Disclaimers Notice: The only thing I own is the way in which I chose to use the characters and setting (oh, and a few of my own creations…)
Authors Beginning Note: I was gone unexpectadly and was left without computer access. Then I decided I needed to do this before the weekend came because well, I would be gone again. Oh, and work was in there too.
Chapter title inspired by Evanescence (I don't own that either)
However, there's a little bit of almost everyone in here.
Shout it outs!
inuyashafanficfan:Here is the long awaited next installment!
Sango1on1:I have moved on...to this brand new chapter!
flamesofthemoOn:Well, I'm glad to know I at least can thrown in a little surprise for all of you guys.:)
sacred-priestess: I'm glad to hear it. I know I must be doing soemthing right then
Rayame325:Naraku's defeat? Um...well I guess you'll have to read, assuming Inu is the one to defeat him. Yes Kagome is in quite a fickle-again. War of the Worlds was an interesting movie, the ending could have been...done a little differently but it wasn't bad. I'd see it again.
MoonKitti:I only wish I could fit in more of them, but as long as this story is going, I have to keep a few things shortened.Sigh. They are a few of my fave characters however.
Tanwen Whitefire: Yah-theres Kagome for ya. Hopefully some good will come of it in the end.
Fanficluv7inu: Yah-my story is a little over exessive. I think, I should have divided it into two, starting with the end of the battle w/ Kikyo. Oh well, to late for regrets. At least Ican learn from it. I'm tickled pink that you like it though:)
rainkagome: Well, I'm exstatic that you are so entranced. >blush :)
Valese: Yes, crazy is better than dead. LOL. I'm glad I could present a nice twist to the story. I'll explain it later, as to why I made that twist. Closer to the end though.
I am so happy to get so many wonderful reviews! Thank you sooo very much! Its made my day!
Chapter 72
GoingUnder
Inuyasha shook her shoulders gently with no reaction from her.
"What should I do?" Shippo cried, big dollops of wet tears fell down.
"Stay out of the way." Inuyasha peeled the young Kitsune off Kagome and tossed him aside.
He knelt before Kagome and looked into her eyes before closing them. His breathing was deep. Inuyasha became silent. He seemed to be sleeping. No one moved.
The silence and tension were both as thick as the humid jungles in foreign countries. A breeze swept through and carried the ominous choking breath of Naraku.
Kirara growled. Miroku and Sango were tense, waiting to move at the slightest pin drop. A wild slime covered limb as thick as a tree reached out of the mist to grapple them. The fight was on.
"Kagome! Where are you!"? He hated to admit it, but he was scared. This place he had entered was something completely different. It was opposite of what he had thought it to be. Seen it to be. The lush garden of Eden had turned into a hellhole of darkness.
"Dammit Naraku. What did you do to her?"
He stepped uncertainly forward. A small drop of water could be heard falling. His ear pricked and he followed it.
"Kagome!" He yelled. His voice sunk like a leaden weight instead of echoing in the vast space. A scream could be heard and he raced towards it blindly. The ground was hard and grass sharp even against his rough calloused feet.
In the distance a light beamed. He stopped as he looked at it. A faint image of what used to be surrounded the grand Cherry Blossom tree. The sweet river that had been, was now ruined with running blood, poisoning everything that drank of it. Inuyasha flinched at the sharp rancid smell.
"But where's Kagome?" The screams that followed confused him. They sounded as if they were beneath him. He knelt to the grass. As he peered closely, each blade seemed to be like a window to another world. As if he were seeing things in a glass bottle.
A world exactly like the one he was in seemed to be reflected, like in a twisted mirror. The tree was black and scared, bearing no signs of life. Blades of grass were bleach white bones scrabbling the ground, trying to bring up what ever else may be of them. A red haze filled the place. The sky was black. Inuyasha shivered.
And there Kagome hung to the tree, strapped with strong leathery brown vines that looked half rotted. She shook and trembled as she gazed into the river of blood.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed. She didn't respond. He gritted his teeth and stood up. What could he do? How do you rescue someone who is in the grass?
"Damn!" He cursed. He couldn't use Tetsusaiga. If he did, he would more than likely kill her. He walked to the tree and gazed into the same red body of water Kagome did. He could see her terrified face staring through him with perfect clarity. As if he could reach out and touch her.
He rolled up a sleeve and reached in. A skeletal hand from the other side grabbed his and he was retched into the other half of Kagome's heart.
Miroku and Sango twisted and turned. Attacked and defended. Kirara herself was just as motivated. To her, this was just like one of the enemies she had faced, long time past in another era. She was determined to protect her mistress and family.
Shippo himself took part by protecting Inuyasha, Kagome, and the mysterious baby when Naraku or one of his limbs came too close for comfort. However, that wasn't an easy job in itself, as he sustained painful brushings and scratches.
For Naraku, punctures and lacerations were mere irritations, and ofudas a small bite by an insect. Seconds crept like days as they all tyraided against this immortal enemy. Sweat poured in drenches off of their slick bodies. Slip-ups occasionally arose, proving painful. Defeat was eminent, if they were to be left on their own.
"Did you feel that?" Ayame whispered. Many of the demons and holy members paused. A dark aura clenched stomachs and stole air from their very lungs. Some of the weaker and older fell to their knees, suffocating or already dead.
The air quivered with evil. A barely hintable breeze brushed Kouga's nose and he growled deeply in his chest.
