One moment Sango was on Kirara's back in the entrance of Onigumo's cave. She was between Miroku and Kohaku, ready to fight. The next moment, the ground rose up violently and she was thrown from Kirara's back. She landed hard on the ground as walls closed around her.

"Kohaku!" She shouted, running forward, "Miroku!" She pounded on the wall. There was no response. Sango gripped her weapon, ready to smash through the wall, but before she could the wall itself vanished.

The world morphed around Sango. Suddenly, she was outside near a small stream. The moon was nearly full, fireflies reflected on the water. Hotaru was sitting on the bank with her arms wrapped around her knees. She gazed up at the sky with a look of wistfulness.

"Hotaru?" Sango asked. She stepped forward, but the girl gave no indication that she had heard Sango. This is a vision, Sango thought, but why? Why is Naraku showing this to me?

Kohaku walked up behind Hotaru and sat down next to her.

"Can't sleep?" He asked.

Hotaru shook her head. "I still can't believe Lady Kikyo's gone."

"I know." Kohaku replied. They sat there quietly, side-by-side. Hotaru leaned over and put her head on Kohaku's shoulder. He rested his own head on top of hers. It was such an intimate gesture, but they made it look so natural. They were two shared souls comforting each other. It was the first time since their father's murder that Sango had seen Kohaku look so at peace.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Hotaru said after a long silence. "Lady Kikyo can no longer use your shard to purify Naraku. You don't have to die."

Realization slowly crept over Kohaku's face. He sat up and looked at Hotaru. She looked back at him, meeting his eyes with her unwavering violet stare.

"I...I guess you're right." Kohaku managed to choke out. He turned his face away from her.

"You know, it is okay to feel conflicted about that."

Kohaku looked back at her in surprise. Whatever he had been expecting Hotaru to say, that wasn't it. When he didn't reply, Hotaru continued.

"When I finally managed to take control back from Mistress Nine, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to die in that battle and...I was relieved. It was the first time in four years I had been certain about anything. After everything she made me do, I was finally able to use my life to bring her down. It was vindicating. I was finally at peace.

"Then, my princess used her power to bring me back and I am grateful to her, I really am. But suddenly I had an entirely new life. Old memories and new memories muddled together, I didn't know who I was anymore. I didn't know if I deserved a second chance."

Kohaku nodded. "I thought...if I died to take down Naraku…"

"It would be a penance?"

"Yeah." Kohaku murmured, barely audible.

Hotaru closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder once more.

"There's more than one way to atone for your sins." She told him. He visibly relaxed, and once more put his head on top of hers. He closed his eyes.

Hotaru had convinced him to live. Sango had watched for a year now as her brother constantly put himself in danger, trying to end his own life. Nothing she could say or do seemed to get through to him, but in mere minutes Hotaru had convinced him to live.

The next second the scene changed in a flash. Suddenly Sango was standing over Hotaru's blood body. Sango dropped the weapon in her hand and stumbled backwards as the reality of what she had just done set in. No. She watched once again as her brother clutched his friend's body. Sango felt her knees give out underneath her.

"Sango, Sango! Snap out of it!"

Sango was pulled away from the vision. Her brother and Hotaru's body vanished. She was back in Onigumo's cave. Inuyasha was shaking her.

"You okay?" The half-demon asked.

Sango was still shaking from her vision. It took her a few moments to put together where she was and what was going on. That's right. They were in a battle. They were going to defeat Naraku. Sango looked back to the spot where Hotaru's body had been moments before. The cave floor was bare.

"Hey!" Inuyasha snapped. "Whatever ya saw, it wasn't real, got it? It's just Naraku screwing with us."

It's just Naraku screwing with us. Sango repeated in her head. Only it wasn't. What she had seen had been real. She would never escape it.

"Did you have a vision, too?"

Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched as his face darkened for a brief second. "Yeah." Then he grabbed the beads around his neck and his expression changed to one of annoyance. "These stupid things snapped me outta it, never thought I'd be grateful to 'em."

"Where's Kagome?" Sango asked, looking around expecting to see her friend.

"Dunno. I can't smell anything over Naraku's stink."

Sango didn't see Miroku or Kohaku either. Even Kirara was gone. Sango's stomach knotted. She knew that Inuyasha and herself worked well together as a team, so she wasn't worried about herself. Kirara, Miroku, and Kagome could handle themselves as well, but what about Kohaku? What if he had gotten separated from Kagome? Would he even be able to move this close to Naraku? Was his jewel shard defiled?

"We have to find the others!" Sango said.

"Well, duh." replied Inuyasha. "Come on. Naraku's stench is strongest this way. I bet when we find him, we'll find the others."

Author's Note:This chapter could have probably been posted together with last chapter, and next chapter. But life's been a bit hectic so I'm posting when I can. Thank you all so much for reading. And thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I haven't gotten a chance to respond yet, but it means so much to me! It lifts me up so much.