Deceitful Time
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Throe

It was an awful night that would only get worse… they just couldn't grasp how much could be lost in such a short time. How bonds that took days, weeks, months, years to create could be lost in one night, one attack, one strike, one wound, one… it would all be done. With the murk that lurked about them, hiding the once green covered land that was now dead and crippled, with the stench of decaying flesh and sight of blood stained dirt, they fought for their existence.

Nothing rang out but screams, the clash of bone to flesh, a golden staff to a demon's skull, the draining pull of an open wind tunnel, the release of a blazing arrow—their only true source of light next to the surges from a sword—claws cutting threw flesh, legs, and tentacles, and a loyal father's fang flinging through anything and everything that got in its way.

One thought lingered below the surface of all their minds yet they could not focus on it, it was too much, it would ruin their synchronized assaults—who would die tonight?

How? How could such a terrible time start out as such a grand day? They all had a good night sleep and woke up refreshed to the smell of Kaede preparing breakfast for them before they headed out for the day. Inuyasha was mute throughout the entire day which meant that there was no fighting or shouting matches. Shiro remained equally silent for most of the day until Shippou started up about his shoes again… thankfully, he didn't punt Shippou with his 'funny' shoes like Kagome had worried about but ended up walking behind Kagome, Inuyasha, and Shippou to talk with Miroku and Sango for most of the day instead.

Then… night came and that good day disappeared in a fog of miasma. There was no demon presence to alarm them, no shikon shards to warn them, just a thick haze of poison in the air to chock them. It was only then that the hordes of small and meaningless demons appeared. It took a few too many shots of Kagome's arrows to purify the air so that they could all breathe and see what they were doing but the air still was not crisp and clean, gray smog had set in to alter their surroundings—it killed the trees they fought near, the grass that was below their feet... it left their battle ground barren.

They all stuck together throughout the endless fight that was meant to only tire them, they were all sure of that. None of the small demons were enough to kill them, not even in their endless numbers.

"I sense a lot of the shikon shards!" Kagome cried out when the moon had reached its peak in the murky night sky.

Did that mean Naraku was coming, finally? Himself? To finish them all off? There was no way he'd be alone, but why now? Why all of a sudden? He'd always been a coward, why come fight them personally? Why not let them find him? Perhaps he was just too anxious to get the whole jewel finally or maybe he thought that he was finally strong enough to kill them all without a worry. Whatever his reason… he was finally there… and the final fight really began.

It was an array of actions, a hodgepodge of events, while some where fighting against whatever stronger demons Naraku brought with him the others were trading off trying to kill the beast. The two that struck at Naraku the most were the Inuyashas but neither of them ever, ever, let Kagome out of their sight. When one went towards Naraku, the other was with her, it was like they had an unspoken argument and it served them well.

She was safe.

"Inuyasha," Kagome began as their backs collided together, it was apparently the younger's turn to watch her and, truthfully, she did not mind at all having one by her side at all times. She wasn't as strong as her companions and there was no need to deny that, they had all been training all their lives for moments like this while she only picked up a bow and arrow for the first time a year or so ago. Not to mention, the fact that one was by her side meant he was alright, she only had to worry about the others.

Sango was almost always in sight, Miroku was always by her side, and they worked flawlessly together. When she threw her weapon Miroku made sure to cover for her until it returned and then she took over so the monk could rest the best he could while still striking at the demons that were about. Kirara had Shippou upon her back as she tore through the smaller demons; he did his utmost to help with the few harmful attacks he knew.

"What?" Inuyasha grunted after he sent a series of yellow blasts out of his sword to cut through all the demons that had gathered around them.

"I'm running out of arrows," it was only naturally, she couldn't have a never-ending supply of them—though, that would have been grand—and they had been at it far too long. The moment this was all over and they were safe and well—Kagome couldn't see it ending any other way—they'd probably all collapse on the spot.

"Damn it," he cursed, "save at least three, alright? I'm sure we'll need 'em to kill Naraku."

"I'll try my best," she promised as she took a step back only to notice that he was no longer there, she spun around before she felt a tug on her torn sleeve.

"I'm here," Shiro assured her.

"How do you two do that?" she couldn't help but awe as she turned to see him, he had a few minor scratches and his fine clothes were blood stained and covered in dirt but he seemed perfectly alright otherwise.

"I don't know," he shrugged; they were just… in sync, he didn't understand it but if it kept Kagome safe then what did it matter how it worked?

"I'm running low on arrows," she confessed as her hazels wondered around the suddenly very still area around them.

"Conserve 'em."

"Yeah, that's what Inuyasha said," she sighed, "Shiro… it's really quiet…"

"Kagome, Shiro," Sango called out as her and Miroku ran up to them, "where did all the demons go? When we finished off the one we were working on… we noticed they were all… gone?"

"Maybe… Naraku doesn't have a never ending supply of demons?" Kagome questioned, it would be a comforting thought for certain.

