Author's Note: I generally dislike author's notes, but I feel that one aspect of Broken may need some clarification. This piece contains numerous flashbacks, which I have designated with line breaks. Scene changes within the flashbacks are marked with three dashes (---).
Special thanks to my invaluable beta, Jade Sabre.
Thanks for reading.
"To die and part is a less evil; but to part and live, there, there is the torment." -George Lansdowne
The sky was grey.
Kagome liked it that way, she decided—that is, she didn't dislike it, and it really amounted to the same thing. The grey matched her mood as if commiserating with her, and she was grateful that she didn't have to depart under a blue sky. Even the woods around her seemed dulled under the force of her emotions, and the wooden well in front of her blended with the soil and dust until it was nearly unidentifiable. In fact, real color could only be found on the girl herself, looped on a chain around her neck.
The Shikon no Tama glowed a muted pink against her collarbone, pulsing gently with the girl's every heartbeat. A hand crept up and clutched the jewel, hiding its soft light from view.
As uncertain as she was, there was one thing she knew beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt.
She hated the thing.
It was implacable, inflexible, almost cruel in its unwavering purpose. She wanted to crush it into a thousand pieces again, regardless of what she would inflict on the world around her. Nothing she might cause could possibly amend the damage the jewel had done to her, and her fingers tightened reflexively. But weak human hands could not shatter what they had mended.
The jewel had told her in no uncertain terms that she was to wait.
She waited.
The dry leaves behind her did not rustle under a footstep, but the slumped shoulders in the schoolgirl uniform suddenly stiffened. A woman's voice echoed oddly in the emptiness of the clearing.
"Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?"
Kagome sighed, but did not turn. "Yes, Sango. I'll say it now though, if you like. To both you and Miroku."
The rings on the monk's shakujou rang softly, but the sound was eerie and uncomfortable. "You cannot grieve like this, Kagome. It is not how we want you to leave."
The black hair rippled as the girl looked up at the sullen sky. "Of course not," she whispered. "Pardon my rudeness."
The clouds blurred together.
Sango screamed.
It was a high, keening sound, painful to hear and worse to watch. Kohaku swiftly reined in his blade, ignoring the sick tearing sound as the sickle lacerated her stomach for the second time. He prepared for another throw, tensing his limbs and gripping his weapon. Suddenly, he swung his arm forward, and the curved blade flew at her. Sango was quick, and she forced her wounded body to jump aside, dodging not only that throw but the one that followed as well. However, she misjudged the landing on her second jump and fell heavily to her knees, flinging her arms out for balance. Kohaku took advantage of her momentary weakness, and the chain wrapped tightly around her shoulder.
Sango froze, magenta-lined eyes meeting those of the living dead. The boy tested the tautness of the chain.
"Kohaku, please."
A tear coursed down her cheek.
The dead eyes narrowed. Fingers tensed and an unspoken apology passed between them. Sango closed her eyes.
Kohaku ripped her arm off.
Then, with a quick motion, he jerked on the bloodied chain. The blade sang back towards its owner, but Kohaku did not watch it. He merely stared at the silver links in his palm.
Suddenly, he straightened, and the chain dropped from his hand to the ground. He reached over his shoulder-so far he thought his arm was breaking- and felt the sharp point of a terrible curse. He fingered the shard, grasped, pulled--
The blade was still screaming towards him. He remained completely still—only his startlingly clear eyes flickered, locked onto the motionless body of the exterminator.
"Sister," he said.
Then he didn't say anything at all, because he was smiling and he was free and how could he have ever forgotten his ane-ue?
The little pink shard floated for a moment before it plummeted to the ground.
Kohaku fell backwards with the tip of the kusarigama embedded between his peaceful eyes.
Kagome unclenched her fist. She had broken the skin, she noted absently, and wiped the blood from her palm on her skirt.
"You shouldn't sully that skirt, Kagome." The smile was evident in the monk's voice. "It becomes you more without the stains."
The shakujou sounded again, and this time she could hear the monk's feet in the dead leaves.
She made a sharp, involuntary motion with her hand. "Don't."
Miroku wrenched himself free of his tentacled prison with an inhuman effort and limped as quickly as he could towards the fallen taijiya. He fell to his knees beside her, cradling her face in one hand as best he could. The other hand, the beaded one, rested gently on her shredded stomach.
"Don't leave me, Sango. You-" he choked, "you promised to bear my children."
