There he lay, motionless on the ground, his honey-gold eyes stared at her, there was no cocky smirk, no abrasive words, just silence. Her tears fell heavy as it finally sank in. He was dead, never would she hear his voice or see his smile, one miscalculation, a single miscalculation in 8 months at war had left him here, his garbs torn through and his blood leeching into the greedy earth. How could she have let this happen? A heart wrenching sob tore through her as she fell to the ground, all sound from the battle around her seemed to fade away as she stared at the empty gaze of her friend. Suddenly she was jerked into a standing position, she tried to fight the motion to no avail. Slowly sound began to return to the world.

"-dy Miko," the voice seemed distant at first, "Lady Kagome!"

Kagome's eyes focuses on the man in front of her, General Kaii.

"Kaii, General Kaii," she cried, "help him!" anguish filled her voice as she pleaded.

"It's too late M'lady, there is nothing I can do." Kagome's body was once again wracked with sobs before her head shot up and she frantically searched the battlefield for

Sesshomaru. Catching a glimpse of his white hair she bolted across the battlefield away from General Kaii. An unlucky dragon stepped into her path as she ran through the chaos, bringing her dagger up she deflected his blade and sliced through his jugular. The wound exploded in pink light as she ran past, her holy powers illuminating the blades as she ran. Another enemy fell to her blade before she reached Sesshomaru.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome yelled, as she watched him decapitate the enemy before him, before turning to grab her.

"You are not supposed to be on the front lines." He bellowed angrily, it was then he saw her tears.

"It's InuYasha!" she cried, "He's fallen, hurry, we need Tenseiga!" Suddenly the sky grew dark as dozens of dragons filled the sky. A blaze of fire swept across the troops. It seemed like a last ditch effort, they were losing. Sesshomaru's forces were on the verge of victory. Another wave of fire swept through the ranks. Pulling Kagome's body close to him, Sesshomaru took to the sky, swinging is sword upward and severing the head of the closest dragon.

"This is no time to be standing still, where is he?" Sesshomaru demanded. Kagome pointed to where she had come from, Sesshomaru flew quickly as he tore through the airborne enemies with ease. Another wave of dragons flew past and set the medical tents ablaze. After a moment Kagome caught sight of General Kaii, he was supporting an injured soldier and trying to assist the medics and injured out of the tents before they collapsed. A secondary attack on the tents flew overhead forcing Sesshomaru to land. Sesshomaru and Kagome shoved their way through the troops fleeing the fire to the spot where Kagome had last seen InuYasha, but he was nowhere to be seen, only the massive puddle of blood and the Tetsaiga were there, Kagome looked around frantically but InuYasha was nowhere to be seen. Spotting General Kaii once more Kagome scooped up Tetsaiga and made a break for him, Sesshomaru following not far behind.

"General Kaii! Where is InuYasha!? What happened to his body!?" She screeched, the sound of panic filling her voice.

"I," his voice cracked as he spoke, clearing his throat he spoke once more, "I had thought it best to move him into a medical tent, to wait on you." Kagome's stomach dropped as another tent collapsed in flame trapping wounded soldiers and medics inside.

"Which tent! Have they moved him out yet!?" She yelled. Guilt filled General Kaii's face.

"I'm sorry M'lady, he was in the first tent to collapse, not a single soldier nor medic made it out." He motioned to it slightly while he bowed his head in regret. Kagome looked

helplessly at the smoldering pile of bodies and ash that was once a tent, instead of sadness and agony, all she felt was anger. She harshly wiped the tears from her face and looked at Sesshomaru.

"You can bring him back! I've seen you bring back others with far more damage!" The raging war took so many lives, and the Tenseiga's power had to be used more than once in the battle, and while many soldiers where resurrected the power of the Tenseiga only worked once.

"Kagome," He said in a soft voice as he held her shoulder, "I can't bring him back. Father had to use Tenseiga on InuYasha and his mother on the day of his birth. There are no demons of the underworld to slay." Her head bolted to look at him as tears welled up in her eyes and her body was wracked with sobs. The sound of the battle continued on around them, Kagome looked to the sky and screamed in anger before locking eyes with him once more.

"We're going Sesshomaru, I'm going to kill that dragon, I'll rip out his guts and make a rug of his hide."


With an affirmative 'hn', he held the miko closely and took to the air, though he didn't want her on the front lines, he would not deny her retribution for his brother's life.

She clung tightly to his side while holding his brother's sword. "Sesshomaru," Kagome asked almost too quiet to be heard over the battle below, "promise to protect me." Sesshomaru looked down at the sullen woman hidden under his arm and curtly nodded.

