Woah! Sorry this took so long folks! My schedule's been really busy lately. I've got pre-calc tests, physics, and the drama this year. (I'm Hortensio, from Taming of the Shrew! I get to make sex jokes on stage! Three cheers for shakespear!)

However, I now have another sweet week of spring break left, and can WRITE! Bwahaha. And play videogames. I just beat Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals last night with a friend. It was fun… even though I didn't really beat the rest of the game. He just needed help on the final boss. Whom I beat the crap out of. BWAHAHA!

Ahem. Well, I seem to be losing readers fast. (This is half the size of my last fic with a little more than 1/20th the reviews) But I got some new ones! I'm happy! To all those of you out there who are now reading, welcome! Feel free to point, laugh, stare, and ask questions. Anywho, on with the fic! This is a big, seven page chapter, so you better enjoy it!

*****

"What was it you saw?"
    "I couldn't see anything." Sango hiccupped, trying desperately to ignore the fact that she was wrapped in Miroku's arms. Not that she really minded, but if he did even one perverted thing... Oh! She would beat him so hard that he wouldn't have to worry about being able to use his hands to do anything ever again! "I saw you and Shippo fall into the pond over there, and when I went to look for you the pond went black." She shuddered. "And then the darkness spread all around, and soon I couldn't see a thing."
    "And what happened?" Miroku asked, stroking her hair softly.
    "There was this voice." She said. "It's been with me since that night we fought Morkleb. It was telling me to just lie down, and give up. It wanted me to go to sleep. At first I wanted to do what it told me to. I was so tired." She closed her eyes and pressed her face into the strong chest she was leaning against. "But then I thought about all the things that I was leaving behind. I thought about Kohaku, and Shippo, and Kagome, and everyone else." She smiled just slightly. "I thought about you. And I decided that I wouldn't go to sleep quite yet."
    Miroku started, and blushed slightly. "You... really thought about me?" He asked.
    Sango stared at him just a few moments. "Houshi-sama, are you really that dense?" She punched him lightly in the chest.
    Miroku grinned. "So, we're back to Houshi-sama, now are we? I thought we were past that phase."
    Sango glared at him, and slapped him lightly on the cheek. "As long as you're a pervert monk, you're Houshi-sama."
    Miroku looked offended. "I am a member of a holy order." He said primly.
    "Then act like it." Sango said, dangerously.
    Miroku grinned sheepishly. "Well, you don't' have your hiraikotsu with you right now..."
    SMACK!
    Miroku blinked, and touched the red hand mark on his face. "Ow." He said.
    Sango waved her stinging palm in the air. "What about you?" She asked finally. "Did you see anything? Did you have a vision?"
    Miroku shrugged. "I saw myself."
    Sango blinked, and cocked her head in incomprehension.
"I was looking into the water, when suddenly my reflection burst through and attacked me." Miroku explained. "Only he was me at my peak. His hand was fine, and he could move much better than I could. I ran from him a while, all the while he called me a coward, and taunted me to use my Kazanna."
    Sango gave a brief glance to his right fist. "But you can't, can you?"
    Miroku shrugged. "I doubt it. And even if I could, it's probably so damaged that it would suck me in anyway." He scowled slightly. "My reflection said that that shouldn't matter to me. He said that I was going to die anyway, so it might as well be on my own terms." He shrugged. "And then he opened his own Kazanna at me."
    Sango's eyes widened. "What happened?"
    "I don't know?" I could feel myself being sucked in, and the next thing I knew I was here, sitting near the pond. You were across from me, sleeping."
    Sango sighed. "What do you think this place is?"
     Miroku shrugged. "Last night, the night before we found Kirara, I had a dream. The voice in the dream said that we should come to her, and that an old friend would guide us." He shrugged. "The voice told me to walk, and the next day I could move again. So, I surmised that Kirara would guide us to where the voice was."
    Sango blinked. "Why didn't you tell the rest of us?" She asked.
    Miroku gave her a skeptical look. "Because Shippo would have probably panicked, and run off, and you weren't in much of a condition to do much of anything. You haven't been exactly normal these last few days."
    Sango nodded. "I was just so tired." She said. "I couldn't speak, or even think. I was just trying to not sleep."
    Miroku smiled at her. "Are you tired now?" he asked.
    Sango wiggled slightly, leaning harder against him. "Not really." She said. "And the voice is gone too."
    Miroku smiled. "So, you think your back to normal?" He asked. Very slyly, his hand on her head rubbed down the back of her neck, then steadily, slowly down her back.
    Sango nodded. "I hope so." She said. "I really-" Suddenly her eyes jerked open, and a blush spread over her face. "Houshi-Sama!" She yelled, rage filling her voice.
    Miroku grinned sheepishly, and removed his hand, but too late. He wasn't quite sure how it happened, but somehow he ended up in the pond, and his stomach hurt... A lot.
    He emerged from the water with a heavy grimace on his face. "Well, it seems things are back to normal." He remarked, coughing out some water.
    Sango scowled, and crossed her arms. "Still just a hentai." She remarked, and shook her head.
