Revenge

"It is the end for you Naraku..." Kagome whispered, breaking free of the chains that had held her for nearly three weeks with a grunt.

Laying a hand on either side of Naraku's face, Kagome felt his cold skin beneath her chilled fingertips, the clamminess of it gross, but she ignored it, her attention elsewhere.

Blackness hovered over her like a bird, intent upon swooping in on her and taking the kill, but she fought it, concentrating on gathering all her power together as she whispered, "I will make you pay for all the pain you put my friends through..."

Dark blue flames swallowed up her body, sending a tingling sensation throughout it, and she stared into Naraku's evil black eyes as she shouted, "This is for Kohaku and all the pain you ever caused him... everything you ever made him do!"

A blast of power exploded from inside her, tearing at her skin and slamming into the stunned Naraku, the castle around them shaking and crumbling around them.

Gasping at the fresh wave of pain, on top of her already bruised and torn body, Kagome heard Inuyasha's voice in her head, telling her not to do this, to stop it, and she tried to block him out, not wanting any distractions.

She'd only have one chance to do this, for if she messed up... it could be devastating.

Back at Kaede's village, everyone stood gathered around a dazed Inuyasha, except for Sango as she kneeled next to an unconscious Kohaku.

"What is happening Inuyasha?" Kaede asked, her brows furrowed in confusion, and the dog demon turned to her, his eyes wide and a deep amber with no pupils visible, "He is seeing a vision..."

A scream was torn from his lips, startling everyone, and he fell to his knees, listening and watching what was happening at Naraku's castle through the connection he had with Kagome.

'Kagome, don't do this!'

He kept shouting inside his head, unknown to him that Kagome could hear him...

But to him it seemed there was nothing he could do, leaving him to watch in agony.

The castle lie in ruins about her and Naraku's standing forms, deep blue flames swirling around them like a mini vortex, and Kagome...

He barely recognized her.

Tears burned his eyes as he studied her through the swirling blue flames, her complexion smudged with bruises ranging from black to green, her body covered with gashes, her lower lip cut, swollen and bleeding, her beautiful hair ragged and dirty, her clothes being ripped apart by the flames, whipping around her, but worst of all...

The look in her eyes.

The look he had seen in Kohaku's eyes when she had controlled him...

He couldn't put a name to it before, but now he recognized it.

The look of certain death...

His gut twisted into a knot, nearly doubling him over with pain, but that pain was nothing compared to the pain he was filling through the connection.

His concentration slid from the look in her eyes to a black scar on her cheek, the exact spot where Naraku had touched her so many times...

That damn bastard had left a scar!

He barely noticed when she opened her mouth once again, shouting, "This is for Miroku, for the curse he has had to live with, but shall have to no longer!"

A stronger blast of power came from her body, doubling the scratches and gashes along her already bruised and abused skin, and the blast rammed into Naraku, continuing onwards in a circle, blowing the debris from the castle outwards.

Opening his closed eyes, Miroku gazed out into the forest, a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and suddenly a wall of dark blue flames was there were he was looking, knocking over trees and any other objects in its path.

"WATCH..." Miroku started shouting, stopping mid sentence when the wall of flames knocked into them, the force so great all of them toppled to the ground within the blink of an eye, and with a shake of his head, Inuyasha sat up after it passed, trying to figure out what happened as he shouted, "What the hell?"

"It was a wall of blue flames..." Kaede whispered, sitting up with some effort, her eye narrowed in concentration, but Inuyasha was once again zoned out, going back to Kagome.

Naraku's face swam in and out of focus in front of her, and Kagome blinked her eyes quickly, lightheaded from pain.

"What... are you doing bitch? You will destroy... this..." Naraku spat, struggling get away from her hands that lie on either side of his face, but she didn't allow it, gathering her power once again and shouting, "This is for Sango! For killing her family, tricking her, and for all the pain you ever caused her!"

The flames stretched into a ball around them, the wind inside it so strong it felt like the air was suctioned out of their lungs, and a blast of power blew outwards, flattening everything it went by farther into the ground, covering even more distance than the last time.

Seeing this, Inuyasha shouted to the others, telling them to get down, and the powerful flames slashed past them, tearing up their clothes and pinning them to the ground in the process.

Feeling Kagome's pain through the connection, Inuyasha sat up quickly, unable to breath because of the fear that was threatening to overwhelm him, shouting in his mind, 'Dammit Kagome, you're going to kill yourself!'

