AN: Well, it took me a hell of a time to update and that is just because I was lazy. Well. Alright, no I wasn't lazy... Ok. Yes I was. I'm sorry!! Gomen!!! As punishment, I will allow PoF to have Inuyasha for an entire afternoon while I play with non... ::sniffs:: It's fair... Isn't it?

Anyway, we are back with an uber long chapter... That also happens to be a particularly dark one. So this is a warning, this chapter is rated R for graphic descriptions and language. You have been warned.

It might be dark but it is one hell of a good chapter with a few hair pin twists and turns. ::Grins:: You are in for a treat. In fact, you are in for a few eye openers and 'no way!'s.

So come on and read! Enjoy the chapter, next update will be very soon in a few more days to be exact. Please review! We could really use your feedback and we love hearing from you guys! Thank you to all of those wonderful people who have read, enjoyed and reviewed so far! We love our fans!! Inuyasha's and puppy dog ears for all!

Inuyasha shuddered at the memory. "I think that Kagome will be glad to have a new kimono to wear," he said, nearly wincing, either from pain or from the idea of what Kagome would do to him when she learned how he'd gotten it. His shirt was in tatters, but the fire rat material would mend itself in time. "Just no telling Kagome how we got it, alright? I prefer not being deaf. I wish we'd killed the bastard...."

"Yeah, well..." Miroku muttered rubbing his sliced up shoulder. "Next time we should get the damn sword away then we'd be able to kill him," Miroku said and spat out some blood he had in his mouth. "But hey! We beat him!" Miroku piped up and looked the kimono over. "I'm still in shock it didn't tear when you did that... Tell me, is that the same move you use with Lady Kagome?" Miroku asked looking back down the path from whence they came. "You know once he gets over being defeated, he'll come back. Right?" Miroku asked remembering the death glare Jakotsu granted them before swiping the sword at them and disappearing. "Man's more demon then you... No insult there."

"None taken. It's true after all," Inuyasha shrugged. "And never used that move on Kagome. She used it on me," he grinned. He could hear nothing from the clearing except for the fire. Kagome must finally have fallen asleep. But when he entered the clearing, Inuyasha found himself wrong. Kagome wasn't there at all. He called out her name, his ears twitching as he listened for signs of her ailment again, but could find none. Then he realized that there was another scent in the clearing. He stopped dead in his tracks, his skin as cold as the heart of the woman he smelled. "Kikyo."

Miroku threw a sideways look at Inuyasha. "You mean Kagome." Miroku corrected.

He glared at his friend. "When I say Kikyo, I mean Kikyo; and when I say Kagome, I mean Kagome. Kikyo was here. I can smell her."

Miroku studied Inuyasha closely. Maybe life was really getting to him, Miroku thought, wondering if he shouldn't have gone on search for Sango alone. "Inuyasha, Kikyo has been dead for years. Kagome probably went to relieve herself in the bushes," he rationalized.

"I know," he agreed. "But I can smell her. She was here, Miroku. She was here when we were fighting Jakotsu. Her scent is fresh."

Inuyasha began to walk around the clearing, his silver-white hair hiding his face as he tried to put together what had happened. He stood on the side of the fire that looked slightly drier than the other. "She sat here. Kagome probably sat opposite her, where the grass looks a little greener. Eventually, Kikyo stood up, and walked towards Kagome. There were herbs...." The cup still lay by the fire, a canteen within arms reach of where Kagome had been sitting. "Then their scents mingle, and...." He looked up in the direction that his senses told him they walked off in. "And then they headed back for the road...."

Miroku watched Inuyasha with amazement. He never realized he could actually use his senses like that. "You picked all that up with your nose?" Miroku asked then considered the road. "They may be heading down to the castle where Sango is being kept." Miroku said thoughtfully, not believing the turns of bad luck they were having.

He nodded. "It's most definitely possible." A low growl escaped his throat. What the hell was Kikyo doing alive? More importantly: what was she doing with Kagome? Inuyasha began to pack up their camp, but glanced over at Miroku as he was rolling up Kagome's sleeping bag, confusion slipping out from behind the golden mask of his eyes. "I mean, she was dead, wasn't she? I heard, but.... I couldn't even get out of bed. What if she never really died and Sesshomaru tricked us all?"

