Extinction

Centuries of lonely nights have passed after a great war where you lost everything. So why do you care about helping a reincarnation when you're standing on four legs? A modern day fic with references to the feudal past.

All rights to Inuyasha belong to Rumiko Takahashi. That means I don't own it!

Chapter 1

Rin returned to her desk with coffee now in hand. Immediately she noticed the pamphlet with a little dog that looked very sad on the front and words across the top asking for people to visit the local shelter and adopt a "four legged friend". Her shoulders slumped and she sighed as she turned to Kira. Before she could speak Kira started.

"It's a great idea right? You'll be doing a good thing and you might even get a guard dog out of it once you train him."

"Kira come on. You know that there's no way that I would have time for a dog. I don't even have enough time for myself as of late. I've been working really hard on these last few cases and I don't see the load getting any lighter any time soon."

"See, you just proved my point. There's no way you should be staying in the city, working undercover, and without some form of protection. Please, just do me a favor and go look at some dogs. You might have a change of heart once you get there."

"I hope you're not wanting me to do this because you think that I'm lonely. I've told you already, I'm doing just fine on my own. It's been a year since Haku and I got divorced and I think that both of us have taken it well."

"I know, I know but I can't help but be a little worried about you. You're more than just a friend, you're like a daughter to me. We don't work in the safest of jobs and just knowing that you have someone…something else there would put my mind at ease. The least you could do is go and take a look."

Rin blew out a sigh as she smiled.

"Ok, I'll go look, but you have to promise not to say anything else about it."

"I'll try". Kira nodded and laughed a little as she turned back to her work.

Rin smiled to herself. Kira was like a mother to her. She was there throughout the time she had been going through her divorce. Kira had lent the shoulder that she could cry on, literally and had been her mentor even before she started doing undercover work. She had been welcomed by Kira's warm smile and loving nature but also saw how to cover the soft core with an outer shell of strength.

...

Rin looked at the clock. Kira had been gone two hours and it was near 10:00pm, a good deal past her usual quitting time of 7:00pm. Yawning, she shut her computer down then grabbed her belongings and headed for the door.

"Have a good night Rin." Ro called to her.

"See you later Ro." she replied as she took in the new uniform he was wearing as he passed her in the hall.

They were good friends but she had to admit that there were some advantages of being an undercover officer. She couldn't stand to wear those uniforms all the time and the upgrades should have been called downgrades. After earning a degree in criminal justice at 21 and six years of patrolling Duo city streets, along with a few other small promotions, she had snagged a promotion to work as an undercover officer. The job had its ups and downs, it was certainly more dangerous than working superficially but the pay was much improved.

Some cars still remained in the parking lot for the night shift officers but her side was mostly empty. Her black SUV sat under the light patiently waiting for her. The SUV was a reminder of the dreams that she had once had of having a family. She had been married to Haku for five years. When they first found out that she was pregnant in their second year of marriage they were excited. Haku had decided to trade in the sports car to obtain the more family friendly SUV. However, their dreams were dashed when she miscarried. They tried several more times but the outcome was always the same. The stress of the situation and both of their jobs was what kept them on edge with each other. As she looked back on it she realized that maybe some things just weren't meant to be.

…..

He crouched down. The animal was in his sights. Red eyes narrowed to slits to keep the prey from noticing his approach. His being was not adapted for hunting in this environment. The prey's head raised in caution as if knowing that something lurked in the night to claim its life. White paws crept over leaves that should have made noise as the white tail remained tucked low and ears slightly perked but pressed back to pick up sounds unlike his own. A few more feet would mean a sure kill. White fangs bared in anticipation as a jagged tongue licked out to taste imaginary flesh. The sound of his thoughts were non existent as he allowed the animal within to take over. He dared a few more steps before the true thrill of the hunt would begin. The trick was to allow the prey to get comfortable again. Let it set back into a mode of unaware grazing and ignorant bliss. The prey lowered it's head again. NOW! A gray blur in the night, he sped toward his victim. Hooves took off in an attempt to flee hungry jaws of a foreign beast. Thirty yards, twenty, ten, the chase was over. There was no need for strangulation. His pure cunning, weight and bite force allowed him to deal death with ease. There was no reason to hide his meal. He was the most dangerous creature in the woods. Even the bears knew to steer clear of his bloody jaws. He tore flesh away from bone as if it had never been attached.

