The Sickness Chapter 5

InuYasha, running toward the battle that was distant on the horizon, told himself not to think of anything other than the fact that he was destined to die, and Kagome was waiting for him. He figured that if he defied death, than that made him better than his brother, Naraku, his father, and anybody else. He continued to run toward the battle, the scent of demons, death, and something else reaching his nose. His eyes widened, and he realized that Naraku was in on this battle. A three way battle, with the other two against both him and each other. Either way it would be a battle for the ages. InuYasha began to make out individual shapes in the distance, and he unleashed the Wind Scar, at the same time a lightning bolt sliced across the sky, and thunder rumbled. With the noise of the Scar disguised by the thunder, it roared toward the pack of demons that were fighting, Naraku's spawn, and Death and his spawn. A large number of the demons were cut down as the Wind Scar tore through their ranks, but it did little to reduce the number of foes that he would face. As soon as they became aware that there was another fighter, the whole wave of demons turned, and joined forces temporarily, coming after InuYasha.

InuYasha growled, and met them head on, screaming his rage as he sliced left and right, killing as many demons as he could. Almost immediately, he began to recieve many cuts and lacerations, but they weren't that bad, and he couldn't feel them. All around him, the earth pulsed with it's own beat as many more demons rose up from the earth, to replace the ones that died.

'Can you feel that?'

InuYasha continued running through the group, lashing out to the left and right with his sword, his feet pounding onto the ground in time with the earths pulse. Visible shock waves were coming out of the ground, and the ground vibrated with every step that InuYasha took. He knew that his only chance to stay alive was to keep moving.

Suddenly, he had nowhere to run, the demons surrounding him, demons of every type and size, all with sharply curved sabres and long, razor sharp katanas.

'Aw shit...'

The pulsing increased, and InuYasha took a sword thrust through the back. InuYasha screamed, and whipped around, slashing the demon in two with his claws. Again, he was attacked from behind, this time, a demon attempted to slash his hamstring, and InuYasha cried out in pain. He fell to one knee, and the demons surrounded him. InuYasha tried not to think of the pain, and he coughed a few times, blood coming up. He wiped his mouth off, and gripped the handle of the Tetsusuigua better, tensing up.

'Drowning deep in my sea of loathing...'

InuYasha grimaced, and he focused on the demons nearest to him. He focused on the thought of Kagome, and how he had been forced to fight, and leave her behind. He had nothing but disgust and a strong loathing hatred for these demons, and he wanted to kill them all, but there were so many.

'Broken, your servant I kneel.'

InuYasha, on his knees, wondered what was wrong with himself.

'Will you give in to me?'

InuYasha shook his head. He wouldn't bow for nobody, and he stood up, swinging his sword around him, slashing the heads off a few of the surrounding demons.

'It seems what's left of my human side is slowly changing in me.'

InuYasha, despite having a firm grip on his sword, began to feel the bloodlust and infinite anger of his demon side creeping up inside him, ready to take over.

'Will you give in to me?'

InuYasha thought again that he wouldn't bow down to no one, and he would fight until he dropped, hoping that somehow, whether he lived or died, he could see Kagome one last time.

'Looking in my own reflection, when suddenly it changes. Violently it changes.'

The demons, sensing the change in his blood, retreated a few steps, raising their katanas and sabres in front of them, guarding against him. So thick were the number of demons that their swords mingled, clanking off each other and almost touching. InuYasha looked at the demons, and saw his broken reflection in the demon's swords. He was flexing his claws, over and over again, and baring his fangs. Suddenly, without warning, InuYasha shuddered violently, feeling the blood in his veins heat up as his eyes flushed red, and his claws and teeth lengthened. InuYasha dropped his sword. It clattered to the ground, bouncing off the dirt and rocks once, coming to rest a few feet away.

'There is no turning back now, you've woken up the demon in me.'

InuYasha snarled, and ran toward the pack of demons on swift feet, knocking aside their swords with his bare hands, never minding the cuts he recieved as a result. He couldn't feel it anyway.

'Open up your hate and let it flow into me.'