Miroku couldn't bring himself to look at Inuyasha. Instead he busied himself with putting out the fire, his back to his friend. "I... She was dead Inuyasha." Miroku said the memory of Sesshomaru dragging her body on deck and then pulling her up to the crows nest, making everyone see her suddenly fresh in his mind. Sesshomaru had left her there for a whole afternoon like a flag, the sun burning away at her skin, before letting her down and throwing her overboard for the sharks and sea demons to eat. "She was dead," Miroku finished, his booted foot stomping out the embers.

Crackling his knuckles, he picked up the bag and Kagome's bow and arrow. He didn't really have any beef with whatever god or power was out there, he just wished that they would find someone else to fuck over for once. Inuyasha had had enough of it! All he wanted was to go home with his wife and live normally, or at least as normal as a half demon could live. 'Miroku's right. I have gotten soft.' Inuyasha quickly disappeared to get some more fresh water from the fishing river, and returned to thank the trees for sheltering them.

A wind suddenly picked up, and their branches swayed. The pale blew light of just after dawn swayed between green leaves, as the trees seemed to dance. Inuyasha stared at them, swearing that the trees were talking to them. He nudged Miroku gently, wondering if the monk knew what was going on with the forest. "Have you seen anything like this before?"

Miroku shook his head wondering himself what was going on. "No." He said at last, feeling an itch in his good hand to want to unwind the Buddha beads from his cursed one. "See? This is why I always hated this world and traveled back to the other. You don't know what the fuck is alive and with what fucking powers." Miroku muttered wondering where the wind was coming from. It seemed to be blowing at them from all directions. But that couldn't be, could it? "Inuyasha, I don't think it's the forest's doing." Miroku replied in low tones to his companion as he picked up his walking stick, nudging it now so that a blade popped out of the top, turning it into quite the weapon.

"Well, in that case I believe a hasty retreat is in order." Inuyasha was no coward, but he knew that a fight now would be more trouble than it was worth. He sniffed the air, finding the signature left behind by a walking ghost and his wife, and broke into a run, following the signature. When Miroku caught up, Inuyasha grinned at him. "Almost just like old times, no?"

Nobody was guarding Sango. Finally! She almost thanked them. She reached for her back, and found it just out of reach. She tried again, but still her fingers just managed to touch the fabric before the strain became too much. Sango looked around for something to give her an extra inch or two, before she heard what sounded like a cat. A pale, stripped cat like demon appeared, pushing the bags forward. Sango smiled and pulled her bags to her. The cat followed. "I don't know who or what you are, but thank you." She stroked the little demon, which purred and curled up on her lap as she began to sort through her bags.

Just because Sango was a demon hunter it didn't mean that she thought all demons were bad, after all. Finding some food, she gave some strips of meat to the cat before devouring a ration herself. Rations had never tasted so good. The demons had done a good job of disarming everything she had. Any thing with a blade was gone. But there was still an ace or two up her sleeve yet.

Pulling out her hairbrush, she cracked open the space between the bristles and the handle, careful not to cut herself on the hair that was hidden there. It had been saved from one of her encounters with Yura. Sango never had liked that demon. She grinned as she pulled it through the chains on her feet, almost laughing when the single hair slashed the chains in half. There was nothing she could do about the manacles now, but at least she was free.

Once all the chains were off, Sango placed the cat on the ground, but the cat leapt up and stayed on her shoulder. Sango smiled as the demon meowed. She used the hair to cut the lock, and then carefully put it away. There was no way she could carry all her belongings with her, so she had placed the most important ones into the smallest back, and then slung it over her shoulder. She stepped out into freedom, or at least slight freedom. Sango glanced at the cat. "I don't suppose you know where I can get myself a sword, do you?"

"It's a demon cat. It meows. Doesn't talk." A seductive feminine voice spoke. Standing on the opposite side of the hall from her, Kagura stood there with her kimono draped over her seductively, her fan tipping over her shoulder thoughtfully. "You surprised me by getting this far. Now it's time to go back to your cell." Kagura said, smiling wickedly before spreading her fan open and waving it in one fluid movement at Sango, the wind rippling through the hall practically tearing the moss off of the old stones, aimed directly for her and her newfound pet.