"This Sesshomaru shall protect you." Kagome carefully took Tetsaiga in her hand and slid it into Sesshomaru's belt. Sesshomaru landed in a small open area, upon landing Kagome withdrew her dagger from it's sheath and let her reiki flow into it. It wasn't long until they were in the heat of battle, as Sesshomaru had promised, he protected her, she wasn't sure how long they'd been fighting but the sun was beginning to set. A sudden flash of light reflected into her eyes and Kagome looked around and found it was the sun bouncing of of the armor of a red clad enemy on horse back. The crest on his armor letting all know he was the one in charge.

"Sesshomaru," Kagome called out as she kicked an enemy soldier back and drew her bow. "use Tetsaiga, I see the dragon's lord."

Sesshomaru had yet to draw the Tetsaiga, every time he had ever tried to wield his brother's sword it's barrier had rejected him, but he trusted the miko and drew the sword. He waited a moment for the pain, but it never came, instead the sword took it's true form. With a single swing Sesshomaru took out the enemy leader's defensive line. Kagome leveled her bow, angrily she poured an excessive amount of reiki into the arrow, not a single piece of the arrow wasn't growling bright with her reiki.

"Hit the mark." She whispered before firing. Sesshomaru had remembered watching Kagome and InuYasha fight, how Tetsaiga's energy flowed around the Miko's reiki, and the

damage it could do. Sesshomaru swung the blade and sent a powerful Wind Scar to intertwine with the Miko's arrow. A heartbeat later the arrow struck it's mark punching straight through his armor and plunging directly into his chest. Sesshomaru watched as he tried to pull the arrow out, creeping up his face was glowing pink marks, the demon screamed out as he continued to try to remove the arrow which seemed stuck in his armor. The dragon lord's chest began to expand as he was purified from the inside out, with one last futile attempt to remove the arrow the dragon lord's chest exploded sending blood and a soft pink light over the nearby enemy soldiers, who's skin began to blister and burn. With their commander dead the dragon's began their retreat, Kagome paid them no mind as she walked a few steps towards Sesshomaru before collapsing. Sesshomaru caught her before she reached the ground.

"Well done, Kagome." He said as he scooped her up in his arms and walked back towards his brother's final resting place.


Kagome woke in a tent she didn't recognize, it seemed to be day outside, the last thing she could remember was firing the arrow, after that it was completely blank. Slowly she pushed herself into a seated position and tried to stand. Her legs felt weak and wobbly and he head was pounding. Carefully she made her way to the entrance flap of the tent, pushing the flap aside she saw Sesshomaru's soldiers talking among themselves, and off a bit was Sesshomaru and General Kaii speaking to each other. Kagome slowly wobbled her way towards Sesshomaru when a soldier she walked past stood and took her arm.

"Let me help you Lady Miko." He said kindly. Sesshomaru stopped talking and turned to look at her before walking swiftly towards her.

"Dismissed Soldier." Sesshomaru said before supporting Kagome as they walked back towards General Kaii.

"It's good to see you awake M'lady. We feared you may not wake." General Kaii said in a soft tone that hardly matched the proud youki.

"How long was I out?" Kagome asked.

"Two days. After you defeated the dragon lord you collapsed. The enemy fled. We've been collecting our dead, or as many as we could, many of our soldiers are burned beyond recognition or mere piles of ash." General Kaii held out something for Kagome. Opening her hands he handed her InuYasha's subjugation beads.

"I'm sorry, this is the only thing that survived the fire, we've gathered the ashes from where these were found, they are yours, should you wish to keep them. Kagome nodded but said nothing, her tears fell quietly onto the beads as the true cost of this war truly sunk in.


Sesshomaru scooped up Kagome as she cried and cradled her in his arms, he could tell she was devastated. Without a word he carried her back to her tent. It was another two days before they began to pack up and leave, the living soldiers had been accounted for and the list of the deceased was completed. One of the few remaining medics had put Kagome on bed rest, she was regaining her strength, but not quickly.


She sat on the edge of her cot and waited for them to inform her it was time to tear down her tent. It was Sesshomaru who informed her, before picking her up and sitting her carefully on A-Uh's back. He stood quietly in front of her as she looked towards the ground.

"I'll do it," she said quietly, "I'll be you're mate. I can't imagine losing you, I can't bare that thought." she said before she started crying quietly. Sesshomaru stroked her hair softly before he spoke.

"We'll talk more on it when we arrive home for now, rest."


Part of me want's to apologize for this chapter, another part of me doesn't. Even though

this has been an emotional roller coaster for some of you. I hope you've enjoyed the story

up to this point.