OKAY! So I'm about to head to school, so this intro isn't gonna be long. I tried to provide a longer chapter like how I started out this story, and really appreciate your feedback and opinions on how yall feel about description, dialogue, pacing, etc. Those always really help me out, and I really do enjoy them as they help me become a better writer. Also, do yall think I should change the rating? I currently have it to T, and I'm wondering if I need to change it to M, not because this story is going to have smut -I don't write smut, sorry smut lovers- but I do have a lot of violence, and blood, and mentions of sex here and there -like once but it counts-.

Anyway, let me know what ya'll think! I hope ya'll like this update :)

Enjoy!

Chapter 20: Shadows

The drumming of her feet as she ran through the thin coat of sloshing water echoed through the brush, through the branches of the trees, and through her alerted ears. Perilous exhaustion burrowed through her legs and up to her chest, where it clenched at her lungs and her racing heart. Her arms that pounded with a pressure akin to broken bones swung at her sides, the pain superseded by a mission to save.

All the while, the voice within her head continued to whisper the goings of events that transpired away from her immediate vicinity; the work of her friends blooming with success; the imprisonment of Rin within her possession; the red-haired demoness' claws toying with Sesshomaru's emotion by the push of her words. The voice told her all, from the unknown barrier cracking open like a dam, down to her immediate need should Sesshomaru catch up with Rin before her. One of them would die if she did not intervene.

And it was easy enough for Kagome to accept these words that pranced inside her mind so elegantly and flawlessly, almost as if it were a completely natural phenomenon that she, as a lacking priestess, had failed to experience before. The questioning of her sanity's quality had fizzled out of her thoughts so quickly that only a hint of its doubt flavored her actions in the form stumbling steps that could easily be mistaken for tiredness. Speaking to a voice in her head as she ran through the forest with a honed focus on an invisible, intangible 'light'. Hmph. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing to have occurred in her life.

So she ran with conviction and purpose. She ran through the bush and up a steep hill, over boulder-sized roots and out into a clearing. Where her feet had taken her was far beyond the border of the village and into a wilderness she scarcely knew, where none would hear her calls nor her hear theirs. The only solace to her sudden remoteness, which suffocated her with its drenching sense of isolation, was the aforementioned success of her friends. They didn't need her, and though she could not say the same about herself, this was no time to be hesitant and she continued her trek down her lonely path with only the voice as company.

You're almost there Kagome, just a little bit further. Lord Sesshomaru is already there. You must hurry.

"He's there? Is he okay?! Has he done anything to Rin?" The panic within her tumbled over her tongue and past her lips as she accelerated her foot fall into a crude sprint. A verbal silence clung in her mind, the presence of the voice suddenly too cramped within the confines of her crowded mind without speaking a single word. There was a quick skip in Kagome's heartbeat.

"Tell me if he's okay!" She shouted to the damp air around her, pleading for the voice to answer. The seconds it took to respond were an agonizing torment that seemed to stretch beyond unreasonable time.

He is struggling, it finally spoke, Rin has injured him greatly, but he has yet to retaliate. He is struggling to bring himself to do what he believes is right.

"What is right? What does that mean?"

… You must hurry.

Dashing over large, overturned rocks and freshly made craters that dotted the ground like pockets of empty graves, Kagome ran closer and closer towards the light until she felt it was right above her. The terrain was quiet but was without peace; empty of any animal rustling or the twittering of birds to ease the thickness in the air. It was an ominous silence that held the promise of death in its passing. But as the silence pulled away, there came a loud explosion.

Like two hurdling asteroids, they fell to the earth in a blinding speed, one plummeting the other into the hard ground. Disrupted soil and pebbles hurled out of their fixed positions in droves, clogging the air with their propelled flight to mask the area in their cloudy presence. Vibrations thrashed wildly from the ground and the wind, pushing their force against Kagome who struggled to maintain her ground while her arms covered her face.