Sango swore and jumped back into the cell, letting the wave pass her by. Kirara meowed, as if trying to get her attention. The moment it was gone, Sango bolted out of the cell and started running, not toward Kagura, but away. Her steps were fast, her heels never even touching the ground. Sango ran like a human cheetah, turning down the first hallway she could find as another wave of wind crashed into the dead end wall. 'A weapon could really be nice!' her mind screamed, knowing she could do little with her bare hands against a demon.

Kagura sighed. "I hate it when they are persistent." Kagura murmured and closed her fan. Walking slowly after Sango, the ultimate predator taking her time, Kagura came upon Sango with an arched brow. "Do you have a death wish?" Kagura asked smiling cruelly, swinging her fan once more in Sango's direction. "You can run as fast as you want, but darling, I control the winds. You can't out run them." Kagura reminded viciously.

Sango dodged the attack, slamming rather roughly against the walls. Her hair stung her face as they whipped around her. Kagura's attacks wouldn't be so damn hard if the dungeon didn't act like a wind tunnel! Sango smiled grimly. "You're absolutely right, Kagura. You do control the winds." And right before they came, that damned fan moved. She darted forward with bawled fists, planning on knocking the accursed fan out of her hand.

Kagura smiled a slightly dry, yet highly amused smile. It barely registered on her thinly lined lips. With a simple twitch of her fingers to the fan's hilt, Kagura sent another gust of wind rushing down the hall. "The only reason you aren't dead yet, is because I got orders you are not to die before the public execution, now be a dear and give up." Kagura said in her low, yet rich voice.

The wind caught her and slammed her into a wall. Her head hit it hard, and she saw stars. Touching the back of her head lightly, Sango winced. It hurt but she didn't feel any blood. Sango picked herself back up, wondering where the cat had run off to. She hoped it was safe. "You hide behind that fan of yours, Kagura. Too scared to take me on hand to hand?"

"No. I just don't want to filthy my nails with you." Kagura said simply and noted the little albino girl all clad in white appear on the opposite side of the hall, sporting a small mirror between her hands, sufficiently trapping Sango between the two. "I suggest you head into your cell. Kanna's mirror is known to suck in souls."

She was practically sulking as she glanced between them, before her shoulder sagged. "All right. I'm going, I'm going." Sango started heading back to her cell, defeated, but only temporarily.

Kikyo swept up to the throne triumphantly, gently placing Kagome's body down on the ground so that Naraku could see that she had been careful not to hurt his prize. She smiled as she hovered over Kagome's body, the affects of her brew starting to wear off. "It was easy, Your Majesty. They had left her all alone, as you said they would. It was like they let me take her. And knowing Inuyasha, he probably did let me take you...."

She brushed past Kagome and knelt beside the throne, laying her head on his lap as she stared at Kagome's weak, and curled form. "Look at her. She really does act like his bitch, even waiting patiently at home for her master to arrive, never realizing he abandoned you...."

Naraku's face was an expressionless work of art, statuesque like in its coldness. He didn't waver or move, as his fathomless eyes looked down upon the prone body. To be so close to such power, was exhilarating. He imagined that Kikyo in her day gave off the same amount of power, but for some reason he doubted with this much purity. Reaching out with his aura to touch the Priestess's he could taste the purity, the richness of the innocence, and the easiness of corruption. "It is the mother's heart that rules before the babes," Naraku mused aloud, then held out to Kikyo a sliver of a shard. It was black as pitch. "You've done well. Impressed me," he said unsympathetically. "Now place this to her forehead, wait until her skin consumes it."

She stared at the black shard, gently taking it. Her lips pouted slightly, wishing for more attention than 'you've impressed me', but knowing she would receive none. Her hair moved about her face like black water, and she stared up at her prettily, like a captured dove that had been all too willing to be caged. "Why, my Lord? What is it?"

"It is a powerful tool," Naraku answered dismissingly. "It will help us control her," Naraku explained, his bottomless eyes suddenly gathering a spark of amusement in them. "You do wish to toy with her, do you not?" he asked, his cruelty and malice shinning in his dark black eyes.

"Of course I do," she answered indignantly, her pride and power back for a second. It was forgotten as she glided like a puppet down to Kagome, placing the jewel on the other priestess's forehead and holding it there until the girl's flesh seemed to seep over it, letting the jewel become a part of her, the potion Kikyo had given her keeping her from protesting at the union of jewel and body. She stood up, staring down at the body with dead eyes. "I want a new toy...."

