*This is basically like the last real chapter of Dragon Demon. The next one's after this are like a very very long epilogue. I had to divide them though because they were so long as a whole. Anyways...enjoy this chapter...I'm sure you'll like it. I know I did!*

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu and co. but they certainly make for a good laugh on TV right?

Chapter 33

Kikyo snickered happily, seeing her reincarnation fall over, her eyes wide open with only a small sliver of soul with in her...

She now had most of her soul back...and it felt good to expel the women's souls to welcome her own.

Kagome would be dead as soon as her soul was gone...and Kikyo could finally go off and kill Inuyasha...Kill him for betraying her with this wench...

Well...it was almost over...Kagome was almost completely gone and Kikyo would once more be complete...

But there was something bothering the dead miko...

The last sliver of Kagome's soul would not leave...something was holding it back...

No matter how much her soul stealers tried to pull it out...it would not let go of Kagome's body...it held on tight.

"Come here soul...I am your true master...not her...I own you...you are mine by origin...return!" Kikyo told it. But the sliver refused.

It would not budge or allow itself to be captured.

Kikyo became curious...why was it that the soul would not free the girls empty body...why did it remain...there was nothing for it there.

And yet it remained...

Kikyo stepped up to Kagome's fallen body...the wide blank eyes...the lifeless fingers...

She reached down and pressed her fingers to Kagome's head, reading the last remaining thoughts that Kagome was receiving as she lay their blank.

Yes...a person with hardly any soul can still feel...can still think...can still see... and because Kikyo was a miko she could see the thought that ran through Kagome's mind, even if they were scanty and hard to find.

She found a whirlpool of them that made her heart sink...

"Inuyasha! I need to find Inuyasha! He can't die to Naraku...He can't...I must help him...There must be a way...Must help Inuyasha...Inuyasha! I love him...I love him...I love Inuyasha...! Inuyasha!"

Her thoughts were hard to focus on, and because there was only a little bit of soul, they were hard to understand at first. But Kikyo came to realize a moment later...that Inuyasha's love for this living girl was not one sided...and had never been...

Kagome loved him, and Inuyasha loved her...and there was simply no room for the dead miko...

Kikyo felt sympathy for this situation...how much she must have hurt Inuyasha by returning...for he was supposed to move...to continue living...he wasn't supposed to just run into her arms when she came back from death and act like nothing had happened...

In life...one can either live in the past and find insanity...or move on and live as they are meant to...Of course they still carry the scars on their hearts on their minds, but they find things to help heal them...to help them disappear if not entirely, a little.

This whole time, she had been selfish...she had tried to pry Inuyasha from the new life he had...the new existence he was trying to cope with...in order to make herself feel better...in order to relieve her own pain...

She didn't feel that sorry for Kagome of course...

This was her reincarnation sure...but this girl did not belong in this time and place...and so did not belong with Inuyasha...

Kikyo finally changed her mind...

She would kill Kagome...and then return to hell alone...for Inuyasha would not return with her for her deeds.

She would return alone and never hurt Inuyasha again...

Kikyo hoped he would forgive her someday...

She stood up and stepped away from the nearly dead miko and stood before her...staring heartlessly at the pale face...the cloudy brown eyes...the tossled black hair...at the face that looked so much like her...but seemed not to be her at all...

Kagome...

Death awaited her and that was just that!

Kikyo thrust one of her dragon's with in the girls chest to retrieve the last bit of the soul from her body...

This would end now...and Kagome would be no more...

Only Kikyo would exist...and that was her decision...

She was surprised though when her dragon returned with out the sliver, and fell to pieces before her open arms...

"What...?" She asked, staring at Kagome...

The girls brows had knitted, and her breathing rate had increased...

Kagome was trying to save herself...even though she wasn't conscience of it.

"So you want to fight eh?" Kikyo asked softly. "Fine."

She sent five other soul stealing dragons into Kagome's body.

They all returned to her and fell apart.

Then Kagome's body sat up effortlessly, as if suspended in air, and her blank eyes stared at Kikyo calmly, her expression distant.

Kagome then stood, just as effortlessly as when she sat and raised her arms...calling something to her...

Kikyo found it difficult to keep her soul with in her body...for it was being called by Kagome, and it tried to get to her.

"You are mine! Not hers...Remain!" She shouted at it as the wind picked up around her, destroying what remained of her dragons. Her hair came free from it's paper tie and danced around her ruthlessly.

Kagome's face remained calm and serene, as she continued to call her soul.

