Author's Note: Sorry, since Harry Potter came out, I was momentarily taken over by my first love Severus Snape. (God, I hate that poor man, I just want to cuddle him.) This chapter was rough to write cause, as a rule, I don't like Usagi and it's all in his pov. Sesshoumaru, again, is out of character but hey- it's back story, I'm developing his character! Enjoy, and please review.

Chapter Five: An Assassin's Death

It was impossible to tell how it began or who started it. There had been a shout, a scream of arrows being released and the quick, terse orders of captains and soldiers rising to battle and attending the fray. There had been the whistle from explosions and the shuddering of the earth as the armies scrambled through the underbrush, playing their war games. Usagi moved in his true form through the melee, all fur and sweat and instinct.

He was awake when it began, when his lieutenant had burst into his tent: warned him of the Scorpions piercing the outer defenses and then falling forward, the innards he had been holding spilling out of him like water. Usagi had been on his feet a moment later, throwing the woman from his bed and grabbing his weapon before she had finished screaming.

For a human, the battle must have been hell and for a Youkai whose senses were acute and sharp: it was beyond such fantasies. Smoke clouded his eyes, and traveled up his nose, throwing Usagi off the scent of his target. He was running blind, half-dazed and angry at his own shortcomings to pay much attention to anything but his mission.

He had to find the Inu no Taisho.

Usagi caught a familiar scent and threw his body into a change of course. His paws thundered against the forest floor, sending small fires through his blood and muscles but still he ran, deeper, farther. He was desperate for air but ignored the need. He had no idea if the Dog General was alive or dead, and he could not rest until he knew. The Dog General would make it better. He had too.

Usagi shut his mind down: pushing the sounds and smells of the dead and dying out until all that existed was his path, the scent he followed and the desperate need to complete his mission. So engrossed had he been in his mission, Usagi hadn't even sensed the Scorpion until the claws had embedded in his chest.

Maybe he screamed, he didn't really remember.

Usagi was thrown, the sheer force tearing at his skin. He hissed and tried this time to scream. His voice worked.

Then, like oil and blood, a thick creeping laughter invaded his brain. Usagi forced himself to his knees, searching for the laughter.

A Scorpion appeared like fog. The demon walked with purpose, in human guise, closer to the edge. His fingers curved and flexed, poison oozing from his nails and matching the ire in his eyes. Usagi blinked the sweat from his eyes, and inclined his head.

"You are not the Inutaisho." The Scorpion said simply, with a taste of triviality in his voice as if Usagi were a guest and not a victim. "Where is he?"

Usagi spat. "Destroying your armies."

"I know you." The Scorpion continued, undeterred by Usagi's remarks. He walked close, reaching out and running his poison claws across the Fox's cheek, idly. "You are the Dog General's Assassin. The Fox Usagi."

"Should I know who you are?"

"I am Goromaru."

Usagi felt his head throb, making him close his eyes from the white light that had nestled behind his eyes, burning out coherent thought. "The Scorpion King."

Goromaru laughed. "Nothing so dramatic, my people trust me." He squatted down, eyeing him. "The mainland is becoming to small to house my soldiers and their families. We need living space. Space to grow, for our children to grow."

"Why I should I care?"

"Because as a soldier, I find it important that you understand I do not do this for hate, or malice towards your…Dog Lord. I do this for my people."

"Oh, the General is going to love you." Usagi hissed. "You're both damn idealists."

"And you aren't?"

"Of course not." The Fox lifted his head, meeting Goromaru's oily gaze. "I am an Assassin. I follow Inutaisho because I cannot destroy him and because he is not my enemy. I follow him because he keeps me in warm beds, fed and to a certain extent, protected."

This displeased the Scorpion who rose a little. "Do you care nothing for the Western Lands?"

"The Lands?" Usagi repeated, shrugging them off. "What do I care for the lands of my captor? I am from the South, my father and his pack were targeted by Joruri and massacred. I was spared because I pleased her eye. I bided my time till I could take revenge." He looked up, "Isn't that what your doing?"

"I told you, I do this for my people."

"A more pathetic excuse then the Inutaisho's."

"And why does he fight now?"

There was a long pause. "To make amends."

Goromaru flexed his fingers again, milking the poison to the edges of his fingertips. "I will kill you soon."

"I know."

"Have you nothing else to say?"

Usagi heard something then. A snap of a twig underfoot somewhere in the forests around them. He tilted his head towards the noise, pushing the pain from his mind and his chest and trying not the focus on the light that was running it course through his blood. It was the smell from earlier, the scent that had caused him to pause and alter his course. He still couldn't quite place it. He suddenly needed time. "Answer me a question, Scorpion Lord."

"I can give you that much."

"Who?"

Goromaru blinked. "I do not understand the question."

"Who…betrayed Inutaisho?"

"I think you know."