"This…" Miroku held out his hand almost to cup the gray mist that lingered about them, "it's not miasma but it killed all the trees… I don't feel like it is affecting me but…"

"It's not poison," Shiro muttered, "at least not any type I've ever come across."

"Hey!" Shippou shouted as Kirara landed beside them all, "where'd the demons go?"

"Where's Naraku?" Sango inquired as she narrowed her gaze and glanced about.

"Where's Inuyasha…?" Kagome asked, her hazels begging Shiro for an answer.

"Naraku was this way last time I checked," Shiro pointed to the hazy north, "I can't smell anything with this stuff in the air… it really gets in the way."

"I don't have a very good feeling about all of this…" Miroku murmured as he took the slightest step closer to Sango, who matched his movement exactly.

A cry cut through the night sky, one they all knew far too well that it made all their stomachs sink—it couldn't be… could it?

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed as she ran in the direction his painful howl came from. At least, she tried, she only got two steps away from before an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against a firm body, "let me go, Shiro! Inuyasha's in trouble!"

"It's probably a trap, right?" Shiro surmised, he looked over to the ever so edgy Sango and Miroku. It was only Miroku that nodded along, it was clear that Sango's tense body and grasp upon her weapon meant she was more than ready to follow Kagome.

"I don't care! Inuyasha!" Kagome cried out as she tried her utmost to wiggle her way out of Shiro's grasp but it was no use, "Inuyasha! Say something!"

"Kagome, stay!" Shiro shouted as he flung her over to Miroku, who took her into his arms, she was a bit dizzy from the sudden jolt and thus didn't move long enough for Shiro to finish, "let me go first, OK? I'm stronger than the rest of you, I'll tell you guys if it's OK for you to follow or not, got it?"

"No! Shiro, don't go alone!" Kagome protested but Miroku's grasp proved to be too strong for her as well, "please don't go alone! What if it really is a trap?"

"I'll be fine, just wait for my signal, got it?" He only got a weak set of nods from the demon slayer and monk before he ran off where his ears could have best told him that cry of pain came from. The farther away he got the less he could see with each glance back until finally there was nothing but a thick wall of gray behind him.

Apparently, he found where all the demons had gone. What was left of them had gathered to fuse with the monstrosity that Naraku had become or swarm around him to assault the single warrior that stood—rather knelt—before him. A wicked chuckle broke out as he lifted an extremity that was shaped more like a sword than anything else to strike the final blow to the already severely wounded half-demon. With a slash of his claws he shattered the arm and jumped in front of Inuyasha all at once, "are you alright?"

"Not really," he had to admit; one hand was clenched to his gut as his other inched over to the sword that had temporarily been knocked out of his grasp. It took his weapons support but he managed to get up with a cringe and wince.

"There are demons over here but it's safe enough!" Shiro shouted out as loud as he could, hoping that was enough to summon the others to their aid.

"You have proven to be taxing," Naraku growled, "I do not know who you are or where you came from but you will die here with the rest of them!"

"Inuyasha, I think you should sit the rest of this out," Shiro stated, his golden gaze never leaving Naraku as he prepared to do whatever it was he had planned.

"Fuck that," his counterpart growled back as he barely managed to pull his hand away from his gashed gut and grasp his sword with both hands as he stepped out from behind Shiro.

"You are being a moron," Shiro growled right back, "you are going to get yourself killed."

"I'll be fine," and that was where their conversation had to cease as they split up to avoid the attack from Naraku.

The harmony the two once possessed while striking at their enemy was broken, one moved far slower than the other as they attacked Naraku from a different side each time. It appeared to almost be too much for the monster to deal with both of them at the same time, a series of chunks continued to be torn off him with a growl, grunt, or even full out cry of anguish each time.

Hiraikotsu tore through the mist then to take off Naraku's head—that was the goal, at least. He barely caught sight of it in time to knock it out of the air, too bad it was but a means to block their true assault. An arrow that blazed brighter than any before it took more than just his head as it exploded to capsize the creature.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped as she ran over to him as he fell to his knees once more, letting go of his weapon all the way to grasp at the wound that had been killing him the entire time he pranced around with Shiro to try and kill the beast. "Inuyasha, come on, we have to get that treated right away."

"Right…" he grunted the best he could as he leaned into her arms.

"I can't imagine that's it," Shiro muttered as he walked over to Sango and Miroku.

"It's not," Miroku assured as he fiddled with the beads about his wrist, "I can tell the wind tunnel is not gone…"

"How do you know if you do not open it?" Sango inquired, her eyes wondering about for her precious younger brother. If he were not here then where was it that Naraku was hiding him? As long as the devilish demon was dead, she was sure she'd be able to find him and keep him safe.

The sudden shake of the ground was a bit of an answer in itself, the demon slayer lost balance but the monk caught her as Shiro sprinted over to his younger self and the girl that held him. The sound of the ground as it broke around them consumed all of their attention as craters began to form and crumble farther and farther out, one took what was left of Naraku's body.

"We got to go," Shiro hurried as he pulled Kagome away from Inuyasha and grasped one of his arms to lug over his shoulder, "come on."

