Author's Note: Goodness, it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry loves! I started college again (after years of being dormant in my cosplay dungeon... .) and I guess I let it consume me for a minute!

Ivy's Siren: Thank you soo much for your support, darling! All the prayers made his recovery very swift. I'm grateful for it, really!
DoppleGengar: Always the faithful reader and, dare I say, friend, aren't you sweetheart? -huggles- Thank you for the support. I'm sorry I've taken so long and I hope you enjoy this!

Song for Chapter:
The Last One Alive - Demon Hunter, Extremist

Chapter Twenty-Three: Chaos

White, blinding pain seared through Kotone's limbs as she flew. Her body had been haphazardly thrown from its previous spot in the middle of a battle they were finally winning, flinging her through what she could only assume was intense fire. She could feel the flames licking at the armor, suckling at its magical properties and trying to scald her.

It certainly worked.

The metal heated and she knew pieces of her skin had melted off long before she made contact with the ground again. A body had wrapped around hers from behind, lessening the severity of their repetitive bouncing across the earth, leaving large craters and lengthy skids in their wake. Her reaction time was as quick as possible in the situation; seconds after she realized the situation, her winds pushed against their backs and aided in the agonizing halt of their frantic, erratic rolling.

Once they stopped, she could hear the heart-wrenching screams of the dying… their allies… Her friends…

Despite the ringing in her ears, Kotone attempted to stand, but two strong hands held her arms down. She fought the person who had helped her from further injury, but with the way her head spun it was to no avail. Once she was deemed calm and stable enough, the man stood and took the woman with him.

It came as a shock to see Karasu behind her, supporting the injured redhead. From all his aloofness or demented behaviors, his allegiance was far more unsettling. Had he at last come into some awkward sort of camaraderie with the kaze dai youkai. The irritating pain of the burns across her face and arms drew her attention from him, and instead of commenting on his out-of-character actions, she threw her bracers away and surveyed the damage.

Her skin would hold scars from this, even with the pure demon blood coursing in her veins. Even tightening her knuckles was agonizing, but the adrenaline kept her from falling unconscious. She had been through worse pain, but the unexpectedness was mostly new and unfortunate. Karasu seemed to sense her wants when she had finished and together, they took off running towards their previous location.

"No…" All around, fires roared and bodies burned. Men and women, demons all the same, were screaming. Some were still running, though they were alight with flames.

If not for the golden armor, she would be one of them.

A familiar mop of red hair caught her eye and she jumped across the carnage to what could only be her brother. He was awake, but slouched in the dirt and bleeding all over. He groaned when he saw her, but the light in his eyes meant he was just as relieved as she was to see her loved one alive.

"I barely escaped the brunt of it," another said and she came face-to-face with Kuronue, who was unscathed in comparison to the others around them. He had just touched down from the sky, but still he was wounded. His wings had been protected with the armor that was now mostly discarded to his side, which had proven to be his saving grace.

"We have to find the others," she ordered, but faltered when she tried to take a step. "C-Can you walk, Jin?"

"Yeah, love," he whispered and shakily stood. "Ko, yer injured too damn much ta be helpin' here. I bet me arse they're alive, but not uninjured. Karasu, Kuronue, get me sis outta here, would ya?" In his eyes, she could tell he felt sick at the notion of the crow coming to her aid, but priority took precedence now more than ever.

"You can't be serious," she hissed, but could not stand as she wanted. "Damn it-"

"Now!"

Two sets of rough palms grappled at her; Kotone did not have the strength to fight them off as the bat and the crow dragged her from ground zero. She did not scream as she wanted, but could only watch helplessly as Jin took off to find their comrades. She could only fear the worst…

"Wait!" An orange mop caught her attention, but even as she stared at the body, she knew it was too late. "Kuwa-Kuwabara!"

From here, she could tell he had not made it through the blast…

Before, during the TouMa Tournament, her feelings towards the humanoid had been less than substantial, but things had changed since then. It had started during a scary movie marathon in their hotel during a day of rest of the demoness all those decades ago and had evolved into ritual. She loved him, dearly, but now wished she had spent more time with the spiritually aware human she cared for.

Yomi would pay for this…

~:.:{Did Anyone Survive? I Swear I Hear Your Voice Beyond This Side}:.:~

Yuji stared at the temple with a look of terror on his usually calm features. Genkai's Temple was in ruins and bodies of the Wind Clan were strewn in every direction. None that stayed were alive, but many were still unaccounted for. He prayed they had escaped as he began to dig graves alongside the weeping and angry troops.

"I knew this war would only bring pain to my clan," Youma whispered, his voice heavy with regret.

It was Yuji's heart that ached though, for he had been the one to tell them it would be safe here. It was Keiko's body, impaled and almost completely burnt, that made him aware of how wrong he was. Tears freely fell down his cheeks, pulling streaks of dirt through the mess as he pulled her from the board that had killed her. He hoped she had been dead long before the pain caused, but never would he be able to tell.

As he buried the woman he loved as his family, Youma had continued on his tirade endlessly. Yes, he was upset, but his words only brought anger to the heart of Yuji Kaze Tsukai.

Once the dirt had been placed atop the woman, the black-haired wind demon turned on the leader of the Wind Clan and grappled the collar of his shirt. He pulled the pureblood clear from his feet and the wind answered only to him in that moment. He was pissed…

One does not simply anger Yuji the kaze youkai and get away with it…

"It is my heart that bears the shame of this," he snarled and clutched the fabric so tightly, Youma could barely draw breath, "and it is my hand that will end the life of the man that did this. Only one could be so stupid as to destroy the helpless, and I will tear him apart with or without your help. Your words are nothing to me; leave them in your mouth before you speak out again!"

