Notes/Disclaimer: I honestly had no idea that anyone still cared about this. But I came home to find that someone had reviewed. Therefore I'm going to repost this chapter and the one before it. After that – we'll see how it goes. If more people like it- there may be more.
She stands at the edge of a burning stand of trees in the middle of Inu-Yasha's forest, fires giving a flickering quality to the blood covered, trampled grass that covers the small battle field. Her grey eyes roam the ground, and tears gather on her lower eyelids, silently flowing down her cheeks, falling unchecked onto her torn, bloodied and burned blouse. She ignores the gremlin carcasses littering the field, most of them scattered into many pieces, but her gaze stops on her fallen companions, bile trying to rise into her throat. She clenches her teeth and forces herself to etch their appearances into her memory, so they're deaths will not be forgotten
Little Shippo, nearly all his skin and fluffy fur charred to ash, revealing white bone beneath the ashes, and the faint scent of burned chicken wafting from him, assaults her nose. Sango with her limp, nearly flaccid lower half staining the ground on one side of the clearing, while her top half mars the other. Her ghastly pale face, gleaming with sweat mirrors the flames, and Kagome hears her painful breathing slow, but the woman still doesn't die, her eyes clenched against the pain that was beginning to throb as her heart gives out. A few feet away lies Miroku, and his hand resting against the dying woman's arm was his last gesture of comfort before he died, the blood from his throat still trickling from the enormous gash that severed his arteries and flayed is windpipe open for the carrion to investigate. And Inu-Yasha. Kagome swallows once and forces herself to look at her fallen protector, she owed him that much. It was the only way she could think of to repay him for the countless times he had fought the demons that would have killed her. It was the only way she could thank him for all the times he had come when she had needed him the most. Her teary grey eyes meet empty amber ones, unblinking as blood and brain fluid flood into those eyes. They had once been so full of arrogance, those eyes, at times brimming with tenderness, impetuousness, and even, a few times, love. Now blank, they lie vacant open beneath a massive cut revealing moist purple-grey brain, the white of bone, and the red clarity of blood. Kagome bites her lip, fighting the bile that again threatens to emerge. She couldn't let Him see her be sick, wouldn't –couldn't- give Him the satisfaction. He had won all of this, but she wouldn't, she couldn't let Him win her surrender as well. Blood begins flowing from her lip where shed had bitten through the skin, flowing down her chin, adding yet another stain on her once white blouse. She would not surrender, not after he destroyed her world, murdered her friends, her love.
He smiles slightly at the girl on the other side of the clearing, a bone chilling expression on a face of ice. He sniffs slightly, ignoring the blood of many and smoke that would have stifled all of the scent of one lone girl to all but the few most powerful demons of Japan. He tastes the air for her power, and nods to himself, finding the situation absolutely perfect. The horror of having to watch her long time friends brutally murdered in front of her eyes had shocked the child into weakness. A seed of his magic, shoots off his claw tip to fly at the girl's heart. It buries itself between her breasts, burning through the cloth and entering her skin, leaving a silvery star shaped scar on her flesh. Piercing her heart, it imbeds itself in the tissue to wait for its owner's command. With a whispered command the power of the magic goes into dormancy, and all the pieces are in place.
Kagome grunts as something makes a cut right between her breasts, and something inside her snaps. From inside her sea of hurt, she feels energy flare up from within her and throws her arms wide, as though embracing an unavoidable death. An orb of white hot light flings itself out of her body, hurtling the demons far away. Her companions had died trying to destroy them, now nearly all of them were vaporized as they came in contact with the pure energy of a priestess.
He smiles as he's thrown far back into the heart of the Western Lands. Everything was perfect. Simply perfect. He turns his back and flies off, back to his castle.
The orb contracts and covers only the clearing, every fire immediately stifled under the magic, and the smoke flows away as though pushed by heavy winds. The light changes color slightly, still hot, but this time the energy tinged now the steel blue color of a glacier. It becomes more intense over where Miroku lies, and tissues began knitting back together, forming arteries, the windpipe, and many thick layers of skin to cover the now working body. The monk's fingers twitch slightly and he begins breathing, softly, but with increasing strength.
Two shields slide down from the orb that enclosed the friends, a solid white light blocking both halves of Sango's body from view. The shields pulse as though a heartbeat stirs them and they slam into each other, the shields disappearing to leave a complete woman behind.
Kagome takes a deep breath and watches soft pink flesh bloom from beneath the ash, the charred skin falling away from fresh brown fur and rosy skin. The orb contracts until it surrounds only Inu-Yasha and begins to slowly knit the brain back together, fluid flowing from his eyes, against gravity and into the brain, as his skull hardens, and skin grows. The orb disintegrates, and Kagome is vaguely aware of her legs crumbling. A wave of sleep surrounds her completely, and she falls to the ground. The tiny spark busies itself with repairing its host's body, healing the cuts with a silver glow. Gently it erases her memory of Him and settles into dormancy.