Her eyes flickered open, heavy-lidded and unfocused. Brown eyes brushed his tearing ones. "I remember. Was it t-ten or twenty?"
Miroku's face constricted. He tried to smile. "Something like that. I know you're an honorable woman, Sango. You would not want to break your word."
She tried to sigh, but ended up coughing instead. Blood dribbled on the corner of her mouth, and somehow, Miroku found that infinitely more terrifying than her visible organs. When she could breathe again, she smirked weakly, gasping as she talked. "Of… course. We both… know you want… to keep my honor intact... That's why you… grope me, houshi… sama."
"Say my name. Please."
The woman in his arms shifted, twitching in pain. "What?"
"Please..."
Her eyes softened. She took a breath.
Then she died.
---
Miroku stood, pulling off his rosary and facing Naraku even as a dark corner of his brain warned him that this time there would be no happy ending. He acknowledged this, reveled in the fact that he would not face a life without Sango.
He tossed the rosary to one side. He wouldn't need it anymore.
"Kazaana!"
The black hole churned, devouring the few bits of rock and dirt remaining on the barren landscape, pulling in the saimyoushou that darted around their master, protecting him with their poisonous lives even as they died.
Miroku's arm turned a streaked, mottled purple, the poison leeching his life from him as steadily as the kazaana pulled in the insects. Naraku, unaffected by the winds coursing around him, looked at him unflinchingly.
"Foolish monk. I cannot be consumed by the curse I bestowed upon you." Naraku flung a tentacle into the gaping void. He thickened it until it plugged the hole; still, the tentacle grew wider. It strained and then split the flesh surrounding it until the tentacle encompassed the width of the monk's palm.
Miroku's eyes clenched shut.
Naraku severed the tentacle, allowing it to be sucked into what was no longer Miroku's hand, but a maelstrom, black and angry and ravenous. Miroku's outline blurred, lengthened until he screamed.
Then the monk disappeared into his own hand, and nothing remained but a smoking crater and a discarded rosary.
"Goodbye, Miroku," Kagome said flatly, breaking the silence. The shakujou clinked softly in response, and the monk was gone.
Kagome held still a moment; then she yanked the jewel from her neck, throwing it to the ground in fury. "Do you think this is funny?" she shrieked. "Is this some great big joke to you? I already saw this! I was there when they all died! I watched every single one of them be murdered-" she broke herself off, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes.
Do not weep.
"I'm not."
You need to understand.
"I do."
You need to understand.
"I do!"
You need to understand.
"I understand!"
You need to understand.
Kagome screamed, tears streaming down her face. "Naraku! Let me out! Stop it!"
The youkai half-turned to her, her prison suspended forty feet above the ground by his tentacles and well away from the battle. "Miko, you will cease this outcry or I will end the lives of your remaining friends."
"Leave them alone, you monster!"
Naraku's eyes narrowed. He returned his attention to the battlefield, mentally evaluating his progress. The monk and taijiya were dead, fallen within minutes of each other. One of his tentacles had skewered not only the fire-cat but the kitsune child cowering behind her, and their eyes were glazed in death together.
He smirked. One of his more amusing tricks.
The wolf-prince youkai was a crumpled heap below Kagome's cage. Naraku had blown miasma at Sesshoumaru, only to have the dog lord deflect it with Tenseiga, propelling it back towards him. Of course, it had no effect, but instead was magnified as it passed through Naraku's essence a second time. It gusted behind him from the force of Sesshoumaru's blow.
He had been somewhat amused to hear the choked gasp of surprise behind him- as if the wolf really thought he was capable of stealth against this Naraku.
He wasn't entirely sure if the youkai was dead yet, but with the amount and concentration of the miasma that the wolf-prince had been exposed to, Naraku had no doubts that the wolf would not be among the living much longer.
He had dealt with Sesshoumaru as well. The little brat that followed him, the human girl, had foolishly wandered from her toad's protection and directly into the hands of Naraku.
He had stolen her soul. He had enhanced her strength.
And he sent her after Sesshoumaru.
His saimyoushou reported a day later that the girl had managed to complete her task. The dog lord had not acknowledged her as a threat, had not recognized his danger, until she had stabbed him with a blade Naraku had prepared.
Then she slit her own throat.
Sesshoumaru, of course, had not been mortally wounded. A poisoned dagger could not harm him seriously, and his own pride would not allow him to die at the hands of a human.
