Her movements were fluid and brash. Ever time her arm flexed and crashed down, slicing an enemy with one singular movement, it was like a dance, like something performed for pleasure. Sweat beaded on her brow, her breathing labored, and her body looking as if it had suffered countless beatings. For the past six days it had, and after fighting all night it still held its tight lines, attacking and blocking with expert poise and grace. Seven days she had been in this cave; the only light she has seen was what morning rays of sunlight could pass through the narrow opening. Yet, he body moved like the fire surrounding them, the flames dance and destruction met in one powerfully beautiful woman.
"Would you help me here? I thought having you here would actually give me an advantage but if you keep daydreaming I might as well kill you along with Mire!" Midoriko yelled playfully across the room.
"I've killed twice as many as you priestess so I suggest you shut it before I turn your threat back on you!" Iyamoru shook of his observation of her fighting skill and leapt across the room taking a swing at another section of Mire's body. They had been fighting together throughout the night, each one taking strength from the other. Iyamoru couldn't forget how he felt when he finally followed her scent to the cave. Though he was met with the image of his nephews carcass on the floor and a severely wounded Midoriko, the joy he felt at seeing her was more than he could describe.
"Iyamoru look behind you!" Midoriko screamed as she twirled her body in a downward circle, simultaneously avoiding a claw aiming for her head and slicing off the head of a demon racing for her legs.
Iyamoru nodded as he swiftly looked behind himself and dug a hidden wrist dagger into one of Mire's thick tendrils. He was not as weak as his nephew, nor would he allow himself to die while Midoriko continued to fight, "Damn it!" he yelled as he threw another dagger across the room, diverting one of Mire's fire bombs away from Midoriko and watching Mire's barrier go around him again, "That bastard is such a coward! If you enter into a fight you shouldn't ignore the rules of engagement and stop attacking!" Iyamoru bore his fangs in Mire's direction as he walked over to Midoriko. She was panting heavily, her back arched downward.
"At least it gives us time to rest." Midoriko pounded her sword down so that it stuck into the dirt of the cave, he body giving out as she fell to her knees. Iyamoru quickly knelt down beside her and grabbed her wrists, sitting in the ground and propping her next to him so that her head rested comfortably on her chest. Even though he had healed her major wounds, there was little he could do about the cuts, bruises, and breaks that had happened He didn't like seeing her in pain, but he knew that she was doing this for the greater good.
"You are such a stupid human." Iyamoru said as he brushed some hair out of her face, almost having to peal it away from her warm and moist forehead. Her deep brown eyes looked up at him and she just smiled. She knew that she was an idiot, "Midoriko, you don't have to die for these people."
"I am not going to die his way, Iyamoru. Have a little faith in me will you?" She sat up herself and poked him in the chest, her face seemingly content with the words that she had said.
"I am just saying that if you let the world burn we could at least go somewhere where both of us will be safe, we can even take the slayers with us. I used to believe that all humans deserved to die, and maybe most do, but we could get by with only the two of us. Why waste your strength protecting people who would soon as kill you once they met you?" Iyamoru asked, receiving no answer in return as Midoriko grabbed the hilt of her blade and forced herself off of the ground. Shaking his head he stood with her as well and inched closer to her, grabbing her small hand in his. Midoriko's body was shaking slightly and he could hear her heart racing way too fast. Iyamoru held tighter to her hand and Mire disintegrated his barrier and began to charge at them, tentacles and claws outstretched with forest like consistency.
"Iyamoru, whatever happens, whatever you think you need to do to protect me, I don't want you to come where I am going." Midoriko whispered in his ear before charging forward into the tangle of Mire's vines.
"What?!" Iyamoru growled, his golden eyes wide and confused. With a scream he ran forward, slicing through Mire's appendages with the three knives he held tightly in the webs of his fingers. He watched as the pink and red light from Midoriko's blade lit up the cave. She was running faster than he could run, even guided by her light. Something was holding him back. In the air he could see small pink crystal like particles begin to form. As he watched, his body being pricked as these small crystals hit his demonic skin, he saw Midoriko rush ahead and cut off the head of Mire.
"She killed him!" Iyamoru lifted his voice into the air in triumph as black mist began to surround the entire cave. Mire must have been defeated, his body expelled to all directions of the cave. Iyamoru waved his claws in front of him, trying to dispel the black soot when he saw a large pink circle and heard a terrible and blood curdling scream. "What? NO!" Iyamoru howled as the mist cleared from his vision.
