Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha – obviously…

Warning: Language and violence (just to be sure)

Criticism: Well I am finally posting. I wrote this story a while ago (last December actually). I've never posted anything before so I decided to test the water with this story. Please, comments would be great! I take all criticisms (though, where and how I can improve are always more effective–obviously). However, anything goes; just tell me what you think.

Author's Note: I wrote this to examine the relationship between Inuyasha and his brother Sesshoumaru. I've split it up into four parts, which are roughly the same length. I plan on posting twice a week, if possible. The story is complete (just for clarification purposes), however I just thought I would space it out so it's not such a mouthful.

The End

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End.

Inuyasha collapsed to the ground. Blood trailed down from his nose, passing over his lips, before it curved down his chin and fell to the floor only inches below.

"Dammit." Inuyasha thought, pulling himself off of the ground yet again and readying his dull-bladed sword towards the approaching demon. His shoulder ached; the wound from where the demon's flame had hit it smelt of burnt flesh.

Inuyasha touched his fire-rat hitoe (cloak-like jacket) that should have been protecting his shoulder; instead he felt bare and bruised skin. "This should have been enough to protect me from his attack?!"

The demon seemed to notice Inuyasha's confusion, and its smile widened.

"You are no match for my power, human." The demon sent another breath filled with white-hot flames towards Inuyasha; its lips curving into a sneer as it watched the human barely dodge out of the way.

"Dammit," Inuyasha said, this time the curse found its way to his lips. "Damn this human body, I can't go on like this for much longer."

"I am quite enjoying this." The large demon said. "You look so much like her now, a weak, pitiful human." Then from the demon's outstretched palm shot out what looked to be tiny, lethally-sharp daggers.

At first, Inuyasha raised the Tetsusaiga in front of his face to block the attack. However, the thin, rusted blade didn't look thick enough to shield him from the demon's blast. Without another thought, Inuyasha dropped to the ground, quickly rolling out of the way of the attack, holding the sword slightly in front of him so as to avoid cutting himself with his own weapon.

The weight of the blast shook the ground. Where Inuyasha had previously been standing the ground had been dented into a medium-sized crater; thick, black smoke hissed out of it. Quickly, Inuyasha sprung to his feet and once again resumed fighting form.

"She was mine, you know."

"Shut it!" Inuyasha said, "Don't think I give a damn about yer stupid story."

At this the demon only smiled. "But you should give a damn, for is your own mother that I speak of."

Inuyasha only growled.

"I was quite enjoying myself as I tortured her; almost as satisfying as watching your futile efforts."

"You know," continued the demon, "She was about the age of that girl you had with you."

"Kagome." Inuyasha started to think, however he didn't have much time to continue that thought as another blaze of fire short forth from the demon's mouth. This time green, smoke-like ooze accompanied it.

His human strength waning, Inuyasha barely dogged the attack; his right foot up to his ankle catching full blast of the green ooze.

"Aah!" Even powerful (and proud) as he was, Inuyasha couldn't stop himself from crying out as the green ooze settled into his skin. Reflexively, Inuyasha rubbed the area from his ankle down to his heal, but quickly pulled his hand away both from the increased pain that came from touching it and also from the sight before him. Where the green ooze had settled, his skin had begun to rot.

"What the hell?"

"What's the matter, Inuyasha?" The demon said. "Feeling the pain of your mortality, are you?" The demon blew a wave of scorching, white flames encircling Inuyasha as he was bent down examining the wound.

"Shit, I'm trapped," Inuyasha thought, realizing his error a moment too late.

Kagome tried yet again to pull her hand away from Tekyou's death grip; yet the older woman's grasp seemed impossible to break.

"Tekyou-chan, please, let go of my hand." Kagome said, "I can't just leave Inuyasha when he is fighting!"

"Kagome, I've told you once before," said Tekyou, not looking back as she continued to pull Kagome farther away from the sounds of Inuyasha and the demon; "He's only half-human; he isn't really worth dying over."

