Broken Sunrise

Four

Inuyasha skidded full force into the camp where he received startled gazes from his companions, as he let Kagome off him and onto her feet. He looked up at the others' weird looks, and began to feel a little uncomfortable. 'Well? What the hell you starin' at?' he yelled, and the others shot their faces back into their usual expressions as fast as humanly possible.

'What happened?' asked Miroku, walking forward as Shippo jumped from his shoulder to Kagome's, the little kitsune glad to have her back, and Sango pulled her into a sisterly hug. Inuyasha felt a little peeved he was being ignored, and looked reproachfully at Kagome, only to catch that pervert monk Miroku in action. Before Inuyasha got a chance to even blink, a red hand mark was left on Miroku's cheek, (courtesy of Sango).

'Sango, what the hell was that for?' he shrieked pathetically innocently.

'Keep your damn hands to yourself unless you want them ripped off!' she screamed.

'A little rash don't you think I was only playing,' he grumbled. Shippo and Kagome narrowed their eyes in disbelief, they wondered if he truly thought he'd ever get away with it.

'I'd quit while you were ahead Miroku, unless you want the other cheek to match,' muttered Shippo, trying to help the poor simple monk not to be slapped again by his potential love interest.

Sesshomaru stood away from the others, Rin at his side. He found it utterly amazing how pathetically stupid Inuyasha and his comrades could be, considering their amazing fighting skills, and their reputation for beating whatever they came up against, they were pretty simple minded in the dog-youkai's way of thinking. Rin brushed her long black hair out of her face, and looked up at Sesshomaru, tugging on the white, fluffy material that was draped over one shoulder leaving the rest hanging at his side.

'Sesshomaru-sama?' she asked sweetly. Sesshomaru tilted his head down to look into her dark eyes. 'When can we go, I don't like it here?' A smile seemed to twitch at his mouth, though it did not continue into a true one across his pale face. He looked back over to Inuyasha, seeing that the hanyou had finally got the attention of his friends, and was barking orders at them as usual, (not that they were listening). Sesshomaru's long silver hair fell off his face, the two red triangle marks on either side of his face exposed as it did so. 'Sesshomaru-sama?' asked Rin again, when he did not reply.

'It isn't safe to leave right now Rin,' he replied, 'as much as I hate to admit it, my brother is the only way we can ensure we live through what the world is about to endure.'

Rin looked worriedly up at him, he had always protected her since he had met her, and in the long while she had spent in his company he had hated his younger brother with such vengeance they tried to kill each other on sight, she knew things must be bad if he was willing to accept his help.

'But Sesshomaru-sama? The last time you worked with him he…he almost killed us all, including Kagome-chan.' Sesshomaru did not reply, Inuyasha had done as she had said, though that time he was being controlled, he knew Inuyasha would never hurt Rin, an innocent human child if he could help it, and more importantly, Kagome wouldn't let him do so. Sesshomaru looked over at Kagome, and then at Inuyasha. How could a human girl control such a powerful half-demon, (hanyou) like Inuyasha? His gaze shifted to the beaded necklace around Inuyasha neck. It isn't just that, the words she says to activate that are sometimes not even said when he does as she says, so how does she do it?

Inuyasha interrupted Sesshomaru's train of thought as he barged over to him, making the older youkai look up.

'Okay? Did you get all that?' Sesshomaru did not reply, he just threw his brother the usual, loathing, frosty stare.

'No I didn't, but the sunrise has already begun, so there is no time for explanation.' Inuyasha nodded and turned going to walk off, only to find Sesshomaru had held an arm out to stop him. 'Wait a moment,' he muttered to his younger brother. Inuyasha sneered, and smacked his brother's arm away, begrudgingly doing as he was told. They all watched Sesshomaru look thoughtfully up at the sky, until suddenly he spoke. 'Okay, quick follow me.' Rin took his clawed hand and followed after him through the density that was the forest, the others close behind.