Jerking inside the ball of dark blue flames, Kagome's eyes snapped open as she heard Inuyasha's voice in her head, two tears running down her cheeks as she stared outside the ball at the cloudless sky above, thinking to herself, 'He's right... and if the connection is complete when that happens... he will also be destroyed...'

Lowering her gaze to land on the bloody Naraku in front of her, she felt a sense of pity for him, but it was quickly destroyed as she remembered all the pain he had put everyone through.

'Inuyasha, the promise I made to myself was I would one day get revenge for all the pain Naraku caused to all of you... especially you...this is for you...good luck with the Shikon Jewel...' Kagome whispered to him through the connection, reaching for their connection deep within herself with her mind and snapping it, shouting to Naraku, "This is for Inuyasha!"

The ball of flames exploded, reaching as high as the sky, swirling higher and higher, and Kagome screamed, the pain tearing through her body so intense she felt like she was being torn apart.

Hearing another scream, Kagome realized it was Naraku, his body dissipating into dust, and she felt a stab of triumph, her promise was complete.

She was quickly numbing, the pain becoming soothing, and she realized she wanted to die.

She had killed two people, in cold blood...

She just wanted it all to be over, and now it would be, at last...

Through the haze of her pain consumed mind she noticed something shining at the spot where Naraku had once been, and she stretched a hand forward, wrapping her fingers around it, slowly bringing it in front of her to see what it was.

'The Shikon Jewel shards...' She thought, a wave of misery washing over her, and tears slipped from her eyes as she remembered the single promise she'd never been able to keep...

'Complete the Shikon Jewel...'

A final blast of power exploded from her body, the blue flames that were shooting towards the stars exploding outward, washing over the earth with ferocity, and over where Inuyasha was standing in shock, feeling his connection with Kagome broken, he saw the blue flames just before another blast knocked him onto his back with a muffled gasp.

A scream echoed throughout the area, and Inuyasha's ears twitched as he picked it up, his golden eyes lighting up with recognition.

Scrambling to his feet, he looked to where he saw the dark blue flames before, watching as they slowly climbed lower until they disappeared, and he struggled to find the connection, needing something to reassure him that Kagome was alive...

But there was nothing.

"KAGOME!" He shouted, racing towards the place where the source of the blast had come from, his heart pounding so loud in his chest he thought he was going to die.

Passing torn up trees, shredded bushes, destroyed villages, and more destruction that her power had created, he realized that Naraku would have been unstoppable if he had gotten a hold of it.

Also, if the damage was this bad here, what had it been like in the center of the storm?

Suddenly he came into a clearing where there were no trees, but instead a deep gorge, nearly fifty feet deep, quickly filling with water from a river that ran through it.

It looked like it wasn't meant to be there, trees were half way out of the rising water, the whole area was charred black, but the biggest giveaway was the fine dark blue mist that was hanging over the area, slowly disappearing before his very eyes.

Scanning the area, Inuyasha caught the slightest whiff of Kagome's scent, along with Naraku's, and he felt anger well inside of him as he stared out over the gorge, fists clenching at his sides.

'She couldn't have died...' He told himself, ears drooping, golden eyes deepening in color, but he couldn't see her anywhere and there was no connection...

Which could only mean one thing...

"Kagome..." He whispered, falling to his knees next to the gorge, but his knee hit something...

Glancing down, he saw the rosary beads, and a fresh wave of pain washed through him.

It was those damn beads fault...

If only they hadn't caused so much trouble, if only Kikyo hadn't betrayed him, if only he hadn't taken Kagome for granted...

Picking them up gently, he clenched them in his hands, the pain inside of him beyond words...

Except for one.

"KAGOME!"

The cry of pain from his heart echoed around, doing nothing to help except make the pain even worse, and he jerked when he felt a hand on her shoulder, spinning around and coming face to face with Sango.

"Where is she?" The demon exterminator asked, her face impassive, and the hanyou looked away from her, not wanting to reply.

"Those flames... they were the power Kikyo was talking about weren't they?" Miroku asked, standing next to Sango, and Inuyasha nodded, keeping his eyes hidden.

Spotting the rosary beads in his hand, Sango pointed to them, shouting with new hope, "The rosary beads! You found them!"

Suddenly it sank in...

It couldn't be denied any longer...

"She's dead." He whispered, raising his eyes to meet Miroku's and Sango, and he held out both his hands, the rosary beads lying clenched within them, and he whispered brokenly, "The connection... it's broken. The only way the connection could be broken is if she... if she is... is dead."

