Omega

Date: September 14, 2011

Chapter: Demoted

omega- the extreme of final part; end

Omega- the rank of no rank, the most severe of punishments, the loss one's name, heritage, status, and free will for the most heinous of crimes

A white haired male with matching dog ears rocked himself gently, comfortingly against the cold stone of his prison. He could do nothing but curl his arms about his waist for a bit of warmth as he waited for the verdict to be passed down by the council and chief. A set of individuals that had not even allowed him to defend himself. To make matters worse, the only company he had were the thoughts and memories that resided within his head. The teen aged, golden eyed boy had had quite a while to think about everything that had led up to the moment the current moment. He could honestly say that the did not like the picture that was painted. He was also certain that whatever the council came up with would be even worse than his life had been until the very moment that he was imprisoned.

He continued on to think about how all the allies he thought he had made had literally abandoned him because of a child that believed she knew how to survive in their era better than he did. He was the one that had survived for almost two hundred years on his own in the dangers of the feudal era. However, it did not matter because he was nothing but a lowly hanyou, a dog to be at their beck and call in their eyes. Despite their pretty words, they had proven otherwise with their overt actions. With those thoughts in mind, the hanyou's ears lowered to his head a bit before he could squash down the feeling of hurt and betrayal that he felt deep in his chest. It was in this position of self-battle when the boulder covering his prison was removed and the guards appeared.

The two guards were largely built with more muscle than brains and grabbed the filthy prisoner roughly about his thin arms. The hanyou had been starved during his imprisonment thus far, and was so weak that he stumbled to the point that the guards were more or less dragging the weakened body between them. The hanyou was dragged through the center of the den and did not even have the wherewithal to look up as rotten food and droppings were thrown at him. It turned his mostly white hair to a stinking brown that clogged the senses with the strength of the stench. At the end of the 'drag of shame,' the youth was dropped before the hard blue and green stares of the twelve council members and the chief of the tribe.

The half-dog did not even attempt to move from his ungainly position beneath those venomous stares. Instead, he just waited for the punishment they believed he deserved despite the fact that they had not even given him the chance to explain his version of the events. They could care less of the fact that their only witnesses were a wolf that had been half delusional in death and the chief himself who had come only in the aftermath and had not seen what had really happened beforehand.

"We, the council, have come to agree upon your sentence dog and it has been approved by the Alpha of the pack," one of the council leaders spoke forebodingly.

"You are hereby stripped of your rank, of your name, and of your heritage. You have no past, no future, and your present is held in the hands of those above you. You are Omega!"

The council members chanted the sentence as one as the hanyou was hauled across the space and presented before the pack Alpha. The wolf bared his fangs and scraped them roughly against the meaty portion of the youth's neck before pushing him away harshly. The boy landed on his back in front of the Alpha who stood to complete the ceremony by urinating upon the demoted body of the hanyou and especially upon the opened scratches on the boy's neck. A moment after the Alpha had finished, the body of the hanyou began to writhe, twitch, and jerk as the process of stripping everything began.

While the youth retained his looks, the beads about his neck turned to ashes and fell away, his memory was supposed to wiped and his scent changed to an unnaturally sick and sweet scent that should have been a reflection of his new status. The problem came with the fact that the scent of Omega should have been closer to sick and rot. Thirteen heads considered it only briefly before automatically putting it down to the hanyou's halfbreed status. When the process was complete, the Alpha motioned to the guards and they immediately picked up the unconscious hanyou, touching as little of his filthiness as possible before hauling him to the front of the cave where the lowest ranking wolves dwelt. They dropped him on the small fur there, immediately leaving to cleanse themself of the contamination from touching something so impure

.

Flashback Dream

The entire area was too quiet, a quiet that the young one had learned long ago did not bode well for any who tried to disturb it. However, the modern ningen would not listen to his reason and because she refused to do so, the others followed in her lead. After all, he was nothing but a dog on a collar and his job was to protect not lead.

They rounded the first building and the dog was proven right. The bodies of the wolves lay everywhere upon the blood soaked ground and the scent that mingled with the death sent shivers along the dog's spine. Whatever could wipe out an entire tribe of wolves was powerful and even the hanyou could not figure out if he stood a chance against whatever had done the damage. However, the worst had yet to come.

The bodies began to move, shivering, shuddering, groaning, and then rising before the group. The hanyou called for everyone to retreat, but again the stubborn girl vetoed his words and proceeded to try and fell the already dead warriors. The dog protected the woman and the kit, but no matter how many times they were slashed down, dismembered, and knocked away, they continued to come back to the point of the nearly overpowering the group before suddenly disappearing. That was when the argument began.

"There is no jewel shard here, we need to leave!" The dog was adamant. Something about the entire battle just did not sit right with him. The dead don't do battle.

