&&&&&&&

Kilala saw it first. She snarled her fear and shock as the scene became clearer the closer she got to them. It caused the hair on her tails to stand straight out.

"Do you see them, Kilala?"

Sango strained her eyes against the blackness of the night before she caught sight of the hanyou and the priestess in their kiss of death far below.

"Oh no! InuYasha!"

She couldn't hurl Hiraikotsu for fear of hitting him, and from the looks of things, he was out cold, or worse. Kilala was diving as fast as she could to get to them. From three-hundred feet, Sango screamed at the top of her lungs.

"You bitch! Get away from him!"

Kilala misjudged her descent slightly and hit the ground right in front of them a bit too fast. She dug her claws into the earth, leaving burning embers in her tracks, pulling up chunks as she skidded past the priestess and her victim, like a housecat trying to stop running on a smooth surface. Sango didn't wait for Kilala to stop, leaping from the big cat and dropping Hiraikotsu to the ground as she ran towards them as fast as she could. She had only one thing in mind. Her friend was in danger of losing his life, and she could prevent it. She wouldn't let it happen again.

Not after Kohaku.

Kilala had by now adjusted her balance to the soft earth surface and was right behind her mistress, growling her own anger over her friend's distress.

Kikyo felt their presence as soon as Kilala had sensed her. She had not yet completed her task as InuYasha's heart was still beating, albeit slowly. True, he was but a hanyou. He was, however, one very powerful hanyou; his heart was strong. That was part of the reason he had recovered so many times in the past from wounds that would have killed lesser demons.

The miko then felt the wave of anger and bitterness return to overtake the gasping wisp of love she had held onto so tightly and crush it completely. She disengaged her lips from InuYasha's and his head fell forward onto her shoulder. A few moments more and it would have all been over. Now comes the taijiya bitch to thwart her plan. Could the worthless copy and the useless monk be far behind? Still clutching a dying InuYasha, holding him up from under his arms, she turned to face her attacker, any evidence of tenderness now completely gone from her visage.

Sango was by now beyond thinking. As soon as she saw her friend's head fall forward, she reacted on instinct, fueled by her own rage.

'No! He doesn't deserve this.'

It was her last conscious thought before she went completely into battle mode. The Sango most people knew was gone now, her body completely taken over by Sango the Warrior, who was now prepared to kill or be killed. There was no middle ground. The blood pounded through her veins as her feet barely touched the earth's surface as she ran.

She was twenty feet away from them when she drew her katana, her subconscious mind gauging all the possible ways she could kill Kikyo before settling on one strategy. She needed to get behind her. She would attack the dead priestess first across the back, putting InuYasha at as little risk as possible. Sango's hope was that she released him after that first attack, and then the dead priestess would be forced to turn and face either her or Kilala. Either way, she or Kilala would continue to attack from behind, and they would seek to drive the miko further and further away from InuYasha until their other friends arrived.

The miko was indeed powerful, but the taijiya was fast and expertly trained. Five feet from her target, Sango feinted a duck, then leapt and tucked in the air as she spun over InuYasha and Kikyo. Completely upside-down in mid-air, Sango's head passed no more than a few inches from the miko's; she could smell the stench of death emanating from her. Kikyo was frozen in position because Kilala was by now upon them as well. The miko just barely completed the incantation to put up the ward spell that blocked the big cat with perhaps a second to spare. Sango took advantage of that brief moment to strike as she came out of her roll, twisting in the air and landing on her feet right behind Kikyo. The first strike went deep, slashing through Kikyo's upper back and sending a two-foot long lock of the priestess' hair flying into the air.

Although Kikyo could not feel physical pain, the breach in the body she used allowed even more precious soul energy to escape. Kilala was frantically searching for the edge of the barrier, her fangs striking at it again and again. The cat would breach it and be upon her any second now. The miko was desperate. She had to kill the taijiya now, or all would be lost.

She released InuYasha, his body slumping to the ground.

&&&&&&&

From a diminishing distance, Kagome saw Kilala and Sango drop from the sky at frightening speed, and knew immediately that something was wrong.

