Sango was on Kirara's back in the entrance of Onigumo's cave. Miroku's hands were around her waist.

Kohaku stood between them and Kagome. Sango and Miroku could protect him from any attacks, while Kagome could assure his sacred jewel shard remained pure. Still, having him there was terrifying. Every instinct screamed at her that having him there was a bad idea. His jewel shard was the last one. Naraku had relentlessly hunted down every other fragment. There had to have been thousands of them, maybe more, and Naraku had found them all. He would stop at nothing to recover this last one.

"I'm already dead. It's time you accepted that, Sister."

Kohaku's words still rang through her head. She knew he was expecting to die in this battle.

I won't let that happen. Sango thought. I will protect him no matter what.

Suddenly, the ground rose up violently and she was thrown from Kirara's back. She landed hard on the ground as walls closed around her. There was a loud crack as her head made contact with the floor. She had been distracted, otherwise she wouldn't have gone down so easily. She recovered herself and noticed she was separated from the others. Terror struck her heart. Where was her brother?

"Kohaku!" She shouted, running forward, "Miroku!"

She pounded on the wall. There was no response. If Kohaku got separated from Kagome there would be no way to keep his Jewel Shard pure. He would be dead within seconds.

"KOHAKU!" She screamed again. Sango gripped her weapon, ready to smash through the wall, but before she could the wall itself vanished.

The world morphed around Sango. Suddenly, she was outside near a small stream. The moon was almost full, fireflies reflected on the water. Hotaru was sitting on the bank with her arms wrapped around her knees. She gazed up at the sky with a look of wistfulness.

"Hotaru?" Sango asked. She stepped forward, but the girl gave no indication that she had heard Sango.

This is a vision, Sango thought, but why? Why is Naraku showing this to me?

Kohaku walked up behind Hotaru and sat down next to her.

"Can't sleep?" He asked.

Hotaru shook her head.

"I still can't believe Lady Kikyo's gone."

"I know." Kohaku replied.

They sat there quietly, side-by-side. Hotaru leaned over and put her head on Kohaku's shoulder. He rested his own head on top of hers. It was such an intimate gesture, yet they made it look so natural. It was the first time since their father's murder that Sango had seen Kohaku look so at peace.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Hotaru said after a long silence. "Lady Kikyo can no longer use your shard to purify Naraku. You don't have to die."

Realization slowly crept over Kohaku's face. He sat up and looked at Hotaru. She looked back at him, meeting his eyes with her unwavering violet stare.

"I...I guess you're right." Kohaku managed to choke out. He turned his face away from her.

"You know, it is okay to feel conflicted about that."

Kohaku looked back at her in surprise. Whatever he had been expecting Hotaru to say, that wasn't it. When he didn't reply, Hotaru continued.

"When I finally managed to take control back from Mistress Nine, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to die in that battle and...I was relieved. It was the first time in four years I had been certain about anything. After everything she made me do, I was finally able to use my life to bring her down. It was vindicating. I finally felt at peace. I went to my death with no hesitation or regrets.

"Then, my princess used her power to bring me back and...well... I don't want to seem ungrateful, because I'm not...I love the life I was able to have because of her. I love my parents, I love my friends...But it was complicated…Suddenly I had an entirely new life. Old memories and new memories muddled together, I didn't know who I was anymore. But more than anything, I didn't know if I deserved a second chance. I had sacrificed my life to atone for my sins. What did that sacrifice mean if I was still alive?"

Kohaku nodded.

"I thought...if I gave my life to take down Naraku…"

"Then it would be a penance?"

"Yeah." Kohaku murmured, barely audible.

Hotaru closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder once more.

"It's complicated." She repeated. "But there's more than one way to atone for your sins."

He visibly relaxed, and once more put his head on top of hers. He closed his eyes.

Hotaru had convinced him to live. Sango had watched for a year now as her brother constantly threw himself into danger, trying to end his own life. Nothing she could say or do seemed to get through to him, but in mere minutes Hotaru had convinced him to live.