Yuji threw the demon to the ground and spat near him, his face marred in his rage. His knuckles were white with how tightly he clenched them and Youma could only stare at the man he had believed to be nothing more than a young demon without a care in the world, despite the burdens he tried to shoulder.

"If you think for one minute that I am not ashamed, I will rip you apart as well until you realize that I will die one day from the grief I have taken!"

Youma hesitated, but a gentle hand rested on Yuji's shoulder. Tsubaki, the demoness he had befriended amongst the clan, whispered, "Calm yourself, Kaze Tsukai. We will stand behind you and seek vengeance on who did this. Won't we, Leader?"

The blonde shakily removed himself from the ground and shrugged away the aid of the few soldiers that had finished burying their portion of the dead. He dusted himself off and stared at the blood on Yuji's hands.

Yes, he knew what they must do…

"Regardless of your bloodline," he began with a snap of his sharp teeth, "when this war is over, we will never have contact again. For now, we work together. Once Yomi's head has been mounted for all of Makai to see, then we will part ways for the rest of our lives, Yuji Kaze Tsukai."

Yuji did not offer his hand; they were past such formalities now. There would be no going back from this point.

"We make for Makai, for Gandara, to remove the head of this serpent."

For Keiko…

~:.:{Better I'm The Last One Alive, Than A Soul Denied}:.:~

Unbeknownst to Kotone or Yuji, Avaron had made it to the scene a short hour after the detonation of the bombs that shook Makai. Her troops were restless and their blood boiled as fiercely as the element they controlled upon seeing the endless mayhem before them.

All across the battlefield in front of the castle of Tourin, bodies lay. The fires had partially been put out, but still the smell of charred flesh, of death, was vivid. Red was all Avaron could see, yet she was also a leader. She could not let her emotions overwhelm her… just yet.

"Go and put out the remaining fires and see if any are alive. I must speak with my father," she ordered to the group to her left. "The rest of you wait a moment."

She dismounted from the beast she had been riding, instead using her demon speed- inherited from Hiei, no doubt- to whisk over to the location her father was sure to be. He would likely be near the castle gates, which had been erected just for this war. Her hunch was correct and she resisted the urge to throw her arms around him.

"Father," she cried and her voice betrayed her.

Hiei turned his red eyes on the identical set, but relief did not mask his face. Instead it was outrage; the fire demon was not one for showing emotions and one so fierce frightened the redheaded child.

"What are you doing here?" he growled low.

"I am head of the Fire Clan," she said carefully and his eyes roamed to the contingent she had ordered to wait for her. "Tell me, are any of our loved ones…" She could not bring herself to finish the thought.

Hiei's face returned to a stoic ruse, but she could tell how badly he was hurt within. The few burns on his body were nothing compared to what she could see behind his eyes. She knew her father better than most; he ached and it scared her even more than his tone before.

"That idiot," he mumbled and she followed his gaze to a sheet just behind the gates and near the doors. The hair that remained was a stark orange and Yusuke was angrily shouting and weeping beside the body. "Everyone else is accounted for. Your mother was taken away from the fight due to her injuries."

She ignored this, but instead focused on the orange hair. The idiot she loved to play silly human video games with… the one who had zombie movie nights with her and her mother… was gone. Her heart ached; she knew there would be casualties of this war, but never had she believed it would be those she cared so deeply for.

"Yuji?"

"No." His tone implied that he had not arrived, let alone been amongst the dead.

"Thank Makai," she whispered and she fought the tears that threatened to spill for Kuwabara.

Before she could proceed within to check on the rest of her comrades- especially the children of the most powerful demons in Makai-, the sound of a horn called her attention to the south.

Yomi was ready to continue their war… knowing he had severely crippled the losing opposition.

Red blurred into Avaron's vision again and her father took step next to her to glare at the amassing troops. She could feel the heat wafting off him and knew, should any try to stand close, their power would be unbearable. They were angry…

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

But it was not Avaron or Hiei that started the approach to meet the army ahead of them. Yusuke, in all his furry, barreled past them with more youki rising from his scent than Avaron had in all of her body. She shuddered at the power and hesitated only a second before she flew after him.

Her army understood and, with all of the fighting forces of her Fire Clan at her back, she tore into Yomi's forces with a vengeance unknown. If her new clan had believed her power to be devastating when they had imprisoned her, they were sorely mistaken.

Jagged teeth tore into throats… Fire seared through flesh… Screams littered the air… All the while, Yomi's troops could not lay a finger on the vicious fire demon leader. She ripped, marred, impaled, and shredded any enemy that grew close enough to her.

Without realizing, Avaron slowly fell from her pack and into a massing unit of Yomi's finer soldiers. They were upon her in an instant, but it was not death they gave the girl.

Yomi had his first prisoner of war.

Next in 'Revelation, Defamation':
Kurama was ready; it was time he beheaded Yomi as he had planned all along. He knew he might very well die at the hands of Yomi's supporters, but only he had the power to get close enough to the King of Gandara and finish the deed. That is... until he sees Yomi's newest prize. Now, he had to think of Avaron's safety for Kotone and Hiei. He could not afford to mess this up; it would cost Ava's life if he did. Unfortunately, Yomi had his doubts about the fox, and thus... assigned him to do the unthinkable. Avaron's torturer would be her long-time friend...