This is a looooooong chapter. As in seven full pages long, not including the responses. Also, my last cliffie!

Chapter 15: The Fate of Water

The prejudice in his heart would most likely stay with him forever, and it would be foolish to think it had changed now. He had grown up hating them. Even now he looked upon their bodies and sneered at their weakness. A youkai would never die by the hand of something as low as the ground, or at least that's what he told himself. If they had been truly strong, they would not have died. The frailty of humans disgusted him. They were completely useless.

Yes, they were useless. But now, they were needed. Needed because they were useless, useless because they were needed. It was something he couldn't quite understand, but it was definitely there. How could strength possibly require weakness? But he had seen it in his brother's eyes, and he could smell in the air that it was that look that held the key to the mystery of the Tetsusaiga. Having never had that love, having never felt what it implied, Sesshoumaru knew that he could never do what Inuyasha just did. As much as he despised it, his hanyou brother had something his superior could never have: something weak that was the source of his strength.

His face was as emotionless as ever as he walked among the rubble. He halted at the first body he came across, that of Kagome. He eyed her dead form suspiciously, "How is it that Inuyasha needs you? I just don't understand."

As he unsheathed Tenseiga, the sound echoed throughout the room. Sesshoumaru grunted in frustration. He had come to kill Naraku himself, only to find that he never would be able to do it, and he had to relinquish the responsibility to his inferior brother. He wanted to believe that that didn't bother him, but his pride was burning. But if anything, he knew he still had a part to play in Naraku's destruction. His pathetic hanyou brother could never do this alone, like Sesshoumaru would be able to, but fate had dealt him the wrong hand. There was no choice but to give Inuyasha his weapon to win.

He could see the little imps coming to take Kagome away into the afterlife, and summoning up all his will power, he swung at them. He placed the sword back in its sheath and watched as her wounds healed over. As if it had never stopped, her breath started up again, and she stirred. When the miko came to, she jumped up when she saw Sesshoumaru standing in front of her. Her brow wrinkled in confusion at the demon who had once tried to kill her, and who hated her, 'Did he… did he just save me?'

He looked at her for a few more moments, trying to figure out why a simple girl was so important to his brother, even if he had human blood flowing through his veins. Giving up on ever discovering such an answer, he turned away, but answered the question that her look implied. "You were in the way, so I had to fix it."

Kagome didn't understand. She stood up and stood in front of him. "In the way of what?"

"Of defeating Naraku," he replied, "and so I had to do what was needed to stop him?"

"I'm needed to stop Naraku? But… how am I needed?"

"Puh. Hell if I know. I'll never understand why your weakness is needed, but it's apparent that it is. How pathetic that that brother of mine actually needs a human."

Kagome's eyes went wide as she blood ran cold. "Inuyasha… where is he? What happened to him?"

"Naraku took him away, but I don't know where. You'll have to go find him yourself and help him defeat Naraku."

"But I can't fight. How could I possibly help him?"

"Don't know. Don't care, but you have to do it," he began to walk away, "You'd better hurry, miko. Before it's too late."

"Wait!" Kagome cried.

Sesshoumaru stopped again. The desperation in her voice had been heard somewhere before. It felt nostalgic somehow. Why was it beckoning him to obey? He turned to look at her once more, and she pleaded, "Please… heal my friends."

Not waiting for an answer, he picked up her bow and arrows and made a run for one of the doorways. Sesshoumaru stared after her, and when she had disappeared from the room, glanced towards the other bodies. Well, there was no reason for him to save them. Inuyasha would have his ultimate weapon back, so it was of no consequence to the inu-youkai whether the others lived or died. Had Kagome assumed he was as weak as a human, and would succumb to pity for such a despicable race? And yet, that hidden sound in her voice stuck at something in his memory. For a few moments, he racked his brain, trying to think of where he had heard that sound before. The voices of a million people flashed through his mind, until finally coming to rest on that of the little human girl he traveled with.

That little girl had the same innocence in her voice, and the same weakness that came with any human. He found himself wondering, 'Why did I save Rin that time in the forest?'

That had served no purpose. His father once spoke to him of something called "unconditional love". In his own vulnerability, had Sesshoumaru become the father of a weakling of a race of weaklings? Did he take pride in protecting that child so small and helpless? He unsheathed Tenseiga once more. 'Maybe someday I will understand.'

Kagome kept an arrow steady at the bow, prepared for anything she might encounter. It didn't faze her that the odds of finding Inuyasha were practically impossible, and the odds of being able to save him were fewer still. She couldn't help but be suspicious of her mate's brother. 'Could he be luring me into a trap? But… then why would he save me?'

