A/N: All right, so I lied about Complicated. The next chapter will not be out soon, as I have AP tests coming up, and that story does not seem to be doing so well anyway. My plan is to finish this one before finishing Complicated, since I have a bit more motivation to write this one. Sorry to those of you who actually read Complicated...it is not being erased or anything...merely postponed. Here is chapter five of this one! Hope you enjoy!

>>>>>>

Unspoken
Chapter Five: Down the Rabbit Hole Once Again

When Kagome woke, Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo were all crowded around her. Behind them all sat Ms. Kaede, a teacher from Kagome's school. For the moment, Kagome ignored this.

"Inuyasha...you're safe..." she smiled, gritting her teeth in pain. He reached out to hug her, but she shook her head quickly. "Don't, Inuyasha. He knows how I feel now. He might..." her voice trailed off. "He might come after you..."

"He won't get the chance to..." Sesshoumaru interjected. "Lady Kaede is here to take us all back."

Kagome blinked. "Take us back...where?"

"Back down the rabbit hole. Ye will all be going back into the bone eater's well." Kaede answered.

Kagome frowned. "What are you talking about, Ms. Kaede? I don't understand."

"Take this, child. It will help ye to understand..." Kaede handed the jewel of four souls to Kagome.

Kagome stared at it a moment. "What is this? It's pretty, but I don't think it will help me under..." Kagome stopped, and grew quiet. As she held this, this thing in her hand, she suddenly began to remember things. Things that didn't make any sense. She saw demons, a small village, Inuyasha...Sango...Miroku...Shippo...even Ms. Kaede. They all looked different...but it was indeed them that she saw.

She gasped. "What was...?"

"That was everything that really happened. How all of us managed to get here." Kaede explained. "Well, you're from here anyway..."

"And I came down the bone-eater's well...and met Inuyasha...and everyone..." Kagome remembered. "How could I have forgotten something like that?"

"When the jewel was completed, we did not want you to have to decide...so we came with you." Sango smiled. "And now, we're going to go back. Kouga doesn't have his jewel shards in this era...he gave them to you to help you complete the jewel in the feudal era...which means that he should not be able to get back there." She paused. "You must not remember because of the jewel...maybe it was some sort of side effect?"

Miroku nodded. "I think that may be true. But...I also think that we should try to not linger here for too long. We need to get back to Higurashi shrine as quickly as possible."

"I second that." Inuyasha agreed. "Come on, Kagome...I'll carry you."

Kirara, Sango's pet cat, meowed, and jumped down from her perch on Sango's shoulder. In a blaze of fire, the small and cute Kirara became a big, meaner-looking Kirara. Kagome's eyes widened at first, but she was not as surprised as she thought she would be by this change.

"We'll get there quicker this way." Sango explained, petting Kirara gently on the top of her head. "You know where to go, Kirara..." she whispered.

>>>>>>

They stood at the entrance to the well house on the Higurashi Shrine grounds.

Kagome shivered. "Are you sure about this?" she whispered. "I mean, I don't know if it's a good..." she stopped as Inuyasha hugged her close to him.

"You will be safe, Kagome. I promise. He won't touch you again." he swore to her.

The old woman Kaede sighed, clasping the jewel in her hand. Bringing the jewel back to the feudal era could mean dire consequences...but wishing on the jewel could mean even worse than that...

"It is now or never, everyone..." she gulped after a moment. She reached out, taking Inuyasha's hand, and the group linked themselves together in a circle. "Everyone must jump in at the same time..." Kaede instructed. "One...two..." she counted. In another second, they jumped, and the purple light of the bone-eater's well enveloped them all.

>>>>>>

Kagome took a deep breath. The area surrounding her was undeniably gorgeous. She felt almost instantly at home in this place. And surprisingly, for the first time in a long time, she felt like she was safe. She still did not understand how could she have forgotten this place? Or why?

"You had to forget..." Kaede explained, as though she could somehow read Kagome's private thoughts. "It was the jewel. We wouldn't have wanted you to remember all of this once you decided to leave, anyway...but the jewel made sure that you wouldn't. Midoriko must have been at work. The whole thing was so painful..."

"I don't think it compares to everything else..." Kagome whispered, inaudible to everyone except the demons in the group.

Inuyasha's ears flattened to his head. "I'm so sorry, Kagome. I wish I could have done something. I wanted to kill that mangy wolf for everything. But I couldn't, Kagome. I wasn't allowed to interfere, at first. When you completed the jewel and we all came back here, we ended up being friends anyway...but when you chose Kouga, I couldn't say anything about it. I had no idea he would treat you like that, Kagome..." he frowned, and paused for a moment. "But at least this way, you are safe from him...and with me."

Kagome's cheeks reddened. "Inuyasha, I..."

"There is no time for talk right now," Sesshoumaru snapped in a stern voice. "Have you forgotten where we are? We have to get out of the forest and back to the village. We can not risk an attack whilst half of us are unarmed."

Sango nodded in agreement. "Let's go..."

Kaede sighed. "The jewel...is back where it started..." she finally said.

"Back where it started?" Kagome repeated. "You mean...it's inside of me...?"

She frowned. "Can ye not see it?" she pointed. "I knew that there would be consequences for what we had done. This is most unfortunate..." she whispered, more to herself than to anyone else.

"We can't worry about that right now!" Sesshoumaru repeated. "We will get everyone to safety, and then we can discuss getting ourselves out of this huge mess we managed to jump into..."

"Sesshoumaru?" Kagome's voice was soft and shallow.

He glanced at her. "What do you want?"

"Thank you." she smiled. "For all of your help." She stopped a moment. "How long has it really been...since we first completed the jewel?"

"It has been about two years, child. As long as ye can remember having known Kouga or any of the others..." Kaede answered.

