In the previous chapter, Sesshomaru, Shippo and Rin return to the group. Miroku and Inuyasha distract Kanna while Kagome puts her sacred arrows to work, but to no avail. Kanna takes her chance at revenge, and Kohaku is mortally wounded in the process.

For the record (ahem): I do not own, in whole or in part, any part of the Inuyasha franchise. Nor do I own any of the characters from said franchise that is used forthwith. The following story is solely based on the ramblings of a graduate student who is in love with the entire franchise and is not to be taken or believed as part of the true Inuyasha saga. That being said, please enjoy my second attempt at fan fiction. Feel free to critique ad nauseum. (Whew!)

Chapter Eight – Soul Exchange

The salve was potent but strong as Kaede stirred the pot. She knew that trouble was brewing, and the only thing she could do at the moment was prepare for their return and wait. She heard the pattering of anxious footsteps and quickly opened the door of her hut. Shippo was the first one to bound into the room. He took one whiff and bounded right back outside. Inuyasha was next, carrying Kohaku. "Put him on the mat by the fire." She quickly took a cloth and dipped it in the salve, her instincts having told her that there would be wounds to tend to. Kaede clucked her tongue as she assessed the damage to the boy's back. Naraku has had the boy under his control all this time, yet not one of his wounds have healed since the night he was forced to kill his family. Kohaku has been living with all this physical pain for months. Naraku wanted him dead when he was done with him.

"There's more, Kaede," said Inuyasha in a hushed voice.

"What did ye say?" She looked up from Kohaku into Inuyasha's eyes. The trouble she saw there worried her. Before she could take a body count, Miroku stepped in with Sango on his back. "Is she…"

"No, she is all right, just exhausted."

Sango smiled a little. "Yeah. Having my soul ripped out really took it out of me."

Sesshomaru's large frame crowded the doorway, with Rin moving nervously around his hems. "Move," he growled low. Miroku instantly jumped out of the path of the door. Sesshomaru gingerly placed Kagome's body on the nearest mat. He looked at the old miko, who was staring right back at him. "Fix her."

Kaede huffed. "Fix her? What is wrong with her?" She closed her eyes, noticing something was amiss. She reached out for her sister's soul. But Kagome's body was as lifeless as Kikyou's clay body. "Her soul…"

"Kanna took it into her mirror," Sango said quietly.

"But how? Kagome broke the mirror the last time that was tried."

Inuyasha stood up and flicked the ends of his still-black hair. "Somehow they must've beefed up the power of that midget. She absorbed power from everyone around her. Look at me!"

Shippo ignored the hanyou and bounced over to Kohaku. "Then Kanna just ripped the shard out of his back. I don't think they wanted him anymore." Rin heard the voice of her new best friend and lopped over to where Kohaku was struggling for breath. Kaede had laid a foul smelling poultice on the wounds on his back, which Rin thought smelled somewhat of lavender and wormswort.

"Of course not. They have Kagome's soul and the shards she carried." Miroku rubbed his shoulders, feeling so exhausted he could hardly move. "And they managed to sap my spiritual powers along with Inuyasha's. Who knows how long he'll be human."

Before anyone could continue the conversation, Shippo started wailing for Kaede. "He's stopped breathing! Kaede help! He's not breathing!"

Sango tried to get up and rush to the aid of her brother, but Miroku held her down. "Let me up, you pervert! He's dying."

He leaned over Sango, shielding her from the view of her brother. "Let Kaede do her job. There is nothing you can do for him right now."

Kaede quickly shuffled over to the boy, who was still bleeding profusely from the arrow wounds in his back. The poultice had done little to stop that. Shippo was right, the boy had stopped breathing. Inuyasha quickly turned Kohaku over onto his back, and Kaede lowered her head to listen for the slightest wisp of breath. Nothing.

Sango was sobbing, barely able to lift her hands to swat at Miroku. My brother is dying and I can do nothing. Nothing! "Please let me see him. I don't want him to think he is dying alone."

Sesshomaru watched the little drama unfold while shielding his mate's lifeless form as if death was contagious. He felt a tug on his robes and looked to see Rin looking pitifully up at him. "Help him, Lord Sesshomaru. I know you can bring him back with your sword."

He looked down, using everything in him not to immediately give in to her pitiful expression. "Why? It has seemed to me that every time I have crossed paths with the boy that he wanted to die. Now he has what he wants and is at peace."