She kept her shoulder pressed against the wall as she strained to peer around the corner without risking being seen by anything. Satisfied that she was still alone, she kept going, 'Sesshoumaru seems to have given up on killing Naraku. But how is it that he's willing to let Inuyasha take the glory? That isn't like him at all.'

She came across a dead end, and turned around to seek another hallway to follow. 'He said that I was needed to help Inuyasha. But what could I possibly do? I don't know if I can even find Inuyasha.'

With every door she passed, she barged through with her arrow ready to fire. But they were all empty, and so she would continue searching down the seemingly endless corridors of fire and stone. 'I have no choice but to believe him. With Inuyasha's life on the line, I have to believe that I can do something to help him. Please, Inuyasha, be okay.'

Through the darkness he saw her over and over again. Beneath the rocks, dead as the rocks themselves. The last memory he had was calling out to her as she was knocked out of his grasp by the cave in. In the darkness that consumed him afterward, he had no idea of knowing whether she was alive or dead, but as fear enveloped his heart, he imagined her breath cut off and her heart stop beating. He didn't know if it was a nightmare or if it was real, but he needed to get out of the darkness. 'No, it has to be a dream. Wake up. Wake up and find her.'

Opening his eyes only heightened his suspicions that it was not a dream. The first thing he noticed was the annoying dripping of water somewhere nearby. The sound of it colliding with a puddle echoed mercilessly throughout the room, causing Inuyasha's ear to twitch in annoyance. He made an attempt to move so as to stop the sound so maddening, but found that he couldn't budge at all. Glancing down, he saw he was strapped up to a stone wall by several tough vines. Instantly, he tried to break free of them, but the vines wouldn't budge, and he could barely move. They seemed to be the same vines that Kaguya had used to hold Inuyasha against a tree. Inuyasha squirmed some more. When he moved his feet, he could feel the cold ground underneath. He placed one foot on the wall, trying to pry himself off, but he still couldn't get free.

Out of frustration and lack of options, he banged his shoulder against the wall, only to hiss at the pain of the impact. He held back the tears that stung at his eyes. Turning his head as much as possible, he glanced at his right shoulder, which now had a large welt formed on top. Although he could not make a full diagnosis, he assumed by the pain that his collar bone had been fractured. He was still capable of moving his arms, but he was definitely handicapped by this, and it would be difficult to fight if he couldn't lift his arm. For a few seconds, he struggled to remember the source of his fractured collar bone, but as he took in the atmosphere of the stone room, it didn't take long. 'The rocks… they caved in on us… Oh no! Kagome!'

In his heart he knew it was useless to keep trying the same strategies to get free, but he tried regardless. He knew that he had been able to break free of tighter bonds that this. Before he had passed out, he had managed to endure the bone-crushing embrace of Naraku's limbs. In all fairness, being so close to death that time entitled him to be physically and emotionally spent, but you could not tell that to one as stubborn as Inuyasha. His own head screamed at him to get a grip of himself and find Kagome. Infinite hopeless thoughts crossed his mind… had she been injured in the avalanche of stone? Had she been taken prisoner once again by Naraku? Was she once again under his sick clutches as he violated her again? The thoughts stung like poison through his lungs and nerve endings. Breathing was a curse; consciousness was a curse.

But thoughts of her death and his friends' deaths brought up another interesting thought… why had Inuyasha been left alive? Inuyasha… who was Naraku's worst enemy couldn't possibly be spared by one who had no value in life. Was it to be torture? But that did nothing to help Naraku. Even if he did love to see Inuyasha squirm, the hanyou knew his enemy well enough to know that he didn't do things unless it meant something to him. His sword… he remembered his sword. Naraku had obtained it by absorbing the jyaki of the giant stone demon. Somehow, it was able to summon a painful light energy from within it. On top of that, it could block Inuyasha's every blow and send it back to him with such power and speed that he couldn't stop it. What other tricks could Naraku have up his sleeve?

Inuyasha hung his head low and made a silent prayer. 'Please be safe, Kagome. I pray to God that you somehow escaped. I don't know what I would do if I lost you.'

Considering that they had only been together for a short time, it was remarkable that Inuyasha felt so dependent on her. He didn't even understand it himself. Although he protected them, and had their blood, it had always considered humans to be weak. In fact, there was once a time when he did not care to risk his neck for the safety of a human. That all changed starting with Kagome. At first, he had been sure it had been because she was the key to finding the shikon shards, but he soon saved far more people than just her, and for no real benefit to him. She was the girl who started it all. He wouldn't deny that coming to her rescue time and time again was a hassle, but it certainly wasn't a burden. Even before he had fallen for her, there was a sense of pride in saving the miko from the future. A great justice in saving someone he considered to be so weak without him. He may bitch about it, but he enjoyed being her hero. Suffering was inevitable, but he never wanted to realize that. He never wanted to lose her. Was it selfish of him to keep in the feudal era to search for a shikon jewel which he would then use for his own needs? She would have been a lot safer in her own time.