The next second the scene changed in a flash. Suddenly Sango was plunging Hotaru's weapon into her back. The child made a horrible choking gasp and fell forward. Sango dropped the weapon in her hands and stumbled backwards as the reality of what she had just done set in. No. She watched once again as her brother clutched his friend's body. Sango felt her knees give out underneath her.

She couldn't see this again. She couldn't bear it. Hotaru's blood soaked into her clothes. Sango couldn't breathe. What had she done? It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, the only thing to do, but now...Hotaru was her friend. She just murdered her friend. No...not yet. She had injured her friend, her friend who now lay choking and convulsing in Kohaku's arms.

"You promised to make it quick." A voice echoed around her, "How long did she suffer, unable to find the sweet release of death because of you?"

"No!" Sango cried.

She covered her ears, trying to block out the taunts, trying to block out the sounds of Hotaru drowning in her own blood. It hadn't really been that long, a minute if not less, but it had not been instantaneous as she had hoped. How long did that minute drag on? Time doesn't work when you're dying. Each heartbeat passed like an hour.

"You promised her the pain wouldn't last long."

Plugging her ears had done nothing, The voice was inside her head now. She couldn't escape it.

"She believed you, she trusted you, and you failed her."

Sango squeezed her eyes tighter, so tight that she could see stars behind her eyelids.

"Don't look away. Don't look away from the agony you caused."

Then Sango felt a blade go through her own back. The pain cut her in two. She tried to cry out but her mouth filled with the strong iron tang of blood. Her blood poured from her own body and mixed with Hotaru's. It began to rise like waves in the ocean, swamping Sango, pulling her down into it's crimson depths. Drowning her, choking her...

"Sango!"

Someone was grabbing her, she fought against them. Her instincts took over; she couldn't breathe. She punched and thrashed and kicked at her assailant. She had to get away. She had to run.

"Hey, Sango! Snap out of it! Sango! Damnit all! HEY!"

A sharp slap shattered the illusion. Sango was pulled away from the vision. Her brother and Hotaru's body vanished. She was back in Onigumo's cave. She put her hand to her stinging cheek.

Inuyasha was in front of her, looking rather ashamed.

"Sorry." He said. While he was not above beating up men and boys, as a rule he generally avoided hitting women.

"You okay?" The half-demon asked.

Sango was still shaking from her vision. She felt weak, she couldn't stop gasping. It was as if she really had drowned. It took her a few moments to put together where she was and what was going on.

"Hey!" Inuyasha snapped. He grabbed her arms again. "Whatever ya saw, it wasn't real. It's just Naraku screwing with us. Got it?"

That's right. They were in a battle. They were going to defeat Naraku. Sango looked back to the spot where Hotaru's body had been moments before. The cave floor was bare.

Inuyasha gave her arms a quick shake to force her focus back to him.

"Got it?" He repeat.

It's just Naraku screwing with us. Sango repeated in her head. Only it wasn't. What she had seen had been real. She would never escape it.

"Did you have a vision, too?" She was dazed still. Everything hurt. Words tumbled out of her mouth in a drunken slur.

Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched as his face darkened for a brief second.

"Yeah." Then he grabbed the beads around his neck and his expression changed to one of annoyance. "These stupid things snapped me outta it, never thought I'd be grateful to 'em."

"Where's Kagome?" Sango asked, as she managed to gather herself a little more. She looked around expecting to see her friend.

"Dunno. I can't smell anything over Naraku's stink."

Sango didn't see Miroku or Kohaku either. Even Kirara was gone. Sango's stomach knotted. She knew that Inuyasha and herself worked well together as a team, so she wasn't worried about herself. Kirara, Miroku, and Kagome could handle themselves as well, but what about Kohaku? Would he even be able to move this close to Naraku? Was his jewel shard defiled? Was he even still alive?

"We have to find the others!" Sango said.

"Well, duh." replied Inuyasha. "Come on. Naraku's stench is strongest this way. I bet when we find him, we'll find the others."

Author's Note:This chapter could have probably been posted together with last chapter, and next chapter. But life's been a bit hectic so I'm posting when I can. Thank you all so much for reading. And thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I haven't gotten a chance to respond yet, but it means so much to me! It lifts me up so much.