Miroku saw it also.

'Sango.'

They were perhaps a hundred meters away from where the neko-youkai and her mistress went down. The monk tried to increase his speed, his heart pounding, his lungs already burning from the exertion. His mind ran through a hundred worst-case scenarios and he became fearful.

'Sango. Please...'

Kagome also gasped for breath as her legs pumped the pedals as hard as they could. It was no use trying any longer to console the kit, to make believe everything was all right. Her fear and resignation revealed themselves on her face. Shippo's keen senses picked up on all the anxiety and he started to cry for no reason. As they reached the clearing, Kagome immediately noticed Tetsusaiga stuck in the ground off in the distance. The next thing she saw made her heart stop beating.

Kilala's body lay off to the left, where somehow Kikyo had been able to strike her down with one of her arrows. In the middle of the clearing was Kikyo, kneeling over a fallen InuYasha. To the right of her was the most horrifying sight of all.

Dozens of shinidama chuu, many more than Kikyo normally traveled with, had bound Sango, and they were killing her in excruciating fashion. Although she had killed many demons during her short lifetime, Sango was still a maiden, and her soul was also pure. Kikyo was using Sango's soul energy to complete her task.

Many things happened in the span of ten seconds.

"Kazanaa!"

Miroku threw down his staff and unsealed his curse, aiming at the demons holding Sango captive.

Kagome threw down her bike, causing Shippo to have to leap to safety, and started running toward InuYasha and Kikyo.

"Get away from him!"

She screamed at the top of her lungs as she notched an arrow into her bow. She didn't even have to think about infusing it with power; waves of miko energy flowed from her body into the arrow and it took on a will of its own, begging to be released toward its target.

Kikyo, using the last wave of Sango's life energy, actually felt the taijiya die, but that was a minor concern to her; the hanyou was still alive!

He... there!

As soon as InuYasha gave up his last, the dead miko felt the power emanating from Kagome's arrow, heard the twang of its release from the bow, felt it moving toward her. In seconds, it would destroy her body and bring ruin to all she had worked for. Frantically searching her rapidly eroding mind for the words to Midoriko's spell, the spell she had learned so many years ago and had never used because it was forbidden to do so, she finally succeeded in recalling the first few words. The rest then came to her as well.

The shinidama chuu dropped Sango's body to the ground and all moved as one to defend their mistress from this last attack. They reached her just as Kagome's arrow did, and absorbed most of the purification wave, disintegrating upon impact.

Kagome had failed.

Before the arrow struck, Kikyo completed her final incantation. InuYasha's body lurched below hers in a sickening way, causing Shippo to squeal in terror.

Kikyo had bound his soul to hers.

She was already dead, but with the last bit of energy remaining in the clay body, Kikyo smiled at Kagome, almost benevolently.

"I... have won. I have... what is mine. The jewel is yours... if you are strong enough... to complete it. I no longer care of its... disposition."

She turned one last time to the dead hanyou before collapsing on top of him.

"Inu... Inu... Ya... Sha..."

Kikyo expelled her last breath saying his name, then she expired, her body disintegrating back to bone and dust right before their eyes. Shippo screamed once again at the horrible sight, and ran off into the night, alone. Miroku exhaled his own anguish, cradling Sango's head in his arms. Kagome was simply overwrought.

"Noooooooo!"

&&&&&&&

Many miles away, the Lord of the Western Lands felt a chill run through his body powerful enough to cause cold sweat to break out on his forehead. Almost at the same time, Tensaiga throbbed almost painfully at his side, causing him to drop the chalice of wine he held. He yelled out before it even crashed to the floor.

"Jaken!"

The toad knew from the tone of his master's voice that he absolutely did not want to hear his name called a second time. He appeared, bowing before the tai-youkai, in a matter of seconds.

"Yes, m'lord."

"Collect Rin. We must travel immediately."

&&&&&&&

A/N: Thanks to all reviewers. Shout-outs next time as I wanted to give this holiday gift to you.