A/N: Here we go... Only one more before the Epilogue. Just a warning some may not like this chapter, but I stand by what I wrote.

Now I did work very hard on this chapter. It took a long time for me to get it exactly how I wanted and I really, REALLY would like to know what you think of it...

Also there is a LEMON (edited heavily, full version on mediaminer, see link in my profile) in this chapter...

I wish she were here

to listen to my bitching

and enjoy this moon.

By ISSA

InuYasha felt refreshed even though he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. It had only been a couple of hours before dawn when he and his mate had fallen asleep together. She had asked him not to wake her upon leaving, so that she didn't have to say goodbye, so instead he left her a note to find when she woke.

Kikyou was waiting for him under the Goshinboku and together they set out in search of the final shard of the Shikon no Tama. InuYasha hadn't expected it to be an easy task since it had taken them this long already but it was still frustrating to search and not even hear so much as a whisper of strange youkai activity. There was also the fact that while Kikyou and he did talk to each other, it wasn't the same as the easy friendship he shared with his mate and he missed that more than anything else.

Each night InuYasha kept a careful eye on the phase of the moon so that he could make sure they were close enough to the village to make it back before sunset on his human night. If Kikyou noticed anything unusual about his preoccupation she kept it to herself.

He actually found himself relieved when he woke to find his senses slightly dulled. For the first time in his life he was looking forward to becoming human because it meant that he would be spending this night in the arms of his mate. He woke Kikyou as soon as the sun had risen completely and they set out.

It was midday when they came upon a small village and Kikyou wanted to take the time to tend to a few people who had been struck by illness. InuYasha tried not to seem too anxious but he found himself becoming rather ill tempered the longer she took.

"What troubles you?" Kikyou finally asked, after he growled at some village children who had wanted to talk to the beautiful and kind miko. "You have never before minded my tending to the ill while we traveled."

InuYasha sighed. "We have to be back before the sun sets tonight."

"What ever for? Did you not say that my reincarnation has accepted that it may not be exactly fourteen days before your return?" Kikyou pressed.

The hanyou debated on whether or not to tell Kikyou about how the moonless night would affect him, since he had not trusted her enough to tell her in her first life. In the end though he realized that it didn't matter since he wouldn't be in the past and that this Kikyou he could trust. Besides it seemed like half of Japan already knew anyway.

"I will be mortal tonight." He said quietly.

She studied him momentarily and then nodded. "Let me leave some herbs and instructions with one of the villagers and we will depart at once."

InuYasha had originally intended to be back in Kagome's era before turning human but because of their stop he only made it to the well in time to feel the pulse of his youkai blood receding. He hadn't even stopped in to speak to his friends or Kaede.

He sighed when he landed at the bottom of the well and had to use the ladder to climb out. The shrine courtyard was of course empty since the grounds closed at dusk, and so he steeped out of the well house and made his way to the rear door of his mate's family home.

When he slid the shoji open he found himself gasping slightly from his place on the ground, underneath Kagome, but the slight pain of his fall was long forgotten as she pressed her lips to his. He wrapped his arms around her, blissfully unaware that her family was watching them.

"I missed you." Kagome whispered. "Mama saw you from the window and I couldn't wait to see you. I'm sorry I knocked you down. You aren't hurt are you?"

"Keh, it'll take more than a human wench like you to hurt me." he snorted and a smirk settled over his features. "Besides I kind of like the way you feel laying on top of me." He sat them up and nuzzled her neck. "It's been too long since I've held you in my arms anyway."

Allowing themselves a few moments to themselves they stayed as they were until Kagome mother appeared and asked them if they would be joining the family for dinner. Reluctantly InuYasha released Kagome and came to his feet offering her his hand.

After dinner with her family InuYasha and Kagome retired to her room. Even though they were both only human on this night they chose to stay up simply enjoying what time they had together. He even managed to find it in himself to make love to her several times before the sun rose and then once more when he was hanyou again before he forced himself to leave her.

InuYasha walked back to the village and found Kikyou standing outside her sister's hut waiting for him. "There has been word." She said without preamble. "Several days to the north there are rumors of a youkai with powers beyond what is to be expected."

"Finally." InuYasha said. "You ready to head out?"

The miko of his past nodded and they set out in hopes of at long last completing their quest to restore the Shikon no Tama and this time Kikyou did not attempt to stop and help any villagers. The traveled quickly, stopping only to eat and to rest when necessary.