The voyeur in the forest shivered, and pushed closer. Usagi forced his heavy arm across his brow, rubbing the sweat from his eyes. His vision was blurry but good. The white light would, if he strand, dissipate enough to allow him to see the details of the trees and the shadow of the figure who watched. The figure was tall, finely dressed, and patient.

The scent. So familiar.

Goromaru, also, had turned and stared towards the figure hiding behind the forest. He motioned for the man to come closer, and for a moment he seemed loathed to do so before obeying. Masami walked daintily across the distance between he and Usagi. His eyes found the Fox's and slowly, with care and respect Masami inclined his head.

"You know I'm surprised." Usagi mumbled, stifling a yawn. He was only vaguely aware that the poison had reached his heart, and he no longer had the time or the will to fight. Still, somewhere in his heart, he felt pain. "Of all the family, you…I didn't you would have destroyed all that you held dear."

"I didn't mean to."
"But you have anyways." Usagi told him. "You do know that, don't you? Whatever happens after this, if Goromaru loses or wins, if So'unga is returned to that crazy witch or kept from her…nothing will take it back, and return the lands to safety. The only chance you had for the Lands to prospered rested on the bastard son."

Masami shuttered and looked behind him. "Don't…speak."

"Why not? Does it still pain you then? Does it still disturb you that Inutaisho took your wife and her bed. Can't you say it? You've lost everything. You have nothing to fight for anymore. Nothing to save. All those sacrifices you made years ago, Senshomi, Joruri, So'unga and…the rest. They mean nothing. You've lost."

Masami shut his eyes. "Quiet, Usagi…"

"No!" The Fox cried out, in pain and bitterness: determined to take this final revenge. He would die here, but he would crush Masami as well. "Say it! Say that Sesshoumaru should have been your son. He should have been something worthy of your name. Tell me you hate him for it. Tell me Senshomi does. Tell me you know that you know this will fail because that boy is so blinded by his love for the Inutaisho he will even forgive him for what he's done." Usagi tried to laugh, but choked on the blood that was rushing to his lungs. "Tell me you know that. Tell me you know that your great hope: Sesshoumaru, the bastard prince, loves his father so much that he will forgive him for his mother's rape."

Masami's eyes were dimmed. He looked up, passed Usagi, passed Goromaru. Usagi thought he saw the demon's beautiful form darken, flicker and flash for a moment like a star that looked near to dying. His face contorted into pain and something Usagi had never seen before on any of the family's face: fear.

He appeared like rain, or shadow. Once there, all consuming but as insidious as wind. Sesshoumaru walked unto the scene, and looked between them all for a long time, searching. In his hand, he carried a blade: he had meant to come leaping unto the battle to rescue Usagi and Masami, but Usagi's words had stayed his hand. Had made him linger, and listen when he would have been happier to act.

The Hunger's honeyed eyes took in Usagi in one glance; his face twisted into something like hate, or disbelief. He ignored Goromaru all together. Lifting his sword, Sesshoumaru jerked his hand and slide the blade to Usagi's throat, a breath away from severing the head.

"What you say," The voice was calm but trembling. Usagi thought he heard betrayal in that voice. And anger, anger he had never heard before with such fear and such passion. Usagi would have laughed; Sesshoumaru, it seemed, had found something to sate his hunger finally: hate. "Is it true?"

"Which part?"

"All of it." Sesshoumaru demanded, his guise of patience replaced by desperation. "My mother…"

Usagi felt the sword on his neck and wanted to laugh again. What did Sesshoumaru mean to do? He was dead anyways. But, then again, death was kind to him. He could now take some semblance of revenge.

"Your mother's family is the rightful rulers of the Western Lands. They use to wield So'unga, the sword of hell, as an icon of their power." He inhaled. "Till your father and I killed your grandmother one night, and took it from her." Sesshoumaru's face was stony but he did glance to Masami. Usagi followed his eyes. "Masami and Senshomi, your mother, were married. Inutaisho lusted after her. He threatened war unless she submitted to him." The sword at his neck, trembled and Usagi wondered idly if Sesshoumaru would faint. "You, my prince, a child of rape. That man," At this point, he jutted his chin to Masami. "Should have been your father."

Sesshoumaru acted then. With one deft movement, an afterthought really, he severed Usagi's head from his shoulders. Sesshoumaru sheathed the sword, and studied the ground for a long time. "Masami, Uncle…" He strained, looking up again. "Father?"

Masami said nothing. He looked pale.

Sesshoumaru shook his head, angrily. He looked down at his hands, and his fingers flexed and curled, as he studied his claws, his wrists and his markings as he had never seen them before. He looked up, searching Masami's face for something that reminded him of himself. His eyes finally fell on the Polaris crest on Masami's brow.

"It's true." Sesshoumaru said finally. "How come you never told me?"

"Sesshoumaru…"

"Who am I, Uncle?" He demanded suddenly. "Father…whoever you are. If I am not a prince who am I?"

"You know who you are." Goromaru snapped suddenly. "You are Sesshoumaru, the hunger. And it is time you decide how best to perform your function."