Disclaimer - I don't own InuYasha. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here at the computer dreaming, I would be back in the bedroom . . . ahem, never mind that last thought. I don't own InuYasha, okay?



Author's Notes- See the bottom this time people ; )





Chapter 7 - Awakenings



InuYasha sat up suddenly, his eyes popping open. "Kagome!" he whispered. He could still feel her in his arms, taste her on his lips . . .

"InuYasha? Was thee successful in reaching Kagome?" Kaede's voice broke into his thoughts.

He nodded, unable to find his voice. It had felt so real . . . he pushed the memory away, carefully preserving it in his heart. He focused his eyes on the old miko in front of him, using her image to wake himself.

"What did she say, InuYasha?"

His voice hoarse, he repeated what Kagome had told him in the dream. He nodded gratefully to Miroku as the priest handed him a flask of water, which he downed quickly. The old miko sat lost in thought as he stood and walked shakily around the clearing, trying to restore his mobility. He felt relaxed . . . more so then he ever had . . . but at the same time he was restless. 'It all felt so real . . .' he mused. He turned to look at the unmoving figure of Kagome. 'My mate,' he thought possessively, then stopped himself. 'She's only your mate in a dream, baka. She may not ever remember . . .' He found his heart aching at that thought, and shook his head to clear it.

"InuYasha . . ."

"What Miroku?"

"You seem . . . agitated. Did something happen in there?" Miroku asked carefully.

"She . . . she's trapped in a nightmare, priest. She's reliving old memories and her fears are becoming reality before her eyes in there. She thought I was a dream at first. Will she . . ." He sighed. "I don't know if she'll come out of this in one piece, Miroku."

He nearly jumped into a nearby tree as he felt Miroku pat him on the shoulder. "InuYasha . . . I'm sure Kagome will come out of it fine. She's a strong young woman . . . she's had to be. And, I suspect that's not all that's on your mind. You told her, didn't you?" He grinned at the hanyou's sudden blush. "And now you're worried that she'll think that was just another dream. Don't worry. It will all come out as the gods intend it to, InuYasha. The two of you have been hiding from your feelings and each other for so long . . . even the gods have to take pity on you eventually."

"Yeah, but will they decide to do so now or later?" InuYasha grumbled.

Miroku grinned at him. "You can always tell her when she wakes up, my friend. Now, we are heading back to the village. Kaede wants to go through those scrolls again. What Kagome told you was not the most helpful of clues. But, it was worth it if you two finally got all those emotions out into the open."

InuYasha watched them walk from the clearing, and leaped back into Kagome's tree, lost in his own thoughts once again.



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The group slept little in the following weeks. Kaede read and re-read old scrolls, trying to find some clue to awakening Kagome. Sango and Miroku kept a careful eye on their youkai companions, as both slipped further and further into a hopeless depression. InuYasha moved from his perch in Kagome's tree only to defend her or the jewel shards from wandering youkai, and Shippo remained curled into a ball in Kagome's sleeping bag, eating only when he was forced to.

"Do you think he will recover if we can't wake her?" Sango asked Miroku, staring up into the foliage of the tree from where she sat across the clearing. She could just barely make out a flash of red and silver, high up in the thick branches above Kagome.

Miroku just shook his head, then attempted to inch closer. He stopped as Sango's hand moved just as slowly towards her boomerang. "I do not know, Sango. From what little I have gotten out of him, they made a good start on getting everything between them out into the open in that dream. The longer she is sealed, the less hope he has of ever being able to be with her in reality . . . and he's very worried about her. He said she was trapped in her memories and nightmares, living them over and over again . . . he's concerned for her sanity."

Sango went white as what Miroku said hit her. "Oh, poor Kagome . . ." she whispered, staring at the still figure of her best friend. She rose slowly to her feet, Miroku mirroring her movement. "Let's go see if Kaede has come up with any ideas yet."

InuYasha watched as the two of them moved off towards the village. He knew they were worried about him . . . but he was more worried about the girl below him. He could feel his heart breaking a piece at a time, a little piece every day that she remained sealed to the tree he sat in. Unbidden, his amber eyes filled with tears which he quickly dashed away with the back of his hand. He had no time for tears now, and he refused to mourn her as if she was already lost to him. If it took him recovering the entire jewel himself so he could use it to set her free, so be it. He would not leave her in her nightmares. Staring up at the moon, he lost himself in remembering the dream again, something he had done frequently in the last couple of weeks, trying to stem the flow of despair that seemed to be unending to him.