It was four days later when Kikyou stopped abruptly. "The shard in near. I have felt it for sometime, but this will be the day we will come across the youkai that possesses it."

InuYasha nodded and they continued on. It was nearly dark when they heard the screams. He felt strange doing so, and no doubt took the miko by surprise when he threw her onto his back and started to run, but he felt he had no other choice. They didn't have any time to waste.

The oni was huge and reeked of human blood. InuYasha had to cover his nose against the stench and what was worse it seemed that several other youkai had come to try and obtain the shard for themselves. The ground was littered with bodies and huts burned all around them. Beside him Kikyou nodded and readied an arrow and he drew his sword.

"Where is the shard?" He asked.

"In the center of its chest." Kikyou replied.

"Okay, let's finish this." InuYasha said.

Kikyou began to pick off the weaker youkai one at a time with her arrows and InuYasha went after the oni. He charged at the youkai and cursed loudly as it managed to dodge his attack. The damn thing was faster than it looked and attacking it seemed to have pissed it off. He sheathed the Tetsusaiga.

InuYasha flipped backwards to get out of the way of a vicious swipe of its claws and then leapt forward. "Sankontessou!" The oni roared as four long gashes appeared across its side. "Ha! Take that you bastard! I'll tear you apart a piece at a time if I have to."

Thankfully the youkai didn't seem to have the mental capacity to direct the shard to healing its wounds and seemed only to be able to use it for speed and power. InuYasha continued to attack it with his claws wounding it further so that even with the shard it was unable to put up much of a fight.

InuYasha finally drew his sword again and used it to incapacitate his opponent, cutting its legs off at the knees. With a second swing of the Tetsusaiga the oni was rent in two and he caught the shard as it flew from the body. He spun and brought his sword down.

"Kaze no Kizu!" He bellowed and just like that the youkai was little more than dust.

Behind him Kikyou cried out in pain and he turned. A large serpent youkai held her in its jaws and blood dripped from its mouth onto the ground. He started in her direction to her aid but before he could reach her she placed both hands on the beast's head and it was purified. Her body was limp as she fell to the ground.

InuYasha raced over to where Kikyou had fallen and kneeled beside her. He lifted her battered body gently into his arms and splayed one hand over the wound in her side, from which she was rapidly losing blood.

"Hold on Kikyou." InuYasha said gently.

The miko looked up at the concerned hanyou. "I am not long for this world."

"Don't say shit like that." InuYasha growled. "You're going to be all right."

"It was always meant to be thus." Kikyou said softly. "My plan has always been that once the final shard was gathered, I would return to my rest. My time has passed InuYasha. Please do not blame yourself."

"I promised to protect you." InuYasha told her.

Kikyou took a shuddering breath and her eyes closed. For a moment InuYasha thought she had died, but then they opened again and in them he saw the woman she had been during her first life, her real life, and a peace that he had never before seen in her.

"I wonder... Would you grant me a final request?" Kikyou asked.

"Anything... Anything I can do Kikyou. Just name it." InuYasha urged rapidly, wanting desperately to atone for his failure to protect her in both lifetimes.

Her voice was thin and weak when she spoke and her usually pale skin held the pallor of impending death. "We both loved, as much as we were able... All I desire to leave this life without regret is a kiss from the part of you that once loved the woman I used to be..."

InuYasha was stunned as he looked down at the woman in his arms. The scent of death surrounded her and he knew her time was short. His only hesitance came from his thoughts of Kagome. Kagome... She'll understand. She wouldn't want me to deny Kikyou her last request... Forced to decide quickly he lowered his head and pressed his lips to those that had been the first to speak to him with kindness since the death of his mother.

He gently nipped her lower lip and as she gasped he slipped his tongue into her mouth. Their tongues brushed languidly and a soft moan escaped the miko in his arms. His hand tangled in her hair and he held her firmly against him. After a long moment InuYasha pulled away.

Kikyou looked up at him and brushed a hand across his cheek, a smile on her lips. Her hand fell away and her eyes closed as she took her last breath. InuYasha stayed as he was for a long time, committing the serene look of the dead miko to his memory, trying to assure himself that he had not failed her, that she didn't blame him for her second death, and that she truly was happy and at peace.

His heart ached at her loss, and because Kagome wasn't with him to ease his pain with her love. He had never had the chance to properly grieve for Kikyou and so to him this death was so much more real than the first that he had only learned about fifty years late. Hastily he dragged his sleeve across his face wiping away the single tear that evidenced his sorrow and placed her gently onto the ground.