No, Naraku did not intend for the dog lord to die. He wanted to draw him out.
Naraku always got what he wanted.
A stick broke as Kagome dropped to her knees. She tilted her head up, took a deep breath, and screamed with all the fury and rage she could muster. Tinted power crackled beneath her closed eyelids and her hands, pressed against the dead leaves, sparked and left ash in their wake.
After an eternity, Kagome allowed her voice to peter out. She reined in the majority of the energy, allowing the tattered remnants to dissolve into the air. It left behind a sweet smell.
Her frustration spent, Kagome bent and scooped up the Shikon no Tama.
She brought the jewel to eye level and gazed at it passively. "What do you want from me?"
Pink turned to a gentle rose, and a woman spoke from within the jewel.
I need you to understand.
"How?"
You must listen.
"To what?"
To the past.
The sphere expanded until it was all she could see.
Tenseiga strained under the weight of Naraku's attack. Kagome wasn't quite sure what the attack was- she'd never seen it before- but it seemed to work just as well as a sword against the dog demon. Stroke after stroke had been thrust and parried, and now the two were locked in a standoff. Sesshoumaru's kimono had been shredded during the conflict, allowing Kagome to see the stiff, prominent tendons in his arm.
She could also see Sesshoumaru sweating.
Naraku said something to the youkai and Sesshoumaru's eyes glowed red. In the fraction of an instant when the dog lord let down his guard, Naraku sent a surge of power coursing through his arms, and the space between them glowed so brightly that Kagome had to look away.
When she could see again, Naraku stood triumphantly over Sesshoumaru's limp form. Tenseiga lay shattered next to him.
The dog lord never rose again.
---
Suddenly, a tingle in the corner of her mind alerted Kagome to Inuyasha's approach. She whirled in her suspended prison and spotted him as he emerged over a hilltop- a splash of white against the bloody landscape. However, when a second blur appeared beside him, she thought she was seeing double and rubbed her eyes furiously. She peered closer and recognized the dark head that topped the new individual's slim, feminine body.
Kikyou.
For a moment, Kagome felt slightly off balance, but recovered under a sweeping sense of relief that purged her of her uncertainty. A fully trained miko was here- surely Kikyou was more than capable of dealing with Naraku, especially with Inuyasha's aid. The monstrosity would be eradicated, and then...
She didn't know what she would do after that. Already, the void from Sango and Miroku's deaths was eating away at her, leaving emptiness as deadly as the monk's kazaana. She wasn't sure she could ever fill it again… or if she would even want to.
Kagome's eyes followed the hanyou's determined face. Only once did he glance up at her, and she gave him a trembling smile. He had an unreadable look in his golden eyes. Kikyou did not react to Kagome's presence at all. Kagome suspected that the miko was focused solely on Naraku…
…Who, at that precise moment, was watching Inuyasha stride forward with a peculiar smile. The dog demon stopped twenty feet from Naraku and drew Tetsusaiga in a brilliant flash of yellow light. When he finally spoke, it was in a low guttural growl. Kagome flinched at the sheer, primal ferocity that Inuyasha was barely holding in.
"I'm here, Naraku. Now hold up your end of the bargain."
Kagome froze. 'What? What could Naraku have possibly have offered Inuyasha that he would want?'
And yet, when the malevolent eyes of absolute evil turned in her direction, Kagome knew.
He broke more than bodies.
"I know," Kagome whispered.
He broke your spirit.
"Yes."
He broke his spirit.
"Yes."
He did not break his vow.
Kagome's eyes dropped to her lap. "That hurt the worst… of all the things he'd done…" She fisted her hands, and suddenly she didn't know quite who she was talking about anymore.
With a sickening slurp, Naraku withdrew the tentacles forming her prison, sucking them into his body as if they'd never existed. Kagome fell heavily to the ground, the jarring thump temporarily robbing her of her senses. She lay with her eyes closed, her ears roaring. She struggled desperately to breathe.
After an eternity, Kagome managed to raise her head and direct her unfocused eyes toward the two hanyous, but all she could see was a blur.
A red smudge was standing very close to a black smudge; she belatedly identified them as Inuyasha and Naraku. Something was wrong- why wasn't he holding Tetsusaiga- where was Kikyou?
Sudden movement from Naraku, and Inuyasha was flying through the air-
Falling-
He impacted the ground with enough force that the ground quivered beneath her. Kagome strained to move and managed to pull herself to her knees. "Inuyasha," she called, but she couldn't hear the sound of her own voice.
