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The Reckoning:

Chapter 1: The Shadows Locked in Dreams

Did she believe in fate? Yes...how else who she have been involved in a time that was not her own. Yet...she didn't belong anywhere. Fate robbed her blind, in every possible way: the modern life that she still longed for with all its noise and traffic, success...and her family. Kagome was trapped now in the midst of chaos without her friends...without Inuyasha. Yes, Fate was red, a crimson thread that was indifferent. It wore red when in reality, it was ice. Perhaps she had dared to do too much by walking into time and containing the Shikon Jewel. It was her fault. She was marked and properly chained.

She had denied Inuyasha peace.

She heard the bells...the laughter of the wind in her memory. Kagome had gone to study the night sky in the Feudal Era, to know the stars as she could not before. And as she sat there, she realized glumly that she had seen this sky before through another's eyes...so she was robbed of the experience. It was still beautiful in its vastness and comforting presence, radiating like a familiar blanket, and she struggled to make this night her own. It was the eve of spring and the air was full of secrets and veils running against her skin. What would tomorrow bring? Would she be sitting here tomorrow? Kagome amused herself by laying down on the soft, welcoming grass, twirling the blades between her fingers and wondering what was in her future. She hadn't heard him come from behind her.

"What are you doing, just lying there?" Crossing his arms, Inuyasha looked up, trying to determine what she saw.

She glanced up at him then stifled a gasp. It was one of those moments when she was alone and her sight shifted, freed, and he was there in the night...she couldn't describe what she saw, but she could try. He was silver and gold, precious metal but mercury and soft. He seemed like he was only for night, this part of Inuyasha, and he would disappear in the morning and become...this Inuyasha was the one she couldn't have. Maybe that's why it was so magical, eclipsing her darkness now. Shrouded...he seemed so gone already.

She didn't answer, and he grew impatient.

"Feh...can't you talk?" It wasn't the nicest thing but it made her laugh because his words were so different from what he looked like right now.

"I'm just...looking at the stars. In my time, you can't see them."

"Why not? Did the spirits leave your time?"

"Spirits?"

She looked up again in confusion, scrunching her brow, and he settled comfortablely besides her, still looking heavenwards.

"Yeah, you know, the stars are spirits. That's what my mother...used to say. Whenever you're alone, look at the stars watching you. The spirits that burn in the sky are with you, protecting you...but I don't really think those lights are spirits. I used to but it's foolishness." His expression was dark, golden eyes marred with his past, and her Inuyasha was lost again.

Kagome felt...incredibly sorry and propped herself on her elbows to study him, the moon light dancing on his features and tracing him into her memory.

"Inuyasha...I think your mother was right. I believe...that they are spirits." She knew the truth but...it was important to say.

"Why can't you see them in your time if they are?"

"Well, just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there. In the future, we made a lot of our own lights, and they block out the stars...but that makes them even more important to me...Inuyasha."

His golden eyes still held some...something else, and he looked away abruptly...in pain...like he was burnt...like...he couldn't stand the sight of her.

"What? What is it?" Kagome asked, startled. Is he sick...what's the matter with Inuyasha?! She reached out her hand, but before she could touch his shoulder...

"You...brought back a memory for me."

At first, she was pleasantly confused. Was it about his mother? Then she realized...who he was talking about. She rose quickly, but he grabbed her hand firmly. She was momentarily halted by the warmth of his hand against her wind-kissed skin.

"Don't go," he whispered softly, pleadingly.

"Why not?!" Kagome was furious...but not at Inuyasha,. Kikyo had stolen another moment from her yet again.

He stared at her, not responding, and she threw off his hand and prepared to storm away.

"Wait...K-KIKYO!!"

Kagome jerked awake, stunned and not knowing where she was. She hurt...very badly. Every point on her body burned and pounded, and her heart wouldn't slow. Something was...horrible. Something was in the air. Her senses recoiled, and she tried to stand up to get away from whatever it was that was near. She wanted to run, in her heart of hearts, she wanted to run. Feeling warmth running down her mouth, she realized it was blood. From who...it was hers.

Shaking, she stared at the redness in her hands, feeling detached...feeling very much away and like she just couldn't wake up.

Then his shouts pierced her through and drug her from her daze. Then the world exploded...quite literally. The silence that had been there when she regained consciousness shattered, and madness seeped through.

"KIKYO!! I'M COMING! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME!!" Inuyasha's voice was full of anger and poorly disguised fear.

And Kagome couldn't help herself...the thought was the first thing that was clear and firm...and sharp. Isn't it a little late for that...Inuyasha! She gritted her teeth and glared poison towards the direction of his voice.

