Disclaimer

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Author's Note

I was having a hard time to process with this chapter. It was not how I original planned but the overall picture was kept. But write out this chapter was like a challenge to me, for first time wrote fighting scenes and sappy scene in one mood.

Warning

Violent? Blood? Inucest? Yay~

Chapter 6

Just before the black crescent shape of the closet Meidou Zangetsuha could manage to hit him, he'd airborne, putting a safe distant between himself and the almost-be his doom. The left over surprise attack from the transformed Inuyasha till had its occupation in his mind. A flash of white and red from right side caught his attention and he brought Bakusaiga up to block a blow from both Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga once again descended on him. The usual Inuyasha's strength was not a problem, but now with his full demonic power flowing together with Tetsusaiga's aura in sync, the taiyoukai would be a fool if he thought he was still being the one with advantage here.

"What's wrong, Sesshoumaru?" The taiyoukai narrowed his eyes at the taunting tone of the hanyou-turned-youkai, "You are being pushed back."

Indeed he was.

As three swords collided again in the middle of the air, the pure force of two opposite demonic powers pushed them back away from each other and landed on the ground.

The hanyou pointed Tetsusaiga at the taiyoukai while Tenseiga stayed silent in the grip of his left hand on his side. The smirk on his face never left. His eyes showed nothing to announce his next move or how it would come. The air surrounded him was full of his thirst for blood and the intense of his demonic aura released.

And again, he lunged at the taiyoukai with a war cry that made the earth under their feet trembled.

One thing he felt when consciousness came back to him was heavy. His eyelids felt heavy. His body felt heavy. His head felt heavy. And he felt like something heavy was having its fucking heavy weight on him.

But breathing was surprisingly easier now.

"Relax your muscles." He heard a voice, presumably talking to him. He could not recognize the owner of this voice. For he did not remember knowing any female this young to own a voice so soft yet so cold at the same time. But he found himself did as he was told for his body felt lighter now that the tension almost left. Almost. For the most part of his life he'd lived the way of a running-for-your-life-or-be-a-meal hanyou, to fully let his guard down in stranger's present while he did not know what was waiting for him was just a suicide act.

Finally able to force his eyes open, he wished he hadn't been so eager in the first place and shut it off only in half a blink later. Never in his life was the light such a bitch as just now. He buried his face deeper in whatever blanket was surrounding him and welcomed the darkness behind his lids like an old friend. He sighed almost contently until realization slapped him in the face at the scent hit his nose next was what of one, he was dreadfully aware of, that his being always screamed in danger. Against his will he forced his eyes open again.

Yup. This was the real Sesshoumaru. But…

"He looks like he was sleeping…" He mumbled softly to himself, fearfully afraid of waking the taiyoukai and having his stomach impaled once again by said taiyoukai's hand if he found they was in a very, very awkward position… and too close for the hanyou's comfort.

"He didn't release you even when I swore I will not do anything funny to you." He heard the same soft and cold voice again and tried to strain his head a bit to look at the direction where the voice came from. The sight greeted him made he felt like he was about to pass out again. "Great, now I am seeing Sesshoumaru's double."

He heard an amused 'Hoh' from the Sesshoumaru's double at his remark. As much as he wanted to just go back to whatever state he was before he woke up, he found himself unable to as he looked at the sleeping-taiyoukai again, this time with a bit more attention than before. "He is sleeping…" He mumbled again in wonder.

"Indeed. He is sleeping." Sesshoumaru's double agreed.

"No. He IS sleeping." He said again.

"Pup." Amused in her tone as she regarded him, "Believe it or not, even one like him needs a sleep."

The first thing he realized was his man's pride just got a direct hit by being called a 'pup'. Second thing, he was being talked to in the manner of one elder regarded their young ones. And he did not know what to feel at this moment, embarrass or angry. But surely the blood was running up and made his face felt hot. "But I've never seen him sleep." He spoke sulkily, "And I am not a pup."

"Really?" He heard soft chuckle, what was funny about it?

"How do you feel?" He heard the question and was attempted to brush off, but the next words came giving him a second thought, "If I move closer his claws will pierce through your heart so this is the safest distance between us."