Too quickly, Naraku was beside the prostrate hanyou, and another blow sent him tumbling back towards Kagome. She could see he was conscious, and she struggled to her feet unsteadily. Her jerky movement was quickly arrested by a pair of hands enfolding themselves securely around her neck. They weren't tight enough to restrict her breathing, but Kagome knew that she was completely in this person's power.
"Kikyou," she breathed, sensing the sudden aura of miko power.
She was spun violently until she faced the dead miko. "Kikyou…"
Kikyou began to speak, but Kagome could barely hear her. She dropped her eyes to the miko's chin, lip-reading.
"Do not interfere, copy. This is between Naraku and me. We have made a pact, and your interference can no longer affect its outcome."
"I don't understand."
The world twirled, and once again, Kagome found herself facing the battlefield. Inuyasha was a bloody heap between Naraku's feet. Naraku kicked him maliciously, but the hanyou barely raised his shoulders before slumping back to the dirt. One of Naraku's tentacles twitched beside Inuyasha and withdrew with an unsheathed, untransformed Tetsusaiga.
Kikyou whispered directly into her ear, her breath cold against the side of Kagome's face. "We have struck a deal. Naraku will free you. Inuyasha will not fight, and Naraku will kill him."
Naraku held the scratched and scarred blade of Tetsusaiga threateningly over Inuyasha's neck. Kagome's blood turned to ice.
"Inuyasha will come to hell with me."
Naraku smiled. Kagome's breath came in rapid pants- hyperventilating.
"He dies."
Silver flashed. 'No, please no, this can't be happening…'
"You live."
Inuyasha's head rolled to a stop at Naraku's feet.
Kagome's world disappeared in blinding light.
"He didn't break his word," Kagome whispered, soft as the leaves rustling above her. "He let me go, and he killed Inuyasha for Kikyou so they could go to hell together. And Naraku got to rid the world of his favorite enemies in one fell swoop."
You gained something in return for Kikyou's second death.
"I lost more."
Kagome stood still, vaguely watching the miko disintegrate before her eyes. 'I didn't know mikos could be purified.' She'd let loose a shocking amount of energy when Inuyasha had died. It had thrust Kikyou away from her roughly, and as she landed she began to crumble into dust.
She had a smile on her lips as her face turned to dry clay.
Suddenly, Kikyou's inanimate bodybegan to glow brightly as the hundreds of souls needed to sustain her corpse were released. They soared over the distant treetops and out of sight, presumably to return to their former owners. Kagome didn't really care. The flow quickly slackened considerably, eventually becoming a slow trickle. Finally, the last light left Kikyou's body, and with a start, Kagome realized that it was the remnants of her own soul. It hovered a moment over the decaying miko, then slammed into her chest and left her shaking.
Something snapped loose violently within her. Kagome was rigid, unable to immediately handle this new, unfamiliar strength coursing through her body. White fire sparked and cracked from her feet and hands. She was terrified and elated-
Invincible.
Fire flooded Kagome's veins, and she turned to face Naraku. She took a step, ignoring the charred ash left behind in her footsteps. All she touched burned, leaving a dark streak in her wake. Her strength crackled and burned white, lancing out into the air around her and giving her an unearthly halo of lightning. No longer were her eyes human; they too flickered with white-hot anger. Every inch of her being bled with miko power.
And she knew how to use it.
---
Naraku saw her coming.
"Is it finally time, my little miko?" His tentacles retracted until his form appeared completely human. Cold eyes smiled at white-hot ones.
Hundreds of women's voices answered him, all coming from Kagome's throat. "It is time."
---
Branches of light arced away from Kagome's glowing form, wrapping themselves around Naraku's extremities. He was lifted off the ground, twisted until his head should have popped off. He hung there for an eternity, twisting, writhing in a scalding grip as strong as steel.
Kagome created another arm of white lightning twice as thick as the others. She grasped the base of it and hugged it to her, leaving her hands free. She closed her eyes, using every available scrap of power to strengthen it. Sweat broke out across her forehead as the extension of purity began to burn her exposed skin, but she didn't stop feeding it. She had to end this- she had to avenge her friends, her love, all the people Naraku ever murdered.
Shippou.
A sliver of light burst from Kagome's right palm and joined the main body.
Miroku.
A second from her left palm also coupled with the branch.
