"Twin?" Sesshomaru asked incredulously. Ikkoku sat back, and crossed his legs. "Indeed. But you see, they are nothing alike." he crossed his legs and tapped his chin with one long finger. "Very disappointing, really. However, keeping her as a trophy isn't too bad either." he smiled. "I can't allow you to keep hurting Kagome. If she has gone this far for her sister, then I shall end it here." "'Keep hurting Kagome," you say? Well, as I see it, she won't be hurting much longer." "Draw your sword!" Sesshomaru shouted, suppressing his demon side. Ikkoku had made it as personal as possible, so he wanted to finish it in the form Kagome had come to know. "I would draw my sword," he pointed at Kagome, lying on the ground in a giant puddle of blood, "but it seems that my sword is lodged in your dear friends body." Ikkoku threw his head back and laughed, but quickly grew silent, the devilish smile still lingering on his face. "But, if you insist..." and then he was next to Kagome, grabbing the hilt of the sword as Sesshomaru lunged forward. Ikkoku harshly ripped the sword from her chest as a piercing scream filled the air. Sesshomaru stopped as the smile faded from Ikkoku's face. "How did you escape...?" he whispered. Sesshomaru turned around and gasped.

"Kagome?" The woman standing a few feet away looked exactly like the woman he had come to know, the only person who understood him. Yet she was different. The look in her eyes, the pure fear, the pure rage, warring inside of them as her hands quivered as she covered her mouth. "How could you...How COULD you?!" Tears spilled down her face as her rage outweighed her fear. The woman stepped forward and stared at Ikkoku intently. "We had a deal!" she screamed. "I agreed to help you, in exchange for Kagome's life. And you killed her!" she spat. Lord Ikkoku stepped forward, the sword he had pulled from Kagome's body dropping to the ground. "Rin-" Rin? "No!" she covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear your excuse. All this time you've been lying, and I thought, I thought-" "I do love you." he pleaded. He's reasoning with her?! "You killed her!" she screamed. And then, everything exploded.


Sesshomaru sat up, pulling the rest of the remnants of the ceiling off of himself. He surveyed what was left of the room they were in as Ikkoku rose from the rubble as well. "Rin. Rin!" he called as he saw her cradling Kagome. Rin slowly pushed Kagome's hair away from her face as she smiled sadly. Tears silently fell onto Kagome's cheek as Rin started humming to her."You've been doing all of this for me as well." She buried her face in Kagome's chest, but her body was limp. Suddenly, she threw her head back and weeped, loud, body-wracking cries that made Sesshomaru's heart ache. "You're crying for both of you, aren't you?" he asked, mostly to himself. Yet Rin studied him, and then she smiled at him and nodded slightly. "She never cries, she never has. But if I don't cry for her, who will?" And then the rain began falling, and the thunder boomed, and with each passing moment Sesshomaru felt something building inside of him, until it broke. A tear silently mixed with the rain, as it washed away the blood that lingered on his body and the floor. He threw his head back. "The rain is refreshing..."


Hours passed, and the rain had stopped falling, yet no one had moved an inch. Rin finally raised her head and looked at Sesshomaru, her gaze intense and determined. Just like Kagome's... "I'm going to do it...I'm going to save her." she said quietly. "No!" Ikkoku protested. "You'll disappear!" she nodded. "I do not care. She has gone through so much for me. I was just held captive, in a beautiful palace, with servants and cooks...it's not fair. She never got to live a life. She's been living, just with the thought of me in mind, and I don't want that." she glanced up at Sesshomaru again and smiled, her face seemed exhausted. "I could sense it, you know, How suddenly happy Kagome had become in the days she spent with you, the emptiness she felt when away. I'm happy that she got to meet you. I'm happy she had you, when she didn't have anyone." "It was more like I had her. She kept me sane, made me feel...happy. I wasn't so alone." he admitted. Rin closed her eyes. "Come, Lord Sesshomaru." "What?" "Rin, please, no!" Ikkoku pleaded, falling to his knees. Sesshomaru knelt beside them. Rin held Kagome up a little higher as she gave Sesshomaru a kind look. "She needs blood...would you mind? Sesshomaru nodded as he cut a small slit in his throat, the same place Kagome had bitten him 3 years before. He bent down to her mouth, which was tinted with her own blood. Slowly her fangs latched onto his neck, and the light feeling he had felt before returned. Rin smiled as she started glowing a faint purple and her expression grew peaceful. She exhaled deeply as Kagome started choking.

A bright light enveloped everything, and when Sesshomaru opened them again, Kagome was gone.