A/N: I re-edited this, if some of you remembered reading the old version. It's a lot better now that I've cleaned it up. I even picked a better song for it. I typed up a couple more chapters for this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Evanescence's song 'My Last Breath', but I own the plot.
---
"Goodbye"
On a bleary winter evening, the snow had started to fall from the dark grey sky above and quickly covered the ground until no trace of grass was seen. It was bone-chilling cold; the people who resided in the area had enough common sense to shelter themselves from the silent winter storm and stay safe by the fire amongst family.
But not this woman, who shuffled wordlessly away from the fray of which she had been involved in just hours ago. Just now, she had recovered from the state of shock she was in and now wandered aimlessly under the inclemment weather. Her once shiny dark brown hair, clear complexion and colorful pink kimono was now caked with dried-up blood and dirt. At the moment, she could care less. Nothing in the world mattered to her anymore.
---
The temple was collapsing. There was no way out, as the fire licked away at the shouji doors and hindered any means of escape. It kept her confined in a room of heat, wood-scented smoke and collapsing pieces of debris.
Sango was trapped, like a helpless animal and there was nothing more than she could do but struggle to survive. The taijiya coughed coarsly, coveringher mouth as she did so as her mind worked on tatical ways to get out. Another part of the roof fell, causing Sango to cry out in alarm. It almost hit her by a mere few inches.
Sango went into another coughing fit and suddenly found it hard to breathe with all of this smoke. Her cinnamon brown eyes flickered to the flames licking away at anything it touched; it looked alive, deadly and sun-scorching hot.
A rafter gave away and fell into the inferno, causing hot cinders to fly wildly in the air. A few hit Sango's bare arms, and her nerves screamed in pain at the burning sensation. Sango crouched on the hardwood floor, unable to withstand the heat of the flames, and shut her eyes.
Another crash was heard; Sango kept her eyes shut.
"Sango!" a voice sounded, then a pair of hand gripped her shoulders and pulled her close to a firm, solid object. Sango opened her eyes to met pools of azure that unmistakably belonged none other than--
"Inuyasha!"
Said demi-demon wrapped his arms around her frame as another rafter fell and sent hot cinders in their direction. They hit Inuyasha's sleeve, which did not burn under its scorching ember. Inuyasha lowered his arms and glanced down at the taijiya.
"Are you ok?" he asked, worry evident in his tone of voice, and glanced down at her slightly swollen abdomen. "Are you both ok?"
Sango nodded wordlessly, still numb from shock and weakened from the inhalation of smoke.
Inuyasha, not convinced of Sango's well-being, slipped off his coat of the fire-rat and draped it over her shoulders, "This will protect you from the fire," he explained as he brought back in his arms again.
Sango's eyes widened a fraction, "What about you? You're human! If you get burnt--"
"Heh, don't waste your time worrying about me! I'm not easy to kill,"
---
The snow crunched beneath her feet as she walked, the numbing intesifying in her flushed face, ears, fingers and toes; she didn't care, nor had she noticed. Her eyes were empty; the once vibrant cinnamon brown color glazed over like she was dead. She wished she were dead, after what happened.
---
"Kohaku! Please don't do this!" Sango cried, her body trembling with fear and her mind replaying the nightmare she had so long ago. A fleeting image of a seemingly sleeping Inuyasha caked in blood flashed through her mind. A figment of her night terror. A reminder that it was about to come true.
"Don't kill him!!"
The tip of the cool blade was poised at Inuyasha's heart, the weilder being Kohaku, who merely glanced at the pleading taijiya with glazed, lifeless eyes; no emotion shown on his face. He was like a doll...a fragile and broken toy.
"Please..." Sango glanced quickly at Inuyasha, who lay semi-conscious on the ground. His ebony hair sprawled upon the green blades of the grass and his azure, violet rimmed eyes stared blankly up at his killer-to-be. His bare chest was bloodied up with cuts and deep gashes as were his arms. As to where his coat was, it was draped over Sango's shouders for protection against the fire Kohaku started.
"Why Kohaku?" he gritted out, his chest heaving in pain.
---
In the distance, a single grave stood alone in the snow. On it, there was a carved inscription; a name. It had been carved by a crude tool; the Kanji characters were messy and out of proportion. Albeit, the name alone served its purpose.
The hollow-eyed taijiya stopped a few feet from the grave, standing as stiff as a statue, and ignored the childing voice in her head warning her about frostbite or somewhere along those lines. Her long, snow sprinkled dark brown hair was lifted and tossed by the wind, the strands escaping from the white tie that held her hair.
The white ribbon fluttered in the breeze and Sango let it be carried away by the whispering wind. Her eyes followed its flight until it was out of sight. A sigh escaped her chapped lips, a cloud-like mist evaporating from her mouth. Her eyes drifted back at the inscription of the grave, and she read it over and over again. As the name registered in her mind, her hand absently went to her abdomen.
---
Sango couldn't take it any longer. First Miroku, then Kagome and Shippou. Now, the one person who pushed her to never lose hope on her brother, was about to depart from this world and her life, forever. Tears pricked at her eyes as her mind flashed all of the memories Inuyasha and she had together through laughter and love. Her hand went to her slightly swollen stomach as a sharp pang went through her.