Kagome nodded fervently after she was sure Shiro had a good grasp on Inuyasha before she began towards her friends. It was too late, the ground that housed them shattered in an instant below all of their feet. If only they had not left Kirara and Shippou behind to make sure the two would stay safe they would not have fallen into the pit of darkness so surely.

{xoxoxoxoxo}

"Kagome…? Kagome…" Shiro whispered over and over again as he nudged her still body, "come on, wake up. Now."

"Hn," she whined as she stirred ever so slightly, "my head…"

"Yeah, you have a pretty bad bump," he muttered as his hand floated over the bloody mess of ebony waves, "we need to try and get out of here, can you walk? Do you need me to carry you, too?"

It wasn't what she really wanted to do, actually, all her body beckoned for was her to keep her eyes tightly closed and not bother to stay awake any longer but she still pushed her palm onto the rocky ground and pried herself up. Did she have her eyes opened? Everything was so bleak… but then she could see the faint figure of Shiro right in front of her, "what… happened?"

"I don't know," he grumbled, "the ground just… broke." He helped her to her feet and watched carefully as he let go to see her wobble but manage to follow him over to where the others had land.

"Lady Kagome, are you alright?" Miroku inquired quickly.

"I think… how about you guys?"

"We will live," that was about all Sango could say, her ankle ached, the monk's back panged each time he moved but they could fight through the pain and make it through the mess, probably.

"Inuyasha?" She whispered.

"I'm alright," he grunted, he was the only one that wasn't on his feet but sat down with his back against the wall.

"He's not doing so well," Shiro whispered to her and—just as he thought—that sparked her to sprint over and kneel down to check on his wound. It was true, though, even a half-demon had his limits when it came to blood lost and Shiro was fairly certain that Inuyasha was edging far too close to it. He had tried his best to stop it by creating a makeshift bandage by ripping up his own shirt to block the bleeding, it worked better than nothing but…

"I sense a lot of the shikon shards again," Kagome sighed as she looked down the tunnel.

"And that demonic aura?" Miroku murmured, his violets locked at the endless dark tunnel before them. They all could tell it was not over, that whatever they had fought above was not the real Naraku…

"Kagome," Shiro sighed, "your bows dead."

"It broke?" She frowned, she was just barely able to pry her eyes away from Inuyasha to look at the mess that Shiro held in his hands. "What about all the arrows?"

"Two didn't break," Shiro nudged the container at his feet, "but arrows are kinda useless without the bow."

"Still… let's bring them with us."

"Nope," Shiro stated swiftly, "there's no 'us', there's me and Miroku, the rest of you are staying."

"What?!" Sango shouted.

"It would be best if you stayed behind with Lady Kagome and Inuyasha," Miroku assured as he slowly stepped away from the fuming female.

"No! I refuse to stay behind!"

"Shiro! You'll need my help!" Kagome protested.

"Nope, you aren't helpful without a bow," he hated to say that and see her wince at his words but… her safety came before her feelings, "and Inuyasha too banged up to be anything but a burden."

"Fuck that, I'm coming," Inuyasha growled as he used his sheathed sword to get to his feet.

"No, Inuyasha, Shiro's right, you need to stay behind," Kagome countered as she pulled on his hakama, "please?"

"No, not after all of this, I refuse to stay behind, I'll be fine," Inuyasha assured.

"If Inuyasha's not staying I'm not staying," Sango stated firmly as she crossed her arms and stared her fiery mahogany eyes straight at Miroku.

"If they aren't staying… I'm not staying," Kagome meekly mumbled as she got up with bent brows as she looked at nothing but Inuyasha. He was trying his best to pretend as if his gashed gut was nothing but she could tell that took a great deal of effort… she had always worried his stubbornness would been the death of him.

"You can't come you moron," Shiro growled to Inuyasha, "you are going to get yourself killed!"

"You can't make me stay!"

"Watch—!" But his threat couldn't be finished before everything around them started to shake again. It was a narrowed space that they were forced to fight in but they made the best of it as demons came at them from all sides—above, behind, in front. Kagome was kept in the middle of all of them since she hadn't a real means to protect herself.

It happened in one second. One second, it took only one strike from a tentacle that was as sharp as any sword… it shot out from the horde of demons, marring most of them even, as it sped straight to kill one of the five.

It was instantaneous, it was cruel, it caused the most heart piercing cry from a pair of parched lips as the girl from the future fell to her knees.

Their companion, their friend, someone they all loved dearly, lurched forward as the tentacle was retracted from his chest. His eyes no longer shimmering with spunk and stubbornness that they always had in them but glazed over with death as he fell forward in a pool of his own blood… there, in the darkness pit, against cold, crude, rocks as his loyal comrades fought for their lives against the monster they all longed to kill… Inuyasha died.

A/N: I troubles with this chapters as well, I knew exactly what I wanted to happen but I'm just not good at fighting scenes. I hope you still enjoyed it and please continue to review.

Thank you for reading.