I Wish

The flowing energies of Tetsusaiga's blast surrounded the darkly glowing barrier that had been set up around Naraku, embracing it gently as one would a lover, cradling it in its soothing warmth; but at the same time binding it tightly with the glittering tendrils lacing through the brilliant light chasing away the darkness of the shadows.

Miko and demon energies had been combined once more, but this time they worked together in harmony; this time things would be different.

I was no longer with my body. I had used the conducting ability of Tetsusaiga not only to draw out enough energy from Sesshomaru and myself, but also to transmit my spirit within the sweeping wave of power that had been sent against Naraku. Once Naraku had been contained within his own darkened barrier by the brilliant seal of power, I detached myself from that which had carried me to my destination and moved away from the light into the darkness beyond.

When I entered the dark sphere I could feel the resonating power coursing through the enclosure. It was like hot fire searing my skin in one moment, and gentle waters washing away the pain in the next. It was everywhere and everything. It was magic and energy. But most of all it was power, true and real, coursing and strong. It was power so long dutifully contained and so long raging for its release.

Here, in this place, the war that began so long ago still raged on. Only now, new players had been added to the scene, and only time would tell if we would fuel the fires of the ancient war or finally put an end to the terrible fray.

I opened my eyes to the darkness surrounding me. The black was endless and terrifying, filling me with a sense of dread and hopelessness. I had locked myself into this prison with my enemy, and I had yet to find the key that would permit my escape. I was lost and alone within the void and for a moment I feared that this would forevermore be my fate; that I would be bound as Midoriko was before me to an endless war, to a hopeless battle, to an eternity of suffering.

My eyes fell closed again, almost as though to squeeze out tears that would never fall from my eyes in this form.

But it was then, when I had retreated into the sanctuary offered to me within myself, that I realized that it was not my suffering which had brought me here, it was not my pain which I had come here to end. I had come to stand against the darkness not from duty or responsibility, not from anger or hatred; but from love. I had come because only I could, because only I could end the suffering that had been cast upon so many others during the course of this ugly war.

I remembered them then. I could see their faces alight with warm and happy smiles, hear their voices lifted in joyous laughter, feel their love wrapping me in a soft blanket of warmth and comfort. I remembered my friends and my family. I remembered the children I swore I would give a future to. And I remembered that though it seemed I was standing on my own, that just beyond the darkness of this place, somewhere hidden in the shadows cast upon my heart; that he was still there keeping me on my feet, preventing me from falling when it seemed almost certain that I would.

I remembered then my resolve and my determination. I remembered my conviction and my faith. I remembered who I was and what I had come here to do.

I opened my eyes.

Light swept through the darkness. A light cast out from my own projected form to illuminate the bleak world of nothingness surrounding me and to chase away the shadows of doubt and fear. My miko powers were called forth to bring life into the dark prison, and to bring into the light the creature that I had trapped here.

Naraku was right in front of me; only a few mere paces away and yet I had been unable to see him in the impenetrable darkness. His eyes widened with surprise when the light flooded over him and his sight settled on me. After a moment though, he seemed to regain himself and he began to speak.

"So," he began in an amused tone, "have you finally come to your senses and realized that it is better to join with me than to fight against that which is unstoppable?"

My eyes narrowed in disgust at the idea of ever disgracing myself by taking sides with the wicked hanyou. He had no honor, no sense of pride or dignity, no compassion or remorse for his disgusting, wicked manipulations. He was a filthy coward who sought power not his own because he was weak. He believed himself to be unstoppable now that the Shikon was in his possession, but still he had no conception of what the jewel was, or of the power it carried.

"Our battle is far from over, Naraku." I hissed out.

"Still so strong in the face of the inevitable," his lips twisted into an ugly, dangerous smile as he moved towards me, "Your passion never ceases to amaze me." He reached out and brushed his fingers across my cheek. "You are so much like Kikyo."

I slapped his hand away.

"I am nothing like Kikyo!"