"Then play with her. The only way that shard works is to feed off of fears, hates, and darkness in one's heart," Naraku said watching Kikyo with a stony expression. "In each human being, there is such a darkness. Even in her bright and cheerful one," Naraku commented, his eyes half lidded, looking bored, almost tired. "Her heart is now consumed by weakness," Naraku said his pupils focusing now on the once dead Priestess. "The same weakness that took your life- Inuyasha. She can hear you, but she can not fight you. Why don't you tell her all about her beloved?" Naraku offered, his voice dull with boredom.

Toying with her fingers for a moment, she thought about what to say. Kikyo would have preferred to do this without Naraku staring down at her, but she would take what she could get. Kikyo knelt beside Kagome, her voice almost soothing, but hardening quickly.

"He kidnapped me the same way he kidnapped you. He barged into my house, and took me from my home, from everything I knew. When I awoke he was standing over me, looking at me like I was a piece of meat. When he saw you he wanted you, wanted to own you. Did he even tell you about me? About what he did to me, about what he did to this body? No, he keeps them in his sick little mind so he can replay them whenever he wants." She grinned cruelly. "The same way that the time when he shattered your wrist replays in his mind every day. Every night you consummate your marriage, he has that thought, feeling the power that came from the moment your bones snapped in just one of his hands. And do you know why? Because he knows that if you ever don't please him, he can do it again, that when he tires of your moans, he can hear your screams, because you're weak...."

Kagome's eyes flashed open as she stared up at Kikyo and shook her head, as though that alone could shake those sickening vile lies, that spread like a spider web off her.

"More. She is steadfast in her beliefs." Naraku's voice sounded like soft thunder through the room.

Kikyo nodded, and her voice became a gentle purr, almost soothing, hypnotizing in pronunciation and delivery. "You were his pet. He even admitted it to you. 'Yeah, that's right. I had my kicks, and now you're getting kicked out'," she said, quoting Inuyasha from their first major fight, the night after the storm. "Were his kicks even worth it? You said he was a horrible lover, and he was, wasn't it? He never took the initiative for himself. He barely knew where to stick it the first time you had sex. 'It hurt too much with your fumbling on top of me.' Don't you recall what happened the one time you fought back? You told him how much you hated him, and he glared at you. Do you recall seeing the anger in his eyes, anger at his PET acting up? He ripped off your clothes and flung them on the bed. How many other women on the pirate ship do you think had their lives end that way? But this just aroused you, made you want him more. What do you think would have happened if you had not been so willing? He would have raped you, without a single qualm for how you really felt. 'Stop'. Isn't that what you said when you first had sex? But did he stop? 'We can't do this'. But you did it."

Naraku's eyes narrowed. He knew Kikyo had evil and emptiness festering in her soul, but he hadn't believed she could use it to her advantage. Naraku then made a note to himself not to underestimate the once dead Priestess. Midnight eyes watched, fixed as one female worked her clawing evil on the other. Two women fighting over one male... Naraku allowed a dry smile. He really didn't have to bother with the Inu siblings. The women connected to them will shatter them both from either end and side.

Raising his eyes, Naraku saw the small petite figure clad in white standing on the far side of the wall, her mirror tightly between her tiny hands, reflecting the scenes that had taken place over the sea.

Naraku's eyes seemed to darken if possible, with malice and hardly noticeable pleasure. He remained in his seat, leaning back against the hard back of it and watched with morbid interest how Kikyo tore into the woman's worries. They were Kikyo's own, her reflected over feelings from when she was alive that remained in her, he knew. Yet he still found himself impressed with how she shifted the hate and pain from her former existence to this woman's current one.

Kagome's eye stared up at Kikyo. A deep emotion beginning to brew inside them, even as self doubt gnawed at her belief and defenses. "It... Wasn't... Like... That... He wouldn't... Hurt me!" Kagome managed to gasp out, her powers raging in attempt to break the spell, her will power fighting against the evil words being thrown at her, while her heart was slowly starting to give way. But when she felt a sudden surge of warmth run through her, at the memory of the boat, the boat where their child was consumed Kagome's spirits were built back up. "You know nothing!" she yelled, sweat beads building on her brow from the excretion.