But it wasn't only the soul she was calling...

There was something else...something more powerful than her miko soul...

Kikyo gasped as she saw the Shikon shard jump out of Kagome's skirt pocket...and as the ball of shikon and the remaining shards jumped out and came together above her...The entire Shikon jewel.

Kagome could control the shikon...! But how! Kikyo thought desperately, trying to stride away from the soul less miko. How?

It wasn't possible was it?

Kikyo couldn't even completely control the Shikon no tama...and never had been able to.

So what made Kagome so special...what allowed her to control it...

Why could her reincarnation do what she could not?

"Come back shikon!" came a voice from behind Kagome...ragged and tired.

Naraku came out into the scene, chasing after the ball of shikon...but it was too late.

It had already merged and not floated complete in Kagome's hands.

Kagome relaxed her arms from their position, and held them instead at her stomach.

Her eyes remained blank, clouded, and Kikyo found it harder to keep her soul at bay.

Kagome had more power than Kikyo thought.

The dead miko had tried her entire life to obtain such strength, and even thought she would receive it by caring for the shikon when she was asked.

But never...never had she been able to.

What did her reincarnation have that she did not?

"Give the Shikon Jewel back to me wench!" Naraku shouted, coming in front of her. "It does not belong to you! Return it!"

Naraku made the stupid move of jumping at Kagome to retrieve the jewel.

He was not a demon known for acting irrationally...but that was when he had the jewel...and the power it gave him.

With out it...he was nothing but a mere demon...something even lower classed than those killed by the demon exterminators.

He was nothing with out it.

Well...apparently Kagome had some how managed to raise a barrier around herself, and it burned Naraku's hands when he tried to reach inside for it.

"Damn it!" He shouted, holding his scorched hands close to him. The blood was cold and it helped to relieve their pain.

How...how...Kikyo continued to think. How could she do this with hardly any soul left in her...

Kouga was next to show up...with a relieved expression on his face as he saw that Kagome was still alive...

But she wasn't the Kagome he had always known.

He too tried to get to her through the barrier, to hug her with his happiness...But the barrier burned him as well...leaving his hands scorched like Naraku's.

"What the hell!?" he shouted.

"Kikyo! This woman was supposed to be dead by now!" Naraku screamed angrily.

Kikyo did not reply. He was too low now for her to even consider him dangerous.

At the moment, she was still trying to figure out what could possibly be fueling this power she sensed. The shikon couldn't...could it...and even if the shikon no tama was supporting her...how was she able to control it.

"Kagome! It's me! It's Kouga! Don't you remember me!" Kouga shouted.

Kagome had not the power...She continued to think. Kagome couldn't do this...

"Kagome!" Kouga continued.

Kagome has no life left...what is supporting her...unless...

"Kagome...!" The painful moan came from behind Kouga, and Kikyo's breath caught in her throat as she saw Inuyasha's pain stricken face...his beaten body...his freely flowing blood.

He was supported by Sango and Kohaku, and before them came Shippo, a clothe full of blood in his hands as he did his best to clean up Inuyasha' s wounds.

"Inuyasha..." She whispered...staring at her past lover.

He looked at her, then shook his head and called Kagome again.

Kagome did not reply...her eyes were still cold...but they were not empty...

There was something else there...and Kikyo gasped softly as she saw a small tear trickle down Kagome's cheek at hearing Inuyasha's voice. But at the moment, the miko he once knew...was not in control.

Kikyo understood it now...but she didn't know how.

It was like she had been sent a telepathic message.

Kagome was not in control.

"Naraku." Kagome said...but it was not her voice. This one was deeper...richer...

Naraku did not reply...he simply stared at Kagome. Everyone else did the same. They did not recognize this voice at all.

"Naraku...you have used the Shikon no Tama for evil...and now you must pay for it... you have been tested and you have failed." Said the voice.

Naraku stared at her with little belief, but a minute later, he lay dead on the ground his eyes open with shock.

His soul rose into the sky...a mix of them in fact, and with a small burst of light from the now glittering shikon, the soul exploded in thin air.

Kagome frowned softly as her body began to float up into the air...supported by nothing.

"Kikyo...you have disappointed me...but not as badly as Naraku...You I will let live...and your death will come with pain. Leave my sight!" it said.

"But Midoriko! I have done nothing wrong. Please...return my body if you can...I was betrayed by Naraku!" Kikyo pleaded, kneeling down to the floating Kagome.