And was struck again...by what she sensed and knew was there. She had felt that too, and she just remembered like it was a bad dream. It was a bad dream for it had been in her dreams along with tears, fire, and the sound of an arrow. It was from the Jewel, it had been in the Jewel that had been part of her at one time. She knew it had been there...that hissing inside in her dreams. Cold needles of horror burned through her, and she felt tears blind her. How could she not have known that danger?! Why didn't KIKYO KNOW!!!

Kagome staggered to her feet against the tree and watched. It was all she could do now.

It was too late.

Something had devoured Naraku's hoard of demons. Every single demon was gone, and a great...darkness covered the former battle ground, withering. She could see fragments of the demons inside it, they were clawing and biting to get to freedom, and it was too late. Where were...

"SANGO!" she choked out though her voice seemed trapped in her throat. No...they weren't....

"MIROKU! SHIPPO!" Dread strangled her heart, sending waves of hysteria into her screams. "INUYASHA!!!"

She couldn't see them...not even Naraku was to be seen. Instead, since Fate decreed it so, the first one and only one she saw when she woke was Kikyo...who dared to look surprised, eyes wide and distressed through the eternal death that kept them glazed. It was the first time Kagome had ever seen any true emotion on Kikyo's face, but then again, Midoriko was there too. The miko's body was under assault from the darkness that reached and grabbed for her. Her holy powers were fading, cursed now. Besides her eyes, there was no sign of realization or panic, only a cold acceptance. She had known death before, burning and lying behind Kagome's eyes. Kagome knew.

I know what you did...YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE!! DAMN YOU!

Kagome wanted to fling these words towards the priestess, but she had no strength. Words of hatred buzzed in her ears, and she wanted to do something. Do something to Kikyo who...

Inuyasha...

Slow motion...so slow she barely saw it for when the hanyou appeared from the darkness, swinging his blade in a large arc, her heart clinched but her hope grew. She mentally called to him, and for the briefest of moments, he turned his head, hair around his face like a halo. But the look in his eyes was animalistic and chained; he was losing strength.

Kagome believed that she motioned towards him to come to her and abandon Kikyo. It was a very selfish thing, and she hoped that she didn't really do so. She hoped that it had been a figment of her imagination that hysteria had hatched. She hoped that in return, he didn't turn his back on her. But...he did and raced towards her other who stole her face, racing in a blur of crimson, wielding his father's fang, relying on its strength until...she didn't see him anymore.

He was gone. He died without her. He never needed her. In the end, she was alone. Her fears at night...were real. Kikyo's fears were now hers and hers alone. She drowned in the poison.

Kikyo looked apathetically towards the hanyou last was, with her mouth open in awe. During her rage, Kagome was repulsed.

Kikyo looked...like an artist would lovingly at his greatest masterpiece.

She had come from where she wasn't supposed to, and she had finally seen Inuyasha die.

A doll...a nothing did this...a piece of death he embraced...

A smile slashed her face although in her eyes a battle appeared to be raging. Kagome hissed in rage as she thought she saw remorse paint the miko's mask, making her appear like a tragic heroine. In her stoic facade, she seemed like she was justified and some divine rule had been achieved. In those eyes, love rotted into perversion.

Kagome shook with the urge to strike her, but her...some other emotion moved her legs and arms. Kagome lost sight of Kikyo as she began to pound towards the inky blackness, running through a fog, silent as the grave, with one light ahead...

Inuyasha, I'm coming...

One more step and she would join him...before Kikyo could. She hoped it didn't hurt, and then she could spend nowhere with him. They would be in the sky, and she would comfort him and tell him his mother was right. She could-

Then someone grabbed her wrist, and Kagome was jerked back an instant before she could reach her goal. She didn't notice in her panic what her captor had noticed...that the darkness didn't want her. It had recoiled as she approached.

Kagome tried to strike out because she had to beat Kikyo. If she didn't, Kikyo would win. Due to her emotions, her miko powers ignited like a thousand flames inside her and bit at her obstacle who hissed in pain but did not release her.

Kagome snarled and was about to struggle further, but something smashed against her head...and she remembered this moment even afterwards. Because she knew, through her pain and journeying with that pain, while fighting and watching the scene grow dark, that Kikyo had won.

Not fai-

She collapsed, and the other who brought misery picked the girl up. And he didn't mind as she jerked in her unconsciousness when she was pierced by his armor. That was immaterial.

Naraku backed away for the grasping shouki, holding the miko's body in front of him as a shield. The dark energy that had spread from the Jewel, his Jewel, had torn at his barrier and dared to attack him...it had pierced him...and had...

Injured, he fled. Something was gravely wrong...and he could hardly reach his fortress. The Jewel that he had sought, that he was created to seek, had almost destroyed him. That...thing inside it had misled...