"Oh, but it did hurt you, little Kagome," Kikyo cooed. "And then he told you that he had been a virgin when he took you to his bed. A virgin! You were twice an idiot for not realizing that he was lying. He took the boundary from my body the same way he took yours, only you were at least willing at the time! He took mine as my blood dripped on the floor, and my throat was already too scratched to scream!"

Kagome's eyes widened as they stared up at Kikyo. She looked so alive, so real, the pain in her eyes so genuine... Kagome almost found herself believing her. She couldn't speak, instead she just whimpered and shook her head. The toll for using so much magic in attempt to break the spell was getting to her. Her breathing hard, Kagome swallowed loudly and shook her head. "NO!" She managed to scream, but inside the voice of self-doubt was getting louder, not as easy to ignore anymore.

He is a demon after all, and he was a pirate. Remember how he broke into your house? Remember how he said he gave the girls to Kouga? Remember his treatment? The threat of being thrown over board to the sharks, do you actually think a man like him would wait until he found the perfect one? Would wait until his heart sang like yours? He would stick it anywhere. A man who had no qualms about stealing a woman from her bedroom at night, wouldn't have any problems raping one senseless.

Kagome's heart answered back meekly, but still forcefully. I believe in MY heart. It wouldn't lie. I have always had the best judgment of people. I can tell when they are evil, and he isn't... He's good... He stayed.

Until he's bored with you.

"Because of your compliance, because of your weakness, you're now pregnant. Has he told you how he feels? As he told you what he wants? No. He doesn't talk to you about it all, because he doesn't know who the father is. 'Chances are it's mine'. Chances are, Kagome? He must think of the baby as a lottery, eager to see if the babe will be his or his brother's! Oh yes, Kagome, you were raped, that much his true. What will you do when the child belongs to Sesshomaru? You know that the child is his. Sesshomaru is the stronger of the brothers, his seed is more potent. What will Inuyasha do when the child has your fair skin and the marking of the demon lord? He'll kill the babe. Why would he want to raise the son of his half brother, born from the stomach of his own wife? Inuyasha will kill the child. Think of how easily he snapped your wrist! How easy will he snap the neck of your babe?"

Kagome could feel the spell breaking through her barriers, its poison seeping into her. Making her mind muddled, causing her to feel dirty... Forcing her to lose touch with herself and fall into a dark abyss.

"Chances are?" Kagome remembered yelling at him. Her lids feeling heavy, they fell over her watery eyes. "Chances are..." She remembered the pain in his eyes when he saw her, was it pain for her though?

No. It was pain that his pet had been played with without permission. His brother got a go at the goods.

But... He didn't...

Really? How long did you ache for? Are you going to say it was all from how rough your husband - the voice inside of her whispered mockingly - fucked you? You remember the terror, don't you? The pain... How you wished you were dead. How he pressed against you and tore into you.

He tore into the bite... Into the bite!

Is that all he tore into? The voice cackled.

Kagome's eyes shot open and she stared emptily at Kikyo. Her wrist hurting as though Inuyasha had just broken it.

He didn't mean to though.

Didn't he? You know how rough he likes to be. How strong he is. How he loses himself in the bed. Remember him when he was human? He was a demon. He cannot ever become human. Only the most powerful of demons can turn their looks to those of human nature. That's what he did. He wasn't human. He was a full demon. He was a demon plundering you.

He loves me. He would never hurt me.

HE ALREADY HAS! The voice rattled through her, shattering all that remained of her resistance, of her powers, of her denial. Letting out a scream of pure pain, heartbreak and an aching loss, Kagome fell back limply against the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

The babe isn't his. It's Sesshomaru's. Sesshomaru was at least honest with you from the first minute, he wanted to pain you and he has, in the worst way. You are carrying his child, his heir. And your beloved husband will slaughter the baby the second the cord is cut, before he has taken his second breath, he'll eat him like a demon. He'll murder him. And probably kill you too afterwards, for being so willful with another.

Do you really want to condemn your babe to such a fate? Her broken, fragment missing heart taunted. Kill it now. Before he can. Before the monster you have slept with, the monster everyone else recognized but you will kill.

"He loves me..." Kagome cried, only then realizing when she felt the tears that had run down her cheeks and drop onto her shoulders, that she was in fact crying.

