He was angry with me for hiding it. I knew it, everyone knew it. He didn't try to disguise the fact that he didn't even want to look me in the eyes. I tried so hard to apologize without words, because every time I tried to speak with him he either ignored me or left. But he ignored that, too. I fixed Ramen every night, and tried to coax him to sit with us. It was like trying to persuade a mule out of its pen. The days immediately after my incident he wouldn't even take his dinner from me—I had to get Sango or Miroku to give it to him. After that, he was at least civil enough to accept it from my hand, and three days afterwards, he even came at sat around the fire with us.

That was something, wasn't it?

No. Not really.

His silence was killing me. The terseness in his voice when he spoke to me—only when it was absolutely necessary—was unbearable. Sango and Miroku were sympathetic, and Shippo looked so guilty. I felt bad about making him lie—he has a child's conscience; I know the anger was affecting him as much as it was me, and maybe even more. Poor Shippo. I've put you through so much.

I hate that he's mad at me, and I hate that the others are so worried. He's worried, too, though he won't show it; he watches me, at night, when he thinks I'm asleep. He never sleeps anymore. What do you dream about, you stubborn hanyou? Shippo's dreams used to be sweet—he always used to smile. Lately, though, every night he's as restless as I am. He kicks, he whimpers, and last night I'm almost positive I heard him say my name. Sango and Miroku aren't sleeping well either—Miroku woke up a few nights ago, clutching the wind tunnel, and Sango was murmuring something that sounded a lot like "Kohaku."

I've been having strange dreams too. They're always so sad, always so real...last night, I had a dream that we were battling Naraku, and everyone died....I was alone, and Naraku was laughing, and saying that it was my fault...and it was my fault. Everything is always my fault lately. I woke up with a gasp, but thankfully no one heard me. We've all been really restless ever since that day, and my head hurts constantly...I think it's because I haven't been sleeping or eating very much. And the fact that he's mad at me only makes everything so much worse... I feel like crying, yelling, running away....

But I won't. Not again.

I just want you to know I'm sorry, Inuyasha. I should have told you.


It was awful to feel so caught in the middle. Shippo wanted to curl up in a ball and hide in Kagome's backpack like he used to—but he was too big to fit now, and probably too heavy as well. Kagome had seemed so tired lately—everyone had. Miroku hadn't pulled a single thing for days, and Sango didn't seem to notice. Inuyasha was still mad at all of them for one reason or another, but Shippo knew his fury was mostly focused on himself and on Kagome.

Kagome was really upset about how Inuyasha had been treating them—particularly Shippo. Her eyes told him how sorry she was for making him promise not to tell, and how miserable she felt about making everything so tense again. Shippo wanted to reassure her, but he wasn't sure how; he wanted to tell her everything was fine, that everything would be okay, but somehow he knew she wouldn't believe him. She wouldn't believe it until Inuyasha himself told her.

And he wouldn't. The hanyou was much too stubborn for something like that.

They'd been traveling for almost two weeks on the open road, kind of wandering. They hadn't caught a single lead, and Kagome hadn't sensed a thing for a long time. Shippo was beginning to wonder if there were even any more jewel shards out there anymore, or if Naraku had found them all and was waiting for them, setting traps. The evil half-demon was always setting traps for them, always tormenting them—he loved to make them suffer in every way possible. It should've been enough that Naraku was around in the waking world—but no. Lately, he had even been haunting Shippo's dreams.

He'd been having nightmares for a long time now. They started out pretty normal, and not so scary—he was running from someone bigger, he was captured, normal little kid dreams. But lately, they had been so much worse, so much more realistic. Most recently, he had had a dream about the final battle with Naraku.

The thought had occurred to him, of course, but he'd never dreamed about it. It had seemed so REAL. Naraku had lunged forward and tried to absorb Inuyasha, but the hanyou had moved at the lat moment, and only been injured by the tentacles. Miroku'd been knocked backwards into a tree, and Sango's Hiraikotsu had been snapped as well. Kagome was injured, somehow—Shippo recalled sitting by her side, and crying as she'd paled, and her life had drained away...

