Hello, I'm the Lady of Gaia and I'm deeply sorry for the long wait that you all have to endure.

Last time, Inuyasha learns more of his parents, their love and despair.

The Queen of the Celestial Maidens despairs of the past as she returns to her shrine.

Kagome continues to fight Katsu until the flames between them burn them with passion and lust.

Midoriko is forced to step between the future lovers for the sake of the future.

I'm so sorry that I have not updated in so long, I had not realized it had been over a year since my last update and had been so busy with other things and my other stories.

But this is not excuse to you, my wonderful readers and I feel that I failed you greatly in this long wait. Still, I hope that all of you can forgive me and I will be update more often with this fanfiction from now on. Though I will warn you ahead of time if my RL will be affecting my fanfiction again.

Please review what you like about the chapter; I look forward to reading it soon.

Chapter 25: Can't love

Katsu snarled at Midoriko, his blood on fire for Kagome. He slowly stood and started to attack Midoriko, his mind had no control over his actions as the desire for Kagome burned her from the inside. He needed her so badly and he ached for her touch, but he had been denied what he needed most! Midoriko dodged him easily, she could understand that Katsu desired Kagome, but Kagome was a Celestial Maiden and all Celestial Maidens were made to be desirable to all beings in all realms. With a sigh, she snapped her fingers and numinous Celestial maidens appeared between her and Katsu. All of them without clothes to cover their bodies. "See to his desire, and do not leave him until he is calm once more. He also not to be harmed by any of you or you will all feel my power."

The Celestial Maidens glanced at Midoriko before nodding their understanding and moving forward to the Great Dog General. Katsu snarled at them all and started to attack them instead; they were not Kagome and he felt disgusted that they would touch him as Kagome should. They had no right and he would punish them for it.

oOo

Kagome opened her eyes to see that she was on the ground with the flames just starting to die off. Sadly unlike herself and her robe, her clothes did not survive the flames. Her robe was the only thing that had survived with her and unlike her was not covered in ash. Feeling the lust within her dying off, she got up and looked for a lake or something to clean herself with and cover her body with.

When Midoriko suddenly appeared at her side, "sorry about the wait…I had to deal with Katsu."

Kagome blushed as her thoughts turned to what she and he had been doing when Midoriko had stopped them. "I can't believe you saw that." Kagome muttered, why did one of the greatest priestesses in history have to see her and Katsu dry-hump each other like that. Because that's what it was to Kagome in essence; them dry humping each other because of an overdose on lust that came out of nowhere. It just made it all more than clear to her that she couldn't stay with Katsu.

"Calm down, Kagome. It's not like it's my first time seeing someone have sex; Older Celestial Maidens often watch and teach younger ones when they have reached their first heat." Midoriko expained gently, but Kagome didn't notice the Queen Celestial Maiden talk about as she freaked out inside on how she and Katsu had been dry humping each other. Midoriko signed when she noticed that Kagome wasn't even paying attention, but then she had little expectation that Kagome would.

"Now, we need to have a serious talk about what you were doing with Katsu."

"Can we not?" Kagome begged. She didn't want to think of what had happened, she didn't want to think of how she was dry humping one of her friend's father. She was damaging the future with her actions as well, Inuyasha could have never been born if their actions continued and it grew into something more. She also couldn't lie to herself that she felt nothing growing within her for the Great Dog General, but she feared what it would grow into and how that would affect the future.

"I'm afraid that we must, Kagome." Midoriko said, looking at Kagome with understanding. "You can't fall in love with Katsu…you are a Celestial Maiden and we are not allowed to love anyone."

Kagome turned to Midoriko, her ocean blue eyes piecing Midoriko's. The look within Midoriko's eyes spoke of how it was true and an unchanging law of their kind. She would never be allowed to fall in love? The thought of never having the chance to be with the one that she care for and loved with her whole heart filled her with such agonizing pain. Tears threatened to spill and paint the ground dark with her pain and sorrow.

"Why?" She asked in a sob. Why did Katsu seem to appear in her mind at the thought of lost chances to love another?

"Because we are not meant to love…we are breeding stock, meant to help improve the humans and gods alike with the children born from our wombs. Love is meant for others, to allow them to learn and understand each other by them gods, demons or humans. We must be sated with our duties and the children that we give birth to, and nothing else."

oOo

Nori said nothing for a long while, her mind lost to the past at Inuyasha's words. She was unsure if it was best to tell him or not, but knew that he had the right to know.

"She threatened him that if he came near you with the intention to harm or kill you again then she would him suffer in hell for all of eternity. She loved you more than anything, Inuyasha and I know that her love for you has only grown all these years. After she threatened you, she left and to the village near the Bone Eater's Well with her maids. The villagers saw her and build the shrine in her honor, so she lived there for most of her pregnancy with you. Your mother once confided in me that you were the only thing that she lived for after losing him and then carrying you within her womb was the only reason she did not kill your father for his betrayal." Nori looked at Inuyasha, seeing a look of pain on his face.

