SammyJams, yeah, that one hurt to write as well. I could only imagine how painful it would be to know that your enemy has left you in such a position, besides the baby but the fact that she had betrayed her friends with such an act. windbreaking, yes he does, but can he get past his hurt to find her without the rage that begs to tear their relationship apart? Can she allow him at her side again after what she has done...the lies and the act itself.InuKagLover 1992, now, I can't say that I wouldn't agree with such an outcome, but this is Kagome remember? I doubt she wouldn't have thought about it as any woman who might find themselves in the same situation, but then again Kagome loves everybody, for the most part (Naraku). Even in the series she didn't want to hurt Kanna even when the girl was trying to kill them. She could see the good in the young girl. And like I said, I don't do sad endings. No, I couldn't do that to my favorite pairing. Thanks for staying with the story thru this darkness. Thanks to all my readers, followers, favorites, and my reviewers.
Inuyasha stands, still completely lost in his thoughts as Koga appears before them, his own eyes burning with tears when he sees that the group is all there, save for one woman that he truly cares about. He had thought of her as a potential mate and while she had told him of her love for another man, he had thought that he still had a chance and wanted that chance to get her to see him as more than a friend, but she wasn't here. The mourning around him told him little in the way of her fate, but Inuyasha's howl of remorse and the look of him standing there told the wolf demon that Kagome was gone. Was she dead?
"Wh-Where is she?" he asked, his voice coming out rough as he continued to look at the broken Hanyou. When he didn't get an answer he rushed at the other male, slamming his fist into the shaken male's cheek. Inuyasha was knocked away from the spot where Kagome had been, his eyes unblinking even as he hit the ground, the dust hiding him from view of his friends.
"Inuyasha!" Sango cried, Shippo hot on her heels to get to the fallen male, Kirara coming to stand in the way of Koga as Miroku joined her. He held his staff so hard that his knuckles were turning white. What was the wolf demon's issue? Didn't he see that Inuyasha was in no state fight him. His mind wasn't on those around him and that was apparent by the easy strike the other male had taken. "What the fuck is your problem, wolf?" Sango cried out in anger. Sure, Inuyasha had hurt Kagome all those times, but he had proven his affection for her as well and hadn't deserved the strike that Koga had given him.
"Why do you come here to fight, Koga? Can yo-"
"He's right," Inuyasha muttered, sitting up as he brushed off Sango. "I deserved that punch, but know this, wolf," he said, his voice vibrating with the growl that was coming from his throat. "That is the only one you will get without me fucking tearing you apart!" Koga eyed him, the hate evident in his vibrant cerulean eyes. He spit to his right, a dark chuckle escaping his lips.
"The only one? Ha, that's laughable, mutt," he said taking a step toward the rising Hanyou. "You deserve to die if she has fallen." Miroku moved to block his way, Kirara growling a warning at the wolf leader. Their standoff seemed to last for hours as the group that had once held a Miko glared at the male who claimed to love that same Miko even when his attentions were always dismissed by the young woman he wanted as his mate. Finally it seemed that the hold was broken as Koga moved quickly to get to Inuyasha and the Hanyou rushed to meet his clash, his sword still at his side as he bore his claws to attack his rival. Before they could meet though, a voice broke thru their intent, so cold and yet so commanding in that some tone.
"You both are such idiots to think that such a fight is warranted," the male stated. All eyes fell upon their new arrival. Sesshomaru stood before them, looking as impassive as he always appeared. Cold and almost untouchable, save for when the girl at his side demanded his attention, but now she stood there with Jaken with no words to say as she looked for Kagome amongst them. Still hoping that she was wrong and the Miko was still at their side as she always was when they crossed paths. She said noting when she noted the female was indeed gone and that the others before her weren't angry anymore. They were looking at the ground, refusing to look at her lord when his words were so true. They shouldn't be fighting at this moment, not when the young girl they were all missing was possibly fine. Why did they act as if she had died? Even Sesshomaru, who wasn't one to interfere in fights that had nothing to do with him or to even show any feeling had come to find out what had caused such a mournful cry from his temperamental half brother.
