Kagome looked around her room, trying to ignore the strange noises coming from the hallway. "Shippo…I told you, I am trying to do my math homework. Just play with Souta."

She turned back to the task at hand, and froze.

Her hands were soaked in blood.

She let out a ear shattering scream, standing up to see that her side was bleeding rapidly. Her hands flew to the wound, trying to figure out what had happened, when she felt it.

The Shikon Jewel….inside of her…

"This is your fault!"

Kagome turned, and let out a cry of fear, backing against the wall. "In…inuyasha?" She asked, watching the rotting corpse of her friend enter the room, green mold growing out of the wounds, his arms hanging lose at his sides, bones exposed. He glared at her, and she could see through one of his eye sockets into his brain, maggots crawling out of it.

"You and that damn jewel wench! You killed us!"

"Inuyasha…what is going on…I didn't…"

"You killed us Kagome!"

She let another cry of panic as Sango burst out of the closet, the older woman's throat gushing blood onto her floor boards with every gasp, splattering everywhere. Hands burst form the wall as Miroku pulled himself into her room, his palm open with the Wind Tunnel, the ragged flesh blue and cold, the hole no longer possessing it's sucking power. She screamed again and leapt away as her friends got closer.

"What is wrong with you guys…why are you doing this…how is this possible?"

"Why couldn't you have stayed here, in your own damn time!" Miroku screamed. "We'd still be alive if you hadn't brought the jewel to our world!"

"We'd still be alive had you been a better aim and not shot that damn bird!" Sango said in agreement

"We'd be alive if you could fight!" Inuyasha roared.

"SIT!" Kagome screamed, trying to get to the door, Inuyasha's body crashing to the ground. "AAA!"

Inuyasha's head had popped off, and now was blocking the door, staring up at her, his body still advancing.

"You don't deserve to live…you should have fallen with the rest of us…now…it's time to die!"

"NO!" kagome screamed, running down the stairs. But they were already following her. "I didn't mean to…I didn't want you to die….help…help..he…" She let out a muffled cry as Kikyo grabbed her.

"Shut up and come with me if you want to live." Kikyo said, dragging her out of the house. She pulled a shocked Kagome into the well house, then quickly closed the door, before finally looking at her reincarnation. "You ok?" She asked softly, stroking her hair.

"What is going on…why the hell are you being nice to me?" Kagome asked.

"Your dreaming Kagome."

"…what?"

Kikyo nodded. "That's how I can talk to you…or…you can dream about how I could talk to you, if I wasn't you already." She rolled her eyes. "And how the dead could magically walk, like that's possible." Kagome shot her a look. "Hey, don't blame me for that plot hole, you are dreaming up this stuff for me to say! Duh!"

"Ok…." Kagome said, confused. "Why am I dreaming about Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku trying to kill me."

"They aren't trying to. They are saving you from yourself."

"I doubt that."

"Look outside."

Kagome paused, confused, and then looked outside to see the strangest thing ever. There were Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku, alive and well, fighting…undead versions of herself, each one dressed in one of her friends' clothing. Currently, the fire rat cloak wearing Kagome was being finished off, while the others laid down in the dirt, fading. Taking a sigh of relief, Inuyasha looked at Kagome.

"Come on out wench, we killed them!"

Kagome blinked, and Kikyo gave her a gently smile before…and this was the strangest for Kagome, fading into her skull. Kikyo had literally flown into Kagome's head.

"Weird." She said, walking out to see her friends smiling. She trembled, and ran to them…only for her hands to pass through them. "Weirder…"

"We aren't real Kagome." Sango said. "We only came to let you know…it's ok to move on."

Kagome blinked, watching her friends carefully. "What do you mean?"

"The kid with the back hair…what's his name…"

"Ian?"

Miroku nodded. "That's it. I knew it started with an I. We just wanted you to know…it's ok to like him. We don't mind."

"Well, we don't really…you think we don't mind."

"Shhh! Inuyasha…" Miroku said.

"I'm not Inuyasha though…I'm his memory. But Kagome…" he gave her a smile, one she had always…dreamed of. "As your memory of him…he wouldn't mind, if you may say yourself."

"I'm so confused." Kagome said gently.

"Just trust in yourself." Sango said. She smiled, and they each began to fade. Kagome shook her head.

"No…don't leave! Please…"

"We can't leave Kagome…" They all said in one voice. "We are always with you…" Kagome let out a cry as they disappeared, shooting into the sky.

&&&

Kagome sat up in her bed, blinking in the dark. Shippo let out a grunt and turned on his back, trying to steal more covers. She let him.

She got out of bed, being careful not to bother Kirara, who had take her spot at the foot of her bed, and went to the window, staring out at the moon. It was so big and full, and beautiful.

"Trust in myself." She said, barely a whisper. Her mind went back to the dream, back to what her own mind had told her. She stared a the moon again, realizing it was the same one Inuyasha had stared at when he had been all alone, cast out from any sort of place that he might have wanted to call home. The same moon that had seen Sango cry as her family was wiped out. The same moon under which Miroku wondered if that night would be his last.

Knowing that each of them had felt as she did at that moment…made her feel at ease.

She turned to looked at Shippo and Kirara, and smiled, walking over to the bed.

"The moon that shone over us once…shines again. So will our friends. They were with us once…and somehow…they will keep being with us."

Kagome didn't have another nightmare.