So caught up was he in his memories that he almost missed a familiar scent drifting across the clearing to him. "Kikyo!" he growled, rolling from his perch to land lightly on all fours in front of Kagome, on guard against any attacks.

The undead miko stood at the edge of the clearing a short distance away from him, staring at him coldly. "So, you remain here . . . beside that copy . . . instead of continuing your quest for the shards so that you may repay your debt to me."

"She isn't your copy Kikyo. She never has been. She's nothing like the you I know now, and very little like the you I knew then," he growled out softly. He straightened from his crouch, no longer quite as defensive, but not really relaxing either.

"So you betray me again, for real this time. And all for my reincarnation, when you could have the original love."

"You aren't the same, Kikyo. You haven't been for over 50 years now." He walked carefully across the grass towards her, his hands loose at his sides. "I thought I loved you once . . . and maybe I did, in an immature kind of way. And I thought you loved me in return. But it wasn't love, Kikyo . . . it was a mutual need to reach out and find someone to hold on to in our loneliness." He silently thanked the 'sigh-kol-oh-gee' book he had found in Kagome's pack. Reading it out of boredom had led him to a lot of insights about him and Kikyo's relationship that he probably would never have reached on his own. Who would have guessed that something from Kagome's time would help him so much?

"She's changed you InuYasha. She's softened you, made you more human."

He shook his head, stopping in front of her to stare down into her cold eyes. "No, Kikyo . . . she just made me realize that what I am is not a bad thing. She made me realize I got the best of both worlds by being a hanyou . . . not the worst, as I originally believed. She made me live again . . . in all ways, not just by unsealing me. She awoke my heart, and without my even knowing it, began to heal it. All we could have ever been to each other was a comfort Kikyo . . . we both had too much . . ." he dug around for the words he'd learned " . . . "emotional scarring" to really ever help heal each other. She's so innocent and free of all of that . . ."

Kikyo reached for him, raising her hand to caress his cheek gently, but stopped as he unconsciously flinched away from her touch. She narrowed her eyes in anger, and slapped him. "You owe me!" she hissed. "If it weren't for you I would have lived! I let my guard down for you and made myself weak! And this is how you repay me?!"

InuYasha glared back at her, rubbing his cheek absently, as he replied. "I owe you nothing but a clean death so you can rest in peace, Kikyo. Had we trusted each other, we both would have lived. Naraku knew right where to hit us and do the most damage."

"So now you seek to kill me again?" she replied. "That girl has poisoned you against me from the start, and now she again stands in the way, without even being here." She smiled coldly. "So, perhaps it is time I removed her from the situation entirely." Stepping closer, she quickly laid her hands against InuYasha's chest, summoning her miko powers to blast him across the clearing into the forest beyond.

He howled as the energy burned into him, not even feeling the trees he crashed through as they broke around his flying body. He landed, rolling quickly to his feet to charge back to the clearing, ignoring the pain as best he could. He froze as he entered the clearing and faced a bow wielding Kikyo, arrow knocked and ready to fly.

"You WILL come to hell with me InuYasha." she stated, her voice cold and empty. She loosed the arrow . . . straight at the still form of Kagome.

"Kagome!" he shouted, running to intercept the arrow before it could hit her. He closed his eyes, knowing that this time, the arrow would kill, not seal him as it had before.

Warm white light enveloped him. 'This must be death,' he thought calmly. 'Funny, I don't feel any pain.' He vaguely heard Kikyo scream in rage. "NO! HE'S MINE!"

'Now wait a . . . if I'm dead . . .' He opened his eyes. The arrow was halted in mid air, inches from his heart. 'What in the seven hells . . .?' His gaze rose to find Kikyo enveloped in an angry rd light, the captured souls of the dead that she used to remain animated fleeing her body like escaping fireflies. He spun to look behind him . . . to find himself staring into a pair of very blue, very ANGRY, eyes.

