Kikyo and Inuyasha

Sesshomaru approached Kaijinbo's lair alone. Jaken had grumbled at being left behind, but it wasn't as though there had been another option, not with Rin around. Sesshomaru didn't care for humans, but Rin was – however reluctantly – his responsibility now. He wasn't about to carelessly reveal the existence of such a liability to others sooner than he had to, and certainly not to someone like Kaijinbo, who wasn't really known for his tact. Not that Sesshomaru was incapable of protecting her if any enemies decided to try and get to Sesshomaru by targeting her, but it would be annoying. Better to keep Rin out of sight for now.

Kaijinbo lived off the beaten path, like most demon swordsmiths. His home was small and dilapidated, and were Sesshomaru relying only on his eyes, he'd assume the place was abandoned. But Sesshomaru could hear movement inside the house, so he didn't pause in his approach, brushing aside the reed mat that covered the doorway.

Kaijinbo wasn't startled by Sesshomaru's abrupt appearance. He stood, setting aside the bowl of whatever breakfast he'd been eating. "Well, well, what brings the great Lord Sesshomaru to my doorstep?"

Sesshomaru heard the tinge of mockery in Kaijinbo's voice, but chose to ignore it for now. "I wish to commission a sword, one that can rival the Tetsusaiga." He paused for a moment. "Unless of course you do not believe yourself capable of forging such a sword."

Kaijinbo's dark eyes gleamed. "Ah, the Tetsusaiga. One of Totosai's greatest creations. But then, you'd know all about that, since you carry its sister."

"Tenseiga does not suit my purposes," Sesshomaru said dismissively.

Kaijinbo chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I suppose it wouldn't. A sword that doesn't kill isn't terribly useful is it?" He walked a few steps away, one clawed hand rubbing his chin. "But a sword to rival Tetsusaiga is a tall order. It is not for a lack of skill. Even the best swordsmith is hampered by the materials available to them. Totosai created those swords from your father's fangs." Kaijinbo cut his eyes over at Sesshomaru. "What quality of material do you bring me to work with?"

The words were a challenge, one that Sesshomaru felt all the way to his bones.

"Do you have something to protect?"

His fingers twitched at the memory of the last words the Inu no Taisho has spoken to him. Such a pointless question.

Sesshomaru reached up and without even flinching yanked a fang from his mouth and tossed it to Kaijinbo. The sword smith caught it easily. "Hm. Not bad. But whether it will rival the Tetsusaiga remains to be seen."

"It will," Sesshomaru said. He wouldn't allow for anything else.

Sango wished she could have stayed for more than a day in her village. She wanted time to heal, both physically and from her grief. But she had a mission to complete. Healing would just have to happen along the way. So she left with sunrise, setting a course for Kaede's village. As it was just her and Kirara, they made good time, but Sango didn't push Kirara to keep traveling late. It wouldn't be a good idea to tire Kirara out when it was just the two of them and Sango was still recovering.

The night passed without incident, and Sango was up before the sun the next morning, eager to complete her journey to the village. The others might already be there, assuming their trip had not been delayed. They took to the sky again, and by late morning Sango could see signs that she was getting close.

"Wait, what's that?"

Kirara paused at Sango's question, hovering in the air. In the distance where the forest ended, the trees lining the edge looked black. Unease pricked her. Something was wrong.

"Let's keep going, Kirara," Sango said. "But be cautious."

Kirara flew on, circling around so they would be approaching the village with the sun at their backs. As they drew closer and Sango was able to see beyond the edge of the forest to the village, she sucked in a breath at the sight. "No."

It wasn't just the tree line that was blackened. The grass was dead, the buildings faded and crumbling as though they'd been abandoned for centuries to the elements. She spotted the bodies of animals, twisted and decayed as though acid had been poured over them. Sango recognized the effects. She'd seen them once before.

"Naraku's orb of destruction."

Kirara growled at his name.

"It has to be," Sango insisted. The damage done to the village was the exact same damage Naraku had done the last time he'd unleashed this particular attack, though the last time he hadn't been in a village. "Where are the villagers?"

She saw the bodies of animals, but not a single person. Sango didn't hold out any hope that they were alive. There had been no one in the village that could have stood up to Naraku, not even Kaede.