"Hey!" Shippou said, still clinging desperately onto Kagome's shoulder, "Humans aren't the only ones who wanna' live you know."

"Stop saying things like that Tekyou-chan." Kagome said, this time dragging her feet to the point that she was in danger of tripping, "Besides, right now Inuyasha is human; he needs my arrows to help fight against this demon."

Yet try as she might, Tekyou was the stronger of the two. No matter how desperate Kagome might be she still could not break her hand free.

"Don't forget Kagome," Tekyou said, "It was the half-breed's idea that we should leave him behind anyway."

"Damn half-demon," Tekyou thought; "Not that he had to tell me that." Kagome's dead weight was becoming harder for her to drag.

"Yeah well, we don't really listen to him anyway," said Shippou, "Besides, Tekyou why are you running away, it's your fault that we're in this mess to begin with?!"

"If it weren't for Inuyasha you'd already be dead by now." Shippou continued, practically yelling to be heard above the sounds of the battle they were running away from.

"Listen to me, Kagome," Tekyou started, ignoring Shippou completely.

Then "Shippou-chan do something!" said Kagome.

Next thing Tekyou knew the little fox demon had crossed the hand bridge connecting her to Kagome and had propped himself up on her shoulder.

"Already on it," said Shippou; Tekyou instinctively swatted him off. Or tried to anyway; the child was faster than even she anticipated.

"Don't tell me that even he gives a damn about what happens to that bastard," Tekyou thought, "Given the way that jerk treats him."

Shippou bounced to the other shoulder; Kagome kept dragging her feet. Every now and then she would cry out "Inuyasha!" as if he would come and rescue her instead.

Then Shippou reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny, gray pebble; which made Tekyou smirk, "is that all he had?" she thought. He dropped it upon Tekyou's left shoulder, where it got wedged into the ruffles of her uniform which closely resembled a ninja's suit.

Tekyou swatted at Shippou again. This time she finally matched his quickness with her own and caught him by the handle of his fluffy tail. Ripping him off of her shoulder and holding him up at arms length to her face, she tried to give him a menacing stare but was amazed when she found him smiling.

"Devious, little demon, you can go die with that half-breed then." Tekyou said, and was about to hurl Shippou over her shoulder, against Kagome's protest, when from out of nowhere she felt a sudden weight plummet down upon her left shoulder.

"What the hell?" Was all Tekyou managed to get out when she found herself tumbling to the ground; her grip upon Kagome's hand was all but gone. The devious, little fox had somehow managed to put one of his growing boulders upon her shoulder and had tricked her into thinking it was just a harmless pebble.

Falling face down, Tekyou spit out the dirt that had clogged her still, wide-opened mouth.

"Dammit!" She said; looking up she saw Kagome pulling herself off of the ground, Shippou had climbed back up onto Kagome's shoulder, before giving Tekyou the dirtiest look she had ever seen him make.

Briefly, Kagome glanced back at Tekyou then took off running in the direction that they had just came from: towards Inuyasha and the demon.

"Human bodies are weak, so easily they succumb to decay." The demon said, "Yet, I must admit they are very enjoyable to break."

"Dammit, you fuckin' bastard!" Inuyasha said, again readying his sword, trying to shut his mind off from the ungodly pain in his ankle and foot.

"I received so much pleasure from torturing dear Izayoi," The demon said; Inuyasha growled again and lunged at it.

"Unlike you, half-demon she kept begging me to stop." The demon easily parried Inuyasha's non-transformed Tetsusaiga, sending him flying backwards; somehow Inuyasha managed to land on his feet.

"You needed more of a push then her, but just like her, you eventually gave in and cried out in pain."

"I said shut yer fuckin' mouth!"

"Perhaps after you are dead I will track down that girl you were with." The demon smiled as it looked over towards the direction where Kagome, Shippou and Tekyou had run off. "I miss the pathetic screams of a woman."

"Wrong direction, bastard!" Inuyasha said, using his opponent's momentary distraction to his benefit, "You should be fuckin' paying attention to me!"

