Betcha guys thought that you'd never see this story again did you? I promised not to give up on it, I've just been taking my time getting it together the way I want it. So here it is! Oh! And I'll try and keep the chapters long, but I can't promise much teehee!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

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"You mean you never went back to the past at all?" Sota asked her.

Kaede sighed and glared at Shippo, "According to him, I never did... But that could be for a million reasons! I could have just as well decided not to go back, although I don't know why I would do that."

Shippo was taken back at the girl's comment.

"She... wouldn't go back?!" he thought sadly.

Sota looked to her and smiled and said, "Well, you're here now. That, at least, must mean something.."

"Let's just be glad that you two made it here alive!" Rin said happily.

It was later in the afternoon, and Shippo had decided to leave the area in order to make sure that there weren't any spies or any forms of Naraku in the area. At the same time, Kaede was sitting with Sota, Rin and Jaken, telling them about her travels in the past.

"The past sounds just as dangerous as it is here!" Rin said worried.

"So my armband didn't work out?" Sota asked.

"Well, it would have worked if everyone weren't so keen to detect demonic aura's... I'm sorry uncle..." Kaede replied with her head down.

"Sorry for what? There was no way that you could have known that the armband was such a flop of an idea," Sota said with a smile.

"No... It's not that... I promised you that I wouldn't interfere with them and I did..." Kaede worried about what he would say.

Sota didn't lose his smile and he said, "Well from what you tell me, you had no choice! I should have reminded you about how stubborn both my sister and InuYasha were."

Kaede was surprised at how easy-going her uncle was about the whole situation.

"So you're... not upset?" Kaede asked.

Sota laughed and said, "Not at all... Besides... There's probably more things that I didn't tell you before you left."

Kaede's eyes grew and she asked, "Like what?"

"Well, there's probably the fact that I never told you that Kagome and InuYasha told me about you from when you visited them in the past," Sota said.

Kaede was shocked, indeed to know this.

"And you didn't bother to tell me any of this?!" Kaede was a little angry.

"I didn't want to change anything. Besides, they never actually told me how everything ended up," Sota replied.

"They didn't? Well why the hell not?! That would have been helpful of them!" Kaede said angrily.

"Well I did make it a point to ask, but every time that I did, they would become silent or change the subject," he thought back on the subject.

"Well that gives me a lot to look forward too..." Kaede said frustrated.

Sota looked around and then asked, "Where did the fox go?"

Kaede looked up at him and said, "You mean Shippo? I think he went out to make sure that there wasn't anything suspicious in the area. Actually, I believe that he's gone somewhere to sulk."

"Why is that?" Rin asked.

"Well, I have a few ideas as to why, but I think the main reason is that he's worried that he's wrong about there being a danger that I've returned," Kaede said proudly.

"That fool! A scrawney demon such as himself shouldn't be out on his own in this territory!" Jaken commented.

"Yeah, I think I'll go and look for him. I'll be back soon!" Kaede said as she stood and sprinted off in the direction that Shippo had gone earlier.

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Kagome slowly awoke, and InuYasha became aware of this.

"Kagome?" InuYasha looked her over as she opened her eyes.

"Inu...Yasha... What happened?" the girl asked.

"You're sick. You have a little bit of a fever but you should be okay. Just let yourself rest, okay?" InuYasha explained to her.

"Is...Is she back?" Kagome asked, with hope in her voice.

InuYasha looked down at the ground and away from Kagome's eyes.

"You just worry about recovering. You have more than yourself to worry about right now, remember?"

Kagome's hopeful voice turned into a smaller, worried tone.

"Yeah, I guess..." she said as she fell back to sleep.

"We're running out of time... And so is Kagome... Don't you die on me! We haven't made it this far in life for you to do this to me now!" InuYasha thought with his hopes starting to dim.

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Kaede sprinted through the small forest until she came to a quarry. Looking around, she could smell Shippo, but couldn't see him.

"What are you doing out here alone?!" a boy's voice shot out.

Kaede looked to the top of the waterfall in the quarry and smiled.

"So there you are! I've been looking for you! Everyone was wondering what had happened to you!" Kaede watched as Shippo jumped down from the quarry and landed in front of her.

He didn't say a word, he just looked at her. As if he wanted to scold her but didn't know how much good it would have done.

"So what exactly are you doing so far out here anyway?" Kaede asked.

"...Thinking..." Shippo replied turning towards the water of the quarry.

Kaede was sure that he was upset with her. She walked to him and looked over the beauty of the water. The afternoon sun shot several rays of sunshine down into the water and onto the waterfall. Every little drop of water that bounced off of the surface where the waterfall clashed into the small lake reflected the light. They could also see the fish shooting through the water like bolts of lightning.

"It's so pretty here... It hasn't been that way in a long time..." Kaede said as she turned to face Shippo.

"Do you see it?" she asked.

Shippo was a little confused about what she was talking about.

"The quarry?" he asked.