He looked so alike his father and mother…a prefect fusion of the two. She still remembered when he and Kagome had lived with her in the Palace, the toddling infant that would always smile so happily when he would see her. She had come to care for his mother as a dear friend in the years and so the little boy that he had been as one of the only living pieces of the demon that she had loved.

She reached out and stroked his cheek, her mind filled with thoughts of the child that he had been.

"…If she loved me, then why did she leave me? Why can't I remember her name? her face? Why do I remember another woman as my mother?" Inuyasha questioned. It was so confusing, his mother had loved him and yet she left him? If she had left him in death then he could understand, but she hadn't died, so why?

oOo

Katsu roared one last time before he left the Celestial Maidens broken and bloody at his feet. He hadn't killed them, they were Kagome's kind after all…but he had punished them still for keeping him from her. He needed to find her and they needed to talk about Sounga, he couldn't let her fight with the sword of Hell. She had said that she had fought it before…but that wasn't possible, the sword had been sealed within the heavens since his great, great, great grandfather had been around and that was well over ten thousand years ago.

He couldn't let her be harmed, he wouldn't allow her to be harmed and destroyed by that damned sword. But he couldn't do that since he had no idea where she was, and the Celestial Maidens hadn't been told either. There was only one thing to do in the case of a problem like this. He needed to go and speak with Bokuseno since the old magnolia tree's reached every corner of Japan.

oOo

"Do you understand, Kagome?" Midoriko asked her. Kagome said nothing and simply nodded her head before turning and leaving; Midoriko watched Kagome go with sad understanding within her eyes. It filled Midoriko with sorrow since it was the curse of the Celestial Maidens, like Kagome, some would fall in love…but their duty would not allow that love to grow.

Midoriko could only hope that Kagome would come to believe the lie that Celestial Maidens could not feel love for their men…could even feel love for their offspring. It was their only defense against sorrow and punishment that would fall upon them otherwise.

If a Queen Celestial Maiden or a God took notice of a Celestial Maiden falling in love, then they would see to it that that love was punished. The punishments were often cruel and hateful as if to say that love was not the beautiful gift that it was, but instead a disease that tormented a person.

Some many Celestial Maidens had destroyed themselves in the loss of their loves or the torture that wounded them. But the thing was that they were seen as easily replaced since every daughter born from a Celestial Maiden was a Celestial Maiden. The few daughters that Midoriko had had all died because of love and Midoriko had been fortunate to have never fallen in love with her past partners…until now. Her Lord Isao had somehow burrowed within her heart without her realizing it, she had always thought it was simply a fondness for him. But seeing Kagome, she knew that it was more than that and that it was likely that she would share the fate that taken her daughters and her friends to the grave, Midoriko could only beg mercy for her lover and their son if she was ever found out.

Watching Kagome as she did, Midoriko knew that Kagome would likely share their fate as well.

Midoriko left, feeling the need to hold her baby son and to be held by Isao. She was happy to find her lover in her rooms with their son in his arms, saying nothing to him at all; she took their son from his arms and pressed herself into his chest. Without question, he wrapped his arms around her as if feeling that she needed him like that badly.

He held her like that for hours and when their son became fussy for a feeding, he watched as she bared a breast to feed their son. It gave them both a feeling of contentment and joy to see the life that they created together grow strong from his mother's milk.

"Midoriko…I want to ask something of you." Isao said gently, his eyes never looking away from their son. The love for their child was bright in his ocean blue eyes; Midoriko felt warmed by the sight. Seeing the love there in his eyes, only made her realize all the more than resisting falling in love with Isao was an impossible task. In all her life, he had been the only one that looked at her with love instead of possession and obsession. He was the only one that had ever treated her like an equal instead of something that was inferior to him.

He was what every man that she had ever been with should have been.

"What is it, My Lord?"

"Will you give me another child?" He requested of her in all seriousness. She looked at him for a moment, surprised by his request for another child. No one had ever asked, they had simply taken her to their bed until she was with child once more. She looked into his eyes and felt her love for him grow, she was a rabbit ensnared in his trap and she had no intention of trying to escape.

"I would gladly give you another child…Isao."

oOo

Kagome walked for days without end. She knew not what to do, so she simply walked with no place in mind. She was too lost in her thoughts and Midoriko's words to care where she was going. She was tortured with uncertainty of the future and what she had become.

More than once since she had come this time…she had wished to return to being human, she wished to not have emotions for a man that was meant for another. She walked and walked, but the physical and emotional drain was finally getting to her and sat down under a tree. What was the answer? She didn't want to care for Katsu and yet, it felt like her heart was heading in that direction against her will.

