He awoke again with the same lingering feeling descending over him. Sweat ran down his forehead into his open eyes and he blinked it away with a snarl. Rubbing his claws over is eyes, he remembered the dream he had dreamed off and on ever since he saw Kikyo the day she was re-animated. Well, if it was really all she. Her ashes, her grave soil, and a shattered fraction of her soul were all that were left of her. The part of her soul that remained in the new body was the part that hated him. If that was true, why had she helped him in the miasma? She could have been through with him. Why also did she look so torn when she saw his feelings for Kagome?
And why did he feel this way for Kagome? She was not Kikyo. Kaede insisted that she was the re-incarnation, but she was nothing like Kikyo. Kagome loved to live, loved her life, while Kikyo could only wish for that kind of compassion for life. Kikyo detested her position she was born to, while Kagome accepted and embraced it. Kagome had also forgiven him many times over, while at the first false sign of betrayal Kikyo had turned on him. But then…Kagome had always been loved and allowed to be herself, as Kikyo only had the love of a child sister and himself. Then she lost even that. Still…
The dream he had been having was haunting. In this dream he was still pinned to that tree, but he was awake. He saw the world pass by him, and he saw ghosts from his past pass him by too. His mother, Kikyo, his brother. His jaw locked and his claws immobile, he was unable to save his mother and Kikyo from dying again, unable to reach for the Tetsusaiga, and he could feel the scorching of the demon blood begin to surge through his veins. Then Kagome was in front of him, blocking out all others. Her eyes curious and endearing. This was how she must have looked when she first saw him. He couldn't move—he wanted to scream at her to "GET AWAY! GET THE HELL AWAY, KAGOME!" before he couldn't stop himself. But she had her hand on the arrow, the only protection she would have if he lost himself. Kagome—the only thing that mattered now—was beginning to grip the arrow and he could feel himself slipping, without the Tetsusaiga for him to grip. Where was the sword?
Suddenly, as Kagome began to pull, he could see past her. Kikyo—his first love, the women he had been prepared to live with forever—held the Tetsusaiga. He felt his cheeks grow hotter as his blood began to boil; as he saw her eyes were filled with nothing. Blanks—that's all. Then a smile stretched across her lips as she grasped the blade in two hands and it broke.
A hulk of energy burst through his veins and his eye clouded red. His claws lengthened with the want—the need—for blood. His fangs sharpened and as his last thought pierced through his mind, he felt his fangs begin to hunger for…for… her. Kagome was still in front if him, oblivious to his change, and he felt the spell of the arrow…let go.
He blinked and opened his jaws to taste her blood and then—
He would wake up.
Always, then he would wake up.
Inuyasha ceased rubbing his eyes and peered down below his tree to where Kagome slept with Shippo, the little fox-pup curled at her side. She remained asleep, lit by the thinning moonlight, and he never intended to tell her of his dream.