    "And not likely to change anytime soon." A small, light childlike voice rang out.
    Sango and Miroku turned suddenly, on guard.
    Where the little path through the trees had been stood a girl. She was slender, almost lanky, but still slightly short. Her hair was white, with a slight tinge of sky blue at the tips, and looked ragged and messy. Her eyes were a cool calm, emerald green, and one her face was a wide, fanged grin.
    Regally, Miroku rose to his feet, and shook the water out of the sleeves of his robe. He turned to face her, and raised an eyebrow. "Vadise?" He asked confidently.
    The girl smiled and crossed her arms, not surprised in the least. "Well, it looks like you're as smart as I gave you credit for, monk." She said. "It took the hanyou at least half an hour to figure that one out."
    Miroku took two steps back, bringing himself out of the pond and level with Sango. "So you are the fabled dragon."
    Vadise seemed to think about this just a moment. "Well, 'fabled'... I dunno." She scratched the back of her head, and starred up towards the canopy. "Fabled means, essentially, 'of ages long past' so... would I be fabled." She nodded. "Yeah, I suppose so." She stared back down at the group. "Yes, yes indeed. I am fabled."
    Miroku blinked. So much for all his regal expectations. "I don't suppose you'd mind telling me what just happened?" He asked.
    Vadise blinked at him, then looked to Sango, then looked back to him. "I tested you." She said simply.
    Miroku's face slowly faded to a scowl. "You looked into our minds, took our fears, and then pitted them against us?" He asked, his voice dangerously low. "Who gave you that right?"
    Vadise smiled. "Who dealt out the right to give rights?" She asked. "If you start thinking in terms of 'rights' then you won't last long in the world. You should know that monk. I had the power to do so, and I had the desire to do so. So I did."
    Miroku's eyes narrowed angrily. A man's mind was sacred, and so were his fears. This dragon had no right to look into them. "How dare you?"
    Suddenly Vadise was right in front of him, grinning into his face. "How dare you?" She demanded. "I have powers you cannot possibly begin to comprehend. You are hardely even worth my time!" She appeared again behind him, speaking right into his ear. "Think you that I give ear to anyone who comes into my vale?" She hissed. "I think not. Why should I give my time to those who are not willing to endure trial for it? Anyone who whished to see me must be willing to work for it."
     Miroku didn't turn to face her, though Sango's eyes followed her every move. "So, did we pass these trials?" Miroku asked.
    Vadise chuckled softly. "Does that really matter?" She asked. "The important thing was that you got through them."
    Miroku clenched his good fist. "Then what was the point?"
    Vadise appeared again, infront of him. "What is the point of any test?" She asked. "To help you learn." She cocked her head. "Did you learn anything?"
    Miroku scowled, but did not answer.
    "Then perhaps you failed." The odd cat-like girl said, rubbing the stripes on the side of her face with the back of her hand. "But Sango, I see has passed."
    "What do you mean by that?" Sango asked, speaking for the first time. She slowly got to her feet.
    "Look at her eyes, monk." Vadise said with a purr, sitting down on the thick grass. "Tell me she has not changed."
    Miroku's eyes narrowed, and he glanced at Sango's eyes. They were indeed different. They were still darker than normal, but no longer dead; they shone. The monk looked back away from Sango, and back to Vadise.
     "Houshi-Sama." Sango said, getting to her feet. "What's going on?"
    Vadise smiled, and turned around. "Maybe I can answer that." She said. "If your still bitter, you can simply leave." She gave a knowing look to Miroku over her shoulder. "But it could be that thirst of knowledge leads you deeper into the web." With that, she turned again, and walked down the trail she had come from.
    Sango edged over to Miroku and blinked at him. "Should we follow her?" She asked timidly.
    Miroku thought for a moment, then nodded. Slowly, they made their way forward.
*****
    "So, you are truly Vadise?" Miroku asked, sitting on a log. The little group sat in the middle a grove of trees.
    The little, white haired girl sat on the grass in front of them, happily storking her own tail. "That's right." She said simply, not looking up.
    "Have you met with InuYasha and Kagome?" He asked.
    "Yes indeed." She said, picking a twig out of the fur. "They got lucky. They almost didn't make it."
    "Did you heal them?"
    Vadise looked up at him slyly. "You cut strait to the chase, don't you." She shrugged, and fell back, stretching out on the ground. "Well, all right then." She continued. "They got here almost a day later than the two weeks they had." Miroku's and Sango's eyes widened. "Kagome had been subconsciously using her powers to keep her body together, but she was starting to fail. I tested them, and I'm fairly sure they both learned their lessons."
    Miroku blinked. "What did you make them see?" He asked.
    Vadise didn't even bother to answer. "Once they got out of the tests." She proceeded on, "We had a nice little conversation in which a trade was involved."
    Miroku nodded. "You wanted the Shikon Jewel." He said simply.
    Vadise clapped softly, sitting up. "Very good Monk. Did you find that out yourself, or did Atma tell you?"
    Miroku didn't respond.
            Vadise nodded to the Miroku. "Yes." She said simply. "I asked for the Shikon jewel." She grinned. "InuYasha naturally agreed. They're back at Kaede's village by now."