Kaede nodded and looked back towards the scenery.

"...We should leave here soon..." Kaede said out of nowhere.

Shippo turned to her in surprise and she looked at him and smiled.

"I have to get back to the past so I can save all of this... Save all of you!" she said still smiling.

Shippo's worried looks turned into happy ones as he nodded and said, "Let's go now... I'd feel a lot better if we did."

Kaede understood his worry and said, "Sure. Let's get some lunch first and then we'll go, okay?"

Shippo smiled big and nodded. Before they left the quarry, they heard loud "booms" from the direction that Sota and the other two were.

"...Sota!" Kaede yelled as she sprinted off quickly, Shippo following her.

Arriving at the cottage, Kaede saw Rin and Jaken hiding behind the small house, and Sota out in the front of it holding a small weapon up at another Naraku puppet.

"Ha! This won't be much of a challenge!" Kaede said as she began to jump at the puppet.

"IRON REAVER SOUL - " Kaede jumped forward to attack the puppet, but just then another puppet appeared and knocked her to the side.

"Kaede!" Shippo shouted as he jumped to her uncle and pulled him away from the scene.

The girl landed several hundred feet away but managed to get right back up to her feet and looked at what was in front of her.

"There's... There's four of those puppets!" The girl stared at the Naraku-created puppets and sprinted towards her friends.

"Shippo!" she shouted as she landed nearby and picked up her Tetsusaiga.

"Kaede! Are you all right?" Sota asked when he saw his niece.

"Shippo, get them out of here..." Kaede said looking back at them out of the corner of her eye.

"What?! No way! You're going with them and I'll stay and distract the demon!" Shippo said angrily as he approached the girl.

"No!" Kaede yelled as she turned to him quickly.

Shippo stopped in his tracks at the girls' glare.

"They need to be safe Shippo! Can I trust you with that?!" Kaede yelled to the boy.

Shippo didn't know what to think exactly. That was until Sota spoke up, "Shippo! We'll be okay! Just help Kaede!"

The three escaped into the forest and Shippo watched as they left safely and then turned to the battle.

Kaede scoffed and took off towards one of the puppets, swinging the wind scar at one, and being knocked the ground again by another.

Shippo turned back towards the fight and said, "Right! I'm going to protect you whether or not you want to be protected Kaede!"

The boy ran at the demons and yelled, "FOX FIRE!" as he sprayed them with the blue flames, and then landed next to Kaede who had just gotten back up to her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked looking over her.

"I'm fine! If you're going to help, then help!" She said as she lept up and began to attack one of the puppets.

Just as another puppet was going to strike at the girl, Shippo lept up at the second demon and slashed off it's arm with his claws, enabling Kaede to destroy the first demon with her wind scar. They both landed near each other and grinned at one another.

"Let's just keep this up and they'll be gone in no time!" Kaede said eagerly.

Shippo nodded and watched as Kaede jumped at the puppets again and Shippo followed close behind. Kaede swung with her Wind Scar technique and Shippo, once again, deflected the attack that the other puppets were going to unleash upon the girl. The sword had then destroyed a second demon puppet.

"Damn you!" one of the Naraku doubles shouted as Kaede and Shippo made it to the ground and turned back towards them.

Kaede scoffed and said, "What's the matter? Having a little trouble keeping up?"

"You fools! Even if you manage to kill us, you'll never be able to destroy the real Naraku!" One of the puppets said while it shot it's arms at Kaede.

Shippo jumped in the way and tore the arms to shreds, jumping up at the demon and swinging his claws at it. Kaede took the opporitunity and jumped up at the other demon, swinging her sword.

Shippo deflected the other attack attempts on him from the demon and tore through it. The demon did just as the other puppets did, and turned into a small wooden puppet, which split into two as it hit the ground. Shippo landed on the ground near it and smiled, as he realized that the threat was over. Just then, it became very quiet, and the smell of blood hit the boy's nose. It was too familiar to be a good thing. The boy turned and saw a most horrible sight indeed.

The demon puppet had shot out several arms at the demon woman, and all of them had managed to run her through. Shippo's eyes grew wide as he could feel his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. There was one small root through her stomach, two in her chest, one of which knicked her heart, and one through the base of her neck.

"K...K...KAEDE!" The boy shouted as the roots upbruptly tore back out of the girl's body and she fell.

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Chapter Teaser!

Shippo landed back on the ground and stared at ashes that fell from where the demon puppet had been. He then turned to see that Kaede was still struggling with her breathing. He then ran to her side and picked her hand back up, holding it tightly.

Kaede's eyes stared up at him, aknowledging his fears. She was dying... He stayed with her for a few more seconds trying to think of ways to save her. Just as he was hoping that she would stay alive, Kaede drew her last breath and then the life drained out of her eyes and her head turned to the side.

Shippo's heart sank deeper within his stomach as he dropped her hand and yelled at her, "No... NO! You're not going to die! You're not going to die!"