Chapter 1- Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Kagome stared blankly at the woman in front of her. Although, she supposed, the person could hardly be described simply as a woman when she was truly an undead soul preserved inside a clay body. The horrific words spoken seconds earlier replayed in her mind on a loop.

'Kikyo has to absorb the rest of your soul to become human again'

Inuyasha had dragged her here under the pretense he wanted her to hunt with him for dinner. It wasn't that uncommon for him to let her tag along since she'd become more proficient with her bow and powers, but something had seemed...off this time. He'd seemed set on a certain path, ignoring all signs of game along the way, and Kagome wanted to laugh at how she hadn't even questioned him on it once. She had so blindly trusted him, as she'd trusted him these past 5 years with her life, her safety, and perhaps most importantly, her heart. After the final battle ended, Kagome had decided the past suited her more than where she'd originally been born could after all she'd been through and done. Although her family lived in that time, and it had been incredibly hard to say goodbye to them, she knew that returning to that 'normal' life would have been nearly impossible. Sango and Miroku had returned to and rebuilt the demon slayer village with her younger brother Kohaku and in the past few years had started their own family. Shippo often stayed with them to help with the children and building, leaving for weeks at a time.

While Kagome herself... settled. She'd settled for traveling along with Inuyasha, who still had the tendency to berate her. She'd settled for him always wanting to wait to be with her. She'd settled for..waiting for him to love her more than he loved Kikyo.

"Inu...Inuyasha?" Kagome stuttered out. Surely this was some sick joke?

"You heard him quite clearly, Kagome" Kikyo stated quietly. Slowly she began striding towards her incarnation as Inuyasha grabbed hold of her arms and held her still. Frantically trying to backpedal was proving wholly ineffective to prevent the undead miko from reaching her, and Kagome's pleas to Inuyasha, to anyone turned hysterical. Kikyo finally came to a stop in front of the pair and placed her hands atop Inuyasha's, encouraging him to release her. He paused for all of a moment before pulling away from Kagome as though she'd burned him.

"...Why?"

"Do you mean to direct your question towards me," Kikyo glared into the blue eyes in front of her, "or towards the half-demon you've so foolishly clung to all this time?"

"Both" came the quiet reply, Kagome's head lowering so she gazed at the ground between her and Kikyo.

"All I've wanted since Naraku was defeated is to truly live once again, and so while you hopelessly followed Inuyasha as he followed me, I searched for a way to make that happen. I came upon an old friend of Urusue's who was more than happy to tell me how to complete my return." Kikyo gestured with one pale arm and one of her soul collectors came winding from the trees surrounding the clearing and loosely wrapped around the two mikos. Kagome's breathing turned ragged and her eyes stung with unshed tears. Kikyo let out a sharp, humorless laugh at the sight and made a gesture for Inuyasha to speak.

"You wanted so badly to believe that I would eventually give up on her. Perhaps I would have, with time, moved on with you but...she came to me soon after the battle and told me that she wanted us to be together finally. When she first told me of the only way that was possible I denied the very thought."

Kagome drew in a shuddering breath and held it.

"But I will always love her above anyone else."

Her heart cracked.

"Even you."

The soul collector wound tighter around the mikos as Kagome felt her heart shatter.

"Don't worry Kagome" Kikyo calmly brought the heartbroken girl into a crushing embrace. "You won't feel a thing."

Kikyo's hands began to glow pink, and the soul collector let out a chilling wail as its body began to glow a blinding white. Time seemed to slow for Kagome. She felt a tugging in her chest, a heavy pressure building there and behind her closed eyes. She wasn't ready to die. She'd survived Naraku. She'd transcended time. She'd become a powerful miko in her own right, surpassing even Kikyo's skills.

A single tear gleamed on her cheek as it fell.

And then Kagome released a scream that sent the birds fleeing to the sky.

She used the slight surprise on Kikyo's part to put all of her strength behind shoving the elder miko away, breaking the hold. The soul collector, unprepared for the sudden weight being thrown into its side, was forced to unwind from the two women. Inuyasha withdrew tessaiga on instinct, confusion showing when the sword refused to transform. Swearing, he returned it to its sheathe and advanced on Kagome as he would on a wounded, cornered animal, his hands up and pace slow. The act was one Kagome knew well from her several hunts with him, so when Inuyasha felt he was close enough to leap at her, she had already swiftly put a barrier up around herself. She felt a twinge of regret when he connected with it and was thrown backwards, smashing several trees in the impact. but the feeling was short lived when she heard Kikyo coming up behind her. Kagome turned, swiftly kicking out with her leg and connected with Kikyo's side. With the undead miko down for now, and Inuyasha struggling to get back to his feet from the wreckage, Kagome took her chance and ran from the clearing, using reiki in her legs to increase her speed. It was a technique she'd been working on perfecting over the past year ever since she'd stumbled upon the realization that she could enhance her strength by storing reiki in her fists. She'd eventually reasoned that she could do the same with her legs, and if she could enhance her strength, perhaps she could change it to enhance her speed instead.

Thinking quickly, Kagome flared her aura once, a call for help from anyone who might be around before she suppressed it as she fled. She knew Inuyasha could track her through scent alone but hopefully her aura disappearing would throw him off even slightly until she could chance upon a stream to wash away most of her scent. The light provided by the moon was hardly enough to illuminate the forest around her to get a clear visual as she streaked through the trees, near tripping over roots every once in a while. Each breath came harder than the one before, and Kagome stumbled slightly as she grasped hold of a tree. A cliff lay before her that was about 30 feet above a raging waterway. Slowly, she crept towards the edge and peered warily down, mind racing as she tried to think through her chance of survival.

A twig snapped behind her, and the sound startled her enough that she slipped, a surprised scream tearing from her as she fell. She clung to consciousness as her body connected with the water waiting to catch her with enough force that she supposed something had to have broken. She struggled to the surface and flailed in panic while trying to reach the shore. The water dragged at her exhausted body and made it near impossible to navigate through the raging water around her. Forcing another burst of power into her legs, she finally managed to drag herself on the shore and collapsed, shuddering with the force of coughing up the water stuck in her throat. She gave herself all of two minutes before she somehow got her legs beneath her and stumbled forward through the treeline, glad that at least now Inuyasha would be hard-pressed to track her. She forced herself to travel another mile before her body could no longer continue.

Panting and near to passing out from exhaustion, Kagome collapsed against a large tree and finally allowed her body to rest, unaware of the eyes watching her from the shadows.