Grimly, Sango strapped on her mask. The worst of the miasma unleashed by the attack would be long gone, but she wasn't willing to take the risk. "Fly lower, Kirara. We have to find them."

Kirara dipped down until she was level with the tops of the huts. It didn't take long to confirm that the village was empty. They widened their search, spreading in circles around the village. When they finally did find them, Kirara drew up short.

Chilled to her core, Sango stared. She had seen her fair share of ugly deaths as a slayer, but this, the pile of twisted, rotting corpses, took things to a new level. But why leave them here of all places?

In the stillness, Sango her something buzz. Moving fast, Sango twisted and threw her hiraikotsu, slicing the fluttering poison insect in two. Her eyes narrowed as she caught her weapon. "Naraku."

No doubt he'd left the insect to spy on their reaction. It was clear that he'd done this for no other reason than to hurt them.

No, not us.

Inuyasha. It was Inuyasha that posed the biggest threat. Inuyasha was the one that had managed to do the most damage to Naraku. Inuyasha was the one that had foiled Naraku's attempts to get their jewel shards. This slaughter had nothing to do with the village, nothing to do with Sango or the others, because they would just use their grief and anger to fuel their hunt for Naraku.

But Inuyasha…

If Naraku had been spying on them – and Sango now firmly believed that he had – then Naraku had to know that this was the way most likely to break Inuyasha's spirit.

Knowing that this attack had everything to do with Inuyasha answered Sango's earlier question of 'why here.' The answer of course was Inuyasha. He was the reason that Naraku had used the villager's bodies to fill and overflow the well.

"We can't let him see this," Sango said. It was a given that Inuyasha would blame himself when he found out, even though the blame rightfully lay at Naraku's feet. But it would be so much worse if he actually had to see what had happened.

"Kirara, let's go!"

They took off. Sango knew the general direction the others would be approaching from, so she had Kirara fly in a zigzag pattern searching for them. It was only an hour before she spotted the group, and without Sango having to say anything Kirara dove for them.

"Sango!" Kagome called out as Kirara touched down. Her golden eyes narrowed as she took note of the fact that Sango was still wearing her mask. "What's wrong?"

She glanced from face to face as they looked up at her. There was no gentle way to tell them. "Naraku attacked the village while we were gone."

Inuyasha immediately stepped towards her. "Are they okay?"

Miroku closed his eyes and bowed his head before Sango even spoke. It seemed he at least already knew the answer.

She shook her head. "They're all dead."

Kagome's hand tightened on Tetsusaiga until her knuckles were white. Shippo gasped, shrinking in on himself. Ginta kept his eyes on Inuyasha, which made sense considering Ginta had never even set foot in the village. Inuyasha just stared at her, his jaw working but no sound coming out.

"There is no chance of survivors?" Miroku asked.

"Only if someone wasn't in the village when the attack happened," Sango said. "And if that happened, they'll be long gone. It looks like Naraku unleashed an orb of destruction in the village. The area is completely uninhabitable by humans."

"No!"

All eyes went to Inuyasha at his outburst. Kagome shifted towards him, her hand rising slightly before falling back to her side. "Inuyasha," she started, her voice gentle and hesitant, but Inuyasha cut her off.

"No way. There has to be some kind of mistake. Naraku can't just…they can't just be gone!"

He's taking it as badly as I feared. He couldn't be allowed to see the actual results of Naraku's attack.

Sango slid off of Kirara's back, favoring her injured leg as she did. "Naraku doesn't care if people are directly involved in this fight or not. He knew attacking the village would hurt us. That's all the motivation he needed."

Inuyasha was already shaking his head in denial. "But we weren't even there!"

"I believe that was Naraku's point," Miroku said.

Inuyasha turned his head towards him, allowing Sango to step close enough to jab him in the arm with a sleeping dart. He jerked away from her with a startled yelp. "What the hell, Sango?"

"Sorry, Inuyasha," she said. "It's for your own good."

He swayed on his feet, eyes blinking rapidly as the drug began to work through his system. Ginta quickly moved to his side, wrapping an arm around him just before his eyes closed and he sagged down.

"What was that for?" Shippo demanded, glaring up at Sango.

Sango was unmoved by his anger, glancing at the others. "The attack had nothing to do with us. The point of it was to break Inuyasha's spirit. If he actually sees what Naraku did, it'll work."

