Lost and Broken
by: Dreamseeker1
Genre: Drama/Action/Adventure
Summary: If Naraku isn't stopped, Miroku will die, leaving the others to pick up the pieces. When the living scatter -through no choice of their own- what does fate have in store for them?
A/n: So I got this idea years back when I was in eighth grade and since then I've worked on it a bit. I just really wanna see where it goes. The prologue is a little angsty, and I hated doing it, but I really needed to do it. (Apologizing in advance.) *bows*
Thank you, now R&R!
Prologue: Torn Apart
"Look!" called Shippou from Kagome's shoulder. "I can see the well from here!" He pointed through the trees. It was a faint speck - about a quarter mile away.
"Good," said Kagome, shifting her backpack. "Souta is going to help me study for my exam next week. I can't fail this one - they'll never let me into the new high school!"
"How long are ya gonna be gone this time? We can't waste anymore time gettin' ahold of the jewel shards. Naraku's out there with almost all of it!" Inuyasha growled, furious at the newest delay in their quest.
"Oh, we'll be fine. Besides, he can't do anything without the whole thing, and we've got these." Kagome held up the little jewel shards that they had fought so hard for, nestled in their little jar.
"Why doesn't Miroku just suck them up?" asked Shippou curiously. "Then Naraku wouldn't ever be able to get them."
"No!" yelled Inuyasha, thwacking him on top of his head. The kitsune's eyes went big as he yelped and fell from his perch. "If we get rid of it, I can't use it to become a full demon! How dumb are you?" Kagome's eyes shot daggers as she picked the little kitsune up off the ground.
"Shippou, I don't think that that would be the best idea," sighed Miroku, coming up behind them and entering the conversation, rubbing his right hand. "The wind tunnel is evil –
who knows what would happen if they came in contact?"
"It would probably kill you, to say the least," said Sango, showing up as well in her kimono. Hiraikotsu was resting comfortably on her back while little Kirara was perched on her shoulder. "To mix the two evils in one body..."
"So it wouldn't work?" asked Shippou with a sideways glance to Inuyasha.
"We don't know," Miroku said, rubbing his palm again.
"We could ask Kaede," suggested Kagome thoughtfully. "She'd probably know."
"No!" yelled Inuyasha. "We're not getting rid of the shards! That's that! Now let's get you home before we have any more damn problems." They set off towards the well again.
"Houshi-sama, what wrong?" Sango asked Miroku worriedly, watching him rub his palm viciously.
"I - I'm not sure. It's the wind-tunnel… It feels odd. It's a little itchy and… And it hurts."
"Houshi-sama?" She sounded confused and stopped walking. Miroku followed suit.
Up ahead, Kagome stopped too. "Inuyasha… something isn't right. The air feels wrong somehow."
Kirara began to growl and jumped down from Sango's shoulder. She walked through and around Sango's feet like a nervous cat, pressing against her legs.
"I don't like this," said Sango quietly.
"It reminds me of a storm," Miroku said. "The calm before the madness." He rubbed at his palm.
"Then what are we standing around for?" called Inuyasha. "Let's get the hell outta here!"
With a cry of pain Miroku fell to his knees, clutching his right hand. Sweat appeared on his brow and he went a pale white.
"Miroku!" Kagome called as she rushed over to him. Sango was already kneeling next to him. "Miroku, what's wrong? Are you all right?"
He clenched his teeth as his face contorted in pain and his body contracted into a ball, centered around his hand. "It feels… like someone's slamming a knife into my hand. Over and over and over and - agh!" Another wave of pain washed over him.
Sango looked over at Kagome. "How can that be? The wind-tunnel is a void… How can it hurt?"
Inuyasha was ambling over finally, a look of feigned annoyance on his face. The mask was thin, though, and his worry showed through.
Shippou hopped up onto Inuyasha's shoulder. "Is Miroku going to be all right, Inuyasha?"
He tried to glare and scold the kitsune. "I don't know… What the hell do I look like - a doctor?" His tone was flat and conveyed worry.
Sango held him upright with hands supporting his back as Kagome reached down towards his right hand. Before she touched it though, her hands flew back.
The prayer-beads were breaking.
They heard the rush of the void briefly before Miroku clutched the two broken ends of the prayer beads together. "Run!" He yelled. "The curse - the wind-tunnel's going to tear this place apart!" Miroku tried to crawl away from his companions.
Inuyasha leapt in and grabbed Kagome by the waist. Shippou fell with a cry from his shoulder. The hanyou leapt away as Kagome screamed.
"MIROKU!!!!!!!! She shrieked as tears started to pour down her face.
"Sango!" yelled Inuyasha. "Get your ass outta there! The entire area's going to be destroyed!"
Her look at him was hopeless as she knelt back down to the monk.
"Sango -ahh…" said Miroku through clenched teeth. "Go - don't die. Now is -" he hissed in pain as he struggled. The beads were pulling apart. "-not your time. Go!"
"I won't leave you, Miroku," she whispered.
"Kirara!" yelled Miroku. "Get her away from here! Far, far away! Ahh!"
Kirara transformed and picked up Shippou with her teeth as he cried out. She sprang to Sango, who was reaching for Miroku as tears poured down her face, and roared. Miroku jumped away from her. "Sango! There's no time! Get away from me!"
Sango fell back onto Kirara, her eyes dead. "Miroku..." she whispered.
Kirara sprang away, a screaming Sango on her back. "Miroku! Don't leave me! Don't go!"
