@Ok, I've been really lazy, but I got a review alert and finally remembered… anyway, here goes:@
Kagome felt herself floating in a distant land, but she couldn't see… she knew that there was somewhere she needed to be, someone she needed to be with, but somehow she could not remember… A shadow flickered, darker than the darkness in front of her, both her and not her, and she tried to discern who it was…
A sudden flash of light erupted before her, and another. Something pulled her away as she tried to see what was going on. Frightened, she broke from the grasp of what was holding her until she came to a window, clouded but clearing.
Looking out, she saw herself, not breathing, pale and lifeless. Inuyasha knelt before her, shuddering and pleading with her to live. Sango sat on the floor with silent tears, Shippou bawling in her lap. Miroku had his arms gently around Sango's shoulders, and he too was crying.
"Please, please Kagome, just live, I'll do anything for you, anything. I'll never yell at you, never get mad, I'll die for you Kagome, just live…" Inuyasha's voice was harsh and choked from crying… funny, she'd never seen Inuyasha cry before. Kagome couldn't quite place what caused this detachment, when suddenly the Kagome in the room opened her eyes…
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Inuyasha had thought his prayers were answered when Kagome opened her eyes… But something seemed amiss when she gazed at him speculatively. Her air was familiar, but not at all that of Kagome…
"What?" She asked, and he recognized it immediately. It was somehow Kikyou in Kagome's body.
"You're not Kagome." He said flatly, unsure of what to do… It was Kikyou, alive again… but Kagome… It was clear which of the two was more faithful, Kagome had stayed by him even when she thought he did not love her, whereas Kikyou would, at the mere mention of Kagome, fly into a violent rage. Still there is something to be said for first love, and Kikyou still held that place.
"So you know it's me. I thought you might figure it out." Her voice was cold even with the benefit of Kagome's innocent appearance. Sango and Miroku were staring at her, Shippou hiding behind Kaede, who looked grim.
"So sister, in her weakened state you took the opportunity to possess her." Kaede asserted.
"I have a proposition… I will return Kagome to her body, and Inuyasha will die, since he said he would die for her. His life for hers." Kikyou spoke bluntly.
"What about the poison?" Inuyasha asked.
"She'll have the same chance with the poison as she had before I intervened."
"And if we don't accept?" Miroku asked.
"Then I rip her heart out using her own bare hand, allowing her to feel every ounce of pain I can grind into her own flesh, and allowing all of you to see her spirit as it writhed in pain." Kikyou grinned. "Do you need an example?" And as she spoke Kagome appeared, like a ghost, out of nowhere, her luminescent self shivering as if afflicted with the fever the poison was causing. She seemed only marginally concerned with them, staring intently at Kikyou who held a spell-casting jewel in the palm of her hand. She took the sharp point of the teardrop shaped stone and drove it into her hand. Kagome could be seen to grasp her hand in agony, her lips shaped into a silent then softly heard scream as it rose in volume, heard as if from a great distance. Kikyou continued to twist the stone, as it grew red with blood.
"Stop, just stop… I'll do it if you'll cure her of the poison and the harm you've caused her."
"Done." Kikyou said, and the cut began to vanish, the stone having been spelled for a great many things.
It was a grim procession that walked to the place where everything began, Kikyou's chosen place for the 'reunion' as she referred to it. Kagome's ghostly spirit wandered not far behind her, spellbound. Loose in Kikyou's grip hung Kagome's bow and an arrow. In her other hand was a sword, which had a faint ill feel about it to the group. What is it for? To further kill me? Inuyasha wondered. The spirit-form Kagome seemed to be fading, and when questioned, Kikyou said simply,
"She's been too long away. Best we hurry." But continued at her meandering languid pace. Slowly Inuyasha seemed to grow more and more resigned to his fate. He stopped looking back at Kagome's spirit, only forward at the Goshinboku tree. Kikyou lead him to stand with his back against the tree, but he kept his face angled downwards, expression indecipherable.
She then held up her bow, and laughed, "Our souls will be united in hell beloved!" As she spoke a look of shock came to Inuyasha's face… Kagome possessed her soul right now…
Before anyone could move a blinding light came forth from the bow as Kikyou released her most powerful arrow ever. It affixed Inuyasha to the tree, holding him there as Kikyou drew up the sword and began it plunging towards her heart, Kagome's heart. At the same time Kagome's spirit returned to her body and a look of shock came over her face because she could not control her actions, only her face. During the brief instant when time held her hands from plunging the sword, she cried,
"Inuyasha!"