"Huh?" Now he looked lower. One arm of Sesshoumaru wrapped around his mid-section, and that was the bloody reason why he was feeling as if a bounder was resting on him. His shoulder was partly resting on Sesshoumaru other's hand and it was touching the left side of his back. Right, this close it would not take much time to drive that hand into his heart. What the hell?

"He did not move since you two got here, more like since he brought you here." He heard her said, the amount of amusement in her voice made the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. "He would not let me touch you. He would not let me see into your injuries. He would not let me do anything to you. And, as I said," She moved around to stood in the front of his vision, now at Sesshoumaru's back, she crouched low, her hands braced on the edge of whatever-very-soft he and his brother was laying on, her eyes looked pointy at his face, her expression unreadable, "If I am to have the intention to kill you, even in his unconsciousness he will kill you first."

She drew back and stood up, "So be at peace and have your rest. Knowing full well no one in their right mind will disturb you."

With that she turned and left his vision, then her aura disappeared into thin air, signaled him her present was no longer near.

And Inuyasha was left to himself, looking at his sleeping brother in awe. "Are you that obsess in killing my hanyou ass?"

He was intended that just a talk with himself. But his sleeping brother's lips curved up at hearing his latest thought aloud. "I said only this Sesshoumaru will be the only one to kill you."

A loud gasp from a red face hanyou at the unexpected awaken taiyoukai. "You… You…"

To say all words left the hanyou was an understatement. There was not even one word the hanyou could mutter at that moment aside from some incoherence curses and he started squirming in the taiyoukai's arms.

"Be still." Sesshoumaru warned as he tightened his grip on the frantically moving hanyou, "Had you not heard what she said?"

"That's your double!" The hanyou almost screamed, his throat suddenly felt dry more than ever, "I am not going to fall in whatever game you are playing at!"

The first time Sesshoumaru opened his eyes to look at the hanyou ever since they were here, and his gaze effectively shut the hanyou up and froze him in place with its unreadable gleam of something the hanyou could not put word into. He expected his brother would throw him away any instant now and braced himself for the expectantly sudden impact.

However, that was far, too far away from the taiyoukai's mind.

"What kind of game are you implying I am playing at, Inuyasha?" The taiyoukai looked down at the widened eyes hanyou. "That I am treating you without hostile to get in your good grace and throw you away like a trash later when I am done with you?" The youkai continued with a sneer, one that he always threw at the hanyou together with the I-am-holier-than-thou speaking way mixed with disgust in most of his brother's life time.

The hanyou swallowed. Yes, this was the normal Sesshoumaru he'd known. The one brother treated him like nothing but dirt under his feet. The same brother always left him with a pang in his heart and a missing part of something in his life.

Unlike that expressive face spoke all what its owner was feeling inside of the hanyou, the youkai's heart which endured all his emotions had put a strong wall surrounded his being to shield his thoughts against the world through many centuries of his life and more to come successfully blocked all signs of his inner conflict to show on his face, leaving an expressionless being stood tall and proud for all to see, what was the shell of himself, what was the perfectionist of feeling nothing, what was the perfect royal assassin his birth meant to.

"What would that benefit this Sesshoumaru?" He asked the hanyou with little to none emotion.

"I don't know." Inuyasha turned his head away, the taiyoukai's face may not show any emotion as usual but the way his eyes was piercing the hanyou made his stomach unsettled, he did not want to be the receiving end of that kind of gaze. He closed his eyes. "I don't want to know."

A shadow loomed over him. Till keeping his eyes closed, the hanyou took a deep breath, "Why are you keeping me alive?"

Hot breath traveled up from his neck to his lips as he felt something ever so softly brushed against his fresh to the side of his cheek. "Do you want to die, Inuyasha?" Whispered close to his ear very slowly as if the one had spoken afraid one word would be unexpectedly slipped out of the hanyou's hearing.

A cold hand caressed the other side of his cheek and guided his head to face Sesshoumaru's side. Inuyasha reopened his eyes to look at his brother, who was looking at him so intensely it almost drowned him in an unpleasant way. "I've been fighting against everything to continue living." He gave a small humorless smile, "Nothing but you can really kill me so far."

The taiyoukai smirked. "You forgot to count the one miko who pinned you to a tree for 50 years."

