Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.

Summary: So much can change in an instant. There is nothing that can prepare you for it. One minute everything is perfectly fine and the next? In the next you are transported to an endless nothingness, pulling from the depth of your soul a relentless fear that can never truly be described. (from chapter 2)

Special thanks to my betas PockyThief, Kiyota and Ethereal Siren.

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AN: I know I'm really late on this update and I apologize for that. I hadn't felt like writing in a while and was really busy with real life, but it seems that I've gotten over this hump so the next update should be much sooner. Also there will be an AN at the end of the chapter, it contains spoilers for this chapter so only read it after. Also I have received many reviews and questions about the relationship between Kagome and Sesshoumaru, and while of course I can't give you any details, let me remind everyone that this is an angst fan fic. While I understand that it really hasn't seemed that way in the story so far, trust me, it will and pretty soon.

Chapter 10

Sometimes I am so slow to grasp something that I amaze even myself. Things that should have been obvious were obscured to me. The missing piece of the puzzle, the puzzle being the time I spent in the void and all it meant, so obvious once I had it figured out, but I just couldn't grasp that it even was a puzzle piece before. I could not see the importance of it, could not see it's worth.

But then again, considering everything else that was going on at the time, I guess it is understandable that I did not connect the piece to anything important. I did not see where it fit into the puzzle. The shard, it was the missing puzzle piece. It was light blue with wisps of white clouds and yet I still could not see that it was part of the sky, figuratively speaking anyways.

It never even crossed my mind to wonder about the shard I had sensed while in the void, it didn't dawn on me until later that I shouldn't be sensing a solitary shard, at least not one that's completely pure. A single, untainted shard did not exist outside of the one already in my possession. Even the one in Kohaku was tainted and Kouga had two.

But the whole reason we knew which way to head to reach the exit was because I had sensed the shard. Still it wasn't until after, that I realized that there was an extra shard and why there was one. I should have known from the moment I first sensed the shard that there was something strange about it, but I guess understanding it was my ticket home was enough to distract my subconscious and nothing picked at the back of my mind to get me wondering about it.

I, probably more than anyone else, know how funny time traveling can be. Might even be one of the most mysterious of things in existence, but there is always one constant when it comes to traveling through time. It's that, just because you change something in the present or even the future, it doesn't mean that it is changed in the past as well. In fact, it isn't.

If you step on a bug today, no matter how far you go into the future, it will still be dead, but if you kill a bug today and go even one day into the past, it's not dead anymore. Because it hasn't been killed yet. The same can be said about the shard. Just because we found it originally in the future, or my normal present, that doesn't mean that it's journey in the past didn't happen. In fact, it had to have in order for us to find it in the future in the first place.

Flashback

"This is it," I commented with a sigh once we got to the point where it seemed I could almost reach out and touch the shard. "Well I'd say it's been fun, but we'd both know it's a lie. Home, here I come," I whispered out loud to myself before feeling Sesshoumaru's arm reach around my waist. We had decided that speed would be our best course of action in case the void tried to suck us back up as we left.

I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly, unable to watch in case this didn't work, in case it did. There was no sound, no warning before the wind began rushing past my body, he was running. Full speed in the direction of the shard, in the direction of home. I could feel the void's power trying to pull us back and I prayed for success. Though I'm not really sure if it was our success or the void's, perhaps both.

A sudden increase of power had my eyes flying open to witness what very few, if any, humans have ever seen before. Bright, warm, glowing power surging around our bodies like millions upon millions of tiny fireflies. Making my entire body tingle and I couldn't help but wonder if this was what it was like to be struck by lightning, without the pain anyways. The power continue to grow and circle around us faster and faster until we were completely surrounded by a large ball of power.

I had seen him do this before, but never this close. Seeing him turn into an orb of light from a distance is like a drop of water next to the ocean in comparison to being inside it. Your entire body glows, like the light of the moon reflecting off your skin. You're filled with a warm that can't really be put into words other than you feel protected. It's an amazing, once in a lifetime experience, and I'm eternally grateful that I was able to.