"You have no business in this," Inuyasha hissed, his eyes flashing red for a moment at all the interference into his battle with the wolf. He hadn't forgotten why the other male was there either. He was sure that the wolf had heard his cry, had known that he again had failed to protect Kagome. Why did he think he deserved her? Why did he think that she would want to be with him when he couldn't even protect her from being defiled by the spider demon? He hadn't been able to protect Kikyo and she had once held his heart, even if it had never been the all powerful love that he held for her reincarnation. His brother scoffed, his own eyes flashing in warning at his brother.
"I do have business in this, brother," he said, his words tinted with malice and anger. "The Miko is a powerful one, one that has earned my respect in more ways than one." That seemed to shock those standing there, save for Rin and Jaken who had known that even though that very girl had earned his ire at once point when she had interfered with his attempt to take his father's fang all those years ago. Yes, even Rin had heard of that fight from the toad demon that kept her company for a good portion of the time when Sesshomaru was away doing his own thing. She knew that he had been so upset with the fact that a mere human and a girl at that, had taken hold of the sword and while she had already shown her strength in facing him with little to no fear at all, he had been so upset that she had been the one to pull the fang from the place it had rested since his father's death. Something that he had finally come to terms with since Rin had entered his life. "I doubt that she would want the pair of you fighting to the death." He now looked around, though he knew the young woman wasn't with them. He had known by his brother's cry that the Miko was gone. Dead or not with them had been the question he had wanted answered. "Where is she?"
"She just disappeared," Miroku stated, relaxing for the moment in the knowledge that with the dog demon here that no one would be fighting and even if they tried they would probably regret it from the first fist thrown to the last one that was allowed before the dog Lord. He quirked a brow at that, unsure of what exactly she had meant by that but at the same time he had felt the power surge that had even risen the hair on his neck. It had been so strange, a battle between the purity of a Miko and the darkness that seemed to push around that pure aura. He had been sure that Naraku had been in battle with their small group and had been tempted to rush after them. He did owe that bastard a slow death after all for what he had done. Taking Rin had been a true deciding factor in his warring mind over fighting against the Hanyou. He hadn't really worried to much about the evil that plagued the lands as long as they stayed away from his lands, but Naraku had come to him first and when done they had nothing to do with each other and Sesshomaru had not bothered to give the other demon much of his time, save for a few times where his mind wanted to know more about this thing that hated his brother as much as he had once thought himself to feel.
"So, she transported then?" the silver haired demon asked, looking thoughtful for a moment. Mikos were strange creatures after all. They were humans that help powers that could rival that of their counterparts, the demons. Sure, the groups never seemed too close to each other, but they were after all just another race. Another humanoid that roamed the Earth. Some demons, like humans, were weak with no power to speak of, but others held powers that were still just a hair's breath from a Miko in her most powerful form...well, except for his brother's Miko. Her powers were more powerful than any he had ever seen in his 900 year life span. "She is a very powerful Miko." He now turned his attention to Inuyasha. "Are you really that dense to think that she was dead?" he asked, his eyes growing dark as he wondered again as to the nature of his brother's cry. Surely the younger male wasn't that stupid. He had been around Kagome's predecessor so he had to know that they had some powers that would be kin to his own kind's powers. Teleportation was something that few had, but the half breed had to have remembered that he himself, could do that too. He had left Inuyasha behind that way several times. His father had been able to do that some move.