InuYasha could smell their anger and fear, and he preyed on it, turning their fear into sheer terror as he massecred their numbers, blood flying everywhere, his hands already bloody up to the elbows. Their hate he preyed on, letting them attack, for their anger and hate clouded their judgement, and they made mistakes, and that's when InuYasha killed them.

'Madness is the gift that has been given to me.'

InuYasha, unfeeling of the swords that peirced his chest, and the sabres that sliced him open, continued to hunt relentlessly through the pack, searching for Naraku, and Death.

'I can see inside you the sickness is rising, don't try to deny what you feel.'

InuYasha was losing his mental connection to his body. No longer a bystander to the slaughter, InuYash's half demon side was being completely supressed by the demon blood, and he struggled to remain conscious, and retain a bit of humanity.

'It seems that all that was good has died, and is decaying in me.'

InuYasha lost the struggle, and his consciousness faded to nothingness as his body continued it's destructive rampage, never heeding the damage it was taking as well. Finally, InuYasha found Naraku and Death fighting, and InuYasha blindsided Naraku, slicing his head off. Before he had a chance to regenerate, InuYasha thrust his hand into Naraku's chest, blood spraying everywhere. He ripped out the heart, and started squeezing it. His nails punctured the heart, and finally, InuYasha closed his fist on it, the heart mashed to a bloody pulp. InuYasha dropped the mush, and turned to where Death floated, staring at him with his pure white eyes.

'It seems that you're having some trouble in dealing with these changes. Living with these changes.'

InuYasha, completely oblivious to the fact that Death couldn't be killed, charged in, clawing at the shadow. If you can't live with the changes, then you'll just have to die.

InuYasha slashed at Death, but was getting nowhere. Suddenly, Death faded away, leaving InuYasha alone with the thousands of demons that still hungered for his blood.

'The world is a scary place, now that you've woken up the demon in me.'

InuYasha grinned, flexed his claws, and ran toward the demons, starting a killing spree that would last for hours.

InuYasha, completely drenched in blood, wandered into the camp some hours later, surprising Kagome. As soon as she realized that the dark figure limping toward her was InuYasha, she jumped up, dropped her water bucket, and ran to him, hugging him.

"Oh, InuYasha, I was s--"

A loud growling sound stopped her, and she looked up into his face. His head was bowed, his chin touching his chest. She reached up, and tilted his head up, gasping as she saw his dark red eyes glaring back at her. She pulled away, and looked at herself, covered in blood. It was like deep red stain, and as she tried to wipe the blood off her hands, it smudged, leaving a deep red smear on her hands and arms. She looked back at InuYasha, just in time to see him faint. He dropped, and hit the ground, not moving. Kagome ran to his side, and saw the massive amount of cuts all over his body, and she called out for Sango and Miroku.

They came running out, and Miroku shook his head.

"Amazing, he actually survived." He said, pondering the fact. "Then what has become of Death?"

Sango immediately took off, getting a bucket of water and some rags, as well as Kagome's back pack.

As Sango rushed back with these things, she arrived just in time to see InuYasha raise his hand, his eyes opening slightly.

"Ka-Kagome..." He said, weakly. His voice was raspy and rough, deep sounding, and he still had a hint of red tinge to his eyes. He opened his hand, and there, lying in his palm, was the locket that she had given him. Kagome picked it up, and opened it. The picture of them was still in there, and she closed it, putting it around her neck. She bent down, and kissed InuYasha on the forehead, pushing his hair back. She ruffled his ears, noticing that his left ear had been cut almost off. An inch of tattered skin held it on, and she swallowed, feeling nauseous. She waited until InuYasha's eyes closed again, before grabbing her first aid kit. She withdrew a needle, threaded it, and hesitated. She looked at InuYasha's face, eyes closed, blood smears on his chin and cheeks, and she took a deep breath.

'For him.' She thought, thrusting the needle through his skin. InuYasha's other ear twitched, but apart from that, he was calm. She continued sewing it up, and Sango worked on getting his haori off. Finally, after struggling to take his arms out of the sleeves, she reached for her dagger to cut it open, but instead, found no dagger.

