Hey you guys, how was your holiday(s)? Mine was good and it could have been better but you know as long as the family member still lives it's great. (Car crash wasn't pretty.) Oh Well, thanks for all the reviews and-here we go.

That wretched laugh continued to grow, almost howling with absolute glee. In the beginning it made Kagome's blood freeze and the hair lying in her neck stood on end. The cold chill of his aura creeping over her skin caused the miko to shudder with which she could not bear to have. Fear.

This one word always sent her into shaking fits of petrified rage and a feeling of defeat always managed to wash over her like a turning tide. "Hello Kagome." His voice stung her very body with its poison laced meaning. Yet at the same moment, as all psychotic murderous men, his words came out seductively from his chest and moved over her entire being. She cringed and pulled away to face him, not wishing to excite the man anymore than she had.

"Naraku you foul being!" Her tears had quit there quiet streaming and her eyes blazed. He laughed loudly into the night as the dream faded to nothing but black.

"You almost seem demonic miko." She, of course, knew he was speaking of her watered eyes. They almost looked red and with the blue iris she held it seemed as if she had dog demon but he knew better than that.

"If I were then you would be dead." Another laugh came forth and slowly drowned into a chuckle. She watched his body shake with humor and, though still afraid, felt even more anger build inside her chest. It was almost as if it were a tightening ball of pure anger and lust for his death.

"If you were a demon I would have made you one with me long ago, but of course I would have caressed you before making your body part of mine." As he spoke this his right hand ran over her cheek, down her face and neck until he came close to her breast. "And you would have enjoyed it miko. Maybe I still should do as I please." She lifted her hands with lightening quickness and pushed him off of her.

"You're such a bastard!" With the way his eyes glowed as he looked over her and with the hunger growing throughout his aura she could see he clearly enjoyed her speaking with a smut mouth. She immediately shut up.

"Oh that I am miko and you will be taken care of by this Naraku." He threw his arm outward toward her and allowed it to branch with roots. A thicker miasma than she had ever seen before smoked like fire from them. The air had been sullied by the heat and acid it gave off. Even as a miko she had trouble breathing and it felt as if she were being choked to death. In short he was twice as strong as he had been, maybe three times!

Instinctively she held her hands before her and allowed her miko energy to flare like a neon light slicing through his darkness. For a moment it held him of but his own abilities over came her own and a root pierced her shoulder. She let out a mighty cry of absolute pain and terror.

Outside of Kagome's dream

"Oh Kami Miroku!" Sango had ripped Kilala and Shippo away from the miko as she shouted to him. "What's happening to her?" Her left arm began to burn with a thick and powerful miasma that only one being could have.

"What's wrong with her?" Shippo cried out as he watched his adoptive mother began to be filled with pain.

The aura quickly began to fill the room and Inuyasha pulled out Tetsuiga. "It's Naraku you fools! He's doing something to Kagome!" The aura of his famous sword drew Naraku's power even more. "What the Hell?" The twang of an arrow was heard soon after he spoke. All turned to see a weak and feverish Kikyo crouched on her bed, breathing rather hard. Her eyes glistened with anger and pain. Her pure arrow barely allowed even Inuyasha to breathe.

"Hurry all of you recede from this area with haste!" Miroku quickly drug Sango away but Inuyasha did not move an inch. "Go Inuyasha!" She cried out as she fired two arrows.

"I won't leave you behind Kikyo!" Her eyes softened only for a moment but at the next moment they narrowed as she fired her notched arrow.

"I command you to leave me Inuyasha!"

"Fine but you're coming!" He leapt toward her and lifted her in his arms. He then stole away from the room, moving rather quickly and tearing through the wall. Slowly he slid to a stop outside, Kikyo a little nerve racked in his arms. His eyes wandered over the room in which he fled from. Sadness hid deep within his depths as he continued to watch and think silently to himself. "I'm so sorry Kagome. I have failed you once again."

Kikyo found her self feeling a deep regret and guilt settling over Inuyasha's soul and mind. She knew of who he thought of and had a deep regret herself. For him she had tried to save the miko and because of him she had failed. It wasn't truly his fault but she still felt if he would have left and let her stay she could have defeated Naraku. All the hanyou desired was to engulf and kill Kagome.

"Inuyasha I am sorry that I was unable to save her." He looked down slowly; her tone was quiet and filled with utter despair which in turn was covered by remorse. Just as he was to speak she looked upward from her once lowly posture and her eyes glistened with darkness. "But I know of someone who can."

"Kikyo where are you going?" The miko did not answer simply ran into Sesshoumaru's blackened fortress. Her mind stayed on the task at hand. She had not taken a single sip of air since she had first stepped within the fortress. It could have killed her and she knew it.

Back into Kagome's dream

Naraku had allowed his aura to flare so far that even where ever Kagome ran within the blackened area seemed to hold his powerful and intoxicating mist. Yet where she ran was endless for it was deep inside of her mind. And the human mind was pretty much endless-she hoped. "You can not run forever miko."

She grit her teeth as she only thought to herself for she would not speak a word to him. "I can damn well try can't I?" And so an inevitable chase continued and the female knew eventually she would meet the end and find what should happen if she even relax for a moment. Vaguely she noted that it was becoming more difficult to breathe in the area. She felt pain everywhere but not only outside of her body, inside to. Her face became calculative for a brief moment until realization came over her. "I'm running meaning that my heart is pumping blood quicker and the air I breathe, normally oxygen, will enter my bloodstream far more quickly. But I'm not breathing oxygen, I'm breathing his miasma meaning-Oh Kami help me, he shutting down my system!"

