The Voice

Kagome reached to place her other hand to his other cheek but there was a great rumbling from the earth beneath her feet as the ground shifted and heaved. She found herself falling away, being pulled from behind. A sound of fright escaped her as Inu-Yasha, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou disappeared from sight.

She began to run towards them as fast as she could, but it seemed that the faster she ran the faster she was taken away. Tears were streaming down her face as she ran with all her might.

She tripped and fell onto her stomach, the whole world rolling away from her as she lay there, unable to stop it. She put her head to the ground and cried.

Minutes passed but it seemed like hours of laying there powerless against what was happening to her.

Gentle hands were at her shoulders, pulling her away from the dirt that collected her tears. She pulled away and bolted upright, looking for a monster that was attacking her. But she found none. What she saw made her blink.

It was a boy with black hair and ice blue eyes. He wore dark blue shirt and black pants, the style very close to the clothes Inu-Yasha wore. His expression was concerned, his movements were slow as if he didn't want to frighten her by being too quick.

"Who are you?" she demanded, keeping away from him.

He smiled slightly, "I'm Jareth. Do you know what happened? All my friends got cold all of a sudden and then the ground just pulled me away. Next thing I know I'm standing here and you were laying there crying." He explained. "I don't get it at all."

Kagome stood to find that she was almost as tall as him, funny, she thought, he seemed a lot taller. But she supposed it was because he was standing and she had been sitting, though...he had actually been kneeling hadn't he? "I'm Kagome." She said, ignoring the fact that he had not really asked for her name. "I don't know what happened either. My friends got cold too, and I couldn't touch them. I was so scared." She still was but she wasn't going to tell this stranger that.

She looked around for the first time to find nothing. The where nowhere. There were no trees, no rocks. When she looked at the ground the dirt was gone and when she looked up she couldn't see the sky. The entire place was just a ball of light. And she and this Jareth were in the middle of it, as if it were being emitted from them.

"It's really...bright here." She stated simply, not that he really needed to know, he had been here as long as she. Probably longer. And he had been looking about before she had.

"Yeah, it's really weird. It wasn't this bright until you came though." He stated looking up into nothing.

Kagome blinked, "Hmm..." she thought about all the demons she had ever met or encountered. She couldn't find one that was powerful enough to do what she had just witnessed. Her mind went back to Inu-Yasha and she couldn't help but tear up. He had been so helpless. That was the first and only time she had ever seen him, and it was probably the only time that she ever would.

Jareth made a move to comfort her but was interrupted by a booming voice that shook the ground that wasn't there.

"You two have been brought here by me to see if this pathetic world is worth the effort of keeping around." The loud voice rang.

Kagome looked for it but found no sign of where it was coming from, "Why us? And what did you do to everyone else? Did you kill them?" she asked fearfully.

"No, they are asleep. I picked the two of you because neither of you are really who you claim to be." The voice answered deafeningly.

Kagome's brow furrowed at that statement. Weren't they? She knew that she was just a girl, nothing special. How could she not be?

"What do we get if we pass this test?" Jareth asked.

"Nothing." Both people blinked at that statement. "You will be put back with your friends and not even remember this took place." Kagome let out the breath she wasn't aware she was holding.

"And if we fail?" Jareth asked though he didn't really want to know.

"Then what you love most will die in your arms just out of your reach." Kagome gasped. That was too much to put on one person. "The world that you know will simply fade away and you will be left alone. Even the two of you will not be able to find each other."

Jareth looked down, as if thinking over his options. As if he had options. He looked back up to wherever the voice was coming from, "I will do it. What choice do I have." He said with a shrug. This wasn't something he could even try to get out of. It was either this or painful isolation. He hated isolation. He had been in it for nearly his whole life. He didn't know about this girl, but he was happy that he did have someone to do something so important as this with. He knew that if he had been alone again he would have failed quickly, no matter what the task was.

"What is it that we are to do?" Kagome asked, determination on her face. She would not fail. She could not. She couldn't watch Inu-Yasha go like that. She wouldn't give up without a fight. She would hang on for everyone she knew. But she would win for him.