Kikyo arched an eyebrow, staring at the weeping woman, wondering just how deeply her resolve would really go. Her soft voice did not relent. "He'll become the demon you saw when he fought his brother, the one that started slipping through the façade he wore when he shared your bed, and he will beat you again. He will strike you so hard you will collapse to the floor and not be able to move. You will beg for him to stop, crying, and he will take your sign of weakness as proof of his dominion over you, a dominion even over the spirit he claims to love. And this time, when he grabs you and starts to squeeze, do you think you will be so lucky? If he's merciful his hands will close around your neck and send you to the underworld with your newborn child. But he wants a babe of his own, of his own seed, with your power, and your easily given compliance.

"Inuyasha will rip off your clothes, towering over you like the master he forced you to call him when he showed you off to his friends, even letting them hurt you and grope you like a mangy cur. You'll beg and cry, but it will do no good, and then the bastard will bite you again, proving his dominion as he lets your life force drip out of you like he did to me, leaking out all your power so that you can do nothing when he slams your wrists above your head with one hand, letting the other hand seek what he wants, touching you and toying with you until your body submits and he can easily enter you, not wanting to hurt that region of you too much so that it will open easily for him whenever he looks at you the right way."

Pained eyes stared ahead. Remembering how wonderful it felt when he lay with her. Remembering the passion and lust she felt at the sight of him. Remembering the pain that shot through her like an arrow when he pierced her and broke her wrist. Remembering how he stood aside as his shipmates gathered round. Remembered it all... From a different light. How weak she had felt after his first bite, how he 'apologized' for the bite thinking it only meant dominion, how he had clamped her hands over her head, and again that painful crush of the wrist.

He wouldn't hurt me, Kagome wanted to spit at the woman and claw her eyes out for her mangy lies.

But he has. The voice reminded.

Not on purpose! Kagome wailed.

How do you know? Just because he said? And next time, when he throws you against the wall, with enough force to cause another crack to run through the ceiling of your kitchen only this time your head will bang against the wall, but it of course, won't be on purpose, no never, who would want to damage the goods? What then? Will it be alright? Is this the love you dreamt of?

He loves me, I remember his looks... His words... How warm, the way his heart beat, he couldn't...

Do you remember the animal he was when facing off with his brother?

Yes.

Then why go by the cover of the book? It's obviously a misleading one.

"Stop..." Kagome managed to beg at last, both to the voice and Kikyo.

She clicked her tongue, only her anger left, and her soothing voice haunting in the still room. "How many times have you been weak enough to have gotten caught in that position? One, when you were caught. Two, with Sesshomaru. Three, when you tried to retaliate and he refused to let you by proving he could control your sex. When he wants to hear you scream, do you think that you can escape from him, even though you never have? 'You know you want this, so just say it'. But you didn't want it, did you? 'You ruined it all.' That's what you told him, shouted at him as he held you to the bed, pumping away at you, heedless of your own pleasures and only of his much he wanted you two want him.

"Hasn't he said that to you? 'Say my name'. He likes knowing that he's the one that makes you moan, that he's the one who holds your pathetic life in your hands. Yes, for a moment you were smart enough to realize that names held power, and that by moaning his as he itemized you, you were encouraging him, willing to give into the demands of his body because you needed filling, denied that sexual power that any priestess is given. Yet you opened a flood gate, and now you have to close it."

"Save the life of your child. Save yourself from dying at the hands of the man you called 'master', of the man who relishes the power to snap your wrists."

Kagome felt weak. Her power drained. Her will power deceased. Her heart broken. Kagome's eyes averted away but seemed drawn back to the haunting woman.

Her baby, she had a life in her... She had to protect it. That was a Priestess's job. To protect life. She had to protect the baby. She had to. Even if she was a ruined Priestess, broken by the wanton nature of humans, giving into temptations of the flesh and enjoying them. Sleeping with a demon. Marrying one. Kagome whined and bit her lower lip. She had to free herself, protect herself and the baby. "How?" she asked at last, seeing the Priestess above her shine bright, like a guiding light. "How do I escape him?"

Kikyo finally smiled, and glanced at Naraku before she knew what she had to do. "Go to Sesshomaru, my little Kagome. Do not tell him that you bear his child in your flesh. No, simply tell him that you now have a common enemy. Tell him you want to see your husband dead. Sesshomaru will no longer see you as an enemy, but as an enemy to his nemesis, his half brother, making you an ally. And a welcome ally at that! Prove to him that you are not as weak as you think. Leave him! Flee!"