"What makes you so sure?" Kagome asked.

"Naraku put their bodies in the well."

Everyone fell silent at that. Ginta stood, having scooped Inuyasha up in his arms. Shippo had taken a new perch on Ginta's shoulder as well. "Does Naraku know what the well does?" the wolf demon asked.

"Not sure," Sango said. "But he's obviously been spying on us to know that it's important."

No one seemed to like that bit of news, but then, there wasn't really anything about this situation that wasn't awful. They travelled nearer to the village in silence. Sango noticed when the demons in the group were able to smell what was up ahead, their noses twitching and faces growing even grimmer.

Finally Sango came to a stop. "This is as far as we should take Inuyasha for now."

Ginta set Inuyasha down, propping him up against a tree. "How much longer is he going to be out?"

"Not much," Sango said. Going to her bag she pulled out a length of thin, tough rope.

"You're going to tie him to the tree?" Miroku asked.

"Can you think of a better way to make sure he doesn't follow us?" Sango shot over her shoulder.

Miroku just shrugged, and no one moved to stop her as Sango wrapped the rope around him. When she had him secured, she glared at Ginta and Shippo. "Don't untie him. I don't care what he says."

"We won't," Ginta promised.

"Kirara, stay with them," Sango told her. Then she turned to Miroku and Kagome. "We'd better get going."

The three of them made their way to the well, no conversation passing between them as they walked. It only took a few minutes for them to make it, and when they did Sango heard Kagome draw in a sharp breath at the gruesome sight.

"You were right to keep Inuyasha from seeing this," Miroku said. He walked forward, raising one hand. Closing his eyes, Miroku began to whisper a prayer to help the departed souls pass on. Sango didn't hold out much hope that it would do anything. An entire village murdered, their bodies desecrated…that was a recipe for cursed grounds if ever she'd heard of one.

As Miroku prayed, Sango approached Kagome. She was just staring at the pile of corpses, her golden eyes narrowed, and her whole body tense as a bowstring. Asking if she was okay would be monumentally stupid, so instead Sango said, "We'll avenge them, Kagome."

"Yes, we will," Kagome agreed, her voice as sharp and hard as Tetsusaiga's edges. "But it won't bring them back."

Miroku's prayer came to an end and he turned towards them. "Burial will be impossible."

He was right. Their bodies had been badly damaged by the miasma. Even if they could touch them without risking being poisoned themselves, Sango doubted the bodies would hold together well enough for them to be moved for burial. "In a situation like this, I'd normally recommend burning them where they lay."

"We can't do that," Kagome said. "We can't risk damaging the well."

Which meant they really only had one option, but Sango was loath to say it out loud. She didn't need to though. Miroku looked down at his right hand, and his jaw tensed. Without a word, he turned back to the well. He held his hand out, palm forward. "Wind tunnel!"

Cool hands brushed Inuyasha's face. Blinking his eyes open, he saw a young woman leaning over him. She was short and slim, and dressed in the garb of a priestess. Her long black hair was tied back from her face. She looked young, except for her eyes. Her brown eyes seemed so much older than the rest of her.

"Who are you?" Inuyasha asked.

She smiled down at him as she sat back on her heels. "Don't you recognize me, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha sat up and looked around, trying to assess where he was. It looked like the woods outside the village, but everything seemed off somehow. Shadowed, almost blurred, like the scenery quit existing when he wasn't paying attention to it. Only the woman seemed real.

There was something familiar about her. Not her appearance; Inuyasha couldn't remember ever seeing her before. But there was something about her expression, about those eyes, that was familiar. Frowning, Inuyasha reached out with his awareness. His whole body went rigid when he felt the quiet, steady hum.

"Kaede."

Her smile softened. "Yes."

Inuyasha shook his head. "This isn't real."

"That, I suppose, depends on your definition of real."

Inuyasha shoved himself to his feet, pacing away from her. "No. You're not - !"

"Dead?" Kaede supplied. "Yes, Inuyasha, I am."

He closed his eyes and turned away from her. This was all wrong.

There was a rustle of cloth as Kaede stood, and a moment later he felt her hand rest on his back. "I am sorry I didn't have more time to train you, Inuyasha. There is still much about your powers that you don't know."