At that, Sango, threw herself into Miroku's arms and sobbed uncontrollably. "No! He can't die! I want him to live. He deserves more than what Naraku had forced on him. If I can survive my wounds so should he!" She was limply beating her fists against Miroku's arms, as if he would let her go. Miroku only stared from her to Sesshomaru and back at her again.

Rin's tears fell freely, and Sesshomaru looked away from her towards the far wall. Rin always gave her love freely. Even when she knew he was to kill her, she could not bring herself to hate the boy. Everyone is dear and important to her. Without a word, he drew his Tenseiga out and brought it down through the boy's body, swiping away the death demons and summoning Kohaku's weakened spirit back into his body.

It was another moment before Kohaku's body was allowed to draw breath again, and it was with a rasp that rattled bones. Kaede and Rin both clucked over him as they turned him back over and reapplied the poultice patches to his broken body as if he had never died. Miroku laid Sango back onto her mat and she closed her eyes as if in sleep.

Inuyasha growled at Miroku, not liking the sound of his insinuation from moments ago. "The light from that mirror was blinding. It was like… like…" He couldn't think of how to describe it. Until he remembered a similar light he had seen shortly after first meeting Kagome.

Sesshomaru had come up with the same conclusion. "It had been repaired with shards from the Shikon jewel."

"How on earth do you repair a mirror like that with pieces of broken jewels?" said Shippo, now holding Kagome's hand and patting it lightly.

Sango stared at Sesshomaru, who was standing over Kagome like a guard, daring him to turn his unfeeling eyes towards her. Part of her was glad that he finally saved her brother from death, but another part of her knew that it was with the greatest of reluctance that he did so. "My family mended lots of demon parts together to create weaponry. All it takes is skill and the patience to work on it. And a little magical power, of course."

Inuyasha sneered. "The same way my Tetsusaiga was mended with my own fang."

Miroku sat down on a mat next to Sango. "That mirror was made as a void, to possess the souls that stare into it, and to reverse the powers that are used on it. If it is, in fact, enhanced by jewel shards, then its power becomes magnified. It can possess not only the souls in front of it, but the powers near it will be attracted to it like a magnet."

Inuyasha snarled, as well as he could without proper fangs. "You mean we're stuck like this until we can break the mirror again?" Miroku nodded, not at all pleased with being like he is for an interminable amount of time. "Damn it!" Inuyasha started pacing the floor.

Sesshomaru took one long last look at his mate's face before squaring his shoulders and turning around. "Then none of you are any use to me now," he said, sounding remarkably like his old self again.

Kanna walked around the crumbling palace in agitated anticipation, constantly clutching the crystallized mirror to her chest. It was her only ally, it seemed, as she knew that Naraku did not want to avenge Kagura's death. He let her die, she thought. No, she died by the hands of that miko and the demon lord. I saw it myself. Naraku was watching the action unfold as Kagura tried again to escape our family. He watched as the demon was being swept up by the wind tunnel and then the miko killed her. Naraku told me himself.

"Kanna, come here." Naraku called from the tunnel beneath the palace, and little Kanna dutifully followed. Down in the dank dungeon, her master was making another puppet and planning yet another trap.

"Yes, Narakusama."

"Ah, there you are. Let me see the souls in the mirror." Kanna angled the mirror and flashed a short but brilliant light into Naraku's face. When the light subsided, Naraku's eyes scanned the surface of the mirror for any signs of life within. Floating up through the inky blackness of the void came a pretty form. A small Kagome was walking through unending blackness, clutching her arms as if to keep her soul together.

Naraku smiled. "She has no idea where she is. Wonderful. You have done perfectly, Kanna. Now they will come to find her."

Kanna digested his words for a moment. "Here. Why?"

"Because, my lovely Kanna, emotions are running high about this miko. She is Sesshomaru's mate, but Inuyasha fancies himself in love with her. Shippo and Rin think of her as a mother, and the others don't seem to be able to exist without her. She is, as Kagome would say, the heart of the group. And an animal without a heart cannot survive for long."

As my sister did, thought Kanna, remembering that Kagura's heart had existed in the glass container on the shelf behind Naraku, which now lay empty.

"But she will stay here, forever, I think. A nice addition to our happy little family. Now that there is a vacancy." Kanna winced slightly at the mention of her sister's absence, but thought nothing more of it at Naraku's last words. "I think the mirror should be left down here, next to me, Kanna."