Miroku nodded. "So, we are here on our own." He mused. "Then why did you test us?"

"To help you learn?"

"Then did we pass?" The monk countered.

"Are you alive?" Vadise grinned.

Miroku turned to Sango, then back to Vadise. "Then, the test has healed Sango?" HE asked.

Sango blinked, and stepped forward. "What are you all talking about?" She asked, confused. "What has happened these last few days?"

Vadise smiled at her, and spread her arms. "And now, you see, we get to the pertinent questions." She grinned at Sango. "For me to answer that, you must follow me."

Sango looked to Miroku and nodded. The monk nodded back.

Vadise stood, and began to walk slowly through the thick trees. Vadise had an odd walk. It was smooth and confident, yet oddly gangly, almost as if she wanted to move her limbs longer than they could go. She would stretch her foot out too far, but when she didn't touch the ground she simply fell forward until it did. It was chaotic, yet, oddly graceful.

"You see, Sango, there are a great many 'worlds' out there." Vadise said as she walked.  "A great many realities if you will. And each one is different. Each has it's own set of rules." She smiled. For instance, in our world, when things are in midair, they fall unless something keeps them up."

She suddenly made a sharp turn, and brought them to a wide, grassy clearing with clear, blue skies above. In the middle of the clearing was a great, giant, titanic willow. Its heavy boughs bent over one another, cascading in a thick, green canopy to make a shroud all around the trunk.

Sango's eyes widened. "Wow…" She whispered.