—Flashback—

"Don't cry, Shippo-chan..." Her voice was so weak and quiet. Shippo trembled with a quiet misery, clutching her cold fingers to his desperately. "Shh..." She tried to soothe him. "It'll be...all right..." But they both knew it was a lie.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, blocking the tentacles furiously with Tetsusaiga. He glanced back for but a moment, but that was enough for Naraku to snatch the precious sword away and toss it. His remaining limbs sprang forward, attempting to seize the half demon again. Inuyasha leapt backwards, throwing his arms up in defense, and managed to ward the deadly arms away, escaping with only a cut on his shoulder. "Shippo, move the others!" he shouted, and Shippo swallowed his doubt.

"Put your arm around my neck, Kagome," he said quietly. "I'm going to help you up."

"Go help Sango and Miroku, Shippo-chan..."

"What? No, you first. You're in the most dange—"

"It...it's too late to help me," Kagome murmured calmly. "I'm not worth saving. Go help the others. Get them out of here." She glanced worriedly at the two prone figures across the battle field—both her friends, sprawled atop one another, lying in the position they had landed in.

"Kagome, I can't leave you." Shippo's voice held traces of the tears that were cascading down his cheeks, unnoticed. "I won't." Couldn't she see that he couldn't? Couldn't she see that he'd never be able to live with the knowledge that he'd left her behind, that he couldn't've saved her? She wouldn't die, he told himself. She would be all right..."

"Shippo." Her voice was firm. Almost angry. She never got angry at him. "Shippo, be sensible. I'm not going to make it even if you take me with you. I have to stay and help Inuyasha." They both glanced at the hanyou who was furiously fighting for his life against the two new incarnations and Naraku at once. "I have to stay." Suddenly she was whispering again, and her foggy eyes wavered. "I...I have to stay..."

"Kagome," Shippo whispered. She pulled him close and kissed his forehead.

"I love you..." Her voice held a soft abandon, but somehow sounded determined at the same. "Be quick." And with that, she pushed him away roughly and forced herself to her unsteady feet, staggering back towards the battle. Shippo froze in shock and watched with wide eyes and ragged breath as she took her place by Inuyasha's side. He looked surprised for a moment, then nodded, and jumped to the side with her as Naraku attacked again. Shippo almost followed her, almost yelled that she come back, come with him—but no...she had told him to go. Her mind was set, and even Inuyasha was forced to understand. He would have to do as she said. With a terrible pain in his heart, he turned from the scene and ran to where Miroku and Sango were sprawled.

"Guys," Shippo whimpered, shaking them. "You have to wake up! We have to get out of here—!" But they wouldn't move. Why wouldn't they wake? Shippo shook their shoulders all the more frantically, calling their names over and over—this wasn't good at all—if Inuyasha should need help, and they weren't able—he would have to do it, and Shippo wasn't sure he could defend them, if need be. "Wake up!!" He shook Miroku by his robes hysterically. They wouldn't stir.

The kitsune whipped around to call to them that he couldn't do it—to beg for help and cry for his mother-figure as always—but what he saw made all his words die on his lips. His big, childish green eyes widened as he watched the battle that had been progressing even as his back had been turned.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Naraku had somehow managed to separate Inuyasha and Kagome—Inuyasha was thrashing against the tentacles and the newest incarnation furiously, fighting with all his strength to get back to her. Kagome was sitting, on her knees, panting shallowly, and holding a hand to the wound she had received earlier, her hand red with blood. Her face was pale, but her eyes were bright. Naraku was looming over her, his face cocky with triumph—Shippo could see what was going to happen. Kagome turned to face him, and, her voice thick with pain and weariness, began chanting a spell Shippo had never heard before.

Naraku stopped just before lifting her from the ground by her neck, a look of puzzlement on his face as the laughter died in his throat. Starting at his fingers, his arm began rapidly glowing a bright pink, much the same hue as the Shikon no Tama. His looked turned to one of mixed fear and pain, and he shrieked, stumbling backwards as his body was purified slowly. Kagome smiled in triumph, even as he lunged his other arm forward and through her chest. Her smile didn't fade even as she fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" Shippo wailed, running forward as fast as he knew how. It wasn't too late—he could still save her—he darted, avoiding the swoop of the Saimshyou wasps as they tried to distract him—and fell, tripped upon a tree root and found himself face-to-face with the dirt. He looked up again, in horror, just as Naraku struck her again, even though she had fallen, even though she was still, and more blood splashed into the air. Shippo watched, frozen in disbelief, as Naraku's form shattered once and for all. The incarnations stopped fighting with Inuyasha, and disappeared as well, without so much as a whimper.