At this the hanyou scowled, "Kagome freed me."

The hand had been caressing the hanyou's cheek moved up to his puppy ear, at the soft touch it flicked back and forth then went slack against the gentle treatment. Inuyasha sighed in contentment and closed his eyes, felt a bit daring to throw all cautions into the wind and actually snuggled closer into the taiyoukai. He would question his own sanity when his brain functioned better when he came out of this, whatever it was, alive.

"It had been a long 50 years."

"What?" The younger one scoffed, "Now you are whining because someone stole your toy?"

"No." The elder went silent. If not for the good feeling bestowed his one ear the hanyou would presume the taiyoukai had gone sleeping again, if he ever slept at all.

The hanyou was tempted to go back to unconsciousness any time now. He could not feel anything from his own body, the pain and heaviness were there when he first woke up were replaced by a numbness that darkened his vision. He wondered if he had ever felt so tired in his life until now.

"I wonder…" He heard Sesshoumaru's voice spoke against his temple, "If what I've been putting us through was all for naught."

"Why?" The hanyou heard himself asked, his eyes dropping.

"Because there was no need for youkai to rule this land anymore." The caress on the ear of the hanyou stopped so the same hand could cup the back of the hanyou's head to draw it to the hollow of the taiyoukai's neck, "Or this part of the living world."

In darkness the hanyou could hear very clearly what the taiyoukai was saying. The vision of Kagome's time flashed again in his mind as the hanyou hands unconsciously gripped the taiyoukai's garment.

"Had I been a good sibling to you, Inuyasha?" The taiyoukai asked as he looked down at the snowy head of the younger one.

A snort was his reply as the younger released his grip on the soft fabric that covered the taiyoukai to wrap hesitantly around his brother's mid-section. "You have to ask?". He rested his head on Sesshoumaru's chest, wondered why the beating of his brother's heart was so soothing.

"I did ask you."

"Well…" The hanyou mumbled.

The taiyoukai raised one delicate eyebrow, though the hanyou would never see it for he till had his eyes closed. "Well?"

"You were not Sango, she would try to kill Kohaku to free him from Naraku's control, or ran after him to have him back even for a short while before he would be taken away again…" The hanyou murmured to the taiyoukai's chest, "I fought with the thunder sibling too… the one that had a no-hair brother…" He purred softly as the caress on his ear came back, "I killed the younger one… then I saw the other ate him…" His eyes opened and he looked up to his brother with a small and somewhat far away smile, "I thought that was nice, to have something of his brother inside of him, even if one of them was dead."

Sesshoumaru touched his forehead with the hanyou's as he closed his eyes.

"I am not being a hanyou because I want to or I can choose it." The hanyou swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Neither was it your choice to be born as a royal." Sesshoumaru whispered.

The hanyou sniffed as he leaned up more to push his forehead against Sesshoumaru's, "But what I've been through made me stronger."

"And I am proud of you." Sesshoumaru opened his eyes to look at the widened ones, "When you woke up from the illusion of your mother." A small peck at the hanyou lips silent what he was about to talk in retort for that mention, "When you cut my left arm off in my true form." The hanyou opened his mouth again but the halt of the caress on his ear and a light tap of one finger at his lips once again got him silent, "When you took less and less time to recover from my poison be it on your skin", a kiss was planted on his forehead, "your eyes", another on his brow, "or your stomach", Sesshoumaru drew back a bit to look at the hanyou's bewildered face with a small smile. "Or even when your first Kaze no Kizu almost got me had it not for Tenseiga's barrier."

"I…" The hanyou managed out, but what was he supposed to say next?

"Or when you fought even with human strength in mount Hakurei." At this the hanyou eyeballs almost popped out as his mouth hung open, and the taiyoukai narrowed his eyes, "But I am not impressed with how your feelings lingered on the dead miko."

"Because you watched her…" Momentary anger flared inside the hanyou as his memory flashed at the mention of Kikyo. "Naraku was…"

"Do you want her to live that way even if she had already died, Inuyasha?"

"How about I ask you if the girl was truly dead in the meidou then you till want to bring her back to live the same way as how Kikyo was?!" Inuyasha yelled at his sibling, that one was one time he would never forgive Sesshoumaru.