"Kohaku," her eyes widened slowly as her brother raised his weapon. "NO!"
Inuyasha grunted and groaned, trying to find the stregnth to move away, but pain kept him where he was.
"Kohaku," he muttered under his breath, making the boy pause, "are you that heartless? I thought you didn't have the heart to kill.."
Inuyasha looked within the doll-like eyes of his killer, thinking he could've killed him--should've for what he did--but concluded he cared too much about Sango and--
No...he couldn't bring it in his heart to commit such an act.
"Don't you remember yet? Don't you remember Sango, your father, Kirara and the demon slayers? Don't you care about your sister?"
Kohaku raised his weapon again.
"I'm guessing you don't," Inuyasha smiled in spite of himself. "Heh."
---
hold on to me, love
you know i can't stay long
all i wanted to sat was i love you and i'm not afraid
can you hear me?
can you feel me in your arms?
Sango's eyes felt moist, bringing relief to her dry eyed, and felt something wet streak along her numb face. It trickled down her chin and fell to the snowy ground beneath her.
holding my last breath
safe inside myself
are all of my thoughts of you
sweet raptured light, it ends here tonight
An emotion bubbled up within her: anger...towards her brother.
Looking back, she thought she should've killed him when she first got the chance. Inuyasha stopped her from commiting such an act and pushed her into false hopes of getting her brother back to normal. Normal? Feh, he was far beyond repair. He doesn't even remember her even without the ties of manipulation to Naraku. His mind had been wounded too much to function properly.
He was a hollow killing machine. No longer was he the akward little boy she had once loved dearly, who played with Kirara hour by hour, and he was no longer the apphrehensive rookie who asked for advice. He was no longer her brother.
Kohaku was similair to that of the walking dead, the priestess Kikyo, but he was ruthless and without a conscience. It was then she understood the distress Inuyasha went under when it came to the dead priestess. But these wounds cut deeper than any emotional knife.
The realization that her brother could not be saved infuriated her. Sango's fingers curled up into the palms of her hands and balled into tight fists at her sides. Her eyes glared with malice towards the impending tombstone and idly thought of slamming her fist into the hard stone.
Instead, she dropped to her knees, her eyes shadowed by her bangs and attempted to surpress the tears that threatened to fall. How she wished he were right here this second, telling her that everything would be alright and her stubbornly saying it wouldn't be.
After all, she had just lost the pup hadn't she? Under her sheer weakness and depression, she had lost the only realtion left of him in the darkness of the storm. Her covered in caked blood was pain and proof enough of the loss, as most of it came from her nether regions. It was amazing she still stood, after a massive blood loss such as that. Sango almost wished she didn't survive.
Wished she could've died along with him.
---
i'll miss the winter
a season of fragile things
look for me in the white forest
hiding in a hollow tree
A gasp escaped Sango's lips as she pushed herself towards Kohaku, "Kohaku, NO!"
Her eyes were transfixed on the descending tip of the blade. Time seemed to slow as she threw herself over Inuyasha. A grunt of pain was heard and blood seeped out slowly. Sango's breath hitched in a raspy breath as she laid ontop of the demi-demon.
Kohaku showed no reaction; no sliver of emotion. Everything fell silent.
---
i know you hear me
i can taste it in your tears
Kohaku stepped back, his task completed as to take out one or the other; he felt no joy nor guilt. Not even as he watched tears fall from both cinnamon brown and azure. Pain inflicting on both hearts, mentally and physically.
"Don't leave, no..."
holding my last breath
safe inside myself
are all of my thoughts of you
sweet raptured light, it ends here tonight
---
closing your eyes to dissapear
you pray your dreams will leave you hear
but still you wake and know the truth
no one's here
He pulled her down suddenly, closing the distance between them and captured her lips in a final farewell. His heartbeat lurched as blood seeped out from its chambers; it slowed to a stop.
"P-promise me...that you'll live on for me...and our unborn child," he whispered, wincing under the intense pain, but smiled weakly nonetheless.
Sango wearily nodded, tears reflecting in her eyes and she held him close. He stroked her brown hair, giving as much comfort and affection as he can before he took his last breath.
say goonight
don't be afraid
calling me, calling me as you fade to black
---
Sango was dry of tears at this point, having already poured them out upon reminincing, and sadly wished she could back out on that promise. He was gone, her child was gone, Kohaku was gone...what was left?
A small, yet warm hand fell upon her shoulder, making Sango gasp in surprise. Her head snapped to face the young girl in an orange checkered kimono. Rin...that was her name.
"Sango, what happened to you?" she heard the child say.
"Rin," a cold voice addressed, "move out of the way,"
Rin obeyed; Sango glanced to meet the calculating gaze of the regal dog demon of the West. His molten golden irises swept over Sango's bloodied body, then with a wave of the hand, he motioned Jaken to guide Ah-Un toSango. Rin helped her on the two-headed dragon and draped a blanket over her.
"It'll be ok, Sango," the girl reassured. "Lord Sesshoumaru will take care of you!"
Ignoring the girl's empty reassurance, Sango glanced back at the tombstone and her lips curled into a ghost of a smile. As they were getting farther out of sight, the wind carried words back to the lone tombstone and whispered three words:
"I love you,"