It only took a few seconds and we were rocketing straight through the power of the void, it's resistance nothing against Sesshoumaru's power, and soon enough I felt us pass through the threshold. Opening my eyes, which I had closed again so point during the flight, I was blinded by the bright sun light and quickly re-closed them. I felt my feet touch the ground and wanted to whimper at the loss of the power around me, but I was unable to dwell on it long as a loud scream quickly caught my attention.

Opening my eyes once again, I glanced up to find a crying Sango and smiling Miroku rushing towards us. I felt the arm around my waist release me a moment before she crashed into me and knocked us both to the ground. "Kagome, I knew you were still alive. They didn't want to listen to me no matter how many times I told them, but I knew it. I really did," Sango insisted as she cried against my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her and soon my own tears join in.

"I will inform the others. Welcome back Lady Kagome," Miroku told me with a wide smile before turning and heading away. It only took me a moment to notice he was now one arm short, but Sango's ramblings quickly took my mind off of it for now.

"What happened to you? Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?" Sango questioned as she turned to glare at the silent Sesshoumaru before turning back to me to continue her inquiry without waiting for my response. "What's it like in there? How did you guys get out? What took you so long? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Inuyasha too, you should have seen him. Man is he scary when he's angry," Sango rambled as I half listened to her, mostly just happy to hear her voice once again.

"I will answer all of your questions later with everyone alright?" I questioned as I finally released my tight grip on her and smiled at her. Before she was able to answer, we were stampeded by the others arriving. Before I knew what happened, I was under a dog pile with a million and one questions being thrown at me at once. I didn't bother trying to answer, since they would hear me over the noise anyways, and just fell back on the grass laughing, taking Sango, Shippo, Kirara and Inuyasha with me.

Nearby I could barely make out Rin and Jaken's voices asking much of the same questions to Sesshoumaru as the others were asking me. "I'm home," I whispered as I wrapped my arms around them as much as I could and held them to me. Almost afraid if I let go they were disappear.

"Alright, alright let her up," Inuyasha instructed as he stood up and held his hand out to me as he waited for the others to get off of me. "We can worry about the questions later. For now I'm sure you're hungry so we'll head back to camp," Inuyasha decided as he helped me to feet and I began dusting myself off.

"One thing before we go, Sesshoumaru, would you mind shredding that tree for me?" I requested as I pointed toward the tree that housed the shard, able to tell it was too deep within the large tree to remove it without killing it anyways. Everyone stared at me in question as he walked over and made quick work of the tree, leaving little more behind then large splinters and a single pure shard.

"What the hell? All the shards are already counted for, what's with that one?" Inuyasha demanded as I walked over and picked it up, quickly adding it to the one around my neck.

"The Noh mask's shard. We got that shard while in the future, but in this time it was still in the tree. I'm not really sure what has happened to this one's twin, but now that we've gotten it in the past, we won't find it in the future. So if it didn't disappear when it arrived in the same time as it's past self, Naraku just might be one shard less now. But either way, it's just a guess," I told him with a shrug as I turned back to look at everyone.

Behind me I heard a sharp 'stay' and turned to see Sesshoumaru walking away from the group, his companions included. I watched him for a moment, sure that was what the others were doing as well, utterly confused as he walked over to a crater in the direction we had come from. It took me a minute to notice what it was he had seen, Miroku's missing cursed hand. After a moment, the pungent smell of poison filled the air as it dripped from his claws onto the curse hand. In seconds, it was nothing more than a pile of goo on the ground.

Much like I would have been if the sword had not protected me in his father's tomb, but that's another story all together. "I'm starving, let's go make dinner," I told the others with a smile as I lifted Shippo into my arms and began heading in the direction the others had come from a few minutes ago.

AN: The Noh mask shard has always made me wonder. If you think about it they found the shard in the future, but when they came back to the past, it's still in the tree the Noh mask was made from, which means there's one extra shard. But yet, I have never see anyone else make mention of it in any fan fiction, one of the reasons I used it in mine hehe. In fact, I don't remember either the 'future shard' or the 'tree shard' ever being mentioned again in the manga or anime. It makes you wonder if it wasn't in fact a huge storyline typo and completely forgotten about by Takahashi-sama. Anyways something to think on, let me know what'cha think.

Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.