InuYasha gathered her broken bow and quiver of arrows, shouldering the latter and keeping the other tightly gripped in his palm. He returned to Kikyou and lifted her into his arms. If he didn't stop to rest, he could make it back to the village in a little less than two days and see Kikyou returned to the earth properly.

Kagome had decided to make a quick trip to the village to see Kaede, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou. InuYasha wasn't due back for another week and she was lonely. Seeing her friends turned out to be just what she had needed to lift her spirits, and she had been even happier to learn that there had been a possible shard rumor which InuYasha and Kikyou had gone to investigate.

She was sitting beside the fire in Miroku and Sango's hut with Shippou in her lap thinking about how happy her friends seemed and wondering how she would look in a couple of months when she would be as big as Sango, when everything went black.

From far away she thought that she could hear Shippou crying out for help and Miroku and Sango's voices as well, but she couldn't make them out. When a soft light filled her mind's eye and Kikyou appeared she finally understood what had happened.

"I'm sorry." Kagome offered.

Kikyou smiled. "I am not. My time has passed and I am finally at peace. Rest assured that InuYasha is well and on his way back to you. He should arrive upon the next sunset. Please tell him that all is well between us and remember your promise."

"I will." Kagome assured her.

"And please do not hold my last request against him. I could see in his eyes that it weighed heavily on his heart." Kikyou said. "Trust in his love for you and I wish you both much happiness and many good years together. Thank you for all you have done for me sister of my soul."

Kikyou faded into the darkness.

"Kagome, Kagome can you hear me?" Sango asked shaking her gently. "Miroku go get Kaede."

"No... Wait." Kagome said as she opened her eyes. "I'm okay."

"You had us worried. Shippou claimed to feel some sort of burst of energy and then you fainted." Miroku told her.

"It was my soul returning." Kagome said quietly. "Kikyou... She died again. She told me that InuYasha would be here tomorrow evening. I should go tell Kaede so that the necessary arrangements can be made for her funeral."

The funeral pyre burned brightly long into the night. Kagome knew that InuYasha would not leave until the last ember had died and the remains of his first love were gathered and returned to the mini-shrine that still stood in her honor, and so she too would stay to be by his side.

Most of the villagers had returned to their homes long ago, in fact besides herself and InuYasha, only Kaede remained. Her hand sought his and gripped it firmly. InuYasha looked at her and tightened his hand around her own.

"You don't have to stay." InuYasha said quietly. "You and Kikyou... She wasn't-"

"She was important to you." Kagome interrupted. "And you're important to me... Unless you want me to go?"

InuYasha shook his head and to Kagome's surprise wrapped his arms around her, holding her against his chest. She looked up at her hanyou and for a moment watched the flames dance in his eyes, before returning them to the fire.

"I... There's something I have to tell you." InuYasha said quietly. "Kikyou, as she was dying... She asked me for something."

"I know. When my soul returned she told me and asked me not to hold it against you, but not what it was." Kagome told him.

The young hanyou stepped back and faced his mate, who was waiting patiently for him to speak. He couldn't quite bring himself to look her in the eyes.

"I kissed her... in a way that as your mate I shouldn't have." He turned from her afraid to look at her and see hurt or disappointment on her face. "I-I failed to protect her, again. I had to... I had to give her what she wanted-"

"Of course you did." Kagome interrupted. InuYasha turned.

While she hadn't been expecting to be told that her mate, her husband, had kissed Kikyou, she couldn't begrudge him for doing so, or the miko for asking it of him. What was a single kiss compared to the many lifetimes they would share together? Especially when it was to bring peace to a woman who had suffered so much at the hands of fate.

She knew that he loved her and that it hadn't been done in betrayal to their relationship, but in honor of what he had shared with Kikyou and as a final goodbye. For her hanyou it had no doubt been tangible proof that there had been no ill will between them when she passed into the next life Something he had probably needed desperately to assuage his guilt over her passing.

"Kagome..." InuYasha questioned.

"She deserved a moment in which you were both free to honor the past, and to let go of the hurt between you." She explained. Kagome wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. "That you told me about it when I would have had no way of ever knowing proves that I have no reason to be upset or doubt your feelings for me in any way."

A clawed hand lifted her chin and he kissed her. "I knew you would understand."