She knew that she could never act on her feelings since Inuyasha was meant to be born from his mother, Izayoi. Izayoi was the one that was meant to hold Katsu's heart…Myoga had told her of how much Katsu had loved the noblewoman. So Kagome knew that she would never have a place within his heart and that if her feelings grow to become more than they would never be returned. It was like Inuyasha and Kikyo all over again, and once again, she was the other woman. She had never loved Inuyasha like she and other thoughts, but it had still hurt that he had run off to be with Kikyo. It had always felt like he was telling her that she was never good enough to truly be herself and that the past her was far best than the present one.

Maybe that was why her love for Inuyasha have never grown, his actions had stopped it from doing so.

She wanted to leave, she wanted to go home to her mother and forget about all of this. She wanted to forget the pain that refused to go away, but she couldn't forget and would be forced to endure it for as long as she felt love. Kagome closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would give her some peace.

Kagome found herself in a forest of blooming magnolia trees; the pink flowers were lovely and lifted her failing spirits a bit. She wished that she was a bloom upon a magnolia tree, then she would feel nothing but still bring joy to others. She would never have felt love or cared deeply and would be free to open her petals for all to see, she wouldn't have to suffer the pain that gripped her from within and live out her short days in peace.

"Kagome?" The voice froze her then and there. She had hoped to escape him within her dreams, but like in reality Katsu was there waiting for her. She didn't turn, didn't look at him, she just simply ran from him and he followed like a hound hunting down a fox.

He won't give up that easy, they both knew that but Kagome still felt the urge to run from him and to try to escape. For what else could she do? She needed to protect herself and her foolish heart. Her emotions for Katsu had started like a seedling from the moment they had entered the battlefield, though she hadn't realized it at the time. The seedling had constantly been growing within her to become a tree of emotions for the great demon, Kagome feared for the tree would bloom then all that she had fought for would be loss to Katsu. After all, one couldn't fight or control their emotions the way that Kagome felt was needed. If the tree of emotions bloomed like the magnolia trees around her then she knew that her heart would shatter in the future.

So she ran away from him, for what other options did she had? She could stay and beg him to leave her alone, but knew that he would ignore her request to take her into his strong arms. He would ask her what was wrong and what he could do to help her, but there was nothing that he could for her since he was the problem that plagued her.

"Kagome! Kagome!" he called out, likely hoping that she would stop and cry her heart out within his arms. But she won't do that, she would run and run until Katsu found his true love and soul mate within Izayoi like he was meant to do. She won't damage the future, she would make sure that Inuyasha was born…and that Katsu died the night of his son's birth. It would likely destroy her if she didn't escape him then and there.

"Please! Go away, Katsu!" Kagome begged as tears finally came to her eyes once more. She had hope that she had no more tears to shed, but as always it would seem that she was wrong in that moment. Hoping that her words would get through to him, they had the opposite effect upon the Great Dog General, whom roared in rage of her words. With rage on his side, a burst of power went through him and allowed him to finally encase Kagome within his arms.

She struggle to escape, but he would never let her go. Tears pained him and made him wonder why Kagome seemed so lost within his arms, why was her anger toward him replace with a sadness that threatened to chock the very air from Kagome's lungs. It was clear that she needed a moment to calm down and collect herself, but he knew that he wouldn't let her go to do so. He could feel it, if he let her go in that moment then she would run and he would lose her forever. He would not let that happen to her, she was too important to him. So instead, he let her cry there in his arms.

oOo

"Do you plan to be with him after he is released from death?" Kaede asked the Queen of the Celestial Maidens. Silence touched them once more at the old Priestess's question left her old and dry lips. The Queen knew what to say, but it felt as though her heart might truly death if the words were spoken. She could never be with her son's father again, she was to be married to a god that she hated deeply and with luck...be able to truly be there for her son.

For years, she had been forced to hide within the shadows so that her child could never see her. His pain and isolation as a child had been torture upon her soul; she would have gone to him countless times if not for the threat of his agonizing death hanging around her throat like a noose. It was odd how life had seen to her being made. The innocent girl of eighteen had been burned by the betrayal of the one that she loved and then hammered into a fine weapon by the sufferings of her child. She was now as cold and lifeless as a sword stained with blood and she had no intention to change.

The Queen of Celestial Maidens had lost her fertility and would never bear another child like the Gods hoped for. It was a small kindness likely had keep her from going insane. She could not birth another child, only to have it taken from her arms once more like hope Inuyasha had been. That had almost destroyed her very soul and knew that she would not survive it a second time.

But if the Gods were to have their way and she could give birth again, then her second child would be taken from her arms saw her power and wanted her to breed and use her, but the actions of the Queen Mi had seen to it that she never would. Even though, rage and hatred for Queen Mi ran as deep as the blood in her flesh and marrow in bones…they had saved her from a worst fate that could have come to pass.

"No, Kaede…He could another and I am to marry a God. I will give him life once more and return to him what him what he had chosen and then I will go to the Heavens to become a bride." The Queen finally answered.