At the same time the words spilled out of his lips…

A flash of darkness lit by a pair of blood red demonic eyes opened and narrowed to slits.

… A shock wave shot through him from top to toes, his mouth opened in a silent scream, his vision flashed white and black and he went limp in his brother's arm. Dimming golden half opened as he came back to whatever just happened to his body, "What was it…" The hanyou mumbled, "Right… I thought when that youkai ate his brother…" He could hardly recognized Sesshoumaru's outline anymore, everything was so blurry and far away, "…I thought it was nice… to have a part of your brother inside of you…"

Unconsciousness embraced the hanyou as his brother tightened his own embrace around him too.

"Inuyasha…"

"You are pushing your luck, Sesshoumaru." A familiar female voice sang on the other side of the white marble wall which separated the room the two royal inuyoukai siblings and the outside world.

Tightened his hold on the unconscious hanyou, Sesshoumaru glanced over his shoulder to the shadow loomed on the wall. "Mother."

There was no slit on the white marble wall where the owner of this sky palace was facing her eyes on, she stood there for some time, and slowly the wall dissolved into thin air in front of her eyes, replaced its boring whirlwinds design with the two forms laid on the massive white fur mattress further into the room.

The Lady gracefully walked toward where the younger two inus were occupying and sat down on Sesshoumaru's right, the same side the taiyoukai did not busy himself with Inuyasha. She glanced from where his right hand rested limply on the mattress to the red color was soaking his shoulder, she frowned, "That was a pleasant gift he left you with. Don't you think so, Sesshoumaru?"

One eye of the younger taiyoukai twitched as he kept his glare focused on his mother. Though, he said nothing about her newest remark.

She sighed dramatically at his silent. "You may be your father's son but you have none of his charming!" She announced accusingly. "Now I have no doubt where it went when I looked at this little one." She flicked a look on the younger of the two male inus and the corner of her lips slightly moved up at the way Sesshoumaru's hold on the young hanyou tightened almost to breaking point as his eyes followed her line of vision.

"Your time is running out, Sesshoumaru." Her eyes suddenly locked with him and they hold each other's gazes in dead silent quite some time for the information to be absorbed into the taiyoukai. Though, he did not appear to even acknowledge what she just said.

"WHY?!" The blood red eyes hanyou-turned-youkai roared at his sole opponent as the two swords in his hands once again sang in sync, black crescent shape Meidou Zangetsuha materialized at one swing of Tenseiga and shot toward Sesshoumaru with a speed of none human eyes could see as he sprinted in the air and brought Tetsusaiga down, released another earth shattering Kaze no kizu.

None of the attacks ever nicked the taiyoukai as his agile and demonic speed were put on play, left with only his afterimages as he dodged every black blades and jumped away from the path of wind scars from both his front and above. His eyes flashed red and golden between one blink and the next as the copper scent in the air got thicker as time passed. He fully acknowledged his control was slipping away. Something inside him was shifting, no, was trying to break free. And his rational mind screamed at him to not let that happen.

Sesshoumaru jumped higher in the air and sent an electric green light attack at Inuyasha with Bakusaiga, forced the younger one to jump away to avoid getting shed into pieces.

Swords pointed at each other again as Sesshoumaru's black boots touched the ground soundlessly with his grace intact as usual, even his armor half shattered or his right shoulder was still punctured by two large pieces of diamond spears.

For a long silent neither made any move to attack each other. They stood facing their opponent, swords in hands. Sesshoumaru, albeit in a better state than his brother, at that moment he knew two things.

First, Inuyasha was bleeding, very badly. From the wounds of their fight, and by the pressure his demonic power was straining his half demon body into. Blood leaked out from his ears, his own claws, his toes, even from his crimson eyes, stained his one smooth tanned face in an ironic way that made Inuyasha looked every bit like a full blood demon. The demon could not tell from this one, because there was something else mixed with what blood poured out from his eyes, and he ignored his acknowledgement of what that salty scent exactly was. All that kept the younger of the two standing and fighting by now, purely because of his demon blood, the one with only survival instincts, and that was really a question needed an answer, for what kind of survival instinct was this by forcing himself at his own limit and died in the process? Yes, there was not enough blood to support the hanyou's life ran inside his body by now.