Iyamoru ran forward only to be knocked back by a purifying force, "No, Damn you Midoriko, Damn you!" He continued to run forward and kept getting knocked back by a barrier, HER barrier.
"Stop Iyamoru!" Midoriko's pained voice echoed from the cave walls. She hung there, clutched in the jaws of a giant dragon, its teeth sinking into Midoriko's flesh, breaching her armor. The sickening stench of her blood clouded Iyamoru's mind.
"What the hell is going on! What are you doing Midoriko!" Iyamoru growled into the air as he ran forward again, and again getting propelled across the cave, his body slamming against the wall.
"We can't win this battle Iyamoru, and I knew it when I came here. You showed me how to love again. When you asked me right now if I would just leave with you, forsake all of these humans, I realized that it would not satisfy me, that I wouldn't be able to do it." Midoriko's words were like poison, but there was a deep and profound truth in what she was saying, he just didn't want to accept it, he didn't want to let her go now that he had just found her again.
"Midoriko this is insane you can't even…" Iyamoru stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Mire's body being subdued by Midoriko's barrier. Slowly it was turning from flesh into stone, a bright blue and white flame licking at Mire's flesh and leaving in as hard as slate rock. What was Midoriko doing, "What the hell are you doing!"
"Iyamoru, all this time I have been fighting love, been fighting some type of emotional connection between someone else. Then you came along, idiot you who was so different from me that we should have been enemies. I thought my love for you was weakness so I cast it away, I let darkness overcome my heart instead of compassion, I turned away from you and turned my back on the only thing that had ever been constant in my life." The flames were beginning to get closer to Midoriko's body, engulfing the head of the dragon and licking at Midoriko's armor.
"Don't leave me here Midoriko, not again, not like this." Iyamoru was pleading with her. There was nothing he could do to stop what was happening; there was no way to stop her from sacrificing herself. She knew what she was doing, her wisdom was pouring out from her barrier as her flames were purifying Mire. She was doing this for everyone, for her friends and even for those whom she hated, her courage pulsating through the stone statue.
"My life is quenched in flame, as will this world be if I remain in it," Midoriko began to speak, her voice labored and strained as the flamed moved up her torso, settling in a circle around her heart, "sealing my heart, sealing everything inside of me is the only way to save the world. I care too much for them, demon and human alike. Flame, devour one and save many."
"No!" Iyamoru was blasted towards the rock wall and hit it forcefully, falling into a heap on the ground, his amber eyes blank and staring straight ahead as the sapphire and white flame's shifted to the brightest rose color he had ever seen. Midoriko's face, her unblemished features and soft skin was formed into rock, a beautiful female statue held in the claws of a gigantic monster. Iyamoru's eyes followed the pink light as it grew smaller and began to come towards him, rolling as if it was part of some ball of light. The small rose sphere knocked into his boot and he propped himself up into a kneeling position, picking up a small jewel. He could feel the power of Midoriko surging through it, the same jolt he received when he saw her fight shot through him. In his hands the jewel began to glow with a brilliant white light in the center.
"She knew this would happen, she knew from the moment I stepped into the cave that this would be her fate. This was the death she wanted. I just wish that we, and all of those separated or torn apart by darkness, could be together one day, whether in life or death." Iyamoru shut his eyes as he felt a cold sensation drop down his cheeks and light upon the jewel making a small tinkling sound almost like that of a small bell. He tightened his grasp on the jewel, his nails drawing blood from his palm.
*Sesshomaru* his mind suddenly flashed too as he opened his eyes and glanced around the cave looking for his nephew. Crawling over to him he lifted the lifeless body off of the ground and leaned it up against himself. With the jewel still grasped firmly in his hand he lifted his other claw and, wrapping his arm around the young demons body, plunged his entire hand through Sesshomaru's back and into his own chest. Pure golden light surrounded the both of them as Iyamoru began extracting his soul piece by piece and implanting it within his kin, "You are going to be stronger that my brother one day, and Midoriko saw your existence and the impact you will have in this world. You have the potential to do vastly more good than I ever have done or will do. Live, Sesshomaru and one day, if things come to pass as Midoriko believed, you will be victorious and finish our work."
As Iyamoru was draining the last ounce of his soul from his body he listened as the young demons heart began to beat anew. "It is finished for now," Iyamoru's last words lifted off of the ground like mist as his body broke into golden rays of sunlight and disappeared from this world forever.