She reached out and gently began to brush Kagome's head, acting like a big sister to the disheartened Priestess. "Oh, he will try to take you back. He will apologize. He will cry, and beg, and mean none of it. And then you will torture him in the same that he tortured him. Hurt him for every time that he hurt you. Make him bleed."

Each word was rigid with determination, and Kikyo longed that it would be her mouth that would smile at Inuyasha's demise, her eyes that would see his blood stain the floor, her ears that would hear him weep. But it was Kagome's fate to kill him, and hers to help push them for it, to be the free shoulder Kagome could cry on before she took up arms and slaughtered the other half of her soul.

That was enough to shift Kagome's determination. "But," Kagome began in a soft whisper, her eyes looking up at her woefully. To leave him? Yes, now, as soon as possible. To look for refuge with the true father of her babe? Perhaps. He would raise the demon lord and not kill him. But to kill Inuyasha? For all of the pain he caused her and would, she still could not bring herself to do it. To wish for his death? Neither.

Feeling the shift in the power cocoon surrounding her, Naraku's eyes left the scene and turned to Kanna.

Kanna, wordlessly stepped over to Kagome and kneeled down beside her, opposite of Kikyo. Holding her mirror up for view. "Look and remember." The girl said in a hauntingly crystal clear, pure, particularly young, voice. When the soft murmur dulled, the images began to appear and Kagome was transfixed. Watching with horror as her wrist broke easily in his hand, how he snarled and yelled at her, seeing how he bit into her from a different angle, seeing how he lapped up the blood, seeing his demon aura pound- Why hadn't she felt it when he bit?- Kagome saw, all the pain he had caused her and then finally saw as he plunged in and caused her to scream in pain, the after thought to that being the blood left covering the sheets.

Still, Kagome feeling all this pain could not wish him anything more then distance. Never seeing him again. She would give the babe to the brother, she would run and hide herself away, leave everything never to return to him, but to wish him dead? "I can't," Kagome whispered, her shoulders shaking as she cried harder.

"Not yet you can't," Kikyo agreed, sounding compassionate, while underneath she was a mixture of frustration and eagerness at the prospect of being able to finish off Inuyasha himself. "But one day this duty will befall upon you, Kagome. You will be able to complete your destiny one day, when he stands in front of you and threatens you with Kaede, saying that if he could not have a child of power born to him by a fully educated Priestess, than an adept would make do. Or should you wake up one night when your babe screams and Inuyasha is leaning over their crib, then you can find the power to draw your bow. A threat like him cannot live, or he will take all his anger and sexual frustrations that his precious pet can no longer take out on everyone you care of."

She wanted to crawl away and die. She wanted to hide and hum, never to hear these words. "He wouldn't... I'll hide... The babe will be his brother's.. I..." Kagome felt a sudden pain in her abdomen and she doubled over, flexing into a human knot on the floor.

Naraku stood then, his cold eyes narrowed and focused. "Enough." He said simply and turned to one of the lesser goblin like demons, motioning them to collected the shattered form. "Take her away," Naraku ordered and turned to Kikyo. "The spell wore her out, she cannot stand more or her body will begin fighting back. Let her rest for now, the seeds were sewn, give them time to take root," he said, the thin line of his mouth, tipping up a bit, in a dry smile. "By tomorrow she will be hungry for his blood. You do have patience, until tomorrow, don't you?"

Kanna stepped back, her head bowed. Snow white bangs and wisps of hair falling over her shoulders, hiding her face as the mirror dimmed out to a regular reflective surface.

"I've waited for years. Another day will be nothing." Once again Kikyo tried to draw Naraku's attention to her, eager for another kind word or a touch. She sank by him, again putting her chin on his leg, her brown eyes eager. "Did I do good? Tell me I played her expertly, my King. What can I do now to serve you, your Majesty?" Kikyo slowly began to smile. "Or is it that you who know must act in your grand plan? Are you going to visit her tonight, my lord?"

Naraku's hand idly went to Kikyo's head, stroking her hair like a master would stroke his dog. "Yes," Naraku said darkly, watching a demon carry the unconscious priestess away. "There are many evils to me. Tonight, she will meet one of them."