Vadise nodded. "However, in another world, the rules might say that the thing would fall up." She smiled, and fell forward into a quick somersault. She came up again with a small stone. "You see, in this world, it is magic that makes the rules." She dropped the stone, and it fell to the ground. "However, us dragons are essentially pure magical force tied to a soul. Therefore with a little effort, we can sometimes change the roles. She rolled again, and grabbed another rock. She let go, and it very suddenly went soaring into the sky. "However in another reality, there is something else making the rules. In fact, the probability that there is a world out there that even has rules like 'up' and 'down' is very unlikely." She shrugged, and continued towards the great tree. "You see, you really can't even begin to comprehend things in the way that they actually might be in another world, because you are to limited by the rules of this one."

Miroku was deep in thought. "So, for instance, would what we call 'hell' be simply another world?" He asked finally.

Vadise thought about this for a moment. "Well, I suppose that it is." She admitted. "However we think that there is something different about it than with most worlds." She shrugged. "It seems to have been made for the purpose of the dead."

The monk thought about this only a moment. "Who created it?" He asked.

Vadise turned to him and smiled. "I don't' even know the answer to that one." She said. "There are more theories out there than you could possibly count." The white haired girl shrugged. "I have my own thoughts, but I'm not sure. Maybe we could have a discussion on religion later, but now we are speaking of something else." She turned again, and looked up at the titanic tree that loomed before them. "However, occasionally things happen to make little doors open up from world to world." She said. "Normally it happens when a person's soul comes to a certain condition. However, in some cases, it can some in a form much more subtle." She gave a meaningful glance at Miroku's right hand. "Even a simple hole in the flesh can be a portal."

Miroku looked down at his hand, then back up at the dragon. "Are you saying that my wind tunnel is a portal to one such world?" He asked.

Vadise grinned and nodded. "Yes, yes indeed." She cocked her head. "One we call the dark." There was a slight chuckle. "Atma named it that when she was still in her younger years. She's the one who first fell into it and lived. Now the Dark has no atmosphere, as it were, which is why when you unseal it, it sucks things into it."

The monk looked down at his right hand and nodded, running this over in his mind.

"However, the rules of pressure are different in the dark, and so are the roles of how things live, therefore living things from this world can in fact live in the dark."

"You mean.." Miroku started. "That all the beasts I've absorbed are sitting in a dark pit somewhere?" He asked.

Vadise shrugged. "I don't think so." She said. "Atma says that the current residents are pretty good about cleaning up whatever happened to come in." She smiled grimly. "I hear that they are very… thorough." He gaze drifted back to Sango. "On that night when you killed Morkleb…" She began. "You jumped into Miroku's wind tunnel to save his life. While you did in fact crush his wind tunnel before it could absorb him, you in the process were sucked in." The demon slayer paled. "However, for whatever reason, the beasts there left you alone."

Sango swallowed nervously. "So, then Atma rescued me, right?" She asked.

"Yes, she did." The dragon girl responded. "However, not before you had spent a large amount of time there."

Sango blinked. "I didn't spend to much time there, did I?" She asked, and trembled slightly at the memory of the darkness all around her. It had seemed like a long time, but she knew that time seemed to slow down in situations of fear.

Vadise chuckled. "Different rules, Sango, different rules. Time flows differently in the dark." And popped he knuckles. "And those different rules also had some sort of effect on your soul." She continued. "I'm personally not quite sure what, though Atma could probably tell you. However, for a short time, your soul was fighting desperately against these changes, and losing might we add. The struggle was tearing it apart." She smiled at her. "But somewhere in the test that was given to you, there was a change. Your soul stopped fighting, and the change happened." She grinned. "Congratulations. You win the right to live."

Sango blinked. "So, if we had not come here, then I would have died?"

The dragon nodded. "Yes." She said. "And as a result, not having any defense, so would have Miroku and Shippo."

Sango nodded. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Where is Shippo?" She asked, slightly aghast.

            Vadise shrugged, and gracefully lifted aside the curtain of willow boughs. "I don't' test children like Shippo." She said. "They are innocent enough already. They'll learn how hard the world is eventually. He sleeps inside." With that, she disappeared into the darkness beyond the boughs.