He looked at the now stripped carcass of the buck. How had things progressed to this point? He really knew the answer but it surprised him at how far he, the Great Lord Sesshoumaru, had come. He had stooped to an unthinkable level to survive in a world where demons no longer existed.

Centuries ago, demons ruled. Humans were afraid to leave their homes for fear that they would be snatched up in the night and eaten. Destruction ran rampant among the human villages that weren't under the protection of the strongest of demons, like himself. However, at one point, they had managed to coexist. Humans and demons had even begun to mate. Even his heir was a half-demon. A sign and proof that humans and demons could coexist and that both had the capacity to love each other. But the humans stripped that belief away. Underneath the noses of the strongest of them were pacts of deceit made between the humans and lower demons to eradicate the Lords. The promise of equally split land was the draw in for the lower demons to the aid of the humans. When the war broke out, traders among the Lords' armies overflowed. Deals had been made deep into the core of their units and no one knew who was trustworthy anymore. All of the leaders except for himself had been killed by the tenth day. There was nothing that he could do. He would have died fighting with honor if he hadn't promised his mate that he would try and live for her sake. He had no reason to stay. Every last one of his family had been killed. Some of his closest men had been responsible for poisoning his mother, his mate and his heir. His brother and his family and friends died fighting as well. Humans who fought on the side of demons were treated no differently and were put to their deaths.

Little time passed between his disappearance and the second battle. The lower demons had been foolish to believe that the humans were actually going to split the lands equally. They had been used to slay the strength among them so that they could be easily taken down by the slayers. Often, he would watch from a distance to see the blood bath that took place. The remaining demons and half demons were enslaved and stripped of their ability to reproduce.

The slayers never stopped searching for him. Parties were sent out endlessly. He had been spotted here and there but never caught. It was obviously a lot harder for the humans to find and kill him now because they didn't have the aid of thousands of demons. But it only took one mistake for him to be caught and after years of running, that mistake came. Shackles were thrown around him. The chains had been lined with sutras and spells to immobilize him and keep him from transforming. Chained like an animal, the humans wanted him to suffer. The final public display would be the last time he would inhabit his humanoid form. He guessed that the humans underestimated the amount of poison it would take to kill him because he had woken up, several days later, in a field of decomposing demons. But he had not escaped all of the poison's effects. It hadn't been quite strong enough to kill him but it had transformed him and trapped him in an irreversible state. He stood a little over two and a half feet in his true dog youkai form. The demon markings had changed. The ones on his muzzle faded to the look of scars while the crescent moon remained but was faded as well to a blue gray. Golden eyes replaced the red which was only visible during the night. His body maintained its build as he retained the muscle mass but had lost the ability to fly. The poison had also neutralized his own.

For centuries he had waited for his body to age and wither away. A slow death was not something that he wished but neither was the shame of roaming the lands as nothing more than a lowly dog, in his eyes. Taking his own life would have been forgivable by his mate if he were still trapped under the humans' control but that wasn't the case. He soon realized that age was not effecting him. The poison had preserved his body in this state. It had clashed with the effects of the poison rendering him immortal to an unwanted body and life. So long as nothing injured him, he would not die.

This is one of my 'out there' ideas. I'm not one that takes to putting the characters into modern day but I figured I would step out of my own comfort zone.

I don't think any of my other chapters will be quite this long (approx. 1800) as most will fit between 1000 and 1600 words.

Please let me know what you think :)