"There might still be people alive here. We need to help them by finding out who is behind this!" The girl stomped her foot like a child before stalking off to search the rest of the vacant buildings for the non-existent survivors. The rest of the group followed her while the dog took a vigilant seat upon the porch of the front most building. It was then the wolf pack Alpha showed up. He took one look at the carnage, the blood stained ground and then the wearied and blood covered hanyou before his eyes turned red and his demon surged to the fore. The hanyou looked up when he heard the growl of the enraged wolf and encountered the red eyed gaze for just a moment before he tried to placate the enraged beast.

"I-I know what this looks like, but I didn't-," The beast attacked without mercy as soon as the dog tried to deny his crime. The hanyou dodged and ran, but never retaliated and this behavior only seemed to enrage the pursuing beast. It became faster and more aggressive as it attacked the youth while the boy could only do his best to avoid the blows. Unfortunately, as Lady Luck seemed to be against him that day, he stumbled and the wolf Alpha took advantage of it to tackle the young one to the ground where he cracked his skull against a stone step and was rendered unconscious.

Flashback/Dream End

The half-dog awoke with a startled gasp and a jerk at the dream that he had had. It was strange but he was almost certain that it was a memory of something that had happened to him before he was demoted to Omega. Unfortunately, while he could remember certain portions of his past, he could not remember his name or where he was from. What he did know, almost an instinctual knowledge, was that should any of the wolves find out that he was having memories, they would repeat the Omega ritual again and again until the memories were gone or he died. Listening to that instinctual pull had not led him wrong yet, so he kept the knowledge and dreams to himself.

"Oh, where is that stupid dog?! Just because he can't get his way, he decides to run off and sulk for over a week!" A girl with dark, long hair and almost equally dark eyes screeched as they remained stagnant in the village that she had first arrived in when she entered the feudal era.

Her companions just looked on in bemusement as she stomped and whined like a child. Even the little kit that was a part of their group and supposedly younger in mentality was even enjoying the lack of maturity in the girl that had always been so in control before.

"Lady Kagome," the older male called to the distraught girl that doubled as a supposedly powerful priestess. The girl spun upon her heel, nostrils flaring with indignation.

"What Miroku?"

"Perhaps you come and enjoy the evening meal with us and let the topic of Inuyasha rest for a while. Once you stop being angry, you will worry only to find that he was just fine the entire time. You know how he thinks. He just left to cool down for a while and this is also a time for you to come to terms with your anger as well. Holding on to past faults helps no one when it is time to make amends."

Despite the perverted houshi's wise words, the girl continued to her tirade of immaturity while others watched in disgusted awe. However, the girl's companions consisting of the monk, a taijiya named Sango with her fire cat Kirara, and the little fox kit, Shippou went into the old priestess, Kaede's hut to partake in her wholesome and surely delicious evening meal. Inuyasha would come back when he was ready and not a moment before no matter how long the girl outside ranted and raved for it to be otherwise.

Kouga, Alpha of the Northern Wolf Tribe, looked on with nagging dissatisfaction at the suffering of the hanyou that had slaughtered the entire army of the Southern Wolf Tribe. He was satisfied with the suffering, but he was not satisfied with the one enduring the suffering which was quite a confusing feeling to be both happy and sad at two parts of the same solution to the hanyou's punishment. However, those feelings were unimportant as long as the little wretch paid for what he did and that is what he would spend the rest of his life doing.

The Omega would be treated as less than even an animal, would be given the worst of jobs about the dens, and receive the worst choice of items for survival. Of course, it would never be enough to kill the mutt, but it would also aid in stripping him of everything that he once was. Without proper nutrition and maintenance, the hanyou would be stripped of that precious strength that he had always boasted about and hopefully the beauty that the boy had been unaware that he possessed. Only time would tell with that, though.

The members of the tribe took great amusement in making the already difficult tasks even harder for Omega who was forced to do them. When he was cleaning up the wolves droppings that gathered in the cold of the night, the tribe members would encourage their children to have 'accidents' while the hanyou was conspicuously missing to get rid of what had gathered during the night. When it was the end of the week and time to wash furs, the hanyou was given the task and every two or three furs that he cleaned, the members would add another to his pile that they had purposely dirtied. The members of the tribe that had once been part of the Southern Tribe took out their anger in others ways as well, such as abusing the hanyou for imagined offences or exaggerations of the ones he did commit which in turn affected the efficacy and speed of his already slow rate of work. This meant that some of his tasks were not completed on time and that meant the Alpha would have the hanyou brought before him in front of the entire pack and punished for his failings.

For years and years to come, this would be the life of Omega for his crimes against the Wolven Tribes of the Northern Lands.

A/N: Hey, just cleaning up the chapters and clarifying some points that I recognized were a bit vague. Revamping this story before I move onto the sequel that should have been written quite a while ago.

Cheers! Nama