Leviathan
Summary: A selfless act turns the group's happy ending into something far more ugly, and an old enemy may be the only answer. The Jewel is sick of being the one being used…
Alternate reality canon. Kikyo is still 'alive', for instance.
"For certain is death for the born
And certain is birth for the dead;
Therefore over the inevitable
Thou shouldst not grieve."
Bhagavad-Gita
Prologue
Frozen in excruciating indecision, Kagome clutched the completed Jewel to her bosom, eyes wide and terrified as Naraku squeezed his tentacles slowly tighter, his cruel smile widening as Shippou squealed in agony. The kitsune tore at the slimy grey skin crushing his chest with his tiny claws as he slowly ran out of strength, and Kagome could see the pain in InuYasha's eyes as he pleaded with her.
"Kagome, listen to me! Save the runt!" he yelled as the last of the air in his lungs was forced out. She choked on a sob at the desperation in his voice, the way his eyes begged her to listen to him.
"Kagome!" Sango screamed, charging in from the left. Hiraikotsu was poised above her head, and she let it fly. The miasma parted briefly and a lesser youkai fell screaming to ground. Kagome heard Miroku gasp Sango's name before his breath turned into a horrible gurgle, the blood slowly filling his lungs.
"Choose, priestess! Save one lest they both die before your eyes!" Naraku bellowed, his eyes shining red and terrible.
Shippou screamed and she heard a sickening crack. Miroku's horrible rattling breath stopped. A tentacle raced towards Sango who blocked that instant too late…
And InuYasha stared into her eyes as everything fell apart around her.
Shaking violently, tears running down her face and down off her trembling chin, washing the blood away, Kagome closed her eyes…
… and wished.
Kagome groaned and turned her head to the side, fighting the pounding in her skull. Her eyelids fluttered open, eyes squinting to try and focus on the world around her.
Her breath caught as she remembered those last few moments of nauseating terror, feeling sick to her stomach as her two companions screamed, watching them be slowly crushed.
"Did it work?" she breathed, hardly daring to hope.
Fabric rustled near her ear and a rough hand grasped her own. She knew that hand, those calluses. That hand had caught her and borne her when she couldn't bear herself. She was safe. Always safe as long as he was there.
"Yeah," InuYasha whispered, leaning down to talk into her ear. "You did it, wench. You saved us all."
She closed her eyes and smiled, the pressure on her heart easing, that twinge of guilt that she had lived with for years finally fading. She was free. It was gone, it was finished, all of it. No Naraku to fight. No quest to save the world. No jewel to protect and worry over.
"We did it, InuYasha. All of us," she murmured.
InuYasha squeezed her hand and let it go, moving away before she could stop him.
He always leaves you. He will never stay for you. You think you'll be worth anything to him anymore?
Her eyes flew open, heart pounding at that snarl inside her head. Panicked, she glanced around the hut as best she could from her position, but was met with frayed wooden walls and earthenware jars. They were all gone, even InuYasha.
Trepidation still gnawing at her gut, she relaxed back onto the woodblock, her head aching.
Hallucinating, huh? I must be more tired than I thought.
As she slipped off to sleep, a dark chuckle rang out in a corner of her mind…