Inuyasha whirled on her. "How can you say that?" His hands balled into fists. "How can you just apologize like this is somehow your fault?"

Kaede clasped her hands in front of her as she looked up at him. She was no longer smiling, but her expression was still calm. "Because I am sorry. I should have insisted you train more. If I'd known how short my time with you would be, I would have."

Inuyasha just stared at her, at a loss for words. Kaede reached out and took one of his hands in hers. "I am not upset by my death. I have always known that my fate would most likely involve being killed by a demon. It is the fate of most priests and priestesses to die in such a way. I do wish I could have saved the villagers, but done is done. I will do what I can to help their spirits move on."

She squeezed his hand, feeling warm, and real, and alive.

"Before I move on to my new task, Inuyasha, I have two things for you: a warning and a gift." She made sure he was looking into her eyes before she continued. "The warning is this: do not allow yourself to be consumed by revenge."

"What?" He jerked his hands out of hers, floored by her words. "Are you saying I shouldn't kill Naraku?"

She shook her head. "No. Naraku must die, but he must die for the right reasons. Kill him to protect the living, not to avenge the dead. You must listen to me, Inuyasha! You cannot allow yourself to be filled with bitterness. It is your spirit, your compassion, which keeps the Shikon jewel pure. If you lose that then you will taint the jewel yourself, and if you do that then Naraku will win and our deaths will have been in vain."

Inuyasha couldn't speak past the lump in his throat. Kaede reached up and touched his cheek. "You may mourn us. You may be angry if you must. But you must let us go."

Inuyasha didn't answer. He couldn't. He didn't know if he could do what Kaede asked.

Kaede's fingers traced up until her pointer and middle finger pressed on his forehead. "And now for your gift." Kaede began to glow, and Inuyasha had to close his eyes against the brightness. "I couldn't finish training you in life, but I can give you knowledge now. But knowing isn't the same as doing. You'll still need to practice."

The press of her fingers on his forehead began to grow uncomfortably warm. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Giving you a gift. Inuyasha, remember."

The light grew, becoming uncomfortably bright even behind his closed eyes, then the world seemed to dissolve out from under him, and Inuyasha fell.

Inuyasha jerked, letting out a yelp and a curse as his head banged against something hard. Opening his eyes, he found himself in the woods, tied to a tree. Kirara, Ginta, and Shippo stood in a semi-circle in front of him, watching him with wide eyes.

"What's going on?" he demanded, tugging ineffectually at the ropes that bound him.

"You were glowing!" Shippo said. "Like, really glowing!"

Glowing? Kaede. Then he'd really had the vision of her. But what exactly had the child done to him?

Wait, wait, what? Did I just think of Kaede as a kid?

That was crazy. He'd never known Kaede as a kid, only as an old woman. Even in his vision of her, she'd been older than him, though far younger than he'd ever seen her in life.

Except he could picture it. In his mind, Inuyasha could see an image of Kaede as a scrawny kid, her hair a mess and her knees scraped up from her latest misadventure, gazing up at him with a wide grin and adoring eyes. He could picture her following him around as he went about his chores, asking questions a mile a minute as he patiently answered them.

No. No, not me.

"Inuyasha?" Ginta asked, his tone wary. "Are you okay?"

"Kikyo."

"Um, what?" Ginta asked, leaning slightly closer.

It was probably a good thing Inuyasha was already sitting down, because the realization of what Kaede had done left him lightheaded. "I think," Inuyasha started, but then he had to pause, because even with everything he'd already been through it sounded insane. "I think Kaede woke up Kikyo's memories."

Shippo hopped closer, leaning against Inuyasha's leg. "Is that even possible?"

The question sparked faded memories of studying at a temple, reading ancient scrolls late into the night to fulfill a burning hunger for knowledge. The memories made him queasy, because Inuyasha had never studied at a temple. But it did give him an answer. "In theory," he said slowly. "It's thought that when we die, our souls remember everything from all of our past lives. When we're reborn, all of our past memories are locked away, but they're still there. So if someone knew how to bring those memories to the surface, then…"

Ginta frowned. "We'll, it's obviously possible. But how'd this Kaede know how to do it?"