With a downward thrust of his blade, Inuyasha used his shear momentum to counter the dullness of the non-transformed Tetsusaiga, and dug it straight into the demon's exposed back. The blade sunk into its target and dug deep into the demon's insides before being yanked out as its owner back-flipped to the ground.

The demon looked surprised, as that of a young child who after pulling off a bee's wings and upon thinking the bee is dead, tries crushing it in his hands, only to be met with one last sting.

Yet, the surprise was only momentarily; then it began to laugh.

Drawing itself up to its full height and shaking its back injuries out as an athlete would a tiresome crick, the demon glared down at Inuyasha.

Unlike the demon, the human was looking thoroughly exhausted; he was panting, blood was dripping out of his nose from his earlier fall. His shoulder had been previously torn open from the demon's fire blast and fresh blood was pouring out of the wound and soaking the surrounding material of his fire-rat hitoe.

But, Inuyasha's foot and ankle were the worst of all; the color of greenish-yellow, the flesh was decaying away, already giant sores had broken out in spot-like patterns across the parts where the decay had by now devoured many layers of his skin.

The pain was beginning to numb Inuyasha's senses; he couldn't take anymore. If only sunrise would come, then he would be able to use his claws to rip this demon apart; then his Tetsusaiga would be able to transform into its true fang form, and most importantly then his wounds would be healed by the power in his demonic blood. Yet, it was still too early in the night; and at the rate his stamina was holding up, he wouldn't be able to hold off until then.

"Kagome," Inuyasha couldn't help thinking, "Is this the end?" He kept dodging the demon's attacks; "Will I be able to see you again?" It had now become impossible to make attacks of his own; it took all of his human strength just to get out of the way.

"It was truly a shame that I could not finish Izayoi off; that I could not savor the pleasure of devouring her flesh."

The demon smiled; smoke trailing out of its mouth from between its long, pointed fangs, its eyes lighting up with a green, eerie glow.

"Very soon, son of Izayoi, it will be your flesh that I will be devouring," The demon said; it opened its jaws, unleashing a fresh wave of flames, the green ooze hissing within the smoke as if taunting the human with promises of future pain.

"Fuckin' lil' fox demon!" Tekyou said; she lay face down upon the floor, a gigantic boulder crushing down upon her left shoulder. Yet, Tekyou didn't call herself a demon slayer for nothing. With all the strength she could manage she reached for her left shoulder to touch the enormous boulder with her right hand. She knew that the spell within her palm should be more than enough to counter such trivial magic. Outstretching her right hand, she managed to touch the boulder, and as if she had put it beneath the rushing waters of a bewitched waterfall, the boulder began to erode away until it was nothing but the harmless pebble that it had started out being.

Wasting no time, Tekyou pushed herself forcefully off of the ground. About thirty paces away she could see Kagome, with Shippou clinging to her right shoulder, racing towards the sounds of the fight.

"I must get to her before she reaches that clearing." Tekyou said; somehow she couldn't manage to stop the anxiety that began to fill her gut.

However, so far no human had been able to outrun her and Kagome stood no chance against those that Tekyou had already beaten. Even so, Kagome's concern for that damn half-demon had given her a quicker pace than Tekyou could have imaged. But ultimately she knew that she would catch up to her before Kagome reached her destination. And, it was this thought that despite the anxiety growing inside her, made Tekyou cock the first signs of a grin.

Kagome meanwhile was running towards what sounded like gigantic bolts of thunder smashing the ground within moments of each other. With each crashing sound her heart seemed to race all the more. Somewhere past all of the surrounding trees, Inuyasha was at the center of those sounds fighting for his life. Thoughts flashed across her mind at a pace that she could not control.

"Inuyasha, please be okay." Kagome thought, yet in her mind all she could see was an image of him, bloody and broken, barely being able to counter the attacks being shot at him from each direction.