They followed him hastily to a cliff-top, where he stopped them, his golden orbs meeting the sight of the sunrise once again. As Inuyasha drew up to Kagome's side, he saw the same, thick black line splitting down the centre of the sunrise, and his breath was caught in his throat as it shimmered menacingly. 'Leocht Demaneire Naisomentum,' muttered Sesshomaru, and Kagome looked up to stare at him, the familiarity of his utterance too unbelievable to be true. Suddenly, with his words, the thick line splitting the sunrise throbbed oddly, and the line grew thicker and thicker. An eerie blue light shot from the line spiralling across the sky, descending upon them. Inuyasha lunged forward, grabbed Sango and Kagome roughly, dragging them backwards, causing the two women to collapse on top of him. This all happened within the split second before the light had struck the earth, shattering the surface layers of rock, where Kagome and Sango stood moments before.

Miroku held out his hand to Sango and Kagome, helping them up off Inuyasha, paying no attention to the crumpled hanyou on the rocky ground. Kagome brushed herself off, and offered a hand up to the neglected half demon.

'Feh,' he muttered, 'like I need your help,' he leapt to his feet, staring at the large crevice in the ground, and the thick beam of radiant blue light now standing in Kagome and Sango's place.

'Well?' muttered Sesshomaru, causing the others to look at him in confusion. 'You want to find Kazuya's weakness or not?' The others, (all excluding Inuyasha) looked at him as if they might surprisingly not want to. Inuyasha answered for them, stepping forward slightly.

'And what exactly is that thing gonna do?' he asked, rather rudely. Sesshomaru ignored his younger brother's attitude, and replied all the same.

'Kazuya was resurrected yesterday, if you want to know how to kill him, you have to go to where he was born, demised, and born again; to the Temple of Lost Souls.' Inuyasha looked warily at the beam of shimmering light.

'And I suppose that thing is gonna take us there?' he asked snappishly, and Sesshomaru nodded slightly, Rin looking timid and afraid at his side.

Inuyasha walked hesitantly towards the light, rousing a worried gasp from Kagome.

'Inuyasha, don't!' she whispered desperately. Inuyasha turned to face her.

'It's a damn light Kagome, what are you afraid of?' he asked disbelievingly. He held out his hand for her to take, but she just stared at him, not moving. 'You really are afraid aren't you?'

'No,' she lied indignantly, taking his hand and walking forward at his side. Shippo held nervously onto his preferred spot on her shoulder, closing his eyes in fear as his ride stepped forward nervously.

As Inuyasha and Kagome stepped into the light, it seemed to hum in their ears, and their skin tingled oddly, making the hair on their on the back of their necks stand on end. Suddenly, the ray of light shuddered, making the others gasp in fear. The ground beneath their feet rumbled menacingly, making the rock beneath their feet crack and crumble. Sango and Kilala dashed into the light, bumping up against Kagome and Inuyasha, and looking back to Miroku.

'Quick, it'll disappear!' she urged him. Miroku wasn't a coward, but he didn't at all like the fact of stepping into a mysterious beam without knowing what it was. He realized that if his friends were going, and were going to die in the process, then he would want to go with them, and he ran to their side.

As the beam gave another sharp jolt, Sesshomaru took Rin, and shoved her under it, running swiftly to follow her; however, fate had other plans. The moment Rin was thrown into the beam alongside the others, it gave an even sharper jolt, and as Sesshomaru lunged towards it, a radiant, powerful wave of light shot at him, and he was knocked back.

'Sesshomaru!' screamed the little girl, Miroku holding her back as the rock beneath them crumbled. Rin pulled Miroku away from the unsuspecting monk, and he released her, only to have Inuyasha lunge forward, and snag her with his clawed fingers, dragging her back against Kagome. The beam jolted a final time, before it shot upwards, just as the rock crumbled away beneath them. Rin screamed and tried to break away from Inuyasha's grip as she locked eyes with her beloved demon, and she watched in horror as he plummeted downwards, out of her view as the beam shot upwards, far from where they had stood less than moments before.