Sango.
Another spread from between her eyes.
Inuyasha.
The fourth arc erupted from her chest, wrapping around the glowing stream. It turned a blinding white, scorching the skin from Kagome's hands and filling the air with the odor of burned flesh. She screamed, and all the owners of her soul screamed with her.
"AaauuuggggghhhhhHHHH!"
The miko raised her hands, bringing the branch of purity arching behind her like a serpent coiling to strike. Naraku hung limply from her smaller extensions, facing away from her.
The spider mark was clear on his back.
Kagome swung her closed fists down powerfully. The light surged forward, the tip forming into an arrow's point. It shrieked towards the hanyou, the cause of all her problems, all the problems of the Sengoku Jidai. She hit him square in the mark.
The earth exploded.
Naraku was screaming-
Kagome was screaming-
Youkai were pouring out of the spider mark only to disappear in a flash of light-
The world spun-
Tilted-
And the earth rushed up to meet Kagome with welcoming darkness.
---
In the middle of a barren wasteland, a battered miko rose to her feet. The wind whistled around the sole upright creature, washing away the odors of death and burned flesh.
The figure wandered forward and carelessly brushed through a little pile of dust with her fingers- all that remained of Naraku. When she rose, she held a little pink orb in her hand.
Exhaling slowly, the miko released the essence of Midoriko, returning her to her jewel. The orb paled, and Kagome slumped in exhaustion.
She took one last look around the battlefield. She glanced at the broken blade of Tenseiga.
Then she walked from the land of death.
She did not cry.
You broke the circle. You regained and awoke your power and you rid the world of the abomination. You ended the age-old battle within the Shikon. You freed me. But you still have a remaining task.
"I'm ready."
Are you?
"Yes."
Turn, little one.
She did, and the tears burned behind her eyes for the first time since her hanyou had fallen to the ground in pieces.
For there he stood in all his glory, his ever-present smirk displaying his fangs admirably.
"Oi, Kagome."
She didn't trust herself to speak. His smirk widened to a grin and he stepped forward. When he reached for her though, Kagome found her voice.
"You're not real."
The smile dimmed. "No."
"You died."
The smile was gone now. "Yeah. I did."
"Why are you here?"
"You know why." He brushed his claws along her shoulder, and she couldn't feel it. "You have to leave. The well will seal behind you, and you're… you'll move on."
"I don't want to."
"Doesn't matter. It'll happen if you want it or not. You can't stay here. You got duties in your world. Remember all those tests?"
Kagome faltered. "I want to stay here." There was no strength in her voice.
Inuyasha scowled. His claws moved to her collarbone, fingering the Shikon as best he could. "You can't wish on this. It'll all go wrong. You take it to your world, where there's not anyone to steal it, and purify it. I can't protect you anymore."
Kagome looked up into his eyes, a protest dying on her lips.
She was so tired. Tired of fighting Naraku, tired of fighting Inuyasha, and tired of fighting herself. She found herself nodding in agreement, and she didn't care.
"Yes. I'll go home."
Go home to sanity and shrink-wrapped food. Go home to mother and brother and grandpa and a nice little tidy life with a happy ending. Maybe she'd meet Inuyasha's reincarnation and fall in love all over again.
"Goodbye, Inuyasha."
"Be safe." The hanyou stepped back, his eyes hooded and unreadable.
"I will."
Inuyasha vanished, and Kagome slid into the well for the last time.
---
The girl in the school uniform slowly clambered over the well's edge in the darkness of the well house. She paused and, after a moment, lifted the Shikon over her head and placed it in a depression on the well's rim. She gazed down into the darkness below her, somehow knowing that Inuyasha had been right and the well indeed no longer functioned.
"Broken," she said aloud.
A single tear dripped onto the Shikon's surface. With a quick pulse, the Shikon no Tama blazed brightly and a ghostly female form emerged, hovering over the well. She raised her arm, and Kagome felt the woman's hand tenderly press her cheek.
Thank you. A breath of wind, and Midoriko and her jewel vanished as if they had never been. As if Kagome had never fought in the past alongside friends dearer to her than her heartbeat.
Only the chain remained on the wooden surface. A quick, sweeping hand and it disappeared, clinking gently down the depths of the well. Kagome heard it strike the bottom.
Then the girl with the dead eyes walked away from the well house, closing the doors behind her.
She moved toward the shrine with measured paces.
Broken.