The trees, racing past her as she ran, were beginning to thin out; she was quickly approaching the clearing. There she knew she would find Inuyasha fighting the demon. For a moment, she dreaded the sight she would see once she was no longer sheltered behind the trees. It was almost as if something inside her had a premature knowledge of what lied beyond—as if it was there watching the fight and already knew the outcome.

"No." Kagome said; her thoughts no longer able to be contained, "Inuyasha!"

Then there was calm, the last thunderbolt still hanging in the air. Suddenly a wave of anxiety swept over her. Why had the thunder stopped? Was it because Inuyasha had finally beaten the demon, or could it be that he had….

"No!" Kagome said, trying to stop any thoughts that spoke such terrible things; she needed Inuyasha to be alive.

Inuyasha was running out of space to dodge attacks; the towering demon blocked the path in front of him. And, he only had about five meters or so in either direction before he would hit the wall of fire that the demon had surrounded him with earlier.

"Dammit," Inuyasha thought, "That bastard gave me just enough room so he could play around with me."

The demon continued to shoot wave upon wave of scorching, white-flames combined with the green ooze at Inuyasha, splitting the ground as they missed their target, causing thunderous explosions, which seemed to shake the very earth beneath each time they smashed into the ground.

Inuyasha still continued to dodge them; each time, however the distance between the demon's blaze and Inuyasha's flesh was growing smaller.

There was a moment of impasse.

Inuyasha was panting; he was resting on one knee, the non-transformed Tetsusaiga readied in front of him towards the demon. The demon was smiling. Its jaws still smoking from its attacks; the smallest beads of sweat shimmered on its brow.

Suddenly flames burst forth from the outstretched jaws of the demon, directly at Inuyasha.

Using his kneeling position to his advantage, (and still trying to ignore the pain in his ankle and foot) Inuyasha sprung forward, and used his momentum to flip through the flames, swiping his Tetsusaiga in a circular arch to disperse the fire enough so no flames scorched his skin.

He landed two feet from the demon.

Being this close to his foe, Inuyasha acted on instinct and thrust the blade of Tetsusaiga directly into the tough, scaled hide of the demon's abdomen.

The demon stumbled slightly, its left foot almost loosing footing.

Suddenly, the demon grabbed Inuyasha's blade and was about to thrust the blade out of its belly, shoving the hilt directly into Inuyasha's stomach.

However, once the demon's hands had enclosed around the blade, the Tetsusaiga sent off a bolt of energy; scorching the demon's hands; rapidly it pushed the blade away.

The force from the thrust of the blade sent Inuyasha flying backwards. He landed with a thud, crushing his already injured foot and ankle underneath his body weight. Inuyasha sharply drew in a breath, the pain from his ankle and foot momentarily overwhelming his senses.

"Damn that sword," The demon said, looking down at its burnt hands; then it began to smile as its skin quickly regenerated itself.

Gingerly, Inuyasha pushed his weight off of his ankle; the ground—scorching from the demon's previous fire attacks—burning his hands.

The demon's smile began to widen as it saw Inuyasha grimace in pain as he moved off of his swollen ankle and foot.

"I must admit it is very enjoyable watching you suffer," the demon hissed, "But even this pleasure can't last forever."

The demon then brought its arms out to form a semicircle, and from its open palms shot forth another large blast of daggers aimed directly at Inuyasha.

Out of the corner of his eye, Inuyasha saw the sharp blades flying towards him.

"Shit!" Inuyasha thought; his ankle was in agony, his hands were blistering, yet he didn't have time to waste on pain.

Ignoring the pain in his body, Inuyasha quickly got to his feet and was going to use the inertia of a back flip to flee from the reign of fire. But when he was in mid jump, suddenly the demon changed the direction of the blast it was sending to follow Inuyasha's movements.

Inuyasha saw the blast coming straight at him just as he was about to flip backwards; dropping out of mid-flip, Inuyasha rolled away from the blast, (but not fast enough!) several of the daggers hit him square in the shoulder, the green ooze just barely missing him.