"Let me go, Inuyasha! Miroku! No! Miroku!" Kagome struggled to get out of the hanyou's firm grip. Tears clouded her vision and she wiped them away. "Let me go - I have to try and save him - Inuyasha, let me go to Miroku!"
"I can't do that, Kagome. There's nothing you can do."
Kagome looked over, still struggling, and saw that Inuyasha was crying as he ran away from the now screaming monk. She looked in the direction they were going, and saw his target.
The well.
"No!" shrieked Miroku. "I can't hold them much longer!" Sweat was everywhere, making his hands slip on the precious beads. He grabbed tighter even as another wave of pain overtook him. "No… I won't… give in…" He clenched his teeth tighter. His thoughts were in a torrent. I can't give up, he thought. I have to give them a chance to run away.
They won't die because of me.
Life was so short. I spent all my life chasing Naraku, and I never got the chance to live.
Until them.
"Ahh!" he shrieked. He fell to his knees from the pain. His strength was waning… It hurt so much.
"Sango, Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippou… You have to be far enough away now… Please…
"I can't hold it anymore!"
"Get in there, now!" screeched the hanyou, trying to throw Kagome into the well.
"No, Inuyasha - I have to stay - Miroku-"
"Wouldn't want you to die! He'd want you to live!" His bright yellow eyes were wild and luminous from his tears. "Now get the hell outta here!" He fairly shoved her in the well. "Live, Kagome!"
She touched his face, her eyes wide with horror. "I don't want to go. Please don't make me go back."
"Friends," whispered Miroku, his hands slipping. He had no strength left. "I'm sorry."
His hand slipped.
His eyes closed as he saw images of his new-found family, and the girl he loved. His death would probably kill Sango, too. But in his last second he saw her smiling.
And the world exploded.
Kirara roared as she was thrown from her feet, knocking her and her passengers into a batch of trees, pushing them farther away from the decimation. Sango and Shippou screamed as they were knocked unconscious.
A rolling black mass was coming towards Inuyasha, who was still struggling with Kagome. When he saw it, ripping everything up in its path and carrying it back into the endless void, he found new strength, and pushed her back into the well with everything that he had. Her shriek was heard as the well was destroyed by that black nothingness.
Inuyasha felt it tearing at him, trying to suck him back, but he pulled the Tetsusaiga out of its sheath, jammed it as far into the ground as it would go, and held on as tightly as he could. He could feel Tetsusaiga making a crevice in the earth below, but his sight was gone. He could feel his hands slipping and screamed in fury.
"Son of a bitch!" he screamed. "You took Miroku, you bastard, but you ain't gettin' me too!" He pushed his feet hard into the ground, realizing he was being dragged downward to the center of the new crater.
He couldn't hold it. The sword was breaking under the pressure, and his hands slipped. He yelled and closed his eyes as he expected to enter that black nothingness.
But all he did was land on the ground.
He opened his eyes. The land for a couple hundred yards all around was nothing but wasteland. His eyes were caught on a now non-existent landmark.
The well was gone. The wind-tunnel's destruction went lower into the ground then the well did, and the well was gone.
Kagome was gone forever.
"Damn it!" He shrieked, clutching his hands and falling to his knees. The wind-tunnel had probably gotten Kirara, Sango and Shippou too - he hadn't seen them get away, and the only scent he could find was that of destruction. His chest heaved as he struggled to find air to breathe."Damn it! Damn you, Naraku," Inuyasha cried. "Now you really have taken everything." His hand absentmindedly played with the rosary on his neck, and he smiled sadly. "Well then, not everything. The rosary's still there - Kagome's alive and now she's stuck in her world with pieces of the jewel shard. You can't get them now, Naraku. Not for centuries yet." He found the Tetsusaiga and yanked it out of the ground growling as he realized it was cracked. He sheathed it. "Better go find that damn sword-guy to fix this thing. I'll kill you later, then come back and be sad. Plenty of time then.
"You may have gotten my friends, you bastard, but I'm still here."
***
"Inuyasha! Miroku! Sango! Shippou!" screamed Kagome as she pounded on the floor of the well. Her fists were bleeding, she was crying, and she'd never felt more hopeless in her life. "Inuyasha! Miroku!"
"Kagome? Is that you, dear?" Her mother peeked in from the top of the well. "Oh good, you're home! Come on inside - your dinner's getting cold and you have studying to do." She turned away, then turned back. "That means now, Kagome."
"Mom! I have to go back! I shouldn't be here! I have to go back!"
"Kagome! You come up here, we'll get you cleaned up and you can tell me what happened, and figure this all out then. Come on, Kagome." She walked away from the well.
Kagome laid against the floor of the well, letting the tears pour off her face. Slowly, she stood up, tears pouring off her face. "Guys," she whispered. "Come get me, please. I'll wait for you..." In her heart she knew the truth, but she would never accept it.
"I'll wait for you always."
***
When Sango and Shippou awoke, it was dawn. Of what day they didn't know.
Shippou recovered his voice first. "Are you alive, Sango?"
She closed her eyes and winced back tears. "Parts of me are. But some parts are lost." Kirara was nudging her foot whimpering.
"Do you think Inuyasha and Kagome are okay?" asked Shippou worriedly.
Sango put on her taijiya face, not ready to face emotion yet. "Maybe. We'd better try and find out."
"How long have we been sleeping?"
"At least a day or so. Probably more. C'mon. That means it'll just be harder to find the others. Let's go."
***
I know how evil I am, but please forgive me and…
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