"Kagome's dead!" Shippo cried from Kirara's back behind Inuyasha, and he swiveled around, not having noticed them before, "It can't be! She can't die! No!"

The young kitsune dashed off before any of them could catch him, and Miroku turned to Inuyasha, asking, "Did Naraku get her power?"

"I don't think so..." The dog demon replied, his eyes once again lowering, and Miroku questioned him again, "Then what happened?"

"Kagome destroyed Naraku with her power... but in the process, her power destroyed her... I tried to stop her, but she said... she said she made a promise to herself... that she would get revenge for each of us because of what Naraku did..." Inuyasha whispered, closing his eyes tightly as he remembered each of the blasts of power, the words that came with it, and he added, "The first blast was for Kohaku, for when Naraku controlled him and made him kill everyone..."

"Oh no..." Sango whispered, her eyes widening as her thoughts went back to her younger brother who she had left with Kaede, but her thoughts were pulled back when Inuyasha continued, "The second blast was for you Miroku... for the curse that Naraku had put you through... but you shall have no longer..."

His voice cracked as he clenched his fists, and he realized it was getting harder to breath... that as he relived Kagome's last bit of life, he was accepting that she was no longer with them.

Eyes widening, Miroku stepped back, unwrapping the prayer beads that were on his right hand, and steadied himself for the sucking of wind that always accompanied it....

But nothing happened.

Not daring to breath, he put his hand in front of his face, staring at the spot where the hole used to be, unable to believe it wasn't there anymore.

Watching his antics, Sango let out a cry of joy, shouting, "Your wind tunnel! It's gone!"

Turning to her with a smile, Miroku laughed, but instantly stopped when Inuyasha continued, his voice dead, "The third blast was for Sango... for all the pain Naraku had ever caused by destroying your family or anything else... by now Kagome was being torn apart from the inside, the power was so... so strong..."

Raising his lowered head, he opened his closed eyes, their golden depths shimmering with tears as he finished, so softly Miroku and Sango had to lean forward, "The last blast. the one that killed both her and Naraku... was for me... and do you know what she said? She said good luck with the Shikon Jewel... that bitch said GOOD LUCK WITH THE SHIKON JEWEL!"

Growling with anger to hide the pain he felt inside, he glared at Miroku and Sango, his teeth bared and claws ready.

"Damn her... she got revenge for all of us... but what of her? She deserved to destroy that bastard for what he has done to her alone. .." He whispered angrily, his eyes flashing, and he looked towards the sky, endlessly blue and a shiny sun smiling down at him...

Damn, he wanted to be rid of it all.

Why?

...

Damn her...

Had to keep her promises she said?

What of her promise to him?

What of her promise to complete the Shikon Jewel...

"She didn't keep her promise to me... damn her, she didn't keep her promise to me!"

Without a word he took off, leaving Sango and Miroku standing there, unable to believe what happened.

He ran until he couldn't run anymore, past the destruction she had caused, past the bone eaters well that was damaged beyond repair, past everything he had ever known.

It hurt...

Hurt like hell, worse than anything he had ever felt before...

God, it felt like everything inside of him was dying...

Everything except his heart.

It was tearing painfully inside his chest as the truth sunk in...

It was painful...

Too painful...

Yet not painful enough.

Cries of anguish clogged in his throat, cutting off his air, forcing him to halt on a tree branch, clinging to the tree with all he had.

This had to be a nightmare...

This just couldn't be happening, he wouldn't let it...

Raising his face to the sun, he glared at it as one tear slipped down his cheek.

Followed by another...

And another.

He was crying, he couldn't believe it...

All because of a girl who had changed his life forever with her laughs and kindness...

Her concern for his injuries, her sitting him when she was pissed, her tears because he didn't trust her...

Hell, now he would never be able to tell her how much she meant to him, and with this misery tearing him apart, he focused on the sun once more, shouting all the pain, love, and anger he would never be able to share with her...

"Damn you Kagome, YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE!!!"

********* ********** ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *********

To those who reviewed: Thanks!

~Kagomesjewel, SailorKagome, Three-Letter-Word, Jammies2000, Glory230, Kokoro, Mattielover, Carrie, Unholy-angle, Shadow Wraith, VioletRose, N Mimi-chan~

Letz move on to the next chappie, eh?

Hugz N Kissez, Ali