You take a hit now
You feel it break down

InuYasha felt his heart skip a beat before it plummeted to the bottom of his stomach. There she lay. Cold. Silent. Her scent...her scent completely gone. Gone. His only source of positivity, of warmth and emotional comfort. The reason he got up every morning. His motivation for living. The panic started. A tightening of the chest, as if his muscles were trying not to let another breath in, but instead doing their best to die. Then the breath came. Unable to move much against his suddenly heavy ribs.

"What have you done?" InuYasha croaked as his legs went out from under him, "Why?"

"Her soul has passed on," Kikyo lied smoothly with a sadistic smile and InuYasha gave her a stricken, grief filled look, "You have one opportunity to join her. To end this. Only one. The underworld has sentenced her soul to hell. She..."

"Oh my god," came a hoarse voice followed by a painful sounding cough and pain-filled groan, "Cut the crap. I saw you hand off that orb to that snake thing. Seriously what is your deal?"

Blinking sluggishly, InuYasha registered that his reincarnation was there in the clearing with them and an unwanted pang of jealousy flickered through his mind. He had been there when Kagome left this world. He was the last person who cared for her that got to see her alive. The half-demon choked back a sob as he stared numbly at the boy struggling to sit up. Inuyasha himself didn't move. He didn't have it in him to fight any longer.

"And you...you already said you knew you were going to lose," Jiro continued hoarsely as he grasped blindly at a nearby stick, "Because...because of me. So come at me bitch. Leave them alone."

Jiro knew it was suicide to taunt this obviously insane undead zombie witch but he was damned either way. This Kikyo was going to try to kill him whether he sat idly by, ran or fought so why not go out swinging? As it was, he was pretty much running on pure adrenaline anyway. The bone sticking out of his leg doing nothing except fuel his pounding heart and his frazzled nerves when it should be knocking him out. It was a miracle she hadn't killed him when she had the chance. It must be because Inuyasha arrived. Speaking of which...

"Dude get up," Jiro ordered angrily before groaning when the guy who Kagome had risked her life for merely blinked at him, "Its not over yet. Get up."

A soft blue light began emanating from the twig as the boy painfully got on one knee. That effort didn't last too long and the boy shuddered once before collapsing onto his side writhing in agony and issuing an impressive litany of curse words. InuYasha sagged, still too grief stricken and numb to do much more than watch. To say InuYasha was confused, hurt and exhausted would be an understatement. The kid had powers now? When did this happen? And the bastard had gotten injured trying to save the love of his life. That should've been him. It..It should... if he had just...but it was over. Didn't this Jiro-shit know? Couldn't he...

"You misunderstand," Kikyo laughed softly as she turned to face the by, "Your existence is conditional on this moment. Your presence here altered my original plan. Besides, spiritual powers will have no effect on me."

"Who hurt you? I genuinely want to know," Jiro managed to sneer as he crinkled his nose in disgust and InuYasha flinched from his place on the ground. Maybe Kagome hadn't told him everything after all.

"Curious," came Kikyo's indifferent hum as her lips twitched upwards before she sighed and faced the completely shell-shocked InuYasha once more.

"The boy does not understand what has occurred," Kikyo laughed softly, "The only way to be reunited once more is to surrender yourself to the underworld. There is no other way."

"Wanna bet?" came Sango's angry voice as they finally, finally caught up and that boomerang that was the epitome of extra soared through the clearing. Unexpected. Quick. Lethal. Slicing through Kikyo's arm and shoulder cutting them clean through. They fell to the ground and crumbled into ash as Kikyo staggered and turned her attention towards the slayer.

"This doesn't involve you!" Kikyo screamed as several soul collectors suddenly burst forth from the shadows and rushed forward. InuYasha turned his head slowly, painfully towards his friends with empty eyes. He couldn't find it in him to fight. Kikyo was right. There was only one way. Kagome was...Kagome was gone. And he couldn't live without her. There was no point.

The serpents made it only so far before being sucked into an endless void.

"Well that's cool," Jiro hummed bluntly before turning his attention back to the wounded insane person who seemed more determined than ever to get her way. He was pretty much useless and a hair away from passing out but he'd hold on if only to make sure this nightmare was over. He'd hate to just fall asleep and never wake up.

"Come with me when I leave this world," Kikyo demanded angrily, "Join me in hell and be reunited with your precious miko."

"For the last fricking time, I saw you give the orb you took and give it to your snake thing," Jiro hissed as a blue flame like light began whipping around him from his place on the ground. Turning his attention to InuYasha, he bellowed, "Don't listen to her moron. You know she's crazy, right? Why are you buying into this?"

Those words didn't change the fact that Kagome was gone. With each passing moment, he could smell her body decaying. The scent of death suffocating. Clouding his mind. How had it come to this? He...he should've...he wished he'd just died. Why hadn't he died like he was supposed to? For the first time, he truly hated the fact that he possessed any youkai and wished he was only human. None of this would've have happened if he was a man like any other. None of it. His heart panged in his chest and he prayed that this was all a fever dream. That he never met Kagome. That he wasn't a half-demon. That Naraku, his friends and the jewel were just figments of his imagination. If...if it was that way, he wouldn't be feeling like the world had ended. Kagome wouldn't have suffered.

Unsteadily Inuyasha began to get to his feet and move towards Kikyo much to the horror of everyone else in the vicinity. He wouldn't give up, right? That wasn't his way. Surely, he wasn't intending to...

"Inuyasha, stop this. There is still..." Miroku yelled angrily as he rushed forward faster than he ever thought he was capable of moving only to be blown back by an angry pink barrier. Careening painfully into a tree so hard it splintered, the monk slid to the ground before collapsing onto his side.

"Oh damn," Jiro breathed anxiously as he watched the slayer's boomerang repelled in a similar manner while Inuyasha merely continued walking forward with a defeated and resigned air. Surely, this guy wasn't that stupid, right? Surely...

A terrible no good thought occurred to him as he saw Inuyasha glance at him out of the corner of his eye.

Maybe he was able to come here, to meet Kagome because their soul was ashamed of what was about to happen. That he was supposed to defeat this crazy woman and avenge Kagome's death. To avenge his own death. Well not his his but this Inuyasha guy's imminent demise if that body language was any indication.

Jiro let out a steadying breath as he decided grimly on his next course of action. Those blue flames growing in intensity as he grimaced and rolled onto his knees once more. Prepared to intervene if Inuyasha decided he was going to be a dumbass.

"Kikyo I..." Inuyasha sighed heavily as he stopped just in front of the undead woman who looked so victorious, so triumphant that it made everyone still conscious sick, "You're right. There...there is only one way for me to see Kagome again."

"So you finally see reason," Kikyo sighed in morbid relief - completely unaware of the axe hanging over her head as she held her one uninjured hand out with a sadistic grin, "Come. It is time for..."

Her eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open as a clawed hand plunged deeply within her already broken body. Pieces of clay began flaking off her flesh as she crumpled to her knees and Inuyasha went down with her. His hand still securely within her body.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he retracted his hand and met her look of utter betrayal with one of his own, "You left me no choice."

It was surreal to watch her body slowly turn back to ash in the dwindling light of day illuminated by bluish flames and silver serpents. Fragments of her abused body floating away gently in the breeze as Inuyasha stayed kneeling before her with a grief filled look full of remorse and resignation.

"It had to be done," he whispered sadly as the last remnants of Kikyo blew away in the breeze, "I'm sorry."