Beyond the specks of gravel that flicked at Kagome's face, she could see two silhouettes that had momentarily ceased their attacks. A short, childlike figure walked with a hunched back while her flared hands guarded her midsection and appeared like a set of eagle claws. She stalked over to her weakened combatant who kneeled on the ground, the length of his hair still dancing in the wind as he pulled himself out of the crater.

She wasn't sure which part of her senses caught it first; had she heard the electrical hum first, or had her eyes caught the deadly green streak of energy before her other senses had caught up? Maybe she had felt the heightened charge in the wind. Either way, as a green spark of a blade became unsheathed, Kagome forced out her own power.

It pulsed out of her in erratic control, struggling to pass through her throbbing fingertips as though her power were clogged and only a trickling spurt of it could escape. She pushed for a barrier, but the amount that poured out of her was so thin, so disconnected, that she couldn't hold it. It curved out of her grasp in the form of a bright pink light bowing out in a wave of energy that ran through the space between Rin and Sesshomaru. It ran through its course as quickly as it had been formed, but from its fleeting power, it had managed to clear out the air and mar the two combatants in the process.

Kagome pulled her hands closed to her body, her fingers trembling from the hot stinging she felt inside them. A small slip of her power and this was how her body reacted? With numbing punishment? And she was going to save Rin?

The two whipped their heads around to glare at her. The evidence of her attack against Sesshomaru evaporated with the steam that left his face, leaving nothing but a common scowl he had gifted her with many times something told her this scowl held more acrimony than was per usual.

Rin, on the other hand, was worse for wares. A small body with such malicious energy that it visibly clouded the air around her and darkened her skin and her usually joyous eyes; Kagome could hardly recognize her. The cheerful child was now snarling like a maddened, hunger-driven dog. Her hair was wild and dirty, her kimono filthy and torn. And from this possession came scarlet red markings Kagome had never seen before.

Like an array of tattoo's, they were etched onto Rin's skin, emerging from beneath the folds of her kimono, up her neck and touching the curve of her jaw. Though she couldn't understand them, Kagome could tell they were a form of writing that was ancient and, in her case, incapable of understanding. Why they had appeared and what they were saying was far beyond her grasp of reasoning.

"Rin," Kagome said as she reached her arm out but Rin turned on her heels quickly and leaped away, catching the back of a flying beast that had appeared out of the shadows.

"Wait!" She called out again, but Rin didn't listen and continued to fly away. A grunt from behind her refocused her attention, and Kagome rushed to a rising Sesshomaru. She spoke his name, gave her apologies and her ramblings, but when she went to touch his arm, he smacked her hand away.

"Why must you always get in the way?"

"Sesshomaru… You were going to hurt Rin. I had to stop you."

"Hur-... Hurt? Heh." He mocked as he shook his head, refusing to look at her. Even so, Kagome knew he was in pain; true, agonizing pain. A pain that was greater than any wound that could be inflicted on the body, and the sound of it in his voice was so impactful, it brought her to the verge of tears, and a squeakish whimper escaped her lips. "You are foolish. And ignorant. You know nothing of what is happening."

"I know enough! I know that Rin is suffering and that you think the only way to release her from her possession is by…," She stopped herself, unable to say the words out loud and recognizing that even if she were able to, she wouldn't; the words alone would be as sharp as blades. When she spoke again, she was calmer and more tactful. "Listen, please. This isn't the only way. I can save her-"

"Spare me your false words," He spat and moved to chase Rin down again, only to have Kagome catch him by the arm.

"They're not false. I can save her." Sesshomaru mulled her words over in his mind, cautious about trusting her with something so integral to his life, but he wanted to believe. He wanted Rin to be saved and to see her smile as she always did when he saw her.

"How?" he questioned, holding his hope behind a steel reservoir in his heart's chambers that had begun to fill and spill through his guarded nature. A slight bend of an expression appeared on Kagome's face; not quite a smile and not quite a frown. It tainted the waters of Sesshomaru's hope, and doubt's murky shade began to creep up from the depths.

"How?" Kagome repeated.

"Yes, priestess, how. How do you plan to save her."