Everyone around them gasped.

They had not suspected at all that the voice talking was the ancient Midoriko...the one trapped with in the shikon no tama.

"Kikyo." It said sternly. "You have been reborn in a body of clay...and yet your only thought was for revenge...You did not think at all...It is this that I choose to leave you living...so that you might learn your lesson with out a chance of death. Be gone from my sight before I am forced to destroy your soul the way I did with Naraku. Leave me!"

Kikyo held fear in her eyes...for the first time she had ever had in years...and left...remorse in her heart.

The floating Kagome turned in mid air towards Inuyasha...and smiled softly...

"I apologize for this...Inuyasha...I am pleased to meet you...Kagome has great thoughts of you...as does Kojika..."

Inuyasha watched her patiently...quietly...not ready to end up like Naraku or Kikyo.

"Of all those I have watched...you have impressed me the most. Inuyasha...when you were young you sought more power...as most of those in your position do. You sought a strength that you could use to defend yourself...but upon finding Kikyo...you gave it up...When she pinned you to the tree and you awoke fifty years later...you felt remorse...and sought it again. When you met Kagome, you continued to seek it, but gave up in your own heart once you became close to her. You have impressed me because you gave up seeking it for love. You gave it up for Kagome, and when you did, you began looking for it to keep it out of evils grasp. For this reason...I spare you...and your friends...I apologize to all of you for the trouble this jewel has caused you...but I ask that you find a way to free me."

"How can we Midoriko?" asked Sango, beginning to feel tired as she held him up.

"My jewel must be purified. In order for that to occur a good wish must be placed upon it...you understand."

Sango nodded.

"But then what happens to the jewel after that?" asked Kouga, looking to keep it to keep him powerful and fast.

"It dies...and I and the demons trapped here and free to travel to the world of the dead."

"What wishes would purify the jewel?" asked Inuyasha, looking up with pain in his eyes.

"Wishes such as what you were to wish with Kikyo...and what you would with Kagome. Wishes that would weaken one...for it is so selfless a wish."

Inuyasha nodded, forcing his eyes to remain open. The poison was beginning to take affect and it was causing him to get sleepy.

"I see you have suffered enough yourself in following the jewel. I cannot heal the living body...but I can remove the poison from you." Midoriko said with a gentle smile...floating in close enough to feel him.

With a white glowing hand, she softly touched his forehead as she closed her eyes.

Instantly...Inuyasha felt a sort of warmth radiate over his body...and then the pain vanished...for the poison left...

"I also sense that one of your friends has died in battle. He saved you I believe?" Midoriko asked Sango.

The demon exterminator nodded, staring at the miko breathlessly...

"I shall revive him...it is not yet time for him to die..." Midoriko again closed her eyes...and floated away.

"He has been revived." She said simply...with a smile...

Her smile vanished instantly after a tremor shook the ground...

"She fights..." Midoriko whispered. "I must stop the fight from killing her." Midoriko floated up into the sky...leaving everyone down on the floor.

"What's she talking about?" asked Kohaku looking around. "Who's fighting?"

"Kojika is!" Replied the familiar voice from behind them. Sango's heart stopped beating.

Could it be...was it true...?

They all turned around slowly...and she nearly burst into tears and laughter at what she saw.

Miroku stood behind them, an innocent smile on his face and the staff in his hand.

"Hello." He replied, coming up to them.

Sango let go of Inuyasha's arm and ran to him, hugging him tightly.

"I thought you were dead!" She shouted when they both could breath from the tight embrace.

"So did I. But the strangest thing happened. I saw Midoriko standing in front of the light that takes you to the world of the dead. She told me that it wasn't my time, and she sent me back. I'm glad to see everyone is still alright." He said...hugging Shippo as he ran to him and then patting Inuyasha lightly on the shoulder with a smile.

"Glad you're alive houshi." Inuyasha told him with a grunt from the pain of his wounds."

"And vice versa. Where is Kagome?" at this, everyone frowned at stared up at the sky, where the floating miko glowed as brightly as the sun. "What happened to her?" Miroku asked.

"Midoriko is using her body to communicate to everyone. Oh...and didn't you say Kojika was fighting?" Sango implied.

"Yes...she's fighting a terrific battle with the Elder, Mikoto. I could sense it as soon as I awoke."

"Is that what she was talking about?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yes."

"Then we had better find Kojika." Inuyasha replied, beginning to stumble forward.