"Oh but you are," he replied in a laughing voice as he began to move around me. I followed his movements with my eyes, but refused to show my fear of him by moving my body. "You would deny that you are like her even though you look and act so much alike. You would deny that you are like her even though you have the same power, the same purpose, and the same duty." He stopped moving when he was directly behind me. I could no longer see him, but still I refused to allow him to intimidate me. I held firm to my position, my head held high. "You would deny that you are like her, and yet like her, you too have fallen into my trap." He leaned into me, his last words nothing but a hateful whisper in my ear. "You would deny that you are like her, and yet you too have fallen in love with someone who could never love you in return."

I turned to face him then, my lips curved in a bitter, ironic smile.

"I pity you." He narrowed his eyes in anger at my bold and misplaced statement, but I continued anyways. "You will allow yourself to see anything but the truth. I am not Kikyo. No matter how much I may resemble her or how much my actions may mimic hers in the time that she lived, I am still only Kagome. The duty of the Shikon was given to me without my knowledge or consent, but it was I that accepted the responsibility. You would say that what I am, that who I am, that all the power I possess and all the love and compassion that I bear others is a result of the jewel being in my possession, but it is my heart and my soul which would calm the restless power of the jewel not it for me."

"You allow yourself to believe all of these things because you can not face the fact that Kikyo could never and would never love you. You would make yourself believe that it was the power of the jewel which made her so alluring because you knew that the jewel was something of substance which you could grasp and that her heart was not. You refuse to see that all of your wicked plots and manipulations are only an extension of the anger and insecurities that you felt for yourself when you realized why she would never love you."

"Hold your tongue woman," he snapped, "or I shall not be as lenient with you as I would otherwise have been."

I laughed aloud at the idea of what he would consider 'lenient'. My smile grew with the knowledge that now I was the one making him doubt his beliefs, and I continued speaking of truths which he had so long denied.

"You are alone and afraid. You have no allies, no friends. You know nothing of love, only anger and hate. And it is this which makes you weak. And for this I would pity you."

"Silence!" His voice was contorted by his rage, and his eyes burned with blackened fires beneath the surface. But I would not be deterred.

"But what is more, I pity the fact that you have been so corrupted by the idea of the jewels miraculous power that you have failed to see that it is not me that is trapped; but that it is you who have walked willingly into this prison of my making."

Naraku's eyes opened wide in disbelief at my last statement. He stumbled back from me a few paces in his shock before he allowed himself to take in his surroundings. The light that I had cast out had chased away the darkness of the barrier Naraku had fist concealed himself in; and now, above the smoothed surface of his barrier, the tight latticework of blue threads which were held together firmly by the tremendous power created when Sesshomaru and I had combined our energies could be seen.

"No," he whispered in disbelief.

"NO!" He roared in fury before he whipped around to face me again. "You will never be able to stop me! I possess the jewel! I possess all of the power! You are nothing compared to me! NOTHING!"

His left arm shot forward towards me, changing as it moved into long and deadly spikes which in an instant had been implanted deeply within my chest.

I looked down at the spikes protruding from my chest with passing annoyance. My hand lifted from my side and moved to rest gently atop of the sharp spines. Under my fingers, the spines melted into nothing but glittering ash, and once removed the hole in my chest closed over as though nothing had ever happened.

I looked back to Naraku and laughed silently at his obvious fury and confusion.

"You can not kill me, Naraku. I am not really here."

Naraku growled out his outrage, but instead of attacking again considering the uselessness of such an act, he hardened his gaze, narrowed his eyes, and lifted his right arm up before him. Lying in his hand and glowing with a wicked black color, I could see the whole Shikon no Tama.

"You will soon see how wrong you are to oppose me," he ground out. "When I have harnessed all of the Shikon's power and made it my own, you will be the first that I will make bow down to my greatness. Then there will be nothing to stand in my way, nothing to hold me back from making the world my own."

He focused his sight back onto the jewel resting in his hand. Naraku willed the jewel to surge to life with power, and soon it was pulsating with incredible waves of the dark non-light. The waves of darkness spread out and away from the jewel, covering the light that I had brought into the enclosure once again in hideous shadows.