The hanyou would die by his own brother's hand or because of his own demonic overwhelmed his everything, whichever came first.

Second, the next time their swords collided, it would be the end.

Something deep in the back of the taiyoukai's mind was trying to tell him something. The one thing very important that he forgot, which he shouldn't, but he did. And he was turning his mind upside down to find out what did he miss.

A slight movement from Inuyasha forced him to focus back to the hanyou. Inuyasha's left hand, which was holding Tenseiga ever since he transformed, stretched out at his side and jammed the sword to the ground.

The taiyoukai's instinct kicked in as he tensed up and heightened his guard.

"Why?" The hanyou asked softly in his own voice, raw and dried by the blood choked in his throat. Blood seeped out from the corner of his lips as crimson eyes locked with surprised golden, who did not expect to have another same word threw at him. Inuyasha raised his left hand, placed it on the notch edge near the fur separated the hilt and its blade, his bang covered the obvious glowing red eyes, "Why…"

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, thought this was just another nonsense of the soulless hanyou-turned-youkai. Nothing prepared himself for what came at him next.

Inuyasha's left palm ran itself along the edge of Tetsusaiga at high speed, coated the blade completely in his own crimson liquid as the fang shined in a bright red color with the shape of Kongouseiki, he leaped high in the air for momentum, looked at Sesshoumaru through crimson filled vision and brought the fang down…

… together with countless red diamond spears aimed at the waiting taiyoukai.

Her two elegant talons pierced through his blood leaking right shoulder and went as deep as she could. He gritted his teeth, showed his fangs and choked back any sound that threatened to come out. His left hand till holding the hanyou tightened, his mokomoko wrapped around the pup, blocking his downy ears and his nose slightly, enough for the young one to breath but not enough to let him notice the heavy scent of blood in the air surrounded them.

Her face had lost the earlier playfulness, now wore a deep concentration as her eyes focused on her two fingers lodged deep inside her only son's shoulder. She could feel her poison slowly seeped out, covered the outline of the wounded organ from inside, flowing alongside his blood stream, finding the very source of his own poison hid somewhere inside his body.

His eyes closed, one single brow would sometimes twitched when her poison unavoidably nicked one of his sensitive nerves.

"Gather your youki in one place, Sesshoumaru. It's everywhere like you never keep your toys neatly." She said in a motherly tone reprimanded her son.

She heard his low growl directed at her, causing the corner of her mouth unnoticeable twitched, but he did as she told him to. His youki gathered to the ending point of her poison strings, which now was located near his heart. Together the two youki flowed in sync as she directed both hers and his poison toward his heart, where they cocooned it in a thin layer of green light. Then the two entwined strings moved up, curled themselves around his main pulse. One of her poison string moved away from their course toward the main place of the problem, got closer to his injured area, where the blood red tendons spread about his punctured wounds like tree roots both from the surface and nearly pierced through his bone on the inside.

Unexpectedly her unoccupied hand came up to his cheek as she bended down, her lips brushed against his cheek and, "I love you." Whispered in his ear.

Before his brain could fully function after that critical hit deal directly at his mind by her, the duo poison of his and her surged forward, hit the root-like tendons dead on, their poison slowly ate up the red by their joined light green color. However, the remaining of red root forced themselves deeper into his body. As if had a mind of its own, the tiny red diamond spear in the deepest place of his shoulder pulsed, red tendons grew out from it at high speed, fully pierced through his bone, the newly conjured red root wrapped itself around the new broken area. His eyes opened in deep crimson color at the same time his mouth gasped in silent scream.

Her eyes widened at the unexpected turn of event. Her string lunged at the red crystal spear, the other string which was till in contact with his pulse extended itself and flowed over to its twin, both green strings flowed around, covered the whole crystal and constricted.

Her eyes narrowed as she focused solely on the cursed object. Suddenly the meidouseiki pulsed and a flash went through her being like an electric shock.

Blood red eyes bath in a pool of blood.

One white figure stood on four in the dark howled in pain.

A red orb above it stored a black being with long scale body, which was curling around a certain object.