            Miroku turned to Sango, and they nodded in unison. Sango spread the branches wide, and strode in, followed by Miroku.

            Inside, the cavern-like chamber was lit by a soft, bluish white glow that came from nowhere in particular. The trunk of the tree was surrounded by a pure, clear ring-shaped pool. Vadise was standing off two one side, smiling a happy-go-lucky smile, and sitting on the outside of the ring of water was a small, red haired kitsune.

            Sango breathed a sigh of relief and slowly let her eyes wander to the base of the willow. Her eyes widened, and her mouth parted.

            Leaning against the trunk of the tree was a young boy. He wore a short, tan-brown kimono, and his black hair was tied in a poofy, ragged puff at the back. He was relatively small, and his eyes were warm and brown. Sitting in his lap was a small, black and white fire-cat.

            "Kohaku…" Sango whispered, blinking. She took a step forward, and he looked up at her. He smiled and waved a hand at her.

            In a flash, Sango was running. Her long strides carried her over the thick grass and towards the pond. Her foot collided with the surface of the pond, but didn't sink. (Vadise tried very, very hard to look innocent). Sango dived, and crashed in front of him, on her knees. "Kohaku, your alright!" She cried, tears forming in her dark eyes. She threw her arms around him (eliciting a displeased yowl from the disturbed Kirara).

            He beamed at her and chuckled. "You don't seem all that bad yourself." He remarked. "You look good as new." His arms wrapped around her form as well.

            Sango squeezed tighter. "What happened?" She demanded.
            "After the fight." The young man began, "Atma took me. Apparently Morkleb hit me with some sort of mental blast that was supposed to jar my long term memory."

            Sango blinked, and released him, cocking her head. "I thought you didn't have that much long term memory." She said.

            Kohaku grinned at her. "I didn't." He remarked. "I did get a headache though." He chuckled. "Atma laughed for about an hour after she found out what he tried to do."

            Sango broke a smile at the thought of the brooding she-dragon laughing out of humor. "Well, I'm glad you're alright." She said. "I wasn't sure what had happened to you."

            There was a chuckled from behind them both, and they whipped around to find Vadise standing right beside them. "I borrowed him from Atma, in case I needed some extra help in bringing you back." Vadise explained. "But I don't think she'd mind him going with you when you leave." She looked over at Kohaku, and smiled. "You'd like that, right?" She asked.

            Kohaku nodded vigorously.

            There was the sound of a drop of water dropping, and ripples spread out over the pond.

            Vadise grinned ever wider, and stood up. "Very well." She said, her voice suddenly deep, rich, and regal. "I have helped you, and so you must help me." She said.

            Sango and Miroku looked up, and blinked. "What?"

            Vadise smiled. "I exacted a price for my services to InuYasha and Kagome." She said. "I will have a price from you."

            Miroku crossed his arms. "I am not sure if we are going to agree." He stated.

            The dragon grinned. "Y'know, InuYasha said the same thing." She said. "Your going to do it anyway, so why not agree the good way?"

            "I wasn't saying we weren't going to agree." The monk said, holding up his hands. "I merely wanted to hear the proposition before saying yes."

            The dragon's mouth split open in a grin. "Well, then monk." She said. "I suppose you are very, very wise. Very well. I need you to go to Shinjuku, the youkai city. Kirara can show you the way." She shrugged. "There you will find a pirate. His name is Morgan, and he will be traveling with a dragon. Tell the dragon that if she stays, she will not be harmed by us."

            Miroku blinked. "What would that mean?" He asked casually.

            "The dragon will understand. You will find both the pirate and the dragon near water. After you give them that message, have the pirate take you to the mainland. From there, you can get back to your home."

            Miroku thought about this a moment. "It does provide us with transportation to mainland Japan…" He mused slowly. "Very well…" He said. "We shall do it."

            Vadise clicked her claws together, and cast her gaze to the pool. "Wonderful." She said, her voice back to its normal girlishness. "Waves are beginning to form."