Chapter XI: Beginning of the End

Hiei awoke to the cool breeze blowing against his naked form. Instantly his jagan eye told him he was alone now as he rose searching the room in case. Saya was gone and so was his blade. She had left him alone, alone to handle this pain. Soon that pain turned to anger, anger that was soon directed at his enemy. No doubt Saya ran after them in hopes to control their curse, but he would not have them keep her away from him. He fought too hard to get her back.

They had to of clouded her mind with practical and good ideals to keep them apart. Hiei would not stand for such nonsense. They both could control their powers together, and would not need the help those fiends.

Quickly he dressed and made his way through Makai to head back to Spirit World.

Saya walked into her mother's recovery room to find her still passed out. No doubt the power of the dragon was draining her very life energy to keep apart from her in such a way. It needed her to die to break free freely and take true form in the child that she held in herself.

Sitting down next to her sleeping mother she held Hiei's blade close to her chest as she finally gathered to the strength to speak.

"Mother, I am here. Soon we should head out to open the portal to the Otherworld. I have accepted my fate, and I shall join you with my child in the eternal hell of the black dragon."

Aki slowly opened her eyes to the voice of her daughter nodding slowly to respond. Already her vocal cords had dissolved from the dragon, and she could no longer speak. She was almost to the point that she could not walk anymore, but this had to be done now that her daughter had come to realize the truth.

Her daughter helped her remove herself from the bed slowly as Tenshi walked in immediately offering assistance.

"Please Saya, don't do this. There has to be another way," she pleaded as she realized was helping them reach their demise.

Glaring at her once best friend she responded coldly, "Go home Fox. You are not needed here anymore."

Her remark brought them all to a stop as Tenshi's jaw dropped in disbelief to what she just heard. Letting go of Aki she turned away and ran off leaving the building completely never leaving a word to any, not even Kurama as she returned to the forests of her world.

Sighing Saya knew where she was going, and it was for the better. She knew Tenshi would never recover seeing her demise, and Saya would hold this guilt over herself for an eternity in the Otherworld.

Yusuke stood alone at the entrance of the building. His dark markings taking place all over his body as his short black hair grew to a length that reached his rear. His eyes glinted with a passion of arrogance as his lips curved into a cocky grin.

The shadowed presence of his former partner came closer. The wind seemed to die into a deathly breeze, and the very air that one breathed was heavy with the burden of loss and betrayal. Yusuke knew that the man that was coming was not Hiei. The dragon had fully taken his body, and there was no doubt their fight would have no rules to it except fighting to the end.

There he was as he walked with the falling sun behind him. Hiei's short stature seemed not to exist as the dragon's aura surrounded him making him seem at level with Yusuke on all fronts. There he stood looking up to his former partner finally stopping two feet in front of him. His eyes glazed over by a shadow, his demeanor tainted by a pure evil, his soul clouded in the darkness.

"You can't go to her," Yusuke made not of only intensifying that darkness within his old partner.

"Yusuke, you can't decide what I do. If I want to see her and take her away from your dirty hands then I shall."

Smirking Yusuke replied to that nasty comment, "Well, then you'll have to go through me…literally Hiei."

"Then I shall," came from the short fire demon full of malice and ill-intent.

With that their bodies and fists met in their first, but certainly not their last clash of warriors. Hiei in his heart truly desired this opportunity anyways to fight the spirit detective in his youkai form. With his mind and body fully enveloped with the dragon's essence there was without a doubt that Hiei would over come Yusuke, and he would finish him off eternally.

Saya watched in awe as her mother performed the final ritual that would seal both their fates. Kurama stood by them both just in case Hiei was able to get by Yusuke.

Ama felt her body grow weak and decay before her very eyes as the portal to the Underworld emerged, the world the dragon was created and manifested in. She fell to her knees as the ritual came to a final close, feeling the warm touch of her daughter upon her shoulders as she fell into her arms.

"Forgive me for doubting you Saya. Truly, you have surpassed me in all forms of life."

As a hand reached up to cup her child's face, the flesh began to peel and decay away into a dust as her entire body was sacrificed to the Underworld. Saya took her mother's dying hand into her own as a tear fell.

"Saya, I know you loved that Forbidden Child. That is what kept you both apart from the dragon all this time. That bond you both created saved you both, but now the dragon is feeding off Hiei's raw emotions for you. As he fights his own companion to have you back. Save him before you leave, and release his soul from that barbaric hold."