Sango and Miroku nodded and took his arms, relieving Kohaku of his hold on Inuyasha, and the group traveled to the battle scene slowly. Kagome floated above them, almost as if she was watching them...Midoriko's soul with Kagome's eyes and body.

When they came to the scene...they found Midoriko lying dead on the floor...his body torn to bits...and his blood around him...and sitting...bleeding next to him...was Kojika...her breathing shallow and the green Dragon Eye in her hand.

"Kojika..." Inuyasha whispered, followed by Sango and Miroku's gasps, and Shippo's tiny cry of sorrow.

She looked up...her face pale from loss of blood and poisoning...and smiled...nodding to them.

Sango and Miroku dragged Inuyasha to her...and set him down...they themselves sitting down around her...looking over her body...trying to find any wounds.

They found her stomach bleeding, her right eye swollen shut, and her hand cut so bad that it was merely hanging from it's socket.

Kagome's glowing white body landed softly behind them, and stepped up, radiating warmth and love.

"Mother..." Kojika whispered with a smile...

"Kojika...It's good to see you again...even though your in this bad a condition."

"Yeah...but mother...I'm glad to see you too...I'm not worried about my self...I'm meant to die sometime right?" Kojika chuckled, her face becoming whiter with every passing second.

"You have grown wise my daughter...I am glad you are of my blood. And I am glad I was able to see you again before passing on." Midoriko smiled happily. "I must go now..." she closed her eyes...but Inuyasha stopped her.

"What about Kagome? Will she be alright?" he asked, forcing himself to stand up, accepting help from no one.

"Yes...she'll be fine. When Kikyo left, I retrieved the amount of soul she had stolen...and it waits to return to Kagome's body. I have not much time left...she worries dearly for you Inuyasha...don't disappoint her by dying." Midoriko gave one last smile, and beckoned goodbye to everyone...before leaving the body and returning to the shikon no tama.

Kagome's body stood for a moment, her eyes opened only slightly, as the bright white light that was her soul returned to her body.

Then her body went limp in the air and began to fall, the shikon hitting the ground opposite her.

Inuyasha jumped to her and managed to catch her in his arms before she could hit the floor.

"Kagome!" He shouted, as everyone gathered around him with worry.

She opened her beautiful brown eyes when she heard Inuyasha's voice and smiled up at him, tears slowly trickling down the sides of her head.

"Inuyasha..." She whispered.

Inuyasha sighed his relief and hugged her tightly to his body...glad that she was alive and well.

Then...once breaking the hug, he kissed her warmly, happily...

Kouga noticed there love for each other...and smiled...even though he felt the pain of not being her one and only...

Miroku stepped up to his side and patted his shoulder...

"We don't always get those we think we love Kouga. It takes a while to find the perfect one. I'm sure you'll find the one you're looking for."

Kouga growled at him and left, speeding off.

Kohaku and Shippo were also close around Kagome, greeting her happily. It took a while for Kagome to squelch Shippo's undying curiosity to how it felt to have another soul in her body...and what it was like to be possessed.

"Wait...where's Kojika?" she asked a moment later as everyone sighed their relief at her being alive.

They immediately turned around...but did not see the Draymon anywhere.

They did however find that Mikoto's body was quickly deteriorating. Apparently, he'd forced himself to live past his life's capacity. With out the Dragon Eye, he had no choice but to die.

But how had Kojika beaten the Elder...what had she done to kill him.

They all wondered that together.

"What if she left because we weren't paying attention to her and is dying somewhere nearby!" shouted Shippo, looking around trees and under and over bushes.

Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku followed in suite, looking for the Draymon.

"Kojika..." Kagome whispered, ready to go looking for the Dragoness herself.

Inuyasha refused to let her go though and she was forced to help him up with her.

The place the dragons had chosen to fight was close to a cliff...overlooking the valley below, and Inuyasha beckoned her to take him there.

When she had, they stood looking over the valley, a smile on Inuyasha's face.

"Why aren't you worried?" Kagome asked, hugging him tightly for fear that he might fall over the cliff in his beaten condition.

"She isn't dead."

"How do you know?" she inquired, looking at the valley with Inuyasha.

"She's a Draymon...and they don't die that easily. I'm sure she'll return later...when she's healed...and tell us all about how she defeated Mikoto. For now...she wants to be alone...so let's grant her that..." *This one was very long, but it's my favorite chapter so far. Tell me what you thought of it in a review please! Or if not, that's fine too! Next is the epilogue, which only spans two chapters.*