***

The beam landed on the hard ground sharply, making its passengers jolt and have to fight to keep their feet. As the light disappeared from around them, (the only light now being from the sunrise), they looked nervously about to where it had brought them. Surrounding them was a large stretch of dark trees and grass, nothing else to be seen around them, until they faced towards the sunrise. They saw then, what the black line splitting down the sunrise had been… they were facing it. A monstrosity of tall, winding and never-ending stairs faced them, leading gradually to a gigantic, black temple, an ominous beacon atop this dark unconquerable mountain. However, what disturbed the party most was the tall, black energy beam that shot directly up from the top of the temple, crackling sparks of indigo and crimson electricity, this was what had caused the broken sunrise, or was at least the ripple effect after whatever had caused it. Inuyasha gazed up at it trough his golden, hanyou eyes, knowing that anything to have a ripple effect as dominating as this energy beam, must be wielding power he couldn't even begin to imagine.

He suddenly felt a jerk on his hand, and looked down, remembering Rin, the trembling girl, struggling to be free of him. He released her from his clawed hand, and she dropped to her knees, whimpering and sobbing. Inuyasha looked down into the eyes of Kagome, who looked sadly up at him, and then at Rin, before kneeling down to the girl's level. Shippo leaping from her shoulder to Inuyasha's as she did so.

'Rin,' Kagome said kindly to the child, patting her lightly on the back. Rin looked up at her, her beautiful, dark eyes stained with tears, and leapt into Kagome's arms, sobbing hysterically, the tears seeping through the shirt of Kagome's school uniform, (though she didn't mind so much). 'Hush,' said Kagome soothingly, looking hopelessly up at Inuyasha, who threw her a sympathetic look in return. After a few moments, Rin pulled from Kagome's embrace, and leapt at Inuyasha, punching weakly at him.

'I hate you! Why didn't you save him? You could have saved him! I hate you! I hate you!' she screamed uncontrollably, trying as hard as she could to hurt him.

Inuyasha knelt down in front of her, nearly catching a smack in the jaw before he grabbed her wrists firmly, not hurting her, but not letting her go. 'Let go of me! I hate you!' she screamed tears falling down her face.

'Stop,' ordered Inuyasha firmly, and she stopped, though he didn't release her. 'Sesshomaru got you safe okay, that is all he wanted, and if the beam thing wouldn't let him in, what makes you think it would let me out?' Rin gazed at him with as much hatred as her sweet eyes could muster.

'You could have – I've seen you do things – you could have tried…' she whimpered, as Inuyasha loosened his grip on her wrists.

'If I could have, I would have,' he replied.

'Liar, you hate him…'

'I do, but like hell would I let him die like that without giving me the chance to kill him myself?' Rin looked into his golden eyes, seeing true sincerity, and her hatred melted away. Inuyasha let her go completely, and stood back up, Kagome drawing up with him.

Rin looked miserably at her feet, the last of her tears being wiped away by her tiny hand.

'Sesshomaru-sama…if he is dead, who will look after me?' she muttered, mostly to herself, not realizing she had spoken her thoughts aloud. Kagome looked to Inuyasha for support, and he rolled his eyes, looking down at the little girl.

'Hey,' he said, and she looked up. 'You may hate me, and I may hate Sesshomaru, but I ain't gonna let you get hurt, I do have a soul you know.' Rin didn't seem to take in his words fully, but she nodded. 'Besides, Kagome would sit me a hundred times over if I let you get hurt.' With these words, he walked over to Miroku and Sango, who stood a little away from them, looking up at the temple ahead.