Something in her snapped as she let out a snarl, her eyes bled red, as her talons grew longer, her poison strings pulsed together with added youki flared bright green and snapped the red crystal into nothingness.

Red Kongousouha?

Once again he was taken by surprised at this new enhanced technique of Tetsusaiga. The younger one had fused his blood with their father's fang's youki, feeding more power to the already indestructive Kougousouha, which was pouring down on him.

And there was no point in dodging but countered it.

His youki released and surrounded him in a pink orb, shielded him from the numerous deadly flying objects courtesy to Inuyasha's demon blood. He jumped up through the raging rain of red crystalized spears, Bakusaiga and Tetsusaiga clang at each other.

Demonic pressure from Bakusaiga pierced at Inuyasha's already bloody fresh, but the hanyou paid no mind to what pain his body was feeling. Hatred, bitterness, loneliness, and deep sadness from the younger spoke through their blades and almost timidly brushed softly against the elder of the two in the deepest place of his heart…

… Causing blood urged out from the corner of Sesshoumaru's mouth.

"Inuyasha…"

Crimson eyes blinked up, tilted his head slightly as if it was the first time he heard his name being called. The corner of his mouth slightly twitched as he leaped up, his bloody claws raised. "Hijin Kessou!"

The taiyoukai deflected all the blood blades threw at him, but one.

The only one that came down at the same time with Tetsusaiga, by countered the fang, that one red blade had hit directly on where the two silver crystals till stayed silently in his shoulder, shattered them into pieces, dyed the smaller part that remained inside his body in a deep crimson color as red tendons grew from it, rooted itself securely where it stayed.

This time blood coughed out from the elder's mouth by the unexpected attack as he kept a firm hold on Bakusaiga, till crossed blade with Tetsusaiga as their owners locked gazes with each other.

A low laugh bubbled from Inuyasha's throat turned into a small cough of blood. "Remember this Sesshoumaru…" He smiled at the elder, "You are alive because a part of me is human."

Suddenly Tetsusaiga's youki along with the hanyou's dispatched as Bakusaiga's youki flared up, broke through Tetsusaiga weakened barrier, landed a full force hit on the hanyou's body, who now reduced to a black hair slender youth, sending him flew away backward.

The taiyoukai got one moment to recover from his panic as his brain suddenly remember what day was today, and jumped after the falling young one, Bakusaiga was forgotten somewhere on the ground in his hassle as he caught the human in his arms and they landed on his back, cushioned by his mokomoko.

"Inuyasha!" He called the half lid eyes human, "Inuyasha!"

Dull red eyes looked unseen to where his dimmed vision was providing as a soft murmur left his lips "Why didn't you come for me…"

The last of red left at the same time his eyes fully shut.

"INU-!" Before the elder could finish call out his brother's name, blood forced its way out of his mouth as he too, fell prey to the embrace of darkness, till holding the hanyou-turned-human in his arms until the next time he was awaken by a stir from the nightmare that was vague the younger's unconsciousness.

"And for once in my life to have you treat me like a brother…"

The human whispered as his eyes smiled sadly up at the taiyoukai. Each of his word landed every cut through his aching heart at the sight of his broken sibling. Without thinking he raised his left hand, dug his claws into his barely healing palm, force new river of blood oozed out and let them flowed into the younger through his numerous deeper-than-safe cuts.

Without aware of what the elder one was doing, the younger continued in a soft voice that he could let out in his near dead state, "… than a filthy half-breed…"

The taiyoukai hold on to the once again unconscious human as if his life depended on it. "Inuyasha…" He whispered into the darkness.

For once, just once, he wanted to do it.

He wanted to let it go.

"Inuyasha…"

That was the first one time he called the name of his younger brother with the kind of feeling he had always denied. "My Inuyasha…"

My Inuyasha…

Her howl reached his ears first then her demonic aura. He knew what choice he had in this situation. Mokomoko wrapped the younger to him securely as he focus his aura, morphed them both into an orb of light as he took them both to the direction of her sky palace.

My Inuyasha…

… I won't let you die.

To be continued...

Author's Rant

Dear hell, I actually finished this chapter! *looked in awe*

Reviews are welcomed because if you don't say it I won't know if you like it or hate it.

Thank you for reading.