The Inu-taichi...perhaps they...perhaps the mikos would contain it. It had ended quickly, and he burned. It had robbed him of their deaths. Inuyasha was to suffer because of him and him alone. He knew that it devoured Inuyasha very slowly, making sure it drew enjoyment, because it had felt his hatred for him.

The source of that energy was mocking him of his desire. It was stealing from him. It had been in his consciousness, curled-up, and he realized...it had been feeding off of him instead of the opposite.

He burned in his weakness for Onigumo had begun to whisper again, unbarred. What was he to do now? He was weak once more. What was he to do when it came to him again?

Then he saw that girl, that bitch who was the only reason Inuyasha wasn't already dead. That bitch who...

Naraku watched as the foolish girl ran forward to destroy herself. The darkness lurched away from her presence; it seemed to share his hatred of the miko. If she could keep it away...

Using his last vestiges of magic, he appeared just in time to stop the girl although it seemed the darkness would just abandon her. But he had noticed it had tried to form a circle around her in an attempt to...destroy her somehow.

It worked, his plan had worked. The dark energy could not touch him; it remained far and pulsed angrily in greed and desire but could not get close as long as he had the girl.

He smirked through his exhaustion...at first only at his foe. Then he spotted the dead miko being slowly intertwined in the shouki...the one he had failed to dispose of and the one who caused the energy in the Jewel to react against its master.

The dead bitch Kikyo had unbalanced the Jewel completely, leaving all his efforts to shatter. For, even though he wanted the Jewel completely corrupt in bloody beauty, he was no fool. That energy still had to be contained, manipulated just so...the energy that was seething into chaos and malice...

Although he knew to retreat, he couldn't help himself; he had to watch the end of that thorn in his side. He felt he owed the bitch his presence as her last, false breath leaves her earth-formed lips. He owed himself that last bit of satisfaction before his entire existence fell.

Her end...was quite satisfying. The shouki covered her until only her torso and face could be seen. He chuckled, holding her reincarnation and momentarily forgetting the Jewel's betrayal. He was thinking of her name.

Bellflower...she looked like a flower of death with black, inky petals framing her face. There was no red from her outfit seeping through and ruining the picture. It was just pallor and midnight. She still had on her mask; even till the end she never let that mask slip. She wouldn't give him that taste of pleasure to play in his memory.

Their eyes met, and she let nothing flicker in her gaze although his blazed. Then she was gone, and he fled with his shield in tow. The girl whimpered in her sleep, and strangely enough, he didn't notice. He sensed the dark energy following his movements and focused his efforts on his escape, leaping through the forest swift-footed and successfully melting into the night.

In the clearing, the darkness withdrew slowly, mockingly until no sign of battle remained. There were only two...three figures among the barren, blackened field that was once full of vitality.

One was a woman who held her youth, dressed in red and white that shown among the shadows. It was the Bellflower, and she remained unreal. She looked calmly at the spot that Naraku had defaced with his presence. Somewhere in the murk of her gaze, a sparkle of resurrected amusement danced. That bastard had believed himself spared, eh...his ego has grown greatly.

Behind her, in her shadow, lurked a being sprung from the Jewel. The same being that pulled the strings of Fate and escaped from its imprisonment at long last. It seethed but the miko did not acknowledge it. In her cypress-like hands, she studied the flickering light that remained in the crystal jewel.

Kikyo smiled falsely as it sparked in a silent, white-hot fury.

"I'm sorry for your discomfort...but it is necessary. I'm sure you understand, Midoriko."

Then there was the white-haired youth who lay prone on the ground, the wind making it appear as if he was still in motion. Kikyo approached him in a very casual manner, unusual to her normal motions. It was if someone else moved in her limbs, and the shade mimicked her figure on the dead ground, flowing like a dark wine.

She crouched by the figure, twirling one strand of silk between her slender figures until she grew bored. She touched one ear almost playfully; she frowned in frustration because she could not feel any warmth. Her reincarnation, that girl with her face, did...

"Inuyasha...my Inuyasha...don't you think it's time we ended this unpleasantness? Get up, Inuyasha and fight for me."

Her voice began softly, gently, blooming and falling from her lips, then turned dreadfully monotone. The figure on the ground stirred.

"Oh, and we can't have this bauble interfering now, can we?"

With that, Kikyo harshly removed the beads around his neck, scattering them into the wind to be forgotten.

And far away, another figure, covered in dirt and blood, stirred from forced sleep into wakefulness...and into what she had hoped to be a just a bad dream.

Author note: Thanks again to the talented authors who reviewed: Naroki, Elementsofmine, and profiler120. I admire all your stories, they are among my favorites actually. You guys rock!