I don't own any of the mythology of Inu Yasha, and I am not profiting from it.

Chapter 1

So much had happened so quickly, the young miko looked around in a state of worried shock. She crawled about searching desperately for any sign of her friends and especially Inu Yasha but she could scarcely see, due to the thick smoke blanketing the carnage, that she knew lay before her, some where in there lay her best friends and love of her life, she was scared she had seen Miroku fall, Sango was wounded by her brother Kohaku, and Inu Yasha was barely standing the last time she had seen him before she had felt the almost painful tingling, she had apparently lost consciousness. Kagome felt something snap under her hand as she crawled along she picked it up and held it to her face to examine it, it was Kagura's fan battered and now broken beyond repair, Kagome gasped as she remembered Kagura turning on Naraku and attacking him just before she passed out she wondered off handedly if Kagura had survived the battle. "Inu Yasha?" called Kagome weakly choking on the smoke filling the air.

Sesshomaru, lord of the western lands lay sprawled out from the blast that had taken Naraku's life, he no longer was immaculately dressed, in fact it would seem that what was left of his shredded clothing and armor hung off him blackened, and bloodied. Sesshomaru sat up and tucked an errant lock of hair out of his face impatiently, looked about and assessed the scene around him. He couldn't see anything through the smoke so he relied on his other senses, Sesshomaru, listened carefully hearing an assortment of mingled groans, and soft sobbing, he made out his half breed brothers wench, along with the wolf pup, and the little demon exterminator, otherwise the battle field was eerily silent. The western lord scented the air searching out his bastard brother but it was in vain the thick smoke and the overwhelming stench of blood blocked out any other scent. He gracefully rose to his feet and felt the sword at his hip stir with a throb of power that pulled at him directing him toward the soft sobbing in the distance.

Kouga lay in the dirt bleeding; the pain in his legs a twin agony that caused him to groan lightly, in the end it had not mattered how quick he was, he had lost the shards in his legs, he had failed. Kouga attempted to stand, as blinding pain shot up his legs; he sucked in his breath in a hiss. Kouga's legs shook from pain feeling unsteady he knew he wasn't going to make it too far until he healed himself but right now he had to find the others, the task was made difficult by his weakness and the smoke that seemed to cling to the area. " Kagome?" he called his voice sounding strange to him it was thin, and ragged. Each step he made forward caused him to sweat with exertion and blood to pour out of his wounds. No reply came, and his heart clenched with fear. That was when he heard it the bitter sobbing, he recognized the sound of it was the sound of profound loss he understood that desolation very well. He started toward the heart wrenching sound.

Sango was heedless of her injuries she paid no attention to the searing pain in her side, or the gaping wound in her shoulder, those pains dimmed in comparison to the soul shattering grief that she felt as she held the body of her last remaining kin, her baby brother Kohaku in her arms, of course she knew this was their eventuality but she didn't know the reality of the crippling pain which froze her to the ground unable to think, or feel beyond this black hole of grief. Sango kept replaying the last seconds of Kohaku's life and the look on his face as he fell, like a discarded marionette whose strings had been cut, but his eyes had been clear; his last breath had been her name whispered and sadly incomplete. She failed; she hadn't been able to save him, now there was nothing left to do but mourn.