A/N- I was amazed when I went to lunch (I so did NOT post the first chapter during my world history class) and discovered that I already had a review. Eek! So happy n.n

Disclaimer- yeah…I don't, and never will, own InuYasha.

Chapter 2

InuYasha sat beside his mother on the couch. She was sitting cross-legged facing him, so he decided to copy her. It would be impossible to tell who was more surprised at how well InuYasha was taking the news, unless of course one could read their minds.

This is all my fault, I should have known, she smells sick. Is it curable?? What exactly is wrong? Why hasn't she told me? I could have fixed it! Well…maybe not, but I could have helped. What did I do, how did she get sick?!? Oh, this is all my fault! I need her to stay alive! She's young, what could possibly be wrong?? How did I manage to let this happen? She's going to say it's not my fault, but it is…how did this happen? If it isn't my fault, I will kill whoever made her sick.

Izumi watched as many emotions ran across her son's features. Guilt, hope, confusion, dread, more guilt, sadness, and anger. Oh no. he must be mad at me for not telling him. I should have told him. I knew that waiting this long wasn't a good thing. I've know for so long. I should have told him… he's strong. I know that he can, no, will get over this. He will be fine. He is a prince after all. Prices are strong. They don't collapse. There's so much I have to tell him, and so little time. I just hope that he doesn't hate his father. Alazia will need him to be strong.

"Pay attention, and do try to not interrupt me too horribly often, ok?" Izumi just needed to tell him, too many interruptions and she might not have the will to continue on.

"Okay, I can try." How did I make this happen?!? My mom can't die! She's my mom! What did I do?? The way he thought of his mother at this moment was much like the way a small child would.

"Once upon a time," Izumi could think of no better beginning to her story, and when InuYasha looked about to interrupt with a remark about her choice of words, she gave him a stern look and continued on.

"There was a land called Alazia. There was a king, a queen, and a child on the way. The day that the queen gave birth, her sister came to the castle. At about midday, the queen went into labor, and her sister stayed with her until a prince was born. The tradition was to have a family member who had witnessed the birth bless the child. So when the queen's sister took the infant into her arms and began whispering, everyone became quiet to hear the blessing. Instead of a blessing, a prophecy was bestowed upon the young prince.

"There was not much said about the prince himself, other than he would have a long prosperous life, but much was said about the sons he would have. The prince would have two sons. The first would be much older than the second, and there would be no other children. The elder of the two would be extraordinarily powerful, and just as graceful. But to counter his power and grace, he would be cold of heart, even to those who love him.

"The younger son would also be powerful, but it would take much time for him to grow into his power. He, unlike his brother, would love, and be loved. The younger son's mother would die before his sixteenth birthday of a strange disease with no cure. Because of how cold the elder son would be, the younger would take the throne after his father, and the elder would not go down without a fight. In this battle, one of the two would be maimed."

Izumi looked almost fearful at this last statement, but continued on. "After the prophecy was made, even though the queen was quite surprised that her sister was capable of prophesizing, the family continued in the naming of the prince. His name became InuTaisho.

"InuTaisho grew to be the powerful and loved king of Alazia, and his queen soon bore him a son. The prince was named Sesshomaru. InuTaisho had two swords made, one for each of his sons. Even though he had only one son at that time, he knew of the prophecy, so he knew there would be another son. One of the swords, Tenseiga, could bring back the lives of one hundred souls in one single stroke, and the other, Tetsaiga, could take the lives of one hundred in a single stroke. Even though he knew the prophecy well, InuTaisho left the Tenseiga to Sesshomaru.

"Just a few months after Sesshomaru was born, the queen became pregnant again. This did not follow the prophecy at all, which was strange; no prophecy had ever been broken before. As it turns out, the prophecy was not broken, the queen and the unborn child died of a fever. The king was devastated, and left the country for a short period. He left one of his cousins in charge, and promised not to be gone long.

"Instead of going to a neighboring country, he used his sword to make a tear in the plains. He left the plain he was on to come to the one we currently live on. When he got here, he met a girl. She was very young, and he was almost two hundred years old, though he looked about seventeen to the eyes of humans. The girl fell in love with InuTaisho, and he left five months before the girl gave birth to his second son. He knew about his son, and although he never actually met him, he made sure that he was kept safe."

InuYasha just stared at his mom, he thought he knew what she was saying, but there was no way that he was a prince. "I'm not him, the second son…am I?"

"I knew you would understand, tomorrow you will go to Alazia, and when you are eighteen, you will take the throne. I know that you will want to stay here with me, but I don't want you to see me die in a week. My last week will be spent with your grandfather, I have a lot of explaining to do, he disowned me when he found out I was pregnant with you, and I want him to understand everything before I die."

InuYasha had attempted to interrupt his mom at least four times during her last explanation, and now was his chance to argue. "Mom, I'm not leaving you here to die, and I don't want to rule some place I've never heard of, and never been to. And I refuse to go live with some father who didn't have the guts to stick it out with you, and I'm definitely not going to live in a place with a brother who wants to kill me, that would be just plain stupid."

Izumi looked sad, and had to explain to InuYasha his father's reason for leaving. "InuYasha, your father didn't just up and leave us, in fact, if it was up to him, he would have stayed here with us. His cousin was changing Alazia too much, and was attempting to completely take over. He has even come here a few times since then, but I have sent him back, he never even got to see you. Oh, and you won't see your brother for quite some time, he's living on our plain somewhere in New York, and probably won't return to Alazia until you are almost eighteen."