Inuyasha's face was pure agony. He dropped the bloody Tetsusaiga and ran over to where she was lying. With arms that were shaking so hard that Shippo could see it from where he was lying, twenty feet away, he reached down and carefully lifted her head from the ground.

"He...he's g-gone, Inuyasha," Kagome's voice said weakly. "You've...av-avenged K-Kikyou. And...the Sh-Shikon's c-complete again." She held up the little round jewel, which was coated in a fine sheen of blood, and dropped it into Inuyasha's clawed hand. He looked at it, for a brief moment, and then dropped it, sweeping her into his arms. His eyes told Shippo that the jewel and Kikyou were the farthest things from his mind at the moment.

"Kagome," he said tearfully, in a voice much unlike his usual gruff one. "Y-you're on, we'll go to Kaede's, it's not too far..." He made as if to lift her, but Kagome took his hand in her pale one.

"No," she murmured softly.

"What do you mean no?" Inuyasha sounded frantic. "You have to let Kaede-baa-baa heal you!"

"No, Inuyasha...I..." She smiled bitterly. "I won't make it that far. You know that."

"No I don't," Inuyasha snapped childishly. "Don't be s-stupid. Come on, we're leaving, whether you like it or not."

"Inu—Inuyasha...please...." Her voice was so feeble, so quiet, and yet, he heeded it, stopped as if she had ordered in a loud, angry voice. His ears drooped, as did his shoulders, and Shippo could see his whole world crumbling as his resolve shattered. And he cried. Shippo cried with him, and Kagome did too—they cried together, quietly, in the mourning of losing each other to Naraku after all. They'd come so far together, learned so much, grown so close—Shippo had grown up, Inuyasha had learned to trust again, even to love again...and it was all being taken from them, in a mere instant. She had survived the sickness, all the villains over the years, even Inuyasha himself, and still, at the last, Naraku had won.

He had won.

It was too much. Kagome spluttered incoherently, and blood ran down her face in little rivulets as she tried to comfort the hanyou. Her hand, with extraordinary effort, reached up and brushed the side of his face, that feather light touch that had always soothed Shippo's tears after a nightmare, or Sango's after a particularly painful encounter with her brother. Inuyasha took her hand, and held it to his face, his eyes closed. Shippo knew that he was memorizing her scent forever as he kissed the thin fingers and they went limp.

His mother left the world with a smile still gracing her features. Inuyasha collapsed over her body, sobbing, and Shippo had to look away from the sad scene. The battlefield was so blurry because of his tears, he could barely see Miroku and Sango waking finally, trying to ready their weapons too late.

It was all over for them. They had killed him, but Naraku had won.

Shippo screamed into the failing daylight, and everything went black.

—End Flashback—

It had been his worse fear, realized again. Shippo sniffled back his tears, earning himself a questioning glance from Sango. Kagome was lagging behind, watching the ground, everything about her posture the perfect picture of defeat and misery. Inuyasha was sniffing, Shippo noted dismally, and suddenly Kagome's head shot up, her eyes serious.

"What is it, Lady Kagome?" Miroku asked. He had noticed it, too.

"A jewel shard," she answered seriously. "A lot of them."

Inuyasha looked back, and they muttered the name in unison: "Naraku."

Tailz: Whatta cliffy!! Are Shippo's dreams real? Is it really the final battle? Are they finally gonna catch Naraku?

Sanji: Pfft. Sure. Like you'd let the climax of the story happen at chapter 6. Yeah right, Tailz. We know you better than that.

Tailz: Well, mister smarty pants. I guess we'll just see, won't we?

Sanji: Baka. You think you're so smart.

Tailz: .... ::Whaps him::