Sesshoumaru was trading blows with Naraku when Kagome sensed another shard approaching rapidly from one side. Quickly, she drew an arrow and aimed it at where the newcomer would appear. She heard the sound of rustling leaves as something - several somethings from the sound of it - rushed through the dense underbrush.
She glanced at the combat taking place in front of her and discovered that Naraku was managing to hold his own, and that she couldn't risk distracting Sesshoumaru just yet.
She was so tense that when the first of the newcomers broke through the bushes into the clearing, she nearly fired on him before realizing that it was Inuyasha. He was quickly followed by Miroku, Sango, and Shippou riding on Kirara.
For a second, Inuyasha looked torn between attacking his most hated enemy and attacking his older brother, but he quickly decided that Naraku was the greater evil, and leapt into the fray, unleashing Tetsusaiga as he jumped. The battle quickly turned against the baboon clad creature, and Kagome was watching it when an arrow streaked past her, barely missing her. She ducked and turned to face her attacker, only to see a far too familiar figure. Kikyou had reappeared and was taking advantage of Inuyasha's distraction to make another attempt on her life. Seeing that the miko was drawing her next arrow, Kagome ran for the nearby forest, hoping that she would survive the next few minutes.
Once she penetrated the forest wall, Kagome crouched behind a clump of bushes, hoping they would hide her from Kikyou at least long enough for the others to realize what was happening. If she could just hold out until Naraku left, surely they would help her. An arrow skimmed her arm and she realized that the bushes weren't sufficient shelter, and she ran for it.
Kagome felt terror shoot through her as she saw Kikyou loose another arrow out of the corner of her eye. Fragments of thoughts flashed through her mind, faces she couldn't bear to leave behind. She was leaping to one side, knowing all the while that she would be too late, when a blur of white appeared between the two women and batted the wooden shaft aside.
Through their link, she could feel Sesshoumaru's fury, his anger that this dead thing would dare attack her. She was trying to come to grips with it when he leapt forward, claws extended.
"Poison claws!" she heard him say, and suddenly Kikyou's dirt and bone body was shattering under the effects of his corrosive toxin. She watched blankly as the dead miko collapsed, then fell to her own knees as she felt the fragment of her soul that had been animating the thing return to her. It had been so long gone she was overwhelmed by the feeling of wholeness that swept through her.
Caught up in what was happening to her, she didn't hear Inuyasha's scream, or see him lunge at his brother. It was only when she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder that she was recalled to the scene around her.
"You bastard, you killed her!" Inuyasha was screaming as he cut at his brother again and again with Tetsusaiga. Sesshoumaru was dodging the blows with his customary agility, but she could see that he was tired after the battle with Naraku while Inuyasha seemed to be in the grips of a berserker rage. Praying she would be in time she dove for her arrows, notching one and letting it fly towards the fight.
Success! It hit the enlarged fang and dispelled the enchantment, returning it to it's customary state. Sesshoumaru took advantage of the distraction, grabbing his half-brother by the throat and holding him off the ground.
"She was already dead, Inuyasha, and she was trying to kill Kagome. And not for the first time, I might add." Kagome sighed with relief. Sesshoumaru seemed to be trying to reason with Inuyasha, despite the fact that she knew he would prefer to simply dispose of the hanyou.
"That's a lie!" Inuyasha choked out, tearing at the hand that was choking him. "Kikyou wouldn't do that."
"She did, Inuyasha." Kagome told him, angry that he would try to deny what had happened moments before. "Now, and when she took the Shikon shard after we were trapped in that cave full of fighting youkais."
"She didn't!" It was still a protest, but quieter now. Either they were getting through to him, or he was running out of air. She wasn't sure she cared which it was.
"Then what would you say she was doing, Inuyasha? Why was she shooting those arrows at me?" She would force him to admit it. He owed her that much after these last few years.
The fight drained out of Inuyasha, and he quit struggling. Kagome could see the acceptance in his face. "Let him go, Sesshoumaru."
After a moment's close inspection Sesshoumaru dropped Inuyasha to the ground. The hanyou rolled to his side, coughing, and rubbed his throat.
"I didn't know she'd tried before," he told Kagome, his eyes begging her to believe him. She closed hers, breaking the connection.
"I know, Inuyasha." She was tired now, wanting nothing more than for this to be over. She reopened her eyes to see Inuyasha huddled in on himself, and despite everything that had happened between them she felt sorry for him. She went and knelt beside him.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha, I know you loved her." Her voice was soft, and he nodded although he didn't speak or look at her. After a moment, she rose. There were wounded to tend.
It turned out that none of the injuries were too serious. Miroku had a bump on his head where he had hit the rocks. Shippou had a number of bruises that looked like they would be painful in the morning, but no broken bones. Sango was the worst of it, sporting several new claw wounds that Kagome cleaned with some of the water from the canteen Sesshoumaru handed her. I wish I'd finished learning that spell, she thought, remembering her days in Sesshoumaru's palace. It would be perfect for healing these. But she had to admit that as long as the cuts were kept clean, Sango should be fine.
By the time she was done checking Sango's wounds, Inuyasha had recovered and was standing as far away from Sesshoumaru as he could possibly get in the small clearing.
"Well, we should hit the trail." Inuyasha glared at his half-brother. He was disturbed by the youkai's proximity to Kagome, but he couldn't think how to separate them without angering her again. "Otherwise we'll loose that bastard's tracks again."
"No." That was Kagome, and they turned to her in surprise. "I think we'll do this our own way, Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru's hand came up to touch her shoulder where he had marked her, and she leaned into it, seeming to draw strength from the contact.
"What are you talking about, idiot?" Inuyasha got angry when he was scared, and now he was terrified. He had just lost Kikyou, and now Kagome was slipping away from him again! "I know you didn't like the situation with Kikyou, but it won't be a problem for you anymore, and if we don't leave now, we won't be able to find that bastard Naraku's trail."
"I have some Shikon shards." She made a gesture at the pouch hanging around her neck, a gesture which ended with her hand resting on Sesshoumaru's. "Naraku will come for them eventually. We'll be waiting. And besides, I think we need to follow our own paths now, don't you?"
"Look, wench, you don't have a choice. So ..."
Kagome interrupted before he could say anything else, her storm blue eyes shooting daggers at him.
"I do have a choice Inuyasha, and you aren't it. I'm leaving." Her voice was cold, and contained a finality that struck Inuyasha to his core. She couldn't leave him, he thought, she couldn't!
Shippo flung himself into her arms, sobbing. "You can't leave Kagome. You can't leave me! Please!" She stroked his back and looked up at the youkai lord standing beside her. Something almost tangible passed between miko and youkai before Kagome raised the kitsune's head and looked at his tear-stained face.
"Do you want to come with us, Shippou? I'd like it if you would." Her voice was inviting now, her eyes full of the compassion the others were used to seeing from her, and Shippou nodded enthusiastically, brushing the tears from his eyes.
"Hai, Kagome." He smiled.
"Now look here," Inuyasha stormed, only to be once more interrupted, this time by Sesshoumaru.
"Then it is time for us to depart," he told his mate.
"Over my dead body!" Inuyasha shouted, launching himself at his half-brother, half-insane with fury. Sesshoumaru moved gracefully out of the way, swatting Inuyasha into a nearby tree.
"Out of respect for my mate, I'm afraid I will have to resist that offer, brother," the older youkai said as he turned and offered his hand to the woman in question.
She took it, and before a stunned Inuyasha could recover enough to leap back into the fray, they were rising into the air.
And then they were gone.