"Oh…well, I'm still not leaving you here to die, you're my mom, and I will take care of you, and you won't die."

Izumi smiled at her son's stubbornness, he was going to be a great ruler, she was just sad that her sixteen years with him had gone by so fast. InuTaisho would take good care of him, she knew he would. "InuYasha, you will go to Alazia, you will listen to your father, and you will make me proud as their next king, do you understand me?" She was amazed at how stern her voice had sounded, and InuYasha obviously was too, because the only other time she had sounded so stern was when he had gotten into a fight and had been stabbed in the chest with a jagged edged dagger and tried to cover it up. She hated when he tried to hide things from her.

"But…do I have to? I mean, couldn't I wait a week, until I'm sixteen?" He knew he was fighting a losing battle, and it almost brought him to tears knowing that he wouldn't get to spend time with his mother during her last week. He fought back the tears brimming in his eyes, he would be strong, and make his mother proud.

Izumi saw the tears forming in InuYasha's eyes, and smiled at how hard he was trying to keep them from falling, so she would take only a minute more of his time, even though she knew that that wasn't what he wanted. "You will go tomorrow, and that is final. Take off your shirt, and I will redress your wounds before you go to bed."

InuYasha watched as his mother went to go get gauze and scissors, and removed his shirt, he knew that his wounds had already healed, and that it was almost dawn, but his mother didn't seem to notice how long they had been talking, and he wasn't about to point it out to her either. He decided to go make her breakfast, it was the least he could do on his last day with her. Izumi returned to the living room only to see that her son was not there, she turned to the kitchen at the sound of banging pots and pans.

What the hell is he doing? It's the middle of the night, crazy boy. It was then that Izumi saw a clock, and she literally jumped when she saw what time it was. It's five forty-five, and I didn't notice! I must be getting old…I'm not even thirty yet! Well…I guess I am now, what is today? April thirteenth was yesterday…yeah, I'm thirty. Wow I'm old. I have six days, unless I die at midnight on the twentieth, in which case I have only five… oh well, I still have plenty of time to talk to my dad. If he wouldn't listen to me then, he will listen to me now, he won't be able to help it, I look just like mom did.

"Hey mom, you want eggs and bacon, or and omelet?" Izumi was startled out of her thoughts, and remembered what she had been doing.

"Eggs and bacon, and why are you making breakfast, get over here so that I can cover those wounds."

"I'm fine mom, they healed already, two eggs or three, and how many pieces of bacon do you want?"

"Two, three pieces of bacon" Izumi was amazed at how calm he sounded, and knew that he had put up a wall around himself so that he wouldn't break down. It made her sad to think of him having to put up a wall, and wished that she could help, but knew that she wouldn't be able to. She just hoped that the woman he would marry would be able to get through that wall, because she knew that he would keep the wall up as long as he could, and he was very strong willed. That reminded her.

"InuYasha, you do know that you will need a queen, right? You have two years and four days to find her, I wish you luck." There was the sound of a pan hitting the floor, and InuYasha cussing as he went to clean up the mess. Izumi smiled at her son's surprise, and went to the kitchen. InuYasha was crouching on the floor cleaning up the spilled eggs and bacon.

Izumi had a wonderful idea at that point, "Leave it, get dressed, and meet me in the car, you have two minutes."

"Can't I take a shower? I kind of really want to take one, I smell like blood and peroxide." InuYasha winced at the mention of the smells; it had been driving him crazy.

"Fine, twenty minutes, and I expect that wonderful hair to be dry by then, got it?"

"I'll be done in fifteen."

Izumi watched her son head to his bathroom, stopping off at the closet to grab a towel. She cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, and was surprised at how little of a mess it actually was. She wasn't quite ready to let her baby go, and she wanted to take him out to breakfast. She didn't know why she wanted to go out to eat, she never really liked eating out, but today she just wanted someone else to do the cooking and cleaning while she spent time with her son on his last day with her.

If I wanted to, I could keep him until his birthday. No. That would just be too hard on me, and definitely too hard on him. Besides, he needs the time to get used to the people he will be around most of the time, and his tutors. Yes, they will need some time together before they all head back to Alazia. I think he will like Miroku and Kagome, oh, and Sango. That poor girl. She doesn't even know that Miroku loves her. One day she will figure it out. Poor Krys, she had to take care of them until they go back. The last time I saw her, she was delivering a letter from InuTaisho. How I miss that demon. Oh! I might want to explain to InuYasha the human and demon…social arrangement in Alazia. He would be quite confused when he got there if I didn't. There was the sound of the water shutting off. Wow. That was fast. I better get dressed, and figure out how to remember to tell him about that. And I need a piece of his hair…

InuYasha walked out of the bathroom, hair dripping wet, and a towel draped across his hips. The cuts and bruises he had had the night before were now gone, and there was no evidence that hey had ever been there. Izumi followed him to the doorway of his room, where he turned around and looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Mom, what are you…" Izumi then plucked out one of his hairs, making sure to get the root. "Ow! What was that for?!" InuYasha then rubbed his head where the hair had previously been, it was amazing how much one little hair can hurt.

"We are going to need your DNA to fake your death."

A/N – Well, whadda ya think? I really don't like leaving off at points that would make sense to anybody else. That and I'm really tired…good night all, I promise to post this at lunch tomorrow. Oh! And please review, cuz I like reviews n.n