"But I've known them for forever!" Kagome gasped.

Kaede shook her head. "No, child. Yet another effect of the jewel, I'd presume. Ye only think ye have known them that long. In reality, only two years have passed in this era..."

"But how can that be...?" Kagome wondered.

Sesshoumaru cleared his throat. "If you have forgotten, the village is this way..." he pointed, his voice taking on a slightly annoyed tone. "Come on." he urged them.

>>>>>>

"Thank you all...so much..." Kagome whispered for the hundredth time that night. It felt so good to be back in the feudal era. Although she knew this wasn't really her home, she felt at home here...away from Kouga, and for the first time in a long time, she felt safe. Everything, for once, felt right in her life.

Sesshoumaru coughed. "Now that we are back, and you are all safe, there is something else that I must see to..."

"What?" asked Inuyasha.

"Something I had to leave behind..." Sesshoumaru replied quickly, and for a moment, the hanyou thought he could detect a hint of sadness in his half-brother's voice. He decided it was best to leave him alone, and focus on Kagome.

"Kagome..." he coughed.

She looked up at him, confusion etched in her features. Inuyasha winced when he saw her battered and bruised form. "What is it, Inuyasha?" she wondered.

"We need to talk." he said quickly, and he suddenly found the wall to the left of him to be very interesting. "Do you want to go for a walk?" he suggested. "I promise it's safe. Everything will be all right."

"I trust you, Inuyasha..."

>>>>>>

"I'm so sorry, Kagome..." Inuyasha admitted.

Kagome blinked. "Inuyasha...why? Why do you think you have anything to be sorry about? You helped me. You saved me from him, Inuyasha. You have nothing to apologize for at all..." She took a deep breath. "I was...scared. But...but now that I'm here, I feel like I am safe again..."

"Kagome, I...did you mean it?" He asked meekly, knowing that Kagome would understand what he was asking about. He couldn't help it; his heart was torn between his love for the woman standing in front of him, and his duty to the woman who died fifty years ago. He had to know if she felt the same way.

Kagome coughed lightly. "I...I meant it, Inuyasha. When I used to travel through this well, there would be days I knew I didn't want to go...or times after a battle when I thought it was too dangerous, and that I was in over my head...but I always had to come back. Because I wanted to see you..." Inuyasha's eyes widened, but Kagome wasn't done talking yet. "I know how you feel about Kikyou, Inuyasha...but I just couldn't help it back then. But then, in my time, there was Kouga...and he was always there, and seemed so sweet...I don't know how I could have fallen for it, knowing how I felt..."

Inuyasha paled. "Kagome...don't say things like that. Nothing that has happened is your fault. It's mine. I should have realized...I should have acknowledged everything I felt before I ever let you return to your time. I knew if you made that decision, I would have to follow you, because I couldn't just let you walk out of my life..."

"Inuyasha..." Kagome choked back a sob. She felt her legs going weak as she fell to her knees. "What am I supposed to do now?"

He rushed to her side. "Don't cry, Kagome. I promise it will be all right. I can fix this...because I love you, too, Kagome..." he whispered.

>>>>>>

"Something still doesn't feel quite right..." Sango said, thinking out loud more than anything else.

Miroku placed his best 'I'm confused' look on his face, and glanced in her direction. "How so?" he asked. "After all, we're all here, together again, Kagome's safe, and Inuyasha has finally pulled his head out of his..."

Sango clapped her hand over Miroku's mouth and shooed Shippo from the room, glancing at the monk with a scowl as she did so.

"That's not what I'm talking about, monk." she snapped. "We came back down the well. Kouga no longer exists in this era, because he followed us to Kagome's era. Well, if he doesn't exist, then I don't understand why the mating mark he gave to Kagome didn't disappear once we crossed into this time period. I mean...I know Sesshoumaru was saying that Inuyasha would have to remove it...but why didn't it just disappear, if Kouga doesn't exist here?"

The old woman shook her head. "Sango...have ye forgotten your training as a demon slayer so quickly?" she frowned. "Don't you see? Every action has a consequence. We are back here, safe for now, but so is the jewel of four souls. Kagome is away from Kouga, but he bit her, so his mark remains. Did ye not learn this in your training? The mating mark is binding. This means that Kouga does still exist...because he is linked to Kagome..."

Sango's eyes widened in fear as though she had just realized something very important. "Lady Kaede..." she gasped. "Kouga will not be able to get through the well because of his ties to Kagome, will he? He'd have to have a piece of the jewel..."

"I know not." the old woman answered plainly.

"But what if...?" Miroku began, and Sango quickly ran from the hut.

>>>>>>

"Inuyasha...are you sure?" Kagome asked him. "What about Kikyou?"

Inuyasha's eyes darkened for a moment. "She died, Kagome. I'm sad, but if it hadn't happened, then I would have never met you, and we wouldn't be here now, would we?"

Kagome nodded. Inuyasha wrapped her in a hug.

"Thank you, Inuyasha..." she smiled. She leaned up to kiss him, but as their lips met, the mark on her shoulder sent a searing shock of pain through her body. She recoiled away from him as her knees once again became suddenly weak...this time, from the pain.

"What is it?" Inuyasha demanded, trying to hold her up.

"It...hurts..." Kagome gritted her teeth as the tears came to her eyes. "Everything hurts..."

"Stupid wench..."

Kagome paled when she heard the voice.

"You should have known better than to run off with that stupid mutt...Now, you're paying for it."

>>>>>>

A/N: Sorry for the long time between updates. I've had AP tests and a whole bunch of other boring but elongated stuff going on, so I have been working on finishing this chapter for quite a while. Hope you liked it! Please read and review and let me know what you think!