Kilala sat at Sango's feet, mewing happily and naively as Miroku stood at Sango's side. The long, black thickness of Sango's hair was tied high up in a ponytail, and she was clad in the black and red armour that was typical of the demon slayers. Within the short moments that Kagome and Inuyasha were calming Rin down, Sango and Miroku had both fallen into a pensive silence, where their thoughts trapped them for a moment. Sango looked up at the nightmare ahead through her dark eyes, though she wasn't seeing it; all that she could see before her, was that image she saw every time her eyes were opened, or closed, that face, her little brother's face. Kohaku, she thought, I promised I'd never leave you…I'm your sister, I was supposed to protect you, and now I have no idea where you are. A single, silent tear fell down the woman's face; she avoided thinking about him for this very reason, because she knew it was all her fault. With that battle, with one death of a malicious demon, her brother's life had slipped from her fingers yet again, only this time, she had no hope of ever getting him back. It was due to this, that deep inside she secretly wished Naraku was still alive somehow, as much as she hated him, as much as his name made her shiver and make her want to vomit, if he were alive, Kohaku might still be, and that is all she wanted. Miroku looked worriedly at his potential love interest, for once not a perverted thought in his tiny mind. He rested his hand on the girl's shoulder, and stared into her eyes as she turned to face him.

'It wasn't your fault you know,' he muttered softly to her, somehow knowing what she was thinking about. 'None of this was, if I'd have used my Wind Tunnel on him, then Inuyasha wouldn't have had to kill Naraku himself, and you wouldn't have lost Kohaku, and I could…I could offer you a future with me, that didn't intend watching the curse Naraku set on me, swallow me whole.' Sango looked with glassy eyes at him, wondering how he knew.

'But you…How could you possibly know what…?' Miroku smiled weakly at her.

'Because I know you, and I know that as tough, as strong as you may be, you love your brother, he was your world, and he was taken from you, right before your eyes. It is just you, it is just who you are to blame yourself, and to spend every waking moment thinking about what you feel you've lost forever.'

Sango fought hard to keep her tears from spilling out of her brown eyes, as another thought entered her mind at his words.

'I've…' she stopped, glancing over to Inuyasha and Kagome, to make sure they weren't listening. 'I feel like I've failed him, and now I…' she rested her hand over his that still lay on her shoulder. 'I feel like eventually, I'm gonna lose you too.'

'Hey,' he argued, 'you will never lose me. I'm not leaving you, I promise.' Sango smiled, only wishing she could believe him, and wishing that she could have what Miroku had once promised her, for them both.

They both let go of each other as Inuyasha approached with Shippo on his shoulder. They flushed as he stood at their side, hoping he had not seen nor heard them.

'The kid's finally quiet, I hope that Kazuya, or whatever else is in there didn't hear,' he said as he stopped beside them.

'Somehow, I think that whatever is in there knows we're coming,' muttered Shippo, hating the idea of entering the nightmarish temple that glared down at them. Inuyasha looked up at it again, shivers shooting up his spine. He was not afraid of what was ahead, he had faced worse, even in his childhood scarier places were seen by those golden eyes of his, but he hated the idea of dragging his friends inside there, where Kazuya had the power, the power to separate them, the power to make their fears and nightmares reality. Inuyasha then looked up at the sky, the sun had nearly fully risen, he calculated roughly what phase the moon was under tonight, and he shuddered as he remembered, tonight was the new moon. He suddenly felt less eager to enter, and it showed on his face.

'Are you okay, Inuyasha?' asked Kagome, as she walked to his side, Rin holding her hand.

'Yeah,' he lied, not wanting to worry her. He knew if they were still in there come night time, that he wouldn't be able to protect Kagome; he also knew that they were too visible here, and not much better off spending the night with no moon in a strange place; they had to make a choice, or rather he had to. 'Daylight's coming,' he told the others as they looked at him. 'We don't wanna be here when that happens we'll be in clear sight of anything watching, let's go.' The others nodded, (though half-heartedly so), and followed him as he walked confidently towards the stone steps, trying desperately to hide the fear growing gradually up inside him.

TBC