"No, not dead," the Hanyou muttered, anger tinting his tone as he remembered when all of his very life had come tumbling down his ears. Kagome had had sex with someone...she was marked by that same someone...and she bore that fucker's spawn. She might as well be dead for all that she had done. Don't talk about her like that! His demon wasn't happy with his thoughts, but truly how could one get over such a betrayal like that?! Even if he hadn't had the feelings he had for her like he did. Even if his love wasn't one of a romantic nature...even if they had only been friends it would still be a betrayal to him. His human side felt that betrayal while his demon side seemed to be in denial of it. "She may as well be." Shocked gasps followed his words, a growl from Koga intermingled with their surprise and hurt at his words. Inuyasha didn't wait for them to say anything as he jumped off into the woods. Sesshomaru stilled the wolf with one word.
"Why?" Koga also wanted to know because the fact that she wasn't dead gave him immense relief. His heart could finally beat in a normal rhythm, but why would the one that she claimed to have love for feel it was better for her to have died instead. He was in fact, treating it like she was dead... Sango began to retell all that had happened in a matter of minutes that had felt like a lifetime as they too had stood and absorbed all that Naraku had told them.. of how Kagome had seemed to be suddenly forced from them by her own power and while her power had remained a pink tint there was a darkness growing within it. At the end Koga was nearly frothing at the mouth while the older demon stood, unmoving in his thoughts as the story played itself in his mind. He could almost see it all thru her words. "So, he claims that he had taken her as his in both ways, but to me something sounds off."
"Off?" Shippo asked, confused as he was still too young to understand all that had transpired, save for the fact that Kagome was with pup. That he understood. Sesshomaru looked annoyed for a moment, almost torn with the information that only held at this moment. Sure, humans had some inkling of marking, the act itself wasn't all that new and while rarely used anymore with all the wars between humans and his kind, it was still a thing that some demons still did. What he couldn't get past was someone like Naraku knowing such information.
"Naraku shouldn't know of such things," the dog demon stated. "He isn't a slayer who would have such knowledge and he's not a real demon either so he wasn't raised in a way to be aware of such information. That begs the question as to how he would know of it so he could do it." And then the other question was why Kagome's scent hadn't held that of the father to her unborn pup...There were so many questions now and he didn't have answers for them either. Growling low in his throat he looked to his ward. If the spider demon could do that to the Miko for whatever enjoyment he got from it and it was his way of doing things. Things to harm his enemies in a way that not even his incarnations could do nor his own hands. He could weaken them with just a twist of his thoughts, making them pull from each other, but the simple fact was that he had tried that before and it had never worked. "Because of the Miko," he muttered, the others looked on in shock of his statement. What could he mean by that?
"What about that has to do with Kagome?" Sango demanded. "She didn't ev-" He held up his hand to silence her.
"He couldn't have known about it, but then again it would make sense that he would utilize someone who would," the silver haired male stated. "He would use it to make her defiled in such a way to taint the jewel. He has done it before has he not? When my brother and his first Miko were together." It was not a statement, that last part. "He has tried it with you all, has he not?" It all came to make sense then. What he was saying without saying it. All of them had somehow been affected by the spider demon, but Kagome had welcomed them all and made them happy in a way that they had feared they could never be again. She was the glue and if Naraku took it away then they wouldn't be strong enough anymore. Little did they know that they had to visitors that stood off in the shadows, one was a friend while the other longed to be like them. A wish that had been taken away long before her new life, if one could call it that. She longed to be normal, allowed to have friends like the ones that her reincarnation had. Anger welled up at those thoughts.
She could never be what she had always longed to be. A normal woman with a husband by her side, children underfoot and friends to converse with! Why had her reincarnation been given what she could not have!? She longed to kill the girl even more and even though she knew that would do no good in the end because once she killed Naraku she would go to Hell. Inuyasha said he would no longer go with her, but as much as she felt for him, she still felt that he owed her that and she was going to take him with her. It didn't matter what he wanted anymore, no, it was about what she deserved all over again. Walking away from the sight before her she thought of ways to find the other Miko and to bring about her death so quickly that no one, not even Inuyasha could stop her. He could hate her for that, but when the other one was gone he would have nothing else to do but join with her on her journey to the after life.