"Well… Umm…" The voice had never told her how. It simply stated that she could and that it would help her, but that she had to get to Rin first. Now Kagome rummaged through her conscious, hoping to pull out a voice that was now silent. She waited, mentally speaking, attempting to draw it out, but all that lingered in her mind was her own echo. Herself and no one else.

Sesshomaru barked out a laugh, staring at a place over her head with a look of disbelief on his face. His tongue pushed against one of his canines as his mouth lingered in a sneer. His eyes looked from one spot away from her to another as he subtly shook his head. He jerked his arm away from her hand and continued to walk towards the direction Rin had gone to.

"Wait," Kagome pleaded as she mentally begged for the voice to tell her something, anything. Please! Before he leaves! Speak to me! Say something! But nothing came. "Sesshomaru, please… I-"

"Enough!" He snapped, his shoulders rising and falling with each angry breath. Kagome could feel the sharp edge of his aura as it pushed against her, willing her to keep her distance from him until he recomposed himself, and his voice came out calmer and burdened with defeat.

"Enough, priestess." He said with somber, "There is nothing you can do. Stay as you are, here, and out of the way. You'll only be a hindrance otherwise."

He was gone before she could protest. He flew in the air, towards Rin, and away from Kagome. He flew until Kagome could no longer see him, and only the clouds and the air swirled in the light blue sky. Then, and only then, did she fall.

There was a storm inside her as vicious and as wild as any hurricane. She pounded her fist into the ground. Vibrations ran up her arm and played ping-pong in the mushy marrow of her bones. She cursed inside her mind, asked why over and over relentlessly. All while the storm tore through inside her, making her raw with burning emotion.

"Where are you?!" Kagome shouted towards the sky, "I needed you! Why aren't you here?! Because of that, Sesshomaru…"

Kagome looked down at her muddy hands, colored brown and red from her assault on the earth, and thought of their tangibility in comparison to the voice; a voice that had been there one moment, and gone in the next. A voice that had disappeared as soon as she was in someone's presence and needed answers. It had abandoned her. Maybe it was never there at all.

Like stones from the heavens, Kagome felt her isolation beat and weigh down on her, each stone a pound of her weakness smacking against her back. When she was bloody from separation and feebleness, her spirit a marked and torn up thing, Kagome clenched her fists.

Damn that voice, and damn Sesshomaru. Damn her crippling dependency and damn her delicate nature. They all left her alone and brittle, feeling useless and guilty for her incapability to save a friend. No more. It didn't matter if she was unskilled and powerless, or emotionally brittle with desolation. Her hangups would not bare her down from doing what she needed to.

Wiping the last few droplets of tears from her face, Kagome stood up with the fortitude of a mountain. She felt hot coals in her belly churning inside her, filling her with the same dynamism of a steam engine. So when she ran again, her reiki pushed out of her almost involuntary, propelling her forward with its aggressive energy. It gave a subtle burn, but she didn't care. These weren't strides of hope that everything would be alright. These were the pounding feet of conviction. And as she veered into a sharp turn, leaping with such distance she resembled a demon herself, Kagome spun into the center of the battlefield and expelled the thickest barrier she had ever created.

A loud crack matched with an array of dispersing, green light rumbled against her fuchsia barrier patterned with specks of glowing white light. Looking outside the barrier, she could see a rose-colored Sesshomaru struggling to come closer to a barrier that hummed with purifying power and struck out at him when he came to close. Upon her hands were the hundreds of dots that stippled her skin like the constellations stippled the sky, decorating her with their red color of busted capillaries. A single second marched on before the red began to expand, reaching out to the other surrounding dots in a pattern that mimicked a spiders web, as though someone had begun to play connect the dots on her skin. Her fingers were numb, and her forearms felt foreign. There was little certainty that she could still summon her power if she needed to defend herself, and she was effectively trapped inside a barrier with a possessed Rin.

The air in her lungs catapulted out of her as a hard kick rammed itself into her side, launching her off the ground and into the air where she slammed against the barrier before dropping down to the floor. Her lungs shook inside her as she gasped for a breath that never seemed to come until she felt the tight pull of her hair. The world swirled around her as her head was hammered into the ground, once, then twice, then three times with only short bursts of blurry vision peeking through the intense blackness. A warm liquid began to puddle where her face met the dirt, and Kagome briefly wondered if she were being slammed into a small puddle of water.