"Naraku." He clenched his fists. With new vigor, his goal was strongly reinstated, with full support from all of the wolf members.
Sesshoumaru's whip strangled his opponents like a cobra's vice grip. Not only was their flesh punctured by thorns, but as the whip wrung tighter, so too did their bones pierce to greet the air outside. They fell into a mangled mess. The fortunate were those who died at Tokijin's wrath. Many of his foes's begged him to do so.
He stopped. His gaze pierced through the air and straight to Naraku's castle. A deep intuitive sense caused the hair on his neck to rise painfully.
"Look at me as I kill you!" A man charged with full effort. Sesshoumaru spared a glance.
"I do not have time for your insolence." Tokijin slid through his body easily. Sheathing the blade, Sesshoumaru glided through the many armatures that he had been surrounded with.
A strange appendage struck at Inuyasha and Kagome, only for it to meet with a strong barrier. The flesh and muscle tore apart, leaving a strange black worm to disintegrate.
"Miroku, I don't know how much longer we can keep doing this." Sango dropped to one knee and blocked the next attack using Hiraikotsu as her shield.
"I know Sango, but we have to do our best. All we can do is wait until Inuyasha and Kagome are back." He glanced at the two vacant bodies.
"Fox fire!" Shippo yelled. Blue flames shot into the sky. He dodged and hid; only to come back and attack, never going to far from Kagome and Inuyasha.
Kirara roared loudly into the sky as a large red welt formed across her ribs.
"Kirara, fall back!" The neko glided to Sango's side and wheezed.
"Hiraikotsu!" The boomerang slashed blindly through the mist and cut through black goo. Though they had been fighting heroically, they had not made a dent on Naraku, let alone completely seen him.
She caught the weapon on its return path, wincing as her arm strained to stop it. Kirara nudged her.
"I'm fine." She whispered. The large saber cat nodded and flew up, disappearing into the mist.
"Kirara! Where are you going?" caught off guard, she was nearly driven through the stomach, had Miroku not pushed her to the ground at the last moment.
Neither felt they could get up. Sweat dripped uncomfortably, muscled burned insatiably, their breaths were heavy and shallow. Miroku stayed in his spot on top of Sango, who was too weak to object.
She collected her energy into the size of a pebbled and released it. The laser of light just barely missed the skin on his rib.
He lunged at her, staff arcing upward. She caught it with her bare hand and twisted him away form her in the air.
Not much longer now…I can feel it…"Your time is running out. You are weakening." The man declared
"The same for you."
"Still playing prophet? You are insane." Miyako grinned as they parried around each other. Neither the victor nor the victim, as even as they fought.
"It seems rather silly. We are two of Japans strongest, so it would seem, and yet we are fighting against each other in a silly war, only to die. I wonder where all of that power will go. Will it just disappear into thin air? Will it be endowed to a warrior? Or maybe reincarnated into a child of destiny." She pushed and arrow shaft through his leg and he stumbled back. He stood up and pulled it out, letting the blood drip uselessly to the ground.
"You are the one who claims to know the future. You tell me." He struck her across the shoulder and she felt it slid out of place. She bit her lip before a scream could escape.
"I know only what I was told. I am not the prophesier, merely the messenger." She looked up. Her body didn't so much as tremble as she saw the staff gracefully slide into the transformation of the weapon of her death.
I shall never see him again…maybe in death… we will meet…it is good to know that he will live…
He swung the scythe downward.
Bony things crawled all over him and pulled at him. He shoved and broke the bones into fractured pieces. The growing carcasses of the ground reached for him.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled. She was still and sickly white. She shivered as she looked into the red river. He leapt to her, cursing the things that kept trying to grapple him.
"Kagome-Kagome. Wake up." He whispered to no avail. It was strange seeing her look through him, her gaze transfixed on one spot. He turned around and looked the place she had been staring at. He felt his body go frigid cold.
Pictures of the deeds Naraku had done and the monsters inside of him danced across the crimson liquid. Blood stains, crumpled bodies, dead children, plundered villages, ruined lives, fires burning, tears streaming, humans screaming.
Inuyasha trembled as he tore away from the things he saw. He grabbed Kagome by the shoulders and shook her as best as the vines would allow.
"Kagome! Stop it! Look at me! Look at me!"
"I can't. My place is here. I am a monster. I should be dead." She said monotone. Her eyes had no luster to them. Inuyasha stopped at her words.
"That's not true." Inuyasha whispered.
"The voices. They told it to me. They keep talking to me. I am a monster. I am no better than the creature I see in the water. I am worse."
"What voices?" Her lips twisted as if she wanted to say more, but couldn't. He waited and stopped breathing. There. A soft buzz. A hum in the air. He could feel it, but his ears couldn't catch what they said. He growled angrily.
His claws tore and gnawed into the vines. They repaired themselves as quickly as they were maliciously touched, no matter how deep or rapidly cut into. Inuyasha began to breath deeper. Unawares, a few vines fell like snakes, and were coming for Inuyasha. He began tearing again, only to be flung into the water.
His mouth was filled with the rotted metallic taste of blood. He reached towards the surface and gasped for breath. If the stream had been a portal earlier, it now ceased to exist. The current violently pulled and tossed him. He involuntarily inhaled the blood of a long dead demon. The hate, and fear of the river was suffocating him. He was drowning. He made a last effort to reach the surface and coughed for breath. Only one thing escaped his lips before he was pulled back down again.
"Kagome."