As for the other shadow, it listened quietly, taking in the view from someone he had never quite gotten along with and while the feelings were obviously mutual he couldn't help but take those words from his brother and throw them into the mix of his own turbulent thoughts. There was something not quite fitting in with Naraku's little tale now that he heard the reasoning of his own kind. He had to find her and he knew that that was also what his group was deciding as well. They would need to find the missing Miko and it was something that couldn't wait. "Well, let's get going," he said as he reemerged from the darkness of the trees.
Kagome could only allow gravity to take her down the side of the large cliff. Thankful that it wasn't a sudden drop and was just an incline that felt like a rather scary slide as her small form tumbled down it. Her mind was screaming at her to fight this fall, that she could stop herself or at least slow herself down if she so wished, but for some reason she wasn't fighting it. Maybe she hoped that it would either end the life of the baby she was carrying, or maybe she had hoped she would die from the fall. Sure, she had wanted to go after and kill Naraku, but some part of her still tormented herself with the fact that she wasn't just simply defiled as she had feared, but she was corrupted in a far worse way than that. She was marked, chained to a monster that would only kill her once her purpose was fulfilled or maybe he would rape her once he found her. And that was how it felt now, that she had been raped and while it made her feel better on some level that she hadn't accepted him in the way that she had feared it still meant that she hadn't been strong enough to fight him off and then another voice entered her warring emotions. She had accepted him in some way to keep his mark upon her skin, but that still didn't make sense.
Finally she was done with the self pity party she was having at the moment. She couldn't die before she killed him, she couldn't allow him to continuing tormenting people and not her friends. They were already hurting from his appearance in their life and now if she allowed herself to die then she couldn't do what she had obviously been brought here to do. To do away with him. Even then she felt that was a strange thing for her to be brought here for. Maybe once she got the jewel together she could do what she felt she was here to do. She was here to correct the mistake that had allowed him to flourish. She was here to correct the wrong that Kikyo had done and the one she herself had done by not believing that keeping a jewel safe from evil would be so hard to do. She had possibly not believed Kaede when she had told her of the forces that would want such a gem and maybe she had also thought that when the time came she wouldn't have to worry about all that because she was going to go home. If only she had gone home earlier so that the jewel would not have been shattered...or maybe if she had found another way to retrieve it instead of reacting without thought that such a strong jewel would not shatter so easily. Finally she managed to turn her body in such a way that her tumbling slowed down to a slow roll, the rocks that had been cutting into her on the way down actually helping her to find purchase for her feet. Some broke in the beginning but soon her tennis shoes found solid enough rocks that she stopped.
Looking down she could see that she still had a ways to go before she would be at the end and sighed as she laid her head back against the hard surface. She would need a breath first before she could continue her trip down the rest of the mountain and she feared it would take long into the night for that feat to be done. Suddenly she felt a pulse of power spread thru her, the point of it in her stomach. She wanted to scream in agony that she still held his child in her womb, but her heart, her heart was breaking because even if what Naraku said were true, this baby was also hers. This child in her womb wasn't all evil, it couldn't be. No, not with her love to temper it while it was still in her womb. She wouldn't allow her own flesh and blood to become what Naraku was...if he was the child's parent. Even though he seemed to know of her night of drinking, he hadn't really given proof that he had had her. With that thought in mind and the renewed power that seemed to both give her the energy needed to get off the side of the natural structure and so she began her decent down the side, on her back to protect the life that she had only known for less than half a day...while it had been apart of her for more than three weeks. She would do whatever she needed to do to protect it, before her child's birth and after they came into the world. She would do it all and defeat Naraku.
Ah, so it seems that more than the group wants to find the girl, and while a few of those people didn't really have any standing in her life as more than onlookers or even friends, one of them meant her harm...her death their finally act to complete before they left the world to crumble under Naraku's terror or maybe without it...While Kagome herself has resolved to not let what happen defile her very soul with the intended taint of the one who claimed to have her very soul by right of marking her. Stay safe!