Then, from out of the consuming blackness, a tremendous roar sounded out. I turned towards the sound, and though I could not see it, I knew what it was that had been called forth from the cursed jewel. The ground shook with the creatures approach, tremors of restless anticipation and fear. But still I stood patiently and waited for what was to come.

"Give me your power!" I heard Naraku's selfish wish. "Make me the greatest demon to have ever lived!"

The roar sounded out again, making me shiver despite my resolve to stay strong. There was such malice and such wickedness in that sound. It was a screech of anguish combined with a hiss of fury and roaring wrath. It was hallow and empty, it was soulless and lifeless; it was nothingness and yet it was here. It was evil and I could feel it in the air around me.

Suddenly a light was sparked within the darkness. A wickedly burning fire erupted before us and the creature could be seen. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was hideousness that transcended the word. The creature's body was a mass of scales and slime and fur accumulated from a multitude of demons combined into one. Its legs were twisted and bent at unnatural angles and adorned with the most ferocious looking claws that I had ever seen. Its tail was a hissing serpent, which had no eyes and yet was not blind for I could see its forked tongue slipping out of the fanged mouth to taste the air and locate its prey. And settled atop of the monstrosity was the head which resembled that of a dragon complete with fiercely glowing eyes, spiked horns running in rough lines across its crown and a massive maw that contained many rows of sharp, jagged teeth.

The creature focused on Naraku, and despite the tremendous fear that I could see welling in the dark hanyou's eyes he would not be stopped.

"Give me what I desire!" Naraku commanded the beast. "Give to me the great power that you possess!"

The creature lifted its head in the air and released another frightening roar. As it did so, a churning mass of energy collected in its massive maw. The power was immense and I could feel the surging of dark energy within my veins. Suddenly the horrendous roaring ceased and the creature brought its head down again, releasing its powerful blast directly at Naraku.

"Yes," I heard Naraku's triumphant decree, "All of the power shall be mine."

But still he was fooling himself, still he did not comprehend.

Before the blast could reach the expecting Naraku, a brilliant, beautifully radiant shield of vivid blue rose up in front of us to halt the blast. When the two powers collided, an explosion of such magnitude followed that both Naraku and I were thrown back from the force of it.

I collected myself from where I had been thrown and made my way to Naraku. When I reached him, he was staring at the figure standing bravely before the beast with hatful loathing written all over his face. I too took a moment to look upon the beautiful woman. Her long, dark hair fanned out around her as she raised her arms to call forth her powers, and the bright sheen of her metal armor seemed to make her pale skin glow with supernatural radiance.

"Even now Midoriko battles with the beast of long ago." I told Naraku as I watched Midoriko launch her attack against the beast. "The battle rages on within the Shikon jewel and will do so until the forces of light and dark can find a way to unite."

The creature retaliated to Midoriko's attack with just as much power, and once again their energies collided in an explosion of light. I braced myself against the force of the blast. Once it had passed I turned to face Naraku.

"You have a choice to make now. I have sealed us within this barrier. We could become like them; waging war with each other for an eternity with no perceivable end and no way to gain victory. Or we could put an end to it all; we could make the final stand."

"What is it you are saying, miko?"

"I'm saying that alone neither one of us can invoke the full power of the jewel. You have already tried and Midoriko saw to it that the darkness she had sealed away so long ago would never be released into the world again. If I were to try, the beast would be the one to retaliate and prevent me from destroying it. But together we could succeed. The same wish, the same desire; when made by opposite sides at the same time would be enough to unlock the seal that Midoriko's heart placed upon the Shikon."

"And what wish is it that you propose we make?" he scoffed.

"I would wish for my enemy to have the wish they desired."

"And you would expect me to do the same? How foolish do you believe me to be? If I give to you the power to make a wish on the jewel, what would stop you from wishing for my death?"

"The same thing that would stop you from wishing for mine," I responded. "There is something that I would wish for that carries far more meaning to me than your death."

"Perhaps," he smiled a vicious and cruel smile, "Your death is what I shall wish for."