A cry touched her ears that reminded her of her own voice, and then she felt the brief comfort of the air as any semblance of earth or gravity was ripped away from her. The weight of her body brought her back down as her body rolled. Gravel stuck to her face where the warm liquid remained, and she struggled to see anything beyond the blurs and crossing layers that twisted and turned until they were in a somewhat stable state. Two Rins with overlapping bodies walked towards her, their smile wicked and their heads tilted amusingly, but even still, Kagome could sense Rin's light.

"Rin," Kagome's voice came out hoarsely, "I'm here, Rin. It's okay. You're not alone. I'm right here with you-"

Rin shrieked as she moved to punch Kagome in her backside. Kagome shut her eyes, embracing for the impact against her kidney, but instead felt the rumbling of the earth beneath her belly. Opening her eyes Kagome peeked at the hand that nearly struck her, tightly clenched into a fist and pressed against a mildly cracked ground. Rin's mangled black hair covered her expression, but a line of light was caught by something falling from her face. It cast the reflection out like a sparkling star until it hit the floor, where the tear the light had been riding puddled out.

"Rin?" Kagome struggled to rise on all fours as a shaking Rin huffed and snarled. She reached out towards Rin, twisting at her abdomen as she balanced herself on three limbs, her ribs aching in the motion. Her fingers brushed Rin's arm, and the subtle touch brought an abrupt and violent reaction out of Rin, who roared at Kagome before grappling her shoulders and pinning her against the barrier wall.

Kagome's shoulders were pierced and bleeding onto Rin's plunged fingers. She whimpered at the wounds but pressed her teeth together as she fought through the pain. A single observation lit a new fire beneath her will to save, providing her with stronger determination. Upon Rin's face, which glared at her with deadly intent, was the moist evidence of tears; Rin's cheeks were wet. She was crying.

"It's okay, Rin," Kagome repeated, her own eyes filling with empathetic and painful tears, "I'm right here. I'm not giving up on you."

Tender arms linked themselves around Rin, regardless of the rapid lines of shock that traveled from her injured shoulders. She pulled her close and felt Rin's hands claw at her back, cutting her open, and she felt the warmth of Rin's tears.

There was no power in her as Rin's screeches scraped her ears. There was nothing of her that was of use at all. Only her kindness could be offered; it was all she had. She wept her own set of tears as she pulled Rin into a tighter embrace as she continued to be assaulted, but she would not let go.

"It's okay! Rin! I know you're there. I know you're fighting. I see the real you! Even if you don't, I do!" She spoke these words as a prayer, similar to how she would summon her powers when practicing something new, and suddenly, there was a shift. It was only a small whiff of a change, but Kagome caught notice of it.

There was a pulse of power coming from outside of her, cool in comparison to her own warm purity, but Kagome recognized it as a priestess's power. It flowed into her in a small trickle, but it reignited her own power, breathing life into it. The stronger it became, the greater Kagome's senses grew, and it was in this growth that Kagome became aware of the shadow that lingered behind Rin's light.

She hadn't noticed it before as the light she had been sensing from Rin had effectively hidden it from her, but now that she held onto Rin, it was as though she were peering behind the wall of light. The shadow, in its vile and thickly coiled mass, could no longer hide. And it was pinned right inside Rin's chest.

Kagome could see the way it swirled inside Rin while sprouting hooks that burrowed into Rin and her light. She could see how it bristled out every few seconds as though it carried its own heartbeat, and how it was leeching off of Rin as if she were nothing more than a snack. This was it. This was the thing that had been controlling her.

She didn't know what it was, or how it had gotten inside Rin. All she knew was that she had to get it out. Feeding off of Rin's power that was pouring into her, Kagome pushed her own power into Rin's body. Unsure and scared, Kagome moved her power clumsily and with uncertainty, but as her power touch the shadow, she saw it recoil and move away. Taking in this confirmation, Kagome forced more of her power into Rin, pulling back her barrier to use its residual power to heighten her's.

