Last Time...

In front of her lay a bloody body of a woman, her stomach protruding from her light blue ball gown. Her eyes stared into Rin's as if reading her soul. But it wasn't the fact that the woman that Rin would have sworn for dead had began to reach out to her that made her scream. No, it was something else… It was the fact that she was staring at an identical copy of herself and her own death was flashing before her very eyes.

Prickling and burning… Her flesh was dieing from the inside out. And there was nothing she could do. She couldn't breath, she couldn't scream. All she could do was die, and this time she was all alone.

Rin's fingers dug deep into the wet earth. She tried to scream but she coughed up blood instead. Her body shook violently as she tried to focus on anything in the well house. But all she could see was the woman with her face. "Does your soul deserve… to finish what started so long ago?" The older asked as her cold fingers gripped at the younger Rin's wrist. "Are you worthy of the love of our lord? Or are you just a cheap imitation, a fragment of my soul resurrected into a pitiful being?" The older pulled Rin up to her face and stared in her eyes. "Are you deserving of the mark of the crescent clan? Can you hold the weight of this entire world on your shoulders? Only then will I give you the rest of your soul, only when you can prove it to me…"

"I don't have shit to prove to you…" Rin forced out in a rush. "I'm still here aren't I?"

The older let go of Rin's wrist and smiled. "So much alike in the mind you and I…." The older muttered. "He will get the remains…" She said as the pain started to ease away from Rin's body. "That barrier is weak. You will have to defeat him when he has complete control over your body. You will have to save us all from eternal damnation…" The older leaned over and came face to face with Rin. They both stared into identical chocolate colored eyes. "We are the same and yet so different… but I accept you and may I return to you the last piece of you soul, the piece that is a miko…" With that the older kissed Rin on the lips and burst into a million different blue lights.

Rin took a deep breath. And she knew. She knew all about her past. The murder, the pain, the suffering, the unborn child, it was her unborn child. And Naraku had taken it all away. And it was all in the name of jealousy, because she didn't want to take Kikyo's place as his bride. Because she had fallen in love with another. Because he was just an evil son of a bitch. And as the barrier finally broke and Naraku walked toward her with a calm, practiced ease, she silently cursed him to the deepest part of hell.

She sat on her knees, her hood drawn around her pale skin. Only choice amounts of silver hair showing. Her fingers repeating motions too fast to see with the naked eye. Yet it was to no avail, the curse was still there. And it was over people who had done no wrong. She found a blade in the dark and slit her wrists. She dripped the blood into a silver goblet until it over flowed and then she spoke again. It was the only offering she had left.

"Father, please help your wayward child. I have practiced the banished sorcery all for the sake of a false jealousy. Please, your grandson sleeps under this curse. I cannot allow him to grow up in his own lands because of it." The woman bowed before the mummified corpse of her father. His silver hair dull and lifeless. His skin dry and hard. And yet she prayed to him for help, for she had used forbidden magic.

"You give…" the mummy said slowly with out moving any part of his body other than his jaw. "Your life's blood… only to have me… tell you what you have known all along… The curse can not be broken… by you…"

"Father… There must be…"

"You are the Lady of the West; such clouded and mindless actions should have never been taken. But you will learn for you will be damned to wander this place until the last second of eternity. It is the punishment of all whom use the ancient curses. And you shall not be spared Semishia."

The woman bowed deeply to her father's corpse which lost its power and went to rest again. Her life blood split from her body. And with it she drew a pentagram and lay in it. If she was to be stuck between heaven and hell she should not be given the chance to wander the world that she had betrayed. So she lay in the center of the sign and with her last ounce of strength drew a crescent moon on both sides of her wrists and ankles, then she spit on all four. She shackled her spirit to the mausoleum and she would never be free of the place. The highest punishment she could afford herself for such a high sin.

"Rin… Where are you?" Sango called out her voice echoing off of the walls.

"She's not here Sango. We must have gotten separated when we fell." Miroku said looking around the small space and seeing no one alive from which he could gain assistance.

There was a soft rustle suddenly behind Sango and she and Miroku turned around expectantly as Kirara sat on the floor and carefully groomed herself. "Rin, is that you?" Sango asked before she recognized the sound of chains.

The chains rustled against the marble making dreadful clinking sounds. And yet, they were made of blood. A woman dressed completely in white, her hair a shiny silver, and her eyes a clear crystal blue made her way in front of Miroku and bowed slightly. "Miroku-kun… I have not seen you since you were knee high to a grass hopper and yet, I've been expecting you." The woman said clapping her ghostly white hands together with a slow lanky movement caused by her chains of blood.

"Lady Semishia?" Miroku asked the name familiar and yet he knew of no one with the name.

"Hai… I see your memories are still gradually returning to you. But let me inform you of why I have brought you here… You are here to retrieve the Shikon no Tama…"