Nodding in full agreement, two more tears fell upon her mother's face as her body turned to ashes before her eyes. The mother and daughter had redeemed each other, and had found peace between each other before the end. That was when she felt the stir of her child. The screaming of the dragon could be heard to reach out to her child from Hiei. There was, without a doubt, a victory in wait for Hiei against the spirit detective.

As she stood to walk to the portal that hung over the ledge of the building she heard footsteps from behind. There was no way Hiei was here already, she thought as she turned to face the person. It was Tenshi, and she was standing with Kurama.

"Tenshi," was all she could muster.

"I won't abandon you Saya, even if you are about to sacrifice yourself. I want to be here for you till the end," her closest friend spoke through broken tears.

Saya nodded and smiled as she turned back to the task at hand which was to finish the opening and sacrifice her to balance the power of the Darkness Flame again.

Their fists locked several times already, and their bodies had sustained massive damage from each other. Blood trickled down Yusuke's temple as he removed himself from the cement ground that Hiei had thrown him into. Looking up he saw the gash in Hiei's chest from the large metal bar Yusuke had used to tear up his chest.

Yusuke quickly recovered engulfing his fists in his spiritual energy to give a final blow to knock out the half pint of a demon, but something was wrong. Something terribly wrong as his spiritual energy was fading from him and his body became suddenly weak. When he finally looked to Hiei his expression turned to pure horror at the site.

Hiei's body was practically covered and scarred by the dragon's markings, and the dark aura of pure malice laced through every fiber of his being. That was what siphon off Yusuke's spiritual energy, and keeping him from fighting now.

Then the blow hit him like a full wave of pure punches. Hiei's fist made contact with his chest breaking more then half his ribs as he fell back into the ground onto his back. His body had gone completely limp, and his energy was completely taken from him by the dragon. This consciousness that was ruling over Hiei obviously knew Yusuke's powers, and knew had to keep him down long enough for Hiei to make a break for the roof, and that he did.

Kurama and Tenshi quickly swirled to behind them to find a pure darkness looming over them as Hiei stood before them with an expression of malice and deceit.

"Hiei, this is not a time for you to interfere. You must understand, Saya has to do this to save your soul," Kurama pleaded with his old friend.

The only reply he was met with was the restraints of two dragon-like chains around his arms, and the same went for Tenshi. The time had come, and the dragon only desired the child.

"No more games Saya. You know what must be done. Come to me and give birth to that child rightfully. That is what I want, what we all want Saya," Hiei spoke as if another was speaking through him.

She turned to face him as tears lined her face, black tears.

"I know Hiei wanted this. His eyes told me so many times when we were together, but you are not Hiei. You are that god forsaken curse that my mother created. I have no idea why she made you, but you must return to your holds, and seek no more ideals of this child I carry. I will fall and enter your world taking you with me and sealing you back to where you belong. Hiei will be the sole carrier of your marking now, and that is that," she spoke broken up.

A chuckle was heard through Hiei from the consciousness of the Darkness Flame, "Do you really think you have any chance when I can instantly grab you before you even made a slight touch with that portal?"

"I know that, and that is why I will restore Hiei's soul before I leave."

She opened her arms as she smiled, "Hiei, come back to me. Let me eternally free you from this miserable existance."

Kurama and Tenshi could only stare in silence at the events that occurred before their eyes. The pain, angst, lust, desire, loss, passion, and violence that was displayed between these two. How would the realms be saved with this?

All Hiei could scream with his own torn body was freedom. As his body slowly approached her he felt his emotions torn into a frenzy he could not understand. Death, that is what he wanted for them. He would rightfully choose to be with her in eternal damnation then be alone again.

To Continue….

Well, my fellow readers, the next chapter is the last one and will be a little longer and thoroughly done out. It will leave you with the idea of a sequel which I plan on doing eventually. But, the next chapter is the last one to this long story since I got a few people asking me when it was going to end. I felt sort of short handed on that, but I need to wrap this story arc of Hiei up.

So, I do hope you understand. I did this chapter real quickly cause I leave tomorrow for a month where there is no computer. I guess I felt I kind of owed you all at least a little something towards the end. Maybe a little hint as to how it shall end, and a little Yusuke getting his butt kicked by half pint.

Enjoy.

Naughty Ookami