"No, Kikyo . . . he's NOT yours!" Kagome snarled, her hands glowing with the same angry red light as they were held out towards the writhing undead miko. "He was NEVER yours! He is not anyone's unless he chooses to be, and I will NOT let you take him to hell over some misguided sense of him being responsible for your death. Go to hell by yourself!" The light intensified, pulsing in anger in time with Kagome's awakened heart beat. Behind him, InuYasha heard Kikyo scream.

"Kagome . . ." he whispered in awe.



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Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kaede, and Kirara all stumbled into the clearing , their eyes widening at the scene before them.

"Kagome . . . she's . . ." Sango whispered.

"Awake," Miroku finished for her, his eyes on the battle before him.

Kaede was the first to react to what was going on. "Kagome, child, ye must stop! If you kill her using thy miko powers, ye will be condemned to hell!" Kagome did not react. She turned her attention to InuYasha. "Ye must stop her InuYasha, or else we chance losing both!"

InuYasha sprang into action, spinning to snap the arrow in midair behind him in half before turning his attention to Kagome.

"Kagome, stop . . ." he whispered. "Please . . ."

"No InuYasha," she replied, her voice shaking with pent up rage. "She doesn't belong here anymore."

"Not like this, Kagome. Don't use your powers like this." He watched the light sputter, then intensify.

"She's . . . hurt you . . . for the . . . last . . . time!" Kagome growled as the light became unbearable to look at.

'Damn it, there has to be some way . . . .' He had a sudden thought. 'I'm gonna get sat into the next millennia for this, but . . .' InuYasha walked into her outstretched arms, took her face gently into his hands, and kissed her. He felt her tense as if to fight him off, then she relaxed, her arms wrapping around him loosely. He deepened the kiss, brushing his fangs lightly against her lips, happy to be doing this and getting a response after the weeks without her.

'Get out of here, Kikyo. At this point, I'm inclined to let her kill you, just to make her happy.' he thought as he felt her hands tangle in his hair gently.

"Well, that's certainly one way of distracting her," Miroku murmured as the red light sputtered and died out entirely. Kikyo, once released, spun and fled into the woods, gasping and clutching at her chest. Sango moved to pursue her, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "We have more important concerns to deal with right now, Sango. She won't be returning anytime soon." Together, the group moved towards Kagome and InuYasha.

InuYasha broke the kiss regretfully, then reached cautiously for the spelled arrow. He wrapped his hand around it and tugged, watching as it disintegrated in a flash of light, just as his own had so many months ago. He caught Kagome in his arms and cradled her to his chest, looking down into her clouding eyes.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why . . . did you . . . save her . . . again? I . . ." His finger resting gently against her lips stopped her words.

"I have to be the one that lays her to rest, Kagome. She's my responsibility."

"Oh," she sighed. Her eyes drifted closed, her breathing deepening as she passed into unconsciousness. InuYasha stared down at her face for a moment, then slowly got to his feet, cradling her in his arms carefully. Glancing momentarily in the direction Kikyo had fled, he carried the sleeping girl towards the village, the others falling in behind him.





To Be Continued



Author's Notes - You bunch of pervs! Trying to get me having them act out what was going on in the dream in reality too! What's a matter with you! *smack*

Hehehe, okay, okay, so I'm not much better most of the time. I'm sorry, I just couldn't do that to Kagome or my poor Inu. That boy gets enough flack for being an emotional wreck without me giving Miroku more ammo.



A thanks goes out to ALL my reviewers, both past and present. You guys are really great, you know that? I was so nervous about posting this, cause I have NEVER done something like this before, and you guys have just made it all so worthwhile. I love you all! *hugs and Inu dolls all around*



And now, for the really bad part -



I'M STUCK!



Yes, folks, writer's block has set in. I'm trying to work out all the snarls and tangles my poor little mind is wrapped up in, but it isn't going to good. And I've come to the end of all the stuff I had written with this post. So, posting is gonna slow down to once a week until I get all the knots out. I am NOT dropping this fic though. I would never do that to anyone, especially not after the number of fics I've read that I got really caught up in only to have them never get finished. That drives me nuts. If you aren't gonna EVER finish a fic, at least remove it : ( Geesh. Well, folks, at any rate, here's chapter 7, a long chapter to make up for the next few weeks. Enjoy, and as always, read and review if you love me : )