This close to him, Inuyasha could see that the daggers were actually small fangs covered in a skin of jagged spines. Once the fangs made contact with his body they seemed to become alive. The fangs clung onto his hitoe and, like parasitic lampreys, began to rip into the fabric. His fire rat hitoe at first held strong against them. But, then as if they were hell-born termites gnawing their way into the wood of a fortress, the fangs began to eat their way through the material.

Inuyasha grabbed one of the fangs. "Shit!" He cried; trying to release it the moment he touched it. Yet, the fang began to reproduce itself upon contact, sending miniature versions of itself directly into the palm of his hand. These mini-fangs began to bury themselves into his skin like their larger counterparts had done; painfully tearing into any arteries in their wake.

His pause to free his body from the infection of fangs had been costly. Just then another blast of shards, this time along with the green ooze, hit him square across his back. Inuyasha stumbled from the impact and crashed to the ground.

Sinking right through the weakened fire rat hitoe as water would paper, the green ooze began to descend into his back; his skin seemed to catch fire, his mind began to blur under the sheer pain. He could no longer contain himself; he began to scream out in pain as more shards entered the skin of his back.

The beginning of the clearing was coming into view; already Kagome could see some trees blackened as if they had been set ablaze by a giant blowtorch. Many of the trees were cracked, their tops broken so they looked more like tall, slender, black twigs, instead of maples.

She could hear Shippou panting upon her shoulder, and could feel the tight grasp of his tiny fingers clinging to a clump of her shirt.

It was about this time when she heard another sound; like the rush of thousands of volts of electricity, it sounded like a whirlwind of energy was being rapidly channeled repeatedly to the ground. Amidst the sound of rushing energy a hissing sound came through which sizzled like that of an egg frying on a saucepan. Her nose began to tingle as the smell of burnt flesh evaded her senses.

As she neared the edge of the clearing she saw that the ground there was scattered with craters about three meters in length and a meter in depth, some of which still were fuming with thick, black smoke. She could only imagine that these must have been made from the crashes of thunder that she had heard before.

But it was when Kagome was running around a particularly large crater that she heard a sound that she had never before heard; uncontrollably she stopped dead in her tracks. This set Shippou jolting forward at her abrupt halt; yet he did not fall off.

At first the sound was almost inaudible over the roar of rushing energy, yet then it reached her ears in such perfect clarity that she could swear she was standing at its source. There was no mistaking it; Inuyasha was screaming.

Shippou began to shake uncontrollably now. "Kagome," was all he could mutter.

Kagome had known Inuyasha for almost two years now, and over that time she had seen him fight many demons, some with extraordinary power. But never in all her time she'd spent with him had she heard him sound anything like this. He was truly in agony.

"Inuyasha!" Without thinking of the danger ahead, Kagome ran to him. Yes, the idea crossed her mind that if any demon could make Inuyasha scream to this extent, what chance did she have against it. But at this moment Kagome did not think about her own safety; her only thought was to get to Inuyasha.

The demon let out a satisfactory moan, its hands rose as it let another wave of daggers shoot forth.

"What I wonder is just how you, half-demon, are going to escape from my grasp?"

The demon was standing directly over Inuyasha as he lay screaming and thrashing on the floor, trying to pull the now numerous fangs out of his skin. He seemed to keep trying, even if it only produced more shards upon touch; the pain was driving Inuyasha into a state of deliria by now, a place where logic did not register, only instincts.

Suddenly, a new hatred reflected in the demon's eyes; it paused in its torturing of Inuyasha.

"You see, it was the great Inu no Taisho that came to her aid." At the mention of his father, Inuyasha's thrashings lessened. He also seemed to sense the demon standing above him, and his face began to scowl in defiance.

Pulling the human up by his long, black hair, the demon brought Inuyasha's face close to its own and began to nipple on his cheek. Small drops of blood began to appear where the demon's fangs tore into his skin.

Inuyasha's mind was desperately fighting to stay conscious. "I…can't…let…him…win."