Rin struggled against her, but Kagome held on. This would save Rin, she was sure of it, and as she pushed the shadow further and further, centimeter by centimeter, she could feel Rin's struggle becoming more complacent. With one last push, Kagome struck her power against the shadow like a spear, and it fell out of Rin's chest as a stone and into Kagome's lap.

Immediately unconscious, Rin's languid body dangled in Kagome's weak hold, and, after using so much of her power in a single day, Kagome felt her own lethargy begin to take hold. Her eyes drooped, and her breaths became long and slow. And when her body could no longer hold her up, and the world tilted to match her falling, she was pleasantly surprised to find herself in a warm embrace and resting on someone's chest, rather than the cold hard floor she had been expecting.

Rin, too, was taken from her grasp and was resting against the same person that held her. Looking up from her comfortable resting spot, Kagome gazed upon Sesshomaru's face, whose eyes were hidden behind the fall of his bangs.

"Is Rin okay?" she mumbled pass her numbed lips, her eyes threatening to shut on her.

"Yes," he spoke, surprising Kagome with the cracks of emotion in his voice, "Rin is well. Thanks to you."

"Thank goodness," Kagome sighed as she tilted her head back down and fully rested against the nook between his arm and chest. There was a moment of pause as she took in a breath of scent, almost drowning in it, while her heart lurched a bit in pain. Rather than linger on it after such a magnificent triumph, however, Kagome decided to push it aside for now, and worry about it later. There was one other topic that rang through her mind, though, as her eyes closed shut.

"Hey, Sesshomaru?"

"Hn?"

"Do you think, maybe, next time, you can NOT tell me what to do? I'm clearly not good at listening to you anyway." She would have laughed, had dreams not already begun to pull her away into a well-deserved slumber. Behind her eyes, she could see the fuzzy figures of people and objects her dreams had brought to show her, and as she began to drift away, she thought she felt a single drop of rain touch her cheek.

"Of course, priestess."

"Damn that priestess!" Her shouts rumbled the walls of the cave, causing every demon inside the lengthy abode to shiver and scurry into hiding. Even the demons inside the pit shrunk to the lowest level possible for fear that her anger would roll onto them. She was so content earlier, pleased with the ease in which she had manipulated Lord Sesshomaru, only to have her efforts foiled by that blasted nuisance of a lowbrow priestess! "Damn her!"

She roared more than she spoke inside the large, spherical room. Kikyo was yet again suspended in the air, her wrists and ankles bound together as she hung in a bent position, a fire licking at her backside. She had been this way for hours, her spirit-self pleading for rest from the constant blistering and burning she had been subjected to. But it never ended, and the pain never stopped, because she continued to heal as quickly as she was burned.

Kikyo's body was still encased in its crystal holding behind the red-haired woman's throne, and to the side of that was the woman's young daughter whom Kikyo had come to know as Amellis.

"Mother-"

"Shut up!" The woman smacked Amellis across her already bloody face, "You ignorant slave. In case you can't tell, I'm a little UPSET HERE!"

She roared again, this time swiping her claws against Amellis cheek before returning to her back and forth pacing.

"Damn that priestess and her relentless do-good-ery. I was so close to creating that tainted rift inside their hearts, and she has to go make everything bright as rain again! I was certain she would stop chasing after I sent Rin that flying in'ei. Ugh." She slumped into her throne, taking the blood-filled goblet that rested beside it and brought it to her lips. She gulped down the drink, the blood flowing past her lips and down her throat to warm her from the inside as though it were alcohol. Sighing, she pulled the golden goblet away from her lips, swishing the remaining liquid around counter-clockwise.

"Now look at me," She said almost mournfully, "That darn girl has me stress drinking. Hmm. Not to mention that now they have the stone. Oooh." She tilted her head back and shut her eyes as she pouted, her bottom lip puckering outward more than the top. With her free hand, she ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the soft silk against her skin. It was a small comfort that brought back certain bittersweet memories for her; memories of a certain love's affection, and the way in which he would suck on her bottom lip as he caressed her hair. Again she sighed as she pulled her thoughts away from her memories, and bent to place her elbows on her knees while she rested her face in her palms.

