just beyond the women was a platform, free of flame and covered in grass and sunlight. It was at a distance that put the space of his full jumping capacity between it and himself, but he was sure he could make it easily.

"Indeed you could make the distance, Inu Yasha." Naraku's voice sounded again from nowhere. "And therein lies your dilemma, you can make the jump only once."

The fires roared higher and hotter, and Inu Yasha knew that he had to move quickly or risk succumbing to the flames. He pulled again at the manacles to test their strength and was unprepared when the metal stretched and loosened. Tugging at them again, he realized one more good pull and he'd be free.

"And with that, shall we begin the game?"

Inu Yasha looked up from his thoughts, "I'm not here to play games with you, bastard!"

"Think it not a game then," Naraku said, "but a warning."

"A warning? For what?" Inu Yasha asked snidely, "my future?"

"Precisely."

There was a groaning rumble and Inu Yasha looked up to see the hands holding Kikyo and Kagome crack and crumble, threatening to loose the two women completely and send them plummeting into the fire below.

"This is your future, Inu Yasha, and your only warning to it. As soon as you slip your chains, their bindings will break and both will go to the fires below. You have one chance, half demon, and one only to jump the distance and catch the future of your choice."

The hands cracked again, and both girls slipped a few inches.

"You can only have one, Inu Yasha."

Inu Yasha froze as he felt his manacles creak and loosen once more at the same time he heard the splintering of Kagome's and Kikyo's bonds. The sudden jerk on their bodies caused them to blink and shift to waking. Kikyo's dark brown eyes slid open and immediately assessed the situation before turning to him, her cool countenance wavering only slightly. Kagome burst into consciousness, her pale lids snapping back to let her expressive eyes take in the scene before her. She turned to him, just as Kikyo did, and now both of them looked at him; Kikyo hesitant but expectant, Kagome frightened, concerned, but trusting.

"This is the future, half-demon. Now choose!"

The chains fell with a thunderous clap to the platform and twin screams echoed in his ears as he watched Kikyo and Kagome plunge into the flames.

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^.^;; Nice little ending I think, good place to leave off. I was planning on making this a little stand alone one shot, but this is much more fun! Of course, I can always make it a one shooter…or you could review and encourage me to move on.

*innocent whistle*