With the dawn the last of the embers had faded and a very weary Kaede approached them carrying a small urn containing her sister's remains. "Thank you InuYasha for returning my sister so that she might rest peacefully once again. A hut has been made available for you both should you need someplace to rest or to grieve privately. It is the one beside my own."

InuYasha could only nod. "Thank you Kaede." Kagome offered quietly. The elderly miko left them and she looked up at her mate. "Do you want to be alone?"

Her hanyou shook his head. The young miko took his hand and led him back to the village. She glanced at her husband and noted that he seemed so far away, and it tore at her heart. She knew that he had not had a chance to properly grieve for Kikyou the first time around. She pushed aside the reed mat and pulled him inside.

Kagome stroked his ears gently as he collapsed with his head on her breasts. He was panting lightly and his hand rested on her belly. She felt a few hot tears against her skin as he rubbed gently circles against her skin with a clawed hand.

"I love you." Kagome said quietly letting her own tears fall for Kikyou and for her mate.

Her hanyou lifted his head and looked into her eyes. He leaned down and licked the moisture from her cheeks. Their lips met twice softly and then he moved to nuzzle her face gently with his own.

They remained in the past for nearly a week before anyone brought up the topic of the jewel and what it meant for Kagome and InuYasha.

"What will you do now?" Miroku asked.

"We're going through the well so Kagome can complete the jewel and purify it, so if we get stuck it will be on the other side, together." InuYasha replied.

Kagome gasped and looked at her hanyou with tears in her eyes. They hadn't even discussed it, but he had already decided to make the sacrifice and live in her era. Her mate took her hand and offered her a small nod. She smiled and hugged him around the middle.

She had expected Shippou to be upset or to protest, but the little fox seemed to have anticipated this decision. "Don't worry Kagome. I know that someone has to stay here and protect the village and youkai live a long time, so I'm sure I'll see you again when I'm all grown up and that baka won't be able to push me around."

"Oi!" InuYasha protested.

Kagome giggled through her tears. "I'm sure you're right Shippou." She of course knew that she would see the young youkai again and was glad that he was taking it so well.

They allowed themselves another week in the past to spend time with dear friends that they would not see again, but would live on in their hearts and memories for many lifetimes to come. It was a tearful goodbye at the bone eaters well, where Kagome had first appeared in their world and blessed them all.

Miroku was allowed a quick hug with the young miko. "You will be greatly missed."

Kagome swiped at her tears. "You as well."

Next Sango embraced the young miko from the future. "You will always be my sister and I will never forget you."

"I won't forget you either." Kagome managed through her tears.

InuYasha offered his hand to the monk and they clasped arms. "It is not often in life a man is as blessed as I have been. I have been freed from a curse, found a beautiful woman to become my wife, and been befriended by a rude and temperamental inu hanyou that I would be proud to call my brother, even if we do not share blood."

InuYasha was forced to remain silent for a moment so touched by the words of the young monk whom he himself did indeed consider family. He had previously expected that it would be his forest that was the most difficult for him to leave behind, but now he knew just how wrong he had been.

"We have shed blood for each other and that's enough." InuYasha offered

Miroku nodded and stepped back, to allow Sango a chance to say her goodbyes to the hanyou. The taijiya burst into a fresh round of tears and hugged him. She was blushing when she stepped back. "I am sorry..."

"Keh, it's okay. You can blame it on these pregnancy hor-mon-es Kagome keeps telling me about when she starts acting crazy." InuYasha said.

"Hey!" Kagome protested with her hands on her hips. "I don't act crazy and it really is the hormones. I might also point out that it was you who made me this way. You know the doctor said... "

The rest of her words were lost as InuYasha began to laugh. Sango covered her mouth with her hand giggling even as she elbowed Miroku for laughing along with the hanyou. Thanks to InuYasha it was with smiles that they took their last look at the friends they were leaving behind and jumped into the well.

The hanyou and the miko stood together under the Goshinboku. Kagome took the final shard and fused it with the rest of the jewel. She reached for InuYasha's hand and clasped it, the Shikon no Tama held between their palms.

"We started this journey together. We should finish it that way." Kagome said.

InuYasha nodded and Kagome took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and let the feeling of her power and the love of her hanyou wash over her. When she opened them it was done. The Shikon no Tama was no more and the priestess Midoriko was finally free. The well was closed but because of all the sacrifices they had made and all they had suffered InuYasha was allowed to remain with her.

Now they could finally look toward the future and the rest of their lives.