"Maybe it's not so bad that they have the stone. Even if they figure out what it is, it won't get them very far. Still, I have to wonder how that idiotic priestess was able to figure out how to save that little girl, or even that she could. And then what she did to my in'ei. And that does not even mention the change in Inuyasha's direction. Hmmm…" In fact, the change in Inuyasha's journey was particularly peculiar. He was dead set on finding Kikyo, even giving into his demon blood to take him farther than he normally could, and all of a sudden he just wants to go back. She was never significantly insightful when it came to the minds of half-breeds, but even so, she imagined that his love for Kikyo would have driven him to madly search for at least a full week, not a mere three days before returning to his dulled out lover. Perhaps there had been some form of interference she was unaware of.

Yes, the more she thought about it, the more the idea seemed more likely. Perhaps the lowbrow priestess was more intelligent than she first assumed, and perhaps Inuyasha was more dutifully in love with the cheating girl. Though, given her previous interactions with humans and half-breeds, it would be a rather shocking thing to have found either one of these alone. And she had found two. It was more probable in her mind that someone had been manipulating her toys behind her back. She shifted her cold gaze towards her slave of a daughter. The little Mynx's spirit had never been broken to her liking, even after all these years of torment. If anyone had the gall to defy her, it would be her little slave.

"Amellis."

"Yes, mother."

"Did you know," Her mother smiled as she caught Amellis tilting her head lower as to hide her face behind her choppy bangs. Ah. Trying to hide your eyes from me? "When you were younger, I would take you to the river? As a babe, you were absolutely drawn to the water."

"You did?"

"Yes. Humph… I would try to drown you in that river every day."

Amellis visibly shivered, her shackles clinging as she shook. Her mother gave a quick gesture with her hand towards the guards, who opened to door behind them. Tseuno stepped in a spiked collar and chain in his hands, with the spikes on the collar facing inward. His usual frown was replaced with a wide, twisted smile, and the dim lighting in the pit room accentuated his ferocious, wolverine demon features. Amellis pulled at her shackles in a futile attempt to provide more distance between her and her tormentor, who slowly stalked towards her.

"No. No, please! Don't, please!" She pleaded, her watery tears mixing with her bloody ones. Tseuno shoved his large hand beneath her tiny jaw, and pushed upward, forcing her teeth to mash into each other. As she struggled, she heard laughter, and when the felt the cold, sharp rods, she heard her own gurgled screams. They punctured her skin, burrowed deep into her throat, and when she tried to breathe, they vibrated inside her, perpetually choking her from within her throat. Unable to control herself, she began to gag, her body attempting to force out the foreign objects out and only making it worse. And the pain. There was so much pain. A constant stinging and biting, a parade of her nerves scathing in agony and a sharp pain radiating outwards until she felt hot from her head down to her chest.

"You never died," Her mother continued as though Amellis wasn't writhing on the floor, "No matter how much I tried to kill you, you never died."

She motioned her hand again, and Tsuneo pulled and dragged Amellis on the floor, his smile never faltering. Again she pointed towards to the guards, this time summoning them to her, ignoring the screams of her daughter, or not caring enough to notice any longer. As Gozaru and Zuniike walked towards her, she mumbled to herself.

"Maybe them finding the stone, isn't such a bad idea. I could certainly use it to my advantage. Hehe. It might even be fun. As for Amellis… well… I'll see what she does next. I have yet to catch doing anything yet, so I'll just have to keep my eye out. Ah, you two."

"You summoned us, My Lady." The two tiger demons spoke simultaneously and bowed deep in her presence.

"Yes, I did. I have a job for each of you. But first, I grow tired of Kikyo's burning. Let's find something more entertaining, shall we?"

I feel really bad for what I put Amellis and Kikyo through. Please forgive me!

Anyway, wishing yall a great next few weeks, God Bless, and I will see ya'll in the next update! Bye-bye!