Yes, Inuyasha was selfish… but he was righteously selfish. His pride made him believe that he could keep her safe, and his heart was fearful of losing her. He wanted her to stay, because he needed her. He should never need a human's presence. However, perhaps his fear of loss wasn't that unusual. Losing his mother had torn at his heart, and caused him to fall into isolation for years. And again, losing his heart to Kikyou, only to have it shattered to pieces. Never in a million years would he want to relive that pain again. By losing Kagome, the piece that held his sanity together would slip.

The creek of the door caught his attention, and he turned in hopes of seeing that loving face come through, but instead was punished by the hateful gaze of Naraku. "Good, you're finally awake."

Inuyasha growled, "Bastard! What the fuck do you want?"

Naraku walked up to stand in front of the subdued hanyou, but didn't answer.

Inuyasha's hands trembled. If only he could reach out, he would strangle that monster. Inuyasha hissed, "If you're planning on killing me, you better do it now before I break free. Cause when I do, I swear you won't have a face to smile with anymore."

Naraku huffed comically, "You have nothing to be free for, Inuyasha."

"What?"

He walked away from the hanyou and to the other side of the room. His kept his face as straight as possible as he tried to hold back the anticipation. Only a few more minutes, and he would be rid of his enemy and gain enough power to be practically invincible. His gaze remained on Inuyasha as he reached into his kimono's pocket and pulled out a object. He held it up to the little light there was in the room and Inuyasha felt a gasp escape his lips. It was the locket Kagome had given him, and he was reminded of her absence from his sight. His worst fear took hold of him. "Where's Kagome? What have you done with her?"

"Impatient to suffer, are we Inuyasha?" Naraku mocked.

"Bastard! If you touched a hair on her head…"

Naraku spoke a little louder now, "You don't need me to harm her Inuyasha."

Inuyasha wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "What are you saying?"

Naraku would now begin the final step into receiving the ultimate power. "I am saying, Inuyasha… that Kagome is dead."

The coldness of the voice and the power of the words hummed throughout space as a shadow of a curse. Every hiss of a sonorant, every vocal stop, every flick of the tongue and movement of the vocal folds in synchronization formed the sentence, thereby creating a sound of ruthless and head-splitting harmony. The articulation formed sound waves so cold and sharp, the hanyou wished he had not ears. The words that were still grammatical and true to the rules of language became untrue in their pairings together. The words just didn't make sense anymore, and therefore had no truth. No way could such a sentence ever be true! It was a lie! "You're lying," Inuyasha whispered.

Naraku scoffed, "Denial is to be expected, especially considering that it was because of you that she came here to meet her death. To save you, only to be crushed by the rocks of the mountain."

Inuyasha gasped loudly. Naraku continued at this, "Yes, you remember, don't you. The battle, when you had almost died if your miko hadn't shown up to save you. You ran for your lives only to be met with the power of stone. You remember her slipping away from you before you both were knocked out. That weakling human's body couldn't endure a simple rock."

Inuyashs yelled, "YOU'RE LYING!.!"

"I have no reason to lie Inuyasha," Narkau said calmly as Inuyasha was panting, "I saw her dead corpse…"

He lifted his hand to reveal the blood stains, "…I felt her blood."

Inuyasha struggled against the vines again, "No! You're lying! Kagome can't be dead! Where is she?"

He thrashed around in every direction he could, desperate to escape and prove that bastard wrong. Kagome had to be okay. It was the only hope he had left. Naraku continued, "Why bother fighting, Inuyasha? Do you even want to live anymore now that she's gone?"

"SHE'S NOT DEAD!.!.!" Inuyasha shrieked, and tears emerged on his dirtied cheeks.'

"Yes, Inuyasha, I can sense your fear. No matter how weak she was, you needed her, didn't you? Now that you've lost that power, can you really hope to win? Can you carry on in this world, breathing the air while knowing that it should have been Kagome's breath?"

He wrapped the chain of the locket around his risk. "Perhaps I will keep her memory in safe keeping. Face it, Inuyasha. There is no need for you to fight anymore. Why don't you just give up? There's no point in living on anyway now that you've lost your beloved miko."

Inuyasha could still hear Naraku's words, but they weren't words anymore. They were merely an endless stream of convulsing nerves and headaches and heartache. His whole body twitched as the thought of her death enveloped him. Naraku eyed in impatience, "Yes, Inuyasha. Let the pain take hold of you. Let it make you into the power that I need. I want your power, Inuyasha. When you transform, your power and your very life will be taken by my sword."