Kanna clutched the mirror tighter to her chest, having never actually laid it down before. "But…"

Naraku's anger sparked at Kanna's first sign of dissention. The normally vacant child was beginning to act like a real pain, wanting desperately to avenge Kagura's death but having no idea how to do it. He had made Kanna for obedience, after the fiasco of creating Kagura to have a will of her own. And he would tolerate no recurrence of the grief that Kagura had constantly caused her. Still, Kanna is more powerful than Kagura, especially now that the mirror is more than fully restored. If only she knew how easy it would be to… "Kanna. I plan to bring those who killed your sister to come here, where I will be more than happy to let you have your revenge. But the mirror needs to be protected. Who better to protect it than me?"

Me, Kanna thought. But, having no will of her own, knew nothing else to do than hand over her one weapon to her master. Naraku snatched the powerful void from the little girl and placed it on the little shelf where Kagura's heart used to be. Kanna watched in morbid fascination as she looked into her own mirror for the first time and watched a very confused little Kagome trying to figure out where she was.

Inuyasha's hand planted itself firmly in the middle of Sesshomaru's chest. "Where do you think you are going?"

Sesshomaru did not bother to move his brother's pitifully human hand from his chest, but stared directly into his now black eyes. "I am going to rescue my mate, human."

He swept past Inuyasha, who gave a shout in frustration before jumping up and smacking his brother on the back of his head. "And just where is that, you fucking idiot? You don't know any more than we do where Naraku took Kagome's soul. And don't even think about going anywhere without me."

"What possible help could you be without the pitiful powers you used to have, little brother? You are even smaller and weaker than you were yesterday, and you will not have the power to lift your own sword until that mirror is broken. Stay here where the old miko can keep you safe."

"WHAT!"

Kaede stepped to Inuyasha's side, not wanting to have to contend with more bloodshed. "I am loathe to agree with a demon but Lord Sesshomaru is right. Ye cannot help Kagome as easily as ye are used to, but he can."

"None of us can," Miroku said from inside the hut, still sitting near Sango.

Shippo bounced and danced around Inuyasha's feet. "Right, Inuyasha. The only ones with full power are me and Sesshomaru, so we will…"

"I will go alone, kitsune. I need no other help."

Shippo just stood there dumbfounded. He thought for sure that he would be allowed to help after he had proven himself so bravely in rescuing Rin from the Tatari Mokke. Before he could retort, Sesshomaru again started off in the supposed direction Kanna had taken.

"Keh. Let him go, then. Who needs him? We'll just wait until Kohaku wakes up and he will lead us straight to Naraku. We'll get there before Sesshomaru even gets close enough to smell him."

Kaede returned into the hut mumbling "I do not think so, Inuyasha. His wounds were very deep, and I believe it was only the power of the jewel shard that kept him moving all that time. I believe he was walking dead when he was in Naraku's charge, and will remember nothing of where he lives."

Inuyasha plopped down in front of the hut, not wanting to go in again and feel useless. What the hell do I do now? I can't even help Sesshomaru retrieve Kagome's soul, I don't know where to look for her, and I have no idea if I will ever get my powers back. He just sat there for hours, picking at straw and staring off into the distance, trying to think of anything he could do.

His concentration was broken by an itchy sensation on the nape of his neck. Instinctively, he smacked the back of his neck and looked in his hand. "Lord Inuyasha, how nice to taste you again," said a flattened little flea.

"Myouga. What the hell are you doing here? What do you want this time?"

The little flea demon shook his head and sat up in Inuyasha's palm. "I heard what happened to Kagome and came to offer my assistance, my Lord."

Inuyasha sniffed. "Feh. What kind of help could a chicken flea like you offer?"

"I have been searching far and wide for Naraku's newest hideout, so that I may be invaluable to you my Lord. It has taken me months…"

Inuyasha picked the flea up by the collar of his little shirt and brought him up to eye level. "You mean you know where Naraku is hiding?"

Myouga twitched helplessly, his feet dangling in the air. "Well, no. Not me my Lord. But I know someone who does. Who knows exactly where Naraku is hiding, saw him go in there and saw that little Kanna, too."

Coming Soon – Chapter Nine – Revelations of the Chicken Flea

Without any exact knowledge of where Naraku is, the crew is at a loss of how to save Kagome. As a faithful servant of his master, Inuyasha, Myouga claims to know someone who knows where Naraku is hiding. But, upon closer examination, is too scared to retrieve the knowledge, for it will cost him dearly.