Kagome immediately dug her heals into the soil at this sudden thought. She was right for her body felt so weak and tired once she ceased all movement. Her mind though, it worked over time. And she realized also as he came nearer and the more she panicked the harder she would breathe. There would be even more air traveling to her lungs and she noticed it was getting harder to think, for his miasma was of course entering her mind. But how could she stop this from occurring? Her miko powers did not give her aid in this. But why weren't they working as thoroughly as they usually did?

Was it the fact that her fear had heightened so terribly that her miko abilities decided to dwindle? Yet that didn't make sense either for usually they came through for her until last year when she turned eighteen. Wait maybe that was it. She had become an adult and when that had happened something weird occurred. Keade had said that this has happened with only one other miko and she was Midoriko. Supposedly her powers had dwindled because of something, but what was it? What was it?

Anger, she stopped experiencing high amounts of stress and anger but why? What was it that stopped anger? She had fallen in love! Yet her heart had been broken while she was eighteen and for a long time all she could do was suffer. Kagome had been so in love with Inuyasha at eighteen that she was hardly angry with him any more; causing her powers to fail a little but when e broke her heart by choosing Kikyo Kagome now only felt great sorrow but not anger. She needed to feel rage in order to stir her miko abilities but how would she do that?

She tried to think of Inuyasha but that only depressed her further. Even thinking about how he always complained and wanted her to stay in the feudal era stung her terribly. His begging or ordering for her presence in the feudal age always made her feel as if she were needed some what but now that he had Kikyo he would more than likely send her home. But this was her home and she had every right to be there just as he did. She had a family now. Sango, Miroku, Kilala and Shippo were the only people she truly needed. She loved them and would not leave them. She would stay!

Slowly her anger moved up a level, sending her into a state of absolute rage. Naraku, she didn't notice, hesitated for a moment when sensing her miko energy spike. "What do you think of priestess?" Her head shot upward for she had been starring at the ground. Her hair began to fly about slowly, becoming wilder with each second as her eyes danced with lightening fury. Kagome's fists were balled so tight her nails dug into the flesh causing blood to fall. The miko spoke these words with such malice that even Naraku stole away from her for a moment.

"I will stay!" Her voice, though ferocious meaning stood behind it, was so calm and yet there was a dry scratched sound as she spoke. Her miko energy suddenly raged and she cried out. "I WILL STAY!" Naraku disappeared for what seemed to be final once her rage was let loose. The entire room was purified and even Kikyo, Miroku and fellow allies heard her cry of pure anger.

Fully from Kagome's dream

Even though the miko knew that Naraku had been destroyed she still came toward the door and was relieved, as well as thankful, for the air in the castle had been purified by Kagome. The east wing had a certain chill to it yet there was always warmth in the room that the creature was kept. Kikyo stopped her movement and spoke low. "I need your aid one without a name. You must help a friend of mine, she is very weak."

"But I am a half breed and am good for nothing."

"You may be what you are but there is always something that someone can do and I sense you can help my ally." Silence stayed thick, clinging to the air for long moments. Yet Kikyo stood in exact spot. She would wait as long as it took.

"What about Sesshoumaru-sama?" A soft smile played about her lips as she understood that he feared to anger the lord.

"No harm will come to you; Kagome will assure your safety."

"But she is weak at the moment."

"Yes but none enjoy angering even a weakened Kagome for there has always been a price." She thought she heard him laugh for a moment but it was not out of happiness only poor amusement.

"If you need my services so terribly then destroy the lock and I will come forth." For a moment the miko did not move but at the possible condition of Inuyasha's friend she decided that even though he would be pained he would be rewarded later on. She held her hand upward, said a small word of thanks and then allowed her miko energy to destroy the contraption which bound him so cruelly.

"Do not be frightened when you see my face priestess for it is a gruesome one at that." Kikyo readied herself and stared to the height she believed he would reach. "Look downward." Kikyo found her self starring into wide and deeply tortured depths. His very soul seemed to be just as scarred as he. Tears pricked her lids as she looked over his features.

He was indeed a half breed, half dog demon, and one of his ears had been shredded viciously. The lid over the left eye sank down ward from much abuse and health neglect afterward. Over the right there was a scar from his forehead to his cheek. "You may see great pain in these eyes of mine Kikyo but I am no longer able to see." He lifted his crooked and mauled hand to her. "Shall we go?"

With much more care than she had used to touch a new born baby she took his small frail hand within her own and smiled in return. "Yes we shall."

With our famous demon lord

Sesshoumaru had been standing far from his fortress, staying deep within thought as Naraku attacked the miko. His own problems had disturbed him so completely that he couldn't hear her cries or feel the miasma as thickened and turned or twisted about the miko. His eyes held hardly any emotion but every once in a great while you could see some deep regret and despair which had been blocked for much of his long life.

But one thing the demon lord did notice was a high energy suddenly flowing into the air. A strong miko aura had suddenly torn within the walls. His senses had gone a little hey wire at sensing something so powerful and destructive near him. Even though it was so far the instinctive beast within him caused his eyes to bleed red. But what angered his canine blood them most was at sensing the half breed come from where he had been held. It was his fault that she had died, if she wouldn't have been so weak while carrying that child she would have lived!

So how is it guys? Hope it's able to meet your standards. Now please review. Later.