It was hard to force the words out against the sudden lump in his throat. "She probably couldn't have if she'd been alive. Who knows how many lifetimes worth of knowledge she had access to?" It probably helped that she'd known Inuyasha in this life and in his previous life as Kikyo.

But eighteen years of someone else's memories was way more than what Inuyasha wanted to process right now. He'd deal with it and whatever repercussions that followed later. Right now he had more pressing issues to handle. "Is anyone going to untie me?"

Shippo and Ginta shifted away from him at the question, while Kirara merely watched, her tails twitching. "Sango was very insistent that we don't," Ginta said.

It wasn't hard to figure out why. Obviously Sango, like Kagome, had decided that it was better if Inuyasha didn't have to see any more death than necessary. Honestly, Inuyasha didn't want to see the dead bodies of the villagers. He didn't want to have to face them and know they were dead because he'd failed to stop Naraku. In fact, he'd be very happy to go his entire life and never see another dead person again.

But just because he didn't want to see them, that didn't mean Inuyasha didn't owe them. Their deaths hung over his head, just like the deaths of every other person Naraku had killed, and would kill in the future.

If only we'd been here! If we'd managed to stop Naraku already!

But they hadn't been there. They hadn't stopped Naraku. They'd weakened him in their last confrontation, but Inuyasha hadn't managed to kill him. Then he'd just assumed that Naraku would be out of commission for a while, and decided to take a break. What if he hadn't done that? What if he'd decided to keep going after Naraku while he was weak instead?

Kaede might still be alive now.

"Let me go now," Inuyasha snapped, jerking at his bonds. He didn't want to see what Naraku had done to the villagers, but he owed it to them to see what his mistakes had caused.

Ginta glanced to the side at the same moment that Inuyasha sensed the approach of their missing companions. "Come on," Inuyasha said. "We all know they're getting close. What am I going to do, run?"

Ginta huffed, his lips twitching up in a smile. "Bet Sango has another sleeping dart if you tried."

Inuyasha scowled at him, but apparently the idea was reassuring enough – or amusing enough – that Ginta decided to untie him.

Finally!

Inuyasha stood and stretched. A moment later the other three appeared, Kagome and Sango walking on either side of Miroku. At the sight of Kagome, Inuyasha's shoulder throbbed and unwanted memories rushed to the surface. Inuyasha fell to his knees and…

…Kikyo hit the ground hard, crying out in pain. She didn't have to see her injured shoulder to know that it was bad. She forced herself to look up, staring into the smirking face of the last person Kikyo would ever have expected to see.

Kagome leaned down, delicately plucking the Shikon Jewel off the ground with fingers that were stained with Kikyo's blood. "I've got to be honest," she said. "I never really thought you'd be stupid enough to believe that I'd actually want to become a human."

The words cut Kikyo far deeper than Kagome's claws had managed. Kagome had been her friend, the only friend that Kikyo had ever had. "No," she whispered.

Kagome just laughed at her. "Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. You were stupid enough to think I actually cared about you." She whirled about, carelessly waving a hand in Kikyo's direction. "See you later," she said in a sing song voice. Then she glanced over her shoulder, eyeing Kikyo's wounds. "On second thought, I probably won't."

Painfully, Kikyo pushed herself up as tears blurred her vision. How could I be so stupid? She'd thought Kagome was sincere. She'd thought Kagome was misunderstood. She'd thought Kagome was lonely. Kikyo couldn't believe how wrong she'd been. Clearly she'd just projected her own feelings onto Kagome. Their friendship had been a lie from the very beginning. Now, because of her mistake, innocent people were going to die.

Kikyo blinked away the tears, anger blooming inside and giving her the strength to walk forward. With every painful breath her anger grew, until it blazed in her like a bonfire.

Kagome was right about one thing. Kikyo would die this day. Her injury was too severe for any other outcome. But Kikyo was going to make sure she didn't die alone.

AN: Okay, sorry for vanishing like that. When I started posting, I had like three or four more chapters to write, and I figured I'd easily have them done before I ever got close to needing to post them. Obviously I was wrong. My bad.

If everything goes according to plan, there's one more chapter left to this story. There will be a third installment to this series, which will also be the final installment. Considering how long it's taken me to finish writing Changed, I think I'm going to post the third one (title TBD) as I go, instead of waiting until I finish writing the whole (or most of) thing. Hope you all continue to enjoy.