One last drop of water plummeted from the ceiling in suspended silence. The last drop of life-giving water falling away from its pathway to meet the doom that gravity would bestow upon it. Purpose for life fell from its reach and its descend slowed in an attempt to claim it once again. But it was fate. The power of water would die away as it collided with the hardness of stone. It was the fate of water, and of everything in existence to someday fall from its purpose and into nothingness and destruction. Who knew how young or how old that drop of water had been from the time it was reform into the world from the clouds. Who knew how it had managed to maneuver its way into a mountain where life had fled. It had been so persistent to reach the bottom. And why? Only to die, was that why it had traveled so long and hard through the stone? To lose its purpose? There would be no hero or memory of the fate of water, and its death would be in vain, because in that final decent, purpose would slip away. No matter the power of life-giving water, all purpose would die.

It clung to the emptiness of the air for a few moments as he reached out to save itself from the inevitable fall to ruin. Finally, realizing that his purpose was all for nothing, that he would never have purpose again in this life, he finally allowed gravity to envelop him and push against him. As he fell, he felt that he could relax. There was no point in fighting against what was true. The fate of water come quickly, for he has not the will to hold himself up anymore. There is only a will to die. In his heart of hearts he knows that he will not be spared. There will be no hand to catch him and grant him with purpose again before he faded away. As the final drop passed through the air towards the puddle below of his dirtied and dead companions, he sighed, 'I give up.'

And in an instant, his body reformed with the others and became tainted with dirt and uselessness. As he fell completely into it, ripples spread out in a tremor of a heartbeat. Then, everything became still. Then again, the air shook the water with a pulse of a heartbeat. Naraku grinned. Inuyasha was finally letting go. He watched as the hanyou's fingers grew long as well as his fangs. Inuyasha threw his head back and shrieked in his darkened youkai voice into the emptiness of the castle. Hot tears escaped from his eyes as he was slowly drained of all human will and consciousness. He welcomed his youkai blood to save him from the misery of Kagome's death.

Kagome halted as she heard what sounded like Inuyasha coming from another hallway. As fast as she could manage, she raced towards the sound of his anguished cries.

To be continued…

Last cliffie… I promise!

InuyashaGal: Don't die yet. Naraku first. Haha! (hugs)
SilverontheRose: Yes, and you'll never catch me! Muhahahahaha! But now I have changed to the good guys, so no more evil cliffies for this story at least. (hugs)
Jenn-silent breed: True, but technically neither does Inuyasha. It's just a perk. Besides, otherwise my story wouldn't work. Haha. (hugs)
InuyashaKougaLover: Ah! You're right. Gomen. I just read it, and it's great, so see review for details. I'll read your poem too. I'd never abandon a faithful reviewer such as yourself. (hugs)
miko'sxluv: Wow, the best? I'm flattering. That's quite a compliment. I shan't let you down. (hugs)
orangepencils: Well that's what I thought, but turns out it wasn't so obvious to others. Oh well. Anyways, go you! You ARE damn good. (hugs)
Mikkasura: Running around like a mad person? Ah, save me! You didn't think I'd really let them stay dead, did ya? I'm a hopeless romantic, so check that one off. (hugs)
Pan-chan'shope: Oh, then I hope I didn't confuse you with my last response in Spanish. I'm an advanced speaker, so that could have gone totally over your head. Yeah, please add me to your AIM. It's pinkkitten125. I am uber glad you are willing to make an exception to your rule for this fic. I promise I will never leave this fic unfinished. As for more stories, I already have 3 story ideas ready to go as soon as I can outline and get started. (hugs)
HorridlyTruthful25: Glad you think so. Glad you like this. Glad… that you're responding. Be glad, because the climax of the story is coming (no innuendo intended. Save me from the preteens). (slaps own head) I'm such a dork. (hugs)
LanierShazar: Naraku made me. And by Naraku I mean finals. Or, maybe he's just controlling me to torture you. But the torture isn't long, is it? (hugs)
SlummyRedDragon: Um, I hope you don't mean ending like I think you mean, cause the ride's not over yet. Still here for the last kaboom? (hugs)
Mizz Tasuki: For this story, this was the last cliffie, so fear not. I have answered your prayers. (cheerful Pleasantville voice): start your day off right with a general helping of InuKag fanfics. Perfect for a healthy immune system, and tasty when topped off with some good-old-fashioned Naraku ass-kicking. Teehee, that was fun. (hugs)
a100rinchhead: Yeah, I know. God bless the internet for keeping me safe. But love conquers all in my stories, so never fear. (hugs)