She remembered that she had given it to InuYasha, and searched his waistband, finding it on the left side of his body. She took it, and slit his shirt open from neck to hem, revealing a wound far worse than a cut ear.

Kagome and Sango gasped as they looked at the bloody ragged hole in his abdomen, and Miroku grimaced.

'Maybe death will find him after all...' He thought, but didn't say anything, instead letting the girls work on him. Sango noticed that the hole in his stomach was unusually clean, so she started bandaging him up right away. Kagome started disinfecting his other wounds, letting Sango work on the serious injury, for she had the stomach for it, as well as the experience. When they finished, they helped Miroku pull InuYasha closer to the camp, laying him out next to the fire. With nothing else they could do for him, they laid down, trying to sleep. Kagome laid down next to InuYasha, putting her arm around his waist. She put her face in the crook of his neck, and kissed him once, whispering softly.

"I hope you get better InuYasha, please."

With that, she fell asleep, the fire flickering on throughout the night.

Later that night...

The black shadow flitted across the grass, in full power now that there was no light shining, not even the moon. Completely invisible against the black night background, with no scent to give it away, Death melted in and out of the surrounding forest, heading for the fire that burned, not too far away.

As it arrived, it stopped, and stared at the Hanyou laying by the fire. Everyone was asleep, not knowing that Death was inches away, and could take any one of them away from the world of the living if it so chose.

InuYasha's dream...

I rushed through the forest, trying to regain my bearings. Suddenly, I felt the feeling. I drew my sword, and spun around, looking Death in the face. I was paralysed by fear, much like any other nightmare I had dreamt, but it slowly became obvious that if I died in my dream, then I was finished in real life. I tried to raise my sword, but couldn't, having no muscle control.

Back to Death...

A tendril of black mist shot out and stopped, hovering over Death's head. A pure black sythe, solid, not a shadow, formed in the grasp of the shadow, and Death held it there, his white eyes flicking into focus, looking down at InuYasha.

InuYasha's dream...

"What the hell do you want with me? Naraku is dead, I killed him! No more problems with the big event in the future, whatever the hell that is, and you shouldn't be here!"

InuYasha watched as Death raised the scythe, and suddenly the blade flashed white, pure white, and InuYasha had only a half-second to wonder what that meant before Death brought the scythe down upon him, everything fading to black as pain thrashed his body.

Back to Death...

The blade flashed white, and Death bought it thundering down toward InuYasha's prone body, the blade peircing the center of InuYash's chest. The scythe, sticking out of InuYasha's chest, pulsed a few times, white shockwaves rippling over his body. Slowly it began to fade, leaving no wound or trace of it entering InuYasha's chest. Death turned, and faded back into the surrounding hills, heading for the forest.

"Gahh!!!" InuYasha awoke with a start, sweat coursing down his face and chest. Breathing heavily, he looked around at Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara, and sighed. It was over. He could feel it. The constant tension in the air was gone, the fear was dissipating, he felt great. He laid back down, and for the first time in a long time, smiled a smile of pure joy. He hugged Kagome to him, and fell asleep, and for once, he had no dreams.

InuYasha awoke the next morning, and told everyone what had happened. Shippo was scared that something that InuYasha described as so scary had gotten so close to them while they were sleeping, but all in all, everyones mood had lightened considerably.

"Think of it, InuYasha," Miroku said, slapping him on the back. "Your the only person that we know of, the only person ever, actually, to defy Death, and have Death acknowledge your extreme will to live." He said, shaking his head. "Marvelous, simply marvelous."

InuYasha grinned. "I'm just glad it's over, I'm glad that we're all okay." He said, hugging Kagome tightly. He looked out at the perfect blue sky, and looked toward the rising sun.

"No matter what happens in the future, we can handle it." InuYasha said, and the group nodded. InuYasha's personal hell was over, he survived, and he was all the stronger because of it. Which was good. Though none of them knew it, they would find themselves being tested again, soon.

A/N The final chapter is finished. InuYasha survived. Look out for a sequel. It'll come soon.