He was still playing games. He still believed that he could manipulate me to bend to his selfish desires. But he was wrong. I had come too far, fought too hard, and sacrificed too much to be standing where I was to allow his wicked games to sway my resolve.

"I will take that chance." My voice was strong and sure. I knew what I was doing, and I knew that, despite what he had said, my death was not what Naraku would wish for.

He studied me for a long time as he considered what I had told him. But I knew that regardless of the threat that I could pose him if I were to gain some of the jewel's power, having that power for himself was far too much of a draw for Naraku to ever deny. After a time, Naraku looked down to jewel resting in his palm. The Shikon still glowed with the dark light which reflected the even darker aura of its wielder, but the light was faint because most of the power of the jewel had been released when Midoriko and the beast she battled had been unleashed into the confines of the barriers around us.

"If this is to be done," Naraku was speaking in soft, contemplative tones, "The jewel will be destroyed."

"Yes, the jewel will be destroyed. And the power released from it shall shatter all barriers keeping us held here."

His dark eyes focused on mine once more.

"Once released from this prison, there shall be nothing left to protect you."

"I know." I did not waver once in the face of my enemy. "But this war has gone on for far too long. It is time for the final stand to be made. Once outside, the final battle shall begin again. Only this time there will be no sealing of powers, no eternal war to wage on past the battle; a victor shall finally be named."

"A victor," he laughed a deep and sinister laugh. "You still believe that you can stand against me. Even after I possess all the power I desire, you still believe you stand a chance of defeating me. You place your life in my hands and still you stand there confident that I will not crush you."

"Are you finished?" I asked him when there was a pause in his stalling rant. "Or is it simply that you are afraid of what I may be capable of?"

"I fear nothing!" Naraku grabbed me roughly by the arm and drew me close to him. He leaned down to me until our noses were nearly touching and I could clearly see the malice and the hatred burning in his eyes. "I shall be the most powerful demon to have ever existed!" he hissed out. "And you, little miko, will learn just how weak and pathetic you truly are when you come face to face with my might!"

"Then so be it." I raised my hand in front of me, my palm towards him ready to accept. "I am prepared to face you. The question is, are you prepared to face me?"

"I would have possessed you, made you my own; spared you from the fate of your companions. But you have spit in the face of my benevolence, and now you shall not receive any mercy. For what I can not possess, I will destroy."

He clasped my forward hand roughly with his own. Between our hands, I could feel the Shikon surge to life. I locked my eyes with his, and together we made our wish. Light and dark combined as one, each wishing for the other as they would wish for themselves. Our voices rose together within the confines of the barrier, and with them the power we called forth.

"I wish for my enemy to have their wish"

The great powers surged around us in brilliant masses of light and shadow. They opposed each other in every way, and yet once joined they became something unstoppable in their might. From out of the blazing fires lighted by the tremendous power, came the voices. Like wraths speaking without form or substance, but carrying their message clearly as though the words were spoken inside of our heads, the voices of two and yet one rang out.

"Our battle has been fought, our time has passed. One warrior from each side; each prepared to stand against the other, each ready to accept that gift which we could bestow. We give you our power to use as you will. Make of us your request, and for each it shall be granted."

And in that moment, where I knew that Naraku would be wishing for all of the power which he had coveted for so long, I too made a wish for him as I wished for everyone that had been pulled into this hideous war.

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This has got to be the longest battle scene ever! It is driving me insane! I swear; this battle WILL come to an end in the next chapter if it kills me! Then I will finally, FINALLY be able to get back to writing stuff that isn't quite so intense or suspenseful. Man, I could really go for a good laugh right about now, but I started this infernal battle and I'll be damned if I give up on it when it is so close to its completion.

Anyways, my ranting aside, I hope you all have enjoyed the chappie.

Until next time

ShadowsWeaver1

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters I am about to weave into my web of chaos. Any and all definitions (with the exception of those cited specifically) have been taken directly from Wikipedia the online encyclopedia because I am far too lazy to do any further research to support my Inuyasha obsession.